Author's Notes

Revised as of 03/06/2022

LEGEND BELOW

"In the beginning..." = Normal speech.

''I kinda wanted to know.'' = Normal thoughts.

"You dare to defy me!?" = Beast speech.

''That's what I thought.'' = Beast thoughts.

The next couple of days around the Hyuuga compound were tense, to say the least. Surprisingly, there was no open hostility like Naruto had been expecting, but that didn't mean that he was treated like royalty.

No.

The Hyuuga were people that prided themselves on the way they acted, and how they were seen by others. It was hard to tell when they were mad or when they were happy, when they had all been taught to keep their faces neutral. Whenever a servant would come to give something to Hinata, he would catch the look they sent him. It wasn't hostile, but it was closer to concern and fear.

He was used to hatred. He knew the anger and how to better deal with angry people.

But fear?

He couldn't stand it!

The looks of fear and worry that most of the servants wore around him angered him. It wasn't his fault that he was turned into the Kyuubi! As a side affect of their fear, he had taken to staying locked away in Hinata's room just to avoid the looks that the servant girls sent him.

Did they not understand? Were they not capable of realizing his circumstances? Or perhaps, did they not care?

He didn't know, and it angered him.

They way he was treated did not escape Hinata's view, and she had taken it upon herself to help them come to see him differently. That being said, it wasn't easy convincing others that he wasn't a monster that was hellbent on murdering them all in their sleep, seeing as he nearly perfectly resembled the beast that years ago had done just that.

But that wouldn't stop her from trying.

After a week of her constant but gentle prodding, she had managed to get him to leave the room and follow her to her garden just past the living quarters. He had to admit that after only an hour outside with her, the garden had quickly become another one of his favorite places to find solace.

The quiet little creek that passed through carried a variety of different fish, and sometimes he'd catch himself just laying there next to the water, watching as the fish swam by.

Sometimes some of the servants would pass by and see him, and almost trip over themselves in shock. But when he payed them no mind, the fear slowly began to subside. When it became apparent that he wasn't planning anything with ill-intent, the constant fear nipping at their minds slowly began to fade away.

The real breaking point happened one day, when a servant woman was walking through the garden with her young daughter. The Hyuuga woman had been teaching her daughter about the role she would end up growing into, being that she was born under the branch family. The girl had innate skills with caring for plants, and would most likely become the one the main family would use to care for the massive gardens.

But when the little girl saw Naruto sleeping next to the creek, she had strayed from her mother's side and ran up to him. By the time she noticed, it was already too late to stop her.

"Hello." She spoke out, only a foot away from his face. He opened one eye at the sound, blinking curiously at her. She leaned close, her white eyes glittering in innocent curiosity. He eyed her form lazily, noting the fact that she was probably only four years old.

He was about to speak up, when his heart seemed to skip a beat. Her tiny little smile beamed up at him, and for some reason, a faded memory bubbled to the surface.

A memory of a little girl calling him her father…

But before he could dwell on it any further it vanished from the forefront of his mind, slipping back deep into the recesses of his mind.

But…

"A-Are you okay mister fox…?" The little girl peeped nervously, for, after locking eyes with her, tears had uncontrollably started falling from his eyes. "Y-You're crying? Are you hurt?"

Naruto blinked, trying to clear his eyes.

"Oh… I'm sorry, I suppose." He muttered softly. "I don't know what happened…"

Seeing that he was fine, her smile returned with a vengeance, her cute white eyes sparkling with childlike wonder.

"How did you get inside Hinata-Sama's garden?" She questioned with a small tilt of her head. He almost laughed at her question, but instead hummed in response.

"You could say that I live with her, in fact…" He responded with a gentle smile. He lay there quietly, watching her face for the moment she realized. Glancing behind her he spotted who could only be the little girl's mother, nervously shaking and too afraid to move closer to her girl, lest she anger him. He snorted at her reaction to him, and turned his focus back to the girl. Sudden her eyes widened, and he could see the realization light up.

"Oh! I didn't know Hinata-Sama had a pet fox." She admitted with a genuine smile, her eyes closed. He had to hold back a laugh, her face was just too precious. Yet he didn't refute her claim. "Can I pet you?" She asked, leaning in closer. Glancing back to the mother that hadn't moved, a sly fanged grin grew on his maw.

"Sure. I can indulge you in your cute little wish." He responded as he moved his head closer to her. The little girl gently ran her hands over his head, giggling gleefully. Then suddenly he opened his mouth wide, and when the woman thought that she was about to watch her own daughter get eaten, he licked her.

