Chapter Ten

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto

A/N: Edited - 2012 October 09

Naruto cracked his neck, did a final stretch of his arms and felt his back pop as he finished a day of hard training. A cool breeze blew through the fields of the small village located only about fifty miles from the ninja Hidden Grass Village. He liked this village though. He felt that he could train freely without having suspicious eyes on him all the time. Ninja villages were always suspicious of other visiting ninja and in every town and Hidden village that he entered he knew that they kept a wary eye on him, just like they did with all their visitors.

It was nearing six o'clock and the sun was about to set. It was the middle of May and the sun had cast beautiful pink and orange streaks across the sky, leaving the town bathed in an iridescent golden rose glow. Despite the fact that it was spring time, the climate recently had been unduly hot and the grass turned a khaki-brown colour. Khaki brown grass generally does not give any signs of attractiveness, but Naruto had to disagree that at this point in time with the almost ethereally fair glow of the sunset, the grass now looked like a field of gold. It looked absolutely beautiful and whenever Naruto thought of beautiful, he thought of Hinata.

It had been about a month and a half since he had last seen Hinata and he quietly admitted to himself that he missed her. Despite their little...hmm, what word should he use...their 'disagreement' on sharing secrets, he found that this did not sway him from liking her. Rather, if anything, he found that he fancied her even more. He appreciated the fact that she was willing to accept that he had secrets and that she would wait for him to tell her in his own time, if ever he chose to do so. He often wondered if everyone could be like her. He didn't need to prove himself for her to like him. She encouraged him and believed in him based on pure faith in him alone. She didn't find him stupid and annoying, but she was patient and accepting of him. Where did she come from?! She couldn't be real, he reasoned. Hinata was gorgeous, smart and understanding? Had his cup runneth over with good luck?

However, there were so many things that challenged him with her. For one thing, she lived in a completely different country from him. Could he really do the long distance? Right now he saw her every few months and it was already grating on him that he couldn't see her as often. He supposed it might be the same if he were with someone like say, Sakura. He and Sakura lived in the same village, but he supposed that there would be times when they might be away on missions for months at a time. Naruto snorted. More than likely if he was away on missions for months at a time Sakura would be on the same mission with him. She was his teammate after all. But Hinata was not a ninja and he was somewhat glad about that, though not in any sort of misogynistic way – he was sure that if by some cosmic fluke she was to end up a ninja she'd be very capable (but he knew that was not going to ever happen, so he did not give the idea much thought.) No, he liked that she had a relatively safe job in a Hidden Village. At least he had thought it was safe, but now there were ninja being murdered in front of her, men trying to have their way with her. She seemed to attract danger judging by the fact that she had an admirer in the form of a teenager with a demon inside of him. Why couldn't she have a safe job, like working in a stationery store or something, where her greatest occupational hazard was receiving a paper cut?

That led to another concern that rubbed him a bit of the wrong way – he didn't exactly feel comfortable knowing that she interacted on a daily basis with so many...men. He liked to believe that he wasn't the jealous type and he knew that she was someone whose virtue would always be truth, but he couldn't shake the feeling that...that what? That he was not the only man in her life? Well, duh! She was a geisha for crying out loud. That's what she did – entertain men! But he had a strange, niggling suspicion that not only was he not the only man in her life, but he was probably not the most important man in her life. He sincerely hoped that he was the only man capturing her attention. But this thought also led to the obvious fact that he couldn't be with her at all because of her job. He wanted to be with her, but is that what he truly wanted? Did he really want to be her boyfriend? He knew he definitely wanted more than friendship with her alone. Did he really have the time to devote to being a boyfriend? He was not a normal teenager. Putting aside the whole I-have-a-demon-inside-me part, Naruto knew that his life was full of abnormal, non-teenager stuff like, hunting down rogue revenge-minded best friends who crossed over to the bad side and went to live with a power-hungry potential paedophile. Naruto wasn't sure, but he was almost certain that that was not the best circumstances under which he should start a relationship. He had a feeling that he'd be busy for the next few years. And besides, Nayako would rip him a new pair if he came within three feet of her maiko. That reminded him – maikos are not supposed to have boyfriends in the first place!

