NARUTO: THE SECRET SONGS OF THE NINJA.

Disclaimer: I do not own a Shelby Cobra GT500, no matter how much I wish I do because it's a damn sweet car and I've had my heart set on owning one ever since I first saw one in Gunsmith Cats. All characters, places, scenarios and events associated with a Shelby Cobra GT500 are the not-really the property of whoever happens to own a Shelby Cobra GT500, and Kenichi Sonoda I suppose. I don't know what Naruto has to do with this, but I imagine he'd love to own a Shelby Cobra GT500 as well, if he knew what it was, because it's a damn sweet car, and I've always thought Naruto was the kind of kid who'd love to own a damn sweet car, if he knew what cars were.

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Chapter 12: The Song of the Way Forward

The next morning Naruto looked like human wreckage as he crawled out of his tent.

The change from how he looked the previous night was so striking that Kakashi was shocked. Over the course of the day before, Naruto had recovered with startling speed from his injuries, which Jiraiya had attributed to the reopening of the Five Elements Seal and the complete reintroduction of the Kyuubi's natural regenerative chakra to his system. While something had clearly disturbed his sleep when Kakashi had seen him tumble out of his tent during the night, Naruto looked as though he'd subsequently spent all night running and fighting for his life instead of getting the rest he needed. He had such prominent bags under his eyes that Kakashi was amazed he could even prise them open, and his clothing looked like he'd fallen down a sand dune, then climbed back up to the top and done it again.

Although shocking and unexpected, Kakashi wasn't so oblivious that he couldn't at least make a reasonable guess as to the cause. The first time Hinata had emerged from the tent she shared with Sakura, Naruto's entire body went rigid, as if someone was tickling his tailbone with the tip of a kunai. The instant the Hyuuga girl's eyes lighted on his student's face, the two of them desperately looked away from each other, Naruto ducking down and rummaging in his backpack for something, and Hinata turning and vanishing back inside the tent as if she'd forgotten something, the faces of both teens crimson with distressed embarrassment.

Naruto finished pretending to look for his magical invisible pet rock inside his bag and bustled up to his teacher, pointedly facing away from the girls' tent. Sakura, who for once had risen uncharacteristically earlier than Hinata and was already boiling a pot of tea on their portable stove, gave him a funny look which Kakashi thought was pretty justified. Despite looking like he'd travelled from Suna to Kumo and back while being dragged behind a bad-tempered camel, Naruto was attempting to force to most blatantly unconvincing expression of faux-cheerfulness Kakashi had ever seen in his life. "Morning, Kakashi-sensei!" the boy greeted him with manic brightness. "Are we making an early start this morning?"

The jounin glanced across at Jiraiya, who was sitting on the edge of their campsite writing some notes in a small booklet, but the elder ninja just shrugged, while Sakura looked absolutely baffled. Kakashi settled for a shrug of his own. "Well, if we get going soon we should be able to reach the Land of Rivers before nightfall, which would be nice. I guess we can get going as soon as we finish breakfast."

Naruto nodded his head so enthusiastically he almost stumbled off the side of the pillar. "Uh... great! I can't wait to get home again and back into proper training!" He accepted the tin mug of tea that Sakura offered him and took a long swig.

Kakashi raised a curious eyebrow. Being hyperactive was one thing, but the way Naruto was acting at the moment was almost frantic. He had his suspicions as to the cause, and a simple experiment should be enough to confirm them. "Oh, good morning Hinata," he said brightly, looking over Naruto's shoulder.

The mug clanged off the stone, splashing hot tea over Naruto's sandals and rolling off the edge, bouncing off the sides of the pillar as it plummeted to the sand below. "Oops! Sorry, butterfingers!" Naruto yelped, ignoring the scalding beverage soaking his exposed toes. "I'll get it! Think I'll go for a morning jog before we leave too!" With that, he threw himself off their elevated camp site as if he had a horde of oni chasing him.

Kakashi rolled his eyes and Jiraiya burst out laughing, while Sakura gave them both a disapproving look. The flap across the entrance to her tent pulled back as Hinata peered curiously out in response to the noise. Kakashi had no idea what had happened between Naruto and Hinata during the night just gone after he'd gone to bed, but whatever it was had obviously knocked both of them for a loop. Still, until things started to get seriously dysfunctional (and considering Hinata wasn't even really a member of Team 7, that wasn't too likely), it wasn't his place to stick his nose in. He trusted that Naruto hadn't done anything genuinely objectionable (probably just something stupid and embarrassing), so unless things got drastically worse he'd leave it for the two of them to sort out for now. And in the meantime, it was actually kind of amusing.

He suppressed a smirk. Kids.

oooOOOooo

It had been one of the worst days in Naruto's recent memory. Well, apart from the days after Sasuke had died, of course. Or returning to Konoha and finding it in ruins, that went without saying. Oh, and spending three days having his body wracked with pain as a psychotic Iwa-nin torturer turned his muscles against themselves, that had been pretty bad too.

On second thoughts, even the horrific torture didn't make me suffer this much...

After Hinata had fled from him the night before, he'd spent almost three hours scouring the night desert around their campsite in a desperate attempt to find her, stumbling up and down the dunes in the dark. He'd finally resigned himself to having to wake Kakashi and Jiraiya and come clean with them in order to enlist their help, only to return to the spire where the tents were pitched and discover that Hinata had apparently arrived back before him- he could hear her soft breathing coming from the tent she and Sakura shared, almost inaudible under the sound of the other girl's snoring. She must have doubled back and returned ahead of him, the two of them somehow missing each other entirely. Although relieved that nothing had happened to her, he'd ended up getting only a couple of hours worth of sleep before Kakashi had called for him at sunrise.

Naruto had never before known the sheer awkwardness of being forced to travel with someone you simply couldn't face, and the worst thing was he still couldn't entirely get a grasp on why. He desperately wanted to talk to Hinata again, to try and explain what had happened last night, but at the same time he'd sooner face down an entire army of Oto-nin single-handedly than confront a single girl, especially as he still wasn't sure what had happened. He wanted to tell her he was sorry, but at the same time he wasn't entirely certain that he was sorry- or if he was, he wasn't sure exactly what part he was sorry for.

He'd somehow managed to get through the entire day without having to face Hinata and without making it obvious that he was avoiding her. At least, he thought he had. It hadn't been easy; despite his best efforts he couldn't stop himself from looking at her all the time, although whenever she looked towards him he had to rapidly look away and stare at something else (there was something oddly familiar about that, but he couldn't recall quite what it was). As they'd trudged across the sands of the Land of Winds he'd forced himself to march out at the head of the group despite his fatigue, staying in front of the others (and inadvertently driving them at a break-neck pace), and avoiding conversation in case they came out with any awkward questions. When they'd stopped for a mid-afternoon lunch shortly after leaving the desert and crossing into the greener fields of the Land of Rivers he'd gone for a toilet break and hadn't come back for more than half an hour until the others were ready to leave again, citing constipation. He'd been forced to make do with a sandwich to eat as they traveled (and Sakura had thumped him for being crude) but at least no-one else had noticed the discomfort he felt at the thought of having to sit too close to Hinata again.

When sundown came and the group stopped for the night again, a short way off the road in the middle of a small copse of trees, Naruto had immediately set up his tent and retired to bed early rather than eating dinner with the others, pleading fatigue. This, at least, was entirely true- after a full day's forced march while still shaking off the residual effects of his clash with Gaara, Naruto was exhausted. Strangely, though, after he crawled into his sleeping bag and rested his head on his bundled-up jacket, sleep unaccountably failed to engulf him as the thoughts he'd been shoving aside and refusing to acknowledge all day started running laps around his head, keeping him awake with their clamour.

Why had he almost kissed Hinata last night? It didn't make any sense. He didn't know what he'd been thinking- no, he hadn't been thinking at all, he'd just acted. It was no surprise Hinata had run away from him- he must have scared the life out of her! But then why did it hurt so much to see her run from me...?

He chewed on his lip as he stared up at the canvas above his head, barely visible thanks to the campfire filtering through from outside, trying to tune out the murmuring of the others as they made dinner. Well if he didn't know why he almost kissed the girl, he would have to try and work it out step by step.

First things first, the obvious question was why do people normally kiss other people? Of course, it's because they love them, right? But that can't be it, because I don't love Hinata. He frowned. I mean, I certainly like her a lot, and I care about her. Once I actually got the chance to talk to her for a bit I think we became pretty good friends- she's nice, she's considerate, she really seemed to appreciate my ideas about my ninja way that I shared with her over lunch that one time. She kept the promise we made that she'd never give up, she came back to save me from Orochimaru. She's actually kinda cute... It occurred to him that he was getting sidetracked. Anyway, I can see why any guy could like her, I guess, even if she can be a bit quiet and weird sometimes. I mean, that way she always seemed to be looking away from me any time I looked over in her direction was pretty weir-huh. Now that he thought about it, hadn't he been doing something kind of like that to her today? But that didn't make any sense. Why would Hinata feel awkward about looking at me? I mean, I feel awkward towards her because I nearly k-kissed her last night without thinking, but back then we barely knew each other.

The thought sparked another memory- the warm touch of soft lips on his cheek. O-oh yeah. How could I forget- Hinata actually kissed me first, the night before we reached Suna. Absently he traced his fingers across his cheek. But that was just a good luck charm, to give me confidence for the fight against Gaara. He smiled to himself. It really helped me, though.

Enlightenment encroached on his mind, like the sun peering out from behind a cloud. So there are other reasons a person might kiss someone! It was just a kiss between friends, that was all. Maybe that's what I was thinking last night? I just wanted to help give her some confidence. She said she needed to grow stronger, after all, and I'd do anything to help her with that goal.

The more he thought about it, the more his confidence in his conclusion grew. Yeah, that makes sense! Because I'm not in love with Hinata, so I was just compelled to kiss her as a friend.

At that thought, he felt a slight twinge inside him, like something was wrong somewhere. That's right... isn't it? I'm not in love with Hinata. He bit his lip again and rolled over in his sleeping bag. There had to be a simple way to work this out. Of course, I just need to compare how I feel about Hinata to how I felt about Sakura-chan!

Let's see... back when he was still in love with Sakura, before Sasuke had died and he'd backed off out of respect for her feelings (something he was still secretly proud of himself for doing), what did he think about her? Well, he thought she was pretty, and he wanted to go out on dates with her. He wanted her to watch him because of how cool he was, instead of Sasuke. He wanted to be able to tell people the cutest girl in Konoha was his girlfriend.

And what did he think when he thought of Hinata? He thought she was nice, and kind, and he admired her resolve. He worried about her and wondered what she thought of him when she looked at him. He wanted to support her in achieving her dreams. He wanted to protect her from harm, but also from unhappiness if he could. And yes, now that he really considered it, he thought she was kind of pretty too, although not as pretty as Sakura. Well, except when she smiled. Then her entire face just glowed.

There, see? Totally different thing, he reassured himself confidently. Logic prevails! But he was left with a tiny niggling doubt left eating at him, scratching at his mind like a persistent itch. It was something he struggled to put into words, but it was just a feeling like he'd made some kind of fundamental error somewhere, like he'd just finished getting dressed only to realise he'd put his underwear on backwards. He rolled over in his sleeping bag, massaging his aching temples with his fingers. What was he getting wrong here?

The sound of movement just outside his tent caught his attention and he pricked up his ears as a feminine voice spoke. "You're going to bed already as well, Hinata?"

"Yes, Sakura-san, I'm feeling rather tired myself," the other girl answered. Naruto felt a small tingle in his chest at the sound of her voice. "I'm sorry if that inconveniences you."

He heard Sakura click her tongue. "Has anyone ever told you that you apologise too much, Hinata? And this is the third time I'm telling you, less of the 'Sakura-san', please. Just 'Sakura' is fine. Anyway don't worry about it. You and Naruto both looked really tired today." She giggled. "If I didn't know better, I'd think the two of you were getting up to something behind our backs." Naruto's breath caught in his throat. There was a long pregnant pause before Sakura spoke again, sounding distinctly awkward. "Um... that was a joke, Hinata. I'm joking. You don't need to blush like that. Look, you go ahead and get to sleep, OK? I'll try not to disturb you when I turn in later."

"Um... thank you, Sakura-sa... um, Sakura. Um. Good night."

"Good night."

In the silence that followed, Naruto could hear his own heart thumping in his chest. He rolled over and pressed his face into his improvised pillow, covering his head with his hands. Damn it, what's wrong with me?

It made no sense.

oooOOOooo

To Kakashi's shock, Naruto looked even more haggard the next morning, despite retiring extremely early the night before. The boy was distracted, unfocused, and seemed to have trouble keeping his eyes open. Kakashi found himself wondering if the boy was actually coming down with something nasty, although when he questioned Naruto about his condition he insisted he was absolutely fine, blissfully unaware of how ridiculously unconvincing he was while he was almost swaying on his feet.

Despite all four members of their party eyeing him with varying degrees of concern, Naruto insisted they get underway as soon as breakfast was over. He looked a bit more alert after some tea, but Kakashi still had his doubts about how long he'd last once they were on the road again. Still, it was hardly like he could argue with the boy, so they'd just have to go along as far as Naruto could manage. His student had a habit of constantly surprising him, after all, although the one thing that never surprised him any more was his stubbornness.

Shortly before midday they reached the border of the Country of Fire and the open grasslands gave way to forestland. To everyone's surprise, Naruto suggested they take to the trees. Tree-flying was certainly both faster than walking and less-tiring than simply running, but it still sapped more energy and Kakashi couldn't help but worry that Naruto was going out of his way to push himself to breaking point, almost as if he'd made himself a dare. When they reached the edge of the tree line the jounin couldn't keep his peace any longer. "Naruto, I think you're overdoing it," he cautioned the boy. "We don't have to rush to get back home, I doubt the Fortress will collapse into a massive sinkhole if we don't get back as quickly as possible. Maybe you should settle down and take it easy?"