"H-Hey! That tickles!" She laughed, continuing to pet him. His grin grew as he saw the woman nearly pass out behind the girl. For some reason he found immense joy in toying with others, and didn't feel like stopping.

He kept licking her, her giggling fueling his assault. "N-No! Stop.." She squealed, using her little hands to try and stop his tongue.

When it became apparent that he never held any hostility against them, they were forced to change their opinions of him. The catalyst was the little girl not afraid to approach him, and her mother that watched from a distance. If Naruto had truly been evil, then no one could have stopped him from fulfilling her nightmares.

But he wasn't, and that day, when the Hyuuga servant woman witnessed the massive nine tailed fox gently playing with her daughter, her little girl's glee filled giggles filling the air, her eyes were opened. She knew then, that Naruto wasn't in fact, the monster the village would have them all believe. But instead a lonely creature that longed for company, and wanted more then anything to be seen as something else.

Anything but a monster.

Even with claws that could so very easily rip someone in half, and teeth that were made to tear and maim, muscles that held the power to crush rocks and nine tails that could move so fast they could break your neck if they hit you, he never hurt her. Not once did he hurt her, even slightly. By the end of it he had been on his back rolling around with her sitting on his stomach giggling happily, and she was totally unscathed. And that was the thing that put a genuine smile on his maw, not that fanged grin he'd use when he was toying with someone.

After that day, the woman didn't fear him anymore. Every once in a while she would be walking through the garden with her daughter, and he'd be there. The girl would ask to be allowed to play with him, and she's let her go, knowing that she'd be safe in his company. She'd sometimes leave her with him all day so she could attend to her own duties.

When others took notice, they too began to see him differently. It didn't change over the course of a day, but he could say without a doubt that things had begun to drastically improve inside the compound.

When seen moving throughout the day, he wasn't greeted with fear, but with similar responses given to actual people. That, is what made him happy.

With this newfound trust placed in him by the people living in the compound, he had been approached for his first assignment personally by Hiashi himself.

Being that he was technically a ninja of the leaf village, he was allowed to take missions for it, whatever it may be. He was made aware of this fact when Hiruzen himself came by only a few days into his new residence to give him his ninja headband, the thing which proved as his proof to anyone wanting to know that he was in fact a ninja. Hinata had it tied around his neck, almost like a collar, not that anyone pointed that out.

Hiruzen had also asked him to come up with a cover name for his file, assuring him it was to protect him. To which he almost instinctively responded with the name, Kurama.

It wasn't questioned, and was put in paper.

At this point in time, Uzumaki Naruto was considered publicly missing, and Kurama was entered into the system as Hinata Hyuuga's official guardian protector.

But now, around a month into his newfound living conditions, he had been given a mission. Hiashi, alongside the Hyuuga elders and some of the main branch family, that included his personal guards, had an outside issue to deal with. However, this required them to leave the village to hopefully resolve this problem, being that it was connected to another village entirely.

It would most likely take a week entirely, if they counted travel time. With that thought in mind, Hiashi had entrusted the safety of his two daughters to him.

Now some had thought him crazy, but he knew just what he was doing. He had been keenly watching Naruto throughout the past month, and felt his choice was justified. That wasn't enough for some, but it wasn't up to them who to trust his daughters care to. When he told Naruto about this, the fox couldn't help but feel elated. The fact that someone as high as the leader to the Hyuuga himself held such trust in him, it touched his heart.

He'd promised that nothing would even touch them as long as he lived to do anything about it.

With that said, everything went off without a hitch. The day came and went for them to leave, and Naruto sat there at the gated entrance, watching them go. Soon it had been just them.

Now with his first mission laid out before him, he didn't plan on failing it. As such, he had decided to spend all of his time with both the girls. This would also be the first time that he really got to spend any significant amount of time with Hinata's little sister, Hanabi.

The little Hyuuga was a spitfire for sure. She had the energy and sharp intellect that would serve her fully later in her life. But right now, he could safely say that she was cute in the way that she tried to be so serious.

Time seemed to fly by quickly once they all left. Hinata often spent her days training to pass the quickly approaching ninja academy exam. She didn't plan on failing it, and she wanted to prove that. The Hyuuga weren't allowed to fail something like that.

Those days Naruto would spend sitting on the side, his sharp red eyes watching her. Oftentimes Hanabi would come to watch her bigger sister train, hoping to learn something sooner then intended.

