A/N: This is part one of an AU thing that I have written up. Part two may come out after I finish editing another different one-shot for NH month. Another note is that school is starting so I may have to cut down on my writing sadly. Thanks for reading and enjoy. Feedback is always welcomed.
Day 17 - School Days
She struggled to breathe. Air clogged in her throat, refusing to move and instead following the still and frozen state of her hands. She couldn't believe what was happening to her. She only had dreamed of this moment. She had dreamed of this day for so long and finally, it was coming true.
Uzumaki Naruto was sitting next to her in class.
She then tried to stop hyperventilating because she really did not want to have a panic attack right when the moment of her dreams were coming true. Oh goodness, what if Naruto thought she really was weird? They've been sitting beside each other for ten minutes now and she hadn't stop staring at him. She should stop staring at him. She didn't want to stop staring at him, though. Besides she probably wouldn't be able to stop staring at him from just her will power when he himself had snapped an irritated,"what?" five minutes into her staring. She should tell him that this was the good kind of staring, if only she could move. It probably didn't help as well that she had only blinked four times in total and had not moved her neck away once. Oh no, she was probably weirding him out. That's why he hadn't moved from his position for the last five minutes.
While the internal conflict raged on inside Hinata, outside she looked as frozen as a statue. Naruto gave up finding what her problem was with him and slumped forward looking at the whiteboard. God, he was tired. He really shouldn't have challenged Sasuke to five sprinting laps around the school this morning. They ended up tying anyway behind Lee. Lee was a superhuman, being the protégé of their gym coach, Gai, so there was no way he could have beaten him in the first place but his only goal was to beat Sasuke. Now fatigue made his eyelids heavy. He only wanted to sleep, recuperate before challenging Sasuke again and he definitely wanted the girl beside him to stop staring at him. It was making him uneasy.
Their teacher came in carrying a heap of paper. He lugged it onto the table before announcing to the class that this was a practice test for next month's exam. A chorus of moans, groans and retorts in typical teenage form was their reply as he started handing out the test. When he came to Hinata, he found that he was one short of giving it to Naruto.
"Ah, sorry Naruto," said Iruka, his scared nose crinkling into a smile, "You are our unlucky last. I'll just take Hinata's and go out photocopy it. I'll be back in a few minutes."
It wasn't even until Iruka stepped out when the whispers started.
"He shouldn't even bother giving him a test when he would just fail anyway."
"He's an Uzumaki. How do we know that he won't get up and shoot everyone one day?"
"It's also because his dad is the famous Namikaze Minato, they had to let them in."
An eye twitched as his lips compressed together. Distress radiated off Hinata at his own distress. Swallowing her fear and anxiety, she ripped a piece of paper off her book and began writing before sliding it to him.
I think you can do it. Don't listen to them.
A blond eyebrow raised in scepticism. "I don't. But shouldn't you be afraid that I might blow up and stab you?"
Hinata felt slightly embarrassed. Here she was trying to comfort someone who ended up not needing it and made her self look stupid. But she couldn't back down now, not when she just been able to talk to him.
My father says you are your mother's son. Not your grandfather's.
"And my mother was my grandfather's son," he scoffed, "Why are you even trying to comfort me anyway? Why are you always staring at me, always following me everywhere I go? Is it because I'm Uzumaki Kurama's grandson and you're watching so I don't kill anyone? And why won't you talk?"
She shrunk at those questions thrown at her. Yes she had been following him around everywhere but at least she thought she had been discrete. Feeling slightly hurt, but slightly defiant she wrote:
Because.
He looked incredulously at the paper. "Because?," he echoed, "Just a 'because'? That's complete bullshit."
Like a knife ripping through her, Hinata flinched slightly. His words were unexpected and a second passed before she stuck out her chin and her hands wrote shakily.
You're such a meanie.
And they fell into an uncomfortable silence with neither of them wanting to catch the other's gazes. Whether Naruto felt guilty from hurting her was not important to her, she only felt the aching pain at Naruto's words tearing into her. Her friends warned her about him, about his rough and often cruel nature due to his obliviousness and she was an idiot for thinking that he would treat her differently because truthfully, they didn't even know each other. Well, he didn't know her, she had done plenty of watching to get herself acquainted with him. They wouldn't have gotten along anyway. He constantly challenged any form of authority while she obeyed them. Yes they wouldn't have fit, not in this world.
