Fearless Hearts

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters from Naruto or the song Colour Me Blood Red by Malice Mizer

Summary: He had expected the layout of his part to be the same all day. But then again, things expected never go to plan. AU

"It seems as though the number of customers has died down a little… We should be able to take shifts and have breaks in pairs now."

The drawled comment was met with enthusiasm as everyone within earshot clamoured for the speaker's attention; predictably all volunteering to go first. Shikamaru sighed. It was inevitable really, and having so many of them just floating around the room was likely to cause more harm than good.

"All right, all right… Ino and Hinata will take the first break"
Again, the reaction to the statement was unsurprising. Disgruntled groans and irritated moans filled the air as the two mentioned became the centre of (unwanted) attention.

"The rest of you, shut up and get back to work. This café isn't going to run itself and those two got here before everyone else to take care of costumes and decorations."

Hinata felt a hand tug at her own as Ino lead her out of the classroom and into the corridor.
Having met the first influx of customers the corridors were now sparsely populated with only a few external visitors, the majority being other students either on breaks or attempting to draw customers to their own attractions. It was the perfect time to roam the schools cultural festival in (relative) peace.

Why the school was holding a cultural festival in the middle of autumn was beyond Hinata; traditionally the school held them after exams as an event for the students to unwind (…not to say that they didn't cause equal amounts of stress for those chosen to take responsibility for their class) had been unexpectedly pushed to the front of the year.
When she had enquired about this to the student council president, her cousin Neji, he had muttered something that had sounded like "Tsunade" "gambling" "inspectors" and "festival". He had looked quite frustrated so she – wisely – chose not to question him further.

Ino too was muttering to herself as she dragged Hinata past the last classroom on their floor and down the stairs.
"I can't believe I had to dress as a boy. I mean, I was the one who suggested the idea of a cosplay café, but I didn't think I'd wind up being stuck as Edward Elric!" Ino wrinkled her nose and flicked her plait over her shoulder. Though she didn't mention it now, it had also been her idea to have different members of the class choosing the outfits of others rather having everyone decide for themselves. She had reasoned that this way no one would be able to duck out of dressing up.
Every class member's name had been written onto a slip of paper and put into a box. These were then picked out by other members of the class. Keeping the name that each had received a secret, they each had two days to think of a character for that person to cosplay as. The slips of paper (now with the names of the character that each person must cosplay as) were then returned to the box where their reluctant student supervisor, Shikamaru, (elected by the class as a prank, though now they regretted it) sorted through them and delivered these little notes of doom to whomever they concerned.
Hinata had the sneaking suspicion that either Naruto or Kiba had been the ones to receive Ino's slip, but neglected to point this out; the less blood shed the better!

Trying to steer the subject of conversation in a less dangerous direction, Hinata said quietly "Shikamaru-san looks surprisingly like his character with his hair down… I never would have guessed…" She hitched up her skirts slightly to prevent herself from slipping.

Ino grinned, "Yeah, even though I've known him forever, casting him as Yoh Asakura would never have crossed my mind." She shrugged and continued, "well, whoever managed to make the connection must be pretty astute… It's kind of freaky how their personalities are somewhat similar too…"

They turned onto the landing of the first floor. A variety of aromas assaulted them as they walked through the corridor, peering into rooms to see what each offered.

"You know," Ino began as she politely declined a persistent student trying to make a sale, "I think that whoever thought of your cosplay must be pretty sharp too; it really suits you," she said motioning Hinata's attire.

Hinata's cheeks coloured at the compliment as she stuttered her thanks for the praise. She had been sceptical when she had been informed of her role: all that had been written on the slip she had received was "Arwen, LOTR" but that was enough for her. For an avid fan of reading like Hinata the caption had merely made her raise a brow in surprise… An elf? Her?
Other, less well read, members of her class had puzzled over the caption trying to decipher its meaning.

Her costume consisted of a flowing white dress which would have trailed behind her had she not held her skirts up as she walked, with her hair fashioned to mimic the style of the Arwen depicted in the Lord of the Rings movies. Her feet were clad in comfortable flip flops; she had originally reasoned that this small luxury of comfort would be hidden by her flowing skirts and for the most part would go unnoticed.

Hinata struggled to maintain her balance as again Ino towed her away, this time towards a classroom which looked to be full of food stands. When they emerged again, each had a stick of dango in hand (and Ino pulled along classmate Chouji out by the ear for managing to sneak away from their own stall).

Hinata nibbled her treat, content, as Ino stopped outside the classroom to have her palm read, giggling every time something amusing concerning her future was revealed. She took another small bite of her dango, catching a glimpse of a tall figure clad in a black cloak from the corner of her eye. An aura of mystery shrouded him; he entered the very room which she herself had just left. Stealing a glance at Ino – still furrowing her brows over her supposedly problem riddled life ahead of her – she leaned slightly to the side, her curiosity getting the better of her as she peered around the door to look at the stranger.

