Would have had this up last night, but was being slightly lame. *sighs*
Anyway, here you are. Another chapter, at what for me can only be called record speed. Bon appetite.
Burning Leaves - 8
It was the sort of thing she hated doing, but today, it needed to be done. As the Kazekage and his group had ordered desert, Karin had realized she was definitely getting off work early today, one way or another, so she'd ducked off to gather a ride home via txt message... The result she'd found an hour later was not a happy one.
"Hey there, baby, I heard you were looking for a ride."
She snorted and stared at the pale-haired boy who was waiting at the curb. "He sent you to pick me up? Seriously?"
"Ah, c'mon now, not happy to see me?" Suigetsu chided, opening the door for her before hopping over the hood of his car and climbing in his side.
"Never." She crossed her arms and stared at him for a moment as he shrugged and climbed in, starting the engine.
"You can feel that way all you want, doesn't change that I'm the one driving you home today, Karin. Now get in, I'm hungry and I'm sure Juugo is too." The larger man shrugged from his spot in the back seat, then smiled when Karin waved at him.
"He's probably not hungry, considering he buys his own groceries instead of freeloading off of other people's," she retorted, finally sitting down and closing the door behind her. She made a point of sitting as close to the exit as possible, avoiding her seat belt and rolling the window down in case she needed to make a quick escape. "Let's just go," she huffed.
"You mind telling me why you're out early?" He was going to be smug about this too, she could tell already.
She turned to glare at him, elbow still on the window. "Only if you want to be the one to pass the information along." Karin sighed in irritation again, resting her chin on her arm and squinting at herself in the car's mirror. "And no, I didn't get fired, if that's what you're trying to imply, jackass."
"That good, huh?"
She groaned through her teeth, rubbing the bridge of her nose beneath her glasses. "Just wait till tomorrow, then you'll be running your mouth."
"And what's so special about tomorrow, bitch?" he snorted, making a hard turn and forcing her out of her corner for an instant. "You got some plan we should be aware of?"
She snorted and punched him in the arm before settling back, "I made the call already. You'll just have to wait and see. Right now, just get me home, I need to see Sasuke."
"As you wish, princess," Suigetsu seethed, jerking the car to a stop at a red light. "We'll get you back home real quick."
His foot slammed the pedal and the engine roared back to life, sending them flying through the intersection and on down the boulevard long before the light turned green.
-********-
"Anyone home?"
Shikamaru eased his way into the seemingly deserted shop, glancing around. "Damn, it's dark in here," he muttered, squinting to see in the flickering fluorescence of the one light that was lit on the other side of the shop. "Tenten? You here? The door was unlocked!" he called, wandering between the cars towards the office. He sighed, noticing the light was on inside the office. "Good, she's in there... damn, she's got to get better about security though, I could have gotten out of here with a car by now," he grumbled, pulling one hand out of his pocket to open the door.
In the next moment he let out a less than dignified shriek and jumped back a couple feet, holding one hand up in front of his face to block the wrench that came flying at him. "What the hell?! Are you mad, woman?" he demanded, holding his other hand over his face for protection as he bent to pick the wrench up.
"Shikamaru!" Tenten squeaked, dropping the screwdriver from her other hand. "I thought you were someone else! I'm sorry, are you alright?"
He grunted, looking at the rapidly forming welt on his arm where he had deflected the makeshift weapon, then nodded, "Yeah, looks like it. What the hell's got you so jumpy, though?"
She rolled her eyes and groaned. "Don't even ask."
"Have you had thieves lately? Do you need me to hire you some security?"
For a moment she just stared, then shook her head and laughed. "No, no... nothing like that." She smirked and shook her head in amusement, then stepped back, waving her hand to usher him into the office. "That's just like you, though. I haven't seen you except in two years, save for a stray oil change, and you're already offering to throw money at me. Still don't have anything better to spend it on?"
He shrugged. "I've made donations to half the children's charities in town and I still seem to have twice as much in my bank account today as yesterday."
"And the other half?'
"Couldn't accept any more without losing their non-profit status." He found a spot on the desk to lean against, putting his hands back in his pockets. "Or else they just weren't any good."
"Why don't you spend some on yourself for a change, then? When was the last time you had a vacation?"
"Boring," he assured her, looking around the office. "Actually, though, I'm planning on blowing a couple hundred K this week."
"Buying a new startup?" she chuckled, taking the wrench from where he'd set it to put it away. "Where this time? China? Italy? The Netherlands?"
"Actually..." he raised an eyebrow, giving her a wry smile as he pulled a pack of thousands from his pocket and waved it at her, "I need a car."
