A/N: Last chapter contained some interesting developments, so let's continue with those. This chapter will contain more of what you came to this fic for, so that should be fun.

Time for chapter 7

Enjoy!

Hinata waited in the center of the empty lobby pensively. It was quite early in the morning, hardly past six o'clock, but such was the schedule of an attendee of Konoha's Ninja Academy. There was a time at which Naruto, whose apartment complex Hinata was currently situated within, would simply arrive for class any time before nine o'clock. This went on for a number of months until he was harshly admonished for his tardiness. Since that day, he had been on time the vast majority of days. He only tended to miss when he was either sick or having some sort of crisis. Both of those things were quite rare, though, so Naruto tended to be at the Academy when he was expected to be.

Hinata herself tended to be in the classroom a number of minutes early each day. Usually to finish assignments that she had not had the time to complete at home, but also out of a desire to perhaps muster the courage to greet Naruto upon his entrance to the room. She had failed miserably on the second front for years on end until recently, since they were now quite closely involved. As of the present moment, Hinata was working to maintain that closeness. The previous day's blunder on her part had not, according to her father, done any damage to her standing with the blonde, but she had always been one to assure things were right.

The past several minutes had been spent watching the staircase from which the heiress knew Naruto would eventually descend to begin his trek to the academy. While she was generally unworried about Naruto's reaction to whatever apology she managed to squeak out, she still much preferred to not have an audience. Luckily, there was no-one else present in the lobby at the moment. Not even a receptionist, which was slightly odd. The heiress stood in silence for another five minutes, and once that time had elapsed, the sound of footsteps could be heard coming down the stairway. It took another painstaking ten seconds for the maker of the sounds to reach the bottom.

As expected, it was Naruto. He was dressed slightly differently than he normally was, as instead of an orange jumpsuit, he was wearing shorts and a black T-shirt with a red swirl in the center of the shirt. A logical adjustment given the warm weather. Once he was fully on the lobby floor, he quickly noticed Hinata. Neither said a word for a few moments, but the silence didn't last for long.

"Well, at least I don't have to go looking for you now." he joked as he made his way up to her with a friendly smile. His demeanor was a great relief to Hinata right away. There were no signs of ill-will or discomfort. He was as he always was. Welcoming and open.

"Were you p-planning on searching?" the heiress asked with a shy laugh. The blonde shrugged his shoulders and rubbed some sleep out of one of his eyes.

"Mostly a joke, but I would've if you weren't at the academy. Honestly, you're the only thing that keeps me awake in class. Can't end up falling asleep during lessons." he said jovially. Hinata smiled and shifted her grip on her supplies.

"Well, h-here I am. L-Leaving you all a-alone would be mean of m-me. Keeping you h-happy is a pastime of m-mine these days." she replied. The blonde grinned and walked past her, tapping her on the shoulder he passed to indicate that she should follow him. Doing as she was being silently instructed, Hinata fell into step alongside him as they walked towards the academy. It would likely take somewhere in the neighborhood of ten to twenty minutes to reach the building on foot, meaning they had time to discuss what she had come to discuss with him. After a minute or two of silent travel, the heiress broached the topic.

"U-Uhm, about y-yesterday, Naruto-kun. I feel the n-need to f-formally apologize to you. Invading y-your personal s-space that way was v-very rude of me, and I p-promise it will never happen again." she said apologetically, earning a sideways look from Naruto.

"Don't be like that, Hinata. You could have warned me first, but you didn't do anything wrong, I don't think. Don't be sorry. You've got no reason to be." her classmate assured her. The heiress relaxed for the most part and looked to his face, which was now staring straight ahead.

"R-Really? You genuinely a-aren't offended or off-put by my sudden f-forwardness?" she asked in a small voice. Naruto nodded.

"Yeah, why would I be? I like you a lot, and, uh, your...lips look pretty soft to me. It wouldn't have been bad at all." he said somewhat awkwardly. Though his words certainly made himself feel jittery, his reaction could not compare to Hinata's. The moment Naruto's sentence had fully set into her, she turned bright red all the way from her toes to the points of her ears. She attempted to speak, but stopped when she found that it would almost certainly result in her fainting on the spot. The blonde quickly noticed her deep crimson color and panicked slightly.

