Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

"I'm dumping you"

Naruto blinked once. Twice.

"But we're not even together" he turned his head towards his companion, a confused expression on his face, both laying in his old bed, naked like the day they were born. The pink haired woman grunted an "idiot"and rolled her eyes.
"You know what I mean! We can't do this" she motioned between them "anymore". "But why? I tought you liked it" the man snickered, his hand making its way towards her hips. She pinched said hand. "Of course. We're awesome" she sighed "but I met this really hot guy at a bar yesterday. And he's a lawyer!" the pinkette blushed, imagining her new beau's face in the ceiling of her soon-to-be-ex-sexfriend. She knew she wouldn't break his heart with the news. She didn't even know how or why they started doing it, or rather eachother. They were friends since forever and one evening (with a lot of alcohol involved) it just kind of happened. And since then it happened again and again. It was more a stress relief than anything romantic, really. A hobby one would say. And now it was time to search for a new hobby. Or at least a new partner for this kind of hobby.

The woman sat up so she could reach for her bra. Naruto groaned "And you're telling me this right after we just did it because?"- "Because i knew you would be to lazy to stop me afterwards" She snickered and kissed his nose before putting her string back on. "But Sakuuraa" her best friend (with benefits) started whining "what will I do when I'm soo stressed and sooo tense" the blonde rolled around, watching her getting dressed.
"Maybe you should get a girlfriend ?" she suggested, already knowing his anwser. "No way dude, that's like way too exhausting and too much feely-feely" the blonde fake-shuddered, making his friend laugh. "Grow up" she teased him, already having most of her clothes back on.
"Also, I think we shouldn't meet for a while-" "WHAT?! WHY? " The blonde barked, interrupting his female friend, well knowing she hated it. "Because!", Sakura retorted: "You know old habits die hard! And this guy could be the next mister Haruno" she explained. "Do you even know his name?" Sakura blushed and played with her car keys nervously:"Well" she started loudly, hoping she would sound confident "I like to call him m-mister mysterious". An awkward silence filled the room before the blonde started laughing out loud. "S-SHUT UP YOU JERK" The flushed pinkette yelled and slamed the door shut. The blonde snickered to himself for a while before letting out a long sigh. Staring at his ceiling he asked himself "What now?".

-o-o-o-o-o-

Naruto didn't contact her for a week, thinking this was one of her lame 'experiments'. He was used to her acting like that: meeting some guy in a pub or bar, trying to impress him, going on dates, realizing he was a weirdo and ending up in Narutos bed, ranting about how stupid she was and that she would NEVER, N-E-V-E-R try to date anyone ever again. He'd be a good friend, listen to her worries and help her get over her could-have-been romance while also helping her out of her underwear.

After the second week, he got a little worried. He still couldn't believe that she actually was interested in someone after more than 2 dates. So he called her. She didn't pick up her phone. That was the moment he knew something was different this time. Thinking she was abducted and drugged and sold by her new beau, Naruto did the only thing he thought was right and started spamming her with phone calls and messages. Two days later Ino informed him that Sakura was safe and sound and no, she doesn't want to talk to him and he should stop trying to reach her. The blonde finally realized that maybe she was serious this time. OR maybe it would just take her longer to realize how crazy her 'mister mysterious' actually was. Leaning back the whiskered man smiled thinking about how silly his best friend woukd look when she came running to him with her smudged make-up and broken heel for the hundredth time.

After a month Naruto grew anxious. He was showing symptoms which made his friends believe he quit smoking or ended some other addiction. He would play with his pens, yell at his computer or just simply sulk around his office, stare out of the window and sigh. Whenever his friends or coworkers asked what happened he woud tell them that he was simply too stressed.

One of his worried friends happened to be the young ex-hyuuga Corp, Heiress Hinata Hyuuga. They were more co-workers than friends, Hinata would admit blushing if someone would ask her. Doing small-talk during their breaks or when they happened to get in the same elevator would always be her favorite moments of the day (not that she would admit that to anyone).
After hearing his millionth sigh on a monday morning, the Hyuuga finally decided to overcome her shyness and to talk to this unfornutate soul, desiring to help him with his problems. However, overcoming her shyness wasn't as simple as it sounded. Days passed with attempts to speak to him, only to be stopped by other coworkers on the way or her own stuttering when she finally managed to get to his desk.

"I'll be on my lunch break" Naruto said absent mindly, on the following wednesday, picking up his jacket. They were the only ones left in the office so she knew he was talking to her. The Hyuuga took this as a sign and quickly stood up "W-WAIT!" she yelled in her soft way, making the blonde twitch in confusion ."I-I'm..." She was losing her confidence by the minute "I am kind of hungry too...", she blushed and played with a random pencil on her desk. The blonde understood the message and smiled at her weird, yet cute way. "Do you wanna come with me?" he asked her, enjoying the way her face lit up. Grabbing her purse, the Hyuuga followed her blonde coworker (and secret crush) out of the office.

-o-o-o-o-o-

"SoOOOoo" the Uzumaki started "is there a reason you barely ate even though you told me you were hungry?".
The Hyuuga looked startled at her plate. She didn't think he would catch on her eating behaviour, even though she just pushed around her salad for a while now. She actually had a delicious cinnamon bun as pre-lunch to calm her nerves. Her companion smirked his fox-like grin that normally made her want to jump him but in this case she just wanted to disappear into the ground. "I...uh" she started in a high-pitched voice. Clearing her throat she tried again "I-I just noticed that you were kind of down lately Uz-Uzumaki-san" she tried to look at everything but him, feeling like a tomato, completely missing out his eyebrows lifting as his eyes grew slightly wider. "I-I just wanted to make sure you're...uh..ok.." The shy woman ended up staring back at her plate, mentally preparing for his mocking and laughing and eventual leaving.

"I really wasn't myself lately eh?" The blonde laughed, making the Hyuuga look at him. He smiled his awkward but still adorable smile and scratched the back of his head. "To be honest, I'm just a little stressed" the blonde laughed awkwardly, already used to repeating this phrase to all of his friends.

"Oh.." The Bluenette replied softly, thinking of a good respondse "Well..w-whenever I-I'm stressed I like to knit" she admitted, a small smile adoring her face "maybe you could find s-such a hobby as well?".

Naruto coughed awkwardly and blushed at that "W-well..I kinda..sorta..had such a relaxating hobby but.." he wiggled around, his chair suddenly becoming uncomfortable "it was sort of a...thing you do as a pair...and my friend bailed out on me" he admitted nervously, not wanting to let the innocent Hyuuga think he was some kind of crazy nymphomaniac.

Meanwhile, the innocent Hinata guessed he was talking about somekind of sport or dance. "W-Well maybe you could search a n-new partner?" she suggested, making the man choke on his coke. "It's more complicated than that" seeing the confused expression of his 'date' he felt obligated to continue "I tried doing it with other..euh...partners...but it never worked out or it got weird between me and them. My old uh...partner was kind of my best friend which made it so easy and uncomplicated and-" Naruto groaned, holding his face in his hands, really feeling the frustration of not having sex nor being able to talk to his best friend in weeks. "I just miss what I had with her" he confessed.

The pale-eyed girl gulped down the huge lump in her throat and softly touched one of his hands, getting the blonde's attention. "A-are you in l-love with your friend?" She asked, trying to sound as if she was worried about him and not almost heartbroken about having no seemingly changes for a romance with her blonde, handsome, coworker.

She didn't expect him to snort and fake-shiver "WHAT! No way!", he laughed "She's hot alright and a nice fuck but i know her too well to even think about dating".
Naruto continued laughing, completely oblivious to his companions blush and trembling fingers.
"F-F-F-fuck..?" she repeated his words, once again gaining his attention. "SHIT! I MEAN -" Naruto shouted, slamming his hands on the table. Realizing he got the attention of the whole restaurant, he apologized to no one in particular, blushing madly. "I-I'm sorry" he whispered to Hinata, clearly ashamed "I-It just – a-and.." the blonde groaned in frustration again, scratching the back of his head."I guess the cat's out of the bag" he laughed nervously "She was kind of sorta my...sex-buddy".

-o-o-o-o-o-

Hinata typed into her computer furiously. Her ears were hot and probably red but at least the blush on her face wasn't present today. It was another boring Monday morning and she had to work on the files that pilled themselfes on her desk during the weekend. Sighing she peeked to the desk of her coworker Uzumaki Naruto. He was probably taking a bathroom break, but she didn't mind, actually she found it quite fortunate. It was already 2 weeks since their awkwards lunch-date but they were now closer then ever. After him confessing what his... stress reliefing... hobby was, they quickly and awkwardly changed the subject and found some other things to talk about. Hinata tried to play it cool and Naruto seemed to appreciate it! In the following weeks they went back to talking during coffee breaks and elevator rides but these conversations were now more than just polite small-talk and they called eachother by their first names!

The Uzumaki quickly walked back to his desk. Noticing the Hyuuga staring absent-mindly at him, he smiled at her before turning back to his work. The bluenette gasped softly and turned her gaze back to her computer. She sighed sadly. Even thought he tried hiding it, she noticed that he turned worse by the minute. Sometimes she would see him gaze out the window like a lost puppy and sometimes he would just lay his head on his desk and do nothing for hours. He had actually started to get scolded more than usual by their supervisor! The young woman was worried that he would lose his job if he would continue like that.

-o-o-o-o-o-

"I'm worried" she admitted to her best friend, and hopefully soon sister-in-law Tenten. Since they both were busy working women they decided to meet up at least twice a month in a Pub, Café or Bar to talk about everything and anything.

Tenten gave her a questioning hum while drinking her beer, making the girl continue "It's just that I don't want him to leave..what if they fire him?" The shy Hyuuga admitted in a soft voice, somehow hoping that her best friend didn't hear her. Even thought she trusted Tenten and the bun-haired girl was one of the only friends she could talk about her secret crush of 3 years openly, she still felt uncomfortable talking about one of her weaknesses with the strong,independend woman.

The brown haired girl did hear her and smiled at the shy behaviour of her friend "Well maybe you should tell him to get a new fuck-friend" she mused. Seeing the girl paling Tenten didn't know if she should laugh at her shy friends nature or if she should slap it out of her. She was 24 for goodness sake!

Stuffing her mouth with chips Tenten continued with a full mouth: "Well I think that you have two possibilies to keep your blondie in the office:
1. You help him find a new sex-buddy or 2. You help him yourself". The Hyuuga almost spit out the liqour she had in her mouth, but forced it down her throat and coughed. Meanwhile her friend started laughing, clearly getting tipsy. "Tenteen! You know I couldn't..." Hinata started but got interupted by her friend "Listen! I know you don't like it when i talk about your cousin in a sexual way but to be honest we started out as sex-friends too" the panda-like-haired girl stopped talking for Hinatas predicable shocked gasp "Yeah, yeah shocking but look where we are today! 5 years and going steady" Tenten smiled dreamily, thinking of her boyfriend who was probably at home now, cooking or cleaning or maybe waiting naked on the bed until she got home. Just thinking about that kind of scenario made her cheeks burn and the butterflies in her tummy go crazy with anticipation. Having the sudden urge to go to her boyfriend's place she gave her watch a quick look and fake-gasped "Oh my how time flies! Listen Hina, I have to go now but think about it, ok?" Tenten grabbed her coat and gave Hinata a loving squeeze before walking out.

The shy started sulking "She didn't even pay her drinks" she mumbled, staring at the semi-empty glass of her friend.

-o-o-o-o-o-

"Hinata are you alright?" The blonde looked at her with a worried expression. "U..uh..yes why?" said girl stuttered, not being able to look him in the eyes. "Hm, I don't know maybe because you were avoiding me for the past 3 days?" he said matter-of-factly. Having become accustomed to their friendly chatting he had to admit he started missing talking to her and hearing her soft voice and the way she would blush or nervously play with her fingers. But just probably because Sakura still avoided him like some deadly dissease. Having no other real female friend that lived in town(and he didn't become friendly with just to have some fun) he couldn't afford Hinata ignoring him too. "I-I'm s-sorry" the bluenette said, trying to look busy typing into her computer. He noticed she seemed more nervous than before. She hadn't stuttered in front of him in weeks! Not after he figured out that she gets more confident talking about things she was passionate about.

It seemed they were somehow back to square one, he sighed. "Did I do something wrong? If I did I'm sorry" Naruto said sadly, obliviously playing around with one of her pencils. The woman shook her head "N-no! You didn't do anything" she quickly said, finally meeting his eyes, not wanting be the cause of more stress to her coworker. The bluenette smiled at him, hoping he wouldn't ask her more questions about her current feelings. He sighed deeply "I'm glad. By the way: Did you see Lee's new haircut?" he smiled. With that the two started conversating (mostly gossiping and talking about random TV-Shows) for a while before Naruto returned to his desk, happy to have gotten the Hyuga out of her pensive mood.

Meanwhile Hinata stared at her computer-screen intesively. This short encounter with her hyperactive, dare she say, friend helped her to make her decicion. Opening a new mail she typed in the Email-adress of her best female friend. Biting her lower lip she typed:

"SOS: How do you seduce someone".

-o-o-o-o-o-

She had him cornered. Finally, she had him where she wanted: in the small storage room, copying files. They were the last ones in the office on this cold Friday evening so she knew no one would interrupt them. After she got some dirty advice from Tenten she couldn't look at her blonde crush for 2 whole days without almost passing out. She probably wouldn't even be able to do this if it wasn't for him talking to her first. Even though he just asked how she'd like her coffe. She was glad he did because now she grew some confidence again and knew what she had to do. "Oh Hinata! I didn't see you there. Do you need to use the printer? I'm almost done." The Uzumaki smiled at the Hyuuga who was still standing in the doorway of the little room where their printer/copier stood. "uh..no actually" She took a deep breath "Actually I wanted to talk to you" with that the Hyuuga slowly closed the door shut and silently locked it.

She decided to wear a simple white blouse and a grey pencilskirt that went over her knees together with black heels. Some people may have found this outfit still kind of prude but for Hinata it was already considered very skimpy. She blushed just thinking about how she left the first few buttons open like the women in the movies, trying to look seductive.

If Naruto noticed her attempts to appear seductive he sure didn't show it. The young man lifted an eyebrow at her nervous way. Sure, she was often nervous, but today it seemed worse than usual.

"Uh..Hinata are you ok?" he asked, honestly concerned. "I-I'm fine b-but-" the girl fumbled with the hem of her blouse "b-but what about y-you?" she stammered, slowly getting closer to her oblivious target. "Yeah, I'm fine?" Naruto replied, mildly confused and slowly getting infected by her nervousness "why are you asking?"- "uh..", the bluenette squirmed, staring at his orange button down shirt, imagining how his chest looked like. What it felt like touching it. She was already close enough that she just had to reach out to touch him. "I w-was just wondering i-if you found a n-new ..uh...p-partner for your h..y..you k-know...relief?" she hesitated and internally cursed herself. All this practicing in front of the mirror for nothing!

The blonde still didn't understand what she meant and got even more confused. He wasn't sure but it also seemed like she was slowly coming closer. Naturally he backed away until his behind touched the wall. "Uh...partner for...? " suddenly it was getting harder for the young blonde to think as he suddenly breathed in the intoxicating smell of her hair. Hadn't the door been open just a second ago? He figured out she smelled nice a long time ago, but they were never actually close enough that he could really appreciate it. He shook his head softly, thinking he just hadn't been with a woman for too long and it was turning him crazy.

Her soft fingers finally touched his clothed chest. They both gasped at the little spark going through them.

Her tomato red face leaned against her shoulder while she drawed lazy circles on his chest, trying to find the courage for her next step. Meanwhile Narutos body stiffened. The realistic part of his brain tried to find an innocent excuse for her sudden closeness. That the shift in atmosphere was just in his head and that the shy and innocent Hinata Hyuga wasn't trying to seduce him into hot, steamy storage room sex. Feeling her hot breath on his neck he silently prayed that it would happen anyway.

"Y..you know..." She continued , her heavy breathing slowly moving towards his ear:"...the..thing...".

Naruto could swear he was about to have an heart attack. He was getting hot and cold at the same time, his skin burning at the places she softly touched. The blonde could swear he felt her hand slowly moving towards his tightening pants. He didn't know if he should push her away and run and never come back or if he should follow his instincs and slam her against the wall and...

"Oh god", naruto mumbled as he could feel her hot breath in his ear. Hinata took this as a good sign and decided to push her luck a little farther. The bluenette pushed her chest against him and started playing with his belt. "The thing with...the..." she started again, feeling him shiver under her touch. The young woman smiled to herself. The blonde man stiffled a moan as he felt her nibble his ear softly. He was panting heavily and felt his knees weakening. Being in need of support, he grabbed for the first thing his hands could reach, wich ended up to be her bum and-

"Oh..." it felt wonderful. Hearing her soft squeak the blond leaned into her and squeezed her heavenly behind.

"..The..what..?" he mumbled out of breath, wanting to hear her seductive small voice say the dirty things he hoped she would to say.

Before she could continue someone knocked on the door. "Someone in there?" the voice of the janitor was heard from the other side of the door.

The two young co-workers held eachother for an awkward minute before Hinata jerked away from him and into the next corner. "uh..yeah.." Naruto tried to answer, only to realize that his voice was still shaking. Clearing his throat he tried again "I guess the door locked itself" the blonde laughed awkwardly. Meanwhile Hinata stared at the corner blushing heavily. She would never ever admit to anyone that she locked that door even if you tormented her. Hearing the janitor unlocking the door, the blonde turned to his shy companion but before he could say anything she stormed out of the little storage room.

Chapter Text

Naruto groaned.

Was it really Monday already? He couldn't even enjoy his long awaited weekend and now it was already over. The blonde sighed and turned in his bed. He really didn't want to go to work today. But he didn't have a good reason to play sick except: "I just realized my coworker is actually super hot and now I want to jump her". She probably would still be hot tomorrow and the day after and so on so he didn't think his supervisor would actually show empathy for his situation.

Hearing his alarm clock going off, the young man turned around to press on the snooze button. He even woke up before the alarm! This never happened. Damn that vixen and her well-built body! Why did she have to wear that revealing blouse and that tight skirt anyway?! Usually Naruto would think that the shy Hyuga tried to get into his pants but years of reading signs and signals from women wrong led him to be more cautious around the fairer sex. And Hinata was too innocent for these kinds of office affairs anyways. He couldn't even imagine her being with someone romantically. Using her plum red lips to...

Hearing his alarm again, he decided to get up.  Going back to sleep wasn't even an option from the beginning. A part of him believed that their little encounter was just a 'heat of the moment' thing with being locked into a small closed space and all. He probably imagined the proximity and sexual tension of their encounter due to not having had some in a while. Another part, further west of his body, really hoped that it wasn't just his imagination going haywire. Whatever it was he seriously couldn't handle such a thing happening twice or he would simply explode.

