Author's Note - Hidy, so what did you guys think of Chapter 1? This is installment 2. I had already done this much, plus a little more, but I will update about once a week unless I have more time off from work. I just finished uploading ch1, so I don't think anyone has read it yet, and I am merely hoping I got this done correctly, lol. I will be going on vacation soon, so the story, wherever I am at, will sprout from there. Enjoy

Disclaimer, as I didn't think to add it on my last one I think - I don't own Naruto.

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"You're late Naruto! I've been waiting for eight minutes already!" Sakura was not a happy person when she had to just stand still to wait for Naruto.

"Eh, its not like Kakashi won't be late anyway. And besides, I was trying to figure out exactly what I was supposed to bring because you refused to tell me." Naruto looked around Sakura then looked at her, puzzled. "Um, where are the others?"

"They haven't shown up yet either. I am still not sure who was supposed to be coming with us."

"Mn." Naruto only grumbled his response. He set his pack down and leaned up against it, closing his eyes waiting for everyone to show up.

"What's up with you? Normally you're all happy and hyper-active. Is everything okay?" Sakura was worried. A sad Naruto was not a good Naruto. "Naruto? Are you okay?" Sakura just stood still waiting for his answer.

"Mn. Nothing is wrong, just tired." Naruto had no desire to talk about what happened last night, much less to Sakura. It wasn't that he disliked it, but he got almost no sleep trying to figure out what had happened and it was still making him crazy. He liked it. And he didn't think he should have.

"A-alright." Sakura didn't like a depressed Naruto. She couldn't help but get depressed with him.

Naruto was watching Sakura from under his lids. She was getting depressed and he was causing it. "Just great. Now I am making her sad. Well... I can't have that." Naruto sighed to himself and then lifted his hand behind his head and flashed Sakura his patented Uzumaki Naruto grin of mischief.

"Oi, I'm just a little tired from not having slept much last night and I have several things on my head. After I get some sleep, and figure some things out, I'll be all better." Naruto was getting bored. This was just taking up some of his time in thinking.

A puff of smoke rose in between Naruto and Sakura as they were talking causing both to recoil in shock.

"Yo."

"YOU'RE LATE!" Naruto and Sakura both yelled at Kakashi. They have come to expect it, but they couldn't help but proclaim his fault every time. That, and every time he showed up, he had that damned perverted book in his hands. Naruto went ahead and closed his eyes again and relaxed until they had to set out.

"Aha, sorry about that. I was on my way here and this older woman was being mauled by this band of attack cats. I couldn't just leave her to fend for herself, so I was forced to henge into a dog and scare them all away, but then, instead of attacking her, they all went after me. I just got away from them and popped over here."

Naruto and Sakura just looked at him. "Does he actually expect us to believe these stories?" Sakura couldn't help but wonder.

"Anyway, Anko should be showing up soon with her two charges. Then the two of us will decide which of you are on teams with who and we will explain exactly what is going on on the way to the next village." Kakashi started reading from his book waiting for Naruto to explode in questions, but he didn't hear a sound from him.

"Huh, Naruto are you okay?" Kakashi couldn't remember a time where the boy wasn't bouncing around like he had just eaten several handfuls of sugar.

"Fine. So who are the other two shinobi going with us?" Naruto was still sitting with his eyes closed. He didn't care what Kakashi thought. At least not right now anyway.

"That would be us Naruto." Anko walked up and kicked Naruto in the leg to get him up and about.

"HEY! I was awake thank you!" Naruto rubbed his shin trying to get the pain to go away and looked to see who the other two shinobi were that would be coming along, and about crawled out of his skin.

"Hello Sakura, hello Naruto." Hinata let Naruto's name out a little slower than normal as she bent down and offered her hand to help him up.

"Uh.. uh.. Hi Hinata." Naruto was REALLY not liking this, but he grabbed her hand and let her help him up. However, she didn't let go of his hand immediately, she slid her fingers along his hand as she let it drop. The movement leaving goosebumps on his flesh.

