230Disclaimer: Masashi Kishimoto owns Naruto
A/N: If you're expecting ton of fight scenes, forget it, there might be some in the story though. I don't play the pairing game, where everyone magically gets romantically involved with another character. Revolves around Naruto's relationship with others with a focus on Hinata. I'll put as much humor as I can, so it's not so gloomy. prepare for tons of fluff.
Update(12/17/13): Artwork added by junosama on deviantart, artist asked to link to original
junosama. (Space) deviantart. (space )com/art/Uzumaki-Family-396820166
Update (2/19/14): Edited up to standards. Grammar, punctuation, spelling, etc.
Prologue: A Promise
Naruto eyes shot open in alarm, meeting controlled his breathing and took in his surroundings; the low roof of the tent, his orange colored sleeping bag and a blue pack. He looked towards the exit to find It was still dark outside. He would have checked for time but the power was unavailable. Since the destruction of Konoha, working generators was reserved only for hospitals and eating establishments.
He did not have a apartment to stay in, he stayed in a tent along with many other ninja in the barren land made from Nagato's attack. A safe distance away from the efforts of the reconstruction. He remembered the events of yesterday, he had recovered the key for his seal in hopes for controlling the Kyuubi's chakra, and now he was awoken by his dreams. A nightmare that he desperately wanted to forget. The reoccurring dream had haunted him since Nagato's attack, he didn't dream solely of it but it refused to fade away from his sleep . He closed his eyes in hopes sleep would take him once again.
Your smile saved me.
His heart started to pick up the pace and Naruto bolted upright. The event replayed in his head almost too fast to stop.
Because I-
He was able to stop it before It happened, whenever he saw it replay in his dreams, he felt something all too familiar before officially becoming a ninja. Sadness. Anger. Wiping away his thoughts before he started to brood, he took a peek outside to find the early rays of sunshine. He wanted to sleep more but quickly decided he'd rather not risk dreaming again. Naruto quickly got into his usual ninja gear and headed out his tent. Fumbling with the flaps, he took a deep breath as he took a step outside. Walking towards the epicenter of the town he hoped to find someone to distract him from his thoughts.
He failed. No one would be up at this hour. 'Except for Bushy Brows and Bushier Brow-sensei.' He thought. The bad thing was that they were out on patrol. The blond looked towards the Hokage monument just overhead. Deciding that there was nothing else to do he decided to make his way atop the monument to overlook the village. Quickly making his up he hoped down to the Yondaime memorial, his father's head. Which he found out when-
"This was a bad idea" He said to no one in particular. He wanted to distract himself and it led him to a giant reminder of how he found out who his dad is.
"DAMMIT I WISH I COULD THINK ABOUT NOTHING Y'KNOW!" he yelled out in frustration. He pulled his hair for a while until he thought about sage mode. Then he face palmed, 'I Can't believe I already forgot about it.' He berated himself as he quickly crossed his legs atop the his father's head. Concentrating on staying completely still, his thoughts went blank/
Several hours later
An alarm sounded and Hinata woke up to find herself in her room. Her clan's compound had already nearly finished reconstructing, along with the other clan's of Konoha. Of course many of their efforts were centered on rebuilding the village. She quickly turned off her alarm and got ready for today, eager to help her village get quickly restored. She got dressed in her familiar lavender attire, and quickly through the newly built halls of the compound. She happily said her good mornings to any Hyuuga that was up at the time. feeling refreshed she made her way towards the village to figure out what she can do to help with efforts.
On her way she noticed an unusual speck on the Hokage monument as she got closer. Her curiosity peaked and she activated her Kekkei genkai. As she focused on the destination, her vision zoomed in and to her realization and horror- a light blush spread across her face-the unusual speck turned out to be none other than the object of her affections. Naruto Uzamaki. She wanted to look away and turn off her byakugan or else she risked fainting at the idea of spying with her all seeing eyes, but something else grabbed her attention.
