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Disclaimer – I don't own Naruto or Ouran just the story

"Talking"

Thinking

Chapter 4

Neji paced the overly large hallway waiting anxiously for the bell to ring. It was almost time for the first years to be let out for the day. He skipped on half of his kendo lesson but slipped out a little too early in order walk Hinata to the clubroom. Neji sighed; overall it was a bad idea to involve Hinata with that bunch of idiots.

But Sai was right whenever that certain idiot president set his mind on something there was no changing it.

I didn't even know she went to this school. And of course she had to be put in the same class as that pain-in-the-ass Sai. Damn this stupid school.

Neji zoned through the end of classes staring through the first year's hallway window, his prominent scowl a bit deeper than before. Eyes glazed over he was unaware that he was staring at his cousin who he hadn't seen in years. Hinata seemed preoccupied as well; too distracted to notice that Neji's stare had caught the attention of a few of his first year fans who were now whispering furiously to each other.

However Neji snapped out of it irked as he saw right next to his younger cousin a hand make a short little sarcastic salute connected to a smiling Sai looking as smug as ever sitting right next to his cousin. Neji quickly looked away angrily and turned and faced the window in a huff. The clock tower read 3:29 and was taking its time to count out the last thirty seconds until the end of classes. He miserably shook his head trying not to think of what was about to come.

I already know this isn't going to end well.

"Why is Hyuuga-senpai outside our classroom…? Oh, now he's pacing! I wonder if he's waiting for someone."

"He's looking this way; I wonder who he's looking for."

"It looks like he's looking at…Wait do you think he's looking at me?" a few girls squealed in delight.

"Hyuuga-senpai is waiting for his cousin, Hyuuga Hinata-kun the scholar student." Sai interrupted their conversation.

"Ehh, that grungy boy?"

"I thought his name looked familiar. But I didn't think that he was that important to the Hyuuga clan seeing as he's here on a scholarship. You'd think if he was they would just pay for his tuition."

"But" Sai argued, "Senpai also came to see him at the lunch break."

"I wonder what their relationship is for Hyuuga-senpai to be hanging out and staring at him like that."

"Oh look! He looked away."

"I never knew that Hyuuga-senpai was so shy."

Massive giggling ensued.

But Hinata wasn't paying attention to her classmates clamoring about her cousin and herself. She wasn't even paying attention to her teacher who was trying to calm down the rest of the class. Or even the bell, she was still trying to assemble some sense out of her unfortunate situation.

The president is making nii-san bring me to the president. But why? Maybe…maybe I got nii-san in trouble because I broke that vase. Oh man that looked expensive.

I bet I couldn't pay for it if I worked like a dog for the rest of my life. Ugh this is just my luck too. Why did I take that scholarship? Why did I think that rich people were normal? I should know better by now.

"Hinata-kun" she heard an outside voice beckon her back from her thoughts.

She looked up to see Sai hovering above her with that same courteous looking smile. She was silent but Sai easily filled that silence quickly.

"Hyuuga-senpai is waiting for you outside" he said casually.

She looked out the hallway window and saw that her cousin waiting impatiently with a very dangerous look on his face. Sai just waved and Hinata's face began to turn pink. She quickly packed up her things and left the classroom to reunite with her cousin as Sai nonchalantly followed right behind her.

"I'm not angry at you Hinata-sama." Neji said tiredly.

"But I took so long because I was spacing out, and even worse I made you wait in front of my class like that. I'm very sorry nii-san." she said, bowing slightly again as they continued walked the hallway.

"Don't apologize, I wasn't glaring at you."

"Then what were you glaring at?"

"..." Neji turned away from her inquiring stare.

"Yes what were you glaring at senpai?" Sai said breaking the awkward silence between the two cousins. Making Neji remember that he was tagging along and interrupting their alone time.

"You're annoying Sai." Neji said in retaliation

"Hinata-kun, do you know why Hyuuga-senpai is so mad?" Sai said walking closer to Hinata, taking the gap between the two cousins.

