Competition

The hall was of course colder, but colder than I had anticipated. And as I walked further inside, I felt the air conditioning blasting cold wind making some of the guests with too much exposed skin shivering in cold. I was still warm from being outside but I still shivered in the cold artificial wind. I wished someone noted the too low setting of the air cond soon. In the meantime I hugged myself and started rubbing both of my exposed arms for warmth.

"Hi…"

I thought I heard a voice so I turned around and saw a young lady around my age standing beside me. She wasn't there before.

"Here's for… for you. To make yourself warm… it's cold here," a lady in a lavender dress handed me a red folded shawl.

"Thank you," I said. Although the shawl clashed greatly with my dress I still took it from her. I made eye contact and only then noticed that she had the lightest lavender eyes I have ever seen. "Hyuga-san?" I asked. Anyone with lavender eyes would probably be the owner of the famous last name, Hyuga.

She blushed hard and then bit her lips. "Call me Hinata… Hyuga-san's my father."

"Oh, thank you... Hinata," I said as I unfolded the shawl. Itachi always told me the importance of being nice to others, so here I am being respectful by taking the shawl. I was shivering but I thought that I would run outside later when Naruto began mingling around with the VIPS, they wouldn't miss me for an hour at least.

"You are Miss… Miss Sasuke Uchiha right?" she asked further. Her words were careful, like she was really afraid of saying my name the wrong way.

I softened a bit and replied as I maintained eye contact while unfolding the shawl, "If I call you Hinata, then call me Sasuke."

She smiled wider and offered me a hand, "Nice to mmm..meet you Sasuke."

"Me too," I shook her hands and then let go of it. I quickly wrapped the long shawl around my body to cover my exposed arms.

"A friend of Naruto?" she asked.

"Yes, we studied in the same university," I offered her a very vague answer. I was not comfortable yet about strangers knowing that we were now a couple.

She smiled at me and fidgeted with her dark purple dress. I thought she was nervous or something. Before I could ask further question a guest came and greeted her. I nodded along as she introduced me to the guest. Then we were back to not speaking again. I was not really keen on small talk, but since the Hyuga's company was among one of brother's company's retailer I decided to just do some small talk. The warm weather was a nice generic topic to talk about.

"It was warm earlier so I did not bother to bring along a shawl," I said. I was basically lying as I was never the shawl kind of girl. If I had came with Itachi I would wear my long sleeved short dress or bring my leather jacket along. Hinata dressed way more femininely than me or Sakura, it had laces on the bottom and some blings on the top. My style was a little more plain, pleats or leather.

Suddenly Hinata sneezed and looked away as if embarrassed. She covered her mouth and said, "Sorry! I better tell them about the air cond. excuse me Sasuke."

She left me just like that and I was slightly furious. Here I was making small talk and she just went away like that. While I looked at the spot where she had stood, someone touched my shoulder and said, "Hello."

I was surprised as I didn't know many people at events like this. I turned around and saw a pair of lavender eyes again, but this time slightly darker. "Neji!"

"So you finally show up at social events, where's Itachi?" Neji Hyuga, my fellow coursemate asked.

"I came here with Naruto," I said curtly. "And I have, attended events like this a few times with Itachi before. You were just weren't there each time."

Neji chuckled. I saw that he was just teasing me about me not being as socially present as Itachi. Then he said, "I saw that you met my cousin."

I thought he was going to poke fun at me for suddenly being social with Naruto, but he was just commenting on his cousin. Then I slowly smirked, as I only realized that the girl who gave me the shawl was Neji's cousin.

"Tell her that I will return her shawl after I get it cleaned. Is she sick? She was sneezing before I could return the shawl."

"Ah, don't worry about it, she was recovering from flu but it's nothing major," Neji said. He was smiling like he had something else on his mind. Neji always smiled like that when he had something up his ass, sometimes when he knew what my marks were for some projects. He was chummy with most of our lecturers and sometimes he saw the marks when he was around helping the lecturers.

Neji then stood a little closer to me and bent a little. He was a head taller than me, taller even than Naruto.

"Hey Sasuke."

"What?" I asked. He can't be asking about class right now, so this most probably would be about something else.

"Are you and Naruto for real?"

"What do you mean by that?"

"Are you with him for the long haul?"

I cringed at him. Who was he to ask questions like that and it wasn't Neji's style to mind people's business.

