Part II: The Sun-Uzumaki, Naruto
Sunset
March, one week before White Day.
Ah shoot, there were so many gifts that all these girls left for me. I don't know why I got so many for Valentine's Day, at least it's not as much as last year. Last year, I didn't realize that guys were supposed to give chocolates to girls on White Day (since I never got chocolates before then); that turned out bad. I remember when I told this to Nara, Shikamaru at that time and he gave his most typical response- "What a drag." For once, I had to agree with him, though I totally should have seen that coming.
This year, he told me that the best way to get rid of them is to give this year's chocolates to Akimichi, Chouji, who gladly accepted them. Now the problem is what to give for all 44 of these girls. Giving chocolates for every single one of them would be super expensive. Plus, my ramen budget was already starving my poor frog wallet, Gama-chan. I suppose giving a carnation for each girl is a lot cheaper, I'll get them from Ino-chan.
I headed to Ino-chan's flower shop and opened the door. "Hi, Ino's okaa-san!" I greeted and she nodded. "Hello Naruto, how are you?" she greeted. "Good, I need 44 white carnations for White Day," I sheepishly requested. Her grin got enormous. "Lucky boy, huh?" she noted. "Uh yeah, sure," I said sheepishly. It's more so those girls won't stalk and interrogate me like last year... "Sure, I can get you four dozen of them, I'll just include the other four for you. I'll give you a good discount for the extra carnations in the bunch. With your order, my generous discount, and tax included, all 48 carnations will just be 42,710 ren, not bad," she calculated. Ugh, White Day is so expensive. "Okay, I'll pick them up on the 14th," I sighed and paid for them with Gama-chan. Here goes my ramen for the month. "Okay, 48 carnations coming up for the 14th. Have a good day, Naruto," she waved as I left.
Now that I have these carnations waiting for me, how will I give them out? I'll ask Sakura-chan, she'd know about girly stuff like this. I knocked on her door, but nobody came. Who else could I ask? Maybe Tenten-chan would know. I happened to see Tenten-chan on the training grounds, but Guy-sensei and Lee, Rock were with her. They'd probably ask me to do some crazy "training" with them, no thanks. The last person who could be helpful would be... Hinata. I'll stop by her house, then.
I went up to her house. Two Hyuuga guards asked what I wanted and who I wanted to meet. I told them that I wanted to see Hinata, so they brought her over to check. Hinata came from the gate; her eyes grew wide and she covered her mouth. Do I have something on my face? "O-oh Naruto-kun, come in. It's okay, he's a friend," she answered and we went inside. I went in and took off my shoes. We walked through a hallway and she opened a large door to her living room. "Well, I wanted to get your advice on something," I sighed as I knelt on a cushion in front of a low table. "I don't know about everything, but I'll do my best. Oh, would you like some lavender tea and cookies?" she offered. "Sure, that sounds good," I accepted. "Okay, just a moment," she assured and opened the door slightly. "Um, Ayako-chan, could we get some tea, please?" she requested to a Hyuuga maid. Ayako nodded and left.
I took some time to look around her living room. Man, Hinata has a really big house. There were ink paintings and poems printed on them, along with an orchid on a wooden stand. It was a very traditional house, I could tell her family had lots of pride in their clan. I'd want to have a nice house like this when I'm older.
I saw Ayako come back with a tray holding the kettle, cups, saucers, spoons, and cookies and placed them on the low table. "I'm sorry that took so long," she apologized. "No, no worries, this looks great," I assured. She poured the tea into our cups and added cookies on our saucers. I stirred my cup and took a cookie. "Itadakimasu," I started and ate it. It was good. I put another one on top of my cup so it will soften from the tea. After blowing it, I took a sip. The lavender tea was good, definitely cozy. "Arigatou," I told her. "Oh good. Hinata-sama, let me know if there's anything else you need," Ayako let her know and left the room. "It's good, how did you get that lavender?" I asked. "Actually, I dried it recently from my garden," Hinata mentioned after she sipped. I nodded at her efforts.
"So, I got a whole bunch of gifts on Valentine's Day and I'm not sure what to do about it," I sheepishly began. "Oh, okay," she nodded. I nervously laughed, realizing the silliness of the situation. "Ha ha, yeah. But the problem is that with White Day coming up, I got so many girls to give gifts to. I mean, I just ordered 48 carnations from Ino-chan's family today and I'm picking them up on White Day," I explained and sipped some tea. "Oh, I could have helped pay for them," she whispered. "No, don't worry about that. Besides, I already paid for them," I refused. "Oh, well, in the future, if you need more help on anything, let me know," she offered. "Well, that's what I'm here for," I chuckled. Her pearly eyes grew warm.
"Well, now the main problem I have is figuring out how to give them all to the girls who got me stuff when I can't remember their faces," I continued and ate my softened cookie. "Hmm, that is a good point. I'll be back, I'll get some paper," she said and asked Ayako for some. A few seconds later, she came back with paper and some pencils.
"Do you have the girls' names or addresses?" Hinata asked. "Well, some of them did write their names, but most people didn't wrote their addresses," I remembered. Hinata took notes. "True, plus it would be even more expensive to send all those carnations out, are they all from our village?" she checked and scratched out the idea on the paper. "Well, most of them are, but a lot of them come from different villages and nations, I don't remember all of them," I mentioned. Hinata scratched out that idea on the paper.
