Sasuke really should have said 'no'. But when Hinata had asked if he and Naruto wanted to come to the amusement park that weekend, there was a challenge in her moon eyes that he couldn't resist meeting, and so he had said yes, loudly and defiantly. If this Hyuuga girl thought she could intimidate Sasuke by bringing her friends, she would be unpleasantly surprised. Uchihas aren't intimated by anyone!
Naruto had looked at him curiously but smiled and agreed with Sasuke, "Yeah, Hinata-chan, that'd be great! We can all take the train together out of Konoha!"
Now they were all taking the train together out of Konoha and Sasuke was really beginning to regret his choice.
Between Ino, Naruto, Sakura and Kiba there hadn't been a moment of silence since the group stepped into the train car, and it was ungodly early for a Saturday. Why couldn't they just shut up? Didn't they need to breathe? Hinata sat in the seat across from Sasuke, smiling inanely and tittering every now and then at someone's dim-witted joke. It was unbearable.
Groaning, Sasuke stretched his arms up over his head, causing his shirt to ride up over his stomach. A girlish laugh from Sakura reminded Sasuke of his company and he immediately slouched forward and crossed his arms in front of his abdomen. When he looked to Sakura and Ino to check if they were staring at him, Sasuke found that Naruto had just made an asinine joke and the blonde and pink haired girls were distracted momentarily. As he let out a sigh of relief, his eyes landed on Hinata, who was squinting at him with her head tilted to one side, as if considering a difficult decision.
"What," Sasuke said, and it wasn't even a question, more like a word thrown in challenge.
Hinata pressed her lips into a line and gave a slight shrug, turning her attention back to Kiba as he leaned over to show her something on his cell phone.
Fortunately for Sasuke, the train soon slid into the station and the group disembarked- loudly- to begin making their way to the amusement park.
He slouched along behind the pack, thankful that Naruto's and Kiba's combined exuberance was enough to keep the girls' attention off of him- at least for now. His attention kept wandering back to Hinata, who was bouncing on her toes as she walked. It reminded Sasuke of the day he set her hair on fire, and his frown deepened. Sasuke knew that she had done this on purpose- brought him to an amusement park with all of his least favorite people- and she had the nerve to actually be excited about it?
Whatever.
"Hey, 'Nata-chan, you've never been to an amusement park before, right?" Kiba asked, sidling up to his friend. "'Cause your dad's a control freak."
Hinata's cheeks bloomed with color. "Th-that's right," she said softly. "But I managed to convince him I was responsible enough to go." Hinata giggled, "A-and I told him Shino-kun would be here."
"Aw, man, he always did like Shino more than me," Kiba laughed.
Sasuke scowled, muttering, "Everyone likes Shino more than you."
Hinata threw Sasuke a sharp look, but Naruto chuckled and slapped his housemate on the shoulder. "And everyone likes Kiba more than you, Sasu-chan! Lighten up a little!" Sasuke shook Naruto's hand off as he continued, "But you've never been to an amusement park before, Hinata-chan? Man, I'm gonna make sure you have the best time!"
Hinata blushed and turned to whisper something to Sakura and Ino; The threesome giggled.
This day couldn't get any worse, and it had barely even started.
"So, Hinata-chan, what's the first thing you want to do? You should pick, since you've never been to an amusement park before," Sakura reasoned as their party gathered inside the park gates.
"Yeah, Hinata-chan, you pick!" Naruto agreed, jostling Hinata with his shoulder.
Hinata stumbled into Ino, smiling at the ground. "W-well, I've always wanted..." her sentence ended in a quiet jumble of words, too soft to hear.
"Eh?" asked Kiba intelligently.
"I think she said she wants to ride the Yellow Flash," Ino said, her arm around Hinata's shoulders. "Doesn't that one have, like, seven loops?"
Kiba nodded excitedly, "And it's the fastest and tallest coaster in Japan!" He looked at Hinata. "Good choice, 'Nata-chan!"
Sakura looked mildly horrified. "Should we really start there?" she asked, concerned. "Maybe we should work our way up to it."
"I think Sakura's right, Hinata-chan," Naruto said, and the rest of the group looked at him in surprise. "It'd be better to find out you hate roller coasters on a little one than a huge one!"
Hinata chewed on her lower lip, frowning. "I-if you say so."
