Moments of our lives – Chapter Five ~ I can do this

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It was a warm, sunny day in the city of Konoha. The weather was so nice. You could just feel the anxiousness of everyone in Konoha High radiating. Both teachers and students were anticipating the final bell of the day, signaling the release of students and staff.

The final bell was at 3:00. It was 2:57. Only three more minutes left.

In the seventh bell freshmen history class, the twenty students that were in the room were talking with each other. The teacher, Asuma-sensei, had stopped teaching since there was only five minutes left at the time. He now sat at his desk, checking and entering grades in, as he always did.

Mostly everyone in the class was talking. Everyone, but the smartest girl in the class – even if there were only five girls in that said class – Hinata Hyuuga was talking. Hinata is a formally shy girl. When she was a child she barely spoke. Over the years she has been growing out of her shell. She's still a little shy, but not as much as she was when she was six. Right now, this smart-and-still-kind-of-shy girl was half-listening to the people around her mingle while she gathered her things, lost in thought about her upcoming plans.

"Hey," her friend Tenten – she was also her cousin's girlfriend. They are so cute together – said to her. "Are you going to do it today?"

Hinata blushed a bright shade of red. "I don't know. I-I'm going to try to."

"You should," Tenten smiled. "It would be good for you to get a boyfriend. I don't like him," she paused to make a face, thus making Hinata giggle. "I mean I really don't like him, but I know you do. And I want you to be happy. You deserve happiness."

Hinata smiled. "Thank you, Tenten. It means a lot to me. You have no idea how much."

"No problem!" Tenten laughed. "It's the least I can do, since you set me up with Neji, and all. I want to at least return you the favor. Plus, I really do want you happy," she added. "That's the most important thing, really."

"I want me happy, too," she sighed. "It would be a strange change in pace, but I'm okay with that."

Tenten laughed. "I know what you mean." She looked over to the other side of the room. "Let me just say you sure know how to pick them, Hinata. None of us thought you would go for the annoying new kid."

Hinata looked over to where her crush, the old new kid – there's been another new kid since then, which they called the NEW new kid – Naruto Uzumaki sat. She smiled softly as she watched him mess with Suigetsu and Sakon. "Yeah, me either."

Naruto had come to Konoha a month and a half before, and a lot of people think he's annoying. He's inappropriate, obnoxious, and flirts with a lot of girls. He's vulgar, rude, gets into other people's business, and loud. He has poked a girl in her grade's ass – her name is Kin. He and Hinata's friend, Matsuri, don't like each other. He breaks burps all the time – well, he used to, but not much any more. He gets into trouble a lot with the teachers. She caught him checking out girls' waists. He made her extremely uncomfortable in his first week at Konoha High. He had dated her friend, Ino.

Yet, he's adorable, sexy, and so, so funny. He makes her happy when she was so depressed and upset. He gives amazing hugs; he makes her smile. He said she was his first friend at Konoha High. He makes her feel beautiful. He gave her his orange bracelet a few days before. Tenten says he was flirting with her. He gets jealous that she may want to date this Sai kid. He cooks with her and Matsuri in Personal Skills. He sympathizes with her. He's her best friend; he really is.

And, in only the short month and a half he's been there, she's fallen in love with him.

Hinata wasn't quite sure when her feelings of apprehensiveness towards the blonde melted away into admiration. For the first week or two, she thought the same as everyone else – that he was annoying. Somehow, after spending some time with him, she supposes that Naruto and his unusual behavior began to grow on her. Only two weeks after he had started attending Konoha High she had heard from Naruto himself that he was dating her sort-of-friend, Ino Yamanaka. She cried her eyes out, and that was the day she had realized she liked the new kid. She felt horrible about it, and she tried her best to drop her feelings for the blonde boy. It couldn't be done, though, and not for lack of trying. She even had tried letting her friend Tayuya set her up with a guy named Kidomaru. There were no sparks, and she still kept on thinking about Naruto. When she had heard that Naruto broke up with Ino, she's not going to lie; she literally jumped for joy – not anywhere anyone could see her, though.

Ino and Naruto broke up at the beginning of the school week, so being that it was Friday; they had only been broken up for five days. Ever since Monday, Naruto had been going over to talk to her after their fourth bell – Personal Skills – had ended, and after their seventh bell – History class, which she was in at the moment – ended, too. Tenten swears to Kami that the blonde was flirting with Hinata one day. He had given her his orange bracelet – he had even put it on her wrist himself – and they were talking about kisses. He had basically told her he would kiss her, but without saying it directly.

Most of her friends could tell that Hinata had a crush on him, even if she didn't tell them for sure. They didn't like him, but they wanted her happy. Sakura kept telling her to ask the boy out, even when he was still dating Ino. She didn't like Ino, and, besides that, she said Hinata couldn't be at blame if he said yes. It wouldn't be her fault he liked her, and it definitely wasn't her fault that she likes him.

After some high amounts of consideration on her part, Hinata decided that today would be the day. She was going to tell Naruto she liked him today, she had already made up her mind. Shy, little Hinata Hyuuga was going to ask the energetic and charismatic Naruto Uzumaki to her boyfriend. What a huge shock this was going to be.

"Attention, teachers and students," the over-com project, "it's time for the afternoon announcements. JV tennis, meet in the gym for practice immediately after school…"

Hinata took a deep, cleansing breath as she half-listened to the afternoon announcements. It was almost time. School's nearly over, and then she could finally tell Naruto how she feels about him. Goodness gracious, Hinata hoped to God she gets good results from this.

