Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, okay? Just stop hounding me about it, geez.

A/N: This is the chapter where Naruto comes in. The NaruHina starts. There are some flashbacks (e.g. They were happy). There are hints of NejiTen throughout the story starting pretty soon.

c h a p t e r . t h r e e

Normal POV

Haruno Sakura walked through Kohona. In the past 3 weeks, she had been constantly training with her shishou and in the hospital working double, triple and even quadruple shifts. Kohona was worried about it's cherry blossom. Even though she had never come close to death, she had fainted on a quadruple shift 2 days ago. She was banned from doing that many shifts in a row as well as working for an entire week.

Sakura arrived at her destination, Ichiraku Ramen. The #1 Hyperactive Knuckle-Headed Ninja was sitting at a stool talking to his girlfriend, Hyuuga Hinata with a mouth full of noodles. Sakura had hooked them up because she felt sorry that she could never return Naruto's feelings. And she also had known that Hinata liked Naruto a whole lot; they were best friends after all. Once he talked to her more and she fainted less, he asked her out. He had soon realized that he was in love with her. Sakura sat down and prepared to be sprayed with Miso Ramen noodles as her greeting.

Naruto POV

I saw Sakura sit down next to me. She was smiling sadly, like she did when Sasuke-teme's name was mentioned. It was a soft, sad smile that made her eyes brim with love and regret.

I swallowed my ramen and softly said, "Hey Sakura-chan. How are you feeling?"

She snapped her head up and looked at me like I was foreign.

"Who are you? The Naruto I know doesn't say anything quietly."

I laughed, "Very funny, Sakura-chan. It's not like I'm loud all the time."

She looked at me with one of those 'pfft-yeah-right' looks.

"Yes you are."

Then before I could retaliate, I heard Hinata say, "Hi Sakura".

I beamed when she didn't stutter because I had worked with her on that. I had even offered to have her take some speech-pathology classes but she said that she would be fine with my lessons. I picked up my chopsticks as I thought about how fun her lessons were.

When she said something without stuttering, I would kiss her. When she did stutter I would hug her and softly tell her to try again. When she finally stopped stuttering, I was really happy and it was worth it to see the smile she had on her face. It was very accomplished, beautiful and bright. Her pupil-less eyes seemed to instantly light up and shine, brimming with pride.

I kissed her cheek and whispered into her ear, "Great job my Hina-tenshi. Aishiteru."

She'd blushed madly and said, "Naruto-kun…Aishiteru. Arigato."

That was the first time I had told her I loved her.

I would always remember it.

Sakura got her order as I snapped out of the sweet memories. She was quiet and deep in thought I could tell. Her eyes were slightly glazed over and she wasn't talking at all. I looked at my Hina-chan and she also looked very concerned for her best friend. So I whispered the plan in her ear and she nodded in approval. I looked over at Sakura and she hadn't even noticed me talking to my Hyuuga heiress; her eyes were still glazed over and she was eating her noodles like a robot. Hinata quickly finished her noodles and walked over to Sakura. She pulled on Sakura's sleeve like a little kid. Sakura snapped out of her trance and looked down at Hinata.

"Wanna go do something? Like take a walk?"

Sakura nodded, smiling and slurped up the rest of her ramen; putting her money down in the process.

The two began to walk off and I promptly ordered some more ramen, ready to eat like a pig. Hinata chastised me when I ate like this even though I saw nothing wrong with it. But I did whatever she said because I loved her and I had to obey my future wife. Not to mention she had trained with Sakura and gotten really strong; her hits really hurt, although very rare.

I picked up some new chopsticks when my bowl was ready and said, "Itadakimasu!!"

Hinata POV

Sakura and I walked away from the Ichiraku ramen stand, which was like my 3rd home now. That was because Naruto practically lived there when he wasn't at home, my house, or training. I was almost always with Naruto so his homes were my homes. He could be smart when he wanted (occasionally needed) to be. He had come up with a phenomenal plan that probably would work.

I really love him and he really loves me. It was like a dream come true. I remembered when he had asked me out.

