Hello and welcome to chapter 2! Yay! Sorry it took so long. I needed to find somen time to jot all of my ideas down and then put it all together. Anyways, thanks for the reviews and I hope you all enjoy this.
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. I wish I did, but I don't. The only thing I own is this plot line.
A couple hours later there was a tap at Naruto's apartment door. After leaving the Hyuuga household after Tsunade took Hinata to be examined, Naruto went home. He had taken a long shower as if trying to erase all of his pains away. After that he changed off into a black shirt and his boxers and just wandered around his room, thinking.
Naruto opened to door to see Sakura standing there. Her green eyes were downcast when he opened the door.
"Oh, hello Sakura." Naruto said forcing a smile.
Sakura looked up. "Hey Naruto. Hokage-sama wants to talk to us. I was told to get you."
Naruto blinked twice. "Okay. Just give me one minute." Sakura nodded and Naruto closed the door. He ran around the room pulling on the proper clothing and collecting his gear. He ran a brush through his hair and pulled on his head band. He opened the door once again and smiled at Sakura. "Okay. Now I am ready."
He locked his door and they both walked towards the Hokage's office in silence. Sakura opened the door and they walked inside. The Hokage was sitting behind her desk with her assistant standing behind her. In front of the desk were eight people, Ino, Shikamaru, Choji, Kiba, Shino, Neji, TenTen, and Rock Lee.
The Hokage nodded. "Alright, now that you are all here I have a mission for you all. It has been ranked a B-ranked mission. This mission requires all of you to put some effort into." She looked at the ten shinobi standing in front of her. "As some of you know, Hinata Hyuuga was found today and brought back to the village. According to Neji, Shino, Kiba and Naruto, she has no memory. I have checked this and it is true. She cannot remember anything."
Naruto felt his throat close up. So it was true, no matter how much he wished it to be a lie, she couldn't remember a thing.
Ino raised her hand. "Hokage-sama, I don't understand where we come in and how this is a B-ranked mission," she said.
The Hokage sighed. "I was getting to that. This is a B-ranked mission because you all are going to do whatever it takes to bring her memory back, not to mention some other details that Neji can fill you in with. Hiashi Hyuuga is paying a large sum to insure she is safe and we get her memory back. The reason why you all were chosen is because you all spent some long period of time in her life from before." She held up her hand to silence Tenten who was about to speak. "Lee, TenTen, your teammate is Neji, and Hinata is his cousin. There has to be some kind of link between the three of you. As for the rest of you," she said looking at the others. "You all where in her academy class for years. Even if you never talked, there has to be something that you all had in common. I will have Iruka-sensei join you in a few days when he comes back from his mission if you all have not gotten anywhere by then. Any questions?"
"Just one." Sakura asked, "Is Hinata ok?"
Tsunade nodded. "She is fine; the only thing is that she can not remember anyone, or anything for that matter. Until she gets her memory back we won't know why the Akatsuki took her. If that is all, then you are dismissed. You are to meet Hinata in front of the Hyuuga household."
The ten kids bowed and left. Once outside they all looked at each other.
"I can't believe it." Ino said.
TenTen nodded slowly. "Poor Hinata."
"Let's go, Hinata's waiting for us." Naruto said quietly.
Sakura and Ino looked at each other. Naruto had been acting strange ever since he and the others had brought Hinata back. And now he isn't his hyper self.
The group walked to the Hyuuga home. Once they got there they saw Hinata sitting on the porch watching a couple of butterflies dance around some flowers. She saw them and waved. She walked over and bowed. "Hello everyone." She said with a smile.
Everyone smiled back and Neji stepped forward. "Hinata-sama, this is Ino Yamanaka, Choji Akimichi, Shikamaru Nara, Sakura Haruno, TenTen and Rock Lee. You already know the others." Neji explained pointing at everyone in turn.
Hinata smiled again. "Nice to meet you all."
Everyone mumbled a hello or waved.
"So what are we going to do, Neji-nii-san?" Hinata asked.
"We are going to show you around the village to see if we can get your memory back." Kiba answered for him.
Hinata blinked twice. "Okay, so where are we going?"
"How about the school training grounds? At the academy we all spent a lot of time there." Shikamaru suggested.
Lee nodded. "That is a great idea." Everyone agreed and they set out.
On the way to the training grounds Hinata asked about what the shops sold and who owned them, what were good places to eat and what kind of restaurants they had. The group answered as best as they could, add in their own comments on stuff and told her some stories about themselves. She asked questions about details, and commented at the right moments.
Naruto watched Hinata from the back of the group. He watched her laugh at some joke that Kiba had said, her eyes had sparkled as she listened to it, gathering information that is new to her. He had to smile; she seemed peaceful and normal, compared to when they first found her. Sakura fell back and walked next to him.
"Are you okay Naruto? You're not acting like yourself." Sakura said giving him a worried look. "That's the first time I've seen you smile all day."
