A/N: Love writing this, so let's keep going with it. Very fun to write something a little more simple. Anyway, this chapter will more or less pick up on the same note as the last chapter. Will have SOME conflict, though, if you could even call it that.

Time for chapter 6

Enjoy!

Naruto stretched his sore body thoroughly and sat himself down at the base of a tall, lively tree. He was tired, sweaty, and extremely hungry. It was a few minutes past five o'clock, and the blonde's day had been nothing if not dull. Mondays tended to be, as the return to the academy was never pleasant after two whole days of freedom, but today in particular had been incredibly uninteresting. Classes were slow, Iruka was strict, and the hours had dragged on longer than a trek across the desert. Nothing of note happened. Regardless, the most engaging part of his day was now over, that being his daily conditioning.

He had run a lap around the village, completed three sets of seventy-five push ups, drilled his progressing, albeit sloppy, taijutsu, and partaken in a number of other exercises. The entire process had taken him roughly two hours to complete, and he was exhausted. The fact that it was nearly ninety degrees didn't help either. The August heat was blistering, and it refused to relent. It made it fairly difficult for Naruto to motivate himself to exercise, but he still worked as he always did. It was a way to pass time, and a way to ready himself for life as a shinobi.

Finally giving in to the high temperature somewhat, Naruto removed his shirt and tossed it aside. The moment the garment was gone, he felt a great degree of physical relief. He was far less overheated with a bare upper body. Coinciding with his sigh of satisfaction, however, was an odd squeaking noise from nearby and to his left. Raising an eyebrow and glancing in the direction from which the sound had come, the blonde stood to his feet and slowly walked over towards another tree. Hearing the sounds of shifting sticks and leaves behind it, Naruto stepped around the base of the tree and looked down at what lay behind it.

Sitting against the trunk of the tree with her knees drawn up to her chin and a face red as a cherry was Hinata. She looked as though she had been situated in that very spot for a number of minutes, and she looked quite shaken for reasons unknown to the blonde. His arrival on her side of the tree alerted the chronically nervous girl to his presence, causing her to flinch and slowly turn her eyes up to look at him.

"So, what brings you here?" Naruto asked curiously. Hinata took an inordinately long time to respond, as she seemed entranced for some odd reason as she stared up at him. After a full sixty seconds, Naruto cleared his throat.

"Uh, Hinata?" he pressed, quite puzzled by her silence and odd facial expression. His words brought her back to reality, and when they did, she gasped and scooted several feet away from him.

"I was just...enjoying t-the scenery. L-Lovely d-day, don't you think?" she stuttered back with wide eyes and burning cheeks. It was a lie. That much was obvious even to the usually socially inept blonde. Taking a moment to consider possibilities, Naruto laughed when he found what he felt to be the most likely.

"Were you watching me, Hinata?" he asked humorously. Though she fumbled for a response for a bit, the heiress eventually sighed and hung her head.

"Y-Yes…" she muttered dejectedly, clearly expecting to be berated for having spied on the outcast boy. Satisfied with her honesty, Naruto sat down in front of her and smiled.

"Well, if you wanted to talk or hang out, you should've just asked. Not like I have a ton to do. You're about as fun as it gets for me." he said with a grin. Hinata glanced up from the ground and let her eyes linger a little below his face.

"I'm j-just...very bad at e-engaging. It m-makes me nervous. W-with you specifically, very." she said quietly. The blonde shrugged his shoulders and wiped some sweat from his forehead.

"Still don't really get why, but you never have to be nervous around me, Hinata. You can just come and get me if you need stuff or wanna do something. I'm pretty much always available." he said reassuringly. Hinata relaxed somewhat, but still remained quite embarrassed-looking.

"You follow me around a lot, don't you?" the blonde asked. The heiress gave a brief nod and began poking her index fingers together as she typically did in uncomfortable situations.

"Nothing w-weird, I j-just like to k-keep an eye on you sometimes, y-you know?" she said meekly. Naruto cast her an odd look and remained silent for a moment.

