Authors notes:

Sorry about that! :P

It took me three chapters to figure out that there is no Authors Notes feature! Either way, it serves me, because I was kind of thinking about letting the story establish itself before confusing anyone with some SLIGHTLY A.U. properties.

Basically, Sasuke still hasn't gotten a handle on Itachi, and thus, is still traveling alone. Asuma never died, and as you could see in the last chapter, a fact that SilverKyo was keen to point out, and props to him, Kurenai is not pregnant. Aside from that, everything is about normal. Kudos to KK the Prophet, who made a guess as to the nature of that new jutsu from last time, as well!

A.U. elements aside, there are some things you must know.

The pairings are many and varied, with a few love-triangles strewn throughout. However, I will be perfectly clear that there is ONE HUNDERED PERCENT NO harem or same-sex couples at all, what so ever. If you've got a problem with that, then :P mnnnnn!!! Couples are as follows, excluding those that include what few OCs I have planed and those that will be temporary.

NaruHina, SasuSaku, NejiTen, ShikaIno.

I will tolerate no flames of any form. Except for ones where people go absolutely bat-shit crazy. Those are funny.

After this chapter, I think I'm going to fall into either a bi-weekly or weekly schedule, depending on which one I can maintain assuming a normal amount of schoolwork. And expect things to slow down dramatically once you get into the season for midterms, finals, and AP exams. Junior year is supposedly the hardest, but so far things are looking up. And don't worry, if I think I'm going to miss a post, I'll warn everyone, and try to make it up to you!

Thanks to those people who reviewed! Brownies for everyone!!! (God knows that I could use them)

Stomach: Grumble

Shut up, you! It's not like I don't try!!!

Enjoy!

Chapter Three:

As the Rain Falls, I Fall For You

"Dog, boar, dragon, tiger, dog, ram," he told himself again. And again. And again.

"I've got it this time," he muttered to himself, clutching his father's necklace for support. As soon as he had the chance, Naruto had done as much research as possible on the life and achievements of the fourth Hokage, and needless to say he found much to admire about his father.

The blond ninja rattled off the hand-seals like the rounds of a machinegun, fingers moving in a blur.

"Force Cannon Jutsu!" He roared, right hand extended before him, fingers like a claw, as a brilliant ball of ethereal blue energy began to coalesce in his palm. Naruto's other hand braced his first at the elbow, both to deaden the recoil of the attack, and to provide the sudden pulse of chakra that would propel the growing sphere from the new Chunin's palm.

Moments later, when the ball of chakra in Naruto's palm was the size of a melon, it exploded from his palm, rocketing towards the tree Naruto had targeted.

And right through it. The energy blast tore through the trees, clearing a scorching hole for what seemed miles.

"Oh… Shit," the blond boy muttered. "What if it hits someone?!"

Naruto ran off, dodging between trees to follow the path of destruction.

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Hinata charged forward once again, this time determined to land a final blow. Throughout their half-hour session, the pale-eyed shinobi must have dispelled at least fifty different Genjutsu, and was quite ready to end the match with either ninja as the victor.

Kurenai saw it in her student's eyes, however blank others might have considered them, that Hinata was planning something big. She could see in the way her muscles tensed that she was preparing for a charge.

Before she could, however, fate had other ideas.

The two ninja were distantly aware of a faint crackling sound, like a small campfire made with slightly damp wood, but dismissed it as someone in the other training field that was just a few hundred feet away.

Then, the scorching blast of blue tore through the wall of trees to their right, slamming into a boulder off to the side and blasting it into shards. Fragments of burning stone flew in all directions as both Kurenai and her student shielded their faces from the rain of shrapnel.

"Hey!" a voice called, one that Hinata knew too well. "Is everyone alright?!"

"I'm not ready yet," was her first thought. "I'm not ready to talk to him, not yet."

So when that spiky blond hair, those deep blue eyes, those adorable whisker-marks showed themselves, Hinata turned.

She turned and she ran, out of the clearing, with all the speed she could muster from her endlessly trained body.

"Hinata…?" Naruto mumbled under his breath, catching a glimpse of her face as she passed.

"Because I love you…"

He reached for her, a rather dumb move considering the fact that she was already a hundred and fifty feet out.

"Hinata, wait!" he shouted after her. The violet haired ninja must not have heard, however, as she leapt from ground level up to a rooftop, then further into the more urban sections of the village.

The blond ninja began to run after her, but a strong hand caught the collar of his vest, almost dislocating his arms as the grip pulled him to a violent stop on his rear end, legs flown out comically in front of him by his suddenly gone momentum.

