~Give me Love~
Disclaimer: I don't any of these characters. Please don't put me in federal prison for this dumb fanfic.
~Chapter 1~
Sakura Haruno and her long time friend Ino were strolling down the streets of Konoha, arm in arm and giggling about things that girls typically giggle about. It was a sunny spring day and the two had just received their payment from their most recent missions, so Ino had insisted that Sakura should come with her to go dress shopping. The Konoha annual Festival of Love was coming up in a few weeks, and according to Ino, Sakura had absolutely nothing that was suitable for attracting a date. Sakura thought otherwise, but Ino was the expert on these things, so what choice did she have?
After dropping by a few stores and picking out a pair of shoes and a frilly little tango-red number that Ino had dug up on the clearance shelf, the two sat under the umbrella of an outdoor table while munching on sticks of Dango.
"Hey Pigsnout, just who are you planning on coercing into being your date for the festival, anyway?" Sakura asked slyly, while shoving an elbow into Ino's side.
"Well, my unfortunately large-fore headed friend, I was originally aiming for Shikamaru, but he seems like he would be too bothered by the whole thing, so I think I'm gonna try maybe Kiba or Sai..."
"Sai? From Team 8? What do you want his weird-ass for?"
"He's dark and mysterious, just like Sasuke used to be..."
"Ah, yeah...you do have a point there. Hopefully he won't be abducted by Sound ninja before you get the chance to ask him out!"
Ino poked Sakura in the ribs, which prompted a counter-attack from Sakura, which in turn caused Ino to shove a hand into Sakura's face, which caused Sakura to drop her last bite of Dango.
"NO! THE LAST BITE!" a disembodied voice called out.
Ino and Sakura both looked up, and as if in slow-motion, Ino's tubby team mate Chouji flew underneath their table and snatched up the Dango stick before touching the ground. Unfortunately, this knocked both Sakura and Ino out of their seats, and tipped the table and umbrella stand completely over.
"CHOUJI, YOU UNFATHOMABLE KNUCKLEHEAD!" Ino shrieked while giving Chouji a good sock in the head.
Chouji whimpered and scrambled to his feet, then offered Ino a hand up, followed by Sakura.
"Sorry ladies, you know my policy on wasted food..."
Ino sighed, dusting herself off. She then angrily snatched the dango stick from Chouji's pudgy mitt and shoved it into Sakura's directly.
"Well next time try to be a little more careful. I swear, you're like bull in a China shop sometimes."
Chouji snickered and patted his belly. "That's me!"
"Ugh, get out of here!" Ino grabbed the poor fellow and forcefully turned him away before shoving him with her foot. He hobbled away into the distance, looking over his shoulder with a disappointed face.
Sakura straightened herself out, then looked at Ino, who suddenly had a strange expression of admiration while watching Chouji vanish around a corner.
"On second thought, maybe I should ask him out..." she said wistfully.
Sakura tilted her head.
"Huh? Who? ...Chouji?!"
Ino's eyes fluttered softly, as she held her hands to her heart. "Yeah, what a sweet, wonderful man he is..."
Sakura burst into laughter. Ino scowled at her.
"What's so funny?!"
Sakura tried to calm herself and wiped a tear away from her eye. "He just knocked both us and our table over for a bite of dumplings, caused a huge faux pas, and suddenly you wanna ask him out?"
Ino crossed her arms defensively. "Yeah, why not?! I can ask whoever I want out!"
Sakura smiled and laid a hand on Ino's shoulder. "I'm not judging you for wanting to ask him out, it's just funny cause it's so sudden. It's like you were hit with a Hyuga arrow or something!"
Ino huffed. "Hyugas aren't real and you know it, Sakura. I just like him, is all!"
"Surrreee..." Sakura teased.
As the girls continued to bicker back and forth, a mysterious silhouette disappeared behind a nearby corner, leaving behind a small plume of down feathers.
In a flustered flurry, the winged creature fluttered its way to the top of a nearby building, then landed with a crunch on the gravelly roof. At first glance, she may have been recognized as just a typical "Lolita" girl, with hair of glossy dark blue and a pale lavender dress kimono, with ruffles of white around the gloriously fluffy thigh-length skirt. Though her main ensemble was Japanese in nature, her ivory feet were wrapped in Roman-style gilded sandals. The only thing separating her from a normal human were a pair of soft, cloud-white wings that, although small to the point of physical impossibility, were fully functional and served as her main means of transportation. Tied at her hip was a petite gilded quiver, and gripped in her right hand was her trusty golden bow, adorned with various kanji characters of love and guidance.
As the winged girl gently sat down on folded knees to rest, she found herself being shadowed by an approaching figure.
"So, how did you do for your first shoot, Hinata-san?"
She looked up to the man before her, who was dressed in a similar style, but with greys and browns and no ruffles. He also had grey baggy pants that ended at his knees, but he wore the same style sandals, and had the same pair of smooth white wings.
"Neji-nisan! I...I think I did okay," she replied shyly, still clutching her little bow, "I found a really pretty girl for the lonely boy who was kind of...big..."
