Author's Notes –

"Quotes" – Dialogue

Italics - Thoughts and Flashbacks

Bold - Emphasize

Rated K for a little cursing

Pairings – Naruto and Hinata; NaruHina

Disclaimer – I do not own Naruto; Masashi Kishimoto does.

Warning – One-shot

Age – After the Time Skip; Shippuuden

Violet Rain

Naruto sat on the wet grass, rain pouring through the leaves hanging above him in a tangled mess of branches in the middle of Team 7's training grounds. Frustrated tears crept through angered eyes as Konoha's number one hyperactive ninja sulked on thoughts of one person.

Sasuke.

"Kuso…," he muttered under his breath, as his mind wandered to yesterday's events.

They had been so close. He managed to slip through their grasps again, following his dark path as an 'Avenger'. Only this time, he managed to prove his point.

"My life means nothing to me as long as infinite power is granted in return." He pressed the blade closer to Naruto's throat, a single drop of blood trickled down the tip of his katana.

"You bastard…," gasped the blonde. Devoid of chakra, he barely managed to stay awake. The temporary seal on the Kyuubi's power preventing any demonic chakra was starting to take effect.

"Go home now, without me, and I won't kill her," he whispered, glancing at Sakura's unconscious form. Her shallow breathing getting worse as blood poured from the wound on her arm. It was shallow, but any deeper and it could prove fatal. A clone of Sasuke was hovering above her, kunai in hand.

Naruto sent a sharp glare at Sasuke; he stared back unaffected.

Naruto knew when he was defeated. He softened his stare and dropped his gaze.

"I understand..." Naruto let silent tears fall as Sasuke pulled back and re-sheathed his sword.

"Wise choice." He stepped back and disappeared into the forest once again, leaving his old teammates behind.

The rain calmed him. It reminded him that even the strongest people cry. He was no exception. He couldn't just let Sakura die. That wasn't an option.

Naruto's grip on the grass tightened, pulling blades of it out of the ground.

His hair was hanging in front of his face in a tangled mess. He didn't even go home after the mission.

Suddenly, the rain ceased. A steady shadow loomed over him instead. The blonde looked up and met the eyes of none other than Hyuuga Hinata. She was holding her umbrella over him, shielding him from the water cascading from the sky.

"Hinata…" Naruto stared at the blue haired girl standing above him. She wasn't in her normal training clothes. Instead, she wore a white long-sleeved shirt under a loose lavender t-shirt and dark blue track pants.

A light blush appeared on her pale cheeks as she shyly smiled down at him. Naruto gave a light smile back and patted the ground next to him. Hinata nodded and sat down, umbrella still clutched firmly in her hand.

"What are you doing here on a night like this?" Naruto turned his gaze towards the Hyuuga girl, who was twisting the hem of her T-shirt between her fingers.

"A-ano...I like walking in the rain, sometimes...it...relaxes me," she replied in her quiet tone.

Naruto looked up at the grey clouds, "Me too. I come out here to think. I guess you could say that it cools off my hothead." He gave a sad smile and held his hand out to catch some of the falling rain in his palm.

"Y-you seemed sad...so I thought I'd come and...um...join you..." she poked at a weed sprouting from the dirt; avoiding the one boy she truly loved.

Silence loomed over the two shinobi. No glances exchanged, nothing to distract them from the falling rain...

Until Naruto finally spoke.

"I failed again," he sighed, staring at the ground. "Sasuke got away again, all because I'm still not good enough." He watched as the raindrops slid through his fingers, no matter how hard he clenched his fist.

"T-that's not true!" she squeaked, and then covered her mouth as Naruto sent her a questioning look.

"Y-you've always been strong...and you never give up. You are stronger that Sasuke will ever be because the bonds you have made...make you stronger. Not...not the other way around."

Naruto's eyes widened as Hinata spoke. Finally, she turned her head and met his gaze.

"I...I still mean what I said...all those years ago...i-in the training grounds...before the finals in the Chunin exams...," she said quietly. Naruto thought back to that day, the meeting in the field...

Naruto was walking along the beaten paths of the old genin training grounds. Hinata stood behind one of the logs, watching him close in. Out of the corner of his eye, Naruto saw…

"Hinata?"

The Hyuuga girl jumped, startled by the sudden call.

"N-Na-Na-Naruto-kun!?" she backed up further behind the post, her face turning red. "W-why did you cone here?" she asked quietly, "Isn't today the main matches?"

