Chapter 3: All The Best Friends Are Made In an Alleyway

A shaky breath escapes my lips as I try to reign in my rapidly pounding heart. I'm sweating profusely despite my recent shower. The crowded shopping district feels stifling, to the point where it is a struggle to breathe. My eyes keep darting back and forth, taking in all of my surroundings like a hunted animal.

My eyes find the many faces of the early morning crowd going about their daily business. Civilian wives were buying and window shopping on the Monday morning. Their husbands and grown up sons headed off to start off the work week. Several Shinobi walked through the crowd with the grace that befits their station, their shining hitaite glittering in the morning sun. Most were probably going to or from training.

I even spot several families walking together, undoubtedly with the same destination in mind as me.

It's the first day of Ninja Academy.

I notice a family with fang-like marks on their cheeks, their loud and boisterous family banter carries through the street. Most likely the Inuzuka's escorting their family's heir.

I notice another group making their way through the crowd. At the forefront is a group of three men, one, a large man with bright red spiky hair, another a thin man with a goatee, a scar above and below his right eye and pineapple shaped hair, the final man had green eyes and long platinum colored hair. What had to be their children followed slightly behind, walking at a leisurely pace. They had to have been the current InoShikaCho team and their offspring.

A group of people walked close together, all wearing long coats and dark sunglasses. Their faces were covered by their upturned collars. Most likely the Aburame's, the bug user clan.

Oddly enough, I spot a girl with pink hair. Her hair and bright red outfit made her stick out from the crowd. Her family seemed to be chatting contentedly as they walked with the stream of the crowd.

I see all of these people walking along with the crowd towards our destination. However, there were two groups of people that seemed to part the crowd with their mere presence. I can only see the identities of one at my current position. Being short does have its disadvantages. The one that I can see is a mother and father, a teenage son and a son my age. They all have black hair and eyes, their clothes all have a symbol of a fan on the back. The symbol is a dead giveaway that the family parting the crowd is the Uchiha.

I weave my way through the legs of commuters, ignoring the hisses of anger and distaste thrown my way. I am only able to see the top of the heads of two men in the group. They possess long black hair. In order to satisfy my curiosity, I keep pushing and shoving and weaving through the crowd in order to get a view of who they were.

All of a sudden however, the presence of the people around me seemed to disappear and I looked around to find that the crowd around me had parted. I turn around to find the group that I was following is stopped in front of me. It turns out that I had gotten in their way.

The realization of this fact made me want to pull up the hood of the jacket I'm wearing even more in order to hide my face.

My jacket was given to me by my jiji as a present for today. It is a zip up gray and white jacket with a hood and pockets in it. I love it because it lets me hide from the gazes of those around me, or at least I can pretend that it does.

My eyes meet with the tallest man in the four person group. He carries the grace and poise of a noble family. His pale skin adds to the image of nobility. His white eyes are set hard at the sight of me and his lips are pulled back into a snarl.

I quickly avert my eyes, but not before I see the child that he is carrying. The child also possesses those famous white eyes, however instead of hard, these eyes are full of wonder and amazement at the sights and sounds of her surroundings. The child can't be much more than three years old.

Next, my eyes meet with the slightly shorter male. He also carries the grace and poise that is famous of the Hyuuga clan. He is however, obviously in his demeanor subservient to the other man but is extremely protective over the last member of the group.

Hinata.

Her short blue hair is blowing slightly in the breeze of the day. Her small frame gives off a petite first impression, however I know that if she wanted to that she could kick my butt. Her mesmerizing white eyes gain a spark of light when she meets my eyes.

However, for some reason, I find it harder to meet her eyes than it is for everyone else. So instead, I look at her mouth which is slowly upturning into a bright smile.

I wish that she would always show me that smile.

That thought has my cheeks burning in embarrassment and I quickly look at the ground.

"Hey Naruto what's up?"

I hear the question that she asks me, however my brain decides to shut down at this moment. I can't think and I can tell that I look like a floundering red fish.

I feel a strong drive to run away and hide in a corner.

I look up to see Hinata. She has her head cocked in confusion, most likely prompting me to answer her question. Whatever it was. It made for an adorable picture, so adorable that my blush grew brighter.

The drive to run away from the situation becomes overwhelming.

"Narut-"

"Sorry, gotta go, bye"

At least that's what I think I say, as I cut her off. I wasn't even at the end when I was twenty feet away.

I missed however, as I would one day find out, the confused expression of HInata Hyuuga, the disapproving expression of Hiashi Hyuuga, and the slightly amused expression of Ko Hyuuga.

I don't think I have ever ran and weaved through a crowd as fast as I am going at the moment. I see an opportunity to hide away in an alleyway and I take it by turning a sharp right.

