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!

Her Eyes Say It All

Beeeep…Beeeep…Beeeep

Was the sound that Hinata awoke to as she began trying to swat at her alarm clock that had slowed down considerably. Hinata soon realized that it wasn't her alarm clock making that noise and that there was something keeping her from swatting at her phantom alarm clock all together, something weighing her hand down. As her eyes adjusted to the new brightness and began to take focus she noticed that she was no longer in her regular attire, but what she did find was a hospital gown covered in tiny purple flowers, and as she looked up she came to see the familiar slumbering face of Naruto. He looked like a total wreak, he hadn't even changed out of his clothes from the battle, and yet he looked so peaceful sitting there. O how the tides had turned, but this time Hinata was the one in the hospital bed and this time Naruto's hand had found its place there on purpose.

Not wanting to tear herself away from the slumbering blonde Hinata attempted to pull herself up into a sitting position with her elbow and her free hand. As she began to scoot herself up she became alarmingly aware of her injuries as she winced in pain, tearing her hand from the sunshine-haired boy, and tore Naruto from his sleep.

"Hinata-chan," Naruto's drowsy mind took a moment to find itself, "Hinata-chan, you…your awake!" Naruto exclaimed as he absentmindedly wrapped his arms around the raven-haired girl, causing her to grimace slightly. Naruto soon realized his abrupt mistake, even though Hinata wasn't complaining, and retracted himself almost as soon as Hinata's pain came and went. "Gomen, Hinata-chan. I was just so excited that you were awake that I…lost myself for a second."

"That's ok, Naruto-kun. I know you didn't mean any harm."

Knock knock was heard at the door as it creaked open.

"Tsunade-sama," Hinata said as she bowed slightly from her seated position, wincing in pain on the way down.

"It's good to see that you're both awake, especially you Hinata. You had us scared there for a while. But now that you're awake there shouldn't be too much to worry about," Tsunade assured her, glad to see that she had pulled though the worst of the experience. "Now all you will have to do is rest and let your body do the rest to get rid of whatever toxins are left."

"When will I be able to leave, Tsunade-sama?" Hinata asked, thoughts of the ball finding her mind.

"Soon, if I had to put a date on it then I'd probably have to say the day after the festival starts at the earliest."

Both Hinata and Naruto's hearts sank as they both realized that the day after the festival starts is the day after the ball. The day after the day they had both been looking forward to for such a long time.

"But that all depends on how quickly you recover and speaking of that, it's time to change your bandages so can you step outside Naruto?" Tsunade finished, knowing that she had delivered the news that neither one had wanted to hear.

"Hai," Naruto uninspiringly responded as he removed himself from his seat, "I can come back in after your done?"

"Yes, as soon as I'm done but for right now go tell the others that she's awake but needs to rest. After that I should be finished." Tsunade ordered as Naruto closed the door behind him. Tsunade now turned her attention to the lilac-eyed girl lying in bed. "Now, Hinata, let's see how your wounds look."

The examination didn't take long and soon Tsunade began changing Hinata's bandages.

"Well it appears that most of the damage was superficial, with the exception of the one deep one that put you here in the first place, but it even seems to be healing already." Tsunade knew that she had seen only one person begin to heal that quickly before but they are a very special case, that's also why she took the risk of having them help treat Hinata.

"Tsunade-sama, will I really have to be here until after the festival starts?" Hinata's eyes said everything else.

"More than likely I'm afraid, even though it appears that you will heal quickly I'm afraid that your body will still be weak from the toxins and you being up and around before then would do more harm than good. Just do as the Sand's medical ninja tell you to and we'll see." Tsunade knew what this meant to the girl. Naruto had finally gotten past that thick blonde head of his and taken some notice in the girl and now the one night she had been looking forward to the most was being taken away from her.

"Ok, Tsunade-sama, I understand." Was the entirety of the girls answer as Tsunade headed back towards the door.

"I have one more question Tsunade-sama." Tsunade stopped and turned just before her hand made it to the door handle. "How did Naruto-kun help you when you were trying to eliminate the toxins from my body?"

"I had him lend me his chakra. The technique I used requires a lot of concentration and it is easier to do when someone else is lending you their chakra, even if it's just a little bit. Naruto may be the reason I found and eliminated as much of the toxins as I did."

