Breaking the Rules
Naruto does not belong to me.
Author's Note: I wrote this story a while ago in French but since I'm having trouble with the continuation, I decided to rewrite it in English for inspiration =) Enjoy!
Chapter 1 :
"We're kind of busy right now. Maybe you could come by later?"
Something was wrong. Why didn't one of her best friends want her to enter the house? Something in the air didn't feel right. It was a little too humid and too heavy for a spring night. The young girl with colorless eyes put her backpack on with an eased swing and took off in the direction of her own house. But half-way there, her legs froze; curiosity got the best of her.
Since it was pitch black outside, hiding in the shadows was not hard. With her back to the wall, Hinata drew as near as possible to the room from which hysteric laughs were escaping from the window. Those laughs, she knew them well. The voices were so loud that it was hard not toeavesdrop.
« NO WAY! I really missed that?"
"Shut your face, Tenten. There was nothing there to see."
"Oh yes there was!" a clear and loud voice insisted. "You should have seen his face! He was like, "Hi Sakura~"with his charming voice, thumbs up and all the rest. And I could swear that his round eyes were…"
Hinata stopped listening. She lightly frowned. What a dim-witted conversation! She had wasted her time going to Ino's house to help her with her homework. And her place wasn't nearby either; it had taken her 45 minutes by bike. And after having come all that way, she told her to come back later!
Unforgivable.
She clenched her fists and her eyebrows went back to their usual place.
Those snakes were going to pay.
That was it. She wouldn't take this kind of treatment anymore. Two years was enough.
And it was from that point on that Hinata took off from her schedule anything related to the clique, slowly but surely. All her school work was done alone –under unworthy excuses-, all the "help sessions" for her friends stopped and during lunch time, she just hung out alone at a small lake near the school.
For people who wanted it, every morning, she would arrange folders and throw our useless papers from their lockers. She did it so many times that it became a kind of unique hobby. Well, maybe not exactly a "hobby", but her situation called for desperate measures. The satisfaction she felt after each cleaned locker was indispensable for her mental wellbeing but for a wealthy girl like her, it wasn't exactly…appropriate.
This time, while she was taking care of a particularly unorganised locker, her eyes seemed to be lost in some reverie. The last conversation she had had with Tenten clearly replayed in her mind. The brunette wanted help for some geography homework (more like she wanted to just copy it) but she very nicely refused.
'No more contact with them. I don't want any more contact.'
She lightly shook her head to cast away the bad memories and briskly got up. She was face to face with the locker's owner and she gave him a little smile.
"If I didn't know you, I would have asked you for at least 20 bucks, Kiba. This is by far the worst locker I've seen."
"It's not that bad," he responded rather sarcastically.
"Come on, take your books. Classes are starting soon." Hinata said before moving away in the wave of students who had started moving because of the bell.
'She really knows her stuff...' thought Kiba as he watched her from a distance. His attention was then stolen by a passing friend.
Before arriving at her own locker, Hinata lost her smile when a foreboding feeling came over her. A little further down, she noticed the Sakura-Ino-Tenten trio, walking side by side with huge smiles plastered on their faces. They looked ridiculous. Hinata seriously wondered if that was the kind of friends she wanted. She was still pondering on the question as she checked her schedule.
A small smile resurfaced when she saw that she had Fine Arts as a first class.
'The teacher's probably going to be absent.' She thought with satisfaction. After that, she had math, English and Phys. Ed. It could have been worse. She hurried and arrived just in time for the substitute teacher who was taking attendance. When he finished, he said, "Mr. Hayate is absent today. Apparently he's sick so it's a free period for now."
'What else is new?' she thought.
Hinata quickly looked around the class. Ino was desperately trying to flirt with Sasuke but the latter wasn't paying her any attention. He put his hands behind his head and crossed one leg over the other. At the sight, Hinata had to think twice before looking away.
' I still kind of respect him. I mean, he's pretty calm for a guy. Speaking of calmness, where is Naruto? Usually he's around annoying Sasuke.' She thought.
Hinata looked again at the students who were a little more passive. She liked her class; many girls were simply talking and most of the guys had gathered for a card game. More people joined in and amongst them she recognized Kiba, Lee, Shino and Sasuke. A few tables away, she saw a head on the desk- probably Shikamaru.
