Disclaimer: I own none of the things! I make none of dah monies! Let's do this! Also watch the second half of Episode 35 of Rock Lee's show if you want some of the references I make during Gai's Team talk. Anyway, on with the show!
~Springtime of Youth!~
"What... happened..." grunted Naruto as he slowly regained consciousness. "Where am I...?"
"Naruto-kun?" asked a sweet melodic voice, one that the blond knew quite well.
"Heeee...nata," sighed Naruto contently as he cuddled himself closer to the warm thing next to him.
"Mmmm... soft and warm, nice pillow," he thought and began to fall back asleep.
"Oh!" squeaked the cute voice nervously, "Oh, dear..."
"Wait a minute... pillows don't squeak..." thought Naruto groggily as he opened his eyes to behold a lavender eyed goddess.
"Heeeee...nata," sighed the blond again as he reached out and began lovingly stroking Hinata's long hair. This made her let out a breathless laugh. And in turn, made Naruto finally come to the realization that this was not a dream.
And all at once, reality came slamming down again: Shino, Kiba, SEEING HINATA NAKED!
Naruto's eyes went wide as he watched Hinata's gradually reddening face. He then became suddenly aware of the position his head was laying, in relation to the rest of Hinata's body.
And oh yeah, Naruto was totally resting his head on Hinata's amazing tits.
"SHIT!" exclaimed Naruto as the entire upper half of his body bolted upright. "Hinata-chan! Gomen'nasai! I-I didn't realize-"
This just made Hinata sweetly giggle again as she replied, "It's alright, Naruto-kun. I had just sat down in the chair, when I leaned over to check if you had a fever. And you kinda of..."
"-reached out and cuddled you like a plush toy," finished Naruto embarrassingly, already knowing where she was going.
"Yeah..." whispered Hinata with gentle smile, "I thought it was kinda sweet."
This caused the blond to start blushing as well.
"Hehehe..." laughed Naruto awkwardly as he tried to regain his composer, "I- so... I'm guessing Kiba and Shino brought me in?"
"Hai," confirmed Hinata, "They said something about sparring, a bad nosebleed, and having to hose you down." She then reached over to the nightstand and picked up a folded piece of paper; there by missing the look of pure relief that flitted across Naruto's face.
Hinata then handed Naruto the paper and moved to stand.
"I'm really glad you're okay, Naruto," she whispered softly as her hand gently glided across his face.
"Yeah..." replied Naruto dazedly as he stared at Hinata's beautiful form, then he remembered. "Oh! Hinata, how's your father doing?"
"He's doing better, though he's unfortunately still unconscious. But Tsunade-sama said it's just chakra exhaustion and he should awaken very soon," answered Hinata sadly.
Naruto simply gulped and thanked his lucky freaking stars. Because if the elder Hyuga had seen where Naruto had placed his head, he had a feeling he'd be in 64 ways o'pain right now.
"Hai..." agreed Naruto nervously as Hinata got up to leave.
"I really should go check on him, Naruto-kun. But I'm very glad that you're okay," said Hinata as she turned to exit the room. Naruto's hand then suddenly shot out and grabbed her's before she could leave.
"Hinata, wait. I... um, a-are we still on for tonight?" asked Naruto, hoarsely.
This question made Hinata smile as Naruto nervously continued, "B-because I'd understand, if you know, you wanted to stay in and watch your fath-"
Hinata just leaned in and kissed him sweetly on the forehead, while unintentionally giving Naruto another full on view of her most ample bosom.
A brief flash of Ero-sennin shot through Naruto's mind as he ecstatically gave Naruto two BIG thumbs-up of approval!
"I'm not turning into Ero-sennin! I'm not turning into Ero-sennin!" chanted Naruto mentally as he vaguely heard Hinata say, that he was being very thoughtful, and she would still see him at the Hyuga compound at 6:30 tonight. She then turned and he watched as her gorgeous curves exited the room.
Naruto felt a bit of blood start to trickle down his nose again. He quickly grabbed a bunch of tissues off of the nightstand and violently shoved them up his nose.
He was not turning into a pervert damn it! He was not! Hinata was a very strong and able kunoichi, as well as an amazing person. She was not a piece of meat! And he would treat her as such! Even though she was still very, very hot...
"Stop it!" Naruto exclaimed as he gave himself a sharp slap to get his perverted mind back on freaking track.
It was then that he remembered the note Hinata had left. Naruto quickly opened it and sweat-dropped.
