A/N: Hey all. This is dedicated to my friend Joanie, who is in this situation at the very moment. I wish luck to her and her will-be boyfriend. Enjoy!
Hinata Hyuuga, at the tender age of twelve, was a very unassuming individual. Endowed with flowing violet hair and a blushing disposition, she was widely regarded among the shinobi as a rare beauty, a flower to be coveted. She was subtly courted by all of the male-nins in her class; even Sasuke Uchiha, the cold-hearted loner who often trained for days in the forest without food or drink, occasionally brushed his hands against hers as he strolled past her desk. But she never knew of his affections, because her eyes were only on one, and only one, individual alone: Naruto.
Whenever he glanced toward her with his friendly stretched smile, she would flush a brilliant red and avert her loving gaze, ashamed of her appearance and personality. He would always grin at her and chirp, "Hey, Hinata-chan! How are you doing this morning?" She could never say a thing back, as she usually fainted into his confused, outstretched arms before she could stutter out a disjointed response. A princess in her prince's arms, she would often fantasize as she tumbled into her familiar bittersweet darkness. A Juliet in her Romeo's arms, intertwined and together, always.
She never wanted him to know of her love; she knew that Naruto did not love her as she loved him, and she preferred to watch him, kindly but sadly, off in the distance. It was an unrequited love, and her heart broke every time he flashed her his innocent smile. She firmly believed that she would grow into an old lady, loving Naruto-kun with a patience unearthed from years of heartbreak, loneliness, and desolation.
She was wrong. Destiny, that fickle creature of time, luck, and existence, had never meant it to be that way, after all.
It was that fateful school day in the spring, when everybody had escaped outside to chatter together and eat their delicious bento box lunches in the warming sun. Hinata was content to remain in her seat by the window, as she had a beautifully clear view of her dearest Naruto crouching on the swing while animatedly stuffing his face with a cup of boiling hot ramen noodles. The two remaining people in the room, Iruka-sensei and Kiba-san, took no note of her; her fur coat blended smoothly in with the wooden seats and chairs in the room.
Her attention was mostly focused on Naruto, who was now attempting to beg a cup of steaming ramen from Chouji-san. Her eyes followed Chouji's glare at Naruto and Naruto's rapid backing up into a thorny bush. She grew dizzy with fear as her beloved hopped out of the bush with spikes in his rear, howling with pain. The overwhelming fear lessened away, however, as Naruto began to laugh at his own stupidity, and a warm, adoring feeling enveloped her whole body. Her heart thumped faster, and she had to catch her breath before she fainted away altogether. Gasping, she turned away from the view of her dearest darling and listened to the friend-to-teacher conversation in an attempt to give her heart some time to recuperate.
"…Iruka-sensei, I, uh, kinda want to tell you something…" Kiba shuffled his feet, his cheeks matching the shade of his Inuzuka face stripes. "It's really, really important, and I really have to tell someone, 'cause I feel like I'm gonna explode if I don't…"
Iruka crouched down and put a fatherly arm around his student. "It's alright, Kiba. I won't tell anybody, promise." He held out a tanned pinkie finger for the traditional promise and smiled.
Kiba immediately latched his pinkie onto Iruka's and blurted, "I – I really like Hinata. I even think that I might love her, and it's killing me every time she's watching that damned showoff Naru-" The teacher's hand quickly slapped itself over Kiba's mouth and cut off his frenzied ramblings. Iruka looked nervously at Hinata, then at Kiba and whispered, "Uh…Hinata is right there…"
And pointed with a trembling finger, revealing Hinata's camouflaged figure. Or once camouflaged figure, as her face, scarlet with embarrassment and mortification at listening in, gave away her location. She waveringly waved at her sensei, who was now looking worriedly at his blushing students, and avoided any eye contact whatsoever with Kiba, who had gone into shock.
After a period of complete silence, the young shinobi shook himself out of his stupor and simply ran for it. The dog-nin leapt out of the room with Akamaru whimperig at his side and vanished into the nearby Konoha woods, a dark blur against the green of the tree leaves. Then he was gone.
