"...Oh, Hinata!"

She had been patiently waiting for Naruto to finish speaking with a few friends and blinked herself back to reality when he called her. He motioned towards the green haired girl in front of her.

"This is Fu."

Hinata bowed, "It's nice to meet you—"

"This is her? This is Hinata? Wow she looks like a great friend!" Fu seemed to speak a mile a minute and was even more exuberant than Naruto had ever been. Also, she noted, with a slight blush, that Naruto spoke about her to others.

"Oh, um, thank you. How long have you and Naruto—"

Hinata was interrupted yet again by the smaller girl enveloping her in a hug. Her size betrayed her strength and Hinata could hardly breathe before she was set down.

Fu took both her hands and gazed at her adoringly, "Can we be friends, Hinata? Can we? Please?"

"Y-Yeah." She was quite flustered by the whole situation and looked over at Naruto for some assistance. But just as she did, her new friend pounced on Naruto, who seemed completely unbothered by her energy.

"So you're coming tomorrow right, Naruto?"

He shook his head goodnaturedly, "If I say yes, will you quit bugging me about it?"

"You don't even have to say yes. You're coming, no questions asked."

"'Coming?'" Hinata thought aloud.

Fu turned to her, "Yeah, I'm having this party tomorrow night and everyone's invited. I'm practically a party scientist so any party before now won't even come close to being as great as mine will be. You should come too, Hinata!"

Tomorrow night? But that was… Looking Naruto's way, the same thought didn't even seem to cross his mind.

"I'm sorry, I can't. I have a show tomorrow."

Fu's face scrunched up, "Like a band or something?"

"No, ballet. I dance."

"If you ask me, that sounds way boring! You should ditch and come to my party instead."

"Thank you for the offer," she inclined her head. "But I'll have to make it some other time."

The younger girl smiled cheerily, "Okay! Suit yourself!"

Hinata could tell that Fu wasn't trying to be insulting or was aware that she was being so. Hinata was primarily focused on Naruto, who just then remembered the previous engagement.

"Oh right, your show!" He slapped his forehead. Hinata was a bit relieved at this.

Fu wilted, "Aw not you too Naruto. You have to come! This could be your last high school party! You absolutely cannot miss it!"

The others murmured their agreements and Naruto's eyes finally met Hinata's and she was put at ease (mesmerized) by his smile.

"Do you mind, Hinata?" He asked.

She blinked herself out of the trance he had put her under. Her brain seemed to stop all cognition and she was left staring, trying to make sense of what he said.

"Uh…" She began. It wasn't like she could say no. Everyone was staring at her, practically daring her to take Naruto away from them. She didn't want to seem selfish. She understood that he had a life, a life that was so much bigger than herself, but this particular thing was so important to her and he couldn't see that, could he?

She plastered her smile over her face, "Of course. Go ahead."

He grinned in thanks and their group continued towards class.

Hinata was more than used to hiding her pain. Being compliant. All there was to it was slapping a smile on and crying herself to sleep later, but this was different. Heartbreak had always been just a term to her that she categorized as an intense sadness over someone you loved, and she figured that that was what she felt when Naruto left years ago, but she found out, traversing the halls, that it was a very real, very physical thing. She could feel her heart cracking and breaking into little pieces and it was unbearable. Not even she could shrug it off.

Without catching anyone's attention, she ducked away from the group, heading the opposite direction.

She escaped through the double doors and made her way towards the studios. It was a wonder Hinata was able to navigate the building without completely crumbling. Her strength finally hit its nadir when she entered the dressing rooms. Rarely anyone was there this time of day and she was glad no one was now. Locking the room entirely, she slid down against the wall, not crying at first, just… stunned. It had all happened so suddenly. Things were good and then they weren't so quickly that her head was spinning.

Naruto… He'd forgotten, for one thing. That hurt. And second…(the nail in the coffin) he'd chosen a party over her.

She didn't matter.

She was just another one of his fangirls.

He was just being nice.

All of it came rushing out and Hinata wasn't even aware when she'd started crying. She felt ridiculous crying over a boy who owed her nothing, yet she sat there for fifteen minutes. (She thanked god that no one had tried to come in.)

Very distractedly, she changed out of her uniform, trying to find some reason to the whole situation. Fu was younger than them, maybe he was taking her advice and just being nice. She didn't seem to have the air of someone you could say no to anyway. Yeah, that was it? Right? (She had more common sense than that; Naruto would have said no if he really had any intention of attending her showcase.)

Hinata stiffly walked to the studio, focusing on fiddling with her fingers, a useless distraction. Fumbling with connecting the aux cord to her phone, she could still feel her eyes burning. She was angry. Not at him. At herself. She fooled herself into thinking that she meant something. There were so many people in Naruto's life. Why did she think that she'd be any more special than the rest?

