"God! That took a while," Naurto muttered in exhaustion as he came out of the toilet, pulling his pants up.
Massaging his stomach that still felt a bit disturbed, he went to the water point to drink some water. The half-hour-long toilet break had almost depleted him of his fluids.
Bending down the water tap, he turned it open and swallowed the fresh water that came out of it.
"Not bad." Naruto nodded as the cold water settled in his stomach. It made his stomach feel better.
'Guess I'll have to fill my stomach with water only this afternoon,' Naruto thought as he bent down again and kept swallowing one mouthful of water after another.
He didn't realise that since he had arrived, a person had been waiting behind him for their turn to fill water in their bottle.
"Uhm....N-naruto," She finally gathered her courage and called him out after a couple of minutes had passed.
'H-huh?' Surprised, Naruto turned around and saw Hinata's figure waiting behind him.
"H-hinata? What are you doing here?" Naruto asked in shock. He never felt her presence this whole time.
"I-I wanted to f-fill water," Hinata answered in both a shy and embarrassed manner as a subtle pink hue formed on her face.
If it were before, Naruto would have just ignored this subtle shift in her face's colour, thinking that Hinata was just being her usual self.
However, after hearing Sasuke's words, how could he still remain oblivious to her subtle actions?
'Is she for real?' Naruto's eyes widened in shock and surprise as an inexplicable feeling rose within him.
Hinata didn't notice Naruto's reaction as she was staring at the ground, not daring to look him in the eye.
Realising that he was making Hinata wait for way too long, Naruto finally responded, "Y-yes, sorry about that, you can fill your bottle."
Naruto moved aside while keeping his eyes on Hinata.
Nodding her head, she stepped forward and filled her water. However, her body tremored from time to time because of nervousness.
The reason? Naruto was blatantly staring at him from the side.
While normal people would be unable to notice him because of their lower field of vision but members of the Hyuga clan naturally had a much wider field of vision, even when they had not activated their Byakugan.
Hence, she was clearly able to see Naruto staring at her blankly from the side.
'W-why is he staring at me so much...' The question kept ringing up in her mind, as Naruto normally would just ignore her.
It was the first time something like this was happening, and her pale white face started turning more and redder with each passing time.
'Does he want me to ask him something....' She thought, but immediately removed that idea because of her nervousness.
'...but what if he starts hating me if I didn't say anything now?' Hinata bit her lips lightly as this thought entered her mind.
Noticing that her bottle was filled, she closed its lid and then turned towards Naurto and faced him.
'Hm?' Naruto wasn't expecting her to do that, and his eyebrows raised a little.
"W-why were you drinking so much water?" Hinata asked with great struggle. Just talking this much had raised her nervousness to its peak, but she did that as she didn't want Naruto to have a bad opinion of her.
"T-that...well, my stomach's upset all of a sudden, so I decided to ditch lunch and fill my stomach with water," Naruto stated in an embarrassed manner while scratching the back of his head.
"Oh!" Hinata's expression brightened the very next moment, and her right hand reached towards her pocket.
She soon took out a few white pills, which were wrapped in paper and gave them to Naruto.
"Take one...it will help," She said while handing it out to Naruto.
Seeing the pills, Naruto frowned a little but decided to eat one. The moment he swallowed it, a cool sensation spread in his stomach.
"Woah! It works! My whole stomach feels as if it has just been cleaned," Naruto exclaimed in excitement.
Seeing this, Hinata couldn't help but feel glad and smiled brightly.
Naruto's face froze the next second. He had never noticed how Hinata looked when she smiled, and now that he was also aware that she had feelings for him, he couldn't help but develop a red blush on his face as well.
Seeing the sudden change in Naruto's demeanour, Hinata couldn't help but show a subtle frown.
Cough!
Not wanting her to ask any more questions, Naruto immediately coughed and changed the topic.
"Those pills work great!" Naruto gave the pills back to Hinata and continued, "Do you always keep them with you?"
Hearing Naruto's words, Hinata was about to respond, but soon a realisation dawned on her face, and in an embarrassed manner, she said, "S-sorry, but I have to go... my team would be waiting for me!"
With that, she turned around and hurried towards the classroom.
Due to her frequent bouts of nervousness, it was normal for her to suffer from diarrhoea as well. However, she was too embarrassed to mention this to Naruto and immediately decided to run away from there.
"Hmm?..." Seeing her rushing like that, Naruto frowned a little but soon exclaimed, "Shit! I'll be late as well if I don't hurry and follow after Hinata, whose figure had long disappeared,"