Disclaimer: Nothing is mine. WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!! (Runs off crying)
Title: Within My Grasp
Rating: PG-13
Pairings: NaruHina
Warnings: There is VERY slight NaruSaku, but it is essential to the plot. Oh, and OOCness. But there are almost no fanfics out there than don't have this. So it really shouldn't have to be a warning. But oh well!
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-Takes place about for years from the current manga timeline-
It had been announced that day. It had shocked the hell out of everyone. It had been the most unexpected thing ever in Konoha (apart from the attack from Sand and Sound). But, it was all true. Uzumaki Naruto and Haruno Sakura were going out.
From what the rumors were, Naruto had just gone up to Sakura and asked her to go out with him (with added puppy dog eyes, of course). Sakura had been shocked and was silent for a minute, and them smiled, took his hand and said yes. And, of course, these rumors were from Yamanka Ino herself, who had been eating lunch with Sakura when it had happened.
It was a most pleasant shock for some and a terrible shock for others. Naruto was as happy as ever. Iruka and Kakashi were both happy for Naruto. Shikamaru was happy because now Naruto wouldn't whine about how Sakura hated him all the time. and Sasuke was happy because it meant one less girl always chasing after him.
And then there were people who were unhappy. Sakura's parents were unhappy (although they NEVER showed it) because they wanted their daughter to marry that fine Uchiha boy. Ino was unhappy because Sakura had a boyfriend and she didn't (but eventually she became happy as well). Lee was unhappy because he didn't get Sakura. Other people were unhappy because they didn't see why a good, respectable girl like Sakura was going with the Kyuubi boy. And then there was the most unhappy person of all, Hyuuga Hinata.
Poor Hinata had been heart broken when she had heard the news from Kiba. She cursed herself. Naruto had been totally free for as long as she could remember and she had never made a move! And now, he was gone. Probably forever. Hinata knew how much Naruto liked Sakura, and Sakura had been getting a bit fed up with Sasuke always rejecting her. And Sakura also knew that Naruto cared for her deeply. So why would she want anyone else? They were a perfect couple, the smart girl and the daring boy. It was like something out of a fairy tale.
People had seen the two together, laughing and having lots of fun (Yes, Ino was spying on them). "Such a wonderful match, like something in heaven!" was what a lot of people said after they had gotten over the initial shock of it all.
And yet, no one thought of how other's might be affected by this, Hinata in particular. She was devastated. If only she had made her move before, Naruto would be hers! But it was too late now. Naruto was gone, most likely forever.
However, Hinata was soon going to realize that maybe Naruto wasn't so out of her grasp after all.
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Hinata was sitting on her bed, with her legs drawn up to her chest and her forehead resting on her knees. Her arms were wrapped around her legs as silent tears streamed down her face.
'Hinata-baka! He was there for all those years, within your grasp! He liked you, he was your friend! And now... He's gone..'. Hinata thought. She hiccupped. 'Gone... Forever... Just like that...' She gave a small sob.
There was knock on her bedroom door. "Hinata?" a voice asked worriedly.
Hinata struggled to keep her voice straight. "I'm fine, chichi {1}," she said.
Hiashi frowned outside the room. It was a lie and he knew it, but he wasn't going to press matters. He wasn't sure what he could do anyway. His connection with Hinata wasn't great. He considered asking Hanabi what was wrong but decided against it. Hanabi and Hinata fought like cats and dogs. Hanabi wouldn't have a clue what was going on. Hiashi sighed. Maybe Neji might be able to coax it out of her. Hinata and her cousin had grown very close ever since that battle with Uzumaki Naruto. Hiashi smiled. Yes, Neji would be able to get it out of her. And if not, then he'd probably be able to tell what was wrong. The Hyuuga Master set off to go find his nephew.
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Neji was in living hell right now. Lee had been very upset lately because Sakura was no longer free. He was wallowing in self pity of himself not acting sooner and missing his chance. So Gai had assigned Tenten and Neji a mission to cheer Lee up. Basically, they were supposed to follow him around all day and do whatever he wanted.