It was moments like this that made him miss the liaisons with his pink haired friend.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-

Hinata was sitting quietly at her kitchen table, drinking her morning tea. That was until the events of last Friday flew into her mind and made her spit her 'relaxing' tea all over her table, blushing and coughing hard while doing so. Sighing she went to grab a wet cloth to clean up the mess she made. This happened a lot to her since that ….thing…that happened in the storage room. Just thinking about it made her want to hide herself in her bed and to never show up at work again. 

Putting on a new sweater (because the one she actually planned on wearing had now tea stains on it), Hinata thought about what to do next. She wouldn't try to seduce Naruto with such revealing clothes again, that's for sure. It would also get suspicious if the janitor found them locked in another room again.  But just leaving things as they were was also not really a posibility. What if she awakened something in him that could cause him to run to another woman, maybe even a hooker and then he would get a genital disease or maybe even have an unwanted child. And what if he thought of her behaviour as repulsive and it was the last straw to turn him off women forever?! What if he absolutely hated her now and told everyone over the weekend that she tried to sexually harass him? How would she explain to her father what happened when she eventually had to crawl back because she couldn't afford a lawyer on her own? And then Naruto would take the money from the lawsuit, run to the next best woman and- 

Hinata had to take deep breaths to calm her mind.

Biting her lower lip she decided to take her knitting tools with her. It was going to be one stressful day.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-

Naruto ran towards the his platform, just to see his train leave. "Shit", he mumbled to himself, already looking when the next one would arrive. This was a bad omen, he was sure of it. Fortunately, he didn't have to wait very long, 15 minutes to be exact.

Going into the train, he immediately wanted to get out of it again. Not only was it stuffed, but sitting there was his lovely friend and coworker whom he absolutely didn't want to see: Hinata Hyuuga. It seemed like she didn't notice him yet because she obviously was concentrated on her work at hand: knitting. Naruto was about to turn away and pretend he didn't see her but alas the lovely woman, that plagued his dreams for the past two nights, decided to catch his eyes in that exact moment. An awkward and short lived staring competition followed in which both mentally contemplated pretending to not recognise eachother. However, the Hyuuga decided to try safe the situation by giving him a soft nod and a strained smile. Following the 'friendly coworker-code' he made his way through the crowd, smiling slightly at said her. 

"Uh, hey" He smiled awkwardly, not sure if he should call her 'Hinata' or go back to calling her 'Hyuuga-san'. "..Hello", she answered softly with her own awkward smile.

After a long pause of just smiling at each other awkwardly, they both felt a blush coming and quickly focused on something else, sighing internally. For Hinata it meant to go back to her knitting while Naruto tried to look at anything that wasn't her face. Seeing her shift in his peripheral vision he slowly turned his gaze towards her hands. 

"Isn't it a bit too soon to start knitting a scarf?", Naruto asked after a while, never been able to hold long silences. Hinata actually jerked up with a soft 'eep', clearly not expecting any further attempts of talking, or being friendly or anything really.
"I..uhm…I'm trying to make a sweater" she replied shyly.
"Oh like the one you're wearing?" the blonde inquired, feeling his shoulders slowly relax. 
"actually…I knitted that one myself"  
"SERIOUSLY?!".
The Hyuuga giggled at his overly amazed way of expressing himself, happy that they apparently could go back to normal. Or at least pretend as if there wasn't a weird sexual tension between them. 

-o-o-o-o-o-o-

"Stop the elevator", Hinata could hear a distressed Naruto yell as he ran towards the closing doors. The shy Hyuuga automatically pushed the 'open' button on the elevator and made room for the Uzumaki to enter. "Thanks" he smiled his foxy grin at her while waiting for the doors to close.

Being in a small room with her secret crush reminded the Hyuuga of certain events she painfully tried to forget all day. Feeling a blush coming she stole a quick peek at her colleague. The bluenette could swear he was even more handsome than the last time she saw him (and that was literally 5 minutes ago).

Too distracted by her own nervousness, the young woman didn't notice the blonde man also struggling to keep his cool. He actually was also reminded of their secret encounter. His brain was yelling at him to escape this elevator as soon as possible before he could seriously damage their new-found friendship. Maybe he could get off on the next floor and walk down, but that would be too obvious since he'd have to walk down at least six floors.
He coughed awkwardly, starling his companion by doing so. "Sorry, I didn't want to-" he started, but got interrupted by a loud bang. Suddenly, the lights went out and the elevator started shaking. Both, caught off guard, made a frightened noise and held onto each other. Fortunately the emergency light went on and soon a voice could be heard from a loudspeaker, telling the pair that they should stay calm and that the problem would soon be fixed.

After the first shock was over, the couple realized how close they were to each other and quickly let go, Naruto lightly tapping his head against the wall on corner and Hinata nervously twiddling her fingers and staring at the other. "Could this day actually get worse?" Naruto thought to himself as he hit his head one last time against the elevator wall. Not only did Hinata actually look way too cute in her baggy sweater and black tights he could also start to smell her intoxicating smell again. He seriously had to find out what shampoo she used. Maybe he could recommend it to Sakura once she came crawling back. Naruto knew that they had to talk about the big elephant that was in between them one day, but he had hoped that this day would be far from the present day. At his retirement party or deadbed would have been nice. Sighing he took this as a sign and thought about how to start the seemingly most awkward conversation he would ever have with his colleague.

Meanwhile Hinata was having her own problematic thoughts. Like Naruto, she took this as a sign too but, instead of thinking of a way to go back to the way they were before, she was planning her next move. It appeared that some kind of greater powers wanted her to help him out of his misery. Just thinking about it made her hot under the collar. Sighing heavily she knew what she had to do next. Explaining her motives in an understanding way get to work.

Turning around she faced the back of the young man, waiting for him to face her so she could calmly explain what she had in mind.

Naruto seemed to make up his mind soon after her. Turning around he began with "listen-". Unfortunately or rather fortunately, he never got further than that. Before he knew what was happening he was pressed against the elevator wall by the small Hyuuga. The girl had more force than he thought.

He wanted to stop her, to push her away and to ask her what she was doing. He really wanted to but the soft touch of her plump lips was sucking out all the sanity he had. As soon as they touched his he could feel the same spark from the storage room going through him. If he was being honest, he wanted more of that sensation. Feeling her arms going around his neck, Naruto finally complied and slowly hugged her waist

Hinata didn't know how it happened. She actually had a speech ready in her head but after looking at his deep blue eyes, she couldn't stop herself. As soon as she felt his hands grabbing her waist she knew that he actually enjoyed it too and decided to take the next step. Not for his sake but for her own. Feeling her nibbling on his lower lips, Naruto groaned as a shiver went through his body. The normally shy woman used this opportunity to slip her tongue into his mouth.

By then Naruto knew that he was going crazy. This felt way too good to be legal. The urge to get closer to her, to feel more of her, got stronger as his hands started roaming her body. It was fogging his mind and making the room spin. Taking the initiative, the blonde turned them around, so he could press her body against the wall. The bluenette whimpered, as his mouth moved to her neck while he grabbed for her bum. Hearing that sound, Naruto felt a new wave of sparks. Wanting to hear more of her sounds, the blonde squeezed her tights, implying for her to wrap them around his waist. The young woman seemed to understand immediately complied to his silent request.

Naruto, totally lost to feeling of her hotness on his crotch, couldn't stop the way his hips jerked upwards, thrusting against her. The bluenette gasped softly at the electrifying feeling while the blonde stifled a throaty groan.

"..Shit…Hahhh…Hina…ta.." he tried speaking, he leaned his head against the cold elevator wall, hoping to cool down at least a little. "…why?.." he asked with a coarse voice, using the last part of his sanity to ask this question. The panting woman blushed even more than before as she hid her head in the crook of his neck "..because.." she started softly, brushing her lips against his skin. She wanted to tell him that she liked him for years, that she didn't want for him to get fired, that he was her personal sunshine and just seeing him would make her happy but she knew she couldn't do that. It would only scare him away and ruin their friendship. She decided to end her sentence with a mumbled "..I..don't mind if it's…you" and hoped to distract him by nibbling on his neck.

It sure did distract him. Groaning the blonde felt his body push even harder against her. He swore he could feel his brain actually melt as all his blood rushed down into his already painfully tight pants.

"B..But a-aren't…oh god… aren't you a..v-virgin?" He knew this question could destroy the mood and maybe even his possibilities to get into the pants of his beautiful colleague but he had to know. Hwever, he didn't want to be responsible for changing her whole life and opinion of men just because he was horny.

He had to admit that he was mildly surprised to feel her head shake 'no'. Hinata knew that no one would guess that she, the shy and innocent Hinata Hyuuga has been actually touched by a male in a sexual way. It actually was a dark spot in her past, which she wanted to forget or at least act as if it never happened.

He had been the most popular boy in her high school. Not being very popular back then, she would have never guessed that he would actually ask her out one day. Not feeling worthy of his time, the young Hyuuga did everything to keep him entertained, just so she could feel loved.

So she gave him her virginity. And it hurt her. A lot.

But it soon came out that he didn't really like her. He actually just wanted to enjoy the title of being 'the boyfriend of the Hyuuga heiress' so it wasn't shocking for most that he broke up with her after she lost said title.

But that would be a story she would never tell anyone voluntary. Her high school days were a taboo that her friends knew they should never mention. 

She got into this situation with her handsome colleague, well knowing what sex would feel like. Or so she thought. The things the petite felt at this point were actually on a whole different level than the things she had felt during her first time. There was no pain and she wasn't scared. Actually she felt quite the opposite: she didn't think it could get this hot. She just wanted to tear her clothes off just to feel his skin against hers.

Naruto felt her small hand moving towards his bulging pants as she seductively (or so she hoped) whispered "Come on…I know this isn't serious so….let's have some fun…please". The blonde whimpered, feeling her grind against him. He knew he was too far in to back out now.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-

"So you wanna tell me that you fucked him in an elevator?" TenTen asked, clearly impressed that the female Hyuuga actually took her plan to action.

"N-NO!" Hinata replied quickly while trying to shush the loud girl, a heavy blush present on her cheeks.

" W-we didn't 'do it' in the elevator by the way" the bluenette mumbled, grabbing her milkshake. "The door opened shortly after at the sixth floor and they told us we had to take the stairs to go down since fixing the elevator would take some time" she added quickly, taking a long slurp from her drink ignoring how her friends eyes widened.
"So you DIDN'T do it?" the brown haired woman almost yelled, mentally preparing to give the poor girl a piece of her mind but also a pep talk to do better next time.
Hinata jerked up at her loud voice and tried to calm her again before continuing "w-well maybe we d-did... sort o....f find another place..." seeing the curious and shocked expression on her now silent friend, the dark haired woman sighed and nervously played with her straw. She took a big sip her her shake before in a small voice" Like a hidden meeting room that I knew was on the sixth floor?".

Hinata was prepared for a lot of things happening after she said that: a car crushing trough the window of the small café they sat in, a burning man suddenly running inside, screaming and so on. She wasn't prepared for her female best friend to start whooping out loud and to attract the attention of absolutely everyone in the café. Hiding her red face in her hands she already regretted telling her.

-o-o-o-o-o-o

Meanwhile Naruto sat on his couch, staring into his TV but not really paying attention to what was on. His mind was miles away to be honest. All he could think of was of the things that happened in his office, just a few hours ago, involving him, Hinata and a cold table. He didn't know if he should laugh or cry, or maybe both.

Don't get him wrong: the sex had been incredible. He still wasn't sure if he just dreamed the whole thing.

At first it was a bit awkward. Like trying to ride a bike after a long time not doing so. But it was as they said: you never really forget how to ride a bike.

Sure, sex with Sakura was nice and all but it was also very predictabe. They had found a way to do it that worked for both and then just decided to continue with the same routine. Why fix something that wasn't broken?

But that was nothing compared to what he felt with Hinata…

The blonde male always thought he liked the athletic, skinny types because his first and only crush had been his long time friend Sakura. Even if that crush was before they started being friends with benefits, Naruto unconsciously started targeting only this kind of woman.
Oh! How had he missed out! He wasn't saying that Hinata was chubby or anything (Actually it felt like she had some hidden muscles in her petite figure, making him believe she probably did some kind of sport. )

She was just curvy, and in all the right places if he may add. Just thinking about feeling her naked chest, her somehow wide hips made the blonde shiver and his fingers prickle.

But he still didn't know if he had the right to anticipate their next meeting. Was this an onetime thing or could he hope for an encore? He never thought the shy Hyuuga would actually do something like that without having any romantic feelings involved. At least he hoped there weren't any on her side, he thought with a pang of guilt. But she did say she only wanted some fun, he reasoned to himself, trying to suppress the guilt.

Naruto decided that he was probably over thinking and finally relaxed, mentally replaying the whole event in his mind with a huge grin plastered on his face.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-

Hinata sighed. She had hoped by now Naruto would finally get the hint and talk to her, but the poor blonde seemed more distressed than before. He became a nervous wreck whenever the Hyuuga passed him: as if he wanted to talk to her but never actually did, stealing glances and nervously playing around with random objects. The blonde had tried to start a 'casual' conversatin with her here and there but whenever their eyes would meet his voice broke and he would awkwardly come up with an excuse to leave. 

It was sure amusing for their other colleagues, to see the super social blonde so out of character with the shy woman.

The Hyuuga bit her lip. Maybe it wasn't as good as she imagined it? Maybe SHE wasn't good enough for him? Sure, it felt incredible for her but that didn't mean that he liked it too. Maybe he didn't want to seem rude by pushing her away? Maybe he was trying to be nice by acting 'normal' but actually didn't want to have anything to do with her again. 

Hinata sighed again and shook her head softly. Tenten had warned her that she shouldn't try to get down on herself. She also mentioned that, if Naruto was as oblivious as he sounded like, it could be that she had to seduce him again and again until he finally got the hint.

 Noticing the blonde watching her but quickly turning back to his work with red ears, she decided that she would indeed not let her dark thoughts take over. Not today!

"The follow up has to happen fast!", Tenten had commented sternly "If you leave too much time in between he'll misinterpret the whole thing into some mistake!Don't give him time to overthink!"

In the heat of the moment the bluenette quickly wrote an E-mail to her blonde crush:

"Meet me in 10 minutes in the girls' restroom.

-H"

Licking her lips, Hinata gulped down her nervousness and clicked 'send'.

After waiting for exact 8 minutes at her desk, the woman got up walked towards the restroom, trying to seem as calm and natural as possible. Making short eye contact with her partner-in–crime and seeing his lustful eyes, the Hyuuga knew he would be there.

Chapter Text

Naruto sighed deeply as his head met the desk with a loud thump.

A startled Lee turned around, hearing his colleague who normaly was almost as optimistic as him. "Are you ok Naruto-kun?" the dark haired male asked, worried. This made the blonde sigh again. "Yeah, I'm fine" he answered in a voice that showed his conspicuous distress.

It had been a few weeks since Naruto started his 'special' relationship with the Hyuuga and to be honest, it were the most wonderful weeks in his life. They were on it almost every day. The adrenaline that someone might find out affair didn't really slow them down either. Restrooms, storage closets and conference rooms. Naruto started to know the structure of his office floors and schedules of his coworkers like the back of his hand.

Another thing he started to learn by heart were the different facets of his partner in crime: he adored her silky hair, her lust filled face, the small blush and the way she moaned his name. He had to admit that he really enjoyed having sex and getting to know the usually timid Hyuga.

But lately, it wasn't enough. Naruto had to confess, he was also fascinated by all the things she did when they weren't making love: the way she would stare at her computer in complete concentration. How she always had her knitting equipment with her when she had a stressfull day ahead or how she would always unconsciously touch hot food with her lips before eating it. The sound of her voice she talked about something precious to her. 
Who was he kidding? He also enjoyed how she sometimes accidentally fell into rambles about minor things. He chuckled as he remembered how she explained to him in detail how to create the perfect stitch. She could read an remote control instruction and he would record it and listen to before sleep every night!

Another new urge was that he wanted to press her against him after the deed. Just lie there and enjoy the afterglow.

He felt as if this hot office affair just wasn't enough, he wanted more. But what if that was just the adrenaline of the situation blowing everything out of proportion? These feelings would probably disapear once they would get rid of the thrill. 

The blonde sighed again.

If Sakura knew that she would mock him and call him a softy.

Hinata hadn't been in the office today due to out of house meetings with clients. Not seeing her reminded him that the winter break was coming. That would mean the office closes for 2 weeks. Usually he would be excited about his vacation but this year it would also include not seeing Hinata for two whole weeks!

"Are you sure?" Lee's voice was heard as he sat opposite to the blonde.

"Actually I'm not" the blonde groaned "You see…There's this girl and-" he stopped.

He had to think this through or else Lee would find out who that 'girl' was. And then they would end up being the main gossip subject in the whole building. That would definitely ruin the thrill.

"Well, I met this girl at the bar" Naruto started again "And we somehow ended up doing it in the restroom. And now every time I go there, she's there and well " he blushed "and the story kinda repeats itself again and again". Lee stared at him with wide eyes and a heavy blush on his face. It wasn't as if Lee was a virgin or some sort but his mind was still very innocent. He was always telling people to bellieve in the power of youth but didn't imagine it in quite a way as Naruto apparently did. 

"The bar closes during winter break since the barkeeper goes visiting his family and well ... I won't be able to see her until it opens again.." The blonde groaned in agony. "What should I do?"

Lee had a very thoughtfull expression while drinkin his glass of water. Putting said glass on the table he answered "Well, why don't you invite her to your place or something?"

-o-o-o-o-o-

Groaning the blonde fell on top of his panting lover.

He didn't feel like moving ever again. He wasn't even sure if he could, since he still felt like he was floating. Feeling the bluenette underneath him softly stroking his hair, he completely forgot that they were both half naked in an empty conference room afterhours.

She was so soft and smelled amazing. He just felt like holding her close to him and sleeping if he was being honest. 

But he couldn't.

The petite woman apparently caught her breath faster than him as she now tried to softly push him off of her. 

After a few more seconds of soft shoving, Naruto grunted and rolled off. He watched her sit up and get dressed again while tenderly caressing her thight. Feeling her move away to put on her pants he whined softly. The woman let out a small giggle when she felt his hand move towards her hair.

"I suggest you start to get dressed too before the cleaning crew finds you", Hinata warned him in a humorous way, secretly enjoying the touch of his hand. She didn't want to go actually, but she didn't want to be a bother to Naruto by forcing him to cuddle.

Tenten had told her that the shy woman shouldn't expect too much afterwards, because it could turn awkward really fast (and getting found out by the janitor didn't sound very appealing either).
So Hinata decided to flee the crime scene as quickly and quietly as possible. Usually Naruto would follow her example but somehow her companion decided to enjoy the afterglow of what they just did for longer than usual. Maybe it was because it was the last Friday before winter break. They wouldn't be able to do this for two whole weeks. But he probably didn't care too much about it since he wouldn't need a stress relief during his holidays. 

