Hey guys! Back again for another chapter. Hopefully you enjoy. I'm planning on putting in some GaaHina in this chapter to make things even.
Xxx Disclaimer: Naruto doesn't belong to me, but to Masashi Kishimoto xxX
Winter has finally decided to drop some snow on the earth this morning. The streets were already covered in a thin layer of snow and people were driving carefully as to not cause any accidents. People that were walking were bundled up in their warmest attire, and some were carrying umbrellas so that they wouldn't get covered in flakes.
Accompanying the citizens on the street was none other than Hinata carrying two trays of drinks in each hand as she makes her way to the shop. The girl was covered head to toe with a gray beanie, light blue trench coat with a white woolen turtleneck underneath, matching gray gloves, dark blue jeans, and black fuzzy boots.
She passed by the few people walking with care, trying not slip on the icy concrete. Upon making it to the shop, a patron leaving the store holds the door open for her with a smile. Offering a polite thank you, Hinata makes her way towards the counter where her blonde friend is standing, looking bored per usual.
"I see you're back to doing what you love most, huh, Naruto-kun?" Hinata greets as she places the trays on the counter and opens her arms wide towards her slightly surprised friend.
"Woah, Hinata, I didn't even notice you come in! You're getting good at sneaking up on me, you know that." Naruto greets back with a crushing hug and chuckle. His attention then goes to the paper cups in the trays. "Hmm, what did you get us this time, and why so many?"
Turning her attention towards the trays, Hinata picks up one of the cups marked with "H.C" and hands it to the blonde.
"Well, I figured that since the weather has gotten colder I'd get everyone something warm." She then points at the second tray. "And these are for Gaara-san and Sasori-kun. I remembered what they liked, so I thought to get them something too."
Naruto nods his head in understanding while taking a sip of his hot chocolate. "Ah~. While that's nice of you, only Gaara showed up today, so you bought Sasori one for nothing."
Hinata quirks a brow, taking her own hot chocolate out of the tray. "Oh. Well at least Gaara-san is showing up to work again. Karin-chan has told me that he's been calling out a lot due to family issues."
"Yeah. He never really went into detail about it, but I guess these issues started the day before he stormed off." Naruto places his drink down and tends to a customer at the register. "He still seems a bit pissy about things, but that could just be his normal attitude, but you never know with him."
"Well I just hope that whatever was going on with him is better now, and I hope that it wasn't something too bad." Hinata comments as she watches Naruto work.
Scanning the credit card given to him, Naruto hums in agreement as the customer punches in their number. "Same. That guy just looks like he needs some good news in his life."
"Yeah."
A moment of silence passes between them as the blonde sends the patron off after bagging their items. Resting on the counter, Naruto stares out into the store with boredom in his eyes.
Releasing a sigh, Hinata places her drink back in the tray and lifts it up. "Anyway, are the others upstairs? I want to make sure they have their drinks while they're still hot." She then gasps as she remembers something spoken earlier. "Oh, and that reminds me, where's Sasori-kun?"
Turning to look at her, Naruto merely shrugs. "I have no idea where Sasori is, but he did call in earlier saying that he couldn't make it today. Wouldn't say why, but just said that it was important." He then points his thumb towards the back room. "As for the others, Gaara's in the back probably checking inventory," He then points towards the ceiling. "And mom and the witch are upstairs paying the bills, but the witch should be down shortly."
Chuckling, Hinata bumps her hip against the smirking blonde. "Naruto-kun, that's not nice. Don't be mean to Karin-chan."
"Oh please, that wasn't mean." He rolls his eyes and gently bumps her back. "That was nice compared to what I could have said."
Rolling her own eyes, the bluenette makes her way towards the back with drinks in hand. "Okay, Naruto-kun, whatever you say." She giggles at the small pout he gives her. "I'm going to see if Gaara-san wants his drinks before I head upstairs. Call for me if Karin-chan comes down here before I get a chance."
"Will do, bossman." Naruto gives her a two-finger salute and he turns back towards the front as the girl disappears into the back room.
