Author Note: The end of this chapter is mainly from Jynx's point of view, but just for this chapter and the first part of the next. Hope you enjoy :D
-Chapter Three-
Hinata awoke with a start.
Across the hall, she could hear Hanabi arguing with someone, and rather loudly too.
Sighing, Hinata got out of bed, put on her dressing gown and went to see what she was yelling about.
Crossing into her sister's room, she knocked lightly on the door.
"Hanabi? C-can I come in?" She asked her, poking her head through into her sister's room.
"Whatever." Hanabi said snottily, sitting down on the bed with an exaggerated sigh.
"What's wrong, Hanabi?" Hinata asked her, not really used to this whole 'looking-after-your-little-sister' thing.
"It's Konohamaru." Hanabi said gruffily, crossing her arms and frowning at the carpet.
"Oh?" Hinata said, playing with the frayed edge of her dressing gown cord as she listened.
"Yeah, there's this big dance coming up at the academy, and I want to go with him, but Moegi says that she's taking him..." Hanabi said sulkily, kicking one of her teddies across the floor.
"I see..." Hinata nodded, trying to think of the best answer to this situation. "So.. errm... w-what does Konohamaru want to do?"
Hanabi looked up at her sister and pulled a face of disgust.
"He says he doesn't want to go with either of us because we're icky girls and we have too much... errr...emotional baggage." Hanabi said, straining to remember Konohamaru's exact words.
Hinata stifled a laugh as she remembered those exact words coming out of Kiba's mouth when he was Konohamaru's age. He hadn't much liked girls then either.
Hinata smiled at her sister and shook her head.
"I'm sure it will w-work out, little sister." She told her.
Hanabi looked at Hinata sternly and replied; "Either that, or you could get Jynx to make Konohamaru come with me."
-
Five minutes later, notes at the ready, Hinata walked from her house to the corner of her street, where Jynx usually met her.
It only took the emerald eyed kunoichi five minutes to turn up. A new record by Jynx's standards.
"Good morning, Hinata-chan!" Jynx said in a sing-song voice as she skated into view. "I have a feeling that today we are going to make valuable progress concerning a certain blonde haired shinobi!"
Hinata blushed and hugged her book of notes to her chest as she smiled at her friend.
"I h-hope so, Jynx-chan. I-I took n-notes and everything last night." Hinata said happily, linking arms with her best friend and following her towards the Ichiraku Ramen Bar.
On arrival, the two kunoichi sat at the far end of the counter, next to Chouji and Shikamaru, who was currently being chatted up by Temari.
Shikamaru, seemingly oblivious to the attention he was getting, turned to the two girls and nodded his head.
"Sarutobi, Hyuuga. Good morning." He said with a mouthful of noodles.
"Good morning Nara." Jynx smirked at him, ordering some bread and chilli sauce.
Shikamaru smirked at the brown haired girl and flicked a green bean towards her.
"Ergghh... What a drag." Jynx mimicked the shinobi, picking up the discarded bean and putting it into the bin next to her.
Shikamaru was just about to reply to her, when Naruto came dashing around the corner, shouting his mouth off about something.
"I DON'T KNOW, KONOHAMARU! I DON'T UNDERSTAND WOMEN AS MUCH AS THE NEXT GUY!" Naruto yelled as he desperately tried to escape the younger ninja's conversation.
"But Naruto, you must have had tons of girlfriends, surely you can help me." Konohamaru said sadly.
Jynx surpressed a smirk as she slid off her stool and walked towards her cousin, slyly whispering; "Now's the time to try out those notes of yours." To Hinata.
As Jynx walked her cousin to a safe distance away from the others, Naruto slipped silently into her vacated seat and began to eat Jynx's bread.
"Erghh... kids." Naruto sighed, stuffing another piece of bread in his mouth.
"M-Morning, N-Naruto-kun." Hinata said breathlessly as she fumbled with her notes.
Sneaking a quick glance at them, she turned to him and said;
"N-Naruto-kun. I was just err... maybe w-wondering if I could errm..." She looked down at her paper again, looked up at the waiting Naruto and said; "If m-maybe I could... ride you like a pony?"
Naruto's eyes got wider as he processed the girls question.
A second later, he was pressed up against the counter as Hinata pushed her hands against his stomach, much to the amusement of the watching crowd of shinobi.
"H-Hinata?! What the hell are you doing?!" Naruto yelped, not really moving as he tried to prise her hands off him.
"Oh Naruto-kun. T-take me now and use me." She said, reciting the words that she had painstakingly written in her notebook.
"Wha?!?!??!" Naruto spluttered, his mouth wide open as Hinata pulled him against her, her face getting redder by the second.
'This isn't the reaction I expected from him... I wonder... Am I doing it right?' Hinata thought in her head as she tried to remember what had happened next in the 'film' she had watched last night.
"D-don't you want me, N-Naruto-kun?" She asked him, trying so hard not to cry as he stared down at her, bewildered.
"What? Hinata, what are you saying?" He asked, frowning at the girl.
"I-I, oh... I-I." Hinata backed off him a little, and looked around desperately for Jynx to save her.
"I-I just wondered i-if you, I mean... Oh..."
"She just wondered if you wanted to come and see a film with us tonight." Jynx suddenly appeared next to Hinata, as if by magic. "She was just... messing around, weren't you Hinata?" Jynx smiled at her friend, praying that Hinata would help her out.
Hinata nodded shyly to Naruto, and moved further still away from him.
"Err... sure Jynx-chan. Thanks." Naruto said, scratching his head as he looked unsurely at Hinata.
Jynx laughed uneasily as the blonde haired shinobi turned and walked back the way he had originally come.
He stopped suddenly, and turned to look at Hinata.
