Delicate fingers gripped the charcoal in her hand, smearing black further along her fingers. Hinata squeezed her eyes shut and inhaled deeply, slowing the flurry of emotions in her heart and focusing her mind on the task before her.

"I don't think I need to remind anyone that this will count for 30% of your final grade calculation." Jiraiya's voice flowed into her ear and she opened her eyes slowly, fixing her gaze on her professor who met each of his students' gazes with a steady eye.

'Thirty percent…' Hinata repeated to herself, a tightness gathering in her chest momentarily before she fought it back down. It could make or break her grade easily, she knew. Taking another deep breath she watched as Jiraiya placed a hand on another student's shoulder (who was looking at tad green in Hinata's opinion) and patted it lightly.

"We'll warm up using charcoal," Jiraiya announced as he approached Naruto and briefly whispered something in his ear. The blonde nodded slightly in response and shifted in his seat slightly before extending his arm forward and pointing a finger towards the far side of the room, setting one foot flat on the floor and propping the other on the foot ring. Hinata smiled at the cute, pink flush that spread across his cheeks before immediately feeling sorry for the blonde and the situation he'd managed to find himself in.

"Figure drawing isn't something that you can just jump into." Jiraiya paced around the room and Hinata watched Naruto gulp, his hand shaking ever so slightly as he eyed Jiraiya from his peripherals. "Just as a runner has to stretch their body before sprinting, you need to stretch your minds and loosen up so your drawing won't end up stiff and flat."

'He's taking this very seriously," Hinata thought unnervingly as Jiraiya fold his arms behind his back and came to a stop at the head of the circle, directly in line with the point of Naruto's finger.

"So let's start by sketching some gestures. You have thirty seconds to draw the pose in front of you. Time starts now."

Hinata's eyes widened in surprise and she jerked her head towards her professor who met Naruto's nervous gaze steadily. Surely he couldn't be serious? Thirty seconds was no time at all, yet maybe that was a typical amount of time for this kind of practice? She hadn't really been expecting to be thrown into the assignment without much explanation by Jiraiya beforehand, yet somehow wasn't entirely surprised based on her previous experiences with the eccentric man. Glancing around the room hoping for an answer she was only met with the sight of her classmates looking amongst each other with perturbed looks that matched her own.

"Twenty seconds! You're wasting time looking at each other when you should be looking at the model!" Jiraiya shouted vehemently and Hinata snapped her attention away from him in alarm, raising her hand quickly to the paper in front of her and setting her eyes on Naruto who looked more nervous as ever.

With a raised brow she drug her charcoal against the paper, eyes glancing quickly between her paper and Naruto as she sketched the length of his forearm and began to draw a rough outline of his hand. Had he always had such large hands? The thought crossed her mind briefly as she took a moment to admire the curvature of the muscles beneath his skin before turning to begin defining his fingers. 'It's a little difficult to identify the lines of his hand with it shaking like that. Poor Naruto, I can't imagine being in his position with a bunch of strangers drawing me half-naked. His skin looks really smooth..What am I thinking? I don't have time to be thinking about things like tha–'

"Time's up! Put down your drawing utensils." Jiraiya interrupted her thought process and her jaw dropped in shock. She didn't know whether or not to find comfort in the fact that everyone else seemed to be as panicked as she was, but put down her charcoal nevertheless. Naruto released the breath he was holding and dropped his hand as Hinata sat back in her seat and looked at what she had managed to complete. 'I didn't even finish drawing his hand, much less his upper arm or the rest of his body.'

"No, no, no. This won't do," Jiraiya said mostly to himself as he paced around the circle of chairs, eyeing each students work critically. "Pop quiz! Hinata!"

"Y-Yes?" She felt herself flush when all eyes turned on her as Jiraiya approached her, leaning in to get a closer look at the sketch she suddenly felt ashamed of. Of all the things to become distracted over, how could she let herself get caught up staring at Naruto! Not that she wasn't supposed to be staring at him (he was the subject after all), but she'd been staring more at Naruto instead of at Naruto's pose. Perhaps if she had gotten a basic outline of his entire figure she could forgive herself, but the glaring lack of charcoal on paper before her served as a grim reminder that she'd failed in this first task. She felt like a weight was pulling her down and had to consciously keep herself from slouching, heat pricking her cheeks as she stared straight ahead and tried to ignore the feeling of 20 pairs of eyes upon her.