"Ok, thank you, Tsunade-sama."

"Well I should be going now. I have some more business to attend to so I'll leave you to your friends." And with that Tsunade was out the door.

Hinata only had a moment to herself before Naruto and the others came though the door to see how she was doing. All but Naruto came bearing gifts and flowers that they had found when Temari had taken them exploring the Sand Village. Kakashi's gift was to be the most interesting and unexpected of them all though. Kakashi always seemed to have a sixth sense about things and during his excursion into the local "book" shop he managed to stumble upon a copy of Matsudai Shingi's newest book "How to know he knows and let him know that you know that he knows you know that he knows…you know?" Matsudai-sensei was always one to find a way to use a lot of words to say very little. Sakura, Ino and Tenten had found one of the best flower shops in the Sand, Ino more so to scope out the competition from another village, and brought a bouquet of flowers each with some candy to go along with them. Chouji, much to his delight, had found and brought some of the Sand Villages special ramen that was seasoned with special herbs that can only be found in the desert. Shikamaru, being the sensible type, gave Hinata a shoji board that he had found in one of the markets. He said something about sharpening the mind to sharpen the body in the process. Kiba and Shino, being the ones that knew Hinata best, brought her a stack full of her favorite magazines. Lee offered to fetch some curry that he had become fond of but that urge was quelled when Neji came in with a tray of food, evidently Tsunade had pulled a few strings and Neji had been allowed to use the cooking facilities at the hospital. All the while Naruto stood off to the side, staring out the window and occasionally glancing towards Hinata as she conversed with the others in the room.

"Naruto-kun, what is it that you brought Hinata-san?" Lee asked, almost out of nowhere.

"I…I haven…," Naruto was completely caught off guard as Lee's question pulled him back into reality.

"Naruto-kun already gave me his gift before he came to get everyone." This was the first Naruto had heard of this, as far back as Naruto could remember he hadn't left the room Hinata was staying in except to use the bathroom and go and retrieve everyone after Hinata had woken up and that was only because Granny Tsunade had ordered him to.

"I see," was all Lee could think of to say as his mind wandered off to what the gift possibly could be.

"And I believe we should leave it at that. Hinata needs to rest and eat so she can be ready to return to the village before the festival and she can't exactly rest with all of us in here now can she? Besides, we've still got some work to do since we haven't posted any of the announcements about the ball yet." cut in Neji, who saw that his cousin wasn't willing to reveal exactly what it was that Naruto had given her.

Slowly but surely everyone disappeared out the door until there was only Neji and Naruto left in the room with Hinata. Naruto, noticing that most everyone was gone, turned to head towards the door only to be stopped by a hand on his arm.

"Perhaps one of us should stay, just in case Hinata needs something, and since you haven't left the hospital yet perhaps I should go since you'd need to know the layout of the town a little bit to know where to put up the announcements." Neji was obviously making up an excuse but Naruto wasn't about to fight him on it. "But perhaps you should go change first, seeing how those are still the clothes from the battle and they're pretty torn up." A good point and again, Naruto wasn't about to fight him on it.

With a nod Naruto grabbed his pack and headed out the door, "I'll be back in about ten minutes."

As the door closed behind Naruto worry could be seen in Hinata's eyes.

"Neji, has he really been here, in this room, all this time?" Hinata inquired.

"Ever since they let him in and that's been since about eight o'clock last night and it's just now getting to be one in the afternoon. It took Tsunade ages to get him to leave the waiting room just to get his own injuries checked on and bandaged up. He was furious when the Sand doctors told him that you weren't to have any visitors until you woke up. He would have probably killed one of the aids if Tsunade hadn't convinced them that it was in their best interest to let him stay with you. Other than the one or two times he left to use the bathroom and when he came to tell us that you were awake he never left the room and none of us left the hospital until Tsunade told Temari to show us around the village and suggested that it would be an opportune time to look for gifts for when you woke up. We even tried to convince him to come with us but he was so stubborn that he wouldn't even leave to change out of those tattered, bloodstained clothes, not until after you came to. I'm not even sure he's eaten anything since we got here. He didn't even show the least bit of interest when Chouji told him that the Sand did, in fact, have ramen."

