Summary:

The eyes of the Hyuuga are as cold and glittering as the iced-over snowflakes. Are their minds, their hearts, their souls any different? [AU] [Non-Chronological Linked Drabbles]

General Disclaimer For The Entire Story:

I don't own Naruto. If I did, I'd have given Deidara more screentime, because he is awesome and a pyromaniac and thus doubly awesome. In fact, he's 120% awesomer, you could say. Oh, and the cover picture isn't mine, either. Should I change it? (Does anybody actually read this disclaimer?)


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(pick a card, any card, except for that one)

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[Age 10]

10-year-old Naruto is an ungraceful loser, but at least he's not a sore one, and he's relatively unresistant to advice on improving.

"Maybe it's not a question of how to get better at something you hate, but a question of finding something you like and can learn to love," Hinata suggests one day, after Naruto is sulking about yet another board game defeat at her hands.

He looks at her with a dull look of incomprehension in his rather pretty cerulean eyes.

He doesn't say, "Huh?", because Hinata had long ago told him that making unintelligent actions was almost undeniably a sign of unintelligence, that people would stop setting up verbal traps for him if he stopped walking into them, and that, most importantly, his voice was annoying when too loud, and became obnoxiously irritating when he made those little goofy 'does-not-compute' sounds.

Eager to please his nice new friend and older-sister figure (even if, technically, he's the older one by about two months), Naruto had tried his best to comply, and though it took some time, Hinata's eloquence and determination eventually rubbed off on him, destroying that particular speech tic.

So he didn't say, "Wat.", but it's implied in the Look he presents her with.

Hinata sighs, because yes, her eloquence rubbed off on him, but apparently it hadn't rubbed off enough.

"Instead of getting upset you're losing, stop playing games like these, and go find something that you are good at. Or, at least, find something you are okay at, something that you would not mind taking time to improve at," she simplifies a bit, compromising with her innate circumlocution.

Before Naruto met Hinata, he would have taken this suggestion and enthusiastically run amok with it. Driving blind, so to say.

Now, he blinked, took a second to slowly digest this particular piece of advice, and asked, "Like what, Hinata-chan?"

Naruto looks at Hinata again, and this time it's a 'look' without a capital letter, this time it's look of expectancy, expecting that of course Hinata would know what to do, Hina-nee-chan was so smart and sounded really pretty, like Sakura but less likely to hit him, even if she would only call him 'Uzumaki'.

That sort of admiration is faintly flattering, naturally, and reminds Hinata even more of Hanabi.

She tells him, "In the books I have managed to find on the Uzumaki Clan, they were fairly well-known for their ungodly luck and powerful charisma, along with their short tempers, amid myriad other things-", and is considerably patient when he interrupts to ask a question, like Hanabi often does.

"What does 'myriad' mean?"

"It means 'countless', and I have discussed interruptions with you, Uzumaki," she reprimands, as gently as she can, and it's awkward and still too stern, but Naruto understands she's trying and he appreciates that no matter her social stiffness.

He knows she's trying.

She's always tried, in this hobnob friendship of theirs, her the maternal and chiding mentor, him the rough and cheerful student.

"Wait until the person is done speaking, and then ask questions, unless it holds some advantage to interrupt. Otherwise, people will angry with your lack of de-co-rum," he recites, adding, "Sorry, Hinata-chan."

Hinata nods gracefully, the grace coming easier than the gentleness, and continues, "Going with this train of thought, games requiring luck as a major factor would likely be the ones you'd excel at. We have eliminated strategy games, board games, physical games, games involving alcohol and food that isn't ramen."

A moment of mutual silence, her falling into a contemplation 'trance', him falling into a respectful quiet in order to not disrupt her again.

Despite her efforts, Hinata has not yet succeeded in learning how to snap her fingers, so she settles for merely blinking and turning to face the blond more directly.

"What about card games?"

They go out, she buys a deck of cards.

He picks up on the basics of poker with surprising astuteness.

She learns to never gamble against him, only with him.

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[Months Later...]

"Eh? Where'd you learn to play cards so well, Naruto!?"

Naruto, busy cleaning out the pockets of everyone in the casino (which was next to the hotel, in the town Team 7 was staying at before heading home to Konoha with a completed mission), barely looks up when he answers his (fast-fading puppy love) crush.

"Hina-chan introduced me," he says shortly, before a wide grin spreads across his face and he smugly slams down his cards onto the poker-table, face-up and basking in triumphant glory.

"Roy. Al. Flush. Can you beat that?"

It's a rhetorical question; the others around the table grumble, but one look at his hitai-ate, and the two other hitai-ate wearers behind him convince them to pay up.

Naruto, smirking all the while, leans forward to rake in his winnings.

After a few seconds of flipping through them, a more than a few mental calculations with the aid of finger-counting, he stands up, and glances at his teammates, sealing the money away securely into a scroll he quickly tucks into his pack, buried among at least ten identical-looking scrolls.

"Ready to go? Kakashi-sensei's off doing randomness, isn't he? Back to the hotel, then?"

"I call the shower first!" Sakura immediately calls, quickly running off to do just that.

Then it's the two of them, leisurely walking through the sunny tourist-trap beachside town.

He's in the middle of whistling an upbeat tune and wondering if he should try teaching Hinata how to snap again, when Sasuke asks him something.

"Hmm? Sorry, what? I wasn't really listening."

Sasuke rolls his eyes but repeats, "Hyuuga taught you how to play cards?"

"If by 'Hyuuga' you mean Hina-chan, than yeah, she did. Well, kinda; she didn't really know how to play any card games either, but we were trying to find a good game for me, so she bought a deck and we sat down one weekend and figured it out. I'm actually planning to use today's winnings and maybe buy her something nice, like a souvenir. It's a thought, anyway," Naruto comments absently, now wondering what you get a Noble Clan's heavily practical Heiress as a souvenir.

Scrolls?

Books?

Hinata seems to like that sort of thing, but didn't she say she needed more shuriken last time?

Should he buy more ink and a new brush and try modifying some shuriken for her?

Oh, wait, Sasuke said something again.

"Uh, wasn't listening again. Zoned out about the souvenir. You were sayin', teme?"

The eye-roll is more prominent this time, but it's nowhere near Hinata's Very Slight Not-Quite-Eye-Roll Eye-Sliding-Sideways of Interpretive Wordless Eloquence™.

"I said, does she like playing cards?"

"I don't know. She pretty good at it, but it's not like she actively seeks out people to play. Don't think she cares, to be honest."

"Hn."

Wait, that 'hn' is an 'interesting-I-shall-now-deign-think-upon-this-lesser-mortal-matter'.

(Hinata is fluent in 'Uchiha-grunt' and 'Uchiha-glare', having had linguistic experience with 'Hyuuga-sneer' and 'Hyuuga-glare'.

She has, quite considerately, taught Naruto a bit of both once he and Sasuke start clashing.)

Holy fu-

"Why?" Naruto demands suspiciously, because if this is another ploy of the bastard's to steal away Hina-nee...

Because Hinata is totally his friend first, there is no way he's letting his Epic Rival win.

He pauses, the involuntary shudder of 'Gai-Trauma' slithering youthfully down his spine-

'Youthfully'?

Sasuke is confused when the dobe at his side suddenly slaps himself out of nowhere, but Naruto drops the topic and all is (dysfunctionally) well again.


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The beginning of a card shark legend.

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-Review.-