Asynchronous With You
Chapter Five, Go Do What You Want
"Naruto. From what I hear, you already do what you want. So go do what you want."
When Kurenai got up from the sofa, she ended the conversation. She left him to take her words however he wished, ultimately absolving herself of the fallout should he make a bad decision.
But he's Naruto.
Apparently, he's made of bad decisions.
Possibly born from one, and given up for being one.
The thought has haunted him before. But he's not the type to dwell. He hates pitying himself and he doesn't seek out answers he knows deep down he'll never be satisfied with. He's always starved his inner darkness by ignoring it. He's always found ways to seek out the better and brighter things in life.
At least in his own way.
Childhood made-up adventures with Hinata and Neji. At least when Neji wasn't being an unimaginative stick-in-the-mud, always nitpicking his narrative decisions over their quest.
Seeking out new friends in grade school, with no concept of who he would or would not like. Until of course, they gave him a reason to dislike them.
Sacrificing himself for Hinata during middle school had at times been a big mistake. When the stress and abuse edged towards a familiarity he wished he never knew, his darkness had threatened to climb out and punch their teeth in 'til they shat out their incisors the next day. It was only thanks to Hinata being Hinata that that never happened. Knowing that he'd made one of his precious people's days easier had made it all worth it.
Finding weightlifting had been something of a godsend. What started from a YT-binge turned curiosity, became a legitimate passion that he wanted to get better at. Breaking down his muscles and waking up dead sore had been oddly pleasurable compared to the darkness slinking around the shadows of his heart. He was waking up day after day to a better version of himself that he never could have imagined, even despite his years of childish boasting.
Weightlifting had given back so much of what those bullies had taken, and it had given back even more.
His naturally flirty personality paired with his new good looks made Sasuke's fangirls at ease around him, instead of back when they were always throwing him side-eye like they didn't know what he was doing there.
And his intentional flirting was finally reciprocated.
After the failure with that Oujo-gyaru, he lost his virginity to Girl No. 1 from the Swim Team.
There were whispers around school that athletes were the thirstiest group next to music geeks, but she gave him first-hand confirmation when she pulled him inside the supplies closet and tore down his pants. (Apparently that Oujo-gyaru had been her friend and this was payback. She had every intention of humiliating him, what with her phone sneakily positioned inside the steel wire storage bin across from them, but when he sprang out from his boxers, all thoughts of revenge had been utterly blown away.) He felt like god's gift to women the way she went down on him and straddled him for more. If only she hadn't ruined the afterglow by admitting her original intentions with such casual cruelty, he wouldn't have also known what it felt like to be sexually victimized. That sharp plummet down to earth was a feast for his darkness, and the only reason he wasn't in juvie was that he'd awakened a masochist streak in her.
But maybe she took her punishment because she knew it'd make them even.
He's not sure even to this day, because she ended up going to a different high school. Thank god. A girl like her scares him.
At least most of his other lays have been better, thanks to Sasuke for screening out the clingy and crazy ones.
He has to admit, he loves how girls come in different shapes, colors, and sounds. Their reactions are amazing to tease out, too. It's always a different adventure with a different partner. The act was physically taxing though endlessly gratifying, and knowing he was the one that put a smile on their cute and pretty faces was even better.
These are his ways of starving the darkness.
Why fix something that isn't broken?
They just don't get him.
But maybe it doesn't matter.
If they already disapprove of what they see on the surface, then there really was no hope for the rest of him.
Throwing away Hinata's life, though? That indictment still stung. He'll be fine as long as she thinks he's fine, that's what he's decided. And he was fine. He was fine until Iruka-sensei came over to re-illustrate that he's a real problem child that needs to be corrected.
Fuck that!
Naruto clenched his fists. He was doing all that he could to starve the darkness again. It took all his willpower to sit here frozen and not shout his head off at the injustice.
But Hinata's here.
And he's sure she still hates yelling. She would hate the type of yelling he's capable of, and she would hate for her only real family to rupture before her very eyes.
But shouldn't she be mad at Kurenai-sensei with him?
Why didn't she come over and stick up for him?
After everything he's done for her.
His worst memory intrudes suddenly.
He threw the storage room door wide open, causing it to jolt harshly against its stopper.
The sounds of a wounded animal suppressing its pain met his ears, but he was no predator.
He jogged up to her, crouched down, and reached for her, grasping her upper arms, but she resisted. She made herself limp and heavy, like a corpse before rigor mortis.
As if he had touched an existing injury, she twisted away with an anguished whine, and he relented. He worried that he had been gripping her too hard, but he didn't mean to. He just… He just wanted her to be okay. Just like he's always done.
That smile of hers after he's cut through the darkness, it was the best; like a clear pool of water glinting shards of sunlight, its white sands glittering with pearlescent seashell fragments. He always thought that her parents were missing out when he witnessed that smile, had always wrapped himself up in smug triumph over the fact that they couldn't destroy it so easily.
But what if this was then they finally broke her?
No. She'll definitely smile again.
He stuck by her side. He stayed in school for this reason right here.
This was his purpose.
That is, until she takes it away from him, and falsifies every good thing they've ever had.
