As Naruto finished devouring his 10th bowl of ramen he paid for his share and he announced that he was going to head back to his apartment but Sakura stopped him.

"Naruto, you're apartment was needed – an elderly man lives there now, Tsunade-Sama had all your belongings put in to storage."

Sakura stated while letting go of his sleeve that she had grabbed before he ran off.

"Oh." Naruto pouted, even though his apartment was small and not the best looking – he still liked it, and it was his home.

"Don't worry Naruto she also said that upon your return she'd give you the keys to your new apartment." Sakura said kindly, noting his downwards expression.

"A new apartment!? Cool!"

He started jumping up and down in excitement, his previous downer obviously not affecting him long.

"I'll go see Baa-chan then, Bye you guys!"

And with that he disappeared in a cloud of red and orange leaves, Sakura stared at the spot where he had just been wondering quite how he did it. Neji and Tenten were also surprised at his sudden departure, or more accurately the manner in which he left. The three shinobi shrugged it off as something to ask Naruto later, seeing as when normal shinobi Shunshin they leave behind smoke or green leaves.

As Naruto turned a corner, he bumped in to a blue haired girl, not just any blue haired girl, but Hinata Hyuuga. Hinata stumbled back because of the force both ninja had been walking at she tripped over a ditch in the road, closing her eyes she awaited the pain that she was bound to feel. However the pain never came, because everyone's favourite blonde came to the rescue. As Naruto bumped in to someone he was about to yell profanities about watching where you were going, but he then realised that the person was falling backwards. With his quick reflexes he grabbed the girl's upper right arm and left shoulder to prevent her from falling back. Hinata, feeling strong arms grab hold of her, yet gently she re-opened her eyes and gasped at what she saw. Those eyes - it was him; he had finally returned from his training. Hinata tried to say something but in the end she did what Hinata does best, and fainted.

"Gah! Hinata!"

The girl simply went limp in his arms.

He looked around frantically for help, but nobody was about since the street they were on was built up of just houses, no shops. Sighing, and with a hint of pink on his cheeks, he picked her up bridal style and carried on towards the Hokage's office.

After getting several odd looks from both civilians and shinobi he made it to the Hokage's tower. Once he got to Tsunade's office he looked at the door, then at the girl in his arms – How was he meant to open the door?

He sighed and did what felt right, he kicked it open. Upon entering he realised that Jiraiya was still in the room, though he was now sat in a chair. Kakashi-sensei was also there, seated comfortably on the windowsill with favourite book in hand. Naruto then realised he was getting weird looks from both of the perverted men; remembering that he was carrying Hinata he started to panic.

"Stop looking at me like that you old perverts! She fainted!" a rather annoyed Tsunade, took Hinata from him and laid her on the sofa to the left of the room all the while glaring at the other blonde.

Naruto turned red with both anger and embarrassment as he heard both the grey haired shinobi's perverted giggles.

"Shut up you perves! Ero-sennin don't make me tell Baa-chan about our so called 'pit-stops' around certain places!"

Tsunade walked back over to her desk, glaring at Jiraiya as she heard the last statement of Naruto's ramble.

"Did 'pit-stops' happen to include certain bathing area's, Naruto?"

She asked in a sickly sweet voice, eyebrow twitching, not taking her eyes off of a now sweating Jiraiya.

Jiraiya then suddenly appeared behind Naruto with a hand covering the blonde shinobi's half open mouth.

"Eheh... He meant about all the extra training I gave him right, Naruto?"

Jiraiya started glancing around the messy office for the best means of escape. Naruto's face was now glowing purple because of both lack of air and annoyance, both caused by a certain old man. He stopped mid-bite of the sennin's hand when he heard a soft groan from the left side of the office, looking over he saw that Hinata was stirring.

"Hinata!"

He called out, after having removed Jiraiya's hand from his mouth and getting out of the mans grip with surprising ease.

Hinata blinked several times, waiting for the room she was in to come in to focus. Once she could see properly she realised that she was not familiar with the ceiling she was facing, though her sight was now impaired by a head of yellow hair.

"N-Naruto-kun!"

She gasped, pushing her self up so she was now sitting up against the arm of the couch. Naruto' cheesy grin was plastered on his face, in turn making Hinata's heart flutter. He looked both embarrassed and pleased.

"Heh... Hey Hinata-chan, sorry about knocking you down – I was kinda in a hurry to get back here after having some Ramen."

Hinata blinked several times, then realised he had added the 'chan' suffix to her name, which she could not help but blush at. It was now that she noted his new appearance, especially his now manly face and his new shinobi attire. She had to stop herself from staring, knowing it would end up with her fainting... again.

"N-No Naruto-Kun, I-it was my fault, gomen."

Hinata then looked in to the eyes that she had long since fallen in love with, feeling that familiar feeling in her stomach.

"Nah it was my fault, I wasn't watching where I was going. Hey! You grew your hair!"

He Stated the obvious … per usual.

All three adults who had been apparently forgotten by both shinobi were now looking on at this rather amusing scene taking place. If anybody was to walk in right now, they would think Naruto was having a conversation with a tomato. Tsunade smirked while Jiraiya had a certain gleam in his eye, no doubt mentally jotting down the scene for use in his next book if need be. Kakashi had now busied himself with his book again, but no doubt he was listening to the conversation as well.

"H-hai"

Was all Hinata could manage, over the past two and a half years her stuttering around people had practically disappeared, and her blush was less common. But all that hard work by Sakura, Ino, Tenten and even Temari when she visited from Suna was thrown out the window when it came to talking with Naruto.