She noticed he was completely still, there was absolutely no movement. Her awe overpowered her embarrassed state and she let out a giggle at the irony of the usual rowdy hyperactive ninja she loved. He was somehow as still as a statue. A very impressive feat and if she were someone else she would have thought it would be impossible for someone like Naruto. Except she wasn't and Hinata had complete and utter faith in his ability, she never doubted Naruto. 'Naruto-kun is amazing...' she thought, another blush coming up.
Then she started to notice something else entirely. Green chakra (A/N:I'm Giving Nature energy a color)started to form around Naruto and started to meld with his own, as it finished, she noticed a change in Naruto's chakra. It added more to his already massive reserves and the chakra surrounded him like a cloak. It was the same as on that day of the attack. 'Does staying still have something to do with that?' she asked herself. But her thoughts were interrupted.
"Hinata-san Hello?" A familiar feminine voice called out beside her.
Hinata was surprised by the hand waving in front of her, knocking her out of her fixation she noticed she was standing in the middle of a street. She blushed in embarrassment at being caught looking at her Naruto, at least they didn't know what she looking at so intently. She looked to the figure attached to said hand to find Tenten. But she blushed even more red to find binoculars in her other hand.
"T-Ten-ten-san!" Hinata blurted out. Knowing she was caught.
"Staring at Naruto-kun huh" Ten-ten smirked. She too obviously knew of Hinata's crush towards the blond ninja. "I was actually beside you for about 5 minutes before I decided to interrupt you"
Hinata blushed even harder at this, 'I was standing here for that whole time?' she thought to herself.
"I-i-i w-was j-just-" she started.
"Don't worry about it, I just wanted to save you from even more embarrassment... this place is getting a bit more lively" Tenten interrupted. Looking around to see more people moving about in the street, they were in the middle of it and just a block behind them was the end before they met barren land.
"I mean imagine if Kiba saw you like this, you were just blushing away" The brunette continued, resulting in another blush from the indigo haired teenager.
"Ummm... T-thank you, I suppose it would be lot worse if Kiba-kun did" Hinata said when she recovered from being caught. Knowing Kiba he would shout it out and even embarrass her more than what Tenten did.
"You know... you really should tell him what you feel for him, because he's gonna get a lot fan girls vying for his attention" As she walked away to do her business.
Hinata knew Naruto and his history, being neglected as a child he hardly knew the emotion of love. Familial love was nearly a foreign concept to him, much less romantic love. Hinata was willing to wait, knowing he'll respond when he's ready...hopefully. She looked upon the monument finding him gone, she couldn't help but say.
"I already did..." Her voice loud enough for only her to hear.
Naruto opened his eyes to find the town site much more lively state and the sun much higher than before.
"Wow! who would've thought this much time passed" He exclaimed. Still sitting down he decided to see who was around, he entered sage mode. When he did he felt the natural energy around him. With his senses enhanced, he felt the forest full of life, the soil felt rich with insects and other life burrowing for protection, he took in a breath to find the air still had some morning dew with it. He felt chakra from all over the village and larger ones all in the camping area, along with familiar ones he knew. Naruto started with the camping area and searched around with his enhanced senses.
'Kakashi-sensei is with Yamato-sensei...Ino's with Choji and Shikamaru, Konohomaru's with his friends, He switched to the town site sensing no other people he knew, Sakura-chan's with Baa-chan and Shizune-nii-chan, Tenten's with-' His thoughts cut off. 'Crap...why'd I do this.' It seemed no matter what he did, his thoughts always went back to her or led to her one way or another. 'Well what the hell am I supposed say!' He thought to himself, He didn't want to hurt her, he didn't want to see her sad unhappy tears going down her face as he rejected her. He didn't want to see her hurt by his enemies if they ever got together. A thought that confused him.
In short Naruto was immensely confused, here was a young woman, who confessed to him on the battlefield. He could imagine her being stuck down again by Pain. Anger rose and Naruto quickly beat it down, and found reassurance in her chakra that he sensed. Successfully calming himself that she was still here alive and well. He didn't want to think about it, he had to think about how to control the Nine-tails chakra. Yet, how was he supposed to think of how to do so when she invaded his dreams every night and kept him from resting.
