Pairing: NaruHina
Words: 1,377
Rating: T
Disclaimer: If I owned Naruto there would have been a cutesy kissing scene by now.
It started on a Monday.
Mondays, by nature, were evil. They brought with them an onslaught of sleep deprivation, geometry proofs, and psychotic teachers. Psychotic teachers whom she heavily suspected used to work as specialists in torture in some foreign country before they were forced to retire and decided that it would be fun to traumatize today's youth.
Aside from that though, Mondays were the days in which Hinata had third lunch. It was the only day actually. That was why it was all the more dreaded.
For third lunch, you see, was the lunch of the 'Battles'.
Explanation: Years ago, three children grew up together. One was Kiba Inuzuka, one was Hinata Hyuuga, and the other was Shino Aburame. They grew up, grew slightly apart, yada yada yada, and Kiba and Shino managed to somehow become rivals along the way. It was an interesting rivalry though, since both really only excelled in their own talents.
Kiba was the captain of nearly every sports team the school had.
The exception was badminton, because really…who played badminton?
He was a loudmouth who's math grade scored in the negatives.
Shino, meanwhile, was the student body president and valedictorian.
He was also freakishly level headed and suspected to be both mute and blind. (Because really, who wore sunglasses when it rained?)
They claimed to hate each other, but really they were best friends because come on could you really fight with someone so often without killing each other if you didn't like them?
The answer is no.
Well either way, the two usually started off their days with some crazy challenge. Typically it was either Kiba shouting that they should do something stupid (like seeing who could eat twenty-five bowls of rice the fastest) or Shino telepathically suggesting that they should do something stupid (like seeing who could write an essay on mid-18th century economics the fastest…using only their feet).
Kiba only won his endurance and strength styled challenges, while Shino only won his strategic and intelligence styled challenges.
It was pointless really, but they didn't really seem to notice that fact yet.
All the same, these silly challenges had earned a nickname around the student body. They were called the Battles.
Explanation End.
Hinata typically had no connections to these challenges, and liked that. It would be really embarrassing for her to do participate in them.
As though she didn't embarrass herself enough by being so ridiculously shy.
Still though, she was trapped on Mondays.
It was like any other Monday. Despite her invisibility to the rest of the school population (possibly the world), Kiba and Shino managed to find her and forcibly dragged her to their table.
'Forcibly drag' meaning, courteously invited.
….
Okay, so really it meant that they literally grabbed her and dragged her off to the table in the heat of their Battle, but it's nice to pretend that they had manners sometimes.
"Hinata!" Kiba shouted.
Hinata briefly lost the majority of her hearing in her left ear.
"Y-yes?" She had a sickening feeling in her stomach that she was about to become a judge and/or witness to another act of stupidity that would leave one or both of them injured and/or sick.
"Hinata will you--" Kiba was sharply cut off by a well delivered pencil to his side.
Shino grinned to himself.
"Hinata, would you—" Kiba returned the favor.
This would be a lovely time to point out that Shino was neither blind nor mute. He simply disliked speaking and correctly thought that sunglasses added a feeling of mystery to him.
After all, who didn't love a mysterious guy?
"W-what do you n-need n-now?" she stuttered, really wishing to get this over with. Kiba and Shino were both friends in her opinion, but crazy was crazy.
"Will you go out with me?!" They shouted together, unified spiky speech bubbles included
Hinata paused, because really…WTF?
They paused too, both looking at her intently (at least, she assumed that Shino was looking at her intently) and waiting for her answer.
"Y-you…you…you're s-s-serious?!" she shrieked. They nodded. She then proceeded to blush and pass out, because oh God why her?
This would be a good time to point out that neither Kiba nor Shino had created this particular challenge, nor did either of them particularly wish to go out with Hinata. They both sorta considered her as some adorably shy and geeky sister.
But Kiba and Shino had recently decided to start taking requests on challenges as their own ideas were dwindling down over the years.
Now one request they'd both received over the weekend in the mail had been an anonymous one.
(Actually, as Shino discovered through his numerous 'connections', it was sent by their pervy teacher Jirayia, but he saw no reason why as to not accept it.)
The request stated that whoever could get Hinata to go out with them would be victorious. Both of them wanted to prove how much better they were than the other, so they accepted it.
It took five minutes for Hinata to regain consciousness, and she nearly passed out again once she did because the two boys were leaning over her expectantly when she opened her eyes.
Because really, having two attractive male specimens looming over you is not as awesome and romantic as one would be lead to think.
Kiba helped her to her feet in a rare show of chivalry.
Shino labeled it as a surprisingly clever strategic maneuver.
Hinata stood for a few seconds.
Kiba did not let go of her hand.
Kiba grinned wolfishly and Hinata shrieked in tones never before heard by humans.
Perfectly reasonable.
She withdrew her hand.
Shino made to grab it, taking her rejection of Kiba as an acceptance of him.
She back stepped away less than discreetly.
"I-I I can't go out with either of you!" she protested.
They first acted as though they hadn't heard her; then they reconsidered on the basis that girls did not seem to go out with guys that were too pushy.
"Why not?" Shino asked, perfectly reasonable.
"I-I I already…already like someone else!" she proclaimed.
And who said she couldn't think on her feet?
"Who?" Kiba pressed, leaning in close to her face.
Oh Shit.
Hinata stumbled backwards, "I-I-I-I"
She glanced hurriedly around. A name, a name, she needed a name.
She spied a bowl of ramen.
It would have to do.
"I-I like Naruto Uzumaki!"
She silently congratulated herself for only stuttering once in that entire sentence.
Then she grimaced because no way where these two gonna go along with the idea that she'd fallen in love with a fish cake.
They weren't that stupid.
One could hear the gears in Shino's head spin as he thought about the name. "Nobody by that name goes to this school."
Kiba tried not to accuse his friend of being a cyborg.
Hinata lost some of the respect she held for her friend's intelligence.
"H-he's homeschooled. Y-you wouldn't k-know him."
Her friends paused and thought about this.
"Dammit," Kiba muttered.
Shino scoffed. "Giving up already?"
Shino, obviously, planned to win Hinata over no matter what. What could this Naruto character have over him anyway?
The answer was sports ability. Not that Shino really cared.
Shino's point abruptly hit Kiba three seconds later.
"No!" he shouted.
Shino acted like he hadn't heard him.
"It figures. How could Hinata like a guy like you anyway?"
Kiba's ears turned red. "Why you," she snarled.
A fight ensued.
People circled around to watch.
Someone began selling popcorn.
Hinata took the chance to sneak away.
She escaped outside, hiding in the bushes behind the school like the cliché heroine she was.
"Hey!"
Hinata jumped, looking rapidly around for whoever was addressing her. If it was a teacher then she was soooo so so so screwed.
"Not there," the voice taunted.
"W-where are you?" she asked, shaking a bit.
It was sorta creepy to be addressed by a voice from The Beyond.
"Your head," the voice replied coolly.
She leaped about a foot in the air, because now that she thought about it, it sure sounded like it was coming from her head.
She was sort of shaking now.
It was even creepier when the voice wasn't from The Beyond.
"W-who are you?"
The voice laughed. "Naruto Uzumaki! Believe it!"
AN: This would be my first real project, so I hope you like it. Please review. ^^