Chapter Text
Shrieks of laughter sound over the roar and creak of carnival machinery. The sun beats down on the park, and she wipes a bead of perspiration from her forehead as they make their way across the grass, avoiding the bare patches of dust and dirt.
“Oooh! Let’s go on the Zipper next!” Sakura points to the tall, imposing machine.
Her eyes widen at the ride where passengers teeter precariously, rocking back and forth, upside down, clinging to the bars. It looks like she’ll come off it dizzy and sick. “Okay!”
Her childhood friend smiles excitedly, and the two rush to the line.
The bluenette ties her long hair up into a ponytail as they wait. When she’s not at practice, she likes to wear her hair down, but it’s just too hot today.
The Zipper whirs to life again, spinning its screaming occupants in circles.
She shares a nervous smile with Sakura before letting her attention drift over to watch the rest of the school carnival.
Just across the way, a large tent houses games, like the dime toss, darts, and Pepsi ring toss. Stuffed animals that aren’t exactly cute hang enticingly from the signs as crowds of teens try their luck. Girls affectionately hug the prizes their boyfriends won for them.
A boy with golden hair and just the most wonderfully lean build emerges from the tent, heading toward their line. With a girl, a lanky brunette, hanging on his arm.
The smile she didn’t realize she was wearing until just now falters a bit.
“Hey, Naruto!! NARUTO! HEYY! NARUTO!!” Sakura yells.
She winces at her friend’s amazing lung capacity. She glances at Sakura, a part of her wishing that she wouldn’t call him over (with that girl).
She looks back to see if he’s coming over. Even with the noise, there’s absolutely no way he didn’t hear her.
But suddenly he’s toting that girl in the opposite direction.
“What the hell?! I know he saw us!” Sakura huffs.
A part of her is relieved. A part of her that clings onto this impossible crush is disappointed. The last time she saw him was briefly at the football game three weeks ago. They didn’t talk, except for an exchange of greetings. The usual, nothing more, nothing less. But with her best friend dating his best friend since intermediate school, they see each other often enough, despite attending rival high schools, for her to carry on with this infatuation.
She hardly even knows him. Well, correction, he hardly even knows her. She’s noticed him since elementary school. She’s loved him just as long.
Along with all the other girls.
She was 9 when she first saw him. The bus was taking her basketball team to the neighboring school’s gym for a tournament. They made a pit stop to pick up another team that was stranded due to engine problems. She remembers it clearly. Peering out the window and seeing him. A shining smile, tan skin, a confident gait as he ribbed with his teammates. He was cute. Her eyes followed him as they got on their bus.
And she couldn’t stop watching him. He was amazing. The way he ran across the court with smooth strides, the way he sharply juked his opponents, the way he handled the ball.
She and her teammates were swooning.
He never once looked their way.
His obliviousness didn’t deter her. When she learned he had club football practice in the park next to her school, she watched him everyday from the basketball court as she shot hoops. Standing from a distance, she noted the car he got into, its color, brand, the side of the car he sits in. On the road, she looked for his family’s car, wondering if maybe he was in the lane beside her.
She adored him.
It could be argued that she stalked him.
Her crush was so obvious throughout elementary and intermediate school, there isn’t a person who knows her who doesn’t know about her feelings.
But she’s been doing her very best to get over him. Especially now. When he obviously has a girlfriend. After all, she doesn’t stand a chance. He’s the star quarterback and basketball player of Konoha High School. And she’s just some distant girl attending the neighboring Hi no Tera High School.
So she knows it’s a really sick prank when she answers the house phone the next afternoon.
“Hello, can I speak to Hinata?”
“Speaking.”
“This is Naruto.”
“...” Well, that’s just not possible. “Okay, really funny,” she says, deadpan. She hangs up. She’s not falling for that. All of her friends and cousins know that it’s her life dream for him to call her and ask her out.
But it gets worse. Twenty minutes later, the phone rings again.
“Hello?”
“Hello? Hinata? This is Naruto.”
So she hangs up.
Ten minutes later, the phone rings again.
“Hello?”
“Hinata, this is Naruto.”
She hangs up. But somehow this prank caller is really not getting the picture. Because he calls again. And again. And again.
“Hello?” She tries to keep the annoyance out of her voice in case it’s actually someone else.
“Hinata-”
The voice is different, but the caller knows she’s on the other end. “Okay, please stop-”
“No, wait, don’t hang up!”
“Just stop-”
“Hinata! This is Sasuke.”
She’s upset. He should know better than to do this to her. “Sasuke-kun, what are you doing? It's not funny.”
“That really was Naruto.”
She doesn’t believe him. At all. “Okay, alright.” Her tone conveys her disbelief.
“...Can you bring Sakura over to Konoha High School?”