It was with these thoughts that Naruto strolled into the main part of the village. He didn't bother to look for Jiraiya who had disappeared from the field about an hour ago. He already knew that the Pervy-sage was either about to be chased from a spa or is already being chased from said spa. He'd find his perverted sensei by following the women's shrieking cries of 'Creep!' resounding in the air. He was glad however, that his sensei was able to still participate his perverted acts because just a couple of weeks ago Naruto damn nearly killed him when the Nine Tails' chakra leaked out to form the Four-Tails. It was an experience that he didn't want to relive. It only reminded him of how dangerous he truly was and until he gained control, he couldn't allow himself to be close to anyone, especially Hinata.

Though his mind was far he soon noticed that most of the small town's inhabitants were on the streets, whispering delightedly, their necks craning to see further down the road. Did something happen? Naruto focused his attention and looked further down the road. His mind had to have been really far for him to miss what was directly in front of him. He reckoned that his mind was miles away in another dimension because it was almost impossible not to notice the stunning geisha walking just fifty yards ahead of him.

He could see only her back, but from the hairstyle he could tell that she was a maiko. The elaborate kimono also gave it away. She wore a Byzantium purple coloured kimono with embroidered designs of silver waves and a heavy silk brocade maru obi, yellow in colour with patterns of clouds on it. She was a colourful rebuke to the villagers dressed in their dull and varying shades of brown and grey. It was easy to be transfixed by the beauty that the geisha represented and Naruto was completely taken in. Heads turned and eyes obediently followed. He was so hypnotized that he almost did not notice that the geisha had her left hand on the right shoulder of a middle aged man. He appeared to be leading her down the street for she seemed to have trouble seeing. Wait a minute! Hinata? Naruto looked with keener interest to see the man stop, gesticulate that this was where she wanted to go and she paid her thanks by giving him a faint bow. When she turned to go into the shop Naruto could clearly see that it truly was Hinata.

He couldn't believe his luck. Here he was thinking about her and just like that she appeared, like a vision! He hurried over to the shop without really noticing that he was entering a flower shop. She looked a lot taller and then he noticed that she was wearing her eight inch high platform okobo sandals. She looked so different from when he last saw her which was at night and her hair was down and wet, her face had a large bruise, that light green tee-shirt that did nothing for her. She still looked very pretty then and she looked even prettier now. But what was she doing here? And where was that bitch, Nayako?

Hinata was standing at one of the stalls and talking to the shop assistant. Naruto moseyed on over there real casual, trying to think of something cool and suave to say. Only he couldn't think of anything. No clever compliments. No amusing innuendos. No flashy remarks.

"Heeey." He said, thinking that he had to do better than that. That had to be his dorkiest moment ever. He already knew her! Since when was he a bumbling moron in front of her? Since when was he not, he thought cynically.

Hinata looked up to see Naruto standing there and for a second she thought, 'Good Lord, I've gone blind and now the only thing I can see is Naruto since I think about him all the time; not too bad a vision.'

"N-Naruto?"

"Hinata!" Oh thank heavens, he had found back his voice and he didn't sound like a five year-old girl, he silently breathed.

It was definitely Naruto, she thought. No vision of hers could be that ear-splittingly loud.

"Naruto! W-w-what are you doing here?"

"Eh, travelling." He was trying to sound cool, but then he realized that he must have sounded curt, so he started to continue, "Well, I've been here and there, more there than here really." What the hell was he even talking about?! What was the matter with him?! Why was he so nervous in front of her? Hinata, being Hinata, of course smiled sweetly at Naruto's verbal diarrhoea. Naruto cleared his throat. "So, what are you doing here in this village?"

"Oh, um, about a month and a half ago Nayako suddenly says that we should do a bit of touring. She says that we're heading somewhere but she refuses to tell me where. She only says that we're heading south. We're staying at this village for the weekend. Are you buying flowers for someone?"

