Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Cliche Guide to a Classic Romance ❯ Giving Confusion A Chance ( Chapter 20 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

It was some time in the afternoon and Hinata found herself sitting in the chair staring at the blank mission report in her lap. One of the nurses had stopped by a while ago and dropped it off telling her that one of the others had dropped it off and that she should fill it out before the Hokage got back.

Apparently the woman hadn’t paid attention to her cloth wrapped hands or read her medical chart.

She didn’t blame the woman though, she was sure the nurse was just really busy and hadn’t noticed. The hospital was a bit more busy then usual.

Hearing the door open, she looked up seeing Sakura peek her head in.

The pink haired girl looked at the frowning at seeing it empty then scouted the room, smiling when she saw the patient sitting in the chair by the window. “Hey, Hinata. You have a visitor. . .”

Hinata looked at her friend questioningly. It couldn’t have been Naruto that much she was sure. He would have already barged in the room making grand entrance. She just nodded and waited for Sakura to open the door.

Once the door opened, Hinata immediately recognized the child standing in the doorway. “ T-Takara? How?” Hinata, started to instantly feel guilty, she had forgotten about the girl she had left back there.

“Your friends found me. . .What happened to you?” she asked looked at the bandages wrapped around her hands and where the blood was coming through her clothes.

Sakura nodded. “Yeah, You never told us everything. As soon as we got back, the medics took you we didn’t really get much of the story out before Tsunade decided to run out and deal with it on her own.”

The Hyuuga girl looked back down at her report then back up at Sakura, and smile. “I-I can tell you what happened while you write it up?” it came out as more of a question then joke. She the other girl look at her confused before she realized what exactly was on her lap. The confusion was replaced with anger in an instant.

“Are they blind or just stupid?! You’re a patient in a hospital she could show a little sympathy!”

“I-I’m sure she was just busy, besides we‘ve all filled out reports while being hospitalized before.” The timid girl said trying to defend the nameless nurse.

Sakura sighed, shaking her head. “Hinata, It’s still no excuse. Just like me every other person who works in this building has to read the patients charts and see to their individual needs. You for example should have straw for your drink so you don’t have to attempt to pick it up, and have your bandages changed at least twice a day. The man in the next room, need to be checked in on every hour and his right leg needs to be kept elevated. “ Sakura explained, as she picked up the clipboard and papers and skimmed over them. She looked over the top of it to look at Hinata, hiding a smile behind the clipboard. “Just like Naruto is going to need constant supervision for the next few days. “

It took a few seconds before the name registered, but when it did her her eye shot up to look at the other. “N-Naruto? I-is he okay?”

Sakura set the bottom of the clipboard on her lap and rested her arms on the top. “He’s. . .in bad shape, but he’ll be okay. He’s got a bad injury on his side he neglected that got infected. He also got sick so his immune system is taking a harsh blow with both the infection and the illness. There’s something else going on, we’ve started running tests on that. If you want, after we‘re done filling this out I can take you to go see him.”

“R-really?”

=-=-=-=-=-

Sakura smiled when they where finally done the report. Her hand felt like it had been making hand signs for hours straight. You could go up to any shinobi and ask them what part about their jobs they hated most and they would tell you it was filling out reports. This was mainly because no one like writing about what had happened during missions. They liked to come back from the mission, forget it ever happened and take pride in the fact that they came home alive. Could you blame them, People died on missions and sometime people came back traumatized or physically incapabable of continuing their normal life style. No one wanted to remember what they or their friends had been through.

Plus there were these pointless questions, like, ‘If you where ambushed what time was it?’. Why would they need to no what time it was? Of course rarely anyone filled out this question, Sakura and Hinata had never themselves filled it out. It wasn’t like there was a clock around tem when they were attacked, and if someone was wearing a watch, when would the have time to look at it?

“Alright, Let’s get you to Naruto’s room.” She said standing up and helping Hinata out of her seat by the window and into the mobile chair she had brought in a few minutes before.

Hinata felt a little frustrated that she had to be moved around with the wheelchair, but kept quite. She knew that it was just another rule from the hospital. Even if she could walk on her own. She might have a deep stab wound in her leg but she could still walk.

However she pushed her feelings on the moment aside, The important thing was that she was on her way to Naruto. This thought had her smiling as she was pushed out of the room.

The smile faded and her happy thoughts were replaced with worried ones. What if Naruto was mad at her for getting captured and what about the fact that it was her fault the mission was almost ruined. Or maybe he would go back to thinking she was weak because of it. But still. . .there was no excuse for her getting caught, she was a ninja she was supposed to be trained for those types of situations. She was supposed to be able to think of alternatives and salutions on spot no matter how much pressure she was under and she had failed. She should have figured a way out of the situation before she been locked up in that cellar of a room.

