A/N: Okay, so I haven't been writing for a long time and I realized the past few chapters have been pretty off-track for a Kiba x Hinata pairing. But I'm back to make up for lost time due to stacking homework.
SPOILER: Yondaime's name isn't "Arashi" but "Namikaze Minato". Yeah… I don't know about any of you guys but I prefer "Arashi" than "Minato". This story is still continuing with "Arashi" than his original name because that's how this story started out anyway.
Disclaimer: Ditto…
On the Same Page Chapter 11: Come Clean
Yutada walks back to the campus with Yondaime's (Fourth Hokage) album. Her eyes were swollen red from the crying in the forest. 'Jiraiya, you idiot… It's your entire fault for teaching such a talented and handsome guy,' Yutada thought while joking to herself. With a train of thought running so slowly and a walking pace hasting past trees, Yutada arrived at the main grounds five minutes in a ten-minute walk. An interior of a head went off like an alarm, causing its host to walk back to her dorm to take a short nap before her 1:00 class. Just when Yutada's shaking hand reached the doorknob to enter her sanctuary, Hinata magically appeared out of nowhere from the corner of Yutada's right eye.
"Um… if it's not a bother…" Hinata stumbles over her words.
"Yeah… What is it, Hinata?" Yutada glazes her eyes over to Hinata's blank pairs. "Do I look like the school's new counselor?"
"Eep! I-I-I'm s-sorry! I-I didn't m-mean to!" Hinata jumped in shock after glancing at Yutada's sharp, brown eyes. A smile broke out on Yutada's face.
"A-ha-haa… Got you, didn't I?" Yutada laughed while her left arm supported her lean against the door. "Come on in."
In contradiction to Hinata's image of Yutada's room, the dorm room is no bigger than other rooms and is ordinary. There is a small wall scroll here and there with some framed pictures but that's all it was besides the book shelf. The book shelf stood tall and proud with a grand finish on the oak slabs from top to bottom, side to side. The side bindings of the books is what makes the bookshelf interesting as Yutada's possessions ranged from cooking to anatomy as it is sewing to 101 Ways to Assassinate/ Putting Someone Asleep/ Ending Missions Quickly to get Paycheck.
"So… What is it?" Yutada asked.
"Oh! Well… it's about Valentine's Day," Hinata pointed her fingers together. "I don't know what to get Kiba for Valentine's Day… mumble…"
"Valentine's Day, huh?"
"It's just that I'm too shy to ask Sakura or Ino about it."
"I may be no expert in romance, but just give him a present that you like and what he's interested in."
"That… that actually makes sense…" Hinata has another questioned solved without trying.
"How I gave you the answer is not by reading my manga with romance genre/story."
"Then… w-what is it?" Hinata was puzzled by Yutada's comment.
"Experience, Hinata… experience is what the answer was rooted from," Yutada turns her head to Hinata over her right shoulder.
"You've been in love before, Yutada-san?"
"Yeah, I have. But it wasn't meant to be so it was short-lived." Eyes in pain shows in Yutada's as she glanced down at the carpet. A smile crept on her face.
"So go out there and try your luck, Hinata!" Yutada recovered and is up and running.
"Y-yeah, I'll give it a try… I really will see if Kiba accepts my gift!" Hinata has her hopes high now.
At the Tea Leaf Plaza…
Hinata, Sakura, and Tenten arrived at the Tea Leaf Plaza shortly after 12:00. Today on February, 13 of Tuesday, the three girls just got out of minimum day because of the teachers having a credential assessment. Since the kunoichis' parents approved of the girls' day out, there wasn't any lunch in their stomachs to digest. Valentine's Day was tomorrow and Hinata is the only girl unable to obtain a gift earlier. First option was some chocolates but it was evident that Kiba dislikes them. Another was a chew toy but that would be like a girl confessing her love to a dog. Hinata wasn't very creative when it came to these kinds of intimate things.
"Well… what do you want to get for Kiba?" Sakura sighed out of tiredness.
"Let's see… well, we've been to fifteen shops already…" Hinata starts to become nervous for taking an hour and a half walking non-stop through the plaza.
"You know Hinata, Kiba isn't the type to like sweets since he's… well… part dog in a way," Tenten puts her thinking cap on. "It's like giving a sweet poison to someone you like and then thinking someone else had done the poison."
"You're probably r-right… He doesn't seem to care much about clothes. I realized that when I came over to his house one time, he had ten copies of the same outfit he wears."