Naruto gave him an affronted look, as if Kakashi had suggested he give up being a ninja to work as a tofu delivery boy instead. "I know what I need to do, Kakashi-sensei, stop fussing! You don't have to slow down for me, OK? I just want to get back home as soon as possible- no-one's ever going to say I slowed them down!"

"I'd expect that to be the last thing anyone would ever say about you, Naruto," Kakashi sighed. He glanced at Jiraiya and the two girls. "Does anyone have any objections to a little tree-flying? Maybe just until lunch, for starters?" Sakura shrugged and Hinata nodded timidly.

Jiraiya made a face. "Huh. Kids these days don't know how to stop and smell the roses. Always in a hurry." He sighed melodramatically. "Fine, we'll go for an hour or so until it's time for lunch."

Once they were underway, Kakashi's worries were, at least initially, assuaged. The group were making good time as they sailed through the forest, springing from one tree to the next with light, measured movements, using the natural spring in the branches to propel themselves onwards like thin wooden trampolines. Once you fell into the proper rhythm of bouncing from branch to branch, tree-flying was almost relaxing in a way, although it still required constant focus. As usual, the five of them fell into a loose formation shortly after they started out. Unusually, Sakura ended up out in front, Jiraiya slightly behind her on the left, Naruto and Hinata traveling roughly parallel to each other after him and Kakashi himself bringing up the rear. His initial intention had been to keep an eye on Naruto in case he started to get tired, but the boy was keeping it well together. Kakashi did notice that he kept sneaking furtive glances across at Hinata every few seconds, looking away just as quickly almost as if he were ashamed of himself. Whatever was bugging these two could be more of a problem than he'd initially thought, but while Kakashi knew almost everything there was to know about being a ninja, personal matters were a closed book to him. Still, he couldn't keep his eye on Naruto all the time, not when he needed to concentrate on not smacking face-first into a tree.

Which is why he was caught as off-guard as everyone else when Naruto smacked face-first into a tree.

Despite his surprise, the instant Kakashi heard the thud of his student's body crashing into the thick trunk and Naruto's startled yelp turning into a wail of pain, he immediately leaped down to the forest floor after him. Naruto had bounced off the tree and dropped twenty feet to the ground, his fall fortunately broken by a thick patch of shrubbery, and he lay in the middle of the crushed greenery, groaning miserably with his hands clamped over his face. Barely a second after Kakashi had touched down next to the boy's prone body, Hinata was already crouching down beside him, near-frantic with concern. "Naruto-kun?! What happened? Are you alright? Speak to me!"

Naruto's eyes cracked open, peeking through his fingers, and he moaned again as he saw Hinata's worried eyes staring down at him. "Oh no..." he muttered and turned his face away, blushing crimson. "So lame..."

Kakashi spared the boy further embarrassment by reaching down, grabbing him by the front of his jacket with both hands, and brusquely hoisting him up to his feet. "You alright, Naruto?" he asked with deliberate casualness, brushing broken twigs and leaves off the boy's orange clothing, helping him out of the crushed bush into a small clearing between the trees. He didn't seem to have any visible injuries, aside from a red nose with a thin trickle of blood leaking from it, and the start of a riotously purple bruise on his forehead.

Jiraiya landed behind him, already chuckling with bemusement. "What happened to him? I thought you said you didn't want to slow us down, boy?" Naruto growled in irritation.

"I think you need a break, Naruto," Kakashi put in before he could respond to the jibe. "Maybe now would be a good time to stop for a rest?" Sakura, the furthest ahead when the accident had happened, finally doubled back to join them, looking bewildered. "We just passed a small stream about a minute ago," the jounin continued. "Sakura, didn't you mention earlier that you'd wanted some water to freshen yourself up a bit? Why don't you go and do that while we sit down and put the tea on? Take Hinata along with you, if she wants to go as well."

The pink-haired girl scratched her head, then shrugged. "That suits me, Kakashi-sensei. You OK, Naruto?" The boy just nodded glumly. Sakura put her hand on Hinata's shoulder as she hovered around Naruto like a disturbed butterfly. "Come on, Hinata. It's been too many days since we've had a proper chance to clean ourselves up."

Hinata blinked, then blushed. "Um, alright, um, Sakura." Giving one last look of concern at Naruto, she turned and followed Sakura back into the trees, heading back in the direction they'd come from.

Naruto slumped down onto the trunk of a fallen tree with an exasperated groan, letting his aching head drop into his hands. Kakashi sighed internally as he began to gather kindling from the ground and Jiraiya extracted the small kettle from his backpack, topping it up from his canteen. When the Third Hokage (may he rest in peace) had requested he take on a genin team, he was pretty sure he hadn't signed on for this nonsense.

oooOOOooo

The water was lovely and cool, and Sakura let out a small groan of pleasure as she felt it running over her hands. Pulling them out of the stream and watching the glistening drops fall from her fingertips, she considered the idea of shedding her sandals and bathing her feet in the water. After three days of travel her soles were constantly complaining, and although she was used to ignoring these minor pains as just part of her everyday kunoichi life, taking the opportunity to indulge herself with a bit of relief was extremely tempting. If the water had been deeper, she even might have been tempted to strip off and take a proper bath, although with the three men (of dubious trustworthiness) nearby that would have been a daring and risky idea indeed!

First things first, though. Dropping her backpack beside her, she flipped open the top, rummaged around inside and pulled out a small flannel. After dipping it in the water and wringing it out, she unzipped her dress down to her waist. Pulling it open, she used the flannel to wipe around her neck and collarbone, giving another satisfied sigh at the blessedly cool sensation of the damp cloth soothing her skin. While any kunoichi worth her salt had ways and means of keeping herself from stinking of sweat and filth even after days on the road without a chance to bathe, the unpleasant grimy feeling was still there and she felt a brief surge of gratitude towards Naruto and his clumsiness for giving her this precious opportunity.

She glanced across at Hinata, who was kneeling by the water a few feet away. The Hyuuga girl had already shed her coat and was currently pulling her dark blue sleeveless tunic up over her head. Sakura felt a stab of envy at the size of the other girl's chest, boldly outlined against the traditional mesh underwear top worn by most kunoichi. Some girls have all the luck. Discarding the tunic beside her, Hinata dipped a flannel of her own in the water and began to delicately wipe herself down with the damp cloth, starting with her arms. "This is nice, isn't it Hinata?" she said aloud, rinsing the flannel again and gliding it across the back of her neck, beneath her long cherry-pink hair. "It's good to take a break."

The other girl smiled back at her, switching the flannel to her left hand and running it down her other arm. "It certainly is, um, Sakura." She couldn't help but notice the way Hinata still 'um'ed every time the girl said her name without an honorific. Well, small steps. "It's such a relief to be out of the desert again."

"Mmm," Sakura agreed wordlessly. She wiped the damp cloth across her forehead, then frowned. "I don't know why Naruto's been in such a state lately. He's always been a bit flaky, but over the last two days he's been completely out of it. He wasn't even this jittery before he fought Gaara. Do you have any idea what's got him so off-kilter?"

Hinata's breath caught in her throat so sharply that Sakura could hear it. Glancing sharply across at the Hyuuga girl, she noticed the blush spreading across her cheeks again. She looked deeply uncomfortable, like someone trying to conceal a massive secret and not doing it very well. Another piece of the puzzle dropped into place, and Sakura decided to take a guess.

"Hinata," she said softly, carefully. "It's something to do with... you, isn't it?" She shifted uncomfortably as an unpleasant but impossible to ignore thought forced its way into her mind. "Naruto didn't... do something to you, did he?"

The girl jumped as if she'd been stung. "No!" she exclaimed hotly, staring at Sakura with wide eyes. "Naruto-kun didn't do anything wrong! It was...! I... he didn't..." She took a breath. "Naruto-kun didn't do anything bad to me, not... like you're implying."

Well, I guess at least that still confirms what this is all about. "OK, OK, Hinata, it's alright, I get it," she placated the girl, holding up her hands. "I didn't believe Naruto could do anything bad to you either, but... I just had to make sure, OK?" But something happened, didn't it, Hinata? And I need to get to the bottom of it.

An air of awkwardness fell over the two of them like a heavy layer of snow. To hell with it, Sakura decided and tugged off her sandals. She found a flattish, nicely-sized rock right on the edge of the stream and planted herself on it with a sigh, lowering her feet into the crystal-clear water and luxuriating in the coolness washing over her toes. She glanced across at Hinata again, hoping she'd follow her example, but the dark-haired girl was clutching her flannel like a security blanket and watching her warily. "Come on, Hinata", she pleaded with her. "You need to try this. It feels really nice."

For a moment she thought Hinata was going to pull her top back on and leave her there alone, but then she slowly sat down, pulled off her own sandals, rolled up her long dark pants to her knees and gingerly stepped into the narrow stream. Wading across the opposite side, she found a flat grassy space on the edge of the water and sat down facing Sakura, watching her as if afraid that any second now the cherry-haired kunoichi was going to produce a kunai and leap at her.

Well it's not exactly skinship bonding in a public bath, but it'll have to do. Sakura didn't know what was making Hinata so defensive about this, but she could hazard a guess. If she looked at all the pieces of the jigsaw puzzle that had been handed to her then maybe she could find a corner, or the two pieces that went together to make up someone's face, and start assembling them into a coherent, complete picture. Something had happened between Hinata and Naruto, something that was driving Naruto to distraction, but Hinata insisted Naruto hadn't done anything wrong. Could Hinata have been the one who'd done something to Naruto?! No, the very idea was absurd. But regardless of whether Hinata or Naruto was responsible for whatever had happened, the way Hinata was acting pointed to one simple conclusion.

That's it! That has to be it! "You like Naruto, don't you?" she said softly.

Unsurprisingly, Hinata's face instantly flushed crimson. "Wh-ah, er, what are you- w-well of course I like him, Sakura-san, he's a good person and I think he's very admirable and I owe him a lot for-"

Repressing a smile, Sakura shook her head. "No, no, there's no point messing around with semantics," she said, cutting off the other girl's babbling. "You're in love with him. You are, aren't you?"

For a moment, Hinata seemed to curl in on herself, pressing her chin down against her chest until her bangs hung over her eyes and clutching her shoulders defensively- but then she took a breath, straightened up, squared her shoulders and looked Sakura straight in the eye. "It wasn't love, Sakura," she said clearly. Sakura was taken aback by how calm her voice suddenly was. "I first met Naruto-kun when we were children, even before we started at the Academy. One day I was being harassed by a trio of bullies, but he jumped in to save me, even though I was a total stranger to him. They beat him up for it, he didn't have a chance against the three of them, but he didn't stop fighting. And I never even had the chance to thank him for it. By the time I met him again, I don't think he even remembered it.

"When we were in school together I always watched him." She smiled, making her entire face light up. "I was never confident in myself, but his determination to succeed was... inspiring to me. His insistence that he would be Hokage someday. The way he never stopped trying, even when he failed and everyone laughed at him." Sakura felt a twinge of guilt at that, remembering the various times she and her friends had giggled at Naruto's latest screw-up in front of the class. "I... admired him. I wanted to be like him, to have his courage and ability to believe in himself. You can't imagine how happy I was the day after our graduation exam, when he came in wearing his forehead protector even though he'd failed the bunshin test the day before." Her fingers rose unconsciously to stroke the metal plate hanging around her throat by its cloth band. "Again, even though he'd failed in front of everyone, he'd still somehow managed to come through. It confirmed my belief that he could do anything- and that so could I, if I could just have his courage and determination." She took another deep breath. "Do you understand how much that meant to me? It wasn't 'love'. I didn't want Naruto-kun to look at me, or praise me, or be my... my boyfriend. It was enough for me to be able to follow his lead. I didn't love him. It was more important to me than that."

Hinata fell silent again, staring down at the rippling surface of the water flowing between her and Sakura. The pink-haired girl realised she'd been holding her breath and carefully let it out again. "But you do love him," she said, quietly but insistently.

"...yes." The admission drifted from Hinata's lips like a prayer. "That time I ran away, he came for me and saved me. That was... it was the first time I'd really spoken with him, and... after that, he wasn't just an inspiration to me any longer, but a friend. And I... I knew then that I could trust him completely, because he made me a promise that he'd always believe in me. And I knew he'd keep that promise. So when Orochimaru captured me and locked me up... I knew that Naruto-kun would come for me. I just knew it, even if it seemed absolutely impossible, even if it seemed ridiculous. And he did!" The sudden intensity and conviction in Hinata's voice almost made Sakura rock back in surprise where she sat. "I... love Naruto-kun. I've seen both his strength and his kindness and, after all that we've been though, all that we've lost, there's nothing I want more than just to be able to stay by his side."

As Hinata finished her confession, Sakura just stared at her boggle-eyed. Well... that... answers that question at least. Hinata, as if suddenly hearing what she'd just said for the first time, went scarlet to the tips of her ears and began to shrink in on herself like a collapsing soufflé, but a dazzling smile spread across Sakura's face. As a girl, it filled her absolute glee to discover that her goofy, hopeless idiot of a teammate actually had someone who loved him. "Hinata! That's wonderful!" But then a sharp thought stopped her in her tracks. "Wait... so that still doesn't explain why he's acting so weird towards you all of a sudden." The thought grew barbs. "Don't tell me... you confessed to him and he turned you down?!"

Hinata's face went from red to white in an instant. Sakura was starting to be seriously impressed by the girl's talent for near-chameleonic rapid colour changes, at least within a certain limited emotional spectrum. "N-no! Of course not! I-I could never do that!"

