Nine months ago…

Naruto came back from his scheduled trip at the hospital to find some bags hanging on his apartment’s door handle. There was a note pinned on the door. He recognized the handwriting immediately.

My dearest Naruto-Kun,

I prepared some food for you. I hope you enjoy it.

Hinata.

He grinned widely. It had become a sort of a routine for him. Every time he came back home, either from the hospital, or from a mission there was some food on the door waiting.

He didn’t know how she did it. One would expect that her schedule would get in the way. That she would be on long missions, that she would want to take a freaking break from making food for him every now and then. But no, that bag full of food was always waiting there for him, always hanging on his door handle.

He looked forward to receiving it in fact. It somehow felt special to have somebody like Hinata cook for him. It was the first time somebody was doing something like that for him

He lowered the bag on the ground as he picked up the key from his pocket and unlocked the door. He inwardly felt a small sense of satisfaction as he realized that he was now able to do it a lot easier.

“I’m home…”

There was no response…

He sighed and slumped as he went inside…

Of course there wasn’t a response. Hinata merely helped him until he got his prosthetic. It wasn’t like she was his girlfriend or wife or anything...

For a moment he imagined what it would be like if he had actually heard her voice.

‘Welcome Back!’

He could actually picture it. Her lovely smile warming his heart as her lips formed those magic words. Her scent permeating everything inside his household. The thought of her waiting for him made his heart flutter.

Sadly, this wasn’t meant to be. She was his friend, his precious comrade. She was the person who held his hand in the war and kept him from the darkness. She didn’t see him that way.

Did she?

She did tell him she loved him.

But in what way? As a friend? As a comrade? As a fellow citizen of Konoha?

The possibility that she could love him in a romantic way, was something that he rejected right away.

Seriously, who could love him in that sort of way?

Naruto had long ago accepted the fact that romantic love would forever be out of his reach. He could become the most renowned and acknowledged shinobi in the world, he could become the one hokage to surpass all other hokage, but he would never find somebody to love him the same way his mother loved his father. He had accepted that this was the one dream, he would never be able to achieve.

Contrary to popular belief, Naruto’s childhood wasn’t entirely friendless. He might have been the nine-tails jinchuriki, he might have been considered a nuisance and people might have shunned him and told him to stay out of their freaking way, but he wasn’t abused, he wasn’t chased around by angry mobs and there were actually boys around his age, like Choji and Shikamaru who seemed to actually like having him around and even played with him.

The girls on the other hand...

...The girls around his age really didn’t want him to be around them. Ino treated him like a leper, putting her nose up high and telling him he was beneath her, TenTen threatened him that she would use him as a target practise if he ever approached her again, while Sakura… well... the less said about the way Sakura treated him back then, the better. She eventually came to see him as a friend and comrade, but deep inside he knew that she never had and never would develop any sort of romantic feelings for him…

...When she told him she “loved” him back in Iron Country, he didn’t buy it for a microsecond.

As for Hinata...

...It’s safe to assume that she felt the same way as the rest of the girls felt about him. After all, she never approached him and she never talked to him back when they were kids. And whenever he happened to be close to her, she just turned red and looked away from him. She didn’t insult him, threaten him, or hurt him like the rest of the girls, she just… seemed uncomfortable around him...

...She probably considered him a nuisance too…

...Then why did she tell him that he was a “proud failure”? That she got an intense feeling in her heart whenever she saw him? Why did she tell him during the chuunin exams that she “didn't want him to disappear”?

All the other girls at that thime most certainly seemed to want him to disappear…

A loud growl from his stomach interrupted his train of thought.

“Oh, right. I need to eat something.”

He sat down in front of the table and took out Hinata’s bento-box from the bag, placing it directly in front of him. A heavenly smell hit him as he opened it and saw the food that she had prepared for him: Chopped Pork with vegetables glazed with what he came to recognize as her “special sauce”.

Vegetables… Funny...

If you were to ask him a couple of months ago about what sort of food he despises, vegetables would be at the top of his list. Kakashi-Sensei at some point tried to get him to eat them more regularly but it didn’t stick. He made it look like a joke and Naruto simply wrote it off as one of the many things his sensei deliberately did in order to piss him off.

But with Hinata it was different…

Maybe it was the way she pleaded with him to get him to eat them.

Maybe it was the way she prepared them trying to make them as tasty as possible.

Maybe it was the way she seemed to actually care about him.

