A/N: Hello, everybody. Before we begin this story, I'd like to thank you all for clicking on this. I appreciate it!. Now, onto what this fic is going to be. The opening scene is going to be based upon a flashback in The Last, and then we'll go from there. This won't be an especially long story, but I hope you enjoy it regardless.

Time for chapter 1

Enjoy!

Naruto sighed to himself tiredly as he ran a wet rag across the top of the elongated desk table. It was nearly four-thirty in the afternoon, and he had yet to leave the academy for the day. The reasoning for his inability to leave the educational institution was as it always was. Disruptive behavior with a touch of vandalism thrown in. Towards the end of the day, the blonde had illustrated multiple profanities on the chalkboard on which Iruka was writing during a class intermission. The gag had garnered a few laughs from his classmates, but Iruka had been less than amused. Punishments were far from foreign to the young ninja-to-be, almost by his own design given his behavior, but they never grew any less tedious.

This occasion in particular was dull as could be, with Naruto having been ordered to clean the desks, chalkboard, and floors of the main classroom. He had been working at a respectable rate for nearly an hour, and he still had much to do. Based upon crude mental mathematics, it would be another ninety minutes until Naruto's obligations would be completely finished. An irritated grumble escaped from the blonde.

"I didn't even write that much" he muttered dejectedly while he rewetted the cleaning rag for further use. Finding that insanity was the most likely outcome should he simply clean without distraction, mental or physical, Naruto allowed his mind to wander. From the moment he had awoken that morning to his present situation, the blonde reviewed his day. He took apart certain subjects meticulously, and simply ignored others. After several runs through his recent memories, one event continually nagged at his conscience. Finally conceding, Naruto allowed himself to delve into the specific aspect of that day that he had intentionally omitted from his mental review.

While the cleaning had been his first officially assigned disciplining of the day, it was, in reality, the second in general. During the same hour in which he had vandalized the chalkboard, Iruka had instructed the class to complete what was intended to be a bond-building exercise. Each student was asked to write down who they would desire to spend their final day on earth with given a choice. The point of the activity was clear; it was meant to encourage openness and honesty. For most of the class, the goal was achieved. For Naruto, it did nothing but force him to confront the bleak state of his social standing within the cold society in which he lived. He had left his slip blank after a few moments of consideration.

His initial instinct had been to pencil in the name of Sakura Haruno, a girl whom he had taken an interest in, but soon found that the most likely outcome of spending his final hours with her would be repeated complaints and ridicule on her end. The choices of each student had been left anonymous, save for those who had felt the needless desire to announce their chosen person aloud. The vast majority of the female population had likely chosen Sasuke Uchiha to be their companion. In fact, it would have been far from surprising if all of them had. At that thought, Naruto chuckled to himself.

'All he'd do is glance at you every once in a while and sulk. You wouldn't get your happy ending' he thought to himself humorously. Seconds later, he reached the end of the penultimate elongated desk from the top of the room. He then made his way up another step to begin cleaning the last row. As he glanced down the tabletop, he spotted a pile of supplies at the end of the desk. The pile consisted of a notebook, a few pencils, and a folder. Most of it was light-purple in color. Deciding to give into his curiosity, Naruto set his rag down and shook out his hands. He then made his way over to the pile and studied it carefully, attempting to decipher the identity of the owner with only the information available. After a brief consideration, Naruto pinned down the most probable candidate.

'Huh. Didn't really think of her as the forgetful type, but what do I know?' he mused as the image of Hinata Hyuga, an odd, quiet girl flashed through his mind. Always seating herself in the leftmost upper corner of the room, the prestigiously surnamed girl rarely spoke unless directly prompted, and had a variety of strange habits. She tended to fidget with her hands quite often, and routinely bit her lower lip for seemingly no reason at all. Though she tended to be staring at the floor near Naruto while doing the latter. Naruto knew little about her beyond the habits he had noticed passively other than her seeming love for the color of purple. As he looked over the collection of educational objects, he came upon something interesting.

Sticking out of the side of her notebook was the very same slip of paper that had been distributed to the class to write down their choices. While the majority of the students had turned in their slips, two people had not opted to give their paper to Iruka. One of them was Naruto, who had figured that turning in a blank slip could have been viewed as an act of defiance. The second had been a total mystery.

