Author's note – Kishimoto Masashi owns Naruto while Guyver is written by Yoshiki Takaya.
I make no claim to either, I am merely playing in their sandboxes.

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Chapter Sixteen

Heart To Heart

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Naruto brushed the fabric of his Haori nervously as he stood outside the main gate of the Hyuuga compound. The shopping trip that his team had forced him to undergo when they heard of his picnic plan had been one of the most horrifying experiences of his life (especially as they had refused to let him buy anything in his favorite color) but the end result had admittedly been worth it. His Hakama and under-kimono were both dark blue and his high-collared Hoari was white with the Uzumaki spiral printed on his back in red.

A slight grin crossed his face as he thought about how he had managed to sneak some orange into his outfit despite the best efforts of his team: his fundoshi was dark orange, but it wasn't something that he could show anyone (or indeed would want to).

"Uzumaki-san."

Naruto barely managed to avoid jumping as he snapped out of his thoughts and found himself facing Hinata's father, with her uncle looming close behind him.

"Hiashi-sama. Hizashi-san." Naruto managed to say while bowing.

"Hinata is just finishing her preparations." Hiashi said, moving slightly sideways so that he no longer obscured Naruto's view of the sheathed katana that Hizashi was holding for his brother. "I trust that you will act honorably this afternoon."

Naruto swallowed nervously as he nodded.

"Brother, I think that Naruto-san can be trusted." Hizashi said calmly. "After all, should he do anything to upset Hinata-sama… well, I doubt that he would wish to rouse the clan's ire at him."

Naruto tried to swallow again, but found that his mouth had gone drier than the desert where he had encountered the Suna shinobi.

"Father! Uncle!" A voice called and Naruto felt a veritable tsunami of relief flow through him. "Are you threatening my fiancee?"

"Not at all, my daughter." Hiashi replied with a slight upwards twitch of his lips. "Why ever would you think that?"

Hinata stepped round her father and for a long moment, Naruto forgot to breath as he saw her. Hiashi sighed, then his hand lashed out to tap Naruto's chest.

"Huh?"

"You stopped breathing and were about to collapse." Hiashi said as Hinata giggled.

"I'm sorry, it's just…" Naruto started, then he trailed off as he looked at Hinata again. Instead of her usual jacket-and-trousers outfit that he occasionally saw her in, she was clad in a cream-colored formal kimono decorated with red flames around the sleeves and hem, the edges of a pale orange under-kimono just visible.

"I think your daughter broke him." Hizashi whispered, not bothering to hide his amusement and Hiashi sighed.

"Naruto!"

"Hai, Hiashi-sama?!"

"Compose yourself." Hiashi commanded.

"Hai, Hiashi-sama!"

"Father…" Hinata sighed, then she took Naruto's hand, almost causing his brain to shut down again. "I'll see you later."

"They grow up so fast." Hizashi grinned as the duo walked off and Hiashi sighed.

"That they do, my brother. That they do."

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"Thank you for the compliment." Hinata giggled as they walked away from the Hyuuga compound and Naruto blinked in confusion.

"I… you look amazing, but I didn't say…"

"You didn't need to." Hinata smiled as she leaned her head on his shoulder, matching his pace perfectly. "You said it all when father had to remind you to breath."

Naruto felt as if his face was about to burn off due to the intensity of his blush and Hinata smiled at him.

"You look good. In fact, you look quite a bit like a picture I saw of the Yondaime?"

Naruto's face paled.

"Naruto?"

"I'll explain once we get to the picnic." Naruto temporized.

Hinata let out a small hmmm of acceptance as they walked towards the Hokage monument.

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"Wow." Hinata breathed as they stepped out of the treeline and she saw the picnic waiting for them. The picnic rug itself was patterned with flowers while the aromas from the two large woven baskets promised a superior meal.

