Crescendo
A/N: Another story from my Tumblr that I thought I'd show you. This one is split into 8 different parts plus one extra part. Please enjoy!
Part I - Poetic Crescendo
...
He wasn't a poetic man.
The sky was just blue. A rose was only a rose. The moon was a floating rock in space.
But —
"Sasuke."
But even he had his moments.
"I love you."
Gently, like a spring breeze, Hinata Hyuuga pulled him into her colorful world.
...
He would die for Naruto.
It was like one of those weird questions you'd have to write a page about for a freshman year English class: if you had to die for something, what would it be?
Sasuke would die for Naruto.
It wasn't . . . as generous as most people would make it out to be, which is why he didn't make the effort to go about spouting the sentiment to everyone. Surely, one would think — "Oh, how selfless that Uchiha is!" But that wasn't it. Not really.
It was because Naruto was an idiot who could hardly take care of himself. If Sasuke wasn't there with him, keeping him on track, surely he'd be dead by now. And it was his mission as a friend to watch his back and keep that oblivious idiot in check when things were flying right over his head. That is why Sasuke would die for him — because with the shit Naruto already got himself into, that would probably be the most probable way of him going.
But he didn't care.
And maybe that was the selfless part of it that made him swallow those words deep down into his throat, where no one could reach them. If people found out, they wouldn't leave him alone — actually, they already do that now, so it would be even more annoying to deal with even more of their shit.
...
But why is he bringing this up now?
Well.
Naruto brought to their shared dorm a friend of his.
A girl.
...
Reasons why Naruto bringing over a girl is a bad, possibly dangerous sign:
1) Naruto's first girlfriend was Sakura Haruno, who would beat the shit out of him when she was pissed — which was always, it seemed. Somehow, angsty teenagers and high school finals were a bad mix; who knew, right? And like the idiot he is, Naruto just took it. All of it. With a smile. It took Sasuke two years to talk him out of that shit.
2) Naruto's second girlfriend was some chick named Temari. She used him as a fling, but Naruto got the impression it would lead to something more. Graduation week for seniors was supposed to be one of the best weeks of a teenager's life, but Naruto was instead stuck in a corner to himself, reading again and again the final, nonchalant text Temari sent him before dumping his ass. And, again, Sasuke was the one to pull back onto his feet.
3) Naruto thought any girl being nice to him meant they were interested in him. The poor fool got so enraptured by their smiles and kindness, but the end result was always his heart breaking in half. What if this was that case scenario again? What if this was just a friendly girl that Naruto was sure had the hots for him?
No matter how you look at it, girls were just bad news.
But as he said before, Naruto was an idiot, and Sasuke was the friend of the idiot.
...
"Is it alright if a friend comes by for dinner? I haven't seen her in a while."
Her.
Sasuke only gave him a fleeting glance over the pages of his textbook, then huffed. That was enough for Naruto, who began to straighten out his bedsheets and throw away the empty packs of instant ramen just laying about, but in the back of Sasuke's head, he was preparing for whatever hellfire was about to come.
...
Reason #4: girls had a lot of personalities.
What would be the one for today?
Overly cutesy?
Anger issues?
Loud and annoying?
Clingy? Whiny?
Picky? Emotional? A neat-freak? Passive-aggressive? Overprotective and controlling? Jealous? Egotistical? Vain?
...
A small knock came to the door. Naruto jumped from his lofted bed and ran over to open it.
"Ah! Hinata!"
And when Sasuke frowned and glared from his bed —
"Wow! Look at you! You haven't changed at all."
. . . He . . . . wait.
...
Alright . . .
Alright.
Girls have different personalities. We know this. He knows this.
But this one — well, usually, he had a pretty good idea what kind of mess he'd have to deal with within the first few seconds of meeting her.
"Hinata, this is Sasuke Uchiha — you know, the guy I told you about."
With her, however, he really hadn't a clue. All he knew was that —
"Sasuke, this is Hinata Hyuuga. She and I were practically siblings growing up!"
She was . . .
She was . . . .
"It's nice to meet you, Sasuke."
Small. Really, really small.
...
Like a chihuahua, Sasuke decided ten minutes later when Naruto finished giving her the smallest tour of their dorm in history before taking her to their miniature kitchen so they could make sushi together. A chihuahua, but without the stupid barking.
A lot of girls barked.
This one — she kinda — sorta —
"A-Ah, the rice, Naruto!"
"Shit — SHIT!"
Squeaked. So maybe a mouse was a better description.
But the thing was — people didn't hold mice like Naruto held Hinata when she first came through their door. Tightly, up into his arms, caging her against his chest. He rummaged his nose through her pixie cut and spun her around until they were both dizzy and wheezing. If she had a tail, it wouldn't have stopped wagging since the second she stepped in — Sasuke, even from his distance, could tell that much.
