Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto in any form shape or fashion. If I did, I would have already killed him and taken Hinata for myself…
Chapter 7. Home Economics.
"But you have a really NICE voice Shiori." Naruto said still snickering.
"I don't want to talk about it." Sasuke was saying as he tried to sulk.
"Man, and that one note she made you hit. I don't think I could ever get that high." Naruto said smiling.
Sasuke took a look around the home economics room to make sure no one was listening. "If we ever get back to being male, I think I might have some fun making you try." Sasuke said with an evil glint in his eye.
Naruto tried not to think about that one too hard, which admittedly came natural to him.
All the girls once again lined up as the class welcomed Ms. Satunabe. Jun'ko entered, looked through the roster and then looked up at all of them. "OK, I'm sure you all enjoyed Madame Furucho's performance this morning, so is there anything before we begin?"
There was a moment when only blank stares and crickets answered Jun'ko before… "I'm hungry!" Naruto blurted.
"Later!" Jun'ko said with annoyance as she went back to looking over the class. "As Madame Furucho has most likely already explained to everyone, there will be a ball at the end of the semester. This ball is the culmination of your efforts here during your first year. This class is no exception. At the ball this year, you are going to be wearing your class project from this class. I will be splitting you up into pairs and the two of you will be working on your ball gowns together. Each of you will be making your own dress, with my assistance, and you partner will help you with the measuring, modeling and so forth as you shall also do for them."
"Oh, this does not bode well." Naruto said using the senses that main characters often acquire when something bad or comical was about to happen, usually both.
Ms. Satunabe went down the line assigning partners until she reached the last two unfortunate recipients of today's dose of bad news. "Sakura will team up with Hinata, and Shiori, you and Naniko will be partners as well."
Naruto tried to calm himself. He didn't know much about sewing, but he was pretty sure that it involved things like needles and pins. Needles and pins that would be in the hands of a certain Uchiha Sasuke while he Naruto was expected to stand still wearing bits of cloth over his pressure points that were probably going to look like targets. It wasn't that Naruto didn't trust Sasuke, necessarily, it was just that when you belong to a profession that spends its time hunting down people that like to stay in the shadows holding sharp pointy objects you tend to develop certain qualities. Those qualities being smart, being paranoid, and being dead, usually two out of the three and Naruto fully realized he was running behind in one of them.
Sasuke didn't seem thrilled either, but then Sasuke didn't seem thrilled about much most days.
"In this class students, we will be spending every day together directly before lunch learning things such as sewing, needlepoint, knitting, cooking, and decorating. As such, as is the custom I have with all my classes before lunch, we will be eating together here in this room. These same pairs will be responsible for making the lunch for the rest of the class during this period on their assigned day." Jun'ko quickly went down the list of partners. "Shiori, you and Naniko, will be responsible for lunch every Friday."
"Cool!" Naruto said in anticipation. "Ramen every Friday!"
Naruto didn't think it was a bad idea, but suddenly Sasuke was doubled over holding his stomach. He quickly raised his hand. "Ms. Satunabe? Can I please be excused to go see the nurse?"
Naruto looked over at him when he felt the sensation. He was running out of chakra. Naruto quickly raised his hand. "Yeah, Ms. Satunabe. I can help Shiori there."
Jun'ko looked annoyed, but nodded. Naruto thought she heard her mutter something about first year students and then set about getting the girls set into doing needlepoint.
Sasuke and Naruto closed the door behind them and then looked up and down the hall. "Over here!" Naruto shouted as the two of them ran for the nearest room.
The two ducked inside and quickly made sure they were alone before the reached under their skirts and jerked down their panties. Just in time too, as the two boys suddenly welcomed back some long lost friends.
"Man that was close." Sasuke said looking unsuccessfully for a pocket on his school uniform in which to deposit his underwear.
"Yeah, I nearly ripped my favorite pair of panties." Naruto said sighing.
"I was referring to nearly getting caught dope." Sasuke said quietly.
"Oh. So how long did we manage?" Naruto asked trying to remember.
"Six days. I think we need to take the time and rest on weekends so we don't have little accidents like this again." Sasuke said seriously. "So now what do we do?"
"What else, we skip class." Naruto said simply.
"We can't do that." Sasuke said coldly.
"Sure we can. You're talking to an old pro here. We'll find someplace to hide out and rest long enough to recover our chakra to make it through the rest of the day. Besides, you haven't already become that fond of needlepoint have you?" Naruto said smiling.
Say what you will, there are some things that Uzumaki Naruto was bloody well good at. You had to be BLOODY brilliant to skip class at a ninja academy where the primary focus was on stealth, spying, and searching. Sasuke apparently realized this so he nodded and looked around the room.
