Disclaimer – I do not own Naruto. I just own this plot and story. Date 30/11/06

Hinata sat at her window, staring out at the beautiful spring day. Anyone would have felt happy and at peace watching the cherry blossoms, but not Hinata. She sighed for the umpteenth time that day and pushed back her chair. She walked over to her table and picked up something. It was a picture that had been taken a little over 2 ½ years ago of her and all her friends. Running her finger over the figure in the middle of the picture, she whispered something.

"Naruto-kun…" she said so softly, almost unintelligible to the ear. It had become quite a habit for her to stare at this picture day in, day out.

She stared at his face a little longer when she remembered that she had to meet Shino and Kiba for training. Sighing once again, she placed the picture back on her table and went to walk out of the room.

At the door she turned once more and looked at the photo.

"Naruto-kun…please be safe." she said, and if you had been listening, you would have heard her voice break as if her heart would break of it was not true.

With that, she was gone, leaving a lone cherry blossom petal to fall to the ground.

As Hinata walked through the streets of Konoha, her spirits started to lift slightly. It was hard not to feel happy when she saw the children playing, reminding her of when she was very young, before she had to train everyday in preparation for her being the heiress of the Hyuga Clan.

She frowned ever so slightly, hoping that these children would never have to go through what she had.

'But then,' she thought ', there isn't another Clan around that is a harsh as the Hyuga.'

She was about to turn a corner when a voice made her stop dead.

'No. It can't be' she thought 'I must be dreaming.' So she peeked round the corner to confirm that it was in fact a dream.

What she saw made her jump back round the corner in surprise and nervousness.

'I can't believe he's back! Oh my god! What do I do! What do I do!!'

But before she had anytime to formulate a plan, a certain blond head poked its way round the corner and stared her right in the face.

He was saying something but it was already falling on deaf ears, since all Hinata could hear was the blood rushing to her head. Then it all went black.

But before she fell unconscious, she had one more thought.

'Naruto-kun looks so good!'

While Hinata was dreaming happily on the ground, Naruto was very confused.

Why had she fainted?

Was she ill? Was she under some sort of Genjutsu? Had she been attacked?

At this thought, Naruto immediately assumed a defensive stance.

"ALRIGHT! COME OUT SO I CAN SEE YOU! COME AND FIGHT ME!!!" he shouted at no-one in particular, while jumping about like an idiot.

Meanwhile Kiba, Shino and Akamaru just stared at the almost pantomime-esque scene that had just played out in front of them.

"I can't believe she fainted," Kiba said disparagingly

"Hm" replied Shino.

"I mean, she hasn't fainted once in over 2 years"

"Hm"

Sigh "Well I suppose we should go pick her up and take her to training"

Kiba started to walk forward but Shino grabbed his wrist in a death like grip. Kiba turned to protest but Shino had his finger to his mouth telling him to be quiet. Shino then pointed in the direction of the training areas.

Kiba smiled mischievously. It was the perfect plan. He sniggered quietly before the two of them sped off leaving Naruto still dancing around looking for his 'attacker'.

Naruto sensed the other two leave and turned round to look where they had been standing before. To his dismay, he was right. He then looked down at Hinata on the ground.

'Oh man! What am I supposed to do?" he thought alarmed. "I don't know how to look after a girl!'

He bent down onto his haunches and looked closely. She had changed while he had gone, he observed. Her hair was longer and she had lost the puppy fat she had on her face. In fact, he bent even closer, she had become quite beautiful.

Just then Hinata opened her eyes and on seeing Naruto inches in front of her, she did the only thing that came to mind.

She punched him.

Naruto flew across the street, hit two bins, rolled off them and slid on an old banana skin, hurtling him headfirst into the wall. Where he promptly fell to the ground in a daze.

Hinata clasped her mouth in horror. She had hit him instinctively, as she had been trained to do. But this was horrifying! She had hit her crush! Right across the street! Into a wall!

Hinata scrambled to her feet and rushed over to help Naruto up. He was trying to get up but had been a bit stunned so Hinata offered her hand to him, which he graciously accepted. She forced to keep her blush at bay when she realised he was holding her hand and let it drop once he was up.

Naruto grinned widely and scratched the back of his head with one hand.

"That was some punch Hinata! You must have gotten a lot stronger in the past couple of years!"

"Y-Y-Yes Naruto-kun. I've been training hard. I-I-In fact, I am already late for my training session. Goodbye Naruto-kun ….and gomen!" She turned round and fled in the direction of the training area, leaving a very stunned Naruto in her wake.

"Weird!" he said to no-one in particular, but he couldn't stop the smile from spreading across his face.

Things were certainly interesting now he was back. He turned to walk away but stopped.

There was something on the ground. He bent down and picked it up to examine it more closely. It looked like a little brooch; it was a pretty silver fox with ruby red eyes.

'It must be Hinata's" he thought "I'll give this back to her later. But first, RAMEN!"

And off he sped towards his favourite ramen hangout.

Little did he know that this little silver fox would have a very significant effect on his life.

A.N. – Well what do you think??? It's my first story in ages and it's my first Naruto story so please let me know what's right and what's wrong! Thank you!