-********-
Eventually Hinata had fallen asleep, and Akamaru carefully slipped out from her grip and nosed his way out of the room, going to set his head on his master's lap.
"Hey there, buddy," Kiba sighed at the huge dog, scratching his forehead softly. "Hinata's asleep then, I guess?" he asked, getting only a whimper in response from the barely understanding dog. "Gods... what a fucking dick," he grumbled, sighing a couple more times and staring at the ceiling. The more he thought about it – the way she'd come in sobbing her eyes out, the sounds of her wails for the hour it took her to finally sleep – the more irritated he got, his teeth grinding together and his fingers slowly digging into the can in his left hand.
"ARGH!" He finally popped, leaping to his feet and launching his mostly-crushed beer can across the room, sending Akamaru skittering away from him. "Goddamn it, what the hell did that prick do?!" He stood there seething for a moment, his teeth bared in a snarl as he stared at the wall and imagined his friend's face there.
A wet nose touched his hand and he looked down at his best friend, letting his growl fade into a quiet breath as he gave the pooch another pet. "I just don't get it, buddy." He shook his head and grabbed his jacket, heading towards the back door – if he was going to rant, he should at least do it where he wasn't going to wake Hinata.
The screen door clattered shut behind him and he slumped onto the porch steps. "He's my best friend besides you, Akamaru. I've known him for fucking ever, and I'm the one who fucking introduced him to her..." He shook his head as he fished out his lighter and lit up, taking a deep puff from an already half-burnt joint and watching the smoke float off before speaking again. "What the hell did he do to upset her like this, buddy? I didn't think that dumb ass had a mean bone in his body."
For a couple moments they sat there in quiet as Kiba worked on his joint and Akamaru enjoyed the intermittent ear scratches. "I should probably just ask her, but when I see her cry, I don't know what to do except find the prick that upset her and crash their head in. I just don't get it..."
He slumped backwards, letting his back rest on the rail as he stared at the last shreds of sunlight in the western sky, slowly starting to calm down as the pot took effect on his mind. "...I know I've said I was gonna take Neji's place... take care of her like a big brother... but hell if I ever wanted to beat the shit out of anyone who hurt Hana..." It was true his sister could defend herself just fine, but he definitely didn't like the things his brain was putting together.
"This is bullshit," he grumbled, taking another deep breath and shaking his head. "Seriously."
-********-
Every inch of his car had been shined perfectly; the intake vents cleaned, the hubcaps tightened, the sole scratch he'd found on his passenger door filled. He made a note not to park in that particular lot again any time soon... if Sasuke recalled right, his car'd been damaged last time he'd been there, too. "Some people just have no respect for others' property," he muttered, making one last visual pass under the hood, going over his mental checklist.
Somewhere, a little too close by, the front door slammed, and his plans for the evening immediately vacated his thoughts. As the sound of high heels beating up his hard wood floors echoes through the walls, accompanied quickly by the door slamming again and various screeching from two voices, he checked his pocket for his keys and considered the garage door opener for a moment. If he moved fast enough, he could be out of the driveway and down the block before she got her shoes off. Especially if he locked the garage door first.
It wasn't that he hated his girlfriend. No, if he hated her, he would have dumped her for one of those harpies that followed him around at bars and races, or one of the anorexic things his father introduced him to at police functions. Karin could be quite wonderful (when she wanted to be), was fairly beautiful (in that secretary sort of way), was a decent cook (something he definitely lacked in), and if nothing else was better to him than his left hand.
No, he just hated when his girlfriend and his best friend were in the same room for any period of time. And worse was when they were in the same car.
"...Wait, wasn't she supposed to be working until 11 tonight?"
He didn't have time to consider why she was back at 9:30 instead before the garage door flew open, revealing a very frazzled looking Karin, whose face melted from anger to near-crying relief at the sight of him. "Oh, Sasuke-kun! You are home!" she swooned, rushing towards him and burying her face into his shoulder before he had time to so much as greet her.
"I am... why wouldn't I be?" One hand came up to rub her back out of reflex, his eyes glancing her over to be sure she hadn't been crying (nope... no crisis on his hands...) and then up to the doorway leading back into the house, watching as Suigetsu came up to the doorway.
For a moment, the two men's eyes locked, before the blond curled his lip into a sneer, crossed his eyes, and began to wave his arms around, mouthing what was most likely Karin's words from a moment before. The Uchiha's eyes narrowed sharply at his friend, who retorted by pointing one finger in a pistol shape and "firing" it, first at the redhead and then at himself.
"Oh darling, I had the most horrible, horrible day. The customers were just dreadful," Karin half-sobbed, looking up at him over the rim of her glasses with enormous puppy eyes, her overly glossed lip extended into a pout. "And that blonde bitch that thinks she owns the place – she tried to fire me!"