"Hinata? Are you okay?" he asked, his tone a tad frantic. The heiress remained silent, but gave a nod. She then stepped into him and wrapped herself around his arm with a shy smile on her face.

"Perfectly okay. I feel wonderful." she said quietly after a few moments. At this, the pair continued their walk to their destination. As they went, Hinata couldn't help but notice the confused looks on the faces of the citizens. They looked puzzled by the prospect of Hinata Hyuga, the heir apparent to the mantle of the largest clan in the village, being willingly affectionate towards who they perceived to be a waste of space. It angered her, but she suppressed herself as best she could. Her composure came close to cracking, however, when she caught sight of those looks of confusion turning to ones of hateful resentment. Trying to find herself an anchor of positivity, she looked up at Naruto's face. His expression was blank. It was void of any discernible emotion. He was pushing it all just below the surface.

"Ignore them. They aren't worth your time. Don't let them influence you. Just keep on being yourself, Naruto-kun." she whispered in his ear, tightening her grip on his arm as she spoke to him softly. He hardly reacted, but he did relax a bit. It wasn't much, but it was a heartening reaction in the eyes of the heiress. The pair soon picked up their pace and made their way out of the more populated section of the district. Once they were in a less crowded area, Naruto spoke.

"Thanks for that, Hinata. I needed it." he said gratefully. Hinata nodded and smiled to herself with his arm pulled into her chest. She then asked a risky question.

"Do y-you know why they s-seem to resent you? It d-doesn't make any s-sense to me." she asked, her stutter returning somewhat. Naruto's expression darkened momentarily, but it returned to neutrality in mere seconds.

"I've got a few ideas. I'm pretty sure I know, honestly. Just paying attention over the years has given me some hints." he said. Hinata tilted her head to one side and studied him.

"Could you tell me w-what you t-think it may be? I w-won't judge you, no m-matter what it is." she asked gently. The same dark look passed over his features once more before he shook his head.

"I'd rather not. If I'm right, you'd quit being my friend." he said shortly. Hinata frowned at this, but decided not to press any further for the sake of his mood.

"It would take something t-truly awful to p-put me off of you, Naruto-kun. Your company is w-what I wake up for." she assured him firmly. Much to her relief, Naruto smiled at this. Soon enough, they arrived at the academy. When they entered the classroom, it was entirely empty. It was still only six twenty-five, twenty minutes before attendance was to be taken. It was a blessing to both, as the reactions of their classmates to the sight of Hinata so affectionately latched to him would have likely been quite uncomfortable.

The only person to catch sight of them as they entered was Iruka, who simply smiled.

Naruto stretched and leaned back in his chair. It was halfway through the third of four instruction periods, and he was incredibly bored. The lessons were always dull, but even more so than usual when they pertained to such things as projectile throwing or trajectory measurement. It all went in one ear and out the other for Naruto. In the back of his mind, he knew that the knowledge was likely essential for him to learn in some capacity, but as of now, he found it difficult to pay attention. At present, he was also sitting alone. Hinata had exited the room to discuss a previous assignment with Iruka, and she had yet to return in the three minutes since.

It was more or less silent in the classroom, as the majority of the students were taking the opportunity to relax. The blonde, unlike the rest of the class, was without a person to speak to at the time being. As a result, he was alone with his thoughts as he sat in the upper left corner of the room. With his fingers drumming on the desk absently, the blonde glanced to either side to find anything of note to focus on. To the right, there was nothing but a blandly painted wall. To his left, where Hinata always sat, however, there was indeed something interesting. Left open and somewhat facing him was the heiress' notebook. It was the very same one she used for class notes and such.

Eyeing the notebook carefully, the blonde considered the decency of peeking into the girl's personal things for a moment. Eventually, he shrugged to himself and slid the notebook over to himself. Once it was in front of him, he opened it and observed its contents. As expected, it was filled with flawlessly written notes that were detailed and specific to individual topics that had been discussed in class.

'Her handwriting is perfect. Figures.' he thought to himself as he read the information on the pages. He then began to flip through the pages. They were all completely filled with the same immaculate handwriting, and the notebook was fairly thick. There was a massive amount of educational information.

