24

Chapter 24Chapter Text

Why was it that, whenever Hinata went somewhere, food was waiting for her?

Really.

Really.

Why was it that she couldn't leave her own home without finding a buffet? Why was there always a plate stacked high, just for her, at every place she ended up at?

Why did she even go out anymore when her seamstress had started sighing and shaking her head whenever Hinata walked into her workplace to get her clothes let out again?

Why was that?

She looked around at all her friends, comrades, and colleagues.

At her teacher and her friends, colleagues, and comrades.

At all the people talking, laughing, and having petty arguments around the Yakiniku Q grills, ninja and not.

And at herself, quietly picking at the stuff on her plate and making the right noises whenever someone even looked at her.

Stupid social occasions.

Stupid…stupid…what did Ino call it? Dick-waving contests?

Yes. That.

It sounded vulgar enough for this. She'd seen enough in her life to get a feel for it.

That was what this was. A dick-waving contest. One that she had to eat at if she wanted to fit in and if she didn't want Kurenai-sensei asking if something was wrong.

Stupid.

Hinata sighed, the very act of doing so causing the stitching of her hoodie at the bust line to creak in a death knell; the sizzle of her piece of meat on the grill only sharpened her pain. "Dang it."

And her hoodie was reaching the end of its life, just to make it worse. As big as it was, or as it had been when she was younger, this was it.

She was going to need a new wardrobe.

…And Hinata's seamstress would hate her for it when she ordered more hoodies, as shapeless as she could make them, and Hinata knew it.

"You said it, Hinata," Kiba agreed. With what, Hinata wasn't sure even as she made the right noise, but he agreed. "This is bullshit."

Akamaru barked in reply, assumedly having more idea than she did as was only proper in her opinion, his head poking over the table's edge as he chewed some gristle.

"Don't you give me that crap. You know why." Kiba growled back at his dog. "Where the hell is our A-rank, huh? When the hell do we get to save another country?"

Oh.

That.

That thing they were here for so that their teachers could snipe at each other over how good they were at their jobs and compare teams over food.

Of course that was what Kiba was talking about. He'd been fuming about that since Tenten's team had returned, and Tenten had…done a Tenten.

She'd leaked what she'd been up to like a sieve, is what Hinata meant. Nothing too sensitive, not enough for anything worse than a slap on the wrist and a disappointed look, but more than enough to get Kiba's hair up and set up this lunch.

It was enough.

It was hard to imagine anyone being less tactful in a conversation than Sakura (Hinata wasn't being mean, she wasn't), but Tenten somehow managed.

"When we are ready, I hope," Shino added, unflinching in the face of Kiba's glare as he slid some still-raw meat up his sleeve; his hive was ready for it, and it was gone, vanished into their buzzing maws as soon as it was in reach. "It is common knowledge that Team Seven's mission was meant to be a C-rank."

"A-and a Swordsmen of the Mist ambushed them…and he brought his apprentice. And that is, umm… You know…" Hinata resisted pushing her fingers together when that glare turned to her. She flipped her meat instead. "Bad?"

Scary. Hinata meant scary.

Hinata meant that she wasn't ready. The boys might be, but she wasn't. And that she didn't want to be the weak link that got them all killed…but she couldn't say that, could she?

No.

No. Never.

Hinata gave in to the urge to tap her fingers together under the table in a moment of weakness...and she shifted her 'focus', dragging that moment of weakness out to an unforgivable length of time as she looked into the sun.

Not…not the actual sun. No. Not that. There was nothing special about the sun after the first few times.

This was better.

Hinata closed her eyes in contentment.

Wild. Untamable. Bright and warm in a way that Hinata imagined she could feel on her skin… She imagined she could feel on her skin if she only reached across the table and took it in hand.

It was right there, after all. It wouldn't be hard.

…But no. No.

That wasn't going to happen.

Hinata couldn't do that either. She could see it, she could see Naruto, as much as she wanted. But she couldn't touch. That couldn't happen.

That would be weird.

What would she even say? What would she even tell him?

'I just wanted to feel your chakra'? 'I admire you'? 'Let's go on a date'?

'I wasn't stalking you, I was just too shy to talk to you and wasn't good at being brave'?