Sniffing, she took to fourth position and tried desperately to concentrate and stop crying less she break her ankle in misstep.

Eventually she'd calmed down. Well, enough to focus on her steps and the music. Nothing else. After a while she took a breather to break in her new pointe shoes (a gift from Neji) a feat usually accomplished during personal time so that no others would be disturbed. She figured since it was almost lunch, no one should have been bothered, that is until she heard the door open and she immediately stopped. An apology was already on her tongue, ready to promise to be quieter and mindful of other students that might be in the building, until she saw that it was him gingerly standing at the door.

Hinata's heart began to beat rapidly. He was the absolute last person on earth that she wanted to see (why was part of her glad that he was here, though?). She sat awkwardly, having previously been beating her shoes against the floor, and not completely sure that the puffiness of her face had gone down.

"Hey, you kinda disappeared back there." He chuckled.

Hinata stared at the ground, almost in shock. He didn't know. (Of course that was the point, but it still hurt.) Feeling her emotions bubble back up, she mumbled an "oh," and continued pounding her shoes into the ground.

"Well Fu and the others are going to come to lunch with us. Are you were ready?"

She tensed ever so slightly before bending the pointes at the arch. It was a while before she said anything.

"I think," she managed without crying. "That I'll stay here for lunch. I...I want to be alone today...if you don't mind."

At this Naruto was finally confused. He didn't question her though. He himself replied with an "oh." and just stood there watching her.

Hinata wondered just how long she could hold up before she heard him retreating towards the door.

"Okay then, Hinata." He added, "See you later."

It sounded like a question. Her initial thought was to just let him leave, but she knew herself better than that.

Her reply was a less than enthusiastic, "Okay."

She'd been prepared for this day for months. She'd known every step forwards and backwards. She could've done it in her sleep.

Now though, Hinata sat gazing hazily at her reflection in the mirror. Blindly touching up her makeup. She hadn't gotten much sleep.

She'd practically made herself sick agonizing over the fact that she meant nothing to him. But it wasn't that thought that kept her up, leaving her with minimal rest. It was the terrible fact that she still loved him, even after he had broken her heart. In fact, it was as strong as it'd ever been. She hated herself for it. This was hurting her. Why couldn't she let go?

Hinata couldn't understand how no matter what, she couldn't bring herself to blame Naruto for any of what happened. How could she? It wasn't his fault that she stayed up all night. It wasn't his fault that she was in love with him. It wasn't his fault that she put all of her faith and admiration into him only to have her hopes dashed across the linoleum floors. The bleak reality of it was that she loved him too much to blame him for anything. It was her fault. She had done this to herself.

Hinata wasn't the type to wear a lot of makeup if any. The way she'd been done up for a performance, this performance gave her face an air of drama and beauty that didn't quite match herself or the way she was feeling for that matter.

Her eyes were dull, lacking the brightness that had been residing there for months, and no smokey eye could change that.

She sighed. Why on earth did she look so miserable because of one person? She was used to disappointment. There had been many a show in which her own family hadn't been present, and had no intention of seeing her anyway. She was used to all the others getting flowers and showered with praise as she waited outside, alone, for someone to pick her up. Now she had Neji, who'd given her a good luck not too long ago, and Kiba, who called early that morning to make sure she ate breakfast and to assure that he and Shino would be there, and she even finally had her father who said he'd try and make it.

At this thought, Hinata smiled a bit. She had people who loved her and that… that was enough. It was more than a younger version of herself could ask her and she could be contented with that. Naruto might have sparked her change, but it was those people who were there to support her, to help her grow. She allowed herself to be contented with that.

She told herself that she was going to ignore those thoughts in the back of her head. The ones that reminded her that Naruto wasn't there. That the person she looked up to, the person she accredited this moment to, couldn't have been bothered to come.

She felt a familiar sting in her eyes before stubbornly blinking them away. If Naruto had taught her anything it was that she didn't other's validation to be the best that she could be. Not even his.

A little flame flickered in the hole in her chest. Small and fickle as it was, she held onto it and ran.

...

"Hey Sakura!" Naruto greeted his friend.

She was sitting at her laptop, switching between scribbling in a notebook, and typing away. She glanced up for a moment before resuming her work, "I'm busy, Naruto."

"Too busy to chat with an old friend?"

She rolled her eyes but didn't object to him sitting next to her.

"Where's Hinata?" She asked after a moment, not looking away from her screen.

"Hm?" He shrugged, "I dunno. She's been busy lately I guess."

This time Sakura did look up. Her sharp green gaze was trained on him in suspicion.

"What?"

"What did you do?"

He threw up his arms in confusion, "I didn't do anything! Hinata's just busy!"

"Busy huh?" Sakura muttered with incredulity. She opened another window and went to the KPA website.

