Naruto grinned broadly as he wandered through the streets of Konoha, searching for his pink-haired teammate. It was a brilliant day to find Sakura; in fact, it was a brilliant day in general. The blonde had been preparing for this day for a while, and he was finally all organised.
Today was a very special day.
Today was February the fourteenth.
Today was St. Valentines Day.
At first, Naruto had just planned on giving Sakura a gift, like he had every year before this. But although this was a good idea, he didn't particularly like the hit over the head that he had received in return every Valentines Day before this. So this year he decided that he would give all the female Genin a gift; that way Sakura would be forced to accept it without harming him.
It had taken a lot of effort, and even more brain power, to think of and find a gift suitable for each person. He was quite proud of his efforts, and couldn't wait to begin giving his gifts.
He was going to give Sakura her present first. Although he would see her at their team training later in the day, he didn't want to wait that long, so he had decided to search for her before hand. Besides, what would she do with his present while they were training? It just wasn't practical.
As he reached the outskirts of the village, he saw a pink-haired girl standing outside a large house. In fact, the house was so large that one might call it a mansion. Naruto frowned at this; he knew for a fact that Sakura didn't live here (no, he was not a stalker), so what could she possibly be doing here?
That question was answered immediately as the blonde approached. High up on one of the walls was the easily-recognisable Uchiha fan. Comprehension dawned as Naruto saw that Sakura was placing a love-heart shaped box, with "chocolate" written on it in fancy writing, outside his gate.
As Naruto approached, Sakura looked up. An exasperated expression crossed her face when she realised that Naruto was hiding something behind his back. His cheesy, nervous-but-hopeful grin told her that it was a Valentines Day present.
"Naruto," Sakura sighed. "That had better not be what I think it is. I told you last year not to-"
"Don't worry, Sakura," Naruto said. "It is a Valentines Day present, but I got all the girls one this year! I know you told me not to get you one, and I wasn't going to, but I thought that it wouldn't be fair if, say, Ino got one from me and you didn't."
Sakura hesitated suspiciously. "You got everyone something?" she asked, contemplating whether this made the valentines present okay.
Naruto nodded and handed her a clumsily-wrapped gift. "Here you go Sakura!"
She accepted the gift warily, as though afraid that it would explode. It seemed to put her at ease when it didn't.
In front of her, Naruto was shuffling from foot-to-foot nervously. "Well, I had better go give everyone else their gifts," he said, laughing as though in an attempt to ease the tension. Sakura nodded.
"Thank you, Naruto," Sakura said, smiling at him. Naruto blushed a bright red that would have made Hinata proud.
The pink-haired girl opened the present to reveal…a box of chocolates exactly the same as the one she had just given Sasuke.
"Erm, thanks Naruto," Sakura said. "I really like chocolate…" 'It's just a pity I'm on a diet,' she thought.
Naruto grinned widely at Sakura. "I hope you like the- hey! What is that dust cloud in the distance?"
Both genin stared intently at the growing disturbance. As the cloud got bigger, Naruto realised that it was because they were coming closer. Soon, both ninja could make out the forms of a large group of rushing girls, all carrying boxes of…chocolate?
"Oh no!" Sakura moaned. "It's Sasuke's fangirls! Run!"
The rest of the presents didn't take nearly so long to give out.
"Hey, Tenten! Happy Valentines Day!"
"Thanks Naruto- hey, what's this?"
"It's your present. I am giving everyone one. Gotta run!"
"Wha- oh hey, THANKS FOR THE KUNAI! Damn, he didn't hear me…"
"Hey, Ino! I got a Valentines Day present for you!"
"Naruto! Ino is my girlfriend! Find your own!"
"Take a chill pill, Shikamaru. I am giving all the girls a Valentines Day present. Here you go Ino."
"You got me flowers?"
"Yeah, do you like them?"
"How troublesome, Naruto. She works in a flower shop."
"Yeah, I know. That's why I thought she would like them."
x
"Hey, Hinata! Happy Valentines Day! Here's a present for you!"
"F-f-for m-m-me?"
"Hey, Hinata! What's wrong? Hinata? Hinata! Wake up!"
"Naruto, what did you do to her?"
"I don't know, Kiba, she just fainted!"
"Don't worry about her, Naruto. I'll deal with her. Besides, she'll probably just faint again if she see's you when she wakes up."
"What was that? I wasn't listening."
"Never mind, Naruto."
Naruto hurried over to where team seven usually met to train. He was only just going to make it in time, not that this was unusual. It wouldn't really matter whether he was late or early anyway; it was a given that no matter what time he arrived he would be there before Kakashi.
He should have been paying more attention to his surroundings. Naruto was a ninja; the self-proclaimed future Hokage. If he had been paying attention then the figure that dropped silently down from the trees behind him probably wouldn't have come as such a surprise, although it wasn't likely that he could have won against the person this time.
This time, the person had someone to fight for.
Kakashi strolled along the path, as late as he usually was on Thursdays. Well, as late as he usually was every day, to be precise. It didn't bother him in the slightest that his students would have been waiting for over an hour by now, assuming that they showed up on time.
At least he never had to wait for them. They were always there by the time he arrived, and they could get straight into training. Why should it bother him that he was late?
It came as a surprise to him when, instead of the three figures that he usually saw waiting for him, there were only two: a pink haired girl and a glaring Uchiha.
Sakura looked a little worried that Naruto wasn't there. Her face was in a frown and she kept craning her head to look for him. She never did that when it was only Kakashi missing.
