Meiwa Says: Konnichiwa! It's my first NaruHina without any angst/sad themes in it. The last line is so obviously ripped off from a lot of other stories I've been reading for a while. Gomen if it makes the authors mad.

Warnings: If you didn't know about Naruto's lineage until now (seriously, even I don't watch the anime/read the manga, I know) or Hinata and Pein's match, they're mentioned here. This, like my other works, is unbeta-ed, so I apologize for grammar/spelling mistakes.

Pairing(s): NaruHina & LeeSaku.

Disclaimer: This fanfic is written solely for the purpose of amusement, and nothing else. I don't own anything and everything that is related to Naruto.

With A Little Help
Meiwa Chinmoku

He was captivated by her attractiveness, reeled in by her striking confidence. She had features that you would so easily spot in a crowd. She had intelligence, and super-human strength that many feared. When he first laid his eyes on her, he thought that she was the prettiest thing he had ever seen, and instantly wanted her to be his. Only, she wouldn't have it, as she was sucked into a strange dreamland of marrying Sasuke-kun and having teme's babies. But he always told himself that he liked a challenge. And it was a challenge he did accept.

She, on the other hand, was plain, boring, and had little to no self-confidence in herself. She hid practically most of her skin beneath baggy clothes and she never liked to be the center of attention - not that it was a problem. She did have intelligence and promise, although people belittled her because of her shyness and could not see the true her. When he first laid his eyes on her, he thought she was... weird.

But the second, the third and the fourth time he saw her, really truly saw her, his opinion of her changed.

She wasn't weird, she was unique. She wasn't weak, she was talented. Although she was badly beaten by her own cousin, she did not give up, and Naruto liked that determination. Sometimes, she did fall, but that only gave him a reason to want to protect her, an excuse to be by her side when she needed it the most. After learning of their clan's history, of Hiashi's contempt towards his own daughter, he admired her for being so strong after all that.

He remembered resenting those who had families before, and now he wished to take it all back. After all, he may not have had Minato and Kushina during his childhood, but they loved him anyways. In her case, she did have her family, but they spited her and shunned her.

His feelings for these girls were not the same, but in a way they weren't so different either. He pushed these aside on his road to becoming Hokage, however complications began to arise when wars began to escalate. On one particularly sunny day, during Pain's invasion, these thoughts of his came back like a tidal wave when she confessed.

And being the cowardly man he is, he did not reply.

Ordinary girls would've been mad, furious even for his reply or lack thereof. But this was Hinata for Kami's sake! She had the longest patience he had ever seen, and the only time she was truly angry was when someone would hurt her precious people.

It took him many years, multiple missions and her near-death experience to have him realize that he was one of her precious people. And he was so happy he wanted to do a little happy dance in the corner.

But he still had many problems concerning the wars. Not only that, but the other woman that had snatched his attention long before decided to confess her 'love' for him. Just one look, though, and he saw that she had not meant it any more than a sisterly affection for him. But he couldn't understand if he was hurt or disappointed.

Soon enough, after defeating all the potential threats to his beloved Konoha – that even being his once so-called brother – things began to wind down, and changes were being made. Completely worn out from all those years of battling, Tsunade retired and crowned him to be Hokage. He would not get it immediately of course, because he still needed to convince the Council of his strength and pure intentions of leading Konoha. Being named as Konoha's Hero also helped.

This opened more difficulties for him. Since the wars died down, there have been less worries and less demands for ninjas except to do the occasional work. And since Hinata was a kunoichi in her own right, she was often called up for missions, or had perfectly fit the descriptions needed, which meant he saw her very often.

The first time he assigned her to one was an awkward experience.

"Hokage-sama, Hinata-san is here."

Naruto nodded and did not look up from his paperwork. "Okay, send her in."

Hyuga Hinata's beauty was unmarred by the battles. She was still soft-spoken and polite when she needed to be, but because of these recent events, she began to harden up and her old embarrassing habits, as well as her jacket, were thrown aside. Her skills improved tremendously, and she was now proudly referred to as the Hyuga clan's heiress, strong and confident.

"Hokage-sama," she said as she bowed, "I have been sent here on a mission?"

Since her confession he tried sorting out his feelings for her, but to no avail. Having not grown surrounded by love, he didn't understand the feeling, and when others tried to explain it to him, things just grew even more complicated. Kiba asked him what was holding him back, but Naruto knew that he couldn't make advances on such a sweet girl like Hinata just yet.

