A Tale of Happiness and Sorrow
Written by: Wind Sage 00
Chapter 3
Slowly drifting back into consciousness, Hinata began to hear a distant voice call out to her. Her eyes fluttered and squinted at the bright afternoon sun that beat upon them. Slowly, her vision began to shift back into focus and she saw someone standing over her and heard them call her name.
"Hey! Hinata! Are you ok?"
(To herself) "Naruto-kun? Is that him?"
Hinata fully opened her eyes to see a battered Naruto leaning over her; the left side of his face having a big black and blue mark on it.
"Hey you're up! Are you ok? Why do you keep fainting like that all the time?", said Naruto.
As he said this, Naruto felt Hinata's forehead.
"Well, you don't have a fever or anything…Are you ok?"
(To herself) "W-What do I do? Naruto-kun's holding my hand! What do I do?!?"
Reading Hinata's discomfort on her face, Naruto helped her up and stood back.
"Hinata…Are you sick or something because I'm around? Is it something I did?"
(In her soft voice) "No, that's not it…You didn't do anything wrong…"
"Well then what is it?"
Timidly Hinata mumbled out, "I…I…umm…"
Just as Hinata was trying to muster up the courage to tell Naruto, two ANBU shinobi appeared before Naruto. They wore white masks in the shape of cats, one with red and the other with green markings.
"Uzumaki Naruto, Hokage-sama wishes to speak with you immediately. We are to escort you directly to her now.", said ANBU #1.
Naruto looked back to see Hinata, but found she had disappeared just as fast as the two ANBU had came. He regrettably turned back to the two ANBU and nodded that he would go with them. As he and the two ANBU left, Hinata peeked her head around the corner of the nearby alley where she had been hiding.
"Naruto…"
She came out of the alley and looked around. She saw the afternoon sun slowly setting behind the rooftops, and knew her father would want her home soon. Hinata turned and walked down the road towards her house, passing stores and people peeking in and out of shops. But to her, she was the only one walking the streets. Lost in her thoughts, she thought of what just happened, and then of the wonderful dream she had last night…
"Oh…Why couldn't it go like that?", said Hinata.
Hinata continued to walk on, still lost in thought, not paying attention to the person holding a huge tower of boxes walking straight for her. The two of them crashed, the boxes and their contents were sent flying in the air. Hinata quickly came back to her senses.
"OH! I-I'm very sorry! Here, let me help…"
"Hinata?!?", said Sakura.
"Sakura! I-I'm so sorry, here I…", said Hinata.
(Grabbing a box from her hand) "I'm fine, its nothing. Don't worry about it ok!?!?"
"Oh…ok. I'm really sorry…"
"I get it, you're sorry ok! I don't need you helping me right now."
"D-Did I do something wrong Sakura?"
Sakura looked at Hinata, then down at the ground. Finally she took a heavy sigh as said…
"…Hinata…I guess…I guess I'm just afraid you don't know what you're doing…someone might get hurt."
"W-What do you mean?"
"I know it's none of my business, and I don't want to get between anything…I just don't know if it's the right time for that sort of thing right now; don't you? Or maybe it is. I don't know."
"I-I still don't know what you mean Sakura-chan."
"Hinata, please don't act like you don't know what I'm talking about. I don't want to interfere with you two; it's just, I don't want to see Naruto getting hurt; especially when he's already gone through so much."
"Naruto-kun?"
Becoming irritated at Hinata's constant denial and questioning, Sakura burst out…
"I saw you two kissing each other last night ok!?!"
"W-What?!? N-N….N-Naruto-kun…last night…"
Hinata's face turned a deep shade of red as she started to become lightheaded and fainted backwards onto the street once more.
(Dazed) "N-Naruto-kun…kissed…"
Sakura looked down on the fainted Hinata with confusion and a bit of jealousy and anger.
"She doesn't remember kissing him either?!?"
END CHAPTER 3