Naruto 1. Prologue: Downpour

_Hello! If this is your first time reading Dark and Weird, I hope you stick with it. If this isn't you may notice the difference in the first three chapters. I've rewritten them and polished them a little, so I hope it's a more enjoyable read for you now! Let me know what you think, as reviews fuel my will to keep writing. But more importantly, enjoy the (kinda canon ;) ) story!_

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><p><strong>Drip. Drop.<strong>

The droplet curls and drips fluidly onto the dirt in front of the girl, splashing and joining the puddles that are congregating rapidly. It's only after a few more moments that she realises that some of the liquid is not just rain falling from the sky but the drip drops of tears running down her face. Blinking her amethyst eyes hurriedly, she tries to stem the flow of pain and anguish. Gently, she rubs her hands together, to try and get some heat flowing through her cold extremities. The rain continues to gently patter off the buildings and trees around the shivering girl, sparkling to reflect the grey light that dully illuminates the area around her.

**Drip. Drop.**

A small sob escapes her lips and she gasps, as if it was possible to have pulled it back and contained all the hurt that it contained. How many times was she warned that if she followed this path it would only lead to here? On how many occasions was she told of the ridiculousness of trying to complete this goal? Time after time, she had assured every one of her sureness. Of how sure she was that everything would turn out alright because it was fated that way and if fate wouldn't play into her hands, that she would play hard ball? Those words that she was so sure of sound so hollow, so empty now. By now, the slow drip of tears from her pale eyes has started to turn into a steady flow.

**Drip. Drop.**

Images pass through her eyes. The calamitous explosion, the deafening silence that followed it. Seeing him, standing so proudly there, only to realise just how late he was. The look of shock as he saw everything he loved flattened to the ground, the strewn bodies of those who weren't lucky enough. The memory brings a tear to her own eyes as she remembers her own bubbling emotions, fear for her clan, her family, her friends. Unable to know who'd made it in the mess. It is then that the worse parts of the memory start to flow out. _Seeing him fighting so valiently, beating down so many of the enemy, taking out the different Paths of Pein only to be struck down. Stabbed. Bars stretching through his body. The sudden realisation that her feet are moving as she bolts down the crater, not even thinking about her own limitations, only desperate to save him. That indefinite white noise, the urge to save him, save him from this nightmare. Standing face to face with the orange haired body of Pein, and being chilled to the core from that horrifying emptiness. There is no life behind those eyes, no humanity. Then the pain struck. Standing valiantly, being struck down with little effort. Rising with blood, scarlet and shining, dripping down her forehead, struggling to raise her shaking hands, to keep her guards up. Weightlessness. Heaviness. The ground biting into her flesh, crushing hard and unrelenting. The crawl. The agonising crawl. And the stabbing pain as the bar plunged into her._ She opens her eyes, and feels the cool combination of rain cooling the burning heat from her tears and cheeks.

**Drip. Drop.**

_Who are you?_ The thought flitters past her mind's eye, swirling around, and calming the chaos. Is she the hopeless romantic whose entire life revolves around one extremely enigmatic individual, one who is sought after, and romanced by women all through the city? Another sob. Is she just the heiress to the clan, the disgraced one who shamed the entire family, the one who couldn't even maintain the balance between the branch and head families? A hiccuped, half choked-back cough. The question screams at her, like a whirlwind, and she feels the flow of tears stop.

Hyuuga Hinata.

She is Hinata. She want to be a powerful kunoichi. She wants to show the village her true prowess. And she'll show him that she's worth it. With that convincing train of thought, she strides out from the spot underneath the tree and walk towards the Hyuuga compound. There are some things she needs to think about, long and hard.


	2. Chapter 1: Distracted

The morning breeze rustles through her hair, brushing locks across her face as she stands upon a wrecked wall, staring over the massive crater that has become such an integral part of the new construction of Konohagakure. The people of the village scurry back and forth, moving building materials, clearing rubble. Fortunately, no one has to clear bodies away, thanks to the final sacrifice of the individual who went by the name of Pein, whose name was revealed to be Nagato. She sighs a little, and a jolt of pain runs through her body, still in agony from the battering that she took. Even with Haruno Sakura's impressive healing skills, she's still going to be left with a few minute scars, and the pain is still there in her muscles, joints that creak a little bit more than they used to and patches that ache much more than they used to. Sakura told her that it would be gone within a month, but insisted that the Hyuuga take it slowly until then.

She slowly works her way down to the ground, stopping a few agonising times as the aches creak through her body. The feeling of uselessness teeters on the edge of the girl's consciousness. Years of being told about her uselessness has taken its toll on her self-esteem, not to mention her emotional state. Nameless faces pass her by, and all she hear is his name. For years, he was the topic of disgust, the scorned child that was loathed by all, and now he's the talk of the town? The hero that everyone needed. Is this the recognition he sought for all those years? All of the times he was thrown to the ground, rejected, and screamed about how he'd be recognised, was this really what he wanted?

"Did you see him do it? It was incredible!"

"No, but he's kind of dreamy, isn't he? Those blue eyes, and that big smile?"

She furrows her brows and continues to walk onwards, her head dipping slightly lower than before. She sighs inwardly, the little wind taken from her sails. Now that all these women have realised his potential, he'll never notice her, he'll never see her like she sees him. The gloom runs deep, and she continues to slowly walk until out of the blue, someone grabs her arm with a shock of blonde hair and a big grin. Her heart drops, until she realises the owner of the hand is not who she originally thought. Facing her is none other than Yamanaka Ino, one of her fellow members of the Rookie 9, very renowned as the village gossip.

"Hinata! It's been a while, how are you?" Her smile is cheeky and Hinata know exactly what she's going to be asking about. She warily returns her smile and slightly dips her head.

"Hello, Ino-San. I have been better, to be honest." The Hyuuga girl refuses to break her composure but feels a bit of a shimmer of emotion flit across her face. Internally she cringes, feeling frustration at her own inability to avoid wearing her emotions on her sleeve.

The flash of recognition within Ino's eyes shows that she didn't miss it and she moves on it instantly. She feels her hands suddenly around her arms dragging her inside the makeshift shelter that Ino's obviously been staying in. She shunts the Hyuuga down into a chair, pushing her into the cheap table and starts to clatter around in the background. Whilst people like Neji are quick, Ino in the mood for gossip was a force to be reckoned with, a truly frightful thing. A grin splits her face as she retrieves her tea set from the cupboard, and brings it over to the table. As she moves haphazardly around the room, she starts to babble out things.

"So Hinata, is this about the big hero of the village? Our champion? Isn't he just fabulous, I never knew just how much potential that he had? It's really incredible" She halts for a second and suddenly turns to look at her, her shining blues eyes piercing into the amethyst eyes of the other girl. A sly smile spreads across her face and she moves down and leans on the table, "But I don't need to tell you that do I?" That smile has so many levels to it. _It's a bit like looking into the maw of a wild animal that is deciding whether it wants to bite straight into you or whether it can make you scream a little first, _she muses internally.

"Um, yes. Naruto-kun is a very talented shinobi and we are very lucky to have him at our side," she quietly mumbles, feeling a very deep urge to bolt away. Even saying his name has brought a deep flush of burning to her cheeks, and she ducks her head in an attempt to avoid Ino's gaze, but she can almost hear the satisfaction as the blonde speaks again.

"Ah yes, you've had quite the crush on him, haven't you Hinata?" That coy smile again. It's frustrating Hinata immensely, as well as bringing deeper and deeper shades of purple to her face. And before she even gets a chance to say anything in response, "So, how did telling him about said crush go for you, hm?"

Just like that, the universe comes to a jarring halt and Hinata feels her heart drop through the floor, and the noise in the background dies out completely. "H-how did you? W-who?" Her words stumble out of her mouth, her persistent stutter coming back in full force as she struggles to process how the other girl knows, how she could even know about it when no-one but he was close enough to hear it? Would she have told people? Had Hinata misjudged his entire personality, let her own feelings for him, to blot out his own shortcomings? Was her whole confession misguided?

She feels a shiver through her and she starts to shake and tremble as emotions battle it out inside her, threatening to break the floodgates and flow down her face. However, something stops the girl and she fights back against that urge to cry. "Ino-san, how did you know about what I said to Naruto-kun?" Inside, she screams at herself, begging for the answer to not be said, not ready to hear. Ino waves her hand nonchalantly, and with a shrug answers the question.

"Oh, Sakura told me about it. She heard you when you made your dramatic final stand, and how you told him just how much you love him. So is it true, then?" She sits down and looks at the raven-haired girl, curiosity in her eyes, all thoughts of making tea forgotten. "I'm assuming from the way you look that you want to kill me that it is." Hinata plants her face into her hands in frustration. If Sakura told Ino, then one can almost put money on the fact that half the village would know, including members of Hinata's own clan. The embarrassment is incredible right now and the blushing girls wishes she could just hide away and never be seen again. It's with great effort that she manages to drag back her thoughts to the topic at hand, because she's been quiet for the best part of a few minutes now.

