𝚑𝚎𝚊𝚛𝚝𝚋𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚔𝚎𝚎 • 𝚜𝚊𝚜𝚞𝚔𝚎 𝚞𝚌𝚑𝚒𝚑𝚊 𝚡 𝙾𝙲

08 - A Brush for a Banner

July, 1992 - Japan

Haruka, having decided to leave the art closet a bit earlier than usual, caught a glimpse of the boys baseball team wrapping up practice as she began to skate home.

She was carrying a bit more paint and brushes than she should have been, and of course her bulky camera was hanging at her chest, but her bag was so crammed with books in the first place that she didn't bother trying to load anything more in there. She was a pro at rollerblading after all, so she knew she could manage to get home in one piece if no one distracted her.

"Hey, Haruka!"

"WOAH!"

As Haruka felt her skate, that had hit a rock, cave to the side, she knew she had to think fast. Saving her camera was her only objective, since everything else she was carrying would more or less survive the fall. So she dropped everything she was holding, freeing her hands to lift her camera into the air, letting her face take the brunt of the fall.

"Aw, man," She spoke sullenly into the grass as she listened to the paintbrushes roll down the street.

"AHAHAAHA!" It was naturally Naruto that had shouted at her, and now he had the audacity to be laughing at the situation that he had gotten Haruka into. "Dude, you totally ate it!"

Haruka's entire face was bright red, and there was a cut on her left elbow. Other than that she was relatively fine, but she wouldn't be letting Naruto hear the end of it any time soon, seeing as he had attracted the attention of the entire baseball team. They were all currently staring at her as she stumbled to her feet.

"Hey, Naruto," Haruka said calmly as she stared at all of the things she would need to pick up again. "Is Hinata around right now?"

Naruto's brows furrowed. "Uh, no...why?"

Haruka sucker punched him straight in the gut. She didn't want to upset Hinata, but seeing as she wasn't there, she could (and would) punch the crap out of her boyfriend without a care in the world.

"Ow!" Naruto keeled over in pain as his teammates began to snicker at him. "Sorry!"

Haruka started to collect the things she had dropped and sighed obnoxiously. Naruto beckoned Sasuke over to help, and then he ran and got everything that had rolled away.

Haruka could just feel Sasuke's silent amusement in the air. Lately she had gotten just a little better at reading him, which led her to realize that he was kind of a little snot.

"You think this is funny?" Haruka said, trying her best to sound intimidating as she shoved a bunch of paint bottles in the back pocket of her school bag.

He just shrugged, his face as blank as ever, and said, "A little, yeah."

Haruka wanted to throw her whole bag at him. She had been so embarrassed! But she couldn't, so she quickly flipped her camera flash on and began snapping away. He only glared.

"Stop."

Haruka moved the camera closer and closer to his eyes, and set the flash off repeatedly. Man, it sure was fun to annoy him.

"Stop!" He repeated. Wow, this was the most emotion she had gotten out of him since...forever.

When he covered the lens with his hand, Haruka withdrew as if she had been touched by a diseased creature from hell, and cried, "Don't get your grubby hands on the glass, Sasuke!"

"Your fault," He said indifferently as he turned away and walked off, even though there were still a few things of Haruka's to be picked up. It was a shame no one noticed the softest of smiles that tugged upon his lips, not even he himself.