A TRADE

Staring across the room, Naruto was deeply in thought. She was in his class again, and as always, she showed no notice of him.

It was always like this, he was always watching her, while she never even noticed him. The girl of his dreams, the one girl that he would do anything for, in a heartbeat. Yet still, she wouldn't ever notice him or anything that he did.

"Yo, Naruto!" Sasuke came up to his side, and resting his arm atop Naruto's head. Sasuke always said that there was nothing in it, so the least it could be was an armrest.

Though Naruto was still paying all of his attention to her. "Hello? Earth to Naruto!" Sasuke said, as he waved his hand in front of his face. Naruto raised his hand, and batted away Sasuke's waving hand, "not now Sasuke." He said, in a solemn tone, Sasuke sighed. He knew that this was about Hinata, it always was.

"Naruto! She doesn't know anything about you right?" Naruto merely nodded. "Okay and you have plenty of girls after, you, so you know you've got the looks, and the personality, so just go and get her!" Naruto wasn't really listening to anything he was saying. This was his normal pep talk that he gave him and he knew it word for word, but it wasn't that easy.

He looked over again to Hinata, and saw her, deeply involved with a conversation with some of her best girlfriends. And memories came up. Memories of him, when he was only a child. Memories of him and Hinata playing together.

Naruto and Hinata were playing in the sand box, with Sasuke and Sakura. They were just tossing sand in the air, and running into it, trying to see who could catch the most sand.

"Hey! Let's play house!" Sakura said, as she grabbed Sasuke's arm. "Me and Sasuke will be married," Sasuke tried to pull away, but Sakura had a strong grip when it came to holding Sasuke. "Naruto, you can be married to Hinata."

When Naruto looked over to Hinata, her face was slightly red, "you okay Hinata?" Naruto asked "you look like your sick!" He laid his hand on her forehead, the way his mom did when he was sick, "N-no, I-I'm –f-f-fine!"

Naruto shrugged and took her by the had, and led her to the little playhouse that was in the park, and they played as a married couple.

The two of them played for hours, until it started to get dark. Hinata's father had called her, saying that it was time for her to go, "I have to go Naruto," she said, "I had a lot of fun." And to Naruto's surprise, she gave Naruto a kiss.

When Naruto looked at her, her face was red again. Hinata turned on her heels and ran off to meet her father.

Naruto felt his lips, where Hinata had kissed him. He had never kissed anyone before, other than his mother. And he had only seen grownups kiss before, so he had no idea how to react.

Naruto's attention was pulled back to him, when Sasuke had came up behind him, asking him to hide him from Sakura. Though Sasuke had no idea that Sakura had left a good while ago.

The next day when Naruto and Sasuke had went to the park to play with Hinata and Sakura. They'd found Sakura, sitting on a tree branch in the park, with a sad look in her eyes. When Sasuke asked why she was sad, and where Hinata was, all Sakura said was, "Hinata's gone." Naruto was heartbroken.

How could she just leave without telling them?

Hinata had left their town, though he never found out where, or why. Then, it was only a few months ago that she suddenly showed up.

Apparently she had been overseas for the past 12 years, and came back to go to high school. Yet, when Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura tried to introduce themselves to her, she didn't remember them, she had no memory of any of them.

Naruto couldn't believe it, she didn't remember anything that had happened between them, not the fun times they had, the sad times, or even the kiss they shared.

She knew nothing about them, and had no way of knowing why. "Naruto," Sasuke said, "I think its time you forgot about her. She doesn't remember you, and there's nothing any of us can do about that." Naruto knew he was right, that there was no way of fixing this, but he didn't just want to give up on Hinata.

When class was over, Naruto decided to skip his next class, and headed to the library. For weeks he had been trying to find out everything he could on amnesia, though nothing useful ever came up. Every book on amnesia always said the said thing, "amnesia is unpredictable and can vary in time before the affected may return to normality".

Naruto had no idea how long it could last then, Hinata could remember him tomorrow or in fifty years, but there was no way to tell.

Though Naruto wasn't going to let this beat him. He decided to check deeper into the library, hoping to find something that could help, a remedy or some way to return Hinata to normal.

He looked deeper and deeper in the library. Though it was tough to tell which book could help. All the medical books in the library had the same thing written in them.

After thirty minutes of searching, Naruto was getting sick of trying to find the book, he knew it was hopeless, though he didn't want to admit it. But maybe he should, maybe it was time to quit and forget about Hinata.