Am I buying flowers for someone? What an odd question he thought and was about to ask why she'd ask that when he suddenly remembered that he was standing in a flower shop. Whew, kunai dodged. He just avoided complete embarrassment there. It's still early, he heard the Kyuubi mischievously chuckle, which he chose to ignore.

"You, of course. I saw you and thought that you'd probably like some flowers." He smiled brightly at his nice save and looked over at the display that he'd been standing next to. The small sign said 'Baby's breath.' "How about these, huh?" He smiled enthusiastically at her.

She leaned in closer to inspect the flower.

"Baby's breath? They typically use it in funeral wreaths."

Her face was blank. Was she joking? Please say that she's joking. She wasn't joking. There was an awkward pause and from the corner of his eye Naruto could see the shop assistant shaking her head in dismay. He could also clearly hear the Kyuubi's snorts of laughter at his host's feeling of shame.

"You should take me the vet and just end it right now. Take me out of my misery." He said dejectedly and she laughed. It was a smile that could melt the snow capped mountains. He looked up and saw her eyes squinty as she laughed and suddenly he felt a lot more comfortable. This was Hinata. He knew her as more than just as an insanely beautiful Geisha. She was his friend. Possible girlfriend? He cleared his throat and shook that thought out of his head.

"So, you're here alone?"

Hinata smiled at his unspoken question.

"You can relax, Nayako-san's not here with me."

"Oh thank God! I can't stand that lady!"

"I lied, she's right behind you."

"What!" Naruto spun around, his arms already in a defensive position when he heard Hinata giggling. His body visibly relaxed when he turned back to her with a look of amused exasperation. "Oho, you have jokes, eh? You're not ready for one of my pranks, you know."

"Would you really prank a poor, helpless, blind Geisha?" She pouted her lips and batted her eyelashes in exaggeration and Naruto laughed. He liked that she was becoming more comfortable enough with him to be able to joke like that unabashedly. She was suddenly a lot more serious as she turned her head towards the flowers in front of her. "You know, Nayako's not that bad."

"She took one look at me and thought that I was the one that tried to attack you back then." He said evenly. He was going for calm with a hint of outrage.

"I know, but it's only because she cares about me."

"Do you think that she cares about you...or about the money you make?" He was still trying to be calm. He did not want to upset her.

"It may look like that...You know, I can't remember anything before I was five years old. I fell into a river and hit my head. Nayako was the one that pulled me out of the river...I owe my life to her. She's similar to me too. She started off as a maid in the okiya. Only daughters born to Geisha are allowed to train in the Geisha arts from when they are young. She doesn't speak much of her past; she only says that she suffered a lot. She's like soap in the water when it comes to her past – very slippery. I think that she wants me to succeed the way she has succeeded. She does care for me, even if she has a funny way of showing it. She only wants the best for me. She's like family, like an actual big sister."

Naruto said nothing for a moment. He studied her; her words struck something within him.

"After I had my last battle with Mr. B at the Valley of the End, Pervy-sage told me that he had a friend that was similar to my Mr. B. He said that he had to give up that friend because he was a lost cause. He told me that I was foolish for always trying to see the best in people, when clearly they are hopeless. I didn't listen to him, obviously, I'm still here chasing after Mr. B. I think that you and I are similar in those respects. We're always willing to see more than what's on the surface, always willing to dig deep to find the good in people. I like that about you. You have a lot of...what's the word I'm looking for?"

"Tenacity?"

Naruto nodded, pretending that he knew what that word meant and Hinata smiled softly knowing that he didn't. "Stubbornness, resolve." She whispered the synonyms.

"Yes, yes." He nodded with a lot more vigour now that he understood what she meant.

"It might be our downfall." She looked him in the eye when she said it and he returned her gaze. For a brief moment he saw his whole life in her eyes.

"It just might be."

He smiled. Sometimes when he spoke to Hinata he was reduced to a bumbling moron floundering in the sea of his own ignorance and dorkiness. And sometimes when he spoke to her he felt as if she made him a better man, a more mature person. A thought suddenly struck him.