Upon entering the room, the bluenette looks over towards the printing station to see if the moody redhead might be there. Not finding his presence, Hinata walks deeper into the back room, looking in between the aisles for any sign of red hair. Just as she was about to look into the third to last aisle, she jumps at the sound of something hitting metal, which is immediately followed by a low grunt and the sound of a box hitting the floor.
"Fuck!"
Flinching at the choice of words, Hinata makes her way to the last aisle with quickened steps only to gasps at the sight before her. Hastily placing the trays down on the shelf beside her, Hinata rushes towards the tattooed man who was holding his hand firmly on his bleeding forehead.
"Gaara-san!" Hinata calls out as she reaches for said man, who seems to have just taken notice of her presence. "What h-happened? Are you o-okay?" The girl questions as she places her hand gently over his own that was covering the wound.
However, just as her hand graces his, his eyes widen and he quickly swats away her hand with his other. He then hardens his stare at her shocked one. "It's nothing. I'm fine." He practically snarls as he straightens out his previously hunched posture.
Slightly taken back by his harsh demeanor, Hinata quickly steels herself and goes to check his wound once more. "I-It sure doesn't look like y-you're fine! You wouldn't be bleeding this much if you were!"
Just before her hand is even an inch away from his face, his other hand comes up, grabbing her wrist and bringing her hand down in front of them. Ignoring her wide-eyed look, he glares at her once more. "I said I'm fine! Get that through your head!"
"If you're really fine, t-then show me what's under your hand!" Hinata boldly demands with her own eyes hardening.
"I don't have to listen to you!" Gaara retorts, not liking the fact that the mousy girl is trying to boss him around.
Just then, the sound of another's footsteps are heard coming their way. Shortly after, Naruto appears before them with a questioning stare.
"What the hell is going on back her-" As the question was leaving his lips, the blonde takes notice of the blood dripping from his employee's head. "Woah! Gaara, what the hell happened?! Why are you bleeding so much?!"
Closing his green eyes, Gaara groans lowly in annoyance and slightly drops his guard. When he had banged his head against that stupid pipe on the wall, the last thing that he'd expected was to be found by the mousy girl beside him. He initially just wanted to relieve some stress, but thanks to her interference, he now has more piled on. Why was she even back here in the first place?
Suddenly Gaara's eyes snap open when he hears a soft gasp echo in his ears. Upon glancing up at Hinata, it's then he realizes that she had somehow moved his hand from covering the gash in forehead without him noticing, and was now looking at it with a horrified expression.
Snatching his hand away from her, Gaara glares daggers at the girl as he recovers his wound. "If someone tells you they're fine, that means to leave them the fuck alone!" He snaps at her only to have her brush him off as she turns towards the blonde at the other end of the aisle.
"Naruto-kun, go grab me the first aid kit! Quickly please!" Hinata begs, earning her brief nod before Naruto runs off in search of the medkit.
Turning back to Gaara, Hinata flinches at the sight of him grinding his teeth at her. Placing a hand over her chest, she breathes in deeply so she's calm when she speaks to an obviously pissed Gaara.
Just as she is about to open her mouth, the trampling sound of multiple footsteps racing down the stairs is heard and the duo look down the aisle for the coming approach of a possibly heated store owner.
Gaara was sitting sideways on the couch with the grumpiest of grumpy looks known to man. In front of him sat a concerned, yet equally peeved Kushina who was in the middle of cleaning the blood from the gash in his forehead with a cotton ball and tweezers. Behind him sat a bashful looking Hinata, who had her hands folded in her lap as she watched the other woman tend to grumpy man. Meanwhile, Naruto and Karin were downstairs taking care of the mess that Gaara had made, while also doing business as usual.
Throwing the cotton ball in the trash can beside her, Kushina releases a sigh as she digs through the medkit on her lap for another one. Going back to dabbing on the blood, she begins to question Gaara.
