Disclaimer: Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto and not me.

A/N: This was actually stand-alone on my list of stories, but I may as well move it here and delete the other one. It makes more sense, at least to me?

The summary for this is: Set during Timeskip, Hinata worries about the Chuunin Exam and then remembers something...

You made me Remember

'The Chuunin Exam starts today..

It starts today... today!

Am I strong enough? I don't know if I am...'

Delicate fingers tapped themselves together softly as their owner chewed on her bottom lip worriedly. White eyes tinted with lavender gazed at the floor, moving left to right swiftly as if they were searching for some answer amongst the floorboards.

A knock sounded on her bedroom door, making the girl jump.

"Hinata, your team mates are waiting for you outside. Hurry up."

"Yes, Father!"

Hinata fell back to pacing up and down the length of her room, her fingers still tapping together nervously.

'Shino-kun and Kiba-kun are waiting for me,' she thought. 'I can't let them down. But I shouldn't get in their way either. I don't want to mess things up.

I've trained really hard... but so has everyone else... and, everyone else seems stronger than me..

And Neji-nii-san will be participating again this year...'

The dark haired girl stopped dead in her tracks before her dresser, feeling her heartbeat speed up. Flashes of memory from the previous exam were dragged up into her mind's eye.

She shook her head to try and clear the images.

'No! I can't think about that. And Neji-nii-san is different now. He'd never do that now.

But... what about the other participants? What if this time is even worse?'

She plonked down onto the side of her bed, her fingers tapping together almost furiously now.

'Self-confidence... self-confidence...' she kept repeating to herself like a mantra.

You know, I used to think you were a dark-haired weirdo, but now, I think I'm starting to like people like you.

Hinata blinked and glimpsed up. The voice seemed so far away, but she knew it almost instantly.

"Naruto-kun," she whispered, standing back up and going to her dresser. She opened a drawer, pulling out a photo she kept hidden in the very back of it. A blush crept over her face and she smiled at the photo of the blond-haired boy eating ramen messily whilst keeping a gigantic grin on his face.

She'd taken it in secret, of course, but it seemed somehow better that way. He wasn't posing or anything. He was just... smiling... and over something as simple as a bowl of ramen.

"I had forgotten... just how much you had supported me and told me to do my best... And when I said that 'by believing in yourself, you can become a new person', you smiled at me and said you could do anything if you worked hard enough for it."

"Hinata! Hurry up!" The door rattled with knocking

Hinata quickly placed the photo back into her drawer, a more confident look on her face.

"This time, Naruto-kun, I'll work hard so you can see how much I've changed when you finally come home."