His heart did that weird flippy jump and his palms began to sweat. It didn't help that his stomach seemed to churn, from what he didn't know since he hadn't even had ramen the entire morning. He was already getting nervous around her…which would be bad. Real bad.

"Hai." In an attempt to distract himself from her lavender eyes, he pretended to shuffle through the mission reports and paperwork when in fact, the request was sitting atop the pile on his right. He had been reading through it the entire morning. "…Gaara's requesting some trackers to capture a local bandit in the outskirts of Suna. They're running low in manpower supply. Kiba and Shino are in Ame, I think, so I thought you'd be best for the job."

He gave her the paper and she read through it with a nod. Even though she had steeled herself for the forces of war, it was hard to repress a small blush. Thankfully Naruto was too busy in his own problems to realize this.

"Hai, Hokage-sama."

"Naruto."

She blinked innocently and the way she looked at him made him jump. "Nani?"

"My name is Naruto." In spite of his self-proclaimed dilemma, he forced a grin. "Remember it!"

She giggled and nodded, bowing again. She was a Hyuga, the heiress to a dignified clan. Just because she had a history of friendship with the Hokage did not really give her special rights, despite what Naruto says. He will still remain to be the Hokage, the powerful ruler of their village.

...

Even though she was surrounded by two of Konoha's elite ninjas, Haruno Sakura went unnoticed behind the doors. She smiled to herself.

Neither of them had noticed that they both wore blushes on their cheeks the whole time.

The next few times she came to his office to get her mission or to submit her report, they began to ease up to each other. Sometimes, she stayed longer than a normal kunoichi sending her mission report would, because they would be caught in a conversation that seemed to last for hours. He gave her many missions that fit her level – either only A-rank or B-rank, because she admitted that she'd been insulted when he gave her a long streak of D-rank missions – and at the beginning, she felt obliged to respond to his questions even if they weren't about the mission's success or even her confession.

He began to really enjoy her company. They met regularly at Ichiraku's, at exactly 12:30 when he was released from the tower to eat, while his assistant, Sakura, handled the rest of the paperwork. They talked some more and got to know each other. He knew that he was beginning to feel something more for her – or perhaps, it had always been there, in the deep recesses of his consciousness and buried beneath the piles of duties and obligation.

Some would say that he was leading her to a broken heart, but he'd just say that he was being a good friend. Just because he began to feel anything for her doesn't mean that he could return her confession of love for him. And besides, there were other road blocks that he had to fix first.

This issue came about when he was walking back to the Hokage Tower, a grin on his face, after just having lunch with Hinata. He was drowning too much in his happiness that he didn't anticipate Kiba, or the fact that the latter had him pinned to a wall.

"What the – Kiba!"

He lowered his defensive position upon figuring out that it was just his comrade... his comrade seething in complete anger.

"What are you doing?" Kiba hissed, and Akamaru barked next to him.

"What are you talking about?"

When he sent one look to the ramen stand, Naruto instantly understood.

"I had lunch with Hinata-chan, as usual. What's wrong with that?"

He slammed him again to the wall, and it was just like old times. Naruto didn't know if he liked the way his friends – minus Hinata – still treated him like the foolish genin he was before. He also didn't know what could have made Kiba act like this. It was customary for him and Hinata to have lunch there. This was going on for three months now, and he was sure that all his friends knew about it.

"You think her feelings are a toy?" Kiba growled angrily. "You think that – just because you can have any girl under your arm, you can just take advantage of Hinata-chan?"

"We're friends having lunch together. I don't understand what led you into thinking that I'd do something so stupid."

"You know that she loves you – unless you're an idiot that has forgotten all about it."

By this time, Kiba found his own back on the wall and Naruto staring at him with a face that shut him up. He had never seen him so serious outside of battle or Hokage duties…maybe not even the latter. Kiba didn't know that he had struck a sensitive nerve in the blond-haired Hokage.

"I would never forget that," Naruto's voice was a low whisper. "I would never forget what she did for me. You have no idea how much I think about it all the time."

"So why are you leading her on? Why are you making her believe that she has a chance with you?"

This silenced him completely. Is that what everyone thinks he was doing? Was he really leading her on? He knew about her love and her compassion for him, and who's to say that he didn't feel the same? But of course, only he knew this as he never openly voiced out any real affection for the girl. Did everyone think he was really playing with her?

Did Hinata think that?

But if she did, why didn't she just leave him? Why didn't she just tell him and let him drown in his own sorrows of rejection? Why did she continue to put up with him?