Picking up her pen as the teacher came in and placed the paper on her desk, she forced herself to focus on the test instead of the blond boy who slumped next to her.
"Naruto was trying to pick a fight with Sasuke-kun again today," said Sakura, stabbing her fork into her food. Hinata did not blame her, her own food was so hard that she probably needed an axe to cut into it. "Why won't he just leave Sasuke-kun alone? Sasuke-kun has a lot to deal with already and he doesn't need Naruto to add to it."
The blonde girl across from her snapped open her compact and touched up on her makeup, leaving her food untouched. "Well it's not really one hundred percent Naruto's fault when Sasuke-kun looks pretty fired up as well. I would agree with you forehead but I've been really enjoyed their challenges lately, especially when they do them shirtless."
Hinata and Sakura blushed at the thought of the their last challenge yesterday. The shirts of the boys had mysteriously disappeared and they were both secretly happy about that.
"Watch out, they might start drooling soon."
The last girl sitting on their table smiled at Ino's open pervertedness. Her name was Tenten and she was one of Hinata's best friends. Today it was just the girls sitting together as Kiba and Shino were in a band meeting. Tenten waved her hand. "But enough about that Ino. You said that you had a really juicy gossip that's fresh from the oven."
Ino's eyes glinted as she placed her compact on the table and leaned forward in excitement. The glint in her eye and the fact that Ino placed her make up on table told her that the gossip was something she thought was quite juicy. "Oh yes. Guess what Naruto's been up to lately?"
Sakura scowled. "Following Sasuke-kun?"
Tenten swallowed her food. "Chasing Sasuke?"
Hinata's ears perked at his name before it deflated when she remembered what happen today in class. "Having a dispute with Sasuke?"
"Nope, nope and nope," denied Ino, a grin threatning to break free. "Naruto's been a busy boy but I can tell you that it wasn't with Sasuke."
All around the table the people were slightly puzzled.
"Today he beat up some people who were giving Shikamaru-kun and Choji-kun a hard time and-"
"Well if it's just about him beating up people then its not really juicy gossip anyway," said Sakura.
"Shut up, I was getting to the good part." Ino scrunched her nose with distate. "Anyway apparently he asked Choji to make him some of his delicious chocolates in return and that wouldn't be as if he didn't ask them to be gift wrapped."
The table was silent as they considered the potential of Ino's gossip. The giving of Akimchi chocolate is considered sacred in Konoha High. Akimchi chocolate were beyond what the supermarket sold and were only available by the famous Akimchi bakery of which Choji's father ran. To give Akimchi chocolate to someone else was to slice a piece of heaven and bring it onto the earth. Hinata has only ever had them once and she had died and come back alive twice fold within the first bite. They were that good.
"That doesn't really mean much," pointed out Tenten. "It could just be another try of his to get Sakura to go out with him."
"It probably is, Ino-san," Hinata agreed, her old and small jealousy at Naruto's attention to Sakura had dulled but it still made her heart hurt a bit.
"Well, yeah," Ino said, not wanting them to dismiss her gossip as idle. "It could be that... Or it could be something else. We just don't know."
Sakura thought a bit before adding, "Ino-pig is right. It could be something else. I mean, he's always bugging me to go out with him but the last time Naruto asked me out was a week ago and he usually does it everyday. "
"Speak of the fox and he shall appear: there he is."
As Tenten's voice rang out, all four turned their heads and there was Naruto striding towards them, hands in his pockets and the tails of his headband flying fearlessly. He looked ridiculously gorgeous and the wind added to that effect. Where normally the wind would blow strands of hair irritatingly into her eyes, block her breathing passage and made her squint unattractively, this was not what happened with Naruto. It blew his hair away and took attention into his jawline moving slightly. Her poor heart was accelerating because he looked stunning even in the wind. A skill that Hinata wished she had.