Filing the "could never" away for future reference, Sakura frowned. "So what happened, then?" Hinata hesitated. "Come on, please!" Sakura pleaded with her. "I'm trying to help you here, both you and Naruto. Just tell me what happened, I promise I won't tell anyone else."

Biting her lip, the Hyuuga girl reluctantly nodded and began to talk. As she heard the entire story, starting from the night in the desert before they reached Suna (where Hinata had left a "good-luck charm" on Naruto's cheek) and ending on the night after they'd departed the Village of Sand (where Naruto had almost taken Hinata's lips), Sakura's face went through a range of silly expressions before finally settling on incredulous fury. "That... that idiot! How could he almost take a maiden's first kiss without her permission like that?!"

Hinata looked embarrassed by Sakura's display of indignation. "Um... well I-I had k-kissed him first, Sakura-sa...Sakura. Just on his cheek, but still..."

Sakura waved her hand dismissively. "Oh that's nothing, that's totally different when a girl does it." Dipping her almost-forgotten flannel into the stream again, Sakura began to viciously wring it out like it was a surrogate for the neck of a certain doofus. "I can't believe that numbskull almost kissed you! And I can't believe he stopped! What the heck is his problem anyway?!" She continued grumbling as she wiped the sweat from her stomach, then dropped the cloth on the rock beside her and sighed. "Well, on the bright side, I think it's looking pretty certain he has feelings for you too, Hinata."

To Sakura's complete lack of surprise, her statement immediately sent another blush racing across Hinata's pretty face. With how rapidly blood was repeatedly rushing to and draining from her head, she was starting to worry that the Hyuuga girl might faint from anemia. "O-oh, you r-really think so?" she gasped, as if it were too good to be true. "B-but then why is he being... like he is now?"

Sakura stared at her in bemusement. She'd forgotten the kind of upbringing Hinata had probably experienced as the heir to the upper-class, old-fashioned Hyuuga clan- she'd never been part of the various girl cliques during their time at the Academy, so her complete ignorance about boys shouldn't really be surprising. "He probably doesn't even realise what he's feeling," she clarified for her. "He likes you, but I bet he doesn't understand that he does. Boys are a lot slower on the uptake than girls, but they usually catch on eventually." She frowned. "Normally it would be better for us to wait for them to finally man-up and give us a proper confession, but I think Naruto's a special case. You're going to have to tell him upfront how you feel about him."

Hinata's white eyes went as wide as if Sakura had suggested she seduce Naruto and then steal his wallet while he slept. "Wh-ah... I... there's no way I can do that!" she gasped. "I... no, I... don't think that would be a good idea..."

There it is again. Hinata's opposition to the idea could just be shyness (which wouldn't be surprising), or possibly just an old-fashioned belief that it was unseemly for a lady to be so forward, ingrained in her by her traditional upbringing, but the way she phrased it -first "I could never do that", then "there's no way I can do that"- pointed to something more fundamental. Impossible as it seemed, it was almost as if Hinata didn't want Naruto to know about and possibly reciprocate her feelings. Sakura found herself starting to become frustrated. "Hinata, you can't just let this go! If you don't take this opportunity, you never know what might happen to make you regret it. Believe me-" Her voice started to choke up. "-I'm speaking from experience!" While she'd long-since fought past the crippling heartbreak caused by Sasuke's death, even now she still felt the same throb of pain inside herself every time he entered her thoughts. She hadn't even looked at a boy with romantic interest since her first love had been taken from her and wondered if his loss was something she would ever truly get past. She stood up, the water splashing over her feet as she looked down at Hinata, who met her eyes nervously. "You have to find the courage to make your feelings clear to Naruto. It's the only way you'll be happy!"

The other girl surged to her feet with shocking suddenness. "No I don't!" she snapped, her pale eyes blazing. Sakura recoiled before this unexpected outburst, stumbling over the rock that had been her seat as she stepped back out of the stream and almost falling on her butt. It was as if a cuddly kitten had suddenly turned on her and roared like a tiger. Almost as soon as it had flared up, the fire died away and Hinata's hackles settled, her expression turning instantly regretful. "Um... I'm sorry, Sakura-san," she said in a small voice. Then she took a deep breath and squared her slender shoulders, composing herself. "Yes, I love Naruto. But I can't force my feelings on him. If they're causing him this much confusion already, then I should just keep them to myself. I don't want to hold him back or get in his way. And I don't need him to be my 'boyfriend' to be able to be with him. Just being his friend is enough."

Now Sakura grew angry. "Oh yes, very noble, very mature, very self-sacrificing," she scoffed. "You ran away from him, Hinata!"

A hunted look flitted across the smaller girl's face. "I-I panicked-"

"That's right, you panicked," Sakura cut her off shortly. "I don't entirely blame you, under the circumstances. But that's why he's confused and upset at the moment, why he keeps looking at you even though he can't look you in the eye." She took a long stride forward, splashing into the water to stand face-to-face with Hinata. "And why do you think you'd be 'holding him back'? Didn't I tell you that I think he likes you too? Don't you believe me? Do you think he couldn't really like you the way you love him?" Her expression softened and she allowed a note of sympathy into her voice. "Hinata, don't think so little of yourself. You deserve the chance to be happy, but you should also at least see if you can make Naruto happy too. He's my friend and teammate, you think I don't want what's best for him too? I'm trying to help you both here."

Hinata stood in the middle of the stream, oblivious to the water soaking the hem of her pants which had slipped down over her knees again, her arms folded defensively across her body, one finger touching her lip nervously. She seemed almost frozen, barely breathing and the seconds stretched out as Sakura awaited some kind of reaction, for her to reach some decision. To be honest, it was starting to get awkward for her standing here watching Hinata, just waiting for her to come to her senses, and she was starting to lose sensation in her toes from the chill of the water. After almost a minute with nothing from the other girl, Sakura had finally had enough. "Fine," she huffed. "If you won't tell Naruto how you feel, I'll do it for you!" Turning her back on the motionless girl, she stepped back onto dry land, zipping up her dress again as she went. She was already about as clean as she was going to get without a proper bath anyway.

She only had one foot out of the water when there was a splashing sound and something clamped down hard on her right shoulder, stopping her in her tracks. Startled, she looked behind her. Hinata had caught her with one hand, holding her not painfully, but firmly enough to restrain her. "Don't, Sakura," the girl said, her voice like stone.

Sakura tried to pull herself out of Hinata's grasp. She might as well have tried to walk away after allowing her arm to be cast into the grip of a bronze statue. "Hinata, let go!"

"Don't tell him, Sakura." There was no trace of pleading in the Hyuuga girl's voice, no suggestion that this was a request. Even through her clothes Sakura could feel the tingle of chakra running through Hinata's body, anchoring the girl in place. Her instincts screamed at her that if she tried to force her way out of the smaller girl's grasp it would undoubtedly end up in a fight. Shocked, and even a little scared, she looked into Hinata's ivory eyes.

To her surprise, Hinata was looking back at her, not with anger, but with a calm solemnity on her face. "I'm sorry. You're right. I'm being silly." She took a deep breath and let her hand fall from Sakura's shoulder. She could feel the dull pulsing left where Hinata's fingers had gripped her flesh, not quite an ache, but certainly a memory she wouldn't forget any time soon. "Please give me a bit more time to think, and then I'll talk to Naruto-kun myself. And I'll make things clear between us. I promise." She managed a weak smile. "Thank you, Sakura-san. I was being narrow-minded. I want what's best for him too, after all."

Sakura stared at her in astonishment. She'd never really known Hinata properly before the events of the last week or so, but her impression of her had never developed beyond "small, quiet and introverted". Come to think of it, before she'd been teamed with Naruto, she'd never thought of him as anything other than an obnoxious, loud-mouthed idiot. It began to occur to her that, if Hinata and Naruto did end up getting together, they may end up proving to be one of the most surprising couples the world had ever seen.

The thought caused an irrepressible smile to spread across her face. "No problem, Hinata. What are friends for?"

oooOOOooo

The pain was fading rapidly, but the embarrassment was proving more persistent.

Naruto sat on his tree trunk seat, pressing a damp cloth to his forehead, where the bruise that had begun to manifest there was now in the prime of its career, a wadded-up tissue stuffed up his nose to stem the bleeding. The water on the cloth, taken from his own water canteen, was lukewarm and he found himself wishing he'd gone to the creek with Sakura and Hinata to make use of the fresh water there, which would undoubtedly have been much cooler and more soothing.

Of course, the fact that the girls had gone to clean themselves up meant that he probably wouldn't have been very welcome. He was about three seconds into a mental image of Sakura and Hinata frolicking in the stream in their underwear, splashing water at each other and giggling, before he was able to drive it away by punching himself in the temple and counting the fresh batch of stars that exploded in his vision to replace the galaxy that the tree had previously projected there.

"Naruto?" Kakashi's voice cut sharply across his dazed consciousness. "You can't drive the pain out with more pain. What's gotten into you?" His teacher had managed to get a fire going in short order, and was looking at him disapprovingly as he hung the kettle above the flames.

"Nothing, Kakashi-sensei," he muttered, shaking his head wearily. "Just... trying to clear my thoughts."

For a moment he thought his teacher was going to question him further, but the jounin just shrugged and turned back to the tea. "If this is what you're like when there's nothing bothering you, I'd hate to see what you do when you have real problems to worry about." On the other side of the clearing, Jiraiya snorted in amusement. The older man was leaning with his back against the tree Naruto had crashed into before, scribbling into a small notebook with a stub of pencil.

Naruto couldn't shake the impression that Kakashi was either humouring him or teasing him. While he'd tried to keep his issues from showing, he'd really screwed up when he'd face-planted into the tree, an amateurish mistake that even the freshest Academy student would be unlikely to make, and it was embarrassingly obvious that his mind was well and truly off with the fairies. The last comment about "real problems" had almost felt like his teacher was trying to goad him into coming clean with whatever was bothering him, and to be honest, Naruto was on the verge of giving in.

He just couldn't stop thinking about Hinata. He thought he'd managed to solidly rationalise that he wasn't in love with her, but despite his reasoning he didn't understand why she was still occupying his thoughts so persistently. He had this nagging feeling in his head that somehow he'd just gotten something wrong somewhere. But if he was wrong, did that mean that he was in love with Hinata? How did that even work?!

To hell with it. "Um, Kakashi-sensei?"

His teacher didn't look away from the kettle, which was already starting to whistle. "Yes, Naruto?"

"Have you ever liked anyone?"

Kakashi raised a thin white eyebrow, but still kept his eye on the kettle. "What, do I still seem like such an unpleasable grouch to you, Naruto? I like you and Sakura and Keiji well enough, and I do actually have a few friends of my own."

"Uh, no, that's not what I meant." Naruto hesitated for a second before plunging in headlong. "Um... have you ever been in love?"

"No."

...

Well, so much for that line of inquiry. "What, never?" he asked incredulously.

"Nope." Kakashi sounded completely unbothered by the admission. "I've never been interested. I've witnessed a bit in my time and always just thought it wasn't really my kind of thing."

Naruto was utterly nonplussed. Not his kind of thing?! How did that work? Across the clearing, Jiraiya chuckled aloud. "Really never, Kakashi? Not once?" The chuckle died away and his expression grew unexpectedly serious. "Not even Rin-chan?"

That made Kakashi flinch. "Please... don't talk about her, Jiraiya-sama. I had a duty to her, on Obito's behalf, but that didn't mean I'd inherit his feelings for her, no matter how she felt about me. Please don't mention her again."

Naruto looked on in fascination. He had no idea who the two men were talking about, but he'd never seen his teacher acting this way before. He almost wanted to ask about it himself, but even he could recognise a sensitive subject when it was this obvious. Indeed, Jiraiya looked sincerely regretful. "I'm sorry, Kakashi. I shouldn't have said anything." Kakashi nodded at him, accepting the apology. Jiraiya pushed himself away from the tree and strolled across the clearing, sitting next to Naruto on his improvised bench. "So anyway, what was it you were wanting to know about, boy?"

The genin gave him a questioning look. "Why? Have you ever been in love?"

Jiraiya laughed aloud. "Of course I have, boy! Every time I reach a new town I fall in love a dozen times! Don't you know about my books? There's no-one who knows more about love than me!"

Naruto rolled his eyes and turned away from the older man. "Of course, I should have known there was no point asking you, pervert hermit. Just forget it." He half-expected Jiraiya to snap at him for his rudeness, but he didn't care. He was tired of this nonsense. The confusion was giving him a headache, the lack of answers was frustrating, and it looked like no-one else was going to be any help.

To his surprise, the legendary ninja sighed aloud. "Well, it doesn't surprise me that you have such a low opinion of me, boy. I don't exactly cut a very serious figure most of the time, I admit, which usually suits me fine. But if you really want to know, yes I have fallen in love. Once, and only once."

Naruto stared at him in disbelief. The old man was taking him seriously after all. Maybe there was hope here yet? "And... what happened?" he asked hesitantly.

Jiraiya smiled wryly. "Why, she turned me down, of course. Over and over again. She was willing to be a friend, but she just didn't like me the way I loved her. She fell in love with another man." Come to think of it, that sounded like how Sakura had been with him back when he'd been in love with her... but then again, she hadn't even really wanted to be his friend back then either. Jiraiya sighed wistfully. "Every woman I've ever flirted with since then, I've never really wanted anything from them. Just comparing them to the memory of her makes them look like pale imitations." He chuckled. "Mind you, you can still have a lot of fun with a pale imitation. But it's still nothing like actual love."

Naruto listened in awestruck fascination. "So... you never fell in love again after that girl turned you down?"