"That kinda is weird, though. Nobody's ever really done that before. Not even Iruka-sensei. Why're you doing it?" he asked skeptically. Hinata opened her mouth to respond, but closed it again. A long stretch of dead air then passed between them. Neither were particularly sure of what should or could be said, though for entirely different reasons. It wasn't until she had entirely gathered herself that Hinata broke the silence.

"Because...you deserve to be watched over by somebody. Maybe I haven't been helpful, and I probably haven't been since you had no clue until today, but you're more than worth the trouble. You always take care of yourself, and I think you've earned the right to be taken care of by somebody else every once in a while." she said in a shockingly clear, unbroken voice. Naruto simply stared at her in response.

"That's the longest thing I've ever heard you say without stuttering." he said, in obvious awe of her confident speech. Hinata turned her head up and looked him in the eyes directly.

"I think it comes to me when I really need it to. Which, as it happens, usually pertains to you. Either way, I'll stop following you if you want. Just know that I'm always, always thinking about you, Naruto-kun." she said sweetly. The blonde flushed red and blinked. He had not been expecting a speech of that kind in any way at all. It took him a reasonable amount of time to fully grasp what he was being told.

"I really don't care if you follow me around. Hell, you could always just walk with me, ya know? I'll never say 'no' to your company. You make me really happy." he said carefully, averting his eyes away from the girl as he spoke.

"I know this sounds selfish, but…" Hinata began, surprising him greatly by reaching out and circling her arms around the back of his neck. The blonde then looked back at her, seeing that her face was now quite close to his own.

"...could you make me happy?" she asked softly with her nose practically touching his. Frozen in his own body, Naruto didn't respond at all. He simply looked on with a confused expression on his face. The Hyuga girl then leaned her head to the side and inched her lips forward towards his. Just before they could make contact, though, she released him and pulled her head back.

"What am I doing?" she said, more to herself than to Naruto. She then stood up to her feet and glanced down at the still-puzzled blonde.

"F-forgive me. That was very improper of me. I'll l-leave you a-alone now." she said. Before Naruto could react or respond, she broke out into a sprint in the opposite direction. Within seconds, she was long gone. Dumbfounded by what had just occurred, Naruto slowly rose to his feet and retrieved his shirt.

"What was that all about?" he murmured to no-one in particular. Strangely enough, despite his lack of understanding of why Hinata had done much of what she had, he found himself quite disappointed that she had stopped doing what she had been aiming to do. It also concerned him greatly that she had bolted nearly immediately after backing away. Putting his shirt back on and gazing out in the direction Hinata had run, the blonde sighed.

"Sweet and nice as you are, you're still really weird sometimes." he said to the long-gone girl. Coming to a silent decision, the young ninja-to-be set out after her.

Chances were, she had gone to the Hyuga Estate.

Hiashi looked up from his newspaper and straightened his posture as Neji entered his study. It was a rare day that Hiashi's nephew would come to his uncle un-summoned, and when he did, it tended to be for something at least somewhat important.

"We have a visitor, Hiashi-sama." he said directly. The clan head set his paper aside and folded his arms across his chest.

"Do we now? That's certainly unusual. Especially given the hour. Who is this visitor, Neji?" he inquired. Neji promptly walked out of the room and then down the hall. After a minute or two, he returned with an unexpected face at his side. Naruto Uzumaki. The village pariah, and unlikely subject of his own daughter's admiration

"I'll leave this to the two of you. It doesn't concern me. Goodbye and Goodnight." the branch Hyuga said before disappearing out the door and closing it. With the study now sealed off, Hiashi stood up from his chair.

"I assumed I would be meeting you sometimes soon, but this certainly is a surprise. What business do you have at my home?" he asked. The blonde looked quite uncomfortable in the clan head's presence. He had clearly not been expecting to be left alone with Hiashi so quickly, if at all. As such, he was slow to respond.

"I, uh, kinda want to see Hinata. We were talking around twenty minutes ago, and then some stuff happened. She ran away. I want to see how she's doing." he explained nervously. Hiashi stroked his chin and studied the boy.