Neji sat at the Ichiraku ramen stand staring at nothing in particular, and cursing every god he could think of that he had gotten stuck with Lee as a teammate. Neji frowned. Well, no, Lee himself wasn't so bad. A little hyper active yes, but a good fighter and hard worker nonetheless. So instead Neji cursed the every god he could think of as to why Lee had to fall in love with Sakura, and why Naruto had to ask Sakura out, and why Sakura had said yes.
"Lee, if you eat anymore ramen, you're going to get sick!" Tenten scolded Lee.
Lee sobbed. "I don't care! That will help me forget about Sakura-san!" and he began stuffing his face again.
Tenten sighed and turned to Neji. "Do you ever get the feeling God is against us?" she asked him.
"Oh yeah. All the bloody fucking time," Neji grumbled.
"You do have to feel kind of bad for him, though," Tenten continued. "Sakura was one of the only people who liked him for him and got past the looks. And he lost her."
"Sakura liked him for him?" Neji asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Well, she wasn't keen on the looks, but she was his friend and she respected and cared for him a lot! Remember when Gai-sensei took us to visit Lee in the hospital after his fight with Gaara?" Tenten asked.
"Yeah, what about it?"
"Do you remember the daffodil?"
Neji thought for a moment. "Yeah, in the vase on the bedside table, right?"
Tenten nodded. "Sakura gave him that. Lee was really happy when he found that out, remember?"
Neji nodded. "So he's upset that someone who might have potentially been willing to give him a chance is now gone," he said. "It IS kinda sad..." he trailed off.
Tenten nodded and sighed. "I wish there was something I could do to cheer him up," she said sadly. Then she looked back at Lee who was still sobbing and stuffing his face with ramen.
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Hiashi was not one to go into Konoha very often, so he wasn't exactly sure where the hell he was going. Ok, so he was down right lost. It happens to all of us at some point in life.
Hiashi had given up on trying to find out where he was ages ago. Now all he was doing was searching for someone who might know where Neji was at the moment. She was searching, searching, searching.... AHA!!! Uzumaki Naruto! He might know where Neji was!
Hiashi walked over to Naruto and tapped him lightly on the shoulder. Naruto turned around.
"Can I help you, Hyuuga-sama?" Naruto asked looking confused.
"Hai. I was wondering, do you know where Neji is right now?" Hiashi asked.
"Uhh... iie. I haven't seen him since yesterday," Naruto said. "Gomen ne, Hiashi-sama."
"Naruto-kun!" a girl's voice called through the streets.
"Naruto looked up jut in time to see Sakura charging towards him. She ran and hugged him. "Naruto-kun! Genki desu ka {2}?" she said happily. Naruto grinned.
"Great! Ano sa, Sakura-chan, have you seen Neji today?" he asked.
Sakura blinked. "Neji? Hai, he was over at the Ichiraku with Tenten and Lee- san," she said.
Naruto turned to Hiashi. "The ramen stand is just up the street," he pointed with his finger. "Neji's probably there right now."
"Arigatou, Uzumaki-san," Hiashi said and he walked towards the Ichiraku.
Sakura looked at Naruto. "Naruto-kun, what was that all about?"
"He was looking for Neji," Naruto said with a shrug. "Come on, let's go the park. The Sakura trees are in bloom right now. It'll be really pretty!"
Sakura giggled. "Alright, to the park it is!" she and Naruto walked off towards the park
(A/N: You have no idea how hard it is or someone who absolutely HATES NaruSaku to right a scene like this.)
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Neji groaned as Lee ordered another bowl of ramen. At this rate, he was going to die from sheer embarrassment. This was Lee's sixth bowl for hell's sake!
The Hyuuga's eyes wondered into the streets, and they caught sight of someone they did not expect to see.
'Hiashi-sama?! Here?' Neji wondered. Knowing his uncle wasn't the best with directions or finding his way, Neji went over to Hiashi. He bowed and then asked, "Hiashi-sama. What brings you here?"
"I was looking for you, Neji," Hiashi said simply. Neji stared.
"Me?" he asked.
"Hai. Hinata has been locked up in her room for the past couple days and I know there's something wrong. But she won't tell me what it is. I was hoping you could try and get it out of here, or at the very least cheer her up a bit," Hiashi told Neji.
Neji blinked. "Alright. When do you want me to come over?"