Getting a better look at him, Hinata recognised him as an upperclassman, Uchiha Itachi, the brother of one of her classmates. He too was at the dango stall, just getting ready to hand over some money whilst politely listening to the absent minded chatter of that class's cashier.
"Itachi-senpai, I heard that you're not participating with your class this year?"
"The Akatsuki have assembled a club stall this year. Please drop by if you have the time." His voice was as flat as ever but he bowed his thanks to the cashier after receiving his dango. As he crossed the threshold of the classroom Hinata quickly turned back to Ino so that she would not be spotted; she didn't want to seem as though she was leering at him after all, to him or to Ino.

Reaching the door, Itachi stopped mid step looking down at her as though she were a particularly interesting insect. She could feel his gaze on her. There was a slight rustle of cloth as his hand reached into his cloak (which she now observed was lined in red) to present a flier before her eyes. She blinked with surprise and numbly accepted the paper, murmuring her thanks and finally meeting his eyes. She was rewarded with a nod... and was that a ghost of a smile she saw? Hinata wasn't given the opportunity to confirm her suspicions as Itachi swept past her and continued down the corridor, cloak billowing in his wake.

"Well, that was interesting. Let me see it."
Hinata jumped about a foot in the air; she had forgotten that Ino was even there! She wordlessly handed the flier over, inspecting it herself.
"We have to go now; it's as if you were personally invited to go..."
Hinata was about to deny the claim but was cut off.
"It's a haunted house by the Akatsuki club... If it's been put together by those guys it's sure to be great! It's on the next floor down. Let's go."
Hinata allowed herself to be dragged away again; she didn't particularly want to go to a haunted house (there were always haunted houses at cultural festivals anyway, the idea was just about as original cafés were) and she had promised to visit Tenten's class but she had a feeling that Ino would not take no for an answer. She rarely did.

When they arrived the queue to enter the assigned classroom was growing fast but that was no surprise; as Ino had said the expectation for the group's attempts at anything were usually high.

x X x

Finishing the last remnants of his dango Itachi slipped back into the classroom successfully avoiding the notice of those lined up by the side of the class to gain entrance. He passed Hidan by the door who was swearing profusely as he attempted to cover the windows with black cloth that flopped over his head instead.
"There you are!" He was greeted by a grinning Tobi (well, he assumed he was grinning anyway; Tobi's face was hidden by a mask) who ushered Itachi through the maze that they had created to face Pein, the president of the club.

"Good, it seems as though everyone is back. The queue has grown during our break, but don't use that as an excuse to rush. We'll re-open in three minutes."
The words sent half of the group scurrying away, as the other half continued at their own pace regardless as if to say "so what?" Predictably Itachi was part of the latter half as he strolled to his area of the classroom.
Konan was already there, putting up the last of her paper bat decorations. She gave Itachi a solemn nod of acknowledgement before disappearing between the dark cloth that the room had been swathed in. She would control her paper creations with clear string to make the customers jump. Checking his watch, he sighed before entering his position – a handmade replica of a coffin. Sasori had been the one to actually put the coffin together, but the rest of the group had been involved in the decoration of the box, even proving to Sasuke that it was quite convincing. He had seen it when Itachi had brought the box home to fit his own contribution; the velvety red inside. It was the only reason that he had agreed to play the part of the vampire (besides the fact that the role would be the only one not to involve the use of makeup), and with his addition, the coffin was actually pretty comfortable.
Closing the door behind him, he heard the first terrified screams (which would soon be followed by more) of the second half of the morning.

For several groups of customers Itachi's routine was the same; the customers entered to the sound of Malice Mizer's Colour Me Blood Red playing softly, with silvery paper bats swarming from the darkenss to 'attack' their 'victims' before returning to their original position around the coffin, which was then lit by a blinking light which came to life by the motion sensor rigged to it (fitted by Itachi and Sasuke; although his bother was not an official member of the Aatsuki he did help out every once in a while). Itachi would then throw open the coffin's door, his face concealed by his hair and the shadows created by the blinking light, and emerge. Usually the 'bang' created by the coffin's door was enough to make anyone jump, but the planted customer would then be 'attacked', causing the rest of them to shriek and scuttle to the next section (where the plant would then join them to be 'attacked' by the next Akatsuki member). Their plant was another non-member in his brother's year, Karin, who had insisted on helping when she had found out about Sasuke's involvement. She had only been allowed to because all of the actual club members refused to be the plant themselves.

He had expected the layout of his part to be the same all day. But then again, things expected never go to plan.

