I do not own Naruto.

Author's Notes: Gosh I'm a loser.

Sorry I didn't get this posted sooner! I had a random Attack of the Virus and now have canker sores parading through my mouth and down my throat. So, updates may be a little slower this week as I A) Recover, and B) Beat this story into submission with a stick. Thanks to everyone who reviewed! Please enjoy.

oOo

"It is one of the blessings of old friends that you can afford to be stupid with them." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

oOo

Early February

"I am not sorry," Ino said firmly, trailing her finger around the rim of her coffee cup. "Not at all. That ringtone is perfect for him!"

"No, it's not," Hinata said. "Imperial March is perfect for him; Two Steps from Hell is perfect for him. Barbie Girl is not an acceptable choice."

"But it's a funny choice."

"Sakura," Hinata begged her friend, who was sitting quietly across from them in the plastic seat the mall food court provided, grinning. "Help me out here."

Sakura paused, thinking about it, and then shrugged helplessly. "It is a little funny."

"Back only a week and already you two are double-teaming me." Hinata sighed theatrically. "You're so cruel."

"But we're hot," Ino said. "And that's got to count for something."

Hinata turned a little red, about to retort with something incredibly witty, but Sakura cut her off quickly. No one wanted a repeat of The Great Hinata Blow-up of '02.

"How's Holly?" Sakura asked.

Ino frowned. "She stayed with her father while I was gone."

Hinata bit the inside of her cheek, all signs of Blow-up disappearing. Holly was Ino's seven-year-old daughter, and Ino had refused for years to allow the father to interfere in their lives at all. Ino had dated the guy in high school, and had given birth to Holly when she was seventeen.

"Oh, really?" Hinata asked. "I thought you didn't… speak to him."

"I didn't," Ino said, staring only at the table now. "He initiated contact, said he and his wife wanted to get to know his daughter."

"He's married," Hinata gasped in surprise. "Oh, Ino…"

She waved her glossy pink nails, shoving away the sympathy. "Don't. She really enjoyed herself. A lot. They're alike, Shika and her. Anyway, Holly is great! She's dying to see Auntie Hinata again, of course."

"A steady feed of chocolate can do wonders for a reputation," Hinata agreed, letting the subject slide. If Ino wanted to talk about it, she would, and if she didn't…

Well, she wouldn't. Ever. Probably even under the cruelest torture methods ever discovered. Ino was like that.

"That's why I love you!" Sakura cheered, trying to steer the mood away from dangerous territory. Ino was pouting, glaring at her coffee. "Come on, Ino's Atmosphere of Despair over there is bringing me down. Let's go perk her up," she dragged Ino from her chair, ignoring the other woman's squawking. "By shopping. You need new clothes for your date, Hinata. Like, really bad."

Shopping. It was a magic word for Ino, and suddenly Hinata was being dragged by two sets of over-enthusiastic hands through the mall, straight to some little boutique. Hinata felt distantly bad for the workers in there. If it was the first store in the Shopping Plan of Attack that Ino and Sakura had already figured out, they were in for a long couple of hours.

The hours were very long. (Though when she looked back, she had really only had to endure two hours, two hours less than what it felt like.) Hinata hated shopping for herself, preferring to do it for others, and having to stand around being a dress-up doll for a bickering Ino and Sakura was not her ideal afternoon.

But it made the other two so happy, that Hinata just couldn't refuse them.

"The blue," Ino and Sakura said at the same time, as Hinata emerged from the dressing room for what felt like the six-hundredth time. (Although, to be fair, according to her count she had only been in and out about eighty-six.) "It's perfect!"

"The neckline is high enough to be modest-"

"But low enough to be sexy."

"And those bell sleeves!"

"And the skirt's not quite a mini. Do you have a long coat and tights? We wouldn't want you to freeze to death."

"You'll have to wear boots of course… Oh! But the best part, by far, is the shimmers and the bead work…"

"It's perfect," Ino and Sakura finished, while Hinata busied herself with tugging at the hem. She loved the dress, more than any of the others so far. Tiny silver beads were peppered over the bodice and down one arm in a spiral of flowers, and subtle silver threads had been worked into the dark blue cloth to lend just an extra bit of shine. Ino and Sakura were smiling like the cat in the cream, patting themselves on the back for being absolute geniuses.

