I apologize for the overly long wait; no excuses. Hope you enjoy this new chapter! ;)
Xxx Disclaimer: Naruto doesn't belong to me, but to the great Masashi Kishimoto xxX
"I had no idea that you knew her, too, you sneaky bastard." The taller man cackles, crossing his arms over his bare, toned chest. His obnoxious laughter seems to annoy the others in the room.
The much shorter redhead sighs and pinches the bridge of his nose, closing his eyes in hopes of calming his irritation.
"Mind you, it wasn't intentional, by any means. She just so happened to be quite friendly with the people at my place of cover."
The taller man burst out in laughter once more. "Well aren't you a lucky piece of shit!?" His eyes gleam with mischief. "Maybe I should've worked there instead of your dumb ass. Would have made things much easier on me."
Another short man snickered at the tall man's comment, earning him a seething glare. "Now what the fuck is so funny?"
"You, obviously, hm." The shorter blonde replies cheekily, looking up at the glaring man with an equally cheeky stare. "What good would changing jobs do ya', hm?" He titters. "You've known her for over a year, yet you still haven't done shit!"
The taller man's glare hardens as he scoffs at the shorter man, waving him off. "I've just been waiting for the right time. She's a tough broad, you hear?"
"I think he's just been putting his job off so that he can get first dibs." Another tall, tanned man states in an peeved tone.
"Talk about selfish!" Another man giggles behind his mask.
"I mean, how long do you plan on waiting?" A fairly dark skinned man questions with a deep frown.
"Do you plan on waiting until she looses her purity, her value?" A very pale man adds onto the other man's inquiry.
A sickly looking tall man chuckles at the man's expense. "I never thought that I'd see the day that you'd ever be selfish like this." His eyes glint dangerously. "It's very amusing."
"You know what else is amusing?" The tall, bare chested man seethes, fist balled up at his sides. "You all shuttin' the fuck up! Get the fuck off my back!"
"Whoa there, Mister Sass!" The short blonde beside him mocks with his hands up in defense. "Could it be that you're possibly catching feelings, hm? Never seen you get so defensive before."
The tall man practically growls at the shorter man. "I ain't being fucking defensive! It's called being pissed as all hell!"
"Wait, so you do like her?" The masked man in the room asks in such a silly tone that it's almost scary.
Switching his glare to the masked man, the man in question throws his hands up in the air before flipping the goofy man off. "Fuck you! As if I'd fall for that prissy bitch! She just has a nice body, that's all that it is." He then smirks at his own thoughts. "All I want is my chance to tap it before any other fucker."
"So I was right." The tall, tanned man deadpans.
The tall man rolls his eyes. "Yeah, so what? You proud of yourself, or something? Should I give you a round of applause?"
"I'll kill you." The tanned man growls, balling his fist at his sides.
"I'll be waiting." The other man smirks, crossing his arms in triumph.
Silence drowns the room for a moment as the two tall characters glower at each other, each imaging the others' death. Suddenly, a eerily calming voice breaks through the silence.
"So basically what you're saying is that you're going to hold off on what you're supposed to do until you get what you want?" Inquires a man with slick black hair.
Losing his smirk, the man turns towards the one whom spoke. "Basically. Is there a problem with that?" He challenges with a sneer.
"Actually, yes there is."
The tall man's eyes sharpen as he and the others in the room look towards the single woman in the room. The woman blinks her eyes, but otherwise remains emotionless as she stares at the glaring man.
"We've given you a year, thinking that it was probably her causing the trouble, however, now that we know the truth, it ends here." She states, her voice calm and devoid of emotion.
"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" He asks in a disinterested tone.
"Either you do you your job soon, or we give it to someone else more capable." She responds, sending a peek over at the bored redhead in the room. Quickly, everyone's gaze turns his way, causing him to groan due to the unwanted attention.
"Geez, way to be subtle with your next choice of person." The redhead drawls, shutting his eyes to avoid the looks given to him.
With his eyes closed, the redhead fails to notice the grin the bare chested man gives him. "So if I don't do what I'm told, you're gonna have Mr. Impatient take over for me?" He questions, turning his gaze over to the woman, smirk still in place.
She simply nods. "That's the plan."
