Star - I'm going back to relative obscurity. If I get any more haters, then they'll hate Starfairy14s, and not Momo. (it's sorta a depressing prospect, but I'm cool with it I guess).
Also, I know I used 'soccer' in the last chapters, but since the U.S. is the ONLY country that gave it that name, and every other country calls it 'football' or 'futball', I'm going to use 'futball' from now to describe the game. :3 Achmed the Terrorist puppet may have said being politically correct is a pain in the ass, but I don't mind it most of the time.
Alright! Let's commence! (OMG! I'M SO PROUD OF THE ENDING, WHAHAHAHA!) WIZARD ANGST! Angst, angst, angst, angst! X3 Also, reason why I'm not writing happy things is because I'm not ready to. I just don't have a grasp on the true happiness. If I can't feel it, I can't believe it. So I hope you understand.
Ch. 29 - This Is It
Blood pumped madly through his veins, adrenaline coursed through the streams like an ever-growing poison. His face was red with blood, it pounded against his cheeks and ears.
His chest hurt, his throat felt sharp and dry. His mind clawed out for safety. Desperation clung to him like mud.
He ran as fast as he did in his nightmares.
The summer trees flew past him, blurred by his speed. Rain pounded heavily against the dirt road as did his feet.
The adrenaline blurred his vision, he could barely register where he was, barely begin to understand.
He just kept running and running, bat in hand.
Naruto had gotten separated from his teammates.
The fight had gotten out of hand this time.
They bolted off first, too scared to deal with the consequences.
Naruto was scared shit out of his mind.
He could feel the blood cake around the handle, the harder he gripped it.
His heel slipped into a puddle. He lost his footing and tumbled into the overflown rice paddy beside the road.
Water filled his mouth. He screamed for air but not for help.
He couldn't think straight. Down became up, and up became down. He flailed in both directions, all the while haunted by his imaginings of dead bodies.
Their eyes stared up at him from the bottom. Their prescence greeted him with the invitation of the deceased and rotting.
Drunken businessmen were prone to drowning once they fell into a rice paddy.
Naruto believed the same would happen to him.
'And then Sakura-chan will say: You deserved it!'
Up?
Down?
Up?
Down?
Up?
Down...
Naruto sat across from Hiro on the sofa, curiously eyeing the way she was nervously biting her bottom lip. Despite the current conversation, he couldn't help but think it was cute.
"Why do you need a knife?"
"I just need one. I'd rather not buy one. And I cannot use one of t'e kitchen blades from work. T'ey'd trace it back, y'know?"
"So you have to use someone else's?"
"..."
"Are you really planning on using it?"
"Only if I have to..."
"Is something wrong?"
"..." Hiro looked away and said nothing.
Naruto wondered if it had to do with those recent phone calls she'd been getting.
One time he heard her yelling, but she must've been so angry because he hadn't understood a word she said.
Another time he saw her cry.
Every other time since then, she was either agitated or upset.
Hiro turned around and retreated into the small, cluttered room she had fitted as an office.
She never let him step a foot inside or even take a peek.
She said it was for her father's business.
Hinata stood at the end of the line formed before Kurenai-sensei and Asuma-sensei as they gave the day's lessons. She couldn't keep herself from leaning off to the side to catch a glimpse of the blonde she so adored. He stood twelve classmates down the line. Kiba stood three away from Naruto, and he could feel Hinata's eyes just staring, even if she wasn't quite staring at his direction. He couldn't keep himself from grimacing at her behavior.
"Kick with the top of your toe," Kurenai explained, as she brought her foot back and thrust it forward, executing a perfect kick. The ball shot fiercely across the field and tented the net as it hit. The students courteously applauded their teacher. Hinata took this moment to sneak out from her spot in line.
Kiba perked up at her approach. On the outside he remained indifferent and nonchalant, and attentive to his teacher. Inside, he had all his attention on Hinata, inwardly fearing what she was doing. She stopped behind Naruto and smiled up at the blonde that took no notice of her.
Out of pure affection, she grabbed his hand.
Kiba wilted inside.
Hinata gave Naruto's hand a few playful tugs, her quiet little giggles tickling his ears and the back of his neck. Naruto was flustered. He wasn't sure if he was aggravated with her or if he was getting bashful. And how bold she was; flirting in the middle of class? Honestly? 'She can't keep her hands off me...' He mused in a half-intoxicated state. The repetitive and insistent tugging on his hand reminded him and shook him from his daydreams. With that he exasperatedly ammended, '...she literally can't keep her hands off me.'
He moved to push her away, but remembering her 'condition' (her having a crush on him), he grabbed her hand and wove his fingers between hers without losing eye contact with their teachers.
Her heart soared above the clouds. She felt as if she had stepped out of the confines of her body, was thrusted into the sky, and as soon as she burst through the clouds, she was swimming in an ocean of warmth. She revelled in it, drank it all in until she was drunk. Her skin alighted with such electricit. She couldn't control the look of bliss that blessed her face, and as Kiba looked on, he sunk deeper in his worthlessness as he fell in love with her face ten times over.
Naruto then pulled his hand away, and with a whisper over his shoulder said, "Alright, now go back where you were."
Hinata stopped beaming.
"Why?"
"W-why?" Naruto stuttered in a hushed shout, "Remember that one time I said I'd only hold your hand once? And not in school?"
"I know; because we're not together."
"Exactly." He nodded with firm 'hmph'.
Hinata grabbed his hand.
"B-But... anou... w-wouldn't you think.. it'd b-be nice?"
"What?"
"If we were together... don't you think?"
Naruto crossed his arms and kept his back to her. He tried to keep a nonchalant expression so no one would notice; he was getting embarrassed.
"Don't talk about sensitive things." He muttered under his breath.
"But..." Hinata uttered, trailing off with an unspoken hopelessness.
The line began to separate into two circles, and Hinata found herself at a loss. She did the easiest thing; she followed Naruto into his group. Kiba saw this, and did the same thing; he felt so inclined to keep pace with her, make sure she didn't do anything regrettable. He couldn't let her go without holding the leash a little bit.
Hinata reached out and tugged on the hem of Naruto's shirt sleeve.
"It's important." She said, almost pleadingly.
"Then later." Naruto replied hushedly, shrugging himself from her timid grasp, "And quit clinging to me."
Hiro sat out on the balcony of her apartment, with a lighter in her hand.
She dangled her feet over the side of the rail as she raised up a strip of photo-stickers, the very one she and Naruto took at the booth.
He had already taken some and placed them on the back of his cell phone.
She wanted to laugh in his face for doing such an absurd thing.
He held too much trust when he really shouldn't.
She couldn't understand him at all. Even though he was so transparent to her, she couldn't understand him.
She flicked her thumb on the lighter, ingniting a small flame.
She then placed the pictures over the flame.
Hiro watched the colors fade, the film curl back as the heat ate away at it.
She watched Naruto slowly burn.
It was the only bit of relief she could get right now.
But knowing that sooner or later she'd have to confront him made her terribly anxious.
She felt so sick in her stomach whenever she thought of him, and she began to wish she never met him.
"It always hurts more to know. It's not enough that he confessed... I have to watch him burn."
Naruto replaced his indoor shoes for his outdoor shoes. As he worked quick to put on his worn down tennis shoes, he noticed someone was staring at him. He picked up his head and looked to the side.
Kiba was watching him. But not in that outraged, hate-filled way as when they had fought, but rather he seemed to admonish Naruto. The blonde caught on and just smirked to himself. A shudder nearly passed through Kiba when he saw that grin of his; He had resembled a fox so well that it was disturbing.
The sly fox then turned around for the exit and stealthfully wove his through the crowds, before creeping out the gate like a thief.
Naruto hadn't gotten back to Hinata at all.
And now, he had escaped her completely.
"Really hate that guy." Kiba sighed, before taking off for home himself.
He briefly wondered how much longer it'd take before Hinata wised up.
He lost all optimism on the idea.
Moe's room was like entering a vintage shop abandoned on Takeshita Street, a disarray of destroyed and distorted color, poster-plastered walls and a library of old and new manga lined up against the wall by her bed. It was all so unpleasantly cluttered, it worse than treading through Takeshita on its best days; it was more like entering a dumpsite, or the result of an earthquake.
LaBelle hadn't a clue what she was doing here, and she began to feel sick from staying in Moe's room too long.
Maybe part of her had expected to find Hinata here. The only time she ever graced Moe with her dignified prescence was when Hinata was around. Otherwise she had no purpose to hang around with Moe. She couldn't put up with her, and to begin with, they were not true friends.
Moe was loud and full of crap. Plus she was a fujoshi, which was worse.
"Disgusting." Labelle muttered to herself after much silent.
"What was that?" Moe whipped her head around curiously, even as she spun round and round on her swivel chair like a child.
"I said your room is disgusting. It makes me fear what kind of adult you'll become."
"I wonder the same things about you." Moe threw back in a high, distracted voice.
"So how come Emi-chan isn't here?"
"I haven't seen her at all."
"So she does like me better." LaBelle smirked, earning a rigid glare from the dark red-head.
"Idiot! She does not like you over me!" Moe shouted as she grabbed her stuffed dolls off her shelves; one by one, she chucked Vash, Tamaki, Axel, and Roxas, at LaBelle. "I was her friend first!"
"I spoke to her last week! When was the last time you spoke to her on the phone? Have you seen her online?"
"She's with that guy, idiot!" With a grunt, Moe tossed her Sailor Moon doll at her. "Why don't you just go back to being a loner, huh? Roll over and die!"
She hit her with a dog.
Hinata sat out on his porch, kicking her feet as she awaited for his arrival. He neared her with a dumb grin and his hand on his neck.
"Alright, you got me." Naruto chuckled feigning sheepishness. Inwardly he was sighing and craving sleep, but he knew it could not be helped.
"Will you talk with me then?" Hinata asked hopefully, nervously drumming her fingernails against the porch.
"Can I sleep first?" Naruto chuckled as he scratched the back of his head. He was so playing up the clueless nice guy act. So far being honest (and rather crass) did nothing to push her away, and now he was opting to just avoid her in any way possible.
Plus he knew what 'talking' meant. ... Actually he wasn't really sure, but he didn't want to participate.
"What if I cook you something?" She asked.
Naruto perked up at this.
Hits had been taken and hairs had been pulled.
When Moe tackled LaBelle, she managed to get her to fight back.
LaBelle wasn't a coward, but she never put herself in physical altercations.
Deciding it was late, LaBelle walked out of Moe's room.
"Where you going? This isn't over!"
"For you to say that so grudgingly, are you declaring that I won this fight?"
"This isn't over!" Moe hopped off her bed and chased after LaBelle with fists at her side, yet she did not swing.
"I'm going to Emi-chan's school tomorrow." The buttermilk blonde stated so coolly that Moe calmed down. At the same time her heart brightened and sank a little at this information.
"How do you know where she goes?" She asked mopeishly. She felt so stupid for not knowing.
"Because I asked Kiba-kun. He goes to her school, in fact, they have the same homeroom."
Moe's self-confidence dampened just then. She began to feel more and more out of the loop, and yet she was practically the leader of their group; after all, she was Hinata's friend first. But now she was losing touch with everything, no, she had been losing touch the whole time. And LaBelle was on top of everything as usual. 'Because she's so goddamn perfect...'
LaBelle looked strangely at Moe. Normally cheerful, Moe was frowning, looking down and every now and then, she emitted a sniffle.
"We'll go together then, alright? Besides I'm worried."
"I've always been worried." Moe shot back under her breath. LaBelle ignored this.
"He's bad news. But it's not just him that has me worried for her; I think Kiba has given up on her."
"That's too bad. So what?" Moe was indifferent to the idea of Kiba being with Hinata. She felt that if Hinata didn't like him, then tough luck. She didn't have to be with him. She didn't have to be with anybody if she didn't want to.
"So she should be with someone that wants to be with her."
"You're just controlling her again." Moe sighed, rolling her eyes. LaBelle looked at her venomously and confused, silently saying, 'What are you talking about?'
Naruto thought it was so interesting to see her there cooking for him.
Part of him expected something sexy to happen as she worked over the stove.
She even wore an apron, which she had retrieved from her house. It wasn't frilly or cutesy like he had nearly imagined. It was a practical apron; white with spaghetti-thin ties, and a single brown pawprint on the lower right edge.
The pawprint made him think of Kiba.
"Whatcha makin'?"
"Miso soup. Do you want anything particular?" She asked peeking over her shoulder.
"I dunno... You've always made good stuff." He said, recalling the bento lunches. He recalled the ekiben moment. It felt unfamiliar to him, and he felt a bit of embarrassment for his blurtings that day. "I dunno." He said again, shrugging.
Hinata just giggled.
Her giggle made him think of Kiba again.
"Hey, do you know?" He raised curiously from across the room.
"What you want to eat?"
"No, Kiba. Do you know?"
Hinata blinked at this and turned halfway around to reply with, "What about him?"
"He likes you."
The room fell quiet and her body stilled. He could tell she was caught off guard as she stared at him; she had stopped herself from widening her eyes. Her lids had flickered open before she blinked and kept a neutral expression.
"I think I knew." She said. Then she fully turned herself back to the stove. She knew she was fibbing, though at the same time it didn't feel like she was. Kiba had been pretty obvious in his affections, but at the same time they were still friends and Hinata had ignored his hints up to a point that she didn't believe in his intentions.
"You think you knew?" Naruto craned his head dubiously at her. She could feel his eyes boring into the back of her head, she could feel him judging her. But what did he care about Kiba? All they ever did was get on eachother's nerves.
"Yeah, I think... my friends could tell." Hinata quietly mumbled as she worked to melt the miso before adding it to the saucepan. Guilt painted its way across her face and seared against her cheeks. Her heart sank heavily into her stomach as her thoughts of Kiba dissolved in her brain like the dashi dissolved in the miso. She wished she hadn't told him to go away.
Naruto almost felt bad seeing how she became melancholy at the mention of her friends. He didn't think it was a big deal if she didn't notice Kiba liked her or if she knew and simply did not feel the same way. It wasn't her fault. But with they way they had been so friendly, he had thought they'd be the ones to end up together. He had been so sure they were together. He had kept referring to Kiba as her boyfriend.
'Instead she has a crush on me. It's just a crush though, it'll blow over sooner or later,' He figured seeing how Sasuke's fangirls got over him soon as he disappeared. He was certain the same would happen with Hinata, he just wished she wasn't so enamored when she had a crush.
She got so damn clingy.
Even as Naruto enjoyed her cooking, Hinata couldn't help but feel disappointed. She had kept her hopes up back there; the whole time she'd been cooking, she had fantasized Naruto walking up behind her, and embracing her from behind while he buried his face in her neck and purred. She giggled occasionally at the purring idea, but she had really hoped he would do that. He had been spontaneous before.
And that weighed on her mind.
"How do you like it?" Hinata asked once more.
"It's great, thanks." He said warmly though without smiling. He was unusually reserved, and actually appeared to be distracted. By what, she wasn't sure. Then he spoke up again with a feigned chuckle, "Yeah, ya think by now I'd be cooking my own meals, but I'm not."
"The Ichiraku?" Hinata pointed out.
"Yup. If I wanted, I could make my own ramen from now on; but I'm a sloth."
Hinata brought her hand up and giggled.
"That's no good. How will you pass the year?" She teased, giggling again.
Naruto couldn't help but smirk at this, even though it came with a bitter taste.
"The P.O. doesn't think I can. The teachers don't think so either."
Hinata nodded in understanding. She chose not to ask about who 'The P.O.' was.
"You haven't been here that long. And you've missed too many days..."
"Hn, you wanted to keep me here one day." He smirked.
Hinata blushed.
"Just... for one day." She quietly mumbled.
"Pretty irresponsible." Naruto laughed in sing-song.
"You can speak for yourself..." She muttered indignantly to herself.
As the room fell silent, two thoughts ran continuously through his mind.
1) She's going to ask to have 'the talk'.
2) We're actually having a normal conversation?
And he couldn't believe how pleasant the latter felt, even though part of her still made him anxious. At this point he was so used to her doing something wierd that he was uncomfortable with suddenly being comfortable.
