Disclaimer Time

I, in no way, shape, or form, own Naruto or any of its characters and am certainly not making any money off of them through this fanfic.

Disclaimer Time Over

w00t.

Now, on to the fic and how to read it.

Generally, everything will be straightforward, but every so often I may insert a thought process in italics, kinda like they do in the show all of the time…also, more often than not I'll leave spaces in speech with a "…" in between them for sort of a pause for the character to think or just to break up what they're saying…well, I guess that that's about it for the rules on how to read it. So, on to the FIC!

Not Like Yesterday

"...and then we watched the sunset from the Hokage monument and he walked me home."

"And Shikamaru and Temari just up and left you two?" Neji asked again as he was trying to make his cousin's story clearer due to the speed she had told it to him.

"Yes," she replied.

"And we are talking about the same loud mouthed Uzumaki Naruto now aren't we?" he said in a bit of a sarcastic manner.

"Yes," she said though a giggle and throwing a pillow at her unsuspecting cousin who caught the projectile right in the face.

"Maybe he isn't as dumb as we all thought…I wish I had thought of that with Tenten today but I didn't have as lazy or whipped of a teammate as Shikamaru to give me the chance," Neji sighed, wishing that he could have had such a chance to be alone with Tenten like that.

"Oh yeah, how did your day with your team go, Neji-kun?" Hinata asked as she realized that Neji had had to spend the day with his team as well and she had actually been doing most of the talking up until now.

"Oh…yeah…well I'll just say that it was interesting, to say the least. All we did was go to the barbeque restaurant and watch Chouji eat, listen to Ino complain about Chouji eating and Shino's brooding because his team was the only one that was completely broken up. It was just a complete waste, I didn't get nearly what you did today," he sighed. "I never would have thought that Naruto would have been so…so…I don't even know what to call it."

"Charming and sweet." Hinata answered rather quickly and slightly offended because she always knew that Naruto always had the potential to be both.

"Oh yeah, that's it right there," he retorted with a bit of sarcasm still lingering in his voice before he threw the pillow back at his cousin who was a little more prepared than he was when he received it.

"But don't worry Neji-kun, I'm sure you can be just as charming with Tenten as Naruto is," she teased him because she knew that Naruto being better than him at something would completely drive him crazy, "as a matter of fact just the other day Tenten was saying that she wished you could be as charming as Naruto."

This of course invoked the response of yet another flying pillow and a "Liar" that shortly followed.

"Wow, it's getting pretty late," Neji pronounced as he looked over at the clock on the wall to see that the two of them had been talking since well past dinner.

"Yeah it is. I guess we should really get to bed then since we have a really big day tomorrow." Hinata knew that it was probably true but nothing could compare to what she had been though today.

"I know. I just can't help but wonder what kind of training the Hokage will put us though. It'll be interesting to say the least," he ended as he turned for the door and turned the handle, "I'll see you in the morning then, night."

"Good night Neji-kun," she replied as she got up to cross the room to her bookshelf.

Although Hinata and Neji had gotten much closer lately she felt that she didn't have to divulge every detail to him and that it was her right to keep some things to herself. That's why she hid it in her books and made sure it was in one of the most girly ones that she had, How to Tell Him, "Hi, I exist" and Not Faint Constantly by Matsudai Shingi. The one detail that she had failed to mention to her cousin was the fact that Naruto had made one last "suggestion" before they had returned home. The photo booth. As much as she tried to refuse it and say that she was already later than she needed to be he did nothing but insist upon it and eventually, she broke. But now she was glad about it because she didn't really have any pictures of Naruto, more or less her and Naruto together. As hard as she tried throughout all of the pictures she couldn't fight off the blush that covered her face. In every last frame there was a splash of crimson on her cheeks. Now was no different as she stared at each individual pane and silently said good night to Naruto, whom she hoped was doing the same with his copy of the pictures as well. Today would be a day to be remembered, a day she would never forget, but what would tomorrow show. She could only wonder as she said one last goodnight and slid the photos back into their hiding spot, slid her clothes off and finally slidinto bed to hopefully dream so she could be sure that today had not been one.

Beep beep beep

Ah yes, her usual morning routine, but there seemed to be more of a kick in Hinata's step as she prepared breakfast and did her morning chores. Hiashi knew that she had training to do with the Hokage for the mission she and Neji, along with the others, had been assigned. He just shrugged it off and went back to his morning tea and newspaper.

