Banana-Flavored Ice Cream

Disclaimer: I don't own the Narutoverse (but if I did, Hanabi would actually have a personality).

"Nee-chan?" Hanabi said with a touch of impatience. They were supposed to spend the afternoon together. However, Hinata's meeting with the elders had ended late and she still had to change out of her yukata and into casual wear.

"Alright Hanabi-chan, I'm done." Hinata smiled as her younger sister all but dragged her out the door. A companionable silence settled over them as they walked quickly through the gates of the compound and past the sharp eyes of the Hyuga guards.

Hanabi couldn't help but feel a bit excited. Ever since Hinata had officially become the leader of the Hyuga, she'd been swamped with meetings, paperwork, and other work. The younger wasn't exactly swimming in time either. The combination of her usual Hyuga training and the new genin team made sure of that. The two sisters barely saw each other anymore, let alone spent time with each other. This afternoon would be the first time in months that they actually did something together.

"So, where do want to go first?" Hinata inquired, breaking the silence. They'd entered downtown Konoha by then.

"The ice cream shop." Hanabi pointed at the small shop two blocks to their right. Its cheerful sign said simply "Rio". Next to the store name was painted a picture of a smiling ice cream cone. "It has a new banana flavored ice cream."

"How do you know?" The blue-haired kunoichi asked curiously. It was a valid question considering that Hanabi hardly ever went into downtown Konoha except for D-rank missions and on festival days.

"Sensei thought it would be productive for the team to spend time together outside of missions," Hanabi replied with a touch of irritation. "There was a sign advertising it."

At last they reached the ice cream shop. The bell above the door jingled as they stepped inside. "Welcome to Rio," the bored-looking shop tender said in a monotone as the sisters took a seat on two stools. "We have—"

"Banana-flavored ice cream sundae with banana slices and nuts," Hanabi ordered.

The shop tender looked mildly annoyed at having been interrupted and then ordered around but didn't comment. He only asked, "How many scoops?"

The young brunette thought about it for a heartbeat. "Five."

Hinata looked sharply at her sister. "Hanabi-chan, that's too much. You won't be able to eat dinner later." To the shop tender, she said, "two scoops only please."

"But onee-chan, dinner is two hours away." Hanabi's voice, while still even and monotone to the average bystander, had taken on a whiny quality not noticeable to anyone who did not know her well.

"Two scoops."

Seeing the stern look on her sister's face, Hanabi grudgingly gave in. Hinata requested a simple chocolate cone and eventually both their frozen treats arrived. The younger Hyuga wolfed hers down (and somehow managed to make it look lady-liked) while the elder slowly and daintily consumed her cone.

Their snack was interrupted by the arrival of a certain male Inuzuka and his large white dog. "Hello Kiba-kun," Hinata greeted her teammate with a smile.

"Hinata!" Kiba's look of surprise was replaced by a wolfish grin. "Finally got away from all those lousy elders, huh?"

Hanabi watched with slightly narrowed eyes as Kiba paid for his cookie dough ice cream cone and sat down onto the stool next to Hinata. Akamaru rested his big head on the kunoichi's lap, practically begging to be patted (this was a pet friendly store so he'd been allowed to stay).

Since the two had not seen each other in a long time—Hinata had been cooped up in the Hyuga estate while Kiba went on mission after mission—the two spend the next fifteen minutes catching up. Hanabi, on the other hand, swirled her sundae irritably, reducing it to little more than flavored goop. She'd lost her appetite.

With each minute the conversation went on, she could feel her mood growing darker and darker. What right did dog-breath have to mess up this afternoon? So while the shinobi chattered, the genin wallowed in her angry thoughts. The chatter finally ended when Kiba noticed the time and realized that he had been in the shop a bit too long. "Shit," he cursed, throwing out his trash. "I've got to get to the clinic or Hana'll kill me. See ya Hinata." With that, he and Akamaru bounded out.

"We should get going too, Hanabi-chan," Hinata said, gathering up her napkins. She eyed Hanabi's bowl of yellow goop. "Are you finished with your ice cream?"

Hanabi nodded sullenly and went to throw away her bowl of ice cream soup. Seeing that the sisters were getting ready to leave, shop tender recited the deal that he hadn't been able to offer to Kiba because he had left too quickly. "You can buy some cartons of that ice cream."