What would he think of her now?

“Your going to get wrinkles if you worry too much.”

Hinata looked over at the girl who was walking net to her chair. “I-It’s just. . .”

Takara laughed at the girls nervousness. “Grandpa use to tell my dad that every time he got worried about my mother, whether it was from a mission or because he was weaker then she was. He always thought the worst when he thought to much on her job as a Ninja compared to his job as farmer. “

Sakura watched the two talk quietly, learning what she could. She was surprised to see the girl comforting the teen and wondered who she picked up the trait from.

The group stopped when someone called out for Sakura. Neither of the teens had to look to see who it was. There was only one person who worked in the hospital that could sound that panicked without a major fight going on. The pink haired girl turned around to greet the older woman, but stopped when she saw her start taking in large amount of air trying to catch her breath.. “Shizune? Are you okay”

Shizune shook her head and stood up straight. “Sorry, Sakura I‘ve been trying to find you for a while. Tsunade’s back she wants to see Takara, Something about the woman she caught. The one that you fought. They have her secured and she want’s the child to Identify her and fill in some of the blanks since the woman’s refusing to talk.” The older female explained looking over at the child and back at Sakura.

“I see. . .” Sakura looked over at the small child as well. “Takara is that okay with you?”

Takara nodded. “Of course. I’ll answer what ever questions I can.” She relied walking over to Tsunade’s slave of a friend. “I’ll visit you later. Tell your friend I said ‘hello‘” She said looking at Hinata and watching her turn red before waving and following the older woman.

Sakura laughed at Hinata’s blush and waited to they were out of sight before speaking again. “I feel bad for the kid. . .Going through all that and now having to go through questioning.”

Hinata looked at Sakura shaking her head. “She’ll be okay. “

“Maybe . . . So your ready to see Naruto?” Sakura asked stopping in front of a door.

Forgetting that she was injured Hinata stood up, wincing slightly when she felt a sharp pain in her leg. She ignored both the pain and Sakura’s strict orders to get back in her chair in favor of grabbing on to the door handle. She hesitated as she saw the numbers on the door, wondering if maybe he would be on the other side hanging from the ceiling.

The memory made her blush, and she twisted the handle pushing gently on the door. Peaking her head inside, she saw the blond laying in his bed, staring at her. The stare was blank at first but soon the blond was grinning and sitting up in his bed.

“Hinata!”

The girl smiled back and ran over to his side, not noticing the sting of her wounds or Sakura yelling at her to put the mask or gloves on. She didn’t even bother to slow down as she neared his bed. Eventually within a short couple seconds her legs hit a metal bar on the side of the bed and her upper body lurched forward landing on top of Naruto who let out a yelp of pain.

Hinata gasped out in alarm from causing the pain and pushed her self off of him, starting to apologize. Putting him in pain was the last thing she had wanted to do.

Neither her nor her apology got to far when a hand shot out grabbing her wrist being careful of her hands and with a slight pull, she was back in the awkward position, this time there were two arms wrapped around her. “N-Naruto. . .” the name was somewhat muffled, Hinata resting her head on the blondes shoulder her face buried in the blondes neck.

Naruto smiled, he couldn’t have said how happy he was. He was so preoccupied with his chest swelling with joy that he was only vaguely aware of the pain in his side. He wasn’t really aware of anything other then the sight of a live Hinata and the fact that she was safely wrapped in his arms and he didn’t want to let go. Ever.

It stayed like that until a certain pink haired friend faked a cough. Naruto then noticed that Sakura had been in the room and laughed nervously at her smiling. He could tell the way Hinata jumped ever so slightly that she was embarrassed. He could even feel it as her hidden face heated up. He could feel that same warmth starting spread over his own face.

“I’ll go check on the others. Just remember you both need some rest. ”

Naruto watched as Sakura closed the door with a giggle and then looked at Hinata loosing his grip, Hinata turned her head to face away from the boy, yet neither of them completely moved away from each other and silence took over.

Neither was sure what to say. Hinata wasn’t sure if she should apologize for causing all the trouble or maybe tell him how worried she was about him while they were separated. She couldn’t help but feel it was her fault, she was the one who had gotten trapped and she was the one who couldn’t make it back to them in time.

Naruto also wanted to apologize, for getting her kidnapped and not being able to save her like he should have. Instead of being her savior, he was in pretty much the same state she was in, and he felt like something wasn’t right. Hinata was being too quiet, usually she would have said something to encourage him by now. Perhaps she really was mad at him.

