A/N: Well here I am back with another chapter. I want to do a shout-out for a fanfiction that I have been enjoying. If you have not read the story "White Kunai" by Magma823 check it out if you are a big NaruHina fan like I am. The story is coming to the end of its arc soon, which is making me sad and excited at the same time.

Disclaimer: Yep, that's right, I don't own Naruto.

Everyone jumps when Naruto suddenly appears right beside Tenten with a sad expression on his face which immediately changes to a big embarrassed grin. "Hi everyone, miss me?"

Tenten looks over and gives Naruto a smirk. "I was beginning to wonder if you were going to join us at all. Did everything go okay, did you make her faint again and have to take her to the hospital?"

"NO! She did not faint?" He looks towards the ground and kicks a rock out of road. "We just had a lot of stuff to talk about, you know?"

"Sure, Hinata is a well know chatter box. It was probably a miracle you got away when you did." Tenten gives a little wave of disbelief.

Hanabi steps over to Naruto's other side. "I believe you Naruto, some mornings at breakfast me and father just roll our eyes in hopes she will just stop talking for just one minute. I think she faints so much because she is light-headed from too much talking."

Tenten has to cover her mouth to stifle her laughter when Naruto turns to look at Hanabi with a confused, 'We are talking about Hinata, right?' look on his face.

Ookami pipes in from behind the group. "Yeah, Kiba has told me on more than one occasion that Hinata's constant chatter has nearly given them away on missions." Unfortunately, for her she could not stifle a giggle when Naruto looked at her and gave away their ruse.

In response Naruto just hangs his head knowing that he had fallen for their trick. "Listen, we just had a lot to talk about. I wanted to make sure she kept up with her affinity training while I was gone, and some other stuff."

Hanabi leans forward and looks closely at Naruto's face. "Would any of that other stuff explain what my sister's lipstick is doing on your lips?"

Naruto blushes brightly as he reaches up to rub his lips gently with his fingers and looks down upon them critically while Tenten and Ookami let out a loud "OOOOOoooOOOO!"

"I KNEW IT!" Hanabi exclaims as she points towards Naruto accusingly. "You kissed my sister." She looks down at his guilty fingers and shakes her head. "You might as well stop looking Naruto-san. My sister only wears lipstick on special occasions, like first dates." She reaches up and taps her lips in thought. "Which reminds me, I saw her right as she came home from the birthday party and her lipstick did look a little smudged. Maybe today's kiss was not the first one you shared with my sister"

Tenten throws her head back as if she was about to swoon. "Oh my, a kiss on the first date, how shocking." As she is looking away in her fake swoon Tenten is amazed to hear the news. 'Glad I did not take that bet with Ino, poor Kiba, I was sure those two would take months before they got to first base. Maybe some of those rumors about him are truer than I thought.'

"The big shock was fathers." Hanabi's eyes go wide with surprise when she speaks of her father.

"What?" Both Tenten and Naruto look at the girl with anticipation.

"When father found out that they went on a date he was speechless." Hanabi's voice becomes a whisper, filled with unease.

Ookami steps up with a concerned look on her face. "Why, didn't he know that they were going on a date?" When Hanabi shakes her head Ookami looks at Naruto with a disappointed expression. "You took the heir to the Hyuga family on a date without asking her father for permission first?" Naruto's mouth just opens and closes a few times, but before words can come out she continues her rant. "My father told me if a boy tries to take me out on a date without asking his permission first, that he would fix him."

"Fix him?" Naruto scrunches his nose in confusion. "What do you mean fix him?"

Without saying a word Ookami holds up one hand in a cupping motion and just above it her other hand makes a cutting motion likes scissors. After a few cuts the cupping hand dips as if something invisible had landed inside and she then makes a throwing motion as if discarding the now useless object. "Father is quite adept at neutering males with undesirable traits so that we can keep the pack strong."

It takes Naruto more than a few seconds to completely understand what Ookami was meaning but it is obvious that he has by the way he goes pale and takes a couple short breaths while shifting his hips ever so slightly.