She hesitates in doing him this favor. She purses her lips and rolls her eyes. But she’s too nice to say no. Like her, Sakura attends Hi no Tera High School and hardly ever gets to see her boyfriend. And she’s the only one with a car. She’s basically responsible for how long their relationship has lasted. She keeps herself from sighing her aggravation. “Okay.”
“Thank you, Hinata.”
When she and Sakura pull up to Konoha High School, Sasuke and Naruto are sitting on the school field’s wall. They look a little tired. Football practice apparently just ended.
Her brow furrows at seeing the golden boy here. He is actually here with Sasuke. So did he actually call her all of those times? Doubt and hope shut her up, and she can’t hardly say a word as Sakura prances up to Sasuke.
The two lovebirds start talking about everything, somehow excluding her and Naruto.
She stands awkwardly next to her longtime crush, waiting for him to say something. Maybe a “hi” or “hello.” She gathers her courage to look at him, which in itself, feels like a huge feat. He’s gorgeous--blue eyes, tousled hair, broad shoulders, defined muscles.
But he says nothing. He’s looking at her unblinkingly and then averts his gaze toward Sakura.
Not that she should have expected anything. She grabs her basketball from her car and heads to the court. Sakura and Sasuke don’t notice or care.
She starts shooting hoops.
She’s on her fifth basket when he comes onto the court. Her stomach knots in nerves, and still, he says nothing. Just shifts his weight near the fence and watches her shoot a 2-pointer.
She dribbles the ball a couple of times and shoots again. She obviously glances over at him.
He’s watching her, and his head tilts a bit, seeing that she’s giving him some attention.
Not knowing what else to do, she passes him the ball.
He dribbles it a couple of times and then shoots. The ball makes that satisfying swish sound in the net. And of course, his form is perfect. He looks her in the eye and passes the ball back to her.
They switch off, bouncing the ball between them, taking shots at the basket until Sakura and Sasuke are ready to leave.
It’s not until later that night, the house phone rings again.
“Hello?”
“Hello, Hinata?”
“Yes?”
“This is Naruto.”
It really is his voice. Slightly husky and warm. Incredibly attractive.
“Why didn’t you say anything?”
She realizes he’s referring to that afternoon. And today just keeps getting stranger and stranger. “Well um...why didn’t you say anything?” She’s honestly wondering.
“I...didn't say anything because you didn't say anything...”
She was supposed to talk first? Oh. "Well...I didn't say anything because you didn't say anything..."
"..."
She meets his silence with silence.
“Why did you keep hanging up on me?”
Can she tell him that she didn’t think it could possibly be him? After all, he has a girlfriend. “Well...you have a girlfriend.”
“Girlfriend?”
“Yesterday, you were walking around with a girl.” She doesn’t know why she has to remind him.
“Oh...her?...She’s not my girlfriend.”
She doesn’t know why she has to explain this to him. “You were holding hands.”
“Ah, naah, she’s not my girlfriend.”
This is all too good to be true because how can this possibly be true. Her fingers tangle with the phone’s spiral cord in anticipation.
“...You wanna go out to the movies with me?”
“Okay.” Her response is a little too automatic. But she doesn’t have it in her to care because the hope is building up inside her, and it’s not until after the call is over that she freaks out in happiness.
“He was nice. It was really fun,” she recaps, remembering how he smiled at her when they met the night before at the theater. How he opened the door for her. How they sat next to each other in the dark room. How they talked about the movie afterwards. How he asked her out to the beach for next time.
They’re sitting around at Sakura’s house because her best friend just had to know how their first date went.
Sakura’s shaking her head, silently giggling. “Sasuke-kun, tell her what you told me.” Sakura’s expression is one of barely-contained mirth.
The raven-haired boy smirks. “You know the day he kept calling you and you kept on hanging up?”
“Um, yes?”
“We were at football practice.”
She nods, remembering how they met up with them afterwards.
Sasuke waits for a second to see if she catches on to whatever he’s trying to imply.
She looks at him blankly.
Sasuke nods and repeats, “We were at football practice.”
She still doesn’t get it.
“Every time our coach gave us a water break, he ran to the payphone to call you.”
Realization crosses her mind. The closest payphone to the Konoha football field is across the baseball field and basketball courts, then on the other side of the administration building, next to the street.
Sakura is shaking with silent laughter.
“I asked him how it went when he came running back, but he said that you hung up on him. So the next break comes, he runs to his bag, gets out his coins, runs to the payphone, comes running back, he’s shaking his head, and practice is starting again. And the next break comes, he does it again--runs to his bag, runs to the payphone, runs back, said you hung up on him. And I’m wondering what the idiot’s doing wrong. So eventually he was asking me for quarters, and that’s when I went with him.”
The pinkette finally lets out her cackles of amusement.
He ran back and forth during their water breaks to the payphone just to call her. And she hung up on him. The star quarterback and basketball player. Her longtime crush. Every single time.