Because I'm a po' grad student and don't have the money to throw at her, I'm dedicating this set to bjorkubus for being my pimp over at NF.
Cassandra Claire. She is win. Just so we're clear. I am indeed one of the people that firmly believes that, though I do allow she's done some less than legal things, so have I. Very Secret Diaries!!
21 vacation
"What exactly are the stakes?"
Kakashi turns a page in his book. "We were going to do sex favors, but then Hanabi threatened to do something very unsightly with firecrackers and Naruto's pants, so we decided on lunches."
Hinata blinks rapidly and says nothing at all.
"I was kidding, Hinata-san."
"Of course, sensei." She doesn't sound completely convinced, but then it's probably not an unusual threat for the girl to make.
-vovovovov-
She can't help but notice after five hands that Hanabi was right, and this team, for lack of a better phrase, absolutely sucks at this.
"Stop taking the damn crane."
Kakashi looks surprised. "But you can see I've got the—"
"No. You don't. You never do." Sasuke rubs at his temples as Hinata flips over the new card. "If I didn't know for a fact the Hyuuga wasn't cheating, I'd say she was peeking."
"We-we could play a different game," she offers timidly.
"But I think I'm starting to get the hang of this one," objects Naruto.
"Yes, let's not confuse Naruto. He doesn't do so well when he has to win by conventional means and following rules."
Naruto ignores his teacher in favor of trying to determine whether the new card is sakura or ume. Eventually he notices the colors and figures out the sakura have pink in them and the game goes on.
-vovovovov-
"Is this all we're going to do until after the wedding?" asks Naruto, doing mildly better know that he's got some idea of the worth of certain flowers.
"We're being paid to protect the blushing bride, and while we're at it, the other two lovely ladies."
"Yeah but who's going to attack them here?"
Kakashi doesn't know if he should find Naruto's faith in humanity and other people's fences touching or more cause for headache.
"This isn't a vacation, Naruto. We do our jobs whether there's a cause or not. Someone, in this case the Hyuuga, is paying for your time and skills. I'm sorry Hinata, I think we're cheating your family out of good money here."
"I would trust Naruto with my life," she murmurs softly. I have before, remains unspoken. "Just as I would trust you all," she adds, too sincere to be an afterthought, but still something she might have only just realized.
"Your life is about the only thing you can trust him with," points out Sasuke to break the silence that is straddling awkward and sappy, blunt as a tree to the head. He throws down his last card and collects his capture. "Nizoro. I win."
Hinata look at his cards and spreads her own. "Ino-shika-chou. And hanami ippai."
She can't help but smile a little as Sasuke glares something awful at the brightly colored cards. It's a small margin of loss, but it's still a loss.
"Oi, Hyuuga. Don't deal him in. He's not even trying." He gestures at his teacher rudely.
"Oh Sasuke, even if he doesn't play, your luck will still blow," peeps Hanabi brightly as she ignores Aiko sneaking a few admiring glances at her genin team. She will allow the guys aren't painful to look at, but she's twelve and an aloof, unavailable pixie of a princess.
And they're… annoying. Over-powered and arrogant, and she doesn't like how easily they can change the world. The blonde can do so much, even she knows it. More than the magnetic force of his personality, more than that unshakeable will, Naruto has this ability to make people believe he is right and the world is fair and everything will be okay, because he's going to be Hokage, and he's such an idiot and even she knows it, but she's getting strung along just like her sister, only without the brain damage, and some day there will be more than a bridge named after him. The problem she has with Sasuke is that Naruto can and will bend heaven and earth for him.
She has to wonder if anyone else sees it. Aiko certainly doesn't. All Aiko sees is Naruto's smile and Sasuke's eyes and some kind of misconception that Hanabi is lucky to be a ninja.
Maybe her sister can see why these two are so dangerous. Shadowed by the forceful obviousness of their power, their attitude, their unbreakable bonds, is the fact that they're seventeen and boys, and therefore stupid, probably hormonal and unhygienic.
It's veiled by her modest demeanor, but her sister is an heiress and horribly kind and nice and soft and welcoming, and she's seventeen too, and people seem to forget these things so often.