I still remember the first time I saw him. He was 12, I was younger. He had walked through the doors of our classroom with our teacher right beside him. Everybody was curious who the new blond kid was, but he never spoke. He never introduced himself. After 5 minutes of trying to make him introduce himself, our teacher had just decided to give us his name and asked us to greet him. The kid never returned a smile or even acknowledged anyone.
Naruto in his early life was far from the goofy and jovial man he is today. He was as dark and mysterious as his bestfriend Sasuke. They bonded very quickly for that reason. Most people thought it was because they were both orphans with a dark past. But it was deeper than that. That was probably why he was the only friend he made in his first year at the school.
People were scared of them back then. And yet to her, Naruto had always been a beautiful soul to look at. To admire from afar. She always saw some light in him. And when years later he started being more social and interacting with all the other kids, she just knew that's what was hiding this whole time. The kid was good, just too much in pain.
Hinata was stressed. Literally.
It had already been a week since she had left Naruto's place in a rush. And she still didn't feel ready to meet him again. But of course the universe didn't care about her feelings, so the week had went at the speed of light and today happened to be the day the highschool reunion was happening.
- Can you stop that "sighing" I beg of youuuu... Sakura was groaned.
It was 6:45pm. She was still face under her pillows. The chick had spent the entire night partying for whatever reason and unfortunately had forgotten that they had the highschool reunion planned for this evening. Of course she knew better, the girl's tolerance for alcohol was tragically null, and yet she always did this after her and whoever she was dating had a fight.
- Sakura you need to get up if you don't want us to get there late...
Fake crying, her pink haired friend punched the bed as if throwing a tantrum like a toddler, which of course made her laugh.
- You're unbelievable...
The next second her friend removed the pillow from her face and started wailing.
- No but I still can't believe he said that to me Hinata! He doesn't deserve me at all! It's literally over.
- I dont doubt that, Hinata said.
Sakura was just different. She could snap out of a relationship so easily you wouldn't even be able to tell she ever cared. That's probably one of the biggest things she envied about her. Sakura didn't take shit from anyone... at least that's what most people thought.
Hinata knew she would always have that obsession with Sasuke. She never brought him up in conversations and always went out of her way to avoid him, but the chick had it bad for him. And she probably noticed how toxic it was for her and decided to stop pursuing or caring about him (openly) at all. In her opinion, she had been doing fine. But running away from our problems was something Sakura always told her would have consequences later on... but she herself wasn't taking her own advice.
The Sasuke x Sakura arc was going to happen eventually, and it was going to intense and overwhelming for everyone involved... She didn't think Sakura was ready. Which was why she just settled with men she could handle and dispose of easily...
- Glad you know, added Sakura with a laugh.
However, Hinata wasn't paying attention anymore. As she was applying more lipgloss, she noticed a notification pop up on her phone.
"Hey Hinata, looking forward to seeing you at the reunion today."
This was the 13th message Naruto had sent her since they had parted ways last time. And of course she hadn't replied to any of them...
Hinata sighed as she rubbed her forehead. She didn't know what to do... He had been consistently texting, checking up on her or just trying to strike a conversation for the past week. However, she had decided not to reply to any.
It was ridiculous. She knew it... She loved that man, she wanted him more than anybody else. But that was exactly it. That was the exact reason she was careful about all of that... Naruto was known around the media for having loads of fun. So of course she was scared to believe that this sudden new interest for her was one hundred percent genuine.
Hinata couldn't deal with uncertainty when it came to him. She had to know exactly what he was looking for. Because only God knew how much she was ready to give her entire being to him. But it was scary... She knew if it didn't work out, she would never recover...
Staring at her profile in the mirror, you could just clearly see how terrified she was. And tonight was going to be a hard one for her.
SASUKE:
Today was another one of those "Fuck it" days where I allowed myself to feel everything, where I didn't ignore the pain, and the way my thoughts and feelings were constantly spiraling and confusing me as every new thought hit me harder than the previous one.
"ADHD", the doc had said years ago. If I ever cared I would have looked it up on google growing up. But I never did. I just knew I was a complete and utter bastard. With a shit ton of issues and I owned it.
Scrapping the last line with the slim credit card, I parted the holy white powder in perfect lines. Not a single guilty feeling in mind.
Nobody knew I had relapsed. I kept everybody at arms length enough so they wouldn't get close enough that they would be able to tell. Naruto and I just met twice a week at max. Both times I always kept myself in check.
I knew what people said about drugs was somehow true. Relapsing was never good. People who believed to be in control never were... bla bla...
However in my case? I was strong mentally. I could drop it whenever I wanted. I had done so for 7 years. So it was definitely possible. I just didn't want to. Why would I ? My life was a fucking mess. Constantly having to compete with my older brother for who deserved the most stocks. Having to live off the fortune of a father that I completely hated the guts of. Having to pretend to care every single day.
It had been many times I'd almost thrown the towel and walked away from Uchiha corp. But who could ? My family was know to be affiliated with darkness. People were scared shitless of me back in high school because of it. It was well known we never hesitated to play dirty and had very close ties with Yakuza families.
I'd been used to being alone until I met this blondie who wasn't scared of shit. And this one annoying pink haired punk.
His head fell backwards as he was taking the last line of coke. Eyes fixated on the roof of his large room. Sasuke was alone again. He always waited until he was to enjoy himself like this. With Itachi not lurking everywhere to use it against him, and the maids asked to keep watching him all off duty. Yeah, he loved this time solitude..
