A bet on Love

17 | Targeted

The buzzing of her phone woke Hinata from her light slumber. Irritated, she snatched it from her bedside table and scanned the name with squinted eyes. No caller ID was written in bold letters and she wondered who was calling her. Hesitating, she swiped to answer the call, pressing her phone to her ears.

"You are Hinata Hyūga correct?" The voice was unrealistically deep and muffled as if the person was screaming through their pillow. She frowned, opening her mouth to question who was calling before she got interrupted, "No need to answer the question, I know who you are. You have one instruction from me, step down as Naruto Uzumaki's fiancée or you will pay the price."

"Who-" Before she could even begin the line on the other side dropped and she stared at her phone bewildered. Who was that?

-

It was no fresh news that time was an enemy to Hinata. There were good times when she was actually happy and wanted things to last longer that time seemed to run like a tracks star because as the old saying goes, 'time waits for no man'. But then there were dreadful times she wanted to erase from her memory where time just stood still, dragging by painfully slowly. When winter time rolled over, the Christmas season, she expected it, like every other dreadful Christmas, for it to drag its feet to the new year.

Usually, it was a painfully quiet dinner with Hiashi at the far end of the table and Hanabi beside her, sitting in complete silence with only the clanging of cutleries against the ceramic plates and bowls, or he just didn't show up at all. But Naruto, per request of his mom, dragged and bribed her into helping him and the rest of the group set up for the Christmas party, disrupting the lifestyle she had been accustomed to for years.

She carried a box full of Christmas tree decorations she hauled from one of the school's storage rooms holding it tightly to her chest. The corridor windows were opened as they let a soft breeze flow in and the warmth of the sunlight hit the glass one more time before they changed in relation to the seasons.

Suddenly, she felt a sharp whiff of air sweep past her and the shiny glint of silver before the twang of the weapon as it hit the wall beside her ad wobbled to balance. Wide eyes, her pupils travelled to the left where the weapon was embedded deeply into the wall that would have been her head if she had taken another step. Slowly, she turned to her right where the weapon came from to catch another glint of silver before it quickly vanished.

Her hand travelled to her cheeks where she felt warm liquid trickling down only to find out she was bleeding, and the sight of her own blood made her sick to her stomach. She felt the burning pain in the pits of her stomach, making her clench around her torso with her arms, dropping the boxes she held in the process. Her breaths were quick and distorted and she felt as if her lungs were caging in second by second, making it impossible for her to breathe and her head pounded. The shiny decorating baubles fell out of the boxes and spiralled to a stop beside the now unconscious bluenette, laying lifeless on the stone-cold floor.

-

She slowly opened her eyes but closed them immediately due to the blinding light that seemed to attack her eyes when she opened them. She tried once more, slower than the first time as her pupiless eyes slowly adjusted to the bright lights. Her head was pounding and she raised her hands to cage her head in it just to find hospital robes drape down her now exposed arms.

Just then, a group of girls rushed in, sorry masking their faces and a group of boys trailing behind. The first people to cross her view were platinum blonde and a girl with hair of cherry blossoms. These people looked familiar, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it. Their names were at the tip of her tongue as she racked her brain to remember, but it only made her head hurt more.

It was like that feeling where you know you know the name of a song but just can remember it. Yet again, the door to the room burst open as another girl rushed in, her brown locks messy and her face pale, drained of colour. "Hinata-sama!" She breathed as if she had run a marathon, kneeling beside the edge of the bed she laid on and grabbing the bluenette's hand, "Thank God you're alive!"

She felt tears drop onto the back of her palm as she looked at the brunette confused, "Hinata...sama?" Everyone paused as they were hit with shock while the said bluenette cowered in the bewildered stare of the group that had formed around the bed she lay in. "Please stop s-staring at me." She shut her eyes, squeezing the hand that held onto hers.

Another brunette took a step closer to her bed, placing her hand on the bluenette's shoulder, anxiousness bubbling inside of her, "You... don't remember?" Hinata shook her head, slowly sitting up on the bed. The confused look on her face seemed to answer their suspicions. "She had amnesia," the brunette spoke, her voice cracking.

"Who's gonna tell Hiashi?" Another blonde spoke, being the only one who stood away from the bed and hadn't joined in their circling of the bed, "Because I'm it telling him his daughter has amnesia." He was nervous and although he tried to hide it, he couldn't suppress the shaking of his hands and sweaty palms as they fidgeted with each other.

"You could be a bit nice about it Naruto!" The pinkette snapped, her face pulling into a frown, making the blonde only glare at her,

"Would you want to do it then?!"

"It's fine." The brunette on the floor finally spoke up, picking herself off the floor and running her hands under her chin to wipe the pool of tears that had formed, "I will deliver the news to Hiashi-sama." The blonde was about to protest when he received a teary smile from the brunette, "I think Hinata-sama would like some time alone. Right, Hinata-sama?"

All eyes travelled to the topic of discussion, putting her under pressure. Nervous, she nodded her head, receiving hesitant expressions before the group filed slowly out of the room, leaving Hinata in complete silence and confusion. Who was Hinata?

-

Naturally, the role of who would look after Hinata after her being discharged from the hospital with amnesia diverted to Naruto. Turns out her condition was not major and so was only going to stay clueless for a maximum of two weeks, which the blonde was glad about. In all honesty, he expected it to be an easy enough task believing that even though the bluenette had forgotten everything for the time being, she still had evilness embedded into her bone marrow, however, his overconfidence seemed to backfire when she sat so innocently on the edge of his bed in his room. She hadn't made a snarky comment to him and her forced smile was replaced with a natural and innocent one, as if her plan of killing her father had never crossed her mind.

He paced in circles around his room, pondering on what to do and how to explain the situation to Hiashi when she spoke up. "Are y-you okay? You have been pacing around for a while now." She spoke in such a soft and sweet voice so quiet he had to stop every movement to be able to hear her, and she stuttered. Never in his life had he thought he'd live to hear Hinata Hyūga stutter, at least not in front of him.

He gave her a wonky smile, unsure of what to do or feel at this point. "I'm...fine, how are you feeling?" Hinata raised her eyebrows, confused, then remembered she was supposed to be unwell.

"Um, I think I feel better. I don't know, my head only hurts that's it." Naruto slowly nodded, still shaken by how soft and timid her voice could be.

"Right." He spoke dryly. This was going to be one long two weeks of anxiety and the fact he'd always be caught off guard because of Hinata's out-of-character actions.

This book has gotten 1k reads and I couldn't have made it without you guys ❤️ Thank you so so so so much and I hope you keep reading this book.

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