Hinata had begun to notice that Naruto was often prone to losing himself in thought when staring at her for long enough periods of time.

She didn't think much of it, and he never said anything, but sometimes she'd catch a look in his eyes that she couldn't ever place.

Soon enough, three days had passed quietly, flowing in their usual ways. However, as this forth day began to wind down, something happened...

"A-Ah, Naruto-Kun... I-I think that's enough for today..." Hinata breathed, leaning over panting heavily. She had been training with Naruto in the training hall for the past hour. She had been training by herself for a while then, but being alone only ever got you so far.

Naruto was always with her, and one day she had the idea to have him train with her. He had at first refused, on the account of hurting her. But she eventually got him to break.

The first quote, unquote, training session they had quickly put Hinata in her place. The moment the match began he'd moved at speeds hard for her to track, and she found herself pinned to the ground underneath one of his paws. His size made anything like that child's play.

Her embarrassment was apparent, but she only had herself to blame for challenging him to a battle. He wasn't some legendary ninja, and had only received training similar to her own. However, owning the body of the strongest creature within thousands of miles gave him speed and power that he'd likely spend the next many years learning to control properly. It just so happened that some instincts had carried over, and simple moves were easy to pick up.

He just wasn't great at using them…

Training like this continued for a while, Naruto purposely holding back to at least give Hinata a chance against him.

It would be considered a victory if she was in any way shape or form, capable of dodging his first lunge.

Suffice it to say she wouldn't be winning a battle like this anytime soon…

But after an hour of doing this, she was dead tired and dripping with sweat. Her usual dress stuck to her body uncomfortably, and she was having trouble breathing. Meanwhile Naruto was sitting in the middle of the room happily, his tails waving about in an almost unnatural pattern. But when Hinata spoke up, he knew that training was done for the day.

"Finally giving up, I wonder?" He hummed happily, which sounded off all things considered. Absentmindedly he grabbed a towel with his tail and handed it to her. With a quiet thank you she dried off.

"Y-Yeah, wonder all you want. I'm d-done for today..." She wheezed out. "I'm going to need a bath..." Hinata stated, looking down at herself. "C-Can you go get Hanabi for me, please? She needs a b-bath too." She asked, even though he would have if she ordered him to. He nodded before walking away at a comfortable yet brisk pace, his foot falls making small echoes as they padded across the wood floors. It only took him a minute to reach Hanabi's room, but when he did, he immediately noticed that something was off.

He couldn't put his claws on it, but...

"Hanabi..?" He called out quietly through the thin door, mindful of the fact that it was late and many others were likely sleeping. When she didn't respond he frowned. It was then that a scent hit his nose. The scent of someone he most certainly didn't recognize. In an instant, the door was flung open, his eyes searching for her. There was a flash of steel in the darkness of night, and he was caught off guard as a blade of steel wedged itself straight down through his snout and out the underside of his jaw.

"Gah-!" The fox's shout of pain was cut short when his ability to open his mouth was removed. Blood flew across the room, painting the white walls red. Standing in front of him was a ninja dressed in black, his face shrouded in shadow. Bonded by rope and draped over his shoulder was Hanabi, unconscious.

When the ninja realized that he failed to kill him he went to rip his weapon back, but it was stuck. Blinded for a moment by the pain, Naruto jerked back, stumbling into the light of the moon and hitting one of the main supports.

With his mouth filled with his own dark red blood, locked closed painfully by a blade, he growled in rage. One tail whipped out like a spear, stabbing at the unknown attacker. Naruto could feel the man's eyes widen in shock as he barely managed to avoid getting skewered. He went to shout for help, but the weapon lodged in his mouth prevented that.

Unable to alert everyone that there was an intruder, he began to slam his tails into the hardwood floor, hoping that it was loud enough to wake everyone up.

Suddenly the ninja whipped out a handful of kunai, before flinging them at him. This time around, Naruto wasn't about to be caught off guard. He raised a tail to block the weapons, the sharpened throwing knives lodging themselves deep into his tail.

Blood flew into the air, but Naruto never took his eyes off the enemy. This stranger had broken into his house to steal the girls, and for that, he would die. But more then that, an overwhelming sensation suddenly filled his mind, tearing at the forefront of his very being.

This sensation called for murder. It told him to tear the vile man down, reduce him to ashes, annihilate him from existence. It whispered in his ear that he was going to pay, and Naruto would be the one to carry out that command.

"Kill him…"

"Before he kills her…"

"Before he takes them from you…"

"Do not make the same mistake again…"

"Do not fail like I did…"

And Naruto found himself unable to refuse the ghastly words flying within his mind.

