I thank my friend LexKixAss for letting me abscond her twins for my story. As always Naruto belongs to Kishimoto. Please review.


The weather had gotten hotter that week, making the ground dry and stirring up dust into the wind. Even the trees felt the unusually blistering heat and had withered into crackling leaves that filled the breeze with a rustling chorus. So it was a treat for the children to skip their normal evening training with Hizashi and run away to the branch house for a dip in the pond. The water was warmer than normal but still a welcome relief from the heat, though the sun dropping low on the horizon helped, too. Ko sat against a nearby tree reading as the four children lolled lazily in the water. (The twins insisted that in the branch house Hinata didn't need an escort, but Naomi ignored their complaints – until they became genin at least.)

Hinata floated on her back, idly kicking just enough to keep her moving around the placid pond. Even the boys were too hot to be rambunctious and preferred to lounge in the deep where the water protected them from the worst of the heat.

"Neji-niisan," she called, diverting her course to drift closer to her brother-cousin, "how'd you make friends when you first went to the academy?"

"Neji-kun didn't need to make friends," Osamu teased.

"When you're number one in your class everyone wants to be your friend," Isamu finished, and the two dunked Neji's head for good measure.

Hinata kicked herself upright as Neji sputtered his way to the surface again. "Well, then," she started slowly to regain their attention, "how did you two make friends?"

Osamu grinned. "We don't make friends. People just naturally love us."

"Except the ones who don't," Isamu corrected, "but we don't care about them."

"I thought you were making friends," Neji interrupted the twins joking with concern seeping into his voice.

Hinata pouted and scrunched up her nose. "Well, I can talk to people. Some of them are okay, but I don't really have any friends, not like they all have. And it's not the same as when I talk to you or Isamu-kun or Osamu-kun. How do I make friends like that?"

All three boys stared at her, but their attention was lost in thought. Osamu was the first to speak up. "I never really tried before. It's not something you do, it just happens."

Isamu nodded. "Yeah, you don't make friends, you become friends."

"But how?"

"By talking to them, getting to know them," Neji suggested.

"You make it sound easy," she muttered, her pout growing stronger the more obtuse their answers became. She'd hoped for a straightforward method that would let her make friends easily.

The three boys exchanged an uneasy glance. None of them had ever had problems making friends, but –remembering back to when they'd each first met Hinata– none of them were as shy as Hinata was with strangers.

"I've got an idea," Neji popped up, bringing his hands together and splashing everyone in the process. "Make friends with someone else who can't make friends. You can't be the only one in your class having trouble. So look around and find someone else who's alone and make friends with them."

"Hey, that's actually a good idea, Neji-kun," Osamu gasped in mock shock and mussed Neji's wet hair.

"Don't sound so surprised," Neji fussed, sending the older twin an annoyed glare.

A mischievous grin grew across Osamu's face. "With the way you're going, someone's got to keep you humble or being number one will go to your head."

Hinata thought about it as Neji did his best to return the earlier dunking on his older cousin. Make friends with someone else who was alone. That didn't sound as scary as talking to everyone together in their little groups.

"You know, you've always got us, Hinata-sama," Isamu said, coming up behind her in the water to avoid the others' ruckus. "You'll never not have friends as long as Neji-kun and us are here."

Hinata grinned bigger and brighter than she ever did at school. "I know." The academy might not be the horrible place it was that first day, but she still loved the clan better.


The classroom always had a different atmosphere at lunch. It was relaxed and happy and excited all at once. Kids gathered up into their private groups and chattered away without the censure of their teacher's reproachful eyes. Hinata sat in her corner, the bento on her desk still wrapped in the bright pink and yellow cloth as she looked around the room.

After a couple weeks of class everyone else had fairly well divided amongst themselves. There weren't many who weren't left alone like her. In the middle of the class sat a boy in a high-collared coat. No one was talking to him, but Hinata got the distinct impression he didn't want anyone talking to him (that and she was pretty sure she'd seen bugs crawling into his sleeve earlier). The pink-haired girl who used to be alone now sat with the blonde girl, and Hinata wasn't about to disturb them the way they were whispering close to each other.

