Enchanted

"An enchanted life has many moments when the heart is overwhelmed with beauty and the imagination is electrified by some haunting quality in the world or by a spirit or voice speaking from deep within a thing, a place, or a person. Enchantment may be"

~Henry Louis Mencken quotes

Chapter 1

Naruto had never really given thought to how he'd die. He always guessed it would be in some epic badass way. You know, the classic hero stuff. He'd die for the ones he loved and yadda yadda yadda… Never… Never ever, ever had he considered the possibility of being murdered by the overprotective Hyuuga Head, Hiashi Hyuuga. But slowly and surely, even someone as dense as he began to notice the signs of the funeral that man planned for him.

It all started the first time Naruto set foot on the sacred Hyuuga grounds. Immediately, all eyes had been cast upon the sunny blond, for he was a foreigner and foreigners did not do well in their grounds. He was so repulsive, so unnatural- in their eyes, that is. Who had blond hair? Seriously! Why would anyone want that hair color! Yellow was the color of pee for crying out loud! Who walked around with pee on their head? Oh, and his clothes! Orange? They couldn't even get started on the horrors that color possessed!

Naruto, being well… Naruto, swaggered into the compound, literally loud and proud, completely oblivious to the fact that the stares he received weren't stares of appreciation but glares, glares as in Sasuke-level glares. In the eyes of the all-seeing Hyuugas, first impressions were everything and if it wasn't obvious already, Naruto was making a horrible first impression. But, he didn't go there to make first impressions nor did he go to mingle. He simply went there to deliver a scroll to the Hyuuga Head.

Since Naruto was, well… Naruto, he took his missions seriously no matter how facile they were. However, sometimes his seriousness led to overthinking things just a bit too much.

"Hello!" Naruto yelled, much to the irritation of several Hyuugas. "Can anyone tell me where I'm supposed to find this head?" Several eyebrows rose. "I have a scroll for the thing!" Several silver eyes twitched.

After walking around in circles, Naruto spotted a familiar brunet and ran over to him. "Oi! Neji!" he called merrily.

Neji cringed and turned to his pursuer. He didn't have to be a genius- ironic that he was- to figure out whom that voice belonged to. It was loud, really, really loud and super irritable. That category only matched one ninja he knew and that was Naruto Uzumaki- the densest but strongest ninja in the entire village… Oh how his pride remained shattered for days when he had lost to that idiot.

Neji refused the urge to make a mad dash for it while the blond still approached him. He only had two reasons. Number one: he was a Hyuuga and Hyuugas had an aura of cool around them. Running with his tail behind his legs wasn't cool. Number two: he was wearing his traditional Hyuuga robes or as Tenten and Hanabi called it… a manskirt. And manski-, um, traditional Hyuuga robes, swayed like skirts when he ran and much to his chagrin, Tenten and Hanabi had also told him –no thanks to his long hair- that he looked like a girl when he ran. He had too much pride to allow someone like Naruto to tease him about it too.

When Naruto finally caught up to Neji, he asked, "Do you know where this Hyuuga head I'm supposed to find is?"

Neji cringed for the second time in one minute. Sacrificing his image and pride didn't seem like such a bad idea right now. "Naruto… you're not talking about an actual head, are you?"

Naruto grinned widely. "Of course I am! Baa-chan said I should find it here and give it a scroll!"

Neji sighed. He was definitely not the kind of person to deal with such idiocy right now. He was about to turn tail and run when he spotted a much better option. 'Forgive me, Hinata-sama'

"Ohhhhh, the head," Neji drawled. "You see… The branch family isn't allowed to ever know where the head is… You're a very lucky guy if you're going to be able to meet this head… I heard it's very, very cool. However, like I sadly stated before, we branch members have no idea where this head is or even what it looks like! Sorry."

Naruto's genuine disheartened demeanor had Neji holding back another cringe. Naruto had… actually… believed him.

"Oh, but Naruto there's still hope!" Neji said quickly. "I just remembered that only main branch members know where the head is and you're in luck! Hinata-sama's a main branch member and she's right over there!" He gestured to the right where an oblivious poor Hinata was gardening to prove his claim. "I'm absolutely certain she can help you!" While Naruto's blue eyes settled on Hinata's form, Neji got the hell ou of dodge.

Naruto turned around to thank Neji but the brunet wasn't there. "Odd," the blond murmured.

He shrugged and merely began to skip over to Hinata, only slowing to a stop when he saw that she was busy doing something. He didn't know why he didn't call out to her nor did he know why he proceeded to hide behind a large oak tree to watch her.

Maybe it was because she looked differently. Well, ever since the incident she not only looked differently but also behaved differently. She didn't stutter, faint or become sick around him anymore after she had lost her memory.

The girl occupying his thoughts wore a modest, violet, empire waist sundress that stopped an inch above her knees. It revealed her long milky white legs that were tucked neatly under her bottom. Long midnight blue hair cascaded gloriously down her back, looking soft and like it smelled nice. He wanted to touch it. Sakura-chan never let him touch her hair.

What struck him most was her face. Her eyelashes were extremely thick and her half-lidded eyes held an intoxicating sense of gentleness. She had a small button nose and rosy, pink lips. From where he was standing, he couldn't exactly make out the color of her eyes. Were they lavender like he had initially thought or a silvery grey like her cousin's? He wanted to find out but his legs were unconditionally stiff. He couldn't move!

After a long debate with himself, Naruto willed his legs to move and they finally did. He took quiet baby steps, hoping to not scare away the cute little white bunny he had stumbled upon. But alas, Naruto was Naruto and fate was a real pain in the old fanny. And so, with fate being the ass she was, she made the poor fox trip over a pebble and land right on the bunny's lap. Instantaneously, every single brown field bunny darted glares towards the blond. He was touching their most prized possession! Oh, how they would pelt that fox with carrots later on!

