Chapter 17

My whole face felt stiff and dry when I woke in the morning. A groan left my lips as I rolled over to turn off my phone's alarm. There was a numbness where the ache had been in my chest last night. Perhaps my body was still trying to deal with the heavy emotions caused by Naruto.

With a sigh, I sat up and rubbed my sore eyes. I hadn't slept well at all.

At some point in the middle of the night, the true weight of my actions toward Sasuke hit me and that only added to the negative string of thoughts that circled my mind like a mantra. At the moment, I was so distraught that I selfishly lashed out, but now that I thought about it, his expression hadn't been guarded in the slightest until I pushed him. I'll be lucky if he considers me anything more than a professional acquaintance after this. Of course I'd go and offend him when he'd only just started to open up to me.

It took a lot of energy to shove my regretful thoughts to the back of my mind so I could focus on getting ready for the day. I'll have to find a way to apologize to both him and Gaara today. Something tells me the Uchiha boy won't accept it, but I still had to try.

A soft knock came at my door and I glanced over to see Sakura peek her head in. She spoke gently, like a mother tending to her sick child, "Hey, how'd you sleep?"

I croaked out some noise that reflected my current state of being and was surprised by how much it hurt, not to mention how hoarse it sounded. My sleepiness disappeared in an instant.

Her eyes widened and she entered the room the rest of the way, "Oh no!"

My hands both came up to touch my neck, fearing that trying to speak would only do more damage. Our live debut was less than a week away and my voice was gone.

She cupped my face with her hands for a moment with a panicked look on her face before quickly perking up, "I'll make you some hot tea! Get dressed."

My roommate hurried out of the room and I swallowed, wincing at the ache that followed. All that crying, not to mention yelling at Sasuke, had to be the cause.

Despite crying myself to sleep, the hurt emotions in my body still churned chaotically. Ten years is an awfully long time to idolize someone and having your admiration ripped into pieces in a matter of minutes would take a toll on even the strongest of persons. That being said, I'm not much of a strong person, so it was difficult for me to keep myself mentally distracted from thinking about the blonde boy who kissed me over and over again last night.

The list of things to stress about was getting longer and longer. I forced my body to go into auto-pilot and climbed out of bed. My head was aching. After showering, I joined Sakura in the kitchen where she handed me a to-go bottle of hot tea and then we headed out. I sipped the drink and let the warmness seep through my numb body. It was still too early for the hallway lights to be on, so we made our way to the elevator in a dimly-lit silence.

"Keep drinking that, Hinata, and don't talk unless you absolutely have to."

I did as she instructed with my lips in a worried frown, staring down at the floor as we walked. When we finally arrived in the music room, Jiraiya wasn't present. Instead, the others turned to watch us as we approached. I stayed a few steps behind my roommate.

With a sneak peek at Sasuke, I acknowledged that he was, indeed, angry. His jaw was set in a firm line and the expression on his face was even more guarded than the day we'd first met.

The Prestige boys, and Tenten, were sitting on the floor in a half-circle and we sat down to complete it. Once we were seated, Tenten directed her attention to me, "Hinata, first things first: How was the date? I want all the dirty little details!" I thought she was being unusually quiet, but she'd simply been holding it back until we were seated.

There was no way I'd be able to maintain my composure in front of this many people, even if they are, or were, my friends, so I glanced at Sakura for help. She nodded and leaned forward to pull the attention towards herself, "Hinata lost her voice."

The other three looked shocked and I hung my head in shame. "No! That's terrible! The debut is-" Tenten glanced at my distraught face before forcing herself to change her attitude, "Well, you're lucky we aren't singing today, then. We're going over some public relations stuff so rest up, okay?"

My face was warm as I nodded and averted my gaze down to the tea I was steadily sipping. Gaara kept staring at me with a concerned look as Sakura continued with her explanation. She did so, yet less confidently as before, "About the date...Naruto didn't physically hurt her, but he did do something terrible so Hinata doesn't want to talk about it."

I looked at her in confusion since her explanation was incredibly vague, but ultimately felt grateful that she wasn't flaunting my business out like dirty laundry.