"Mind your own business Neji," I warned him. It was really out of character for me to do that. But since Neji was being unusually nosy I decided to be unusually defensive.

"Well. I beg your pardon for being nosy, but I think you both might want to ask Jiraiya about Naruto later," he said.

"What's with the mystery and all?" I looked up at Neji. But he was already waving and walked away.

"I'm not the right person to tell you about it. See you at class. Good night."

I frowned at Neji's disappearing back and then decided to not think further about it. Ignoring the nagging thought that there might be something waiting for me and Naruto, was hard. I milled around avoiding the spot where Naruto was talking to Jiraiya and Mito Senju. They did not bother to invite me along in their conversation, i was not intimidated at all. Me and Naruto are friends and have only been a few months into this couple thing and so I can't be expecting to stand beside him like a wife or fiancee. I was comfortable being just where I am right now.

Jiraiya then stopped talking to Mito Senju and left the Mayor with Naruto. He walked quite a distance and entered another crowd. When he finally stopped he placed his hand on a dark haired-Itachi Uchiha. So my brother was here like I expected him. I did not want to completely avoid my brother but did not want him to find me this early so I walked to the edge of the crowd to fetch myself another drink.

As I stood alone, the man Naruto had introduced as Utakata came and stood beside me.

"Hi again, Miss Uchiha right?" he asked.

"Call me Sasuke."

"Ok Sasuke, call me Uta, Utakata seems a mouthful."

I smiled at him and said, "Will do."

We stood in comfortable silence before he asked, "I hope you are ok."

"Hmmm." I said. What's with all the questions concerning my well being. I eyed Utakata more critically, he had an apathetic expression on his face but he kept glancing at me a few times. That was weird for a stranger to do.

"Not really," I answered after a few moments. Neji's previous similar words rang inside my head and then something popped into my head. If I feigned my condition like I was affected by something, Utakata might elaborate on it further.

"Does Naruto know?" I asked.

"I think he only knew about it today too. This had crossed my mind when we were younger. Although Naruto wasn't biologically related to Jiraiya but since his late father was Jiraiya's apprentice, he is regarded as one of Jiraiya's. Hyuga is a good family, but yours is too."

My mind was pretty confused by his words but I continued acting, "I hope the Hyuga knows about it too."

"I am not sure about that. Well, I have to go. I stayed back to meet Neji and he was sorry about this too. Good night Sasuke."

"Good night Uta-san," I said.

What the heck were they trying to tell me was really making me furious. I eyed Naruto and then Jiraiya. By now Itachi was glancing nonchalantly over to my area. I knew Jiraiya had probably told him that I was there too. I think Jiraiya had told Itachi earlier about me coming along. I know that Itachi's business associates often acted like fathers to me, always telling Itachi about my whereabouts. But I knew that I never did anything wrong and so I wasn't really bothered by their fatherly acts.

I turned to Naruto and he was now being flanked by Hyuga-san on one side and Mito Senju on another. Hyuga-san had a hand on Naruto's shoulder and was smiling very widely. It was a rare expression since Hyuga-san would usually offer only a small smile when he was happy. This was strange.

My instincts told me to eavesdrop on them. But there was no way I was going to listen on what they were talking about without being nearby. Maybe I should really ask Jiraiya what Neji and Utakata was talking about. But then I had to face my brother.

The need to know urged me to approach my brother. So I finally relented. Walking towards Itachi and Jiraiya, I greeted them.

"Niichan, Jiraiya-san, goodnight," I said hugging Itachi and nodding to Jiraiya. Itachi took the chance ruffle my hair slightly but I quickly escaped from him.

Jiraiya just smiled at our interaction and I began poking around. "Naruto looks worried, is there anything I should know?"

"It's normal baby sis, you don't need to worry about anything," Itachi smiled knowingly.

"So you heard?" Jiraiya asked.

"I didn't but Neji and Utakata kept asking me and telling me weird things about Naruto. I can't ask him now since he's busy," I said glancing at Naruto's direction. He was now talking with Hyuga-san and Hinata. I noticed a very happy looking Hinata…

"It's normal for a father to ask someone's son to escort their daughter. It's common courtesy."

"I forgot to do that, but you can handle things yourself. You are too independent for that sister," itachi added.

More vague answers. I was tired of these people who kept shoving vague information to me, so I took off the shawl and folded it. I decided to approach them and just act like a shameless person listening on.

