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Step One
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The entire room drenched in darkness, save the stage. The stage was illuminated entirely in light. Basking in the brightness of it all were the men and women who seemed almost untouchable. Seeming almost God-like for being able to move the way they did. The women with their twirling skirts and sequined bodice opened in the back the heels of the shoes gliding over the polished wooden floors that reflected everything, faces painted and hair done up, all of it framed perfectly by their partner who was dressed simply but elegant in his own way.

The movement that anyone could learn in all actuality was heightened. The constant motion of spinning in a circular direction around the dance floor was made to look as though not just anyone could move in such a way. The steps, the synchronization, the precision, all of it, sent a clear statement that not just anyone could do what they did.

Lavender tinted orbs drank the image in front of her, ever gliding step making her want to be one of those dancing even more. Her amatuer status wouldn't allow her to be with the rest of them just yet, but if she kept working towards it, kept going forward, pushing herself more into it all, eventually.. eventually..

"Hinata!"

Hinata blinked away from the hanging flat screen and spun her head in the direction of her name being called. She saw Sakura heave a crate-like box of ketchup packets onto the counter and let out a heavy breath.

"The coke's still pouring out the syrup," the pinkette said while grabbing the box cutter from one of the condiment comparments behind the counter. "I asked you to fix it while I grabbed this thing here."

"Sorry," Hinata apologized and went over to the machine, fixing the problem right away. "I was caught up with the TV."

Sakura's eyes briefly glanced up at the monitor hanging some feet away from their front counter. She audibly scoffed at the close up of one dancing couple followed by some sort of narration from the spokesman and went about opening the box.

"Don't see why," she replied. "You know you're better than any of these twits."

Hinata shook her head and lowered it slightly. "Not yet. I still have a long way to go.."

Sakura clicked her tongue against her teeth. "You should take Neji's advice. All you need is to shape that confidence of yours up, and you're good to go."

"I honestly don't think that's all I need."

"What more could you possibly need, Hinata?" Sakura asked. "I mean, you totally have the skills, the motivation, and the determination to go for it. And you can't tell me that it's not true, otherwise they wouldn't have given you the teaching job for the kids."

"I'm not saying that I don't have some talent," Hinata told her. "I'm just saying, that I'm not a professional yet, and nowhere near being able to compete. At least, not like that."

"But Neji said-"

"I know what Neji said and I love my cousin, I do. But I'm kind of worried about him."

"Why?" Sakura's tone was urgent. "Did he get worse? What happened?"

"It's nothing like that," Hinata assured her. "It's just that.. Well, I was talking with TenTen-"

"Oh, well, there's the problem," Sakura took a turn to cut her off. "We all know what she thinks of it all, and talking with her isn't going to help any."

"I'm not taking everything she says seriously," Hinata reassured her friend. "But I would understand if he started overseeing my training because of the accident-"

Sakura put her hand up and Hinata stopped mid sentence.

"Hinata," she began, "do you want to dance?"

Hinata nodded.

"And do you honestly think that Neji would be someone who would live through someone else?"

Hinata mulled the question over. "Well, I suppose when you consider his personality, I'd assume no."

"So then to hell with the girl and what she says! If you ask me, I think she's just afraid of the competition you'd bring her once you get to her level. 'Specially when she knows that Neji's looking over you."

"Sakura, I don't think that's her issue. I mean, she's been in competitions since she was twelve-"

"And that was only because she was dancing with your cousin. You know as well as I do that TenTen's only gotten as far as she has because of her partners."

"She has the ability to be one of those up there," Hinata said, gesturing at the monitor above.

"Which is exactly why she hasn't done anything recently, right?"

"Sakura, that's unkind."

"That's the truth. Why else would you get into the academy before her?"

"That's because her and Neji were being scouted," Hinata reminded her. "And if Neji hadn't been my partner for the audition, I don't know how it would've gone for me. You have to remember Sakura, that if everything would've gone according to plan, TenTen wouldn't have needed the academy."

Sakura sighed and ran a hand through her hair. "Look, it doesn't matter. TenTen doesn't matter. The important thing is- Duck!"

