When they reached Suna, Team 7 was greeted by Gaara and his siblings. Naturally, Naruto was the first to greet them.
"Hey guys!" Naruto grinned, waving enthusiastically.
Temari smiled and welcomed him with a hug which Naruto returned, feeling warm. Temari was a like sister to him, he enjoyed learning wind techniques from her and their sparring sessions. She was fun, wicked smart and just plain cool. He felt genuinely touched when he told her that he was a jinchurriki like Gaara and she didn't hesitate to tell him that it wouldn't change anything and not to mention, it was the first time she called him brother.
"Guess I have two jinchurriki for brothers."
Once the two wind-users finally pulled away, Kankurou slapped the younger blonde on the back surprising him but Naruto smiled sheepishly in return as he high-fived Kankurou to show him no harm done. Gaara, the youngest of the siblings saw Naruto turn to him and hold out his hand for a handshake, his fellow jinchurriki took it only to be pulled by his friend to him, embracing him. Gaara's eyes widened in shock but awkwardly moved his hands to hug the loud genin back.
Kakashi watched all this, smiling a little that the children of the Fourth Hokage & Fourth Kazekage were getting along so well compared to their fathers before they died. Kakashi remembered that his sensei wasn't fond of the Sand's Fourth Kazekage calling him tactless and merciless.
Naruto pulled away from Gaara, grinning "So where are we staying?"
Temari beamed, taking her fellow blonde by the arm, "With us!"
Sasuke and Sakura seethed seeing this.
More competition? Seriously?
Hinata in the meantime was limping her way to Konoha with a large and long open wound on her arm. She cussed as she limped, her knee turning a very worrying shade of blue.
"Bloody guards..."
It was the last thing she said before everything went black.
Once the Konoha nin had settled in, they were treated to a delightful meal of Suna's delicacies and much to the surprise of Naruto's teammates, they saw the usual only-eat ramen blonde eating food other than his favourite.
They watched in awe as he used the silver cutlery to cut into his meat.
"Wow Dobe, I thought you only knew how to use chopsticks" Sasuke commented.
"I agree" Sakura says.
The blue-eyed blonde sweatdropped, seeing his teammates actually agreeing on something and on that matter no less.
Kakashi shook his head, "Just because Naruto only seems to eat ramen around you lot, does not mean he can't eat other things."
If not in Konoha that is...
With a pang, Kakashi remembered how awful it was for him to hear from the Sandaime that the innocent boy of 5 had been fed poisoned food regardless if it was the orphanage or restaurants the small boy had begged from for scraps.
He looked over at the beaming Naruto as he chatted with the Sabaku siblings.
How did he get over all that pain, that loneliness and all that suffering to be the cheerful guy he was today?
The masked jounin hoped to ask him one day.
"Kisame"
The blue skinned ninja turned around to look at Itachi.
"What?"
"There is something I need to do. I'll meet you back at HQ eventually."
The ex-Mist nin looked at Itachi for a long time before finally relenting.
"Alright, see you"
He turned and walked away as Itachi watched his back. Once the former Mist-nin was clear from sight, he turned off his Shaningan, blinked his eyes several times to ease the pain and then finally turned to walk down the path in the opposite direction.
A strong feeling inside him, told him to be cautious and it tugged at his heart, reminding him of the last time he felt this way which was the time Hinata lost her eyes.
Something had happened to Hinata and he intended to find out what.
Naruto yawned, tired from the long journey. He dried his hair vigorously, eager to go to bed and sleep. Suddenly, he heard a knock on his door so he stopped, cast the towel aside and approached to open the door to find Sakura there, looking distressed in her baby pink camisole and shorts.
"Sakura? What's wrong? Did something happen?" he asked, concerned by her expression.
"Ermm...can we talk?"
Naruto blinked but before he say anything else, the kuniochi spoke again, "May I come in?"
Something in Itachi's gut told him to go the river he could hear nearby and he did.
What he found there froze his blood.
Hinata lay there, motionless and bloody; he wasn't sure she was breathing. He rushed over to her with his heart pounding wildly in his chest. He checked her pulse and found it but it was weak, a little surprised considering how much blood there was but not that he wasn't grateful though. He did the handsigns he had remembered from his ANBU training as quickly as he possibly could and his hands glowed green much to his relief before proceeding to heal the long cut on her arm.