The blonde slowly got up and started to dress himself. He felt a rush of panic , seeing that Hinata was almost done and gone. Before he knew it, she was standing by the door, opening her mouth to say goodbye. The blonde interrupted her with a loud "WAIT". He quickly fixed his pants and nervously put on his belt before he added "W-What are you doing on Christmas Eve?"

The shy woman blinked. She didn't expect that.

Feeling a blush coming, she quickly focused her gaze on the floor, hoping he wouldn't notice.
"I….uhm….." actually she had planned on meeting Kiba and Shino, her best friends since middle school but she knew they wouldn't mind too much if she told them she had a date. Not that it was an actual date but…

"..nothing..w-why?" She almost whispered.

"Would you like to come to my place?"

-o-o-o-o-o-o-

Entering his apartment, Hinata knew she'd like it in there. It wasn't as big as hers, to some it could have even seemed very squashed, but she found it comfortingly cozy.

She also found out that Naruto liked it messy: his walls were full of posters and pictures of friends. Little souvenirs, gadgets and dirty laundry was randomly tossed and scattered all over the place as well. 

The majority of the pictures included him and a pink haired girl. The photos showed them at different stages of their lifes. Camping, laughing, eating. Seemingly doing everything together since they were born.  With a pang of jealousy she guessed it was the famous Sakura. Naruto often talked about her, since they grew up together. Seeing actual proof of their strong bond hurt the petite woman, knowing how close they were at some point. And probably still are and will be forever. It was obvious that the Hyuuga could never squeeze herself in between this bond.

Sakura was a very beautiful young woman, and she could tell from the photos that she had a strong character. She was also slimmer than Hinata. One of the types that could make a curtain look haute couture. Sighing, Hinata unconsciously touched her hips.

What if Naruto actually liked slimmer body types? Always being self-concious about her well developed body, the young Hyuuga subconsciously pulled the cardigan she wore closer. She probably looked like a pig next to Sakura.

Thank goodness Naruto walked in the exact moment with two cups of hot chocolate, distracting Hinata from the pictures and her dark thoughts.

-o-o-o-o-o-

After the rough start for Hinatas mental stability the evening took a turn for the best. They had watched a movie together and Hinata gave him a scarf she knitted herself (he didn't think she would get him a present so he didn't get her one either, not that she minded).

Eventually, they ended up in bed. Naruto owned a very old bed that squeaked with every movement they made, and to top it off, it started hitting against the wall at some point. She knew the neighbors could probably hear it, since she could faintly hear them talk casually. The wall has to be made out of paper! Watching her turn redder with every squeak, the blonde couldn't stop himself from laughing.

And now here they were.

Catchin their breath and spent. Naruto sporting a massive grin while Hinata tried to hide her embarassement underneath the blanket.

The blonde turned towards the ceiling, seemingly remembering something. "You know" he said in a cheerful voice, "lying here in my bed reminds me of the times when Sakura used to visit me"

After hearing that, Hinata knew she would never come to this apartment ever again.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-

The bluenette groaned, turning in her bed. It was the 27 of December. Her birthday. However, Hinata didn't feel like celebrating at all. She didn't feel like doing anything, really. Since the fateful christmas eve, the shy woman had spent most of her time eating ice cream, still in pajamas, while watching silly christmas movies.

Sitting up, the Hyuuga rubbed her eyes. She hadn't left the house since that evening either, even talking her way out of the annual christmas brunch with the Hyuuga family. She had better plans on that day that included crying in bed and oreos.

Tapping on her phone, Hinata ignored the messages that Naruto had sent her and went directly to the newest one. It was from Kiba. At point midnight he congratulated on her birthday, like every year. Her best friends would probably soon pop up in her private space to do some silly birthday celebration. She decided to shower, put on a smile and forget about her blonde colleague at least for one day.

They did this every year: Shino and Kiba would come by early in the morning and cook breakfast for their little princess. After that, they would relax on her couch in their baggiest clothes, and watch her favorite movies. In the evening her sister, cousin and his girlfriend would come over and bring a small cake and presents with them.

Looking at herself in the mirror, the Hyuuga decided to push herself out of her gloomy mood. She didn't even have a real reason to be gloomy: Naruto wasn't her boyfriend ,so she didn't have the right to be jealous.

-o-o-o-o-o-

Naruto stared at his mobile phone.

It had been seven days since he had last heard something from Hinata. A whole week! Sighing the blonde remembered their last encounter.

He had planned to seduce her into exhaustion so she would 'accidentally' fall asleep in his arms. The next morning he would slightly tease her, while they ate breakfast. Just thinking about her nervous yet cute face, trying to hide the obvious embarrassment she felt, brought a small smile to his face.

His smile turned into a frown as he remembered that said woman was ignoring him. He couldn't exactly remember what happened, but he remembered her suddenly turning pale and rushing out of bed. She had told him that she forgot she had a dinner date with her father, so he just shrugged it off.

When he didn't hear anything from her the next day, he sent her a message. After hitting the send button on his fifth message the blonde paled: he was turning into a stalker!

So he tried not thinking of her and not to contact her. She wasn't his business anyway (except in bed). Maybe he should just go outside and meet some other girl. It wasn't as if they were a couple or something.

This led to Naruto meeting friends (excluding Sakura because of obvious reasons) in different bars and clubs for about three days. He met a lot of hot women and had his fun, but if he was honest, he started to compare them with his bluenette friend.

One wouldn't have soft hair like her or wouldn't have curves like her. At the end of the night, he found himself pushing the women away and would go home alone.

After waking up one morning and seeing that he send a few embarassing drunk texts to Hinata, he decided to maybe not drown his boredom in alcohol and parties anymore. 

Why did not being able to see her bother him this much?

And now here he was, on New Year's Eve, alone in his room, sulking. How pathetic!

Picking up his jacket, Naruto decided to change that.

-o-o-o-o-o-

Hinata searched for her friends in the crowded ballroom. It was the annual Hyuuga New Years Party, and like always, her friends accompanied her.

Sighing, the Hyuuga walked outside. Her feet were killing her and her friends were nowhere to be found. Sitting on a bench, she took out her phone.

"Who ya calling?" yelping the Hyuuga turned around, staring in the face of one smirking Inuzuka.

"Kiba!" Hinata fake-sulked while punching him softly, "I was about to call you! Where were you, leaving me alone in a room with a bunch of old people?". The brunette smiled at that. He remembered the shy girl who couldn't even say a bad thing about a fly. Shino and Kiba had to teach her all the ways of gossip, sarcasm and general jokes. He also remembered when they gave her her first cinnamon bun. She almost cried.

Ruffling her hair he laughed at her silly face.
"Come on, I was just outside. It smelled really bad in there, like old farts! and you know how sensitive my nose is". The petite woman chuckled at his joke. In middle school, Kiba used to brag about his family being from an ancient Ninja clan that worked together with dogs and because of this they had very sensitive noses. He also used to bring his puppy, Akamaru, to school and hid him in his bag. Hinata adored the little dog and helped Kiba hide him from the teachers when he grew bigger, but one day he was just too big to hide in the locker.

But Akamaru, being the smart Ninja Dog he is, came to pick Kiba up every day after school. It was as if he had remembered his schedule!

"So, what got your panties in a twist?" Kiba asked nonchalantly, making himself comfortable next to her. Hinata frowned, she had tried so hard to act normal, but she forgot that he could read her like a book.

"You've been staring at your phone every five minutes" Kiba kept on talking, leaning back to stare into the sky "Are you expecting a call or something?" he glanced at her direction.

The bluenette tried to control her blush. She had hoped that Naruto would call her again, since she had felt bad for ignoring him. The woman had only dared to open his messages this morning and found out that some of them were probably written in a drunken state. She had smiled at the poorly written texts and even gasped at some dirty ones. Then she felt a huge wave of guilt hit her, since she ignored her friend for a week, just because she was jealous. Thinking about it now, she could only frown about her silly past-self whom had been sulking for almost seven days over nothing.

At least she liked to think it was nothing.

"Not really…" the Hyuuga said in almost a whisper. Again, she turned to her phone to check the screen and again, there wasn't any new message. Maybe she'd have to get used to that.

What would she do if Naruto got a real girlfriend one day? Sure, it would hurt her a lot and she didn't know if she could handle him throwing her away like a used tissue. But she also didn't want to check her phone for messages even when she was old and wrinkly. Someone had to break it off at some point. 

Shaking her head, she decided that that was a problem for another day. For the moment she was happy with what she had, and she didn't want to lose that.

Hinata had wanted to call him, but her confidence wasn't high enough for that. She didn't want to call him, just to hear another woman pick up the phone. What if he didn't want her anymore? Was she being too bothersome by not responding? Had he found a new girl? Or even gone back to Sakura?

Feeling tears form in her eyes, she stopped thinking about it. She didn't want Kiba to worry about her. Turning towards her friend, she saw that he was still staring at the sky, probably daydreaming. The bluenette leaned backwards and joined him.

"So, how is Kimi?" she asked, trying to change the subject, only to hear her companion sigh.

"Not too good. We actually broke up" Kiba grumbled "She said I'd have to get rid of Akamaru if I wanted to work on our relationship" He shrugged, feeling a soft hand touching his. "I'm sorry to hear that" – "It's ok. She was crazy anyway, trying to make me colour my hair green and stuff" the male chuckled, infecting his friend by doing so.

-o-o-o-o-o

Soon after that, Shino had found them. They had talked for a while until they eventually grew cold and went back inside. There, they had found Hanabi talking to Tenten. The boys, knowing Hinata wanted to join them and talk about girly stuff, left. Kiba wanted to pick up hot rich chicks and Shino wanted to get a drink and look around.

Sometime, near midnight, Neji had announced his and Tentens engagement, hopefully next summer. The crowd cheered for the engaged couple into the New Year. No one noticed the petite Hyuuga, hidden in a corner, writing a message.

At 1 a.m. people began to leave. Even though Hinata had a lot of fun with her friends, she was slightly disappointed to not get a call from Naruto. She knew it was her own fault, but she still had hoped for at least a "Happy New Year" Message or something.

"Did he wish you a Happy New Year? ", Tenten sneaked up behind her, having waited for the perfect moment for them to be alone to ask this.

Hinata blushed lightly "..n-no.." she answered, hoping her voice didn't give away her true feelings. "But it doesn't matter! Congratulations on your engagement" Hinata tried to change the subject. She had inofficially known about the wedding for weeks but was still excited that they shared the news with everyone. "Nevermind that!" Tenten started, obviously getting ready to get into a long rant about men only to get interrupted by Hinatas buzzing phone.

Staring at her phone in shock, she saw that her blonde crush was calling.

The bluenette turned to her friend with utter panic in her eyes. Tenten, rolling her eyes, pushed the girl outside and closed the door, so she would have a little privacy. Seeing the Hyuuga pick up her phone, the brunette smiled and left.

"H-hello?" Hinata said, barely audible. "HINATA?" a loud voice answered her. "H-happy New Year, naruto" She replied, closing her eyes and fearing what would come next.

She didn't expect him to sigh in relief.

"Happy New Year to you too" she could imagine him smiling softly while he said it and felt her heart warm up. "I tried to contact you these past few days. What happened? Were you mad at me? Did I do something? Was your phone broken?" Naruto asked worried.

Hinata was so happy she could cry. He was concerned for her. Maybe she did have a place, even if it was little, in his heart.

Feeling all the emotions that had built up all day come out, the Hyuuga tried to hold back her tears and sniffed.

"What's going on? Are you outside? Hinata?" She could hear the blonde getting nervous, since she didn't say anything.
Clearing her throat, she tried to sound as casual as ever "Uh..yeah, but I'm ok. My family always likes to celebrate the holidays together so I've been rather busy, sorry".

-o-o-o-o-o-

Naruto couldn't help himself after hearing her voice and smiled broadly. He had been at a small New Year's party at one of his friends' house and forgot his phone at home.

Seeing her message he didn't even think twice and instantly called her. He didn't know how much he missed hearing her voice until she picked up her phone. So he grew worried when she didn't respond. Was she really not mad? Did she want to dump him like Sakura did?

Thinking about this made him uneasy, so he asked her directly.

" Uh..yeah but I'm ok. My family always likes to celebrate the holidays together so I've been rather busy, sorry". He had heard how her voice cracked a little and frowned. Was she getting a cold?

Before he could ask her, someone knocked on his door. "Uh..wait a second" he said into his phone while walking towards the door. Before he could hear her response, his door flew open and a crying Ino jumped into his arms. Not expecting that, Naruto was thrown backwards and accidentally let go of his phone.

-o-o-o-o-o-

Hinata suddenly heard a loud crash. She wanted to ask what was going on but then heard Naruto shout "INO? What are you doing here?".

Suddenly, the connection was cut off and Hinata found herself staring at her phone.

"who's Ino?".

Chapter Text

Even thought it was the first Monday of work after two weeks of vacation, Naruto already felt exhausted. Grumbling, the blonde pushed the snooze button on his alarm, wanting to fall back to sleep for another 5 minutes. The male turned around, only to be faced by a sleeping blonde woman.

“WHAT THE?!” Naruto sat up aghast, waking his companion by doing so.

“What’s going on?” the long haired woman asked sleepily while rubbing her eyes.

“Ino, what are you doing here?! I told you to sleep on the couch” Naruto almost yelled,jumping off the bed and realizing he’s was only in his boxers. He felt embarrassed for a minute but then remembered it was Ino he was talking to. She propably had seen him wearing less at least once in their friendship, since they knew each other since kindergarten.

“Your Couch is so uncomfy” Ino whined, slowly sitting up “and it’s not as if you need the whole bed for yourself” the blonde shrugged.

“The couch wasn’t made for someone living on it for almost a week” Naruto complained, searching clothes in his closet. “Why did you decide to come here anyway? Weren’t you Sakuras friend? Aren’t you supposed to sulk on her couch?” He glanced at her direction before barely avoiding getting hit by a pillow.

“Wow, rude!” The blonde woman huffed “Sakuras always with her new boyfriend, that’s so depressing. I don’t want to have any happy couples around me” with that, Ino felt back on the bed, hiding herself inside his blankets.

Naruto sighed as he walked into the bathroom. Ino used to live with her boyfriend Shikamaru. They had been friends forever and somehow got together two years ago. All of their friends thought they would eventually marry, so it shocked them when Shikamaru broke up with her 3 months ago. As much as Naruto knew, Shikamaru still loved Ino, but more as a friend than a lover. It seemed as if Ino took the break up well, until she barged into Narutos apartment on New Year’s Eve.

He always thought Sakura was the one looking the most like a mess while crying, but seeing Ino like this changed that: her makeup had been down on her cheeks, her nose stuffy and her talking reminded him of a babbling baby.

Naruto still wasn’t sure what the cause of this happening was but he had seen Shikamaru on the same party as he and Ino where, but he had been there with another woman.
Ino being already a very emotional person in addition with being a little tipsy, had felt left out and lonely seeing them and rushed off to the next person she could think off. Apparently Naruto, since Sakura didn’t answer her door.

Since then, she had decided to crash on his couch, as her apartment was ‘too lonely’ for her.

She was like a parasite he couldn’t get rid of. The worst part was that he couldn’t even contact Hinata once.
As she was pretty drunk on New Year’s eve, his blonde friend irrationally threw his phone out of the window, after hearing a soft voice coming out of it. She couldn’t accept that even Naruto of all people had a special someone! She had apologized for that in the next morning, after he had explained that it wasn’t his girlfriend but just a friend - who was a girl.

Somehow this fact made it ok for her to hide all his phone, so he couldn’t call her, because Ino needed his full attention at this dark time.

Thinking about meeting Hinata today made the blonde smile in anticipation. Maybe going back to work wasn’t that bad.

-o-o-o-o-o-

This was going to be the worst ‘first day of work’ that she ever had, Hinata thought as she unconsciously glared at the elevator buttons.

She always enjoyed going back to work and seeing her blonde colleague for the first time in 2 weeks always seemed like a huge plus.

But that was before she got them both into this huge mess.

The elevator door opened and the young woman made her way to her desk.

She glanced at his desk.

He wasn’t here yet.

Starting her computer, she mentally cursed herself some more.Why did she have to be so foolish anyway? How could she think he would eventually fall for her, just because it worked with Tenten and her cousin?

A small part of her wished she would have fallen out of love for him but she knew it she only fell deeper by the minute.

“Ino” Hinata mumbled as she dreamily stared at her screen, which asked for her password. The last thing she heard from her blonde ‘friend’ was another woman’s name. Great.
She had tried to call on his cell phone but it seemed that it somehow died. Or maybe he was just too busy with that Ino chick.

Again, starting to glare, the bluenette aggressively typed her password in. One would expect her to be sad at this point but she was already over that stage.

Now, she was just angry.

How could he get a girlfriend without telling her? Even if they weren’t ‘best friends’, she would still have liked to know! He could have at least written a short explanation message but it seemed that Hinata wasn’t important enough for that! All the troubles she went through just to help him!
When he walked in, she would toss her stapler at him, Hinata swore while holding it. Demanding a 5 pagesessay on why he didn’t tell her and how sorry he was for not doing so!

In exactly this moment, the elevator opened again. A startled bluenete quickly hid the stapler under the table, just to see that it wasn’t Naruto walking in.
She sighed as she put the stapler back on the table.
Of course, she couldn’t be openly angry at him, she sighed. She wished she could freak out like the women in the movies Hanabi liked to watch. Knowing herself, she would swallow her negative feelings and accept it. It weren’t just his problems she tried to solve with this stupid act, but it was also for her own satisfaction. The Hyuuga decided that she would try to avoid Naruto, but he probably wouldn’t even notice with Ino around.

She would quietly disappear from his radar.

Just like she always did.

-o-o-o-o-o-

When Naruto saw Hinata, he knew something wasn’t right. He couldn’t quite point his finger on it, but there was something wrong. Seeing the look on her face, he knew he had to fix it.

But that task turned out harder than he thought. The petite woman seemed to avoid being alone with him at any cost, knowing he wouldn’t dare to ask private things when others were around.

When he came to her desk, she suddenly had to bring important papers to Lee; when he was at the coffee machine ,her break was suddenly over (even thought he knew she was there for less than 5 minutes!) and when she ran towards the elevator, she stopped when she noticed that he was in it.

She would even avoid eye-contact while talking to him. It seemed like the floor suddenly was the most interesting thing in the world.
If it had been only for one day, the blonde would have shrugged it off, slightly irritated but he wouldn’t show that. After a week, he thought he was going insane. Not being able to see Hinata had been already nerve-wracking but being able to see her but not talk or touch her had been killing him.

-o-o-o-o-o-

“You’re late” Ino stated, somehow being able to sense the blonde man coming in.

“And you’re still here” Naruto answered, getting grouchier by the day.

“Excuse me? Here I am, working my butt off to make you dinner and the first thing you do is complain?” the woman turned towards him, aggressively pointing at the table.

