Hinata/Ryou: 16

Naruto/Sasuke/Sakura/Ino/Shika/Shino: 17

Neji/Tenten/Lee: 18

(I had to remind myself of their ages) So yeah...long time since I posted anything right? I have no excuses lol,


The end of the day bell rang and Hinata turned her pearl eyes to the door to the classroom. Through the other students empting out, she caught sight of a familiar blond boy as he grinned and waved her over. Naruto had started picking her up after third period for lunch with him and his friends lately. It was nice, the time she spent with Naruto made her feel like she wasn't alone.

Hinata waved hello to the teenager as she walked up to him and Shikamaru. The stage manager gave a tired smile while she greeted them. Hinata liked Shikamaru, he was lax about her stutter and didn't seem to mind taking his time to talk with her at her own pace. The night of her welcoming party after her and Naruto's dance she had loosened up enough to be able to be more social with everyone. So far she and Shikamaru seemed to be able to have the easiest conversations, both were slow enough talkers that they didn't have to bother getting everything across before they had a decent idea of what they were saying.

"Naruto-kun, Shi-Shikamaru-kun, how was A-A-A-Algebra?" she asked as the three started walking towards the lockers. Shikamaru shrugged, meaning he must have fallen asleep during class again. Naruto, on the other hand wrapped his arms around her petite girl and sighed.

"It was horrible Hinata-chan! I got another F, our teacher has some kinda vendetta on me or somethin'."

"Naruto, do you even know what a 'vendetta' is?" Shikamaru sighed.

"Uhhh…some kinda curse?"

Hinata giggled, cheeks flushed at the older boys' close proximity before Naruto abruptly falls to the ground. She gasped before holding out a hand for him worriedly.

"N-Naruto-kun?"

"Hinata-sama, ignore him and go drop your book off in your locker so we can get lunch." Neji spoke as he pulled his cousin back to her feet. She missed the warning glance her cousin gave the blond.

"Shikamaru, Tenten and Ino will be dropping by to talk about the next concert at the end of the month." He reported. The brunette student yawned.

"Damn, Neji, did you have to bring Ino? She's been pretty angry at me lately." Shikamaru sighed.

"Yes…I heard from Tenten, something about not putting out?"

"P-Putting what?" Hinata asked the two. Neji twitched realizing his slip up and cleared his throat, Shikamaru chuckled at her question.

"Don't worry about it Hinata."

Stopping at the lockers to set their stuff inside, Hinata almost forgot about Naruto who was probably still lying on the ground. Looking in the direction they came though, she saw the blond walking around the corner to catch up with the others.

"So what's this new concert that Tenten-san, and Ino-sa—er chan i-is coming to tell us about?" Hinata asked. A brush on her shoulder, the side her cousin was not on made her look towards Naruto as he shoved Shikamaru out of the way to walk beside her with a dirt smudged face. From behind Shikamaru rolled his eyes. Reaching into her pocket the girl handed Naruto a handkerchief to clean the dirt of his face.

"Sasuke and I will be performing, Naruto too…probably." Neji said as the group started walking again. Hinata glanced over at the now annoyed Naruto as he complained to her cousin and his friend about leaving him. She wanted to jump up excitedly, it would be the first time she would hear her cousin and Naruto sing. What would they sound like? Naruto-kun's had a rough, sort of voice while Neji-nii's was smooth, and Sasuke…Admittedly, she was a bit taken aback at the thought of the dark haired senpai singing. She hadn't heard him talk often and it was usually only around Sakura or Naruto, the tree being childhood friends and all. Truthfully, he scared her, but if Sakura-chan and Naruto-kun was all right with the dark haired boy he couldn't be all that bad.

Walking out into the courtyard where students could eat outside, though there weren't any due to the late Febuary winter, Ino shouted the others over from the gates leading out to the street. Both girls dressed in the sister schools uniform and winter jackets. Happily, Ino hugged Hinata as she approached.

"Hey Hinata-chan how's class going?"

"F-Fine Ino-chan…" she answered. The others greeted each other briefly, Ino, though, seemed to turn her nose from Shikamaru.

"Anyways guys, I've got the songs you'll be performing. Neji will do a cover of the Visual Kei band 'Versailles', Sasuke a cover of the American band Three Days Grace….aaaannnnnd Naruto you'll be pulling double duty playing the drums for the others and your own cover." Tenten got to the point.