Neji crossed his arms and nodded.
"A good choice, but remember...you only have a month until the festival, and you still have to find love for at least forty-nine more couples. You don't really have time to pick and choose."
Hinata blushed and stared at the ground. Neji kneeled down and held her chin to look into her eyes.
"Remember, we cupids shoot indiscriminately. That's the way it's been for centuries, and it's the way the Hyuga family has been doing it for generations. Love strikes when least expected, so you can't spend all your time finding people you think would make good matches. Just use your Byakugan to find those who have yet to find love, then shoot them when they walk within eyesight of each other. It's that easy."
Hinata nodded silently. Neji helped her to her feet, then straightened her uniform out for her.
"There you go. You're doing good so far, so just stay focused. I need to get back to the sky castle, but if you need anything, you know where to find me."
"Okay, thank you Neji-nisan."
He smiled and patted her on the head, before lifting off and soaring into the distance. Hinata stared at her feet. She knew that when she turned eighteen, she would have to perform the rite of passage and find fifty couples in Konoha before the festival of love so that she could be proclaimed as a true cupid, but something about the whole thing really irked her. Why did love have to be inflicted upon humans at random? Why rush things, when you could find a pair of people that would really be happy together?
This was Hinata's very first shooting, so she knew that she could get away with slacking a bit. But, she was really slacking. It had taken her the whole morning just to find Ino and Chouji, and nudge them gently into the right area so that they would interact with each other at just the right moment. She couldn't possibly do that for forty-nine more couples in thirty days, but she dreaded pairing a couple that just didn't work together. Neji had almost pinned Sakura while Naruto was walking by during the last festival, but Hinata had fortunately "accidentally" tripped onto him and cause him to miss. What a disaster that would have been.
Regardless of her time limit, Hinata decided to stick to her morals and choose the best couples as quickly as she could. If being a cupid was really all about finding love for the lonely, why not ensure that love would last as long as possible?
At first, it wasn't difficult at all for Hinata to find good matches. The next couple that she came across was a pair that happened to be on the same team, and were having a quick sparring match on the Konoha training grounds. One was a staff-wielding foreigner with bright brown eyes and her hair in a pair of neat buns, while the other was a lanky kid in a tacky leotard with a bowl haircut. Hinata was fond of pairing pretty girls with oddballs...she wasn't entirely sure why, but she always had a good feeling about them, and being that she was a guardian of love, she figured the good feeling was worth following. One swift shot of her heart-tipped arrow, and the two went from sparring with fists and feet to tongues and lips. Hinata couldn't help but giggle at the sight of it, but she fluttered off quietly with a sense of pride.
After that, she paired a few stray ninja that looked about right, then five more couples that were just normal civilians. While soaring by Ichiraku, she noticed Naruto slurping away on his usual bowl of ramen. Hinata smiled to herself and pulled an arrow out of her quiver to load it. Her bow made a subtle creak as she pulled the arrow back and aimed carefully at Naruto's back.
"If he loves ramen so much..."
She released the arrow, which bursted against him in a plume of magenta-tinted smoke. Naruto looked up slowly, and his pupils grew wide as they focused on the young girl behind the counter.
"Hee...that should work out well..."
After about a week, she managed to get twenty-five suitable couples under her belt. Overall, she found them to be quite satisfactory, although at one point, she did accidentally spill an arrow or two on Sakura as she was waving good-bye to her teacher, Kakashi. She felt guilty at first, but then shrugged. Love was random sometimes, right?
But come the next week, Hinata was starting to run out of people who felt right. Then, she started to run out of people who felt okay. By the end of the second week, she was out of people who even fell under the "meh" category. For that matter, she was actually running out of single people at all.
Defeated for the moment, she landed on the branch of a solemn tree in the Konoha training grounds and leaned back against its trunk. She was quite tired...her wings ached, and her fingers were sore from all the archery. All this cupid stuff was certainly hard work for little Hinata, and the saddest part about it was that she found herself unsatisfied with her efforts. Why did she have to be restricted by so many rules and time limits? Most of the couples she found probably wouldn't last longer than the spell they were put under...so why even bother with it?
Still, she didn't want to fail her family, and she knew that her father would be so disappointed in her if she didn't pass her test and become a fully recognized cupid. Neji would too...especially after the months of training he put her through. The worst part? After two weeks, she only had one pair to go...and she couldn't find a soul without a partner.
Hinata wrapped her arms around her knees and buried her face in her kimono. She felt like such a failure, she could just burst into tears at any moment. That is, until she heard the crunching of footsteps nearby. She lifted her gaze to the hooded figure sauntering across the training grounds with his hands fully submerged in the multiple layers of cloaks and jackets. The man was practically all clothing...even his eyes were covered up by a menacing pair of goggles. Sheesh, what a creepy guy.
Then it dawned on her. The last target! This guy was definitely single...Hinata didn't even need her Byakugan to see that. Plus, she had gotten so desperate...she could pair him up with anyone and be done with the whole fiasco. It would be simple...just wait for him to interact with any single passerby, and she was in the clear!
It would be easy...right?
~End of Chapter 1~