When Onyx Met Lavender

IX | "Falling"

His cold gaze made the blond man freeze, and he cleared his throat in embarassment, leading him out of the room for the arranged meeting.

-----

Neji shifted his weight from side to side along with the two other men and Hinata. Tenten and Karui were still in the bathrooms, applying heaps of make up on their faces.

Lee simply had a grin on his face, awaiting the arrival of his wife. Chōji was just the exact same, except rather impatiently.

After a couple more minutes of fussing about their appearances, Tenten and Karui finally finished, grabbing their husbands and dragging them down the halls. The Hyūgas who were trailing right behind them snickered at the sight.

Their group coincidentally ran into Sasuke and Naruto on their way downstairs too, much to Sasuke's pleasure. Naruto was beaming like a child, then subsequently smirking mischieviously as he recalled his good old perverted conversations with the rowdy brunet that is Kiba Inuzuka.

After a few minutes of chattering, Gaara's powerful voice echoed from downstairs, specifically calling for Naruto. The blond man shivered at the kazekage's tone of voice and he instinctively clung to Sasuke. The Uchiha shook him off with force, pushing him towards the stairs.

Naruto whined in fear but led everyone downstairs anyways, afraid to meet the kage's sparklingly-terrifying eyes.

Gaara stood there like expected, wearing a stern expression with his arms crossed. He glared at the blond with such contempt that he itched to run away from the resort.

Kiba was cowering right behind Tamaki and Shino as well, repeatedly whispering "sorry".

The redhead cleared his throat once the whole group settled and briefed them for their afternoon. The resort had an enclosed gate at the very back that led to an isolated lake, and it seemed that Kiba and Naruto found a clever bribe to have the kazekage open it up.

The females were certainly excited. Though much to their surprise, the men were even more excited than they were, eager to go and explore the said lake.

Gaara sighed and asked Neji if he could excuse Hinata. Reluctantly agreeing, the redhead quietly led the doe-eyed woman a distance away from the group. He smiled and leaned to her ear, whispering whatever message he had to relay.

Neji, Sasuke, and the rest of the group narrowed their eyes at the two, and even grew suspicious as Hinata's face lit up bright red, jumping away from the redhead. Gaara let out a hearty laugh, patting her back and tilting his head, gazing at her lovingly.

The female Hyuga pursed her lips, in a mix between being upset and happy. Before Neji or anyone else could ask, Gaara's powerful voice boomed across the room once again, prompting them to the path to the lake.

-----

The surreal greenery tucked away in the back of the resort struck them with awe as they jumped around and walked through a narrow passage in between rows of trees.

At the end of the trail was a bright, bright space, hard to identify from the intensity of the sunlight.

As they grew closer and closer to their exit, they began to take longer strides and quicker paces, eventually running all the way.

They all gaped at the beauty of the secluded lake, hard to believe it wasn't artificially built. Naruto and Kiba looked at each other, giving the other a toothy grin and glancing at the females before pulling up their shirts.

The other group of males's eyebrows twitched in irritation, almost fed up with the two. The duo laughed and gave each other a high five, tossing their shirts in the air and jumping in.

Sakura and Tamaki looked at each other and threw high fives as well.

"Hey guys, the water's pretty cool, jump in!"

They all stood by the edge, dipping their feet into the water. And surely enough, the water felt refreshingly cool.

Sasuke looked over at Hinata who wore a similar swimming attire as before. Then he looked over at Kakashi, who watched Takane and Yamato whisper and laugh to each other.

The raven-haired male cocked his head to the side, trying to make something out of Kakashi's current expression.

"Kakashi, if you need to fart, I suggest you just do it."

The silver head immediately turned to Sasuke with a bright red face, motioning him to quiet down with a finger to his lips.

The Uchiha simply smirked and crossed his arms. "You know, if you keep staring like that, you're gonna give yourself away to everyone here."

"Yeah, I could say the same to you."

Round Onyx eyes stared straight at the older man's figure as he too adorned a heavy blush at the comment.

"A secret for a secret, then?"

Holding a hand out, Sasuke offered a deal. It seemed silly now, since both of them knew they wouldn't have the guts to spoil each other to their significants anyways, but Kakashi accepted, getting caught in the Uchiha's iron grip.

"SASUKE!"

Laughing and still tightly gripping his hand, Sasuke put a hand on Kakashi's back and pushed him into the water.

The rest of the gang looked at the two of them, stifling laughters at the silver head who was now soaked from top to bottom.

"Real mature, Mr.Uchiha."

Lightly shaking his head to dry off, Kakashi ran his fingers through his hair while getting out of the lake.

With the highly unusual but attractive gesture, eyes were on him, even including Takane's.

Hinata turned around to avert her gaze though, as Sasuke noticed.

"Hey, hey, now. I'm gonna melt, guys, calm down."

---

And meanwhile, just behind the trunk of a large tree by the forest exit, the same man, with scheming eyes behind gleaming glasses, watched her very figure.

"Ahhh, Hyūga-sama. It really is difficult not to fall for you... ne?"

With a smirk playing on his lips, he quietly turned on his heels, staring at the photo he just took.

"Soon... this'll all be mine."