That left one other person to try: the blond boy, Naruto, the one who, like Hinata, had been laughed at that first day. In front of him was a bowl of instant ramen, not a homemade bento like most of the kids had, but he was eating it with more enthusiasm than anyone else. He'd been the only person that first day that Hinata had even considered friend material, but there was always one major drawback. He was so loud. Not even the twins were as exuberant as he was, and that was saying something. Still, no one sat in the chair next to him or bothered to say hello when they passed. Hinata gathered up her courage, picked up her bento, and –slowly– proceeded across the room.

She passed her former tormentors on the way, each of them turning away with bitter grimaces on their faces. They hadn't bothered her since that first day (just as the twins had said), but she could still feel the hate in their gazes when they looked at her. She tried to ignore it, listening to her uncle's counsel that sometimes she couldn't get out of dealing with people who didn't like her.

She didn't think it was polite to simply take the chair next to him (and what if he didn't want to be her friend), so she stood behind it. Her fingers twirled the knot in her bento's tie as she tried to force herself to speak.

"Hello!" the word burst from her like an explosion and startled her would-be friend right into choking on the ramen still hanging from his mouth.

"I'm sorry," she squeaked as he coughed off the last of the inhaled ramen and attempted to drown the internal irritation with his water.

"What was that about?" he asked, still coughing and beating his chest to quell the choking sensation.

"I'm sorry," Hinata repeated softly. The hope in her eyes had soured some, that wasn't the way to make friends. "Can I . . . can . . . can . . . can I . . ." The words didn't seem capable of finding their way out after the earlier explosion, and his strange blue eyes staring at her only shoved her courage further down.

"You're kinda weird," he blurted before she could even ask to sit down.

Tears welled in her pale eyes and she ran off to her corner in defeat. She just wasn't made to make friends. She didn't know how to talk to people, and was it her fault strangers scared her? They were called strangers for a reason: they were strange. If only she had Neji's confidence or she could listen to what her uncle said and not care what everyone thought of her. But she did. She didn't want to be 'weird', but the more she tried to be normal the more she failed at it. Maybe she should just give up and stick to Neji and the twins.

The sharp, high-pitched screech of Shikamaru's chair being pulling out nearly made her fall out of her own. She really needed to learn to calm down, Hinata realized as she forced herself to breathe again. When she turned to apologize for freaking out it was Naruto, not Shikamaru, sitting beside her. His blue eyes locked on her white ones, and as much as she wanted to look away there was something in the seriousness of his expression that held her.

"Were you trying to talk to me?" he asked, not a laugh or jeer anywhere in his voice. She nodded, too afraid she wouldn't get the words out if she tried. He kept that serious stare on her the same way a Hyuuga would size up an opponent.

"Do you always stutter?" he continued bluntly.

"When I'm . . ." Hinata paused and twisted up all her willpower to make her tongue and mouth move the way she wanted them too, "when I'm nervous."

"Why are you nervous?"

Hinata tried to keep calm even though her face was hot enough to start frying food on. Having lived with the Hyuugas where subtly was studied, Naruto's direct approach was like a slap in the face. She turned to the desk and prayed it would be easier to talk to the table rather than Naruto.

"I was going to . . . ask . . . if you . . . I mean, you don't have to . . . but . . . would you . . . want . . . maybe . . . to be . . . friends . . ." By the time she finished Hinata was practically talking to the wall behind her. And he thought she was weird before, she must seem like a complete freak to him now.

"You mean it? You wanna be friends?" he asked, and, still refusing to look at him, she nodded. Then Naruto did what she knew he would; he burst out laughing. "That's a weird thing to be nervous about."

Hinata snuck a peek at him. Laughter she understood, but what did he mean? The mocking she'd expected in his eyes was nowhere to be seen. In its place was the biggest, brightest, widest smile Naruto's face could manage. He kicked back in the chair and relaxed. "I'm Naruto. What's your name again?"

"Hi–Hinata," she stammered, a matching smile slowly growing exponentially across her face. He hadn't laughed at her. He was happy. He wanted to be her friend. She'd made a friend all on her own. Neji was going to be so proud of her when she told him.

"Aren't you going to eat?" he started, pointing to her bento, but jumped out of his seat before she could answer. "My ramen!"

Dashing back to his seat, Naruto snatched his ramen off the table and hurried back to plop down next to her again. "Ah, I almost forgot about it," he said as much to himself as Hinata and flashed her a ramen-filled smile. "I love ramen."

Hinata's blazing hot face had cooled to an innocent blush now that she felt slightly more relaxed next to him. She quickly unwrapped her bento as he slurped up his meal. "I've never had instant ramen before," she admitted.

