I'm not alone

Thank you all for your reviews! I feel so loved!

Oh my goodness! I just realized that Hinata knows
about Kyubi and hasn't really reacted to it! Baka
writer....I'm going to have to fit that in somehow. I
also apologize for the quality of the last
chapter...I'm going to try to make it up with this
one. XD

~~~~~~~~~~~

Naruto gaped at the pink haired girl glaring at him
incredulously.

Oh man, this wasn't how I wanted her to find out!

Hinata went beet red and busied herself by staring at
the ground, refusing to meet Sakura's eyes. Sakura
sputtered a bit before composing herself to speak.

"Naruto...can I speak to you in private?" From the tone
of her voice it was more of a demand than a request.
Naruto wasn't entirely sure he wanted to be alone with
her, and glanced at Hinata. She gave him a small nod,
building up his confidence a little. Swallowing nervously
he followed Sakura to behind a tree several feet away,
secretly scanning for a quick exit in case she got violent...

"You jerk! What the hell are you doing?" Sakura
demanded as soon as they were out of hearing range,
making Naruto wince from the tone of her voice.

"I...um..." he started to explain until Sakura
interrupted him.

"Are you doing this to spite me? You shouldn't lead
around girls like that! Do you have any idea what it
does to them? And Hinata...of all people...I can't
believe you're so low as to do that!"

To Sakura's surprise Naruto smirked.

"Sounds to me like you're...jealous," he said.

"WHAT!?" Sakura cried, incredulous. "As if! I could
care less about you! All I care about is what you're
making poor Hinata go through! After you get bored of
her you'll just dump her and-" Sakura stopped speaking
when she saw Naruto's face get serious.

"You're wrong!" He blurted indignantly. "I do care
about Hinata! I'm not with her just so I can piss you
off! I like her a lot! What happened yesterday between
us....it only helped me realize it." He closed his
mouth and flushed a little. "You don't understand..."
Naruto broke off.

Sakura gave Naruto a hard look. His face and tone
looked so serious about it that she blanched for a
minute. She sighed, admitting defeat.

"Okay...fine," Sakura said. "But you'd better be
telling the truth...because breaking girls hearts over
revenge is the lowest thing ever."

"Sakura! How many times do I have to say that I would
never do that?" Naruto cried resentfully.

"I hope so Naruto....for Hinata's sake," she replied,
regarding him with a hard look before turning around
and leaving.

Once she had gone Naruto breathed a sigh of relief.
It...went better than he thought it would've. He
couldn't believe what she said...using Hinata just to
make Sakura jealous? To be honest...after he met
Hinata yesterday he'd completely forgotten what had
happened and had only remembered after Sakura
snubbed him this morning.

Running back to where Hinata was, he was relieved to
see was still there. She looked at him anxiously,
biting her lower lip.

"I-Is everything alright with Sakura-san?" She
inquired quietly. Naruto nodded.

"Yeah...we worked it all out...I hope," Naruto
replied. "She was just jealous that you got me first,"
he added with a grin. For some reason he really didn't
want Hinata to know what happened between them
yesterday...he really didn't know how she'd react. He
looked up at the sky, which was quickly growing darker
as evening approached.

"Getting dark," he murmured while sitting down on the
lush forest grass. He beckoned for Hinata to join him.
She complied, sitting a few inches away from him. She
gulped and scooted closer, her pulse pounding in her veins
happily as Naruto wrapped an arm around her. They sat
like that for a few minutes, simply staring at the
moon and enjoying each other's company.

"Naruto," Hinata said, breaking the silence. Naruto
looked down at her, his eyebrows raising. "About the
mission tomorrow," she continued hesitantly. "Do...do
you think it's going to be very dangerous?"

"Well...it is a "B" rank mission..." he said, sounding
slightly pensive. "Kakashi-sensei didn't really give
us the details....but...hey, what are you worried
about anyways? They wouldn't give us a mission we
couldn't handle, right?" He gave Hinata's arm a
playful squeeze.

