This is one of the first NaruHina fic I ever wrote. The writing in this I see as much better than most of my stuff, likely because I wrote the majority of it while on vacation with no internet. Not to mention, it's been written over two years and I've gone and improved/rewritten some things. At least I think. I worry too much. Given how long this is (33 pages!); I've separated it into three parts.

This is completely AU. Not only because Tsunade's Hokage and Sasuke still around but also because of the situation in Hidden Cloud. At the time I wrote this, I hadn't finished with the original series and didn't know the details of Sasuke's departure, I really wanted to write him. Of course, now everything I've written in here about the Village Hidden in the Clouds is wrong, hence why it's declared an AU.

Title: Do You Hate Me?
Genre: Drama, Angst, AU
Timeline: Post-Tsunade Arc
Summary: When Hinata and Naruto are kidnapped by Cloud Ninja; certain secrets come out, causing both young ninja to think the worse of the other. Could Naruto really hate Hinata? Or could Hinata hate Naruto?
Pairings: Naruto/Hinata
Rating: G

"So that is the Hyuuga Heir?" said a woman hiding in the trees, her hazel eyes covered by her binoculars. Her black hair up in a painful looking bun, the woman wore the typical garments of a Ninja, a dark grey shirt and pants with a black vest. Around her head she wore a headband with the Hidden Cloud Village symbol.

"Yes, that girl with the dark blue hair. The white eyes. The Byakugan." Her male companion stood on the branch next to her, also wearing dark grey clothing, black vest and a Cloud Headband. His blond hair currently hidden by a hood, his dark green eyes stared at the Leaf Genin lounging around outside.

"How do you propose we get her?" asked another male, sitting on the branch above them. He was a bit shorter than the other two, younger than the adult Jonin, yet his wild blackish-brown eyes gave off a reckless nature as did the long crescent scar around his right eye. Wearing the same as his companions, his long spiky black hair was pulled into a ponytail, with one strand in front of his face.

"We clearly can't take her from her home," commented the older ninja. "That happened last time and failed. We need to lure her to us."

The younger man smirked. "I would like to see you try, Inazuma. I don't believe that sort of thing is your strong point."

The woman rolled her eyes at the comment and continued observing their target. Inazuma snorted. "And who has a scar on his face due to his recklessness in escaping the Cloud Village, Hatsu?"

A growl from Hatsu revealed the words touched a sore spot; however, a cough from the female ninja curved the two men's budding fight. "Enough, you two," she said, firmly. "There is a way to get this girl without revealing ourselves to the rest of the village."

She put her binoculars away as her companions glared at her. Hatsu's eyes clouded. "And how is that, Minariko?" he hissed.

The woman grinned. "If you were watching instead of fighting, you would have seen her blush madly and become near faint whenever a certain blond boy comes near." She moved the leaves, carefully so not to give up her position, to show the Hyuuga girl hiding behind a single tree watching a blond boy about her age. As Minariko had said, the girl shook behind her hiding place, her face bright red. When the boy discovered her, coming close up to her, she backed up quickly, clearly nervous and so much so that she lost her footing and fell to the ground.

Inazuma shook his head. That was the Hyuuga heir? He considered himself fortune they were only after her bloodline and not the girl's abilities. Otherwise, she would be useless.

Next to him, Minariko grinned, a predatory gaze flashed in her eyes. "Let's watch them for a couple of days. Then all we have to do is to capture that boy and we have the Byakuugan."

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Uzumaki Naruto yawned as he reached into his fridge for a new pack of ramen. It was nearing midnight and he had had a long training session with his sensei, Kakashi and teammates, Sakura and Sasuke. The jonin had given them extra nighttime training so Naruto had gotten home very late. Instead of eating at his favorite ramen bar, he would have to eat some of his own.

Even worse, Kakashi wanted them at the training fields in the morning. In his words, a ninja "has to be prepared to get up at any hour of the day. Trust me; you'll thank me for this later."

Ha! thought Naruto bitterly as he waited for the ramen to be ready, He should talk. As if he'll even be on time! Maybe I should just sleep in…

His stomach grumbled, reminding him of what he was doing. He picked up his pack of now heated pork ramen and headed to the table. Yawning, he stretched in his seat and untied his Shinobi headband. He laid it on the table, intending to fold it and place it on his dresser when he finished. He put it on the far end of the table so he could eat without worrying about any ramen dripping on it. He was very proud of his headband.