The big man gave an expansive shrug, as if Naruto had asked why he couldn't fly by flapping his arms. "How could I?" He smiled wistfully. "I'm still in love with her to this day. There can be any number of people in your life that you love -friends, family, teammates, so on- but I believe there's only one person you can really love like that, and she's mine, no matter what she says."

"Even though she's with another man?"

Jiraiya's expression darkened- not with anger, jealousy, or frustration, but sorrow. "He died. Years ago. He was a Konoha shinobi, and during the Second War he... didn't make it. It utterly destroyed her. I did my best to console her... but only as a friend. I wouldn't dare try and move on her after that." Man, this was sounding more and more like him and Sakura! "I thought I'd give her a few years to get over it before I so much as asked tried asking for a date again, even jokingly." He sighed. "But she... instead of getting over it, she ran away. And it was years before I saw her again."

Wow... that's... really sad. Naruto couldn't help but look at Jiraiya with sympathy as he leaned back on the log and gazed vacantly up at the sunlight filtering through the trees above them. "The most beautiful woman I've ever met... devastatingly intelligent, unbelievably strong, fiery, sharp, not kind or soft or gentle, but infinitely compassionate. The nearest I've ever known to an ideal woman, despite her flaws."

Naruto listened in fascination. "Wow. What's she doing now?"

Jiraiya raised an eyebrow at him in askance, then barked out a laugh. "Hah! She's at the Fortress, boy! You've met her! My old teammate Tsunade!" Naruto blinked, thinking back to the woman he'd met briefly when she'd rudely discharged him from the fortress infirmary. He managed to recall an enormous rack, a pair of blonde ponytails and a sour expression. So she was the one woman the pervert hermit loved more than any other? The more he heard about this, the more it made him think of his own relationship with Sakura. But still... "So," Jiraiya continued, smirking. "have I proven to your satisfaction that I know a thing or two about love?"

Naruto had almost forgotten where this discussion had originated and flushed pink. "Well, uh..." After how open the old man had been, he was hardly in a position to continue being stand-offish. "...I-I guess so."

"So..." Jiraiya leaned forward on their improvised bench, lacing his fingers together in front of him like a doctor about to ask exactly where on your body the lump had appeared. "What did you want to know?

"Well..." Naruto squirmed uncomfortably. Where to even start? Might as well begin with the basics. "What is love?" Maybe a bit too basic. "I-I mean, what does it mean to be in love?" he hastily amended. "How do you know that you're in love?"

Jiraiya sighed. "Ah, starting with the big ones, are we?" Kakashi took the kettle off the fire and unscrewed the lid of the tea cannister, still paying no apparent attention to the delicate conversation going on nearby. "Well, I suppose at its core, on the most fundamental level, love is caring about someone more than you care about yourself." The big man shifted slightly where he sat. "Well, that doesn't just apply to romantic love, I suppose. Parents, or good parents at least, love their children more than they love themselves, or sometimes even each other. But the principle is the same. And it's more than just being wanting to protect them. It's wanting to make them happy, whatever it takes. It's wanting to be by their side- not necessarily wanting anything from them, just to be near them. It may not even matter if they don't love you back, as long as they can be happy."

Almost hypnotised, Naruto sat transfixed by the veteran ninja's words. "Like you and Tsunade?"

"Like me and Tsunade," Jiraiya confirmed with a nod. "When we were kids, I'd ask her to go out with me all the time and she'd always turn me down. She was cute and smart and strong so -immature brat that I was- I thought that, since I was the coolest guy around, she should be my girlfriend." He grimaced. "I clung to that delusion for several years, until the day her little brother Nawaki was killed in the Second War. That's when I received a real wake-up call. When Orochimaru and I brought her to see her brother's body and she broke down in tears in front of me, I felt a pain like nothing I'd ever known right here-" He tapped one finger over his heart. "-and that was when I had to rip away my dumb, shallow, childish crush on her to see if I had real feelings for her underneath. And I did."

"So..." Naruto wondered aloud, "why didn't you get together?"

Jiraiya laughed bitterly. "Heh. It's not as simple as that, I'm afraid. Simple fact was, she just didn't love me the way I loved her. She'd always written me off as a clueless goof- it was just how I'd fixed myself in her mind, even if she also thought I was a loyal friend and a strong ninja. She fell for Dan instead... and then when he died, she just... fell apart." He sighed. "I guess I was just one of the unlucky ones. Unrequited love hurts, but you can't just deny it."

"Tea's up," another voice cut in blithely. Kakashi handed a steaming cup of green tea to Jiraiya, then offered the one in his other hand to Naruto, as if completely oblivious to the fact that he was interrupting a highly-personal discussion about the depths of the human heart. Naruto stared at him for a moment, dumbfounded, then carefully accepted the hot tin vessel and took a small sip while his mind tried to digest what Jiraiya had told him.

Unrequited love, huh? The more he thought about this, the more it reminded him of himself and Sakura, even more so if he considered Sasuke to be like Tsunade's dead boyfriend or brother. Man, she had it really bad. He felt a pang of sympathy for the woman, even though he'd only ever briefly met her once.

A nasty thought lodged in his mind. Wait, so am I destined to forever pine futilely for Sakura as she never gets past Sasuke's death?! For a few heartbeats he started to panic, then caught himself. Wait, hang on, I must be overthinking this. Just calm down, Uzumaki Naruto. Just because Jiraiya and Tsunade's situation had some superficial resemblances to his and Sakura's, that didn't mean it was going to be a perfect match, did it? He needed to think about this.

There was something else Jiraiya had said. What was it again? "...that was when I had to rip away my dumb, shallow, childish crush on her to see if I had real feelings for her underneath." Hadn't he reasoned this out last night? How his feelings for Sakura compared with his ones towards Hinata?

That's right. He'd thought back to how he'd felt about Sakura before he'd given up out of respect for her feelings for Sasuke. Hold on, though. I... gave her up? I mean, it was the right thing to do, I guess, but... the pervert hermit didn't "give up" on Tsunade, did he? I was thinking about what my feelings towards Sakura-chan had been before Sasuke's death, but if what Jiraiya said is true, my feelings shouldn't have changed, only how I acted on them.

A hollow feeling began to suck at the bottom of his stomach and he hastily drank another mouthful of tea to try and soothe it. It didn't help. Was I... ever really in love with Sakura-chan... at all? Or was it... just a "childish crush"...? When he thought about the feelings he'd felt towards Sakura and compared them with Jiraiya's description of what love is, Naruto began to wonder if he hadn't had it backwards from the start. So my feelings for Hinata...? What else had Jiraiya said? "It's wanting to be by their side- not necessarily wanting anything from them, just to be near them."

"So then!" Jiraiya said suddenly, startling Naruto out of his reverie. The big man slurped down another gulp of tea and smacked his lips. "I take it you're falling for that little Hyuuga girl, right?"

Naruto went pale. "N-no. No I'm not! I'm-"

"Y-yes. Yes you are!" Jiraiya cut him off triumphantly. "I'm not stupid, boy! You're denying it on reflex, which makes it way too obvious that you're lying to yourself." He leaned forward and prodded Naruto in the chest with one thick finger. "What's the problem, boy? She's a nice girl, isn't she? What could possibly be stopping you?"

Naruto's mouth worked soundlessly, flapping open and shut like a goldfish as he tried to find the right words refute Jiraiya's accusation... and then realised he didn't have any beyond more meaningless iterations of "No I'm not falling for her". What was stopping him? Was there some reason he didn't want to believe he might be in love with Hinata? She was a nice girl, he'd acknowledged last night that any guy would be happy to have her as his girlfriend, so... what was troubling him? He'd never had any problems being open about his feelings for Sakura.

But maybe... maybe that's it exactly, he pondered. Maybe I... if the pervert hermit is right about love... and what I felt for Sakura-chan was just a "dumb crush"... I'm daunted by the prospect of real love as he described it? I'm reluctant to... open myself so fully to another person, placing all my faith and trust in them, like he did to Tsunade?

Am I worried that, if I go that far, she might... reject me...?

He frowned. Jiraiya was watching him expectantly, but Naruto ignored him. I... care about Hinata, I'm sure about that, and I know she cares about me. Could it actually be that I... do love her? He flushed as he thought back to the last thing she'd said to him on that night, right before he'd almost kissed her: "...what I was most afraid of was the thought of losing you, Naruto-kun." The thought gave him a warm feeling inside. But the feeling was immediately followed by a shadow of the pain that had stabbed into him when Hinata had fled from him in a panic. If she doesn't feel the same way, if I... drove her away, I... don't know if-

"You're not afraid are you, boy?" Jiraiya accused him.

It was like a lightning jutsu being shot into his spine. "Afraid?!" he growled at Jiraiya, affronted. "Who's 'afraid'? I'm not afraid of anything!"

"Oh really?" the old man challenged him. "Not even of a pretty girl?"

"No way!" Naruto snapped. "I'm-" He stopped as he heard the words he was saying, stopped and thought about them. Is... that really all it is? I'm just in denial because I'm afraid? I've stared down Orochimaru, Gaara, the Kyuubi itself, and I'm too afraid of my own feelings to face up to a single girl, a girl I care about? Jiraiya sat back on the log with a small, self-satisfied smile on his face as he watched Naruto thinking.

So what am I afraid of doing, exactly? Letting Hinata know... that I like her? Can I do that? He set his jaw, eyeing Jiraiya suspiciously. "OK then," he said. "What do you think I should do?"

"Why, talk to her, boy, of course!" Jiraiya exclaimed, dramatically spreading his arms wide. "Let her know how you feel, and give her a chance to reply in kind! Don't you want to hear her tell you that she feels the same way you do? The only way you will is if you talk to her!"

Now that was a thought. For all she'd occupied his thoughts lately, Naruto hadn't even dared to try and imagine Hinata as his girlfriend before now. He spun a quick scenario, picturing her in his mind's eye as she had been when sitting beside him that night in the desert, a blush colouring her cheeks as she looked into his eyes. "Naruto-kun... I... love you."

The blood rushed to his head and he reeled back like someone had socked him between the eyes, his face flushing crimson. From somewhere far away her heard Jiraiya snickering and tried to pull himself together again. "Wh-" He cleared his throat. "Well... what should I say to her?"

Jiraiya stopped sniggering. "Um..." That doesn't sound encouraging... "Well... I can't really tell you what exactly you have to say," he admitted reluctantly. "Tsunade may be the one and only woman I've ever really loved, but... I have flirted with a few hundred different women in my time and believe me, every one is different."

Naruto made a face. "Well you're a fat lot of help! Can you at least give me a starting line?"

Leaning forward, the older man rapped him between the eyes with his knuckles, provoking a short affronted exclamation. The wadded tissue dropped out of his nose as he jerked his head back, but fortunately his nosebleed had already stopped. "You're don't need a pickup line, boy, you already know her well enough!" he chided Naruto. "You don't want to flirt with her, or flatter her, or ask her if she's going to be free tonight! It doesn't really matter what you say as long as, by the time you're finished, you've let her know how you feel about her!" He signed resignedly. "Look, just tell her you need to talk to her. Then you just have to not chicken out and tell her you love her!"

The boy stared at him. "R-really? That's it? I... I just have to do... that?"

Jiraiya rolled his eyes. "Well fine, if the 'L-word' is too much for you to get past your lips then you can just tell her, oh I dunno, that you care about her a real lot, or that she's special to you, if that's easier to say. She should get the gist of what you mean and then, well, you just have to hope for the best."

With that being apparently all he had to offer, Naruto slumped down and brooded over his tea as he digested Jiraiya's advice. Just talk to her... huh? That... doesn't sound too hard when you put it like that. I've talked to her a lot of times. Jiraiya watched him impatiently. "You know, brat," he put in, "from what I've been able to observe, I think you're in pretty good standing with the little Hyuuga." He took another gulp of his tea. "And look, just by discussing it like this, you've already gotten over your denial."

Naruto's eyes went wide as the implications of what Jiraiya said sank in. He hadn't even noticed the way the conversation had steered him from confusion to acceptance in a matter of minutes. Oh... so I guess it's true then. I am in love with Hinata. The realisation left him feeling strangely calm, but he could feel a burning glow within him. I'm in love with her. "Oh... OK..." he said vaguely, relishing the soothing warmth. "So, I'll talk to Hinata-"

"Maybe you should put it off for now, Naruto," Kakashi cut in unexpectedly. Naruto blinked in surprise. "I'm happy for you, but maybe it'd be more convenient to avoid any potential melodramas until we get back to the Fortress at least? We should be back there by tomorrow, as long as you don't have too many more of these little 'accidents'."

The observation made him flush red. It was hard to deny that his teacher had a point. It had been his distraction that had caused his embarrassing collision with the tree earlier, and when he thought about what kind of "melodramas" might happen when he finally decided to own up to Hinata... well, he only had to recall her slender form vanishing into the dark of the desert night. Jiraiya nodded. "Good idea. There's no need to rush things, boy, just put it on the shelf and try to treat her naturally for now. It'll give you some more time to think, get used to the idea, build up your nerve." Unexpectedly, the big man gave a mournful sigh. "I could do with some more time to think myself. We'll be back home tomorrow and I still don't know what I'm going to say to Tsunade to keep her from leaving us in the lurch again as soon as we get there."

"Wha-why would she leave us?" Naruto asked, perplexed. "I thought you said she was your, uh, your friend and teammate?"

