Chapter Text
Hinata found comfort in silence.
The Hyuuga compound was it’s quietest during early morning, around the time the members of the branch family that worked at the night maintenance went to sleep, but before those tasked with cooking breakfast and preparing the table for the head of the family and his council got up. Of course, the atmosphere of complete abandonment was only a ruse, their patrol worked uninterruptedly since that fateful incident back when she was only three. However, their all-seeing eyes watched over the compound with enough discretion that you could pretend they weren't there at all.
Five in the morning was the ideal time to enjoy such a situation. Hinata came across this information less than a year before, while recovering from an injury. Her father had been specially disappointed in her during that training session and the clan council's pressure to pit her three-year-old, at the time, sister against her had ended up in complete disaster. Hinata had been unwilling to land even one hit on Hanabi, but refusing to fight only made both her sister and her father angrier. As he ended their match, Hinata had known the sparring session that was to come would be nothing if not brutal.
It certainly left her with an aching body that wouldn’t stop her elders from putting her through more training had she not gotten a concussion. Even though she didn’t remember getting hit or even being taken to her room, the memory of the dizziness and the pounding headache she got was forever etched on her mind. Their compound healer, a branch family member named Touka, had diagnosed her and prescribed her with rest without sleep, as doing so could cause permanent damage to her brain. Ko, her bodyguard, was tasked with watching over her through the twenty four hours so she wouldn’t fall asleep.
Hinata wasn’t allowed any of her books or even a piece of paper to entertain herself, since this was supposed to be resting time for her. She didn’t think she would have been able to do much with the feeling of her head trying to bash itself in, but she did have a sneaking suspicion that it was also part of her on-going punishment for being the biggest failure the Hyuuga clan had ever seen. Ko rejected all of her pitiful attempts at conversation in favor of staring at her quietly, so she took upon herself to listen to the outside world to avoid getting swallowed by her own thoughts. She noticed how everything outside moved and estimated the time by the shadows on her floor and the probable position of the sun, skills she acquired when studying for her ninja work in a future tracker team. After she catalogued everything, she finally let herself drift away from her body.
The results of that observation were fruitful, she noticed everyday as she rolled out of her bed as silently as she could. Hinata wasn’t always like this, waking up with a scream on her lips at the phantom feeling of a stranger’s arms carrying her out of her room. She did learn eventually that being loud only brought her pain, not comfort, when her father reasoned that extra hours of training would be useful if Hinata was not going to sleep anyways. Her body, seemingly as tired from the constant ache, understood the lesson and now Hinata may even wake up scared from her nightmares (memories), but always in silence.
Hinata got dressed quickly, taking her carefully prepared bag, which she learned to do the night before so the worry of forgetting something was more baseless, and exiting her room. She walked softly on the wooden floor, the lack of light not a bother to her naturally enhanced vision. The eyes trained on her were burning holes on the back of her head, something that did not happen the first few times she tried out this routine. They followed her all the way to the kitchen and she wondered if maybe her father ordered someone specific to wake up and keep watch on her before Ko took over. She wondered if they hated her because they had to do that.
(They wouldn’t be the first.)
She took out the little bench they kept in the kitchen for the branch family children that were still too short to reach the facilities well enough and needed to learn how to cook the basics and climbed on, preparing the rice to be washed. Eimi-san and her helpers only arrived at the kitchen around six, leaving Hinata plenty of time to cook her lunch in peace before waiting in excruciating silence with her father and sister for breakfast to be ready. She knew, on some level, that her father was aware of her cooking without necessity, another way of lowering herself in his eyes, surely, but as long as he didn’t confront her on it, her nerves could be managed enough to enjoy the soothing and repetitive work of cutting vegetables.
The rice didn’t take long to cook, the vegetables were easily sizzled and also incorporated on the omelette and she made enough miso soup that it was set aside for Eimi-san to just add her finishing touches to serve her family. The chicken was a bit trickier, frying on hot oil was not something she was used to and the chopsticks made the maneuvering hard. However, she was unafraid of pain, the oil that hit her hand barely registering on her mind as she cooked the pieces to golden brown. Some were darker than ideal, but she didn’t have time to redo. Looking over all the portions necessary for her task, butterflies started to flutter around her stomach.
Hinata carefully placed her usual wooden bento box on the table with the soft lavender cloth it was usually wrapped in, before doing the same with a much cheaper-looking plastic orange box. She filled both by order of portion, starting with the rice, following with the omelette, then the vegetables and finishing with her slightly charred chicken on top. The soup went into an old thermos with enough for two people. As she mechanically folded her cloth over her box, she stared at the orange bento box by its side.