"Naruto-kun... About last time..." She tentatively started, catching him off guard. Naruto nearly fell to the side, being so surprised. He had been waiting the whole time for her to bring up sentimental stuff and just when he got comfortable, she finally said it. "...You said you liked it right? You said it was 'nice'?"
Naruto thought she sounded so vulnerable. 'She's getting really sensitive now...'
"Sure it was. Anyone would've enjoyed doing that kind of thing." He replied back plainly.
Hinata became confused by 'anyone', and remained silently confused.
"But you liked it, right?" She asked again, despite the evident look of annoyance on his face.
"Yeah, already." He sighed out, getting aggravated as he gripped his chopsticks too tightly; a cube of tofu broke in half and fell back into his soup. "Dammit..." He cursed. It wasn't that he was so focused on eating and not talking to Hinata that made him tense. Since Hinata brought it up, he could feel a change in the room's mood. Her eyes bore into him, he could anticipate her desire, that sensation of warm, moist flesh.
She wanted to experience that flying feeling again, she wanted to feel warm again. She wanted to feel him again.
Without barely thinking, she had her arms around his neck and her pink lips against his. She was glad she wiped off her gloss awhile ago. She hated that waxy feeling, it really messed up the sincerity of a kiss.
Naruto refused to respond at first, but when she began to press herself up against him, her crotch hugging at his thigh, he gave in.
He knew this hadn't been her main priority, but they shoved it down so they could focus on eachother for a moment.
'So much for that talk.'
Her giggles filled the room like soap bubbles.
Naruto jokingly wrestled with her, their legs kicking at eachother, his hands on her hips, on her thighs, on her belly. He got her on her stomach and laid out on top of her. The weight of his body pushed out more fervent laughter from her throat, like squeezing toothpaste from the tube.
Her face was getting so red.
He dipped his head down just to get a look at her.
'She's glowing again,' He thought. Her smile was small but genuine. He couldn't believe she could look so happy. He thought deep down that her happiness should make him happy too, but just looking at her, tucked away against his chest, glowing; it only made him sad. He thought, 'it'd be so much easier if she didn't smile like that, if she wasn't so affectionate,' because then he wouldn't have to feel so guilty sometimes. Sometimes he resented her for his guilt. He resented her for seducing him with earnest affection and warm embraces. He resented her because no matter what she did, he couldn't appreciate her the way he was supposed to.
It was like Kiba had said; he didn't know how to appreciate her.
'But it's not my fault. I don't know what's so special about her. I don't like her the way I liked Sakura-chan. The way I felt for Sakura-chan will never happen with Hinata-chan. It just won't.'
Naruto slipped his arms around her waist and he fell over to the side. Hinata smiled, and huddled herself closer to him. She began to like spooning, but she was a little sad she couldn't look into his face at the same time. Still, this was a very comforting position.
Naruto ran his hand over the sleeve of her mulberry cardigan, down to her skirt which he knew was too short. He poked a finger into her butt-cheek, eliciting a squeal of alarm as her body jumped.
"Why do you wear it so short? Are you trying to get felt up?" He criticized while tugging on the hem.
"I was hoping... you'd like it. Other girls wear theirs like this too..."
"Yeah, because they're either super-sluts or can't find a boyfriend. Private school girls hike their skirts way up too when they go to Shibuya because they're starving for attention of the opposite sex. But when they're handle-hanging on the trains or buses, they're practically inviting bastards to cop a feel. Do you really want that?"
"...But, don't my legs look longer? My friend said if my legs were longer..."
"Is that really why?" Naruto pinched her cheek roughly, earning a childish whine from her. That annoyed him; it seeemed whenever he was being serious, she was being cute (and when she was being serious, he didn't give a damn). "Don't use shallow reasons to be sexy."
"But you don't like me anyways. So what am I supposed to do?"
Naruto propped himself up on one elbow to get a better look at her.
"And what does that mean?"
She didn't say anything. Her cuddly demeanor was gone, replaced by a somber pessimism.
Girls changed moods so quickly and so easily, Naruto always imagined girls kept their emotions in a pocket by or in their heart, and at any given moment, they'd pull out whichever emotion they felt like feeling and tucked away which ever ones they didn't feel like feeling. Sometimes he felt girls loved to be sad, and that's what made a 'drama-queen'.
Here he was certain that though Hinata had been genuinely content, she held onto her insecurities like a grudge, the emotions clutched tightly in her fist. He didn't care to make her feel better, that was her own problem. But he couldn't help but wonder what made girls so addicted to emotions; did they not get enough stimulation or something? Was it like that? And if it was, then girls were definitely crazy.
Hinata shifted around before lying still. She couldn't decide whether to get up and leave or stay snug in his arms, whether she should answer him or not.
"I thought you would figure out how I felt, and that maybe you would find me interesting enough to be your girlfriend. But you haven't asked me out yet. I don't think you will."
Naruto lifted himself off of Hinata slightly as if afraid she'd break under his touch. She became a dainty doll and he wanted to be careful around her feelings. Never had they gotten around to talking so directly, and Naruto admitted he couldn't handle this topic without putting his whole heart into it. A mental image stuck in his mind of his arm reaching down inside his chest, blindly searching for that vital organ that was necessary for moments like these. He thought maybe he was knocking into it, but he couldn't locate it.
"...And what do you feel for me?" Naruto felt his cheeks go a bit warm. The topic was unfamiliarly intimate for him.
"I like you. A lot."
Naruto sighed knowingly, "You have a crush."
"No! I like you! I feel it all the time..."
"Maybe it's something else you're feeling! I mean... I know it's my fault for making you sexually active-"
"It's not that! It's not like that! I do it because I know you like it!"
"And you don't do it because you like it?"
"I like it... too."
"There, that settles it: We're both horny."
Hinata slapped his hand, clearly embarrassed.
"I just like you. I know I do," She wistfully sighed, "I like how you make me feel." The butterflies in her belly were going crazy, and her heart twisted with yearning. Yearning for what, she wasn't sure anymore. She wasn't sure what to do keep herself from getting too depressed.
Naruto didn't believe her words however, he didn't believe there was any substance to her feelings. Crushes are for kids, and infatuations are the worst. She took pictures of him when he wasn't looking, she... what else did she do?
"Ah, you like 'how I make you feel'. So you're saying you can settle for these gropefests?" Naruto asked her dubiously. He gave her hip a little squeeze. She jerked slightly away in response.
"I didn't say that... but... if you're fine with it, I am..."
Naruto hugged her closer, and in a sleepy voice asked, "...So why did you tell your friends I was your boyfriend?"
Hinata searched within her melancholy for an answer. She had hoped by now he'd get it. She hadn't been trying to be secretive.
"Because I can't be with you the way I want."
Naruto stood up to leave for work. Before he got too far, Hinata reached out for his sleeve and tugged him back to her, like she were tugging her heart back to her chest.
Naruto thought she wanted another kiss.
She didn't feel the extraordinary need to keep him this time; She could still feel the heat trails of his fingertips across her skin. Her body felt tired and used like a toddler's favorite doll, and every few seconds ten new questions would fire off in her head like roman candles.
Despite their better judgement, they let their lips touch, press, and caress, and their tongues tease against eachother.
'I was supposed to make him my boyfriend. I was supposed to be attractive enough that he'd ask me out and want me as his love,'
But instead Naruto chose nothing, leaving her with the yearning for completion, for the self-worth she never had.
Instead Naruto chose to keep going forward, rather than change the direction of their affair.
The door shut behind him. Hinata lay there, feeling like she wouldn't miss him too much this time.
They both got their fill, until their appetite for affection returned, they would not seek each other out until tomorrow.
"I suppose this is still a relationship... just... not an ideal one..."
Naruto stood outside the building where the Elephant Cafe sat three stories above him.
The streets of Harajuku were crowded as always; a never-ending stream of people, just a flood of flesh and eyes.
Somehow the city reminded him of a merry-go-round; it's slow down and stop on occasion, but it'd always start up again, and the scenery would always be the same.
You'd see that girl with the curled hair and pleather raincoat in high-heel boots as she strut around the grounds like she was Koda Kumi. Yet all she ever did was go to the same kareoke bar and sing the same old songs, because they were the only ones she knew or were good at.
You'd see that same marginally handsome guy with the asshole grin, wearing his hair the same way and wearing the same clothes, while the only thing that would be different were the girls that hung on his arm every other week. And every one of them had the same happy smile and trusting eyes, never knowing that they were the flavor of the week.
Then you'd see the same businessman stop by the sushi bar after work to get drunk; either he was a divorcee who couldn't see his kids or maybe he got laid off, but still wore his suit 'til it got shit-dirty, because it made him feel like he were still working. The only thing keeping him alive was the thing that would eventually kill him; the alcohol, the small simple pleasure of letting go and getting drunk.
Everyday, that merry-go-round would spin, and everyday you saw the same people moving forward, but getting nowhere.
If the everyday repeated itself much like a merry-go-round, if the bad habits kept replaying, what did that mean about people?
"Hey!"
Naruto jumped. He quickly spun around and set his eyes on his petite co-worker. She seemed angry with him. And for some reason, that made him smile.
Maybe because Sakura had always looked at him that way. And maybe because he liked girls that expressed themselves, even if they weren't cute about it, even if they got violent.
'Hiro-chan's pretty tame though, she only flips shit when it counts.' A sheepishness passed through him as he touched his neck, unconsciously remembering her grip around his throat. A shudder ran down his body and he forced himself to smile wider for her. 'Though, I should still be afraid...'
Naruto thought she was growing more impatient with him. Her brows furrowed together, her lips pressed in a frown, and were her eyes glazed over; she kept imagining his smile dissolving away by flame.
"Um, so are we gonna go?" The blonde nervously chuckled.
She said nothing and nodded.
"Are you upset about something?"
"Jus' shut up."
Their feet beat out a leisurely rhythm against the narrow asphalt road, with empty and abandoned stores crowded around them, and the loosely hung telephone wiring swooping above their heads. Abandoned pinball machines sat against dusty glass doors. Ghosts echoed in the vacant depths.
Naruto had no idea where they were going. It didn't really matter though, he followed Hiro.
She still seemed upset, like she were ignoring him. Then he remembered.
"Shit! I forgot the knife."
"You were s'pposed to get it." She shot back pointedly.
"I know, but..."
They came upon a secluded residential road. The smell of tea roses radiated from windowsill pots, and the tang of teriyaki and hoison wafted from down the road.
"That's a nice place." Naruto commented as he pressed his face into the white painted railing that surrounded the modern home. A single Crimson Queen Maple tree stood firm in the center of the natural yard, large flat stones lead from it to the front door, and smaller flattened stones lead to the shed across and around the house. Recumbant shrubs filled the crevices of the angular yard and crawled along the length of the engawa.
Hiro hopped up on the gate and stared out into the garden.
"But what?" She prodded.
"Huh?"
"You were gonna explain why you didn't get t'e knife." Hiro craned her head back to peer into the sky. Naruto looked away with a reluctant look on his face.
"Yeah... I sorta got distracted, then... it became inconvenient." He sheepishly shrugged. 'Like I could carry a switchblade with Hinata around like that.'
"Did t'e Akatsuki-gumi always find you so useless?" Hiro sighed in an immensely bored tone.
"Hey." Naruto said with a hesitant pause, "... I'm not useless."
Hiro jumped off and turned on her heel, continuing on their way through the obscure maze of urban civilization.
"Yeah? T'en why when you tried to be a chinpira, your friend became chinpira instead?"
"..." Naruto slowed to a halt.
"They liked your friend better. Reishi wasn't t'e only one yakuza had no use for."
"Don't compare me to that prick..."
"I'm jus' speakin' honestly. C'mon, let's go play pachinko."
The menthol and nicotine stuck to their hair and clothes. Naruto had been complaining the whole stay about yakuza, while Hiro played the slots. She finally knocked him upside the head when he got too loud. They didn't get to win anything because Naruto didn't let her stay long enough on the machines.
They wandered all through the night like they had always done, never having a plan or a clue, just hoping for something interesting to come up, maybe something like an invitation.
"Hey there! Would you like a massage?" The young woman winked.
Naruto was dumbfounded.
The woman seemed about twenty-one and 167 centimeters, 175 centimeters on those heels. She wore all white: knee-high boots, low-cut skirt, low-cut tanktop with her cleavage almost spilling out, and a vest to match (or make her appear a bit more modest). Her skin was pale but warm in color, her smile cordial and her eyes sparkling black. And her hair was a cool dark brown, shaggy and permed into large curls that spilled over her back and shoulders, framing her chest.
Naruto thought this might have been a joke or something.
"I-Is this a Pink Salon?" He lamely croaked with an agape smile.
Hiro was ready to punch him in the back.
"Oh, you speak Japanese very well!" The woman lightly laughed.
Naruto's brow twitched. If she wasn't such a hottie, he would've thrown a fit at her for mistakening him as a foreigner. But because she was a hottie and because she had offered him services, he chose to go along with it.
"Yeah, well... I studied very hard before coming over here!" Naruto grinned, forcing a laugh.
The woman giggled, "That true?"
"Yup! Ha-ha, I didn't want to miss out on being able to talk to a beauty like you! Ha-ha-ha!"
"Did you just come back from an Image Club?" She said, pointing to Naruto's attire. He was still wearing his uniform.
"Yeah, I think so." Naruto grinned jokingly, making her laugh again. It was hard to tell whether she was laughing because it was part of her job to be accomodating, or if she really found him funny. It didn't matter much to Naruto at this point. He enjoyed hearing her laugh. It was low and sweet.
Hiro didn't care either, and she wasn't going to stand around while he had a good time.
"He's a seventeen-year-old in Secondary School, who doesn't have enough money to get you to hold his hand."
Naruto couldn't stop thinking about the other night.
"What's your deal?"
"Don't complain to me, fishcakes! You were the one actin' like an old perv! Advertise your fucking virginity on your own time!"
The futball game had ended, the students were clearing the field. Naruto stood to the side, knowing Asuma-sensei wouldn't recruit him again to clean up the field. Asuma still had no clue who broke down the shed door, he wasn't too adamant about finding out for some reason. Maybe he did have an idea who it might've been, but was waiting to address the offenders later.
Naruto felt like Hiro had branded him with malignant disease. 'Old perv..? Was I really... that disgusting...?'
In some ways, the last thing Naruto wanted to become was Jiraiya.
"Tha-! I-I was flirting! C-Can't I do that?"
"Not like t'at! T'at was shameless! She's a service girl! You're a kid! Even if you had t'e money, what did you expect you'd do once she got your pants off?"
Naruto nearly fought back. But then he kept his mouth shut.
He decided she was right, and decided she was looking out for him, even though he really wanted to argue it out.
He still felt humiliated by her. He had openly embarrassed himself in front of her and didn't know it until she said something. She was harsh, her words were harsh but truthful. She put him in a vulnerable spot now because of her words and he almost had the urge to be perfect around her. Just like with Sakura, though that never worked out.
A hand touched his shoulder. He didn't have to look up as Hinata bent down beside him and leaned in close.
"Where do you want to go?" She whispered, her clear eyes peering up at him through her lashes. He felt relief around her. She never ceased to be sweet, to be submissive.
She allowed him control when he didn't have control over anything.
"Did you just come back from an Image Club?"
That's what Naruto thought about as he sucked Hinata in a kiss.
They stayed in the changing room, the boys' changing room actually. They both thought it would be safer.
In a small way this felt like in an Image Club, or so he assumed. What they did was mutual, private and accessible. Naruto couldn't do this with anyone else and Hinata wouldn't do this with anyone else. Like an Image Club, they got to live in a fantasy. They used eachother to enjoy something that was exclusive to them both personally and they didn't mind.
'Lot of people would find this sleazy...' Naruto thought as he buried his nose in her neck, his fingers fumbling over her buttons. But he didn't feel sleazy doing this. He didn't plan on taking her. He didn't plan on doing anything that she wouldn't enjoy. This was mutual. He liked it better mutual, that way there would be no expectations. In relationships you have to be perfect, you have to do everything right. He didn't want that if he coudn't put his heart into it. What was so bad about this? Was this considered slutty, even though they weren't going copulate? Were they just as bad as bed friends?