"Wait a minute! Am I not the best for you then?" The question was out of his mouth before he even had the chance to recognize what he was saying. He avoided Hinata's gaze, but from the corner of his eyes he could see that a fierce blush had spread through her makeup. He had put her in such an awkward position with that question! She didn't look up, but had focused her attention on her hands which were doing their weird nervous tapping tic.

"N-N-Nayako doesn't think so. . . b-b-b-but I don't necessarily agree with her."

His eyebrows shot in the air in surprise. She spoke so low that he could hardly hear her, but he figured that now was not the time to ask her to speak up seeing as how she now resembled one of the red roses in the shop. A broad, self-satisfied grin spread across Naruto's face. He was number one! Ha! Though what did that matter? It was not like he could do anything about that right now anyway. He decided to come to her rescue and change the topic.

"So, what ya doing in this flower shop?"

"Huh? Oh, um yes," She grabbed hastily and desperately onto his conversational lifesaver, "I'm not just travelling with Nayako. The hairdresser, two maids, the dresser, the kanzashi artisan and two nin are all travelling with us. The artisan needed some flowers, so I volunteered to get them for him."

There were lot of things about that statement that Naruto needed to question.

"Okay, firstly, why are you travelling with nin?"

"Protection. Though, they're there not so much to protect Nayako and me, but more so the kimonos that we're carrying." Naruto looked at her attire and realized that right now Hinata's clothes most likely cost more than all the flowers in the shop. Her obi alone, made of silk brocade, cost more than what he made in a year. It was a stark and rich reminder of just how hard he would have to work if he wanted to be her danna and clear her debts in his self-imposed timeline of five years.

"Hmm, okay. And what's a kanzashi artisan?"

"He designs the kanzashi for my hair. We must change the designs every month."

He looked up at her hair and there embedded in her elaborate Wareshinobu hairdo were ornaments that ranged from simple oval-shaped combs to pins up to ten inches long with trailing inches of silk folded to create flowers. One of the kanzashi was made of silver in a design of a phoenix at the end of a ten inch stick, its tail feathers dangling, jingling as she moved. There were two such pins in her hair. How could he not notice them before? She could poke his eye out with one false move. He looked at her and thought that she looked stunning. She was the living example of romantic dreams. All of the flowers in the shop paled in comparison to her. Yet, despite the showy siren beauty, he knew that behind the makeup and the clothes and the accessories, she was another beauty. She was a pale violet – shy and delicate as petals, beautiful, but subtly enchanting. She was beauty, in all of its forms. He wished that he was eloquent enough to say what he thought. Instead he cleared his throat and muttered,

"'s nice." He cleared his throat again. The Kyuubi snorted at his host's feeling of inadequacy. "Anyway, um, what do you mean you have a dresser? What does she do exactly?"

"He," she gently corrected him while Naruto's heart plunged to the ground.

"HE? What do you mean 'he?' What does he do? Who is this 'he'?" He knew how he sounded. He sounded like a jealous husband dressed in a wife-beater suspicious of the air around his wife because she took a bit long at the market. But it was too late now for dignity and false nonchalance. He needed to know who was this 'he'. Hinata inwardly smiled at Naruto and with complete and genuine innocence she said,

"The dresser helps me take off my clothes."

"What! Is something wrong with your hands? Why can't you take off your clothes on your own? In your room? With the door locked? Away from him and any other too helpful males?"

"Is something the matter?"

"Uh? No, no. Nothing's wrong with me. I am fine. I just thought that as a dresser he'd help you keep your clothes on, not help to take if off." He muttered the last part, trying, and failing to achieve an air of false dismissive flippancy as he said it.

"Actually, he ties and unties my obis. They're made of silk brocade and are too heavy for a woman to lift or to tie properly at the back. My obi will stretch the length of this flower shop and tying it is a skill. He does that in addition to helping me into my kimonos and folding them into the right shape with the appropriate pleats. I...appreciate your concern."