"What the hell did you do to yourself, Gaara? How did you get a cut this deep from 'bumping' your head on the pipe?" She throws out the cotton ball and digs for ointment. "What did you do, run into the damn thing?"
Rolling his eyes at her, he hisses when he feels a sting from the medicine dabbed on his wound. He glares at Kushina who was smirking challengingly at him.
"Don't roll your eyes at me, boy. I don't do well with disrespect." She holds back a laugh when he curses under his breath. "Now tell me what really happened." She demands as she presses more ointment on the cut.
Hinata leans in closer when she hears Gaara sigh in frustration.
"Fine. I smashed my head against the pipe on purpose. Happy?" He states, gazing to the side so that he doesn't see their possibly shocked faces.
While Hinata's face did hold surprise, Kushina's was stoic. "I see. Now does this have anything to do with the family issues that you were talking about?"
Gaara remains quiet, earning him a worried look from the girl behind him. Kushina sighs as she places the ointment back in the kit and digs for a bandage.
"I'll take that as a yes then." Peeling the bandage from the packet, she gently places it over the wound. "Well, I won't ask you what's going on, and I don't expect you to tell me until you are willing to."
She closes up the medkit and places her hands on her thigh, waiting for the younger boy to look her in the eyes. "But just know this; if you ever need someone to talk to, my family and I are always here for you. Once you become a member of this shop, you become a member of our family, whether you like it or not. If something is seriously troubling you, you don't have to hesitate to pull me to the side and confide in me." She then motions to Hinata behind him.
"Even Hinata, here, will gladly lend you her ear and will do her best to help you. You are not alone, Gaara. All you have to do is trust us and we will do our best to care for you."
Gaara stares on in awe at the two smiling women beside him. But in an instant, his face hardens once more as he crosses his arms over his chest.
"Thanks for the heartwarming words, but the situation I'm in is far beyond any of your help." He spats, grinding his teeth again.
Hinata's smile fades, but she holds back a chuckle once she sees Kushina do her signature pose.
Placing her left hand on her right bicep and bending her right arm up in a fist, Kushina winks at the surprised boy with a cheeky grin.
"Don't count us out so easily, Gaara-chan! You'd be surprised what us Uzumaki can accomplish when we set our hearts, mind, body, and soul to it!"
"YOU LITTLE BITCH!"
"What the-!"
Turning towards the stairs at the sudden screeching, Kushina stands up as a shouting match is heard down below.
"Was that Karin-chan just now?" Hinata questions, knowing that angry voice very well.
"What the hell is going on down there?" Kushina voices as she makes her way towards the top of the stairs to see if she can catch a glimpse.
Just as she places her hand on the railing, the high pitched wailing of her son calling out for her breaks through the entire building.
"MO~M! COME QUICK! KARIN IS GOING CRAZY!"
Wasting no time, Kushina flies down the stairs, all the while shouting for Hinata to watch over Gaara. But out of worried instinct, Hinata jumps out of her seat and moves to make her way towards the stairs. However, before she even takes a step forward, a hand firmly grabs hold of her wrist, jerking her back onto the couch.
"Didn't you just hear what she said?" A stern looking Gaara scolds when Hinata looks back at him with wide eyes. "Stay here."
"B-But-!"
"Whatever's going on, she'll handle it. She's the boss of this place anyway, and besides, I doubt there's much that you can do." Gaara lets go of her wrist, but keeps his strict face.
Hinata, however, looks hurt by his words. While she knew that she wasn't much use in most situations, being told so aloud was heartbreaking. It made her feel completely useless, just like how she used to feel during her childhood. How pathetic.
Feeling her eyes gloss over with unshed tears, more shouting is heard from downstairs and even the sound of something being thrown is heard. It's only when the two hear Kushina yelling as well that they start to pay attention.
"KARIN, KNOCK IT OFF! YOU'RE MAKING A MESS! AND YOU! GET THE HELL OUT OF MY STORE! SHE'LL BE THE LEAST OF YOUR PROBLEMS IF I PUT MY HANDS ON YOU!"
"FUCK YOU, YOU OLD TWAT!"