Naruto had her sandwiched up against the wall, her back pressed against his chest, his fingers roaming under her shirt. Hinata's quiet cries filled his ears. Her face was burning red, her neck moist with sweat. She sounded aroused and horrified all at the same time.
He grew self-conscious just then. His ministrations stopped. He pulled himself away from her little at a time.
Hinata regained control of herself, worried at the sudden change. She turned halfway towards him, but he wouldn't look at her.
He wasn't disgusted with her this time.
He was disgusted with himself.
Naruto hadn't seen Hiro in awhile.
She had changed her hours, so he hardly saw her at work anymore.
He needed to see her now.
He stopped messing around with Hinata five days ago. What disappointed him was that he had thought it was a good idea. Now he didn't know, in his heart he hated it, and he sort of wished he didn't. He felt betrayed by himself, betrayed by impulse, by bad judgement. He didn't want to see Hinata that way anymore. His conscience however kept at reminding him: He couldn't avoid her forever, he couldn't drop their 'relationship' on a dime. He would have to talk about it with her, but that was the last thing he wanted. He wasn't even sure what the hell to say!
Naruto walked up to Hiro's apartment, with the specific hope of seeing her smile. She hadn't smiled at him in so long, and this time he remembered the knife. Though it seemed morbid, he could imagine her jumping up to hug him. At least that's what he was hoping for.
He reached out his hand to rap his knuckles against the door, but before he could make contact, the lock made an audible 'click'. The door then swung open.
Naruto took a step back. The first thing he saw were the man's shoes. They were black, meticulously polished, and expensive looking. The man stepped out, pushing Naruto another step back. Instinctively his blue eyes flew to meet the man's face.
Naruto stumbled back breathless like he had been punched in the stomach. His body flashed hot and cold. It became difficult to breathe, to think. It was like he had looked into the eyes of Medusa, instead it was icy black eyes of a man he was all too familiar with.
Aomori was the same, even though his group had dissolved, he still carried himself around in that cold, aloof way, he still dressed like a suit.
The man took note of Naruto's defensive stance and wide eyes that said he was scared shitless. Aomori grunted passively before walking away.
He was halfway down the corridor when Hiro ran to the doorway.
"What do you t'ink you're doing?" She accused agitatedly as she poked him in the chest. She sounded the same way she did when he had stayed with her, when she got those phone calls, when she had asked him for a knife.
'Has it been him all along then?'
Naruto's hand flew to his pocket. A fierce look flashed across his face, yet there was still that anxiety that hung heavily in his eyes.
"Hiro-chan, was it him? Has he been the one hassling your father's business?"
"T'at's not your concern!"
Naruto unsheathed the switchblade from his pocket and looked fiercely into Hiro's eyes, yet he wasn't seeing her. She could feel he wasn't seeing her. The fury and the fear blinded him, all he could see was what was running through his mind.
"Just tell me if that's him! I'll...! I'll kill him myself!" As Naruto said this, the blade swung from its shaft, startling Hiro. She didn't stare very long before Naruto suddenly bolted off after the older man.
Hiro screamed after him, her voice echoing behind, "YOU IDIOT!"
Naruto rounded the corner into the stairwell where he saw Aomori at the foot of the first landing.
"AOMORI!" Naruto shouted out rather gallantly. Aomori stopped and looked up at the feverish expression on Naruto's face. He looked about as foolish as he did heroic with that knife brandished about. "It ends here! I won't let you harm Hiro-chan and her family any longer!"
Aomori didn't look impressed.
"Are you her protector?" He asked coldly indifferent. The stairwell fell silent and cold. His icy, black eyes looked right through to Naruto, chilling his veins, making his courage shrink in despair.
Naruto knew he would die if tried to fight him.
"C-C-Com-me u-up here! A-And f-fight me!"
Aomori took one step up, never breaking eye contact.
"You haven't grown up, have you?" He said in a belitting tone. He took another step. Naruto thrust the knife forward. "Are you still trying to be a hero?" Aomori took another step, and Naruto took a step backwards. "You should know; I have no grudge against you for what you did to my organization, or for what you did to my Kumicho."
"Wh-what I did d-do to the K-Kumicho?"
Aomori stared hard at Naruto. He took another step up and Naruto took another step back.
"You forced my lord to run." Aomori took another ominous step, his hard stare icier than ever.
"I th-thought you d-didn't have a grudge against me."
"I don't." Aomori back turned around and proceeded down the steps once again, "Someone else does."
It wasn't until Aomori was completely out of sight that Naruto snapped out his stupor. He rushed to the rails, waving the knife about, screaming after him, "H-Hey! G-Get back here! I'm not finished with you, y-you asshole! HEY, GET BACK HERE!"
When Naruto got back to Hiro's apartment, she asked him if he wanted to go out for drinks.
It was just like old times, even though Naruto and Hiro hadn't known eachother long enough to have 'old times', it felt like it anyways.
Naruto had waited for Hiro to get off work, so they could enjoy some drinks.
He had completely forgotten about Mizuno and the threat of being sent away to a reformatory, he hadn't seen the man since their last meeting.
He knew that his blatant ditchings would definitely motivate Mizuno to act against him, but he didn't care about that right now.
All he wanted was to regain that carefree feeling he got from being around Hiro.
He just wanted to feel good again.
The one way to trick someone into getting heavily drunk is to encourage them. In some cases, people refer to that as 'pressure'. But at the moment Naruto didn't feel pressured at all.
The rain drizzled outside and over the awning of the streetside sushi stand, the swift 'rata-tat-tat' of the downpour drowned out most of their noise.
"Let's have a race!" Hiro declared, pulling out the whiskey.
Already Naruto was a little red-faced from downing all that beer, now she was tempting him into alcohol poisoning. And he fell for it.
"Y'ain't gonna beat me!" He slurred excitedly, taking the bottle from her.
The shopkeeped looked on in concern, not so much for the fact that Naruto's blood alcohol content will be well over 0.8% after he drinks the whiskey, but at how little Hiro had drank.
She'd been steadily dranking, and tricking him into drinking recklessly.
'Am I reading too much into this?' The man wondered before finally dropping it altogether. He doubted they'd get into too much trouble after this.
"This is the moment that you know
That you told her that you loved her but you don't.
You touch her skin and then you think
That she is beautiful but she don't mean a thing to me.
Yeah, she is beautiful but she don't mean a thing to me..."
They took a taxi home.
The city became a wet oil painting; the shapes smudged and the colors melted. And Naruto himself was left to drip dry after he had drowned himself in alcohol.
"You really came off to a bad start wit' drinking." Hiro laughed behind her hand, her comment belittling in the driver's opinion. It wasn't too often he had to escort the drunk back home; only because no one got too drunk that they couldn't walk.
But when he saw Naruto, he changed his mind; He thought Naruto was a foreigner or American.
'Why are tourists so ill-behaved?' He sighed to himself, keeping his eyes on the road.
Naruto could barely process a thought to respond with. He kept his head propped up against the window, afraid he'd fall out or fall asleep. The most conscience thought he had was 'I can't control my body anymore', which it was true in a way.
"If you get t'e DT's, I'm gonna laugh!" Hiro said, smirking to her reflection in the window.
"I dun' have SDT's..." was Naruto's mumbled response. Hiro just laughed.
"If you get STD's, I'll laugh too!"
"Ya aleddy laughin'... s-so... shut the hell up." He muttered resentfully, which surprised Hiro. He never talked back to her, even despite the assault in the bathroom, he had always been rather obedient to her. She would've choked him like last time if she didn't think it was the alcohol.
Which made her even more curious.
Alcohol tended to make the tongue loose and words hard to contain; what would it do to him? What would it make him say? What would it make him do?
Hiro crawled over to him like a wide-eyed cat. She leaned into him close so she could whisper in his ear.
"Ne... Did you bring t'e knife?" She asked eagerly. Naruto lifted his head up as best he could to take a good look at her to see if she was serious. If he hadn't known her, he would've thought she was playing around; what with her cheeky smile and grinning eyes, but he knew she was serious. Also she was lucid, while he was not so.
"Sure I did." He whispered to her, so the driver couldn't hear. It would be disastrous if he did. Hiro's grin stretched to her ears. Naruto couldn't help but ask, "What're you thinking?"
Hiro's smile never dropped as a thoughtful, playful look passed over her face.
"Are you really blonde?"
"..." Naruto stopped to think. Naturally one would know the answer, but he was exceptionally drunk, and her question put a doubt in him that made him have to think about it. Suddenly Naruto turned away to look down at his crotch. He then pulled his pants down to his knees, followed by his underwear.
Hiro shrieked.
"OMIGAWD! What's wrong wit' you?" She shouted despite laughing. She pretended to sound indignant, but she wasn't offended at all. Instead, her inner sadist couldn't stop laughing on the floor.
Her inner sadist was what made stare as well.
"...yeah... i's natural." Naruto mumbled, dumbly staring at his exposed crotch.
Hiro nodded, "Certainly is."
The cab driver had no idea what was going on.
"Guess that means you're not-"
The car gave a violent jerk, cutting Hiro off as the driver honked lividly several times on the horn before they went on their way again.
"Well, how you know I'm not-?"
The cab jerked again at a red light, when another car refused him right of passage, making him miss the yellow.
"'Cos you blonde wit' blue eyes."
"Really?"
"Duh! So you can't possible be-"
A chorus of car horns echoed in the streets, the last part of Hiro's sentence going unheard.
"Shut up! You're confusing me!" Naruto yelled out.
"You confusing you'self, dumbass!" Hiro shouted back. Naruto thought she was drunk before she continued, "I reon je gi rar! I reon je gi rar!". then he thought she was super drunk.
"What?"
"A peun yeot gat eun sae kki! Ba bo sae kki!"
"You're plastered, huh? You're worse than me now." Naruto drunkily chuckled, craning his head back to rest against the seats. It was getting hard to keep his head up. He knew he was sleepy.
The driver thought they were both idiots; they were getting so annoying. He had to continuously remind himself; 'Setagaya, Setagaya. It's worth it for Setagaya.', because the fare was going to be well over his daily average.
He was a little surprised they didn't take the train, easier and cheaper, but he could hardly complain.
"Bad things happen to you alot, don't they?" Hiro mused aloud, sounding strangely calm. The driver glanced back at them through his rearview mirror; Hiro was rested against Naruto, her dark head laid on his shoulder with this thoughtful look in her large, dark eyes.
"You know they do. ...I told you. ...I told you everything." Naruto mumbled back, suddenly feeling very somber, and very cozy with her hugged up against his arm.
"Doesn't mean I know you better." Hiro smiled, leaning her face closer to him, with her eyes downcast. She kept eyeing his pockets.
"But I haven't... told anyone... anything... since I got here. O-only you."
"Hm... Why me?"
Naruto lifted his head from atop hers. He shifted around until he got a better view of her. A couple minutes passed before his vision finally focused in on her, and yet the image wasn't quite right. All he registered was her short black hair and emotionless black eyes.
At that moment, a mortified groan croaked in Naruto's throat as he turned away from her, seemingly out of embarrassment or disgust.
"Shit... when I'm sober, you're hot. But when I'm drunk, you look like Sasuke-teme."
"What wrong?"
"Dammit... SHIT! If I'm gay for that bastard, I'll kill myself! Okay? The very moment I'm gay, I'll kill myself!"
"Can I kill you if you're gay?" She teased as she batted her lashes up at him. She made him feel very uncomfortable as he looked warily back at her.
"Wha? Are you a homophobe?"
"You're awful! Hee-hee-hee!" She giggled in her devilish, little way. "So I look like him? What would happen if I should kiss you then?" She grinned, unfortunately reminding Naruto of a really awkward memory. It was the only story he hadn't admitted to her, and as he tossed and turned and groaned in his seat like a child, Hiro couldn't help but assume she hit another nerve in him.
"Do it when I'm sober! You look like Sasuke-teme! Do it when you don't look like him!"
Hiro laughed and pounced his arm. She hugged it to her chest and grinned closely in his face.
"You're so silly, fishcakes!" She said, rubbing her small but full chest against his shoulder. "There's nothing to be ashamed about. You've done far worser things, right?" Her wandering hand stopped at the top of his thigh. She patted his crotch for emphasis, reminding him of his earlier deed. He gave a jolt and jerked a little under her hand in response. In his embarrassment, he moved to pull his boxers back on.
He had completely forgotten he had exposed himself to a girl.
He never did that before.
Hiro wondered if this would come back to haunt him later on in his life. Or tomorrow.
"Of course..." Hiro whispered in a dangerous tone, as she smirked against his ear, "...aside from all your stealing, your tagging and fighting; I suppose murder is the worst you've ever done."
Her voice sent a chill through his body. Goosebumps spread themselves across his arm and a tingle of anxiety trickled down the back of his neck. He stared earnestly into the rearview mirror, fearfully hoping that the man wouldn't respond.
"Shut up... he'll hear you..."
"What's he gonna mind? There's more than a dozen cab drivers 'round the city; You'll never see this man again. And he'll never see you again." She giggled, resting her hand on his thigh once more.
"...i's not point..." Naruto mumbled back uncomfortably.
"But I'm serious; You'll never see this man again."
Hiro patted his right pocket. She felt something hard there.
"Fine then. Just don't... say anything more..."
"Why?" She pryed nosily, noticing how his speech slowed and he seemed to drift in and out of consciousness.
"Because... trust you... trust you..."
Hiro took this moment -as her fingers crept along the lip of the pocket- to delve in for her prize.
The tip of her fingerpads touched up against something smooth. Part of it was cold and part of it was warm from the heat he gave off.
"That's a terrible thing to do." She smiled at him as she wrapped her fingers around the object in his pocket and pulled it out.
She looked down at her hand, satisfaction and excitment coursing through her. The sheathed switch-blade almost gleamed at her, happily, as if eagerly greeting her like a new partner. She placed it in Naruto's loose grip. Already he had begun to nod off, his semi-conscious self recognizing the knife like it were a manifestation of his dream.
Hiro pulled her sleeves over her fingers and carefully took back the blade from him.
The dreaming Naruto seemed to respond to the loss. Distress passed over his face. "Sasuke... why'd you do it...?" He mumbled remorsefully in his sleep. Hiro thought he would cry.
Yet his pain didn't affect her at all.
She couldn't understand his pain.
She doubted tears from him would ease her pain.
She doubted she'd ever be swayed.
Her thumb pressed the button on the shaft, ejecting the blade from its sheath.
The gleam of the shiny metal did nothing for her however.
Hiro called out to the driver.
"Hey, pull over here!"
"Why don't you love me?" The dark-haired girl whispered with her head hung.
He couldn't recognize her, no matter how he tried.
He reached his hand out to touch her face, so he could see her, but his fingers went straight through her pallid cheek.
Her words echoed through him and out his mouth.
"Why don't you love me?" He asked in replace of her, yet it seemed like he were the one asking all along.
The dark-haired girl was gone, replaced by cropped pink.
She lifted her head and set her acrid green eyes on him.
Her lips were stretched in a sneer. She appeared as if she were to attack him with words.
She looked ready to yell.
But then she frowned.
Her agitated features blurred out.
Her hair grew long and turned reddish-orange.
He found himself asking again.
"Why don't you love me?"
The faceless woman smiled.
Happy memories echoed in the background, as she laughed, so carefree and cheerful.
Happy memories that he missed out on, memories that weren't his own.
Tears choked his words.
"Why?" He begged once more.
She continued to smile and it hurt.
It hurt, and yet he didn't even know who she was.
Naruto stood in front of his bathroom mirror, busily observing himself.
His eyes were a little red, his hair dirty, and clothes heavily wrinkled and stained.
He couldn't remember much of last night, which was to be expected. He had gotten over his headache awhile ago, but the sun still hurt his eyes, and he wasn't too keen on big sounds. Other than that, he felt pretty good.
Naruto wasn't sure what to do today. Naturally he would've gone out, if only to loiter or work; but the Ichiraku was closed for the day again and Hiro wasn't answering her cell phone.
