Title: 222

Summary: They meet through a series of coincidences, like a transparent knot that has been tied upon the first meeting.

Pairing: Naruto x Hinata

Words: 3658 words

Song: + Soulmate by Zico ft. IU +

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, nor any of the songs.

(3)

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Hinata carried a box in her hands, lavender eyes fixed on the apartment complex in front of her. It was smaller than what she was used to, but the room she had surveyed beforehand was no less cosy. The position of the apartment was scenic, and the Konoha University campus was about a ten-minute walk away.

While it was unusual for a student to transfer in halfway of the semester, Hinata was sure she would be able to cope. She wouldn't let her hard work of proving her father wrong go to a waste.

She was nervous, but she was having a good feeling about it. The weather was good as well, the warm sun and blue skies lifting her mood, the light spring breeze caressing her face. She had always loved sunny days, the bright and warm feeling the sun would bring her, along with the contrast of the clear blue sky.

It was a new beginning, and a good start.

She pushed open the glass doors and walked in, her heels clacking against the polished marble floor, echoing the quiet lobby. It was narrow but the simple décor of the lobby already gave off a homey feeling. She was about to walk towards the lifts when something fluttered against her feet.

Bending down slowly while balancing her box in one hand, she picked up the flyer that had landed right at her feet, swept in by the wind. She squinted, the writing on the paper was quite a mess and she could barely make out a few words and numbers when she was greeted by a new voice.

"Hi!"

Hinata folded the flyer and slipped it in between one of her books as she turned around to see a beautiful young woman smiling at the foot of the stairs, smiling warmly at her. "Are you the new tenant?"

"Yes," Hinata nodded shyly. "My name's Hinata."

"I'm Ino," the blonde woman introduced herself, cerulean eyes darting towards her watch before smiling apologetically. "I would help you with your things, but I'm late for class. I'm in apartment 5B, come over for dinner later! My roommate's cooking is to die for."

Hinata graciously accepted her offer. She thought she had heard Ino say something before the glass doors closed behind her, but when she turned around, the blonde had already rushed off without looking back. She shrugged, perhaps Ino had just told her to arrive at a specific time.

She made her way towards the lift and pressed the up button, the electronic panel indicating the lift was coming down from the 7th floor. She hummed a tune as she waited, noticing the lift had paused at the 2nd floor for quite a while.

Meow.

She jumped slightly at the quiet meow along with the soft fur that suddenly brushed against her ankles. Her lavender eyes shifted downwards to meet a pair of wide blue eyes looking up curiously at her.

"Hey kitty," she said softly. "Where did you come from?"

She was about to reach down to pet the cat when it scurried away quickly, and at the same time, the soft ding from the lift indicated that it had finally arrived at the lobby.

"Huh?"

As the metal doors opened, Hinata angled her body sideways to let the young man exit the lift, making sure that her box wasn't blocking his way. But to her confusion, he merely squinted at the panel indicating they were at the ground floor, handsome features arranged in a slightly annoyed expression and wasn't making a move to leave.

"Come on in. I'm actually getting off at the 4th floor, but it skipped my floor. This lift's been giving us problems over the past week," he explained sheepishly, releasing the open button only after she entered. He pressed the button for his floor and asked her, "What floor are you getting off?"

"6th, please." Hinata said gratefully.

He eyed the box she had in her hands and was planning to ask if she needed any help, but before he could say anything, the lift made an abrupt stop which shocked Hinata, causing her to stumble slightly. The young man, on the other hand, didn't seem too surprised and merely reached out a hand to carefully stabilise the box in her hands.

"Is that normal?" Hinata asked slowly and unsurely. She glanced at the electronic panel and noticed that they had stopped on the 2nd floor.

"No," the young man let out a sigh, pressing the emergency button. "We're stuck. Shouldn't have used the lift." He muttered the last part to himself. He turned towards her, smiling warmly.

"Help will come soon, they've been expecting this to happen soon. In fact, I got stuck at the 2nd floor too when I was going down just now." He explained with a hearty chuckle, helping her place the large box on the polished tile floor of the lift. He stuck out a hand, introducing himself. "My name's Naruto, what's yours?"

She shook it, her small hand enveloped in his. It was warm, but not as much as the warmth brimming his rich blue eyes which reminded her of the sea in summer. "Hinata Hyuuga. Nice to meet you."

Naruto's brows raised upon hearing her name and Hinata shifted, slightly uneasy. Her family was quite well-known, and she had a few unpleasant experiences with friends in the past which made her rather insecure.