More specifically, one pair of blue eyes staring straight at her.

"What is the purpose of gesture drawing?"

"U-Um," Hinata sputtered as she looked up at Jiraiya whose eyes stared back into her own unwaveringly and immediately regretted it, looking away before the pressure made her spontaneously combust. "The p-purpose is to study the body in motion; to understand the natural movements of the body."

"Very good," He replied, seemingly satisfied with her answer as he began pacing around the circle once more. "And what, would you say, is the most important aspect of gesture drawing?"

Hinata quickly scanned through her memories of her last class with Jiraiya, trying to recall the brief lesson that he had given on what to expect for their anatomy study before sudden realization hit her and she bit her lip in embarrassment. Clasping her hands tightly in her lap she looked down and suppressed the groan she wanted to release. 'The most important aspect…Is he teasing me? There's no way he could have seen–'

"Miss Hyuga?" He asked expectantly and Hinata bashfully met his eyes, not liking the twinkle seeming to lie behind his dark irises and the ghost of a smirk on his face. Since when had her professor become so devious and scheming? Her eyes discreetly looked towards Naruto, only to look away quickly once again when she found him looking at her curiously.

"The most important aspect is staying focused," she responded in close to a murmur but Jiraiya must have heard her clearly because he immediately clapped his hands together loudly, causing the entire class and Naruto to jump in their seats.

"Precisely! Something which all of you, my dear students, seem to have been missing in our first exercise!" Various voices mumbled apologies and Hinata noticed some people sink into their chairs. "The purpose of drawing these gestures is to turn your focus away from the finer details and concentrate on the larger picture. The most important thing is the essence of the pose itself. Show me that you understand the representation of the body and how it moves and bends."

Feeling slightly guilty, Hinata focused her attention back on her hands as Jiraiya prattled on. She had heard rumors about Professor Jiraiya and how…animated he could become when it came time for his class's anatomy studies. But she could have never imagined just how intimidating he could be.

"B-But, I mean, surely he can't be that bad. He's always been so friendly and nice…"

"You don't seem to understand." Hinata watched as Sai put down his paintbrush in order to turn and face her fully, the gravity in his eyes something that she had never seen before.

"So you're saying I'm doomed?"

"Not at all. Only that Professor Jiraiya becomes a different person during the anatomy study, perhaps it's because the body is his favorite subject." he stopped when Ino snickered from beside him, continuing when she gained control of herself and motioned for him to continue. "He's incredibly difficult to please and some of his tactics that he uses to push people can be a little…over the top. He tends to focus on people he thinks have a lot of undrawn potential and pushes them to their limits."

"O-Over the top," Hinata repeated desolately as she slumped further down in her seat, taking the soda in her hand and drinking it mechanically as she became lost in thought.

"Don't get so down Hinata, we all know you'll be fine!" Kiba patted her on the back, not so discreetly kicking Sai underneath the table and shooting him an unhappy look.

"Kiba's right, what's the worst that can happen?" Ino winked at her as she linked her arm with Sai, the latter taking his brush up again and returning to his work.

"I've warned you."

She'd been hoping that Sai had been over exaggerating, but clearly that wasn't the case. If the art Wunderkind had been so keen on warning her about what she was going to face then perhaps she should have taken his warning more to heart. Looking back at her uncompleted work she frowned sadly.

What had happened to the confidence that she had been feeling just minutes prior to the study beginning? She'd been so sure of herself and her abilities, Naruto having effortlessly eased her worries and raised her faith in herself. Rather than the 21 year old art student who loved attending class each day, she suddenly she felt like she was 18 again; her father looming down upon her as he ingrained into her mind how little faith he had in her and how useless an art degree would become. Despite everything in her screaming at her not to, she looked up and Naruto and found him staring straight at her with a powerful look in his eye. 'Stop doubting yourself.' She could almost hear him saying it as clear as day, his hand on her shoulder encouraging her to continue proving herself.

"Hinata... these are…"

"Y-Yes?" She encouraged him to continue, doubt surfacing inside her and making her almost regretting showing him her sketchbook as she watched him flip through the pages in an agonizingly slow manner.

"These are amazing! Why didn't you show me sooner, you've got an amazing talent!" He shouted with enthusiasm, gripping the book tightly and waving it at her as if to prove her point.

