I DONT OWN NARUTO OR NARUTO SHIPPUDEN OR ANY CHARACTERS! NARUTO WOULD BE HECK OF A LOT COOLER IF I DID!
I know I'm being lazy, but Eid JUST passed and now we have stupid stinkin' bimonthly tests... I have Phyics and Eng Lit tomorrow, plus I have a fever (I'm happy about that; I never get sick). But anyway, here we go, timeskip to Shippuden!
Chapter Ten:
The Hyuuga household was silent, except for the shuffling and rustling of sheets in the bed of a Hyuuga heiress everyone was fond of.
Hinata tried vainly to go back to sleep, but it seemed that the comfort of her pleasant (And rather vivid and… imaginative) dreams was over. So sighing, she sat up.
The Hyuuga Hinata that stood up, bathed, and changed quickly was very different from the one we knew. Yes, she was still the shy timid, kind and gentle Hinata, but physically… she had grown up, and out.
Being best friends with Naruto did not only expose you to a lot of confidence, it also exposed you to the two of the most stylish and popular kunoichis of the village, Haruno Sakura and Yamanaka Ino. It didn't help, of course, that almost the entire village knew of her crush on a young blonde and wanted to get them together.
So Hinata's dressing, slowly but steadily, had changed over the years. Gone were the baggy jackets we were all sick of. Though of course, being a Hyuuga, wearing something revealing was very unbecoming.
She was dressed in black Capri pants, ending mid-calf, and a lavender v-neck sleeveless jacket. The v-neck wasn't deep, but it didn't hide every inch of her neck either. Underneath the jacket she wore a fishnet undershirt with three-quarter sleeves, and fingerless lavender gloves. Her hair gently waved down to mid-back, a few bangs falling here and there over her face, and her headband was once again tied around her neck. To complete her ninja attire she had her kunai holsters and packs, and the standard shinobi sandals.
Far different from the outfit from her genin days, her attire was still very modest, despite just giving a tiny, 1% hint of all the curves hidden underneath it.
Hinata's chuunin vest rested in a corner of her wardrobe; she wore it very less, like most of the female chuunin.
Anyways, Hinata finished dressing up and let herself out of the Hyuuga household. Hardly anybody was up at this time of the day. She could only think of one person who would be up this early just to start training, and the thought of that one person made her sigh and blush slightly.
'Oh Naruto-kun…' She thought, staring up at the sky.
Hinata, as usual, strolled to the Hokage monument and sat down on the Yondaime's spiky head, staring at the village.
She sat there for a long while, lost in her own thoughts, that repeatedly brought a blush to her face, until…
"Hinata!"
She turned her head so fast it hurt.
There, standing a few steps away from her, was a person she had missed more than she had missed anyone in her entire life, a person who had been her thoughts every second for the previous two-and-a-half years, a person who was the source of all her ideals, principles, goals and confidence, and a person who for some reason had a slight blush on his cheeks as he grinned at her.
"N-N-Naruto-kun?" She was too shocked to scold herself mentally for the stutter.
There was no way the gorgeous guy standing in front of her was Naruto. No way.
Naruto's grin widened, "Whadya think?"
'What do I think?' Hinata's mind came up with possibilities that made her blush furiously.
She ran her eyes over him, taking everything in greedily. He was tall, possibly the tallest of all of them now, and ripped. Not ripped in the sense of muscles upon muscles upon muscles, but lean… His face had broadened, making his whiskers less prominent. His eyes were the same blue pools of warmth and comfort. His hair was longer, making him look older and more mature.
But what had changed most was his dressing. Sure, he still wore orange, but…
His pants were black, and he wore a tight black shirt that showed off the muscles he had developed. On that shirt he wore an open dark orange jacket with a red whirlpool at the back, and two black stripes down the front. His Konoha metal plate was on a black headband now, to match his outfit, still tied around his forehead.
"Y-You look good." Hinata replied, still blushing.
As her mind registered what was happening, Hinata's eyes began welling up with tears, until the sight of her beloved became blurred.
