I'll Always Be by Your Side


"I used to always cry and give up...

I made many wrong turns...always giving up before I even got a chance to start...

But you...You helped me find the right path...

I always chased after you...I wanted to catch up to you...I wanted to walk beside you forever...

I just wanted to be with you...

You changed me! Your smile is what saved me!

That is why I am not afraid to die protecting you!

Because...I love you Naruto...and I always will..."

The small voice of Hinata Hyuuga echoed around the crater that was once the Hidden Leaf Village. The girl had pale lavender eyes, a sign of her status as a Hyuuga, possessing the Kekkei Genki: Byakugan. She had dark blue hair that she kept in a hime-cut, her hair reaching her lower back and the framing strands on the side of her face grown to shoulder-length.

She wore a loose fitting, lavender and cream hooded-jacket with lavender cuffs over black mesh armor. She also wore navy blue pants, black, low-heeled sandals, and had a forehead protector tied loosely around her neck.

Hinata was soft-spoken and polite. She was deeply kind, always thinking of others' feelings and well-being. She didn't like to be confrontational for any reason; she didn't even like being confrontational about her dislike of confrontation. It is for this reason that Hinata so often came off off as meek or timid to others, as her overwhelming kindness could render her unable to respond or act for fear of offending somebody. Her father's constant push to alter this personality trait when she was younger only made it worse, eroding Hinata's self-confidence and making her even more bashful because she placed so little faith in her own thoughts and opinions.

However, on a snowy day, when she was about to enroll in the Ninja Academy, she was confronted by a pack of bullies, but because of a boy that intervened, she was saved.

Ever since, she had admired the boy that had helped her out and watched him from afar as he trained to become a better ninja, trying to become Hokage, the strongest shinobi in the Hidden Leaf Village.

Hinata's admiration for the boy soon turned into a full-blown crush, which grew to a point that she could barely stay conscious or suppress a blush, or both, whenever he was in her presence by the time they graduated the academy.

That boy's name was Naruto Uzumaki. And it was who Hinata was bravely standing in front of, in an attempt to defend him from the one who destroyed their home, the leader of the Akatsuki. Pain.

After Pain had destroyed the entire Hidden Leaf Village, Naruto arrived to stop him. Thanks to Naruto's recently mastered Sage Mode he was able to defeat five out of the six Pains that came to abduct him.

However, after Naruto saw the teacher of his recently acquired Sage Mode, Fukasaku, a toad, get stabbed by Pain, he fell into a daze and ended up restrained by Pain as chakra rods were stabbed into his hands, shoulders, and legs, keeping him pinned to the ground as Pain's chakra ravaged his own.

And as Hinata leapt in to defend him, she said the words that shook Naruto to his very core.

"You changed me"

"I want to walk by your side forever."

"Because...I love you Naruto...and I always will."

All his life Naruto had been refrained from ever hearing those three simple words. He was always alone, no parents and no friends. What he craved more than anything wasn't ramen, it wasn't his dream of becoming Hokage, what he craved more than than anything was to be loved.

Sure, he had friends that cared about him, and it was one of the things that he appreciated most about his life, but what he wanted even more was to know what love was like; to be loved.

And the sweet, innocent girl that he had known ever since before the academy had just confessed her love to him. It was one of the most extraordinary things he had heard in his entire sixteen-year life. His eyes widened as the realization of what Hinata had just said sunk in.

Naruto suddenly began to struggle as hard as he could against Pain's chakra rods, wincing as the more he struggled, the harder it was to remain conscious. But he was Naruto Uzumaki, the one who battled Tailed Beasts, took hits from Sannin, and faced death almost daily. What was this to him?

As he struggled, he watched as Hinata battled against the fierce opponent. She wasn't bearing as well as he was, and she was being tossed around by the likes of Pain's Bansho Ten'nin and Shinra Tensei.

His gut hurt to see Hinata like that. The only one that has ever said that she loved him was now being beaten to death by someone with no remorse, blood trailing down her face.

Naruto growled and pulled harder, putting every inch of his soul into trying to break free.

Hinata groaned in agony as Pain pushed her into the edge of the massive crater that was once her village. Her Gentle Step: Twin Lion Fists, wasn't even able to hit Pain, and it was one of her best techniques.

Said orange haired Akatsuki slowly walked up to the girl as she shakily stood up. She was ashamed.

