--
Naruto stared forlornly into his bowl of ramen as he ate. It was a sight to behold, as normally he would have been on his eleventh bowl by now. But no, he was still on the fifth. The man who ran Ichiraku's scratched his head, (understandably) confused.
The reason for Naruto's uncharacteristic lack of hunger (and I mean UNcharacteristic...) was loneliness. Ever since Sasuke, with whom he had become what you could call friends, and Sakura, whom he now loved like a sister, had become... an item... they spent more time with each other then with him. It was somewhat saddening.
The third wheel in his regular circle of friends, he had tried turning to others for company. This venture had proved largely unsuccessful as, first of all, many of his fellow Chuunins were also in a relationship, and would rather spend time doing God knows what with each other then hanging out with a hyperactive and mischievous blonde.
Shikamaru and Ino, for example, were too preoccupied with each other to pay him any attention. They didn't actually know that their attraction to one another was mutual, oh no, Naruto thought exasperatedly, they were totally hopeless. But that didn't stop them from being dense and blushing and embarrassed and awkward in each other's company.
Then there was Neji and Tenten, who, while they weren't as blatantly OBVIOUS as Ino and Shikamaru, also seemed to be... ahem, in love. Naruto knew because he had seen the scenario one too many times. First it was Sasuke and Sakura (it had come as quite a surprise, admittedly, to find that the human block of ice actually had feelings and thought of something besides revenge and being the best, which, of course, really was the only the thing he thought of in Naruto's opinion). A few simple pushes toward each other (literally) and conveniently placed closets had sorted that out quickly. The trickier one had been Asuma and Kurenai. It had been pretty obvious they were interested in each other, even though, even now, they wouldn't admit it. It had become clear, as Naruto watched this particular couple, that blushing and girlish giggles did not disappear with age.
It was obvious that our Naruto was more perceptive than a lot of people gave him credit for.
Now that he thought about it, he was probably a better matchmaker than Sakura, and even Ino, who prided themselves on being the cupids who had gotten Iruka and Anko together. But even then, the blonde had pitched in, having known about his schoolteacher's crush on the ferocious female for months. Not that he did it for the romance of it, hell no, he did it because he was getting tired of watching his former teacher embarrass himself over... and over... and over again. The pony-tailed man still owed him at least ten bowls of ramen.
Anyway... back to Mr. Girly Hair and the tomboy. They seemed to be as in love as any couple Naruto knew, and he knew many. They were sparring partners, yes, and they had known each other since the Academy-- a perfect recipe for attraction. The girl was pretty transparent, from her blushes not just when they were close, but when he was anywhere within a hundred miles, to her unusual tolerance of his cold behavior; she seemed to be the only one who could handle his angst besides Lee. With the Hyuuga prodigy it was a little harder to tell, but you had as much experience as Naruto (however unwanted it was) he was practically see through. From the lightest of blushes to his being gentler to her than anyone else (besides Hinata, of course), it seemed love had bloomed between the two. It was enough to make Naruto sick.
So, he had been left with his pick from the few people who were still single. Chouji was too busy dividing his time between eating and trying to get his two teammates to stop being stupid and admit they like each other to associate with anyone else.
Shino was a little too... odd, or, per se, quiet for the blonde's taste. He was constantly seen either experimenting with his bugs or being silent and creepy. Naruto generally tried to avoid him.
The adults weren't really any better, excluding the afore mentioned Asuma, Kurenai, Iruka and Anko, as they were just plain weird. It had never bothered him before, but recently he had been craving normal, or more accurately, sane company.
Kakashi, as perverted as ever, was just annoying, either reading his disgusting book or telling him to look underneath the underneath (crap, all of it). His punctuality was still infuriatingly out of whack, so he didn't even try to waste his energy organizing some kind of meeting with him.
Jiraiya was still the perverted old man he always was, peeping at woman's bathing houses and getting beat up in return. Naruto had already spent too much time with him, and did not intend to do it again very soon.
