Naruto and Hinata: Stories After "The Last"! (Bi-weekly Updates)

Back to the Past: Part Three

Hinata's face was instantly enveloped in red, her hands were folded up toward her chest and face certainly looked...confused, as she stared back at the boy she'd secretly admired for the longest time, now. There was no way he was just secretly admiring too, was there? It was enough to make fall flat on her face...and while a few years ago, actually a few years ago, this definitely would have all been a mistake. This would have been one of Naruto's silly shenanigans that left him looking like he was doing something that he wasn't. It would have been a moment that made Hinata have a small bit of hope that maybe, just maybe, someday she wouldn't have to hide her adoration for him.

But...this was the past, after the future. And this time her suspicions weren't really that far off. Naruto had just been spilling his guts out about her to Jiraiya for the past several minutes and all of the things that had happened between them, to make him realize he was completely in love with this girl, and looking at her spry and tender young self, it made him realize even more just how utterly obvious it had been all along. Suddenly, Sakura's comment about being ''dense'' was ringing in the back of his mind.

"Were you..." she finally spoke, building up the courage, "watching me?"

Naruto hopped up to his feet, his hand finding the back of his head in his relaxed pose.

"Oh, what? Watching you? Where would you get a silly thing like that?" He chuckled, brushing it off completely in his own awkward way, just hoping it would work. Geez, one thing was true – he had no idea how to act around this Hinata. She was the same girl, right? Kinda? Sorta?

"Oh..." she seemed to relax slightly, her gaze falling to the grassy, foresty floor. A silence lulled between them, a few birds chirped in the distance. "Well," she spoke again, turning lightly on her heel, "See ya..."

"-wait." Naruto beckoned out to her, causing her to look back over her shoulder. Well, why the hell did he do that? He didn't have anything else to say, and now he was just standing there like a dolt. It was like he'd become to accustomed to being near her. In the future, she'd become the person he made sure he saw every day, when he could. And now, he sort of just wanted to be around her...but she had absolutely no idea. Well, he had to come up with something. He looked around her as he searched for something, "Uhh, you dropped one." He pointed to a cherry blossom that fell by her foot.

Hinata held her hair back, bending down to pick up the blossom before throwing it into her basket and hoisting it back into her hands. "Thank you very much." She squeaked with a half-waisted bow before turning around and scurrying off in the other direction. Naruto watched her go for a moment, his blue eyes flickering around before he let out a groan, tossing his head back as if he were the dumbest idiot in the world. He turned around to let a fist fall onto the tree behind him.

"'You dropped one'? What the hell was that?"

Suddenly, a whooshing sound from behind him caught his attention, as he turned to view the source of the noise. It was Jiraiya, his arms crossed a coy smile plastered across his lips.

"Smooth." He breathed out totally sarcastically, a coy smile planted on his lips as he looked down at his pupil. Naruto furrowed his eyebrows.

"Oh come on, were you seriously watching?" he scolded. He was suddenly beginning to remember why the pair had always butt heads...Jiraiya just laughed some more.

"Can you blame me? Face it kid, you just crashed into burning flames." He enlightened him. "You sure you two are...together, in the future?" Naruto knew it was true. His shoulders shrugged forward, and his head drooped. He wanted to go back to his own time, where he didn't have to worry about what he was saying to Hinata and he didn't make her run away. He just wanted to get back to his own time in general. He'd lived this life once already, he was ready to move on.

"Now, you said it yourself: This all seemed to happen right after your little trip with this 'Konsuru' character, right? And you said he'd stolen Hinata's memories once before?"

The blonde-haired Shinobi wasn't sure where his master was going with this, but he remained silent to hear him out.

"Well, it sounds like he might be behind this. Who knows? Maybe you need to win over Hinata to get back to your time. What do you think about that?"

Naruto picked his head up as he pondered this. Well, it made the most sense that Konsuru would be behind this. But why bring them together now, when he'd tried so hard to tear them apart the first time? Though, a kiss broke the last illusion...

"Alright, alright. How hard can it be? She loves me anyhow, so I guess I'll just go and-"

"Woah, woah, woah there partner." Naruto was just about to go after her when Jiraiya stuck out his arm to stifle his pace. "Hinata is a "grade-A bashful babe", I write all about it in my book."

"What's your point?" Naruto scoffed, narrowing his eyes at the white-haired Sannin. Jiraiya swiftly pulled his novel from his pocket, flipping through a couple of pages until he landed on the one he was looking for.

"Ah, here it is." He pointed to the page he wanted to quote. "If you come on too strong with a bashful girl, it could scare them away forever." He read it word for word, before his eyes flickered up to Naruto's. Well, this was just great. He couldn't just run right up to her and plant one on her, he had to do this whole thing allll over again, as if it were so easy the first time?

"So, what are we waiting for?" Jiraiya closed the book in his hand, smiling down at Naruto. "It's been a while since I've played match-maker. "Asuma and Kurenai? Yeah, that was all me."

Well...something about that was a little more comforting...Naruto let a small smile grace is whisker-lined face, as he walked beside his master into town.

"Oh yeah, Naruto. There's one more thing I have to tell you before we start this. If I know anything about time travel – which I don't – you should try to avoid altering the past too much. It might warp the future."

"Huh, great. Any other rules I should know about?" Naruto grimaced. Jiraiya simply laughed, messing up his hair a bit.

~~
Thanks for reading part 3, stay tuned for part 4 next Saturday! <3

I know these have been a bit short, I promise that next week's update will be EXTRA LONG! <33