Title: A Public Performance
Author: hungrytiger11
Characters/Parings: Hyuugacest ( you've been warned!)
Summary: Either the mission or Hinata. It was just a question of which would drive him crazy first.
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, nor any related image, character, plot etc. No profit is being made.
He's watching from the tree, far from any window. The coils of charka bulging around his eyes are the only sign he's watching something. That something being about twenty feet below him, a hundred yards behind him and inside a building. That something being what is dancing, and if he were honest with himself, he'd wish she were dancing just for him.
She has an unexpected grace, and her dance tells the story of what it means to see but never touch. She is playing with every man in the room and does not even notice. With make-up on, he pale eyes seem even more exotic. Her unpainted skin, in contrast seems more delicate still, and when a strand of hair falls from its elaborate constraints to brush against her cheeks, all but five men in the room lean forward. He wishes he could kill them all. But he will not. The poison painted onto her lips will do that work.
"Just one cup Junko-chan, try just one more," A businessman with a sagging belly whines to her when she is finished performing. Hinata smiles, eyes lowered down. Neji has seen that look before. To him, it's meant a challenge, a battle even, to get her to raise her eyes and acknowledge him. To this fat man, it is merely endearing. He does not truly care who this young girl is or what she thinks of him. His money is supposed to ensure what she thinks.
" Just one," she quietly agrees. She presses lips to the cup, but drinks nothing, letting the liquid splash against a closed mouth. When she sets the cup down, red face-paint is smearing its rim. The man motions with his hands that her face is now marred. With a blush you can see even through the white paint, Hinata leans forward, just enough and at the same time not enough at all.
"Oh," She says." Will you wipe the rest off for me?" And she's kissing him, leaning across the table and over the now forgotten cup of sake. First lips are on his mouth and then ghosting further up to whisper something in his ear. Then she rises up, back ramrod straight, and announces baldly she going to pee. It makes her sound drunk, being so crude. Hinata is never crude, though it seems Mr. Businessman's "Junko-chan" can be. Moments later, their target, the middle-aged lech, rises, supposedly to use the facilities too. Neji waits thirty seconds more then jumps down and enters through the building's back door. With his Byakugan, his eyes never leave Hinata's form.
By the time he's arrived, the man has already keeled over, and she's in the middle of dragging the body out of the way. Yanking the meaty arms from her, Neji has Mr. Big Business's corpse stuffed into a closet in half the time Hinata would take. Up close, she looks a mess with hair falling out, and face paint sweaty and smeared. She smells of the sake she didn't drink, and with the poison still on her lips she can't be kissed. Not that he would anyway. She doesn't know that her "Nii-san" feels that way. He's not certain, despite what he's seen of her performance, she even realizes what effects she has on men in general.
Using the kimono's sleeve, she rubs at her face. "D-did you enjoy the e-even-ning's performance, Nii-san?" No longer playing a character, her stutter resurfaces, old habits back in place.
" Your dancing was fine," His reply is stiff, but he doesn't trust himself to say more. He wants to say her dancing reminds him of her new water techniques, or that it reflects what a good ninja she has become, having such control over her body. He wants to say, I can't wait to see you dance again. He despises feeling so awkward. This is his shy cousin, after all! Why is she the one intimidating him?
But Hinata doesn't notice his awkwardness. " Oh," She blushes and looks down at her toes. For a moment there is silence between them and the sounds of the party in the other room drift down the hall. They should start to move Neji thinks, but then Hinata speaks again.
"I w-wasn't t-talking ab-bout the dance. I m-meant…." She gestures to her mouth, now raw from being rubbed clean, and then lowers her eyes back down. Neji feels his face warm and wonders how his cousin's bad habits are rubbing off on him.
" No," he answers her. " You did fine."
"R-really? Bec-cause I thought…." she questions softly. She raises her eyes to look at him. There is a pause, and then she's grabbing his arms for balance as she pushes herself up on tiptoes and brushes her mouth against the underside of his jaw, and then his cheek and then-
"I thought maybe something like this would be more pleasing to a man," her breath whispers across his face. It still smells slightly of sake, but underneath that it smells of sunshine, and warmth, and Hinata. Almost before he's registering this though, her heels hit the ground with a muffled thud, and she's backing away, red as a tomato. "S-something to think about, Neji."
Was it her breath against his face or the lack of that brotherly honorific that makes him feel so exposed? Hearing sounds of movement from the other room, Neji thinks Wrong time, wrong place. And even if he wanted to do more, Hinata is already out the door. Swift, even in a kimono, she is already past the tree he started the night out in. Someone laughs from behind the closed doors, and Neji smiles too, for a different reason. It is time to go. Taking off after her he thinks, perhaps I'll get that private performance after all.