He assumed that either she had it turned off or that she was sleeping in due to hangover. Of course, she could be ignoring him as well, which he sort of understood because he knew it would be too soon for them to hang out or talk.
He just wished he knew what to do on this sleepy Sunday afternoon.
He also wished he knew where he dropped the knife.
Last he remembered, it had been in his pocket.
Then it wasn't there anymore.
"That was Sasuke-teme's knife too..." He heaved a tired sigh, feeling rather hopeless about it. "...Dammit. Why the hell did I ever give my click-clack to Konohamaru-chan?"
Naruto stretched his hands to the sky, before reclining back in his seat.
He never thought he'd be so glad to return to school.
He felt a little lighter now that he wasn't in a hole anymore.
Naruto grinned albeit cheerfully to himself as he thought about his current position in life. It still wasn't great, but he knew he wouldn't have to deal with Yakuza anymore. At least he prayed he wouldn't.
"Are you still trying to be a hero?"
Naruto was worried for Hiro. Everything clicked when he thought about it: the troubling phone calls, the knife maybe, the fact that someone was making trouble for her father; it was because of Aomori, because of Yakuza.
Naruto held hope that Hiro would be able to protect herself. He wasn't afraid of fighting to help or save her if it came down to that, he was afraid of getting re-involved. 'But if Hiro's father is getting blackmailed by yakuza or something, I will have to get to involved.'
But the Matsuraba-kai was gone, and those other men were gone as well.
He was certain they were all gone now.
There was no one left wanting his life.
He was so thrilled to be free.
Now all he had to do was get rid of Mizuno.
Naruto pulled his cell phone from his pocket and turned the back around.
He had decorated the back with a couple of the photo-stickers he and Hiro had taken back at the booth in Shibuya.
The first one was her hugging him from behind.
The second one was her making a funky face; her tongue sticking out, one eye half-closed, and mouth quirked up in a goofy snarl.
He hadn't smiled nor made a face in either of the two. He had been so distracted by her, you could even see it in the picture.
Naruto gave a rueful smirk before he dropped his cell phone in his bag.
He had to go to the bathroom.
As Naruto crossed the room for the hallway, Hinata crept back to her seat. She had been so afraid to face him that she had been hiding in the back of the room, watching him from afar.
She couldn't help but wonder what he had been looking at before he left.
She didn't see the harm in knowing, long as he didn't know.
His school bag hung defenselessly off the corner of his seat, begging her to pry into its contents.
She really didn't see the harm.
Or maybe she did, and she just didn't care.
Hinata shoved her hand carefully into his bag, digging deftly around for his cell phone.
Some of her classmates were watching.
Perhaps it was good that Kiba was eating in the Cafeteria today.
It was definitely good he was eating in the Cafeteria today.
Hinata's fingers ran across something smooth. She plucked his orange cell from the bag and brought it to her attention. She didn't bother with the digital contents and instead, turned the back around.
There were two photo-stickers of him and a girl; a petite girl with a cute face and big black eyes. And they were both... naked? Or half-naked? The booth camera only caught them from the chest up. Naruto was definitely shirtless. The second picture, you could see the girl wearing a black lacy bra. But when you looked at the first one, with her hugging him from behind, it looked like they were both naked.
Hinata lifted the corner of the first sticker with her nail and tore it off the back.
She refused to see Naruto like that. She couldn't stand it. She couldn't believe it either.
She dug at the corner of the second sticker, in the end, folding the corner and wrinkling the picture.
She hated the images. They were erogenous and illicit in her heart. But then so were the things she and Naruto had been doing.
Hinata dug and scratched at the second photo until the stubborn corner finally lifted up, and she tore it off the same way as the first. It wasn't as clean a tear; the lower right corner remained, and the rest a skin of paper adhered to the back.
She couldn't remove it no matter how she scratched at it with her nails. Tears welled up in her chest the more frustrated she got at the upsetting images, and the more she thought about the humiliation she endured the day before.
No matter how she tried, she couldn't remove the damn adhesive.
Footsteps crossed the room to his seat.
He stopped in front of her.
Hinata dropped his cell with a quiet shriek as she looked up at his agitated blue eyes.
"Didn't your dad teach you not to touch other people's shit?" He growled out, as he picked up his cell phone to make sure nothing was smudged or broken. He turned it over.
The pictures were gone.
"What the hell do you think you were doing, huh?" He growled under his breath, trying his best to keep his temper. He had been feeling good a moment ago. He didn't want to pick a fight with her, he didn't want to argue with a girl. "Shit... I'm so sick of people ruining my shit..." He muttered hopelessly. He sounded so upset. "You of all people, too..."
Her body felt like it was covered in ice and sweat. Her heart pounded in the hollow cavity known as her chest.
She felt disgust for what she did. And yet she felt an unbearable emotion grip her for what Naruto did.
"I bought you that cell phone." She whispered fiercely to herself, as tears stung her eyes. He hadn't heard her. She was much to spineless to let him hear her. Then she wondered aloud, "Why don't you love me?"
His eyes shot open wide.
He stared at her, wondering if she really said that, if he heard her right.
Hinata didn't speak to him for the rest of the hour.
Not until she changed her mind.
'I'm not the only girl that does this,'
Hinata whimpered against his mouth, as his tongue bullied hers for dominance. She flushed from disgust as the drool seeped out her lips and dripped down her jaw. Excitement fluttered wildly in her chest even as her stomach sank and churned; kind of like a heartburn.
'Lot of girls do this kind of thing,'
The equipment room sort of became their new place, their spot the farthest left corner, behind all the mats. Naruto pressed himself against her before seizing her legs. He picked her up and walked them over to where the pommel horse was located. He propped her up on the saddle and stared into her face.
'Lot of girls are desperate to feel loved,'
He laid his hands on her knees, then ran them across her calves to her ankles. He grasped her ankles and lifted her legs to drape across his shoulders.
Her heart jumped and her head dizzily swam in her own disbelief.
'This can't be wrong if I love him...'
Hinata scooted away from him, embarrassed and frightened by the sudden intimate position.
"How can you still be shy?" Naruto scoffed incredulously. This was still her idea. She was the one that wanted to keep going, she was the one that couldn't let him go.
"I-I'm just n-nervous..." She mumbled meekly behind her fingers in a manner Naruto found hard to believe.
With a sigh, Naruto backed away from her, "Maybe we shouldn't do this then."
"D-Don't be annoyed pl-please? I'll be good."
That stopped him.
Hinata shrank under his gaze, the look he was giving her made her want to crawl away and hide.
He found it strange that she would phrase it that way, 'I'll be good'. As if she was misbhaving or something and needed to submit. Maybe to some people that would've turned them on, but for Naruto it didn't.
"I don't wanna continue." He said with surprising coldness. He didn't understand why he should have to do anything for her. The charm of their insincere relationship had been swept away, the need for indulgement replaced by a thought very depressing: The fantasy had become an excuse. And even though Naruto's body was leaden with guilt for their relationship and his encouragings, he couldn't help but feel molested.
"But-"
Naruto firmly planted his hands on either side of her. With a sigh, he pushed himself off.
He didn't give her a chance to finish. He stumbled out of the equipment, almost starved for fresh air.
Maybe he was just being too sensitive or too self-conscious about this, but he couldn't rid himself of the shame, as if the whole world was laughing at him, maybe at what he had become.
He wasn't sure why he felt so divided, but he didn't feel like this was him.
"...I really wonder what happened to my switchblade."
People crowded around the scene of a parked taxi car.
The investigators poked around the vicinity while the clean-up crew poked around the vehicle. The police set up the yellow tape, urging the by-standers back.
"What's the time of death?"
"Believe around 11:50 pm."
"11:50? Why didn't the suspect take the trains?"
"Perhaps this was planned."
"Money has been taken. Along with the driver's wallet."
"So a robbery/homicide then?"
"He was stabbed nine times in the throat."
"With what?"
"Here's the weapon! I found it under the dashboard!" cried out a young man from the passenger's side of the car.
He held out the alleged weapon, unable to hold back the nervous excitement in his voice and smile.
"This must be it!" He exclaimed. "Should... should we check if it fits? Or...?"
"We can tell from seeing it." A police officer replied arrogantly, hurriedly butting into their work. He glared down on the young man, discouraging him from smiling. The young man's smile faltered and dropped as he looked away from the testy officer. He felt stupid thanks to him.
The officer plucked the weapon from his hands and held it to his eyes, doing his own weak observations.
The switchblade was covered in blood. It couldn't be anyone else's blood but the driver's.
"Now we just have to see who owned such a knife."
"You make it sound so easy." The young man harumphed indignantly, knowing that he was the intelligent one with access to technology, unlike the arrogant officer. "What're you gonna do? Interrogate some poor fool in your secret dungeons?"
"Enough with you!" The officer irritably spat, his face red from damaged pride. "I have an idea!"
"What are you talking about?"
"Foreigners!"
Kiba knew what is was they did. If Hinata hadn't been so apparent up on the roof, he would just have a feeling right now, but he knew.
Hinata leaned off to the side to peek at her blonde sort-of-lover. He was even farther away this time. He looked so bored standing there, obediently listening to Asuma-sensei lessons. It didn't seem like him to be reserved and yet she knew she couldn't ask for him to be different. If she could, he would be in love with her.
Hinata stepped out of her spot and walked over to him.
Kiba kept a close eye.
Hinata grabbed Naruto's hand as she had the day before.
Naruto pulled his hand away.
He didn't even hold her hand for a second.
She tugged him back, and he twisted away, never looking at her.
She wasn't trying to annoy him, but it was clear that he was getting irritated.
"Naruto-kun..."
"Leave me alone." He muttered back to her.
"I'm not trying to annoy you..." She grabbed his hand again.
"Then talk to me later." He said, pulling away from her once more.
"N-No. I-I... I th-think..." She grabbed his hand a fourth time, wanting to make sure he took her seriously when she said what she wanted to say, "...we should date."
"Yeah?" Naruto turned and gave her a dubious once-over, "What makes you think I'd date you?"
Hinata heard a classmate snicker to her right. Anxiety poisoned her blood as her face flushed with shame.
"The-Then... H-How about j-just one... date?" She asked hopefully as she reached out to touch his elbow.
Naruto jerked away.
"No."
"Pl-Please? J-Just one?"
"Are you begging?" He asked incredulously, looking at her wide-eyed.
"Why won't you?"
"Because you're a leech!"
Kiba witnessed yet another heartbroken expression flash across her face; her pink lips parted, her milky eyes filled with confusion and betrayal. He saw the surge of fright shoot through her. He wasn't sure if she was truly in love or not, but he knew for certain her heart was in a dangerous place.
"N-Naruto-kun..." She mumbled dully, making another reach for him, but he jerked away.
"Just go back in line." He calmly advised without looking at her.
The rejection cut her, with shallow, slicing steadiness.
Kiba watched the way she gathered herself up and stood her ground, even when it was futile and so pointless, she didn't shrink away. Not yet at least. He wasn't sure if she was fooling herself again with a dumb-downed reality or if she was simply being stubborn, but either way he saw a sliver of hope that she hadn't changed for the worse.
Hinata grabbed his hand a third time.
"No, I want to stay by you."
Naruto twitched. Her persistance was more irritating than it was cute.
"I don't care. Just go back in line like a good girl."
Hinata didn't like his tone nor his diction. For him to call her a 'good girl' so condescendingly was where she drew the line.
"No. I want to stay by you."
Distress filled Naruto at her stubborness. What the hell was he supposed to say to that exactly?
Kiba nearly cheered her on for her boldness, even if he was completely against her decision, he felt pride for her strength of voice.
"And I said 'Go back where you fuckin' came from'..!"
Naruto's harsh words cut through his teacher's speech. Asuma-sensei and Kurenai-sensei stopped to see what was going on.
Like a child, Hinata nearly stomped her foot at him as she glared. Naruto felt the heat of her eyes burn through the back of his head. To spite him, Hinata defiantly grabbed his hand once more, knowing it would annoy him.
"No!" She declared.
"What is wrong with you? Go back where you were! Leave me alone!"
"I'm not doing anything wrong!"
"The hell you are! You won't stop touching me!"
"I'm not doing anything!"
"You're such a slu- aaaahhh!" Naruto growled angrily. In his aggravation he pushed her back, though not roughly, he wasn't trying to be mean. He was trying to get through to her stubborness.
That didn't work however.
"Don't- PUSH ME!" She screamed, catching the eyes and ears of all on the field. Hinata threw her palms forward for Naruto, attempting a shove, but he caught her forearm. He then threw her back.
The wind swept about her. All her classmates and Naruto seemed to grow taller. She then landed abruptly on her ass.
All eyes widened.
Near panic and guilt shot through Naruto's heart like adrenaline, but on the outside he remained unaffected.
He saw the fresh tears well up around the corner of her eyes, the whites turning an irritated red.
It was an accident. To everyone but her, it seemed an accident that he pushed her. He didn't mean to push her that hard, he didn't mean to make her fall. But he couldn't bring himself to help her back up either.
Everyone stared on with varied expressions of confusion, pity and shock.
The shock didn't last in Kiba as it dissolved into searing disappointment and embarrassment.
Kurenai was quick to rescue her, concern stricken across her face.
She took Hinata and lead her back inside the building.
Tears rolled off her pale cheeks one by one.
To be wrapped up in Kurenai's motherly warmth was too overwhelming.
'Why does this keep happening?'
Hinata peeked over the side of her computer monitor. She sat in the way back of the class. She was still far too embarrassed to be around the rest of her classmates.
"Hey! Check this out, you gotta see this!" The fat boy Masabo called out whispering with a mischevious grin. Naruto leaned over to see what he wanted to show him.
'It's like nothing had happened...' She felt so disappointed he could be carefree after what he did.
Not even halfway through the video, did Naruto bite down on his surprise and amusement.
"Wow..." Naruto laughed.
"Panties! Panties!
These panties are so cute, I wish you could see them!
Unlike my everyday panties that you keep trying to see.
You know Suzuki's panties aren't like those boys wear.
Pan! Pan! Pan! Pan!
And Ichigo's panties aren't like those worn by little kids!
Tiny panties are the way of love.
Hidden treasures seem more exciting.
"Whoa, is this from an H-game or something?" Naruto laughed.
"Psh, hardly. That was just one titty."
Ah, whether plain, white or fancy
Red, black, polka-dotted or striped...
It's all about panties!"
Then Naruto and Masabo both said at the same time, "It's all about panties!", which earned them a few a looks.
"I'm going to sing this everyday." Masabo snickered, knowing how it would annoy and embarrass so many unsuspecting people.
"Dare you to go up to a pretty girl on the train and sing it." Naruto replied, grinning like a cat.
"Sure, I'll make a friend."
"Ahahaha! What an asshole! Hahaha!"
By then, the Computers teacher was glaring at Naruto and Masabo admonishingly.
"You're an asshole! So shut up!" Cried this one girl in the back who sat in the same row as Hinata but in the opposite corner.
Naruto whipped his head around to see who said that, but he couldn't find nor see her.
Disappointment and this sense of failure gripped at Hinata. She began to feel the tears surface, wanting to spill over her cheeks. She bowed her head and hid her face in her hands.
She couldn't stand being here like this.
'My face feels really hot... I... I hate this... I really hate this.'
Whispering, Masabo said to Naruto, "Hey, speaking of panties...", then gave sneaky smirk. Naruto looked at him quizically, waiting for him to continue. "How many times have you seen Hyuuga-san's panties?"
Naruto punched him in his fatty shoulder.
"Never. What shit have you been listening to?"
A black cadillac pulled up to a fairly worn down school yard.
The driver honked the horns three times, catching the attention of the students who were just leaving.
They all wondered who belonged to such a car; majority of the students attending were middle class and below.
But when a girl with reddish-mulberry hair zipped across the yard, they couldn't believe it.
"SUGIHARA MOEMI IS A RICH GIRL?"
Moe jumped in the car and slammed the door. The car then peeled out, leaving all but one boy stunned and surprised.
