Kei-Kei Yuki: At first I told myself I will not return to fanfic, until late March, but upon seeing an awesome Naruto AMV, I knew I just had to update this chapter. Also, for those of you wondering where I've been. I'm working on a new story on Wattpad, called, Under the Peach Blossom. Please come and check it out, if you can! ;)

Beta by: Ana-DaughterofHades

A/N: Take place during their Academy years and is connected to Drabble five. And sweet Hinata has it hard for Naru-chan. Oh, I'm thinking for the next drabble, for it to be placed in future, showcasing one of Sasuke and Naruko kids. Should I do it now, or leave it for later? Also, if you got any ideas or requests, please share them!

Drabble Seven

Hinata: So Far Yet So Close

It was yet another day and Hyuuga Hinata sighed in misery. Yet again, she had failed to befriend Uzumaki Naruko, the maelstrom of a girl that had burst into her life and had come to her rescue. When Hinata had entered the academy she was shocked to see the other girl in her homeroom, seated just a few seats ahead of her. The girl was not that hard to miss with her loud blonde hair and matching personality.

Seeing Naruko again, Hinata wanted to do nothing more but befriend her, though she did not have the courage to approach the girl. After failing on the first day, Hinata mentally told herself that she'd try again the next day. Though on that night she sat across from her father, who called her out to meet with him. He sternly warned her to stay away from the Uzumaki girl, giving her no further explanation for why, before dismissing her coldly back to her room after a long day of practicing with her older cousin Neji.

Hinata didn't know what to say as she slowly walked back to her room. A painful sensation gripped her chest as she slowly slid the door to her bedroom closed, ignoring her food that sat on the table. Climbing into her bed as tears fell from her eyes, flashes of those pretty blue eyes and warm bright smile streaked through her mind as she thought about the girl, who despite being so close was now farther away than ever.

Staring up at the ceiling of her room, Hinata felt more tears slip passed her eyes. She wished for Naruko's strength and confidence to disobey her father just this once, but she knew she wasn't strong enough. Hinata could never disobey her father, though just this once... she desperately wanted too.

Months passed by in the academy and soon two years had flown by in a blink of an eye. Throughout this time, Hinata secretly watched over the blonde, often sneaking out of the Hyuuga compound and running over to training ground three to watch the blonde, once again, training hard. The girl hit the wooden practice dummies that she made to look like her rival, Uchiha Sasuke, repeatedly with strong strikes.

Later she would try performing the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu, only to fail constantly no matter how many times she tried. When Hinata first met Naruko, she thought of her as perfect and everything she wished to be, but as she got to know more about the blonde girl, she had been awoken to the reality that surrounded Uzumaki Naruko.

That despite Naruko's strength and confidence, even she failed at things. A lot of things actually, though when Naruko failed, she simply dusted herself off, got back up, and continued trying again and again. Despite the mean and cruel taunts that some of the girls and boys threw her way at school, never once did she cry, but instead faced her bullies head-on. Which at times resulted in violence that Iruka-sensei would have to pull the struggling girl away from. Though, there was a time when Hinata could visible spot a flash of pain that flickered in those pretty cerulean eyes that were caused by those cruel and nasty words that were aimed at the blonde.

Uzumaki Naruko was strong and confident, but even she felt pain from words inflicted by others. Seeing all of this, Hinata could do nothing but admire the girl twice more than before. Uzumaki Naruko began to be Hinata's idol and nothing was ever going to change that. She often felt her heart beat fast whenever the other smiled or grinned and wanted to comfort her when Naruko secretly hid her pain. The more she watched Naruko, the more she wished to be like her.

Whenever Hinata had to endure the long training sessions with her older cousin, Neji, who was forced to train with her by the elder and her father, who would watch over their sparring matches. Her mind would think back to Naruko, training herself until the moon had risen in the sky and sometimes until early morning. Each time she was on the brink of exhaustion, Hinata remembered that despite the pain and hardship, Naruko never once gave up and neither would she. This was the strength and inspiration that made Hinata keep going.