Hinata and Neji were out the door before he knew it, Neji had been a little reluctant to leave so early since he liked to take his time in the mornings, but being lazier than Shikamaru right after he wakes up in the morning assured that he wouldn't put up much of a fight, that and Hinata coaxing him with the detail that Tenten would probably be there early too.

It wasn't too long before they had reached the top of the hill that overlooked the training area and to no avail neither of their desired targets were there. The only people they could see were Lee and, oddly enough, Shikamaru and Temari.

"Hey Lee," Neji shouted as he greeted his temporary ex-teammate, "I'm not surprised that you're here but Shikamaru, how?"

"How?...How?...I'll tell you how. That right there is how," he scowled as he pointed lacklusterly at the sand kunoichi standing next to him.

"You just needed some motivation this morning, that's all. That's what you get for being up so late last night," she said in her defense.

"I wouldn't have been up all night if you hadn…" was as far as Shikamaru could make it in his defense before someone's rather large fan haphazardly fell on his foot, accidentally of course.

"So…we're all on a team from here out now aren't we?" Temari interrupted as Shikamaru removed his barking foot from underneath her fan.

"Well, we are," Hinata answered softly, "Neji and Lee are on other teams. It will be the three of us and Naruto-kun on a team with Tsunade-sama."

"Oh…good," she smiled evilly, "I'll be able to keep him in line then."

Hinata giggled at this as Temari noticed that Shikamaru had found a way to remove his foot from underneath her fan and slink off to talk with Neji and Lee.

The two girls talked while they waited on others to join them, well Temari did most of the talking but Hinata still asked questions, some of which she received more information than she would have liked to have known, information that she evidently needed to know. It wasn't long before the members of the other teams started to show up, one by one or by the couple, but even after Tsunade showed up the final member of their group had yet to make an appearance.

Hinata was starting to worry a little bit as time was pushing dangerously close to the official time they were supposed to meet. Even Kakashi was there already and it was five minutes till ten.

"Alright," Tsunade shouted,to get everyone's attention, "I suppose that we should begin."

Where are you Naruto-kun?

All of a sudden Hinata could hear something off in the distance, kind of like someone yelling. Then, as it was getting louder, she could see that what was making all the commotion was coming over the hill, and fast.

"Granny Tsunade! Don't start without me!" yelled the sapphire eyed shinobi that had just peaked the hill top at full speed.

"Kakashi, this is obviously your fault," Tsunade said as she cast an ominous glare at the languid eyed Jounin.

Kakashi didn't seem offended, more frightened by the anger in Tsunade's voice than anything else. He had figured that he'd rubbed off on his students a bit but he was surprised that he would have rubbed off on Naruto this much, evenat all.

Naruto had finally reached the bottom of the hill and was headed towards the large group that gathered, but he wasn't slowing down.

As hard as he tried and no matter how much chakra he pushed into his feet he couldn't slow down, and he was headed right for Hinata.

Hinata hadn't noticed that Naruto wasn't slowing down at any rate until it was too late. The collision that ensued was similar to that of a bowling ball picking up a spare pin, that is if the bowling ballheld on for all it was worth as they collided, then they tumbled over one another several times and then have the bowling ball finally land on top of the pin. They laid like that for a moment, mostly so Naruto could catch his breath from allowing gravity to take advantage of him. All the while Hinata just laid there with her eyes wide shut.

"H-Hinata, are you ok?" Naruto asked as he jumped up off of her as he realized how close they really were. "Hinata?" he asked again, she still didn't answer. As if on instinct Naruto got back down next to her, looking for signs of injury, he could find none. He slid his hand behind her head to see if she had hit it on a rock as they tumbled, as his hand lifted her head off the hard ground her eyes opened.

"Hinata-chan, are you ok?" he asked again, concern filling his voice.

She blushed, "I'm fine Naruto-kun, I-I'm glad to see you're here," she answered as Naruto helped her up to her feet.

"Hey, where'd everybody go?" Naruto inquired as he looked up and didn't see anyone but Temari standing there with a surprised look on her face. All she could find the power to do was point at the ground in front of her. Before them were Neji, Lee, Tenten, Chouji, Shikamaru, Ino, Shino, Kiba, Sakura, Kakashi and even Tsunade, every last one of them planted face first in the ground, overcome with shock.

"You'd think none of them had ever seen somebody run into someone else before, geez." Naruto scoffed as he looked over to Hinata with a smile. Hinata was still blushing furiously because she had realized why everyone was in the state they were. Shock undoubtedly ensued when Hinata failed to faint as everyone had surely expected, such a feat had never been witnessed before by anyone else who had seen Naruto make contact with Hinata.

