Chapter 2- Girl Talk
One month had passed since Naruto returned to the village.
"I'll never get used to this." Naruto thought as he ran down a street, up a wall, then launched himself onto the roof of a nearby building.
A deep rumbling could be heard in his subconscious.
"The great Naruto Uzumaki, Hero of the Great War reduced to running from school girls and a couple of boys too." Kurama continued laughing as his Jinchuriki lost one of his sandals as he was running.
" it's not funny you stupid fox." Naruto groaned as he watched the crowd below him fight over the fallen article.
While the crowd was distracted Naruto leaped across a few more rooftops to put some distance between them.
Sitting down with his legs over the edge he looked out at his village, his home. It took a long time and if he was being honest with himself he doubted that the Villagers would ever accept him as more than the "monster fox".
When he defeated Nagato and he and Kakashi-sensei were met by the village, he held his breath and waited for the screams and shouts. He waited for the rocks to start flying at him, for the village to reject him. When they didn't, his heart soared. They finally saw him as Naruto Uzumaki.
When they came back from the war in his heart, that little bit of fear crept back into his heart, but again he was met with acceptance and welcome from his village.
Lost in thought he didn't notice a head, of pink hair and a head of dark blue looking up at him from below.
Sakura and Hinata were meeting up for their weekly lunches. After the war, Hinata had asked Sakura to teach her medical ninjutsu. Sakura agreed knowing that Hinata being able to utilize her Byakugan for medical ninjutsu would be beneficial for many reasons. Hinata also hoped that by learning medical ninjutsu she could open up a new path for other Hyūga. So three times a week Hinata would learn under Sakura, once a week they would have lunch to discuss her progress, how far she's come along, what difficulties she might be having, and eventually, after the business was discussed they would just have girl talk. Usually, after lunch, Hinata would present her progress to Lady Tsunade, Shizune, and Sakura. Tsunade had the final say in whether Hinata moved forward in her training.
Walking side by side the girls started talking about Hinata's training.
" I think it is really admirable that you want to learn medical ninjutsu Hinata," Sakura said as she clasped her hands behind her back and smiled at her friend.
" Thank you. It's been a little difficult but my Ninja way is to-to never give up and to never go back on my word, so no matter ho- how hard I will become a medical ninja." Hinata said, gaining more confidence the more she talked.
" You've come a long way, I'm proud of you," Sakura said.
A blush started forming on Hinata's face and she and her friend continued to walk towards their usual tea shop.
" I-Is that Naruto?" Sakura exclaimed looking at the lone figure on a nearby rooftop.
Hinata snapped her head up and looked where Sakura was looking. Seeing the blonde sitting on the rooftop-
"Why the hell does he only have on one shoe?" Sakura shouted, pointing at his foot.
Laughing at Sakura's offended expression and the blonde's peculiarity, Hinata lightly pulled the pink-haired girl towards the tea shop.
"I can't believe that the fifth Hokage was a gambler, the sixth is a pervert, and now our seventh Hokage is going to be a lunatic that runs around with only one shoe on his foot." Sakura sighed as she thought about both her former sensei and her blonde teammate.
Hinata smiled at her friend. Yes, the Hokage of the leaf has all been odd characters and it seems that that tradition will continue with Naruto-Kun when he becomes the Seventh Hokage. She was proud of him. She couldn't wait to see the brilliant smile she knew would light up his face when he finally accepted the hat.
Sakura looked over at her friend. The light blush adorning her cheeks could only mean one thing.
"Someone's thinking about Naruto." Sakura teases as she glances at the menu on the table.
" I am not." Hinata jumped a bit at having her innermost thoughts be said aloud.
After placing their orders they chatted while they waited for their food to arrive.
" So," Sakura drawled out.
"Are you and Naruto dating yet?" The Pinkett asked taking a sip of her tea afterward.
Hinata's white eyes nearly popped out of her head at the question. Spilling her own tea a bit in the process.
" Dating? Me and Naruto-Kun? No? Absolutely not?" Hinata said quickly as she tried to calm the blush that was threatening to overtake her face.
"why not? It's been two years since you've confessed and now he is in the village for a while"
"It's a perfect time," Sakura argued.