He never came back to the school after that incident. Some said that he begged his parents to homeschool him, and that they gave in to his demands. Others said that he committed suicide by jumping off of a cliff and into the ocean. Either way, Hinata never saw him back at the ninja academy. She was regretful and upset at his departure, yes, but she loved Naruto with all of her might, and eventually forgot about the boy who had confessed to loving her. Naruto was, once again, the sole star of her life, and would remain so for many years more.
It was a couple of years after Kiba had disappeared. Everybody in the ninja academy, including the lazy Shikamaru who had almost failed due to his unwillingness to lift a pencil, had graduated proudly and was now attending the local shinobi college to learn how to become the proud protectors of Konohagakure.
Hinata had blossomed into a beautiful lady, with alabaster glowing skin and a shapely body. Her once-violet hair had lightened into a gentle lavender that matched her equally gentle eyes. Every man that saw her loveliness desired her, and she often had to fend off many a suitor offering his hand in marriage. Life was barely tolerable with simpering men piling up before her feet.
However, the sight of Naruto washed away her worries and made her flush a ruby red as she shyly smiled at him. Naruto was now a tall, handsome blonde with sapphire eyes that could twinkle with joy or glint with anger, depending on his mood. Hinata loved everything about him, and refused to ever stop. To stop loving him would mean to stop her life. If he ever left her, she doubted that she could ever truly live.
The typical college day started in the forests with typical chakra training. Everybody was present as usual, and the teacher, Kurenai, began the morning with a little exercise of holding a leaf in the air for five minutes. Hinata picked up a nearby oak leaf and easily levitated it without a second thought, as she had practiced for perfection under her father's harsh hand and had mastered the art after many hours of long, tedious work.
Then a strange boy, somehow recognizable and unrecognizable at the same time, came into the forest area, and her heart flipped.
Kurenai stepped forward, and all of the students paused in their activities. "Class, this is Kiba Inuzuka. He is here to see if he would like to come to this college, and is shadowing Sai-san at the moment." Sai stepped up and smiled his odd smile; Kiba returned a friendly grin and followed Sai back to his training spot, unaware of Hinata's eyes watching his every move.
It was Kiba, but yet not Kiba. This man was clearly mature, and had a rugged, tousled aura that attracted the women in his vicinity. The Kiba she remembered from ninja academy was an immature, gangly boy who would wave worms at screaming girls for the fun of watching them squeal and run. Now, Kiba had become a strong, athletic man with charm and wit; he debated with Kurenai on the matter of focusing chakra, and, to the teacher's surprise, won the debate easily. He could sprint up a pine tree in a matter of seconds, as chakra-training class had demonstrated. Everything, from his physicality to his intelligence, attracted her as much as a fly to sticky sweet molasses. Any remnants of an eager Naruto with a foxy grin had disappeared into the air the second the new Kiba had stepped into her life. She was gone, gone, gone.
Hinata had shyly followed Kiba around throughout the whole day, unwilling to meet his gaze. She was suddenly twelve years old again, a flushing, shaking mess who could barely breathe in the presence of her love. It was intimidating to feel so young again, and, lost in her inner confusion, she fell toward the ground, stars glittering before her eyes. Her eyes squeezed closed in expectance of the hard crash into the rocky ground.
Warm muscular arms caught her before she hit the pavement, and she dazedly opened her eyes to see Kiba's mesmerizing brown eyes blinking back at her. He held her up and whispered, "Hinata…do you remember what happened at ninja academy? When I ran away, ashamed to face you?" She nodded, glowing with a cherry hue that complemented her scarlet dress.
He paused.
"I still love you, you know, and I'm going to wait until you tell me you love me back."
She was speechless. Then she reached up, caressed his face, and whispered, "I think I love you too..." She trailed off and blushed harder than ever.
His dazzling, relieved smile made her timidly smile, then he was kissing her, kissing her as if he would never let go. And she couldn't help thinking that destiny, indeed, had meant for them to be together all along.
fin
A/N: Yeah, it's a bit rushed...sorry 'bout that. ^.^ Don't forget to click that cute little button near this sentence!