Author's note: So in my Naruto universe, all the catastrophies of Pein's attacks and the war never happened, and life in the hidden leaf village continued as normal. Over the years, Naruto and Hinata naturally and organically had opportunities to become closer friends, assisted somewhat by their growing maturity (which does come somewhat with age!).

This is not to say that I didn't like the catastrophic events in the anime, I loved them. But I wanted to explore what it might be like for Naruto and Hinata if they had the opportunity to naturally and gradually grow closer, rather than a confession of love in a life or death battle followed by a war that distracted them both from said confession. Hope you guys enjoy :) it's my second ever fanfiction so please review to let me know what you think!

(By the way, you may notice that I start off with them using suffixes for each other's names, and then dropped the suffixes later. I had planned to go back and fix that but in the end I couldn't be bothered. Doesn't really take away from the story anyway).

Chapter 1:

Naruto ran down the streets of Konoha at break-neck ninja speed. Nothing else got him going in the morning than the prospect of a bowl of Ichiraku's ramen. Normally he didn't have enough money to buy it for breakfast, but seeing as he'd just come back from a mission the day before, he figured he should put Gama-chan's extra weight to good use! "Ramen, raaamen, ramen in the morning!" Naruto was so caught up in singing to himself that he didn't notice a certain raven-haired kunoichi in his path. Hinata and Naruto collided like, well, like a speeding Naruto hitting a stationary object; only that object happened to be Hinata.

"Ouuch" Naruto groaned while rubbing his forehead. It took him a few seconds to realise that there was someone beside him moaning similarly. His head spun to focus on a wincing Hinata, also rubbing her forehead.

"Ahah, would have been better if we were wearing forehead protectors today, huh Naruto-san?"

"Ahh! I'm so sorry Hinata-chan!" cried Naruto

Hinata tried to brush off Naruto's profuse apologies with light humour, all the while fighting down a blush in response to his use of the honorific "Hinata-chan".

"So where were you rushing off to in such a hurry?" Asked Hinata, trying to change the subject.

With that, Naruto's face lit up again with his customary wide smile. "Ahaha...well you see, I have extra money this week from my mission, so I was hoping to stop by Ichiraku's today for a ramen breakfast."

Hinata stared at Naruto for a second, then started giggling

Naruto looked at her curiously. "Whats up Hinata-chan? Whats so funny?"

Hinata spoke between her giggles "Only you would be running like an Anbu on an S-rank mission for ramen in the morning."

Naruto stared at her for a moment then started chuckling too. "Hahaha, I guess you're right." He scratched the back of his head bashfully.

"Say, do you want to come along?" Naruto asked with a smile, once their laughter died down.

Hinata gave Naruto a sidelong glance then smiled "I'm not sure if ramen is something I would ever eat in the morning, but I've already had breakfast, so I would be happy to come along for the company."

"Atta girl" Naruto grinned. He locked his hands behind his head as they began walking together

"It'll start like that, and then you'll see, soon I'll have you eating ramen in the morning too." Naruto's grin turned teasing.

Hinata resisted the urge to blush again. She'd gotten better and better at fighting down that red on her cheeks that only Naruto could summon. The damn boy was oblivious to it too, or so he made it seem...

"Ne, Hinata-chan, have you got any plans for today?"

Hinata jumped out of her musings to reply "Ah, no actually. I thought I'd take the day off to rest after my misson but I haven't decided yet what I should do."

Naruto's grin died down a little "Ah, I see. Well, I guess that puts training out of the equation."

Hinata was able to put two and two together. "Ah, well, when I say r-rest, that doesn't mean n-no training, exactly." Hinata cursed her faint stutter; this was a part of herself she had yet to fully discipline. Her stutters still seemed to come out a bit when she was startled or off-balance, especially around Naruto.

"Oh really?" replied Naruto. "As in, you see training as rest? Cool, guess that's one thing we have in common!" Naruto grinned his foxish grin. "Ne, Hinata-chan, would you like to train with me today?"

Hinata returned his grin with one of her own. "Of course, Naruto-san. I always enjoy our training sessions."

Naruto's smile turned self-satisfied. "Well, of course, it's not every day that the best Shinobi and Kunoichi in the village come together for a fight."

Hinata struggled to control her blush in response to his words. She didn't know if she should scold him for being big-headed or thank him for his compliment of her!

Their arrival at the ramen stand made both those options void as Naruto rushed forward to order and eat. "Nothing will get through to him for the next half-hour while he feasts" thought Hinata with a smile.

