Well here is the next chapter. I never expected to churn them out at speed, but that's what seems to be happening! Thanks for the favourites guys! I'm so happy (tears up slightly) Well, here we go!

Disclaimer – I do not own Naruto. At all. Just this plot. 05/12/06

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"Hinata?"

"Hinata??"

"HINATA!"

Hinata looked up to see Kiba frantically waving his arms in front of her face.

"Huh?" she replied, eloquent as ever.

"We're back at Konoha now. Didn't you notice?" Kiba stared at here, wondering how ditzy she could be.

"Oh, I suppose I was daydreaming." Hinata blushed furiously. How silly could she be?

Kurenai looked at her charge and wondered the exact same thing.

"Well since the mission is over, we should head to Tsunade's office and give our mission report."

Hinata and Shino quietly nodded, while Naruto and Kiba looked pissed that they weren't finished yet. However, one withering look from Shino soon put that to rest.

They walked quietly towards the tower. The mission had gone off without a hitch, though Hinata did admit she was quite distracted throughout the whole journey there and back. She had either spent her time admiring Naruto or admiring her brooch.

In fact, she was so busy admiring her brooch that she didn't notice they had arrived at Tsunade's office until Kiba nudged her from behind. Rather harshly she might add.

"Hello Tsunade, we have come to let you know that the mission was successful and went off without a single hitch." Said Kurenai in a rather professional manner.

Tsunade smiled and nodded, "Well that's good to hear. Since you are here now, I have another mission for you to do."

Naruto jerked upright, always eager to know if this would be that elusive A-class mission.

It was as if Tsunade could read his mind, "No, Naruto. It's not an A-class mission."

Naruto's face fell.

Tsunade continued " It is however, a B-class mission. And I'm sure you all can handle it."

Naruto spoke up, "So it'll be the same team again?"

"Yes, you, Kiba, Akamaru, Shino, Hinata and Kurenai. I trust that's not a problem" Tsunade gave Naruto a look that dared him to say otherwise.

"Eh-heh-heh. Of course not Tsunade-sama!"

Tsunade rolled her eyes before continuing. "So this mission is another escorting mission. You are to escort the head of the Raichou family to a city in the far north-west of the Rock country. You should be gone for at least 2 weeks."

"Raichou," said Shino "The family who own the bank."

"Yes," replied Tsunade, surprised that Shino had spoken. "He will be transporting some valuable items, so you can be sure that you will be ambushed at some point"

Naruto grinned broadly and gave the thumbs up, "We can take them oba-chan! Don't worry."

Unfortunately for Naruto, he had just said the wrong thing, though he didn't realise until he hit the wall on the other side of the room, nose streaming with blood.

Hinata looked horrified, whilst the others looked merely amused. He had it coming.

They all turned back to Tsunade who was smiling sweetly as if she hadn't just punched someone clear across the room.

"I shall give Kurenai the mission file, so you kids can run along now."

Kurenai turned round to her team, "I shall meet you at the gates at 7am sharp."

They all nodded, except for an unconscious Naruto who was being hauled out by Kiba.

Naruto eventually gained consciousness outside the tower, with three faces and one dog looking down at him.

"Naruto no baka!" exclaimed Kiba, "When will you learn!"

Naruto grinned, rubbing the back of his head, for once to try and stop the throbbing headache.

Kiba just sighed, "Well, see you tomorrow baka." He jumped onto Akamaru and galloped off down the street.

Shino merely nodded and disappeared off into the shadows.

Hinata offered her hand to help him up and Naruto graciously accepted it.

Once he was up, Hinata blushed, realising she had just held Naruto's hand. She let it drop.

She was about to walk away when Naruto interrupted.

"Hey if you don't have anywhere to be, do you wanna get some ramen with me?"

Hinata was speechless.

Was. This. A. DATE?

Naruto continued, "Since we will be going on a longer mission, I suppose I should get to know you a little better before we go."

Hinata's heart sunk. She should have known it was only mission related. But, she decided to accept anyway. Sure, wasn't time with Naruto still time with Naruto? Even if he felt he had to.

"Sure. Why not." She replied.

"Great! Lets go!" he led the way in front of her, looking back to make sure she was following.

Hinata hurried along to walk beside him.

They walked in companionable silence for a few minutes, before Naruto decided to talk.

"So how has your training gone these past few years, Hinata?" he asked, tuning his head to look at her.

"Well, I've trained a lot with my father to improve my Jyuuken technique. But I have also been refining my own personal technique which I started creating after the first round of Chunin exams."

Naruto looked at her in amazement, "Wow Hinata! You've created a whole new technique?"

Hinata nodded shyly.

"That's really amazing, Hinata! I could never create a brand new technique, I don't have the brains to do that!"

"You shouldn't put yourself down, Naruto! You're and amazing fighter and you never give up!" Hinata said enthusiastically, surprising herself at her boldness and directness. She hadn't thought, it had all just blurted out her mouth.

It seemed Naruto was stunned too.

"Uh, thanks Hinata!" he replied, a little embarrassed but also a little pleased that there was someone who thought that of him.

He was so caught up, that he didn't notice when they almost walked past Ichiraku's. He only noticed when Hinata stopped outside while he continued to walk on.

"Um……Naruto?" Hinata asked, confused.

Naruto noticed his stupid mistake and tried to laugh it off.

"HA HA HA HA! Lets get some ramen then!" he almost shouted.

He ran past Hinata into the shack and Hinata could already hear him loudly ordering two big bowls of ramen.

Hinata smiled to herself. This mission was going to be fun!

