TenTen squinted her eyes and looked over at him confused, was she really the only one noticing his odd behavior?!?! She watched him as a puff of smoke was emitted from the collar of his jacket. Shino slowly poked his head back out of his collar with a weird smirk on his face. The smoke billowed up to the ceiling then disappeared. TenTen shook her head side to side as if she was telling herself that it couldn't be true….no way. Anyways!
Everyone was back in their seats and Te Ten took hers next to Hinata, pathetically trying to hide the bottle of sake in her shirt…which really wasn't working at all.
"Haha, heeeey guys" She spoke as if she was hiding something, like she was just asking for someone to notice the sake bottle.
"Umm….yeah hey TenTen……..it's your turn…" Shikamaru said casually, trying to get TenTen back to reality.
"Oh…r…right" she stammered and grinned from ear to ear. "Hey Hinata" She smirked and leaned right into Hinata's ear "truth or dare!?!?"
Hinata looked up with a shocked expression on her face and was blushing intensely. She thought to herself 'what…what if I have to do something with Naruto….TenTen knows how much I like him…' She looked down with worry written on her face. 'No….TenTen wouldn't do that to me…would she?' Hinata shook her head. 'But…if I don't say dare…Naruto might think I'm a coward…and…I'm not…I'm not a coward!...But this may also be my one legitimate chance to get close to him…'
Hinata looked up at Ten Ten and managed to squeak out the word "d…umm…da…….dare?" She spoke unsure of herself, wondering if she just made the biggest mistake of her life.
Ten Ten got right in Hinata's face and gave her a thumbs up "ALL RIGHT HINATA! WAY TO GO!"
The rest of the group stared in awe at the once sheepish Hyuuga who has taken the ultimate risk, putting her actions into the hands of her peers. What could be more of a gamble?
Neji just couldn't stop thinking about how the honor of his clan would be even further diminished after Hinata went through with this unknown act but he trusted Ten Ten…at least a little bit more than the others.
Ten Ten glanced around the room proudly and whipped out the bottle of Sake and lifted it high for all to see….kinda like the beginning of the Lion King. …and in a matter of 2.2 seconds…Neji's trust in her diminished entirely.
The group looked on with mixed expressions. Kiba's eyes grew wide as he started to picture the young genin girls drunk off their asses. Shikamaru just turned his head to the side and sighed heavily "Drinking's such a drag, especially after you wake up with a pounding headache…."
Naruto looked at Shikamaru confused, as always, "What? Why do you have a headache in the morning???" Naruto scratched his head "I don't get it, how do you get a headache from a drink?!?!"
The group sweat-dropped and just ignored the dense Shinobi's unethical questions.
Ten Ten gazed at the bottle then turned to Hinata "I dare you to drink this whole bottle of Sake!"
Kiba's jaw dropped, saddened that Hinata would be the only one to get completely drunk off her ass…….who knows what his twisted mind was thinking……..sick bastard…..
Hinata's eyes bugged out, reminding everyone of Lee's. "I'm….I'm sorry…umm…..what did you just say?"
"You heard me Hinata, listen…" Ten Ten got up next to her again "You gotta learn to loosen up chica, you helped me right? Well now it's my turn to help you!"
Hinata found this a weird form of help…seeing that the only thing Ten Ten would be doing would be ruining Hinata's reputation…I mean…who knows what may happen while she's in a drunken stupor! "I….I don't think I can drink the whole bottle" Hinata said while pressing her fingers together timidly.
Ten Ten looked the bottle up and down "Yeah, I guess it is kinda big….well…just half then." Ten Ten smiled at Hinata and handed her the bottle, but not before Ten Ten took a swig of the forbidden drink.
Hinata held it in her hands then took a small sip of the sour liquor. Shino reached a hand out dramatically and pretended to grab his precious sake from the clutches of Hinata, but he didn't want to be too obvious that it was he who brought that drink into Sasuke's home, so he quietly rested his hand by his side and sat back…..and no one saw the lonely tear stream down his face………ok just screwing with ya…he didn't cry……..or did he?????? bum buM BUM!!! No he didn't….
