Naruto's Secret

Happy easter, everyone! I want to be quick with releasing this chapter, since it's the climax.

Q&A

Is lee going to be a part of Neji's gang?

No. Lee has no part in this. I left him out completely.

Do you have a mustache?

Yes. A curly one.

Weird questions like this one are always welcomed! I know I make lots of mistakes in my stories, and I'm so sorry about it! I sometimes reread my stories and facedesk (slam my face into my desk) because of the amount of inaccurate statements I make. Also, the lyrics in this chapter that my friend suggested putting in belong to Adele's "Skyfall". Check it!

Once again, I'm very disappointed that some people seem to think that I would make Naruto and Hinata's "first time" really messed up. Now, I'm not completely boring about it, but I would NEVER write anything crazy like a lot of authors seem to do. (No offense, but I hate those kinds of stories.) If I could have it my way, I would just make them not say anything to each other because it intensifies the awkwardness…

My friend has helped me with this chapter! I owe him my life! He's EXTREMELY talented, so you'll be able to tell what he has written.

Anyway, I'm sure as you're as excited as I am for this chapter just by reading the title! What is Naruto's secret?! Find out now!

Thunder. And lots of it.

It was loud enough to evoke thoughts within Hinata's mind regarding going deaf. She wished that her thoughts would be clouded with Sasuke's progress in the forest of death, but instead, Hinata was thinking about where Naruto had gone to.
It may have been a dream, but she was almost certain that she'd heard the door to their hotel room open and close at 5 a.m. She managed to get two hours of sleep after last night, but they were hardly something to brag about. Her sleeping app told her that she was 90% awake throughout her slumber. It was at 70% a few years ago when someone tried to break in and kidnap her. Although it felt lame to sleep less after someone kissed her, than when someone tried to kidnap her, Hinata felt that it was logical. She felt safer in her own house than she did here. Normally, there would be guards surrounding her mansion, but that night was an exception. It also turned out that the attempted kidnapping was a joke that her older male cousin had pulled of as revenge for not Neji calling him an idiot.

As long as there was rain, there would be no activities, so Hinata decided to visit the hot springs by herself, hopefully not having to meet any of her strange classmates there. It was already embarrassing enough having to be naked. She lowered herself into the bath and released a long sigh at the wonderful sensation of steam and heat caressing her bear skin. Her content, however, was short-lived as two of her classmates entered the area during a conversation that Hinata didn't really want to have to join in on.

"Naruto is SO hot!" Masahara Rei, the slightly overweight girl who was the winner of the shotput tournament began.

"I know right, he's so mysterious!" Shirakawa Yuki, the winner of the gymnastics tournament agreed enthusiastically.

'"-Well, there isn't a girl in this whole school that Naruto hasn't been together with. I'm pretty sure he's fucked all of them as well."' Hinata remembered Nicki's harsh words and secretly wondered if Yuki and Rei fit into the description. The two high-school students entered the bath and sat on the opposite side of her, endlessly discussing everything related to Naruto.

'I should leave…' Just as Hinata finished thinking, Yuki's voice spoke up, clearly directed at Hinata.

"Don't you agree?"

"…" Hinata bowed her head, inwardly panicking and trying to find words to utter as an answer. She ended up remaining silent, almost as if ignoring them completely.

"Don't talk to her, Yuki. I heard she cheated on the English test."

"What?! That's so low!"

'What?' At that, Hinata looked up at Rei with an expression mingled with shock and confusion. She didn't cheat!

"Th-that's…Wrong…" Her words were nowhere near as convincing as they sounded in her head. It didn't even sound like she cared what they thought, even though she did. It was an incorrect statement, and she wanted to dispel the rumor that had apparently started.

"You even got Naruto to beat up Shiro for telling the teacher about it."

Hinata couldn't understand what was going on at all. No pieces hung together.

'Shiro told the teacher that I cheated…? But… Why…'

"How disgusting!"