Whatever the reason was,  he was now,  for the first time in his life, eating vegetables regularly and enjoying it.

He never thought he would enjoy eating vegetables…

But, then again, he never thought she would actually go through with her promise and stick with it!

And yet she did! After that first day where she showed up with Kiba and Shino and cleaned his apartment, she’s been making food for him and looking after him ever since.

As he placed some more of Hinata's delicious cooking inside his mouth, his mind went back to girls.

They certainly didn't like him back then, but how about now?

Ino, Sakura and TenTen didn't blatantly tell him to get out of their sight anymore,which was an improvement, but he could tell that they weren't interested in him either. They liked him as a person and a friend and nothing else.

As for the girls who seemed to be interested in him…

He first found out he had “fangirls” a few days after he got out of the hospital, about a week after Hinata showed up to clean his house. He bumped into a bunch of girls on the way home from the hospital who told him that they “loved Naruto-Senpai” and that they wanted to spend some time with him.

So he took them all out for ramen and out of curiosity asked them why they liked him so much. He wasn't fishing for compliments, he genuinely wanted to find out why would someone, anyone be interested in him.

The girls proceeded to talk about how dreamy and good looking he was, about what a capable and strong Shinobi he was, about being the person who defeated Pein, who sealed Kaguya, who saved the world, who… who… who…

Who the hell were they talking about?

Because the person that they were describing seemed to be quite a different person from whom he actually was. A caricature of sorts with all his good parts exaggerated and all his bad parts overlooked. It soon became apparent to him that they weren't interested in the real Naruto, but rather the ideal Naruto that they had formed in their minds.

He had a feeling (or rather a certainty) that if those girls were to know the real him, the prankster who vandalized the Hokage monument, the screwup who farted his way out of the preliminaries in the chuunin exams…

...The weakling whose incompetence got one of his best friends killed during the 4th Shinobi War…

...They would be severely disillusioned and disappointed. Those girls didn't love and could never love “Naruto the failure”. Rather, they loved “Uzumaki Naruto”, the perfect Knight in shining armor, the fearless and infallible warrior…

...The “Hero” with a capital “H”...

He scoffed and snorted in disgust.

Him… A ”Hero”... What a joke...

Naruto looked once more at the gift Hinata gave him on the day she first visited his house. It was a Naruto-shaped “Chopstick Helper”. It was orange with spiked hair and was wearing a Konoha headband on its forehead. It had whiskers on its cheeks and it was forming a ”ram” seal, as if it was about to perform the “Shadow-Clone Jutsu”.

Naruto couldn’t help but resent it somehow…

Part of it was that Hinata didn’t feed him anymore because he had it, but there was also something else…

...something deeper...

There was a time is his life when he was shunned by everyone in the village. When people actively feared him and loathed him for being the Nine-Tails’ jinchuriki. But through his struggles and his actions in the war, he became acknowledged not only by his own village, but also the rest of the villages that comprised the newly formed Shinobi Alliance. He was now the most recognizable face in the whole shinobi world. There wasn’t a day that didn’t pass when somebody didn’t stop him on the street and didn’t thank him or congratulate him. Kids were now calling him ‘Naruto-Senpai’ and asked him to teach them his moves...

...And shops were now selling merchandize in his own image...

...Because he was now considered “a Hero”.

Somehow he couldn’t look at himself as a “Hero” anymore. Not after people fought wars, put their lives on the line and died trying to protect him.  People who never seeked glory or recognition, but rather sacrificed themselves for what they thought was right. For their friends... for their families…

People like Neji…

The real heroes of this world will never be as famous as him. They will never get their faces on a shirt or their images plastered on an action figure. They will never have a “chopstick helper” shaped after them. They will never be recognized and they will never be acknowledged. At most they will be honoured and remembered by the people that loved them, the people who lost them, the people who cried for them...

People like Hinata…

The person who lost her cousin because of his weakness, pulled him out of his despair and was now helping him get back on his feet by literally becoming his right hand. The person who made the meal he was enjoying right now.

Why wasn’t she considered a hero? Why didn’t anyone acknowledge her? Why didn’t she  have a “chopstick helper” shaped after her? Yeah! A purple one with long hair, a Konoha headband on her neck and…

...and what the heck was he thinking? How did he go from thinking about the war to imagining what a Hinata-shaped chopstick helper would look like?