Tenten's face was red with anger, "What the hell did he do?"

She pulled out her phone and seemed to be searching for someone's number before Sakura put her hand on her wrist, "Hinata doesn't want anyone to retaliate. She said that it will just cause more drama and she doesn't want that."

Tenten looked at me with disbelief, "Hinata, you need to respect yourself more." She sounded quite the opposite of Sakura's motherly attitude this morning. Her way of speaking was more like a father telling his kid to man up and do what needs to be done. In reality, she was just displaying her concern openly and I could respect it.

I shook my head with a grimace.

Gaara spoke up in his usual softer voice, "I'll beat him up if you want me to." We all looked at him in shock, only for him to offer a small grin, reassuring us he was joking.

I offered him a grateful look, but Sasuke interrupted him, speaking for the first time since we arrived, "Can we focus on work?" His voice was irritated and when we looked over at him with awkward expressions, his eyes were closed.

Tenten nodded with confusion clear on her face, "Um, yeah, let's do that."

She clapped her hands together and smiled encouragingly before going off on a long speech about how we should appear to the public, "You will all behave like the mature young adults that you are in public, while also coming off as though you have strong bonds with one another."

She glanced at Sasuke, "Even if you have to fake it. We're not asking you to hug and hold hands, but at least make it seem like you're not just coworkers. Keep the agency's ideals in mind when answering interview questions. Evolution is one of the less strict agencies when it comes to idol freedoms, but that doesn't mean you can do whatever you want and get away with it."

She went on and on about how to dodge inappropriate topics from fans or show hosts, how to avoid looking like dating rumors so our fans see us as available, and finally we came to the roles of our group. By the time this topic had come up, Sasuke was laying on his back with his arms out wide on the floor while Sakura took notes, Gaara listened intently, and I did my best to appear alert even if I was fighting sleep.

We all perked up simultaneously when Tenten barked out Sakura's name. Sasuke shot up and looked around as though he'd expected a fight to happen. Tenten put a hand firmly on Sakura's crossed leg and looked her deep in the eyes, "We at Evolution feel that you would be the ideal leader of Prestige. Do you accept this role?" It was odd how formally she spoke, but it was a big deal to be the leader of an idol group.

Sakura's face turned bright red and tears started forming in her eyes. She spoke in a shocked and soft voice, "R-Really? Of course I do! Thank you, Tenten!" She threw her arms around the popstar's shoulders and pulled her into a hug. Tenten's professional facade briefly broke and a large smile graced her plump lips.

She quickly pulled away and gave a mock serious expression before nodding and continuing her role announcement, "Gaara you and Sakura will cover any and all rapping, provide vocals from time to time, and be the main dancers of the group. Gaara, you're also the youngest of the group so you will unfortunately be babied by the public a bit. Hinata!"

I straightened my posture and stared anxiously at Tenten's chocolate eyes. She smiled, "You're the main female vocalist and the visual of the group. This means that you of all people need to appear the most composed when out and about."

My face felt hot. The visuals of groups are normally the most beautiful. I glanced at Sakura's exotic and beautiful features and felt unsure of the agency's choice, but kept my mouth shut and nodded in understanding of my roles.

"Sasuke, you are the main male vocalist and will be our main PR member. You're familiar with being on camera and interviews so we expect you to take control of these situations with that experience."

I glanced at the Uchiha boy and felt a bit confused by Tenten's words. Why would he be used to those things already? When he caught my eye with a glare, I swallowed nervously and averted my gaze back down to my hands. Perhaps I should just do a good old fashioned google search later. Regardless, he's proved time and time again that he's a great actor in public so they likely chose the right person for the role.

We continued our meeting until about noon, covering multiple possible scenarios and how to handle them. By the time we were released to go to lunch, my throat felt much better, but I continued staying silent in hopes I'd be able to participate in the recording studio later. While on lunch, Sakura ate a sandwich and I simply drank hot broth. We sat at the table.

While scrolling through xstagram, Sakura spoke casually, "What's Sasuke's deal today? He's being more of an ass than usual."

I debated not telling her about our fight, but relented and slowly typed out on my phone a short explanation. She read it before nodding with an amused grin. I gave her a confused look that made her cackle in a way that was reminiscent of Tenten.