Hinata was speechless. No one had ever been so adamant about staying with her when she was in the hospital before, not even when she wasn't in the hospital either. She didn't know what to think, silence was her only reply.

"But enough of that, you should eat before your food gets cold and I should get going and help the others."

"Arigato, Neji-kun. For the food and for all that you've said, both mean a lot."

"You would have done the same for me so don't think anything of it," he replied as he exited the room and closed the door behind him.

Hinata soon began to ponder over the food that Neji prepared for her, steamed rice with broccoli and carrots, lemon grilled chicken and a chocolate cupcake with chocolate icing and the words "Get Well" written on top.

It wasn't long after Hinata had started her meal that Naruto returned in a fresh pair of clothes. Naruto's entrance startled Hinata, she had almost forgotten that he was coming back, and caused her to knock her fork off into the floor. The clanging of the metal against the floor caught Naruto's attention as he closed the door behind him and headed over to pick it up off of the floor.

"Don't worry about it Hinata, I've got it."

"No, no, I can get it from here Naruto-k," the bed proved to be the victor in this battle as Hinata wrenched back in pain as she stretched too far over the edge and caused her abdomen to cringe.

"Hinata!" Naruto cried out as he rushed over to her side. "You shouldn't strain yourself like that."

"Gomen, Naruto-kun. I just didn't want you to have to get it for me. You've already done so much for me."

"All I've done is put you in this hospital bed because I couldn't keep you safe and now I've ruined the ball for the both of us."

Hinata sat and thought for a moment, contemplating the reason she was lying in this bed. "You're absolutely right about one thing, Naruto-kun. You are the reason I'm in this bed. Now tell me, how many kunai did that Stone ninja throw?"

Naruto didn't need to think on how many kunai there were, he knew very well how many because he had been playing that event though his mind ever since he had been given a second to think.

"Nine," he answered.

"And how many of those nine did you protect me from?" Hinata asked as she slid her bare legs over the edge of the bed.

"Only eight," he answered, grinding his teeth.

"One last question, Naruto-kun. What would have happened if you had only stopped seven or six or five of those kunai?" she inquired as she slid off of the bed and onto the cold tile floor.

Naruto remained silent as he realized where Hinata was going with this line of questioning.

"I wouldn't be in that hospital bed if it weren't for you. I would be lying on top of a funeral pyre instead." Hinata's words grew quieter and more sincere the closer she crept to Naruto. "Tsunade-sama also told me about what else you did and that she couldn't have preformed that Jutsu without you. You saved my life Naruto, you're the reason I'm here right now," she ended as she wrapped her arms around the now weeping blonde.

His arms slowly found there way around her shoulders and he pulled her closer to him as he continued to cry. She wrapped her arms around him even more tightly and buried her face into his chest and like that they remained until Naruto had no more tears to cry.

After Naruto's tears found their end the two pulled away from one another and their eyes found one another. As Naruto searched Hinata's pale lavender orbs he found no coldness or malice, only warmth and understanding were there. Hinata, in turn, though his bloodshot eyes found comfort and ease, two things that Naruto was far from being used to.

The silence between the two was finally broken by the sound of metal hitting the floor, this time Hinata's spoon laid victim on the cold tile floor.

"Kuso, I went and let your food get cold with all my bawling." Naruto genuinely knew that Hinata needed to eat in order to gain her strength back and cold food wasn't the most satisfying way to do it.

"That's alright, I'll get Neji-kun to fix me something some other time. How about you fix up a couple of bowls of that ramen Chouji found and we can have lunch together? I'll even start the water for you if you can dig it out of the bags in the corner."

Hinata's idea sounded even better and better by the moment. Naruto couldn't remember the last time he had eaten since they had left Konoha.

"Hai," Naruto answered with a smile replacing the melancholy look on his face as he rushed over and began tearing though the bags as Hinata made her way over to the sink on the opposite side of the room.

"Hey, Hinata, didn't Gaa," Naruto began to ask as he turned around to bring the pair of ramen cups over to Hinata at the sink, but as soon as he was around facing her he had reversed his direction and had a light crimson covering his face.

Kuso…I'm not a pervert like Ero-Senin…I am NOT a pervert like Ero-Senin

"Didn't what, Naruto-kun?" she asked, not understanding the muffled words coming out of his mouth.

