A/N: As I mentioned in the previous chapter, I would be making Naruto and Hinata a couple very quickly and I am starting to do that in this chapter. Once again, to those who believe I am going too fast in the romance section, I would like to reiterate that I have always believed those two deserved to be together fairly early and I would be doing so. Also, one of the primary goals for Kurama to go back in time was to Naruto and Hinata together and after six years of not being able to do anything in that regard, he is now pretty impatient about that matter and hence ever since he began his interaction with Naruto in this timeline, he's been pushing the blond in that direction and now with Minato and Kushina's support as well. Let's just say that I can't really hold that out any longer...so here it goes.

A/N: Chapter 7 updated (03/12/2021)

CHAPTER-7: SOME MORE TRAINING AND A CONFESSION :3

It had been 3 days since Naruto had visited Hinata in the hospital. After seeing her, Naruto had a new goal in his mind, 'I will protect Hinata forever, no matter what!' With renewed vigour he got back to the Rasengan training. He also increased his efforts during his taijutsu training with Gai. Impressed with Naruto's determination, Gai increased their morning training sessions by an hour. He had also introduced Naruto to the weights he and Lee used. In the beginning, Naruto had put 15lbs weights in legs as well as arms. The spandex wearing Jounin and his new student were now doing 40 laps around the village and 180 sets of push-ups. Gai was quite proud to have got the chance to train another "genius of hard work" like Lee and himself.

The training with Jiraiya was also going smoothly. As promised, Jiraiya had introduced Naruto to another Jutsu, the "Taiju Kage-Shuriken no Jutsu (Shuriken Shadow Clone jutsu)". The blonde was able to create 20 copies of his shuriken on his first try and had been able to increase the number to 40 within the two days that passed.

Currently Naruto was standing in the training ground number 7 with Jiraiya looking at the 3 training dummies 150 meters in front of him.

"Shadow Clone Jutsu!" Naruto exclaimed, making his signature hand-sign and 2 clones appeared. Taking a single shuriken in his hand, the Jinchuriki threw it towards the training dummy with an accurate aim and quickly went through the hand-signs. "Shuriken shadow clone jutsu!" he exclaimed. At the same time, his clones went through another set of hand-signs, "Wind Style: Great Breakthrough!", exclaimed the clones at the same time, letting out a powerful gust of wind out of their mouths while the shuriken multiplied into 45 copies of itself. The shuriken moved at binding speeds and impaled themselves into the dummies. Jiraiya was quite impressed.

"Well done, Naruto. That was a good combination attack with your clones. If you increase the speed of your shuriken like that, your opponents will have a hard time dodging them.

"Eh! Thanks, Ero-Sennin, when I get the number of copies to more than hundred, they won't know what hit them." said Naruto excited. He then continued to practice the move several times. In the meantime, his clones were able to complete the leaf cutting exercise, much to his joy. The blonde found out that practicing the leaf-cutting exercise had increased the force of his "Wind style: Great Breakthrough". He was itching to learn some other wind jutsus.

As far as the Rasengan training was concerned, Naruto was able to burst the rubber ball 2 days after visiting Hinata. He then moved to the third phase, i.e rotating chakra in the water balloon without bursting it. He had to admit that the third phase was the most difficult one so far.

Meanwhile Kurama had also started his training with the chakra cloak. As the two were already cooperating well with each other, the only barrier was the extent to which Naruto's 13 years old body could sustain Kurama's power without suffering any physical damage. Jiraiya leaving for his peeping ...Err… 'research' was a blessing for Naruto and the occupants of his head. Whenever the toad sage would leave for his research, Naruto would begin his training with Kurama. The training began a week after Naruto had met his parents. (21 days till the Finals). On the first day of the training itself, Naruto was able effortlessly master the 'Version-1 Chakra cloak', he was able to last a good 30 minutes with 3 tails. For the time being, Naruto's parents and Kurama had decided that this much was enough for the Chunin exams and further training can be done afterwards. Of course, they had taken the 'additional problems' into consideration. So, Naruto kept practicing with the version-1 three tailed cloak and tried to increase his time limit with the same. He found that his jutsus such as the 'Great Breakthrough' were significantly amplified when he used the chakra cloak and his speed increased significantly as well.

Now it was 15 days till the finals, Naruto was returning home from another training session with Jiraiya, he caught sight of Yuhi Kurenai walking down the street. 'Kurenai sensei seems quite close to Hinata-chan. Since that day, I haven't visited Hinata-chan yet. May be Kurenai-sensei can tell me how she's doing.' thinking this to himself, Naruto approached the red-eyed genjutsu mistress.