'That's...kind of weird. I've got my reasons, but her? I figured it was Sasuke' Naruto thought skeptically. The slip was facing downwards, making the name that was likely written on the other side invisible positionally. The blonde stared at the half-visible slip for nearly a minute before reaching forward.

'I probably shouldn't, but what's the harm in seeing Sasuke's name on some paper?' he joked to himself as he reached forward. He then pulled the slip free from between the pages of the notebook and flipped it over. Much to his great shock, Sasuke's name was not written. Instead, Naruto's own name was painstakingly written in expectedly flawless handwriting. The blonde did a double take at the sight, completely dumbfounded by the revelation.

"But...why?" he muttered in confusion as he tucked the slip back into the notebook. That very question circulated through his mind like a storm as he slowly returned to his cleaning duties. From that question was born another of similar nature, but much more specific.

'Why didn't she turn it in? Those were anonymous to everybody but Iruka-sensei' he wondered pensively. A variety of possible answers crossed his mind, many of which were self-deprecating and depressing. As he slipped into a state of unsettled confusion, the door to the classroom slowly opened with a creaking sound. The noise snapped Naruto out of his trance and drew his gaze to the front of the room. Who he saw caused his stomach to drop.

"F-forgive my intrusion, I forgot m-my things earlier today" Hinata, who had just entered the room, stuttered awkwardly. Naruto followed her with his eyes as she carefully made her way up the steps towards her seat. When she reached her things, she deliberately examined her notebook, breathing an audible sigh of relief at the revelation that the slip of paper had not been moved to her knowledge. The reaction drew a raised eyebrow from Naruto.

'So, she didn't want me to see it' he observed as Hinata gathered her supplies into her arms. Once all of her possessions had been accounted for, the Hyuga girl pushed her chair back in and straightened her posture. After a moment, she turned her head to glance at Naruto. This brought the pair to eye contact. For reasons unbeknownst to the blonde, Hinata reddened instantly.

"Is t-there something you need, N-Naruto-kun?" she asked a tad shakily. The blonde remained silent for a moment, completely unprepared for conversation. After scrambling for an answer, he responded.

"What did you think of that weird 'last day' thing we did today?" he asked quickly. The question appeared to be the exact wrong one, as Hinata shifted uncomfortably at the words.

"W-well, I thought that it w-was a good way to lighten the m-mood after a hard day" she replied, her face still a deep red color. Naruto nodded and absently scrubbed away at a spot of dirt on the desk.

"Yeah, I guess. It was supposed to be anonymous, but people started blurting things out pretty quick" he said. Hinata studied him as he cleaned and furrowed her eyebrows.

"W-why are you here so late cleaning?" she asked. When her fellow classmate didn't immediately respond, she tacked on a panicked follow-up.

"If you don't mind me asking, of c-course" she added quickly. Naruto shrugged and sighed heavily as he prepared to begin cleaning the floors.

"Iruka-sensei's orders. It's my punishment for that stuff I wrote on the board earlier" he explained. At the memory, Hinata frowned.

"All of this for t-that? How h-harsh" she said sympathetically. Naruto shook his head and reached for the cleaning rag, which he had left on the desk above him.

"Not really. I decided to try to be funny, and I'm paying for it. Oh well. Not like I'm gonna stop" he said with a slight grin. Hinata suppressed a giggle at his still-extant enthusiasm.

"It was funny. To me, at l-least" she said quietly. Despite her hushed tone, Naruto heard her and glanced up.

"Thanks. You and a few other people" he said gratefully. Both children then lapsed into silence. After a few minutes, Hinata looked to the clock and sighed internally.

"I must be g-going. Thank you for the c-conversation" she said with a bow before turning her back and heading for the door. As she walked away, an idea popped into Naruto's head. He then stood up and looked to the door, which Hinata was halfway through.

"Hey, wait" he called out. The Hyuga girl tensed and let out an odd squeaking sound, but did as she was told and glanced over her shoulder.

"Yes, Naruto-kun?" she asked nervously. Naruto sat down atop one of the lean desks and gathered himself a bit.

"Who did you write down on your slip?" he asked, curious to see it she would openly admit her unusual choice. Hinata averted her eyes and took another step out of the classroom in response.