"Neji-niisan's my only family," she garbled, her throat thick with tears. He stared at her, beheld by puffy, red-rimmed eyes which washed out the color of her eyes and already pallid cheeks. This was a familiar sight for him, one that drew up her lowest moments from the well in his mind. He could scoop up each and every smile of hers with both hands, but he could not take that drink.
It smelled faintly of lead.
"-o tell her tha-"
She looks so much like Neji as she speaks, her words so heavily lace with uncharacteristic animosity.
This is the part that he's always hated the most in Neji, and now it was in her. Maybe it was always there.
Then they were truly family, those two.
It hurts.
She's put up a one-way mirror between them, and yet it's his reflection that's monstrous.
It hurts so much.
Shit!
He has to get out of here.
Shit, shit, shit!
Was everyone around here just silently biding their time until the day arrived that he would go away?! Is that what he's fucking dealing with here?!
Shit.
He can feel the darkness climbing up his throat.
He forces his legs to take him to his bedroom, but his body's unbearably heavy, leaden.
Knowing that Hinata had watched him get humiliated, the darkness threatened to corrupt his assumptions, telling him that she'd only been there to revel in his punishment. After all, she just stood aside when he never would have done that had it been her on the sofa.
Of course, it would never be her, and she knows that. That's why she can laugh at him while pretending to look so concerned.
"Naruto-kun," her small voice stops him from entering his room. His mind is trying to convince him her words are full of mercury, but it's so, so hard when her voice is like rosewater washing through his soul. "You know that we can't stay here forever. Please don't take what Kurenai-san said the wrong way. This is still your home. To bring your own family back to. That's how this works."
His own family? Why? They're his family. Or they're supposed to be. Why is he expected to go out and replace them?
But Hinata's long accepted this so-called truth, and considering the way his thoughts have been lately, apparently so has he.
Hinata and Neji will find love and get married. They'll have their own babies and bring their copy-carbon brats over here. They'll amuse themselves with the idea that they've all become rich in love and happiness, awed over how big their found family has gotten.
And what about him? Maybe he'll be the goofy uncle? That one that doesn't look anything like them. And their kids might be confused for the first few years. And he'll endure it, because in a way Hinata's brats are his brats. It's just that, he'll only see her and them on holidays. They'll all be so wrapped up in their own lives that he really won't matter anymore. They can try to say he still matters, sure, but they won't be able to prove it.
He's jealous right now. He doesn't understand how Hinata's so down for the future like this.
If she sees a bright future for him the way he does her, what does it fucking look like?
"I wish I could see the world the way you do, Hinata."
He slips inside his room and closes the door. It doesn't shut tight in its frame because he resisted his anger.
He would never throw a door in Hinata's face.
He immediately calls Sasuke up.
"Yo."
"Hey, Teme. I'm coming over."
"Hn? Something happen?"
"Yeah," Naruto grabbed a duffle bag from the floor by his desktop and dumped his gym clothes at his feet. He then flung the empty nylon bag onto his bed and wandered over to his dresser. "Stupid Iruka-sensei came over to have a discussion. He fucking blindsided me."
"Dobe. How many times do I have to say it? You play stupid games, you win stupid prizes."
An exasperated snarl tugged his lip to his nostril.
"Yeah, okay, but… All I did was knock over a bunch of papers! He didn't have to tell Oba-san that I'm a fuckin' slut fucking other sluts. That's not any of their damn business!"
"Then stop fucking sluts at school you dumb slut."
"You're seriously no help sometimes, man."
"Well glad to know you only think it's sometimes, otherwise I'll have to blackmail you with all of my goodwill. Like remember that time I-"
"I get it! I get it!"
"So what'd your foster lady have to say about that? Must have been a shock to find out you're perverted as hell."
Naruto paused mid-pack, a black tee-shirt gripped in his hand. "She honestly didn't care? She just rode out Iruka-sensei's tattle-telling with platitudes and stock promises. The moment he was gone, she asks me why am I so restless, but she's not really asking me, y'know. She's like, tired the way she says it."
"Uh-huh."
"And then she asks me what do I want to do with my life, and I don't really have an answer."
"Why don't you make something up? That's literally your specialty. You're like a fucking con artist but you're selling dreams."
"I have no idea how to take that."
"Anyways, from now on just focus on putting people at ease. If the people you care about are too hard to please, why don't you just tell them what they want to hear? And if you actually make that happen, then does it matter if it started off a lie?"
Naruto shoved the tee-shirt in his bag and plopped down on the empty space beside it.
Sasuke's logic was sound, it's just… "I don't… really like doing that. It sounds cowardly, y'know? Like I'm just running away from their disapproval. And then if I do that, I'm the one living the lie. I'm the one lying to myself that they're all proud of me and my nonexistent accomplishments," he collapsed backward with a thump, his pillow and beddings rising up like the swell of the ocean. "Huh. You know what else sucks?"
"Hn?"
"I could do something that I'm proud of, that makes me feel accomplished, and it could mean absolutely nothing to them."
"Well, now you know how Itachi-nii felt."
"Mm."
