I still don't own Naruto, just the ideas I present in this fanfiction.

Errors, Embarrassment and a Rescue in the Wave Country

A small dog ran at top speed towards Konoha. He had left the Wave country the night before and with luck he should arrive in Konoha in the late afternoon.

Hinata ran off heedless of her destination. All that mattered right now was getting away. Maybe if she ran far enough she could stop hearing what Naruto had said, 'I don't like her like that'. It kept echoing in her mind. He didn't like her. Her crush and personal hero did not like her. She tripped as tears flooded her eyes at that thought. She rolled to a stop in the middle of a training field then curled into a fetal position and cried harder.

Sakura managed to catch up to Hinata after the heiress fell. She knelt next to the sobbing girl and gently stroked the girl's head as she vented her pain. Sakura was not sure what else to do so she just sat, feeling that being there for Hinata was all she could do right now. She was confused why Hinata had broken down so badly. They had heard Naruto's clone in the bushes start to shout at someone, something about perverts. Then the even louder shout about 'gorgeous', 'princess' and 'best friend' then ending with 'I don't like her like that'. Sakura knew she was missing something here but could not place what it was. Apparently Jiraiya had said something to the shadow clone thinking it was the real Naruto and that upset it somehow. That led to the shouting and finally Hinata running off in tears. Still, just shouting like Naruto's clone had done was pretty damning evidence of something bad going on between them. Sakura recalled how she had felt when Sasuke had finally driven her affections off. It felt like the end of the world. She had gotten through her loss and she would help Hinata get through hers.

Safe to say, Anko was peeved. She had been chasing the pervert for an hour and finally caught up to him when his wounds from his initial beating slowed him down. First, she had beaten the Sannin unconscious then she allowed several different snakes bite him. The resulting combination of venom had left Jiraiya unable to move but allowed him to feel everything that was happening to him. After he awoke, Anko took her time to slowly torture the man by shredding his notes and any copy of his books he had with him. Finally, she got mad and talked to him.

"You do realize your antics might have just destroyed this little team we have been building, Jiraiya? You were not even supposed to be back in town yet and there you were, peeping at swimming girls. The snakes I sent after Hinata and Sakura tell me that Hinata is pretty much a basket case right now. The ones keeping an eye on Naruto tell me he is still back where we left him with a confused look on his face. You managed in the span of one afternoon to ruin something the Hokage has been trying to make for years. Yes, he has tried to make a team to inspire Konoha before. We ended up with Itachi going nuts and a dead clan. If one of these kids goes bad over this little episode, you will live to regret it. Now, I have to go see if I can salvage my apprentice."

Anko dragged the Toad Sage to the hospital and dropped him in front of Tsunade. The Slug Sannin just looked from Jiraiya to Anko and back to Jiraiya wanting an explanation but Anko just turned and leaped away with a look of disgust on her face. Jiraiya knew he was in even bigger trouble now.

Sakura had sat with Hinata for a couple of hours now. She had noticed the snakes loitering on the edge of the training field but they merely sat soaking up sunlight. 'Well, at least Anko will know where to find us' she thought. Hinata had cried for a time then had fallen asleep from it. Sakura did not know what else to do for the heiress. Her own strength was now enough to easily carry Hinata home but she could not bring Hinata back to her clan in this state. Hiashi would go on a rampage if he saw Hinata like this. Sakura sighed and waited for Anko to catch up to them.

Shortly after noon, Anko finally came up to the girls. Hinata was still asleep so Sakura got up and walked over to woman. "You had better head to the hospital, Sakura. Tsunade might need a little help with putting Jiraiya back together again." Sakura just nodded and ran off, hoping never to anger the scary Anko.

Anko sat next to Hinata and nudged the girl gently. The pearl eyes opened as the sleeping girl woke with a startled jerk. "Up and at 'em, little Miss Sunshine. We need to talk about this morning. What was all that about?"

Hinata looked for a moment then slowly nodded. She took a deep breath and tried to find her voice.

"What … what Naruto-kun said this morning hurt, Anko-sensei."

"Yeah. Hearing the person you care about most suddenly say he does not like you like that at the top of his lungs might be a problem. Jiraiya was not the most informative source on what happened," Anko chuckled.

Hinata nodded and felt the need to just unload everything in her heart. Her sensei had been through pain so could understand better than most.

"I … I love him. But now I am not sure what to think. Before I met Naruto-kun, everything in my life was bad. I was a failure. My father, my cousin and my sister had no respect for me. Nothing I did was good enough for my family. Then the fire happened."

Hinata paused to look at the sky while Anko sat next to the girl in silence, letting Hinata speak.

