Chp.10- Shall we dance? Take 2
"LEAVE… NARUTO… ALONE!!!"
The redhead's eyes snapped away from Naruto and found her hand being gripped tightly by another girl. She looked up from the hand to the girl connected to it, and paled visibly upon meeting a pair of pale lavender eyes, set in a face that was red with anger.
"Make me, witch!"
"I'll tell you again, leave Naruto alone."
"Why? You're not dancing with him!"
"Leave him alone…"
"Fat chance."
"I'm warning you, leave him alone or I'll…"
The redhead's eyes flashed dangerously and she smirked evilly. "You'll what? Hit me? You wanna fight for him?"
Naruto saw the anger double in Hinata's face and quickly wrenched himself out of the group of girls, joining Shikamaru, Lee, and Neji. They looked on as Hinata and the redhead kept arguing; none of them had ever seen Hinata angry before. Eventually the redhead began talking so loud and so fast that people at other tables began looking over at the fight out of curiosity. Hinata could no longer get a word in edgewise as the redheaded monster kept shrieking like a moron. So, she thought of only one option left to shut up the girl and get her away from Naruto…
Shy little Hinata balled up a fist and, quick as lightning, cold cocked the redhead right in the face.
The gym gave a collective gasp. Ino, Sakura, and Tenten came over to take Hinata out in the hall to try and calm her down, while the redhead's posse dragged the know unconscious girl outside. Lee, Neji, Shikamaru, and Naruto all stood frozen in place, absolutely dumb founded at the sight that unfolded before them. Their thought processes ran something along these lines…
Naruto: "She… she socked the girl in the eye… Hinata never hits anybody, EVER… and yet, in a strange way… that was hot…"
Neji: "Oh my god… how did… did she… what just… DID I MISS SOMETHING!?!?!"
Shikamaru: "Damn, Naruto sure knows how to pick them… and I always thought she was the one sane girl in the school… how troublesome…"
Lee: "Ho-ho! The fire of youth is burning brightly in Hinata tonight! Naruto is one lucky guy!"
Naruto shook his head and came back to reality, remembering that Hinata was still out in the hallway. He quickly ran amongst the tables, feeling dozens of eyes on him as he left. He burst through the doors and found the girls walking back, minus Hinata. He walked up to them and looked Tenten straight in the eye.
"Where's Hinata? Is she alright?"
Tenten nodded and said, "Hinata's fine, she really wants to talk to you, actually. She's outside by the main doors." Naruto nodded quickly and ran off in that direction. Sakura shrugged and said, "I still can't believe Hinata knocked her out… that's so unlike her to do that."
Ino snorted and said, "She had every right to! That red headed witch was muscling in on her man! I would've given her a kick too if it was me…"
Tenten silenced the two and said, "Look, Hinata punched somebody, but can you blame her? You know she's crazy about Naruto! But anyways, it's out of our hands now. This is something Naruto and Hinata need to talk about. The guys are waiting, let's go…"
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Naruto burst out of the main doors and looked around frantically, finally seeing a lock of dark indigo hair disappear around the corner.
He followed quickly and found Hinata sitting on a bench by the basketball courts, her chin in her hands and her elbows on her knees. She stared blankly into the distance and yet seemed nervous about something as well.
"Hinata-chan? Are you alright?"
Hinata snapped out of her reverie and looked at Naruto with wide eyes. She turned away to hide the furious blush that had entered her face. Naruto sighed and walked over to the bench, taking a seat next to her. "Hinata-chan, it's alright. You can talk to me you know!"
She still didn't respond.
"Look, Hinata-chan, if you're nervous because of what happened back in the gym, then don't be! I'm not mad at you or anything! Hinata-chan, come on, say something!"
Hinata slowly turned and nervously met Naruto's gaze. "Ano… I'm s-sorry Naruto-kun… I shouldn't have done that… s-she had every right to ask for a dance and I…"
Naruto edged towards her and place his hands on her shoulders, steadying her slightly trembling form. "Don't be ridiculous, Hinata-chan. You did nothing wrong back there. She might've had a right to ask for a dance, but remember, I said no to her, right? She didn't have a right to force me into a dance; you stopped her, that's all."
Hinata shook her head and said, "I know, but I still had no right to hit her… I tried to be reasonable; I r-really did…"
Much to her surprise, Naruto scoffed at that. "Reasonable? Let me tell you something Hinata-chan, being "reasonable" as you put it doesn't always work with people like that girl. I've been chased around by too many idiot football players to not know that. Sometimes you have to do whatever it takes to do the right thing, and you did. Besides, you laid her out flatter than a bath mat! That was awesome, Hinata-chan!"
Hinata failed at hiding the smile and slight satisfaction that appeared in her face. "Well, l-like you said… sometimes you n-need to be direct in your approach…" Naruto smiled warmly at her, but then suddenly seemed apprehensive. Hinata gave him a puzzled look and asked, "Naruto-kun… is something wrong?"
"Eh… look, as I left the gym I noticed that there were a bunch of people that were watching the fight you had… maybe it would be best if we didn't go back in there, who knows what would happen if…" Hinata placed a finger on his lips and he silenced himself immediately. In a rare moment, her stutter and shyness left her completely as she quietly said, "This is called a homecoming dance for a reason, Naruto-kun. I haven't even gotten a dance with you yet."
Naruto found himself quite incapable of speech at that moment. Hinata had one of the most awe inspiring smiles sometimes, and this time was no exception. Her eyes seemed to sparkle under the stars and moon in the sky, as if slightly pleading him to take her back inside. The light of the moon above suddenly fell about her features in just the right way, making her absolutely irresistible in his eyes. He couldn't, for the life of him, tear his eyes away from hers. Those two hypnotizing orbs of lavender… And in that one wondrous, awe-inspiring, terrifying, beautiful moment, Naruto came to a very sudden realization.