"I…uh… could you maybe tighten you gown a little bit, maybe, because I can see?" he requested with his person still facing the wall.

"Tighten my," the realization struck her as to what he was referring to, "oh…s-sure Naruto-k-kun," she shuttered as scarlet filled her cheeks. She also felt her heart twinge a little, most guys would have allowed her to remain as she was and ogle her exposure as long as allowed, but Naruto had always been more than kind to her and seemed to be almost as embarrassed that he had noticed as she was.

"There, all done," she announced as she tied the last pair of strings together tightly.

At the signal Naruto turned around to find that Hinata had fastened up all the loose strings quite tightly, so tight in fact that the formerly loose-fitting gown now clung to her body, showing off more of her form thanNaruto, or anyone for that matter, had ever seen.

Naruto had never noticed how gorgeous Hinata was on a physical level. Most girls with a body like hers would flaunt it and make sure that everyone knew how beautiful she was but Hinata always hid under that bulky jacket and never took it off. Perhaps, one day, Naruto would be able to coax Hinata into wearing that jacket less often.

"So…um…is the water ready yet?" Naruto couldn't help but stumble over his words and barely diverted his eyes before he began to stare.

"Yes, I think it's just right," she answered as the turned and took both cups from Naruto to fill. After that she went and sat them on the table next to the bed and took a pair of chopsticks each out of a draw and placed them on top, so as to keep the lids shut.

"Do you need any help getting back into bed?" Naruto asked, feeling a little useless as he stood there and watched her make all the preparations.

"I just need to lower it and I should be fine, you'd think with how high they set it they wanted to keep me up there the whole time," she answered as she found the control dangling off the side of the bed and pressed the button that lowered it closer to the ground. However the bed didn't lower itself quite as low as a normal bed would and was still a little high off the ground. As Hinata pushed down on the bed trying to pull herself up her body made sure she was aware that the toxins hadn't fully left her system yet as she lost her strength, her arms buckled and she tumbled towards the floor. She never found the floor though, what she found was a pair of arms.

"Arigato, Naruto-kun." Hinata's blush became apparent immediately as she remembered the time in the Bikouchuu forest.

"Would you like me to help you into bed this time or should we see how many times it'll take until I miss?" he teased.

"Ok, you win," she admitted in defeat as Naruto placed and arm under her legs and lifted her up onto the bed as best as he could.

"I know that you don't want to be a burden, I can see it in your eyes, but right now you need to let someone else bear some of yours so you can be healthy soon and we can show Granny Tsunade that you're well enough to go to the ball. Remember, you made me a promise and I intend to make you keep it and if you can't go to the ball then you can't keep it now can you?"

Hinata replied with only a nod and a smile and that was more than enough of an answer for Naruto, her eyes said the rest.

"Now how about some of that Desert ramen? I'm sure it's not up to Ichiraku standards but it can't be all that bad."

"Only if you'll hand me my cup and chopsticks, Naruto-kun," she teased

"Ah, someone's learning."

Naruto never left the room for the rest of the day, except for when the nurses came by to change Hinata's bandages. Naruto stayed in the room and waited on Hinata, hand and foot, so she'd stay in bed. They spent most of their time talking, mostly about what they thought the Hidden Sand village looked like because neither one of them had been conscious or aware when they came in. After a while they even tried to figure out how to play Shoji, but after Naruto suffered defeat five games in a row he decided that learning the game was hopeless in his case. They didn't talk about the ball anymore except for Hinata telling what Tsunade said. After that there just wasn't anything else to say because a promise is a promise and that's that. Naruto fell asleep in the chair next to Hinata's bed again that night and, magically in his sleep, his hand found hers once more.

Naruto spent most of the time they had in the Sand Village in Hinata's hospital room, making sure she stayed in bed, but eventually Tsunade decided that if Hinata was ever going to get any real rest that Naruto was going to have to get out of the room. So, eventually, Tsunade gave Naruto some tasks that needed to be done and made sure to keep him relatively busy. Hinata spent most of her Narutoless hours sleeping, something Tsunade knew she needed plenty of and the reason she tried to occupy the exuberant blonde with menial tasks. Naruto did however take the time to redeem his giftlessness from when Hinata had woken up but he refused to tell her what it was and refused to give it to her until the ball, this was on the third day they were there. The final day crept up on them, almost unexpectedly. The final day would be the day of decision as to the fate of whether Hinata would be able to go to the ball or if she would have to stay in the hospital. As soon as Tsunade received a decision from the doctors that had been observing Hinata's condition and had done tests on her blood to see if the toxin was still in her system in a threatening volume, and after she put in a word or two of her own, she headed straight to Hinata's room to deliver the news.

