Hope
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto
Sorry I didn't update for a while. My life's pretty busy at the moment. The story is probably about halfway done, incase you're wondering about that. I'll try making longer chapters in return for the long wait. Enjoy!
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Ch. 8 One on One"Hinata! Could you please read next since someone wasn't paying attention, which by the way Ken, you just earned yourself a golden ticket," Anko shouted. I snapped out of my daydream and skimmed quickly at my textbook, trying to figure out where we are. Blushing in embarrassment as the seconds ticked by, I waited for Anko to yell at me too for not paying attention and give me a 'golden ticket', which really was a detention.
"Page 46 last paragraph," Gaara muttered under his breath. I looked at him confused, but he just stared at the chalkboard. "Hinata?" Anko snapped. Blushing as I finally understood what he meant, I read the paragraph. When I finished, I peeked a glance at Anko who seemed satisfied that someone was paying attention in her class. "Thank you," I mumbled under my breath, still blushing.
Gaara nodded, his way of saying 'your welcome'. The bell finally rang, and for once Anko didn't assign the class homework. I followed Gaara out of the classroom as we walked to the lunchroom in a comfortable silence.
It's been a month since I moved in with the Sabaku's. Ever since the day at 'Rhythm & Blues' I became part of their group. Every Friday we would go there, and as I was told, it was a tradition for the group. A tradition that I was glad I was apart of. But that wasn't the only thing going on in my life.
Some time during this month, I realized that I had formed a crush on Gaara. I wasn't sure when or how it happened, it just did. The only person who knows my secret is my sister, Hanabi. Even if I didn't mean to tell her and it kind of slipped out when I was talking to her on the phone a week ago.
"Are you getting anything?" I snapped out of my thoughts and looked up at Gaara, who stared back bored. Blushing, I nodded and grabbed the first thing I saw, which was a chicken patty with rice. He already had a turkey wrap on his tray along with a Sprite. We quickly paid for our food and headed over toward the group.
We sat down in our usual spot, Sakura to my left and Gaara to my right. I started to pick at my food, trying not to think of the guy sitting next to me. Taking a bite out of my patty, the first thing I realized was that I didn't take a regular one, but a spicy one. The next thing I realized was that I forgot to buy a drink, as my throat started to burn slightly.
"Here," Gaara said as he shoved his Sprite in front of my face, as though he knew that I didn't like my patty spicy. Blushing, I grabbed the drink and gulped some down, till my throat stopped burning. "Thanks," I squeaked out as I handed it back to him. He nodded while staring across the room, glaring at something. I didn't get the chance to see what or who since Sakura started to talk to me.
"Hey Hinata I just realized that you don't have Halloween in Japan! We should so go trick or treating this year!" Sakura smiled brightly as she said this. "Aren't we a bit too old for trick or treating?" Sasuke asked clearly annoyed at the idea. Sakura glared at him and responded, "Hinata has never been trick or treating and I want to make sure that she has the best time here! SO WE'RE GOING TRICK OR TREAT WEITHER YOU LIKE IT OR NOT!"
The table was dead silent after her outburst, along with the tables next to ours. This silence was interrupted though when Naruto stated, "I call being a cup of ramen for Halloween!" I couldn't help but smile at this. Sakura gave a big grin at Naruto and started to encourage him, even if his choice was odd. "I guess I could go as a teddy bear," Chouji added as he joined they're conversation. Sakura immediately agreed with him.
Sasuke sighed in defeat, knowing that he couldn't win against Sakura now that everyone was agreeing, and grumbled, "I'll go as long as I don't have to dress up." Sakura smirked at him and taunted, "We'll see. Anyways, this means we'll have to go shopping, hey Hinata? Are you busy Friday?"
"Um, I don't ah think so. Unless Temari has um something planned," I mumbled. I looked at Gaara, who shook his head, and then turned back to Sakura. "I guess I can go and buy a costume with you." We finished our food just then and Sakura added, "Okay so in two days we'll go to the mall and find the perfect costume for you."
We dumped our trays as the bell rang. I started to walk with Chouji to Cooking; half listening as he talked about some cooking show he really enjoyed watching.