"Actually, I was wondering if you could do it now."
Neji stared. Now? As in, right now? As in, leaving Lee and Tenten and not having to pay the bill? As in, getting away from Lee?! What the hell was he waiting for?! "LET'S GO!" He grabbed Hiashi's arm and began dragging him back to the Hyuuga part of Konoha.
Tenten looked at her teammate and blinked. Why was Neji in a beam of light? And where was that weird heavenly music coming from?
----------
Hinata was now lying on her bed, staring at nothing in particular. She was still thinking about her lost chance with Naruto.
Someone knocked on the door. "Hinata-san?" Neji asked from outside.
"Come in, Neji-san," she said, her spirits lifting a little. She was glad her cousin had come over. Maybe she could Neji her feelings about Naruto. He wouldn't laugh or anything of the sort. He'd hear her out.
Neji closed the door and went and sat down on the bed. "Hinata-san, have you been crying?" he asked, his voice laced with concern.
Hinata nodded and sat up, clutching her pillow to her chest.
"Hinata-san, what's wrong? What's made you so upset? If someone's hurt you I swear I'll go kick their sorry little ass's..."
"No, no one's hurt me. Well, not pyshically anyway," Hinata replied softly.
"They called you names?"
"No, no one intened to hurt me in anyway. I kind of brought this upon myself," Hinata whispered.
Neji frowned. "Can you tell me about it?" he asked.
Hinata nodded. "You know that Sakura and Naruto are going out, right?"
Neji snorted. "Who doesn't? Ino's got such a big mouth people in Stone country probably know it."
"Well, that's what's been upsetting me," Hinata said.
Neji blinked. "Nani? Are you afraid Naruto won't treat Sakura right or something?"
Hinata shook her head. "I... Well I... I have... a-a c-crush.... o-on Naruto-kun," she whispered. Then she buried her face in her pillow. There, she said it. Now at least Neji would know what was bothering her.
Neji was surprised. He knew Hinata was a little more shy around Naruto than everyone else, but he had always though that it was because (like all of them had been at one point) she wasn't sure she liked Naruto yet and wanted to give it time. He had never thought it might be a crush...
Then again, it made sense, didn't it? She was always happy when Naruto was happy, and said when he was sad, and she always liked to be around him to cheer him up. And when he had fought her in the preliminary rounds in the Chuunin exams four years ago. Had she not been going to give up, until Naruto cheered her on, and then she fought until she was coughing up blood? And she had based her nindo on Naruto's nindo as well. And then she always called him Naruto-kun, too. Neji fought back a groan. It was so obvious, and I didn't realize it until now?! Geez... he thought sulkily.
"Well, Hinata-san, I don't think you should beat yourself up about this. It's not like anyone saw this coming and was prepared for it. It was very sudden. I'm sure if you had known Sakura was going to say yes to Naruto you would have acted before now, am I right?" he said, touching her shoulder gently. Hinata lifted her head and nodded. "And don't worry about their relationship. It won't last forever."
Hinata blinked. "How do you know that?"
Neji grinned. "Because as long as Sasuke is still single, no girl that's single is every gonna have a relationship that lasts."
Hinata giggled.
----------
Neji rang the doorbell of Uchiha Sasuke's house. How, you may ask, did two such beings become friends? Well, when Sasuke returned from his little escapade with Orochimaru, he felt really bad that Neji had gotten so badly hurt. So he visited Neji everyday trying to get him to feel better. And well, then progressed from there and by the time Neji was out of the hospital he and Sasuke were best friends. Apart from Naruto, that is.
Sasuke opened the door. "Neji," he said, a bit surprised. "Why are you here at this hour (because it was ten at night)?"
"I need to talk to you for a bit," Neji said.
"Ok, well, come in," Sasuke said, holding open the door. Neji stepped inside. "Do you want some coffee?" Sasuke asked.
Neji nodded and took a seat at the table while Sasuke went about making coffee. "Cream, right?" he said. Neji nodded.
Sasuke brought the two cups of coffee over to the table, and gave one to Neji as he sat down. "So what did you want to talk about?"
Neji took a sip of the coffee. "Have you ever noticed how Hinata acts around Naruto?"
