A/N: Super quickly! I will be posting a few stories I have written and finished on my Tumblr here to make it easier for people to read. Because these have already been read, I will be able to post them at a quicker schedule! So don't feel like this is taking away from Pluck at all. I'm still focusing on that story. Thank you!

PianoCoat

Part I: Bruised Knuckles

Naruto Uzumaki was an idiot.

And Sasuke's best friend, but that wasn't as important.

"SHIT!"

And only idiots would come up with such a moronic idea. So moronic, in fact, that Sasuke couldn't even bring himself to flinch a little bit when the dumbass's right hand cracked against the table. Naruto yelped, instantly bringing the hand to his torso, cradling it as his wide, startled eyes stared at his opponent from across the way. Kiba Inuzuka had the most pompous look on his face as he rolled his shoulders and flexed the very hand that had won him –

"Chicken it is, then!"

Yes, you heard him right. And if you thought it was the stupidest thing to get into an arm-wrestling match for, then Sasuke was inclined to agree with you. But idiots of a feather flock together – a statement Shikamaru Nara has quoted often, and one that Sasuke has begun to adopt when it comes to his – well, his friend group would be a lie. He hardly counted most of them as his friends – only the loser who looked like he was about to offer his uninjured hand for another chance to pick where they'd have their weekly lunch meet-up at.

"Again!" Naruto insisted, already leaning over the table with his left elbow standing atop it. "We haven't had ramen in forever, and I'm really hankering for it!"

"Dude," Kiba sighed, not even giving the offered hand a look as he stood from the table, "we had it last week when you won against Choji. Get off your ass, already, and let's go eat!"

Naruto frowned, and if Sasuke was a nice guy, he might have gone over and patted him on the shoulder. But Uchihas had a certain type of gene that blocked niceties out of their brains, and he only scoffed and tapped his foot impatiently and let Sakura do it for him. Somehow, even with her short temper, the woman could push the idiot in the right direction. She leaned down and whispered something. Naruto instantly sprung to his feet, grinning, all signs of disappointment wiped from his expression.

"Right!" he chirped, pulling his keys from his pocket and twirling them around his finger. "Let's eat!"

"You're too loud." Shikamaru, at another table stationed in one of the public sitting areas at the local community college, sighed and lifted the book off his face, revealing the tired squint of his eyes.

Next to him was Ino Yamanaka, who stabbed a pointed elbow in his chest before she stood to her feet, towering. "Get ready, you drag!" she snapped. "Kiba won, so we're going to get chicken."

"I'm glad you won," Choji Akimichi, a soft boy who didn't share the severe lack of brain cells with most of the people in the group, dropped a hand on Kiba's shoulder, smiling. "I've been wanting meat since this morning."

"Choji," Ino sighed, "you always want meat."

The boy blushed, and Shikamaru snorted and gathered his stuff in his backpack.

"Okay, I'm ready. Are we going or not?"

"Don't get snippy with me, Nara!"

"You're the one that got on me for not being ready." He turned from her, and muttered, "Damn woman."

Ino's face went red, and she yanked out a chair and looked ready to shove Shikamaru into it. "Keep that up," she hissed, "and we can settle this with me breaking your hand against the table!"

Shikamaru blinked as Choji gaped, but it was Naruto who stepped in, getting in between the two.

"Hey, hey." His twirling keys jingled, reminding everyone of the parked cars in the parking lot waiting for them. "Now ain't the time. Let's just get going, alright? We'll all be less grumpy when we get some food in our stomachs!"

No rebuttals or hisses followed, only a tired sigh from Shikamaru that reminded Sasuke how absolutely exhausting it was to hang out with this lot.

"Fine," he muttered, shooting Ino a pointed look, "but I'm not ridin' in the same car as her. Someone else give me a lift."

Naruto, for whatever reason, gave Sasuke a look, who was already halfway to the door leading to the parking lot. "Sasuke can –"

"No," he said, "I can't."

"Sure you can! You have the biggest car –"

"No." He was pulling his keys out, as well, and thumbed the unlock button near the top. "It's just not filled up with shit. But shit can be cleaned up. You drive him." Not to say he hated the guts of Shikamaru. He wasn't a screaming banshee or overly annoying like most of the company he had the displeasure of dealing with; but, still, comparing a stab wound to a gunshot didn't make the stab wound any more tolerable.

But idiots didn't give up, and Sasuke felt himself being yanked back towards the table before he could take another step away.

