How Could I Know?

By: The Hylian Rider

Chapter 1:

Naruto Uzamaki, a man of 16, top notch chunnin shinobi and self-proclaimed future hokage has never been looked up to by more then one or two people. He has very few people who love him. His best friend tried to kill him with chidori. His first sensei hasn't taught him anything past tree climbing and his second is a huge pervert on a far away mission. All he really has is the Hokage who he sees as his mother, Iruka who was his first true friend, and a small batch of friends, the rookie nine, Konahamoru and his squad, and Gaara of the desert and his sister.

Most people would not be able to live the way he does. Being the container of a demon fox and hated for it. Naruto has never wanted anything other then respect and love. He has been acknowledged but that's not respect. Very few respect him. Gaara and Neji do as the only man to have beaten either of them, and Konahamoru does as a rival and teacher. Nobody else really respects him. Naruto has never felt much love. He has gotten a little from Iruka and Tsunade. However, he feels still slightly abandoned.

He has 'parents' who he can hardly ever see and friends who find him annoying and never take time to hang out with him. However there is one person how truly admires Naruto, only admire is an understatement, she loves him. Hinata Hyuuga. The girl who has always looked at him from afar. She watched as he struggled, strained and pushed, just to become equal. Naruto is no genius. In fact, because he had to become, not only a self-taught ninja but a self-taught human, he is easily confused.

Love is something Naruto doesn't understand. After years of love from Iruka and Tsunade he's just beginning to understand what a parent-son relationship is. He is completely clueless as far as any love for a crush, he has never felt it and doesn't understand. He was beginning to understand this though. He often saw couples out together. They would feed each other and kiss. Naruto didn't understand it. This love must be a different kind then from a parent or brother or sister.

I love Tsunade and Iruka-sensei but the thought of kissing either of them is just real... ew. Come to think of it the idea of doing something like that with Sakura-chan is weird. Not as weird but still weird. I need to talk to Tsunade-baa-chan about this. Naruto thought.

Naruto put some chakra into his feet and leapt onto the roof. He continued hopping from rooftop to rooftop, enjoying the feeling of wind rushing past his head. The work of a hard day's training had coated him in sweat, which was cooled and flew off his brow as he jumped through the air. Finally he reached the Hokage's office. Not bothering to go through the door Naruto just jumped through the window and landed in the large circle office. Tsunade looked up from her large stack of paperwork the ninja.

"Hey Tsunade-baa-chan."

"Ototo will you please stop calling me that?"

"Ok Hokage-sama."

"Oh never mind!" said Tsunade, giving up. She couldn't win in an argument with the boy. "I was just about to call you here. I want to know how your doing now."

"I'm... well I've been better." Naruto had just recently gotten back from a mission involving getting Sauske back. He had failed again, and nearly died trying not to kill Sauske but just bring him back. He had taken a Chidori through the middle of his chest and a sword blow across the temple. Anyone else would've died from the Chidori and if Naruto didn't attach such a great importance to what the headband meant he would've died from the sword. Naruto felt his smile slide off his face to be replaced by the frown that was so honest and sad, that it would break any but the coldest of hearts. Tsunade stood and walked over to him.

"It's going to be ok Naruto. You've tried so hard and become so strong. Your as strong as most low-level joinin even without... well without your furry little problem." Tsunade hugged him. Naruto put him arms around her and cried a little. He eventually steeling himself and then released her. She left her hand on his shoulder.

"You ok?"

"Hai." Naruto replied in a small voice.

"Baa-chan?"

"Yes Ototo?" (A/N Ototo means little brother... I think.)

"I was wondering... how do you know if you love someone?"

"What do you mean? Do you think you love someone? Who is it?" Tsunade suddenly wanted answers about everything. Naruto grimaced a little. He hated when she did this. He cared for her anyway. She was the closest thing he had to a mother. This meant ordinarily annoying things were less so.

"I don't know... I thought I loved Sakura-chan but I don't know..."

"Well how do you feel about her?" Tsunade asked more serious but still motherly.

"Well, she is very strong and smart. She's actually pretty and she doesn't hate me."

"How do you feel around her?"

"What do you mean?" he asked. This didn't seem to make sense to him.

"Like do you feel warmer or stronger when she's around."

"Well... I did work really hard to defend her from Gaara and she made me stronger then.

"That's not what I mean. Fighting for precious people does make you stronger but... does her very presence make you feel like you can do no wrong in the world. Like as long as you have her nothing can go wrong?" Tsunade asked. Naruto thought for a while then answered.

"No. I don't think it does. I like her but I don't feel like the world's perfect just because she's there." Tsunade smirked at him. "Oh. So that's what love is supposed to feel like? Well I definitely don't love Sakura then!" Naruto ran to Tsunade and hugged her before leaping back out her window. He was hungry and hadn't eaten all day. He was still thinking about Sakura as he head towards his ramen.