Both sisters shot him similar looks of confusion. Most ice cream shops didn't sell ice cream cartons. That was for supermarkets. Seeing their expressions, the shop tender sighed. "Follow me."

They followed him through one of the inconspicuous looking doors and into a brightly lit room. In it were four floor to ceiling fridges, one for each wall. They were filled with cartons upon cartons of ice cream; there was every flavor under the sun.

Hanabi stared at the huge fridge, her eyes widening a fraction of an inch. All dark thought were dispersed as she beheld the beautiful sight of all the different treats that could be bought. (She was a kid after all, albeit a socially-stunted, overly-serious one.) Noticing the look in her younger sibling's eyes, Hinata smiled slightly and gave her a small nudge towards the fridge. "Just one."

As Hanabi approached the checkout counter with her one carton of ice cream, she saw that Hinata had gotten another carton of ice cream. It was, upon closer inspection, green-tea flavored.

"You enjoy green-tea ice cream?" Hanabi asked, puzzled. Hinata didn't hate green tea, but it definitely wasn't very high on her list of favorite flavors.

"Oh, this isn't for me, this is for Neji-niisan. The last couple of weeks have been hard on him, so I thought that this might make him feel better."

The brunette felt her gloomy mood start to return but quickly pushed it away. The rest of the afternoon would go as planned, she assured herself. After leaving the ice cream shop, the duo wandered aimlessly around in downtown Konoha, browsing and occasionally buying a few things. It wasn't until they entered a clothing store that they came across another friend of Hinata's.

Ino looked up from the blue top she had been fingering and smiled at her friend slash old co-worker. Both kunoichi had worked part time at the hospital time and had gotten to know each other well. "Hinata? Wow, I haven't seen you in weeks. How's Clan Head going for ya?"

"It's been alright," Hinata replied. "What about the hospital?"

Realizing that the two knew each other, Hanabi tried to react quickly. "Nee-chan? Let's go to…" But Hinata and Ino were already deep in conversation about the sick patients at the hospital.

Hanabi felt the sudden urge to slam her head against the wall. She had been looking forward to this afternoon, and it was being ruined by all these ninja. What was it with them? Didn't they have work to do? Missions to go on?

Of course, all this trouble could be wrapped up if Hanabi just interrupted the conversation and got out of the store. However, that would have gone against everything the Hyuga had taught her about manners. Instead, Hanabi sulked silently.

The appearance of a blonde head as it poked from behind a rack of shirts pulled Hanabi out of inner whining. "Ino-chan, are you done yet?" the boy asked impatiently. "When are you going to show me how to make my own poisons?"

"Just wait a couple more minutes," Ino called over her shoulder. "After this, we can go back."

"That's what you said at every store," the boy grumbled, but obediently went back to what he had been doing.

"That's my cousin, Kenichi," she clarified for Hinata upon seeing her friend's curious look. "He's hanging out with me for the day while his parents take his siblings out."

"Kenichi? Hanabi-chan, isn't he on your team?" Hinata asked her sister. Hanabi nodded sullenly. Trust Hinata to remember something like that. "Are you…going to go talk to him?"

Reluctantly, the genin made her way to where Yamanaka Kenichi was. He was sitting on one of the few benches in the store, reading a book about poisonous flowers. Noticing her approach, he said, "Hi Hanabi-san."

Hanabi nodded to him. She then sat down on the opposite of the bench and activated her Byakugan. And that's how the two spent the rest of their time, with Kenichi absorbed in his book and Hanabi quietly practicing her bloodline technique. They completely ignored each other.

Finally, Ino and Hinata finished talking and the Hyuga sisters left the store. "We should go to the park," Hanabi said, making it sound less like a suggestion and more like a command. They were standing on the street corner, the clothing store having been the interesting store in the downtown. Because Hanabi hadn't wanted to risk meeting any more of Hinata's friends, or, even worse, her own sensei and other teammate, she'd activated her Byakugan when Hinata's back was turned and made a quick scan of the area. The park had appeared to be clear of any people they knew. At least, she hoped so.

But they'd barely been in the park for fifteen minutes when a gray-haired man approached. "Hello Hinata-chan~" Hatake Kakashi said, holding up his hand in greeting and crinkling his visible eye. "I was wondering if you could do me a little favor."