The bento box she was going to give to Uzumaki Naruto.
Yes, she was going to hand it up to him at lunch time. Unlike the other times she planned to do the same, on this try it was for sure. For once, the idea that Naruto would react positively to it was not based on hope, but on actual facts. There was finally a chance that he would receive the box with a beaming smile and a thank you, not by questioning her loudly on why she was doing that and having the other girls catch on Hinata’s feelings, subsequently leading to years of hellish teasing that-
Breath. She reminded herself as her chest tightened. This time is for sure .
Because she knew Uzumaki Naruto, for whatever reason, wanted to be her friend.
It all started the week before.
Lunch at the ninja academy was always a bag of mixed feelings for Hinata. She didn’t have to interact with her father and sister at the attempt of piecing the sharp shards of her beloved family back together. It always just made her hands bleed, so maybe it was better like this. There was also no chance to meet any Hyuuga council member so they could loom over her with barely disguised threats, definitely a good thing. Even so, although they were a year apart, Hinata had the unfortunate luck of running into Neji. Contrary to popular belief, she genuinely cared for and admired her cousin, as he refused to let his status as a branch family member hinder his potential. She did not, regardless, like the cold glares he offered her nor his cruel words.
Hinata didn’t have any friends to spend lunch with, either. The class divided itself neatly in groups of boys and girls, so the guys didn’t even spare a glance at her. Sometimes she talked to Aburame Shino, a quiet boy that politely asked for the help of her Byakugan to search for a missing bug of his. Other than that, they never approached her. The girls, on the other hand, weren’t exactly mean, but they were… a lot. They talked fast and loud and all over each other and got frustrated when Hinata took more than a minute to articulate her contributions to their conversation. So when they stopped inviting her to play or eat together, she told herself that the feeling in chest was relief.
She settled on a bench on the far corner of the open yard the teacher sent them off to. They used to eat in the classroom, but Mizuki-sensei backed them up when they asked to eat outside when the weather was nice (which was more often than not, in Konoha) and Iruka-sensei folded like a wet paper towel. Her favored bench was under the shadow of a large tree, the wind blowing cooler. Hinata was taking out her bento for that day, a pork gyoza bento with furikakke rice, chikuwa cucumbers and a side salad as she got ready for her favorite pastime: Naruto-watching.
It was always easy to spot him in the courtyard. Naruto, like herself, didn’t have a set group to have lunch with, so everyday was an exercise in trying to fit in one of the already formed ones for him. The massive girl group, led by Yamanaka Ino and her trusty sidekick Haruno Sakura, were his first targets at the beginning of the year, but it quickly ended when Ino got irritated and initiated a shouting match with him. Iruka-sensei expressly forbade him from bothering the girls after that. So usually lunch consisted of him arguing with Sasuke until he stopped eating and gave in to the fight challenge, laughing loudly at a random group of boy’s conversation in hopes they would let him in, or escaping the academy with Nara Shikamaru, Inuzuka Kiba and Akimichi Choji to eat snacks and watch clouds before being dragged back kicking and screaming by Iruka-sensei.
Key word: usually.
Naruto has been… weird, lately. Nothing particularly bad or even noteworthy enough to register to anyone who wasn’t well versed in the contraction that was Uzumaki Naruto. For that reason, Hinata was pretty sure the only people who noticed were her, Iruka-sensei and, surprisingly for anyone but Hinata herself, Uchiha Sasuke. Gone were the days Naruto spent running around the yard, trying to fit in other people’s groups. No, now he sat in his own corner, writing and doodling on a notebook, sometimes even crossing out whole pages and starting all over again. He was by no means quieter, still lively as ever and giggling at whatever he was doing.
He isn’t there yet. Hinata thought, frowning and pausing a gyoza on the way to her mouth. Naruto doesn’t take that long in classroom, what could he-
“Hey, Hinata-chan!” She heard a voice shout in her ear, making her yelp and drop her gyoza on the ground. That voice was... “Ooops, sorry, hehehe. Maybe it’s still good to eat! Five seconds and all!”
Sitting on her lonely bench, illuminated by the single ray of light that broke through the leaves of the tree behind them. He was sitting fairly close considering the size of the bench they were in, body open and leaning towards her direction. She could see a mess of papers and a notebook beside him, along with a pencil and some ready-made onigiri, still unopened. Still smiling, Naruto leaned down and plucked the fallen gyoza, throwing it into his mouth despite the half-aborted noise she made.
