Naruto awoke with a yawn the next morning after a nice long good night's sleep. He moved sluggishly towards his closet, but soon jolted completely awake. "Hinata!" he realized out loud. He quickly got dressed and replaced the genjutsu before running out to where he placed Hinata the night before.
"That looks very uncomfortable," the fox said.
"Hinata must've fainted again in the night I guess." Hinata had her legs on the floor but her back on the cushions and head at a 90 degree angle propped up on the back. Naruto noticed the note in her hand and sighed. 'Probably fainted after realizing where she was,' Naruto thought and let out a small chuckle.
Naruto calmly picked her up and placed her back on the couch in a more comfortable position, before going to the kitchen to make something for breakfast. He smiled as he realized how he could wake Hinata up.
About an hour later Naruto was waving a pan of freshly baked cinnamon rolls under Hinata's nose. Within seconds Hinata was up and looked as though she would start drooling any second. She then realized she was still in Naruto's apartment and began to blush. "Here's breakfast!" Naruto said cheerily.
"T-th-thank you" she stammered. 'Stay calm, stay calm... remember what happened yesterday... he said he... he loved...' at that thought she blushed more, averting her eyes from Naruto's. 'The more outgoing me... the true me?' By this time Naruto had opened Hinata's hand to place a cinnamon bun on her palm. Hinata realized this and began to eat.
"You don't need to be embarrassed around me! I mean, come on!" Hinata looked up at his grinning face. Hinata smiled a little she couldn't resist poking fun at him.
"Course, this is coming from the guy who picks his nose in public..." she trailed off, turning a darker red, realizing he had heard her say it.
Naruto just laughed. "Exactly!" She smiled at knowing he wasn't insulted. "You just need more confidence. How 'bout we train together today? Hmm?" Naruto asked, offering Hinata another cinnamon roll.
"Umm... I-I'd like that," she stammered.
"Well, little outbursts of confidence is better than no confidence, right?" the Kyuubi said, snickering a little. "Heh heh... Nose picker..."
'Shouldn't be talking, butt licker...' the fox twitched.
"OH ONE TIME!!! Besides... I ALREADY TOLD YOU I WAS CLEANING MYSELF!!" Kyuubi growled.
'Sure you were...'
After they were done eating Naruto went to the kitchen to clean up, leaving Hinata to wander the apartment aimlessly. After about five minutes she found something she thought interesting. Naruto's calendar. Looking it over her eyes soon went wide. She only had enough time to move away just as Naruto came out.
"Ready?" he asked. She nodded and followed him out the door and down the stairs. "What about your sensei? Won't he be wondering where you are?" Hinata asked as they began to leave the property.
"Nah, he'll probably end up three hours late as usual. What about yours?"
"W-we had a day off today," she replied.
"Ok then, so how about we jog a bit?" Naruto said.
"Um, ok..."
And so they began to run around the border of Konoha. However, little did they know that they would soon meet something so terrorizing…so terrifying... something so grotesque... so annoying... so disturbing near the west Konoha gates...
"LEE!!!"
"GAI SENSEI!!!"
"LEE!!!!"
"GAI SENSEI!!!"
A teary, sweaty, muddy hug followed. Naruto watched as the two "clones" embraced each other. Naruto turned to Hinata, eye twitching "Just don't make eye contact and I think we'll be fine," Naruto said, voice noticeably shaking. Hinata giggled.
"OH!! SENSEI, LOOK!!" Naruto swore under his breath.
"AHH YES LEE! I SEE SOME YOUTHFUL FACES!!" At that the two came over.
"Maybe we should run?" The Kitsune suggested.
'We are running already!'
"Well then RUN FASTER!" He yelled. Naruto grabbed Hinata's hand and sped up. No use.
"Um, hi?" Hinata said, stopping as the two beasts of Konoha ran in front of them.
"ARE YOU BOTH TRAINING TO STRENGTHEN YOUR FLAMES OF YOUTH?" Gai asked, giving a bright blinding flash of glittering teeth.
"IF SO, THEN LET ME JOIN YOU!" Lee said very enthusiastically, giving his nice guy pose.
"Sure… we can be… youthful… together?" Naruto asked, unsure.
"YES LEE HELP GUIDE THEM TO BE THE MOST YOUTHFUL THEY CAN BE!" Gai said.
"I THANK YOU FOR THIS OPPORTUNITY... um, who are you?" Lee asked after a moment's thought.
"Naruto."
"H-Hinata."
"GOOD! NOW WE MUST INDULGE IN A YOUTHFUL EMBRACE!" Gai said, giving his flashy smile again.
"Can't right now seeing as we're running and all..." Naruto said, grinning nervously.
"AHHHH! YES THIS IS TRUE! THEN NEXT TIME WE MEET WE SHALL INDULGE IN THE YOUTHFUL EMBRACE OF YOUTH!!" One of them yelled.
"Umm, sure... so you coming?" Naruto said, just wanting to leave the two beasts alone. Lee was a great guy and everything, but whenever he was with Gai it was just too creepy for his liking. Then an idea struck him. 'I should introduce Lee to Sakura...'
Naruto turned to Hinata. "How good are you with makeovers?" Naruto whispered to Hinata, who blinked.
"Umm, not very... w-why?"
After Lee, Hinata and Naruto had run around the village twice, Naruto had brought Lee to see Sakura. From a distance of course. The three were soon spying on the pink haired genin from up in a tree, watching her as she was waiting for Kakashi. "She... SHE IS BEAUTIFUL!!! I WILL MAKE HER MY BLOSSOM OF YOUTH!!" Lee quietly shouted.