"Yeah, you might want to talk to father before you take my sister out on another date. He does have an entire clan of byakugan users at his disposal." Hanabi gives Naruto a friendly nudge.

Naruto looks over at Tenten, his face still pale and worry clearly etched on his face. "This is all your fault."

Tenten places her hands over her heart in shock. "My fault, it's my fault that you didn't ask Hinata's father for permission?" Naruto nods in agreement. "Are you saying you would not have asked Hinata on a date otherwise?

"No. Uh, I mean yes." Naruto's face looks so confused at the moment the girls would swear that they were seeing smoke leaking out of one ear. "I mean…" He places both hands on his aching head trying to keep his overworking brain from splitting his skull wide open. "Arrgghhh."

Hanabi looks at him with concern plain on her face. "Are you saying you regret going on a date with my sister?"

"No, I would never say that. I really enjoy spending time together with Hinata." Naruto is looking so out of sorts by now that the girls almost feel sorry for what they are doing, almost. "That dinner with just the two of us alone, at least until the mutt found us, was… I really can't describe it in words… " His face suddenly becomes so serene.

Tenten can feel her throat tighten as she sees Naruto suddenly look so happy. "Comfortable?"

Naruto looks over at her with a smile. "Yeah, comfortable, that is a good word. It really felt so right just the two of us sitting there talking. Funny, I think we have talked more since she has started helping me study than we have our entire lives up to that point." His voice has a hint of regret in it as he mentions the last part.

"Well, you might want to start talking with her father before you two get any more comfortable with each other." Ookami reminds him with a scissoring motion.

"Yeah, father may not be so forgiving of a second offense." Hanabi just smirks as Naruto looks over nervously, knowing the fearsome reputation that her father has amongst the village which is mostly deserved to be honest, she can imagine what he must be thinking. "Just make sure you catch him in a good mood and everything should be fine. He has good days every so often, so I am sure that you will catch him in one someday."

Naruto bows his head in thought while the girls slow their pace and let him take the lead. When they are sure that he is completely lost in thought the girls smile brightly at each other and share a silent high five. Shimata, who had been in the back of the group watching the whole thing in silence just shakes his head in disbelief that Naruto could possibly be the person who defeated Madara Uchiha and was next in line to be Hokage. 'This guy is a complete dobe.'

Later in the day, around lunchtime, Naruto and Team Tenten take a break from walking. Naruto asks for a quick demonstration of the genin's skills against twenty of his shadow clones so that he will have a better idea of their capabilities if they were to run into trouble in their mission. Having fought Neji and spending a lot of time recently with Hinata, he was prepared for Hanabi's gentle fist attack. It was the same with Ookami, she used the fang-over-fang attack in a very similar way to Kiba, so he felt that if they were to run into trouble he could mesh quickly with their fighting styles.

Shimata was a little different; he uses genjutsu to distract his targets before attacking at close range with his dual wielding tantos. While Naruto uses his previous knowledge to have a fun sparing with Hanabi and Ookami his match with Shimata was a little more intense than he had planned and Tenten cuts it short by saying they had a lot more road before they could camp so they had better save their energy. So, they all sat and had a quick lunch before moving out.

Naruto sits down and opens the box Hinata had given him before he had left. When he looks inside he laughs so hard that it gets everyone's attention. Inside are six balls of rice decorated with egg, seaweed, ham and narutomaki to look a lot like him. He looks over at Tenten and they share a smile. "I had almost forgotten about these. When were a lot younger Hinata, Kiba, and I went on a mission together and she made these for us to have for lunch. They are almost too cute to eat, but my stomach is telling me something much different." He gives one to each person, keeping the other two for himself, takes a big bite and smiles at the flavor while looking at the letter that is inside the box.

Naruto-kun,

I hope that you enjoy the lunch that I made for you today. I remembered that you liked the ones I made for us on the mission we did with Kiba years ago.

I wanted to thank you again for the wonderful birthday present that you gave me and I plan to wear them every day from now on. Everyone who has seen them so far has complemented on how pretty they are, even father smiled, well almost, when I showed him the earrings. I could tell that he thought they were a nice gift even if he didn't say anything.

