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.chapter one: the phone.
Disclaimer: I own nothing, really.
Dedicated to SasuHina fans. I don't know since when I like this pairing more than SasuSaku, but whatever xP. New addictions give birth to new ideas. New ideas give birth to new fics, and new fics lead to a happy me!! (Gosh, that was long)
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"Hinata-neechan, you have been staring at the phone for about five minutes."
I zap out of my daze as I hear Hanabi's voice ringing through my ear drums. Swiftly, I look up and meet my sister's white eyes and notice the mischievous gleam in her eyes. If I don't know better, I would say that she actually has those kinds of beams in her eyes, but no...
When Hyuuga Hanabi's eyes shine like this, it means... mayhem.
"Are you aware of that?" My sister asks, her voice cackling teasingly.
I shake my head and try to give her my best smile as I turn down to my book once more, trying to concentrate.
Actually yes, I am so very aware of that, even if I don't know why. Mmm... Maybe I know a little of why.
"Whose phone call are you waiting for?" Hanabi asks again, being incredibly nosy like she always does. "A boyfriend at school?" Her eyes suddenly glow dark, "Or is it that seating mate of yours, namely Uchiha Sasuke?"
I gasp. "H-how do you kn-know his name, Hanabi?" I decide to ask, seeing that she wouldn't just stop at that. It's better to ask than to answer to Hanabi, anyway.
My sister has a very quick mind with a very mischievous brain, which usually lead to mean questions with definite answer. Her questions always lead me to admitting what I don't want to admit, to say what I don't want to say, and to realize what I better not realize. And in this case, I'll never want to tell her that I am actually waiting for somebody's phone call.
"Duuuh!" Hanabi replies, rolling her eyes, "Sasuke's dad visited our place some weeks ago. He said he is Fatherdy's best friend and he would like to see him, but Fatherdy wasn't here that day. How could you not remember, neechan?" She pauses for a while, looking thoughtful, "Oh, right. You weren't here. You're still at school. By the way, Hinata-neechan?"
"Hmm?" I hum, my hands closing the book on my lap as I turn to her. "What is it, Hanabi?"
The serious expression on my sister's face turns darker and mischievous. "So are you waiting for his phonecall?" She asks, her voice dangerously teasing me. "How are you going with him? I didn't know you have relationships with that... Sasuke boy. Why didn't you tell me, Hinata-neechan?"
To my dismay, I can't help but blush at her teases. "Ha... Hanabi..." I say, trying to hold down the blush as I fail miserably on that.
"Yeeees?" My sister coos naughtily, looking at me straight into the eyes.
"He... He's... Anoo... He's just my science project partner." I say, letting out a relieved sigh as soon as I finish the sentence. I see Hanabi's expression darkens once again as she gives me a disappointed sigh.
"You know, neechan..." She starts, lying down on my bed as she plays with her hair. "Sometimes I wish that you are like Neji-niisan."
"Neji-niisan?" I ask, confused. "Why?"
Of course she wants me to be like Neji-niisan. He is strong, clever, and he is very confident in himself. While me? I'm not any of him.
"I could tease him much..." Hanabi continues, breaking my thoughts. I gasp a little, realizing that it is not my personality or my talents she is talking about. It is about Neji-niisan's love life a.k.a Tenten. Hanabi rolls on her stomach and looks at me intently, "But I can't tease you that much. Really, neechan, I want to see you falling in love."
"Hanabi! You're too small to be talking about love!" Suddenly, my father booms into my room, where Hanabi and I are currently seated, talking.
My sister jumps to sit as she grins faithfully to my father. "No, I'm not!" She yells happily, "I'm already nine years old!"
"Yes, you're only nine years old." My father says, emphasizing the word 'only'. "Now hush, it's already eight o'clock. Go to sleep now so that you'll have tomorrow fresh."
"But Father! It's only eight o'clock!" Hanabi pouts, emphasizing the word 'only'.
My father looks down at her, his eyes growing stern as she looks back at him with mischievousness. I try to restrain myself from laughing - Gee, the interactions between Father and Hanabi really could have me laughing.
"Yes, yes." My father gives in at last, "But still, Hanabi, you are too young to talk about love."
Hanabi pouts again as she glances at me, another evil grin appearing on her lips. "Then, Father! At what age can people talk about love?" She asks, bouncing on my bed, her hands snuggling my stuffed cow - a gift from Father when I reached the age fourteen.
"Say..." My father suddenly looks at me and smiles with equal mischievousness as my sister has. "Fifteen?"
I only give both of them a smile as I shake my head.
"Then Hinata-neechan is old enough to fall in love, right?" Hanabi asks again.
Gee, she's being hyperactive today.
"Yes." Father replies, making me shudder. "Yes. Hinata is old enough to fall in love. In fact - she should be falling in love right now. Now tell your daddy and your sister, Hinata - do you have someone in mind when I say 'love'?"
I blush at his remark.
Father always has a great thing to tease me on love. He is a one-of-a-kind father - one that anybody would wish for, maybe. Whatever kind he is, I am glad that I have Hyuuga Hiashi as my father. He is fun - Yes, such fun.
"Father!" I protest, my hands covering my heating cheeks.
"Hinata-neechan is in love! Hinata-neechan is in love!" Hanabi sings, bouncing up and down on my bed, her hands still cuddling my stuffed cow as she continues her chant in her sing-song voice, "Hinata-neechan is in love! Hinata-neechan is in love! Yay!"
"Hanabi!" This time, I protest to my sister as my father - surprisingly - gives a mad grin. Yes, my father's grinning. Gee, this is one of the Kodak moments I must capture - if only my camera hadn't broken down.