Words that sounded far too similar to his own…

With his cover blown, the ninja took to the rooftops, Hanabi in tow. Naruto growled furiously, blood spilling out of his mouth and pooling on the ground below. His own pains were pushed to the side in favor of rescuing Hanabi.

With powers he wasn't previously aware that he possessed, his powerful legs propelled him to the roof of the compound, claws digging small trenches in the shingles.

The ninja narrowly avoided a stream of hellfire spewed out from the maw of death, his cloak instead being incinerated.

Naruto's eyes narrowed with a cynical precision, jumping forward with speed outclassing the ninja. The man made the single mistake of looking back at him. In the darkness of night, covered in his own blood, was the terrifying image of a nine tailed fox reaching out to rip his head off. He slipped, his foot just missing the next roof. Instantly Naruto was upon him, multiple tails flying forward and wrapping him in a chokehold.

By this point the entire compound had been awoken by the sounds of fighting, and multiple Hyuuga had ran outside, dressed in bed clothes.

"What is going on!?" Someone shouted.

The ninja tried and failed to escape from Naruto, as his tails wrapped around each of his limbs. He was forced to watch as he failed and the Hyuuga leader's daughter was taken back from him. Standing atop the roof of the main branch family's house was Naruto, who cradled the now conscious Hanabi in his three tails, while the other six held a firm grasp of the unknown ninja.

The Hyuuga guards were quick to react, as they joined Naruto on the roof with spears. With the enemy safely detained, one guard moved in to take off the ninja's mask. When it was revealed who it was, all the Hyuuga's hearts hardened. It happened to be a ninja from Kumo, the village hidden in the clouds.

"So, Kumo has stooped low enough to try to attempt this a second time!" One guard accused, brandishing his spear. "We should kill him where he stands!" He said.

But before he could, Naruto pulled him in close, face to sword lodged snout.

The fear in the man's eyes was obvious. It was also then that they all noticed how badly Naruto had been hurt in defending Hanabi.

"Yooourrr lllliiiiffffeee iiisss fffforrrffeeiit!!" He growled so lowly that the man nearly lost control of his bowels, Naruto's voice echoing throughout the entire compound. Even with his maw shut closed, he still managed to growl out a warning. "III sshould kkkilll yooou wwwhere yyoou sstannnd!" The pure killing intent he was radiating was similar to the feeling of the night the Kyuubi attacked.

Suddenly the tail wrapped around his throat tightened dangerously, the man's face turning blue. Flames capable of reducing him to ash seemed to leak from the fox's maw like living fire, reaching out their death dealing fingers, wanting nothing more then to end the man.

"Naruto-Kun!!?"

The shout echoing throughout the compound stopped him cold, maybe only a second or two from ending him.

He snorted fire, before finally relenting. He dropped the man to the ground unceremoniously, only for him to immediately be detained by the twenty Hyuuga that surrounded him.

Once the threat was thoroughly dealt with, Naruto jumped down from the roof landing on the ground below with a thud. Hugged close to his furry chest was Hanabi, crying her eyes out.

"Hanabi-Sama!" The servant women shouted in worry, running to Naruto's side. Naruto carefully handed the girl to them, promising her care to them.

"My god, Naruto are you alright!?" One guard exclaimed, bending down next to the wounded fox. Naruto would've responded, but he was too busy glaring murder at the ninja that had attempted a kidnapping.

He was still contemplating if he shouldn't just destroy the man now.

"Naruto-Kun!" Hinata's horrified shout rang out as she came running from the opposite side of the compound, sliding up next to him. "O-Oh god! W-Who did this to you?" She whispered, before taking his head into her hands. She rubbed calming circles around his cheeks, trying to take away some of the pain as they carefully removed the sword from his mouth.

But he wasn't whining in pain, nor had he even implied he was hurt at all. It was as if he was in a trance, a defense mode, focusing wholly on the threat directly in front of him. It took a while to calm him down after that, but she eventually did.

When Hanabi ran to her side for comfort she learned of what happened.

There had been an attempt to kidnap her sister, and Naruto had thrown his own life at the enemy just to get her back. Going as far as taking an entire sword to the face just to safely return her to her family. That changed everything.

From that moment onwards, Naruto was treated like one of their own, and not as an outsider. If anyone still held any form of resentment to him, the reminder of just what he suffered for them washed that resentment away. Naruto wasn't the Kyuubi everyone thought him to be...