“Oh, sorry.” He said, voice muffled by the chewing. “Were you going to eat it? I can-”
He put his hand under his chin and Hinata shook her head furiously, bright red.
“Cool then.” Naruto said, swallowing the rest of the gyoza and picking up a rice ball from his left. “How did you do today in taijutsu?
“What?” She squeaked out. Her head felt weirdly light, as if all of this wasn’t actually happening to her, but to someone else.
“Taijutsu today, Hinata-chan.” He snapped his fingers in front of her, making her face feel even hotter, along with the new honorific. “Man, I think it sucked. Of course I did great, but Sasuke was even worse than usual. What’s up his, anyways?”
Hinata actually had the answer to that question. Ever since Naruto became a lot less, well, boisterous and wanting of attention, Sasuke had started to look visibly bothered by the lack of interactions he now had with the blond. It wasn't like Sasuke was the type to seek him out, so their spats were reduced to class-mandated spars and forced pair projects designed by Iruka-sensei. Hinata didn’t know what their connection was, but Sasuke looked genuinely annoyed with Naruto’s lack of attention on him. Even now, she could feel his glare boring into the back of her head.
“Ahn.” She responded insteaded, eloquently. Still, Naruto beamed.
“Yeah, you're right, it doesn’t matter, he’s just being a prick like always.” He rolled his eyes, taking a bite out of his onigiri. “Thanks, Hinata-chan! Do you- hey, are you okay? You’re reaaaally red.”
As Naruto finished saying that, he placed a hand on her forehead. It was surprisingly cool and she found herself leaning into it before realizing what she was doing and jumping back, falling from the bench. Some people in the courtyard saw and laughed, especially the girls on the other side, and now her face burned with humiliation, too.
“Hinata-chan!” Naruto shouted, leaving his seat to help her get up, grabbing her arm and pulling her up until she could safely sit again. “Are you feeling dizzy? Do you need to go to the nurse? Was it because of the fall you had today?”
He noticed that? She thought, reminiscing on the nasty blunder she had earlier in taijutsu practice against Ino. Kill me now.
“Ngh.” Hinata said, shaking her head. “I-I mean, no, I-I’m fine, N-Naruto-kun.”
“If you say so.” Naruto didn't look fully convinced, but fortunately let it slide. She didn't know how she wouldn’t just explode if he didn’t. “Ino got you good on that one, didn’t she? I thought you wouldn’t get up at all, but you did! And that trick you pulled on her to trip her instead? It was amazing! You’re really cool, Hinata-chan!”
Naruto-kun thinks I’m cool! She thought happily, heart floating away from her chest towards the boy in front of her.
Naruto-kun thinks I’m cool. She thought sadly, he would only be disappointed when he found out that she was anything but. That she tricked him.
“T-thanks, i-it isn’t that h-hard.” Hinata stuttered, gathering all her courage to continue. “I-I can show y-you how s-some time.”
His eyes lit up and she had to forcefully stop herself from swooning.
“Really? You’re the best, Hinata-chan!” He grinned and she tentatively smiled back. “Man, that quiz today sucked, didn’t it?”
The conversation went on for the rest of their lunch time, led by Naruto rambling and answering his own questions most of the time. Hinata nodded along quietly, her inputs reduced to weird noises and flustered grimace-smiles. Naruto didn't seem to mind, though, taking her responses as actually useful answers and going along with them. She was used to his brightness, observing it from afar for sometime now, but it just didn't compare to having it directed to her. It was like staring at the sun and not getting your eyes burned off.
Hinata felt undeserving, almost.
On the next day, she arrived at the academy bone-tired. Yesterday's lunch had thrown her completely off balance and it unfortunately showed in her performance on training that night. Father had been most displeased with that and the bruises on her body demonstrated that pretty well. She thanked all the gods she knew that there was hardly any physical training that day at the academy, just chakra control practice and general studies. Hinata had hardly slept, after all, not only from the pain she was feeling, but also from pondering on what happened.
It was a fluke, probably. Naruto had tried pretty much every group who had lunch on the yard and now it was her turn to be the experiment. Of course Hinata tried her best to stay quiet and not let her meek, dull personality shine through her cracks. But he probably noticed, hadn't he? He wasn't going to come back and she shouldn't expect to have lunch with him that day, either. It was for the best, anyways, the more time Naruto spent with Hinata, the more chances she had to disappoint him.