Tsunade, besides being unbelievably busy because of her Hokage duties, was way too focused on gambling and her medical studies to even try to "put up with him." In her own words. Naruto often had a quiet chuckle to himself when he thought of her customary reaction to him calling her "obaa-san."
So, unable to find any new friends, Naruto had turned to eating ramen and training as his daily routine. But, inevitably, it had gotten boring-- there was only so much he could put up with. Constantly training was boring and even ramen didn't taste as good (he never believed he would have even thought that) when you ate it alone. So he had turned to the only person left.
One Inuzuka Kiba.
He had had a bad first impression of the dog-loving boy, yes, but he was socially starved and quite honestly deperate. And anyway, when he looked at it from a different point of view, Naruto supposed that Kiba seemed like a... likeable individual.
It had started on a particularly boring day, when the blonde was feeling like a prank. Seeing as he was really, really bored, he decided to go all out. Time for a bit of creative thinking.
It was deceptively simple, almost agonizingly so. He would start a bet with the old lady, wagering that Lee, a fool when it came to girls if there ever was one, would snag a date with a beautiful young lady sometime soon. Knowing Tsunade's unhealthy obsession with gambling, and how the odds were supposedly in her favor, she would accept.
What she didn't know was that Naruto had bribed one such beautiful young lady to be "charmed" by Lee and ask him out. He could hardly suppress a stream of laughter at the thought.
She fell for it, of course, hook, line and sinker. They agreed to follow (stalking seemed too strong a word) Lee for the day. The fox boy gleefully thought of the money he would make. Apparently, the fifth Hokage liked to bet big.
Crouching behind a bush, they watched the bowl-haired teen train and run laps (the kid seemed to like running laps, Naruto thought after their subject had finished his thirtieth). The longer they watched the more confident Tsunade grew and the more apprehensive Naruto got. After what seemed like a long, long time (Lee had finished his laps and was beginning to practice his taijutsu), a girl strolled into the training grounds. The blonde boy smirked as he watched his superior start to sweat excessively.
The young women was indeed pretty, with long, silky black hair and matching black eyes that... er, sparkled (Naruto wasn't really the poetic type). She was a few years older then himself, around seventeen or so. Truthfully, she had seemed familiar, but he couldn't seem to place her. He didn't think he'd met her before, but she reminded him of someone.
"Er... hi?" she said hesitantly, looking around curiously.
Lee's response was very... Lee-like.
"Hello, my fair maiden! What brings you to my humble training grounds, so undeserving of beauty as unsurpassable as yours?" he cried enthusiastically.
The girl quirked an eyebrow just slightly before replying, "I'm looking for one Rock Lee. Ya seen him?"
"I am he, my flower of the spring! How may I serve you, a beautiful youth surely looking to live your life as it is short and to be treasured above all else! No time to waste the flower of youth by simply staying where you were planted, instead spreading your beauty to those who have not experienced such, and will be eternally grateful that you have enlightened them to what they have so sorely missed!" Lee said passionately before he struck one of his many and infamous poses. If Gai had been there, they probably would have embraced, calling each other's names.
She was probably totally weirded out by now, as were Naruto and Tsunade.
The ebony-haired female shot a withering look directly towards him, as if she knew he was there. Naruto prayed the blonde woman beside him wouldn't notice.
He vaguely recalled saying something along the lines of "he's kind of a loser" and "but he's nice enough and uhm... enthusiastic." He had been right about the enthusiastic part, hadn't he? But he guessed he should've given more of a warning... too late to worry about it now.
"Hey! Anybody there?" came a voice from the bushes, accompanied with the crunching of leaves and twigs.
A boy with wild black hair and a white dog on his shoulder emerged from the bushes. "Anybody seen Shino? The creepy dude with the bugs?" Inuzuka Kiba asked the people in the vicinity.
There was a shocked silence as the girl observed him, eyes widening. He too seemed to notice the woman staring at him, and his eyes held just as much surprise.