"Never had instant ramen?" He stared at her, noodles hanging from his half-open mouth. "How do you live?"

Hinata wasn't quite sure what he meant, but the seriousness had returned to his eyes so he wasn't joking. "My aunt never lets us eat anything instant."

"Your aunt?" he questioned, completely switching conversations at the distraction.

"I live with my aunt and uncle. My parents . . . they're . . ." Hinata turned away from him and poked at the rice in her bento with her chopsticks. She still had trouble saying they were dead. Talking about them was one thing, but the word 'dead' was too much. It made her remember the funerals and that intense feeling of being alone.

What shocked her most in all the confusion since saying hello to him was how soft Naruto's boisterous voice suddenly turned. "My parents are dead, too."

"Do you . . . do you miss them?" Hinata asked quietly and took a bite of rice to cover up her lingering sorrow. He was the first kid she'd met whose parents were dead too, and when she looked him in the eyes there was something familiar in them. Something she'd seen in herself. "I miss mine."

"I don't have anything to miss. I never met mine," he said quietly, but when she looked in his face (even not being as good as the twins at reading people), Hinata could see the lie. He might not have known them, but he missed them as surely as she missed hers.

She let the lie pass, though. She couldn't even say the word dead, far be it for her to force him to go any further into something he didn't want to face. Instead, she smiled solemnly and continued her meal. "So do you live with an aunt and uncle too, or grandparents?"

"No," he dismissed quickly and downed the last of his instant ramen. "People take care of me." Hinata wanted to pry a little further but knew better. The truth of it was in his face, Naruto wouldn't talk on it any more.

She picked at her food a moment, trying to figure out how to brighten the conversation. Not that she wholly disliked it; it was comforting to know there was someone else out there that understood. She loved Neji dearly, but he couldn't understand sometimes. Not completely.

Hinata carefully picked up one of the tiny sausages, painstakingly cut and boiled to curl into a little octopus, complete with nori eyes. Naomi wasn't making her lunch everyday anymore, but since that awful first day Hinata always had something cute stuck in her bento to cheer her up. Sometimes it was the highlight of her day. The idea popped in her head like a flash of light, and she held out the octopus sausage to Naruto.

"Would you like one?" she asked and a genuinely happy smile returned to her lips.

Naruto stared at the sausage octopus like it was a foreign creature balanced between her chopsticks. Finally, he took it, turning it over in his fingers curiously. "I've never actually seen someone make these before, but then I've never had a homemade bento before either."

"Never had a homemade bento before? How do you live?" Hinata gasped in the same seriousness Naruto had about his ramen and earned a snicker in reply.

"I'd say we need to switch lunch one day, but then I won't get my ramen," he joked. "I really do love ramen."

Hinata didn't notice her teacher approaching until she was right on top of them. There was something strange in her expression that Hinata'd never noticed before and it unnerved her, though she couldn't figure out why.

"How're you doing, Hinata? No one's been bothering today, I hope." Kiku's gaze flickered so quickly to Naruto, Hinata almost missed it. It was so fast Hinata didn't even have time to try and read the meaning behind it. It was probably nothing anyway.

"No, I made a friend," Hinata announced proudly. And she wasn't even stuttering around him anymore. That was like a bonus to her.

"How nice." Kiku smiled a peculiar, strained grin at the two children before looking back at Hinata again. "You better hurry and finish your lunch, Hinata. Lessons will be resuming soon. And Naruto, try and pay more attention."

Naruto stuck his tongue out at her as she left them. "I do pay attention, she just doesn't teach anything good. Just wait till I'm Hokage. I'll have them fire her for being a bad teacher."

"I hope you're Hokage one day," Hinata said.

"You mean that? You want me to be Hokage?"

Hinata nodded. "Yeah, then when I have to talk to the Hokage when I'm clan head I'll be talking to my friend and I won't be so nervous."

Naruto looked away sheepishly. "No one's ever believed me before. But I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna be the best Hokage ever!"

The passion and conviction within him burned hot enough to paint Hinata's cheeks a fair pink. He might have been too loud and intense at times, but she still wished she had just a fraction of his confidence. Hizashi wouldn't scold her for not standing up for herself if she was as assertive as Naruto.

"Hey, what'd you mean by when you're clan head?" Naruto asked completely calmed and jumping topics once again.

