Nettaiya
〜＊熱帯夜＊〜
Title description/summary: Nettaiya means 'tropical night' in Japanese, and though there is nothing 'tropical' about sneaking into the Academy pool at the dead of the night to meet with your long time crush, you have to admit, it's border-line paradise.
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, duh. But I do own this new laptop! Yaaay!! This is my first official story written with this new machine, so enjoy!
"I feel awful." Hinata said bluntly as she shifted on her two feet staring at the clear water in front her before turning to her partners in crime. "Seriously, I think I'll pass out."
"Will you chill?" snapped the oldest out of the crew, Anko, as she already started to shrug off her large jacket. "We're totally safe; I've done this dozens of times."
"See? I told you it's fine." Reassured the third and last member of the rule busters, Kiba's older sister, Hana. She touched Hinata's shoulder gently before turning the kind gesture into a hefty shove toward the waters before them. "Get in, already."
"I—I think I'll just keep watch or something." Muttered the shy Hyuuga. She had no idea why she made friends with so many rambunctious and rule-breaking people. The girl was attracted to things that were so outside her nature that she had befriended Kiba's loud and brutally honest sister, along with the rude and sexist Anko almost the instant she got to know them. Now she was really regretting having this sort of strange quirk as she settled down on her bum, staring at the glittery pool water just as Anko shrugged off her remaining garments and dived right in.
"Oh will you listen to this girl?" sighed the exasperated Hana as she too started stripping. "Do you want me to summon the dogs to keep watch? Will that make you feel better?"
"I don't want to be a bother, just swim without me." Hinata begged as she pulled her hoodie over her head and made a perfect impression of a small, poofy ball on the ground—drawing her knees to her chest.
"You were complaining that you hated going out of Konoha for three miles to reach that one pond to do your stupid water-jutsus, now that we've got a perfectly safe, perfectly close pool on our hands at your disposal—" Hana started as she threw her bra over her shoulder, but was interrupted with Hinata's small cough.
"The Ninja Academy's pool is barely qualified to be safe. There's nothing guarding it, and we trespassed. It's not only breaking rules, but we're breaking rules with risks of being caught naked." Hinata said the last word like a taboo, further cocooning herself in her large jacket and curling her exposed toes.
"Then wear your underwear." Snapped Anko, "Ahhh, the water's perfect!"
"Oh it is." Gushes Hana as she descended slowly to adjust to the water smiling sluggishly over toward Hinata who longingly wanted to join her friends. "Too bad Hinata is too chicken."
"I'm not chicken." Hinata said in a small voice, but it was unheard as Anko drowned it with her extremely loud and hearty laugh that sent even Hana's hair on end.
"Shut up!" Hana commanded just as loudly as Anko's laugh, as she splashed her.
"Whoa! Are you trying to be tough or something? That was nothing!" Anko splashed Hana back—so much, that even Hinata had to duck from the waves of splashes from the dry concrete benches.
"We're going to get caught." Hinata said. "You know what? I think I'll go home… my father—"
"You're father's got a permanent stick up his ass, Hinata." Hana snapped bitterly, she was known to take any known opportunity to bash the Hyuuga's clan head. "You could become the Hokage and still make him unhappy."
"Oh check this out, I haven't shaven in ages." Anko said in a disgusting manner—lifting a leg from the water and showing her friends.
"Oh gross, Anko—you gave me a good view of the other places you don't shave." Hana loudly said with a shudder.
"Huh? Oh—haha! Yeaaaah. Who has the time to?"
"Well, I—at least try to keep it from getting like that." Hana pointed while Hinata turned increasingly red by the second—hiding behind her hands and shaking her head to try to will the image out of her head.
"Hey! Hinata!" Anko shouted, "Do you shave your cooch?"
"Stop it! Stop it! Stop it!" Hinata begged, already at her limit's end she got up tall and as dignified as her tomato-red face would allow her to look. "I'm going home!"