"Onee-san? What the hell are you doing here, of all places?" Kiba said, his eyes narrowing in suspicion. Akamaru barked in agreement.
Behind the bush, Naruto was sweating heavily. Oh. Crap. He was screwed. Tsunade was glaring at him, intuition telling her that this was his entire fault. And she was totally right.
"Oh, some blonde kid bribed me to ask that freak over there," she pointed for emphasis at Lee (Kiba promptly glared at him), "on a date. Only, he didn't tell me how much of a freak," she glared at the green-clad boy disdainfully, "he actually was."
Akamaru started communicating to his owner through a series of barks and growls that the bushy-haired teen seemed to understand. He nodded, saying, "Yeah, Akamaru is right. There's only one person who would do something as stupid," (Naruto fumed silently behind the bush), "as this."
The girl nodded. "Oh... So that's why. Well, I'm going. See ya at the house, Kiba, Akamaru-chan."
The dog barked goodbye to her.
As she walked away, she called, "Remember, it's your turn to feed the dogs!"
Kiba scowled before sniffing the air curiously, Akamaru doing the same. As they walked steadily closer to the bush, Naruto shuffled little by little backwards. Damn... that Kiba... I am sooo screwed...
"Naruto," he called over the bush, "I know you're there. Come out; come out wherever you are..."
What was the use, anyway? Obaa-san probably already figured it out already. There goes my ramen money, he thought angrily. I'm going to have to cash in my favors from Iruka. He stood up brusquely, glaring at the dog boy the whole way.
"Tell your sister I want my money back." He said, seething. Apparently, however, he wasn't the only one mad, as he felt a tremendous force on the back of his head. He lurched forward, rolling through the bush and screeching to a halt in the middle of the clearing.
The temperature seemed to have risen a few degrees, as Naruto loosened his collar, suddenly fearing for his life. He could feel the bloodlust emanating from behind him, and he shivered slightly when he heard the angry words, "Naruto..."
He quickly scrambled up, backing up faster than he ever would have believed he could. "Ah... y'see, Obaa-san..."
Ouch. Wrong move. Tsunade let out an inhuman roar that shook the leaves on the trees.
Kiba winced, and Akamaru whimpered. He almost felt sorry for the kid.
After running for his life and getting beaten to a pulp, he crawled to the ramen stand and ordered a few steaming bowls of ramen with what was left of his money and what he could borrow.
Just as he was about to bring the hot noodles to his bruised mouth, he heard, "I see you're still alive. Disappointing."
He turned in his seat to see that damned dog kid and that mutt sitting there, smirking. He glared as hard as he could, considering he had two black eyes and a cut lip.
"Shut up. It's your fault." Naruto hissed.
Kiba leaned over the bar, chin rested on steepled fingers. His (in Naruto's opinion, demonic) grin grew. "Riiight. It's my fault you pulled an idiotic, and not to mention stupid, prank, and bribed my own sister to do your dirty work for you."
"Oh, I'm sorry. I should have used my womanly charm instead of relying on other girls."
"Yeah. I hear there's this technique, Henge or something?" He replied sarcastically.
"That is so--" the blonde paused in his soon to be insult. He grew thoughtful before continuing, "Actually, you're right."
Kiba's smug look nearly drove him over the edge.
"Except," he said, glaring at him, "I was supposed to stake out with Tsunade. How can I be in two places at on--" He stopped, and his face darkened.
"Ever heard of Bunshin?" the black-haired boy said, if possible, more smug than before.
"Whatever." He said before turning back to his ramen, fully intent on ignoring the other boy.
Sadly, he was again interrupted from his food, but this time for a much more pleasant reason.
"But you got Hokage-sama really good," Naruto turned again to gape at the now sheepish Kiba. "What? Can you say that again?" He said, an evil grin spreading across his face. His companion scowled and Akamaru barked defensively.
