Chapter 3.: Tactics for Romace and Co.

It was the tenth of October and Naruto was now officially twenty-nine years old. He was walking down the streets after having turned in a report on the Genin test of the day before at the Hokage's office. Now he was free as a bird, having the rest of the morning and the whole afternoon off. But not the evening. That evening he would have a date- uh, dinner with Hinata at the restaurant she had told him about.

As he strolled down the main street, he noticed a woman with purplish black hair approaching him.

"Hey, have you seen him?" asked Anko.

"Seen who?"

"That pervert Kakashi, of course! I want to burn those books of his." she said, looking around.

"Uh, maybe you should search at his place." answered the blonde. Personally, he would be pleased if the kunoichi accomplished her self-appointed mission.

"That's the problem! The idiot carries those paperback abominations around wherever he goes!" exclaimed the frustrated woman.

"Well, then good luck with your search." and he sneaked away before she could drag him into something that he would regret later.

Thinking about how completely unequipped his wardrobe was for that evening, he decided to go shopping and see if he could find something fitting for a semi formal dinner. Entering the nearest clothing shop, he started his hunt for a nice shirt and, after five minutes, found one that satisfied his unique tastes. Turning around to leave that corner of the shop, he bumped into someone and released his grip on the shirt, watching as it fell to the ground.

"Naruto-sensei, I'm sorry." he didn't even need to look up to know who it was. He recognized in the voice.

"Shizuka! Interesting meeting you here." he greeted her. However, she didn't respond, instead staring at the shirt that was lying on the ground.

"Orange." she finally said.

"Uh, yeah. I'm having dinner with a friend and wanted to buy something for the occasion."

She kept staring at the shirt, "A bright, glowing orange shirt for a date?"

"Yeah, well I don't see anything wrong with the color oran-" he stopped talking when he realized what she had just said. "I...It's not a date! I'm just meeting a friend, that's all!"

"A female friend." It wasn't a question, it was a statement.

"Yeah, but...Why am I even telling you all this?"

She just ignored his question, lifting the bright orange monstrosity and throwing it to the side "Naruto-sensei, I may not be extremely interested in fashion, but I'm still a girl. And I know that the thing you wanted to buy would look horrible on anybody." she then proceeded to search for something less...bizarre.

"You know, this is pretty embarrassing. Getting lectured by my own student, I mean." said Naruto, hoping no one was looking in their direction.

"Then you should develop better tastes for clothing." she said as she shoved a shirt in a lighter tone of orange and a partly formal-looking pair of black jeans into his arms. "Here, that should do it." She waited for him to pay and turned to leave, only to be stopped by his overly energetic voice.

"Hey, Shizuka. I guess I should thank you, so I wanted to treat you to some ramen."

"Ramen?" she said suspiciously.

"What, you don't like it?"

She shook her head. "No, it's not that. I've just never tried it before."

The blond man feigned shock, "You have never had ramen?! How sad! Don't worry, I shall cure you of your ignorance! But first I have to drop this off at my house." he said, referring to the newly bought clothes in the bag he was holding, "You coming?"

She hesitated, but then agreed. It was free food, after all, and you did not turn down free food. The walk to his house was plagued with her teacher's one-sided attempt at a conversation, which ended up as a rant about the wonders of ramen. It was unnerving, but he at least could control his seemingly endless supply of energy, unlike a certain teammate of hers.

Suddenly, she saw a head covered in white, spiky hair in the street crowd. Upon closer inspection, she noticed that the boy was not alone; he was being accompanied by a girl who was clinging to his arms and laughing about anything he said. For some unknown reason, she felt anger rising inside her.

The blond jincuurki, noticing the sudden change in her mood, followed the direction of her gaze until he spotted the boy. He looked back at the blonde girl, amused by her reaction.

"What, you jealous or something?" he said.

She just looked at him with an incredulous expression, "No. I'm just disgusted by his behavior. He asks some girl out and if it doesn't work, he goes to the next one."

"Just like he asked you out yesterday and now he's with this other girl?" he said, taunting her.

"How did you...oh, forget it."

He chuckled, "If it makes you feel any better, I heard you're the very first girl that has ever rejected him."

