Chapter 11 A Friendly Face

(Refresher Course)

"You got yourself a deal, but what is with the weird smile, it's cute, but seems, I don't know, weird."

"Oh real descriptive, but like you said before, I am weird." Hinata threw back playfully.

"Yep, you are; but you know me, I love weird." Sticking his tongue out, he took off running as Hinata pursued. The two of them ran, way to fast for normal people but a nice slow run for ninja, around the village laughing and giggling all the way until a younger Jonin interrupted the game. Hinata was amazed that at the speeds they were running that the hood to the cloak never once fell to allow a view of his face, but had to move the thought as the Jonin came closer.

The intruding Jonin stepped out of the shadows revealing standard issue pants and Jonin jacket with the standard placement of the Konoha headband. Even though you couldn't see his face, the cloak wearing warrior's smile spread across his face when he saw the horizontal scar, from cheek to cheek and over the bridge of his nose.

"Hey you two, it's late, you shouldn't be running around town like that. You'll anger the sleeping villagers." He ordered commandingly without paying attention to who they are.

"Sorry Iruka-sensei, we didn't realize how late it was." The dark haired woman replied causing the Jonin to actually look at them.

"Oh, it's you Hinata, it good to see you, and who is this young ninja you're enjoying yourself with? I haven't seen you enjoy life like this for a long while." He realized there was something else he should ask since her was on duty the day before. "So how did your wedding go yesterday?" his cheerful face fell and was replaced with one of disgust and disappointment upon viewing the person accompanying her. "Um… this isn't Hanori-san is it? I didn't think you were that type of girl." This, of course got a certain blonde hothead pissed. But he controlled it and let Hinata explain.

"No Iruka-sensei, I'm not that type of girl, and this isn't Hanori-san, and I didn't actually get married. I realized I couldn't marry someone I didn't love and there is really only one person I can love." Iruka looked completely pained at her explanation. He knew who it was that she loved and was hurting because she would never find it.

"Iruka-sensei?" Naruto asked to get his attention. He couldn't stand seeing his first precious person in such pain.

"Please, only students of mine can call me that, I stopped teaching 8 years ago due to… family problems."

'Family problems?' Naruto thought, 'He lost all of his family but he… ah hell 8 years ago…' He put the puzzle together surprisingly fast and thought of a way to cheer him up. "Iruka-sensei," stressing the sensei, "Do you think I could try on your headband? Mine was taken away many years back, and I just want to see if I still like how it feels." Hinata smiled widely knowing the story of his past that he was alluding to.

"NO! You can not." He said sternly, "You should know full well we don't give up our headbands, what kind of coward are you to loose yours?"

"The type that survives anything this village can throw at me, the type that can never give up, the type that doesn't loose his headband since it was taken away by hoards of ninja, and foremost the type that will become the greatest Hokage ever… I will be a ninja legend…" Iruka, recognizing those words from over 10 years ago, was about to attack in anger when the hood of the cloak dropped revealing the blonde hair and blue eyes of the person in front of him. "Hello Iruka-sensei, I'm back." The blonde called out rather loudly. Not believing his eyes he looked to Hinata, seeing her nod he looked back with tears in his eyes and grabbed the blonde in a crushing hug. He released him and untied his forehead protector and handed the shining metal as the long black material flowed behind.

"This is yours Naruto; I kept it clean for you… You'll need it when you become Hokage… welcome home. I'll ask you about how you survived later when I'm not on duty."

"Thank you Iruka-sensei." He replied as he hugged him as they both showed some tears of caring. "Well Iruka-sensei me and Hinata-chan should be going, we've got a plan to start tomorrow for becoming the next Hokage… so keep it under wraps, you wont need to keep quiet for too long but just long enough for me to stir up the village a little bit. I'll see you around." Grabbing Hinata's hand he took off running, after replacing the hood on his head, back to the Hyuuga Cabin.

"You know Hinata-chan; I can never really get a break around here. I always seem to have a knack at bringing trouble, even when I have a girlfriend; things still manage to get screwed up." He stated while slowing to a walk 20 ft from the cabin.

"I'm sorry Naruto-kun; maybe if I wasn't so week compared to you, I could help you more."

"Damn it, Hinata; how many times must I tell you to never even think that." She was going to speak, but was cut off before she could. "Don't apologize either, you are much stronger than you realize, and strength doesn't have to be physical there are more ways to measure it. For example: you will never be as physically strong as I can, you know almost unlimited chakra from the fox, but I likewise will never be able to see things that you can with your ability. I can easily blow stuff up and destroy numerous things, but you have the ability to heal. I can't see through a simple genjutsu for the life of me, but you can easily do that for the more advanced ones. From what I see is that instead of trying to change yourself into something you were never going to become you should instead try to fill in someone else's weaknesses with your strength. Basically what I'm saying is that we are equal in our ability but we are also opposites. We compliment each other's strengths and weaknesses to the point that if we stay together we will be many times stronger. When I'm with you I am stronger than I am alone, and I would bet it is the same for you. Therefore we are already stronger than any one person, because we are together. You understand?" he gets an affirmative nod from his new fiancé "Good, I need a shower; this day definitely could have gone better."

Naruto found one more pair of pants that would fit and proceeded to take his shower drying and slipping into bed. Knowing of Hinata's exceptional sight he dimmed the lights, while she was taking her shower, leaving just enough light to see if you got real close. He heard the water shut off and drifted towards unconsciousness until feeling some movement as she slipped into bed to join him. She leaned against his warm, firm body as he put his arms around her and felt the soft and smooth skin of his precious beauty. Wait; soft and smooth skin?

"Um... Hinata; what are you wearing? It seems awfully thin." He questioned only to get a giggle as she replied.

"Um…" she rolls over and straddles his waist "there wasn't any thing that would fit."

"What do you mean? I don't…wait, you're naked?"

…..Later