Just as the final bell rang, Tenten reached over and tapped the side of Hinata's desk. The Hyuuga looked over at her friend as she gathered her other stuff quickly, keeping a lookout for Naruto out of the corner of her eye as she did. Her friend smiled brightly at her. "Good luck, Hinata!"

She nodded to her friend as she stood and picked up her stuff into her arms. "Thanks, Tenten. I'm definitely going to need it."

Hinata fast-walked out of the room at that very moment. She did not wait for her friend and she did not tell Asuma-sensei to have a good rest of the afternoon like she usually did – she didn't have that time to spare. When she got to her locker, she quickly tossed the stuff she didn't need for her homework to the bottom of her locker and the stuff she did need atop of her backpack – she would get it later. She also put her bag in her locker and hurriedly slammed the locker door shut. She knew she needed to be quick. She didn't want him to leave before she got the chance to talk to him. She said she would tell him today, so damn it, today she was going to tell him. There was no other option. Today had to be the day.

As Hinata began fast-walking toward the door she knew for a fact that Naruto hung around ever day after school, she heard her best friend calling her name down the hall.

"Hinata," she called. "Where the heck are you going?"

Hinata paused, feeling a little stressed as she did. She didn't want to miss her chance. "What is it, Sakura? I'm in a big hurry!"

"I just want to know where you were running off to," the pinkette said. "You can't be leaving; you don't have your stuff."

"I'm going to find Naruto."

Sakura's eyes widened and she gasped aloud. "Oh, my god. Are you going to tell him? Are you finally going to tell him?"

"Yes, but I have to hurry," she said. "I want to tell him today while I still have the guts to, so I have to catch him before he leaves."

"Then go!" Sakura commanded. "Whatever I had to say can wait. This is too important!"

"What's going on?" their eighth grade friend, Moegi, asked as she stopped next to them. "What's so important?"

"She's going to tell him!"

Moegi gasped. "Oh, my gosh, really? You're not kidding?"

"I'm not kidding!" she squealed.

"Yay!"

"Look," Hinata interrupted. "I'm just going to get going now. I need to find him."

"You get him, tiger!" Sakura cheered along with Moegi.

Hinata nodded, and with that started running off towards the door. She was freaking out a little to herself. What if she missed him? What if Naruto had already left her home? Her window of opportunity was closing, and closing fast.

After pushing through a large crowd of people without even so much as saying excuse me, Hinata finally got outside. She looked around, panicking for a second when she didn't see him. She hoped to God she didn't miss her chance; she was praying in hope that he didn't already leave. Then, she saw him. He was with a group of friends, on his way to the nearby mall to the high school. Quickly, she booked it off to him. "Naruto!" she called when she was close enough to him.

The blonde stopped walking and he turned in the direction of her voice, his crystal orbs twinkling with curiosity. "Hey, Hinata," he said when he saw that it was her. "What's up?"

Hinata took a deep breath, not only because she was nervous, but also because she was out of breath from running. "Hi, Naruto," she greeted. "I need to talk to you for a minute."

"Oh," he said. "Okay." Turning, he dismissed his friends to go on without him. When they were far enough away from the tow, Naruto turned back. "So what's on your mind, Hinata? What is it you wanted to talk to me about?"

Hinata took another deep breath. This was it; there was no turning back now. "I-I'm just going to be perfectly honest with you. I like you, Naruto," she said. His eyes widened. "I like you a lot. It didn't start like that, but that's what it ended up as. I tried to stop it, but I can't. It hurt me to like you because you were dating Ino at the time, and Ino is my friend. Now that you've dumped her – or broken up with her, or whatever that would be considered – I needed to tell you before it, like, ate me alive." She took another deep breath. "I hope this doesn't make anything between us awkward. That is not my intention with this."

There was a pause before either of them spoke again – it was a pause that made Hinata terribly nervous. She hoped she didn't just make a huge mistake.

"So," Naruto said, "you like me?"

"Y-yes," she nodded.

"A lot?"

"That's what I said."

Out of nowhere, Naruto started laughing. This made Hinata blush a deep shade of scarlet and clam up instantaneously.

"L-l-laughing isn't very nice, you know…" she said. "I-if you don't feel the s-same way, a-all you have to do is tell me."

"No, no, no," he said. "That's not it! That's really not what I was laughing at. I promise you, Hinata."

She looked away from him. "Then what is it?"

Naruto smiled as he reached over and turned her face back at him so he can look her in the eyes. "I'm laughing because I like you, too. I like you a lot."

Hinata gasped. "Oh, my goodness. Thank you, God!" she exclaimed. "Oh, thank you, Jesus!"

Naruto had to chuckle at that. He thought she was being so absolutely freaking cute.

"On that note," she continued, "will you go out with me? I really want you to be my boyfriend."

Naruto smiled. "Of course I will."

She sighed. "Yay!"

The two came together for an embrace. Their hug was long and neither of them wanted to let go. If they had gotten their way, they wouldn't have. They would stay like that, hugging in the middle of the sidewalk.

"You did it!" Hinata's best friend called. "You finally did it, Hinata!"

Hinata released her new boyfriend a little from the hug and smiled oh so very brightly. "Yeah," she said. "I finally did."

-END-