Now it was his turn to blush. She wore a slight smile, but it was the smile she reserved for her other clients. He had seen it before; it lacked passion and could probably re-freeze the snow on those snow capped mountains. He was somewhat surprised by her. A lot of women mistook jealousy for love, but though he shared in it, he knew it for what it was – a destructive auto-immune disease that attacks the mind and heart. He suffered from it and Sasuke too. He realized that he had just insinuated that she was un-virtuous with the dresser, a statement which was offensive, irrelevant and untrue. It amazed him sometimes the speed at which he was able to go from maturing philosopher to insensitive prat. He attempted an apology.

"Hinata..." He got as far as that as he looked down at his shoes for the right words to say.

"It's alright. Everybody has jealousy inside of them. It's an instinct. Even animals have it and they say that man is also an animal."

"That's what I'm afraid of." He muttered to the silent smirk of the Kyuubi while Hinata furrowed her brows at his statement, but he showed no signs of elaborating on it. She decided to follow his lead for the meanwhile and not venture onto that topic without his invitation.

Her statement had made him pull back, though not physically. He walked with her around the flower shop as she chose trailing purple wisteria and blue flag irises. They talked in general about the events that happened on their travels so far. He spoke and sounded like the Naruto that she knew – casual, loud, joking, silly; but he kept her at arm's length. She wondered whether he knew that she was more in tuned to his emotions and expressions that even he was. She was on the same wavelength as him, but he never considered it because of years of unwanted loneliness. He never thought that there would be someone that could identify with him and understand him, who cared to understand him.

They stepped out of the flower shop a bit later with him holding the flowers and with her on his arm. It was dark, the village considerably quieter than the Kumo and Konoha nightlife that they were used to. Only a few people were out and about though it was only a bit after seven. The moon rose high in the sky. As he glimpsed down the alleys and side streets he saw that the grassy fields that surrounded the village was illuminated by the moonlight, the wind making them shimmer like the ocean at night. Naruto was about to point out that the fields looked like the sea when he remembered her poor sight. She was clutching onto him and moving at a rate that snails considered slow. Her eyesight seemed to have gotten even worse.

"Hey, are you getting blinder?" Naruto; always a master of sensitivity and tact. She stiffened a bit.

"I apologize to be a burden onto you. Please forgive me."

"What? No. You're not a burden. You'll never be. I just noticed that you seem to have a lot more trouble moving around."

"Yes. My sight's gotten a bit worse." She did not add that the morning after the Incident at the teahouse her eyesight had deteriorated at an alarming rate. She was now reduced to seeing foggy blurs. She suspected it had something to do with her mysterious change in vision, when she saw in shades of blue and grey, but it had happened so quickly she was unsure whether she had imagined it all. That night was still so surreal to her.

"Oh. So how come you came out here all alone?" Naruto asked only because he knew it was a logical follow up to what she said, but he knew that she was not alone. He remembered her saying that the nin were there to protect the kimonos that she travelled with, so why were the two of them silently keeping tabs on her? He said nothing, only quietly marking their presence in the shadows. Was she in some sort of danger?

"I don't want to depend on anyone. I wanted to prove to myself that I could do it. But it looks like I may not be right about that."

"What? You reached to the flower shop and back, didn't you?"

"Not on my own."

"Well, succeeding doesn't mean doing things on your own. It means being smart enough to accept help when necessary. It means being resourceful, Hinata."

"Resourceful? I sure am being resourceful hanging onto your shoulder." She mumbled, but surprisingly he had heard her. He stopped and turned her to look at him.

"Hey, why are you sounding like that? Just because you're going blind doesn't mean you've lost everything."

"I know. I just feel so useless. I . . . I wish I were more like you."

"Wha-?"

"Never mind. Please forget I said anything."

"No, no. Please say what you going to say, Hina."

He had shortened her name! She looked up at him and though she could not see him properly she could tell that he was smiling at her.

