Hey! I finished Celebrity Love ch. 4. So, now I'm starting Match CHAPTER FIVE! Yeah! Anyways, ignore the awkward writing then. Let's move on with the story!
P.S: Happy Lunar New Year! :D My favorite time of the year :D Festive mood, great homemade food, red envelopes, and happy family time.
Disclaimer: I do not own the characters of the Naruto universe.
Previous chapter: Hinata blushed while looking at him. All of a sudden, her phone vibrated. Fumbling, she took out her phone and flipped it open. "Hello?"
"Hinata? It's me, Tenten!" Broken out of her daze, Hinata rushed to respond to the matchmaker.
"Hello, Tenten!" Hinata was smiling radiantly, an attempt to not grin.
"Whoa, you're sounding chipper this afternoon. I could practically hear your grin from this side of the phone."
"Oh Tenten! I just had the best moment of my entire life!" Hinata sighed happily. Sliding her grocery bags a little bit to the right, she moved them till she was at the sidewalk curb. Then she proceeded to hail down a taxicab.
"Wow, best moment of your life? Well, I have some news that can top that best moment...Possibly."
"Oh, I don't know. I just. Oh my goodness, it was wonderful." Hinata laid her right hand over her heart, feeling the rapid beats against her chest. Once again, she signed happily.
A taxicab responded to Hinata's call and stopped in front of her.
"Hmm, interesting. Something so great that you have not stuttered once in this entire conversation. Let me guess. You saw Uzumaki Naruto, didn't you?" Tenten jumped from her comfy swivel chair.
As Hinata loaded the paper bags into the taxicab's backseat, she gasped in awe. Getting in herself, she closed the door behind her and stated her home address to the driver.
"How did you know that?"
Tenten, on her end, chuckled smugly.
"I've got, psh, I don't know, YEARS of matchmaking experience. Please, Hinata, I'm in this business for a reason. You can't underestimate me. I hear this kind of news all the time, it's so obvious through your voice."
"How many?"
"Huh?"
"How many years?" Hinata was curious to see how Tenten built up this kind of intuition.
"Well...Technically, I opened this business when I was 19 years old."
"So..." Hinata looked uncertain.
"What do you mean by technically?"
"Well...I started matchmaking some couples when I was younger."
"Oh, like high school?"
"Well, yes, but I started a little bit younger than that."
"Middle school?" Tenten could practically hear the respect piling up for her. She didn't mind it. Why no one gave her much respect in the beginning was what she did mind. Deciding to cut to the chase Tenten gave her answer.
"Grade school." Hinata had eyes bulging out of their sockets.
"Wow."
"But, they weren't exactly good couples." Hinata was still in awe, evident in repeating her former statement of 'Wow'.
"Yes. Because of my long work history, I have to come clean. Technically, I may have known about you and Naruto because I found out that Naruto's here for the annual Inter-village Ramen Competition."
"Oh." Tenten felt Hinata's admiration for her slip away.
"But! But! Because of yours truly, I have arranged for you to go on a date with him. I actually know a mutual friend of his, so, he did me a solid and...yeah." The energy that consumed Tenten had suddenly disappeared as the momentum of the statement reached it's climax.
And once again, Tenten secured admiration and awe for herself. A feat she was slightly proud of, of course.
Arriving at her apartment building, Hinata thanked the driver and gave him his earned pay.
"Really? Wh-when is it?" Hinata hauled her grocery bags out, one at a time, as one of her hands was holding the cell phone to her ear.
"Tomorrow night. Close enough so you won't be too impatient. Far enough so you have time to get ready; physically, mentally, and emotionally. Booyah! I'm good." Suddenly, and yet sort of expectantly, Tenten heard a squeak come from the phone she was holding.
Hinata; overcome by panic, fear, and excitement began to slightly hyperventilate.
'Deep breaths. Deep breaths.' Hinata repeated the mantra over and over in her head, till she felt she had sufficient oxygen supply.
Tenten, who already knew what she was doing (as she could kind of guess the gentle character of Hinata), listened until she no longer could hear the sound of loud breathing before asking her question.
'Sooooo, how do you feel about it? Excited? Nervous? Or is your body flushed with desire to see your one, true, love?" Tenten laughed at the end of this.
Meanwhile, Hinata had already hobbled her way to her apartment lobby, where she pressed the up button for the elevator. She felt her face feel awfully hot by the time Tenten finished her questioning.
"I-I...I!" Hinata struggled to overcome her embarrassment. Tenten laughed light heartedly.
"It's alright, no need to answer the question. It was a joke. Sort of." Hinata sighed in relief.
Tenten spoke first. "Alright, this is what I leave you with. Remember to wear some pretty dress or something, ok? I have to go, I need to do research on someone else. Bye!"
"Ok, bye bye, thank you for everything." Hinata replied respectfully.
"No prob. Good luck on your date tomorrow!" Said Tenten in a teasing manner. With that, Tenten hung up first, followed by Hinata. The elevator dinged with arrival and Hinata got on it.
It finally arrived at the 8th floor and Hinata walked to her apartment door with her grocery bags. Opening the door, she tiredly closed and locked it once she got inside. Tossing her keys to the small table next to the door, she stumbled her way to the couch, leaving her groceries at the foot of the door.
