The Greenhouse

Summary: After a few months of college Hinata comes clean to her father that she wants to become a teacher and not head of the family business like he wanted. Upset from the argument with her father she takes a walk on campus and discovers the college's small greenhouse. She feels immediate comfort there and meets Minato Namikaze, the botanist professor who becomes like a second father to her. For months she helps Professor Namikaze maintain his greenhouse and slowly learns about his son Naruto. She learns that he is madly in love with his girlfriend Sakura Haruno who breaks up with him four months before the end of the school year. When Naruto goes into a state of depression from having his heartbroken, Minato decides that he needs to do something productive and take care of his greenhouse with Hinata while he's away for a teacher conference. Will Hinata be able to cheer this stranger up in a week? And will she be able not to fall for him?

Rating: T for mild language

Pairings: NarutoXHinata, hint of NejiXTenten

Setup: AU set in college, Naruto and Hinata are 19

Length: Around 7 chapters

Warnings: None that I can think of

A/N: Though it was Sakura who broke up with Naruto I want to make one thing clear, this is NOT a Sakura bashing story. She broke up with him because she found out he was not her one, plain and simple.

Also plan for me to be updating weekly on Fridays. Please enjoy the story. :)

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Prologue

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The sidewalk was bare this morning. The sun was just now casting its face, chasing away the darkness of the night. It shed a beautiful array of oranges, pinks and yellows in the sky and revealed that there was no one around to witness this gorgeous painting of the atmosphere. The burning star also exposed the shining droplets of water hanging on the grass and leaves from last night's rain. The rainfall was also public in the swishing sound her sneakers would make at her leisurely pace. She experienced the new day with her other sense, taking in the fragrance of the earth.

She loved spring.

It bought so much life to the planet after the frozen immobility of winter. And with the rush of life became new beginnings, new opportunities, and new chances to take. She had never been so optimistic about the season before, but with so many changes in her life as of late it felt good to start anew.

Taking the fork in the walk to the left, there was a small house made of glass there to greet her. A wave of comfort came to her at the sight. In just a few short months this home of exotic plants had became her sanctuary.

It had begun in the beginning of the school year, just two months into her freshman year of college, she had confronted her father. He had a strong desire for her to succeed in the family business; to become head of the corporation by earning a degree in business and law. It didn't take long to figure out that business was not where her heart laid. No, she wanted to help people. To inspire them and counsel them on a personal level, that's where she felt her true value.

She had found the hidden courage to tell her father that she wanted to be a teacher. The reaction had been what she expected. He was extremely disappointed with her decision and did nothing to hide it. Soon after the phone conservation ended, she ran out of her dorm room crying (not wanting to be a disturbance to her roommate in case she returned) and into the dead of night.

Looking back on it, being a young unprotected female wandering all alone at night was not the best decision. But at the time she felt like she had to detach from the world. To escape the unhappiness that was her life. Thankfully she found that refuge she was seeking that night. It had begun to downpour and she went out to the first sign of shelter. That shelter was a cozy little greenhouse used by the college.

It was odd, but she had felt an immediate sense of security in the holding. There was a small classroom when first stepping in, built for no more than twenty students. The teacher's desk was right in front of the only chalkboard, papers and mischievous items organized neatly on top. A stack of file cabinets were set in the corner of the small room, probably containing important documents.

On the opposite side of the room there was a door opened to the other half of the building. Curiosity had gotten to her and she ventured inside. She felt a sudden rush of warm air walking in and the sight before made her made her gasp in awe. The area was divided into two separate rooms with a lane going down the middle so you could enter the rooms in two ways. On her left the room was titled Desert. Traveling through the mildly-humid, cacti room she figured the other room had to be a climate-zone room. Coming before the second room and seeing it named Rainforest, she knew she had made a correct guess.

It was amazing and somewhat thrilling to be surrounded by these plants. They were organisms that thieved in places she had never been to, they had names she's never heard of. She was so enamored with the mysterious quality of them that she had forgotten about her earlier misery. And as relaxing and addicting as it was to be around the unique plants it faded when she saw an older man tending to one of them.

Fearing that she had come here unwelcomed she hoped to get out undetected. But that hope diminished when the man turned around to face her. The man seemed to be around the same age as her father but looked nothing like said man. He had sandy-blonde hair that stuck out in every direction, deep blue eyes and defined, handsome features. His bright smile seemed to edge away some of her fears of intrusion.

"Hello there, come to do some research?"

His deep voice did not sound the least bit intimidating and instead was curious.

"No-o, just lo-oking."

"I see, have an interest in botany?"

"No, I d-don't know an-nything about plants."

"Haha, neither do my students."

The rumble of his laugh and shine in his eyes made it absolutely impossible for her not to smile. There weren't many she felt at ease with. They were either put off by her stutter or her shy nature which in turn made her nerves escalate. But he seemed like the type of man who would be opened to all and she admired that.

"I'm Professor Namikaze, but seen as how you're not one of my students you can call me Minato."

"I'm Hinata Hyuuga."

"Well Hinata, would you like to learn something about plants?"

"Yes, yes I would."