Looking down at the teacup in her hands, bangs covering her eyes Hinata, looked at her reflection.
"Has it really been two years?" Hinata thought.
" I don't know." She whispered.
"Hinata what happened?" Sakura asked, reaching for her friends' hand from across the table.
Feeling the Sakura's hand on her own, Hinata kept her eyes down but resolved to tell her. After all, Sakura was the only one who knew she confessed during the Pain attack.
"I- I don't think he feels the same way," Hinata said.
" He hasn't said anything about what I told him like you said it's been two years and he hasn't said anything, in fact, nothings changed between us since then." Hinata continued her eyes watering.
"I -I wouldn't say nothing, we've become closer as friends after Neji-Nissan's death. He offered me a cinnamon roll once but." Hinata let the sentence hang in the air, the tears that gathered finally falling.
"Poor Hinata, Naruto you idiot the least you can do is give the girl an answer instead of leading her on when you know how she feels-cha," Sakura thought
"Stupid nine-tails Jinchuriki" Sakura thought angrily
"Wait, the nine-tails" she stopped her inner rant midway.
" Hinata?" She called the girl.
"Yes?"
"Would you say Naruto acts completely normal around you?" The pink hair girl questioned.
"Yes, I just said that," Hinata responded with a confused expression on her face.
" like completely normal, or does he act like he's trying to avoid telling you to spare your feelings? Sakura further probed.
" I'm not sure I understand the question," Hinata replied, taking a sip of tea to calm her nerves.
Sakura thought of a better way to explain.
" Does he look at you differently than he used to?" Sakura asked, remembering the soft look Sasuke gave her before he poked her forehead.
"Looks at me differently?" Hinata repeated the question to herself.
" No, he looks at me how he's always looked at me." Hinata finally decided.
The food arrived at the table and the girls started their respective meals in silence.
"Hinata, I could be wrong but I don't think I am." Sakura started green eyes staring intently into white ones.
Tilting her head in confusion Hinata waited for Sakura to continue.
" I don't think Naruto knows you confessed your feelings to him," Sakura explained.
"How could he not?" Hinata asked, still not understanding what her friend was trying to get at.
"Back when you jumped in the fight with Pain, Naruto was pinned down unable to move all he could do was watch as Pain dealt you blow after blow. Hinata, he thought Pain killed you." Sakura explained telling her friend a bit of what Naruto told her after the dust settled.
Hinata's eyes widened.
" The nine-tails well, Kurama took over Naruto's body. He grew nine tails and fought with Pain."
" So you think Kurama has something to do with why Naruto might not know of my feelings?" Hinata asked, starting to piece together what Sakura was trying to explain.
"Yes. I've only seen Naruto lose control one other time before that. He let loose four tails and attacked me." Sakura continued explaining.
" In hindsight, it was kind of silly of me to think I could stop him or calm him when I only just started to learn about Jinchuuriki and tailed beast. But when Captain Yamato finally forced Kurama's chakra back and Naruto woke up, he had no memory of what happened before he transformed."
Sakura said.
" I see," Hinata said letting the information sink in.
" I know Captain Yamato told Naruto the truth of what happened in order to motivate him to try and control Kurama's chakra but knowing Naruto, he probably wouldn't have asked what happened if there wasn't anything to prove that something had happened."
" since you never brought it up I doubt that Naruto remembered anything more than seeing a friend get hurt," Sakura said then continued eating.
" I see. Thank you Sakura, you've given me a lot to think about." Hinata said as she then continued to eat her lunch.
" I believe in you Hinata, all you have to do is gather the same courage you had the first time and tell him again. I'm rooting for you." Sakura winked towards her friend.
"Thank you," Hinata said shyly.
Smiling is the best way to face every problem, crush every fear, and hide every pain. Smiling is exactly what Naruto Uzumaki does best. So that's exactly what he did when he woke up in his apartment later that night In a cold sweat.
He could still hear the screams. He can still hear the sounds of shurikens and kunai clanging against each other. Still smiling, Naruto gets up and walks to his bathroom. He turns on the shower hoping that the water would be loud enough to drown out the screams.
It's not.