Maybe he should say something, she could have been waiting for an apology. No Hinata wasn’t like that, she could never hold a grudge like that, she was forgiving for something like that. Maybe the silence was meaningless, it could have been that all they needed was to make sure that the other was alive to feel the others heart beat. To hear the others breaths next to their ears.

Naruto stopped, irritated with his own thoughts, Maybe he had been talked into reading one to many of those horrible books, or maybe He had just been Hanging around Sakura too long. It wasn’t like he wasn’t aware of her opinions of love, she drilled them in to his head permanently since she use to stalk their old teammate around the village.

But, Maybe that’s how all girls thought about love. The loving, caring, romantic, gushy heart filled fantasies that they read or saw on television. The stories with the, female who was going through some kind of dark phase in her life and then she meets a man who she falls hard for. And then he’ll sing to her and write her poetry and tell her how much he loves her and they live happily ever after.

Surely Hinata knew this wasn’t a movie, right?

He hoped not, couldn’t pull off anything like that. He couldn’t sing, He couldn’t even put together a normal poem let alone one fill with declarations of love, He had very little experience with the topic. Beside’s he didn’t even know where they stood.

“Naruto. . .I’m sorry.”

“Sorry. . .? For what?” The apology confused him what had Hinata done in between now and then? There wasn’t much she could do while she was being held prisoner, unless she decided to cheat on him with the enemy. However the what highly doubtful, Hinata was to loyal for that, not to mention that their relationship hadn’t gotten to far yet.

“For getting you into a-all this trouble. “ She said pulling away from him, refusing to look at him directly. “I-I shouldn’t have. . . I got in th0the way. . .and. . .” Her head fell and she still refused to look at him.

“Hinata. . .That’s nothing to be sorry for I was the one who wasn’t paying attention, you only did it because I was in danger. There’s nothing wrong with that!” Naruto exclaimed. Out of all the thing that could have been worrying her, why was she always worried about herself getting in the way of something. She did what she thought was right and to the general population, what she had done would be seen as an act of heroism, not . “Besides. . .I would have done the same thing for you. ”

Hinata snuck a small glance at him. “You would have done that for any of your friends.”

“Yeah but. . .I wouldn’t have ignored Sakura’s logical words”

Hinata, turned her head to completely face him. “You’ve done that before too. . . A l-lot”

Naruto started getting nervous. “I don’t panic as much over them!“ His voice getting showing signs of frustration.

Hinata went silent for a second before suddenly turning her head away from him. He found the sudden change in attitude odd, even for Hinata.

“You panic when Sakura’s late for team meetings or when the Ramen stand doesn‘t open for a day.” She replied, her tone was abnormally bitter and she turned complete away from him.

“I. -I that’s, but she’d never late for anything, it’s just. . . I get worried whe-”

“More worried about her then me. . .” a slightly insecure tone laced with bitterness. . . Naruto was now completely confused and worried.

She heard a sound of confusion from Naruto, and smiled. She had to bite her tongue to keep form laughing.

Naruto mind was swimming with different idea of Hinata’s behavior. Either someone had switched places with the real Hinata or Hinata had changed drastically in the short amount of time they were separated and had grown a jealousy issue. “Hi-Hinata, I- I, swear I was worried about you! More then I’ve ever worried about Sakura or Ramen!” He started to raise his voice, determined to get the girl to believe him. He had seen jealous girls before, and he did not want to be stuck in the middle of the crossfire. “Hinata! Come on, I went looking for you after Sakura and Neji I should do otherwise, I can‘t remember how many times I‘ve bumped into something in the cave maze of a mansion, I‘ve got some serious bruises though, I haven’t even slept since I started looking for you. . .well I passed out but that’s completely different and you know working with your father isn’t exactly fun and but I did and now you go and get all green-eyed and telling me I do. . .-Hinata?”

Hinata had brought up her hands to cover her face and she was sitting there shaking quietly. She knew playing tricks like that was cruel, but she couldn’t help but be curious if what reactions it would bring from him. While she liked it, she didn’t think it would be something she would do again, He sounded worried, a little panicked and rightfully irritated and when she heard him say he work with her father she could help but laugh at the image of them have a strained conversation about the mission and the argements of logic and heart. Then she heard him use the term ’green-eyed’ and she couldn’t help but laugh. Where had he learned that term anyway?

