Love is often misunderstood.
How can someone love someone else
And not even know it,
Even deny it.
Love is weird.
Timeskip-
3 years later
Team 7, especially Naruto, had been begging for a real mission. They had done upwards of 40 d-rank missions. Kakashi and Naruto believed that if they did all of the d-rank missions they could and proved their worth to the third, then there was a chance they would earn a c-rank mission.
It just about seemed like their efforts were in vain, when lord third offered them a c-rank mission. They were to escort an expert bridge builder to the land of waves tomorrow. Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura began to cheer at the news. Sasuke quickly realized what he was doing and went back to looking bored.
In an attempt to try to improve with Nuibari, Naruto had taken up sewing. NOT knitting. There's a difference and Naruto had to notify Kurama every time he called it knitting. He was currently sewing together a cloak. He was not knitting a hat, he was sewing pieces of fabric to make a cloak. He decided on a dark red with black flames at the bottom.
He was actually incredibly proud of the cloak. It was his most intricate creation yet. It was better than all his other projects. In the past he had made oven mitts, a lot of coasters, and a new handle for Nuibari. Although he hadn't made the most complicated things, he sure was using coasters a lot more. One thing was for sure, this cloak would be a staple of Naruto Uzumaki!
It had taken him almost a day to create the cloak, and he only had a couple of hours before he had to meet up with team 7 for the mission, "Hinata! Hinata!" Naruto was running around the Hyūga compound looking for his friend. Honestly it didn't even have to be Hinata, he just wanted to show off his creation. "Ooh Neji! Check out what I made!" He shouted, pointing both thumbs at the cloak. Neji kept walking past, not even stopping to look.
Naruto showed Hanabi, Hiashi, Hitome, and everyone in the compound. But he couldn't find Hinata. He had searched every corner of the house for her but he couldn't find her. None of the family seemed to know where she was.
Naruto was pretty bummed about that. He really liked spending time with Hinata. She was always so nice. He would always think back to that time after the field trip, when she bought thirteen cinnamon buns just in case she ran into friends. He could go on and on about things he enjoyed about her-
'Sounds like someone's obsessed,' Kurama let out a chuckle as Naruto sprung a tick mark on his forehead.
'Not funny, you oversized mutt,' he wasn't obsessed, they were just friends, nothing more.
'I have to agree with the nine-tailed lint ball over here,' Nuibari interjected, 'You've got yourself one hell of an infatuation, boy.'
'Why is everyone being so mean to me?!'
'ENOUGH! Both of you stop trying to make me believe your lies!' He didn't need them to tell him who he was obsessed with. He knew better than anyone that he WASN'T obsessed with Hinata. He just slept on her shoulder because it was warm and- and-
'Quit rambling, kit,' Kurama interrupted his frantic thought, 'You can deny it all you want, but you'll have to face it some day.'
'It looks like that day is right now,' Nuibari giggled as she and the other two saw Hinata walking towards Naruto.
"Hello Naruto!" Hinata called out, "I like your outfit! Is that new?" Naruto blushed and looked away. 'She was the first person to talk about my cloak before I mentioned it. And that smile was so genuine- damn it! You are not obsessed! You are not obsessed!-'
"Naruto-kun? Is something wrong?" She noticed that has face had grown bright red. He was holding his breath for some reason. She placed a hand on his cheek and giggled, "You have to breath Naruto-k-" Naruto slapped her hand away from him.
"I AM NOT OBSESSED WITH YOU!" He shouted before dashing off mumbling the same thing.
'Why would he say something like that?' Hinata thought to herself, her smile turning into a frown, followed by doubt, as she watched Naruto stomp away. Tears followed. She too ran off. She was going to talk to Kurenai.
Sakura was walking from her house to the main gate when Hinata, her friend, rushed past her, tears streaming from her eyes. She quickly darted down an alley and disappeared. 'That's not good. Not good at all,' Sakura thought. It was rather unusual. Hinata was always a beam of sunshine. She almost always literally glowed with happiness. Sakura walked to the gate with a frown.
-
Naruto and Sasuke were standing at the gate waiting for the two other members of team 7 and their client.
The boys were busy staring off into nothing when a concerned Sakura walked up to the gate, "Have either of you seen Hinata today? She was really upset earlier," Naruto gasped before looking down, "NARUTOO! What did you do to Hinata?!" Sakura clenched her fist, 'Naruto you have ten seconds to explain or else you'll never be able to do anything else ever again CHA!'