"I do love Naruto-kun. I used to think it was just a crush but the older I've gotten, the more I've realised just how deep my feelings run for him." A small sob runs past her pale lips. "He didn't even respond, he just slipped into that state and rampaged after Nagato. Even now, a month after it, I haven't heard anything from him." Tears trickle down her soft skin and she grits her teeth and swipes at them, attempting to stop this emotional outburst. The sudden outburst changes Ino's attitude completely, and she goes from gossipy mode to supportive without so much as a word, rushing to the other girl's side, knocking over her chair in the process, hugging her into her chest tightly.

"Oh Hinata, I'm so sorry. He's so oblivious that he probably forgot about it all in the commotion after his fight, and the current rebuilding effort has probably distracted him enough that he couldn't even tie his shoes if he didn't hate having cold feet." Somehow, her words seem to cut through and cheer her up a little bit and she looks at Ino, and the longing in her eyes must have been evident. The warmth and comfort cheers Hinata up a little, and she shudders a bit before straightening. Smiling a bit more, Ino moves back to her overturned seat and looks at the Hyuuga with a new look on her face, one that almost seems introspective?

"Remind me, what was your nindō?" The words roll of her tongue slowly, with a curious tone to them. That look in her eye shows that she was clearly ramping up to something big, something that would probably help Hinata to get out of this emotional crisis. Whilst Ino is very well known for her trouble making, many of their peer group will go to her for advice, simply because of her ability to cut through the nonsense and give insightful advice. Of course, sometimes her tendency for trying to get couples together did cause some less than altruistic advice to be given on her part, but that only happened a few times, with quite disastrous results for all involved and a 400 ryo tab at Ramen Ichiraku.

"I never go back on word, I will never run away," and as those familiar words exit her mouth, she starts to realise where she's taking this, and the nodding of Ino's head shows that this is exactly what she wanted to hear.

"Exactly. Are you going to just turn away and run from your feelings? Go back on your word and just give up?" The words stab into Hinata and the tears start to stop their flow, stop and disappear and she lifts her head upright to look deep into Ino's, whilst taking a deep, shuddery breath. Memories of all the promises come to mind; how she swore to grow as a shinobi, to bring her abilities to the forefront and show her family that she was worth any of their praise, that she is worth being looked at favourably, the drive to perfect her Gentle Step techniques and to truly be able to hold her own in a fight with her father. All of these small goals that she'd forgotten about whilst pushing to try and get Naruto to acknowledge her start to make her realise just how unfocussed she was.

Whilst she is no longer the weak and scared girl that she was during the Chūnin Exams, she is making the choice to no longer going to be the damsel in distress. If she wants to walk alongside Naruto, and not at his back, she's going to have to work harder than she ever has up until this point, and keep on working until everyone acknowledges just how hard she's worked and just how far she's come. Standing dramatically, she leans over and grab Ino's hands.

"Thank you, Ino-San!" The happiness in her voice is evident as she feels a surge of excitement run through her, and she beams broadly. Ino seems caught up in the other girl's infectious excitement, and more than a little puzzled considering that Hinata basically just had an epiphany in front of her without stating said epiphany.

"Uh, you're welcome?" Ino looks bemused as the Hyuuga girl rushes away towards the training grounds, so caught up in her rush that she doesn't even notice a certain orange clad shinobi staring at her. She definitely doesn't notice the light flush on his neck as he smiles a little, and the girl most certainly does not notice him being surprised by Ino, and the look of amusement, and sinister grin on her face as she drags him into her shack. All the smiling Hyuuga girl can see right now is the faces of her cousin and father, and him, smiling at her, welcoming her into their arms and telling you how proud they are. As she runs, a small tear runs down her face, but it goes unnoticed.


	3. Chapter 2: Sweat

_Hey guys, I'd like to thank you for the positive feedback I've received so far! Thanks to Aliasin, MYK-ON and luzhikari for favouriting this train wreck and thanks to those who followed as well! I'm going to be aiming for slightly longer chapters from here on, so I hope you stick around and enjoy the ride!_

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><p>Hair flies around Hinata in an oddly blue halo, making her look like a frustrated, furious angel, attempting to smash apart the clay targets in front of her. The shattering pieces fly around, disintegrating into a million fragments and the shards rain down around her, a few actually slashing scratches over her arms. Frustration clouds her vision and she ferociously stomps on one of the intact targets that flew off its perch in the flurry, grinding it into oblivion. It's not often that she allows her anger to get the better of her, but this training has really pushed her taijutsu to its upper limits, even though she still can't seem to quite catch up to Neji, as much as she'd wish. He's been supervising the training in his spare time, and whilst he hasn't given so much in the way of compliments, he's been frowning a lot less, and criticizing her movements far less. Once, she could even swear that she saw a glimmer of a smile, but he might have just been stretching his facial muscles out a little. The thought of Neji actually smiling brings a flicker of one to her own face, and reenergizes her to continue the difficult training.<p>

Grabbing the nearby box of clay targets, she empties them out onto the ground and realises with growing dismay that today's training may be cut short, as she's already used most of the practice targets. Plotting it out carefully, she realises that she can utilise all of the remaining targets, as well as set herself a new challenge. A quick set up later, she finds herself facing a new layout of targets. A few of the targets are a big further away, encouraging her to attempt to use the Eight Trigrams Vacuum Palm technique, but up to this point she's been a bit touch and go using it, tending to merely blow the target around a little and not really smashing it into infinitesimal pieces like when Neji does. Teeth scratching and grinding together, she takesher stationary position, and carefully sink into the Jyuken position that complements the Hyuuga bloodline so intrinsically. Quietly activating her Byakyugan, she takes a deep breath in and out. The clay moulds have been set up so that they have a small group of veins through them similar to the tenketsu in the body of shinobi. Hitting the target anywhere but the tenketsu will cause it to spin and fall over but not smash. Getting her hands in position, she allows her muscle to relax, before she pushes forwards, and a small force flies from palms and strikes the target, to her glee.

However, her aim must have been slightly off, because the target didn't crack, merely flipping over and spinning around, before falling flat. A whisper of a curse plays around on the tip of her tongue before she claps her hand to her mouth, shocked that such a thing would even come to her usually pure thoughts. Maybe all the time she's spent thinking about a certain boy has led her to get to such a point that his own habits are starting to rub off on her a little. That niggling voice in the back of her head complains about how she really wishes that he'd take some of her traits on, but she mentally swats it down and focusses back in on the training. He'd be disappointed if she let something as mundane as romance to get in the way of her nindō, and the urge comes back through her. Sinking tightly into the Jyuken, she launches another Vacuum Palm at another target hoping for a more positive result and from the onset it already feels stronger than the last. She's almost certain that the attack was pretty much spot on with her aim this time. Deactivating it, she rushes over to the fallen clay and quickly scans the surface for any sign of cracking, a hairline fracture, anything.

When she sees it, she almost squeals.

A tiny crack runs from the centre to the right hand corner, and a small chip is evident from where the tiny tenketsu point lies in the upper left part of the centre. _I did it! _Glee fills her and she jumps around in happiness, overjoyed to finally be making some progress on the once near-impossible technique.

Her gleeful dancing, however, is cut short by the arrival of her older cousin, who has something between a bemused smirk, and a look of disappointment etched on his face. Eyes wide, she looks at him, hoping to finally hear some form of praise, but that's not quite what comes out of his mouth:

"If you flay your wrists out more, there'll be more output to the thrust. It'll create far more force that you are right now with your current sloppy form."

She frowns, and furrows her eyebrows a little, disappointed that he couldn't even give her the smallest of credit for the accomplishment. Then again, if she'd expected an overnight change from Neji, she would also expect to see Sasuke dancing in a ball gown and Shino to be anointed as the Hokage. For some reason that last one gets in her head and makes her stifle a chuckle, producing a raised eyebrow from Neji. He shakes his head, and sits down on a nearby wood log, clearly getting settled in to watch the rest of the training session. A few beads of sweat roll down her forehead, and she flicks them off with a hand. There's absolutely no way she can afford to slack now that Neji has decided to watch this, Hinata resolves to push as hard as she possibly can.

Several hours later, the beads of sweat has turned into heavy soaking dew that covers her entire body, filming heavily over her face, and dripping off. She stopped trying to wipe it off after a while, mainly because Neji had refused to give her time enough to do that, rather pushing her harder, shouting about how if she didn't improve her stamina, she'd never be a good branch head, despite her various protests about just that. Even with her insistence about breaking down the barriers between the branches, he simply shook his head and insisted that even if that happened (and his tone seemed to suggest that he doubted the likelihood of that), she'd still need to be strong enough to defend the honour of the clan. Unfortunately, she'd conceded on that point, and thus he'd pushed her as hard as he'd ever done in some of their joint training sessions. Aches have spread across her entire body like a vicious rash, and her eyes are straining, the overuse of the Byakyugan starting to leave its mark on her, causing everything to blur and haze, as if she's wandered into the midst of a heavy fog.