"I said it was good, okay? No need to get a swelled head." Kiba said sullenly, angry that the tables had turned so quickly. That's what he got for trying to be nice. Try to be civil, and this is what he got in return. Being nice gets people to be nice in return, my ass, he said mentally, thinking of what Hinata had told him. Bull.
Imagine his surprise when he heard, "Thanks. I guess."
"Ah..." he said, searching his mind for something to say, "The look on her face was priceless, I mean, since I wasn't the one she was about to blow up at. From my point of view, it was actually pretty hilarious. Hell, if we teamed up, no one would be safe," He paused, sensing the smugness from the blonde, "I could still do better, of course," he finished with another one of his smirks.
They exchanged identical evil grins. It was, to use a cliché, the start of a beautiful friendship.
Naruto sighed. That had been two weeks ago.
He had something of a love-hate relationship with the dog-lover. Sometimes he was at odds with the boy, and the next day they would meet during his usual jaunt to the ramen stand and hang out like nothing happened. It was awkward at times, but Kiba was good enough a friend to be worth the trouble. Almost like Sasuke, except a lot less angst and coldness. It didn't matter, though, as just like his favorite food, he liked variety in his choice of companions.
Then one would wonder, why was our favorite blonde screw-up still lonely with such an awesome new friend as our feisty Kiba? The answer was elusive even to Naruto.
It must have been that lavender-eyed girl, he concluded. She had been on his mind a lot, unusually so, since he had met her. Not really met, of course, as he already knew who she was, but it was his first time being formally introduced. He recalled it clearly, even though it was some time ago (really only two weeks, but apparently time passes quite fast for our Naruto). Maybe it was because he thought about it so much.
He was going to spar with Kiba, just as he had been recently been doing for the last... week.
This was their first time going to the training ground used by Kiba's team, as they usually met at Team 7's training ground. Naruto looked around, noting the various weapons strewn around. Someone had been here before them.
"Oh hey, Hinata-chan." Kiba's voice brought him from his revere. He was smiling at a dark-haired girl sitting on a tree stump. She smiled back and waved.
"Hey, Kiba-kun. What are you doing here?" She asked, leaning back on the wood.
Kiba grinned and scratched his head, "Why, training of course!"
She blushed in embarrassment. "Oh yeah... I guess that's kinda obvious. I am so stupid," she laughed sheepishly.
During this exchange, Naruto was staring intently at her, trying hard to remember her. Hinata... Hinata... he thought, trying to call up a memory of her.
Wait... oh yeah! That's where he'd seen her. She was the one who fought that Hyuuga Neji kid... and lost. Badly. He remembered his insides burning at the sight of her lying on the ground, beaten. He also vaguely remembered that he, in a fit of rage, challenged Neji to a match, winning (of course, he thought, mentally smirking). He actually felt kind of dumb for forgetting something as important as that.
He also recalled saying something like, "You know, Hinata-chan... you're really someone I could like."
His face, for some reason, grew warm.
Kiba's voice, again, interrupted him from his thoughts. "Naruto, have you met Hinata?"
Hinata grew pale at the mention of him, and she looked at him closely. Noticing he was standing there for the first time, she blushed heavily and started getting flustered, tapping her fingers together.
Naruto, shaking the thoughts from his mind, grinned his customary wide grin and said, "Of course! How could I forget?" Liar, his conscience whispered. He quickly swatted it away. Again, his face grew warm.
She seemed surprised that he remembered her. She gave a hesitant smile that, for reasons Naruto could not comprehend, made him feel weird. "N-nice to s-see you a-again, Naruto-kun."
Kiba had a strange expression on his face. He turned from both of them, and said, "Sooo... Naruto, you wanna get started?"
Naruto, without taking his eyes off the girl before him, said, "Eh... sure. Hinata-chan, you want to join us?"
The girl smiled at the honorific he had added. "That's o-okay. I have to get home a-anyway," she stuttered, still blushing, as she stood up.
