Greetings, I'll keep this short and sweet, this is my first swing a writing a fan fiction, and it is based on the picture that can be seen at .com/art/Natsuko-Uzamaki-69805320

I hope you guys enjoy it, and if you don't, byte me.

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ABCD- Scene change

ABCD-Flashback/Dream Start/End

ABCD- Bijuu/Inner-self talking

ABCD-Dream/Flashback body

Hinata's day

The sun rises to start an average summer day in Konohagakure, shining brightly into the Hyuga family compound. Most of the clan would normally be up and about with the rise of the sun, and the young heiress of the clan was no exception, but for one difference. Hinata was up because she hadn't been able to settle herself to sleep, as her thoughts kept coming back to a certain blonde shinobi she was assigned to work with starting that afternoon.

One Day Earlier

Hinata and Naruto Stood in front of what seemed to be nothing more than an unreal sized pile of papers, scrolls, files, and folders. Naruto was the first to speak up, stepping closer to the pile.

"Hey, obaa-chan, are you alive under there!" he yelled, and was promptly sent flying across the Hokage's office, courtesy of a fist that seemed to just pop out of the middle of the pile.

"HOW MANY TIMES DO I HAVE TO TELL YOU TO STOP CALLING ME THAT, GAKI?" Tsunade bellowed, blowing away the papers and revealing that she did have a desk underneath.

Naruto groaned as he crawled out of the fresh, Naruto-shaped hole in the wall, rubbing his head, where the fist had contacted.

"N-Naruto-kun, are y-you okay?" Hinata worriedly asked. Anyone who knew Naruto knew of his close relationship with the Godaime, and the fights between them that pitted her monstrous strength and short temper against his incredible physical durability and healing abilities, but Hinata had never gotten used to seeing her beloved blonde being flung through walls and furniture like a ragdoll.

"Yeah, I'm fine Hinata," he said walking past her, "WHAT ARE YOU TRYING TO, OBAA-CHAN, KILL ME?!"

"Please, it'll take more than that to damage your thick skull, gaki," Tsunade scoffed, "now do you and Hinata want your mission or not?"

"H-hai Hokage-sama"

"Fine, obaa-chan, what is it this time?"

Tsunade, who chose to ignore that last comment, began to explain, "there have been numerous reports of mass murders in a large village near the border in recent weeks. There seems to be some sort of ritualistic style to the deaths, I don't want to go too far into the details, but each time the bodies are found, it is in groups of seven or eight, usually found in abandoned buildings or out of reach places. There doesn't seem to be any particular pattern to the victims, they have been men and women of various types, big, small, old," the end of the sentence seemed to stick in her throat," several children have been found in the body count as well. As far as autopsy can tell, the deaths are purposefully drawn out to be as painful as possible. However, we have found no evidence of shinobi involvement in these incidents. The rituals don't seem to have any value when compared to forbidden summoning jutsus we are aware of, so we believe this to be the possible actions of a group of mentally unstable civilians, or maybe some new religious cult. Your mission is to find and stop the culprits as soon as possible. I have assigned Hinata Hyuga to assist in tracking the targets, and Naruto Uzumaki, whose combat capabilities help aid in the capture."

Hinata was happy as ever at the prospect of going on a mission with Naruto, no matter how dangerous, until Tsunade finished her statement, "And the Final member of the team shall be Sakura Haruno, whose medic-jutsu may help any victims should you arrive late. Now this is ranked as a B-rank mission, since we don't currently suspect shinobi involvement, but should you find evidence to the contrary, you are to immediately send for reinforcements, understood?"

"Don't worry obaa-chan; we'll kick their asses, right Hinata?"

"R-r-right Naruto-kun," Hinata stammered out, a blush starting across her face but going unnoticed by the young blonde.

However, it wasn't missed by the elder woman, "All right, you depart at tomorrow morning; the trip should only be a few hours on foot. Naruto, I want you to go to the hospital and brief her on the mission. Remember, be ready for anything." As the teens made their way to the door, the elder blonde spoke again, "Hinata, I need to speak to you privately before you go."

Hinata slowly turned back as Naruto walked out the door, she walked back to stand in front of Tsunade, the tone of the hokage scared her a little, "Hinata, I need to speak with you about Naruto."

"W-w-what do y-you mean, Hokage-sama?" Hinata whispered, the red on her face deepening.