And after that, he was always — always touching her. Petting her head, holding her hand, tapping her cheek. And she smiled like a dog thirsty for attention.
Chihuahua.
Without the barking.
Sasuke was more of a cat person, but this really wasn't about him.
...
Twenty minutes later, Sasuke also decided that, even if she was like a dog, at least she was a dog with manners.
"Sorry, Hinata. We don't have many people over, so there just ain't that many chairs. But — seriously — you can sit on my bed with me!"
"I'm really okay, Naruto. Your rug is really nice."
She sat, crisscrossed, on the floor between their beds, plate of sushi balanced carefully on her right knee as her cheap chopsticks were held in her hand. She ate slowly, without mess, and always made sure to swallow before speaking — a habit Naruto still desperately needed to learn.
As the two chatted, snickering on old, childhood memories and catching up on their mutual friends, Sasuke ate his own sushi with vague interest.
...
Sometimes, they tried to pull him into their conversation.
"Do you remember the name of that one anime, Sasuke? You know — where the guy wore, like, a mask and was the leader of this mech army."
"You sure it wasn't Code Geass, Naruto?"
"No, no — the other one! You know!"
And then they'd both look up at him, Naruto with expectancy, and Hinata with —
Well, not really with anything. It was more like she looked like something.
Like a baby, maybe. Or a toddler who fell down and watched the people around them to see how they reacted.
Out of instinct, Sasuke frowned. Somehow, he didn't like it when people he didn't know well looked him in the eye. But she did it without hesitation, and only a smile came to her face. Tongue curling, he went back to his textbook.
"Like I'd know."
...
Hinata laughed.
Which was honestly not what he expected at all. Because girls tended to go all mushy when they heard him speak, even if it wasn't to them directly, and for a moment there, Sasuke was scared that just him talking would ruin whatever Naruto had with this Hinata chick — and before you call him conceited, it's happened before!
But she just laughed, turned back to Naruto, and continued the conversation.
...
Sasuke would die for Naruto.
But this girl . . . didn't seem all that dangerous. So maybe he could trust her with him.
...
His answer came when she was leaving. After finishing dinner and cleaning up the used dishes, she was pulling on her boots at the door and yanking the sleeves of her coat closer to her small hands. Naruto helped adjust the collar of her jacket under her chin, and then he wrapped his arms around her, nearly squeezing her to death.
"Thanks for coming," he said, grinning into her hair.
Sasuke watched all of this unfold from his same spot on his bed, still a bit puzzled. Childhood friends — he knew that much. But was there anything else more to it?
"Thanks for having me," she said, pulling away, and stepped halfway out of the doorway. "See you later, Naruto. I love you."
...
Ah.
So it was like that.
...
"What do you think? You like her?"
It was a little unnerving, if Sasuke was to be truthful. He and Naruto have been friends for a while, but he's never heard him mention a girl named Hinata Hyuuga before. And now, apparently, they were an item.
But he supposed it was fine.
Naruto had a pretty big shit-eating grin on his face, and his joy was obvious.
And she didn't seem all that bad.
"Does it matter?" he murmured, flipping to the next page of his book.
Naruto huffed, cheeks turning pink. "Asshat. Of course it does!"
"Sure. Alright."
"What kind of answer is that!?"
...
The world was grey.
It always became that when it was winter. The sun hidden behind the clouds left a weird, drab tint on everything. Grey, bare tree branches; grey, rusty brick buildings; grey faces of students preparing for the start of the second college semester.
Even Naruto's bright orange backpack seemed hazy and off that morning, before he left to go meet a group of friends at the local coffeehouse.
The world was grey, but Sasuke didn't mind.
And that was the extent of his poetic musing.
...
But then he saw red. Red knuckles. Not bleeding — just — just blushing.
Could knuckles blush?
Somehow, that just seemed like the right descriptor when it came to Hinata Hyuuga.
...
"Good morning, Sasuke."
For a moment, he had thought about just ignoring her. Sure, she was Naruto's friend, and sure she was decent, and sure she had done nothing to piss him off —
. . . Well, now that he thought about it, maybe blowing her off would be a dick move.
They were in one of the sitting areas on campus. Were it the fall semester, or further into the spring semester when the sky was warm and the flowers were fresh, this was definitely the kind of place a hoard of students would meet up and enjoy the weather and company. But right now, it was empty.
Save from them. A grey Uchiha and a red Hinata.
...
She looked lost.
Her white backpack, new and empty, didn't even sag off her shoulders and down her back.
Did that mean she was going to this college now? Did that mean she lived in one of the dorms? Did she move to be closer to her boyfriend?
So did that mean she was looking for the bookstore?
The polite thing to do was to, at the very least, give her directions.
"I hope you're staying warm." She was rubbing her own, mitten hands together and looking at his bare ones that hung at his sides. "Um. If you don't mind, could you please —"
"This way."
