Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto...(I really wish I did, though)

Note: Well, here I am again. Thanks for the good reviews, people. Here goes the next chapter.

Normal - conversations/narration

Italics - thoughts/voices in one's head

Italics Bold - jutsus

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"Aaahhhh, Koujiro, just one question: What are we supposed to do here?"

Naruto and Koujiro are sitting in a ramen shop inside the Hidden Village of Rain, dressed in gray robes and eating ramen.

"I can't tell you yet. Not until the target arrives," replies Koujiro, after sipping from his bowl of ramen.

"The target? Wait a minute… I don't even know what our target is!!! Is this supposed to be a very high level operation that you won't even tell me anything about it?" says a very annoyed Naruto.

"Shhh… keep your voice down. We can't afford to be found out now."

Naruto sighs. They had entered the village without much trouble at all, even though they looked awfully suspicious in their robes and their ANBU masks. It even seemed as if they were expected to come.

Voices are suddenly heard behind them and to the right, and they were getting closer. Naruto tries to take a peek outside but Koujiro stops him.

"Put on your ANBU mask, Naruto."

Naruto follows Koujiro's orders, and takes the ANBU mask Koujiro gave him earlier in the morning and puts it on.

"I really wonder where he got this thing…"

Naruto's train of thought is interrupted as someone parts the cloth which covers the ramen shop.

Naruto's eyes suddenly open wide in disbelief. This newcomer had long brown spiky hair with small sideburns which were obviously not kept neat because of the strands sticking out, which also made his hair seem spikier than it really should have been. His pale skin seemed to match the aura of mysteriousness around him, and coupled with the pale white robe he wore, he looked like a ghost. But what surprised Naruto the most were those small shades which blocked out the newcomer's eyes, and those shades were what reminded him of the person he had met long ago.

Aburame Shino.

Shino suddenly looks at Koujiro and him. "So this is where the two of you are." Naruto was shocked at this and looked at Koujiro, who didn't look back.

"You were supposed to have gone directly to the rain daimyo to announce our arrival. You're making life harder for us, you know," Shino says in his usual deep and mysterious voice.

Naruto was still in disbelief as he stood up, walked past Shino, and started leaping up the buildings together with Koujiro. Shino stood there staring at them for a moment and then caught up with them after a few seconds.

"You are under my command, understand? I know that it's my first time to order ANBU around, but I am your squad leader for this mission, and I expect you to follow orders, not to go off and take a break somewhere. When we get back to the village, you will be severely reprimanded."

"Wow, Shino talks a lot more now than he used to back then. But those eyes, that calm attitude, and that monotone voice… he still feels as creepy as ever."

Shino seemed to have taken their silence as an affirmative response, and for the whole trip to the Daimyo's mansion, no one said a word.

The mansion that housed the Daimyo was actually quite small, but Naruto figured that a small village didn't need a really big building for the daimyo anyway. They walk inside, take a few flights of stairs, and finally find themselves inside the daimyo's office.

The leader of The Hidden Village of Rain, the Rain Daimyo, was sitting on a chair similar to what the Hokage sat on in Konoha. Naruto studies him carefully, taking all the details into account. He measured the daimyo's age to be just a little older than Jiraiya, but he also looked too thin and frail for his age.

Shino had now worn his ANBU mask, and was now moving to the left of the table with both Naruto and Koujiro following suit. A few minutes later, two more ANBU members knock and enter the door, both wearing their face masks, moving towards the right of the table, just opposite Naruto and Koujiro. An uneasy silence seemed to hang in the air as they just stood there, noiseless and unmoving.

"Damn, what the heck am I doing here?" Naruto's eyes dart from the kage, to the ANBU right opposite to him, to the door. "Why this it feel so tense in here? And who the hell are we waiting for?"

A full ten minutes pass as Naruto and the others just stand there, unmoving, but with an occasional cough from the ANBU opposite them. Naruto could tell that those two in front of them were new to the job, and he could see and feel the nervousness that they were trying to mask.

Another five minutes pass, and the daimyo finally stands in impatience. "You, aren't you the head of the ANBU squad?" pointing his finger directly at Shino. "What the hell happened to the other nins who were supposed to come here?"

Shino looks directly at the daimyo and says in his usual voice, "I don't know."

Voices are suddenly heard down below, rising up and coming closer to them.

Shino looks at the door, then back at the daimyo. "I do believe that that's them."

The daimyo sits down in frustration, and a look of anger was clearly etched on his face. "Your leaf nins had better have a good reason for coming here late."

