Gentle Fist, Will of Fire
Chappie four is UP! I apolegize to all those who were wanting a quick chapter five, but today I'm going to my mother's house to spend a week, and surprise surprise-- she has no computer!! (Begins sobbing openly all over the fan's shoulders) Sniff... (Blows nose on your shirt) I'll update when I get back next weekend, I promise! Love you all and bear with me, ne?
XOX to all of those who reviewed my third chapter: rhapsodicoutburst, Gaming Ikari, Vld, PuppyWoofwoof-13, Crazy Neko Girl, PaulRap Raptor, Lady Arianrhod, and MissNaye. Cupcakes to all who review this chapter!
Disclamer: I don't own Naruto or any of the other characters featured in this story (Actually, I don't even own the first chappie!!) No copyright infringement was intended when I wrote this fiction.
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Apparently, Sakura and Hinata weren't as tired as Naruto was.
Sakura sat on her still made bed, holding a pillow in her lap and gazing over at Hinata. "So, Hinata, what do you think?"
"Hmm?" Hinata asked, looking up. She was laying in bed, tucked away under the covers, holding the picture that Naruto had put in her pack above her. She just couldn't get over how happy they looked in that picture... If she hadn't known better, she would've assumed that the two teens lounging on the rocky head of the Fourth were a couple. Naruto had an arm around her waist, she had an arm around his neck, and they faced away from the village so that it was in the background. Naruto was grinning his trademark grin, leaning his head towards Hinata. She herself was blushing like crazy, but was smiling nevertheless. Hai, had she been oblivious to the cold reality of the world, she would've thought that these two were together, a happy couple that could face anything the world threw at them if they were simply side by side.
But that was never to be.
"You know..." Sakura grinned mischeviously over at Hinata, and the shy girl realized what she was going to ask about. "What do you think about Naruto now? Do you think he likes you?"
"Ano... I don't know..." Hinata replied, frowning and pressing the framed picture to her heart. Oh, how she wished she could tell him how she really felt...
"I do," Sakura said matter-of-factly, crossing her arms above the pillow in her lap. "I mean, why else would he come and rescue you? Hmm? He had to be worried sick about you to go against your entire clan like that."
"Hai, that's what he said," Hinata mumbled, reluctant to get her hopes up but reveling in his newfound care for her. Apparently Sakura enjoyed this fact also-- she let out a short-lived squeal of excitement.
"Aww, that's so cute! Plus, he gave you a pair of his 'hallowed' frog pajamas," She added, nodding at the slightly ridiculous frog nightcap Hinata had pulled over her dark hair. "See, even a dobe like Naruto'll be able to realize his feelings sooner or later!" Suddenly her countenance darkened as she realized what word she'd just used to insult her teammate with.
That was always... The word he used...
Hinata apparently noticed this change in attitude too, because she sat up suddenly. "Sakura-san? Are you alright?" She had heard Sasuke call Naruto a dobe on numerous occasions, but she'd never heard anyone else use it until now.
"Um, yeah, I-I'm fine," Sakura replied, trying to get her breathing under control. Though her feelings for Sasuke had all but downgraded from 'love interest' to 'dear friend', she still missed him deeply. Missed that scowl that he favored Naruto with, missed the rare smiles she got, missed the occasional tender moments she'd had with him...
Hinata smiled kindly at her friend. "You know, Sakura-san, if you want to talk, I'm here." If there was one thing Hyuga Hinata prided herself on, it was her ability to listen, to really listen to others and make blunt but truthful statements about their situations. Most of the time, she used this ability to encourage people, like that time before the final rounds of the Chunin exam nearly three years ago when she renewed Naruto's confidence in himself. That was one of the very few times when she'd actually admired herself, not someone else for her inner strength.
Sakura smiled back at Hinata, glad she had someone so nice as Hinata as a friend. "Arigatou, Hinata. I'll hold you to that promise."
Nodding, Hinata threw on a slightly mischevious smile and turned on her side, sitting the framed picture on her bedside stand. She was going to try and ask Sakura about what she felt for a certain green clad peer without the aid of Ino or Tenten. "Hey, Sakura-san, can I ask you something?"
Sakura put on a look of scepticism as she glanced over at the dark haired shinobi. "As long as it has nothing to do with Lee, hai."
After exchanging looks, the girls giggled.
They continued to talk about the opposite sex long into the night, a topic that Naruto couldn't seem to get out of his mind. He tossed and turned on the small cot he'd had to sleep on-- he and Kiba had had to crash in a couple of cots from the closet because there was only two beds available in the room. Earlier, Naruto hadn't cared that he had to sleep in a cot, because he'd been dead to the world tired. Now, around two in the morning, he'd awoken and couldn't seem to get back to sleep for the thoughts of a certain dark haired girl invading his thoughts. Why was she keeping him awake? Hinata was just a friend, nothing more. He couldn't get her or the time they'd spent together out of his head, and one event stuck in his mind more prominently than the others-- that time they'd taken their picture on the Hokage monuments. Now he wished he'd packed that photo in with his stuff, thinking that maybe if he looked at it he'd be able to go to sleep.
He tugged the ridiculous frog nightcap over his eyes, muttering, "Kuso, Hinata-chan, why can't I stop thinking about you?"
"Naruto-kun?"
Hearing those words, Naruto's ears perked up, thinking that maybe Hinata had come to visit him or something. He sat up in his cot, glancing around the dark room for her figure. He couldn't see anything. "Hinata-chan?"