"No she's not." Robin dully muttered to himself as he walked past the frozen statues and out the gate.
It wasn't Moe who he was annoyed with this time though, but the student body and how easily they believed their imaginations.
He was thankful Moe didn't hear them, or come tomorrow she'd roll with it.
"...Idiots."
Students flocked out of the corridors, the school initiating its daily ritual of purging.
Every step made her heart ache and she felt herself fall further into unpleasant memories. Yet it wasn't the memories she was reliving, but the old feelings associated with those troubling times.
It was like Junior High all over again, when she was introverted and lonely. She wouldn't have survived long back in those days, if she hadn't met Moe on the train. Everyone around her was so much stronger and more expressive. She thought she had a mental illness for being so withdrawn. Every encounter back then felt like a stab in the chest or a stab in the arm, she couldn't survive in their environment.
She couldn't be like them.
'I... I don't think I've grown at all...' She felt like she was travelling dazed through a stifling fog, she felt like she had completely lost her perspective. She thought she had grown stronger when her group gave her confidence, but it didn't feel like confidence she earned herself. It felt like chocolate; when she would see them, they would give her confidence like a chocolate ball, and she would consume that little piece of happiness with a grateful smile. But by the end of the day, the chocolate had fully passed through her system, and she would no longer feel secure. She would go on through the week being a calm-face recluse because she knew she didn't have the ability to mingle with normal people, and so she would wait until Sunday to recieve that brief piece of happiness, and become a little more than herself for a few hours.
But she hadn't seen her friends in so long, and she hadn't gone to Sunday in so long.
She hadn't had chocolate for a long time, except with Naruto. With him, it felt like she was consuming mountains of the darkest chocolate. And like a sugar rush, it'd all be gone in a few seconds.
She felt like her ugly self back in Junior High, her weakling, ugly, insignificant self.
Hinata watched Naruto leave past the gate and went on his way towards work.
Once again, she'd be walking alone, just as she always been.
It seemed like Neji hadn't seen his family in ages.
The only way he knew Hanabi was around was when she would stumble back to her room or raid the fridge after her late night adventures. Turns out she left her outdoor shoes by the genkan to appear as if she were home, but would put on different shoes outside when she snuck out.
Neji couldn't believe the amount of effort she put into being sneaky, it was really beyond him.
For Hiashi, the only way Neji knew he were home was if he heard the wheezing-like snoring that emitted from the master bedroom.
Neji was certain he had sleep apnea. And sometimes Neji hoped Hiashi would 'mysteriously' pass away in his sleep from his dangerous snoring. But then he remembered about Hanabi and Hinata; if Hiashi wasn't around for them, what could he possibly do?
'Doubt he's bothered making a will...' He sighed wearily.
As for Hinata, the only way he knew she was around was if he felt depressed after passing by her bedroom door. She locked herself up in there a lot these days and he could feel every bit of her bottled up sadness exude from her isolation.
It was like she had regressed back to her childhood self, back when Hanabi didn't know her, didn't admire her, back when he and Hiashi looked down on her.
Every time she was sad or troubled, he felt immense guilt just shoot right through his chest.
Her eyes, her lack of a smile. He missed her smile. Only so many times did he see her smile and loved it when she did. He remembered hating her never made him feel any better about himself. He remembered how good it felt when he let go. He remembered the gladness that passed through him when she first smiled at him.
He thought a smiled couldn't exist on her face. But when it did, he felt lightness enter him and a cheer fill the room.
It was like her name; when she smiled, the entire room filled with sunshine.
He knew someday her smile would grow brighter. He looked forward to the day she would outshine all the rest.
There was a 'thud' at the door, followed by an angry voice and several more awkward 'thud's.
"Hurry up you!" Hiashi growled by the genkan. "Walk straight, dammit! Pick up your head!"
Neji watched from the kitchen as Hiashi roughly tugged Hinata along by her wrist. Her cheeks were wet and puffy, and her eyes were red.
"The school calls and I find out I have headcase on my hands?" Hiashi spat condescendingly, referring to his crying daughter. Her tears and quiet cries did nothing for him. "C'mon you!" He growled, taking her out of the house.
Once again, Neji was left alone and forgotten in the empty Hyuuga home.
Hiro actually called Naruto up for once.
He arrived at her apartment door, grinning like a cat.
"It's really wet out t'ere, huh?" She smiled.
"Ah-ha-ha, yeah..." He grinned back sheepishly, as the water rolled off his hair and down his face.
Hiro turned around and let him in.
"I've got a few cheap movies I saw at Akihabara. I t'ink we should go t'ere t'is weekend." She called over her shoulder.
"Sounds good to me. Hey, have you seen my knife?"
The carpeting was worn flat. The floors creaked with every sound step. Rain drizzled out the windows in sporadic tendrils. The hackberry leaves hung their heads down against the barrage.
The dreary storm was a mirror to the quiet turmoil that lay restless within Hinata's mind and breast.
"We'll be right with you." The young woman kindly said, excusing herself briefly for a moment.
Hinata couldn't stop mentally kicking her feet out of distress and impatience.
She couldn't believe she was here of all places, she couldn't believe she had been called down here.
Hiashi sat rigidly beside her. He radiated coldness and indifference like he were her executioner. It was very likely he could be, for he was the only true authority over her.
Back straight, ankles neatly crossed, elbows tucked at her sides, and hands clasped so tautly she thought her muscles would collapse and go numb.
Nervous sweat swam between her palms and coated her frigid fingers.
Hiashi hadn't given her the chance to grab some gloves.
Even now he radiated with such impatience that she couldn't stand to be herself and she ran away into her mind just to make the time here more bearable.
She was certain that he truly hated her.
She couldn't decide whether she resented him or agreed with him; in some cases she hated herself, so she empathized with him for putting up with her weakness and dull mind. Other times she hated him for being the oppressive, unforgiving one. But then she'd go straight back to hating herself; her mind was plagued with negativity.
As Hinata stared out into the evening storm, she sat inside herself surrounded by darkness. There was no warmth, no coldness, no breeze, and no company. As she stared out into the emptiness inside herself, her voice echoed back.
"I wish I knew why I was here."
Naruto grasped the side of her face with both hands and crashed his lips onto hers.
He was rough and clumsy. Her lips felt numb and cold at first, like the sudden pressure caused her lips to fall asleep,
until he started moving his lips against hers that she began to regain feeling.
Hinata whimpered against him, partly out of awkward pain, partly out of pleasure.
She felt her eyes grow wet, her heart pound madly. The tears leaked out with the moans, muffled sounds stumbling from her lips into his mouth.
His tongue tasted funny, he was kinna slimy.
"Why am I here?"
"She's been taking pictures of you when you're not looking." Girl A stated seriously. She was such a busybody.
"Did I do something wrong?"
"May I get a kiss goodnight?"
"I did something really bad... didn't I?"
"Go..." She muttered, shuffling backwards a bit.
"Go?" He mimicked in his confusion.
"Away." Hinata amended much in the same way, that it irritated Kiba.
"Why?"
"But I love him. Why was I sent to see the guidance counselor?"
She couldn't forget the look in Kurenai-sensei's eyes.
She couldn't release the image of Naruto's indifferent face.
The humiliation stuck to her body, buried beneath her skin like self-induced bruises.
She hadn't quite known what made her speak like that. Perhaps she had been trying to match him, perhaps she wanted to show him she wasn't to be belittled.
"They must think I'm crazy..."
"So sorry for the wait. The counselor will see you now." The young woman smiled sheepishly as she lead them down inside the room.
Hinata wasn't sure what a counselor was for.
Hiashi wasn't sure either.
Time passed by in that cozy office as the female counselor dragged on and on. Hinata hadn't been paying attention to a word. Like a child, she let the adults discuss the remedies.
"Considering the circumstances..." She drawled on in a low, womanly voice.
Kurenai-sensei was there too. Hinata wasn't certain, but it seemed like her teacher was fighting calmly in her interests.
"I feel like a mental patient... perhaps I am a headcase..."
"You seem to have an attachment to her." Hiashi stated gruffly to Kurenai. Never did he glance her way 'til now, never did he look her so sharply in the eyes 'til now. "Perhaps I ought to leave her in your care instead."
"Is he going to abandon me? Just like that?"
Kiba wandered all through the aisles of the open-air novelty shop, in hopes of finding something good on sale. Shino followed close behind, umbrella in hand.
Kiba stopped talking about Hinata entirely. He used to rant every once in a while about her 'relationship' with Naruto. They both knew it had taken on a whole new level of sketchiness, but since the incident earlier, he completely stopped mentioning her.
"What did you find?" Shino called out from the rain.
Kiba looked up and smiled.
"'Fear of the Ghost House: Bloodsucking Doll'. This is the first of the trilogy. I saw the last two when I ten, but I could never find this one."
Hiashi left her there.
He got picked up by a company car and left her there at the school.
He had completely given up on her.
She stood alone and still in the middle of the yard, soaked by the dreary rain.
The school sat in shadow, imposing the sense of solitude and isolation upon her as the ground glistened wet. The night was dark around her, the air cold and street empty. She felt cut off from everything; she couldn't see the street lights, the buildings, the cars. Emptiness echoed within her heart, it haunted her with this feeling that coiled up in her stomach like a parasite and left her hollow; it was the crippling sense of worthlessness.
Her face twisted in her pain, her heart drenched in it.
She shut her eyes and prepared to cry.
Car lights appeared on the shimmering wet street beyond the gate. A sleek, black Cadillac pulled up to the school.
Two girls hopped out of the vehicle and rushed to her side.
She knew it was them. She knew she was supposed to feel gladness when they hugged her, when they tried to comfort her.
But as they lead her away into the black Cadillac, she never felt more afraid in her life.
A young officer came stumbling towards his superior's desk with a stack of files that nearly reached up to his chin. Much to his satisfaction, he promptly dropped the load onto his superior's desk, despite the glare and inevitable tongue-lashing. Instead he sauntered off on his merry way, whistling a cheery tune that was albeit too happy for the older man's taste.
"AREN'T YA GONNA TELL ME WHUT YA FOUND?" He yelled out angrily.
The younger officer came back around and peeked his head around the corner.
"The knife has an extensive history." He said plainly. Then he left.
The older man gave out a loud sigh, before digging into the pile.
He wasn't looking forward to this.
"Why don't we have secretaries to do our research?" He wondered aloud, grabbing a handful and placed it down in front of him.
Of all the things he chose to look at, was the most recent.
"How did this... If he's here..." The man's mumblings stopped dead on his tongue, an anxious realization crossing his mind. "We've got to call someone in Matsue."
Hinata was filled with the distinct feeling that everyone was leaving her, or they were forgetting her.
She felt so alone.
Hinata peered longingly into the back of Naruto's head, in hopes that he'd turn around. Instead he slouched forward as if ready to take a nap.
As she stared at him -slumped over his desk with his bad posture and tense shoulders- he seemed to shrink. The more she stared, the further away he moved. Hinata swept her glance across the room. As she did so, it was like a wave pushed everyone aside. The floor stretched beneath her, pulling her away from them, or pulling them away from her, leaving her stranded alone and helpless.
She was completely alienated.
Her father dumped her, Naruto... her friends...
She turned to look over her shoulder.
Kiba wasn't there.
A sense of self-pity bubbled up in her throat like a sob as she shut her eyes, and fervently choked down on it.
Naruto turned halfway towards her upon hearing the muffled sad noise.
She sat there hiding her face in her hands. Her cheeks were puffy and red, her lips stretched across her teeth as if she were silently crying.
She looked so lonely.
'I don't know what to do...' She cried angrily to herself. She felt like all her friends were leaving her, she could no longer keep a hold of them. And she couldn't keep a hold of her love. She had been so focused on winning him that she thought once she had him, she would still have her friends too, and everything would be so perfect.
"You were lying this whole time. He's not your boyfriend, is he?"
But she wasn't winning Naruto over, she wasn't winning him fast enough for her friends to still stick around.
"LaBitch thinks you should settle for Kiba."
"Shut it, she won't be 'settling' if she chooses Kiba."
"It's 'settling' if she still sees him as a friend. She just has give up on her infatuation, she doesn't need to go rebound."
"Emi-chan? Do you think going out with Kiba would be unfair to him?"
"YOU JUST TWISTED THE WORDS! Do you even know what happens when you date your friend?"
She hadn't thought about Kiba, he was a dear friend.
She knew she'd lose Kiba if she chose Naruto, she felt she had already lost him.
She hadn't even known Kiba very long, yet he meant a lot to her.
She barely even knew Naruto, yet she loved him, or so she felt and so she said.
Hinata had thought once she had Naruto, she could convince them that everything was alright. She didn't see why things wouldn't turn out alright.
But Kiba hated Naruto, and so did her friends.
Hinata wouldn't stop watching her cell phone. Even as Moe and LaBelle tried to get her to talk,
she kept all her attention on the damned phone.
"Tch, let's see what you've got there that's so significant." Moe spat as she snatched the phone right out of her hands.
She flipped around through the different applications before pulling her album up. There were photos and photos of the blonde boy.
From pics of him sleeping to pics of him on the volleyball court, even pics of his smile.
They were getting fed up with her and everything she did.
Moe started hitting various keys with swift succession.
"W-What're you doing?" Hinata called out hesitantly, her voice small. She felt so powerless. She felt guilty and so she felt powerless.
"I'm deleting your stalker evidence."
She didn't know what to do.
"NO! STOP IT! NO NO NO! GIVE IT BACK!" Hinata screamed desperately reaching for her phone.
Moe denied her as she continued to pull it out of reach and delete her precious images.
"GIVE IT BACK NOW!" Hinata grabbed Moe's hair and pulled her back. Moe let out a rage-filled scream and kicked her away.
Tears welled up in Hinata's eyes, but not from the pain of the kick.
Hinata cried and screamed and fought, blinded by her friend's disrespect.
Her heart hurt so bad.
"GET OFF!" Moe roared, bringing her arm back. She slapped the hell out of Hinata's cheek.
Even now it still throbbed sore.
"Told you she likes me more." LaBelle randomly threw out unsmilingly. Moe sat out on her bed, glaring with a violent intent towards Hinata.
Hinata sat quietly aching on the floor, clutching the cell phone to her heaving chest. Her cheek was bright red.
All she could think about was those images and how they were deleted, gone forever.
She felt the loss of Naruto like she felt the loss of his pictures.
She didn't know what to do. She still wanted Naruto, but she didn't know what to do.
She didn't want to end up alone.
"What is wrong with you? What the hell is wrong with you? Does he love you? Does he care you exist?"
It wasn't just the disappointment of Hinata's decisions or the betrayal that she would hit her,
but the fact that what she said about LaBelle was the same for her.
Hinata was the only female friend she had.
No one at school liked Moe, for all the same reasons LaBelle couldn't stand her.
Her personality, her habits, her speech, her behavior; all a put off.
Without Hinata, she was virtually unpopular.
Without Hinata, she was friendless.
"Why don't you call him? Ask him if he loves you!"
Hinata stared at her phone, her heart breaking in her eyes. She couldn't call him. She knew the answer.
"I can't believe you! You were the nicest girl I ever met!"
Hinata was slowly ending up alone.
It was a gamble for her, one she thought she could win; She could bet on one and keep both, or she could bet on one and lose all. And she had been so confident that winning Naruto and keeping her friends was possible. If he were truly her boyfriend, they could forgive her for all her fibbing and fooling around. Machiavelli may have had a cynical look on conquest, but it was truthful. The only difference between her and Machiavelli was that she thought her fibbing wouldn't have hurtful consequences.
So she kept saying Naruto was her boyfriend when he wasn't; if he accepted in the end, who would have been hurt?
Not her. Not her friends, far as she knew. It wasn't totally wrong of her if lies and fantasy could become truth. At least, that's what she had reasoned.
'I suppose none of that matters now... Kiba-kun hates me. ...They're slowly leaving me... and Naruto-kun was never mine to begin with...'
"Don't cry." He whispered.
Hinata jerked her head awkwardly up to meet his eyes, only to look off to the side. There was pain in the edges of her face, her eyes troubled.
