HEAR ME HIME

by APSH

Naruto becomes the Hokage and Sakura is finally his wife! But tragedy strikes his life when she passes away giving birth to Hikari. And, the only woman who can compensate his grave loss was reported dead from an S rank mission. 2 years later he gets news, he gathers a team to find t ex-heiress but faces strange obstacles on the way, where is she? will Naruto sort out his feelings?

7. Chapter 7

HEAR ME HIME

A/N: HI, HI, HI, HI! I'm here with the new chapter of HMH! Thank you for your support Im soo greatful to all of you!

YO READERS! Its time for Chapter 7 The Last Hope, in this entry is Naruto alive? Who's soul did the black queen grab? A major flashback of what happened along those 2 years between Naruto and Hinata will be there at the end, don't miss it! Wish you all happy reading! Your reviews are always welcomed! (warning: flashbacks, suspense, horror, mystery, antagonist, new characters, adventure, long chap) *THIS IS PROBABLY THE LONGEST CHAP I'VE EVER WRITTEN FOR HMH ENTRIES*

Chap7 The Last Hope

Previously on chapter 6:

He looked around for his sensei, but he wasn't there anymore beside him.. then when a bright light blinded his visions he closed his eyes, when he reopened them..

---

-Team Konoha-

Sasuke, Neji, Shino, and Kiba carrying an unconscious blond with them, they were heading out to the nearest town ahead. They ran across the weird buildings in a triangle shapes and entered a market place where there were a lot people. They asked around for a doctor to assist Naruto in his ailing condition. Most of them didn't really understand what they were trying to say, the ninjas rushed through the crowd searching anyone who might understand them.

"Hello there.. um can you tell us where can we find the nearest hospital?" Kiba asked.

"?e%#$ &yu *..k& op*&stm#&*^mwe &^?" the other person said which Kiba couldn't understand at all.

Kiba said scratching his head, "uuhh.. okay th-thanks..".

He searched for the other and said, "hey guys, none of these people talk our language, how can we find anyone who can help us?".

"darn it.." Sasuke muttered under his breath looking around as he carried his friend on his back.

Then a little girl who was passing by the group suddenly stopped in her tracks, she inspected closely at Sasuke, and mostly at the one the Uchiha was carrying around on his back. She looked skeptically at the whole group and she tugged at Neji's arm and pointed at Naruto and she pointed forward somewhere farther away from the market. Neji scowled at the little girl and understood what she was doing.

Neji looked at the others and said, "hey, she's guiding us to somewhere.. I guess it would help..".

The others followed as the girl ran towards the place rushing through in the middle off the hectic market. They reached to an area that looked like it was a circus or a carnival, then they saw a lot of girls wearing attractive outfits and dancing around with a parade of musicians. The girls were dancing and shaking their hips pretty vigorously, the ninjas wondered just what kind of place did they ended up in. The girl pointed to them a place, they went inside it, that room was a dressing room in particular. They were confused why they were there. To their surprise the girl suddenly ran out of the room and locked them all in. Shino and Kiba chased the girl but she ran out before they could catch her. They were banging the door asking them to let them out, but to no avail.

"this is the most humiliating day of my life.. a little girl kidnapped us.. the S rank ninjas.." Sasuke muttered.

He let Naruto lie on his back on the tiled floor and sat beside him, scowling to himself.

Akamaru whined and sniffed around Naruto and looked at Kiba, "its alright boy.. that guy's just sleeping.." Kiba said.

Shino let some bugs flew out of the key hole and walked to the team and sat beside Neji and Kiba.

"I let the bugs to find out where the girl has gone to.. I just sensed a group of female dancers coming this way with the girl.." Shino said with a low tone.

Suddenly the door was burst open 3 girls were standing in front of them in the doorway blocking the little light that came in. They switched the light open, the ninjas watched as a girl approached them. She was around their age, she was tall and beautiful, curvaceous and pretty muscular for a woman, her eyes were crimson red and she had pitch black glossy hair that reached her back. She was wearing a very stern look on her face, she walked and inspected the guys who were sitting on floor, she even smelled them. She looked at them as if she was inspecting to buy a lamb meat for her dinner, then finally she looked at Sasuke, she cocked an eyebrow and smirked at the glare he was giving her. When she looked at the unconscious blond her eyes widened and she gasped, suddenly she was becoming deep red and her ears were fuming as she hold his collar and started to hit him on the face to wake him up. Sasuke was shocked to see her doing that to Naruto and he pushed her away.

The Uchiha yelled at the woman, "hey! keep your hands off! His our friend!"

The woman widened her eyes looking at him, "y-your.. Japanese too?"

Sasuke glared at her while Neji answered, "yes we're ninjas from Konoha..".

She turned at the Hyuuga with a bewildered look, "you too?".

Kiba said, "actually all of us..".

She gasped and then smiled, "sorry, but is this guy your friend?"

Shino said, "yes, he has been unconscious since he was poisoned, if you can, could you please help us show him to a doctor he is in a pretty bad condition now.."

She looked at Shino still couldn't contain her surprise, she looked at Naruto and said, "him?! never! This guy cheated me and stole my savings and camels! If I were you, I would just let him rot with the poison in his gut..".

It was now Neji's turn to be surprised, "are you talking about a merchant named Toyonara Mouri miss?".

She looked at him with a slight blush when he addressed in the polite way, "yes.. how did you know him?".

Kiba said, "well that is the guy who cheated us and poisoned Naruto, this blond here.. and he took our belongings and galloped..".

Her eyebrows twitched as she heard the history of their encounter of that thief, gritting her teeth she grew mad as her hair was floating behind, "I WONT FORGIVE HIM! WHEN I LAY MY EYES ON HIM AGAIN, THAT SNEAKY BASTARD IS AS GOOD AS DEAD!".

She punched the wall and cracked the building with her fist, the ninjas were quite surprised looking at the woman with a superhuman strength that rivaled Tsunade. As she turned to them she blushed and smiled politely. She apologized to them and suddenly picked Naruto in her arms as if he was a feather and walked out of the room.

"I'm sorry, I am very hot-tempered, so I release it like this.. c'mon hurry up! I'll show you guys to a priest that I know.. he arrived just yesterday and he might leave if we hadn't catch up to him.. and by the way, my name is Yuri! So call me Yuri." She said as she walked away carrying Naruto in her arms.

---

=====================================in a small temple==================================

"Keiko-chan.. please make a potion with these leaves.. I have less stock on them.." the priest said to his assistant as he handed her the herbs.

She bowed to him and said cheerfully, "hai! Right away, Master.".

'BANG!'

The priest was surprised by a loud sound in the main entrance of the temple and was surprised to see Yuri-chan holding a man in her arms as she approached him with a group of four guys with a dog accompanying her from behind. She was walking pretty hastily towards the priest he blinked at her brutal strength for a minute. He looked at the man lying limply in her arms.

"SEIMEI-SAMA! PLEASE TREAT THIS GUY.. HE'S IN A BAD CONDITION!" Yuri said as she lifted the guy on the table as she pushed everything on the table down to clear it and to put the guy on.

He looked at the dancer and at the guy and blinked at the group, he sighed silently and asked while he inspected Naruto's body, "what had happened?".

Sasuke came forward and explained to the priest what had happened and how he got bitten by the zombie, when he heard it, the priest looked surprised and he silently turned his attention back to Naruto.

"..there was a merchant who had rescued us, he brought us to the pyramid for shelter and treated him with a poison in order to counteract with the zombie's poison.. but it reversed the process, he was unconscious since last night.." Sasuke ended.

'Zombies and a shikome huh? So she had started her charade this early..' the priest thought silently.

The priest looked up at the group and said, "I have examined his body, it wasn't poisoned at all and it is totally healed.. the merchant didn't poison him..".

Sasuke, Neji, Kiba and Shino looked at the priest in surprise and asked him in unison, "then is he sleeping? Why hadn't he wake up?".

The priest chuckled at the question, he answered "heh, no. Gentlemen, this man's soul was wondering from his body to another realm due to the mystical power presence in the pyramid by the time his body was healing, and it seems our friend had got a little trouble coming back.. an evil force tried to take his soul and bar it from entering this body..".

The others paled hearing to his explanation and they watched him with wide eyes as he calmly stood there holding Naruto's head in his palm while holding his chest with the other palm, from his hand a little light flashed and entered into Naruto, he infested a little amount of his power into the blond. And then, suddenly..

"AAAAAAAHHHHH! HOLY *bleeeep*! ASS*bleep*!B*bleep*! Darn! What a nightmare!" Naruto yelled as he woke up from his adventure.

He looked around as he saw all of his team mates, the dog, 2 unknown females and an unknown male with long dark black hair and a pair of topaz colored eyes stared at him while the other's eyes are out of their sockets. Naruto blinked once, he blinked twice, he tilted his head aside and looked at the rest of them who were staring at him as if he was a sleep talking dead corpse.

He looked at Seimei and scowled at him, the blond asked, "what?".

Seimei blinked and glared at him as he said, "hm? Oh… nothing, its just that you're a foul-mouthed prick.."

Naruto glared at the priest and grabbed his collar, "what did you just say bastard?".

'BONK!'

"OOUCCH! What was that for?!" Naruto rubbed his head and looked at the person who hit him on his head.

Yuri was getting red with anger she yelled at him while the priest walked out of the scene calmly minding his own business, "how can you say that to a person who just saved your life!".

"I didn't know that!" Naruto said, hearing to him Yuri glared at him and growled.

"she's acting like a dog.." Kiba whispered his observation to Shino.

Shino glared at the Inuzuka and whispered back, "shut up.. Kiba."

Then Naruto felt sharp pain through his chest which made him turn over holding his chest, he groan in pain. The others rushed towards Naruto, but the priest stood there calmly watching the blond in pain since he knows what is happening.

"cough! Cough!" his blood splattered on the floor.

---

=======================================at the Buddha temple============================

"Cough! Cough cough!" the pale eyed lady coughed more blood, then the pain in her stomach was completely gone.

Subaru watched and rushed to Hinata with panicked emotions, "HINATA-SAMA!".

Before Subaru could hold the Hyuuga, she lifted her hands and sat up from her bed she said, "its o-okay.. Subaru-chan.. I am alright..".

"oh my god.. are you sure? You're okay? Seimei-sama would be here soon, please hang on.." Subaru said worriedly.

Hinata wiped the blood off her lips and said reassuringly "its alright Subaru-chan.. I'm okay.. weirdly the pain in my body is gone.. I wonder how..".

---

========================================with Naruto===================================

Sasuke and Neji caught the blond in his arms as he wiped his lips with the back of his hand, he looked at Seimei and the Uchiha asked, "what happened to him?"

Seimei smiled and said, "the power I just lent him cleared his body sending the evil in his body.. out of it.. nothing can harm him, from now on.".