Now Jiraiya began to look outright miserable. "I told you about Nawaki and Dan, remember? They both died fighting for Konoha. I think there might have been more to it than that, but... Tsunade hated the village after that. Even though they'd died fighting to protect it, she couldn't accept just how meaningless their deaths had been. That's why she abandoned Konoha near the end of the Second Great Ninja War. No-one had the heart to try and stop her, and in truth she'd been compromised as a shinobi anyway." He grimaced. "When Dan had died, she'd been left with his blood all over her as she desperately tried to save him. Now she can't even see blood without completely freaking out. She couldn't fight. She couldn't even work properly as a medic-nin. So Sarutobi-sensei released her on compassionate grounds and she was left to go where she wanted." He sighed again. "And since then, she's spent twenty years roaming the world, wasting money on gambling and sake. I think she gets living money working as a wandering doctor, because she's still the world's best physician as long as it doesn't involve blood or surgery, but she's such a terrible gambler that it vanishes again immediately. She'd probably have starved to death by now without Shizune to look after her. She's not happy at all, but it's all she can think to do."

If Naruto had been sympathetic before, now he almost felt like crying. "Oh wow..." he said, struggling to find the right words to say. The only thing he could come up with was the same thought he'd had before. "That's... really sad." That wasn't even nearly an adequate response, but it was the best he could do. "Uh... is there anything I can do?

The older man barked out a bitter laugh. "Hah! Not likely, boy. I tried everything I could think of to change her mind back when she was leaving Konoha- begging, pleading, cajoling, reasoning, arguing, bargaining, guilt-tripping, everything short of outright threatening her. It'd almost ruined our friendship altogether by the time I'd finally conceded that I couldn't stop her any more than I could stop Orochimaru and I had to just wish her good luck..." He sighed mournfully again. "She just hates Konoha and everything it stands for."

"Then," Naruto wondered aloud, "why did she come back with you...?"

The question seemed to catch Jiraiya off-guard. "Eh? Uh... huh, now that you mention it..." He scratched his white-maned head. "I guess... I dunno. Basic human compassion?" He glanced over at Kakashi, who was sitting on a rock savouring his tea with his single eye closed. "Do you have any idea, Kakashi?"

Without opening his eye, the jounin took another sip. "Nope, but the girls are coming back now."

The unexpected observation made Naruto jump like he'd been stung. Looking around, he spotted Sakura and Hinata walking towards them through the trees and his heart started racing again, but he fought it down. Keep it cool, Uzumaki Naruto, you've already decided what you're gonna do. Just treat her like normal until you get back home. And remember, you're only nervous because you like her. Taking a deep breath, he smiled and waved cheerfully to the approaching girls. Sakura waved back enthusiastically and even Hinata replied with a hesitant shake of her hand.

Sakura lowered herself down onto the log bench beside Naruto, on the opposite side from Jiraiya. "Ah, that was a nice break," she sighed. "I feel much better now- although I'm still looking forward to a proper hot bath." She glanced sideways at her teammate. "How are you feeling, Naruto? Doing any better?"

Naruto look at her in confusion for a second until he remembered the initial reason their group had stopped in the first place. "Eh? Oh, yeah, yeah, feeling a lot better." Actually, the moment he'd been reminded of it, the throbbing ache came storming back as if it had just been hiding behind a tree. He groped for the damp cloth he'd been pressing to his face earlier, which he'd discarded beside him when Jiraiya had started to talk about Tsunade. "Er, how am I looking now?"

The cherry-haired girl giggled. "Oh I don't know… what do you think, Hinata?" she said coyly, turning to the other girl who was hovering around behind her.

Naruto's eyes reflexively followed the motion and inevitably met Hinata's pale ones. The girl had briefly frozen at being put on the spot and Naruto felt a brief knot in his gut, but with a surge of effort he ignored it and grinned at her goofily. She smiled shyly in response. "Um, you aren't looking too bad, Naruto-kun. Your nose is a bit red and you have a bruise on your forehead, but you're otherwise fine." She came closer and offered him a flask. "Um, I filled my canteen at the stream. The water was very cool and refreshing, so… maybe you'd like to try using it on your face?"

He blinked, then took the proffered container gratefully "Aw, thanks Hinata!" She blushed slightly, but smiled back at him. Uncorking the top, he poured a small measure of the cool liquid over the cloth, lightly wrung it out, and pressed it back over his sore face. Almost instantly the pain was smothered by a wave of soothing cold and he gave a relieved sigh. "Ah, that's a lot better!" With the cloth covering his right eye, he missed seeing the approving smile Sakura gave to Hinata, or the triumphant smirk on Jiraiya's face.

oooOOOooo

When the group stopped later that evening, just within the borders of the Land of Fire, Jiraiya and Kakashi unexpectedly got all three of the genin in the party together for an impromptu lesson on fuuinjutsu- the art of seals.

"Now then," Jiraiya proclaimed, pacing back and forth in front of his three students like an academy lecturer. "What is the most basic and commonly-used form of seal available to a ninja?"

Sakura's hand shot up, the way it had countless times back when they'd been in school together. "An explosive tag, Jiraiya-sensei."

The form of address made the ninja master raise an eyebrow, but he nodded. "That's right. A simple seal inscribed on a paper scroll allows it to retain a charge of chakra which, once activated, builds on itself and accumulates until it explodes violently. Now, what's the most advanced form of seal you can think of?"

Sakura's hand was half-way up again, when she hesitated and lowered it. Naruto scratched his cheek as he furrowed his brow, trying to come up with an answer. Man, I don't know anything about seals. He snuck a quick glance at Hinata where she was sitting to his right, hoping for inspiration, but the Hyuuga girl was staring at the ground morosely, one hand brushing unconsciously against her bottom lip. Wonder what's bothering her? He looked across at Sakura sitting on the other side, wondering why she hadn't offered an answer yet, only to find her looking at him awkwardly. Or Sakura-chan?

After several awkward seconds, Sakura sighed in resignation and slowly raised her hand. "I don't know what it's called," she said, "but… whatever the seal is that imprisons the Kyuubi within Naruto?"

The demon fox's host slapped his palm against his forehead in disbelief! Argh! How could I be dumb enough to forget that!? I even modified it myself when I made my contract with the Kyuubi! No matter how much stronger he became as a ninja, it seemed he'd never manage to be a good student.

Jiraiya nodded again. "Good example. The Eight Trigrams Seal placed on Naruto by the Fourth Hokage is an immensely powerful seal designed to imprison a chakra being within a living prison, while also allowing the host to draw on the power of their prisoner." He resumed his pacing back and forth in front of the trio. "Fuuinjutsu is commonly thought of as being mainly used as a lock, whether it's restraining a living being or securing a treasure or secret. And that's loosely correct. But there's much more to it than that, and most shinobi don't consider the full implications of what this is capable of. With the right seal, one can contain anything. Can you think of a few more exotic examples other than the ones Sakura already mentioned?"

This time it was Hinata who hesitantly raised her hand. "Um, the C-Caged Bird Seal the Hyuuga clan… used to put on members of the branch family. It was triggered by the death of the bearer and would seal away their Byakugan before vanishing, to make sure that nobody could steal the Byakugan from their corpse." She swallowed nervously. "M-members of the main family could also partly activate it to… to…" She trailed off and let her head drop onto her chest, looking utterly miserable. Naruto was hit by a flood of sympathy, feeling a sudden urge to put a comforting arm around her shoulder that took a considerable effort to resist.

Jiraiya looked grave. "Mmm, yes, I'd heard about that." He coughed awkwardly. "Can anyone think of another seal?"

Hurrying to change the subject, Sakura's hand shot up again. "The genjutsu seals concealing the entrance to the Hidden Fortress, Jiraiya-sensei? And the giant 'magic ceiling' one set into the grounds?"

"Very good!" Jiraiya agreed. "Those work by actually sealing a fairly complicated genjutsu within them and, if you can believe it, are triggered when looked at." He turned his eyes to Naruto. "How about you, boy? Can you think of a seal that contains something unusual?"

The sudden direct question caught him off-guard. Eh? What's he asking me for? Bad enough that he'd already missed the... what was it, the Eight Trigrams Seal? Yeah, that one, when Jiraiya had asked earlier, now he had to embarrass himself by failing to come up with another one? Hey, wait a sec… the Eight Trigrams Seal on my gut? So what about-? "The, uh, the Five... Elements Seal?" he suggested hesitantly.

"Bingo!" Jiraiya snapped his fingers as he pointed at Naruto. "The Five Elements Seal, or the Restrained variant I put on you, doesn't actually seal the Kyuubi, it seals the Eight Trigrams Seal itself. It seals a seal. So, imagine you lost the lid for your water bottle. The Five Elements Seal is like sticking a blob of wax in the opening to keep it from spilling."

This was interesting, and getting a question right for once gave Naruto a small buzz of satisfaction, but he was starting wonder when Jiraiya was going to come to a point, or preferably start teaching them some cool new techniques. "Um, OK, that's pretty cool. What can we do with fuuinjutsu then?"

The toad sage rolled his eyes contemptuously. "'What can we do with fuuinjutsu?' the kid says! I thought you were supposed to be the creative one, boy! Use your imagination for a second!" He snorted. "Are you not grasping what I'm saying here? Fuuinjutsu seals are written equivalent of the hand seals you use to mould your chakra when you use ninjitsu. You might as well ask 'what can we do with ninjitsu?'!"

Enlightenment dawned. "Oh!" Naruto exclaimed. "You mean we can, uh, stash ninjitsu inside written seals for later use?"

"Give the boy a prize!" Jiraiya proclaimed sarcastically. Regardless of the putdown, a grin spread across Naruto's face and his mind swam with the possibilities. "All you need is an appropriate seal for your purpose," Jiraiya continued. "Unfortunately, that's where things become a bit difficult." The grin faded. Damn. This is gonna involve a lot of study, isn't it?

"There are thousands of different seals out there already, and more are being created all the time. Most are keyed to an individual technique and are specific to that purpose alone, but sometimes there can be more than one that can do the same thing, and some can even be personalised." Jiraiya looked to his right where Kakashi was leaning against a tree. "Kakashi-kun, tell them about your own teacher's most famous technique."

The white-haired jounin folded his hands behind his head. "The 'Flying Thunder God Technique' Hiraishin no Jutsu, huh? Well, Minato-sensei didn't actually invent it, it was the Second Hokage who initially developed it, but sensei was the only other ninja I ever knew of who was ever able to master it. Odd thing was, Minato-sensei used a totally different seal from the Second, but the result was the same- he could fly around the battlefield so quickly that he was called the 'Yellow Flash'. He almost single-handedly saved Konoha with it during the 3rd Great War. I even tried to replicate it myself once or twice, but-" He sighed resignedly. "-I could never work it out. The technique is simple, but his seal simply didn't work for me, and I could never find one that did."

Naruto listened in awe. Man, the Fourth was even more incredible than I'd heard! "Wow!" he said aloud. "Do you think I can try and learn it?"

"One thing at a time, Naruto," Kakashi warned him. "First you need to finish mastering the Rasengan you're already learning. We'll do some more work on that after this."

The boy deflated. "Oh, yeah... that. Forgot about that." He rallied. "Well I can still learn to use these seal techniques, can't I?"

"Of course you can, boy," Jiraiya said confidently. "All you need to make your own is a good memory for how the various seal components combine, and a steady hand for calligraphy. You can do that, can't you?"

He watched Naruto's face fall and his own smile slipped a bit. "Oh, so... not your strong point, then?" He rolled his eyes and sighed. "Well how about you two girls, then? Either of you any good at calligraphy?"

Sakura made a face and waggled her hand in the air in a "so-so" gesture, but Hinata nodded timidly. "Um, I think I'm... pretty good at it, Jiraiya-sama. I was taught it as a child."

"The benefits of a classical education." Jiraiya nodded approvingly. "Maybe you can help the boy in your spare time?"

Hinata nodded wordlessly. Naruto braced himself, but found to his surprise that the thought didn't make his heart race or his palms sweat as much as he'd been fearing. In fact, he simply found himself looking forward to the idea of practicing his seal-writing with Hinata. He supposed that counted as progress of a sort.

"Now!" The three students jumped slightly as Jiraiya suddenly clapped his hands together. "There's not a great deal of practice we can have you do out here, but just for starters I want you to try and memorise this." He slipped a small scroll out of a hidden pocket somewhere in his clothes and unrolled it to reveal a string of seals on the parchment. Laying it flat on the ground, he tapped the centre of the third sigil down the line with one finger. There was a brief puff of smoke which cleared to reveal a small ceramic bottle, which he scooped up, uncorked, and took a short swig from. "Mmm. Nice. Drink, Kakashi? I can get you a cup if you want."

Naruto's teacher waved the bottle away and Jiraiya shrugged. "Suit yourself. So anyway-" He agilely rolled the scroll up again and tossed it to Naruto. "-that's a basic storage scroll. Try and memorise that seal I got this out of, maybe practice drawing it in the dirt. Don't mess with the other ones there, I don't want you going through my personal belongings, OK?" Jiraiya took another sip from the sake bottle as Naruto unrolled the scroll again, Hinata and Sakura leaning in closer on either of him to study the seals inscribed there. He smiled. "Advanced training starts right here, kids. It's time to see if you have what it takes to grasp some of the deeper subtleties of ninjitsu. Be thankful."

oooOOOooo

It was with considerable relief that their party finally arrived at the hidden underground entrance to the Hidden Fortress of the Senju late the next afternoon, almost two weeks after they'd departed. When the rocky sides of the towering caldera that concealed their base finally came into view through the trees, Naruto felt a small surge of warmth within his chest. It may not have been Konoha, but the Fortress was already starting to embed itself in his consciousness as "home". Sakura also seemed to be getting increasingly antsy as they drew closer, bubbling with barely-concealed anticipation

Once they'd passed through the hidden underground passage and Jiraiya had given their passcode at the great reinforced gates, they finally emerged from the entrance set high in the wall of the caldera, looking down at the grounds of the Fortress below. The place had changed considerably since the last time Naruto had seen it. The small city of tents that had been scattered around the caldera floor to house the host of civilian refugees was completely gone and there were very few people down there, leaving the vast expanse looking quite empty. But at the same time, the inner cliff walls of the caldera had come alive with activity. Scaffolding had been erected in several places and shinobi could be seen clambering up and down the steep face and moving within the openings that had been cut into the stone, revealing the network of passages that laced the interior of the cliffs. A considerable amount of construction work was going on all around the inner wall of the fortress, beginning to change it from a tiny hideaway to a mountain village.

