Fortepiano
Chapter 2: Comfort of Friends
Hinata blinked at the computer screen. The dots on her graph were not making any sense to her. She rubbed her eyes and blinked again. Tilting her head to the right, she stared at the points and compared them with Kakashi-sensei's example on the board.
"Shikamaru? H-how come our graph looks off?" Hinata questioned her lazy partner. Shikamaru pulled his head from his makeshift backpack pillow and squinted at the screen. Hinata pointed to the strange pattern of their dots and inclined her head to Kakashi-sensei's whiteboard.
"It looks, sort of…"
"Inverted. You plotted the points backwards. X as Y, and Y as X." Shikamaru explained nudging Hinata's chair to the side and scooting towards the computer to fix his daydreaming partner's silly mistake.
"Oh. Gomen." Hinata apologized hanging her head. Shikamaru made a noise of disapproval.
"Nah, it's okay. I wasn't paying attention either." He looked towards Hinata's too distraught demeanor. "But you're taking this too seriously. Relax. It's not like we can fail this class anyway."
Hinata fixed her gaze on Shikamaru with a slight disapproving color.
"Don't say that Shikamaru. Kakashi-sensei can still f-fail us." She mumbled. Shikamaru grinned.
"Nope. There's only 4 of us taking Advanced Physics. If he failed us both, that gives his class only a 50% pass. The school will not take that percentage and force him to either reevaluate or have the class dropped." Shikamaru explained abandoning their graph and leaning back on his chair a look of slight triumph in his smile. "In other words, we can do absolutely nothing and still pass."
"Not necessarily Shikamaru-kun." Kakashi-sensei interrupted pulling Shikamaru's chair back and making him almost tip over.
"H-hey! That's endangering a student!" Shikamaru complained rubbing his back where it knocked onto the wooden chair. Hinata giggled.
"I can still fail you for being a dumb-dumb." Kakashi-sensei retorted his lazy eye wrinkling in a cheerful smile.
"Admit it Kakashi-sensei. You wouldn't dare lose the one class you don't do any work on." Shikamaru bantered making Hinata gasp.
"S-shikamaru! You shouldn't be arguing with our teacher!" Hinata whispered tugging on Shikamaru's loosely tied brown uniform tie. Kakashi-sensei waved Hinata's concern away and laughed at Shikamaru's theory.
"You're right I wouldn't. That's why I assigned such easy and fun projects!" Kakashi-sensei giggled as he walked towards the other group's table to check on their progress.
"Tch. It's fun for you but we do all the calculations." Shikamaru complained. "No one finds burning ants amusing."
"I-I, umm, enjoyed it too actually." Hinata remarked blushing at her strange confession.
"Hinata. Ew."
Hinata found the ground suddenly much more interesting as she felt her face warm up from embarrassment. Shikamaru nudged her to gain her attention again.
"But seriously though, what's been bothering you. You're usually so serious in class." Hinata sighed gathering her long indigo locks into one hand and tugging at them.
"It's complicated." Hinata began. Shikamaru smiled at his quiet friend.
"Is it Sasuke? Is Sasuke being a butt?" Shikamaru teased lightening the mood and making Hinata blush at the mention of her dark-eyed boyfriend.
"N-no! Sasuke's not being a butt." Hinata replied chuckling at Sasuke being a butt. "It's Neji-nii-san. He was talking nonsense last night." She admitted albeit a little reluctantly. Hinata loves her cousin dearly and doesn't like talking about the doctor in a bad light.
"Nonsense?" Hinata blushed at Shikamaru's inquisitiveness. Even though she wanted to tell him, she sort of couldn't muster the courage to voice Neji's request.
"He ugh… he. Umm," Hinata mustered quite at a loss for words. Her face was turning a dangerous shade of maroon as her embarrassment increased and Shikamaru's clear focus on her making her squirm.
"Go on." Shikamaru prodded.
"He, um." Hinata took a deep breath. "Hewantsustogetmarried!" She blurted a little bit too loud making Kakashi-sensei turn away from the other two students who were also making a mess of their angle of the sun vs. ants graph.