Yeah, Itachi practically got chased out of his family because he was such an iconoclast, doing things his own way, never cutting moral corners. And ultimately, having values that never before existed within the Uchiha family. He was like a mutation compared to the rest of them.
Sucks for them for not taking the 'bad' with the good. He was a goddamn prodigy, after all. The kind of person that showed up once a century to do some real good in the world.
"I just wished she fought for me back there or got legitimately mad at me or something. She said I could start working right now if I want to and save up to move out when I turn sixteen. I'm allowed to live my own life, but that's not what I want to hear."
"You don't talk about her much."
"She's okay. I mean, she's pretty chill, like, all the time. She's quiet just like Hinata and her cousin, but she's also more calculating. I should expect no less considering she's a criminal psychologist. And I like her parents, they're a really sweet old couple out in the countryside. I got on their nerves a bit, and I got told to pipe down more often than that… like you know how One is a whisper, and Two is indoor voice? So every time I spoke at the dinner table, they held up two fingers, but other times I got scolded for being at a Three."
"Uh-huh."
"Anyways, I don't actually want to move out just because I can be freer. I don't want to live by myself. She should know that. So that must be what she wants. Like, maybe she's already got me figured out. And she'd rather get rid of me now before Iruka-sensei has to take up even more of her time. Oh yeah, she started dating recently. Hooked up with a childhood friend and it's looking super serious. I bet it's like she's realized she has her own life to attend to now, and I'm just a parasite."
"That's not a little harsh?"
"All the adults've reached their peak levels of what they're willing to tolerate and it happened a lot sooner than I thought it would."
A heated sigh stretched through the silence.
"What?" Naruto mumbled.
"Did I hear you correctly? What the hell. Were you always secretly betting against them?"
Guilt clung to his throat like numbing slime. It weighed on the back of his tongue and left him with a nasty taste. He swallowed but the guilt just bobbed in his throat.
"What about Hinata? Were you betting against her too?"
Naruto's grip tightened around his smartphone. At that moment, he could almost see his monstrous reflection again in her one-way mirror. The essence of alienation threatened to reclaim him, and he couldn't stand it.
But he couldn't stand being accused of her doubting her more.
"Naruto-kun?" came her small voice, pulling him out the creeping darkness and anchoring back in the real world, where real people supposedly cared about him. He turned towards his wall and she called him again. "Naruto-kun?"
Her voice really is like rosewater.
"Hey, Teme, gimme a second," he put his phone down and closed the distance, dropping down to his knees and hunching over so he could line his eye up with the hole. The déjà vu was like a knock to the head, rattling dormant emotions from their sleep. Like when she first told him this was his home. And just as quickly as those feelings came to sweep him away, he ground in his heels and ignored them. "Hinata? You know you can text me."
She pouted, which was a rare thing for her to do. Her cheeks puffed up and her bottom lip pushed out. Then her indignance cleared up like scattered clouds, and she was back to her serene self. Only, this time she had a mysterious glow about her, her eyes deep with emotion. "Naruto-kun, I want to see the world the way you do."
"What?" Where the hell was this coming from? What did she mean?
She took a deep breath, her face smoothing out any micro-expressions that might give herself away. Then her eyes popped open, mischief and confidence glinting back at him. It was almost like looking in a mirror. It was almost like she was really his sister. "Tell Sasuke-kun I'm sleeping over, too."
"Whaaaaaat?!"
"We're going now," Hinata called as they worked their shoes on. He already had one hand on the door, not bothering to look back.
Kurenai perked up with muted confusion, her arms half-submerged in dishwater. "You're both going?"
Yeah, because they haven't left the house at the same time on a Sunday since elementary.
Naruto stepped outside in the crisp afternoon air as Hinata's voice wafted from the apartment. He rested his arms over the rails and gazed out over the parking lot.
This apprehension felt like a fucking straight-jacket.
"It's just for the night at Sasuke-kun's house."
"Alright, take care."
The front door gently shut as Hinata stepped outside. He turned halfway, glancing at her, taking in her sparkling demeanor and spirited smile.
Who was this person?
"Ready?" she chimed.
He pushed off the rails and led the way. "Ready."
Sinking into their seats on the monorail, Naruto stared in daze at his text thread with Sasuke.
Naruto: hinata's coming with
T3M3: oh ok cool. do you need me to hide your stuff?
Naruto: no but
Naruto: what the hell are we gonna do for fun?
Naruto: i was gonna rip and tear on D: Eternal, and raid Itachi-nii's chūhai like we always do
T3M3: she invited herself?
Naruto: yeh
T3M3: u didn't tell her no?
Naruto folded forward and cupped his temple. He felt himself being tugged in two different directions.
"I had no idea Sasuke-kun lived so far away," Hinata commented as she sat by the window, the scenery blurring past.
The butt of his palm dug harder into his skin.
"Him and Itachi-nii live in a nice area. 'Pparently it's cheaper if you sacrifice the commute."
"Hmm. That's good information."
Naruto's head turned towards her. Her eyes held this far away fondness, her smile small yet dreamy. Was she thinking about house hunting already? Her and whoever she builds a family with, living out in the suburbs, going on family walks together, picnicking on the riverwalk or in a well-gardened park.