Opening up his ramen and picking up his chopsticks, he said, "Itadakimasu" and started to devour the noodles.

He was halfway through it when he realized something was odd. His ramen tasted funny. Stopping for a moment, he looked at the box, but it had not expired. Hmm? I wonder why…uh…

"Uh…" A sick feeling came over Naruto. He pushed away from his table, the ramen spilling on the table and dripping to the floor, and wobbled to the wall. Coughing, he slid down, his eyes barely open and everything in front of him blurry. "Uh…"

His eyes closed slowly, but he forced them to open as he clutched his stomach, still coughing. In front of him stood someone that had not been there before. Someone who should not have been in his apartment. He tried to look up, but only caught a grinning face of black before finally passing out.

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Clad in her normal gray jacket, blue pants and black shirt with her headband around her neck, Hinata sat on the swing in front of the Ninja Academy, tapping her fingers in a nervous gesture. She had to meet her team around nine-thirty and managed to finish her training early today. Normally, she came here in the morning after her training because Naruto would walk past going to his training ground. She usually just managed to catch him. She would not do or say anything; just hide behind the tree until he left. And then she would slide down to the ground wondering why she could not say anything. Why she could not tell Naruto about her feelings for him.

Ever since the Chuunin exams, her feelings for him had increased. She had been surprised when he had admitted his frustration at failing. So she told him what she really thought of him; that he was a proud failure and symbol of true strength because he always got back up again when he did fail. That he was strong person because of that.

And then he had said he liked people like her…

The mere thought of that caused her to blush bright red and she hid her face in her hands. Calm down, she thought, I can't let Naruto-kun see me like this! Well, if he could see me…since I hide, he can't, but…

"Hey! Hinata!" She jumped about a foot in the air at the voice. Oh, no! she thought frantically, he saw me! I – I can't hide! She turned around to see Naruto, dressed in his orange and blue jumpsuit, grinning at her and immediately lowered her head, her cheeks already slightly red, and tapping her fingers together.

"Umm…Hh – i, Naruto-…kun" she muttered.

"What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be headed to your team or something?" he asked.

Hinata shook her head. "N – no… Kurenai-sensei told us to me – et her at nine-thirty."

"Ah. Then how come you're up this early?"

Hinata felt her heart pound as he continued questioning her. They had had only two real talks before: the Chuunin written exam and the one before his match with Neji. She was still trying to get used to this and wanting to tell him how she felt added to her nervousness.

"Ano…I train in the morning," she said softly, her head down.

"Okay." He smiled and Hinata felt herself grow faint. This was too much…too much for her to handle. But before her body could fall to the ground, he asked her, "Do you want to go get some ramen? I mean, you must be hungry having finished training, right? You should get something to eat before meeting your team."

Hinata blushed more. Going to eat ramen? With Naruto? What had gotten into him? He never had talked to her this much before nor invite her to do anything with him. Could this really be real? She stole a glance upwards, but nothing seemed out of place: he stood before her grinning with his eyes closed and his hands behind his head, as if he had just pulled some prank back when they were academy students. "Ano? Naruto-kun?" she asked, her voice shaky.

"Hmm?"

"Wh – hay are you doing this?"

Suddenly, he frowned. He put his hand on her shoulder, her heart already beating a good deal faster than before began to pulsate into a near hum. Naruto-kun…he's touching me…Naruto-kun's touching me! This close…

"I thought you could use some food. You look kind of faint and your face is all red. If you don't want to go, that's okay, but shouldn't you take a break then? You can't train well if you're sick," he said, his bright blue eyes concerned.

At first, she stared and then finally, a small giggle came out. It was funny seeing Naruto all serious, hardly an appearance that suited him, but it was still a Naruto trait. Regardless of what other people thought, Naruto could be serious when he wanted to be. And he was concerned for her. That made her heart flutter. No, nothing was wrong. This was the same Naruto all right. "No, I mean yes. I think I should take a break, get some food, too."

"Great! Ramen?" At her nod, Naruto took her hand, which made Hinata blush bright red, and led her across the school yard.

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Haruno Sakura, dressed in a red and white dress with the sides parted, blue ankle length pants and her Leaf Headband on her head, walked down the road to her training session with her team. The villagers were already out, going to their respective jobs and such just as they normally would. Sakura could hardly wait to get to the field where Kakashi-sensei and, most of all, Sasuke waited. And Naruto would be there, too.