"Loser drives Shikamaru!" Naruto announced, bending over and propping his uninjured hand on the table.

"Wow," Shikamaru drawled, "two men fighting for me. I'm so flattered."

Sasuke glared down at Naruto's hand, tan fingers fanned out to grab his. There was no way out of this, he knew, because when you hang out with idiots, you have to play their idiotic games.

Which, he supposed, grabbing the blond's hand, makes me an idiot, too.

…

Two seconds.

"Shit!"

Then Naruto's hand was slammed against the table.

Kiba howled with laughter, and Sasuke didn't blink as he turned and led the way to the cars.

…

"Wait – no way – that can't be – Hinata?"

The chicken place Kiba picked out was, thankfully, pretty close to the college, which meant that as soon as he was done eating, Sasuke could leave.

But that plan of a quick escape was thrown just as quickly in the wind when Kiba, mouth full of fried chicken wings, squinted over from the round booth they sat at and called out to a woman across the way.

Woman.

Great.

Like Ino and Sakura weren't bad enough. Now Sasuke had to deal with another one. He didn't even bother to pull his eyes away from the white napkin he was slowly ripping into shreds as a feminine, soft gasp shuttered through the air.

"K-Kiba?"

Fucking hell.

Not only was it a woman, but one of those stuttering, bumbling fools that thought being shy was cute. If Sasuke wasn't stuck between Idiot #1 (Naruto) and Idiot #3 (Kiba), he would have walked right out of that place. But he was stuck, and his ripping sped up.

There were pleasantries passed around – "How are you"s and "Where have you been"s and all that shit. From what Sasuke paid attention to (which honestly wasn't much), Kiba and Hinata were close friends through middle and high school. Shikamaru and Choji seemed to also recognize her, as the former and her cousin were in debate together and the latter and she took culinary classes together. Something made her leave town a while back – Sasuke didn't care enough to listen in after that point – and now, somehow, she was there.

At the chicken place, of all things.

Interrupting them.

"I hope I'm not interrupting anything." Yes, you are. "Please, go back to whatever you were doing." We will. Go away.

"Hey, wait!" When Kiba caught her arm, Sasuke felt every inch of himself twitch with irritation. "You just got here. Sit! I'll introduce you to everyone, and we can catch up!"

Fuck.

So Miss I'm-Too-Polite-To-Say-No did just that and slid into the already cramped booth, sending Kiba's elbow into Sasuke's side. His napkin was ruined and on the floor, so he stole Naruto's and began to tear at it next.

And for what seemed like hours, Kiba went into full detail about everyone at the table. Naruto made a fool out of himself, as usual, and Ino and Sakura chatted away, glad to have another girl at the table.

When the introductions finally turned to him, Kiba thankfully spared him from the word vomit and simply said, "And that's Sasuke Uchiha, known for his hatred of women and constantly having a stick up his ass."

"Oh," was all Hinata said.

Good. At least she wasn't trying to force herself to exchange small talk with him.

And just when he was thinking that was the end of it and everyone could get back to eating, Naruto shoved his shoulder, and said, "Oi. Stop being a bastard and say hi!"

God, he really couldn't believe he was friends with the guy.

Sasuke shot him a glare, and then finally looked up at the new woman at the table – the ever-kind Hinata Hyuuga who had blessed the table with her annoyingly quiet voice and constantly-attentive attitude. And just as he had figured, upon glancing at her, every aspect of her screamed weak, helpless, useless. Her wide, white eyes (freak.) that stared at everything like it was a wonder to her, the pale, flawless nature of her small fingers that saw no lines of hardships, of work; her neck was thin, as were her arms, as there were no lines of muscles under the thin sleeves of her blouse, and her round face looked like it had never been glared at in her life, let alone slapped or punched or even pinched.

This was Hinata Hyuuga – and what a representation of the Hyuuga family, indeed. Sasuke knew the name – Uchihas have had a standing rivalry with them that's lasted since the 15th century – and if this was what they all looked like, they really weren't as high and mighty as they thought themselves to be.

"Hyuuga," he said, and she blinked, as if scared of even the sound of his voice. Pathetic. "I'd have much preferred your cousin to suddenly stumble upon us, if I must be honest."

Another blink, and her small mouth opened –

"God, you're such a douche." But Kiba beat her to it, and she looked up at him and smiled. Smiled. What!? Had she no pride? The guy was butting into her fight. What was she smiling at him for? "Don't listen to him, Hinata. The rest of us are glad you're here."

