I've known for a while

Chapter 2

Naruto woke up early to the first light of the day hitting his face. He looked over to his left in the tent to see Hinata sleeping soundly, with an ever present blush on her face. He smiled at the sight of her.

He slowly sat up and reached for his watch, seeing that it was just past dawn at 5:30 in the morning, he decided that he had time to bath a bit in a stream that they had passed the previous day before making camp. Gathering his supplies made the short trip there.

After bathing and feeling completely awake he dressed and made his way back to the tent. Hinata was still sleeping, and he figured that he would allow her to sleep for another hour before waking her to complete the mission and heading back to the village. Naruto also figured that this would be a good time to get some work done.

Rummaging through his pack he pulled a scroll from it and went back outside, he bit into his thumb and then focused a bit of Chakra into his bleeding thumb, his slid the finger down the side of the scroll and the blood seemed to absorb into the paper and a seal appeared on it. Soon the seal vanished and the scroll unfurled.

Naruto laid the paper in front of him on a smooth surface, pulling a small brush and ink bottle from a compartment on the scroll his placed the ink off to the side and dipped the brush into it. Narutos eyes roamed over the work that he had done so far, he chewed a bit on the end of the brush while working through the complex looking patterns on the paper.

Naruto got drawn into his work and was surprised when he heard a voice right next to his head. "What is that Naruto-kun?"

Naruto looked up to see a bleary eyed Hinata looking at him and his scroll, he gulped and quickly returned the ink and brush to its compartment, rolling up the scroll he resealed it once more. "Nothing Hinata-chan, it was nothing at all."

She rubbed her eyes, and then looked at him again, "it looked pretty complex, not like nothing Naruto-kun."

Naruto sighed, "Look Hinata-chan please forget what you saw, ok?"

Hinata though was very curious on to what Naruto could have been working on; she was still tired but could tell that it was no simple protection that he used on it. Hinata saw the worried look in his eyes, "S-sorry Naruto-kun, I didn't mean to pry. I was just curious that's all."

He smiled a bit, "it's ok but unfortunately I cannot allow anyone to see what is in this scroll, not that it would make much sense to anyone, but as you can probably tell I have to guard this very well."

"I'm sorry I under stand, Naruto-kun I just was curious as to what you would be working on so intently that you would not even sense someone coming up behind you." Hinata said, blushing a bit. "It's just curiosity, again I'm sorry."

Naruto looked at her and seemed to think something over for a moment, "well I can't show you what it is. This is something that not even Tsunade-Baachan knows I am working on…"

Hinata smiled, glad that he was not that upset that she looked at it, whatever it was. Hinata had not seen much of it, when she glanced at it her eyes where drawn to a design in the middle, one that seemed to have had many revisions to it. "I understand, we all need our secrets."

Naruto remained silent for a moment, "I haven't even told Sakura-chan, Sai or even Kakashi-sensei, though I am sure he would love it, I kind of want to surprise everyone with it once I figure it out."

Hinata kept watching his curiously and said, "I will not speak of this to anyone Naruto-kun you can trust me."

Naruto smiled, "I know…and I can't show you what it is but I can tell you what I'm working on. Just as long as you never tell any one of this, ever."

Hinata blushed thinking that Naruto trusted her with something that he didn't even tell Sakura about. "I-it's ok Naruto-kun, you don't have to tell me if you don't want to."

Naruto continued, "Now that I think about it, I do want to tell someone, there was one other person I could have trusted with this as he tried it too, but Jiraiya is dead so…anyway I do want to keep it quiet from most everyone, especially Tsunade, as she might feel it too dangerous to be attempting this."

"It's Dangerous? If that's the case why are you trying this?"

"Because I have to," Naruto said, "I cannot let this die completely, I got this scroll when I became a Chunin and found out who my parents were. I have since added further seals to it, I have to offer some of my blood and my chakra to unlock it. It is also tied to my life, if I where to die the information in the scroll would instantly be destroyed."

Now Hinata was very curious, "what kind of information would merit that extreme amount of security?"

"Hiraishin no Jutsu," Naruto said.