"H-hey.. . don't . . ." He leaned over trying to lean over far enough to get a look at her face, to see how much she was crying."I-I’m sorry, Naruto I just w-""I already told you not to worry about that. You didn't do anything wrong, It was my fault, I wasn't being careful enough when I was fighting I sho-"

"N-no I mean abo-"

"That's not your fault either!" he said placing a hand on her shoulder, his mind trying to figure out how to calm her down. He didn’t want to be the reason for her crying. It made him feel awful, like he had ate a bowl of bad ramen.

Hinata wondered if Naruto knew what she was even apologizing for and looked over her shoulder to look at him. She was certain now that he was just trying to comfort her without even knowing what the problem was. She found it sweet even if he was blindly trying to do something, at least he was trying.

Naruto pulled back a little when she turned her head back to face him. Her face was slightly red and her eyes held a little bit of guilt and where slightly watery but there were no tear. "Your not. . .Were you laughing?" he asked surprised. He looked seriously confused now and Hinata turned back around to face him, still looking guilty.

"I'm sorry Naruto, I didn't mean any of that." She paused to reach out for his hand. "I know that you where worried about me. And I don't mind that I'm not the only one you worry about. I-if you didn't worry about your friends as much as you do, How would you be able to worry about me at all?"

". . .You tricked me." The sentence cam with a childish pout and an un-amused look. "Sorry, I just w-wanted to see your. . .your reaction." She said blushing in embarrassment at the reason behind her behavior.

Naruto looked at her red face for a moment, wondering If she did what she did for the same reasons he went out of his way to make her face change color. The idea made him happy in a weird way. He didn't like it that he was tricked, and he definitely didn't like thinking that she was crying, but when he found out why she did it, He didn't feel as angry as he should have, actually He wasn't angry at all. He was actually feeling a little bit arrogant now. Maybe it was okay because it was Hinata who did it. However a playful sense of revenge laced with an unidentified feeling was making it's self known and without a second thought he took her hand in his own.

"Hey Hinata. . .?”

"Ye-" Hinata froze solid, her eye's widened.

Slightly dried, chapped, lips were pressed against her own noticeably less chapped ones in a kiss. It was a little sloppy, short, nothing like the velvety, rose petal soft lips the girls talked about. But there was a feeling behind it. Not quite the romantic, ’sweep you off your feet and carry you off into the sunset’ kiss, but there was some kind of tenderness behind it and Hinata couldn’t have been happier.

Yet all she did was sit there shocked and confused and dazed. Although it seemed like minutes, she was only in that daze for a couple seconds before her brain started to bring her back to the real world and she registered what was Naruto pulled away there wasn't a spot on her that he could see that wasn't red.

He grinned, laughing lightly when she looked at him with amazed eyes. The grin quickly fell when she started swaying, nearly falling off the bed. "Hinata. . .Don't faint again." Naruto never thought a kiss could really make a girl pass out, that it was something that only occurred in movies to emphasize the fact that the guy was 'that attractive'. However, Hinata had proved him wrong. Another thing about those movies, when the girl passed out, more then half the time the guy would just walk away leaving the girl there in her own world. In reality when people passed out like that, there was usually a head injury involved, a bump at the least .. The hot guy on tv really wouldn't have such a large fan girl population left if he did that. They would all be at the hospital from concussions and brain damage.

He grabbed Hinata pulled her to him to keep her from falling off the bed. “Hinata are you still awake?” he asked concerned.

“Y-yes.” Her voice was back to that low barely audible tone with a slight squeak and obviously a bit flustered.

“Good. . . Oh Um When I was wondering around the tunnels with your father we found your bag. . .It‘s over there on the table, I wanted to bring it to you when I. . .Hinata?” Naruto looked down as she froze up again and quickly pulled away from him. “Are you okay?”

“It’s nothing, I just didn’t realize that I forgot it.” She hopped down from the bed and walked over to where the table was. She immediately spotted the bag sitting on the table laying on top of a few papers. She grabbed it and opened up the bag looking underneath the flap. She saw the design she had drawn.

Naruto saw her looking at the bag with a smile. "Is there something special about the bag?"

“Well, I. . .um.” Hinata started, looking back and forth between the bag and the blonde.

Finally she took a hesitant step and walked back over to him handing him the bag. Naruto took the bag giving her a clueless look. She motioned for him to open it and looked away when he did.

Inside he saw the fancy design, with his and Hinata‘s names inside. It was impressively drawn, but some parts looked faded like it was done a long time ago. “. . .when did you do this?” He asked, looking up at her, watching her eye’s dart around the room.

“When I bought it. . .Almost th-three y-year’s ago. . .”