'Please ignore how I was grabbing at thin air in your direction while you were two tables away?'

None of that worked. None of it; and she hadn't done that in years. Stalked him, that is. Not since she realized that her friends would have something to say about it if they found out… But it was still weird.

Especially when she could see him from anywhere in the village if she wanted to, just by pushing some more chakra into her eyes.

If she wanted to.

It wasn't as if Hinata would have difficulty finding him when he lost more chakra to the air in half an hour than Hinata made in a day.

She was so, so weird.

Weird. Weird. Weird, weird, weird.

Dang it, why did his chakra have to be so pretty?

It just wasn't fair, and the fact that she used to stalk him would follow her to her grave.

"I…" Hinata started again with a mumble, her face warm for several reasons; she then shook her head and grabbed her food before it started to burn. Slapped it down on her plate, next to the rice, and dug in before she fainted in her entirely deserved shame. "I agree with Shino."

And she wasn't just making the right noises this time either.

"Oh, come on." Kiba's scowl deepened. "You too, Hinata? I thought you… Damn it. Never mind what I thought." He looked away, still grumbling and with shoulders hunched to pick at his plate. "Couldn't have been too bad…"

Hinata considered whether to tell him to keep his voice down. Because, if Team Seven heard him, he wouldn't like what happened next…and she decided not to.

She'd known him for half her life and had been on a team with him for the last two months.

He'd just get louder. And then he'd start picking fights. And then Hinata and Shino would have to support him. Not because they wanted to, but as his teammates.

And, being painfully honest, Hinata didn't think that would end as Kiba hoped.

The best she could say was that it wouldn't be too embarrassing if Hinata asked for mercy.

Her focus slid over to Sakura, the calm flow of her chakra as she waved her hands around, explaining something or other to Shikamaru and Choji as Ino hung on her arm and her every word, a balm of a different sort.

And a temptation. One which, once again, came around to Tenten saying something she shouldn't.

"Do Hyuuga get sexually aroused by looking inside of people?"

"...What?"

It was impressive how awful Tenten could be at starting conversations. But, after hearing how Neji had reacted to looking Sakura over (for some reason that made Tenten go pale and change the subject)...

That was…worrying.

And it wasn't as if she could ask Neji.

So, Hinata had to wonder… She'd never looked at Sakura with her eyes fully activated before.

What would she see if she did? What had made Neji pause?

She had to wonder.

"Our time will come," Shino said flatly, the only way he ever said anything, showing that Kiba wasn't the only one bothered in his way even as he brought Hinata back to the present. "I'm not bothered."

He was.

But, again, being the quiet sort saved her from saying so.

"M-me neither. I just wanted to say that again in case you didn't hear me the first… Yeah." Hinata, napkin in hand, wiped her mouth with a polite cough. "I'm fine with that too."

And let that be it.

Kiba continued to scowl and grumble as he cleared his plate, the smacking and crunching of Akamaru's eating breaking whatever his human partner was saying into illegible chunks. And that was fine.

Probably just calling them a bunch of cats again…in the literal sense; Inuzuka insults didn't always translate well, she found.

Hinata took another bite to get it over with…and she felt it again.

It.

Temptation.

The need to know…and to switch the current awkward feelings for another set not to make any one set more potent than the others.

It got her through the day.

Hinata's 'focus' shifted again, seemingly against her will, returning to Sakura… And Naruto had gotten up to join in on the conversation she'd been having when Hinata was busy keeping Kiba from doing something she'd regret.

… And Sasuke was there too, she guessed. Not that it mattered to her as whatever self-control she had cracked like cheap pottery and she gave in to that temptation, her forearm moving up to her eyes to hide them as they began to itch.

Just for a second. Less than a second.

Hinata saw.

And Hinata inhaled her entire steak straight down her throat.

"Hinata!?"

==========

Kurenai's day hadn't been going like she'd thought it would.

She was a teacher now—a full-time teacher. She taught. She made lesson plans. She did her best to keep her students from trying to kill each other or, worse, have sex whenever they were together for longer than a couple of minutes.

It was more complicated than it looked.

Yes, they were good kids. Yes, Hinata wasn't interested in anything Kiba had to offer. Yes, Shino wasn't interested in either of them that Kurenai could tell...maybe?