She must have someone in mind when she looks like that.
He flinched when she faced him, her coy smirk catching him off guard.
"Also, 'Itachi-nii'? You don't even call Neji-niisan 'Neji-nii'," she giggled.
"Oh. Oh yeah," Why was that? He never thought about it before. It just… never felt natural? Even now, he couldn't do it.
"Were you always secretly betting against them?" Sasuke's tempestuous words shoved at him, and his face grew cold from the guilt. But what is he supposed to do differently?
"Naruto-kun," her voice reached him softly, and he realized his distracted and unenthusiastic demeanor had blown her good nature away like grains of sugar. "You don't have to cater to me. Tonight, you're going to do whatever it is you want to do, and that's what I want to do, too."
He hum-groaned in response, skeptical and uneasy. He pocketed his phone and rose up, pressing his back to the seat, then rolled his head to look her square in the eyes.
"Is that what you meant by 'seeing the world the way I see it'?"
She nodded. "It's been so long since we've played together, or really, done anything together. I've only ever gotten secondhand stories since then, and if I'm being honest, it's always left me unbearably restless. I don't know your adventures the way you do. I don't know what sparks the current you."
"What sparks me, huh?" He turned his gaze to the ceiling and rolled that wording around in his head, then he brought his hand out to count on his fingers. "Testing my limits and then breaking them. Good food, good views, good company. I guess what I consider 'good company' is a little hard to explain right now, cuz it's just a feeling. I mean, I've always had this feeling, but I was wrong sometimes when I was younger and I think I have a better sense now. And lastly…" he blushed at this. "A girl who's down to fuck, because they'll most likely be down for anything, even if it means a random cross-country road trip or a concert where she doesn't know the music. Something like that," Of course, this magical idea that there's a good girl out there who can behave badly has yet to pan out, but he's not the type to give up hope. Hinata's silence was starting to make him overly aware of himself. "Anyways! We're just going to Teme's and all I wanna do is eat and play video games, so you really shouldn't expect much 'adventuring' tonight."
"That's okay," she said. He really expected her to be disappointed, to reconsider other ways to spend her night, but this didn't phase her. "You still make anything you set out to do thousand times more fun than it'd normally be, not just for yourself but others. At least, that's how I remember our games together. In anyone else's hands, it might've been more forgettable. So I'm not deterred, Naruto-kun. I think tonight's going to be amazing, because like I said, it's the way you look at the world. How is that not special?"
That smile of hers that he thinks is the best? The one where it's like a clear warm pool of water glinting shards of sunlight? And below the water's surface is soft, cream-white sand? He was ankle-deep in that serenity, and it was drawing him in deeper.
He doesn't know the last time he ever considered including her. It's true, their childhood adventures were such a big part of their lives. And to suddenly allow all of that to stop felt like he'd willfully abandoned a piece of himself.
Hinata was always down to do whatever he wanted before. She never complained or poked holes in his stories, and she never got so scared that they had to stop playing. How could he have believed any of that had changed?
Maybe because he thought she did change.
Enough for him to go his own way.
He reached over and petted her soft, silky hair. The color and glossiness always reminded him of the night sky. Even as the late afternoon sun outlined her in gold, this part of her remained such an unreal shade of midnight. Having her for a foster sister was pretty unreal.
Thank god for her missing him, for missing them.
Because he never would've noticed let alone admitted how much he missed her, too.
He drew his hand away and pumped his fist. "Well, I suppose we can go a little crazy tonight. That is, if you think you can handle it!"
Hinata pumped two tiny fists, that sparkle of mischief returning to her doe-eyes.
Though he still carried a phantom of apprehension inside his chest, his mind was starting to race with all sorts of ideas.
This was by far his favorite feeling.
"Welcome, welcome," Sasuke greeted from the end of the genkan. "Hinata, what toppings you want on your pizza?"
Hinata had one indoor slipper on when she paused to think. Naruto brushed past Sasuke in his socks.
"Crustaceans are an absolute no-go for her," he answered.
"Allergies?"
After getting the other slipper on, she followed them deep inside the two-story house.
"I'm not allergic to anything, I just don't like them and how you have to excavate their bodies for very little meat and how the juices make your skin itchy-"
"Hinata's got sensitive skin, too," Naruto was kneeling in front of Sasuke's TV console, rummaging through the cabinets. "You're always last to leave the locker room during swim lessons 'cuz you're layering up your sunscreen," he reached in and scooped out the stacks of video games, letting them avalanche all around him.
Between Naruto and a big L-couch was a low table, surrounded by four cushions. Hinata took to the side facing the TV, while Sasuke sat left of her. He was scrolling through a delivery app and tapping in orders.
"Weren't you in some bug club, though? I mean, they're kind of bugs, right? Mud bugs?"
"I meant to say I don't like them as food. They're fine alive, even cute sometimes, depending on the species. Lobsters and the like don't do it for me, though."
Sasuke nodded and hummed before sliding his phone across the table. "Here."
