A Little Bit of Courage

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Naruto x Hinata

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Author's Note

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This takes place a few months before the Academy Exam.

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Story Start

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Despite his panic Naruto was soon relieved of it when he was informed that Hinata was not in fact dying, but had simply fainted. To his relief Hinata did not shun or hate the blond over what happened.

He even insisted on taking the girl out to lunch to thank her for the advice she had given him, mostly because he was hungry though.

"Come on, Hinata-chan, dig in!" Naruto slurped back a huge mouthful of pork ramen. Teuchi and Ayame glanced at each other, wide-eyed. Both of them were wondering how Naruto had managed to bring the clan heiress of the Hyuuga ramen to their clan on a date like setting, and still be clueless about her affection for him.

"Lots of people say it's fattening and bad for your health, but take my word for it, Ichiraku ramen is the best."

Hinata nodded, and snapped apart a pair of chopsticks. She sank the tips into the golden broth, taking up a sizable bundle of noodles. She glanced at Naruto, who had turned back to his bowl and was shoveling the stuff back. She brought the ramen to her lips, tasted it, and found it was no less delicious than Naruto had claimed. Hinata soon found herself shoveling down the meal with the same gutso that Naruto was, but without the bad manners.

"I've never seen anyone as enthusiastic as Naruto-kun about our food." Ayame had commented.

Wide-eyed, Hinata had looked down at her bowl and with blushing cheeks realized she had finished the meal in record time.

"See, I told you it was good. "

"You were right," For the moment she forgot her shyness, "…and you eat this all the time?"

"Ichiraku is the only thing I can order in a large enough portion to fill me up. Otherwise I'll just end up snacking all day."

"Hey, Hinata-chan, can I ask you something?"

"Y-yes?"

"Why are you so shy all the time? Its like whenever I see you you're always doing that thing with your fingers or looking away or speaking softly. I mean you do so well in the academy, you're the best when it comes to Taijustu and have one of the highest scores and you even got a bloodline. Not to mention you don't go around bragging and being all stuck up, in fact you're a really cool person so its just weird you know.

"Y-You really think I'm cool?" It was taking all of her willpower to stay up right.

"Well yeah, I mean you're even hanging out with me and I'm the dead last. You could be doing like hundreds of other things besides doing that. I'm surprised you're not one of the omost popular students at the academy."

"I…no…I wish I could do things or be what you think, but I'm afraid I'm not that brave."

"Hyuh? What do you mean?" He cluelessly asked.

"I've always been sort of timid and afraid. Its what stopped me from doing so many things. Its why up until recently I couldn't even have a conversation with you until recently."

"Me? You like when you mentioned something about admiring me before?"

Hinata opened her mouth to speak, but no words would come out. She could practically hear her heart in her chest thumping. If she didn't say anything now she knew she was going to spend the rest of her life regretting it. Now was the time before she lose this sudden bout of courage that taken a hold of her. "It's because…because I…" admire you. Come on say it 'admire you'.

"Because you what? Hinata?"

'Uugh why can't I be brave…' "Like you."Hinata inadvertely blurted out the last part of her thoughts.

"What!" Naruto yelped, surprised, his eyes as wide as an expressive mask. "Wha…the…why?" he couldn't help but ask. This didn't make sense. Girls didn't like him. The girls at the academy expressed it many times that since he was anti-sasuke in every way he wasn't datable or even friend material. So why would someone nice like Hinata like him?

"Because…because…" It was now or never. If she didn't do this right she was going to ruin things between them forever. "…do you remember, about eight years ago? In the northern part of the village area. It was cold and it was nearing the winter season?" Naruto scratched the back of his head, drawing a blank.

A sad smile formed on Hinata's face. 'He doesn't remember?'

'Uugh, I'm such an idiot. I made Hinata-chan sad, but eight years ago. That's a really long time. Looking at her face something was inkling on his mind. That expression.' Suddenly a memory popped into his mind. "Hey you leave her alone!" Naruto let out a surprised gasp. "That was you those bullies were picking on?" He had completely forgotten about that. How could he had forgotten the first time he had ever gotten into a fight. The first time he tried to protect someone else. Thinking back on it Hinata had mentioned something about this earlier.

Hinata looked up, a relieved expression on her face. "Yes, you protected me. You were like my knight in shining armor and for the longest time I wanted to thank you, but my caretakers warned me away from you because of your reputation."

"Oh right." A displeased sigh escaped Naruto.

"But I never cared about that. All I wanted was to thank you and that's when I saw it. How everyone would ignore you or bully you, and you s-still smile. You're all alone but you're happy. You don't resent anyone for bullying you and you come to school every day saying you'll be Hokage, and they'll all have to respect you then. That's why. You're so strong, Naruto-kun, strong like a Hokage. I went from wanting to thank you and getting to know you to admiring you. I admire how strong you were mentally and wanted to be more like you. I want to become brave like you and never give up. Up until recently I had been too afraid to approach you, to be your friend because I feared your rejection, but now I can only curse myself for not being there for you sooner. Even if no one else believes you will one day become Hokage, I do. I know you will."

"Wow... that's gotta be the nicest thing anyone's ever said to me. I, thank you Hinata-chan." This certainly put things in a new perspective. He wasn't quite sure what he felt. He knew Hinata admired him, but she hadn't gone into any depth about it until now. Did he like Hinata back? Honestly he didn't know. He liked her enough to call her a friend. Then there was his crush on Sakura. He liked her because he saw how lonely she was when they were younger, but now hearing how much he inspired Hinata and how she felt it just jumbled up his thoughts. One thing for sure he liked hanging out with Hinata who was way nicer to him than anyone else at the academy.

"Hinata-chan, this is all still really confusing for me. I'm not sure what to say." For a moment he saw the girl's face fall, taking his statement as a rejection. "I still want to be your friend though!" He hastily added, unable to stop the exaggerated gesture of his arms. "I still have some thinking to do, this is a lot to take in, but I would really like us to be friends at least."

'Friends?' she thought. That wasn't a rejection and she had to admit, even if it was unintentional she did sort of confessed to liking him. It would be a lot for someone like Naruto to take in. Handling things slowly was definitely going to make the whole process easier though.

"Oh, okay then," Hinata replied with a happy nod.