"Hello Hinata! And hello to you as well Rock Lee! Good morning Anko!" Sakura was happy. They were FINALLY about to leave.

"Alright everyone. Now has everyone got everything they needed?" Kakashi didn't like the idea of having to make pit stops. This would prove to be mostly a baby-sitting job since neither he nor Anko would be able to interfere in the slightest unless to save them from certain death.

"Yes." They all replied in a slow monotone except Hinata, she looked deep in thought.

"Good. Then let's head out!" Anko took the lead and everyone else followed.

"If you don't mind Kakashi, Anko, what exactly are our orders now?" Sakura still didn't know what the story was supposed to be and she wanted to try and get an idea for the plans as soon as possible.

"Well, this is going to be classifed as a "C" rank intelligence mission. Your job will be to infiltrate the village, doing whatever possible to not be detected as shinobi, and you will get the specifics to the target on arrival after speaking with the Lord. As to what you need to know right now for the purpose of this excercise is as follows: Come up with a plan and background for being able to get into the village, speak with the Lord, he is expecting you, but how you get to him is your job. You will then get the specifics of your target and what exactly you are to be doing while there."

"From that point, once you ask whatever questions you deem necassary and get all information possible, you will then take up whatever covers you feel would best suit your purpose. We will, however, tell you this much. You four will be comprised of two teams and you will decide who is on what team and what each team's primary purpose is. From that point, do your job. Get the information, put it together, solve whatever problems you face and when done, Kakashi and I will evaluate you from what we watched you do, as well as what the Lord will say. We have an entire event orchestrated for you along with some clues, people in on it, and bits of misinformation running about as well. Don't misunderstand. This is a real mission. This is to gauge your abilities. We are here to make sure you miss nothing. Kakashi and I will not interfere unless it is to save your lives for one reason or another, but remember, you probably won't see us too much. This is everything you get from us. Ask questions if you will, but we will not go over the mission with you anymore than giving you that information again." Anko REALLY hoped she wouldn't have to repeat any of that.

"Mm, I have a question." Sakura wasn't sure how this would work out. It seems like they pulled out a lot of stops on this one. "The village we are going to, what is it's current state? I mean, normally, if we were starting a mission, we could ask questions about the village or would generally have a good idea of what we could do to initially get in and about. But we don't even know which one we are going to, much less anything about how we could begin our cover. I mean, we could each go in acting as couples looking for work or we could just be a few runaways from a different village that was having some kind of civil problem and didn't want to deal with it. What can we expect from this village?"

Anko and Kakashi just chuckled.

"Imagine this as being a village that a single scrap of information led you to. You have no knowledge of it or what it will be like. What would you have to do?" Kakashi enjoyed making Sakura think out things like this. It was something of a game to him. How he could make them come up with the answer or have to think without EVER having to answer their questions. Of course, they didn't think it was funny when there was no way for them to HAVE an answer, but it was still fun for him.

"Oh, so basically, we need to observe and come up with a plan. Got ya." Sakura went quiet and decided to come up with a few plans on different possabilites.

"Oh, who is leading the mission? We weren't assigned a leader. Tsunade said you would tell us what that was about when we headed out."

"There isn't one. You four will choose. Either don't assign one and see what happens or start the debates now. Because once we are out of the forest, you get no more help from us." Anko wanted to see where this would end up leading. This could prove to be fun after all.

"I would saw Sakura should lead. She has an analytical mind and I am sure she could take whatever actions would be needed when needed." Hinata certainly didn't want to lead. That would be too much attention. And, if she led, then everyone would count on her. That is just too much.

"YOSH! The fire of a divine leader burns deeply within Sakura! I agree with Hinata, Sakura would be the best candidate!" Rock Lee looked at Naruto to see what he would say. He had come to learn Naruto wasn't the brightest person around, but he was never power hungry. But Lee did wonder who he thought would be better suited for the job.

