Defining a Color
[Last chapter was kind of short, I'm sorry for that, but I'm ready to start the next chapter. Right after the last one, I know right, Good for me, and hopefully for you. GO]
He pushed open the right of the green double doors. He was met by… an assistant? Sure, there were always assistants in the Hokage tower, but they were mostly Anbu, not this: civilian, paper printing, file mule; rummaging through desk after desk ahead of him."Found it" she spoke to herself, resting back against the support of her desk chair. He stepped forward, cautiously, the recollections of how to deal with "form pushers" weren't the most numerous, as uncommon as an assistant was, at least for his life."Umm, is "The Old Lady" back?"
"Hmm?" she looked up from her desk, brushing her blond hair behind her ear "
"Ehh, Ino?" the white lab coat, was unfamiliar. She raised a brow.
"It's just… I'm not really use to seeing you in anything other than purple.
"Oh, my lab coat. You like it? she asked, dusting off her left sleeve."Shizune makes me wear it sometimes, since she's always working with medicine and chemicals, you know."
Treading carefully, he asked her about her training, her competition with Sakura was something he didn't follow well.
Her eye brow rose "You're asking me about my competition with your long time crush?"
-"Alright, Nii-san" She left her cousin at the at the hospital entrance.
"They built this kind of far away from the rest of the village, didn't they" she watched as the top of the mansion came into view over the hill. It's always plain walls stroking contrast in between the trunks of the trees; the leaves were reddening, they became brittle, one by one, everyday; the redder of them on the ground at the base of the trees. She broke off of the path; that led around the thickest of the trees, instead deciding to maneuver around the trunks. Digging her nails into the crevice where a portion of the tree stuck out from the rest, she pulled herself in between two half dead, whatever they planted out there. She stopped and turned around, with the raise of her head, she stared at the underside of the brush. Still unable to figure out what kind of tree it was, she turned back around. To the right of a black-burnt tree, resting on the, above surface, root, was a small red fox. Hinata froze, staring into the solid black pupil, a civil eye, but unwavering. It shifted its' weight onto one foot. It took one step down. Then another step forward, a quicker one after that, an even quicker one after that. Before her eyes, the small creature was in a sprint, growing larger and larger as it closed in. Was it a wolf? No, but she didn't have time to worry. It was in her face. Her normal reflex to swing and dodge was gone. She couldn't move, but she could feel a pain in her back. Why was she looking at the sky? She could feel the pressure on her left and right arm. She switched to her left arm, paw, then her right, paw. She slowly turned her head to the sky. The head of a fox; obscured her sight, all sky behind it. She watched as the eye morphed into a red well; that consumed her thoughts. She tried to shake her blank mind, look away maybe, but she couldn't look away. The fox leaned his head down to her collarbone. He took in a large, spiteful sniff, his black tarter lips rippling with the force of his drawn breath. He lowered his head, the fur of his snout just barely grazing her ear. He let out a long, low "Girl". She was stuck, her teeth were chattering, like the early morning training sessions she had when she was younger, but it was warm today, too warm even, too late "too late". "You don't know him. You don't? You don't!" He eyed her, watching every slight flinch of her muscles."You don't know us" with a grunt, he pushed his paws down against her arms, his torso rose. He turned before pawing at the dirt. He took off into a run. She leant up off of the ground, feeling the pain of the log she had been laying on. She could feel her eyes stinging, was she about to cry? Yes, No, she couldn't, why would she? She was solely confused, other than her horrification, mainly at herself; why couldn't she have just looked away? She waited in dread for the wolf to turn around, but instead watched it take a dissipating leap into the air, the red essence curling and warping in a suspended current. She turned away, a blank expression on her face, she was sure as to what that was, but what would she do about it? "Ko, I'll tell him!" She ran, stepping over the roots of trees. She didn't stop until she got to the entrance. The guards bowed, before stepping to the side. She said her normal courtesies as though everything was normal. She stepped with haste down the woodwork. Coming to a stop outside the generic paper door, she listened to an elder speaking…to Ko? At least she wouldn't have to go to the other side of the Hyuuga mansion to get him. She tried not to ease-drop as she waited for them to finish their conversation. After a minute her long time guardian Ko, stepped out of the door. He stepped right by her, taking a left."Ko" she called, lowly, unsure whether or not the elders would wanna speak with her, if they were made known of her return. He turned around "Hinata-sama, you're back."