"Hinata, Naruto, everyone, I see that news travels just as fast in the Sand village as it does Konoha."

"Eh…I don't know about the rest of them but I'm just curious and as news traveling fast, with those three and Temari here Konoha's news network is suffering dearly. Surely the news papers are running "No News Today" as the headline. I'm surprised the papers here had any news in them at all until we got here," Shikamaru injected, expecting wrath to come upon him from all sides he found that he was poorly mistaken. Sakura and Ino were busy talking to one another to pay any attention to him, Ino had learned to tune him out long ago and now was no different, and Tenten was busy directing her attention towards the other lavender-eyed member of their group. Temari was the only one of the four that his quip was directed at that heard him at all.

"Get it though your thick, lazy, pineapple head that if you keep stuff like this up that one of these days I'm going to forget who you are and kill you," Temari threatened, causing all other conversations in the room to cease and focus their attention on the surely soon to be doomed Chunnin.

"Hinata, do you still have that shoji board I gave you?" Shikamaru inquired, his composed expression never changing.

"Hai, it's in the top drawer of the chest of drawers," she answered, wondering where Shikamaru was going with this.

"If you're going to be so hostile with me, Temari, I think I may be safer taking that shoji board to the ball instead," he smirked, knowing that he had just hit one of the buttons he was looking for.

"I swear if you don't take that back I'm going to hit you so hard that you're the one they are going to have to keep in this hospital." Temari's rage was apparent, she obviously has been looking forward to the ball as much as the next girl in the room and worst of all she wasn't about to lose to him at one of his games right now.

"You are absolutely right. I do take it back because it would be wrong if I took that shoji board instead of you," Shikamaru answered sincerely.

"That's what I thought," she snapped, feeling she had won.

"I barely even know it. I'll take my shoji board from home instead since we've been properly acquainted for quite some time. Thank you for being so considerate, Temari." Shikamaru knew what was coming next, it happened every time he got the best of her.

THWACK!

"I believe I may have deserved that," said Shikamaru from the flat of his back.

"Damn right you deserved it, now get up so I can do it again," Temari mandated, her eyes clearly showing she was ready to strike him even harder if he got up again.

"I think I'm good down here thank you. I'll get up after you've calmed down."

"Huhmm, I don't suppose I could get to the reason why we're all gathered here could I?" Tsunade interjected, hoping to spare the only Chunnin with her from any more pain. "Ok, well I've spoken with the doctors and over their test results and, to be quite frank, there is good news and bad news. The good news is that Hinata will be leaving the hospital and coming back to Konoha with us."

"That's great news Tsunade-sama," Sakura exclaimed.

"That is excellent news but I'm not done. The bad news is that when we arrive back in Konoha Hinata will be admitted for observation at our hospital." The room fell silent as Tsunade's words finished exiting her mouth, but the silence was soon broken by the person this decision affected the most of all.

"At least I'll get to be home for the festival, right Naruto-kun?"

"Right, Hinata-chan," were the only words Naruto could find at the moment. He couldn't even compose a complaint or any form of protest towards the Hokage whom would have loved to have had the power to make it to where Hinata didn't have remain hospitalized upon their return, but the blood tests still showed something foreign in her blood stream. Physically the wounds the girl sustained were almost completely healed, something that baffled the Sand doctors, but the blood tests still showed something in her blood that wasn't supposed to be there.

"I do have one more shred of good news, however. This is the Sand's physicians' final decision and upon our return, when Hinata is admitted, I am going to have Konoha's best look over the results and check on something for me." The Hokage's words lightened the mood in the room with a sigh of relief and a little bit of hope.

"In other words you're getting a second opinion?" Neji questioned, wondering what the Hokage could hope the Leaf doctors could find that the Sand couldn't.

"Somewhat, yes, I suppose you could call it that if you wanted to. Let's just say that this requires special research that can only be done in Konoha and let's leave it at that. As long as I have you all here I might as well make this announcement as well. Pack your things, we are leaving a little earlier than expected, we leave in two hours."