I promise that I will keep up with my training while you are gone and that when you get back I hope that you will be proud of my progress. I know that you are worried about me working on my affinity training by myself so I asked Kurenai-sensei to come by and spar with me and see if she can help me improve my skills. So please don't worry about me and focus on coming home safely.

Please come home soon.

Hinata

After lunch they walked till the sun started to go down before making camp. After dinner Tenten and Naruto sit off to the side while the genin finish getting everything ready before turning in for the night. He can see her watching them and with a sad smile. "Watching her sometimes makes me think of Neji too. She is not as quiet as he was, or at least the guy I knew, but in the way her eyes will focus intently when she is fighting I swear he must be standing right behind her sometimes."

Tenten rubs the corner of her eyes. "She is more like him than you will ever know. When it was just the two of us and Gai-sensei and Rock Lee were off doing something crazy we would just sit and talk. After his match with you he changed, for the better, and he really started talking about his future in a positive way and what he hoped to accomplish someday inside the Hyuga clan. He died… he died a much happier man than the boy I first met at the academy." She puts her head on Naruto's shoulder. "For that I will always be grateful to you Naruto."

Hanabi walks up carrying two mugs and a strange intense look on her face. "I made some tea sensei would you and Naruto-san like some?" They both take the offered mug and she smiles at Naruto before running back to the others.

Tenten watches her go and takes a sip of her tea. "Be careful Naruto." She just shakes her head at the clueless look he gives her in return. "I believe our little Hanabi-chan has developed a crush on you."

Naruto stares at Tenten for a moment, then to Hanabi and back to Tenten a couple of times before raising his free hand and waving it back and forth his face gone crimson. "But, I..."

"It's okay Naruto, you have spent your whole life looking so far ahead that sometimes you miss what is right in front of your face. That has always been something that I have admired and been frustrated with you for so many years. Besides, it is only normal for sisters to sometimes develop feelings for the same type of boy, or even the same boy." She smiles as his mouth just opens and closes like a freshly caught fish. "Listen, a girl's heart can be a delicate thing Naruto. They are easily captured and are very fragile things when held, so please be careful with her. I believe that you might be her first crush and I think those are hardest to forget." Tenten looks down into her tea a faraway expression on her face.

Naruto takes a sip of his tea. "I'll make you the same promise I made Hinata. I will do everything in my power to keep her safe from harm. I would never hurt her or allow somebody to hurt her, okay."

"Can I ask you a personal question?" Tenten watches as he nods hesitantly before continuing. "Do you remember Hinata confessing her love for you, or did you forget because of your transformation? You have to know, there is just no way that somebody has not told you after all this time." Watching him look down at his feet is all she needs to know the truth. "You do remember, but why have you never said anything, to anyone? The two of you are so good together. I don't think that I have ever seen either of you as happy as I did at her birthday dinner. Hinata smiling and talking with barely a stutter was amazing. Ino told me that was all Kiba could talk about when he walked her home that night and even Shino seemed happy. So why don't you tell her Naruto? She has confessed to me her frustration of not knowing and fears of telling you again and still not getting a response."

Naruto seems to shrink with each word, like a child being scolded by a parent. "It's… it's complicated Tenten, can we just leave it at that, okay."

Deciding to change the subject Tenten looks over to where Ookami and Shimata are arguing over how the tents should be laid out and laughs. "Watching them reminds me of my time as a genin with Gai-sensei. How about you, does watching them scurry about make you think of your time with Team 7?"

Naruto's face darkens and he stares into the fire. "I don't think about those days anymore. I am going to be the next Hokage and I don't have time to think about what is in my past."