The Aburame had never been the easiest to read.

But, when you were that age and bored, reasons to do something stupid arose more often than the opposite and… She kept them busy enough that it wasn't a problem. And she was happy.

She was a teacher.

And she'd come to her first ever group meeting between her fellow teachers and their teams believing that would continue to be the case.

"Had to do some cleanup recently. Found some trash that fell between the couch cushions. Swept under the rug. Cleaned the fridge...might have missed a spot on the stove. But what can you do?" Kakashi drawled, a hand on his cheek the only thing keeping him from falling face-first into the grill. "That was my day. How about you?"

Intel was good. Wrapped up a spy ring in the village. Might have missed a few, but we have enough of them to learn just how many.

Looking back on her of five minutes ago, it was pretty embarrassing.

"Me? Nothing that exciting, Kakashi. Just babysitting the brats, as usual," Asuma replied with a drawl of his own…and no cigarette for once, lit or otherwise; the restaurant's no smoking policy took no prisoners. "Ino tells the boys what to do and I get to sit back and watch. Easy."

No signs of suspicious behavior.

Also, she would have to talk to him about that later. If that wasn't just code, and he'd been offloading his work on the girl on his team just because he was lazy, there would be words.

"Kurenai?"

Her turn.

"Like Asuma said. Nothing much… But I've started teaching my students how to tree-walk. And, after that, we'll learn about their natures and start on more specialized training. Just following orders and getting them ready for promotion." Kurenai made a small smile appear on her face instead of the scowl threatening to form, which had Asuma clearing his throat and sitting straight in his seat. "It's more fun than I thought it would be."

Nothing to report.

"...Really? Nothing? That's boring. You two are boring." Kakashi clicked his tongue, the impression that he was about to give himself some impressive facial burns growing as his elbow slid on the tabletop. "Lucky you."

Not so much lucky, in Kurenai's opinion.

It was more that she wasn't the type to take risks if she didn't have to.

"I'd say," Asuma agreed with a chuckle. As did Kurenai as she gave the white-haired man a nod. "Don't get me wrong, my team has it where it counts, but Momochi Zabuza is where I'd have drawn the line."

"The Demon Brothers," Kurenai suggested as she skewered a bit of turnip on her chopsticks. "I'd have been back in the Village before noon."

And the client would have been blacklisted right then and there. He'd already undersold the danger of the mission once in an attempt to lower the price, and that was enough for her.

That would have been it.

It hadn't been for Kakashi though. Clearly. And, even if he'd somehow come through the other side clean, that had been a damn stupid thing to do.

Regarding Asuma and her, and how neither of them had thrown their group of almost children at hardened killers, luck had nothing to do with it.

Just her opinion.

"Yes, yes. I know. And in hindsight, mistakes might have been made. But you weren't there. You don't understand the pressure I was under." Kakashi gave them an earnest, tortured look that Kurenai didn't buy for even a second. "I was outvoted."

Kurenai parsed that and blinked. "Are you blaming your students?"

"I'm not not blaming them."

Asuma laughed. A look at her face turned that laugh into another throat-clearing. "That's a new low, Kakashi."

She'd remember this.

"Mah… You're still innocent. You'll see." Kakashi waved a hand airily. "As soon as you get dragged into national-level issues that your genin want to punch in the face, you'll be just as helpless. Just wait."

And, somehow, she doubted that.

"The next time there's a collapsed nation we have to go to, I'll remember that," Kurenai nibbled at her turnip and resisted the urge to roll her eyes. Really, how many of those were there? And what were the odds? … The odds. Damn it. "I wonder what the numbers are now."

Kurenai didn't usually join in on the betting. It wasn't her thing. And the most she'd ever put in at one time was the cost of a nice dinner…but she was invested this time.

Team Eight was in the running too. And there was nothing wrong with following the competition.

"Team Seven is the favorite now," Asuma said informatively, "1.5/1."

Kakashi swore.

"You've got the Uchiha and the Uzumaki on your team. Suck it up. It should have been a lower payout from the start."

Kurenai nodded, personally pleased. 3/1 had been way too high. And a sign that the bookie hadn't considered who he was trying to bilk out of their money until now.

Again, just her opinion.