"Kakashi-san, good after—"

"Never mind Nee-chan. We should go home." Normally, Hanabi would be honored to meet a retired ANBU. She had heard tales of his feats and greatly respected his ability as a shinobi. Normally, she'd never have interrupted her sister. Ever since she was a child, she'd had it ground into her mind that children were to be seen, not heard. But that was in a normal situation. Since she couldn't exactly Juken the famed jonin in the heart, she took the next best choice.

"In a minute," Hinata agreed distractedly before turning back to gray-haired shinobi. "Um…what was it that you needed?"

"It won't take long," he assured Hanabi. "Could you use your Byakugan to find my cute little students? I seem to have lost track of them."

The blue-haired Hyuga nodded and turned on her kekei genkei. Veins sprung up around her eyes, pulsing with chakra. After a couple of seconds, she said, "Naruto is sitting on the stone bench on the other side of the lake. Sakura is feeding the birds near the playground."

Hanabi looked at both of the people Hinata had pointed out. The one she'd said to be Naruto looked nothing like the blonde that Hanabi dimly remembered seeing. He must be using genjutsu to alter his appearance to…do something. She couldn't say for sure that the same was true for Sakura, since she had no idea what the girl looked like, but she assumed it to be.

Upon seeing how flawed her plan had been, Hanabi wanted to hit herself. She should have known. Not only was her range not long enough to have covered the entire park from that street corner, she didn't know the chakra colors of Hinata's friends. She barely knew their faces.

"Thanks Hinata-chan. Well, I have a meeting with Tsunade-sama now." With that, Kakashi loped off in the opposite direction the Hokage tower was located.

Hinata turned to her little sister and remembered what she had declared. "You want to go home? But we just got here."

Hanabi just sighed, grabbed her sister's wrist, and led her back to the Main House Compound. "Well…what would you like to do now?" Hinata asked, still a bit confused.

The young brunette thought about it for a minute. "Let's make cookies." In other words, Hinata would make cookies, Hanabi would eat most of the dough, and they would end up with only about five cookies instead of the dozen the recipe predicted that they would make. But whatever.

So, the duo made their way to the kitchen and set their bags on the table. But just as they were about to put the cartons of ice cream away and get out the ingredients, Neji hurried in. "Hinata-sama, Nakahara Akio-san has arrived and is requesting your presence."

"Nakahara-san?" Hinata's brow furrowed in confusion. "He's not supposed to arrive for another two days."

Neji shrugged. "He made good time on his journey. You should go meet with him now."

"Can't it wait?"

"No," Neji said. Though he kept his Hyuga mask, Hanabi could hear the slight nervousness in his voice. "Haruka-sama sent me to tell you to come at once."

Hinata blanched. Hyuga Haruka was their grandmother on their father's side. She was also the most feared person in the entire Hyuga estate, having ruled the Hyuga with an iron fist for years. She still made the rest of the elders tremble in their yukatas whenever she entered the room. Nobody dared to even dream of disobeying her. "I'm sorry, Hanabi-chan, maybe next time," Hinata whispered before hurrying off after Neji.

Hanabi stared stonily at the doorway for a few seconds before stiffly turning back to the table. Some afternoon. Looking at the table, she noticed the bag of ice cream. Hoping that maybe banana-flavored ice cream would make her feel better, she got up and retrieved a spoon from the utensil drawer. But when she opened the plastic bag, the first thing she saw was not a carton of banana-flavored ice cream. It was the green tea-flavored one.

Seeing it, she felt all the anger and annoyance of that day boil over. In a fit of rage, she grabbed the stupid carton tossed it into the trash with a grunt of frustration. It went in with a thunk, the weight causing the trash can to fall on its side.

She glared at the trash can for a minute, her teeth gritted, as if hoping that she could set it on fire with her gaze alone. Then all the angry energy drained out of her and she sank into the chair. Tiredly, she got out the other carton in the bag and opened it. Instead of the frozen treat that was supposed to be in it, there was just yellow goop.

The ice cream had already melted.

A/N: Don't waste a carton of ice cream like that people.

I have no idea if banana-flavored ice cream exists. Probably does.

How was the characterization?

Thanks for reading ^_^