Hey peeps... bad week. SOOOO MUCH WORK! I thought maybe I'd just update next weekend (I even thought of stopping the story all together! :P with all the stress and what not) but since you guys are really supporting me I thought HEY! why not give em' what they want? Any way I've been looking forward to this chapter for awhile :) lets get started!
And the Winner Is...
"Hinata-san the crescendo needs to be more powerful! Like your riding a train and it..."
"Falls off a cliff?"
"Exactement!" He replied in French, his native language. "Like you've just realized something terrible. I say you even add a bit of a ritardando and make it more somber. Walton added these flats for a reason! Use them!" Hinata nodded with determination and tackled the measures of the viola concerto again. She envisioned her own version of her instructor's suggestions and then played it back. She already had the piece memorized and the notes in tune. Now, the Hyuga focused on creating an emotional rendition of the notes on the page. Walton gave her the melody, the hundreds of notes printed quietly on several sheets of thick paper. Hinata wanted to make it into several minutes of loudness. A song that would penetrate the hearts of anyone listening and make others stop to listen.
"Tresbien Hinata-san! Feel the music... yes just commecela." Hinata finished and slowly rested her arms, mesmerized by what she produced. The girl had always loved playing the viola and while she never complained about any of her lesson teachers to her father, Pierre was the only one she looked forward to seeing.
"Okay that's enough work for today," he huffed exhausted. Hinata nodded and began to loosen her bow gently. "Good job today sunshine," Pierre smiled and ruffled her hair lovingly. "In fact, this is the most emotion you've put into your songs in a while. What happened did you finally get a boyfriend?" He eyed her for what Hinata thought was an eternity and finally the girl sighed and decided to let him in.
"Well I-" she was interrupted before she even started.
"Ha! I knew it! Please tell me he's a musician. Don't tell me, he's a cellist no, no pianist. I won't accept any of those tasteless wood-winders ugh they just ruin an ensembles -"
"Pierre!" Hinata shouted through giggles. "I don't have a boyfriend and we already agreed that his musical talents shouldn't be a problem." Hinata crossed her arms and play glared into his brown eyes. She and him often had these play fights. It made Hinata feel like he actually had a father when she was with Pierre. She couldn't even imagine her father asking if she had a boyfriend let alone knowing if she had one at all.
"D'accord darling," he went back to ruffling her hair and Hinata's red face from talking about boyfriends subsided. "Anyway, I want you to get that old beauty re stringed and polished up for the recital Sunday. This is, mind you, in two days. Here is the address of a shop fantastiquethat is really close by." He handed Hinata the paper and made a move to open the door. Then he remembered something and backtracked to the curious girl. "I almost forgot! The little tiger tells me you want to invite some of you friends to see you play."
"Hanabi? That girl..." Hinata mumbled taking the six free tickets and thanking her teacher.
As soon as he left, Hinata heard a scratching sound from the wall. Cautiously, she placed her ear on the wall to hear exactly where it was coming from. Finally she found where it was the loudest and tapped on the wall lightly. Hinata was startled when the creature on the other side knocked back with the same pattern. The girl tried it a second time louder and the other side matched it again. Curious, Hinata prayed that it wasn't a rodent banging and scratching and began working to remove the wood square. Surprisingly it came off easily and Hinata was met with the small smirk of her little sister.
Hanabi coughed and stepped out of the wall causally. Then she dusted herself off and looked at her sister. "Before you ask me what I was doing there, I was just exploring the air condition ducts okay." Hanabi put her hands on her hips and waited for her sister to call her irresponsible.
"Why are you saying it like all 12-year-old girls scamper around the air condition systems?"
"Bleh," Hanabi replied making a weird face. Hinata grabbed her sister's cheeks and began molding her face despite the little ones giggling protests.
"Onee-chan?"
"Yes."
