Hinata awoke with a start. She looked around her room and was slightly confused. The last thing she remembered was being alone with Kakashi-sensei. How in the world did she end up in her room? She didn't recall falling asleep but she assumed that what had happened. She smiled to herself thinking about how Kakashi-sensei was always so understanding. She was so glad that her uncle let her switch squads.

"Hinata-chan." Hinata jumped at the sound of the voice. Someone else was in her room and she did not like his voice at all. It sounded more like a growl yet she was too terrified to do anything about it.

"Who…who is there?" she squeaked.

"It's me." It sounded like the voice was coming from the side of her bed. She leaned over to see Naruto lying on his back. From the light of the window she could see that his eyes were a bright red instead of the beautiful piercing blue and she was scared to death.

"Na…Naruto? What's the matter? Why are you…?"

"I…don't know Hinata-chan. I just felt like I should come here."

"But something…is wrong," she squeaked. "Your voice…you're also glowing again. Does that…hurt…the red chakra?"

"Hai…it hurts but it can't be helped. I have to release it otherwise I'm going to lose my mind. This kyuubi gets restless and even though I am still pissed off at ero senin, he's right about my chakra."

"Oh…okay. But um…why'd you choose to come see me? I…don't mind…but I just…you've never…"

"I know. I just…you hardly ever say anything and so most of the time I never know you're around. But I…something occurred to me while I was walking back towards my place a while ago."

"What happened…Naruto?"

"I thought about the day you and I were training alone at the hot spring. I remember feeling all restless and depressed but for some reason that feeling went away at some point when we were together. I don't remember much about our training but I remember that feeling. After my day today, I thought maybe…" His voice trailed off and he looked away. Hinata climbed off her bed and sat down on the floor next to the sad looking Naruto.

"Don't worry about it Naruto. I'm…just glad I could be of some sort of comfort." She rested her head on his chest and he placed his arm around her. They both lay their silently, Hinata listening to the beat of his heart and Naruto at peace for the first time all day. They both fell asleep moments later in the comfort of each others presence.

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"Oh Sasuke! Just the person I was looking for." Kakashi landed silently next to Sasuke who was sitting on the ground outside the Ichiraku Ramen Bar. He looked like he was upset about something.

"What do you want?" Sasuke grumbled.

"Whoa! Hey…Is that anyway to greet your sensei?"

"Fine. How can I be of some help?" he asked politely. The sarcasm in his voice only made Kakashi sigh.

"Alright Sasuke. What's wrong with you?"

"Nothing. Go away."

"Not until you tell me what's bothering you. Besides, I have to brief you on tomorrow's mission, but I refuse to tell you anything unless you cooperate."

"Oh well fine. I guess I want be going."

"Are you trying to avoid Hinata? If that's the case then so be it. Naruto can show you up by outdoing you on the mission and Hinata can feel even more depressed because of your toying with her."

"I wasn't…I never meant…"

"Do you like her?"

"Yeah as a friend," he stressed.

"Well what about Sakura? How did things turn out with her today?"

"Sensei you are one nosy human being," he grumbled.

"I'm only trying to help. Besides, it looks to me like you do have feelings for Hinata but you're just too macho to commit to her. That's why you like Sakura and Ino. Both worship the ground you walk on and technically you can do whatever you want to them without even committing to one or the other."

"That's not true, I haven't been fooling around with either of them. The most I've done with either one of them is kiss…except for tonight. Sakura and I almost…but we didn't. I couldn't do it."

"Why not?"

"Because I don't think…I just don't want to hurt her. Of course, after she threw herself at me and I rejected her, she got all upset. I kissed her earlier today, mostly to calm her down and reassure her that nothing was going on between me and Hinata. I never thought she'd want to…you know."

"Wow. That's um…well what's the status of your relationship now?"

"We're done according to her. So out of rage I told her that I liked Hinata better than her anyway and well…she slapped me so hard that I swear I saw stars. This happened about an hour ago and I am sitting here because it hurt to walk. She also managed to land a punch to my stomach. I don't hit girls, especially ones I care about," he muttered.

"Oh, I see. So you do care about her. You just don't want a girlfriend right now."

"Something like that." Mainly because I'm not sure how I feel about Hinata.

"Well give her some time. She'll come around and if you care about her, stop beating around the bush and commit already. You don't want to end up like me-old and alone for the rest of your life. Then again, a shinobi's life makes it hard enough already to even have a relationship."

"Yeah…I guess you're right. But I'm good. Tell me about the mission."

"Yeah. Tomorrow will be the start of our first team mission. We're going to be out of the village for a few days. We're going to a village about thirty miles east of the Sand Village. It's the Hidden Wind Village. The people there have been having problems with bandits and they even had one of their own to go missing. We're going to go and get some information about the missing girl. If we have to, we'll take out the bandits but our primary mission is to gather information for a rescue mission. Simple enough right?"

"Yeah. I suppose."

"Good. I'll see you in the morning."

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Hinata woke up the next morning to the sound of birds chirping outside her window. She was about to sit up when she remembered the events of the night before. Naruto. He had spent the night with her. She sat up and stared down at the handsome young blonde who was sleeping beautifully. She really did not wish to waken him but she knew if Neji or her father found him in her room, despite how innocent it looked they would not be too happy.

"Naruto…Naruto-kun."

"Mmm…that feels good," he mumbled. She was running her hands up and down his chest trying to waken him, but he only stirred slightly.

"You have to get up Naruto," she whispered. He finally opened his eyes and stared up at her.

"Hinata…why are you in my room?" Hinata stifled a giggle.

"You're in my room silly. You…came by here last night."

"Oh…oh yeah. Hinata-chan, I'm sorry for…"

"It's alright. I would have let you slept longer but…I don't want to get you in trouble with my father."

"Oh…right. I keep forgetting that you're royalty," he grinned. He stretched out his arms and yawned as he sat up off the floor. "Thank you Hinata-chan. I haven't had a good night's rest in days but I tell you I slept like a rock last night, even though we were on the floor." He stood to his feet and then helped her up as well.

"You're…anytime…Naruto." He grinned at her before pulling her into a hug.

"You're a great girl Hinata."

"Uh…thank you…Naruto." He pulled away and with one last grin he headed out of her window. Not even a second later, Neji entered her room.

"Hinata…princess, I have a message for you from Kakashi."

"Uh…ok," she said nervously. She stared down at the ground and played with her fingers.

"You have a mission today and you are to meet your squad at the gate in one hour." She lifted her head briefly and nodded her head before turning away. He let out a sigh then headed out of her room.