Naruto wasn't sure what to do. It didn't take long for him and his team to make it to the tower and figure out the 'riddle'. Currently, he was watching his teammates spar together and had been waiting for them to stop so he could get a turn but when the time came, both had excused themselves. Kurotsuchi had said she needed to do some girls stuff – which Naruto only nodded – and Daichi had mentioned something about food. Naruto wasn't hungry, so he didn't follow after him. So, there he stood, debating whether he should use this time to practice his Katas or just relax and recover. It wasn't like he could practice his more destructive Jutsus and even if he could, he wouldn't want to reveal his potential just yet. That would be for another time.

Thoughts of Hinata entered his mind and he clenched his fists in frustration. His patience was wearing thin and it was all he could do not to fight his way to her to get some answers. Taking in a deep breath, Naruto sat cross-legged and started to meditate. His mind running through scenarios and situations, calculating the best course of action for each one, only to reach the same conclusion; failure.

Still, he wouldn't quit, he'd figure something out. He always did.

Sneaking out of the tower and Training Grounds no.44 was easier than Naruto could ever imagine. Of course, he had to do it at night, but that hardly meant much. His frustration finally got the better of him and he was going to see Hinata tonight, no matter what stood in his way. Without compromising stealth, Naruto quickly made his way to the Hyūga compound and activated the Transparency Jutsu. He snuck in through the same way Jiraiya had showed him the week before and found himself hidden in the canopy of trees behind the compound. Here, he would have the space and time to locate Hinata without interference from the guards or and stray members taking a walk.

He made the hand sign for the Shadow Clone Jutsu and produced three clones. With a nod, all three transformed into different animals. One took the form of a bird, another of a rat and the third transformed into a dog, just in case he needed a distraction. Without a word, his clones went their ways and Naruto waited for the memories of the clones to return to him. He just hoped no one would notice them and he'd be able to find Hinata without getting caught.

Unknown to him, he had already attracted attention to himself and had the all-seeing eye on his location. The Hyūga smirked; this night would definitely be entertaining.

Naruto had been too busy concentrating on the situation that he had failed to notice the Hyūga trying to sneak up behind him until it was too late. He quickly turned and blocked the palm that had been previously aimed at his back with his left forearm. He flinched when he felt the foreign chakra enter his system and shut off the chakra points in his left arm. He was surprised to see his attacker was no older than eight years. What also struck him was how much the kid looked like Hiashi, an almost exact copy, except for the fact that she was a girl.

The girl chuckled and stepped back from Naruto, leaning against the tree. "You're better than I thought. Though, I shouldn't be too surprised, seeing as your genes come from such strong people."

Naruto scoffed at her comment. "I could say the same about you. You're Hinata's sister, aren't you?"

Hanabi's eyes gleamed with mischief. "Ah, very perceptive of you, Naruto. What gave me away?"

"You're pretty much a copy of her dad."

Hanabi sighed. "I hear that a lot."

"What I'd like to hear is why you attacked me?" Naruto asked, his amusement slowly giving way to annoyance.

A giggled escaped Hanabi's lips. "Well, what would you do if you ran into a trespasser?"

"But you knew who I was, and I'm sure you don't think you can take me on your own. You'd have a better chance with numbers."

"True enough,"

There was a pause and Naruto raised an eyebrow at Hanabi, who simply responded with a raise of her own eyebrow. The smug amusement on her face was beginning to remind Naruto of Neji, and it was really grinding his gears. His mind finally put the pieces together and he felt hope for the first time in a while. If this was Hinata's sister, she would know where Hinata was!

"Listen, you wouldn't happen to know-"

"I don't think you know how this works," Hanabi said while raising her hand, interrupting Naruto. The blond blinked

"Uh, what?"

Hanabi gave Naruto her best Hyūga glare, now reminding Naruto of her father. It was kind of creepy how much she took after the two Hyūga men. "Let's review: you are the malicious intruder, and I'm the innocent little girl that you came here to kidnap." She paused, enjoying his facial expression when he started putting two and two together. When she took in a deep breath, he moved and covered her mouth with his hand, holding his free hand up to his mouth to motion her to remain silent.

