The Illusions in our Reality

"You ready to do this?" Kiba asked as he and Shino made their way through the first floor hallway of the second-year building

"Yes. But before we do let's go in here, there's something I need to tell you first" Shino said opening the door to an empty classroom.

"Well hurry it up will ya? We need to catch that jerk Sasuke before he goes home" Kiba snarled impatiently

"We have time. I overheard Kakashi-sensei telling Sasuke that if he skips out on cleaning duty again, he'll have to help Guy-sensei master some move called 1000 years of death or something..." Shino said calmly

"Oh yeah? What's so important, we have to talk about it here?" Kiba asked sitting on an empty desk

Shino walked towards the windows at the far side of the room, he looked out at the students making their way home "It's about Hinata" he said after a minute

"What about Hinata?"

Shino turned around and pushed his steam punk glasses up the bridge of his nose "I have many concerns but one that's more pressing in paticular. Due to recent circumstances she's been distant lately. Ever since Hinata participated in the maid auction it's like she's hiding something... I understand that she chooses to keep things to herself but you and I both know she isn't one to speak up when she has a problem."

"You think something happened?" Kiba asked, becoming more attentive

Shino nodded "Somethings been bothering for a while. Do you remember when her painting was destroyed?"

"Uh, duh I was in the room when it happened" Kiba said clenching his fist tightly. Just thinking about what that idiot did after all of Hinata's hard work made him so mad he couldn't think straight.

"Well after doing some inquiring I don't think what happened was an accident" Shino said calmly stuffing his hands in his pocket.

"The hell are you talking about? We saw what happened, that loser got too close to the table and knocked a can a paint all over it!"

"By all appearances that is what happened yes, but the more I keep playing the scene in my head, the more something doesn't feel right. It all seemed too...perfect."

Kiba raised an eyebrow, waiting for him to explain

"I'm not saying that Naruto didn't knock the paint over but there were a few things we missed because we were too shocked to think of anything else. Why was there paint in that room? We both know that none of Kurenia's AP students use paint for their projects. The other two students allowed to use that room is a sculpturist and a photographer" Shino said crossing his arms against his chest

"Maybe Kurenai left some old cans in there and forgot about them" Kiba said trying to reason

Shino nodded his head "That's what I thought at first, but when I asked Kurenai she said she doesn't remember leaving a can of paint on top of the shelf or even buying it for class. Plus why would she only buy one can of paint to use for art class. It doesn't make any sense."

"Maybe she just couldn't remember Shino. You know how much Kurenai sensei loves Hinata and was probably feeling bad about what happened"

"No she didn't. Kurenai didn't leave that can of paint there and it wasn't old either. Think about it, you've been in that room with Hinata before, do you ever remember seeing that can of paint?"

Kiba racks his brain for a minute trying to remember "No I don't...but just because I don't remember doesn't mean it was never there before" he defended

"That's exactly my point, its the perfect opportunity to leave something like that without raising any suspicion...such is the ways of illusion and misdirection. An ordinary object in an ordinary setting does not lure attention or raise any questions. You can see it but only if you pay attention, if you don't it simply fades into the background and becomes overlooked. Only when something forces your attention do you take notice of it and even then you would never think that it didn't belong there. In this case a can of paint would seem fitting-no,expected in an art room that none of us thought twice about it. The fact that I can't remember if it had always been there or not convinces me even more that someone had placed it there the day before it happened maybe even sooner" Shino said firmly and analytically

"What are you trying to say Shino? That someone put it there on purpose?" Kiba asked impatiently, feeling annoyed. Although he considered Shino to pretty much be his best bud (something he would never say out loud or to Shino himself) he hated the way he would over analyze everything with his stupid way of thinking. Most of the time it was sound and logical but other times it was tedious and boring.

"That's exactly what I'm saying, yes"

"Hey come on man be serious here. Why would someone do that to Hinata or are you saying someone did it to get Naruto in trouble?"

Shino shook his head "No...call it a hunch but I don't think Naruto was the target. If the purpose was to get him in trouble the person who was targeting him would have been in the room to lure him to the table. No one was there but us and we hardly said two words to the guy. It's clear to me that who ever did this meant to hurt Hinata... whether Naruto was meant to take the fall or not I don't know, but I doubt it"

"Wait hold up" Kiba said grabbing his hair as he tried to take in everything "What your saying sounds crazy dude, no one would go through all that trouble just to get to Hinata, it's too complicated"

"Actually, what they did was quite simple, genius even, to plan something like this and make it look like an accident. The more you think about it the more you start to doubt that it was anything but an accident. Not only because of the uncertainty of the paint but also because of the impact it had. Hinata was so crushed it makes it hard to believe that someone would deliberately do that to her. But the fact that I'm second guessing myself gives me certainty that this was planned and it worked perfectly..."