"I wasn't sure about what you liked, so I made as many things as I could." Naruto explained as he led Hinata onto the picnic rug and helped her to sit gracefully on one of the two cushions. A quick hand-seal summoned a quartet of clones who promptly used henge to turn into waiters, earning another small giggle from Hinata.

"You said you made the food?" She asked as two of the clones started to unload the picnic baskets while another poured some chilled fruit juice for her.

"Cooking lessons." Naruto explained. "Mainly from Teuchi and Ayame, but I got a couple from the Akamichi clan as well."

"And how did you keep the food hot?" Hinata asked as she motioned for a small bowl of red bean soup.

"Seals." Naruto grinned and Hinata briefly activated her byakugan to examine the baskets. "They only last a couple of hours, but they maintain the temperature better than any other method I know of."

"Amazing." Hinata whispered, then she tasted the soup that the clone had passed to her and her eyes widened. "Amazing!"

Naruto grinned as he accepted a bowl for himself. "Thank you."

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"I ate too much." Hinata mourned as she gazed longingly at the last cinnamon bun on the plate near her hand. Naruto chuckled as he stroked her hair and she tilted her head back to look up at him.

"Yondaime?" She prompted and Naruto blinked as he remembered his promise.

"Clones, check the area and set up silencing seals." He ordered and Hinata blinked in confusion before deciding that her position lying in Naruto's lap was too comfortable to consider getting up from.

Despite the lure of the cinnamon roll.

"Done sir." A clone said before it dissipated and Naruto resumed stroking her hair as he considered his words.

"You already know two of the three S-class secrets about me, my armour and my… tenant." He finally said. "The third… if even a whisper gets out, Kumo will come after both of us as they did my mother while Iwa will send all their assassins after me."

Hinata stared at him.

"My father was the man who sealed the Kyuubi into me." Naruto said quietly. "The Yondaime Hokage, Namikaze Minato. My mother was the previous Jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi, Uzumaki Kushina, the Red-hot Habanero."

Hinata froze and Naruto looked at her worriedly.

"Hinata… I…" Naruto began before Hinata somehow managed to launch herself from her reclining position, glomping him so hard that he landed on his back.

"Hinata…?"

Hinata closed her eyes and concentrated on simply hugging Naruto. After along moment, Naruto gingerly returned the hug and they lay there until Hinata finally released him and sat up, looking down at him.

"Thank you." She whispered and Naruto looked at her in confusion.

"For telling me." She clarified. "For trusting me."

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Hiashi loomed by the gate as Naruto and Hinata approached, but neither of the two noticed him, being too distracted by their conversation.

"…so once you graduate, do you know which team you'll be on?"

"I'll probably be with Uchiha Sasuke and Inuzuka Kiba." Hinata replied. "Sasuke and I are currently vying for the Rookie of the Year position while Kiba has trouble with all the written stuff, so he's currently the Dead Last."

"You, an Uchiha and an Inuzuka…" Naruto mused. "That's a heavy assault team if there ever was one. How is your juho coming on?"

"My mother is learning it too, and so is half the branch family after father declared it to be a valid house technique." Hinata smiled. "I think he wants to thank you for returning it to us."

"He can thank me by not killing me for wanting to be with you." Naruto shuddered and Hinata laughed.

"He is not that bad!"

"I can be." Hiashi said and he hid a smirk as both young teens jumped with almost identical squeaks of shock. "Daughter."

"Father." Hinata replied, then she turned. "Naruto-kun, thank you. It was a wonderful meal and I hope we can do it again some day."

Naruto blushed, then froze as Hinata kissed him on his cheek before entering the clan compound. Hiashi turned to follow her, then paused and glanced at Naruto's unmoving form.

"Ko!"

"Yes, Hiashi-sama?" Ko replied from his post by the side of the gate.

"If Naruto doesn't recover in the next ten minutes, ensure that he gets back to his house."

"Hai, Hiashi-sama."

