He placed his jacket, sandals and headband next to Hinata's and he slowly laid down next to her in his own sleeping bag. She was sleeping soundly, wrapped in the cover, her head peeking out of it with her small fists tucked under her chin. He couldn't help but smile at the cute sight in front of him. Watching her sleeping form he yawned and closed his eyes, falling asleep in seconds.

But little did he know that she actually wasn't asleep.

The reason why she was in such a hurry to get in her sleeping bag was because an immense amount of heat was rushing to her face, her hands were shaking, her lips were trembling and darkness was starting to fall over her eyes. In other words…she was about to faint.

Of course she always wanted for her crush to notice her and praise her, but this was more than her fluttering heart could take. First she had seen him shirtless, then he told her she would make a great wife, which a small part of her mind translated as 'his wife', and then…she kissed him! She ACTUALLY KISSED HIM! She never thought he would be such a gentleman but what on earth made her forget about the simple 'thank you' that she usually goes for when he's nice to her. What made her kiss him on the cheek? What made her… not kiss him on the lips? That's what she had been longing for, after all… but if she had she probably wouldn't have even made it to her sleeping bag.

As she started gaining consciousness the moon was basking the thin material of the tent in its' iridescent glow. Her eyes fluttered open, her long dark lashes brushing against her thin eyebrows, and then they widened because the moon helped her see the person who was lightly snoring next to her. As her eyes adjusted to the light her cheeks flushed at the sight of Naruto's face inches away from hers. He had probably moved closer to her during the night. He was laying on his stomach, both of his arms under the pillow, his cover was over his one leg while the other leg was stretched over the side of Hinata's sleeping bag. She smiled at the sight. Naruto was such a messy sleeper.

The entire time she was watching him she hadn't moved a muscle afraid that if she made any kind of noise she would wake him up, but she couldn't resist the urge to touch him, he looks so cute when he sleeps. As hyper as he is it was strange seeing him look so calm.

She slowly pulled her arm out of her cover, her shaky hand reached over and she brushed her fingers over his whiskers. She was surprised that she didn't feel any indentations or bumps, the marks were just there, perfectly smooth. She was mesmerized by the warmth of his skin until… he slightly shifted terrifying her as she pulled her hand away in such speed that it actually hurt her when she slapped her hand over her mouth stopping a squeal from leaving her throat.

Naruto pulled his arm from under the pillow and scratched his cheek, letting out a small yawn he stretched his arm above his head and continued snoring.

Hinata quickly but quietly pulled the cover over her head and sighed deeply trying to calm down her racing heartbeat. Her head peeked out of the cover…he was still asleep…she sighed in relief.

"I better get some sleep too…"

She shifted trying to get comfortable but she kicked Naruto's leg in the process. She froze and her face paled. Naruto groaned and pulled his pillow from under his head and clutched It with his arms. Not wanting that to happen yet again Hinata moved slightly away from him and curled into a little ball. It was a couple minutes before her eyelids started to feel heavy and sleep finally took her.

Hours later the moon was replaced with the morning sun. Hinata's eyes slowly opened. She lifted her head and saw Sasuke outside the open tent putting his sleeping bag back into his backpack. She got up as she saw that it was time to get going, her eyes searched for her jacket and she found it…next to Naruto's jacket. She smiled and got dressed stealing a few glances at the snoring boy next to her who was clutching his pillow for dear life. She giggled at the sight.

"Ah, I am guessing that you slept well?" Kakashi said peeking into the tent. She nodded. "Good, wake up Naruto so we don't pack him up with the tent, will you?" She smiled and nodded again as Kakashi walked away. Then her smile was replaced with a blush as she realized that she has to wake up her crush. She looked at him.

"Oh dear…how do I do this?" She bit her lip as her shaky hands were slowly placed on his shoulder. She jostled him a bit.

"N-Naruto, wake up."

Nothing.

"Naruto, please wake up." She said a little bit louder shaking him a little harder. He groaned.

She sighed. "Oh, Naruto…ok…W-wake up!"She said even louder. His eyes snapped open.

" What?" He said with a rusty voice looking at her.

"W-we need to g-get going."

"Oh!" He looked around. "You guys are already up?"

She giggled "You are a heavy sleeper, Naruto."

"Come on! We don't have time to waist."Sasuke shouted.

"Alright, Mr. Bossy Pants, we're coming!" Naruto yelled back annoyed.

After they packed up they had the leftover fish for a quick breakfast, which thanks to Hinata was still good, they continued their journey to the Land of Waves. A few more prank stories and arguments later they finally made it to a small town surrounded with water. In the distance there was an enormous unfinished bridge with workers and cement blocks all over it. After getting in front of the bridge and introducing themselves an old man with gray hair, glasses and a towel draped around his shoulders walked up to them introducing himself as Tazuna, the bridge builder who called them for help and instead of being polite towards his protectors he insulted them for being kids which didn't sit well with Naruto.

