In the end, she didn't tell her father about her visiting Sasuke on his birthday. She couldn't tell why, exactly. Even though she had intended to do so, she never got around to it, and as the weeks passed by, the moment to say it passed as well.
She continued seeing Sasuke. At night, he would appear sometimes while she was training. He would look at her throwing shuriken or kunai, point out a few errors, and then give her one of the sweets from his birthday. He never lingered, and Hinata found herself wanting to ask him to stay, to train together.
It made her nervous, not only because of his presence, but also because she thought she wasn't good enough to train with him. Surely he would get bored or look at her with pity at how bad she was. Surely he wouldn't benefit at all from training with her. But still, she wanted to ask him. She wanted to spar with him, and spend more time with the boy she had grown to consider a friend.
That day, the last day of summer vacation before classes started again, she hid behind a tree, watching Naruto practicing at one of the training grounds. She had found out just recently that he also took time outside the academy to train, and had taken to hid nearby and cheer him on from the shadows. Now, you might be wondering why she hid instead of talking to him directly, seeing as they were already on speaking terms, but… Hinata was still shy. It was one thing sharing lunch with him, but asking to train with him, like she wanted to, was a completely different sort of animal.
She couldn't even ask Sasuke, whom she saw as nothing more than a friend; how could she ask the boy she liked? Her fears were the same as with the dark-haired boy. What if she wasn't good enough? What if she hindered Naruto instead of helping him? And the shame of having the boy she had feelings for seeing how bad she was… she wouldn't be able to stand it. Even though she knew Naruto wouldn't judge her, it was still embarrassing.
So she only watched him, whispering small words of encouragement while he threw shuriken at a tree. A few landed, but most missed, and Naruto cursed, taking out something from his pocket. Hinata frowned, catching sight of a sheet of paper that he pinned to the tree with a kunai, smiling as he pumped his fists.
"Right! Now I definitely won't miss!" he said enthusiastically, picking up the fallen shuriken and glaring from time to time at the paper. Hinata narrowed her eyes, curious as to what could be written on it and… wait. Was that… was that a drawing of Sasuke…?
"I'll show you! Bastard! You won't defeat me!" Naruto yelled, and Hinata felt a drop of sweat falling from the fringe of her hair. So it was Sasuke. Naruto really took their self-proclaimed rivalry seriously.
And it seemed to work. The number of shuriken Naruto managed to land on the tree was greater, even if only by a little. Despite being an unorthodox and rather strange method in Hinata's opinion, Naruto competing with Sasuke produced results. If only for that, Hinata was happy for him… though the way Naruto kept yelling at the drawing was rather strange…
She stayed a little longer, looking at Naruto and being reminded of his determination to change himself for the better. She liked watching him; it always inspired her to become a better version of herself. Before, she could only do so in the academy, but ever since being given permission to wander the village on her own, she had not wasted a single chance she had to look at him, whenever they happened to cross paths.
After a while, she looked up, noticing the sky turning orange as the day came to an end. Naruto seemed as if he would train a little more, but she, unfortunately, could not linger. The Hyuuga ate their dinner early, just a little after the sun set, and her presence would be sorely missed if she stayed. Sparing another glance at Naruto, she whispered a small goodbye and left.