"What a freak…" Sakura was freaked out.
"Wait! I-I got it! I'll bake him some cookies in shape of dog biscuits and make it slightly sweet," Hinata finally got her answer.
"That's perfect!" Tenten was proud of Neji's younger cousin's achievement.
"Ugh! Then why are we here in the first place?!" Sakura got frustrated. "Whatever, lets just go to one of the gift shops, buy a box, and buy some wrapping with a ribbon."
Konoha's All-Boys High (10:00 a.m.—Wednesday)
Valentine's Day is always the busiest when the male students at a separate gender high school try to get themselves the girl of their dreams… Or just to pick up girls to prove who has the skills. At the same time, the Konoha high school festival would be held to bring both genders together for entertainment and fun. The unfortunate Hinata was baking her cookies at the last minute with four attempts that burnt the cookies.
"Oh… this is t-the last time I can use up the rest of the batter…" Hinata begins to cry out of failure. Knock-knock!
"Who's there?"
"Hello!"
"Yutada-san!"
"Please, just call me Yutada," Yutada smiles at Hinata at the door. "How about I help you with the cookies? You look like you're at the edge of the world threatened to fall."
"Y-y-yes p-please… Yutada-san…" Two hands grabs firmly at Hinata's shoulders.
"For the last time… Call me Yutada—Just Yutada… or I won't help you with the baking!"
"O-okay, Yutada!!"
"That's a good girl," Yutada smiles.
When Yutada had just put on her apron for protection, she asks Hinata what was the problem. The shy girl answers that her cookies ended up burning quickly as she looks away from the oven. A mask of disappointment mixed with irritation was put on Yutada's face. Yutada figured out that baking cookies was Hinata's first time.
"Why don't you just ask for help to show you how?"
"Eep! B-because I want to do it on my own to prove I can take care of myself," Hinata spoke defensively.
"Okay… couldn't you just use the recipe book to look up on how to bake cookies?"
"It's just that… It's just that Neji and a close maid of ours know how to bake cookies. But Neji would never be that friendly to lend me a hand… But our maid is out to go shopping for groceries." Yutada looked surprised to hear Neji mentioned in the topic of cookies.
"Why is it Neji that knows how to bake cookies?" Yutada went ahead to find out the answer.
"B-because he baked some chocolate chip cookies for Tenten, but Tenten never mentioned about it last year when she got the cookies."
"Pfff!! Aha-ha-ha-haa! I can't believe this; Neji baked chocolate chip cookies last year on Valentine's Day! I bet he left it where Tenten would turn around and find a bag of them appearing out of thin air! Ah… This is too much for me; even I know it's not like Neji to bake cookies for a girl."
After the laughing ceased, Yutada added a little bit more flour to the batter hoping that the cookies won't burn easily. Fingers crossed as the teacher and student hope the cookies will bake in time before the festival starts.
At the festival where the activities just started, Hinata has a bag of dog biscuit-shaped cookies carefully in her hands as she tries to look for Kiba. She realized that as she's holding the bag that she forgot about the box, wrapping, and ribbon. 'Oh… I can't believe I lost the finishing touch-ups… I'm so pathetic.' Hinata thought as she tries to find Kiba. A black, gloved hand reaches slowly out to Hinata's shoulder only to snatch it firmly.
"Eeah!" Hinata turned around quickly to nearly drop her hard work.
"Hey… You forgot about this," Yutada had the box and ribbon in her unused right hand. "You don't need the wrapping; Boys like things simple with security to raise suspense of surprise."
"T-thanks a lot Yutada," Hinata was blushing and smiling while looking down on the ground out of embarrassment.
"Good luck finding him, girl," Yutada says.
"Okay, I will!"
Girls' Dormitory (11:00 a.m.)
Yutada patrols the campus grounds to make sure all is well for Valentine's Day. As she walks through the hall of the second floor, Yutada can spot some naughty students doing certain things at the wrong time. Even on the other side of the main grounds is where more of the students are up to things meant for suspension or expulsion. 'Sometimes, I want to summon an ice cold tidal wave to flood the dorms…' The thought seems pleasant enough for Yutada to walk through her patrol without care. 'Earth style—Nature's sewing pins!' Sssshhhh… Fsshhhhh! Fine needles made from the soil of the main grounds came and pinpointed at the target. Chk! Chk—chk! Chk, chk, chk!
"Really… be lucky that I haven't set up a barrier to lock out anyone without permission, Jiraiya," Yutada was annoyed from Jiraya's past ignores of her words.
