Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Crazy Little Thing Called Love ❯ Starting a Fire ( Chapter 3 )

Disclaimer: HAHA! Oh wow.

 

 

Crazy Little Thing Called Love

Starting a Fire

 

 

The dignified tranquility of the Hyuga Compound was broken by a sobbing Hinata's arrival onto the grounds, her hands at her face as she bawled like a girl who'd just been embarrassed in front of her entire class. Main and Branch House members alike turned eyes sympathetic and resentful to the girl as she reached the mansion and all but stumbled through the open doorway and into the sitting room where her youngest sister sat on the floor practicing calligraphy.

 

“Onee-sama, why are you crying?” She asked with genuine concern for her older sister written on her face.

 

Hinata tried to compose herself, but the tears kept coming. “The…S-Sasuke Uchiha…he…f-f-fuwaaaah!!”

 

Falling to her knees, Hinata wailed loud enough to draw Neji from his own training on the other side of the mansion and into the room.

 

“Is there something the matter?” He asked while hiding a grimace at Hinata's completely inappropriate behavior.

 

Hanabi however was alarmed by Hinata's plight and turned to Neji. “Uchiha did something to Hinata!”

 

This changed things. His eyes narrowing Neji began formulating a means of punishing Sasuke for whatever transgression he had brought against the heir to the Hyuga clan. “I see…”

 

Said Hyuga heir withdrew into her coat, pulling her hood up and hiding in it as she continued to sob. Growing worried, Hanabi placed a hand on her shoulder. “Onee-sama what did Uchiha do? Tell me please, and should I get Father?”

 

Wiping away her tears to better look at Hanabi, Hinata managed to get the words out. “He…he asked me out on a date…”

 

Both Hanabi and Neji blinked at this, and in unison looked to each other before looking back at Hinata. “Then what did he do?” The former asked.

 

“And then…a-and then he…h-he…” Hinata tried hard not to break down, and forced it out as another wail came along. “…Sasuke k-kissed m-me…uwaaaaaaaah!”

 

Neji and Hanabi looked to each other again, a little dumbfounded, before looking back at their crying sister. For an uncomfortably long moment the only sound was Hinata's sobbing before a loud snicker escaped Hanabi's lips.

 

“You were kissed by a boy? Is that all?”

 

Hinata peeked up from under hood. “What do you mean `Is that all?' it was my first kiss and he stole it from me!”

 

“But Uchiha is such a handsome boy, isn't he? Even I know that a lot of girls would sign away their lives to be in your place.” Hanabi argued.

 

Neji twitched, he suddenly felt rather put-upon as he spoke. “Is there anything else you need of me Hinata-sama? Hanabi-sama?”

 

He went ignored as Hinata blubbered back. “But I was saving my first kiss for…for…”

 

“Naruto I know.”

 

“Everyone knows.” Neji muttered.

 

“But Sasuke is at least interested in you, and he's better than Naruto in every way.” Hanabi finished.

 

Aghast, Hinata quickly exclaimed. “He is not!”

 

She was angry now, but her good nature worked against her. Even scowling at Hanabi with all of her anger, her expression resembled an adorable, disarming pout.

 

Hanabi suppressed a giggle at that, and decided to revel in her youth by teasing her sister some more. “He is too! He's better looking, taller, smarter, and cooler than Naruto ever could hope to be.”

 

This was a mistake, as Hinata then got really mad. An aura of chakra enveloped the girl, pushing her hood up off her head completely as her Byakugan activated. Sasuke stole her first kiss right in front of the person she had wanted to give it to the most, and even worse that person had helped him do it! Her emotions finally boiling over, she let out a loud and angry reply.

 

“HE IS NOT!”

 

Seeing her rage, Hanabi immediately backed down from her perch and looked to Neji, who appeared equally surprised by Hinata's anger and the chakra surge that came with it.

 

“H-he k-kissed me and made N-Naruto help him do it! I-it's not fair!” She yelled at the top of her lungs.

 

“Oh? And what do you plan to do about it, Hinata?”