"She kissed me…" Naruto whispered, one hand touching his cheek. "She kissed me…"

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"So, how did it go?" Hitomi asked as her eldest daughter almost danced into the room. Hanabi looked up from the scroll that she was reading, one eyebrow raised in a restrained query.

"It was amazing." Hinata sighed as she almost flopped onto one of the cushions scattered around the room. "We had a picnic on top of the Hokage monument and Naruto had cooked all the food!"

"Sounds like you enjoyed yourself." Hitomi smiled. "I'm glad that you like him."

Hinata nodded, then sighed. "If only he could be on my team when I graduate."

"I'm sure that you'll have plenty of opportunities to see him." Hitomi replied. "Maybe he'll say hello when he does another one of those infiltration missions that annoyed Hiashi."

"I was not annoyed." The aforementioned man protested from the door. "Just… contemplative."

Hitomi caught her daughters eyes and mouthed annoyed, causing both girls to giggle.

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The banner rose to a chorus of cheers. The oblong golden fabric caught the light and on it, the three new copies of the symbol for Uzushiogakure glinted, each one the Uzumaki swirl with four Kunai blades radiating outwards to show that this time, they would not fall.

Danzo turned to face the crowd. Most of them were civilians, fugitives from the bloodline purges of the Land of Water and Danzo mentally smirked as he looked out at the assembled throng.

Among those who gazed up at him were hyouton users, capable of creating and controlling ice, Koton users who could turn themselves into living steel, members of the Hozuki clan who could turn themselves into water at will (making them incredible infiltrators), at least one true Uzumaki and many others who had lived in Wave until they had been accused of aiding those with bloodlimits, forcing them to flee to a new home.

Uzushiogakure.

Without the strength of being one of the Great Five, covert missions needed to be thought through very carefully lest a single mis-step alert the other Hidden Villages to the rebirth of a village that they thought long dead. Uzushiogakure had fallen once, and Danzo was determined to not let it fall again.

"My people!" Danzo began and the crowd dropped silent as the seals in the balcony picked up and amplified his words. "We have a long road still ahead of us, but the progress we have made is far beyond anything that I expected… beyond anything I had hoped.

"As I look out at you and all that you have achieved, I am filled with pride and the knowledge that we shall complete our journey, we shall rebuild all that was destroyed and make it greater!

"We have finished building the outer walls and layered the seals that hide us away from those who wish to harm us and within this village, our fortress, we shall grow and become stronger!

"And when the time comes, when we know we are strong enough, we shall step forwards once more to join forces with our old ally Konohagakure and the Five Great Villages shall become Six!"

The roar of applause echoed round the square, bouncing off the still-incomplete towers and Danzo smiled benevolently as his mind raced.

His words had been carefully planned for maximum psychological effect and although they were uncomfortably like the words that his old rival Sarutobi Hiruzen would have used, they served their purpose well, inspiring loyalty and encouraging a sense of belonging to those who had been betrayed by their former neighbors, by those who had once been their friends.

A flicker of motion caught his attention and he turned to see Yamanaka Fuu, his former aide-turned-Jonin Commander kneeling on the corner of the balcony, his new Hitai-ate showing a swirl with four lines pointing out around it.

"Sir, we have a new report from our agent in Konoha."

Danzo gave a slight nod. "Anything important?"

"The most important piece of information relates to the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki, sir. It has entered into a marriage contract with the former heir of the Hyuuga clan."

"Have the report fully analysed and tell me this evening."

Fuu nodded, then vanished in a shunshin and Danzo turned his attention back to the jubilant crowd.

It would take time, but he would eventually once more have the weapons that he needed.

And with Uzushiogakure by its side and Konoha's alliance with Suna to guard their backs, the other nations would kneel and Konoha would at last reign supreme.

The Shodai Uzukage gazed upon his people and smiled.

All was going according to plan.

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Author's Afternote - Yep, this is now diverging significantly from canon.
Also, the banner mentioned can be found on my DeviantArt page.