Hi guys

Sorry for not posting last week, I couldn't think of something that day, and I only post once a week, writing the chapter the same day for this story.

Hope you enjoy the chapter, more Naruto and Hinata Awkwardness involved.

Don't own Naruto

Chapter 13

She felt warm. That was the first thought that came into her mind as she slowly began to stir. She couldn't really remember what had caused her to faint. Team 8 and Naruto were returning to Konoha after a failed attempt at finding Sasuke, Naruto had asked to meet up in their spare time, and she…

Remembering what happened, she started to become aware that her head was on something soft, and her arms were wrapped at what felt like a person's neck. She opened her eyes to see a pair of ocean blue eyes staring back at her.

"Yo, Hinata. You feel better now?" The voice was none other than Naruto.

"Eeep" Hinata squeaked as she attempted to get off him, removing her arms from his neck.

"S-s-sorry N-Naruto-k-kun, h-h-ow long was I-I asl-leep for?" Hinata asked, her face turning red as a tomato.

Naruto rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, feeling a bit awkward of the situation placed, "ne, you were only asleep for 10 minutes. You must be really exhausted."

"H-Hai, sorry for the h-hold u-up"

"No worries, Shino said it was time to set up camp anyway since it was going to get dark soon" Naruto said.

"Hey you two, mind getting some firewood. Shino says he'll make some Miso soup today instead of us eating those food pills" Kiba's voice broke through the conversation.

Getting up, Naruto placed his hand in front of Hinata, "well, I'm defiantly up for some food today, let's go Hinata."

Still with a slight blush on her cheeks, Hinata placed her hand in his, being pulled up. Disappointed when he let go of her hand, they began their search for some firewood.

Kiba watched as the two left to search for firewood. He never truly understood why Hinata had liked Naruto from back then, made sense now, but before he was just the dead last of the class.

"Penny for your thoughts Kiba?" Shino asked, causing Kiba to jump.

"Man, you're so quiet that when you do speak, it feels like you came out of nowhere" Kiba was hitting his chest as if trying to calm his heart.

"…."Shino didn't say anything, but Kiba could tell that he was annoyed by that comment.

"It isn't really anything important, just curious why Hinata liked Naruto back when he was still the dead last of the class. It would make more sense now after everything he had done so far as a ninja, but why back then." Kiba explained.

Shino shifted his eyes on Kiba to the dark sky; the moon was full tonight. He was not so ignorant like most of his class was to not notice the looks Naruto would receive back when they were younger, nor was he ignorant to not notice that Hinata was the only one to not chase after Sasuke. He knew that Hinata had admired Naruto's will to never give up, but was that enough to earn him her affections?

"…I'm not sure what could have happened to cause her interest in Naruto, but based on how Hinata was when our team was first put together, I would say her admiration came from Naruto's way to never give up or go back on his word. While you were in the hospital after your fight with him, Neji had started to belittle Hinata before the match began. Naruto was fuming, and encouraged her to fight, and kept encouraging her even when she would fall down. Naruto had even sworn to fight on Hinata's behalf against Neji, back at the chunin exams, after her defeat" Shino said, explaining what facts he had observed.

Kiba looked surprised at the information, being the first time he heard what actually happened during the fight; he had only known that Neji had brutally defeated Hinata.

"That only explains afterwards, nothing about during academy days. Well it isn't my business, but I really want to know now" Kiba complained, Akamaru barking in agreement.

"I believe it is best not to push the topic should she refuse to explain her reasoning's. If those two ever do finally become a couple, we would have to be discreet in our 'explanations' when it comes to dating her to him" Shino said.

"Haha, you appear all quiet and relaxed, but when it comes to Hinata your just like me; protective over her. But yeah, I agree, let's hope that's not for another few more years though; we still need to make chunin and it would be a lot easier if there weren't any distraction" Kiba said.

Nodding, the two of them proceed to set up the things that would be needed to make dinner, after finishing with the tents.