"Hello, Ko, how have you been?"
"Fine Hinata-sama, and you?"
"I need to talk to you" she said with a hand gesturing to follow her. She stepped past him and he followed. She walked until she got to her room; with the pull of her arm, the paper door slid open, coming to a slow stop, once it reached the end of its hinges. She stepped into her room, leaving the door opened. She walked to the head of her bed, and sat down, crisscross. Ko sat at the foot of the bed, after compulsively brushing at the place he would sit. She unzipped her jacket at the neck, giving just enough room for her to breathe. She braced her hand at her neck, wiping the clammy texture off of her collar bone. "Hinata-sama, why are you sweating like that?"
After ten minutes of speaking, she finished her story, leaving Ko with a blank, unreadable expression. His mouth gradually formed into a faint frown. Suddenly Hinata was regretting her decision to confide in Ko. His casual, fluid voice, emerged when his frown parted at the lips. "How many times have I told you not to even go near that boy? And now you're dating him. You have no regards for your elders, do you?" when he saw her face quickly morph into a "how dare you look" with the gasp and everything, he let out a slight, reassuring "Ha" he sighed, now impartial to whether or not she was still offended."You like him that much, to disobey your entire family, from your days before the academy?" He looked up with a large smile donned on his face "are you happy?" She let out an almost relieving laugh, rolling over on her stomach, aimed at the dresser on the right side. She dipped her hand into the second drawer, pulling out a single orange thread of cloth from Naruto's old jacket. She kneaded the cloth in her hand, smiling to herself, bouncing her legs off the backs of her thighs, like a zealous teenager, which in fact she was. She finally answered Ko's question, with a humble "yes" before brushing the fabric against her cheek. "You still haven't answered my question." He said, eyeing her peculiar behavior. The curves of her mouth that formed her smile descended into a look of the scarred, her eyes grew to the spacey gaze of someone with a dead mind."I saw a fox, it was red, big; well not at first, it just stared at me."
-"Yeah, well anyway, I'll have no problem catching up to her" she said with a cocky smirk.
"Are you sure about that?" he spoke, sure he was gonna get hit. Her left fist connected with his face. "Called it" he spoke under his breath.
"What'd you say?"
"Nothing"
"Sure you didn't" she said smiling, satisfied that he was still a bit scared of her."Thanks for stopping by Naruto, it gets kind of boring here sometimes, but what is, you said you needed?
-She was glad she had gotten to tell him, but was still having a hard time gauging his reaction. She slipped the file under her arm, clutching a pale bag in her teeth. With her free hand she grabbed at the handle; her left hand dipping into her jacket pocket, pulling out the key to the express door, the quickest way to the Hokage, almost completely bypassing the front office.
"I need to speak to the old lady really quick."
"I'm sure that would be fine, but you're gonna have to wait a bit-"
"It's really important" he quickly cut in.
She sighed "I don't think that I can do that, I don't know exactly-"
-She pushed the door open; their heads turned. "Hinata?" simultaneously rang out. Naruto squinted trying to make sure he was seeing right, through the sunlight pouring in through the door. The door closed, locking itself automatically. She flipped through a paper packet as she walked along the wall, heading towards the stair case. "I have to get the office clerks signature" she sighed, she would've been killed had she forgot "I really have to get better at this" she whipped around. Naruto watched as she walked towards them, blissfully unaware of her surroundings. Hinata looked up "I- uh need your sig- oh hello Ino." She looked at the tall looming man to the left of Ino, Naruto?
"What? No Hello?"