"Hinata, don't for a minute believe all us blondes are as dense as your dear little crush," Tsunade allowed herself a moment to enjoy seeing Hinata's blush darken before becoming serious again, "Hinata, as your Hokage, I need you to focus on this mission, it could turn vary bad, very fast. In fact, I would have sent Shino or Kiba as the tracker, but the both of them are far too busy themselves. Just remember, one slipup could cost a life." Hinata started to look away, "But, as I said, that's my opinion as Hokage. As a woman, I think you need to tell him soon. You may have noticed him early on, but I think I've seen a few other girls around the village admiring him as well." The young woman's heart sank at the Hokage's parting words, "If you don't act soon, you may be too late."

Present

Those last words haunted Hinata throughout the night. Every time she started to doze off, she would see an image of her beloved with a different girl, but never her. By five a.m. she had figured she wouldn't be getting any sleep, she got dressed, packed her tools, and left her bedroom, and a tear-stained pillow, behind. When the time came, she sat for breakfast with her family, too lost in thought to pay much attention to what it was she was eating. 'what am I going to do? I need to tell him, but what if he doesn't like me? How am I going to get his attention away from Sakura?'

"Hinata!"

Hinata jumped at the sound of her father's voice, "Forgive, tou-san," she said, "m-my mind w-was on the m-m-mission I will be starting this m-morning."

"I see, I was trying to remind you of the clan meeting this evening, but since you have been assigned a mission, how long shall it take?"

"I-I am not s-sure, tou-san. My t-team and I are to find a group of people, t-there is no s-s-set time, I m-may be gone for a f-few weeks."

"Very well," Hiashi rose from his seat, "Do the best you can, Hinata."

Hinata nodded as her father left, in the past couple of years she had started to become more accustomed to her father's awkward parenting as he tried to show more emotion, to those who didn't know him, they would swear he was as cold as ever, but Hinata knew he was trying, not that it helped her current problems. She finished her meal and made her way towards the village gates, continuing her inner struggle the entire way, completely unaware that someone else in the village was having a similar problem.

Sakura's Day

Across town in her apartment, Sakura was having similar thoughts to the young heiress. Sakura had moved into her own place in an attempt to be more independent, it wasn't much, but she could easily pay off the rent with her hospital wages. This morning, however, instead of preparing for her hospital shift, she was just sitting at her table, pushing her cereal around in its bowl. Sakura had gotten some sleep, but not much, her thoughts kept wandering between the past and a certain blue-eyed shinobi. It seemed to happen more and more since his return from training, she would dream of the past, see her younger-self fawning over Sasuke as Naruto tried to get her attention, only to get knocked to the ground. After this, she would wake in tears at what she had done. When this started shortly after Naruto had left, the dreams and subsequent tears had only confused her; she had originally thought it was that she was nostalgia for their old ways or that she missed the young Uchiha she had once cared for so much, but then things started to change a bit. Those same dreams of her old team left a feeling of guilt in her stomach, this she chalked up to her inability to stop her raven-haired crush. Then, one night, almost a year after Naruto had left, a new dream had come to her, that seemed to be part memory and part nightmare, which had shown her what she had missed.

Dreamscape

Five figures stood at the village gates, prepared to set out on their mission, when they were stopped by a sudden cry, "Wait!" There stood Sakura.

"Sakura-chan!"

Shikamaru wasn't surprised, "I heard the story from the Hokage. Sorry, but you can't come. It seems we have to force him to understand, your job is done Sakura."

Naruto seemed surprised, "W-what… Sakura-chan, you already met with Sasuke!?"

Tears welled up until she couldn't stop them anymore, "Naruto, I beg you, please…please bring Sasuke back. I couldn't do it… I couldn't stop him. The only person who can probably save Sasuke-kun now is you, Naruto, only you can…"

There was silence for a few seconds, "Sakura-chan, you really like Sasuke, huh?" Sakura looked up at Naruto, that old smile on his face, but his eyes had a different look to them than a few moments ago, instead of the determination she had always seen, there was pain, the same pain she was feeling, "I know how much pain you're in because of Sasuke. I can understand."

Like a flood, memories poured into the young girl's mind, everything Naruto had done to help her, to encourage her, to save her, and all the things she had done to him, the things she had said. Even after that, he had wanted to help her, to make her feel better, she started to cry more, ashamed of what she had done to the blonde, "Naruto…thank you," she sobbed, gripping herself to stop shaking.

"Don't worry! I'll bring him back!" Sakura thought she could see tears on the edges of his eyes, "That's the promise of a lifetime!"