Meanwhile, with Naruto and Hinata, Naruto had made two shadow clones to collect the wood, while Hinata activated her eyes to see where the fire wood was located.

"Ne, sorry for making you use your eyes so much after you were tired today" Naruto apologized.

"It's okay Naruto-kun" Hinata responded back. They had collected enough of the wood for the night, but Hinata's eyes had found a waterfall not too far away that she wanted to see before heading back. Naruto thought that they were still looking for wood so he just followed Hinata's direction.

"Ne, Hinata, I'm going to send my shadow clones with the wood back to the camp. Where are we going exactly?" Naruto asked, looking a bit confused.

"Well, I saw a waterfall, so m-maybe we can fill our canteens?" Hinata asked meekly.

"Okay" Naruto understood.

Once they had reached the waterfall, Hinata couldn't shake off the beauty of it; a rainbow was peering over the waterfall, with the moon shining, making it sparkle.

"Whoa, that's quite a scenery eh Hinata" Naruto looked in awe.

Hinata didn't appear to hear him, because she just kept on approaching the waterfall until she was at the edge of the water. Naruto was watching with confusion as he followed her. Before he had a chance to ask what she was doing, Hinata had walked onto the water, and it looked as if she was beginning to dance. She had removed her jacket, and started a rhythm of some sorts. Naruto was absorbed in her movements, and slowly, an image he remembered when the group was traveling towards their mission appeared in his mind. The mystery lady who had been moving on the water around her, Hinata was doing the same thing now. Every time she moved, the water moved with her. Naruto's eyes widened with realization that the mystery lady had been Hinata that night. He also remembered what he said the next day afterwards:

"Well the truth is I woke up in the middle of the night because I had to go, and I saw something amazing" Naruto explained.

Kiba suddenly wrapped an arm around Naruto with his head on his shoulder, "so, what was the amazing thing you saw last night?" Kiba asked.

"A waterfall, with a beautiful lady in it" Naruto exclaimed.

"No way"

"Yeah, and whenever she moved her hands, the water moved with it, I'm telling you it was awesome" Naruto began to move his hands as he explained the scenario.

"So, what happened?" Kiba asked again.

"Well, I went to talk to her, but suddenly she was gone"

"What? Are you sure you didn't just dream this up?" Kiba asked doubtful.

"Hmmm, I'm not so sure anymore" Naruto now looked confused as he thought it over.

"Are you sure you're okay Hinata? Your face is looking a little red" Naruto asked, looking concerned again.

"I-I-I'm f-fine" Hinata stuttered.

'Oh man, she must have been so embarrassed that day' He must of sounded like some sort of pervert since he was peeping.

Watching her now, he couldn't help but agree with his statement back then, Hinata was beautiful, and her movements were so graceful, it was like she was in a trance.

Once it looked like she had finished, Naruto felt his throat dry as he started to speak, "wow Hinata, I didn't know you could dance like that. That was amazing."

Hinata gave a startled jump as she turned towards Naruto, and realized that she did all of that while he was still there; her face was growing really red.

'Did I embarrass her again' Naruto thought, as got closer to the lake.

"Gomen, N-Naruto-kun, I c-couldn't help m-myself" Hinata said, with her head down.

'Why is she apologizing for', "No worries, it was really amazing though; where did you learn to dance like that?" He asked her.

"The clan requires us to learn for f-festivities, and c-ceremonies" Hinata answered.

Naruto nodded, wondering how many things you would need to do and learn to be part of a big clan. Looking back at her, he noticed that her clothes were a bit wet, and it was sticking on her a bit. Feeling a liquid go down his nose, he quickly turned around, and wiped the blood away.

'Oh man, damn you Ero-senin. I won't be able to get the image of Hinata out of my head now' not that he minded such an image, but it was wrong to think of Hinata like that when she was so kind and innocent.

"Err, would you like me to pass you a towel to dry off with before we make our way back to camp?" He asked, still turned away.

She looked up to see him looking away, then looked down at herself, only to blush once she realised why he was looking away.