"Good afternoon Kurenai-sensei.", He greeted her with a slight bow which took the jonin by surprise.

'Who taught him manners? The last time I checked, he never greeted even his own sensei so respectfully', Kurenai thought to herself.

"Hello Naruto, how are your preparations for the finals going?"

"They are going well sensei. I am working day and night for this one. Just watch me in the finals."

"Well, I know you are a hard worker and I am sure you'll give a great performance in the finals. Anyways, is there anything you wanted to ask me?"

"Hai. I wanted to know how is Hinata-chan doing and when can I visit her? Naruto asked 'I definitely won't tell you that I have already snuck into her room once and will do it again tonight or tomorrow', He thought to himself.

'I didn't really think that the way Hinata was hurt would affect him this much, has he finally started notice her. Well, if he did, then I might as well help these two out a little bit.' The genjutsu mistress thought.

"The doctors have said that she might regain consciousness anytime within the next 10 days."

"10 days huh…" said the blonde with a contemplating look.

"Okay then, thanks for the information, Kurenai-sensei, I will be on my way then, see you later." Naruto then gave her a quick bow and left.

'Training or no training, he certainly learnt some manners.' The red-eyed jonin thought to herself.

Meanwhile, Naruto was walking towards his apartment, when he suddenly felt something, like something was off, a slight repelling sensation and to his own amazement, he could assign a direction to that sensation. When he turned towards the direction from which he was getting this strange feeling the most, he saw a fat restaurant owner throwing water on a stray dog. The dog got scared and ran away with the owner mumbling something about stupid good for nothing animals. Naruto shuddered. He could remember that he himself was many times at the receiving end of such treatment. 'They see me as some unwanted stray dog, not even a human. Even though I understand the reason now, it still hurts.' Naruto thought to himself. Suddenly another thought hit him.

'Wait a minute! I was actually able to sense something…something repelling…something repelling from that man even before he threw water at the dog. It's as if….as if I could…'

"It's as if you could sense his disdain towards that dog, isn't it Naruto?" asked Kurama from inside his mindscape.

"Well…Yeah! That's exactly how I would put it Kurama, like I could sense his disdain." Naruto replied in the mindscape.

"That's because of my ability of sensing negative emotions. I told you earlier that all Biju have some special abilities. Negative emotion sensing happens to be one of my unique abilities. After opening the seal and gaining access to all of my chakra, all my special abilities are now your abilities as well."

"Wow, that's great but…couldn't you have some cooler special ability like the Sharingan, the Byakugan or…something like that."

"You sound like that Uchiha teammate of yours complaining about what you don't have while forgetting what you have. That kind of attitude needs to change." Kurama scowled.

"Eh! No offence Kurama, just got a little carried away. Please don't mind." Naruto replied.

"Very well, now back to the topic, meditation can help increase your concentration and that will increase your perception range. The ability will be amplified when you access my chakra. It's not that hard and I bet by the time the exams will end, you will be able to sense negative emotions anywhere in this village when on guard. Even when off-guard you will be able to sense those emotions in enough time to prevent a sneak attack. Guess what, nobody can get you by surprise now even when off-guard. Now tell me if that's not impressive?" Kurama asked. Naruto could only agree that such an ability was certainly impressive. However, he needed almost 15 days of practice perfect it. Well…just enough time for the exams.

14 days passed by. The training experience Naruto had could be described as one of the best any Shinobi could dream and why not….he was trained by a Sannin, the Yondaime Hokage, Kushina Uzumaki, who was rather called 'Crimson Death' in the bingo books of Kumo and Iwa, the strongest Biiju and perhaps the strongest Taijutsu specialist in all elemental nations and all his trainers were quite pleased with the amount of progress he had made. They were all sure that one certain Hyuuga obsessed with fate was in for a rather rude awakening.

In the meantime, Naruto had visited his unconscious love thrice at nights and spent minimum two-three hours sitting by her side, holding hands. He had to admit that being near Hinata, he felt the same warmth that he felt when he was with his parents. In the mornings, nobody could find out who had left flowers by her bed which were clearly not there before. With Gai, Naruto had visited Lee once as well

Konohagakure General Hospital, 2 nights before the Finals*

Naruto had gotten word from Kurenai in the afternoon that Hinata had regained consciousness. He immediately rushed to the hospital…Only to be rudely turned away by the receptionist as well as two Hyuuga elders who just had to be there at the moment.

