青い骨の美 - The Beauty of Blue Bones

Chapter 14

Spring
Tuesday—8:23AM

The sound of soft singing filled the house very early in the morning. It was what greeted Hinata as she opened her bedroom door slightly to peek out into the hallway. She took a step back and closed the door, turning around quickly, she came face to face with Enkai who had been nearly glued to her side for the past few days.

"That's weird." The small entity said. She had not reverted back to her original height [or age] that she first used since Hinata had welcomed her back.

Hinata nodded in agreement. The house was usually very quiet in the morning, so quiet that it appeared vacant. Though, that was most likely [very likely] due to the fact that both Sasuke and herself weren't at all inclined to make much noise. They were known as the quietest amongst their peers, as well as her teammate Shino, and that never really changed as they grew older.

She knew that the singing could only be caused by her very recent guest. Hinata wouldn't say that she knew every single detail about Naruto, she admired him for years and picked up some of his habits over time, but singing was definitely not something she thought he would do—yet alone be good at. It was definitely Naruto's voice she was hearing, and it sounded very calming.

"You can't stay in your room all day to avoid them again." Enkai motioned for her to open the door.

Again, Hinata nodded. It wasn't like she was really ignoring them, or avoiding them for that matter. Occasionally, she would see them when they brought her something to eat, or when she thought she was being sneaky only to bump into them. It was weird, having to tiptoe around her own home even though Naruto and Sasuke didn't exactly give her a reason to stay away. They didn't push her like her family did.

She just thought that it would be better to save some face after the debacle from last week. It was already humiliating to have Sasuke involved, but with Naruto in the mix, it made everything even worse. Sasuke she could handle with ease, he didn't exactly pique her interest enough, nor did they have prior experience with each other that would make her feel somewhat embarrassed about being caught in the messy state she had been in.

Naruto?

Naruto was her longtime crush; someone who she sought comfort in, and wanted to be close to after she achieved her dream of being acknowledged by her father. Since her dream wasn't exactly accomplished, she had put the former aside and strived for something else. For him to willingly come searching for her out of worry felt nice, but for her to be everything except the Hinata he probably remembered made that feeling dissipate like steam.

Now she tried her hardest to not face the both of them in fear of making everything so much harder for herself. There was only so much avoidance she could do with them living in her home with seemingly no plans of leaving. What was her absolute luck?

With a deep inhale, and the familiar aching in her lungs to let the toxic air out, she opened her door and took one large step into the hallway. Her eyes were squeezed shut, her hands were clenched into fists, and she was ready to be bombarded by questions from the two men who had only the pleasure of glancing at her in passing over the last couple of days. Instead, nothing came except for the soft singing coming from the kitchen.

She finally noticed the sounds of things clattering around that accompanied the voice now that she was out of her room. Pulling her sweater closer, and tucking her hair behind her ears, Hinata bit her lip and walked slowly into the kitchen. Just like she did in her room, she took a small peek inside first to study whatever was happening inside.

Naruto stood at the stove, her apron wrapped around his waist as he sung underneath his breath. He was so focused that he didn't realize that she was watching him. A pile of pancakes, separated from the ones he burned, sat on the counter as well as some chopped up fruits. Naruto and domesticity were definitely not something on her list that she would expect to see. The blond man was all over the place on a regular basis that seeing him look so calm while doing something he definitely wasn't the best at was like being dumped into a pool of ice cold water.