Naruto wanted to argue with her, but suddenly felt his energy leave him. “I’m sorry” he grumbled, walking towards the table. Her ‘homemade’ dinner was actually chinese take-out. He should have known. Ino could barely cook toast so it surprised him greatly when she suggested cooking since she was lazing around his apartment.

The blonde male sat down and slowly started to eat, his mind miles away. He didn’t even notice Ino staring at him from across the table until she coughed to get his attention.
“So, how’s work?” She tried to start a conversation.

“S’fine” Naruto mumbled, not really feeling hungry. “How about yours “he asked back, knowing she would start ranting if he didn’t.

“Oh, it was ok” Ino mindlessly played with her hair “Today a cutie came in but he bought flowers for his fiancé or something” The woman sighed “what a bummer”.

“Hm" Naruto responded, focusing his attention on his food rather than her.

"'Hm' what" Ino retorded a bit annoyed.

"I don’t know, maybe you should still try to get his number? Maybe he’ll even marry you instead of this fiancé” Naruto commented with a sarcastic undertone.

“You’re just saying that so I leave” Ino glared at him, which Naruto returned with a “How’d you guess?”

“Can’t you show a little compassion? I mean, I feel like the only single person on this planet” The woman sulked. Naruto was slowly getting annoyed by her overdramatic ways. He had shown compassion for a whole week, what else did she want? Did he have to ask her to marry him out of pity?

“I’m single” the whiskered man stated while taking a bite of his already cold food.

Ino huffed “Single my ass! With that little office affair of yours. You can’t fool me” she crossed her arms.

Naruto slowly got more irritated “an affair I’m not sure exists anymore since she refuses to talk to me” he hissed at his friend.

“Why are you looking at me like that? It’s not my fault she doesn’t want you anymore” The woman got up and moved towards his couch.

“Maybe she wouldn’t act this way if you didn’t go mad and hid my phone!” Naruto got louder with every word.

“Don’t yell at me! I didn’t want to be tossed aside because you’d have to call someone all the time!” her voice grew shaky. Naruto knew what was coming next, already regretting yelling at her.
“As if it isn’t bad enough that Shikamaru threw me away like a used tissue just to go for that old hag!” Ino sobbed loudly. “I’m going to die alone” she finally started to cry, in a very un-ladylike manner.
Naruto sighed and quickly got up to embrace her. He softly caressed her hair like he grew used to whenever she suddenly started crying.

“Shh Shh you’re not going to die alone", the blonde man whispered.

"Even if you’re still single till you’re eighty, there are always going to be horny teenage boys drooling after you” He softly said, winning a soft sigh from her.

“E-even when I’m old and wrinkly?” She asked with hiccups interrupting her now and then.

“You’re Ino. You’ll look like 19 even when you’re 99” Naruto joked, hearing his friend giggle.

Slowly, she got out of his embrace, sniffling and wiping her eyes. “You know, I guess deep down I knew we weren’t made to be forever together. I just couldn’t have imagined him finding someone else before me”

The blonde ruffled her hair and grinned at her “That’s a great mystery that no one understands”

Ino smiled for a second, but soon replaced it with a frown at his shirt which was now full of make up and tears. “I’m sorry I messed your affair up. I’ll give you back your phone so you can call her” She turned around and grabbed a packet she had hid in her bags.

Taking the phone, Naruto shrugged “It’s ok, I guess. I’ll fix it somehow tomorrow. It’s too late to call her now” he glanced at his watch. It was true that Ino could act very irrational when it came to feelings. Naruto could write a book about the times she had hit him or yelled at him over nothing. But at the end of the day, she was a loyal person who wanted her friends to be happy. And that’s why he would bear with her, even if she invited herself in and occupied his couch for an unlimited time.

Later that night, Naruto was lying in bed, thinking of plan to get his "friend" back.

-o-o-o-o-o-

He had waited until she went to the copier in the little storage room. He had given papers to Kakashi, telling him to give them to Hinata and that she had to copy them before lunch break. Knowing Kakashi, he gave them to her last minute, so she was stuck in here, while everyone else was away.

Seeing that the Hyuuga hadn’t noticed his presence yet, a mischievous grin grew on his face as he sneaked up behind her.

He gingerly touched her hair, having missed the soft feeling of it. The bluenette squeaked softly, which made the blonde circle her waist with his arms and hug her.

Oh, how he had missed her little terrified animal noises.

“N-Naruto?” Hinata asked, not feeling brave enough to turn around.
“Hey” the blonde responded softly, hiding his smile in the crook of her neck. Her smell was as intoxicating as ever.
“..u-uhm….Hi..?” The Hyuuga seemed confused by his affectionate touches. Naruto frowned slightly but quickly forgot about it as he moved closer.
“I missed you”

-o-o-o-o-o-

Hinata didn’t know if she should cry from happiness or frustration.

After a week of avoiding him, she had been sure he would grow tired of her and could quickly move on with his new girlfriend. At first it seemed to work: Naruto had been trying to talk to her sometimes, but she always found credible excuses to avoid being alone with him.

Well, until now.

He had caught her completely off guard. The bluenette had thought she had seen him leave for lunch break half an hour ago!

Feeling his arms around her had felt better than she would ever admit. Lost in the moment, she had even felt herself lean against him for a little while.
Hearing him say that he missed her completely melted her heart. She would have loved to turn around and hug and kiss him, but she just took a deep breath and continued her task.

“I called you” she said, not asking a question but still expecting an answer.

“I know. It’s just that Ino kept me busy” he mumbled while nibbling on her neck.

What seemed like an innocent sentence for him was actually killing Hinata inside. She remembered that he had a girlfriend now. A girlfriend who seemed to have stayed at his side 24/7 for the past week, that kept him so busy, he couldn’t even text a simple message.
Suddenly she felt sick, and being near him only made it worse.
“Let me go, please”

-o-o-o-o-o-

Hearing her shaky voice, Naruto stared at the back of her head slightly confused. Meanwhile, the young woman tried to free herself from his grip and moved towards the exit.
Feeling her slowly getting away, the blonde freaked out a little and gripped her arm. Her head spun around so he could actually see the sadness he only suspected before, in her eyes. “W-why?” he stuttered, trying to smile at her, thinking it was some kind of lame joke.

Hinata stared at the floor, letting her bangs fall into her face. “We can’t do this anymore”, she whispered, weakly smiling back at him.

Hearing those words, Naruto suddenly felt cold. He could hear his heartbeat in his ears, growing more anxious of what was supposed to happen now. She couldn’t just leave like that! He couldn’t allow it.
Looking at her face, how she palely stared at the floor with a sad expression, he suddenly felt an ache in his chest.

So he did the only thing he could think of and kissed her, hard.
At first, she had gripped his shirt in shock, but as the kiss went on, she seemed to get lost in it and moved her hands towards his neck.
After a whil,e they both needed air. Panting, Naruto leaned his forhead against hers.
“..Naruto-“Hinata started again, only to get interrupted by her own sigh as her blonde lover moved towards her neck, while opening the buttons of her blouse.

-o-o-o-o-o-

Hinata was in on an emotional rollercoaster at the moment. She wanted to stop him, to scream at him that he shouldn’t be cheating on his girlfriend but on the other hand was she enjoying his touches too much.
Getting frustrated with her own weakness, the shy woman softly pushed him away. “Why are you doing this” She asked with a croaky voice.
“Because I want you” He softly said, kissing her collar bone.
“B-but, you h-have a girlfriend” she whimpered, feeling tears form in her eyes by just saying that.

Naruto stopped. “I do?” he asked, dumfounded, moving so he could look her in the face.

Hinata stared him in the eyes and suddenly blushed. “I-I-Ino?” she asked in a small voice “I-I heard you t-talk and…”

Listening to her, the blondes eyes widened in realization as he finally understood her odd behavior. “Wait! You’ve got it all wrong” Naruto chuckled at her, holding her face in his hands.
“Ino’s not my girlfriend. She’s Sakuras best friend! She was super drunk and sad because of her ex so I had to comfort her all night! And now she won’t leave my house!” The blonde said enthusiastically. Noticing the unsure look on her face and the soft “c-comfort..?” she muttered, he felt like shaking her.

“Comfort as in listen to her crying and being a walking punching bag! I swear! Ino’s hot, I admit but she’s completely insane” he joked.

Hinata felt a huge wave of relief and embarrassment hit her as she blushed ten shades of red. The bluenette hid her face in his chest. “oh” she mumbled, feeling Naruto softly shake as he tried to hold back his laughter.

“And here I thought I messed up big time” He chuckled while hugging her tighter and caressing her hair “Did you really think I would cheat on my girlfriend? That I would not tell you that I had one? And I thought we were friends” he fake sulked.

Neither less Hinata felt bad for her accusation and twitched at his words. Maybe if she pressed her face even more into his chest, his shirt would absorb her embarrassment.

“I’m sorry” She mumbled into his chest as he finally laughed out loud.

“What are you getting worried over anyway” he ruffled her hair “You almost acted like a jealous girlfriend”.

Hinata slowly closed her eyes, faking a giggle “I’m sorry”

-o-o-o-o-o-

Chapter Text

Slumping on his chair, Naruto watched the couple talk.

Hinata and Lee had been assigned to the same project, which meant they spent a lot of time together in the office. It wasn’t as if Naruto thought that he was Hinatas only friend in the there, but he didn’t know that she and Lee were so close to eachother. She also had a lot of mysterious lunch dates. 
Adding that to the fact that they were working on two different projects, they barely ‘saw’ each other anymore. What the Uzumaki didn’t realize was that it actually was back to normal - Back to how it was before they started this farce. Back to before he payed attention to her. 

Seeing her hide a giggle behind her hand for the hundredth time, the blonde decided to investigate this further.

-o-o-o-o-

“Don’t worry Hinata! With the power of youth everything is possible!” Lee said in a nice guy pose, making the Hyuuga giggle. Even thought Lee wasn’t the most fashionable man, she always enjoyed his optimistic ways. The new project was honestly kicking her butt. She couldn't shake the feeling that the new client ignored or patrionized everything that came out of her mouth. Going to these meetings felt like having a presentation back in 6th grade. She was so thankful to be paired up with the overenthusiatic man who would barge into any awkward situation to safe her. 

Pumping her fists, she smiled at him  “You’re right!”. His energy really was infectious. They shared a smile before the Lee's telephone went off. “Ah! It must be the client!” he said, grabbing said device. Giving her one last thumps up, the bushy browed man walked towards his desk. Hinata smiled softly at his back before letting out a soft sigh. She could already feel a headache coming just by thinking about the case.  

“Soooo~” Hinata was startled by a well-known voice suddenly appearing behind her.

-o-o-o-o

Turning around, the petite Hyuuga was met with the blue eyes she adored so deeply. “N-Naruto” She stuttered, placing a hand on her chest to calm herself “you startled me”.

Scratching the back of his head, he smiled “I did heh..sorry”. He didn't mean to startle her. It was so smooth when he imagined it on his way to her. Hopefully she didn't think of him as creepy?
Was he maybe overthinking this?  

The young Hyuuga smiled at him "don't worry about it". "Is there something I can help you with?", she asked while tilting her head softly. 
"Uh...",  oh no, he completely blanked on what he wanted to say, "I guess not?" Why did she have to tilt her head and stare at him with those big eyes?!

"Alright then?" the Hyuuga smiled awkwardly "I have some work to do so...." she glanced at her workplace, ready to go back to minding her own business. 

This irritated Naruto, even thought he didn’t know why.

Maybe because she normally would try to keep eye contact as long as possible, even if her face would turn five shades of redder by the second.

“WAIT“the Uzumaki said a bit too loudly "I remember!" The petite woman quickly turned around, her big eyes staring directly into his, making him want to turn away again. Where they always so hypnotizing? Damnit, why was he acting like a teenage boy! 

"So-  you and Lee?”. He raised an eyebrow, not finishing his question out loud. 

“Eh?” she tilted her head, trying to figure out what he wanted to hear.

Naruto already felt stupid for bringing this up, but also wanting to hear a answer, he continued “..Are you...do you….like him?”. It was weird for the blonde to be so at loss for words. He felt as fidgety as he did when at the beginning of their 'thing'. 

“Sure” Hinata beamed, cheeks flushing lightly.

Naruto felt as if someone had stabbed him in the heart, but at the same time he felt his stomach go crazy with excitement just by seeing her face lighting up like that. Before he could process the these weird feelings Hinata continued: 

“I mean, we’ve known eachother since forever. His optimism is really infecting, don’t you think so?” She beamed. "I'm so glad I got teamed up with him!" 

The blonde gave her a half-hearted smile, wanting to ask more questions, but not seeming rude. When did she start liking him? Was he her secret lunch date? Was she really as busy as she said she was or was that just an excuse so she didn't have to dump him directly? 

“Yeah, sure” he quickly responded, watching the Hyuuga check on her vibrating phone. Probably a text from Lee.  

“What do you mean by forever though? I mean.. I don’t see you guys talking all that much”. The blonde tried to sound indifferent as he walked towards the coffee machine. Leaning against the counter, the woman glancing at the ceiling, trying to remember and seemingly smiling at fond memories.

“Yeah, he was actually my cousins’ friend, but even though I’m younger than them he sometimes played with me, which annoyed my cousin very much” Hinata giggled softly, remembering all the silly ‘adventures’ she had with Neji and his friends and how Neji always complained in the beginning but quickly started to enjoy himself. “It’s also Lee that recommended me this job. “the bluenette turned her head towards the floor, hiding a blush with her hair. He was also the reason she could meet and fall for Naruto “I’m very grateful to have him as a friend”

Completely oblivious to the blonde staring at her in awe, she glanced at her watch, only to see that she was almost late for her next meeting.  

“Oh, I have to go!” The bluenette jumped, startling her companion by doing so.

“w-wait” Naruto automatically grabbed her arm “do you have plans for lunch?”. Hell, if he was losing her to Lee he would at least make the most out of the time they had together. Even if it wouldn't be a sexy lunch date, the blonde felt a strong urge to just be around her and hear her talk about everything and nothing. He really missed her soothing voice in his everyday chaos. 

For a moment Hinatas heart fluttered, but before she could accept his indirect offer to lunch, she remembered that she was meeting up with Shino.

Seeing her frown, Naruto knew what her answer was. And that he wouldn’t like it.

-o-o-o-o-

Kiba went down on a knee.

Hinata gasped.

She didnt expect their dinner date to take such a turn. 

Grabbing her hand, he stared at her face he begged in a serious voice “please”.

The Hyuuga squirmed, not wanting to disappoint her friend but also not feeling like agreeing. “Kiba, I-“before she could finish, her wild friend grabbed her second hand, pulling her down to his eyelevel. “Before you answer” he pushed a finger on her mouth, completely ignoring her small squeak. “Consider that we didn’t do anything fun together since FOREVER. Come on!!”

The petite woman frowned while grabbing the finger that was pressed against her lips.

“But I did enjoy our movie night last week. ”

Her friend groaned at that: “Yeah, but that was like lazy fun” he rolled his eyes “We always do that. Movies, cinema and " He waved around her kitched "dinner nights. I love Shino and you but we're not an old, married throuple! Don’t you want to go out and have some party fun? Drinking fun? Bad choices fun?”

Seeing the dazzled look on her face, he tried to fight the instinct to shake the wallflower attitude of his friend out off her.

“C’mon pleeeaase, Shino isn’t sure if he can come and I really don’t wanna go alone. But I really want to go!! My name is on the guestlist and I'm sure I could get yours added to!”, the adult gave her his best puppy eyes, feeling her slowly melt at this. “I…don’t know..” Hinata admitted, slightly shrugging. It was true that she was kind of tense since the whole thing with Naruto started. She was sure he felt more stress free but unfortunately she didn't anticipate the emotional rollercoaster it would get her on. Stupid in retrospect, she had to admit. 

Maybe it would be better not to spend her evenings thinking about him and his possible love interests. Even though 'Ino' wasn't one of those, she opened Hinatas eyes to the reality of her situation. Maybe SHE wasn't interested in meeting other people, but that didn't mean that Naruto wasn't. She was living in a bubble and everyday there was a possibility of Naruto popping it by 'popping' someone else. Maybe she had to prepare herself for the eventual end of things.
 
“Who got you on the guest list anyway? The golden ferret is like one of the most popular clubs around town” Hinata stood up and turned towards the kitchen utensils that laid forgotten on her sink. “Ah the owner is a customer of mine. She actually has a golden Ferret, which explains the clubs name.” Kiba explained, anticipating her final answer.

Hinata stopped cutting the carrot again.

Maybe it would be better if she went? Maybe she could finally give up on Naruto if she met someone new?

But going on a party with a lot of strangers, smoke and loud banging music really didn’t appeal to her. And she wasn’t even sure if she wanted to give up on Naruto. But what if she had to? It would be better in the long run, wouldn't it? 

Frowning, the young woman turned towards her best friend.

“I’ll think about it”

-o-o-o-o-o-o-

“I think I’m ready”, The blonde woman suddenly said.

Naruto and Ino had been watching a silly romance movie and were having a lazy couch evening. The blonde man was even more surprised by her comment because they had been watching in silence while he had been lost in  thoughts about his petite coworker and her relationship with the bushy browed optimist.

It had also bugged him that he had seen Hinata with a mysterious looking fellow eating lunch afterwards. It wasn’t as if he had followed her or something, but Lee had mentioned the places he and Hinata liked to frequent and Naruto coincidentally felt like eating Italian as well. Ok, maybe he had started the conversation about lunch places with Lee to get that specific information but nobody had to know that. 

It seemed the more he knew about her, the more mysterious she got. It also sat wrong with Naruto how apparently everyone else knew her better than him. 

“Are you listening?” Ino said slightly annoyed.

“Ah..Yeah, sorry…Ready for what?”, he asked before she could start ranting about him not listening.

“I’m ready for life” She said enthusiastically, confusing the whiskered man even more.

“Shikamaru did the right thing" She continued unproped : "You know, ‘when you fall off a horse you have to get back up’ or something and that’s what he did. And all I’ve been doing selling the horse and sulking on the floor. You get it, right?”

Maybe Naruto would have understood what she meant if she didn’t talk that fast. But probably even then, he’d just nod as if he knew what she was talking about. The horse was probably a metaphor. That much he was sure of. 

“I’ve met his new girlfriend today. She’s actually quite nice”, Ino shrugged, slumping against him. This surprised the male since his friend had only complained about the older woman in the first few weeks she was here.

“She told me that Shika is feeling bad since New Years because of what happened and that she wanted us to be friends and I was like ‘Yeah sure’ and she like, invited me to her club. She’s actually from a very wealthy family, did you know?” Ino kept on talking without even taking a pause to breathe. How did she do that? 

Naruto was about to put his mind into standby while she rambled, but at exact that moment she asked “Do you wanna come?”.

“Where?”