Hinata knew what this technique was and she sat open mouthed starting at him, "H-Hiraishin no Jutsu? You are attempting to work that Justu? But N-Naruto-kun, that is dangerous to try, isn't your father the only one who was able to do it? And didn't it take him over 6 years of research and experimentation to perfect it?"

Naruto nodded, "Yes but he did it from scratch, he created it. I am working off of his old notes, two years I had figured it out, I understand the premise of it, and how it is performed. But the seal is proving 

very hard to get right." He sighed, "If it was just me I would have had the seal done and been able to use it now."

"What do you mean?"

"Well it's not just me is it? In this body of mine are two beings, two lives. I have to make the seal so that it will incorporate the fact that the most powerful of the tailed demons is inside of me, and since I don't know what it's full power is it is hard to get the seal right." Naruto paused, "and I want to make sure that I get it right before I test it, if I get one thing wrong it could end up ripping him from me…killing us both."

Hinata gasped, "Then why, Naruto-kun? Why are you even attempting this? It does sound way to risky."

"Nothing worth doing isn't." Naruto said simply.

"But I don't want you to die. She said a tear forming, "I love you, you know that. And now I know that you know that, so please don't risk your life like this."

Naruto sighed and cast his eyes to the ground, "Maybe I shouldn't have told you, Hinata-chan."

"W-what?"

"Hinata-chan, please understand, I have to do this. I have to at least try, and I am not just rushing into it with out understanding what is at stake." Naruto said, "And trust me, if I can't figure out its power and apply it to the new seal, I will never even try to use it."

Hinata sniffled but agreed that as he was studying this for years now, with this he is taking it very seriously.

Naruto and Hinata finished the mission, and had returned to the village. Hinata had of course promised to never tell anyone about it until he revealed it, if he revealed it. She did find it comforting that he did trust her enough to tell her about it.

They both went to their respective homes to wash up and change as Naruto and Hinata had agreed to meet at a small restaurant that evening. Naruto dressed and decided that it would do best to maybe stop and get some flowers before meeting her, wondering what she would like and having no idea what kind to get her he made his way to the Yamanaka flower shop, thinking that if Ino was there maybe he could get some suggestions.

The bell rang as he opened the door to the shop, Ino was indeed there. She looked up to great the new customer and was surprised to see her fellow blonde, "welcome to Yaman…" her words died when she saw that it was Naruto, and how well he cleaned up. "Hey Naruto, I see your back. Anything I can help you with?"

"Hi Ino," Naruto smiled. "Yeah I'm looking for some flowers, a bouquet actually, and not sure what I should get. I figured that you might be able to help me out."

Ino smiled widely, "a bouquet of flowers? Who are they for?"

Naruto blushed a bit and wondered if it was ok to tell Ino anything, as if anything was told to Ino, especially regarding dating, Naruto might as well just litter the whole village with leaflets. "I don't really want to say."

Ino cocked her head, "Naruto everyone is different. And you are obviously getting these for a girl so I would need to know who in order to get the right ones."

Naruto thought about it for a moment, then decided he did need her help, "fine they are for Hinata-chan."

"Hinata?" Ino said in shock, then she laughed, "Well it is about time, don't you think. I mean the girl has only been pining after you since the academy days."

"Yeah, yeah so can you help me?"

Naruto left the shop with an assortment of flowers, the most prominent ones were Lavender colored. As soon as he left, Ino picked up the phone in the shop. "Hello? Hey forehead, you are not gonna believe this."

Naruto met up with Hinata and was floored by how she looked, her hair was tied back in an elegant knot, and she wore a light toned Kimono that matched her eyes, he handed the flowers to her and after a stuttered "T-thank you," they went inside.

They ate while Naruto mostly spoke about various things. Hinata was content to listen to the blonde talk.

While they where in the restaurant, a pair of Shinobi walked past the window and caught sight of the pair inside. There was one who was hooded and his tall collar hid most of his face, his eye brows could be seen raised above his dark sun glasses and there was one thought that when through his head, 'it is about time.'

The other one with him was tall and had a large, bear sized, dog next to him. When he saw this his eyes narrowed slightly, his thought was slightly different from his companions. 'What the hell is this?'