He bumped his head along to the music playing when he noticed his phone glow on his bed.
Getting up, he laid down and reached for it just to roll his eyes at the notification.
It was one of Sakura's post notification. She had yet again posted a third selfie, after deleting the 3 previous ones.
He unconsciously clicked on her profile before drowning his attention in her pictures.
The girl now had 57k followers on instagram. He'd always known she was going to be something one day, but popular ? Hell nah, not in a million years. The chick had been such a know-it-all for most of their childhood before switching to this unrecognizable gothica.
He stared at the one of the most recent picture she had posted on her page. It was a sexy playboy bunny cosplay with the most extravagant and goth make up ever. Black everywhere around her eyes, fake piercings on her nose, lip and eyebrow. In his opinion she looked a mess. But the 33,456 people who had liked the photo probably had a different opinion. But what did he know ?
As his eyes roamed around her page, his attention zoomed in on one picture he absolutely loathed. It was her sitting on the lap of her current "broke" boyfriend.
She had always had the worst taste in men and Sasuke absolutely hated every single new male she introduced yearly on her social media. The girl could just never stop. She was addicted to being in a relationship.
Since their early 20s as they both went to the same uni, she had done a complete 180 when it came to her mentality. But he couldn't say anything to her though, cause he knew deep inside, he was partially responsible.
They had always been close, and when he had been spiraling through his bad days and sinking further into his drug addiction years ago, she had fought him tooth and nail to be there for him. And yet he still rejected her. Everytime she tried harder, more hurtfu would he be, until she had finally cried her soul dry and walked away.
He had actually underestimated how strong her ability to leave him behind would be. She had been obsessed with him for the longest. He'd known that very well. So when years passed and no interaction with him was ever seeked out again, no attempt to be in his space met again, he understood. The girl was done.
He had completely broken her and now she was afraid. Now she was losing herself to this addiction to relationships, constantly seeking validation online, constantly being loud to convince herself that she was heard and valid.
Sometimes he stared at old pictures of them and wished he could see the old Sakura again. But he probably never would again. Not until she healed.
Staring at the most annoying smug a man could ever display, Sasuke decided to click the profile link to the douche's page. He was a fitness guy, 300 posts full of pictures of him showing off his work out routines etc and a few other pictures showing off his motorbike and a few watches.
The man was broke, Sasuke knew that because he had looked him up as soon as Sakura posted about her new flavor of the month.
The man was barely making ends meet, he had a sick mother in the hospital who he used most of his income to take care of. He lived in his grandma's house, the motorbike was an old model he redesigned to cosplay luxurious... Pathetic...
Sasuke smiled mockingly, he knew Sakura. She made way too much money to have to take care of a man. As feminist as she was, she always drew the line when it came to money. The man's days were being counted.
His phone lit up to a phone call from Naruto which he picked up immediately.
- Wrong day to fuck with me so tread lightly.
He laughed on the other line.
- Well too bad that's my job lol... you cool?
- Meh, but instead of worrying about me you should probably go back to stressing about how "shy girl" has not been replying to any of your texts in a week.
Naruto simply sighed, and Sasuke immediately knew then that there had been no update. He had also aware that all those years ago Hinata had been the one who had saved him from that car crash, along with gaining trauma from witnessing such a horrible thing. The frail chick was strong even though she barely showed it off.
- But you know... if you start this shit with her it has to be worth a while right ? Not only because of the type of chick that she is, but on top of that you're annoyingly famous AND her brother is one freaking asshole.
- Who could forget about that? Naruto laughed before sighing deeply.
- So, figure it out before you open that door dude.
- Thanks therapist, I'm seeing you at the reunion tonight right?
- Not sure, I have a ton of stuff to do...
- No the fuck you don't. Naruto laughed, knowing he was taking the piss.
- Burn in the deepest parts of hell. Sasuke sarcastically retorted before hanging up the phone.
Staring back at Sakura's Instagram page, he went back to business. Naruto had interrupted an important moment in his routine trap house sessions: The moment he convinced himself this flavor of the month Sakura had miraculously found just 2 weeks after breaking up with her previous boyfriend would not last. They never did. Why? Because none compared to him.
A smirk escaped his lips as he lit up his cigarette and continued his stalking. Tonight was going to be eventful...
7:30PM
- For fuck's sake Hinata, text the man back.
Hands in her hair, Sakura was staring daggers at her friend. She had finally gotten out of bed and was almost ready to leave. Sakura had been confused for the past week hearing that Hinata had been avoiding Naruto like plague.
- I mean, so what if he knows it was you who saved him decades ago? If anything he actually told you it made him see you in a different light. Since that day years ago, he actually has been noticing you.
Hinata pushed the towel into her hair drying her freshly washed hair.
- I genuinely do not believe that Sakura... He asked me why I wasn't at my brother's wedding... whole time I was a front and center bridesmaid...
- Okay well what are you going to do then? Ignore him forever ? We're leaving in 20 minutes Girl, get your shit together.
Hinata rolled her eyes but she knew she had a point. Nothing would actually come out of avoiding Naruto like this. Escapism never fixed the situation. But one thing Sakura didn't know was that she was scared shitless.
She had been used to him never seeing her, never looking her way while she obsessed over him for years. And now out of nowhere he claimed he had been watching her this whole time. It was hard to believe...
That actually meant even when he was with his ex-fiancé he had known all about it and just didn't say anything... Why?
- Uber is here, let's go...
And there they went, for a night they probably never saw coming, and would've never been prepared for...
The eye opening night.
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