When she presented Naruto with a new bento, and the question if they could eat together, Hinata thought her heart would stop just with the bright smile he was giving her. He was happy, she could tell, and she was happy she had managed to make him happy. That she managed to elicit that smile from him.
As they sat down near the now frozen plum tree, Hinata took in deep, steady breaths. She could do this, she told herself. There was nothing to worry about. She could do this.
"Hey, Hinata-chan" Naruto called, causing Hinata to jump in surprise. "Ah, are you alright?" the boy asked with concern. Hinata nodded quickly, repeatedly. Luckily, Naruto bought it, but he kept looking at her strange. "If you say so… you know Hinata-chan, you're kinda weird."
Hinata's heart suffered a blow.
"But in like… the good kind of weird. You always give me bentos, even though you don't have to… and you are even eating with me" he smiled, soothing a little of her battered feelings. "No one ever did that. Well, no one except for…"
He didn't continue, leaving Hinata wondering. But she was already too occupied with keeping herself from fainting to ask who he was talking about. Even if she could she thought it might be better not to, considering how down he looked all of a sudden.
The mood didn't last long, being Naruto, and he soon turned back to his smiley self. "Ah, I really like the food! I always look forward to your bentos. Though for some reason they aren't as tasty as that first one you gave me…"
With the first part Hinata felt herself soaring, but the second brought her down abruptly to reality. Was her cooking that bad? Naruto was the second to say it wasn't as good as compared with that of the cooks in her house, after Sasuke. Well, they were the only ones beside her who ate what she prepared, but…
"I-I-I-I-I'm s-s-sorry if it's n-not to-to your t-tastes…" she said, glancing down. Naruto shrugged, not noticing her decaying mood, just taking it as her usual weird behavior, and kept eating at an almost feral pace.
"But I do like it! Iruka-sensei always tells me I need to eat healthier, but I don't even know what healthy food is! I guess it is something like this because I don't usually eat so many different things, so it's all good!"
Hinata couldn't help but smile, before eating too, at a slower and more controlled pace than her companion. Naruto was finished much sooner than her, and he leaned back, patting his stomach with a satisfied face.
"That was really good!"
"I-I'm happy yo-you liked it, N-Naruto-kun…" Hinata said sincerely. The boy looked at her, before approaching her on his hands and knees. Hinata squeaked.
"Hey, Hinata-chan, why do you talk like that? You always stutter! Why?" he asked, wide blue eyes innocent and full of curiosity. Hinata opened and closed her mouth, unable to come up with a good enough response. She didn't know herself why she stuttered all the time, despite doing her utmost not to, and it bothered her a lot that she could not stop. It bothered a lot of people actually, first and foremost, her father, but it was truly something she could not control.
Naruto got even closer, now invading her personal space, and just as he was opening his mouth to ask again, Hinata's brain completely shortcut. She didn't even feel it when her head collided with the cold hard ground.