I Never Told You

Disclaimer: I Do not own Naruto or any other copyrighted content used in this Fic.

The silence was suffocating.

The 25 year old man couldn't believe how empty his life had become since the day she left two years ago. Nothing in his day to day life had changed: Missions, training, drinking and ramen. Every single day. Nothing was wrong with it…But something definitely wasn't right.

At first, it was just a tingle in the back of his brain, an instinctual reaction to change in his life. He went on with his life, he was even quite happy with how things were. A month went by and still no word from Hinata; that tingle turned into an itch. He went to the bars and picked up lonely woman. He would wine and dine the ones he thought were cute. He tried to scratch that itch any way he could, but these woman…they weren't enough.

After seven more months of nothing but hook-ups and break-ups, the feeling turned to a fiery burn. He pestered Baa-chan with news on Hinata almost every day. The female Hokage, however, refused to give him any details on the bluenettes' mission and instead tried to placate him by saying the young woman was alive and well. Naruto never noticed the stressed wrinkles lining the womans' lips.

After nine months of nothing Naruto became angry and sometimes violent even. His favorite punching bags were her teammates Shino and Kiba. Every hit was punishment for letting her go out on her own, not knowing weather if she was alive or not. Kiba fought back just as fiercely, claiming it was all Naruto's fault she left anyway. Naruto knew it wasn't true though, he could never hurt Hinata, she was his best friend.

At the one year mark, Tsunade announced to the village that Hinata was now considered a B-class missing nin and that should she be found that she was to be apprehended and not killed. Naruto, as well as the rest of the village, was stunned. Hinata? Why? The announcement threw Naruto into another fit of rage and this time all of the surviving rookie 9 were on the end of it. His friendships suffered in the worst ways and everyone steered clear of him.

It wasn't till 6 months later when Tsunade suffered from a heartattack that Naruto finnally started to repair his friendships. He couldn't lose what little bit he had left. Naruto, however, refused the opportunity to become the next Hokage. How could he when he couldn't stop his best friends from leaving the village...from leaving him.

Naruto changed his anger into determination by his birthday of that year. He would find her, he would bring her back and he would kill anyone that got in his way. Tsunade, seeing his silent determination, finally allowed him to have a team to locate her. She, however, would not let him lead it. When the team met to receive their assignment, she handed the mission folder to one Nara Shikamaru.

After three months of dead ends and false information, the Hokage called the team back home much to Naruto's displeasure. Although he had mended his friendships at home, Naruto did not realized that he hadn't smiled in over a year and a half...

Here he was today, sitting on the top of the hokage monument with a deep frown on his face. Two years ago today he lost something he never could have imagined was more important than the title of Hokage. He had reflected on the years past and had decided to go to the one person he trusted in the world for help...

::Flash::

"I don't understand sensei, Why am I acting this way?!" Naruto threaded his fingers through his spiky locks, gripping them tightly in frustration.

"How do you feel about her?"

Naruto turned to look at the man sitting next to him. The scar going across the mans' face had lightened to match his skin over the years and now you could barely see it. "I don't know. I'm so angry with her...She didn't even say good-bye..."

Iruka sighed and put a hand on his shoulder. "I understand you're mad, you have every right to be, but why did you give up your dream to look for her if you are so angry with her?"

Naruto growled in frustration, "I don't know! I go to sleep and she's there taunting me with that smile she knows will make me give her the last cinnamon bun. When I wake up she's gone and I remember that she's gone and that she has been for two years. She's gone. Just like fucking Sasuke was!"

"Think deeper than that, Naruto. What was she to you?"

"Hinata was my best friend. You know that! Everyone does."

Iruka stood up from the bench he shared with Naruto. He grabed the younger man by his shoulders and forced him to look him in the face. "Yes, but so was Sasuke. However, when you were looking for Sasuke you weren't this angry. You weren't this sad. You didn't push your friends away. You didn't throw away your dream. What is so different?"

Naruto stared at Iruka, eyes searching for the answer to the question he had just asked. He didn't know what was so different! They were his friends! Tears stung his eyes...He missed her, he did everything he could think of to keep her close! He bought her the friendship bracelet so that she would know they were in it together! He made sure no one who might hurt her would date her, he couldn't trust anyone else with her heart! But why...Why couldn't he trust anyone else with her heart? She was HIS. She was HIS bestfriend, he doesn't need a reason...But...He didn't do any of this for Sasuke...He didn't have sex with Sasuke either...But does that mean he cares more about Hinata than he cared about Sasuke?

Iruka looked on as tears started falling from the younger mans' eyes. The chunnin dropped his hands from his shoulders and let him bring himself to a conclusion.

"I...I-i think...I think I loved her sensai..."

::Back::

Naruto looked out at the village, a calm had settled in him the moment he had woken up this morning and he wasn't sure if it was because of his new found feelings or because of something else. All he knew is that he likes the feel of it, it felt like a cool breeze on a hot summers day. It felt great.

Yelling brought him our of his musing and he turned to see Kiba and Akamaru running up to him. He stood up in greating just as they reached him. "Hey guys, What's u-"

"Hinata's back! She was injured badly!"

Naruto's sky blue eyes turned dark as the storming ocean. "Where is she?"

"ICU. Lets go!"

With those last words they raced off towards the hospital.

A/N: Wow, it's been a while hasn't it? It's my spring break so I'm trying to get as much writing done as possible with both ADS and LCCT as well as starting the out lines on a few more fanfiction that seemed to have erupted from my head during the beginning of this semester. Anyway, hope you enjoyed the chapter, Review if you love me!