Sasuke scowled, Neji cold sweated while Naruto blinked at the outrageous most unbelievable things that the priest had said.

Sasuke sighed and grabbed Naruto's arm, "get off the table Naruto.. we have to search for Hinata..".

This caught the priest's attention, before they could go Seimei stopped them, "wait.. where are you going?".

Shino said to the priest, "we were heading to search for an important ninja of our village.."

Seimei widened his eyes at them and stared for a second before he pointed at the mess that Yuri created on his place, "okay, before you go clean this up..".

Naruto and Sasuke yelled, "WHAAT?"

Yuri sneaked her way out of the temple but it never escaped the priest's eyes, he called her, "Yuri-chan.. you too.. I want the floor to be crystal clear.. is that understood?".

Yuri stiffened as she was caught by the priest, she sighed thought to herself, 'shoot! aw man..'.

"Seimei-sama.. I've gotta work to do.." Yuri pouted.

Seimei said pointing towards his left to a bed near to the corner, "if you just placed him there on top of that bed, you wouldn't be having to clean my workplace.. now get the work done."

All the five ninjas directed their glares onto the dancer that was smiling sheepishly, Yuri looked at them apologetically and started her work with mopping the place.

Neji and the others cold sweated, while Naruto muttered, "geez.. what a drag.."

Kiba smirked while he picked up the broken glassware and said to Naruto, "you sound like Shikamaru, Naruto..".

Naruto glared at him and said, "no I don't..".

Then the blond turned at Yuri and yelled, "do you have to create such a mess? Geez.. now I have to clean this wretched place, darn.."

Yuri glared daggers at him, she threw the mop aside which accidently hit Sasuke's head earning her a death glare from the Uchiha to which she simply ignored, she stormed her way to Naruto, holding him by his collar she growled, "what do you want you sick bastard! I was only trying to save you! Now do you want to die that badly? Huh?.. huuh?".

"what? oh.. you wanna fight? Fiiiine.. show me what you got!" Naruto shouted at her while grabbing her shirt.

"Fine teme (means : bastard) bring it on!" Yuri yelled at his face.

Shino sighed looking at the bickering idiots before he could say anything two small cups landed on both of their heads right on the mark making them snap their heads towards the person who threw it at them.

"OUCH!" both of them yelled, rubbing their heads they turned away.

Seimei walked out of the dark prayer room with a twitching eye brow and he said without any hint of anger in his voice, "I want the place to be clean, and children.. strictly no fighting! Or else I'll make you wash the whole temple! Now, is that understood?"

All of them nodded at him and Seimei smirked before resuming his prayer, Sasuke rolled his eyes while Kiba muttered under his breath, "geez.. what a sick priest with a princely-complex..".

After so long wiping the table and putting the instrument back in place Naruto thought of an idea and knocked himself, 'damn.. why didn't I think of this before?' he thought to himself.

"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu! Okay everyone.. let's clean this mess up!" he ordered the other Naruto clones.

"wow! You ninjas surely are powerful! Can you teach me that trick?" Yuri marveled at the blonde with starry puppy eyes.

The blond showoff smiled sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head and leaned to her face he said totally in a dead panned tone, "feh.. yeahh.. thanks, but. No. you cant learn, someone even dumber than me cant learn such powerful jutsu."

Yuri's enthusiastic eyes dropped as she started to glare at the blond she grabbed his collar still growling at him she said whispering, "damn you bastaaard.. I made a big mistake saving yourrr ass.. you stingy crow!".

She pushed him of and walked to Shino and Neji and pestered them to teach her the trick they had dismissed her saying that they would teach her once the work is finished, while Sasuke, Kiba and Akamaru cold sweated.

"I just kinda get this feeling that she's acting like a.. spoiled, hot tempered, 12 year old trouble maker kid.. just like how Naruto was back then in the Academy.." Kiba whispered to Sasuke.

Sasuke cocked an eyebrow staring at her speculatively, and nodded his head agreeing to Kiba's statement, "Hn.." was all he said.

Neji face palmed himself and continued sweeping the floor, while Naruto and Yuri were doing their work respectively without leaving each other out of their sight, as if they were caught in a non-verbal glaring and growling contest. They had finished cleaning the area about 3 hours later, it was just a simple mess created by Yuri but it took a lot of time to clean up. By the time they were done, all of them were exhausted, even Naruto. They rested on the floor looking at the deities that the priest was praying in silence throughout the whole time they were cleaning.

Then a maid in white kimono came to their sight, she was average heighted, brown haired which she had braided, her eyes were green and she was smiling politely at them, she had bought herbal tea and onigiri for all of them and offered it to them.

Yuri thanked her, "thank you Keiko-chan! This is delicious!" to which Keiko smiled warmly.

After serving the food she smiled and said, "gentleman, Seimei-sama has offered you to stay the night before your journey tomorrow.. after the dinner, he wishes to have a word with all of you, and after that I will show you to your rooms..".

The ninjas widened their eyes and Neji said to her, "well thank you for the generosity.. Keiko-san.."

Keiko smiled at him and said before turning back, "it is our pleasure.. please make yourselves comfortable.."

"well that was a surprise..", Kiba said.

Sasuke said, "it is too good to be true..".

Yuri snapped her head at him she said as she stared at the Uchiha, "Seimei-sama is a powerful priest.. unlike that bastard Toyonara.. he is a good man..".

Sasuke rolled his eyes and snorted she turned to Neji and said, "you can trust him.."

Neji smiled at her in return, "thank you Yuri-san..".

She shrugged and said before resuming to eat, "no problem...".

---

====================================== ½ an hour later==================================

The dark was seeping through clouds as the sun shyly hid himself behind the mountains, the traces of his reddish yellow light still lingered on the clouds as the dimly lit sky turned bluish that evening. Birds singing merrily they were flying in a group in the same altitude and direction reaching to their respective nests to call it a day. He opened his eyes revealing his topaz colored orbs, calmly and silently the priest whispered his last prayers and bowed before the gods. He then stood up and bowed again before turning away walking with his hands clutching the sacred jewel in his hands that he had protected for so long. He stepped out of the prayer room only to be facing with few discomforted ninjas.

"how long do I have to wait?" Naruto asked.

Sasuke who was sitting upright hit Naruto's head on the back of his head, "shut up idiot.." he whispered.

Naruto scowled at the Uchiha and glared at the giggling Yuri who was making fun at him and saw the priest who just came out, 'whoopss' he thought.

Seimei walked in the hall where the Buddha statue was placed, behind him, he sat in front them watching them intently with every move of his limbs he never removed his gaze off them. He was quite, calm and cool. Keiko stood at the entrance, she watched the ninjas looking at her master as if was some kind of a school discipline master, their expressions made her smile at them.

"First of all, my name is Seimei I am a priest of this temple, I maintain this temple by visiting it regularly whereby I will usually return to my own temple at the east.. that is my servant Keiko.. so, I am pleased to meet and I would like to know who are you folks and where do you come from.." Seimei ended.

Then Neji answered, "Good to meet you Seimei-san, my name is Hyuuga Neji the leader of this team, that is Uchiha Sasuke, Inuzuka Kiba and his companion Akamaru, Aburame Shino and this is-"

"I AM UZUMAKI NARUTO, the 6th Hokage of the village Konoha, heh nice ta meet ya!" Naruto said making his loud voice echoing the whole temple, making some resting birds to flap their wings and fly away while Seimei watched the blond as his eyes twitched.

Yuri couldn't hold her laughter, "buhhu.. huahahahahahaa! You.. the Hokage? Keh.. don't bluff!"

Naruto glared at the girl he said, "yes I am!".

Seimei coughed getting their attention, "eh hem, please continue Neji-kun.".

The Hyuuga eyed them as they sat back properly at their places, he continued, "we're here in search of our friend, a ninja of our village, my cousin.. Hyuuga Hinata. She had been missing for two years.. we couldn't get a trace of her, until now.. but, we somehow ended up in this village.".

Seimei nodded he seemed to be thinking deeply and he then shifted his attention to the group, "okay Neji-kun, I would like to offer all of you my help, by tomorrow dawn I will travel back to my temple to the far east, if you don't mind.. you can join me. Since I am positive, you cant get any information about the missing person in a village of people who barely understood your language..".

Kiba nodded his head in agreement while Sasuke and Shino didn't say a word.

Neji and the others brightened, "well thank you so much for your generosity, Seimei-san that will be a great help."

Seimei smiled at them warmly for the first time, and said, "well, then. It is settled, I will meet you at the temple entrance by morning, please have your rest here tonight, Keiko-chan will show you to your room.. please excuse me.".

Seimei bowed politely and took his leave. While Yuri went to the priest and hugged him, she said while smiling warmly, "okay Seimei-sama, have a safe journey..".

Then she walked out of the room saying her farewell to Neji, Seimei scowled seeing her leave, he then stopped her holding wrist, Yuri looked back at the priest surprised by it.

"Yuri-chan.. please stay here with Keiko tonight.. its dangerous for you to be walking alone in the streets at night.." he said. He thought silently, 'especially not tonight..'.

Seimei continued, "and I think, it will be best if you come with us tomorrow.." saying that the priest walked out of the hall and went into the prayer room.

'this village will no longer be a safe place..' Seimei thought to himself, before continuing his prayer.

Yuri stood there dumfounded, the priest just went to his prayer without explaining himself, she scowled at herself and she went to Keiko. Keiko was showing the ninjas their room.

"Keiko-chan.. why had Seimei-sama ordered me to follow you guys? Is there any reason behind it?" Yuri asked while the other guys went into their room.

Keiko answered, "maybe he feels it will be better if you come with us.." the girl smiled warmly at Yuri.

Yuri still wasn't satisfied with her answer, seeing this Naruto said, "or could it be that he likes you.."

"that is nonsense!" Yuri yelled at the blond.

Keiko smiled at them shaking her head, "no, no.. That's not possible Naruto-kun, Yuri-chan was taken care by Seimei-sama when she was young, he loves her as his own sister..".

"oh.." Naruto said, he turned looking at the crimson eyed girl and asked, "so you don't have parents?".

Yuri smiled sadly and shook her head silently with that Naruto was taken aback by the sorrow her eyes held.

"between that.. Seimei-sama has already took liking to another girl, the lady is in Seimei-sama's Buddha temple, you'll meet her when we reach there.. its getting late, you should have some rest, good night Naruto-kun." Keiko said to Naruto and she turned away bringing Yuri to her room.

"Oi! rest well fishcake! See you tomorrow!" Yuri said and smiled at the blond before sprinting behind Keiko.

Naruto stared and growled as he looked at the Yuri girl and closed the door, he grumbled and tugged into his futon. 'Man.. she's a royal pain in the ass..' Naruto thought before drifting to his slumber.