"This is no high school crush… I… I think I… no, I KNOW… I'm in love… with Hinata…"
Naruto miraculously kept his cool as he said, "Alright then, a dance it is, my lady." He took her hand in his and together they walked back to the gym, quite oblivious to the fact that half a dozen pairs of eyes were watching them from around the corner.
Tenten emerged from the shadows along with Neji, Ino, Shikamaru, Lee, and Sakura. "Alright everyone, let's get back to the gym before they realize we were spying on them…"
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The six hurried teens made it back to the gym and sighed in relief upon seeing that Naruto and Hinata had still not returned. Tenten hurriedly said, "Okay everyone, act like nothing has happened since they left, and if anybody speaks a word of what we were doing to them, that person DIES, got it?" They all quickly nodded and returned their attention to the dance.
Outside they gym doors, Naruto and Hinata paused, giving each other one last glance and a nervous smile before opening the doors. Naruto braced himself for more whispers from curious students while Hinata braced herself for jeers and laughs from the girls in the gym for being so violent with the redhead.
Imagine their surprise when they opened the door and received some of the most thunderous applause they had ever heard before.
Naruto caught their friends in the back, who seemed to be cheering the loudest. Hinata laughed upon clearly hearing Ino's voice amongst the cheers, "You completely owned that witch! WAY TO GO!" Even Shikamaru was clapping loudly, an amused look on his normally bored face.
Both of their faces turned beet red when the DJ paused his music and said, "Man, I'd hold onto her if I were you. Any girl who can kick ass like that is a keeper in my book." This solicited even more applause from the students. Finally the music continued and the applause died away, finally allowing Naruto and Hinata to get back to their table in relative peace.
The music suddenly changed pace, and a slow song came on. This was not lost on Naruto's ears, or any of the others' ears for that matter. Trading one last smile with each other, they all rose from the table and made their way to the dance floor, which seemed dominated by couples at the moment. Naruto held out his hand and Hinata surprisingly brushed it aside, opting instead to lean into him, her arms around his neck and her head resting on his shoulder. Naruto smiled and wrapped his arms about her waist, and together they began to sway to the music.
He glanced about the dance floor, searching amidst the flood of students until he found Neji and Tenten. They seemed to be in a similar position as him and Hinata, and enjoying every minute of it. Neji finally met his gaze and gaze him a thumbs up from behind Tenten. Naruto smiled and searched again, his eyes falling upon none other than Shikamaru and Ino. He was surprised at the fact that Shikamaru was actually enjoying himself, as evident from the light smile on his face, looking directly into Ino's eyes. To the side he noticed Sakura and Lee completely oblivious to the outside world and actually sneaking in a kiss now and then. "Way to go bushy brows…"
His attention then returned to the girl currently in his own arms. He buried his face in her hair and took a deep breath, memorizing the scent of it. He felt Hinata smile into his shoulder, earning an almost silent chuckle from him.
Hinata dared to look up and in that one instant, time and space disappeared around the two teens. Their eyes locked and couldn't turn away if their lives depended on it. Naruto searched the depths of her pale lavender eyes, trying to find some hint as to the tremendous emotion that she was exuding to him. Hinata was star-struck, losing herself in the deep water blue of Naruto's eyes. At the same moment, the two found an emotion in each others' eyes, a truth that they had been praying to discover for a long time now.
If there were any doubts about how they felt about each other before, in that single frozen moment, those doubts were shattered like glass. They felt a strange sense of déjà vu as their faces began to close the already small distance between them, just like on Naruto's couch at home.
Hinata's eyes fluttered closed, she could feel Naruto's warm breath tingling lightly on her face; they were far too close to stop…
Naruto eyes seemed to fall closed of their own accord, he could smell Hinata's sweet fragrance from her hair, he could hear the soft quickening in her breath; they couldn't stop even if they wanted to…
The world around them shattered completely as their lips met for the first time. Their arms tightened around each other not wanting to let go for anything. Naruto felt his heart running a million miles per minute; his head was filled with some sort of sweet haze, and in that moment all he needed to survive was to keep kissing Hinata.
Hinata felt like she was on fire inside. Such incredible energy and warmth seeming to be seeping from Naruto into her body and she couldn't get enough of it. She practically had Naruto in a headlock, she was holding onto him so tightly.
Neji looked up from Tenten and found Naruto and Hinata across the way. He smiled broadly and tapped Tenten on the shoulder, tilting his head in their direction. Tenten finally saw Naruto and Hinata kissing and she fought with all her might to keep from cheering like a maniac. She opted just to embrace Neji tighter than before, not earning a single complaint from the equally thrilled Hyuuga. They would tell the others about this… but not now. Instead, Neji decided to follow Naruto's example.
Much to Tenten's delighted surprise, Neji gently grasped her chin and guided her lips to his. She then decided that looking over Naruto and Hinata was no longer necessary, she was having way too much fun here…
Naruto and Hinata parted after what seemed like a blissful eternity to the two of them. They both had bright pink tinges in their faces and their wide eyes met each other, completely overwhelmed at what just happened. Naruto then smiled that warm smile of his, the one that was only reserved for Hinata.
"Hinata-chan…"
"Naruto-kun…"
And at the exact same moment, those famous three words escaped their lips.
"I love you…"
A/N: Cue dramatic trumpet fanfare, close curtain, and SCENE! Well, it looks like it finally happened, our heroes are together at last! But don't think this is over yet folks, I still got a chapter or two in mind for our young students at Konoha High. After all, Naruto and Hinata aren't the only couple in need of a little closure here… stay tuned for my next chapter, "Operation Matchmaker: The Lazy One and the Loudmouth!"
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