Please see first chapter for disclaimer, rating, warnings, pairings, etc.
Special Thanks: goes out to DivineGlory, Tamani, XxMelony-kunXx, mangetsu no hime, Sachiko Heiwajima, LaydiiV, rao hyuga 18, Marda, ToadetteGirl2012, TheseFourWords, and Dani Stark for all your reviews! Also thanks to everyone who's added this to their favorites and follows lists!
Additional Special Thanks: goes out to TheseFour Words. Honestly, I love Jane Austen, and do know how to spell her name - usually. But there's a town close-ish to where I live that's called Austin, so I'm used to spelling it that way and just typed it without thinking. Thank you so much for catching that oops! I fixed it, and I'll try to do better from here on out!
Author's Note: I particularly enjoyed writing Sasuke's appearances at the library (both official and unofficial), but I think this one is my favorite. So many interesting things happen! And Itachi, Temari, and Karura are there, too, which adds another dynamic to the whole thing, of course. Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoy this chapter!
*~Chapter XIX~*
~Barrage~
Sasuke really shouldn't have been surprised, but when Itachi, Temari, and Karura came with him and Jiraiya to the book discussion at the library, he couldn't help feeling a little shocked.
And chagrined. Shouldn't Itachi and Temari stay home and happily talk about their (second) impending parenthood, or something like that? And wasn't eight past Karura's bedtime?
(Plenty of time for that, Itachi and Temari said in response to the first question. And it's summer, she gets to stay up longer, they replied to the second. "After all, I am five years old," Karura added importantly.)
As if standing in front of a room full of people and talking for an hour wasn't awkward and painful enough. No, his family had to be there too.
With ten minutes left until the event's start time, Hinata and the blonde with the glasses (he just couldn't remember her name, though he honestly did try) started ushering people into the meeting room. From his chair to the rear of the lectern, Sasuke watched them pour in, feeling himself shrink more and more when they just kept coming. Was it just him, or were there even more people this week than there had been the last?
It seemed like no one took their eyes from Sasuke from the moment they entered the room, through taking their seats, to settling in. An excited rustle went through the crowd, like water over rocks.
Sasuke's mouth went dry. All those eyes... And six of them are my family...
The time came for him to take his place at the polished golden oak lectern. Forcing himself to stand, he took the necessary three steps forward. He quickly passed the tip of his tongue over his parched lips. Before he could speak, however, the crowd broke into a ragged, slightly off-key, yet enthusiastic rendition of, "Happy Birthday to You."
Sasuke froze, panic fluttering along his nerves. How do they know? Did Tsunade, or Hinata - surely not Hinata! - tell them?
As the song ended on a drawn-out, "yo-o-u-u" accompanied by a round of applause, Hinata suddenly appeared at his side, facing him, a bottle of water in her hand. "It wasn't us," she whispered under cover of handing him the bottle. "They're just fans. Try to smile and say, 'Thank you.'" With a reassuring smile, she quickly withdrew.
Which left Sasuke alone again, feeling a lot like a deer caught in oncoming headlights. Pulling in a deep breath, he cleared his throat and ventured, "That was - ah - thank you. Thank you very much." He inwardly grimaced. I sound like a bad Elvis impersonator! Uncapping his bottle of water, he took a quick swig, and tried again. "Good evening." The wince nearly made it all the way to his face this time. You have got to be kidding - now I sound like Dracula!
Setting the bottle of water on the lectern, he put an extreme effort into moderating his tone so it wasn't so deep - or scary. He forced himself to smile in what he hoped was a friendly, welcoming way. "Thank you all so much for coming out here this evening." There, that's better. He went on, "As you all know, tonight is the second in a three-night series with me. For those of you who missed last week, I'll just say that I gave a brief overview of what got me into writing and why I chose to write what I do." Rubbing his hands along the edges of the lectern, he said, "None of it's very interesting, so I promise, you didn't miss much."
A ripple of laughter went through the crowd, and Sasuke let out a breath. At least they think I'm funny. Maybe I missed my calling - I should be writing comedy instead of thrillers.
"Tonight," he continued as the crowd quieted, "I'll answer some questions about my books themselves. Ever wanted to know what inspired a particular novel? Now's the time to ask. Want to know if such and such a character went on to have a long and happy career doing this or that? Ask away. When I call on one of you, all you have to do is give me your name and ask your question. It's that easy." And didn't Sasuke feel like a professor right about now? Then again, he'd only attended one year at an actual college, doing everything else online. But his memories of his on-campus instructors were plenty sharp enough to make him feel like one.
Several hands immediately went up, and Sasuke indicated a dark-haired man with sunglasses at the back of the room. "Yes?"
"I'm Shino. And I was wondering - what prompted you to have an entomologist as the villian in your fifth book, Sting?" Shino pushed his glasses up farther on his nose. The light flashed off the dark lenses, giving him a somewhat sinister look. "We're not villainous by nature, you know."