Naruto dropped the smile and looked at the ground. "I've just been worried, that's all. You should have been there Sakura-chan. Hinata's face when we first found her was…" he faltered, not knowing the right word for it.
"Painful." Sakura finished for him. Naruto sighed and nodded. They walked in silence from there listening to the others.
The group reached the training grounds and they all moved around. Hinata stared at the place for a long time, her eyes taking in every detail.
Naruto walked to her side and asked, "Do you remember anything?"
Hinata shook her head. "No." They stood in silence for a moment. "Uzumaki-san?"
"You can call me Naruto." Naruto said feeling his stomach squirm.
"Oh, okay. Naruto-san, what was our relationship like?" she asked.
"W-what?" Naruto asked startled at the question. He looked at Hinata, shocked.
"You know. Did we talk a lot, not talk to each other at all, did we train together, or did we not come in contact with each other. Things like that." She said looking at him with her small smile.
Naruto took a deep breath and answered. "Well, we didn't really talk all that much, but we did every-so-often. Um, we've been on a few missions together, and I don't think we trained before…"
Hinata nodded, "Okay. Did we hang out together?"
Naruto thought for a moment. "No. We just kind of talked and then that was it. There wasn't really much to it." As he said these words he realized how true and sad they were.
Hinata must have seen something in his expression because she hugged him. "It's okay, Naruto-san. Even if it was bad before, it can be better now." It was a soft but meaningful hug.
Naruto was shocked for a moment, and then he hugged back. "Thank you," he told her.
They let go and they stared back at the group. Naruto felt a strange feeling coming from his chest. What was this? It felt warm and inviting. He wanted to keep this feeling and never lose it. But as he was enjoying it, he felt it disappear as Sakura, Ino, and TenTen called Hinata over to show her something. He watched as Hinata ran over to them, the same smile on her face, her longer hair trailing behind her like a cape. He liked it long, why didn't she grow it out before?
"Don't do anything stupid." A voice said from next to him.
Naruto jumped and looked at who the voice belonged to. It was Neji. "What do you mean?" he asked.
"I've seen that look, on Lee's face before. I don't want you to hurt Hinata-sama any more than she is now."
"Why would I do that?" Naruto questioned.
"Because you're simple minded and I know that you and Lee think along the same lines when it comes to this." Neji explained calmly.
Naruto didn't have anything to say to that, he didn't really understand what Neji was talking about anyway. He simply glared at Neji and then turned back to the others. Hinata was watching a small sparring match between Kiba and Lee. She looked worried watching them, but at the same time fascinated.
"There is that face again." Neji said.
"Will you stop that! And what did Tsunade-baa-chan mean by there was more to what we are doing?" Naruto asked.
Neji gave a tired sigh and began to explain not taking his eyes off of the match. "I'm sure I told you about this before, but I'll say it again. There are people who are the enemies of the Leaf Village, and they want anything to destroy it. There are secrets to the bygaugan that can be used by others, if they know how to get it. If an enemy from the village was able to get these secrets the village is in trouble."
Naruto's eyes went wide as he remembered the story from their match in the chunnin exams. "You mean?"
Neji nodded. "That is what Hinata's father and Tsunade-sama is worried about."
Naruto looked at Hinata who was now clapping for Kiba and Lee since the match was over, with Lee being the apparent victor. There was a giant smile on her face and she looked very happy.
"Does anyone else know about this?" the blonde ninja asked.
"Only TenTen and Lee. But I need to tell everyone else soon, without worrying Hinata-sama." Neji answered.
Hinata looked the two and waved them over. Naruto looked at Neji and was about to say something, but he was already walking over. He gave a small sigh and followed the older Hyuuga to Hinata, forcing a smile as he walked over.
There was a large smile on her face as she said, "Did you see how great Lee-san and Kiba-san were? It was amazing!"
Naruto could feel his heart slowly breaking. She just didn't know anything, and this one small fight was amazing to her. He wanted to show her how he could fight, and catch her attention.
But why did he want to? Sure they had been in the same class for a few years, but they never really talked. Well, she didn't really talked, she always stutter or twirl her fingers around. But why would he feel this way for her? He didn't even know why these feelings were coming out all of a sudden. More or less understand them.
"What do you say Naruto?" Sakura asked interrupting his thoughts.
"W-what?" he blinked looking at the group, who in turn was looking at him.
Sakura sighed. "Hinata wants you to spar with her, so she can see how it feels." She explained.
Naruto automatically looked at Hinata who had a faint blush on her cheeks. She seemed to frail and innocent now, to let Naruto even think of sparing with her was out of the question.
"We chose you because you were the weakest of us all and we knew it would have been a better match." Shino said flat out.
Naruto sweat dropped. "Thanks Shino…" he said giving him a look. "But I can't fight her."
"Please Naruto-san." Hinata begged in a gentle voice.
Naruto looked at Hinata and sighed. "Alright, you want a match. Then we'll fight."
Hinata smiled. "Thank you Naruto-san."
