Mending a Broken Chocolate Heart
She was struggling. This was a very hard thing to do.
The dark-haired Konoichi was determined to give it to him, but it was proving very difficult.
Hinata had spent time and care in making him the perfect valentines chocolate. She had made some for him the other day, but could not bring herself to give it to him. Instead she had given it to her teammates.
At least Kiba-kun and Shino-kun had said that it was good, maybe that was the boost that she needed to do what she was about to do.
She knew that they were just being nice, after all the things that Sakura had put into the batch when she was 'helping' just did not belong with sweets.
But she was sure she had done it right this time, and with Kiba's and Shino's kind words, it was enough to bring her here.
She soon found herself standing outside a worn door to his apartment. Hinata could not be sure how long she had been just standing there. But judging by how long it was taking to raise her trembling hand, she felt it as an eternity.
Finally, after a long time, she took a deep steadying breath and brought her clenched hand up to the door and…
Knock…knock.
Naruto was woken up by a very soft knock at his apartment door, normally a very sound sleeper it was only the fact that he was already waking up that he even heard the knock at his door.
He looked over at the clock; it was a quarter past nine. He sat up in the bed, and called out. "I'll be there in a sec."
Stepping down out of bed, he walked over to the dresser. Putting on a white tee shirt and a black pair of pants he made his way to the door.
At least he was awake enough to put on some clothes. The last time that he was woken up by a knock at the door he answered it in only his boxers, and quickly received Sakura's fist in his face.
He answered the door, only to be shocked by the person there… "Hinata?"
The shy Konoichi quickly ducked her head in order to hide her blush; Naruto just looked so cute with his hair tussled like that. She thrust out the wrapped package toward him, "Here I m-made you some valentines ch-chocolate N-Naruto-kun."
With her head ducked down like that she could not see the look that had crossed his face at the moment.
-Flashback-
"What? No way," Naruto said while talking to his friend Kiba.
"I'm telling you it's true. Earlier today Hinata gave me some valentines chocolate." Kiba said fervently, "It was disgusting; I only just got the taste out of my mouth."
Naruto cocked an eyebrow, grinning cheekily at the Inuzuka. "So why was Hinata giving you chocolates anyway? You two got a little thing going on?" Despite the grin, Naruto was feeling a little bit of jealousy. No one ever gave him some thing for Valentines Day.
His mind immediately conjured up an image of the same shy girl giving him some chocolates, and truth be told, he would not object to that.
He got a small blush when he thought about it, not that it would ever happen.
"What? No, it's not that at all," Kiba's voice cut into his day dream. "She's given them to me and Shino the past couple years. I don't know if she was trying out a new recipe or something, but these where foul."
Naruto tilted his head in thought, "but that does not make any sense. I have had some of her cooking, it was some of the best I ever had."
"Yeah, I know," Kiba said. "We told her it was good, cause she does not need to have her confidence ruined with cooking."
"Well that was nice of you…" Naruto remarked quietly.
"Yeah, well somehow I think she still knew," Kiba grinned. "After all there is not much we can hide from her. Hopefully she goes back to the old recipe, last year the chocolates were the best."
-End flash back-
It was with that thought in mind that Naruto had a look of apprehension on his face, that look was mixed with the slight look of shock. The shock was because of the fact that there was a girl who was giving him something for valentines.
Naruto could not help but wonder why, no one ever gave him anything for that. But then Hinata is a kind person, maybe she saw how he felt and decided to cheer him up. She is the kind of person who would do that.
Before Naruto could accept the gift, despite how weary he was of it, Hinata looked up with an expectant look on her face.
The shock and apprehension on his face was misinterpreted for a look of disgust. Her eyes began to well with tears, and the package slipped from her hands, falling to the floor.
She turned and muttered, "G-gomen, I did n-not mean to b-bother you." And with that she took off running, running as far from her embarrassment as she could.
Her heart was pounding in her ears, and she did not hear him calling for her to come back.
Naruto was left to look down at the gift on the floor, it had opened and the heart shaped treat was shattered.