Naruto's smile became smaller, more gentle and caring, and he held out his arms.
Without thinking, Hinata rushed into them, burying her face into his chest as she sobbed, missing the darkened hue of red on his cheeks.
"I-missed-you-so-much." She sobbed.
He hugged her tighter, "Missed you too, Hinata-hime. You were on my mind more than anyone else." He whispered.
'Hinata-hime…Naruto's arms… ripped… oh my gosh…'
Her brain turned to mush, and Hinata fainted.
X_X
Naruto couldn't help the chuckle that escaped his lips as he laid his newfound crush on the ground. Nor could he help blushing harder.
If Hinata wasn't his best friend, he probably wouldn't have ever figured out why she blushed and stammered so much around him. Since he knew she didn't act that way around everybody, and that girls didn't tend to act that way around their best friends, he had started to ponder on it. It helped when he was travelling with Jiraiya (especially these last few months) and attracted the attention of almost every teenage girl in every place he went. He had tried to figure out the reason they blushed and giggled so much around him, compared them to Sasuke's hoard of fangirls back in the Academy, and the light bulb clicked. Then he thought of how Hinata acted around him. He couldn't believe it at first.
Then, suddenly, she wouldn't leave his thoughts. Everywhere he went, he thought of her and compared other women to her. Before he knew it, he had developed a liking for the young Hyuuga too.
If anything, his crush intensified with how beautiful Hinata had become now. And he knew that her character would be just as, if not more, beautiful.
However, Naruto knew that he couldn't act on his wishes until the Akatsuki threat was over. He had decided to wait a single more year, and if the dangers of being around him didn't decrease, then he'd just do what he wanted and let the dice fall where they may. He was even ready to tell Hinata to wait for him just a little longer, but he had decided to do it only if he suspected that she was moving on.
"You look beautiful, Hinata-hime." He whispered softly to himself.
Unknown to him, a certain perverted hermit was scribbling down furiously and giggling as he observed the interactions between his student and the young heiress.
'This boy will be the inspiration of my greatest novel yet.'
And we all know what kind of novel Jiraiya meant.
X_X
Hinata didn't want to wake up from the amazing dream she was having. Naruto-kun had come back, and called her Hinata-hime, and held her in his arms, and he'd told her that she'd been on his mind the entire time he'd been away. Sighing wistfully with her eyes still closed, she willed the dream to return, but it didn't.
Slowly Hinata became aware of the fact that she was lying on something very hard. Rocks? Biting back a groan at the hardness of the ground, she decided to open her eyes. It was no use dreaming if her dreams weren't going to come true.
So she blinked thrice, and twice more to make herself believe that she wasn't dreaming.
"Finally awake, Hinata-chan?" Naruto asked her with a grin.
Blushing furiously, Hinata sat up, stretching her arms out a little.
"Arigatou gozaimasu." She said softly.
Naruto just laughed, "Ohayo, Hinata-chan."
"Ohayo, Naruto-kun. Did you just come back?"
"Yeah, we had to go see baa-chan first." Naruto replied, "But I came straight to see you as soon as we were done."
Hinata blushed harder, smiling happily, "I'm so happy you're back."
"Me too. I missed this place so much." Naruto said almost wistfully, "But we got some kickass training done. I'm a lot stronger."
"Ano… we're all chuunin now." Hinata bit her lip.
Naruto sighed and looked away, "A so desu ka."
"But you'll catch up soon, right?"
"Mochiron!" Naruto said loudly.
Hinata smiled. There was no knocking him down.
"So come on, Hinata-chan, let's go get some ramen." Naruto said enthusiastically, grabbing her arm and pulling her up.
X_X
Sakura had gone to Tsunade's office to report about one of her patients when she heard Shizune talking to a chuunin about Naruto.
"He's back?" Sakura asked quickly.
"Hai. He's changed a lot. Hardly looks like the same Naruto." Shizune replied with a smile.
Sakura thrust her report at Shizune, "I'm gonna go see him!"
And she was off.