His eyebrow twitches as he realises that he's pushed her beyond her limit, and he jumps down next to her, catching her as she slumps. Her Byakyugan deactivates as exhaustion sets in and she shakes a little from the chakra overuse, but what she sees in front of her blurring eyes makes it all worth it. The tiniest of smiles breaks Neji's hardened face.

"That was well done Hinata-sama. You've certainly come a long way." The slight difference in his usually so abrupt tone is enough to bring a tear to her eyes. It might not be the complete acknowledgement that she's seeking, but at least it's progress from what she's gotten previously. She's about to respond when he continues: "But you're still giving up too easily, even with your determination. You need to be training every day, to this degree if you want to improve your abilities. It isn't something that you can do once or twice a week. You need to be out here every day, shattering those targets, throwing kunai, practicing with shuriken, whatever you can do to train up all of your facets." His pale eyes boar into hers as he holds her straight, unwavering in his speech, "Your skills with Ninjutsu still need work, and you lack the strength to make your Taijutsu really hit hard, though the improvement with your technique is noticeable. Genjutsu has never been your specialty but your abilities to recognise and cast it have seemed to overlapped mine. Choose what to work on carefully, Hinata-sama." With that particularly dramatic line, he walks off without another word. He's never been one to waste words, even when he started to open up to her a little more. Sighing, she stands up slowly and collects up what's left of the equipment, and start walking back towards the town.

As she walks along through the village, watching people quietly going about their day to day, Hinata begins to muse quietly. In the months that have passed since the Invasion of Pain, the rebuilding has gradually built up to a point where people have started to settle in places other than the community hall that was built to memorialise the struggle that the village has gone through. A few of the clans still are staying in the hall until their clan's buildings can be completely rebuilt to match their former glory, her own family included, although they seem quite offended by the way that they're bundled together with all of the "lesser" clans. Hanabi in particular got into quite a few conflicts early on, due to the fact that her assertive personality led her to try and beat anyone who would ask her to do something for them. _She's really grown up a bit_, Hinata thinks, with a small smile on her face. The smile is wiped from her face when she realises the implications of Hanabi becoming a strong woman, means that she'd be a stronger leader for the clan. Past insecurities start to slowly claw up at her throat, but she forces them down. She's repeatedly said that she won't look back and she's not about to start right now.

Walking through the village usually brings her an inner sense of calm, and she relishes any chance that she can get to enjoy it. Since Ino told her about people knowing about the confession to Naruto, she's come the target of more sideways looks, more strangers whispering behind their hands. The gossip spread through the town and while her family completely disregarded it (_A Hyuuga loving a commoner, a jinchuuriki no less? Bah, nonsense_), others had started to take it with some credence. She still hadn't been able to talk to him about the whole thing, but she's kept her frustration down by throwing herself at her training. However, it seems that the universe has different plans for her today, because a very orange-clad ninja is currently moving towards her.

She freezes on the spot.

She thought she were ready to see him again.

Ready to hear him tell her how he really feels about her.

There's a look of confusion on his face, as if he's struggling to make sense of compounding thoughts.

"Hinata!" Straight off the mark, a gratuitous grin spreads across his face as he recognises her, "I was looking for you everywhere, I haven't seen you in a few weeks."

"Oh, yes, well, you know, m-missions and the like." She feels a momentary tremble run through her body, panic starting to bring back that hideous old stutter. It feels like at any moment, she might break out in a drenching sweat.

"Ah, yeah, gotta help get the village back on its feet, you know?" That smile again, brightening everything a little. She's got to get away from the influence that he has on her but she just loves it so much. After a few seconds, the smile slowly drops off his face and sets into a something a little more thoughtful. "I do need to talk to you though." Here it comes. She braces herself, a quizzical look on her face.

"Hinata, I don't know if I feel the way you do about me. I like you, as a friend, but not in the same way that I used to feel about Sakura-chan." Her heartbeat stops.

"But I thought about it, and you've been there in some of my lowest moments. You were the reason I was able to beat Neji. You told me that I was a proud failure, and I still stand by what I said then, I like people like you." The crunching beat of her heart nearly knocks her to her knees.

"Most of all, you stood up for me when I was down. You stood in front of Nagato, when no one else dared. You knew that you didn't have a chance against him, but what did you do? You came to my aid. Even Sakura-chan didn't, and that shows just how much you care about me. And, you nearly… nearly died. Because of me." She raises your head a little to look at him, tears starting to drip from her face, unable to follow what he's getting at. Does he mean that he cares?

"And that's why I want to thank you for being such a good friend! You stuck by me in a really tough time and I'm glad that you were there to stand beside me!" His grin splits his face, all worries gone in an instant. She sighs inwardly and raises her head and nods slightly, forcing a smile onto her face. It was a little too much to expect such a ground shattering epiphany from Naruto of all people. Unfortunately, he's not quite done talking, and you've zoned out the last bit of his speech, so she has to ask him to repeat what he said.

"What was that Naruto-kun? I didn't hear that last bit." He looks jolted, and it's obvious that he was about to go off on one of his nigh impossible-to-stop ravings.

"Oh, I just asked if you wanted to come with me to Ichiraku's for a bowl of ramen, my treat! I kinda owe you for what happened with Nagato, so I'd like it if you would accept it as a sign of my appreciation!" A faint blush spreads across her face at the thought of having dinner with him, but she shakes the thought off. It's just a meal with two friends remembering how they stood side by side through an emotional turmoil, and that's still pretty good. She nods, more for herself than him.

"I'd like that, I'd like that a lot." She smiles a little bit and he looks quite proud of himself for coming up with such an effective plan. He cheers and pumps his fist with his usual mannerisms, and she allows the little smile to grow a bit. His happiness is really infectious when he gets bouncy like this and before she knows it, he's dragging her down the road towards the ramen shop. _There are definitely worse ways to spend the day then eating good food with your favourite person_, she muses as she struggles not to fall over. Maybe after they finish eating, she can get him to train with her a bit, show him some of her progress with her techniques, and see if he can help her improve them at all.

The prospect cements the smile on her face.


	4. Chapter 3: Bloodied

_Sorry that this one took so long to get done, had a lot going on. This chapter also marks the perspective shift into the present, as well as a shift to third person. Hope you enjoy it._

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><p>"That's how I got myself here," she muses silently as she sits upon the clifftop, the wind rustling through her hair, creating a sense of weightlessness. A small sigh escapes her lips, but is quickly snatched away. The change in season has come around a little earlier this year and everything is starting to get bitterly chilled. Her thoughts had started to drift when she came up earlier in the morning for a bit of peace and quiet from the Hyuuga compound. At least, the current huts that make it up. Hiashi, in all of his prideful had refused to let Captain Yamato completely rebuild the Hyuuga complex, preferring to take the slower approach and rebuild the mansion in its former splendour. Unfortunately for all of the clan members, that meant being subjected to the noises of those sleeping around them, and less than the usual luxury they were used to.<p>

So, irritated by the snores, and creaking and rustling, Hinata had taken to getting up earlier and earlier to escape the noises, eventually settling for a pre-sunrise jog around the village, and finishing on top of the mountainside overlooking the village. She'd occasionally bump into some of her fellow members of the Rookie 11, but most of them were usually heading out on long training sessions or missions and wouldn't be able to stop to talk. It's not like she didn't have her own share of training and missions to go on, it just occasionally felt like she was completely separated and distant from her fellow shinobi. Interestingly enough, in the few weeks that had passed since her… heartfelt conversation with Naruto, she'd been hanging out with him regularly, and enjoying it all far more than the occasional encounters they'd have in town. It wasn't really romantic like she'd been hoping for but it had been nice to see him in a context that wasn't the dramas of a field mission, or a confession of undying love.

A small shake of her head rouses her from the detracting pattern and a shiver runs through the kuinochi's body. The breeze has gotten just the bit too cold to stay up here, and she ponders again why she thought ending her morning jog in the single coldest place in Konoha was a good idea. As the thought passes the forefront of her mind, a quick, but noticeable flash of orange comes over the crest, with a slightly flushed face and slightly sweaty forehead matting down the usually unkempt blonde mass. A small smile curves over her face as she watches him come to a halt a few metres away and she goes over to greet him as he takes the moment to catch his breath. The two of them have been meeting up in their overlapping training routes for the last week, in an attempt to push their own motivation a little more. Whilst Hinata does not have nearly the stamina that Naruto does, she still pushes herself a little more each day, even though running is not exactly something they both enjoy.

"Hey Hinata, looks like you did your lap a bit quicker than normal, you wouldn't even know that you'd been running!" Even whilst slightly puffed out, his personality is still bouncy and confident, able to brighten the cold dull morning. He's not even wearing his forehead protector so his hair is a mess flopping down right over his eyes. She stifles a small giggle at the thought of him having a long fringe and responds to his greeting with a smile and nod.

