Disclaimer: Don't own any characters from Naruto, everyone else i do own!

Note: First attempt to write a story. I'm sorta making it up as i go along. though i do have most of it sorta planned out. Sorry if there's not so much NaruHina, but there will be small fluff here and there. It'll get better as i get to book two and three. (FYI this is book one ;p )


Alright, sorry for the wait. I had a few holes in my story and I wanted everything to be thought out so there would be no room for mistakes or questions. I felt like I had to write the next chapters together. I didn't want to make any mistakes and then have to correct them on the previous chapters. In addition, this part wasn't planned so it's harder for me to come up with it. My story finally has a name. After much debating (with myself XD), I have a name. Beautiful happiness (there's a reason for the title, you'll find out eventually.) and this is book one Life's Gift. Enjoy!

Anyway, I tried to finish this yesterday but certain events kept me from using the computer all day. Therefore, I didn't even get to write chapter 9 like I was planning. Darn it! Too many project and things getting in the way and sadly this is what always get's put behind the rest. Nevertheless, rest assured this story will progress. Just hope not one get's bored since I don't really think much is going on right now.

Ugh, there's so many things I want to write, but they won't show up till later! Well enough of my blabbing. Onto the story!


Chapter 8

Let's not get Caught

"The plan in simple you two, you get in and you get out. Just make sure not to get caught and everything will go off fine."

"And you're sure this will work?" the small child asked the blonde, not entirely convinced.

"Of course, it's not like they'll be waiting for ya in there. My guess is that they're discussing what to do and gathering a team to go search for more clues. That's why you have to keep your cool and not draw out suspicion." the young ninja responded.

It had taken the blonde most of the night to come up with the plan. After putting the young girl to sleep, Hinata and Naruto had decided to sit down and come up with a new plan. Now that someone had spotted Inari it was going to be that much more difficult to keep her hidden. Naruto had concluded that they were going to have to take it step by step, first gathering all the supplies the child would need. Both teens talked about what to do till it was time for the hyuuga to go home. Afterwards the blonde decided to stay up, partly so he could come up with a decision by morning and partly because he did not want to sleep in the uncomfortable couch again. Therefore, he sat on the couch, deep in thought on how they would be able to buy Inari clothes without drawing suspicion. Naruto knew that it would not be a good idea if Hinata went to the store and bought the clothes by herself. Someone was bound to notice her and there would be no logical reason for her to buy clothes for a little girl. Both teens knew that they had to be careful and think everything out carefully. Naruto wasn't used to thinking things out so much; usually the boy would just act without thinking. However, usually that ended up causing him problems, and in this situation, he couldn't afford to make a single mistake. Eventually the blonde ninja was able to come up with a plan. In the morning, when Hinata arrived, his plan would begin.

"W-well I guess it's time to go." Hinata said nervously, taking Inari by the hand and heading out the door.

"Don't worry you two, this will work!" the blonde yelled from inside his apartment, closing the door once they had left. Inside he kept his eyes on the Border collie near the door. "Hey don't worry, they'll be back soon," the boy reassured the pup, "How bout we pass the time by playing ball, okay?" with that the blonde-haired ninja grabbed Miyuki's toy ball and played catch with her. Within a few minutes, the pup was able to relax.


"W-well we're almost there," the blue-haired heiress spoke uneasily, "L-let's make sure not to make any m-mistakes."

"Right."

"Hello, welcome to Sarah's clothing store, if you need any assistance my name is Alice." the young lady at the register said as they entered the store. The two girls thanked her and proceeded to the children's section. They looked around and tried to decide of what they needed to buy.

"Ok, we should get you some shoes and some clothes for the winter. It doesn't get too cold here but you'll still need a good jacket." Hinata decided after thinking carefully about what the small child would need.

Inari nodded and the two began to look for the clothes they needed. After two hours of browsing and trying clothes on the two were finally finished. They then went to the cashier who began scanning all their clothes.

"Wow, you seem to be getting a lot of clothes." Alice told Inari, a bit surprised to see they were buying so much.

"Oh yeah, they're sending her to grandma and grandpa's house this Christmas, gotta buy her what she needs now before the prices go up." Hinata remarked with a laugh, trying her best to stay in character.

"That's right, plus if we buy everything now I get all the good stuff before everyone else gets it." Inari replied in a slight pretentious voice.

