Naruhina: Festival

Summer in Konoha meant festival, and Naruto Uzumaki was more excited than usual.  He had missed the last two festivals while he was training abroad with the perverted Sennin and was planning to make up for lost time.  Gama-chan was about to burst at the seams with the money the blue-eyed ninja had socked away during his travels, and his navy yukata was in immaculate condition, especially compared to the disarray his small apartment was always in.  The only thing keeping his night from being perfect was that Sakura-chan was stuck at the hospital. Apparently celebrations often meant a sharp increase in accidents and injuries from fights, largely because sake flowed  like water during festival nights.

Across the city, Hinata Hyuuga was being dressed by three attendants from a branch family.  She didn’t like that others were required to tie long hair into an elegant bun for her, or that her cousins were only to wear simple yukata to the festival while she was decked out in an elegant silken kimono decorated with an intricate floral pattern.  To be completely honest, she would have preferred her usual outfit.  The dress showed off the curves of her hips and chest too much, she thought.  “Isn’t our Hinata-sama beautiful tonight?” One of her attendants clucked in a motherly voice.  “Neji-kun will have his work cut out for him tonight keeping all the boys at bay.”  The girls in the Hyuuga heiress’ bedroom couldn’t help but giggle at their Lady’s blush, but none of them guessed that the boy she had in mind was a yellow-haired street urchin that all the elders of the village called ‘demon’ behind closed doors.

After sunset, both found their way to the festival from their respective homes.  Naruto wasted no time in jumping right into the thick of things, relieving some of the strain on his walled and being rewarded with festival treats like grilled eel and fried soba… even a ceramic fox mask that he picked up from a vendor with a little mischief in mind for later that night.  Hinata, on the other hand, was a little shyer.  Her cousin Neji followed a few steps behind, his arms folded across his chest and pearl-colored eyes trained straight ahead, as much to avoid the admiring stares of many of the village’s young women as to keep track of the main branch’s first born daughter.  Her only real stops were to toss a coin into a shrine set up to guarantee good fortune to young lovers (naturally there was a throng of teenage girls she had to wade through to make her offering and prayer) and to watch the goldfish  at the gaming booths.

A boy in a dark blue yukata and ceramic fox mask was having the time of his life apparently, already with a bag containing what looked like a dozen orange and black fish.  “Alright! Got another one, dattebayo!” he cried, flipping another fish into his bowl with a paper scoop.
“Dattebayo… N-naruto-kun!”  Hinata stammered, hiding behind the edge of the stand, hoping he hadn’t noticed her.

Sure enough, the hyperactive blond never raised his eyes past the edge of the fish game… but another blonde did, this one in a deep purple kimono with flower patterns running along the sleeves.  “Hey, Choji, watch my body for a second. I want to play cupid for a second.”  Ino Yamanaka said to her chubby teammate.
“The Hyuuga girl?  Come on, no one would believe it. You can’t pull off a shyness act to save your life.”  He replied in between munches on a skewer of dumplings.
“Maybe not, but my target is pretty dense.”  She snapped back, aiming her mind transfer jutsu at the unsuspecting Hinata.  Suddenly both girls went limp for a moment, then Hinata straightened back upwith an uncharacteristic smirk.
Marching over to the still-masked Naruto, Hinata/Ino tapped the boy on the shoulder.  “Naruto-kun, could I talk to you for a moment in private?”
“Hinata-chan? What is it?”  Oblivious as ever, Naruto didn’t notice at all how different the usually quiet Hinata was behaving.  Once they were away from the lights and noise of the festival, Hinata/Ino tugged Naruto into an alley and threw her arms around him.  Now it was HIS turn to blush for once.
“Naruto-kun, I’ve watched you for a long time and admired you since we were little.”  The Yamanaka girl used Hinata’s body like a puppet on a string, and all the helpless Naruto could do was mouth wordlessly in shock.
“H-h-hinata-chan? Wha-“
She put a finger to his lips and smiled sweetly.  “I just wanted to say I Love you, Naruto.”  While the boy was still processing just what the shy girl from the back row of his academy class had told him, Ino pulled him down into a kiss, relinquishing control over the Hyuuga’s body the instant her lips touched his.  Hinata came to and the first things she saw were the bright blue eyes of her secret love wide with surprise.  She had his collar in one hand,  her other was around his neck, and they were in what must have appeared to be a passionate kiss  “Naruto-kun! I’m so sorry!”  Hinata shrieked, letting go in an instant and running as hard as she could until she was locked in her own room.  Only then was it safe to break down into tears.  “Oh God, what was I doing?”  She cried into her pillow so she wouldn’t wake her father.

Some time later, one the distraught Hinata had at least calmed down enough to stop crying, she heard a faint tapping on her window.  Peeking through her shutters, Hinata squealed and hid when she saw Naruto perched on her windowsill.  “Naruto-kun!  What are you doing here?”  She asked in a voice that was as shaky as she was.
“It’s about earlier. Will you let me in? Haishi-sama sees a boy sneaking around outside your room and it would mean a lot of trouble for both of us.”
Hinata actually managed to giggle at the situation as she slid her window open.  Her golden-haired idol slipped inside, his fox mask still on his head, just pushed up and to the side.  She couldn’t help but notice they had matching whisker marks.
After an awkward pause, he spoke first.  “You watched and cheered for me for so long, and I was too blind to notice.  I’m sorry, Hinata-chan.”  He spoke with his eyes down, only raising his gaze when he had apologized.  “Can you forgive me?”
For once, the shy Hyuuga girl wasn’t afraid.  Her Naruto needed her.  It felt good on a slightly guilty level.  “Naruto, you haven’t done or forgotten to do anything that would make you need my forgiveness.”  In what was a very bold move for Hinata, she took one of his hands in both of hers and held it over her heart.  “You gave me strength just by being you.”
Before she had a chance to react, she found herself in Naruto’s arms.  He was so warm, and even though there was hardly an ounce of fat on his body he felt soft to the touch.  “I can’t promise to feel as deeply for you as you do for me, at least not right away, but give me some time and when I can finally tell you aishiteru, I will mean it with all my heart.”

Late the next morning a thoroughly disheveled Neji Hyuuga sprinted through the entrance to the clan estate and locked the entrance behind him.  Haishi-sama was ready to tear the branch family genius apart for abandoning his duty as a chaperone at the festival, but was too taken aback to do anything.  Neji’s clothes were ripped in several places and his face was covered in red and pink lip prints.  He looked panicked.  “There are too many… nothing can keep them back… Sacred Trigrams sixy-four palms, Gentle Fist, even Daikaiten… nothing can phase them!”  Outside the Hyuuga manor, a crowd of young women were trying to break the main entrance down.  They had been chasing Konoha’s new number one idol all night after seeing him at the lover’s shine during the summer festival.

Unfamiliar terms
*Gama-chan – Naruto’s walled is shaped like a toad, hence ‘gama’
*Yukata – A light-weight robe in the traditional style. Made from cotton.
*Kimono – Traditional Japanese silken robe.
*Soba – Japanese noodle dish, often mixed with vegetables.
*Daikaiten – Possible spelling for the Japanese pronunciation for the Hyuuga’s multidirectional attack that appears to be a sphere of light blue chakra around the rapidly-spinning user.  Sometimes called an ultimate defense for its ability to repel almost any attack.
*Aishiteru - I love you.  In Japanese it is the deepest expression of commitment and affection, meaning much more than its western translation.