Ino made an annoyed noise “Jesus! Listen when I’m talking to you! Her club!”

Naruto groaned inwardly. Lately, he didn’t feel like going out at all. “I don’t know…”

“Come oooon! Have you noticed how we’re just bumming around like an old couple? We used to be party animals!” The blonde woman saw that her arguments didn’t get her anywhere and changed her tactic.

“Maybe Sakura would join us. You know, If I asked nicely” She glanced at her prey, trying not to smirk as she finally got his attention. Narutos perked up when he heard his long lost friends' name. 

He didn’t know what to do. Ino had been right, he really was living like a vegetable the past few weeks. He had gotten used to his blonde friend to the point that he didn’t even try to kick her out anymore. He also felt bad for forgetting his pink haired friend, just because he was busy screwing someone from his office. All his problems seemed to involve women lately, which sounded great in theory. But unfortunately wasn't in reality. 

“But she didn’t want to talk to me anyway” the blonde thought out loud, shrugging. "She literally ghosted me for months now." 

"She pretty much ghosted everyone, dum-dum. She probably hasn't left his bed since she met the the new guy", Ino defended their absent friend "But I finally got a hold of her AND she said she's sorry and wants to hang out as soon as possible". 

That sounded a lot like Sakura, he had to admit. He also had to admit that he didn't feel her absence as much as he thought he would. Feeling a pang of guilt at that, Naruto almost agreed. The only thing holding him back was the person whose absence he really felt. And how much he wanted to meet her again. 

"When do you want to go?" He asked, trying to sound nonchalant. 

"This Friday" Ino replied, thinking she had him hook, line and sinker. Mentioning Sakura always helped with that guy. 

Glancing towards his new phone, an idea formed in his head.

“Focus!” Ino punched him lightly, noticing his mind drifting off.

“Sheesh, I’ll think about it” The blonde got up and wandered towards his mobile phone. “If you don’t mind, I have some work that needs to be done for tomorrow.”

“Yeah, sure. You’re probably just going to jerk off to some kinky porn, you pervert” Ino joked as she watched her friend grab the computer and flipping her off as he wandered into his bedroom.  

 -o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

After Kiba left, Hinata decided to do the thing that always helped her think. Comfortable clothes and knitting. So, putting on her sweatiest and oldest pants and biggest sweater, the Hyuuga immerged herself into knitting tutorials.  
She had been an hour and 20 tabs into it  when her phone suddenly buzzed. Thinking it was probably another try at convincing her to go party from Kiba, the Hyuga slowly picked up the phone. 

“Naruto?” she mumbled to herself as she unlocked her phone. Just reading his name made her heart flutter. She had hoped that this would stop with their won proximity but apparently not. She really was in too deep. 

.
Naruto:

“Hey what u up to? “

The Hyuuga nervously glanced at her open tabs, all of them filled with knitting information and her knitting chaos sitting on her lap. She suddenly realised how unsexy her evening had been going. 
Quickly making up a lie, she typed:

“I’m cooking  :) What about you? “

Hinata sighed in relieve. She always got unusually nervous while texting. Sounding like a normal human being was so hard when you had too much time to overthink everything. Even her hobby, which Naruto obviously knew about, suddenly seemed like an embarassing way to kill time.  

“Oh Yummy! watchu cookn :) nothing. What u doin on Friday nigt? Wan 2 com ovr?”

The woman giggled at his lazy writing. If she would write like that to her family, they would be too offended to even respond. It was also very obvious what his intentions where.  

She was about to accept, when she remembered his apartment and his new roommate. His apartment with all the memories of his past lover. And his "hot" roomate, against who she has a few mixed feelings and would like to avoid for the rest of her life, if possible. 

Biting her lip she typed:

“I’m sorry but I’m going out with a friend”

Hinata groaned, knowing she probably killed the conversation - like she always manages to do with him. Rubbing her eyes, she thought of her next course of action. Kiba would love finding out that they would indeed go to his guestlist party.

Hopefully it wouldn’t be too full.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-

Naruto frowned at her response. How was she always so busy?!

She wasn't avoiding him, was she? 

Rubbing his neck in annoyance, he quickly wrote “it’s ok :)” and put his phone away. Turning on his bed, he groaned in frustration. He really hoped it would work out. But maybe this was a sign?.

“YO Ino! “ he sat up yelling, too lazy to get up again. His walls were paperthin anyways. 

“Yeah?” He heard her shout back from behind the door. “Let’s go out this Friday!” He hollered, slumping back down after hearing her woop.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-

Wandering into Hinatas apartement building, Kiba hoped that she wouldn’t change her mind.

“Do you think she’s going to wear it?” He asked Shino, who silently followed him with a large plastic bag.
“I don’t know but if she doesn’t you should not try to force it on her. Why? Because it would make her extremely uncomfortable and lessen the changes of coming with us” he spoke in his usual monotone way.

It was an old dress of his sister, who always thought she should help Hinata get laid. She thought this dress wouldn’t offend the petite woman too much and still show her extremely attractive curves.
Kiba sighed as he joined Shino in the elevator. He had to promise Hana that he would make her wear it, or else she’d kick him out of the of their family praxis.  

They soon arrived at Hinatas front door and ringed her bell. When she opened the door, Kiba already felt like groaning.
She was wearing a huge sweater and black pants. “Hey guys! Ready to go?”, she smiled at her two friends.

“Yeah, but you aren’t” Shino immediately responded as he walked into her fancy apartement.

Even though Hinata had been kicked out of the family business, her father obliged her to live in a big accomondation so ‘ the media wouldn’t gossip about her’. Deep down, she knew he was worried since he didn’t want her to move out at all.

Confused Hinata stared at her silent friend sitting down before turning to the glaring Kiba.

“Honestly Hinata! You’re gonna sweat to death in that thing! Don’t you have something less….cat-lady-that-lives-alonely” The dog boy pointed at the two cats adoring her sweater.
“But it’s cold outside” The petite bluenette complained lightly. To be honest, she hadn’t been sure about the sweater either, but she wanted to avoid getting hit on by drunk men as much as possible. Even though that had been her goal when she first agreed. 

“Look! It’s Salsa night in the golden ferret! And I know you can dance” Kiba winked at her. It wasn’t a secret that Hinata had to take diverse dance, fighting and other lessons as the former Hyuuga heiress. She gathered an approximate knowledge of many things. But didn't believe her skills to be enough to actually be able to brag about any of them. 

“Look I have this dress for you” Kiba pulled out a red dress from the plastic bag. Before Hinata could complain he shooed her and continued “I know you don’t want to dress like this when there are a lot of drunk people around BUT! I swear neither Shino nor I will leave your side! Pleeaase just try it on and judge afterwards”, the veterinary begged her.

Glaring at the dress, Hinata sighed and shrugged. She knew this routine like the back of her hand and therefore she knew that there was no way around it. “Oh well, it won’t hurt trying it on I guess”
As soon as those words left her lips, she was swept up and swung around by her wild friend.

Giggling, she told him to put her down so she could try it on.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-
Naruto sat on the couch, staring into the TV. He wasn’t even paying attention but grumbling about how Ino could take that long to get ready.

“What do you think? Violet or Blue?” The blonde woman came out of the bathroom, only wearing a towel with two dresses in her hands.

Naruto glanced at her, only to shrug and to turn back to the TV. “Violet I guess” He mumbled, knowing that she would hear him.
Groaning, Ino turned around and complained “Naruto! You’re not taking this seriously!”. The blonde woman slammed the door of his bedroom.

“I took it seriously one and a half hours ago” Naruto grumbled in annoyance. He remembered why he hated going somewhere with his girl friends.

-o-o-o-o-o-

“Shino, can you zip me up?”  Hinata walked out of her room, holding her hair up so her friend could reach for the zipper.

Meanwhile Kiba examined her look. Seeing her wearing huge clothes most of the time, he sometimes forgot she actually had quite the figure.
The dress was a midnight blue with a discreet glimmer. The v-neck was a bit tight around her bust, making her breast look a bit squished. However, Hinata couldn't complain about the lenght of the dress as it at least covered her thighs this volants. 

“Hot damn Hinata, you should always wear stuff like that” Kiba joked, enjoying the blush forming on her cheeks.

“Kiba!” She whined, trying to cover her chest.

Turning around, the bluenette shyly glanced at her other friend “What do you think Shino? Isn’t it too..?” Shino's opinion would make or break her decision on wearing the dress. Just like she often depended on his objective view on things, she would know that he would tell her if it was too indecent. The bluenette averted her gaze while trying a way to finish her sentence without making Kiba laugh at her prudeness. 

The bug specialist grabbed her hand so she would look at him instead of the floor. “You look gorgeous “ he said, making the Hyuuga smile softly. “Thank you”

“But you still need to fix your hair and make-up! Wait, lemme help you” Kiba pulled the Hyuuga towards her bedroom, already knowing where she hid her make-up.

Hinata giggled at his antics. When they were thirteen, people started badmouthing her since she was a wallflower. Kiba had been annoyed at the others for being so swallow but also at Hinata for doing nothing against it.

That was until she admitted that she was scared of changing because because she didn’t want to make herself look worse than she already was. The depressed pre-teen had already given up on make-up without trying she didn't have a motherly figure who could teach her how to put it on correctly. 

After hearing that, Kiba had made his personal goal to transform his little wallflower into a beautiful rose. He had watched tutorials with her and even asked his sister and mother for advice. Even thought he would never admit it to anyone other than Shino and Hinata, he actually enjoyed helping doing her hair and make-up and how she would glow afterwards. At some point, he even had thought about becoming a make-up artist, but his love for animals was still stronger, so he kept it as a secret hobby. With Hinata as his only outlet.  

Smiling brightly, Hinata sat down at his request and closed her eyes. She secretly loved when Kiba pampered her. 

-o-o-o-o-o-

Naruto and Ino waited in front of the club for their friend. 

“Do you think they’re coming?” Ino asked, glancing at Naruto. He shrugged. He had been already annoyed at Ino for taking two hours to get ready, but having to wait another fifteen minutes for Sakura made him want to scream.

“If she’s not, we’re going to throw eggs at her house”, he said, glancing at his clock.

Ino laughed silently until she heard a cap stop near them. Seeing a couple get out, her face instantly brightened as she screamed. The pinkette, got out of the car instantly turned around and also started screaming. The girls ran into each others arms as they hadn’t seen each other for a long time. Naruto chuckled. Even though it was a bit embarassing, he was happy to see his friends happy. Also he was starting to feel the predrinks he had while waiting for Ino. ,

Turning his attention to Sakuras’ companion, he couldn’t help but gasp.

“Teme?”

Chapter Text

Gulping down the liquid, the bluenette grimaced as she felt it burn her throat. Turning towards Shino Hinata had to giggle, seeing that even the emotionless dark haired man wrinkled up his nose. That was quite a lot of visible emotion for her stoic friend.

“Ackk it burns” her brunette friend complained on her other side. They had arrived about half an hour ago when Kiba directed them towards the bar. It seemed that he had gotten paid on that day since he obliged that his friends drink at his costs. At first Hinata hesitated but she quickly shook her usual behaviour off. The bluenette had come with them to have some fun and a few drinks wouldn’t hurt her. Even though she preferred their movie nights, she also wanted to go out and be young, dumb and fun once in a while. And maybe she would meet someone who would help her forget her crush on her friend with benefit. Just in case it would eventually fall apart.

Looking around the club, Hinata noticed that instead of the loud banging music one could usually hear in these kinds of clubs, there was rhythmical salsa music playing. Also there were a few people dancing but she wouldn’t call it salsa. A few men made some basic salsa moves while they twirled the women around. Hinata sighed, she was probably the only one that noticed this since most people were probably already drunk.

“Another shot for the señorita?” Kiba gave her another small cup filled with the mysterious looking liquor.

“Don’t you think we've had enough?” Hinata frowned at her friend who smirked back at her. She could already feel her face grow red due to the drink she had.

“Bu~t we’ve got to drink our sorrows away”, the Inuzuka nudged her, pretending to sulk.

“What sorrows?” Hinata frowned at her friend, forgetting her personal sorrows for a second. It wasn’t as if she had told him about the ups and downs of her little office affair anyways. And in genereal it was rather going up than down at this point.

“I don’t know, ask Shino”, Kiba chuckled, chucking down his drink.

Turning towards her glassed friend, she had to notice that he wasn’t there anymore.

“Where’s Shino?” the bluenette turned back towards Kiba.

With an indifferent expression, the Inuzuka shrugged before suddenly starting to laugh out loud. The booze was probably already taking its toll on his poor brain.

Staring at her friend who seemed to laugh down at her as if he had gone mad, made the Hyuuga think that it was a mistake coming with him.
Thankfully, he could calm himself rather quickly and replied, japing for air

“He fled rather quickly when we both weren’t looking. Probably to puke. You know he can’t handle his drinks.  You should have seen your face “

The Inuzuka chuckled until the shy woman punched his arm.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

Naruto almost regretted coming in when they first entered.

Seeing the men skillfully twirled the girls across the dance floor and moving in sync, made him believe that the few little dance steps he knew weren’t enough to woo anyone in here.

So, he decided that he wasn’t going to move from the comfortable lounge they had for the rest of the evening.

He’d have to charm his potential companions the old fashioned way – compliments, smiles and charm.

“Who would have thought that YOUR teme was MY Sasuke”, Sakura laughed out loud, slightly showing how tipsy she already was. The men glared at each other.

“Yeah, I hoped I would never meet him again and then you bring a stunt like that! What the fuck Sakura” Naruto said in fake annoyance which Sakura promptly slapped out of him.

“You always meet twice in life”, Ino piped in, ruffling her blondes’ friend hair.

“Now you have a childhood buddy near you. Just like I do, isn’t that right forehead?” the woman winked at her pink haired friend, who lovely flipped the bird back at her.

Meanwhile the Uchiha hid a smirk behind the pink mob of his girlfriends’ hair, “I can’t believe you’re still such a dobe”, he said in his monotone voice.

“WHAT!?” The blonde man aggressively slapped his hands on the table, earning a punch from the woman next to him.

“GOD DAMNIT NARUTO! If you start a fight tonight! I can’t take you anywhere” Sakura said irritated, ignoring her best friends whining.

“Why are you always hitting mee~ I wish we’d never met again” the blonde complained, rubbing the now sore place on his head.

Giggling, his best female friend softly petted him

“Oh poor baby. You know I love you” with that, Sakura kissed the top of his head. Feeling her boyfriend softly nudge her, she quickly turned away from Naruto with a grin and added “But not as much as my Sasuke” and kissed the dark haired male.

“You guys make me sick” Naruto commented on their romantic gesture that slowly seemed to turn out into a full blown make out session.

Taking a long sip of his drink, he turned towards Ino, who was suspiciously silent during their conversation. The blonde female seemed to be focused on the dancers. Naruto could tell by her body language what would happen next, so he decided to chug the rest of his drink.

Blue, excited eyes swiftly turned towards him as she asked:

“Do you wanna dance?”

-0-0-0-0-0-0-
“Do you wanna dance?”

Kiba tried to seductively wink at his friend, making her laugh quite loudly by doing so. They had waited for Shino to reappear but were not really surprised to receive a text shortly after his disappearance about him feeling sick and leaving. Kiba had laughed while Hinata had grumbled about the betrayal and how Shino had planned this from the beginning.

“No, I’m already tipsy and-“ Hinata started only to get stopped by fingers on her mouth, pressing it closed.

“Shhhh, we both know that you’re probably the best dancer in this room, even if you were completely wasted” Kiba arguemented, still not letting go of her lips.

Glaring at him for a moment, Hinata studied the couples on the dance floor.

“Mill you mlet go of my mips if I may yes”, she sighed, actually having a nice thrill of anticipation. It had been a while since she could last use one of her enforced skills. And she just felt tipsy enough to not mind a potential audience.

“All I heard is ‘yes’” smiled the Inuzuka. He go of her face, only to grab her arm and pull her into the dancing crowd.

At first they pair moved as awkwardly inside the crowd, both quite tipsy and trying to remember the proper steps.

“Remember when we did this in high school” he chuckled, recalling all the times he stepped on his friend’s feet.

Hinata joined him at the memory “Of course. You were trying to impress that foreign girl. What was her name again?”

“Maria, and it worked. “ He answered, still smiling nostalgically.

While talking, they both got the hang of it again and were already getting some attention by some bystanders.

“This is going to get me SO many fangirls” The Inuzuka joked, dancing perfectly synchronic with his partner. After all, they had studied those dance moves for weeks back in high school.

Laughing, Hinata was about to respond when she saw a fashionable blonde woman tap her friends shoulder. The bruenette quickly turned around and Hinata could see his smile even growing bigger.

“I didn’t know my vet could dance like that” The mysterious woman with the four ponytails smiled at him before they shared a polite kiss on each other’s cheeks. “Nice to see you Dr. Inuzuka!”

“How’s my favourite ferret?” Kiba responded, completing their usual greeting whenever she would come by his animal clinic.

“He’s great, thanks to you” the blonde grinned “Oh, and who’s your beautiful companion” Temari’s green orbs turned towards the petite woman. Hinata didn’t even notice how she had slowly hidden behind Kiba out of habit.

“Hinata Hyuuga, nice to meet you” Hinata greeted her shyly, making a short curtsey. She mentally face palmed at her own awkwardness. Why did she curtsey? She definitely had to switch to water from now on.

“A Hyuuga? I didn’t know you had ties with the high society of Konoha” the blonde remarked towards the Inuzuka before smiling back at the Hyuuga “Temari Sabaku. Nice to meet you too, Hinata. Are you two dating?”

“WHAT?! NO WAY”, Kiba retorted way to quick “She’s like my sister!” Just the thought of someone thinking they might date made the Inuzuka laugh and the Hyuga giggle.

“Great! Because actually, I wanted to introduce you to somebody” Temari smirked, seemingly looking past the couple, searching for her mysterious friend.

“But you two dance so well together I don’t want to break it up…”

“Actually my feet are getting tired” Hinata interrupted her before Kiba could, saving him from looking by a jerk by saying something without thinking it through.

Temari smiled at the attempt of the Hyuuga to sacrifice her own fun for her friend’s sake.

“Wait here”, she said as she quickly turned around and poked another blonde woman who has been walking towards the lounge section of the club. This one had way longer hair than Temari which was also lighter. Her blue eyes reminded Hinata of a certain person she didn’t want to think about. The woman easily reminded her of a model with her perfect body.

Seeing the mysterious blonde’s gaze turning towards her wild friend, she could immediately see interest sparkle in her eyes. ‘Oh, Kiba’s chances of getting laid just increased tenfold,’ Hinata thought while laughing inwardly. Good for him!

“Ino Yamanaka, this is Hinata Hyuuga and Kiba Inuzuka” Temari introduced the three, already distracted by something happening behind them. Being the owner of the hottest club in Konoha sure seemed stressful.

