Well, another Chapter loaded. Thanks for reading. Peace out!
- Nate-Dawgg73
The next day, Naruto was in a sportingly chipper mood. He had done something he had wanted to do and gotten a good nights rest. He felt as if nothing could make his mood go sour. All though, one should never say never.
Konohamaru came running up behind him. "Hey, boss! How's it going?"
"Huh? Oh, hey Konohamaru. What's up?"
"Nothing. Hey, listen. I heard about you and Hinata. Nice girlfriend you got for ya."
Naruto liked Konohamaru's comment, until he realized he called Hinata his girlfriend. "She's not my girlfriend." 'Yet,' he thought to himself.
"Right, uh-huh? Well, let me know when you're ready to except the facts, boss. Gotta go. I was supposed to meet Moegi at Ichiraku. See ya later."
"Haha. Man, I can remember when I was that age." He heard a buzzing and looked on his shoulder. A small black beetle was on it. He went to thump it off, but a cold voice cut him short.
"Don't do that." Naruto stopped himself right before his finger went "FLICK!" to knock that pest off. Shino stood in the shadow of a big tree staring daggers at Naruto. At least, Naruto thought so; he couldn't see Shino's eyes.
"Oh! Sorry Shino. I didn't know this was one of your bugs."
"Oh really? You didn't forget me, but you forgot my bugs, is that it? Well, anyways. I had beetles follow all the people in the council room yesterday. I was looking for my girlfriend's scent."
"You have a girlfriend?!"
"Yes. I thought everyone knew. Hmmm, I guess not. Anyways, speaking of girlfriends, I heard you are dating Hinata. This true, Naruto?"
"No! We aren't dating! For the love of Kami already. Purposefully changing the subject here, who's your girlfriend?"
"She's Kiba's cousin. I'm really only dating her, because her old boyfriend was killed during Konoha's destruction and Kiba wants her to stop being depressed. She's been opening up more and more here lately."
"I'm sorry, what did you say here name was?"
"I didn't, but her name is Ryoko. She has an dog named Akita. She's not half bad looking either."
All of a sudden, each boy heard his own name being called by different feminine voice. They both turned to their right and saw their girlfriends running to them. Well, Shino saw his girlfriend anyways.
"NARUTO!" Hinata yelled, excited. Naruto saw her and smiled yet another genuine smile.
"Shino Aburame! There you are. Where've you been?" Ryoko yelled. She stopped and observed Naruto and Hinata. "And don't be rude. Introduce me to your friends."
"Nice to see you too, Ryoko. Naruto, Hinata this is Ryoko, my girlfriend," said Shino, not one bit shy of admitting it.
"Oh, hey! I'm Naruto Uzumaki, hero of the Hidden Leaf, future sixth Hokage, and really good friend if you get to become one of mine. Yeah, Believe It!"
"Hello, I'm Hinata Hyuga, Heiress to the Hyuga Clan."
"Nice to meetcha!" she said shaking their hands. "I am Ryoko Inuzuka. I think you know my cousin, Kiba. And I also hope you know he has a huge crush on you, too."
Hinata turned red as a beat and glanced at Naruto. "Oh, I see. You two are together, aren't y'all?" she said gesturing to Naruto and Hinata.
"NO!" said said boy and girl. They looked at each other, blushed, then looked at the ground.
"Ah ha! Denile is the first sign. You two may not be together, but I bet y'all want to be. Anyways, this here is Akita. She's a lot better than that mutt Akamaru!"
"You wanna bet?" said Kiba, in the tree Shino was standing under, Akamaru right alongside him.
"Well, if it isn't my older cousin. How it goes, Kibby?"
"Don't call me that!"
"Aww, did I hurt whittle Kibby's feewings? Aww, I so, so sowwy."
'Yup, she sure is an Inuzuka after all,' thought Naruto. "You said it, kit." 'Shut up, I don't have time for you.' While the two Inuzuka's argued back and forth, Shino watching lackadaisically, Naruto went a little closer to Hinata.
"Hey, what were you going to tell me?" he asked, an unusual amount of softness in his voice.
Hinata blushed again and started to push her index fingers together nervously. "W-well, Lady Tsunade announced that there was to be a festavel to welcome the Kazekage and his party. And the reason why I w-was so excited is, because she said she would also announce at the festavel some important matters and she mentioned you, personally."