"Y-You think so? I'm really not that good; I have a lot I need to improve on a-and there are a lot of people better than I am." She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear to occupy her hands, pink flushing her cheeks as she watched his smile increase with every turn of a page.

"Are you kidding, this is great! Sai always said that you had a really amazing style, but I could have never imagine- Woah, is that Kiba?! It looks like a photograph, what the hell?!" He held the book closely to his face and examined it closely while she laughed, leaning her head on her hand as she stared at him from across the table they were seated at.

"Thank you, Naruto." She said quietly and he looked up from the sketchbook and found her giving him a serene smile. He reached across the table and took her hand in his own.

"Don't doubt yourself so much, okay?" He said softly and she nodded in response, smiling as he went back to raving about her work.

"The second you start doubting your abilities is the second you set yourself up for failure," Hinata glanced away from Naruto towards Jiraiya, only to find her giving him a small smile. It unnerved her the way he and his godson always seemed to be able to read her mind, but in that moment she was thankful.

Quickly snatching her charcoal back up, she flipped to a clean sheet of paper with a determined stretch of her arm, fixing her narrowed eyes upon the white of the paper and releasing a determined breath. 'This isn't worthless…I haven't put all my effort into this for it to amount to nothing.'

"So let's try this again!" Jiraiya clapped his hands, quickly approaching Naruto and gesturing for him to stand before turning his body to face another direction. Hinata sat forward in her seat, shrugging her shoulders to loosen her body as Jiraiya whispered in Naruto's ear before pulling his stool out of the way. "You have one minute to draw this pose. And…go!"

'Focus, Hinata.' She held her hand ready an inch from the paper, breathing steadily to assure smooth movements. Focusing her attention on Naruto as he put his hands on the back of his head and stood eerily still, she scanned his body quickly before taking her charcoal to the paper once more. A fine streak across the sheet quickly transformed into an image of legs and a torso, soon becoming the roundness of his shoulders as she worked her way up his arms. She moved onto his lower body, blushing lightly as Ino's words popped into her mind as she studied his butt and tried to imagine who would've thought that would ever happen before turning back to her drawing and continuing her work. Each stroke felt like 5 pounds of weight off of her shoulders, and she smiled lightly to herself as she etched the spikes of his hair into her work.

"Charcoal down! Let's see if any of you have improved." Jiraiya walked steadily around the room; hand on his chin thoughtfully as he nodded his head in approval or making constructive comments to a student here and there. Hinata kept her eyes set on him and studied the emotion in his face as he leaned towards her piece to get a closer look.

"Better?" She asked hesitantly when he didn't make any indication of moving and a grin quickly stretched across his features and he placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Excellent job."

Hinata beamed as Jiraiya walked away from her once more, lips pressed together as she suppressed her smile from emerging across her face. Glancing up for what felt like the millionth time, her eyes met Naruto's and she instantly got the feeling that he'd been waiting for her to look at him, but the thought quickly escaped her as he grinned widely and help up a thumbs up in approval.

The smile that etched across her face couldn't be suppressed.

"Alright! Much better job this time from all of you. We're going to do one final warm up before we begin our long drawing session. Then we'll give our model a short break while we prepare our materials before the real fun begins," he winked at no one in particular and Hinata shook her head at his antics.

"Yes, professor." The class responded in unison and Jiraiya seemed pleased with the way he'd trained his students that semester, pulling the stool towards Naruto once more as he allowed the blonde to take a seat and set him in a new pose facing almost 180 degrees away from Hinata such that the outline of his face was just visible.

"Let's make this one a little harder," Jiraiya smiled wickedly and Hinata laughed lightly to herself. She'd hoped on having some idea of what Jiraiya was planning, but quickly decided to give up on any preconceptions that she had. "For the last pose…Ten seconds! And, go!"

'Ten seconds?!' Hinata repeated to herself in surprise as her hand immediately flew onto the page, barely having a chance to glance at Naruto before focusing her attention on the paper in front of her. Opting to forego any details on his body she focused on making a general outline of his form, barely lifting her charcoal from the paper when Jiraiya called time.

"Very nice! All of you have improved tremendously." A multitude of sighs echoed around the room and Hinata shared a smile with the girl sitting next to her. "I know a lot of you were worried about doing this anatomy study, but if you're going to have a completed image by the end of the time limit you don't have time to be worrying about how much clothes the person you're drawing is wearing, right?"

