A/N: Guys... I can't say this enough, but I'm so sorry! My classes kinda got the best of me last semester, but I have no excuse for not writing this earlier. Hopefully next time I can be more punctual about it! I hope you enjoy what I came up with (I tried to make it extra-awesome to make up for the wait... especially the Hinata and Naruto scene).
Sakura was good at a lot of things. In fact, her general success in life had become something of a running joke to everyone she knew. Someone didn't know the answer to one of the questions Tsunade assigned the previous class? Ask Sakura. A computer suddenly crashed? Sakura could fix it; she's good with computers. Have a jar of peanut butter that even the most muscular man can't open? Sakura will do it with her superhuman strength.
But if there was one thing Sakura was completely awful at, it was preparing for a confrontation.
Ino, however, was fantastic at it.
"The first thing you need to do," Ino said seriously, makeup strewn haphazardly across the bathroom counter, "Is make sure that you look the part."
Sakura scowled. "I don't understand how Goth eyeliner is going to help me talk to Sasuke," she said. Ino rolled her eyes.
"It's badass eyeliner, not Goth eyeliner," she corrected, "You smart kids, you always think you know everything. Yeah, you can plan out a speech about what you're going to say and memorize it perfectly, but you need the right emotion behind it for it to be effective, right?" Sakura nodded.
"Right," she said warily. Ino smiled.
"That's what this is for!" she said, waving her arms wildly, "Sometimes all you need to make yourself feel confident is a makeover. Right now, you want to be the one in charge. You want to draw his attention. And honey, let's face it… your sweats aren't gonna cut it."
Sakura bit her lip. As much as she hated to admit it, Ino knew what she was doing. She also knew that she wouldn't get through what she had planned without Ino's help.
"Fine!" she burst out, "Just… don't make me look like a hooker, okay? I'm trying to work up the courage to talk to him, not seduce him." Ino cackled gleefully.
"Oh, honey," she said, a wicked glint in her eye, "If all goes according to plan, you're gonna do both."
"Soooo…" Naruto said, scratching his head awkwardly, "What do you wanna do now?"
Hinata hid a smile. They had dinner at the ramen stand Naruto loved, and had spent the time doing wild impersonations of their friends. Well, Naruto had. Hinata had spent the entire time giggling into her bowl of ramen, blushing when he lifted up his shirt (Oh God, she thought, his abs) and began to flutter his eyelashes in a caricature of Ino.
"Oh, Shikamaru," he purred in an almost eerie impersonation, "Do you mind if I borrow a shirt? I don't seem to own one that covers my stomach."
It had been fun, Hinata thought. Easy. Naruto was a good date, holding the door open for her and pulling out her chair before she sat down. Someone- she secretly suspected Sasuke- had trained him well. But when they left the restaurant…
He changed.
Naruto began to act… nervous. Jumpy, even. For a wild, terrifying moment she thought there might be vampires in the area and she put her hand on his arm to grab his attention and ask, but he started suddenly, turning red and babbling incoherently. Hinata stared at him, shocked. He was acting like… well…
Her.
"How about we sit down for a little while?" she suggested, pointing to a nearby bench. He nodded, still red-faced and unable to look her in the eye.
They sat in silence. Hinata glanced at him from the corner of her eye, noting his flushed face. Okay, she thought, if I were trying to talk to myself, how would I go about it?
She shook her head suddenly. Way too confusing.
"You okay?" Naruto asked at her sudden movement. Hinata smiled at him, uncharacteristically bright.
If he's going to act like me, she thought a touch mischievously, then I'm going to act like him.
"I'm great!" she chirped, "But Naruto, you're looking a little red. Do you have a fever?" Trying to ignore the way her hand shook, she put it on his forehand, crinkling her forehead in mock thought. "Well, you're not too warm. Maybe you got a sunburn?"
Naruto shot her a look that might have been filthy, if not for his madly twitching lips, and she knew that she had succeeded in breaking the ice. "Very cute, Hinata," he said, reaching up to remove her hand from his forehead. But instead of just brushing it away he held on, intertwining their fingers. Hinata gulped.
"You know," he said, his thumb rubbing slow, deliberate circles on her hand, "I was actually pretty nervous about all this. You seem to have guessed that pretty quickly." He looked at her then, really looked at her, his eyes hot and liquid and Hinata felt her pulse kick up in response. He really had expressive eyes, she mused. They did the most marvelous things to her inside.
