A Picture Worth Three Words
A Picture Worth Three Words
Notes: This story is a Narutised dramatization of real events one of my friends went through. This story's rough draft was written by her. She doesn't want to post it in fear that people will get it confused with her Naruto fanfic's story lines, so she asked me to edit and post it for her. Applause for Lil-Miaka! This counts for the both of us: NARUHINA 4 EVA!!
Also, most of this story will be Hinata's POV. And this story is POST-TIME-SKIP! If Hinata seems OOC at the very first, we're sorry, but she goes back IC really quick.
Miaka: Neither PriestessNas nor I own Naruto…but me is Hina…in a way. And I kinda own the weird events that happen…no, wait, God owns that.
Me: Moving on…
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(BLACKMAIL MATERIAL)
Drawing is a little known hobby of mine. Only a few people know about it, like Neji, Hanabi, Kiba, and Shino. Even less actually look at it. I keep most of my products secret for a good reason. If I had known what kind of trouble those drawings would get me into, I would have burned them all and my pencils too.
It's unknown to me, or anyone else, exactly when and why Rock Lee decided he was my friend; but once he did, there was no escaping him. He would find me and talk to me about random crap any time he had the chance.
One day, while I was eating my lunch alone outside, I saw the figure in green approaching me. Crap…I thought. What does he want now? I didn't have anything against the guy, really. He just had a tendency to speak on annoying subjects no one else understood and had a habit of being completely over-dramatic (even by Japanese acting standards).
"Hello again, Hinata!" He greeted. He looked down at my bentou and the chopsticks in my mouth. "Are you having lunch?"
I rolled my white-lensed eyes and removed the chopsticks from my lips. "No, I was just chewing on these hashi and this bentou fell into my lap." I answered sarcastically (yes, I am capable of making a joke!), though smiling lightly as I said it. You want your "baka" sign? Lee stared laughing at my sarcasm.
"You don't mind if I join you, do you?" He asked after he stopped laughing. I thought for a moment. Why not? I was getting bored anyway.
"Okay, Lee-san." I answered, sounding more like my normal self again. Little did I know that he was going to start making a habit of this. He sat with me around lunchtime almost every day, even when I was having lunch with my teammates. The first time that happened, Kiba seemed especially confused. He didn't say anything, but you could tell he was thinking "Doesn't Lee have his own friends to annoy?" I couldn't help but agree.
"It's a simple information gathering mission." Tsunade explained to our eighth unit. " It shouldn't take you all too long. First, you will retrieve a coded message from a messenger who will meet you at the location I have marked on this map." She handed us the map. "The messenger will then tell you the keyword for the code. We will require you to decipher the note for us once you return." Shino, Kiba, and I all nodded in understanding. Despite this, we couldn't help but wonder why we were the ones who had to decode it.
Apparently, we were able to reach the meeting place before the messenger. That was fine with us, we didn't mind playing the waiting game. I sat, pulled a paper out of hammer space, and a pencil out from behind my ear. The big, fluffy Akumaru drifted from Kiba and settled next to me, causing me to smile and scratch behind his ear a moment.
I began sketching a fantasized image. It started with the outlines for the two heads, so close together, but no distinguishable faces yet. Then I drew the lines for where the two bodies met and pressed together. The shoulders were next, followed by just the start of the arms and backs. You could now plainly tell that one was male and the other was female. The girl's back was arched inward, as if being pulled. Because of this I drew the male's strong arm wrapped around and grasped her by the small of her back. The delicate arms of the girl went under his arms, then up to grab his shoulder blades. I planed on only drawing the upper halves of the two bodies at that moment.
After a moment of pause, I turned my attention back to the heads. I reinforced them with more face-like shapes. The male's face seemed to be hiding his chin behind the girl's for the moment. I moved further up to start on the hair. First, the boy's, spiky and slightly messy. His was the easier of the two. For the female, I had to work more on different segments. The long, smooth hair swooped back, then upwards, some strands more so than others. The effect on her hair was to emphasize the suddenness of motion and leaning slightly back.
Both of the people in my drawing had their faces basically at side view, so only one eye had to be drawn for each. Before I'd let myself draw the eyes, though, I had to make the mouths. I felt my cheeks light up as I showed the boy's lips tugging on the girl's lower lip. There was even a tongue visible from her agape mouth. Once that was done, I drew the eyes. The boy had his closed and relaxed. The girl's pupil-less eye(s) were slightly open, but seemed to show her melting into the kiss and into her love's arms.