The group descended the steps from the cave mouth, the genin staring about themselves in astonishment. "Wow," Sakura said, voicing the thoughts all three of them shared. "They're really transforming this place."

Jiraiya nodded absently. "Hmm, yes. Before we left, I'd discussed the need to expand the internal structures dug into the fortress walls in order to properly house all our people on a permanent basis. When this place was built, Konoha didn't even exist, so it wasn't meant to be a full-time residence- just a hideaway for the Senju Clan, with a bit of extra space in case they ever needed to bring allies to shelter with them." He scratched his head. "I didn't expect Shizune to have moved things along this far already, though. Wonder if she felt she had something to prove?"

Despite the busywork happening around the walls, the floor of the caldera was mostly empty apart from a small cluster of people over on the training grounds to their right, with no-one waiting to meet them. By the time the group finally stepped off the bottom of the stone stairs onto the packed earth of the Fortress grounds, Sakura was practically bouncing up and down on her toes with impatience. "Excuse me, Kakashi-sensei," she finally burst out. "Now that we're home, is it alright if I be excused? I want to see how my parents are doing." Her father had already been released from the medical wing before they'd even departed for Suna more than a week ago, but her parents still didn't really know what they would be doing in the Fortress- while they were guaranteed a place there as long as their daughter remained an active shinobi, options for civilian employment were thin in a hidden ninja stronghold. Sakura had confided her concerns about her parents to Naruto and Keiji while they were on their way to Suna and they clearly hadn't subsided in the time since she'd last seen them.

Their teacher raised his eyebrow casually, then nodded. "Alright, Sakura, we don't need you for anything else at the moment. You can go." The pink-haired girl bobbed a quick bow and turned to rush off, almost skipping despite her road fatigue. "I'll see you tomorrow morning in front of Central Command," Kakashi called after he as she departed. Naruto watched her go with a twinge of envy. For what felt like the millionth time he pondered how nice it must be to have family to worry about.

"You two can run along as well." Kakashi added, almost offhandedly. "Hinata, you might want to look for your team. Naruto, you're free for now, but you be at Central Command tomorrow as well, and tell Keiji too if you see him." Jiraiya gave the two of them a nod, and he and Kakashi walked past them towards the headquarters, leaving Naruto and Hinata standing together.

He cast a sidelong glance at her and blushed when her eyes met his, immediately pinking her cheeks in return. As soon as the two of them were left on their own again, the awkwardness he'd been able to stave off for over a day immediately dropped back onto his head like an carelessly-flipped flapjack. "Uh..." he started hesitantly, "what do you think we, uh, should do now, Hinata?"

The girl looked pensive. "Um... I guess we should look for Guy-sensei. It's possible Keiji-san would be with him." She looked around, flicking her eyes across everything except Naruto. "I wonder where he could be?"

Naruto scratched his head. "Eh, the Fortress is a pretty big place. I guess he could be anywhere." He lowered his hand. "Oh wait, he's over there."

Hinata turned around to follow Naruto's gaze. Among the small group of shinobi standing on the Fortress' training ground, the unmistakable basin hair cut of Might Guy stood out above the crowd, his attention on something concealed by their bodies. The two kids ambled over to join him, ducking through the mixed group of adults and children to shuffle their way to the front.

They found themselves witness to an intense training session. Keiji was standing in the middle of a large round area, delineated by a circle of rope on the ground like a sumo ring. His back was to Naruto and Hinata and he had his hands raised protectively on either side of his body. Lee and Tenten stalked predatorily around the outskirts of the ring, keeping Keiji between them. Guy silently nodded to Tenten, who immediately stamped her foot twice on the ground and launched herself towards Keiji's right side, fist raised. Naruto's teammate spun to face her in response, arms moving into a defensive position, but to Naruto's surprise he turned too far, not facing his attacker head on and rendering his defences worthless. Tenten's blow struck him on the shoulder, sending him crashing to the dusty ground.

The reason for his failure was immediately apparent. Keiji's Konoha protector, which he normally wore on his forehead in the normal fashion, had been pulled down to cover his eyes, completely blinding him. The crowd sighed in sympathy as Tenten grasped Keiji's flailing arm by the wrist and pulled him wearily back to his feet again. The tall boy's clothes were covered in dirt and his face was marked with bruises, suggesting this treatment had been going on for a while already.

Despite Keiji's tumble, Guy nodded approvingly. "Good, Keiji-kun. You're getting better." If that was what Guy considered 'better', Naruto wondered how bad he'd been before. The jounin raised a massive eyebrow in surprise. "Oh, and it looks like now would be a good time to take a break, too! Welcome back, Hinata, Naruto-kun!"

All eyes turned towards them, including Keiji's huge hazel ones as he tugged his protector back up into place on his forehead. Naruto rubbed the back of his head awkwardly. "Heheh... uh, yeah we're back," he announced sheepishly. "How's everything going?"

"Oh, excellently, Naruto-kun!" Guy boomed, giving an enthusiastic thumbs up. "Keiji-kun has made great progress since we started blind-fighting training!" The tall boy looked proud at the jounin's unrestrained praise. "But if you're back then that means Jiraiya-sama and Kakashi are back too," he continued. "So as I said, we'll call it a day here. Hinata, your teammates have been looking forward to talking to you again."

Seeing that the training was over, the crowd of spectators began to drift apart. With a sigh of relief, Keiji walked across to meet Naruto, rubbing his arm where Tenten had struck him. "Good to see you again Naruto, Hinata-san," he greeted his friend, acknowledging the girl with a polite nod.

"Keiji-san," she returned. "It's good to see you again too." Stepping away from Naruto's side, she took a few steps past Keiji towards her team, then looked briefly back at him. "Bye, Naruto-kun."

Even though she wasn't actually going anywhere, the sentiment struck a chord of melancholy in Naruto as he watched her walk away. Keiji bowed formally to Guy to mark the conclusion of his lesson, waved goodbye to Lee and Tenten, and turned back to his friend. "So, are you feeling better now, Naruto?"

Naruto grinned and thumped his chest. "I'm completely back to 100%," he boasted. "Ready to get right back to work, which," he added, "Kakashi-sensei is apparently arranging for us to do tomorrow morning."

The two friends started to walk around the edge of the crater floor away from the training ground, not heading anywhere in particular. "That's some pretty intense training you're doing there, Keiji," Naruto observed. "Have you been at it long?"

"Actually yeah, we started training on the trip back from Suna," the older boy said. "It's really ramped up quickly, too. When we first started out, I was doing it on the surface of a lake, so I could hear Tenten and Lee's feet splash with every step. Then Guy-sensei put a ring of gravel around the edge for them to walk on. Now I'm up to just getting those two stamps to warn me before they attack."

Naruto was impressed. "Wow, so you must be almost done by now!"

"Hah!" Keiji laughed. "Not even close! This is just to sharpen my non-visual senses enough to sense attackers coming. The blows are mainly to encourage me to trust those senses. I haven't even started to learn to properly fight like this yet." He shrugged. "Guy-sensei doesn't mess around. I'm in for the long haul."

Naruto didn't know how to respond to that. "Well, uh..." he mumbled vaguely. "...good luck, I guess? You'll still be working with me and Sakura-chan though, won't you?"

"Don't worry about that," Keiji reassured him, winking at him with one large hazel eye. "It'll just be in my spare time. Team 7 will be back together from now on."

"Right on!" Naruto agreed. "So..." A sudden stomach gurgle interrupted his train of thought and he clutched his abdomen as Keiji looked on in amusement. "Uh, up for a bowl of ramen?"

"Whenever you are, Naruto," the other boy acceded graciously. "Any time you are."

oooOOOooo

Flinging aside the curtain that hung across the doorway, Jiraiya strode into the small stone office that formed the heart of the Fortress of the Senju, beaming from ear to ear. "We're back!" he announced cheerfully as Kakashi entered behind him, rolling his eye.

Seated behind a plain wooden desk piled high with stacks of paper, the slight form of Shizune looked up in shock, which rapidly became delight. "Jiraiya-sama! You're back?"

"Eh?" another woman's voice spoke from in front a large cupboard, her body obscured behind the open door. It wasn't Tsunade. A head of long, luxuriant black hair leaned back past the door to get a look at the returnees, and Yuuhi Kurenai's crimson eyes widened. "Oh, Jiraiya-sama, Kakashi! It's good to see you again."

"Kurenai-chan!" Jiraiya exclaimed happily. "You're feeling all better now?"

The beautiful kunoichi smiled. "Mm-hmm. Thanks to Tsunade-sama, I've been up and about for several days now, so I've been helping Shizune-san out in the meantime."

"That's great!" Jiraiya enthused, although he seemed a little distracted. "But, um, speaking of Tsunade, do you know where she is?"

As soon as he saw the shamefaced look on Shizune's face he realised something was wrong. "Um, I'm sorry, Jiraiya-sama," the young woman said, looking miserable. "I'm afraid... she's gone. For now."

A chill ran down Jiraiya's spine. "Gone? Gone where? Why?"

Shizune waved her hands frantically. "Oh no, don't worry Jiraiya-sama, she's only gone to Otafuku Gai! She said she'd done enough here now that all the life-and-death cases in the hospital had stabilised and she needed to get some gambling done." She blushed. "Um, I'm sorry, Jiraiya-sama."

"What are you sorry for, Shizune-chan?" the old man said, sounding tired. "It's not your fault that your master is a chronically-depressed cynic with a serious gambling problem."

"I wouldn't say she has a gambling problem, Jiraiya-sama," Shizune said awkwardly. "It's just that-"

"Her problem, Shizune-chan, is that she's not any good at it!" Jiraiya cut her off sharply. "Every time I hear the rumours -and believe me, the rumours spread far and wide- about the 'Legendary Sucker', I die a little more inside." He sighed miserably. "I wish she could come up with something to do with her life other than just wasting it. I don't imagine you managed to come up with anything in the years since you left, Shizune?"

In response to his plaintive look, the young woman could only look sad. "I'm sorry, Jiraya-sama. It's not that she couldn't find anything else to do with her life other than gamble, it's just that she didn't want to any more. You know how stubborn she is. She just decided that she was going to be aimless and miserable for the rest of her life, so she might as well just gamble it away. The only thing she put any effort into was looking after me."

Jiraiya managed to put on a wry half-smile. "Well at least that's one thing she did really well." The young woman smiled bashfully in return. "Did she say when she'd be back again?"

Shizune shrugged helplessly. "She said it'd be either tonight or tomorrow morning, Jiraiya-sama. "I can't say for certain, I'm afraid."

Massaging his temples with his fingers, Jiraiya settled himself into one of the chairs under the desk, opposite Shizune. Kakashi took the seat beside him and Kurenai brought over a pitcher of water and glasses before joining them. "Alright then," Jiraiya sighed. "So aside from Tsunade taking some time off, how has everything else been going?"

"Oh, things have been going excellently, even if I do say so myself," Shizune proclaimed with sudden cheer. "Now that we've gotten the population of the Fortress down to only a few hundred people, I managed to establish a regular supply train that will allow us to keep everyone in the Fortress fed without any potential enemies finding our location. And as you probably saw on your way in, we started expanding the interior walls to incorporate individual apartments for people to live in on a more permanent basis. The first block should be habitable in about two days. Finally, I was just working with Kurenai-san to look into reestablishing Konoha's ability to provide ninja services to the Country of Fire again."

"That's right," confirmed Kurenai, looking proud of herself. "We can't sustain this fortress on love and dreams, we need to find a way to start bringing in money to keep our supplies coming in. My suggestion was that we set up offices in the nearby towns where people can bring requests to us-"

Kurenai was cut off suddenly as the curtain over the door swished back again. Shizune's eyes went wide. "Eh? Whassat? That you again, Ji-Jiraiya?" a husky female voice slurred. Jiraiya, Kakashi and Kurenai turned in their seats to see Tsunade sweeping towards them like an alcohol-laced hurricane.

Jiraiya hastily stood up as the tipsy woman bore down on him. "Tsunade! We were just wondering when you'd be back! How did-GUH!" The breath was squeezed from his body as Tsunade unexpectedly threw herself at him and glomped him hard enough to almost snap him in half.

"Aw, I'm sooo glad you're back," she moaned as her old friend wheezed for air. "It's been sooo boring waiting around here while you been gulla... gallavin... golli... buggerin' around in Suna." Shizune hurriedly rushed around the desk to try and extract Jiraiya from her master's drunken grasp before he expired. Tsunade hung on like a limpet "An-anyway iss... iss good yer back" she mumbled.

There was a puff of smoke and Tsunade staggered forward as her arms closed around the considerably-slimmer form of Hatake Kakashi, making him yelp in surprise. Sitting in the chair the startled jounin had just been occupying, Jiraiya took several deep breaths as Tsunade casually shoved the unwilling substitute aside and collapsed bonelessly into the one beside him. "H-how did you even find your way back here in that state, Tsunade?" he asked, ignoring the dirty look Kakashi was giving him. "And how did you get through the door?"

"Pffft." The buxom blonde blew a childish raspberry at him. "You think a coupla, coupla drinks is enough for me to ferget a simple passwup... password like three cherry seven nine green earth one fire? Thass easy-peasy."

Jiraiya coughed awkwardly. "Quite. Um, how many drinks did you have anyway?"