The two now obvious boys in drag found themselves in a storage room with a lot of lawn equipment. They searched around until they found their prize, two pairs of coveralls. The two quickly put on the oversized garments over their uniforms and stuffed the panties in the pockets.
"Now what?" Sasuke asked the resident delinquent in charge.
"There's a door over here that leads outside. Let's get out of the building and see if we can slip across the campus to the dorms. We'll ditch the coveralls and hang out there until our next class. We should be able to stay transformed for the rest of the day by then." Naruto said looking out.
They two boys slipped out the door and started walking around and tried to look busy as they tried to make their way towards the dorms. They only got about half way before a woman's voice caught their attention. "Excuse me boys, could I have a word with you?"
Naruto and Sasuke turned around to find a middle-aged woman staring down at them reproachfully. "I suggest that the explanation you are about to give be EXCEPTIONALLY good." She said tapping her foot.
"We were just about to go plant some flowers Miss…" Naruto started.
"Tanako Chiko. And no you weren't. You were headed over towards those dorms over there." Ms. Tanako said looking past them towards the dorms that the two of them were staying in. "Honestly boys, do you think that an all girls school is going to hire custodians who are young boys that know every bush on the property?"
"Great idea, dope." Sasuke said sarcastically.
Naruto looked up and his brain froze. Most of his ninja training had been centered on stealth, but it usually ended situations like this with sticking it to the other guy before he stuck you. Obviously he was unprepared for the eventuality that sticking people might not be appropriate and that the other person might in fact not even be a guy.
Finally, much to Naruto's chagrin it was once again Sasuke who saved him. Sasuke looked down and started dragging his foot in front of him with his hands behind his back looking ashamed. "I'm sorry ma'am. We just wanted to see our girlfriends."
There were two things Naruto was fairly certain of about Sasuke in his short time with him. One, Sasuke never looked like he was ashamed of anything, and two, Sasuke didn't do 'sorry'.
Naruto quickly realized this and adopted a similar posture. "We've just been missing them since they left home is all." Naruto said miserably.
"So who are these girlfriends of yours?" Ms Tanako said severely.
"Haruno Sakura." Sasuke said with his eyes down cast.
Naruto nearly swore. He would have to take Sakura. Then the words from the previous night started echoing in his brain. Hinata is in love with Uzumaki Naruto. Naruto hadn't really had a chance to talk to her about it yet either.
"And you?" Ms. Tanako demanded.
"Hyuuga Hinata." Naruto said meekly. Forgive me, Sakura.
"Very well then. You two come with me. I believe those two are in Ms. Satunabe's class." Ms. Tanako turned and the two boys marched after her into the aforementioned building from which they had just escaped.
She marched them down the hall to their classroom and then knocked on the door. Shortly thereafter, Jun'ko answered looking from her to the two boys. "We've got some more." Ms. Tanako said simply. "Could you bring out Sakura and Hinata?"
Jun'ko smirked and then stepped back inside a few minutes later, Sakura and Hinata appeared in the doorway followed by the rest of the class full of girls who prescribed to the philosophy of 'Ooh look, somebody's going to get it, let's go watch'.
The look on Sakura and Hinata's faces was a quaint mixture of terror and recognition. Naruto had to admit, that it was pretty easy for them to stay in character.
"Never mind." Ms. Tanako said nodding. "I can already tell these two must belong to you. Girls, I cannot impress upon you enough just how grave this situation is. If it was up to me, and you belonged in my dorm, I would be packing you off for home immediately. You girls simply CANNOT be receiving visits from your boyfriends here at the school." Ms. Tanako said primly.
Sakura's mouth was moving, but her voice had refused to function. She looked somewhat like a floundering fish out of water. Granted, she was a pretty, pink-haired fish out of water, but a fish nonetheless.
"Oh, take the cork out, Chiko." Jun'ko said smiling in a motherly type way that told Naruto's sense of delinquency he was about to get away with something. "It's not like they're the first. At least you didn't catch them in bed together."
Now Sasuke's mouth wasn't quite working properly, Naruto had a nosebleed, and Hinata was out like light.
"We REALLY need to do something about that." Sakura was saying, as she was the first to recover.
"Well, they belong to your dorm, so handle it how you see fit." Ms. Tanako was saying. "I know I'd never let my boys act like that. I enrolled them across the lake so they'd learn to be PROPER gentlemen."
"Yes, you've told us a dozen times already, I'm sure you're proud. I'll take it from here." Jun'ko said. "You girls get back to your needlework."
Hinata had gotten up and Sakura was helping her. The two turned to go back in. "Not you two." Jun'ko said quickly.
Ms. Tanako huffed and left them with Jun'ko and headed off to do whatever it is fussy women go about doing when they aren't griping at other people. Practice, was Naruto's humble opinion.