The voices were now close and a few seconds later, a loud knock is heard from the door, followed by the daimyo's response of, "Come in."

Naruto's eyes went even wider in surprise and disbelief as he saw the nins enter the room.

The one leading the way, with a very loud and rash voice, unkempt hair, and a dog by his side was Inuzuka Kiba. He looked a little taller than he did back then, and he was wearing a chuunin vest. He was talking to a pretty but pale girl shorter than him, with hair just a little longer than her shoulder. She just seemed to be listening to Kiba, without even interrupting him. Naruto suddenly saw the white, almost pupil-less eyes of the girl, and realized that she was Hyuuga Hinata.

Right behind them was Kiba, Hinata, and Shino's former jounin sensei, the beautiful mistress of illusions, Yuhei Kurenai. She seemed to be reprimanding someone behind her, that Naruto could not yet see because Kurenai was blocking his view.

Kurenai seemed to have noticed that everyone was looking at her, because she suddenly moves a little to the right to reveal the figure of a white-haired, masked ninja. Hatake Kakashi.

Kurenai clears her throat and Kiba suddenly quiets down. "I'm sorry, Rain Daimyo, if we kept you waiting. My associate here," Kurenai motions to Kakashi, "states that he encountered some problems during… his morning… routine," Kurenai states with a little sarcasm.

The man stands up, clearly angry at all this, shouting, "You damn leaf nins!!! Don't you know that I have other things better to do than wait for you to come!!! If this meeting wasn't a formal meeting for peace relations and an alliance with Konoha, then I probably wouldn't have even entertained your request for an audience!!!"

There was an uneasy silence following the daimyo's speech, with no one even making a sound or a move at all. He glares at all the leaf nins, sits in frustration, and takes deep breaths to relax.

"So… anyway, you are here to discuss an alliance and peace treaty between our villages, correct? Is the current peace treaty between the five countries not enough?"

It was Kakashi's turn to respond. "As you may now know, the Wave Country has broken that treaty by raiding one of the Lightning Country's small towns. When we sent our scouts over to the area, they were ambushed by some Cloud nins, saying that the Hidden Mist and the Hidden Leaf had made a secret alliance. They were saying that they heard those words from the ninjas that attacked that small village, and for proof they had showed the scouts the forehead protectors of both the Hidden Mist and the Hidden Leaf. Half of the scouts were killed in that ambush, while the other half were wounded, and had to return to Konoha.

"However, on the way back, those scouts who had escaped were attacked by ninjas from the Hidden Village of Stone. Almost all the scouts were wiped out, while the ones who survived were severely injured and barely made it back to Konoha..."

"So basically, what you're proposing is that our two hidden villages form an alliance just in case an all-out ninja war begins, just like what happened many years ago? Hmm… interesting…" interrupts the daimyo.

Naruto eyes the Village of Rain's leader carefully. "This guy doesn't seem to be thinking about the alliance… he's just probably thinking how he can expand Hidden Rain's territory… he knows that this village is stronger compared to other smaller hidden villages, and he also knows that this village is surrounded by the Hidden Stone, the Hidden Sand and the Hidden Leaf... this village actually holds a strategic position if a war begins, so whoever holds this village will automatically have an advantage…"

"So you will consider our offer?" interjects Kurenai.

"Yes… yes, I will consider it… for now." A sly smile creeps up in the daimyo's face.

"Alright, please send word to Konoha of your decision, daimyo-sama. We'll be leaving you now." Kakashi states in a careful tone.

"But won't you stay at least a day in this village? You're still probably tired from your journey here. Besides, having Leaf ninjas protecting my territory for even a day can sway my decision…" The sly smile widens too a grin, and Naruto could see that the daimyo was already formulating plans.

Naruto and Koujiro leave the daimyo's mansion together with the leaf nins, and they walk quite a distance away before Kiba starts complaining.

"Damn that daimyo!!! He's using us, and Konoha!!! He knows that he and his village hold an advantage because three major ninja villages would want this place, especially in war!!!" Kiba shouting angrily, as if they were the only people in the area.

"Be quiet, Kiba," Shino states in an agitated tone. Naruto sensed that Shino had also been quite upset by how the daimyo had treated them.

"W-well, at least he said that he would think about it, didn't he?" Hinata wasn't looking straight at them; she still hadn't seemed to get over her shyness.

"He did, but he didn't even confirm if he would tell us of his decision. That damn bastard!!! Who does he think he is?!?" Kiba was really letting his emotions loose, and his complaints caught the attention of many of the civilians in the area.