"You're Neji's relative then? Sister?"

She blinked, nodding slowly. "We're cousins."

"Which department are you from?" Naruto asked, not mentioning anything about her family name, it didn't matter to him. He made himself comfortable as he sat on the floor, back leaning against the wall of the lift.

Hinata seemed much more at ease as she followed and sat down beside him. "I'm in the biomedical department. It's going to be my first day tomorrow actually."

The blond man looked surprised. "You're the transfer student?" he gasped, clearly impressed. "KU never accepts transferees. Heck, entering KU was already a pain in the ass. Literally everybody was shocked when we heard there was going to be a transfer student. You must be a genius."

Hinata smiled, shy at his praise. "The entrance test wasn't easy, that's for sure," she said, thinking of the other few candidates that took the test at the same time as her. The exam was one of the most nerve-wracking ones she had ever taken. "I'm just lucky, maybe."

"Bullshit, I had to take the entrance test twice," he grinned. "Hey, I have a friend in the biomed department too! Maybe you guys can get to know each other later when they're all back. She's really cool and smart, I'm sure she can show you around."

"That sounds nice."

The two sat side by side, chatting animatedly about almost everything. Hinata even mentioned Ino's invitation and when she got to the part where she hadn't heard what Ino had told her, Naruto chuckled in reponse. "She was probably trying to tell you not to take the lift just in case."

Hinata laughed. "Then why did you take the lift if you knew it would give problems?"

The blond shrugged casually. "I don't know. I just felt like it."

Naruto, in exchange, told her stories about almost all the students that resided in the apartment complex. She learned that Ino's roommate was the one in the biomedical department he had planned to introduce her to, and that she was in an on and off relationship with Naruto's roommate.

She also learned of the other residents' names and courses, along with a few funny and embarrassing stories. From her brief time with the blond, she got the impression that he was truly a social butterfly. He was radiant and warm, and she felt comfortable even if she had just met him.

Like the sun, she concluded.

They were fully immersed in their own conversation and hadn't noticed how much time had passed since they had been stuck until the lift finally let out a soft ding and began functioning again, finally stopping at Naruto's floor.

"Oh, that was fast," Naruto murmured. He was halfway out of the lift when he suddenly turned back and held on to the open button.

A boyish grin spread across his handsome features. "We'll drop by Ino's tonight. We'll pester Sakura to make a feast to welcome you! She could honestly make it big as a chef, you'd love her cooking," he paused for a while before adding, "But then again, maybe it's because the rest of us can't cook to save our lives. See you!"

The raven-haired beauty had a smile playing on her lips the rest of the day, even the loneliness of living alone or the tiredness of rearranging her new room and moving in her things couldn't stop the happiness that was bubbling inside of her.

Her day seemed to get even better when she spotted the cat from the lobby sitting on her window sill, pawing against her closed window.

"Hey, you," she cooed, gently carrying it into her room. She was scratching its head when her fingers ran across a thin collar under its soft orange fur but without a tag. "So you belong to someone."

The cat meowed in response, nudging its head against her. It didn't seem to want to leave her room for the rest of the day, making itself comfortable on her carpet. It didn't wake or hassle Hinata as she cleaned and arranged her things, serving as a quiet companion that she enjoyed.

Hinata stood in front of apartment 5B, taking deep breaths to calm herself. She could hear faint laughter behind the door, and it made her nervous. She was shy and had never been good at socialising. Not to mention that these were a bunch of people who had known each other since they were in middle school, according to Naruto.

Based on the stories she had heard that afternoon, she believed that if they could become good friends with someone as bright as Naruto, they couldn't be bad people. But she was still nervous – what if she couldn't get along with them? Would that mean she wouldn't meet them again – wouldn't meet him again?

Gathering her courage and ignoring all the questions that were swarming her mind, she pressed the doorbell, getting more and more worried with every passing second. After what felt like a long time, the lock clicked and the door swung open to reveal a pair of familiar, warm blue eyes.

"Hey, Hinata!" Naruto greeted. He stepped aside, opening the door wider for her. "Come on in."

She smiled nervously as she entered, lifting a small bag in her hand for him to see. "I didn't know what to bring so I went to get this from the bakery nearby. I hope you all like fruit cake?"

The blond laughed, closing the door behind and showing her towards the living room where most of the others were gathered. "Anything sweet will get on their good side," he winked. He didn't know the effect that one small action had on Hinata's already turning stomach.

