Disclaimer: All of these characters (except Hope) aren't mine. If they were, they'd be a lot more interesting. But we have to work with what I can get, I suppose.

Okay, this is my first fanfic. Ever. Thus I have no self-confidence, but whatever. If people like it, great, and if not, whatever.

Also, I want to note that I'm not usually such a sap. This just... happened. It's all well and good I suppose. "No guts, no glory," I guess.

Well, shall we tarry onward?

Chapter 1: Radical Realizations

They were very alike- they had the same beach blond hair, the same blue eyes, they were even close to the same height! Really, the only major difference was that Naruto was a boy, and Hope was a girl.

Naruto and Hope went through school together as best friends, and even when they were separated onto different teams, they met up for ramen every week or so. It was during one of these outings at Ichiraku's that Hope began an interesting conversation.

"Hey, Naruto," she began suddenly, abandoning her third bowl of pork ramen. "Don't you think this is a little... weird?"

Naruto paused in his loud slurping of broth, throwing her a confused look and asking, "What's weird?"

"This, Naruto," she replied exasperatedly. "You and me. Having ramen every week. Doesn't it bother you? I mean, we're not in a relationship, but everybody thinks we are. Remember last week? There was that old guy who kept giving us these lusty winks." She shivered. That man was creepy.

"Oh, that. No, I don't think it's weird. You and I are friends right? But we don't get to hang out much, and it's nice being near you. Plus, that old guy drank like six bottles of sake. I don't really care what people think, anyway. Why? Does it bother you?"

In fact, it did bother Hope. Quite a lot. It was almost a year ago that they had been split onto separate teams. She could still feel her heart lurch at the small, sad smile Naruto gave her when his name was called out for Team 7 and hers for Team 8. It was then she realized that she felt more than just friendship for Naruto. However, she had known Naruto for years. He would never feel that way about her, so she kept her thoughts to herself.

Hope put on a smiling face and said, "No, no, of course not! I was just wondering how you felt about it."

"Okay. Are you sure though?" Naruto's eyes looked into another pair of the same color and saw deeps sadness- an emotion he knew plenty about.

"It's all good, Naruto," Hope assured him. No matter how crushed she was, she would never be sad in front of him. She would go home and cry and scream and throw things, but she would always be happy for him.

Naruto shrugged and went back to slurping his ramen, though with less gusto than he had before. He was thinking about how Hope had acted ever since they were split onto teams. She had suddenly begun treating every moment as if it were the most precious thing she had, and it was a little awkward. Not to mention the fact that she always sat right next to him, only an inch or two away, and studied him when she though he wasn't looking. Naruto wondered about Hope.

Why did she change? It's not like I'm any different than before, so why is she?

Hope, on the other hand, was completely oblivious to Naruto's confusion. Instead, she was watching Naruto out of the corner of her eye. She watched how his strong, lithe fingers held the chopsticks with a practiced ease, how his lips moved as he appreciated the texture of the noodles, how his hair shifted in the slight breeze.

"-so long. Hey, Hope. Hope! Earth to Hope!" Naruto shook her shoulder.

"Huh? What?" Hope was jerked out of her reverie.

"I was wondering if you wanted to hang out for a little longer today. Tomorrow's a holiday, so we won't have any missions, and we can train whenever. Anyway, you good with that?"

"Sure," Hope shrugged with eloquent nonchalance. It was a total facade, though. Inside, she was throwing a huge party, complete with fire crackers and confetti.

So Hope and Naruto wandered around Konoha, not really headed anywhere. They walked for an hour or two, talking and laughing, and just generally hanging out. They passed by the Hokage's office, where Hope had to restrain Naruto from chucking rocks at the windows. They meandered over to the park, and Naruto convinced Hope that creating a water spout and sending it off to soak Sakura was not a great idea. Eventually they found themselves back at Ichiraku's Ramen Stand. There they said their good-byes, promising to meet up at 5:45 for dinner Tuesday.

Naruto headed back to his apartment, mulling over Hope and her sudden shift. He tried to meditate before he went to bed, but was unsuccessful due to Hope's sad eyes sticking in his head. No matter how many ways he tried to convince himself she was fine, Naruto couldn't shake the feeling he was missing something important.

"Oi! Dog-breath!" Naruto yelled.

"What? I'm training, idiot!" Kiba shouted back.

"I need to talk to you for a minute! C'mere!"

Kiba shrugged and picked up Akamaru as he headed over to where Naruto was standing impatiently under a tree.

"You can finish abusing the trees with Fang over Fang in a minute. But right now I have a problem," Naruto said, glancing everywhere except at Kiba.

Kiba knew Naruto was having girl problems, and was sniggering into his furry brown sleeve.

"Okay, dude, tell. Who is it?" He asked, grinning from ear to ear while Akamaru barked and wagged his fluffy white tail.

Naruto turned beet red, and tried to act cool, but the effect was ruined by the way he kept twitching nervously.

"Swear you won't tell anyone, Kiba- not the Hokage, not your mom or anyone. No one."

"Yeah, yeah. Just get on with it."

"Alright, here goes nothing- I think Hope likes me."

At this, Kiba gave a gleeful whoop, and his grin took over his face. Even Akamaru yipped happily. Naruto's blush faded in indignation, until-

"Have you kissed yet?"

"What!?" Naruto's face went scarlet again. "No! Of course not! I mean, I think she likes me, but I dunno if I like her, well, I mean I like her but I'm not sure if I really like her, and... Auugh!" Naruto grabbed his spiky yellow hair and fell to the ground. "You gotta help me, Kiba. I'm totally lost."

"Oh, don't worry about it. I'll help." Kiba took a seat next to Naruto and let Akamaru run off to annoy Shino and his bugs. "First off, Naruto- do you think she's cute?"

"What? Well, she's got nice eyes, and she's funny sometimes... Yeah, I guess so. Why?"

"Later. Next- can you actually talk? Like, can you have a conversation without having a lot of awkward pauses or repeating yourself or something?"

"Sure."

"Okay. Finally- if she kissed you, would you kiss back?"

"What!? What the hell, Kiba? What kind of question is that?"

"Ha! You're blushing again! So you would, wouldn't you?"

Mortified, Naruto did a kind of shrug-nod. Kiba shouted gleefully and dissolved into laughter. Naruto buried his burning face in his hands.

"Aw, shuddup, Kiba."

Well, for a first chapter, on a first fanfic, for which I have no idea about the second chapter, that went fairly well. I will put myself down as genuinely surprised.

But I must reiterate that fact that I am such a mushy little sap. :) Oh well. I can be a pervert later. Let's make this the story of a beautiful friendship.