Ok, after many and countless hours working my ass off to update 3soluls, with no progress, I'm back at this fic. Who ever knew that writing a battle scene was so hard. It's not the battle, it's who is battleing. So frustrating. On the plus side, I know excatly where I want to end this fic at, when ever the hell that is. Basic story concept is in store and the name is forming as such. Unfortunally this may be a bit short. Yosh!

It was day five. Day five of waiting. It was all they did, wait. Team Gai and the Rookie 9, well, eight now were waiting, except for one certain person. Hinata. Since Naruto left, she has been wandering around Konoha in a depressed mood. It wasn't like when he left to bring back Sasuke, but one of horror, intimidation, and guilt. It worried everyone, to an extent to where even Shikamaru wanted to do something about it, and it seemed that luck struck this particular day. Seeing Hinata walk near the gate where the group was waiting Gaara's return with Naruto, they walked up and talked to her.

"Hinata" Shino approached her. Since he never talked unless he deemed it important, he was elected to start. "Let's talk" He guided her to a bench and sat her down. She complied, semingly oblivious to the group's focus on her. Looking at her, Shino went over the precise speech to gain her trust, sooth her, and have her talk of what's bothering her. Kiba had other plans.

"What's wrong with you? You should be here 24/7 looking for that moron, yet you seem to be avoiding his spots like the plauge? We know you like him, though I can't see why, so why are you like this?" Half the group glared at kiba while the serious ones (mainly Shino and Neji) noticed that there was no blush at the mention of the crush, but all eyes returned to her as she started to talk.

"I, I. He's the...but he's only holding...but still...infant..."She seemed to try to explain her actions to herself rather than the others. Slowly she looked up, tears in her eyes. "I'm scared of him Kiba-kun." Everyone wore a look of shock on thier faces as silence weighed the air down. It was broke, unfortunally, by the green beast.

"But he is burning with the flames of youth! He would never hurt a comrad that-" He stopped, remembering Sasuke's death. And if Hinata's confession was a shock, Lee's actions was even harder to believe. He kneeled down to one knee and held Hinata's hand, as if in a marrige proposal, and gently stroked it. His face full of serious. "Listen Hinata. Naruto did what he had to in order for him to live. If he didn't kill Sasuke, then he would of joined up with Orochimaru and become a great enemy." Hinata slowly shook her head.

"No, it's not that. I, I understand that. But I, I I." She stumbled through her sentance."He told me a terrable secret, one that I wish I never knew of. And because of that, I I, I rejected him." She buried her face into her hands and cried as the three kunoichis sat by her and tried to consol her.

"It's ok. If you tell him you're sorry and that you still care for him, then I know he'll accept you." Ino spoke softly. "After all, you do love him, right?"

"I, I just. I don't know anymore. I want to, truely wishI could, but this is too hard for me to handle alone, and it scares me. I'm scared of what Naruto is." Sakura tried next.

"Listen Hinata-chan. I'll tell you what Naruto is. He is a loud mouthed annoying clumsy baka of a ninja. As for who, well, who is he to you?" Hinata stared at the ground, biting her lip to discover the answer.

"I don't know. I just don't know anymore. It's so confusing." Tears resumed her crying as Tenten spoke up.

"Now I don't know Naruto as much as others, but from what I've seen he's a good guy, always standing up for his friends, doing what's right. He's not some evil selfish guy who cares only for himself and his family name" She glared at Neji at the end, who seemed unfazed, deeply thinking to himself. Tenten went back to Hinata as Shikamaru watched Neji muttered to himself. A few unimportant words came out audible, like 'chakra, if, why' and others, but one word made Hinata flinch.

"Monster." It was barely audible, but trained to hear Hinata's quiet words, Neji was loud and clear. 'Monster? Monster, seems important. Wait, when fighting Gaara, he summoned the frog and then henged into the Kyuubi. How did he know to use Kyuubi's reputation to intimidate Gaara? He slept through most of school, and it was a perfect replication. Then there was the chunnin exams. He used some wierd red chakra. I'll have to ask Neji about it. Damn this was so troublesome.' Shikamaru thought to himself.

"Well, he used an interesting henge while fighting Gaara in his weird form. Prevented the village's destruction." He piped up answering the other's questioning looks they were giving Neji. Sakura spoke.

"But Sasuke-kun beat him with his chidori, right?" The pink-haired girl spoke what most people 'knew'. Suddenly she found herself picked up by sand.

"He didn't, and could never, beat me. The only one who defeated me, ever, was him." At this Gaara lifted up a depressed Naruto. His clothes told a story of heavy wear and tear and severe burning over the past few days but his body was fine, if a bit dirty. Gaara, however, had many fresh scratches, bruises, and a broken arm supported by a sand cast. His clothes also were torn, burnt, shredded, and close to non existant, but it looked to be very recent. He looked up, a slight smile on his face apon seeing everyone waiting for him. Let go from Gaara's grip, he walked to Hinata, ignoring everyone's inquary.

"Hinata-chan? I didn't, are. How are you feeling?" He asked her, hoping it was the correct question to ask her. She didn't look up.

"I'm ok, Naruto, san." Everyone was shocked. There was no stuttering, no blushing, and above all, no 'kun'. Naruto was hurt, and he didn't know why. Why he was this upset over someone he didn't know too well. Not even Sakura's rejection hurt him this much, but somehow, Hinata's did.

A weak smile went on his face, one that everyone saw through. "That's good. I'm gonna go and, yeah..." He trailed off as he turned around to leave. They saw tears on both of the ninja's face, but each set of eyes held a differnt pain. White eyed shame and blue eyed rejection. Naruto slowly reached for his pocket and pulled out a small baby fox. A genuine, though still sad, smile brushed his face and he held the fragile thing, muttering "Nero". He walked towards his apartment as Gaara eyed it suspiciously. He let out a 'Hmm' as he went to the Hokage's tower to tell of his discoveries. He knew that she cared for him, the only one in the village. The necklace of the late Shodamine, aka the Godamine's great grandfather, Naruto wore was a dead giveaway.

Confused of the events and of being ignored, the group slowly filed away. Team 10 was the last as Kiba and Shino made sure that the mother of thier group got home safely, even if she was crying the whole way. Soon they too, made thier way home.

Well, took a bit. Well, three sessions actually. I have it mostly planned out, how everyone will become themselves again, and what is up with the baby fox Nero? And before I get asked/flamed about Gaara's knowledge, remember this. He was trained to destry Konoha, so he had to learn about it, and it's past. This includes the three sanins and thier pasts, status, abilities, etc

I hope you like. I still need some help with 3souls. I'm at a roadblock here. I'm so close to saying 'screw it, this is how it ended.' Anyway, hope you enjoyed And, as you can tell, I created a new name. Thanks for the help...