During the past two years, she always wondered why the others isolated Naruko, teasing and calling her names. She still remembered the day Naruko had tried to befriend Haruno-san in front of the other kids during recess when everyone was outside. Hinata, who had been watching Naruko from a safe and faraway distance, had a sinking feeling in her gut when she watched Naruko approach Haruno-san. Naruko, in her own way, tried to befriend Haruno-san but her wording of this desire came out wrong, giving those around them and Haruno-san the wrong idea.

Hinata watched as the pinkette flushed in anger and retaliated by hitting Naruko with a fierce punch that knocked her off her feet, though not before adding in a few mean words that, to Hinata's observation, made pain flash across Naruko's cerulean eyes. The dark-haired girl felt a strong urge of anger, wanting to run across the field and defend her idol, but she couldn't find the courage to do so. Hinata never felt so mad and disappointed in herself than she did on that day.

She noticed that Naruko had close to zero friends and was mostly always alone. Well, there were a few occasions where she would be spotted hanging out with Shikamaru and Choji, by watching the clouds with the two, as well as when Chouji would share his snacks with the blonde. There were also a few times when she would spot Naruko hanging out with Inuzuka Kiba. The two would exchange insults with each other, though his dog Akamaru seemed to adore Naruko's companionship as that was probably the only reason why the Inuzuka bothered to spend any time with Naruko.

If there was one person who Naruko seemed to always devote her attention towards, it was Uchiha Sasuke. Now unlike the majority of the girls, herself excluded, who seemed to adore and worship the last Uchiha heir either due to his cool and mysterious presence or good-looks, Naruko made it known that she was not like any of his typical fangirls.

Proclaiming herself as the Uchiha's rival, she tried to out-best him in everything, only to fail in the end. Hinata didn't know why Naruko always gave all her attention to Sasuke, and honestly, she did not like it. For some reason, it annoyed her when Uchiha would simply ignore Naruko; he had all of her attention but didn't seem to care about it. It infuriated the young Hyuuga heiress as she would die to be in his place or to simply be acknowledged by her blonde idol.

To have those cerulean blue eyes that reminded her of the sky on her, to experience one of those smiles and grins up close, to be in her presence and finally talk with her would be a dream for Hinata. Though sadly, as she was brought back to the harsh reality, remembering her father's warning, she knew that that was a dream that would simply not come true as she could only watch from a distance as yet another year passed by.

It was another day and Hinata and rest of the girls were in their kunoichi class, going over the meaning of flowers and what purposes they can be used for when facing against an enemy when the class was suddenly interrupted. "Let me go,0 Iruka-sensei! I hate this lame and boring class!" exclaimed a struggling Naruko who was being dragged over to the group that was outside in the flower fields as Suzume-sensei's left eye twitched as she heard Naruko's insult.

"Naruko, stop whining! If you wish to become an awesome shinobi one day then you're gonna have to sit, stay, and pay attention in your kunoichi classes instead of picking a fight with Sasuke-kun," Iruka scolded the nine-year-old as the other girls began sending glares in the blonde's direction after learning that she was disturbing their precious 'Sasuke-kun' once again with her annoying antics.

It was a known fact that Naruko hated her kunoichi classes and never missed an opportunity to skip out on them to challenge Uchiha Sasuke to a taijutsu spar. It was two weeks later that the class was informed of how Iruka-sensei took a week's leave off of work after catching the flu and wouldn't return until next week.

Everyone was basically a little sad about Iruka-sensei's leave of absence as she was a really nice yet strict teacher that everyone loved, but no one took the news as hard as Naruko. Hinata watched the blonde slouch in her seat, nothing but utter worry and concern filling her cerulean eyes due to the news. It was quite noticeable that Iruka-sensei and Naruko shared some type of secret bond that others could not understand, seeing how the only instructor Naruko ever listened to was Iruka-sensei and was vice versa when Naruko was skipping class or acting out again, only to be caught and scolded by Iruka-sensei.

Hinata saw their bond close to a sisterly one as it was endearing to watch as Iruka-sensei's presence in Naruko's life made the blonde truly happy. This was evident by the shimmer of delight and happiness that would light up in Naruko's eyes whenever she was around the brown-haired woman.