Oh great. The very first question, and he'd already offended someone! "I know you're not," Sasuke replied evenly. "No more than your average butcher or the owner of a laundromat is. But in my books, I tend to depend on utilizing the average person's psyche, their fears or dislikes. I would say the majority of people are disturbed by bugs of some sort or another, and I wanted to play off that in Sting." Sasuke tilted his head to the side with a wry smile. "Take me, for example. I'm terrified of anything that stings, and I don't particularly like spiders, either. I tapped into a lot of my own feelings on the matter to write that particular novel, and in such a case, who better for my antagonist than an entomologist?"
Shino nodded as if the answer satisfied him, and Sasuke glanced around the room. "Anyone else?"
More hands went up, and this time Sasuke chose a brunette girl who looked like she was barely out of her teens. "And you, young lady?"
With a demure smile, she stood and introduced herself. "I'm Matsuri. Head Shot is one of my favorite books, and I was curious why you set it in the fashion industry? It was kind of unexpected, if you don't mind my saying."
Sasuke rubbed his hand over his mouth and chuckled. "It rather is, isn't it?" He waited for the responding laughter to die down before continuing. "I'm going to let you all in on a deep, dark secret. Are you ready?" He leaned into the lectern, and to his surprise, everyone mirrored the motion in their seats, looking absolutely breathless. "I just wanted to use the title."
This time Sasuke had to wait quite a while for his fans to stop laughing. After taking advantage of the pause to get another drink of the water Hinata had so thoughtfully provided, he went on. "I mean, seriously. It was such a natural thing. And since Head Shot has two different connotations in this instance, I thought it would be something different and interesting to try. I was fortunate enough to be able to e-mail back and forth with a very famous model who has been in the industry for several years. She was very helpful in providing the information I needed to make my fictitious world as real as possible." Tapping his hand on the edge of the lectern twice, he added, "I've always heard of the world of high fashion as being 'cutthroat,' so that gave me the idea, actually. 'What if,' I thought to myself, 'the meaning was literal?' And so I went on from there."
"It was scary," Matsuri said with a shudder. "I think it might actually be the scariest of all your novels for me personally, simply because it all felt so real."
"Thank you," Sasuke said genuinely. "I know it seems weird for me to thank you for saying that, but honestly, I'm really glad it felt that way. I try to write books that are grounded in the real world, that seem just this close to possible, so to hear I succeeded is definitely a relief."
The next person with a question Sasuke chose was a man in a police uniform sitting on the front row. "Kiba," he introduced himself as, offering a wide grin which showed off unusually long canine teeth and made the stylized fang tattoos on his cheeks seem like a bit of a juxtaposition. "I don't really have a question. I just wanted to thank you for not killing off the dog in Wolfbred. I'm a part of the K-9 unit, I've always loved dogs, and I spent the whole book hoping you wouldn't."
Sasuke nodded, understanding exactly what Kiba meant. "I have a dog myself. I can promise you all right now if there's a dog in any of my books, it's going to survive clear to the end. And I'm never going to do anything like Stephen King's Cujo."
A lot of relieved expressions met his declaration. Sasuke halfway wished he'd brought Ninja with him. Partly for protection, but mostly so he could prove he really did love his dog, and canines in general.
Next time, two hands shot up ahead of everyone else's. One belonged to a pink-haired woman with apple-green eyes; and since the other hand belonged to the pony-tailed blonde woman sitting next to her, he indicated them both. "Yes, both you ladies there in the middle. What're your questions?"
They looked at each other and then tittered nervously. "I'm Ino," the blonde said, and the other woman with bubblegum-pink hair (it had to be dyed, right?) added, "And I'm Sakura."
"We've both read all your books," Ino gushed. "And there's one thing we've both been dying to know. We wondered for a long time if we'd ever get a chance to ask, and when we found out about the question and answer session tonight, we were both so excited."
Sakura nodded with a broad grin of agreement on her face.
Sasuke, starting to feel a little more comfortable with this whole thing, leaned his arms on the lectern and smiled. "Go on then," he said with a chuckle. "Ask."
Their eyes widened in unison. "We have to know," Ino started. Then she breathed, "Do you wear boxers?"
"Or briefs?" Sakura finished in a hushed, reverent tone.
Just when he was starting to relax and feel comfortable! And in front of his family, too! Hinata set the trio of chairs she carried onto the growing stack with a little more force than necessary, wishing she were banging them on her erstwhile friends' heads. She honestly didn't know whether she wanted to cry or curse on Sasuke's behalf.
The man in question gave her a curious look after placing the chairs he carried onto the rolling storage unit. "Are you okay, Hinata?" he asked.
She blinked rapidly several times. "I am just so furious with those two!" she replied, her tone tight with stress. "I mean, I've known for years one is just as much an airhead as the other, but for them to pull what they did tonight-" She broke off and folded her lips together.