"EXCUSE ME?!"
"MOM! NO!"
Having heard enough, Hinata snatches her hand away from Gaara and dashes down the stairs with Gaara looking on in disbelief. Cursing under his breath, the redhead mentally debates on whether or not to chase after the hasty girl, before slouching into the couch with a loud huff.
"I have too much of a headache for this bullshit."
Meanwhile, after coming to a halt at the bottom of the stairs, Hinata is horrified to see the display playing out before her eyes.
The drink that she had bought for Karin was splattered all over the counter and everything directly in front of it. Clothes that were once hanging on racks in front of the counter were strewn about on the floor and behind the counter as well as if someone had thrown them. Naruto was literally in the middle of three women, two of which were trying to get to the one at Naruto's back, who was also reaching to grab at both of the redheaded women's hair.
There were evident scratch marks over the blonde's whiskered cheeks, most likely caused by the women trying to grab at each other. Karin's glasses also seem to be missing a lense and the other was cracked. Kushina has a red mark on her cheek that looked like it would form into a bruise within the next couple days. The girl that was behind Naruto had strands of her light brown hair going every which way along with a big knot at the top of her head as if someone had pulled at her hair. She also had a cut across her cheek and she looked to be drenched in only what Hinata can assume to be Karin's drink.
After standing there for a little more than a minute, Hinata steps out and tries to figure out if there was any way that she could help. Taking notice of her, Naruto's eyes widen and he accidentally loosens his grip on his rampaging mom and cousin. This causes him to get punched in the back of the head by the brunette behind him, making Karin scream in his ear at her.
"Don't put your nasty ass hands on my cousin, you skank! I'll beat the shit out of you if you touch him again!"
Hinata can hear the girl laughing as she tries to jump at Karin. "Try me, whore!" The girl is then instantly clocked on the side of her head by Kushina, who jumps at the girl when she least expects it.
"I'll kick the ass of anyone who dares harm my family!" Screams Kushina as she goes to land another punch, but is held down by a recovered Naruto.
Hinata was shaking in her boots at the sight of everything. She has never ever seen her friends act this way before, especially Kushina! This was terrifying! How was she supposed to help them when they're all going crazy? Even Naruto was having a tough time with these ladies, and he was the strongest person she knows!
As she stands there watching, her resolve to do something to help grows weaker. She's scared that she'll be of little to no help to them, yet she knows the only way to stop this would be for that girl to get out of their store. But with the way they were swinging at one another, how was she possibly going to be of any use? Hinata wraps her arms around herself as she hangs her head in shame, thinking that Gaara was right when he said that there was nothing that she can do.
"So are you just going to stand there and watch, or do something about it?"
Jumping at the sound of the voice, Hinata turns towards the stairs and is surprised to find Gaara standing there with his arms crossed, giving her a blank stare. Her mouth opens as if to say something, but no words come out. He then turns his head towards the chaotic scene and she follows his gaze briefly before turning back to him.
"You came down here so fast as if you were gonna do something." He says, turning back to her with a stern glare. "So do it." Her eyes widen. "Or are you just going to watch your so called friends fight until they pass out?"
Hinata gulps down the lump in her throat as she takes in his words. Looking at the ground, she tightens her grip on herself. Was that what she was going to do? Watch them until they pass out from exhaustion? Was she going to do that because she was too scared to do anything else? Was she going to be useless like her family always said she was? Was she going to be a coward like her younger self?
Lifting up her head, Hinata glances back and forth between the fighting girls and Gaara, who was giving her a flinty glare. Giving the tattooed man a long stare, her brows furrow and she stands tall with her fists balled at her sides.
No! She wasn't going to be a coward this time! She wasn't going to just sit back and watch when there was something that she could possibly do to help! She was going to be brave for once and help her friends like they have done for her so many times before! Even if what she may do is something small, if it somehow helps them, she'll gladly do it.