"So do you want to maybe... take her on a date?" Naruto asked, smiling. Lee nodded vigorously.
"Then first we need to give you a bit of a makeover," Naruto said
"BUT WHAT WOULD THERE BE THAT SHE WOULDN'T LIKE? MY FLAME OF YOUTH BURNS SO BRIGHTLY AND..."
Naruto cut him off. "Not your personality but, well... comb the hair out of the bowl shape, make tweezers your best friend, and put something on over the spandex," Naruto said, remembering what Sakura had done to Lee... a few years from now, that is.
Lee looked deep in thought for a moment. "OK!! I WILL DO IT IF IT WILL WIN THE HEART OF SAKURA! YOSH!!!" Hinata blinked.
"Good then, come on I know who can help," Naruto said, leading Lee away.
"YOSH!!!" Echoes were still being heard; Sasuke looked around but couldn't find the initial source. Sakura blinked and looked around nervously.
"Why do I suddenly have a really bad feeling?" she asked herself before continuing to pace.
Naruto had brought Lee to team 10 where Ino, Shikamaru and Choji were training. Hinata started to blush when Naruto called Ino over and she smirked an all knowing smirk. "So, we wanted to know if you could help give Lee a makeover," Naruto finished explaining. "Just give me one good reason why I should do this?" Ino asked, fuming. Naruto blinked.
"Umm, well, so Lee can win Sakura's heart and, ummm... then you can have one less person out for Sasuke?" he offered. Ino's eyes instantly lit up.
"I'll do it... you know, Naruto, you aren't half bad when you want to be!" she said, slowly slipping into dream world.
"Tch, women... too troublesome..." Shikamaru said as he lay down.
Almost as quickly as she went into dream world she was out and began telling the others what to do. Once again poor Lee's forehead became red. Luckily for him, Ino took care of that too. Shikamaru, who was being forced to help due to the fact that Ino wouldn't stop bothering him until he did, was watching Naruto suspiciously. 'It's subtle yes but he's definitely acting differently... he seems to have an air of power around him.' Shikamaru sighed. 'Too troublesome to figure out why.' Soon they were done and Ino was thanked. Lee looked stricken at his new image.
"If it will help me win Sakura's heart then... IT DOES NOT MATTER!!"
"Why must he constantly shout?! I'm getting a headache..." the fox said.
'Nah, suck it up, or are you going soft?' Naruto thought back with a smirk.
"I'll hold that against you in the future..." the Kyuubi mumbled. Naruto just rolled his eyes. Lee had soon run off to find Sakura to "woo" her. Ino and her team went back to the training grounds, leaving Hinata and Naruto alone once more. They walked until they came to a clearing.
"Umm, N-Naruto?" Hinata broke the silence.
"Hmm?"
"Well, I w-was wondering if you c-could, umm..." Hinata started but faded out, blushing.
"What's the matter Hinata?"
"Could you...?"
"Yes?"
"Out with it girl!!" Kyuubi said, obviously annoyed.
"F-fi..."
"Remember what I said about being embarrassed," Naruto said, laying a hand on her shoulder.
"I want to spar..." she finally got out.
"See? Ok, so to train we'll spar!" Naruto smiled and jumped back, startling the girl. 'I wish to impress you,' was her only thought as she closed her eyes momentarily.
"P-please don't hold back! Byakugan!" Naruto smiled. They got into a ready stance. Naruto held his ground as Hinata charged. She began striking furiously, making it so Naruto could only block.
She got a hit square on his stomach and another on his chest by faking where she was going. She was about to try a hold which, in a real situation, she could easily kill her opponent with when... "WOO HOO, ALRIGHT HINATA, YOU CAN DO IT!!!" came from her left. She blinked and used her Byakugan to look. There, about ten feet away, was Naruto, cheering. She looked back to the Naruto she was fighting. 'No difference in chakra? W-which one's the clone?' She then looked squarely at the one in front of her. It was waving before... POOF.
"W-when did you?"
"When I jumped away from you."
Hinata blushed ' I always knew you were great Naruto.' The sparring went on for about an hour before Hinata became tired. Naruto gave her a few leftover cinnamon rolls before she told him he should get to his team. Naruto nodded and ran off, leaving a blushing Hinata. 'I hope I can find something by tomorrow...' she thought to herself before she left the open clearing. Naruto got to the bridge to see an angry Sakura (more than likely because of Lee) and an extremely broody Sasuke... as well as a scared looking Kakashi.
"Naruto, you're not supposed to be later than me!! I have a reputation to keep, you know!!" Kakashi said. Through the mask he looked as if he was pouting.
"Sorry Kakashi but I knew you weren't going to be here for a while so I went training with Hinata," Naruto said, shrugging. "I just don't think that waiting around for you is very progressive."
Sasuke snorted. "Idiot does have a point."
"Yeah! Sasuke's right!" Sakura yelled.
"Stop ganging up on me..." Kakashi mumbled.
"Well isn't that ironic. Thought he was the one who was trying to teach you that," the fox said in mock surprise. Naruto bit his lip so as not to laugh.
"You really should learn to be more punctual, Kakashi." A voice came in from behind and everyone turned to look.
There, standing right behind them all, was a woman with long blonde hair, a purple diamond on her forehead and... really big boobs... "Aren't you..?" Sakura started.
"Tsunade, one of the legendary sannin!" Kakashi finished for Sakura.