Chapter 6:

meeting the parents part 2

Hanabi stood by my doorway, quietly leaning forward to try and steal a peek of my painting.

"I know you're there." I say, knowingly smiling to myself.

"I thought you said you gave up on painting…" She walked over to my side, placing her petite hand on my shoulder and admiring what I had created so far.

"I did…but now I found a reason to continue." I admitted. The words just rolled off my tongue and out of my mouth, surprising myself for a moment. I wasn't aware that I felt this way up until now. I had locked myself in my room, painting for hours without breaks.

"I see…" She quietly replied and excused herself after praising my work one last time.

I sat there in my room, staring up at what I had accomplished already, knowing well that the bright yellow strokes were full of electricity at the thought of his blond hair. The blue color I used, that looked as deep and bright as the sky, was painted in swirling strokes as I was thinking of how hypnotizing his gaze is.

I knew that this was my most meaningful work, and my most beautiful one ever. I couldn't wait to give it to him.

The next day I was walking to school, practically running to chemistry class to see him and throw myself in his arms, but something stopped me. As I neared the corner of the hallway, I heard Sasuke and Naruto, and they sounded very upset.

I peeked from around the corner for a second, seeing the two standing by the lockers across from our chemistry class, and held my breath.

"She's your problem!" I heard Sasuke say, and I guessed it had to do with Sakura. Who else would they be talking about? I'm certainly never on Sasuke's radar.

"What do you mean? You're dating her, not me. I can't tell her what she can or can't do."

"Yeah, but she's hurting Hinata. Don't you at least care about her?"

I gasped, my vision was slowly being consumed by sudden tears that were swelling up, and I ran off into the bathroom without even bothering to hear his answer.

Throwing my bag on the floor and leaning over the sink, I splashed cold water on my face and told myself to stay calm. I didn't want to hear his answer. I didn't want to know the truth, whether it was good or bad. I cowered away because if his answer is not what I expect it to be, then I know I would crumble apart and the shell I was so happily being probed out of would be back again to consume me. I would return to my constant fear of others, and I would never trust anyone again. I felt so fragile, looking at my puffy eyes, red and irritated from the tears that threatened to fall. I had to ask him what exactly Sakura is doing to hurt me, because that is just as bad or even worse. She could be telling people I stole her boyfriend and I'm not planning on sitting around and letting others speak lies about me. I took deep breaths.

With a refreshed mind I walked out of the bathroom and gasped, the only noise I could let out was a high pitched "eep!" at the sight of Naruto standing by the girls' bathroom.

"Hinata, you're not very good at being sneaky." He chuckled. I looked at him with a look of confusion and fear.

"H-How d-did you…"

"Listen to me, Hinata, and pay very close attention," He grabbed me by my shoulders and looked straight into my eyes like only he can do, "I care about you a lot, and I'm not just gonna sit by and let Sakura say anything to you or about you, alright?"

I felt a giant unimaginable relief the second he said that. I suddenly threw my arms around him and hugged him tightly; letting tears of joy spill on to his long sleeve shirt, I breathed in his minty yet sweet scent, and basically let myself break into pieces in his embrace. I could feel him kiss the top of my head, putting me back together with his tender touch.

"Naruto," I said in between sniffles.

"Yeah?"

"You smell like oatmeal."

"Is that good?"

"Yes…I like oatmeal."

I wasn't surprised when we got detention for arriving to class twenty minutes late. At least it gave us time to work on our project together. We only had a couple of days left since we already wasted a whole week flirting like love birds.

"We're going to need these supplies…" I told him. He nodded and jotted down all of the materials I listed from analyzing projects from past classes the teacher had on display.

"I think we're going to do great on this project!"

"Yeah…" I was a little out of it, still worried about what Sakura would do, even if Naruto promised to protect me.

"I know you're still worried about Sakura but don't think too much of it. She's probably just throwing a fit because I broke up with her."

"Okay…"

I leaned on the lab table, looking at the old project, too wrapped up in my thoughts to notice Naruto's hands wrapping around my waist. Before I knew it, he was giving me a back hug.

"N-Naruto!" I squirmed, looking to see if the teacher was back from her coffee break at the teacher's lounge.

"Relax, it's just us…" He nuzzled his head in the nook of my neck, breathing deeply. I felt his breath on my chest and I blushed.

"You relax! I don't wanna be seen in this…this compromising situation!" I couldn't contain slight giggles, his hands would tickle me every now and then, and his breathing tickled my collarbone.

"Ahem!" We quickly broke off the cuddling when the teacher walked in, coffee in her hand, shaking her head at our weirdness.

I didn't think fighting fire with fire was the smart thing to do, but to Naruto it was perfect. I sat in his car, waiting for him to get out of Sakura's house after some much needed talk. I hoped she would understand that I didn't do anything…well for the most part. Our relationship just happened out of nowhere. I still don't understand it.

It had been a half hour already and he wasn't coming out yet. He told me he might take a while and that if anything to call the cops because she might've killed him for rubbing salt in the wound. He was joking, of course, but she was pretty distraught by the break up and he was sure she would be pretty overwhelmed.

Once he finally came out of her house he got into the car and let out a very long, deep breath.

"I think it's settled."

"Did you end up threatening her?" It was the initial plan. It's sick, I know.

"No. But I did tell her that if she did anything to hurt you, I would make her pay for it."

"Naruto, that is a threat." I slapped my forehead.

"Same shit, Hina. I am really tired of Sakura; let's just forget about her already."

I could tell he looked stressed after dealing with her; she must have been a hard fight. I understood and nodded, trying to get his mind off of things by talking about the project.

"Where do you want to work on it?"

"Well, seeing as I already met your parents, I think it's time you met mine." He looked at me with a devilish grin and I felt my legs quiver. I didn't know what to expect from Naruto's parents other than the stories he told me about them. Like the one time he drove with his dad to one McDonald's, took a tiny cup of ketchup, drove to another McDonald's across town, and left the cup by the condiments dispenser, giggling to themselves like a couple of school girls.

"I don't think I'm ready."

"Are you kidding? You're more than ready!" He smiled at me and took a moment to look at my features. I probably had the worst look of panic because he immediately softened his tone to a more persuasive one, "It's okay Hinata, and they're really nice people. You'll see. In fact, we bought all the supplies, we're together, why don't we go meet them now and get this project started?"

"I…" He gave me that look of hope and was just begging me to say yes, "I guess…"

"Yes!" He stepped on the gas and we were off to his house. The whole ride, I swore my stomach did backflips.