"Works for me. She was always the foundation of Team Seven. Without her, I may have had to actually have been serious the whole time." Naruto mocked feigned horror at the thought causing everyone to laugh though Anko just had a discomforting smirk.

"He's back for now. I wonder what was wrong, and how long this will last." Sakura could only wonder. Though she had an idea it had something to do with Hinata with how he looked at her this morning. Sakura smiled. "Well, we can hope."

"Alright, it seems Sakura is the elected leader. No going back on it now guys. From here out, you will listen to what she has to say. We are, once we get into that clearing up there, merely observers. We'll be there in about three hours from here." Kakashi was going to have fun on this one. He would make sure of it.

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"Okay guys, let's stay back here for a bit. I want to get up to those cliffs on the side of the village, get a vantage from up there and we will observe them throughout the night and some of tomorrow. We'll figure out where the best way to get in will be and where we need to go. You guys okay with that?" Sakura liked being the leader, but she was nervous. She hasn't been the leader before, but she wanted to make sure everyone was okay with her decisions.

"Sounds like a plan to me!" Naruto was already heading his way around through some trees to get out and around so he could get ahead and get up there when Lee stopped him.

"Please Naruto, let's take a few moments to allow everyone to come with you. We don't want to draw any unwanted attention." Lee let go of Naruto's arm when he mumbled an agreement.

"Well, Kakashi and I are going into the village. We will let you decide what to do from here. Once you enter the village, we will always be watching you. Doesn't that just make you a little nervous? Knowing you will always be watched, but unsure of whether it is actually us or not?" Anko smiled a real smile at that, though it still held a lot of promise of misery. And with that, they poofed away.

"Ooookay. So we're on our own now. Let's go ahead to the cliffs. We will set up a small camp and keep a watch on the village. Then we'll get up early so we can watch it during the day. We will get what rest we can now. Who wants first watch?" Sakura looked between Hinata, Lee and Naruto until Naruto piped up volunteering for it.

"I'll take first watch. I am not tired anyway."

"I'll take the second watch." Hinata situated her pack on her shoulders a little better and started walking with Naruto and Lee with Sakura behind. They were making a wide birth of the village to help not being seen and get up to the top of the cliffs as easily as possible. Lee said he would take the third shift, leaving Sakura for the last.

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Everyone was sleeping in their bedrolls and Naruto was looking out at the village keeping his watch. They had managed to find an area of the cliff with a large overhang and only one way in but with a small wall that was then enough that Lee could punch through it if the situation arose that it was needed. From there though, they could easily see anyone coming up the path, but they left some traps down a way to jingle a few bells if anyone came up. An almost useless tactic if anyone who knew what they were doing were on their way up, but it would work for the random people of the village.

Naruto had a Kage Bunshin keeping an eye on the trail down a bit that had a few of his kunai next to Naruto so if he was dispelled, so too, would the weapons. That would give him a heads up in worse came to worse. He was currently sitting against the entrance of their alcove looking up at the stars. He heard someone approaching from inside and looked to see Hinata a few feet away looking at him. Naruto tensed, unsure what was going to happen.

"This is just a little too early. I was hoping I wouldn't have to talk to her alone until maybe after this was all over..." Naruto just looked back at the stars and waited for her to speak first. That way, maybe he wouldn't have to actually talk about it.

Hinata sat next to Naruto with a small distance between them. Enough that they could fit both Lee and Sakura between them without much difficulty. She looked up to the night sky and just sat watching it for a few minutes before Naruto couldn't take it anymore.

"Couldn't sleep Hinata?" Naruto didn't really want to talk, but he coudldn't stand the quiet. It just wasn't in him.

Hinata looked over at Naruto then back to the sky. There were so many stars in such a big sky.

"Not really." She took a few more moments before answering again. "Naruto ... Why do you think we go through our lives in fear?" She spoke in a soft whisper. Naruto barely heard her. And it was nowhere NEAR what he expected.

