Chapter 7:
"Just how much chocolate did you give out?" Shikadai asked Chocho.
"The batch made six but I only gave out five. I gave one to Mitsuki and one to each of you."
"I gave mine to Iwabe and Inojin's dad ate his. But that's two unaccounted for. Where are the other two?"
Chocho pointed. "I felt bad for Shino-sensei, so I decided to give one to him."
"Why?"
"Because the guy has zero love life and I figured in the spirit of the holiday, he should find love at least once."
Inojin raised his brow at Chocho. Knowing she had already gone to the school, he suspected Shino wasn't the only instructor she unintentionally poisoned. "Let me guess. You gave one to Anko, too."
"No," said Chocho, looking at him as if he had said something incredibly stupid. "Toying with a woman's heart is so uncool. That's why I only gave it to guys."
"Plus, in the spirit of the holiday, only guys are supposed to receive chocolate."
Chocho frowned. "While that's the tradition, I see no reason why a girl can't enjoy chocolate on Valentine's Day. I ignore any rule that deprives a woman of something she wants."
"You ignore at lot more than that, Chubs."
"I could say the same thing about you!"
Sarada intervened. "Guys! This isn't helping." Focus back on her, she continued. "Look, we already know Mitsuki ate it. We saw him. But we don't know if Iwabe or Shino-sensei ate theirs. I say we find them first and take the chocolate back before they have a chance. We'll worry about Mitsuki later."
"Good thinking," said Shikadai. "If we can prevent more people from going nuts, I'm all for it. It would be troublesome otherwise."
"But that's still one unaccounted for," commented Inojin. "Where's the last one?"
"I gave it to the cute delivery guy," said Chocho. "I know it's his job to deliver food and everything, but maybe if he fell in love with me, I'd get my food faster or even some extra."
Everyone just stared at her.
"We'll worry about those ones later. For now, let's just go to the school and check on Shino-sensei," said Boruto. "If Shino-sensei eats it, that's really bad. He's pretty scary when he gets serious."
Boruto led the group to the school in the hopes Shino would be there. He charged inside first along with Chocho, but Sarada grabbed Inojin and Shiakdai, preventing them from going inside.
"What?" Shikadai asked, annoyed. "Aren't we wasting time?"
Sarada gave him a hard look. "You know this is all your fault, right?"
"My fault?" Shikadai twisted his arm free and glared at her. "I didn't tell her to make a love potion."
"But you prompted her to do it. If you two hadn't been such jerks, she wouldn't have considered doing this." Sarada had to stand up for her friend and tell them off at the same time. "You guys really hurt her and you haven't even apologized."
"What did we do?" Inojin asked.
"She's talking about the White Day thing," responded Shikadai. He looked back at Sarada. "We gave her an honest answer up front. She asked us and we said what we said. What's the problem?"
"You guys really don't get it, do you?" Sarada was baffled by their ignorance.
"I'm not going to give her something just because I'm obligated. I didn't ask for any gift, so why should I give her one just because she did? Suddenly I owe her?"
"It is only fair," said Inojin. "But I have to agree that it is a stupid rule."
"She gave you guys something last year and then you stiffed her on White Day," Sarada summarized. "This year, she asked if she should waste her time making you something even if you're not going to reciprocate like before."
"And?"
"And you don't see how you offended her?"
"I'm not going to give her something because it's expected and lead her on," answered Shikadai.
Sarada gawked at him. "What? What are you talking about?"
"It's the social protocol," explained Shikadai. "And a troublesome one at that. The object of both holidays is set to work together. That's part of why they're exactly a month apart. Girls give guys chocolate on Valentine's Day as a form of invitation. Guys are then obligated to respond on White Day, thus, accepting the invitation."
Sarada's shoulders fell. "What the hell are you saying?"
Shikadai groaned. "It's so obvious. The chocolate represents a girl asking the guy to be her boyfriend. If the guy gives her something on White Day, it's the same as saying yes. By giving Chocho a gift, I'm basically telling her I'm interested. Which I'm not! That's why I refuse to give her something just because it's expected."
Sarada was finally getting Shikadai's side of things. Now she knew that he felt reciprocating would lead Chocho to think he was romantically interested in her, so he felt giving her nothing would prevent any sort of confusion. Unfortunately, he ended up hurting her feelings in a slightly different way.
"How can someone as smart as you be so dense?" Sarada said in disbelief.
"What?" Shikadai asked, not understanding why she thought he was missing the mark. As far as he was concerned, he was dead on and his actions made complete sense.
"Children give their parents chocolate on Valentine's Day. It's not just for lovers."
"But she-"
"Listen, you two," Sarada said firmly. "She gave everyone chocolate last year when we were all still at the academy. Even to Shino-sensei. You really think she had any romantic interest in him?"
"No, that would be weird," said Inojin.
"Shino-sensei also didn't give her anything a month later, supporting my point," added Shikadai.
"But chocolate is given to anyone as a gesture of appreciation," Sarada explained. "Coworkers, friends, teammates. Don't you get it?"
"But like you said, we weren't teammates a year ago," pointed out Inojin.
"Which is why it hurt her so much this year when she asked if she should waste her time doing something nice for her teammates and you tell her no before she even got a chance."
"We were just being honest," said Inojin. "Isn't it better we tell her ahead of time so she doesn't go through all that trouble?"
"You two refused a gift she wanted to give to you. Don't you know how that feels?"
"But about leading her on like Shikadai said…"
"It wasn't because she had romantic feelings for either of you," said Sarada. "She was just doing something nice for her friends. And now that you are teammates, she wanted to show you guys that she cares about you."
Shikadai then muttered, "It deprives a gift of its meaning if it's given out of expectancy. I shouldn't be under obligation to give her something just because she did."
"Right," said Sarada. "It should be given to show someone that they're appreciated."
Shikadai and Inojin glanced up at her.
"Chocho wanted to show you guys, her teammates, that she appreciates you. That she cares about you. That you are friends who can trust and rely on each other. To show her gratitude for having you guys with her." Sarada threw her hands in the air, stepping back. "And you didn't want to return the gesture. At least now she knows where she stands. How little you guys think of her."
Reality sank in for the two boys.
Shikadai was so hung up on the romantic aspect of the holiday that he completely overlooked the meaning behind the gesture. Overall, it was to show that they cared.
By refusing to give her something, and even telling her flat out not to bother expecting anything from either of them, it was the same as telling her that they didn't care. That they didn't appreciate her.
No wonder she was hurt.
Shikadai and Inojin both felt that giving her something would send the wrong idea and thought it would be better to just ignore her. It was intended to save her feelings and not lead her to think they wanted to be more than friends, but instead they left her thinking they didn't care about her at all.
"Aw, man," Shikadai said, finally getting it. "I screwed up."
"I didn't even consider she'd think we didn't care about her at all. I didn't think we'd hurt her feelings that bad."
The fact that Chocho would go so far as to make a love potion just to feel appreciated showed them how deeply they hurt her.
Neither could condone what she did, but they understood it better now. She just wanted the attention she thought she would never get otherwise.
"She's right," said Inojin to Shikadai. "We pushed her to this, didn't we?"
"Chocho did something really stupid and troublesome, but I get it." Shikadai sighed. "Alright, we both screwed up. We'll make it up to her somehow."
"We can start with apologizing," suggested Inojin. "Right after we help clean this up first."
Shikadai nodded. "We sort of had a hand in this, too, so we should help her make things right."
The trio hurried inside to help Chocho and Boruto.
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