She felt her heart grow heavy at the thought of it. Never had she thought that Shiro would tell the teacher something false like that. Of course, it might all be a lie that the bullies were making up in order to get revenge on her. Right now though, she didn't feel like discussing something she had no idea about. First, Hinata was going to return to her hotel room and call Shiro to sort everything out.

"I-I need to g-go somewhere…" She stood up and abruptly left, leaving Yuki and Rei behind.

'My life is just… Falling apart…' After hurriedly and sloppily changing, Hinata ran out of the hot spring area, not thinking of where she was going to end up. She bowed her head while running and shut her eyes tightly, shaking her head as if to rid herself of the thoughts coursing through her mind like the blood in her veins.

An unfortunate person who stood browsing something in the souvenir shop was run into by her. She crashed headfirst into his chest, almost falling back when feeling the force. The man gripped onto her arm and halted her unbalanced stepping, causing her attention to shift to him. Sasuke looked just as confused as her when their eyes met, but he quickly remembered what he was holding and quickly hid it behind his back. If not for her mixed emotions, she would have paid more attention to the small blush childishly slapped onto his pale cheeks.

"What are you doing?" He asked, clearly trying to guide her attention away from possibly wandering towards the foreign object behind his back.

"I-i…" Hinata began, but couldn't seem to continue her sentence as tears brimmed in her eyes.

'I'm so glad… Sasuke-kun is here…'

She felt better just by being in his presence. She felt safe knowing that he'd stand up for her and help her sort all the rumors out.

"I guess it's not a good idea to talk here, come with me." He began to walk, but remembered that he was holding something and split his thoughts in half. It was now that Hinata noticed it.

"Wh-who is… th-that for…?" Sasuke eyes seemed to widen for a mere second as he ransacked his head for a somewhat believable excuse to make.

"I-it's for that bus driver! I'm definitely not getting this for you. Idiot." Sasuke hit her lightly on the head and turned away to hide his tomato red face, obviously to anyone other than Hinata that he was trying to hide his embarrassment.

'Why am I getting so flustered?!'

"O-oh…" Hinata was clearly not very convinced.

"By the way, I met your cousin on my way back from the training camp." Hinata's ears perked upon hearing Sasuke mention Neji, but then she quickly remembered the text he'd sent to her before departing to Osaka and panicked lightly.

"What was he… Doing…?" Her voice shook.

"Hmm, it looked like he was planning an attack or something on the bridge. Is he in a gang?"

"!" Hinata gasped and looked rapidly up at Sasuke with eyes frantically wide.

"I-I have to go! Please, take this!"

"What?" She threw her towel at Sasuke and sprinted out of the shop as fast as she could, isolating a very bewildered Sasuke with a towel on his head.

He drew a breath, inhaling the sweet scent of Hinata.

"Hinata…"

He passes streetlight after streetlight. The potent pockets of illumination scar. They are electronic noise that interrupt his natural, acoustic existence. He can count the beats until his equilibrium is rudely unbalanced.

One. Two. Three. Fou-

He notices he doesn't care. If he did, would he be wading through all this water? It's underneath him, he's covered in it, and more keeps pelting his being from... somewhere.

Most people would probably have joined in with the water in this situation, but not him. No, he was used to this. It comes in waves, it's been around since as long as he can remember. When everyone else was assigned mentors, he was sitting on a swing in an abandoned playground in plain sight.

No one pushed him, no one pointed at him, no one looked at him.

Things got better he supposed. Then they got worse, as they always did. He wonders if things had stayed bad, would the good things hurt as much? Could the loneliness have eventually turned into contentment rather than emptiness? Part of him coldly fancies the theory having some merit, while another part of him screams and claws at him for being such a self-pitying coward. Another part is himself. Alone, currently indifferent. He waits for the water to wash away this thing. Maybe the voices will drown along with it. He leans on the railing, the cold steel even colder. It sinks into his arms, liquid teeth sinking into him and solidifying inside his flesh. It chases away the thinking slightly. A small mercy. He closes his vision, only feeling the teeth in his skin and the rare sound of sky meeting ocean. It encompasses the blackness and he is, in a way, at peace. A peace, which is cruelly taken from him.