The pencil slashed the paper three times as I illustrated the whisker-like marks on the boy's cheek. After adding fingers and drawing the two's individual coats, I colored the girl's hair dark with the same pencil. By now, it would be easy to tell the identities of the two people I'd drawn.
"Hinata? HINATA-CHAN!!" Kiba yelled for my attention. How deep in my daydream had I been? I quickly pulled away from my drawing, but I could still feel the blush I wore due to fantasies I'd been having based on the drawing.
"Ah! G-gomen, Kiba-kun!" I apologized urgently.
"I think that's the messenger heading this way." Kiba pointed out. I stood up and looked in the indicated direction. Honestly, the guy looked way too much like a random, generic, throwaway character. It almost made it seem like there was no use describing him. He was just slapped together at the last moment, and no one cared what became of him past this point.
Kiba, Shino, and I all stepped from the shadows, and I hid my drawing by holding it against myself. He looked us over as we analyzed him. From what I could speculate, the young man seemed to be a ninja from Suna, who looked a little disgruntled because of the mission he had at hand. I don't know exactly why, if the message was in code, you would think that he would feel it was important.
"You guys are Karunai's squad, right?" He asked rather flatly, his arms folded as he hunched over. Strange…did that mean we were specifically requested to be the ones to take this message?
"Yeah." Kiba answered. "I'm Inu-"
"Just skip the introductions, and take your damn letter." The messenger interrupted, shoving the scroll into Kiba's hands. He looked away like he was about to turn and walk off.
"Wait." Shino ordered in his stoic tone. "You forgot to tell us the keyword."
The messenger rolled his eyes. "Alright, your keyword is: koukyougaku."
I couldn't help but wonder why the keyword was "symphony", but Kiba and Shino didn't say anything about it, so I stayed silent…as usual. So, the messenger left in, literally, a flash.
Our group turned back, returning to our village, walking beneath dreary clouds. As soon as the lightest drop of water landed on my head, I hid away my drawing under my purple jacket. If I left it out, the rain would damage the picture, even if it was a light drizzle.
It wasn't untill we were back in the village that the hunger pains set in.
"Heh. Well, I'd say we've earned ourselves a little lunch break, ne?" Kiba asked with a laugh on his voice. I nodded with a smile.
"Agreed." I answered. Shino turned to look at me, tiny drops of water shining on his sunglasses.
"No offence, Hinata, but could you eat somewhere else from where we're going to be eating?" Shino asked with his usual 'lack-of-emotion' manner of speaking. Despite the way he talks, I've learned Shino can be quite the sensitive guy. "We're going to try and start to work on deciphering the note, and considering the usual, Lee might become a bit of a distraction." I had to agree with him.
"A-alright." I sighed.
So I retrieved something to eat just as the clouds finished ringing themselves out, and searched for an area that was still dry so I could sit. This had been a strangely warm December, with quite a lack of snow. It came as rain instead. Some suspected that "Global Warming" was to blame for this, but personally, I wasn't sure.
After finding a good place to sit and making sure no one was around, I unzipped my jacket halfway, took my drawing out, and rezipped the jacket. I had to do this fast because I wasn't wearing an undershirt, just my bra. The picture was just about finished, maybe a little shading and perhaps some color would make it perfect. I smiled and blushed at the picture. If only…
"What's that?" I nearly jumped out of my body when I heard this suddenly and out of no where. I slammed the paper facedown on the ground (which was dry, thank God). It was Lee, of course, who had scared the shit out of me.
"I-I-it's n-nothing!" I lied bluntly. Had he seen it? Lee had a big mouth, he would tell Naruto-kun in a heartbeat.
He raised a bushy eyebrow. "It looked like something…" He began. Oh no! He had seen it! "I don't know what, but it was something…" Never mind. He hadn't.
"N-n-no, it was nothing. J-just a doodle, it's not even good." I defended nervously, with more tension about me than you would get if you put Sasuke and Itachi in the same room.
"Oh. In that case, it should be okay if I look at it." He started reaching for the drawing.
"NO!!" I screeched, throwing myself over the paper. By then Lee already had hand on it, so I landed on top of his hand. "No, no, no, no!!" I continued to cry.