"Back up a few steps, Uzumaki-san. Explain what 'stuff' happened. Explain the situation so I may better understand the situation at hand." he replied. Naruto's face then gained color, which the older man easily noticed. Once again, the blonde took time to speak.

"Out with it, boy. It's nearing sundown, and I have dinner to direct. I'm in a fairly pleasant mood, so try not to worry too much about my reaction. I assure you, I won't be as harsh as you're anticipating." Hiashi said in the midst of Naruto's indecisiveness.

"Sorry, sorry. Okay, well, I was out exercising like I always do before I head home for the day, and I decided to be done. While I was sitting down, I heard a noise, so I went to check it out. I found Hinata hiding behind a tree a few feet away from me." he began. At his words, Hiashi internally winced and fought the urge to visibly grimace.

'Poor girl. Finally exposed.' he thought to himself as Naruto gathered his memories to continue his account of that evening's events.

"After I found her there, she sorta freaked out, but I calmed her down. After that, she admitted that she had a habit of stalking me or whatever, and after we talked about it a little bit, she said that she'd stop, but also that she was...always thinking about me. It was really weird." the blonde explained, his tone growing more conflicted the longer he spoke. Hiashi felt a surge of pride for the sake of his daughter.

'Even if she said no more than that, she probably avoided a heart attack by inches while she said it. Good on her.' he thought proudly.

"Did she run away after expressing that sentiment to you, Uzumaki-san?" the clan head pressed curiously, earning a surprising shake of the head from Naruto. His interest now piqued, Hiashi tilted his head to one side and awaited further extrapolation.

"No, actually. I told her that I was fine with her following me around, or even just coming out and doing stuff with me if she wanted to. After that, she…" he said, trailing off into silence before he could finish.

"She what, Uzumaki-san?" Hiashi urged him. The blonde fidgeted a bit with his hands and shuffled his feet around. He looked stumped by something.

"She wrapped her arms around the back of my neck and sort of nuzzled her nose on mine. Then she asked me if I could 'make her happy'. After that, she leaned in a little more. Before she could actually do whatever she was trying to do, she stopped and apologized. Then she ran away. I followed her, and now here I am." he concluded once he had sorted out his thoughts.

"Of all the things I expected to hear, that was definitely not one of them. Given that you have no reason to lie to me, I'm going to believe you." Hiashi said. Naruto nodded, but did not say a word.

"You look bothered. You do realize what she was attempting to do, don't you?" the clan head inferred. Another nod came from the ninja-to-be.

"She was trying to kiss me, wasn't she?" he asked. Hiashi shrugged his shoulders and sat back down in his chair.

"Almost certainly. I personally don't care if she was or not, but you seem to. Tell me, how would you have reacted if she had followed through and allowed her lips to meet yours?" he asked.

"I dunno. Nobody's ever tried to do that kind of thing to me before, so I've never really thought about how I'd feel if somebody did, you know?" Naruto said in response. Hiashi crossed one leg over the other.

"Let me frame this another way. Do you think highly enough of my daughter to consider her worthy of kissing you?" he clarified. The blonde's response was instant.

"Are you kidding? She's basically royalty. Of course I do. I'm a huge step down from who she probably should be doing that with." he said firmly. The clan head narrowed his eyes.

"I'd prefer it if you thought of this question from a perspective free of social standings and titles. As a person, is she appealing enough to kiss in your mind?" he corrected. Naruto's face then turned red for a second time.

"I mean, she's my only friend, and she's been nothing but nice to me since we started doing stuff together. And she's...pretty cute, I think. So, yeah. I think she is." he said carefully. Hiashi nodded, satisfied with the boy's response.

"I'm glad your standards are up to par. I won't say too much, but my daughter thinks the world of you. She would be over the moon to know that you hold her in such high regards. I do hope the two of you can work out this issue. It seems you're on the same page emotionally." he said. Naruto furrowed his brow.

