My Right Hand (a NaruHina FanFiction)

Chapter 3: Bento

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 his sake.

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.

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"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.