"You know he's only mad because he cares about you, right?"

My eyes widened and I shook my head to disagree, but she ignored me and let out another laugh as though she'd found out a secret she wasn't supposed to know, "He's been warming up to us all, of course, but I'll be damned if that asshole doesn't have a favorite."

My mouth opened as I tried to dispute her outlandish claim, but she shushed me with a teasing face, "I know you're super lovable, but I never would've guessed you could melt even Sasuke. Nice job, babe."

I pondered her words for a moment for a silent moment before realization finally struck me. He went out of his way at the mall to try and talk me out of going on that date, but all I could focus on at the time was the aggressive way that he did it. I thought he'd been bullying me. Really, though, he was doing all he could to show his concern without bruising his own pride.

Sakura's smile slowly sank into a knowing expression as mine turned into one of guilt. Last night, when he'd gone out of his way to make sure I was alright, I messed up badly. I figuratively and literally pushed him away when he was being a good friend. A complete idiot is what I am. If I tried to apologize before dance practice and it didn't go well, the session would be even more uncomfortable than it's already bound to be, so I decided to wait until the end of the day to give it a try.

After lunch ended, I headed to the dance studio with Sakura and a fresh thermos of hot tea. Practice went as normal as it could with Sasuke in such a terrible mood and me awkwardly avoiding him.

Sakura and Gaara seemed to be getting along better than usual, laughing and throwing playful hits once in a while when one of them would miss a step. Their teamwork has improved by leaps and bounds since our first practice as a group. Neither of them hesitated to touch each other. It was obvious they've become incredibly comfortable and trusting with one another. They looked amazing when they danced together, as if they were meant to be a pair.

Tsunade spent almost all of her time coaching Sasuke and I since we were the two with the most issues, with both one another and dancing in general.

After a long and grueling practice, we walked in a loose group with Sasuke and Gaara behind Sakura and I as we headed towards the recording studio to finish a long and demanding day. As we turned the corner to the hallway where the studio was located, I briefly searched the busy hall to make sure I wouldn't run into anyone only to notice a familiar shuck of blonde hair cluelessly approaching.

My heart sped up and I had to mentally force myself not to stop in my tracks. There was a shove from behind me and I nearly tripped as Sasuke pushed past Sakura and I. We glanced at one another before Gaara followed suit. The two young men walked shoulder to shoulder in front of us as if trying to block anyone's view from us. They looked just like bodyguards or something.

I grabbed Sakura's hand as tears welled up in my eyes. Last night, I'd been so thoughtless and offended him greatly, but he's still trying to be there for me. With the busy day that I'd had, Naruto hadn't crossed my mind much, but now that the guys were actively standing up for me, last night was all I could think about. My face was obviously showing exactly how panicked I was feeling because a few other trainees passing by threw curious glances in our direction as they passed.

Sakura peeked around Gaara's shoulder before finally realizing what was going on when her eyes landed on the much more closely approaching Uzumaki boy. Her face was immediately a rage-filled red. So much for not approaching him.

She shoved past the two boys, effectively destroying their plan of avoiding confrontation, and stormed right up to the tan blonde, poking him hard on the chest, "You're such a piece of shit!"

The blonde froze and looked down at the fireball pinkette with a reddening face. A dark-haired guy with a ponytail was walking with Naruto. He froze and rolled his eyes as if he wasn't surprised this was happening and leaned against the wall to start playing on his phone as his friend got reprimanded. The boy in question couldn't get a word out as Sakura gave him a vocal lashing. Knowing how thin her control usually was on her anger, I was impressed she hadn't hit him at this point.

"How dare you gaslight Hinata like you did! She can do so much better than you, but you still fucked it up!"

His eyes widened and he opened his mouth to reply, but she lightly shoved her hands against his chest. It wasn't hard enough to hurt or move him, but it was enough to shut him up. Her voice lowered, but the tone of her voice was even more dangerous, "Let me make one thing crystal clear for you: I will never consider dating you."