---

The chilling air was still condensed with cold water particles that were blending in the air and emerges with it as mists covering the old abandoned house and the atmosphere around it, standing lonely on the face of the earth while it was being covered with greens of the forest around and over it. The cracked walls of the untarnished and unpreserved building hold many undiscovered and untold mysteries. The one with the title 'black queen' the mistress of the mansion, which she abandoned a long time ago, was frustrated beyond words. The priceless glass of the windows attached on the walls crashed and burst into thousand pieces of unsolvable riddle of glass, unable to contain the intensity of her anger as she yelled in rage with her gruesome bone chilling voice which echoed throughout the whole building.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRGGGHH HHHH! CURSE YOU! S*bleeep* O*bleep* B*bleep*! WHO EVER YOU ARE! I WILL KIL YOU BEFORE I GET THOSE TWO AND THAT DAMN TACHIBANA DONE!" the queen yelled in rage which caused a loud crash of the windows.

'CRASSSHHH!'

The queen who was sitting in the dark shadows of the room, shifted her gaze silently to one of her servants whom she handpicked among the humans who had families which she held prisoners in the dungeon. They were all trembling in fear just by looking at her. That terrified looks on their faces made her smirk in arrogance, and she pointed at a female servant, a young girl around 15 years of age. Gesturing her finger towards the girl to come near her, shivering slightly the girl stepped closer and stopped at a decent distance.

Still having the smirk on her face the woman said, "how is your father doing?".

The frightened girl said, "h-he is doing w-well, your hi-highness..".

"Hn.. well, I am too kind aren't I? so.. would you do me a favor to repay my kindness?" the woman asked.

The girl answered "if you wouldn't harm my family, I wouldn't deny anything you ask of me, your hi-highness..".

Scowling at the girl determination the woman said cocking an eyebrow, "oh really?.. (pause).. then, would you die for me?".

Shocked the girl answered with unshaken determination, "certainly your highness..".

The queen smirked at looked at the man at the corner of the room, who seemed shocked by the turn of events, she smiled and pulled the girl near her by her neck, the queen's gaze never left the man.

"look into my eyes.." the queen ordered.

The girl did as she was told, 'dad.. brother...' was her last thoughts. The girl's life energy was sucked into the black queen's eyes as she laughed maniacally while the girl cried in pain and horror, her youth was sucked out leaving her body and her skin dried and wrinkled not leaving every inch of her skin, the queen smirked as she tossed the girl's withered body aside. The body degraded and was pulverized into dust leaving out a fresh still beating heart, which was untouched by the queen's cruel power. Scowling at the peace of bloody meat that is still alive and beating, the queen looked at the man at the corner who gasped at it.

"hey you.. come here" she called the man.

It appears that the man was the girl's brother, "your h-highness..".

The woman smirked as she pointed at the beating heart on the corner and said, "take that peace of meat, cut it into half, squeeze the remaining blood and bring it to me, I am done with my dinner, I would love have some delicious beverage to drink.. you burn the rest remains into ashes, and trash it away, don't leave a single trace of it."

The man nodded and said, "yes.. your highness..".

Once she had quenched her thirst on the blood of the girl, she smirked at the young lad before her mercilessly she grabbed him by his neck.

She whispered, "your sister's blood was rather tasty.. hm.. I wonder how yours would taste like".

She licked the cheek of the shuddering young man and released his neck, she stood up from her seat and revealed herself under the light of the moon, "come servant.. we have some work to do.. but (pause).. before that.".

With her pinky finger she scratched her thumb, letting a drop of her black blood drop onto the ground. The moment it touched the ground, the room was filled with violet smoke that irritated the servants eyes, hundreds of dark hallows filled the space in the big room. She smirked at them while they nodded in unison and vanished into thin air.

---

=======================================the temple=====================================

'Meeoooow… meooowww…'

A cry of a helpless little kitty in the back of the walls of her room kept disturbing the crimson eyed dancer. The 22 year old shifted uneasily on the bed, turning and twisting in her discomforted sleep. She couldn't sleep either, she had nightmare about her past, making her slumber a dreadful thing to continue. She was calming her breathing and closing her eyes to get relaxed at the least, but no.. it wasn't helping either. She grumbled lying on the bed, the woman opened her eyes abruptly revealing her reddish eyes to the surrounding dark room. She yanked her upper torso to sit up on the futon she shifted her butt on the soft cushion comfortably. Bowing her head she heaved a frustrated sigh and got up from her position.

She grumbled as she could still hear the little lost kitten's cry. She stepped out of the futon and she stepped closer to the door.

'KPOW!' 'oowwwiee!'

She fell flat on her face hitting on the floor. She groaned in pain and scowled looking back at her ankle which had something tied to it her gaze followed the long rope which ended on Keiko's hand. Darn.. Keiko knows pretty well about Yuri than the woman herself. The girl slowly crawled onto her bed and leaned toward the already sleeping Keiko, and untied the rope quietly without waking the apprentice miko.

'yeay! Finally..' she exclaimed in her mind voice as she successfully freed herself from the complicated bond of the rope and she stiffened and paled when the miko squirmed on her bed. The girl sighed in relief when the miko slept peacefully and tip toed slowly out of the room.

Her bare footed steps where tapping against the floor lightly, she walked along the long lane and turned to her right to get to the entrance door of the temple. She turned to her back, smiling slightly the girl bowed to the 8 feet golden Buddha statue sitting in the middle of the hall before heading outside to find the kitten. A rush of chilling cold wind stroked her making her shiver slightly, while her glossy black hair floated as it was blew by the gentle breeze. Her feet tip toed on the freezing cold ground.

"Kitty.. hey kitty.. kitty kitty.. where are you?" the girl whispered in the dark as she got to the back of her room, outside the temple.

She scowled and turned around whipping her head in various directions to find the lost little kitten. But the kitten was nowhere to be found. She blinked sleepy and growled in frustration when her search was fruitless; she walked back to temple entrance. Suddenly, she widened her eyes in terror, her whole body started to shiver seeing the view unfolding in front of her eyes, her breath was caught in her throat, unable to respond to anything the girl stood there frozen to her feet which was glued to the ground.

Just a little distance away from her, over at the steps to the temple's entrance, was an enormous evil spirit, it was as dark as the night, eyes were blood red, the only other visible part on its face was its mouth propped with sharp- shark teeth covered with blood that is dripping to its chin, it has long black hair reaching to its knees, sharp claws that was digging into the meat of the young kitten which called her outside the temple. It was crouching on the steps digging the life out of the kitten with its sharp claws and sucking and licking the blood oozing out of its deadly injury. Blood was everywhere over the steps, another one of the evil spirit landed on the steps and started to lick the blood off the ground so hungrily. Looking at the dark hallows dining on a kitten's life in front of the sacred temple wasn't some view that a dancer can digest.

She gasped a little and started to hyperventilate. Suddenly strong arms came around her body, firmly gripping her mouth close, not letting a sound to escape her throat. She was startled to see a person beside her. She moved her eyes to the side and glanced at the person.

'Seimei-sama!' she thought.

Seimei narrowed his eyes concentrating on the evil presence and the scent of it in the chilling air. The air was damp and reek with the smell of blood, the priest concluded that there were more of those dark hallows are out there and that they were preying on more than a kitten's life. He glared at them, as one by one started to appear before him. There was another one at the dim lit street, preying on a street dog, 3 at the stables preying on the horses, some poor beggars' life were already taken. Seimei and Yuri saw more of them in the forest camouflaging the darker background.

Suddenly Yuri felt Seimei's voice without him speaking, 'Yuri! Can you hear me?'.

She looked at him surprised, she nodded her head and spoke in her mind voice, 'yes Seimei-sama..'.

Seimei ordered through his mind, 'listen, don't look at them in the eyes, don't move until they are out of sight.. they can know your presence by sensing your breathing and movement, but cant see or kill you until they had an eye contact with you.. work together with me, so that I can bring you into the temple safely.'

The girl gulped and nodded.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!" a man's cry startled her.

She stopped moving, when she saw the dark hallow below the hill at the corner beside the trashes plunged its full hand into the ribs of an old beggar, tearing and skinned him alive using its claw-like blades. It dug deeper into the man's trembling body and pulled his insides out with its hand and stuffed it into its mouth. The man's heavy breath became hitched and he died in its arms, his eyes and mouth was wide open. She gasped seeing the man's soul flying away, to which Seimei gripped her mouth tighter. At that moment, another dark hallow which was wondering the area hungrily spotted her breathing, in a flash it was right in front of her face, sniffing on her to sense her breath. She clutched her eyes close so that she wouldn't make an eye contact with it to avoid herself from signing an invisible contract with it to becoming its next victim. She was still and stiff as a stone, Seimei glared the dark hallow and saw it move away searching for its prey elsewhere.

They started to move a step closer to entrance and froze when a dark hallow passed by them again, Yuri had to hold her breath and closed her eyes until Seimei tapped on her shoulders, and gestured to move. Moving slowly, step by step they got closer to the temple and finally reached into the temple. Seimei dashed leaving Yuri's side and closed the wooden doors to the temple swiftly. Yuri gasped for air and started to cry, she was mortified to witness a cold blooded murder to take place right before her eyes. Her knees gave in and she collapsed to the floor, before her body hit the floor Seimei caught her into his arms and comforted her until the girl stopped crying.

"Yuri, why did you get out of the temple?" Seimei asked.

The girl calmed down and wiped her tears, "I-I was having a nightmare, and I was disturbed by a kitten's cry so I went out..".

Seimei scowled and sighed, "okay so, you can see them?".

The girl nodded and whispered shakily, more tears were flowing from her eyes, "y-yes.. (pause) is that the reason you asked me to stay the night here, and follow you?".

Seimei looked at the girl, his face was devoid of any emotions, he nodded his head looking away and said, "yes. They were the dark hallows, slaves of the black queen.."

She gasped and covered her mouth under her palm she asked, "black queen? Dark hallows? I d-don't understand anything.. Seimei-sama, what is happening in here?".

The priest sighed and said, "I will explain soon, for now, don't talk about it to anyone and anywhere, the mere mention of their names outside this temple will allow them to tract you, go and take your bath, we're going to pray.".

Yuri widened her eyes and said, "huh? We're praying now?".

Seimei walked to the Buddha with his back to her he answered, "yes, now. We had countless lives fall prey to the evil, its our responsibility to pray for their souls."

She protested, "cant we do anything to save them? I mean, we cant let innocent people die!"

Seimei turned to her, he looked at the dancer over his shoulders and said, "yes, but its too late to do that now, but there is hope for the still living, unknown to them we are their last hope..".