Sakura forced the smaller girl down and underneath the counter top. Hinata watched from below as Sakura kept her focus on someone passing, even making some sort of move with her hands once they reached their restaurant and went by, as though asking if they wanted to fight. It was only when the pinkette let her arms fall to her side that she spoke again.

"It's alright," she said to Hinata. "You can come up now."

Hinata crawled out and lifted herself to her feet, dusting her shirt and pants free of any kind of dirt with her hands. She undid her hair and picked it up again, apparently falling out of place after the forceful kind of shove she was given.

"I really wish you would stop that," she told Sakura. "It's been months since then."

"Can't help it," Sakura admitted. "You're the only one that didn't get caught and that was only 'cause they weren't sure if it was you or not. Can't let them know me and Ino were lying."

"It's competely unfair that you guys did that for me. It wasn't as if you were facing any jail time, they caught the ones that were really stealing."

"I know, those evil bastards! Trying to blame what they were taking on us. And anyway, if you forgot, me and Ino were still charged for property damage and assaulting a cop. You just can't walk around the mall anymore."

"Be that as it may, neither one of you got into serious trouble, it wouldn't have made a difference for me, and you were the only one charged with assaulting an officer."

"Serious trouble? Ino still lost her job and the whole thing just added more to my record."

"But you just got community service. How many more hours of that do you have anyway?"

"About twenty."

"Well, that's good."

Sakura laughed. "I can't believe they couldn't pin you. You better take care of that hair of yours. If it was flying everywhere when you were running, they would've gotten your face like us."

"It wasn't just because of my hair," Hinata replied while patting her bun. "If Naruto hadn't taken care of the cameras afterwards, I would've gotten caught since my profile was on tape."

"I wish I had someone who loved me enough like that" the pinkete sight. "Don't know if it would've done anything, but it would still be nice."

"He doesn't love me," Hinata declared while turning pink. "He was just being nice."

"Being nice my foot, the boy likes you dammit."

"I really don't think so.."

"What'd Neji say about that confidence?! Bring it up, girl!"

"I don't think my confidence is the problem, It's just.. I don't know. I actually did think he did like me at the beginning, but if that was true wouldn't he have done something about it now?"

"Well, if you ask me, I think anyone who comes out with a declaration of love right away is probably not all that serious.. except for maybe you. You don't seem to have swayed any since that one day."

"I can't believe I said that," Hinata muttered. "That's so embarrassing..."

"You're not taking it back are you?" questioned Sakura.

Hinata shook her head. "No, I still like him and all, I just mean, I can't believe I said any of that. I must have been really emotional that day.."

"Child, emotional is a complete understatement of what you were like. Trust me."

"The sad thing is that I don't need to trust you, I fully believe it. How embarrassing..."

"Well, look at the bright side," Sakura told her. "At least he was nowhere around when you started crying."

"Who wasn't where when she was crying?"

Working where they did, both Sakura and Hinata had never really paid attention to when customers would approach them while they were engrossed in conversation and more than once being scolded for it. And more than once had Naruto approached them and greeted them with some sort of question relating to the topic they were discussing that he had walked into the middle of. So by this time, it really shouldn't have come to any surprise to either girl, but the small jolt each one gave made it clear that they were still not to used the random drop ins he would give them whenever he was around.

"Warn a person, will you," Sakura told him and shook the surprise away.

"I thought my question was my warning," joked Naruto. "What were you guys talking about anyway? Why were you crying?"

Hinata looked away from him the moment he set his focus on her. "I wasn't.. I wasn't crying. It was just-just something that h-had happened, uh, a long time.. ago."

"We were just talking about the cat story," Sakura covered up. "The whole thing with the family of cats, you know which one."

"Oh, yeah, I know that story," Naruto recalled. "Well look at the bright side, maybe the cats got a good home, there's no reason to cry."

"She wasn't crying about it right now," replied Sakura. "Anyway, you're off I see."

"Huh? Oh, yeah, I just finished," he told her, lifting the suit tucked away in it's covering on the hanger. "What about you guys."

"I'm stuck for closing today," Sakura answered. "The quiet one over there's supposed to get off in an hour."

"Really?" Naruto directed at Hinata with a smile, which faltered after a few moments passed and he still received no reply. "Hinata?"