Lately it seemed like his mind kept coming back to her. No matter what he did, no matter what he was contemplating, he would always think about her in some way, shape or form. Whenever he saw a flower, he would think about smelling it with her. Whenever he was eating something he would fantasize about eating it with her. And whenever girls tried to talk to him he would think about what it would be like to talk to her instead.

It was as if… as if she was becoming a part of him.

It’s probably because she was now helping him with his hand and all that…

Yeah… That was probably it…

Still… it would have been nice if a Hinata-shaped “Chopstick Helper”  actually existed. He would buy it in a heartbeat!

He smiled as he took another bite from the food she had prepared for him. It tasted great!

Hinata was incredible, wasn’t she? She was a great cook, she was kind, she was gentle, she was soft spoken…

...she was beautiful…

...she would make a great wife to someone, some day...

...a great... wife… to someone...

An image of Hinata in a wedding dress flashed in front of his eyes. She was happily walking down the aisle holding a bouquet of flowers. She was smiling and she was happy as she approached the man who was about to marry her. He couldn’t make out the groom’s features, he could be anyone. But he was with her, he was making her happy and it wasn’t him!

Naruto felt his eyes get wet. Why did the mere thought of Hinata marrying someone make his chest hurt so much?

Hinata is a wonderful person! She deserves to find someone that makes her happy! Right?

The tears… They kept coming out! Why couldn’t he make them stop?

He heard a knock on his door. Who could it be at a time like this?

“Naruto-kun, it’s me. I am going out on a mission soon and I’ve come to check up on you, before I go. Do you need my help in anything?”

No! Not now! Not when he was like this!

“Uh… No! Ev-Everything is fine! Th-Thank you for asking.”

“Are you sure? You don’t sound fine.”

Why was he stammering? Why was he choking?

“I-I said, I’m fine! Please go away!”

“Are you… crying…?”

“N-No! I-I’m…”

“Naruto-kun, please open the door. I need to see you!”

He quickly went on the toilet and splashed some water on his face before approaching the door.  He quickly wiped his face, took a deep breath and tried to compose himself. He needed to appear as cheerful and happy as possible before facing her.

“I’m fine! See? All’s well!”

“Naruto-kun, why is your shirt wet?”

Crap! In his panic he hadn’t thought about changing his shirt. Not that he would be able to put it on quickly with one hand anyway.

“And why are your cheeks all puffy and red?

“It’s nothing, OK? Please, let me be!”

He felt her arms wrap around him as she pulled him into a tight hug.

“Hinata, what are you doing?”

“You don’t have to tell me what happened if you don’t feel like it.  I just want you to know that I will always be by your side when you need me. I will always be there for you. No matter what.”

He allowed himself to melt inside her arms, using his right hand to pull her closer. He wanted to feel more of her, to be closer to her. He was afraid that if he let go of her now, he would lose her forever.

“Hey, Hinata, can I ask you something weird?”

“What is it?”

“Can you please repeat what you just said’?”

“No matter what?”

“No, the other part, before it.”

“Why?”

“Please… I need to hear it.”

“I will always be there for you.”

“Please, one more.”

“I will always be there for you.”

“One more.”

“I will always be there for you.”

He closed his eyes and inhaled her scent as she kept saying it. It felt intoxicating. Her touch, her warmth, made him feel…

...he couldn’t quite describe it! But whatever it was, he hadn’t felt anything like it before.

“Please… say it to me one more time…”

She bought her face close to him, looked up at him and gave him her warmest smile. He felt like his heart was going to rip itself out of his chest!

“I will always be there for you, Naruto-kun! No matter what!”

Her lips! They looked so… inviting! He wanted to…

A voice was heard from below.

“YO! BOSS! THERE YOU ARE! I WAS LOOKING ALL OVER KONOHA FOR YOU! I’VE GOT THIS SUPER ULTRA PERVERTED JUTSU I NEED TO SHOW YOU, KORE!

The realization that they now had an audience in Konohamaru snapped Naruto out of his trance and made Hinata jump in shock. They instinctively pulled away from each other and turned their backs on one another. Hinata put her hood on and pulled her jacket’s straps to hide her face as much as possible while Naruto pretended to focus on something that was apparently stuck on his door.

“Thanks for checking up on me Hinata! As you can see, I am all right now! Hahaha!”

“Y-yeah! I’m glad you’re okay now, Naruto-kun! I have to go on my mission now! Bye!”

Hinata jumped on the roof and dashed away from Naruto as fast as her feet allowed. Naruto on the other hand jumped down from his apartment landing right next to his protegee.