As a matter of fact, it did. She felt satisfied, content even. "Yes, it does."

His wry smile turned into a smirk, "Anything for my student."

When they left the bag of clothes at his home, he led her to his favorite food stand ever, as he called it. Upon arriving at Ichiraku, he ordered a beef ramen for himself and a miso ramen for the young girl. Teuchi got to work immediately. He was in a splendid mood today.

"So, tell me what you think." demanded the Jounin.

"Itadakimasu." she said and started eating. "It's a bit too salty."

"Nani?! How can it be too salty! No student of mine may dislike ramen. Especially not this ramen. It's delicious. Scratch that, it's amazing..." she tuned him out before more of his rant could enter her brain and kept eating her meal. It was good, she just never really liked salty food. When she was finished, she turned her attention back to her instructor, only to find him completely concentrated in eating his fifth bowl. 'How can he eat so much?'

After he finally finished eating and paid for the food, he turned to look at her, "Hey, kid. How about a game?"

What? "A game?"

"Yeah, you're gonna follow me and play a game."

"And what if I refuse?"

He grinned brightly, "I never gave you an option. I'm your Jounin instructor and you have to do what I say. Plus it's my birthday and you never gave me a present, so you owe me one."

She cursed under her breath, but gave in. "And what kind of game am I supposed to play?"

"That," he said as he stood up and started walking away "you will find out in a moment."

The pink haired kunoichi was having the time of her life. She had spent the last four hours cleaning up her apartment, and by cleaning up she meant ripping all the drawings and photos of Sasuke from the walls and ceiling and shredding them in thousands of pieces. Not a single picture was shown mercy, as well as her own diary. By now her garbage can was overfilled. Pleased with her handiwork, she lifted the metallic basket off the ground and walked to the door, opening it- and then she jumped back, making some pieces of paper fall onto the floor.

"Lee-san?" she asked. Standing before her was said man wearing a green leotard. One hand was holding a bouquet of flowers while the other was outstretched to the spot where the doorknob had just been. The black haired man had grown in skill, height and maturity in the past few years, but had otherwise not changed at all.

"Sakura-san." he greeted, slightly startled by her change of appearance and high spirits. "I...heard what happened between you and Sasuke-san. I brought you these in the hope that it would cheer you up." he held the flowers up to her, but quickly withdrew his hand when he noticed that hers were already occupied, mentally cursing his lack of observation. "Should I help you with that?"

"Nah, it's ok." she placed the burden on the floor and extended her arm out to the bouquet, which he gladly handed her. "Lee-san, these are beautiful! Thank you." she put them into a vase that was conveniently close to where she stood and grabbed hold of the garbage bin again, "I was just heading to the abandoned house across the street to burn these. Care to join me?" she asked with a smile.

Lee, recognizing the corner of a raven haired head or a part of an onyx eye between all the shredded paper, couldn't help but feel immensely happy at how she was handling the situation. "I'd love to, Sakura-san."

They walked across the street and to a cement house that had clearly been neglected for decades. Upon entering what used to be the entrance hall, Sakura walked directly to the middle and dumped the contents of the garbage can on the floor, forming a pile of paper. She grabbed the only photo that hadn't been ripped apart. She had taken this picture of an unwilling (and probably also unknowing) Sasuke back when they were still at the Academy. She handed Lee the photo, along with a lighter from her kitchen. "Would you do the honors?"

He just nodded and took both items. Letting the picture catch fire, he threw it at the heap of paper, where the flames quickly spread.

A single tear left Sakura's jade eye 'Finally, I'm free.' This, however, did not go unnoticed by her companion, who, after a little hesitation and to her utmost surprise, pulled her into an embrace. His body felt warm against hers as her arms dangled to her sides.

"Sakura-san, I know how much it hurts to be rejected by the person you love and I'm so happy to see how you're dealing with it. You are far stronger than I thought."

Although his words were meant to comfort her, they made her realize something. She was the one who had taught him the pain of rejection. She was the reason for his suffering, just like Sasuke was the reason for hers. She owed him. And she owed him big time.

As these thoughts swirled through her head, she lifted her arms and wrapped them around his torso, hugging him back. "Thank you, Lee-san." she said, feeling a small smile cross her lips. "Thank you for everything."

