Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of its characters.

Hinata's POV

The mission is droning on. We're supposed to be tracking down a dangerous felon who is known to many villages, but Naruto figured that Lady Tsunade wouldn't notice if we took a little break.

My birthday is tomorrow. The day I turn 15. And I'm actually looking forward to the hot spring. This is because here, there is a huge wooden wall to separate the men and women for privacy. So it'll mean I can get away from him for a while.

In the mean time, Sakura wants to take me out for a girls' day out sort of thing. "C'mon Hinata!" she had told me this morning, "Let's get away from these boys today. We could go to the shopping district here!"

"Uh, sure…" I said. The shopping district here was about 99% filled with things for winter, especially the attire. So what was the point?

Of course, I didn't say any of this. I thought it was pretty nice of Sakura to offer, since she's usually either beating up Naruto or trying to flirt with Sasuke, to no avail of course. That's one thing I know about him. He just treats her as a teammate, no more, no less. It's bad news for her, although she's being stubbornly persistent, but good news for me. If I'm on the team with Sasuke for a while, he'll treat me that way as well. And if he does, this curse may be just lifted from me. Maybe…

Sakura and I walked on the main street of the shopping district. It was snowing, and the fresh, crisp snow was crunching under my feet. I bundled my coat around myself as we walked, frequently stopping at store windows to peer in. Even the cold couldn't slow down my train of thought.

What are the guys doing? I wondered. I could only imagine:

The boys were sitting in their room back at the inn. "Naruto," Kiba said, "Truth or Dare?"

"Dare." Naruto responded eagerly.

Kiba had a mischievous glint in his eye. "I dare you to… go and kiss Sakura."

Naruto's face lit up. He jumped to his feet. "Alright, I'll do it! Believe it!" And with that he ran out of the room.

"This should be interesting…" said Shino, leaning back in his chair and pushing up his glasses.

10 minutes later, Naruto returned. He was a mess. His face was slightly bruised, his nose was bleeding, and he had a black eye.

Kiba laughed. "That's enough proof for me!" He and Akumaru rolled around on the floor laughing. Naruto glared at them evilly. He plopped back down in his spot on the floor. "Sasuke," he growled, "Truth or Dare?" All of them stared, awaiting his response.

"Hn, I don't care, truth I guess…" he mumbled, clearly not wanting to take any part in this game.

Naruto grinned. "Okay then Sasuke," he started, "tell us the truth, what do you think of Hinata?"

Sasuke's expression remained calm and unchanged. "Well, it's obvious that-"

"Hinata? Hey, Hinata, are you listening?"

"Huh?"

Sakura had pulled me out of my daydream before Sasuke could answer. I was grateful to her and felt a little guilty for not listening. "I'm sorry, what did you say?"

"I said, 'Hinata, you'd look cute in this purple parka.' Don't you think so too?"

I looked up at the display in the window to see a puffy lavender coat. It looked as though it had deep pockets, mittens hanging from the ends of the sleeves, and it even came with earmuffs. It was my style, but I had to pass it up. I had made Sakura promise it would be window shopping only on my part. "It is cute," I admitted, "but I think I'll pass this time."

With Sakura complaining behind me, we walked on through the busy street. I was wrong about this village's shopping district. Every window we passed contained something that I liked. And Sakura was bent on trying to get me to get something. She was trying to talk me into it, from bargains to matching accessories. But I refused each time.

Eventually, she gave up. I had to give her some recognition for persistence. Close, but no cigar…

Suddenly, I stopped in front of the window of a small jewelry store. Sakura wasn't the one to stop me this time, I had stopped on my own accord.

I saw the cutest little necklace in the window. It was a small heart-shaped locket. It was silver in color, and it was mounted in the window in its box, which was black and velvety on the outside, silvery and smooth on the inside.

Sakura caught me looking. "You like it?" she smiled, egging me on.

I stepped away from the window slowly. "I think… I think I'll pass." I said reluctantly. Sakura gave me a look, but didn't comment, she was done persevering for the day.

Normal POV

Just around the corner from where the girls were standing, someone was watching them. This person stared at Hinata with great interest, and wanted to find out more about her. An idea sprang forth, and this mysterious person started planning each step out slowly and carefully…

A/N: I hope you like it so far. I'm planning to update as much as possible asap. =)