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

Hinata Hyuga looked up. Her eyes had been previously fixated on her black sandals in which finely manicured and painted toes peaked out. Now, her eyes were squinted in the direction of his all too familiar voice. The minuscule shade that was provided by the tree above her did not really do much to alleviate the strain she now had to put on her eyes in order to even see the mere outline of his face.

"Naruto?" she responded, her hand flew up to her brow, taking the form for the universal sign for, "What the hell is that?". She knew it was him, but that damnable sunlight!

Finally realizing her dilemma, Naruto moved himself so that he stood directly in front of her. Now, she could see his face more clearly and she secretly thanked God for it.

Naruto Uzumaki was gorgeous. Well, at least Hinata thought so. Every time she saw him, Hinata worked her eyes quickly up from the very soles of his feet to the small peaks of blond hair that characterized his new haircut. Hinata was often teased for hiding her figure under the baggy coats and pants that characterized the whole of her three-man squad, but no one ever talked about Naruto, with his heavy and bulky tracksuit-like ensembles. He had recently gotten better about it now that he regularly donned a black high collar and very form fitting jacket that highlighted the good points of his figure like one might say a good, tailored suit would have done. She was grateful to whoever had picked it out for him. She especially loved the days where he decided to leave that black jacket at home and walk the streets of Konoha wearing only a black T-shirt and his usual orange pants. Today was a special day apparently, because he decided to wear thigh-length orange shorts with that singular black shirt. She had never seen these shorts before and chuckled at the limited color scheme of his wardrobe. His legs were toned from fierce training and taxing missions and though they held poorly healed scars, she thought they were extremely sexy. His legs.

When she worked her eyes up to his hips and belly, she realized her attraction to him was merely at a simmer at the point of his legs. She could just see how the muscles of his quadriceps and hamstrings must simply be teasers for his abs and pectorals…Oh boy, here comes the sizzle…

Her eyes drifted then up to his face. Oh, his face! His lips, though thin and pale—well, now his whole body had tanned and his lips and the rest of him had become more brown than anything—when puckered the right way after saying just the right words, dared Hinata not to kiss them. They taunted her. The whisker birthmarks that brushed his cheeks begged Hinata to run her thumb gently across them as if she were tracing a beautiful picture. And now, to his eyes. Damn it, those eyes. A tantalizing and crystalline blue greeted her eyes with a passion and zeal behind them that was characteristically Naruto Uzumaki. She had always dreamed of the day she would have that zest, that liveliness in her Byakugan eyes that he did, and it seemed that when she peered upon the whole of him now, she had finally achieved that.

But who could forget his smile? That large and almost ridiculous grin of his was constantly the death of her. This face that brightened her day like the glow of a fresh morning sun was what heated her to a boil.

"Aren't you hot?" he asked Hinata, pointing at her clothes.

Yeah, she kind of was. She was still Hinata—constantly self-conscious about revealing too much of herself—and so she was wearing a baggy and honestly homely windbreaker with capri pants. Well, it was supposed to be a sweltering day, but she reasoned the sun probably wasn't the reason she was burning up. The fault entirely belonged to The Sun Personified.

"Take that jacket off," Naruto continued, not waiting for her to reply to his question, "you're gonna burn up in all that!"

Naruto had caught her sitting on the Ninja Academy swing, looking downcast for some reason. Honestly, it freaked him out. He was reminded of himself. He was reminded of the times he sat on that swing alone, looking dejected because he was.

"I'm fine, Naruto, really!" she said cheerily, smiling with lips shut.

He shrugged, "Okay."

There was silence. In their relationship, it no longer felt awkward for there to be no talking. Everything would be communicated with or without language eventually and the couple had come to realize that.

"Hey," Naruto began after a couple of minutes, he had taken to sitting grass in front of her, "so why are you sitting over here by yourself?"

Hinata just stared at him, and eventually, she lifted her left leg and hauled it to the other side of the swing, her profile now to her boyfriend on the grass. She was facing the city and looking at the throngs of people walking its streets. Her hands gripped the rope in front of her face tightly.

"I'm sorry," she said simply.

"For…what?" Naruto scratched his head and furrowed his brow in confusion.

"I…I used to see you sitting over here when we were kids, on this swing, looking like…like every day was a walk through hell for you. You looked so sad and alone and I know you…I know you were. I could see your pain and I never did anything about it. I'm so, so sorry, Naruto. I'm so sorry I didn't have the strength to approach you when you needed it."—she chuckled here, which came as a surprise to Naruto, who was shocked enough as it was—"Like it should have been that hard! How hard could it have been to simply say hello to you? I pass this swing every day and I feel nothing but shame…"

Silence took its place again and it stayed for what Hinata felt was an eternity.

Naruto stood up and for a moment, Hinata thought he was going to walk away and leave her there, never to come back for her. Maybe this was the revelation he needed to snap himself out of whatever he was in with her. She refused to watch him leave, and kept her eyes fixated on the streets before her.

Suddenly, Hinata felt a shifting of the swing and saw a beautiful leg settle itself on one side of the swing, like she had done earlier. Naruto's front was pressed to her back, squeezing himself onto the short plank of wood. He draped his arms around her waist, her windbreaker crunching under this added pressure. His chin rested on her collar bone. Their cheeks were gently pressed together. His skin was soft.

"It's a really nice day outside, even if it is hot," he began quietly, as if sharing a secret he didn't want to risk anyone else hearing, "It's like a lazy Sunday in the summer, right Hinata?"

Hinata was too busy trying not to cry to verbally respond, so she nodded her head instead.

Naruto kissed his girlfriend's neck and said, "I don't care about any of that. You're here now and that's all I could ask for," as if it was the easiest thing in the world.

"Just knowing you cared when no one else did is enough for me," he continued, "Thank you, Hinata." She only nodded again.

"C'mon," he started and got off the swing, "let's get out of the shadows. Stand in the sun with me!"

Hinata Hyuga smiled. She walked with him, greeted by the warmth and light of sunshine.