"Oh, okay," she began to tap away at all the drop-down menus. She then checked the cart and doubled Naruto's order. It was default Chashu pizza with miso sauce topped with leeks, fried eggs, and shredded nori. They both really liked Chashu.
She handed the phone back to Sasuke, who completed the order. Putting his phone down, he rested his cheek in his hand. She would think him bored if she didn't know him any better. "So what do you wanna do tonight, Hinata?"
"Whatever you two normally do."
Sasuke gave Naruto a sidelong glance, though her foster brother was unaware, his mission to find a game consuming all of his attention.
Sasuke looked at her. "You sure? Naruto told me he couldn't play or watch certain things at home because you got easily upset."
Naruto popped out a disk from its package and inserted it into its console. He picked up the controller and scooted backward on his knees. Her cheeks warmed slightly as she couldn't help but notice how his butt had wiggled so cutely like a cat's.
"That was years ago," she said flippantly, her attention now on the screen. A deep voice narrated to the player their purpose.
"Rip and tear. Until it is done-"
But then it cut out to the menu screen, and Naruto was toggling through the difficulty setting before starting his campaign.
Heavy metal music captured the frenetic murder frenzy happening before her eyes. The demons were almost cartoonish, and so was the blood splatter, but the way they died was extremely visceral; be it from chainsaw severing upper torso from lower body, to meaty, explosive headshots, to skeletal heads manually popped off their frail zomboid bodies like cheap dolls.
Naruto laughed and whooped to every death he caused, and cussed and yelped when the mobs swarmed in on him.
Maybe it was the music getting to her, or Naruto's infectious energy making her heart race. This was certainly adrenaline coursing through her veins. But somehow she was sure that she wasn't going to fall apart like she used to do.
Candy-colored holograms dropped from his kills, reminding her of the game's arcadey origins. It took some of the edge off, but only some. Games like this, are they meant to tap into man's primal state?
"You wanna give it a go?" Sasuke asked, tugging her out of her contemplation.
"I, uh, I don't think I'll be very good."
"Nobody has fun in order to be good at it. Besides, you can try the easiest difficulty. Hey, Dobe!"
"What?!" Naruto's body contorted left and right with the perceived movements of his character. It was so endearing to see him immersed in something, even if it was essentially genocide. Probably warranted genocide, but still.
"Let your sister play next."
"Okay, Mom!"
Sasuke grabbed the unused cushion to his left and chucked it at Naruto's head. Naruto yelped and nearly dropped the controller, his left hand coming up to grasp his offended crown.
"Bastard! You're gonna fuck up my game!"
The controller felt fat and unfamiliar in her hands. The clammy warmth from Narutro's sweat sank into her palms as he tried to explain all the buttons to her alongside the button map menu.
And before she knew it, she was dropped into the pits of Hell, and everything was trying to kill her.
Causing the same destruction Naruto had minutes earlier had her squealing like a little girl all over again. Of course, she died a lot and ran out of lives, forcing her to restart the campaign entirely over and over again. But Naruto's instructive and enthusiastic voice made her feel like she was flying above the madness.
This type of thing gave her nightmares not too long ago, maybe four years ago. Violence of any kind usually made her feel like it was happening to her own body. She just wasn't equipped with the same sort of disconnect he was, or most people for that matter. And even though she knew it wasn't happening, she couldn't stop herself from obsessing over what it would feel like to be: amputated, disemboweled, gouged out. It made her cry uncontrollably. And in grade school, the most innocuous thing would remind her and set off a fresh panic attack. That was partly why she got bullied.
But right now, she doesn't feel that wooziness in her head or that sickening emptiness in her stomach. She doesn't mentally simulate the mutilation she's causing on-screen. Instead… This was actually kind of fun?
Her thumbs finally got sore.
"Ah, I'm done!" she gasped, handing it back to him. Her hands were locked in the controller's shape and Naruto laughed. Because he understood. Oh, he understood. "Mouuu! My thumbs feel like rocks! Burning rocks!"
He laughed even harder to the point of breathlessness and watering eyes. Pushing to his feet, he saw it fit for the world to know his sister was moving up in the world.
"Hinata's finally lost her gamer virginityyyy!" he hollered has ran into the kitchen.
"N,Naruto-kun! Don't say it like that!"
He clutched his stomach, ah, it hurt! Fuck, he could barely see what he needed from the fridge.
Ah, there.
He grabbed an ice-cold can and ran back to her.
"Here, hold this. You'll feel a lot better."
Passing the can into her hands, his fingertips brushed along her smooth, pale knuckles. Her gracious smile flickered in the upper edges of his vision, dousing him in clear water sunshine once more.
"The game's fun, huh?"
"Surprisingly. I thought if I played anything, it'd be Animal Crossing."
Naruto had that exact image in his head for years! Every time her birthday came around, he wanted to buy one of the sequels for her! At least that way they could game together, even if they weren't playing the same games. But she got so gung-ho about her duties and her studies. It would've been a waste of allowance to give her a time sink like AC. His heart was screaming at the irony.
"I thought so, too! You know it's on mobile now, right?"
She tilted her head, her eyes widening into clueless circles. "Is it?"
