Chapter 4: Chapter 4

Despite the worry that plagued her mind, Sakura slept pretty good that night, but as Sakura got ready for the day, she was pretty sure she may have been the only one. As Sakura made her way down the stairs, she saw Hinata sitting on the couch and making predictions with her cards on the coffee table. The same way she was when everybody went to bed. She was even wearing the same clothes. "Good morning", she greeted, but received no answer. Hinata only began a new prediction.

"Hinata? Have you been making predictions all night?" Sakura asked as she walked into the kitchen.

"Oh, good morning Sakura." She greeted happily. "Did you sleep good?"

"I'm thinking better than you." Sakura said, digging through the refrigerator looking for something to eat. "Overall, I did. Usually it would take, like a week, to adjust to a new bed. Plus after what happened last night, I thought I would never sleep." Sakura took out a carton of what she assumed was milk. She took the steps into the living room, but lingered in the door way. She gave the carton a little shake. "Did you sleep any at all last night?"

"I was busy."

"Are you trying to figure out what that "guess" is?" Sakura asked opening the carton and smelling it. It smelled nothing like milk but it didn't smell spoiled either.

"Yes." She answered simply, still predicting.

"Where's the others?" She asked drinking what little milk was left in the carton, but regretted it. It tasted awful. No way it was milk.

"Tenten didn't come home."

"Neji?" Sakura guessed trying to make out the language on the carton. "Why is this not in English?"

"Tenten spent the night with him." She said. "Neji works at the club plus holds a high position in the authority. By the way, that's not human milk."

"Good, because I was hoping it was cow milk."

"It's not that either."

"Where's Ino?" Sakura turned on her heal back into the kitchen. "Permission to throw this away?"

"Yes, please. As for Ino, not sure. She left awfully early. That usually means she has a date but, she would have said something." Sakura threw the carton away in the trash under the sink and joined Hinata on the coach. She repeated the pattern thousands of times over and over. She finally sighed and laid down her stack of cards.

"I assume the guess will remain just that. A guess." She said.

"Maybe you weren't meant to see what happens." Sakura suggested. "You know, this is kind of how humans see their predictions."

"Humans cannot predict the future."

"Exactly. Look, I appreciate the concern and all the effort you're putting into helping me but let's just leave this alone and Whatever happens, happens."

"But I do not know what will happen." She argued.

"Exactly. Since this involves me, leave me to it."

"We have already established that Humans cannot predict the future."

"Hinata, I'm saying that we don't need to predict the future. The guess is what we have to deal with. We might as well leave it a guess. I will take care of this situation on my own. With no predicting." When Hinata was about to argue, Sakura took her cards from her and set them on the table. "We'll start with you going upstairs to your room and getting ready for school while I wait here."

"Hint taken," She laughed. She took a quick shower and got dressed. She wore a white Greek like dress. It was sleeveless with a tiny belt made from sky blue beads. The front had a golden symbol. A swirl of some sort. From the bottom of the symbol was three rows of beads hanging down. The middle reaching down below her dress, touching her knees. Her hands was decorated with similar beads that wrapped around her wrist and fingers in a diamond design. "Ready." she chimed.

"That's mighty fancy for school," Sakura pointed out as she came down the stairs.

"I'm actually cutting school today. I have a few appointments with the authority today. I'll be taking you to your first class then, I'm afraid, you'll be on your own."

"Yay for the first day," Sakura said sarcastically.

The school was huge. It had six buildings. Two of the buildings were dorms and the front was the main building. Not a lot of classes are in the main building. The only classes in the main building is history. One building near the dorms is English, next it is the science building then the arts building. It would be next to impossible to find any of Sakura's classes. Thankfully Tenten and Ino helped Sakura get to each class but only shared a couple of her classes.. Hinata took Sakura to her first class and thankfully was able to stay. It was similar to world history. A grayed haired man called Kakashi taught the class. Hinata said it was about wars through out human history. Sakura liked it a little bit. He talked about a war from Greek times and was able to give every detail! Like he was there or something. Sakura had to admit it was fun. Hinata was real helpful. Sakura figured it will take a while before she can get the hang of things. Sakura's last class was the most interesting. Luckily, Hinata made it to class, claiming that she got her business done a little early. It wasn't the subject of animal science or the fact that our teacher was shogi obsessed and named Asuma. It was the raven haired, red eyed boy sitting about three seats behind Sakura. The same boy she made eye contact with the previous night at the club. The boy from Hinata's predictions. Now, that Sakura had a chance to really look at him, he looked like a younger version of the authority leader, Itachi. It not only annoyed her that he stared at her without pause, but it also scared her. Hinata seemed kind of nervous about it when she noticed. She played her cards on her lap, making prediction after prediction. Whatever she sees, she doesn't like it. She tried repeatedly, getting faster with every try. Sakura swallowed hard. She could tell by Hinata's worried expression, that the cards wasn't telling her anything.