He turned and led her the way.
And she followed — like a dog.
...
Maybe he should stop comparing the girlfriend of his best friend to a dog.
...
She looked absolutely thrilled upon the bold, golden sign over the arching doorway of the bookstore. "Oh, thank you very much, Sasuke!"
It was relatively busy in there, as the first day of classes was just two days away. As students trickled out, Sasuke stared at the piles of books they were carrying. Thick and heavy, with spines the size of a wrestler's arm.
"How many classes are you taking?" he asked her.
She paused for a moment, then said, "Five."
And if he was going to go strictly off her personality — English major, probably. Or finance. Both of which require a whole lot of books.
"Sasuke, I —"
"I need to pick up a few things."
So he went in, telling himself to just get through it. If he left her to fend for herself in a crowded bookstore, Naruto would kill him.
...
"Thank you."
She was the type that caught on quick, it seemed.
That was both good and bad in Sasuke's mind.
...
And maybe she could also read the room, because she only did a little bit of small talk with him — all of which didn't require him to talk back. They spent the majority of their time searching for her books, and he grabbed a binder from the front as they waited in line to at least make his lie seem a little more real.
She dipped up and down on the balls of her feet as they waited, but her smile was anything but impatient.
Seriously. What the hell was up with her?
...
Maybe he didn't see it correctly. Maybe it was just his imagination.
But after checking out her books, as they went to leave, he was almost sure she had reached out — as if to grab his hand.
But she never did — and, surely, she never would.
Naruto was her boyfriend.
...
"Thank you very much, Sasuke."
"Don't mention it."
"You really helped me out."
"Mhn."
He was ready to go back. She was nice and all, but his head was stuck on that almost-maybe-possible reaching out, and it was best to just leave her at that.
Hinata must have understood, for she was already falling into her soft, polite farewells.
"Can you tell Naruto that I left him some hot chocolate packets near the microwave? I don't want him to forget they're there."
That made him almost feel guilty. God, what was he thinking?
She obviously liked Naruto.
He was being paranoid.
"Yeah," he said, looking back at his dorm's building. "Yeah."
And the pause that came after was . . . . was —
...
He wasn't a poetic man.
But that pause — it was foretelling of something that could send any man onto his knees.
He should have left.
He should have just left —
But then, in that grey world, he saw that flash of red.
The blush had crept up from her knuckles, onto her face, on the swell of her cheeks as she grinned at him.
"Sasuke."
And she —
"I love you."
...
Reason #5 as to why it was always, ALWAYS bad news that Naruto brought a girl over to the dorms:
They could not be trusted. Even the nice, colorful ones.
...
"Dump her."
He threw his backpack on the floor and collapsed on his dark blue comforter, already frowning to himself. Naruto, on his own bed, was immediately aware of his bad mood upon him slamming himself into the room. He sat up, staring, face twinged with worry.
"Huh?"
"Your girlfriend," Sasuke bit out. "Get a new one. I don't fucking care. Just get rid of her."
That worry faded into blatant confusion.
"Girlfriend?"
God, he was such an idiot.
"Yes, Naruto! Girlfriend. Hinata. Whatever she is — leave her!"
...
What he expected was anger — "What!? Why would I leave her, you bastard?"
Or even masked sadness — "Did . . . she say something to you?"
But what he got was —
"Dude. She's not my girlfriend. I don't even like her like that."
...
Wait.
"Wait."
Wait.
...
But she —
"Last night —"
She had said —
"Oh, that?" Naruto grinned and relaxed back into his bed, fishing for his Switch so he could continue to play whatever game he was on. "Dude, that's just Hinata. She's like that with everyone."
What.
The hugging, the bright smiling, the 'I love you's? That was just Hinata?
"Wait. Don't tell me. You saw her today, didn't you?"
And Naruto began to laugh so hard that he choked — choked on thin air! Sasuke was so startled and pissed off that he almost jumped onto his bed to strangle him himself.
"Oh my GOD!" he barked. "That's hilarious! I wish I could have seen your face!"
...
And it must have been to piss him off more — it had to be!
Because that night, Hinata came over again.
"Hinata!"
She hadn't even gotten her coat off when Naruto grabbed her and spun her around. She laughed and grabbed his shoulders, and when he was done, she held onto him in a semi-hug as she tried to catch her breath.
"Hinataaaaa," Naruto called, "I love you!"
Her face was full of absolute joy, and when Naruto looked over to give Sasuke a cheeky grin, he wanted to —
Well.
"Oh, Sasuke." From beyond Naruto's wide shoulders, Hinata peeked over, face still flustered, and gave him her normal, brilliant smile. "Good to see you again."
...
Sasuke would die for Naruto — usually.
But at that moment, he wanted nothing more but to stab him.
Part I - End