"..." She wiped at her eyes, and willed her face to cool down, yet she knew she wanted to cry. She thought she may hide in the girls' locker room to do so alone. She wasn't sure if she could make it that long.
"If you cry, people will just want to bully you." He then said, as if he were giving good advice.
Hinata nearly rolled her eyes.
"I know that..." She bit out sarcastically, unable to keep a hold of her emotions at this point.
Naruto looked off to the side, feeling indignance for her tone, but also stupid for his own words. He remembered the things Kiba tried to tell him. In fact, it was pretty obvious that Hinata must've been a target at least once in her sheltered life, considering how weak and insecure she was these days. Her walls slipped long ago because of him, the foundations reduced to shambles.
That might've been why he didn't like her so much now; he didn't find her true face attractive, if this was her true face. She was just too insecure, too depressing.
"Is that why you don't like me anymore? Did I cry too much in front of you?" She called out somberly, as she stared at the floor in front of her.
He tried to see her face, but he could not. In that moment his heart vaguely remembered that dream he had.
"Why don't you love me?" The dark-haired girl whispered with her head hung.
"..." Naruto didn't say anything. He wasn't sure what to say. There wasn't really anything wrong with crying, it's really normal for girls at least he thought. He hated to admit to himself, but he used to cry... a lot. But he didn't want to tell her that, that wouldn't really answer her question and it wouldn't help his image either. The easiest thing he could think of saying to not hurt her was, "That's not it.", except it did hurt.
"'That's not it'? Then what is 'it'?" She demanded, her tone and frustration forcing dominance over the conversation.
Naruto felt like running away at that moment. He knew that tone all too well and he realized he put himself in a bit of a corner.
He chose to meet her question with a question.
"What's your problem?"
Wrong question.
Rather than cry or wince or back away, Hinata glared at him. She pinned her eyes on him and furrowed her brows in an indignant expression.
Yet she couldn't say anything. She couldn't find the words and even when she found them, she couldn't speak them. Until she decided she was tired of this vicious cycle she put herself in with him; hiding, smiling, letting him go, thinking things will work out for the best, thinking things aren't so bad, when in truth she was being stupid. She had been quiet and she didn't like it anymore.
It was like how she had always been with her father, and she wasn't going to be that girl this time.
"You are." She said in the surest voice she could muster. She surprised Naruto. She wasn't sure if it was the way she spoke to him or if it was the way she was looking at him as she said it, but she put him at a standstill. She felt a little proud of herself, yet sorry for herself at the same time.
If he hated her after this, she would understand, and she planned to cry about it later.
"Me?" Naruto dumbly scoffed, as he puffed out his chest and shifted around his seat uncomfortably. There was something in that little action she found disheartening, because she found it unbearably obnoxious. "What'd I do?"
Her eyes widened a little. It was enough to make Naruto's stomach turn. He wasn't sure what was going to happen; if she would say something really biting or try to hit him, or maybe she would cry. He wasn't sure what'd she do but it didn't really matter, his urge to run away was growing more and more into a fervent itch. He was getting this feeling that he had finally pushed his luck and there was no way out or no way back.
But she didn't say anything.
Wooden rocking-horse shoes and mary-janes laid tossed aside. Ribbons of the softest texture and colors cluttered her bed, along with homework and magazines. And jumpers, petticoats and capes piled themselves up around her as she dug through her closet and flung articles and objects about.
She was planning on getting rid of her precious possessions.
Her lolita possessions.
Already she'd done things for him: little things, stupid things, adorable things and over-the-top things, all for him, and yet nothing came of it. In fact, it only seemed to have made it worse, to the point that there was no point in loving him or anything.
Hinata picked up a small one-piece dress; it was white and lavender, gingham, with little embroidered violets on the edgings. It was a spring-dress, classic style, made by an exclusive designer.
LaBelle had gotten it for her, when they first met.
It was her first dress.
Hinata looked around and plucked out a white headdress adorned with creme-colored silk ribbons and roses.
She had bought that at The Strawberry Spider with Moe around the time they met. She remembered how they had kid around the store, read the manga installments in the back of every mook and magazine without paying. She remembered when they got carrot cake together at a little shop down the street. Moe would point out every good-looking guy she saw and either she'd giggle and make these silly, adorable comments, or she'd try to flirt with them. She even tried to get one of the guys to flirt with Hinata; except at the time, she was fourteen and the man was twenty-seven. But he was gorgeous! Tall, lean, strong shoulders, clean face, strong jaw, an upturned mouth, dark smiling eyes, stylishly unkept black hair, big hands... He had a warm, deep voice too... That man had been so kind when he turned Hinata down, not that he had a choice, she was -after all- half his age.
But that was what made it so fun. At least for Moe... Hinata had been too embarrassed at the time to truly appreciate and enjoy that moment, she was nearly panic-stricken when the man smiled at her. Blood had pounded like crazy in her ears that she couldn't catch what the man had said to her before he walked away; his eyes and smile had held her in place. She had been so attracted to him.
"That was the day I bought this..."
Hinata looked down at the bag in her hands; it was childish to say the least, dark-pink and shaped like a giant strawberry. Hinata remembered throwing it at Moe because she had been teasing her about the guy.
"Ah-ha-ha! You chased him away with that childish bag of yours, Emi-chan!"
Of course she had only been teasing. But she didn't seem to mind at all that she threw it. Perhaps because... it had shown that she was growing more comfortable with herself and less afraid to act out.
Hinata picked up one of her rocking-horse shoes, it was cherry-red and milk-white. It was the only one she had that wasn't a knock-off.
She remembered briefly reading Shimotsuma Monogatari, up to the part where Momoko approved Vivienne Westwood ballerina rocking-horse shoes as the quintessential lolita accessory. It was true; they were perfect, they went with every outfit.
She spent two years saving up; lunch money, recycling cans. She even offered to take over classmates' cleaning duties for 500 yen each. That was perhaps the sneakiest, slickest thing she ever came up with, and it pulled off. It took her two years to get these amazing shoes.
She remembered the day she made the purchase, she practically broke down and cried. She remembered hugging them to her chest and wailing as the bewildered cashiere tried to console her. The other customers had been smiling and giggling at her display; some thought it was ridiculously funny, others thought it was plain adorable.
There were so many wonderful memories attached to her purchases. As she looked around at all her possessions, she felt fondness and relief.
This was her accumulation of happiness, her collection of the good things in her life.
However, because she held so much love for material things, she felt so much shame. She thought it was pathetic. Material things can't love you back. Holding so much love for petty things made her feel like a loser, like 'otaku'.
Naruto didn't like otaku.
Hinata hung her head. She bent down forward ever so slightly until she sunk down onto the floor with a soft, near silent, 'thud'.
There was that familiar ache in her throat and tightness in her chest.
The tears slid out from her eyes as she knew they would.
She hated herself.
She hated what she had become.
"I'm a leech... a leech... a leech... a leech..."
Naruto had a vivid dream. He dreamed that he had been birthed from the cut-open womb of a dead woman. She'd been slain by old world bandits. Or maybe they were gangsters from Kyoto. His mind had been the same, but his dream body had been that of an infant. And yet, though that child's eyes had been his own, and though he did inhabit its body, he had also been looking at himself from out of the body. After that he recalled turning around and he was in his sixth grade classroom. He was himself at fifteen but he was supposed be himself at twelve, and he was perceived as his twelve-year-old self. The classroom was fuzzy and covered in film grain it seemed. Sasuke was there. He stood in the doorway talking to him, but there was no sound.
Naruto chalked it up to watching all those Cult Horror movies Hiro bought.
At least because in the dream, he and Sasuke were wearing the Battle Royale collars around their necks.
Back then, every day was a different kind of battle. Back then, Naruto had thought it was like they did wear the collars, that sooner or later one of them would die.
"At least we didn't have to kill eachother..." Naruto mused aloud at the cieling, as he ran the grotesque movie scenes in his head, occasionally dropping in panels from the manga adaption.
"I used to have so much shit... Well not really 'much', but still much more than what I have now." He closed his eyes, and mourned the loss of his childhood memorabilia.
"Head-cha-la... head-cha-la..."
Hinata had enough of this love-induced dementia.
She cried herself to sleep, until all the illness had been purged from her mind and her throat was ragged.
She awoke the next morning with a unfamiliar calmness.
The sun graced the spring morning with a promise that the days would grow brighter, warmer, and longer.
Hinata fixed her bed and tidied her room.
She brushed her hair until it shined. She put on a blue plaid skirt that rose just an inch above her knees, and not five. It wasn't the correct color for school, but she knew she would have to buy a new uniform if she wanted to wear her skirt longer again. She'd been hemming her old one too much.
She could hear the pounding of little feet hit the wooden floor. It was Hanabi, and she was racing out of her room again to leave for school.
Hinata knew she wouldn't be seeing her again this time, but she didn't mind.
Hinata straightened out her tie and tugged on her grey cardigan. She looked herself over in the mirror and changed her mind about the skirt. She exchanged it for a plain black skirt, making her red tie the focal point of attire for it stood out the most. She then pulled her hair into a low ponytail and grabbed her school bag.
Naruto stumbled out his front door, with school bag thrown haphazardly over his shoulder.
He began his walk to school when he noticed a girl far up ahead.
However, he didn't bother running after her just to see who she was.
As soon as the girl reached the gate, so did Naruto. He had been a little surprised to find that it was her.
She looked ordinary today which, for some reason, seemed unusual. The only thing that stood out was the way she held herself, like she was walking on a designated line; she kept her eyes straight ahead. She almost appeared to be floating.
Naruto ambled through the grounds into the locker area where students were putting on their indoor shoes for the day.
The moment he got to his locker, Hinata closed hers and walked away from him. It was like she didn't even know he was there.
"What the hell?"
The rest of the morning went on like that, without a glance or single word from her, not even that familiar stutter of his name.
She sat calm and still through the lessons, through the futball game. She reserved a small smile for Kurenai-sensei as they spoke in low voices, about what Naruto did not know.
'Did something happen?' He thought, as Kurenai put a comforting hand on Hinata's shoulder.
Then came lunch.
Kiba got up to eat in the cafeteria with Shino.
Hinata stirred in her seat and watched him go, a look of reluctant yearning on her face. Then she got up after him.
Naruto thought this especially strange.
'I can't believe she's ignoring me!'
Naruto bolted out of seat and sprinted out the classroom.
Naruto slowed down upon hearing conversation. He stopped short of the corner and peered around it.
Kiba and Hinata stood just outside the cafeteria doors.
"You seem calm." Kiba said warmly, almost wistfully. She looked the way he had always remembered her; so composed, as if nothing bothered her, as if everything was perfect.
Hinata gave him a small smile back.
"Yeah, it feels a bit strange. But like a good strange." She giggled. The she looked down, "I think my father was right to call me a headcase... I messed things up so bad... He doesn't want to deal with me anymore. He requested Kurenai be my supervisor... and I have to visit a guidence counselor frequently..."
A somber expression fell upon her face, her lips upturned in a wry smirk.
Something changed then, Naruto wasn't sure what, but he was sure it was them. He felt excluded, uninvited, as if they had stepped into a room and locked him out; it was the intimacy they shared, and it made Naruto feel like he didn't belong.
Hinata uttered Kiba's name in a trembling sigh, and kept her eyes to the ground. Her sense of worthlessness prevented her from meeting his eyes. Then came another heavy, trembling sigh to roll from her lips.
"I'm sorry... sorry..." She brought a hand up to catch her tears and hide her reddening eyes, "I'm sorry... s-so sorry..."
Kiba pulled her into a hug. She laid her head on his shoulder. He laid his hands on upper back, where he proceeded to soothe her, only to have her cry harder. In between sobs, she sucked in his warmth and breathed in his scent; instant relief washed over in waves, compelling her to hold onto him closer, tighter. She wanted to show she appreciated him, she wanted to show how much she still cared.
Kiba was enjoying every second.
"Th-they're not going to want to s-see m-me again..."
"I think they'll be more than happy to!" Kiba laughed, encouraging Hinata to laugh too. She needed all the optimism she could take.
Naruto saw the look of contentment and relief on the other boy's face, and a voice inside him set off the alarm: Hinata was going away.
Mizuno stood by the police officer's desk and stared at the laid out images of crime scene photos. They were related to the knife they found last week. It wasn't until now that they decided a youth could have been in on it and called up Mizuno.
The officer went into several details - some vague and incomplete, some thorough - about the various cases they found in relation to the knife's characteristics and history.
The first several offenses, all taken place in Matsue, were consistent in the handling style. Then when came the 'Shinjuku Incident', the handling style was not the same at all. It had been very frantic, very reckless. Then came the robbery/homicide of the taxi driver. That had been brutal and deliberate. They couldn't be sure if the original owner of the knife was involved the last two or not. The officer threw out the possibility that the knife has been simply circulating around to different owners and after each incident, the suspect got rid of it until someone else found it.
Mizuno took note of the possibility and hung onto it just in case.
The police officer told him that he alerted authorities in Matsue to check things out if need be. A particular officer was coming down personally to look into the recent cases.
Mizuno nodded to him and thanked him, before taking his leave.
After knowing who the blade originally belonged to, Mizuno knew he only had one person to talk to, and it pained him.
"Hey! ... W-What're you two doing?"
Hinata pulled herself away from Kiba, but not once did she turn to look at Naruto. She kept her eyes at the cafeteria doors, where she could see the other students grouped together and happily chatting the period away. Kiba looked at Naruto and said nothing. Naruto's eyes flickered to their hands, intimately wrapped in eachother's warmth, a representation of commitment and security. Hinata gripped Kiba's hand tighter. Clearly she was getting nervous.
Kiba saw this and smirked the smallest of smirks. He couldn't help but imagine that this was what King Kong must have felt like when the pretty girl got taken away. In fact, Naruto looked like a wild beast fighting against rope restraints, the only thing keeping him at bay was his blatant insecurity, which he didn't want to show.
Kiba then turned to Hinata and smiled.
"We should go inside, Shino's probably getting lonely." Kiba laughed, tugging her along. As Hinata walked away, the hallway seemed to grow dimmer. Each step away from him was like a cold, harsh wind that whipped around an desolate, broken down building.
They went through the door, into the sunny cafeteria. The door swung closed behind. The hallway became black, dark; the only light came from the cafeteria where Hinata was.
All Naruto thought about was how Hinata had her arms around Kiba, how she had been clinging to him.
All he could think about was how she could do that after all the things they did, all the things she made him do. What made her change her mind? What made her choose Kiba out of the blue like that? What made her think she could do that so easily?
"Can she be done with me... already?"
When lunch was over, all the students returned to the classroom.
Naruto went over to his seat, then Hinata. Naruto watched her pick up her bag, and pull things out from her desk. Not once would she look at him.
Naruto bit down on his tongue ad stared at her. He hoped to get her attention, he hoped to make her uncomfortable enough to yell at him.
Instead she got her things and walked over to the back of the room in the desk next to Kiba, the one that was initially Shikamaru's. Hinata apologized to him in her naturally shy manner, while Kiba chuckled. Shikamaru shrugged and moved to take Hinata's old seat in front of Naruto.
Naruto didn't like this, but he wasn't sure what to say about it.
He clenched his jaw to prevent himself from blurting out like he used to do as a kid. His teeth slipped on his tongue, causing him to bite down hard. Naruto's eyes shot open. A sharp, stinging pain shot through the muscle, blood coated the tip.
"-!"
Everyone was looking at him by now, as he sat there covering his mouth in pain and stomping his feet against the tiles.
"Do you need to go to the nurses'?" Imahada-sensei, the English Teacher, asked with a dubious smirk.
Naruto hung his head and shook it back and forth. He felt really stupid just then.
Hinata ran for her house, desperately wanting to escape Naruto. Ignoring him was what she needed to do, but it was harder than she thought.
"Are you going out with him now?" Naruto shouted after her, wincing. His tongue twinged with pain everytime he had to form a syllable.
"No! Not ye- It's not like you care anyways!" With that, she disappeared inside and shut the shoji behind her.
Naruto and Ryoji sat out on the steps to the GAP building, watching as the merry-go-round went by. Ryoji casually sucked down on his cigarette, patiently waiting for Hiro's arrival.