Naruto has been able to take out five guys of this caliber, but she wasn't even able to hit one. Once again, she charged. Pain let out a small huff of disapproval and held his hand out. With a low call of "Shinra Tensei!" The young girl was rammed down into the ground, making her cough up blood.

"Enough, you've wasted far too much of my time, I shall end this now." Pain said as a chakra rod materialized from his hand as he held it out. As he held the rod, the tip sharp and pointed, he looked at the girl who was struggling to get up.

"You never stood a chance against the might of a god..."

He then thrust the rod down upon the girl's head, just inches away from skewering it. Hinata shut her eyes tight as the rod approached. But she was happy.

She had died fighting, defending the one she loved, and it made her glad to die...

"SNAP!"

"BOOM!"

The Hyuuga and Akatsuki leader quickly turned their heads to see the source of the explosion. Pain had dropped the chakra rod as he looked to the area where the sound had come from. It was revealed to have came from where Naruto was restrained.

In his place was a large plume of smoke, created by some smoke bombs, shrouding both Hinata and Pain's vision. Hinata could have used her Byakugan, but was still in too much pain to focus on reactivating it.

Pain looked towards the top of the smoke plume. "I am not falling for this trick again." He thought. Earlier, he and his paths had fallen for the same trick, but it wouldn't happen again.

Sure enough a figure emerged from the top of the smoke. It was Naruto, a fire burning in his eyes and a ball of blue spinning chakra in his hand.

Pain looked at the approaching jinchuriki with a face of both annoyance and astonishment, which was extraordinary as he was rarely ever not stoic. "He was able to break free of those chakra rods?" He thought.

He let out yet another huff of disapproval and held his hand up. "It is of no consequence. Shinra Tensei!"

A repulse emerged from his palm, shooting the boy away from his attack path and making him fly across the crater at a great speed. As he was sent flying away, Pain swore that he saw a...smirk on Naruto's face?

Suddenly, he felt an intense force be pushed into his stomach. He looked down and his Rinnegan eyes narrowed in shock and frustration.

"RASENGAN!"

Naruto kept the attack pressed into Pain's torso, growling as he hoped this would be enough. Nothing seemed to bring this guy down with his gamebreaking abilities.

Eventually, with a cry of anger, Pain was sent spiraling through the air. He soared across the crater, eventually hitting the wall of the once lush village outskirts, leaving a human shaped imprint on it before falling from the made depression and unceremoniously hitting the ground with a thud.

Naruto panted as he watched the final Pain go down, falling to his knees in exhaustion. He remembered that he used a similar technique to take out another one of the Pains' previously. Knowing that it wouldn't work the same way if he tried it again, he instead went for an underground approach instead of an overhead approach, sending a Shadow Clone to both distract Pain from his underground approach and also bait him into using his jutsu, leaving him open for the next five seconds to take Naruto's Rasengan.

Naruto looked over to the girl that had saved him. She was panting, similar to he was. With great difficulty, he crawled over to her. That last attack had taken a lot out of him, and Sage Mode wasn't going to help right now.

Noticing that she was bleeding from the forehead, he quickly took out a kunai knife from his weapons pouch attached to his leg. He then cut off a piece of his sage cloak, which he then tied around her forehead to cover her injury before she could protest or even ask what he was doing.

"Th...Th-That should st...stop the bleeding until we c...can get a medic ninja t-to take a look at you..." Naruto said between pants.

Hinata looked with wide eyes at Naruto as her cheeks were dusted a light pink. Had the situation not being so serious, she would have already passed out due to Naruto being this close to her and him showing this kind of compassion.

After he finished tying it off, he then collapsed on the ground, still panting, the battle having taken its toll on him. Hinata gasped as Naruto collapsed and crawled over to him. They needed Sakura over here or something...

Naruto, although gasping for air, still fixed Hinata with his foxy grin. "You're crazy, ya know..." He said.

Hinata sighed and replied with a small giggle. "Y-Yeah...I wasn't a match for...for him, was I?" Hinata said. She giggled inwardly as she remembered that Naruto had been the one to take all six on.

Naruto's expression then turned serious and he rolled over to look at the sky. "Uhhm...H-Hinata..,?" Naruto asked, suddenly becoming uncharacteristically nervous, which didn't go unnoticed by the Hyuuga.

"Wh-What is it, Naruto?" She asked with nervousness in her voice also. Naruto looked at her.

"D-Did you really mean what you said?" He asked.

Hinata's face immediately turned a bright red and she gulped. She closed her eyes and nodded frantically. She stopped nodding when she felt a hand under her chin, but it was gentle, not forceful. "Please Hinata, please look me in the eyes when you answer." Naruto pleaded.

