Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. Masashi Kishimoto does. *sob* I also don't own any of the songs used.

Chapter Three

They found the Inuzuka easily enough, since it was his scheduled lunch and he was in the cafeteria with the rest of their friends. Naruto led Hinata up to the doors, arm still around her shoulders, and peeked in himself. And that's when he saw her.

Like Hinata, she wasn't wearing her school uniform. For some reason, the entire school had abandoned the formal attire the school forced them to wear and everyone was clad in casual dress. She'd abandoned her skirt for hip hugging jeans that hung slightly off her waist, giving ample view of the skin of her back whenever she leaned forward in the conversation. Her button up shirt and tie were traded in for fading emerald green T shirt that seemed to accentuate the fact that she had curves, rather than hide it. And she had headphones around her neck. Headphones. Since when did Konoha Academy allow the students to wear headphones in broad daylight during school hours? What had chaged? Had Tsunade died?

Hinata seemed to follow his gaze to the pinkette that had stolen his attention, even from across the room.

"She convinced Tsunade-sama to allow for casual Wednesdays and Fridays to boost student morale. As you can see, she succeeded. You know, Sakura-chan is vice president of the school, now," the young heiress revealed to him with a gentle smile.

Naruto turned to her, surprised. "No way."

Hinata nodded. "Way."

Naruto swallowed, turning again to the rosette who still didn't seem to notice him standing there watching her. He couldn't believe it. His Sakura-chan was vice president? Of the whole school? She was only second to the president and Tsunade when it came to decisions regarding the student body! Wow, he was so proud of her.

"Sakura-chan..." he breathed, smilin in her direction.

Hinata giglgled. "You know, we can always go over there and say hi," she hinted at the Uzumaki, or, as everyone knew him now, the Namikaze.

Naruto froze, suddenly feeling panicked. He couldn't go over there and talk to her now! Sakura... she wasn't the same girl that he left here a year ago. She'd matured and she was doing cool stuff and she probably had way better stuff to worry about than the rockstar knucklehead that she dated last year. He... He couldn't see her.

He scratched the back of his head, already turning to walk the other way back out the cafeteria doors. "Actually, Hinata, I can't. Um, I have to go talk to Tsunade-baa-chan about some things so... maybe we can all catch up later?" He didn't een wait for her reply. He simply waved and left in a flash of yellow.

Hinata stared after him curiously. Strange. "U-Um okay, Naruto-kun."

She watched him leave before making her way over to her group of friends who were all seated around one of the round tables at the cafeteria. Last year with the combination of the boys, the teens had occupied one of the longer rectangular tables, but once the band left to go on tour, there were just enough of them to fill the circular ones. Unfortunately with the boys back, the table was a little packed. Sakura looked the most comfortable seated by herself, but Ino looked uncomfortable sitting in Shikamaru's lap to her righ and fidgeted every other interval of five seconds, which caused a growing blush to make its way across the Nara's facial features. Next to them was Kiba who was trying desperately to hide his canine companion inside his band T shirt and failing, elbowing the hell out of a gradually angrying Sasuke. Neji and Tenten were scotted close together and whispering things into one another's ears that made the other blush bright red, and finally there was a free seat to Sakura's left... which she stole for herself.

"H-Hello," she greeted everyone, debating with herself whether or not to meet the eyes of the Inuzuka seated across from her at the table. She didn't know what to expect from him now that he was back. Kiba was a drummer in a famous band that spent the past year touring around the world. He had girls shouting his name and wearing T shirts with his face on it almost everywhere. Even now she spotted a couple of her fellow classmates eyeing the dog lover with lecherous gazes. Kiba was a celebrity and he probably knew it very well. Woul he still want to settle for a quiet, stuttering, plain girl like her?

"Was that Naruto that I just saw?" Sakura asked her friend, snapping the raven haired girl out of her thoughts. Hinata's head snapped up, staring at the pinkette until she registered what she'd been asking.

She nodded. "Y-Yes, that was him. I asked him to join us but he was running late for a meeting with Tsunade-sa-sama. He suggested that we meet up later to catch up."

Sakura frowned. "But he... he didn't even say hello to me," she muttered, looking down at the table in front of her. Hinata saw the solemnity in the girl's mood and quickly went about eradicating it.

"N-No, Sakura-chan, don't worry! Naruto-kun simply is running late. He wanted to talk to you, but he d-didn't want to face the consquences of being even later than he was," she excused, even if she wasn't sure if it was even true. She was just covering for the blonde.

Sakura cut her eyes at her. "He had time to talk to you," she snapped, her voice laced with jealousy so potent that everyone at the table could practically smell it.

