7 Days, Come What May
Chapter IV: "You Want That?"
"Auntie Midori, Auntie Midoreee!" Naruto shouted, banging slightly on the table.
"Yes?" the kind old woman asked as she carried some smoothies and crackers to the table.
"What is there to do here at the K.H.S.?"
Hinata was sitting next to him with Sakura on the other side. The other people there were Chouji, Kankurou, Ino, Lee, and Ten Ten. The others were obviously still unpacking or went off wandering on their own.
"Hmm…" Aunt Midori rubbed her chins. "Well, there's horse-riding, the waterfalls, the spa, the fitness, the sauna, the tea house, our souvenir shop, the restaurant in the next building, and of course, our famous hot springs!"
"Whoa, HORSE-RIDING! I've NEVER been on a horse before!" Naruto cried happily and immediately stood up.
"C'mon, Hinata, let's go!"
"W-Why me?" she asked uncertainly.
"BECAUSE, we're roommates!" the blonde answered cheerily. "Where are the horses' stables, Auntie?"
"Out the back door, to the right, and continue going down the brick path," as soon as the old lady was finished speaking, Naruto had dragged Hinata out.
Ten Ten giggled. "They're a cute couple, aren't they?"
Sakura nodded. "I think Hinata-chan likes Naruto!"
"Duh," Ino added.
Again, Sakura's eyes met Ino's gaze. As usual, evil sparks flew. Lee fidgeted nervously. Chouji quickly got up.
"Urm, Auntie, I think I'm going to go check out that restaurant in the next building. You comin' Kankurou?" Chouji made up a reasonable excuse.
"Yea, sure," Kankurou replied. The two guys hurriedly exited through the back door.
Now, the only people left at the table were Sakura, Ino, Ten Ten, and Auntie Midori. The old woman was, naturally, a peace-lover and did not like fights.
"Girls, why don't you go find something to do?" Aunt Midori gently suggested.
"Hm! Fine, I'm going to the sauna. I'm going to get thinner for Sasuke-kuuun!" Ino sang as skipped out the door.
Ten Ten released the breath that she had been holding. Although she was sure that she could beat the blonde girl when it came to fighting, she was still a bit fearful of Ino. Ino had a pretty violent temper. Her eyes rested on the girl next to her, Sakura. Well, Sakura had an equally violent temper, but somehow, Ten Ten did not feel threatened. Maybe it was because Sakura had defended her on the carriage earlier in the day. When Sakura caught Ten Ten looking at her, she smiled.
"Don't be scared of that Ino-pig, Ten Ten! I'll beat her up for you if she does anything bad to you! I'm not scared of her," Sakura said reassuringly.
"I'm not scared, Sakura-chan!" Ten Ten replied a bit too loudly. "But thanks, anyway."
Sakura grinned again then got up. "Auntie, I think I'll go take a look around. Thanks!"
She ran out the door.
"How about you, Ten Ten, dear?" Aunt Midori asked the only remaining person left at the table.
"I don't know yet. I'll just go walk around and find something to do," Ten Ten replied. "Thanks for the snacks!"
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"Come on, Hinata!" Naruto looked back at Hinata as he ran.
Puffing and panting, the Hyuuga girl fought to keep up with Naruto. Naruto lessened his speed so that their steps could fall into place.
"I've never been on a horse before, have you, Hinata-chan?" Naruto asked.
"I-I have," Hinata managed to pant out. "But I'm not very good at horse-riding, though. Neji's better."
"Aww…I'm sure you can do as good as him," Naruto gave Hinata an encouraging smile.
Hinata smiled back weakly and nodded.
Once they reached the horse stables, Naruto picked a big, black horse while Hinata picked a white one. Hinata easily got up on her horse while Naruto unsuccessfully tried to climb up. After about three tries, the blonde boy gave up.
"Hinata-chaaaaaan…do you know how I can get up on this horse?"
"U-Um...just step on the side thing and climb up," Hinata replied.
Naruto looked at the side step and hesitated. He looked up at Hinata with a playful grin. "Naww…I don't think I will."
For a moment, Hinata looked a bit bewildered. "O-Oh! That's okay then…if you don't want to go horse-riding with me…we can go do something else."