"Hinata? Maybe you should calm down." Sakura whispered to her, but she didn't listen. "We humans can't predict the future and we live our entire lives like that. I'll be fine." Hinata shook her then continued till she finally cracked. She slammed her hand on the desk and stood up. Her cards sprawled all over the floor. She walked out, away, stepping on her fallen cards. "Hinata?" Sakura called out. Hinata stopped at the row where he stood. She looked at him, heaving with a panicked look. He stared back, but only for a split second then nodded. She walked out, leaving the whole room speechless. The teacher, Asuma, coughed to get our attention back to him.

"Alright, everyone back to work." He said. Sakura spared the boy one last glance. He was looking down at the text book. The boy never looked Sakura's way again in that class. Sakura could only star at Hinata's cards sprawled on the floor. A gypsy who can't see the future, Sakura thought, Is that the same thing as living without a purpose or reason? The cards told Sakura that is was indeed the case. The bell ranged soon after. Sakura stayed behind to pick up Hinata's cards. She was thankful no one else stay with her. As she picked up the cards, one by one, Sakura couldn't help but think how depressed must feel.

"Hey, Hinata." Sakura called out as she rushed into the department. "Hinata!" She stopped at the bottom of the stairs, looking up at the second floor.

"She's not here." She heard Tenten say from the kitchen. She walked through the door way with a basket of laundry and set it on the floor in front of the couch. "It's her turn to wash clothes this week. It's not like her to disappear during her chores. That's usually Ino's job."

"Do you know where she is? I think something might be wrong." Sakura said.

"Nah, she probably got called to do a prediction. She makes a side job out of it." She said, freaking a shirt from the pile and started folding it in her lap. Sakura took the steps to the couch where she sat and dug out Hinata's deck of cards from her pocket and showed it to her. Her expression told her she understood instantly. She even dropped the shirt.

"She threw them on the floor and left them there in the middle of class." Tenten took the cards from her hand. She started looking through them.

"Did you recognized the pattern?" She asked.

"Like I would know?" Sakura scoffed. "This is only my second day here. I don't have them memorized like you, plus she was doing it so fast I couldn't see even if I did memorized her patterns."

"I only know of one person she would go to at a time like this. We'll only know by going to Ai Shinu tonight." She said. "Ino!" She shouted. "Don't worry about a thing. I'm sure everything is fine."

"You might as well stick around." Ino said walking down the stairs. No doubt she was listening in.

"Why?"

"Because if your looking for Naruto, you only be wasting your time showing up before dark. He, like many other sins and spirits, prefer the night. It doesn't matter if he's part of the higher. Besides if she is with him, do you really think he'll tell us?" Ino explained.

"He always has before." Tenten said.

"Yeah but Hinata threw her cards in the floor, Tenten. Her life. If she is in this bad of condition then he's not even going to leave her alone for a second. If he did and went to Ai Shinu, more than likely he won't tell us. We might get lucky and he'll tell us that she's been with him." Ino sighed. "Just wait till dark before leaving."

"What about Neji? Wouldn't he know? They're cousins." Sakura asked. Ino bit her lip, thinking. "Come on, Ino, she missed most of school because of authority business. If he's part of the authority then he must know something."

"He might. Maybe. He would if he's keeping tabs for Itachi. The thing is he haven't done that in a pretty good while. He hates playing babysitter." She said. "But considering the situation and the fact that there's a new student, he might be okay with it this time. I mean, you are Hinata's roommate."

"Unless he got another mind dweller watching for him." Tenten added. "No offense, but your opinion is a bit bias.

"Or his mate looking into things."

"His brother, even."

"So Itachi does have a brother?!" Sakura interrupted. Ino and Tenten looked at her puzzled.

"Yeah, why?" Tenten asked but then looked at Ino. Ino's eyes grew larger. She must of read her mind.

"He's in your class?" She shouted.

"Yeah. He may or may not be the reason why she left in the first place."

"Who?" Ino looked at Tenten worriedly. "Who?"

"Sasuke." She whispered. Tenten then looked at Sakura wide eyed. "Tell us everything!"

"Not the time for gossip." Ino protested. "Sakura, this is very important. Remember what happened as it happened, okay? Like a movie. Play it in your head like a movie." Sakura only nodded. As the scene replayed in her mind, Ino watched carefully, taking in every detail. Her brow furrowed.

"She paused and looked at him?" Ino asked, puzzled, then sighed. "Let's get going to Ai Shinu."

"It's not dark." Tenten said.

"I know Naruto won't be there but Itachi will be." She said opening the door. Sakura quickly got in the way, closing the door and leaning against it as she faced the two confused roommates.

"Hold on," she protested, "You're going to Itachi? The authority? Do you really think that's a good idea?"

"It's like you said, Sakura, Hinata spent most of her day working with them. He would know where she is." Tenten explained.