"Well go ahead then!" The tall man cackles, shrugging his shoulders with a smug grin. "You act as if I give a shit! However," He turns his stare onto the agitated redhead, whom was giving him the evil eye. "Just let me know if you can ever get her to trust you enough. A prude like her took way too long to open up. She hasn't even let me see her in a bikini yet, and I'm supposed to be dating her!"
The redhead remains silent for a moment before showing off a smirk of his own. "Sucks for you then, because I may have just gotten farther than you have, and I've only known the broad for a week."
The bare man raises a brow at the cocky redhead. "What the hell are you talking about?"
The redhead's smirk quickly turns into a devious smile as he shrugs his shoulders. "Well, not to burst your bubble, but I've already seen her half naked, and to top it off, I have a date with her in a few days."
The tall man's eyes widen in disbelief. "How the fuck-?!"
"I'm sorry if I'm not going to be that much of an entertaining companion, Sasori-san." Hinata smiles sweetly, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. "But if you will, please bear with me. In all honesty, I've actually been looking forward to this the entire week." She states as she looks down shyly at her tan boots.
Sasori sends the currently blushing girl a side glance before sighing out of boredom. The fact that she had just said that she won't be much of a companion was enough to make him regret coming to this café with her.
Currently, he and Hinata were waiting in line at the café, waiting to take their orders. Sasori has to admit, the place looked like a decent hang-out spot, especially since the waitresses all wore cute looking kitten-maid costumes. The café was decorated with colors of beige, brown, and caramel. Little, dark paw prints were patterned along the walls, and couple of TV's were hung in different corners of the room. There was a decent sized area full of booths and tables for people to sit and eat if they chose to, and there was also a small section for people who wanted to smoke nearby a cracked window.
In the front, where they were currently standing, was a clear window where you could see all of the freshly made pastries for the taking. Above that, behind the counter, was a large slate that showed all of the options that you could choose from. And for a measly café, Sasori was slightly shocked by the amount of options that they had to choose from.
Suddenly, Sasori was brought out from his observing thoughts when he felt a smaller hand grab onto his, lightly tugging him forward. Looking down with annoyance, he watches as the hand withdraws itself, and he instantly looks up to the person that the hand belongs to. She fidgets nervously.
"I-I'm sorry, Sasori-san." Hinata says with a light tint in her cheeks. She then points to the server in front of her, whom was smiling at Sasori with a flirtatious glint in her baby blue eyes. "It's just that we were next and she was waiting for your order."
"Did you already order?" He finds himself asking her, earning him a small smile.
Hinata nods. That's when Sasori finally takes notice of the blonde in front of him. She smiles as well.
"So what is it that I can get you?" The blonde asks, flipping her blonde ponytail over her shoulder before winking at the bored redhead.
"What's good?" Just as the blonde is about to answer him, Sasori looks down at Hinata expectantly, making her blink, while the blonde puffs out her cheeks dejectedly.
"Oh, well I normally just get a cinnamon roll and either chai tea or a hot chocolate." She looks down thoughtfully before looking back up at him with a shrug. "But from what you've told me, I'm guessing that you'd like your black coffee and maybe a ham and cheese croissant?"
Sasori remains silent for a moment, causing both girls to look at each other for a moment before looking back at him. Finally, Sasori looks down at Hinata and nods to her. "Get it."
Hinata blinks before smiling and looking back to the server. "Okay, so he would like to have a simple black coffee with a ham and cheese croissant, please."
"What size?" The serve ask, looking up at Sasori. "Small, medium, or large?"
"Medium."
The blue eyed server smiles as she types in his order. She then relays back the order to them before asking them if the order was 'for here or to go'. When they say that it was for here, Hinata insist on paying for the two of them. Once the meal was payed for, the two go and sit in one of the booths in the far corner. Once seated, they both wait quietly for their order to arrive.
In a mere few minutes, a different server comes to their table with a tray in her hand covered with their order. This server has bubblegum pink hair and emerald green eyes. The girl smiles brightly as she places the plates down on the tables and then places the drinks down afterwards.
"Enjoy!" She cheers before walking off to deliver another order.
"Thank you!" Hinata calls after, and then reaches for her steaming cup of tea.