Naruto's mood immediately brightened up, if it was possible. "Really? That's awesome!"
"Also," Hinata added,blushing a little, "she said that you couldn't go unless you had a date, so I was just wondering if you would like to go with me?"
"Of course I will. I probably would've asked you myself, to be honest here."
Kiba overheard their exchange and grew even more irate. "Why don't you just prove that your bitch is better than Akamaru is?"
Ryoko just stopped and stared in disbelief at her cousin.
"Kiba. You are my friend, but Ryoko is my girlfriend, not to mention your family. I strongly suggest you never insult her or Akita again, because if you do, I will friendly-like kick your ass."
"Psssshht. You two are only together, because of me. Whatever. When you wanna challenge, you and your pooch here find us. Let's go Akamaru."
"Sheesh, when he gets angry. Now my bug-using boyfriend, you want to take me to that festival Tsunade is holding?"
"Yeah, I will. You two going together?"
They both nodded. Naruto eyed Ryoko and noticed here eyes were puffy. Maybe she still was depressed. He felt pity towards his knew friend. "So, Ryoko? What do you know of the Konoha 12?" asked Naruto.
"Well, I know Shino and Kiba are apart of it. I'm guessing you two are too. So now I know four members of the Konoha 12. But lately, I've heard people calling y'all the Konoha 11. What happened to number 12?"
"He is the one the Kazekage is escorting here personally. And was my best friend at one point."
"Well, I hate to leave y'all, but I have to show Shino something at my house. Let's go, Shino. Bye, nice meeting you two." She said as she and Shino walked down the street holding hands.
"So, what now?" asked Naruto.
"Well, I have some work to do around here so I'll talk to you later. Bye, Naruto."
"Oh OK. See you later, Hinata!"
Now that Naruto was alone, he could finally contemplate on his new found feelings. 'I know. I'll talk to Grandma Tsunade about it,' he thought. He jumped up, hopping towards the Hokage Tower.
He reached it in about two minutes. He saw Shikamaru and Choji loading some boxes onto a cart. "Hey guys. Need any help?"
"Oh, I thought someone would never ask. Such a drag doing this all by ourselves. Yeah, you can help. We still have like seventeen more boxes and boy are they heavy."
"I think I can get the rest."
"Oh, really? How you gonna do that?" asked Choji this time.
"Shadow Clone Jutsu!" About thirty Naruto's popped up and ran up the stairs. Shikamaru and Choji watched in awe, Choji eating a bag of his favorite chips. In about ten minutes, the Naruto's had loaded every box onto the cart.
"Wow. I've seen you do that same jutsu a hundred times, but it never ceases to amaze me. So what were you doing here?"
"Oh, yeah. I was going to talk to Grandma Tsunade. Catch ya guys later!" Naruto ran up all the stairs again, this time not stopping at the first level. He reached the level he wanted, peeking in to make sure no one was there. He walked up to the Hokage Office and knocked on the door. KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK!
"Oh for heaven's sake, come in!" yelled Tsunade, in a bad mood this morning, contrary to Naruto's.
"Hey Gran...I mean morning Tsunade."
"Oh, Naruto it's you. I've been meaning to talk to you anyways so sit down." He walked over to the chair and sat down. "So, what's up?"
"Well, I need some advice on something."
'Ooh, some advice, eh? I wonder what for.' "What for?"
"Well, I've been thinking about when Hinata tried to save me from Pain. And what she said. I think I might...like her. Like like her, like her."
'WOOOHOOO! ABOUT TIME, YOU IDIOT!' "I see. Well, you now know how she feels, so what I'd do is ask her to be your girlfriend at the festival."
"How'd you know we were going together?"
"I didn't, but thanks for telling me."
"*sigh*. Well you may be old, but you can still help. Thanks Grandma Tsunade." As soon as he finished his sentence, he bolted out the door.
"I'm gonna kill that punk. Ha, he reminds me of Jiraiya. Oh, how I do miss that old pervert. Well, I better prepare the preparations for the festival in a couple days. Gaara will be coming soon."
And about the Sasuke vs. Lee thing? Lee one so I guess it'll be a LeeSaku fic, too. Pleasure doing business with you all!