SUMMARY
Naruto is bizarrely calm. Nothing can cheer him up...except maybe one thing...
A soft chuckle left Neji's lips as he eyed circled date on his calendar. The memory that came with that date was a very funny one. He had made a fool of himself at the singing competition last year but it worth crashing Tenten's song.
Neji would be killed by Tenten if he admitted this but he did that on purpose, ruin her competition that is. It yielded a good result much to his secret elation, even if Tenten did punch him repeatedly on his chest for showing up and ruining her song that day.
The circled date on his calendar was approaching closer and dare Neji say it, he was giddy about it just as much as, even more than, Tenten was. His eyelids met tiredly as he yawned.
Tomorrow, the boys were hanging out and for some stupid reason he was forced to come along. He switched his lamp to night mode and succumbed to sleep for tomorrow was going to be a long day.
Bloodshot pale eyes shot open in time with a nasty loud bang on his door coupled with a series of shouts and barks.
"YO CLASS REP, YOU CAN'T MISS OUT ON THIS HANGOUT!" Suigetsu's voice was the first Neji recognised.
"STOP BEING A PRINCESS AND COME OUT OF YOUR ROOM!" Kiba's voice was accompanied with barks from Akamaru.
"ETERNAL RIVAL NEJI, I CHALLENGE YOU TO A MORNING DUEL! RISE AND COME AND FIGHT ME!" And the voice he hated the most yelled the loudest.
Whoever gave Lee the idea to challenge the class topper at any given opportunity he got in order for him to test his capabilities, Neji was going to kill that person one day.
He counted from twenty backwards to cool some steam before rising up to tell those loud barbaric fools off. The way Neji tore his door open startled the three and dog at his door. "If any of you blithering imbeciles dare to disturb my sleep again, I will end you." He threatened.
Suigetsu bit down a laugh. Neji glared. "Sorry man, it's just hard to take you serious with a facial mask on your face and your hair up in a bun."
That did it for Kiba who outright howled and guffawed at his face. "He uses a freaking mask!" The dog boy said between laughter as if taking care of his skin was a felony. Sometimes Neji hated that he was surrounded by such petulant fools.
"AAAH!" Lee suddenly yelled as if he got an idea. Which he did. In the most Lee way possible. "So this is the secret to my eternal rival's handsome youth! Well then, I shall not fall behind! I will head off to the cosmetic store right now and buy myself a hundred facial masks! And use them all at once!"
"Don't, dude, or else you'd be all prissy and prickly like he is!" Suigetsu started guffawing too like there was even a joke to begin with.
"Don't forget princess-y." Kiba added and they both howled with laughter.
This, my folks, is why Neji's sanity is slipping away bit by bit. He rolled his eyes and shut his door, fed up with the children that his classmates were. And children were they, considering that he was older than them.
He heard Sasuke kicking the three idiots (minus the dog out) of the hallway somewhere in the middle of getting ready for their stupid outing. The reason for organising the hangout was as stupid as stupid could be.
It was simply to spite the girls for going on a girls day out without inviting them along. What were they? Twelve? Now he had to babysit a bunch of teenage babies. Luckily for him, Kankuro was going with them so he wouldn't bear the responsibility of being the reasonable one alone.
Unlike his uptight counterpart, Naruto was psyched for the boys' hangout. Between his parents' deaths and his awful years in juvie, Naruto barely had a friend talk less of a clique he could always hang out with.
A hangout with all the boys from the class, even Sai, was going to be fun so he was happy. After their permissions and other needed things like money and stuff were in place, the boys signed out of KSA dormitory and went into the town.
They split into smaller groups at some point though because moving in a crowd was awkward but they agreed to meet for lunch at Moonbucks, 1pm, Moonbucks being their rendezvous point simply because the girls had booked Amaterasu café.
Neji and Haku belonged to a group and they went to check out any local musical store they could come across. Juugo and Suigetsu were going on the latter's idea to search random gift stores for whatever the hell Suigetsu was looking for.