"Awww! Party Pooper!" Hana called out—scrambling out of the water and grabbing hold of Hinata by her hood and scrambling into a slippery stop. "Come on, don't be like that. Remember when we snuck into the theatres without tickets? And in the end we got caught but we still had fun?"
"I felt so horrible." Hinata recalled—shivering into a ball yet again and touching her cheeks in shame.
"But you were laughing by the next day." Hana reminded, "What I'm trying to say is, nothing seriously horrible can happen. Ok? It won't be the end of the world if we get caught, and even if we do, so what? We'll at least have some memories to think fondly of later."
Hinata looked up at Hana's kind face. She knew she was really cutting into their fun time… and she did want to separate from her bulky jacket.
"I guess…you're right." Hinata nodded.
"Fuck! It's hot!" Naruto groaned aloud as he propped his legs on the desk and stretched out a bit, showing off his sweat-spots on his under arms and chest in the process.
"Ugh, don't get grime on the student's papersNaruto, we just corrected them." Said the even and bored voice of Shikamaru. "If I have to hear yet another ear-full of dirtied paperwork from Hokage-sama again, I'll officially resign from being shinobi." He muttered as he took the remainder of paper under Naruto's foot into his own pile of crap.
"You don't mean that." Naruto drawled, just then he flinched and sat up erect; the chair he had been leaning on slapped the floor loudly causing Shikamaru to blink lazily up at his fellow shinobi.
"What?" he sighed.
"Isn't that the Academy pool?" Naruto pondered aloud and pointed out the window. Shikamaru barely gave it a second glance as he saw the direction where Naruto was pointing.
"Duh."
"No, I mean—I think there's somebody in it."
Shikamaru simply shrugged, "Just a few pranksters, I'm sure. Nothing to get worked up about."
"That's TRESPASSING!" Naruto shouted at the top of his lungs before stomping loudly toward the window and leaning out toward the direction of the pool—trying to catch a glimpse of the rule breakers..
"You are such a hypocrite." Shikamaru sighed just as he stapled the last of their work in the file and got up. "Look, I'm going home. Tell Iruka-sensei that his paperwork is in the Wednesday folder."
"No! Shikamaru! We got to get these guys! They're trespassing onto our school!"
"Yeah… I don't care." Shikamaru confessed and shrugged on his backpack and without another word, he was out the door and his mind was set on the idea of hitting the sack.
Naruto huffed after his fellow teacher before crossing his arms and looking out toward the large school grounds. He narrowed his eyes and pursed his lips.
"Yeah, not under my watch." He muttered and got out of the window—feeling slightly haughty of being the one to bust troublemakers when he himself used to hope for lenient teachers. Somehow, the thought of catching his first troublemakers made his own troublemaker spark fly into his trademark grin.
He jumped down onto the second Academy building; it's roof top covered a good portion of the entire campus as well as housing the school's enormous pool that was decorated for introducing all kinds of new jutsus. The downside of the pool was that it was deep… and many kids actually resisted going near the water, thus—it was rarely used. Still, it didn't give outsiders the right to trespass onto ninja territory, whoever thought they could get away with Naruto's school had another thing coming!
He was just about to hop the series of fences toward the pool, when the sounds coming from the pool stopped him in his tracks.
Giggling?
His eyes widened as he heard splashing and then a squeal that would come from a girl.
Girls.
In the pool.
He frowned, he really wanted to bust some ass—but he never had the heart to tell girls what to do. Feeling as if he missed his opportunity to win the lottery, he decided to take Shikamaru's example and simply ignore their fun time to go home and rest up for the next day. It was when an eerily familiar voice perplexed the air that the thought of letting the group of girls have fun disappeared from his mind.
"BITCH! I can't believe you! You didn't just do that!" screamed a voice that was easily Anko's.
Naruto's evil grin was back as well as a spiteful cackle.
How he had dreamed that one day he could bust Anko for one of her many crimes. Rubbing his hands together he started to make his way toward the pool again.