Sakura looked over to the other girl and immediately discovered the reason why she hadn't made some form of response. The dark-haired girl's eyes were glued to the TV again, becoming oblivious to anything once more. Sakura groaned and snapped her fingers in front of her eyes.

"Pay attention," she reprimanded while Hinata blinked away from the screen and shook away the enchantment.

"What happened?" Hinata asked dumbly.

"You got caught up with watching the TV again," Sakura told her. "Swear, you act like you've never seen anyone dance before."

"That's not why I got caught up in it..." Hinata trailed off.

Naruto looked behind him to see what was on the screen that held her attention. He quickly rounded on the girls after recognizing the form of entertainment.

"That's right, Hinata!" he exclaimed. "I was finally able to get Sasuke to get the DVD of your competition done. I'll have to drop it by later."

"Finally, it was like a month ago," Sakura commented.

"I would've done it myself but he was just being a total ass," explained Naruto. "Telling me that he didn't want me on his computer 'cause I'd do something stupid or something stupid like that. Finally just bugged the hell out of him 'till he freaking made it for me."

"I totally want to see it again," Sakura said, then turned to Hinata. "I want to pinpoint the moment they decided to put you in third and give them hell for it!"

"I know!" Naruto exclaimed. "I was totally like, 'What the hell?', when that happened. You're cousin was giving hell when they said who was first."

"I was too," the pinkette put in. "Could you believe they marked her down because of the dress?! What, just because she didn't have something going up her ass like that other tart was? Well, excuse me if my girl has more class than that."

"I know, right?!" Naruto joined in the bashing. "What was the excuse they gave?"

"Something like, the skirt was too long so that, when they were doing the fast dances her legs looked too slow, or some b.s. like that. Pissed me off."

"You weren't the only one. Remember, someone had to hold Ino back."

"Oh, I know, that girl was going to go crazy on everyone. Freaking Neji had to help block her in with his chair."

"Hell, I was about to go crazy on them. Just completely unfair."

"I don't.. I don't th-think it was just because, because of the dress," Hinata spoke up. "I-I mean, I-I wasn't all that great, and um, I was nervous and uh, w-we didn't get a lot of pr-practice to begin with and uh.."

"Don't you start with excusing those judges," Sakura told her. "You deserved a better score than what you got."

"It doesn't really matter now..."

"Hinata, it does matter," Naruto directed at her. "You did awesome and you should've gotten the credit for it! 'Specially since it was the other people that rammed into you guys."

"Yeah, but Neji blamed that on her partner," Sakura remembered. "Isn't that, right?"

Hinata nodded. "Neji said that he should have been more aware of the direction he was leading us in."

"I still say those judges were paid off," Naruto cut in. "I mean, the other chick cheated when she shot her arm out like that to whack that other girl. You saw that too, didn't you?"

"Look," Hinata said a little more sternly so they would listen to her. "I-I don't know if they were paid off. I don't, I-I don't know if she cheated. And really i-it doesn't matter. It wasn't a big competition, and it wasn't re-related to anything, so.. so.. It's not g-going to effect me."

"Hinata, that's not the point," Naruto tried to get through to her. "You did great and you should've gotten what you deserved."

Sakura concured. "Exactly."

Hinata bowed her head a tad. "Thank you."

"And the check would've helped us too," Sakura decided to note after their discussion seemed to have come to an end.

Hinata looked at her wide-eyed, almost a bit taken aback by what could have been a confession on the real reason she was so put out on the outcome of her first non-academy affiliated competition. Instead of taking it how it sounded, she opted for laughing lightly, knowing well enough that the statement shouldn't be taken too seriously.

"Did you just want her to win because of the money?" Naruto asked the pinkette, which Hinata laughed a little more at.

"It's okay," said Hinata through her smile. "I know what she means. It's just a joke."

"Sorta," Sakura admitted through a smile of her own. "I mean, the check really would have helped us."

Before their conversation was allowed to evolve anymore, the red door that led to the back of the store was ripped open, and a rather unfriendly Karin made her way through.

"Hey!" the read head called out to them. "What do you two think you're doing? You're here to work, not stand around a gossip."

"Hey, I don't gossip." Naruto's statement went unnoticed.

