Part 1: Chapter 8
Breakfast was normal enough—eggs, bacon, sausage, miso soup (we have weird cooks; besides, Sunday is leftover day). Sakura and Ino joined us briefly, and they let us know that they were going to be gone the whole day visiting Sakura's parents. Naruto told her that she'd better take her guitar along and practice if she was planning on missing rehearsal. I asked her to tell us about stuff like this in advance next time. She informed the blond that he could perform acts of a sexual nature upon himself that were physically impossible under normal circumstances. And then she apologized to me and said she would do so the next time. They left shortly afterward; Naruto wanted seconds.
When he had his fill we left the cafeteria and went down toward the breezeway. On the way out, I saw two dark-haired people leaving the campus via the front entrance. It was nothing out of the usual—I thought I knew them. Shrugging, I followed Naruto down the steps and across the breezeway to the mailroom. He looked over to his left, toward the West Lawn and abruptly came to a halt mid-stride.
"Hey, isn't that Kiba?" he pointed. I stopped and looked over his shoulder at the hunched figure with the hood and their hands jammed into the jacket's pockets.
"Yeah," I tilted my head but I still couldn't see his face.
"I'm gonna remind him about practice tonight," he started over. I waited for him by the entrance to the mailroom, watching him approach with a yelled greeting. There was no response. I saw Naruto say a few things, but the other man didn't so much as twitch in acknowledgement. Finally, the blond shrugged and said one final thing in parting and turned to go. Faster than anything I've ever seen, Kiba whirled and brought his fist up.
WHAM!
Naruto hit the floor. "OW! You sonoffabitch!" He grabbed his face. "What the fuck is your problem?"
"What did you say to him, Naruto?" I called over as I stepped forward to intercept the tall man.
"I just told him about the rehearsal!" he wailed, scrambling to his feet. Kiba closed in on me, his abnormal yellow eyes flashing dangerously. I held my ground and matched his stance—I slipped my hands into my pockets and frowned, leaning forward. He stopped in front of me and breathed heavily through his nose, his teeth flashing in the shadows of his hood.
"Get out of my way, Uchiha," he snarled.
"What is your problem?" I snapped at him. "That was uncalled for!"
"Yeah, for real!" Naruto came up to us, rubbing his cheek. "What the hell, man?"
He tried to sidestep around me and I quickly cut him off again. "Get out of my way," he repeated.
"This is about Hinata, isn't it?" I guessed. The fist came at me from out of nowhere. Lucky for me, I was faster than Naruto; I caught his hand in mine and forced it back. His left eye twitched noticeably. "Decking everyone who mentions her name is not going to make this go away."
"…It's a start," he laughed bitterly and his entire body suddenly gave out. He fell to his hands and knees between us and lowered his head, shaking visibly. "Neji was right… She…she passed right by me! And she didn't say a word… I thought… I thought she…"
"Kiba," I loosened and knelt beside him, placing an uncertain hand on his shoulder. "What happened? Are you alright?"
"Is he alright?" Naruto gaped. "He knocks me to the floor and you ask if he's alright?"
"Naruto…" I sigh.
"No, I'm sorry," Kiba shook his head weakly. "I just…"
"Uh, no offense to cut you off man," the blond glanced around, "but we're making a scene."
"Come to my room," I said and stood. Kiba rose by himself, swiping an arm across his eyes harshly.
"Are Haku and Garra there?" he spoke thickly. "I want everyone to hear this."
"Yeah," I turned to Naruto. "Go get Shikamaru and Shino." He gave me a look which plainly stated 'I am not your bitch' which I returned with a stare of my own: 'This is not the time to fuck around. Go.' He pressed his lips together and restrained himself from complaining outright, turning back around and heading down to the West Lawn. He moves toward the secondary boy's dormitory as I nudge Kiba upstairs to my room.
"So, what's this drama about Kiba?" Shino walks in first.
"Yeah. And did he really punch the shit out of Naruto?" Shikamaru followed in after him, grinning slightly.
"Shut the hell up," Naruto comes in last, closing the door behind him and making a face. Haku sat up in his bed, closing the text book he had been studying from.
"Have a seat anywhere," he offers politely, gesturing to the large room. Shikamaru instantly plops down in the closest chair, which happens to be mine, and Shino sits quietly next to Garra on his bunk. The red-head puts down his book as well (the same one he was reading last time) and sits up attentively, and Naruto plops down next to me, staring at Kiba. The guy is definitely agitated; he's raking his long fingers through his hair which knocks his hood back, he's pacing the length of the room, and his face is abnormally pale. Now that I see him for once without the fur-lined hood, I notice the two blood-red stripes tattooed there, one on each cheek, running from the cheekbones to his chin. Tattoos. It makes him look wild. But right now, all this kid looks is scared as hell.
"Neji's always been jealous of my relationship with Hinata," he started.
"Tell us something we don't know," Shino pipes up from the bed as he pushes his sunglasses back up along the bridge of his nose. Kiba shot him a glare and Garra whacked him with a pillow.
"The band thing was the final straw," Kiba continued. "When Garra got the synth player position instead of him, he figured it was time to get me out of her life for good." He growled threateningly. "He's always wanted me out—he's picked fights with me our entire lives, always in an attempt to get her mad at me. I understand that a family member would be concerned, but two things always bothered me about it: one, he doesn't care about any one or thing, so why is this any different?; two, he uses her blindness as a lever—he takes advantage of the fact that she's handicapped. I hate him for it, I really do."
