Chapter 4 – A love unleashed

"I-I-I-I, I lo… I love you Naruto-kun." She stammered out, trying to say it repeatedly. She started to blush furiously, realizing that what she just said. How it felt. She felt relieved, yet at the same time, at the same time. She wanted to pull his face closer to hers. She wanted to kiss him.

But he beat her to the punch…

While she was lying in bed she looked at the dank, hospital ceiling.

"Did I really kiss Naruto? How could I do something like that."

Her entire head was filled with quandary and doubt. Why had she done what she did. Why did she kiss Naruto. She thought she loved him, she just didn't know why.

Sakura was lying there, still unable to leave due to the fact that the concussion had been worse than previously thought. They were keeping her just a precaution to keep her from doing anything for a few days. She rolled over on her shoulder and looked at the flowers that Neji and Tenten brought her the earlier that night.. They were irises with baby's breath in the bouquet. She just loved the fact that they would do something like this for her, even though she did not understand why Neji of all people… She continued to stare at the flowers, and then followed the vase to her headband.

A tear ran down her face when she saw that it was placed just so it would reflect on her. It must have been Tenten who had done it.

"Why am I still here. Why did I do that. Why…" Her thoughts kept repetitively churning in her head, repeating. There was no end to what was her grief that she now knew. Beginning to cry again…

"Sakura? Are you up?" Said a voice after knocking on the door.

Sakura looked at the door, and then rolled over on her right shoulder and looked out the window.

"Sakura, I came to find out if you were alright." The voice said as the door opened.

"Why do you have to come here. I'm already confused enough as it is." She said, wondering if the person would go away.

"I know you like Naruto, it must be hard for you." the person said, sitting at the foot of her bed. Sakura refused to look at her visitor, she continued to look out the window, ironically, facing right at Naruto's house. "But I felt the same way about Jiraya once. Only once, but he blew it." She said. Looking down at her pupil.

"But, sensei… how do you…" Sakura began to ask before Tsunade cut her off.

"Kakashi told me everything. I am, worried, about what might happen in this instance though." She said, standing from the bed and walking to the window. "You have basically known him all of your ninja career and most of your life have you not. It's only natural that you would develop feelings for you. And you do the same for him." She stated, still, looking out the window. Sakura had now sat up, started to look around and locked her eyes on her teachers head, wondering what she might be trying to get at.

"But, how… Why… I still don't understand why I, I kissed him." She confessed, tears starting to stream down her face. "This is something- something I wou-ld want to do with, with Sasuke-kun." She said, through sobbing and crying. Trying to control the sobs, she held her breath infrequently while trying to concentrate on what was going on, how Naruto was now with Hinata.

"I blew him off so many times… why would I feel guilty now. Why would I want to be with him now. I don't really like him… do I" Again the thoughts kept churning in her head, endlessly coming and going.

"Sakura, you need to find out what you really want. Naruto and Hinata are together now. What could possibly drive you to him but that now. You don't ever return is approaches, what other chance does he have but to go with the person that has finally overcome her fears of him?" She said, walking back over and sitting on the bed.

"She really is a woman now, now she needs to make a decision like one." She thought menacingly. This could explode in both of their faces but she was the one who needed to do it herself, not anyone else.

"Well, Sakura. I will leave you to your thoughts, I have to go teach Shizune a new technique. Try to do something constructive with that head of yours." She said, patting her on the head before leaping out the window.

"But…" Sakura tried to say but before she could, Tsunade was gone.

Naruto brought his blonde covered head back from Hinata's. He looked at her, an eyeful of passion welling itself in his eyes. She just stared back, piercing his eyes. Her large, white pupils staring intently, twinkling faintly with the starlight, hazed over by tear-water. All she did was stare, and all He did was stare. For minutes he stood holding her, both exchanging piercing passion filled gazes, waiting for the other to speak. Waiting for the other to make a first move.

Finally after standing for what seemed to be an hour holding her up, he put her down on her feet, steadying her, brushing the hair out of both her eyes. Opening her mouth to speak, air came out but no words. Nothing audible came out.

Naruto looked down at her, lifting her chin, he kissed her again. This time, instead of being in his arms, she was on her own two feet, able to embrace him as she felt fit. They held their embrace for moments, those moments grew longer and longer until both of them felt that the entire world had melted away. It was only them in the bright moonlight. They finally let it go, again looking at each other, staring right into each others eyes, not wondering whether to speak of anything to break their moods.

"I Love you Hinata-san." Naruto finally said, pushing back tears in his eyes. Hinata also was holding back her tears, unable though to speak at all. All she could do after he said that was to hold herself against his chest as hard as she could. She buried her face in his jacket and just let her tears flow. All of a sudden 4 years of pursuing him, 4 years, trying to get him to see her. Four years, of her crush on him, has finally paid off. She had always loved him, and now he finally responded equally to her.

As she held him tighter the only thing he could do was do the same thing. They sank to their knees holding each other, Hinata letting out a steady stream of tears, beginning to soak through to his chest. Her grasp finally loosened, she gripped him as more of a passionate grip instead of a grip of longing. They were both just overcome with joy. Finally, Hinata had calmed down to the point where she could get back off the ground. The stood, interlocked wrapping their arms around each other, and began to walk toward her house again.

Now that both of them had said the magic "L" word, everything seemed so much more real. It seemed to have a new level of purity to it. They seemed to be more in sync, walking the same, both fully concentrated on the other.

They eventually reached her house, walking toward the front doorsteps they stopped. Looking out toward the open areas of the front of the house and the yard, the entire area was lit by the moon. "Well, I need to be getting inside." She said turning and looking him in the eyes. They were completely illuminated with a slight glow by the moon. His whisker drawn face looked to her fuller with life more than ever. She put her hands on his face, drawing them down his face and neck, down his chest and then finding his hands on the sides of his body. She drew him in for one more kiss before she left for bed.

The only thing wrong was there was an audience in the presence…

End Chapter 4 –

Alright, I've been watching plenty of the new episodes. That was a good episode. Episode 24 of Naruto shippuuden.

Either way, I wrote this while I was listening to a lot of chrono trigger/ Chrono Cross music tracks. If you don't know what that is, old SNES game PS got the rights to after Square transferred from Nintendo based to sony based. Other than my dialog drab…

Thanks for the reviews from:

Dragon Man 180

WolfDiablo

Acejut

And also for these people for adding me to their story alerts, C2's and Fav's

KnightStriker

Rayline Li

Egametaer g

Mbshadow

Burning truth – C2

And WolfDiablo again for fav story.

Also as an advertisement, my fav story of the moment is still Suddenly love, by NaruHinaForever. Good writer.