Paper fans and lavenders

Sickness and projects

The next day in homeroom, Hinata's seat besides Sasuke was empty. He had not driven to her house on purpose, hoping she'd have to swallow her pride and call him. But she never did. She neither texted him nor called. She didn't even show up to school.

"I wonder where Hinata-chan could be?" Naruto thought out loud. He actually looked concerned.

"Yeah, she'd usually call to let us know if she wasn't coming to class." Ino said, looking worried herself. Sasuke rolled his eyes.

'She must have thought she deserved a day off after yesterday.' He thought to himself. Whatever. He's have enough of her for a lifetime.

"We'll call her after class." Sakura said, sitting next to Ino.

Kakashi made his way inside. "Class, today I'm going to assign you your project for the rest of the year. It will comprise half of your lit grade this year. You're going to complete it with your partner in class. You will have to write a book along with your partner, at least with at least 80,000 words. The topic, storyline and characters will be yours. The requirement is that it should have a moral."

"What?!" several voices rang out.

"We're doing this with our partners?!"

"80,000 WORDS?!!"

"This is so not fair!"

"Silence." Kakashi's voice rang out "You many start on it this week. From next Monday, we'll start on our essays. You have time in class this week to start it. Start now."

"There's no way I'm passing with Shikamaru as my partner." Naruto grumbled.

"But he's a genius." Kiba said, who was partners with Shino.

"Yeah but he's always asleep." Naruto complained.

"Tch, that's not my problem." Sasuke said as he turned away to work. He realized Hinata was not there and he would have to wait for her. 'Dammit' he thought.

Whatever. He would visit her after school. Or not.
______

They had practice after school, which went well under Sasuke's leadership. As he made his way towards the parking lot, he remembered he had to return Neji's jacket to Hinata. He could also use that excuse to tell her about their project because he wanted to get it over with as soon as possible.

He turned up the music as he drove towards her place. The weather today was a little cloudy but with sunny traces. No rain. Thank the Kami.

He pulled in front of her house. The little iron gate was closed. He pushed the remote button to lock his car and stepped outside. He opened the gate and looked inside. No one was there in the garden.

He crossed the porch and knocked on the wooden door. It was unlocked but there was no sound inside. What was that about? He cautiously opened the door while shifting the borrowed jacket in his other arm. The lounge and the hallway were also empty.

Where was that damn girl? He walked inside and looked around, finding every room empty. A part of him wanted to leave now but he knew he should do what he came to do.

He walked upstairs and made his way to her room. He knocked on the door. There was a faint cough. He slowly opened the door.

The first thing he saw was the bed, on which a mass of midnight blue hair was strewn over the pillow. The covers were pulled up to the back of the figure, which turned out to be Hinata, as she flipped over to look at the unexpected guest.

"Sasuke." She seemed genuinely surprised. Her cheeks were red, not from shyness, Sasuke guessed. She looked paler and she looked sick. Her eyes also had light bags under them, making her seem exhausted.