"So, he's personally stopping Hinata from being with you?" Naruto gaped as if he couldn't possibly believe someone could be that wicked. A nod was his only response.
"It sounds to me…" Haku spoke up slowly, "that Neji is slightly more than overprotective."
I made a face: "Obsessive is what I'd call it."
"I believe you're right," he continued. "Obsessive because he wants her all to himself."
Kiba froze at those words. Finally, he turned to look at Haku with a dazed expression on his face: "Because he's…"
"In love with her," Haku nodded, finishing. There was an awkward pause. Then…
"Ew, incest," Shino gave a shudder and Shikamaru seconded his exclamation with a nod.
"I always knew he was a crazy ass bastard," he commented dryly.
"That man has some serious issues," Naruto made a disgusted face.
"No doubts there," I sighed and opened up my notebook. "What do we do about him, then?"
"Nothing," Kiba said flatly and we all looked at him. "Hinata isn't a trophy to win or a piece of ass to fight over. She's a human being and I refuse to treat her differently."
"Ignoring the situation isn't going to make it magically go away," Garra spoke up. "Go after her now or lose her forever."
"Forever…" Kiba's face looked so pitiful. "I… I can't. There's nothing I can do…"
Naruto suddenly blinked and turned to me and then looked down at the blank page I had turned to.
"Maybe," he spoke up slowly, "there's something we can do."
Dah dah dah da-da da-dah.
"Right, better," Naruto turned back to me. "Sasuke, what's the next line?"
"I haven't written it yet, dobe," I mumbled, chewing thoughtfully on the end of my pen. He made a face at me and turned back to Haku.
"What have we got so far?" he asked. I heard the mouse clicking, and from the laptop's speakers came the rough beat we managed to scrounge up in one day:
Pah-pah, ba-da-da-da-da da-dah.
Bah dah-da-da-da-da da-dah.
Ba-dah bada bah da-da-da.
Tah ta-pah! Tah ta-pah!
"Heavy on the drums, good," the blond nodded, picking up his acoustic guitar and slowly picking out the matching notes. "It's Kiba's song, after all." He strummed a little bit, motioned at Haku to play the beat again, listened, then nibbled on his lip nervously. "Do you think this will work?" he finally asked aloud.
"It'd better," I scribbled down another two lines, frowning slightly. "I've never done this before—it's difficult."
"What is?" he looked at me.
"I've always written lyrics for or about myself or my life," I confessed, looking up at him from my notebook. "Even the song I wrote for you had my feelings behind it. But this…" I gestured to the notebook. "These aren't my emotions or thoughts. I'm writing from an outsider's point of view, and it's hard."
"Think of it as a new challenge," Naruto grinned at me affectionately and I felt my face turn red. "You're doing it for a friend."
"A friend…" I looked down at the few lines I had on the paper. Then I wrote another. I had to admit, this was a new way to do things. And I kind of enjoyed it. Besides… "Hinata is our friend too, and I want to be able to see her again."
"Definitely," the blond nodded. "Especially at this time, right before Christmas." That's right. I looked out at the darkening gray sky. "It would suck if she were alone, or Kiba wouldn't get to say how he feels…"
"How will we do it?" I asked. "There isn't an event or anything coming up until the Battle of the Bands thing."
"We'll just make an event," he winked. I looked at him for a moment longer. That's…crazy enough to work. I smiled at him and then returned to my paper.
"For You
Pen and paper in my hand
Thinking up this song for you
Haven't seen you for days now
I'm not sure what to do.
Just listening to the radio
Singing all the songs that remind me of you
And remind me of the things we used to say
And all the stuff we swore to do.
Everyday I look for you
For you
I want to tell you everything
And have you tell me everything too.
So, I'm always looking for you
For you
Daydreaming about the times together
I had everything when we were together.
You taught me how to see the night
I told you all you had to do was
Take my hand
And I could show you what the day brings.
I want to spend forever with you
Just holding on and talking to you
It seems I ask for everything
When all I want is you.
And everyday I look for you
For you
I want to tell you everything
And have you tell me everything too.
So, I'm always looking for you
For you
Daydreaming about the times together
I had everything when we were together.
When I'm not there for you
It hurts me like you can't know
Because you're always there for me
I'll try to be a better friend, so…
Tell me the truth without subtlety
So I can keep learning more from you
To be the friend I can never seem to be
The one I want to be for you.
So everyday I look for you
For you
I want to tell you everything
And have you tell me everything too.
So, I'm always looking for you
For you
Daydreaming about the times together
I had everything when we were together.
Everyday I look for you
For you
So I can tell you every time I see you
'I love you' and 'I miss you'
And 'I'll always be here for you'
For you.
I'm looking at a star now just for you
And hoping through my eyes that you can see it too
I make a wish on it for you
For you
And watch it fade away
It's sucked into the brand new day
The sun-lit sky is like our lives, you know.
But I still want to be there just for you
And I want to be a better person
Just for you
And I just want to let you know now
That I don't care what other people say
Or what they think they know.
My dearest friend
I will always dream
Of all the times we had together
And remember always
Your words of advice
And try to be all you need.
For you." --Uchiha Sasuke, Nov. 2005