Later that afternoon, after a brutal spar with Kiba who was determined to save his innocent teammate from the likes of him, he arrived at his office and saw Sakura on a chair next to his table. She was overlooking some of the documents he had already signed, and her face brightened considerably when he entered the door.

Which was the main reason why he couldn't pursue anything with the Hyuga heiress.

"It's about time!" she said playfully, slamming down the papers back to the pile. She was confused about the scars and bruises that he now donned, but didn't ask. "You took longer than necessary. Were you enjoying your date?"

He went to his desk and shook his head. "It's not a date."

"Oh? Then what may it be, oh powerful Hokage-sama?"

"I-I don't know!" Sakura was honestly startled by his response. When he looked at her with those blue eyes that were always happy and full of mirth, she was even more surprised to see the hidden pain beneath them. Of course, she always knew that his smiles covered the pain of his past, but this was a different kind of pain, one she wasn't sure she could do anything about. "Sakura-chan…am I…am I leading her on?"

He was just full of surprises.

"Hinata-chan?" she whispered the name. His mouth quirked upwards but he did not lose the sad look.

"Hai…Kiba came to me earlier and…and he said that I was hurting her. Is this true? Do you really think so?"

She wouldn't lie to him, because he'd see right through it. He wasn't a skilled ninja for nothing. "Naruto, look, many of the villagers already see you two as a couple, and even Hiashi-sama has taken an interest to these 'lunch dates' you've been having with Hinata-chan for months. We…we all know of her devotion to you," she almost missed the way he winced, "but you aren't leading her on, unless you don't plan to pursue anything with her. Poor Hinata-chan's already gone through so much to get where she is, and she's strong enough to handle anything, but a kunoichi is a woman too. Don't you plan to well, advance your relationship?"

"I want to, Sakura-chan, I really do! I really, really like Hinata-chan but…"

He looked up at her and a voice inside her whispered, 'Oh no…' Had she really done that much damage to his heart? Was he still so incredibly infatuated with her until now? She thought she made her signs of 'NOT INTERESTED' clear. But Naruto wasn't really known to read signs.

Sakura had her own fair string of beaus lining up for her. But in the end, only one stayed after knowing the real her, which came to a surprise to all of Rookie Nine – Rock Lee. She first thought that Naruto would respond violently to 'Losing Sakura-chan to Bushy-Brows!' but he seemed calm enough. She thought that he was moving on.

"No, Naruto, no. Don't stray there," she said warningly.

"I know! I know! I don't want to either!" Naruto buried his head in his hands. "But I can't do anything – I can't ask her to be my girlfriend if I'm not sure about my feelings for you! I don't want to hurt her!"

He must love her a lot, she thought to herself. So why was he so conflicted? Did he not understand that his eyes were only for her, for Hinata? What was confusing him? Were his past feelings for her in the way?

Sakura knew this had to be resolved immediately.

"Naruto," she stated calmly after he began to hyperventilate to himself, "what do you think of me?"

He furrowed his brows. "Well, Sakura-chan, you're my homicidal teammate who –"

She ignored the first comment.

"No, what do you think about me?"

"Ah! I think you're one of the prettiest kunoichi we have," he stated with a foolish grin and she snorted. "And you're really strong and smart too! And you're really nice for letting me go to Ichiraku's everyday with Hinata-chan even if I'm loaded with paperwork you always have to go through…and," a determined expression crossed his face. "…I want to protect you with everything I have. When you're down I always want to be the one to pick you up…and beat the ones that hurt you."

"What about Hinata-chan? Tell me what you think about her, and don't hold anything back."

His eyes softened and he blushed. He probably didn't even notice these things. "I think Hinata-chan's a very beautiful and a really strong kunoichi who, like me, earned her strength through hard work. We're similar in a lot of ways, even though people don't see it. Although she's really strong when it comes to battling, she's also very gentle and sweet and will always listen to even my most ridiculous stories even when I know people would normally ignore me…and I…" his eyes looked distant, out the window and perhaps even beyond that. Sakura fell silent. Completely silent. "I…I want to be with her, always, so that no one can even come near hurting her. I don't want her to fall down at all, and since I'm there, I would resolve to myself that that won't ever happen. You're right, Sakura-chan, she's gone so much for a kind girl like her, and I'm afraid someone else might take her away from me, which is why I keep her so close…" he looked up and she could barely repress her shaking hands. "Am I making any sense?"