They remained in that position for a while, perfectly comfortable in each other's arms.

Shikamaru was holding a little black box in one of his hands, trying to tone down his nervousness. All this waiting for the right moment was killing him.

"Shikamaru, I'm going out with Hinata. I'll be back in a few hours." said a female voice coming from the door to the room he was in. He turned around, carefully hiding the box behind his back, to see a blond woman looking at him.

"Sure, have fun." he said, apparently nonchalantly. But Temari knew better. She knew that the mere fact that he had actually turned around and the love in his eyes meant that he really cared for her. She smiled at him and left.

Right after having been dumped by Ino, Shikamaru had been assigned a long-term mission at Suna. There, he had found a good friend in Temari, which then developed into something more. But even though they wanted to, they couldn't date when both of them lived in two different villages, so, after a long discussion and a short but quite terrifying moment of awaiting the Kazekage's opinion on the subject, they had finally decided that she would move with him to Konoha. He did not regret his decision to this day. He was snatched out of his thoughts when he heard a loud knocking coming from the front door, followed by an equally loud voice he knew perfectly well. "Oi, Shikamaru! Open up!"

The black haired Jounin sighed. This guy never got less troublesome to be around. He stood up and headed towards the door, leaving the small black box on the floor of the room. When he opened the door, he saw two blond heads. One was his oh so obnoxious friend. The other one belonged to a young girl he didn't recognize.

"What do you want?" he asked.

"I was hoping you had some free time. You see, I'd like you to play a few rounds of chess with my little student here." said Naruto, placing a hand on the seemingly annoyed girl's head.

He raised an eyebrow but didn't question his request. He knew that the man in front of him was known to always have a reason behind his actions, even if it wasn't discernible at first glance. He wanted to say no. Badly. But he owed the guy and it was his birthday. The least he could do was doing him this favor. "Only two rounds." he said and led them to a room a bit further in the house. There was no furniture except for a low, square table in the middle of the room with two cushions on both sides. On the corner was a stack of boxes with different board games. This was where he had spent most of his free time before his father had died.

He motioned the girl to sit down on one of the pillows while he went to the corner and took a box from under three other boxes. Walking back, he sat down and placed the game board on the table. As he started placing the pieces on their correspondent positions, curiosity overtook him, "Since your teacher doesn't seem to think that introductions are important, I might as well do it myself. I'm Nara Shikamaru. What's your name?"

"Nii Shizuka."

His hand, which was currently holding a white tower, paused for a moment, but the continued moving. Nii. He knew that name. This was Nii Yugito's daughter, the jinchuuriki of the Nibi. Now he understood why she had been placed under Naruto's care. "And can you tell me why he brought you here?"

"I have no idea. I didn't even know I would be playing chess."

He sighed for the second time that day. That was so like Naruto.

The match started. At first they only used the most basic strategies, but as the game went on, both of them started using more complex schemes to try and win the upper hand. Most of the time, it seemed that Shikamaru was winning, but every now and then she would gain territory through distractions or sacrifices and even managed to turn some of his own strategies against him. She was good. However, he didn't have any doubts about his victory. He was just playing with her, seeing what she could do. After around an hour of this, he decided to finish the first match and capture her king.

He looked to his left and saw that, surprisingly enough, Naruto hadn't moved an inch, nor had he fallen asleep out of utter boredom. Instead, he was looking intently at the board. He was really taking this seriously. The black haired man turned back to his opponent.

"Do you want to have a short pause or would you prefer to start the second match right away?" he asked.

"I'd like to start right now, if it's not a problem." she replied and he started reorganizing the pieces.

The second match was much harder than the first. She had memorized the patterns in his strategies and was using them against him, adapting her own plans to counter his. Her schemes became more unpredictable and harder to counter. This girl was actually pushing him. Still, she had a long way to go. After his first two attempts at a check mate were neutralized, he finally did the finishing move and ended the game. Looking up at the clock on the wall, he realized that this match had taken a bit more than two hours. He was impressed.

Naruto stood up and addressed his student, "Shizuka, would you put the game back where it belongs while I go have a talk with my old friend?"

