NARUHINA! (Because, even if Naruto's an idiot, Hinata deserves whatever she wants. ^.^) I haven't read any of the "Shippuden" books, so this is probably super OOC. I tried my best, though! Also, I tried to American/modernize (while keeping the order of names the same. EX: Uzumaki Naruto, rather than Naruto Uzumaki) them. I've completely ignored the plot, just, ahem, borrowed the characters. A bit of lemony awkwardness in this chapter; but there will be more later.

HPOV – Chapter One. Swimming Season

When I turned thirteen, my family decided it was best for me to expand my byakugan, the ability to spread out my chakra over stretches of land and see everything. I wasn't very good at land-based byakugan, anyway (I could only see about half the length my cousin, Neji of the secondary Hyūga family, could), so I don't know what made them think I was ready, but I wanted to make my father and mother proud, so I tried it anyway.

The exercise would be underwater, which might not sound like much to you, except I was terrified. I couldn't even swim.

Neji was, of course, already perfect, just like everything else he ever did (as was my younger sister, Hanabi). He'd be teaching me, with a combination of chakra and physical energy, the best strokes and tips to stay afloat. My parents were impatient and wanted this training to be finished as soon as possible.

So, there I was, in my black one-piece, staring at the cool, blue public pool water, cringing. It looked so warm and almost happy. But that was a lie, the water was frigid (even though it was wonderful relief from July's suffocating heat). Neji was already in the pool.

"Come on, Hinata," He coaxed flatly. "You'll get used to the water quickly."

I squeaked, took a deep breath, and stepped in. The water was only three feet tall, but it still came up just under my basically-unnoticeable chest.

My arms immediately closed in around me and my toes became the only thing touching the pool floor as I struggled valiantly to keep as much of my body dry (and warm) as possible.

Neji rolled his pupil-less, lavender eyes, grabbed my bare arm and trudged into deeper water, halfway between the four-feet-deep and the five. His head and neck were still comfortably above the water and, suddenly, yet only my eyes and ears were above.

"I believe in learning by practice," He said coldly, before abruptly letting go off my arm, leaving me to flounder unwillingly for a few seconds, before I caught onto a rhythm. "Kick your feet in about foot-long arcs continuously, as though expending a bit of chakra over a long period of time –like in your byakugan or walking on water– but replace it with your physical energy." I followed his instruction and, more or less, stayed afloat.

He critiqued me for a moment. "I suppose that'll do for now. It becomes second nature, eventually. Come." He dragged me into the deeper water, six feet high, and stopped just before the drop off, where the diving boards were.

I'd noticed –but completely ignored– the other people at the pool until then. It was fairly quiet, but there were still a couple people out for an early morning work-out. Last time I checked, it had been six in the morning.

When my kicks re-regulated, he nodded. "Okay. You can only see –with your byakugan and normal vision– above water." I nodded, even though it wasn't a question. "Try tightening it around yourself above water and pushing it further down, until you can see to the bottom of the pool. Stay as wide as possible."

I tried, feeling the veins pop on my cheeks and eyes. Pushing through the water was one of the most peculiar feelings I'd ever experienced: like I was staring through a tinted mirror while forcing my head into a quicksand pit. I shuddered. Neji took notice and a ghost of a grin fell onto his face (the closest I'd seen to him laughing in years).

"It's odd, isn't it? Like swimming, you'll start doing it naturally soon enough." He paused, waiting for my byakugan to sluggishly make its way to the bottom of the pool.

Once there, I could see every sand particle, granule of dirt, or minute rock as though they were right next to my feet. He obviously sensed I was ready, because he resumed talking.

"So, this is the easy part: you are both partially above ground and you are completely stationary. In a battle you may have both factors gone at the same time. However, today isn't the day to worry about that yet. You still have yet to know how to swim at all."

And so he taught me. First I learned the easiest: the front crawl. Then, I learned the backstroke, and so on and so forth. Lastly, I was to attempt swimming completely underwater. This was against every Hyūga cell in my body. Not only was it impossible to stay completely still, my eyes were forced to remain shut.

By that time, I could easily maintain my byakugan while blinking, but a couple seconds or more was simply too hard. Not to mention, I'm pretty good at giving up.