"Then... I suppose you could set up a booth and give them all out," she suggested. "Actually, that sounds like a good idea. Instead of trying to chase down every girl, we'll make an announcement to have them all come to us and we can give them out easier," I concluded and sipped some tea. "Okay, let's do that, then," Hinata agreed. "I'll make flyers around town to announce this and set up a table near the gate," she planned and wrote that down. "Wow Hinata, you're the best," I thanked. Hinata's cheeks bloomed brightly. "N-no, not at all," she denied. She looked at my empty cup. "Would you like some more tea?" she asked. "Sure, thanks," I let her. She poured it slowly and I placed another cookie on top of it.
"Naruto-kun, can I ask about something?" she brought up. "Sure, go ahead," I let her. "Um, are you, no... I mean, what time do you want to start the booth at?" she asked. "Well, we can do this in the afternoon, how about 1 o'clock?" I suggested. "Yeah, then we can have time to eat before then," she added. "Okay, I'll pick up the flowers and see you then. If there's anything else you need help with then, let me know," I said. "I have to go, so I'll head out," I dismissed and finished my tea and cookie. "Oh, don't worry about that. In fact, I'm glad you came," she assured me and I stood up. "Thanks, I'm just glad I have a plan now," I sighed in relief and walked towards the door. Hinata also stood up and came with me. "All right, I hope you have a lovely day," Hinata whispered and smiled. "You too, take care," I waved back.
Gosh, I'm glad I went to Hinata's house. She's so nice, offering me help at this time. I wonder if there will be any guys giving her chocolates on White Day, they better not.
March 14, White Day.
I stopped by Yamanaka Flowers, picked up the carnations, and headed towards the rendezvous point. I noticed the booth, the sign, and even some balloons that were set up. "Wow Hinata, it looks great!" "No, Ino-chan and Sakura-chan helped too," Hinata pointed out, while they waved. "Hey Naruto, you're here!" Sakura-chan exclaimed. "Arigatou, minna-chan. Let's get started," I cheered and laid the carnations on the table. I took a seat and fidgeted around. It's time to start.
Some girls showed up and I confirmed them with my list of all the girls' names. Soon the line got longer, so we divided the tasks. Sakura-chan checked the girls off the list, I gave them the carnations, Ino-chan escorted (and chatted with) the girls and Hinata replaced the carnations when they ran out. More girls showed up and I thanked them. Lots of the girls were gathering around and talking now. One of them with red hair was standing a bit too close to us, watching us as we were giving out the carnations. Eventually, Sakura-chan said that we were onto the last girl, and I gave her the 44th carnation.
"Well, that was fun, now what should we do with the last six carnations?" I asked. "You should give them to me," the red-haired girl answered. She looked familiar. "Oh, hello Sayori-san," Hinata mentioned. Oh yeah, the girl with the little brothers- I already gave her a carnation. "Since we do have these extra ones, you can go ahead," I consented. "Do you want one, Ino-chan?" I asked. "No thanks, I already have a lot of flowers to take care of," she declined. Baka, she owns a flower shop, for crying out loud. I'm such a genius sometimes.
"Hey, what about Hinata? She didn't get one yet," Sakura-chan stopped. Didn't she? I don't know if she got me something, but since she helped, I'll give her one. "Sure, here you go," I gave to Hinata. "Oh, arigatou, Naruto-kun," she smiled and pressed it to her. "Yeah, for sure," I nodded.
"Hello everyone, we thank you all for coming to get your carnation, but now we have to wrap things up and go home," Ino-chan announced to everyone. Some smiled, some sighed, and they dispersed. However, Sayori-san and some other girls were still following us around. We had to hide in several places in town for them to go away. Eventually, they did go away. That's a nice perk to being a ninja- having hiding spots. It was late evening now. Ino-chan had to go back to her flower shop, so just Sakura-chan and Hinata were here. Gama-chan was fed last week, so I might be able to afford to get some ramen tonight. "I'm hungry, let's get ramen," I suggested. They nodded.
We ordered some ramen at Ramen Ichiraku and life was good. We were eating when someone crept up from behind us.
"Dang it Shino, you gave me a flippin' heart attack, always sneaking up from behind like that!" I shouted. "I'm a ninja, it's what I do. Anyways, I'm here for Hinata-chan," Aburame, Shino grumbled and looked at her. "Hinata-chan, I just wanted to come here and show you something for White Day," he mumbled. What's he doing?
He opened his sleeves to have fireflies light up and butterflies flutter around her. "Oh my," she let out in an awe-struck face. Then the butterflies all gathered to spell her name and the fireflies flickered a large heart around it. "H-happy White Day, uh, Hinata-chan," he stumbled and kissed her cheek. Is this Shino? The real Shino doesn't show emotion, more or less, affection. Most of all-WHAT THE HECK IS HE DOING TO HINATA?! "A-a-arigatou, Shino-kun," Hinata blushed and fainted. Huh, does Hinata like Shino?
Sakura-chan used some smelling salts to wake Hinata up. She had a dazed face, but slowly smiled. "What happened?" she mumbled. "Shino-kun did something super nice for you and you fainted, but he left afterward," Sakura-chan explained. Coward. "Nah, Shino didn't do anything cool," I lied. "Hh, hm, whatever," Sakura-chan scoffed. We finished the ramen and went home.