"Hinata, what is bothering you? You're falling behind." Shino and Kiba stopped their jog to allow Hinata to catch up.

"N-nothing's wrong Shino, I just... well, I-I-I was thinking about how long Naruto-kun will be away."

"Did you talk to him before he left?" Kiba crossed his arms and gave her a level stare, he already knew the answer.

She fidgeted with her fingers a bit and then sighed sadly. "Erm, well, I, when he... No, I couldn't. I was going to, but I was fine with just seeing him before he left."

Kiba sighed tiredly. "Hinata... you should have talked to him, at least told him good luck."

"What's the matter guys? Are any of you injured?" Kurenai walked up to the trio.

Shino bowed slightly to her. "No Sensei, we were concerned about Hinata, she was falling behind. But she is fine."

"She's just depressed. Her boyfriend left-" Hinata blushed a bright red at this, "Kiba!" "-for training and she didn't tell him goodbye."

Kurenai raised an eyebrow in question at this. "He's your boyfriend now? So you were able to confess to him. Congratulations, I think?"

If it were possible, Hinata would have turned even brighter red at this.

"N-n-n-n-n-nnnnoooooo... He's not my b-b-boyfriend, I just seen him as he was leaving. We didn't talk, I just wish I could have told him good luck and train hard."

"You two keep running, we'll catch up in a bit."

"Yes Sensei." The two boys resumed their jog.

Kurenai mentally sighed as she looked at the blushing girl. Hinata really needs to be more confident in herself. "When someone I ...liked... left for a long time, we stayed in touch by writing each other. Why don't you try writing him? Maybe by writing you'll be able to talk more easily with Naruto when he returns home."

The shy Hyuga looked at the ground sadly. "But-but-but I don't know where he went."

"You could ask Tsunade-sama. She probably knows where they went to train."

Hinata kept looking at the ground. "But what if he doesn't want a letter from me?" A certain pink haired girl came to mind.

Kurenai smiled at her. "I think he'd enjoy getting a letter. Asu... A friend certainly did. And it would cheer him up if he's already homesick."

'We could write back and forth, and someday I might be able to talk with him without fainting?' She straightened her shoulders then looked at Kurenai with a hopeful and determined expression. "Sensei, after training, would you please go with me to talk to Tsunade-sama?"

"I would be glad to. Now back to training, we still have our run to finish and then some practice."

Dear Naruto:

I bet you're surprised to be getting this! It was Kurenai-sensei's idea to write you because I didn't get a chance to talk with you before you left. We were training later that day after you had left with Jiraya, and I was sad that I wouldn't see my friend for three years. Sensei said to write you, that even though you're the bravest ninja I know, you might be homesick and want to to hear from home. Hokage-sama couldn't say where, but she knew where you were going and said she'd be happy to forward this to you.

You just left this morning, and I just realized this letter will probably arrive there before you do! Anyway, there was a lot of things I wanted to say before you left, but there probably wouldn't have been enough time to talk much. So I hope you don't mind me writing to wish you good luck.

Please write me back and let me know if you would like to stay in touch by letters while you're training and traveling.

Sincerely,

Hinata

Jiraya grinned at Naruto as they entered the town. "So boy, we made it. Let's find something to eat, and I'll introduce you to some of my contacts here."

"Sounds like a plan, I'm starving!" He grinned back at the white-haired man.

"Excuse me sir, are you Jiraya the Sage?" Jiraya nodded, quickly appraising the man to decide if there was trouble about to happen.

"I have a letter here for your apprentice. It arrived yesterday with instructions to deliver when you arrived." He gave Naruto a light blue envelope, which he promply opened and started reading.

"Eh? For the kid? Nothing for me?"

"Well, one for you also I suppose, but it's written as part of the instructions for delivery."

"Hehe, I knew Tsunade would be missing me. Let's hear it!"

"Ahem." The man cleared his throat. "Nah. I'm not going to say this, you can just read it yourself." He gave Jiraya a card that said: 'Please deliver this to the student of the large white-haired older man known as Jiraya the Sage and tell Jiraya to behave or die. If you have trouble finding him, check the hot springs or the jail for perverted peeping Toms.'

"Hahaha! That's definitely from Tsunade! So kid, what'd she say to you?"

Naruto was still reading, with snot and tears running down his face. "It's from Hinata. I got a letter from a friend!" Still crying, he started running around waving it in the air happily while laughing.

Jiraya snatched the letter out of his hand and read it real quick. "Heh, you've already got a lady waiting for you. Nice work!" He grinned and gave Naruto a thumbs up.

"So I can write her back? Can I? I can right?" The blonde was all but jumping up and down in excitement.

"Sure, sure. You can write whenever we hit a town. I'll keep Tsunade informed of where we'll be." Naruto grabbed the letter to read it again, then started running laps around the Sanin, cheering wildly. "You can calm down, it's just a letter."

"It's just that I've never got a letter before! Hey... what should I write? I don't wanna write something boring, you know?"

Jiraya laughed. "Write anything. If she took the time to write you, then you'd better at least reply saying thanks."

Dear Hinata,

I was really happy when I read your letter, and I'd never gotten one before so it was really nice and I got so excited I ran around with it. Jiraya says I shouldn't write things like that since it's not cool, so ignore that. I told him to go away and stop looking over my shoulder.

And you were right, your letter was waiting for us when we got to XXXXX. Sorry, I've never written a letter so I don't know what to say, and Jiraya says to not write down where we are to avoid possible trouble if a letter gets intercepted. I hit him so he'd stop reading what I was writing. We got a room at a hotel, it's really nice after sleeping on the ground all week.

He's kind of annoying as a Sensei, explains things once and does them, then makes me figure out how he did it while we travel. Says it'll help me understand better if I figure it out instead of just copying. Whatever, I'll learn tons of jutsu and then kick his ass with them for making it so hard. I have to go to sleep, so tell everyone I said hi.

Sincerely, (What does that mean anyway? Why end a letter with it?)

Naruto

"Hinata, you have mail." Her father handed her an orange envelope. Her eyes went wide when she seen who it was from, and she looked at her father. "It's from Naruto-kun? Daddy! He wrote back!" She gave Hiashi a quick hug and then ran into her room to read it. Quiet giggles could be heard from her room.

Hiashi was lost in thought for a moment. 'That was... nice. She hasn't hugged me, or even called me daddy since she was a little girl.'

While he didn't see Hinata again that day, Hiashi would sometimes smile while thinking of something, which caused anyone who seen it to wonder if he was ill.

Author's Note: Please, show some patience for me since I'm new to this. I heavily proofread my chapters and take a heavy axe to them, but sometimes typos get through. And if there's something way off with the formatting, please let me know since it looks decent from my end.

First chapter done, hope you enjoyed!