Naruto looked surprised, but relaxed with a sigh. "I, uh...you know, I just came to see this training area...since this is where I became a genin." Naruto lowered his gaze a little more.

"R-really?" Hinata replied, still hiding from him. "But...why?" Naruto jumped. He wasn't expecting her to ask that. He turned away from Hinata.

"No reason! Who cares about the reason..."

Hinata looked down. "Y-yeah...s-sorry."

The two shinobi stood in silence for what seemed like forever, but in reality was only a couple of seconds.

"Hey, Hinata?" Naruto asked, "Neji is your relative, right?" he slowly turned his head back to face the blushing Hyuuga.

Hinata looked up. "Ah...yeah." she muttered.

Naruto turned around. "I-is he strong?" he whispered.

Hinata looked down again, a sad look made its way onto her pixie-like face. "Yes."

Naruto looked disappointed. His face fell and he let out a breath he didn't know he was holding. "I see..."

"B-but...you might be able to defeat him, Naruto-kun." sputtered Hinata.

Naruto laughed. "Yeah! I am strong!" he put his hands behind his head in a familiar pose. He tried to keep laughing, but instead he didn't feel as good as he usually would. He looked down and dropped his hands.

Hinata came out from behind the pole. "I-I'm sure you can beat him, Naruto-kun..."

Hinata poked her fingers together, trying not to make eye contact.

Naruto looked surprised. No one had encouraged him that he could beat Neji. Everyone thought it was a waste of time.

"Ano-ne...when you cheered me on, I felt like I had become stronger than before," she said, her voice barely audible. She stepped out of her hiding place a little more and met his gaze.

Naruto remembered screaming her name in the middle of her match, telling her to do her best. He smiled at the small memory.

"A-after the preliminaries, I was able to like myself a little more. I didn't give up in the fight like I normally would have." She returned her eyes to the floor. "If a stranger looked at me, it might seem like I haven't changed...b-but I think I was able to change...just a little bit. A-and I think that it was thanks to you, Naruto-kun." Hinata met Naruto's sky-blue eyes, her cheeks painted light pink.

"Hey...Hinata...Do you really think that?" he asked, his voice slightly cracking.

"W-what?"

"I may look strong from your point of view, but I always screw up...and I just act strong because I'm mad."

"That's not true!" shouted Hinata. Naruto looked up, surprised by her boldness. But Hinata kept a smile on her face. "Even if you did make a mistake, you were always...from my point of view, a proud man who makes a lot of mistakes." Naruto stared at her in awe, his eyes wide.

"I...when I looked at you, there was this impact on my heart. Y-your not perfect...you make mistakes and you learn from them, you get stronger from them...I believe that is true strength." Hinata returned to poking her fingers together, fidgeting under his stare. "N-Naruto-kun, you are a strong person I think."

Hinata returned to hiding behind the training post, her face flushed because she practically just spilled her heart out to her long time crush.

Naruto smiled. "Thank you, Hinata." Hinata looked up. "I've always been last place in everything," he said, "I was nervous over nothing. I was a bit depressed, but I feel better now!"

Hinata smiled. "Naruto-kun..."

"I'll be going off to the matches now!' Naruto waved his hand at Hinata and gripped the strap on his backpack. He walked off a few steps...then stopped.

"Hinata..."

"Eh?" Hinata looked surprised.

"I've always thought of you as..." He paused, trying to find the right words.

Hinata was going frantic in her head, her thoughts asking, "What? What?"

Naruto continued, "...a dark, timid, and weird person."

Hinata slouched. That wasn't something she wanted to hear. "N-Naruto-kun..." she muttered, staring at the floor.

"But, you know something?..." Naruto started to walk away again. "I like people like you."

Hinata's eyes went wide as her cheeks flushed; his words ringing in her head like a beautiful broken record...and she never wanted it to stop.

"I remember...," he said calmly, taking a blade of grass between his thumb and forefinger and twisting it around.

"I still think that it's true," she whispered. Hinata hasn't quite grown out of her shyness around Naruto, but her stutter has gotten a little better.

"Your one of the strongest people I know, and that will never change in my eyes." Hinata continued fidgeting with her fingers as Naruto turned to look at her.

"Sasuke only has superficial power. His strength is nothing more than an excuse to leave. As long as he holds on to his goal of killing his brother, he can never truly achieve power."

Naruto's eyes went wide as Hinata spoke. He wouldn't dare interrupt her.

"Naruto-kun, you have true strength because you have the one emotion that Sasuke never bothered to keep...love." She muttered the last part.