Tenten looks at Naruto realization dawning upon her. "Oh my Kami, I think I finally figured it out. We have been wondering for years why you kept chasing after Sakura knowing that her heart belonged to Sasuke. You knew you didn't stand a chance and kept going because you knew that was safe. Deep down I think you didn't want to be loved, no you didn't think you deserved to be loved and went after someone who could never love you in that sort of way. Unfortunately, for you, somewhere along the way, things got messed up and you started believing you could be loved, by her. What happened Naruto, what suddenly changed your heart and made you run away from everything you said you wanted when we were growing up?" Knowing she had finally hit her target Tenten pushes just a little more. "That's why you won't say anything to Hinata, isn't it Naruto? The mighty Uzumaki Naruto is afraid to give his heart to Hinata because she might just break it like Sakura."

Naruto's face reddens with pain and then quickly changes to anger. He stands up with his back to her and dumps the last of his tea on the ground. "You got it wrong Tenten, that's not the reason I have not said anything to Hinata. It would be best if you just drop the topic of why I left the village and never mention that name around me again."

"You don't mean Sa…" Tenten stops talking when he turns to look at her with an angry glare and his lips pulled back in a snarl.

"Drop it." He says in a growling voice that sends a shiver down her spine. He turns and starts walking away towards the woods. She could actually see red chakra starting to form around his body like a shell. 'Sakura told me once that when he is really angry or about to lose control his chakra turns red, but I thought that was over when he and the Kyubi bonded?'

"Naruto-san, where are you going? Is everything alright?" Hanabi drops her teacup and runs to catch up with him.

Tenten pulls out her kunai and prepares to leap between her student and her friend. 'Dammit, I really pushed it too far this time. If he loses control and hurts her it will be all my fault.'

Naruto stops at the edge of the clearing with his back to everyone as Hanabi's voice becomes desperate. "Please tell me what is wrong? Did you and sensei have a fight?" The young girl glances over at her teacher with an angry glare as she walks around blocking him from entering the woods and looks up into his eyes.

At first he just can't meet her gaze, but slowly he raises his head looking up at her face and into those pale eyes. At first, in his anger fueled haze, he thinks that it is Hinata standing there looking at him with concern on her beautiful face. As he starts to calm down he raises a hand to cup her face like he has so many times recently with Hinata and sees the red tinged chakra surrounding his hand. The shock clears his head and at the last moment he places his hand in a friendly gesture on Hanabi's shoulder.

"Uh fight, no Tenten and I were discussing tactics. I wanted to send out some clones to do a quick security sweep before we go to sleep and she felt that since we have you here to do a scan of the area that my clones would be overkill." He puts his hand behind his head and tries to chuckle. "I guess that I am a little stubborn and have a certain way I am used to doing things so I was building up some chakra to make some clones and send them out anyways."

Naruto turns to Tenten, who has sheathed her kunai and walked up with relief obvious on her face. "So what do you say you let me send out some clones to do a sweep? I have a surprise for your team and this would allow them to enjoy it without fear of a surprise attack."

Before Tenten can say anything Ookami, who also had come over with Shimata when their sensei rushed over to Hanabi's side, starts talking. "A surprise, I love surprises, what is it Naruto-san?"

Tenten nods hesitantly at Naruto who steps back and summons eight clones who spread out and run into the forest. He then pulls out a scroll and summons a flat box and opens it to reveal a dozen mini pastries as the scent of cinnamon fills the air. "I hope you like them I was up late last night baking them myself."

The genin's eyes go wide as they reach in and each take a couple. Ookami just squeals in delight. "Oh they are so small and cute."

Shimata makes a face while chewing on one of the pastries. "They are a little strong, and mine was a little burnt on the bottom."

Before Naruto can say anything Hanabi smacks Shimata on the back of his head. "Show some gratitude baka. Naruto-san didn't have to bring these or share them with us. Besides my sister likes them this strong and so I am used to the flavor and I think they are delicious." She looks over at Naruto with a smile. "You should make some of these for Onee-san, I think she would really like them."

Naruto gives a nervous laugh and smiles broadly. "Really, I might just do that someday. Anyway, eat up everyone, I made plenty." He lets the scroll fall open and there are several more summoning circles inside.

Hanabi looks at the scroll with curiosity. "What are all of those?"

"Rejects." Naruto sighs deeply. "Lots and lots of rejects."