"Huh? ...Well I'm not sure, but I think he's angry because he had to wait for me for so long. I don't want to be a bother to nii-san."

"Well if that's the case Hyuuga-senpai I can take Hinata-kun to the clubroom. If you don't want to that is."

"Really niisan? If I'm an inconvenience I have no problem going with Sai-san. By myself"

The least I can do is this. I don't want to trouble Neji-niisan after all this time. Hinata thought

"..." Neji stopped a few steps ahead of them.

"Niisan?" "Hyuuga-senpai, why did you stop moving?"

Both looked curiously at Neji's back that was trembling slightly. Most likely out of irritation or suppressed rage though both of them did not register the amount of anger that spilled from his back before he turned. He turned around with such a fearful aura that barely masked the amount of frustration that leaked out that it made both Sai and his own cousin flinch from the murderous intent.

"Sai" he said patiently, "I have to deal with you in club but if you go near my cousin, I personally make sure you regret it. And Hinata-sama" Neji said, taking his cousin's hand pulling her away from Sai's side and down the hallway trying to create some distance. "You're too vulnerable. If you leave yourself open like that who knows what's going to happen to you?"

"What do you mean?" Hinata asked. Her face tinged with a blush of the utter concern he showed for her.

Neji didn't turn around and replied "Nothing, just forget it."

Sai stood where they left him, watching the cousins until they turned the corner to the music rooms. He smiled to himself.

"Interesting."

When they had gotten to the door of the club with Sai just a few steps behind there was no blinding light, no roses scattered in an imaginary wind. Just three boys scattered about in an overly spacious room.

Two were playing cards on the couch and the other was in the corner writing in a leather-bound folder. He's the one I saw before Hinata thought. Then flinched as she realized that she was the center of attention, the black-haired boy seemed to be glaring at her as she tried to hide behind her cousin.

"Neji, Sai" He started, his tone sharp. "Where's Naruto?"

"Isn't he in the same class as you? Shouldn't you know where he is?" Neji asked

"Has Naruto-senpai gone missing again?" Sai asked right after.

"That idiot left right after class so I don't know where he is. That moron." Sasuke said muttering the last part under his breath. But then his attention on the newcomer sharply pointed to Hinata that the abrupt action made her jump a little. "Wait, if you didn't see him then why is that here again?"

Hinata face turned completely red as she babbled trying to explain herself but Neji stepped to shield his cousin and was outright glaring at the other boy. "Hinata-sama is my cousin Sasuke and I know you're pissed because you can't keep tabs on an idiot but it doesn't mean you can take it out on whoever you please." Creating a tension between the usually neutral members of the host club.

Neither of the usually calm boys wanted to back down. "I've never seen either of them as angry like this before, especially Sasuke-sempai he's usually so detached." Sai commented as they moved farther from the fighting aura that was building between the two.

"Don't bug me Hyuuga, I don't care if you're older, I'm in too foul of a mood right now."

"Same here."

The fighting aura building between the two was so intense she felt herself cling to Sai instinctively. However the tense atmosphere was shattered by an unsuspecting voice made by a new figure.

"Wow Sai, you're so buddy-buddy with Neji's cousin." He said completely ignoring the two other boys as they turned around to see the speaker. "And it's only been a day since you said all that horrible stuff about Neji's cousin and now look at you." Hinata also turned to see the boy who broke the silence as Neji decided to break off the stare-off with Sasuke and then take Sai somewhere private dragging him along from the scruff of his shirt with Sai's face even more pallid than usual. Sasuke deciding that he wanted no part in it left to do paperwork at a desk at the other side of the room. Hinata was left all alone with the strange boy.

She got a good look at the smiling boy, shorter than the others but still taller than her. Brown shaggy hair and sharp eyes but the strangest thing was the two triangular tattoos on his cheeks; they were blood-red against his tan skin.

"You know you shouldn't stare at people." He said slyly laughing a bit.