"Was it fun, last week when you went out with Kiba?" Hinata and her sister had moved out of the practice room and were now chatting on their way to the girls parlor. It was a room that connected the two sisters' rooms and had a couch and a record player. Other than that it was empty and the ground felt hard and cold under their bare feet. Even though the room wasn't accommodating they always found themselves drawn to it. Maybe it's because their mother always told them of how they would decorate it with everything they ever wanted.
"Yeah it was! I can't believe that we live in this town and we've never been to that market place. It has everything Hanabi." Hinata gestured to nothing while snuggled against her sister on the couch. Hanabi marveled at this wondrous place that has a mall and a jewelry shop and an ice cream place.
"Nee-chan!" Hanabi yelled abruptly sitting up.
"What, what!?" Hinata yelled back mocking her sister's sense of urgency.
"Oh please onee-chan my wonderful, pretty, smart and kind onee-san please take me there!" Hinata froze. With every compliment that came out of her sister's mouth she felt an arrow stab her heart. She would take her sister there in a heartbeat but, there was no way she was repeating the limo fiasco. A couple of people at her school asked her if she saw the rich beauty in a golden gown in the limo. All she could do was be flattered that people saw her that way and thank god no one noticed it was her.
"Hanabi... you know I-" Hinata stopped letting her sister down and then thought of a brilliant idea. "...Sometimes I think your devious side is running off on me." She finished, hanging her head in shame at the plan she concocted.
"Oh now that's music to my ears," Hanabi replied in a sing-song voice. "Fill me in sis."
~~~~~30 minutes later~~~~~
Naruto paced back and forth in front of Konoha's Music Etc.quietly reciting what he would say to the manager when he made his entrance.
"Hi. I'm Uzumaki Naruto the one for the job."
"No that's so lame."
"Hello I applied for this job and was contacted by a man named..." Naruto paused to look at a sheet he filled out for the name of the manager. He sighed and didn't even bother trying to pronounce the name.
Come onUzumaki! Just walk in there and get the damn job.
After a few more minutes of arguing with himself in front of the store and pacing like a madman, he finally mustered up the confidence to walk in. The store seemed fairly quiet with only a handful of customers browsing. Naruto approached the front desk and was greeted cordially by a young man who introduced himself as Ebisu.
"I was just... I heard that..." Naruto took a deep breath and began again. "I am interested in working here part-time." He finally spat out. Ebisu pushed up his glasses and crossed his arms.
"Do you have all the paper work filled out?" Naruto rustled around in his bag for the sheets of paper he made Sakura fill out in nice handwriting. He shakily handed it to the man who briefly looked it over.
"I'm sorry Mr. Uzumaki but, it seems that you are a tad... under qualified for this job." Ebisu gave the shocked teen his papers back and turned away to aid a customer. Of course Naruto placed his hand over the counter and onto the man's shoulder to force him back around.
"What do you mean 'under qualified'? I filled out everything as well as I could." Naruto tried to keep the frustration out of his voice less Ebisu find another reason not to hire him.
"It's just that we require all of our employees to have some basic musical knowledge. Standard protocol really. I'm sorry kid but, there are a lot of other places hir-" Naruto let go of Ebisu and looked him right in the eye.
"Please sir. I am sixteen years old, I live by myself, and I've been eating take out and living on my grandpa's life insurance money for the past four years! I need this job so much. I'll get kicked out of my apartment if I don't get a job soon." Naruto tried to keep his cool but, just talking about his situation made him want to yell. Ebisu pitied him but, knew he couldn't just give anyone a job.
"Okay, if you can play anything ANYTHING nice on anyone of these instruments I'll give you the job. I don't give this kind of opportunity to everybody so it has to be in the next 5 minutes. I'll give you some time to practice and then you play. Got it?" He pushed up his glasses and turned back to the customer.
"Thank you sir," Naruto said already looking for an easy instrument to play. He had ruled out all of the 'uncool' instruments and was looking at the string section when he noticed a certain beauty examining a small black electric viola. He called out to her from across the store.
