Pure Naruto Hinata fluff. Enjoy!
And no, I still don't own Naruto. Please don't sue.
The rain poured down from the grey sky, punctuated by the occasional slash of lightning. Hinata, huddled under the thick branches of one of the many trees around Konaha, it was the village hidden in the leaves after all, stared up at the sky with a mixture of annoyance and fear. She hated rainy days. She had never liked the rain. It was wet and cold, and when she was little the sound of thunder had terrified her. And now she had gotten stuck in this storm, and it looked as though it wasn't going to let up for a while. She shivered from a cold gust, merely thankful that the thick tree branches kept off most of the wet. She despised being wet. She wished she hadn't been so wrapped up in training, had seen the signs of rain. The day had begun beautifully. The sun had shone, and it seemed a perfect day to go out and train, and even perhaps to run across Naruto in his training. She'd been so intent on her training, and listening for the sounds of someone else in the forest, that she hadn't noticed the sky clouding over, or the wind picking up. Before she'd known it, the first drops of rain started to fall, and she'd had little time to do anything but hide under a tree before it really began to pelt down. She could hardly see to the next tree now, the rain was so thick.
She sighed sadly to herself. She was stuck out here in the rain, and she hadn't gotten so much a glimpse of Naruto all day. He was probably sitting in the ramen shop laughing with Sasuke and Sakura, not even noticing her absence. She closed her eyes. Maybe if she waited for the rain to let up a little and ran as fast as she could, she could get home only marginally soaked. She could take a nice hot bath afterwards, to get rid of this chill. Maybe she could even go down to the ramen shop afterwards, and see Naruto. Perhaps he would notice her this time, come over, sit down next to her and say hello. They would strike up a conversation, and he would say...what would he say? "Hinata," he would say, "Hinata" why couldn't she think of anything beyond that? She loved hearing him say her name. "Hinata. Hinata,"
"Hinata?" She jumped. Someone had actually said her name! She opened hey eyes, to see standing there was...Naruto! He was holding a large umbrella over his head, with an expression of concern on his face. "Kiba told me you went into the forest this morning to train, and that you hadn't come back when it started raining!"He grinned at her with his famous smile, that just made her heart melt. "A real shinobi doesn't let his friends get stuck out in the rain!" He bowed like a gentleman, and held out his arm to her. "Lady Hinata, may I have the honor of escorting you home?" There was a playful glint in his clear blue eyes.
Hinata flushed and took his hand, feeling giddy inside. She didn't care if Naruto was only playing, the way he was acting made her heart beat faster. And he was actually holding her hand! Not only that, but they had to stand very close together under the umbrella to avoid either of them getting wet. Hinata purposely walked a bit slowly, outwardly appearing as though she was simply avoiding getting wet by walking too fast, but really to prolong the walk with Naruto. A roll of thunder boomed particularly loudly, and she instinctively huddled closer against Naruto, clutching his arm. She realized what she was doing, and blushed, but Naruto made no move to push her away, in fact, wrapping the arm that wasn't holding the umbrella around her shoulders, and pulling her closer.
"Are you afraid of the thunder Hinata?" he asked, not mockingly, but in a caring, concerned way.
"Y, yes." said Hinata, ashamed that she was showing terror over such a silly thing in the presence of the fearless Naruto. He was probably laughing to himself right now.
"Well, a real ninja shouldn't be afraid of the thunder!" he said, and she cringed inwardly. But then, "I'll show you how not to be afraid of it!" He looked up, just as the thunder boomed again. "You just have to be louder than the thunder! That teaches it who's boss!" He shouted loudly into the air "I'm Naruto Uzumaki, and I'm not afraid of any old thunder!" he grinned at her. "Now you try!"
"Me? B, but," she protested, but he cut her off.
"Go on. There's no one but us out here, it's okay." He smile encouragingly.
"I, I'm Hinata and I'm not afraid of the thunder?" she said softly.
"No, not like that!" he said with a laugh. "You have to shout it. Stand up for yourself! Be loud! Like I was!" Hinata too a deep breath.
"I'm Hinata and h'm not afraid of thunder!" she shouted, and then giggled.
"That's good!" said Naruto sounding overjoyed. "Look, we scared that thunder away! See?" he pointed up to the sky, where the clouds were receding. "And we're there!" he pointed to where Konoha could bee seen a little beyond the trees. "I guess we won't need this anymore." he furled the umbrella up. Hinata sighed sadly. Now that the rain had stopped and they were back, he would certainly forget about her and dash off back to his friends. But then he surprised her by saying "Can I walk you home?" She nodded emphatically, overjoyed that she would get to spend a little longer in his presence. They walked down the streets to her house, Naruto chatting idly about his training, the events in the village, current gossip, and nothing in particular.
They soon reached her house. Hinata sighed sadly, and even Naruto looked a little disappointed.
"Well, I guess this is where I should leave then." he said turning to go. Hinata suddenly made a decision.
"W, wait Naruto! Would you, would you like to come in?" she asked nervously. He turned back to her, a big grin on his face.
"Sure! I mean, if you don't mind." She shook her head vehemently, and all but pulled him inside. Once there, she was faced with another problem. What would she do? What would she say?
"Umm, Naruto, would you like something to eat?" she asked nervously, though overjoyed. Naruto was actually in her house!
"Sure, that would be great!" he said. She went to her cupboard, where she knew she had some ramen. She had been at the grocery store, covertly following him around as he shopped, and had been waiting in the ramen aisle for fifteen minutes, knowing he would show up there, and perhaps say hello. He had, and then "Oh, you like ramen too?" she'd nodded, and had had no choice but to pick out and buy a few bowl of ramen, lest she blow her cover. She had fantasized about Naruto coming to her house and eating the ramen with her, and there he was! Right here in her house eating ramen! She sneezed, and realized with dismay that despite her best efforts, she was rather damp from the rain. And cold too.
"Naruto? H'm going to change into something dry. I'll be back in a moment." she said.
He nodded his assent through a mouthful of ramen. She dashed into her room, and started to grab one of her regular outfits, then stopped. After a moment, she chose a silky skirt that went down just past her knees (she had at first gone for a miniskirt that Sakura and Ino had insisted she buy on a shopping trip with the other girls, then decided that though it might have been sexier, it wasn't worth that to be blushing every time Naruto looked at her legs) and a silvery tank top that matched hey eyes. She came back out of her room. Naruto's eyes widened when he saw her.
"Wow, Hinata, you look really nice." he said.
"Th, thank you." she said with a soft smile. She walked over to sit down next to him, and noticed he still had a bit of ramen on his face. Unthinkingly she picked up a napkin and brushed it off, then blushed as she realized what she'd done, and started to pull her hand away. But Naruto caught it, and pulled her closer, leaning forwards himself. She blushed even more, realizing they were very close, face to face in fact.
"Hinata?" he said softly. "I'm going to kiss you."
And that was when Hinata decided that she like rainy days very much indeed.