"Erm…W-What's a cover?" Hinata mumbled

"A cover is singing a song of another artist." Ino explained. "Like the first night you performed Stereo Love with Ryou."

Naruto sighed.

"Man, I'm gonna be run ragged," Ino snickered at him.

"Yup, Tenten wanted to make sure you didn't have time to mess with Hinata-chan tonight! She has her own practice to start now."

There was a subtle look Naruto gave Ino and Tenten with clouded blue eyes, but the two girls simply turned their attention to the violet haired girl. Hinata tilted her head not fully understanding what they meant. Personally, she didn't think the blond boy was doing anything wrong. He was her friend now and would just have to get use to his overly touchy friendliness he had with her. She thought it was normal coming from him, he hugged Sakura-chan as well as Sasuke-san, though more times than not the black haired student was shoving him off. But Hinata simply shrugged, thinking it was just the girls looking out for her incase his sweet hugs made her uncomfortable. That was really sweet of them, she thought their kindness towards her was a god send and was grateful no matter. Who knew how long this would last for her, the Hyuuga wanted nothing more than to savor this strange feeling that swelled inside of her chest and made her stomach flip when she was surrounded by this group.

Naruto clicked his tongue before turning around to leave when Hinata's tentative voice stopped him.

"N-Naruto-kun?" Her head tilted in curiosity. He reached out his hand and pat her head childishly and when her cheek flushed and her eyes became frantic and confused he thought to himself that his friends attempt at keeping her away from him were all ready failing. Neji's cousin was cute like that. She was so trusting and unassuming, he was sure she wouldn't mind whatever he said to her and that was what he liked best about her.

"I'm hungry so I'm leavin' early. Ino, Tenten, say hi to Sakura-chan for me!" he said before walking back inside the school.


After school Hinata had once again called the main house to inform a servant of her staying late at the school library to study. But in truth she and the rest were now in the club before it opened for the night.

Sakura was all ready there, living in on the top floor had it advantages, dressed in regular clothes and tapping her foot in annoyance. When her eyes caught Shikamaru's they flared and a folder was chucked violently his way and smacked him in the face.

"Late! The lot of you! We have only four damn weeks before the next big concert and we got dance rehearsal, voice lessons, band practice, and damnit Shikamaru you're a stage manager, your job is to keep back stage from falling apart and that—" the furious pink haired girl thrust a finger in the direction of back stage were Lee's voice could be heard giggling, the green shirt wearing boy was twirling a strand of his black hair girlishly while glancing in the direction of Sakura. "under control!"

Hinata, Neji, Naruto (who hid behind a red faced Shikamaru), and Ryou, who just happened to walk in at the time stood frozen. Hinata shivered a little looking up at her cousin wanting answers.

"Sakura…" Shikamaru broke the silence. "it's too troublesome to deal with Lee in his love sick mode…and creepy." He muttered before opening the folder to read its contents. His scowl deepened before shutting the folder. His eyes held a weak challenge in the green eyed girls' direction. Hinata wondered what had been in the folder to annoy the teenager even more than he already seemed by default. After a moment of the two staring at each other and Sasuke's mumbled greeting as he entered through the back entrance, then his prompt shuffle down the iron stairs at seeing Sakura's glare in Shikamaru's direction. The Hyuuga daughter believed he must not want to be involved in whatever his friends seemed to be silently arguing about.

There was a sigh from Shikamaru as he held his hands in defeat.

"All right, we'll have it your way Sakura. Ino, Get dressed you have one hell of a practice tonight, same to you Neji."

Sakura smiled as her friends got into place. As the others shuffled around and got to business Hinata was left standing in an empty room with just Sakura.

"U-Um so…"

Sakura tilted her head down to look at the younger teenager. She smiled sweetly and pat her head.

"I have a special lesson for you Hinata."

"O-Oh?"

"Yup, head up stairs, I'm giving your vocal cords a work out tonight."

Hinata looked down at her socks with pleading eyes, as if they would somehow save her from what was going on right now.

"Too soft Hinata-chan. Again." Sakura played a note on the keyboard lying on the bed.

Hinata gulped, her lips pursed together in a thin line as her 'training' as Sakura put it continued on until 3 hours later when rehearsals for most of the students downstairs had finished. Hinata's voice had become raspy and her throat hurt with over use. She wouldn't be able to talk for the rest of tomorrow.

Having pity on her though, Sakura laughed and told the heiress she was done for the day and could go back to Neji's side before he missed her too much.

That at least brought a smile to Hinata's.