Naruto and Hinata ...
"Who are you?"Naruto asked but within few seconds he noticed that it was a girl with dark blue hair and lavender eyes, that shined in the street light. Yes it was none other than Hinata Hyuuga "Hey there Hinata! Why are you hiding here?"
'Naruto! he's only inches away' seeing Naruto this close after two and a half years, Hinata turned red and fainted.
"Hinata! Hey Hinata! Hinata...Hinata..." Naruto caught her before she touched the ground " I think she's not ok.. may be I should take her to granny"
At the Hokage tower..
Tsunade was giving a mission to a random four man squad and suddenly the door slammed open and Naruto entered with Hinata in his arms.
"Hey granny! could you please check on Hinata? she just passed out and probably has a bad fever" Naruto asked laying Hinata on the sofa.
"You have your orders, dismissed!" Tsunade said and the squad left.
While checking Hinata, Tsunade asked "weren't you supposed to be on the training ground for the test...? what are you doing here?"
"Well I can explain that gran-" Naruto suddenly felt a something and he smiled "looks like we passed!" Naruto said with a smile as a clone that hit the tree got dispelled and transferred the information to Naruto.
Tsunade was little confused but she brushed it away "well done Naruto! but why didn't Kakashi gave me report?"
"He'll give you. He'll be on his way!" Said Naruto, knowing that they got bells, it won't be too long before Kakashi arrives in Hokage's office.
"Well then.. Hinata's also fine, she just needs rest" thinking that everything was ok, she shrugged the thought of Naruto skipping the test, unaware of the fact that his clones were giving test.
"Ok then I'll go" Naruto took Hinata in his arms and left.
Meanwhile on training ground..
"You both did it! Naruto you have gotten stronger, beyond anybody's expectation and you Sakura, you too have improved very much.." Kakashi said deactivating his mangekyou sharingan.
"You shouldn't have hold back sensei! Hehehe!" Naruto said with smile.
"You don't know it's true power, Naruto.. the mangekyou sharingan's .. it's way too powerful for you to fight.. Kakashi sensei just used to anticipate your attack but I know it's full power.. don't underestimate him" Sakura explained to Naruto, unaware of Naruto's power.
Suddenly Kakashi fainted out of exhaustion. "Sakura take Kakashi sensei to the hospital" and before she could say anything Naruto vanished in smoke.
"Eh?!.. this one's clone too? Where the hell Naruto is?" Sakura got angry thinking that Naruto slipped out, leaving Kakashi behind.
With Naruto..
He was sitting on chair in his bedroom with Hinata sleeping on bed.
"It's already 9 and I'm hungry again.. maybe I should make something to eat.." Naruto got up from the chair and went to kitchen to prepare instant ramen.
He made his clones, clean his apartment before he brought Hinata in. They also got some kitchen stuff, more of a green vegetables and some instant ramen cups. Naruto boiled water and was holding a ramen cup "maybe I should make something else.. I don't think that Hinata would like ramen for dinner.."
After 20-30 min, Naruto was ready with food and brought it to Hinata, in a tray. Keeping the tray on table, Naruto tried to wake Hinata by pulling blanket off her.
"Wakeup Hinata! Your dinner is ready!" Naruto said shaking her a little.
"Umm.." Hinata moaned and open her eyes slowly. By taking support of bed she lifted herself up and sat. "Where am I?" She asked to herself taking a look around the room.
"You are at my place!"interrupted Naruto with a big smile.
She turned in the direction of voice and saw Naruto smiling at her "I'm at your place?!" Hinata asked in her timid voice turning red. But before Naruto could say anything, she fainted.
"Why does she do that when I'm around!" Naruto asked nobody in particular.
After five minutes her eyes opened slowly and started to scan the room, she noticed Naruto holding a tray with some food.
'Don't make any sudden movements' Naruto said to himself in his mind and plastering smile on his face.
"Naaruuto!" She squealed turning red.
"No .. no Hinata.. please don't faint!" Naruto pleaded
"Oh.. ss..or..ry" Hinata started to stutter in front of Naruto 'don't faint... don't faint' she was trying hard to keep up.
After Naruto was sure she wouldn't faint, he gave her the tray "here! have it, you must be hungry"
"Th..thank.. you.. Na..naruto!" Hinata said taking her share and started to eat.
"So.. how's it?"
"I..it's d..d..de..li.. Na..Naruto"
"Thanks Hinata!" And with that Naruto took a bite of it "ummm.. eh!?" *chokes* Naruto throws up running in kitchen.