"You guys…" a small voice squeaked, "I think someone is coming."
"Shit, I think I heard someone too." A third voice confirmed. Naruto decided he needed to hurry up and he took no time to voice his presence.
"Hey!" Naruto shouted. "Who's there?"
"SHIT!" Anko's voice said loudly. Naruto finally jumped the fence that surrounded the pool and his eyes widened slightly as he caught sight of two very naked women scampering away with clothes tucked toward her breasts—he only saw a glimpse of them before they efficiently slipped out of sight and over the roof. He frowned and his shoulders deflated as he looked at the large pool. It still wobbled helplessly from the girls' quick departure—leaving it completely empty.
Unwilling to chase naked women like his mentor, Naruto was completely content with simply being able to keep the Konoha Academy out-of-bounds from trouble makers.
"Oh well." He looked at the cool water and saw the temptation. It was a wicked hot night, after all—any sane person would have easily jumped in with complete disregard for the 'do not trespass' sign posted on the wicker fences. A finger found his way on his collar—tugging the sweaty fabric away from his neck and taunting the skin with the promise of cool water. He looked left and right… searching the pool's surroundings for good measure before breaking the rules himself. Just as he started to kick off his sandals—his eyes caught sight of something.
A jacket.
Narrowing his eyes he went over toward the large jacket and picked it up. It looked eerily familiar.
He was now certain he heard a third voice while he crept toward the pool and was most definitely sure that he only caught sight of two naked women rushing out.
He was confirmed that it wasn't on accident that the jacket in his hands was left behind, after all, a matching pair of pants, a shirt, and sandals were neatly tucked under it.
"You're still here." Naruto grinned and narrowed his eyes toward the waters. He looked around and realized he couldn't feel any Chakra signatures… this person—whoever it was, was good at hiding from him. Crossing his arms and grinning over the edge of the clear pool water he called out, "Give up! I know you're in there!"
No such luck.
"Fine!" He called out, "I guess I'll just—you know, collect my evidence!" He picked up the clothes and teased whoever was still hiding in the pool by waving it around for good measure. "I'll be able to find out who you are anyway!"
Still no response.
He frowned, this was a hard person to crack. Either that—or somebody's drowning in the water! He dropped the clothes and kicked off his sandals, walking directly onto the water and looking around for any sign of a human body on the bottom of the glittery pool.
"Come on! You need to breath!" Naruto muttered under his breath as he realized how good this person was at hiding from him—slowly getting more frustrated. He was just about to head back toward land when suddenly, he felt two firm hands grip his ankles. He looked below ready to harm whoever was under him with a nasty Rasengan, but the ball of energy died out almost instantly once he saw that the water was clear as crystal underneath him. It was the very water that formed hand-like characteristics to keep him glued to his spot.
"That's it! Drown him, girl!" crowed a voice in the distance.
"Get out of there!" warned the second voice. "Keep him in there and get out!"
"What are you waiting for?" the voice that obviously belonged to Anko screamed in the distance.
A sudden wave of water attacked his hands next and immobilized his arm and upper torso. He heard the noise of someone getting out of the water just behind him, but before he could fight off the strange water underneath him, and find out who was doing these weird jutsus—the grip on his ankles, and wrists loosened almost instantly and he fell face-first into the water. He jumped into an erect position a dashing second later spitting the chlorine from his mouth, but when he looked up and he hissed in annoyance as he saw the shadow of the trespasser already reaching out for their abandoned clothes.
"You!" he bellowed just as the attacker shouted toward her partners in crime—
"Leave without me!"
He stopped mid-track as did the trespasser as their eyes connected and simultaneous blushes painted each other's faces.
"H-H-Hinata?" Naruto stuttered out flabbergast. The two of them heard the quick scampering noises of the two other criminals taking off into the night. Leaving only the noise of both Naruto and Hinata's dripping bodies against the flapping pool water.