Suddenly, I stop and lean against a wall inside the alleyway. My heart is pounding from the short run I just did, at least that's what I tell myself. I can feel my face still warm from the blush and am immensely grateful at the fact that this alley is abandoned save for myself. I sit down, close my eyes and just lose myself to the sounds and sensations of the morning.

I can still hear the morning bustle of the morning commuters, but as time moves on and I gain relative sanity back, I can tell from the lack of noise that the morning rush has mostly subsided.

I open my eyes and stand up to head out to my destination. I turn to where I came from and am surprised to see a person standing at the entrance of the alley from where I had entered.

It was a boy slightly taller than me. He was wearing a long jacket that covered up the bottom half of his face. His eyes were concealed by dark sunglasses. He had long spiky black hair.

If I remember correctly, he was the quiet center of the group of Aburame's.

He was staring very intently at me. It was incredibly unnerving and I did my best to try to avoid his gaze by staring at the ground or at the wall.

Naturally, an awkward silence ensued and it took all I had not to squirm. As it was, I couldn't help but poke my fingers together. It was my nervous tic and I couldn't help but do it in awkward situations like these.

"You are intriguing", He says in a monotone voice, dispelling the silence.

I, however, am not sure how to take this. His words seem like a compliment, but his tone, inflection, and general formalness are an odd combination for a kid. I'm not sure if he means what he says, especially since I just made a fool of myself. Maybe he's making fun of me and I'm just a joke to him. I can't say I blame him, I am pretty pitiful.

"Thanks?"

He just nods, and continues in his monotone voice, "Indeed, you are a conundrum to me."

I bite my lip and wince, just waiting for the ridicule I'll probably receive. Anytime someone talks to me, minus Hinata, it turns out to be ridicule and I don't see how this time would be any different. I'm just meant to be the target after all. I'm pretty useless and awkward and probably deserve it anyway.

Deserving it doesn't seem to make the punishment of ridicule and loneliness any easier though.

Hesitantly, I nod my head to prompt him to continue. I still have my vision locked right on the ground in front of me.

"Yes well, you are an enigma. The villagers seem to hold disdain for you, however I have yet to ascertain a logical reason for such an attitude. It simply does not make sense."

I simply shrug, "I probably did something to deserve it."

Out of the corner of my eye I see that he shakes his head once, as if he doesn't believe it, "That doesn't make any logical sense either. If you had done something to warrant the entire village's ire, then you would certainly have recollection of your apparent transgression."

I nod slowly in agreement. I didn't understand some of what he said, but the gist of it seemed to make sense.

He continued on in his still monotone voice, "Furthermore, I have been watching your behavior recently and have found no legitimate reason for any antagonistic attitude towards you. If anything you are", he pauses as if thinking of what he wanted to say, "a cordial individual, albeit shy."

"Thanks?", I say, not totally sure whether to take that as a compliment. Apparently it is, because he grunts an affirmative.

"Therefore, in order to solve this conundrum, I have decided to often remain in your company. I will accompany you to and from the Academy. I will endeavor to sit near you and spend my breaks with you. All with your permission of course" He says this in his monotone, however the last sentence was said with a questioning tone. If I didn't know any better, I would have sworn that it was almost nervous in tone.

I certainly was not expecting the conversation to turn this way at all. This Aburame kid is certainly a peculiar character, I have never met anyone this young to speak so oddly. But despite my earlier reservations, I really enjoy this conversation, even if I haven't really said more than a few words. And I don't think so because someone like me doesn't deserve this, but…

"Are you asking to be my friend?"

I blurt out the question without thinking and wince in anticipation of the inevitable scoff or ridicule that will come out of the other young boy's mouth.

I look up however, to see a confused look on the boy's face.

"I am unfamiliar with the standard practices of companionship, however, I would not be against such a proposition."

I can't help but smile at the way that things have progressed in just a few short minutes. For a boy that hasn't managed to get a single friend in his whole life, I sure did manage to get two really fast.

This thought however, made me pause.

"But wait a second, I don't even know your name."

I couldn't see the bottom of his face, but I swear that he was smiling when he said, "Shino, it's Aburame Shino."

I can't help but flash a smile.

"Shino-san, it's a pleasure to meet you, I'm Naruto, Uzumaki Naruto."

Chapter 3 end

A/N: Sorry it's short, but heck I was gonna abandon this story until reviews from a guest and NaruHinaF made me decide to try my hand at this again. I'm trying some things out so, I'm not sure if it's any better or not, but oh well. I'm still trying to figure out what kind of Naruto w/ Hinata personality that I want to build, open to suggestions. Anyway, hope you enjoyed and please review.