An awkward silence befell the group of friends, looking between the fiery pink haired vice president and the quiet Hyuuga heiress.

Hinata's face was slowly turning a bright red from her neck to the tips of her ears. Clearly she was frazzled. "S-S-S-Sakura-chan," she protested, her stutter growing increasingly worse at the radical accusation, "I-I-I w-w-was just- we s-simply-"

Kiba leaned across the table. "Wow, Hinata! Your stutter is back!"

Hinata's face burned twice as bright as if someone had stuck her on the inside of a sauna and turned the heat up. She worked to hide her face from view, not wanting anyone to comment on her face along with her nervous habit. She ended up standing up abruptly. "E-E-Excuse m-me," she stammered out quietly, leaving the table and fast walking towards the cafeteria doors.

Ino watched, feeling sympathy for the poor girl. "Sakura, look what you did!" she shouted at her in disbelief.

But Sakura wasn't listening. She stared at the doors, not looking towards Hinata, but in the direction that her blonde boy had gone in. For some reason, he got the feeling that he just hadn't wanted to see her.

'Naruto...'

"You're late!" Tsunade barked at him the second he slid into her office, barely giving him the opportunity to sit in the chair across from her desk.

Naruto grimaced, slouching in his seat. He already felt forlorn, and he hadn't even been in the office for thirty seconds. "I was with my dad this morning. I couldn't be on time."

The woman that had acted as a drunken great aunt to him for the majority of his life and was one of his father's advisors sighed at him in sympathy. "Sit up, Naruto. We have important matters to discuss." She placed her elbows on her desk, lacing her fingers together and settling her chin in the bridge that they made. Naruto always used to think that she looked twice as intimidating that way.

Naruto looked around. One more person should have joined them for this meeting, but he didn't see the old hermit anywhere, nor did he see him in the halls on his way there. Almost instantly, the memory of their little one-sided argument in front of the school flashed in his head, and he bit his lip guiltily. Had he decided to skip ou because of what he'd said?

"Where's Ero-sennin?" he brought himself to ask.

Tsunade looked around as well, as if not noticing that her old friend wasn't in the room. Her expression took on a look of thoughtfulness. And then she snapped her fingers and sat back as if remembering something. "He went to discuss with the board about your father's condition and how he'll be taking over in some of his duties while he's incapacitated." Naruto winced. He felt like they were talking about his father like he was dying and they needed a quick course of action before Minato kicked the bucket. How serious was this?

Naruto nodded. "So it's just you and me?" he asked. The older woman nodded, offering a gentle smile that both sent shivers down his spine and gave him a feeling of warmth at the same time.

"Let's begin, shall we? Now, we have to work on your image..."

"Huh? What's wrong with how I look?"

"You reek of irresponsible kid. When the papers make headlines of the once Namikaze prodigy, they don't see a promising little boy who looks like he could take over from his dad one day anymore. They don't even see the adorable little boy who held onto his mom's pants' leg and sucked his thumb in almost every picture taken of him. They see the scary hooligan rockstar who took a year off from school to ride in a smelly tourbus with his three delinquent friends in order to make music. And that is exactly the kinds of stories the press will print about you. No one, and I mean no one, will want to invest in a company with a kid like that holding the reins. They'd expect it to fail, and fail hard. Current investers and partners might even pull out the second that we name you Minato's successor."

Naruto sat there with his mouth agape. "They'd do that?"

Tsunade nodded with certainty. "It happens all the time, Naruto. It's actually an issue right now with the Hyuuga family and naming Hinata their next head. There's a big uproar an many people want Hiashi to disown her as the heir and give the company to her little sister, Hanabi."

Naruto's face went blank. "Hanabi is barely fourteen."

"But she shows more promise in the eye of the public than Hinata, and that's what matters to people. Hiashi doesn't want his business to crumble because people don't respect Hinata."

"But... will he do it? Disown Hinata, I mean?"

Tsunade shrugged. "It could happen," she replied honestly.

Naruto's shoulders slumped. "That's so unfair..."

"Such is the business world, Naruto."

Naruto looked up, a thought occurring to him. "Baa-chan... Would you and Ero-sennin do that to me?" he asked, looking fearful.

Tsunade bit her lip, deciding to answer his question carefully and with tact. "You don't have any siblings or direct cousins for us to consider doing that, Naruto. You're an only child. But ultimately..." She exhaled. "It wouldn't be our decision to make."

A/N WOO! An update in two days? I think I deserve a cookie! Yes? No? Okay... moving on.

I really hope you enjoyed this chapter! Please review with what ya think :]