"Sa-sasuke-kun proposed?" Kakashi-sensei stuttered staring at the wide-eyed Hinata and a slack-jawed Shikamaru.
"Eh?! N-no! He didn't!" Hinata refused shaking her head making her hair fly around and slap Shikamaru in the face. He then in turn tried to wipe the remaining strands from his face while spitting to get the ones stuck to his open mouth out.
"Don't make stuff up Kakashi-sensei! Why were you even eavesdropping?" Shikamaru complained.
"I didn't need to. There's only five of us here. I can hear you perfectly." Kakashi-sensei replied crossing his arms and making his way towards the very pale Hyuuga. "Well, Hinata? Did you say yes?"
Hinata's lips moved but her voice remained inside her voice box. The classroom was starting to get a little too suffocating and Kakashi-sensei and Shikamaru's figures began to dim. Hinata felt her body feeling heavy and tired. Before Shikamaru could realize what had happened, Hinata knocked her head on her table in a dead faint.
Sasuke ran his hand through his hair as a gesture of annoyance. For some odd reason, the girls in his Calculus class were being unusually creepy. When he walked in, the usual group of girls who would greet him just stared at him in blank sadness. Then two began to wail as the group burst into tears.
Ibiki-sensei spared him a curious glance before yelling at the girls to leave his class and return after they have composed themselves. Sasuke shrugged and slid into his seat wondering what had gotten into them.
Unfortunately it didn't end there. Halfway through Ibiki-sensei's lecture on logarithms, another group of fan girls burst through the doors and began yelling accusations towards him.
"Tell me it isn't true!"
"Sasuke-kun!"
"Don't leave us!"
"Sasuke-kun!"
Ibiki-sensei crushed his marker making the ink bleed into his skin as he popped a forehead vein due to his anger at being interrupted. He threatened the girls with detention as they scampered out of his classroom. Not only that, his anger blazed towards Sasuke as well. Thus, Sasuke was kicked out of class for being the cause of disruptive behavior.
Sasuke sighed in remorse before deciding to just catch up on some light reading in the library. Just one more class period then school would be done. He would get to see Hinata for a little bit before he started Martial Arts Club. Then he can run to Hinata's house afterwards for some dinner before going home. Just the thought of being in her presence made him eager to get the day over and done with. As his feet lead him to the library, he couldn't help but notice the girls that would peek at him through their classroom doors and begin fervently whispering amongst themselves. Sasuke rolled his eyes. What was going on?
"WHAT? The teme proposed!" A familiar voice boomed from the boy's bathroom making the swing door creep at his volume. Sasuke paused. Unless Naruto knew another teme, the dobe was talking about him. Mistakenly talking about him…
"Yeah, that's what I heard. Last night he came over Hinata-chan's house in the dead of night and proposed!" An unfamiliar voice explained. Sasuke raised his brow. He was at Hinata's house last night, huh. Sasuke smirked and swung open the bathroom door.
"Unless there's another Hinata in this school dating another Sasuke, your information is false. Clear your head of misconceptions." Sasuke declared catching Naruto and another student gossiping midstream.
"Sasuke!" Naruto yelled turning around too quickly spraying his schoolmate making Sasuke turn away in disgust.
"Naruto finish pissing before you turn around. You're getting the floor wet." Sasuke commanded stepping aside as the furious schoolmate zipped up and ran out of the boy's bathroom.
"Ahh, my bad." Naruto laughed before turning around and finishing his business. Then he zipped up and turned towards the sink to wash his hands.
"So, how's Hinata-chan?" Naruto asked casually looking at Sasuke who was leaning on one of the unoccupied sinks. Sasuke shrugged his shoulders.
"Ma." Naruto grinned and began fixing his blonde spikes with his wet hands.
"I hear you're getting married." He teased now knowing it was just a rumor. Sasuke glared at his grinning best friend. Naruto laughed. "Just messin with ya!"