'Man, I never take notes, and here she is writing a textbook.' Naruto joked to himself. The more pages he looked over, the paragraphs of notes there were. That was, until he reached the final quarter of the notebook. At that point, the writing was replaced with detailed drawings of numerous types of flower. Some of them were only petals, and others were entire plants. They were immensely impressive to behold.

'Geez. I guess her drawings match her handwriting.' Naruto thought as he marveled at her artistic prowess. He then flipped through a few more pages, eventually stopping on one in particular. His reason for focusing his attention on the page was that the subject matter of the drawings changed from flowers to something else. Something much more unusual from his perspective. Filling two whole pages were cartoon-ish, smiling drawings of him. They were drawn in such a way that they were clearly not meant to be realistic, but they were still meticulously created.

In the center of it all, spanning across both pages when the notebook was opened all the way, was his first name. It was stylized to be warm-looking, as it was the only drawing that was colored in any way. His name was shaded a consistent hue of orange that gradually grew darker with each letter. The most striking thing about the illustration was that his name was rimmed with hearts, which were colored red. Naruto Uzumaki was, generally speaking, considered dense. It was a fair distinction in many cases, but even he wasn't so blind to not realize the implications of what he was seeing.

Their encounters had started off quite restrained and quiet, as Naruto had only been obligated to interact with her due to a lack of options when it came to acquaintances. His accidental discovery of his name on her slip had given him some intrigue that kept him engaged with the question of 'why', but Hinata herself had steadily grown more interesting in and of herself over the past two weeks. Her horrid nervous anxiety had been somewhat frustrating to the blonde at first, but he had grown to find it endearing as it slowly dissipated and improved. Then, as time went on, her awkward ramblings became more focused.

Much of the time, they were also purposed to comfort him, lift him up, and make him feel as though he was of value. She never failed to stutter at least a time or two during these speeches, but they always did their job well. She was trying earnestly to be a source of self-confidence for Naruto.

'Come to think of it, you've been getting more and more touchy-feely too.' the blonde thought to himself. As he pondered their past conversations, certain thing she had said came back to him.

"I'm always, always thinking about you, Naruto-kun."

"Ignore them. They aren't worth your time. Don't let them influence you. Just keep on being yourself, Naruto-kun."

"...could you make me happy?"

His emotional underdevelopment had left him unwise to what the pattern was with Hinata's habits through much of their friendship, but the drawings in the notebook were stark enough to shatter that veil. The realization caused his face to flush red.

"Oh." he muttered to himself under his breath. It all felt so obvious now that he had actually been given ample evidence to confirm a theory he had formed subconsciously some time ago. Patting his cheeks to try to control the heat in his face, Naruto took a deep breath and then let it go.

'Well, I guess it all makes sense now. Huh. I wonder how long she's...felt like that.' he wondered silently. His thoughts were then interrupted by the sound of the classroom door opening. The blonde quickly flipped the notebook back to its original page and set it where it had been in the first place. As expected. Hinata and Iruka entered the room a moment later. The heiress swiftly made her way up to the elevated desk that she and Naruto both sat at, stopping to smile at him warmly before sitting down to his left and focusing on Iruka again. The lesson then resumed.

Throughout it, Naruto found himself feeling distinctly happy.

Neji exhaled through his nose and stared out the window boredly. Late-night tea had always been a favorite of his uncle's, and he generally indulged in it at least twice per week. Depending on the climate of his moods, it could be as many as five times. This fact was inconsequential to the vast majority of the Hyuga clan, but to Neji, it greatly affected his schedule past eight o'clock, which was usually supposed to be his free time. Any night that Hiashi wished to have tea, Neji was required to be there in case there were any messes to clean up.

Those were the formal reasons, anyway. Neji had always had a hunch that his presence was required more for the sake of conversation than anything else. The man had been very obviously lonely since the passing of his wife, and he had few people to converse with. It was only a theory, of course, and one that Neji could not voice in good faith. Either way, he hardly minded the task. Little was required of him beyond simply existing in the same room as Hiashi for anywhere between thirty minutes and two hours.

