Title: Affect
Series: Naruto
Parings/Characters: Naruto, Hinata, minor mentions of various others.
Disclaimer: Kishimoto owns Naruto...and I don't think he's sharing.
Rating: T or PG-13, just to be safe.
Dedication: All the sane Naruto fans out there! Without your wonderful attempts at intelligent fanfiction, tons of us would be bored out of our friggin' minds!
Summary: Naruto takes a moment to reflect upon emotions.

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Words never could truly describe feelings properly, he mused.

He, the one and only Naruto Uzumaki, unpredictable ninja extraordinaire, was feeling an emotion that he could not properly define. Sure, the blonde knew he wasn't the smartest ninja of his generation but he had, at the very least, some semblance of intelligence. How else would he be able to describe his success in missions and ability to stay alive in a village full of hateful-damn-near-murderous individuals?

Okay, so maybe, maybe Chance and Lady Luck had something to do with it, but they had never show their faces to him so he wasn't going to acknowledge them until properly introduced.

Insanity may of held a small role, but Naruto hadn't met Gaara way back then so he was quite sure that wasn't it.

This feeling, this important feeling - he knew it was important and that word was sufficient enough in typing and categorizing emotions at the very least - was unlike any he had ever experienced.

Part of this emotion reminded him of the feeling when he first became a genin. He was excited then since he was finally a real and official shinobi, but also upset because he had to be on a team with the asshole-who-shall-not-be-named-who-probably-also-kicked-puppies-in-his-spare-time and happy because he was on a team with Sakura-chan, who he was absolutely sure did not kick puppies in her spare time.

But that was not the only memory that this emotion reminded him of. It reminded him of those times when he was younger and skipped classes at the Academy with Kiba, Shikamaru and Chouji. It was another exciting time, but more so because of the fact that the excitement he was experiencing had something to do with his adrenaline pumping and he was with friends - real friends!

That was a special feeling all on it's own, but that had a name - Friendship - which suited it just fine.

His class skipping days were also kind of scary because Iruka-sensei was incredibly sneaky, far much more sneaky than regular shinobi practices should of allowed a man of Chuunin status, and always caught them all every. Single. Time!

Not to mention that he was almost always annoyed afterwards, because really, no one in the village could seem to take a good prank nor respect the planning and creativity that went into it. Nor did they ever share his opinion of the fact that a lot of buildings were so much more improved with a fresh coat of paint!

With a slight curse under his breath, Naruto wondered if their was every going to be a proper term for this emotion he was feeling.

A knock sounded from his office door.

"Naruto-kun?"

He turned his seat around and glanced upwards. A smile repleased his previous emotion, whatever it was, as relief flowed through his veins at the lovely sight in front of him.

"Hey Hinata-chan!"

The long haired bluenette smiled that wonderfully calming smile of hers and crossed the room quickly to give him a slightly tense hug. He could feel some of the tension she had been carrying release with the contact.

"You said it was really important, Naruto-kun.",she stated softly as he broke contact and gently held her hand.

"Well, I kind of wanted to ask you something, Hinata-chan... Something important."

No, words could never really describe emotions properly, but, then again, this emotion that he was currently feeling was so special that maybe it could never be correctly named. Just categorized as a very, very important one.

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One down, twenty-five more to go! Thank you for reading and please feel free to review.