A Glimpse

Naruto took a deep breath and kicked at a stone in his path. There were only three days left before the Chunin Exam Finals, and he was going to fight Neji. To put it lightly, he was terrified of fighting Neji, especially after the beating Hinata took at the hands of the elder Hyuga. "Hinata," he thought. "Why didn't you give up? Why did you keep fighting?" Then he realized why she had done it. She had done it because he had yelled at her to not give up. She had gotten hurt because of him!

"Ugh! I should have just kept my mouth shut!" he yelled at himself, not caring when people gave him weird looks. If only he hadn't said anything, or better yet, if only he hadn't been there at all! Suddenly he stopped walking. "Yeah...everyone would be better off if I just left," he said to himself. "Fine, then that's what I'll do, I'll just go. Right now."

"Are you sure that's wise?" a voice asked from behind Naruto. The blond turned and looked up at the source of the voice. A tall man with spiky white hair stood there. He looked vaguely familiar to Naruto, but he wasn't sure why.

"What do you mean, old man?" Naruto asked. "Is it wise of me to leave? Hinata wouldn't have been hurt if I wasn't there! She wouldn't be in the hospital if it wasn't for me!" Something told Naruto he should be more respectful of this man, but he was too annoyed to care just then.

"All right, Naruto, you think the village would be better off without you?" the man asked, giving the young blond a small smile. Naruto simply nodded. "All right then, let's see if you're right about that, shall we?"

"What do you mean, old man?" Naruto asked, a skeptical look on his face.

The white-haired man chuckled. "Come with me, I'll show you the future of this village if you leave now," he said. With that, he turned and walked away. Naruto, skeptical and a little hesitant, followed the man.

Naruto had taken less than ten steps when everything around him faded and he was looking at a totally new landscape. "This is the first thing that will happen differently if you leave, Naruto," the white-haired man's voice sounded from everywhere, though Naruto could no longer see the man himself. He looked around himself and realized he was in the forest around the Leaf Village. That Gaara guy from the Sand Village had Sakura pinned to a tree with sand and was crushing her to death while Sasuke was laying on a branch nearby, unconscious.

Naruto cursed his helplessness as he watched Sakura be crushed to death. He thought Gaara would turn on Sasuke then, but he didn't, instead he morphed into some kind of huge sand beast. After a second, Naruto identified it as a tanuki. Then he watched in horror as Gaara put himself to sleep.

The next hour was extremely hectic and confusing for Naruto as he was forced to watch as his entire village fell victim to the attacks of the sand spirit Shukaku.

One attack from the beast hit the Chunin Exam Arena (Naruto breathed a sigh of relief when he remembered Hinata wasn't there but in the hospital), one hit the Hyuga Compound, and a third hit the Inuzuka Compound. A giant snake fought against one of Jiraiya's toads and slowly overtook the large toad, then turned and began attacking the Aburame Compound. Naruto could only watch in terror as a giant snake and a giant sand tanuki decimated his precious village. He caught a brief glimpse of what looked like that bastard Orochimaru fleeing into the woods, his arms limp, before his focus was again on the village. Soon, the Leaf Ninja were retreating, and the destruction of Konoha was complete.

Naruto watched in shock as the remaining Leaf Ninja gathered in the middle of the smoking crater that used to be the village. There were less than ten. Kakashi, Ino, Choji, Asuma, and Kiba were the only ones Naruto recognized. Kakashi and Asuma exchanged grim looks, then the five simply walked away into the forest together; they would spend the rest of their lives as wandering ninja. Naruto got brief images of Asuma and Kakashi dying at the hands of men in black cloaks with red clouds.

Tears were streaming from Naruto's eyes by now. There were only two whose fates he felt he needed to know. "What about Sasuke? What about Hinata? What happened to them?" he asked no one in particular, hoping the white-haired man would hear.

"You're not going to like this," the man's voice responded, coming from everywhere again. Naruto watched as everything around him faded again. This time, when an image came into focus, it was of a dark cell. Contained within said cell was Hinata. She was crying.