"Yes, Naruto-sensei." she said and started collecting the game pieces. Shikamaru, taking the hint, followed the man out of the room and opened the door to the next room.

"So, what do you think?" said the blonde as he sat down on a couch.

He knew exactly what he meant, "She's impressive. The girl isn't the smartest person I've met, but she certainly has a talent for tactics. I'd even go as far as saying that she's a strategic genius. She adapts quite fast and uses every bit of knowledge at her disposal to her own advantage. Now, the question is, when did you realize it?"

"Yesterday in the Genin exam. The kids managed to trick me and I found out later that she had been the one that thought of the plan. I wanted to see how much potential she has. Though the fact that I met her this morning was purely coincidental."

"But you know, tricking you isn't really that hard." a sly smile crossed his face while he dodged a playful punch, courtesy of Naruto, "Fine, fine, I'll stop with the insults. But tell me, are the other two as interesting as she is?"

At this, the always cheerful blonde smirked, "You have no idea." ha said, then changed the subject "Hey, you also have a Genin team, don't you? I heard you got Sarutobi Hana. How is she?"

Shikamaru smiled, "She's smart like her mother and strong like her father. She'll make a great shinobi. Though Kurenai told me that she's been meeting some red haired kid lately."

"Ugh, you mean a hyperactive redhead of around the same age as her?"

"She said something of the sort. Why? Do you know him?"

"Sadly, I do." he said, a vein popping on his head at the memories that were going through his head. "So, how's it going between you and Temari? You said you wanted to propose to her soon, right? When are you going to buy the ring?"

The tactician tried to suppress a slight blush, unsuccessfully. He didn't say anything.

Naruto just looked at him for a minute- and started laughing. "You already have the ring, don't you?" again nothing, "Well, for Temari and your own well-being, I hope you do it soon." before he could say anything else, Shizuka appeared on the door. "Finished already? Ok, guess I gotta go. It was nice seeing you, Shikamaru."

"Wait, before I forget, Chouji wanted me to distribute the invitations to his wedding, so I might as well give you yours now." he said as he started looking for the envelope with the right name.

"Oh, ok." well, that explained Teuchi's great mood, "When will it take place?"

"In a few days."

"Nani?! Why so soon?"

"Don't ask me. Apparently they wanted to marry as soon as possible." he replied, finally handing him the envelope with his name on it.

Naruto chuckled, "Well, I just hope it all goes as planned."

"That makes two of us."

"Ok, thanks and good bye, Shikamaru" he left the house, followed by the young girl.

As they walked down the road, the blond man noticed the girl staring at the envelope in his hand, or more like staring at the name written on the envelope.

"You're wondering why I was named 'fishcake', aren't you?" she looked up, surprised. He had seen right through her. Naruto gave her his usual fox-like grin. "Don't worry. I'll tell you. It's a nice story, really." he smiled at nothing in particular while he remembered the story of his name.

"One of my teachers once wrote a book in which he recited many of his adventures. But because he wanted it to be a novel and not some sort of autobiography, he thought of the name Naruto for the main character while he was eating ramen." he snickered, picturing the Sannin eating and writing at the same time, "My father, who was also one of his students, read the book and said that he wanted his son to be like the main character, and thus, named me after him. At that time I was still in my mother's belly. Now, let's make this fair trade. Why were you named 'quiet child'?"

At this, she looked down, not wanting him to see her face, but complied, "The man who raised me wanted me to be a quiet and obedient girl who would do anything he wanted. That's why he gave me the name 'Shizuka'." Naruto nodded. He knew that man. It was Uchiha Obito, who had managed to escape after the war, taking the kidnapped daughter of Nii Yugito with him. Seven years ago, the had finally succeeded in finding and killing him and had taken the girl in. She was given a home and permission to attend the Ninja Academy. His thoughts were interrupted when she kept speaking. "He only saw me as a weapon, a tool with which he could accomplish his goals. After a while, I finally accepted it as my destiny to be seen only as a weapon. It's a destiny I can't escape."

He frowned, "But you don't believe that anymore, do you? I mean, you were freed from hm years ago."

"And now I'm a shinobi of Konohagakure." she replied.