Hinata was surprised with just how...desperate Naruto's plea was. Knowing that he grew up without anyone who cared about him, thanks to the Kyuubi sealed inside of him, she couldn't blame him. Growing up with everyone hating him made him desperate for love, acknowledgment, and acceptance." If Hinata were to say that she didn't mean everything she said, it'd break Naruto apart, after he thought he was so close to having someone like Hinata by his side.

Hinata slowly opened her pale lavender eyes to meet with Naruto's sapphire blue ones, filled with hope, but also worry. She immediately felt dizzy. If she already wasn't on the ground, she would've passed out right there and then. However, she forced herself to stay strong, for Naruto.

She smiled and nodded. "Every single word..." She replied, sitting up a little.

Naruto beamed the brightest of smiles that could melt Hinata's heart. With great difficulty, Naruto managed to get into a sitting position, then to a standing one, albeit pretty shaky. "W-Well, H-Hinata, I really want to say something then..." Naruto said. He took a deep breath.

"Hinata...Remember in the Chunin Exams three years ago...I said that I thought you were gloomy and weird..." He begun.

Hinata allowed her smile to brighten a little. Looking back, she did find the situation quite humorous.

"Y-Yeah...you...like...people like those...right...?" She asked, bringing up what he said in the past.

Then she saw something that she thought she'd never see.

Naruto...was blushing...? And poking his index fingers together too? Now who did that remind her of...?

"W-Well...when I said 'like'...I...was going to use a different word but I was afraid of how you'd react..." Naruto continued.

Hinata looked at Naruto with wide, lavender eyes. A different word? What word could that be? For some reason, her heart started to beat faster, and hope filled her soul.

"But...after you jumped in to save me...I made up my mind. I-I'm not gonna be afraid anymore! I wanna tell you how I really feel!" Naruto blurted that last bit out nervously.

Hinata didn't realize it, but she had begun to hold in her breath, anticipation coursing through her veins. Was...Naruto actually doing what she thought he was doing?

Then the blonde gave her a warm smile, the charismatic grin that could only belong to the Uzumaki, making the girl feel all warm and tingly.

"Hinata, three years ago...I said...I liked people like you...but...what I meant, was..."

Naruto deeply inhaled and swallowed.

"Hinata...I...I...I lo-GAACK!" Naruto's speech was suddenly cut off as something pierced though his heart.

It was the chakra rod that Pain was going to kill Hinata with.

Blood flowed from Naruto's mouth and he immediately collapsed to the ground. Hinata gasped in shock and horror, her body paralyzed.

"I bear no regrets..." A voice said.

Hinata couldn't turn to face the voice, but she knew it all too well.

Pain, having gotten up from the Rasengan, limped over to where the two ninjas lay. He had used his Shinra Tensei on the discarded chakra rod to send it straight into Naruto's heart. His chakra receivers had been damaged however and he only had about a minute left before the living corpse reclaimed its role as a dead one. His robe had been torn, revealing his left shoulder and he was marred with scratches, cuts and bruises.

"I've nothing left to say. I cannot allow you to live in this world anymore, Naruto Uzumaki. Your strength surpasses that of a god's. Defying such a being like me...is blasphemous. The Kyuubi shall reform upon your death after a few years. The Akatsuki's plans have been delayed, nothing more."

"Naruto Uzumaki...you were the greatest threat...to a world...that will soon know...peace...I am at least glad that I have taken...you down...with me..." The Akatsuki's leader collapsed onto the dirt, finally defeated for good.

Hinata didn't even look at him, all her attention was on the corpse of the boy who she loved so much. Her eyes suddenly brimmed with tears which rolled down her pale face. With despair and anguish, plaguing her entire being, she slowly reached forward and took his head in her hands. Her sobs carried all around the ruins of the Hidden Leaf as she placed her forehead against Naruto's.

"Naruto..."

"Naruto..."

"NARUTOOOO!"


Hinata gasped as she opened her eyes to find the scenery had changed.

In place of the ruins of the Hidden Leaf Village, was her darkened bedroom. She quickly observed her body. Her normal daytime clothes had been replaced by her nightwear, a simple long sleeved purple shirt and a pair of purple cotton pants.

She brushed her hand through her hair to see if it was frazzled and in disarray but it wasn't in either. It was smooth and straight, shining in the moonlight beaming through the window, the lunar light illuminating her deep indigo hair.

