Ok. He'd admit it. He was noticing things about Hinata that he never had before.

Like the way she sub-consciously twirled that one strand of hair in the tips of her fingers; the way she'd shyly bite her lip as soon as she got nervous or how when she saw him a blush would creep onto her face and it made him want to-

*WHACK*

Ow... What the-

"NARUTO! Are you even listening?!"

Oh yeah, he was talking to Sakura wasn't he. He must have got distracted. It's not his fault that Hinata's really-

*WHACK*

"NARUTOOOO! YOU LITTLE- Hey, you were staring at Hinata again, weren't you? You know you could just go talk to her."

Despite being slightly put off by Sakura's ability to change her mood so fast, he still knew the answer was pretty obvious.

"I would, but every time I try to even go near her she panics. It sucks! I just wanted to talk about-"

"The confession?"

Y'know, now that he thought about it Sakura's smile and ability to finish his sentence was kinda creepy...

"Yeah..."

Actually now that he thought about it the ground was pretty interesti-

"Naruto, look at me"

"Um."

Well, that was smart.

"She's just not ready to talk about it yet. But I bet if you wait a while she'll open up and talk to you again. Just try not to stress her out, kay?"

"Aright I'll try, Sakura. I guess only time will tell, eh?"

It's ok. He'd wait... for her at least.

Ok... Waiting was taking way too long. It had been a month and she'd just managed to say hi to him once. That was it. No "how are you?"s or "I love you"s... He really wanted to hear her say that again. He... He loved her. He needed her to know that. He needed the confirmation that she didn't hate him for what he did. He should have answered sooner. Maybe then he wouldn't be in this mess.

Ah well, better late than never... Right?

Either way, Naruto was going to find out.

After finishing his lunch of- you guessed it- ramen, Naruto set off to find Hinata once more; a task that had already taken up the majority of his day.

Wait! Was that-?

It had disappeared round the corner but it was too late. He'd seen the flash of indigo and lavender.

Of course he set off after her. What else was he going to do? He had to catch her before she got anywhere near either the Hyuuga compound or her protective cousin. Naruto had faced Neji's rage before and after three weeks the injuries had sort of healed... Let's just say he wasn't in a hurry to face him again.

There!

All he had to do was cut her off at the next corner and-

"OOF!"

As soon as Naruto had regained his senses, he realised he was facing a certain Hinata Hyuuga, who he had conveniently caged against the floor. Despite the Hyuuga heiress being cherry red and obviously struggling not to faint, Naruto had one less problem as now she could no longer avoid him.

"Hinata! I've been looking everywhere for you."

Well, at least she was focusing on him now...