Naruto couldn't take this. It reminded him too much of an old friend. "Shizuka, we should sit down." he said, pointing at a bench that stood on the side of the street, in front of a few bushes. She looked puzzled but did as she was told. "I'll tell you a story. There were once two ninja. One of them was considered a genius. He was very skilled and possessed a powerful bloodline. The other one was called dead-last by others. He didn't have any special abilities or talents, but he burned with the determination to win at all costs. They were then pitted against each other in a battle. Now, who do you think won that battle?"

"The genius, of course." she said, matter-of-factly.

"That's where you're wrong. I won that battle." he chuckled as he watched how realization dawned on her, "His name was Hyuuga Neji and he was indeed worthy of the title of genius. But he was born in the branch family of the clan and harbored a great hatred toward the main family because of how they treated them. He believed that being regarded lowly despite his great talent was part of his inescapable fate. When we fought, he mocked my dream of becoming Hokage, saying that I would never be able to defeat him, let alone achieve such a high rank, but I wanted to prove him wrong. I won that battle, even though my fate was defeat. I defied destiny. From then on, Neji teamed up with the clan heir and they fought for years to change the relationships between the main and branch families for the better. He died protecting that heir and believing that she would finish what they had started. Nowadays the relations in the Hyuuga clan are a lot better than what they used to be."

He paused to see how she was handling the information, but at seeing her deep in thought, he kept on talking, "You see Shizuka, destiny isn't a chain of events that are bound to happen. Destiny is our future, and you can't see your future until it's right in front of your nose, but you can influence it, shape it and make it yours."

The young ninja thought hard about what her instructor had just told her. If that Neji could do it, then so could she. She didn't have to live as a mere weapon. She could be free. She could have dreams and follow them to the end of the world. All this time, she had caged herself up in her beliefs of fate and destiny. Suddenly, she felt something strange stirring inside her. It was an emotion she had felt only once before, when she had been freed of Obito. It was the feeling she loved the most.

It was happiness.

Her lips curved into a small, almost invisible smile, which surprised Naruto, since it was the first time he had ever seen her smile. When he thought about it, it was pretty sad. She suddenly stood up from the bench and bowed to him, "Arigatou gozaimasu, Naruto-sensei. You have helped me a lot."

He smiled warmly, glad he could help. "Ok, guys. I know you're there. Come out before I have drag you out." nothing happened and Shizuka looked at him, puzzled. He sighed, "I warned you." Then, he grabbed two stones from the ground and threw them at the bushes behind the bench.

"Itai!" said a voice coming from a bush, which left him unusually satisfied. Two boys dragged themselves out of the greenery, holding their heads where the stones had hit them.

"Yuki! Itachi! What were you doing there?" asked a surprised Shizuka

"Obviously, they were spying on us, or at least trying to." he said, directing a stern look at the two Genin, "When someone wants to spy on somebody else, they at least try to mask their presence and not get noticed. It's ninja basics and you completely failed at it!" he said disapprovingly.

"Wait, you knew they were following us?" asked the girl.

"Of course I did. The little womanizer here started tailing us when you first noticed him in the streets and the energy ball followed suit when we left the ramen stand. He probably was at a dumpling stand and picked up our chackra signature from there."

Itachi grinned sheepishly. He had hit right on the spot. His grin soon vanished when he was hit on the head yet again, but this time by his female teammate. "How dare you? I'm gonna rip you guys apart limb by limb!" she yelled at them as they fled and she followed in hot pursuit.

Naruto blinked and sweatdropped. Where was the nearly emotionless girl he had spent the whole afternoon with? 'I guess hope really does change people.' he thought as he headed home.

It was a quarter past eight and Naruto was late for his dat- ahem, friendly meeting with Hinata. When he finally arrived in front of the restaurant, he saw her and immediately started apologizing, "Hinata-chan. Sorry I'm-" he stopped talking when he actually looked at her. "...late." She was wearing a strapless, dark blue dress that accentuated her figure and flowed down to her knees with matching shoes, not high heels. God, how she hated high heels. She hadn't put her hair up, instead choosing to let cascade naturally down to her lower back. All in all, she looked stunning. No, more like breathtaking.

