Well then. I'll walk you home." Naruto decided, falling in step with Hinata as she continued to walk towards the Hyuga Compound.
"It was great seeing everyone!" Naruto rambled on as usual. "Even Sakura was nice to me..."
Hinata looked up at him. "Well maybe you should try to ask her out again."
Naruto frowned down at Hinata. "Really? You think I should ask her out?"
"Yeah, sure." Hinata smiled. "She said she thought you seemed really grown up now. She was very impressed with everything you're doing to become a stronger shinobi in order to find Sasuke."
"Yeah... maybe I will ask her out." Naruto replied thoughtfully. "But I don't think she'll say yes. She's still all about Sasuke."
Now, Naruto was looking off into space, so he did not notice as Hinata's face fell in disappointment.
He continued, "Pervy sage says I have to show I'm appealing to girls in order to get a girl. Sakura likes Sasuke... and he has a lot of girls who like him. I don't really know any girls who like me. Though... I really would only need one –may be a fake girlfriend or something. That would get Sakura's attention."
"I like you!" Hinata blurted out. Then she squeaked, covering her mouth with her hand. Her face turning red. She quickly added, fidgeting with her fingers. "I mean as a friend… I like you as a friend. But I could pretend... to be your girlfriend, I mean."
The mention of being Naruto's girlfriend had caused her to have a momentary lapse in good judgment. She started to walk faster. Had she just volunteered to be Naruto's pretend girlfriend?
Naruto walked faster too. He tossed Hinata an odd look. She could not figure out if it was happiness or disappointment. "Are you sure? You don't have to do this. It was just a dumb idea…"
"No." Hinata said more confidently. "I want to do this."
"Thanks. I guess." Naruto said, laughing uncomfortably and rubbing the back of his head. Then he said, kindly, "I knew I could count on you, Hinata. You are the best friend ever."
Hinata beamed at him. "Of course! I'm always here to help."
Annoyed, Naruto walked away from the gate of the Hyuga Compond, kicking at the loose rocks in the street. That had not gone exactly how he had planned.
Not long after returning to Konohagakure, Naruto made his way across the village and through the park towards the Hyuga compound. He heard there was a sealing ceremony in progress, and he prayed he was not too late.
When he bumped into Hinata along the way and found her unmarked and alone, he was so elated that he invited her to go eat ramen without another thought. He forgot to mention his intentions, or that this could possibly be a date. Or that he had spent the last two years missing her more than anyone else in the village.
He had not set out to trick Hinata into becoming his pretend girlfriend. But after he saw her leave their sort of… kind of date without even saying good bye, and then she advised him to ask Sakura out again, he started to have flash backs of Sakura telling him to shove off.
Though it often hurt his feelings when Sakura turned him down, it was different with Hinata. He did not think he could bare if the shy and kind hearted kunoichi rejected him too.
He grumbled in frustration.
She did not have to try so hard to set him up with Sakura. OR be so happy about pretending to be his girlfriend to make Sakura jealous. She did not have to be SUCH a good friend.
Naruto shoved his hands in his pockets feeling defeated. Despite all of the plans in his head, somehow, he ended up in the friend zone again… sort of.
Naruto was not too sure what Pervy Sage's angle was when Jiraiya started showing interest in Naruto's relationship with Hinata. But he was certain the toad sage was up to something. Maybe Jiraiya was tired of watching Naruto strike out horribly with Sakura.
Maybe he was just being his usual pervy self. But his mentor persisted, mentioning how close Naruto and Hinata had grown as friends since graduating the academy. Even hinting that there may be a possibility that Hinata secretly had romantic feelings for him already.
"You really are a numbskull sometimes." Jiraiya said, as they walked side by side through a dense forest in the Land of Waterfalls. "The girl is completely head over heels for you, and yet you still haven't figured it out."
"Hey!" Naruto protested defensively. "Hinata is a good friend. And I really don't think that a girl, who is head over heels for me, would be so willing to help me get Sakura's attention, ya know."
"Ahh! This is why you need me, young student." Jiraiya replied, knowingly. "Hinata is a different breed of woman than most. Selfless and kind to a fault. She would help you with anything that she thought would make you happy."
Naruto thought about that for a moment. Hinata was very kind hearted. Her father removed her as heir to her clan because she was too kind hearted. But she was also very determined.
She went to the training fields every day and practiced harder than anyone else, even though she was never particularly skilled, prodigious, nor powerful. If she loved him, wouldn't she be determined to let him know?
"I don't know…" Naruto responded, reluctantly.
"Your fifteen years old, almost sixteen. Time to think about what and who you want in life. It won't be long before Hinata is sealed to someone else and then it will be too late." Jiraiya responded cryptically.