A/N: This is my first fanfic. Critics are welcome when you give constructive feedback.
Edit Note: Minor grammatical changes have been made. If you're new to the story, welcome. If you're returning, feel free to reread, but nothing in the plot line has been changed.
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.
Summary: Naruto finds Hinata is stalking him and with a kiss to haunt him, he leaves Konoha to train, though he's still dense. Hinata, waiting for Naruto to return, finds something she never expected. Naruhina, both are main characters, alternating each chapter.
Opportune Circumstance
Chapter 1: Discovery
It was another day, and like any other before it Hinata silently stalks her prey. Being oblivious and comfortable in the village, his senses are not as keen as they would be out in the field, proof of his naivete. Still, she loved watching him. Just the way he runs with confidence and because he is so carefree. When the villagers would yell at him, sometimes obscenities, he would keep on running as if nothing happened, though she knew he could hear them.
He would always start the day by running around the village, not along the outside of the village in laps like some of the ninjas did, but he would go through the village looking at the shops and houses. Sometimes he would slow to a jog and jog in place if he noticed something new that was added recently, but he would run for an hour and a half each weekday, reserving the weekend for anything else he might have planned. Then he would go to the team seven training ground to continue his workout. First he would start off with the wooden dummy posts to gain some focus and focus on his attack methods, then moving on to making shadow clones and use combinations of taijutsu and ninjutsu to continue.
When he gets to the training grounds, he puts down a water bottle and a towel and continues to start his workout like normal, hitting the dummies with perfect accuracy. The dummies can easily be beaten with chakra-enhanced punches or kicks, but Naruto hasn't trained to cause the craters that Tsunade could easily make. Still, he knew that by continuing to aim for the marked vitals, he could focus better on combat with his clones. Sweat forms in beads on his face and neck as he continues his workout, as his shirt was already wet from running. After practicing with the dummies for a while, as shown by various new indents in the thick dummies and pieces of what remain of the others, his hands form his signature move and he creates 20 clones of himself. Laying down and hiding in the bushes, Hinata always found his workout attire, a plain white shirt and plain black shorts, grabbing her attention often since when he sweat, his forming muscles would show through as the clothes stuck to his skin as he radiated heat.
Panting and sweating after he takes out his lookalikes using only kunai and shuriken, again without chakra use, he takes a short break. He walks over to his rather large water bottle and downs half of it, and dries himself off with the towel before going back into it, this time he has his clones henge into forms of Itachi and Orochimaru to keep his ninja goals firmly in mind. His face is full of determination as he attacks the smirking forms that surrounded him. Hinata smiles as she watches her crush fight with the 'Itachi' and 'Orochimaru' copies with even more intensity than previous workouts.
Hinata was paying close attention to the fight when a voice behind her caused her to blush a furious red, "You know, it would be better if you would've let me know you were going to watch me. I don't want a stray kunai to veer from its mark and hit someone I like."
"...someone... you l-like?" Hinata begins to turn around when he takes her hand and her blush deepens knowing how close he is to her. 'touching... my hand...' Hinata's brain unsuccessfully tries to form coherent thoughts.
"Come on, you can't dodge as easily in this brush, let's go over there." He points to a spot near his water bottle and towel and gives her a reassuring tug as he begins to help her up. He still radiates heat and despite her efforts to get up, her legs will not obey.
Confused, Naruto looks back at her and tilts his head to the side a little. 'Those blue eyes... No! I will not faint... but those eyes are so endearing...' her eyes start to roll up and she goes limp when he catches her before she collapses completely and carries her to the spot he indicated. He props her up, and by this time the clones have all dispersed (the original, having noticed her while sparring with his clones before he took his break. He let another clone take his place against the fight with the various 'Orochimaru' and 'Itachi' forms while he snuck up behind her).
'Hmm, I wonder why she is here. She always has been kind of weird around me, and her face goes red a lot when I'm looking at her.' Naruto looks at the unconscious smile forming on her face. 'Man, she looks peaceful. I wonder what she's thinking about.' He sits down right next to her and looks into the sky as he continues his thoughts as she leans into him, apparently still unconscious, but her head lands on his shoulder softly. Her arms slowly reach for his closer arm in security as she begins to cuddle with him. A little surprised at this Naruto looks back at her, but she seems to still be sleeping. Instead of startling and waking her up, he decides to settle to watch her sleep.
Dreaming a fantasy of being with Naruto, Hinata mumbles, "...my Naruto..." which he clearly hears. Confused, but now interested even more so to what she might be dreaming, he decides to stick around, putting his training and other plans on hold for a bit. Having no mission today after coming from the hospital, he was going to use today to simply train till he was worn out and then maybe pester Sakura for a bit before he was going to go train with Jiraiya. He was still shocked that his teacher was going to train with him privately for a few years. Finally, he might be able to learn something really cool, even cooler than Rasengan, but first he would have to let people know he was going to be away for a bit. He did not like to have his friends worry about him.
Hinata begins to awake from her dream with a blush on her face, elements of the dream still fresh in her mind, that is, until she realizes that she isn't imagining Naruto's smell and warmth... and the pillow she was cuddling wasn't a pillow... it was his arm!
He watches as her eyes begin to flutter open, and realizing her situation she tenses and starts to form an apology and withdraw away from him, when he interrupts her, "You know, you were having a pretty nice dream there," her blush deepens, "and I don't mind it that you cuddled with me." He smiles down at her, 'Wow! She definitely has cute eyes... she... she's even more beautiful than Sakura! I wonder why I never noticed before. I suppose I haven't really looked at her this close before.'
Her eyes grow wider for a bit and she closes them in joy while she squeezes his arm. 'He doesn't mind it... does that mean he likes me... that way?... no, he's just being kind like his normal self.' She looks up at him again, seeing him looking at her deeply as she begins to get lost in his own pair of blue eyes as her blush goes away. Her jaw hangs open just a little as she becomes mesmerized by his presence. Unconsciously, she clutches onto his arm, pulling him down a little, and in the process, he falls towards her and just before they fall down together, she arches her head up a little, half aware that she pulled him down, and steals a kiss, her blush now back to its deep red again.
They collapse in a heap on the ground and being very surprised, Naruto blinks a few times before stating, "Well, that was unexpected."
A/N: Well, how'd you like it? Want more? Then review, if you didn't like it, tell me what you didn't like about it.
