Chapter Seven

"Hinata!" The voice that I had been waiting all day to hear shouted my name, and footsteps grew closer rapidly. They reached me just as I turned around to face him, but they didn't stop. Naruto crashed into my body, strangling me in a tight embrace.

I didn't know what to do, or if even this was reality. Did I collapse in the middle of the street, and was I now caught in the daze of a dream? I completely lost my balance, and as a reaction, I grasped Naruto's varsity jacket as tightly as I could, for dear life. But he didn't let me fall. He held me up using his own strength from his own body.

Naruto was out of breath, but he spoke in my ear. "I'm so sorry, Hinata," he said, puffing out warm air onto my icy flesh. The muscular arms that constricted around my torso compressed, and had they not been Naruto's arms, I probably would have suffocated. "My mom, she had an allergic reaction to an avocado, and I had to give her an EpiPen. I had to stay with her until my dad made it home from work."

Was this really happening? Naruto was here, and I was bundled up in his arms with tears still rolling down my cheeks.

"I didn't forget about you," he said. "I would never do that to you."

Somehow, I found the strength to contract the hold my fingers had on his jacket, squeezing it so tightly that my knuckles turned white. But I still couldn't speak, and I still wasn't convinced that this was actually happening. It would have been too good to be true, and that kind of stuff never happened to me.

"After my dad got home, I grabbed my jacket and I ran as fast as I could to Sasuke's house, and I had hoped you were still there. When I pounded on the door, he opened it, and the moment he saw my face, he punched me in the face."

I couldn't help myself. I continued to cry in Naruto's arms. It was hard for me to believe it, but I think that this may be really happening. If it was, it made me so happy.

"He told me that you started walking home by yourself, and that you were really sad. So I followed the direction Sasuke said you went."

Oh, Naruto.

"Hinata, are you crying?" He asked, a dagger of guilt stabbing him, or so it appeared from the twinge in his voice.

"Of course not," I sniffed, clearly lying. But I didn't want him to become concerned about me. I was just so happy that he hadn't deliberately left me hanging.

"I'm so sorry," he apologized again, smothering me in his warmth and welcoming arms.

From that moment forward, Naruto and I had been inseparable. It was as if some kind of switch had been flipped, and instantly we were the best of friends. I didn't mind, of course, because each and every day, I found myself loving him even more than I did yesterday. We spent mostly all of our time together, and because of that, I rapidly grew closer and closer to the guys on the basketball team. One by one, I would come into acquaintance with one of the guys' girlfriends, and we hit it off rather quickly.

Of course, Sakura and I were already friends...

Actually, speaking of Sakura, I found out how all of this began:

We began presenting our Psychology experiments to the class and to Gai, and I learned the topic of Sakura and Tenten's project: Is it possible to give insecure people confidence? They presented their data, and I realized that the reason Sakura had begun talking to me out of the blue three weeks ago was because she wanted to use me as the guinea pig for her experiment. I found out that Sakura was the one who had shut me in the closet that very first night, knowing that Naruto was also in there.

While I was angry at the fact that I had been used without realizing it, I was also very grateful to Sakura. Without her, I wouldn't have come this close to Naruto, simply because I was too afraid to talk to him and show him that I actually exist.

Even though I was only the pawn in her experiment, Sakura and I became good friends, and she still helped me with my inferior complex. She and Sasuke were so nice to me; because they knew my family barely had enough money to support all of the dependents and pay the bills, they - mainly Sakura, with the help of Sasuke's wallet - took me out and bought me a new wardrobe that almost put Sakura's to shame.

Of course, I had denied that they spend that kind of money on me whenever I could never dream of paying them back. In a response, Sakura told me to shut up and try on the clothes that she had in her hands. I did as she wanted me to, and I tried on everything that she threw my way, clearly having no intention of purchasing it with the money I didn't have. We had been shopping for hours, and I had not let Sakura by me a single thing.

After she took me home, she had gone back and purchased every article of clothing that I had fallen in love with. She bought me shoes of multiple assortments, and I couldn't picture myself wearing high heels. I had so many new clothes that I didn't know if I'd have enough days left in high school to wear them all, and it was only April of my junior year.

When Sakura had left my house, leaving everything she bought me in my room, I had gone over to Sasuke's house to ask what to do about all of the stuff.

"You keep them," he said to me as if I had no idea what the word 'gift' meant. "And you wear them."

Clearly, I had an argument and spoke it shyly, using as much force as I could. All my efforts were failures, because Sasuke slapped his forehead.

"Listen, Hinata," he used a firm voice, as if he were spelling something out to me, "I already asked my parents if I could have the money. I told them I needed it for a gift for a friend who was less fortunate, and they took no time to throw it at me."

But so much money was spent on everything that Sakura had brought over to my house. She had had to make three trips out to her car in order to get everything.

