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“Oi!” says a voice, and Hinata looks up through teary eyes and sees a blonde. A girl - Yamanaka Ino, Hinata knows, though they’ve never talked. She’s the heir to the Yamanakas, in Hinata’s class and loud and confident and she glares at the boys, hands on her hips. “What are you doing? Let her up!”
There’s another girl that Hinata recognizes from class huddled behind her, a pink-haired girl with big green eyes - their eyes meet, and the pink-haired girl gives her a little nod.
The boys are undeterred, however, and the ringleader turns to scowl at Yamanaka. “She needs to apologize!” he snaps, glaring. “She ran into me!”
“That’s it?” Yamanaka asks, disbelieving. “Then you asked for it! Come on, Sakura!” She charges forward with a yell, and after a moment, the other girl does the same.
Yamanaka punches the leader square in the face, making him bleed and start crying, Sakura bites one of the other boys and he screams, and Hinata manages to reach out and grab the final boy’s leg so he goes crashing down with a yelp.
All three bolt, running as fast as they can from the girls, and Yamanaka lets out a whoop. “Take THAT!” she yells, waving a fist in the air after them, and then she turns to offer a hand to Hinata, a grin on her face. “Are you okay? They didn’t hurt you too bad?”
Hinata takes it, wide-eyed. “N-No...” she stammers, cheeks flushed.
“Good!” she says. “I’m Ino. You’re Hyuuga...” She frowns, and Hinata is about to quietly tell her before she snaps her fingers. “Hinata, right?”
She nods. “Um. Y-Yes...”
“Cool!” says Ino. “This is Sakura.”
Sakura squeaks a little when attention is put on her, and she nods politely in Hinata’s direction, ducking behind Ino.
“Th... Thank you,” Hinata whispers. “For saving me.” Ino is so bright and loud and fantastic, and when Hinata meets Sakura’s eyes, she thinks the other girl gets it.
“You’re welcome!” says Ino, puffing up a little. “Come on, let’s go before they come back with more. We’re going to the park, wanna come?”
Ko is probably looking for her, but right now, Hinata could care less. “Yes,” she says, and Ino’s smile is the sun.