𝚑𝚎𝚊𝚛𝚝𝚋𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚔𝚎𝚎 • 𝚜𝚊𝚜𝚞𝚔𝚎 𝚞𝚌𝚑𝚒𝚑𝚊 𝚡 𝙾𝙲

16 - When Your Heart Gets All Spazzy

October, 1992 - Japan

"'The Blood Bath Ball, to be held this Friday, October 31st, is your chance to finally find your other half. Disguises are to be worn for the first half hour of the evening, during which fate will be pairing guests off at random for an enchanting dance experience. Then finally masks will be taken off and all will be revealed for the final dance.'" Ino read aloud from the flyer she had just gotten. "Damn, who's the sap that wrote that up?"

"You must be kidding." Haruka said to herself as she too was handed a flyer for the Halloween party. At the top of the paper, typed in obnoxious large letters, were the words 'NO DISGUISE, NO ENTRY - DOORS OPEN AT 8PM AND CLOSE PROMPTLY AT 8:30PM'. "My other half needs to stay the hell away from me!"

She had been planning to have Hinata call her when the dancing was done and all of the masks were off, and then she would slip in late and act as if she'd been there the whole time. That way she could avoid her fear of slow dancing and still have a good time. But if there was only a half hour window to arrive, they must have planned specifically to prevent people from chickening out.

"You alright, Haruka?" Kiba asked her, having noticed her distraught reaction to the flyer. Currently he, Haruka, Sasuke, and Ino were walking to their next class together.

"I'm good. I just don't understand why they're forcing us to slow dance like this is the 1700s and there's a prince that needs a bride. It's just Halloween!" Haruka said in frustration. "I might just blow this thing off altogether."

"No, don't!" Ino said worriedly. "After the dancing, it'll just be a fun, regular party."

"Most regular parties are mediocre at best." Haruka said, and Sasuke couldn't help but agree. "Why does there have to be slow dancing in the first place?"

"Probably because they know it freaks people out." Kiba reasoned with a smirk. "Which is what Halloween is for. But it's not that big of a deal, Haruka. It's just the first half hour."

"Yeah it is, I don't dance! I can't dance! I'm gonna embarrass myself."

"You dance all the time." Sasuke said pointedly. "And you play DDR obsessively."

"That's different, stupid," Haruka huffed at him, like it was obvious. "In DDR, you're just...you know, grooving. But when you're slow dancing..."

She shivered.

"What?" Sasuke pressed.

"You're all up in someone's face, like this!" She spoke and stared directly into his dark eyes, their faces just centimeters apart. She had done it purely out of frustration and to quickly get her point across, but Sasuke's eyes widened just the slightest bit. The whole interaction lasted for about three seconds, so Haruka had already continued forward by the time he felt his face heat up.

"Haruka! I already know what you're yelling about." Tenten was ahead of them in the hall, at her locker. "And you better be there. No excuses."

Haruka gave Tenten a sour look. "You can't make me, Tenten. I'm my own woman."

"If you chicken out, I will never ever lend you any of my manga again. I swear it." Tenten said.

"Come on, why do you care if I go or not?"

"Because I'm graduating soon, and I can't bear to leave you as the same frightened, touch-starved baby that I found you as last year. Just dance with a guy already!"

"I danced with Lee during the last dance, didn't I?" asked Haruka.

Tenten cringed and shook imaginary spiders off herself. "Don't bring that up. That was not dancing."

After they had bickered a bit more for good measure, the four second-years continued toward the class that they shared, and Ino said to Haruka, "Tenten's right, you know. You should just do it already."

There were only three days until Halloween. As Haruka sat in class, it was almost impossible to listen to her sensei's lesson. Her gaze was lost out the window and her mind was elsewhere. Maybe she should just fake an illness, buy a bunch of candy, and watch scary movies all by herself.

Who had decided to turn Halloween into a lovey dovey thing? What was the point in that? Granted, it would only be a half hour, but it was still incredibly unnecessary. As the day fled by, she kept to herself and didn't speak much.

-

"My hands got sweaty all the time. It was weird. But the telltale sign for any guy is when your heart gets all spazzy on you and your chest feels like it's going to explode."

"I'm going to kick you out of this car, Naruto. Stop talking like we're a bunch of girls."

Sasuke had made the mistake of driving with Naruto to the skatepark. He had thought that his friend would have eventually gotten bored of pestering him about Haruka, but clearly he hadn't. Naruto just laughed and rolled down the window, leaning his head out slightly.

"Come on. Hasn't it happened to you yet?" He asked, giving him a look. Sasuke kept his eyes on the road.

"No." He said shortly. But he thought back to what had happened in the hallway that morning.

Naruto gasped, observing the practically imperceptible change in his friend's face. "I knew it! What happened?"

"Nothing!" Sasuke said, irritated. It really was nothing. Why the hell was he still thinking about it?

"Tell me! Please, tell me! Tell me tell me tell me tell me tell me tell me tell me! Please?"

"There's nothing to tell, stupid. Why are you so obsessed with this? It's messing with my head."

"She's messing with your head." Naruto corrected him. If he slowed down a bit, Sasuke could push him out of the car without killing him. "And it's the first time you actually like someone. You should be more excited than I am."

"I never told you I liked her. What do I need to do to get you to stop?"

"Admit you like her."

-

It was official. Haruka was going to blow off the party. Even though she would only be uncomfortable for the first half hour, she still didn't want to go through it at all. And her social battery was running low anyways, so she welcomed a lazy night of watching movies and answering the door to hand out candy.

But of course, her friends would never let her chicken out, so she had to act like she was still planning to go. For the rest of the week, she played along and pretended to be just as excited to go as they were. She didn't like lying to her friends, but she didn't like being nagged about a party all day either.

"I heard the DJ's the type to play mostly off the crowd's suggestions." Sakura said as she, Haruka, Ino, Hinata, and Tenten sat together for lunch at school on the day before the party. "So after the first half hour, we can request whatever songs we want!"

"Really?" Tenten asked. "You must be excited then, Haruka."

Haruka nodded in agreement. She could tell that Tenten was the only one who wasn't buying her act. Or maybe it was just that Tenten was the only one who wouldn't let it go.