"You– You're everything I wish that I could be." She blurted out. Lord was she weak for him! She had no intention of saying that to him, but something about Naruto made her say things that she wouldn't normally say. She didn't know if that was due to some familiarity she found in him or whether it had to do with an inability to hold her tongue when necessary. It was too late to stop now, so she forced on with what she had to say.

"I'm not just talking about having your perfect vision. I'm talking about you, as a ninja and as a person." She was speaking hurriedly as if trying to get out what she had to say as quickly as possible. "I want to be strong and confident like you. I want to do great things. I want amazing moments like what you have. Your strength and courage inspires me, but when the time comes I fail and fall to the moment. But you, you are braver, stronger and smarter than most believe and you do what needs to be done whether it can be done at all.

"The night of the attack – I wish that I could have done something. I didn't do anything great, except..." She trailed off uncertainly, unsure how to explain to him that she had entered a period of shock then where she saw in new colours and spectrums. "I did nothing. And now my sight mocks me, worsening as if to remind me of my futility. You would have done something. You would have acted. I wish that I were like you. I wish that I had the confidence to be great. But I'm not like you. I only wish I were. I wish that I could walk beside you deservingly because I lo–" She ended it before she told him all the secrets of her heart. She couldn't believe that she just said all of those things to him. She wanted to sink her head into her kimono. She didn't dare look up at him.

Naruto was silent. Even the Kyuubi was silent at the little bunny, for that was what the demon-fox referred to Hinata – he saw her as prey. Naruto had no idea how to respond to something like that. It was the single biggest compliment he had ever received and it momentarily floored him. Saying a simple thank you was almost insultingly inadequate. Instead, he stood there with a stunned expression looking as if he was suffering from a case of just woke up or just got hit in the head. His silence unfortunately did not speak volumes, but his seconds spanned eternities. Shame welled up inside of Hinata. His unresponsiveness was harder than any slap that she ever received. She hiked up her kimono and casually slipped out of her sandals. It was all she could think to do. She ran, not seeing where she was going; only knowing to avoid the blotted outline of objects and the lean, squiggly figures that represented people.

Her sudden movement shook Naruto out of his solemn inaction and he took off after her, but was suddenly stopped by one of the Kumo nin standing directly in his path. He reminded Naruto a bit of Kakashi-sensei with his lankiness, wayward hair and his lidded eyes. But this ninja with his straw blond hair was nowhere near as old as Kakashi-sensei, Naruto concluded, only about seventeen, he assumed. Somewhere Kakashi was heard muttering that he wished people would put down the coffin catalogue and stop taking his pulse. He was not that old!

"That's enough, kid. Go no further." Naruto looked around the ninja and saw that the other ninja had picked up Hinata in his arms and in one leap they were out of his sight.

"Hinata!"

"Don't worry, she's safe. Our business is to protect her."

"I thought you were protecting the kimonos."

"That's what she thinks, but there are people hunting her for what she has." Naruto scrunched up his nose at that. Why did Hinata need protection? What did she have that everyone would want? And why was this ninja telling him his mission? Was he going for some kind of ninja to ninja rapport? He shrugged it off. He supposed that someone as good-looking as her tempted all kinds.

"Listen, I have to go after her, so either you move right now or I make you move."

The ninja smiled. He was not in the mood to fight anyone, let alone an overly cocky kid who reminded him of himself and who was holding two bunches of flowers as if they were kunai. Death by pollen. He had looked on at the kid's interaction with Hinata-chan with an amused bewilderment. He remembered when he was that age trying to talk to girls, his out of control hormones sabotaging him. He liked the kid. It wasn't easy talking to girls at this age, girls who were already light-years ahead of the boys in terms of maturity. He was nineteen and was only just catching up to someone like Nayako who was only twenty-two! Nayako. There was little he wouldn't do to be with her for just one night; okay fine, an hour. Alright fine! He just needed a half hour tops!

Anyway, he felt sorry for the kid. The kid obviously wasn't the brightest, but he seemed to have struck a note with Hinata-chan. He liked Hinata. She was an absolute bleeding heart, the sweetest anyone will ever meet. What's not to like about her? He'd give the kid a chance.