Hinata took the bottle of Sake and leaned it up to her lips to take another small sip…but before she could take it away Ten Ten reached over and lifted the end of the bottle higher, making Hinata take a bigger gulp of sake.
"C'mon Hinata it's gonna take more then a few little sips to loosen up!" Ten Ten exclaimed.
Hinata held the bottle so it wouldn't fall and squinted from the amount of sake being forced down her throat.
"No, no." said Kiba as he crawled over in front of Hinata "You gotta do it like this!" He pointed out as he tipped the bottle even higher sending even more sake into Hinata's system.
She flinched and squirmed around trying not to drown from the never ending stream of sake pouring into her.
Finally it ended as they released the bottle; Hinata took several deep breaths but not before a red tint ran across her cheeks.
Kiba and Ten Ten sat back in there seats with a somewhat proud expression on their face. Ten Ten leaned over to Hinata "See isn't that better?" She stated.
Hinata glanced at Ten Ten then at everybody else. The room started to look uneven and she recently started to have trouble just holding herself up.
Then, the almighty party-pooper had to jump in…Neji stared at his so called 'superior' that had a dazed expression on her face and blood building in her cheeks. Neji bowed his head slowly "Hinata…how could you betray our clan like this…how could you show everyone how weak the Hyuuga's are? We shouldn't be affected by our peers or by a little drink…I certainly wouldn't have given in so easily…it is for reasons like this I wonder why I must call you my 'superior.'" Neji glared at Hinata with a look of disappointment on his face.
Hinata glared back at him, she looked as if she was going to tell him off, right then and there…but instead….Hinata snickered…her mouth tilted up just like the sake bottle, she…she was grinning…the snicker turned to a chuckle…then to a giggle…she held her hand to her mouth trying to conceal it, but it was no use. She had to put her hands down on the floor to hold herself up as her giggling turned into full blown laughter. Hinata sat there, attempting to hold herself up as tears ran down her face from laughing so hard.
Again, everyone stared. Yeah, they need to work on that staring problem. But can you blame them? Look at Hinata!! As I was saying: They all stared in bewilderment at Hinata's behavior. There was Hinata, the shyest, and probably the most soft-spoken girl in all of Konoha rolling on the ground in a fit of laugher!!
"H-H-Hinata?" Sakura stammered out. ""Is that really you??"
Hinata burst out laughing again. "You-You….You stuttered!! HAHA!!"
"Heeeeey! I knew you had it in you Hinata!"
Kiba said, hitting Hinata on the back playfully, causing her to fall to the ground from sheer clumsiness. "All you needed was a little help!! Hinata? Hinata where'd you go" He heard muffled laughing noises, then heard a couple, non-muffled, snickers join in. He looked around to see that everyone was snickering and giggling then looked down to see Hinata, with her hands over her mouth, trying to contain herself. She looked Kiba straight in the eye and stuck her tongue out at him innocently.
"You-you m-made me fall Kiba!! That was giggle funny!" She continued giggling hysterically.
Kiba looked down at Hinata, letting the scene before him process into his mind, he cracked a smile, then started to laugh.
He knew making Hinata fall like that wasn't all that funny, but he couldn't help but laugh. Seeing Hinata like this was priceless, and he wanted to enjoy every second of it!
The others joined in the laughter. Well, almost everyone. Sasuke had a smirk on his face because the Uchiha Sasuke should never let anyone know that he can, in fact, laugh, so he gave he trade-mark I'm-somewhat-amused sexy smirk. Shikamaru thought it'd be too troublesome to laugh but he, too, couldn't contain how funny it was. And he had a little help from Ino nudging him in the ribs to get him to join in. Naruto was chuckling and secretly glad that Hinata finally came out of her shell. He actually felt better with her like this, having fun and not being so reserved. It surprisingly kind of shocked him, but he decided to just go with the flow. Neji, on the other hand, wasn't laughing in the least. He didn't like Hinata acting like a foolish-drunkard in front of everyone. He considered this disgraceful. She had a duty to uphold herself being the heir of the Hyuuga clan! He had to do something about this, fast.