For months, she would return to the greenhouse. She helped Minato tend to the plants and in return he would teach her something interesting about the foreign substance. It was such an addictive unwinding hobby that she eventually learned how to properly care for each of the plants. Minato still had much to teach her, but they had begun to talk about un-related stuff.

She learned that he had been married at one point and had a son. Though he rarely ever talked about his deceased wife, he would always talk about his son, Naruto Uzumaki. Named after his mother who died during childbirth, he was determined to become an acclaimed chef. It was his childhood dream and at nineteen he was finally actively pursuing it by attending a presage culinary school. From what it sounded like he had a great deal of support from his large group of friends.

She could always see the proud gleam of parenthood in Minato's eyes whenever he talked about his son. Even referring back to Naruto's prankster years he would talk about it with a loving tone that was reserved just for him. Day by day, she would learn more about the boy who wanted to cook and day by day the more she wanted to meet him. He sounded so vibrant and full of life, someone who would want to put a smile on your face because he genuinely wanted to see you happy. But she never voiced this want. She didn't want to impose herself anymore than she already was.

She had already hinted to this professor about the shaky relationship she had with her family and though he had been open with his tale, she probably knew more about his family than any other of the faculty members on campus. It led her to this dangerous thought, a thought that this man was probably more concerned with her own individual wants than her own father. That Minato had become the father she had wanted and needed all along.

It was almost ridiculous to think that a man who was a stranger five months ago could become more of a father to her than the actual one who had raised her from birth. But at the same time…it wasn't. She never saw her father much in her life and when she did it was always a formal meeting. They did not have chats about nothing in particular, or share an activity together or even ask how the other's day had been. She had always craved that father-daughter relationship and she was finally getting it, except with a man who was not at all related to her.

She might have dwelled on this in the past, but it was spring. It was time for new starts and as such she was going to cherish this new-found relationship rather than concern herself with old ones. She felt proud of herself, something that she could never remember feeling. Her fresh confidence must have glowed, for Minato had directly said something when she walked into the greenhouse.

"My, what are we so happy about? A boy perhaps?"

Her cheeks burned at the light-heartened comment. It had taken some time to get used to the teasing from this man, but she surprisingly enjoyed it.

"N-no, it's just a nice day is all."

"Right, a nice day."

She made no comment and her blush darkened under embarrassment. Minato gave her a kind smile that said he would stop and handed to her a dark green container with a sprout on the end.

"Here, you can start on the east side of the Rainforest and I'll start on the west."

She gave him a small smile before taking the offered item and getting to work. After making sure all the plants were given the right amount of water and were in proper health, they double-checked the temperature gages in each room. It was at this point that Minato asked her a seriously put question.

"Hinata, I was wondering if you could do me a favor."

"Of course, what is it?"

The man before her paused for a second before he turned to her and motioned that the conversation be taken in the classroom. She took a seat in one of the many open chairs while Minato stood in front of her, leaning against his desk.

"You know Naruto and how he's been recently."

She gave a sad nod though she knew it wasn't a question. Naruto's attitude recently had been extremely upsetting. She remembered that one of Naruto's describing features when she first heard of him was that he was madly in love with his girlfriend Sakura Haruno. The girl herself sounded amazing. She was talented, a genius in medicine, pretty, funny and a bunch of other positive things that Naruto had said to his father. It was strange though, when Minato himself had described her. He seemed almost off-put by the girl, but she was sure that he supported his son's decision fully.

Two months ago, Sakura had dumped Naruto because she had fallen in love with another man. When she heard the news she had been glad that the girl had not continued the relationship when Sakura knew her heart was not in it, but at the same time she had been unusually furious. Naruto had loved the girl dearly and now with his heart broken he was not his usual self. She had broken his sprit and now not his friends or even his father could snap him out of his depressed state. She felt mad at this girl for doing what she did.

That feeling was startling to her, especially considering she had never even met Naruto. But with how much she already knew about him it felt like they were already friends. She wondered if Minato ever talked about her to Naruto.

"Well, I figured that he should start moving on and do something productive."

She was a little shocked by the finality of his tone.

"Are you s-sure that's a go-od idea?"

He gave a bitter laugh that sounded strange coming from him.

"No, but he's my son. And I need to teach him how to get back up when he falls down."

"What did you have in mind?"

"Well, I'm going out to a conference meeting soon so I'm going to be gone for a week. I need someone to take care of the greenhouse while I'm gone and usually I would get one of my buddies from the staff to do it, but I thought it would be better if Naruto did it to keep his mind off of things."

"It would keep him busy," her brow scrunched in confusion, "but what does this have to do with me?"

"Clever as ever I see."

Redness came to her face that was more due to the proud smile of Minato rather than his words.

"It's been awhile since Naruto has helped out with the greenhouse and knowing him, he'll probably lose any instructions I leave behind. I was wondering if you could help him out. Make sure he's not killing any of my plants."

Minato's eyes locked onto hers and softened in a pleading way.

"It probably wouldn't hurt if he made a new friend while he's at it."

Her eyes turned from his gaze and she gave a small nod of agreement. She saw Minato's face lit up and she hid her face by looking out the far right window.

She didn't want him to see the excitement in her eyes.

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Disclaimer: This will be posted once throughout the entire story, I do NOT own Naruto. Big shocker.