"I got it!" he whispered harshly. "Just… shhh!" He hated being played like this, but he was in a compromising situation with the second daughter of a clan leader. He was beginning to regret his decision of coming to the Hyūga compound. That was when he saw the victorious shine in Hanabi's eyes.

Strike that, he wished he was still in the stomach of the anaconda.

He released his hold on Hanabi and sighed in defeat. "So, kid, what do you want? A favor? Secrets?"

Hanabi wanted to laugh at how easily he fell to her tricks. "Well, first, you can start calling me by my name. It's Hanabi, by the way."

"Ok, Hanabi. What do you want?"

Hanabi waved off his question with a smirk. "That is something for another time. I'll come find you once I'm ready to call in that favor."

"What? You little-"

"You don't really have the time to insult me. Hinata's about to go to sleep," Hanabi said in a singsong tone. Naruto grit his teeth and clenched his fists. Was he that obvious?

"This isn't over," Naruto growled out, but that only made Hanabi's smirk widened.

"Good. This has been far too entertaining to let it end here." Hanabi moved to jump down from the tree but stopped short. "Oh, by the way, I need you to change the way you look."

At this, Naruto blinked, looking down at himself. "What's wrong with the way I look?"

It was the third night since the start of the second part of the Chūnin Exams. Hinata wondered how her friends were doing, praying that they all make it out alive. For a brief moment, she had felt a pang of jealousy, having wished she had participated in such a major event. She knew her skills were up to par…

A knock at her door brought her out of her thoughts. She went and opened it, surprised to see her sister. Before she could even ask what she was doing up, she noticed something in her arms.

"Oh, Hanabi! Where'd you find him?" she asked, her hand moving to pet the red fox kit sitting in Hanabi's arms. Hinata blinked at the kit when she noticed its expression. "And, why does he look so mad?"

Hanabi simply forced a smile and started to rub the top of the kit's head a little too hard for its comfort. "Oh, I just found him out back, trying to sneak in." Hanabi was glad when her sister opened the door, even happier by the fact that she had changed into her nightgown which hugged her curves quite nicely.

"Hold him for a second, would'ya?" Hanabi said, practically shoving the kit into Hinata's arms. Hinata didn't react so quickly so the fox ended up between Hinata's developed breasts. Hanabi smirked as she watched the kit's eyes become spirals.

Hinata scrambled to give the kit some air, not wanting to suffocate the kit with her breasts.

"See ya later!" Hanabi said as she closed the door behind her. Hinata could only blink, wondering what was going on with her little sister. She decided to give that some thought later and turned her attention to the kit, who had also been eying the door, probably also thinking the same.

"Well, Mr. fox, it looks like you're stuck with me," Hinata said, enticing the kit to look at her with its head cocked to the side. She found the action absolutely adorable. "U-Unless of course, you'd rather go back outside?"

The kit continued to look at Hinata, seemingly lost in thought. All the while, Hinata couldn't help but notice just how blue the fox's eyes were. It reminded her a lot of Naruto. Hinata subconsciously held the fox a little closer, her eyes softening just a bit.

"You know Mr. fox, your eyes are awfully blue for a fox," at this, the kit tensed up but Hinata only smiled, ignorant of this fact. "They remind me of a boy I know." The kit relaxed as Hinata went and sat on her bed, looking up from the kit to the window to the left of her.

"His eyes remind me of blue pools of water. Sometimes, if I stare at them long enough, it feels like I'm sinking deeper into those pools. And I… just can't help myself." She had the kit's complete attention. "I care for him, ever so much. And whenever I'm near him, I become such a mess." Hinata paused in thought, a cute smile on her lips when she thought more about him. She brought her left hand to her cheek as a blush dusted both cheeks. "Even now, I feel so flustered just thinking about it. It's like…"

She stopped and shook her head. "But, it's not like it matters now." The kit tilted its head again, almost as if wondering why. Noticing this, Hinata turned a sad smile to him and scratched the top of his head.

