Liars

SasuHina Month 2017 Prompt #1: Trampoline
All of my oneshots are linked together for this month. The hope is I do one a day. (i doubt it will happen)

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Hiding underneath the trampoline was something Neji-nii had told her not to do. He had been firm, even stern and Hinata had stared at him with eyes wide and open and tear filled. She had nodded, she had agreed to never do it again. 

She… had lied. 

The prickling discomfort of the lie sat unhappily in her young six year old mind and she contemplated what a bad person she was. Because, like everyone told her regularly, only bad people lied and here she was under the trampoline.

Bonafide liar. 

This did not do enough to drag her from beneath the darkness of the circular contraption. Although it made being beneath it uncomfortable it did not distract enough from the insanity of ladybugs that buzzed and fluttered beneath the dark netting. Here the grass had not been cut for some time, the flowers that grew were wild and vivacious and reminded her of Ino and Sakura and Tenten. She breathed in the damp earthy soil and the cool feel of grass almost sharp against her fingers. It was like feathers or silk or ribbon. 

How strange that lying would get her so much delight. 

The aphids were abundant too below the shadow of the trampoline. For that reason the ladybugs came en masse. Their wings whirred with the fervent beat of hunters  and she watched as they zipped past her face unconcerned by the giant so fascinated with their red shells and pretty black markings. There was something beautiful about the creatures, the red and black seemed elegant and raw somehow. 

A creak of metal springs made her freeze, staring with terrified fascination as sneakered young feet climbed the ladder onto the trampoline and began to shift the dark material above her head. 

“Sasuke you jerk, don’t double bounce me!” Naruto’s vibrant voice filled the air with all the sunshine’s of the summer thus far despite his irritability and Hinata felt herself heat to a super nova of her own. 

Laying flat on her back she pressed a hand to her mouth and watched with growing terror as the two boys hopped on the trampoline idly, Naruto arguing and Sasuke silent as the grave as usual. 

It was easy to see them through the mesh material, tightly knitted but not solid. They tumbled and played and for a moment Hinata thought she might even have heard Sasuke grunt out something that might have been a chuckle. 

“Where is she anyway?” Naruto finally asked, looking around and Sasuke shrugged, going back to bouncing, looking strange and ancient for a six year old with his hands in his pockets. 

“Neji said he would find her. Do you think Mister Fugaku will be busy for a long time? I wish we had a trampoline at home.” Naruto bum dropped and Hinata flinched, realizing that if they did that near her face likely as not she would get squashed. The pain she would handle, it was the embarrassment that might kill her though. 

“Father said it would be awhile.” Sasuke shrugged absently.
“Oh that’s why you wanted to come.” Naruto laughed and Hinata stared in awe as he flipped expertly, landing without a fuss on his feet. Face still super heated she pressed harder against her mouth to keep a sigh of admiration from spilling over her lips. 

Sasuke did not reply, the dark look he shot at the blonde loaded with venom. Naruto took it in stride, grinning back beautifully. “Well, why don’t we go look for her? She’s why you came, right?”

Hinata frowned slightly then, blinking hard as she watched them flipping and bouncing. Hearing for the first time the topic of their discussion she squinted, puzzled.

It was not uncommon for Mr.Uchiha to come pay her father a visit. They were in business together and therefore their families were often in each other’s company. Having Sasuke and his adopted brother Naruto visit was not uncommon either and had she known they were on their way she would not have hidden beneath the trampoline. 

Perhaps she would have chosen a closet. Facing up to Naruto’s intense blue eyes and overwhelming smile had on more than one occasion caused her swoons to turn into full out faints. Neji was even starting to suggest that something was wrong with her head and Father was ruminating calling special doctors. 

If they found her passed out beneath the trampoline they were for sure going to want her to talk to doctors. She could just imagine the unimpressed tightness of her father’s mouth and Neji’s drooping disappointed shoulders. 

“Yo!” Naruto’s voice shouting made her snap out of her reverie and she jumped. Sasuke who had been swaying on the trampoline a few feet from her turned and through the darkness of the mesh met her gaze. They stared back and forth for a long agonized eternity while Naruto waved at Neji coming towards them from the house. 

“Did ya find her?”

“No.” Neji waved a hand in an exasperated manner. “I have no idea where Hinata went." 

Naruto turned to Sasuke then, smirking knowingly. "No Hinata for you- OUCH!”
Sasuke shoved him, hard. He sent him flying off the trampoline and with a crack onto his back on the grass. 

“Hey!” Neji cried. “Don’t do that! If someone gets hurt I’ll be the one in trouble!”

“Let’s go.” Sasuke snapped, hurriedly climbing off the trampoline and grabbing Naruto by the sleeve to drag towards the Hyuuga House. 

Neji and Naruto gaped, baffled as the Uchiha began to storm away. “You jerk! What is wrong with you?” Naruto’s voice boomed even from a distance. “You could have killed me!" 

"You Uchiha as so unstable…” Neji growled. 

Hinata lay still long after the sounds of them disappeared, until she heard the patio door slide open and closed, until the only sound was that of the wind through the grass of the yard and the rustle of leaves from the weeping willow over the pond. 

Sasuke Uchiha had seen her, had looked straight at her and as her own face had flooded with humiliation and heat his own cheeks had flared pink. Confusion swirled through her head like the wind through the wind chimes jingling in the breeze.

Little did she know inside Sasuke ignored the two boys urging him to come play, busy instead with memorizing the image of Hinata tucked among the wild grass and flowers, covered in ladybugs, with eyes as wide and luminous as the moon. 

“Why is your face so red?” Naruto snorted, poking Sasuke’s cheek sharply and earning a sharp swat for his trouble. “Thinking of your girlfriend?”

“That’s not funny.” Neji growled, glaring. 

Sasuke sniffed arrogantly and grabbed one of the books strewn over Neji’s bedroom to look at, seeing nothing. 

“No.” He finally snapped. “It’s just hot out.”

Bonafide liar that he was, through and through.