A/N: I came up with this idea on a 20 minute bus ride home.

disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of the quotes used within the story. The plot is original and belongs to me.


"Once upon a time there was a boy who loved a girl,

and her laughter was a question

he wanted to spend his whole life answering."

-Nicole Krauss, The History of Love

.

Hinata was never one for parties. The music was too loud, the food too tasteless, the people too drunk. It was also too crowded, too humid, it reeked of sweat and cheap perfume, not to mention the overwhelming amount of people making out wherever you looked. It was all too much for the Hyuuga child, nauseating almost.

She would much rather be at home eating a whole tub of ice cream and binge watching How I Met Your Mother than be here. Yet there she was, standing awkwardly unsure of whether to stop one of her best friends from drinking her 6th shot that night.

"Ino.. I think that's enough." she moved toward her friend, making an attempt to grab her slender arm.

The blonde slapped her hand out of the way, "No, fuck off. I wanna drink my sorrows away." Ino slurred out. Hinata rolled her eyes.

"Drop the shot glass." Hinata demanded. Ino complied. With a shattering sound that echoed throughout the room, the shot glass was now in pieces on the hardwood floor, "I guess that works too," she said, eyeing the broken shards making sure to avoid them when walking the two of them to an empty space on the sofa, "sit here, I'll be back with some water."

Why was she here again?

She didn't even know whose house this was. She was only here because Ino had (stupidly) decided to come here because her on-and-off relationship with Sai seemed like it was going to be off for a while. Of course one of their other friends who was more used to these kind of things could have been here but alas, they weren't: Sakura was on vacation with her family, Tenten was probably off with Neji somewhere, and Temari was busy getting ready for her first year of college.

This sucked.


After shuffling through sweaty bodies of people she didn't know, she reached the almost empty kitchen. Almost because as soon as she walked in, there was a couple furiously making out on the island counter. She wouldn't say it out loud but she thought it was indecent. Trying the ignore the scene before her, she kept walking.

"Excuse me?" sneered an unfamiliar voice. Hinata froze. Was the girl speaking to her? She turned around praying that she wasn't but the odds were against her. The girl was on the cheerleading team with Ino but her name escaped Hinata's mind. It didn't matter though, "Is being in love and wanting to express that love to my boyfriend so repulsive to someone as," she eyed Hinata up and down, "goody-goody like you?"

At first, she was confused. What had she done to have upset her? It's not like-"Don't act innocent. I heard you say that you thought what we were doing was 'indecent'." the girl got off her boyfriend and strutted towards her.

Hinata hated confrontation, she really did. To put it bluntly, it made her act like a fool. She would stutter and fidget with her fingers like when she was younger. These habits went away when she entered high school but always came back during her times of panic. And she was panicking hardcore.

"I didn't mean-it's just-I'm s-sorry."

"Sorry isn't going to cut it," her breath smelled of alcohol, "I don't need some outsider to tell me-" To her surprise as well as Hinata's, she was cut off abruptly as someone had snatched Hinata's arm and dragged her away.

"I'm gonna borrow her, thanks!" Yelled the person who kidnapped her (rather saved her) from the cheerleader. Without thinking, Hinata ran with this person. She just wanted to leave at this point. And hopefully, the girl wasn't following her.


After escaping that problem, Hinata realized that she had another one. She didn't recognize the person taking her away. From behind, his messy brown hair made it seem like he had just woken up. He was noticeably taller than she was as well. 5'8"? 5'9"? She was only about 5'2 ¾" (that ¾ inch mattered). And even though it was dark, she thought his arms looked nice for lack of a better word.

"Thanks." He said with an amused tone.

"For what?" She replied.

"The comment about my arms," he stated, "glad I didn't skip arm day yesterday."

She blushed and stayed quiet the rest of the way.


They stopped in a fairly quiet area of the house. To Hinata's surprise, there actually wasn't anyone there.

"Thanks for saving me back there," she inhaled in order to catch her breath, "where.. are we?" she gave the place a quick glance full of curiosity.

"An off limits place."

If Hinata were drinking something, she surely would've choked. For starters, she was a stickler for rules. And secondly, she'd never been in trouble before and certainly didn't plan on ever getting in trouble, especially at a party where underage students were drinking, "Why are we here then? Let's get out of here before we're caught!"

Before she even had time to start running, he held onto her arm again and kept her back, "It's cool, we can be here."

He let go of her arm as she spoke, "But.. you just said it was off limits? What if we get caught? How can you be so sure?"

"You ask a lot of questions." He managed to say as he chuckled.

"And you're not answering any of them."

He gave her a puzzled look, "This is my house."

Silence.

"...O-oh." She stuttered out, feeling her face grow warm as the awkward silence dragged on.

He laughed again, "I'm just messing with you, this is my senior's place. We're good friends so he usually let's me come here."

She nodded, then a question came to mind, "So why'd you bring me here?"

He paused for a moment and then asked, "What's your name?"

"Hinata Hyuuga but that-" He cut her off.

"But soft! What light through yonder window breaks? It is the east," a gentle smile laced his tan face, "and Hinata is the sun. Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon, who is already sick and pale with grief, that thou, her maid, art far more fair than she."

It was quiet for a moment until the Hyuuga child began to clap to which he grinned and bowed, "Thank you, thank you. I wouldn't be here if it weren't for my fans." he said in a mocking voice.

"That was quite a convoluted way of saying 'because you're pretty'," she stopped clapping and clasped her hands together, "but it was very sweet of you. I wouldn't have taken you to be a Shakespeare fan."