Those words shook her very being, the others on the team spoke, but she didn't hear them, 'Naruto is still willing to go to such lengths for me, after all I've done'. She stayed near the gates, waiting for the team's return, she saw Choji and Neji's return on stretchers, she saw Shikamaru, Kiba, and Lee return with the sand siblings, Kiba having to ride injured on one of Kankuro's puppets. But after hours of waiting, there was no sign of the orange clad ninja. Eventually it began to rain, but there was still no sign. Shortly after the rain had stopped, she thought she had caught sight of it, a red and orange figure in the distance, jumping from tree, Sakura's face grew hopeful as the figure got closer, a few villagers and other shinobi, gathered near her, but Sakura's heart sank when the figure stopped at the gate.

Naruto set the last Uchiha down on the ground and looked at Sakura a look of horror growing on her face, he put on a faint grin, "Don't worry, Sakura-chan, he's just knocked out, he'll be fine," he said as his breaths shortened. Sakura still had the look on her face; she could see Sasuke would be fine, what had her scared was her blonde teammate, his jumpsuit was torn and tattered, and what was left of it was stained a deep red, he had severe looking burns and slashes all over his body, and the worst was a large, gaping hole in his stomach, the edges of which seemed seared, but he had carried Sasuke here and was still worried about her. She rushed to his side as he fell to the ground, his breathing was severely labored.

"SOMEONE PLEASE HELP!!" the young kunoichi called out to the others who had been near, only to see them gathered around Sasuke, carrying him towards the hospital, completely ignoring her and Naruto. "WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE, NARUTO NEEDS HELP!!" but people still took no notice, as she was about to try carrying him herself, she heard a faint voice.

"S-Sakura-chan," she looked down at Naruto's face, pale from blood loss, to see the same grin he always wore.

"Naruto, don't talk, just hang on, I'll get you help," she said, picking him up and getting him on her back as best she could, his body felt cold against her back, and she could feel blood dripping down her back. She made her way to the hospital as fast as her legs would allow, Naruto's shallow breaths in her ear, but she couldn't seem to get any closer, but she didn't want to give up.

"Sakura-chan, I kept my promise." Naruto's voice was weak.

The girl felt new tears reach her eyes, "Yes, you did, Naruto, now I need you to hang in there, Okay?"

"Sakura-chan, you feel so warm," a slight blush grew under her tears, "Sakura-chan… I hope you'll be happy…" Sakura stopped as she felt the boy body slump and his breathing stop, she placed him on the ground and tried CPR, her mouth filled with the coppery taste of his blood. She went on trying, as the rain began to fall again, as if the heavens themselves wept at the loss. She looked down to his deep blue eyes, still clear as crystal, a faint smile still on his face , she had lost him, the one who cared about her no matter what, whose dying words had wished for her happiness. She screamed at the top of her lungs for her los, before she slumped across his body, and placing one final kiss on his cold lips, her tears never stopping.

End Dream

That dream had haunted Sakura for weeks, after the second time it came to her, she had started to feel herself change, her heart began to ache for the boy every time anything reminded her of the blonde; whenever she passed Ichiraku ramen, when she visited the academy or training ground seven. She had even considered sneaking up some night and carving whiskers on the face of the fourth, to whom Naruto bore an uncanny resemblance. But she knew he wouldn't approve, he would claim that he would get his face carved there himself, someday, and that was something she fully believed. Sakura hoped to someday to tell him of her feelings, but she was afraid his feelings had changed while he was away, or maybe he had found someone else. She had been ecstatic when he had returned, even if she didn't fully show it when she got upset over his claim of a new perverted jutsu. When she had learned of his "fuzzy little tenant" as he could put it, she had developed a new understanding of his life, why everyone had treated him the way they did, even if she hated them for it and herself for the part she had played. But she also gained a new admiration for Naruto, growing up like he did, in that kind of environment, and not wanting to kill them all.

When Naruto had told her about the mission, she had mixed feelings. She was excited to see Naruto in action, but she was worried about the third member of the group. She had known of Hinata's feelings since the academy, early on Sakura couldn't understand the girls feelings, but as she thought about it more and more, she saw what Hinata had seen for years, a kind-hearted, sweet, if somewhat dense young man. Part of Sakura had cheered on Hinata's feelings, since the pale eyed girl had treated him so well when even other children where so cruel, but another part of her wanted Naruto all to herself. These two parts of her had battled in her head all night, and when she did sleep, she imagined fights between herself and the Hyuga heiress over the blonde. Sometimes she lost, and the Hyuga girl walked away, arm-in-arm with her prize, and other times she won and Naruto would carry her home and tend to her injuries. The thought of his arms around her brought warmth in her chest and face.

pSakura blinked out of her reverie long enough to notice it was almost time to go, she quickly washed her dishes, packed her things and set out to meet her love, and her rival.