Me: I know, I know. I should be working on all my other stories right now but this story has been nagging at my brain for a while so…here it is.
Gaara: Am I in this one?
Me: Later probably.
Gaara: Great. Who are you pairing me with?
Me: Hinata I think. (shrug)
Gaara: Whatever.
Me: You're going to take it and you're going to like it. (glare)
Gaara: (turns towards reader) She doesn't own anything. Got it? Good.
Me: Here it is! XD
Hi my name's Naruto. I'm in seventh grader going to Konoha Middle School and…well what else? Hmmm. I'm blond. Yeah, ok, let's cut the crap and just start with what you all really want. My story. Well I guess I have many different stories, but you know what I mean.
This particular story starts on a Tuesday. When it began it was a Tuesday just like any other…
I emptied the contents of my backpack into the way-too-small locker and took out all I would need for English today, making sure I didn't forget anything. We have WAY too many books for English.
"Good morning." I turned my attention away from my locker to search for the source of the sing-song voice. I found my best friend, Hinata, standing right behind me. She was grinning at me over her Algebra books
"Hina-chan, it's a Tuesday. How can you be so happy?"
"What's wrong with Tuesdays?" Hinata smiled even wider and leaned over to poke me in the stomach. I flinched and held my stomach where she had just dug her fingernails into my skin. Don't ask me how I was able to feel her nails through my shirt. They're pretty blunt too.
"What was that for?"
"I'm waking you up sleepy head!" Hinata still had the smile plastered on her face. Morning person. Blah.
"Boo!" A ridiculously loud voice sounded behind me, causing me to flinch and Hinata to eep.
Hinata's moment of surprise reminded me vaguely of when she used to be so shy that she could hardly say a sentence without stuttering. It's hard to believe that it had only been a couple months before that she had completely found enough self confidence to act the way she does now. Though the old Hinata sometimes still shows through if she's not careful. Like at this particular moment.
Hinata relaxed when she found that our surprise attacker was Kiba. Actually the surprise attack wasn't really a surprise attack anymore. Really, he did it every day.
Kiba flashed his sharp canine teeth at us in a bright grin.
"Wazup homies?!" He practically yelled. Kiba never seemed to notice how loud his voice really was. Annoying? Yes definitely. But we've gotten used to it.
"Homies?" Hinata asked as dryly as she could manage (meaning not dryly at all) while I just lifted an eyebrow at my friend. "Never mind. You two go to class. We'll all be late if we don't hurry."
Hinata waved goodbye and started off toward her class while Kiba and I separated to go to ours.
Ok, pause. Yes, these are my friends. Slightly weird but still cool in their own way.
Hinata has been my friend since about a year ago (we're in seventh grade people) and has been friends with Kiba for about a year before that. There was a time when I was pretty sure she had a crush on me but time moves on and silly infatuations fade. I even remember a point where I had a thing for her. Thinking back on it now it seems kind of awkward to be in love with your best friend.
Kiba's friendship was kind of forced on me. Not by him, of course, but by Hinata. Neither Kiba nor I had any friends besides her for a while there because some of our closest buddies (Yes, I do use that word so shut up.) had left the year before. This means that we would both hang around with Hina-chan whenever we could (Recess and the likes). We started to get to know each other better and better because of this, and eventually became friends. If asked, though, we would probably stick to the story that we hated each other.
Anyways…where were we? Right. Mrs. Kureni's class.
I walked into the English room and looked up at the clock. I breathed out a sigh of relief when I realized I was still on time.
I looked around the room searching for a bright head of bubblegum pink hair. It was obviously easy to spot Sakura so I found her almost instantly. I took an empty seat next to my half-friend-half-crush and gave her a small smile. She rolled her eyes in response but still smiled back. I looked past Sakura to see who she was sitting next to on her left side and wasn't too surprised to find her best friend, Ino, there. Hinata would hang out with those two often as they were her other best friends. She'd become a relatively popular person since she'd overcome her shyness. Of course I'm counting popularity by numbers of friends, not by numbers of mindless followers.