Gaara smirked as he watches her turn back to the fighting with determination. He watches as her eyes flick in every direction in search of an opportunity for her do something to get the girl out of the store. He can't see exactly who the girl is that's causing a bunch of ruckus, but he just hopes she leaves soon. She's giving him a migraine.
Landing her gaze back on the fighting, Hinata sighs as she can't find something around the store that would distract the girl long enough for them to get a chance to throw her out. Clenching her fists at her sides, Hinata stealthily stalks her way around the fighting group, seeing as there was no other way to solve this other than by using force.
Sneaking her way through the racks of clothing, Hinata bites her lip while thinking back to what her cousin had taught her. He said that this technique was only meant to be used for self-defense incase she ever found herself in a situation similar to the attempted robbery on the store. She promised him that she would only use this for defensive purposes, but here she was about to use it to attack someone who hadn't technically attacked her first. But she was attacking her friends and she was going to use it to defend them, so it has to count as self-defense, right?
Shaking the thought away, the bluenette puts her plan into action. It was now or never.
Coming up behind the brunette, Hinata ignores the stunned looks given to her by the two redheads. Instead she grabs onto the brunette's shoulder with a vise grip and turns on her heal, bringing the girl with her so now Hinata's back was facing the Uzumaki and the brunette was facing the entrance.
"What the hell?!" The brunette growls, turning around to face the person who grabbed her.
However, the girl only had enough time to register the fact that there was another girl standing in front of her in this weird stance, before she felt herself being launched towards the entrance with the wind literally being knocked out of her. The dark-eyed girl ended up banging her head against the glass door as she landed hard on the tiled floor, making her feel light headed instantly.
Through her blurry vision, she could see that random girl with her palm outstretched and her stance deepened. Behind her she could make out the three she was fighting with looking back with stupefied expressions.
Placing a hand on her chest to try to catch her breath, the girl winces as she feels pain in the center of her chest. Placing her hand on the door for support, the girl struggles to her feet while keeping her eyes on the bastards in front of her. She hunches over, breathing deeply as she glares at the girl, who was glaring right back.
"P-Please leave." The girl commands, making the brunette furrow her brows. "Y-You've caused enough t-trouble. If you leave now, I-I won't call the a-authorities."
The brunette's eyes widen at the possibility of the cops coming for her. Taking a minute to weigh out her options, the girl curses under her breath as she moves to leave the store, but not before sending one last death glare at the blue haired girl and the Uzumaki.
The group continues to watch the brunette through the windows until her staggering body is no longer seen. Once the girl is out of view, Hinata drops to the floor, releasing a much-needed breath. Hinata holds onto to one of her wrist, trying to get it to stop shaking. Never has she felt so empowered, yet terrified at the same time before. This feeling was beyond something she could handle at the moment.
Suddenly Hinata finds herself with her face smushed to floor after Kushina tackles her in a bone crushing mama bear hug.
"Hinata! Hinata! Hinata!" The woman chants as she swiftly lifts the shaking girl off the floor. "That was amazing! Thank you!"
Hinata stands there dazed as Kushina plants kisses all over her face and continues to hug her like this was the last time she'd see her. She then feels Naruto place a comforting hand on her shoulder, making her look up at his smiling face.
"That was awesome, Hinata! Where did you learn to do that?" He compliments, earning him a blush from her.
"What even was that that you just did?!" Karin shouts, stomping her way over while pushing up her broken glasses. Despite her tone of voice, Karin was smiling from ear to ear.
Flushing from all of the attention, Hinata plays with her fingers and looks down at her feet. "Um, well, it was j-just something that Neji-nii's been teaching me since the, uh, y-you know, incident."
Halting her smooching assault, Kushina smiles proudly. "Oh really? Well that's awfully sweet of him. What's this thing called?"
"I-It's called Gentle Fist. It's a technique that almost everyone in my family uses. My father used to teach me when I was younger, b-but I was never as good at it as Neji-nii and Hanabi-chan, so I kind of just stopped until Niisan decided to teach me again."
"Well from what I can tell, you definitely aren't terrible at this Gentle Fist thing." Naruto states with a thumbs up. "You're awesome!"