She slowly trailed a small hand around her face and noticed that there was no blood. But there was something wet on it however. She felt that liquid with a hand and held that hand up to her face, half expecting it to be blood. She was relieved when she discovered that it wasn't a crimson red liquid, but instead a clear liquid. They were tears. She had been crying in her sleep.

As if to reinforce the idea that she was awake and not in some kind of cruel Genjutsu, she looked around the room. The clock on the wall read 1:47am and looking at her calendar, she noticed that it was August 25th, a full two months after Naruto had defeated Pain. The village was thrown into a frenzy of rebuilding after Pain's invasion and the progress was astounding. Thanks to Yamato's Wood Style, a dozen houses could be rebuilt in an instant, although it left him exhausted of chakra. After the Hyuuga household was rebuilt, it took less than a month to refurbish the place to make the home as good as new. Still, even armed with the knowledge that what she had just been through was nothing but a terrible dream, Hinata was not consoled.

As the image of Naruto getting stabbed replayed itself over and over in her head, she became distressed and felt more tears brimming in her eyes. She sat up on her bed and curled into a ball, her legs being brought up to her chin. Even if she was a ninja, a life that required you to harden your heart, she was still just a teenage girl, an ordinary human who was afraid and practically heartbroken right now.

She then quietly began to sob, letting the tears loose, creating wet patches on her pants as they fell from her face.

"N-Naruto..." She whispered in between sobs, her heart hurting as his death repeated over and over in her mind...


"Gnnngh, come on...one more time..." a voice deep in the forest muttered as he held his right arm in his left one. In front of him was a large array of destroyed trees and craters.

The person that the voice belonged to had spiky blonde hair, was wearing an orange and black ninja outfit and had three whisker marks on both cheeks, not unlike the whiskers of a fox. He also had an orange tint around his eyes, with his sceleras a pale yellow and his pupils horizontal, showing that he was in Sage Mode. It was Naruto Uzumaki.

He then took his middle and index fingers on both hands and put them into a hand sign shaped like a cross. With a cry of "Shadow Clone Jutsu!" two duplicates of himself appeared either side of him in a puff of smoke. The original Naruto then held his hand out and the other two started to form his strongest jutsu.

The first the two clones started to rapidly flail his hands around Naruto's outstretched one and soon enough, a Rasengan had been formed in his hand. The second clone then added wind style chakra to the Rasengan causing it to grow in size exponentially and take the form of a shuriken.

The two clones then then dispelled in a puff of smoke and Naruto held the destructive jutsu above his head.

"Wind Style: Rasenshuriken!" He cried as he launched the attack from his hand. After a few seconds of soaring through the air, the destructive attack then hit a cluster of trees. Upon contact with the trees, there was a massive explosion and a blue arc of destruction shot out from the area.

Soon however things had settled down and the attack began to dissipate, Naruto took the time to look at what has been left behind. It was a mass of destroyed trees in a huge crater, cut into many tiny pieces, a trait of wind style chakra.

Naruto sighed as he deactivated his Sage Mode. He had been out training for a good three hours now. When he was in Sage Mode previously, he could only manage about two Rasenshurikens. However, thanks to his late-night training, he was now able to produce five Rasenshurikens per Sage Mode transformation, which was impressive due to the amount of power it carried.

He began to think about why he was out here in the first place. Well, he'd been tossing and turning in his bed for a while now, and couldn't get any shut-eye at all, so he figured that he'd go training.

It would certainly take his mind off why he couldn't sleep.

After Naruto had a five-minute rest, he decided to go back to Konoha to get some rest so he could assist in the repairs tomorrow. With this thought in mind, he leaped into a tree and started jumping from branch to branch of other trees, not going too fast as he didn't need to overstrain himself.

Since he was training with something as destructive as the Rasenshuriken, he needed to be a good distance away from his village before he was able to practice it, which meant that his trip there and back took twenty minutes, which he decided would be an adequate distance to put between himself and the village before he started to train.

But village safety wasn't the only thing he had in mind when he went out late at night to train, He also went out to clear his head about something that happened in the battle with Pain: Hinata's confession of love.

Those four simple words that she had uttered kept replaying themselves over and over in Naruto's head in an endless loop, occupying all his thoughts for the past two months.

In that moment of crisis, Naruto had never heard anything truer than Hinata's words. Her confession of love was something completely alien to him. It put his brain in a state where he couldn't even think properly anymore, not without the confession in his mind.