 “Unfortunately, I have to leave now, have fun you three.” With those words, the older woman left the group. Hinata followed her with her eyes for a bit, seeing her push through the crowd to hug a tall man with a pineapple hairstyle. Seeing the couple turn their way, Hinata quickly averted her eyes to Kiba and Ino.

“Nice to meet yo- wait did she say Hinata Hyuuga?” Ino looked at the girl, seemingly remembering something.

The bluenette shared a confused stare with her friend before nodding.

Suddenly Ino started squeaking and hugging Hinata. “You’re Narutos friend, aren’t you? Oh, It’s a pleasure to meet you! He’s been only saying good stuff about you and it seems that you also taught him some manners!” The blonde jabbered “oh, we saw you dancing and already questioned if it was really you!”

Hinata frowned “We?” Ignoring Kiba’s confused face at the mention of the other man. Hopefully the booze and Ino would make him forget about it by tomorrow.

“Oh! Silly me” Ino giggled “Naruto’s here too, he’s in our lounge over there. You should go and say hi”

Usually, this was the point where Hinata would make up a lame excuse since the point of this evening had been to -for once- not think about the blonde and NOT to walk into his arms.
But being a bit drunk, she actually felt happy at that coincidence. Knowing she didn’t have to awkwardly stand at the bar or go home while Kiba was shooting his shot was pretty good. Even though she hadn’t had wanted to come to this club, she was having a good time.

And to be honest, the mention of his name did make her heart flutter – as it always does- and mixed with the booze she immediately hoped for a little private moment between them.

Trying not to show her newfound hornyness to her best friend and his potential girl, she just smiled and shrugged.

“I wanted to sit down anyway”

-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Walking towards the lounge, Hinata could already see the blonde hair of her beloved friend.
She couldn’t wait to get her hands into his soft and messy curls! She couldn't help herself but smile in anticipation.

Unfortunately that smile quickly died down as her steps slowed down.

What had made her stop in her tracks was the person she found sitting at his table.

Naruto just finished saying something next to his female friend’s ear before turning around and flashing a smile towards her, oblivious to her inner turmoil.

“Hey Hinata! I knew it was you! I didn’t know you could dance like that” Naruto beamed at her, oblivious to her frozen state.

She tried to hide it, faking a small smile towards his direction “Hey”

“I think you’re the last person I expected here!” he grinned at her, trying not to show just how happy he was about seeing her. There was only one thing bugging him though;

“Who’s your date?” he tried to ask nonchalantly. Seeing them so close and bubbly did annoy him. Just how many men did that woman have on the side? Was he the prude of the two? He was a bit happy at seeing Ino steal him away.

“Date?” Hinata mumbled before realising who she meant: “Oh no, that was just a friend” She didn’t mean to be so short. However her mind was preoccupied with the Narutos friend seemingly observing the two with disinterest.

“Ya wanna join us?” the blonde asked her but also grabbed her arm and pushed her towards the couch opposite to him, not really giving her a chance to decline. Seeing as his couch companions didn’t make move to make space for her.

The Hyuuga gulped quietly. She wanted to leave this no-win situation but she also didn’t want to act suspicious. She cursed herself inside her head. Why did this have to happen to her? Why did she have to meet those onyx eyes again, that made her want to hide in a cave and never come out.

As if it wasn’t already the worst case situation, she had to sit opposite from Naruto and his so-called female best friend, which she knew that he had shared the bed with more than once. Standing awkwardly at the bar or going home suddenly sounded like the better choice.

“Naruto! Don’t be rude and introduce us!” the pink haired woman hit the man, making the bluenette come back to the actual situation. She smiled warmly at the quiet woman.

“Oh yeah!” he said sheepishly “ Sakura Haruno and Sasuke Teme , this is Hinata Hyuuga. Hinata Hyuuga, this is Sakura Haruno and Sasu-“

“We know each other” the Uchiha interrupted the drunk babbling of the Uzumaki, making the Hyuuga gulp. She felt a cold shiver coming as Sasuke Uchiha smirked almost darkly at her.

Just like he did in her nightmares.

But maybe that was just her imagination.

“Oh really??” Naruto questioned, glancing between the two, not realizing the tension that was building up.

“Hahaha Konoha sure is small” Sakura joined, smiling at the blonde “Seems like everyone knows everyone tonight, doesn’t it?” The blonde smiled at his friend before turning his eyes back to Hinata. How many secrets can one woman have?  “How did you two meet?” he tried to ask as nonchalant as possible.

Hinata wanted to speak, but her throat closed down. Seeing the Uchiha wink at her before turning towards Naruto made her guts turn as cold sweat covered her body.

‘Please don’t’, she thought, already knowing it was too late to stop it now.

“Since we’re both from the high society, we went to the same high school, dobe” he answered in a monotone voice. Hinata had hoped he would stop at this, but to her misfortune, he continued: “But Hinata looked totally different back then, wearing glasses, baggy clothes, greasy hair, pimples, braces… you know, your everyday nerd”, Sasuke shrugged, leaning back so his girlfriend could rest comfortably against him. “You clean up nice though!” He joked, making Hinata unconsciously place her hands in front of her chest.

Sakura, as oblivious to the tension as Naruto due to her state, giggled as well “Yeah! You’re so pretty Hinata! Don’t hide what you have girl! I wish I had your curves!” she hollered, not noticing the Hyuga trying to shrink herself more while smiling nervously.

Feeling the blue eyes she normally adored piercing through her, combined with the green eyes of the natural beauty next to him – both obviously eyeing her due to the conversation topic - Hinata quickly averted her eyes to stare at her fingers, feeling her face grow hotter.

Hearing her blonde crush chuckle, she actually could feel her heart stop.

This situation was way too familiar.

“She still likes to wear baggy clothes though; you should see her in the office on some days. Like a loafer” Naruto joked, sharing a smile with his old friends. He wouldn’t let them know about how glad he was that she didn’t dress too sexy around other men. Although he also enjoyed seeing her in a tighter dress like tonight.

“H-how did you two m-meet?” Hinata asked, trying to switch the subject, so she could calm her nerves for a while.

Noticing the Uchihas eyes sparkle in mischief, she cursed her old stuttering habit.

“Ah our mothers have been frien-“ before the blonde could finish his statement, Sasuke interrupted him again

“So you’re still stuttering”, he smirked at her “I guess old habits die hard”.

“Sasuke!” Sakura mildly scolded her boyfriend, seemingly too tired to take part in the actual conversation.

When he turned back towards Hinata, she politely smiled back at him, even though she felt like throwing up just by seeing his familiar features. All the things she didn’t want to happen were happening now. All the things her mind tried to make her forget where coming back. The arrogant smiles, the comments, the mindless followers, the laughter.

Hinata suddenly felt completely sober as her flight instinct kicked in.

She needed to flee as soon as possible.

“I need to go to the b-bathroom” the Hyuuga cursed her stuttering while standing up and leaving the lounge.

Sakura looked at her pale back disappearing in the crowd before turning towards Naruto “Is she going to be ok? She looked a bit pale, maybe she’s feeling the liquor?” she asked him to which he only shrugged

 “I don’t know” he frowned, trying to clear his head a bit. Should he be concerned? Maybe he should go after her?

“Nah” Sasuke smugly said “She’s a natural pale”

-0-0-0-0-0-0

Feeling someone poke him on his back, the brunette man turned around to see his petite friend standing in front of him. Gesturing towards Ino to wait a second, the Inuzuka bended in Hinata’s direction, a bit surprised that she wasn’t yelling over the music as they did just a minute ago.

“I have to go”

“But we just started to have fun, you can’t leave now!” Kiba pointed towards his new blonde friend, signalizing Hinata what he meant with ‘fun’.

The bluenette smiled at him “Y-You don’t have to c-come with me. I-I’ve called a cab”

Kiba would have let her go, wouldn’t it have been for the stutter in her voice. Checking her up and down, he saw how she somehow seemed smaller, shakier than usual. Frowning, he bowed down to her eyelevel. “You ok?”
“I-I’m fine.” She cleared her throat slightly, wanting to control her stuttering again. “Just tired” Hinata replied, not wanting to lie her friend in the eyes and turning towards the floor. She really just wanted to go home and lie down.

Kiba would have asked some more, but he knew she wouldn’t talk even if he started torturing her on the spot. So, he just smiled a comforting smile at her and hugged her goodbye, making sure the hug was extra tight.

Ino, who had seen this interaction, frowned at the small woman which seemed to be close to tears. Wasn’t she supposed to be with Naruto?

What did that idiot do now?!

-0-0-0-0-0-0-

After a while, Naruto noticed that Hinata still hadn’t returned from her ‘bathroom break’. He wanted to check up on her, but he knew that that would make his ‘date’ mad.

By date he meant a quite attractive brunette woman, Lola, that decided to sit next to him and to talk about how all the guys stepped on her feet all night long. Unlike Hinata, this girl had managed to weasel herself next to him.
Normally he would have taken the opportunity, but the fear that Hinata was unconscious on the bathroom floor made him even more dense to flirting than usual. He would have send Sakura to look after his friend, but she was quite…busy with her boyfriend.

“I need to use the bathroom” he said as he shuffled away from Lola who began to become needier by the second. He’d just make sure she wasn’t vomiting in the toilet, that’s all.

To say he was shocked to find out she wasn’t in the girls’ bathroom was an understatement. Feeling concerned, Naruto started searching for her around the club, hoping she didn’t get picked up by the wrong person. Seeing Kiba and Ino talking at the bar, the blonde quickly made his way through to them. “Hey, you two! Have you seen Hinata?” He asked, not even trying to hide his anxiety.

Frowning the Inuzuka studied him. So this was the famous ‘Naruto’?  “Yeah…she just left.”

Naruto was in between being relieved and plain confused. “She left?”

“Yeah, not too long ago. She said she was tired. Probably had a shot too many?” Ino shrugged, holding on to Kiba’s arm. She took Kiba’s calmness as a sign to not worry too much about it.

“She left” Naruto mumbled to himself while walking towards the exit, completely ignoring Kiba and Ino still staring at him. Maybe he could still find her somewhere outside

The Inuzuka gave Ino a confused stare to which she just shrugged “He’s probably wasted”.

When he finally got outside, he immediately recognized her jacket. It was the one she sometimes wore to work. Feeling a wave of relief hit him, he slowly stalked behind her, smiling brightly.

“Hey nerd” he whispered jokingly into her ear.

He expected her to gasp but not that her shoulder would start shaking.

His smile immediately fell.

Her small frame suddenly shook as a quite loud sobbing noise could be heard. “Hina-“He tried to come closer, not exactly sure what to do or expect.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Hinata sniffled as she tried to wipe away the tears.

Damn her.

She had held them in so well. All she had to do was get into her cab and then she could’ve lost it in peace. Why did he have to show up?’ Why was he here? He usually didn’t care what she did so why now? Why did she have to get so triggered by such a silly remark?

Feeling his hand on her shoulder, she couldn’t help it and jerked away, hiding her face in her hands.

“Hinata?” she could hear his voice growing smaller. She didn’t want to make him feel uncomfortable; he had nothing to do with all this. It was just her old scars opening up again. He had just been at the wrong place at the wrong time. Furiously wiping her eyes, she softly laughed.

“I’m sorry, I’m just tired” She turned towards him, hoping to take the tension from him “a-alcohol makes me very e-emotional. This is so embarrassing” She faked a laugh.

“Ah-” hearing this, Hinata already hoped that he believed her poor attempt at lying. However, she could feel his concerned eyes on her.

“Hinata -“

“It seems like all your friends are super pretty. How is that even possible?” Hinata tried to stop him from talking, by making a light joke. She was too exhausted for this kind of emotional turmoil and didn’t want to make a bigger fool of herself as she already did.

Feeling her phone vibrate in her hand, signalling that her driver had arrived, she quickly turned around to check the number plate.

“Goodnight Naruto”

Feeling that he had no chance of getting her to open up, he sighed.

“Text me when you’re home?”

Giving him one last smile, she ignored his confused and somehow hurt eyes and disappeared into the car, deliberately not answering his question.

Chapter Text

The moment Kiba knew something was wrong was when Hinata didn’t respond to his call for the third time.

The first time he had tried was this very morning, after leaving Inos’. They had had a great time together, having the same kind of humor and sarcasm. When he had mentioned his dog Akamaru, he had seen how her eyes sparkled and knew he’d spent the rest of the evening with her. She had told him that she always had wanted a pet but her father didn’t let her. So he smoothly proposed that, if she wanted, they could go for a walk sometime.

He assumed, the invitation to her place that followed after a few enjoyable hours could be seen as a yes, I’d like to go on a walk with you and your dog.

Kiba had been euphoric when he left. But then he remembered the sick look his friend had, before she left. He decided to check up on her, with a short phone call.

It didn’t surprise him too much when she didn’t pick up the phone. Maybe she was sleeping.

She’d probably call back once she woke up.

He grew worried when she didn’t pick up her phone on the early afternoon. Hinata wasn’t a person who overslept, not even on the weekends. He would have given it more thought if he wouldn’t have been busy wooing Ino with smooth text messages, which led to them meeting up later on.

 
The third time had been before he left to meet the refreshing blonde. Instead of not responding, he was directly sent to her answering machine. The brunet had a bad feeling in his gut and decided to try again later.

Sighing, Kiba put his phone away, oblivious to the blonde watching him. “You know, I hope you’re not sighing over some girlfriend or something. If that’s the case I’d better go” she said, weary of his weird behavior. “I’m not into some kind of dramatic relationship because you have a secret fiancé or something”.
The Inuzuka quickly hid his phone, shaking his head furiously “N-NO you got that wrong sorry. I’m just” he groaned “I’m just worried about a friend..:”
“Hinata?”, the woman interrupted with a question gaze. Kiba stared at her startled “How did you know?”

Ino shrugged “I didn’t” she continued on petting the large dog, whose been rubbing his head against her tight. “She’s the only one of your friends I’ve met and you had this overprotective vibe around her yesterday” she smirked at his embarrassed looking face.

The blush quickly left as he sighed again “I’m sorry. It’s just…I haven’t heard from her since yesterday..And she’s kind of fragile…”

“Do you love her? Ino asked bluntly, again making the Inuzuka jolt and pale “W-WHAT NO WAY! I MEAN YES BUT LIKE- SHE’S LIKE A LITTLE SISTER EW” he quickly responded, getting a soft giggle out of her “sorry, just wanted to make sure”.

Scratching his neck he sulked slightly “Life hasn’t been easy on her. She’s always been an easy prey for jerks. At some point in High school she even stopped talking for awhile”, the wild brunet could feel his gut grow cold as he remembered that time. How her small figure would start shaking and her face would pale, she could even make snow look tan. “She’s just so fragile…Sometimes I just wish she was tiny so I could keep her safe in my pocket…I’m sorry I’m babbling” Kiba quickly stopped talking, seeing the look on her face, thinking it looked like annoyance.

Actually she’d just had been enjoying how easy he was too read. Her ex had been so much more difficult, always using the lazy voice so she had to slowly identify what he actually enjoyed and what was just plain “troublesome”:

“I like how you care about your friends”, she stopped her interaction with the dog to move closer to its owner. Before their lips could touch, his phone suddenly rang, ruining the moment.

“I-I’M Sorry I-I’ll just turn it off” Kiba stammered, fishing for his phone in his pocket. Ino shook her head “don’t worry about it. Quick! Maybe she’s calling!”.

The brunet man smiled at her in thanks before picking up the call, not reading who it was.
“Hinata?”

“No, it’s Ten-Ten. But I’m glad we’re already on the subject” the voice on the other side of the call answered. Kiba frowned, sure he and Ten-Ten were friends, but it was rather odd for her to call him.

“I’ve talked to Hinata a few minutes ago. She told me she wasn’t feeling good and couldn’t come meet me in the café today” Ten-Ten quickly continued.

“Yeah, I guessed she’d be hung over” Kiba chuckled, relieved to hear that nothing serious had happened.

“Kiba, you don’t understand. She could barely form a sentence. She’s been stuttering the whole time.”

-o-o-o-o-o-

Again, Naruto found himself stealing glances at his coworker. It began to become a creepy habit, but the back of her head had been the only thing he had been able to catch of her all day.

It seemed that she has been going back to avoiding him. But this time, it was actually worse than before.

Whenever he tried to see her face, wanting to read her emotions, it was hidden by her hair. Normally, he’d wait for her to take her usual break at ten and conveniently join her, but it appeared as if she wanted to invest her whole time in working today.

He shrugged it off as bad luck and decided that he’ll just ask her out for lunch. A normal thing they had started doing regularly, showing each other to their favorites restaurants. At lunch time thought, when he was walking casually towards her desk, he had to notice that she brought lunch from home, quietly sitting at her desk, face hidden by her hair.

He was speechless. His plans had been foiled by her lunchbox.

She didn’t even warm her food.

He knew she didn’t like eating leftovers when they’re still cold. But he also knew she hadn’t moved from her desk all day.

She’d taken out her still cold lunchbox and started eating, knowing he’d eventually come by to ask her out for lunch.  She officially avoided him!
Frowning, Naruto left the office. He didn’t know what happened, but he knew that he’d going to get it out of her before the day was over.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-

It was evening when Hinata sighed as her packed her bag. She was glad no one tried to talk her that day. She wasn’t sure if she could have handled even the easiest conversation, and she hated it. How something so small could shake her up like that.

 “How pathetic”, she could hear her father say in her mind. And for once, he was right.

Standing in the elevator, she waited until the door closed. Watching the grey metal doors slowly shut, she heard someone shout outside “STOP THE ELEVATOR!”.

She could have identified this voice everywhere. She cringed.

A whiskered man stopped the doors with his foot, sighing in relief as he stepped inside. He stopped in his tracks when he noticed the person in it. She could feel his ocean blue eyes staring at her.

“How pathetic”, she could hear her cousin say, in a time before they got along. She gulped.

At first, Naruto just stood beside her, not really sure what to do, how to start this conversation. Clearing his throat and scratching his neck, he decided to just take a jump into the cold waters. “Uh… so… what happened on Friday? I mean” he chuckled nervously “you were kinda freaked out back there”, he started slowly, glancing in her direction.  Seeing her head move slightly, he quickly averted his eyes. After a while of not getting a response, the blondes’ eyes turned back towards the Hyuuga.

What he saw made almost made him choke on his breath.

She was clutching her bag for dear life, pressing it close to her heart, as if her life depended on it. Her statue was tensed, while she pressed herself against the wall, seemingly trying to disappear into it.

“Hinata?” He almost whispered, seeing her whole body jolt.

She turned towards him. Her eyes wide, staring directly into his. Her mouth forming words which didn’t want to come out.

“I-I-“ The Hyuuga stopped, quickly hiding her mouth with one hand. She stuttered.

“How pathetic”, she could hear Sasuke say, getting dressed as she lay on the bed, curved into a ball and sniffling softly.

The door opened.

 She fled.