"I'm going to be the head of the Hyuuga clan when I'm older," she explained. "It's like being Hokage, but only to Hyuugas. I want to be a good clan head, but I'm weak still. I get Uncle Hizashi in trouble with Grandpa and the others because he trains me and I'm still not strong enough. But I want to be better, and I try really hard."

"I know!" Naruto cried, snatching Hinata's hands and shaking them up and down until her chopsticks fell out of her hands. "We can train together! Since I'm gonna be an awesome Hokage one day and you're gonna be that clan head thing, if we train together then we'll both be even more awesome!"

Hinata's head spun from his jerking, but an unstable smile struggled to settle on her lips anyway. She'd never been invited to do anything before, not outside the compound at least. As happy as the invitation made her, her joy faltered. "But . . . I'm not allowed out of the Hyuuga compound except to come to school."

"Really?" Naruto's face wrinkled up like he'd smelled fish gone bad. "That sucks."

"The compound's nice," she defended. She'd never wanted to leave the compound really, so it'd never been a restriction to her before. But now . . . "Maybe you can come to the compound."

Naruto groaned and slumped down into his chair. "Would adults be there?"

Hinata nodded. "They stay away when I'm in the main house, but I'm not allowed to go to the branch house without Ko or Aunt Naomi."

"I hate being around adults," Naruto sulked. "You have a weird life, you know? What kid can't just go out and play?"

"I'm the heir to the clan," she said with a shrug. It was the mantra she'd grown up with. Those four words, 'heir to the clan,' explained every eccentricity and restriction of her life. Questioning it seemed silly.

"But," she started when Naruto looked ready to slide out of his chair from his slump, "you could meet Neji-niisan and Isamu-kun and Osamu-kun in the compound. They're really nice and the twins, Isamu-kun and Osamu-kun, they love getting into trouble. (They even risk getting Aunt Naomi mad and let me join them sometimes)."

There was an odd emotion that passed over Naruto's expression. Hinata was sure the twins would have known what it was better than her. It almost looked like disappointment, but that didn't make sense to Hinata.

"You have a brother?"

Hinata fidgeted with her now half empty bento box. "Well, sort of. Neji-niisan's my cousin, but we've lived together since my parents . . . since Uncle Hizashi and Aunt Naomi moved to the main house to take care of me. He's a year older than me, so I think of him like my big brother. He acts like one. You'd like him. And he's really smart. He's the top of his class, so if we all train together then he can teach us things before Kiku-sensei does."

"Before Kiku-sensei?" A spark of hope broke through Naruto's dejected glower and in seconds that blinding, smug smile once again took up half his face. "Then I'd get to be number one in class and everyone would know I really would be Hokage one day! Okay, I guess I can deal with adults for a while."

Kiku took her place at the front of class to the collective groan of the entire student body. For the first time, Hinata agreed with them. She was actually enjoying her lunch break with Naruto. He grabbed his empty ramen cup and, as Shikamaru approached, leaned in close to Hinata's ear. "I'll meet you after class."

Hinata was wrapping up the leftover from her bento when Shikamaru sat down. He eyed her curiously for a moment before finally asking, "Are you all right? Your face is all red."

"I'm fine," she squeaked back through a smile.

The rest of the lessons couldn't have been slower if Kiku had gone to the clock and turned it back eight hours to start the day over again. She had a friend, a real, honest-to-goodness friend, who wanted to hang out with her and not just at school. So he was a bit more –excitable– than she normally liked to be around. She could get used to it. She got used to the twins and they were as excitable as Hyuuga kids got. Hinata just hoped her aunt didn't mind her inviting someone over. (Surely she wouldn't, not Hinata's first school friend.)

Hinata was practically bouncing in her chair by the time Kiku finally released them, but for once she didn't run out of the room as fast as she could. Actually, it was rather strange to wait there, everyone milling about with their friends as they slowly headed for the door. Now she was like them. She was . . . normal.

"So," Naruto drawled out as he popped in behind her and casually rocked back onto his heels, "what exactly is 'the compound' you kept talking about?"

"It's where the Hyuuga clan lives," Hinata explained. She grabbed her bento box and the two headed down the stairs.

"And what's the Hyuuga 'clan'?" The way Naruto drew out the word she could practically hear him making air quotes around the word (not that he did, but she still heard it in his voice).