The branch Hyuga slowly turned his attention away from the dim scenery of the window and to his uncle, who was studying a piece of paperwork. In fact, the clan head had been looking over the same stack of files for a number of minutes by this point. With his curiosity on the rise, Neji cleared his throat to gain Hiashi's attention.

"This may be intrusive of me, but would you mind telling me what exactly you're looking at, Hiashi-sama?" he asked properly. The clan head looked up from the material.

"Naruto Uzumaki's billing history for the past eighteen months." he replied. The branch Hyuga raised an eyebrow and turned in his chair to fully face his uncle.

"I have several questions." he said, quite puzzled by the response he had received and the ease with which it had been given. Hiashi chuckled.

"As you should. Ask away." he said humorously. Neji then stood up and walked up to the older man's desk to take a glance at the papers.

"First of all, where and how did you even get your hands on somebody else's billing history?" he asked skeptically. Hiashi smiled slightly.

"I have friends in high places in most businesses. I can acquire most information at a request. As long as it isn't too sensitive, that is." he replied. Neji considered pressing for details, but opted against it in favor of asking his second question.

"Alright, so why, pray tell, did you feel the need to view Uzumaki-san's financial records? That seems more than a bit odd to me." he inquired. At this question, the clan head's expression darkened just a tad.

"Because, I had a hunch. Something I needed to either confirm or deny with evidence. Unfortunately, my findings have been consistent with my hypothesis so far." he said vaguely as he looked over the documents in front of him. He then took a sip of his tea.

"As it turns out, Uzumaki-san has been charged thirty percent more than he should be given the size and quality of his apartment. He's provided with welfare by the Hokage each month to keep him stable financially, and under fair circumstances, it would be more than enough for him to buy food and even indulge in a hobby or two. Under this kind of pressure, he can hardly afford food." he explained with a scowl. Neji folded his arms across his chest and furrowed his brow.

"You'd think that Hokage-sama would have caught this quite some time ago. Based on what I know, the two have a fairly close relationship." he pointed out. Hiashi sighed tiredly.

"My schedule is less than a quarter as busy as his, and I still struggle to find time to really observe the struggles of my children. The same issue almost certainly plagues him, but to a much greater degree. Checking Uzumaki-san's records for consistency and crunching the numbers would take time he likely doesn't have to spare." he inferred. Neji shook his head and returned to his seat.

"If you went out of your way to find this out for sure, I'm assuming you have plans to do something about it?" he asked. The clan head nodded and leaned back in his chair.

"Yes. I'll be funneling some of my own funds into his each month to cover the extra he's being charged. As much as I'd like to directly confront the bank about this, the elders would have my head for involving myself so heavily in the business of a pariah." he responded. Neji nodded and stretched his back.

"That sounds reasonable to me. Though, I still do find it curious that you have no objections to Uzumaki-san. Especially in regards to his ever-blossoming relationship with Hinata-sama." he commented. The clan head shrugged.

"I never understood the ire directed his way, in all honesty. Sure, he contains...something dark, but that's hardly his fault. After having spoken to him in person, he's actually quite considerate. More so than I had predicted. I much prefer him over the Inuzuka's mutt of a son." he said, his tone akin to a grumble by the end. Neji laughed at the memory of the renowned clan of hounds' failed attempt to foster a betrothal between Hinata and Kiba Inuzuka.

"Not a high bar, but your approval of any person as a future partner of Hinata-sama's is great praise indeed." he said through his chuckles. From there, the pair lapsed into silence as Hiashi continued to analyze the financial documents. After another twenty minutes or so, Neji spoke once again.

"What did you mean when you said Uzumaki-san had 'something dark' inside of him?" he asked in reference to a stray statement by his uncle. The clan head eyed his nephew intently before returning his gaze to the papers.

"Don't ask questions you don't want the answers to." he said shortly. The branch Hyuga pursed his lips. Pressing any further was unwise, and he knew it. Frustrating as it was, he decided to let it go.

Within an hour, he was excused to ponder what he had learned, and what he had not.

A/N: Lots of stuff to take in with this chapter, but I think it was pretty easy to understand for the most part. Tell me what you thought in a review :)

See you next chapter! Read and Review!