 

Uttering a loud “Eep!” the girl's timidity returned and she quickly turned to bow to her Father, who had been observing the scene since he noticed her initial return to the compound in tears. “Father, I…”

 

“This is a very serious charge, Hinata. Sasuke Uchiha according to your testimony has sullied your honor by taking something precious of yours without your consent. In the eyes of the elders in the Hyuga Clan this sort of transgression would be held in the same light as rape.” Hiashi said to her in all seriousness. “In that case, restoring your honor would be the top priority, preferably killing the offender.”

 

“I shall see to it.” Neji said as he turned to leave.

 

Growing wide-eyed, Hinata quickly held up her hands. “Wait!”

 

“Father!” Hanabi cried out, horrified.

 

“D-don't kill him!”

 

Hiashi furrowed his brow at his eldest daughter's plea. “Hm? He stole your first kiss and humiliated you, did he not?”

 

“Y-yes, but that doesn't mean he deserves to die for it.” Hinata reasoned with her Father shakily.

 

The Hyuga patriarch nodded at that and turned to Neji. “Stand down, Neji.”

 

“Are you sure?” He asked, looking between Father and daughters.

 

A small, barely traceable smile suddenly ghosted across Hiashi's lips. “If it is what she desires then we shall heed her.”

 

There was something to Hiashi's tone that sounded different to Hinata, lightness that she had sworn she'd never heard from him before. When he chuckled suddenly and turned to leave, she puffed out her cheeks in indignation. He was picking on her!

 

“That doesn't mean I like him!” She called after him.

 

 

Sasuke had three good things going for him. The first and clearly foremost was that he was for all intents and purposes a genius, not to the level of a certain fellow student but nevertheless still up there. Second, he came from a long line of magnificent bastards who were as diabolical and cunning as they were powerful Ninja and had learned quite a lot from his growing up around them. Last but not at all the least, he was a patient and excellent teacher and this was perfectly apparent as Naruto's Grand Fireball incinerated a wooden training target.

 

“This is easy!” Naruto declared as he ran through the hand signs before spitting out more flame to incinerate another target. He cut the flame. “I could do this all day!”

 

The kid was a natural at this, supernatural even. Sasuke knew the limits on a jutsu like this, if he was economical he could manage four a day, maybe five, but Naruto had so far used ten of them and didn't show signs of stopping anytime soon.

 

“You're unbelievable, Naruto.” Sasuke said in understandable awe. “I don't know how the Hell you do it, but it's amazing. I will give you that.”

 

Grinning like an idiot as he observed the results of his handiwork Naruto looked over to his teacher. “Thanks!”

 

Sasuke got up from the tree stump he sat on and then walked over to Naruto, placing his arm over his shoulder and beginning to walk with him away from the training ground. “Since you've mastered the Grand Fireball, I've got another favor to ask you.”

 

“Oh? What now?” The orange wearer asked.

 

“It has to do with Hinata.”

 

Naruto nodded at that, in the week and some change since Sasuke kissed her, Hinata has been making a marked effort to avoid him as much as possible. “Yeah, you must have really made her upset when you just went and kissed her like that.”

 

“Well it was her first kiss.” Sasuke replied.

 

“Yeah, if I were in her shoes I'd probably freak out like that too if someone just kissed me like that.”

 

“Anyway, it's been about a week and I haven't really come up with a way to break the ice with her. So I need your help and in return I'll teach you another jutsu.”

 

Another jutsu would have to do. As far as the Clone Jutsu was concerned, it just wasn't sinking in with Naruto, which really bothered Sasuke given how easily he could handle the Grand Fireball.

 

Naruto of course grinned at the possibility of having another cool Jutsu under his belt even before graduating. “All right, what do I have to do?”

 

“Well Ino and Hinata used to be friends back before Ino had a crush on me. I want you to go talk to her about Hinata, what she likes or dislikes.”

 

Pulling from under Sasuke's arm, Naruto folded his hands behind the back of his head as they kept walking. “Huh, that shouldn't be too hard to find out. All I have to do is tell her you want to know and—.”

