Midnight Sun

She Broke My Scale 'Cause She's So Beautiful

Hinata sighs as she waits with Hanabi for Neji's bus to arrive at the bus terminal. Kou loyally escorting the two. It has been 3 days and though Hanabi had gotten around the idea that a 'stinky boy' had 'sunken his claws' into her heart, Hiashi is still bartering with reality. Hanabi glares at the photo that she is showing to her, one of Naruto and her on a picnic date but with the Human Filter on. Sakura and Sasuke can be seen being silly at the back with the Nymph on the Tengu's shoulder running around into the ocean. It captured moments before the two ends up face planting into the water.

Hanabi huffs, "He's not cute,"

For whatever reason, the filter doesn't work on his birthmark; the whiskers. Hinata studies Hanabi's face before slyly suggesting, "His birthmark make him look like cat, right?" Naruto would have squawked at the indignity of having his 'very much foxy' whiskers being compared to a cat. But she doubts that he would mind the misidentification at the moment. She'll just apologize later when they meet and Hanabi calls him a cat-boy just to annoy him.

Hanabi blushes.

Hinata found a way to sway her into accepting Naruto; make him a real life cat-boy.

But Hanabi frowns and turns her face away, "He's still not cute!"

She can hear Kou hiding his laughter behind her. Kou is a distant relative that had found bodyguard work with Hiashi but after the incident with Hanami, he had taken up a personal duty to guard her and Hanabi. Even so, he can't be around them all the time and sometimes, very determined people can find their way around him. Because of this, Hanabi too had taken up self defense.

She pouts in fond exasperation at Hanabi's stubbornness. The girl is already openly scheming on how to make Naruto a bad guy so that she will dump him. Hinata could only hope that she will never found out just how 'bad' a guy Naruto is. Thinking of Naruto, he is suspiciously silent today.

Ever since summer break started and they separated at the tunnel, he will message her around the clock whenever he has time. He shares pictures of his meals, his parents, dissing annoying courtiers during meetings, sharing the latest gossip at his castle, and whines about missing her in his arms. He is actually very careful to not be sexual with her in fear that her family might be looking over her shoulder. Naruto might be a bad student, but he's very good at predicting bad behaviors from others. Perhaps because he would be doing the same in their shoes.

He had also gushes to her about meeting another childhood friend of his visiting from Suna, another school like Konoha in Makai. He had shown the picture of his friend Gaara the Tanuki. He really looks like someone who had not had a goodnight sleep in ages even though they are just his facial marking.

Hanabi bumps against her elbow, jostling her phone, "Is it him again?"

Hinata sighs, "No...he's pretty quiet today. I wonder what's going on,"

She's a little worried. Even though Konoha is peaceful and the nearby village Nami is bustling with prosperity, Makai is always at war. It isn't that they are fighting for resources or anything that would make sense for humans. Rather, they are at war simply because it is part of their nature to always be in conflict. In fact, there are War Zones, areas where beings that have violent nature and insatiable bloodlust goes simply to go wild. She only know this because she had asked about Naruto's past as a soldier since it had been brought up randomly during friendly conversation.

Even though it is more like a giant playground for violent races and clans, the fact that they are really fighting and killing each other is still real and death of people they know occurs daily. Nothing is fun and game there. People actually get maimed, kidnapped, experimented on, raped, and killed. War crime is the norm just like hearing about students being served as lunch for annoying the cook is just another Thursday in Konoha. Because of this Makai has no need for a prison. Criminals are either executed or sent to the War Zone as war slaves. Depending on their behavior and contribution, they can either receive pardon and return to their old lives or killed by either their non-criminal comrades or the opposition.