"You idiot!" she cried, using her fist to hit him over his head. She wiped away the tears in her eyes. "I can't believe you!"

He covered his throbbing cranium with his arms, confused at her sudden change in mood. He had just nearly confessed to Sakura everything about what he felt for the cobalt-haired maiden. Was it so necessary to hit him over the head for that?

"What?"

"You – do you really doubt what you feel for her? Do you still think that you're in love – with me?"

He blinked down sorrowfully. "You were the first ever girl I had a crush on, so I'm not sure what that word means."

She sighed and offered him a quirk of a smile. She leaned towards the desk and said in a determined tone, "Love is different for every person. Some can't define it, but some think they can. I'm one of the few who think they can't, because it's a special kind of emotion."

"So…how do I know if I love her or not when it's different for everyone?"

"You love her, Naruto. Deny it all you want, but I know you do. Speeches like that can only come out from the mouth of a man deeply in love with a woman, and I don't mean anything like a platonic friendship. It's more than that."

Naruto contemplated to himself this new revelation of Sakura's. He could really see himself in love with Hinata – she was a girl he told himself he could really like. But it was only in the process of learning her, the workings of Hyuga Hinata, did he come to realize that there was really more to her than he knows of, and he fell. Hard.

But didn't he already know of his affections for her? Wasn't his problem his feelings for Sakura?

"I know I love her," he said strongly. "But I don't know if I still love you, Sakura-chan."

She sighed again – seriously this boy can get so frustrating at times – and placed her hand on his shoulder consolingly. With Sakura and Hinata, his feelings of protecting them were very similar, just like to his other friends.

"You love me –" she watched as his eyes widened and he almost panicked, "– as a brother would to a sister, and I love you just the same…but this is a more common form of love, Naruto, and your love for Hinata-chan is different. Very different. One that maybe not everyone experiences, but those who do are lucky. It's…it's more like Lee-kun and I…"

He did not look convinced. Sakura's patience was beginning to run thin, but she wouldn't have it. This boy was going to be with Hinata by the end of this day, and Inner Sakura cheered her on.

"Okay, fine. If you don't believe me, tell me: what do you feel when you see me?"

He laughed boyishly. "What I feel? I just see you, Sakura-chan. Should I feel anything?"

"And what about Hinata-chan? Do you not feel anything when you see her?"

Naruto, again, fell silent. He's been doing that a lot lately, so it was.

"Answer me," she growled in a threatening tone.

"I…I don't know, I can't describe it. But yes, I really do… feel something for her. So? I thought it was normal."

Hook, line and sinker! He took the bait! "How long has it been going on?"

"Uh, months?" he scratched the back of his head sheepishly. "I dunno, lost count. Why? What does it have anything to do with my situation?"

He is so clueless. But that was why she was here – to play matchmaker. Excitement was coursing through her very veins right now.

"See? Naruto, if you love me, you should feel something within you. It's like a kind of warmth, that's the best way I can describe it. But you don't. Because it's for Hinata-chan. You look at her and – bam! You feel your heart accelerate and your stomach feels like you're jumping over a cliff. You get nervous because you want to impress her so much, and…you see only her..."

Naruto stared at both his hands for a while, and Sakura thought if he didn't buy this, then she didn't know what will. Both of them deserved happiness, with each other no doubt. Hinata had been waiting far too long for him, and she didn't want to watch the two trying to inch themselves away from each other because of the awkwardness. Not to mention, this might get in the way of Naruto's duties, which had been his dreams since he was a child. He's done so much for her that she thought it would be best to repay him.

He spoke gently, "You're trying to say that whenever I see Hinata-chan, the feeling I get is different? Different from all the other feelings I get when I see you, or Kiba or Ino or the others? That perhaps maybe there's something annoyingly different in me, and I'm not sure whether to like it or not?"

She gave a slow nod.

His blue eyes widened as a realization came to his mind. He slammed both his open palms to his desk, shedding away of the unattended paperwork, and his mind went blank. Before long, he disappeared in a yellow flash and it was so quick that Sakura wasn't able to see or anticipate it.

But she heard what he was saying, and a grin split on her face.

"I love Hinata-chan…I love Hinata-chan…I'm in love with Hinata-chan!"

After countless of ramen dates, a couple of protective friends, a few dozen threats, an intervention that came in the form of a pink-haired kunoichi and one particularly not-so planned confession, Naruto and Hinata officially became a couple.

Meiwa Says: Oh, Naruto. Why are you so clueless?