Naruto's answer was, "When I was paying just now, sand got into my eyes."
Hinata thought to herself, Men, men—they really understand. If you put on an act yourself, you have to see it through with tears in your eyes.
Everything that had happened that day kept Hinata amused for quite a long time.
And ever since that day, Naruto always went out of his way to avoid Hinata. Even when Hinata occasionally took the initiative to chat with him, Naruto wore the tense expression of a disposable ally talking to an enemy boss.
Whenever there was a class gathering, Naruto made his stance crystal clear: if Hinata was there, he wasn't. It even made many of their classmates think Naruto had suffered a mental breakdown.
Ino Yamanaka of the Yamanaka Clan, who specialized in mental matters, enthusiastically gave Naruto an examination, but found nothing wrong. The sharp-minded Shikamaru realized that Naruto might have gone through something.
He quickly pointed out that Hinata had also been involved in Naruto's incident. Hinata rolled her eyes and thought, My appetite already scared Naruto half to death. I wonder who the next victim will be.
But she said aloud, "Naruto became like this after treating me to ramen. Maybe I ate a little too much!"
Everyone present gave Naruto the middle finger. Treating a girl to a meal and ending up like this? They all felt Naruto was being far too stingy.
But Naruto truly had no way to voice his suffering. He wanted to tell them the truth, but for the sake of his pride, he chose to endure it.
Hinata, the great Demon King, nearly failed to hold back her laughter. After seeing Naruto's expression at the time, she had taken advantage of his petrified state to eat another five bowls.