 

“Whoa, wait Naruto!” Sasuke quickly cut him off. “Don't tell her I'm the one interested in her! The last thing I want to do to her is to have my fan club drive her further away from me.”

 

“Ohhh…good point, it'd be pretty bad if that happened. I don't think Hinata could handle it.” Naruto saw the kinds of fights Ino and Sakura got into over Sasuke, and Hinata seemed too timid a person to get into that.

 

“Look, just say that a friend of yours is interested in her.” Sasuke clarified.

 

Sasuke was really the sort of guy who could have just about anything he wanted by just saying his name. Ever since he approached him and revealed his intentions on Hinata, Naruto has been seeing this wholly different side of Sasuke, someone who wanted something that he couldn't easily have but was willing to go to great length to have it.

 

It was a good thing, in a way it made Sasuke not too much different than Naruto with his feelings towards Sakura. That Sasuke had been brave enough to just out and kiss the object of his affections was almost worthy of praise in the rookie's eyes. Besides, he also taught him a wicked cool jutsu with a nearly limitless amount of prank potential.

 

Could that be enough to consider him a friend? Maybe, he hoped so. “Alright, I'll go talk to Ino.”

 

Sasuke nodded. “Thanks Naruto, you're a big help. Meet me back here at sundown with what you know, got it?”

 

Beaming at that, Naruto gave a thumb's up to Sasuke. “Oh no problem, just remember that you owe me another cool jutsu!”

 

On that he took off like a blur, leaving Sasuke behind to return to his home. Regardless of the intelligence Naruto collected, reaching Hinata was going to require planning on his end.

 

“Alright, let's see where this goes.”

 

 

Another successful arrangement, with a brilliant smile Ino stood back and appraised the flowers that'd be going out to a customer as soon as she got herself cleaned up and the multitude of plants that filled the Yamanaka greenhouse. As she performed a few final touches to ensure perfection, Ino was entirely innocent to Naruto as he hung suspended from the ceiling behind her.

 

He had crept up behind her midway through her arranging, suspended from the ceiling on old fashioned Ninja Claws. With the sun at her front, she had no idea he was there until she had turned to go announce her success to her mother and wound up with a face full of smiling boy.

 

“Eek!”

 

Her first impulse was to of course slam her fist into Naruto's jaw, and the hit connected beautifully, sending Naruto spinning off the ceiling to perform a perfect face-plant just short of a row of exceptionally rare and expensive plants with a loud crack. She had realized who her would-be attacker was, even before he had hit the ground.

 

“Why did you sneak up on me like that you idiot?” She yelled at him.

 

Groaning in pain, Naruto slowly got up and felt his shattered goggles slide down his face. Shaking his head so they fell past his ears to rest around his neck, he brought his hand up to his forehead and felt for any blood. There was none, but the goggles were a total loss.

 

“Oh man and those were my favorite, too!” He moaned.

 

Ino's anger bit back when she heard the distress in his voice. Seeing the smashed goggles in his hand she bit her lower lip, she wasn't entirely insensitive, she knew how much he liked those things. “Are you okay, Naruto?”

 

Naruto set the goggles on a counter and turned to Ino, scratching the back of his head as he did. He really couldn't dwell on losing them—he was a man on a mission after all. “I'm okay, sorry about that. I came by to talk to you and you looked so busy I couldn't resist a harmless little prank.”

 

“Well it serves you right for being reckless like that. You know how I get when I'm doing flower arrangements.” She scolded back.

 

He did, Naruto was a semi-regular to the Yamanaka Flower shop despite the low opinion of him Ino's parents had, and he knew enough about her dedication to botany to know that messing with her usually meant she'd get mad, but he'd never imagined getting a fist in his face for his trouble.

 

Ino softened a little more when she saw Naruto now sans his goggles. With it no longer pushing his hair up, he looked a little better than he normally did, kind of cute actually. She pushed that thought aside for the moment and crossed her arms.

 

“So what is it you wanted to talk about?” She asked as she fetched a broom to sweep up the bits and pieces of the goggles.

 

Naruto scratched at his forehead with an irritated pout before looking back to her. “I actually came to ask you for some advice.”