"I love it," Hinata assured them, locking herself in the dressing room again to shimmy out of her dress and put on her much warmer jeans and sweater. "You guys are wonderful!"

"Thanks!" Sakura called back. "Now just jewelry and shoes and we'll be done!"

Hinata barely stifled her groan. They won't purposely drive me crazy; at least I have that hope. They would never force me into one of those "hideous white jackets with the buckles". She smiled. That's them, unwilling to do anything illegal because the orange prison uniforms would clash with their hair.

They moved on to jewelry at Hinata's insistence that she already had the perfect boots. The girls complained until they remembered that, hey, she did, because they had bought her those silver boots (stuffed into the back of her closet with all of the other "fun" purchases they had made for her. Hinata didn't consider leopard print short skirts "fun") and acquiesced to also do a little shopping for themselves, an easily won argument.

"You guys can't spend all your time on me, do a little shopping for you."

"We're fine, this is all about you!"

"Really, it's okay."

"Well, if you insist…"

By the time Ino had really started to get into the purses, Sakura was checking over her shoulder every few minutes. She did so subtly, sometimes it seemed like she was just looking at another rack, but Hinata felt the prickles along the back of her neck that meant they were being watched.

Finally, Sakura gave up pretense. "Okay, do either of you know tall, dark, and stalk-y over there?"

Hinata looked, and to her surprise saw Sasuke browsing through a rack of ties. "That's Sasuke. Naruto's friend."

"Well he's been there every time I've turned around for the last half hour, and you can only look at so many ties," Sakura growled. "Stay here."

"Sakura, don't-" Hinata begged, but was cut off as her friend stomped over and tapped him on the shoulder. "…do that…"

Sasuke turned to her, one eyebrow raised, and Hinata could visibly see Sakura rock back on her heels at the man's near-perfect features. She steeled herself in a matter of seconds though, and Hinata just closed her eyes as she proceeded to interrogate him so quietly Hinata couldn't hear them. Ino caught the sight, and laughed.

"Just love it," she told Hinata. "You know Sakura, she's…"

"Protective," Hinata finished with a sigh. "I know, usually it's great that she can drop kick a two-hundred and fifty pound man several feet, but Sasuke is actually quite nice."

"Single?" Ino asked hopefully.

"Yes, but I think he eats nails and small children for breakfast every morning."

"…Ah. So, that would be a "no" then…?"

"That would be a disclaimer. Like the kinds they have at the zoo telling you not to put your fingers in the lion cage."

"That bad?"

"He's a good person," Hinata hastened to reassure her. "He's just… cold."

"Some like it cold."

"Eww."

Ino laughed, snatching the bag with the dress in it from Hinata's hand to check a piece of jewelry against it. She sniffed in contempt, and put it back.

Hinata was watching Sakura and Sasuke, worried that her friend was in over her head, but they seemed amiable enough, and Sakura was actually smiling a little. They finished their conversation with a nice (if overly ominous to Hinata) handshake, and then Sakura wandered back over with a grin.

"That," she announced. "Is one fine piece of eye-candy."

"What'd you say?"

"I asked him if we could help him, 'cause I noticed he was looking a little lost."

Hinata winced. In the few times she had worked with Sasuke, she had figured out that his pride was probably the most important thing to him. Having someone tell him he looked lost was probably grounds for tying a person down across two lanes during rush hour.

"He said he wasn't of course, and I said, 'Oh, so you're just following us around?' And he said, 'Yes, I am.' And I was like, okay… creepy person, but then he smiled-"

"He smiled?"

"Well, smirked, and was like, 'Just kidding, a friend is having a birthday soon, I'm shopping for them.' And I asked if we could do anything to help, and he said, no, but if we could please stop following him around that would be great."

Ah. Yeah, that sounded more like Sasuke.

Ino laughed in surprise, and even Sakura was grinning. "I told him I thought he was the stalker, and we mutually decided it was a coincidence, shook hands, and all is well."

Hinata breathed a sigh of relief.

"Come on!" Ino ordered, dragging the girls away. "If we're going to have time to do nails, and buy the best ice-cream known to man, we need to move!"

Ice-cream! Hinata thought desperately. Food! "Sounds good," Hinata said, and now she was dragging them. "Let's go!"

oOo

Author's Notes: Kind of a weak ending, I know, but I hope it was enjoyable. Please review!

Next Chapter: THE DATE.