"Thank you, Naruto-kun." Hinata covers her heated face bashfully.
"Anyway," Kushina starts as she makes her way towards the entrance, flipping the open sign to closed. "We can finish praising Hinata later. Right now we have to clean this mess up before I switch the sign to open again."
"Yes ma'am."
After everything was cleaned up, Kushina had decided to keep the shop closed for the rest of the day to let everyone relax for a while. Right now everyone was sitting on the couch upstairs, with the exclusion of Gaara who was outside for a quote on quote "break from people".
Hinata was in the middle of finishing patching up Karin when she finally asked the question that has been on her mind since they've all been up here.
"S-So what exactly happened downstairs?"
Rubbing the bandage on his cheek, Naruto turns to his friend with a quirked brow. "What do mean?"
Hinata puts a band-aid over the bridge of Karin's nose, where it looks like her glasses must have scratched. "I mean what started the fight? What were you guys fighting over to make it get so b-bad?"
Karin scoffs and crosses her arms as she lets the girl finish treating her. "That bitch came into the shop with a freaking attitude. She started to nitpick at the clothes and then she had the gall to come over and insult me!"
"What did she say?" Hinata asks with a frown.
"She asked me if I knew who Sasuke was and then started to ask if I liked her sloppy seconds. She said that I would never make him think of me the way she made him think of her, and that how could I when I had to try so hard to be sexy, meaning the way I dressed." Karin's teeth and fists started to clench and she had to breathe in order to calm herself down.
"I don't even know how that whore knows Sasuke or how she even knew about me and him, but she had no right to come at me like that!"
Hinata's frown deepens the more she hears. From what she can tell, this was all so random and had no point in happening. Something in that girl's life must have went wrong if her sole purpose of being in the store was to confront Karin.
"So what did you do?"
"Surprisingly, she didn't do anything until the girl started to throw clothes at her from the racks." Naruto answers as he leans back into the couch.
Karin flips her hair behind her and crosses her arms. "All I did was tell that skank to get the hell out of my store and to forget that whatever she believes she had with Sasuke existed. Then the crazy bitch started to throw clothes at me from behind the counter and started to call me every name in the damn book. I really got pissed off though when I saw her go for the drink you got me. I managed to get ahold of it just as she touched it, but then she pushed it at me and it started leaking all over the counter, so I threw it at her instead."
"After that, everything went downhill." Naruto adds in. "Before I even had a chance to run over to her, Karin was already screaming at the top of her lungs, and jumping over the counter with a handful of that girl's hair in her hand. She started they started wailing on each other before I managed to grab Karin." He chuckles. "But no matter how much I tried to get them away from each other, the girl would follow, so I had no choice but to call mom down to see if she could help." He sends a glance over to Kushina who looked away with embarrassment. "So much for that."
Hinata blinks at the family owlishly. "So how did Kushina-san get involved in the fight?"
Kushina chuckles and scratches the back of her neck sheepishly. "Well~, when I went down I told Naruto to handle the girl while I try to calm down Karin. But as soon as Naruto let go of his cousin, she ran after the girl like a bat out of hell, so I had to grab her instead." She points at the red mark on her cheek. "That's when she elbowed me in the face while trying to get loose, so I yelled at her to stop and for the girl to get out, but then the girl called me something and my whole vision went red."
"Next thing you know, I'm in between the red-hot habanero and four-eyes and that crazy girl that started it all. The rest you already know." Naruto finishes with a wave of his hand.
Hinata nods her head slowly, trying to process all the information given to her. To think things got that out of hand because of one girl's mouth is crazy. Thank kami the situation didn't get any worse though. Just imagining the police here a second time in only a couple of weeks would give the shop a lot of publicity that it doesn't need.
With a sigh the bluenette smiles at the family warmly. "Well I'm just glad that everyone is okay, and that the damage isn't too bad."
"Same." The Uzumaki agree, granting Hinata with equally warm smiles.
