Naruto nervously picked up the wrapped box next to his bed. It was wrapped in orange paper and tied with a lavendar ribbon. The tag simply read: To: Hinata. Wrapping his scarf a bit tighter, Naruto ran out the door.
It took him most of an hour to find the Hyuuga heiress. She was at Ichiraku's, waiting for him. She figured since it was his favorite place to eat, he'd be there eventually. Next to her was a similarly wrapped gift, except the colors were reversed.
"Hey, Hinata. I've been looking for you," Naruto said, sitting next to her.
"Y-you've been l-looking for me?" she stuttered, the familiar rosy blush coloring her cheeks.
"Uh, y-yeah," He replied. He shoved the box towards her. "T-this is for you." The stutter wasn't missed by Hinata.
Blushing slightly darker, Hinata accepted the gift. She took her time and carefully unwrapped the gift so she could save the wrapping paper and ribbon, without ruining it. She pulled out a long velvet box. Inside was a small necklace with a snowflake made of diamond. Her eyes grew wide.
"N-Naruto, this is from the Sh-Shin'emon snowflake collection!" she exclaimed. "No two are alike, it m-must have cost a s-small fortune!"
He grinned and threw his hands behind his head. "Nah. After the mission where Kiba and I escorted the Kachuo Fuugetsu, I had Buddy, er, Shin'emon make it for you before we returned. It inspired him to create the snowflake collection, so he gave it to me for free. It's the original. Unfortunately Pervy Sage and I left for my training shortly after that, so it's been sitting around for awhile."
Hinata smiled warmly as she put it around her neck. Looking down, she handed him the box she had brought. "Th-this is for you."
Naruto quickly ripped into the gift. Opening the box he quickly dug through all of the tiny pieces of paper, but a confused look came across his face. He upended the box and all that came out was paper.
"Um, Hinata, it's empty," he stated.
Hinata let out a nervous breath and closed her eyes, poking her finger together. Her blush reached a new bright shade of red. "W-well," she started,"If y-you look, each p-piece of paper s-says something."
Still more confused, Naruto began to look at each piece of paper. With each one he read an even more shocked expression came across his face. "D-do they all s-say..."
"Love and admiration," Hinata finished, looking at him. "I-I really wanted a bigger box, b-but that was all I could f-find."
Naruto was silent, just looking into her pale eyes. Man, how blind am I to have missed that all this time? he thought to himself.
"How long?" was all he could manage to get out.
"S-since the a-academy," she replied. Oh no! she thought. He doesn't feel the same!
She broke the gaze and stared at her hands, her fingers still poking together.
"I-I'm sorry if it makes you f-feel awkward. I-I just figured it-it was time to f-finally speak up."
She began to get up, but Naruto grabbed her hand. "Hinata, don't go. That's the nicest thing anyone has ever done."
She looked at him, and saw emotion raining from his eyes. He pulled her close, and felt as a warm teardrop hit her neck. The two sat there embracing for many long moments. Ayame was peeking around a corner giggling and old man Ichiraku was smiling warmly. Took them long enough, he thought.
Finally the pair broke the embrace, Hinata making tomatoes look pale, and Naruto grinning like a fool.
"So, uh, yeah," he said, "does this mean we're officially, like, you know..."
Hinata smiled back and nodded.
"Great!" Naruto said. "Dinner is on me!" He swiveled to face the counter and yelled "Hey old man! I'll have 20 miso ramen, and whatever Hinata wants!"
She sighed and leaned into his shoulder, smiling and closing her eyes contentedly. "I have all I want."
A/N: My first one shot. Just kinda came to me when i was about to fall asleep (and probably seems like it lol). I'm horrible about rating so went with T just for kicks.
