Shout out time. Thank you for the reviews; these are the reviews that caught my eye at the time of writing:
'Psycho G' (as you know already, your praise and constructive criticism is just incredible), 'jill' (I hope I didn't keep you waiting too long), 'yuuki-baka' (The idea of Danzo being Hokage was a brainwave – and keeping in line with the canon), 'acedude' (ahaha, Kishimoto maybe should have included the conversation in the series, I hope to do it justice then) and finally 'Chewie Cookies' (thank you very much, it's cool of you to reply to the e-mail) and Angelito Soldado (awesome review).
Quick notes before we start… the all important conversation IS in this chapter. After this chapter I think I'm going to increase the pace of the story as I want to put some action in it.
Also, I wasn't sure how intelligent to make Naruto in the series, so I figured I went with what felt right, I hope this doesn't create inconsistencies. But anyway…
I do not own Naruto or Naruto Shipudden. They belong to Masashi Kishimoto.
ON WITH THE STORY…
Naruto and Hinata walked in silence towards the familiar ramen stand. It was absolutely bizarre for Naruto right now. All of his life he had longed to be loved and in one day he had received two confessions. One from his long standing crush, Sakura Haruno and another from Hinata Hyuga…
Hinata Hyuga…
He really didn't know where he stood with her. On one hand, he still remembered the timid girl that always acted nervously and blushed fiercely whenever she was around him; and on the other hand, he remembered the young woman who stood defiantly in front of Pein and risked her life to save his… the brave and bold Hinata.
The cauldron of emotion inside Naruto and pressure that he was feeling on his shoulders right now was ridiculous. It was threatening to overflow and spill everywhere.
Not only did he have a critical mission tomorrow…
Danzo Shimura was now the Hokage…
Only a few hours ago, he met his father for the first time ever…
Sasuke had been placed with a 'kill on site' order…
And he had the almost enviable position of choosing between Sakura and Hinata…
Would Lady Tsunade be okay? Could he defy orders from his village to help out his long gone friend? Who did he care for more Hinata… or Sakura?
All these questions were swimming through his head right now.
He turned to look at Hinata and saw a veil of her indigo coloured hair covering her face. Like a barrier hiding her face and thoughts…
In spite of his mood, he couldn't help but stare at her. Throughout the many years he had come to know her, he had only now truly noticed her. She had managed to impress him in the past, but he had never actually acknowledged her as more than friend.
He was impressed with how determined she had been to beat her cousin Neji at the Chuunin exams…
But now he was also impressed with her bravery against Pein…
He was also impressed with how much she had grown as a person during his two year absence. She had gotten stronger, smarter and – if he dared to say – very pretty.
Due to his thought process, he did not realise that they were only moments away from arriving at Ichiraku's.
But to be perfectly honest, he was more interested in what she was thinking of…
Throughout the whole walk, Hinata had been silent. Partially, because she was upset at Naruto's uncharacteristically hushed demeanour and partially because she was nervous being in his presence.
She knew she had made herself clear today – during the battle with Pein – on where she wanted to be in regards to Naruto.
Hinata looked up and saw the ramen stand only a few metres away; as she turned right to look at Naruto she did not expect to meet his gaze. He was staring at her… with a thoughtful expression; almost as if he was close to working out a problem, but not in possession of the all important piece capable of solving it.
She turned away in embarrassment. To think after all these years of knowing Naruto, she still could not bring herself to truly meet his gaze.
They arrived at the bar and Naruto gave his usual greeting to the kind chef.
Turning to his left and locking eyes with the indigo haired female he asked "What do you want to eat Hinata?"
Hinata honestly did not want to eat anything but out of respect and to avoid any awkwardness, she said "I'll just have a Tonkotsu ramen please." She then continued looking down and shying away from his gaze again.
"One Tonkotsu ramen and one miso – pork ramen dish please!" Naruto said loudly to the kind chef, hoping that his increase in volume would hide his nerves.