After a thorough explanation of their mission the four of them divided and when to scout the surroundings. As Naruto walked in the area next to the bridge he saw a boy with a white hat sitting at the edge of the bridge.

"Hey!" He called out to the boy approaching him "You shouldn't be sitting so close to the edge, it's dangerous."

The boy looked at him and looked away again. "What do you know about danger?" The boy said in a lackluster tone.

"Oh I know a lot about danger." Naruto replied. "I've been in dangerous situations my whole life."

The boy looked at him again. "Who are you? Where did you come from? You don't belong here."

Naruto kneeled next to him. "I'm Naruto Uzumaki, the greatest ninja from the Leaf Village. I was hired to protect the bridge."

"You're the one grandpa hired?! You're a kid! You should go back where you came from! You don't stand a chance against those guys, you will die just like any other person who gets in their way!" The boy got up and yelled at Naruto then he ran away as tears welled up in his eyes.

"Geez, what the heck is his deal?" Naruto raised an eyebrow.

"That's Inari, my grandson." Tazuna said approaching him with a half empty bottle of sake. "Gato, the guy whose thugs mess with the bridge was the one responsible for the death of his father. He was the hero of this Land. Inari never got over it." He explained with sadness in his voice before he tilted the bottle and chugged the rest of the sake.

"Oh…" Naruto looked at the ground. "Good thing I didn't yell back."

Naruto left and began scouting the wooded area around the bridge spotting a girl with long black hair in a pink kimono sitting in the clearing.

"Hey, what are you doing here, lady? This area is not safe." He called out to her.

She looked at him and replied. "I'm collecting herbs to make medicine?"

"Herbs, huh?" He sat next to her crossing his legs picking one of the little plants and twisting it between his fingers.

"So what are you doing here?" She asked. "I saw you here a while ago, trying to run up a tree."

"Oh, that? I was training chakra control with my team, you know so I can get stronger!" He grinned at her.

"Once a person has something precious to protect that's when they get strong, really strong…" She got up walking away. "I have to go, we'll meet again…oh, by the way…"

"…I'm a boy."

Naruto squeaked. His jaw dropped along with the plant he had in his hand and his face paled. "There's no way! He's prettier than Sakura!"

A drop of sweat traveled down his whiskers. "I better get back to the bridge…"

As the night approached team 7 was hiding in different locations around the bridge with communication devices. Their guards were up because Tazuna said that most attacks happen during the night but if people were put on the lookout they would rather run away than stop the attackers.

"Guys" Hinata's whisper ran through the hearing devices "I see a group of six approaching the bridge from Naruto's side. They are 2 miles away."

"Got it." Naruto replied.

When the thugs got to the bridge they began sticking paper bombs all over the newly finished support beam that holds the bridge. As they finished and snuck away to the next beam where the genin had moved to wait for them Kakashi quickly deactivated all of the bombs. The thugs hid behind the other beam as one of them whipped out a kunai a spun it on his finger.

"Now…" He whispered chucking evilly. "When I hit one of the paper bombs with this kunai it will explode creating a chain reaction activating the other bombs and boom!"

He peeked from the beam aiming his kunai at…nothing? "Hey! Where'd all the bombs go?"

"Oh, you mean these?" Kakashi said as he snuck behind the thugs surprising them, with handfuls of paper bombs. He crumbled them into a ball and threw them in the water. The thugs ran only to be knocked out by Sasuke, Hinata, Naruto and his clones.

Naruto crossed his arms. "Heh! Mission complete." He grinned.

Sasuke looked at Kakashi "Didn't you say that there are no ninja here? Where did they get kunai and paper bombs?" He frowned crossing his arms.

One of the thugs groaned. "Well, why don't we ask them?"Kakashi looked at the thug who was trying to get on his feet.

"Hn, looks like your punch wasn't strong enough,huh, Naruto?" Sasuke looked at the blonde.

Naruto growled then stomped over to the thug and grabbed him by the neck. "I should've just kicked you in the balls."

"P-please…" The thug stammered out.

Naruto tightened his grip. "Who gave you paper bombs?" Naruto glared at him.

"I…can't say-Ugh!" The thug groaned as Naruto pressed a kunai to his stomach.

"You like kunai, don't you?" Naruto asked in a mischievous tone.

"Ok, ok!" The thug pleaded quickly. "It was Zabuza, he gave them to us."

Kakashi's eye widened a tiny bit "Zabuza? As in Zabuza Momochi?"

"Yes, him!" Naruto released him and he fell on to the wooden board they were standing on (which the workers built around the beams in case they got damaged again).