As I approached Naruto, Hyuga-san was also leaving him. So I paused and turned around as if mingling with the crowd for a minute. When i turned around Naruto was chatting with Hinata, his face was friendly.

"Hi again Hinata," I said.

"Sass, this is Hinata-chan, my old friend," Naruto said.

"We have met earlier," I said smiling. Hinata smiled at me too.

"Hyuga-san asked me to show Hinata around as she was not used to being around by herself in konoha. She studied in Iwa from when she's sixteen until now."

"Ah, so when is that?" I asked. Why is Utakata and Neji acting like this was something a crisis or something. It was just Hyuga-san asking Naruto to take his daughter around Konoha. He might be tight friends with Jiraiya, instead of Itachi. I bet if Hyuga-san was chummy with Itachi he would ask me to take care of Hinata.

"We are going to the zoo and bird park tomorrow, my lecturer decided to cancel our class tomorrow morning."

I smiled because I had classes most mornings, that was no problem. I wasn't looking forward to going to the zoo or bird park anyway.

"I am so...sorry my father asked you to… to escort me. I ttt...told him I could go with my cousins but he told me that they were too... y...young. Neji-nii could not come as he is also working all week."

All her words were stilted but that did not annoy me. Something was beginning to annoy me but what was that? Hinata wasn't even being malicious or anything.

"Don't worry I know Konoha like the back of my hand. So where else do you want to go?" Naruto asked.

Hinata blushed. Why did I notice that?

"I...I would like to visit the museum and … na.. national gallery too," she said.

Ok, that irked me. I went to the museum alone using a rented car when I first got my license. "Surely you have a license?"

"I have," she said. Then she bit her lips and said, "My father does not let me drive alone. Usually Neji-niisan would be with me when I drive in town."

I stopped myself from sighing, she was a complete stranger so no need to be so judgemental. Her father had asked Naruto nicely to escort her around they were friends longer than I was with Naruto. I then handed her the shawl and said, "Thanks for the shawl Hinata. I am going to head over outside to talk with my friend."

Naruto who knew that I was an antisocial person looked at me strangely but then Hinata said, "Gladly. So Naruto, what.. what are you studying at uni?"

As Naruto replied to her I looked around and decided that though I could stay and talk about whatever they were talking about, something inside was bothering me. So I excused myself saying that I need to make a call and I walked outside and looked into the sky. What was it that was bothering me, I wondered and wondered.

Naruto did not come for me until half an hour later.

"Babe, what's wrong?"

"I don't know," I was utterly confused with myself tonight.

"I am sorry about not being with you almost all night, that was a boring party."

"I saw that you quite enjoyed it."

Naruto frowned and leaned on the wall beside me, "It was great being recognized as Jiraiya's godson. The mayor. Haha, never imagined myself meeting the mayor."

"That's great. She's Tsunade's mother right?"

"Yes, that was quite funny. Tsunade not attending her mother's function," Naruto then chuckled. "But…"

"What?" I said it too quickly. I knew that I was being nosy about that moment where Naruto did not seem very happy talking to Hyuga-san. I hoped that he could read my mind right now.

"Hyuga-san, Hinata's father asked me to take care of his daughter. That was weird. I mean we were friends in school before she moved to a private school and uni over in Iwa. I mean Itachi did not even say anything like that to me and I know he was aware that you're my girlfriend."

I bet Naruto must have run into Itachi sometime after we became a couple. Itachi was a know it all after all, there was nothing in Konoha which was a mystery to him.

"I mean Hinata was just a friend, you are my girlfriend. Are you ok with me escorting her around?"

"You agreed already," I said.

"Not that I can reject it. I mean it's Hyuga-san, he is Jiraiya's client, the Hyuga's company, Phoenix Corps or something is a big publisher..."

"I am ok Naruto."

"You sure?"

"Yes, it's only an outing or two," I knew I wasn't the jealous type so why would i be bothered.

"Hmm, that was …. Thanks Sass, I know you'd trust me. Still this is weird."

I wanted to agree with him, but I think I will need to ask Neji or Utakata about this further. I can't go to Jiraiya right now.

"Kids, let's go home," Jiraiya called.

Me and Naruto quickly nodded to each other and followed Jiraiya's retreating back. I was still wondering at the back of my mind. Was i bothered at all about Hinata and Naruto?

Author's Note : I think Mito Senju was Tsunade's grandmother but he'll, just think of it as a creative adjustment of an Alternate Universe. So in here, Mito Senju is Tsunade's mother.