"Coming up, Naruto-kun" the chef said. He always felt happy to serve his best customer.
An uncomfortable silence followed. Unable to bear the silence any longer, Hinata spoke up.
"N- Naruto – kun, we need to talk… about what I said".
She was extremely nervous but she vowed to not back down until the issue was dealt with. She willed herself to use the speech techniques she had been working on to control her stuttering (with varied success).
"I don't want to pressure you into giving me an answer" she continued "But you don't seem to want to talk at all anymore".
Willing herself to look at him, she turned to her right and saw the usually confident ninja quieter than ever. His silence was more unnerving than anything else.
"I- If you want me to, I can leave here and I'll leave you alone." Hinata said, readying herself to leave but not truly wanting to carry out her words. If she did carry out her words it would ultimately mean that she would be accepting defeat… however... she did not want to impose herself on him...
Nevertheless, she did not want to bother Naruto in any way and so she reluctantly got up and started to leave…
That was until she felt four warm fingers and a thumb enclose around her hand.
"I'm sorry, Hinata…" Naruto said sincerely, keeping a firm grip of her hand. "It's only fair that I give you an answer… after all you put your life on the line for me. It's the least I can do... Please stay." He said warmly, letting go of her hand after he had finished his sentence.
She blushed.
They both sat down again. This time the atmosphere was less awkward.
"Hinata, what in particular do you want me to answer?" Naruto said in trepidation.
Hinata thought for a few seconds before asking:
"After you got back to the village, did you think about my confession? Did you think about what I said at all?... Did you think about me...?"
She looked at him squarely so she could clearly see his facial expression.
Naruto was extremely nervous at this point. He was not sure whether he wanted to reveal this piece of information to her. If he did tell her that she and Sakura were one of the only things he could think of within the last few hours, he may send a message that he may not have intended to send ...yet…
"Well… honestly" Naruto started he knew that he had to tell the truth in this matter. "I guess I ha-"
At that moment the ramen chef arrived shouting "HERE YOU GO LOVEBIRDS!" cutting Naruto off mid-way through his confession and placing the two steaming dishes on the table in front of them.
"Arigatou, Teuchi-san" Naruto said, slightly irate due to the fact he had been interrupted mid – way through his sentence and slightly embarrassed due to being referred to as a "lovebird".
"Arigatou gozaimasu, Teuchi-san" Hinata said also slightly irate and embarrassed for the same reasons as Naruto.
Naruto smelt the delicious dish in front of him and couldn't help but take a mouthful of it. He then turned his attention back to Hinata.
The whole time she had neglected her food. She only wanted to hear what Naruto had to say at this moment in time.
"W-well Naruto-kun?" Hinata said, failing to hide her eagerness.
He took a deep breath – expelling all of his nerves – and then said calmly and clearly;
"Yes, I have. It's been on my mind quite a lot."
Hinata was silent for a few moments, enveloped in mild shock at the fact that Naruto actually thought about her, but she was also enveloped with mild confusion and sadness as Naruto's actions in the past few hours didn't bode well for her.
He seemed to forget that she was very smart. She could tell that he had intended to avoid her for the past few hours.
"So w-where do we go from here Naruto-kun?" Hinata said apprehensively.
"W-well… I don't know Hinata…" Naruto said earnestly "There have been so many other things to deal with and so many other issues that I'm not sure what to do… There's also Sakura-ch…" Naruto didn't finish his sentence. He had said far too much.
"What does Sakura-san have to do with this?" Hinata said anxiously. "Are you talking about your discussion with her earlier?" Hinata waited for Naruto's answer rapt with attention.
Naruto paused, he didn't want to lie to Hinata but he wasn't sure if he should betray Sakura's trust.
Making up his mind he said "Sakura and I talked about an issue that has been around for a while now." He intentionally avoided her gaze.
"When I delivered the mission details this morning, I heard her shout at you 'You can't tell me what I'm feeling!'. What did she mean?" Hinata interrogated.