Then she remembered that she was still hurt because of him so she willed herself to look down on her food and fiddled with her fork. This was until a shadow fell over her tray and she looked up to see that he had stopped quite abruptly in front of her, his hands buried in his pocket and he opened his mouth to say something before Ino interrupted.
"What do you want, Naruto?" Ino asked, not even trying to hide her curiosity in her tone.
She was ignored of course. Naruto ruffled his hands inside his pocket before shoving a box at her. "Here."
To say that the whole table was surprised was an understatement. There is his hands was a box covered in shiny wrapping paper and a bow on top. Attached to the bow was a card with the words Akimchi chocolate written in neat and slanted handwriting.
Hinata was shocked. She had prepared herself to think that the chocolate was intended for Sakura, not for her so she did not know how to react. Her dreams were absolutely coming true today, excluding the down of him snapping at her in class this morning. Not only did he sit next to her in class but he was now giving her chocolate. She wanted to squeal in delight but being who she was, she just sat as brittle and still as stone, openly staring at him. Her tongue wanted to thank him but it felt thick, swollen and immobile. She better say something however, just sitting there still with her eyes widened and jaw gaping open was starting to tick him off. She could see from the hardening of his own jaw and as he raised his eyebrows.
Naruto made an annoying growl at the back of his throat. "Well aren't you going to accept it?"
Well yes, she is going to accept it. Now if she could just move her hands.
Seeing absolutely no movements coming from her, he sighed and placed the box beside her tray of food gently, completely contrasting the way he shoved the box at her before. Looking down at his feet, feeling slightly regretful, he grumbled under his breath.
His grumblings snapped her out of her stupefaction. She didn't hear anything so she asked, "Pardon me?"
"I said," Naruto grumbled out louder, his rough voice oddly comforting to her, "I'm sorry for being mean to you."
If they weren't sitting as comfortably and stable as they did, Hinata was pretty sure that her and her friends would have keeled off their chairs in shock. "T-thank you, Naruto-kun but I can't-"
Recovering quickly, Ino, being the busybody that she was, jumped in. "She can't accept it. You can't just be mean to Hinata and expect to be forgiven with just chocolate."
He could actually. He probably has but Naruto was unaware of this. He only scowled at her words before biting off, "I was saying sorry to Hinata. Not you, Ino."
Ino was undeterred. "Well I'm speaking for Hinata's stead when her throat's practically parched from crying."
Normally tears only annoyed him but the thought of making Hinata cry made the guilt that churned in his stomach swish harder and he looked at her in remorse. "I made you cry, Hinata?"
"N-no you didn't-"
"You made Hinata cry. You made the nicest girl in the whole school cry by being mean to her. How could you, Naruto?" Sakura jumped in, her question asked in mock-disgust. She could tell it was mock-disgust from being her friend for almost forever but Hinata wasn't sure that Naruto could tell the difference.
He couldn't. He was shuffling his feet uneasily as he buried his hands in his pocket. "Oh."
"Hinata's hasn't eaten anything at all today and you were probably the cause," Tenten pointed at him with her fork, a glint of mischief in her eyes, akin to Ino's and Sakura's eyes.
Hinata had been trying to butt in constantly but her small voice was easily drowned in her friends' constant exagerrations. "Uh, guys..."
"Look she's tiny, she doesn't need to lose her appetite because of you being mean to her."
"Or become dehydrated from crying because of you."
"Or have you being mean to her all day."
"Hinata doesn't need that in her life."
"Enough!" Naruto snapped. "I get it already! You. Hinata. Come with me."
Naruto grabbed her hand in his and pulled her up from the table. Her face flushed bright red as she was yanked out of the table. She quickly took the box and let him tug her across the courtyard. Hesitantly, she asked, "Uhm, Naruto-kun. W-where are we going?"
"We're getting ice cream. Away from your friends so I can apologise properly."
Her whole body turned warm at the prospect of spending time with him alone. Really, she couldn't believe it. That's three times her dreams came true today. She would have to mark this day on her calendar as the best day of her life.
Before he tugged her around the corner, Hinata glanced behind her and saw her dearest friends holding out their thumbs while grinning ear to ear.