"Anyway, it seems that we'll be staying here for at least a day," Kakashi says in a bored tone. "If I were you guys, I'd go around the town and look for something to do instead of complaining here and creating a disturbance." With that, Kakashi vanished in a puff of smoke.

"Kakashi's right, we might as well make our stay here worthwhile… Hinata, would you like to come with me?" asks Kurenai.

"N-no… it's ok… I'll probably just walk around here…"

"Heh, I'll go with her then!" Kiba says enthusiastically, with a big grin on his face. However, when he realizes that everyone was looking at him, his face takes on a more nervous look. "Something might happen you know, haha…"

"Alright then, I'll go and walk around alone," Shino says. "You guys are dismissed too," Shino motions towards Naruto, Koujiro, and the two other ANBU. But remember, we all stay in the same hotel, so make sure you're back in the hotel before 9:00 this evening. And no getting yourselves drunk." With that, Shino starts walking away in the opposite direction and into the crowd.

"Well, I guess I'd better get going now." Kurenai disappears the same way as Kakashi does.

"Well, let's go, Hinata!!" Kiba cries out.

"A-alright."

Naruto walks around the town randomly, not even caring if he was going around in circles. He still had not found anything to do, and since Koujiro left him, telling him that he needed to do something, he found himself alone in a village that he had never been in.

He suddenly stops right in front of a bookstore, and, finding nothing better to do, enters it.

"Hmmm… maybe I can finally read the latest issue of Come Come Paradise? I remember Kisame having volume four, while I think Sato has the third one… hmmm… let's see… 'R-18' section…"

Naruto moves through the store, looking at the headers of each shelf. He then sees the header 'R-18' and 'Adult' and takes a left at the shelves, only to see Hinata looking at the shelves.

Naruto didn't actually notice her four years ago, and after that incident that happened a year ago, he decided that maybe being in the same section as she was a bad idea…it could trigger unwanted memories…

"Um, don't you want to take your mask off? I-it must be getting stuffy, having to breath through a mask…"

Naruto turns around and finds Hinata looking at him directly, with a shy yet curious look in her eyes.

"Wow… was she this pretty 4 years ago? Wait a minute, during that incident a year ago, the Hinata that I saw was almost exactly the same as I had remembered her before I left for training with Jiraiya…"

"Um… are you alright? B-because you haven't moved for a full minute on that spot…" Hinata says shyly, her cheeks becoming red.

Naruto snaps back to reality, and places his right hand behind his head, laughing. "Ahaha, sorry. I was just… captivated… by you."

With the word 'captivated', Hinata blushed even more. Naruto didn't think that she could go any redder than she was right now.

"Ahhh, my mask? Um, ahaha, I don't take my mask off because… because… "Come on, think of something!" "because Shino didn't want us to!" "What a pathetic excuse…"

"Oh, is that right? Why would he do that?"

"Ahaha, that's because he caught me and my friend eating in a ramen shop instead of going straight to the daimyo, as was the plan."

"Oh, I see…"

Naruto was looking straight at Hinata, and couldn't seem to take his eyes off her. She talked a lot more now, and at least she had overcome a little of her shyness.

"So, um, ahh, what are you doing in a place like this?" asks Naruto, but suddenly realizes that they were in the 'R-18' section of the bookstore. "Oh wait, no, I meant…"

Hinata giggles a little and starts moving past Naruto and out of the area. "I'm with Inuzuka Kiba," she says as she walks along the path between the shelves.

Naruto follows her, reaches down at her hand, and squeezes it. Hinata turns in surprise, and Naruto actually blushed when he saw her face again.

"Wait a minute!!! She has the Byakugan! I can't let her see my face… I have to take her eyes away from me… But I want to spend time with her, just to get to know her a little…"

"Hmmm, why don't we ditch dog-boy and go see a movie or something like that? Staying here is pretty boring, and you probably don't want to spend the rest of today holed up in here. What is he doing here anyway?"

"Kiba's looking at a book… I-I think it was called Come Come Paradise or something like that." She was looking at him rather curiously. Naruto found her really cute.

"I can't believe the dog bastard is also a fan of that… I guess Kakashi must have tough competition when it comes to getting the book now that it's becoming more and more famous in Konoha…"

"…Um, a movie? Sure, I-I'll go with you… I'm sure Kiba wouldn't mind… um, it's not as if he'll be finishing it anytime soon anyway, and at least you try to do things w-with me. Besides, you're an ANBU from Konoha, so I guess you can be trusted…" Hinata says while blushing.