Caught by surprise Hinata face flared up again as she noncoherently tried to apologize to the boy but the boy just laughed it off and dragged her away to the couches where she had seen him before.

"I'm Inuzuka Kiba a third year and your senpai. And don't worry about that, it's not your fault. They're always been like that, just a little too high strung." He said cheerfully. "So your Hyuuga Hinata right?"

"R-right" she stuttered, not trying to notice that he was leading her by the hand.

"Great. I've heard a lot about you. We're all waiting for the President to arrive so come play cards with us."

"Us?" She asked as he finally let her go having reached their destination.

"Yeah this is Aburame Shino." He introduced. The boy in question was large and quiet, that seemed to contradict everything about Kiba hyper kind of personality with a calm stoic silence. His hair was black and his eyes were covered by thick sunglasses that hid mostly everything.

"Nice to meet you." She said bowing slightly to her senior. And in return he nodded his head in acknowledgment.

"Okay! Set up the cards." Kiba announced "We were in the middle of a game but I thought it would be better if you would play as well. So were going to start again."

Kiba took all the cards and the current hand from Shino's hands but before he could shuffle the deck Shino said, "I was winning." Kiba who did not quite hear right away (or chose to ignore it) kept right on shuffling the deck.

"Bullshit, you were cheating." And he continued uncontested.

"Kiba", someone yelled from outside in the hall. Hinata turned recognizing her cousin's voice, but did not see him or Sai. "What are you doing with my cousin?" his tone angry.

"It's just gin Neji. It's not like we're play strip poker." Kiba retaliated, his tone lighthearted. "As if Shino would play strip poker." Kiba whispered so that only she could hear and the very absurdity of the mental image that came to mind Hinata giggled her face showing a smile for a long time since she came to the school. Kiba was smiling and laughing along with her.

"Alright." He announced, "You might have a future in this club after all." Kiba said grinning wildly. "You'll see, this place is fun once you get used to it Hina-chan"

"H-Hina-chan?" she asked at the beaming boy. Her face just a little bit red. "Yeah because you're cute like a girl, so hina-chan" he explained nonchalantly without looking away from his cards. "And don't worry I don't think you'll have fun here because your gay, it's because your good-looking when you smile. Not that I'm hitting on you or anything. If fact not to dash your hopes or anything but everyone here is probably straight, well maybe with the exception of Sai because of his 'vocabulary' I swear he says it so much I think it a fixation or something…" Kiba just rambled on and on not knowing that Hinata was barely registering the large amount of information that spewed out. From another's viewpoint she looked completely dejected.

Do they all really think I'm a guy? She asked herself, without knowing started tearing up unconsciously and how can all of them think I'm GAY?

"Kiba" a deep voice had snapped the absorbed two to the owner of the voice. "Yeah" Kiba answered suspiciously. Hinata peeked out of her hands.

"You're making him uncomfortable." He stated simply.

"No I'm not Shino. Hina-chan doesn't mind." Kiba argued back.

"He's crying." He said and Kiba's head snapped to Hinata surprising her to hide herself with her hands feeling the tears run down her face as she blinked. But Kiba almost roughly held her hands and pushed them from her face. His hand was scattered on the floor. Her face was red and his was alarmed and tool close.

"I…I…" Kiba started his face filled with remorse "I'm really sorry Hina-chan. I didn't mean to make you feel bad. I just wanted you to feel welcome. Sometimes I'll say something really stupid." He looked as dejected as she had just moments before his eyes grew bigger and it was almost as if his puppy-dog eyes were beginning to water.

"I promise if I do anything to make you annoyed or awkward just say the word and I'll have Shino smack me upside the head." He said so with such enthusiasm shining on his face that it almost shocked Hinata.

"Why me?" Shino said calmly

"Because you hit like a girl."

"Since when?"

And without missing a beat Kiba had started another argument with the other boy. Kiba was so completely focused on his argument he forgot about Hinata even though he was still leaning over her his hands still holding hers. She couldn't help but laugh at the two. Unbeknownst to her that they had stopped bickering, Kiba had even let go of her hands.

