Asynchronous With You

Chapter One

"We're leaving now!" Naruto called out to Kurenai-obasan, as Hinata shut the door, putting the awkward breakfast behind them.

They paused in the breezeway, as if needing the moment to remove their disguises. After the weekend they had, they had adopted new masks to wear around their beloved foster parent, because the things they were dealing with didn't make any sense to them still. They hadn't the stamina to get her up to speed.

They began their usual route to high school, his cinch bag tossed over his shoulder and hanging by two fingers.

Despite making up last night, Naruto sensed some leftover tension between them. Nothing would have prepared him for what she said next.

"I think we should tell everyone."

Down the stairs and out of the apartment parking lot, they headed for the bus stop that would take them to the train station.

"Tell them what?" Not that he wasn't the first to shove some sort of achievement in people's faces, but has something noteworthy happened that he doesn't know about?

He's quick to drop a squat by the bus sign, his gaze gravitating over to Hinata. It's not until his gaze drops a little too low that he averts his face and pointedly stares out onto the street. He thinks it weird, the thoughts he'd nearly had just then. She's wearing black opaque tights because it's November, so it made no sense. The tease of a hallucination he had experienced nearly two years back had threatened to mess with him again. Spontaneous recall was a bitch. He really didn't want to go back to that time when he couldn't be too comfortable around her anymore. Especially after the weekend they had.

"That we're fosters."

"Oh."

He doesn't know why they should. The idea neither instills interest nor dread, just confusion.

The bus is here. It sighs to a stop. As he follows her up the steps, he spots Shikamaru in the back of the bus, his gaze glued to the sky outside the window. What little he could see at least, way out here on the edges of the city's center.

Shikamaru is the only one that already knows.

Naruto slumps in the seat next to Shikamaru, resting his full body weight against him.

"Hey."

"What?"

"Hinata wants to come out of the orphan closet. Whatcha think?"

"What?" Shikamaru intones with surprise, turning his attention towards them both. "Really?"

"Yeah, cuz everyone already knows that I'm an orphan," Naruto grunted as he crossed his arms and settled in deeper against Shikamaru, his closing eyes signaling he would take a nap. "Still don't understand why we should."

"You guys never bring friends over at the same time," Shikamaru suggested.

"In a couple years, it's not going to matter," Naruto argued.

"But aren't you going to introduce a girlfriend to Kurenai-san one of these days?" she asked coolly.

"Hmmm," the concept bloomed in his mind as quickly as it withered. The idea wasn't very appealing on a few levels. For starters, he hasn't liked a girl enough to take it that far. And he certainly wasn't going to introduce any of the girls he's taken to bed when the apartment was empty. He's rarely done it with the same girl twice. Hasn't investigated all that deeply into his heart as to why. Just plainly blames it on sexual incompatibility.

They say for men, when they fall in love, their entire future flashes before their eyes. Well, he hasn't experienced such a glorious hallucination yet. Also, something about inviting judgment onto his life? Does he really need to hear Kurenai tell him when his choice in booty sucks? Until recently, he's defended himself in every aspect but at home. He'd rather keep coasting on the good thing he's got. "Nah. Hard pass."

Hinata, ever the dignified Yamato Nadeshiko, ruins her posture by slouching as she turns her head towards the window, arms folded atop her school bag.

"I know I will," she said rather mysteriously, whether loaded with promise or threat, he wasn't sure, but she still carried Friday's bitterness.

He doesn't like this kind of atmosphere creeping back into their space, and he doesn't waste the opportunity to dispel it by ribbing her for her choice of words.

"Whazzat? You're gonna bring a girlfriend over?" He's waggling his eyebrows, but she doesn't see it.

Then she finally faces him, and he doesn't care that it's a disparaging look that she gives him. He's happy she can see his corny grin, because the last thing he wants to is upset her again. It ruffles him not seeing how mean she looks right now, until she says, "Maybe when you're not around," and he no longer knows what to think.

Naruto jumps up and perches on the edge of his seat, much to Shikamaru's relief. And he's leaning so close towards Hinata that he's folded over his legs.

"Wait, what? Hinata?" He cranes his head left and right, as if she were a multi-faceted gem whose embedded image was too fractured for him to comprehend. There had to be a better angle, a better surface to peer into, but no. He couldn't read her at all. "Yo, Hinata. Are you..?" And if she was, how did he not notice?

Hinata turned her back on him with a huff.

He reached over to pinch her arm, but she didn't respond back.

A brief thought passed through him as he observed the curve of her back.

If things keep going like this between them, was he ever going to get used to it?

Naruto kept a watchful gaze on Hinata as he walked behind her approaching the train station.

"I vote to tell our friends that we're fosters," she said as she tapped her Konoha Rail Line Pass against the turnstile scanner. The flaps opened and closed behind her. "And I'd like to have it taken care of during lunch. What's your vote?"