Three months passed in their quiet ways after that crucial defining moment of his life. The man that had attempted to steal Hababi just so happened to be a missing ninja. After betraying his village, he had been banished from ever returning. But in a moment if distress, he had gathered it in his head that if he were to offer a Hyuuga to the village leader he would be allowed to return. Of course, when Kumo was informed of this, they refuted that they had any part in the matter.

But after everything was said and done, Naruto put the man as far out of his mind as possible. Just thinking of him brought up a fear he didn't ever want to consider a possibility. The fear that despite his actions, that one day the people he cared about would be taken from him.

And the sinking sensation that it had already happened once before. Like a fever dream that assaulted his mind as he slept, showing him a reality he never wanted to see come to fruition.

But he displayed to the world that night, he would die before that possibility was allowed to happen.

Following the incident, the Hyuuga were forced to realize that they had become weak in the safety of their walls.

Training regimes would end up taking place after that in the hope that this would never happen again. Naruto had become even more protective of Hinata following what happened, and sometimes she would have to calm him down, lest he accidentally kill someone he thought held ill intent against her.

The amount of love, respect, and adoration he held for her was something else. She didn't think he thought that way of her, but she learned that he would do literally anything she asked of him. No matter how embarrassing, nor how shameful, nor revealing, nor dangerous, or illegal. He wouldn't disobey her request.

Perhaps it was due to his isolation from birth that he took to anyone that offered their affections. That combined with the loving and caring soul that she possessed, and his heart was stolen by her hands. She literally had the power over him to calm him or insight certain emotions and physical feelings out of him via her soothing voice alone.

She hadn't ever considered herself anything more then just another Hyuuga, but his loving care and passionate determination in her stead made her feel like a queen. And she slowly became addicted to his treatment of her.

And now, three months later, the ninja academy exam had arrived. Naruto had gotten comfortable enough around her that he could stomach being around other people that weren't part of the Hyuga clan.

Outside the compound walls Naruto was a different person. The loving and caring Fox the clan had come to know would seemingly vanish when he left the compound's walls. The respect he had for the Hyuga main and branch family were not shared with those outside the walls. The village of Konoha had yet to prove to him why he should care, and had done nothing to create a bond with him.

The village was also the same as it was when he was a child, full of people that inexcusably hated his very existence. His time spent outside the company of the white eyed people was anything but pleasant.

The other reason he began to follow her, was because he couldn't stand being alone for long anymore. The days where Hinata would be gone all day, and he'd be stuck at home, he'd be struck with impending panic attacks. It made him feel as if he had been forgotten, left behind in the dirt. Being alone terrified him, because it left him with his thoughts..

Hiruzen still wanted him to keep a low profile for as long as he could. Turns out that with his new body, constructed partially of pure chakra, he was able to shape-shift. It was similar to a transformation Jutsu, but it was real. He was seemingly only capable of shrinking in size for the time being.

But even though he looked small, it didn't necessarily mean he looked like a regular fox. It was obvious to anyone looking that there was something unnatural about him, whether it be the human like frown that he wore, or be it his emotive facial expressions. The sharp slitted red eyes or deadly teeth, or those shiny white claws of his.

Hinata just found it surprising that they never put two and two together.

Not that she minded then, nor did she mind it now.

She was currently at the ninja academy, sitting in the center of class quietly. But Naruto was outside, resting under the shade of a tree, for obvious reasons. He'd become strangely separated from people. He had always been bad with crowds, but ever since the incident, his want to surround himself with other people had begun to diminish.

Hinata knew that she could force him to interact with others, but that wouldn't be right. The result of such an experiment might be, bloody...

Her eyes gazed out the window, spotting him sleeping under a tree, a frown on his maw. Perhaps it would be different when she was placed on a ninja team. She highly doubted that he would not accompany her on any mission outside the village. Doing so would force him to talk with people, and she could only hope that it would help him see others differently.

She just wanted him to be happy, happy like the way he made her happy. She hated it when she found him alone by the creek, staring at his own reflection, deep in thought. Or the days where he'd be staring off into the clouds, for hours straight. She never knew what occupied his mind during those moments, but she had a deep seated feeling that it wasn't good.

So distraught with her concerns of her nine tailed fox, she had completely missed the entirety of the speech Iruka had prepared for them. It was only when everyone else in the room began to leave that she realized that the time for the test had come. She quickly caught up with the group, meeting together with them in the courtyard outside the academy. Her mind was still occupied with her fox, and so she missed Iruka calling to her until he was standing directly in front of her.