"Don't eat it Hinata it's awful!" Naruto said taking plate from Hinata. She smiled at Naruto's stupidity and childish behavior.
"It w..was n..not...th..that ba..d" she said with a smile and all red face.
After 10 min..
"Here! it's instant ramen, it's not that good for health but way better than the last one" Naruto said sheepishly rubbing back of his head.
"Th..than..ks Na..Naruto" Hinata thanked Naruto for the food and started to eat.
"Hey Hinata!" Naruto called her name to get her attention.
"Umm y..yes Na.. ..to" Hinata acknowledged his call.
"Why do you always stutter and faint when I'm around?" Naruto asked and stared for a while to get an answer.
"Well.." Hinata Started playing with her hair with her free hand 'this is my chance, now I'll tell him how I feel... but what if he refuses?.. What if he gets angry?.. no why would he get angry... but what if he refuses.. may be I should take it slowly.. let him get to know first'
"Hey Hinata! you ok?" Naruto asked placing his hand on her shoulder.
"Ye..ah! I'm o..k.." Hinata said turning tomato red at Naruto's touch.
They kept on talking about random things for an hour or two and with time her confidence grew and stuttering decreased.
"You know Hinata, you are the first person that came to my apartment. It feels good to have somebody at home" Naruto said with a smile, he was too much happy to have her company.
"You mean no one's ever visited you?" Hinata knew he was alone but was shocked to know that not even his teammates. she was about to ask about Sakura but then stopped, she didn't want to hurt him anymore cause she knew Sakura has always rejected him.
"Yeah! I was all alone and because of something that wasn't even my mistake. I was made out cast" at this point Naruto was dejected and a tear rolled down his cheek.
Hinata reached his cheek and wiped it with her hand, it was so cute and adorable that there are no words to describe it "don't worry Naruto, now you have friends. And whenever you feel lonely you can use my company"
"Thank you Hinata!" Was all he could say but his eyes were full of happiness like never before. 'It's the same feeling as before when Sasuke acknowledged me as his equal, during chunin preliminary exam but this one feels like.. I'm not alone anymore, it's like, I mean something to her'
"Well it's 11 already, I think I should go now, Naruto!" Hinata got up from the bed and Naruto escorted her to the door.
"I'll drop you to the compound" Naruto offered her company.
Next day early morning in Hokage's office...
"So that's it?" Asked Tsunade after reading the report.
"Yeah! They both are good and ready" replied Kakashi "ready to go on a B-rank mission!"
"It seems that you underestimate him.." Jiraiya stated coming through the Window, just then the door to the office opened and Sakura entered. She took her place beside Kakashi and stood there without any question.
"That's not it lord Jiraiya, I think he's strong. He is already a jounin level shinobi but-" Kakashi was cutoff in middle by Jiraiya.
"Naruto is strong and to be frank he is stronger than you Kakashi"
"No way!" Sakura shouted in middle
"He's fast, that I agree. He was able to get the bells from me even when I used my mangekyou sharingan, but that's only because I was holding back" Kakashi explained to Jiraiya.
"Well that's good but you shouldn't have" Jiraiya said confusing everybody "what I mean is Naruto was also holding back cause he didn't wanted to hurt you" Jiraiya waited for a while to let them digest everything.
"How can you say this?" Asked Sakura
"Naruto didn't used any offensive ninjutsu and moreover, the one you were fighting all the time was just a clone of Naruto with half of his chakra"
This shocked everybody in the room and everything went back in flashback.
"So that's it.. after match was over, clone was dispelled. I thought Naruto ran away with the help of clone but I had no idea that he wasn't there the whole time"
Naruto was on his way to Hokage's office but on the way he came across Temari and Shikamaru Nara.
After some casual chitchat ..
"So Naruto.. what are you planning?" Asked Shikamaru Nara, the lazy genius of leaf.
"What do you mean?" Naruto asked giving confused look.
"What, you say.. it's a chunin exam, you are the only one from our who hasn't become chunin" upon hearing this from Shikamaru Naruto was shocked.
"Ehhhhh?"Naruto shouted pulling his hair in frustration.
"Neji, Kankurou of the sand and Temari here are already jounin"
"I recently paid a visit to sand and I knew about them but Neji... he's something else, to be able to become jounin, he must be really strong.."
After his short talk with the duo, Naruto followed his way to the Hokage tower
In The Hokage's office..
"Tsunade, I'm here for a different matter" Jiraiya gave scroll to Tsunade "I'll be back within one or two weeks" and with that Jiraiya vanished and at the same time Naruto came in.