"Well the practice is definitely paying off, although I doubt I'll ever be quite on your level of stamina, Naruto-kun." It's highly unlikely that many shinobi at all will come close to having his level of will when it comes to endurance, outside of Might Gai and Rock Lee, but those two are in a league of their own, especially when one is around the other. In her moment of unfocussed thought, Hinata realises that she's completely missed what Naruto had said in response. "Erm, excuse me, Naruto-kun, could you repeat that for me?" A small blush spreads into her cheeks , the embarrassment frustrating her.

"Oh, of course." There's that grin again. "Now that we've both finished our runs, do you want to get something to eat? I'm starving hungry." As the two have developed their friendship a bit more, they've come to not even need to discuss what is meant by "something to eat". It's not exactly a huge jump of imagination to think about where Naruto's mind is going on the topic. The first few times they'd gotten food together, she'd actually made the mistake of asking where he wanted to go, to which the response was a crinkled nose, slightly raised eyebrow and a chuckle, before being dragged to Ichiraku's. Hinata would no longer make the same mistake.

As the two leave the summit of the cliffside , they make their way down the path, slowing down at times to let other people training past. However, about halfway down, Naruto stops, and puts a tentative hand on Hinata's arm, causing her to freeze on the spot immediately. She follows his eyes, and purposefully takes in the sight above them, one of the sculpted faces of the former Hokage. What's so important about the Fourth, to the point that they needed to stop to watch the sun rise and brighten its cold stone features? A sharp exhalation of air comes from the teenager standing beside you and he looks sideways at you, interpreting your look of confusion easily.

"When I went into the tailed-beast state during Pein's siege on Konoha, I was out of control, all that anger controlled me." He looks so sad; she can barely stand the amount of hurt on his face, but she can't bring herself to interrupt his quiet speech. "After seeing Nagato stab you, it just took over and I relinquished myself to the Kyuubi. I gave my condition to him and couldn't even bring myself to fight back as he forced his essence through me, so that it became 8 tails, and nearly completed the full 9 tails.

"But at the last moment, just before I broke the seal and released the Kyuubi back into the world, I was stopped, by my father." His voice is quiet, so quiet that she has to lean in a little closer, just to hear the faint words, due to his trailing off. "My father was Uzumaki Minato. My father was the Fourth Hokage."

The wind whistles around them, rustling their hair, silence enveloping them. A half sad, half happy smile spreads across his face and he raises it up to the stone face, a small tear running down his face. "He told me he was proud of me, that he believed in me. And I was so mad that he'd sealed the Kyuubi into me, but he cares, and cared and that's what matters." The smile is a bit stronger now, and he wipes his eyes, his face settling back into his normal expression of happiness. Hinata is stunned at the revelation, yet as she internally compares the stone face to Naruto, the similarities are obvious. There's a familiarity in that smile, and god, that hair.

"I don't doubt that he'd approve greatly of how you dealt with Nagato, Naruto-kun." He looks at her with an odd look on his face, one of shock, as if he wasn't expecting a response. She reaches out tentatively, and squeezes his arm. "You solved a deadly threat against our village, our home, and managed to get through it with everyone unscathed." A bigger smile cracks open and he nods up and down, and she lets go of his arm, happy that she could help bring back a little bit of that happiness that makes being around him such an experience. With the temporary detour complete, the two make their way down the remaining distance and head for the Ramen store, both enjoying the silence, comfortable enough not to break it. Hinata muses quietly, thoughts swirling around her head in a chaotic wave.

**. . .**

Breakfast is a simple affair, the pair idly picking at their food whilst making quiet conversation about the rebuilding of the village, missions, and idle gossip about all manners of things. Halfway through a particularly engaging conversation about the use of ninjutsu for extremely mundane tasks, Naruto realises that he has a meeting with Sai and Sakura and has to go. He quickly slurps down his bowl of food before saying goodbye and leaving her alone in the store. He's barely left and already the energy and vibe of the room has quietened and falling drastically. She sighs a bit, which gets a reaction quite quickly from the owner. Teuchi looks at her, cleaning a bowl quietly.

"You've got it quite bad for him, don't you?" His tone is gentle, a bit teasing, but the suddenness and blatant nature of the question leaves her on the back foot, causing a blush to creep rapidly up her neck and into her cheeks. She mumbled a bit, attempting to regain her composure but no words came forth, causing gritted teeth and an even hotter flush into her face. Teuchi's loud chuckle just seals the horrible embarrassment and with a groan, she quickly gathers her bag up before starting to walk out, when his voice stops her in her place. "Don't give up on him." Not turning around, she allows herself a little smile.

"Thank you, Teuchi-san." With that, she walks out of the ramen shop, and walks down the path, her head a jumble of thoughts and ideas. Teuchi smirks, and continues to clean the empty bow, chuckling to himself.

As Hinata hurries through the village, she ponders over what the old man had said. Was he right? Was it really worth not giving up on him after all this time? Sometimes her feelings for him made everything else seem so distant in comparison, and she'd feel disgusted that it felt like he was so much to her, but she wasn't that much to him. It was loathsome. These thoughts bombarded her as she continued to walk through the village until she came to a stop when she heard a loud shout that sounded oddly like Naruto, and he sounded mad. For a second, she feels the urge to go to it, but in a fit of frustration, turns away and walks off into the village, hoping to find some chore that could help her take her mind off the things that are currently plaguing her.

**. . .**

A couple of hours pass as she hurries around the village carrying planks of wood, carrying large buckets of water to help create concrete, and whatever she can do. Her muscles ache from the hard work, but it achieves its goal of helping her to keep her mind distracted. She spends a little time helping Shino and Kiba with their families' buildings, but when she goes to help with the Hyuuga complex, she is quickly rebuffed, much to her frustration. She hated it when she was babied and cared for by other members of the clan, simply due to her Head Branch status. The heiress sighed and shouldered the plank again, carrying it over to a group of builders, before returning back to the main area that materials are being stored, and what she see sends a freezing chill through her body. The sight of Naruto being supported, more like carried by Sai to the medical tent. His face is a mess, swollen and bruised from an obvious beating. There's blood dripping from his fringe, and the swelling is so severe, it's almost impossible to make out his face.

Without realising, she drops the plank in her arms and freezes completely. This is what he'd been yelling about and she'd turned away from him. Bitterness rips through her, screaming abuse at her. "You're no better than the other villagers who ignored him all those years. You're even worse because he trusts you." The thoughts are spiteful, vitriolic and cruel but not altogether wrong, no matter how hard she tries to force them out. Tears start to burn down her face, carving lines through the pale skin, and she runs. Runs to her home and lies down in the bed quietly, face down and alone. It's a while before she hears a faint knock on her door and she wipes her face a bit before answering. To your surprise, it's Tenten, who has a pensive look on her face.

"Hey Hinata, are you alright?" She sounds concerned, her usually relaxed face twisted into a worried caricature and her hair is a bit rustled, as if she's been rushing about. The Hyuuga girl shakes her head and waves her hand in a mock display of neutrality.

"I'm okay, Tenten-san, what's the matter?" Concern spreads across her own face, watching for the response from the weapons expert.

"Our classmates have called a meeting, and we're all going to get together and be discussing the Sasuke problem." Hinata feels her pale eyes widen a little at the mention of the wayward genin. Suddenly she connects the dots and meets Tenten's warm brown eyes, realisation illuminating her face.

"This has to do with Naruto-kun doesn't it?"

"It does. It's come to our intentions that Sasuke has been labelled a missing-nin by the new acting-Hokage, Danzō. There's a warrant for his assassination and we, as his classmates, are having a meeting regarding it." There's an odd sense of formality in Tenten's words and she seems to be having trouble articulating herself. She's more used to informality and a more relaxed environment, especially given her positioning on Team Gai. Hinata dips her head and takes the older girl's direction and follows her slowly to the meeting. This will definitely be an interesting meeting.

The two kuinochi are the last to arrive on the scene, the other members of their former class quietly standing in a group, with Ino sobbing on top of a plank of wood. Hinata tries to send a smile her way, but the girl is so distraught that nothing is able to even get through. Chouji looks helpless as he strokes her back and tries to get her to stop her tears from flowing. It dawns on Hinata that neither Naruto nor Sakura are here, although the fact that Naruto was not in any condition to handle anything more than being healed doesn't surprise her. Tenten leaves her side and goes and sits on the opposite side of Ino and offers her condolences too.

"Ah good," Shikimaru clears his throat loud enough to get everyone's attention and reduce Ino's sobs to little more than slight hiccups. "We're all here now." His eyes scroll over the group, boring into each member. "Now, to the point at hand."

"As some of you may be aware, Uchiha Sasuke has been put into the ANBU bingo book by our new acting Hokage, Danzō." He lets this sink in for the people who didn't already know it, and to reaffirm it to those who did. The air hangs heavy as the mood swings further south, unable to remain lighthearted with this neutral news. A lot of the group likes or admires Tsunade, especially Ino, so to hear that she's in a bad enough state for another Hokage to be appointed in her stead. He continues once more, his tone steady, "As members of Sasuke's class, the responsibility is on us to deal with this situation." He sighs. "Today, shinobi from Kumogakure arrived and informed us that Sasuke was responsible for the death of one of their shinobi and the abduction of their jinchūriki. So now, he's not only our problem. He's gone international and he's obviously showing no sign of letting up."