Kiba looked at her before saying, "So, I'll see you tomorrow? Remember, Kurenai said we would meet at 7 a.m. sharp,"
She only waved as she walked away.
Naruto watched her until she disappeared through the trees. It was probably a good thing, therefore, that he didn't notice his new friend's shoulders slump just slightly and his dog's sympathetic barking.
"Hi, Naruto-kun." A sweet voice broke him out of his thoughts (this seemed to be happening more and more lately).
He looked up to see the object of his thoughts, Hyuuga Hinata, taking a seat next to him. She smiled prettily at him. After spending a lot more time with him through Kiba, she had lost some of her shyness around him. She was by no means an outgoing person now, but it was definitely an improvement. Naruto's stomach clenched as he looked her over.
Her dark blue hair was no longer short like their Genin days. It was shoulder-length now, its tips curling slightly. It looked really... (Naruto cast around for a word that would accurately describe it) nice on her. Her eyes were still the same shade of lavender, but they were no longer downcast every time he looked at her. Instead, she met his blue eyes with a smile. Her body had also... developed in the past few years. Naruto blushed and struggled to think of something else.
"Hi, Hinata-chan." he said, smiling back at her, "What brings you here? Hungry?"
Hinata blushed slightly. Actually, she had come looking for him. A different kind of hungry... she thought guiltily.
"You could say that..." she said, a bit shakily.
He only looked puzzled for a moment, before saying, "Hey old man! A miso ramen for my friend here!"
Ignoring the small pang at the hearing him call her a "friend" (was that all he thought of her?), she protested lightly, "But Naruto-kun... are you sure you have enough money after that... thing with Hokage-sama?"
Naruto, with only the lightest of blushes, said, "So Kiba told you, huh?"
"Um, kinda."
Naruto pouted inwardly. Kiba, you are sooo dead... Why did he have to tell her, of all people? Understandably, Hinata was probably the only female friend Kiba had, and one of the closest. He couldn't even understand why it bothered him, because usually he would gloat and say something like, "Yeah, the look on her face was awesome!" or "It was all his fault it didn't work anyway..." but Hinata seemed to bring out a side in himself Naruto didn't know he had.
"Hinata!" Again, a voice cut through his thoughts. Naruto growled silently. This was getting really, really, really annoying.
Kiba came rushing to them, ducking under the flaps of the ramen bar. He said urgently, "Hinata, Kurenai says come, QUICK!"
She just stared at him. "But Kiba, today is our day off."
He scratched his head and said, "Er, she said it was an emergency!" And he promptly grabbed Hinata's arms, dragging her away.
"Uh, I'll see later, okay, Naruto-kun?" She called.
Naruto waved before returning to his food. There was something fishy going on here, and when he found out, Kiba was so getting it--
"Naruto!" He resisted the urge to yell. God, couldn't he get a moment to himself!
Sakura slid into the seat that had recently been occupied by Hinata, her boyfriend, glaring (as usual) following closely behind. She smiled at him while she ordered ("one shrimp and one beef please"), and said, "So, what you been doing lately?"
Naruto, still slightly hurt they had been all but ignoring him lately, said, "So you guys are done sucking each others' faces off?"
They both blushed lightly. Sasuke glared at him darkly and spat, "Shut up, dobe. I don't see you getting any."
Naruto snorted and said, "Like I would want to," Recalling, however, Hinata's smiling face made him regret this statement. His face grew the lightest shade of pink and he stared downward at his ramen.
Sakura, noticing this unusual behavior, asked worriedly, "Something wrong?"
He quicked replied, "No, of course not. You know, I'm not really hungry anymore, so I'll be going..." and, perhaps for the first time in history, Uzumaki Naruto pushed his ramen away and stood up, earning stunned looks from everyone in the vicinity.
