Authors' Note:
Hello, there my bookworms!
Can y'all believe that the year is almost over! It's gone by super fast it's crazy! Anyway's I'm on vaca from school for the time being so I'm able to work on some fics until school starts once again!

In this chapter hopefully, we get a proper introduction in! ;)

Without further ado, let's get straight to it, shall we?

Hot Tea during Winter

Last chapter recap.

Hinata nods in response as she listens to the blonde.
"Yes that's correct, if I may ask who was that person?" she watched as the man looks at the table and sighs, and looks back at her.

Her eyes go a bit wide in seeing what looked like tears beginning to form in her eyes.

"She's my…well ex-girlfriend now."

"You're ex-girlfriend?" Hinata repeats it once more in making sure she wasn't hearing unnecessary things, her thoughts were corrected when the blonde nodded.

"Yea, she broke up with me moments before me coming here. I've heard about this place and was planning on bringing her here for a date until she wanted to stop somewhere and that's when she said that she couldn't do it anymore that she didn't want to be with me." The man says while looking at the table.

Hinata sympathizes with him as she understands perfectly how he's feeling.

"I-I'm truly sorry about that," she says lowly. The man looks at her and shakes his head "Hey, it's no biggie! I mean there's nothing I can do about it now y'know!" he seems to be saying this as a form of convincing.

But to whom?

"All I can do is wish for her to always be happy no matter who it's with…" this time he says it low and this causes the lavender-eyed girl to feel angry at his ex-girlfriend.

'Why did they break up? He seems so sweet. Maybe there's something else to this story.' she thinks to herself as she smiles at the blonde "Well, it says a lot of you still wish for her happiness." she says with a smile.

"Yea…I suppose it does." Hinata nods and smiles once more as she sees Ino and Sakura motion her behind the counter. She excuses herself from the young man as she wonders what her friends could want.

"Do you two need my help?" she asks them as she's suddenly pulled closer towards the two girls, both had a smirk on their faces, eyes narrowed as if they finally mastered the difficult plan.
Hinata has a bad feeling about those stares.

"Well, you seemed to have been having a pleasant conversation with Mr. Mute" Ino comments as she leans toward the Hyuga girl.
"W-What do you mean Ino.?" Hinata asks stuttery.

"We mean that you two seem to be very comfortable in your little corner.." Sakura comments as she leans in as well.

"G-Guys you got it all wrong," Hinata explains as she's being cornered by both girls. They always seem to make a huge deal out of the simplest things.

"Oh do we?" Ino replies.

"Yes…you see he." Hinata goes on in explaining how the man was just dumped before coming to the cafe. Both girls were not expecting that to be the reason for the man's odd behavior on the first encounter.

"Well damn, that's harsh," Sakura comments somewhat sadly.
"Poor guy! And he's not even that bad-looking!" Ino says loudly as Hinata and Sakura quickly cover her mouth. Hinata prayed that the young man hadn't heard them talk about him, that wouldn't be right and it would make her feel bad.

Quickly taking a peek at the outside she still sees the young man at the table but he's looking at the window now.
Sun-kissed skin that didn't seem to turn white even though it's been snowing since last month!
His blonde hair bought life to the pearly white walls that surrounded him, eyes that resemble moving waves were so sad as he stared at something unknown outside. And he seemed to have whiskers in his cheeks, was it a form of a tattoo?
Even so, it looked good on him.

This man was indeed handsome as Ino had mentioned but it saddened Hinata to see him so down. It reminded her of the time when she got dumped. She was depressed for a good while and she shut herself in her home and didn't go out but merely distracted her mind with books and making tea.

Wait a minute…

Tea!

"Hinata how are you so stubborn!" Sakura complains as Hinata is now preparing the all-famous Roman Chamomile Tea meant to relax the body and calm the brain.

"You do notice that you already burned your hand, right?" Ino adds in, rolling her eyes Hinata removes the tea bag from the cup and places a small wooden spoon. "Will you two stop worrying, he wasn't even able to taste this since he was all upset. I promise that I won't burn my other hand" she smiles at them as she makes her way to the main lobby.

As she makes her way towards the man she sees that he still was looking outside.
'Poor guy, even if his experience here started roughly it could at least end pleasantly, right?' she thinks to herself as she's finally standing next to him.