"Eh." Tsunade flipped a dismissive hand. "I lost count after th'first dozen or so. Took some with me ta drink on th'way back here too. By th'way, I'm broke. Len' me some cash, Jiraiya?" She made goo-goo eyes at him while Kurenai silently cracked up with laughter behind her. "C'mon, pretty pleeeeease?"

Face crimson with embarrassment, Shizune tried to lift the older woman from her chair. "Tsunade-sama, maybe we should get you into bed. You must be tired."

Tsunade allowed her apprentice to sling her arm across her shoulder and lead her towards the door again. "Yeah, yeah, OK Shizune. I, I could do with a bit of sleep. 'specially since now dat Jiraiya's back we're leaving tomorrow."

Shizune stopped dead, wearing a look of shock. "What? Tsunade-sama we can't! You can't mean that. They still need-"

"Don' argue with me, Shizune," Tsunade said, and despite her slurred speech, her tone brooked no argument. "I toldja we wouldn't stay here for long, n' we been here too long already. We done here." She squeezed Shizune's shoulder. "C'mon, less go."

Casting an agonised look back over her shoulder at the others, Shizune led her master out of the room. Jiraiya slumped miserably in his chair, glancing at the other two. Kakashi's expression was typically unreadable behind his mask, while Kurenai looked intensely perturbed. The old ninja sighed. "Damn."

oooOOOooo

Emerging from the barracks building the next morning, Naruto stretched his arms wide to take in the morning sun. Sleeping on a bunk in the large wooden building together with a couple of dozen other men was a change after a week sleeping alone in his tent on the road, but he'd been tired enough to get a full night's sleep despite the varying snores echoing around him. Still, he hoped he'd be assigned a proper room of his own once the residential construction was complete.

Keiji stumbled out behind him, bleary-eyed and struggling with the zipper of his jacket. Naruto grinned at him mischievously. "You're off to a slow start this morning, Keiji."

His friend yawned and gave him a reproachful look. "Well I didn't sleep that well last night. It's been a week since I had to share a tent with you, Naruto-kun, so I'd forgotten how bad your snoring can be."

The boy's grin slipped a bit. "Eheh... uh, sorry about that, Keiji. Would you prefer the top bunk from now on?"

"No, no, it's fine, Naruto-kun," Keiji said graciously. "I know how excited you were about calling dibs on the top bunk, so you can keep it. I'll just have to get used to you again."

The two boys strolled across the Fortress' grounds together, heading for the entrance to Central Command. Sakura, already waiting for them beside the stone archway, waved as they approached. "Hey Naruto! Keiji-kun!" she called out to them.

Keiji, who hadn't seen his teammate after their group had returned the previous day, waved back with a smile. "How are you, Sakura-san?" he asked as he and Naruto reached her.

"I'm fine, Keiji-kun," she answered. "Sorry I didn't see you yesterday, I had to go see how my parents were doing. Dad's found a job working in supplies, and Mom is helping out at the mess hall, so they're doing better than they were when we left."

"That's great, Sakura-chan!" Naruto enthused. He looked at the doorway to their left. "Has Kakashi-sensei shown up yet?"

"He's in there," Sakura nodded at the doorway. Her face looked grave. "Seems to be some trouble going on in there."

Naruto gave her a curious look. "What kind of 'trouble', Sakura-chan?"

Before the girl could answer, a loud voice echoed from out of the doorway. Although the three of them couldn't make out what it was saying, it was getting closer, followed by a babble of other voices. After a few moments, Tsunade stomped down the stairs that led up to Central Command and stormed out past the genin, Jiraiya in desperate pursuit, with Shizune and Kakashi training along disconsolately behind them. The children heard Jiraiya get as far as "Tsunade, can you just listen to me for-" before the busty blonde rounded on him furiously.

"No, Jiraiya, I will not just listen to you!" she snapped. "I told you the first time we met up that I was coming here under sufferance. I've stayed far, far longer than I ever wanted to out of respect for our friendship, because Shizune wanted to help and, yes I admit it, because there were people here only I could help, but I've done as much as I can and now I want to leave!" She tossed her head angrily, her twin blonde tails whipping from side to side. "I don't even know why you're persisting with this ridiculous charade anyway. Konoha is dead! The village is a smoking ruin, Sarutobi-sensei -may he rest in peace- is gone, and you barely have enough shinobi left to raid a larder! You should all just split up, go your own way, and look for something else to do with your lives."

Jiraiya looked affronted, but managed to keep his tone level. "You know we can't do that, Tsunade. As long as we're alive, the Will of Fire that dwells in all of us lives on, and-"

"Oh, the Will of Fire!" Tsunade scoffed. "That ridiculous philosophy that claimed Konoha stood for something more than killing for whatever cause you were being paid to kill for!" She spat on the ground. "That's what I think of the Will of Fire!"

"HEY!"

Like a small, angry tempest, Naruto stormed up to the blonde woman, steam practically blowing from his ears. Tsunade stared at him in bafflement as he pulled up short in front of her and shook his finger threateningly under her nose. "How dare you talk that way, you big-uddered blonde cow!" he yelled. Tsunade's bemused expression darkened, but Naruto wasn't done by a long shot. "The ninjas of Konoha fought and died for it, its people and the Will of Fire," he raged, "how dare you suggest the survivors just give up and move on!"

A slender white arm lashed out and a single long, elegant finger flicked him in the chest. Naruto flew back like he'd been kicked by a horse and would have tumbled head over heels if he hadn't been caught by Sakura and Keiji, who had been hurrying up behind their rash teammate. Tsunade stared down at him coldly as he struggled back to his feet. "Shut up, you stupid child. All those people who died at Konoha? They died for nothing. That's what being a ninja is, brat- you fight for nothing and die a pointless death. And I won't be told otherwise by a snot-nosed child barely old enough to go to the toilet at night unaccompanied."

If Naruto had been angry before, now he was incandescent. "Oh, is that what you think?!" he bellowed, striding forward and shrugging off his teammates' desperate attempts to pull him back. "Well I don't give a damn if you were one of the 'Legendary Three Ninjas' or whatever, but the crap you're talking is piled so high they can smell it in Suna! There's hundreds of people alive today who'd be dead if the ninjas of Konoha hadn't fought to the death. Hundreds of us died to keep the Will of Fire alive. Their deaths will only be for nothing if we do give up!" He nailed the fuming woman with a steely glare, laced with contempt. "It's only because you gave up that Nawaki and Dan died for nothing!"

The air froze solid. Behind Tsunade, Jiraiya's expression couldn't have been more horrified if Naruto had just crudely propositioned Tsunade for an obscene sexual act. Nobody else moved a muscle. Tsunade's expression looked like it had been carved from granite- and it resembled a fierce and ugly oni statue that Naruto had once seen out the front of a temple. He practically heard the stone grinding as she slowly swiveled her head around to glare at her old teammate. "Jiraiya. What did you tell him about me?" Her voice was as flat and toneless as a fizzing fuse.

The other man swallowed nervously. "Uh... I... it just came up in conversation, uh, he wanted to know about the Legendary Three and, uh, y'know..."

"Forget about him!" Naruto interrupted defiantly, drawing Tsunade's glare back onto himself again. "'Legendary Three of Konoha'? Hah!" His lip curled in contempt. "You expect me to believe a spineless quitter like you could be a legendary ninja? I bet I could take you myself! As soon as I hit you once you'd just sit down and start crying!"

Tsunade's steadily-reddening face almost resembled a plum. "Oh you think so do you, you little turd? A little genin brat like you couldn't even lay a finger on me, let alone land a blow!"

"Oh yeah? How much you wanna bet?" Naruto challenged her boldly.

The woman blinked in surprise, then smiled grimly. "Oh, you want to make a wager on it, huh? It's been a while since I had a big win. Well alright then, how about this: once I beat you, you become my servant for the rest of your life and come with me when I leave, which will be right away. Shizune could use someone to do all the menial tasks for her. You'll never come back here or see your teammates again."

"Tsunade-sama?" Shizune asked in shock.

"Tsunade, you can't-" Jiraiya started, aghast.

"Tsunade-sama, please-" Kakashi said.

"Naruto, what are you-?" Sakura shouted in horror.

"Naruto-kun, don't-" was all Keiji managed to get out.

"You're on!" Naruto shouted triumphantly, cutting them all off. "And when I beat you, you're not going anywhere! You stay here and join us properly, to make up for all the time you wasted since you abandoned Konoha."

Tsunade's eyebrow twitched, but her smile didn't fade; it only grew nastier. "Deal. I'm going to have years to make you regret pissing me off, brat."

oooOOOooo

Word of what was happening circulated quickly. A sizable crowd was gathering around the two of them as they took up their places on the Fortress' practice ground. Naruto saw a host of familiar faces watching from the mass of people- Iruka, Konohamaru and his two little friends, Hinata's former jounin teacher, even old man Teuchi and Ayame. Guy's team had joined the crowd as well, standing next to Kakashi, Sakura and Keiji. Hinata looked at him and when their eyes met Naruto was shocked at the fearful expression on her face.

The sudden realisation that he'd never see her again if he lost this fight struck him like a blow. He'd never see any of them again- not her, not Sakura and Keiji, not Kakashi, not Iruka, none of them, unless Tsunade had a change of heart and decided to come back to visit. He'd never even get the chance to tell Hinata how he felt about her.

He grinned wolfishly. Well in that case I have even more reason to win!

"So we've already established the stakes," Tsunade called out from the opposite end of the sparring area as she shrugged off her green haori coat and tossed it to Shizune. "What are the conditions?"

He frowned. "What? Last one standing, what else?"

His opponent scoffed. "Are you kidding, brat? I'm already degrading myself enough by humouring you with this little game, there's no way I'm going to fight you seriously!" She held up her right hand in front of her, studying her elegant, red-painted nails. "How about this, then: I'll fight you with this hand behind my back. If you can force me to use it before I can make you give up or beat you senseless, you win. That seems about fair for a brat like you."

The patronising dismissal infuriated him all over again. "What?!" he shouted angrily. "No way! I-"

"Boy, shut up and take what you're offered!" an angry male voice bellowed. He jumped and turned around to find Jiraiya glaring kunais at him. "You're taking her so lightly that you're pissing me off by association!" Tsunade's old teammate growled. "Keep arguing with her and I'll knock you out myself!"

Fuming, Naruto turned back to Tsunade. "Deal," he said sullenly. "Anything else?"

"Oh, feeling hard-done by are we?" the busty kunoichi mocked him. "Alright then, how about this: no explosives, I don't want to have to waste time healing up any innocent bystanders you clumsily get caught in this before I leave. And no fox tricks from you. If I smell any demon chakra coming from you, you forfeit. Is that more agreeable to you?"

"Fine," Naruto shrugged. He'd already resolved that he'd never draw on the Kyuubi's power ever again after the scare in Suna and he didn't have any explosive tags on him anyway. "Let's get on with this."

Smiling patronisingly, Tsunade slowly folded her right arm behind her back, which had the interesting effect of making her thrust her chest forward even more than usual. "Well, let's see what you've got, brat."

Without another word, Naruto rushed straight at his opponent, fists raised. He leaped into the air, right arm drawn back to str-

Huh? What... happened...?

It took a few seconds for the pain sensations to reach his nerves, and even longer for Naruto to realise where he was. Somehow he'd gone from sailing through the air towards Tsunade to lying in a shallow indentation in the ground right in front of her. His head rang and two Tsunades wavered in front of his eyes as she smirked down at him. "What, are you done already, brat?" she asked him. "I only hit you once. Get up." Before he could do so, she reached down with her left hand, grabbed him by his blond spikes and lifted him right up off the ground, leaving him hanging in the air in front of her.

"Ow, ow, OW!" he yelped. It felt like his hair was being ripped out by the roots. He swiped at her with his fists, but his arms weren't long enough to reach her body, not even her outthrust bosom. "Put me down already, you-"

The tall woman tossed him lightly into the air then spun on her heel and unleashed a savage roundhouse kick. The blow struck him in the solar plexus, knocking every molecule of air from his lungs and sending him flying backwards like he'd been launched from a catapult. Ninjas in the crowd leaped aside as he tumbled past, kicking up a cloud of dust. A murmur went up from as Naruto climbed back up to his feet. Tsunade still hadn't moved a single step from her starting location. "Now are you done, brat?" she asked him. "Has it started to sink in yet that you've bitten off much more than you can chew, or do I need to slap you around a bit more?"

Naruto spat out a mouthful of dirt and growled. "I'm just getting started," he snapped, folding his fingers. "Kage bunshin no jutsu!" A dozen clones burst into existence around him, running around the boundary of the training ground to surround Tsunade on all sides.

Tsunade raised an eyebrow. "Interesting for a genin to be able to do that, but it'll take a lot more than that to impress me. Thirteen times nothing is still nothing, after all." She scratched her cheek with her free hand and gave an exaggerated yawn. "Well come on then, bring it."

With a massive yell, the clones converged from all sides. The first one into the fray vanished in an instant beneath the impact of Tsunade's high-heeled sandal, and before the smoke from its dispersion had even cleared the next four had already joined it. Her hand lashed out, plucked one of the eight remaining Narutos out of the air by his ankle and whirled him around her like a bludgeon, wiping out the remainder in the space of only a few seconds. She finished by smashing her impromptu weapon -the real Naruto- down on the ground, creating another genin-shaped depression beside the one left by her first attack of the fight. Idly wiping her hand off on her pants, she looked down on her fallen opponent with disdain. "Not even close, brat. Time for you to call it quits I think. Come on, I want to hit the road within the next twenty minutes."