The silence is crushing everyone. Even Lee, who usually keeps the mood stable is quiet and subdued. It's completely uncharacteristic.

"Now onto the other issue. Naruto and Sakura." Hinata's eyes widen a little. "I'm going to talk to them about it and try to bring them over to our side. I think that I may have a chance with Sakura, as I discussed it with Sai earlier and he seems to think she might be able to be swayed more easily than Naruto."

Shikimaru sighs out loud, not even bothering to hold it back. "Naruto is going to be the hardest part of the equation. Just this morning, he withstood a beating from the Kumogakure shinobi, in an attempt to placate them. It didn't work and he ended up on the bad side of a beating that lasted for several hours. It didn't achieve his goal, so I can't in good faith trust his judgement anymore. It's troublesome, but we need to act now."

Ino looks up for a few seconds, her eyes full of tears and her breath hitching. "I'm going to go talk to Sakura now and hopefully we can deal with Naruto with her help." He brushes of his jacket and walks off, waving a hand. Hinata stares silently, shocked into speechlessness, more so at the severity of Shikimaru's words. Ino bursts into another bout of violent sobs and Chouji leans in and puts his hand on her back, quietly muttering her name. It's at this point that Kiba seems to reach his limit and he snaps out rawly at Ino, anger distorting his face.

"Quit crying, Ino!" His bitterness is clear to all in the group, he'd never exactly been a fan of Sasuke in the first place.

"Kiba, don't talk to her like that! Ino is u-" Tenten exclaims, but Kiba isn't done yet.

"What else can we do?" His shout resonates through the group and everyone freezes on the spot, "It's not like it was before!"

For the first time since she's arrived, Shino raises his head and addresses Kiba, "Are you sure? If Ino's like this, Sakura and Naruto will…"

Suddenly the calm, controlled voice of Neji rings out, "Let Shikimaru deal with it. He'll be able to explain it best." His words seem to have an almost calming effect on everyone, Ino even stops her sobbing to look at him. Eyes strong, and a set jaw, he continues, "Besides, he failed in his first duty as team leader. He must feel some degree of responsibility, that's why he offered to go talk to them."

Everyone is quiet for a while, not saying anything, apart from Lee nodding his head quite thoroughly. "Yes Neji! We have to trust Shikimaru on this. We know that he's got the ability, we just need to let him do it." After this, there's some quiet discussion among the group, before everyone separates and goes their individual ways. Hinata is the last one left standing in the clearing and she lowers her head a little, before returning to the Hyuuga compound. It's been a long day and it's time for a break.


	5. Chapter 4: Exodus

_Hey guys, new chapter is finally done, took a bit longer than I intended this time round, but I'm getting into a better flow now, so I hope you like it. It's got some juice this time round, so extremely lewd (it's not really). Review it if you can, it really helps me improve._

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><p>Blearily, Hinata looks up at the evening sky, the steam from the hot spring melding in with the sunset to create a beautiful colour palette of light . She sighs a little as her mind wanders aimlessly, thinking about the return of Sakura and her attempt to get Naruto to stave off his endless search for Sasuke. Her fists tighten a little as she remembers Kiba relaying the events, from Sakura's failed confession to their clash with Sasuke (which Kiba wasn't even conscious for, much to his anger). Sakura knows how she feels about Naruto, yet she went ahead and did her fake love confession to him anyway. There was one event that had been relayed that had caused her quite a bit of thought. Unlike Hinata's confession, Naruto had responded immediately in the negative to Sakura, showing that any feelings he'd had for her were probably fading or gone. It annoys her that she'd done it, but she can live with it.<p>

As she leans back a little more, she can hear some of the boys yelling at each other. Apparently Shino had let a bug rest on him and Naruto had been dozing off when it sought refuge on the top of his head. He'd grabbed the large creature and thrown it at Kiba who in turn had passed it back to Shino before jumping on top of Naruto and dragging him into the water. The shouting had quietened down a bit, but she could still hear the grumblings before the teens. A small chuckle slipped from her lips, getting her an odd look from Ino and Tenten who were relaxing alongside her.

"What's so funny, eh?" Ino's got a bit of a smirk on her face too, no doubt enjoying the bit of drama to entertain her. Hinata has always noticed that Ino is most happy when others are either suffering or causing some sort of drama for her to watch. She suspects that more than a little of Ibiki's sadism has rubbed off onto her, despite her father's best attempts.

"Oh, nothing, Ino-san, I'm just laughing about the boy's antics." Tenten shakes her head in exasperation, a look of long suffering painting her face in the dying light.

"Honestly, after dealing with Gai and Lee all day, you think that these boys would at least try to act mature for us," she grunts, "But no! All they do is try to peek, make loads of noise and just yap yap yap about their stupid manliness." Both Hinata and Ino are smirking now at the dramatic speech from Tenten. They agreed, of course, their boys were loud, obnoxious and their arrogance… but sometimes it was fun to let Tenten rant about her opinions on things.

Except this time it seems that she's been interrupted by one of the boys shouting back at her, Kiba, it seems. "Like you're one to talk Tenten, your complaining is just as annoying as any of us." Ino slaps a hand over her mouth to hold back a chuckle as Tenten flushes red and starts launching back a volley of profanity and threats to separate Kiba from his manhood, "To ensure that no poor child in future will be born with idiocy as great as his". By this point, both Hinata and Ino are giggling out of control and the howls of the boys laughter is quite clear. There's always been a bit of tension between Tenten and Kiba, apparently something to do with her once telling him that cats would always be better pets than dogs. The grudge had stuck and every time the two of them came into contact, they would clash fiercely over everything. The rest of their teammates had long since learnt to let them settle their conflicts without getting involved. In fact, that was the very reason Lee wasn't here this evening, due to Tenten punching him in the face hard enough to knock him out, whilst venting her anger about Kiba.

Ino had numerous times told Tenten to "bang Kiba and get it over with" which always caused her to flush violently red and lay a vitriolic word spew upon Ino's quickly disappearing back. Hinata always enjoyed her times with the other girls, as it gave her time to relax and get away from clan politics, as well as feel less like a social outcast. Sure, she was always quiet and simply smiled whilst they argued back and forth about the hottest boys in the village or the best weapons to use in a fight, but she felt like she belonged and that was something she'd sought after for a very long time. It was even better when Sakura was there, as she'd always meditate the two girls conflicts, before getting accused of favouring one, in which case Hinata was expect to either balance the vote, or suffer the pain of the scorned one. They even had a tally of the arguments that had been won by Ino and the ones won by Tenten, with a prize going to the winning kuinochi at the end of each month. There was always the obligatory accusation of the meditators favouring one or the other, but mostly it was all good fun and gave the girls a way to both compete and get out their frustration without hurting anyone. Except for some unfortunate bystanders, mostly Lee and Naruto.

The girls quietened down once again and the sounds of the boy re-entering the lodge let them finally have their peace and quiet. It's at this moment that Sakura chooses to enter the spring, looking harried and frustrated.

"Look who finally decided to drag her ass in. What took you, Forehead?" The nickname, once nasty and mean spirited carries the genuine undertone of friendship.

Sakura basically snaps back, "Long hospital shift, Pig." The sigh she lets out as she relaxes down into the water is one of sheer pleasure and Hinata's smile curves upwards. The playful chat goes back and forth between Ino and Sakura for a while before they settle down and the evening peace fills all of them. A few gentle glowbugs come and settle in the air around the girl's hair making it seem like they have glowing halos. They chuckle and talk for a while longer before slowly getting out and going inside, before making the short trek back to the village.

The boys are waiting for them in a group by the village entrance and they appear to have found both Shikamaru and Neji, although Chouji is nowhere to be seen. Apparently, according to a very perturbed Shikamaru, he had been coming but had been dragged off at the last second to the Hokage tower, for a short mission that could "absolutely not wait". So it seemed like the rest of them would make do and go to the barbeque restaurant without him, something that he'd be absolutely devastated to know.

It's a cool evening, so the warm food isn't too hot and the group is crowded into one booth, with Naruto on one side of Hinata and Kiba on the other. The boisterous conversation flies around the table, with Naruto reminiscing on a mission that he and Kiba had been sent on for team building skills in which the pair had fallen into a well and Akamaru had been unable to help the pair. Everyone's laughing, even Neji, with his faint smile and all is well. Hinata feels a bittersweet taste in her mouth as she wishes that it could be like this all the time. No impending threat of death, no threat of loss. Apparently, the silence has been spotted by Naruto, which is ironic, given his notoriety for not noticing the feelings of others. He grabs her hand and raises it as if she wants to ask a question and then launches into another story about a time that they were on a mission together, at times prompting Hinata for a small part of the story or a fact that he's conveniently forgotten. She really appreciates that he's at least trying to keep her in the conversation, but a little part of her is still caught up on him holding her hand.