"Except Sasuke," he whispered loudly and acted as if he was telling her a huge secret but it was clear he was talking loudly enough for his roommate to hear. "He's a mood killer and doesn't eat anything sweet. But as long as Sakura likes you, his opinion doesn't matter."

A pillow came flying at his head which he ducked swiftly.

"Guys, this is Hinata Hyuuga, the transferee," Naruto introduced her. Her lavender eyes scanned the small crowd, instinctively observing their expressions and reactions.

There was the raven-haired man lounging on the sofa that threw the pillow which she presumed was Naruto's roommate, a brown-haired man who was dozing off a seat away and Ino who was between them, playing her phone idly. Another raven-haired man who looked like he could be Sasuke's relative was busy on his laptop in a corner, and a brown-haired man on the floor who was smiling rather impishly at them.

They didn't react much apart from the brief flash of recognition that crossed their features, followed by polite greetings and smiles. While she wasn't entirely relieved at their friendly approach, it did take a load off her shoulders.

She learned their names quickly, relating faces to Naruto's stories; Sai who was rushing a last minute assignment on his laptop was in the art department, Kiba was in KU on a sports scholarship, Shikamaru who was sleeping was in engineering and Ino in chemistry.

"Hyuuga?" Sasuke frowned. "Hyuuga Corporation?"

"Uh… yes?" Hinata answered nervously, slightly intimidated at Sasuke's sharp glance.

It didn't last for long because a young woman appeared from the kitchen and knocked the back of his head lightly with her knuckle, causing him to turn around. He shot her a half-hearted glare, and Hinata saw a hint of fondness appear in those obsidian eyes of his.

"Behave," the rose-haired woman chided Sasuke before turning to her. "Hi, ignore him – Sasuke's from the Uchiha family. You know how competitive things get. I'm Sakura! We're going to be classmates from tomorrow onwards."

"Nice to meet you," Hinata responded, relaxing at her friendly smile. She handed the bag towards Sakura. "Um, I hope you all like fruit cake."

She had been surprised at hearing that Sasuke was from the Uchiha family as Naruto hadn't mentioned the full names of his other friends, but this was the prestigious Konoha University after all.

The evening was filled with laughter, chatter and even bickering, and Hinata found herself enjoying soon enough. They welcomed her quickly, and she found herself blending into their conversations rather easily, all her fears from earlier had been long forgotten. They were rowdy at times, exposing each other's embarrassing stories, but they made sure she didn't feel uncomfortable in any way.

"Not at that time Ino showed up to a lab session hungover and almost blew up the place. We had to evacuate because some gas was leaked or something. And it's ridiculous how she never got caught."

"You're one to talk? You fell asleep in the middle of a game after two consecutive days of partying and almost missed the scholarship. You wouldn't be sitting here now if it weren't for us."

"If you visit the art department, you'll see one of Sai's artworks on display right in the main hall. Honestly, that piece was just Kurama kicking the paint buckets over his canvas and him just mixing the colours together. Funnily, he got the award for that exhibition."

"I think I still have a photo of Naruto's pink hair somewhere in my phone, from when he lost that bet to Sakura in high school. It was a horrible dye job and it wasn't even done properly – almost hot pink mixed with blond. Here, Hinata, look at this!"

"Sakura actually went for an exam for a class she never took. She just went in the wrong classroom. And she got the highest mark – beating my grades. It makes no sense."

"Sasuke, you're just praising her at this point. I don't think you understand the concept here."

Hinata was sure she hadn't laughed as much as she did before during that short dinner. In fact, she also found herself learning more and more about the bunch of people over the course of the dinner and realised that her fears were childish. She had learned that Sasuke wasn't the only one from a prominent family among them; Ino, Shikamaru and another friend of theirs that was absent were heirs to the influential ISC Group, each a member of the three founding families.

"Are you still nervous?" Sakura suddenly asked her when only the two of them were left sitting around the dining table. Naruto and Sasuke had lost in a game of scissors-paper-stone and were in the kitchen cutting the fruit cake to be served while the others lounged around the living room.

Sakura's gaze was fixed on her with a small, secretive smile playing on her lips, the way her emerald green eyes were glinting knowingly told Hinata that the rosette knew what she had been worried about all along.

"Not anymore," Hinata answered truthfully, the corner of her lips unconsciously curving into a soft smile when her lavender eyes landed on Naruto who was bickering with his roommate. She turned back to see the rosette grinning at her, and a light blush dusted her cheeks. "I like it. This. All of you. I'm very thankful."