"Yosh! The flames of youth are burning passionately inside of Hinata, Neji! You should be proud of her stunning youthfulness! First TenTen, now her, what a grand night this is!" Lee said, posing dramatically with tears streaming down his face.
Neji had the powerful urge to Jyuuken Lee to a pulp, but he wouldn't let himself be pushed to that level. He was Hyuuga Neji, after all, one of the two stoic, cold prodigies of Konoha. However, he didn't want Hinata to continue this kind of behavior because, to him, it was demeaning to a person of her status.
Neji got up and walked towards Hinata, who was now sitting up, back facing him, and making goofy faces at different people in the room. "Hinata, I will not allow you to disgrace the Hyuuga name any longer! You have a status to uphold. As your guard, and cousin, I'm telling you to stop!" He went to grab Hinata's arms and pull her up, but that led to her losing her balance and falling to the ground again.
"Come on Neji! Leave her alone!" Kiba said.
Neji only gave Kiba the cold Hyuuga glare. Kiba backed down a little, not wanting to get another beating that night.
"He's right Neji. She's only having fun," TenTen piped up. Neji only glared at her, but Ten Ten was unfazed by it. "Look at how open she is," she said while pointing down to the laughing Hinata who was currently joking with Sakura. "Have you ever seen her like laugh like that?"
Neji couldn't help but look at Hinata. TenTen was right, he never really seen Hinata laugh like that before. He did see her laugh on rare times in his life, but never so freely. But he would never admit that being the stubborn as that he is. He merely stared back at TenTen.
"Come on Neji! Let her have some fun before she has to go back to being silent again!" Naruto said, looking towards Hinata.
Hinata heard this and stared at him, then blushed a deeper red than she already was. Even though she was pretty drunk, she still couldn't help but blush when Naruto looked at her, much less compliment or defend her.
The girls saw Hinata blush and smiled. Ino crawled over to Hinata and put her face and hand close to Hinata's ear.
"You know Hinata," Ino whispered into Hinata's ear, "I think you and Naruto would make a great couple"
Hinata blushed more. "M-me and N-Naruto?" She said in a barely audible whisper.
Sakura, however, heard what she said and laughed. Even when she was drunk, Hinata still stuttered when it came to saying Naruto's name.'
"Well?" Naruto said, looking at Neji.
Neji simply looked down at Hinata, who returned his look with hopeful, unsure eyes. "Hn, fine," was all Neji could say as he went back and sat down with his arms crossed.
Ten Ten smiled, very proud of Neji. She turned toward Hinata. "Hinata, it's your turn!" She said with a silly smile.
"Really? A-Awesome! I've been waiting all night!" She said, throwing her fist up dramatically. She struggled to get up, but she finally made it to her feet with a little help from Sakura. She wobbled on both legs and started to move clumsily around in a circle and kinda zigzagged around, to study everyone. In the process however, she unknowingly bumped into a coffee table and caused the lamp setting on it to start wobbling. Funny thing was, the lamp was wobbling the same way Hinata was. The lamp was getting ready to fall helplessly to the ground and shatter into pieces but Sakura quickly snagged it.
"Cant have, my love, Sasuke's newly repaired house be messed up again," she said, putting the lamp carefully back in its place. She said, being a ninja really did help a person, even in small situations.
Hinata clumsily stopped and started to think, not really realizing that she was very close to Naruto. "Hmmmmmmm," Hinata said, starting to zigzag in tiny steps to face them both, "I dare…Sh-Shikamawwu," his name was too long to say without slurring a bit. "'nd Ino," she said pointing at Ino "to..umm...uhhhhhhhhh…umm.." she said putting her finger up to her chin, trying as hard and a drunk could to think of something good.