"That's right!" Naruto added in, loudly, like he always was.

Her pale face turned pink as she bowed her chin in such a fashion that made her look small and delicate. The chicken in Sasuke's stomach threatened to come back up, and he ripped Naruto's napkin into little pieces of ash before throwing them into the pile on the floor.

"Thank you," she whispered oh-so-softly. "I'm glad to have met you all. It's so nice to see such a wonderful group of friends."

The fact that she said all without even a look his way made him realize that not only was the girl weak, but also a coward.

"Tch." His teeth clicked together as he scoffed.

Kiba glared at him, a corner of his mouth curled up in a snarl, looking like the very mutts he surrounded himself with. "You got something to say, bastard?"

Sasuke leaned against the back of the booth, not even bothering to look back. "Yes," he said, "but I doubt it's anything the princess can handle."

"Oh," again left Hinata's barely-parted lips.

"That's it." With a growl, Kiba slammed his arm on the table and held it out towards Sasuke. "I'm going to break your arm in half."

"H-Huh?" Hinata's eyes widened. "Oh, no, please! There's no need to –"

"Relax, Hinata." Across the table, Ino was tapping away at her phone, and she only paused a moment to give the frightened woman a comforting smile. "This is just what we do here – we solve everything with arm-wrestling. Fights, problems, difficult decisions. Just part of the friendship, I guess."

"And if you're wondering," Shikamaru mused, slowly dipping a fry into a tub of honey mustard, "yes, it was Naruto that came up with the idea."

"Give me your hand," Kiba pushed.

Sasuke looked past him and stared at Hinata. "My problem is with her. I should wrestle her."

"No way!" Kiba barked. "You just want to because you're scared you'll lose against me. Hinata can't wrestle you – you'll tear her arm off!"

Had his integrity not been insulted, Sasuke would have divulged such an exquisite idea. That perfect, flawless face contorted in pain. Maybe then she'd drop the goody-two-shoes act.

But that was for a different time.

For now, Sasuke had to show someone their place for messing with an Uchiha.

…

Five days later, when everyone was meeting up to play games on the Nintendo Switch in Shino's basement, Kiba showed up with his arm still in a cast.

And at his side, of course, was Hinata.

If Naruto hadn't been his ride home, Sasuke would have left the moment she pulled her shoes off at the door.

Everyone gathered down in the basement, controllers already synched up and in hand. One was shoved into Hinata's hand, and she sputtered and tried to explain she was perfectly fine with watching. But no one was having it, and she played with the string around her wrist as Mario Kart 8 was pulled up.

When everyone was picking their characters, Hinata and Sakura both went for Rosalina – Sakura just being a second quicker and selecting her first. Hinata made no sound of protest – Of course not, Sasuke sneered to himself on the couch – but before she could select another character, Sakura gave her arm a playful nudge.

"I'll wrestle you for her."

And, again, before Hinata could say a word, Ino swooped in.

"Give her time to settle in," she laughed, then took Sakura's hand. "Here, I'll fight for her. Wish me luck, Hinata!"

And like she had when Kiba had stuck his nose into her fight, Hinata simply smiled and cheered her on.

Sasuke left before he could see the winner.

He didn't care.

He was tired of it.

…

But no matter how tired he was, she kept … on … showing.

"–and that's pretty much the gist of it. You just have to pick a place where you want to eat, and then you wrestle against Shikamaru. Whoever wins gets to go to where they pick, and everyone else has to come with them."

"But what if no one else likes –"

"Hinata." Naruto had been spending the last four minutes trying to explain the weekly lunch meet-ups to Hinata, and after dealing with her constant politeness and awareness of others, he grew weary and sighed. "It's fine. Just wrestle Shikamaru, okay?"

And Sasuke, picking at his nails, silently counted down the seconds, wondering who would offer to fight for her this time. Naruto or Kiba again? They seemed to love pretending to be her knights in shining armor. Or maybe it would be Choji, who seemed to always get flustered when she was around. But if he had to make a final bet, he'd have to go with –

"Sit back, Hinata. I'll do it for you."

Her cousin.

Neji Hyuuga was not exactly a regular in the group of weirdos and idiots. Like Shino, he only showed up from time to time, and the last time he had come by was over three months ago.

But then a certain weakling started to become a regular, and like magic, he appeared.

Another knight.

Great.

Shikamaru, across the table, only smirked as Neji took the chair across from him.

"Face-to-face. Like old times, huh?"

