Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Cliche Guide to a Classic Romance ❯ Misguided ( Chapter 26 )

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

Okay, so maybe handing the flowers back to Hinata wasn't such a good move. It couldn't have been if he kept getting yelled at, insulted and hit on the head with random objects. If Sakura or Ino hit him one more time he was going to get brain damage.

It just didn't make any sense. Everyone had told him to keep his mouth shut when it came to the other guy. To back off and trust Hinata to not get pulled in by the guy. Then, when the guy did pursue her and he took their advice, they scolded him. What did they want him to do?

Did they even know how much will power it took to not take those flowers and stomp on them and tear that little card up right then and there? Of course not, they hadn't been there.

Now according to his friends, mainly just Sakura and Ino since everyone else was either away or just not around, of course giving the girl space was the wrong thing to do because she would think he didn't care. Why did he even ask them for help in the first place?

Sure, he didn't know much about relationships like these, but apparently they didn't know anything either if they kept changing there mind about everything. Why were girls so confusing? They were nosy, gossipy, high maintenance, prissy, and completely insane.

Alright maybe he was being a little unfair. Though can you really blame him? The girls he knew weren't exactly the calm and quiet type. Well Hinata, was and that was nearly the only exception. Tenten wasn't so bad as long as she wasn't angry and Ino and Sakura weren't all bad. They were just confusing the hell out of him.

Sighing Naruto, stood up from the ground feeling even more frustrated then when he had originally got there. He had planned on coming to the training field to try and clear his mind. However, all he ended up with were raw knuckles and a need for a shower. He wasn't insane with hygiene, but even he knew one constantly needed to keep up with it unless they wanted to get sick and he didn't like the hospital.

He hadn't even seen Hinata in four days. Though he had seen that kid, the one who was trying to win her over. The kid was an arrogant jerk. He knew Naruto couldn't touch him unless he was a danger to the other people in the village and he reveled in it. He had let Naruto see him go into the flower shops and different stores, getting little presents for Hinata.

Naruto knew it wouldn't work that way. Hinata might have been a little embarrassed by the gifts and appreciated them to an extent. She might even like the small amount of attention she was getting from her 'secret' admirer. She was a girl. Girls liked attention and to know that they were liked. Ino was very good example of it.

But, Hinata wouldn't fall in love with someone just because of flowers and candy. What point was there in that. It showed that he had money, that was it. The guy didn't even have the guts to talk to her face to face. He was a coward hiding behind cards and flowers.

No, that wasn't right either. He couldn't say that, because Hinata hadn't told him anything at all. He had found out from other people that she had harbored feeling for him since they were twelve. Even though the evidence should have been obvious to him.

Maybe he should ask some one else other then Sakura for advice. Iruka or Shikamaru would probably be best. Iruka, was older and seemed to know what he was talking about and Shikamaru, had a crazy yet stable relationship with Temari. He would go to Shikamaru first then Iruka.

'Heh at this point I'd rather go to Grandma for advice then face Sakura's wrath again.' He thought as he entered his home and got ready for bed.
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"Look, I don't care what you think. Just do it biscuit breath!" Sakura yelled shoving the small bag into the guys chest.
Kiba glared at her and smacked the bag out of her hand.

"No." He stated firmly, stepping on the bag as the girl went to pick it up. "We had this discussion before Sakura. Naruto has to do things on his own. Spying on them I'll tolerate but I'm not helping you get involved in their problems. Especially when there isn't one to begin with. Hinata loves Naruto, she has for years. She's not about to leave him just because some random nutcase is placing material things on her porch."

Sakura stood there for a moment, thinking. Then she pointed her finger at him. "Bu-"

"Hinata understands things about Naruto that I don't think even Naruto understands. If he handed her those flowers back, I can bet you all the money in my wallet Hinata knows why and doesn't need some fancy and expensive form of apology." He cut her off smirking confidently.

Groaning with frustration, Sakura kicked Kiba's foot off the paper bag and picked it up. As she stood she gave him a smirk of her own. "You know. . .You're starting to sound a lot like Shino." She said, waiting for the comment to sink in.

Kiba gave her a blank stare. "And with all your snoopy around and scheming you're starting to act a lot like Naruto."

Ino stood back with a nervous smile and watched the two stare each other down. The last encounter she seen like this was between Kankurou and Shikamaru and it hadn't ended well. Though that was courtesy of Temari getting in the middle of it.

"Flea breeder."

"Self-righteous harpy."

"Okay!" Ino cut in stepping in between the two. "Now that we've decide to leave ourselves out of the moron's love life, would you kindly take your fight outside and at least a mile away from the shop? Thank you for stopping by!" She hadn't even bothered to hide the frightened tone in her voice. She wasn't afraid of the actual fight that could occur, but of the damage to the shop. She spent months taking care of the flowers, they were like pets. And pets are usually part of a family.