"You're right, I was probably worried over nothing,"
Hinata sighed and leaned back onto Naruto's chest.

"Besides," Naruto continued. "I'm not going to let
anything happen to you...I'll protect you no matter
what!"

Hinata blinked and smiled softly to herself.

I know you will Naruto...

She playfully punched him on the arm. "I can take care
of myself too, you know," she said lightly.

"Oh, I know you can!" Naruto stammered. "I didn't mean
that you couldn't...I jus-" He broke off as Hinata
planted a small kiss on his lips. When she released
them she smiled shyly.

"I know you didn't mean it like that, I was only
teasing," She said to the profusely blushing Naruto.
She giggled a little as his reaction. His cheeks were
still flushing, right down past his strange whisker-like
marks. Something niggled at Hinata as she stared at
the strange markings on his face. She remembered
something that Naruto had said last night that she
hadn't really thought about since. Reaching up to
run her finger along a mark, Naruto jumped
slightly at the touch of her cold finger.

"Naruto...last night...I mean...um, you said something
about you being Kyubi...was...was that true?" She
asked shakily. Seeing the dark look on Naruto's face
confirmed her question. "Are these marks...are they
because of him?" she asked. Naruto pulled Hinata's
hand off his face and clutched it.

"Yes, they are," he said quietly, his eyes growing
considerably colder.

"Is...Is it something you'd like to talk about?"
Hinata asked with apprehension, realizing it was a
touchy subject. "I mean...you don't have to if you
don't want to..." Naruto looked up at her suddenly,
his expression indecipherable.

"No it's not that...it's just the first time anyone
has ever asked me...it's strange," Naruto said
stiffly. "The only people that know about Kyubi are
the adults, and hokage, but no one...not even
Iruka-sensei ever asked me to talk about it. I-I
really don't know a whole lot about it myself."

Hinata felt a sharp pain in her chest hearing Naruto's
words and tone. The adults knew...that explained why
everyone hated him...scorned him, never recognizing or
accepting him as a member of this village. It
explained so much...why Naruto tried so hard at
everything he did....but everything he did was met
with scorn. Her heart bled as she sympathized with
him.

"I know how you feel," she said gently. Naruto looked
up at her.

"I know," he whispered. He leaned down to touch her
lips with his. Hinata's obliged, parting them
slightly to deepen this kiss. The kiss was different
from how Naruto had kissed her last night; instead of
feeling the tingling feeling of passion in her stomach
she felt her chest tighten with emotion. Her love for Naruto
right now was almost overwhelming as her heart ached.
Breaking the kiss reluctantly, Hinata looked up at Naruto
and smiled warmly.

"I have to go now," she said forlornly, standing and
brushing dirt and dry leaves off of her pants. "My
father is having a guest over for dinner tonight and
I'm supposed to be there."

"I'll walk you home," Naruto said, standing up.
e twe two shinobi made their way out of the forest, into
the village, which was bustling with people. Hinata
reached down without thinking and grabbed Naruto's
hand with her own. Naruto looked at her in surprise,
his eyes practically shining with happiness. She
squeezed his hand reassuringly, ignoring all of the
gapes and stares in her direction as the villagers
stared in shock at the Hyuuga heir holding hands with
the dropout. She didn't care what they thought...not
anymore. She'd defy them all...even her father if she
had to. No words passed between the two, but none were
needed. Her gesture had touched Naruto deeply.

Once they had reached Hinata's house, (and after
Naruto was done gaping at the size of it) she stood on
her tiptoes to give Naruto a small kiss goodnight.

"Goodbye," she breathed. "I'll....see you tomorrow,
bright and early."Naruto smiled slightly and nodded.

"I love you," he whispered.

"I love you too," she whispered back.