Hinata started to get down from her white horse when Naruto stood in front of her, preventing her from stepping down.
"No, noooo, Hinata-chan! That's not what I mean. Let's ride this horse together! Because even if I do get up on that other horse, I don't think I'll be able to control it," he goofily grinned at her again and extended out his hand so that she would help him up.
Hinata took Naruto's hand and helped pull him up, her cheeks slightly red (whether from the hot evening sun or something else, no one would ever know). The two ended up sitting together, with Hinata in front and Naruto behind her. Once Naruto was settled comfortably, Hinata began to make the horse trot.
"Wow, this is fun, Hinata-chan!" Naruto exclaimed after a few minutes of trotting. "Can we go faster?"
"S-Sure, Naruto-kun!" Hinata immediately replied, and kicked the horse.
The speed of the horse was increasing and the cool summer breeze made the scene perfect. Naruto cuddled Hinata from behind.
"N-Naruto!" Hinata cried out at the unexpected gesture.
"Ahh…you're so soft, Hinata-chan! I really like this jacket you wear all the time, you know," Naruto said, leaning his head on her back.
"Thank you…" she replied very, very quietly.
In a while, the two came up to a big meadow full of colorful wildflowers.
"Wow…it's very beautiful…" Hinata remarked softly.
"Yea, it is! Hinata, let's go down and take a look!" Naruto said, tapping Hinata on the shoulder.
"Yes, lets…" Hinata began to get down from the horse.
Unfortunately, Naruto was trying to get down from the horse at the same time and their legs tangled.
"W-Whoaaaaaa!" Naruto cried as both of them fell down on the soft grass.
Hinata fell on top of the blonde boy and got up immediately.
"A-Are you okay, Naruto-kun? Are you hurt?" she asked nervously as she brushed herself off.
Naruto did not answer her. He was still on the grass, staring up at her face. Naturally, Hinata was not a person with the highest self-esteem. It bothered her when someone stared at her like that—with unblinking attention.
"N-Naruto….is there…something wrong?" she asked uncertainly.
To her surprise, the fox-boy burst out laughing. Hinata was not sure how to react. She reddened with embarrassment, even though she didn't know what she was supposed to be embarrassed about. This made Naruto laugh even harder. All of a sudden, Hinata could not stand it any longer.
"NARUTO! TELL ME!" She suddenly screamed.
Naruto froze. "W-Whoa. Now, that's new. Never seen you shouting before."
Hinata turned even redder than before. She gave him a disapproving look before walking off.
"H-Hey! Hinata-chan! Where're you goin'?" Naruto quickly got up and ran after her.
However, it was too late. Hinata had already mounted her horse and was steadily trotting off.
"HEYY…HINATA-CHAN! Don't leave me here!" Naruto shouted after the Hyuuga on the horse and began to run after her.
After a while, Naruto began to get pretty tired and was lagging behind a little.
"HINATA-CHAN! I'M SORRY! I'M SORRY I WAS LAUGHING AT YOU! PLEASE TALK TO ME!" Naruto attempted at an apology.
The horse stopped. However, Hinata did not get down from her horse. Naruto ran to catch up.
"Come down, Hinata, I can explain!" Naruto extended a hand up to her.
However, Hinata did not accept Naruto's hand. She didn't even look at him. She looked straight ahead, like he was invisible. Her cheeks were still a bit red, and Naruto could tell that she was a bit mad at him.
"Awww…come on, Hinata, I'm sorrrrryyy," Naruto tugged at Hinata's jacket.
Hinata turned around a little and looked at him at last. When Naruto noticed that she was looking at him, he gave her his sweetest face.
"Pretty please, Hinata-chan?" he gave her a charming smile. "It's okay, you don't have to come down from that horse. Just listen to me, okay?"
Hinata didn't answer. She just looked at him with an unidentifiable expression on her face.
"Okay, I was laughing at you because it's funny how you just fell down…and instead of worrying about yourself, you're asking me if I was hurt or anything. It's just really amusing to see that worried or uncertain expression on your face…and I laughed even harder when you asked me if there was something wrong…it's just…you're so…funny, in a good way, I mean," Naruto confessed with a sheepish smile on his face.