'I should say something to her' He thought himself. Perhaps then he could rest easy, and concentrate on controlling the Kyuubi's power. 'I need to see baa-chan about my problem'. He stood up and quickly walked down the cliff of the monument, he went down to the where the start of the pit of Nagato's attack, Still in sage mode he decided to help the village by creating hundreds of shadow clones to help the village and exhausting his sage chakra.
"OK! let's all help the village everyone!" The original Naruto yelled.
"YEAH!" Hundreds of clones yelled out in unison. All stampeded down to help with the recovery of his precious village and quickly reached the town site. Their shouts did not go unnoticed as the villagers and workers heard their cries and they watched the Naruto clones yelling out about how they're going to help. This was met with village's appraisal, Meanwhile the original Naruto was on his way to go see the hHokage.
'Well Iruka-sensei not around and there's no way I want to see kakashi-sensei, He'll just give me one of his perverted giggles and hand me one of Ero-sennin's book" His thoughts, danced around the subject as he neared where she was.
Tsunade was eating a sandwich, she took pleasure in the taste of chicken breast with the side of cheese. She kept constantly eating something but slowly this time, not nearly as fast when she first woke up. She was still trying to regain her strength from waking up yesterday , she read a classified file explaining what was needed to be done. War was declared while she was out and Danzo had been murdered, and she was supposed to meet with other kages in Kumogakure in two days. She finished reading the report, and now apparently Kumo was offering to train Naruto in mastering the beast inside him.
"How the hell did things escalate so fast Shizune?" Tsunade asked her assistant who was by her usual place, standing to left beside her desk out of the way of visitors. "Don't answer it, it was rhetorical" She added when she was about to speak.
Yamato built the house she was in as a temporary location. Specifically made for the Hokage and to signify to visitors about where the leader was kept, it was also to help keep morale up. The room was large and Sakura was seated on a couch in the right corner of the room, and the hokage obviously in the back center on the room. Important documents sat neatly on the desk, the usual village requests were outsourced, as the Hokage had important matters to deal with.
"We'll have to leave this afternoon to make it to the Raikage's meeting... " Tsunade called for her ANBU guards, "Get me Naruto Uzamaki,Yamato, Might Guy and... some other random jonin you see... urgent matter"
"Yes Lady Hokage" The two Anbu guards quickly scattered to fulfill her request, but one of the persons in question quickly barged in shouting.
"Hey Baa-chan!" As he walked up in front of her desk. " I need to talk to you about something important... alone y'know" He continued, a hand over his neck in a nervous matter as he eyed the other occupants. He sent a small wave over to Sakura. Things were still a little awkward between them, since her confession.
"Oh really? I needed to talk to you too" Tsunade said. Ignoring the granny part 'It must be something important, if he wants to talk alone' She thought. Mentioning the other two individuals to leave.
"Alright Baka, what is it?" as she put a security seal to keep unwanted ears from listening in. Naruto thought a lot about what he wanted to say to Hinata, but came up blank. He also tried figuring out his feelings about her and also met a dead end. Seeing the look of confusion on his face, Tsunade tried to formulate what it was that was bothering him. Whatever it was she wanted to help, she was able to come up with a few reasons.
"Is it about Sasuke?"She asked and hoped she wasn't correct and gave a relieved sigh when he shook his head. She thought about another two, one she heard from Katsuyu, and another from Kakashi, she decided to let Naruto go at his own pace.
"Well... it's about this girl... and it's about what she told me" He started. Rubbing a hand over his neck. "Well... she told me she... loved me" He finished.
"He's uncomfortable... guess that's expected... It's probably Hinata, since he's not mentioning her by name' She thought about she wanted to say, Naruto looked at her expectantly. Katsuyu had told her what had occurred when she had passed out due to exhaustion.
