Part 2
"Hinata…am I in-love with you?" he asked himself as he stood upside down, his feet connected to the tree branch via the no-hands tree climbing technique that allowed him to run up trees and other things with only his chakra focused into his feet. "If I am in-love, then why did it happen only now?"
"Hey!" yelled out Kiba as he came rushing towards him with an attack. "You gonna keep focused?!"
"Huh? Oh, shit!!"
He got out of the way at the last moment, only to get attacked by Akamaru in his beast clone form, sending Naruto flying into a nearby tree.
"Damn it, Kiba. I wasn't ready."
"You said you were about ten minutes ago," said Kiba as he landed next to him, Akamaru back to normal. "If this is how you're gonna be when you ask me to train with you, you can forget it. I've got better things to do. Next time, try to keep focused and stay focused."
Kiba and Akamaru left Naruto, going to do their own training. Naruto sat up and thought about what Kiba said.
"He's right," he said to himself. "I've got to stay focused. But…how can I if Hinata keeps popping into my head?"
As Naruto continued training, he couldn't get Hinata out of his head, which made it hard for him to keep his focus, resulting in him hurting himself multiple times. Finally, when he couldn't stand it, he went to go see Hinata and to tell her that he was in-love with her. He went to her house and knocked on the door, which was answered by Neji.
"Oh, hey Neji," he said, disappointed that it was him who answered the door.
"Naruto," he said. "What do you need?"
"Um…I've, uh…I've come to see Hinata."
"Is it important? Well, even if it wasn't, she isn't here. Why?"
"Um…can you keep a secret?"
"That depends. Why?"
Naruto whispered what happened to him and how he was in-love with Hinata into Neji's ear.
"I see. Well, I'll keep it a secret. She's at the market, buying vegetables and other food."
"Thanks, Neji."
Naruto turned to leave when Neji grabbed his shoulder and turned him around so they were face to face.
"Listen well, Naruto. If you hurt her in any way, whether it be physical, mental, or emotional, I'll make sure you pay. Understand?"
"Uh, sure, I understand. Heheh."
He left for the market, relieved that Neji didn't hurt him then and there, and at the same time scared of what he would do to him. He went to the market and searched for Hinata. As he did, however, some of the villagers who were of his age, a few years older or a little bit younger stared at him with interest, as if he was attractive.
"What's going on?" he asked himself as he realized that some of the other girls started to stare at him. "Why are they looking at me like that?"
"It's Naruto," said one of them. "Oh, he's so cute."
"I want to go out with him!" yelled another one.
"Huh?" he said as he heard that last one. "Okay, this is getting scary."
A group of girls went up to him, smiling at him and looking at him dreamily.
"Uh…I'll just be leaving now, thank you."
He backed away slowly, only to be surrounded by the other girls. He looked around frantically for an opening to escape through, but found none around him.
"Go out with me!" yelled one of the girls.
"Marry me!" yelled another.
"You're not taken, are you?" asked another.
"Okay, I'm out of here!!" he yelled as he made a few hand signs. "Multi-Shadow Clone Jutsu!"
In a huge puff of smoke, about a hundred or more shadow clones ran for it, the real Naruto somewhere in the crowd of escaping shadow clones. The crowd of girls started to chase the clones, searching for the real Naruto. Unfortunately for Naruto, some of them were ninja, so they had more chance of finding the real Naruto than did the other girls.
Meanwhile, the real Naruto had hidden in the ramen shop, disguised with a transformation jutsu as one of the other villagers.
"Close call," he said as he undid the transformation. "What was that all about?"
"Excuse me," said one of the other customers, an old man in a lab coat with gray hair that went down to his shoulders. "Did you happen to be hit with a pink smoke screen by any chance?"
"Huh? Yeah, why do you ask?"
"Did you feel that you've fallen in-love with someone afterwards?"
"Uh, yeah, I think. Why do you ask?"
"I knew it! Oh, I was afraid of that other side effect."
"What other side effect?"
"You were chased by those girls, right?"
"Yeah, what about it?"
"Whoo boy…I'm afraid that the pink smoke screen was a gas version of a love potion. Those girls chasing you were affected by it, and yet you search for only one particular girl, right?"
"Well, ye – WAIT!! How do you know about that?!"
"Well, I'm the one that-"
"THERE HE IS!!" yelled one of the girls as she pointed to the ramen shop. "THERE'S NARUTO!!"
"Uh oh," said Naruto as he saw the girls coming. "I better go! I'll see you later!"
"Wait!!" yelled the old man. "It's important that you listen!!"
Naruto, unfortunately for the old man, was already gone, running through the back exit and making more shadow clones, who split up and went in different directions. The real Naruto stopped in-front of a nearby alley that lead to the abandoned Uchiha sector of the village. He decided to hide in there for a while, when he bumped into none other that Hinata.
"Oh," said Hinata as she saw Naruto, blushing and looking away. "Hello, Naruto-kun."
"H-Hinata," he said as he realized who it was, his face blushing a little and his heartbeat increasing in tempo. "Um…there's something that I've been meaning to tell you."
"Yes?" she asked as she looked up at him, wondering what he had to say.
"I…well, I…um…"
He took a deep breath and said those three words that always changed someone's life forever.
"I love you."
To be continued in part 3…