She still wore a smile on her face, through. Even through she had lost most of the dislike for Naruto, he was still not her favorite person, that was owned by Sasuke, of course, however, he earned her respect her due to his skills in their Land of Waves mission and the recent Chuunin exams. She now considered him a friend and a loyal one at that.

"Those who do not care for and support their fellows are even lower than that!" Kakashi-sensei had told them that when they graduated. Teamwork was very important. And Sakura was determined to abide by that ideal. It would hardly do if the team fell apart.

Thinking of that, Sakura sighed. Of course, while she knew teamwork was needed, sometimes, it felt like her teammates did not. Naruto and Sasuke were often yelling and completing against each other over something. And most of the time, it ended up ruining their mission.

Again, Sakura sighed. No, it was often Naruto who ruining their missions.

Why did I change my mind on him again…? she wondered.

She approached a fork in the road and turned left. The other road led to the Ninja Academy; she could almost see it, but the trees from the woods obstructed a good portion of it.

Just as a group of people passed her on the way to the village, Sakura thought she spotted a patch of spiky blond hair enter the woods. She stopped and the crowd moved on, however, all Sakura saw was Hyuuga Hinata entering the woods by herself.

Shrugging, she walked on to the bridge. Maybe she was imagining things, thinking she saw Naruto? Naruto may be dense, but he would never be late for a training session.

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"It's a shortcut," said Naruto, explaining his reason for entering the woods outside of the Ninja Academy.

Hinata was not sure about that. She always thought the road was easier to get to the village. Then again, Naruto did things differently from most. Maybe this would be easier?

Naruto pulled her into a small clearing and Hinata thought she heard something. It was a mumble; it sounded as if someone had something in their mouth. "Wait! Naruto-kun?"

He stopped, a curious expression drifting over his face. He let go of her hand and stared at her. "What is it?"

Hinata stared in the direction of where she heard the sound. "I – I thought I heard some – thing…" Her face burned red; embarrassed she was making him wait. Instead, she focused on the brush in front of her. She craned her neck to see over it and thought she saw movement. Hesitantly, because she feared what Naruto would think, she entered the brush to see what was going on.

"Hinata?" she heard Naruto say and hesitated again, thinking of going back and heading to the ramen bar. Surely whatever was going here was not that important; it was not like a ninja was in danger or something else of dire circumstance, right? However, before she could make up her mind, she took one more step forward and spied spiky blond hair, very familiar spiky blond hair.

Blinking, Hinata looked back at the Naruto behind her, walking into the brush. Then she took another step and gasped.

Tied to a tree and struggling frantically with a furious expression on his face was Naruto! His mouth was taped up, the source of the mumbling she heard. Hinata looked back again at the Naruto behind her, but this time a very strange look was on his face. A smirk, a very malevolent smirk and very unlike the Naruto she knew. This Naruto took out a kunai and pointed it at her. "Walk forward," he said.

Terrified and confused, Hinata timidly stepped out of the brush, standing in front of the Naruto tied to the tree. As she did so, two people dropped out of the tree, a man and a woman.

"Well, well, what do we have here?" said the woman, grinning broadly. Hinata shuddered as she noticed the cloud symbol on their ninja headband. These people were from the Hidden Cloud Village, the same village that had nearly kidnapped her when she was three.

The Naruto who lead her here walked into her view, still smiling malevolently, and a pop and ninja smoke later, revealed a dark haired ninja with a cloud headband and a large scar running around his eye.

It was a trick...and I fell for it… Hinata felt her face burn with shame at the thought. These Cloud Ninja must have been spying on her for days and realized she liked Naruto. She never thought her feelings would have been obvious, but clearly they must have if they knew she would go with him if he asked.

How could she have been so stupid to think Naruto would have invited her to eat somewhere? Or even concerned for her health? She felt her eyes fill with tears.

"Stupid girl," remarked the scarred ninja. He put his free hand on her hand, kunai still pointing at her, and forced her to the ground. She whimpered, but that only made him laugh. "And you call yourself a ninja!"

"Hatsu!" scowled the woman. "This is hardly the time." In front of her, Naruto's feet struggled from the bonds.

"But it's so much fun to crush them!" sneered Hatsu in a cheery, cruel voice. The ninja pushed Hinata closer to Naruto and the girl squeezed her eyes shut, not wanting to see the person she admired and loved so much look at her with dislike and disappointment for being so foolish.