"I am an enigma." He smirked, showing his sharp canine-like teeth. She giggled at his behavior.

"Do you want something to drink?" he asked her.

"Water, I'm not much of a drinker." A part of her couldn't shake the thought that she was forgetting something.

"I'll be back then, milady." He teased.

What a weird guy she thought.

"I heard that."

She really had to stop thinking out loud.


Shortly after, he came back with drinks in hand and the two of them talked. They talked about their summer activities:

"You work?" She questioned.

"My family owns a dog shelter. The dogs are super friendly and only occasionally bite."

their summer reading assignment which neither of them had started:

"I don't care about this dumbass book. Why do teachers make us suffer?"

She tried to console him, "It shouldn't be too bad."

"It's about a fucking man who was great whatever the fuck that means."

they even shared random little tidbits about each other.

"You really don't swear?" His voice filled with amazement and a little bit of admiration for the girl in front of him.

"It really isn't that hard.."

When he had finished his drinks, he was slightly tipsy. Hinata wasn't surprised. She gave him the rest of her water, "Take it, you'll thank me later."

She was certain she was forgetting something now. But what?

"Hey wanna hear a funny story?" He mumbled out.

She agreed to listen to the drunken boy, "Tell me."

"So," he began, "it was during the winter and my senior friend and I were walking back from a party. And there was like… ice everywhere right? And we were walking downhill right? And then I was like 'yo wouldn't it be funny if I slipped?' and then guess what? I SLIPPED." He threw his arms up in the air as if he were on a rollercoaster, surprising the girl next to him.

Normally, Hinata wouldn't laugh at something like this. But it was 2 AM and there was a drunk boy with eccentric behavior right next to her telling her a story about an unfortunate coincidence. And she laughed. She laughed until there were tears in her eyes.

"Woah." He slurred with surprise.

"Hmm?" She squeaked out as she wiped away a tear.

"Your laugh."

"What about it?"

"You have a pretty laugh too."

She slapped his arm playfully, "Shut up, you're just drun-," then she remembered that there was a blonde mess (hopefully) sitting on the sofa waiting for her to bring her some water, "Oh my god, I forgot about Ino."

She got up to run back to the crowded and loud and humid party but paused and turned back around, "I didn't get your name."

"What's the magic word?" He joked, giggling by himself.

She didn't really have time for games, "Please?"

"Actually it was pickle but I'll let you off the hook since I kidnapped you," he grinned care-freely, "The name's Kiba Inuzuka."

"Kiba.. Sorry, I have to get to my friend. See you around!"

He nodded as she left him there alone. He sat there for a while with a frown etched onto his face. But after fifteen minutes, it finally dawned on him, "She thinks we'll see each other again."


When Hinata reached the living room, she thanked the heavens that Ino was still on the couch albeit drooling and with mascara dripping down her face. With the water in hand, Hinata tried to wake the blonde up, "Hey sleepyhead, I have your water."

Ino groaned, "What took you so long? It's been like 7 hours."

"I wasn't gone that long." It was only about 2 hours according to her calculations.

"Whatever," she waved it off, "let's go home. I'm done with Sai's shit for today."

Giving Ino the water, Hinata latched one arm around her friend to keep her up and slowly walked towards the front door. It was a long night for the both of them.


After dropping Ino off at her house, she drove straight back to her house as quick as possible. It was 3 AM when Hinata got home.

And right when she got home, Neji was waiting there with his arms crossed, "Explain."

Hinata squirmed under his gaze. Even though they were cousins and quite close at that, she knew that Neji was someone who was intimidating when push comes to shove, "Um.. I was at a party with Ino.."

"You know Hiashi's rules when it comes to parties, Hinata." He stated as a matter of fact. It was true. The policy was if you wanted to go to a party, you would have to come home before midnight or exactly at midnight. Not after.

"But Neji," she started, "father isn't even home. Can't you cut me some slack this once?" she was begging him. It was one thing to be on Neji's bad side, but it was another thing when it came to her father.

He sighed, defeated, "You're lucky he's abroad for the time being."

As he spun around to go back to his room, he heard her small but grateful thank you and continued forward, closing the door behind him. He thought to himself that it was unusual that Hinata would forget such a rule, however, he shook the thought away and went to sleep.

Hinata tip-toed up the stairs to her bedroom and shut the door as quiet as she could to not wake up Hanabi in the next room over. Taking her hair out of her high ponytail, she grabbed her pajamas and went to take a well-deserved shower.


It was already 4 in the morning when she got out of the shower. Returning to her dimly lit room, she plopped down into her spinney chair and took out a piece of star paper. Hinata loved origami, especially paper stars. Everyday since freshman year, Hinata had written down memories on pieces of star paper before she folded them. She planned on opening them when she graduated high school which she was already halfway done with.

She thought back to her day and only one thing was worth mentioning:

July 28th, 2014: Today, I met Kiba Inuzuka. He's a weird boy.

Folding the paper carefully, she placed it in one of her many star jars and closed the lid afterwards. She then sluggishly walked to her bed, pulled over the covers, got in, and turned off the lights.


A/N: things that might need clarification:

[age] everyone will be between the ages 17-19

[time] its mid-summer/towards the end of summer break

[characters] i want use the bare minimum of characters so the main ones will probably be hinata, kiba, naruto, and ino. anyone else mentioned will be minor characters or briefly mentioned for the sake of plot

[other] critiques are welcome, reviews are welcome, questions are welcome

i hope you enjoyed the first chapter!