He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not

NaruHina Stories

It was the nicest Spring day imaginable.

Swallows were darting about overhead, swooping low along the ground, and then flashing high yet again, doing their part to keep the insect population down.

A gentle breeze caused the entire vast filed of daisies to sway this way and that, as if they were bowing or taking part in some kind of ancient and stately dance. Bees hovered above blossoms, before landing and getting to work. Colorful groups of butterflies looked like living gardens in the sky.

The village was doing well. All of the recent crops had been bountiful. The numbers of calves, lambs, and foals had reached new time highs. Shinobi were in greater demand than ever before, after the defeat of Akatsuki and the death of Orochimaru. Craftsmen had more contracts than they knew what to do with.

"Everything is so wonderful." Hinata sighed. Indeed, her life had taken a turn for the better, after Uchiha Sasuke returned to the village. Sakura had transferred her growing affection for Naruto to her long missing teammate, doing her best to help him find forgiveness in his own heart, and in the hearts of suspicious townspeople. "She tells me that Naruto cares for me…." If Sakura said that, it had to be true, didn't it? Who knew Naruto better than her? One person did. Herself. And she was uncertain.

The sound of laughter grew louder and louder. Hinata soon found out why. It was Ten Ten. She was dragging Neji behind her, no doubt taking him to their favorite place by the brook. She blushed, knowing what they would be doing. Kissing. A whole lot of kissing. Ten Ten had been very patient. Patient and determined. She had won Neji's heart before he even had a clue what was happening.

"I'm glad brother Neji is happy." Hinata looked out over the vast sea of bobbing white flower heads. It almost looked as if a sudden snowfall had dropped a season's worth of snow on the tranquil landscape. She waved, when her cousin and her friend caught sight of her. It truly was nice that her quiet kin had found someone. It had been difficult for him, growing up in the Branch family, his mother and father dead. But, he hadn't been the first one in the family to find love. Hanabi had a crush on a boy in the neighborhood, and her father had surprised them all by saying that he was courting a young widow in the Hyuuga clan.

It wasn't as if she didn't have good fortune of her own. And, on a relative scale, her level of good luck would have to exceed that of the rest of her family combined. Her dream had been realized. For a number of months, she and Naruto had been dating. Well, after a fashion. He was very busy with training and missions, and spent a lot of time making certain that Sakura was treating Sasuke right. Naturally that pissed off both of his friends no end. He had told her that she could come with him on those 'missions,' but she knew how she would feel if the tables were turned.

The change of the seasons had not been kind to plants and livestock alone. Almost like magic, the shinobi of the Leaf were pairing up, giving their hearts away. At least, that was true of the Rookie Nine and their close friends. Ino had somehow managed to catch Shikamaru's fancy, as bothersome as love and courtship might be. Choji had stumbled upon a small petite girl who appreciated him for who he was, not how he looked. Sai had paired up with a girl who had been part of a Root cell that he had known nothing about. She was just as clueless as he was, and the combination never ceased to have people scratching their head one moment, and then running for cover in the next. Kiba had boasted about being a lone wolf, a man that no one woman could tie down. Then, after a few dates with a girl from the class after theirs, he turned out to be nothing more than a puppy dog. Lee had a number of girls interested in him, too. But, in a devastatingly drastic travesty of honor and loyalty, he promised that he wouldn't date anyone until his sensei did. Gai wasn't having any better luck that before.

"Shino is happy, too." Hinata smiled, seeing a bee land on the flower nearest to her. The Kamizuru clan was a clan of bee users from Iwagakure that had once tried to lead an invasion force into Konoha, only to be repelled and largely killed by the more experienced Aburame clan. It had thought that the last of that clan had died; but, those assumptions were premature. A girl from the Village Hidden Amongst the Rocks had participated in the last Chuunin exams, where Shino had been a proctor. With their distant family history, they should have been like oil and water. Instead, they were like magnet and steel. That might explain why they were joined at the lips every time that Hinata stumbled across them.