Naruto stared at her, suddenly overwhelmed. She doesn't even play mobile games, does she? "You poor, sheltered child. I gotta do something about you."
That strawberry milk color filled her face as she let out a breathy chuckle. Then she got into a skit, her voice taking on faux-seriousness. "Yes, Shishou, show me your ways."
Every muscle in his body lurched to hug her. His cheeks hurt from how much he was smiling.
Two sets of footsteps entered the living room from the main hallway.
"Pizza's here," Sasuke announced as he returned with four stacks of steam-breathing cardboard. "Aniki, too."
"Hello," Itachi-nii arrived in his professional attire, which wasn't often as his work was mainly remote. His eyes widened upon spotting Hinata. "Oh?" he pointed at her. "Which one of these two knuckleheads are you dating?"
Hinata stiffened, her color deepening. Then, for some reason, she began to scoot away from him.
Naruto narrowed his eyes and growled in annoyance. "Itachi-nii, don't make it weird! This is my foster sister, Hinata! Didn't Teme say anything?!"
"Oh!" his matronly surprised settled into his characteristic wizened warmth. He tipped his head in a bow. "It's very nice to meet you, Hinata-san."
The unopened can tumbled from her claw-like grip. She hurried to her feet and emphatically bowed several times. "Y,Yes! Very nice to meet you, too! Thank you for l,l,letting me into your home!"
Okay.
What the hell was with all the squeaking? Was she twelve again?
"Our home is like Naruto's second home, so please feel free to think of it as yours as well. Although I do feel bad we live so far away."
"I,It's no problem! A,And th,thank you!"
Naruto sank his chin in his palm as he endured this tiresome display.
Was she crushing right now? Was she actually, actually crushing right now? On Itachi-nii? Is this what Hinata with a crush looks like? Is this definitive proof she likes older guys? Or was it the long lashes? This reaction wasn't too far off from when he stuffed his shirt with anpan buns, right?
Hinata's endlessly confusing and he doesn't know how to broach any of his questions, be it her sexuality, her physical preferences, what she values in a partner. It's not like she has a diary he can steal, right?
Whatever. Itachi-nii was going to make himself scarce pretty soon, anyway.
Itachi laughed off her spastic display as he headed for the stairs, like clockwork, but then he leaned over the railing to murmur to Sasuke. And Naruto heard him perfectly well. "She's cute."
How about you say that to her face? Naruto's narrowed gaze followed Itachi as he ascended the stairs and disappeared out of view.
Hinata sank down on shaky legs, her spirit leaving her in a drawn-out exhale.
"I nearly forgot my manners back there," she turned towards him, and her sheepishness somehow felt shameless, as though she were admitting Itachi-nii had an effect on her.
But then, in a moment of randomness, she pinched his wrist.
"Ow?! The hell?!"
But no matter what, he couldn't stay mad when she smiled at him like that.
"Naruto-kun, let's grab our pizza."
Naruto stacked three slices at the kitchen table and fit as much as he could into his mouth before taking that big bite.
"Animal," Sasuke chuckled dryly.
Naruto hummed in agreement through his food, which was soon turning into an ever-expanding slurry fit to fill his cheeks. His eyes widened when Hinata grabbed three more slices and stacked it atop her first one. He watch her stretch her jaw as wide as she could, and when she took her own big bite, she held her slice stack towards his to compare.
Sasuke judged their impromptu competition.
"Hnn. Normally, I say Dobe's got the big mouth, but I think Hinata one this one by a couple of centimeters," Sasuke offered Hinata his hand. "Congratulations. You've got one hell of a mouth."
"'Ey!" Naruto smacked the table, irritation needling him. "Von't dalk do 'inata vat lay!" he chewed his food with furious gusto, then swallowed. He smacked the table again and pointed at Sasuke. "You heard what I said."
"Through the food shrapnel, yes, somehow I did."
Hinata giggled before going back to eating her slices individually like a normal person.
Itachi rejoined them after dressing down in a pair of black joggers and a black oversized V-neck.
"Which one's mine?"
Sasuke jutted his thumb over his shoulder where an unopened box lay on the counter. Itachi made a beeline behind Sasuke, then taking a slice, he turned to face the group and leaned against the counter. His internal gaze steadily turned outwards, growing sharper with intent focus, and they followed his gaze.
Hinata grabbed the ice-cold can she'd been using as an ice-pack and turned the label side around.
"Naruto-kun," she deadpanned as she displayed the can to everyone. "What did you give me?"
He was halfway through two slices, which he was eating from both hands simultaneously when he answered her. "Thoohigh. Wut? Ezz gud."
Sasuke and Itachi-nii shook their heads in unison.
"Naruto," Itachi began, with faux-murderous amusement. "Who said you could touch my alcohol?"
Naruto stuffed the remaining slices in his mouth, chewed roughly and swallowed. "Hm," he puffed out his chest. "I did! Nye-heh-heh."
The crisp snap of metal and the hiss of carbonation ended all through processes in the room, their gazes converging on the same point.