Belatedly, Hinata realized that she hadn't even thought about the fact that Naruto was sitting in front of her with his clothes off during the last exercise, though now that the thought presented itself to her once more she flushed and brought a hand up to her mouth in what she hoped was a discrete attempt at hiding the redness of her face. Glancing at Naruto she noticed even he seemed to be more at ease, resting his hands comfortably in his lap as he listened intently to what Jiraiya was saying.

"Very good work from all of you, as your teacher I'm very proud." He bowed at them and received a chorus of giggled and sarcastic remarks in response before standing with a smile on his face. "I'd like for you to sign your work and turn it in to me please before preparing yourself for the long session in which you can choose between using pencil, colored or not, charcoal, graphite, or ink."

Hinata stood from her chair and stretched her arms above her head before flipping through her sheets of paper and signing her name on each and carefully pulling them from their binding. Pencil, charcoal, graphite, or ink? None of those were her go-to medium (she preferred watercolor and acrylic painting), but she supposed she should go with pencil. The perpetuity of ink made her nervous, and she didn't like how long it took her to get the blackness of charcoal out of her skin and nails. Was pencil striking enough though? Maybe she could do a blend of pencil and colored pencil. A contrast between the gray of the rest of his body and blue in his eyes might be really nice if she could execute it correctly, but it might be hard to get enough detail. Then again, this was an anatomy study, so she should be putting the emphasis on his body and not–

"Hinata!" She twitched in surprise and looked up to find Naruto waving his hand in her face.

"Wow, you were really lost in thought there! I can leave you alone if you need to think or–"

"N-No, that's okay! I'm sorry; I was just organizing my thoughts for the next session." She waved her hand quickly as he began to turn away from her. "How are you doing, is it really bad up there?"

"It makes you really self conscious, you know? I kind of regret having that pizza eating contest with Sasuke and Kiba last night." Ha laughed as he patted his stomach and Hinata giggled and shook his head. "Do you mind?"

He gestured for the papers in her hands and she shook her head, handing them to him delicately and watching as he flipped through them cautiously, eyes scanning every detail of each page with wonder.

"These are awesome! It's really strange seeing myself as a drawing, you should draw me more often! My arm isn't that muscular is it? I think you're just trying to be nice, Hinata. Wow, you made my butt look really good in this one! Does it look like that all the time?"

"N-Naruto!" She flushed more deeply with every word, shaking her head as though she didn't believe his words and he laughed in response.

"Sorry. I'm just glad to see that me being the model isn't messing up your 'flow' or whatever you artistic people call it," Hinata shook her head with a smile as he walked with her to Jiraiya's desk to turn her papers in. "I'd feel really bad if I cost you your grade."

"You're fine, Naruto." She said quietly as she took the papers from his hands and placed them delicately on the desk, turning to him with a nervous smile. "I'm glad you're the model, even though you make me a bit more nervous. It makes me want to try harder and do my best."

"Really? I'm really glad!" Naruto scratched his head out of nervous habit. "You know, I actually was–"

"Well, well. Look at you two!" Jiraiya approached and quickly interrupted the conversation by slinging his arm around Naruto's shoulder. "I'm glad Naruto has a friend like you, Hinata! For awhile I thought that he'd never make any friends, he was always such a loner! But he's actually always talking about this friend of his that he really likes. Come to think of it, she actually matches your description to the T– ack!"

"Anyway, it's probably time for the session to start right?" Naruto interrupted Jiraiya's rambling with a rough pull on the man's long ponytail, but Hinata saw the redness that quickly appeared on his cheeks in response to the man's words and felt the heat that appeared on her own.

"N-Naruto is probably right, I better go get seated!" Hinata turned away quickly as the two started bickering and returned to her seat quietly. 'Is that why Jiraiya is being so sneaky today? Not just because he thinks I like Naruto…but because he thinks Naruto likes me?'

She shook her head and placed her hands on her cheeks to cool the heat from her face. She knew she was thinking dangerous thoughts, thoughts that had the potential to harm her deeply if she delved on them too long and ended up being wrong. She couldn't afford to let them affect the assured mentality she had only just constructed for herself. 'I can think about those things later, I need to focus on this assignment no matter how hard Jiraiya is trying to make it.'

