Chapter 2 - Chapter Two

Three Cheers for Romance


Disclaimer- don't own Naruto... but maybe someday... oh, yeah right.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Ino, I just don't feel comfortable wearing something like this!" Hinata's voice came from behind the fitting room door.
"Like I said, I don't care! You're being unreasonable and way to modest, you need to show off a little or else you're never going to get a boyfriend!" Ino said in attempt to coax Hinata into the open. Hinata pouted a little at the words.
"Come out of there and let us see what you look like before I come in there and force you out!"
After a moments wait, the sound of a lock turning was heard and Hinata slowly stepped out of the small room. She fidgeted slightly feeling somewhat awkward without the familiar weight of her coat pressing down on her shoulders.
The Hyuga was wearing a plaid skirt that came down to just above her knees and a tight fitting shirt with a lotus design on it that did nothing to hide the curves of her upper body. Hinata made an attempt to pull the shirt down to cover the small part of her stomach it showed.
"Hinata, you look great!" Sakura said. Hinata blinked.
"Really?"
"Of course you do. How many times do we have to tell you that you're pretty? You're just always hidden behind that jacket of yours." Sakura said with an encouraging smile. "You need to loosen up a little."
"Ya." Ino started. "What good are boobs if no one can even tell you have them?"
"Ino!" Hinata, who had never been comfortable with the fact that she was well endowed for her age, covered her chest with her arms.
"I don't get it; you're rich, you can have any clothes you want, yet almost all of the clothes you have are long-sleeved and loose fitting. I mean, I've seen you in some gorgeous dresses and kimonos, but your clothing of choice always covers you up as much as possible."
"I'm just uncomfortable with people looking at me like that."
"If we wanted a bunch of perverts checking you out we would put you in a mini skirt and a tube top; there's a difference between looking attractive and looking like a tramp."
"I know... can I change now?" Sakura sighed and Ino slapped a hand on her forehead.
"No. we're buying that. Sakura, you hold her down, I'll go pay. Oh, and I'm taking your other clothes with me so you can't just change back into them."
"That's not fair!" Ino simply half turned, pulled down on the skin under her eye and stuck her tongue out. Hinata acted equally childish, opting to stick her own tongue out in return and then sulk.
"I know it doesn't seem like it, but we're just trying to help you. I thought you were all done being shy?" Sakura said leaning against the wall next to Hinata.
"I'm not being shy, I just don't like wearing skirts and stuff that's too tight." Hinata said trying to get the shirt to stay over the thin strip of skin it left uncovered.
"Listen to yourself; you sound like Tenten. Anyways, you wear a skirt to school."
"Ya, but that's different, it's mandatory and it's only girls there. Plus that one's a little longer then this one." Hinata said referring the plaid one she had on now.
"Don't worry, if anyone tries anything on you Ino and I will beat them into the ground." Sakura said rather cheerfully. Hinata gave a small smile.
"Thanks Sakura."
"No problem. Oh, Ino's waving, we gotta go!" Sakura said as she grabbed the lavender eyed girl by the wrist and pulled. Hinata barely managed to snatch her purse off the ground before stumbling along after her pink friend.