"Oi! Kurenai-sensei!" he grumbled when he saw who had stopped him. "What was that…?"

He stopped when he saw the tip of her kunai dip dangerously close to his throat.

"…For?" Naruto finished weakly.

"I'm giving you a warning," the black-haired woman said. "If you hurt her…"

The threat trailed off as the older woman pulled back her kunai to file a nail on her left hand, seemingly unaware, or uncaring, that the smallest slip could claim a finger or more.

Naruto swallowed hard. Even if he could beat her, which he doubted, as Genjutsu had always been a particular weakness to him, there was nothing in the world that would make him want to fight her in any situation.

"Y-yes Kurenai-sensei," he responded shakily.

"Well then?" she answered, looking up suddenly. Naruto was relived to find that her smile was the exact opposite of malicious. "Didn't anyone ever tell you not to keep a girl waiting?"

Naruto smiled and nodded, before scrambling to his feet and off towards town.

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Storm-clouds began to blot the once clear Konoha skies as Hyuuga Hinata sat upon the roof of some random office complex, one that had a fairly good view of the surrounding skyline. She kept her Byakugan active, so as to warn her of any guests, wanted or otherwise. Regardless of who found her, the things she was saying at that moment were for her ears alone.

"Naruto, you thrice-damned, knuckleheaded idiot!!!" she screamed up towards the gathering clouds, before sinking to her knees. "Why does it have to be so hard…" she whispered to herself, tears beginning to well up in the corners of her eyes.

A hand touched her shoulder.

"Hinata, why are you-!"

She never heard the first word, moving into action as soon as the hand touched her. With almost mechanic precision, she turned into an open-palm strike, thrusting her chakra deep into the molester's stomach. The moment she saw him, however, she knew that she had made a grave error.

A golden halo girdled his head, the blue skies that had gone so recently seemed to have taken shelter in his eyes, and even though the contact was of a violent nature, Hinata could feel the hard muscle tensing and rippling under the skin of his abdomen, even through his t-shirt.

The moment Naruto spoke, he suddenly found himself doubled over and gasping for breath. He had felt Hinata's cousin Neji and the sting of his precision strikes, but he had never actually been hit with the less discriminate form of Jyuuken attack. It felt like someone had opened up his stomach before slamming it with a sledgehammer, and he almost lost his breakfast.

Hinata ran. Unable to face the person who already confused her so much, and after hitting him in the stomach, none the less, she turned and made a long, chakra-enhanced leap towards the next rooftop, taking any route possible to escape.

"I don't have long," she thought. "Naruto's not the strongest ninja in Konoha, but he may very well be the toughest. A little thing like chronic vomiting and moderate internal bleeding won't stop him for long."

Meanwhile, Naruto was almost back on his feet.

Almost.

"You should thank me, Kit," said a voice in his mind, one that boomed with resonance and bass notes.

"And why… Why should I do that…?" Naruto gasped aloud. Keeping his conversations with the Kyuubi in his mind always gave him a headache.

"Because if I stop helping you right now, you won't stop peeing blood for at least another month. I'll give her one thing, the bitch can hit pretty hard."

"Gnnt," he grunted in pain as he stood up straight. "Shut your mouth, you stupid fox! And I swear to Kami, if you badmouth Hinata one more time, when I become Hokage I'll seal you inside a urinal!"

"Fine," the demon fox said. "Don't get your panties in a twist."

Naruto's eye twitched in frustration.

"Yeah, whatever, you mangy ball of fluff…"

Whatever the Kyuubi's response was, Naruto didn't care. What did matter was that his stomach had stopped hurting him, and he could finally resume the chase.

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Her feet were as light as a falling leaf as Hinata set down lightly on the top of the Konoha Clock-tower. The storm that had been brewing was now going full tilt, and not with the kind of rain that tickles your face and makes your skin tingle like its electrified.

The sad kind. The kind that batters your body like a rockslide, stinging your skin even through thick clothes, the kind that soaks you through down to every inch of your body, leaving you soaking with no way to escape. The cold kind, the chills you straight to the bone, leaving you with no hope in the world, no fervor left, no will to fight on to your destination.

All were things that Hinata felt at that moment, as the cold and the wet and the hopeless squeezed in on her from all sides, threatening to kill her, merciless and final. At first it seemed like nothing but the howling of the wind, but then she turned to wander the other way, and she saw him.

Beautiful. His gold hair, shining even in this gloom, slicked down from its normal spikes. His bright blue eyes burning with intensity as he looked at her, a more emotional gaze than any she had seen before, by far. What emotion, she couldn't tell, but it was there, and there was just so much of it. Nothing was more alien, and yet nothing could be more natural, all at once.