He had invited me to go out onto the bridge where his team met at night. Once we met, he took me into the forest where he had a picnic set up for me. I gasped when I saw it. I was about to sit down when he grabbed my hands gently. I could see his cerulean blue eyes in the moonlight. They were beautiful, and I had been seeing them a lot lately. He'd been inviting me to hang out a lot. I'd stopped fainting around him and my blushes were nothing more than a very faint pink by then. So we'd been able to talk to each other more.

I had stammered a, "N-naruto-k-kun…"

"Hinata-chan, would you like to go out with me? I really like you a lot."

I was so happy. I momentarily lost my mind, jumped into his arms, and kissed him. It was my first kiss and his second. (A/N: Sasuke took the first, lol. But I do hate SasuNaru beyond words can describe. This is for Amber.) It was short but all our feelings for each other were burst into that one kiss.

"Naruto-kun, of course I'll go out with you. I like you a lot too."

He smiled a true, happy, and beautiful smile before he kissed me again, this time even more passionately. After that, we'd sat down to eat his picnic dinner. When we were done, we laid down on his blanket under the stars. I had fallen asleep on his chest and hadn't woken until morning to find him, just as I had always dreamed, right beside me. He snored lightly, but he looked so peaceful, and he was mine then.

I snapped out of the memory when I heard Sakura try to stifle a sob. I quickly hugged her and then transported us to her house. She began to sob uncontrollably onto her bed. I rubbed her back and waited until she would be ready to talk.

She cried for 30 minutes straight before letting up. I heard 'Sasuke-kun' a couple of times but restrained from gasping. Why would she just randomly think of the Uchiha and start crying? She had long ago stopped her crying at night for him. She still loved him, she told me, but she no longer cried over him. She was determined to get stronger so she could get him back when he was in her and Naruto's reach.

When she finally stopped crying, she began at the beginning.

When she finally finished, she looked at me and said, "Promise not to tell Naruto? He'd kill me if he knew I didn't tell him right away."

I just stared at her. I knew I couldn't keep secrets from Naruto very long usually. He was so sweet to me and I was going to be his wife someday. However, I understood the urgency and confidentiality this secret held. I knew he had quite a temper, especially when it was about his best friend. Also, the Hokage would get involved. Naruto had even yelled at me once after someone had talked about the Uchiha.

I was terrified, sad, and hurt when he yelled at me. I ran into the woods from his house. It took him hours to find me and I began he'd abandoned me. But when he found me crying in the rain, he picked me up and set me on his lap under a large tree. I had struggled like a child for a while but then stopped when I realized that, as Neji had once frequently said, it's futile to escape.

He then said, "Hina-chan, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to yell at you. It's just….someone was talking about the Teme and I was mad. Then when you asked me if I had done the dishes, I just let it out on you. I'm sorry. I promise to never do it again."

He hugged me tightly and I felt some tears on my now-long hair. I turned around to see him crying, his cerulean orbs filled with sadness and regret.

I kissed his cheeks and said, "I-I forgive you Naruto-kun. It's o-okay. I sh-shouldn't have hassled you about the dishes i-in the f-first p-place--," he kissed me fiercely, cutting me off.

When we parted he said, "Hina-chan, please don't blame it on yourself. It wasn't your fault at all. Don't talk like that."

I nodded and let him dry the rest of my tears after I'd dried his. We smiled at each other and we slept in the forest that night, together. When I had woken up, he was softly stroking my cheek.

I was interrupted from the reminiscent that meant so much to me by Sakura, who hugged me tightly.

"THANK YOU HINATA! You don't know how much this means to me. Now I don't have to bear this all alone," Sakura shrieked.

I smiled at my friend but then thought about this whole plan, which was Naruto's idea in the first place.

"What will I tell Naruto then?" I asked her.

Sakura thought for a second.

"Just say that I've been trying to surpass him. He'll believe it."

I smiled at her as she smiled back a true, genuine and happy smile.

I hugged her and reassured her, "Don't worry, your secret's safe with me."

She hugged back and said, "Thank you."