"H-hey Naruto-kun" the inescapable blush returning to her cheeks. Ino stayed quiet, always eager to watch how she interacted with Naruto. "What are you doing here?" he asked Hinata, looking at the papers in her occupied hands. She looked down, a nervous tick maybe? "Oh, I, uh have to file an incident report."
"Oh, so are you gonna need me to go with you or?..." he was still upset about what happened earlier.
"No, you're fine, Naruto-kun" the elders had been fended off from prosecuting Naruto after some generous persuading from a wounded clan head, kind of hard to protest against a wounded man without looking bad.
"I know I am, I'm sure you know personally, what about it." He knew it was cruel, but he couldn't resist, it was so easy. Ino herself couldn't believe that Naruto would say such a thing, she watched as Hinata's face lit up. "He is attractive, but he looks like he lost some muscle while he was gone" she thought, eyeing his white shirt, in between the sides of his open jacket, she could tell he was still fit, stomach flat, but just a while ago she could see the muscle when he turned at an angle.
"N-Naruto-kun" she said, playing with her fingers.
"Ha-ha, I'm just kidding"
"I'll sign that for you, Hinata" Ino cut in, extending her hand towards Hinata, hoping that they would continue their conversation, later, or at least hoping they would register that she was still there. She was rewarded when Hinata nodded and handed her a packet, backside up. Ino set the paper on her desk before signing her full name under the allotted space.
"Can I go up now…" Naruto said, watching Ino hand the papers back to Hinata. Hinata glanced at Naruto out of the corner of her eye, watching him start to get antsy, leaning on the desk.
"No… but Hinata you can go up now." Ino said sticking her tongue out at Naruto.
"Ino, would you let me take Naruto up to the Hokage with me, I'm sure he'll be good, won't you Naruto-kun.
"Absolutely" he said, trying to be as polite as possible, and well, not make Hinata look bad for vouching for him.
"Fine" she said, waving him off "but you owe me".
"Thank you Ino" he looked to Hinata. She turned and walked around the desk. He followed her around and up the stairs. He watched his footing as she took his hand and practically drug him around the spiral angling of the stair case. She let go when they got to the third floor, containing the Hokage business room, solely. She stepped through the door. Naruto's face lit up, there was Yamato sitting at a chair in front of the Hokage. She turned her attention from Yamato "Naruto? Wait, I'm assuming you're here for your clothes. Yamato pointed to a bag against the wall to the far right."Hinata, you're the one they sent? Hand it, I don't have all the time in the world." Hinata quickly moved over to the Hokage, setting the paperwork on her desk. Tsunade whipped it around, taking out a stamp and pressing it to the paper."Thank you Yamato, for keeping my clothes, I'll take em' now" he walked over to the wall, picking up his bag of clothes."Take em' where? Maybe you forgot you don't have a home."
"Oh, yeah, they didn't rebuild my apartments?"
"No, and we don't have time to talk about it right now, we'll figure it out after you get back."Hinata shuddered at the thought of him leaving, especially to where she guessed he was leaving to. "Where am I going" he blindly asked."Our forces have already been attacked just north of the land of rain; you're going to be one of the first platoons deployed."
"There are already people out there!" he asked.
"You've been gone a while Naruto" she said trying to keep her cool.
"And whose fault is that! I had important things to take care of!" Hinata turned to him; fairly sure of what he was talking about. He looked at her out of the corner of his eye.
"It doesn't matter! I'm your Hokage, now, you have two hours to prepare, before you are to me captain Tenzo at the front gate. Take this before you go, you'll need it." He reached over her desk taking a white slip of paper from her before sliding his bag off of his back and putting it in the smallest pocket on the left side. He reassured the security of his bag on his right shoulder. He grabbed the paper off of her desk. He turned around and handed it to Hinata."Thanks" he mumbled under his breath. She stopped him by the collar. "hmm" he turned his head, just as she tugged him down a little. She pressed her lips to his lightly. "It'll be okay, Naruto-kun" she said, releasing his collar, she pressed the door open.
"Did they just?"
"Yeah" Yamato added in.
AN: REVIEWS APPRECIATED, HOPING I CAN GET INTO THE ACTION LATER