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They spent the next couple of hours chatting about this, that and the other and a lot about how Naruto was going to get revenge on Kiba and Akamaru.

Hinata was having such a great time, but she knew if she didn't leave soon, then she would never be able to get up in the morning.

Reluctantly, she left Naruto to order his 15th and final bowl of ramen, and started on her walk home.

As she walked, she gazed into the ruby red eyes of her brooch, again amazed at how beautiful they were. If she had been paying attention she would have noticed the man trailing her along the rooftops.

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BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!

"Urghhhhhh!!!" moaned Naruto.

He slammed his hand on top of his alarm clock to shut it up, and moved it so he could see the time.

6:30am

"Urrgghhhh!" moaned Naruto, again. Well, at least he didn't have to rush to get packed.

In a rare moment of organisation, he had prepared his pack last night. He had also left the next days outfit out for him to put on in the morning. So, at least all he had to do now was take a shower and leave.

He stumbled out of bed and peeled off his pyjamas as he went. When you live on your own, you don't need to think about what other people will think. Like this morning, he didn't have to worry about anyone seeing him naked. Well, ever since he learnt to close the curtains.

On the other side of town, Hinata had already been up for an hour. She was now warming up so that she wouldn't pull a muscle.

She had such a strange dream last night.

Usually she dreamt of Naruto, and that was fine by her. But last night she dreamt about having dinner with four people she didn't know. They were all talking over one another, telling her how great she was, how strong she was and how much stronger she would get. It was all pretty overwhelming.

But it had been over soon enough and then she went back to her favourite dream where Naruto proposed to her.

She finished her warm up and collected her pack. As she walked past the gate she waved to her father. He nodded in acknowledgement and smiled. Things had gotten so much better in the past few years. Her father was beginning to respect her more, although they still weren't normal.

As she approached the gates she wasn't surprised to she was the first there. It was only 6:50am. She set down her pack and sat down on the ground to wait.

She didn't have long to wait. Naruto came bounding up three minutes later.

"Hey Hinata! Did you sleep well? 'Cause we're gonna need all our energy for this mission today!"

Hinata giggled and nodded her head, "Yes Naruto-kun, I slept very well."

Kiba and Shino arrived at that moment, just before Kurenai arrived with their client.

"Good morning everyone. Glad to see you here early. This is our client Raichou Kicho."

"Ohayougozaimas." (Good Morning) they all said formally, since this was one important man!

The man just nodded in acknowledgement, already annoying Naruto.

Raichou turned to Kurenai, "Shall we be on our way then?"

Kurenai nodded, then turned to her group. " Hinata, you go up front with Naruto. Shino you go to the left. Kiba and Akamaru, you go to the right, I shall take up the rear. Now lets move off."

Hinata was so glad she got to be with Naruto for the whole day! She turned to look at him and saw him looking at her, grinning broadly.

"Come on, lets get moving!" he exclaimed, walking on without her.

Hinata collected herself and moved to beside Naruto.

Every now and then she would scan the area around them with their Byakugan, but there was never anything to warrant their attention. Absolutely no-one was around.

She could hear Kiba talking to Akamaru and Akamaru barking back. It was strange the way Kiba knew what Akamaru was saying. It was cute though!

Naruto was thinking the exact same thing, except he thought it was downright creepy.

He had been friendly with Kiba for years, though he could never call him a close friend. An acquaintance would probably describe their relationship better.

He would bunk off practice with Kiba, Shikamaru and Choji and just watch the clouds with them. Sometimes he would be left alone with Kiba, since Shikamaru and Choji were best friends.

Naruto remembered one time, just before the academy tests, when Kiba told him something secret.

He confessed his love for Hinata. Naruto was surprised but didn't mention that he felt the same way about Sakura.

Kiba told him about how he had liked her for years, about how kind she was and of course how beautiful she was.

Naruto couldn't see how he could like someone like Hinata. She was just that shy, dark, weird person who was always blushing. He hardly ever noticed her, though now he wasn't surprised, since Sakura made practically EVERYONE notice her.

Naruto looked at Hinata out of the corner of his eye. You certainly couldn't miss her now. In the past few years, she had become a bit more outgoing. He had seen her over that past few weeks, around town with Shino and Kiba. She would laugh and joke with her team-mates and looked a lot more confident. However, she wasn't like that with him.

He wondered why?

'Ha ha ha ha, baka!"

Naruto sighed inwardly, 'Shut up Kyuubi, I'm thinking!'

'Hmmm, I can see!"

Naruto sighed inwardly again, but Kyuubi seemed to have shut up.

Naruto looked once again at Hinata, yes, she had blossomed. Her hair was much nicer longer and she had a very pretty face. His gaze followed down to the brooch pinned to her chest. The brooch he gave her…

'You certainly couldn't miss those, they're HUGE!' snorted Kyuubi

"AARRRGGHHHH!" screamed Naruto at having such a perverted thought, even if it wasn't from him. He lost his balance and fell to the ground.

He looked behind him and saw four people staring at him.

"Uhhhhhh…….bee! It was a bee!" and as if to prove what he was saying was true, he waved his arms around like a mad man.

Hinata looked worried, Kiba looked exasperated, Kurenai looked bewildered, Raichou looked stunned and Shino just raised one eyebrow.

"Heh heh!" Naruto laughed half heartedly, getting up.

Kurenai rubbed her temples, trying to get rid of the headache that was forming.

This was going to be one long mission.

Hey! All done with that chappie. Let me know what you think. Good or Bad….just not toooo bad…..please?? Thanks all!!!