He hears more, the electronic is invading the acoustic once more. It is more intrusive this time.

There are four.

He hopes they will pay no attention to the sad, lonely thing on the bridge.

But they do. They are all around his age, one of them has short, red hair and strangely, no eyebrows. On a better day, he would've had a great laugh at this, but today was a day steadily deteriorating, for then he sees his eyes. They are cold, not at all unlike the calmly enraged body of water behind him. Not only in appearance either. The second one has purple on his face, the rain hasn't erased the wicked-looking spider on his cheek or the dragon cresting around his brow. He is compensating for his dull, brown hair. He's also hoping they'll pay less attention to his weight. It doesn't work here. Man number three is the only one reasonably dressed. He's wearing a long raincoat, worn and tattered in the tails, he's got pretty-boy hair, obviously not used to socializing with the hoodlums standing alongside him. His gaze and expression are civil, yet also carry the worst of humanity with them. Probably a future politician. One of the worst.

"Hey there, Naruto."

The fourth, he recognizes. The eyes on this one are blank. His body is poised angrily. He is the only one with the headband. The long hair is messily plastered to his head, like a child wielding a glue-stick for the first time. He raises his hand and motions for the three to attack.

Obvious.

Unsurprising.

Purple-face charges stupidly, Naruto easily sidesteps him, grabs hold of his neck and disconnects the large body from the ground. He flies noisily into a pile of clutter. He won't get up for at least twenty seconds.

Good.

No-eyebrows is already in his face, his hand-to-hand skills are decent enough, but not good enough. He looks angry, but the lack of eyebrows makes it a little harder to see. A diversionary technique opens up a highway for a fist to the solar plexus of the hoodlum. He crumples like laundry.

Pretty boy's turn.

How does a politician fight a fighter? He makes a run for Naruto. At the last possible moment, he sidesteps but leaves the tattered raincoat behind, it blinds him as he feels his right leg pierced by something foreign. Deception. He should have known. He feels his life essence dribble and creep down his leg, mixing with the sky's essence. The black raincoat smells musky and artificial, he angrily throws it off before realizing that his twenty seconds are up. Purple Face makes a second attempt and crushing the smaller fighter. In a fit of animalistic creativity, Naruto scoops up a palm of the liquid coming out of his leg and flings it into Purple Face's eyes, the snarl on his face accentuating the whiskers on his cheeks, topped off with a focused Kiai, mimicking that of the never-changing pure animal ever present in his veins. He avoids being trampled, but still takes a blow from the passing stampede. He staggers, disoriented, he doesn't notice No-Eyebrows' leg heading towards his wound.

"Ah!"

The pain feels inflammatory, the endless water doing nothing to sate it. Pretty boy knees the downed opponent, Naruto uses the momentum to propel himself upwards, lifting himself on the pain and the leg of Pretty Boy. He feels the teeth in his back, the pure energy of shock stemming from the chill of the iron dulling the pain slightly. The railing is too close. The three thugs stand close, but not too close.

Neji steps fourth. The slight smirk on his face makes his dead eyes seem that much more cursed. "I don't appreciate you meddling with the private affairs of my cousin." Of course it was about Hinata.

He hears sandals slapping against the wet concrete, splashing like mortar shells. All of them look at the newcomer. Of all the possible variables, why did she have to show up now? Her entire body heaves from lack of breath, as she looks on in pure horror at the scene in front of her. Her mouth is open for air, but she interrupts herself to scream in bewilderment. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!"

The look of desperation on her face, one could imagine she saw the world being swallowed up, becoming nothing. She froze, barely breathing, waiting for an answer. The thugs were indifferent. Neji was silent for a moment, before uttering a dry laugh that no amount of water could ever moisten.

"You're not scared of him getting wet, are you?"

"What d-do you…"

A sick grin is slashed unto his face, spreading like an infection. Neji quickly walks forward. He pushes.

"This idiot is hydrophobic."