"Why isn't she talking about that kiss? Is she avoiding it?"

"I don't think I understand." Naruto didn't know what to say. That was just ... so unexpected.

Hinata slowly looked over at Naruto and again whispered her question.

"Why do you think we live our lives in fear of anything?" She looked back at the night sky and continued her question. "I mean, we are born into our lives, we live, and we eventually die. One way or another. Why, or even what, do we live for?"

Naruto was taken aback by this. This was not a type of question people would ask him. He never had a chance for a life.

Naruto looked away from Hinata and back at the sky, thinking about his answer first.

"Hinata, I never knew my parents. They were gone before I ever got a chance to know them. My life has been nothing but hatred from everyone in the village except Sarutobi. He was the only person who ever acknowledged my existance as anything other than something that shouldn't exist. Eventually, there was Iruka, then Kakashi, Sakura and even Sasuke."

Naruto took a few moments before continuing. Hinata was watching him now, her knees pulled up to her chest, her arms wrapped around her legs and her chin resting on her arms. This was more serious than she had ever seen Naruto when it wasn't a serious born of necessity, like keeping himself and others alive. She didn't want to interrupt him. She was finally getting his story from him, not just piecing it together from everyone's comments, stares and open hatred towards him.

"Eventually, these people became precious to me. They were my everything. Everything I ever wanted. Everything I need." Naruto looked directly at her and smiled. But Hinata noticed it was a very sad smile. It didn't even touch his eyes. She wanted to cry with him as she knew he was inside.

"To me, that is why I live. For them. Life to me is love. For my precious people, or even an eventual person. Someone to eventually share my life with. And for the village and its people. I exist to let them live their lives, and hopefully, eventually, be a part of it. Without the villagers hating me. For all of them, I can't fear anything. Or I can never acomplish any of it." Naruto was speaking very softly at the end, and Hinata wanted nothing more than to hold him, let him know she loved him, and tell him she wanted to live her life with him. But she knew she couldn't. She told him after his mission.

"Hinata, what is life to you?" Hinata had taken to letting her silent tears fall into her sleeve. She rubbed her eyes on her sleeve as she turned enough to look at him.

"How am I supposed to answer that? He just practically explained the meaning of life! How can I tell him he is my life?"

"I haven't really decided. I know what I want in life. I know what I want to accomplish. The problem is getting there. I want have it, but I fear what would happen if I try. And if the worst happens, I feel like I would never be able to live. I was thinking about that when I was laying down. That's also why I couldn't sleep. And you have always been.. well... you. So I decided that, since I always saw fierce determination, undeniable confidence, even a desire for everyone else to excel, even if it wasn't someone of your own team or someone you even knew." Hinata looked back at the stars. They really were beautiful.

"I was hoping to hear some of your advice. Or what you would do if it were you." Hinata kept looking at the sky. She wasn't nervous at the idea of getting the information from Naruto, it was just what she would get as it was directly related to what she would do to let him know, in the end, what she thought of him.

Naruto was shocked to say the least. His entire life, it was something but people full of hatred after him, people never telling him anything good about either himself or what he could ever do, until recently of course, and of course, a lack of anyone, aside from Konohomaru, who ever thought he would or could do anything or amount to anything. And here was Hinata, a Hyuuga, the heir of the most prestigous family in Konoha, telling him she saw good in him. Saw him as ... anything. He couldn't help but smile his normal smile at her.

When Hinata heard Naruto laugh, she looked over to him and her heart swelled seeing him smile, and it actually shining in his eyes.

"Well, I would say that if you want something, go after it. That is what I do. And that is how I live; For my goals. If you want something, and don't go for it, then it is pointless to desire it. Right?" Naruto smiled after he saw Hinata smile at him. He liked smiles. Smiles were good.

Hinata was happy. She got exactly what she needed.