"I don't want to fight you, kid." Naruto looked suspiciously at the ninja. "Listen, I'll do you a favour. I like Hinata-chan and I don't want to see her upset. I suppose that if she likes you, you can't be too bad, no? So, I'll give you a chance. Give her a little breathing room, let her calm down, let her scrape her heart back up off the ground. Check her back a bit later at the Silver Dollar Inn and we'll turn a blind eye. I'm not telling you the room number. I don't want to make it too easy for you. If you accidentally run into Nayako's room it'll be your ass to catch." With that he disappeared in a swirl of misty clouds.

Naruto stood there motionless for a second. Did he just get himself a free pass?

Hinata tried to keep her emotions to herself. It would be relatively easy; she simply had to pretend that she was dancing. When she danced all emotion was safely tucked away, the face impassive as granite. She returned with the ninja, who was a close and personal friend of Nayako's, though surprisingly Nayako asked her nothing as to why she was so late. She ate dinner with everyone. She apologized profusely for not getting the flowers. She played a board game with Nayako and the hairdresser. Afterwards, she retired to her room claiming fatigue. The dresser, a respectable man in his thirties, came to untie her obi. A maid came in next to take her kimono for proper cleaning. Dressed still in her red under-kimono, Nayako came in and took off Hinata's make-up and then left her to her bath. It was a typical night, except for the fact that Hinata's heart was breaking from embarrassment.

She returned from the bathroom, her eyes puffy and a bit dark from crying. She wished that she could take back her words, but words were like feathers left on the doorstep. But Naruto had had no words that he wished to take back for he had said nothing. He begged her to open up to him, then he said nothing, not even a nod of recognition to her feelings. She may not have said the words that she wanted to say the most, but she didn't need to. With that speech he already knew how she felt about him, but he said nothing. And it hurt like nothing else. She felt so foolish. But what did she expect? Did she want him to say, "I understand how you feel, Hinata. I too feel a connection to you and I love you." She snorted. Yeah. Right. And then he'd whisk her off into the sunset to his homeland. Uh huh. Naruto was kind and helpful and friendly to her, but that was it. She had misread too much into his actions. She supposed that was to be expected since she could barely see.

She woke with a start with all of the bizarre facial expressions and stunned appearance that comprises. The time on the clock wall glowed fluorescent in the dark and said three minutes after midnight. It was not that dark in her room; the moonlight was streaming in waves through the open window. Just like last time she knew that there was someone in her room. She flung herself up, but was not too surprised to see Naruto standing there at the window.

"How do you do that? How do you know that I entered your room?"

She ignored his question.

"What are you doing here? You have to stop doing this."

Her voice was a bit cold and Naruto winced. She was angry, not sad anymore. She unnerved him. An angry Hinata was like a bunny with fangs. It was highly disconcerting.

"You forgot your flowers and your okobo." He said lamely as if she could forget that she had left her shoes. She was not Cinderella.

"Thank you."

He placed the sandals in a corner, but didn't know what to do with the flowers. The room was simply decked out with a futon with a soft pad on a raised stand that substituted for a pillow; a wardrobe and a desk that was situated behind her against the wall. To put the flowers on the desk he'd have to get past her, but he didn't want to cross her in any manner. He tentatively handed her the flowers. She took them, looked at them with interest for a second then as politely as she could have, let them fall onto the futon behind her. Naruto winced. Bunny with fangs and claws.

"Okay, I know you're angry with me. But –"

"Were you going to imply that I do not reserve the right to be?"

"No, no. Not at all." She was speaking to him with that formal tone that she used for her other clients. It irked him, but he knew that he was in the wrong. He tried to stifle the annoyance, but the Kyuubi thrived on feelings like that. "About what you said earlier, all I'm saying is that I wasn't expecting that. I didn't know that...that you felt that way."