So that's what had upset the girls so much. They thought he was going to be permanently off the market. Sasuke didn't understand why they would even think he was still available despite being with Hinata. Once he chose his girl, he was sticking by her until the end. Sasuke wasn't one for games.
"Hey. Let's ditch class and crash the girl's lunch period." Naruto whispered grinning at his desired antic. He missed having lunch with Sakura and usually ditched gym to be with her. Sasuke nodded his consent. Hinata and Sakura shared the same lunch period. He wondered if the rumors had reached her yet.
"M-my heart!" Ino whispered faking a faint making Sakura burst out laughing and Hinata blush into the roots of her indigo locks.
"Ino!" Hinata reprimanded poking her fingers together. Ino grinned, her bright blue eyes glittering.
"Sorry Hinata. I can't help it." Ino apologized, poking Hinata on her forehead. "Your love life is starting to sound like a drama." Hinata rubbed the spot where Ino had poked her.
"I'm not trying to make it so." She mumbled. But Neji had thrown her into a dilemma. She had no idea the things he had to do to get her out of the Hyuuga compound. She never knew…
"But you know Neji's not at fault." Sakura mused leaning her chin on her palm. Ino nodded.
"Yeah, he was doing what he thought was best for you. Who would have thunk that your dad was serious about the marriage business." Ino continued the group's thought process. Hinata nodded in despair. She knew that her father only wants what's best for her, but sometimes he can be a little too hardheaded. Not to mention strange.
"Sakura-chan!" A familiar loud blonde yelled from across the cafeteria making the other students stare in disbelief. Sometimes Naruto was a little too much to stomach. Sakura rolled her eyes and waved her lover towards the girls' table. Ino giggled at Sakura's slight blush.
"He can be so loud sometimes." Sakura complained as Naruto squeezed next to her and Ino and gave Sakura a peck on the cheek.
"Hey boo."
Hinata smiled as Naruto sent her a grin for a greeting. But what surprised her was when Sasuke slid onto the bench next to her.
"S-sasuke?" She asked turning towards her stoic boyfriend and receiving a slight brush of his lips against her forehead.
"Mm." Hinata blushed as Ino cooed and made kissing noises.
"What happened to Calc?" She asked quietly leaning towards Sasuke's frame until their shoulders were touching.
"I was forcefully removed." Sasuke replied feeling warmth spread across his chest from Hinata's body contact. He almost smiled out right.
"Ne, Hinata-chan. What's going on? I heard some pretty weird rumors about you and Sasuke." Naruto asked breaking the couple's silent conversation.
"Obviously they're not true." Ino interjected opting to explain for the shy Hyuuga.
"Here's what happened." Ino started.
"Girl break it down." Naruto interrupted receiving a bonk on his head from his pink-haired significant other. Hinata giggled into her palm as Sasuke smirked. Ino glared before continuing.
"When Neji graduated from med school, he wanted to move out. His uncle, Hinata's dad would have totally let him have his own life. He wasn't his son anyway. But Hinata wanted to move out with him. She didn't want to be the future Hyuuga CEO. But of course her dad wouldn't let her go. So Neji and Hinata's dad made an agreement:
Hinata didn't have to be the heir of Hyuuga Corp. anymore as long as she got married to Neji."
Sasuke's world froze. He never knew about this agreement! He felt Hinata squeeze his hand under the table.
"Gomen. I just found out last night." She whispered tickling Sasuke's neck.
"Eh?! Gross! Why Neji? Can't she marry Sasuke instead?" Naruto exclaimed outraged. Sakura and Ino shook their heads.
"Last night, Neji talked to his uncle about the whole marriage thing. But apparently Hiashi-san refused. He said, 'I will not allow my daughter to be tainted by that Uchiha'." Sakura explained in her best impression of the imposing businessman.
"In short, Hyuuga Hiashi hates Sasuke."
A/N: Moving the plot right along! The main problem has been introduced! Hinata's to marry Neji! Unless Sasuke does something about Hiashi's plans! R & R please! –Panda-