She has a bunch of other friends actually. At least three in each class. One of her closer friends, Ten-ten, was currently in her Algebra class with her. Ten-ten is a pretty violent person when she wants to be but is also a very loyal and good friend to Hinata. She's broken Kiba's heart many times before (once or twice every year since fourth grade) and currently is avoiding him. Kiba had given up on her by now, and currently didn't have a love interest. I was glad for that because I didn't want to deal with any more drama. Not that I'd be the one that was most likely to be dragged into it. Hinata was notorious for getting caught in the middle of these things. That's usually because she almost always has friends on both sides. Sucks for her.
Ok. As I was saying, I was doing the grammar pages listed on the board while stealing a few glances at my pink haired crush out of the corner of my eye.
A few times she caught me staring and raised an eyebrow in my direction. In those cases I would blush faintly and quickly focus back on figuring out what part of speech 'never' was.
Now it would be boring to explain the rest of the day up to science class and since I'm too lazy and have a slight case of ADD (Who doesn't?) I'm not going to. So picture this. It's the last class before recess and we're working in groups. In mine I have Sakura, an annoyingly lazy (but genius) kid named Shikamaru, a girl whose name keeps on eluding me but was now absent, and a certain pale eyed Hyuuga that certainly wasn't Hinata. Sakura had just ranted for a bit about how none of us were doing any work (which was basically true) and put me and the Hyuuga in a separate team together while she and Shikamaru worked on some other part of the project. Of course I wined and protested a bit but the look that Sakura sent me shot chills down my spine. So Neji and I were left to look up various things about native animals…together.
"Naruto. Pass me a pencil. This one broke." Neji's light grey eyes bore holes into my blue ones.
"Why don't you just get up and sharpen it?" I mumbled grumpily, still angry that Sakura hadn't asked me to work with her instead of Neji.
"And why would I do that when you're holding a perfectly good pencil in your hands. Now give it." Neji said coolly.
"No." I glared. Neji lunged at my hands, obviously tired of waiting. As he pulled it from my grasp I felt a shocking sense of warmth as his skin touch mine and had to fight back a blush that was threatening to cover my cheeks. Why was I blushing? It was just that stupid Neji for heaven's sakes! Stupid teenage hormones, weirding out on me at a time like this!
Neji, meanwhile, was furiously scribbling down the notes he had gathered from the website he currently had open on one of the school's laptops. I had to fight down another blush as my super sensitive hormones now made me notice how beautiful Neji looked with his almost black hair spilling in front of his pale, handsome face. I quickly looked away again after I realized what I was thinking. I imagine that my expression showed just how horrified I was as I resisted the old habit to bite my nails out of panic. Neji obviously saw this because he looked up from his notes and poked me in the side. What is with the Hyuugas and poking!
"What's got your boxers in a knot?" Neji's eyes searched my obviously disturbed expression but went back to his notes when I shook my head and gave him a shaky smile. I stared at my nails for a second while I digested the new information. I was attracted to a guy. No. It had to be just my hormones talking. I couldn't honestly like a guy like Neji even if I was bi. Oh my god, I realized. Am I bi??
I went again into panic attack mode before just deciding that it was best to push this subject out of my mind for now and figure out my answer later. Yep. That would be a good idea. I can't start freaking out in the middle of science class. My expressions are too easily read.
I fell back into working on the science project although through the rest of class I never once met the eyes of the Hyuuga.
After science I quickly gathered my stuff and headed out the door, more than ready to get to lunch. Hinata would know what to do. Yes. She definitely would. Everyone who's ever known her knows she's a huge gay rights supporter even if her uptight, grey eyed parents don't know. She's also a big yaoi fan and reads some of those scary gay fan fictions that I never want to look at. I mused taking up reading some for a while but dropped the idea almost as soon as I thought of it.
Never in a million years.