"Naruto-kun!" squeaked the girl in response before realizing she was only in her underwear, she squeaked and ducked right back into the pool for cover. "I'm sorry I—I…"
"You snuck into the school pool?" for some reason, he couldn't fight off the Cheshire cat grin tugging at his lips.
"No!" Hinata blurted out boldly. Something she was so ready to answer, "I mean… I… I'm sorry." She had her arms tightly wrapped around her chest and she was slowly turning a violent shade of red. Naruto's eyes quickly flew down to the watery figure just under Hinata's frightful face. The pool's dark waters thankfully kept Hinata's figure from his prying eyes and he was forced to look back into her frightened eyes with a little less dignity.
"You weren't the only one in this pool, I'm guessing it wasn't your idea." Naruto said, taking a bold step forward toward Hinata and then remembering the attack that he was under only a mere second ago. "Hey—was that water-jutsu…yours?"
Hinata had reduced to a shaking little shadow by now—her eyes were cast anywhere but Naruto's intense gaze and it was obvious she was poking her fingers under the pool.
"Yes." Her meek voice answered.
"That was amazing! I hadn't had anything like that trip me up in—ages!" Naruto couldn't help but realize this was just the shining moment for him to switch subjects from the uncomfortable discovery of Hinata's small crime to a very important conversation of Chakra control. "hey, hey! You got to teach me!"
He took a step forward but saw the terror flash in Hinata's eyes as she looked jerkily up at him before looking down again—her shoulders up to her cheeks as if defending her very face from his gaze.
"What are you so embarrassed about?" Naruto grumbled as he realized the weird girl was making a big fuss in front of him again. "I'm not going to rat you out, if that's what you're so scared of."
"I know you wouldn't do that, Naruto-kun." Hinata's small voice whispered out from the shadow that curled itself flat against the pool's wall. "I just want to go home now."
He heard a definite sniff and froze in his spot—this time it was no jutsu either. He realized that he somehow spiraled down toward making a girl cry.
"Hinata?" He took cautious steps forward and crouched down toward the bobbing head—close enough to reach out and touch her if he pleased. "Are you ok?"
"I- I'm sorry, Naruto-kun."
"Huh? For what?"
Hinata suddenly lashed out—almost as quick as him toward one of his vital points. Naruto caught the pressure-point fingers in the knick of time before she could seriously damage his conscious state. He looked at the wrist he had caught in mid-strike and then at Hinata—half scared out of his wits that the girl had gotten so damn fast.
"Oh, for that." Naruto said bluntly as he now glared down at Hinata—whose only response sounded like something between a cough and a sob. His grip was harder than she expected it to be, and as she tried to twist away, it only got harder.
"N-Naruto-kun. I—"
"You were about to knock me out!" Naruto accused. "I was only trying to be nice Hinata." He got to his feet and easily pulled the Hyuuga out of the water from her wrists, causing her to scream.
"NO!"
His eyes widened quickly as he saw exactly what she wanted to hide away from him so desperately and hurriedly let go of her just before his eyes wondered down Hinata Hyuuga's absolutely perfect body. She wasn't exactly wearing a regular swimsuit either. This outing to the pool must have been a decision made on-the-spot by a group of girls that simply wanted to have some random fun; for Hinata was clad in dark purple laces that looked only too good to be true. He quickly read the hurt expression that crossed Hinata's face as she was forced out of the water and openly examined. She tumbled down on hands and knees onto the surface of the pool—quickly shutting her Chakra channels to let herself sink into the depth of the water again.
"My bad." Naruto felt incredibly stupid all of the sudden as he watched Hinata sink completely under the water—head and all. "Hinata?"
He jerked into action, realizing just what happened.
She fainted.
He dove into the waters and quickly took hold of her limp form and hoisted it above water. He grabbed her face and puckered her lips before putting his ear up to it to catch if she was breathing. After a few moments of simply paddling to keep both their heads above water, he realized he'd have to switch to doing quick emergency procedures. A little shaken from simply touching the Hyuuga heiress—he summoned a few clones to help him hoist the body outside the water.