"Oh, and Hinata? Next time you want to ask me something, just come out with it okay?" He smiled at her, laughing nervously as Hinata nodded and turned beetroot.
"I am seriously going to kill Hiroshi when I next see him..." Jynx muttered dangerously under her breath.
-
"What kind of person hides PORN in a dvd case marked 'A Cinderella Story'?! Let alone a dvd that isn't actually theirs!" Jynx raged later on that day to a rather frightened Hiroshi.
"Alright I'm sorry! I just needed a place to put them, that's all. I just sorta forgot to take them out..." Hiroshi shrugged as Jynx looked at him lividly. "And besides, you shouldn't have been going through my bag!"
Jynx moved so fast, Hinata blinked and missed it.
One moment she was standing by Hinata, arms crossed and glaring at Hiroshi. The next, she had Hiroshi pushed up against the wall and was holding him by the throat.
"You." She snapped at him. "Are an idiot. And I am never lending you dvds ever again."
Hiroshi smirked boyishly at her and said; "You look totally hot when your angry."
Jynx just rolled her eyes at him and let go of his shirt.
"Leave before I shove your stupid dvds somewhere dark and exceedingly painful." She threatened as he licked her cheek as ran off into the center of the village.
"That boy is a world class knucklehead..." Jynx sighed, leaning against the wall and wiping her cheek with her hand. "They should give him that title, instead of Naruto."
Hinata nodded in agreement as Ino and Sakura came flitting around the corner.
"Oh.. Hi Ino, Hi Sakura." Jynx said defeatedly to them.
"Hey Hinata, Hey Jynx, what's wrong?" Sakura replied in a concerned tone of voice.
"Hiroshi. That's what's wrong." Jynx said moodily, crossing her arms.
Sakura was just about to reply when Ino cut her off.
"So Jynx, we heard that you, Hinata, and Naruto are going to go see a film tonight. We just wondered if we could come along." Ino grinned at her.
Jynx looked at Hinata worriedly, then sighed and nodded.
"Yeah sure... Bring Chouji and Shikamaru if you like. And Sai too." Jynx said, shaking her head.
"Yeah well, we sort of already invited everybody. All of them said they'd come." Ino replied.
"All of them said they'd come?" Jynx said, looking alarmed. "Who's 'all of them'?" She asked..
"Well me, Sakura, Chouji, Shikamaru, Sai... Neji's team... errm... Kiba and Shino... Hiroshi... Kouta... Oh and erm... Gfjafm." Ino said, covering up her mouth as she said the last word, which made it impossible for Jynx to understand.
"Sorry, who else?" Jynx said, raising an eyebrow at her.
"Just... G-Gaara's team..." Sakura said quietly. "We felt bad not inviting Temari, you know, with Shikamaru going and everything."
Jynx groaned and placed her hands over her face.
"Sorry." Sakura shrugged, biting her lip.
"It's alright. I'm sure we'll cope. We'll see you two later then." Jynx said, taking Hinata's arm and pulling her towards her house.
"I have a feeling that this is going to be a rather eventful night." Jynx muttered.
-
An hour later, Jynx and Hinata were standing outside the cinema, talking tactics.
"Right, so when we go in, make sure that your sitting next to Naruto. You'll need to be sitting near him so we can put the plan into action." Jynx whispered to her friend as she handed her a cinema ticket. "When the movie starts, pay close attention to me, try and copy what I do. And whatever happens, don't try and speak to him. If you do, he'll probably just get annoyed anyway." Jynx told her, taking a deep breath.
"Right, well... Here we go I guess.. Good luck, Nata." Jynx smiled at her friend, giving her a quick hug.
"Thank you Jynx-chan. You've been the greatest friend a girl could ever have." Hinata told her, smiling excitedly.
"Come on guys, the film is about to start!" Chouji called to them from the foyer, as he emerged with a huge bucket of popcorn, a litre of drink and enough sweets to sink a small boat.
"Lets do this!" Jynx giggled as they ran inside.
-
"Naruto, come and sit by us!" Jynx whispered to the blonde shinobi as they navigated past already occupied seats.
"Sure, Jynx-chan. Where should I sit?" He asked her cheerily, ignoring the 'shhh's' of the various film watchers around him.
Jynx pointed silently to the seat by the wall and watched happily as he settled down in the seat next to Hinata.
'This plan is going to be a definite sucess.' Jynx thought to herself, surpressing the need to jump for joy.
As she sat down in her own seat, next to Hinata, she smirked up at the cinema screen, waiting for the fun to begin.
"Sorry Sarutobi, is this seat taken?" Shikamaru asked from next to her.
Jynx looked up and rolled her eyes at him.
"No Nara. It isn't." She said, shaking her head.
The second he sat down, Jynx's face suddenly paled.
'Oh God. I needed to keep that seat empty so I could show Hinata what to do.' Jynx thought frantically as she thought of an excuse of why Shikamaru couldn't sit there.
Looking behind her, she saw Temari smiling dreamily at the back of Shikamaru's head. 'Oh double God. What the hell do I do now?!'
Jynx turned to see Hinata looking at her expectantly.
'I-I can't let her down... Not now... I'll just have to..' Jynx sighed quietly, looking down at her boots. 'Grin and bare it I suppose.'
As the film began, Jynx swallowed anxiously.
She knew that a new romance would be made here tonight. But at the cost of a valued friendship, and maybe... Jynx glanced behind at Gaara's emotionless face behind her. And maybe a chance of love for her, too.
'No matter what... I have to do this for Hinata... Regardless of the consequence.' She thought, breathing out slowly.
As the picture began to flicker onto the screen, Jynx turned and flashed a reassuring smile at Hinata.
'Yes... For Hinata..'