Naruto's stunned face turned even redder as his eyebrows furrowed. Sakura turned away as though she was finished before seeming to change her mind and facing him once more, "If it wasn't for Hinata asking me not to, I'd slap the shit outta you right now."

Naruto's stunned features quickly switched to one of anger and he growled back at her in an annoyed voice. It was a tone I've never heard from him and it made me incredibly uncomfortable, "Are you done? Can I say something now?"

At this point, the rest of us were standing behind Sakura just in case we needed to hold her back and multiple people in the hall were standing around watching the argument unfold. After pausing a moment, the Uzumaki boy continued, "Yeah, I fucked up last night, but it was just a mistake. Quit comparing me to Karin. I know that's what you're doing."

Sakura looked flabbergasted that Naruto had the nerve to talk back to her, "Just a mistake?"

Her hands were balled into fists at her sides and they shook as she struggled to keep her composure. After a moment, she took a calming breath before straightening out her posture and speaking in a more normal voice, "Doing what you want without regarding anyone else's feelings is exactly the type of thing Karin would do. Hinata's really upset. You should be ashamed of yourself."

The boy finally looked up and made eye contact with me as I peeked over Gaara's shoulder. I quickly turned away and tried to discreetly wipe at a tear that'd slipped from my eyes, but it was too late. He saw me. "Hinata, I told you already, I'm sorry! I shouldn't have…" he trailed off as he noticed the small crowd around us.

I looked back at him in disbelief only to see him walk past Sakura to try and approach me. Panic ran through my limbs and I took a step back.

"Hinata, please-"

Sasuke's hand shot up and held Naruto roughly at bay, cutting the boy off.

The blonde's blue eyes left me and focused on the taller raven-haired boy, "This is between me and Hinata. Move."

The Uchiha bristled, thoroughly surprising us all, "Back off."

Now the pony-tailed friend was paying attention. A more than verbal argument seemed about to break out. Naruto got nose-to-nose with Sasuke for a moment before sighing and taking a step back. He refocused his gaze on me and frowned, "I really am sorry, Hinata. I'll find a way to make it up to you. I promise."

The still-raw ache in my heart flared up as I averted my gaze to the floor and waited for the pair to move along before following my group into the studio. Sakura pulled me into a hug and I used it as an excuse to take a moment to pull myself together. Once we parted, we all headed into the booth to start re-recording the songs that still needed work done. My singing voice was, thankfully, just fine after letting it rest all day.

Hours later, we were released and were trudging back to our rooms for some rest. Sakura sprinted ahead of us because her favorite drama had already started and she didn't want to miss it. Gaara, Sasuke, and I walked at a normal pace back to the rooms.

Once I was at the door, I turned to see the other two's retreating forms, only to speak as clearly as possible, "W-Wait, guys."

The two turned to look at me, Gaara curiously and Sasuke blankly. I took a few steps until I was standing right in front of them and bowed in thanks, "Thank you for standing up for me and I'm sorry for what I said and did last night. N-Neither of you deserve to be treated that way."

Gaara quickly gave a small smile, "No worries, we're good." He quietly turned and entered his room, leaving me alone with the more broody male as he undoubtedly knew the following conversation could easily get awkward.

Once the redhead shut the door behind him, I looked up at Sasuke with as apologetic an expression as I could manage. He stared down at me with a glare and I nearly fell apart right there as his glare reminded me of a certain dream I'd had a few nights ago, but I held myself together and waited for his response. Right now, he's upset with me so it wasn't right to be having lusty thoughts.

He uncrossed his arms and reached forward to hold a few strands of my hair with his fingers, eyes locked onto mine. I felt the familiar heat of blush rushing to my cheeks. He got closer with the hard expression on his face slowly softening. The closer he got, the harder it became to breathe.

Just as I could feel his breath on my skin, he tugged on my hair and smirked when my mouth opened in shock, "Fine, but if you ever yell at me again I'll make sure you regret it." He then turned and threw a wave over his shoulder before returning to his room.

I couldn't stop the smile that came to my lips despite him pulling my hair being annoying. Earlier, I was sure it'd be much harder to get him to accept my apology. Maybe Sakura was right and he does consider me more of a friend than I thought.