After

Eight

The day was cold. She was almost shaking when she exited the bathroom and run to her bedroom to prepare. She didn't remember the days to be so cold when she was a child. The start of the month she was born, marked the first winter days. But now when August faded the sky began to turn more gloom, the sun rose and set under a grey sky.
She searched for a trouser. A black woolen one. Ino had said barbeque and then a bar, but she always suggested something outrageous after a few drinks. And she would not disagree with her today. It was her birthday after all. She had completed her mission two days prior and Hinata suspected that she rushed the whole thing to be back just in time for the celebration. It would be a small gathering. Only her, Shikamaru and Choji. She remembered the last big party Ino had throwed, still at her parents house, where all her friends had been there. Ino had laughed, she liked to be the centre of attention and the occasion dictated as much, she had danced and drunk a lot. Until later that evening when Hinata had gone to the bathroom, only to find her on the floor, crying. It had worried her and she almost left to call for someone, but Ino had stopped her. It was nothing she had said then, she would recover in a while. It was the drink and the walls that were spinning and the voices that were loud. It was that she had kissed Sai, there inside the big living room and she was drunk, almost too drunk and her father wasn't there to scold her. He wasn't there to ruin her mood, to embarrass her in front of her friends, to make her yell back and look ugly. To quickly disperse her party, her friends leaving in awkwardness after that, her not speaking to him for days.
Hinata had stayed and listened and when the words of encouragement were ready to leave her mouth, Ino had throwed up. She stayed and rubbed her back until there was nothing left inside her stomach and made her sit on the bed until she finished cleaning all the evidence. You shouldn't drink too much, she had said instead and Ino had laughed. She had told her later that after everyone left she went to the grave of her father with Shikamaru. And after that it became a tradition.
The next year Hinata was already divorced. She didn't go to her birthday celebration. And the next one Ino didn't have a big party. Choji was at Kumo and Shikamaru at Suna. Both on missions on that day. Hinata was at her house. It was still unfinished, the roof had a problem that needed to be fixed and that was where Ino had found her. She was holding a cake on her hands and she had burst in, complaining about her best friends that had abandoned her on this day. She had sat Hinata down, made her sing a birthday song and she had blown her candles with force. Hinata had laughed that day. She had stayed with Ino until they layed on the floor watching the stars above her open roof, discussing of nothing really with only the booze that she had snuck out of the compound to keep them warm. It was nothing sort of the previous big events, but Ino hadn't cried on this one. She hadn't cried even when they visit the graveyard and she spoke to her dead father about her day.
And Hinata had felt like a child. A child she never had the chance to be. Stealing alcohol, sleeping over with a friend, discussions moving from seriousness to silliness and back again.
She looked at the mirror and decided that a teal shawl was needed to make her look less like a widow. Ino wouldn't be pleased.
She arrived at the destination and Choji was coming from the street across just in time. They looked each other and smiled, knowing both that the birthday woman would be late.
"Hello Hinata." The man said and hugged her. She liked Choji, even if the circumstances never let them be close. He was a kind boy, much like a younger brother. An image she probably had formed because that was how Ino viewed him.
"Shall we go inside?" Hinata asked.
"I thought you wouldn't ask." He said and took the first step behind the door.
They sat on a big table, despite the fact it would be just the four of them. The waitress looked at them but said nothing because the man along with the other two late participants were regulars.
Choji ordered both food and drinks, just enough for them to wait. Ino wouldn't mind he said, but with a slight uncertainty.
Hinata looked around the place as the man across her was turning the meat with care. He offered her the first slice and she smiled, greatful. It was a small gesture, one that could easily passed by, yet Hinata always liked them. They showed kindness and acceptance. A first bite of someones favourite food, a note just to bring a smile to a person's face, a caress on the palm when someone is down.
Little things that showed love.
"How is your book going?" He asked when he drunk a large sip from his sake, to make the food slide down at his throat.
"Good." She answered and it was a half lie.
"I can't wait to write about us." He said with enthusiasm. "We are a great clan you know."
"I don't write only about the good things." She said and drunk from her cup.
"Of course. What point is there to that?" Choji turned another slice on the fire.
"I mean, if you did bad things there should be evidence of that so the next ones avoid them. Unless they want to be written down in a book as the bad guy."
His words held a simplicity on the matter, yet Hinata didn't found it annoying.
"How is everything with you Choji-san?"
He let a laugh escape him.
"You make me sound great when you say Choji-san. It's the way you speak I guess."
He looked at the crispy meat.
"Take this one." He said and moved it to her direction.
Hinata followed his words. He would find it disrespectful if she didn't.
"I work on missions regularly and I have to help with the clan too. Dad is getting old, even if he doesn't want to admit it. I am sure yours is the same."
She smiled.
"Maybe not." He said and leaned forward. "Yours is a little scary."
In that she laughed.
"What are you two talking about?" Ino spoke above their head.
"Work." Choji answered and gave Hinata a look. He probably didn't want to mention his father, especially on this day. His was the only one of the trio that survived the war.
"Boring." Ino said and made a gesture for Choji to get up.
She took the seat at the head of the table and the men sat beside her.
Shikamaru had a cigarette on his mouth, that he had yet to light.
"We just sat down." Ino complained. "Don't you dare go outside to smoke."
A sigh was heard but he left it on the table.
"Happy birthday Ino-san." Hinata said and gave her the bag she was holding.
"Happy birthday." The two voices across her followed.
Ino looked at the bag and then the waiter that was coming.
She wanted to open it, to see her gift but she didn't want to seem childish.
"Choji you are responsible for the food." She said and as the man spoke she unwrapped the bright pink ribbon.
Her eyes sparkled upon seen the dress that Hinata had given her.
"This costs a fortune." She got up and let the fabric flow down her knees.
"Hinata this is great." She hugged her dress first and then the woman on her side.
"Oh my god." She said as she looked at it on last time. Then she gave a stare at the table and she folded quickly as if the drinks and the food would spoil it.
"Now you." Her fingers pointed at the men on her side.
"I wasn't sure." Choji said with shyness, holding the small box on his palm.
"Just give it to me." She said and she grabbed it.
It was a necklace with a circle on the centre. The symbols of their three clans were formed inside, each with colourful stones, black, purple and red.
"You are an expert in women Choji. I knew you had it in you."
The man's cheeks blushed with excitement.
"Help me put this on."
She turned her back and he tied it.
Then silence fell.
Shikamaru was looking at his cigarette, playing with it inside his fingers.
Hinata looked at the man and then at Ino.
Her eyes were narrowed, anyone could read the death on them. Yet the man seemed bored as if all the attention was not on him.
"So?" Ino lost her patience.
Choji nagged him slightly.
He raised his gaze meeting hers.
"What did you buy?" She asked as the death came down her voice.
"Nothing." He answered.
And Hinata was sure that when Ino rose again, she meant to kill him.
"I brought you this." He offered her a book. The outside looked like it was carved wood.
Ino took it, but didn't sit down.
"You are a cheap man. Women don't like cheap men." She said as she opened it. "The others spent a fortune and you..." She stopped and turned the pages.
"What is this?" She said.
"You always complain about the gifts I bring you. So spending money is troublesome, knowing that you probably won't like it." The man spoke, looking at her . "I collected rare flowers over the past year in the missions I took. Some are only seeds, but I thought you will be able to grow them."
Hinata almost laughed with the woman's lack of words.
"That is very nice Shikamaru." Choji said. "You are a genius."
"It is nice." Ino whispered and at that the man smiled.