A/N; My first Naruhina fic. This occurs after time-skip.

Disclaimers: I don't Naruto. Kishi does!

in her eyes…

It was quiet as everyone made there way back out of the forest and into the hidden leaf village. Naruto who was at the very back of the whole group knew exactly why everyone was so silent; it was him who had caused it. He looked at team eight to Yamato to Sai to kakashi to Sakura who had turned back towards her direction. Naruto's eyes made contact with her for a split second and as he saw it there was a feeling of pity in her eyes; he looked away.

"What the hell was that!" Kiba yelled and pointed at Naruto, "Why didn't anyone tell us we were going on mission with a guy who has a demon inside of him?"

There was a pause which held thousands of needles in the air. Kiba glanced over at Naruto and the kyuubi vessel made contact with his eyes and he saw there was confusion and fear in them. Kiba lowered his voice,

"If we had known-"

In a sudden a strong hand came in contact with Kiba's face and he staggered back only to be pulled forward by his collar.

"If you had known, then what?" Abandon him and this mission, or maybe try to kill him!" Sakura said through gritted teeth.

"All I'm saying is that…we would've been ready."

Sakura glared at Kiba and then released him at last.

"We weren't ready and because of that Hinata almost ended up dead. He was about to kill her."

Everyone except one looked at Hinata who was on top of Akamaru with Sai holding her unconscious body in place.

Naruto didn't look. He was too afraid.

Naruto stopped in his spot. Oh, how he loathed himself right now…

"Naruto-kun…"

Naruto turned his head to the side to see that Hinata had appeared beside him. He looked her up and down with so much intensity that she blushed even more under his gaze. He counted every bruise and scar that was emplaced upon her body because of him and his eyes remained on one particular deep one on her left cheek. He frowned.

"I'm sorry…"

"Hm?"

"You must hate me," he averted his gaze "thinking I'm a monster huh, Hinata?"

There was silence between then until she said, serenity owning her voice, "No…why would I think that?"

Her calmness for some reason irked him.

"You know why."

"No…I don't."

"Hinata stop acting like you don't know!" He had snapped. "I'm a…a…a monster because the Kyuubi is inside of me! I'm a monster for doing all that to you1" He pointed to the scars.

Naruto's breathing had become heavy and he had become very uneasy. Hinata looked at Naruto for a long-time and then said "Is that what you believe Naruto-kun…?"

He looked at her face, and there he saw once again placed upon her face was a soft and gentle smile, so soft and gentle that he was afraid to yell for he might end up shattering it.

"S-Shino-kun told me what Kiba-kun had said to you…don't take it offensively N-Naruto-kun…he was just scared and confused, so don't think K-Kiba-kun hates you because he doesn't; no one could ever hate you Naruto-kun."

Naruto abruptly looked up at her and stared at her as if she had grown wings.

"But Hinata-"

"N-Naruto-kun…just because the demon resides in you, doesn't make you the demon himself…"

And there, at that moment he saw something that he longed to see in someone for a long-time.

In her eyes there was no fear or confusion like there was in Kiba's eyes, there was no hate like there was in the villager, there wasn't even pity like there was in Sakura, but instead in her eyes there was a look of understanding, of acceptance.

At that time that's all he needed.

With tear-filled eyes, he placed his both hands on her shoulders and he bent down a little so she wouldn't see. She moved closer to him.

"Thank you, Hinata."

After sometime, when he finally was able to get a control over his emotions he slowly brought himself up into a standing position and moved close to Hinata's body and once looked at her sweet, blushing face. He focused his gaze upon her eyes again and that's when he saw it. He didn't need the Byakugan to see it either or anything like that. It was plain as day, bright as the sunshine.

Why had it taken this long to realize it?

In her eyes was something he usually had seen in Sakura's eyes when she looked at Sasuke.

It was love.

And it was for him.

And him alone.

Hope you enjoyed it.