"Naruto," the blond read aloud, "If you hurt her, you die. Remember that. Signed Kiba, Shino, and I'm guessing the paw print is Akamaru."
Naruto just snorted, balled up the note, and chucked it in the trash. He was already quite determined to never hurt Hinata again, thank you very much!
"Right! I'm on a mission!" exclaimed Naruto as he threw back the sheets. "Plan a perfect date for Hinata, and prove Sakura wrong!"
"Hate to tell you this, Kit, but she's right, even I knew," laughed Kurama wickedly in Naruto's head. "That girl pretty much sacrificed her life for you during the Pain attack. You don't do that for just anybody."
"Oi! I didn't ask for your opinion baka fox!" growled Naurto in his mind. "Besides I thought you said after the moon thing you were going on vacation."
"Oh, I am," laughed the fox demon evilly. "Just wanted to add in my two cents. Good luck, Brat. You're sure going to need it!"
And with that, the ninetails' presence left his mind.
"Stupid fox, I'll show him, too!" declared Naruto loudly. "Let's do this, Dattebayo!"
As Naruto dramatically punched his fist against the flat of his other hand, he suddenly caught a whiff of some questionable kind of scent. The man then sniffed the air curiously, along with his orange sweatshirt.
"Eww!" he exclaimed with an upturned nose.
"I smell pretty rank, I wonder why. Okay shower first, then mission!" he said to himself, leaping out of bed ready to find his next target: The Team of Maito Gai.
Naruto, of course, found Gai's team doing what they always did, training. And even though Gai was now wheelchair bound, it did nothing to diminish his youthful spirit. He was lifting weights as Lee did push-ups, and Tenten was close by practicing her aim with her Ninja scrolls.
"Oi! GUYS!" yelled Naruto as he raced up to the hard working group. "I need to ask you something!"
"Ah! Naruto! My eternal rival!" exclaimed Lee excitedly, "Have you come to have a youthful spar?!"
"No, sorry, Lee. I can't today. I... well I kind of wanted to asked all of you something..." said Naruto nervously as he scratched the back of his head.
This caused the rest of Team Gai's group to look at each other with raised eyebrows.
"Well," said Gai encouragingly, "Go ahead, Naruto. We are listening."
"I-" started Naruto as he then looked down at the dirt with bit of a blush, "I was kinda talking with Kiba and Shino and well, Kiba mentioned that you may have... helped train with Hinata's team from time to time."
"Well... yeah, Naruto. All of our teams have over the years..." answered Tenten in a confused tone.
"Oh, I know that. But, well see," said Naruto as he began to turn redder, "This was a special kind of training though... for just Hinata-chan against... well me."
This caused a gentle smile to form on Gai's face. It would seem that the boy had finally figured it out.
"Naruto..." said Lee as he looked at his blond friend oddly, "What exactly are you asking us?"
"Did you guys know," Naruto asked seriously, "that Hinata was in love with me?"
"You- OMG! Naruto, did Hinata finally tell you?!" exclaimed Tenten excitedly. Lee took a fighting stance as he tried to contain his tears of joy!
"FINALLY!" yelled Lee positively bursting with happiness. "Hinata's Springtime of Youth has come into full BLOOM! Neji would be so proud! Hinata-chan has truly overcome her greatest weakness!".
"Greatest... weakness?" said Naruto sadly as his shoulders began to droop. "So... you guys did know?!"
"Oh! Of course we did, Naruto!" replied Tenten as she and Lee started jumping and hugging each other out of sheer joy. "Heck, even Neji knew! Why do you think he always sent you flying every time you interrupted his and Hinata's training."
"Wait, what?!" yelled Naruto snapping immediately out of his depressed little stupor. "Neji, knew! I thought he was just being a dick!"
"And how the hell am I not DEAD if he freaking knew?" thought Naruto wonderingly.
This made Tenten laugh as she reached out to grab Lee's shoulder, "Remember that one time, we thought we had made some progress with her fainting, and Naruto appeared out of nowhere!"
"Yeah, and POP! Down she went, oh poor Hinata-chan," lamented Lee. "She's tried SO hard to overcome her shyness."
Naruto just watched the back and forth as his eye nervously began twitching.
"Oh! Oh! And then there was 'Operation Howl at Sunset' when we tried to get Hinata and Naruto together," added Tenten enthusiastically, "And we-"
"-convinced Neji to cross-dress as Sakura!" finished the two friends together, setting them off in another gale of laughter.
