Being noticed is one of the basic needs of life, just like water, ramen, and training.

Someone who knows it as well as he does should have noticed her long ago. He suddenly feels deserving of all the dead-lasts and idiots and morons thrown at him.

He wonders how long he's been acknowledged without knowing it, and feels sort of stupid for all the times he banged his fist into that wall because he was ignored once again. He absently flicks the crater, ashamed at all the times he yelled for someone to recognize him and not realizing someone had.

His frog purse is bulging with coins once again after a bet with Tsunade (he seems to win no matter how the odds are stacked against him), he's slightly hungry, and feels like he wants someone to talk to.

He spots her. He still doesn't think much of her looks, really. Her figure isn't as dazzling as Ino's and her face isn't as delicate as Sakura's. Her eyes sort of freak him out, I mean, you can hardly tell if she's even looking at you. She didn't stand out at all. Still a plain, dark-looking weirdo.

But he finds he likes the way she shuffles her feet as she follows him, working up the courage for something and turning right back, the way she won't give up either, the way she gets back up after being beaten down.

He's not beautiful either. Not on the skin, and not inside, because if anyone cared to look, they'd see a glowing pair of eyes and feel the brunt of a claw before they died. But that's okay, because beauty isn't always all that matters.

She doesn't call him dead-last, idiot, moron, because she sees the strength in him, the unquenchable determination. She can accept his being last in the class, because she always knew there was more to him than that.

"Hey Hinata! Let's go have some ramen! My treat!"

"Naruto-kun? Oh, su- sure. I'd love to."

In his opinion, it makes her very noticeable.