Because of this knowledge he had decided to temporarily avoid Hinata until he could give an answer, which made him feel really bad since she had been so willing to throw her life away for someone like him, a jailor to the Kyuubi. In fact, she had been the first one to see him as a person, not a demon.

Funnily enough, that confession made him realize something. And when he figured it out, he felt so stupid that he wanted to Rasengan himself right in the head.

Every single time he ever got close to Hinata or started talking to her, she would always freeze, blush brightly and sometimes even faint if he got too close. All the time, he thought that was for a different reason. He didn't think it was from infatuation or love; he thought it was...something different.

In fact, what he thought she felt about him instead turned the table so much that it was the reason he started crushing on Sakura. Because, in reality...Naruto...he...

He liked Hinata too.

It wasn't a like that one would associate with a friend, or even a best friend, no. This kind of like went beyond that. But if that was the case, then how come Naruto always crushed on Sakura and not on Hinata? Well, he thought it was because it was due to how timid and shy Hinata was.

Because of what he thought she felt about him, he believed that receiving love from someone like Sakura would be more likely. Because, unlike Hinata, Sakura was a lot more confident than the Hyuuga.

But who was it that bravely stood between him and Pain? It wasn't Sakura, it was Hinata. Who was it a gave him healing lotion when he fought Kiba? It wasn't Sakura, it was Hinata. Who was the one who helped Naruto get over his anxiousness when he needed to fight Neji in the Chunnin Exams? It wasn't Sakura, it was Hinata.

The more Naruto thought about it, the more signs there were that she had loved him from the very beginning. He felt like so much of an idiot that he made her wait that long for him to finally notice her. So much so that it took her to defend him from the damn leader of the Akatsuki before he finally realized just how much she cared.

And just how much he cared too...

Naruto grew a look of determination on his face.

"Tomorrow, I'll find Hinata, and I'll talk to her. I...I want to tell her how I feel...I tell her how sorry I am...that I made her wait this long..." h Naruto thought as he finally emerged from the thicket of trees and entered the village.

He landed on the ground outside the village gates and entered. The ninja on duty there let him in after verifying his identity as the real Naruto and not a henge or something.

Naruto began to leap across the buildings of the village trying to get to his home faster.

However, when he was in the center of the village, his keen hearing, on par with or even surpassing the Inuzuka's, another benefit of being the Kyuubi's jinchuriki, picked up on something. He stopped moving and landed on the roof of a random house and focused on listening to the sound.

It sounded like someone was... crying? But it wasn't just anyone, this was a voice that Naruto knew and recognized. When he realized who it was, he leaped off the roof and started heading away from his home and to the Hyuuga compound with no hesitation.

Within a few minutes, he arrived at the compound. He landed on the roof and moved as silently as he could to where he could hear the crying. You couldn't be too careful if you were sneaking into a place where everyone could see through walls after all

Naruto had never actually been to the Hyuuga compound before, so he didn't know where Hinata's room was located. However, thanks to his keen hearing, he was able to figure out that Hinata's location was somewhere at the edge of the compound, so he continued to sneak across the roof.

With every step, Hinata's crying grew louder and louder to his ears, and with every step, Naruto was more and more determined to helping Hinata.

Naruto has finally reached where Hinata's room was and jumped down to the ground so he was outside her window.

Naruto gulped.

This was it...

"Naruto..."

"N-Naruto..."


Hinata thoughts looped around and around constantly returning to the one that she loved. She had been crying for a good ten minutes now, and she wasn't showing any signs of stopping. Her face was tear stained and her throat was hoarse. She was hugging her pillow tightly to her chest for some kind of comfort. She was also scared to go back to sleep, scared that she would have another nightmare.

Suddenly, much to her surprise, she heard a light tapping on her window. Passing it off as a tree branch knocking against the window, she simply covered her ears with her hands. The tapping sound was muffled, but it wasn't completely silenced.

However, what she heard next made her eyes widen, her breathing freeze up and her heart start pounding.

"Hey, Hinata, could you please open your window?" The muffled voice of Naruto asked as he looked at Hinata's reaction, and he had to admit, it was pretty cute.

Hinata forced herself to sit up on the bed and look towards the window and sure enough, the blonde jinchuriki was there. Her face immediately turned a bright red and she let out a little squeak of nervousness. Not really knowing what else she could do, she walked over to the window and undid the latch on and opened it wide.

When the window was opened, Naruto jumped in. "N-N-Naruto?" Hinata asked, not quite believing what was happening right now.