The first place she checked, was Ichiraku's ramen shop. And there he was, happily eating ramen while listening to Hinata.
Sakura immediately felt a twinge of jealousy. He saw Hinata before seeing her?
Her jealousy lessened when she walked up and bonked Naruto on the head, hard.
"Itai! Itai itai itai!" Naruto yelled, his hands flying up to his head., "What's the big—Sakura-chan?"
"Baka!" Sakura yelled, "Why didn't you come see me?"
"Gomen! Gomen, Sakura-chan, I was with Hinata-chan and I swear I was gonna see you after some ramen!" Naruto apologized immediately.
Sakura's expression softened.
"Welcome back."
"Yeah, it's great to be home again." Naruto replied with a grin.
She ran an eye over him, "Stand up, baka."
Naruto stood up immediately, and Sakura's eyebrows went up.
"You're taller than me now!"
"Told you guys I hadn't hit my growth spurt!" He grinned triumphantly.
Sakura smiled, "Good for you, Naruto."
"Ne, Sakura-chan, wanna join us for some ramen?" Naruto asked.
"No, I have a report to make to Tsunade-sama. I'll see you again for some training, Naruto."
"Mochiron!"
Sakura smiled, waved at him again, and rushed off.
X_X
"Konohamaru-kun, Naruto-boss is here!"
"Nani!? The boss is back!?"
"Hai!"
"Let's go then!"
The Konohamaru Corps headed immediately towards Ichiraku's.
"He's leaving!" Konohamaru whispered, "Let's tail him!"
Naruto would have noticed the Konohamaru Corps immediately if he had not bumped into Shikamaru and Temari.
"Oh look, the idiot's back." Shikamaru said with a small smile.
He immediately raised an eyebrow, "Ne, Shikamaru, are you two on a date or something."
"N-Nani!? No way I'd date a crazy woman like her."
"Watch what you're saying, lazy ass." Temari bonked him on the head.
"What a drag. She's here for the next Exams." Shikamaru explained, "It's troublesome, but I have to escort her everywhere."
"Sounds like a date to me." Naruto replied, "Make sure Ero-sennin doesn't see you two, or else he'll write a book with lots of sex scenes between two characters named after you two."
Temari glared at him, reaching for her fan, and Shikamaru was fighting back a blush, finding it too troublesome to glare at the blonde.
Hinata was blushing, too. Naruto, immediately after seeing Temari reach for her fan, sprinted off in the opposite direction, a huge grin on his face.
He ran quite a way off and while making sure Temari wasn't following him, found that someone else was.
"I know you're following me, Konohamaru." Naruto said with a grin.
"Kuso! The boss always knows where we are."
Naruto just grinned as Konohamaru showed himself.
"Well, guess what, boss, I got a new technique to show you!"
Konohamaru formed the handseals, but Naruto immediately pried his hands apart, a nervous look on his face.
"Onegai, Konohamaru, don't do that technique. I'll teach you a super awesome new technique if you promise not to pull this one. Even I stopped it before I became a genin."
"Nani!?"
"Hinata-chan won't talk to me if she finds out you did this jutsu, so, please don't do it, okay?"
Konohamaru stared at him, "You sure you'll teach me a new jutsu?"
"Hai."
"It's a deal!"
"But not now, okay? I'm meeting up with Hinata-chan for a spar."
"Daijobu, boss! See ya!"
And the Konohamaru Corps were off.
Hinata, fighting back a blush at finding that her anger affected Naruto so much, approached her best friend with a smile.
"Ready for some training, Naruto-kun?"
"Mochiron!"
X_X
"Kami, Hinata-chan, I don't want to be the guy who gets on your bad side." Naruto said, panting, as he and Hinata sat down.
Hinata blushed, "Arigatou. You've improved a lot too."
Naruto grinned, "Cuz we always keep our promises."
Hinata nodded, looking away as she softly said the words she so treasured, "Because that's our nindo, our ninja way."
Outfits are my own creation, I have no idea where I was influenced from. Hope you like it, please review, and I'll update ASAP.