"I was trapped and then suddenly he was there; like the hero in a romance arriving at the last moment. He got me free and hurt himself so badly doing it. I woke in the hospital and tried to see him but I could only sneak in. It was not easy to look at, sensei. His entire back burnt because he was saving ME. I had to know why he did this. He did not even know me and he almost died for me."

"I have seen him often before that day. Everyone in school was awake of Uzumaki Naruto. But no one ever talked to him. Some adults were harsh when they would speak to him but that was only to warn him away from their children. Most just pretended he did not exist. Even vagrants were acknowledged more often than he was."

"I was outside his hospital room when he woke up. I heard him telling what happened to the Hokage. I learned why people treated him like he is. But I kept silent about his secret. I never let him know I knew it. I tried to find out why he had saved me but he got angry with me. He did not like me calling myself weak. For the first time in my life, someone thought I had value as more than a member of my clan. He valued me as Hinata, as myself."

"In time I could just be myself with him. My father allowed me to be near him and I was happy. I grew out of the shell I was in and people could see me, all thanks to him. The two people no one would acknowledge suddenly became the two everyone saw. My time with him was a joy, my heart was full and I thought that he felt the same things I did."

"Then, hearing what he said this morning. My heart shattered. I felt betrayed. All I could think about was running from that pain but I could not escape it."

Anko nodded slowly. "That kind of pain you can never get away from Hinata. It stays with you for a long time, never fading. For me, it was my sensei. I would have died if he asked me to do so; I loved him that much. But to him, I was just another toy to be played with and eventually discarded. Things are not like that with Naruto. You heard him say you are his best friend. He does care about you but I guess not in the way you care about him."

"The question now is how you deal with it. Hinata, you are a strong girl. I would not be training you if you weren't worth it. When dealing with others, you will have to be shinobi. You cannot break down like this in front of people in the future if you want them to see you as being strong. You have a duty to the village that you need to fulfill and you cannot simply run away from that duty."

"As far as Naruto is concerned, you will have to deal with him as well. If he only wants to be friends, you must respect that. Who knows? In time, he may see you as more than simply a friend. I mean he is a boy after all. They are pretty clueless in matters of the heart."

Thunder rolled in the distance and Anko looked at the approaching thunderstorm. "Well, I don't know about you, but I do not like sitting out in the rain." She stood and offered a hand to help up Hinata. The younger girl took it and stood. "Ya know, if you were a few years older, Hinata, I would be taking you out on the town to get drunk after all this. We could get wasted and pick on shy guys all night long. My old classmate, Iruka was always fun to tease. I should really look him up one of these days."

Hinata blushed crimson at what Anko was implying regarding her old teacher but no matter what; she could only picture herself and Naruto in the way Anko was talking.

Naruto had never willingly stood in the same place for more than a few minutes at any time in his life. Yet here he was hours later in the same spot as he tried to figure out what had happened. The clone dispersing had given him the knowledge of WHAT was said and a little bit of why but left him confused anyhow. Hinata's reaction was what had scared and confused him so badly. Hadn't the clone said she was gorgeous and like a princess? That he did not have perverted thoughts about her?

Yes, he had noticed the way she looked in her new training clothes. Seeing her in them had given him stomach butterflies and other different feelings but he would never have perverted thoughts about her. She was a hime; a princess. She was also the only true friend he had ever had.

But that did not explain why she had fled crying. The look in her eyes before she left haunted him. It was a look of having been betrayed. He knew somehow he was the cause but he could not understand why his chest hurt so badly each time that look flashed across his thoughts.

Some distant thunder rolled. Naruto looked up to notice the entire afternoon had passed and he had not strayed more than 3 feet from where he had stood since morning. This was getting him nowhere. Maybe he could talk to the Old Man or Iruka-sensei about this. It certainly was not getting better just standing around.

Slowly, Naruto trudged back to the center of the village. The thunderstorm he had heard had closed in quickly and the rain began falling down on him. 'Just perfect,' he thought. 'Somehow, I don't think this day can get must worse.'

Just then, a small dog skidded in the mud as it ran around the corner. It slammed into Naruto's ankles, which made the distracted boy fall over face first into a fresh puddle of water. Naruto pulled his face from the water and looked up to see a pug. It had a Leaf headband and a blue vest on.

"Sorry about that," the dog said as it ran off toward the Hokage Tower.

Naruto just stared after the vanished dog. 'I do not think I will make any more comments on how things could not get worse again.'

