Kumo No Naka Ni Atama

Keep Your Eye on the Money

"Okay," I said softly.

"Now I know that I have a- wait, what did you say?" he stopped himself, clearly having expected me to say 'no'.

"I said okay. I'll give you a chance. We can hang out Sunday if that's cool with you," I pulled my hair over my shoulder as I looked around him. Sakura, Ino, and Hinata were standing by the stairs actively staring at the exchange between the two of us.

"Y-yeah! Sunday'd be great! I'll see you then," he bowed just the slightest bit before catching himself. It was enough to make me snort in laughter, but in all actuality, I found it charmingly awkward- traits I hadn't really known Kiba to have possessed. I watched, amused, as he sprinted over to Shino and began talking to him quite animatedly as they exited onto the street.

Ino and the others grinned as we met each other halfway. "He asked you out, didn't he?" Sakura nudged me with her elbow as we walked towards the street.

"We're hanging out on Sunday. I'm not expecting extravagance," I rolled my eyes.

"The only way this could get any better is if Kakashi found out. Is he going to be at your house this weekend?" Ino plotted as we waited for the light to change so we could cross the street.

"He is pretty much every other weekend. I don't see why this one would be any different. What's your plan?" I sighed.

"Dress up super cute for your date and when him or your brother asks where you're going, tell them," She giggled.

"And? Then what?" I cocked an eyebrow. She always went on these little tirades with such feeling in her voice, like all her schemes were just so outrageous.

"What do you mean 'then what?'. That's it. Just pay attention to his reaction. It should tell you all you need to know about how our plan is going," she shrugged her shoulders as if she was pointing out the obvious.

"Iiiiinnnooo!" I whined, "first of all, this is your plan, let's be clear about that. And it's not that great of one either. What's a cute outfit going to accomplish?"

"'Cause he'll be thinking of you out with another guy dressed like that! Depending on what he does and how he acts when and after he hears the news will tell us how the plan is going," she huffed.

"Do you ever hear yourself when you talk?" I asked playfully pushing her, the other girls laughing with me.

***

When we entered the mall we headed immediately to Haruki's, which was a clothing chain that catered to teens and girls in their twenties. We headed to their formal section and began combing through the racks of dresses. With the four of us looking, we had picked out about ten for Hinata to try on after only a few minutes. We herded her into one of the changing rooms and tossed the dresses in after her.

One by one she came out in each dress and did a little twirl to give us the full view. We made a pile of dresses-the ones we liked- and hung the others on a rack comprised of other dressing room rejects. By the time she had gone through all of them, we still hadn't unanimously decided on one we liked. Hinata herself hadn't really formed a strong opinion on any of them either. She huffed, frustrated looking at herself in the mirror in a pretty eggplant colored, empire waist, floor length dress.

"Well, what about that purple one?" Ino offered, "It looks pretty on you."

"I always wear purple. I wanted to try something new," Hinata sighed, picking up the skirt of the dress, taking a few practice steps.

"What about the white one? It looked pretty too," Sakura held it up in front of Hinata in the mirror.

"Yeah, but it looks a little too wedding dressy," I rested my chin in my palm. Having an idea, I jumped up, "Hang on a minute!"