Cyclamen

Disclaimer: Though some of the ideas are mine, I do not own the characters or main plot of Naruto.

/Kyuubi speak/

'Thought'

Flashback

"Yeah, that's me! Hey," Temari seemed to give a questioning gaze before leering. "You still got the hots for Naruto right?"

Hinata's entire face flushed red and she grimaced slightly at the blonde. It wasn't like she expected Temari to bite her tongue, but it was completely random. That and every time she heard Naruto's name it was simply her first reaction. "Uh… well, I wouldn't say I'm… hot for him, I just… really admire him." She flushed even more, that sounded unbelievably stupid, even to her.

Temari raised an eyebrow. "It's funny that I run in to you, I was just talking with Shikamaru about Naruto." Hinata didn't miss the lack of honorific, she wondered when the rookie nine and then some, that is the rookie nine, plus team sand, plus team Gai, had gotten so familiar. It was nice, but she wondered if Temari had any special reason for calling Shikamaru so friendly.

Then she realized exactly what Temari had said. "Why? Has something happened to Naruto-kun?!"

"No, and how would I know anyways? I was just bored out of my mind waiting for the Hokage when I realized I didn't really know the kid that saved my brother," she looked thoughtful for a moment, then her face turned serious. "We never really know a whole lot about the people that make the biggest changes in our lives, do we? Well it's never really enough once their gone…

"Oh geez, that sounded stupid. It was nice running into you. I'll try and see the others before I return to Suna, bye."

"Ah! Yes, b-bye!" Hinata smiled and bowed slightly, knowing it wasn't needed. She wondered what had happened to bring that up, toeing the ground slightly as she thought. It seemed like a number of things had crossed Temari's mind and she hadn't quite been herself.

"Hinata! Why are you daydreaming in the middle of the street?!" The deep, rough voice of her teammate shook Hinata back to reality, and she blushed as she looked over her shoulder. Her eyelashes fluttered a little as her gaze fell between Kiba and Shino. Even Akamaru panted in the heat looking like he was teasing her along with his owner.

"Gomen, I'm sorry!" She ran towards them and stepped lightly on stealth trained feet. "Were you waiting for me long?"

"No," Shino took in the sight of his worried friend. He could tell that nothing serious happened, since she hadn't fainted yet, but she did seem to have more on her mind than usual.

"Don't worry about it, Kurenai-sensei was called on mission so training wasn't going to be anything new anyways. She sent a chuunin from the office to inform us that we've been assigned the C rank job of helping with the demolition." Kiba pointed his thumb over his shoulder to the orphanage construction site. One could practically see the dust from a mile away.

"What are we supposed to be doing?" Hinata walked between her two friends. She expected Kiba to complain, C ranked missions weren't his favorite. B ranked missions had all the excitement, with less of the death to agonize over like A ranked.

"We're clearing the north and east wing, making sure that there isn't anything dangerous or anything living there prior to the deconstruction. Basically making sure there isn't any TNT that could blow more than the building, and that no kittens left behind will die tragically." Kiba cracked his neck slightly and scratched playfully on Akamaru's head between his ears. "We're meeting with the head of construction, Nishiyami Akiro. Since it's a ninja orphanage they want it to be looked over well."

"Rooftops?" Hinata jumped to the nearest roof, it was rude to take them in early morning if people were sleeping in, but the area wasn't residential anyways and it was nearly ten now. She grinned down at Shino who was last to jump up and they raced to the site. They all touched down at roughly the same time and stood outside the wing most north of the ground's center. Looking around she noticed a man with a heavy frown and emblem on his arm marking him as the head. She headed towards him and Kiba and Shino turned to follow.

"Excuse me," The man turned at the sound of her voice, he seemed young for the position; couldn't be much older than thirty, and usually you needed a lot of experience before heading up a ladder that worked along the ninja part of the city. "Are you Nishiyami-san?"