She coughs softly which seemed to have gotten the man's attention as he stands up carefully this time and touches the plate with the teacup.

"Huh?" Hinata's caught off guard as she looks at the man, he smiles at her brightly.
"Let me help, I don't wanna risk you burning your other hand," he says with a slightly teasing tone.

Heat rushed to the server's cheeks a little bit. "T-Thank you, that's sweet!" she says as she makes her way to her seat.

"So, I've heard roughly about the teas here! They have magical powers that truly help people!" He starts to babble as he leans closer toward the girl causing her to slowly back away with the heat rushing back to her cheeks, this time a bit more.

"So, is it true?" He asks with a smirk.

'Wow, he's really handsome..' Hinata thinks before quickly erasing her thoughts away. That's no way to think of a customer! "W-Well, that's not true!" she says before noticing the disappointment in the guy's face.
'Oh no! Quick Hinata, think!'

She did not want this man to get all down in the dumps again.

"Well, we do tend to put our love and affection when preparing our teas, so I believe that those feelings that we give our teas are what our customers feel whenever they see us," Hinata says with a loving smile as she looks outside the window.

"Love, Sadness, Empathy, Affection, Passion, Nervousness and even Anger…those emotions are captured in those small ceramic tea mugs we give our customers and I feel that in a way its what binds everyone together. That may be the reason why so many people come into our lovely Cafe." she speaks in a soft tone, almost a whisper yet not a mumble.

Her lavender orbs sparkle as it reflects the small flakes of snow from the outside, she didn't notice the blonde-haired man stare nor the light coat of pink that graced his cheeks. This barista was really pretty was the thought that crossed his mind.

Jumping in surprise at how she was getting carried away again in talking about teas Hinata faces the man and smiles nervously.
"Sorry about that, I seemed to have gotten carried away." she uses her free hand to play with a lock of her hair.

Shaking his head the man smiles back at her. "Not at all, it was fun listening to you!" he admits as he looks at the mug infront of him. The liquid contained a milky cream color and it smelled quite pleasant that he almost didn't want to drink it but he gazed once more at the young woman and stared at her.

Her eyes looked at the tea hopeful, a finger lightly tapped the table almost gently. Her lips moved softly as she lightly bit her bottom lip. She was really wanting him to taste the tea it appeared.

He didn't want to disappoint her and besides he owed her for causing her to burn herself when she was only being friendly so he took the spoon and stired the liquid as he bought the cup to his lips.
Giving out a soft blow he takes the first sip as his eyes slowly close.
Hinata stares at the man in anticipation as he continues to sip without saying a word.

Normally her customers would have some sort of reaction by now. They'd give her a bright smile and saying something along the lines of 'This tea is amazing! I feel so much better!' or 'Man, that tea really calmed me down!'

But this mysterious blonde-haired man had no reaction at all.

'This is so nerve-wrecking, how am I suppose to know if he's feeling rel-' her thoughts are stopped when she sees tears start running down the sun-kissed skin. Horror found its way to Hinata's eyes.
What could she have done wrong?!

"Oh no! Please don't cry sir! I'm terribly sorry!" she starts to apologize frantically as the tears continue to fall off the mans still closed eyes. Their Roman Chamomile Tea has never bought a customer to the verge of tears before!

'This isn't what I wanted to happen! Hinata you're so stupid!' she argues with herself in her head as she tries to find a way to stop the man from crying, her only thought was to quickly grasp his only free hand which he had laid on the table. She's not sure what else to do; she's never been in such a situation before.

"Um, sir..? Are you okay?" she asks even though she already knows that he's clearly not but she's not sure how else to get his attention. She feels his hand move as she quickly removes it seeing that he's now looking at her.

His cerulean blue eyes radiate with the tears making it look like a crystal almost. "Heh, sorry about that this tea sure does have magic powers." Magic powers?

"W-what do you mean?" Hinata asks him as the man finishes the rest of the tea and sets down the cup on the table while taking a deep breath. "When I took the first sip…it felt like someone was giving me a hug…" he says making Hinata even more confused.

"A..hug?" She's never heard that one before

Nodding the man starts to play with the cup, his cheeks were a tad red in nervousness, he didn't want to weird the woman out but he wanted to be honest with his feelings.
"It made me feel so warm inside and before I knew it, I was overcome with emotions that I couldn't hold it in anymore." his voice was low and serious that Hinata knew he was being honest.

