Sakura was on her way to Hinata's house for the umpteenth time –she was going to take her shopping to give her some normality. Poor thing hadn't been able to sleep at all lately, too. So after that, Sakura thought they'd hit up a spa…

As the day's rays flittered down between the leaves of the trees, Sakura pondered her own involvement in Hinata's love life as of late. Of course it hadn't been her fault that Hinata had gotten brutally hurt in these… turn of events, and yet…

"Why do I feel like it's partially my fault?" Sakura thought to herself. She shook her head warily. As she walked, lost in her thoughts, she didn't see the pale blond haired ninja approaching her.

"Sakura-chan" rang a familiar voice. She looked up to see Ino grinning at her.

"That's Sakura-san, to you" she replied flatly. Ino just laughed, either ignorant of or choosing to ignore the sarcasm in Sakura's voice. "Where are you off to on such a fine day?"

"Hinata's. I'm –I have to drop something off to her" she added that last part when she noticed Ino's quizzical look.

"Since when did you start hanging out with the quiet one?" she asked blatantly. Sakura just shrugged. That's when Ino eyed Sakura's satchel, which looked suspiciously empty. And the blond haired ninja stated so.

Sakura breathed out sharply. She was quickly becoming annoyed with her 'friend'. Normally she'd tell her to get lost, but that would surely spark a fight with the blond bitch.

"I'm just going to talk to her" Sakura said, hoping her voice gave nothing away. Ino's eyes lit up.

"Oh, wait! Does this have something to do with…? Oh, what was it now… I'd heard something about Naruto and Hinata." Sakura's hands twitched into fists and Ino gasped, inching closer to her.

"It is! Isn't it? That's why you're going to see her. Tell me what happened!" Ino became breathless and Sakura decided that she had had enough.

"Look, Baka-Bitch, this is none of your business, so if you'd just kindly fuck off-"

"Woah, woah, okay then. Calm down." Ino flashed her a smirk. Sakura felt her fists tighten.

"If you don't want to tell me, that's fine." She said, sighing dramatically, as if Sakura had disappointed her. Sakura rolled her eyes. She turned to continue on her path when Ino spoke again.

"It's okay. I'll just ask Sasuke if he knows anything about it when I go to see him. He is sort of friends with Naruto, after all".

Sakura no longer faced Ino, but she could practically feel the venomous grin spread across her face.

"Oop, right. He's probably expecting me right about now." Sakura continued to walk away while Ino was still talking, which of course pissed her off.

"I'm meeting him at the training grounds." She said quickly, clearly edging her on. "We'll probably be there all day. And while I'm at it, I think I might finally have the courage to confess to him…"

Sakura stopped dead in her tracks. Slowly, she turned to face Ino, whose cocky grin quickly faded. Sakura's face had a dark look as she strode toward her.

"W-what are you doing?"

Sakura met her at her side and grabbed her arm. She began pulling her back in the direct that she came. "Hey, wait-"

"Come on, pig." Sakura cooed. "If you wanted to be trained so badly, then I'll do it."

Ino's face paled and she started to struggle frantically. While she didn't care for Sakura in the slightest, she couldn't deny that her power was unmistakably strong. "N-now hold on a minute-!"

Sakura ignored her and eventually Ino gave in (well, she sort of had to). She led her to the training grounds, one fueled with absolute fury and the other with fear.


Had Sakura not bumped into Ino, she would have made it to the Hyuuga house before Naruto did. Instead, the orange-haired nin stood silently in front of her door, hand raised and clench into a fist.

He had meant to knock fifteen minutes ago when he first arrived, but all Naruto could do was stare at the smooth wood of the door, arm shaking.

"Just do it" he had told himself in the woods earlier that morning. It had taken him awhile to convince himself to go after he had encountered Fu's rage. "I have to apologize and tell her everything. She needs to know that I didn't know how she felt, or else I would never have..."

But would he have anyway?

"Dammit" Naruto shook his head. He couldn't think about that now. He just wanted to finish this so he could forget about the whole thing. Suddenly, an image of Fu's wide shining eyes came to him, but he pushed it away with a pit in his stomach. There was no way he'd ever forget that girl, he knew.

Naruto took in a sharp breath and was about to knock when the door swung open, revealing a male nin with long hair, his complexion matching Hinata's.

"Naruto" came his curt voice. Neji's cold eyes met Naruto with a lack of surprise -Naruto mentally cursed himself for that. "Of course he knew that I was standing here... the Byakugan..."

"What happened to your face?" he asked. And then, "What do you want?" He stood rigid in the doorway, and Naruto knew that he did not intend to let him pass. Naruto took in another shaky breath, hoping Neji could not see it -but, of course, he could- and spoke "I-I came to see Hinata. To apolo-"

"She doesn't want to see you" Neji cut him off flatly. Naruto could tell that he was holding back his anger. As patient as he was, Neji's temples flared. His jaw was tight.

"Look, Neji. I know you're pissed… and you'd have every right to kill me right now" Naruto said with a rueful hint of a smile, one that broke across his face from the tension of the situation -he couldn't help it. It was met with Neji's dauntless glare. A glare that said "get lost now, and I might spare you".

"But, uh... I just... I need to talk to her" he continued, his voice beginning to shake. "I know I can't set things right or unhurt her, but, um..." it was hard to speak when Neji appeared to be watching him with murderous intent. Naruto was growing more fearful by the second. "I just need to apologize".

"Your apology means nothing" Neji snapped. "You want to apologize to alleviate the guilt you feel because of your idiotic actions". Naruto flinched as if he'd been smacked. "That hurt". But he knew it might be true -at least partially. Neji began to shut the door when Naruto stuck his foot out, stopping it.