 

She looked over as she began sweeping. “On?”

 

“Girls,” He answered bluntly, “I mean you're a girl so I guess you'd know about them right?”

 

“Yes I'd like to think so, but why the sudden interest?” Ino wondered inwardly if he was asking about Sakura, if that was the case then she'd be more than happy to fill him in on information about girls.

 

A grin appeared on his face, he was in! If getting information on Hinata meant getting info on winning over girls, then he'd have not only a new jutsu from Sasuke but some wisdom on approaching Sakura. “So I have this friend who wants some advice asking out this girl he likes. Winning her over, you know?”

 

This was unexpected, since when did Naruto have any friends? Maybe he was being subtle? Nah, he didn't seem bright enough to use such evasiveness, dull and blunt as a hammer this one. “Really, well what does your friend want to know? Do you know who the girl is?”

 

“Well, he wants to know how to approach her after he's already been turned down once before. He's kind of nervous about asking her out again without some more info about her on his side.”

 

“Uh huh…” It really sounded like he was talking about himself and Sakura but she knew better than that. She lost count of how many times he'd asked Billboard Brow out and every vehement “No!” he consistently received. “So who's the girl?”

 

“Hinata Hyuga.”

 

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, WHOA! Time out and hold the phone here, did she just hear that right?

 

“E-excuse me?” She asked in wide-eyed disbelief.

 

“Hinata Hyuga, you know the really quiet girl in our class?”

 

“I know who she is, but you're saying your friend is interested in her?”

 

Ino knew full well about Hinata's crush on Naruto, everyone in class knew except for the boy himself, so that automatically ruled out any deception. Someone was after Hinata, and having Naruto help them get her? The irony was incredible.

 

“Yeah, I said that. So is there some advice you can give me? Like what she likes or dislikes? My friend really wants to know.” He drew from his back pocket a notepad to emphasize his seriousness.

 

Be still her beating heart, this was providence. Already there was a plan forming in her mind, involving Hinata, her suitor, Naruto, and Sakura. If she could get Hinata out of the way as a potential obstacle, nothing would be there to stop Naruto from pursuing Sakura, and if she maneuvered that the right way, the pinkhead fall out of the running and then bam! Sasuke would be all to herself!

 

First things first, build up a rapport with Naruto and help his friend. “Well, Hinata really has a thing for cute animals, especially cats and foxes. She also likes lying in the sun, I mean she looks really pale but she really likes just basking in the sun, like her name suggests?”

 

Naruto nodded and jotted those bits of information down. “Is there anything else? What she likes to do? Have a favorite food? Come on!”

 

“Pushy, aren't we?” Ino asked with a cute wink. “Well she likes pressing flowers and is really good at it and her favorite foods are Soft Bean Jam and Cinnamon Rolls, she's got a real sweet tooth. She eats cinnamon rolls all the time in the commissary”

 

“Cinnamon Rolls, huh? I didn't know we had those.” Naruto replied to that.

 

Ino laughed at that. “Well you probably make it there after she does, every day she cleans them out.”

 

“Oh yeah, I know all about that. It's kind of like whenever I try to get some salad, but all the little tomatoes are gone. I wonder who keeps taking them.”

 

Her eyes widening, Ino turned her head to the side and coughed a few times nervously. Naruto however caught onto that and closed the distance between them with an eyebrow raised. “Hmmm…”

 

To her surprise, he gave her the same scrutinizing stare that she'd often seen him give others. However there was something different about it, maybe it was because she was a girl or he was in a good mood, his expression seemed more mischievous than malicious, and—dare she admit it—it was kind of cute.

 

“H-hey, give me some personal space Naruto!” She gasped as she backed from him, her face faintly flushed.

 

Ino was looking a little like Hinata did when he and Sasuke approached her, though not as flushed. Humming in confusion, he raised his hand up and placed it on her forehead, prompting the green-eyed girl's eyes to widen. “Hey you okay? You look like you have a fever going.”