The night passes quickly and before she even realises it, only a few of the group are left. Shino left early, citing the excuse that he had to go take care of a new bug strain that he was growing, whilst Neji complained of a headache and Tenten left with him, making sure to poke out her tongue at Kiba as she left. Sakura glances up at the clock on the wall and sighs dramatically. "C'mon Pig, we've gotta be up early in the morning to work at the hospital," Ino gets up and brushes herself off with a nod, before waving a goodbye to the remaining members of the group. It's at this point that she decides to go for a quiet night walk to refresh herself and start to leave with a quiet thanks to the others.

As she leaves the restaurant, a voice greets her. Naruto.

He's got a smile plastered over his face, the full moon outlining the whisker-like scars on his face. "Do you mind if I join you, Hinata?" A small nods conveys her answer and the two wander through the quiet village and small talk is shared. It's with a bit of a jolt that Hinata realises how close Naruto is walking to her, so close that she could almost reach and grab his hand, but she doesn't dare to. Their path takes them past the Hyuuga compound, but she makes no attempt to return, so they continue to walk, discussing the aftermath of the Kage summit, Hinata being careful not to mention anything regarding the war. After a while, Naruto complains that his feet are hurting and jumps up onto a roof, beckoning for her to follow. She lithely joins him on top of the building and they sit down, watching the moon and the stars, Naruto joking about the relations between the constellations.

After a while Naruto sighs largely. Hinata looks across to him, her eyes reflecting the moonlight. He takes her stare as a question and answers it, "Tomorrow I have to go on a long, important mission. One that relates to the prophecy that I received from the Geezer frog." The moonlight makes him look so incredibly wise and serene, so different from the boy that she sees every day. "I don't know how long I'll be gone, but I'm worried about leaving the village alone." Hinata has to stop herself from telling him everything, about what's coming, about the war, about their mission to defend him. She simply nods and it pains her greatly to hold it back. He sighs again, before sitting up and looking over her. Hinata feels a tiny warmth flowing into her neck and she struggles to supress it, but knows that it's futile.

"You look nice tonight."

"So do you, Naruto-kun."

After that, the two of them lie down, side by side, watching the stars, content to enjoy the silence, which for once Naruto decides to leave intact. After nearly an hour of occasional conversation and silence, his hand brushes hers and she looks over to him and notices that he's dozed off and that his hand is gently grasping hers. She blushes a bit and lies back down, both hoping that he might wake up and that the moment could last a bit longer.

. . .

A gentle shake rouses Hinata, a gentle ache running through her body as she stretches her arms and opens her pale eyes.

To come face to face with Naruto looking down on her with very little proximity between their faces. She squeals and he recoils violently, a blush coming to his cheeks. "Kami, Hinata, way to scare the shit out of me." She sits up and wipes her eyes, noticing the dawn sun creeping over the hills. Her eyes jacknife wide open as she realises that she hasn't come home and that her family is probably freaking out. Naruto nods his head knowingly, "Yeah, I'm late for my briefing with Tsunade-baachan too. This was fun though." His smile is even brighter than the morning sun rise and Hinata smiles gently in return before suddenly being caught up in a movement so quick, she can hardly process it. His lips press chastely against her cheek, so quick and gentle that for a second she can't even believe that it happened. In a flash of orange and black, he's gone, jumping along rooftops, his right hand raised in a farewell gesture, leaving one very confused girl standing upon the rooftop, one hand raised, one hand pressed against her cheek, as if to treasure the faint imprints left upon it by his lips.

Hinata turns and takes a few steps, attempting to gather her thoughts, before realising that her last step was taking her off the edge. Once she (safely) returns to the ground, she walks through the village in a daze to the Hyuuga compound. Just outside is a very peeved looking Neji, and an amused looking Tenten.

"Hinata-sama, where have you been?" Whilst his tone is cool and collected, it's easy to see that he's trying to contain his frustration and anger.

"I-uh." With a start, Hinata realises that she has no excuse to give, no alibi. She stammers for a few seconds whilst Tenten laughs loudly before smiling and answering the question for her.

"Ah, Hinata we know _exactly_ where you were last night. Lee stumbled upon the two of you napping early this morning, but left you because you two looked so cute." A hot flush runs into her face and she stammers out an apology to the laughter of Tenten.

"It's okay Hinata, we won't be telling anyone, apart from the rest of our classmates. Maybe. Depends on how it goes." With a wink, Tenten grabs Neji's trailing robes and starts to drag him off. "We already told your dad you were out on a short mission and that you'd be back by this morning. C'mon Neji, let's go train." She leaves dragging one very angry Hyuuga with her, grinning all the way. Silently, Hinata thanks whatever deity is watching over her for small blessings and enters the compound for a late breakfast and shower.

She washes quietly, playing the events of the night over and over. The looks between them, the touches, _the kiss. _It's only after a while she realises that she's no longer getting hot water and that the cold water coming out is chilling her skin. She hops out quickly and towels off, before grabbing a clean outfit from her closet and moving outside to the training area within the compound. As she trains, she envisions conversations with Naruto and allows herself a big smile. Winding down the technique, she takes a few moments to catch her breath, unable to contain her smile. The grin spreads wider and she starts to giggle. _Naruto-kun kissed me! He really did it! _The giggle spreads into a laugh and then she's dancing up and down on the spot, her hair bouncing up and down until an amused chuckle brings her to a stop.

She looks up to see her younger sister, Hanabi, staring at her from across the yard.

"Looks like someone's having a good time slacking off," she says through a smirk. The animosity between the two of them is less extreme then it was when they were younger, especially when their dad was pushing them to fight each other. However, Hanabi still takes pleasure from showing off her elevated status within the clan, be it directly or inadvertently.

"Well, Hanabi-sama, maybe I have." Even her snark can't bring down her good mood, she's basically radiating. It seems even Hanabi wasn't quite ready for such a response as her eyebrow slides upwards.

"Oh really? Well, as much as I'd _love _to watch you prance around, I've got actual training to do." It seems like today is one of her off-days. Hinata watches her younger sister and sighs a little, before returning to her training. Focussing in, she allows her Byakugan to fly to the forefront of her skin. Another grin comes forwards as forces the blue lions of chakra to swell around her hands and she starts to fly with Gentle Fist building up to 16 strikes, then 32 strikes and as she pushes to make the 64 she takes a step too far and trips, smacking face-first into the ground. Sighing gently, she lays there, waiting for her breath to come back. Every time she pushed herself, she ended up here, face down in the dirt. Rolling over, she found herself watching the clouds glide past.

Gritting her teeth, she thinks back to when she promised to never go back on her word, when she said that she wouldn't ever back down. Isn't that what she was doing now? Giving up before she even achieved anything. No wonder her family thought she was a failure. As she stares upwards, she thinks to the conversations she'd had with Naruto last night.

_"Naruto-kun, why do you keep trying now that everyone in the village recognises your skill? Where can you go from here?" Her voice is quiet, barely wanting to disturb the night air. _

_"Hinata, when I was younger no one would watch me or talk to me. I had to get them to watch me." His eyes are focussed on the sky, reflecting the bright lights that fill the night._

_"Every day I get up, it's lonely." The sadness is so out of character for him that you have to roll over to look at him to make sure that someone else hasn't taken his place._

_"It's this empty house, with no life in it. So when I come out in the village and make people notice me. Even if there's people who call me an idiot for smiling and laughing all the time, at least they're noticing me. It's better than being in an empty room being forced to use clones to keep myself company." He sighs._

_"I didn't know… I'm sorry Naruto-kun." She never even considered just how lonely it would be, being alone with no one to keep home, well, homely._

_A gentle shrug, and he raises his hand oddly into the air, as if imagining swishing his hands through the stars, "It's okay, Hinata. Things have gotten better, I mean, we hang out more and I hang out with the rest of our classmates more often. It's so much better then when we were kids." His smile could almost light up the night and you smile back before rolling up to face the sky._

_"But you asked me why I keep going." He looks deep into her eyes, "It's because I never want to stop improving. I don't go back, which means I always push onwards. If I master one of my jutsu, I work to improve it further by adding something new to it. If I become Hokage, I want to be the best Hokage. If I have friends, I want to be their best friend." It makes sense and she nods her head._

Shakily, Hinata pushed up, getting on one knee. This isn't just about Naruto anymore, this is about her showing her potential. She is the former heiress to the Hyuuga clan, she will always aspire to be powerful. She can't keep falling short. Her lips curl into a snarl and she lifts herself completely off the ground, her fists clenching. Once again she takes the position for the Gentle Fist. She's going to perfect her 32 strikes. If she can't make the 64, she'll master the 32 and work from there.

