Chapter 12

Hinata…It was a week from today that Naruto had confronted Hinata about why she left. He had been thinking about it all this time. I hate that I got so mad at her like that. She looked so miserable that I couldn't even look at her towards the end. She was the one person I wanted to have by my side till the end because…I love her… But when she left so suddenly without so much so as a proper goodbye, I just didn't know what to think other then what I had done wrong? It was like Sasuke all over again. Why did she want me out of her life? What did I do that she had to move so far away from me? Just as Naruto was thinking in his bedroom someone was standing outside his door waiting to knock.

I have to explain it to him. I don't care what he says. I have to do this. Hinata had been thinking about what Naruto had said the entire week. Her father had always said that she was a pushover when it came to dealing with conflicts. She felt too guilty at the moment about the pain she caused Naruto that she forgot why she left for Suna in the first. He had the right to be upset with her for leaving like that, but he was also being unfair by not trying to understand why she left. He just assumed that she didn't want anything to do with him and wanted him out of her life completely, which was why she needed to explain. It was unfair of him to blame her without knowing the full circumstances, and so she was going to tell him exactly why she left.

After deciding to talk to Naruto she had gotten his address from Tenten, and now she stood in front of his door. She was nervous and her hands were sweaty, but she pushed aside any self-doubt and anxiety, because she had made a decision and she was not about to back out now. Huh… Déjà vu, thought Hinata as the memory of her confession came to mind. She knocked on his door and then hoped that he would open it. After a while when he didn't open the door, she banged on it louder because she was going to do this one way or another.

"I know you're in there, Naruto! Stop acting like a child and open the door!" yelled Hinata as she kept banging until she heard the lock turn.

"Are you crazy! You're gonna disturb the neighbors!" exclaimed Naruto as he opened the door and glared at Hinata.

"I don't care! You are going to listen to me right now!" said Hinata as she pushed Naruto aside and made her way in to his apartment. She was relieved that there was no one else at his place.

"Hey you can't just barge in here like that! Get out!"

"Make me." Hinata sat down on the sofa in his living room showing that she had no intentions of leaving.

"Hinata, you…" Naruto shook his head and said, "Why are you here? I thought we decided that we weren't going to be in each other's lives anymore."

"No, you decided that! I was feeling so guilty when you said all those things that I let you go on and on like that without even standing up for myself. So now I'm here to explain, and I'm not going to leave unless you hear me out."

"Hinata, there's nothing you need to explain. I already know –"

"No, you don't! If you did then you wouldn't have thought that I wanted you out of my life, that you don't mean anything to me! You were so hurt over the fact that I left to get away from you that you didn't even realize why I wanted to get away!" Hinata stared at Naruto waiting for him to protest. When he didn't say anything, she stood up and continued talking. "I was happy for you Naruto, you have to know that, but I couldn't stop my heart from hurting every time I saw you, knowing that you didn't feel the same way about me. Every day that I would see you I would fall for you even more, but it was hopeless. I wanted you to be happy with Sakura and I wanted myself to move on. I wanted to move on from you but seeing you wasn't helping so I moved. I was going to come back but I was just too afraid that I might still feel the same way if I met you again. That's why I left, Naruto. It's unfair of you to say that I didn't care about you, that I didn't try. Did you try to understand how much you were hurting me? Did you try to understand why I was pushing myself away from you? You didn't! Can you blame me for trying to move on?"

"Hinata…but I don't understand…why you would try to move on from me?"

"Because I love you, you idiot! I've loved you for so long! And it was hurting me to love you so much when I couldn't be with you. You were happy with someone else, and I just wanted the same thing!" Hinata was panting now as Naruto stood there speechless but after a while he spoke.

"Whenever you would call I wanted to talk to you so badly but I couldn't control myself from breaking down just by hearing you voice. After you stopped calling I went to Suna to see you, to say sorry and to ask you to come back…But when I went there, I saw how happy and calm you looked, so I understood that maybe this was what was best for you. I told myself that all the time but I couldn't believe it. If I had talked to you I would have begged you to come back. I didn't want you to leave Suna because of me so I kept my distance. When I found out that you had been back in Konoha for months, I started wondering why you hadn't come to see me. I couldn't help but think that you wanted to stay away from me. I started thinking if there was any other reason why you left and that's when I figured out that you had left because of me. I didn't believe it and that's why I asked you that day to see if you would say otherwise…but you didn't, and I got so mad at you that I went off like that. I said all that because I wanted to leave you before you had a chance to leave me again… And hearing you now makes me feel like a complete jackass for just assuming things… I'm so sorry Hinata, I didn't know." Naruto felt bad as he spoke. He couldn't believe what Hinata had been going through and he felt so remorseful and pathetic for causing her so much pain.

They stood in front of each other for a few minutes in silence, until Naruto took a step forward.

"Did you mean that? What you said earlier," asked Naruto.

Hinata knew what he was talking about and nodded her head.

"Why didn't you ever say anything?" asked Naruto.

"I did," answered Hinata.

Naruto furrowed his brows as he thought back to the time in high school when Hinata had told him that she liked him. "I didn't know you meant it like that," said Naruto.

"Would it have made a difference if you did?" asked Hinata.

Naruto got closer to Hinata to the point that their chests almost touched and leaned his head closer to hers. He looked straight in her eyes as he answered, "Yes, it would have."

Hinata began laughing at this as Naruto stared at her in confusion. "What's so funny?"

"Do you remember when you almost kissed me at the park the last time we met there?"

"Yeah…" Naruto said as he tried to hide his embarrassment. Oh man, why is she bringing that up right now?

"Well, I just remembered how you couldn't stop apologizing then," Hinata said as she kept laughing.

"Yeah, I remember. Why are you bring that up right now?"

"Because I wonder what you would say now."

"What do you me–" Before Naruto could finish his question, Hinata had grabbed his face in her hands and crashed her lips onto his. He was shocked but only for a second before he placed his hands on her back and responded to the kiss. After a few seconds, Hinata pulled away.

"So can you still not imagine kissing me?"

"You don't know how many times I have imagined kissing you," answered Naruto as he pulled her closer to him and kissed her again.