"I had a great time tonight." Naruto told Hinata as they stood outside of the Hinata mansion.
"Me- Me too, the festival was fun." Hinata told Naruto back as she started blushing. Naruto noticed that when Hinata was actually looking at him, there was a certain happiness, or a longing for happiness, that resided deep in her white pupils. "Um, Naruto?"
"Yeah?" Naruto asked, Hinata had to come up with a way to stall Naruto, as it was 11:50, and as far as she knew, it's good luck to kiss someone at midnight of New Years Eve.
"Uh..." 'Come on Hinata! Think harder!' She thought to herself. "Do you... uh..." The only question she could come up with was: Do you like me? But she wasn't about to ask that question.
"Do I like you?" Naruto guessed with a smile. Hinata cursed the awkward situation as Naruto smiled a sheepish grin and put his finger to his chin. "I suppose I do..." (Naruto was trying his hardest to talk with Jiraiya).
"I uh...uhhhh...I like...you too." Hinata stammered, she felt "like" was too mild a word, but she didn't want to make Naruto feel awkward.
"Are you sure you mean like?" Naruto asked with his sheepish grin, Hinata's heart started racing, 11:53, she had to hold out for 7 minutes, not too hard.
"Well, uh, urm... you know it's a little...complicated." Hinata spoke softly as Naruto's sheepish grin turned into a puzzled look.
"Really? How so?" Naruto asked her.
"Well, it's...just...a...urm...word." Hinata told Naruto, Naruto shook his head at the comment.
"Your sounding like Neji." Naruto told her, "And I don't think it's just a word." Naruto could have gone on and on about how he loved all the people who acknowledged him and made him feel human.
"No, but...I mean...uhh." Hinata couldn't spit out a decent sentance, and she had 5 minutes left.
"Are you stalling me for something?" Naruto asked with a devilish grin, he had an idea of what she was trying to do.
"What? NO! I mean, well, uh..." Hinata started stuttering random words that if put together made a perfectly reasonable sentence, but she couldn't stop babbiling.
"Hinata, you love me don't you?" Naruto's gut exploded, he had been a little nervous, but now he think he knew what Hinata was talking about a few days ago, she was trying to say she loved him.
"WHAT? Ummm... why would you think that?" Hinata wanted to burst out the truth, but her mouth wouldn't let her.
"Well, that day in the Sun Country, you said something about love before you passed out." Naruto told her, Hinata almost fainted.
"I did? Really?" Hinata was pleading denial, she couldn't tell him NOW.
10: Hinata heard the screams of the crowd, noticing that it was 11:59.
9: Naruto looked Hinata straight in the eye, wanting the truth.
8: Hinata told him that she couldn't have said that.
7: Naruto called her a liar as he grabbed her hand.
6: Naruto and Hinata's hearts both started pounding.
5: Hinata turned beat red as she looked away.
4: Naruto turned her head to look at him.
3: "I want to hear it." Naruto commanded her softly.
2: "I love you..." Hinata told him automatically.
1: Everyone started cheering at the impending New Year.
"And I love you..." Naruto half-lied, he wasn't 100 sure, but I mean, he had to love her to some degree, she loved him even though he had a DEMON in him.
"Naruto..." Hinata muttered as she went in to kiss Naruto, Naruto gladly pressed his lips against hers, in what would be the longest, happiest moment of his life thus far.
When the two released the kiss, Naruto let go of her hand so Hinata could go into her house at exactly 12:01. They both mouthed 'I love you' to each other one more time before she entered the house.
"Bad move kid, you're only going to be around for a few more weeks." Jiraiya said coming from around the corner.
"WHAT? You decide to show up NOW?!" Naruto howled at his lazy mentor.
"I'll train you part time for the next few weeks, get things sorted out with that girl. And then come Febuary, we're out of here." Naruto's heart exploded, he didn't need that kind of pressure to end a relationship, especially since it just started.
"Aw jeez..." Naruto said kicking the ground as he walked off.
"Naruto?" Sakura asked the next morning, he had kicked the door in thinking something happened; only to find that Naruto was sleeping deeply in his bed. "NARUTO!" She yelled at him."
"Huh? Hinata?" Naruto asked as she focused in to see Sakura in his room. "AH! SAKURA!"
"Tsunade wants to see you!" Sakura yelled at the tired boy as he rubbed his eyes open.
"Another mission?" Naruto asked.
"No! It has something to do with you and the Nine-Tailed Fox." Sakura told him, Naruto's eyes grew wide open as he jumped out of bed and got changed, forgetting that Sakura was in his room. And ran for the door.
"Yo!" Naruto said as he entered Tsunade's office.
"Naruto, I know you want to be strong and save Sasuke, and not only that, but protect yourself from Atasuki, but I found something interesting." Tsunade started.
"Eh?"
"There's a way I could physically REMOVE the Nine-Tailed Fox from your body, and get Atasuki away from you. But that would also mean you would have to give up on Sasuke, for the price of staying in the village and training." Tsunade smiled, Jiraiya told her what happened last night and was trying to give Naruto a way out so he could be with Hinata.
"Remove? The Nine-Tailed Fox?" Naruto thought it over, he would lose all his stamina, and his best jutsu's, would be useless. But he wouldn't have to go away for so long, and he could stay with Hinata.
"Well?" Tsunade asked.
"ABSOLU-!" Naruto yelled, but then he thought of Sasuke, he wanted to save him, and he couldn't if he had his power taken away from him. "No..."
"Hmm... Very well, but then you have to go with Jiraiya."
"I know." Naruto said, walking out of the office.
"Hinata?" Naruto asked as he knocked on the door to Hyuuga Mansion, to find Neji standing in the doorway.
"Naruto?"
"Can I talk with Hinata?" Naruto asked, Neji nodded and told him to wait there. A few moments later, Hinata came to the front door and kissed Naruto as he walked in.
"So what do you need?" Hinata asked Naruto, she felt so much more confident now that Naruto loved her, she wasn't even stuttering!
"Jiraiya came by after you went inside." Hinata didn't know what that meant until she remembered Naruto say something about the Pervy Sage.
"No..." Hinata gasped as Naruto looked down at the floor.
"I have, a few weeks before I have to go... and I just want you to know that I'm going to have to leave soon."
"So...you're leaving me?" Hinata was terrified of his response.
"No, I'm going to leave, but I'll come back for you." Naruto reassured her, Hinata looked into Naruto's blue eyes and saw a determination she had never seen in him before.
"I'll wait for you to come back..." Hinata told him with a smile, and then walked over to hug him, Naruto welcomed the embrace as they sat there together, for what could be the last time they would have together for the next two and a half years.