Warnings: Vague references to underage (never detailed), violence, character death, language, sexual content. There is an age gap between the two main characters that will eventually be addressed accordingly.
Thanks again guys : ) you're all sweet. Good news! I think I know what I'm doing with the story now (hopefully!). Bad news, we're bracing for two possible hurricanes in my area so power outages... . And as a clarification, I really won't be doing Hinata's POV very often, since I'm trying to tell it from the POV of a normal person who perceives these events. Hinata's POV will come up once in a while for explanations sake mostly.
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Hyuuga.
Sasuke narrowed his eyes.
It sounded familiar. It sounded old, or at least a name he'd definitely heard around before.
Sasuke balanced his pencil on the distal joint of his finger. Not that it mattered, he supposed. But she wasn't making sense. Sasuke didn't quite fit the definition of the old adage, 'curiosity killed the cat' but she was different than usual. Different from what he was used to everyday. It was natural that he felt suspicious.
She wasn't routine.
From beyond the quiet thoughts he kept to himself, the outside world was pressing in, clamoring with the noise of his classmates.
Naruto was arguing about some anime or something with Kiba and Chouji, while Sakura and Ino conversed about some teen romance series while they read up on their English assignment.
At least, Sasuke thought, the girls could multitask. He slid his eyes over to look at the rest of his team. Girls may be weird and annoying, and perhaps they cried or whined too much, but they could spread their focus better than most boys their age. They were at least reading up for their presentation and mid-term paper while they talked about an unrelated topic.
Meanwhile…
Sasuke's blank face didn't even remotely resemble a proper expression while he listened in on the other half of his group.
"Gohan or Ichigo?" Chouji challenged.
"Nnnn Ichigo. At least he doesn't act all pussy when it comes to fighting. I mean Gohan's Super-Saiya outfit –" Kiba began before he was interrupted.
"What?! No way! Well okay yeah Gohan is kinda pussy about fighting and stuff, but he owned Cell when he was a kid. Ichigo has to actually like die before he gets better at anything. Gohan just puts on his boss-face and levels up. But heh, I guess greatness runs in the family or something like that?" Naruto gesticulated with his hands wildly and ended with a vaguely smug look. Kiba scowled. Chouji nodded.
"Ya know Goku dies a lot and levels up, right?" Kiba asked disgustedly.
Naruto turned narrow eyes on Kiba. "Goku. Is a badass."
"Who dies a lot. Like. Alllll the time. He even likes staying dead."
"Ah but you know Ichigo has his Hollow form…" Chouji considered, sucking absently at a jawbreaker he'd snuck in the classroom.
Sakura and Ino had begun shooting the boys evil looks. Sasuke wasn't surprised. It was coming.
"Why did you guys come to our group? All you guys ever talk about are Dragon Balls and Detergent and, at the moment, who would win a stupid fake fight between fake people who live in totally different fake worlds!" Sakura hissed.
Naruto and Kiba puffed up, "That's not what they're – "
"We don't care what they're called. No one cares. The point is this: you three haven't done squat leaving Forehead, me, and Sasuke-kun to do all the work. Per usual. I mean it's not like all the other classes have projects or exams due at the same time right now." Ino muttered without lifting her eyes off of her tablet and making notes to the side in a small notebook.
"Right. It's completely fine to do stupid crap while all the teachers are piling the work on at the same time. Please, continue, while Pig-girl, myself and Sasuke-kun read things we don't want to just because we're that bored," Sakura's sweet smile contradicted her flat, irritated tone.
Sasuke resisted the urge to raise an eyebrow. He was still just staring at the Table of Contents in his book. Sakura had plowed through half the book she'd brought back from the library and Ino had already bookmarked several sites for research.
Nonetheless, Kiba and Naruto deflated with similar pouts while Chouji just shrugged his shoulders and turned to a page in his textbook.
The whole class had heard and while normally getting scolded in such a manner would arouse some humor, it happened too often to Uzumaki and Inuzuka for anyone to really count it as anything other than normal. Now and again it may or may not be accompanied by a collective eye roll depending on how good the show was. As it was, no one even looked up from their work.
Sasuke turned his eyes back to the book and looked at the different sections with their small paraphrases and decided to just make a quick decision. It didn't really matter.
A project that they would have to translate and read in English about any topic they wanted. His group chose popular urban myth creatures, one each, and while Sasuke hadn't particularly minded topic, he hated the way they would have to present it.
They'd have to do it in power point format with lots of pictures and flair and color, with a memorized script they would speak in English then translate it in Japanese for the class. As if one paragraph of English would really amount to anything. They weren't even required to have a specific amount of time or word count for it. He could already hear the Google translations droning in his ears.
Sasuke flipped through the book twice and stopped randomly at a title page of a section. He skimmed it and shifted in his seat, feeling more alert after he did so. He scanned the page again, reading it more thoroughly. The white noise of classmates talking, the scratching of pencils and the whik of pages turning seemed quieter as he read.
Superstitions Regarding Invitations:
"Regarding invitations to the supernatural it comes in basic forms. It's an opening of a door, a sign of hospitality and etiquette that we all learn from around the world: to welcome someone, even a stranger, into one's home and perhaps give them a place to rest and something to eat. Things like 'come in', 'welcome' and even the less formal 'get in' have attached connotations that suggest an offer extended no matter whoever it is being offered to. These connotations can include 'come in' but could suggest 'would you like water?' or 'welcome to my house' is to 'you are welcome to my house'. Vague things like invitations leave room for interpretation and the supernatural beings, from all different cultures in innumerable different types of creatures, make use of this. They prey upon hospitality.
Of course the legends regarding invitations extended to the supernatural were more or less warnings for people to be wary of strangers…"
Sasuke's eyes widened by a fraction. "…They prey upon hospitality…"
"Let me in." And beneath her fingers, the wood creaked.
He rubbed the back of his neck where goose bumps had broken out and brushed the fine hairs down.
Somehow, although it really meant nothing about his situation or her, it felt - uncomfortable.