Sakura glared at the blond for a moment then gritted her teeth and left. She would have rather stayed and put kiba in his place, but as a the Hokage's student she couldn't afford to have something like destruction of property and vandalism on her record.

Kiba left as well but made sure to avoid the pink haired girl. Nothing about his record, He just didn't feel like hearing her yell.
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Hinata sat at her window and looked out to the yard, thinking. She hadn't seen Naruto for a while. True it had only been four days but that was unusual. Normally the blond would find out where she was just to pop up out of nowhere. Whether she was training or shopping it didn't matter.

Like the day when he stole her away form Shino's lecture. However, with everything to concider she didn't blame him. That note that was left with the flowers probably reversed everything she had told him about their 'dating' situation.

They had just started to become secure with the fact that she was dating him. He had already thought they shouldn't be together because of his lack of money and the fact that a lot of the town still despised him. She didn't care what they were thinking though, She had even told her father that and told him that she would see the blond with or without his approval.

He didn't like it all, but gave her a stiff angry nod.

Then after that mission where they had to repossess the Scrolls the male had become protective. It was only slightly annoying to be protected, but she was ecstatic that he was protecting her. To her it wasn't that he thought she couldn't stand on her own. No, to her it was that he cared, that he was worried about her and didn't want her to get hurt. He might not have noticed it but he was showing her that did care for her.

Though, he stopped one day. After him and Sakura had there weekly talk about his personal life. Before Hinata thought it was sweet that, Sakura, was always worried about him. After that talk though, Hinata didn't think it was so sweet. Sakura was trying to give him advice and it was nice thing for her to do. She had good intention.

But the advice was confusing him. Sakura might have known how she wanted to be treated by a guy, but hintata wasn't Sakura. While Naruto's, instinctive protectiveness and clear jealousy didn't follow Sakura's 'Rules to Romance.' didnt mean that every girl would shun his behavior.

Hinata herself like Naruto the way he was. She understood that Naruto .She understood why Naruto was awkward when it came to dates and actions beyond friendship. He might of had a crush on sakura before, but that's all he had. He might have snuck Kakashi's books and read a chapter here and there and he might have thought about dating before. She couldn't recall him ever having a girlfriend before. That why he was stumped on what to do in his current position. He knew what everything was how it was supposed to be, but what he was supposed to do and what he wanted to do were different.

Like flowers, he knew it was somewhat of a tradition to give the girl flowers. Only he didn't see a reason in giving the girl flowers. Hinata wouldn't be surprised if Naruto showed up one day with two packages of instant ramen grinning and asking if she wanted to have lunch with him.

She also got why Naruto gave the flowers back. He was following Sakura's advice to 'back off and let her make the choices.' But the other female apparently didn't understand that Naruto's actions would never be the same as every other guy. It wasn't just because of his childhood. It was just his personality.

Naruto didn't like holding back how he was feeling and always expressed it in one way or another. At first when he handed back the flowers she had been confused. She quickly figured out what had happened though.

All this just reminded her of the fact that Naruto was confused and a confused Naruto was a very stressed Naruto. Perhaps it would be for the best if she found him and had a talk with him before his brain got any more scrambled then it was right now.

Standing up she opened her window and jumped off, focusing fully on finding the blond.

And of course nothing ever works out as planned. The first person Hinata had run into was the guy who had been following her around.

The male smiled politely. "Hello, Hinata."

On the inside Hinata was a little taken aback, outwardly she seemed embarrassed. The boy had spoken to her as if he knew her. She wanted to ask him where he learned her name but that would have been pointless. There wasn't a point in knowing that. "Can I help you?"

Her tone might of been polite but the male figured that the truth behind the words where probably more along the lines of 'What do you want?'

Instead of speaking the man held out a flower. A deep red rose that was fully in bloom and the spiral was near perfection. Hinata took in the flowers appearance and knew right away that it came from the flower shop run by Ino's family. There was also one more thing that she realized, and that was that this guy was the one who was leaving the gifts and notes on her porch.

"I don't appreciate you leaving such cruel notes for me to read." It was the first thing that came from her mouth and while she wished it wasn't she was glad at the same time. It gave her a small sense of freedom and self pride to know she was able to push aside her upbringing and speak her mind went it felt truly needed.

The polite smile faultered slightly but he shook his head. "I don't see how the notes where cruel. They were spoken out of love." He said still holding out the flower for her to take.

"A dozen roses and a note that read, 'He doesn't deserve you.'isn't cruel?" Still refusing the rose, she locked her eyes to his. For a moment she felt like a mother scolding a child for playing ball in the house, even more so when his head had tilted in question.

"You didn't like the flowers?"

She shook her head before speaking. "The flowers were beautiful, But those four words ruined the point of your gift." She was trying to remain calm.

"But it's the truth, You deserve someone who can take care of you and give you things you want. Someone better then that idiot. "

"Don't call him that. Despite what you are seeing, He does take care of me and what I want can't be bought." She could feel her voice starting to shake, Her anger was dissappearing quicker then it came and was leaving her with a strange urge to just walk away from this boy.

