Welcome to this weeks installment of this arc! To be honest, I'm not all that proud of last weeks chapter, but I didn't hate it enough to completely redo it either. However! I think this chapter is much better. Good job, me! Yay, me!

... Okay, I'll stop.

Anyway, enjoy!

Sweet Denial Pt.2: Rebellion

Among other things, Naruto was a very proud person. Towards himself, and others, he had always boasted to be great; strong and capable of great feats. While at first he had not the skills to back up those words, with great effort and the help of others, he now stood above others as a role-model and a hero, and some would even say he stood at the top.

Naruto was a man of lots of pride.

So when his friend Kiba had... insinuated... that he was somewhat less of a man, he couldn't take it sitting down, so to speak.

He needed to prove that he was man amongst men...

And while he did love his girlfriend Hanabi greatly, there was only one way to prove he was a MAN!

And that, of course, is...

Rebellion.

"No, Naruto, you are NOT getting that instant ramen. Put it down... now, " Hanabi hissed as Naruto's hand inched over towards the instant ramen on shelves within the store.

"But Hanabi I want the ramen," Naruto whined, a child-like tone in his voice.

"No Naruto, you need to stop. This addiction is getting the better of you!" Hanabi stepped forward towards the currently-suffering-from-withdrawal-syndrome blond hesitantly, testing the waters to make sure she didn't set him off.

"-"

"Be quiet Naruto, and stop acting like such a baby!" Hanabi took another step towards Naruto, slightly more confident that he would not go ballistic, and reached out to grab his hand.

"No!" Naruto pulled his hand back, "you know what! Th-this is, uh, this is..."

Hanabi raised an eyebrow as she waited for him to finish, but kept an eye on his hand and the ramen.

"... A tyranny! Yeah! I won't put up with this anymore, Hanabi-chan! This is war! I-I'm going to, r... re... rebe... uh, what was the word again?" He looked curiously toward his smarter significant other, hoping to find out the answer from her.

"Rebel?" She offered, uncaring of Naruto's... fit. She might as well play long with his little game.

"Yeah, that's it! Thanks Hanabi-chan! I'm going to rebel against you!" Naruto grinned, pleased that he now knew the word he wished to know, "just you wait, you'll be sorry!"

"Yeah, sure. Now can you step away from the ramen?"

"Oh, yeah, sure... I mean, no! Stop that! You can't order me around anymore!" The blond huffed, annoyed, and turned around in order to leave the store, "I'm leaving! I have to go... rebel! Yeah!"

Uzumaki Naruto stomped off, leaving his white-eyed girlfriend behind. She sighed, exasperated, but shrugged it off and continued her shopping.

"Well, I wonder how long he'll keep this up?"

A "man amongst men" indeed...

:ooooo:

"Naruto, you open this door right now or I'll...!" Hanabi pounded on their apartment door a few times, annoyed at her boyfriend's behavior.

"No! You can't make me!" Came a muffled shout from within the doors. Hanabi scowled, and stepped away from the door.

After Naruto's declaration at the store (in front of several people at that, and quite possibly ruining his "cool" reputation!), Naruto was rather quiet for the next few days, making Hanabi wonder if he had forgotten all about the incident.

However today she had left to visit her ill father with her sister and help care for him, leaving Naruto alone in the apartment for most of the day.

When she returned, which was well into the evening, Hanabi had attempted to enter her apartment only to find out that...

Naruto had changed the locks!

While she was gone, it seemed Naruto had installed new locks (a small part of her was surprised he knew how to do it, and properly too!). Whether he had the new lock prepared beforehand, or he had went out to get it was a mystery to her, but Hanabi had her money on the former.

"Naruto, what are you even going to eat? I can't cook for you if I'm out here, you know," the Hyuuga attempted to remain calm and spoke slowly, but loudly, in order for the blond idiot to hear her.

"I can make myself ramen!"

Hanabi sighed and rubbed her temples in a circular motion. Just where did he even get the ramen? She was sure she'd thrown all of it out, and was always on the look out for more hidden stashes... well, it was probably more likely that he went out and got some today while she was gone, so she didn't worry about it much.

"Naruto... If you don't open this door, you are going to be very sorry," Hanabi threatened, yet remained composed. Her words carried with them an ominous tone, threatening great harm towards her target.

"I said no! Go away!" Naruto's voice was quiet and muffled, and Hanabi could have sworn she heard him blow a raspberry at her...

The dark-haired teen had half-a-mind to just kick down the door, but since it WAS half her apartment after all, and since she didn't want to make a scene this late, she opted against it.

Instead, she sighed and gave up... for now.

"Okay Naruto, you win... I'm going to go stay over at the Hyuuga manor tonight..." Hanabi relented, "however, when I come back tomorrow and this lock isn't changed back or you don't let me in, you are going to be in serious trouble, you understand?"

The white-eyed teen waited for a reply, but received none, causing her to sighed yet again.

She shrugged and she turned away from the door and headed down the stairs...

However, just then, as she stepped on the first step down, she was splattered with water.

'What on earth... Is this one of Naruto's pranks? There was no string or switch, though...' Hanabi thought to herself as she tried to clear to eyes of the water, wondering if she was so unlucky as to have someone would dump a bucket of water...

That is, until she noticed it.

That it wasn't water at all.

... But paint.

And that confirmed for Hanabi one thing.

Hanabi attempted to shake as much paint off of her as she could, before leaving down the stairs as if nothing had happened... however, if one looked, one could notice her steps being noticably rigid, and her fists were clenched tightly.

"Oh, if it's a war you want, Uzumaki," Hanabi growled, "it's a war you're going to get..."

Aaand that's a wrap for this week. I'm a lot more pleased with the second half, to be honest. It's where the writing started flowing more. Perhaps it's because I had a good picture of where I wanted the rest of the chapter to go? Or perhaps writing from Hanabi's point-of-view is easier...? Who knows!

Naruto: Psh, it should be an honor to be able to write from my point-of-view!

Hanabi: Ignoring the ego-maniac... we encourage all constructive criticism. We hoped you enjoyed this chapter.