Cast on.

Knit row.

Bind off.

Cast on.

Knit row.

Bind off.

Hinata repeated the rhythm like clockwork. A feeling of calmness steadied her hands and washed over her mind.

Simple, methodical activities like knitting were always a huge stress reliever for her. It was one of the hobbies she'd picked up soon after becoming a genin – a perfect pick-me-up after practicing jyuuken all day, every day, only to make almost no progress and earning cold looks of disappointment from her father and the rest of the Hyuuga.

She glanced at the tattered red scarf on her table. Was it really fourteen years since that day? She smiled as she remembered that freezing day like it was yesterday. The moment when she met Naruto for the first time ever.

"My name is Uzumaki Naruto! I'm the future Hokage, ya know!"

Hinata believed him a hundred percent when he said that with such force and vigor back then.

She wondered if he remembered that day too. She hoped it was as important to him as it was to her.

It was the first time someone had ever been kind to her. She only needed to look at this scarf and imagine Naruto's kind smile from that day again.

Cast on.

Knit row.

Bind off.

Cast on.

Knit row.

Bind off.

Her pet project on her off-time from missions was almost complete.

Just a few more days.

Slurp...slurp...slurp.

An extra large bowl of miso ramen with chashu and naruto.

On the worst days of his childhood, the days when he was just the "demon fox brat," he could always count on Old Man Teuchi, Big Sis Ayame, and an extra large bowl of miso ramen with chashu and naruto. He remembered that freezing night like it was yesterday, that night when he met Old Man Teuchi for the first time ever.

"Hey, kid, would you like some ramen? Miso ramen with chashu and naruto toppings. Come inside."

People always thought that his love for ramen was just some bizarre, inexplicable obsession he had. They were wrong.

It was a memory of the first time someone had been kind to him. Every time he had a bowl of Ichiraku's ramen, if he savored the taste just enough, he could imagine Old Man Teuchi's kind smile again.

Memories…

He was jolted out of his daydream as he remembered the scarf wrapped around his neck – another precious memory. He carefully removed it and put it away.

Sakura frowned and began to ask him something but –

"Hinata! If you haven't eaten yet, want to have dinner with us?" Ino called out.

Naruto whirled around. Hinata was standing in front of Ichiraku, bundled up in a purple jacket and holding a paper bag.

"Today's my treat!" he said warmly.

"Naruto's so happy about something that he wants to celebrate!" Sakura coaxed.

Hinata was...hesitating. Why? She'd been doing that a lot lately, and only around him. The thought made his heart clench.

Sakura was watching the two of them with a funny look. Before he could ponder on it, she stood and asked Hinata to take a seat.

"Yeah, join us!" he said.

He shot a grateful glance at Sakura as Hinata made her way towards them. Finally, some time with Hinata! He'd barely seen her at all over the past few weeks, and whenever he'd try to say hi, she'd just turn tail and run. He hadn't seen her act like that in...forever.

It hurt a lot, if he was being honest.

He was about to say hi to her and ask her where she'd been when two of his fangirls barged in.

"Did you like the presents, Naruto-senpai?"

"Oh, yeah...Have something to eat, you guys. It's my treat. You too, Hinata!"

He tried to smile at her, but he somehow found himself being dragged away.

Then Hinata bolted from the table.

Sakura turned towards him with a meaningful look.

"Walk her home!"

Naruto squinted at Sakura. Why? Hinata knew where her house was. It's not like she had amnesia or anything.

He voiced this out loud, only for Sakura to say, "You shouldn't let girls walk alone at night!"

That was...strange.

"But Hinata's super strong! No one in the village would dare mess with her!" he explained.

Why did Sakura think that Hinata was a pushover or something?

Hinata turned tail and ran, again.

Sakura scowled at Naruto.

"You're an idiot!" she snapped, before running after Hinata.

"Huh? Why are you calling me an idiot?"

He watched Hinata's back with no small amount of bewilderment.

If she kept avoiding him, did that mean she was mad at him? His stomach sank.

Naruto paid up and left Ichiraku not five minutes after that odd scene. The ramen tasted like ash in his mouth after Hinata ran away like that.

He stared intently at the moon as he made his way home through the snow-lined streets. Lately, it seemed that Hinata was always making a sad face because of him. He had no idea what he was doing wrong, whether it was telling her that her long hair was beautiful or that she was so strong that no one would bother her.

He wished she would come back, if only so that he could say sorry.

His heart sped up as he rounded the corner and spotted a purple jacket and mane of inky black hair.

"Naruto-kun..."

Huh? How could she be talking to him over there when he was all the way over here? Was she using her Byakugan to stare at him through the back of her head?

"Hinata!"

He rushed towards her excitedly.

She abruptly froze, then turned around slowly and stiffly, like she'd been caught stealing cookies from a jar.

"Good...evening."

She looked...so...cute, with her shy little smile.

He beamed at her. Someone out there was listening to his prayers!

"We just saw each other at Ichiraku, didn't we?"

"Oh, that's right!"

She kept smiling that little smile. His heart calmed. She...wasn't mad at him?

"So, what's up?" he asked.

She glanced at his neck and froze up.

"That's...a very nice scarf," she mumbled.

"Oh...yes!"

Hinata had great taste in scarves, just like his mom! He wondered what she would say if she could have ever gotten a chance to meet Hinata. She would probably approve, because Hinata was awesome.

His musings were broken off by the rumbling of her stomach.

He smiled sympathetically. She really didn't have dinner after all. "Seems like you are hungry!"

Hinata's face turned the same shade as his mother's beautiful red hair.

"Do you want some cup ramen?"

The blush was spreading from her face to her neck. Naruto was fascinated. Did she blush everywhere? Like, a full body blush?

"I have some in my – "

"Good night!" she yelled, running away for the millionth time in the past few weeks.

"Hinata? Didn't you want to talk to me? Hinata!"

He frowned, then took off after her.

She wasn't getting away this time!

A/N: New chapter's up! Thank you for all of the reviews from last chapter. I think I'll respond individually to each one this time.

To Iwik: I have an epilogue type thing in mind to bring everything from the first few chapters full circle. So I guess that yes, I will be filling in some blanks. And yeah, Sakura's plan kind of backfired, ha ha. :)

To El Publicano: I'm not going to rewrite the movie exactly, but I'm going to fill in some blanks and do some missing moment type stuff. And you don't like the Otsutsukis?! :( I'm neutral on most of them personally and I like the Sage of Six Paths a lot. I laughed at the Hinata's brain disconnecting part. Yeah, oblivious Hinata is fun to write. :)

To Guest: Please see my note at the end of chapter 5.

To Lila08: I'm glad my Hinata and Hanabi dialogue worked! I don't have any siblings myself, so I wouldn't know. I just focused on what Hinata and Hanabi's relationship is like rather than think about what all little sisters might be like. And yay, more people agree with me about dense Hinata! I think she can easily be considered dense in the Last movie. She clearly had no idea that Naruto liked her, even though he was pulling spiderwebs out of her hair and letting her drink water from his palms and all of that. :)