"I'm sorry?" he offered, his tone just flat enough to nearly sound sincere, even as he secretly pondered how many years she must have spent in theater class. "Do you want me to – wait, fire? You didn't, did yo-"
"Of course I didn't!" she hissed, smacking him in the chest and taking a couple steps back. "Oh, you don't even care how I feel! You just don't want to have to shell out any money for me!" She stomped her foot, any sign of moisture in her eyes magically gone.
"That's not what I meant," he snapped back, grabbing her wrist before she could smack him again, though it wasn't like she could hurt him anyway. "I just want to know the whole situation."
"They were rude to me! What else do you need to know?!"
Sasuke shook his head, letting her arm go and using that hand to rub his temple slowly. "Nothing, I guess." He sighed – quietly, so as not to seem as annoyed as he was – and looked over at his car for a moment, skimming his checklist again. There were only two or three more things he needed to do before the race, so maybe he could...
"...don't you think, Sasuke? Sasuke? OH FOR GODS' SAKES!" Another hard stomp (how were her shoes not broken yet?) brought him back to reality, and he snapped his gaze back towards her. "You can't even listen to me for two seconds, can you?! You've got to be thinking about your goddamned car all the time!"
"I was just making sure I had everything done so I could spend the rest of the evening making you feel better," he half-lied, struggling not to roll his eyes. "Why don't you go wait for me inside, and I'll show you how much I'm thinking about you. Just give me a minute to get these caps back on and close the hood, then I'll be right in. I promise."
She smiled widely suddenly, throwing her arms around him and kissing him at the corner of his lips. "Okay, of course!" she squealed, racing back into the house, pausing only to turn back and wink at him. For a moment he genuinely smiled in response... She really was beautiful, when she wasn't angry.
He just wished she understood how important the work on his car really was.
-********-
Hinata awoke feeling slightly cold; it was, after all, October, and her living blanket appeared to have escaped since she had fallen asleep. For a drowsy moment she glanced around the room, licking her now-chapped lips to wet them, wondering why they tasted salty.
Then, as the memory hit her of her fiance's lips pressed so passionately to that girl's... She had to choke back a new sob, burying her face into her hands. "Naruto," she whispered, gnawing at her lip, "why?"
For a few minutes she sat in silence, tugging nervously on a lock of hair, staring at the wall and trying hard not to think. She knew that she wasn't emotionally ready to deal with it right now, especially not on their anniversary. 'Oh gods, that's right, it was our anniversary... I was supposed to meet him,' she remembered, looking down at her unusually fancy dress and remembering why it was there. 'No, I'll worry about it tomorrow,' she decided, wiping her eyes and stumbling to her feet. She was getting a little hungry, and found herself hoping that watching a movie and eating some pizza with Kiba would get her mind off the siuation.
She made it halfway across the room before her phone began to ring again, stopping her dead in her tracks. For a moment she stared at the ceiling, silently wondering, almost praying, about what to do, before she cautiously strode back over to answer the phone.
"He-Hello?" she stammered, bracing herself to hear his voice.
"Hinata! Oh geez, where are you? I've been trying to get ahold of you all night!" He didn't sound angry, just... some combination of excited and worried that she knew few people could manage.
"Oh... N-Naruto... I'm... at Kiba's," she admitted quietly, her cheeks burning as she realized that from his angle, she could look like the cheater now.
There was indeed a hint of dissappointment in his voice when he responded. "Whatcha doin over there? I thought we were supposed to meet for dinner tonight..."
"Oh! That was tonight? I'm so sorry Naruto... I... I thought that was next week," she lied, inhaling sharply after her last word to keep from freaking out. "Kiba..." she closed her eyes, trying to think of a lie he'd believe and that she wouldn't feel too awful about; her slightly superstitious nature made her worry that if she said "he got in a wreck", it'd happen. "Kiba's sick. I think it might be food poisoning," she embellished, playing with her hair again as she tried not to speak too fast, "so I'm over here taking care of him. I'll come home tomorrow."
"He's gonna be alright then?" he asked, concern evident in his voice. "If you wanna stay there longer, I can just come over there and see you both after work tomorrow."
"N-No, that's alright. He's already starting to do better, and Hana can take care of him once I go home... it'll... be okay..."
Hinata closed her eyes and rested her forehead against the wall, knowing that her last words were meant for herself, not Naruto or Kiba. Things weren't okay, not at all, but she'd find a way to get through this and do what was right for Naruto.
"Okay, well, let me know if you change your mind. Love you, Hina-chan," he cooed, causing the girl bite her lip so as not to start sobbing again right then.
"Yes, Naruto... I love you too..."