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Just as I shut and locked my locker, I heard a, 'Ready?' from behind me. Throwing my backpack over my shoulder, I answered Gaara blushing, "Yeah. Um are we ah playing today?" We headed for the door, knowing that Sakura won't be joining us since she has to work on a project with Naruto.
As soon as we were outside, I glanced at Gaara, who nodded, making his long spiky red hair bounce slightly. The walk home as usual was silent only it was comfortable instead of awkward. It also followed with a lot of glancing at each other, and blushing on my part.
We entered through the garage ten minutes later. I waited for Gaara to open the door and walk in, but instead he held the door open for me. Startled a bit by his actions, I mumbled a 'thank you' and after the 'hn' I got in return, Gaara followed behind me.
I set my backpack on the family room couch, Gaara doing the same. Walking into the kitchen, I grabbed two water bottles while Gaara went up stairs. Fixing my hair into a ponytail, I heard Gaara's footsteps coming towards me. Looking up, there he was holding a soccer ball in his hands.
"Let's go," was his short command. I nodded my head and followed him outside. We walked to the closest park that was two blocks down the street. The whole time I focused on the soft sound of my footsteps against the concrete along with Gaara's louder ones. I stared out into space, not focusing on anything, just listening. 'So peaceful…' my thoughts were.
Finally we reached the park. I took a good look around. To the right was a playground that consisted of a slide, swings, and a sandbox. Gaara though was heading the opposite way, were the soccer field was along with a couple of wooden benches to the side.
I set the water bottles down on one of the benches before jogging toward Gaara who was in the middle of the field. He was repeatedly kicking the ball up in the air with the inside of his foot. When he saw me approach though, he stopped and put the ball on the ground.
I took my place facing him with the ball in between us. "Twenty-five minute quarter?" he inquired me. Nodding, I put on a determined face. "Three, two, one," Gaara spoke just loud enough for me to hear him. I shot forward then, my eyes only on the ball, knowing Gaara was doing the same. By some miracle, I got the ball first. I darted around him, silently praising myself since it's always him who gets to play offense first. Because of that, I missed the small smile that appeared on his face.
Two hours later, we were still at it, Gaara winning twelve to ten. 'That's probably the closest game we've played,' I thought. Panting hard, I called out, "I need a break!" Gaara, who was also having difficult breathing, nodded his head in agreement. We headed for the bench, and I chugged the last of my water down. The cold liquid felt good on my throat.
"Cut my life into pieces, this is my last resort. Suffocation, no breathing. Don't give a- Hello?" Gaara said as he answered his cell phone. I couldn't help put smile a little at his ring tone. 'It matches his personality…' I thought. I sat down on the bench and waited for him to finish.
He flipped his red phone shut, then turned to me. "Temari wants us home. Apparently we're having a guest over in twenty minutes," he told me as he picked up the soccer ball. I nodded, too tired to talk. I took both water bottles as we headed back.
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"Kankuro, grab the door!" Temari shouted from the kitchen where she was finishing up the ribs at him as the doorbell rang. I winced slightly at this since I was standing next to her making the salad for tonight. I couldn't help but notice that she was rather dressed up. She was wearing a nice pair of jeans and a black and gray striped long sleeved shirt along with lip-gloss and dangly silver earrings. Her hair was up in a neat bun, which I'd only seen once before when she had an important business meeting. I looked down at my outfit, which was baggy black guy shorts, and a yellow shirt that had a smiley face on it.
I heard Kankuro and a man's voice in the front hallway come closer towards us. Placing the salad on the table that Gaara had just set and said person was now sitting down in his spot, I looked up to greet our guest. "Hello I'm Hinata…" my voice trailed off as I stared shocked at who was in front of me.
"I take it you remember me, so we can skip those troublesome introductions," Shikamaru said bored. I merely nodded dumbly, still shocked that he was here, the same man from the plane. I started to feel a bit light headed from remembering the incident.