Ino then dragged them into a jewelry store because she needed to replace an earring of hers she lost. While Ino argued with the girl behind the counter, Sakura noticed Hinata staring intently at a piece that was on display. She walked up behind her friend, got very close, and asked loudly:
"What cha lookin' at?"
Hinata jumped, made a very poor attempt to glare at the cheerful face, and quickly gave up.
"Nothing, just a necklace."
The necklace sat on a small pearl colored pillow and glinted slightly in the artificial light. It consisted of three deep blue gems which appeared to be sapphires, the center one being slightly larger then the two on either side of it. The metal holding the gems shined gold; connected all to a golden chain made of intricate links. Judging from the price that was given on the side, it was all genuine.
Sakura let out a low whistle.
"Are you going to buy that?" she asked.
"I don't think so..."
"Why not? It's beautiful and it would look really nice on you. Also it's not like you cant afford it or anything."
"Well, part of it is that, well lets face it, my family is rich." Sakura mumbled under her breath about that being an understatement. "If I just bought whatever I wanted when ever I wanted, then things like this wouldn't be special; they'd just be another piece of shiny metal and stone."
Sakura looked at the young girl smiling faintly next to her and let out a small sigh.
"You're an odd one Hinata. But you've got a point. If you manage to get your self a boyfriend in time for your birthday, maybe he can get it for you? Would it be special then?" the playful grin that played across Sakura's lips only increased as Hinata looked away with a faint blush.
"What's wrong with purple?!"
"I never said there was anything wrong with it! I was just making a suggestion; you're being unreasonable!"
"Well you know what? You suck! And that dress is ugly!" Hinata and Sakura looked up and over to the counter where Ino had a finger pointed accusingly at the girl on the other side of it, who like Ino, was looking quite enraged.
"Um, Ino?" Hinata squeaked.
"First off, you can't argue over the price of things! And my dress is not ugly!"
"Fine! You can keep the stupid earrings!" Ino stomped away, her face glowing red. "We're going girls."
The blond grabbed her friends by the wrists on her way past them and hauled them along after her. Before they rounded the corner, Ino turned and got in the last words.
"It's very ugly!"
With that, she stormed away, friends in tow, leaving the girl at the register to fume.
"Stupid earrings... they weren't that fricken' expensive last time... what's wrong with purple?!" Ino grumbled to herself as she marched her confused companions along.
"Can you believe the nerve of that girl? I can't believe her!" Ino began to rant.
"Um, no, since we don't really even know what you were-" Sakura was cut off.
"I know! I can't either! Some people can be really annoying!"
"Ino? Can you stop dragging us? My wrist is starting to hurt."
"Eh? Oh! Sorry Hinata, got a little carried away." Ino quickly let go of her comrades and smiled apologetically.
"A little?" Sakura mumbled.
"Ya... so where to now?" Ino was obviously trying to change the subject.
"Hmm... how much longer do we have till Ino's mom comes to get us?" Ino pulled her cell phone out of her purse and looked at the time.
"We've got a good hour left."
"Well I was planning on getting a new pair of shoes while we were here, so let's go do that!" Sakura suggested. Ino jumped at the idea.
"Perfect! We'll do that."
"You know, I think I'll pass." Hinata said, backing away from her friends slowly.
"What's the matter Hinata? Is something wrong?"
"No, no. It's just that the last time I went into a shoe store with you two, you started fighting over something stupid and then you started throwing shoes at each other and then we got kicked out." explained Hinata. "I'd rather not repeat the experience."
"I remember that..."
"Come on Hinata! We promise we won't do anything like that." pleaded Ino.
"It's okay Ino; there's some nail polish that I need to get anyways." Hinata started to walk away, looking back over her shoulder to communicate with the two girls.
"Aw, come on!"
"Call me when you're done! Tell me where we should meet up then!"
"You're no fun at all!" Sakura shouted after her. Hinata waved.

Hinata found the nail polish she was looking for seven minuets after she split from Ino and Sakura, and was now wondering what to do. She had told them to call her when they were done, but that still might be a while before she got the call. So she decided to stop in a Barnes and Noble and see if anything interesting had come out since she last checked.
While skimming over the titles of books, she noticed a girl about six feet away from her with her face buried in a manga from the graphic novel section that was placed directly across from the teen section.
She was wearing worn out faded light blue jeans that had a hole on one of the knees, and a light gray hoodie that read "University of Sunagakure" in black letters.
It wasn't that there was anything strange about girls in book stores reading manga, and there wasn't anything strange about the way she was dressed. What Hinata noticed about the girl was her dirty blond hair that was tied at the back in four places, each of them spiking off into any direction.
She had never seen anyone wear their hair like that before, but she felt she shouldn't be too surprised; before Sakura, she had never seen anyone with naturally pink hair before either.
The girl noticed Hinata staring at her and looked up from the InuYasha volume she was reading.
"Hello?" she voiced it more as a question then as a greeting.
"Oh, hello. Sorry, it's just I really like you're hair. I've never seen anything like it. I suppose you hear things like this a lot."
"Actually not all too often, every now and then though. Glad to hear you like it. Like your outfit bye the way." The girl smiled.
"This? Really? Actually my friends sorta forced me to wear this today."
"It looks nice on you."
Just then Hinata's phone started ringing in her purse.
"Sorry." A beep. "Hello Ino. You two got kicked out didn't you?"
"Maybe. But that's not the point. We're done now and we'll be waiting for you at the little coffee shop on the first floor, you know, the one kinda close to where we came in."
"Okay. I'm on the exact opposite side of the mall here, so I'll be there in a few minuets." Hinata snapped the phone shut and put it back in her purse.
"Well, I've got to go; it was nice meeting you." Hinata said with a friendly wave. The girl returned the wave and returned to her manga as Hinata exited the scene.