Suddenly, Hinata's phone goes off in her pocket. Pulling it out, she sees a message from her sister telling her it's almost time to come home to greet their father back from his business trip. Sending a quick reply, Hinata gets off of the couch and gathers her things.
"I'm sorry to cut this short, but I have to get going now." Hinata says as she puts on her coat and gloves. "I'll probably be back tomorrow or in a few days, but I'll see you guys shortly."
"Alright, sweetie, be safe walking home now." Kushina says as she hugs the girl farewell.
"I will. Bye guys," Hinata responds to the hug before giving one to Naruto and Karin. "See you later."
Upon exiting the store, Hinata turns and is surprised to see Gaara still standing by the side of the building. But then her surprise quickly turns to disappointment upon seeing the cigarette bud hanging from his lips.
"I-I thought you'd be home by now since Kushina-san closed up for the day." Hinata states as she walks up to the redhead.
Taking the cig from his lips and blowing smoke into the air, Gaara doesn't even turn to acknowledge her. "I was going to after my break from people."
"So in other words, a break from people who will yell at you for smoking?" Hinata retorts boldly, earning her a glare from the smoking male.
"What do you want?" He questions, dropping his cigarette into the snow and stomping on it.
Looking at where the stick landed, Hinata sighs. "I was originally going to say this the next time I saw you at the shop because I thought you'd be gone by now-"
"Get on with it." He interjects, turning to make his way back into the shop to gather the rest of his things before heading home himself.
Blinking at him for a moment, Hinata breaths in. "Thank you."
Gaara stops in his tracks, not expecting that to be what she had to say. Turning back to look at her, he steels himself to not show her the surprise he feels from seeing her candid expression.
"Thank you? For what?" He asks, stuffing his hands in his pockets.
"For giving me the courage to help my friends when they were going wild." Hinata replies with a tint to her cheeks. She then looks at her feet timidly. "If you hadn't shown up and said what you said to me, I most likely would have chickened out and done nothing at all, and then things would have gotten even worse."
"I only said that because I was annoyed that you acted like you were gonna do something, but pussied out instead." Gaara states with his brow bone furrowed. "I didn't say it for you to thank me."
"But that's why I am thanking you." Hinata insists. "Without your blunt words, I would have remained a coward in that situation. I know it may not seem like a big deal, but I feel like thanks to you, I have improved a little bit."
Gaara scoffs. "Improved in what? Being a sap?"
Hinata flinches at his harsh words, but stands tall against him. Giving him her most genuine smile, she responds, "No. Being useful and brave."
This time, Gaara doesn't bother to hide his shock from her. What does she mean by "being useful and brave"? From what he can tell, plenty of people found her useful, and she seemed pretty brave during and after the whole robbery stint. He seriously didn't understand this girl.
Gaara is swiftly cut off from his train of thought when he sees a motion in front of him. Looking down, he's confused to see her gloved hand extended in front of. When he looks up at her in question, he's caught off guard once more by her cheeky grin.
"Despite you thinking I shouldn't say this, I genuinely want to thank you, Gaara-san, for helping me today with improving myself further. So, thank you, Gaara-san. I really appreciate it."
Her pale eyes are closed, so she doesn't see just how much her words affected the man in front of her. It's only when she hears the crunching of snow beneath feet does she open her eyes and retracts her hand. She's not hurt in the least to see the redhead walking back to the store.
"You really are a sap." Gaara utters as he comes to the entrance of the shop.
As he places his hand on the knob, he hears a soft giggle before the sound of her walking off towards her destination. Opening the door and entering the shop, Gaara puts his hand over the bottom half of his face to hide his furiously heat cheeks.
Thank you all for reading, I know it's been awhile, but trying to figure out where you're going to move to is a time and mentally consuming thing, ya'know? Anyway, I hope that you enjoyed, and that certain moments didn't feel too forced and the whole chapter wasn't rushed. Thank you all again and please don't forget to review, follow, and/or fave! I really appreciate the feedback! Please have a good day or good night! (\(^u^)/)