"I'll be sure to do that Inuzuka-senpai" she said between chuckles.

"Alright! But it's just Kiba, not Inuzuka-senpai. Too formal for friends."

"Friends?"

"Yeah as long as you're here Hina-chan me and Shino will be your best friends no matter what." He said happily "If you have any problems or need advice you can just ask us okay?"

"Okay" she said hesitatingly, "Kiba-kun."

"Yosh, now that that's out of the way before we open let's play some gin." Actively dealing out the cards and then turning to Hinata. "In honor of our new friend I will beat the pants off of Shino" He said grinning wolfishly.

"Okay" she said smiling back

"As if you could."

Minutes after Naruto entered almost silently looking around the clubroom. Kiba and Shino were playing cards with someone and Neji was standing broodingly with eyes closed next to a sick looking Sai. And with a quick sweep of the room found that he was safe. Entering completely through the door he was greeted to a strike from behind with a leather folder. Bent down in pain he saw the red-eyed Uchiha in a very visible bad mood.

"Was I late again?" He said sheepishly.

"Over a half hour" Sasuke deadpanned. "What did I say about being late Naruto?"

"Yeah, Yeah what's done is done, don't get so riled up because we lost a little time."

"…" Sasuke just glared at the boy before composing himself "Whatever just make sure it doesn't happen again."

"Yes, sir" Naruto said sarcastically.

"Why were you late anyway?" Sasuke asked offhandedly now writing in the notebook taking note of the time from his watch.

"Oh, I had to borrow something from someone and it took awhile." He said cryptically while showing the paper shopping bag to Sasuke

"That's helpful, what did you borrow and why did it take you so long to borrow it."

"You'll see." Naruto said turning to see the other club members seeing the commotion collect to the front of the room.

"I don't care." Sasuke said, but Naruto ignored him.

"Neji did you bring your cousin?" he asked hyperactively smiling brightly.

"Yes…" Neji started but was interrupted by Kiba "He's right here." Kiba said.

"Perfect. Now…" he trailed off into an awkward silence while everyone stared at him.

"Hyuuga Hinata." Sasuke said.

"Right! Hyuuga Hinata do you know why you have been summoned to the prestigious host club?" he gestured grandly

Wordlessly she shook her head uncomfortable of all the attention that was on her again.

"Well, just the other day you broke a valuable vase that would have been auctioned off at the very least eight million yen!"

"Eight million yen!" she squeaked in surprise, her usually soft voice was higher in volume than usual.

"Now don't think me inconsiderate about your plight as a commoner I have taken into account that you could never pay for this even if you worked every day for the rest of your life. So I've decided to let you pay for it by working here."

Eight million yen, eight million yen, how could I pay back EIGHT…wait what?"

"So Hinata-kun will be working here during club hours?" Sai asked.

"Yep, see teme you shouldn't freak out so much, I came up with a solution for finding the money for the vase."

Sasuke just looked sourly at the blonde and went back to writing in his notebook.

"Wait, wait" Hinata said abruptly looking almost sick. "If it's possible with you I'd really rather not work here. I could pay you back by getting another part time job a-and I could pay it back in installments so please…"

"How could you pay for it with a measly minimum wage job? There's no way you could pay for it like that when you can't even buy the school uniform." Sasuke said coldly cutting her off.

A figurative knife twisted itself in her heart as she realized that he was right. Even with cutbacks she would live in relative poverty to try to pay them back the entire debt. Tiny gloom clouds circled her as Neji objected, "Don't you think it's a little unfair, if Hinata doesn't want anything to do with the club, Sasuke does he really have to do this?"

"It's not my idea talk to our president."

"Neji, trust me this is a genius idea, and the best part about it is that he'll be earning a little money if he works for us so he doesn't have to get a part time job or anything while he's at school. He'll just work at the club and be in it as well."

"He'll be making money?" Kiba asked looking down at Hinata who's gloom had yet to leave.