"We have enough issues to deal with and this would only cause more. Itachi isn't exactly on our side right now because of me being here. Not to mention that his brother is part of the guess that Hinata is struggling with. If they get a whiff of Hinata's disappearance and figure out that I have something to do with it, then Itachi will most deffantly call the council on the whole ordeal. We can't allow the authority to know about this." The two girls looked at each other with confusing looks. Tenten shrugged with a look of 'what now?' but Ino only shook her head.

"Don't be ridiculous." She said, "There is nothing to worry about." Sakura crossed her arms acorss her chest.

"I'm not stupid and I didn't miss the warning look Itachi gave you last problem is, if he doesn't know now, he will eventually. Hinata had some business to do and I'm willing to bet if it was with the Authority then Itachi was probably the main client. We can't show up with news that she's missing the same day they had her run errands. If we are ever going to tell them anything, it's going to be long after I'm dead from whatever kills me at this school." Tenten planted her hands on her hips and turned to Ino with a questioning look.

"She's right. Except for the last part at least. We probably should wait just a little bit longer. We really can't afford to get anymore on thier bad side. Espeacially after what I did today at school."

"What did you-" Ino threw her hands in the air in frustration. "Forget it! We'll talk about that later. We need a new plan."

"Can it involve a date with Neji?" With a frustrated sigh, Sakura opened the door.

"At least mention Hinata. Just don't say she's MIA." With a squeal, Tenten hugged Sakura and left.

"Love you!" She called out.

"Yup," Sakura sighed and shut the door. "As for us, we actually have a plan."

"Oh, do we? I wasn't aware we were taking part in the Hawaii Five-O."
"Ignoring that. We're going to have dinner with a guest. What's Naruto's favorite dish?"

Ino raised an eyebrow. "Ramen?"

"Ew."

"Don't like ramen?" Ino laughed.

"I used to eat it all the time back home. Mom wasn't big on cooking a family dinner."

"Then you are in for a treat. I just so happened to have a recipe for homemade Ramen."

"I assume it's actually Hinata's recipe. Considering the fact that Tenten called him her boyfriend."

"Oh, you are smart. Now go finish up the laundry while I get started."

Sakura found herself in the laundry room for an hour before she started smelling anything. Not that it really mattered. She wasn't hungry. Her mind was twirling to a point of vomit. There's just no way she could have been at the school long enough for everything to start spiraling down. She's only been at the school for a little over twenty four hours. Yet here she stands in the laundry room, folding her roommates' clothes all the while wondering where one of them might be and why. This was supposed just a temporary home until she could escape. Hell, she even had a plan written out to go live with her deranged grandmother in the states. Maybe that was what she should have done before all this started. Truth of the matter is none of this would have happened if Hinata hadn't looked into her future, but Sakura can't blame her for being who she is. There wasn't really any one to blame. Then again, maybe she was to blame. Go deeper into the situation and everything seems to revolve around her. She somehow became the sun in the universe and not because she was important, but because her gravity was bringing everything down to a crash. Maybe it wasn't too late though. Sure she didn't have the money, but maybe she could sneak onto a plane. How hard could it be?

"Harder than you think."

Sakura spun around to see Ino standing in the doorway. "Maybe not so."

"You honestly think running away is going to fix what has already happened. If you decide to leave right now, it will not magically bring Hinata home. It's not going to change the fact that you made eye contact with Sasuke. It's not going to change the fact that you're our roommate and that we already love you. Everything already happened and there is nothing we can do about it."

"Not the way I see." Sakura said, tossing the folded clothes into the basket on the floor. "All Hinata is seeing right now is guesses. I don't exactly know what that means but I'm pretty sure that not everything is written is stone yet. I have a chance, a one true shot to fix everything. To erase Hinata's guesses, to bring her back, to forget all the worries that you and Tenten carry. Ino, can't you see? My next move could change everything. I just have to make the right move." Ino shook her head.

"No, you're the one who can't see. You're forgetting the one thing that is written in stone." Sakura's eyes met Ino's as they stared down. A high pitched beeping sounded in the background. With an aggravated sigh, Sakura looked away. She crossed her arms and leaned back onto the table she was folding clothes on.

"You stay." Ino said. "No mattered what Hinata looked at, you were always here."

"The guess could be me leaving."

"You're not listening to me. That part is set in stone. You never leave."

"I am listening. And I am hearing that I need to learn a new language for you're reading my mind uninvited."

"Good luck with that. I know at least six languages three of which are dead and I'm not telling you what languages I do know. Not mention I have the ability a new language as you do." With a devious smile, she tapped her forehead then turned on her heel. "Forget about leaving. Your destiny is here. Not get ready for dinner. Naruto will be here soon."

As Sakura watched her leave, she started rethinking about leaving. She may have been at the school for only a little over twenty four hours and messed up a few times, but she couldn't really leave. Her roommates have become her family already. If it came down to actually leaving Sin Academy, and everything else, could she really do it? Could she really get on a plane and leave? She thought over every single moment since she was left at the school gates. She needed to make things right and in that moment as she heard knocking on the front door, Ino's voice welcoming Naruto in, and him saying thanks, she knew she needed to do whatever it takes to make that happen.