“You’ve really liked me for that long?” watching Hinata’s face turn red, again, and she shook her head. His first thought was that maybe his friends exaggerated on the length of Hinata’s crush. However, the girl said she drew it three years ago, and why would she draw his name along with hers in a fancy decorated heart, If she didn‘t like him then. She wouldn’t. “Then. . .Longer?“

“Since the first day I saw you In Iruka-sensei’s class.”

“Why? I wasn‘t anything back then. I was last in class, I constantly got in trouble, I didn‘t have any friends, and I couldn‘t even do the simplist of techniques. I couldn‘t even pass the exams. I flunked, repeatedly.”

“I. . .I always thought. . .that you were a good person.” She said taking a seat on the edge of the bed. “You never gave up. . .even when y-you did fail the exam. You kept at it. I. . .admired you for it. . .and during the chuunin exams when I was fighting Neji. . .I-I only lasted that long because of you. You cheered me on. . .you believed in me. The person that I admired most had faith in me, and when I lost, I felt like I let you down, so I started training harder. You’re the reason I‘ve gotten this strong, ”

Naruto sat there, a little unsure of the girl’s words. How could any one admire him? Admire him to the point that they felt guilty for losing when he had cheered them on, especially when he himself had almost lost. He couldn’t see why the girl liked him so much. He was loud, over confident, got into trouble more times in a week then anyone could in there life, and now he was so confused about his feelings for Hinata that he wished he had paid more attention to her back then so he could say something that great about her right now.

He wasn’t a romantic person. He didn’t know how many times he had reminded himself of that but how could he not, with someone like Hinata caring as much as she did and saying things that made his chest fill with some type of pride and giving him a different Kind of attention that he had never received before.

She would buy his food when he was hungry and never wanted anything in return. Even though she thought he didn’t see those quick glances, those eye’s he saw, held something that was familiar but at the same time it was different and it gave him a feeling that he never felt before. It was a little scary, but it was also tempting. Like a haunted house on Halloween or a rollercoaster, It looked and felt frightening, but it stood innocently there in it’s horrifying glory until you gave in.

Then you would see passed it’s scariness and have fun. He had done that with Hinata, looked passed her oddness and now he was seeing her in a whole new way.

Maybe he could do that with the feelings he had . . . After he figured out what they were.

Hinata saw the look of genuine confusion on the others face as he was having an inner struggle. She knew that she was taking a big chance when Naruto had asked her out. She was aware that Naruto never had a romantic type of love in his life, if you didn’t include his old crush on Sakura. She was also aware that he barely knew she existed, that it was probably by some big coincidence that he had asked her out and that he most likely didn’t feel as strongly for her then she hoped for. She was really setting her self up for heartbreak. “Naruto, I. . .I‘ve always lo. ..felt something for you and. . .I u-understand if you don’t fell the same way. . I just-”

“Hinata, what would you do if, and it really is an if!” He started cutting her off before she could finish. He took a breath and continued his own question. “If I told you that I didn’t feel the same way?”

Her hands starting to play with the bed sheets, nervously. Even as an ‘if’, the question caused her chest to tighten painfully. She even felt a like crying. What would she do if it didn‘t work out. She wanted it to work out but what if it didn‘t? Would she be able to forget about him after all the years? Let him go and move on? “I-I don’t know. . .”

“Hinata. . .your. . .” Once again he didn‘t finish his sentence and instead reached up with his hand to wipe a tear of the girls face, feeling bad for asking the question. “I don’t know how far this will go Hinata, but we’re going to find out.” he mumbled so low that she almost didn’t hear it, but it was obvious she did when she gave him a him a smile and hugged him, immediately hiding her face in his chest, no doubt turning that humorous shade of red. He her say something but couldn’t make it out.

Brushing it off as another unnecessary apology he wrapped his arms around her, his grin returning. He never felt like this. Like he just wanted to sit back and relax and be. . .calm. He could get use to this though, just sitting around with Hinata doing nothing.

It was so quiet he could he her breathing, slow steady, probably half way asleep. She was a nice girl, a little odd at times, maybe in need of a little reassuring here and there, but she was still strong. She had lived with her feeling for him for so long. It must have hurt when he hadn‘t noticed her, and those times when he use to chase after Sakura and those times he called her weird to her face when they were younger. Of course he never meant it in the way that he was making fun of her, but to someone as sensitive as she is, it must have felt like a punch to the stomach. Times two because of her crush on him.

Sighing, he rested his chin on top of her head, his grin fading into a smile.

He really wasn’t sure how far he could go but, there was no way he was going to break her heart if he could help it.