"How could I thought I loved someone who always yelled at me and hit me anyway?" Naruto sighed and then dropped down in front of the ramen stand. "Yo, old man! I need two large bowls for pork ramen please." Then he noticed the purple hair girl next to him. "Oh, hey Hinata."

"N-Naruto-kun! I-I'm s-sorry. I didn't k-know you w-were coming h-here!" she said and blushed a deep red.

"Don't worry Hinata. I'm not mad at you or anything." Hinata turned her head back to her ramen bowl and didn't look back up. Naruto looked at the old man. "Hey," he whispered. "How long has she been coming here? I never saw her here before."

"Oh," he whispered back. "She's been coming here a lot from the time you left on that trip for two and a half years." Naruto gazed at Hinata after swallowing the broth of his ramen. She was watching her noodles with her head still down. He opened his mouth to say something but then his second bowl of ramen arrived and his decided to stuff noodles into it instead. Hinata finished her noodles and got up to walk back home, with a very red face. Naruto frowned, if something was wrong with her, maybe he could help her out, talk to her or something.

"Oi, Hinata!"

"Yes N-Naruto-kun?" Hinata suddenly started pushing the tips or her index fingers together, something Naruto found cute.

"Could I walk you home? If that's where you going anyway..." Hinata froze for just one moment.

"S-sure, thank you Na-Naruto-kun." Naruto walked over to her and smiled, this would make it easy to ask her what was up. As they were walking down the street he grabbed Hinata's hand and her face became a beat red. Naruto turned her so that she was facing him.

"Hey Hinata is something wrong? You just seemed a little sad and I don't want to see you unhappy..."

"No," Hinata said quietly. "I'm j-just a l-little tired. D-don't worry about m-me Naruto-kun." Naruto looked at her. Not worry about a friend? One of his precious people no less? Not a chance in Hell. Naruto looked at her and grabbed her other hand to make her look him in the eye. She quickly started to blush all over in a deeper red.

"Hinata," his voice was low and caring. "Please, you can tell me." Hinata's resolve broke. When you see someone you really care about begging you for something, it's very very hard not to help them, and Hinata didn't just care about Naruto, she loved him.

"Gomen N-Naruto-kun. I just really w-worried about what's g-going to happen to m-me... My younger sister i-is a b-better heir to the t-throne then me. I don't r-really want to lead t-that much anyway. I'm s-still afraid. I-I don't want t-to be worthless."

"...Hinata..." said Naruto. He knew just how she felt. You could train so hard, try and become the best, only to fail and be the dead-last again. "I understand how you feel," Now Hinata was paying a high mind of attention. "When I went away, for those three years. I train so hard. I worked and worked and worked, so that could become better then Sauske. I drove myself to the edge of my endurance every single day. I went and trained until my body was covered in my own blood and I was all out of chakra unless I..." Here he stopped. He had almost used the Kyuubi's name. Hinata still didn't know about it.

"Unless you w-what? Naruto-kun?"

"Nothing Hinata. What I mean to say is I trained myself past my limits. So hard that I couldn't sleep and couldn't move. I come back and I still couldn't beat Sauske and that damn chidori of his. I always end up this way. No matter what I do. I failed to save Sauske twice. I almost lost Gaara. I'm so afraid to let anyone close now. It seems like they have to die every time. I... I just don't want to hurt anymore. I'm so tired of it, maybe I smile and yell all the time but the truth is... I'm always afraid. I always feel like I'm worthless." Hinata looked at him with tears in her eyes.

"I don't t-think your worthless N-Naruto-kun." Hinata said looking down.

"Huh?" asked Naruto. She looked up at him and suddenly lay her head in his chest and began sobbing. She didn't seem to know what she was doing. The second she realized how close she was to Naruto she blushed and tried to speak, but became light-headed and tried not to faint.

"I s-said that I care a-about y-you Naruto-kun." Naruto looked at her. Someone actually cared about him and cared about how he was. He wasn't a dead-last to her. Did he have an actual friend in Hinata? He hugged her close to him. Hinata's blush, which had started to fade came back in full force as Naruto hugged her. She eventually had enough sense to wrap her arms around him too and they stayed like that for a while. Much later Naruto and Hinata broke apart and he looked at her with gratitude.

"Thanks a lot Hinata. Your actually a really good friend to me. I don't know what I would do if it wasn't for you sometimes. Most of the time your really the reason I keep fighting, otherwise I would've just given up probably back at the academy and if not then, I wouldn't have gone to fight Neji in a million years." Hinata looked at him. She was wondering just how bad his childhood had been to make him like this. Did his parents not care? Didn't he ever get any praise. If he jumped this much at what little she gave him then his past must've been worse then hers.

"N-Naruto-kun?"

"Yeah Hinata?"

"C-could you tell m-me what y-your past was l-like? Please?" Naruto looked at her and sighed. He considered for a moment. Should he tell her everything. She was his best friend and he didn't want to lose her but if he told her and she didn't care he knew he would feel better.

"Sit and get relaxed. This is gonna take a little while."