Naruto Uzumaki HER crush had come to HER home! But why?

"Hey Hinata! Hope you don't mind me intruding." Naruto greeted with his usual foxy grin.

"U-U-U -Uhhmm, hi N-Naruto..." Hinata whispered, looking down at the floor. The blonde smiled as he noticed Hinata stuttering is another aspect that he found cute about her.

Wait...it may have been cute, but he needed to focus here..

He looked at her face and saw clear signs that she has been crying, made apparent by the tear streaks on a face and her eyes being puffy, so his ears had not mistaken him.

Naruto gulped, He might as well get straight to the point. "You've been crying." He said out of nowhere to Hinata.

The Hyuuga gasped and tried vainly to hide the fact that she had been crying by wiping her eyes on her sleeves to hide the tears.

Naruto frowned and gently grabbed Hinata's wrist with so she couldn't hide the tears. Hinata let out another nervous squeak and her face turned an even brighter red. "N-N-Naruto...?" She whispered.

Her lavender eyes met with his sapphire ones.

"Please Hinata, there's no shame in it. Don't try to hide it, especially from me." Naruto said in a soothing voice.

Hinata gulped and shivered a bit. It was super late right now and Naruto of all people, someone who was a heavy sleeper, had come to her. TO HER! This was one of the most euphoric things that had ever happened to her.

Obviously she wasn't mad, quite the opposite. But just why had Naruto come?

"S-So...u-uh Narut-to, wh-why are you here?" Hinata asked both curiously and nervously. Naruto's and gave Hinata a sweet smile that made her feel lightheaded. "Well I was out doing some training and when I arrived back in the village, I heard you crying." Naruto explained.

Hinata raised an eyebrow, confused. "I-I wasn't crying t-that loud, was I?" she asked.

This gained her a chuckle in response from Naruto. "No, you weren't Hinata, my hearing is just a lot stronger than an ordinary human's, on par with the Inuzukas' ya know." He said.

"O-Oh..." Hinata replied as she continued to shudder nervously. Naruto then adopted a neutral look on his face and let go of Hinata arm.

"So, you want to sit down and talk about why you were crying? Naruto asked Hinata which instantly made the girl freeze up.

"Eeep! N-No thank you! I'm fi-fine!" She replied quickly, making the blonde frown.

"Hinata, you were sobbing and hugging a pillow when I came here. I'd hardly call that 'fine'" Naruto said.

This made Hinata look down and she got finally got her voice to work. She looked up at Naruto and whispered "I...I had a nightmare..."

She then turned her head away, half-expecting to hear Naruto tease her about being scared of nightmares when she was sixteen years of age.

She definitely didn't expect what she heard next.

"You too, huh?"

Hinata whipped her head around in surprise. "Y-You have nightmares?" She asked, to which Naruto replied with a nod.

"Yeah, I have nightmares, just like everyone else." He said.

"In fact, it was because of a nightmare that I was at training, since I couldn't sleep." Naruto said, as he looked down to the floor. Hinata's face instantly became worried. "Oh Naruto, I-I'm so sorry." She said. Naruto smiled and looked at her. "Nah, it's not your fault, it's my problem." He said.

Naruto then guided Hinata over to her bed and both of then sat down on the edge. "So wanna tell me about your nightmare? It might help you feel better." Naruto said.

Hinata gulped and looked down. "D-Do I have to...?" She asked nervously, not particularly wanting to share this kind of dream with Naruto, considering what happened to him in the dream.

"Well, would it make you feel better about telling it if I told you about my nightmare instead?" Naruto suggested, earning him a look of shock from Hinata.

"N-Naruto would share something like that, with me?" She thought as she felt her heart speed up.

Naruto gulped as he didn't really need to hear Hinata's answer.

"W-Well, I was fighting Pain and then you jumped in. Everything in the dream happened nearly exactly how the actual fight went, except..."

Naruto needed to stop to compose himself. Hinata looked at him with worry. "It's ok N-Naruto, I understand...you lost in y-your dream." Hinata whispered. She was indeed very surprised as her nightmare was also about the battle with Pain.

"He really did it this time. I didn't lose the fight, but I lost something that was so much more important. So important that I wouldn't be able go on." Naruto said. Her curiosity peaked, Hinata leaned an inch closer to Naruto. "Wh-What was it?" She asked. To her surprise, a bright blush lit up on Naruto's face.

"H-Hinata..." Naruto whispered. "It was you..."