This lesson ended up taking the rest of the first day, all of the second, but finally ended on the third. The fourth day was interesting.

First of all, it was the first day my swimsuit gave out on me. That was normal. The flow of chakra was just too much for some materials. I'd been expecting it, but had forgotten a replacement, so I was stuck on being forced to wear a two-piece. I hated two-pieces, they made me feel horribly self-conscious and awkward.

It was the first day I had "mastered" swimming underwater, so I would be testing it by watching the divers over a few hours. While swimming. Underwater. Neji taught me a simple, quick method of pushing water away from one's mouth using very little chakra.

So I set off, at noon, to swim laps around the deep end, while watching every single diver. It was a Saturday, so there were tons of kids without anything better to do than swim.

Sakura was one of the first there, diving into the water over and over again. I never understood why people did that, but I supposed it was the best way to get perfect. She waved, smiled, and did a flip for me when she saw me. Even though I was jealous (did she know how much Naruto was in love with her? Of course not, just like he didn't notice me), I smiled and waved back.

Little did I know that my classmate (and long-time crush) Uzumaki Naruto had decided it was the perfect day to practice his cannon ball.

When I noticed him, about an hour after I started, my heart set off racing. I got to see Naruto! Just his presence there was enough to make me blush, but it didn't hurt that he was shirtless. He didn't notice me at first, but, when I swam near enough to him that he detected my waves, he turned his body, showing off his chiseled chest. Hey, we may've only be thirteen, but we'd already been training as ninjas for several years.

I felt really, really stupid to put it lightly. I knew I was blushing like an idiot, but I waved hello, pausing on my one-hundred-eighty-fourth lap. His eyes widened under his goggles for a moment, then he waved back. I wanted to turn invisible.

He turned away immediately and got out of the pool really quickly, but I don't see him for another fifteen minutes. When he did return, he cannon balled, smiled at me briefly, then got out. I didn't know what I did wrong, but something was telling me that it was my fault. After another hour, he left, and after a few more, I was too tired out to finish the lap. My chakra was completely exhausted, as were my legs and arms. Neji was waiting for me at the edge with a towel and congratulations. "Good work, Hinata, you didn't die." He tossed the towel in my direction, and I was only barely about to catch it.

NPOV – Chapter One. Swimming Season

The summer time was always great. No school, homework, teachers… Best of all was probably that there was no more of that idiot, Sasuke. He was great and all, but Sakura liked him so much, it made me sick.

Now, if someone (especially her) liked me that much, it'd be cool. But no one did. I was just the stupid class clown. The best I could hope for was probably, like, Hinata.

Ha! Hinata! It was hard to imagine that, me 'n Hinata. It was just so… weird. She'd always be so quiet and shy and innocent. I figured that she probably liked someone like Shino; another quiet kid.

Don't get me wrong, she was awesome and one of my best friends, but she's just so… small. In every way possible- size and otherwise. Still, though, she's the nicest person I've ever met. Except for possibly Iruka.

Iruka, my version of an elementary-school teacher, who, in the summer, took me out for ramen every Saturday at lunch.

As we sat at one of the back tables, girls (especially Sakura) were trolling my brain. Iruka took one glance at my face over his menu –which was a complete waste; we always got the same thing– and nodded to himself.

I wasn't surprised that he could basically read my mind. Over ramen, we had chatted about everything, even (shortly) girls.

I guess I had the same expression.

"Let me guess, Naruto." He said after a moment, "You're thinking about Sakura?" I nodded and grinned. "You have such a one-track mind," He laughed. "Want a tip?"

I stared at him dubiously for a moment. He'd never talked about having a girlfriend, so what would he know? Still, he was the only one I could talk about crap like this, so I nodded once.

"It never gets any easier." He laughed louder, watching my cautiously hopeful expression fall quickly into annoyance.

"That was really lame of you." I muttered. So much for useful information. So far in my life, girls had been about as unattainable as the doppelganger jutsu used to be. Only, I hadn't yet surrounded myself with thousands of them.

The server came around then, and we ordered our usual: ramen with shrimp and pork for him, and spicy chicken and beef for me.

While we were waiting for our food, we chatted idly about our plans for the day. I was planning on going to the local pool after lunch and he was going to a teacher's meeting-thing. We speculated on how much luck he didn't have.

