Chapter 1
Kakashi Hatake was carrying Naruto Uzumaki on his back to the Hidden Leaf Village. Naruto had just defeated Pain and convinced Nagato to mend his ways and not to lose hope in the concept of peace. To put it simply, Naruto was the village hero, but the hero himself was completely oblivious to what awaited him in the village.
The only thing on Naruto's mind while he was being carried by Kakashi was that he longed to be asleep for a long, uninterrupted time in his bed. He was so tired that he might even have refused a bowl of his precious Ichiraku ramen before going to bed. Ah, who was he kidding? There was always time for ramen and if there wasn't, half of his life's ambition was down the drain. After all, becoming the Hokage and eating ramen were his only passions; aside from being with dear Sakura-chan and all his friends, of course. Or so he believed his passions to be. Oddly enough, for some reason his face did not show a smile when the thought of his precious Sakura-chan crossed his mind.
He was brought back to the real world when he heard Kakashi calling out to him.
'We're here, Naruto.'
He heard voices. Lots of them. More than he had ever heard. Even more surprising was what all the voices were saying.
'Naruto! Naruto! He's so awesome.'
'Naruto singlehandedly defeated Pain. He's our hero.'
'Naruto's sooooooooo awesome. I wanna be just like him when I grow up.'
'Where is Naruto? I hope he's alright.'
'That little yellow haired brat has become all grown up. Where is he? I need to smack him up his head for fighting Pain alone and then get down on my knees and thank him for saving our village.'
'Naruto Naruto Naruto Naruto...'
Naruto was awestruck at what he was seeing and hearing. The entire village was cheering his name and calling him the saviour of Konohagakure. He slipped off Kakashi's back and was overwhelmed by a huge group of children who swarmed him from all sides and began firing a barrage of questions at him, asking him the details of his fight. All the elders and grown-ups of the village came rushing to greet him and thank him too.
Naruto couldn't believe his eyes. This had to be a genjutsu. All the villagers who had hated his guts and called him the demon fox-brat were looking at him with eyes full of admiration and joy. And love. He tried to make the handsign for release what he thought was a genjutsu but was stopped by the silver-haired copy ninja who said,'It's not an illusion, Naruto. Its all real. Everybody's cheering for you, Naruto. All because of your unwavering determination and unparalleled Will of Fire.'
That was all Naruto needed to realise that it was real. Everybody didn't hate him anymore. He was gladly accepted by all. He was so overwhelmingly happy that he could hardly express himself.
The crowd in front of him cleared and he was greeted by the sight of his one true love: Sakura-chan. She had a brilliant smile on her face and came up to him and said,'Oh, Naruto.'
Then all of a sudden, she hugged him tightly, leaving him speechless. Though Naruto smiled at receiving the hug, he wasn't as happy as he would normally have been at being so close to her. It just didn't feel right to him. He dismissed those feelings. He would have to think about that later.
Suddenly Naruto sensed a weird feeling of weightlessness and realised that he was being lifted in the air by all of his friends. It was the best day of his life and one that he would never forget. He was so happy that he was almost crying with joy.
While in the air, he caught a glimpse of beautiful lavender coloured hair and mesmerising white eyes and felt a sensation of warmth spreading through his body. He wondered who it was.
Hinata-sama 1
Hinata Hyuga was worried about Naruto. Although all the dead villagers had come back to life and she had complete faith in Naruto's abilities, she still couldn't stop worrying about him. She longed to see the love of her life. He was the most important person to her in the entire world. She loved him in every way possible, admired him, respected him. Even her Ninja way was the same as his- Never to go back on her words and to never give up. She couldn't live not knowing whether her precious Naruto-kun was safe or not. Oh, how she longed for him to become hers. But right now, all she had on her mind was worry.
Suddenly, the dark lavender-haired beauty caught a glimpse of spiky blond hair above silver hair. Naruto was on Kakashi's back. She was so glad to see him. She just wished to run to him and put her arms around him and snuggle into his chest. Sadly, she couldn't because Naruto didn't love her. Enough, she thought. She wouldn't become sad right now. She was much too happy and relieved to see him.
All the villagers were surrounding him and cheering his name. Her Naruto-kun looked so happy. She was overjoyed to see the love of her life finally get the appreciation and acceptance that he deserved. She was so happy to see his laugh and joy at being acknowledged that she began to cry. Hinata could see how special this moment was to Naruto and she was happy to witness it. But a tad bit sad too because she couldn't share this moment with him as his love. But these thoughts weren't right for that precious moment, so she blocked them out and concentrated only on being happy. She was so happy for her Naruto-kun.
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Apoorv Jain