Shikamaru and Choji decided on trying out various fast food joints mainly because Shikamaru was too lazy to come up with his own ideas. It was a wonder how and why he joined them in the first place.
Omoi, Kiba, Lee and Naruto decided on Hot Topic to satisfy their otaku needs while Sasuke, Shino and Gaara went on their own separate ways doing whatsoever weird silent boys always did.
After they had separated, Kankuro and Sai were left alone so they went to a tool shop to get more equipment for Kankuro to build his wooden puppets with. Afterwards they went to an art shop for Sai.
Hanging out with the boys and arguing about who the best anime waifu is was fun for Naruto, but it was all coming to an abrupt end in mere hours.
They met at Moonbucks as agreed and dumped all the cash load on Kankuro like the boys they were, and relaxed and enjoyed their junk food.
" *gasp* the high and mighty Neji Hyuga is eating junk with us lowlifes?! The end is here!" Suigetsu jested when Neji ordered a medium double cheese burger and soda.
Neji wondered what part of his lifestyle made them think he didn't eat junk even if it was just on occasion but kept his thoughts to himself. He had a premonition that his classmates would give him a very long list of reasons if he asked.
"Don't say it like that!" Neji snapped instead. "And why am I the only one you're attacking on this table?!"
"You're fun to mess with." Suigetsu admitted with a laugh before biting into his submarine.
"The chubby one and dickless, I understand," Sai pointed at the heaps of junk food on Choji's and Naruto's trays, ignoring the blond's enraged yell at his given nickname, and then waved a general hand at the heap in front of Gaara. "But you, I don't."
"What?" Gaara questioned. Sai smiled and shook his head dismissively.
"No offense Gaara but seeing that you actually eat is weird enough but finding that your appetite is as large as Naruto's is even weirder." Suigetsu voiced.
"I agree. Like, where does all of it go to? You're so small!" Gaara growled at Omoi at that but it lacked any bite. He was indeed small for his age due to the accumulated effect of years of insomnia.
"It still surprises me, and I am his brother." Kankuro added and further decided to embarrass the redhead. "There was a time the ice cream kept disappearing mysteriously. I used to fight Tems a lot cause I thought she was the thief. She also thought I was responsible for it until one night when we both decided to stake out and catch the thief. Imagine our surprise when we found this little guy with his face filled with fudge."
Gaara kicked Kankuro under the table but he couldn't help but feel nostalgic. That had happened when they were still small, before Rasa had prohibited Temari and Kankuro from ever talking to Gaara. He could be annoying but Gaara was happy that he had his big brother back.
Everyone laughed at the story and began throwing in some of their funny escapades and jesting each other. Apparently, this was Sai's first ever semblance of social interaction as he had never even stepped foot outside before now.
"Never?!" Naruto had asked in disbelief when Sai mentioned it. The pale one shook his head in affirmation.
"I was homeschooled by my father so I never had any reason to get out of the house." He had his unnerving smile on the whole time he explained his back story but his classmates couldn't help their pity.
"Poor Sai-chan, no wonder you're so pale." Haku tsked, shaking his head in distaste for whoever Sai's father was.
"No wonder why always carry that 'socialising for dummies' book." The muttered words from Shikamaru caused everyone to take a double look at him in surprise that he was actually awake.
"Your life until now must've sucked bad man, cause I can't imagine being quarantined for fifteen freaking years of my life." Kiba snorted as he passed Akamaru some burger patties.
Most of the others replicated his sentiment but didn't say anything further about it. Soon the attention shifted from Sai to another random thing and soon the whole sad back story was forgotten.
Naruto took a selfie of himself with the rest of the guys talking, unaware if his camera, at the background and posted it online. Naruto smiled wide as HH_whiskers immediately reacted to his photo. HH_whiskers was always so quick to find his posts and give it a heart.
Something Kankuro said made Naruto look up from his phone a bit. During that time, a message alert made his phone vibrate. Curious about what the text could have been, Naruto checked it. A confused frown drew his brows together as he read the short text from a private number.