"Well, take those coveralls off then. They don't really fit the two of you." Jun'ko said smiling to herself. She apparently had seen this plenty of times before enough to think of it as amusing.
"We can't." Naruto said blushing.
"Why not?" Jun'ko demanded loosing some of her previous amusement.
"It was hot so we took off our clothes and stashed them outside the gate." Sasuke supplied.
"Very well then, come along all of you." Jun'ko said regaining some of her amusement. Naruto guessed that sometimes it was amusing to have funny things happen to other people so that it busted up the tedium of the day.
Jun'ko escorted them across the grounds along with Hinata and Sakura until they reached the gate. She then opened it and looked at the four of them before smiling. "Oh, don't let Tanako bother you. She's new and still has the idea that rules are rules. Is this where your clothes are?"
Sasuke nodded. Naruto sighed; freedom was just a few feet away.
"Well, I'll stay right here and you boys can go change your clothes and bring the coveralls back to me here. I trust you two can find your ways back home without any help?" Jun'ko asked.
Sasuke and Naruto nodded emphatically.
"Good. You know girls," Jun'ko said looking to Hinata and Sakura, "I'd be flattered. A boy has to love girl pretty much to risk getting caught to come here just to see them." There were blushes all around at that one. "The late Mr. Satunabe pulled a similar stunt when I was a girl your age."
"You know it's a shame you boys came all this way and tried so hard just to leave empty handed. I tell you what. I'll step over here out of earshot and you boys can say your good byes and at least get a good-bye kiss for your efforts." Jun'ko said smiling and leaving the four for a little distance so she could watch and make sure no impropriety happened while still giving them a measure of privacy.
The blushes had now been replaced by four sets of eyes that were now as big as saucers as Sakura's hand reached out to grab Hinata's arm, just in case.
"I guess we better make this believable." Sakura said hopefully as Sasuke took her hands.
"Yeah." Sasuke said looking nervous. "Uh, Sakura."
"Yes, Sasuke?" Sakura said looking at his lips in anticipation. She's actually ENJOYING this. Sasuke thought bitterly.
"I've never kissed a girl before. I know I kissed Naruto, but that doesn't count." Sasuke said nervously.
"I know." Sakura said breathlessly.
"So, how do we do this?" Sasuke asked dumbly. Ignorance was NOT something he liked confessing.
Sakura seemed to snap out of her dream state for a moment. "What do you mean?"
"What I mean is, that I never really thought about how to kiss a girl before and make it look romantic. You're a girl and apparently you've been dreaming about this for a while, so what do I do now?" Sasuke said desperately. Hopefully Jun'ko was going to believe it was a long good bye.
"You know I never actually imagined I'd get to this part." Sakura said seriously putting her hands up on his shoulders. "Well, I guess you need to start by putting your hands on my hips."
"Like this?"
"Yeah." Sakura said apparently finding it slightly difficult to breathe. "Now slowly reach your hands around to the small of my back while you pull me into you."
"Like this?" Sasuke said as he did as he was instructed. Sakura was leaning forward and now had her weight against his chest and would have fallen if not for him holding her up.
"That's actually a little low, but I'm not complaining." Sakura said in a whisper as her face was now very close to his.
"Now what do we do?" Sasuke asked whispering just as low.
Sakura's head tilted to the side, as she got closer. "We just… do what… comes naturally." Sakura said as she reached up and claimed his lips with her own.
Strawberry. From that day forward, Sasuke would remember that it tasted like strawberry. He remembered it, because when Sakura had been teaching him how to apply makeup, she had given him lip-gloss that had tasted like strawberries. He had mentioned that he liked the taste, so that's what she was wearing now. She must really have it bad. Sasuke thought to himself.
The next thing he would always remember was when her tongue invaded his mouth. He wasn't expecting it and nearly pulled back, but managed to keep his wits. Jumping back from a kiss from your girlfriend would probably cause some questions from Jun'ko. Yeah questions, that was the reason.
Naruto had his back to Sakura and Sasuke. He really didn't want to think about that right now. Yeah, Hinata was pretty and sweet, and she would probably make a REALLY good girlfriend, but Naruto had honestly had feelings for Sakura. He tried not to think too closely about thinking about them in the past tense and succeeded. He was good at that.
Hinata on the other hand, he knew he cared for. He had simply never seen her as anything but the kind, caring, nurturing, person who was always in his shadow trying to be a quiet encouragement and trying to make him feel good while everybody else in the village spat on him. Yeah, I guess I AM a dope. Naruto thought in retrospect. It was just that he hadn't even realized Hinata's true feeling for him for more than twenty-four hours and here they were about to have their first kiss.