Hinata left the store and made her way to the nearest elevator since she was on the third floor, stopping only once to look at a kimono on display in a store window.
The Hyuga pressed the down button and it instantly lighted up. After a moments wait, the light went out and the steel doors slid open. Hinata stepped inside and pressed the button marked "1". After a moments pause, the doors began to slide shut. Just then she heard somebody shouting.
"Hold the doors!" the voice called.
Not even two seconds after the declaration had been made, the one who made it flew threw the shutting doors, crashed quite unceremoniously into the wall of the elevator, fell on the floor, and then seemed to notice Hinata, who was staring down at then. They locked gazes in silence for a moment. During that time Hinata unconsciously flattened her skirt against her legs.
Hinata quickly analyzed the boy with his back on the floor. Messy, spiky, bright blond hair shot out of his head. He had on an unzipped orange and black jacket and a black t-shirt under it that had a red spiral on it. His mouth was agape. On his face he had three whisker-like markings on each cheek. She also decided that he was cute. Cute enough to make her face color itself a shade of red.
"Hi." The boy decided to break the silence.
"Um, hello." Hinata said at a slight loss of words. The silence formed again.
"So, um, do you always lie on the floor in elevators or is it just this time?" Hinata managed to say.
The boy looked around as though he were confirming the fact that his back was on the floor rather then his feet. He scrambled to proper standing position and scratched the back of his head in a sheepish manner and accompanied it with an equally sheepish grin.
"Sorry... I guess I didn't notice."
"N-no, it's nothing to be sorry about."
"But how can you not notice you're on the floor?" Hinata wondered in her head. The elevator dinged showing they had arrived at the first floor. They stepped out together and stood still.
"So where are you going?" Hinata asked, silently praying she wasn't blushing too obviously.
"Where ever you're going." He seemed to immediately regret saying it. "N- I meant I was... ur... where did you say you were going?" Hinata giggled.
"I'm headed in that direction." She pointed to the right. "I take it you're headed there too?"
The blond flashed another smile with his eyes closed; the actions accompanied with his whisker marks made his look quite fox-like.
"Actually yeah. I'm supposed to meet a friend there." They started walking together through the crowds.
"Oh, I'm Naruto bye the way. What's your name?" he said when it seemed to dawn on him that they hadn't been introduced.
"Hello Naruto. I'm Hinata."
"Hinata... that's a pretty name... Er- wait..." He slapped a hand to his face and then sighed. Hinata giggled again, blushed a little more and smiled.
"Glad you think so."
They lapsed into a silence in which Hinata focused intently on her feet while pushing her index fingers together, a habit she thought she had gotten ride of a long time ago.
All too soon, the place where Hinata was to be meeting Ino and Sakura came into view. Hinata thought hurriedly to herself.
"Say something to him! Ask him if he wants to do something later. Ask him if he's seeing anyone. Tell him he's cute! On second thought don't do that. Make conversation. Something please say someth-"
"Hinata?" The Hyuga snapped her head over to look at him.
"I was wondering if maybe, if you're not busy or anything, maybe later you'd like to do something or something." He was obviously struggling to get the words out. "Or are you already... er... with someone?" Hinata was almost positive she saw him cross him fingers before he moved his hand behind his back.
"No- not at all!" Naruto let out a breath of air.
"Good, I'm glad. Wait! No- that didn't..." he sighed. "I hate my tongue right now."
"It's okay." Hinata laughed as she said it. "My friends are waiting for me and I'm sure you're friend is too. So is it okay if I give you my cell phone number and you can just call me later?"
