Author Note: Okay, yes, I know the scenes in this are almost identical to canon. It's the internal of Naruto that I think makes this worthwhile. And yes, I think this is what happened in canon. Sorry it's so short, and sorry I'm so close to canon, I just felt like I had to write this for some reason.
Clearly, I don't own Naruto. This is the only time I'm going to say that, simply because if I did, the two of them would have been together shortly after this event.
A Gift
Naruto looked down at his hands. Hinata had just handed him a small jar. He was utterly puzzled. "What's this?" He asked. It was the obvious question after all.
"It's a healing ointment," Kurenai, Hinata's sensei, was the one who responded to his question. Naruto was even more puzzled now. He had just beaten Hinata's teammate and here she was being kind to him, giving him an ointment to heal the wounds her teammate had inflicted. What was going on here? Unsure of what to say or do, he simply thanked the young girl and walked back to his teammates, scratching the back of his head in confusion.
Between his match and hers, Naruto couldn't seem to get his eyes away from Hinata. It was only a few seconds, yes, but he had noticed her blushing a little as she gave him the gift, and, while he was still there, the blush had stayed on her face. He was getting more and more puzzled. Naruto thought and thought, watching the blushing girl. Suddenly he noticed something. Before he could really think about it, though, Hinata's match was called.
Watching Neji and Hinata fight, Naruto found himself getting annoyed with Neji. The guy thought it was okay to put Hinata down, tell her she couldn't do what she wanted, that she was a failure. How dare he do that? Naruto sympathized with Hinata. He'd been told the same things his whole life, after all. That's why he yelled at Neji for her.
"Who gave you the right to tell her what she can or can't be? Go on, Hinata, show this guy he's wrong!" He yelled out. He didn't think about what he was saying. "Hinata! Are you just gonna stand there and take that? Do something, you're driving me crazy!" He was yelling at her now. He didn't think of what he was doing, but between Neji's words and Hinata's lack of action, he needed to do something or he was going to hurt someone.
Then it happened. Hinata looked at Neji with sudden confidence; from his position behind Neji, Naruto saw the change happen. She set her shoulders, fell into a fighting stance, and began her match. Naruto lost track of the match, lost in thought. He watched Hinata (her dream come true, though he had no idea of that of course) watched her every move, saw the determination she had, the will to keep going. He saw in her the same will he saw in himself, the will to never give up. He realized he was seeing a different side of Hinata at that moment.
Then she lost. He was stunned. Could it be that determination alone wasn't enough? He saw the ruthless way Neji pounded her into the ground, first mentally and then physically. He was enraged. So he went to her. He couldn't do anything, but he felt he had to go there. Then he saw Hinata's blood on the ground. He bent to it, touched it, feeling bonded to this girl in some way, and turned to Neji.
"I vow to win." That's all he said. It's all he needed to say. He didn't even know why he was so mad. This girl wasn't his teammate, he didn't really know her, and yet seeing this match and her determination had made him feel connected to her somehow. He had to avenge her. He would beat Neji. He had vowed it.
A Month Later
Naruto was nervous. He was to fight Neji today. He knew Neji was strong. He was strong, true, but not like Neji. Neji was a genius. He had seen it that day, when he watched the older boy beat Hinata. Almost kill her. So of course he was somewhat apprehensive about fighting Neji himself. That's why he found himself where he was now. He was at the training posts, where he had first become a Gennin. He couldn't seem to build up his confidence again. Then he heard something. It sounded like a squeak.
He looked up. He hadn't been watching where he was going. It was Hinata. What are the odds, huh? He chuckled to himself, but couldn't seem to find it in himself to do so vocally.
"So, why are you here? The final competition..." Hinata said, trailing off. He sighed to himself. How did she know what was on his mind? It was kind of weird, seeing as he knew so little of her.