"Well that's good," the cashier said with a smile, while thinking to herself 'Darn spoiled brat, I can't go buy new outfits whenever I want! I have to work hard everyday just to pay the bills' The young lady looked at the two customers in front of her. The oldest had light blonde hair and light blue eyes while the youngest had a darker shade of blonde hair but the same light blue eyes. They looked to be sisters. Both had regular clothes on yet they spoke as if they were a bit spoiled. Alice could only assume their parents made a good deal of money. While she scanned the last item and packed all the clothes up Hinata checked to see if she had enough money.

While being an heiress meant her family had money, it did not mean she was rich. Her father had often told her that if she ever wanted something she would have to earn the money to pay for it. Moreover, while the ninja missions she went on didn't pay so much Hinata had more than enough to pay the cashier. It was a good thing that the only thing the hyuuga wanted couldn't be purchased. Hinata paid the cashier and headed out with Inari, since they had purchased so much Hinata headed towards a deserted area and created two clones, then transformed them into tall men in uniforms.

"What are you going to do with these two?

"Well, we still have to get more things, so I'm going to send these two to Naruto's apartment."

"But won't someone notice?"

"T-that's why I made them look like delivery people, so everyone will just assume Naruto's receiving a package."

"Oh ok, so where do we go next?"

"Next is the grocery store, we'll have to get some food to last a while."

Hinata then reached for Inari's hand and lead her to the grocery store."


The day had not started out well for the blonde woman who was at her desk signing papers. All morning long her assistant, Shizune, had suffered most of the Hokage's wrath. It was bad enough that she wasn't allowed any sake, but the problems of the village just seemed to be coming back. The blonde woman longed for the last three months that seems to have passed by too fast. The three months were the village was peaceful; there were normal missions and normal problems. No threats towards the safety of the village and no attempts towards her favorite blonde boy. Yet all the peacefulness had come crashing down the day a mysterious child had arrived. The blonde Hokage silently cursed the child, who appeared to be ruining everything.

"Lady Tsunade, Sakura is here." Shizune called from the door.

"Great, let her in."

"You wanted to speak to me Lady Tsunade?" The pink haired girl said, approaching the Hokage.

"Yes, there seems to be some new information on the case of the little girl." Tsunade said with a sigh, "It seems the girl and her dog were spotted near an alley yesterday."

"So she's still here. The question is why?"

"That's what you'll have to figure out Sakura. Have you found anything new about her?"

"Unfortunately no," the medical ninja sadly responded, "The orphanage does not recall who was last with the girl. All they remember is a short-haired teenage girl. Those that treated her in the hospital say that the same girl was the one who brought the child to them."

"Do they have a better description of the girl?"

"No, they've seen so many people since then so they don't remember."

"Hmm, I see." Tsunade said as she rested her head on her hands, "So now all we know is that there are three possible suspects. A dog, a small girl, and a teenage girl. That doesn't seem to be much help."

"You're right Lady Tsunade; it seems there's not much we can do. We can't go searching for them if we don't know who to look for. It seems the only thing we can do is keep out eyes open."

"Arrgh! And here I though my job as Hokage was going to get easier now." the blonde Hokage roared out, "SHIZUNE!"

"Yes?"

"Who do we have available to work on this case?"

"Um, it seems Kurenai's team is the only team available at the moment, everyone else is out on missions."

"Good, tell them to go search for some clues. With their tracking skills, I'm sure they'll be able to find something. Sakura, you'll join Kurenai's team and help with the investigation. Now go!"

"At once Lady Tsunade!" both of the medical kunoichi said as they headed out her office.

"Ugh, it seems I'll never catch a break, darn spies." the blonde woman mumbled to herself as she searched for some sake.


"Ok, all I have to do now is go to my house and get my futon. Inari, you stay here with the food, I'll be back in a few minutes." said the young teen as she transformed back to her original self.

"A-alright."

Hinata went to her room quietly and took out the futon from her closet. As she closed her bedroom door, she noticed a figure in front of her. "Hello Hinata, where might you be going with that futon?

"Oh, N-neji I… was um…" the shy heiress fumbled through her words as she tried to come up with a reasonable excuse. "A f-friend of mine n-needed a futon s-so I though I could…" she paused, looking down at the floor.

"I see." the boy said in a monotone voice, "So am I to assume you will be training with your team again today?"

"Uh, y-yes. I-I'll probably be back a-after dinner. Would you please tell my f-father?"

"Of course." he said with a slight bow and proceeded towards the end of the hall.