"It's all the different families that are Hyuuga, that have eyes like mine," she said, pointing to her white eyes. "We all live at the compound." She'd come to accept that people outside the clan didn't always understand them, but this was the first time anyone had asked her about it (or wasn't trying to make fun of her).

"Wow, that must be a big house!"

Hinata giggled at the way he threw out his arms, nearly smacking a couple kids in the hall. "There're lots of houses inside the compound. We don't all live in one. Though, mine is kind of big."

"Lucky," he whistled, "the place I live in is small. Then again you don't get to leave it, so it better be big."

If it could've, Hinata's smile got even wider. Neji waited outside his classroom for her, like he did everyday, with a smug little smirk on his face. He eyed Naruto up and down with his blank eyes (as a Hyuuga only could).

"So, who's this?" Neji asked, the smugness seeping into his young voice.

"It's my friend," Hinata stroked her brother-cousin's ego, "Naruto-kun. Naruto-kun, this is Neji-niisan."

"Man, you guys really do have the same eyes," Naruto gawked.

Neji slipped Hinata a skeptical glance, to which she prompted returned a silent 'He's nice!' nose scrunch. They might not be at the twins' level of non-verbal communication, but Hinata and Neji knew each other well enough.

"I invited him over to train with us," Hinata continued before Naruto could notice the interruption, "you don't think Aunt Naomi and Uncle Hizashi will mind, do you?"

"I don't see why they– HEY!" Neji was cut off by two long arms plopping down on his head so the boy they belonged to could stare down at Hinata and Naruto. His twin came up behind Hinata and draped an arm over her shoulder, twisting around her to eye Naruto alone.

"Who's this with our Hinata-sama?" asked the one successfully avoiding Neji's attempts to detach him.

To which his counterpart replied, "I'd say our Hinata-sama might just have herself a little friend."

"Hey, who're you callin' little?" Naruto defended.

The two exchanged a 'glance'. "Quiet down, kiddo, we're only teasing," Neji's twin dismissed.

"So Hinata-sama, aren't you going to introduce us," her twin asked with a cheeky grin. Time to play 'Guess the twin.'

"Of course," she slowly started, looking between the two identical faces for some clue to tell them apart. (She knew better than to trust the part of their hair like most did.) "Isamu-kun, Osamu-kun, this is Naruto-kun. Naruto-kun, this is . . ." –she pointed to her twin first, then to Neji's– "Isamu-kun and Osamu-kun."

The twin still smothering Neji glowered at his brother. "Otouto, you're giving us away. Hinata-sama and Neji-kun have guessed us right over half the times this week."

Isamu straightened up indignantly. "Me? How do you know it's not you giving us away?"

"I'm older," Osamu answered, as if nothing was more logical. Isamu just stuck his tongue out.

Naruto interrupted their remaining escapade. "It's kinda weird seeing all you guys together. I can't tell who you're looking at."

Osamu and Isamu sent Neji a concerned looked, but when he just shrugged, Hinata wrinkled her nose up at all three of them. Just because Naruto was blunt didn't mean he wasn't nice to her.

"Okay, okay, we'll be nice," Osamu yielded much to Naruto's confusion. "Any friend of Hinata-sama's a friend of ours."

"Are they your cousins, too?" Naruto whispered to Hinata.

"No, they're just Hyuugas," Hinata answered.

"Just Hyuugas?" the twins gasped in unified horror. "Hinata-sama, you wound us."

That same strange expression that was on Naruto's face at lunch returned, and Hinata saw both twins' brows raise in surprise. She was going to have to ask what that was later. From the questioning look on Neji's face he understood Naruto's expression as little as she did, but hadn't missed the twins' response either.

"Come on, let's get going already. They'll lock us in the academy the way you three are mucking about," Osamu chided (as if he weren't an active participant) and ushered Neji out with the rest of the crowd while Isamu did the same to Hinata and Naruto.

Ko waiting in his usual spot near the road (it was his concession to the children's sense of independence), but the normally warm expression he greeted them with disappeared the closer they got. Before they were even halfway across the yard, Ko broke from his sentinel position and hurried to meet them. The look in his eyes was something Hinata had never witnessed before, and –she didn't know why– it made the twins pull her securely between them. The firm hands on each of her shoulders warned her something was far worse than she could read in Ko's tense, creased face.

"Hinata-sama," Ko called, reaching to take her hand only for the twins to pull her a step back with them.