Thinking back to Neji's advice, she grits her teeth and begins the chaining together the strikes, 2, then another 2, they flow so easily, so she quickly chains in the four strikes, then 8, then the sixteen and stops herself from going any further. In her desperation to improve lately, she's been pushing so hard that she's neglected to keep her quality of strikes. Her chains are sloppy, and she's not striking quite evenly on the right side. Again, she corrects her stance and launches into again. And then again. And again. Eventually during a chain, she collapses and pants heavily, barely able to control her heartrate, but she's proud, proud of herself for forcing through the pain, pushing through her barriers. If she keeps this up, she'll have her skills tight and focussed sooner than later.


	6. Chapter 5: Inner Strength

_Sorry this one took so long. It was a rough week, but I've just been pushing onwards and now I've finished this, and the new chapter for Idle Glances should be done within 24 hours. As always let me know if there's anything you need to know. (This chapter was exactly 4k words, holy shit, go me)._

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><p>War has well and truly arrived in Konoha. Genin run through the village, distributing weapons, fortifying buildings and making sure the village is safe in the worst case scenario. Other shinobi are training hard, running short missions in order to bring the most resources possible into the village, trying to make sure that nothing will allow a deficiency in the worst case scenario. Older shinobi run longer missions worth more money in an attempt to fill the coffers so that more weapons can be made and make sure the alliance is well stocked. Villagers work hard in their own way, bakers making the most bread possible, farmers collecting any available crops and collecting as much as they can from their domesticated animals. The country is alight with activity, people all stockpiling, building and preparing for the worst possible outcome. War.<p>

Hinata finds herself in the centre of preparations, running short missions with Kiba and Shino, working harder than she's ever worked before, training harder, building her stamina. She spends as much time as possible with her Byakugan in action, as to build up her ability to use it without strain. When she's not training, she studying old books with techniques in them, as to try and improve her own styles. It's with some effort that she manages to master the Vacuum Palm, enlisting help from Neji in order to practice having it to the point where the pair can use the technique as one to create one single, larger blast. The continuous practice had ripped apart one training ground and the two had decided that they didn't need to further train with the technique.

One day, Hinata and Shino are called into the Hokage's office for a routine collection mission. The two would run quickly along the coast, through the Land of Hot Water and into the Land of Frost. Once there, they'd collect some resources from Shimo before assessing the level of the Shinobi stationed there. This was a high level mission and it showed the trust that Tsunade was putting in the pair so they were determined to do it with as few kinks as possible. Hinata spent most of the day before the mission packing lightly and resting up, as to avoid physical exertion that could have a negative impact on her mission performance. Shino told her that he's going to collect some insects that are more resistant to the elements, due to him not wanting to risk being caught short-handed in an unknown environment.

Bright and early the next morning, the pair meets at the front gates and once pleasantries have been exchanged, they quickly set off, establishing a high pace. As both are quiet, the time passes quickly, with no small chat to slow things down. The two day trip should take them through the evacuating Land of Hot Water, so the two have been advised to keep an eye out for any defectors who might try something if they think the two are messengers or worth a ransom. Halfway through their first day of travel, they bump into a small child and stop immediately in the trees, Hinata spotting him from a distance, grabbing Shino and pulling him to a stop. "Shino-kun, stop," her voice barely above a whisper. The child is sobbing and screaming at the top of his lungs, seemingly lost, or separated from his parents. Hinata quietly motions that she's going to check the boy, leaving Shino alone on the branch.

As she hits the forest floor, she's scanning the nearby area for any sign of an enemy force, but it seems for now that they're okay and this boy is just a boy. Approaching with a smile on her face, she holds out a bit of bread to the boy, who takes it and nibbles on it. It seems like he's just a child, so she's about to gesture to Shino to come to her side when she realises that the boy's chakra network is not that of an ordinary child. _A transformation! _She darts backwards as the boy grins with such vicious intent, beyond that of what any normal child should be able to do, before releasing the technique. "Looks like we got a smart 'un here," the Shinobi says, his voice low and gravelly. A gentle padding of feet and crunch of leaves tells you that Shino has jumped down next to you, his arms raised.

"Hinata, is there any sign of any other shinobi?" His usually collected tone is quite urgent, as he evidently doesn't appreciate the idea of being ambushed in a place like this, where there's too many gaps in their defences. She shakes her head, but pushes herself, looking further than she should be, pushing her eyes to their limits, looking everywhere. The area looks reasonably clear so she focuses back onto the shinobi in front of them. His headband suggests that he's from Shimo, but that's all the intel she can garner from his appearance. Quietly she positions herself and takes a deep breath, ready to perform her Gentle Fist as soon he gets in range. One step, two steps. Shino takes a step back and she can hear the buzz of his swarm coming forth.

"Seems we gonna have a good ol' throw down." That horrific grin again, splitting his face wide, which is when you realise the long curving scars on either side of his face, forcing his mouth into a permanent smile, regardless of the position of his mouth. The contortion in conjunction with an actual smile creates a ghastly portrait. He pulls out two kunai and runs them along the scars before throwing them dead centre at her chest. Resisting the urge to flinch, she calmly slaps them away with the Gentle Fist, allowing the chakra to protect her hands from harm. Shino takes advantage of the lapse in the fight to launch his bugs in all their viciousness upon the man, who starts screaming and swatting at them. It seems that this man isn't much of a shinobi after all, merely a spurned and bitter one. After a few moments, the man lays quietly on the ground, twitching for a few seconds before his movements cease.

Hinata glances at the body, knowing that Shino's only allowed his bugs to knock the man out by reducing his chakra to such a minimum. "What should we do with him?" It might look suspicious if they kill a member of Shimo before they even arrive in the village and that could be counterproductive to the alliance. Shino's already accounted for that it seems, slinging the man over his shoulder, before looking back at her.

"Shall we leave?" As always, his cool demeanour is a little intimidating, but she's come to accept it as part of him. When you spend every hour of your day around bugs and quiet people, you're bound to develop a personality which reflects them. The two of them start running through the forest again, before returning to their bounding route through the tree tops. Occasionally the man on Shino's back awakes, only to find himself pass out again a few moments later when some of the bugs bite him. She feels a bit bad for him, to be on the receiving side of the swarm would not be… pleasant to say the least. After a few more hours, they come into a small village with a few shinobi, so they hand the man over to them so that they can progress to Shimo far quicker.

Once they've unloaded the man, they speed up, rushing through the mangrove forest before heading inland, towards the village. As they rush onwards, Hinata finds her mind being drawn back to Naruto, wondering where he is now. She'd asked Tsunade to send her on a mission that would bring her near him (without mentioning that of course), but Tsunade had scoffed at the suggestion, telling her to take the missions she can and do them well or not take them at all. After that ordeal, she'd been working as hard as possible, as to not give the idea that she was a slacker just out for an easy ride.

Her commitment to being a better kuninochi had been more focussed since that point. She'd let the absence of Naruto be just that and studied more ways to improve her techniques. Every day, most of her hours were consumed through hard work and training to master the techniques she had at her behest, working till she had either exhausted her chakra or could not summon the stamina to go on. Her father had been watching her closely in her time, occasionally correcting her stances or occasionally bringing her some water. The difference in his attitude had left her more than a little on guard, continuously pinching herself to make sure this was in fact reality. The reassurance that her father did care about her was doing a great deal of aid to her confidence and she used it as a spring board, pushing her upwards towards better things. This war was to defend the one she loved and she wasn't going to allow it to fail, even if she had to put her blood on the gears to stop them from taking him.

After a while, the pair of shinobi comes to halt, checking their map and compass to make sure they are on the right track, before setting up camp, throwing camp rolls down and lighting a small fire. Conversing lightly, Hinata is reminded once again of just how quiet Shino is, even given their closeness. With Kiba, his feelings for people were always shown on his face, his body language and his speech, but Shino never let anything slide. It worried her at times, especially when he'd talk about being forgotten. He'd told her a few times about the dark moods that would overcome him, but it was like he didn't know how to put his emotions into words and she suspected that had something to do with his raising through the Aburame clan. Most of his family were quiet and tended not to rely on emotion, preferring to stick to logic and she would worry that it was having an effect on him. The mood is lighter than expected, as the two talk about expectations for the upcoming war. Shino shakes silently after explaining about how his family was breeding several strains of insects in case of being deployed into more harsh environments and a smile spreads across her face, remembering that this is the closest he ever comes to laughing.

"Shino-kun, do you miss the times in Team 8?" As the words pass her lips, they quiver a little, making her seem almost uncertain about what she's saying and she has to bite back a little, hoping not to make it seem like she's prying too much. From what she knows of Shino, he tends to open up when he's ready and not a minute earlier.