"I just...it's nothing. I just came to check out this training field," he said, lying through his teeth. He didn't want her to know he was nervous. He cursed himself for his pride, but kept going anyway. "This is actually the place I became a Gennin, so..." he found himself trailing off, like Hinata.
"Oh, but...why are you here?" She asked. He noticed that for once she wasn't stuttering.
"Nothing, no real reason, it doesn't matter anyway," he said, still not wanting to admit why he was there.
"Oh," was all Hinata said at first. She sounded disappointed somehow. "Guess you're right. Sorry."
His first thought was to wonder what she was apologizing for, but he shrugged that off. Then he decided that she was just the one to ask. "Hinata, Neji...he's a cousin of yours right?" She gave an affirmative answer, and he continued. "So is he really strong?" She looked discouraged, which he took as a yes. "Great," he muttered, mostly to himself. Then he got a surprise.
"But, I mean, you may still be able to win, Naruto," Hinata spoke up.
"Yeah, I'm strong too after all," he laughed, but it was forced. After a moment, his laughing stopped and his face fell. Damn this insecurity! An awkward silence fell over them.
"I know you can win, Naruto. Remember that time, when you cheered for me? I felt like...like I was able to become stronger than ever before. When the preliminaries ended, I was finally able to like myself a little," Hinata's words were quiet, but she didn't stutter at all. "To anybody else, it might look like absolutely nothing's changed about me, but I feel different, like I'm a better person now, and I've been thinking, that it was all thanks to you, Naruto."
"Hinata, you really...do you really believe that's true?" Hinata's surprised gasp gave him the courage to go on. "I may look strong to you, but all I ever do is mess things up. I act tough because I'm so frustrated, but underneath it all, I just feel like I'm a huge failure."
"No, that's not true!" Hinata almost yelled. For her, that is; it was still relatively quiet, but it was louder and more sure than anything else he'd ever heard her say. "Even when you messed up, you were always uh, um, how can I say this? A proud failure, from my point of view. When I look at you, you just fill me with such, such admiration. I'm not saying that you're perfect. I mean, no one is. But when you do make a mistake, you have the guts to pick yourself up and keep trying. I think that courage, to keep going no matter what, is what real strength is. I just think you're an incredibly strong person, Naruto."
Naruto was stunned. He had never heard Hinata say so much at once. Hell, he'd never heard her say so much before, period. "Thanks, Hinata, I needed that," he said. It was true. He felt better after listening to her. "Even though I'm completely used to being the underdog, I guess this time I was really feeling the strain. I was really down, which isn't like me at all. But I feel 100% better now."
"I'm glad you do," Hinata said.
"All right, I'm off to the match, thanks again." He started to walk away when suddenly he realized something. During that short speech, he had been watching Hinata. Very closely. And he had actually seen her. He thought about the times he'd seen her before. She had always seemed shy, quiet, kind of weird, a little on the dark side maybe, like she was depressed or something. But this time, it was different. He had seen that she was really kind and caring. He thought about it as he was walking away, and he realized that this was the first time he had really SEEN Hinata. Not just her shy exterior, but the person behind it. He stopped, deciding he should tell her what he had just realized. He thought a moment. "Hinata?" He waited until she was looking at him. "I kinda thought you were, um, gloomy, timid, always terrified, and basically completely weird." He saw her hurt look; he turned away before finishing his statement. "But you know what? I actually like people like you." With that he took off because he realized he had to hurry to get there in time. He realized, even then, that he had, for the first time, actually seen Hinata. When he thought about it, he realized she had been watching him for a long time. He didn't have time to think about it, though, so he put the thought from his mind and ran to the arena. If only he had more time to think about that...
Author Note: I hope you guys don't hate me for being so close to canon. I just had to get this idea out there for some reason, I'm not sure why. And as for the whole "Naruto confused about Hinata" thing, I fully believe that was going on in canon at that time, and if Naruto had had time to really think about it (which he didn't; she had her match the first time, then he had to hurry to fight Neji the other) he might have been closer friends with her earlier.