Everyone soon began to hustle and bustle as they rushed off to gather all their things together and do a little last minute shopping before they had to leave.

"You too Naruto and no complaints, Hinata's things will be taken care of without you having to kill yourself trying to get all of yours and hers together by yourself."

Naruto, having been defeated before he could open his mouth, did as he was told and went to pack and ask Chouji where he had found that special ramen.

"Thank you, Tsunade-sama, for everything, really."

"Don't thank me just yet, Hinata. I don't know if I'm right yet or not. Oh, by the way, just so you know, you'll be riding back with me in the carriage as we had originally planned. We wouldn't want you walking back anyway if there are still toxins of any kind in your system."

"Will Naruto-kun be riding with us?" she inquired, not remembering the instructions given to her so long ago.

"Yes, along with Shikamaru and Temari as well," Tsunade affirmed, not surprised that the young kunoichi had forgotten with all that had happened in such a short time. "Well I suppose I should be off and see to it that everyone is ready to leave on time. Someone will be by soon to help you with your things. I'll see you in two hours."

"See you then, Tsunade-sama."

And with that Hinata was left alone in the room. Hinata used what time she had to change out of her purple flowered gown and into her regular clothes and began to gather her things before a nurse's aid came and helped her with the rest. The two hours allotted to her to prepare to leave was almost none existent. With the room now devoid of her every having inhabited it Hinata made her way down to the main entrance of the hospital where there awaited the coach the Hokage had promised.

"Are we ready Miss Hyuuga," the aid asked.

She responded with a smile and a nod as the door was opened for her and she was given a hand up from inside the coach. The hand she received was the lazy Shikamaru's.

"I always knew you had manners," Temari jibed.

"Arigato, Shika-kun," Hinata replied as she took her seat next to Naruto.

"No problem, Hinata. Now why can't you be more like that, show a little gratitude more often?" Shikamaru retorted, turning his attention to Temari as soon as he showed a sliver of his civil side.

"I do show my gratitude when you do nice things for me," she answered back.

"Since when?" he fired back.

Temari then proceeded to whisper something inaudible into Shikamaru's ear that created an expression on his face that words couldn't possibly define.

"Ok…this one time I'll let you win, but only this once."

"We're going to have to listen to them go back and forth all the way back to Konoha, aren't we?" Naruto inquired in a soft voice as he leaned closer to Hinata's ear.

Naruto was almost right, if it wasn't for the relaxing motion of the carriage and the warm weather that lulled the two terrors to sleep the other inhabitants of the carriage would have never found any peace and quiet.

It was three in the afternoon when the party arrived at the main gates. Five hours before the ball was to commence. The first item on the agenda was to drop Hinata off at the Konoha hospital and begin the analysis and comparison of the findings right away. Next was for everyone to rush home and prepare, all but Hinata whom the Hokage arranged for her things to be sent to the hospital, just in case. Seven o'clock seemed to come around too quickly as Hinata continued to wait in her room for news of the results and word from the Hokage. It didn't even worry her yet that her things hadn't arrived, it was probably for the best so as to not get her hopes up.

Finally a knock came at the door and Hinata walked over to it and opened the door to reveal, Hyuuga Hiashi.

Fifteen minutes remained as Tsunade continued her speech about the friendship between the Leaf and Sand villages. Naruto continued to pace and watch the door as the time continued to tick.

She couldn't still be at the hospital, could she?…Granny Tsunade must have been wrong about whatever it was that she thought of…five more minutes

"And now to open this year's festival ball, as tradition dictates, I would like to introduce to you this year's rookie class and ask that they begin this year's festival with the first dance," Tsunade announced as she looked over to the group of rookies, standing off to the side where she asked them to. As the music began Naruto found his way farther off to the side as the others slowly moved past him, their eyes showing their understanding. Shikamaru and Temari were first, Temari in a fluid crimson dress that resembled the tint of Gaara's hair and Shikamaru in his black tux with a vest and tie to match. Chouji and Ino followed, Ino's dress being a dark purple that thinly lined her body, Chouji's tux matched Ino's dress much like Shikamaru's matched Temari's, just like most of the guys had planned. Naruto could barely watch anymore as his friends took the floor pair by pair. So he turned his attention away and fixed his eyes back to the door where he found an ebony haired girl in a stunningly sinuous light blue dress. As he followed her figure up from her feet to her face, awe struck, he stopped at her eyes where he found two lavender pools surrounded by a sea of blush.

