I do not own Naruto.

oneshot, completed
no pairings
Title: Tea and Ramen

Hanabi can say honestly she didn't know how it happened.

On his first visit, she had been sipping tea outside after a light sparring session with her father. Her wrist was sprained, and he had told her to take a break before their personal Hyuuga healer came back from a rare shift at the hospital.

Hanabi looked up when she felt the chakra and greeted him with a nod. He paused, looked at her, and then sat down a few centimeters away.

This, she decided, was very awkward.

"So," Uzumaki Naruto started, "how…was your day so far?"

Hanabi took a moment to locate her sister and Neji-niisama. "Fine," she replied, keeping any feeling from her voice in case it held him with her any longer…shudder.

"…That's good."

Realizing he wasn't leaving, common courtesy (and a voice sounding suspiciously like her polite father) had her asking how his health was, if he wanted a cup of tea, how his morning was.

"Good; if it's not too much trouble; good." He paused and rubbed his shoulder.

Hanabi had a passing cousin bring an extra cup. "My sister is inside"—trying to gather the courage to come out—"and Neji-niisama is currently training with his team"—trying not to get stabbed by an oncoming kunai—"but would you like to talk with them? Or, perhaps my father?"

"I was supposed to see Neji for some tips on this one jutsu, which is really really awesome and Sakura-chan couldn't help me with since she's always busy and Shizune-san's doing paperwork and Tsuande-baachan is kinda tipsy but you know I need someone with awesome control and I think Shino's been avoiding me or something cuz I can't find him and Ino-chan is out on a super-secret T&I thing with her dad and Shikamaru won't do it and I asked Hinata-chan but she kinda went red and left and Sai and Kakashi-sensei are out so then Gaara came to mind but he told me he was too busy and what the heck I was doing in Suna anyway so—"

Oh, dear God, Hanabi thought, and sent a panicked chakra surge to her cousin, who got scraped with a shuriken in his surprise.

He came moments later, panting slightly, looking for any enemy shinobi. He got Naruto.

"Oh," he said, "I apologize; I thought we agreed a little later than this. Come."

Naruto waved at her and she sent a hesitant goodbye after him.

Well, she thought, that's the end of that.

His second visit was a week after his first.

Hanabi was polishing her weapons outside and pretended not to feel him until he was a half-meter away.

Neji was out on a mission; her sister was out with her team.

"Would you like to speak with my father?" she asked weakly, and tipped her gleaming sword to the sun, trying to blind him.

"Nah." Naruto sat down next to her, ignoring the senbon.

Hanabi called for tea.

And soldier pills. But Yuri only rolled her eyes, so she probably wasn't getting them.

"So," he began again, and launched into an epic story of how he had just defeated this one enemy nin with his bare hands while the other guy was using all this forbidden jutsu and a really, really cute bunny that had non-freaky red eyes. By the time he was finished, Hanabi felt like he sapped all her strength away.

He took a breath. Hanabi sighed.

"Something wrong?" he asked, and she quickly gave him a polite "no."

"Bullshit," he said. "How's your training?"

She gave him a few details, merely polite and empty, and then he asked about her wrist. "You were holding it kinda weird, you know? 'Stead of holding the cup with two hands, you were using one, and you kinda seemed all careful with it, so Sakura-chan said it was probably sprained or broken."

"Sprained," she admitted to her tea.

He nodded wisely. Then he reached into his pocket—Hanabi tensed—and brought out a small glass jar. "Homeade by the best medic-nin ever," he said proudly. "Sakura-chan said to apply to your wrist again if something similar happens. It's soothing, but not healing….which is still pretty cool, you know? I mean, it soothes bone."

Hanabi took the salve slowly, watching him carefully for any signs of deceit, and he left a few minutes later.

On his third, a few days later, she wasn't surprised to feel him again.

He sat with her, had tea, talked about nothing of importance, and then left.

She went back to meditating.

His sixth visit came the eight days after his third, before dinner, where tea was being served with two cups.

She was resigned to her fate. So were the rest of the Hyuuga. Uzumaki Naruto came, sat down, and then launched into his entire day, with the most exciting thing being a new flavor at his favorite ramen stall.

She listened politely, agreed with it being wonderful, then told him how she had a harder time beating Hinata that morning. Not hard, but just a little harder.

He nodded. "She's getting good, right?"

He said it with such a proud smile on his face, Hanabi was honestly surprised. "Yes," she agreed quietly, and his smile faded as he looked at her with that intense gaze. She straightened her shoulders, and did not reply again. Took a sip of tea. Burned her tongue.

"Huh," he said, then told her about a memory with his team when they were twelve and trying not to understand each other.

His eleventh had him quietly fuming and staring off into the distance with a heated glare. Hanabi could have sworn he tried burning the vegetation.

"Is something wrong?" she asked hesitantly, not meaning to pry…very far.

"Yeah," he sighed, and then told her about how his world was breaking apart, how much pressure was being hung on his shoulders, how much he missed this one person, how his milk had gone sour, the ramen stall being closed for the week, her sister running away again, his teammate punching his jaw, his other teammate not being back from a separate mission, all the scrolls he was being forced to read, why couldn't he master this freaking jutsu, it wasn't very hard, what these feelings were for this one person if he actually qualified for being Hokage if Kon—er, this one kid—was even taking the threat of being his rival for Hokageship as serious, he had just lost his paycheck, where this one thing had gone missing to, what his mother would have done if she knew—

In return, when he begged for a change of topic, she told him about the fiancés she had met, which she absolutely loathed, because it meant—well, it meant something, and she was just so tired, and she hated polishing her weapons and she didn't know why and that the tea they drank was too weak for her tastes and that it was the third night with the same meal and all she wanted to do was crawl under her futon and not leave.

She paused in her speech to realize she hadn't talked this much since—well, she couldn't remember. And she wondered if that was a bad thing.

He listened to her quietly, then asked if she wanted some ice cream. She said sure.

He brought dango on his fourteenth visit.

On his nineteenth, he managed to pry open how scared she was.

How scared she was because everyone wanted her to fail, to be pushed back, to get that binding contract on her forehead, to be the Main of the serving branch and to live under her older sister's shadow, to be weaker because it wasn't right how she was stronger than the heir, and how she may marry someone she detested and he would outlive her, or that she would marry someone she loved and he would die too early. How if she had children, they would serve and hate her and get that killing mark on their foreheads and what if she loved them? What if she loved them and they hated her and they died and she died and things would be left unsaid in this—

She hadn't even scraped the beginning before she reeled the words back in and choked on air.

Uzumaki Naruto held her eyes until she blubbered how late it was, how she had to get up early in the morning, didn't he have a mission, and she completely ignored the chakra signature telling her that her father had heard at least half her ramblings.

His twenty-second visit, he dragged her off to that ramen stall.

She had miso ramen for dinner.

They went out for ice cream.

A/N: My first fic in a loooooong while, so this will probably be stiff and awkward and, well, un-beta-ed.

Reviews would be appreciated, though I'm not a hundred percent sure where I went with this, but eh.