Declaimer: I do not own Naurto or their characters. Also, please tell if I used the quotation wrong I'm not american so I don't know if I used it correctly.
When you try your best but you don't succeed…
The words seemed to be making fun of her. Each letter reminding her of her loses. Of what a failure she was. But was she really the loser in this game? She didn't tried her best… she tried her greatest. If it was never acknowledged it wasn't her fault. Or was it? If she made her voice heard from the beginning, would it be any different? No. He wouldn't have heard her, anyways.
She figured she was just tired of waiting. And waiting. And waiting.
The trees seemed to be murmuring with the birds in some kind of conspiracy as the wind hosted its opinion every once in a while with each gust of air. Her feet wobbled with the uncertainty of a fall and each breath she painted was in agitated strokes. When she blinked, she blinked hard as if that would somehow keep her awake and alert. Above, the sun was blindly bright as if it didn't notice or didn't care that there were threatening black clouds near, as if nothing could put off its fire. She wished she had that fire.
When she couldn't bare the exhaustion, the heat prickling at her skin like tiny ants running up and down her body, the sweat clinging at the back of her clothes and her neck making her more disconcerted than she already was, she decided to rest on a near tree, fearing she might faint.
"Keep at it," a familiar voice said, "you were doing great."
She whipped her head around, almost panting in a gasp. "N-Naruto?"
A few awkward minutes past and they felt like an eternity, as if time resolute on teasing her out of nowhere.
"You know, Hinata," Naruto said after he visibly realized she wasn't able to form words, "practice makes perfect."
"Y-yeah," Hinata stammered as she looked for the right words in the noodles she found on her head. "You're right."
Naruto looked at the ground as he kicked something none-existing. Hinata squinted, but she couldn't see what it was. "If you're done with your, ah, training we could- if you want to- go to Ichiraku for some ramen." Hinata took a few instants to answer, for Naruto it seemed to take too long, like a cloud moving undecidedly amongst the blue. "You know? If you want."
No, she wanted very badly to reply, continuing her training but her lips were not forming any O. "Of course." Then she remembered how she was probably smelly and covered in sweat. "Now?"
"Yeah," he responded as if it weren't more obvious. Hinata felt her cheeks swell with heat and she could imagine her face growing red too, like a blossoming rose. "You know? Before it gets too late."
She felt the world stop as if asking her to react, telling her to look back at herself before she ran a race that she hadn't even begun. Why, now, would she be any nervous when it was clear that he didn't want anything to do with her since the start? Why, when it was clear he was the nervous one here? She had to revise herself. Like a bird with broken wings she had to learn that she will never soar the white again, that if she did she would only fall. She had to learn. "Okay," but could a bird ever stop trying.
The ramen were still hot, the steam flowing steadily up until it disintegrated into thin air. Somehow all Hinata could think about was how they appeared as thin noodles smoking microscopic cigarettes. Although her attention was not entirely devoted to this, she was quickly regretting ever accepting any proposition Naruto had made her involved to. By now she doesn't even remember what he had asked. Or why did she say yes.
Despite Hinata's constant avoiding with her fingers, Naruto was swallowing his ramen even though it was blazing and she knew he knew that. Every time he drank the soup he would immediately reach for a coup filled with water.
"Are you okay, Hinata?" Naruto asked facing her as he wiped his mouth after he was done. "You haven't touched your food?"
"Oh," she sounded confused. "I-I-"
"Are you, okay?" he said leaning close. She felt her face start to heat up, like the soup but only worse. Though then she sucked it all back, swallowing the lump of embarrassment in her throat.
"Yeah, I'm just waiting for my ramen to cool down. I don't want to burn my mouth." She said calmly for the first time in her life. Only then in the fragment of a microsecond did she saw the slightest hint of shame in Naruto. She couldn't see further when he turned the other way. Had she somehow humiliated him?
After a while, when she started to taste a few chop sticks (because I can't say spoon, right?) of the soup she heard Naruto say, as if it were the tiny voice in the back of his head speaking, "It wasn't even that hot."
Oh, no, Hinata thought, swallowing disgracefully. But like that she realized that she didn't care. He had to know anyways, his matters on the table were worse than a pig and she was sure Tonton had better matters than him. Despite that being what she liked most about him, not caring what other thought of him in general, she had to face fact. Reality was cruel.