Yuri was perplexed by that answer but she didn't really understand what the priest was telling her without knowing the whole story, but she decided not to question the priest even more. She washed herself clean, changed into the white kimono and sat beside the priest and started to pray, never in her life did she ever prayed. This is the first time she had ever stepped in front of the god to pray for the protection of the innocent people's lives.

Seimei watched his sister as she prayed calmly and focused in her prayer. He felt himself smiling fondly at her, never did he saw her so focused in anything for a clumsy little girl she had been. He turned to the Buddha and scowled in worry, his mind was now only focused on one thing, his last resort, his mind voiced.

'my last hope.. the last weapon.. I hope you're safe, please.. protect yourself, until I come for you.. show the witch that you're not weak.. your true power is you yourself, your kind heart, it was never me.. Hinata-sama..'.

---

-END OF CHAPTER 7-

Me: YEAY! That was the end of chapter 7! I hope you like it!

But no, no, no, no! I'm not ending this chap without the promised flashback of the 2 years between Naruto and Hinata.. so… here it is! Enjoy! OOOLALLA... *a-and, first time attempt on writing a fight scene, please forgive me if it was really bad.. I just give it a try, hope you like it..*

---

~FLASHBACK STARTS~

"I shall fall as prey to death before I could fall as prey to your desire!" she yelled.

The female Anbu spit the blood oozing from the wound in her mouth which caused by the friction of the punch he threw on her face when she was caught off guarded while she landed her Jyuuken on him, damaging his tenketsus and closing them all. She slipped away from his grasp leaping high few feet off the ground she hopped onto several branches of the tree, and stood practically a good distance away from the sinister rapist. The guy smirked as she glared down at him when he stepped on her treasured dragon Anbu mask. He smashed it into pieces while projecting his weight upon it, when he sensed that he had successfully angered the gentle and soft lady Anbu he sneered at her in amusement.

"hiss.. ouch, does that hurt? Really? Cuz I didn't feel it.. c'mon love, let me heal that wound on you're pretty face.. show me the beauty you are in the inside.. mighty white dragon.. heh.. or.. should I say, Hyuuga Hinata.. hahahahaha!" he said cockily.

He laughed at the flabbergasted look on her face at the mere mention of her real name, 'h-how did he..' she thought.

She recovered from it as quickly as his laughter ended, she focused on the targeted criminal she was assigned to assassinate. He was an S rank criminal that was listed in the Bingo book. Pale veins popped onto her temples and extended to her cheeks as she silently activated her Byakugan, scanning the man from top to bottom and shifted her gaze around and speculated her next attack on him. She dashed towards him as he approached the bomb he had set up, which is about to burst and kill the both of them and also the whole Rock village. She carried a shuriken with chakra projected on it and slashed his hands into minor wounds letting few drops of his blood splattered onto the green grass of the earth.

He simply smirked at her advances and said, "paying back are we? Hn.. so be it.. kitty..".

To his understanding he knew she was a Hyuuga, a close-ranged fighter, and an average taijutsu user. He knew he couldn't get too close to the shinobi recklessly. He leapt to the other side of the ground, screeching onto the reddish soil, he activated his jutsu.

Bombs started to burst into fire , 'damn!' she cursed.

She followed the guy and threw few kunai and shuriken at him to which he avoided each and every one of them perfectly, she smirked as the last minute plan worked out splendidly. She projected her hands outwards as he stopped when he landed onto the shallow stream of river. He scowled when none of the bombs he activated just now never blasted. Then everything came in the picture clearly when he saw a clone of her was finding and deactivated them.

He gritted his teeth trying to control his frustration, 'shit! How this b*bleep* managed to do that!' he thought.

She had a clone which held its transformation jutsu on it as they fought; it dispelled the jutsu and dismantled the bombs while he was running away from the shuriken and kunai blades. The kunai and shuriken she threw at him returned to her like a freebie and revealing the web of strings pasted with bomb tags she tied as a trap which the criminal stood in the middle. Those shuriken and kunai was purposely thrown at him for him to avoid it and to move further away for the bomb, finally to be in the middle of the trap. If he moves an inch, it will burst.

She stared at him equally hard, she formed few hand seals and yelled, "BLOOD BENDING JUTSU!".

"how the hell!" he yelled before falling into the water rendered completely paralyzed by her last jutsu.

The blood bending jutsu is the jutsu she created combining ninjutsu and medical jutsu providing her the ability to control any fluid substance in a human body with summoning of her chakra onto the person, under the presence of water. This was her signature jutsu that paralyzes the victim almost immediately. After sending him to the jail she departed from the Rock village returning to Konoha at full speed. She has been away from the village for almost a week.

---

=======================================at the Hokage monument=========================

Captain Hawk read the scroll that she brought back to Konoha from the Rock village and also her report. The man nodded at her in a satisfied mode.

He said, "You had captured the rogue nin on the loose, and paralyzed him, sending him back behind the bars? Impressive.. White Dragon."

The girl bowed and said, "hai! Arigatou-gozaimasu,(means: thank you) Hawk-sama.".

When she straightened herself she couldn't find her captain who should be in front of her congratulating her. She smirked when she felt his presence on her back, holding the cold steel of Kusanagi blade nudging against her delicate skin on the neck. She felt him stiffen when she inhaled and heaved a sigh.

"you're getting tired of it already?" he mocked her.

The girl shook her head and puffed into a pile of smoke and re-appeared in front of the Uchiha in a blink of an eye.

"Sasuke-kun.. will you stop with the mockery?" she asked while removing her replaced brand new mask.

The Uchiha sheathed the blade and asked her, "and.. will you stop with being polite? Its getting on my nerves".

She smiled and said, "then you'll never be able to get used to me..".

"Hn.." was all that he said as he rolled his eyes taking the hawk mask off his face.

They walked to the top of the third's head, dusting the ground and sat on it watching the peacefully sleeping village. It was late on the wee hours, it was the time when owls play guards and watch the night. Hinata had returned to the village and reported her last mission to the captain. She sighed when something entered her mind. Her thoughts have been playing in her mind as soon as she finished her mission and was on the journey back to Konoha. She realized that her worries which she abandoned at the back of her head for a while during the mission resurfaced in her little brain talk.

"how is Karin-chan?" she asked silently.

Sasuke find it hard for his eyes to leave the stars so he simply answered without looking at her, "fine..".

She smiled contemplating how Karin had been acting lately, trying so much to set up the recently widowed Hokage with the ex-Hyuuga heiress, her. She couldn't deny it, with the way Karin is.. she obviously is trying hard even though she knows there is no hope, the lavender eyed woman didn't know whether to laugh or cry looking at her own situation. She still cant believe herself, that she is hopelessly very much in love with the current Rokudaime.

"has Hikari-chan have been discharged?" she questioned again.

"nope. She's still in the incubator, but soon will be discharged in 2 or probably 3 days.." Sasuke said.

"oh.." she said and shrugged.

They sat quietly like that for what it seems hours, contemplating and entertaining their thoughts, enjoying the comforting silence in between them and the night. Hinata was drawing small images of herself, her friends, cute little Naruto's, chibi Naruto and Sasuke fighting. The one last picture she carved with the little stick was that Naruto is winning and Sasuke losing. She was startled when she heard him chuckle at her. She widened her eyes and looked up from the dusty soil below her towards him, she saw he was smirking smugly looking at the little innocent drawings she carved.

"not wasting time and acting childish are we?" he asked to which made her blush instantly.

She was taken aback when she heard him say, "but I should win! Not that dope!".

He snatched the stick from her hand and scratched her illustration and drew his own.

She smirked looking at him and said, "looks like I'm not the only child here..".

He tried to glare at her, but it ended up being funny which she laughed at him, he put the stick aside and crossed his arms across his chest. Huffing he scratched his chin forming a fully fledged smile.

"ahh.. it took me years to find it.." the Hyuuga said.

"to find what?" Sasuke asked puzzled from what she said.

"your smile.." she said poking his nose to which the Uchiha cocked and eyebrow.

He then reached to her ear and twisted it, "ow ow ow ow.." she cried.

Letting her reddened ear go the Uchiha said, "you're getting better at mocking me.. following Naruto's progress huh?".

She blushed even redder and smiled while playing with her bangs, she sighed and said, "hum.. I think he's doing better than I am..".

Sasuke grumbled and said, "hn.. yeah. Way better at getting me annoyed..".

She smiled at his response and turned away looking at the other part of the village where her house was located, smiling softly.

"(sigh..) he's been.. he's been handling his emotions pretty badly, he still lives in her loss.. I tried to talk to him about it, but you know.. (sigh..) I ended up bruising his butt pretty badly.." Sasuke explained.

She scowled sadly and smiled, "that is so much like both of you..".

He gazed into her white orbs intensely and said, "Hinata.. you should go and talk to him.. his trying my advice I can see that but, its not going smoothly.. I think, if you were by his side, he could recuperate from the hurt..".

Hinata gulped hard as she scowled worriedly at the Uchiha, after few moments of silence she nodded her head, "okay..".

---

=======================================by the evening==================================

The Hyuuga wrapped up and called it a day. Her evening shift is over at the hospital, another female medical officer will be taking her place for the night shift. The lavender eyed woman carried the patient files and shoved them into the shelf and cleared her stuff into her bag, folding the white coat into her bag and walked out of the check up room. She was beat, she knows that well. After the little talk early in the morning with her captain, he had given her sometime off which she could use it to relax and train before her another assignment. She walked passing the elderly patients' ward after visiting them and saying occasional greetings to them. She headed towards the pediatric ward, where newborns were placed. After walking a good distance, she met Ino and talked with her before the woman was called. She stopped at the children ward and gave each of them warded there the sweets she brought and a delightful kiss on their forehead as a charm for them to get well soon. Upon reaching the newborn's ward, her slender, low heeled feet stopped in her tracks, when she saw a familiar figure standing few feet away from her.

He was standing there, near the room, gazing tenderly at his 2 weeks old daughter, through the window. He was leaning onto the window, both of his hands chucked into his pockets. His head was turned to his right, unaware of her eyes that was on him. He was so silent, so … miserable. Tears started to leak from her own when she looked at him in this state. Never had she seen Uzumaki Naruto, this sullen before. From the mere view of him told her his emotions, his thoughts that could've disturbed his mind, the hurt and loneliness that he had to cope up in order to stand strong for his daughter. She scowled sadly holding her breath in her throat, choking her own sobs. She never ever wanted to see him this hurt, she didn't know why could it be because she would be hurt too?

She blinked the tears away, if she wasn't strong enough, if she cried, then who will comfort him? She knows that probably he will avoid talking about it to her. But, at least she has to try, at least once. She gulped and stepped slowly towards him. She stepped even closer and closer towards his back that she had been so familiar with chasing behind, all these years. When she stretched her arms reaching to him, suddenly, he moved away. He walked away and vanished before she could reach him, as if he read her presence behind him and escaped purposely to avoid her. She felt her heart tightening and discarded the thoughts that were depressing her. He probably hadn't noticed her presence and teleported away. Or maybe.. was he.. crying?