Everyone waited, wondering why she chose them both for the dare.
Ino looked at Shikamaru with a look of worry in her eyes, then set her focus back on Hinata. She was pretty drunk, so she didn't have full knowledge of what she was really doing, so she couldn't help but be a little worried. She looked back at Shikamaru who had his this-is-going-to-be-so-troublesome look on his face. He, too, was looking at Hinata, but what Ino didn't know was that Shikamaru was pretty worried. He had seen what kind of things his dad did and said when he got drunk, and it never turned out good.
Hinata was stumbling around trying to hold her balance. She removed her jacket, relieving some of the excess weight to try and make it easier to walk. Everyone's eyes grew a little to see the conservative Hyuuga revealing some skin.
Neji was shocked and disgruntled at his cousin's behavior, he glanced around at all the guys who were staring in awe. Neji clenched a fist wanting to punch all the guys in the face. Naruto and Kiba had their eyes glued to Hinata with a slight blush running over their face. Lee was prancing around in the background celebrating. Shikamaru was looking at Hinata, not really staring, just observing. Shino's glasses were pointed at her…but who knows what he was really looking at.
Ino glanced at Shikamaru and elbowed him kinda hard. "What was that for?" Shikamaru said as he glared at Ino and rubbed his shoulder.
"Just…." She looked away "just never mind..."
"I dawre you two to ummm...er….mmmmm…"
Everyone waited, and inched closer a bit to make sure they heard Hinata's decision.
Someone in the room then got a bright idea. A big, potato shaped light-bulb popped on above Chouji's head. Ok, either it meant he was hungry for potato chips, or he had a great idea. We're going to go with the second one.
A great idea popped into Chouji's head. He knew Shikamaru and Ino liked each other, he spent enough time with them know their feelings. The thing was that neither of them would admit it to the other, or they were just too dense and blind to realize it. Again, we're going to go with the second one.
"I dawre you guys to..."
"Play 7 minutes in heaven!!!" a sharp, high-pitch voice echoed throughout the room. He took the plunge…
Everyone looked throughout the room to see who it was, but another voice distracted their attention.
"That's it!!" Hinata said with a great smile and she wobbled to the left a little. Mission accomplished for Chouji.
She faced both Ino and Shikamaru, who were only about a foot away from each other. "I dawre you two t-to play 7 minutes in Heaven!!" Hinata shouted out with glee as she threw out her left arm to point at them. "Now get moving!" With that, Hinata then fell to the side (left) due to her clumsiness and fell right into the lap of none other than her long time crush, Naruto.
Naruto nearly jumped when Hinata landed right into his lap. He stared down at her with a blush creeping across his cheeks, not knowing what to do.
Meanwhile, Shikamaru and Ino looked at each other with a look mixed with pure shock and disbelief.
And good ol' Chouji was munching on his potato chips and mentally patting himself on the back
Hinata looked up at Naruto with a cute little smile on her face; she reached her hand up and ran her fingers softly through his hair. Naruto looked down at Hinata with his mouth slightly open and his eyes wide. Hinata blushed a bright red and giggled softly and Naruto began to blush more intensely. Hinata placed her hand under Naruto's chin and softly closed his mouth. Naruto craned his neck up a little shocked at her being so straight forward at that same time a chill ran through his whole body from her touch. Hinata brought her hand back down to her side and gazed into Naruto's eyes. "S….Sorry…..Naruto," she squeaked out. Naruto sank into Hinata's deep pearl eyes and blushed even more. Naruto tried to laugh it off, he closed his eyes and reared his head back slightly and scratched the back of his head nervously. "I…it's alright Hinata." He was grinning like an idiot and was blushing brighter than Hinata ever had, Hinata nodded slightly and smiled.
"Aww, so cute!" Ten Ten said, taking another swig of the sake.