"Technically, the money for the vase will be paid installments but he'll be working on one of my servants' pay which is actually very high comparing it to a common minimum wage job."

"So technically if he works for us in high school and he'll be able to pay it off and make some money working at the club?" Sai asked.

"Yeah, see its works out for everyone. We get our money back on the vase Sasuke, we get to help out a poor student that had accidentally fallen on hard times and Neji gets to see his cousin for the first time in years. Look I even got his uniform from my home." He said lifting a paper shopping bag.

"That's what you went to get that took half an hour to bring." "Shut up. My house is far away and the head of the house is really strict." Naruto protested. "Cool." Kiba said as they argued about Naruto's stupidity and took the bag from Naruto and casually looked at the contents and lit up. "Oh I'm all for it this is the perfect uniform for Hina-chan."

"Hina-chan?" Neji asked.

"See I knew you it was a great idea, go get him changed we're going to try it out today."

"Great, I can't wait." Kiba said as he pulled the catatonic Hinata to a different part of the club as Shino followed carrying the paper bag.

"I'm still not for it. Naruto you can't force people to do what you want, Sasuke stop this madness." Neji said.

"Your cousin the one who started the whole thing I really don't care as long as the money is being paid back. If Naruto wants to waste money so that your cousin doesn't have to work two to three jobs at a time then that's his business as long as it doesn't lose the club money then I don't care what he does."

"Yep. Actually Neji I being really generous towards your cousin. You see this is actually plan B." Naruto said happily.

"…What was plan A" Neji asked suspiciously.

"Plan A was actually a makeover on your cousin and then make him into a host. Just a little polishing and he could pass as host material; I mean he's pretty enough"

"…What?" Neji said incredulously.

Naruto continued, "Yeah pretty like a girl. That's hard to find a boy with those kinds of looks. But then I thought because he seemed really shy and timid and weird he would freak out all the girls so the official plan A was to make a team out of you two. We would have called it 'Little cousin warms Hyuuga Neji's ice heart' or even better 'The almost-like brotherly love between cousins, Hyuugacest'." Naruto finished with an artful pose.

"Are you insane? How in the hell do you come up with that?" Neji said seething in disbelief.

"Well, then again" Naruto continued ignoring Neji altogether, "I didn't think you would be comfortable leading your poor gay cousin on like that so I had to chuck that idea out completely."

"It sounds like a good idea to me. Neji loves him cousin, he's really overprotective of him anyway." Sai said.

"Don't make stuff up Sai." Neji said his killing aura almost rising up again.

"Yeah Sai gets the right idea, see women love a sense of forbidden love and we could he really make that a selling point for you and actually if you got enough customers as a team I would have let your cousin off the hook." Naruto said.

"Where did you get that thought anyway?" Sasuke asked.

"I researched popular topics amongst BL fanatics on the internet."

"…Alright then it's your club do what you want."

Neji looked at him with disbelief. "Seriously you? You're not going to stop this."

The two boys stared each other down again but Sasuke was first to break the gaze. "Yeah, I don't really care."

"This is insanity."

"Genius might seem insane at first I know for a fact that it would work. Trust me."

"Why can't I just pay you for the stupid vase?" Neji said

"Don't be silly, even commoner have to know the value of their mistakes. If you pay for it then he wouldn't learn anything and as your president I will not stand for that." Naruto said

"Plus it's more fun" Sai chipped in.

"Exactly."

Neji seriously contemplated getting his practice shinai from his bag and going to town on their heads.

"Wow they're awfully loud out there huh Shino." Kiba said glancing at the bickering circle of boys.

Shino just nodded silently.

"Almost done there Hina-chan?" Kiba somewhat shouted across the cloth barrier that made up the club semi changing room.

"A-Almost" she stuttered.

"You sure you don't need any help in there. I don't think you've ever worn anything like that and no one here minds helping. We can call Naruto it's his servant's uniform I think. He can help you too if you want." Kiba said.

"N-No thank you. I can do it myself." She squeaked

"Alright suit yourself but hurry it up or Sasuke is going to blow a gasket."