Hinata quickly gathered her pencils from her bag as soon as she took her seat, fighting the blush from her face and inspecting the page in front of her quickly for any imperfections only to find none. 'He's only trying to get in my head like Sai said. Everything will be fine, there's nothing to worry about.' She watched as he patted Naruto on the back with a laugh, the blonde frowning and talking quickly as though he was scolding his godfather before the man waved him off and brought him back onto the pedestal. After a few exchanges, Naruto was seated on the ground with Jiraiya rearranging his arms and legs to his liking. He took a step back to admire the position, nodding his head before stopping short as a thought seemed to enter his mind and another wicked smile appeared on his face.

She couldn't help but think that Naruto seemed to get at least some of his qualities from his godfather, having seen the same mischievous smile on said blonde's face multiple times. The thought made her smile lightly as she watched the two argue back and forth with one another. 'What is he up to now…' She couldn't help thinking as she watched Jiraiya whisper one final note, only for the blonde to flush and open his mouth to protest before being cut short by something Jiraiya had said. With a victorious smirk Jiraiya turned and walked away, shooting Hinata a knowing glance as she watched Naruto shift to his right 30 degrees and face a new direction.

A new direction staring straight towards Hinata.

"I hope you're all ready!" Jiraiya's voice broke through the conversations of his students as Hinata stared into Naruto's apologetic eyes with disbelief. He mouthed a short apology and Hinata felt her heartbeat quicken before she looked at her professor in disbelief. Why was he specifically trying to fluster her and make the assignment more difficult? In another situation she might have been flattered that he was trying to push her to her limits, but right now she could only be unsettled. Had she done something bad that karma was making her pay for? Or was the universe just against her today? She didn't know, she didn't really care to know. All she cared about what that Naruto was going to be leaning forward onto his knees, legs spread slightly and staring straight at her for the anatomy session worth the majority of her final grade.

Ino would have a heart attack if she could she Hinata now.

"The long drawing session will last an hour and a half, whatever you have complete by then will be what you turn in. No exceptions."

Hinata looked at her paper rigidly, desperately trying to clear her mind and regain some sense of control over the situation.

"If you need to get more supplies, sharpen your utensils, or use the bathroom – keep in mind that it will all take away from your drawing time. So make sure it's quick."

'Deep breaths. Deep breaths. You can do this, everything is fine. He's trying to get in your head and make you crack, but it's not going to work.'

"Everyone ready?"

She watched Naruto mouth a final good luck to her and some tension left her mind. Lifting her hand to her paper, she waited for Jiraiya's call to begin.

"Alright, time starts now."

Hinata stood still as the time began ticking, second after second passing as she tried to calm her nerves and ignore the way he stared at her. She had to admit that he seemed rather uncomfortable, if the pink hue on his cheek was any indication, and she was sure that Jiraiya had put him up to it, bribed or threatened him in some way. But she could work past it, she shook her head and began her work. 'Focus on your work.' She thought about the muscle groups in her mind, the anatomy rules that she had learned to preserve the correct proportion of the body. She tried not to think of the tan skin stretching across his body, or the words Ino had said to her that had corrupted her mind, or the way his position gave her full viewing access to all of his body.

She looked at the clock and saw 30 minutes had passed. Panic gripped her as an almost blank canvas stared back at her, only a general outline sketched and his feet completed (the only portion of his body she could stand looking at right now). For all his wonderfulness and care he tried not to look directly in her eyes, instead staring somewhere just above her left shoulder, but even he couldn't help but be curious, catching himself staring at her while she worked. But once again she was spending too much time on details and not enough on demonstrating that she understood the anatomy of the human body. The finer parts could come later; her grade was at stake here. She wasn't sure she could not pay attention to him while paying attention to his figure, but she forced herself to try. They weren't just his arms, she convinced herself; they were deltoids and triceps and biceps. There were more than his hands; they were comprised of tendons and joints, phalanges and metacarpals.

As she delved deeper and deeper into the drawing, one slow second turned into ten, then twenty, then a minute, five minutes. And when she finally stepped back to look at her progress, all that was left was the details of his face. Of course, she told herself, she would leave the hardest part for the end instead of knocking it out in the beginning. How could you draw a face like his and do it justice on a piece of paper? It didn't seem right. The blues in his eyes, the deepness of them; it was something that she didn't think could be transferred onto paper.