"What're you doing?"

"Checking the schedules for the performance season."

"'Performance season?'" He echoed. "Are you stalking her or something?"

"No, I refuse to believe that Hinata is just busy. You two have been inseparable."

"Well it makes sense to me. Why wouldn't she be?"

"Because, Naruto," Sakura said matter of factly, "A girl isn't just busy, randomly out of the blue."

"I can tell you for a fact that she is. I think she's supposed to be doing something or another for college I think. I don't know."

"Oh! Otsutsuki. I completely forgot about that. Auditions are coming up. I guess," she admitted with a sigh, "You actually didn't do anything."

She went back to scrolling.

"She must be," He said offhandedly. "She hasn't been answering my texts."

"Maybe you should stop bothering her."

"Yeah but, I haven't seen her or talked to her in weeks!"

Sakura gave him a sly glance. The same one, he remembered, that Shikamaru and Choji often have him. This time though, it left his eyes skirting in the other direction, hand ruffling the back of his hair.

Sakura didn't say anything, just grinned.

"Maybe…" Naruto thought aloud. "Fu scared her off somehow."

"The junior? What does she have to do with Hinata?"

"I introduced them and she started talking about her party and I don't know, next thing I knew Hinata was gone. She's been saying that she's busy ever since."

Sakura looked thoughtful as he continued, "Do you think she thinks I'm spending all my time with her now? Do you think she's jealous? She shouldn't be, Fu is just a friend!"

"Oh and what is Hinata then?"

"My friend!" he replied readily enough. Still though, he felt unnaturally flustered.

"Whatever," Sakura rolled her eyes. "Hinata isn't the jealous type anyway. She must be preparing for her audition."

She continued her aimless perusing about the website while Naruto absentmindedly glanced at his phone (for the second time since he'd sat down).

"Oh," he heard her mumble to herself. Naruto looked over at her screen and saw a PDF file pulled up.

"What's that?"

"It's Hinata's show. I wish she would've told me, I would've wanted to go."

"Oh yeah. I think she gave me a ticket to that."

"No need to brag, Naruto." Sakura huffed. "How was she? I bet she was beautiful."

"I mean, I wouldn't know. I was at Fu's party. Hinata said it was no big deal though."

Sakura's eyes widened and Naruto was very well versed in Angry Sakura Face.

"What?"

She closed her eyes, clenching her pen and ticking her nails against the tabletop. She was cooling down, but what had he done to piss her off? His main priority was to be ready if Sakura decided to knock him out (it didn't look like it but man she packed a punch), so it was a little disorienting when she spoke, quieter, and with only a few hints of aggression, "I'm not going to spell it out for you Naruto. I shouldn't have to."

"What are you even talking about? What'd I do?"

"So dense," She sighed. "Get lost Naruto. Some of us have work to do."

"But I—"

"I won't hesitate to knock your lights out if you don't go away, jerk."

"Okay okay, geez." He relented. He snatched up his bag and left, thoroughly confused.

...

Once again, for about the fourth time in two weeks, Naruto found himself outside the Performing Arts Building, contemplating his entry.

Maybe Hinata was busy and he'd be bothering her. But maybe she wasn't and Fu really had upset her.

He owed it to her to apologize on Fu's behalf.

Naruto walked inside, glancing over at a sign in sheet to see Hinata's name signed in for the hour. He followed the room numbers and heard music blaring inside. Looking inside, he saw that she was in fact busy. He really shouldn't have doubted her. Rolling his eyes at Sakura, he moved to turn away, but stood where he was for just a moment.

He was in no way any sort of expert in the arts nor did he know much about them. But one fact became clear to him: Hinata was the best at it.

No he couldn't say what exactly made it such a moving experience for him, or why his chest felt tight when he watched her glide across the floor, but he knew Hinata was amazing. Even more so than he knew her to have already been.

He finally went to turn away this time, but a series of sharp vibrations came from his bag. He dug through it in search of his phone, navigating through an obscene amount of loose papers. Finally reaching the bottom, his screen revealed that it was only Sasuke. Naruto retrieved his phone and found an envelope lying underneath, his name printed in Hinata's handwriting.

He scratched his head, trying to remember when she had given it to him. Naruto tore open the envelope and took out its contents. Firstly, there was a single red rimmed ticket, settled in front of a program, the same one he glanced at earlier.

This time he read over it, eyes stopping at 'feat. Hinata Hyuga.' Featuring? As in star of the show? Why didn't Hinata tell him? He shifted it to the back of the pile, looking over the last item.