"Hey, hey, hey… You could've killed me there," Jiraiya shook his head as he moved from the wall he hid behind at the hallway's end.
"That's the point."
"Heh, don't think I'm being cranky today just because I'm one of those ladies who can't get a date."
"Well, I got more bad news for you, Yutada."
"Oh—this should be interesting; first Kakashi extracted the truth of the past out of me, you made me relieve the agony again of a complicated relationship, and now what? I supposed you're going to tell me that he is Naruto's father?" The last sentence was said sarcastic since Yutada Shikamura didn't expect such question.
"Actually yes…" Jiraiya puts up a grave face.
"What's up with that look? Don't tell me… that Arashi… was married," Brown eyes widened but didn't let out the waterworks. "That figures, it was bound to be true since Naruto and Arashi looked so much alike."
For a Valentine's Day at noon, it is supposed to be a girl's favorite holiday. A well-built, slim body of an 18-year-old girl sits on an oak bench with a 50-or-60-something-year-old man with green tea. Perfect string of events, no? Not really as Yutada's only tranquilizer is the scalding hot tea to be sipped with minutes of blowing to cool it down. On the other hand, the four transfer girls try to seek out some attention from their targets. Sakura and Ino races to find Sasuke when he isn't at school at all within the school grounds. Tenten isn't anywhere in sight and Hinata struggles to navigate through the festival. Couples, singles, and friends fish out goldfishes, eating chocolates, and some hapless teens trying to find some kind of place among the common people in a yearly celebration. Kiba, on the other hand, is taking a walk with Shino. They walked towards the back of the gym near the boys' dorms to have some kind of chat Shino requested of Kiba.
"So what do you want to talk about now?" Kiba asks with a dumbfounded look.
"I see that it's unusual for me to approach you, obviously."
"Sigh, to me, Valentine's Day is sickening because it gets all mushy and romantic; making this day a girls' 'day' out," Kiba groans.
"That makes two of us who can't get a girl…" Shino says coyly.
"Don't slap me in the same boat with you," says the annoyed Kiba," besides being teammates, I know I have a much better chance with getting a girl."
"What about Hinata?"
"Wha—?"
Hinata had finally caught sight of Kiba and begun her pursuit of him. Her stomach is feeling butterflies and her heart is beating fast with anticipation. 'I hope Kiba likes these cookies…' Hinata thought. Just as she got out of her thought bubble, Hinata ran into Naruto who was heading for the ramen shop.
"Ah! N-Naruto… I-I'm… I'm sorry!!" Hinata bows at Naruto.
"Whew! That was close… You okay?" Naruto brushes off his sleeves.
"Y-Yeah…"
"Well that's good…"
"Eep!" Hinata began to blush violently.
"Hey, are those cookies?"
"U-um, yes… I made these for somebody," Hinata regained her composure.
"Well, whoever gets those he must be really happy because those cookies look tasty," Naruto looked like he was drooling with hunger for a second.
"Actually… they're for a friend but thank you…" Hinata gave a smile then walks off.
Hinata finally caught up to where Kiba and Shino were hanging out behind the gym. She walks up to the corner of the building while still being out of sight. Hinata was going to take the chance to come out and ask Kiba until…
"I don't like Hinata…"
'Gasp!'
"…Not that way…" Kiba says.
'What does he mean…?!'
"It would be too much of a hassle if girls try to get close and friendly then confesses and I have to deal with the rejecting and crying…"
"That is definitely true, Kiba," Shino agrees.
"I mean… Hinata is innocent and everything, but she's so fidgety with her fingers, she can't even say her sentences straight without stuttering, and she's like a fragile object that needs to be protected without her taking care of herself."
'I can't believe this… K-Kiba…' Hinata almost dropped her cookies but manages to not make a sound. She runs off into the festival as a shortcut to get to her dorm until she runs into Naruto.
"Hey Hinata, what's wrong?" Naruto was taken aback by Hinata's tears.
"N-Naruto… please don't l-look at me…" Hinata was breaking apart her words and herself of her embarrassment in front of Naruto.
"… There, there, how about I treat you to some food to make you feel better," Naruto offers sincerely.
"B-b-but I would be troublesome of you…"
"No worries, great food is always great when you're feeling down."
"T-thank… thank you, Naruto…" Hinata says while wiping away her tears.
"…But, despite all those negative points about her… I still feel like I want to be by her side and help her walk step-by-step to be the person she always wants to be…"