The routine had started out the same. Cue music, bats and blinking light. That's when things went wrong. There was a loud 'bang' though Itachi had not even attempted to open his coffin yet.
The group – which seemed to consist entirely of girls – screamed and jumped as the light cut out, scrambling towards the next part of the haunted house assuming that this was all there was to his section. He could hear Karin huff in annoyance and follow suit continuing on to the next section. Still, someone had remained there, not moving from their spot. From the cut-out cross on his coffin (made precisely so that he would be able to see even from inside it) he had spotted the girl who he had seen earlier and given the flier to. From what he could tell she had not jumped at the sights of the bats, nor had she found the coffin creepy in the least if her apathetic silver gaze was anything to go by. But as soon as the lights had cut out it seemed as though she had frozen.

Itachi had his suspicions of the cause of the loss of power; Deidara had somehow managed to convince the staff (though he had no idea how he'd managed this) that a small chemistry experiment would not break any health and safety regulations, and had been providing small explosions to other parts of the haunted house as such. He had probably gotten too close to some wires in the dark which would have caused the power to cut for everyone's safety.

He heard confused mumblings from other parts of the room, and the sound of Kakuzu in the next section trying to explain something. He supposed it was also his responsibility to speak to the one left in his section too.

He opened his coffin door slowly this time, avoiding his usually intentional 'bang' so as not to startle the customer. He cleared his throat and said, "It seems as though the power has been cut. Please do not panic." And left it at that. His voice was slightly rough, not having needed to speak for quite some time as he groped around the inside of coffin with his hand. He was given no response, though the presence of the girl seemed slightly less tense. He decided to speak anyway. "I should have a wind up torch somewhere around here for times just like this..."
He did find it, winding it up quickly and switching it on. He could almost feel his pupils dilate to accustom themselves to the sudden change in light intensity as he turned to the girl. Indeed it was the girl from earlier, and now with the light she observed him with the same thoughtful gaze that he had sensed when he was buying his dango. He even had to briefly wonder whether the fear that he had sensed just a short while ago was a figment of his imagination. She seemed completely fine now.

He nodded at her, and stated in his usual, almost cold tone "I'll go and find out what's going on" and took steps towards Kakuzu's section to do so. Until he felt a hand on his own that is. He glanced over his shoulder to regard the girl calmly, raising a brow for an explanation.
She dropped the hand as if it were hot coal.
"Umm... I-it's just that if you g-go, you'll take the torch with you. And you can't leave the torch with me and go without it..."

He supposed that there was some reason in that argument. He nodded mutely and returned to the coffin, this time opting to perch on its edge. The girl, whose cheeks had now coloured themselves scarlet, also slid to the floor, hooking her hands around her knees as she inspected her flip flops.

It was odd. She didn't seem at all scared of the vampires or ghouls which had frightened the life out of so many of her peers but the moment that the lights had gone out she had become transfixed.

"You're afraid of the dark" He stated dispassionately.

She looked up at him meeting his eyes unwaveringly at the accusation. "I-I'm not afraid of the dark per se. J-just pitch back. What could be worse than not being able to see?" She paused, her brows furrowing slightly as she seemed to lose her stutter all together and asked, "Aren't all humans afraid of the unknown?"

It was odd to say the least. He had been expecting a rebuttal of some kind, but she had openly accepted her fear and it had not resulted in her squealing and trying to hug him either (he guessed he could let her earlier action slide since she had hastily withdrawn contact). Perhaps it wasn't odd, so much as it was fascinating. How many would admit that they were scared?
They sat in silence, each left to their own thoughts until the power was returned and the classrooms lights were turned on.

Ino ran into the room, chattering at a rate of a mile a minute and throwing her arms around Hinata, completely ignoring Itachi's presence (or perhaps she just hadn't noticed him).
"Hinata-chan! That was pretty freaky, huh? Pein-senpai has said that everyone in here during our turn can go around once more for free, isn't that great?"
"Um, Ino-chan actually I think that once is just about enough... Plus, don't you think our break time would be over by now?"
They continued to talk as they made to leave, but before they could get much further Hinata turned around and bowed, surprising Itachi even more (though he did not let this show). "Th-thank you for taking care of me just now." Again, he cheeks flushed as she made a speedy exit and Ino looked between them with interest, a wicked spark in her eyes. Reaching into her red jacket she pulled out a flier of her own and gave it to Itachi grinning, winking at him as she turned to leave as well.

When Kisame wandered by a few minutes later he was startled when the Uchiha asked if he wanted to go to a café in their next break. Didn't Itachi hate coffee?

-Hollyrose-

A/N: Ah, that was so rushed! Unfortunately, I missed the deadline for the competition by about three hours – I would say that that should teach me not to leave it to the last minute, but I know that I'll probably still end up leaving it till the last minute next month too…
Again, not enough time/creativity to think up a title of my own so I've just stuck to the prompt; hopefully I'll come back and change it when I think of a better one. Another AU one shot for "DateMe" (who have a profile here, and on DeviantArt - go check all the entries out!) and another first attempt at a pairing.

Hope you enjoyed reading!