It was at that moment that one of the loose books atop the shelves fell over the edge and onto Naruto's head, "ow!" he cried, the book was huge, Naruto leaned over to pick up the book , though it was heavy too, making it not as easy for Naruto to pick up.

Once he had the book at eye level, Naruto made an attempt to read the book, but it was no good, the book's title was in another language. 'Whatever, just a piece of junk,' Naruto thought as he flipped the book open, what he saw though made him think otherwise.

Scrawled throughout the book were names, names of people he had never even heard of. This book must have been old, because the first signature in the book was faded and worn out, the book had to be older than the school itself.

Naruto flipped through the book, but the pages were blank. 'Hah. Just as I thought, useless' Naruto said as he slammed the book shut. At that moment, the bell for his next class had just rung, 'shit! I'm late!' Naruto grabbed the books that he dropped and took off out of the library.

As the day ended Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura walked home together. The three of them lived right beside each other. "So Naruto, any luck with the research?" Sakura asked, she was being sincere, since she knew how much it meant to him to help Hinata. Naruto shook his head, "Each book I've read tells me the same thing, that its unpredictable and the time varies.

"Well, if you want my advice, I think you should just forget about it." Sasuke said. That comment earned a punch to the arm from Sakura. While Sasuke was rubbing his new bruise, Sakura spoke, "don't worry Naruto, I'm sure Hinata will remember, just give it some time." Sakura was always so sweet and kind, Naruto had no idea how she ended up with Sasuke, who was, for lack of a better word, and ass.

"I know Sakura, but I want to do anything I can to help her." Naruto said.

When he got home the house was empty. Naruto walked around the house, trying to find some evidence of his parents being there at all that day, though he came up empty.

Naruto walked into the kitchen, and found the note he had been looking for: "Naruto, your father and I were called away for business for the week, we'll be back this Sunday, be sure not to destroy the house, and be sure to feed Kyuubi. Love Mom"

'Figures', Naruto thought, he wasn't the least surprised that they were gone. What would have surprised him would have been if they were home, and planned to stay from more than one night.

Naruto figured the only thing to do now was to open the books he got from the library and see if he could find anything there that could help.

Naruto went over to the dining room table and turned out his bag, pouring each book out onto the table.

Naruto shifted the books around the table, placing each book on a certain part of the table. Immediately though, one book caught his eye was the worn leather bound book that he had seen that afternoon. "Huh? I must have picked it up while I rushed out of the library." Naruto shrugged and tossed it out of the way, it landed on the floor in the corner of the room, "now, time to get to work."

Naruto delve into the books, ignoring everything around him, he didn't bother to eat, watch TV, and he just kept at it. It wasn't until, he felt something tug at the leg of his pants. Naruto looked down and saw a orange little fox biting at his pant leg.

The little fox looked up at naruto and began to whimper, and naruto was struck with realization, "oh! I'm sorry Kyuubi!" naruto said as he leaned down and picked up his pet, "I completely forgot to feed you didn't I, girl?" naruto held kyuubi to his chest and walked into his kitchen.

Once he had given kyuubi a piece of meat to gnaw at naruto realized how late it was. "man, I can't believe its already 11:55." Naruto said in disbelief, he leaned down to kyuubi and began to stroke her neck, earning a purr from the fox.

"I don't know kyuubi, I think maybe I should give up. I haven't found anything to help, and everyday hinata might be getting closer and closer to never remembering." Naruto sighed, in defeat, as he stood upright. "I just don't know anymore."

As kyuubi continued to eat, her ears began to twitch, and lifted her head out of the bowl. "what's the matter girl, something wrong? It's Chicken liver, your favorite, isn't it?" kyuubi looked up at naruto, and then bound out of the room. "kyuubi!" naruto called.

He ran after the baby fox, and found her waiting in the dining room, in the corner of the room, with her paws on the leather book that he had tossed aside earlier.

"what is it girl? You want to see what's in it?" naruto leaned down and picked up the book, kyuubi though, began to jump up on naruto, trying to get back the book. "sorry girl, but this book is empty. Naruto walked into the living room and took a seat on the couch, as kyuubi jumped on and took a seat on his lap.

Naruto saw kyuubi nudge at the book, "alright girl, alright, but you're gonna be disa…" naruto didn't even get to finish saying "disappointed", once he opened the book, he was shocked to see the blank pages from that afternoon were now filled with words.