"Ya, that'd be great!" Naruto said rather enthusiastically.
Hinata looked in her purse and found a pen but nothing to write on.
"Do you have a piece of paper or anything?" Naruto pulled up the sleeve of his jacket and held his arm out.
"Or that works." Hinata carefully wrote out the digits out carefully and put the pen back in her purse.
"There. Make sure you call." Naruto began to move away.
"Don't worry, I will. See you then!" he waved and trotted off in the same direction they had just come.
"Bye!" the pale eyed girl called as she followed him with her eyes until he was lost in the crowd. Hinata smiled warmly to no one but herself and turned to go to the coffee shop to meet up with her friends but stopped in mid-step.
As it was, it was unnecessary to go to the shop to meet Ino and Sakura, as they were standing right in front of her; Ino was smirking and Sakura was wide eyed and curious.
"Hi, guys." Hinata smiled a little nervously because of her friends looks.
"So Hinata... who was that? Hmm?" Ino's words and the overall way she said it made Hinata want to focus on her feet again.
"What was who?" Hinata started pushing her fingers together again.
Sakura traded her curious look for more of a sly one, complete with a mischievous grin.
"Come on Hinata, you can tell us." Hinata squirmed a little under her friends gazes.
"Well, that was N-Naruto. And I uh, gave him my number so we could get together and do something later." Hinata looked down in a blatant attempt to hide the color that had risen to her face. Sakura's grin increased.
"You like him don"t you? And I don't just mean like him, I mean you really like him." The Hyuga heiress made a small noise that sounded like a squeak.
"I um, ummm... is it really that obvious?"
"Please, if it was any more obvious it would be on a billboard."
"Ino! That's not nice."
"It's true though."
"Ya, it is."
Hinata groaned.
"Aw you're ao adorable!" Sakura exclaimed before hugging Hinata dramatically. Hinata groaned again.
Ino slid next to Hinata and whispered in her ear.
"A little advice; if you don't want people to know you like someone, don't blush when you talk about them, don't stutter when you say their name, don't look down or do that thing with your fingers, and especially don't stare off after them when they walk away."
Hinata blushed but still managed to produce something between a pout and a scowl.
"You're mean Ino."
"Just giving some friendly advice." Ino said with a playful grin and a poke to Hinata's arm. "Okay girls, we can stay here and tease Hinata, or we can do something before my mom comes. We've still got forty minuets left."
"Come on Hinata. Let's go grab some ice cream or something; then you can tell us all about your little encounter with Naruto." Sakura cooed.
"Good idea!"
"You're both mean. Very very mean."

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

And there you have it. the second chapter of my fic. It took me exactly 5 months to get it out... now that's procrastination for you. And me is proud to announce that this is over 3000 words! And that's not counting the author's note and stuff.
Also, if you've read my other stuff too, you may have noticed that me did this differently then me usually does. Instead of splitting this into a bunch of parts like me usually does, me had this one follow Hinata around instead of jumping from character to character.
Oh, and the polls are closed for the voting of who shika will get. No voting after this. Come on people you had five months; that should be enough. Anyways, me counted the votes, and there were 5 votes for Ino to be with shika, and 8 votes for Temari to be with shika! So shikatema wins! If there is an curiosity about how me got those numbers, it's cuz me has this on 2 different sites. And for the record, me did not count mah own vote, but me was rooting for Temari *is hit with brick*.
And yes the girl in the book store who Hinata met was Temari. Of course it was. Can anyone besides me see Temari reading InuYasha?

You are not authorized to comment here. Your must be registered and logged in to comment