To give Naruto credit, he really didn't need as much help as Sasuke when it came to kissing a girl romantically. He'd fantasized about this off and on for as long as he could remember liking Sakura. Now all he had to do was replace Sakura with Hinata in his visions and he had some pretty good ideas about how to go about things.
"Hinata?" Naruto ventured.
"Yes, Naruto-kun." Hinata said blushing. She was sweet that way.
"What Sasuke said last night, is it true?" Naruto said quietly. He too had taken Hinata's hands.
"Yes." Came Hinata's reply almost sounding ashamed.
"What's wrong?"
"I'm sorry I never had the courage to tell you before now, Naruto-kun." Hinata said sadly.
"No Hinata. You have nothing to be sorry for. I'm just sorry I never realized it before now." Naruto said honestly.
"It's alright." Hinata said seriously.
"Hinata, you know me pretty well, so I'm just going to say this. You know that I've always had this thing for Sakura." Naruto said.
Hinata nodded lowering her eyes to her feet.
"But that doesn't mean that I don't care for you too." Naruto said dumbly. He reached out and lifted Hinata's chin to look in her eyes. "You've always been there for me and I've been to dense to see it. I'm sorry for that. All that I CAN promise you that I'm not going to ignore that any more. Hinata, I don't know what's going to happen tomorrow or the next day any more than anybody else, but what I do know is that I'm going to take every opportunity I have to see if there might be something between us. That is if you still want me."
Hinata didn't say anything. She didn't have to. The smile on her face spoke volumes. Naruto resolved within himself that no matter what happened, he was going to try and make sure she smiled like that more often.
Naruto moved towards Hinata much as Sakura and Sasuke were doing behind him. He too had his hands a little too low as he reached around her, and she too wasn't complaining. In fact, she shifted so that his hands actually dropped a little lower.
Naruto leaned in and took Hinata's lips with his own. He knew she was shy, and wanting this to be a special moment for her gently invaded her mouth with his tongue. He did after all, have the most perverted sensei in Konoha so advice on proper kissing was always available. They kissed for a moment, and then when Naruto went to move away he felt Hinata's gentle hands cup his face and the next thing HE knew he was leaning into HER trying desperately to gasp for air as she dove in madly to his kiss.
In retrospect he shouldn't have been surprised. He'd pretty much imagined that it would have been his reaction as well if he'd ever gotten the shot to kiss Sakura. He'd thought that in case he might not ever get a second shot. That was when he reached two decisions. First a ninja led a dangerous lifestyle, so make every kiss count like it was your last one.
(A/N: A bit of kindly advice I would give to all who read this story. We may not have as dangerous of a lifestyle, but life is short none-the-less.)
Secondly, he decided Hinata was DEFINTELY getting another shot, along with, more than likely, a third, fourth, fifth, sixth, etc.
Jun'ko watched the young lovers for a moment and let the memory take her back. Then she waited. Then she waited some more. The she cleared her throat. Then she wondered if they needed to breathe. Then she cleared her throat. Then she went over and tapped the two boys on the shoulder. Then she decided this whole romantic thing had gone on for quite long enough and whacked both boys upside the head. She did however smile afterwards.
Sasuke walked toward the bushes with Naruto in tow. He really hadn't thought this far ahead with his lie, but since they were out they could always just run for it.
"You call that believable?" Sasuke said baiting Naruto.
"What? I lasted longer than you did!" Naruto retorted.
"Did not."
"Did too."
"Bet me."
"You're on!" Naruto said in defiance as they ducked into the bushes. "Though we might want to clear that type of contest with the girls."
"I don't think they'll mind." Sasuke said seriously. "I didn't think that she was going to stand there and wait until we brought the coveralls back."
"Maybe I can assist with that."
"Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto said managing to yell while whispering.
"Here give me the coveralls. I'll do an illusion of Sasuke and carry them back to her. Nice kisses by the way." Kakashi said admiringly.
Both boys were blushing as they took off their coveralls. "You saw us?"
"Saw, heard, and what's more, got pictures." Kakashi said holding up some photos of the young lovers kissing.
"You wouldn't dare!" Sasuke said as he handed the coveralls to Kakashi. Kakashi didn't say a word, but had a feral gleam in his eye that said that he not only would dare, but also HAD dared, and most likely would dare AGAIN if given the opportunity.
Naruto still had a distant look in his eyes. "Uh sensei? Why did you bring a camera on this mission?"
Ayame and Suzu went into the storage room. They were in detention for sneaking out after dark and had been assigned to flower duty. The two of them looked around until they found the coveralls that were kept for just such a purpose and slipped into them. Ayame reached into a pocket and pulled out something lacey. She looked at it for a moment before turning to Suzu. "Is this yours?"