She scowled sadly and she turned her gaze onto the precious little soul that was sleeping peacefully, completely unaware of the whole world and a pair of white eyes that leaked in tears watching at her lovingly. The Hyuuga clutched her bag holding her own despair in herself, wiping away her tears she stood there alone and determined. She will meet Naruto and will talk to him, today. She has been running away from it for the past fortnight, but today, she finally decided to face it. She had to do it, for Sakura.. for this little child, for Naruto.. and also for herself as well. She had to, she chose not to run away anymore, and this isn't stopping her.

---

======================================Naruto=========================================

The young blond walked in that brightly lit alley, alone. Practically dragging his feet towards his house, with sullen expression in that once bright face of his. He sighed as he thought most probably there wouldn't be anyone greeting him when he gets back home, it has been like that from the moment he was born and now, it was like that, from two weeks past. There wasn't anyone. He just came back from visiting his wife's grave. He hadn't eaten his dinner and not taken any time to stroll at the Ichiraku ramen house, his favorite food stall. He has been missing out his meals now. He has been in a pretty bad shape, and he was aware of that himself. Sasuke had tried to knock some sense out of him, but it didn't work much. He still hadn't changed the bandage on his cheeks, arms and waist where Sasuke attacked two days earlier.

He pushed the grill to the Uzumaki estates open and walked through the garden to reach to the entrance. He pulled out the key to his mansion, and unlocked the door. When he opened the door, he was so lost that he was unaware that the lights were on.

The blonde mumbled, "Tadaima.. (means: I'm home..)"

He was startled when he heard two voices that greeted him back, one was echoing in the hall while the other was softer.

"Welcome back, Naruto!" Tsunade said in her erupting and uncharacteristically cheerful voice.

"Welcome home.. Naruto-kun.." was the ever soft Hinata's gentle voice.

He was surprised and was taken aback by their presence in his house. He stood there frozen at the door his hand still gripping the door knob to see the both of them there, the ex-Hokage Tsunade was sitting comfortably in the couch and switching the channel on the television with the remote control, while the ex-heiress Hinata was preparing some delicious food ready to be eaten on the table. He blinked several times before digesting what he had just witnessed in his own abode.

Suddenly he burst out pointing at Tsunade, "YOU BROKE INTO MY HOUSE GRANNY!".

That earned a fierce death glare from Tsunade and a stifled gasp from the ex-heiress. Tsunade stormed to the blond and knocked the sense out of him.

"OUCH! That hurt granny!" he yelled rubbing his head.

Tsunade smiled and pushed the blond to his room, "that was for accusing me and jeopardizing my position as the ex-Hokage, euuww.. you smell like you haven't bath for weeks, get your butt into the shower and get yourself clean if you want dinner!".

The blonde whined lazily and said "uuhhh I'm hungry.. okay, okay.. sheesh.. you're pushy as ever baachan..".

The blonde side glanced as he heard the Hyuuga's soft giggle looking at the grandma and her grandson's antiques, which you cant witness anywhere else but only at Uzumaki mansion. She blushed and smiled softly when she caught him glancing at her while he returned her smile and vanished into the master bedroom. After a while he re-appeared fully dressed in a normal orange pants and black long sleeve, turtle neck shirt, with the reddish Uzumaki swirl sign engraved on its back. The three of them had their dinner at the Uzumaki residence. Tsunade left the mansion after having fruit dessert with the shy Hinata and her hyperactive grandson.

Hinata was seeing her to the door, she whispered to the fifth, "thank you for helping me out, Tsunade-sama..".

Tsunade smiled and caressed the Hyuuga's cheeks and kissed her forehead making the girl blush, before going she said, "it's all my pleasure sweetie, now quickly get in there and give him your talk.. good luck dear..".

Hinata smiled and closed the door behind her, she turned away from the door facing the living room of the mansion, and saw the living legend of her admiration, devotion and love.. calmly watching the television. He wasn't aware of her stare on him, she knew he wasn't really watching the program in that channel. She smiled and went into the kitchen to do the cleaning. After washing all the dishes to her pleasure, which she had fought over with Naruto to do it by herself, and won against him in 'paper, rock, scissor' game. She switched the lights in the kitchen off and walked to the long couch where he was sitting in with a first aid kit in her hand.

She sat beside him knowing that he was now aware of her presence in his house, when he turned to face her with a foxy grin on his whiskered face, which she loved so much, but it was the genuine one that she loves, not this fake one.

She looked at him and said, "Naruto-kun..".

"Hm?" he hummed not looking at her, but now is actually watching the television show for real.

She opened the kit taking out the scissor, gauze, some sponge, saline and iodine, she lifted his arm and said softly, "show me your arm.. I'll treat them..".

He let her unbind the bandage and work on the wound without saying anything, but still gives out some hissing sound occasionally. She did treated his wound tenderly but his wound was pretty bad in shaped, and was healing real good.

"sssss… ouch." He hissed softly.

"I- I am sorry!" the girl apologized.

He smirked and said, "and here I thought your stutters were completely vanished..".

She smiled and peered through her bangs, she asked, "does it still… hurt?".

He shook his head and answered, "nahh.. it'll get better..".

She smiled and moving to the wound on his waist she tugged his shirt up revealing some part of his six packs navel, she asked, "Naruto-kun.. I am asking, does it still hurts you?".

Naruto scowled at her bowed head for a moment he blinked as his eye searched for the underlying meaning in her question.

He gulped and clutched his fist on his lap when he understood what she meant, and said hoarsely, " I am okay Hinata.. don't worry..".

She was done dressing the wound on his waist after plastering the bandage closely to his waist. She looked up at him, for the first in his life, Naruto had seen anger in her pale lavender tinted eyes which were directed towards him. Hyuuga Hinata was never mad at anyone, and was never mad at him. Suddenly in the blink of an eye, the anger in her eyes were replaced with the familiar warmer, softer, kinder, gentle gaze that it always held. He could swear that he saw some glistening in her eyes but she looked away.

He blinked down at her wide pale orbs as she said, "then why.. why couldn't I see that smile, again? Why are you faking it?"

He scowled slightly in puzzlement, as she cleaned the wound on his cheek with the sponge dipped in saline, he opened his mouth to say something but closed it back. She didn't say anything, she was completely quiet. And he couldn't tell anything to her, he didn't know what to say. He gazed at her as she worked on his wound gingerly not losing her gentle touch and bandaged his cheek. He could feel her gulp as she hurriedly putting in everything into the first aid kit box and left the couch to the kitchen to put it back. With her change of mood just now, his senses told him that she's trying to leave earlier than she had planned and it was because of him. He stood up from his couch, when she switched the lights to the kitchen off and approached the table getting her bag and walked to the door.

Before twisting the door knob open, she looked one last time at him, she smiled sadly and her eyes still lingered with care, trust, worry and affection, which formed into tears.

She whispered to him "i-if you didn't want t-to talk about it w-with m-me.. its fine, I understand.. good night Naruto-kun.." his heart clenched as well as hers.

She turned away twisting the knob opening the door to get out of his mansion, to finally leave him alone, he was facing her back legs glues to floor, eyes widened as a simple thought, no.. better say it, a realization hit him, 'She's upset.. because of me.'.

Then the blond did the next right thing and moved according to his instincts. He swiftly rushed to her back and placed his hand on top of hers on the door knob and the other on the wall blocking her under him.

'SLAM!'

He slammed the door in front of her close. She was both very much startled and surprised. Her heart was about to jump out of her ribs. She choked her breath in her throat when he heaved a sigh from behind blowing away some strands of her hair. She blinked when they silently stood there for a moment before he finally spoke.

He said with a cracked voice, "I-I'm sorry Hinata.." he paused and gulped, "I'm sorry I wasn't being open with you.. or anyone who tried to talk to me.. I am really hurt..".

She frown sadly as one, two, tears escaped her eyes, she said, "you're not the only one hurt.. Naruto-kun..".

He was taken aback by her answer, she could feel him nodding his head as he stood against her, slowly and gradually closing the gap between his chest and her back, he leaned towards her for support, she felt his chin resting on her head.

"I .. I know.. that's why, I am sorry.." he said hoarsely.

Saying that he finally leaned into her and hugged her, enveloping his arms around her waist from her back, he rested his forehead onto her shoulders and sighed shakily whispering another 'I'm so sorry..'.

Tears flew from her eyes freely without any hint of insecurities, now it was for him. She startled him by caressing his other cheek and his hair but he leaned to it, he needed it, and she's the only who could give it to him. She turned within his arms facing him, with tears wetting her cheeks. She noticed the tears on his cheeks too.

She smiled and said holding his face, "remember Naruto-kun.. it is okay to cry with a friend than crying alone.. and.. you're not alone.".

Hearing to those words registering slowly into his brain while he stared dumbfounded at the Hyuuga, finally, the Uzumaki pulled her into him and crushed her into his embrace. She caressed his head, stroking his spiky golden locks with her gentle fingers as he leaned and shed his tears silently on her shoulders. She knew she did the exact opposite of what she was told. Sasuke had approached her to calm Naruto to make him stop crying and get over it but, what she did is to let him cry to his heart's content and staying there with him until he was okay. But she felt what she did was exactly the right thing for Naruto.

She pulled the sleeping Naruto to the couch, Hinata went into his room to get a blanket and covered his sleeping form with it. She kneeled down on the floor near the couch he was sleeping, admiring his sleeping face. Cute, handsome, vulnerable and beautifully innocent was this S ranked Hokage when he was sleeping peacefully completely unaware of the one fact that someone was watching over him in his slumber. She smiled softly caressing his whiskered cheeks and leaned to him placing a light peck on his forehead. She was surprised when the blond squirmed slightly and gripped her soft hands into his broad and bigger ones. She tried to free her hand from his hard grip but to no avail, it only made the blond do the worst, he hugged her whole arm close to his chest and slept on.

The Hyuuga sighed in defeat and leaned on his forehead she thought looking at him, 'you'll never let go of me will you? I know you were lonely... Naruto-kun.. I wont leave you..'.

The Anbu fell asleep with a childish Hokage tugging to her arm, she sat on the floor and folded her other arm at the edge of the couch and rested her head on it, that's how the night ended for the restless Anbu and the broken Hokage. As the morning sun approached the sunny Hokage of Konoha squirmed in his bed, oops no.. his couch. He stretched his leg and body which ached pretty badly, he blinked getting a clear view of his surrounding that is when he came face to face with a sleeping Hinata on the edge of his couch. He blushed when he noticed that he was holding onto her hand to his chest like his life was depending on it. He sat shaking his head he was embarrassed of himself for acting that childishly around her. He saw how the Hyuuga slept sitting on the floor, she must be getting numb.