When school came to a close, Hinata wanted to see Naruko one last time before heading home. When she followed the girl to the cooking classroom, she saw Naruko setting out some meat, eggs, a carton of milk, and other things that she had gotten her hands on.

All of these ingredients were placed on the counter while her hands were placed on her hips. The blonde stared at the ingredients with utter confusion before stating, "I have no clue on what the hell I should do. Oh, who cares! Cooking can't be that hard if Flat-Chest-Ino and those other annoying fangirls can do it. Alright! Let's get to work, Dattebayo!" The blonde rolled the sleeves of her jacket up to her forearms and began getting to work.

Hinata was not surprised to see it all end in a disaster with the kitchen almost caught on fire. This continued for two more days until Hinata finally overheard the reason for why Naruko was doing all of this.

"How am I supposed to help Ruka-nee get better if I don't know what the hell I'm doing!" The blonde slammed her fist down on the counter. "...Maybe I shouldn't have skipped all those stupid kunoichi classes after all." The blonde began sulking, staring at the mess she had made and would have to clean up later. When Naruko felt down, so did Hinata, and Hinata did not like that.

Wanting to put a smile back on that face, especially after hearing how Naruko was doing all of this for Iruka-sensei to get better soon, Hinata wanted to help the blonde out. So Hinata decided to brace her fears, pushing away her timidness, and for the first in her life, she was about to disobey her father's orders as she shyly entered the room.

"A-Ano..." Her barely audible voice caught the attention of Naruko who looked in her direction.

"Yo! Didn't know anyone was still here. Mostly everyone's parents would've come and picked them up by now," said the blonde, quickly starting up a one-sided conversation with Hinata, who felt her words stick in her throat before she was finally able to force them out.

"I wish to help you!" she blurted out, even though she didn't realize her own actions until it was a little too late. Blushing red, she placed her hands over her mouth after her embarrassing outburst. Naruko did nothing but stare at the dark haired girl who was getting redder by the minute and looked as if she was about to pass out soon when a grin stretched across Naruko's face.

"Really! That means a lot to me! I could really use the help, but I think you might need it more with the way your face is turning red. Are you gonna be okay?" Naruko walked over to the Hyuuga heiress, resting her hand on the girl's forehand. Being so close to Naruko, Hinata could die from the over blooming happiness in her chest, but she reminded herself to stay strong, not wanting to embarrass herself even further than she already had.

"I can help you!" Hinata said determinedly.

"I know, you said that already. So, what do you make for a sick person?" Naruko, removing her hand from Hinata's forehead, asked, before adding, "You know, I think we've met before but I just can't seem to remember."

Hinata should've felt a little sad at hearing how Naruko forgot their first meeting, but it was okay, as from this moment forth she was determined to make new memories with Naruko. After answering her question, the two set off to work with Hinata coaching Naruko through each step. The blonde paid attention to each word the Hyuuga heiress said.

When the rice-balls were packed inside a traveling bento box, Naruko thanked Hinata for her help. The blonde even complimented the other on her cooking skills-that filled Hinata's heart with happiness. Though after coming this far, she would finally speak the words that had been in her heart for the last three years.

"Ano... I... I would r-really like to b-be your friend, N-Naruko-kun!"

Naruko blinked her pretty cealuren eyes, staring at Hinata, whose cheeks were red and was breathing hard as if those few simple words took all of her courage and strength to say. What really caught Naruko's attention was the determination that was expressed in those milky-white eyes of hers.

Never before had Naruko heard those words from a classmate, or from any other kid her age. Despite how much she wanted friends, others tended to find her annoying, troublesome, or too dumb to be friends with. So one could guess the joy that filled Naruko's heart at hearing someone actually wanting to be friends with her.

Beaming a sunny bright smile at the Hyuuga heiress, she replied, "Sure, I would love to be friends with you!"

Upon hearing that, Hinata felt as if she could cry, and she did. Her heart beat madly from hearing those precious words said to her. One day in the future, both girls would reflect on this moment and on the moment when they first met. Both would recall those precious feelings that were experienced when the bond was forged between the two. Naruko would always remember Hinata as her first friend, while Hinata would always remember Naruko... as her first love.

End of Drabble Seven