Chapter 3: Team 8
It was the last day of school. Everyone who graduated were to return to their classroom so that they could be assigned to teams. Hinata stared at the clock, it seem like Ino and Sakura were going to be late. Her lips pressed together into a frown. In the last five month, something happened that put a strain between Ino and Sakura's friendship. They became enemies when Ino found out Sakura had a crush on Sasuke. Hinata tried to remain neutral, but it was hard not to be biased and hope for Ino's happiness. Not to say Hinata wished for Sasuke to notice her friend, she merely wish Ino would just get over him.
It has also been five months since Hinata had been sporting her new signature look. Black sleeveless turtleneck shirt, fishnet arm sleeves, grey shorts, thigh high stockings and black ninja shoes. Her hair fell past her shoulder; since she had stopped trimming it. But her new look did not help boost her confidence at all. All it accomplished was having her name get a few votes on the list, created by an anonymous classmate, which rated her as one of the most attractive girls in class. Which had mortified her. Her? Attractive? They were obviously blind. To be attractive is to have confidence like Ino. Therefore, she wasn't attractive.
The door slid open, and Hinata released a sigh, happy to see the two girls had made it on time. It looked like it was one of those days where they raced to see who would arrived first to class. After a few banter and name calling, they stopped bickering when they noticed Hinata stood up and turned to them.
"I-It's the last day of school. You two should makeup already." Hinata said while her letting her agitation slip through. Sakura crossed her arms and looked away, as Ino couldn't bother to listen to the advice. Instead,
"Hi-na-ta!" Ino said, as she walked around to give her a hug.
"Oi, we aren't done yet! I definitely won this race!" Sakura yelled at the top of her lungs. When her emerald eyes met Hinata's, her anger subsided a bit.
Sakura then went on to inspect the classroom for a certain dark hair boy of the Uchiha lineage. Once she found him, she seemed deep in thought and mystified by what she was seeing; Sasuke was sitting by himself, and Sakura felt like she finally had the courage to go up to him and say hi.
Hinata and Ino followed the trajectory of Sakura's gaze, and they both noticed it obviously landed on Sasuke.
But at the same time, Hinata noticed Naruto was looking at Sakura in admiration. Hinata smiled to herself, as she was happy for Sakura having an admirer. It was amazing to be a witness of love blooming. Hinata giggled to herself as Naruto blushed and looked away from Sakura.
'Poor Naruto, he thinks Sakura is looking at him.' Hinata thought sadly. Yet at the same time, she was envious of Naruto's feelings. She wished could feel those kinds of feelings for someone else.
There was a time Ino made a joke about Hinata being defected or something just because the shy girl never had a crush on any of their classmate. How could Hinata even think about love? She didn't have time. All that was constantly on her mind was training and thinking of ways of improving for her clan's sake.
And not just that, it was silly, but Hinata was working on a thesis to persuade her father to abolish the division of their clan.
Sakura skipped happily to Sasuke's desk.
"Hey Sakura!" Ino said as kind of warning, but was ignored by pink.
"G-Good morning Sakura-"Naruto greeted Sakura with a bright smile. Annoyed by Naruto's intrusion, Sakura shoved him out of the way.
"Naruto!" Hinata was surprised to have seen him fall to the floor in such a painful looking manner. His head bumped against a desk. Hinata had spoken to the blond before. But their conversation never strayed outside classwork. When they would get paired up in class projects, she used to try to urge him to help her finish their group work; but he never did. Sure he was a bad student, but that doesn't mean he deserved to be treated like that. What Sakura did to him was unforgivable.
Hinata moved from the back row and made her way towards the front. In seconds, she kneeled next to Naruto, and asked him if he was okay. Lavender eyes met blue eyes. And her only thought was how she wished she had been born with his eyes colors. They were so blue, like the ocean. And being up close made her feel like she might drown in them. She forced herself to look away as she extended her hand and helped him stand.