"Thank you Naruto." Hinata got up and stretched, letting out a small sound in her throat that reminded Naruto of purring, kind of like a cat. And the way she she was stretching just made him laugh a little as he pictured her as part cat.

Hinata narrowed her eyes at him. "What?"

He just laughed a little harder and looked up at her, his eyes sparkling in the starlight with the added moisture from his laughing, nearly in tears from it.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to laugh, but when you stretched, you made a sound that sounded a little like purring. I couldn't help but imagine you with these cute little pointy, fuzzy ears, a bushy tail and whiskers." Naruto let out a small laugh again. "Kitty is a good look for you." Naruto couldn't help but put his hand behind his head and give her his normal grin.

When Naruto opened his eyes he saw Hinata's face only a few fingers' width away from his face. He froze, stock still, eyes wide, remembering the last time they were this close.

Hinata was looking Naruto in the eyes and was mildly amused at his reaction to her having gotten so close while his eyes were closed. She would have to remember that. He DID tend to smile like that alot.

"Show me." Hinata whispered the words quietly, and said them with as much sensuality as she could muster. She promised him she would wait until after the mission to continue their previous situation. And she knew what she would do now.

"Eh? Show you what, Hinata?" Naruto was totally going crazy. Those words. He didn't know why, but they were ... different.

"Show me how I looked in your mind. Use a Henge. I want to see my .. 'Kitty' ... look." Hinata paused at the 'kitty' part and drew it out a little. She liked this game. Hinata drew back a bit and stepped backwards a few paces to give him room.

"U-uh, I never made a Henge of that before." Naruto waited for her to realize it would be too difficult, but she just stood there, watching him, waiting.

"Do it for me. I want to see what you saw."

"I want to see how you see me as..."

Naruto sat there a few more moments before standing. He got up and wiped his hands on his pants leg more out of nervous movements rather than anything else.

"I wasn't joking... if this, in any way, makes you angry, just remember that I've never done it before..." Naruto wasn't sure, but he felt, very strongly, that he would get a severe thrashing if this turned out like when he tried to teach Konohamaru his Sexy No Jutsu.

"Then do it right. Try to make it perfect for me." Hinata wasn't sure what to expect, but she felt he would have a better ability if he was going to do it for her specifically rather than just doing it.

"Alright..." Naruto didn't know what to think. This was ... odd.

Naruto took a moment to remember what he saw in his mind. He thought up as much detail as he could. The texture of the fur, the sheen, her body, her tails... her face. He tried to remember all the things he had to perfect on his Sexy No Jutsu, and tried to remember as quickly as possible, what he had to do to perfect it.

"Here we go..."

Naruto formed a handseal and put as much chakra as he could into it.

"KyuuHina No Jutsu!" Naruto disappeared into a cloud of smoke, and what showed up took Hinata's breath away.

When the smoke cleared, Hinata saw herself, but, though she could tell it was her, it was so very different. So very beautiful. The Hinata in front of her was the same height, but her ears were pointy, just like a cat. They had fur on them that was a deep blue just like Hinata's actual hair, but shone brilliantly in the starlight. Her eyes were the same, but there was a light grey oval of a pupil where he current eyes held no pupils. She saw whiskers, just like Naruto's on her face, and her features were a bit sharper. Hinata also noticed that this version was incredibly gorgeous! Her lips were a deep red, with Kitsune Hinata's canines a little longer than normal and her skin still pale. Her hands were a bit larger, with her nails a little longer and definitely thicker. And a very noticeable difference, there were seven bushy tails idly swaying in the breeze behind Kitsune Hinata and her body had a bit more definition to her curves, though that could just be from a relatively form-fitting outfit she was wearing. Kitsune Hinata had sensuality and grace radiating off of her with such a fierce aura that Hinata was in awe of it.

Hinata could only keep her mouth opening and closing, not even able to get the words she wanted out.

"N-Naruto." Hinata could only whisper, the sounds coming out barely more than wind.