Smiling politely as soon as I snapped out of my dumb look, I sat down across form Gaara. Temari set the ribs on the table along with the rice before giving Shikamaru a peck on the cheek. "Let's all sit down and eat," she said cheerfully. "One step ahead of you. I'd never miss Hinata's cooking!" Kankuro exclaimed from his spot next to me.
I blushed at the compliment, noticing that Gaara was agreeing by smirking. Shikamaru raised an eyebrow before sitting down next to Temari and Gaara. Little did I know that he was questioning Gaara's smirk, not my cooking ability.
Dinner went by quick, since it seemed like the guys were extremely hungry. I helped Temari clear the table as the guys went into the family room. Since there weren't any leftovers, all I needed to do was put the dishes in the dishwasher. "So, you've met Shikamaru before?" Temari asked casually.
I stiffened before answering softly, "Yes. I um sat next to him um on the airplane." Her eyes widened a bit in shock but she made her face blank, hiding what looked like fear from what I could tell in the seconds it happened. "Hmmm, Shikamaru never mentioned that you were on his plane before…" Temari said harshly.
"Maybe he um didn't know ah that I'm your um foreign exchange student at the ah time," I mumbled nervously. She closed her eyes as she nodded in agreement. "You're right. Other wise he would have told me," she stated with a hint of annoyance in her voice. "I'll finish up the dishes. You can go and watch TV with the guys," she spoke suddenly while putting two plates into the dishwasher.
"I actually um have to ah do homework now that I um think about it," I said while putting the BBQ sauce in the fridge and walked upstairs to my room, completely forgetting to grab my backpack. Shutting the door behind me, I sighed as I sank to the floor. A wave of homesickness suddenly hit me as I hugged my knees against my chest. Resting my forehead against my knees, tears then started to slowly make their way down my face.
I sat there crying for twenty minutes. Rubbing my eyes I stood up clumsily and grabbed my laptop. I plopped down on my soft bed and took deep breaths to calm me down. I started to bite my lip as I turned on the laptop. The familiar picture of my friends and myself appeared before my eyes. Double clicking on the Internet, I tapped my index finger against the j key impatiently.
My screen turned white as the page loaded before finally Yahoo popped up. I clicked on my mail, then inbox to find I had one new message. It was from my sister. My heart skipped a beat as I felt the same pang of homesickness as before. Her message appeared and I quickly read it to myself.
Hey Hinata!
It feels like FOREVER since you've left! I miss you soooo much! When do you come home again? Anyways, so how have you been lately? Having any fun in America? Well it sure isn't as fun here without you around. It really stinks not having any other girl around in the house. For the whole Konohamaru thing…he's been avoiding me lately. Is that a good or bad thing? I mean I've been doing what you've said and am staying true to myself but he's been acting really strange lately. Your input on that would be really helpful. Anyways, Kiba and Shino say hi and that they miss you too. Neji misses you so much that he wants you home but he won't admit it. (Don't tell him I said that. He'd hurt me lol) Well I have to go now.
Love you lots! –HanabiWhen I finished rereading it (an old habit of mine) I couldn't help but smile. I clicked on reply and started emailing her back.
Hi Hanabi,
It's good to hear from you! It makes me happy that you are well and having fun. I'll be home June 17, which is about eight months I think. Things are going well over here for me. I've made a few new friends and am pretty close to the host family. Gaara, he's the youngest brother and my age, plays soccer with me all the time. He's just as good as Neji if you can believe that!
America is very fun (it be more fun if you where here). Halloween is coming up and my group of friends is taking me trick or treating. Also I'm going to go to an amusement park called Six Flags in a few weeks. That should be fun! About the Konohamaru thing, I think that you should just give him some time so he can think things threw. Just be patient. Tell Kiba and Shino that I can't wait to see them again. And the same for Neji only tell him that I would like to finish up the year. :D got to go!
Love Hinata
I hit the send button then turned off my laptop. I looked at the clock to see it was eight. I went downstairs, thinking about how I was going to watch a movie but fate had a different idea.
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I feel like a terrible person for leaving a cliffhanger! Oh well, the just means I'll have to update sooner. Please review and tell me what you think. Again, I'm sorry for the late update.