Konohamaru looked at him curiously.

“Uhm… Boss… Did I come at a bad time?”

Naruto mentally chastised himself. If Konohamaru hadn’t showed up at that precise moment he would have tried to…

“No, your timing was perfect, in fact.”

“Uhm, really? I didn’t interrupt anything?”

What would have happened if he had actually tried to do it? If he had actually pressed his luck and tried to take this further?

Naruto looked over at the direction of Hinata who was now a small dot in the distance. The fact that she was now running away from him as fast as she could told him all he needed to know.

She would freak out. She would be gentle in letting him down, sure, she wouldn’t be as violent as Sakura or as cruel as some of the other girls whom he asked out in the past, but she would still reject him.

At the end of the day, he was important to her but she didn’t love him.

Not in a romantic way at least.

Honestly, who would?

“Nothing that should have happened anyway.” said Naruto with a sigh.

“Huh? What’s the heck is that supposed to mean?”

Naruto gently ruffled Konohamaru’s hair and gave him one of his patented grins.

“Never mind that! Why don’t we go somewhere private and you show me that awesome new jutsu you developed!”

“All right boss! I have developed an awesome new perverted jutsu that can defeat Shinobi and Kunoichi at the same time!”

“Okay, this I’ve got to see…”

About a few miles away from the perverted jutsu specialists, Kiba and Shino were wondering why Hinata still had her hood on and why she refused to face them directly.

“Did something happen between you and Naruto?”

The white-eyed kunoichi got even redder under her hood. She couldn’t believe what had just happened! She hugged Naruto! His face was so close! She could practically feel his breath on her lips!

She wanted to kiss him! To lower his face down and bring his lips down to hers. Why, oh why didn’t she take that opportunity when she had the chance?

Images of lips connecting and tongues twirling flashed in front of her eyes.

And did she really feel something emerge from Naruto around her waist area?

Her face was practically sizzling. Shino swore he saw smoke rise from her forehead.

“No-Nothing happened!”

‘Unfortunately.’ she thought silently.

“Uhm… Shino, Kiba... do we pass by any waterfalls on the way to our mission destination?”

“I think so, why?”

“I need to go train under one for a few hours.”

“Are you insane? It’s the middle of the winter! The water is going to be ice cold right now!

“Good!

Naruto’s entire body was filled with a strange warmth as he felt the angel’s arms wrap around him.

“Please don’t ever leave me. I need you.” he told her desperately.

“Please, say it to me one more time.”

He felt the angel’s lips move through his shirt.

“What did you just say?

“What do you think of my ‘Shinobi-Gone-Wild Jutsu’, boss?”

“Huh?”

Naruto came back to his senses to see Konohamaru standing in front of him.

“I said what did you think of my new ultra perverted jutsu?”

“Uhm… It was quite good, Konohamaru! Keep up the good work.”

The young ninja looked at his one-armed master concerned. Naruto was the inventor of the Sexy Jutsu, and the Harem Jutsu. He inspired him to create the “Reverse-Harem Jutsu” which, he later found out, was instrumental in defeating the rabbit goddess Kaguya and saving the world.

(Okay, it didn’t really defeat her, Kaguya recovered nearly immediately from it, but Konohamaru was never one to let facts to get in the way of a good ego-boost.)

For him to be so out of focus while he was performing his newest ultimate technique was…

“Hey boss, is everything OK?”

“Yeah, yeah, Konohamaru, everything is fine.”

“But, you are not screaming enthusiastically, you are not having nosebleeds like you normally do. Are you sure there’s nothing wrong?”

Naruto sighed. Seriously, what was wrong with him? In the past, he would not only pay close attention to Konohamaru’s sexy techniques but also give him perverted pointers on how to improve them. He would then try to one-up him by coming up with something even more perverted, at which point Konohamaru would swear that he would defeat him, and they would both go practising what they developed on unsuspecting civilians. It was their thing.

This time though he couldn’t get into it like he used to. His heart just wasn’t into it for some reason…

He was still thinking about Hinata. His body still remembered the warmth of her embrace. How can you perform perverted techniques when your mind is fixated on a girl’s angelic smile? Her kindness, her concern, her generosity?

“It’s nothing Konohamaru… I am just… growing up I guess…”

“You are never too grown up to perform a sexy jutsu boss! These techniques are important in combat! Especially against strong opponents!”
“Maybe, but… I’ve been a bit distracted lately, sorry.”