A trail of blood was the one thing Gen'ei did not want behind him. However, it seems that his body was not going to let him get away with it. The steady dripping of his blood from his wounds was starting to irritate Gen'eis'. It didn't matter though. He had managed to steal it and that was all that mattered. He grinned as he shifted the heavy weight on his back. He was now truly going to succeed where he normally would have failed.

He looked up at the hidden leaf village's gates. It was about noon, so people were walking the streets. In his condition, he would draw a lot of attention, and he did not want that. Sighing, he made his way off the road and sat behind a tree. He took this opportunity to bandage up his arm and heal. Tonight, he was going to need a lot of energy, and every second he had to gain it back counted.

Naruto didn't know how the hell he had ended up in this situation. How it had gotten from starting off with getting up early in the morning yesterday to him being on this bridge, willingly blinding himself temporarily, he didn't know.

"N-Naruto-Kun, are you alright?" Hinata's question woke Naruto up from his thoughts.

"Hinata? What are you doing here of all places?" Naruto asked.

"Tsunade called a-a bunch of us together and told us y-you were missing. She said that you w-weren't in good condition, and you n-needed to be found. I-I just happened to be looking h-here." Came her response.

"Hinata, could you please help me up? I don't think my legs will support me yet." Naruto asked. He reached out a hand to find one of her shoulders, but instead he felt his hand touch her cheek. This made Naruto blink in surprise under his blindfold. Her cheek was really warm. Almost immediately, he felt her move her face away from his hand. "She must have been blushing…but why?" he thought to himself.

"S-sure, I-I-I'll help you up N-Naruto-Kun." He heard her say as he felt her arms under his shoulders. Using their combined strengths, they managed to get Naruto up, and he supported himself on the railing, as he felt the strength return to his legs slowly. "B-better Naruto-Kun?" Hinata asked.

Naruto sighed. "To tell you the truth Hinata, I'm not better. I hate having to go thru this." He grabbed at the blindfold as if to tear it off, but he didn't. Naruto knew that first off, he didn't want to hurt his eyes again, and secondly, he had to endure the training. "If I just had taken time for breakfast, I wouldn't have to deal with any of this!"

Fate dealt Naruto a weird hand. Unknown to Naruto, his eyes had produced tears due to the pain the light had caused. Only now did they begin to fall. However, Hinata saw them as fresh tears due to Naruto's frustration. So as Naruto waited till his legs gained strength, he felt a hand brush away what felt like a tear suddenly on his cheek. That was followed by a hug; a very, very, close hug. "Hinata?" he asked. "What are you doing?"

"Naruto-kun, when they told me you'd make a complete recovery, I-I knew that they must be holding something back. It was very brave of you to come out here on your own like this…" Hinata's voice was a whisper in his ear, and he knew she was blushing furiously. He could feel the heat from her face on his without them touching. "…I'm sorry that y-you'll never be able to s-see how much…"she paused, choosing different words. "Y-You don't have t-to do this alone a-anymore. I'll b-be your eyes and s-stay beside y-you f-forever."

Naruto's eyes snapped open. From inside, the Kyuubi roared with laughter at Naruto's dilemma. "Oh, this is rich! She thinks you're permanently blind! She confessed her love to you when you can't see her! I'm going to love watching you deal with this one kit."

"This is why normal foxes can't talk." He growled to the Kyuubi in his mind.

"Yell at me all you like. You're going to have to deal with this anyway."

Naruto sighed. "Hinata, um…I-I'm not blind."

He felt her loosen the hug. "W-What?" she asked timidly.

"I'm not blind Hinata. I'm just training with a blindfold on so that I can sharpen my other senses. I am making a full recovery. When I fell down, it was because the light hit my eyes, and my eyes weren't ready for it. I was going to take the blindfold off tonight."

Naruto felt Hinata slowly release him. "O-oh…W-Well I-I'm h-h-happy for t-that." Naruto's keen ears picked up a dripping sound and he faintly smelled salt water. He knew she was now facing away from him and crying.

Naruto did some quick deep soul searching within him. Hinata had been one of the few people who had never made fun of him, or did anything bad to him. In fact, she had shown nothing but kindness and caring to him. At the moment, he didn't know what he felt for her, and that's what tore him. He knew what being a reject was like, and that was the last thing he wanted anyone else to feel. If he didn't love her, he was sure she'd never recover.

"Now's the time kit. What will you do?" the Kyuubi sneered at him.

Naruto took a deep breath. He closed the distance between himself and Hinata and wrapped his arms around her waist. "Hey, give me the chance to say yes before you turn on the tears." He said softly into her ear as wiped away some of the tears that now adorned her face. She gasped at his touch and words. "Meet me here tomorrow evening at seven thirty. I'll treat you to a nice dinner at the best place in town." With that, he kissed her lightly on the cheek, turned and walked away.

He had expected to render her speechless, and he had. Though he was a little shaken up, and now had no clue where he was going, Naruto was grinning ear to ear.

"I think that went pretty well, fox." He gloated to the Kyuubi.

"Well, don't think you're such hot shit." The Kyuubi growled back, annoyed that his fun was ruined.