"A-ah," she said intelligently, and she inwardly despaired at how easy it was for him to completely knock her off her game, "Yes. I did. Um, you looked, ah, flustered?" Naruto nodded seriously.
"Yeah," he said, "Flustered. See, I haven't had what most people would consider a normal childhood. When most kids my age were dating I was learning how to fight vampires and chasing after Sasuke." He released her hand suddenly. She frowned, despairing in the loss of contact, until his hand started to run up and down her leg. It almost seemed like an absentminded action, but then she saw the glint in his eye and she knew.
He was planning something.
Oh dear.
"Hinata," he said, his voice husky. Her mouth ran dry. "Hinata, you still with me?"
"Y-yes!" she gasped, "Very with you. N-no dating. Blame Sasuke. Got it." He laughed.
"Exactly," he said, "I've always been a little worried about what my first real date, with a girl I care about, would be like, since I really have no fucking clue what I'm doing. But then I remembered some advice my dad gave me, a long time ago." His fingers were playing with the hem of her knee-length skirt now, the one Ino had often criticized for being too long. Right now it felt almost indecently short, with his hand almost-but-not-quite slipping under.
"Uhhhh," she managed to say. She cleared her throat and tried to remember how to properly formulate words. "What advice was that?"
Naruto grinned. It looked positively predatory.
"Always follow your instincts," he said. He kissed her cheek then, and Hinata felt a shock at the sweetness of the action, which was completely at odds with the hand that was slowly working its way higher up her skirt. Then his breath was hot on her ear and she thought, oh. Oh.
"And you know what, Hinata? I have very good instincts."
The apartment was dark when Sasuke got back.
His guard was immediately up. It was rare for Hinata and Naruto to grab dinner with Sakura and Ino when he was off on one of his "walks," but Hinata always left a light on. It was a habit she picked up for her little sister when she was young, she had said, for when she had been afraid of the dark and would often sneak into Hinata's room after a nightmare. Sasuke had understood.
He had been the little sibling, once.
He heard a slight movement from somewhere in the dark and he leaped, tackling the intruder full-force. Instead of some the sort of demonic, snarling creature he had been expecting he was rewarded with a feminine yelp and an armful of something he could only describe as soft.
If there was one thing I miss about being a vampire, he thought wryly, it would be the night vision.
"Dammit, Sasuke!" Sakura snarled from underneath him, "What are you doing?" He got up hastily, pulling her up with one arm and fumbling around for the light switch on the wall.
"I'm sorry, Sakura, I didn't know it was you- what are you wearing?" Despite the bruises she would inevitable have and the tears in her eyes from the sudden light, Sakura smiled. At least something in her plan was going right.
"Oh, this?" she asked offhandedly, "Ino wanted to give me a makeover. See?" She spun around in a circle, letting him see the dark red corset top and tight leather pants Ino had pulled out of her closet. It wasn't one of the girl's usual party outfits; Ino tended to go for shirt skirts and low-cut tops when trying to draw attention. But Sasuke was an unusual boy, former vampirism aside. The usual seduction tactics wouldn't work.
And besides. Sakura wanted the confidence to confront him, not to seduce him. She needed the badass edge, not the sexy one.
"But enough about that," Sakura said, pushing his shoulders to make him sit on the couch. He did with little resistance. She hoped the rest of the conversation would be that easy. "We need to talk."
Sasuke opened his mouth (to agree? Apologize?) when someone crashed through the window, causing glass and pieces of the windowpane to fly across the room. Sasuke and Sakura stared at the girl who lay on the floor, dazed and covered in shallow cuts.
"Sorry," she said, sitting up and shaking glass out of her hair, "Did I interrupt something?" Sakura, still in a state of shock, collapsed on the couch next to Sasuke.
"Tenten," she said weakly, "You always have the worst timing."
Sooo... what did you guys think? I'm finally starting to move this plotline along (even if you don't think so, I'm sowing the seeds, muwhahaha), but I'd really like feedback on the Naruhina stuff. That was the steamiest thing I'd ever written (and it wasn't even that bad, haha) and if everyone liked it I'll probably end up doing more. A lot of things are going to be explained in the next chapter, like Naruto's sudden... ah, aggressiveness, and why Tenten came crashing through Hinata's window.
Please review!