The higher the height, the harder the fall . Hinata thought, an idiom her mother used to tell her before she-. It doesn't matter.
Hinata avoided his gaze when she entered the classroom and he didn't try to talk to her at all. Disappointment invaded her veins before she could fully stomp it out. It was what she expected, wasn't it? She had been ready for it, it wasn't supposed to hurt this much. Her little heart still squeezed, however, and she had to hold back tears in the middle of math class. Maybe her cousin was right, fate was real and cruel, giving her a taste of one of the things she wanted more than anything in the world only to take it back as quickly as it came.
When lunch time arrived, she slowly took out her packed lunch and headed to her bench. A prospect that looked soothing and inviting only a day ago now looked incredibly lonely. It was fine, Hinata would just-
"Hinata-chan! Oi! Hinata-chan!" A voice broke her out of her thoughts, like a ray of light in the darkness.
Sitting on the bench in the middle of a mess of paper and two cup ramens was Naruto, a beaming smile covering his face. His outburst caught the attention of the whole yard, stares all pining into her. Usually, they would be enough to freeze her in place, but the siren call of the person she admired most was too strong for anything like mild embarrassment to stop her.
"N-Naruto-kun." Hinata said, in slight awe. "You're here."
"I sure am!" He chirped, before his face fell. "Do you want me to go?"
"N-no!" She shouted, sitting down. "S-stay, p-please!"
Hinata choked as she vomited her words, wishing she could take it back. Then, as she pondered on the best way to run, his smile returned, now softer.
"Okay, I will." He said, now taking his papers in hand and trying to organize them. "Did you write your letter already?"
"M-my letter? Uh, no."
"I have been writing mine for days now! There's just so much I want to say but Iruka-sensei says I should control myself and not send, like, ten pages of writing. Gaara says it would be fine, but Iruka-sensei says he won't even correct it!"
Hinata blinked owlishly. "G-Gaara?"
"Yeah, my pen pal! He's the best!" Naruto gushed and she noted that he had never seemed so happy, not even when talking about ramen or becoming Hogake. "He's really smart and nice. He's our age, but he doesn't train at the academy, he trains at home, cause he has this super strong bloodline. Gaara is soooo cool!"
"H-he sounds nice." She stuttered, a little shocked.
Hinata's relationship with her own penpal was impersonal, at best. Most of the other people she heard talk about it would agree with her assessment, none of her classmates were enjoying this program. Except, apparently, Naruto himself. In hindsight, his weird behaviour started around the time the pen pal program picked up. Staying behind to study with Iruka-sensei, writing on notebooks during class and channeling his energy into things like that weren't his usual, but it somehow suited him. She didn't know Gaara at all, but felt strangely grateful to him.
"He is." Naruto said fondly. "He's really fun, you know? He likes to draw a lot and he's really good at it. And he likes plants, like me, he has some really cool cacti."
"Y-you like plants?" She stammered and he looked taken back.
"Yeah, why?"
"I r-really like g-gardening!" Hinata said, poking her index fingers together.
Naruto's eyes lit, if possible, even further. "Really?"
"Y-yeah! I like t-to grow t-them to do f-flower p-pressing." She said excitedly, energy holding back her stutter from its usual performance.
"I never did that, but Ayame-chan does, it's really pretty! I bet yours are pretty too, Hinata-chan!" Naruto slurped on one of his ramen cups and then asked her, mouth full: "Which one is your fave?"
"I-I like h-hydrangeas the b-best! T-they only c-come out d-during rainy s-season, but they're really p-pretty!"
"Yeah, I think so too!" Naruto's smile was so wide that it looked like it hurt. But it was kind, not mocking or cold, and Hinata felt her chest fill with so much warmth that it was a wonder her heart didn't melt.
Hinata smiled back, face flushing.
On the third day, Naruto waved at her first thing in the morning.
"Hinata-chan!" He greeted on the classroom, sitting beside her. No child complained about their kissing place, avoiding Naruto always seemed to set them at ease.
They have no idea what they're missing . Hinata thought, angrily.
"G-good morning, N-Naruto-kun."
“Wanna have lunch together again today?” He asked, sounding casual, but she recognized the way his shoulders were set.
Silly Naruto-kun . She thought, holding back a giggle. As if I would ever say no .
“O-of course!” She chirped back, gathering all her confidence to send him a smile.
She was rewarded with a time-stopping beam, so she could say it was worth it.