"Yeah.... She's more shy around him than others. So?" Sasuke said.
"Well, it turns out that her behavior is because she has a crush on him," Neji replied.
Sasuke cocked an eyebrow. "She has a crush on him?"
"Hai. And if you look at all the evidence it's really embarrassing that we haven't noticed it yet. And Hinata actually had to tell me that she had a crush on Naruto before I figured it out," Neji took another sip of coffee.
Sasuke thought. Neji was right; the evidence DID show that Hinata had an obvious crush on Naruto. "But why did she tell you in the first place?" he questioned.
"She locked herself in her room for a few days because she was upset. Hiashi-sama asked me to try and figure out what was wrong with her. She told be she was upset because Naruto and Sakura are going out..."
"Because she likes Naruto. Makes sense." Sasuke traced the rim of his mud with one finger. "But why did you need to tell me this?"
Neji hesitated for a minute. Then he said, "Do you really think that Sakura likes Naruto?"
Sasuke looked at Neji, then sighed. "No, I don't. I think she's using Naruto as a form of comfort for my latest rejection of her, and that she'll dump him soon."
"Exactly. Do you really want Naruto to suffer from a broken heart like that?" Neji asked.
"No. But neither do I want to destroy what happiness he has now. He's wanted Sakura for four years, Neji. And now he finally has her. Let him enjoy it while he can. When I start to see things getting shaky, I'll break them up," Sasuke assured the Hyuuga.
"I know he loves her, but he deserves someone who really cares for him," Neji said sadly as he took another sip of coffee.
"I know. And Hinata will get him in time. But let him have his happiness first," Sasuke insisted.
Neji nodded. But he couldn't help feeling as though it would be most beneficial to break the couple now while they were still young. Something told him that if they waited until later, someone was going to get hurt. But he shrugged it off and stayed talking to Sasuke until one in the morning.
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Author's Notes: Yes, I know I should be working on my other stories right now, but the damn plot bunnies ambushed me again! DAMN YOU PLOT BUNNIES!!!! But I have everything laid out for this story already, so it shouldn't be too hard to work on... Damnit, I just jinxed myself didn't I? Shit...
Title: Within My Grasp
Rating: PG-13
Pairings: NaruHina
Warnings: There is VERY slight NaruSaku, but it is essential to the plot. Oh, and OOCness. But there are almost no fanfics out there than don't have this. So it really shouldn't have to be a warning. But oh well!
----------
-Takes place about for years from the current manga timeline-
It had been announced that day. It had shocked the hell out of everyone. It had been the most unexpected thing ever in Konoha (apart from the attack from Sand and Sound). But, it was all true. Uzumaki Naruto and Haruno Sakura were going out.
From what the rumors were, Naruto had just gone up to Sakura and asked her to go out with him (with added puppy dog eyes, of course). Sakura had been shocked and was silent for a minute, and them smiled, took his hand and said yes. And, of course, these rumors were from Yamanka Ino herself, who had been eating lunch with Sakura when it had happened.
It was a most pleasant shock for some and a terrible shock for others. Naruto was as happy as ever. Iruka and Kakashi were both happy for Naruto. Shikamaru was happy because now Naruto wouldn't whine about how Sakura hated him all the time. and Sasuke was happy because it meant one less girl always chasing after him.
And then there were people who were unhappy. Sakura's parents were unhappy (although they NEVER showed it) because they wanted their daughter to marry that fine Uchiha boy. Ino was unhappy because Sakura had a boyfriend and she didn't (but eventually she became happy as well). Lee was unhappy because he didn't get Sakura. Other people were unhappy because they didn't see why a good, respectable girl like Sakura was going with the Kyuubi boy. And then there was the most unhappy person of all, Hyuuga Hinata.
Poor Hinata had been heart broken when she had heard the news from Kiba. She cursed herself. Naruto had been totally free for as long as she could remember and she had never made a move! And now, he was gone. Probably forever. Hinata knew how much Naruto liked Sakura, and Sakura had been getting a bit fed up with Sasuke always rejecting her. And Sakura also knew that Naruto cared for her deeply. So why would she want anyone else? They were a perfect couple, the smart girl and the daring boy. It was like something out of a fairy tale.