Guessing that Ino would annoyingly come by, the Hyuuga took out her math homework to keep busy and have an excuse for not talking to her.
'Number 50.' She announced to herself. Why was she starting from the bottom? The math teacher was the only one who verified if homework was done. Since he gave loads and loads of work, many students had the habit of not finishing what they started. One day, he had a brilliant idea that backfired on the students' plan to only do a few of the first exercises: he checked the last ones. Obviously, many were caught. But what was the instructor thinking? Students weren't so dim. At that point, many just started doing the last ones.
'Ok, moving on to number 30. Damn I doubt that I'll have time to finish. I only have 30 minutes left. I really hate algebra…'
Nervousness was on its way. A one-hour detention was the punishment for undone homework and the teacher had already given her two chances. She emerged once again in her calculations when she felt someone right in front of her.
"Shikamaru? What are you doing there?"
Hinata had trouble believing that he had bothered moving from his spot and even wanted to talk to her.
"Here's the deal. I did the first 27. I'll let you copy if you let me copy what you did."
"If you already started, why not just finish?" she simply asked, not exactly refusing the deal. Shikamaru sighed loudly.
"I did these during the 5 minutes Genma gave us. I didn't bother taking my bag home yesterday so…you see where I'm going?" Hinata's eyes took the shape of oranges for a second.
'5 minutes! Damn, I must look stupid now...' she thought depressingly.
"And you're too lazy to do the rest I guess. But I still have three to go so-"
"I did them! =D" someone interrupted. "If you let me copy yours, I'll let you copy MINE! =D" Hinata realized that it was none other than Kiba and his huge grin.
While copying, Hinata ventured, "By the way, where's Naruto?"
"Maybe he's in Philosophy." answered Kiba.
"No, he's in this class."
"Then he's probably in detention."
O+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+O
At the same moment in Philosophy class…
"Gaara, wake up."
The teacher's request was answered by nothingness. When half the class was asleep, things were a little difficult.
O+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+O
The bell rang and everyone rushed out to hang out with friends. Well, almost everyone. As he walked in the hallways, he felt people move away at the mere sight of him. He always heard the whispers in his back but he really couldn't care less; he was used to it. People thought twice before approaching him, especially since the incident with Neji. The poor soul had had the courage to insult the Sabaku and ended up in the hospital. A little more and he could have been paralysed! The redhead exited the school and moved away from the groups of students. Gaara then lit a cigarette and smoked until the bell rang.
O+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+O
Hinata had math as her second class. Nothing worth mentioning happened, except for the way Ino and Sakura were glued together all along. With their desks pushed together and cell phones obviously out, Hinata broke her pencil tip twice, annoyed that the prof didn't say anything to them. Probably because he knew their parents well.
Five minutes before the end of class, someone knocked on the door. Naturally, all heads turned towards it just in time to see Gaara enter.
"Where were you?" Genma asked.
Gaara stared at him with his darkened eyes. The blackness around them has a surreal depth to them. His clothes were also black with a hint of red on his t-shirt. The only colour that seemed to rebel was the one of his eyes: blue-green. Hinata's washed-out eyes looked away with hesitation; that guy really freaked her out. When the class's atmosphere became too strained, Gaara plunged his hand in his pants pocket and revealed a note that seemed to have gone through physical and mental torture. He accentuated his stare for a few moments more before giving the note to Genma. It was probably from the principal. Since her hearing was exceptional, Hinata overheard the guys behind her gossiping.
"I can't believe it. Konohamaru really went too far. Doesn't he know that threats are a standard part of Gaara?"
"What did that kid do?"
"You don't know? Gaara threatened to kill him so he ratted him out to the principle."
"Oh sweet Lord. Let's pray for his soul tonight."
"If he even lives till tonight…" he whispered back.
O+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+O
Finally, the third period came. Hinata was impatiently waiting for this one; the teacher was going to give them back their last assignments- the one that had taken her four days to complete. Kurenai started by saying how the assignments weren't excellent and that they had to work harder next time…In short, a good teacher's speech. And finally, the moment of truth…
"Kiba, not bad, 70%. Shikamaru, what you gave me was excellent but you only did half, 50%. Lee, very good, 79%. Sakura and Tenten, you have the highest grade, 94…"
'94? Something isn't right…'
"…Hinata, I'm a little disappointed, 46."