Naruto frowned when his other clones murmured their concern under their breaths as well as widen their eyes in appreciation toward the unconscious body.
"Get out of my way." Naruto ordered his clones, "We need to do CPR or…something."
"We?" a clone said in a slightly suggestive clone. Naruto felt no regret bopping that one on the head and letting it poof out of existence.
"She's fainted again?"
"What did you do?"
"Why does she keep doing that?"
"There's no time!" the real Naruto shouted, batting his clones away and leaning over the unconscious form. "I'm doing it!"
He looked at Hinata's pained face. He didn't expect such a violent reaction, but realized he must have pushed her a little too far when he dragged her out of the water. It was his fault she got this bad probably—but in his defense, what the hell was she doing swimming in the middle of the night if she caught some sort of flu that makes her faint? This was a disaster waiting to happen no matter how you looked at it.
He pulled her chin upwards and plugged her nose before bringing his lips sloppily down onto hers and forcing some air into Hinata's lungs.
Only one breath seemed to have done the trick, for Hinata jerked awake from the absolutely rude and down-right strange awakening of feeling someone blow into their mouth. She sputtered just a mouthful of water from her lips before she blinked away the water and stared up at Naruto in shock.
"Did I faint again?" she asked in a groggy voice. Naruto noticed she didn't make any outward disgust toward wiping her lips or anything. She simply fought with her long dark locks that got in her way as she rolled onto her side and hoisted herself onto her elbows.
"Yeah. Sorry, I think that was my fault." Naruto said dejectedly.
"N-No…Naruto-kun, it wasn't your fault at all." Hinata said, softly and actually in her usual kind tone for the first time that evening as she tentatively touched his arm. "I was just so embarrassed… I wasn't thinking straight." Her voice caught in her throat as yet another sob erupted from the small woman. She sat upright—her hair clung to her dangerously curvy body as she cupped her face in her hands and let out a sob. "I'm sorry if you thought I'd actually hurt you. I- I just wanted to temporarily freeze you—I…and—that's not a good excuse, I know, but—but—" she was now openly crying in front of him—something Naruto had never ever seen Hinata do before. "I'll understand if you hate me."
"Whoa, whoa, whoa." Naruto interrupted quickly. "Hinata, I'd never hate you."
"I would hate me!" Hinata sobbed, her shoulders shaking. "I would never be able to forgive a friend if they tried that trick on me!"
"I doubt that." Snorted Naruto, "You forgave Neji quite willingly after that bloody Chuunin exam, remember?"
Hinata wasn't listening though, "I'm so sorry, Naruto-kun."
"Ahhh." Naruto felt a tremendous amount of guilt for those tears—he reached out cautiously and touched her shoulder in a sad attempt to cheer her up. "It's all right, Hinata."
The girl didn't cease her crying, and now Naruto took the ultimate move and shrugged off his sopping wet Chuunin vest and wrapped it around the sobbing woman in a gesture of attempted kindness. He grinned when her sob immediately quieted down as the fabric touched her shoulders and her watery eyes glanced up at him through a curtain of sleek black hair.
In that very quick glance he felt some very powerful emotions. Hinata looked deeply hurt at the idea of hurting him, she definitely felt guilt and it was directed toward the idea of hurting him intentionally for a quick escape. Her eyes openly showed how much it bothered her that she tried to use that resort—even though it would have been a choice any ninja would have made.
Nobody looked at him that way before.
He reached out and scooped the weeping woman, chuunin vest and all into his chest. He felt the delicate female body almost bend into his own and was awed at how warm the girl was despite having almost drowned a second before. She smelled sweet like some sort of honey while something soft was definitely pressing up against his chest. As he was marveling at how good the outcome of the hug was, it got better as Hinata's sobs quieted yet another fraction of a volume and her arms slid around his lower shoulders to draw him closer.