Hinata met their gazes one by one, her expression one of blank innocence. Then she lifted the can to her lips and sipped; it was noisy and drawn out and so perfectly obnoxious. Her upper lip scrunched at the sour lemon flavor like an Accordion, and her eyes puckered up at the alcohol. She let out a virginal cough-gag. But that didn't stop her from taking another conspicuous sip. "Yep. That's alcohol."
His heart screamed in incoherent rejoice.
Right in front of him was someone who kept surprising him. Right in front of him was someone who was fun, who could let loose and reflect back all of the good life had to give. Right in front of him was…
Unable to contain his voice, he slammed a fist against the table. "YEAH! That's my Hinata! Let's start drinking!" Half-filled drinkware rattled from his excitement, and it almost resembled the celebratory clinking of glasses.
Itachi-nii held the look of total resignation. The night was already out of his hands.
Well, it wasn't like he couldn't trust them.
Besides, Naruto was a big brother too. He wasn't going to let anything happen to Hinata.
Naruto kept pace with Hinata's first drink, going sip for sip until her first can was empty.
His buzz was slow-coming, barely noticeable, but he didn't want to get ahead of her. He couldn't stop mirroring her silly, blissed-out grin as she absorbed their nonsense conversation from the sidelines.
But then Sasuke said something totally crazy.
"Shut up! No fucking way!"
"If you hold in your farts, your circulatory system reabsorbs it and it comes out of your mouth."
"That's bullshit! Why don't girls ever smell bad then, huh? I haven't met a single girl with shit-breath unless she was a heavy smoker!"
"So are you saying girls fart around you? You good with that knowledge?"
"Sure, if it means that's how comfortable they are around me!"
Itachi mustered up the cognizance to speak through his pained, hysterical tears. "Hinata-san, how do you not lose brain cells with these two?"
"Oh, um," she delicately opened her second can. "I'm an Honor Student."
Naruto had no idea why… but he started cackling uncontrollably. Maybe it was the cute way she said it, or the bemused face Itachi made, as if she just said an equally dumb thing, but it was amaaazing!
"Is that what I'm doing wrong?" Sasuke quipped as he put his third can to his lips. "Is it like a Naruto condom but for your IQ?"
"A WHAT?!" Naruto flipped his palms outwards, and in-between his palm lines you could read 'What the hell, Sasuke?!'
"What?!" Hinata squealed into her hands, turning strawberry from nose to ears.
Itachi grimaced. "Otouto, did you even think about what you said before you said it?"
Sasuke hid his reddening face behind his wrist. "Ah shit, I'm turning into him already."
As he and Sasuke dissolved into their usual half-hearted bickering, Itachi tossed Hinata another question.
"I was an Honor Student, too. I took part in the Model UN club."
"Hinata's got a club!" Naruto interjected. "She cleans up trash!"
"Then why are you still here?" Sasuke smirked.
"Shut up!"
"Th,That's my club," Hinata nodded, ducking her chin down. Naruto gave her a crazy look, not understanding what she was getting shy about. Her idea was cool!
Itachi smiled. "A charity club? I like that. What's it called?"
"The Volunteer's Assocation!" Naruto, once again, answered.
Sasuke scowled at him. "What are you, her PR guy?"
Itachi rested both elbows on the table, leaning his weight against it, head tipped forward with his fingers laced beneath his chin. "'The Volunteers' Association'? So, if you named it that, does that mean I can volunteer even if I'm not a student?"
Hinata beamed. "Of course! We meet up every Sunday at five in the morning. I can share our group page with you, Itachi-san. I post where our next spot will be every Wednesday at seven pm."
His sage-like smile widened. You could just about detect human interest on his face for once. Naruto's senses were going off like a Geiger Counter just looking at him. "That'd be great. I'll see if I can make it to the next one."
"Oh, I didn't know you had a group page," Naruto muttered over the rim of his can. Does that mean they have a photo album to go with? Was he going to see Iruka-sensei in there?
"That's because you've got both hands in one club and your dick in another," said Sasuke.
Hinata hid her burning face behind her palms. Itachi-nii muttered in disbelief.
"What's the other?"
"The 'Omanko Aficionados Club'."
"For goodness sakes," Itachi-nii muttered, hanging his head in secondhand shame.
Naruto stood up and extended his arm out towards Sasuke in a high-five, was reciprocated promptly. "I like that you went with Aficionados. Nice touch."
Sasuke dryly shrugged. "It was the only one that didn't sound cringe."
"I was honestly surprised Itachi-nii stayed to hang with us," Naruto said as they headed back to the living room, he and Hinata working on their second can. Sasuke was two cans ahead of them and Naruto was itching to catch up. "Normally he hermits himself away."
Sasuke crouched down in front of the console, rummaging through the game pile. "Hn. It's because Hinata's so cute."
"What? No, no!" Hinata squeaked as she waved her hand in front of her face and laughed it off.
Naruto's eyes narrowed. "Oh, 'ha ha'. Shut up, Teme."
"What? You said it yourself. He normally hermits himself away. But now he's going to go clean up trash next Sunday? Pretty sus."
The gentle, wounded prodigy Itachi finding his illuminated path home in Hinata rushed to the forefront of his mind. The scars their fathers' gave them were like two halves make a perfect fit.