" You know that guy?" Sasuke asked Kakashi.

" Yes, I'll tell you about him later. First, let's take care of these guys."

After some threats and punches the thugs were taken to a town further away from the Land of Waves where they were put in a prison for a while.

Later that morning team 7 was having breakfast as Tazuna's house were Naruto gave Inari a loud and rather mean lesson about courage. After Inari ran off Kakashi had explained that Zabuza was one of the legendary swordsmen of the Mist and if he heard about the defeat of his thugs, due to his strength and abilities that would be trouble. They were planning on going back to the Leaf that day since they took care of the problem but the thugs weren't as pathetic as they thought.

After blowing their way out of the prison cell with paper bombs the thugs ran back to their boss to tell him what happened even though they knew they were going to be punished. Gato was pissed after finding out about the hired ninja but discovering they were just kids he underestimated them and he sent his most powerful weapon back to the bridge:

Zabuza.

Team 7 was on their way back home getting to be one of the first people to walk on the newly finished bridge.

Naruto's blue eyes squinted. " What's with all the mist? I can't see a thing." He complained waving his hand in front of his face.

Kakashi stopped dead in his tracks. "Wait!" the genin stopped. "Hinata." Kakashi said quickly.

"Right." Hinata responded doing a few hand signs. "Byakugan!" She said loudly as veins flared out of her eyes covering her cheeks.

"Woah! What is that?!" Naruto looked at her amazed.

"Quiet." Kakashi spoke. "Don't let your guard down."

Hinata gasped. "Sensei! There is chakra flowing through the mist and it's getting thicker!"

They pulled out their kunai preparing for a fight when a couple of needles flew towards them stabbing Naruto and Sasuke in their shoulders.

After the mist subsided they got introduced to Haku as he managed to separate Sasuke and Naruto from Kakashi and Hinata. After what seemed like hours being trapped in Haku's Ice mirrors and stabbed with a hundred needles Sasuke's vision blurred and he started falling backwards. Naruto caught him before he hit the ground.

Don't let your dream die…

Naruto cradled Sasuke as tears began to well up in his eyes. He gently put him on the ground as streams of red chakra flowed out of him. Surrounded by it he growled while the needles imbedded in his body popped out one by one and his wounds started to heal. His hair ruffled, his whiskers thickened, the rim of his eyes and his mouth became black. He snarled showing is growing canines and claws and glared at Haku with his now red eyes.

"I'M GONNA KILL YOU!" Even his voice became deeper and rustier.

Haku's eyes widened behind his mask. He had never felt such power before.

And neither did Hinata. A shiver went down her spine as she felt a surge of chakra coming from the now shattered ice mirrors. She saw Sasuke on the ground and Haku slowly getting on his feet as his broken mask slipped off of his face so the chakra must have come from Naruto, but before she could get a closer look the chakra faded away.

"That guy in the woods…that was you?" Naruto panted and moved his fist away from Haku's face.

Moments later Haku collapsed on the ground with a hole in his chest from Kakashi"s chidori.

After Zabuza had disobeyed him, Gato went looking for him only to get himself killed and thrown off of the bridge by his most powerful weapon.

Hinata kneeled over Sasuke's body and started pulling the needles out , her byakugan confirmed that he was alive but unconscious.

On the other side of the bridge all of Gato's thugs gathered hitting and stabbing Zabuza until his lifeless body fell next to Haku's.

On the opposite side of the bridge all of the people from the town tormented by Gato and his men gathered with pitchforks, sticks, knives and other weapons they could find, with Tazuna and Inari in the front.

"Heh!"One of the thugs laughed. "How do you think you could defeat us?"He mocked looking at the citizens. "You're weak and outnumbered!"

"Oh yeah?!" Naruto yelled making a hand sign and then yelled even louder. "MULTI SHADOW CLONE JUTSU!"

And with that the whole half of the bridge was covered in shadow clones, the clones grinned as they cracked their knuckles one by one.

The terrified thugs gulped loudly and began running away tripping over one another.

"WOAH!" Inari exclaimed. "That's amazing!"

He wasn't the only one impressed. "So Iruka wasn't exaggerating after all." Kakashi thought.

"Naruto!" Hinata called out to him.

Naruto turned around and his eyes widened. The clones disappeared in a large cloud of smoke as Naruto started tearing up looking in Hinata's direction…where Sasuke was standing. He waved towards him.

Naruto sniffed. "He's alive… " He whispered.

After burying Zabuza and Haku team 7 made to leave, but there was one last problem was solved.

"So" Inari's mother spoke up. "Now that the bridge is finished, what are we going to name it?"

Tazuna thought for a moment. "Ah! I think I have the perfect name…"

"It's going to be called…"

"The Great Naruto Bridge!"