Naruto grins behind the mask. "Hehe, ok let's go!!!"

It was almost nighttime, and Koujiro knew that it was almost time to strike. He watches as the daimyo leaves his mansion, turns into the main street and heads off towards the forest. Seconds later, rain jounins move out of the mansion and spread throughout the village, with about ten of them following the Rain Daimyo. Koujiro smiles.

"So, he also doesn't trust the other countries as long as they haven't offered an alliance… sending jounins to watch over this small village in case of attack is a good move, daimyo, however…"

Koujiro starts moving towards the Hidden Rain Temple, a place where rain nins are usually promoted from chuunins to jounins.

Upon arriving, he immediately takes care of the two rain nins standing guards by slitting their throats even before they could react. "Hmmm, not much security… that's good. This operation will be easier than I thought…"

It was 7:00 in evening already, and Naruto was walking around the Hidden Rain with Hinata. They had both liked the movie "The Snow Princess: Part 2", and were now just talking and laughing.

"Wow, I-I've never had this much fun… um, thanks a lot, Kou-san."

Naruto had decided to use Koujiro's name, except that he replaced Koujiro with Kou. Although he had been tempted many times to just take off his mask and reveal himself to her, he had always remembered regretfully that he wasn't part of Konoha any longer and that this good time with Hinata would be the last one as well.

"Ahaha, that's ok, I needed a break too anyway… these jobs get tedious sometimes. And don't worry, I had a lot of fun too," Naruto says excitedly.

Suddenly, Naruto senses a fast moving kunai aimed right at him and turns to the right, just in time to catch the kunai in mid-air using his middle and ring finger. And the person who had thrown it… was Inuzuka Kiba.

Kiba was clearly extremely angry, and would have attacked Naruto if Hinata had not gone between them.

"What the heck are you doing, you arrogant mask boy? Why the hell are you with Hinata?!?"

Naruto shrugs. "I asked her to go out with me since she seemed to be bored. Why? Do you have any problems with that?"

It was good that it was already a little dark, or else Naruto might have rolled on the floor laughing because of Kiba's furious red face. Hinata tries to separate them both but gets pushed aside by Kiba.

"You arrogant ANBU shit!! I'm gonna kick your ass right here, right now!!" Kiba screams as he aims a punch right at Naruto.

A masked ANBU suddenly appears beside Naruto and stops Kiba's punch before it reaches Naruto's face. Naruto also hears someone whisper in his ear, "We're getting out of here, Naruto. The operation is over. We don't need to be here any longer."

Naruto nods, and bows his head at Hinata. "Sorry if I can't continue to be around you anymore, but we need to leave you know. I had a great time with you, and I hope we can go out again sometime."

Hinata shyly bows her head slightly, and says in usual shy voice, "Ok, bye, Kou-san. I also had a good time, maybe we can get together sometime? Anyway, bye." She shyly smiles at Naruto, and Naruto feels his heart beat a little bit faster.

"Ok, bye."

Naruto and Koujiro were moving silently away from the village, and Naruto was exceptionally quiet during their trip. They had also taken off the robes that they were wearing, but not the masks just in case a few rain nin found them.

After a long silence, Koujiro decides to break the reverie. "So… you like her?"

Naruto looks at Koujiro, and laughs a little. "I guess… yeah, I do."

Koujiro stops and turns toward the village. "If you like her, Naruto, then you'd better go back to the Hidden Rain." Koujiro sounded sympathetic, and Naruto couldn't understand why he wanted him to go back.

"The Rain Nins are going to kill the Leaf Nins. I went to their ninja temple a while ago to finish the operation, and I heard the nins there talking about a secret alliance between the Hidden Stone and the Hidden Rain. The Hidden Stone nins will "attack" the Hidden Rain Village tonight, and the leaf nins will be obligated to defend it. In the midst of this battle, the rain nins were ordered to backstab the Hidden Leaf."

Naruto was stunned at this news, but his astonishment is eventually turned to anger. He hurries back to the Hidden Rain, with Koujiro following him a few seconds later.

Koujiro looks at the enraged Naruto ahead of him. "So, it has come. The All-out Ninja War is about to begin."

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Author's Note: Okay, you guys finally get what you wanted, a pairing!! Well, actually, it's NaruHinaKiba right now, but oh well. I kinda liked this chapter... anyway, I'll try to update as soon as possible. Hope you guys and girls liked this chapter! Review please!!!