It looks like I'm not the only one that has to get used to this

"Perhaps…we could begin now," Tsunade gasped as she found her feet once again, "if that's ok with you two that is?"

"S-Sorry Tsunade-sama, continue please," Hinata apologized.

"Alright then, each of you has a scroll here with your name on them and the details of your training and your role in the mission, before you begin training I suggest that you look over them," she said with a particular emphasis directed at Naruto, "and study them at the end of each day. This needs to go without a hitch and each of you need to know your parts down to the smallest detail. Is that understood?...Good, now off to your designated areas. We've got a lot of work ahead of us and not much time to do it in." Tsunade ended and just as soon as she did everyone was gone, everyonebut Naruto, Hinata, Shikamaru, Temari and herself.

"Do you any of you have any questions about the roles you are playing?"

"I have one," Shikamaru said as he stepped forward. "What are our covers for this, if the enemy becomes suspicious of why there are more than just the Hokage, a representative of the Sand and her escort that would help establish inter-village relationsand promote the festival, it could be troublesome. I guess what I'm asking is why are Naruto and Hinata here, other than the obvious positions they will fill as resources?"

"A good question Shikamaru and a rather simple one to answer, information was fed to theStone that a pair of rookie Genin that will be attending the festival's opening ball together would be accompanying me as well as representatives of the rookie class. They will be serving a similar task as you and Temari are. If my information serves me well you two are planning on attending together aren't you?"

Naruto couldn't help but be a little embarrassed and slightly agitated at Tsunade's inquisition and the fact that someone had told her about it without him knowing. Hinata on the other hand couldn't help but blush at the question as images from her dreams of her and Naruto at the ball flashed though her head, dreams that she could only hope for, because she was far to shy to push herself that far, but none the less were there.

"We…uh…yeah, we are," Naruto stammered, still embarrassed and still a little shocked of the abruptness of the question, as he turned a little to look at Hinata in the corner of his eye, not enough to look at her completely, but enough to know that she was looking back at him with crimson covering her cheeks.

"Good, then there shouldn't be any problems then. Now for our guest, I've requested that one of our ANBU captains aid us in training for this mission since we will be on the receiving end of an ambush. I give you Matsudai Shingi, leader of one of our ambush teams.

Standing before them, with his back to the tree that everyone had been gathering around before, was a man, about 5'10", with blazing orange hair that allowed a single strand to fall in front of his face, over his forehead protector.He worehis forehead protector slightly off to the right so as the Konoha symbol paralleled with one of his dark brown eyes, probably just one of those things he picked up and no one ever challenged him about it. Even though the weather was rather warm he still wore long black sleeves that were wider at the ends, much like a kimono's arms would appear. He also wore long black shorts that cut off about mid shin where tape took over the rest of his right leg and foot. As he turned and started walking towards them Naruto noticed a glint of metal that shown in the light, a pair of sai.

"Yo," he began, "I'm your worst nightmare…umm…I mean I'm Matsudai Shingi, but you can call me master, and by Tsunade-sama's request I'll be helping with your training."

Matsudai Shingi? It can't be, can it?

"Granny Tsunade, are you sure it's safe to train with him? He seems detached." Naruto questioned as he continued to not take an eye off of the strangely enthusiastic Jounin standing before him.

"I assure you all that he is one of the best we have when it comes to attacking the enemy and that makes him perfect for your training. He may seem a bit eccentric at times but he's loyal and I trust him completely with your well beings." Tsunade finished with a tone of complete confidence.

"Hey, what do you mean by "your well beings"? Aren't you going to be training with us?" Shikamaru interjected as he realized that she was going to leave them alone with this psychopath.

"No I will not. I have…other things that I must attend to. I will be joining you after you have gone though the basics of detecting and receiving an ambush. I have to go see to the other groups before I get back to my other business. I will see you all sometime soon," and with that Tsunade was gone and had left them with Shingi.

"Lovely," Shikamaru retorted to the empty air that once held the presence of the Hokage.

"Well well well, where shall we begin then? Perhaps we should assess your current knowledge. Yeah, I think I like that a lot." Maniacal laughter shortly followed the ramblings of their current sensei.

"This guy's going to be troublesome," Temari grumbled to herself, Shikamaru had rubbed off on her more than she'd like to admit but it was kind of hard not to steal his trademark phrase once and a while.

"Ok, I've got it. You see that path in the woods over there, that is going to be the path to the Hidden Village of the Sand. Your goal is to make it to the dried up creek bed that is about two miles off from here. Got that?"

"You made that up off the top of your head, didn't you?" Naruto scowled, wishing that Ero-Sennin were here insead of this ill prepared instructor.