'46…46…46…' The number echoed in her head.
'That's impossible! There must be a mistake! Sakura. Its her. She must have done something…Ahh, there's nothing to worry about, I'll talk to Kurenai after.'
For obvious reasons, time passed very slowly. Some more notes were added in the poetry section. After that, Kurenai sat down on her desk with agility and waited for the students' silence. She only got back some confused looks and some whispering. She finally announced, "The next assignment is the biggest one yet: An anthology of poems! This will count for 40 percent of your final grade so don't even dream about slacking off. Don't worry though. It's a really interesting project and I assign it every year. What's even more special is that everyone is put into teams of two that I will choose randomly!"
A mere half second later, protests and disagreement filled the room. The teacher slammed her hand on what used to be a desk for silence.
'She doesn't need to go that far…' most of the students thought as they abruptly became calmer.
After providing extra info for the project, she took out a small Kleenex box. Inside, there were the names of all the students in class. Without a hint of hesitation, she started.
"Tenten and…Choji!"
'Pff, she deserved that!' Hinata thought as the class let out some laughs.
"Next…Kin and Shino." Both of them calmly nodded.
"Sakura and…"
'Please not me, Please not me, Please not me, Please not me…'
"Lee."
'The small amount of pity I would have had for her doesn't seem to be around. Anyway, the worse passed.' Hinata came back to reality when she heard her name,
"Hinata and Gaara." Without her noticing it, her hands started trembling a little and her body temperature went up.
'Not cool. No. Not him. Well, I must look on the bright side; I'm not with Sakura or Tenten! I have to stay positive…'
If only she could see herself at that moment…
Little by little, her calm returned just in time for the next announcement.
"Well then everyone, we have about 10 minutes left so join your partner and discuss the project for now."
'Alright, I just have go towards him and exchange a few words…I can't afford to fail this project.' She thought with determination and she approached him.
She took a chair and sat in front of him. He stared at her in the same way he had earlier stared at Genma and said, "I don't want to discuss the project."
'Why didn't you add "get lost" too' Hinata thought sarcastically as a few droplets of sweat formed on her face.
"Then…to-tonight? Do you have MSN or AIM?"
He curiously scanned her with his eyes before sighing dryly. He looked away and lightly scratched the side of his head. Finally, he handed her his agenda.
"Write down your e-mail. I'll add you." He said in a monotonous voice that weakened at the end.
'Does that mean yes? I guess so…'
She gently took the agenda with the feeling of being observed by a predator. She quickly scribbled with a neat handwriting: Hinata's e-mail: frozensilence21 (at) hotmail (dot) com.
She mentally took a huge breath before adding, "I'll be there around eight."
He simply nodded and took back his agenda. He looked at it quickly then put it on the corner of his desk. A long moment of silence followed.
'It's not that bad. At least he speaks.'
Suddenly, Gaara turned his head in Sakura's direction. Hinata followed after in time to see Sakura look elsewhere.
Gaara didn't let it slide though. He asked, "What are you looking at?"
Hinata could have sworn that she heard the pink-haired girl swallow with difficulty. She was visibly trembling and it looked like she was trying to hide that fact…unsuccessfully.
"N-n-nothing," she mumbled.
Hinata took advantage of the moment to go see Kurenai and ask her about the terrible grade.
"About my grade…" she awkwardly started. She didn't get a chance to continue.
"Hinata, I never would have thought that you would be capable of such a thing. Plagiarism? Hinata Hyuuga? I also thought that your paper was excellent-"
"But I worked really hard on it!" she protested, in shock.
"Please stop. The person who told me had solid proof."
"Who?" she asked without thinking. "What??"
Kutenai glanced at the class for a fraction of a moment then answered quickly, "I can't tell you that."
Suddenly, the bell rang. Hinata quickly looked behind her and couldn't miss the smirk on Sakura's face. It isn't necessary to tell you in what state Hinata was; I'll let you imagine the scene.
O+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+O
Lunch and gym class didn't seem like a priority so Hinata took the city bus home. She needed to do some serious thinking.
To be continued…