Her anger deflated instantly and ballooned again into sadness mixed with shame. She wished that he would say that he didn't like her as more than a friend and then leave. Get it over with.

"It's not that I don't –" He cut himself off, unsure of how he was supposed to finish that sentence anyway. "I've never really had anyone say something like that to me before. You have a lot of faith in me and you see me in a way that not all the time I see myself."

"You? But you're so sure of yourself."

"There's a side of me that you don't know."

"I think that I do know. I saw a g-glimpse of it earlier. You have a side of you that is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment and inferiority – all the bad things. It's a side that we all have, but s-somehow you think that you have it more than others. The other side is good. That side is courage, trust, love, hope, modesty, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. You try to show only the good side, b-but I…I see all of you."

Naruto stood there again dumbfounded. He was like glass in front of her.

"I don't think that I have all of that. I do have all the bad things inside of me. Do you hate me for it?" He asked, terrified of the answer.

"I don't hate you." She wore a ghost of a smile. He stepped forward a bit.

"You fear me because of it?"

"I don't fear you." He stepped forward again.

"You pity me?"

"Definitely not." He stepped forward again until he was close enough to see the lavender in her eyes.

"You make me want to be the worst and the best kind of man. I mean, all this time I've been trying to be careful around you, trying not to hurt you. But right now, right now I feel like nothing matters. I feel like I should stop thinking about consequences, just be selfish and that's horrible. Yet, you make me want to be better. With you."

She didn't know whether to be insulted or flattered by a speech like that. She decided to take it as a compliment. She knew that her face was starting to feel the heat from him being so near to her. He moved forward two inches and her breasts were now pressed up against him. She was surprised that she didn't knock him back with the sheer force of her beating heart. She knew what was coming with startling self-consciousness and all she could think of was, please don't faint.

When he kissed her he absently wondered whether she would faint again. He had worked out that he was the cause behind all the fainting and the blushing. He kissed her gently and softly for only a few seconds and pulled back to check that she hadn't stiffened and died upright. Her eyes were closed, but her face was pink and there was a slight tremble to her body. Her body. He looked down and for the first time noticed that all she had on was a dangerously thin night dress with thin straps. It might as well have been a slip. Was it a slip?

Boldly, she reached out and placed her trembling hand on his face. She looked up at him wondering if that was all. He took her expression as an invitation. He pulled her even closer in an attempt to fuse them together and kissed her gently at first. He wanted to take it slowly with her, but then – she was so close, the material of the cloth only a thin barrier to what lay beneath – kissing a lot harder – her hands moving across his back – his hands moving down her back – a moan escaping – he responds with a growl – they falling into the bed – the scent of crushed flowers lingering in the air – her skin is so soft – her left leg is wrapped around him – his tongue on her lips – a small bite – his tongue on her chin – on her neck – his hands on her left breast – another moan – another growl – a bit too rough – his mouth on her neck – a love bite – too rough – her nails dig into his back – she calls him name – no answer – more desperately this time – you're hurting me.

Naruto pulled off Hinata to see her face white with horror. He had bitten her! That spot where her shoulder meets her neck was now red with blood. He could barely understand anything when suddenly he heard the Kyuubi laughing his dark, deep, frightful laugh. He staggered back from her, his hand over his mouth in horror at what he had done.

"Naruto, it's all right." She tried to tell him, but he wasn't hearing her. The wound was not that deep, but it bled like crazy. He looked different. Just then his canines were longer and his eyes had a dark, yellow colour. His whisker-like marks looked more like claw scratchesr. It was only for a moment and she wondered whether she had imagined it. But now, now he looked like he'd seen a ghost. His face was the colour of alabaster – white with a hint of green and he looked disgusted, but not at her, at himself.

"Naruto, it's okay. You didn't hurt me. Naruto,"

She made to get up off the bed, but he pulled back from her as if she was dangerous to the touch. In an instant he was gone. It didn't take her long to realize all his side comments, all the figurative speeches were actually literal. He really did have the worst in him. She finally realized that he was quite possibly a Jinchuuriki.