Kiba scrathced the back of his head awkwardly. He didn't believe in conspiracies and he didn't want to give in to what Shino was telling him. It was crazy... but... Shino's ideas were hardly without reason.

"Ok, let's say for one second that what your telling me is true. Who did it? Who would want to hurt Hinata that much?" Kiba asked putting stress on the last word.

"Someone who's hiding in plain sight, someone who until recently never bothered with Hinata. Someone who's currently making her life more difficult than it needs to be but cannot be called bullying or harassment..." Shino said with anger in his voice

"Wait! What!? You think that bastard Sasuke did that to her!?" Kiba said jumping down from the desk

"I couldn't really pin point who it was until I remembered Hinata telling us about how she went with Sasuke to buy paint for his room"

Kiba felt like something in his brain clicked as rage started to swell inside him "That..that son of a bitch! He did do it! I thought it was weird how he suddenly bought her at the maid auction. Come on, let's go kick his ass!" Kiba yelled as he headed for the door

"Wait" Shino said putting a hand on his shoulder "We can't do that".

"Whaddya mean we can't!? Yeah we can, let's just go over there and do it! We'll call Neji to help out too!"

"No. We don't have any evidence to prove anything. I told you because I need your help in finding something that shows Sasuke was involved in what happened, if we confront him with this right now it'll be easy for him to deny it and come up with a way to cover his tracks. You need to be patient."

"Don't tell me what to do! If you think I'm just gonna stand here and do nothing while he messes with Hinata then you-"

"I'm not asking you to do nothing. I'm asking you to help me. If you let your anger get the best of you now Sasuke is gonna walk away scott free. Is that what you want?" Shino said

Kiba grit his teeth hard until his mouth was almost bleeding trying to calm down. He couldn't believe what he was hearing, first Shino tells him all this stuff about Sasuke and then he expects him to calm down? How the hell is he suppose to calm down!?

"Che, fine. I won't do anything now but what do you need my help for? Sounds like your doing a pretty good job of solving this on your own" Kiba said harshly

"Because your my friend and we both care about Hinata. Wouldn't you have been angry if I told you everything I was doing after I found some proof and showed Hinata? Shino asked

Kiba tried to bite back the small blush of embarrassment that threatened to surface on his face. Of course he would have been mad if he had left him in the dark but he didn't think Shino knew him that well...even if they were best buds.

"Ok what should we do? Should we tell Neji? Get him to help out too?" Kiba asked folding his arms across his chest.

"No. I know Neji cares very much about Hinata's well-being but he's too sound. He only trust what his eyes can see. We need to do some more sleuthing before we get him involved. So when we confront Sasuke right now we need to make it seem like we're only concerned about him taking up so much of Hinata's time while keeping an ear out for anything that links him to her painting" Shino said making his way to the door and walking out.

"Sasuke's not an idiot, he's the top of our class remember? He's not about to open his mouth so easily" Kiba sneered

"No he wouldn't openly incriminate himself but he might mockingly place information to us since we're Hinata's best friends and doesn't know we suspect him" Shino said with laid back confidence

"Huh, you ever thought about going into detective work Shino?"

"...No...now's not the time to be thinking about such things" Shino said as the two walked down the hall quietly ready to find Sasuke so they could have that little chat.

"Hmm, let's see what else do I need?..." Hinata thought as she browsed the aisle shelves at the supermarket. Since that sadist told her he wanted Italian for dinner she had decided to make something that was simple and easy to make so she would be out of his house as soon as possible...she was walking through the the ramen and noodle isle, the last thing she needed on her list was soumen and then she would be ready to go...

She didn't want to be near him, she couldn't after what happened today. She was so disgusted right now, she wanted to drop everything she had in her hand and run as far as possible until she felt safe.

"Is this what it's like to be sexually harassed?" Hinata thought bitterly and sadly. What was it about her that made Sasuke feel the need to torture her so much. Tenten always did say that she was too much of a push over and that her timid nature made it easy for others to take advantage of her.