People had seen the two together, laughing and having lots of fun (Yes, Ino was spying on them). "Such a wonderful match, like something in heaven!" was what a lot of people said after they had gotten over the initial shock of it all.
And yet, no one thought of how other's might be affected by this, Hinata in particular. She was devastated. If only she had made her move before, Naruto would be hers! But it was too late now. Naruto was gone, most likely forever.
However, Hinata was soon going to realize that maybe Naruto wasn't so out of her grasp after all.
----------
Hinata was sitting on her bed, with her legs drawn up to her chest and her forehead resting on her knees. Her arms were wrapped around her legs as silent tears streamed down her face.
'Hinata-baka! He was there for all those years, within your grasp! He liked you, he was your friend! And now... He's gone..'. Hinata thought. She hiccupped. 'Gone... Forever... Just like that...' She gave a small sob.
There was knock on her bedroom door. "Hinata?" a voice asked worriedly.
Hinata struggled to keep her voice straight. "I'm fine, chichi {1}," she said.
Hiashi frowned outside the room. It was a lie and he knew it, but he wasn't going to press matters. He wasn't sure what he could do anyway. His connection with Hinata wasn't great. He considered asking Hanabi what was wrong but decided against it. Hanabi and Hinata fought like cats and dogs. Hanabi wouldn't have a clue what was going on. Hiashi sighed. Maybe Neji might be able to coax it out of her. Hinata and her cousin had grown very close ever since that battle with Uzumaki Naruto. Hiashi smiled. Yes, Neji would be able to get it out of her. And if not, then he'd probably be able to tell what was wrong. The Hyuuga Master set off to go find his nephew.
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Neji was in living hell right now. Lee had been very upset lately because Sakura was no longer free. He was wallowing in self pity of himself not acting sooner and missing his chance. So Gai had assigned Tenten and Neji a mission to cheer Lee up. Basically, they were supposed to follow him around all day and do whatever he wanted.
Neji sat at the Ichiraku ramen stand staring at nothing in particular, and cursing every god he could think of that he had gotten stuck with Lee as a teammate. Neji frowned. Well, no, Lee himself wasn't so bad. A little hyper active yes, but a good fighter and hard worker nonetheless. So instead Neji cursed the every god he could think of as to why Lee had to fall in love with Sakura, and why Naruto had to ask Sakura out, and why Sakura had said yes.
"Lee, if you eat anymore ramen, you're going to get sick!" Tenten scolded Lee.
Lee sobbed. "I don't care! That will help me forget about Sakura-san!" and he began stuffing his face again.
Tenten sighed and turned to Neji. "Do you ever get the feeling God is against us?" she asked him.
"Oh yeah. All the bloody fucking time," Neji grumbled.
"You do have to feel kind of bad for him, though," Tenten continued. "Sakura was one of the only people who liked him for him and got past the looks. And he lost her."
"Sakura liked him for him?" Neji asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Well, she wasn't keen on the looks, but she was his friend and she respected and cared for him a lot! Remember when Gai-sensei took us to visit Lee in the hospital after his fight with Gaara?" Tenten asked.
"Yeah, what about it?"
"Do you remember the daffodil?"
Neji thought for a moment. "Yeah, in the vase on the bedside table, right?"
Tenten nodded. "Sakura gave him that. Lee was really happy when he found that out, remember?"
Neji nodded. "So he's upset that someone who might have potentially been willing to give him a chance is now gone," he said. "It IS kinda sad..." he trailed off.
Tenten nodded and sighed. "I wish there was something I could do to cheer him up," she said sadly. Then she looked back at Lee who was still sobbing and stuffing his face with ramen.
----------
Hiashi was not one to go into Konoha very often, so he wasn't exactly sure where the hell he was going. Ok, so he was down right lost. It happens to all of us at some point in life.
Hiashi had given up on trying to find out where he was ages ago. Now all he was doing was searching for someone who might know where Neji was at the moment. She was searching, searching, searching.... AHA!!! Uzumaki Naruto! He might know where Neji was!
Hiashi walked over to Naruto and tapped him lightly on the shoulder. Naruto turned around.
"Can I help you, Hyuuga-sama?" Naruto asked looking confused.