"I… I have to marry someone else. Someone I've never met before." Tears were beginning to accumulate in her eyes and Hinata wiped them away, still bringing the kit closer and closer to her. "And… I really don't want to."

She shook her head and laughed, as if she had just realized she was talking to a fox. "I'm sorry Mr. fox, I don't mean to bore you with my life." She laid down on her bed and laid the fox in front of her. Free of Hinata's grasp, the kit shook his body and looked at Hinata. Hinata just smiled, once again reminded of Naruto by the fox's eyes. "Would you like to sleep with me?"

The fox looked panic, looking around him as if to see if anyone was around. Though a little reluctant, the fox moved to sleep just under Hinata's chin with it's snout facing away from Hinata. Hinata began to scratch the fox behind its ears, causing it to lazily wag its tail. She found the fox's company oddly enjoyable, but her joy was short-lived when she thought back on her situation. She had thought about what Neji and Hanabi had told her the day before. While Hanabi clearly did not want her to go, Neji was still neutral on the whole ordeal. He obviously didn't want her to get married but at the same time, could not bring himself to tell her not to. He didn't want to make the choice for her, leaving it up to her to decide.

But that didn't really help much either. Should she really not go through with it? True, Hanabi was too young to be married but that didn't mean she couldn't be engaged and eventually married off when she was of appropriate age. Hell, seeing as how desperate they were, she wouldn't be surprised if she would be married by next year!

The thought of her younger sister being married at her age creeped Hinata out and sent shivers down her spine. So, really, she had no choice; she knew that even though she would not be happy with the man she was arranged to be married to, she would be even more miserable knowing her sister was going through the same thing.

"I'm sorry, Naruto," Hinata whispered to herself, fighting back her tears. "I-I… want to be with you. But… I can't let my sister know this pain… I'm sorry."

The kit surprised Hinata by shivering for a few seconds before getting up and going to the window. Hinata knew what the kit wanted, so she got up and opened the window. She watched the kit skillfully jump down to the next window sill down and then to the ground before taking off into the night. Hinata watched the kit go before closing her window and returning to bed.

Naruto ran. He didn't have a set destination. All he knew was that he needed to get away from Hinata. He couldn't stand her crying, he couldn't bear the thought of being by her and not holding her, not telling her that everything would be okay. As much as he wanted to ditch the Transformation Jutsu and hold her, kiss her and make her feel better, he knew he shouldn't. Until he solved the issue, words would be meaningless.

It just wasn't fair! Why should someone like her have to go through something like this? Hadn't she gone through enough? Did her suffering mean nothing?

He stopped running when he noticed he wasn't too far off from Training Ground no.44. He punched a nearby cement fence as he felt his frustration build up. "Am I really upset because of how unfair it is to her… or unfair to me?" Naruto asked himself. He didn't like the way his words left a bad taste in his mouth, but he couldn't lie to himself either. He refused to.

"Maybe, at first, I was just doing it out of my own selfishness…" the mental images of Hinata crying lit a fire in Naruto's heart and he clenched his fists tightly. "And maybe I still am, but I'm going to save her…

"No matter what it takes."

Just a quick update, nothing to see here...

I really had shameless fluff in mind for this chapter. I wanted a whole, cliche scene with Naruto in Hinata's bedroom, promising to save her from the arranged married and all sort of other gushy crap...

But, when I went back to check for errors, I felt as if I rushed it all, and it almost felt kind of awkward, in all honesty. So I ended up writing this instead, and I'm somewhat happy with it. Only because of Hanabi's scene. She made this chapter fun for me...

I'm still a bit upset that I couldn't get the fluff out of my system but I'll save it for when it truly needs to come up, not just when I feel like it...

Oh, by the way, I'm not really going to go into detail with the next part of the Exams. I'll probably even set up with to be somewhat similar to the canon exams with the exception of team Guy. I might through a fight in there just to satisfy the side of me that likes action but to be honest, I'm more of a hopeless romantic and I just really want to write fluff for some reason...

Anyway, hope you enjoyed it!