C7

Her next shift at work was two days after her visitation to the skating rink (in which she learned with burning envy that Sasuke's almost distracting grace was not limited to slip-free surfaces). By the end of said certain six hour Sunday shift, Hinata could honestly say that it had been the strangest and altogether most nerve wracking one of her life.

Her first encounter had been with a known pink haired girl and her equally well known blonde crony.

"Oh, my god, Hinata? You work here?" Sakura had exclaimed quite vehemently and dropped her bag of chips and salad on the conveyor belt. She elbowed Ino in the ribs and hissed, "She works here."

"No. Fucking. Way." Ino glanced over at Hinata, an incredulous and envious look plastered across her fair face. "As in…you work here with Sasuke?"

"I don't even know how many times I've sent an application and resume in here!" Sakura cried out in disbelief, startling the waddling middle aged man next to her. "I've never been phoned back once!"

"Um…w-will that be all?" Hinata nearly whispered and pointed at the bag of chips and salad lying forlornly on the belt.

"What?" Looking down at said items, Sakura waved her hand in the air dismissively. "Yeah. That's all."

"Is he working right now?" Ino inquired with an almost feral grin on her face.

"Who?" Scanning the items through, Hinata hoped to God that her feigning ignorance would stall her some time to be struck down just in time by some lightening. She was certain that Sasuke would destroy her in an infinitely more painful way if he found out that she led his two main members of his fan club right to him.

"Sasuke of course."

However, her form of salvation did not come in a bolt of lightening, but the portly and balding man behind the two girls who huffed, "Excuse me, some of us have some shopping to do too."

Both girls glared back but said reluctantly to Hinata, "We'll see you later."

For the second time in the past thirty seconds, Hinata prayed to God. This time for a cloak of invisibility.

--

Her second encounter was just as nearly unpleasant.

She hadn't even seen the face to her customer until she had finished scanning through the last item and glanced up to give him the total price of his order. To her absolute horror, she found staring back at her the same attractive hazel eyed boy from before with that same charming grin set upon his face.

"So, you never did tell me the verdict on that date I asked you on."

"Um…" She was blushing. She was so red by now. She had to be. "I…I…"

"Hinata."

Turning around desperately, Hinata faced Sasuke who happened to be standing next to her till, his bucket and mop standing several feet away beside the customer service desk. "It's your break. I'll take over."

Glancing at the clock, Hinata realized that she had only been working for an hour and her scheduled free break wouldn't be for another two hours. Realizing what he was doing, a large smile broke out across her face as she nodded and resisted to urge to hug him right then and there.

"Just punch out for it." He murmured almost too quiet to hear as she darted past him, waves and waves of gratitude rushing over her as she glanced back to see him greet customers through gritted teeth.

--

Her third and final encounter had her nearly fainting and weak at the knees.

"Hey, Hinata!"

Hinata would've recognized this voice anywhere. Be it in school, in a crowd, or on the phone…Hinata had listened in on it enough to identify the subtle timbres of this voice.

"N-Naruto!" She squeaked and smacked her hand against the scale in her haste to grab his items off of the conveyor belt.

"I thought I'd pop by to grab some stuff while I was around the area." He leaned in conspiratorially and whispered, "Don't tell Sasuke, but usually what little grocery shopping I do, I do at that one place over beside the mall."

"Um…er…" Wanting nothing more than to slam her head repeatedly and violently against her counter to rattle herself of her stupidity, Hinata blurted out, "I love chocolate milk too!"

Naruto raised an eyebrow at his order of chocolate milk and instant ramen and chuckled. "Really? Well, I'm glad to know we have so much in common!" Leaning against the counter, he glanced back to make sure he wasn't holding any customers back. Luckily, it was nine thirty in the evening and customers were few and sparse in between. "So, how's your shift going?"

"It's been long and…strange." She admitted truthfully and forced the stutter out of her voice.

"Haha, really? How so?"

So Hinata surprisingly found herself explaining and chatting with Naruto for the next ten minutes without once hitting an awkward spot. She was still waiting for her luck to run out until Naruto popped the question.

"So, whatcha doin' this Saturday?" He grinned at her, his smile infinitely more gorgeous than that other creep's.

"Nothing." Hinata blurted automatically, not caring if she did because, really, it could wait. "Nothing at all."

"Good. Excellent." He pulled out the receipt she had given him earlier from his order and handed it to her. "Because there's this party…I was wondering if you wanted to go with me." He gave a sheepish smile. "Don't think me too…uh…fresh or whatever, but you're a cool chick, Hinata, and I never see you at these things." He gave a thoughtful look towards empty space in front of him. "Which is weird."

No it wasn't. Because she wasn't cool.

(But who was she to argue this with Naruto?)

"So, can I have your number or something to call and give more details?"

Her heart stopped. She was sure of it. Naruto plus asking her to a party multiplied by asking for her phone number equated: Unreal.

Passing her a pen that was lying on the counter, he gave a friendly smile, "I promise not to text you into the wee hours of the night," (Not that she would mind. At all.) "Or just phone you for no reason and be annoying." (Oh, please do.)

Without giving it a second though, Hinata scribbled her number down quickly and nearly lost the pen in her haste.

"Cool." He grinned toothily and tore off a piece of the paper to write his own number down and hand it to her. "Here. Phone me anytime."

Hinata was sure she was still floating even as her shift ended a half hour later.