The blue-haired heiress just stood their looking guilty. She didn't like to lie, but she knew she had to in order to protect Inari. It wasn't that she didn't trust Neji; she just didn't want to get anyone else involved. Hinata already didn't like that Naruto had to get involved; she silently scolded herself for not being able to handle the situation on her own. Quickly shaking her thoughts away, the Hyuuga headed towards the spot where she had left Inari.

After putting her disguise on again, Hinata approached the small child and was greeted with a smile. It made the young kunoichi happy to see Inari like that. After the incident that had happened just the day before, she wasn't sure if the child was alright. "So Inari, what would you like for lunch?"

"Umm, I want to make something for everyone. Though I only know how to make sandwiches." the little girl said sadly.

"Oh that's alright Inari, sandwiches can be very delicious." Hinata said with a warm smile, making Inari look up at her happily.

The two then headed towards Naruto's home, being watchful of their surroundings, making sure not to draw suspicion.


The blonde-haired boy finished cleaning his living room when he saw a happy puppy scratch his front door. "Aww come on, don't tell me you need to go out again?" Naruto sighed as he made his way to the door, opening it to see Hinata and Inari coming down the hall with their arms full of groceries. He then went to Hinata and helped her carry some of the bags, as she seemed to be struggling to carry both the bags and the futon. The young Hyuuga blushed slightly and walked inside behind him.

"So did my stuff get here," Inari asked happily, as she gently hugged her pup Miyuki.

"Oh yeah, I even sent a clone out to buy an extra dresser. I've moved all my clothes, and all your things are in the room." Naruto said as he started unpacking the food.

"W-wow Naruto, you sure have b-been busy since we left."

"Yeah, you've cleaned your whole apartment."

"Hey what are you two saying, that I'm not capable of keeping my apartment clean?" Naruto said grumpily.

"Well your place didn't look like it had ever been cleaned when I first got here." Inari answered matter-of-factly.

The blonde looked angrily at the small child, who looked back at him with a 'You know I'm right' look on her face. They were just about to begin their all too familiar dispute of who was right when the shy kunoichi intervened.

"Umm, m-maybe we should g-get lunch ready." Hinata said twiddling her fingers.

"Oh yeah," Inari said, suddenly remembering what she had said earlier, "I'm going to make lunch today!"

"You?" Naruto asked with a puzzled expression. "What can you make?"

"Well I… can only make sandwiches…" Inari said quietly, thinking the boy would prefer his favorite food instead. Since she had lived with him, they hadn't been able to eat much with all the problems going on. Feeling a bit guilty for causing all the mess, the little girl felt she should contribute somehow. However, after seeing the blonde's reaction, Inari started regretting her idea.

"Sandwiches eh? Sounds good." Naruto said with a grin. Inari looked up at him and smiled as she made her way to the kitchen.

"W-well, I'm going to go put the futon and Inari's clothes away." Hinata said quietly as Miyuki followed behind her.

Inari began gathering the necessary ingredients when she noticed the blonde boy peering from her side. "So," the boy began, "What kind of sandwiches are you going to make?"

"Um, I'm not sure." the small child said nervously.

"Well then, how about I help you make them?" Naruto said happily. Inari agreed and they both went on to make lunch for them all. When they were done, they all sat down and ate their food.


"Hey Shino, have you seen Hinata lately."

"No Kiba, I haven't seen her for about four days."

"Yeah, me either. I wonder if it has to do with the kid we say yesterday and that blockhead Naruto."

"Hey guys!," the medical ninja called out as she approached them, "We need your help for an investigation."

"An investigation?" Kiba questioned while Shino looked on with interest.

"Yes," Shizune said as she came up behind Sakura, "We will tell you all about it when your team is together. Where's Hinata?"

"We don't know, she's probably at home." Shino said in a monotonous voice.

"Alright then, let's go get her. We have an important investigation to begin!" the pink-haired kunoichi said with a slight edgy voice.

Shino, Kiba, Akamaru and Shizune followed behind her as she walked towards the Hyuuga compound. As they got there, they ran into Neji who was on his way out. Kiba was the first to speak. "Hey Neji, is Hinata home?"

"Hinata? She told me she was going to be training with you and Shino until late." the male Hyuuga said calmly, hiding his slight confusion and worry.

"Hmm, that's odd. Maybe we should go see if she's there right now." Shizune spoke in as she looked at Sakura.

"Urrr, then let's go see if she's there." The pink-haired teen said in a huff, slightly irritated at having to run around trying to find Hinata. It was like being in a wild goose chase. Shizune followed behind as Shino and Kiba stayed behind with Neji.

