Disclaimer:I don't own Naruto.

A/N: My quest to write a mind-numbingly sappy romance fic has been achieved with this fic... Also, thanks to all the reviewers!

2nd A/N:This was supposed to be a one-shot, but here's chapter two, anyways...

"AH WUB YOU, HINATA!!!" Naruto cried.

Hinata stared at Naruto again, this time in disbelief. He was sleeping again, she saw, but... 'Could he... love me?' She wondered. 'Could he!' Her heart started beating faster. She had, after all, heard before that no one lied while they were sleeping. And if Naruto had yelled it out in sleep, could it be that he harbored feelings of his own? Unsure, but now filled with hope, Hinata merely grabbed his hand with two pale hands as she waited for him to awake... And as she did, Hinata could hear her own heart beat, 'b-bump, b-bump, b-bump, b-bump...'

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Naruto awoke feeling groggy. Although he had a very good dream, he couldn't remember it, and moreover, he could tell that whatever pain killers they gave him were now wearing off. His skin felt crisped, and tingly; his mouth felt slightly burned and very cottony, and his eyes felt half-baked...

It was morning now, he saw. Hinata must have left; the blond-haired teen felt sad for some weird reason he couldn't discern. The feeling was eerie and weird, for it wasn't for one specific reason that he missed her: Naruto missed her soft hands, her pale eyes, her dark-blue hair, her soft voice... For some reason, he really liked her.

He stirred. After a day, the Kyubi's healing powers had restored him to a point where he could move: he soon put that facility to use by staggering out of the bed and walking limply to the bathroom. He blearily staggered in, dressed in a small hospital gown, and as he parked himself right in front of a urinal, he parted the fronts of the gown...

"Aw- ya!"

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Hinata stared into a mirror.

She had left Naruto back in the hospital at night, and had come back to sleep... but why was it that she couldn't? His words- "Ah Wub You, Hinata!" -rang around her mind the whole night. And as she got up from the bed, she thought again of those words...

Could they be true? Could... Naruto hold feelings for her? As she started softly washing her face the words still rang around her mind... those words... "I love you, Hinata..." well, actually, "Ah Wub You, Hinata," but still...

She decided to visit Naruto again this morning.

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"Hey, lady, you guys wouldn't have any ramen, would'ya?" Naruto asked. His tongue had healed enough for him to talk normally.

"Sorry, young man." the nurse said, shaking her head. "I'm afraid not. Your tongue is still too damaged for hot foods-"

"But this is gruel! How am I gonna be Hokage eating -this- muck?"

"This is rice porridge, mister, and I cooked it and we at this hospital cooled it down for injuries like what you've got, young man!"

"Whatever. My point is that as a shinobi I need some food!"

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"T-two ramens, miso and pork, please." Hinata said, as the owner nodded. She handed him the money, got the change back, and waited as the man started packing the ramens in portable plastic bowls.

"C-can I have a box, please?" the man nodded sourly, and stared at her a little too long. The man fished out a box, and put the two bowls in with wooden chopsticks.

"Thank you," Hinata said, while bowing. The man grunted, and went to help the next customer. She walked away, and still her thoughts were occupied with that single little phrase bouncing through her head, complete with all the slurry words from the burned tongue and the spittle that had flown from his mouth: in fact, she started to hum, trying to get those words out... but she couldn't.

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Naruto spooned down the rice porridge, after the nurse threatened to have him served real gruel instead. He was scooping up the last of it when Hinata walked through the door... but as he was about to say hello, the blue-eyed boy saw that she was carrying-

"Ramen! I love you, Hinata!" He cried jubilantly. Hinata blushed brillantly, and stared at the ground: but Naruto never noticed it... he was too fixated on the food. "Hinata! You can't believe they served me cold rice porridge only! I mean, how the hell am I supposed to get better eating filth like that!"

Hinata nodded a little. "Y-yes, Naruto, but I'm s-sure-" oh gods, she thought, why am I so nervous- "that t-th-there was a r-reason..." she left off, feeling even dumber.