"Hai. I was wondering, do you know where Neji is right now?" Hiashi asked.
"Uhh... iie. I haven't seen him since yesterday," Naruto said. "Gomen ne, Hiashi-sama."
"Naruto-kun!" a girl's voice called through the streets.
"Naruto looked up jut in time to see Sakura charging towards him. She ran and hugged him. "Naruto-kun! Genki desu ka {2}?" she said happily. Naruto grinned.
"Great! Ano sa, Sakura-chan, have you seen Neji today?" he asked.
Sakura blinked. "Neji? Hai, he was over at the Ichiraku with Tenten and Lee- san," she said.
Naruto turned to Hiashi. "The ramen stand is just up the street," he pointed with his finger. "Neji's probably there right now."
"Arigatou, Uzumaki-san," Hiashi said and he walked towards the Ichiraku.
Sakura looked at Naruto. "Naruto-kun, what was that all about?"
"He was looking for Neji," Naruto said with a shrug. "Come on, let's go the park. The Sakura trees are in bloom right now. It'll be really pretty!"
Sakura giggled. "Alright, to the park it is!" she and Naruto walked off towards the park
(A/N: You have no idea how hard it is or someone who absolutely HATES NaruSaku to right a scene like this.)
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Neji groaned as Lee ordered another bowl of ramen. At this rate, he was going to die from sheer embarrassment. This was Lee's sixth bowl for hell's sake!
The Hyuuga's eyes wondered into the streets, and they caught sight of someone they did not expect to see.
'Hiashi-sama?! Here?' Neji wondered. Knowing his uncle wasn't the best with directions or finding his way, Neji went over to Hiashi. He bowed and then asked, "Hiashi-sama. What brings you here?"
"I was looking for you, Neji," Hiashi said simply. Neji stared.
"Me?" he asked.
"Hai. Hinata has been locked up in her room for the past couple days and I know there's something wrong. But she won't tell me what it is. I was hoping you could try and get it out of here, or at the very least cheer her up a bit," Hiashi told Neji.
Neji blinked. "Alright. When do you want me to come over?"
"Actually, I was wondering if you could do it now."
Neji stared. Now? As in, right now? As in, leaving Lee and Tenten and not having to pay the bill? As in, getting away from Lee?! What the hell was he waiting for?! "LET'S GO!" He grabbed Hiashi's arm and began dragging him back to the Hyuuga part of Konoha.
Tenten looked at her teammate and blinked. Why was Neji in a beam of light? And where was that weird heavenly music coming from?
----------
Hinata was now lying on her bed, staring at nothing in particular. She was still thinking about her lost chance with Naruto.
Someone knocked on the door. "Hinata-san?" Neji asked from outside.
"Come in, Neji-san," she said, her spirits lifting a little. She was glad her cousin had come over. Maybe she could Neji her feelings about Naruto. He wouldn't laugh or anything of the sort. He'd hear her out.
Neji closed the door and went and sat down on the bed. "Hinata-san, have you been crying?" he asked, his voice laced with concern.
Hinata nodded and sat up, clutching her pillow to her chest.
"Hinata-san, what's wrong? What's made you so upset? If someone's hurt you I swear I'll go kick their sorry little ass's..."
"No, no one's hurt me. Well, not pyshically anyway," Hinata replied softly.
"They called you names?"
"No, no one intened to hurt me in anyway. I kind of brought this upon myself," Hinata whispered.
Neji frowned. "Can you tell me about it?" he asked.
Hinata nodded. "You know that Sakura and Naruto are going out, right?"
Neji snorted. "Who doesn't? Ino's got such a big mouth people in Stone country probably know it."
"Well, that's what's been upsetting me," Hinata said.
Neji blinked. "Nani? Are you afraid Naruto won't treat Sakura right or something?"
Hinata shook her head. "I... Well I... I have... a-a c-crush.... o-on Naruto-kun," she whispered. Then she buried her face in her pillow. There, she said it. Now at least Neji would know what was bothering her.
Neji was surprised. He knew Hinata was a little more shy around Naruto than everyone else, but he had always though that it was because (like all of them had been at one point) she wasn't sure she liked Naruto yet and wanted to give it time. He had never thought it might be a crush...