Hinata blows on the cup gently, not noticing that Sasori held his hazel gaze on her as she did so. Once she took a sip of her drink, she nearly spits it back out from locking eyes with her companion. Coughing down her drink, she laughs nervously.
"S-So what do you think, Sasori-san? A-About the... café, I mean..." She asks, placing her suddenly clammy palms onto her lap.
Sasori takes a sip of his coffee. "It's decent." He states as he looks around once more. "The waitresses aren't that bad to look at, and they can make a decent coffee." His eyes then land on the smoker section, missing the amused look that Hinata gave him.
"All I know is that if Gaara were here, we'd be forced to move over to the smoker section." Hinata's smile falls.
"Gaara-san has caught onto such a bad habit." The bluenette mumbles softly, earning her Sasori's attention. He raises a brow at her.
"You knew?" He questions, not really caring, but decided to keep the conversation going.
Hinata nods, taking another sip of her tea. "I saw him with a cigarette the day after the attempt on the store-"
"And you." Sasori interrupts with a miniscule smirk before taking a bite of his pastry. Not bad.
Hinata looks shocked for but a second before going back to blow on her tea again. "Yes. And me." She sighs. "With a habit like that, he's just slowly shortening his life span with each drag he takes."
Sasori becomes amused by her use of the word 'drag'. "Not that it's that spectacular, but how does someone like you know of the term, 'taking a drag'?"
Hinata pauses, looking away, bringing her cup closer to her lips. "My mother was a smoker. A very bad chain smoker." Sip. "She would smoke nearly two to three whole packs a day and even tried to get me to and my younger sister to smoke with her, which is how I came to know such terms."
"You speak of your mother in the past tense." Sasori notices, at this point, just trying to keep the conversation rolling. "Did something happen to her?"
"I'm pretty sure that you probably don't really care about this," Hinata starts, looking him in the eye with a sad smile. Sasori is slightly caught off guard by her statement. "But since you asked, her constant smoking finally caught up to her years ago and she gained one of those untreatable cancers.
"Not quite sure which one she had, considering I was just a kid then, but eventually the cancer got the better of her and she passed."
"Why do you sound so nonchalant about it?" Sasori questions, furrowing his brows a little. "That was your mother."
Hinata looks up at him with wide eyes at his sudden defensiveness. She then smiles once again, forcing her tears not to spill.
"Please don't get me wrong, Sasori-san. I miss my mother very much, more than anything. It's just that when you have to repeat this story to so many people, you have to try and keep yourself calm before the dam of tears burst and next thing you know, you're a balling mess in front of the person that you told."
"Are you trying not cry right now?"
Hinata's silent as she closes her eyes and keeps her smile. "...Yes."
The table grows silent as Sasori just stares at the silently weeping girl in front of him. He watches as she wipes her slipping tears away, turning towards the window. As he continues to watch her, Sasori finally makes up his mind to open up, just this once.
Breaking the silence, Sasori looks out the window himself, just so that he doesn't have to see her shocked expression.
"I, too, lost my parents at a young age."
"Wh-Wha-?!"
Hinata's eyes bulge and her mouth hangs agape. She was, under no circumstances, expecting the teen across from her to make any sort of confession, let alone something so personal! She had expected him to remain closed off about himself, while she was the one to do most of the talking, which was very unlike her. So for him to open up to her with something so strong made her feel an abundance of emotions! She felt a rush of happiness well up within herself, but then it was quickly washed away by the sadness that she felt for him due to his loss. However, the final feeling that drenched her was the revelation as she finally processed his statement.
Parents!?
"P-P-Parents...?" Hinata questions, balling her hands on her lap, trying to distract herself from the overwhelming urge to rush beside him and bring him into her embrace. She felt horrible!
Sparing her a glance, Sasori closes his eyes in irritation at the sight of her pearlescent eyes glossing over with unshed tears. Just his luck, he had to go and make her cry, again, in only a few minutes, mind you! But it was her fault anyway. She was the one that brought up dead parents! How the hell they got onto the topic, he forgot, and ultimately regretted.
Now that he opened his big, fat mouth, he knows that he can't just leave her with a bombshell like that. It would make things far more awkward than they already were. But yet, at the same time, he really didn't feel like revisiting his past, especially to someone like her. She would just pity him in the end, which was not what he wanted.
