He really hoped she wouldn't just smack his hand away. Because she easily could, and if she did, he wouldn't know what to do.

But thankfully, she took it.

"About what?" She asked ever-so-innocently, blushing slightly, studying their linked hands as they started to walk.

"You running off from me."

"Sorry." She apologized reflexively.

"No, it's okay... I just wanted to know if there was a reason."

"Well... You remember our first performance? Freshman year, I mean. The first time we ever marched onto this field. The first time I'd ever marched at all."

"How could I forget it was so-- Oh yeah, that's when you fainted, and we thought they were gonna take you to the hospital and--"

"Yeah, that one. Do you remember why? Why I fainted?"

"Didn't they say... Dehydration?" Naruto said uncertainly, wondering what the hell this had to do with her running from him.

"Yes. But that's not actually why."

"Okay... then what is?"

"Well... When any normal person gets nervous or scared, their brain gets basically this dose of adreniline, and runs mainly on instinct rather than learned habits. A fight or flight response."

She looks at him like 'gotit?', and he nods.

"Well, for some reason, when I get nervous, I have this excess of adreniline, meaning it speeds up my heart rate and my breathing, past what the normal amount should do. And as a result of that, if I get really embarassed or scared or stressed or whatever, I have to either get out of there fast or try real hard to just calm down, because if I don't, my heart rate will increase until I faint."

"Um, wow... I had no idea. I didn't even know that kind of thing even existed."

"Yeah. it's really really rare, and its not really dangerous under most circumstances. Just embarassing."

"Well, that's good at least. So you ran from me because..."

"Naruto its obvious." She answered defensively, turning away so he couldn't see her face.

"And I've never been good at the obvious, my dear."

She sighed.

"Because when I saw you n-nearly naked, I c-c-couldn't exactly help b-b-but stare..." She said, her voice climbing higher and higher in pitch.

"Really?" Naruto asked smugly, even as he was blushing himself.

"Of course. You have the best.... Well th-the only... The most... M-most beautiful... Everything."

He laughed. "That's not true."

"W-why not?"

"How could I ever hope to be more beautiful than you?"

She looked away, embarassed at his obvious compliments, but truly loving them.

He saw how bright she was blushing and apologized.

"No its fine... I know you mean it, you're not just saying things to ge-- erm, t-to, to m-m-mock me."

"Of course not." He answered, very honestly, and squeezed her hand.

She smiled. "Naruto..."

"Yeah?"

"You have no idea how much the little things matter."

"Uh, thanks?"

"Yeah, that's a good thing." She said, giggling softly.

By now, they'd wandered over to the concession stand on the home side, where they saw Sakura, Kiba and Ino. Hinata elbowed Naruto, not forcefully. "Watch." She hissed, directing her eyes at the three.

Ino was leaned back against the counter, facing Kiba. "Kiba... can I have some caaaandy?" She was begging.

Hinata put her hand over her mouth, like 'Oh God...'

"Well, I should have..." He stuck his hand in his uniform-pocket and searched around (It's real easy to lose things in those pockets. They're oddly shaped and huge.) "I, uh... heheh... should have a ten, but I think I left it in the bar..."

Ino sighed. "Okay. Chocolate would make me fat anyway, so it's okay." She wandered away, and Kiba looked at Sakura sheepishly.

"I'll wait for you, if you're gonna get something."

"What do you want? I'll pay, it's cool."

"Ah, you don't--"

"If you're gonna stand there and talk, can ya get outta the way? We're losin' customers here.", an annoyed concession-stand-booster-parent snapped at Sakura.

"No, sorry, can I get a hot dog and a red Powerade?" She asked with her sweetest smile.

The man raised an eyebrow and called back the order.

"What do you want?" Sakura asked the trumpet player.

"Oh I shouldn't..."

"And a Mountain Dew," She said to the annoyed parent, knowing that was Kiba's favorite drink, "And?" she asked Kiba.

"Cheese fries." he admitted.

She looks at the annoyed band dad as if to say 'what he said.'

