Naruto Primer: Hinata and Neji

Build-A-Bear

Ever since the Macarena incident, Neji promised himself that he'd never get bored with training again.  So there he was, training by all alone in his favorite training spot (everyone seems to have one of those, don't they?) since he couldn't seem to find Tenten or Rock Lee.  It's not like he wanted to face them, though, since he was still feeling rather embarrassed.

Hinata, unlike Neji, had slowed down her training.  She, instead, spent her time walking outside and going places.  Over the past few days, she had even done a little bit of Naruto stalking.  Currently, she was hot on his trail.

The day was pretty normal for Neji so far.  He was doing he regular training exercises when, all of a sudden, he heard some people coming.  He looked up to see Sasuke skip by while singing, "I'm going to the mall where I will go and be a happy fellow!"  As if Neji wasn't already confused enough, Naruto soon followed Sasuke while yelling, "HUG ME AND SAY YOU LOVE ME!!!"

Neither of them seemed to have noticed him and, considering they were obviously smoking something, Neji wasn't all that unhappy about it.  Just as he was about to go back to his training, Hinata came strolling by as well.

"Hi Neji…" she said nervously because she had seen him and would have felt bad if she didn't say hi to him.

"What are you doing out here?" Neji asked, sounding a bit resentful, which is okay because he's only part of the branch house and she's part of the main one and that just sucks.

"I was just…um…" Hinata started.  She didn't want to say outright that she was stalking Naruto.  "Following Naruto."

"Why?" Neji asked.

"Um…I don't know." Hinata replied.  "But I guess I lost sight of him now."

"He said he was going to the mall." Neji said.

"Really?" Hinata said, but then got embarrassed that she had sounded so excited.  "Well, I wanted to go there anyway.  I heard about a new store that opened up!  It's called Build-A-Bear!"

"And?" said Neji.

"Well…I thought it might be fun to build a bear…" Hinata said.

Neji turned around so he wasn't facing Hinata anymore.  Even though she felt slightly hurt, she also felt bad that he was out there all alone just training all day.  Neji frightened her beyond all reason, but she didn't think it was a good thing to always be so anti-social and lonely.  She knew that he wanted friends because why else would he do the Macarena?

"Uh…do you want to come with me?" she asked nervously.

Neji was just about to launch into a forty-five minute long rant about the Branch House and the Main House and how much it sucks to be him, that would all end up with Hinata injured and coughing up blood… when he realized that he wanted to make friends.  The Macarena must have worked!

"…Fine." Said Neji.

Hinata had definitely not expected him to agree.  She had expected him to launch into a forty-five minute long rant about the Branch House and the Main House and how much it sucks to be him, that would all end up with Hinata injured and coughing up blood…

They walked to the mall area in complete silence.  It was hard for them to actually talk about anything, but at least they weren't killing each other.

By the way, the mall is right outside of the town so that's why you never see it in the show or the manga.  It's because the only time you see the outside of the town is when it's from an angle that hides the mall from view.  It's really there.  Actually, there is one pointing the show in which you can see some of it peaking through the trees, but I forget which episode it is.

"So…um…we're here." Said Hinata.

"Yeah." Said Neji.

"Uh…let's go to Build-A-Bear now." Hinata said quietly.

Neji sighed.  "Do we have to go to Build-A-Bear?" he asked.  "Can't we go someplace else?"

"I suppose…"

Neji thought about it.  No matter how much he resented her or her father, she had originally come to the mall because she wanted to go to Build-A-Bear and had invited him along.  Besides, maybe there would be some people there he could potentially make friends with.  After all, if people saw him doing the Macarena one day and then at Build-A-Bear the other, they might think that he's more of a sociable person than they thought.

"Never mind…" said Neji.  "We can go to Build-A-Bear…"

Hinata didn't know whether Neji ACTUALLY wanted to go to Build-A-Bear, or if he was just trying to be nice.  After all, he had been acting rather strange lately.  But she wasn't about to argue since she wanted to go to Build-A-Bear anyway, so they went there.

"This is it." she said.

Neji was a bit disappointed when he entered Build-A-Bear because everyone there was probably under eight years old and, therefore, he couldn't possibly make friends with them.  So now he was at Build-A-Bear and his main reason, to make friends, was not ever going to be put in effect.

"Actually, could we not go to Build-A-Bear?" Neji asked.

Hinata looked in the store to see Neji's reasoning for not wanting to be there.  After all, she could tell that he was striving to make friends and, if no one was there to make friends with, what was the point of him being there?  Even though she really did want to Build-A-Bear, she was also aiming to make peace with Neji as well.  Honestly, she had to stand there and weigh to herself which was more important.  Building a bear or making peace with Neji?

"Um…what would you want to do instead?" Hinata asked.

Neji hadn't really ever been to a mall before.  To be frank, the only time he ever went to any kind of shopping place was to get clothes.  He didn't know what kinds of things were available to him or what kinds of things he would potentially find at a mall.

"I don't know." Said Neji.  "Where do YOU want to go?"

Hinata didn't know exactly how to answer that.  He knew that she wanted to go to Build-A-Bear, so she figured he must have meant, 'Where do you want to go BESIDES Build-A-Bear?'  It really was the whole reason she had come to the mall, besides the fact that Naruto was there but she couldn't very well say, 'How about we stalk Naruto?'  She didn't even have to ask to know he probably wouldn't want to do that.

"Have you eaten lunch yet?" she tried.

Neji gave a heavy sigh.  Eating out was also another thing that he had never truly done before.  He knew he would get around to it someday, but he never thought he'd get around to it with a member of the MAIN FAMILY!!!  (Insert dramatic music.)

"Uhh…it's not really lunch time…" Neji said finally.

"Then we can always get something to drink." Hinata said.

"Where?"

"I don't know." Hinata confessed.  "Don't you have an idea?"  Neji still scared Hinata beyond all reason, but she was starting to get annoyed with him shooting down every one of her attempts and then not even trying at all.

"Not really."

"Okay, then how about instead of staying at the mall, we could go for a short walk and then go out to lunch when it's lunch time?" Hinata tried.

"…Where would we walk?"

"…Around…"

"What's the point of that?"

"Just to kill time."

"Couldn't we kill time some other way?"

"Like how?"

"I don't know."

Hinata was becoming more and more frustrated.  She was getting the feeling that maybe Neji just didn't want to be spending time with her JUST BECAUSE SHE WAS IN THE MAIN HOUSE!!!!

Neji was also getting frustrated because he could tell that Hinata was getting frustrated.  He didn't MEAN to annoy her so much but he honestly didn't really want to go on a walk and didn't know where they could eat or drink or what else they could do at a mall!!

"Let's get ice cream then." Hinata decided.

Neji didn't really mind the sound of that.  "Okay." He said.  "Where?"

Luckily for them, there was only one ice cream place around them so Hinata didn't have to go crazy trying to choose one that might have been the best.

As they were getting their ice cream, it was one of those classic scenes with the sun shining down and the characters blocking their eyes from the sun while looking up to it and then they turn into a drawing and little flower petals fly by with inner monologue that says something like, "So this is my life now!"