She plopped down on her comfy couch, feeling the relaxation wash over her quickly. She allowed herself to lay down for some time.
While she did harbor an immense and intense love for Naruto, she always felt it was hard to compare to the one he had a crush on when they were little. Even now, she would have this ultra private and one sided competition against Haruno Sakura.
Hinata always tried her best to be able to be compared against Sakura. Though she didn't feel that anything she did amounted to much. While it seems that wherever she went, someone was praising Sakura, she didn't feel anyone do that for herself.
There were mild depression times when she thought of Naruto and how he came to like Sakura. She could understand him not liking herself, because frankly, she didn't attract much attention. But why did he choose someone so...so...opposite from herself?
It was hard to carry on hope when the one clue on Naruto's ideal woman was...someone not her.
Hinata looked at the cream white ceiling of her apartment. How nice it would be if everything was simple and plain. She let her mind drift off to nothingness.
A few minutes later, she glanced at the grocery bags. She would have to put away the food. Sighing heavily, she pushed herself off with a groan.
Speaking plaintively, it hurts. It hurts to think about the past. The way she felt an unreachable goal when dealing with Sakura. The thought that Naruto would simply not care about her, or would rather be friends. The way she felt inferior and small when dealing with so many people.
She felt as if she didn't deserve anything. Not with her dark, gloomy appearance. Nor with the comparisons between her genius cousin and her failure self.
How could she expect so much from Naruto? He was this great ball of energy, who gave her courage, the want to breathe life so deeply. How could she expect him to love little old her? When he could have the love of someone he would much prefer?
No, she was sure he wouldn't like her by now. 'Ambition is your worse enemy', thought Hinata. This was for the better. He probably didn't remember her anyways. Would she give up hope? She didn't know. Only Naruto could bring out such emotions in her.
Her bottled feelings that she wouldn't realize if she didn't feel the misery unrequited love gave her. She never would have known how broken of a human she felt like underneath her shy exterior.
Where was the love her childhood should have had? Where was the happy memories associated with the word 'family'? Why, oh why must she live up to these expectations of doing well in school, in everything?
It seemed like a good word to describe Hinata's life was rejection. But even so, she did not resent her family. They, themselves had problems. They were that kind of a family. Emotions did not show, and weakness was not allowed. It certainly explained why Hinata was an outcast.
She did not carry the gene to pull off a poker face. She was not calm, she was peaceful. She often showed clumsy emotions like embarrassment or nervousness. She was not exceptionally intelligent like her kinsmen. And she certainly was not fit to handle the entire Hyuuga Corporation.
Lifting the grocery bags off the ground, she went to the refrigerator and set the bags near it. Hinata pulled the fridge door open and began the monotonous act of putting away the food.
Once done, she entered headed to her bedroom, towards her simple dresser and pulled out some comfortable clothes. Hinata then proceeded to take out a pair of pajamas and a clean set of underwear before heading into her bathroom to shower.
She felt like crying after that depression moment she had. And when she wanted to cry, she would take a shower. Because then she wouldn't cry. The water will cry for her, and she would let it wash away her misery and worries. She wanted to stay strong. She didn't want to cry, because she didn't want to cry due to Naruto.
Once she stepped inside the warm welcoming rain of water, she felt her attitude slowly change. Naruto was a good thing, the greatest thing that walked into her life. Why did she want to cry? This won't do.
Hinata spoke aloud to herself," If Naruto doesn't like me...then, fine, it would hurt. But giving up, not giving my all, when I have the chance to receive his love, would hurt even more."
After her a long shower, Hinata turned off the faucet and stepped out of the shower, while wrapping her now freezing self in her fluffy towel. She then dried herself roughly and quickly, wanting to wear more clothes to feel heat again. After putting on clothes, Hinata wrapped her wet hair in a towel. Right after that, she heard a ding emit from her phone. Hinata walked over to her phone lying on the coffee table in the living room.
Tapping her fingers a bit, she finally accessed the text message. Hinata took a deep breath.
'It's finally happening. Reality caught up to my dreams.' She smiled and gently the phone back on the coffee table.
Walking to the kitchen, she started to prepare for dinner. Though the text message would be all that she would think of that night.
Hi! It's Uzumaki Naruto! Is this Hyuuga Hinata? If it's not, then...disregard this message please :P. But if this is Hinata-san, I got your phone number from...Tenten? Just texting the details of our meeting tomorrow night to you. I'll pick you up at six tomorrow, is that ok? I'm not a stalker, Tenten gave me your address and stuff, btw. It's a surprise as to where I'm taking you though ;D. I look forward to seeing you!
A/N: Sorry it took so long! Procrastination and homework are my excuses. So just to give you a timeline, I started this chapter right after I uploaded chapter four of Celebrity Love (can't remember when that was) and was intending to upload it on Lunar New Year's. However, I already had three and a half pages typed up and I felt like more would be better. I'm still a little disappointed in the amount of words this chapter has, but it ended in a way that I liked. Also, I think you guys might know that I'm that kind of mean author to leave cliffhangers here and there. :P