Naruto spent the whole class passing her notes filled with silly drawings and mocking commentary of the material they were studying. He was forced to stop after the third class, when Iruka-sensei gave him a good scolding for “bothering his desk mate”. Naruto pouted and rolled his eyes, but apparently did as he was told. Hinata would have even believed him, if not for the single drawing of a hydrangea that was pressed in her hand. It was shaky and the ink was runny. She would cherish it forever. As lunch time came, they eagerly got up from their seats and hurriedly left the classroom. Hinata felt like she was flying.
She should have remembered their upperclassmen were having training near them, she was usually better than that.
“Hinata-sama.” She heard a cold voice greet her and her whole being froze. “You look happy today.”
She opened her mouth and no sound came out.
“Hey! You have the same eyes!” Naruto said by her side. He sounded far away, as if they were underwater. “Are you her brother?”
“Who is this?” The cold voice said, before taking a mocking turn. “A friend of Hinata-sama’s?”
“Yeah, I am!” Naruto said proudly and she finally gathered enough strength.
“T-this is m-my cousin, N-Neji-nii-san. Nii-san, this is N-Naruto-kun.” She introduced, heart trying to climb out of her throat.
“Nice to meet you.” Her friend (?) said, surprisingly polite. Neji sneered, opening his mouth to say something probably cutting. This time, however, she had a guardian angel.
“Nice to meet you too!” TenTen, another upperclassman that was always around Neji, cut in. She grabbed Neji’s arm, dragging him away, and he grudgingly let her. “We have to go now, but it was really a pleasure.”
“Same!” Naruto said, turning to her, mouth open to say another thing, and then his face fell. “Hey, you okay? You look pale.”
“F-fine.” She choked out, heading to the door. “L-let's have l-lunch.”
They sat down silently, Naruto taking out his rice balls and her organizing her bento.
“Sooo, what’s up with you guys’ eyes?” He asked, munching on a tuna rice ball.
“W-what?” Hinata stuttered, genuinely surprised. Of all the questions he could ask, that wasn’t one of them.
“You guys have these all-white eyes. I thought it was only you and you were, I don’t know, blind. But there's this guy that comes to pick you up and he also has eyes like that! And your cousin too!” Naruto said, throwing his arms around. “So what’s with your eyes?”
“I-it’s my bloodline, B-Byakugan. I-Iruka-sensei explained i-it in c-class.” She said, even though she knew Naruto skipped that class (it was the only reason she didn’t faint when the teacher had her demonstrate it to the class).
“Hehe, I think I missed it.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “What does it do?”
“I-I can s-see through a-any object when I-I activate i-it.” Hinata said, squirming. “I-I’m not the best in i-it, but…”
“That’s so cool, Hinata-chan!”
She paused. “Y-you really t-think s-so?”
“Of course! I wish I had something like that.” Naruto whined.
Hinata lived in a clan where the Byakugan was given, everyone had it and she wasn’t particularly talented in it. Hearing someone say hers was cool was… different. A good different. They ate quietly for a few minutes, before Naruto turned to her again.
“Wanna prank the teacher’s lounge? It’ll cheer you up.”
She considered it for about half a second.
“S-sure.”
The fourth day started with an enraged Iruka-sensei bursting into the classroom, covered in dark blue powder. Hinata managed to hold back her laugh, but her classmates were not so courteous.
“Naruto!” He screamed, pointing at him. That prompted a cloud of powder to dissipate over the first row. Haruno Sakura started to cough. “I know it was you! I don’t know how you did so many places at once, but I know one of them was you! Where’s your accomplice?!”
Accomplice.
Hinata froze. She wasn’t bothered by the idea of participating in one of Iruka-sensei’s punishments, they were always lax and mostly educational. But the idea of her father finding out she acted out in the academy was numbening.
Naruto, however, never hesitated.
“Nope, it was all me, Iruka-sensei.” He rose from seat, going down the stairs until he was right in front of their teacher and putting his right hand in his pocket, picking out more powder and blowing it on his face. “Did you like it?”
From the shade of purple Iruka-sensei’s face turned into, Hinata would say that cleaning the entire teacher’s lounge during lunch time was a mild punishment at best.
“Sorry I won’t have lunch with you today.” Naruto whispered to her during second period, grinning sheepishly at Iruka-sensei when he got a glare.
It 's okay . Hinata wrote back in a note, with a doodle of a cup ramen on it. Naruto smiled and pocketed it in his jacket, closest to his heart.
“I-Iruka-sensei.” Hinata called out for her teacher as Mizuki-sensei escorted Naruto to his punishment.