As he started to walk away, an arm grabbed him and roughly sat him down again. By now, Sakura was extremely concerned about the state of her friend's wellbeing. Even Sasuke was slightly worried, which was nothing short of a miracle. Then again, it didn't happen every day that Naruto turned down a bowl of ramen.
"Naruto, you are going to sit down and tell me WHAT IS WRONG." She said, glaring at him.
"Why should I when nothing IS wrong?" he retorted.
"Dobe, you just pushed away your ramen, you expect us to believe nothing is wrong?" The dark-haired avenger said, staring at him.
He huffed and crossed his arms, refusing to yield.
And that was when Sakura got that crazy look in her eyes. Naruto looked at her apprehensively, only backing up a little. Even Sasuke felt a little sorry for him. "Naruto, I think you should listen to Sakura. I know that look. If you don't do what she says, trust me, you won't like it."
Naruto's mouth remained firmly closed.
Sakura smiled a smile that truly frightened the blonde. She said in an evil voice, "Sasuke-kun, I am going to need rope. LOTS of rope."
Naruto decided it would be safer for everyone if he just told her.
So, he proceeded to tell his pink-haired friend (and Sasuke for that matter, not that he'd ever admit he was listening) what he had been thinking lately. Being lonely, meeting Kiba, meeting Hinata... he talked about Hinata more than he probably should have, as Sakura was smiling furtively and even Sasuke was smirking by the time he'd done.
"So, you say it seems like everyone is in a relationship but you."
Naruto looked up, alarmed. "I never said--"
"But you might as well have. Admit it Naruto, the reason you're lonely even with Kiba is because you want to be in a relationship. I think there's even one person in particular." Sakura laid it out for him.
When she said that, a picture of Hinata popped into his head. He quickly waved it away, blushing.
"Ha! See? I was right!" Sakura exclaimed triumphantly, pointing at his red face. "There IS someone you like! And I bet I know who..." she said in a sing-song voice that annoyed Naruto greatly.
"Yeah, right." he muttered under his breath.
Even the old man running the ramen stand had to pitch in his two cents. "It is pretty obvious."
Naruto groaned, sinking lower in his seat. Was everyone against him?
After drowning his confusion in ramen, and trying to get rid the image of identical smirks on Sasuke's and Sakura's faces (he knew there was a reason they got along so well, they were both goddamn sadists), he set out to look for Hinata. He was feeling lonely again, and, for reasons STILL unknown to him, despite the talking-to he got from Sakura, he felt more and more like hanging out with the lavender-eyed girl.
He found her looking at the Hokage Monument, leaning over the railing.
He took this moment to observe her from behind. Her silky-looking hair was falling over her back in a way that made Naruto want to run his fingers through it. Shaking the tempting thoughts from his head, he decided not to go any lower than her waist to avoid any pervertedness that might have soaked into him from Kakashi and the old man Jiraiya.
Naruto walked up to her, leaning his back on the railing and putting his hands behind his head. She let out a sound close to a squeak and looked up, surprised. "Naruto-kun... don't scare me like that."
He smirked at her, and she smiled back. That smile that made him feel all warm inside. Fighting to keep the warmness from reaching his face, he said, "I remember when I painted graffiti all over it," He smiled genuinely, reminiscing.
Hinata laughed, brushing the hair from her face, "Yeah, me too... I wish I had the guts to do something like that."
"I couldn't imagine you doing something that mean. You're too... sweet."
They both blushed at this statement, and looked away from each other.
"Uh yeah," Naruto mumbled, scratching his head (it had somehow rubbed off on him from Kiba), "So, you want to go get something to eat, or something?"
Hinata perked up at this. Like... a date? She smiled at him. "I'd like... no, I'd love that."
"Let us go, my lady," he said while mock bowing. He offered her his arm and she happily took it, giggling. They both had flushed faces, and Naruto tried to ignore the way his stomach was doing flip-flops and his heart was turning cartwheels as Hinata tried to calm the frantic beating of her fluttering one. They exchanged smiles.
Neither were any the wiser.