"Is this how you sound at your Public Morals Committee meetings? Whew, someone give Hinata a whip," he sniggered, earning himself another spicy glare. He tossed his gaze about their surroundings, making sure no unwanted moths gravitated towards her rare flash of flame.

It's perverts that he worries about.

Even in grade school, he worried. If it hadn't been for their teachers educating them on Stranger Danger, he probably would have had to educate her himself.

He clicked his tongue against his teeth. "And what're you getting out of announcing this? Aside from family gatherings and whatever."

"To better reaffirm our bond. Isn't that what we promised we'd do?"

Waiting at the platform, Shikamaru stood a little ways away. He had his earbuds in, not that Naruto ever worried about the slacker eavesdropping on them. He was always pretty tuned out, never made others' business his business. And when she's looking up at him with that fragile, open-hearted sort of dependency, he's thankful that Shikamaru's not paying attention. It feels like an expression that's meant only for him.

Naruto nodded dumbly. He could still feel the icy gashes of that loneliness he endured, but there should be no threat of it ever returning. Not if they both worked hard at this. "But we already know what we mean to each other. Isn't that enough?"

"So your vote is 'No'?"

He can't answer her, even though that's the decision he's pushing for. His silence is enough. And the way her lashes flutter swiftly twists his gut. The knowledge that she was blinking back tears tore at him, because he didn't want this, he didn't want to be the cause of this.

Her cheeks deepened with red frustration and she began shaking her head, unable to say anything to contradict him.

Naruto palmed his face, realizing there was no way she'd make it to the classroom with maintained composure. A trip to the bathroom might expose her to further speculation, knowing that the gossipy girls tended to roost by the sinks until the final bell. If they see her crying, her whole day will be doomed. Her name will be on everyone's lips.

But just then a burst of wind shot through the platform, ruffling overcoats and business suits, whipping loose hair and pleated skirts in a sudden frenzy.

The PA system announced the train's arrival as it pulled into the station and wheezed to a stop.

Her sniffling was atrocious as she made her way through the departing spill of people. As they boarded, he did what he always did, using his larger frame to block the other passengers from nearing his little sister.

Right. His foster sister.

"Hinata," His free hand lowers signaling he was about to pet her head, but just calling out her name seem to make her grimace worse and he couldn't bring himself to soothe her, no matter how much she needed it from him. It would merely be a bandaid. "Look, we made up, didn't we? If the way things are isn't broken, then what are you trying to fix?"

"It will help me," she whispered. My god, she sounded out of breath.

"'Help you'. With what?" He waited, but she was quiet. Was last night really not enough? Then they didn't sort everything out, after all. Fuck. "Something is still wrong," He pressed his forehead against the dip of his wrist. He wasn't going to allow this. They were going to resolve everything, right now. But he needed to understand before he agreed to anything. He wasn't going to be blindly devoted anymore. "Hinata, for someone who wants the world to know we're fosters, you sure don't seem willing to rely on me like a sibling."

"... I don't favor Neji-niisan over you."

"I know. And I believe you, it's just... you don't have to. It's already innate," Tension clutched at their throats. He couldn't even look at her reflection in the door, let alone her. "And don't try to argue that. You two've got way more history and you always will."

Hinata hopped up on her tippy-toes, pressing her crown against his palm. He couldn't deny that his heart jumped for a moment there.

Nerves made it nearly impossible for him to smile as warmth pooled in his chest, and he began to pet his sister's hair.

"We weren't strangers in middle school," she began in a faraway tone, as if sharing a mundane observation.

"No, we weren't," He was the one invested to look after her, after all. "But we didn't look much like friends, either." Living together wasn't exactly conducive to a tight-knit public image, because they already did so much together back home.

"That's why I find this so lonely."

"Well, you're the one that got busy," Naruto sniped facetiously, with a lopsided smirk. But then reality wiped his humor away. "Aren't you going to be spending more time with her soon?"

"I haven't thought that far ahead."

He watches her fond expression as she seems to float away from him, in a dream that he's barred from entering. The way she smiles when she thinks about Hanabi, there's a sweetness to it he's never seen before. More proof to remind him that you can't compete with blood.

His gaze drops down to the tip of her nose.

"So, what're you picturing when everyone knows? That we'll start having lunch together? Be able to wave to each other in the halls or something? I guess you can finally cheer me on at my deadlifting tournaments and no one'd get the wrong idea."

"I'd like to be able to do all of those things."

"Yeah? I guess that would make me happy, too," His mouth deepened into a frown. Maybe he should feel happy. Hinata was this devoted to strengthening their bond. She was the one that saw something he had been blind to. Who knows? Maybe they really did need this. "I'm sorry, Hinata. I had no idea you were feeling lonely. Let's keep doing our best, okay?"

"Mm. So, can we tell starting with our friends?"

Why did this make him feel so weird?

Why did he still feel like he was going to regret this?

"Yeah, let's tell them."