"Naruto?" she said firmly when she was finally done with her ramen. It stroked Naruto as much as it stroked her- for a moment, even, she was reminded of her father, how cold his exterior could get, how strict he was. And some of the concern when her father called her when she least expected was portrayed in Naruto's face too. "Why did you ask me to come here?"
As she saw his features fall she felt her heart sink. He took his time to answer as if she had asked him why he was he and why she was she. The difficulty in her question wasn't even worthy of an IQ rating. Hinata wanted very badly to stand and leave him there in that point.
"Because," Naruto said slowly and she immediately thought of a snail moving on a field covered in salt. It felt just as painful. "I wanted to."
"Oh, okay," she turned, trying to seem pleased. All though she was because it was finally over and she wasn't because he never truly clarified, so it wasn't a surprise when she murmured, "Even though it wasn't a real answer."
"What?" he asked confused. And if Hinata didn't know any better she'd say sarcastic.
"N-Nothing." For the second time that day she blinked hard, not deciding if what she said was true. What was wrong with her?
"I just wanted your company," Naruto said, sounding insulted.
Her head snapped so hard her hair remained air a few seconds longer than it should. "Why?"
"Do I have to have any reason to want to be with you?" he said calmly.
Hinata physically backed down, feeling her body drain. She felt like a balloon with no air or a paper with no words. She looked down at her hands and all she found was a blurry image. "Considering the past we've shared you should." Then she got up and left Ichiraku's shop.
Still outside she could hear the murmurs of the employees still gossiping with things that they didn't know, like the hum of bees on their nest. But that was the only sound being heard. It was more humiliating than any encounter she and Naruto ever faced. Though if she looked back she'd realize that maybe he was the cause of all her problems, the pebble in the road. But then he was the cause of her strive and promise.
"Hinata?" someone shouted.
She picked up her pace. When she looked back there was no one around in sight. Then she hit something hard. She stumbled a bit, trying to regain her balance.
"Are you, okay?"
She felt hands around her shoulder, helping her stay still. "Let me go. I'm fine." She didn't think of him short cutting himself up front. Stupid.
"What's wrong with you, Hinata?" Naruto asked concerned. As if he was really.
Hinata let her fist clench to the side, trying to concentrate her sight on Naruto, finding him moving from side to side. "What's wrong with me? What's wrong with you?"
"What are you talking about?" Naruto crossed his arms.
"Are you really that blind, Naruto?" she asked, her voice sounding so venomous she wanted to spit in fear of that her tongue was filled with poison.
Naruto's face was worse than poison. "Why do you say that? I don't understand."
Hinata sighed very loudly that it surprised her that she was even keeping it in. "Naruto you never understood. All my life you'd been my inspiration, the motivation I'd seek when I had none. And you never noticed, or did you never cared? Either way, I've worked hard and rough just in case it was that. Just to get your attention but it never worked. I was never good enough... And I wasn't even good enough when I risked my life for you. When I almost died for you."
She swallowed air, very deeply. "And it seems as though I'm going to try forever. I've learned from the best, haven't I? I will never give up. I will never let go of my ninja way." At his expression she side smile disappointed. "When you try you best but you don't succeed… try, try again."
"Hinata," he said her name very quietly as if she were small or fragile, "you were always my hero. You inspired me. You struggled but you persevered because you wanted to not because they told you to. You were always bright in every dark circumstances. If I never notice I'm sorry. But does it make any different? Does it change anything now?"
"Yes, it does," she sounded bitter, the taste bare in her mouth, "you were too busy focusing in someone that didn't love you as much as I did."
"Did?" he repeated, discourage. And she turned the other direction, flushed. "Look, I asked you to come with me because I did notice you. Since the beginning. And it doesn't hurt the fact that you saved my life."
"I'm sorry," her voice cracked as she covered her face with her hands, feeling more foolish than she already had. Why hadn't she seen it coming? How could she doubt him? His heart was bigger than he already had. Why would she think so little of him? What had happened?
There was something pulling at her hands. When they finally cracked there was his face on the other side. "Hey, Hinata, I'm not worth tears."
He started wiping them away as she answered, "But you are."
He slowly pulled her in his arms, and she almost felt like she was in a tower. "You don't count."
The end