"Aahh! Get off my hand!" He yelled.
"Ugh! What is all this noise over here?" Someone groaned from behind the foliage. Lee and I stopped our yelling and complaining to see Shikamaru trudge into view. He looked from one to the other for a moment.
"Lee, quit molesting Hinata." Ordered Shikamaru. This comment seemed to piss Rock Lee off immensely. Or at least enough to get his hand free.
"THAT IS NOT WHAT I WAS DOING!!" He exploded quickly in his own defense.
Shikamaru smirked. "It sure looked like you were." He sat down nearby. "Maybe I should stay here and make sure you don't try to harass her again."
Well this is certainly a group of unlikely friends. I thought, clinging to my paper like a lifeline. Once Lee calmed, he sat back down.
"I was just trying to see what was on that paper of hers." He explained simply. "She got me curious when she wouldn't show it."
"I didn't want to show it because it's private." I admitted. This one picture could tell all of my deepest secrets, particularly having to do with a certain blond, hyperactive, Konoha ninja.
"Well, why did you not say so before?" Lee asked.
"Because, it would make you even more curious." I pointed out.
"Well, I guess that is true." He mused. I took out my lunch and stared eating. All this chaos made me hungry. The other two decided to eat their lunches too. Lee talked with his mouth full of food many times, making him harder to understand than usual.
At some point after we finished eating, Lee decided we should have some desert. "I'll go get us some ice cream!" He announced. He looked at Shikamaru, then at me. "Don't go anywhere." That was tempting.
Once Lee was out of earshot, Shikamaru looked at me. "So, what was so secret about that paper of yours that you wouldn't want eyebrow-kid to see it?" Oh no. I should've known this would come up again. "Is it alright if I see it?" Shikamaru did seem like someone who could keep a secret better than Lee.
Next thing I knew, the paper was in his hands. I didn't even remember handing it over to him. A light red grazed my cheeks, knowing the image that was being examined. It depicted Naruto-kun and I, holding each other close and kissing with such a passion, it would make Icha-Icha characters jealous. Shikamaru smirked in a way that made you scared to think of what was going on in his head.
"You've got some talent here." He complemented, handing the drawing back to me. But his eyes told me that there was more going on in his mind. A chill ran down my spine. "So…" He began with a sly look. "Have you told him yet?"
My face burned from the sudden question. "N-nani?!"
"Don't play dumb." He teased, his devious smile growing. "Naruto! Have you told Naruto how you 'like' him?"
Horror and embarrassment hit my heart at the same time. "It's not…I don't…" I tried to lie. It was no use, I was busted now. "I-I-I haven't …b-been able to tell him." I confessed.
"What a shame…" He sighed. "I would hate for something to…slip out."
Was he suggesting what I thought he was suggesting? Now I was doing the opposite of blushing. My face drained white as Orochimaru's. "You can't…you wouldn't…actually tell him, would you?" I asked breathlessly.
"Well…" He began teasingly.
"Please! Please no! Don't tell him!" I pleaded desperately. Oh, what a pathetic sight I must have been.
"I won't…if you tell him."
"I…I can't."
"Why not? You've gotten over your nervousness around him, ne?" This much was true. I had gotten better around Naruto-kun, I had even managed to drop my finger-fiddling habit. Naruto-kun even dubbed me as one of his best friends. But telling my feelings…that was another story.
"If I don't…you're going to tell?"
"Well, maybe I won't." He continued. I sighed in relief, but all too soon. Shikamaru smirked in twistedness again. "…But, I might get Rock Lee to tell him."
"Shikamaru-san!" I gasped. "I can't believe how…how…evil you are!"
"No, 'evil' would be having Sai tell him." He corrected. I shuddered at even the thought of that.
"Why are you doing this?" I asked in a hurt tone.
"Because," He began, his face and tone both growing serious, "I don't want you to live without ever knowing. Trust me, I wish someone had done this for me a while back."
For some reason, that passing comment caught my attention. Who had Shikamaru been unable to confess love to? What happened to his chance? This was why he was acting unlike his usual, lazy self?
Shikamaru was eager to change the subject, before any impending questions were actually verbalized. "Tell you what…I'll give you a time limit."
"H-how long?" I asked. There was that creepy smile of his again.
"You have untill Wednesday, next week."