'Comfort…that's what he felt when he drank the tea.' she concluded as she smiles at him and takes his hand once more, this time it catches the man off guard. "I'm so glad that you were able to feel the comfort in the tea. You're gonna have some hard days but I'm positive that eventually, you'll find yourself once again. Give it time" she says whole-heartedly.

The man is mesmerized by this barista girl, how could she have prepared such a powerful tea that caused him to break down like that. He told her how he just got dumped and he's now sitting there starting to believe the things she's saying.
'She's a real mystery …' he thinks as he smiles sincerely for the first time.

"Y'know, I think your right!"

Moments pass and the Kuma Cafe was drawing to a close, the two hadn't realized that the only customer who remained was Mr. Mute as Ino had referred him as.

"Man, it's that late already!" The man takes out his phone to see the time. It was indeed 6:00 p.m. Hinata herself was shocked at how she hadn't noticed the time. She was too caught up in trying to help the man that she didn't continue icing her burnt hand as she was supposed to.

"I suppose we lost track of the time" she adds with a giggle. Just then Sakura and Ino walked up to the pair looking at the man. Although they didn't say a word, their eyes said something between the lines of 'You gonna pay or what?'

"Ah, yea! Almost forgot!" As if reading their death glares the man pulls out his wallet and Hinata a few bills. Taking them and counting them in front of the man, her eyes go wide. Maybe he miscounted?

"Sir, this is too much. I can't accept this.." she starts to say but the man shakes his head silencing her.
"Please do, you've done more than enough. Believe me," he says so honestly and with pleading eyes that the Hyuga girl can't resist complying.

"Thank you so much, sir," Hinata says with a smile and polite bow. The man bows back and extends his hand, curious lavender orbs looking into the cerulean bright ones.

"We never introduced ourselves, names Naruto Uzumaki and your name is.."

Taking his hand with her free one Hinata replays that name in her head 'Naruto…that sounds like a nice name.'
"Hinata, Hinata Hyuga" she says with a smile.

'Hinata, meaning sunny place right?' Naruto thinks while looking at her then concluding.
'It fits her perfectly…'

"Well, then Naruto was it…" Sakura starts to say as she's popping her knuckles once more, Naruto looks at her and gulps in fear.

"We still need to close shop and you're in the way…so unless you leave politely I won't kick you out myself…" she says with a threatening look that Naruto gets the message perfectly and makes his way out the door.

"Sorry! I'll go now!" He turns one last time and looks at Hinata.

"Thanks again Hinata, I sure owe ya one!" with that he leaves the cafe.

The three girls stand in place not moving until Ino smirks and wraps an arm around Hinata
"He said he owes ya one, hear that Hinata." she taunts.

"I know what your thinking Ino and no way.." Hinata walks away not before Ino follows after her.
"C'mon Hinata! You heard him say it too! I know you did!"

Sakura watched her friends as she sighed and makes their way towards them. "Girls let's make fun of Hinata as we're picking up, shall we?" Hinata pouts angrily at Sakura as she's wiping the chairs with only one functional hand.

"Not you too Sakura!"

That night just a few kilometers from Kuma Cafe, a set of apartments next to a beautiful lake. In one of the rooms stayed the mysterious man from earlier: Naruto Uzumaki.

His apartment was rather big, not condo material but it was still pretty nice, his room with walls coated in orange and black showing off his favorite colors. Laying on the bed while looking at a picture frame was where he lay.

The picture frame was of him and Kanako, his now ex-girlfriend. Heart heavy and torn at the realization that he would no longer be able to see nor caress her as he has gotten so used to and loved to do so much.

For a brief second his mind drifted from the heartbreak as he looked at his hand.

The hand that he gave Hinata, the barista from today while introducing himself. She was mysterious to him, how did she manage to get him to spill out so much information about himself with just a cup of tea.

"Hinata Hyuga, huh," he says to no one in particular as he puts the frame back in its original spot and looks back in the ceiling allowing his eyes to drift to a close.

Wowzers this was quite a bit to write!

Now that the introductions are done is where the real fun shall commence! I'm trying to add some humor in the mix so let me know how that's going! Did you like the chapter? What are your thoughts about it?

As always I'm open to all criticism!

Please leave me some outlook and let me know what you thought and I'll see you all in Chapter 4!

Bye for now!