She changed her hours back, saying she finished her evening classes and had the time to work nights again. Naruto occasionally asked Ryoji about Hiro's school. Ryoji didn't know, they didn't go to the same college.
Hiro spotted her boys on the steps and ambled her way over to them. Her hair was pulled in a ponytail. She wore classic All-Star converse shoes, skinny jeans and a t-shirt. She never did dress spectacularly unless at work, but she still looked good.
'It's her hips...' Naruto thought, remembering how he got to see her in her skivvies. It didn't matter how average her chest was or how petite she was on a whole, she was definitely all woman. But then, Hinata had a grown-up body too.
Naruto had already been moping since he got to Harajuku. Thinking about Hinata, he visibly sank in deeper into his conflicting emotions.
His co-workers caught sight of this.
"Wha's up wit' him?" Hiro said, pointing at Naruto's direction with her chin.
A short laugh came from the smooth, low-voiced Ryoji, as he twiddled his cigarette between his fingers.
"I think our little hero has been dumped." He smirked. The way he referred to Naruto as 'their little hero' pissed him off. He said it so condescendingly, at least that's how it sounded in his head.
Naruto got up and punched him in the shoulder. Ryoji nearly dropped his cigarette at the sudden jolt.
Ryoji ignored him and sourly bit down on his cigarette. The older man reluctantly cussed the younger under his breath, "... Such a child..."
Hiro blinked. She was surprised to see Ryoji so exasperated. Was Fishcake's power of annoyance that strong?
"Alright, Fishcakes, don't cry. What happen?" Hiro pointedly stared at the moping Naruto. He kicked out at the granite steps, as if in refusal to speak. He was so irritated, he really didn't want to get into it a second time. Ryoji hadn't even been too sympathetic when Naruto got around to talking.
"Our hero has been sexually involved with the girl from the bathroom," Ryoji began with that dubious smirk of his, "Now he thinks she's found a boyfriend."
As Ryoji explained, Naruto had sunk back down on the steps, his head hung in defeat. The blonde hadn't expected Hiro to burst out laughing.
"Shut up!"
"What you sad about? I thought you didn't like her!" Hiro continued to laugh.
"I don't! But... How can she just drop me like that? She was crazy about me!"
"Maybe she got smart. Isn't that a possibility?" Ryoji muttered to himself as his cigarette slowly smoldered. He was vaguely embittered by Naruto's immature attitude and bull-headedness.
Naruto crossed his arms and a half-smug, half-sullen look appeared on his face.
"She said she liked the way I made her feel."
"Didn't she want to get serious with you at all?"
"Yeah, she even begged me for a date."
"And you refused?"
"Well, uhm..." Naruto hesitated quite sheepishly, "I thought that would go against our Pre-Cop agreement..."
Ryoji flicked his cigarette onto the steps quite vigorously, making Naruto nervous. The twenty-six year old didn't even bother looking at Naruto as he stood up, but he didn't miss the chance to forcefully push the lad's head down, before trudging off to work.
Hiro found this division between her boys rather interesting, but she didn't show it.
"You wanna keep her? Go try an' keep her. Go remind her how much she needs you and that your hair is blonde because you're a god."
He knew she was making fun of him too and he did all he could not to look at her.
She observed Naruto intently.
He had tensed up completely, his shoulders hunched and fingers coiled up tight. He tried to blank out his mind so his face couldn't give away the troubled emotions that were boiling over in his stomach.
It didn't seem like anything was going right for him.
Hiro snuck into the males' changing room and walked over to where Naruto was changing. His uniform pants lay on the bench as he busied himself with taking his shirt off over his head.
"What're you up to?" He asked, heaving one last effort into pulling the dress shirt off his head.
"You'll tear t'e t'reads t'at way," Hiro casually commented as she plucked his cell phone from his pants pocket. "You have buttons."
Hiro's nails hit against the touch screen as she went through his files, the occasional 'click-click-clack' filling his ears.
"It's easier to slide it off and on." He reasoned.
"Yeah, but t'en t'e collar will look like crap, 'specially if you wash it."
click-click-clack, click-click-clack
"Did you buy t'is cell phone?"
"No, she bought it for me."
"It's really nice. Did you know you can even edit videos here?"
Naruto just gave her an apathetic shrug.
He turned to get a look at her, and found she was already dressed and lightly made up. It'd been awhile since he got to see her like this and he wasn't stingy when drinking her in. She looked good in everything she wore, she had the right skin for it. She had her hair down, the front bits framed around her face. She wore a deep blue cheongsam, a black and gold peacock draped across her hip. The feathers descended down the train of the dress, its head rested across her breast. Her legs were exposed and she simply wore a pair of matching slippers. Naruto couldn't help but think how proud her father must be to have such a lovely daughter.
"Why don't you have a boyfriend?" Naruto suddenly asked. He hadn't even thought about it and the words flew right out of him.
"My life doesn't permit me t'at kind of time." She said rather seriously.
"Your father doesn't let you?"
"Not my father, his business."
Naruto nearly smiled.
"You're really devoted... But... What does Aomo-"
"I'm not telling you." She cut in harshly.
"Alright, alright. Then, did you get to use it?" Naruto inqueried jokingly, referring to the knife.
"..." She didn't say anything.
Naruto thought he could get through to her, but he began to see she had a rock solid wall between him and her secrets. She wouldn't tell him about her father, about his business, about Aomori or his involvement in the matter. She wouldn't talk to him about what happened with the knife.
"If you still need it, that's fine." Naruto shrugged as he forced a smile for her. Hiro didn't seem to acknowledge him anymore. She hit the 'Upload Video' button, and when the loading bar reached 100 percent, she exited the internet application and set aside his phone.
Naruto watched her leave with the distinct feeling she was upset again.
The rest of the shift went on like that: Hiro, Naruto and Ryoji all took turns being moody, both adults took turns ignoring Naruto after a certain argument. Ryoji couldn't believe his lack of discernment, Hiro couldn't believe his persistence on a topic that he didn't understand. The more time they spent together that night, the more out of place Naruto began to feel in their company. And it seemed more apparent that they wanted to get away from him.
Naruto had already gotten the feeling Ryoji didn't like him anymore. He refused to indulge in the possibility that Hiro didn't like him anymore either.
By the end of the night, all three co-workers went home instead of out for drinks.
Naruto sat in his Computers class chin in hand as he idly scrolled down through the lessons with his mouse. He tried to pretend Hinata wasn't sitting in the back of the room with Kiba, stifling her giggles as he made jokes about something they were watching. It only made it more apparent.
"You're a shitty liar, Uzumaki." Masabo laughed pointedly down the row.
"What are you talking about?" Naruto muttered back.
"You said you never saw Hyuuga-chan's panties," The chubby boy smirked.
Just then, something popped up on Naruto's screen. He didn't click on it, but it looked like it was a video. The 'play' button in the middle of the screen was just staring at him.
Naruto looked suspiciously back at his vulgar classmate, cluelessly mouthing, "What's this?"
"Don't be stupid, you uploaded this." Masabo said, a vulgar smile spread across his big lips.
"I don't know what you're talking about!"
"Oh my god, look at this!" Cried a girl a row behind Naruto.
"What's going on?" The teacher marched over, getting annoyed at utter lack of attention he students actually paid to the lessons.
"Sensei, It's just popped up on my screen!"
"Uwaa? M-Mine too!"
Naruto looked back at Masabo questioningly. The chubby boy mouthed to him again, "Play it."
Naruto took his mouse and clicked the play button.
"What're you doing?"
"I'm trying to remember last night." Hinata replied casually, as she ran her fingers over her neck and belly in a caressing manner.
Kiba stood up from where he sat to figure out where that voice was coming from.
Naruto felt his eyes and turned around.
Kiba was watching Naruto's screen.
"Geez, was I so bad that you forgot?"
Several snickers went around the classroom, many eyes giving Naruto mocking looks.
"You think that's why she's with Inuzuka now?" A girl smirked to her friend, deriving giggles from her.
Naruto's gaze drifted over to Hinata. It was like a punch in the gut when she stared right back at him with those big eyes of hers.
"That voice is you, right? Who else made this video, huh?" Masabo sputtered with amusement.
Hinata ran her right hand across her chest and grasped her left breast.
You could tell she was imagining her hand as his own.
The video went on to play mismatched clips of Hinata touching herself, the dialogue excluded.
"Hey, Naruto! Great job on making this video!" The chubby boy laughed despite making a sincere compliment. He was thoroughly enjoying every second. "You got anymore of these? I'll subscribe, ha-ha-ha-ha!" Masabo's laughter filled the room like white noise. Naruto heard him yet his attention was divided, the gravity of the situation far too sudden and overwhelming for him to register.
Kiba set his eyes on Naruto, startling the blonde. Kiba threw aside his seat, silencing the whole room.
He was seething.
"Bastard..." Kiba muttered.
Naruto weakly shook his head, "I didn't..." , the confusion numbing the words on his lips.
Anxiety clouded Naruto's mind, his flight instincts kicking in first. As soon as Naruto stood up, Kiba was already on him.
Naruto knocked his fist aside and threw his shoulder against Kiba's chest, knocking him aside.
"You two, stop immediately- Uzumaki get back here!" The teacher cried out like a kid having a fit.
Naruto ran out the classroom, with Kiba on his heels.
"Everyone, close all windows right now!"
"Were you trying to get back at her?" Kiba accused as his feet pounded against the hallway floor.
"Are you ki-? YOU THINK I'D GET THAT UPSET?" Naruto yelled back indignantly, almost sounding frantic. He had no idea how he was going to escape this or face it tomorrow.
Their footsteps reverberated through the halls, their voices travelled into every classroom.
Naruto was struggling to figure out how that video got up on the internet. He know he didn't do it, he totally forgot he even made that recording.
"It's really nice. Did you know you can even edit videos here?"
For the first time in a long while, Naruto felt what it was like to run out of a haze of ignorance, and into the painful clarity of reality. At first there was no atmosphere, no oxygen to breathe, yet it was like breathing fresh air; frigid, plentiful . Then the realization struck him in a such a way that it left him helpless in his distraught. And even though he knew the truth, he still couldn't understand.
'Why would she do that?'
'Maybe I shouldn't have kept that video...'
'Everyone's going to think I'm a creep. Or... worse than what they've already thought of me.'
'What's going to happen to Hinata-chan?'
"GET BACK HERE!"
Kiba's voice echoed in the locker corridor as Naruto dashed across the school yard.
He thought he'd be heading to some sort of freedom. He didn't expect to see Mizuno parked outside the school gates.
"What the hell happened to you? What'd you do this time?"
Naruto sat in Mizuno's office, his head bowed as if to deflect the insults being hurled at him.
"Geez... you sound like Iruka-sensei..." He muttered under his breath, almost wistfully, yet he sounded more resentful than anything.
"What, did you try running away? Think I wouldn't catch you?"
"You didn't catch me... I never went anywhere..."
"Then where've you been this past week? You realize the school year is almost over? I seriously doubt they'll want to keep you if all you're gonna do is bring down their standards."
"Screw standards... you can never reach their's..."
"Where were you this past week?"
"... Locked up."
"Locked up?"
"... Inside a shed."
"Such a smartass..." Mizuno sighed as he grabbed his head out of pure frustration, "I've had enough of your bullshit!"
"If you didn't believe that, then you won't believe the rest." Naruto scoffed, smirking out the window. A pidgeon landed on the sill. It strutted back and forth twice before another pidgeon landed beside him and they both took off.
"..." Mizuno noted how divided his attention was. As he observed the longing in the boy's blue eyes, he couldn't help but lose his motivation to be angry.
He was like a cornered animal, meant to be set free. So for now, he decided to set him free.
"We're done here." He said casually, feigning normalcy for them both, "You ought to leave now. And get to work on time, alright?"
"Yessir."
This was the second time in Tokyo he sat locked up in the Daiyo Kangoku. They hurled question after question at him, shoved photographs in his face. When it came down to the knife, Naruto shut up completely.
It was still caked with blood.
"We found this in the neck of a taxi driver." The scrawny officer hissed through wide lips. Naruto tried to see his eyes, but the lights glared off his glasses.
"Wha... What makes you think I know anything about it?" Naruto asked evenly, making sure what he was thinking wasn't being portrayed externally.
The officer sneered, "You personally know Uchiha Sasuke."
Naruto feigned innocent surprise for the man. He knew Sasuke had nothing to do with what was going on.
"You think he's here?"
"If he is, you have to tell us."
"I haven't seen him since he disappeared." Naruto idly shrugged. He felt confident enough to play these men until he got out. After that, he had no idea what'd he do. 'Shit... I have to get to work later. ... She's going to be there...'
"You mean, since he murdered his brother?" The man said derisively, clearly trying to get a rise out of Naruto. The young blonde visibly sank back in his seat, his eyes drifted off to the side.
He replied with a hesitant "...Yeah," but none too happily.
"What about the Shinjuku Incident, Naruto?" Mizuno called from the side. His stare was hard and having known the man for some time made the question all too compelling. "The knife was traced back-"
"Indeed," The officer nodded impatiently, "And knowing you-"
"I wasn't involved!" Naruto glared at the officer, daring him to complete his sentence.
"I suppose not," He continued, seemingly unimpressed, "You have tried several times before to join Yakuza, but with no success. Your friend Sasuke, however, was accepted into the Akatsuki-gumi rather easily."
Naruto smirked, "Yeah, and the Akatsuki-gumi dissolved as soon as Nagato died."
The officer slammed his palms on the table and leaned forward, causing the light to completely engulf his lenses, obscuring his eyes from Naruto. Despite his scrawny build, he did look rather intimidating.
"But Nagato was barely pulling the strings! The man was so sick, someone else was running the syndicate," At this, the man made a vile grin, "Do you think your friend Uchiha Sasuke is still running? Or do you think he ran to someone he can trust, someone in power?"
The blonde numbly shook his head, unsure where any of this was leading to.
"The Uchiha may be a family of noble blood, but there was one that estranged himself to spread his influences throughout Yakuza."
"You think..", Naruto paused to gather his words, overwhelmed by the man's theories and connections, "...You think Sasuke is with Yakuza, then?"
"Uchiha Madara! Uchiha Madara is Sasuke's last breathing relative and he is the Kumicho to five main syndicates spread across the Southern Kanto region; not mention over ten smaller groups in Tokyo. God knows how much more he controls, especially if Sasuke is his right-hand man."
Naruto stared at the man for sometime, feeling rather incredulous about the whole thing.
Naruto didn't doubt Sasuke would get sick of running, but Naruto didn't believe Sasuke would seek the protection of Yakuza, relative or not. He was too proud for that. But then again, Sasuke had proved to be surprising. If Madara could give him power and influence that Orochimaru couldn't, then perhaps Sasuke did involve himself.
'But Sasuke only wanted to get to Itachi, and he did. He only sought people like Orochimaru to get to Itachi... So what other reason could there be that Sasuke would remain in their ranks?'
Naruto knew this had nothing to do with Sasuke, nor whether he was with Madara or not. This barely had anything to do with Yakuza even. The knife belonged to Sasuke, that was why they were implicating him, but the officers were either reading into it too much or not enough.
The man they really wanted was still a boy and he was staring them right in the face.
"Sorry, I don't know what to tell you guys."
Mizuno offered to drop Naruto off at work. The man had been quiet and solemn the whole time since.
"You know I haven't seen that bastard since he ran away, right?" Naruto asked casually, giving Mizuno a sideways glance through his rearview mirror.
"Yup."
Mizuno didn't bother to look, he kept his eyes firmly ahead, only mirroring Naruto's nonchalant facade.
"So there's no way I'd know where is now."
"I believe you."
"Yeah, those officers were grasping at straws." Naruto chuckled, resting his head against the window.
"But it must be tough though, having been asked those questions," Mizuno glanced at his rearview mirror. Naruto gave little reaction. He looked back on the road. "You're close to Uchiha Sasuke, so it's only natural they'd come to ask you about him. Who knows; anything he does now may lead back to you. You may even be asked to track him down one of these days."
