Author's note: Hello everyone! Welcome to my new fic! This is set about 3 years after the current manga events. I'll try to keep most things in character, but sometimes it will not be possible. I think it's understandable, since the characters are a little older.

I'd also like to emphazise that English is not my first language, and mistakes might come in the way.

Disclaimer: I do not own any of Naruto characters, jutsu or locations.


1

Naruto woke up with the biggest headache ever.

But, despite the throbbing pain in his head, he felt immensely satisfied, comforted, satiated. Happy, even. He had had the best dream of his life.

A dream where his precious Sakura-chan gave herself to him, so tenderly, and then proclaimed her love for him in manners that made his heart feel all warm and whole.

As he became more alert, he realized that that could be only a dream. Sakura could never be his. She belonged to another, a man she loved and he loved as well. Naruto felt his good mood leave him.

Consciousness taking place in his mind, he realized, chocked, that someone was with him in his bed. His emotional side was screaming that that was not a dream, and Sakura had really spent the night making love with him.

However, his rational half told him that he was in big trouble, and he'd better wake up soon. Divided, the blonde didn't know what to do. But in the end, he decided to listen to his more rational side and opened his eyes.

He almost fell off the bed.

There was a woman with him. She was petite, yet had a curvy, voluptuous body. Her fair skin was flawless, glowing softly in the sunlight. Her hair was long, midnight blue, very shiny. As realization hit him, he had to swallow the bile that went up his throat. He knew this woman. She was the worstoption for an one night stand.

"Hinata", he said, shaking her lightly, "Wake up."

If Naruto weren't so worried, he would have admired the spectacle that was Hinata waking up. She stretched her body, arms over her head, toes dancing happily. Her body twisted gracefully, her face soft and open, a small smile in her lips. But, when she saw his closed, distant expression, her world quickly fell. Her expression, so content before, was now replaced by a sad, hurt frown. She didn't dare moving, scared of annoying him. It was bad enough as it was.

"Hinata.", he started, visually uncomfortable."This was a mistake, what happened." He then took a deep breath, and continued. "We should forget this. We're better as friends."

I took all of her strength to not cry. She knew that this might happen. They were drunk after all. Confused and sad, and nothing good could come of a situation like that.

But it still hurt.

It hurt like hell, being rejected like this. All her life she had loved Naruto, and all her life he never returned her feelings. Instead, he had put all of his devotion an a girl that never loved him back. Hinata felt so lost, so alone... She gave everything to him: all of her love, all of her thoughts.

And now, all of her body.

Silently, she put on her clothes and headed for the door. Before she could open, Sakura stormed in.

"Naruto! We have mission today..."

She looked ultra-confused, and ultra-embarrassed. Naruto and Hinata were clearly having a moment there. But before she could say anything, the Hyuuga ran away.

"Naruto..." She asked, quietly. "What happened? When I saw you two leaving together yesterday I thought..."

Again, she couldn't complete her sentence. Naruto had grunted in anger. She looked, in shock, at a brownish red stain on his very white sheets. Suddenly, Naruto felt ill. How could he have done that to Hinata? How could he be so stupid? He would never forgive himself for his stupidity.

"Sakura-chan... please, hit me in the head with all of your strength. I really need this now"

xXx

Hinata ran.

Past the people, past the houses, she ran as fast as she could. Tears poured from her eyes and clouded her vision, but she didn't care. She couldn't think of anything but the rejection.

And how bad it hurt.

All of these years, Naruto never addressed her on her confessed feelings. And she just kept telling herself that he needed time, that he would, eventually, give her a response. But he didn't.

She had put her mind in other things. She worked hard to improve her abilities. She graduated Jonin with the best evaluation of her team. Her medical knowledge was now extensive. She excelled at genjutsu, and fuuinjutsu. She busied herself with becoming an important ninja in her village.

Almost three years had passed, and not even a world about it. She got used to it, putting her feelings, her thought at the back of her mind, and forced herself to focus on others things instead.

But last night, at the party... Maybe she have drank that much. Because the alcohol freed all of her repressed feelings, and she couldn't stop herself from going to him, from talking to him.

From loving him with all her might again.

And now, after she had given herself to him, she finally received her answer: that he did not return her feelings for him, and that he'd rather forget everything about "them" and "whatever happened". And it hurt.

She cried, screamed and cried some more. After a while, her cries and screams turned into sobs and whispers. Then, she got silent.

On the following day, Hinata and her team were sent to a mission to the distant Iwagakure. For six longs weeks, all she would think of was her mission.

xXx

Back in Konoha, Naruto was living his personal hell. Tsunade has finally decided it was time for him to be Hokage, and was giving him ridiculous amounts of tasks to be accomplished every day. Review reports, organize documents, and observe the students at the academy were some of the easiest.

Besides, there were a lot of other things in his mind. Like the memories of his drunk encounter with a pale-eyed beauty. He was very drunk, for sure, but he could remember well: the softness of her skin, her pale hands caressing his chest, her soft moans in that sweet voice...

And it tormented him like a plague, because he knew he didn't deserve any of this attention. All the things she'd done and said that night made his heart ache. He couldn't understand how she could love him so much when he barely saw her. And he blamed himself for this. Because he knew Hinata had suffered.

Always the timid one, quiet, silent. At first, she thought she was weird. But he learned that he was a very good and caring person that was just too shy around everyone, and for some odd reason, fainted around him. When he learned the truth about her feelings, his view of her changed, but not much: he still loved Sakura too much.

And now that Sakura was with another man (and one he loved and admired, no less) there was nothing he could do to have her with him. He was so miserable when they had told the news to everyone, on Kakashi's birthday party, that all he could do was drinking his pain off, at least for the moment.