"Naruto... I hope you don't expect me to figure your feelings, but perhaps I can help clarify them... considering what you did to help the village"
"No of course not...It's just that... What am I supposed to say? or feel?... She'd be in danger if she's with me!... and I don't want to see her sad."The young Sage said. Tsunade looked at him, and found he was lost in his emotions and he truly did not know. He looked so confused, a far cry from the usual boisterous individual who always looked at everything with such determination. A tiny spark was still present in his eyes and he wanted to do something about it and there was another one deep inside that could be seen behind the excuses. Tsunade wondered if he knew about it, and if also if anyone ever seen him without his determination. She never did and she never wanted to see it, as she was afraid she couldn't help.
"Well... Naruto let me ask you this... did she mean it?" If he was a normal individual she would have also asked what he would feel if her hurt or another friend hurt, but he wasn't and she was sure she would get the same response. Naruto cared deeply for all his friends. She watched as he contemplated, looking for any sign and was surprised at the number of emotions she saw.
NAruto reflected on her confession as it continuously rang in his mind, it repeated like a mantra in his head. 'Because I...Love you'. He listened to her words, the way she said it in an unfamiliar way, but he could not deny the sincerity that was held with them. If only he got to look in those eyes of hers. A quick flash of anger came up when he replayed the scene when she was stabbed. He answered her question to distract himself.
"Yeah...Yeah she did" He'd wanted to deny it a first but Hinata wouldn't say something like that. She wasn't manipulative.
"And... what are you going to about it?" Tsunade asked. Seeing his usual confidence coming up
"Well... I'm going to promise her something today ... What it is I got no idea!"He acclaimed. Tsunade resisted the urge to dig her face into her palms, 'He's still confused as ever' She thought. The Hokage saw a grin plastered on his face, a more organized look on in his eyes, the chaotic look receding. 'At least I helped him sort it out... a bit'.
Tsunade heard about Sakura's confession. She was sure Sakura did love Naruto, but more of bond between siblings and not in a way that Naruto desired. She would have scolded her for trying to manipulate him if it another time but she had more pressing matters to attend to, like trying to get her ninja and village to survive a damn war.
"OK... Thanks Baa-chan see you later y'know!" As he started to walk out the door, seeing as there were no windows.
"Hold it!... you've got a mission but we've got to wait for the others" She said.
Naruto was back at his tent to retrieve the rest of his ninja tools, as he had to leave in a hour to go on his S-rank mission. 'No matter what, I have to find out how to control the Kyuubi's chakra' He thought back to that awful feeling when he thought he had killed Hinata and the village when he lost control. He wasn't sure if he'd ever forgive himself if he'd caused the death of a comrade, he couldn't stand the feeling. 'I'm a danger to everyone at this very second... the faster I do this, The better I can protect everyone, and bring back Sasuke'. He looked into his pack to make sure everything was in order, he touched the familiar scratched forehead protector, reminding him of his promise of a lifetime even if he didn't have to keep it. He grabbed the last of his gear and headed out, ready to get going, but he still had one thing left to do. Naruto's clones dispersed one by one, careful to not cause any damage to the reconstructing, he wanted to find Hyuuga Heiress. As the memories came rushing in one by one he paid attention to find any clue to where she is. After a few minutes a new memory came, as soon as he figured out the location he quickly moved to find her.
When he found her she was enjoying a snack alone, cinnamon rolls. She was unaware that he was near, so it gave him a rare moment to observe her. She was seated on makeshift bench made out of a log, outside a bakery in a temporary food square. Lunch time hadn't came yet so the square was a bit void of people. She looked relaxed, far from what Naruto usual saw her in. He jumped down from building for a more casual approach and yet he still had not known what to say. He called her out as he he got closer.
"Hinata..." Hinata stiffened a bit, she knew that voice anywhere, she looked towards where the voice came from, to find her beloved blond approaching her from across the street. A faint blush appeared. His voice wasn't the vigor filled voice she knew.
"I was looking for you "He finished. 'Naruto-kun's looking for me?' She blushed a deeper shade now more noticeable. She felt a whirlwind of emotions, as he approached even closer.