"Naruto-kun, are you awake?"
His heart sank as he realized that the person whispering his name was not Hinata, but Lee. He allowed himself to fall back onto his pillow, grumbling, "What, Lee?"
"Um... Can we talk?" Lee sounded nervous and slightly serious.
Naruto frowned as he glanced over to his right, where he saw Lee poke his head over the bed he laid on. What was Lee acting so nervous about? "Sure. What do you want to talk about?"
"Mmm, ano... G-girls."
Naruto's face involuntarily flushed as Lee spoke, wondering why he wanted to talk about them when Naruto himself couldn't get a certain one out of his thoughts. "Uh, okay... You start."
"Okay... Naruto-kun, say, you like this girl, and you tell her, but she openly admits that she only likes you as a friend becasue you're not mature enough to like her like you're telling her you do. So, you wait a few years, you mature, and you check your feelings again... And you notice that your feelings for this girl have only tripled in the time you've waited, but it's something more, something deeper. You think your heart's about to burst with all that you're holding back, but you don't want to tell her how you feel again becasue you're afraid that she's going to reject you again. With your feelings being what they are now, though, you don't think you can face rejection again. What would you do?"
Naruto's first reaction to this was to blink. His second reaction was to blurt out "Damn, Lee, I didn't know you were that messed up..."
"W-what?" The boy peeked farther over the edge of his bed, voice nearly squeaking with disbelief.
Slapping a hand to his forehead, Naruto quickly apolegized. "No, no, nevermind that, gomenasai... Well, if I was in that situation, I don't really know what I'd do."
"Oh.." Lee pulled his head away from the edge of the bed, trying to hide his look of dissapointment from his friend. He was hoping Naruto would be able to give him the solution to his problem, but he guessed that it was too much to hope for. He was doomed to be forever torn in two, with one side wanting to confess everything to the heavens above and the other wanting to take his secret to the grave.
Sort of like how Hinata felt.
"Hmm... What would you do if you were in this situation, Lee?" Naruto asked innocently, knowing that Lee had been talking about himself and Sakura-chan the entire time. He had a feeling that Sakura felt more for Lee than she had been letting on to anybody, and he hoped his feeling was right. He knew how Lee felt, having chased after Sakura himself for longer than he could remember. Slowly but surely, he was getting over her, as he was sure she was getting over Sasuke, and maybe, just maybe Lee had a chance.
"Me??" Lee asked incredulously, not expecting that question. Even as he said the word, he came to a decision, not one to sit and think about things much, just to act on what his heart told him aand ask questions later. "I would tell her. I would rather her know how I feel and reject me than for her never to know. Besides, who knows? Maybe she feels the same way. 'It's better to love and lose it than to never love at all' as I think the saying goes."
Naruto shook his head at Lee's bad translation of the foreign saying, and was about to correct him when Lee said something that quieted him.
"Oh, Naruto-kun, I wish I had half your luck..."
"Nani?" Naruto asked, genuinely confused now. As far as he could tell, he had horrible luck. Having no parents and no clan, being stuck with this damn demon inside of him, growing up as a lonely troublemaking outsider... As far as he could tell, his luck really sucked.
"... Having a girl that admires and worships you for who and what you are... Seeing your faults and loving you anyway... It must be nice..."
"NANI?? What in the hell are you talking about, Lee?" Naruto hissed, heart vibrating a little too quickly against his ribcage. He began to wonder if Lee was still feeling the effects of the sake he'd drank earlier.
"Oh dear, I do believe I've said too much," Lee gasped, realizing that he'd just spilled one secret that Tenten had forbidden him to. She'd been talking to him about who all the girls of the village liked one day, and that was what she'd told him about Hinata-chan. She'd then cursed about how much of a baka Naruto was for not realizing the shy girl's obvious feelings. Lee couldn't say he didn't agree with his teammate-almost-sister about that one.
"Lee?! Who were you talking about?" Naruto asked, punctuating each syllable in his sentence. He wanted to know who felt that way about him. As he talked, he simultaneously grew angrier and racked his mind for the girls in the village that he knew, marking them off one by one.
"Snore... Snore," Lee whispered, pretending to be asleep.
"Leeeeee... Tell me, or else I get the bed, hmm?" Naruto hissed, realizing with a jolt how much he sounded like Kyuubi at that point.
Whoa, Naruto-kun sounds really scary when he's angry...
Naruto lanched himself up off of his cot, walking over to the side of Lee's bed. He threw the covers off of the other boy, lifted him up, and tossed him onto the abandoned cot. Hopping into the warm bed, he threw the covers over his legs, satisfied that he'd get an answer now. "Told you I'd take your bed. I might give it back if you tell me who you were talking about, ne? Lee? Lee?"
His questions were answered by a real snore. Lee had already fallen asleep on the cot, peaceful and satisfied smile penetrating the barriers of sleep.
Naruto tossed and turned on the bed as he had on the cot, anger and thoughts of any girl who might actually like him keeping him wide awake for the remainder of the night.
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Yes, short and pretty much a filler chapter, I know, but the action is coming! I just couldn't resist this part at the end with Lee and Naruto! Haha poor Lee! Remember, you all get cupcakes if you review again! (I've seen other authors on this website offer snacks and stuff to their reviewers, and I thought I might try it once!) See you all in a week!