Chapter One: Stupid Pride
Hinata sighed, a tuft of her dark hair puffing out with her breath as she walked down a hallway for the third time in five minutes. She was trying unsuccessfully to find her third period math class, but the odd numbering system of individual hallways made finding her class more difficult than the class itself was likely to be. If she took much longer, she would end up arriving late, and that was not the first impression she wanted to make at her new school, so Hinata steeled herself up to ask help from the next person she saw.
A long red sweep of hair and small oval glasses preceded a very scantily dressed girl with more accessories than brain cells, as was made evident by the extra-help classroom she entered, and Hinata decided to wait for one more person to go by.
The next person to make their way down the hallway had warm brown hair imprisoned up in two buns with just enough hair falling down near her eyes to keep her from looking ridiculous. Said girl was also wearing a very frustrated expression and kept flexing very competent-looking knuckles as she continued down the hallway towards Hinata. Hinata's eye widened and she silently cursed her luck, since she would certainly be late if she could not get directions from this girl.
"Uh, hi," Hinata began in a small voice, knowing from experience that startling angry women always led to bad things. "I was wondering if—"
"Are you talking to me?" the brunette asked a bit roughly.
Hinata suppressed a nervous giggle at the slight De Niro impression. "Yes, I am talking to you. I would like it if you could help me find my next class," Hinata continued bravely, but the brunette was staring to lose interest and walk away. "I have math with Yuuhi-sensei in room—"
"Cut-throat Kurenai? Follow me, I have her right now too," the girl offered, and walked swiftly in what Hinata had to assume was the correct direction. "By the way, my name is Tenten. What's yours?"
"Hyuuga Hinata," Hinata answered automatically, and a little more directly than she would have liked.
"Here we are," Tenten announced as she lead Hinata towards the last available seats in the classroom.
Hinata sat down cautiously next to a boy that was sporting a glare fit to kill the Chinese army as Tenten fired off her next question.
"So I'm guessing you are the cousin Neji told me about?" she asked, raising her eyebrows as if Hinata had not been what she was expecting.
"Uh, well he could have meant my sister, Hanabi-chan, but she's…" Hinata trailed off, not wanting to finish her sentence.
Tenten's eyebrows knitted in confusion, and then relaxed as she decided not to further press Hinata about Hanabi.
"I'm sure that he meant you, because I remember him whining about how much silkier and longer your hair is than his," Tenten said, her eyes glowing with silent laughter.
Tenten was about to say something more when "Cut-throat Kurenai" came into the room. The room fell to the kind of silence that only church mice are fond of and apprehension melted through the room like the world's polar ice caps.
"Hey guys, did you all have a good summer?" Kurenai said cheerily, smiling at the class as if they were the sprinkles on top of her ice cream.
The class was silent, and Hinata glanced around nervously to see how everyone else was reacting. Strangely enough, everyone looked surprised.
"I guess you all had boring summers. Okay, roll call…" Kurenai began to go down the roster of students and write down where each of them sat.
She went through all of the rules of her classroom, told the class to talk amongst themselves, and exited the classroom as suddenly as she had walked in. Hinata had never met the teacher before, yet she was still sure that the teacher was behaving abnormally. Her other teachers so far had made her go up in front of the class to introduce herself, and surely someone known as "Cut-throat Kurenai" would have made her do something much more mortifying.
"What happened to Cut-throat Kurenai?" Tenten asked the general space of air in front of her. Hinata and Tenten both jumped a bit when the air next to Hinata answered Tenten's question.
"She got laid." The voice came from the boy who was murdering people with his eyes.
"Sasuke, you can't just say that in front of two girls, especially when you haven't even met one of them!" Tenten exclaimed, not used to such blunt words. Tenten was sure that Sasuke's word usage had shocked Hinata as well, since they both spent much time around Neji, who would never put something in such a way when talking to a female.
"You. With the long hair. What's your name?" Sasuke asked, tilting his head up fast so he could get the hair out of his eyes and see this new girl properly.
"Hinata," Hinata replied, not giving him her surname because Neji always spoke of how Sasuke and he were not the best of friends.
Without his hair to obstruct his view, Sasuke took in Hinata's appearance, from her gentle gray eyes down to her soft pink lips, and back up to see that her cheeks were free of a blush and her eyes lacked the fervent quality of most girls that looked his way. Sasuke's eyes dragged lower, past her neckline, where they slid to a stop, admiring the curve of Hinata's chest.
Hinata was confused as to why Sasuke was now staring at her, until she remembered the pen mark on her shirt.
"Oh, um, pen doesn't come out in the wash, so the ink is permanently there, I know it looks weird, a random blue dot on my purple shirt…" Hinata said, a little embarrassed.
"Sasuke, stop undressing her with your eyes," Tenten commanded, feeling bad for the more innocent Hinata. It was a statement to the kind of personality Hinata had for her to give Sasuke the benefit of the doubt like that.
With that said, Sasuke turned away so that neither girl could see the slight red quality that his face took on. When he turned back, Hinata looked very flustered and oh so much more attractive. Sasuke smirked; he would have to embarrass her more often. Not that he would admit to actually finding her attractive, he had heard that she was Neji's cousin.
Before Sasuke could finish convincing himself that he definitely did not think a Hyuuga looked better than the girl on the cover of the newest issue of the Sports Illustrated: Swimsuit Edition, the bell rang and Sasuke found his next chance to keep Hinata flustered.
"Hinata, out of apology, would you let me take you to your next class?" he asked, tilting his head in a way that he knew made him look harmless. After all, maybe this girl would make a good friend for him, he was a bit out of touch with the female population.
Hinata looked to Tenten, who waved her hand as if saying, "Go ahead, we probably don't have our next class together anyway," and walked off while rattling off a threat about what would happen if she found out Sasuke hurt a single hair on Hinata's head.
"Yeah, that would be nice, I still don't understand this numbering system," Hinata replied. "I have gym next," she added helpfully.
"Ah, so do I," Sasuke said and, to Hinata's surprise, took her hand to lead her in the direction of the gymnasium.
Once Sasuke had successfully dropped her off in front of the girl's locker room, he looked over his shoulder to see if his plan had worked. Hinata was still just a bit flustered.
Sasuke frowned to himself, as he had been hoping to make her blush.
I wonder, he thought, does she ever blush? If I held hands with any other girl in this school, they would be close to fainting. Maybe not any other girl in this school, but at least three-quarters of them. Stupid Hyuuga, making me curious… Now I have to make her blush. Stupid pride…
Itachi:-death glare-
Ellie: Deidara! I told you not to let Itachi near the readers! He scares them away with his Mangekyo!
Itachi: Ellz, you know I just do it because they never give you enough reviews.
Ellie: They give me plenty of reviews, they leave one whenever they are able to and I respect that! Maybe if you left me a review every once in a while, Itachi, I would not be so irritable right now!
Itachi: Hn.
Deidara: -drags Itachi away before he gets murdered for using the "H-N" word in front of Ellie- Uh, sorry about that folks, Itachi loves to be a royal pain. And remember, more reviews mean a happy author, and a happy author is a faster-updating author!
