"The Courting of Uzumaki Naruto"

by the Carpet Shampoo

Author's Commentary: So sorry its been so long here! But there was exams and there was...so much to do. Then there was Mother's Day to plan for…

But I'm updating now!

Chapter 10: What lies beneath…

"All right genins!" Kakashi addressed the group. Shikamaru gave a little cough and glanced up at Kakashi. "And chuunin," Kakashi added, "It is time to present your gifts and letters to Naruto! This has been a test of not only your love for Naruto, but also, of your ninja abilities to look underneath the underneath!"

"Ahem. All letters will be read, however, we had to confiscate the gifts of Orochimaru, Itachi and Gaara." Kakashi finished up.

"Orochimaru and Itachi sent me gifts…?" Naruto asked, blinking at Kakashi. "But why were they confiscated?"

"Well…Itachi's gift we assumed would be dangerous, so we just threw it out. Orochimaru's gift, well, we took the liberty of at least opening that…" Kakashi suddenly got an odd look in his eye, one that Naruto and Sasuke recognized. It was the look Kakashi got whenever he was reading Icha Icha Paradise. Kakashi cleared his throat. "Well, naturally the gift was highly inappropriate for a child, but Iruka and I were more than happy to confiscate to it!"

Everyone looked slightly disgusted, except for Naruto and Hinata, who both looked utterly confused.

"And Gaara had his gift confiscated because it consisted of several highly illegal weapons, scrolls for banned jutsus, and a dead skunk." Gaara nodded at each item, grinning rather creepily at the mention of the dead skunk.

"Now!" Gai boomed in an overly loud voice, "Present your gifts!" Everyone held out a gift, except Gaara, naturally, who seemed to be sulking over the whole ordeal.

It was decided Hinata should go first. She shyly approached Naruto, twiddling her bandaged thumbs, trying hard not to meet his eyes. Everyone else was shooed away, giving Hinata a few moments alone with Naruto. Hinata shyly handed Naruto a soft brown teddy bear, with dark eyes, and a silky green ribbon to go with it. Naruto took the bear and studied it for a moment, the glanced at Hinata, a nervous look in his eye.

"What's this?" Naruto, having grown up alone, had never had such a bear before and wasn't quite sure what to do with it.

"It's a bear. It keeps you company when you're alone…" Hinata had grown up with hundreds of them, all of them watching over her as she slept. But this one was special –she had made it herself, just for Naruto.

"You tie the ribbon on it and give it a name…" Hinata added, twisting her hands together. Naruto studded it for a moment, then tied the ribbon around the bear's forehead.

"There! Now it's a ninja of Konoha! See how brave it looks now Hinata?" Hinata giggled softly. The bear did somehow look braver with the ribbon tied around its forehead. Its soft look had somehow faded.

"It's a brave ninja…Just like us. So that's why its name is Hinata." Hinata blushed terribly red. She hadn't even mentioned it, but the legend went, if you made a bear for someone and they named it after you, that person would return your love forever.

But then again – Naruto had also tied the ribbon on wrong. Maybe that would counteract the magic of the bear! Oh…this was terrible…

"Plus it smells like you…you made it yourself, right Hinata? So now as long as the bear Hinata is brave, you will be too." Hinata nodded, trying to keep from smiling too much – the bear smelled like her because she'd lightly sprayed it with her favorite perfume, to remind Naruto of her.

With trembling hands, Hinata reached into her pocket and pulled out a letter. She handed it to Naruto, with a slight pink blush.

Naruto opened it up, stared at for a minute, and then turned pink, handing it back to Hinata.

"Hinata-chan…I'm sorry, but you're letter is all in kanji…I can't read it." Hinata blinked and looked down at her letter.

"Naruto-kun…" Hinata blushed and opened up her letter.

"D-Dear Naruto…" her voice was soft and nervous sounding, her hands trembled, and her eyes refused to leave the paper, but she read on, "I don't even know what to write here. I've got this whole blank sheet of paper, a heart full of feelings and nothing to say. Its so strange…Suddenly, everyone wants to be with you, and I feel so alone. I've liked you since I've met you, and sometimes I feel upset around the other people, because I'm the only one that can say I've always liked you Naruto. When I'm with you Naruto, I feel so shy and scared. But at the same time, when you're with me, I want to be brave. Signed, Hyuuga Hinata."

"I didn't know you ever liked me Hinata…" Hinata blinked and looked up at Naruto. Was he serious? All those times she blushed around him, and shied away from him, he had no idea?

"Really Naruto? No idea at all?" Naruto shook his head, his eyes so wide, innocent and sincere. Hinata giggled softly and shook her head. She could hear Iruka-sensei calling her back; her time with Naruto was up.

Kakashi thought it would be fun for Shino to go next, secretly, he hoped the bug ninja would win. For the record, Iruka secretly wanted Shikamaru to win, Konohamaru wanted Neji to win, though no one was sure why. And Gai didn't want anyone to win. He didn't have to. He knew that Rock Lee would win. Even if he wasn't in the contest. Even if Lee didn't even have romantic feelings for Naruto. Lee would still win.

So Shino entered in next. He smiled in an expression of great pride as he held his gift. He had finally thought up something on his own.

Of course, to Naruto, it looked like Shino was expressionless as so much of his face was covered up. As a matter of fact, with that high collar and dark glasses, added to the package Shino had tucked under his arm, it looked downright suspicious. Shino walked up to Naruto and thrust the gift out to him.

Naruto cautiously accepted the package, still thinking it would be a bomb or something, but then decided it would probably be the same thing he was getting from Kiba and Kiba wouldn't send him a bomb.

Shino reached foreword and tapped Naruto's hand.

"You have to open the letter first." Naruto cautiously opened the letter, afraid to find it all written in kanji again. Instead, it was a picture of two bugs. Shino smiled proudly at his picture, but once again, you couldn't see his expression.

Naruto blinked at the picture once more. They looked like Shino's bugs on the picture…except they had both obviously been drawn in crayon, and one had huge blue eyes and bright yellow hair, not to mention an adorable, albeit slightly disturbing grin. Plus it was holding hands with a bug that appeared to have an afro and was wearing little sunglasses. The chibi bugs were expertly drawn, with a poorly drawn purple heart above them.

"And this!" Shino gently handed Naruto the package he had been holding. Naruto pulled off the wrapping paper inside to reveal every twelve year olds dream.

Yes that's right, Shino had gotten Naruto his very own pet tarantula. Naruto's big blue eyes widened, his thoughts already filled with what he was going to do with this spider. Most of these thoughts involved Sakura, Ino, Tenten, and Neji. Shino grinned at Naruto, and even though all Naruto could see was the slight twitching in the boy's cheeks, he knew Shino was smiling, so he smiled back.

"You picked this out yourself?" Shino nodded, still feeling proud of himself.

"Shino? Your time is –"

"Hey Iruka-sensei, look what Shino got me!" Naruto had already removed the spider from its big glass class and shoved it right up in Iruka's face.

"Isn't it cool?"

Iruka promptly fainted.

Author's Commentary: I had to make this a split chapter! It was just so long!! So that's why it seems short, its only part one of the chapter. I'm sorry the update took so long, but I've been sick this whole time!

And my birthday's coming up in only a few weeks! I'm gonna be 17! June 3rd, who's getting me a present, huh, huh?