Naruto's POV

Hina-chan had been gone a good 2-3 hours, meaning that she had gotten through to Sakura-chan. I smiled when I thought of her because she was the best thing that ever happened to me.

As I walked by Team Gai's training grounds, I saw TenTen and Neji kissing on the ground. There were kunai, axes, shuriken, and senbon surrounding them. I chuckled quietly at the sight of the 2 most serious and violent people making out like 2 lovesick teenagers.

I finally arrived at my house. It felt so empty without her sometimes. I hated whenever she went on missions, long or short because after training, or when she went home. The house would be quiet and that certain shine wasn't there.

I whispered, "Hina-chan, come back soon."

All of the sudden I felt a strong pair of arms wrap around my waist.

"Your wish is my command, Naruto-kun."

I felt a pair of warm, familiar lips slam into mine. I smiled into them as I responded to the passionate kiss. After about a minute or 2 of making out, we stopped for a breath. She softly smiled at me and pushed me onto the coach.

I was excited, yet confused. She was either being suggestive or she just wanted to snuggle. She was never usually like that unless she was drunk and that was only once. She passed out right after she said that she wanted to screw me. But I would never take advantage of her in her drunken state.

But she had obviously just wanted to snuggle because she laid her head down on my chest and hugged me. I hugged her back and sighed happily. I didn't need to be doing anything with her. I just needed to be with her to be happy. I kissed her head and hugged her closer, if that was even possible. She took my hand and laced our fingers together, kissing my hand.

She whispered, "Naruto-kun. I want you to know…I love you. I want to marry you someday."

I felt tears come to my eyes and I tried to will them to go away. She had never said that to me before. We'd never really talked about it, but I thought about it all the time. I was really happy that she wanted to get married.

"Hina-tenshi. My everything. I love you too. I want you to marry you too. I wish we could get married right now," I confessed.

Then I heard a sniffle. I looked down to see Hinata crying. I sat up and hugged her tighter. I let my tears flow down my cheeks as she buried her head in my chest. We stayed like that until we both stopped crying. It was one of those connections we just had that made us know that we were in love.

She finally smiled up at me and asked, "How about I go make us some ramen?"

I whined a bit and she looked up at me quizzically.

"Noo!! I love you more than ramen. Don't leave me for it!" I complained childishly.

She giggled and said, "Fine. But I'm getting some. I'm hungry."

She did 'Kage Bushin No Jutsu', which I had taught her, and had her clone go make us some ramen. After about 5 minutes or so the clone came back, handed us the bowls, bowed and dissipated.

"Wow! I just had the prettiest girl in the world serve me my most favorite food in the word while I held my beautiful fiancé! This is the best day ever!" I exclaimed.

She blushed and kissed me on the cheek, then we both said, "Itadakimasu".

We ate and talked about random things. These were the moments that I'd always remember and we'd always have. Plus a couple little Uzumaki's running around screaming, "Byakugan" and, "Kage Bunshin No Jutsu". I smiled at the thought.

Hinata snapped me out of my fantasies by asking, "Naruto-kun, what are you thinking about?"

I absentmindedly told her, "The children we're gonna have."

"NANI?! NARUTO, YOU PERVERT!!" she screamed as she hit me over the head. A bump formed on my head and I nursed it, whimpering slightly.

"I'm going home! I'll see you in training to kick your butt tomorrow in training Naruto-SAN!" she huffed.

I could tell she was mad because she replaced my favorite '-kun' suffix with an formal '-san'.

"H-hina-chan!" I protested as I ran after her.

I grabbed her arm to find it was only a substitution. I smiled at her slickness and looked forward to training the next morning.

I went back into my house and smiled sadly, because I was right back to where I started. I was in an empty, dull house without my love.

"Hina-chan", I whispered, hoping she'd pop up right in front of me again.

When she didn't, I went to bed hoping to find her there. In my dreams, where she ALWAYS would be.

A/N: Awwww, aren't they so cute. I just love Naruto. Yeah, he's a bit OOC but who cares, don't you just love him?