"Enjoy it," Sasuke said before shutting the door in my face. From there, I walked home, sort of excited to see what was in all those bags.

Everything that was purchased for me was so beautiful, especially this beautiful black and turquoise dress with octopuses on it. The straps were that of a halter top, tying around the back of the neck, and the length of the dress reached my knees. If there was anything I was most excited about, it was that dress.

Suddenly, the closet in my room that had been used for a few shirts, a sweatshirt, and a pair of jeans, was now stuffed with cool-colored clothing, organized by style. When cramming all of my new apparel into the closet, I thought about how Sakura's closet was organized, and tried to go by that.

It took me so long to put everything where I wanted it, and Neji had walked in on me, his face in awe, and I knew he was thinking I robbed a store. I had to explain to him that all of this was a gift from Sakura and Sasuke, but I couldn't tell if he believed me or not. I knew that he would ask them himself if my story was true.

Later in April, Tsunade took the team out to a belated congratulatory dinner for their victory in the districts tournament. I got to wear my octopus dress for that occasion, and the guys complimented me on it.

We went out to a fancy and rather pricey Italian restaurant and ate like kings, or at least I did. I wasn't entirely sure what everybody else normally ate, but I was pretty sure it wasn't canned soup night after night.

I sat in between Naruto and Lee, and the circular that the waitress had set us at was perfect for all around conversation. It never really occurred to me how close everybody on the team was. Shikamaru always seemed to dislike his teammates, minus Choji. But tonight, I could tell that my perceptions had been false. And Tsunade, too. I could tell how much she cared about her team, and I knew that she was going to miss all of them next year when we graduate.

Except for Lee. He was graduating in only two months, and the dinner was in commemoration of his last time with the basketball team.

I was really sad to know that Lee was leaving in only sixty days, and I was even more distraught when I realized that there was no way to keep in touch with him after graduation. He told me to give him my address, which I did without asking why, and he said that we'd have to do it the old fashioned way - by writing letters back and forth. That made me so happy.

The entire night, I listened to all of the guys talk and laugh and share memories. They reminisced about times that had passed by too quickly. There were so many great things that everyone had to say, and I felt like I learned so much about each of those boys and their character and history. I also learned that Lee and Neji had been best friends in junior high, but split upon reaching high school. Lee said he didn't know why, and Neji had never mentioned it, even when I brought up stories about Lee at the dinner table.

Everything in my life seemed to be perfectly content, and I was happy.

June came, and with it came graduation. Naruto accompanied me as I went to celebrate for both Neji and Lee. Sasuke and Sakura ended up coming with us, but disappeared in between the time we got there and the time that graduation started.

I didn't know where they went, but Naruto did.

"Sasuke and Sakura are always having sex," he told me, and at first, I didn't believe him. I didn't think Sakura was like that, because she definitely didn't show it. However, after graduation, the four of us went back to Sakura's house and had a small party. Sakura said that she was going to order some pizza for us, and she left the room, despite the fact that her cell phone was lying next to her. Sasuke went with her, and the two didn't return for about a half an hour.

When they finally did return, Naruto asked what kind of pizza she ordered, and her response was, "what pizza?" That's when I knew that Naruto wasn't lying about the nature of Sakura and Sasuke's relationship.

While a part of me was envious of her physical relationship - curiosity killed the cat - the other part was afraid for her. I didn't want her to have an unplanned pregnancy, especially since we were going to be entering our senior year of high school in three months.

The two left again, but this time, they were driving to the pizza place to order it there. And they left Naruto and me alone together.

We lay on Sakura's floor, talking and laughing. We established that the two of us were like polar opposites, and a part of me rejoiced at that, because according to chemistry, opposites attract. However, the other part of me was afraid that we were not compatible as future lovers.

I'm sorry. I'm becoming greedy. I know that I said I would be content if Naruto and I could be friends, and I am content, however I would not object to a deeper relationship between us.

Over the summer, Naruto and I spent almost every waking moment in each other's company. He took me to the beach with him and his parents, who welcomed me enthusiastically. Naruto was a spitting image of his father, Minato, but I could see that he acted like his mother, Kushina. Kushina and I became close so quickly, it was almost as if she was a new best friend.

I think Naruto soon became jealous, as if his mother was taking his place. At times, he had to pry me away from her, much to her dismay. In Kushina's words, I was "such a cutie," and of course I blushed every time she called me this.

Naruto and I spent so much time together, that Sakura began to believe that we were actually a couple now. I told her that we weren't, but she just wouldn't believe me. I mean, yeah I hoped that soon he would ask me to be his girlfriend, but I wasn't big on rushing it and risking losing him completely.