Naruto paled at the mention of Sakura's words. He couldn't lie though; he knew the truth was the best course of action.
"I told her that I thought she was lying…" Naruto said, trying hard to not clearly answer the question.
"May I ask what it was you thought she was lying about?" Hinata said showing the faintest hint of frustration.
Resigned to the truth Naruto reluctantly said "I thought she was lying about her feelings for me… She told me the same thing you told me."
All of the events within the past hours had finally made some sort of sense to Hinata. Naruto had received two confessions and now she assumed that he was debating who he actually wanted – if he wanted any of them at all.
Suddenly, Hinata was deeply upset. If Naruto had taken all this time to avoid her but had immediately shared a conversation with Sakura after his battle… did that mean he had already made up his mind? Sure, he said he didn't believe Sakura's words at the time but maybe he had come to reason that she was telling the truth. If he believed that she was being truthful… where did this leave Hinata?
Sakura was his long lasting crush. If he believed she reciprocated her feelings… surely it would mean that Hinata was out of this metaphorical race…
But she had to hear it from his mouth first before she gave up.
With the last of her resolve Hinata asked Naruto the question that would decide the course of her actions…
"N-Naruto-kun… Do you… care for Sakura?" Hinata knew this answer could break her.
"Yes… Of course I do! But…" Naruto answered.
"It's okay. You don't have to say anymore." Hinata said, not even bothering to hide the tears falling from her face and not really hearing the rest of Naruto's sentence.
Standing up, Hinata managed to say "I have to be getting home. Goodbye Naruto". She didn't want to be at the ramen bar anymore. She didn't want to be anywhere that reminded her of the one thing she cared about.
She left, leaving a perplexed Naruto alone.
You see, Naruto – after being teammates with her for years – cared for Sakura, but he didn't think about Sakura romantically anymore. Even though it was tough at the time, he had accepted that she wanted Sasuke and not himself. He still believed that she held these feelings for Sasuke (even though she said otherwise) and just couldn't take her words literally. Besides, he saw her more as a sister figure nowadays.
But he didn't get to finish telling Hinata this because she left, clearly upset.
He realised how tactless he had been and sighed in exasperation at himself. He never wanted to hurt Hinata.
He turned back to the table to finish up his ramen and saw Hinata's steaming bowl still untouched.
It only served as a reminder to how alone he was now that Hinata had gone.
The next day…
Naruto woke up the next morning at around 04:30. He wanted to make sure that he wasn't late for his mission. Groggily, he walked to the shower and cleansed himself. After getting dressed, he went to the kitchen and made himself some Ramen for breakfast. He washed his meal down with his usual carton of milk and paused for a second.
He couldn't help himself… he just couldn't forget about the events of the last few days; in particular, Hinata and Sakura.
He had shared a conversation with the two of them in recent days, each with varying degrees of success (or more appropriately failure).
He wondered how they could complete this mission when the team was such a broken mess.
He would soon find out…
Author's note:
I hope you enjoyed that chapter and I hope I didn't keep you all waiting too long. One thing that I would like to say is that I did have to search for genuine Ramen dishes. Tonkotsu is a GENUINE dish. It is a noodle based dish with an 80/20 blend of pork and chicken stocks, flavoured with Mongolian salt.
Also, I had a bit of difficulty with this chapter; I didn't feel it flowed like the other chapters. But hopefully you like it.
Finally, I decided to tell a few people I know of my story. They all responded well so that's encouraging. It will be nice to have people to maybe share my ideas with once in a while. One friend in particular from London gave me the best review ever; it had the perfect blend of criticism and positives. So I'd like to give a shout out to Johnno!
For those who do not follow manga or anime the "-kun", "-chan"and "san" suffixes are part of Japanese culture. If you're interested in finding out, there's a website that gives perfect explanations of each term. Just Google 'narutohurricane'. Its' very good for explaining the terms.
Thank you again and I hope you can read the next chapter.