"Still if he can sense that I'm not very good at confrontation, he's horrible for wanting to do those kinds of things to me...he felt no shame doing it when he had a girlfriend and now that they broke up who knows what he'll do..." she thought nervously at the check out counter.

Walking out the store she bit her lip trying to hold back her tears as her heart pounded with every step that brought her closer to Sasuke's house.

"Why am I so scared of Sasuke right now? Even when we were in primary and middle school I have never felt the need to get too close to Sasuke. In all honesty I've only ever noticed him because he was always with Naruto but now it's like I'm forced to be in Sasuke's personal life..." Hinata kept a slow steady walk, the plastic grocery bags swaying by her sides.

"E-Even if I wasn't being forced, there's no way I could understand Sasuke...I don't know if he's a creepy psychopath or a narcissistic pervert but either way he's not someone I can handle... S-Still after reading those things he wrote in his diary I can't just leave him alone. From what I've seen I know he get's angry very easily and likes to torment me every chance he gets (probably because he knows I freeze up every time he comes near me). Is he angry or insecure with himself? It's possible that if he's playing with me as a way to relieve his depression."

Hinata took a minute to consider this possibility. She was no psychological expert but she's experienced her fair share of pain and sadness in her life. She remembers how depressed she was when her mother died, and the insecurity she feels of being a disappointment to her Father as well as being his least favorite in the house. Before she found solace and the confidence to confide in her friends and Neji it use to leave her feeling so hopeless and bitter...

"Maybe...maybe there is a way for me to understand him a little, even though he's never shared anything with me I can try to get him to speak up about what's really bothering him. After all, h-he may not deserve to be called that after what he did to me today but Sasuke is still human. W-We all have feel emotions and we all know what it's like to feel sad, angry, lonely and happy." she thought still walking lazily

"W-What should I do though? I want to help but at the same time I want to save my dignity. I'm not sure if I'd even be able to look at him after he groped me and stole my first kiss!" Hinata felt a white hot anger ripple through out her body and had to stand still for a minute before she calmed down.

"I guess the first thing I should do is try to get him to talk to me or at least let him know that I peeked inside his diary" Hinata said quietly to herself. "Although how he's been acting with me is completely out of line, I did something wrong too- even if he doesn't know, so I'll have to come clean and apologize."

"W-Wait, what if he get's so angry that I looked through his personal things that he becomes a complete monster!?" she thought fearfully. "T-There's no way he wouldn't get angry, m-maybe I should re-think this...I should probably just suck up these last two weeks and not say anything right?" Hinata's breathing had started to become shallow again and just when she had started to give up on the idea of trying to help Sasuke the words he wrote in his diary came flashing across her mind like a bad movie title.

"I want to die!"

"...No, I may not be able to understand Sasuke very well and he might even get angry at me for invading his privacy but since someone I know is having suicidal thoughts I can't stand by and do nothing...if Sasuke were to try and hurt himself later on and I don't think I could forgive myself. I'm sure Sasuke is just trying to hide his inner thoughts from everyone around him because he doesn't want people to think he needs help." she thought as she reached the front gates of his house.

"Ok" Hinata said to herself with a slightly new determination.

She wasn't sure if was she was about to do was the right thing but she knew that if she did nothing she would regret it the rest of her life. Yes, she knows that she can be a push over and that makes her an easy target to take advantage of but she despite all of her flaws and shortcomings one thing she never wanted to stop being was a good person. She didn't consider herself to be a martyr and she certainly wasn't an angel either but in Hinata's mind it only takes a little effort for a person to be kind.

AU: I know what your all thinking. A-Why would this author post something so short when she's completely been flaking out for the past few months? And B-Why end the chapter like this? Ok so I completely hate myself for letting everyone who follows this story down, I've just been going through a lot personally that writing was the last thing on my mind. But life is stranger than fiction ya' know and I have a new resolve to change myself for the better and one of my first goals is to be more consistent and creative. So I'll update my stories more frequently from now on. I have to. I can not continue living my life with the way I am but enough about that. To answer my second question, this chapter was suppose to focus on something between Hinata and Sasuke but I didn't like how it was leading up to it but I didn't want to get rid of any of this context so I decided to make it short and just write two different chapters. So let me know what you guys think and don't worry I'll update my other story as soon as I can. Thanks for sticking with me so far and Happy Reading.