Naruto Primer: Hyuuga Hinata

Valentines

Valentine's Day: every girl's favorite and least favorite day of the year.  It's the one day in which they have an excuse to give a big red heart decorated with lace to the boy she likes, but then her heart gets crushed when she doesn't get one in return.

Hinata's not like that.  She's still stuck in the past where all the children make a Valentine's Day card for everyone they know so no one gets left out of the loop.

Of course, she can't deny that some Valentine's cards are a little prettier than other people's…

First she made Naruto a beautiful card.  She labored over it for about forty-five minutes, which doesn't seem like much, but it's a whole lot of fricken time to spend on a card that she probably will be too shy to give to him anyway.  It was shaped like a heart and it opened up down the middle with the simple words, "Happy Valentine's Day!"

Just looking at it embarrassed her.  She didn't know how she would possibly gather up enough courage to give it to him.

She also made Valentine's cards for her new friends, Ino, Sakura and Tenten.  It's not like she wanted them to be her Valentine, she just wanted to show them that she cared by giving them cards and a little Hershey's Kiss.  All of their cards looked reasonably similar to each other but were purple, pink and red respectively.

She simply HAD to make a card for Shino and Kiba since they were, after all, her teammates and everything.  The Valentine's were pretty, but they were nothing to scream about.

As for Shikamaru, Chouji and Lee…well, they didn't have any sort of special connection to her but it would be rude not to make them one as well.  So she just cut out a heart and wrote all their names on them and signed her name under, 'From'.

Sasuke couldn't be ignored.  He was the coolest and most popular kid around so if she didn't make him a card, she would look weird.  The last thing Hinata needed was to look weird.  So she made his nicer than Shikamaru's, Chouji's and Lee's, but not as nice as Shino's or Kiba's and most CERTAINLY not as nice as Naruto's.

Lastly…Neji.  Neji was ALWAYS an awkward subject for her but she seemed to be getting to know him better recently so she couldn't just NOT give him one and dismiss it that she simply didn't know him very well like she had in the past.  Plus, it would be mean to give one to EVERYONE except him.  She worked hard on Neji's so that he wouldn't get offended and think that she thought she was better than him because he got a dinky Valentine's card.  It was around the same level as Kiba and Shino's cards, effort-wise.

When she was done, she collected up all her Valentine's Day cards and went outside where she would find everyone and give them their cards.

First, she met up with Sakura, Ino and Tenten who looked like they were racing each other to get somewhere.

"Where are you going?" Hinata asked.

"We're delivering our Valentine's Day Cards to Sasuke!!" Sakura said.  "But MINE'S the biggest!!"

"MINE'S made with the most love!" Ino argue.

"Mine's the prettiest!" said Tenten.

"I made you all cards!" said Hinata as she handed out the cards.

"THAT'S SO NICE!!" yelled all the girls in unison.  They hadn't made cards for Hinata or anyone else for that matter, for they had been concentrating too hard on making their particular card the best for Sasuke.

The four of them went off to Sasuke's favorite thinking area where he was, well, thinking.  He was surrounded by unopened gifts, cards and candy.  "I need a new secret spot." Sasuke said under his breath when he saw all the girls run in and bombard him with their cards.

When they finally let him take a breath, Hinata handed him her card.  "Um… it's not as nice as some of the other ones you have…" she said, looking at all the pretty cards.

"No, this one is by far my favorite." Sasuke said.  "I like the small ones."

"WHAT?!" screamed Sakura, Ino and Tenten.

"Thank you!" said Hinata happily as she frolicked off to go and hand out the rest of her Valentines.  She just so happen to overhear voices and walked over to find that Lee and Neji were both training in Neji's favorite training spot… since he has one and all.

"Um…?" Hinata said in attempt to get their attention.

They both looked up.  Neji looked ESPECIALLY offended.

"Happy Valentine's Day!" she said quickly, handing out the Valentines to the appropriate person.

"A Valentine's Day card?!" Lee said.  "FOR ME?!"

"Uh…yeah!" said Hinata.  "I hope you like it!"

"LIKE IT?!" yelled Lee, getting waterfall tears.  "THIS IS MY FIRST VALENTINE CARD EVER!!!  I LOVE IT!!!"

"I'm glad!" said Hinata happily.  She looked at Neji who was still looking over the front of the card.  She decided to quickly leave before he actually read the card because she was afraid of what he might potentially do if he didn't think the card was good enough.  "Well, bye now!" she said, quickly running away.  "I have lots of other Valentines to hand out!"

She didn't know why she got herself worked up over nothing all the time.  But she stopped herself from having a heart attack and kept going until, suddenly, she found Shino bending over and collecting bugs.

"Shino!" she said, walking over.  "Happy Valentine's Day!"

Shino stood up and took the card.  "Thanks." He said.

They stared at each other for a moment.

"Well, bye!" said Hinata as she turned and left.

She didn't go very far before finding Shikamaru and Chouji playing a game of shougi.  Actually, just finishing up a game of shougi.

"I beat Shikamaru?" said Chouji, standing up.  "I BEAT SHIKAMARU?!"

"Oh yes, you beat me." Said Shikamaru but it was OBVIOUS that Shikamaru just let him win.

"I BEAT SHIKAMARU!!!" Chouji yelled as a wave crashed behind him.  As they stood there for a minute, there was a sudden CLICK and a flash of light from nowhere!

"Excuse me, but Happy Valentine's Day!" said Hinata awkwardly since she didn't really know Shikamaru OR Chouji so she only dropped the cards on their game board and ran away as fast as she could.

Hinata really wanted to give her special card to Naruto.  But wherever could he be?  She hadn't seen him all day!  Maybe he was avoiding her…maybe he didn't WANT her card!  What if he knew that she was searching for him with the card and was just running away?

"This is just stupid!" Hinata said to herself, pulling out the giant card that was for Naruto.  "I can't give this to him."  She walked up to a trashcan and was about to dispose of it when she felt a tap on her shoulder.  She turned around to see Kiba standing there with Akamaru on his head and his hands behind his back.

"Hi Hinata!" he said.  "Happy Valentine's Day!!  Akamaru and I were searching all day for the perfect Valentine's Day flower for you!"

With that, he presented a little red rose to her.

"I hope you like it!" he said.

"Oh, I do!" said Hinata as she took the flower.  She looked down at the Valentine in her hand that she had made for Naruto.  "Here, this is for you!"

She handed him the card.

"Wow!" said Kiba, opening it.  "It says Happy Valentine's Day!"

"Yeah!" agreed Hinata.

Akamaru started barking.

"Akamaru, that's rude!" said Kiba.

"No, I have one for him too!" said Hinata, handing the card that was originally for Kiba to Akamaru.

"Wow, Hinata, you're so nice!" said Kiba.

Talk about perfect timing, no?  So I think that pretty much everyone was happy this Valentine's Day.  And you need not worry about poor Naruto not receiving a Valentine's card for he is far too busy to even remember that it's Valentine's Day…