"H-Hai" she felt herself turning redder.

Without turning around, he threw the towel to her. Once she had wiped whatever water she could from her body, she put her jacket back on, and they walked back to camp. An awkward silence filled the air.

'I bet Hinata's really embarrassed now' taking a look, he noticed her looking back, making the two quickly avert their eyes, 'damn you ero-senin.'

Once they returned, Kiba and Shino had noticed the atmosphere between the two, but didn't comment. Dinner had been served, and they all had taken night shifts. The next day proceeded with ease, whatever had happened between the two, the awkwardness had left. A few hours later the gates came into view, and the group couldn't wait to finish reporting to the hokage, then going home for a much needed rest.

"Man, after were done speaking to Tsunade-baa-chan, the first thing I'm going to do is get me some ramen. It's been days" Naruto said.

"Man, why am I not surprised. I'm just going to go home afterwards. I could use a good shower, and sleeping on a bed after camping outdoors will be nice" Kiba said.

Shino and Hinata just stayed quiet as they proceeded through the gates. Looking around, they saw the streets buzzing with busy bodies, and the smiles of the villagers. Naruto couldn't help but smile at this; ever since the chunin exams, and bringing back the next hokage, people were smiling, and even waving whenever he would greet them. A few still would look wary of him, but the once glares have all but vanished.

Naruto didn't realize that they had made it back to the hokage tower until they entered the building. Knocking on the door, the group entered the room to see the hokage, Shizune, and Sakura in the room.

"Team 8 reporting in, mission was a failed one" Shino announced.

Tsunade raised an eyebrow at that, "Complications arouse, or were you unable to find the insect?"

"We did indeed have complications, and we had found our target, but because Naruto's scent had covered Sasuke's headband at this point, we couldn't get a scent of Sasukes anymore on it" Shino explained.

"What do you mean?" It was Sakura who asked this time.

Naruto felt he should be the one to explain this part, "I think what happened was, because after mine and Sasukes fight that day, it started to rain, so the rain washed a lot of Sasuke's scent away from his headband. Since I had kept it afterwards, my scent started to overcome whatever scent had remained on it. Therefore; we couldn't catch Sasuke's scent. It got mine instead."

"Naruto…..." Sakura said, cracking her knuckles. Naruto paled at this.

"S-Sakura-chan, I didn't know this would happen, and it was the only thing we had with his scent on it" Naruto slowly started backing away.

"It still doesn't change the fact that because of your scent, Sasuke-kun couldn't be located" Sakura sprang at this point. Naurto turn tail, and ran as fast as he could.

"Sakura-chan, it isn't my fault" Naruto yelled as he continued to run for his life.

"Get back here" Sakura yelled back, chasing him.

Sighing, Tsunade couldn't help but smirk at the two, "Well, I'll expect a report in a few days from your leader, until then you're free to leave. I suspect they'll be running until Sakura exhausts herself; Naruto's stamina is inhumane"

Team 8 nodded, and left the tower.

"Hinata. I heard that the mission was a failure" Hiashi said.

"Hai. We failed completely. I will train harder to make it a success next time" Hinata said in a cheerful voice.

"I-I see. Work hard" Hiashi said, taken aback by his daughter's cheerfulness.

Neji couldn't help but smile, seeing Hinata looking cheerful around her father instead of the usual timid feel she would have.

Hinata looked up at the sky, and felt the breeze around her face. She curled her hands in her laps, 'more…more….more….more!' She knew now that with more training, she'll indeed be able to catch up to Naruto one day.

'Naruto-kun, I'll continue to work hard, so watch me.'

There. Lol I love using the whole 'Damn you ero-senin' line a lot. It's his excuse whenever he thinks of perverted stuff that has nothing to do with his sexy jutsu.

I guess next week will be the start of a new arc, maybe. I'm hoping by chapter 20, or before chapter 30, I'll start imputing time skip. I just realized that I started after Sasuke's defection, so it won't be too long before a time-skip is to occur.

Cheers