---

Hinata moaned in her sleep. She sat up blinking her eyes open, the last thing she remembered was sleeping with Naruto hugging her arm and she knew it wasn't as comfortable as this. But she looked around getting the picture clearly she blushed deep red when she found herself sleeping on his bed. She found the Hokage wasn't in his house, he left early in the morning and it was now half past eleven. She smiled looking at the little note scribbled with untidy writing and a hand drawn Naruto smiley at the end of it, placed on the dining table beside a cup ramen and orange juice.

'Sorry Hinata-chan.. gotta go early, I'm the Hokage after all! Hehe.. got you some breakfast, finish it ok! See ya later! Naruto.'

Hinata couldn't help but to smile at his clumsy writing and she couldn't stop herself from wondering how sweet he really is. It appears that the blond is back to his overly energetic and hyperactive self once again. She blushed slightly when she thought of repaying him for letting her rest the night in his mansion. The Hyuuga refreshed and started to clean the house, soon, she started working on the ingredients for cooking him some homemade lunch and dinner. The child arrived to the Uzumaki mansion 4 days later, Naruto was far happier beyond words. Hinata, Ino and Tsunade assisted the blonde with the child care. Since he had to learn every steps for dealing with babies, to know the basics of raising a child, with Hinata there helping him he hadn't gotten much troubled with it, he learned it as if he was learning a new jutsu, he also never failed to use shadow clones too.

---

======================================8 months later===================================

Hinata left the hall to the kitchen to get the little 8 months old baby Uzumaki her milk. She prepared the milk and was walking out of the kitchen glancing up at the clock on the wall at the living room, where she left the toddler playing with the toys. Naruto should be home in another 15 minutes. Hikari-chan was growing into a healthy baby, she likes to throw things at people and her laughter was the most beautiful music Hinata could ever imagine hearing.

She smiled softly as she was walking towards the little girl, she found herself dodging the toys that Hikari was throwing towards her. She chuckled at the girl and squatted down to the floor few feet away from the little, she was busy collecting the toys in her hands that she failed to notice a miracle that is taking place in front of her. Hikari stretched her little arm forward to her side and picked up a plushy toy clutching it in between her strong hand the girl pushed her hands on the floor balancing herself, slowly raising on her shaking feet.

Hinata stifled a gasp when she saw the little girl's advances in bewilderment. She blinked her slowly forming tears at the corner of her white eyes. She watched with widened eyes as the baby stepped forward gingerly, standing on her unstable little feet, step by step the girl tumbled down, every time, she managed to get up on her feet and finally she reached her destination to the pale lavender eyed woman who was looking dazed and amazed. Hikari stretched her arms to the Hyuuga's face and fell upon her colliding into the ex-heiress's embrace. Hikari scowled sadly, puzzled at the tears her mother was shedding. Slowly tiny tears started to form at her eyes too and the baby sniffed. Knowing that her child is mistaking her for being sad, Hinata quickly wiped her tears and hugged the baby in her arms warmly. She nuzzled her nose on the baby's stomach and tickled her making the baby's and her own laughter erupt and echoing in the walls of the mansion.

Naruto was puzzled when he got home, Hinata was kneeling onto the marble floor farther away from his daughter who squatting her knees and pushing her hands onto the floor for support. What he saw next made his heart swell with sudden burst of happiness. His daughter was making her first steps towards Hinata. Hinata was so into Hikari that she failed to notice the Hokage's entry into the mansion. He saw the Hyuuga laughed softly and tearfully hugging his daughter tenderly into her arms and saying words of encouragement, praising and her love. He blushed when he saw the next thing that he didn't know was coming. The Anbu was kissing his daughter lovingly all over her face not missing the lips.

He wished and yearned so badly for that love his daughter was having when he was a toddler himself, several decades ago. He had no mother, no father, he was a parentless orphan, surviving in the penchant money that the Konoha government had given him upon his parent's death. He had no friends either. He was lonely, and it was a dark hell that he never wanted to go back. He smiled at the mother and daughter in bliss in front of him.

He heard Hinata whispering to the baby, "Hikari-chan is so good! I'm so proud of you! Smart girl.. mommy will treat you with more kisses of charm if Hikari-chan can walk without stumbling.. okay? try love, try harder, get up every time you fall and walk proudly.. just like your daddy..".

"hehihieheh.." the baby laughed in her arms playing with the strands of midnight blue hair entwined between her little fingers.

Hinata kissed the baby again before standing up carrying the girl in her arms. The Hyuuga was startled when he felt a hand on her shoulders.

She turned to find a very amused, beaming, and tearful Naruto behind her, she smiled warmly and said, "oh! Welcome home Naruto-kun.. You know Hikari-chan is walking!".

Naruto smiled stretching his arms for his daughter, and Hikari jumped on him happily, he said, "I saw that! Hikari-chan was so cool! And you Hinata-chan.. you were.. so.. cool and loving and.. so.. b-beautiful!" he didn't hold it back from saying.

'very beautiful..' his mind whispered more to him.

She blinked and blushed at him, "thank you Naruto-kun.. I'm happy..".

Naruto sat on the couch and played with his daughter tickling her making her laugh so loudly, he said ending his laughter breathily, "haha hah.. I think you're the best mother Hinata-chan!".

Hinata was baffled with his sudden loud comment on her, she stuttered as he approached her hugging Hikari in his arms, "u-uh.. th-thanks..".

He smiled cheekily at her and closed in front of her, he put his hand on her shoulder and said, "thank you.. for being here for Hikari-chan and me Hin-".

Before he could finish she placed her finger on his lips stopping his words, she smiled at his widened eyes and said to him softly, "you don't have to thank me for doing my duty.. Naruto-kun.. I am very much contented doing it..".

Naruto didn't say anything but his lips stretched into a warm smile as the little girl giggled, reaching for Hinata's chain while the two adults wasn't aware, both lost in words.

Hinata gasped when Hikari-chan pulled her necklace yanking her forward, more specifically onto Naruto. The Hokage caught the lady in his arms and smiled at her when she looked up at him, blush was spreaded onto her pale white cheeks. Hinata ducked her head hiding her embarrassment from him. She stepped back from him releasing herself away from his arms. She looked up at the blond who was grinning ear to ear at her and smiled softly. She leaned towards Hikari and lightly pecked onto the girl's forehead and ruffled her burnt orange hair much to the baby's delight.

Carrying her bag in her arms, she slid it on her shoulders and said, "the dinner is ready Naruto-kun.. Hikari-chan's porridge is ready in the kitchen beside the stove.. see you tomorrow Naruto-kun..".

Naruto scratched the back of his head while Hikari was playing with his bangs he said, "thanks Hinata-chan.. yeah, see you tomorrow.. Hinata-chan.. call me when you get home after the night shift..".

She frowned to herself as she felt the hesitation in his voice as if he was about to ask her something but was debating inside whether to ask it or not. She closed the door to the mansion behind her leaving the two Uzumakis in the estate. When she got home after her shift she made a call to the Uzumaki residence right away, and a sleepy Naruto answered her with his muzzy voice. He had asked the Hyuuga about her shift, and whether she's okay and finally popped his question, he offered the Hyuuga to live within the mansion with him and Hikari, certainly, it would be best to do so, she can have close watch over Hikari and so on, but, it wasn't appropriate for an unmarried Hyuuga to stay with a man unless she's engaged with him. Hinata had told her answer the next day to Naruto so that she could clearly discuss this with him face to face, and Naruto accepted her decision maturely.

---

========================================5 months later=================================

They had a terrific party to celebrate Hikari's 1st birthday a month ago, they had invited the whole village since Naruto had made it into an official holiday and there was also a festival on alliance of Konoha with the other 5 nations on the very same day that Hikari was born. They celebrated her birthday as a festival in the five nations which doubled the Hokage's merriment. Hikari, her father Naruto and mother Hinata had real fun in the kitchen making the cake for her birthday and ended up wasting the ingredients with a little fight in the kitchen that turned into a huge mess of food fight. They had the photos taken from the mess with Sasuke's help. There was butter attached to golden locks of Naruto who was covered with white floor, Hinata was covered with vanilla essence, eggs and flour, while Hikari was a mess she was covered with cocoa powder, melt cooking chocolate and chocolate chips attached to her mouth. Sasuke, Karin and Kudou finally joined in the battle getting the whole kitchen wasted.

Following the festival delight begins the trouble. The wealthy, influential, handsome, charismatic leader, and widowed Rokudaime caught many peoples' eyes not only from Konoha but the other nations which had alliance to the 5 nations, and most of them were the influential and political people. They had started to beleaguer the Rokudaime with hefty and politically profitable alliance with Konoha through marriage proposal with the Uzumaki lord. The huge Rokudaime fan club that somehow managed to get to know the little detail made a huge commotion about the matter, the news even came down on the headlines of the Konoha daily papers. Naruto's popularity peaked and mostly everyday he had to turn down a marriage proposal that brought a nation's alliance with it. It was a huge pain in the neck for the Konoha's 6th Orange Hokage to deal with.

Slowly and gradually the number of proposals decreased much to his contentment, but till date he was getting one every now and then. Meanwhile, Hyuuga Hinata's condition was another matter, her status particularly her marital and relationship status with the current Hokage was questioned, starting from the girls in the fan clubs till the feudal lords who had offered their daughter's hand in marriage. There were few times, that Naruto had thought to make her his wife to put a pull stop to this entire ruckus, but dismissed the thought though since he believes that a marriage is a sacred ceremony that is uniting two hearts as one, it would not be a remedy to his problems even so, he knows that it is the only best option. The blond thought of how his Hinata will take it, in her point it wasn't fair, he shouldn't marry her because of a trouble but he should marry her because he loves her. Since that is not the case, he couldn't do that either.

On the Anbu's part, she wasn't really being open to the Hokage. She hid many things from his knowledge to which only Sasuke, Karin and Tsunade knew. She had been having trouble in her neighborhood, the market and any places where she goes alone except to the hospital, academy and the training grounds. Several times after long secret missions she found her apartment was broken in, and was messed up. She didn't try to complain about it since she knows who had caused it.

She had been harassed by groups of girls, stalking her and bullying her. They were gossiping about her and spread many groundless rumors about the ex-Hyuuga heiress, purposely putting her name to shame. The Hyuuga clan didn't bother about it since she wasn't one of them anymore. They mainly gossip about her status in her ninja carrier that she was once a weakling, plain and ugly, they even mocked her saying that she was weird, timid and mysterious girl to which they made a point since Naruto himself had said and thought about her as such before. Such open air gossips never disturbed her calm, until one day. It had happened 3 months before she was gone missing in the S rank mission.