Making up his mind, Sasori sucks his teeth as he looks straight into her eyes. He tries his damnedest to refrain from punching that sympathetic look off of her pretty little face. It irked him.
"Let's talk about something a little less depressing." He takes a sip of his coffee. "This isn't a very good topic for first impressions, now is it?"
Shock once again rocks her to her core as she quickly starts to wipe away the wetness in her eyes. With a sniff, she laughs nervously and nods in understanding. She should have known that he wouldn't be ready to completely open up to her just yet. That's what she gets for setting her hopes up too high after a sliver of a confession.
Thinking deeper about it, it probably could have just been a slip of the tongue, or perhaps he just wanted to ease some of the pain she felt by confiding a little bit in her. Putting much more thought into it, she laughs pitifully to herself at the foolishness of her latter excuse for him. There was no way that he would try to comfort someone that he just met, especially with his personality type.
Both he and Gaara seemed like the standoffish type that would only tell you certain things if they weren't in there right state of mind.
Rubbing her hands on her lap once more, nervously, she smiles at him with eyes closed. "I-I guess you're right, Sasori-san. Sorry for making this outing awkwardly saddening for you." She chuckles nervously.
"I know that you must be regretting accepting my offer now, huh?" He stares at her, his face devoid of emotion. "I told you that I wasn't going to be that much of an entertaining companion."
He's silent, bringing his hand up to rest his chin upon. He watches as she tries her best to avoid his gaze, reaching for her untouched cinnamon roll. It's only just as she takes her first bite that he suddenly bellows out a soft snicker, earning him a puzzled, yet dejected stare from her.
How he had not realized it sooner, he wasn't sure, but this girl was something else. She was the first person ever to compel him to want to actually tell her about his family. He hasn't even told his group, nor his so called "best-friend" about his parents either. Each of them always assumed that they were just away on some long trip, and he never said anything against that to discontinue their assumption. He just let them think what they wanted, because it was always easier that way.
"I-Is something wrong, Sasori-san?" Hinata's soft-spoken voice breaks through his train of thought.
Focusing his eyes back on her, he sees her staring at him with a raised brow, and her cinnamon roll in her mouth. She looked innocent and he found that to be somewhat, dare he say, cute.
"Actually, Hinata, there is something wrong." Sasori states in a cool manner, leaning back in the booth and smirking at her slightly reddened face.
Feeling that she had ruined her once chance of becoming friends with Sasori, Hinata's cheeks burn with embarrassment. Perhaps I should just end this now before I humiliate myself any further...
With that thought in mind, Hinata motions herself to slide out of the booth, while raising her hand to wave at any server that would look their way.
"May-Maybe I sh-should just go tell a waitress that we're leaving the-" Suddenly, she feels a slightly larger hand grip onto her hers, pulling her back down in her seat.
"Sit."
Sorrowfully questioning why he wants her to stay seated, she slides back into her spot and places her hand back on her lap. "But I-I thought that you said that-"
"I did say something was wrong." He confirms, his smirk growing at her confusion.
"But then why-?" She starts, but is once again interrupted.
"Because what you said is what's wrong, Hinata."
Hinata blinks, perplexed by what he's saying to her. What had she said that was wrong? And why does this whole scenario seem so confusing? Perhaps she shouldn't have opened her mouth when he mentioned Gaara.
Taking her silence as a signal to continue, he finally tells her what he means.
"You were wrong when you said that you wouldn't be entertaining." She gasps mutely, and her cheeks brighten once again.
"In fact, you are quite intriguing."
Sorry guys for the epically long wait, but as you can see, I had no idea where I was going with this chapter. It's sloppy and full of just stupid rambles on my part. But anyway, hope that you enjoyed it, and hopefully since this is out, my following chapters won't be as random, sloppy, and just plain ugh as this one was. And hopefully I can give you a new chapter sooner too!
Anyway, thanks for reading, and if you'd like to, to let me know that you still support me even after my long absence, leave a review, follow, and/or fave. It would be most appreciated if you guys could tell me what I need to improve on and what you do and don't like so far so that I can do my best to fix my mistakes.
Again, thank you and have a good day or good night! \(^.^)/