Kakashi groaned, his lanky form draping itself over the back of his seat in despair. "There goes my retirement fund."

"...You're going to retire?"

"It's an expression."

"Hinata!?"

Kurenai was out of her seat and across the restaurant in less than a second, Kiba's cry of alarm all she needed for an excuse.

Hinata was her favorite. She admitted it. To herself, and Anko when they were both deep in their cups. Kurenai's choice of at least one student had been locked in years in advance.

Hinata needed help. She needed support. She needed someone that believed in her.

She also needed a father that wasn't a complete bastard, but three out of four wasn't bad.

Three out of five now as she came up on her favorite student grabbing at her throat, eyes bulging and tears streaming down both sides of her face.

She was choking.

And, as Kurenai stood there, she realized…she had no idea what to do about something like this. This hadn't come up in her training. Not even once.

She could deal with most poisons. She could bandage a wound. But, somehow, one of her genin choking on their food right before her as another pounded them on the back with the flat of their hand had never come up.

She wasn't a mednin.

Wait. Mednin. If she hurried, she could-

"Excuse me."

Kurenai's fingers were midway through a sequence that would give their victim a bout of violent incontinence before she could blink in surprise; That was done purely on reflex as Kakashi's student slipped past her without warning but that polite request.

She wasn't a sensor, but she was a Jonin. And, yet, Kurenai hadn't noticed her at all…how?

By the First Hokage, the girl was huge.

And she'd just grabbed her student by the face, a single hand all she needed to open her mouth wide as Hinata's hands flapped and flailed about in the mindless panic of someone that needed air immediately.

Kurenai knew what that looked like, and she could still fire off this jutsu. And she would have if there wasn't a part of her that had just remembered that the girl was in training to be a mednin.

It was a close thing.

Very close.

"Damn it, Hinata. Chew, then swallow... Ah well. We all make mistakes. And you'll be alright," the girl, Haruno, murmured calmly, her other hand slipping into the more petite girl's mouth as Hinata slapped at her arms and gagged, the boys standing up from their seats and quivering with tension, not doing anything much like she was. "This will feel very strange."

Haruno's hand turned in Hinata's mouth, then pulled… And Hinata gasped, sputtering and wheezing as a wad of half-chewed meat a third the size of Kurenai's fist sat in an expressionless genin's open palm.

"God damn," Kiba rasped as he collapsed back into his seat, patting his chest as he eyed that wad with the fury most ninjas directed at their enemies. "My heart stopped working for a second, fuck. That's no way to go."

Shino, being himself, quietly nodded. And, not so quietly, buzzed.

"I'd have just punched her in the gut."

Kurenai, taking her first breath in what felt like forever now that Hinata had, slowly turned over to the team of genin hanging over the back of the divide between tables.

And from the sides, the genin of team Seven looking concerned as well.

"Just a good, solid punch. Right in the gut. It would have made a mess. But it's what I would have done." Akimichi Choji continued to assert himself with the aura of an expert...and as an Akimichi, that was what he was… Hinata would have been fine. "Not bad, Sakura."

The Yamanaka looked much like Kurenai imagined she did. Relieved, and like she'd forgotten to breathe in sympathy.

The Nara…just looked like he wanted to sleep, and Kurenai wouldn't expect anything else.

"I prefer to reduce the trauma of the people I work with. But I will accept that as the compliment it was intended to be. Thank you." Haruno gave the meat in her hand a vacant look before offering it to Akamaru, who took her up on that offer with a yip and some licks at her fingers. "And that reminds me. I have to ask."

She wiped her hands down with a napkin, taking her time as Hinata gasped and sniffed.

"That must have been…scary. And I'm sorry you went through that, Hinata. But you're better now. You're safe." She dropped the napkin on the table and opened her arms, eyes alarmingly bright as she loomed over the Hyuuga. "Would a hug make you feel better?"

Kurenai's eyes zipped back to Hinata, who had just stopped wheezing.

She just stared, eyes wide. No words; The veins of an activated Byukugan stood out starkly on her face as Haruno held her arms up for that hug.

"Hinata?"

And then she sagged in her seat with a whimper, fainting for the first time that Kurenai knew of in three years.

"Hinata!?"

==========

Beautiful.