"I'm not doing that." Naruto grumbled.
"Don't you want to see him again?"
"..." Naruto didn't answer.
"And the knife. Don't you think it's odd it founds its way out here?"
"Maybe he is here, I dunno," Naruto sighed, closing his eyes. "It's a big city."
The car turned left, the sound of the tire treads rolling across the asphalt filled the silence of the vehicle as Mizuno pulled over. Hundreds of people filled the intersection, giving a feeling of vastness despite the congestion. When Mizuno didn't say anything, Naruto thanked him and hastily got out of the car.
His whole body felt like it was charged with electricity.
Under the current circumstances, having to see Hiro terrified him.
Her face seared hot with humiliation, it ached from restraining her cries. Her cheeks were moist and sticky with tears, her hair stuck to her skin as she smothered her face in her hands. She tried hard not to believe that Naruto would post that video on purpose, she tried hard not to believe he would be that cold.
But that video showed everything.
The boys thought she was a kink.
The girls thought she was 'a lowlife for being with a lowlife'.
Hinata cried to Kiba about her shameless behavior. She cried about how her father would hate her so much, how he'd say he didn't raise a slut, how Hanabi had more self-respect and intelligence than she did. She cried about her mother, were she alive, and if she would hate her just as much.
"I can't deny that it happened... I can't deny that we did those things... I can only deny having sex... I never gave myself to him... He didn't want me..."
Kiba did his best to comfort her, to hold her, all the while cursing Naruto. He was the one that made that video whether he posted it or not, it was his fault that it got out. It was his fault that this happened in the first place. It was his fault for using Hinata.
Hinata wanted him to stop. Holding her was fine, saying soothing words was fine, but insulting Naruto continuously was not fine. She knew he had her best interests in mind, and she appreciated him for being such a fierce friend, but writing Naruto off didn't make her feel better, it made her feel worse, it riled her.
She blamed herself. She did all this to herself. She couldn't hate Naruto, even if she tried.
There was still something there about him that she appreciated and she held onto it.
Maybe she wasn't strong enough to forget about him completely, ignoring him was hard enough.
If she hadn't changed seats, she barely would've gotten through the afternoon.
Naruto glued his back to the wall as he watched Hiro disappear into the female employees' changing room. She wore the same black and gold baseball jacket as she did when they both stole back the Ichiraku's delivery bike. Apprehension and anxiety clutched his heart in a tight fist, causing his breath to hitch and his heart rate to increase.
He dashed for the Manager's Office, knowing the man had a crush on Hiro. He hoped Mr. Masaharu wasn't all stupid.
Naruto burst through and slammed the door shut, startling the forty-something year old half to death.
"Why did you hire me?" Was the first thing that flew out of Naruto's mouth. The question barely registered in the man's mind as he carefully set down his YOUNG JUMP manga magazine back in its drawer.
"You came to me for a job." He blinked, stating matter-of-factly.
Naruto came to his desk, his eyes plagued and troubled. Hastily he spoke, "Yeah, but shouldn't you have done a background check or something, just to see who you'd be hiring?"
The agitation in his voice made the Manager wonder if he should laugh him off or take this seriously.
"Well I don't think that was really necessary, Eh-heh. You are still a child, what sort of stuff would I have been looking for?" The man smiled, chuckling hesitantly every once and awhile.
"But what about Hiro-chan?" The anxiety in Naruto's voice increased to where it was nearly contagious.
"..." The silence from Mr. Masaharu was a sign that he was guilty of mistake.
"I remember, you said you hired her on the spot, right? You didn't ask her any questions?"
"..." Mr. Masaharu remained speechless, Naruto's contagious concern growing visible on the man's forehead in the form of sweat.
Naruto took a step away from his desk, disbelief written on his face.
"You don't know anything about her, do you?"
The man's heart sank. His whole body sagged from having been so tense, and the look on his face was that of defeat and shame. His lips were quirked up in a sheepish smile, his brow drooped in an apologetic manner, yet his eyes were wide with fear.
"What sort of stuff would I have been looking for?" He gasped, emitting an unintended laugh.
Naruto hoped he wasn't going to give the man a heart attack for this. He wasn't sure where this was leading him, his thoughts and fears were all over the place is his head, but he felt for the man.
Just because he was an irresponsible manager didn't mean he was responsible for what his employees did. He didn't mean anything, he was just running a business.
Naruto turned away from his manager and exited the office, with only one thought in mind.
He had to talk to Hiro.
Naruto didn't dress for waiting tables, only wearing a white t-shirt and his work pants. When he announced he'd be washing the dishes, Hiro decided she would to. Naruto wasn't sure if he was thankful for this or not because she made it so easy for him that he couldn't help but feel more intimidated.
"Just like when you started working here, right?" Hiro smiled as she picked up a sponge and plate.
"Y-Yeah..." Naruto laughed back, rather weakly. He couldn't stop his heart from warming at her smile and the prospect of lighter times returning. He began to wish things hadn't changed.
He wished he never got involved with Yakuza.
He wished Sasuke didn't leave. If Sasuke didn't leave, then he wouldn't be in Tokyo.
Naruto began to wish he wasn't in Tokyo.
He wished he hadn't seen Hinata cry.
He wished he hadn't run into her at the bridge.
He wished he hadn't asked her to go out on New Year's Eve with him.
He wished she never had a crush on him.
He wished he hadn't kept her away from what she needed instead of what she wanted.
He wished he never recorded that video.
He wished he never stole that bike, he wished he never rode that taxi, he wished he hadn't given Hiro that knife.
He still wished he could've been the good guy, and not 'that orphan kid'.
He wished he hadn't taken his clothes off at the photo booth and then got arrested all because Hiro thought it would be fun.
"Does t'e name Minato mean anyt'ing to you, fishcakes?" Hiro said suddnly out of the blue. Naruto didn't respond right away. "Fishcakes?"
Naruto jumped, finally hearing her.
"Wh-Wha-? H-Huh?" He chuckled nervously. She stared at him for some time, suspicious as to why he would so jumpy. But she ignored it.
"Does t'e name 'Minato' mean anyt'ing to you?"
"Um... There's a Minato district in Tokyo-"
"No, I mean a man named Minato." Hiro explained, staring ever harder at him. She made him sweat.
"Nope, sorry." He uttered tentatively, keeping his gaze on the frothy suds.
"Because Aomori-jiji t'ought you looked familiar, t'ogh I hadn't really been listening to his story." She said whispery voice that made Naruto's skin crawl. Maybe it was the way she spoke or the way she said that name. "But I told him t'ere could be no way he had a child. T'e surnames aren't even t'e same."
"Uhh, yeah..." Naruto wasn't even listening anymore, his mind too caught up over a different name. 'Aomori-jiji? She called him 'Aomori-jiji'...'
"Hiro-chan, why did you post that video?"
"I t'ought t'e world would be interested in t'e relationship you guys had." She plainly said with an apathetic shrug.
Naruto turned to her and leaned in close, dropping his voice to a hiss, "And why did you kill that taxi driver with the knife I gave you?"
Hiro acknowledged his panicky distress and etched it into her memory. Inwardly she smirked, but did not let her amusement show.
"I didn't do t'at. You did t'at."
"What?"
Hiro grabbed his soapy wrist and turned him around so both could present themselves fully to the kitchen staff.
"I just want everyone here to know," She started out in a loud, clear voice, bewildered boy in hand as all eyes looked on, "T'at Uzumaki Naruto is a very good guy."
Naruto flushed, and awkwardly saluted his co-workers, having no idea what else to do. 'What is she doing?'
"When we went to get our pictures taken in a photo boo's, I got him to streak around Shibuya! When I gave him a wrench, he stole a bike and it was chained! When we went out, I got him so drunk he took off his pants! He also killed the taxi driver!"
"What're you doing? I didn't do that! I didn't do that!" Naruto cried, trying to free himself from Hiro's grip, but she was stronger than he thought.
"Oh, you know he had sex with a customer in the lavatory two months ago?"
"Hiro, shut up!"
"He even has a video, you can find under the tags 'blonde, tiny, dicks' on any website!"
"Shut up already!" Naruto moved to cover her mouth. As soon as his palm hit her lips, she bit him. She grabbed his wrist again and twisted his arm behind his back, and forced him to the ground.
"I thought you wanted people to know who you are! Did you want to tell them?" Hiro put her foot to his head and shoved him aside. "Or are you too much of a failure that there's nothing to tell?"
Her voice changed, she dropped that ridiculous speech of hers!
Hiro reached into her dress and pulled out a small sheathed knife.
"You want to play 'Yakuza', Naruto-kun?" She taunted in high, fluid voice, as if she were about to cry. She gripped the sheath and tossed it aside, revealing a hira style tanto knife. "I'll cut off every finger, knuckle by knuckle."
Naruto was ready to run, not so much that he was scared, but he wasn't even sure he wanted to fight Hiro. She was still a girl, even though she was now more of a bitch than a girl. And part of him still recognized her as a friend. But she didn't see him that way. No, she was the one that still had a grudge against him.
'That's why she called him Aomori-jiji... Shit, but what do I do?'
Ryoji was the only in the kitchen brave enough to approach Hiro, let alone move. Naruto met his gaze, his face silently telling him what to do. Ryoji carefully sidled around the counter before creeping up on Hiro. His palms and neck were moist with anxious sweat. He couldn't begin to imagine what caused Hiro to want to harm Naruto or even why. Sure, he could be pretty annoying, but he didn't deserve to get attacked.
Naruto glanced back at Hiro, and decided to get her to talk long enough for Ryoji to reach her.
"You're after me because what I did in Shinjuku forced the Kumicho to run, but why do you hate me for that? What did I do to you?"
"BECAUSE THE KUMICHO IS MY FATHER!" All her pain, her frustration and anguish was put into that mournful scream, causing tears to run down her face in streams. "O... MAP SO SA! HE LEFT ME HERE! HE RAN AWAY, BUT I CAN'T GO BACK HOME! I CAN'T GO BACK!"
"B-Back where?" Naruto bit out tentatively.
"KOREA!" Sobs wracked her body, her throat ragged from hate-filled screams. Her fists shook violently around the knife that was aimed towards Naruto. "Oh god, god, god, oh god... He- He destroyed m-my visas... my citizenship... H-He c-cut off my account! I have no way back! I'm not even his daughter anymore!"
Naruto watched her carefully as he pushed himself up. Her grip on the knife tightened.
"I never intended..."
"Shut up! I know you didn't intend this! But it happened anyways, and I found you! I never knew it was you that destroyed Matsuraba-kai until you said all that shit, when you were lying in a stupor on my couch! I don't give a shit about how bad you had it; I'VE BEEN EXILED! If I have to be all alone on this shitty spit of land, then you do too! Th-that's why I did all that stuff... So you'd be alone... I thought the police would figure it out, but they're so narcisstic in their search... They don't want you, because you're not worth shit. They want your traitor friend. But I'll make them see it was you, I'll make sure you can't survive in your own country. I WANT YOU ALONE! I WANT YOU ALONE THE REST OF YOUR LIFE!"
She lunged out at him, knife thrusted forward. Ryoji hooked his arms under hers, causing her to swing back.
Screams and frightened shouts rang throughout the kitchen in horror.
The blade had caught Ryoji by his neck, two-thirds of the three inch blade embedded in the side of his throat.
Hiro in her blind rage, only saw Naruto, as she pulled the knife out, half-aware of the blood that coated her fingers, and swung after Naruto again.
A startling, searing pain tore through his arm. Naruto had caught the blade in his wrist. He tried to hold Hiro off by pushing against her when she pushed forward. He glanced past her to see Ryoji. By now the staff members were either fleeing to the door or scared stiff, some with conflicted expressions on their faces as they watched Ryoji bleed.
He had his hand pressed to his neck. His face was pale and aghast. He stumbled backwards, the blood oozing out between his fingers, and dripping from his mouth. Naruto could only think about his four younger sisters. Would they see him again?
Another sob-like scream tore through the kitchen as Ryoji fell against the wall, unable to stop his own bleeding.
The searing pain grew with sudden intensity, compelling Naruto to clench his jaw, as a groan rumbled in his throat. Hiro dragged the blade through his skin, slicing open muscle until suddenly the handle broke.
"Dammit..." Hiro cursed, and tossed it aside. Naruto looked down and clutched at his arm.
'I can't believe it broke inside...!'
Hiro ran back for a replacement, leaving Naruto to search for the metal embedded in his muscle. His fingerpads scraped across a rough edge jutting from near his elbow. He struggled to get his grip on it, his blood making it too slippery for him to find.
Quick footsteps came after him.
"Holy shit!" Naruto hissed under his breath, as Hiro came after him with a Nakiri Bocho in hand. He met with her every step, narrowly escaping her swings with one jump backwards. Naruto's back smacked against the wall, and Hiro swung. He ducked down and rolled out of the way, leaving a trail of blood from his arm where he moved. He glanced back at Ryoji. His eyes were growing tired. His upper left side was already soaked in blood.
'He's not going to make it, I don't think he's going to make it... Maybe someone's already called an ambulance... God, he's going to die...'
"Do you wanna kill me or do you wanna make me suffer?" Naruto taunted, fleeing her advances but never fleeing the premises. He struggled to find the answer, but he didn't know what to do.
"Depends on what you're willing to do!" Hiro yelled, chucking the knife at him. "I'll never stop. If you find even the smallest bit of happiness, I'm taking it away! If you want happiness, you will have to kill me! I'll never stop!"
"I'm not scared of you," Naruto teased, feeling unsure of his confidence in his own statement.
"You're still a kid," She smiled as she bent down and picked up the knife. "A kid running in a never-ending nightmare. I know what you fear, you told me after all."
BANG!
Thunder suddenly burst through the air. It reverberated through their bodies and ears. Naruto's heart nearly exploded in his chest, it was beating so fast!
His eyes drifted a little off to the left, where in the wall lay a small hole.
"Uzumaki Naruto." Said a cold voice from behind.
It was Aomori.
He had a gun.
Naruto's gaze drifted over to Hiro. He realized now that wasn't really her name, maybe it was her pass name, but it was her alias because she had been hiding like her father.
"I hate this place," She bitterly muttered, "I have nobody. Being abandoned here is like a death sentence. I refuse to use my pass name. I'll run. But if one day I'm incarcerated, you can bet I'll see you there."
Aomori walked up to Naruto and put the gun to his head. The man then gripped Naruto's wrist and turned him around. He was escorting him out, but to where?
Naruto heard a clang behind him. He looked over his shoulder. Hiro had dropped the blade and was walking over to Ryoji with a towel in hand.
She pressed the towel to his throat as a tourniquet.
She was sobbing.
"I'm sorry..."
Aomori pushed Naruto in the back of a cop car. There were few cars and dozens of officers rushing into the building. It wasn't until Aomori got into the driver's seat that Naruto saw he was disguised as a fellow police officer.
"Don't let him die."
Aomori glanced into his rearview mirror, and despite his eternal poker face, a questioning look passed through his eyes.
"Don't let him die." Naruto begged once more. From what he saw, Hiro didn't want Ryoji to die either. Aomori could pull some strings, get someone in there to save him. Naruto sunk forward, with his head hung has he clutched his still bleeding arm., Desperation was aparent in his voice as he begged again, "Please?"
Aomori looked away. He turned the key and revved up the engine.
He couldn't promise anything but, "We'll try."
Aomori pushed Naruto in Mizuno's direction. The young blonde did all he could not to meet Mizuno's eyes.
"So you did murder that taxi driver." The probations officer sighed.
Naruto shook his head, forcing another disappointed sigh from the man before him.
"Naruto, your prints were on handle."
"Depends on what you're willing to do!"
Naruto knew then, Hiro had him cornered long before he could stop it.
"I know what you fear..."
Loneliness.
Emptiness.
Failure.
They were going to take him away.
He didn't even make it six months in Tokyo, he didn't even make it through the school year, and already he failed.
Next Chapter:
It was like Hiro said: It all depended on what he did, what he chose to do.
He chose to run.
Again.
Funniest thing thing he found this time about running was having Hinata chasing after him.
