It was New Year's Eve in Konoha, and all of the villagers were having parties to celebrate it, including the nins in the same age group as Naruto Uzumaki. They were all hanging out at Naruto's apartment. There was music playing and people were having a good time and they were eating and just having fun, despite it being a tiny apartment.
Most of them were in the living room; however, a few of them were in the kitchen at the table, playing poker. Ino Yamanaka was trying to convince the others at the table to play strip poker and to get the others to play as well.
Hinata Hyuga, who was sitting on the couch next to her cousin nervously, didn't make eye contact with Ino because she knew that if she did then Ino would try to get her to play. And that wasn't okay because Hinata knew if she agreed to play Neji would freak out and make her go home.
Sakura was completely ready to play. In fact she had got up and pulled Sai, Shino, and Naruto to the table. As soon as she made Naruto sit down, he got back up and went into his room. His door slammed behind him and everyone stared at the closed door.
Neji had been drinking rum straight from the bottle for some time now and so it really didn't sink in when Hinata stood up.
She went over to the door and lightly tapped in the door. "Naruto-kun?"
At this point, Ino made the ones at the table- which included her, Sakura, Shino, Sai, Sasuke, Kiba, and Gaara- start to play a new game of strip poker.
Naruto muttered 'come in' from inside the room and so she gently pushed the door open. She only opened it enough so that she could fit through the door.
"May I come in?" Hinata asked softly.
"Yeah..." Naruto said quietly.
So Hinata walked in and she shut the door behind her.
"Naruto-kun? Is something bothering you? You seemed upset when Ino tried to get you to play poker with them... D-did something happen?" She seemed like she was very nervous about asking.
In a way she was worried that she would make him more upset by asking him if something had happened before that was painful for him to remember.
The blonde kitsune looked at her and he didn't really look as if anything was wrong. For a minute, he just looked at her then he realized she was getting more worried by the minute and so he sighed then answered her question.
"Nothing really happened. I just... I'm... not into playing stripping games where I have to expose my body... It makes me feel weird... Especially with Sasuke in the room... He is always starring at me... Ever since I brought him back... I don't like it... Plus... Ino is a very pushy bitch and she just likes to hit my buttons. That's why she tried to get me to play... But no. Nothing really happened and nothing is wrong. Just didn't want her to force me to play. So I came in here..." He finally stopped talking, having noticed he was babbling to her.
"Oh," was all that she could thin t say to him at that moment.
An awkward silence crowded them in the room. Hinata suddenly felt as though she might suffocate in the room that was so quiet that you would be able to hear a needle drop...on the carpet.
"You can... sit down if you want to..." Naruto said out of nowhere.
Hinata nodded and sat on the edge of the bed as far from him as possible. It wasn't that she had anything against Naruto, it was just that she didn't trust herself alone with this boy. This boy she had had a crush on for so long.
After a few more minutes of awkward silence, they started talking. They went from subject to subject. Talking about things like how their recent missions had gone, and how they were doing with their training regimes.
They had sort of lost track of time when suddenly they heard a lot of racket coming from the main area of the apartment. They looked at each other and they both stood and headed to the door.
Naruto opened the door and they saw two things happening. First, they saw that nearly everyone that was playing poker was in only underwear, and a bra for the two girls, except for Sai and Gaara. Gaara must have lost because he was completely naked. And Sai must be the best poker player in their group because he was still wearing all of his clothing. The second thing they saw was Neji punching Sasuke in the jaw.
No one else was doing anything to stop them, they were all just standing there watching the fight, and all hell, break loose. Sasuke ducked out of the path of the first blow but when he stood back up, he couldn't escape the second one. Neji's right hook caught him hard in the jaw and Sasuke went down to the floor.
Naruto chose that moment to grab Neji and pull him out of the apartment and into the hallway. Neji struggled against him and Naruto let go of him. However, quickly closed the door to prevent him from going back into the apartment.
"Neji, what happened?" The kitsune asked.
Naruto could tell that Neji was drunk, which was highly unusual. Neji rarely drank, and when he did it was very light drinking. This was because his top priority was always keeping an eye on his beautiful cousin, Hinata.
Neji glared at him. It took him a minute to form his words correctly and he had to speak very slow to keep from slurring his words together.
"I noticed Hinata was gone so I asked Kiba and Shino if they knew where she was. They both said no," He paused to take a deep breath, then continued. "And then the Uchiha brat decided to speak up and say 'Well, I saw her go into Naruto's room and close the door. So she's probably in there down on her knees.' So I walked over to him and shoved him. He shoved back and then I think you saw the rest. And I guess that no one stopped me because they knew that he had it coming. No one says anything like that about Hinata."
Then Neji stopped talking and crossed his arms.
Naruto was very quickly infuriated at what Sasuke had said to Neji about poor innocent Hinata. Yet he was also surprised that the raven-haired boy was capable of saying something so vile, even if he had been drinking.
The blonde opened the apartment door and saw Hinata making sure that Sasuke was okay, and apologizing for Neji hitting him. Naruto stormed over to them and pulled Hinata away and Neji, who had followed him in, stepped in front of her like a shield. The kitsune then proceeded to yank Sasuke off the floor by his arm. After he was off the floor, Naruto wrapped a hand around his throat, not too tight, but tight enough for him to get the point.
"If I ever find out that you say, or have already said, anything else like that about Hinata again this hand will be tightening until I take the life out of you. You hear me?" Naruto's voice was cool and calm, but in a way that was what made it sound so scary.
Sasuke's eyes widened and all he could do was nod just slightly.
After that Naruto let him go and Sasuke scurried out. The rest of the party was fairly calm, mainly because everyone was too scared to piss off Naruto like Sasuke had.
That night, Neji and Hinata were the last two to leave. Before they left, Hinata walked over to Naruto and gave him a hug.
"Neji told me what Sasuke said... Th-thank you for defending my honor. Neji and I both really appreciate it. Good night, Naruto-kun. Sleep well," said the beautiful girl with pearl colored eyes.
Naruto gave her a gentle hug back and then he let go of her and she left with her almost-sober cousin at nearly four a.m.
After they left, Naruto watched them out his bedroom window until he could no longer see them and he whispered to himself, "You're very welcome, my love."