I dropped off all my books at my locker before starting towards the lunch tables. On my way there I caught slight of Kiba walking towards the same table I was and briefly wondered that, if I was bi, if it would mean that it was possible for me to have a crush on him. After a moment of watching my canine loving friend I rejected that idea too. Kiba and me? Me and Kiba? Never. No. Ew.
I continued to our usual table and set my bagged lunch of instant ramen down next to where Hina-chan always sat. I knew when she came she would sit there because we always sat in the same spot everyday. It was habit. Hinata and I would sit beside each other on one side of the table while Kiba would sit directly across from us. To Hinata's left side all of Hinata's many other friends (all girls) sat. Usually Sakura and Ino would sit directly beside her in order to talk with their friend while they ate. This system meant that the girls that seemed to have Kiba-and-Naruto-aphobia would be able to keep their distance and their friend would still be near them. It was perfect.
"Naruto. Wake up." I felt a soft tap on my head from Hinata before she sat in the spot beside me. Her necklaces made a clanking noise as she moved. Hinata for some reason like to wear many chains and other strange things around her neck at all times and wore equally odd stuff around her wrists, though preferred to leave her ears earingless for some reason. For another unknown reason her fashion had changed drastically over the years as her personality changed. She now opted for a more Goth style unlike her old all white outfits with large jackets. She would, by all means, deny that she looked Goth at all, although her favorite store was still Hot Topic. Her hair has grown long and is almost to her elbows now. Jeez. How long is she going to let it grow out?
Kiba always has opted to more earthy colors like brown, grey, and deep reds and tends to like furs (fake of course). His favorite coat is grey with a black faux fur lining. He wears it all the time. And I mean ALL the time. Even in summer!
And then there's Akamaru. Akamaru is Kiba's dog and pride and joy. He tends to like to take rides on various parts of Kiba's body, including nestled in between Kiba's shirt and his jacket. Of course this means that Kiba's cloths never are free of dog hair.
Kiba also likes to paint his face every morning with two identical red triangles going down both sides of his face. Weird huh?
I don't get either of their styles at all since I have always been in love with the color orange and I wear it whenever I can. Orange es de bomb peoples! XD
Did you like my smiley face there? I know you did, so stop denying it.
Anyways, back to my story. So yeah. I was sitting there looking all pretty and trying to figure out how to tell Hinata that I thought I might be bi when a head of black hair caught my eye. From across the cafeteria I stared at the most popular boy in school, Uchiha Sasuke. He was sitting across from Neji, the other popular 'stick-up-ass guy' in Konoha Middle School, and (gasp) was not saying a word.
Even though Neji and Sasuke are friends I've never actually seen them have a normal conversation. Like I said, MAJOR stick-up-ass syndrome at that table. But that's not the point. The point is that until now I hadn't noticed how…how beautiful Sasuke was. His pitch black hair and pale face matched that of the person sitting in front of him but there was a huge difference.
There was another sort of beauty to Sasuke. He had a beauty I just couldn't put my finger on but had so much of it that I couldn't tear my eyes off him.
All of a sudden Sasuke turned his head to meet his dark, heavy lidded gaze with my own, and as soon as he did my whole body started reacting. My heart started to pulse really loudly in my ears and my stomach did flip-flops. Even my breathing became irregular. As Sasuke lazily turned back to poking his food with his fancy, over embellished chopsticks, I realized the most shocking thing of all.
I had the hots for Uchiha Sasuke.
"Come on Naruto. That's the second time you spaced out on me. Were you even listing?" Hinata poked me in the side for about the millionth time that day, bringing me back to reality. I realized then that I was still staring at Sasuke from about six tables away and had completely missed out on Hinata's rendition of the funny song Ten-ten had apparently been singing all through…what was it…Algebra? Sure. See, I completely missed it.
Hinata gave me a worried look.
"You ok?" My face must have displayed the emotions my mind was still trying to figure out because Hinata's usually smiling face was marred with lines of concern.