He waited there for a while, hoping for the best reaction from Hinata. Unexpectedly, Hinata offered her hand down to Naruto.
"You can come up on the horse," she said quietly.
Naruto's smile grew very wide. "YAY!"
He climbed up on the horse and gave her a bear hug from behind. "Forgive me, will you, Hinata-chan?"
"M-Maybe…" she said softly.
Naruto placed his hands on both of her shoulders and leaned up front to take a look at her face. "But you're still not smiling…"
So, Naruto tickled her teasingly. "Hinata-chan! Give me a smile! If you smile that means you've forgiven me, right?"
Hinata squirmed around a bit, trying to force herself not to laugh. Eventually, however, she gave in.
"Hahahahahaha…Naruto! Stop!" she choked in between laughs.
"Naw…don't think I will!" Naruto continued to tickle Hinata playfully. "Unless….you say you'll forgive me!"
"Hahahahaha….Fine….Hahahahaahhaha….Okay! NARUTO-KUN I FORGIVE YOU!" Hinata shouted.
"Hahaha…okay, I'll stop now!" Naruto stopped tickling her and gave her another bear hug instead. "'Cause I don't' want you to die of laughter."
"Hahahaha…I-If you do that again, Naruto-kun, I definitely won't forgive you!" Hinata remarked cheerily.
"Oh, really, Hinata-chan? We'll see, we'll see…"
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Even though Sakura told Aunt Midori that she wanted to go out and explore the place, she doubled back to her room. Part of the reason she came back was because she wanted to see Sasuke (for no particular reason at all). When she first found out that she got to be in the same room as him (Room 007), she had quickly dumped her stuff on her bed and walked out of the room.
Sakura was not sure why she did that, but she suspected it was because she wanted to…compose herself before meeting alone with Sasuke. Or maybe…it was about the awkward situation that she was going to get to sleep in the same room as him. Sure, she could've traded her invitation card with someone else to get a different room number. But she didn't, because…well...she simply had a crush on him. Also, Sakura suspected that if she told everyone that she wanted to trade rooms, Ino would be the first one to trade with her. And Sakura would rather die than give Sasuke over to Ino. Ino was her forever-rival, and Sakura did not like losing. Sakura also had no intentions at all to trade with Ino, because she did not want to spend the night with Lee.
Sakura opened the door and stepped into her room…ahem...her room and Sasuke's room. She saw Sasuke sitting on his bed, staring out of the window. His stuff was already all unpacked neatly into the closet. Well, Sakura had expected no less. Sasuke narrowed his eyes at her when he saw her.
"Hi, Sasuke-kun!" said Sakura, smiling cheerfully.
As Sakura had already assumed, Sasuke did not reply to her greeting. He just lifted his glance from her and continued sitting there, staring into space. Sakura almost, almost, sighed, but her inner self told her to cheer up. 'Patience, Sakura, patience! Sasuke-kun's always like this…but he's really nice if you get to know him, and plus, he's not at all bad-looking!'
"I'm just here to unpack my stuff. I hope I'm not bothering you," Sakura beamed at Sasuke again.
"Do what you want."
Sakura happily nodded and merrily unzipped her bag and started to put stuff into the closet. After she was all done, she turned around to Sasuke. Apparently, he had been sitting there, staring at her while she was unpacking.
Inner Sakura: 'Yay! At least he's looking at me!'
"So…Sasuke-kun….don't you want to go out and explore what they have to do around here?" Sakura asked happily again.
"No," he simply replied.
Inner Sakura: 'Argghhhh…he's soooooo….anti-social! HOW DID I EVER GROW TO LIKE THE GUY! Okay…patience…patience…he'll come around….'
"Oh….okay…well, then do you want to go…see what they've got for sale in the souvenir shop downstairs?" Sakura suggested with a hopeful face.
"You're so annoying," and with that, Sasuke got up, went to the closet at the corner of the room, and opened it.
Sasuke dug around a while, trying to find something. Meanwhile, Inner Sakura's patience was running extremely low. 'The nerve of that guy! I mean, if he wasn't such…a PRETTY FACE I would have PUNCHED him by now. And the only thing that's stopping me from doing exactly that is that I'm supposed to be having a crush on him…arghhhhh…how DARE he call me annoying!'. Sakura stuck out her tongue and gave Sasuke the middle finger with both hands while his back was turned.