The corner of his mouth pulled up in a smile that only reached the left side of his face. As he ran a hand through his hair, he replied. "Call me Akiro, please. I'm the head of construction relating to ninja buildings. You must be the three sent to clear the north and east division."

"Yes, we're team eight. Akiro-san, is there any reason to suspect that the demolition could be dangerous?" Shino stepped forth. Akiro looked slightly taken aback by the teen dressed in layers in the middle of summer.

"No, actually this is purely routine. Because the building is funded by the Council, and is filled mostly with children of ninja casualties, it needs to be overseen by workers approved by the Council and the building has to be cleared and overseen by higher ranked ninjas, you. We aren't suspecting any surprises, so there's nothing to really be concerned about." His dark eyes drifted to the doorway.

"We'll get started then and report our findings, we're sure the building is sound enough for demolition, but we'll take every precaution." Shino spoke and nodded his head, getting ready to turn into the building. Kiba followed, winking and implying an atmosphere of 'leave it to me.'

"Thank you!" Akiro called towards them before turning around and ordering the other workers back to their positions. He brought his eyes back to the section of building that was being examined. The north section had been for older kids, it was the same size as the other ones, but had been put in rooms to house three kids.

His two roommates were unforgettable; there had been Ruka-kun and Tomonori-kun. Plus the unforgettable Head of the Wing, she'd let Ruka go at fourteen, but he'd still stumble and crash in Akiro's room to sleep off the alcohol. She'd had a more easy going personality than other workers at the orphanage, so she'd turned a blind eye to their discretions more often than not.

Last he heard Ruka was a teacher at the ninja academy, and that had been some years ago. They'd remained strong for the longest time, but after his stint in Juvy he'd returned to find that he and Ruka had both grown up. They were twenty-one, it had been time for them to decide if they were going to be brats forever, or if they were going to start to own up. They'd been lucky, Akiro had nearly been an adult and could have gone to prison, and since Ruka was a ninja, he'd legally become an adult at sixteen. The third Hokage had saved them from that though. Saved them from their own stupidity.

"Akiro-san is the man in the tan leather over there…" Akiro could just barely hear his worker shout over the sound of the trucks moving. He looked around to find another young woman, maybe the same age as the girl he'd just seen with pale eyes and purple-black hair. She looked at him with large, green eyes and walked across the grounds in long strides. She had a rough yet cute side to her, and she seemed perfectly in control in stilettos and a long white coat.

"This is a bit unorthodox," she stopped in front of him. "My name is Haruno Sakura, I'm here on behalf of the Hokage. I hear there's a team here clearing the building for demolition?"

"Yeah," Akiro pointed to the north building. "Team eight is inspecting. Why are you here then? Not to be rude, I'm merely curious as to why you've been sent. I didn't receive any notice."

She smiled a little. "I'm a trained medic-nin, a few years ago there was a massive lead poisoning in the residents, and records show that part of the building was insulated with asbestos. As such, I'm going to issue that if team eight finds evidence of this all workers demolishing this site be wearing masks. I'm not going to interfere, I'm just trying to overlook the health of the workers. Is that okay with you?"

"It's fine, please, keep my men safe." Akiro wondered why she seemed so familiar. He pegged her for sixteen, but she'd have to be at least a high ranked chuunin.

"Thanks, I'll wait for the report and start informing the other-" Akiro watched the girl look around him, like she recognized someone in the distance and he could just make out figures at the border of the property.

"You know them?" Akiro didn't sound nosy, he sounded friendly, like he was making conversation.

"Oh, yeah, it looks like Konohamaru's gang. I don't know them well, their just a few kids that idolize my teammate, Naruto."

Akiro thought he'd heard wrong, he shifted slightly. "Naruto…?"

She nodded absentmindedly, then turned back to answer him. "Uzumaki Naruto."

Author's Note: Hey! I got my computer back so hopefully I can start writing a lot more! I tried a bit harder on this chapter, but I'm not sure if I like having it one part, or the old way where I did a few different character that weren't necessarily interacting. What do you think?

-Alika613