Again, he yells to the others in the back, and Kiba and Sakura move out of the way.

"You know the guy's supposed to pay for the girl."

Sakura was tempted to let her temper get the best of her, tempted to say 'Maybe when the girl's a whore like Ino', or 'That only happens when he doesn't think she's ugly', or even 'Seems like you don't really give a damn what you're supposed to do.'

Instead, she replied, cutely, coyly, "I'm being original."

"I like your kind of original." Kiba commented flirtatiously, with a sidelong wink.

"Don't get used to it, horn boy." She grabbed her food and disappeared into the crowd, leaving Kiba wondering.

"Damn..." He muttered. He took the remaining food and made his way toward the band bleachers.

xXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

"Tenten?"

"Yeah?"

"I just... Well, I was thinking, and... I want... You should know..."

Tenten looked at the dressed-up drum major, waiting on him to say it. For she knew he was trying to apologize, but that apologizing wasn't normally something done by the high-horse Hyuugas with their ridiculous pride. Especially the guys of the family. And making him say it was punishment enough. If he said the two words, (well, technically three words), she would forgive him.

"That I... Um..."

She was tempted to laugh at his struggle, his endearing troubled expression.

"It was wrong of me to yell at you."

She blinked a few times. "And?"

"I shouldn't have done it."

*ahem* "Aand..."

"I didn't mean to make you cry."

"Aand..."

Neji sighed. "And I'm sorry."

Tenten finally smiled, and nearly jumped on him hugging him. "I forgive you!"

He awkwardly hugged her back, after he got his balance back and realized she was the thing that had made him lose it.

"T-h-a-n-k-s?" He said slowly.

"Oh no, thank you, my Neji." She said, giggling.

"Why?" He asked defensively.

"Because you proved I must be important to you. Hyuugas never apologize."

He blushed. "Well, not never. I mean, if there's a good reason, they're not going to be irrational and angry about it for no reason..."

"God forbid you ever be irrational, Neji." She said teasingly, getting off of him.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Oh nothing..."

"Seriously, what?"

"Nothing."

"Tay..."

"It was a stupid comment, I was trying to make you angry."

"Why?"

"Cause you're cute when you're mad." She said, before she could stop herself. She slapped a hand over her mouth.

Neji stared at her, getting more and more red by the second.

Neither of them spoke, until Neji said an awkward 'Thanks...'

"One minute to be in place! If you're not back by now, no third quarter next week."

"I should go..." Tenten said and hurried off.

Meanwhile, Naruto and Hinata were dashing through the crowd.

"Why didn't you tell me we had a minute left?"

"I didn't know..." Naruto answered guiltily.

The end-of-quarter bell went off, and the rest of the band started playing, just as they started up the stairs to the bleachers.

"Oh fuck..."

Hinata didn't even hit him for cursing in uniform.

"Next game. Is going. To suck." She sighed.

-After the rest of the game was over-

Everyone else in the band room and the bar was in a hurry. In a hurry to get dressed, in a hurry to get home, in a hurry to forget about the Ninjas' humiliating loss.

Except Naruto and Hinata. They slowly wandered back from the field, slowly put their instruments up, slowly found their clothes and put their uniforms up. They talked the whole time, as people gradually filtered out of the bar. Now Naruto was sitting on the floor lacing his orange Converses, and Hinata was standing over him, carrying on with some story about her and her little sister.

Something about a playground and a little boy and a trampoline.

Trampoline... The word rang in Naruto's head as he imagined him and his beautiful girlfriend doing less than innocent things on his trampoline... So dirty, so hot, so... bouncy...

"Um, you want me to do that?" Hinata woke him from his daydream.

"Do what?"

"Your shoelaces? Seeing as you can't seem to get them yourself?" She mocked.

"Oh! Well, in fact, I wouldn't mind." He said, grinning and pulling her down by her hands and arms.

"Ah! I wasn't serious!" She squealed as he pulled her down over him.

They were face to face, so close that Hinata could feel his hot breath against her skin as he whispered "But maybe I am." His tone gave her chills and suddenly their light playing turned into a very heavy moment.