Suddenly, Hinata's face turned an ungodly shade of red, and the space around Hinata's head grew very warm, like some kind of radiating heater or something. Her face was so red that even the air around her it was a translucent crimson. Her voice froze, her eyes opened wide, and her heart was beating a million times a minute. Naruto had just said she was important to him, more important than the battle with Pain, more important than his own life. With that on her mind, it was a miracle that she hadn't fainted.

Noticing how red Hinata was, Naruto freaked and quickly pulled a roll of gauze from his first aid kit. Not knowing where any source of water was inside the house Naruto quickly dashed out the window and soaked the gauze with water from the Hyuuga fountain that was in the center of the compound and wrung it out. He then returned to Hinata's room with the damp cloth and held up to her forehead to cool down her face.

Hinata face was plastered with a shocked expression the entire time Naruto tried to cool her down. Did this mean that Naruto...did this mean that Naruto liked her?

Feeling the cold gauze on her forehead snapped Hinata back into reality. Her blush was still very strong and her eyes were still wide.

Naruto gulped. "D-Did I say something wrong Hinata?" Naruto asked nervously. Say something wrong?! Naruto had just told her that she went beyond a friend, well...not in those exact words, but that was practically it.

"N-N-N-N-N-N-No Naruto..." Hinata replied, setting herself a new stuttering record. Naruto then gently lay Hinata down on her bed and tried to get her to calm down. He asked if she needed a drink, which she politely declined. Naruto then sighed and backed away to give Hinata some space.

After a few minutes, Hinata had calmed down to an extent. Then she worked up the nerve to ask Naruto something. "N-N-Naruto in your own words, j-just how important am I t-to you?" She asked.

Surprised by the sudden question, Naruto looked up to the ceiling and took a few moments to collect his thoughts. Then, after a few seconds, although it felt much longer to the Hyuuga heiress, Naruto looked back to her and smiled. "Hinata, you remember the day that we first met and I did a pretty pathetic job protecting you from those bullies. And don't deny it, we both know it's true." Naruto said with a chuckle, to which Hinata let out a cute giggle of her own.

"Well after they left, I was honestly expecting you to run away from me, but you didn't, even though everyone else did. You stayed, and you thanked me. That was the first time anyone had ever done something like that. A-And I wanted to know who you were, I wanted to see you again, I wanted you to be my first friend." Naruto explained.

Hinata's blush had fired up again as she listened. Naruto had thought of her like that?

"But when I finally got the guts to ask if you wanted to be my friend, you were acting all timid and nervous around me. I figured that you just didn't know about the Kyuubi at that time we met and when you did realize it, you were scared of me. So, I lost hope of becoming best friends, but I figured that we could at least be allies together on missions and stuff, if you could get over my...uh...tenant." Naruto said, referring to the Bijuu in his belly.

Hinata gasped at this revelation. Naruto had been intending to be friends with her from the moment she thanked him, but he thought that she was scared of him, all because of her personality around him, him not knowing that it was out of affection and not intimidation. Still, she should have said something! Naruto had faced rejection so many times in life up until that point; he didn't want to face it again, which was why he didn't want to pursue with Hinata. However, that didn't give Hinata an excuse to not pursue after Naruto. Hinata suddenly felt pangs of guilt in her heart as she realized that her being too timid to approach Naruto was practically the same as rejecting him of something he wanted so badly: a friend.

"But, we became friends, eventually right? So, I guess that doesn't really matter anymore, huh? It's in the past now." Naruto said with a smile that was infectious as it made Hinata smile too.

Naruto gulped and prepared himself. This was going to be the hardest part. He said he'd tell her tomorrow, but now was a good time.

"But, I always felt like there was something more that was supposed to happen to our friendship...I don't know how to explain it really." Naruto said.

The situation was kind of funny. Naruto could convince the lead of the Akatsuki, Nagato to believe in him, and even restore all the lives of the Konoha shinobi he killed, but he could barely get the words about what he wanted to say to someone whom he'd known his entire ninja career.

"Y-You've felt it too, right Hinata?" Naruto asked. "W-Wanting our friendship to become something...more?" He said.

Hinata's heart leaped and she sat up in her bed. Was Naruto actually saying what she thought he was?

"B-But I just ignored that feeling because I didn't really think that it was anything to worry about." Naruto said.

He gulped again and took a breath to steel himself.

"Until...that fight with Pain... where you jumped in. I remember every single word that you said at the time. That you used cry all the time, give up before you even started, almost took the wrong path, but you said that I saved you, that my smile changed you that you were willing' to die if it was to protect me..."