"Way to go Hinata," Kiba said, smirking. He, of course, knew of Hinata's feelings towards Naruto. He had a small crush on her himself for a little while. But now he looked at Hinata as more of a sister, and was glad to see that she's finally opening up more. 'That idiot better not do anything stupid. If he hurts Hinata, I'll break his neck"
Naruto looked briskly up at Kiba when he made that comment, and Kiba returned his glance with a thumb's up and his signature, slightly perv-y smirk like he was congratulating him.
"Huh? What's that for?" Naruto then looked over at his long time crush, Sakura, who was giving him a warm smile. It hit him then; he looked down at Hinata, then at Sakura, then Hinata again, then Sakura. 'Oh crap! What does Sakura think about this!? She doesn't seem mad…but…' He looked down at Hinata intently, 'What's with this stupid feeling in the pit of my stomach…it's that same tightening feeling I get when I'm around Sakura…but what if…Hinata? No way! We're just friends!' he thought to himself. Naruto looked back down at Hinata on his lap, blinked a few times and couldn't help but blush again. 'Why is she still on my lap' he thought as he looked at her. Hinata just smiled back at him still staring into his blue eyes with a blush.
Neji was about to get up and do something about the current situation, but something caught his eye. Neji saw how Hinata was staring at Naruto, she, even though she was drunk, looked truly happy. Like that was how she always wanted it to be, and that was how she always wanted to feel; comfortable and secure with herself. He was a little uncomfortable with how close they were, but instead of acting like a guard, he acted more of cousin, so he let her enjoy herself...but then again he was still protective over her. He cleared his throat, causing both of them to break there connection and look his way. He stared at them with his arm crossed and raised an eyebrow.
They both got the message and Hinata clumsily got up from Naruto's lap. But she lost her balance and fell back square on her ass next to Naruto. They gave each other a cheesy smile then turned away and sighed happily, both of them blushing a bit.
Meanwhile Ino was hugging her knees tightly thinking about what was supposed to be happening in the near future. Now that Hinata had gotten off Naruto they would have to get on with their dare. 'Maybe…maybe they forgot about it…I mean we aren't really the brightest group' she thought to herself and smirked a little more sure of herself. Shikamaru shifted his eyes to look at Ino, even though he told himself that it was gonna be a drag, he couldn't help but feel a little anticipation.
Hinata focused her attention on Shikamaru and Ino "Well…are…she hiccupped are you gonna get in the closet or…or not…?"
"'Or not' isn't and option" stated Kiba. "Get in there you two lovebirds!" Kiba grinned and folded his arms pleased with himself.
Shikamaru stood up "Ah, this is going to be sooo troublesome…" he said with a sigh. Ino now felt a little unsure and hugged her knees even tighter. Not to mention the self-esteem she had built up to do this was completely destroyed by Shikamaru's 'troublesome' comment. Shikamaru walked over to the closet and opened the door, he shoved a couple of boxes around to make room for both of them…what a gentleman…then he stood in the doorway and looked back at Ino. "You comin?" he asked blatantly.
Ino looked over at him and nodded slowly "Oh….yeah."
Shikamaru took his seat in the dark closet and sighed, a part of him wanted to get this over as soon as possible…the other was somewhat excited to get started...but he was still unsure, knowing that Ino had a crush on Sasuke, and she might refuse to even go through with this with a guy like him. Whatever, he didn't care what happened. It was all too troublesome.
Ino stood up, her hands were shaking and she felt her stomach start to churn. Her ears were ringing and a thousand thoughts were racing through her head. Though she had a calmed look on her face, her inner self was going berserk.
She got to the doorway, smiled and laughed nervously towards Shikamaru. She took her seat on the box opposite Shikamaru's and her weight caused the box to sink down a little. This made her even more uneasy than she already was. She placed her hands on her knees and Shikamaru casually reached over and began to pull the door shut.
The others where hollering and whistling, the last thing Ino saw was Lee standing in the crack of the door giving them a thumbs up and tearing a little. The door was shut completely leaving the two adolescent Shinobi in the pitch black forest of coats and shoes…
To be continued…