"And besides, it's not my fault. I was distracted." He continued.

"By what?"

"Something."

"What kind of something?"

"A beautiful something."

"What beautiful something?"

"You."

She gasped.

He smirked.

She blushed and shut her eyes.

He did the same.

And kissed her.

Hinata melted on the inside. He had the softest lips in the whole world, and they felt so right against hers. It seemed forever they stayed there, mouths pressed together, before she looked back up, into his eyes.

His beautiful blue eyes.

She didn't know if she'd ever been this simply happy before.

So she kissed him again.

She felt him smile and felt her heart beating faster, faster.

She kissed him hard before she stopped to take a deep breath, to make her hands stop shaking.

"You okay?"

"Better." She said as she got up and pulled him with her. "You make me wanna scream."

Naruto grinned. "That's what I'm here for."

She didn't know whether to hit him or hug him.

They walked out of the bar, and the second they were outside the building, Naruto skillfully tripped over his still-untied shoelace.

"Oh for the love of..." Hinata muttered.

She bent down, tied the damn knot in the string and helped up her clumsy, but lovable boyfriend.

"What can I say?" Naruto said, rubbing the back of his head in that 'I-feel-awkward' way of his. "You got me trippin."

Hinata rolled her eyes. "Shut up..." She mumbled, play-hitting him.

"Hey, I was just being honest. Honesty is a virtue and--"

She put a finger to his lips. "And silence is golden."

"Hey!"

She grinned. "Kidding. I wanna hear everything. Even the cheesy things. Even the sad things and the obnoxious things and the mundane things and the irrational things and the things you don't tell anyone else. All of it." She kissed his cheek. "I mean it."

He touched his cheek, as if he was trying to capture the feeling of the kiss.

"Thanks." He looked at her affectionately, before kissing her forehead one last time and hugging her tight.

"I guess I should go cause my dad's waiting on me. Unless you wanna come."

"Sure. Father won't be here for a while, he never comes to my games." She said, sheepishly.

"Oh..." He said, as they started to walk, "You want us to take you home?"

"No, I'll be fine."

"All alone?"

"Wouldn't be the first time." She commented ruefully, "Won't be the last."

"If you say so."

She felt almost strange that he had offered to do that. He never would have been that thoughtful. But he was nothing like Naruto. She told herself, as she had over and over.

She kept telling herself over and over as she talked with Naruto and his dad, who was actually pretty cool in a nerdly-dad kind of way.

He never had her around his parents. It was always 'alone together'...

Alone.

Always alone.

As alone as she felt twenty minutes later when her dad finally showed up and they sat in stony silence after he apologized for being late. (Which, by the way, was a lie, because he always showed up late.

Outside, she sat silently, seemingly stoic and robotic, but inside, she was bursting at the seams with words.

'Finally' seemed to show up the most, of all the thoughts, along with the simple-yet-so-complex word that made people do crazy things.

'Happiness.'

I had a hard time deciding where to end this one. First, I thbought I'd end it at the kiss, but it seemed like there should be more. Then, I thought I'd end it at "Thanks" after Hinata's little speech. But oh, how I pressed on. (Why does that sound wrong?)
There is MORE TO COME! It may be a while, like this one was, but there IS MORE. I PROMISE. Thank you to every single person that reviewed, alerted, and/or favorited me and this story. You guys are the only thing that keeps me going sometimes, so I gotta thank you. I just hope you guys enjoyed these past two chapters (Plus the other eight, lol) as much as I am enjoying writing them, and keep reading if you want to find out the DEEP DARK PAST! Dundunduuuuunnnn! Haha, I don't take myself that seriously, don't worry.

Oh and, that favorite person in the world, the one that quit band? He's now dating my least favorite person in the world. A girl who is pretty much the school whore, and slept with a friend of mine while she was dating his best friend. Among doing other things that I don't feel like saying. Long story short, she's a whore. And if she hurts him, she better watch out...
--Lina//TroubledThoughts--