"Give me your hand, Nara." But Neji seemed pleased, as well, and there was an uplifting edge to his otherwise droned tone as he took Shikamaru's hand and waited for the countdown to hit zero.

…

The match, apparently, was legendary from the amount of cheering and screaming around the table.

Sasuke was too busy fishing his keys out of his pockets to care.

But at the end, Neji was victorious, and as Shikamaru massaged his hand, everyone turned to Hinata.

"Well?" Naruto asked. "What do you pick?"

She twisted her hands together, looking in thought, before a wide smile came to her face.

"Ice cream!"

Oh my God. And as she went over to inspect the bruises on Shikamaru's knuckles, Sasuke glared poisonous daggers into the back of her skull. I'm going to kill her.

…

"You."

It took another passing week for her guards and knights to leave her alone for more than two seconds, but when the time came, Sasuke was ready to strike.

They were at Naruto's house. The horror movie they had been watching in his room was paused when the pizza they had ordered came, and while everyone scurried out to grab plates and their slices of pepperoni or vegetarian, two people stayed.

Hinata, who had said quietly that she wasn't hungry, probably fully expecting one of her brave knights to fetch a slice for her without her even having to lift a finger, and Sasuke, who was tired of her bullshit.

Glancing away from the screen of the television, Hinata looked up as he approached her. "Oh, Sasuke."

And she had the audacity to smile at him.

Hot blood rushed through every vein in his body as he grabbed her arm and yanked her off the chair. He dragged her to the side table, shoved off the lamp and alarm clock to give them space, and pressed his elbow against the top.

"Wrestle me."

Her mouth dropped a tad. "Wh-what for –"

"You annoy the shit out of me," he hissed, fingers curling and uncurling with irritation. "That's a good enough reason, isn't it?"

She didn't reply, only glanced over at the doorway.

Sasuke scowled. "Your knights aren't here to save you this time."

Her lips pressed together, but not so much in fear or anger. Rather, she simply looked … pensive.

"Yes," Hinata mused after a while, "I suppose you're right."

Her small hand curled around his, fingers thin and palm soft.

God, if he wanted to, he could snap that hand in half with just a squeeze.

"If I win," he leaned in, breathing smoke into her face, "you stop showing up."

Her eyes never left his. "And if I win?"

He smirked. "You won't." And to just get more of a reaction out of her, he added, "And I'm not holding back. I want to break your hand."

Instead of saving her dignity, her pride, like any Hyuuga or person with half a brain would, Hinata looked one more time at the door.

"Count us down," he barked.

So she did, eyes slowly sliding back onto their interlocked hands.

"–three … two … one."

One.

And with that –

"FUCK!"

His hand was slammed, without hesitation, without mercy, without even a bit of politeness, into the hard top of the side table.

…

"O-Oh dear."

His fingers were numb. The muscles in his arm were tense. Blood pumped into his knuckles, which felt like they were lit on fire and zapped with electricity. A choked hiss of pain gurgled in his throat as his eyes snapped from his hand to Hinata, who looked at the pronounced hills of his knuckles with concern.

"I was aiming to break it," she whispered, "like you wanted." Her left hand snuck onto the table, and she smiled at him. "Here, let me try with your other hand. I'm sure I can break that one for you."

The bleeding pride in his chest hurt more than his hand as she looked at him with that same, innocent, weak, pathetic expression.

Or, no. That was a lie.

The hand definitely hurt more.

What the hell!? his mind screamed at him. How did she beat me?

There was no way.

No way.

"You might want to hide that." She nodded to his hand, then slipped away from the table to return to her new spot on the floor. "Unless you want them to notice, of course."

"You –" A million insults were stuck on his tongue, but all he could do was balk as a knife of pain hit his hand when he jerked around to glare at her. "What the hell was that?"

And she looked at him the same way she had looked at him that first day they met: wide, blinking eyes and a perfect, untouched face.

"Isn't it strange," she hummed to herself with a small smile, "that the weak ones are actually the ones with the advantage? Because no one suspects them to be anything but that, right?"

His heart was roaring, blood rushing to his ears, his face, his neck.

And despite the pulsating swell of his bruised knuckles and the agitated crack in his chest, Sasuke has never felt so – so –

Enticed.

Hinata Hyuuga was surrounded by knights, by bodyguards. Like a princess, she didn't have to lift a finger for them to follow her every order, her every need.

But princesses weren't supposed to excite the dragon.

How … unfortunate.

Part I - End