-This is the end
Hold your breath and count to ten
Feel the earth move and then
Hear my heart burst again- ¨

"You…" Her eyes opened wide as soon as the words left Neji's mouth, and without any hesitation threw her shoes off and dived into the ocean.

Naruto only registers the unfathomable amount of black water walled up in front of him, before he feels the teeth solidifying again. Everywhere. It hurts. It dulls the pain. It dulls everything.

-For this is the end
I've drowned and dreamt this moment
So overdue, I owe them
Swept away, I'm stolen-

He can't see, can't see his hands in front of him. His wound is greedily sucked upon, the frigid substance draining him quicker and quicker. He can't feel it, but he can see her swimming towards him. That's probably a bad sign. He reaches out with the last of his energy, their fingertips meet each other through the wet, black veil. He thinks to himself:

'Yes, this is good.'

'A good death.'

He felt like he was going to throw up, but only water was expelled from his mouth. Once his eyes inevitably opened, his blurry vision barely allows him to make out the figure leaning over him. It hurt to talk, but words tugged on him constantly and forced him to speak and ask the question that he could die for an answer to. "I th-thought…yo-you…h-ha…" "You s-shouldn't talk…" He took a deep breath and instead of listening to her, placed his wet hand on her equally wet neck and pulled her weakly closer to him so he could whisper.

"I thought…you…h-hated..me…" Hinata's eyebrows furrowed upon listening to what he had to say. She sat up, making him easily release his grip on her neck.

"This has nothing to do with hate…!"

His eyes widened.

'Nothing to do with hate…?'

"You could've died!" Naruto couldn't comprehend what Hinata was saying, it made absolutely no sense to him. Everything she said was gibberish.

"I… I'm so sorry…"

Her contorted face softened, but then tensed again as she desperately tried to hold back the tears trying to escape.

'She's crying now…?'

Naruto watched in silence as Hinata began to weep.

"It's m-my fault… That this happened… I was the one… Who told my cousin…"

"No… it's okay, I-I… deserved it.." He whispered, his voice mingling with feebleness and uncertainty.

'Is there even the slightest chance'

The rain continued to pour down as the two lay in the soaked sand by the water. Silence lingered in the air and latched onto their souls, restricting their words down to simple mumbles. Somehow, Naruto managed to break past the thick barrier of quietness and cleared his throat before talking.

'Could it possibly be that…'

"You saved me…"

"O-of course… I could never… Just.." Knowing what her sentence was leading up to, Naruto interrupted her.

"I never thought I'd enter the water again…" Naruto's face twisted, his mind painfully trying to make him reminiscence something at the back of his memory. He refused to, however. He would never, ever think about it again.

'There is someone who would cry…'

"Naruto… I-I've thought a-about this… before.. B-but.." She sounded hesitant, but Naruto was glad that she spoke when he was at a loss for what to say, so he urged her on.

"Go on."

"Well, i-I was wondering… What was your past like…?"

His head shot up in an instant. Did she know? Who told her? Was it Kakashi, or perhaps even Sasuke? No, she looked too uncertain and uncomfortable. Then, had she picked up on his strange behavior? That would be impossible! No girl has ever questioned his past, or even thought about his life at all!

He couldn't reply, so he instead simply sat up and looked out at the water with a solemn look on his face.

Why was it that his chest burned in pain even though there was no visible injury?

'Even for me?'

"Hinata." She looked up, her eyes full of hope and desperation.

"Thank you."

"Alright kids! Time for a jog around Sumiyoshi park!" The teacher, Mary-Anne was at high spirits on the first sunny day during the prize trip to Osaka, while pretty much all of the other students were rubbing their eyes tiredly and squinting like they'd never seen the light before.

It was still quite slippery and flooded due to the amount of heavy rain that had fallen for the past weeks, but the teachers had insisted on completing at least one activity before they return back to school. It was a stupid idea, really, and they could've done much more fun things inside of the hotel, but since no one dared to protest against Mary-Anne, this was just how it turned out.