Strong. The way his muscles rippled and flexed as he moved. The spirit of strength physical and emotional with the purpose his body moved with. So full, so determined, the Hyuuga princess honestly thought that if she put a brick wall in his path, he would walk straight through it by sheer will alone.

Fierce. Each leap, announced with a shout, each landing, a grunt. His path was inexorable, seemingly immune to the sorrowful, catatonic effect of the punishing rain around him. Without any light to reflect, his eyes blazed with fire, with such incredible spirit, she was sure that this was not her Naruto, but a great spirit having taken his form.

"But I can't," she still thought, turning tail and leaping to the next rooftop. "I'm… I'm just not strong enough to face him yet!"

"Hinata, wait a second!!!" he shouted into the rain. Still she ran on.

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Insert Musical Accompaniment:

Why, Joe Satriani;

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Breaking out into a run, Naruto gave pursuit, leaping long and high to place him above her, looking down on her path of retreat. He ran along with her, keeping pace perfectly.

"Hinata!" he called down to her. "Can't we just talk?" he asked.

"I can't!" she sobbed to herself, though Naruto's ears didn't pick it up.

Suddenly changing directions, Hinata shot off to her right, leaving Naruto at a disadvantage after following on her left. Still, the boy managed to find a good path to catch up, and was soon leaping along only a few meters away, far closer than he had been before.

"Did I do something wrong?" he shouted to her over the din of the storm. Every step they took kicked up a splash as puddles gathered below their feet.

Hinata tore away from him with a wordless cry, planting her feet on a rooftop generator and shooting backward, leaving Naruto to slow his movements before following again.

But follow he did, without a word of complaint or a single regret, without wondering weather she would prefer to be left alone. She was his friend, and he had to make sure she was alright!

Naruto followed, moving with the fleeting, telltale flicker of a ninja. Within moments, she was back in his sight, headed nowhere, as it would seem.

He followed her.

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As soon as she made the jump, Hinata knew she had chosen wrong. The outcropping on the side of one of Konoha's few skyscrapers was relatively isolated, with few other buildings within jumping range.

Then, she heard Naruto set down behind her, and for a moment, she thought to rush up the side of the building, but the rain and her sadness had sapped the will to fight from her limbs, leaving only cold in its wake.

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Insert Musical Accompaniment:

Over and Out, Foo Fighters;

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"Hinata…" he said, so quiet, yet she could still hear it above the rumble of the rain.

"Go, Naruto…" she responded, her voice strangely even. "I… I can't talk to you yet…"

"Was it because of something I did?"

"…No."

"Did I say something?"

"…No."

"Then what's the matter?"

"I…" Hinata bit her lip, and tears began to join the rain in the water that soaked her face. "I don't…"

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Insert Musical Accompaniment:

On The Mend, Foo Fighters;

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Then, suddenly, he was there.

Right there.

Right there, with his arms, skin slick with the rain though she hardly noticed through her waterlogged clothes, around her, one hand stretched across her stomach, the other under her arm and then back over to touch her face, gently brushing away tears.

"Why did you have to cry…?" he whispered in her ear. His breath sent shivers down her spine, making the cheek it whistled past, part of her own fantasy, tingle with delight. Suddenly, a spasm wracked him as he stood behind her.

It was a sob.

"I never knew why…" he continued. "But whenever I saw you cry, it… It made me want to cry…"

Another sob wracked his form.

"Come back, Hinata…" he whispered, pressing his face into her hair. "She smells like… Lavender…" he thought, breathing deeply. "This… This isn't like you… Sure, you're shy, but not… Not like this…"

The moment his arms came around her, she felt something, but pushed it aside, unwilling to be distracted. But now, with Naruto speaking those words to her, there was no way to ignore it.

It was warmth. Brilliant, all-encompassing warmth, soft and gentle. Slowly creeping, from her heart, to her hands and feet, washing through her bones, sweeping aside her depression like a spring breeze tosses aside a pile of leaves, dead since fall.

"So…so warm…"

"N-Naruto-kun…" she whispered, smiling lightly. She turned in his arms, resting her head against his chest.

"Come back, Hinata…" he whispered again. "And maybe… One day, maybe I'll be able to say I love you…"

Looking back, Hinata saw it as a miracle that she didn't pass out right then and there, or even when he had first held her.

At the moment, Hinata would love nothing more than to stay awake, in Naruto's arms.

As the clouds broke, and the sun began to shine upon them.