Title: Orange Umbrella
Rating: K
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, as much as I would like to.
Note: Inspired with the quote "anyone who thinks sunshine is pure happiness, has never danced in the rain" which I thought suited Naruto and Hinata well.
Orange Umbrella
Work became sky high in amount for Hinata. With a massive over-flow of patients in the hospital from the nearby festivities in Konoha having a humongous accident, the hospital needed backup for the lesser wounded. Despite it being Hinata's day off, she was on call assisting the hospital staff as she at least had some skill in the medical area – nothing like Sakura and Ino, but Hinata could do the jobs she was told to do as long as they were not too difficult.
When the patients had finally calmed down in size, Sakura let Hinata off back and straight to her holiday, giving her a pat on the back and an apologetic thanks after all, it was Hinata's day off after months and months of hard work from strenuous missions. As Hinata left though, with it now being evening instead of morning, rain began to fall in Konoha, almost like people had been throwing buckets down from the top windows of all the highest buildings you could possibly get at, and with that, Hinata sighed lightly. She had no umbrella, nor anything to protect herself from the rain because of rushing to get to the hospital, and she did not have enough chakra to use any jutsu to get her home without getting wet. Her holiday was just not working out and it was only her first day.
With a ten minute wait underneath shelter, the rain had died down a little but Hinata had just about enough of the hospital, and had decided to jump in it, not wanting to bother the medical staff for an umbrella. They were already busy as it was and she could always get a bath when she got home, but walking down the now much emptier streets of Konoha wasn't appealing in the slightest without an umbrella. If there had been bustling people happily talking to one another, Hinata would have been much more interested and more contented in her walk home, but there was nothing happy about her walk. Stray people passing they had scowls on their faces because of the dreadful rain, most of them clutching a dull umbrella to compliment the weather, which Hinata was very jealous of to say the least, even if they weren't the most attractive in colour.
The most joyful part of her journey was passing Ichiraku's. She had a habit trying to spot her childhood crush, Naruto whenever she passed by. Naruto was sure to be there, no matter the mood, because Naruto had a whole new universe when it came to his stomach, and that universe did not care about its owner's mood. It craved Ichiraku's food all the time. But as Hinata passed by, it also left her low-spirited as Naruto was not there. It was a little peculiar for Hinata, as he nearly always is at Ichiraku's, but Hinata thought nothing wrong of it, he'd probably just finished his food and was at home – that was just Naruto's personality. If his day wasn't about causing trouble, it was something to do with Ichiraku's, or just ramen in general.
Hinata went back to her dull pace, staring at grey looking buildings because of the dark sky, smelling food which although smelt delicious, she couldn't eat with her father persistence on having a family dinner when she came back. She had agreed to that reluctantly as she hadn't been properly around for a while – but really, she just wanted to rest, food could have waited. She needed to perk up, she mulled over, and that would make her journey a lot better. It did not suit her personality to be made blue over a little rain – she was on holiday now after all. She can be in the rain at least, some people are still sweating vigorously due to having to work, which was something she had the benefit of not having to do at the current moment.
The ultimate remedy of joy was thinking of Naruto, who made her giggle at the slightest thought of him practically absorbing some of his favourite ramen. Hinata absolutely loved Naruto smiling, jumping in joy, and screaming to the world about something he loved, it's what made Naruto all the more special. Society said Naruto was a bumbling idiot, who was too simplistic for his own good, but Hinata thought the world of the blond haired boy, and she just loved the way he thought. His way of thinking was a whole new world to Hinata, having many thoughts that seemed much older than her age, Hinata found Naruto's child-like thinking all the more amazing, and inspiring. He could turn rain into a rainbow, without a sun in the sky, just with his thoughts.
With thoughts darting across her head like rockets, there was a sudden distraction for Hinata. An intense orange glowed in the corner of her eye, which she followed to find the subject of thoughts himself, and owner of the orange umbrella, golden haired Naruto with a colossal sized grin on his face as twirled with his umbrella, laughter erupting from him in the process. Shocked to spot him, Hinata's face flushed, she had not expected the man in her thoughts to appear in the streets, and it was slightly embarrassing even though she knew Naruto could not read her mind. At the same time, Hinata was quietly giggling at the blond, who was now splashing in puddles ecstatically as though they were a foreign thing to see. Despite the low key of Hinata's giggle, sharp eared Naruto had heard Hinata and turned around towards her in an energetic manner, with a loud shout of Hinata's name.