Naruto couldn't deny the easy chemistry they had back there. But he never would've suspected Itachi catching feels like that. But maybe he was never going to suspect anyways. Itachi was one of the most hard-to-read people he knew.
But, at the end of that day, Itachi-nii was a really good guy. In comparison, he was a thousand times more preferable now to Iruka-sensei. Itachi-nii didn't get fed up with him like other adults did, and he didn't try to dictate how he lived his life.
Yes, Itachi-nii was definitely more preferable.
Naruto stuffed down the worming, wriggling uneasiness and faced Hinata with a bright grin. "Alright, Hinata! It's up to you to make us in-laws! Ow! The fuck?!"
Sasuke had chucked an empty game case at his head.
They took turns playing solo, brawling, co-oping, and backseat gaming.
Hinata struggled and failed throughout every endeavor, at least until she found her footing in the final title. Despite being the worst gamer, the alcohol made sure she didn't care, and neither did they. The final title was Gang Beasts, and after two hours of flopping around the battle stage, sabotaging each other and themselves into a great many stupid deaths, they had succumbed to an unhinged laughing fit.
"Fuuuuuck! I can't! I can't breeeeathe!" Naruto wheezed, clutching his chest.
Sasuke laid flat on his back, pressing a cushion into his face.
Hinata sat with her face hidden behind her palms and knees, her back muscles convulsing with her trembling shoulders.
She couldn't stop! This went way, way beyond inebriation, which had only narrowed her field of view and made her limbs floaty, as far as she was concerned! Oh sure, the alcohol had quieted the background noise of self-consciousness in her brain and it made her laugh with the tiniest of provocations, but still! What was happening to her?! Has she never had fun like this before? Or has it just been too long?
"Aaah! I can't believe you kept dragging me into the shredder, Hinata!" Naruto said.
"Not to mention the amount of times you swiped at her and fell off the bridge trying," Sasuke said after removing the cushion from his ruddy face.
"Hinataaa!" Naruto snatched the cushion from Sasuke and whacked her in the back, the suddenness inspiring more humor to spill from her belly. "I died! So many times! Because of you! Take this!"
Hinata shrieked as she raised her arms up defensively, giggling wildly in spite of the onslaught. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Sasuke toss her another cushion. Only for Naruto to grab it the second her fingers brushed the seam.
"Ha ha! I'm dual wielding now, bitches! Any last words?!"
Hinata eyed Sasuke behind him. His gaze pointed in the direction of the L-couch, which had two XL black-cased body pillows. She nodded at him in thanks.
Hinata jerked away from Naruto's double-cleave, kited around the low table, and jumped atop the couch, both hands finding a body pillow. She sank her fingers deep into their plush material. She had to be careful swinging this around; memory foam hurt like a bitch.
She raised it up, blocked Naruto's second attempt, and pushed at him, sending him backward. He landed on the balls of his feet and grinned at her with feral amusement. As if any moment now he was going to pounce on her.
Her lips parted with a soundless pant, her face becoming dizzyingly warm. Her core clenched, wanting to see that expression hovered over her in the dark before contorting in exertion and pleasure.
Her eyes only squeezed shut for a moment, but it was enough for him to calculate his opening to attack, his better judgment long diluted by the alcohol.
One cushion beaned her dead-on in the forehead, causing her to stumble. Her left foot slipped off the edge, but someone was quick to catch her. Someone who smelled like oak, suede, and black pepper.
"Hinata! Ahhh! I'm so sorry! I'm so sorry!"
Opening her eyes, she saw Naruto hurrying to her side, his blue eyes bright and stricken with panic.
This firm, flat body against her back and these careful hands scooped against her thigh and shoulder were not Naruto's.
Shame crawled up her ears and nested like hot coils in the tips. Biting the inside of her bottom lip, her feet found the floor and like a package exchanged, she was passed from Sasuke's hands into Naruto's. His concerned touch ran from her elbows up to her shoulders. Then he was pushing her bangs out of the way, examining her forehead, his hot, callused hands like sandpaper grating the vestiges of her inhibitions. She watched him closely from here, fascinated by the sharpness of his eyes.
And he was fascinated by the heat beneath his palm and the red crawling up her skin.
"Hinata? Do you have a fever or something?"
"I think it's just exertion," Sasuke provided, his vowels stumbling the delivery. Her heart trembled at the lame excuse. It made her feel naked.
Naruto helped her sit down on the couch while he ran off to get her water.
Hinata worked up the nerve to look up from her knees to meet Sasuke's eyes because she feared what she might find. And in doing so, she found wistfulness, worry, and embarrassment in his aloof gaze. But above all, she found understanding.
She felt naked, indeed.
Hinata raised her legs up and flattened against her thighs, her face tucked down behind her knees.
Naruto came along with the water bottle, panting. "Here, drink this."
She accepted the bottle without looking up, nodding her thanks, but she did not make a move to open it.
"Aw crap! Hinata, are you that drunk? Here, I'll open it for you."
With her weak grip, he took it from her effortlessly, opened it, and tried to hand it back to her.
But she was simply too embarrassed.