It was the day that Naruto took the day off; they had planned to go for market to get some supplies for his house. They had started the shopping early in the morning in the market. Naruto was carrying little Hikari-chan and Hinata was with him pushing the trolley. By the time Hinata was looking at the veggies, Naruto was attacked by some fan girls for his autograph and four girls took this opportunity to take a picture with him, they were Ami-chan, Ran-chan, Kaname-chan, and Haruko-chan. These four suddenly started to stalk the couple to the every section they went simply to gossip around, whispering never so quietly which was easily heard by the people nearby. They did it purposely to hurt her and accuse her, Hinata knew this was coming, again.

Ami:"Ne.. ne, Ran-chan.. did you see that?"

Ran: "Yeah, I did.. geez how pathetic isn't it? Bringing a Hokage for some random shopping.. Is she trying to show off that she's got the trillion dollar hunk in her pockets?"

Haruko: "How bitchy isn't it?"

Kaname:"Yeah.. being a weakling, getting disown by her family.. how shameless of her to even show her face in the public.. like nothing has ever happened.. Keh.. she deserves that though.."

While Naruto was surrounded by some elderly ladies and gentlemen, unknown to Hinata they asked few personal questions to him like; did you asked her yet? Are you engaged? When do you plan to ask her? When is the wedding? and stuff.. It embarrassed the blond greatly, to which he scratched his head laughing nervously and avoided answering.

Soon after the little interview session with the elders he dashed towards Hinata and told her he would be in the ramen section. Naruto took the trolley from her, he placed Hikari-chan in the seat at front which was for placing toddlers, he went to the noodles section and loaded the instant cup noodles into it. Hinata finished choosing and weighing the potatoes and tomatoes, she searched for Naruto and was shocked to see him covering the whole trolley with only Instant Cup Ramen noodles. She glared at him and started to put all those cups of ramen back at the place ignoring his pleas. The girls followed them to the veggies section where Hinata was picking the red chilies, onion, garlic, cabbage, carrots and more healthy green food to cook. The girls started it again, despite the fact that Naruto was close by. Naruto suddenly heard people talking in not really hushed tone, his eyes widened when he heard it.

Haruko: "Hey you know, she's with him and his daughter like all the time.."

Kaname: "I just wonder how could've she done that, compared to the Haruno, she's practically.. nothing, like a zero you know.."

Ami: "Yeah, she's plain, no sense of fashion, no confidence, no talent, how pathetic for an ugly bitch like her to aim for Naruto-kun out of all guys.."

Ran: "Haha..check this out! She's been in love with him since like forever! From the time they were in the academy but he never once seen her in that way.. heh.. ugly people deserves only to be in the background.."

Naruto looked at the Hyuuga who was casually putting more spinaches into the plastics before queuing in the line for weighing them. To normal people, if they hadn't known her better, they could see Hyuuga Hinata in her best mood. But he watched her closely and saw her trembling hands. He scowled at her and the girls. He did not like this, no.. not one bit. He has to do something before they say more things that hurt her. He turned away from her and stepped to head towards them, but she grabbed his hand making him stop in his track and turned to look over at her. He saw her shook her head while keeping her gaze on the queue.

The anger in his eyes softened when he met her gaze. He sighed and stood beside her with the trolley trying his best to avoid their little gossip about his precious friend. To his surprise they didn't care about him hearing them, all they cared about was that she is hearing them talking about her. They continued further talking about her while she stood there smiling warmly at the person who greeted her and the Hokage beside her, she handed the veggies to the counter and waited until the person in charge of the counter weighed all of them.

Kaname: "Yeah.. hey, do you think that she used slutty methods to be around him.. you know like giving him a ride and all.."

Haruko: "Sheesh! Naruto-kun with her? yuck! Don't say that as if he doesn't have a taste in woman.."

Ran: "Maybe, but you know what.. even if she gives herself to him, that is soo useless.."

Haruko: "Why?"

Ran: "OMG!you mean you don't know? She's barren. She cant have kids!"

Ami: "How did you know that?! omg, so its true she is so useless..heh!"

Kaname: "I guess that's why Sakura pitied her.."

Naruto growled and trembled in anger. Hinata clutched his hand into hers and entwined her fingers in between his pulling it. He was shaking violently, she could understand his feelings. He never was the one to be taught around, he was never the kind to simply ignore. He was the hot tempered guy that never stands injustice and absurdity of people, he was the wisest of all people that knows what he's doing. He had the bravery to knock some sense out of the ignorant fools and he did it countless times in his life. She bit her lips as she saw him growing redder with anger in his eyes. She knew she wouldn't be able to control or stop him any time soon.

So she whispered to him, "Naruto-kun.. please.. control yourself.. they are just gossiping..".

He looked at her as his anger double folded, he hissed, "do you call that a gossip? How can they talk about you like this? What right did they have to say such things about you? They barely knew you!".

She bit her lip and looked up at him with pleading eyes, "please.. just this once.. hold yourself, they're the citizens... you cannot damage the reputation you hold now, by doing something so reckless in public..".

Naruto growled, "I didn't have this popularity back then, this is hard earned.. without you or our sensei and friends, I couldn't have reached this far.. this reputation isn't important to me than you!".

She nodded and said holding his hand, "I know.. but please.. Naruto-kun.. I beg you..".

She followed behind him as he rushed the trolley to the queue at the payment counter. It wasn't a long queue though, but people were buying so much stuff and the staffs were shorthanded. The three of them had to wait for a while until their turn had arrived. The girls followed them till the counter and acted to see the price tag of some items. They giggled and acted to get his attention, but he simply ignored rolling his eyes. He noticed them there he turned to his back and looked at Hinata with his piercing gaze.

He leaned closer to her and said softly in her ears which made the girls burn in jealousy, "if they talk again.. I'm not gonna hold myself Hinata-chan.. but I wanna ask your permission to do something else if you don't want me to scare the shit out of'em..".

She looked at him with a confused scowl, "permission to do what Naruto-kun?"

Naruto sighed and said, "it is something I wanna do in front of them, I need your permission that's all.. if you don't want me to beat the day light out of them..".

Hinata grimaced at the mere thought of it and nodded her head silently she didn't want to be the reason for Naruto to be hurting his good name and reputation. She saw him smirk evilly and she stared ahead innocently hoping that whatever he wants to do, it better be decent and non-violent, due to his temper right now, he might do something outrages if she didn't stop him. Hinata was speechless when she heard them talk again, this time it could be heard clearly as if they weren't whispering anymore.

Haruko: "For sure.. I mean look, what is she good at? She probably would've been sleeping around, lucky that she's barren she doesn't get pregnant by accident.. heh.."

Ami: "maybe that's why, out of all the kunoichi she's the only one who's unmarried.."

Kaname: "oh girl, who in the right mind would want to marry a women who obviously be such a burden!"

Ran:"yeah you're right… can you imagine anyone be as useless as her? I cant even picture it.."

That's IT! The blond lost it! The couple quickly paid the money to the cashier and Naruto pushed the trolley out of the supermarket dashing to hallway of the supermarket near the escalator, he stopped the trolley, he made sure that the girls were watching him and Hinata with a good crystal clear view. He grabbed the Hyuuga by her arm and pulled her closer towards him.

He whispered to her apologetically, "Hinata-chan please forgive me for doing this to you..".

"huh? Naruto-kun?" the Hyuuga called.

He quickly grabbed her and lifted her of the ground by her waist, crushing her soft, petite form against his rock hard ones, she rested her hands clutching his sleeves, he cupped her face gently and her eyes widened. She stared and blinked at him confounded, while crowd started to accumulate around them the elderly people and the fans, the other citizens including the girls, everyone, watched them in awe. She watched in bewilderment at the closely clutched eyes of the man in front of her, he then broke the intense kiss he just had shared with her. Hikari was clapping her hands together and laughed happily seeing her father give her mother one of his 'good luck charms' in front of everyone. The crowd followed Hikari and clapped their hands all together, which made Naruto to blush a little, he then stared daggers at the girls who were obviously fuming looking at them, Naruto hugged her protectively in his arms and smirked directly at them. While, poor Hinata was at loss of words, her eyes stayed widened as he gazed at her with his soft sky blue eyes. She gaped her now wet lips in daze but no sound, no voice, no words escaped her more inviting flushed pink lips. Her heart was beating madly in between her ribs, she was finding it hard to control her breathing as she grew even redder in color than any lobster, tomato or even the blood. He just stole her real first kiss! Aw God..

He knew she was going to collapse in his arms anytime soon, she was practically fainting every time he was near her back then, and now it lessened since she matured. He knew she wouldn't have foreseen this, fainting might be her first response to his kiss, he concluded. If this was Sakura he would've been bashed to death. He teleported his whole family and vanished from the sight of the citizen in just a second, they marveled the way he made his escape too and roared for the Hokage. He didn't say anything in particular about the kiss to the press conference when they questioned him regarding it.

What they didn't really know was that he was having a real disaster at his home. Hinata was terribly mad at him and she didn't speak to him for what it seems like days. She was giving him the silent treatment, totally opposite to Sakura's hundred fists treatment. This was even harder to handle, she would talk or ask to Hikari and used the little toddler to be the medium to talk to him. He really was on his edge from collapsing on his knees and beg her, he tried his every last trick that he knew to make her talk to him to get her attention to him, but she is so damn stubborn. It's a pity to those who angered Hyuuga Hinata that has to go through such merciless torment. And Naruto being Naruto is not an exception. It was really hard not talking to her, for being a talk active person as himself, this was a torture method that not even in the Lord of Hell could think of inventing.

(A/N: and here I actually pity him.. kukuku..)

He had to cry Hinata-chaaaan, Hinata-chaaaan.. for more than a thousand times to finally make her to look at him, and as for making her to talk to him, finally Sasuke had to jump in and solve the problem with a little trick that his genius brain had worked out in just a matter of minutes. He simply have to kick Naruto's butt in a spar full of made up stories and quarrels, to make it look like a real fight and make the blond bedridden. This will make Hinata worry too much for him as her 1st reaction, 2nd she would take care of him so no hospital bed, 3rd she will have to speak to him to know how he feels and stuff, so, YEAY! The plan worked! But poor Naruto has to endure Sasuke-teme battering him as the part of the lousyplan, to which the Uchiha claims that it was a brilliant one. Geez.. But none of them actually know that the Anbu, Hyuuga Hinata wasn't a stupid woman to believe that, she has the ability of byakugan not for just a show and she had seen through their whole ordeal. The woman just kept it to herself and treated the poor blond warmly, she didn't want to treat him the way she did earlier either. But what she couldn't believe is that her Naruto was willing to go that far to get himself beaten up by his worst rival ever just to get her talk to him, this made her see her wrong, her selfishness and her extreme stubbornness towards him, she was the one at fault, not her Naruto.