"Wait, so you don't care that I hang out with her a lot?" he asked hopefully. Hiashi shook his head and grabbed his newspaper to finish reading it.

"Not in the least. You aren't popular publicly, but I've never been a 'trendy' or 'politically correct' man opinion-wise. I don't mind you. You're a fine lad, as far as I'm concerned." he said. Breathing a sigh of relief, Naruto relaxed.

"Can I go see her then? I really want to make sure she isn't beating herself up." he requested. Much to his dismay, Hiashi shook his head.

"I'm afraid not. Not tonight, anyway. Dinner starts in twenty minutes, and she has a standard to live up to as heiress. Tardiness in particular is taboo in this household. How about this, though. I'll speak with her tonight, and do what I can to make sure she doesn't avoid you this week. Does that sound fair?" the clan head reasoned. After a moment's consideration, Naruto gave a thumbs-up.

"Yeah, that sounds good. I'll leave you guys alone for now. Thanks for being cool, Hiashi-sama." he thanked him with a bow before bolting from the study. With Naruto now gone, Hiashi smiled to himself slightly.

'I have the strangest feeling that he'll be the death of my sleeping schedule for one reason or another.'

Hinata removed her face from her pillow and rolled onto her back with the soft mass held fast to her chest. It was nearly time to eat, and she had still not fully regained her composure. Things had been going nearly perfectly for the past ten days. It had all been wonderfully blissful. Up until she had taken it a step too far. She had let her emotions and desperate desires take control of her at the exact wrong moment. Things were certain to downgrade from here on out, and it was all due to her own error.

'What was I thinking? Sure, we snuggled a little bit a few days ago, but that...that was just platonic, I think. What on earth compelled me to try to kiss him?' she mentally scolded herself for the umpteenth time since her arrival back home. As she buried herself within her own mind, the door to her room opened. Not bothering to look to see who it was, the girl simply rolled back onto her stomach and buried her face back into the pillow.

"I wish to b-be left a-alone right now." she said in a muffled voice from within the softness of her pillow. She then felt a weight seat itself at the end of her bed.

"I understand that, but I figured you'd like to know that Naruto was here only minutes ago." came her father's voice. The mention of the blonde's name brought heat to Hinata's face and a rapid pace to her heart beat.

"W-What did he w-want? Was he h-here to a-admonish about my actions?" she asked hopelessly. Her father laid a hand on top of her head gently.

"He was here to see you, actually. He wanted to make sure that you weren't tearing yourself down over what occurred between you. Perhaps it isn't my place to tell you this, but he also wasn't offended in the least. A tad confused, but not bothered. He and I eventually worked out that he likely would have reciprocated had you indeed gone through with your plan." he revealed. Hinata removed her face from her pillow again and moved to a sitting position.

"H-He told you everything, h-huh? How r-rude of him." she muttered under her breath. Hiashi laughed lightly at this.

"I practically forced him to tell me. It isn't his fault. Regardless, you haven't damaged your chances in any way at all, and yes, I'm aware of what your aim is, and I don't mind it. Still, I think it would be better if you let him decide for himself that he truly wants to belong to you and vice versa." he replied. The heiress drew her knees up to her chin.

"I d-don't even know why I was suddenly so c-compelled to do w-what I did. I'm n-not normally so forward." she pondered quietly. Her father stood up from her bedside and headed for the door.

"He's clearly affected you for the better of late. You're infinitely more social than you were, and your student reports for engagement are superb. I'd say this is a good sign. Try not to stress yourself out. Wherever you do, do not evade him tomorrow. Meet him head on." he said before exiting her room.

'I'm certainly not going to try to kiss you again, Naruto-kun. Not yet, at least. But, maybe I can try other things. Tamer things.' Hinata thought to herself once she was alone. After a spell of thinking, she hopped off the bed and stretched.

'I hope we aren't eating crab again.'

A/N: So yeah, that happened. Interesting little semi-conflict there. Fun to write, and I hope it was fun to read. Tell me what you thought in a review :)

See you next chapter! Read and Review!