Hinata didn't understand what was happening, but she wished everyone would relax. "Ko, it's all right if Naruto-kun comes with us, right? I invited him."

Ko looked on Naruto not like a child, but as if he were an alien thing standing next to her. "Hinata-sama, you shouldn't associate with that boy. Come with me now."

Neji sided over to block Ko from easily snatching Hinata away. All the excitement and joy that had filled her since she'd made friends with Naruto was quickly melting away at the sight of –disgust– in Ko's eyes. Why would be he be looking at Naruto with disgust?

"B–bu–bu–" The scarier he looked the harder it was for Hinata to force her voice out. But Naruto was her first friend and what Ko said wasn't fair. "But he's my friend."

Ko shoved past Neji and yanked Hinata out from her young guards' hold. "I'm sorry, Hinata-sama. We're going now."

"You can't treat Hinata-sama like that!" Osamu yelled. Neji and the twins ran around to try and stop Ko.

"Enough!" Ko snapped, sending all three boys back with the heavy force of his glare. "I'll do whatever needs to be done to fulfill my duty to watch over Hinata-sama and the three of you don't have say in this. Now I'm taking Hinata-sama home."

Hinata trembled as Ko dragged her away from the academy. Naruto, who all this time had been quieter than she'd known him in the academy, stared back at her with pain and anger, but not surprise, simmering in the shadow of his blue eyes.

It didn't make sense. Why was Ko so horrible to Naruto? Why couldn't she be friends with him? Neji slipped in beside Hinata, catching her when the tears blurred her vision and made her stumble in the haste of Ko's retreat.

"It's okay," he whispered over and over to her, holding tight to her hand in some small comfort.

Naomi waited at the gate to the compound to greet them as she did each day after school, and only when all three could easily see the worry growing on her motherly face did Ko release Hinata and Neji to run to her.

"Neji, Hinata. What's happened?" Naomi asked as the two small children ran into her arms.

Since Hinata's crying head was firmly pressed into Naomi's shoulder, Neji answered for them both. "Hinata-chan invited a friend over but Ko said she couldn't be friends with him and dragged her home and was awful to her." Neji glared back at Ko. "He's not supposed to talk to Hinata-chan like that."

"Ko, explain this," Naomi asked as neutrally as she could with Hinata weeping in her embrace.

Ko carefully leaned down to whisper into Naomi's ear too softly for Hinata and Neji to hear. Hinata didn't care what he said, just so long as Naomi yelled at him and made everything better.

"Are you sure?" Naomi gasped, making both Hinata and Neji stall. That wasn't the reaction they expected. Ko nodded and, with a dismissive jerk of Naomi's head, slunk away.

Naomi gently pushed the children away and centered Hinata in front of her. She brushed Hinata's hair out of her smudged, tear-streaked face. Naomi strained to smile, but Hinata couldn't find any happiness in her eyes. "Hianta, I know it's going to be hard for you to understand this, but that boy you were with, you can't be friends with him."

"Why?" she whimpered. The more people said it the more Hinata's body curled in trying to hide away from them.

"There are things you don't know, things I can't explain, but you must trust me. Don't associate with that boy anymore."

Why was everyone against Naruto? No wonder he didn't like adults. Hinata tried not to face the serious, demanding gaze burrowing into her from Naomi's pale eyes.

"Hinata," she pressed, "promise me you won't go near that boy again."

With no options left, Hinata tore out of Naomi's grasp and ran into the house. She ignored her aunt's call or the trailing footsteps following after her; she just ran with all her might to the only place that made her feel safe. The one place that she could hide in and no one could take her away. She threw open the thin shoji door and bolted beneath her father's desk, pulling the chair in until her body curled around its legs.

Hinata didn't want to see any of them. She didn't want to hear that the first friend she made she'd have to ignore. She wanted her mother and father back; they'd understand. They wouldn't tell her she couldn't be friends with Naruto. Hinata closed her eyes and hugged the chair leg, rocking against it and trying with all her heart to find her father in the cold, unforgiving wood.

The soft swoosh of the sliding door refused to let Hinata escape into her own, better world. The footsteps were too soft to be an adult, so there was only one person it could be, but she wasn't sure she wanted even Neji to comfort her.

"Hinata-chan," he broached softly, peeking beneath the chair without daring to pull it away. When she didn't answer, he tried again. "Hinata-chan, you can talk to me. I won't tell Mom anything. It's not fair what she said."