Hinata looked at herself in the mirror. It was a maid uniform, it was straight black but white frills and lace had accented the dress cleanly. If she wasn't wearing bindings today (because conveniently for the author everything else was dirty) the tight dress would have shown off more curves then she was comfortable showing to a bunch of strange men (who thought she was male)

She sighed this is almost the most embarrassing thing I've done. But then again she thought while observing herself if it was anything else than a maid outfit I could possibly tolerate it

"Hina-chan" Kiba said playfully

"C-Coming." She said pushing the curtains away to the awaiting eyes of her new friends.

"Yep." Kiba said with a smug tone "I knew it would look great on you." He held her hand again and pulled her to the other group of boys "Let's go show you off."

"Great" She said faking a smiling

Just great.

The bickering altogether stopped when they had returned the stares (with the exception of Sasuke who looked once) were even more heated than last time. Kiba patted her on the head and said, "Doesn't he look great?"

Hinata looked helplessly at her cousin as her face who composure had been fair suddenly lit up again as she tried to wordlessly signal help from her cousin and try her hardest to not faint at the same time, but Neji looked at her with dead and jaded eyes.

"Cross-dressing?" Sai asked but was ignored. Naruto who shared Kiba's smug look from before, making him look even foxier with his eyes closed. "Yep I just knew that my family's uniform would fit you nicely. It was worth the hardships I had to go through to see you like that." His face lit up with a large smile that made Hinata look down in embarrassment.

"You see cross-dressing is actually very popular in all kinds of yaoi situations, and it's very predominant in many Shoujo comics as well."

"That's actually genius." Sai remarked

"Don't I know it?" Naruto said proudly. "So what do you think Neji, great right?"

"…" Neji started. "Better than plan A."

"There's a plan A?" Hinata asked looking to escape the maid uniform for good. Neji looked in alarm at his cousin as he heard the sheer hope emanating from her tone.

"Yeah, but I thought you would be uncomfortable with it so I had to sack it. But I think this idea has its merits as well."

"Naruto, you've got two minutes then we have to go and do club activities." Sasuke added randomly while staring at his watch his irritation growing more visible.

"What already, I wanted to get ready first."

"No time. That's what happens when you're a half an hour late."

Alright, alright don't be such a killjoy."

"A-Ano" she stuttered, "If it's not too much trouble could I do the other plan? I'm not comfortable with this" she made a gesture to the dress.

"Wait" Neji said, "Hinata trust me on this plan A is much worse than this."

Hinata looked at him quizzically and then stared down at the dress knowing that she would have to serve people in said dress and the idea mortified her. She almost glared at him.

There is nothing worse than this.

"Ah Neji is being difficult today." Naruto butted in, "Sure that's no problem, we can't do it now because we have no time but when we start up again next week on Monday we will put plan A into progress. And then you can decide which plan you want to use to pay us back. Sorry I guess I decided too early what would make you uncomfortable." He said smiling an apologetic smile

"Ah…don't apologize. Thank you for being so understanding." She said relieved that being in a maid outfit would only last one day.

"Alright so let's get you ready for club."

"No time, we have to go to the courtyard now."

"But…"

"I said there's no time" Sasuke said pushing the blonde out the door the rest of the group followed with the exception of the two Hyuuga cousins.

"It won't be so bad right?" she asked cousin her voice faint but relieved

He looked at her wearily and continued out the door leaving his cousin to follow.

"You have no idea" he said when she was out of earshot and held a hand to his head to try and stop the pounding headache that had just begun.

He sighed its going to be a long day.

Is it just me or am I bullying Neji too much? Ah well. You may have noticed that Hinata lost a bit of her spunk but it will return, and in greater numbers. Kiba's a little different too but that's because I am trying to find a happy balance between his actual character and Hunny's super cute character, I think it'll work out though. I actually have a rough outline of the next chapter so I hope to have the next one out sooner. I will at the very update the next chapter by 2011. That is a promise. Till then please Read and Review ^-^