Sakura hummed. "Him, you mean," she said, nudging her chin towards the kitchen and ignoring the way Hinata was trying to stammer a denial. "Families and backgrounds – they were conscious of it in the beginning too. Back then, I was such a loner that I couldn't even imagine sitting around like this with a bunch of friends, much less kids from important families. But then Naruto came along and it's like he collects people, you know? There's no one too difficult for him to be friends with. There are even days where I envy him, he's the only one Sasuke probably ever opens up to-"

She stopped, probably realising she was going off topic. "Anyway, I heard you two met because you were stranded in the lift this afternoon?"

"Yeah," Hinata chuckled. "I think Ino tried to warn me, but I didn't hear her. Naruto told me he was stuck on the 2nd floor twice."

Sakura laughed. "I'm surprised he even took the lift," she said, her eyes twinkling. "Do you know, they say if you see multiple numbers in a row, it's a sign you'll be meeting your soulmate?"

Hinata blinked, but before she could react the rose-haired woman was already waving her hand in casual dismissal.

"But who knows. It's just a saying I've heard." She glanced over, noticing the two leaving the kitchen with the cake already neatly sliced, still bickering. Turning to Hinata, she whispered with a cheeky grin. "Either way, I'm sure you and him will get along very well."

"What are you doing? What are you telling her now?" Naruto asked when he spotted them talking in hushed voices, blue eyes squinting at Sakura suspiciously.

The rosette leaned back in her chair, flipping her hair with a smug smile. "About your bad habits. All the shit you've done to us. 9 years worth of revenge. Did you know this guy thought the sun literally switches into the moon at night up until two years ago?"

"Collect your girlfriend!" Naruto whined to Sasuke, pointing a finger at Sakura's face.

The raven-haired man merely shrugged, placing the plates on the table gently. He turned to Sakura and asked, "Did you at least mention his trash pile of a room?"

Before the blond could retort, Ino chimed in happily, "Or how he can't keep a pet around for more than half a year? They all ran away eventually, maybe because they couldn't stand it anymore."

Kiba scoffed. "And his shitty handwriting. Once, he failed a test because the examiner couldn't comprehend what he was writing. And he actually got almost all the answers correct for once."

Naruto crossed his arms in front of his chest, shooting his friends annoyed glares. "Exaggerations, don't listen to them. I need new friends."

"Only truths," Sakura said. "Bet you no one can read those flyers you put up looking for Kurama."

Hinata laughed, enjoying their banter. While she felt slightly bad for Naruto, she knew that they were all fiercely loyal to each other. Perhaps even Naruto didn't really mind it as much as he said he did, judging from the fondness in the way he was retorting their teasings. She really was thankful to have met him and all of them.

It was almost an hour past midnight when they finally decided to return their rooms other than Shikamaru who was already dead to the world, sprawled across the sofa in Ino and Sakura's living room and Sasuke who went out to get supper for Sakura who had a few reports to finish.

Naruto had offered to walk Hinata up to the her floor and they were chatting when he told her, "I hope you had fun."

She nodded, the corner of her lips curving upwards in a soft smile, the same one that she did unconsciously when she was talking about him with Sakura earlier. "I did, thank you." She paused, suddenly remembering something and asked, "Is Kurama your pet?"

"Yeah," the blond said, sighing. "He's my cat. He ran off yesterday when we left to go for class and I couldn't chase him fast enough."

"Does he have orange fur?"

Naruto blinked. "How did you know? Did you pick up one of those flyers?"

They had reached the 7thfloor when Hinata let out a soft laughter. "I think I did," she recalled the piece of paper she had picked up that morning and the fact that she couldn't make out the words at first glance. Kiba was right – his handwriting was quite terrible.

As they walked past the lifts on the way to her apartment, she noticed that the electronic panel indicated the lift was now out of order, but that it had stopped working on the 2nd floor. She smiled, thinking of Sakura's little saying.

As she unlocked her door, she told Naruto to wait for a moment as she went in to pick up the little cat that had made itself quite comfortable at her place. Naruto's blue eyes lit up at the sight of him, and the breath-taking smile that spread across his face was one Hinata wouldn't forget.

"I think," he said slowly as he carefully cradled Kurama in his arms, the wide grin still on his face. The gaze in his sea blue eyes softened as he looked at her. "That Kurama found you for me instead."