"Please let her be okay" he whispered, praying.
Oh gosh, she lost so much blood...
"Naruto, I just wanted to say I'm sorry...I'm soo sorry Naruto..."
The blonde looked at Sakura wondering what the hell she was apologizing for.
"I treated you so badly what Sasuke was a guy. It was unforgivable of me to treat you the way. No one deserved to be treated that way. No one did. I am so sorry…"
"S-sakura…it's okay, you've changed and I'm really proud of you…"
"B-but, I treated you like a crap..."
"I've been treated worse Sakura." Naruto told her, smiling sadly.
"What do you mean? Who?"
Naruto shook his head, "Sakura-chan, I'm tired do you mind leaving me please?"
She tried to argue, "B-but"
"Please" he told her, holding her by the shoulders so that she could meet eyes with him.
Naruto sighed then, seeing Sakura's pleading but determined eyes and closed his own, trying to think of what to do. But before he could open his eyes again, he felt warm lips press against his own so he opened his eyes only to see Sakura with her hands on his chest, her lips against his.
He gently pulled away and frowned, "Sakura-"
"I love you Naruto-kun"
Naruto swears he could hear Kyuubi laughing at him in his mindscape.
Bastard...
"I don't like you in that way Sakura" he told her firmly but in a soft tone. She was still his teammate after all and he didn't want to hurt her.
"But.. "
"I need to wake up early tomorrow, Gaara wants to hang out."
"Naruto... "
"Thank you for your feelings but I can't return them and I'm sorry" the blonde tells her.
Sakura started to cry and Naruto moved close to her again to brushed her tears away, kindly, "You'll find someone one day Sakura. One day. But that guy isn't me."
That night, Sakura left the room, embarrassed and hurt from the rejection while the blonde heartbreaker moved to his bed and had a restless sleep that night.
The next morning, Hinata woke up better rested than she had been in weeks, though that wasn't saying much. She closed her eyes for a moment, trying to savor the peace for a heartbeat longer. When her eyelids began to glow orange from the light of the rising sun hitting her face, the 13 year old closing in to 14 soon enough, admitted defeat and rubbed the heel of her hand against her face. She frowned, trying to remember last night.
She turned her head, back to the warmth she was snuggling into and wondered if she had lazily dragged her ass to sleep in Naruto's bed again. She did that sometimes because his house was closer to get to then her own from the gate. He usually chided her for it but didn't really mind.
With much difficulty, Hinata managed to get the sand out of her eyes and was appalled not to mention disgusted when she finally opened her eyes fully to find herself in the arms of the Itachi Uchiha AKA Mass Murderer of the Uchiha Clan AKA Hyuuga Hinata's ex-fiancee.
"You-"
Itachi grabbed her hand, stopping Hinata's attempt to kill him with her kunai.
Good thing I'm a light sleeper and sensed her wakening or I would be a dead man right now...
"Let go of me."
"Not until you give me your word you will not attack me for today. " he told her calmly, much to her frustration.
"WHY WOULD I SAY SUCH A THING?!
Itachi looked at her coolly, his obsidian onyx eyes boring into her own, "Because firstly I need to re-bandage your wounds again. Second you're still weak from your injuries and third, you still love me."
The former Hyuuga glared daggers at him, "How dare you-!"
"Don't deny it" his voice softer now.
Hinata continued to glare at him with as much hate and anger as she could muster in her gaze, "What makes you so sure?"
"Because you are the love of my life Hinata and I am yours. We're soulmates" he told her, his eyes studying her for her reaction.
Naturally, the younger girl was taken aback by his proclamation, "You-"
"I love you."
Itachi's face inched closer and Hinata turned away, her voice so quiet it was almost a whisper, "Please don't, you're a criminal and a traitor..."
"Do you really believe I would kill my mother & traumatize my brother voluntarily?" he asked her.
The reputable secret assassin whipped her head back to look at him, her eyes wide, "D-don't tell me.."
Itachi nodded silently.
"My intention was to never tell anyone this, I thought I wanted to carry this secret to the grave but so much has happened to you & I can't just ignore everything that's going on. I want to be in you're life. I miss you so much that you couldn't even believe. I had never stopped loving you my Angel."
Hinata closed her eyes, trying to calm her emotions. Itachi waited until she finally spoke again.
"Tell me everything and I want the truth. No more deception from you."