"I hope I'm not too late, Naruto-kun."

"Hinata? I thought they were keeping you at the hospital still."

"They were but my father called in a favor and told me that I would only get one festival like this and he wasn't about to let me miss it. Especially since I had finally stepped out into the sun and found a certain blonde haired boy to go with. A certain blonde haired boy that gave me the strength to even be here tonight. A certain blonde haired boy that saved my life. And a certain blonde haired boy that I owe the first dance of the night to, no matter what."

"Well how about you and that certain blonde haired boy get out there and show them how to dance?" Naruto said with that goofy smile of his as he offered Hinata his arm and led her up behind Neji and Tenten, who were last in line. As Tsunade called Neji and Tenten's names though the intercom she looked down and found and extra couple standing behind them and couldn't fight off the smile that that sight brought to her face.

"And for our last couple of the evening I present to you, Mr. Uzumaki Naruto and Miss Hyuuga Hinata."

As the words left Tsunade's lips Naruto and Hinata followed as Neji and Tenten had done before them and they took their place in the center of the dance floor and they all took their positions. Tsunade signaled and the band began, violins and cello to start, and the rookies began their winding motions across the room. Suddenly, after about a half minute of violin and cello, drums, guitar and a man's voice could be heard going with the music.

"And lastly, for my surprise of the night, I introduce to you Kurikku Go and their hit song Toki Kikai!"

Hinata couldn't help but blush and smile a little more, not that that was truly possible at this point but somehow it seemed to come on even stronger, when she realized what Tsunade had actually just said. Kurikku Go is absolutely one of her favorite bands of all time.

Naruto couldn't help but love to see the smile on her face grow. He certainly was glad that Tsunade was easy to bribe and that she had developed a lot of connections before she had become Hokage. It didn't hurt that they had a bit of a connection and whether they liked to admit it or not they respected and, somewhere deep down, loved each other in some way or another.

The song ended and another, faster, song began and the rest of crowd joined the dance floor. The next few songs followed this trend as the rookies found a table to claim as their own when they needed breaks. Finally, after a large share of fast songs, Kurikku Go started a slow song and another one of their big hits, Mune en Teiku mai Hakushi.

"Finally a slow one, come on Shikamaru," Temari ordered as she heard the ballad begin, "and you two had better get out of those chairs and dance a little. I don't think I've seen you two out there since the first dance."

"Yeah Naruto, you and Hinata had better get out there or am I gonna have to bash your head in and drag you out there myself," Sakura cited with a little flair in her eyes behind the last part.

Naruto couldn't refuse the threat, even though he was going to suggest it to Hinata himself. He just didn't want to put too much strain on her considering she didn't actually have approval from the hospital. But with a nod and a blush from Hinata he slid his hand into hers and led her out onto the floor where they found themselves in a loose embrace.

The music played softly and slowly as the two of them found they were getting closer and closer to one another.

"Hinata, umm, can," Naruto began, rambling and turning red under the collar.

Hinata couldn't help but blush and bury her face into his shoulder when she realized what he was trying to ask.

"Of course, N-Naruto-kun," she whispered, answering his unasked question, as she leaned back and they fell into one another's eyes.

Time suddenly slowed down as Naruto began to lean in and Hinata closed her eyes, realizing that, for once, she wasn't dreaming. After what seemed like hours their lips met in an embrace that melted the world away. All that was there was them, the music and the night. The night that shouldn't have been but now will remain in their hearts, forever, no matter what.

Ransengan2theface: Well that's my 15th chapter, finally. I'm sorry it took so long but with it being the end of the school year I got hit pretty hard by papers and exams and really didn't have a lot of free time. But now that school's all but out, I'm still here because I have to play for graduation, and my love life is starting to make a little sense I got inspired to finally finish this chapter. Brownie points to anyone who can tell me who the band is and what the songs are that I mentioned. I know teh translation isn't exact but it's as close as i could get it. Well I hope this chapter finds you all well and once again I apologize for the delay. Later daze.