"You have your friends, teachers, and the people around you that care about you as well. It may be true that you never had a family, but you've made your own. I know that Sasuke was like your brother, and Sakura is like a sister to you. Iruka-sensei has always been like a father to you...and Tsunade-sama is like a loving grandmother. Kakashi-sensei too. We are all here for you. All Sasuke has is his brother and his past."

Hinata turned to meet Naruto's gaze. He gave Hinata a small smile.

"Thank you, Hinata." He whispered. "You always know what to say to keep my hopes up, just like four years ago." Naruto flashed a crooked grin.

"All that you said is true. But something is still missing. I've had people care for me, but never truly love me. I don't know...Right now, my main focus is to bring Teme back..."

Hinata's face fell a little, her eyes softened up and she looked at the sky again. The rain let up, and now the moon shone brightly through the trees, illuminating the training field in a greenish-glow. Hinata closed the umbrella and put it down to her side.

"N-Naruto-kun...," Hinata called, looking towards the blonde.

"Hm?"

"Is the fact that you have all of these people watching over you...the reason you've kept smiling and laughing all these years? Ever since Sasuke left, I've never seen you look sad or lonely, but your smile changed...like you were hiding your pain."

Naruto looked back up at Hinata, her face no longer tinted pink, but a little sad and very serious.

"Whenever my spirits were down...you would lift me up with your laughter...and make me feel stronger than ever, just because I knew that you acknowledged me."

She turned to look him in the eyes.

"T-that's why...I..." She stopped, unsure of whether or not to continue. She gathered up every ounce of pride that she had left and tried again.

"T-that's why I...fell in love with you," she whispered. Naruto froze. He stood there, shocked at what Hinata finally said. His heart picked up a few beats as she continued to talk, but her gaze lowered again.

"But even when you're sad you don't have to hold it in, ok?"

Naruto sighed. Hinata stood up to leave, but Naruto grabbed the edge of her shirt.

"H-Hinata...I..." He couldn't find the right words. Naruto stood up and gave Hinata a hug. Hinata turned bright red, the umbrella dropping from her hands onto the muddy floor.

But she slowly hugged back.

Naruto let a few unshed tears fall on her shoulder, and raised his head slightly until his mouth was at her ear. His warm breath tickled the blue-haired girl, sending a shiver down her spine.

"Arigato, Hinata." He whispered. Hinata smiled.

"A-any time."

Naruto pulled away, placing his hands lightly on her hips. Naruto let his forehead rest against hers.

He was unsure of what he needed to do next.

He thought back to when he had seen her spy on him countless times during his training, and when Sakura tried to tell him about Hinata's feelings...he was a little doubtful.

"I'm not all that great with romantic stuff, but...thanks for loving me. I knew you did and i was too naive to admit to myself that someone could like a monster like me. You know about the kyuubi and how it can overpower me at times...like when we fought at the chuunin exams and you saw me fighting Neji...you still cheered me on and cared for me more than your teammates, so...thank you...Hinata-chan."

Hinata stared into his blue eyes, speechless.

They stood there in silence, but they both appreciated it. It was one

of those silences when you feel there's nothing else to be said.

"You're prettier than you give yourself credit for you know...wearing those baggy clothes." whispered Naruto, silently fingering the sleeve of her shirt.

Hinata shied and looked away. Naruto pulled her face back to look her into the eyes, her face cherry red.

He stared into those beautiful lavender-white eyes that looked as if they could see right through your soul. They were the most beautiful thing he has ever seen, glowing in the moonlight. Before either of them knew what was happening, their faced neared each others, slowly closing the gap.

Naruto lightly pressed his lips against Hinata's. A feathery, romantic kiss. He held it there for a while, then Hinata raised her arms and wrapped them around his neck, deepening the kiss.

It was a first for both of them, (not counting the time with Sasuke in the Academy.) so it was clumsy and slow. But they both enjoyed it. They stood there, under the glow of the full moon, enjoying each others company. Hinata finally got what she had wanted after waiting for 7 years. And Naruto finally got someone to love who would love him back just as much.

OWARI

Japanese Reference –

Kuso – Damn; a curse word

Katana – Long sword

Kyuubi – Nine-tailed beast

Kunai – Knife

-Kun – An honorific at the end of a name used to refer to a close male friend

Ano – Um (or something of the sorts)

Ne – Question

Teme – Bastard

Arigato – Thank you

Owari – End

Beta'd by my good friend, too-much-romance on fanfiction, or dramatictenjitard on Deviant Art.