"Y-yeah. I'm fine." I gave Hinata the best smile I could manage and continued. "Hey, Hina-chan? Could I talk to you about something?"
""Sure! What is it?" Hinata gave an encouraging smile ten times more brilliant than mine (Wow. That NEVER happens. I tend to smile A LOT!)
"Not now." I looked pointedly at all the others sitting by us. "At recess, ok?"
Hinata's smile now turned slightly confused (but understanding) before melting back into the huge grin she had on before. It took no prodding at all for her to launch right back into her Ten-ten story. I pretended to listen, head nodding at all the appropriate times, and waited for lunch to be over.
Here comes another time skip.
Recess:
I waited by Hinata's locker as she stuffed her, now empty, lunch box in it. I leaned against another locker, staring ahead, until I heard Hinata's locker door slam and her smiling face popped back into view.
"No one's here. Start talking." Hinata demanded. I glanced down the near empty hallway and decided that it was ok to…
"Boo!" I rubbed my temples. Kiba again.
"Kiba, I need to talk to Hina-chan for a sec. Go away." I shoved him in the direction of the recess field in a not too gentle way.
This didn't seem to faze Kiba, though. He bounded right back up to us with his insane trademark grin in place and fake whispered in Hinata's ear. "Ooooo. He's gonna ask you out."
I thought I saw a blush on Hinata's face but it must have been an optical illusion because a second later she pushed him away with a "Shut up, Kiba."
"Come on Kiba. Just a second I promise." Hinata said as we neared the field.
"Fine. Just a minute, though." Kiba smiled. He knew when to back off. He's a good friend like that.
"Thanks." I grabbed Hinata's arm and dragged her away until we were in an unpopulated section of the field.
"Tell me." Hinata said, her curiosity far from hidden. I took a deep breath to start but realized that I had no idea how to say this. We stood there awkwardly for a few seconds until I decided that it would be better if I just come out into the open right now.
"Hina-chan…IthinkI'mbi." It came out in a string of not very understandable words.
"What?" Hinata cocked her head to the side.
I took a second beep breath. "I think I'm bi."
Hinata blinked up at me for a few seconds until my words sunk in. When she finally got it she smiled. Before long she was laughing.
"What's so funny?" I asked angrily.
"It's nothing. It's just that you made it sound like such a bad thing. Naruto, if you like guys you like guys. It's nothing to be ashamed of. Hey, I like guys too."
I smiled at her words. I already felt better. I surprised myself when I gave out a strangled laugh of my own.
"Now why are you laughing?" Hinata asked.
"You'll never guess who I've got a crush on." I said. I was slightly giddy as I felt my grin start to migrate across my face.
"Who?" Hinata gave an excited squeak.
"Sasuke."
"No." Hinata's mouth drooped open in shock.
"Yes." My smile grew even more. I didn't know how much more smiling was possible.
She smiled again (More smiles!) in response until suddenly a look of realization crossed her features.
"Kiba." She looked dead serious now (Does she have mood swings or something? Must be PMSing.). "Naruto, we've got to tell him."
"What? No." I was horrified by the idea.
"Why? He may be silly at times but he is one of the most trust worthy people I know."
"I know, I know." I sighed. "Maybe later." Have you ever noticed that later always seems like a good time to get stuff done?
All of a sudden a booming voice filled my ears.
"Your minute's up!"
"Speaking of the devil." I murmured under my breath. I don't know why I said that. It just seemed appropriate at the time.
"Hi Kiba." Hinata started chatting lightly with Kiba as we walked around the field, just like always. It felt good to have at least one normal thing happen today. I felt my mind wandering as soon as it was not needed to keep up a conversation. Where did it wander, you wonder? To Sasuke of course. Too bad he's not in any of my classes today…
Yeah call me love sick but what can I do? I've fallen fast and fallen hard. And for none other then Mr. stick-up-ass Uchiha himself.
Me: R&R por favor! XD
Gaa-kun: Just do it. (glare)