'They said 'my kind' are not allowed to be associated with the Great Hyuugas as I will corrupt them.' Naruto was a little distressed. He was quite used to insults and name-callings but a small part of his mind was very afraid that Hinata might also think about him in the same way much of her clan did once she got to know of his secrets. He was very afraid that his love might be rejected and even with his parents being there he knew he would be totally devastated if it happened.

'I just hope she accepts me…I don't know what I will do if she doesn't. But she deserves to know who I am in reality.' Naruto thought as he made his way towards the hospital.

"Naru-chan, she will accept you no matter what you don't have to worry about anything." His mother reassured him from the mindscape perhaps for the fifteenth time. Ever since he had gotten word of Hinata regaining consciousness the blonde had been a nervous mess. He couldn't focus on anything. He desperately wanted to talk to the Shy Hyuuga, confess to her and tell her his truth. But he was so nervous that he had almost turned back several times. The fifteen minutes' walk to the hospital had taken him more than an hour this time.

When he reached the hospital, he found that the window to Hinata's room was open. He began pacing back and forth.

"Gaki just get it over with!" said Kurama from the mindscape. His parents gave him the best reassuring smile they could.

"Okay! Okay, I am going. I am going."

The jinchuuriki then transformed into a nurse and quietly stepped into the hospital. He had made sure to put on a surgical mask so as to not raise suspicion. At night it was the easiest way to sneak around the hospital. In minutes, he was before her room. He glanced around and to his relief no one was there. He knew that the Hyuuga despised Hinata, so if anyone from the clan was around his negative emotion sensing would go off but so far there was nothing. So, he took a deep breath and without making a sound, opened the door and closed it as quietly. She seemed to be asleep. Releasing the henge, he quietly made his way to her and sat down on the stool. This time, he was too nervous to touch her hand. So, he just decided to keep looking at her.

He then saw that she had a pained expression on her face. 'A nightmare?' She then tried to hug herself in sleep and trembled. Naruto got worried.

Then he heard her mumbling something…something that shook him to the core.

"N-No I won't be taken away from Naruto-kun", she mumbled. Naruto's eyes widened.

'She's dreaming about me! ME!'

Then he saw her crying even in sleep.

"I-I don't care if you put the caged bird seal on me, I-I will still love Naruto-kun…I-I-I don't care if he has the Kyuubi inside him, I-I still love him", she mumbled again.

Naruto froze…completely and utterly froze. His mind raced through thousands of thoughts at the speed of light and then for some moments it totally shut down. Even Minato, Kushina and Kurama were totally shocked. None of them had imagined that this shy girl could know about Naruto being a jinchuuriki. As soon as their shock faded away, they couldn't help feel proud of her…very proud of her. Naruto on the other hand…he was having tears in his eyes as he came to terms with what he got to know about Hinata in some seconds.

'She knows…she already knows…and she has already accepted me…What was I thinking…all this time…all this time…and she…she loves me…SHE LOVES ME!' (…No kidding, you needed to hear it from her mouth to realize it.)

Any doubt he still had about the Hyuuga princess and what he felt about her faded away at that very instant and him loving her was now as clear as the sun rising in the east. Naruto leaned towards her, put his head on her chest and carefully wrapped his arms around her.

"I love you too Hinata-chan", he said in a slow voice as he embraced her.

Fortunately, or unfortunately depending entirely on your point of view, either the sudden contact or the intensity of the dream, awakened Hinata. And she woke up she felt a weight on her body and looking down, she saw the boy of her dreams right there, embraced into her chest. Immediately her face wore a never before seen shed of red. She was too frozen in shock to even faint, then she heard something she had only dreamed about till then.

"I love you", Naruto quietly said, unaware that she was already awakened. The words broke her out of the stupor.

'It's a dream! It's another dream. Naruto-kun can't be here hugging me saying that he loves me. It has to be a dream. Only if it were real.' She then slowly moved her hand to his head. This immediately snapped his head up and he looked at her wide-eyed.

"I wish it was not a dream Naruto-kun. I really love you." she said just as she felt a bit of pain while speaking. So, if it was a dream, why was she feeling the pain while speaking?

Naruto took hold of her hand that was over his head and looked at her teary eyed.

"It's not a dream Hinata-chan…I am sorry that I didn't realize it sooner but I do love you. I really do."

Hinata immediately fainted. (that took longer than I expected it would)

A/N: So I ended this chapter with a confession and within the next chapter, our favorite pair will be a couple. If anybody is wondering about Hinata's dream in this chapter, she just saw herself and Naruto in a relationship and the Hyuuga clan, especially the clan elders trying to separate them.

I would again like to express my earnest gratitude for all your love and support.