"Hinata-neechan is in love! Hinata-neechan is in love! Hina-" Hanabi chants again, until she is stopped by a loud ringing of our phone.
I freeze.
Hanabi grins as she jumps to the phone, taking the receiver and putting it on her cheek. "Hello? Who's there?" She asks, her voice sounding so much mature than she was before. "Who? UCHIHA SASUKE?"
My father grins at my sister's reaction and looks at me before shaking his head. "I'll leave you two alone then, child." He says before going out of my room. After he is nowhere to be seen, I turn to my sister, who is still talking to Sasuke.
"Who? You're looking for WHO?" Hanabi asks again. If right now she is anything, then I'll say she's annoying. A little. "Hyuuga Hinata? Ooooooookay... I'll call her!! Please wait a moment, Uchiha-san!"
I give a relieved sigh when I hear her 'Uchiha-san'. Thank goodness for her manners! But before I reach out to take the receiver from her hand, Hanabi has already moved the receiver away from my reach.
"Hinata-neechan is in love! Hinata-neechan is in love!" She chants again, this time as I look at her in dismay.
I jump forward, snatching the receiver out of her hand. Her eyes widen for a moment - Gee, that must be the roughest thing I've ever done to anybody - snatching what's inside their hand.
I take a deep breath and put the receiver near my ears. "He-Hello?" I call, my voice shaky and timid.
"Hinata." A deep voice bellows at the end of the other receiver.
To my dismay, I squeak. "Y-yes?"
Silence.
"Sa... Sasuke?" I say at last.
"Yes." He replies, "Look, I've been looking throughout the internet on... on..." He pauses for a while, "On reproduction." He finishes at last, his last word sounding unconsciously cooler than our science topic really is: how babies are... made.
Of course I know how they... come into the world; father has been teaching me that kind of stuff right before I entered high school. It's for general knowledge, he said, and I believe him. When he first told me that, I was really, really surprised. My mother had had told me the story of bees and flowers instead of the real method, and I believed her right until father gave me that surprise. At first, I really thought that babies came from bees and flowers. The pollination method and such things. Yes, I believed them until father told me the real thing...
As in, sex.
Kurenai-sensei sure does know how to make her students awkward. I'm sure she means that we should have focused on how they develop in the mother's stomach rather than…, but still… Uhmm…
"Uh... Yes..." I manage to say as I hear Hanabi giggling behind me. I stare at her frantically, wanting her to just stop her giggles. Instead of doing what I tried to tell her with my eyes, she jumps to my bed and laughs harder.
"Do you have any ideas on what we can do?" Sasuke asks at last, after that long of a silence. "Kurenai-sensei said that we could choose anything to be our topic, as long as it has something to do with... how babies are made. I'm thinking on the topic in general, but it might be a little complicated."
"O-of course..." I stammer, a little unhappy on myself that I couldn't seem to let my brain to think. Where are my ideas when I need it?
He sighs. "Fine, then. I'm just letting you know this so that you also can do a more general research on our topic. I'll see to your ideas next time." He explains quietly, "Good night."
"Y-yes, Sasuke." I say frantically, without knowing why I am feeling like this, "Th-Thank you..."
"Don't mention it." He replies, and the connection is off.
I put down the receiver back on its place and turn to Hanabi, who by now has already stops laughing. She grins at me, and suddenly declares, "I'm going to tell Neji-niisan that you just had a call from your boyfriend!"
And even before I could say anything to her declaration, Hanabi is gone from my eyes. She must have gone to find Neji-niisan, who is living at the other side of the Hyuuga estate.
I sigh and slump myself down on my bed and hug my doll closer to my chest before closing my eyes. Neji-niisan is not going to like it - he never really likes Sasuke. There is something about this 'rivalry' they both hold ever since they met back in third grade. In fact, right now, I can already imagine something about Neji-niisan venting out his dislike about Uchiha Sasuke...
Our assignment - our project is on reproduction - on how babies are made. As in, that thing women and men do… Gosh.
I open my eyes and close them again, thinking hard.
Tomorrow I'll ask Kurenai-sensei whether I could do some interviews with mothers of newborn babies or not. It might be fun, and that'll be a variety of the boring researches we have to do in order to investigate the topic in general.
With that, I close my eyes and sleep.
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Kurenai-sensei's reaction is, as I have already guessed before, positive.
"Of course you can, Hinata." She says as she smiles sweetly, "In fact - I can give you a name to smoothen up the process."
"A name?" I ask her in confusion.
"Yes, yes." She nods. "One of my friends had just given birth to a baby boy. You might want to interview her."
I smile at Kurenai-sensei's suggestion. "Thank you..." I say softly, "I'll be glad to do that."
"Hmm... On one condition." Kurenai-sensei's next sentence freezes me off.
"Y-yes?" I ask bravely, my eyes looking at my shoes.
My science teacher gives a simple smile, "Don't be so stiff, Hinata." She says cheerfully, tapping my back. "I'm only giving you permission to interview people on one condition."
"... And that condition is..?" I ask, daring.
"Your partner must be involved." Kurenai-sensei says, her simple smile still on her lips.
My face goes paler. "That means..."
"Mm-hmm." She nods, "Uchiha Sasuke must accompany you."
Oh, dear.
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.to be continued.
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A/N:
That was fast. It was only like… four days ago I posted the story and now chapter one is ready. Gee, thanks for your support, readers. You made my day and boosted my self confidence! I was simply having a bad day right here… xP. Okay, and my bad mood probably makes Hinata a little OOC. I haven't got that used to writing her yet, you see, and I'm sorry about that.
I remember Sakura. I just don't want her to appear here first. Sorry, Sakura-lovers…
Anyway, this is just the start. There'll be more to come, so please stay in tune with me! Review and thank you!