"I will be training with my team all day, if you cannot find her please let me know." With that, Team 8 nodded at heading towards the training area while Neji headed a different direction. When they finally got to the area, Sakura met them with an angry glare.

"What took you guys so long?"

"We were talking to Neji, sheesh."

"Well it seems Hinata isn't here either," Shizune pointed out, "So we'll just have to do the investigation without her."

"That's right; we don't have time to go looking for her so you two will have to do." Sakura said now calming down.

'What does she mean we'll have to do?' Kiba wondered.

"Now this is something we must keep secret till we have evidence to confirm out suspicions." Sakura said in a whispering tone, making Shino and Kiba move closer to her to hear. "We have suspicion to believe that there are some spies in Konoha. About 3 days ago a little girl came in with a puppy." The two teen boys tensed a bit. "After putting her in the orphanage and putting her puppy in the pound the two managed to escape. Therefore, we suspect they are really ninja in disguise. In addition, we seem to believe that they have an accomplice who looks like a teenage girl. So today we will go to the places they have been seen."

"Hmm, seems like it's just a case of an ordinary girl and her puppy." Kiba said with little interest.

"Well yes, it may seem like we're making big deal out of nothing. However, we had a witness yesterday who tried to bring the little girl in. He told us that there was a flash of light and then the child disappeared, so we have to know who that child is. We don't want to endanger the village with possible spies. We have to bring them in an interrogate them" Shizune spoke out.

"Interrogate a child? That doesn't seem right. Besides, how are you going to interrogate a puppy?" Kiba pointed out.

"We'll worry about that when we find the child. Now are you two going to help us or not!" Sakura screamed, having now lost all her patience. "Let's go!" Once again, Sakura walked off with Shizune following behind her, leaving Team 8 to their thoughts.

"So what do you think Shino? Do you think that kid is the same kid we met?"

"It's seems highly possible."

"Do you think we should go find Hinata and see if she knows anything about this?"

"No"

"What? Why not? Someone has to tell her what's going on?"

"She must already know, what else could explain her disappearance and the fact she told Neji she would be with us."

"You're right, so then, should we go help her with this?"

"No, she'll come to us if she wants our help. For now we should just try not to lead them to her."

With that, the two nodded and went to look for Sakura before she scolded them. The two boys were worried for their friend but trusted her to know what she was doing. Kiba worried that Naruto was the one behind this and that somehow he had gotten Hinata involved. The dog boy prepared to pound the blonde if his suspicions turned out to be true.


"You want me to what?"

"I want you to try doing that thing you did in the alley." Naruto answered.

"B-but, I don't even know what I did."

"W-well, maybe it has something to do w-with that the glowing thing you did that one time." Hinata pointed out.

"Yeah, and that time Sakura said you went into the pound and got Miyuki out without anyone seeing you. You must have done it there too. Just try to remember what you did those times and see if you can do it now." Naruto urged Inari.

"B-but… I-I don't think I can do it just like that." Inari gloomily confessed.

"That's why we're going to help you. If there's anyone that knows about learning something difficult it's me."

"N-naruto's right Inari, if anyone can help you he can. He's a s-strong ninja and he never gives up." Hinata shyly added, earning a grin from he favorite blonde. "I-I'll do what I can to help you too."

Miyuki barked in agreement. "T-thanks you guys." Inari said with a smile, "Alright then, let's do this!"


All right everyone, I wanted to end it there or I would never finish this in time to post it. Didn't think there would be so much to write in this chapter. Had to cover a few things so there would be no room for questions. I'm trying hard not to make someone think "hey, this part doesn't make sense" or "wait how come they're not doing this"

Trying to make this as good as I can is making it even harder for me. Since I now have to write about what sakura and the others are doing.

Kinda mad that I wasn't able to write it all in this chapter. Had to cut it right when _ oops can't say anything.

I'll just say that I've been waiting to write this one part since like chapter 5 or so. Therefore, you can understand why I'm a bit angry that I didn't get to write it in time. And sadly you guys won't be able to see it til after Easter. Won't be able to be online till after. So sad TT TT

Anyways…

I wonder if I made shino talk too much. Don't really know much about him so I can't say I know how he acts or talks. But I think he would be the type to not butt in into people's lives. Right? Or am I wrong?

Anyway I hope you enjoyed. Comment if you can!

What did you think about the part where Inari and Hinata had to dress up as blonde haired spoiled girls. I liked how I made Hinata act. Imagined her talking like that and it made me laugh XD.