AreliugaKou

She felt like… she was waking up from a dream.

Her eyes slid to the rest of the room of students. She felt like she knew them, but not really. She looked down at her uniform. It was more decorative than she remembered, and she couldn't imagine it having this extravagant of a bow for the necktie. Where was she? Why was she in a classroom? She just graduated, didn't she?

“Why not?!” One of the girls whimpered loudly, drawing her attention over to her, standing in front of a desk with her hands clapped together, begging. She tilted her head, letting her bright pink hair, with clips holding up the sides, brush across her shoulder as she pouted. “You used to like going to movies.”

Hinata blinked twice if she thought that the scene would disappear. Was… Was that…?

The dark-haired boy rolled his eyes and then his whole head back, looking exhausted and annoyed. “I don't care what I liked before, I don’t want to now.”

“Come on, man.” The blond boy with a glowing smile prodded at him with his foot, sitting backwards in the desk that sat in front of him. “It will be fun. It's a group thing.”

The dark-haired boy just sighed and closed his eyes, refusing to respond.

That was Sakura, Sasuke, and Naruto, the characters from her sister's comic book.

Hinata glanced around the room. The classroom looked familiar because it was.

What was going on? Was she dreaming?

She turned over her hands to look at them, and they seemed like they had too much detail for this to be a dream. She closed her hands over themselves. She could feel the heat of her own hand and of the sun coming in the window. She pinched her hand as hard as she could, and she could feel the pain leaving a curved mark from her nail and soreness behind. Rubbing the spot, she felt more confused.

What was she doing before she got here?

She was… she couldn't remember.

Hinata brought her attention back to her surroundings.

Sakura was now upset because Sasuke continued to turn her down, and she was now back in her seat, just to the left of where Hinata was sitting, pouting. Naruto was leaning his chair entirely back to Sasuke's desk, chattering to him, likely still trying to convince him to go on the excursion. Sasuke had his head tipped back like he wasn't listening.

A teacher came in, and the class returned to their seats and brought their attention forward, but as the teacher started putting things on the board, Hinata realized that they weren't actually saying anything that made any sense. They drew a diagram on the board that didn't actually make mathematical sense, and they thought they were talking. It didn't really register to her what they were saying.

She dipped her head down and pressed her hands to her temples. She felt disoriented, and it was bringing on a headache. How did she have a headache in a dream? Maybe she really did hit her head.

“Hey, are you okay?” A hand was nudged out over to her. She lifted her eyes to Sakura, who was dipping her head down, trying to look at her face. “Do you need to go to the nurse?”

Hinata shook her head. “I'm fine.” She answered.

Sakura nodded and brought her attention forward to the teacher again.

For some reason, she wasn't expecting to be acknowledged. She glanced over to the other characters that she recognized. Naruto was nearly falling asleep where whereas Sasuke wasn't even looking forward. He was looking out the window with a neutral board look on his face, well, he was looking in Sakura's direction. Hanabi did say he was secretly in love with her.

His eyes seemed to catch her attention on him, and he scowled at her. Hinata dipped her head down instinctively.

“Alright, class, don't forget your assignment.” The teacher announced as the room before leaving, Hinata was confused because didn't the class just start? What assignment? Did he mention one or… was this meant to be from a previous class?

“Ugh!” Naruto whined. “I don't want to write a paper.” He rolled his head back to Sasuke. “Can I look at yours just to get an idea of what to do?”

“No,” Sasuke answered flatly, picking up his books and heading out of the room.

“Traitor,” Naruto called after him.

“You just want somebody to do it for you.” Sakura criticized him.

“No. I just never know how to do these things. I want to see someone who knows what they're doing do it so I can do that.” Naruto whimpered.

“How is that not the same thing?” Sakura shook her head.

Naruto pouted before his eyes lifted in her direction. “Hey, have you done the assignment yet?” He called.

Hinata blinked at him. “I…” She wanted to say no, but she felt her attention pulled down to a typed packet on her desk. “I think I have.”

Naruto lit up. “Could you help me?”

“Useless.” Sakura rolled her eyes and left the room.

“I don't know.” Hinata didn't know what was in the paper, but she offered it to him.

He got up in a hurry to receive it. “Thanks!” He grinned at her. “Hey, sorry, what is your name?”

“Hinata.” She answered.

“You're the best, Hinata!” He gave her a thumbs-up and another bright smile. It was a nice smile. He seemed nice, if not a little lazy. She offered one back. “Oh, you know what? Do you like movies?” He gestured to her.

“I guess?” Hinata shrugged.

“We have a group of friends that are going out to the cinema, you could come.” He waved the assignment at her.

“I… alright.” Hinata agreed. She didn't really know what else she would do.

“Cool, now if we can just convince Sasuke to go.” He chuckled as he left the room.

Hinata watched him go and was left in the mostly empty classroom alone. Not knowing what she was supposed to do next, she gathered her books and headed out to the hall where students were filing from place to place, talking, giggling.

How long was this elaborate dream going to go on? It was strange. It felt more and more real the longer she was in it.

She lifted her hand up to see the moon-shaped curve in her skin where she had pinched herself. It seemed a little too much memory for a dream to have.

Something… Something felt wrong.

“Move.” A deep voice told her, bringing her attention up in a hurry to Sasuke standing just shy of her.

Hinata blinked at him for a moment. “Oh, sorry.” She stepped back and right into someone, making her books scatter across the floor, sliding to a stop.

The sound almost felt like an echo, as there was almost a snap of a light switch in her memory.

She was at a book event, trying to get the author of the comic to sign Hanabi's books. She had just met the author when…

An annoyed sigh cut through her thoughts as Sasuke knelt down to grab one of the books.

Hinata quickly dipped down to get the rest. “Sorry.”

Sasuke collected two of the books that were closest to him and snapped them down on top of her stack. “You need to pay attention to where you're going.”

Hinata nodded, blinking at him. With the attitude he had, she was surprised he was helping her. His eyebrow came together, glancing her up and down, looking annoyed before he headed on his way.

Hinata stood up and watched him go.

She turned to go the other way, not really sure where her next class was, but as she stepped forward, between blinks, the school hallway was gone, and in its place was the lobby of a movie theater. The weight that had been in her arms was completely gone, and she stumbled, just being startled by the sudden change.

“Hey, over here.” Naruto waved from the other side, no longer in his uniform and now in street clothes. Glancing down, she was also now in street clothes, a long-sleeved baby doll dress, and a purse that seemed too nice for a high schooler to have. “I'm glad you made it.”

Hinata just nodded her head.

Naruto's attention was pulled from her to someone else coming in the door. “Hey! Sasuke, I thought you said you weren't coming.”

“I didn't want to,” Sasuke grumbled, looking more than upset.

Was that… a scene change? Like in a book?

She had been asked about the movies, and now she was here, because it was the next natural place for the story to go. She looked back down at her hand again, where she had pinched, and instead of a dent from her nail, there was a yellow bruise from the healing skin.

She was starting to get a twisting pit in her stomach. This felt entirely too elaborate for a dream. It felt too real. Too many details were consistent. When was she going to wake up?

What was happening?

Deviating from the Plot

Pairing: Sasuke x Hinata  Rating: T Tags: Romance | Fluff and Angst | Sucked into a Book AU | High School AU | Happy Ending

All Hinata wanted to do was get an autograph from the author of her sister’s favorite romance comic writer, but now she found herself as part of the story.