"Hey! Hinata!" Naruto jogged over to the petite girl. He couldn't stop smiling at her and she blushed at his goofy grin.
"Hi Naruto-kun, what are you doing here?" Hinata carefully placed the delicate instrument back on the shelf and gave all of her attention to her friend.
"I'm trying to get a job here but, the boss has this rule that you have to play an instrument to be apart of the staff." Hinata looked at her disappointed friend's face. "He gave me 5 minutes to practice but, I don't think it'll help. Maybe I'll just tell him thanks and look somewhere else." Naruto made a move towards the counter but, Hinata grabbed his jacket.
"Wait."
~~~~~1 hour later~~~~~
"So you and your little sister are hanging out today?" Naruto took a sip of his drink and burped loudly earning a scolding full of giggles from Hinata and stares from the strangers around them.
"Yeah she just wanted to buy some movies." Hinata reached into her purse and checked the time on her phone.
I have to getHanabiback soon; father will be home in an hour or so.
After momentarily settling the job situation Hinata and Naruto headed over to the plaza where Hanabi was shopping.
"I know that store! Teme works there." He said when Hinata described the place where she dropped her sister. Hinata let Naruto lead the way through the mall to where she and her sister were supposed to meet up. Through the wide open entrance to Video Plusshe saw her sister at the checkout counter. She was about to call out to her but, then she noticed Kiba and Sasuke sitting on a mall couch outside the store chatting.
Sasuke-kunmust beon break.She thought.
Neither two boys could see Naruto and Hinata approaching from behind but, the girl could hear what they were discussing clearly.
"... What are you backing out of the game? You still have to pay up." she heard Sasuke say.
"It's not that. I just think that... Look, I spent some time with her on Saturday and she's a really genuine girl. I don't think we should be..." At this point, Naruto tuned in and tried to casually turn Hinata another direction. She moved his arm and pressed forward engrossed in their conversation.
Who are they talking about?Hinata asked herself, unwilling to face the obvious.
"Hinata don't jump to conclusions," Pleaded Naruto, desperate to keep her in the dark. Sasuke and Kiba turned when they heard their friend's voice and were shocked to see who he was talking to.
"Hinata! What are you doing here?" Kiba tried to cover up the conversation by acting like his usual self but, it was a lost cause. He reached out toward her and she stepped back, a frightened looked painted on her pale face.
"Who are you guys talking about?" Her question was met by silence. "Kiba-kun, Sasuke-kun," she looked at each of them for a moment. "Naruto-kun, what are they talking about?" Hinata had not noticed a steady stream of tears running down her cheeks. Naruto reached out to wipe the tears but, he was stopped by Hinata's weak hand caressing his own. Through her touch Naruto could understand her thoughts. "Naruto-kun please explain to me what's going on" and "Naruto-kun was it all lies from the beginning" and worst of all "I trusted you". Getting all she needed from Naruto's silence Hinata dropped her hands and brushed pass the three boys. Through teary eyes she saw her litter sister leaving the shop. Hanabi froze when she saw he sister in tears and rushed towards her.
"Hinata wait!" Naruto snapped out of his trance and grabbed her arm spinning her around. When he saw her face he immediately let go. Pure pain, sorrow, emptiness. Like he had sucked the soul out of her and the body was left behind in tears. "I-I'm sor-," Naruto never finished because Hinata, with all the strength she could muster, slapped him. Naruto cupped his stinging cheek and watched Hinata turn away for the second time. Her sister reached out with her hand and Hanabi grabbed and squeezed tightly not fully understanding the situation. When the sisters were out of sight the boys looked at each other for a moment realizing what they did and what they had done too many other girls.
Naruto roughly squeezed his forehead cursing and plopped down on the mall couch, eyes closed and teeth gritted. Then he addressed his friends bitterly.
"So, who's the winner?"
Gosh this took me a while I kept changing up how she finds out. Any way I'll include the job stuff in a Naruto and Hinata short and a short of how Hanabi and Hinata snuck out.