Chapter Text
Takemichi often thought about what had compelled Hinata to ask him out that day.
Him, in his delinquent-wannabe glory, fresh with the awful hair-dye job, terrible sense of fashion, and subpar personality. Not that he thought that him as a twenty-six-year-old was any better, but the twenty-six-year-old inhabiting his fourteen-year-old self couldn't help but wonder.
Because Tachibana Hinata could definitely do better. He was at the top of his class, tall for his age, athletic from being a blackbelt in martial arts, and handsome to boot. And, well, Takemichi would say that Hinata's personality would be perfect if not for the fact that he had a problem in being...overprotective.
Suffocatingly so.
Exhibit A: Hinata delivering a finishing blow right into Kiyomasa's nose.
There was a moment of silence, the spectators stunned speechless by what they had witnessed. Hinata was by no means wimpy-looking, but the doe-like eyes and the fluffy hair on top of delicate features would make one think that he wouldn't stand a chance against the scary third-year that was Kiyomasa.
And yet it had taken Hinata one kick, one uppercut, and one jab all done consecutively to knock Kiyomasa unconscious. Ruthlessly too, while at it - all because he had caught the older boy pummeling Takemichi.
Had Hinata always been like this? Takemichi wondered to himself with a tinge of hysteria.
And just when the arena could have erupted into a clamor - from bewilderment to outrage to cheer - the silence persisted; in fact, a strange tenseness lingered in the air. The only sounds that could be heard were footsteps and an amused voice going, "Wow."
Immediately, every delinquent within the premises bowed their heads low, their hands clasped behind their backs as they yelled out in unison, "Good day, sirs!"
That was the day when the cogs of fate started turning their wheels. In one timeline, Hinata would die twelve years from now; in another, where two paths have crossed, who knew? Because Takemichi was fairly certain that Sano Manjiro had never stepped in front of Hinata and declared that he was his new friend in the original one.
Would the adult Naoto be mad that his big brother had unwittingly caught the attention of the leader of the organization responsible for his death?