The ramen arrived and our conversation was effectively ended. My ramen was as delicious as it was spicy. I loved it, as usual. He paid and I said "When I'm rich and famous, I'll pay you back. Believe it!", as usual. We parted ways at the door. I headed back to my empty, tiny apartment, put on my red swim trunks, then tossed my usual orange jumpsuit over top, lastly I grabbed goggles (different from the ones I wore to school) and hurried through the doors. It was HOT outside. Like, a-hundred-degrees-in-the-shade hot. My orange jacket was quickly shed and tied around my waste, leaving a simple black t-shirt on top.

I paid for admission into the pool and a lock for my locker, headed to the changing room, and stripped as fast as possible. I was already sweating buckets, just from the half-mile-long walk through town.

I walked onto the deck of the pool, and realized there were quite a few kids from school. Ino was tanning. Choji and Shikamaru were drifting along in the lazy river, with a bag of chips between them. Konohamaru and his friends were taking turns sliding down a highlighter-yellow slide. Neji was lying on a lawn chair, under an umbrella, weirdly enough. Sakura was practicing an already-perfect swan dive.

I admired Sakura's perfect body (conservatively covered by a one-piece, I noticed grouchily) then went right to the diving boards, getting into the shortest line. By the time I got to the edge of the pool, Shikamaru and Choji had seen me, and were waving lazily. Ino was watching through her huge-ass sunglasses, over her "TeenVOGUE" magazine or whatever. Konohamaru was excitedly pointing me out to his friends. Neji still had his eyes closed, but I knew that didn't mean anything. And Sakura was staring at me from the back of the line. I had an audience.

I gave everyone a huge grin, then promptly cannon balled, creating a huge splash. I hit the bottom of the pool and looked around. I saw –crazily enough– Hinata. I hadn't even known that she knew how to swim. Not only was she there, but she was showing more skin than I'd ever seen. For the first time ever, I expected, she was showing off her arms, legs, chest (well, most of it), and abdomen all at once. And she looked damn good!

Even the weakest ninja can easily take down a fully grown man, even if they're exhausted. Hinata was a prime example. She was all toned muscle without an ounce of fat, packed into her tiny frame. Yet, it wasn't obvious. Instead of the muscles bulging out, like mine, they seemed to close in on the body they were attatched to, creating a perfectly smooth, touchable substitution of Sakura. Naruto Two, as I had fondly nicknamed him, stirred, the bastard. What was happening to me!? This was Hinata, for crying out loud!

My first thought was to cover up my mistake, so I waved. She was twisting away from me, oddly enough, and I wondered if I was gawking. However, the longer my eyes stayed on her –even though it had only been a second or two at most– the more Naruto Two grew.

I turned away quickly, climbed up the ladder, hoped no one (especially Neji, ugh) could see the growing bulge in my shorts. My audience was clapping, so I bowed and sidled over to the restrooms. My luck was with me, and no one was there.

Now, I wouldn't call myself a two-pump chump, but this time I was. I just didn't know what was happening to me. Hinata's body had had a bigger effect on me than Sakura ever had. I couldn't believe it!

Hinata, my best friend; Hinata, the shy girl in the back of the class; Hinata, the one who wore puffier jackets than Shino or Kiba… was… sexy?

Now that he was done with his acting up (haha! Get it?), I walked back outside and rejoined the line. Sakura looked at me weirdly for a second before rolling her eyes and getting a running start for her next dive. What happened next was a definite first: I watched the girl of my dreams do a perfect dive, back arched and legs straight, without any affect to my body.

How could one person have that much effect on me? The bigger question: why the hell was I worrying about this chick stuff? Yeah, Sakura's hot. I just found someone hotter.

… Who apparently throws my estrogen levels through the roof.

I hope you liked it! This was my first attempt at doing anything where at least one pair of pants came off... ANYWAY. I'm planning on having two chapters after this, one when they're sixteen or seventeen and then the second one when they're, like, Kakashi/Iruka's age (mid-twenties). If you liked it, let me know in the comments, if you didn't like it, tell me why! I want to know what ya'll want in later chapters (if I make them, that is...) Also: There's a poll on my profile about whether or not I should add more chapters after the orginal three! PLEASE GO AND WEIGH IN!