"Y-y-you were?" She asked, looking for confirmation.
"Yeah I was " When he called out her name, he noticed things he hadn't paid attention too before. He watched her stiffen when he called out to her, a faint blush clashing with her pale complexion. 'Do I really affect her that much' Her long beautiful midnight hair flowing from the wind. When he said he was looking for her, she watched as emotions dance across her eyes some he couldn't understand; Confusion, adoration, relief, fear, and another one which he couldn't pinpoint. He understood the fear. 'She's afraid of me rejecting her'. He wasn't going to now anyway.
Naruto was oblivious to the way he understood her completely just by looking into her eyes. He stood over her while she sat down, her now untouched snack to her side.
"Listen..."Naruto for the past hour tried to find anything to say, yet nothing came up that felt right. He decided to just say whatever, like the way he's always done.
"Thank you... what you did, I'm not sure I would've won if not for you" He started. Hinata intently looking at him, she looked into his eyes and saw confusion wrought within him. She wanted to comfort him.
"When I turned into the Kyuubi, I thought I had killed you... I couldn't... I can't bear any thoughts of that... even if I know you right here in front of me" He said sadly. The words he said just came out, no thought was put it in forming them, but... they felt right to him.
Hinata looked into his eyes, and found sadness within them, his sincerity breaking her heart. He truly hated the thought. She got up from her seat and quickly embraced ihim in a hug. Her face dug into his neck with her arms wrapped around his back, comforting him.
"Naruto-kun... I'm right here" Any embarrassed thoughts were washed away, right now he needed someone. He relaxed a bit but kept talking as he hugged her back.
"I just have no idea what to say for what you said... no one ever said that to me... I'm just so confused about it..." He continued. His voice low, his eyes almost started to moisten. His throat started to constrict, making it a bit difficult to speak. Hinata could hear the confusion and the strain in them.
"I understand...You don't need to respond right now... I'll wait as long as as it takes for you to be ready" She said. Her usual stutter non-existent. "Whatever you say... I'll always be your friend" She finished, the resolve in her voice did not go unnoticed by Naruto. He relaxed in her embrace, surprised at how comforting those words were. After a few minutes he started to be aware of her closeness and stiffened at his next thoughts.
Her arms softly wrapped around him, his arms around her waist making him aware that she was thinner than the bagginess of her clothes let on, her face pressed affectionately against his shoulder. She smelled of lavender as his cheek rested over her hair, Her big soft chest pressed against his. It took a large amount of willpower to stop a blush from spreading over his face, as he gently got out her embrace. He couldn't help but think about how much he enjoyed it.
"Thanks!... You always know what to say!" A Grin spread across his face, with his eyes closed. He ignored his earlier thoughts and berated himself and blamed his sensei's for their perverse nature.
Hinata reluctantly let go, She was aware of their proximity before Naruto, and when his body stiffened she assumed that was when he noticed too. A blush already present on her face when they stepped back. She noticed he wasn't looking directly at his when opened his eyes, but his smile was genuine, she faintly smiled knowing that she helped him.
When Naruto opened his eyes, he tried not to directly look at her, afraid of thinking anymore of those thoughts. Except when he saw her faint smile with deep blush spread across with cheeks, along her beautiful eyes and her head tilted a bit to the left. He felt something unfamiliar tug in his heart.
"Well! I got a mission to go too, I promise I'll see you later Hinata!" As he walked away waving to her. Heading towards the village gate, leaving her alone to her thoughts.
"B-bye" Hinata breathlessly said. Her stutter returning. Her heart still hammering at their earlier encounter. She looked around at her surroundings and was thankful that anyone wasn't nearby. She felt giddy, with a small smile on her lips she walked away from the shop. Hoping that he'll reciprocate her feelings
When Naruto had slept that night, he was finally able to catch a restful sleep. He was unaware that he'll finally understand a bit more about love during his absence.
End Prologue
A/N: How do you like it? Also my first fan fiction so be as rough as you want too with your review , A Favorite/follow goes a long way also .