"Maybe. Now I will give you ten minutes to discuss your strategy before you enter, this will also give me time to find an appropriate ambush location. Remember that you must move as though you are protecting someone and you must move on foot because you won't be able to move though the trees on the way to the Sand Village. Those are your only restrictions. Good luck."

The four of them soon learned to have a love hate relationship with Shingi-sensei, especially Naruto who loved that he treated them to ramen everyday for lunch but hated that he was almost always his first attack target of every ambush and with every chance he got he loved to tie him and Hinata upside down in a tree together. Hinata soon learned that Shingi-sensei enjoyed playing cat and mouse with her because of her bloodline limit but she couldn't help but notice that he really wasn't that bad of a guy at the end of the day. He was only hard on them because he needed to be, not that he wanted to be.

This routine of training continued day in and day out while what remained of the shinobi's free time was being used to get ready for the festival and the ball. With every break that they got the girls would all meet, even Temari who would enlighten them on some of her "secrets", and go looking for the perfect dress for the ball while the guys, while the girls were distracted, would go to the flower shop to see if the girls had decided on dress colors so they could order a corsage to match. It wasn't until two days before the mission that the girls decided on dresses, thankfully they were in colors that the boys would also be able to match their tuxes with without looking like total fools. They figured it would be a nice surprise for the girls if they matched.

"Well I guess you are as prepared as I can get you. You guys have learned a lot in the short time we've trained together. I'm truly proud of you," Shingi ended after their final day of training had ended.

"Tomorrow we head to the Sand and we'll see if all of your training has paid off or not," Tsunade added. "Well you all should go and enjoy yourselves tonight and get some rest, we leave at ten in the morning."

With that Tsunade began to saunter off towards the hot springs, seeing how they seemed to be calling her name at the moment.

"How about some ramen guys? Hey, where'd Shikamaru and Gaara's sister go?" Naruto asked, looking at Hinata with questioning, azure eyes.

"I believe Temari-chan said something about submarine races before they left, what ever that means." Hinata knew exactly what Temari meant by that because she had been enlightened about them while she and all the other girls had been shopping for dresses, but she wasn't about to tell Naruto about what she was talking about.

"Well how about you Hinata-chan, would you like to get some ramen with me?" he asked, unsure if she'd rather just go home and rest or not.

"I-I'd love to Naruto-kun," she replied, slipping momentarily back to the day before their training began and then to the ball and the dress she had found that she was now sure was perfect, at first she was skeptical of it because it just didn't seem like her but with a little coaxing from the others she finally decided on it since she was the last one to pick a dress.

And with that they headed towards Ichiraku for the late night special that Naruto had become accustomed to.

"So what do you think about Shingi-sensei, Naruto-kun?" she asked, trying to not sound nervous as she usually was around Naruto, even more so since that one night.

"He's kinda cool, as much as I hate to admit it, I wish he'd teach me how to use those sai of his…I don't think I've ever been pinned up to a tree like that sofast before."

They both shared a laugh and several others before they reached Ichiraku only to find that it was closed early for the night.

"Kuso, he must have been having a slow night without me around, huh?" Naruto joked, nudging Hinata with his elbow to add a little emphasis and decrease the distance between them.

"Well I guess you should be getting back anyway, because of your dad and all…unless you'd like to come back to my place and let me fix you some ramen, we could go up on my roof and look at the stars even, if you want that is but if you'd rather go back home and rest for tomorrow I understand that too," Naruto pleaded, not intentionally but he was kind of embarrassed about his place but was also really looking forward to spending some more time with Hinata before the mission tomorrow where he probablywouldn't be allowed such luxuries as talking with her all day long.

Hinata had often dreamed of going to Naruto's place, even if it was just to see where he lived and not for any other reason. But now he was the one asking her to come to his place to eat and just spend time with him. Her head and her heart were at war now, she knew her father would be furious with her if she were to come in after her curfew but how could she pass up an opportunity like this.

"Ok, but only if I'm home by 10:30, father will be furious if I'm not," she conceded, the thought of going to Naruto's was something she couldn't pass up.

"Alright! We've got about two hours then and my place is about a ten minute walk, if we run we'll have more time to eat and look at the stars and…" after that Hinata couldn't hear anymore as Naruto began tearing away towards his home and she soon began to follow.

They took half the time to get there at the pace Naruto set and were there before they knew it.

"Tada, I presentOtaku Naruto," he announced as Hinata caught up to him at the foot of his stairs, "it's not much but it's home I guess, oh and don't mind the mess, we won't be inside long and I haven't cleaned in a while."