It took him a moment to recover from the sight.

"It's alright, Naruto-kun. I just arrived here myself. Plus, it's your birthday we're celebrating today, so you don't have to worry if you're a few minutes late." she smiled sweetly at him and he couldn't help but smile back.

"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go in." he said and led her inside the restaurant, where they were then led to their table by a waiter. It was perfect, not in the middle of the gigantic hall but in a secluded corner where they could talk in peace without having to scream over the noise of the other costumers.

They looked inside their menus and quickly chose the dishes that they would eat. A waiter then took their orders, said that they would be prepared immediately and left.

"So, already twenty-nine, huh?"said Hinata, trying to start a conversation, "Time flies by so fast. One more year and you'll be thirty."

"No, ain't happening."

She looked at him confused, "What do you mean?"

"I mean that I don't want to grow up."

She stifled a giggle, "You can't stop growing older just because you don't want to, Naruto-kun."

"Oh yes, yes I can. Next year I'll turn twenty-nine-a, the year after that I'll be twenty-nine-b, the year after that I'll turn twenty-nine-c and so on." he said.

This time she couldn't suppress it and started giggling uncontrollably for a few minutes. When she finally calmed down she questioned his theory, "And what happens when you turn twenty-nine-z?"

He grinned brightly, "Then I'll finally admit that I'm thirty." This earned him another, slightly shorter fit of giggles from the woman. "What about you? How's life at the Hyuuga manor?" he asked.

She turned serious, "Some members of the main family are still a bit too hardheaded to stop treating the branch family like servants, but Hanabi and I are managing well to intervene before they do something stupid."

"That's good to hear. And what about the cursed seal? Didn't you say that you wanted to do something about it?"

Her face brightened, "Yes, as a matter of fact, I've finally managed to convince my father to break the tradition of the cursed seal. Although I couldn't manage to make him completely get rid of it. It will be replaced by a small, permanent marking on the left shoulder. The seal itself will only be used on traitors and such from now on."

He smiled, "That's great, Hinata-chan! I'm happy for you."

Their conversation was interrupted by a waiter bringing the food they had ordered. They ate in silence, an unusual sight for the hyperactive blonde. Naruto finished before Hinata, but was content to just observe her until she finished. Her fair skin contrasted against her bluish black hair that seemed shine like moonlight and matched her dress perfectly. Her pearly white eyes reflected the golden lights of the restaurant, making them look as if they were emitting an amber glow.

She was truly beautiful.

He recognized the turmoil of emotions he was feeling. He had felt the same oh so long ago when he had still fancied Sakura, only this time they were much stronger. This wasn't just some long lasting crush on a girl. No, this went deeper than that. Naruto was falling in love, slowly but surely.

Over the past years, he had felt less attracted to the woman with the bubblegum hair and had started to see her only as a close friend. At the same time that this process took place, he had also been getting a lot more nervous around Hinata, always thinking about her and feeling extremely happy when she was around. Not only that, but he had also recognized her attitude toward him. He knew she liked him, yet he couldn't bring himself to take the first step.

When she fished eating, they filled the time with some smalltalk, talking about the most random subjects that came to mind. When they saw that it was getting late, they paid, left the restaurant and headed towards Hinata's home. Their walk there was quiet, as they both simply enjoyed each other's company.

Arriving at the main entrance of the Hyuuga compound, they looked at each other. He couldn't bring himself to tear his gaze away from her eyes, those eyes he had found eerie at first, but now fascinated him. Finally, she spoke, "Happy birthday, Naruto-kun." she said and kissed him on the cheek. She entered the private propriety, closing the door behind her and leaving a dazed Naruto behind. He just stood there for almost ten minutes, but then left, feeling nothing but pure bliss.

Author's note:

Yay! NaruHina action for everyone! whooo! Nah, jk

(bows to the people that are actually following this story) Arigatou gozaimasu! I'm so happy! And also so sorry that it's so late. I spent a few days writing this chapter but forgot to save it. Then my computer froze and I had to start from scratch. D:

Oh, and I don't mean to offend anyone, but whoever has read all three chapters and still doesn't know who Yuki's dad is, is a complete idiot! :P

Enjoy the extra long chapter!