And one night, after feeding Hikari-chan and singing lullaby for the girl to sleep. She placed the nearly 2 year old girl in the crib and watched her until she sleeps. Hinata then walked to the master bedroom, the door to his room was wide open. She watched him warmly with a loving gaze as he was still sleeping in his bed, the blanket on him was displaced so she moved towards him and tugged the blanket properly on top of him. She stepped closer and sat gently, on the edge of his bed, watching him in his slumber, she eyed the bandages she had changed, his wounds were closing miraculously fast. She smiled softly as she stretched out her hand reaching to his messy golden locks and ruffled his hair making it messier than it already is.

She moved his bangs on his forehead and leaned closer to his forehead and pecked softly, she whispered with a smile, "that was a charm for you to get well soon.. Naruto-kun.." failing to notice the twitching of his closed eyes.

Moving away straightening her back, she looked down at his ragged hands, she lifted one of it in her soft and smooth ones, she kissed the back of his hand and whispered against the skin on his palm, "I am so sorry.. for behaving like that to you.. I am very glad that you were willing to forgive me, Naruto-kun.. I will not mistreat you again I promise..".

She paused and glanced at his sleeping face, as a tear escaped her eyes, she kissed his palm and whispered, "I was being so silly, so stubborn, and selfish.. I know I am not the right woman for you, I.. I am taking you for granted.. I'm sorry..".

She sighed softly moving his palm to her cheeks and leaning onto the warmth it held she clutched her eyes close, letting the pooling tears at the corner of her eyes flow down to her cheeks boundlessly, totally unaware of his awakened gaze on her.

She smiled and continued to whisper closing her eyes, "Naruto-kun.. I don't know who am I gonna marry in future, I don't know that will he hate me if I tell him one fact about me.. that I can only be a mother once, and I can be a mother only to Hikari-chan.. for being a barren woman.."

Naruto watched her tilting his head aside, as she quieted down clutching his hand in both of hers as firmly as she could, her eyes were still closed, she bowed her head down, silently shedding the incoming tears on the sheets. The Hyuuga remembered what she witnessed on the very day that Sakura had departed from this world. She remembered the whole scene pretty clearly, it was one of the most heart shattering memories of hers.

She watched Naruto hugging Sakura, weeping against her shoulders, as Sakura hugged the blond in her arms caressing him soothingly, smiling calmly waiting for her time to go. She recalled the way Sakura smiled at her, the way she gazed at her expectantly, the way she handed everything over to the Hyuuga. Hinata knew, how much Sakura had wanted to live together with her husband and daughter, how much she wanted to hold her child in her arms to watch her grow into a beautiful and formidable ninja. How much she wanted this life.. The Hyuuga realized painfully, how much Naruto wanted his Sakura to live, how deep was his love for her..

She stifled a sob and whispered to him with her quivering voice, smiling sadly, "I w-wished so much, i-if.. Sakura-chan could be here, to see H-Hikari-chan g-grow.. I realized y-your bottomless love towards S-Sakura-chan.. You would've b-been happier, i-if she was here with you.. I c-couldn't do more t-than to understand y-your sorrow and s-support you.. I w-wasn't capable of d-doing more than t-that but still, you.. a-appreciated and respected me.. (sniff) Thank you, for trusting me, for not detesting me, for believing in me, for supporting me, for understanding me, for caring about me, for having faith in me.. all this while.. I thank you, Naruto-kun".

His gaze softened, his heart was melting inside. She opened her eyes and she smiled in contentment, not knowing that he has been watching her, listening to her every word. She placed his hand back on his bed, when she was about to stand up, she was pulled back down by the same hand which she had held all this while. Her eyes widened in surprise, he sat up on the bed and she was left speechless seeing a pair of prescient sky blue eyes stared right through her pale lavender tinted byakugan eyes.

They stay like that silently, Hinata was very much embarrassed and shocked to know that the blond has been listening to her. She hadn't had a clue, how she missed to see that he was already awake. He scowled at her as she ducked her head hiding her gaze from him, Naruto lifted her chin with his other hand to make her see him.

She blinked and whispered his name feeling guilty, "N-Naru-Naruto-kun.. s-sorry, did I w-wake you?".

She saw him smile as Naruto admired her innocent face, "no.. I wasn't really sleeping by the time you entered in.. my room" he answered.

She shrugged awkwardly and blushed red, reluctant to meet his gaze she averted her eyes, she whispered, "oh.." she bit her lower lip now nervous that he heard everything that she was saying.

Naruto smirked at the shy Hyuuga before him, she squirmed in uneasiness under his penetrating gaze, he smiled and held her chin making her face him, he whispered to her, "(chuckle) You know you're the only woman alive that holds a very special place in my heart.. how can I hate you?.."

Naruto's smirk widened into a warm smile as he continued, "Thank you, for loving me.. for all this time.. Hinata-chan..".

She stared at him widening her eyes, totally astounded and flushed in interesting shades of red all over her face. Smiling cheekily the blond pulled her into his embrace as she gasped and slowly responded to his hug.

Clutching his eyes close he whispered to her, ".. you mean to me more than what you think, Hinata-chan.. don't get so down on yourself.. if you weren't here, I couldn't picture in what condition I would be.. I really need you.. cant you see that?".

Her heart tightened at the tone of his saddened voice as he whispered the last sentence, more tears started to run down her cheeks, she bend her head and rested forehead on his chest, hearing to his heart's beautiful rhythm of life.

Clutching tightly to his shirt she whispered, "I.. I am- s-s-sorry.. I- I'm so sorry..".

She felt his grip on her hand and lifting it to his face, he gently placed a kiss on it and whispered to it, "you needn't to be sorry.. but, if you really wanted to be forgiven.. then let me sleep on your lap!".

Hinata smiled as she broke the hug staring into his eyes, she moved so that he could place her head on her lap. Soon the blond dozed off to sleep as she stroked him and massaging his scalp. She watched as his chest rise and drop in a pattern, he was sleeping soundly. She was blissful, contented and happy beyond words, being by his side was her only wish. She felt greatful to be with him, she felt so lucky and proud that she had fallen for this guy, she has no regret, never will. Uzumaki Naruto.. he is making her fall in love over and over again. She felt so alive, that she could die any moment.. for him, she would be willing to die again. She is blessed, to having sacrifice her life for this one man, she wont hesitate even a second to do so. All because, he meant to her more than her life, he was more precious to her than this whole world. She'll sacrifice anything, even her own happiness if it means to see him smile.

The Hyuuga left him sleeping in his bed, after she placed him on the soft pillow. She walked out of the room closing the door behind her silently not wanting to wake him up. It was her time to leave, she has an important mission waiting for her, and if she didn't hurry she might be running late.

---

===================================outside Konoha====================================

Somewhere in the jungle near the gates of Konoha, the sudden breeze softly caressed and stroked the strands of her long midnight blue hair, floating it in the air as she sped up through the forest travelling to take on her new mission, with her fellow team mates. There were four of them that had accompanied her on this S rank mission, forming a team of Anbu, and she being their leader. They were her good friends in Anbu department, the Red bull, the Rat, the Sparrow, and last but not least the Hunter cat.

She looked back over her shoulders as she jumped from branch to branch, her gut feelings tells her this might not be an easy mission and she might not return to the gates of Konoha again. Trusting her pure instincts she knows what danger that was waiting for her as she launched herself ahead and as a great ninja, she braced herself for it.

'Take care of yourself and Hikari-chan.. Naruto-kun..' was her last thoughts.

---

_3 weeks after_

Naruto was a bit agitated and restless for that whole week, and weirdly, he didn't know why. He sent Hikari-chan under Tsunade-baachan's care while Hinata was gone in a mission. This is the first time ever that she went on a mission that was over 2 weeks. She was supposed to return by last two days ago, but no report was sent to him about her arrival. He had consulted the Anbu Captain Hawk about it. The search parties have been sent to find the troupe she was leading. He was hoping that they could find her.

And this time, if they find her and the troupe, Naruto is going to de-promote Hinata from being Anbu to a jounin right away! He'll have her take the medical officer position full-time if she likes, and will let her handle the Academy, she can do anything but strictly inside the village. He was feeling weird about her going to dangerous mission every time, especially being an Anbu, she cant avoid life-threatening situations. The Rokudaime wasn't really happy about that, he was more too worried than usual and he finds himself being disturbed to have this one person to go so far from his village, away from his daughter and leaving his side getting into the clutches of danger. He wanted to keep her safe by his side, he never wanted to let her go in those missions again, and oddly he considers if possible he wanted to ban her from taking any missions or even letting her being a sensei to a 3 men genin team. It is a bit rash and unfair, he realizes that but he cant think of any other way to keep her within the gates of Konoha.

This was getting too far, he knows that, yes.. Hinata will never gonna like it, but he strangely feels this over-protectiveness that surpasses his senses and even himself. He was having some kind of premonition about her, and it started recently. The more he was getting friendlier with her, the more he feels it, a bizarre and foreboding feeling of losing someone close to him again. He can't take it. He won't recover again if he loses her too, no... He didn't want to lose her, having her gone for 2 weeks in occasional missions was enough to do more damage on his mental getting him off the edge, and now she wasn't back on time, this was driving him insane. He didn't know why but whenever she was around, when he see her blush or simply smile at him he feels this peculiar spark in his heart, it is something strangely close to how he feels when Sakura was around him, back then. His heart jolts and races with 1000 cheetahs whenever she was close to him, he feels weird but wonderful feelings when he was with her. She made him feel peaceful, a surge of warmth in his heart flows through him whenever he touches her, he felt secured around her, maybe getting a little pampered and spoiled but.. the way she treats him makes him feel like he is a precious, invaluable, special man.

He couldn't define the nature of this feeling, he couldn't tell, but the only thing he knows and was sure about is that he wants to be with her. He wants her to be with him and Hikari. Hinata had made the changes to happen, she changed the way he was, she had shown him a new light in his darkened life. She had opened up to him even more, and he grew closer to her than before. His mind kept recalling to night which Hinata had last spent with him, everything that she had said, every word he had uttered, he couldn't forget them. Naruto regards her more than a friend to him, a special person, a unique human, and a priceless woman. Losing such an important woman of his life is unacceptable. He will find her, no matter where she is, no matter how far, he will reach up to her. He will go to the end of this world to get her back. Each every time he sends out a team for her recovery, every time they fail to find her, he never fails to try again, he never gives up.

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A/N: *in this time line.. their relationship hadn't developed romantically they're just closer friends (but I think they are way too close for friends ehehehe..), since Naruto was just noticing these weird changes in him and.. poof! There she goes, vanishing into thin air when the relationship between them strengthens.. the development of their relationship will happen as the story goes.. sadly, you all have to wait.. huhuhuhu..*

~FLASHBACK ENDS~

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