"In case you haven't noticed," Sakura turned to her. "There's kind of no one here, and we kind of already restocked everything, so what's the fricking big deal?"

"You guys can still clean," Karin pointed. "Sweeping, wiping down everything."

"Yeah, we probably could if there was actually anything to sweep or wipe down," Sakura continued to argue. "There kind of isn't a mess because there kind of isn't anyone buying anything. You should know that no one comes by on Mondays, you've been here for God knows how long doing whatever the hell it is you consider work."

"Are you talking back to me?"

"Nah, I'm just, y'know, giving you lip."

"Sakura, please don't start anything," Hinata pleaded.

"You stay out of this," Karin directed at Hinata. "This right now has nothing to do with you."

"You don't have to be mean to her," Naruto piped in. "She's just trying to help calm Sakura down."

"Sir, please, I am discipling my employees," Karin said to him in a more pleasant tone.

"Okay, you're not even the manager," said Sakura. "So by definition, we're not your employees."

"But I'm still in charge, so you're supposed to listen to what I say."

"We're also supposed to follow your example, but if we did that, nothing would ever get done."

"Y'know, I'm getting really tired of you running your mouth off at me," Karin said. "I've been letting it go for the longest time already, but you're getting out of hand. I may not have the power to get rid of you for good, but I still can suspend you."

"You wouldn't suspend me anyway," Sakura countered. "You need at least two people up here, and if I've been running my mouth off for awhile now, then it's because you've gotten lazier."

"Sakura, you promised you wouldn't fight with her," Hinata tried to remind her friend.

"If it were up to me," Karin began. "I'd've gotten rid of you when the whole trouble with the security around here happened."

"Well, it's not up to you," Sakura threw back at her. "And with the way you do things, it never will be up to you."

Karin held her hand up to the other girl. "I don't want to hear another word from you. Not from the rest of the day. You are going to treat me with the respect I deserve as your superior. Understood?"

Sakura opened her mouth to give the girl in front of her some sort of comeback but was stopped before she could begin by Hinata placing her hand on her arm. She looked over at her friend and decided that considering what the end of this week would being and all, she could look over the small tiff with Karin and be the bigger person.

"Fine," Sakura rethought with an exasperated sigh. "I won't say anything more."

"Good." Karin turned to leave and make her way back to the office.

"I freaking hate working with her," Sakura muttered.

"You two always go at it like that, huh?" Naruto said out of the blue.

"Yeah," Sakura attempted to answer quietly. "She's always been a bitch but lately it's gotten out of hand, today's no exception."

"Sakura!" Karin shouted from in front of the red door. It was obvious that she had taken her time getting back to whatever she was doing, most likely wanting to hear if the pinkette would continue with her insubordination. "What did you just say?!"

"I didn't say anything," Sakura denied.

"Yes, you did," Karin accused. "I just heard you."

"I told you she had big ears," Sakura murmured to Hinata.

"That's it," declared Karin. "I'm done with you. You can go home, and you can stay there for the rest of the week."

"You're actually suspending me?" Sakura asked, unable to comprehend.

"Yes, I am. Now get out of here!"

"Don't need to tell me twice," Sakura said while tearing her shirt off, scattering buttons everywhere. "And by the way, you didn't have to suspend me, 'cause I quit." She threw the shirt at her former superior. "'S gonna be my last week anyway."

Sakura pushed against her shoulder as she walked by her, pausing in step and motioning Hinata over as well.

"C'mon, Hinata," Sakura called out to her. "Just quit now, so you don't have to do it later."

Karin turned towards Hinata, a bit stunned to see that she had begun to unbutton her own work shirt.

"Well," Hinata started with her eyes lowered. "I was actually just going to give a week's notice, but since Sakura's not going to be coming back, I don't really want to stay."

Hinata folded her shirt as well as she could while standing and placed in on the counter next to her.

"So I guess, I quit," she continued with a sorry sort of smile.

"Wait up for us," Sakura called out to Naruto before making her way into the back with Hinata in tow.

"I asked you not to start anything anymore," Hinata spoke up once they reached the break room to pick up their things. "You promised."

"I know," said Sakura. "I know. But y'know what, I'm just sick of this place and I guess knowing that I was gonna be free, kind of threw me off."