When school started again, we compared schedules, and found that we had many of the same classes together. Our first period class was a health and sexual education class, taught by a man named Jiraiya. I felt nervous having that class with Naruto, just due to the fact that I was curious about the kind of relationship that Sakura and Sasuke had, and also wanted to be in a relationship with Naruto. Would both of those kinds of relationships eventually merge together, I wonder. Second period, we had Biology with Mr. Iruka, and third period was Economics with Mr. Asuma. We didn't share fourth period; I had English with Mr. Hatake again, and he had to repeat Calculus, so he took English online.

Despite the fact that Naruto had asked me to tutor him, I never got the chance. We were always distracted by being pulled into deep conversations, and just never dusted off the textbooks, like we originally planned.

At home, I helped out a lot by getting a part time job at the local book store. Actually, Naruto recommended me for the job, and put in a good word in for me to his boss. I got hired, and we typically worked the same shifts. Whenever the store wasn't busy, we would sit there and talk to one another, sometimes talking about school, and other times just conversing in general.

Most of the time, we talked about things that really didn't matter, and other times, we discussed deeply where we wanted to go in life after high school.

"Well, there's no way any college will accept me," he had said one day, and I wanted to be positive, but I knew what his grades and work ethics were like. "I don't think I'd mind working here for a while. I want to find a girlfriend-" my heart skipped a beat and I blushed and turned my eyes to the counter; he didn't notice, because he sometimes looked up at the sky or the ceiling when he talked. "-and I want to fall in love with her and make her my wife. I already know I'd love to have kids someday."

Sometimes, I couldn't stop myself from imagining myself as his wife, and I realized that I wanted nothing more than to be that. I could live in poverty for the rest of my life, but as long as I was married to Naruto, I'd be completely and one hundred percent happy.

At night, sometimes, I would have erotic dreams. I started having them whenever I learned of Sakura's intimate relationship with Sasuke, and the dreams glittered my sleep with passion and heat. All I could think about sometimes was my naked body compressed against Naruto's and the two of us flying high in the ectasy of our love.

The dreams embarrassed me, so I never told anybody about them.

But then other times, I my dreams were calm, and I imagined my body round with a new life growing, of Naruto's child a part of me.

These dreams made me seriously think about wanting children. Not now, of course, but sometime in the future. And I smiled to myself whenever I was all alone and thinking about the possibility of Naruto and I conceiving beautiful children together.

But at this, of course, I was well aware that I was getting ahead of myself.

A girl could dream though, couldn't she?

Everything in my life was worthwhile. If I had died through that summer, and at the beginning of that school year, I would have died a happy lady. I led a happy life. I had made great friends, and I was in contact with Lee, who was currently at a university. My wardrobe was something that I thought only existed in fairy tales, and it was a gift from a very generous friend. I spent most of my time in the company of the hyperactive blonde boy of my dreams, and we were still growing closer and closer.

Everything was perfect.

I was happy.

Until that terrible day in late November...

OoO

Naruto and I sat together in Economics, listening to Mr. Sarutobi drone on and on about goods and services. We secretly passed a note back and forth, planning out what we wanted to do this weekend. It was only Wednesday, but soon, we were going to be off for Thanksgiving break. We were excited, and I knew that I definitely wanted to spend as much of my time with Naruto as possible.

Snow fell the night before, and the windows leading to the outside world were covered in frost. I sat next to the window, and Naruto sat in the desk directly in front of me. The snowfield that surrounded the school's body was twinkling whenever the sunlight tipped its crystal surface, creating the vivid image of a winter wonderland.

I noticed that I had been losing so much focus in my schoolwork, however my rank never faltered. Even if it did, I would rather be within the top ten and have friends, than to be in the top five, and have no friends. That was a trade I was willing to make.

There was a tap at the door on the far left of the room, and all eyes turned towards the door. A police officer in a full uniform stood there, waiting for Mr. Sarutobi to hurry it up and answer his call. All eyes were upon the officer, curious about what it was that he was doing here in the high school.

I kept my head down towards my desk - an old habit that I never rid myself of. Whether I liked it or not, I was still shy, and I was still self-conscious and insecure. That's just the kind of person I am, and I doubt any training and motivation from Sakura could ever change that.

"Hinata Hyuga," the man in uniform said, and all eyes burned holes into my flesh. "I need to speak with you in the hall."

Naruto turned around and whispered harshly, "what did you do?"

At the moment, I wasn't too concerned with answering him. At this point, I really wanted to know why a man from the local police had shown up at my school, in search of me. I trudged across the pit of pricking stares until I reached the man who had summoned me to the door.

Together, we stepped out in the hallway, and he placed his hands on his hips, looking for the words to say to me. The door to the classroom didn't shut, and I could still feel those painful eyes bearing deep into my back.

"Miss Hyuga," he started, and I listened, the tension inside of me building until it just about burst. "There's been an accident."