Hinata held her breath...

Naruto said the final sentence...

"A-And you said that you love me...and always will..."

Silence filled the room as Naruto recalled Hinata's confession of love. Three minutes of neither talking as both tried to figure out what to say next.

Eventually Naruto spoke up. "Did you mean it?" He asked.

Hinata's eyes opened wide as her mind flashbacked to her nightmare, where that Naruto also asked if she truly meant what she said.

This time however, she knew exactly what to say.

She looked Naruto dead in his sapphire blue eyes and, using all her courage and confidence, she nodded. "Every single word." she said.

As she looked deep into his eyes, she noticed so many emotions run through his mind, happiness, relief, but weirdly, nervousness, although his face looked mildly surprised.

Hinata gulped and could do nothing but wait for Naruto's reply.

To her surprise, Naruto went over to her desk and pulled the chair out from under it. He brought it to the side of Hinata's bed and sat down on it. That's when Hinata realized something; tears were rolling down Naruto's face.

"Y-You have no idea...how happy I am to hear that. B-B-Because..." He said. He let more tears fall. The last time he had cried was when he met his father, the Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze in his mindscape. He eventually dried his tears and looked at Hinata with joy on his face and in his heart.

Then he did something Hinata would've never expected.

Naruto suddenly shifted his position from the chair to the bed and wrapped his arms around Hinata's petite body, hugging her close. Hinata gasped and blushed.

"N-Naruto is h-h-hugging me!" She thought in shock.

Truth be told this was one the most wonderful things that she had ever experienced in her entire life. And just when Hinata couldn't even dream of this moment being any better, Naruto said the words that Hinata has wanted to hear from him for her entire life.

"...B-Because...Hinata...I love you too..." Naruto whispered.

Shivers ran up Hinata's spine and it seemed that the entire world had been frozen in time. Did Naruto truly say that he loved her?

"I-I'm sorry that I made you wait so long. I always thought that you were scared of me. But when you fought Pain out of love for me, I realized what all the signs really meant. I feel like such an idiot. Because I've loved you for almost as long as I wanted to be friends with you, but when I thought you were scared of me, I guess I subconsciously suppressed that emotion in the back of my mind, ya know?" Naruto confessed, pouring his heart out to the Hyuuga girl.

Hinata listened, her body still frozen in shock.

Naruto loved her...

Naruto loved her...

She had to keep repeating those words in her head just to convince her that it was true.

This wasn't a Genjutsu, this wasn't even a dream, no this was real. And she wouldn't have it any other way either.

Naruto then slowly let Hinata out of the hug and looked at her. Her face had a small smile on it and tears of happiness were falling from her eyes. Naruto gently wiped away her tears with his index finger.

"Hinata, you look beautiful when you're crying, but you look even more beautiful when you smile." Naruto said as he brushed a hand through her long, silky deep dark blue hair.

Hinata blushed even deeper and she even giggled a bit. "Wow, that sounded pretty cheesy..." Hinata replied, to which Naruto sheepishly nodded.

Naruto then took her hand in his and grinned his usual foxy grin. "Hey, you wanna meet at Ichiraku Ramen tomorrow at midday? My treat." He asked. Of course he'd choose there.

Hinata's eyes widened as he suggested this.

"N-N-Naruto...y-you mean like a d-d-d-date?" She asked, pressing her index fingers together. The blonde chuckled and nodded. "But for now, we got to get some sleep."

It was then that Naruto noticed that Hinata had seemed to trap herself in her personal trance.

"A date with Naruto..."

"A date with Naruto...heehee...!"

Then she went completely limp.

"H-Hey! Hinata!" Naruto exclaimed in worry as he looked at her.

She had fainted...

Upon realizing that, Naruto could only chuckle and let out a sigh.

"Baby steps..." He said to himself..

He then lay Hinata back down, pulled the blanket over her and tucked her in as if she was an infant.

He doubted that she'd have any more nightmares tonight, but...

He pulled the chair closer and sat on it, watching the Hyuuga sleeping peacefully with a more than content smile on her face.

Naruto smiled and, as if following some kind of instincts, slowly bent down over her head. He then gave Hinata a kiss on her forehead, he wasn't ready for lips yet.

"Goodnight Hinata,"

He stroked her hair lovingly.

His bright blue eyes shone as he whispered the last few words.

"Hinata..."

"Aishiteru"