She erased continuously, managing to sketch only a couple light lines before she became dissatisfied and erased them. She wasn't sure she was satisfied with his mouth, it seemed unnatural without his signature smile but in terms of anatomy it would do. She ended up pleased with the shape of his nose and its position on his face, as well as the light sun spots that dotted it. His eyebrows were beautifully detailed, maybe she spent a tad too much time on the individual hairs, but they fit. The eyes were another story. She tried to break it down into sections: the shape was the easy part and she could draw the curl of his lashes as well. She just didn't know how to convey the warmth she felt every time he looked at her, the safety she felt when he furrowed his brow and reassured her, or the bliss she felt when they sparkled as he laughed. She looked at him once more with a huff, wiping the moisture from her brow as he met her gaze once more.

'Don't give up.' His eyes seemed to whisper to her, crinkling lightly as he gave her the faintest hint of a smile. 'I believe in you.'

And so she had the inspiration she needed, taking up three of the colored pencils in front of her (she'd decided that no one matched his eyes perfectly) and began filling the empty white space with a mixture of blues until they resembled his eyes as close as she could manage, striking out brightly in contrast to the gray and white of the rest of the paper.

"Utensils down, time's up!" Jiraiya called, a multitude of tired sighs being heard as students began getting up and stretching. Naruto stood up and stretched his arms above his head, twisting his torso to ease the ache in his body.

Hinata sat back, suddenly feeling the crick in her back from the stiff position she'd been drawing in, but her discomfort was overshadowed by her satisfaction with her work. She'd done it: she'd completed her first anatomy study.

And his eyes were drawn perfectly.

"How do you feel, Hinata?" Jiraiya asked as she approached his desk with her final piece, hesitating as she placed it down almost not wanting him to look and hoping he would wait until she left.

"I feel…good, actually." She nodded more to assure herself than him, easing when another student placed their work on top of her own gently, and he gave her a small grin. "I just don't understand why you were trying so hard to mess me up."

"Mess you up?" He repeated, leaning forward on his desk with a shake of his head. "Quite the contrary! I wanted to push you to improve, Hinata! It may have felt like I was trying to knock you down and make you falter, but I did so because you need to be challenged if you want to improve. I know that you doubt yourself, Hinata. Do you know why?"

Hinata shook her head, quietly absorbing his words as he slapped a hand down on his desk to emphasize his words.

"It's all in your eyes! Every time you doubt yourself, it's clear to me in your work. And every time you believe that you can create something wonderful that becomes clear to me as well." Hinata looked down at her hands as his voice softened. "It's nothing to be ashamed of, don't look so down on yourself. Art doesn't always come from positivity and comfort; it comes from the darker parts within us as well. The key is to utilize those parts to create something rather than shying away and letting them overwhelm you. The only way I can push you past those doubts and help you beat them is to put more of them in front of you to overcome. And that is why I tried to 'mess you up' today. Do you understand?"

"I…I do. Thank you," she bowed her head at him slightly and gave him a grateful smile which he returned with his signature grin.

"It was also fun messing with you and Naruto since you two are obviously head over heels for one another," he laughed heartily as Hinata turned away with pink cheeks and a huff, heading straight for the doorway where Naruto stood waiting.

"He didn't mess with you too much, did he? That bastard," Naruto shot his godfather a dirty grin but Hinata merely shook her head with a small laugh, taking his arm and pulling him out the door with her.

"He's just a bit quirky, is all." Hinata laughed lightly as the blonde pouted, noting that he didn't shake her hand from his arm as they walked down the short hallway and headed into the afternoon air.

"More like weird." He muttered under his breath, joining her as she began laughing. "I honestly can't believe him sometimes, he really likes to tease."

"Oh definitely, he seemed to have a lot to say about you." The side of Hinata's mouth perked up every so lightly as her blonde companion scoffed in response.

"I'm not sure what he told you about me, but whatever it is don't believe it. That guy lies all the time." Naruto pointed his finger at her playfully and Hinata slowed to a stop, releasing her hand from his arm. He frowned and stopped as well, turning to look back at her.

"E-Even if…," she took a moment to stop her voice from shaking before hesitantly meeting his eyes. "Even if he told me that you have feelings for me?" He froze, unable to say anything and so she continued. "Would that be a lie too, Naruto?"

"Hinata.."