"Boy! Don't you see? This girl's feelings for you clouded her so much she was so easy to capture," said Hatsu, the words causing to Hinata to shiver in humiliation. "It was her love for you that caused her to be capture. The reason she blushes and faints so much is because she's in love with you." He laughed. Hinata felt hot tears trying to escape, but she held them in because she did not want to further disgrace herself.

"All right," spoke up the other male. "That's enough. We have what we came here for."

She felt them tie up her hands and tape her mouth, but she hardly cared nor struggled as they did so.

After being tricked like she had been, she just wanted to die.

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Sakura and Sasuke stood on the bridge where they normally met Kakashi-sensei, Sakura's anger growing each minute. Her anger was even worse than normal because not only was Kakashi-sensei late this time, but so was Naruto.

While she stood silently, an imaginary black and white girl that looked just like her with the kanji on her forehead dubbing her Inner Sakura ranted on and on about the two late ninja. What in blazes are they doing?? When I get a hold of the two of them, I'm going to do this… She slammed two dolls that looked remarkably like Kakashi and Naruto into a wall. And this… She tore the heads off. And that! She set fire to the remains and then threw them in the air. Yeah, that'll teach them!

Sasuke, wearing his standard black pants and blue shirt with its high collar and Uchiha symbol on the back as well as his Leaf Headband tied around his head, hardly appeared different, the scowl he normally wore deepening every thirty minutes just like it always did when Kakashi-sensei was late. The only difference in this normal waiting for their teacher was Naruto complaining.

A pop sounded and ninja smoke appeared at the foot of the bridge. When it cleared, there stood Hatake Kakashi, their silver haired jonin teacher. He wore black pants and shirt with a dark green vest. His headband was worn over his right eye, hiding the fact that he possessed a Sharingan eye, a nearly extinct Kekkai Genkai normally found in the slaughtered Uchiha clan of which Sasuke was the only survivor.

As usual, Kakashi raised his hand in greeting and 'smiled,' which, since he wore a mask over the lower portion of his face, only consisted of his left eye closing. "Sorry, guys, there was a fire at my apartment this morning."

Sakura could hardly contain herself; Inner Sakura was already setting fire to another Kakashi doll. "Liar! I passed the Konoha fire department on my way here!"

"Well, that's the reason why I was late; I had to put the fire out myself!"

Sasuke groaned and muttered, "Pathetic."

Sakura debated with herself whether or not to let this go when Kakashi interrupted, "Wait…where's Naruto?"

"He's late, too," growled Sakura.

The jonin appeared worried. "That's not like Naruto, he's not normally this late, is he?"

"No," muttered Sasuke, a frown replacing the scowl. "Even if he's plotting something, that loser doesn't arrive this late." He eyed their teacher. "You think something's happened to him?"

At that, Sakura's anger drained away, concern for Naruto replacing it. Naruto may be annoying at times, but that did not mean she wanted something to happen to him. "What should we do then? Go check his apartment?" she asked.

Both Sasuke and Kakashi nodded their heads and with a speed that could not be detected by normal eyes, the three of them were gone, heading to Naruto's apartment.

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He had no idea how long he had been struggling against his bonds. The Cloud Shinobi had taken him and Hinata to yet another clearing in the woods. According to the three ninja, they would hide there until nightfall and then they would get away. Naruto had thought this was a bad idea because surely their teams would know they were missing.

However, it appeared the kidnappers had this thought out because they said, waiting would give any search parties time to die down and the cover of darkness would conceal them. At that point, things did not look to good for Naruto because Inazuma had begun to ponder how and where they were going to dispose of him after they left.

The laughter of Hatsu rang in his ears; he shook in anger and the need to show him up rose once again. In spite of this, Naruto could not do much of anything at the moment.

Whatever drug the Cloud Shinobi gave him restricted access to his chakra. He also could not form the hand sign he needed for his favorite jutsu, Kage Bunshin. It had worried his captors when the drug began to wear off after a couple of hours; it was supposed to keep him down for 72 hours. At least I got something on them, reflected Naruto with a small laugh.

He figured he only had enough chakra for one jutsu and only the smaller ones. There was one problem with his plan: Hinata.

Hinata had her back to him and refused to turn to him when he tried, a silent effort, but he had hoped she heard him try, to get her attention. Ever so often, she shook; Naruto figured she was upset. He had no idea she liked him that way. How was he supposed to know that all that blushing and fainting was because she liked him?