"Oh, um, just...nobody of note" she stammered quickly before disappearing into the hallway. Naruto gazed at the empty doorway for several moments before shrugging and returning to his painstaking cleaning.

'Nobody of note, huh? Yeah, maybe that's me' he thought to himself a tad dejectedly. He then glanced back at her desk once again.

'She still forgot her pencils'

Hinata tore through the halls of the Hyuga Estate at a blistering pace, her face still burning red. After haphazardly turning several corners and weaving around a few different family members, the girl reached her bedroom. She quickly opened the door and stepped inside, practically slamming it shut upon entry. She then sat down and leaned her back against the hardwood, taking several deep breaths to calm herself down. Once she was sufficiently composed, the Hyuga girl set her things down to her left.

'That...was stressful' she thought to herself as the contents of her brief encounter with Naruto Uzumaki came flooding through her frazzled mind. Her exit from the final stage of their conversation had been unceremonious, and she knew it.

"I was doing so well…" she whispered to herself as she lamented the panic attack she had experienced as she was exiting the classroom. Despite the negative nature of the conclusion, from her perspective, at least, there was much that brought her relief as well.

'He asked me who I wrote down, which means he didn't check my slip. I'd have passed out if he had' she thought a bit more calmly. Another consideration then occurred to her.

'Why did he want to know in the first place, though? That was the first time I've spoken to him at length at all' she pondered. She then entertained herself with wishful thinking for several moments before returning herself to reality.

'I wonder who he wrote down. Sakura-san would be my first guess. Yes, that's probably it' she thought to herself. The notion saddened her greatly, for both selfish and selfless reasons. On the selfish side, it made the timid girl greatly jealous, but on the less self-centered end, the routine verbal abuse Sakura dealt to Naruto was something Hinata found increasingly difficult to watch.

'He deserves better than to be ridiculed in his final hours. So much better' she thought firmly. Despite her assuredness at that fact, she found herself at a loss for what she herself would do given his company at such a time.

'Though, I suppose my stuttering and blushing wouldn't be much of an improvement. Maybe I'd be bolder given the knowledge that it was my final chance' she admitted mentally. Hinata then stood up and walked to her bed, flopping down onto it once she reached it.

"How open would you be? Would that oh-so-enthusiastic mask of yours remain at the end of your rope?" she wondered aloud in reference to her most favored classmate. It hadn't taken the heiress long to decipher the falsehood that was Naruto Uzumaki's trademark grin after she had begun to watch him regularly. It was the times at which it most commonly appeared that had given it all away. Any time he was under siege emotionally, the grin appeared. As with moments of stress and uncertainty. Never was that smile visible when he was, or thought he was, alone.

Such moments were rare to see, but Hinata had seen more than a sufficient amount to recognize the pattern. In spite of the outwardly depressing nature of the blonde's emotions during these occurrences, they almost always came coupled with a tangible stubbornness to continue that often manifested itself in the form of intense physical conditioning. Naruto received little to no reverence from his classmates, but the one thing he was respected for was his cardiovascular endurance, the source of which was unknown to all but Hinata.

'How funny. At your lowest points is where I find you most beautifully admirable. Never change, Naruto-kun' she thought to herself. She then rolled onto her side and pulled something out of her jacket pocket.

'If only you could calm down for picture day. Oh well. I'll take what I can get' she thought to herself humorously as she gazed at a roll call photo of Naruto she had stolen. The picture featured a very energized Naruto making a mocking face at the photographer, who had evidently given up on the prospect of taking a proper picture. The heiress then tucked it back into her pocket and returned her gaze to the ceiling.

'I have some ground to stand on with you conversationally now, so perhaps I could...try to engage with you a bit, Naruto-kun' she thought. The very thought brought heat to her cheeks. Hinata groaned and covered her face with her hands.

"I'm hopeless" she muttered aloud. A sigh then escaped her lips as her eyelids grew heavy. It was now six o'clock, and dinner was scheduled for seven. Sleep had to be staved off for another hour. Once that fact had been recalled, Hinata swung her legs over the side of her bed and stood up.

'I may as well walk to keep myself conscious'

A/N: The following chapters will be a bit longer than this. This was kind of a feeler to see how I want to structure this one. I hope you all enjoyed it :)

See you next chapter! Read and Review!