"I'm sure it's not that bad, Naruto-kun," she replied as they headed up the staircase that led to his front door.

"Don't say I didn't warn you," he added as the turned his key in the lock to open the door. Behind that door was nothing short of a disaster area. Ramen cups and wrappers were strewn everywhere the eye could see. It was as if there were a ramen army preparing to invade Konoha and Naruto's little apartment was their rallying point before they attacked.

"So, have a seat and I'll have us some ramen before you know it, if you can find one that is," Naruto joked at his expense, he knew he should have cleaned up sometime this week for some reason but he never knew why that feeling kept following him, he did now, "Umm…what kind would you like?"

"I'll have whatever you're having Naruto-kun." Hinata had finally found a place that wasn't occupied by any ramen cups or wrappers, on the couch where she cleared off some that were already residing there. From the looks of it it seemed to fold out into a bed as well, maybe Naruto used it as a bed from time to time.

"Miso ramen coming up then," came a shout from out of the kitchen.

It was only about five minutes before Naruto came out of the kitchen carrying two cups of ramen and two pairs of chop sticks.

"Can you open that window in the corner over there? We'll go up to the roof through there." Naruto didn't do this very often, as of late, but when he first got his apartment it was his favorite place to go.

Hinata did as she was asked and held the window open for Naruto to climb out onto the fire escape that led to the roof.

Naruto was surprisingly able to climb the ladder without putting down either cup of ramen or pair of chop sticks, it was truly an impressive sight to witness.

Upon reaching the roof Naruto found his usual crook that had a wonderful view of the Hokage monument and the moon overhead, this particular crook had just enough room for two shinobi to sit, just enough.

Naruto and Hinata sat there and talked until Hinata noticed that Naruto had become very quiet and laid his head on her shoulder. Evidently Naruto's day had been longer than expected and he had passed out on the ebony haired kunoichi's shoulder.

"Naruto-kun," she shook him but he didn't budge. "Naruto-kun, wake up, it's time for me to go, Naruto-kun."

Naruto finally began to stir back to the world of the conscious.

"Ok," he managed to force though a yawn as he began to stretch.

He was still fighting sleep as they headed back though the window, "I'll walk you home then…and then see you tomorrow morning."

"That's ok Naruto-kun. I'll be fine." By the time she had found her way though the window and looked up Naruto was already fast asleep on the couch that she had cleared off. Hinata couldn't help but gaze at him in awe as he slept, remembering the first night of the Bikouchuu mission and how he looked then. Hinata went and found something to cover him up with and a pillow to place under his head. Before she left she also found his alarm clock and set it for him so he would be sure to get up in the morning. As she opened the door she decided that she was going to do one thing she had always dreamed of doing before but never had the chance or the courage to do. She walked back over to Naruto's makeshift bed and slid off his forehead protector. She then leaned in and pressed her lips to his forehead and whispered, "Goodnight and sweet dreams Naruto-kun," and then she returned to the place she had occupied at the door. Slowly she snuck back out the door so as to not wake him and just before the door was fully closed she could have swore that she heard him say something in his sleep, she took a moment to let it sink in and then finished closing the door and headed for home. It was simple but it meant so much to hear, "Goodnight Hinata-chan."

Rasengan2theface: I know I know, it's been a while since I last updated, Gomen Gomen. I never intended on it taking this long but I just got so caught up in writing papers for school and going to card tourneys over the weekends that a lot of my free time was spent, not to mention my beta didn't beta so I betaed this one as best I could. Thank Kami for spring break or I may have never gotten a chance to get any real writing done. Well the chapter many of you have been waiting for is coming up next and the chapter that puts my talents to the test because I've never done a fight scene before, maybe I'll need a stunt writer for this one or I could just go Jackie Chan on this one and do it all myself, if Jackie Chan can do it why can't I? Well I hope you liked my OC, I know he wasn't in there very long and it didn't add up to a lot of development for him but he might make some more appearances later on, I just love the name and I swear if I ever move to Japan that's what I'm going to change my name to, Matsudai Shingi. Bonus points and maybe a little creative control to the first person who can tell me what his name means. Shingi should be pretty easy if you've ever watched Neon Genesis Evangalon since that's the main character's name too, although I fell in love with the name before I ever watched the show so don't go saying that I stole it from that. Well my insomnia calls for me to start another chapter, I swear you'll have these coming a little faster soon, maybe even have several back to back, three of them if I can pull it off, it is only Wednesday right now. And I'm off…WHOOSH!