Naruto was standing under a hot shower about a half hour later when someone began banging on his door. Muttering under his breath, he grabbed a towel and wrapped it around his waist. The banging continued as he approached the door. "What!" he shouted to the person banging. Anko's voice came through the door. "Naruto, we have a mission. Be at the Hokage's office in 15 minutes. Be ready for a mission out of the village that may last for several weeks"

Naruto then heard Anko run off as he turned to gather his equipment. As he was packing extra clothes, he looked down at the orange jumpsuits he normally wore around town and in training. The he reached deeper into his closet and pulled out a spare set of his 'mission clothes' that his pranks had been done in. 'It's not time to retire the orange yet but I get the feeling I might just need the serious outfit this time.' He put the all black suit and mask in the bottom of his bag before putting extra weapons on top of it. Storage scrolls with camping gear and rations stored inside came next. Ten minutes after Anko had been at his door, he was leaving his apartment and headed for the Hokage's office.

Minutes later he was in the waiting area along with Sakura and Tsunade. Both females were glaring at him but kept silent. A minute later, Anko came in followed by Hinata. Naruto began to say hi to her but stopped when she went over to the other women and ignored him. Suddenly, Naruto felt quite alone until the group was called into the inner office.

Naruto followed all 4 females into the office and found that the instructors had taken both chairs. The dog that had run him down earlier being attended to by an Inuzuka jonin was occupying the couch. He went to stand next to Hinata but she then moved to the other side of Sakura, leaving him even more puzzled. Before he could do anything else, Sarutobi spoke up.

"Good, you are all here promptly. Tsunade, Anko, where is Jiraiya?"

Tsunade looked at Anko who answered, "He had an accident after showing up at training today. Um, snake bites. He should be fine tomorrow."

Sarutobi narrowed his eyes a bit at Anko but knew the old perverts reputation too well to argue the point right now. "Fine. Anko you will have to lead this mission in his place. Circumstances have dictated that we send your team out on a rank B rescue mission to the Wave. Team 7 had a rank C escort mission there several days ago but it has run into a few problems." Sarutobi pointed to the exhausted pug on the couch. " Pakkun here brought word from Kakashi. The team had arrived in the Wave with no trouble but was attacked by 4 ninja shortly after arrival. It seems someone who was after the bridge builder who hired us hired a squad led by Momochi Zabuza; the Demon of the Mist. Team 7 won the initial battle and drove off their foes with minor injuries to the genin. However, Kakashi himself suffered a severe case of chakra exhaustion and a broken arm while heavily wounding Zabuza. He overextended himself summoning Pakkun to bring word to us."

"All teams with greater experience are currently on assignment so were are forced to send this one. I know you have conducted many drills against chunin level squads so you should be able to handle this mission. Anko, you and the genin will leave at once. Tsunade, you will remain behind for now to get Jiraiya ready as soon as possible to follow after them."

"Get to Wave as quickly as possible to relieve Team 7 and aid them in stopping Momochi Zabuza and his team. Use whatever force is needed to carry out your mission. These are missing ninja you are dealing with. Dismissed."

Anko led the team outside and looked them over. "Things have not gone well today and I do not care about whatever personal feelings any of you might be feeling right now. Can all of you put whatever is wrong aside and do this mission?" Anko's stare dug into each of them in turn.

Naruto nodded, not trusting his voice right now. Sakura nodded as well. Hinata paused for a moment before nodding. "Fine," replied Anko. "We leave at once. It is already late afternoon so we run until it is too dark to see and we make camp. We start moving again at dawn. Any questions?"

The genin all shook their heads no and Anko turned and dashed down the road with the genin following.

Next Chapter: To The Rescue

End Notes: This one was a difficult chapter to write. Trying to write it out from each perspective without falling into omniscient god mode and ruining everything made me scrap entire sections when I would go back to proofread. It took many drafts but I hope the final product was worth the extra time I was writing.

One point before people comment on things. Naruto said one thing. Hinata heard those words and interpreted something else entirely. That is a common problem between males and females of all ages.

One reviewer said he does not like the fact I use English for my jutsu and attacks. I speak American English so that is what I use. I will be having a lot of new things happening in the future and several unique (I hope) things happening as far as attacks. I have no facility in Japanese past the few words I do use and I am not going to attempt to translate new attacks into Japanese. I feel it would be disrespectful to the language to try. So I use English translation all throughout.

Dragon Man, do not be disappointed about your suggestion with using a genjutsu on Naruto. It was a good one but I already had something along those lines in my plot long before I posted the story. Not exactly but facing his fears as well as his current feelings all at once should be interesting. Years ago in school, one instructor in a creative writing class said always know where you story is going before you start writing. I have all my major plot points mapped out through the Chunin exams with a general outline after that. The hard part comes in making sure my writing all the things out is done in an interesting to read fashion.