"Aw, come on, Hinata... Can I please have ramen?" Naruto pleaded, clasping his hands together. "I'm a lot better already, anyways!" He made what he thought was the so-called 'puppy eyes'.

The blue haired girl blushed even deeper. But Naruto didn't notice...

"O-okay..." She took out a bowl, which the blond took gratefully. "Here you go, Naruto..."

"Thanks, Hinata!" He was splitting the chopsticks when he said suddenly, "I did say I love you, didn't I?"

Hinata was feeling like fainting from all the blood rushing to her cheeks. "Y-yes..."

"Good!" The blond-haired boy exclaimed. He started eating the hot, steaming noodles, occasionally groaning a little.

The pale-eyed girl decided to pop in the question that had been plaguing her mind since yesterday. She said hesitantly, as she laid down her bowl unopened on the bedside table, her heart thumping madly, "D-do you... r-rem-remember what you s-said last night?"

Naruto was eating skillfully. "Nope. Not a thing." He didn't look up from his bed. "I was so groggy from all the medicine they gave me while I was knocked out that I don't remember a thing after that rasengan got messed up..."

Her heart was starting to crack a little... "Y- you mean you don't remember anything?"

"Nope. Not a thing. Heck, I could have said 'I love you' to Sasuke for all I know!" He said with a laugh. Hinata felt her heart suddenly beginning to fall apart. The blond-haired boy went on, oblivious. "I mean, I remember having a stupid dream, but I can't even remember that!" He stopped, then asked, "What -did- I do, anyways?"

"N-nothing..." She said. She felt stupid: how could she have been so... idiotic? "Na-Naruto, d-do you by any ch-chance h-have any f-feelings for... me?" Okay, she thought: she had asked the question. It had taken all her courage to ask that, but still- she knew that those words would have tormented her for weeks if she hadn't asked.

Naruto suddenly stopped eating. He turned slowly towards Hinata, his blue eyes meeting her pale ones. Then he suddenly started laughing. "Yeah! Of course I do." Hinata suddenly felt her heart start to pick up the loose pieces that had cracked off earlier. Naruto went on, a grin forming on his features. "I mean, you're one of my best friends. Right?"

"Y-yes..." Feeling like little tiny goblins were stomping on her heart with spiked clubs, she got up from the chair, feeling tears leak from her eyes. She thought she said something about letting Naruto have her untouched ramen, and as she turned around and started to walk towards the door Hinata heard Naruto yell, "Thanks for the ramen, Hinata!"

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Naruto was shoveling ramen into his mouth when he heard Hinata ask, ""Na-Naruto, d-do you by any ch-chance h-have any f-feelings for... me?" He stopped for a second: did he? Yeah, he did, but it was for a friend... a small insistent feeling that one might have for a friend. Yeah, he thought, definitely a friend. Now,as for love, pink hairs and green eyes beckoned him... although he still winced after the last uppercut Sakura had landed on him.

But why did Hinata ask him, though? Surely she couldn't have any feelings for him... it must have been all those 'I love you's that he had been saying to her, Naruto thought. He thought that he shouldn't say all those things anymore, now that he's got her suspicious- for some reason the blond-haired boy felt his chest clutch when he thought of Hinata not being friends anymore, just because he gave her the impression that he liked her. 'I mean,' he thought, 'girls don't like it when you like them. Look at Sakura!' .

"Yeah, of course I do!" He said. Hinata brightened a little, which surprised Naruto. But he went on anyways, and forced a smile on. "I mean, you're one of my best friends, right?" He looked at her expectantly, hoping that she would brighten up...

She stood up suddenly, and he saw disconcertingly a trace of tears glimmering in her eyes. She murmured that he could have the rest of the ramen, and turned to go- her voice sounded like she was crying. Naruto shouted, "Thanks for the ramen, Hinata!", but she didn't turn.

The blond-haired boy felt utterly stupid. And sad. And alone... for some weird reason. When he saw Hinata about to cry, Naruto suddenly felt like getting up and giving her a hug. He laid down the ramen bowl next to the one Hinata had left, his appetite gone. And he noticed absent-mindedly that she hadn't even touched her ramen...

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