Of course, being the jinchuriki of the nine-tails made this very difficult. The Kyuuby's powerful chakra brunt every poison in his system quickly, and alcohol was no different. He was numbed, but conscious, and he remembered everything.

It was a funny thing, that. When he woke up that morning, he couldn't remember anything. But, after Hinata had left, the memories of their encounter came back to him, and since then he was like this, depressed.

"Naruto, glad I found you", a masked man sat by his side on the Red Bridge. "Tsunade has been looking for you."

The blonde just stayed there, not responding to the older man words.

"I know you're upset, Naruto", Kakashi continued, "But some things can't be helped. We can't choose who we fall in love with. It can't be helped."

Naruto knew this. And, part of him was happy. Kakashi and Sakura were his family, the firsts to accept him as he was. And they deserved happiness, and if they could find it together, the blonde could only be happy for them. But it hurt, because he felt like he would never be good enough to be loved.

But Hinata loved him.

And it hurt him, because he couldn't love her back, and she was hurt. And Sakura felt guilty for both of them. And Kakashi felt guilty, because he couldn't avoid any of this pain. So, in this situation, everybody was in pain - and Naruto felt that somehow it was his entire fault. But what could he do about this?

The answer was simple, and was screaming at his face: make things right with Hinata. This would make things with the shy girl easy, and would ease the guilt that Sakura and Kakashi felt. But there was only one problem.

Naruto didn't love Hinata.

And he kept running I circles, because he didn't know what do to. And, because of that, everybody was in pain...

"Naruto, calm down."

The young man looked at his former sensei. He was looking to the river rolling peacefully under them. "You don't need to worry about me, or Sakura. We're just worried about you. You are sad and confused." Then he looked at the blonde, understanding in his eyes. " See, we want you to be happy. We really do. But things just happened this way. Sakura and I... Who would think of that? I certainly couldn't."

Naruto was confused. He didn't understand what was Kakashi talking about. Why would help him to know how his ex-teacher and the love of his life fell in love for each other?

" I was always alone. When my father died, people started to look down on me. That's why I wear this." He pointed his ever present mask. "Minato-sensei was one of the few people I let in. Because he could see me under the mask. He didn't see what my father did, you know. You are a lot like him. You can see the true nature of the people, and I'm sure you understand this."

And he could. Sakura definitely had a temper, but she was caring and determinate. And this make her break through Kakashi's barriers. And the Hatake was a patient, strong enough to handle Sakura and her bad mood. And he was a lot like Sasuke too, he realized. A genius, a loner. It was only natural that she was drawn to someone that resembled her first love.

Naruto could understand that very well, but his heart couldn't. But he knew he would have to live with this, and perhaps, the future reserved some happiness for him too.

xXx

Two weeks passed their encounter, the Uzumaki decided to talk to Hinata. At least, to apologize for his ridiculous behavior toward the shy girl, but he couldn't find her.

He discovered that in the day following their night together she had gone to a mission in Kirigakure. And she would be there for another four weeks. That meant she wouldn't be there when he was declared Hokage, on his birthday.

That made Naruto really sad. He wanted to have all of his friends with him on that special day. But Hinata wouldn't be a part of it. He knew that, even in their odd situation, he would like to have her around.

He knew that, the moment the timid girl step in the village he'd need to talk to her. Things couldn't be left as they were. She definitely needed an apology for the way he'd treated her. And , also, some closure for what had happened. He loved her as a friend, a der one. But nothing else would happen between then again. Naruto knew he wasn't good enough for her.

xXx

She was almost there. Her last stop on her month-and-a-half long mission was Kiri. And then, home. Tsunade had sent her in a very complicated mission, to collect and return several important documents to the other Kages. She knew that, by doing this, she would miss Naturo's rising to the position that once had belonged to his father, but she knew it was better this way. Her heart was still sore, and the last thing she needed now was to remember how far she and Naruto were from each other.

The last part of her mission was simple. Gather the necessary documents, wait for the Kazekage then lead him to Konoha. Once he and his escort (his siblings) enter the village safely, her mission was over.

She was happy for coming back home, but at the same time... she wasn't. She didn't want to face Naruto, ever again. She loved him to much, and every time she met him she'd suffer. She just didn't want that.

It didn't take long for the Kazekage to arrive in Kirigakure.

Last time Hinata had seen him was during the war. She admired his strength and leadership, and will in battle. But she'd never talked to him. So now, as he (and his siblings) approached her, she didn't know what to do. What would she say? How should she adress him.

"Hyuuga-san?" A low voice called behind her. Turning, she saw the leader of the Sand Village looking expectantly at her. She tried to find the words to answer, but somehow she couldn't. All the rational thinking escaped from her mind. He was so...

Gaara was so different. He was older, of course, but the years that she hadn't seen him had transformed him in a very handsome man. His face was more masculine, but his expression was gentle. And hir eyes... oh his beautiful green eyes seemed to mature, so kind and wise. Alert, but at the same time soft. She didn't remember feeling like this before... except for Naruto...

Her eyes widened in horror as she realized what she was thinking. How could she think those things about the Kazekage? Her face felt hot, and she felt and old dizziness taking over her. Why now? She was supposed to escort them to Konoha, not faint in front of him.

"Look what you did, Gaara!You scared the poor girl!" But before the blond could reach her, Hinata fainted.


Author's note:

I hope you had enjoyed the chapter, and I'm looking forward to know your opinion about it. Reviews are love, and help a lot in writing a story!

Second chapter is being reviewed, and will be up soon. After I have decided on a storyline, I'll let you know.

See you soon!