"You're talking about love right? The thing that can't be bought? You want him to love you? He doesn't act like he's in love with you. From what I heard he doesn't even know how he feels."

"D-don't speak about him like he's a bad person. He's just confused."

The male chuckled. "Confused about what? You either love some one or you don't. It doesn't take that much time to figure it out."

Hinata stayed silent. She had never been in this situation before. She never had someone fighting to win her over. She never had anyone telling her that it was useless to keep her hopes up that Naruto would return her affection. Then again, she never had someone telling her that love was simple, or that it came easily.

It was actually the very opposite. Neji had told her that even if fate had already planned out the ending that the road to reach it could be difficult. She had narrowed it down to 'Love takes time' in her own mind. Her father said that love was simply a process of trial and errors until the two people found harmony.

From what she had seen, what she had witnessed, Love came in different forms. It could be peaceful and equal like Sakura's parents, It could be a comically violent relationship like Shikamaru's parents. It could be equal and chaotic Like Shikamaru's relationship with Temari. Their were even relationships that when you looked at the couple you would have know Idea they were together because they communicated like business partners instead of soulmates.

Hinata had to wonder how many people this boy had 'loved' but she knew she had only loved one person since she was twelve. She shook her head and gave the boy a sympathetic look.. " I don't believe I will ever feel for anyone else what I feel for Naruto. I also believe that true love might come naturally but it needs time to grow."

"Why don't you just understand that the blond coward doesn't love you. He's just stringing you along and will wind up hurting you later. I'm standing right here confessing and promising to give you what you want." He said his grip tightening on the rose.

She could tell the boy was getting upset now, Angry even and she felt guilty for making him feel that way. Even so she couldn't bring her self to comfort him. "I love Naruto."

The man glared at her and reached out to grab her wrist. She easily swatted it away and gave him a stern glare. "Do not touch me." She said as the man gave her the same look.

After a moment of niether of them speaking Hinata walked around the man. She looked back once and seen him walking with his head down as he turned the corner. She also noticed that he had abandoned the flower, which now lay on the ground, its stem broken and a couple petals had broken off.

And as bad as she felt for making the guy feel bad, she didn't think she made the wrong choice in the way she spoke to him. She had only told the truth and hopefully they boy would realize that she was only speaking out of her own knowlegde on the subject and find his own views on the complicated side to love.
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Naruto Stood straight with his back against the wall. He was on his way to visit Shikamuru when he's seen Hinata and that guy talking. He could only hear piece of the conversation and the one thing in his mind that stuck out was, 'I love Naruto.'

Hinata had held so much conviction in those words, Naruto wasn't sure if it had truly been Hinata that was talking. The girl looked like Hinata, sounded like her, but Naruto never heard the timid girl put so much strength and firmness behind her words before. In truth it frightened him, but it mad him relieved at the same time. Relieved that he knew she meant what she had been saying, but frightened because he himself wasn't sure what this feeling he had was.

It wasn't like others had described it as, a warm feeling in your chest. It was a warm feeling throughout his whole body, the 'butterflies' they spoke of was more like giant birds restlessly flocking around and his palms weren't sweating but his heart would pick up slightly at certain point when she was with him.

He remembered the conversation he had with Iruka about those 'little things'. They way she blushed, the way she spoke, The way she would squeak when he surprised her, how determined she became when they would spar eachother, her small nervous stutters. How she would get dizzy from blushing too much, the way she would smell like the flowers from her back yard when she would meet him in the afternoon. The way that scent would mix in with the smell of ramen when they went to Ichiraku's. Naruto never would have thought Ramen could smell so good mixed with flowers.

Then there was the soft tone of her voice when her nerves had calmed down. He liked listening to her voice, even when she was talking about something he didn't care for. But it didn't matter he he liked it or not any way because he like learning new things about her. And the kisses, even though they only kissed a couple times, the feeling of it stayed behind for days after and left him feeling incomplete when it vanished.

There was a lot more that he couldn't list in his head because he really just didn't have the capacity for it. But could taking notice of and remembering those small thing mean he was in love with her. How did that make sense?
Hearing Hinata's footsteps become louder he remained still. Not wanting to get caught but at the same time he hoped he would.

Unfortunately or fortunately, depending on which of his sides you asked, she had spotted him, and now she was looking at him with her fiery red face and wide eye's.

Naruto quickly grinned and laughed lightheartedly. "Hey Hinata! Didn't plan on seeing you today."

"H-how long were you standing there for?"

"Long enough to know you love me." the blond teased, smiling as Hinata started to sway from side to side.
It took a minute before the heiress had stopped and her face went back to it's normal color.

Whether Naruto already knew how she felt or not, It was still embarrassing that he heard her. But wasn't it a good sign that he hadn't run away? She didn't know for sure, but she did know that she was happy to found him. Now all she had to do was talk to him about asking Sakura for advice.