Hahaa, remember when I said shortly after...
Around the time the DJ scratches a third record, Tobi is pulling her to the dance floor.
Shuffling awkwardly from side-to-side, Hinata tries to keep up with Tobi's animated movements as he parades across the dance floor. Her hands are grabbed suddenly when the song changes to an upbeat tempo. Tobi is pulling her into him then out again in a way that makes Hinata trip over her own feet as she adjust to the tempo change. She sees Hidan and Kisame from the corner of her eye, moving away from the punch table and between the bodies of students. Kisame has a hand above the heads of students with a red cup in it and from what she can tell Hidan looks as if he's trying to hide something in his waistcoat.
Then the song halts and a pounding bass rips through the speakers, the crowd of students cheer.
Don't drop that thun, thun, thun...
"Ayye!"
Hinata looks horrified at Tobi, he performs a move so complex with his feet she gets a little dizzy. Tobi has his back to her and Hinata doesn't know what to do with herself when she feels something grinding against the area between her thighs.
That's when she sees Kisame and Hidan for the second time. Hidan dances past them, shaking his body rather provocatively when Hinata smiles in his direction. Kisame on the other hand joins Tobi in reciting the song lyrics as he also takes to moving his body to the music.
As soon as the song ends another with not so subtle innuendo and double entendre takes its place and Tobi looks as if he's having a seizure. With the way the teen is jumping and waving his arms Hinata is surprised he hasn't dropped from all the energy he's exerting. Then Tobi spins in his spot and dances off into the crowd.
Kisame takes Tobi's position when he runs off to find Deidara exclaiming how their song is playing. He smiles down at her, and Hinata returns it with one of her own, trying to ignore the lyrics of the song.
"Oh, excuse me Ms. Hyuuga." Hinata is tapped on the shoulder, it's her gym teacher.
"Gai-sensei." Hinata shuffles to the side to let him past.
"And you are..." He's looking Kisame now. "Uh, a new teacher?" Gai has his hands on his hips and a look of bemusement on his face as he eyes her friend.
Kisame laughs and pats Gai on the shoulder. "Sensei, please."
"Sensei?"
Kisame looks at Gai skeptically, "I was in your class." Gai blinks. "Senior year; two years ago. I'm at the University now."
No words come from Gai but a look of confusion covers his face. Kisame walks away.
Hinata watches him leave as he heads over to the table where Hidan and Itachi are seated. Meanwhile, Gai moves over to Asuma – another gym teacher – seeming to ask if Kisame was in fact in his class two years ago.
She stands alone on the dance floor now, but still surrounded by other students dancing provocatively to the current song remix. Hinata thinks about joining the others at the table, maybe even finding Shino and Kiba, but decides against it and moves closer to the table full of refreshments and reaches for the ladle in the punch bowl. Pouring the bright mixture into a cup, she brings it to her mouth to take a sip when a hand stops her.
The liquid sloshes over the rim nearly spilling on her dress, and Sasuke's grip is firm and merciless when Hinata tries to shake her wrist loose. His grip tightens, and Hinata is in pain as she watches him pluck the cup from her hand and dumps the contents back into the bowl.
She gapes at him while rubbing her aching wrist.
"You don't want to drink that." Sasuke nods to her right, and Hinata follows his gaze. A group of boys, ties around their heads and swinging their suit jackets around like weapons, are toppling over each other trying to out dance the students around them. Hinata opens her mouth to defend them, wanting to say they're only enjoying themselves, but as she turns back to face Sasuke she sees Rock Lee stumbling onto the DJ platform followed by Neji and Gai as the two try, and fail, to stop him from assaulting the man with his own equipment.
Hinata is puzzled for a moment but puts two-and-two together when she sees a jovial looking Sakura chatting up a crying Sai. She eyes her now empty cup then moves her gaze back to Sasuke after she spots Izumo and Kotetsu sneak off to the dark area behind the bleachers.
"I, well - thank you."
"You may trust your 'friends'," says Sasuke and Hinata is surprised that he actually bothered with the air quotes. "but don't think that they're some type of grand project that can be swayed by a pretty face and kind words, I don't care what your cousin says. Don't be stupid."
What? What did- "What does Neji have to do with this?"
Sasuke turns to her, confused. An eyebrow is raised in Hinata's direction and a smirk crosses his face. "If you don't know, then never mind." Then he stuffs his hands in his pockets and walks away.
Hinata watches her classmate leave, marveling in Sasuke's words. That's the most he's ever spoken to her...and what about Neji doesn't she know? And some grand project? Don't be stupid? Her stupid?
She knew better, she knows better than to completely trust the Akatsuki. But so far they haven't done anything to make her feel corrupted, as Neji would say. It's not as if she was forced to come here, to interact with the other Akatsuki members. She genuinely likes them and if Sasuke and whoever else questions their friendship can't see that, then they're the ones being stupid. Hinata can't help but feel angry, did he really think her, so soft spoken and naive that she wouldn't be able to befriend the people that most fear. Hinata shakes her head, they're not bad, they're just seen that way.
Then she feels someone sidle up next to her and she turns to see Tobi.
"Is Hinata okay? She looks upset."
Hinata almost nods. "No Tobi, it's just Sasuke..." she trails off and looks at her wrist, it doesn't look like it's bruising but it still aches from his grip. "He just-"
"Did Sasuke do this?" He has her wrist in his hand now and brings it up to his mask as if examining it.
Hinata isn't sure what he sees but nods anyway. Then Tobi is off again. She doesn't bother to watch him disappear into the crowd before turning back to the punch table. There is a reason why she came here.
From the corner of her eye she can see a few students and a teacher or two stumbling across the dance floor. Well, she thinks humorlessly, Kisame and Hidan were standing suspiciously close to the table just a while ago.