"Hinata? Are you ready..?" Iruka asked softly, giving the girl a concerned look. The Hyuuga heiress blinked in surprise, looking up to Iruka. Everyone else had taken the test and either passed or failed, except for her. She took another glance back to the shade of one of the many trees that lined the academy grounds, finding Naruto resting quietly, watching her from the shadows.

"M-My apologies Iruka-Sensei." Hinata bowed quickly, before moving to the center of the training ground. She'd quickly completed the simple Nin-Jutsu required to pass, and easily surpassed the quick test. Her attention was split between her success and ascendance to a ninja, and the prominent depression the one she cared about suffered from. She barely registered that Iruka wanted everyone to return two days from then for team assignments. While all those that passed the exam celebrated behind her, she left them behind in favor of rejoining Naruto.

She walked up to him quietly, sitting down beside him. He was doing it again, staring off at nothing endlessly. She frowned, before reaching out to him.

"Naruto-Kun? What's wrong..?" She asked softly, patiently awaiting his response. He huffed hot air out through his nose, but didn't respond. She frowned in concern, but quietly waited for him to make a response. She could see it in his eyes, in the way his face was tensed up.

"Naruto-Kun, please... I-I can't help unless you tell me what's w-wrong.." Hinata gently pushed.

"I'm sorry, I suppose..." He suddenly responded, almost catching her off guard. Before she had the chance to ask what he meant, he continued. "I'm afraid..." He said, his voice deathly quiet in that moment. Hinata's face scrunched up in confusion.

"O-Of what..?" She found herself asking, almost afraid to learn the answer.

"Of losing you." His response was as down to earth as it was loving. He turned to face her, his gaze locking with her. She could see the unguarded fear that filled his red orbs, exposed for her to witness. "I believed that the safest place around would be here inside the compound, surrounded by a ninja village... But even then, you weren't safe..." Suddenly his eyes began to glow with a hateful wrath, and a snarl marred his features.

"That man tried to take everything away from me... He tried to take her.." His anger abated, replaced with worry. "He.. He tried to take you..."

A little overwhelmed by the fact that this was the most he had spoken in a while, she quickly came to terms with what was truly bothering him. He was afraid of losing her.

"Kumo's an ally..." Naruto growled, before laughing ruefully. "Didn't stop them from stabbing us in the back, I suppose..." He grunted, his eyes glowing moodily.

"Naruto-Kun..." Hinata muttered, unsure of what to say. "They said it wasn't them…"

"But how much of that is true, I wonder?" He responded. She had to agree with his point.

But…

"Some people are different, not all people are e-evil..." It hurt her to see him so torn over this. But she had a feeling that it wasn't going to be a simple fix, no matter how much she wanted it to be. "I'm not evil…" She muttered.

His eyes softened.

"No, you're not. You could never be…" He muttered, seemingly in a daze. The image of her laying on a deathbed flashed across his mind. "You could never be…"

"Naruto-Kun..?" Hinata tried,concerned over the look that passed over him. He seemed surprised at his own trailing thoughts, blinking rapidly before turning to her.

"Forget what I said, I'm sorry for worrying you, I suppose..." Naruto sighed, putting on a smile for her sake. "Come now, your father wanted to speak with you when you graduated." He said as he stood up.

Hinata watched uncertainly as Naruto took to the roof tops of building, stopping to wait for her to follow. Hinata sighed, staring at him as he left. She went to leave as well, but someone stopped her.

"He didn't look too happy..." The rather obvious yet concerned statement came from non other then Kiba, who had been listening in from around the corner of the academy building. Hinata turned to face him, her face downcast.

"What happened?" The wild looking teen asked, arms cast lazily behind his head. Hinata at first thought it better that he didn't know, but quickly decided against that.

"He's still upset about the incident…" Hinata muttered. "He seems incapable of getting over it right now…" Kiba rolled his eyes, as if it were obvious.

"Well that much is obvious. The guy cares too much about you to let shit like that slide…" Kiba pointed out, as if that settled it all. "I couldn't imagine what he was going through that night. But he's tough, I'm sure he's fine." A small smile seemed to finally return to her face after that.

Kiba looked up, spotting Naruto watching them from a distant roof top. He was ready to leave, but unwilling to leave Hinata alone. The Hyuga princess sighed, before making after the fox. Kiba just watched in silence, throwing up a thumbs up to the fox.

The stupid show of friendship got a small smile out of the Yokai…

Chapter

4

END