Unfortunately, Sasuke did have eyes on the back of his head. Or maybe it was because his Sharingan was too good.
"I saw that, Sakura," Sasuke calmly remarked with his back still turned.
Sakura's mouth dropped open as Sasuke turned around to face her. Apparently, he had found the wallet that he was looking for and he stuffed it into his pocket. He gave her a weird look.
"Didn't know you liked giving people the middle finger just for that," Sasuke stated coolly.
Sakura was super embarrassed. Inner Sakura: 'Oh, SHIT. This is GREAT. Just GREAT. And I'm supposed to be HAVING A CRUSH ON HIM. GREAT.'
"Erm…Sasuke-kun….that was…I don't know what you're talking about," Sakura made up a lame excuse.
Sasuke smirked. "I'm sure you don't know, Sakura."
He walked to the door of the room and opened it, prepared to go out.
"What are you waiting for, Sakura. You said you wanted to go somewhere?" he asked impatiently.
"W-WHAT? I thought you said…"
"Whatever, Sakura, You're so annoying," Sasuke said, walking out and closing the door behind him.
Sakura stood there, transfixed for a while.
"Hey, SASUKE-KUN! I'm going too! Wait up!" Sakura ran after him.
Soon after, Sakura caught up with Sasuke in the hallway. Inner Sakura: 'Wowwww! YEA! NOW my patience has paid off! I wanna see what Ino-pig's gonna say NOW! Hahahahaha…I'm going to…errr…where were we going again? …yea, anyway, WITH SASUKE-KUN!'
After a while, the two reached the souvenir shop. Sakura wandered around to look at various stuff, randomly picking up cute key chains and examining them enthusiastically. Sasuke, meanwhile, just walked around looking at stuff with a very uninterested look on his face. Then, Sakura spotted a beautiful pink yukata with patterns of white sakura flowers on a clothes model. She went over to touch the sleeve.
"Wow. This is so beautiful…" Sakura said in awe. 'But most likely too expensive,' she silently added.
Sasuke had come up to stand behind Sakura.
"You want that?" he asked blankly.
"Yea, but…"
"Miss, how much is yukata?" Sasuke called impatiently to the shopkeeper.
The shopkeeper came over and gave Sasuke the price (a staggering price, which Sakura was in too stunned a mood to remember). The Uchiha took out his wallet and coolly paid for the pink sakura-patterned yukata. Minutes later, the shopkeeper came back with the yukata in a bag (labeled "Konoha Hot Springs Souvenir Shop") and handed it to Sasuke.
Sasuke quickly led Sakura out of the shop and handed the bag to her. Sakura reluctantly took the bag. She was still stunned. Sakura stared at Sasuke, her mouth opening and closing like a goldfish, trying to speak. Sasuke raised his eyebrows.
"What?" he asked, irritated.
"W-Why did you…buy that for me?" The question did not come out as smoothly as Sakura had wanted it to me. She hoped that it didn't sound too…ungrateful.
Sasuke smirked.
"Because you were taking too long in that shop and it was too annoying. I'm going back up," he replied impassively.
With that, Sasuke walked off.
"Wait, Sasuke-kun!" Sakura called after him after a few moments of trying to process the information he had just told her.
Sasuke stopped without turning around.
"Thank you."
'You're welcome,' came his unspoken reply.
Joyce: I apologize for the late update:) I'll try to update sooner...but I was having a writer's block and...just simply busy. But I think, THINK I won't be updating until Sunday or after this Sunday because my prom's on Saturday! And you know proms mean...a lot of preparing and stuff...whew...:D...hmm...My dress is pink ...hehehe..XD..just for your information XD...I'm really nervous! Oh, and after the prom I'm gonna go out and PARTAY with my frendz all night long! And if I get any...urm...inspiration there I'll put it in the next chappie:D...OH, yea, nother thing. Lotsa people been asking for...what was it...Neji and Ten Ten (correct me if I'm wrong)?...I think, will try, to put that in later chappies if I can XD...and thanks for all your support and please CONTINUE TO REVIEWS! I love you all! XD