An hour later saw Hinata and Naruto standing in one of the training fields in Konoha. Hinata's hair waved in the wind as she took her Hyuuga fighting stance. Naruto readied his own stance with a focus that Hinata had become accustomed to. They circled each other slowly, each one studying the other for the smallest of openings, weaknesses; anything they could exploit. But months of training together meant they had learnt to impressively guard themselves. Neither of the two was giving an inch, so Naruto decided to begin. He suddenly sprung forward with a flurry of tai-jutsu attacks. Hinata responded with blocks and blows of her own, but neither seemed able to gain ground on the other. They suddenly sprang back from each other and settled into their slow circling again, both studying the other for weaknesses once more. A bystander watching might almost mistake their combat for a graceful dance; so perfectly aligned they were to each other's movements. But this was no dance, this was combat, and Naruto was determined to win. His eyes widened slightly as he saw his chance. In a flash, he shun-shinned (teleported) himself to appear above Hinata and drop down with a kick towards her head. Hinata, surprised by his new assault, hastily whirled into a Hakkeshō Kaiten (Eight Trigrams: Palm Rotation), effectively blocking his attack and throwing him backwards. Naruto, quick to recover, spun mid-air and threw a kunai before landing gracefully. Hinata quickly brought up her own kunai to parry his, and was quick to notice the second kunai he had hidden in the shadow of the first. Not so quick to notice the exploding tag attached to it, however. She jumped away quickly as the 'practice' tag exploded into a cloud of black dust, mimicing the explosion of a real exploding tag. Hinata's eyes adjusted easily to the darkness, her Byakugan already activated. However, she couldn't see Naruto anywhere...There! Hinata's eyes registered a flicker out of the corner of her eye and she spun to aim her kunai at her attacker. Naruto and Hinata froze in place, panting heavily, each holding their blunted kunai at the throat of the other.

"Stale-mate again." Naruto said between short, quick breaths, he was smiling.

Hinata could only muster enough energy to return his smile, breathing as heavily as he was.

A few moments later, Hinata and Naruto were collapsed under a tree, next to the only pond in the clearing. They had recovered their energy long ago, but neither seemed to want to move out of their lazy recline. Naruto stared up at the sunlight filtering through the tree leaves. Hinata's eyes traced the the web of light reflected in the large pond. It was a peaceful moment. Hinata almost felt bad when she had to break the silence with her shuffling. Shifting to the side, she removed her heavy jacket. Naruto's eyes turned to her lazily.

"Too warm?" He asked with a half smile.

"Well, it's quite sunny today, and our fight was more strenuous than usual."

Naruto's gaze drifted lazily to a point behind her. His grin widened.

"You still warm?"

Hinata looked at him curiously. "Yes. I don't think I'll cool down properly until I shower at home...what about you?"

Naruto's grin took on a mischievous look. "Hmm, I'm pretty warm myself. Could also use a cold shower."

He slowly stood up and removed his jacket, moving towards the exit of the clearing. Suddenly, Hinata felt something wasn't quite right. But she didn't have time to ponder what, as Naruto quickly bent down to splash a handful of water in her direction. Hinata sputtered in shock. Naruto's mischievous grin was now full blast.

"Feel better?" He asked with a cackle.

Hinata's eyes narrowed. Oh, he was so getting paid back for this one. She quickly hid her intentions behind a mask of confusion and pretended to sneeze.

Naruto's grin changed to one of concern as he rushed over.

"Oh no, this isn't going to make you catch a cold is it?" He bent down to examine her forehead's temperature. That was when Hinata decided to strike. In one swift movement she shoved him backwards into the pond, with a massive splash. Naruto sat up in the shallow pond and stared at Hinata's triumphant expression, before his expression turned into one that promised recompense. Hinata, picking up the danger signs, began a mad dash for the exit of the clearing, but Naruto's ninja speed cut her off before she could take two steps. In a single motion he dragged them both into the cold shallows. They fell with a massive splash. Much giggling and laughing ensued as they engaged in a water fight of epic proportions. Towards the end they even started using jutsu. Hinata blocked and counter-attacked naruto's splash with her Hakkeshō Kaiten, heavily dousing Naruto, who immediately set a number of clones to attacking her with splashes from all sides. The pond became a battle ground of sorts, and it continued as such until both of them dissolved into a fit of giggles over the absurd escalation of their water fight.

Hinata spoke between gasps of laughter "What *gasp* just happened?"

Naruto, on his knees in the water, chuckled good-naturedly "We just cooled down." His grin was now self-satisfied.

Hinata shook her head at him. "I swear, I'll be watching my words around you from now on." She laughed again.

Naruto grinned good-naturedly. "Yea, but it was fun wasn't it?"

Hinata grinned back "Yea, it was."

Suddenly, Naruto blushed and looked the other way.

Hinata started in alarm. Naruto never blushed around her.

"Whats wrong Naruto?"

He pointed weakly at her chest "Ah, um, y-you should probably do something about that."

Alarm bells now pealed in Hinata's mind. Naruto certainly never stuttered around her. She glanced down at her chest and with mortification saw how tightly her shirt now clung to her figure. It wasn't see-through thank God but it was certainly more tight-fitting than she would ever be comfortable with. With a gasp she crossed her arms across her chest. A few seconds later she heard Naruto slowly approach her. Her gaze turned the other way in shame, she wondered what he would do. She looked up in shock when she felt him place her jacket over her shoulders. Naruto smiled at her boyishly.

"There you go. Better now?"

Hinata smiled weakly in gratitude, her cheeks flaming. She couldn't help but wonder what her other male shinobi friends would have done. She certainly couldn't imagine any of them acting as gallantly. Most of them would make at least one innappropriate comment. She normally hid her large chest well under her jacket and baggy shirt.

But Naruto seemed to take it all in stride. "So, shall we head back to town? If anyone asks what happened, we could always say we were practicing our water jutsu." Naruto grinned reassuringly at Hinata.

Slipping her jacket firmly back on, Hinata agreed. "Good idea. We should probably go dry off...before one of us actually catches a cold."

Naruto grinned toothily at her as they began walking. "That was a good stunt, by the way. Got me good."

Hinata couldn't help a small blush at the praise. She smiled back in reply.