Meanwhile,
"M-Morning Sasuke." Sakura said shyly. Hinata and Naruto turned around, and for the first time in her life, Hinata had ill thoughts of Sakura. Hinata walked up to Sakura with the intentions of asking her friend to apologize to Naruto. When she was about to tap Sakura in the shoulder, she paused, because Sasuke glanced up at Sakura. "Mind if I sit next to you?" Sakura asked.
Hinata gripped her fist and took a deep breathe to calm down. Perhaps it was best not to confront Sakura just yet.
Ino came to Hinata's rescue. Or so she thought. The blonde female friend grabbed Sakura by the arm. And just when Hinata thought Ino was going to step in and reproach Sakura about pushing Naruto around, her friend Ino betrayed her by fighting over Sasuke.
"Hey! I'm going to sit next to Sasuke!" Ino said. The debate continued as more girls joined in the fight, claiming that they were there first, since first come first serve, right? Hinata took the opportunity to pull Naruto by his hand and away from the growing mob of girls who fought over who was going to sit next to Sasuke.
"T-This is going to get intense." Hinata said to Naruto. "So we need to get away from the battlefield."
"Hey thanks for earlier. I didn't know you were this nice since you always hung around Ino and Sakura." Naruto said, as he allowed himself to be dragged to the where Hinata normally sits.
"R-Really?" Hinata asked as she finally let go of his hand. "I didn't know some people thought of me like that…" She mused out loud.
"Don't worry! I now know you're definitely nice, believe it!" Naruto said.
Once they settled next to each other, Hinata noticed Naruto's expression. He looked hurt and rejected. But he also looked angry.
"Naruto?" Hinata said with the intention of getting his attention just to tell him that there are more fish in the seas.
"Grr, it's always Sasuke this and that. What's so great about that guy?!" Naruto said while giving Sasuke the stinky eye. Even though the preteen couldn't see it since he was looking forward.
"Don't even bother trying to figure it out." Shikamaru said plainly, from behind. Both turned around to look at the lazy classmate. "Women are so irrational." Shikamaru suddenly felt that his comment did not extend to Hinata. "Except for Hinata, she falls outside the standard deviation." He said. Hinata giggled behind her hand at the statement.
"S-So I'm an outlier?" Hinata asked. Naruto looked back and forth between his two classmates as he couldn't follow the conversation.
"Man, I wish I had popcorn." Chouji said as he walked up to them and sat next to Shikamaru. The four then turned back to the group of girls that was still fighting over Sasuke.
"I don't get it, you already have chips." Naruto pointed out. It was true, Chouji had been stuffing his face the whole time. Chouji gave a slight shoulder shrug.
"Chips are chips. Popcorn is popcorn." Chouji said as though his statement was self-evident. But it made sense in their head.
Iruka sensei walked inside, breaking up the girls' verbal fights. In the end, Sakura ended up sitting to Sasuke's right, and Ino to Sasuke's left.
"Guess it's a tie again Ino-pig." Sakura said.
"Dream on forehead-girl." Ino said dryly.
Iruka sensei read out the names of which genin would be on which team. And when it came to Hinata, she really didn't care about who her team was as long as they were nice people who will help her get stronger.
"Hinata Hyuga." Iruka sensei said as his eyes made contact with Hinata. The shy girl wondered if the pause was necessary, or if Iruka sensei loved making their student feel some sort of suspense.
"Kiba Inuzuka" Iruka sensei said. When his eyes landed on Kiba, he could see a menacing smile form on the young kid's lips. But what Iruka sensei didn't know was that Kiba was really happy to be on the same team as a Hyuga. He couldn't wait to show off! After all he believed that his family were the best trackers there is.
"Shino Aburame." Iruka sensei read out loud. However, when he looked around the classroom, he had a hard time finding the young boy. But Iruka didn't dwell on it too much and just gave up. This made Shino adjust his glasses as swore to never forgive his sensei for not noticing where he was sitting.