The first ride the group agreed on was a small coaster called the Fire Country Inferno.
"It's a b-big name for such a little ride," Hinata commented, and her friends murmured in agreement. Nonetheless, when they got off the roller coaster, Hinata was beaming.
"Th-that was so much fun!" she said breathlessly. "Let's go on another!"
That was when Sasuke found out that Hinata was a thrill junkie. As the rides the friends went on grew increasingly larger, so did Hinata's smile.
After the Tilt-a-Whirl, which Sakura and Ino refused to ride, Hinata could barely contain herself. "Can we ride the Yellow Flash now?" She bounced on her toes, her eyes wide with excitement.
"No!" Kiba groaned, clinging to the side of a trash can.
Naruto laughed nervously, "Hinata-chan, don't you want to save the best for last?"
Hinata opened her mouth to speak, but Sakura cut her off. "Hinata-chan, we've ridden most of the coasters and thrill rides in the two and a half hours we've been here. Maybe we should take a break, get some lunch?"
"No lunch," Kiba moaned as he sank to the ground.
"Why don't we go to the Midway?" Ino interjected before Hinata could protest. "Play some games, let our stomachs settle..." Ino trailed off as she eyed Kiba worriedly.
"O-okay," Hinata agreed, seeming to have just noticed Kiba curled in a ball on the ground.
The Midway was filled with carnival games and tacky prizes, and if Sasuke tuned out everyone speaking Japanese around him, he'd almost feel like he was at an amusement park back home. It would have been comforting if Sasuke's competitive nature hadn't taken over.
"This booth always has the best prizes!" Naruto declared, leading the party over to a duck hunt shooting game. Sasuke raised an eyebrow; the prizes at this booth were the same as all the other booths- the selection here was various sizes of stuffed frogs, sheep, and alpaca.
The duck hunt game featured duck shaped targets moving on three tracks. The slowest track, which was closest to the shooters, had ducks worth one point. The middle track had 10 point ducks, and the farthest and fastest track had 50 point ducks. The object was to knock down as many ducks as possible to get as many points as possible in the one minute time period.
"Let's have a tournament!" Ino suggested excitedly. "Whoever gets the least points in each round is out, until we have a grand champion!"
"That's a great idea, Ino-chan!" Naruto shouted. "Prepare to weep, Sasu-chan, I'm going to beat you at this game!"
For all his talk, Naruto was the first one eliminated.
"Heh, guess I lost my focus," he laughed, scratching the back of his head.
Kiba was the next to be eliminated, followed by Ino and then Sakura. Soon it was the final shoot out between Sasuke and Hinata.
Sasuke was mildly impressed with Hinata's shooting skills. She would wait patiently for the randomly-spaced 50 point ducks to appear, and then shoot them down with terrifying accuracy.
Sasuke decided his strategy was to shoot down as many 10 and one point ducks as he could, and leave the unreliable 50 point ducks to Hinata.
"Ready?" Ino began the countdown. "Go!"
Sasuke gritted his teeth and began shooting the ducks quickly and methodically. When he had shot 20 points, he saw Hinata take aim and shoot down a 50 point duck from the corner of his eye. He frowned and decided to shift his focus to the 10 point ducks.
When there were 15 seconds left, Sasuke had 67 points, and there was no 50 point duck in sight. Still Hinata waited patiently, her toy gun pointed where the ducks would appear.
10 seconds left and Sasuke had 79 points. It seemed that there were no more 50 point ducks, but still Hinata stood ready.
5 seconds left and Sasuke felt comfortable in his victory, but at 3 seconds a 50 point duck sped into the open.
Hinata squeezed her trigger as the buzzer sounded.
"Wow, Hinata-chan!" Ino and Sakura cheered. "How'd you learn to shoot like that?"
Hinata flushed and shrugged, "Hyuugas j-just have really good vision."
"Great job, 'Nata-chan!" Kiba tackled Hinata in a hug. "I knew you could take down that Uchiha prick!"
"But she didn't," Sasuke said, only a little smugly, pointing at the duck tracks.
Instead of shooting the 50 point duck down, Hinata had shot his beak clean off.
"He's right, Hinata-chan," Naruto said, sounding dejected. "It only counts if you knock the duck over."
Look for the continued amusement park adventures of Sasuke and Hinata on September 5, 2016!
Thank you for your continued support! My readers are the best! uwu