"It's ok." Naruto whispered into her wet hair.
Naruto was sure that they hugged for a good solid minute or two simply absorbing each other's warmth and trapping the water on their bodies between their chests. Hinata's sobs turned into simple sniffles and she had rested her cheek on his shoulder letting her sweet smelling hair drip down his own back.
Maybe it was just the warmth of the night or the coolness of the water that slid off their skin in slow motion. Whatever it was, time slowed down tremendously as their limbs leisurely pulled away from each other. They registered in their minds that it would be strange if they stuck together for too long, but their bodies felt differently from the mind and grazed each other long enough to imitate magnets. They felt tingles in their fingers as it left the each other. Finally just as they had a kunai-length space between them their eyes touched each other again.
It was Naruto that blushed first this time, his eyes widening and shooting toward the ground in amazement to see how the reflective water just behind them had an effect to the heiress's beauty. Hinata's plastered hair had loosened up enough water for it to wildly fall around her in an exotic fashion, her prominent features such as her lips and nose were flushed a pretty pink while her eyes—went from an amazing pale lavender to an abstract glow in the odd light.
Hinata herself blushed and didn't catch the reaction of her crush when he looked at her as well. Feeling all the more embarrassed when she saw how handsome he looked in her eyes. His drenched hair still releasing drops of water in front of his blazing stare. His back faced the pool as well as the light but his blue eyes were still amazingly bright. His chiseled features that he gained throughout the years reminded her just how long she had been admiring him and it made the plummet of fear cross in her stomach once again—realizing how weak she was for not admitting her feelings after so many years. When she turned a dark red and glanced away—her eyes took a detour at his chest where it took in a ridged breath and the wet fabric of his shirt defined some toned abs. Her better reason advised her eyes to stay away from such dangerous territories as her eyelids closed.
Naruto, the first to blush and look away was also the first to look up at her. His eyes stopped at the curve of her hip, the inward curve of her waist, her small shoulders and then jumped straight toward her closed eyes and drew in a shaky breath.
"I'll keep this trespassing thing a secret if you do me a favor." He heard his voice saying.
The girl's eyes snapped open and she stared intently at him. She liked the plan—her eyes seemed to be saying. Hinata didn't want to let this go without giving something up for Naruto.
"Anything." Hinata's voice said easily.
"Teach me that crazy water jutsu. The one you tried to use to escape from me."
Hinata looked down, a little saddened, "It isn't very effective. It took me a while to learn and I still…failed."
"Well it takes a lot of skill to hold this ninja down." That didn't seem to cheer her up as he intended, "Teach me what you've learned, and we can work on strengthening it together." Naruto said confidentially, causing the girl to look up at him again—it seemed every time she opened her eyes and glanced at him, a new emotion sprung to her face—this time it was definitely admiration.
"Really?" Hinata said breathlessly.
"Yeah! We can even use this pool! This can be our secret." Naruto didn't know what he was thinking when he grabbed hold of Hinata's small hands. They felt completely different from usual ninja hands—they were unusually small and soft. "How's that? How does tomorrow night sound?"
Hinata's shoulders squared up and blinked at him. "Won't we…get caught by other teachers?"
"I'll take care of them." Naruto scoffed. "You'll have to take care of your friends in return. Do we have a deal?" He produced a hand for a firm handshake.
Hinata propped her fingers to her lips quickly for a moment of thought before she gingerly reached down and accepted the handshake.
"I mean—seriously though, make sure Anko doesn't sneak in anymore. I hear she does this often." Naruto said seriously and Hinata inwardly sighed angrily while she nodded.
Naruto got up and cast one last look at the drenched kunoichi before grinning to himself and dashing off.
Inspiration: 'Nettaya' (熱帯夜) fromJilly Meets ｼﾞｬﾏｲｶ一丁目Riddim.
To be continued...when I feel like it.