Hinata stared at the blond in her lap, her body completely frozen. Her watering can was tipped and currently giving the flowers too much water.

The two stared at each other and a light blush tinted one of the two's cheeks. Her eyes were just as he thought they were- a gentle lavender color.

"Naruto-san?" Hinata called cautiously.

Realizing the position he was in, Naruto jerked out of her lap and jumped to his feet. "A-Ah, H-Hinata it's not what you think!" he exclaimed. He began to conjure frantic hand motions as he made up an excuse. Before he could finish his pathetic excuse, he felt a distinct chill run down his spine. The danger instinct was kicking in. But what danger could Hinata possibl-?

"You dare to touch my sister in such a crass manner?" Hanabi whispered balefully as evil glints shone in her eyes. She jumped into the scene, literally, with a kick to Naruto's back. Naruto flew into the nearby wall, courtesy of the brunette.

Hanabi dropped the fertilizer she had been holding to the ground, rolled up her yellow sleeves, activated her byakugan and relaxed into a fighting stance. "I leave my sister alone for 5 minutes and she already attracts some blond pervert," she muttered as a ridiculous amount of malice radiated off her. She focused on the to-be-mauled blond. "You little shit. Jyuuken!"

Hinata watched with wide eyes as her younger sister fulfilled her promise of jyuukening the shit out of the poor blond.

"Naruto-san," Hinata whimpered with a slight pout on her lips. She would have helped if she could but Hanabi was scary when she got angry. Hanabi was a true Hyuuga: quiet, over-protective and deadly.

When Hanabi was about to go in for a second round, Hinata swallowed her fears and tackled the irate girl who was still waving angry fists in the air to the ground.

"C-Calm down please, Hanabi-chan!" Hinata pleaded. Hinata rolled off of her sister and the latter proceeded to sit up and glare at Naruto as a frown graced her lips.

Naruto lay motionless on the hard ground, currently seeing stars. Hinata quickly rushed over to him but was unsure how to address him.

He was a… a boy! She'd never touched boys other than her cousin, her teammates, those she had to beat up on missions and her male patients… Ok... she touched boys... but not in situations like this! Her father had told her not to go near boys and that if one touched her, she should scream at the top of her lungs. She would have obeyed if the boy wasn't Naruto. But this one was and she had to help him.

Nervously, Hinata poked Naruto in his side. When he didn't respond, Hinata grabbed a nearby stick and poked the 19 year old in his side repeatedly. "Naruto-san?"

The blond snapped back to reality and shot upwards. "Ah, Hinata!" A wide grin settled on his face. He narrowed his eyes when he spotted his ambusher. "Hey you! That was mean! You just attacked your future Hokage ya know!"

Almost robotically, Hanabi tilted her head to the side oh-so-innocently. "Pardon?"

Naruto tensed, knowing the danger instinct was pulsing again. "J-Just kidding!" he hastily apologized. "You can kick my butt anytime!"

Hinata scratched her cheek worriedly and chuckled. She then looked to Naruto and asked, "Why are you here, Naruto-san?"

"Oh! I'm supposed to deliver this scroll-" He pointed to the scroll around his neck. "-to a head! Neji told me that you would know where this head thing was!"

Hinata smiled and scratched her cheek again. "Do you mean, the Hyuuga Head?"

"Yeah! I don't know why you guys have a head though…. It's kinda creepy but what's creepier is that a head would need a scroll-"

"No, you baka," Hanabi murmured, highly annoyed. "The Hyuuga Head is a person not a literal head."

"Oh," Naruto murmured. "The old bat must've tried to make me look stupid. I mean, she kept placing stress on the word "Head" so it's only logical to think she meant a real head, right?" Hanabi rolled her eyes and Hinata smiled sympathetically. "Anyways, where exactly is the Hyuuga Head then?"

"This Head you speak of is right here."

Naruto chilled. His danger instinct was pulsing and the danger instinct was always right, Hanabi being the most recent paradigm. That voice from earlier definitely did not belong to Hinata or Hanabi. It belonged to a much, much older person and most likely a male.

Naruto slowly turned around to see a mean-looking and scary man towering above him. The man's hair flowed to his waist like Neji's did but he wore a dress instead of a skirt. Naruto slowly backed away when he saw the man holding a really, really scary looking sword in his hand. The man looked beyond pissed and he seemed to have learned a few intimidating scare-the-crap-out-of-Naruto-face tricks from Yamato, himself.

Hinata and Hanabi didn't seem fazed by his presence and bowed politely. "Good morning, father," the two greeted with deference. Naruto narrowed his eyes at Hanabi's facade. She was the exact opposite of reverent. Though he wanted to question her shady behavior, he felt an even stronger need to be anywhere but near the man who vehemently wanted to murder him.

Naruto quickly rose to his feet, unable to miss that the man was still taller than him by about ten centimeters. "A-Ah, um, here's your scroll, Hyuuga-sama!" Naruto bowed, handed the man the scroll and got the hell out of the compound.

Hinata watched the trail Naruto disappeared on quizzically and Hanabi happily smirked on the inside.

"Father," Hinata called, turning her attention back to the Hyuuga Head. "Why do you have the family sword out?"

"No reason," Hiashi answered, gripping the sword tighter. The family sword was used in heavy battle, wars etc. But it was also used by the father to protect his daughter from unworthy men. By the looks of that blond idiot, Hiashi was sure he was going to have to hold on to his sword a little bit tighter. "Hinata, I think we need to have that boy talk again."