Even Sasuke a looked a little anxious. Well, he did to Kakashi, anyway. In the Copy-Nin's mind, as much as the stoic Uchiha claimed to hate Naruto, it clearly put him off balance when the blonde wasn't around.
Of course, this wasn't necessarily the truth.
"Hey guys. Sorry I'm late. I had to dig my way out of valentine presents. Where's Naruto?"
This excuse was almost true (for once), but it still caused Sakura to snort a little. She immediately became serious again when her missing teammate was mentioned.
"I don't know," she said worriedly. "I haven't seen him since he gave me my valentines present this morning. He said that he had some more to give to other people, but I think that he should have been done by now…"
Kakashi frowned (not that anyone could see due to his mask). "Are you sure that you didn't incapacitate him when you punched him this year?"
"No! I didn't punch him at all!"
"Oh, so he finally succeeded in getting you to go out with him? I am very pleased for the two of you. Now all we need is to get Sasuke a girlfriend-"
"Kakashi-sensei!" Sakura interrupted him. "Naruto and I are not going out. And the only girlfriend Sasuke will have is me!"
"That being," Sasuke said, not liking the direction this conversation was going in. "But where is Naruto? He can't have just disappeared."
So for the next hour or so, they searched all of Konoha for Naruto. And every time they met someone, they asked them if they had seen him. Seeming as no one had, those who they asked decided to join in the search. Soon they had Lee, Gai, Shino, Choji, Kurenai, Shikamaru and Ino searching for Naruto as well.
They split up into teams, deciding to report back at four o'clock. However, when they had all assembled, there was still no sign of the blonde.
"I AM SORRY, EVERYONE! GAI-SENSEI AND I COULD NOT FIND NARUTO ANYWHERE! I HAVE FAILED! I SHALL DO TEN THOUSAND PUSH-UPS AS A PUNSHMENT!"
"I AM SORRY, KAKASHI MY YOUTHFUL RIVAL! LEE AND I SEARCHED THE ENTIRE KONOHA BUT WE DIDN'T FIND YOUR STUDENT! WE EVEN TRIED TO MAKE IT A CHALLENGE, BUT NARUTO IS STILL MISSING!"
"We couldn't find him either," Shino said, in reference to Choji and himself.
"Nor us," Kurenai said. The rest of her group (meaning Shikamaru and Ino) were too busy kissing each other.
"Well, he can't have gone far. What else can we do?" Kakashi asked.
"Can't you look for them with your Sharingan, Kakashi?" Kurenai suggested. Kakashi shrugged.
"It isn't really good for that. It isn't like the Byakugan, which can scope layout and su…" Kakashi trailed off.
"Byakugan!"
"Hinata!" Kurenai called. The girl seemed to have recovered fine from her fainting fit, and she was now clutching a small, plushie owl. Kiba was beside her, and both turned to their sensei in response to her call.
"H-hello Kurenai-sensei."
"Hinata, we were just looking for you," Kurenai said. "Naruto seems to have gone missing, and we were hoping that you could use your Byakugan to find him."
"N-Naruto's missing?" Hinata asked worriedly. "But I just saw h-him this morning. H-He gave m-me this owl." She held up an owl plushie.
Kurenai nodded. "Yes, he gave all of the kunoichi something, but hasn't been seen of since. We have all looked for him, but with no success."
Hinata placed her hands together in a familiar pose with her owl still resting in her arms.
"Byakugan," she whispered confidently. When Hinata raised her head, her eyes were looking far into the distance, beyond the line of sight if the rest of the ninja around them.
Her forehead creased into a frown as she pivoted, turning around to focus her Byakugan on individual areas. Everyone watched her impatiently.
"Well?" Kiba asked her finally. Hinata frowned deeper.
"I can't see anything - hold on," she commanded determinedly. Kiba watched her bow her head, and when she looked up again he noticed that sweat was dripping down her face in a way that using the Byakugan normally would never cause.
He had seen this before on a scouting mission. Although Hinata was not as talented as her "genius" cousin Neji, her range of sight was even bigger than his, but only when she concentrated extremely hard on a particular area. It was almost like zooming in on something with binoculars.
"Hinata, don't strain yourself," Kiba said worriedly. Hinata ignored him.
"I think I see him," she said after a while, releasing her Byakugan. "He is in that direction."
She pointed North, and the entire group turned to look in that direction. That was the deepest part of the forest, and even the best ninja didn't go any further than a few miles in unless they had to.
"That is brilliant!" Lee exclaimed. "We train in there all the time. I know it like the back of my hand!"
Sakura wasn't that surprised. Team Gai trained in the most dangerous place in Konoha. Go figure.
"Well what are we waiting for?" she said enthusiastically. "Let's go rescue the idiot!"
The rescuers raced in the direction Hinata had pointed.
It wasn't until sunset that a weary-looking band of Ninja traipsed out of the forest. Tenten, who had paused in her training to take a drink, noted their odd behaviour with interest as she surveyed them from the cliff above the kage monument.
"Where do you think they've been?" She asked Neji idly. A small smirk twitched at the Hyuga's lips.
"I imagine that they've been rescuing Naruto," he commented. "The last time I saw him he was a little…tied up."
"Neji!" Tenten admonished. "What did you do?"
"I just taught him a valuable lesson," Neji said, walking over to the kunoichi and wrapping his arms around her waist and kissing her neck. Tenten smiled.
"He'll think twice before giving you tokens of affection next time. No one gets to do that but me."