When the lights start flashing, Hinata turns to Tobi to comment on the decorations. She nearly goes blind.
Tobi's mask is glowing under the blacklight. She has to squint just to look at him. But, before she can say anything, he thrust a plastic cup towards her. Looking behind her to ask if Deidara and Hidan if they'd like a drink, there is no one. She blinks at their empty seats then turns back to Tobi, who still has the drinks in his hands
She is thirsty and begins to wonder if the punch has sugared the alcohol down enough to be deemed harmless. She doesn't have many choices, and she much rather suffer from cottonmouth and a dry throat, than one of the infamous hangovers she sees her father nursing on the rare occasion she catches him outside of his home office in the afternoon. The thought alone of what it might feel like to taste it makes her stomach stir and Hinata licks at her lips. She's afraid of what might happen not knowing her own alcohol tolerance. But she can already feel the spit forming on the edge of her lips. One drink won't hurt.
Barely remembering what Sasuke had warned her about she accepts the drink from her date and takes a swallow. Hinata grimaces at the pungent taste, and smacks her lips at the liquid before downing the rest of the cups contents.
"Where are Hidan and Deidara?" She asks before setting her cup down.
Tobi gestures to the dance floor where a crowd is forming and Hinata presses her lips togehter and asks for another drink. Tobi nods and hands his over to her.
She becomes conscious of her mistake and not much later, after her fourth cup and realizes that she's feeling too good to care, or blame herself otherwise. Her mouth isn't as dry and she clears her throat feeling the pleasant accumulation of saliva in her mouth before taking another mouthful.
Hinata and Tobi are standing against the bleachers now, alone and watching the rest of the students and a few teachers move to the music. She feels complacent just standing here and looking, watching them. Then she feels a tap at her bare arm and she turns to Tobi.
He's scratching the back of his head and has his free arm raised like he's asking her something.
"Huh?"
"Tobi is..."
She leans in, unable to hear him over the pounding bass and Tobi steps up to her. Hinata is now able to see him as he pulls off his mask. She isn't as surprised as she should be when she sees his face, but it's sobering. The different eye colors and the scars and wrinkles that mar the right of his face don't compliment him but they add some type of rugged quality to him that makes her blush for a different reason. Suddenly he takes her shoulders and moves closer.
They're standing toe-to-toe now and Hinata is vaguely aware of the grip she has on the front of Tobi's suit.
Hinata's first kiss is taken to the cascading vocals of some unknown artist. In the back of her mind she thinks of how she should be reacting, and if its alright to be this comfortable.
"Is it Tobi's face?" Hinata looks at him, really looks at him. She looks back at her feet when they meet eyes. He steps away from her and prepares to put his mask back on when Hinata's hand shoots out to stop him. "It's okay if you don't like Tobi's face, no one does. You wouldn't be any different from the others."
Bewildered at the sudden accusation, she blinks. That's not true.
Hinata Hyuuga isn't the type of girl to get caught up on good looks or any other and physical attributes. It just never seemed important. So, of course she liked him, he was vibrant, had character and a tenacious vocabulary to match, but that also applied to Hidan.
But really thinking about it, Tobi and the others are in a category all their own when it comes to the Akatsuki. Hinata shakes her head and before she knows it she's leaning up to kiss Tobi's cheek. Her date - boyfriend, looks rightfully surprised when Hinata takes his hand into her own but that doesn't stop him from smiling.
Still, Tobi pulls his mask back into place and Hinata can't blame him.
When she looks over to their table it's empty with the exception of the few cups littering the area. They're both still standing and Hinata can't help but to bounce on her heels when she sees Ino and Sakura dance past, itching to tell them of her time so far tonight. She takes a step to approach them and they must not notice her because almost immediately they move towards where a crowd of students has grown in the middle of the gymnasium.
Her curiosity is peeked when she sees them stop and takes note Sakura's clenched fists. Hinata takes careful steps towards the crowd when she loses site of her friends.
Somehow she worms her way to the forefront of the crowd and she nearly faints at what she sees.
There's Sasuke and Itachi scuffling it out in the open area the crowd has provided for them.
The circle of students grows and the loud noises of the fight get vulgar when Naruto shoves his way to the forefront of the mass. This causes Sasuke's fist to glide past Itachi and hit Deidara, who was jostling from the sidelines with Kisame.
Hinata winces when she sees him go down, and Sasuke's fist comes back covered in blood.
The fallen Deidara flattens a portion of the crowd. Kisame drags him from his haunches and pushes him toward Naruto before he joins himself. After wiping the blood from his nose Deidara throws a punch at Naruto.
Then there's a shout and Hidan all but jumps over the flattened area of the crowd and onto Sasuke's back. Hinata would've laughed at Hidan's lack of finesse, but is too shaken at amount of blood on the gym floor.
The crowd cheers with every landing punch, and chatters at each successful kick. Insults are tossed casually into the brawl as well and Hinata fumbles when she hears Hyuuga. That's when she sees Neji step into the fray followed by Kiba and Shino.
Things are getting out of hand, and Hinata can barely move.
Hinata is worried for her friends, for her family, and the DJ's music is still playing, making the thrumming in her chest increase. She had a chance to prove her father wrong, and Neji, Kiba and Shino are here suffering the consequences of her actions
What would her father say? What would her father do? What will her father do? And, and, and…she's hyperventilating just thinking about it. This wasn't supposed to happen, this isn't what she wanted, and this is the exact opposite of what she was expecting tonight.
There's a roar from the crowd, pushing and shoving. Hinata is lost in the commotion as the crowd grows larger around her. She's lost sight of the fight and there's a tug on her dress, screaming in her ear.
It's Ino, and there's Sakura next to her. Her friend is pulling her away from the crowd and tripping over students as they run to the exit.