"B-Because he also seemed to think that I have feelings for you as well. Except that isn't a lie." She paused and gave him a sad smile, a part of her mind asking her to stop talking but she continued anyway. "Naruto?"

"Y-Yeah?" He responded blankly, seemingly looking past her as a rumble of thoughts swirled around his brain.

"I– I didn't just kiss you that night because I was drunk. I kissed you because…I lo–, because I really like you!" She chickened out at the last moment, looking down and hiding the red of her face with the fringe of her bangs as her heart quickened in her chest. So it wasn't exactly the love confession she had been hoping for– it was a bit mumbled and rushed and she sort of sputtered it out in a way that she wasn't even sure if he could understand– but it was a confession nonetheless. She liked Naruto. She loved him. And whether he felt the same or not, she had gotten it off of her chest.

"You like me?" He repeated.

"Y-Yes."

Surely he thought she was an idiot. She sure felt like an idiot. Who tells the person they love that they 'really like!" them? All mumbled and rushed like that, when in their head it was really eloquent and romantic and thought out nicely? Only Hinata, she was sure. However she quickly lost her train of thought as she felt him wrap his arms around her tightly, enveloping her in a tight hug with her arms squished between his body and her own and she squirmed reflexively against him.

"N-Naruto?!"

"Hinata, I really like you!" She heard him yell a bit too loudly, immediately halting her movement as his arms tightened around her.

"I've always liked you. I mean who wouldn't? You're so nice and you make me laugh, and you're so pretty but you don't even try. And you really hurt me, that night," he added more quietly, and for a reason she couldn't understand her eyes seemed to water against her will.

"I-I did?" She squeaked in response and she felt him nod his head.

"I was really happy. That you kissed me, I mean. I felt really bad because I said I was drunk, but I wasn't really that drunk so I knew what I was doing when I kissed you back. But then you ran off, and seemed really upset, and you just kept apologizing and apologizing… and so I was sure that you didn't really feel anything, that it was just a drunken mistake and that you really regretted it."

"B-But I didn't!" She pulled herself away from him quickly and looked him in the eyes. "I still don't! Naruto, why are you crying?"

"I-I'm not crying!" He said emphatically, wiping his face roughly with a pout on his face. "I'm just really happy, that you feel the same! Why are you crying?"

"For the same reason!" She didn't try to stop the happy tears streaming down her cheeks, laughing with him as he wiped them with his thumbs clumsily.

"That pervert bastard wasn't lying, I do have feelings for you." He said as he cupped her face. "I-I'm not really good at this. Should I kiss you now?"

"I-If you want? I'm no good at this either," she responded with a smile and he shook his head as though he was ashamed of his inexperience. "This is a lot easier when we're drunk."

"We can just walk." She laughed, flushing as he took her hand in his own and interlocked their fingers.

It was more than enough.

"That old man is never going to let me live this down. He's going to be convinced that he's the reason for all of this." Naruto gestured towards both of them with a teasing scowl.

"M-Maybe. But if I didn't know better, I'd say he orchestrated it all from the very beginning." Hinata giggled as Naruto groaned in exasperation, wanting to deny what she said but being unable to. They approached her doorway all too quickly, lingering outside as both enjoyed the other's company.

"And to think the only reason I agreed to all of this was for a gift card to Ichiraku Ramen."

"Surely it ended up being worth more than that?"

He replied by leaning down and taking her lips softly against his own, his hand squeezing hers tightly as he pulled away slowly.

"It's worth way more. But hey, that just means dinner's on him! I always thought Ichiraku's would make a great first date." He winked at her playfully, chuckling as she stared at him dumbfounded.

The squeals behind the door didn't escape either of their notice.

"I'll pick you up at 7, okay?" The grin on his face seemed permanent as he reluctantly pulled his hand from hers and pressed it against the back of her head as he kissed her on the forehead, shooting a sneaky glance at the peephole of the door as he turned to leave with a wave she could only dumbly return with her own blissful smile.

"Oh my God!" "Ino, calm down, you'll scare her away!" "I can't believe this!"

Hinata shook her head with a smile, taking her keys from her bag and unlocking the door as she heard her two roommates yell from the other side of the door.

"Hinata, tell us everything!" Ino's squeal resounded in her face as she opened the door, and Hinata smiled fondly at the girl setting down her bag and closing the door behind her.

With a hand over her skipping heart, she began their story.