 

Luckily for her, her constitution was much stronger than Hinata's. Grabbing Naruto's hand she lowered it from her forehead. “Enough about me, you're asking about Hinata right? Anyway she also enjoys swimming, she's the fastest swimmer in our class in fact so I guess you could work with that somehow.”

 

“Got it, now can you answer a question for me?” Naruto asked after finishing his notes.

 

“What?”

 

“Why do you suppose Hinata turned down my friend? He's actually a pretty popular guy and he really likes her, so I thought maybe she'd like to go out with him.” He reasoned. “But when he asked her out she pretty much flat out said no.”

 

Ino went for the direct route. “Well, she probably has someone else she likes or something.”

 

“That makes perfect sense!” Naruto said as he slapped himself in the forehead for his `No Duh' moment. However in putting a bit too much force into the hit he snapped his head back and hit a hanging flower pot, which cracked as it swung back before clobbering Naruto right back, sending him stumbling forward and into Ino with a yelp.

 

“Oof!”

 

“Ow!”

 

Lying on her back, Ino rubbed the back of her head before looking up at Naruto, laid out completely on top of her with his face pressed against hers cheek to cheek. After a long, silent moment, both felt their respective faces flare up into a bright blush, Naruto embarrassed that he had knocked down the girl and surprised at the same time at how soft she was, while Ino was stunned outright by her own revelation about Naruto.

 

“His body is solid.”

 

There was no hiding it from her. Beneath that tacky orange jump suit she could feel that Naruto wasn't skinny like Shikamaru or the other boys she would ogle at class, he was athletically toned and she could feel it. Against her soft, almost frail body, he almost felt ripped.

 

“Ino, Ino are you alright?” His worried voice tugged her out of her sudden daze. His hands were at the sides of her head, fingers reaching back and feeling along her scalp for any injury. “You didn't hit your head, did you?”

 

And suddenly, a long, warm thrill sank down Ino's spine to pool in her chest. She could feel her face break into blush as her hands sought to push Naruto off her at his chest, only to remain there and run up and down the smooth material of his suit to feel the outlines of his muscles underneath.

 

Naruto suddenly felt very conflicted. As uncomfortable as he was laying on Ino like this, her hands on his chest felt really good. His discomfort suddenly came to a head, however, when the pleasurable feeling her experimental groping finally registered with him and he became aroused…proof of it pressing directly against Ino's groin and separated by only a few layers of clothing.

 

It seemed Ino noticed too, and with a shrill cry she shoved him off her. “Get off me, Naruto!”

 

“Ah! I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry!” Naruto scrambled off Ino and far back from her, anticipating a violent retaliation for his transgression with eyes shut tight. “It was an accident, I swear I didn't, I wasn't…!”

 

Slowly, Ino got up off the floor and picked up the notepad. As she looked at Naruto, she knew she would not be able to help the blush on her face or that she was carefully undressing him with her eyes, curious as to what he looked like underneath that tacky orange thing.

 

When the beating didn't come, Naruto opened one eye to see Ino holding his notepad to him. The expression on her face was weird, he never saw it on Ino's face before, but something about it was kind of cute, almost as cute as Sakura. “Uh…?”

 

“Ano…maybe you should get going now.” She said in an uncharacteristically quiet voice. “I mean uh, your friend is probably waiting for that info, right?”

 

Looking from Ino's face to the notebook, Naruto nodded slowly and took it from her cautiously. “Y-yeah, uh thanks.”

 

She laughed nervously as he got up. “It's no problem, really! Now go on, if you need anymore advice or info, I guess you can ask me again…”

 

Naruto scratched the back of his head, forgetting the goggles that rested there in lieu of the more pressing matter in his pants, and let out a laugh. “Uh…right!”

 

Turning around, he quickly made his escape, hobbling out of the greenhouse while whispering “Go down!” to his crotch over and over. The moment he left, Ino leaned back against the counter her flowers were arranged on and continued to watch Naruto until he was out of sight.

 

“If he dressed a little differently, maybe did his hair more, I bet he'd be totally hot. Maybe even hotter than Sasuke…”

 

With that single thought, everything changed.

 

 

End Note: Commentary preferred. I'll take your worst.