After Naruto had left she practically skipped all
the way into the house, her mind floating on cloud nine
Her bright spirits abruptly disappeared as she saw her
father staring at her sternly from the doorway. She gasped
softly and stilled, desperately trying to come up with a
believable excuse on why she was late. Normally they
wouldn't notice...but with an important guest visiting it
was imperative for Hinata to be there as the heir of the
Hyuuga clan.

"I'm sorry!" Hinata cried before Hiashi could say
anything. "I was getting some extra help from Kurenai-
sensei!" If he thought she was late due to more practice
then he might not be as upset...or so she hoped.

Hiashi merely said nothing, and motioned for her to join
them all in the dining hall, which to Hinata was worse than
him yelling at her. All she saw in his eyes were disappointment.


Next morning

She woke up a little past four, her alarm going off and
reminding her with a start that today was the mission. She
felt a knot of nervousness form in the pit of her stomach. What
if it was too much for her? What if something happened to Naruto?
She shook the thoughts from her head as she remembered her
conversation with Kurenai. She was a kunoichi...not some
lovesick girl who wasn't capable of her mission.
(A/N kinda sounds like Sakura, huh?)

Showering and eating quickly, Hinata threw some extra
clothing and whatnot into an extra bag; as the trip was going to
be overnight. She made sure she had a decent amount of kunai
and shurikans on her before heading out the door.

No one was there to see her off.

She reached the meeting spot with 10 minutes to spare. Seeing
that she was the first one there, she took the minute quickly
pull out a hairbrush to try to coax her hair into cooperating before
Naruto got there.

"Hey, is anyone here yet?" Hinata heard a familiar female voice
and realized with a start that it was Sakura. Fumbling to get her
hairbrush back in the bag, she awkwardly smiled as Sakura came
into . Sa. Sakura's eyes widened when she saw Hinata was the
only person there. This was going to be awkward.

"G-good morning Sakura-san," Hinata said, almost barely audible.
She busied herself with staring at a tree rather than having to look
at Sakura.

"Morning," Sakura echoed distantly. She glanced at Hinata, who
was avoiding her eyes.

"Hey, Hinata," Sakura started, fiddling with her fingers.

"H-hai?" Hinata asked timidly.

"You really...like Naruto, right?"

"H-hai," Hinata answered, blushing furiously.

"Well...I just want you to know...if you ever need to talk...
you can always talk to me. And if he hurts you so help me
I'll kill him!"

Sakura's sudden outburst surprised Hinata. She'd never
Interacted much with Sakura, and her offering a shoulder to
lean upon really touched her.

"Sakura-san," She started to say until they were joined by
another person.

"Good morning Sasuke-kun!" Sakura greeted the Uchiha boy
happily, clasping her hands together.

"Morning," he replied stoically.

They sat there in silence for a moment, until Shino and Kiba
showed up a few minutes later.

"Morning Hinata!" Kiba said with enthusiasm, as Shino
nodded to her in acknowledgment.

"Good Morning!" Hinata replied cheerfully.

"Hello everyone!" Kakashi called, jumping down from
a tree. Kunrenai followed after him. "Are we ready to
start the mission?"

"Wait!" Hinata cried frantically. "Naruto-kun isn't
here yet!"

"Wait! I'm here I'm here!" came the panicked voice of
Naruto as he ran up to the group. Panting heavily to catch
his breath, he shot Hinata a confidant look.

"Great!" Kakashi said cheerfully. "Now that we're all here,
we can start! Now if you'll all follow us, we'll explain the
details of the mission once we reach the gate."

Making their way to the gate in no time, they were surprised
to see a large caravan sitting in front of it. Kakashi walked up
to a large black horse carrying a very important looking woman.
Her long black hair extended well past her back to pool along the
back of the horse. She wore a very elaborate kimono, embroidered
with beautiful swirling clouds and birds. The haughty look on
her face commanded a sense of authority.

"May I introduce you all to Princess Chiyo of the lightening
country!"

To be continued!