"You're the one that was saying we could've used the money from the competition," Hinata continued while they made their way through the kitchen and out the door. "The money from the rest of the week could've done some good."

"Do you want to go back and tell her you changed your mind?"

Hinata shook her head. "I do and I don't. I really don't want to keep working if you're not gonna be there. It's what makes it bareable."

Sakura laughed. "C'mon, let's go meet your boy."

Hinata tried her hardest to fight the color that wanted to stain her cheeks. "Stop it, he's not mine."

"Oh, no?" Sakura asked while grabbing Hinata arm and started to lead her through the remaining hallway that led out to the front of the food court. "Then I'll have to fix that."

Sakura yanked the door open and stepped out onto the polished marble, never letting the grip on Hinata's arm go. The two girls walked past the bathrooms and out into the dining area.

"Fox boy," Sakura called out. "Nice, you're still here."

"Didn't you tell me to wait for you guys?" he couldn't help but ask.

Sakura rolled her eyes. "Nevermind. Do me a favor." She forced Hinata over to his side, almost making her crash into him. "Make sure she gets home, I got to pick up the car at the garage. 'Kay? Byyye!"

The pinkette strolled away from the pair happily, waving the entire time until she reached the food court doors and headed out.

Naruto looked over towards Hinata, who had not made any kind of sound since Sakura dumped her on him.

"So.. You need a ride home then?" he asked her.

"W-Well.. "Hinata sort of trailed off. "I was gonna take the bus, b-but uh, Sakura, Sakura knew that so... I-I don't know why..."

Hinata sighed and continued to think just how evil her friend was.

"Hey, you want to come over to my place instead?" Naruto offered. "Sasuke didn't work today, so he'll be there, I can get 'im to hand over the DVD. I think he just didn't want me going into his room at all."

Hinata's eyes suddenly lit up and she started to rummage through her bag. "That's right. I-I, I still have Temari's phone. From when, when she left it at th-the apartment."

"You can leave it for her then," Naruto told her and started to persuade her into walking with him. "I don't think she works late today and I know she'll be home 'cause if she doesn't then Gaara does. Oh! I know! We'll make, like, a party! Yeah, Sakura can by after she gets the car and you can call Ino over. And we'll get some of the fans. There's nothing better than a party for no reason!"

He paused mid-ramble and looked over at Hinata again. "You don't have to go to school today, do you?"

Hinata shook her head and smiled softly. "Not today."

"Alright! Then we can have a party!.. You wanna have a party?"

Hinata couldn't help but laugh a little at how his face went from total excitement to awaiting rejection from the way he looked at her. She nodded somewhat and said, "Let's have a-a party."

"Yes! I get to have a party!" His expression then became serious. "We're gonna need to pick up some stuff first. Would it be better to go to a liquor store or an actual store? Well, we can drive around and figure it out."

They made it through the same doors Sakura went through with Naruto going on non-stop about what the two of them should pick up before actually heading over to his shared home. It was somewhere along the lines of Naruto mentioning a "big ass piñata" that she decided to speak up.

"Would we really n-need all that?"

Naruto thought it over. "I guess not... But I still want the big ass piñata."

"Well, then we should a-actually go to a-a store."

It ws the last part of their conversation that Sakura was able to overhear. By that time, the pair were already heading into the parking structure, and getting caught spying on them was something that she wanted to avoid. So, she picked herself up from behind the bush she had crouched behind and decided to head over to the garage since her good deed of the day was done.

Halfway to the bus stop however, she stopped in the middle of the sidewalk and began to franticly search her own bag.

'No, no, no, no, no,' her mind raced. 'I totally asked her this morning!... I think...'

After another five minutes, she felt like crying. She had forgotten to ask Hinata if she could borrow money for bus fare.

XXX

Disclaimer: Naruto is the sole property of Masashi Kishimoto and Tv Tokyo. Got that? Damn well better...

A/N: Okay! This is somewhat of a continuation from another fic that I wrote entitled Mall Romance. Now in my honest opinion, you don't have to read that in order to get this fic 'cause really, nothing happened. It's more or less just an overview of how Naruto and Hinata met, but really it doesn't have anything majorly imporant going on it it. But if you want to give a look over, that's fine too.