“Yes, Hinata?” He said, looking confused. Probably because she avoided talking as much as she could.
“C-can I help N-Naruto-kun with his c-cleaning?” She stammered out and he frowned.
“Hinata, that’s his punishment. Why would you even want to do that?”
“P-please, s-sensei.”
Iruka-sensei’s eyes widened. Hinata knew she never pleaded nor asked for anything. Hyuugas didn’t ask, her father said, they took. At least the ones of her station did. But thinking about Naruto missing lunch all by himself because of something she also took part in, she didn’t care about her father at all.
“P-please.” She repeated and whatever Iruka-sensei saw in her eyes made him fold.
“Just this once.” He said, opening his desk’s drawer and handing her a rag.
The look on Naruto’s face when he saw her coming in was priceless.
By the fifth day, she was kidnapped by ten girls and taken to a hallway corner.
Their hands were small, like hers, and all of them smelled like fake flowers pressed together and combined into a sickly sweet scent. Nothing that should remind her of the worst night of her life, when she turned three, but their fingers still felt like they were digging into her skin and burning her and the world was going gray.
“Hey, let her go, I thought I told you to be gentle!” She heard a familiar voice scold. The hands let her go and she huddled into the corner, someone approaching her. The new person smelled like flowers, real ones. “Hey, Hinata, you okay? Breath with me. In, out. See? It 's easy. In, out.”
Soon, she felt like she could breathe again and her vision focused. The first thing her eyes caught ws gentle blue eyes, followed by blonde hair. Yamanaka Ino.
“Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you, this was just supposed to be a girl’s intervention.” Ino explained softly, smile sweet. “We just wanted to ask: is Naruto bothering you?”
“Uh.” Hinata said intelligently, but Ino went on.
“I know we’re not really friends, but we’ve all been there. We know how Naruto is, so it’s okay if you need help to get rid of him.” She said, grinning now. “Girls stick together, huh?”
Hinata knew, in fact, that girls did not stick together.
“N-Naruto-kun is m-my f-friend.” She cut off before Ino could go into a tangent.
The girls behind her burst out into outrage, as if her mere words didn’t make sense. Ino and Sakura, who was beside her as always, shared a glance that seemed to speak too much to say out loud.
“Okay, if you say so.” Ino said, nodding at her and turning around. “Let’s go, girls, we have a picnic to eat.”
The chatter stopped and they all followed their queen bee dutifully. Hinata was left alone in the hall to gather herself. She would later get up and meet Naruto, apologize for her tardiness and let him read the letter he would be sending to Gaara that afternoon out aloud to her. She would smile and laugh and comment about how cool his pen pal was. But for now, she just sat on the cold floor, drifting.
Weekend came and Hinata’s chest felt incredibly hollow.
She usually didn’t mind the weekend. Sure, the academy was a reprieve from her stifling household, but it was still her house and she shuddered at the idea of leaving little Hanabi there all by herself. It wasn’t like the academy was a place full of fond memories for her, either. This time, however, she missed loud laughs and rants about Gaara and his sister Temari and bright blue eyes and fast gestures. She missed Naruto.
Was he having lunch in his house? A homemade one, maybe? Did he even know how to cook? He had to do it himself, since he didn’t have a guardian. Looking back, he always had convenience store food. He wasn’t feeding himself right, he would never grow if he kept that up. That’s fine, Hinata had more than enough food, she could make him a bento, she could find courage in herself to give it to him. She could help a friend that helped her so much. So when her father hit her as hard as usual in training or when Neji-nii-san sneered at her in the halls, she didn’t let herself drift away. She would stay where she was and would make it to monday. For her friend.
“H-here.” She managed to say, head bowed and eyes watering.
“Hinata-chan? What 's this?” Naruto said, confusion in his voice.
“I-I made a b-bento for y-you.” Hinata held out the orange bento, covered in a soft white cloth.
“I… You didn’t have to do that.” He sounded oddly subdued and it prompted her to raise her head and look into his shocked eyes.
“I-I wanted t-to.” She said, swallowing a lump in her throat. Did he not like it? “T-that’s what f-friends do, r-right?”
To her surprise, his eyes watered.
“Yeah…” He choked out, taking the bento. “Thanks, Hinata-chan. It 's great.”
“Y-you didn’t e-even e-eat it y-yet.” She giggled.
Naruto grinned. “But Hinata-chan made it, that’s how I know.”
He ate the entire bento while telling her how his gardening weekend with Ayame-chan went.
Hinata listened quietly, basking in the sound of her friend’s voice.