Chapter 3

Hinata-sama

Opening her eyes, the first thing that Hinata saw was the inside of a canvas like roof, indicating that she was in a tent. She had absolutely no idea where she was or how she had gotten there. The last thing she remembered was training too hard and collapsing from using too much chakra. She figured taking a look at her surroundings would help provide her with some information as to where she was.

As soon as she turned her head left, she noticed a crop of spiky yellow blond hair mind bogglingly similar to those belonging to her beloved Naruto-kun. But there was no reason for Naruto to be there, was there?

In an effort to wake up the sleeping mystery, she cleared her throat but apparently that wasn't loud enough to wake the man who appeared to be in a very deep sleep. So Hinata tried something else. She said, 'Uhm, hello? Excuse me? Mister?'

That did the trick and the unknown man groaned, scratching his blond hair before sitting up straight. It was none other than her precious Naruto-kun in front of her, yawning and rubbing his eyes. She couldn't believe her eyes and activated her Byakugan just to be sure. Yup, he was Naruto alright.

Hinata suddenly realised that she was in a bed with Naruto beside her and that made her blush a deep red. She hurriedly straightened her clothes, brushed back her head and was just about to sit up, when she heard him say,

'Take it easy, Hinata-chan. It's just me, Naruto. Don't sit up. Sakura-chan says that you have to rest. How're you feeling, by the way?'

'Uhm... I'm f-feeling fine, N-Naruto-kun. W-where am I?'

'You're in the medical tent, Hinata-chan. I found you unconscious in training ground 3. What happened? Are you alright? Did you get attacked? If so, tell me who it was who dared to hurt your beautiful self, Hinata-chan. I'LL PULVERISE THEM!.', said Naruto.

Realising that Naruto had just called her beautiful, Hinata's blush became even deeper if that's possible. And she felt the awesome sensation of being on cloud 9, 10, 11,..∞ as happy as possible.

She mumbled,'Y-you really think I-I'm b-beautiful, N-Naruto-kun?' before she could stop herself and immediately covered her mouth to prevent other accidental questions from popping out.

Apparently Naruto realised only now what he had said for he started to blush too. 'Well... You are really beautiful, Hinata-chan. There's no doubt about it.'he said after a moment's pause.

Hinata felt so happy that words could not describe how incredible elated she was feeling at that particular moment. Also, the way Naruto was looking at her, as though she was the most wonderful person in the world was enough to melt Hinata's already weakened heart away.

xxxx

Naruto-sama

Naruto didn't realise what came out of his mouth and immediately regretted calling Hinata beautiful since he was sure that he was about to receive a tight slap. But his preconceptions about her reaction were baseless as he saw Hinata the happiest he had ever seen her in all of his 16 years living in the same village as her. And her happiness filled him up the brim a sensation of being truly content.

"Why am I feeling this way," he thought. "Why is Hinata's happiness making me feeling so happy? It's not just because she's my friend, that's for sure. I'm not this happy when Choji gets excited at finding a bag of chips.

It's more like the feelings I used to have when I saw Sakura-chan giving that cute smile of hers to Sasuke. So why am I feeling this sensation for Hinata? This sensation of passion that I felt only for Sakura. Was my infatuation towards Sakura-chan really just that? An infatuation? A crush? Puppy love? I do not know. But what I do know is that I want to keep on feeling this sensation of happiness that I'm feeling with Hinata-chan. All else matters not now." thought Naruto.

When he returned to the real world after his sudden epiphany, he noticed Hinata-chan looking at him funny. Like she was concerned about him. He realised he must have been thinking a long time. But right now, all he cared about was admiring how wonderful it felt to have Hinata care for himself.

'A-are you alright, N-Naruto-kun?' asked Hinata.

'Yeah yeah, I'm fine. Just got sidetracked for a moment there.' he replied a bit too quickly while scratching the back of his head.

'So, you feeling alright, Hinata-chan? You still haven't told me why you were lying on the ground like that.'

'O-oh, it's j-just that I was training to get stronger, N-Naruto-kun and-and I o-overdid it a bit.' said Hinata, all the while tapping the tips of her index fingers together, looking shy.

Naruto, on the other hand, got angry since she herself was the cause of her almost death. He got up all of a sudden and slammed both of his hands on either side of Hinata, bringing himself uncomfortably close to her face.

'HINATA-CHAN, HOW COULD YOU DO THAT TO YOURSELF? DID YOU KNOW HOW WORRIED I WAS WHEN I FELT YOUR CHAKRA FADING? I THOUGHT I WAS NEVER GONNA SEE YOU AGAIN. DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW PAINFUL THAT WAS?' shouted Naruto.

Scared by his sudden outburst, Hinata burst into tears and buried her face in her hands. Seeing her crying, Naruto got over his anger but got extremely worried instead and smacked himself up his head.

'H-Hinata, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to shout at you like that. Please forgive me. It's just that I couldn't bear with the thought of losing another one of my precious people. I've already lost the Third Hokage & Pervy Sage and Sasuke deserted the village and I can't bear to lose you too.' said Naruto, all the while gently stroking her back. He didn't know where his words were coming from, but each and every word he spoke was true.

Hearing his heartfelt words, Hinata's crying lessened quite a bit but didn't stop altogether. Naruto gently placed one hand under her chin and made her to look up at him. He really couldn't bear seeing her cry. He considered her tears too precious to be wasted on someone like him. He rubbed her tears away as gently as he could and said to her,'Please forgive me, Hinata-chan.'

Hinata said nothing, but simply captured Naruto in a bear hug, burying herself into his warmth.

Thanks for reading and for all the support.

Apoorv Jain