"He was my friend!" she sobbed, snuggling the chair tighter against her slender body.

Neji crawled under the chair as best he could and rested his hand over her tight, white knuckles. "Maybe he still can be," he whispered.

"But, Aunt Naomi said . . ."

"Mom can't see you at the academy," Neji reminded her, a mischievous smirk warming his face. "You can still be friends there."

Hinata sniffed her tears back and focused on her brother-cousin. "I can?"

A new hope grew with each nod of Neji's head. "Definitely. I won't tell."


The entire morning had been sour for Hinata. She'd hoped to talk to Naruto before class and apologize (a lot) for how rude Ko had been to him the day before, but not only did Ko follow her all the way to the room, he came in with her. He actually watched her go to her seat and then went to talk to her teacher. By the time Ko exited Kiku was beginning class, and Hinata didn't even have the chance to go say she was sorry, let alone explain anything.

But lunch would be different. No Ko. No Hyuugas. No one to tell on her to her aunt and uncle or give her that horrible, nasty look that seemed to pass over anyone that heard she had made friends with Naruto. Not that it made any sense; no one would explain why it was bad when Naruto was so nice to her. Or he was nice. Now, thanks to them, she couldn't even get him to return her gaze.

The moment Kiku released them to lunch Hinata grabbed her bento and hurried across the classroom to the quickly emptied seat next to Naruto. Before her fear could stop the words in her throat, before her aunt and uncle's voices of censure could send her back to her chair to eat alone, she thrust her yellow and blue wrapped bento out and lowered her head in shame. "I'm sorry."

A long moment passed in silence. The remains of the knotted tie bobbed up and down as her hands shook with the unknown. Would he forgive her family? Did he still want to be her friend? Was he even looking at her now, willing to acknowledge her outstretched apology?

"What's that?" Naruto asked, breaking through her fears. His voice wasn't the same temper as the day before, there was something harder to it, something on edge, but it wasn't the same disdain Ko had embittered on him either. Hinata dared to lift one eye to gauge his expression, and she immediately wished she could read people the way the twins could. His face, it was . . . she couldn't see anything but confusion.

"Y–you said you'd never had a homemade bento before," she struggled, looking back down at her hands to avoid seeing his reaction change. "What Ko said was mean, and I don't know why they said all those things, but I'm sorry. Can we . . . I'd like to . . . I mean . . . it can only be at the academy, but . . . can we . . . still be . . . friends?"

"You still want to be friends with me?"

The hardness had disappeared from his voice, and it was the only thing that encouraged Hinata to peek up again. Confusion was still prevalent on his face, but there, clear as day in his blue eyes, was the same kind of hope she'd seen in him before. The kid who wanted a friend just as much as she did.

"It can only be at the academy or my aunt and uncle will be mad me, but I . . . I want to be friends."

"Hinata," Kiku's stern call interrupted any answer he could have given her. Hinata had been so focused on Naruto and her apology that she didn't notice their teacher coming up behind her. Kiku placed a firm hand on Hinata's shoulder and urged her to stand. "Hinata, I'm sorry, but your aunt and uncle left very specific instructions. You need to go back to your desk."

"But . . . but . . ." Hinata was on the verge of tears. They weren't supposed to be watching her at the academy.

"I'm sorry, Hinata. Back to your desk."

Hinata's whole body slumped in defeat. She set the bento box on the table and trudged up the stairs.

"Hinata," Kiku called after her, "your lunch."

"It–it's not mi–mine," she sniffed and continued to her desk.

Hinata dropped into her chair and buried her face in her arms. She wasn't crying, not in class, but it took all her strength to keep the tears in. Why were they so determined not to let her have Naruto as a friend? He wasn't mean like some of the other out-of-clan children. He even understood what it was like not to have his parents. So what was wrong with him? Why wouldn't they just tell her?

A soft tap drew Hinata from her sulking. No one was nearby, but there on her table was a small cup of instant ramen, steam puffing out from its half open paper lid. Written on the top in thick black ink and horrible penmanship was one simple word: Thanks.

Hinata looked across the room to see Naruto returning to his seat, chopsticks in hand as he dug into bento she'd left. He turned back to see her and smiled a big, rice-filled grin that no number of adults or orders to stay away could take from her. She grinned back just as brightly. They might not be able to hang out or even talk very often, but Hinata would carry that smile with her always.