Then again, it made sense, didn't it? She was always happy when Naruto was happy, and said when he was sad, and she always liked to be around him to cheer him up. And when he had fought her in the preliminary rounds in the Chuunin exams four years ago. Had she not been going to give up, until Naruto cheered her on, and then she fought until she was coughing up blood? And she had based her nindo on Naruto's nindo as well. And then she always called him Naruto-kun, too. Neji fought back a groan. It was so obvious, and I didn't realize it until now?! Geez... he thought sulkily.
"Well, Hinata-san, I don't think you should beat yourself up about this. It's not like anyone saw this coming and was prepared for it. It was very sudden. I'm sure if you had known Sakura was going to say yes to Naruto you would have acted before now, am I right?" he said, touching her shoulder gently. Hinata lifted her head and nodded. "And don't worry about their relationship. It won't last forever."
Hinata blinked. "How do you know that?"
Neji grinned. "Because as long as Sasuke is still single, no girl that's single is every gonna have a relationship that lasts."
Hinata giggled.
----------
Neji rang the doorbell of Uchiha Sasuke's house. How, you may ask, did two such beings become friends? Well, when Sasuke returned from his little escapade with Orochimaru, he felt really bad that Neji had gotten so badly hurt. So he visited Neji everyday trying to get him to feel better. And well, then progressed from there and by the time Neji was out of the hospital he and Sasuke were best friends. Apart from Naruto, that is.
Sasuke opened the door. "Neji," he said, a bit surprised. "Why are you here at this hour (because it was ten at night)?"
"I need to talk to you for a bit," Neji said.
"Ok, well, come in," Sasuke said, holding open the door. Neji stepped inside. "Do you want some coffee?" Sasuke asked.
Neji nodded and took a seat at the table while Sasuke went about making coffee. "Cream, right?" he said. Neji nodded.
Sasuke brought the two cups of coffee over to the table, and gave one to Neji as he sat down. "So what did you want to talk about?"
Neji took a sip of the coffee. "Have you ever noticed how Hinata acts around Naruto?"
"Yeah.... She's more shy around him than others. So?" Sasuke said.
"Well, it turns out that her behavior is because she has a crush on him," Neji replied.
Sasuke cocked an eyebrow. "She has a crush on him?"
"Hai. And if you look at all the evidence it's really embarrassing that we haven't noticed it yet. And Hinata actually had to tell me that she had a crush on Naruto before I figured it out," Neji took another sip of coffee.
Sasuke thought. Neji was right; the evidence DID show that Hinata had an obvious crush on Naruto. "But why did she tell you in the first place?" he questioned.
"She locked herself in her room for a few days because she was upset. Hiashi-sama asked me to try and figure out what was wrong with her. She told be she was upset because Naruto and Sakura are going out..."
"Because she likes Naruto. Makes sense." Sasuke traced the rim of his mud with one finger. "But why did you need to tell me this?"
Neji hesitated for a minute. Then he said, "Do you really think that Sakura likes Naruto?"
Sasuke looked at Neji, then sighed. "No, I don't. I think she's using Naruto as a form of comfort for my latest rejection of her, and that she'll dump him soon."
"Exactly. Do you really want Naruto to suffer from a broken heart like that?" Neji asked.
"No. But neither do I want to destroy what happiness he has now. He's wanted Sakura for four years, Neji. And now he finally has her. Let him enjoy it while he can. When I start to see things getting shaky, I'll break them up," Sasuke assured the Hyuuga.
"I know he loves her, but he deserves someone who really cares for him," Neji said sadly as he took another sip of coffee.
"I know. And Hinata will get him in time. But let him have his happiness first," Sasuke insisted.
Neji nodded. But he couldn't help feeling as though it would be most beneficial to break the couple now while they were still young. Something told him that if they waited until later, someone was going to get hurt. But he shrugged it off and stayed talking to Sasuke until one in the morning.
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Author's Notes: Yes, I know I should be working on my other stories right now, but the damn plot bunnies ambushed me again! DAMN YOU PLOT BUNNIES!!!! But I have everything laid out for this story already, so it shouldn't be too hard to work on... Damnit, I just jinxed myself didn't I? Shit...