"Damn it," he muttered. Naruto then gathered up the broken gift and made his way back inside to change. He would have to find her, even he could see how upset she was.
OoOoOoOoOoO
"I-I'm so stupid…"
Hinata was sitting on one of the park benches that were littered around the village. Her face was in her hands and she was quietly sobbing, muttering to herself, while the tears streamed down her cheeks.
'What was I thinking?' she wondered. 'That was so foolish, he still likes Sakura. Why would he want me when they have been growing closer?'
She was so wrapped up in her own misery that she did not notice Naruto approaching her.
"Hinata?" she heard his voice.
She looked up to see Naruto looking at her with concern in his eyes, she blushed a bit but could not bring herself to face him right now.
Hinata got up and with her face down tried to run, only to be stopped by a hand gripping her wrist.
"Please, wait a second," Naruto asked pleadingly.
She looked back at him, and he motioned to the bench that she was just sitting on. "Can we talk?" he asked quietly.
She nodded, unable to turn down a request from him. And then she allowed herself to be guided back to the park bench, where he sat down next to her.
She still couldn't say anything, and she knew that this would be heart wrenching. She wished that Naruto would leave her alone for a bit, and it was the first time she ever found herself wishing such a thing.
"Arigato…" Naruto said while still holding onto her wrist. "For the gift, you have no idea what that means to me."
This was not the reaction that she was expecting, wasn't he supposed to be turning her down? "Nani?"
"I really appreciate the gift, but I wanted to know why."
"Why?" she repeated.
Naruto nodded, "yes, why did you give this to me?" he lifted up the package that he was carrying with him. "I tried it, it was really good. No, that's not it, it was the best chocolate I have ever had."
"R-Really?" she asked, wishing she had not misheard him.
"Really," he said with a smile. "But you have not answered my question."
She mumbled something, too quietly for him to hear.
"I'm sorry? What was that?"
"Ano, it's…it's because I l-like you?" she intoned.
Naruto's eyes went wide, "What? Really?"
"Hai."
She liked him? How was that even possible? The truth of the matter was that he was seeing her as a slight crush for a little while now, but he never thought that she would ever accept a baka like him.
"I like you too," he said finally.
She turned a light red, "Really?"
"Hai, you are a great person and friend. You have always been kind and recently I started to feel for you as more than a friend." Naruto explained, "I never said anything because, well let's face it, I thought you were way out of my league."
She could hardly believe it, he was confessing to her? If this was a dream she better not wake up. But she was curious about something, and if this was a dream then there was no harm in asking.
"Ano…I want to ask you something."
"Hai?"
"If you l-like me, then why did you look at me like that before?"
Naruto cocked his head, "like what?"
"Well, you had this look of apprehension on your face before," she said. "It was like you were weary of me."
Naruto stared at her a bit, then chuckled a bit. "No it was that I was talking with Kiba the other day, and he described your chocolate as…not up to the usual standard you normally have with food," Naruto said carefully, for once thinking about what he said.
"But I don't know what he was talking about," Naruto continued. "Because it was delicious."
"Arigato," she said quietly. "But I think what happened with the one from before, was that Sakura-san insisted I put some questionable ingredients into the batch. She said it was going to be better, health wise"
Naruto stared at her a bit, open-mouthed. Then he burst out laughing, "well that was the problem then. As good as Sakura-chan is with health and healing, she can't cook worth a damn. Never let her 'help' you with anything with cooking. She will screw it up, guaranteed."
"NARUTO-BAKA!!!"
Naruto froze as he heard the scream, "oh crap."
"WHAT THE HELL DID YOU SAY?" Sakura was screaming now stalking toward the pair. The aura she was giving off was almost visible around her, like flames threatening to roast him alive.
Naruto turned back to Hinata, "I gotta run."
With that he quickly gave her a peck on the cheek, before jumping from the bench and high-tailing it in the other direction. "I'll talk to you later, Hinata-chan," he called out.
Hinata was in a daze, as she barely heard Sakura screaming something about taking his punishment. Her face was bright red and her fingers graced the place were Naruto's lips had just brushed up against.
'Did he just…' the thought was never completed as her world went black.