"Wait! Hold on, that's what that was about?!" exclaimed Naruto in surprise, remembering that day, "I just thought Neji was being perverted!"
But both Lee and Tenten continued on as if they hadn't heard him.
"Yeah, I remember that! It was not my greatest plan," admitted Lee with a giggle and a thumbs-up, "But it did get results!"
"OI! Dude that was the day you wackos were all chasing me around Konoha and I slammed into Hinata so hard that-"
"-you had to carry her to the hospital, yup!" answered Tenten with an evil grin, index finger waging at Naruto as she finished with a wink.
"The HELL guys! Hinata was stuck in the hospital for a month!" yelled Naruto angrily as he still felt absolutely terrible about that!
"And..." added Lee teasingly as he put an arm around Naruto's shoulders, "You came and visited her, everyday for that whole month, didn't you?"
"I- well... I" stuttered Naruto as he suddenly realized that had actually been one of the first times he spent long periods of time alone with Hinata.
"Well, at least it had worked better than my plan to get Hinata to change her personality," sighed Tenten as she shook her head remorsefully.
"Wait, what?" asked Naruto coldly as he shoved Lee off his shoulders. "Explain that, Tenten."
Tenten just looked up and blinked at him, clearly surprised by his shift in tone.
"Why, did you try to do that?" demanded Naruto as he stared the Weapons-master down.
"I- well, I mean you were always chasing after Sakura so I kinda thought-" answered Tenten nervously, but he cut her off before she could even finish.
"NEVER do that again," growled Naruto in the most threatening manner Tenten had ever heard from him. "Never even, dare mention that to her again! To even imply that Hinata, the most amazing person I have EVER known would have to change ANY PART OF HERSELF FOR SOMEONE ELSE IS-"
Tenten's and Lee's eyes went wide in absolute shock, they had never seen Naruto react like this. So...
Did he really? Had he finally? Both their jaws dropped open as they could just barely make out the gleeful laughter of Gai-sensei over Naruto's yelling.
Tenten cut-off Naruto's emotion filled speech by loudly declaring, "YOU LOVE HER BACK!"
"I- wait, what?" asked Naruto as all his anger deflated once Tenten interrupted him. "Yes, I do. What does that have to do with anything?"
Lee gasped dramatically. He then ran up and enthusiastically hugged Naruto as waterfalls of joyful tears ran down his face. "Naruto-kun! My friend, I am so very happy for you! Your 'Springtime of Youth' has finally come into full bloom as well!"
"GAHH! Lee!" exclaimed Naruto as he ran away from the Green-beast. "What the hell's wrong with you?! Get the hell off of me!"
Lee just continued chasing him, gushing about "Youth" and "Youthful Love."
This caused Gai to start banging his hand on the armrest of his wheelchair and laugh all the harder.
"Isn't this amazing Gai-sensei! I mean, who would have ever thought that Naruto would actually return it!" gushed Tenten so immensely happy for her normally star-crossed friends.
"Oh, there were a few people who knew," sagely commented Gai as he thought of the rather large amount of money he and a few others were going to be receiving from two VERY disgruntled Kage soon. Or at least Naruto would be receiving. They all had agreed that if they won, the poor boy would get the spoils.
"Naruto never had a normal life, Tenten," explained Gai to his pupil. "His parents died on the day of his birth, and he grew up ostracized by most of the village. For most of his life, he has been alone. So romantic love would be very hard for him to understand."
With a nostalgic sigh of youth, Gai paused for a moment as he watched his young protege wildly chase Naruto around the field.
"But it was there, and it would show up in small unexpected flashes. I am simply overjoyed that it had not come to the rather drastic measures some of us were plotting for it to come to the surface..." finished Gai cryptically with an evil smile.
"Neji," said Tenten sadly, "He would have been so happy to see this..."
"Hai," agreed Gai as he reached out and held Tenten's hand. "That he would my dear. That he would."
And with that, Tenten and Gai laughed joyfully knowing that somewhere, Neji was smiling down on all of them.
To Be Continued...
Author's Notes: Yay! Another chapter down! Don't worry, you'll find more about that bet Gai was talking about later! LOL Next Time: "Flower Power!" Naruto heads to Ino's parents' shop for flowers. How will Ino and Sai react? And I know some people have done similar scenes like this before in their fics. But trust me, this is going to be quite original I think. I'm putting a lot of my Sai and Ino head cannon in this so it's going to be really fun. All this and more, next time!
Oh and remember you can find more of my Naruto fics and other Fan Fics from me on my Author's Page.
Please read and review!