He remembered how to breathe, shocked gaze following her. He recognized that look. Back in middle school, when he fought other guys because of stupid reasons, they looked at him like that.

She was utterly terrified.  And it was because of him.

 He really messed up.

-o-o-o-o-

Ino had been cooking dinner when the doorbell rang. When she opened the door, her friendly smile quickly turned into a worried frown.

It was Naruto. He looked like a mess. His hair looked even more wild than usual. His coat was only half closed, buttons in the wrong holes. His eyes glazed with hurt and confusion.

“What’s up”, she asked, letting him in.

“I don’t wanna go home” Naruto mumbled like a little boy, walking past her in a bee line towards her couch.

“Why?” Ino asked concerned, walking back to the kitchen to prepare some more food for her new guest.

Groaning, Naruto rubbed his eyes “Sorry, I called Sakura first but I guess she’s ‘busy’” he ignored her question and stood back up.

“Naruto!” the blonde said in a firm voice, making him stop in his tracks, “Talk to me”.

He turned towards her, still looking hesitant. Ino chuckled “Come on. I’ve ranted about my problems for weeks. It’s time to return the favor”.

The whiskered man sighed as he sat back down “I messed up”.

She turned off the stove and sat beside him “what did you do this time” she said, jokingly.

“You’ve met Hinata on Friday, right?” he started, staring at her to see her reaction.

Ino perked up. When she had seen the woman, she would have never guessed that she could control her surroundings that much. “Yeah, why?” she asked cautiously, waiting for an explanation.

“Well, it seems that I unknowingly pushed ALL her buttons. She won’t even look at me”, Naruto gulped, remembering how she looked at him before running away.”And when she does, she has this expression and…. augh”, he groaned, feeling himself shudder.

Ino, observing the strange behavior of her friend, thought about what she had heard a few days ago. “Yeah, Kiba mentioned something last Saturday”, Naruto gave her a questioning gaze “It’s the guy from Friday? Hinatas’ friend. We’ve had a date on Saturday but he was saying that he was worried over Hinata. He then got a phone call and suddenly left! But he apologized afterwards”

Scratching his hair in frustration, the blond man slumped down “aw man, I really fucked up! I wish I knew what it was? I mean, she came to the lounge, Sasuke said he knew her from high school and-“

“Wait, what!?” Ino interrupted him, almost shouting “high school you say?”

Confused, the whiskered man nodded.

“Kiba told me something about high school being a weak spot of hers or something. I don’t know why though” Ino confessed, trying to remember what the Inuzuka told her exactly.

“WHAT?!” Naruto got up angrily “THAT TEME! He let me walk right into that trap! I swear to god I’ll kick his ass!”

With that, the blond left in a furious rage, leaving his long haired friend behind.

She humped, crossing her arms “how rude! Now I have to eat his portion too”

Glancing towards her phone, a smile formed on her face “or not”

-o-o-o—o-o

Afterwards, Naruto went to Sakuras apartment. He knocked furiously, cursing out the Teme for pulling such a prank on him.

They hadn’t been home. He called Sakura but her phone seemed to be off, so he decided to write her a few messages.

Afterwards, the blonde went home, keeping the angry feeling in his gut.

The next day, Hinata didn’t come to work. The guilty feeling in his stomach grew into a constant sickness. He needed to fix this.

“Oi, Naru-baka, why the hell do I have at least 500 messages from you on my phone“, Sakura said, her annoyance clearly hearable through the phone.

“Oh, hi pinky. You finally decided to contact me” the blonde retorted sarcastically.

“What the hell? I was out, ok?”, Sakura groaned inwardly. She had woken up this morning in Sasuke’s apartment. It has been such a sweet start of the day. That was until she checked her phone.

She could HEAR her blond friend roll his ocean blue eyes. “Yeah, whatever. Do you have time today?”, he quickly changed the subject, not feeling like getting into a fight with her.

“Uh…Sasuke wanted to come over for a relaxed evening but I guess you can come? “ Sakura shrugged, even thought he couldn’t see her. “But don’t stay for too long will ya!”

“It’ll be a short visit.”

-o-o-o-o-

When the doorbell rang, Sakura already knew who it was. Usually, she would be annoyed about that abrupt phone call and visit and she would let her blond friend know. But, after not really being able to see him for a few months, she had to admit that she quite missed her little goofball, so she decided to let it slip.

That was before she opened the door, only to be greeted by a glaring face.

“What crawled up YOUR butt and died”, Sakura said sarcastically while raising an eyebrow.

Naruto sighed. Glaring was getting pretty arduous after a while. How could Sasuke go on glaring for YEARS without having any pains in the face region? 

“Is Sasuke there?”, he asked, ignoring her remark.

“Wow, and here I thought you actually wanted to visit me”, the pinkette continued her sarcastic ways, getting slightly confused and annoyed by the weird behavior of her friend already.
“No, he’s still at work. Don’t you wanna come inside?”.

Naruto quietly sighed and followed her inside. Taking a deep breath, he couldn’t help it and smiled slightly. It had been a while since he’s been here, but everything still looked like how he remembered it. Same old smell, furniture and photographs on the wall, except for a new one where Sakura and Sasuke stood in front of a huge Christmas tree. It seemed as if she took the picture when he wasn’t looking. The Teme never was photogenic.

“What’s going on Naru-poo? You’re not going to steal Sasuke away from me, are you? ”, Naruto jerked slightly when he felt Sakura softly touching his arm. Even thought she was still making lame jokes, he could hear that her voice was more concerned than before.

“Ew no way”, he chuckled, making a face. His relaxed face soon changed back into an irritated one.

“That teme pranked me! I’m going to break his face, I swear” Naruto cussed.

Hearing this, the pinkette frowned slightly. When she had called Sasuke after Naruto had called, the Uchiha HAD seemed pretty calm. Almost as if he had expected this to happen. “If you guys break my furniture, you’re going to regret it” Sakura smacked him lightly on the arm, trying to make the blonde drop his tense act.

It would have worked, if the front door wouldn’t have opened in this exact moment, revealing Sasuke Uchiha.

The dark haired man had the same monotone expression as always on his face. “Teme!” Naruto barked, only to get completely ignored by him while Sakura walked towards him.

“Hey!” She pecked her boyfriend, smiling brightly.

“Hn” He replied, finally turning his gaze towards the blonde.

“Can we use your study for a bit?” he asked the pinkette while slipping out of his coat and shoes. She nodded “Sure. I’ll be making dinner then”

Walking past the still glaring Uzumaki who was getting more irritated by the second, he ushered a quick “follow me”.

-o-o-o-o-o-o

After the two men had entered the room, they spent quite a while just staring at each other. Naruto trying to kill his counterpart with intense glaring while Sasuke just didn’t feel like starting THIS conversation yet.

He knew this would happen eventually.

“WHAT THE FUCK TEME” Naruto finally exploded, scratching his hair in irritation. “Why would you do that to me? Couldn’t you at least warn me or something?”

The Uchiha shrugged “It wouldn’t have been this much fun then, wouldn’t it”

Again, Naruto had to catch himself before he could continue. “Do I look like I’m having a fucking fun time?! What the fuck is your problem anyway?! Why would you screw with her like that?!”

At this, Sasuke smirked slightly:” Oh, that’s not the only way I screwed with her”

Naruto eyes widened. Seeing the blond completely baffled by his statement, Sasuke took his chance and continued “You know Hinata. She’s just so small and fun to tease. You know, when her face gets all red and weird”. The blonde paled. He knew exactly which face Sasuke meant. Sure, he teased her sometimes, but that was just mindless fun.

Was it?

“It’s cute how she takes everything you say so seriously. At some point, some female classmates where telling her that her voice was rather annoying. With all the cut off phrases and all. And she seriously stopped talking then”, Sasuke chuckled, remembering how the Hyuuga would get flustered whenever someone would pry a response from her at that time. Making fun of her stutter whenever she forced the words out.

“I wasn’t really interested in her, but my father told me I’d be good for my reputation if I dated her. So I did” he shrugged as he said matter-of-factly “She was kind of useful. Like my own personal maid. However she annoyed me after sometime, and after she lost her title, my father finally told me that I could break up with her. She wasn’t useful to the Uchihas anymor-“

Before Sasuke could finish his sentence, he was knocked into the table by a fist. Everything seemed to happen in slow-motion. From the papers which flew across the room, to the plant, which formerly decorated the table and hit the ground.

Before he could catch himself, he felt Naruto tugging at his shirt harshly. Trying to focus on what was happening, all he could concentrate on was Naruto other hand, that looked ready to hit him again, and the furious ocean blue eyes of his friend. Which at some point strangely seemed to turn red in fury. But maybe he only imagined it.

“NARUTO!” Sakura jumped into the scene, having heard the ruckus in the study.
“What the- “ she pushed him away from her boyfriend “I TOLD YOU NOT TO-“

She wanted to continue, however the blond stood up and quickly fled the apartment with a loud slam at the front door.

Sakura, being a apprentice doctor, quickly turned back to her injured boyfriend and checked his cheek.
“What the heck happened? I swear to god I’m going to punch Naruto next time I see him” She started ranting, only to get interrupted by her boyfriends’ finger on her mouth.

“Don’t worry. It was bound to happen.”

Chapter Text

“That fucking piece of shit”, Naruto cursed inwardly, not exactly knowing where he was going. After hearing that teme telling him how he mentally tormented his bluenette coworker with that s hit-eating smirk he just lost it. 

Not that he regretted punching him. 

His hand hurt from the punch but he would get over it. It wasn’t something he was unfamiliar with. 

The atmosphere in the small room had been too overwhelming after that little speech, and not wanting to get into a full blown fight with Sakura, he decided to escape the scene.

Slowing his walk and taking a few deep breaths, the blond noticed that he had walked quite a bit in his rage. Letting out a frustrated groan, he tousled his hair. Just thinking about how that Teme got him into this shitty situation made him want to run back and tackle him again.

 If only he had known, had had a warning-

Remembering her terrified face before she fled the elevator, Naruto let out another frustrated groan.

He needed to fix this right now!

Making up his mind, the whiskered man went on a look out for a cab. He’d just need go to her apartment and-

He didn’t know where she lived .

“fuck”, he breathed, frantically thinking of a way to get her address. Sure, he could have waited until he saw her tomorrow, but he being rash as he is, Naruto wanted to fix this as soon as possible, thinking that waiting might make it even worse. 

Instead of screaming like he would have liked to, the male bit his lip. Selecting her number on his phone he tried calling her again only to be almost immediately directed to her voice mail. He observed his surroundings briskly, as if hoping he would find a way to solve his problems in his ambiance. 

“Naruto?” He heard a familiar voice. Turning he saw the Yamanaka girl walking towards him, completely ignoring her companion and his gigantic dog. “What’s wrong? You look like you’re searching for trouble” She smiled at him, her eyes however showing her concern.

“I fucked up”, he snorted, almost as if he was amused by his own stupidity “Last Friday, at the club, I said something that really upset Hinata but I didn’t know and now she’s been avoiding me and-“ Naruto frowned, trying to get to the point “ – I just really wanna say ‘I’m sorry’ but she won’t react to my phone calls and... I don’t know-” he sighed, clawing at the hair on his neck.  

 “So you’re the reason behind her behavior”, the Uzumaki looked up, finally noticing Inos’ companion glaring daggers at him “do you have any idea-“ he started but almost immediately got interrupted by Ino. “Kiba!” she hissed, taking a hold of his hand and squeezing it firmly “can’t you see he’s already feeling shitty about it? Aren’t you Hinatas friend? I think she deserves the apology from this idiot. Do don’t you?”. She smiled softly her date, seeing his demeanor change from anger to consideration. 

“Do you know where she lives?”, the Yamanaka followed up.

Instead of answering, the brunette male decided to glare at Naruto for a few more second before he answered, seemingly calmer “Yeah. But if you say or do anything that might shake her up more I will find you and I will hurt you” as if on cue, the gigantic white dog growled at him.

Gulping, Naruto nodded.

-0-0-0-0-0-

It turned out that Hinata did live in the better part of town. Had it been any other occasion, Naruto would have gaped more at her neighborhood, which did make sense since she did belong to a wealthy family who, for PR purposes could not let the ex-heiress live in lesser standards. He didn’t know much about Hyuga corps, but he knew that they would do anything to keep their public appearance clean and tidy. 

However, he did come here with a purpose. 

Arriving at her apartment complex, Naruto quickly made his way through the door and started looking for an elevator.

“He mentioned she lived on the fifth floor” , he remembered out loud while nearing the elevator only to see an 'out of order' sign hanging on the door. 

“Damn”, he whispered frowning. He needed to go see her fast! 

-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Hinata was trying to distract herself from the dark thoughts that had been following her around by watching TV when suddenly someone ringed her bell frantically. Before she could reach the door the ringing turned into loud knocking.

‘ Who could that be', she wondered, looking into the spyhole.

She expected it to be Kiba, Tenten or even a maniac that came to kill her but never would have she suspected Naruto  at her door, breathing frantically with a red head as he continued knocking.

At first the Hyuuga froze. ‘How?’, she thought to herself, but then remembered, that it seemed that their friend group has gotten more and more intertwined. She was ready to ignore him and wait it out until he would give up. 

But she couldn’t. 

He really did nothing wrong and she had no excuse to treat him that poorly. Is he here to berate her for her behavior? Probably.

Gulping loudly, the woman decided to open the door to face her fears. 

-0-00-0-0-0

“Naruto-kun?” he heard as the door slowly opened to reveal a surprised Hinata. At the office she would always wear something baggy on top with some more-or-less fitting bottoms, so that it could still count as semi-professional. But now he could see her home attire: a tiny woman, seemingly disappearing in bulky clothes. 

However, in that moment he was reminded of how he liked looking at her and her baggy clothes and silky hair. He missed the feeling he got when her moon-like eyes stared at him. 

Being overwhelmed with her mere presence. Overwhelmed with the reality of the situation and all the adrenaline of the past hour, Naruto threw everything overboard and quickly pushed his lips on hers . On his way to her complex, he had thought about everything that he wanted to tell her. To comfort her and make sure she was OK. He wanted to tell her about how he had also been a weirdo in high-school and that she should be proud of who she had become. But all that left his mind the instant their lips connected. He just knew that he wanted to be as close as humanly possible to her in that moment. 

-o-o-o-o-

After overcoming her first shock, the bluenette woman quickly reciprocated the kiss, making the blonde groan against her lips while softly pushing her into her apartment. Oh, how she had missed his touch without realizing it. How she had yearned for his tight embrace, making her feel like everything would be OK. Making her forget anything and anyone besides him and her.  

Before she could think, she already twisted her hands into his hair as he closed the door with his foot behind them. Her soft lips really drove him insane, in a way he couldn’t even begin to explain. He felt her slowly guide them towards her bedroom and his advances grew more aggressive, frantically taking off her sweater and his own shirt in the process. 

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

He always wondered how her hair got so silky. 

Sakura and Ino always complained about their expensive haircare even though their hair never felt as silky as Hinata’s. 

Her eyes were close, as if she were sleeping, while cuddled into his side. They were lying in her bed, enjoying the post-coital afterglow, just like he had hoped for since she came over to his apartment during Christmas. However, he couldn’t ignore the lump in his stomach as he stared at her seemingly relaxed face. For once, the blonde goofball didn’t know what to day. Or how to start.  

 “I’m sorry” he mumbled like a little boy realizing he had done something forbidden.
“D-Don’t worry about it” without asking, Hinata knew what he meant “I was overreacting”. Closing her eyes, she enjoyed his soft touch. Even though it was only a few days, she could feel the tension of everything happening leave her body.  

“H-How did you find my a-apartment?” She asked after a while, enjoying how he had moved on from her hair to softly caressing her waist. 

“Kiba told me” 

White eyes opened wide.”Kiba?”

 Kiba wasn’t someone who would give away private information to some stranger. 

“Well, Ino got the information out of him” Naruto chuckled weakly; he’d have to thank her for that.

“Ino?” Hinata asked even more confused. Somehow that name sounded familiar.

“Yeah, you remember the blonde woman in the club? Long hair,  blue eyes, skinny..” Naruto asked, waiting for her eyes to shine in realization.

“Ah! The one you used to live with for a while?” She remembered, not having made the connection between the two Inos before.  Seeing the blonde nod, smiling brightly, Hinata felt that dark glob dwell up in her stomach again. Ino had been quite the ‘looker’ , as Kiba would say. Imagining such a beautiful woman living with Naruto, the Hyuuga couldn’t help herself and self-consciously  pulled the blanket closer, moving away from Naruto's touch. He had noticed that small gesture and saw how the small woman slowly shrank back into herself. Finally having some context for her behavior, he started analyzing her reactions a lot more.

“She’s very pretty” Hinata mumbled more to herself, playing with her fingers. 

“So are you” the blonde man snickered, moving closer to his lover. 

“What?” the Hyuuga squeaked, blushing madly as she felt his hands touching her arms.

“You’re pretty” Naruto repeated, enjoying her deer-in-headlights look. Playing with her hair, he continued: “Yeah, and you’re not as noisy as her, which is a huge plus.” He chuckled. “If you had come into my apartment and forcefully made yourself my roommate, I would have let you stay forever”. Hearing her soft yelp, he couldn’t help himself and engulfed her in a bear hug and kissed her forehead.

“Also, I like how you always wear those baggy clothes. It’s like I get to unwrap a present”, the blonde smiled warmly at her, noticing her blush deepening at a rapid speed. “And the way you can go on for hours about little stuff like that one time you told me about that cat family you saw at the park? Or that new yarn you bought, that sparkled?.” The blonde male chuckled, remembering her sparkling eyes whenever some seemingly small good thing happened to her. 

“You’re amazing Hinata” he said as he nuzzled himself into her silky hair.

“I wish you could see yourself how I see you”. 

His soft laugh quickly died down as he observed how she slowly shrank into herself.

Distancing himself enough to be able to look into her eyes, his breath stopped for a second. 

 
Whenever Sakura cried, she would get really loud.  Either she would deny her tears until she would just scream and be angry at everything or she’d just start crying since the beginning, babbling incomprehensible words about how something or someone hurt her. Her makeup would soon be all over her face. 

A crying Sakura was an inconsolable mess. He’d have to wait her tantrum out before trying to build her back up.

With Hinata on the other hand, he could see how she tried to hide her feelings, almost biting her lips bloody, trying to suppress a shiver by grabbing the sheets. He could see how her eye turned glassy as she tried to keep eye contact with him. Before the huge tears could leave her eyes, she’d hide her face in her hands, sighing. The blond grabbed her wrist, slowly taking them away from her face. Her crying face truly was heartbreakingly beautiful.

“I’m s-s-sorry” Hinata whispered, eyes still closed so she couldn’t see his eyes, expecting to see disgust by her weakness in them.

She didn’t expect to feel his warm lips on her forehead as he slowly embraced her. “Don’t be”.