Sasuke was shifting side to side awkwardly. This was very clearly not a conversation he needed to be there for. He slowly waddled back from the now steaming Sakura.
"I don't really know how to explain. To you or Hinata," Naruto looked up at Sakura, before immediately looking straight down at the ground. In fact, he was now in the ground looking directly at it.
"WELL YOU BETTER FIGURE IT OUT CHA!" The girl somehow shouted in his ear, even though he was completely submerged in the ground. '
'She may be harsh, but she's only looking out for Hinata,' he thought, 'she's right. For everyone's sake, I need to figure out what's going on with me.'
Naruto, with the help of Sasuke, stood up out of the hole and brushed himself off. His new cloak had gotten dirty, but at least it wasn't destroyed. "Look Sakura," Naruto began, "a lot of stuff has been going through my mind recently and I blurted out something that I shouldn't have," he paused looking at Sakura, who was still upset but calming down, "I'm still trying to think about if what I said is true or not, so when I figure that out I'll tell you."
Sakura pouted and looked at the boy, "But why would you do something like that? Do you know how she's feeli-"
"Sakura, enough," she was cut off by Sasuke this time, "Stop acting like she's only your friend. He obviously feels bad about whatever he did, he's known her longer than any of us," the Uchiha paused, "besides, Naruto didn't say whatever he did just to upset her- that's something I would do," he said with a glare at Sakura, causing her to go cold.
"Hello my cute little genin!" A relaxed voice came from their left. Kakashi was walking with an older man who they assumed was their client, "This is Tazuna-san, the expert bridge builder who we will be escorting."
"These are my bodyguards?" The man said mockingly as he pointed to the genin.
Naruto spoke up after hearing the man's remark, "Stop being a jerk," he said flatly, "especially around the foxes," Naruto added as a fox slinked between his legs.
'Where did that-?" Sakura thought in shock. 'That's certainly weird.'
"Well what's a damn fox gonna-" Kakashi clapped the mans shoulder before whispering the legend of the god of foxes, causing the man to stiffen.
The group had been walking for quite a while when they all saw a puddle.
Team 7 had come up with a set of hand signals to tell where on a clock something was. Naruto feigned a yawn and held up four fingers on each hand, signifying that he had seen something at their "8 o'clock." Each person gave their acknowledgement. The person behind Naruto gave one cough, the next gave two, and Kakashi gave three.
That was when their assailants burst from the puddle, "slicing" Kakashi. Naruto placed shadow clones surrounding Tazuna, and stood with Sakura and Sasuke at the head. The genin, including the shadow clones, all brandished kunai in preparation for the attacks. The chain wielders ran towards the three. Sakura and Sasuke jumped out of the way, leaving only Naruto standing in their path. Naruto "ducked," using his Kamui to allow the chain to simply move through him, before crouching down, spinning around, and kicking the legs out from under them. Sasuke and Sakura followed up by throwing two kunai each, both aiming for each tibial artery (supplies blood to the feet). The kunai hit their mark, immobilizing the attackers.
Kakashi was surprised at how well the genin (and the fake genin) had performed. He walked out from the forest and gave them an ovation before scooping up their assailants. Tazuna was incredibly confused. He had just seen the big one die, and a chain just went through the blonde one. What the hell is going on?
"What the hell is going on?" Kakashi asked Tazuna.
After stammering for a while, Tazuna finally told them the truth. He was being hunted by Gatou and his village was too broke to afford a higher ranked mission. The shinobi decided that they would cross to the land of waterfalls and then rest for the night before continuing their mission.
It was rather early and most everyone was still asleep. "Tazuna-san," Naruto approached the man.
"Look I already said I was sorry for lying, so if you're here to berate me like every-"
"Where is Gatou?" The old man looked rather confused, "Where is Gatou, Tazuna? Do you know?"
The old man scoffed, "You wouldn't even have a chance against him, he has hundreds of-"
"Tazuna-san, I don't care," Naruto interrupted coldly, "Where is Gatou?" Tazuna opened up a map, marked an x with a pen, and handed it to Naruto.
"I hope you can read maps, kid," Naruto just took the map and turned in the opposite direction, "Well clearly you can't. That's the wrong way Baka!" Tazuna shouted to the boy.
"I'm going exactly where I need to go."
Hey all! Finally Naruto is shy and awkward with Hinata. The old switcheroo as they say.
This chapter and the next were originally one chapter, but I decided to split them up. If I didn't, it would have been like 4000 words.
Anyway~
I hope you enjoyed this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it. Have a good day/night (or else!)
It's 4:39 am right now shit.
Jerry out!