"Neji, please". Naruto's eyes were pleading, momentarily forgetting that this ninja might actually take a swipe at him. He almost saw Neji falter. But anger quickly returned to his face and he slammed the door, narrowly missing Naruto's foot as he pulled it back with a yip.

"Well, I'm fucked..." Naruto grumbled as he stepped away from the door. He paused for a moment and touched his bruised jaw absent minded. It wasn't like Neji didn't have every right to keep him out, but he couldn't let things stay the way they were. And Naruto was nothing but persistent.

He sucked in a breath and threw his arms above his head in a stretch, and that's when he noticed an open window on the second story of the house. He smiled to himself, then promptly swore when that hurt his jaw.

He was about to lunge into the window before he stopped. "Neji's Byakugan. He'd sense me in a heartbeat." he thought grimly. So much for that plan.

"Unless..."


Hinata lay sound asleep as Naruto hoisted himself through her window -and what a coincidence that her window was open, he thought.

It was a struggle to pull himself over and into her room, and it was even more difficult to use what little bodily articulation he had left to land softly without a sound. Panting as quietly as he could, Naruto stood to his full height. His chakra was running low, and he knew he didn't have much time before Neji found him.

At first he almost didn't want to disturb the sleeping nin. She looked so peaceful in her sleep -the sharpness and distrust around her eyes had vanished in her slumber. "I wonder if she's dreaming" Naruto mused, not without guilt. He frowned. She probably was dreaming, judging by the way she was smiling to herself, and Naruto almost turned on his heel right then –he didn't want to be the one to wake her, especially with what he had to say to her. But he persisted.

He took a steadying breath and refocused his chakra -somewhere in the house was a furious Neji searching for Naruto's clones in four different places. When he discovered that the real Naruto was in Hinata's room, he would get an ass kicking for sure. He chuckled to himself before remembering why he had come here.

"Hinata" he whispered. Nothing. "Hinata" this time he gently shook her shoulder. Hinata stirred and slowly opened her eyes.

"N-Naruto?" came her dreamy reply. She rubbed at her eyes and sat up slowly, stifling a yawn. When she opened them again, they widened briefly and then hardened at the sight of him.

"Naruto!" she said again, this time with a hint of anger -but mostly, Naruto realized with more guilt, hurt. "W-why are you here?"

Though the question was directed at him, she immediately hid her face.

But before she had hid her face, Naruto had caught the tears beginning to pool at the corner of her eyes. "Go away. I-I don't want to s-see you."

"Hinata please" Naruto spoke quickly. He had the urge to reach out to her, but knew that he shouldn't. "Just hear me out, then I'll leave".

There was a pause and then a nod from Hinata. Naruto began speaking again, aware of his time limit.

"Look. What you saw -that was awful. That was never meant to happen and you were never meant to see it but you did. And I'm sorry. I'm so so sorry." He felt his throat tighten as he fumbled with his words. Now that he was here with Hinata, everything that he had planned to say came out in a jumbled mess. "Don't fucking cry" he thought to himself, but it was to no avail.

"I just-" Naruto struggled to keep his voice in control. It was then that Hinata turned to look at him, eyes surprised but not empty of the pain she felt.

"Don't say it. Just don't." Her face looked sad, but beyond that she looked defeated and hopeless, which Naruto decided was worse. "I can't... I should have told you how I felt sooner".

She choked back a sob and this time Naruto didn't resist the urge to hold her. He wrapped his arms around her shoulders and begun caressing her hair. "No, that's not-" Naruto was speechless. "That's not fair. That wasn't your fault".

Despite her best efforts, Hinata pulled in to him. Everything in her was screaming not to, and Naruto could see it –but he was grateful that she was letting him comfort her, at least. And what a strange thing that was, but Naruto hardly cared.

"I'm sorry, Hinata. I really am. There's nothing I can say. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry"

Hinata said nothing while Naruto repeated his apology over and over again. It was all he could do, and she knew that. Still, her shoulders shook with her sobs and he held her tighter. Neither of them could understand why they held each other so tightly, but it was in that moment that Naruto realized his feelings for Hinata. He clutched her tighter yet and buried his face in her shoulder.

Suddenly, there was a crash behind them. A quadruple of Naruto's voice echoed with cries of pain from somewhere in the house. The Naruto in Hinata's room heard the familiar "boof" of his clones disappearing. He whirled around to see the door burst open as a furious Neji plowed through. The veins in his forehead and temples stood out starkly against his pale skin, his Byakugan activated.

"You bastard!" Neji cried. "Remove your arms from her, NOW." His forehead was plastered with sweat. Naruto's first thought was that his clones must have put up one hell of a fight. The immediate second was that he was about to get his ass kicked. He didn't chuckle this time.

Hinata looked up in alarm, but before she could speak Neji had grabbed hold of Naruto and thrust him aside.

"You. Out. NOW. Before I pulverize you." Neji now stood between Hinata and Naruto, who was pulling himself up from the floor.

Naruto threw the back of his arm across his face and swiped away his tears, which had involuntarily began to fall. Neji saw this and something flashed in his eyes, but it was gone instantly.

"Get out. Now."

Hinata sat frozen in her bed, hands clasped against her breast, fresh tears still shining on her face.

Naruto said nothing –just threw one final look at Hinata and leapt through the window.


Author's note: Okay, so, I may have taken some liberties when talking about Neji's Byakugan and Naruto's cloning abilities. I'll admit that I don't know as much about them as I should, so if its not cannon I realize that. I hope the situation is believable anyway. Thanks again for reading! And I really appreciate all the comments I've been receiving!