Usually, this would be the point where Naruto would cheer Sakura up by telling her how she would find someone who’d love her for everything she was. How she’d find some guy who’d be crazy about her because of her faults. But he didn’t even want to think about someone else seeing this side of Hinata except him. He wanted to keep this side of her for himself. 

He waited for her tears to subside before silently continuing “Just tell me if I act or say something stupid next time. I know I can be a bit oblivious sometimes”, feeling Hinata perking up at this, he swiftly continued before she could object “You’re kind of one of my closest friends right now and I really don’t want to be the cause of your pain. If it helps you’re allowed to hit me but please don’t just-”the blond frowned, letting a bit of the pain seek out that he felt the past days “avoid me.”

Trying to lighten the mood again he continued “You can text me a mean message or even hit me or yell at me but-“

Don’t be afraid of me again. 

 
A lump of guilt grew in Hinatas’ stomach. She was thinking that she was trying her best not to burden Naruto with her emotional problems. He was such a ray of sunshine in her life so she couldn’t even imagine to make him feel anything less than happy. But maybe she was just obsessively trying to protect herself from her past and its emotions that she didn’t even consider how her actions might have hurt him. Protecting him from her broken parts had also meant to build up a wall against him. 

Having grown up in a family where pride is spelled in capital letters, Hinata quickly learned that showing negative emotions could not be tolerated in public.
In her childhood days the young Hyuuga heiress had often locked herself in her room after getting home from school. She had learned to take mental breathers before reappearing for the family dinner. Never had one of her relatives asked her openly if she had problems. If she needed to talk. If she was OK or if she needed any help. 

Having issues meant not being perfect, and Hyuugas always had to be perfect.

In the past few years and thanks to Tenten and Lee, her cousin, her sister and she had slowly started the progress of becoming emotionally more available to each other and to others. She also had her amazing childhood friend, who made it their life mission to get her out of her shell. She was truly blessed by her support system but knew that she still had a long way to go. And apparently had troubles letting new people in. 

“I-I’m not very good w-with..” she took a calming breath “t-talking about m-my personal p-problems”. She blushed, hearing her own stutter getting the best of her. 
“b-but I’ll try” she tried to keep eye contact with her blue-eyed crush, as he softly smiled at her. 

“I really want to try” she smiled back at him before he kissed her.

-o-o-o-o-o-

After a few more steamy and emotional hours in Hinata's bed the two seemingly had fallen asleep in each other’s arms. The blonde awoke before her, craving a glass of water. Now, with less adrenaline pumping through his veins, he finally had the time to check out her apartment. With the pretense, that he was looking for her kitchen, of course. 

Looking around her room, he couldn’t help but realize that she seemed to be a very tidy person. It made him cringe for a second to remember how he invited her into his chaotic, messy and tiny apartment. Maybe he should have cleaned up first. Maybe that’s why she had taken off so quickly.  

Shaking his head, the blonde looked around some more. He noticed the pictures on the wall showing her with a teenager and an adult male that seemed to have almost the same features as her. He guessed those were probably her cousin and her sister that she had mentioned before. The sister seemed the same age as Konohamaru, a boy that he sometimes mentored. 

In other pictures he could see Hinata standing next to her cousin her another brunette female. And next to those pictures were pictures of a younger looking Hinata with two men, one of them he recognized to be Kiba, Ino’s current situationship. This reminded him that he would have to text Ino to tell her that everything was alright again. 

Staring at the picture of the seemingly childhood friends, Naruto couldn’t help but hope that Kiba and Ino would end up dating. Not only because Kiba seemed to be a good guy and Ino could really use an emotionally available guy, but also so that Kiba wouldn’t steal Hinata away from him. 

The other man in fact was another issue. He would have to ask Hinata about him. 

Slowly making his way through the apartment, the blonde realized that is was a lot fancier than his, however still seemed to not be too expensive. 

A lot of the furniture seemed to be old and probably second hand. He also chuckled when he saw how many hand-knitted blankets she had on her couch. Maybe she could even make one for him one day? 

After having found the kitchen, the Uzumaki finally enjoyed his cup of water before going back to the bedroom. He was about to cuddle back in with Hinata but then saw his phone notification. 

Seeing the missed messages from Ino and Sakura, he couldn’t help but groan inwardly. 

Ino’s message was mostly about wishing him good luck and waiting for a gossip update, to which he rolled his eyes but smiled. He was kind of glad that they had gotten closer after Sakura kind of abandoned them both at the same time. He would never admit that to her though.  

Sakura seemed quite upset and he knew that if he would start replying to her, they would get into an hours long discussion. And he wasn’t ready to get into it yet. 

Hearing Hinata stir and seeing her unconsciously grab for him in the bed, he decided that Sakura could wait and put the phone away again. She had ghosted him for a few months over the teme, so she could survive not hearing from him for a while. 

Crawling back into Hinata’s arms, he could feel the butterflies in his stomach upon getting to touch her soft skin again. 

Feeling her arms wrap around him again, he couldn’t help but chuckle about how clingy the sleeping Hyuuga was. And he couldn’t get enough of it. 

Hopefully this would only be the start of them having many more sleep-overs. Maybe he’d try to convince her to stay in his apartment again. After he would deep clean it, of course. 

-o-o-o-o-o-

When Hinata first woke up, she couldn’t help but enjoy the bliss of a good night’s sleep. In fact, she felt as if she never had slept as well as she had that night. 

The next thing that she noticed was that she was completely wrapped around Naruto, who also seemed to be grabbing her as tight as humanly possible. They must have looked like a human bretzel. The woman gasped and blushed for a moment, trying to grasp the situation and what led to it without waking her companion. 

When she slowly tried to unwrap herself from him, she could hear him grumble in protest and trying to keep her close. Hinata’s heart went a mile an hour and she could literally feel the hearts in her eyes when she was looking at him. Even thought she was glad that she was able to open up to him emotionally, she never forgot that she would have to be cautious physically as to not misinterpret his advances. Usually she would have reprimanded herself for enjoying this a little too much. Tried to get some distance so she could stop her beating heart from falling deeper. 

Seeing him so upset over her did make it seem as if one day, he might reciprocate her feelings. Although the rational part of her brain already tried to reason with her, that he was just a very emotional person and would act rash for any person that was close to him. She probably wasn’t any special in that regard. 

Noticing her bringing herself down again, Hinata sighed. Of course she couldn’t just enjoy the moment for what it was. Stupid brain. 

She softly traced one of the whiskers on his cheek before kissing him on said cheek, marveling on how beautiful his relaxed face was. If only she could just confess everything that was going on in her head. 

She would someday. 

She really wanted to. 

And then he would either accept her feelings or reject her. But not today. Today she would just enjoy this moment. She said to herself as she slowly moved her lips towards his neck. Feeling him stir a little, the Hyuuga smiled inwardly. She should make sure that he was enjoying this moment as much as she was, she thought to herself sheepishly before moving on to lower parts of his anatomy.

Chapter Text

There was gossip in the office.

One could almost smell it. Like a hot tea, ready to be spilled.

“He’s head over heels for her”

“Too bad, she seems to be absolutely over him”

“Can’t believe it. After all this time”

“But what if they’re actually dating??”

The gossip circle in the little kitchenette stopped for a second to stare at Tamaki, the new hire. 
“Naah, they’re too different”, Karin blew her off. Before she could continue the subject of their gossip circle passed by. 

Hinata was carrying some documents over to the supervisors with Naruto in tow, obviously carrying the larger load for her. Not that he had to since they usually worked on completely different projects. 
It had actually become normal to see the two of them together. They could locate Hinata by looking for the blonde, tall man that always seemed to be in a few feet radius from her.


How unfortunate.


Many people had known about the Hyuugas crush on the blonde Uzumaki. Even though she had tried to hide it very well, it had been going on for almost four years. The lingering glances, the blushes, the stuttering whenever he came up in conversation. 
Most people were cheering for her from the sidelines. However, they cheered like a mother who watched her unathletic child at a soccer match. No way she could win but good on her for trying. 

As much as they knew Hinata, they also knew Naruto.

Naruto, who had spent the first two years in the office to get with any model type girl. Who had bragged about his hookups on mondays in the little office kitchen to the boys.

Hinata was cute, that was undeniable. But not the type that Naruto would brag about. 

However, it seemed that the tables had turned.

While the Uzumaki was always found close to her, it didn’t seem as if she reciprocated this. Hinata was mostly going about her day as normal and held some friendly small talk with him, but she didn’t seem to have changed anything in her schedule to be with him specifically. 

She still went out on her lunch dates with her friend. 

She still went home before him on most days. 

And she never tried to get on the same projects as him.

Her whole demeanor had calmed down around him. No blushing. No awkward fidgeting.

Nothing.

It seemed that Naruto was now the one to have an unrequited crush on the petite woman.

Too bad.

He had been too late.

-o-o-o-o-o-

“oh….god….” Naruto couldn’t help but groan as he was holding Hinata’s head in place. 

Conference room three on the 4th floor was hidden away. Most people on this floor tended to go home early. They also knew that most of the people on this floor tended to work from home on wednesdays. That is why it had become one of their spots. 

Watching her take him all into her mouth, he could help but tilt his head back and gulp. 

He remembered how she had started a complete novice, almost choking with each inch.
He had been worried a few times that she would throw up on him. But it hadn’t happened. And now she could take him almost completely like a pro. 

Feeling the knot in his lower abdomen tighten, he wanted to warn her.

“Hi-n...I’m….oh fu……c-cu…” Unfortunately, he wasn’t very articulate in this state. And unfortunately he also didn’t realize that his clenched fist was holding her in place. 

He could hear her wince a little when he came. 

whops.

Breathing heavily he looked down on her, carefully gulping down the evidence of what had happened. 

“S-Sorry” he breathed, caressing her head. He wasn’t quite back in this realm yet. 

Hinata coughed a little before smiling up at him. “Don’t worry about it”

God, she was so hot. What good deed had he done in the past life to deserve this. 

“You’ve gotten really good at this” he tried to sound calm and he rearranged himself and closing the zipper. “Guess all the practise really paid itself off” he smirked at her to which she blushed and quickly got up. 

“Actually” Hinata avoided his eyes “I’ve been practicing by myself”

The Uzumaki couldn’t help it and let out a confused noise. Even though he now knew that Hinata was indeed a sexual being, sometimes it felt odd to imagine her doing anything sexual without him. Had she started seeing another guy besides him?? Or maybe multiples??
Here she was, shyly twiddling her fingers and hiding her gaze under her bangs as if she hadn’t just confessed something horrendous. 

But before the pit in his stomach could finish to grow, she quickly made eye contact with him and meekly whispered “with bananas” before hiding her face in her hands. 

Naruto couldn’t help but laugh out loud. He felt relief wash over him.

She was so adorable. It would kill him one day. 

-o-o-o-o-

He knew that he was looking like a damn fool. But he couldn’t help it. 

Every time he saw, heard, or felt the young Hyuuga close by, he felt as if he had to be close to her. 

She had a magnetic pull on him that he couldn’t explain. 

Hinata had reprimanded him, that he was being too obvious in the office. That people were starting to ask her questions about him. But he really couldn’t help it! 

Whenever he saw her walk through the elevator door, he wanted to jump right to her and give her a million kisses.
Something had happened when he had slept over at her place. Maybe she had pull a spell on him, when he was sleeping. He had dated an astrology girl before and had woken up in her bed, surrounded by crystals one day. 

But he didn’t mind if Hinata wanted to do that to him. He would gladly go again and get bewitched all over. 

However, she seemed to be very clear about her boundaries. In fact, that one time was the only time that he had been over at her house, and he hadn’t even been invited. 

He had offered her to sleep over at his, but she vehemently refused. 

He had even promised that he would clean everything this time. But it still didn’t work. 

“Isn’t that good though?” Shikamaru said, sipping on his drink. 

“What do you mean” Naruto was puzzled. The men had a habit of meeting every once in a while and get together for drinks. Although they didn’t really meet all that often, he appreciated Shikamaru greatly and always came to him for a new perspective on things. 

“I mean-” Shikamaru started, only to interrupt himself with a puff of his cigarette “That’s what friends-with-benefits are, aren’t they? You keep healthy boundaries between eachother so that you can fuck like animals”.

Naruto almost spit out his beer at the last sentence. He was right, but he shouldn’t say it. 

Shikamaru turned to him “I mean a friends-with-benefits situation always has an expiration date, doesn’t it? Isn’t it something you do in between relationships?”

Although he was speaking in questions, Naruto knew that he was stating facts. And he should be aware of these fact, since that was what he had wanted. 

“I mean its also FRIENDS with benefits. Maybe I just want to get closer to her as a friend. Maybe that was the real benefit all along” The Uzumaki dramatically said, not really believing what he was spouting either. 

The other male sighed while looking at Naruto’s theatrics.

How dense can one get? 

He shrugged.  

“I mean yeah, you can try to become besties with her, but when she wants to move on. “ He puffed his smoke again “You’ll have to let her” Shikamaru glanced at Naruto at this, trying to read his expression. 
It seemed that this wasn’t something that the blond had concerned himself with. He could see his head slowly turning it’s gears as his expression darkened. 

“I mean…obviously that’s alright with me” Naruto mumbled before taking another big sip of his beer. 

 
So maybe inviting her to his place was crossing a line. But he still wanted to get to know her better. Outside of having sex. 

-o-o-o-o-

Hinata’s body was shaking in pleasure as he plunged himself desperately a few last times into her. Only harsh breathing and the sound of wet skin could be heard as they both tried to stay as silent as possible.  

The women's bathroom on the 7th floor on mondays. The whole team would go out to lunch together for their ‘Martini Mondays’. 

They both breathed heavily while Hinata tried to gain enough energy to not let herself fall against the toilet. Her legs were shaky but she was still well aware of the germs in this place. 

They didn’t have much time before the team came back, which also added to the thrill. Usually. 

Watching her readjust her skirt, which she tended to wear more of for “Martini Mondays” for quicker access, he couldn’t help but feel the extreme urge to kiss her. So that’s what he did. 

After a few seconds of wild kissing, Hinata slightly pushed him away. He could’ve gone for a second round, and she could see that. 

“N-Naruto. We have to leave. They’re almost back” she whispered while she readjusted her blouse, which he had unconsciously moved to get access to her breasts. 

“Sorry” He mumbled, finally regaining some blood in the head on top of his shoulders and taking off the condom and cleaning up. 

“Don’t worry” the Hyuga whispered, the afterglow blush still present on her cheeks. Oh how he wanted to go again. 

“Maybe we can continue this later?” He tried while zipping up his pants. Hinata was a magician in finding empty conference rooms, janitors closets and bathrooms. 

But today it seemed that she couldn’t use her magic. 

“Sorry Naruto, I actually got a new project and I’m going to meet the clients later for dinner” she apologetically looked at him and he knew he couldn’t even pretend to be mad at her. 

“S’okay. If you want you can come by after dinner. We could go watch a mov-” he started only for her to open the bathroom stall in a hurry. “Sorry, I think I’ll be dead after such a long day. But if you want I can check where we could meet tomorrow.” Hinata quickly gave him a peck and left.

She always left first to check that no one would see him leave the bathroom. Even if he wanted to run after her, he’d have to wait a specific time as to not arouse suspicion. 

Naruto sighed. 

So much for getting out of the sex-friend zone. 

-o-o-o-o-

Hinata fixed her bangs in a hurry. It was a thing she did to avoid twiddling with her fingers. She breathed heavily. Calm down. Calm down.

She couldn’t help it. Her heart was pounding in her ears. She could literally feel her irises turn into heart shapes. 

Oh boy

She had been so good at not confusing their physical situationship with feelings. Actually, she hadn’t but she had gotten great at pretending. 

But then he started greeting her first thing when she entered the office. And then he started sending her daily affirmations of how great she was.

And then he started finding any excuse to hang around her cubicle. And then he started following her around the office. Like a golden retriever that was happy to see and be with their owner 24/7. 

He laughed at her terrible one liners. He asked about her knitting and her crocheting. He looked so deeply into her eyes whenever they talked. He smiled and-

That stupid smile. 

She was an absolute goner. 

-o-o-o-o-o-

“I mean that sounds lovely” Tenten looked at Hinata confused.
Hinata had become a scheduling queen, finding time for her weekly lunches with Tenten, where they starteddiscussing her upcoming wedding, movie nights with the boys and daily shenanigans with Naruto. Her life could not be fuller. 

“Why don’t you ask him to go out with you?”

Hinata froze. She could never. 

“No. No no no no no” She found herself repeating. “What if I’m reading too much into it?? You know, that’s just how he is with everyone. I could never assume…” The Hyuuga quieted. 

“Fucks around with everyone” Tenten raised an eyebrow to which Hinata almost chocked on her drink. 

“N-NO! I meant being nice to everyone” the Hyuuga almost whined. 

Things felt so right, right now but she still was so unsure. 

In the weeks between the incident and today, he had put so much attention on her but she couldn’t help but wonder if it was to distract himself from talking to Sakura. 

He had been quite upset over Sasuke, but she couldn’t help but wonder if he hadn’t also been jealous. 

What if he had feelings for Sakura?

Either way, she couldn’t ask for more from him. 

He’d given her so much. Her heart was already full. 

Tenten sighed. She wanted to shake her shy friend but reverted to biting on her straw. 

“I mean, what if he eventually moves on?What if he meets someone and falls head over heals in love with her? ”

Hinata froze again. The question didn’t actually shock her too much. It was a question she tended to ask herself now and then. The question that would keep her awake in the middle of the night. The question that made her still have a barrier around him. 

 She already knew the answer. 

“Then I have to move on too”

Her heart broke just thinking about it. 

-o-o-o-o-

Hinata met Lee at the fancy restaurant, where they were supposed to meet the clients. 

Or rather, client. 

She had dressed for the occasion by wearing her gray pencil skirt and matching blazer. She even put on a little bit more make up than usual and tried her luck with blush and highlighter.
This was the first major project that she got to share so she didn’t want to mess it up.

Although she could guess why she specifically had gotten this project.

“I haven’t been in such a fancy place in a while” she confessed to Lee as they were guided to their seats. “Even the light feels expensive”

“Thank god its on the company’s dime.” Lee joked. He could see that the petite Hyuga was a little bit tense and tried to lighten the mood. 

“You look great, by the way. Very youthful!” Lee winked at her to which she blushed. She hoped the hours long youtube tutorial rabbit hole was worth it. At least she now knew where the crease was and where to cut it (in theory).

Getting to the table, they saw that their client had already arrived. Shit, she should’ve come earlier. 
The tall man stood up and smiled at them.

“You must be from Konoha inc. I’ve heard so many good things about your company” The man smiled at the two before turning his blue-eyed gaze towards Hinata.

“It’s so nice to meet you. I’m Toneri Ōtsutsuki”

Hinata smiled politely at him while bowing lightly.

She knew exactly why she had gotten this project. 

But she would make the most of it.