Don't own Naruto (. Enjoy )

'He isn't doing anything!' Hinata thought. This worried her, but she wasn't about to let him know that. 'If he doesn't move in another minute, I'll just back away and act like nothing happened.' With that plan firmly in mind, she kept her eyes on his.

Her plan would have gone off perfectly too, if it weren't for the enemy ninja that she saw out the window. One of the great things about being a Hyuuga is having a 360-degree view of the world. She watched him as he made a throwing motion, but didn't see what it was that he threw. 'Probably a kunai,' she thought as she started to move.

She heard the glass of the window break as she started pushing Gaara out of the way. They hit the ground hard, Hinata was on top, to protect the vital organs of the Kazekage. She looked up as she heard a thunk and saw a kunai sticking out of the wall, with an explosive tag connected to it.

Her eyes widened in horror as she realized that she didn't have time to get her and Gaara out of the way before it went off. She lunged forward, covering Gaara's head with her chest and hunkered down, covering her own head with her arms.

'This is going to hurt,' she thought as squeezed her eyes shut and braced herself for the explosion. She blinked in confusion when she heard it go off, but didn't feel the heat of flaming debris hit her exposed back. She opened her eyes slowly, and saw a wall of dirt hanging over the back of her head.

'He saved me!' she thought, blushing with pleasure. Admittedly she probably wouldn't have died because of the explosion, but it would have hurt a lot and she hadn't been looking forward to it.

She looked down into Gaara's face, which was partially concealed by Hinata's chest. Really all she could see was his forehead, eyes, and the bridge of his nose. She sat up quickly; completely embarrassed now that the situation was over with at the position she had put him in.

"T-Thank you for saving me," she stuttered, not looking at his face.

"My pleasure," he responded. Hinata looked up quickly eyes wide. 'Did he just say what I thought he said?' Gaara was smirking, but that didn't prove anything.

Temari, Kankuro, and Naruto came bursting through what was left of the door. Shikamaru was probably still with the detainees, making sure that they didn't escape. They had been interrogated, under a trust jutsu, and it had been revealed that they had been hypnotized. They didn't remember what the person who placed the chackra under the Kazekage's bed had looked like. They could only remember a vague notion of maids. Pretty but not too pretty maids, who were still cleaning the rooms.

Naruto didn't even stop to see if everything was all right, he just pushed past the siblings and was out the window in a flash. Temari knelt down next to them however to make sure that they were all right. When they told her what had happened, she seemed a little surprised to hear that Gaara had protected Hinata from the sand. In fact, she seemed surprised that the sound had even allowed Hinata to push Gaara down to begin with.

"I tried that once when we were little, and the sand threw me away," she explained later. Apparently this was the time that Kankuro had been experimenting with explosive tags, and one went sailing towards a 10 year old Gaara.

In all the confusion, Hinata had completely forgotten all about the fact that Gaara had never responded to her unasked question from earlier. It wasn't until well after Naruto had returned empty handed, and they had debriefed again. In fact she was settling down to sleep when the thought struck her.

She was very tempted to get back up and go to him. It was something that she didn't want to put off, but she was reminded that she was on duty when the incident happened. 'I'll just ask him tomorrow, after the tournament,' she thought, snuggling down into her covers.

-:-:-:-:-

The next morning, Hinata woke up early. It wasn't until she had finished her stretching that she noticed how sore she was. 'Gotta brush up on my falling,' she thought to herself as she winced.

She stood up and started her morning stretches. This helped with the soreness a lot. In fact, by the time she was dressed and ready for breakfast, she couldn't even feel where she had fallen wrong.

She made her way quickly into the main room, where everyone was waiting for her. They huddled around the table, each gripping a mug of some sort of hot beverage. None of them looked happy to be there. 'Poor me,' she thought ironically, ' The only morning person in the midst of grumpy people.' She had to admit though that a small mischievous part of her wanted to be extra happy just to annoy everyone. She stifled it though; she was mischievous, not suicidal.

Instead she grabbed a mug and poured some tea into it. Then she made her way to the table and sat in the closest available seat. Which was wedged between Naruto and Gaara. She tried to ignore the fact that she could feel her thigh pressed up against Gaara's, but it was a little difficult, mostly because her cheeks were turning an interesting shade of red.

"Hey, Hinata," Temari said, "You're turning almost as red as Gaara's hair. You okay?"

"Hn," she nodded, not trusting herself to not stutter like a fool. 'I thought I had gotten over this when I got over Naruto,' she thought feeling even more embarrassed.

"She does this all the time," Naruto boasted, "I'm surprised she hasn't fainted yet."

"N-Naruto kun!" Hinata shrieked. She knew she was reverting back to behaviors that she didn't like, but was powerless to stop it. She took some deep breaths, and with shaking hands brought the cup to her lips.

Silence reined over the table as everyone finished their breakfast, provided by Mrs. Nara. It was good and filling, so it met all the requirements of a ninja meal. Everyone checked the clock, 8:00AM. They had two hours until the tournament started.

"Here's the plan," Shikamaru started after his mother had cleared the dishes, "We take Gaara to the Hokage's mansion."

"We can't do that. The mission was compromised and we don't know who the spy is," Temari objected.

"Exactly," he said. "We don't know if the leak is in the Hokage's office or from the Hyuuga compound. In fact we don't even know if the attacks are directed at Gaara."

"What do you mean?" Naruto shouted, "Of course the attacks are for Gaara! Who else would they be for?"

"Hinata," Gaara answered. Everyone was silent.

"Who would want to hurt Hinata?" Naruto asked confused.

"Do I really have to explain this?" Shikamaru asked, more to himself then anyone else. "There are several reasons someone would want to hurt Hinata. Maybe even more then the reasons people would want to hurt Gaara. First she's a Hyuuga. Which means that someone might want the Byakugan. Second, she's the heir, which means people may want the revenge against or control over the Hyuuga clan."

"Why'd you even think of Hinata as a target?" Naruto asked.

"She was attacked," Shikamaru said slowly.

"B-but that could have been for Gaara" Hinata stuttered.

"You said they aimed for your blind spot. It's just as likely that the attack was for you," he explained.

"What does any of this have to do with going to the Hokage's mansion?" Temari asked impatiently. She had probably already heard this theory before.

"We go there and talk directly to Tsunade-sama. With no one else in the room. This way she'll know what to expect if something bad happens. Then, we continue with the mission, only we add Hinata to the list,"

"So, basically our plan is to wait for another attack, guard against it, then keep going as if there were nothing wrong?" Kankuro asked sarcastically.

"Whoever is behind this will reveal themselves before you guys go home. His or her window of opportunity is narrowing and once you leave, the plan is ruined."

"I don't like waiting," Naruto complained. Everyone ignored him as they sat contemplating the plan. Silently they all stood up at once, said their thank yous to Mrs. Nara, and made there way to the Hokage's mansion.