Naruto.
His name.
"What sort of a prank is this, dattebayo?" The blond began to say when he tried hard and failed to make sense of it. Another text arriving in his inbox made him stop talking and check it out. By now the others at the large table had noticed his strange behaviour but chose to look on to find out what his problem was.
The second message had Naruto dropping his phone on his forgotten burgers and looking around in serious panic. Akamaru started whining at his reaction. At this, the boys stopped eating and faced him seriously. Something was obviously up.
"Dude what's wrong?" Kiba voiced first. The whisper he received from Naruto was inaudible and filled with stutters and he didn't stop trembling. His breathing soon became heavy and he stood, seat falling backwards in the rush, and started frantically searching the area.
"The hell?!" Kankuro whispered as he tried to calm the blond down in vain. "What is wrong with you?!"
"He was checking his phone before this happened." Neji noted and Sasuke picked up his phone. He didn't understand the message but it didn't take a full genius to know that his friend was just threatened.
Gaara plucked the phone out of Sasuke's hand and looked at the message. His face instantly darkened. "Do you think this is from..." He trailed off when Sasuke gave a knowing nod. It also didn't take a genius to have a general idea on who sent such an ominous text.
In Kankuro's hands, Naruto trembled with the beginnings of a panic attack. "He's found me." A whisper fell from his shaking lips. "He's found me."
From unknown:
Enjoy your freedom while it lasts.
"He's found me. He's found me. He's found me. He's found me. He's found me."
Those were the only thoughts Naruto could process at the ominous message that glared at him through his phone's screen. He tried looking around for any spot of silvery blue hair but found nothing. His tormentor was nowhere and everywhere at once.
A voice vaguely registered in his head, overriding the dark thoughts and voices that plagued him, telling him to breathe. He couldn't. He wasn't even sure he knew what breathing meant.
Things were spiralling downwards both figuratively and literally for him. His head was spinning. He was nauseous. He was hyperventilating. Clawing at the area above his chest in a desperate attempt to relieve his pain did nothing.
It hurt.
It hurt so much!
"Naruto!"
What was that? Naruto? His name. That was his name. That was his name.
"Breathe!"
Breathe?
"Take a breath in Naruto. You can do it, just breathe in."
Breathe in. Could he manage that? Yes he could. He did. The voice told him to breathe out. He did. Breathe in. Breathe out. In and out. He did it all over again till he got calmer. He was okay. He was surrounded by his friends who were worriedly calling his name. He was okay.
"Iruka-sensei..." The blond teen mumbled faintly. "I want... Iruka-sensei." And he fell asleep.
When Naruto finally lied still in Kankuro's arms, everyone let out a breath they didn't know they were holding. Moonbuck's manager and a few onlookers expressed their worries for the boy.
"Is he okay?" The manager asked and Kankuro nodded.
"Yes. He's just asleep." The senior replied.
"Phew! That was intense." Kiba breathed in relief. He had honestly thought his friend was going to have a heart attack.
"Wah! I thought he was going to keep clawing at his chest until he dug his heart out! I was so scared!" Omoi, who was in tears from his own ghastly thought progression, wiped his face off his sleeves.
Their fun was over. The boys packed up their food and stuff and made their way back to the dorms. Gaara and Sasuke rode with Kankuro and Naruto back home because the senior wanted to ask them a few questions, they being Naruto's closest friends.
"Has this happened before?" Kankuro questioned during the ride. He received a negative shake of the head from Gaara and a small 'no' from Sasuke. If it had happened, neither of the boys were aware of it. "I see. Do you have any idea what the message that set him off means?"
"A threat." Gaara said the obvious which earned him a glare from his older brother. Kankuro knew it was a threat, anybody with half a brain knew. He just had trouble filling in the blanks in some places, like who it came from and why exactly it was sent to Naruto.
"We suspect it's from his parent's murderer." Sasuke spoke up beside Gaara. "The Dobe's press conference must've triggered a reaction from them."