It was a handwritten note, from her, reading:

Naruto—

I wanted to thank you for all you've done for me. You have been such a special part of my life and it means the world that you begin to think of me, even a little. Unfortunately I'm not as brave as you and I'm way too afraid to ever say this to your face, but I want to admit that from the first time I met you, I've wanted to be just like you. Just as driven and just as confident in accomplishing dreams as you always were without fail. Now, you're living proof that those dreams can come true and that I'm not silly for dreaming big. Because of you, I feel that things that I've always seen as impossible are really within reach. I'm auditioning for my dream school in a few weeks and I owe all this and more to you.

Not only that, I have really loved spending time with you and I find myself hoping that it'll never end, that I can be with you all the time. That's selfish I'm sure and admittedly a bit weird, I'm sorry, but I needed to get all that off my chest (you know?)

I just want to thank you for everything. Your support means more than you know. Wish me luck!

-Hinata

He stood momentarily stunned. Sakura was right, as always.

The music from inside the room stopped and Naruto, briefly panicking, fled the scene.

Here he was boasting and making a big deal about how much he valued his friends, how much he valued her, yet he wasn't there to support her when she needed him.

He wasn't sure what time it was, or how long he had until the period ended but he found himself aimlessly walking around campus, hating himself. Hinata was angry with him. He'd ignored her. How could he be so careless?

He was out of it the entire day, his mind whirring with regret and shame. Sleep didn't come easy for him that night.

"I just...want to make sure you're okay."

"I believe in you."

"Good luck."

Her smiling up at him. Offering him a lunch. Making him laugh. Her kindness. Her consideration. Her loyalty.

"I find myself hoping that it'll never end, that I can be with you all the time."

Her supporting him when he was down. She was the only who could do it so easily. Just a few words and he felt like the world could be his.

"I think… that your parents would be proud of who you are today. You've grown into an amazing person with a bright future. I know they'd love to see who you've become."

He woke up in a cold sweat, heart beating its way out of his chest. He clenched his shirt. His face was warm. What was wrong with him? Why was he so panicked?

"You have been such a special part of my life and it means the world that you begin to think of me, even a little."

He felt anxious for days, not knowing what to do with himself. Should he go see her and apologize? No, what if she didn't want to see him? It hadn't seemed like she did. He was back at square one, except he couldn't pin this on anymore else but himself this time. But it didn't help that the thought of even approaching her made him suddenly lose his breath.

He worked up the nerve to go back. Naruto stood outside the door, hovering for what seemed like hours.

"Can I help you?" A voice caused him to jump.

Naruto turned and was met by sharp red eyes.

"Are you here to see, Hinata?" The teacher asked.

"Well, kind of. I guess. I don't know really."

She nodded slowly, looking him over a bit suspiciously, "Hinata is hard at work and I'm sure disruptions won't help her in any way."

"I...yes, yeah, you're right." He looked longingly over at the door.

"Did you have a message you wanted me to give her for you?"

"No sorry, I was just watching her for a while." He sheepishly grinned.

She hummed, "Hinata's one of our best. She had her debut just the other night."

"I know," he murmured, gazing through the little window. "I wasn't able to make it."

They stood for a moment watching Hinata's turns when she finally spoke up, "Come with me."

Naruto did as he was told and followed the woman to an office. He stood awkwardly in the doorway, not sure if he was in trouble or not.

Seemingly reading his mind, the woman beckoned him closer as she started her laptop up. After a moment she turned the screen towards him.

A video began to play. A stage was shown and in the very center was Hinata, but different. She looked absolutely stunning; it took his breath away. Naruto turned towards the teacher, "Is this her?"

"You're Naruto right?" He nodded in surprise. "Yes, Neji told me about you. I figured you were Hinata's special guest. You should've seen her, she really wanted you to have made it. But, Hinata is strong. She did phenomenally."

"Yeah," He murmured, enraptured by the recording. "She's amazing."

The woman grinned, making her way to the door, "I can only hope I made the right decision in not consulting with Hinata first. I trust that you have Hinata's best interest at heart and aren't some stalker."

"What?" He stammered. "No I swear I'm (was) her friend!"

"I was just teasing. It's alright, I know who you are," She waved him off, "I understand how much Hinata cares about you." Her red eyes turned icy, "Try and make it to the next one alright?"

She was gone before he could reply and he knew the comment was more of a jab at him for his absence and the effect it must've had on Hinata. He'd noticed something off putting about Kurenai and he believed he figured it out, standing there alone in her office, watching footage of Hinata's show.

He'd hurt Hinata. Bad. So much so that Kurenai wanted him to feel just what he'd lost.

He then remembered that day, the one where he had chosen a party over her. She'd smiled and told him that he could go. Naruto had her smiles engraved in his memory and there was something different about that one. He'd felt it then and he felt more prominently now. Looking back, he could see the hurt in her eyes.

He truly was the biggest jerk in the world.

(yeah super uncool of me to not update for a month. apologies! next update should be better)