"Oh, Naruto, why did you have to leave?" Hinata asked, her voice broken. "Why did you have to leave us, me, all alone? Why, Naruto, why?" She looked around, tears falling freely from her eyes. She gave a short, sad laugh. "I guess I understand. I was never good enough for anyone, so why would I have been good enough for you?" She took a deep breath. "Still, if only you'd been there, I would have made you happy, Naruto, I swear! But you had to leave, and now look at me. Everyone else is dead, and I'm here." Somehow, the girl, who looked to be about fifteen in this image, seemed far more bitter about being where she was than about everyone else being dead.

Then Naruto saw something that made his blood run cold. Orochimaru walked into the room. As he looked over Hinata, Naruto saw his eyes. They were red and each one had three black tomoes in it! The Sharingan! "So that's what he wanted with Sasuke, huh?" Naruto said to himself, his voice quiet but full of anger.

Naruto shuddered when he noticed the lecherous look on the Snake Sannin's face. "This is your last chance before I have to switch bodies again, Hyuga," he said. Hinata shivered, fear and dread apparent on her face.

The sight Naruto witnessed for the next hour is too horrific to be repeated. However, the end result of it was a naked, bruised, crying Hinata who now had far less hair than she had before the snake summoner entered, and an Orochimaru who looked far too self-satisfied for Naruto's liking. Naruto curled up in a ball and tried to close his eyes, but he didn't close them quite soon enough. They were open long enough for him to see Orochimaru in Sasuke's body killing Pervy Sage. "NO! NO MORE!" Naruto yelled, eyes squeezed tightly shut. "I can't take anymore!"

Opening his eyes, he found himself standing on the road where he'd first seen the white-haired man. The man was standing before him again. "That is what will happen if you leave, Naruto," the man said. "If you stay, while you won't be able to prevent all of those things, some of them you will."

Naruto clenched his fists tight and looked up at the Hokage mountain and then to the hospital. He looked at the white-haired man. "Hinata...she loves me, doesn't she?" he asked. The man nodded. "Then I will at least prevent what happened to her, that is my promise of a lifetime!" The man smiled and nodded again before turning and vanishing into the crowd. "Thank you, old man, whoever you were," Naruto said after he was gone. Moments later, Naruto was moving as quickly as he could through the streets. He had to see Hinata, to make sure she was okay.

Entering the hospital, Naruto did a little sneaking and figured out where Hinata was. Then he slipped into her room. It was late, visiting hours were over long ago, but he had to see her and he had to see her now!

There she was, laying in her hospital bed, seemingly asleep. Naruto smiled at her. She looked so peaceful, so beautiful. Her short hair was ringing her head almost like a halo, and Naruto couldn't help thinking that it fit her somehow. He moved quietly and cautiously reached out and cupped her cheek with one hand.

Hinata opened her eyes and looked up at Naruto. She blushed at the look on his face. "Naruto?" she asked, thinking this must be a dream. There was no way he'd be in her hospital room, especially not so late at night.

Naruto smiled and nodded. "It's me, Hinata, and no, this isn't a dream, I'm really here," he said. Hinata blushed at that, wondering how Naruto had read her mind. "I know it's late, but I just had to see you."

Hinata blushed even deeper at the ferocity of his voice. It almost sounded like his life depended on his ability to see her. "Why did you have to see me, Naruto?" she asked. "It's not like I'm anything special."

"Don't say things like that, Hinata!" Naruto said, his voice both caring and scolding. "You are very special, and you're just like me, I realize that now. We both just want acceptance, and from now on, you'll never have to look for it any further than me."

Hinata blushed. "What's gotten into you, Naruto?" she asked. Not that she was complaining, this was amazing, but he'd never acted like this before.

"Oh, nothing really, just realized a few things," he answered. "One thing I realized is that I have a lot of things in my life that are worth fighting for, and a lot of people, too. And Hinata, I realized that one of the ones who's the most worth fighting for...is you."

Hinata gasped. "Oh, Naruto," she said. "Do you really mean that?"

Naruto just nodded, and within moments the two young ninja were wrapped in one another's arms, both crying their eyes out from a combination of relief, fear, apprehension, hope, and realized dreams. Naruto had a sudden flash of Hinata as she'd been in that future and held onto her tighter, swearing to himself he'd never let her go. Hinata felt the squeeze and simply snuggled into the embrace. Both of them felt more at peace, more whole, and more at home in that single moment than they ever had in their lives. Naruto gave a small smile.

"I guess it's true what they say," he thought to himself. "Sometimes you have to see hell to appreciate heaven."