He remembered how shy, but nice she had been during the Chuunin exam. She had offered to let him cheat off her test and gave him some medicine after his fight with her own teammate, Kiba. He recalled how she had stood up to her cousin, Neji, in her fight with him and how she had boosted Naruto's confidence a month later when he ended up fighting Neji.

His eyelids drooped. Hinata had been so nice and then this had to happen.

Regardless, none of his ideas would work without Hinata's help. His best idea involved the Henge jutsu, but, since he could not transform out of his bonds, without Hinata, the ninja would just grab her and leave, thinking Naruto was running for help.

His other idea involved the Kawarimi jutsu, but he was afraid any movement would alert Hatsu guarding them. His blood began to boil just thinking of the pain he caused Hinata. He knew he could take him, but if Hinata was still feeling like this while they battled, she could be hurt.

Come on, Hinata! Snap out of it!

Footsteps approached and Naruto turned his head as best as he could to glare at the Shinobi. However, Inazuma ignored him and took out a kunai. Pulling Naruto up, he cut him deeply across his cheek.

The wound burned and if Naruto could, he would have kicked Inazuma. Instead, he glared in contempt at his captors.

The three ninja's eyes widened in shock. "Inazuma…" whispered Minariko. "It's healing. It's true. This is him…"

Slowly, Inazuma nodded. "So it would appear. I'm surprised they allowed him to be this untrained. Our Junchuuriki is the one of the best in the village."

Hatsu, who had looked very confused, but not at all concerned, at their actions, took in a deep breath. "A Junchuuriki? This boy is a Junchuuriki, Minariko?"

She nodded. "Yes. Inazuma and I discussed it and it's the only thing we can think of that would explain why he woke up so quickly. I had heard Konoha was attacked by Kyuubi 13 years ago, but I never thought this boy would be the one who held it. That information became forbidden after the attack."

At the mention of the Nine-Tails, Naruto paled. Hinata…she had to have heard them, she knew now… Inazuma dropped him to the ground, smirking. "I've heard rumors of some ninja wanting to get their hands on the Junchuuriki. If we can find these ninja, I bet they'll pay us quite handsomely for you." Then he shrugged as if it was not really that important. "But if we can't…" He smirked again and mimicked slicing his throat.

Naruto had no idea what a Junchuuriki was, but it had to have something to do with him being the container of the fox. And the idea that there was a proper name for people like him did not appeal to him at all. However, his eyes widened when Inazuma mentioned ninja searching for people like him. That has to be Akatsuki! The two men who wanted him to come with them when he and Jiraiya searched for Tsunade sprang to mind. Uchiha Itachi, Sasuke's brother and his partner, who appeared very fish-like. These Cloud Nin would hand him over to them? Despite the bonds, Naruto felt his body tremble slightly.

Hatsu began to laugh in malice. He walked over to Hinata and turned her over. Naruto squeezed his eyes shut, not wanting to see the hate she must possess for the one who held the Kyuubi within him. Just like all the other villagers hated him…

"Look girl, your boyfriend has a demon within him. Did you know that? No? You did not?" He laughed again, he sounded amused and Naruto felt like launching himself at the man at that moment. "Well, now you know, not like it's going to of any help now since you'll both soon be dead."

"Hatsu!" growled Minariko. "Keep it down! People walk past this forest, you know!"

"Keep a good eye on this boy, Hatsu. We don't know what he's capable now," remarked Inazuma sternly.

In response, he groaned at the order. "Oh, come on! This boy isn't going to do anything! He hasn't yet and look at him tremble." Naruto forced himself to stop trembling. "He won't do anything."

"I don't care," stated Inazuma, firmly. "Watch him. Minariko and I will keep an eye on the outskirts."

Two sets of feet left the small clearing and seconds later, another set followed, clearly Hatsu because it sounded as if he were dragging his feet.

And then, the two were alone.

I really hope no one hates me for what I did to Hinata! :( At the time, I liked to go overboard on both villains and characters' reaction. Hatsu is a good example of this. I'm still not entirely sure about my characterization. It looks okay to me right now, but it's something I always worry about. Considering this fic was the first time I ever seriously tried to write NaruHina, the worry explodes more than normal.

I'll try to post the second half next week! That is if I can stop tinkering with it. I keep doing that. ^^;; Happy New Year! ^_^

Thanks for reading - NessaMoon