Kitsune Hinata put her hand behind her head and flashed a smile a little similar to Naruto's normal one, but very Kitsune Hinata. It held promise of sensuality, and a threat to anyone who would cross 'her'.

"Did it turn out okay Hinata?" Naruto tried to apply everything he had learned from creating his Sexy No Jutsu into making this, and hoped he wouldn't get beaten.

"Naruto, she is so beautiful." Hinata didn't know what else to say. This was the most incredible thing she had ever seen.

"Mm, Naruto? What is goin- OH MY GOD!" Sakura let out a small squeek as she saw Hinata and a cat-like creature standing in front of her.

"Sakura, please, it's okay! It's just Naruto!" Hinata was a little worried. Sakura looked like she might either attack Naruto or wake up Lee with her outbursts and he may simply attack. And with his speed, Naruto would be in trouble.

"N-Naruto?" Sakura looked over at the cat-like creature and noticed that it looked a lot like Hinata. Then it was gone in a cloud of smoke and Naruto stood in it's place.

"What was THAT?" Sakura had never seen anything so.. regal before.

"Eh, Hinata and I were talking, and she got up, stretched and made a sound like she was purring. It made me picture her like that in my mind. She wanted to see it, so I tried to make a Henge of what I saw in my mind..." Naruto trailed off toward the end. It was obvious he went ahead and tried it.

"But... if you just were talking and thought it up, then how did you make it so well? I mean, that was absolutely gorgeous! How did you figure out how to do that in just a few hours?" Sakura couldn't believe Naruto, of all people, could come up with that so quick. He wasn't the brightest shinobi, nor did he have the best of abilites.

"Actually, he did it after about a minute or so after he imagined it. We had just finished talking and I yawned like he said and he laughed. I asked him to try it, and he did." Hinata felt proud of Naruto. That was a wonderful Henge, and Sakura didn't want to believe he did it. She would teach Sakura. This was her Naruto.

"You're kidding right? I mean, he never really had the Henge down too well, except for that perverted jutsu he came up with." Sakura was voicing her disgust at that one when Naruto clenched his hand into a fist.

"I don't care if you believe it or not, I did, and that's that. You woke up early, you should go back to bed." Naruto was quite upset. He managed to do something Hinata had asked of him, and Sakura was telling him straight to his face, that he couldn't have done it.

"You don't really have any belief or faith in me or my abilities, do you Sakura?" Naruto had unclenched his fists, now hanging limply at his sides. He looked directly at her, but spoke softly. He could already tell, but he wanted to know her answer anyway.

Sakura was taken back. He just asked if she thought he had any ability. As if she didn't think that he could do anything.

"Of course I have faith in your abilities Naruto, I have seen what you can do when you are in trouble! You have proven yourself in battle countless times! I can't believe you would think something like that!" Sakura had a vein in her forehead from his antics. This wasn't supposed to be happening on the eve of their big mission.

"What about outside of battles?" Naruto didn't get his answer. Not yet anyway.

"Naruto," Sakura sighed. This wasn't going to be easy, but it had to be done. "You aren't the smartest when it comes to general knowledge. Everyone knows that. It just isn't your thing. But when it comes to ability, and this is the only time you are ever getting this out of me, you have the potential to be among the greatest. You just need to actually apply yourself. If you really just did that Henge after thinking it up just now, then you have also just proved it. Now, in the morning, I want to see that again. That was awesome! Now bed! And try not to be so loud again. Your transformation is what woke me up. Well... that... and Lee seems to like to snuggle..." And with that, Sakura made a desperate face and went back to lay down.

"She says that like she isn't fond of the idea." Hinata giggled at Naruto's comment, and Sakura poked her head out of the crevice in the wall. Hinata and Naruto both stopped laughing at her ferocious expression. After she went back in to lay down, both of them looked at each other and Hinata pawed at the air and hissed at Naruto.

Naruto only laughed and pushed Hinata in to get her nap until her turn to keep watch.