"Hinata," her orange loving crush boomed, despite her only being a few steps away from him, "the rain is so fun, don't you think?" Hinata had stayed silent, still in a flurry of embarrassment, which put off Naruto, who seemed to think her silence was her disagreement towards his opinion. Rubbing the back of his head in dislike of the silence, Naruto hummed a little as though he was in thought and continued.
"I guess rain is not for you, Hinata? Lots of people don't like the rain, but I think of it as fun! I mean, when do you get many chances to jump in puddles like this?" To make his point, he began to splash in puddles in a sequential manner until he arrived in front of Hinata, causing small sprays of water to land on Hinata's already wet clothes purposefully, but playfully like a small child. He placed his face right in front of Hinata's, and then cheekily grinned at her. Her heartbeat pounding loudly scared her, Hinata thought that maybe Naruto could hear it and was purposefully doing this just to tease her. Luckily, the male pulled himself back oblivious to her heartbeat.
However his drippy umbrella suddenly appeared in her line of vision, pointing straight at her, as though he was holding a sword. "Hinata, forgive me," he quietly said, and Hinata had noticed, quite overdramatically too, as though he was role-playing, "but I have to do this." Not understanding what Naruto was talking about, Hinata did not expect the umbrella opening with a pop open, causing a mass amount of water to fly at Hinata, amusing Naruto greatly as she launched herself backwards instinctively. With a small scream emitting from Hinata's mouth because of the cold water flying off of the umbrella, Naruto span whirled the umbrella in a circular motion, twirling the rain and hurtling it toward Hinata which caused more squeals to come out of her mouth.
Previously lifeless Konoha was now filled with laughter from both Naruto and Hinata, who both began a playful water fight using the puddles around them, rushing at the largest puddles to throw as much water upon each other as possible – Naruto being especially good at throwing the water. The two did not notice the onlookers passing by smiled slightly, enjoying seeing some happy people on their walk, nor those who threw glances of disgust at two grown adults playing like children in the rain.
Eventually, the two died down from playing with Hinata being exhausted from the high amount of energy she used previously in the hospital, and from the water fight too. "Now that was fun," the blond chuckled, "don't you agree?" Hinata, out of breath, just nodded at the male with a small smile which only Naruto would ever see. Naruto however, was more focused on Hinata's wet clothes, and admiring his job of soaking Hinata with puddles, and gazed in amazement, eyes opened to his widest. "Woah, I must be really good at puddle fights, or you just really suck at them. Although it makes you look like you've made really good friends with the rain now! Just look at you Hinata, you're soaked!" Hinata glanced down towards her clothes at the comment, the blond was right, there wasn't a dry spot on her, but she hadn't even noticed how wet she had gotten from the fight, she was too busy enjoying playing around childishly with the water and Naruto.
"Um, I think you're just really good at it Naruto," Hinata commented, "You're very…energetic after all." A hearty laugh came from Naruto with a "true, true" that made Hinata's heart leap of happiness, she'd made him laugh so cheerily, which in turn made her just as merry as Naruto, but time ticked away too quickly for Hinata, and Hinata knew she had to leave for dinner now. "But, sorry Naruto, I have to go. I have family dinner to attend, and my dad will be worried." Sad to say the words, not wanting to leave, Hinata prepared for the sadness in her heart, because of pesky dinner plans which she didn't want to attend even more now.
"It's alright! I'll see you later, Hinata!" He cheerfully replied, almost jumping on the spot despite the goodbyes taking place, "Enjoy your dinner!" With that, Hinata and Naruto separated, Hinata waving back at the active Naruto skipping down the path on his way home, rapidly waving at her in farewell. Turning her back, Hinata walked away, unhappy the two had to go separate ways, but whole-heartedly happy about meeting him coincidentally. Walking back down her usual path home, Hinata had felt a pat on her shoulder causing her to turn in surprise. She was even more surprised to find Naruto thrusting the umbrella he previously had been using into her hands, then darting back on his merry way with a chuckle and a "now you can't blame me if you catch cold!"
Hinata wondered how many times her heartbeat had quickened today alone because of Naruto, never mind in a lifetime. She interpreted the umbrella as a way of saying he had been worried about her and because of this, Hinata was able to walk with a smile all the way home, forgetting all her previous gloomy thoughts of her holiday and entered her large house soaking the welcome mat, still grinning.
"Has something good happened, Hinata?"
"Oh, nothing," she replied gleefully at her confused cousin, Neji who had not seen Hinata with such a big smile in a long time. "I just made friends with the rain, that's all." Thinking his cousin had gone crazy, Neji left Hinata to her own sweet thoughts – it was probably that Uzumaki boy again and he did not want to know what crazy scheme Naruto Uzumaki had been up to, especially as it made his cousin smile that happily.