Prologue:
Hyuga Hinata minded her business. Always. She was not a nosey gossip like her dear friend Yamanaka Ino, and despite her teammate Inuzuka Kiba's suspicion, she did not use her Byakugan to look through people's clothing. So as she walked through Konoha, on her way to meet Kiba, it is without a doubt that she was minding her own business.
Until, a surprisingly warm hand grabbed hers.
For someone possessed with the legendary optical technique, Byakugan, that gave her a nearly 360-degree line of sight, Hinata should have noticed the small boy beside her long before he touched her. As it was, she hadn't. And so, she gasped, startled, once her very pale eyes landed on him.
Gaara of the Sand did not bother looking back at her. For one thing, her eyes kind of weirded him out. Not because they lacked a pupil, or were so large her iris nearly covered the entire eyeball. He didn't even mind all the veins that bulged around her eyes when she used her kekkei genkai. No, what creeped him out most was their color. The softest of violets. Even the other members of her family that he'd been spying on these last few weeks, hadn't had the same touch of lavender in their eyes.
And having heard her gasp, and felt her cold fingers tighten against his hand briefly, before trying to slip away, Gaara knew she was aware of him. But he held her hand tighter and led her away from the busy market place, and into the opposite direction that everyone else was walking.
Hinata trembled as the boy holding her hand led her further and further away from populated areas. She knew him. He was from the Sand. The one she and her teammates had secretly watched kill the Hidden Rain Ninjas.
Silently panicking, Hinata looked around. There were fewer and fewer people on the street now. Everyone was heading toward the arena where the final Chunin exams were to take place. She could scream, but at what cost? She was a ninja; people expected her to be capable of fighting her own battles. And if anyone did come to her aid, this boy would just trap them in his sand coffin and make it rain blood again.
He felt the violent shiver she gave and scowled. Not only was she afraid of him (her constant trembling told him as much), but he repulsed her as well. Typical.
Despite popular belief, Hinata was not a crybaby. She was shy, stuttered, and had been called helpless with good cause, but she was not prone to tears. Yet, terror was making the backs of her eyes sting. There were no more people on the sidewalks. They'd reached the genin training grounds. Oddly enough, this is where she was supposed to meet Kiba.
"You will remain here. Out of the way," a dark voice emitted from the very small boy. The same size as her.
Hinata cringed though he still didn't turn and look at her. His thumb, however, did trace the back of her knuckles just before he released her hand completely. His touch was grainy, scratching lightly at her skin. Chakra seemed to be infused in every pupil, for she had felt its heat.
Stepping back and away from him, doing her best not to whimper, and to simply resign herself to a merciless death, Hinata kept her gaze locked on the back of his very red hair.
But he didn't turn around. In fact, he simply walked away. Slow but purposeful steps.
Hinata stood there, frozen, sure in the very pit of her gut that he was going to turn around at any second, shoot out his arm, twist his hand down, and command his sand to engulf her as he'd done with the Rain ninja in the forest.
Instead, he kept walking. Never looking back. Never hesitating. And Hinata kept watching him, even when he was well out of her normal sight.
"Hinata...You're alright now?" a surprisingly familiar voice sent Hinata leaping through the air and behind the wooden post. Her skin still humming with fright, she peaked from behind her shield and saw her favorite face.
"Na-Na-Naruto-Kun..."
Chapter One:
That boy.
Gaara stared at the jounin level leaf ninja with hatred. It was bad enough he felt like...well, death, but to have him looking down on him as Uzumaki Naruto kept him upright was almost more than Gaara could take.
Gaara could not recall the boy's name, but recognized his face with alarming clarity as Naruto led him away and ahead of his fellow leaf ninjas. He stopped glaring at the Hyuga and looked at his old friend instead. Friend. His first and the only one not related to him. Ninjas were everywhere. Having come to save him, they claimed. Their Kazekage.
Gaara did not trust the tears some had shed upon his revival. Nor their cheers and smiles. While he knew he had changed a great deal, had forced this change upon himself, and was even willing to admitt that many of his people's animosity had been due to his own cruel actions, he still found it a little difficult to be completely forgiving.
Looking over his shoulder one last time, Gaara eyed the Hyuga jounin again. He would not, however, forgive him. All too easily, Gaara remembered the chunin exams. Particularly that boy's fight with Hinata. Her name he remembered clearly. As clearly as he remembered her face.
And those eyes.
*********************
Hinata could smell her deodarant she was sweating so profusely. Around the corner, behind the wall, near the tree where Shino seemed to be brooding and Akamaru was relieving himself, stood Naruto.
NARUTO!
It was at times like this that Hinata considered taking up swearing like Haruno Sakura. As it were, she simply stood trembling against the wall, hoping and praying Naruto didn't come over here and discover her. And hoping and praying that he did. To see him fully, to look into those big blue eyes...
"What? It's just you, Hinata!" a smiling and surprisingly deep voice spoke in a boisterous tone directly into her right ear.
No longer breathing, sweat drenching her face and the front of her mesh top, even seeping through her jacket, Hinata simply stared - wide eyed - straight ahead.
"What are you doing hiding over here?" that voice spoke again.
Slowly, so slowly her neck seemed to make a creaking sound as she turned her head and came face to face with Naruto. The first thing she noticed was how close he was to her. Having grown several inches taller than her, he was bent over and nearly pressing his nose against the tip of hers. Those blue blue eyes wide and staring. So innocent as they questioned her presence.
But the image of him started to blur and fade. Too late, Hinata realized she was still holding her breath. The world turned black, Naruto's, Kiba's, and Shino's voices all came to her from down a long dark tunnel.