Sasuke turned slightly pink as he admitted, "That was the most embarrassing question I have ever been asked in my life. Though in all honesty, Jiraiya said I might have to face some rather awkward or difficult questions. I guess I just let down my guard a little too much." He chuckled awkwardly. "I certainly didn't expect that one." Fortunately, after he'd sputtered for a minute (and Tsunade firmly rebuked the pair, threatening to escort them out of the library), Ino and Sakura withdrew their question, looking embarrassed.
But Hinata still couldn't help feeling badly for him. She knew how much he'd been dreading the night, and she'd felt happy when he seemed to relax. He'd spent the rest of the hour looking tense and uncomfortable, and Hinata wanted to throttle her friends for taking his sense of ease away. Why couldn't they have been like everyone else and asked about his books, not a personal question about him?
"At least that part's over with." Sasuke's voice sounded a little stronger, and he nodded resolutely as he headed back for more chairs. "All that's left is the book signing next week."
"About that," Tsunade said, breezing into the room with Jiraiya trailing behind her like a bulky shadow. "I wonder if you wouldn't mind coming an hour early, and making the book signing two hours instead of one? With the turnout we've had these last couple of weeks, I can't help but think one hour on the signing just won't be long enough."
Hinata saw Sasuke's face fall a little. She knew he'd been looking forward to next week if for no other reason than because it was the last one; now he obviously dreaded it because it was going to be twice as long as the other two he'd already been through. If only she could take his place. She didn't like being in front of crowds of people, granted, but she felt sure she didn't mind it quite as much as he.
Jiraiya glanced over his shoulder, then looked over Tsunade's head at Hinata. "There's someone out there asking for you," he told her.
"Oh, thank you." Hinata excused herself guiltily, leaving the author, his agent, and her boss to finalize the details of next Wednesday. Shiho had already cut out, citing a paper she had to finish before tomorrow for one of her summer college courses. Itachi and Temari had left as soon as the event was over, since they needed to get Karura to bed.
When Hinata entered the main part of the library, she found Kiba waiting for her, leaning against the desk, hands in his pockets. "Hey," he greeted her with a lazy nod of his head. "What a night, huh?"
"You aren't joking." Hinata stopped a few steps away. "Did you have a book on hold? I haven't shut down the computers yet, so I can still check it out for you."
"Nah." Kiba pushed off the edge of the desk. "I just wanted to catch you before I left and set a time for us to eat together. What time is your lunchbreak?"
"Noon," Hinata replied with a smile. "Yours?"
"Pretty much whenever I get hungry. There's not really that much crime in Konoha. How about we meet at The Yellow Flash at noon tomorrow, then? We can have lunch, catch up, and still be back to work in plenty of time so we don't get into trouble." Kiba grinned impishly and offered her a daring wink.
"Speak for yourself," Hinata responded wryly. "But tomorrow works fine for me. Give Akamaru a pat or two for me when you get home, will you?"
"Sure." Kiba took couple of steps forward, then leaned in and pecked her cheek with a kiss. "See you tomorrow for lunch, then. It's a date." He offered her another wink and pushed through the doors leading out of the library.
Smiling and shaking her head, Hinata went to the desk and leaned down to shut off the computer. When she looked up from the screen, she saw Sasuke standing in the doorway between the meeting room and the lobby, staring at her with a strange expression on his face.
"Are you okay?" Hinata asked, straightening. "Do you need another bottle of water?"
"No." Sasuke shook his head once, sharply. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out his car keys as he headed for the door. "It's just been a long and somewhat - disappointing day is all. I'm going to go home and get some sleep. See you around."
He was out the door before Hinata could gather enough wits about her to reply. Narrowing her eyes, she stared after him in confusion. I guess the day just finally caught up to him, like he said. But he acted so strange...
Then again, she'd only known him for around a week, so how was she to know what normal was for him? Perhaps that was, and the side of him she'd been seeing was the exception.
But still, she couldn't shake her mental image of the expression on his face when he'd looked at her. He looked so - surprised. And let down, almost.
But why? What had she done or said? It wasn't like she'd seconded (thirded?) Sakura and Ino's question. Or that she was even... Okay, well maybe she was a teeny bit curious. But not enough to ask the question. Or stick around for the answer, if he actually had given one (which he hadn't, and she didn't blame him).
Hinata bit on her thumbnail anxiously in an unconscious imitation of her boss as she stared after Sasuke, not even noticing as the computer screen went blank in front of her. What is his problem?
*~To Be Continued~*
Author's Ending Notes: I enjoyed writing this chapter. I loved coming up with all the titles of Sasuke's books, and the general themes of the stories they tell. I especially liked Shino's question - all offended over the bad guy being an expert on bugs! Seriously, though, though bugs (especially spiders) scare the bejeepers out of me, I don't have anything against those who like them or study them. Just wanted to put that out there. Poor Hinata, so confused. Poor Sasuke - could he be jealous? Maybe... Thank you all for reading, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and I hope to see you all again for next week's update!