It all made sense to Kankuro then. The possibility of that theory wasn't far fetched at all. However, this wasn't his case, or Gaara and Sasuke's for that matter, to settle. "It's best we leave this to Naruto's guardians but it wouldn't hurt to be vigilant around him too."
Gaara, who was about to retort at the first part of the sentence, kept his silence in favour of an agreeing nod. Kankuro was right. He would do anything just to make sure his first friend was alright but this case was best left for Tsunade. He would do whatever to back the blond up.
Sasuke grunted his own committance and the rest of the ride slipped into silence.
Xxx melody xxX
Naruto was pretty dull for the next passing days. He wasn't frisky and panicky, like he expected himself to be after he got the message. A dangerous sense of calmness filled him. It was the kind of dark calmness that came before a storm.
It was weird not seeing Naruto smiling, making trouble and running around with the JRC. Hinata couldn't take it. His friends' attempts to get his mind off the mystery event that occurred on Saturday. None of the girls knew about what happened so Naruto's withdrawal was a surprise and mystery to them.
Naruto and Hinata were supposed to meet up for their dance project but Naruto, not being in a festive mood, unintendedly made things dull. He couldn't even dance to his full potential. It was so unlike Naruto that it hurt.
The blond messed up in the routine for the sixth time that minute and this time he just sat on the floor, breathing heavily. "Sorry, Hinata. I'm dragging you down."
Hinata didn't respond. When Naruto heard the sound of a bag's zip, he thought that Hinata had left until suddenly, something warm covered his ears.
"What?"
Hinata came to kneel in front of him, face red and hands trembling. This was the bravest thing she had ever done in her timid life but she couldn't bring herself to back down now. She had gotten so far without fainting.
"Just dance, N-Naruto-kun." She said and played a song on her iPhone. She carefully tucked the device inside Naruto's tan palms and gave him a passing smile and left.
Naruto could only listen to the song that played with wonder. It was like the lyrics were written just for him.
I live inside my own world of make-believe
Kids screaming in their cradles, profanities
I see the world through eyes covered in ink and bleach
Cross out the ones who heard my cries and watched me weep
I love everything
Fire's spreading all around my room
My world's so bright
It's hard to breathe but that's alright
Hush
Naruto wasn't even aware of when he got up and started dancing to the metronomic beat of the song. He wasn't dancing to any choreography or making up any routine, Naruto just danced like Hinata told him to.
Tape my eyes open to force reality (oh no, no)
Why can't you just let me eat my weight in glee?
I live inside my own world of make-believe
Kids screaming in their cradles, profanities
Some days I feel skinnier than all the other days
And some days I can't tell if my body belongs to me
I love everything
Fire's spreading all around my room
My world's so bright
It's hard to breathe but that's alright
Hush
Shh
I wanna taste your content
Hold your breath and feel the tension
Devils hide behind redemption
Honesty is a one-way gate to hell
I wanna taste consumption
Breathe faster to waste oxygen
Hear the children sing aloud
It's music 'til the wick burns out
Hush
Just wanna be care free lately, yeah
Just kicking up daisies
Got one too many quarters in my pockets
Count 'em like the four-leaf clovers in my locket
Untied laces, yeah
Just tripping on daydreams
Got dirty little lullabies playing on repeat
Might as well just rot around the nursery and count sheep
He set the song on repeat and he danced and danced and danced till his tan face flushed red and his blond hair turned damp with sweat. He felt relieved and free after the workout session.
When he returned Hinata's phone was the first time he smiled in days. And it made her heart swell that she caused that smile. Naruto would normally say something lengthy and speech-y but standing in front of the pale eyed girl, he figured he had nothing to say than,
"Thank you, Hinata." Those two words contained all of his feelings and Hinata understood. The Hyuga smiled beautifully.
"You're welcome, Naruto-kun."
NaruHina fluff you want, NaruHina fluff you get.
Song is Cradles by Sub Urban.
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