"Sensei, I didn't bring shoes… I'm gonna go sit."
A lazy girl from the third year in Hinata's school mumbled as she began walking towards a bench with a glossy iPhone in her hand. After people had observed and learned, half of the crowd did the exact same thing without any of the teachers caring. Hinata was used to this ludicrously laid-back system by now, so it barely grazed her.

'I hope it won't rain today too…' Hinata sighed and looked up at the darkening sky.

'Naruto hasn't talked to me since that time… And Neji went home…' She put her hair up and secured her ponytail before barely kneeling to tie her shoelaces. Either way, she would be running this whole lap without faults. It could help her set her mind straight.

"Ready, set, go!" The few students left on the starting line began to run. Most were quite good and kept an even speed, but the two ones that were already crossing the 200 meter away turn were, of course, Naruto and Sasuke. Hinata didn't even try to catch up, and instead jogged at a relaxing pace.

Little did she know, Naruto was doing the exact same thing, all the while racing Sasuke. And what none of these three didn't know, was that they were all thinking about each other.

'Maybe I should ask her out.' Sasuke had finally come to terms with his feelings. He knew that, by putting together Hinata and his racing heart, he would end up with love. It was hard to accept, but also quite understandable. Not that he'd ever imagined himself falling for a girl like her, but that was just the way it was.

'What the hell is wrong with me… I just can't seem to stop thinking about her.' Naruto's hand unintentionally clenched into a fist, his nails nearly digging into his skin. It disturbed him that she acted like she knew everything about him, but not to the point that he wanted to push her away for it. In fact, sometime he just felt like hugging her. She was just so fragile and harmless.

'Why is Naruto this way…?' Hinata still couldn't put together all the loose pieces of the puzzle spread out in front of her. Nothing made sense. Even though she should've been worrying about herself and the rumors that were patiently waiting to be heard by her back at Konoha Gakuen, she couldn't gain the focus and energy to rip herself away from the issue troubling her the most at the moment.

It took a couple of hours, but they reached their goal safely and soundly. The natural winners, Sasuke and Naruto were given a free full-course dinner at the hotel restaurant, but gave the coupons to the teachers instead due to their tiredness. As soon as they got back, they both collapsed on their beds, exhausted from not only sprinting for 7 km in 35 minutes, and from setting their heads on fire from all the conclusion-less thinking.

It was the last night they would be spending in Osaka, and most of the students were asleep by this time. Like the first night, the weather was berserk, clawing at the windows and trying to break in through the balcony doors. The wind's strong blow against foreign objects made a light whistling sound, like it was trying to attract someone attention in order to make them open the doors out of curiosity only to be thrown into the hurricane and eaten alive by the phenomenon.

Hinata twisted and turned in her sleep, occasionally mumbling inaudible words that barely made their way to Naruto's ears. He sat up, staring out at the balcony doors and secretly begging on his knees that they wouldn't open. For an instant, his mind flickered and a flashback reminded him of a traumatic event in his childhood years.

"Open the door, you fucking piece of shit!" The fist pounded against the door constantly as the loud feminine voice passed through the block of wood and into a seven year-old's room.

"Open the door, I say!" The seven year-old boy hid under his blankets and prayed silently that the door wouldn't open ever again, even though he deep down, knew they eventually would.

They always did.

"How gross." Naruto's lips twisted into a smirk as he continued to watch as the wind pushed and tore at the balcony door while howling loudly into the room.

It was just like back then.

Only now, he wasn't alone.

His eyes drifted over to Sasuke. Although he had a hard time admitting it, Sasuke was his friend. Naruto had known Sasuke his whole life, and even though they seemed to hate each other, they were actually great pals.

Then his eyes shifted over to Hinata.

What was she?

A friend?

No.

Something beat inside of his chest. The beating increased by the second until he could feel it pound rapidly, almost to the point where it hurt. He had so many questions that he wanted to ask himself, but no matter how many times he thought it over, Naruto couldn't answer any of them.

Next chapter: Naruto's past is revealed! What is it that makes him hate women so much?!

What do YOU think?

(actually, don't answer that, i'll just cry because my story is so predictable)

;)