The glasses-clad eyes pass back towards her, boring into her amethyst orbs, before turning back to face the sky. "I miss how it was when we were always together. It was nice to feel like a part of something." Hinata follows his eyes to the sky and watches the stars twinkling above them, filling the navy sky with their light. "I miss when it was the three of us, you both smiling, Kiba saying something stupid, you blushing because of a joke about Naruto." A small exhale comes out, even his sighs being controlled. "There are days where I wish for everything before the Chuunin exams. Before Sasuke defected. Before the village was destroyed. I miss the simplicity." There's a waver in his voice, something she doesn't expect to hear from the stoic teenager. Glancing across, she's shocked to notice two small streams of tears dripping down his face and off his chin, the slight drops making a tiny noise on the wooden log he's leaning against. In a quick decision, she moves over and pulls him into a hug, leaning into his jacket. It's not the first time she's done this, but she knows that it'll take off some of the stress he's feeling at the moment.

"Thank you, Hinata." His voice is tired and it sounds like he's falling asleep, so you let him gently drift off, until his breathing is relaxed and starts to peter out and soon she's left only to her thoughts, the crackling of the fire as it slowly burns out and the rustling of the bushes in the cool breeze. Quietly, she stands up, moving Shino's arm gently off her shoulder and moves across the campsite, activating her Byakugan. Looks like she's been tasked with the first watch. Brushing the hair out of her eyes, she keeps her eyes on the sky, allowing the Byakugan to keep watch of the forest around her. The night air is so calm, and she can't help feeling like it's the calm before the upcoming storm of the war.

**. . . **

When dawn comes around, Shino gently shakes her in order to let her know that they have to take off. Once everything is packed up again, they start to run, making up for any time they may have lost. Of course, now that they're free of the heavy forests and mangroves, they're free to run faster and not have to rely on bounding through the trees. Even then, the progress is still hard on the pair of Chuunin, who are both more accustomed to slow pace, rather than long distance sprinting. With the few stops they need to make for reaffirming the direction of their travel, the two make pleasant progress, before arriving at the gates of Shimo in the early afternoon.

They're coolly greeted by a teenaged genin, who guides them inside, where there's a variety of events going on inside the chilly village. Whilst the weather is less formidable than expected, Hinata is glad for her jacket, as it cuts out most of the cold chill. They're then passed onto another higher ranked Shimo-nin who starts to fill them in on the efforts of the village to put together what it's got for the war effort. However, his face seems sad as he fills them in on their dreadfully low military numbers, having only 5 Chuunin and 1 Jounin and a lot of inexperienced Genin. It seems that recently the village was hit in what can only be interpreted as incredibly suspicious attacks by bandits that were deliberately targeting higher up members of the Shimo chain of command. The victims were almost never civilians, except when hostages were taken in an attempt to draw out the shinobi of the village.

The Jounin looks incredibly tired as he relays the facts to the pair of Konoha-nin, the thick dark bags under his eyes betraying the fact that he's obviously not slept in days. He keeps running his hands through his hair, to try and get the unruly mess out of his eyes. His headband is strapped tightly around his throat, causing Hinata to idly wonder why he doesn't attempt to use it to restrain his hair a bit, before reeling her thoughts back in. It's with a look of desperation that he begs the two to go out and find the bandits and take care of them. Reluctantly the two accept, knowing that the mission will most likely aid them in completing their own goal and get them home to Konoha.

Promising the man (named Taiki), the two set off to get a good night's sleep in the local tavern. When the two arrive there in the late afternoon, it's bustling with men and women alike, drunks swaying from the amount of Sake they've been ingesting whilst ogling serving girls. The two of them grab a table in the corner of the room, ordering a small meal to share, quietly watching the chaotic nature of those around them. It's easy to see that this village has fallen on hard times by the amount of low fuelled anger that seems to be shimmering throughout the place, like a pot put on to simmer. A few men give the two passing glances, but no one really seems to care about their presence, moreso denying it as much as they can. It's not until later on when Hinata brings up their plans for the next day, that a person makes a comment towards the pair. A young man leers at Hinata as he passes by, spilling his drink on her as mumbles something about "Konoha whores". In an instant, Shino is on his feet, bugs buzzing angrily, his glasses making him look far more intimidating than she could ever hope to be. The man falls backwards onto the ground, fear covering his face as the swarm slowly creeps down the dark shinobi's arms. Muttering to himself, he crawls back to his friends, leaving the two in peace.

After a few minutes, another young man walks over with an apologetic look on his face. "I'm terribly sorry for my friend's rude behaviour. As you probably know it's been rough here lately." His smile is so genuinely apologetic that Hinata finds herself giving a small one in return.

"It's fine, he was clearly drunk and didn't mean to insult me personally," she replies, her voice cool. Another of those odd smiles, and he reaches out and puts a hand on her arm, triggering a raised eyebrow from Shino. She looks up at the smiling man, and wonders where this is going.

"Nonsense, let me get you something to drink from the bar, I'd love to hear more about Konoha," he laughs lightly, white teeth showing, "I've got to show you at least some of the Shimo hospitality that you've clearly been denied."

Hinata glances to Shino who simply shrugs and waves her off. "I'll be fine, Hinata, don't feel guilty on my account." She smiles a little at her friend and stands up, following the dusty blonde to the bar where he buys them both a glass of sake, which she eyes extremely carefully. Gently she takes a sip and grimaces a bit at the strong liquid as it passes down her throat, making an extremely comical face as far as she can tell from the reaction of the man, as he laughs gently with that smile again. Frowning inwardly, she wonders why he keeps smiling at the most inane of things. Maybe he just has a funny sense of humour.

She talks a bit about Konoha, her family and a little about Naruto. It seems like the bit of sake that she's drunk has had an effect on her quietness as she spills forth about her unrequited feelings for Naruto and how she wishes that he would notice her. The man smiles more, occasionally squeezing her arm, which makes her increasingly uncomfortable, wishing he would stop it, but she shrugs it off. He talks about his village and how boring it is getting little to no visitors except for old traders, occasionally complimenting her on her appearance, her eyes, and her hair, which makes her just a little uncomfortable. She also doesn't miss the occasional eye flickers towards her chest, causing her to blush a little and cross her arms over her chest. She notices Shino go upstairs later in the evening, and she feels the need to follow him, but the boy catches her arm, begging her not to go.

She sighs a little and sits down, before taking another sip of her drink, listening to some boring story about how he'd climbed up a ladder to rescue a cat from an attacking hawk, laughing a little when he finishes it. As she notices the time, she decides that now would be a good time to leave, smiling politely and raising a hand in farewell she starts to leave before he grabs her hand again and gently presses his lips against it.

"Hinata-san, please don't go, you're such a lovely young lady." That smile, which had seemed so nice early in the evening, provokes an almost sickening twist in her stomach. It looks so, disingenuous next to someone like Naruto's smile. She turns away again, moving to pull her hand free before he sharply tugs on her hand, bringing her in close to him. His smile, as well as the smell of sake is making you gag and you try to politely move out of his arms as he leans in and kisses you on the lips.

All of a sudden, white hot anger flies forth, burning away the tipsiness she'd been feeling from the alcohol. She lashes out with the palm of her hand, smashing it into his face with a look of fury across her face. As he stumbles backwards, Hinata grabs his shirt and shunts him into the bar, hand in a clenched fist, teeth gritting together. "I told you that I loved another man, yet you couldn't take no for an answer. Tell me why I shouldn't break your nose right now." The hostility in her tone surprises her and she thinks that may have something to do with the alcohol in her system. All around them the barflies and bartender are all looking on in shock as the petite girl holds a man much taller than herself against the bar. He sickeningly begins to sob and she looks at him with a look of contempt before dropping him to the floor, wiping the snot off her arm.

"Don't ever touch another woman." With the words said, she turns curtly and walks straight into Shino who'd come down to see what all the noise was about. She grabs him and pushes him back up the stairs, wanting to get away from the man and get some peace and quiet, to clean herself from the disgust. The two friends quietly enter the room before sitting down on their separate sides of the room, Shino's glasses as impassive as ever, but she can tell that he's clearly looking directly at her.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

She looks at the other teen, his face blank, yet the care behind those words is evident, and she's so thankful to have him around. A gentle shake of her head provides him the answer he wants, before the two say goodnight. She lays softly down and shudders at the taste of the man's mouth upon hers and thinks back to when Naruto kissed her that morning, to cleanse her mind of the nasty night, and after a while falls to sleep with a smile on her face.

_Idly, she's cleaning a kunai, which is odd because she could almost swear that she'd already done that today. In front of her is Naruto who's speaking with a smile on his face and laughing loudly, although for some odd reason she can't hear him at all. All she can see is his mouth moving and his movements, but not the sounds that they should be making. He cocks his head at her when she looks frustrated and reaches out, his hand caressing her cheek gently. She feels herself flushing and the look on his face makes it obvious that she is. It slowly traces a curve down her face, running over the cheek bones, her lips, her chin. His mouth moves in a way that looks reassuring and she feels herself relaxing into his hand before it pulls her face close to his and leans his face into hers, a softer smile spreading across his face, the long whisker lines drawing back in, and just as their lips meet, he whispers something softly -"…"_

She sits bolt upright gasping dramatically, and holds her hand to her lips, as her heart rate slowly returns to normal. Groaning at her torturous subconscious, she lies back down and tries to get some more sleep.


End file.