Lying in the crater with his head swimming, Naruto dazedly began to wonder what he'd let himself in for. For some reason, he'd assumed that Tsunade would be weaker than Orochimaru had been, and now he was starting to realise this had been a mistake. Besides, he hadn't been able to beat Orochimaru either, even with the power of the Kyuubi, so why had he assumed he could take one of his contemporaries, even handicapping herself, without it?

He was starting to get a horrible sinking feeling in his gut that told him he might have made a serious mistake.

Then he grinned into the dirt. No, I'm not done for yet. All I have to do to win is make her use her right hand. While what she has to do it make me give up.

I know which one of us has the harder task.

Putting his hands on the ground, he started to push himself up- only for Tsunade's foot to stomp down on his back, smashing him back down to the ground again. "Enough already!" the woman snapped, frustration starting to tinge her voice. "Don't you know when you're beaten, brat?"

Spitting out more dirt, Naruto ignored the crushing sensation that felt like it was going to cave in his lungs and turned his head to glare up at his tormentor. "Sure I know when I'm beaten," he gritted out through his teeth, "but it's not yet. Because I'm still breathing!" With some effort he managed to bring his hands together again. "Kage bunshin no jutsu!" Three clones popped into existence, lunging at Tsunade ferociously. The instant's reprieve they bought him before their destruction gave him the opportunity to roll away and stumble back to his feet again, adopting a guard position as he faced down his opponent once again.

"Go, Naruto! You can do it!"

Naruto pricked up his ears as Sakura's voice floated out of the crowd behind him. It wasn't the only one. "Come on, Naruto-kun!" Hinata called out. Other voices began to join in from all around.

"You can do it, Naruto-kun!" Keiji.

"Narutoooo! Don't give up!" That sounds like Ayame-neechan!

"Fight on, Naruto-kun!" Lee's voice drew his eyes to the bowl-haired boy punching the air with excitement.

"Na-ru-to! Na-ru-to! Na-ru-to!" The high-pitched, piping voices of Konohamaru, Moegi and Udon.

"Go, Naruto! Go! Go!" A pretty young woman he recognised as Kiba's big sister.

Slowly more and more voices joined in, not only his friends and teammates but the other shinobi of Konoha and even the few remaining civilians. Both Naruto and Tsunade stared around in bewilderment at the circle of cheering spectators, all of them on the young genin's side. It seemed like almost the entire population of the Fortress of the Senju had turned out to gather around them by now. Despite the severity of the situation, Naruto found himself suddenly overwhelmed. All his life, these people and others like them had looked down on him and ignored him because of the monster sealed within him. Even after everything that had happened to Konoha, he'd still caught a few muttered comments and dark looks thrown his way. But now, everyone wanted him to win!

Grinning once again, he ignored the litany of aches wracking his body and studied his opponent. Tsunade was glaring at him again, now visibly angry. She's far faster and more powerful than I am. Way more experienced at taijutsu too. Is there anything I can use to my advantage? At least with one hand behind her back she can't use ninjutsu.

Hey, why does that remind me of something?

In a flash of clarity, Naruto remembered the battle in Hosokusa, where he and Sakura had fought that Earth-nin while his hands had been shackled behind him. Thinking back to it, the hardest thing about fighting like that had been keeping his balance without his arms to steady his movements. Tsunade only has one arm restrained, but she's a lot taller than me, and surely those giant boobs would make it harder for her to keep her balance too? If I can just dodge her attacks for long enough...

Taking a deep breath, he paced towards his opponent again, this time not charging in wildly. When he was only a bodylength away from her, Tsunade snarled angrily and lashed out with another roundhouse kick. Naruto barely managed to see it coming and ducked under it, her calf brushing through his spiky hair as it passed. Unperturbed, Tsunade completed the rotation, hopped and kicked again, this time aiming at his chest. Acting on instinct, he flipped into the air right over the top of his opponent, spinning around as he touched down. Ducking under a blow from her fist, he dodged under her arm, aiming a punch at her kidneys. She sidestepped with ease and swung at him again, but Naruto watched her feet as he swayed back from the blow. Sure enough, she followed up with another reverse-roundhouse kick and again he flipped into the air over her head, banking on her recovery taking longer. Got her! As soon as he landed, he spun around to launch a straight punch at his opponent.

A vicious blow from Tsunade's fist came out of nowhere and smashed across his mouth, splitting his lip. Stars exploded in his vision and he reeled backwards. How can she be so fast?! He tried to leap back, but the hand caught him by the collar and yanked him in again as the furious woman drove a brutal knee into his gut. The cheering died away as Tsunade started to lay into Naruto, no longer knocking him flying, but simply battering him into a pulp. Punch to the liver. Knee popped up under his chin, snapping his head back. Grabbed by the hair, smashed face-first into the ground, then yanked up to his feet again in time to receive a brutal uppercut. Another hard blow to the chest and agony shot through him as Naruto felt his ribs crack. Tsunade whirled like a tornado and delivered a spinning backfist that smashed Naruto across the face and sent him crashing to the ground.

Breathing heavily, Tsunade glared down at the prone form of the young genin who'd dared stand up to her. The crowd was silent. "ENOUGH!" she yelled. "It's over, boy! Don't you dare get up again! You've lost!"

For several seconds there was dead silence. Then Naruto moved. Slowly putting one hand on the ground, then the other, he pushed himself up to his knees. With every soul watching in horrified fascination, he rose to his feet, facing away from his opponent, swaying from side to side but still upright. "N-" He was interrupted by a fit of coughing. "N-no," he gritted out between bloodstained teeth. "It's not over... until I say it's over! Because this is my Will of Fire!"

The battered boy whirled around and charged with ferocity nobody would have expected from someone in his condition, but by now he was far too slow. Despite her shock at his recovery, Tsunade reacted instantly, stepping inside his guard and sinking her fist deep into Naruto's gut. The boy doubled over, his body twitching, but then he raised his head and glared defiantly into his opponent's face. For a moment they locked gazes... then Naruto's body spasmed again and he coughed violently, a spray of blood from some internal injury bursting from his mouth and spattering across Tsunade's face as he collapsed to his knees.

oooOOOooo

This has gone far enough, Jiraiya finally decided. Even if it meant Tsunade would take Naruto with her away from them forever, he couldn't just sit here and watch his old friend beat his godson to death in front of him. Steeling himself, he was about to step forward and end the fight, even if it meant he had to render Naruto unconscious himself, when he noticed something wrong.

Tsunade wasn't looking at Naruto any more. She was staring blankly forward into empty space and trembling so violently that the motion could be seen from several dozen feet away. Slowly she raised a quivering hand and wiped the palm across her face, then held it out in front of her and stared at it in horror.

Blood!

The trembling gave way to uncontrolled shaking, and the traumatised woman slumped to her knees right in front of Naruto. Her left hand started to claw at her bloodstained face and Jiraiya sucked in a shocked breath as she unthinkingly pulled her other hand from behind her back to do the same. Tsunade began to whimper like an animal as she tried to wipe Naruto's blood from her eyes, her frenzied actions only managing to smear it all across her face.

"Hold!" he shouted. "Tsunade, you used your right hand! By the terms you agreed upon, Naruto has won!"

There was a moment of shocked silence and Tsunade stared at him uncomprehendingly through her bloodied fingers, while a wave of confused murmuring ran through the crowd. Then it gave way to scattered cheers, which swelled with every passing second. Jiraiya felt all the tension in his body rush out at once as relief swept over him.

Naruto's little group of friends had just surged forward to help him when they were stopped by a hoarse shout. "HOLD ON!"

Silence fell over the sparring field as Naruto climbed unsteadily to his feet again. Staring at the trembling woman kneeling in front of him, frozen with her bloodstained fingers locked over her face, the boy firmly shook his head. "No. No way. I'm not winning like this. I won't accept it."

Everybody froze. Before the incredulous eyes of everybody present, Naruto reached into his back pocket and pulled out a grubby handkerchief. Gently pulling Tsunade's frozen fingers away from her face, he wiped his blood from her cheeks, nose and hands. Studying her critically for a second, he reached forward and cleaned away a spot he'd missed beside her left eyebrow, then stepped back again, quickly wiping a trickle of blood off his own lips and chin before stuffing the stained cloth back in his pocket again. Tsunade blinked and began to move again, like a toy robot that had just had its batteries reinserted, staring up at Naruto in confusion. The boy nodded in satisfaction. "OK then, let's keep going."

A storm of protests and shocked wails went up all around them. Sakura, Keiji and Hinata rushed to Naruto's side, trying to pull him away, but he resisted them. "No, no, let go I said!" he shouted angrily, shaking off their hands. "This is my fight, and just like I decide when I lose, I decide when I win too!"

Jiraiya knew he should go out there and overrule the boy, declare the fight over and knock him out if he continued to argue, but instead he just stared at Tsunade. Standing up again, she stared down at Naruto with a strange look in her eyes. Keiji tried to step between them, but Naruto shoved his teammate aside and looked back up at her boldly. "Come on then, put your arm back behind you and we'll carry on from where we left off."

For a moment it seemed like everyone was holding their breath. Sakura, Keiji and Hinata slowly backed away one step at a time.

Then Tsunade smiled.

"Thank you, brat."

Before anyone could react, she'd stuck her right arm behind her back again and in an instant Naruto was sailing through the air as her left lashed out like a striking cobra. A storm of boos and angry shouts went up from the shocked spectators as Naruto rolled twice and somehow stumbled back up to his feet again. Sakura shrieked in fury and lunged forward, only to be knocked flying back as Tsunade clipped her roughly across the temple. Keiji checked his own attack to go after the girl, catching and steadying Sakura as she nearly fell, while Hinata rushed after Naruto, putting an arm under his shoulder to support him.

Jiraiya felt his guts twisting inside him. "Tsunade-!" he gritted furiously through clenched teeth.

"Oh leave it alone, Jiraiya!" his teammate interrupted him, sounding unexpectedly tired. "The boy said he wants to fight on. Just mind your own business."

"That's right, pervert hermit!" Naruto shouted. "Thanks Hinata, but leave me alone for now, OK?" he muttered to the worried Hyuuga girl, gently pushing her aside and stepping forward. "I'm going to beat her!" he yelled. "Just wait and see."

Jiraiya was struck dumb and Tsunade shook her head incredulously. "Well I certainly misread you before, brat, you're really quite an amazing little kid. But seriously, how do you plan to beat me if you're not willing to take advantage of whatever weakness you can find, hmm?"

The boy coughed, spat out a glob of bloody phlegm and, incredibly, grinned. "With this!" Holding up his right hand with fingers spread, he began to concentrate. A vortex of whirling chakra began to swirl in his palm, spinning faster and faster and the crowd began to mutter again. Jiraiya stared. Rasengan? Really?! Sure, the technique was devastating when performed correctly, impossible to block and dangerous even to dodge, capable of wiping out, or at least incapacitating, even a shinobi of Tsunade's caliber. The problem was that, despite Jiraiya's best efforts to teach him, Naruto had conclusively failed to master the technique during the trip to and from Suna, unable to do more than gouge a rough spiral pattern into the trunks of the trees he practiced on. Oh, he'd been able to adapt the basics of it to his improvised Drilling Claw technique that had nearly eviscerated Gaara, but without the Kyuubi's chakra the incomplete technique would have little more effect on Tsunade than a rough shove. That was if he could even get it near Tsunade, which judging from the flow of the fight so far, wasn't very likely.

Tsunade stared at Naruto as if he'd started making shadow puppets with his fingers. "Seriously?!" She turned to Jiraiya. "Seriously, Jiraiya?! You tried to teach him that technique?! There's no way a boy like him could-"

Naruto didn't wait for her to finish. As soon as his opponent had taken her eyes off him he'd charged forward with shocking renewed vigor, leaping into the air with the swirling orb raised to strike. "RASEN-!"

Tsunade's left hand lashed out again and caught the boy by the wrist, leaving him dangling helplessly off the ground again. The woman stared at the swirling orb, bringing Naruto's hand a bit closer to her face to get a better look at it. "Like I said, brat, there's no way you can master this technique. I mean, just look at this! It's a good effort for a beginner, I guess, but even if you did hit me with it you'd be lucky to even muss up my clothes a bit."

Dangling limply from Tsunade's hand, Naruto stared at her as the ball in his right hand guttered like a candle in the wind and flickered out of existence- then he grinned. "Well, I guess we'll see about that. RASENGAN!"

Twisting in Tsunade's grasp, he drove his left hand and the second sphere of whirling chakra it contained into the woman's stomach.

Jiraiya sucked in a breath as Naruto's attack made contact. There was a visible spray of chakra and the orb burst against Tsunade's abdomen like a water balloon splashing against a wall, almost all the whirling force dispersing harmlessly, unable even to rip the thick fabric of her blouse.

Unfortunately, the same could not be said of her obi, which ripped and burst apart.

Time seemed to slow down as the torn sash dropped to the ground around Tsunade's feet. Jiraiya's eyes went wide as the two sides of Tsunade's sleeveless top, no longer constrained by the belt, succumbed to the pressures of their voluminous contents and began to swing apart. Inch by inch they drifted away from each other, as a pair of monolithic round objects began to drift into view from behind them like a pair of moons peeping out from behind a bank of clouds. Only a few inches more and those vast acres of glorious bare flesh that he'd seen only once before in his life (and had nearly died for) would appear once more before his eyes...

In a blur of motion, Tsunade's right hand whipped around and tugged her blouse closed again.

A collective groan of disappointment went up from almost every man and boy in the crowd as Tsunade dropped Naruto on his butt, blushing crimson as she clutched her sundered garment together. The blond-haired boy looked up at the slug princess from his seat in the dust and laughed. "Hah! Got you this time! It's my win, lady!"

Speechless, Tsunade stared back down at him. Laughing uproariously, Jiraiya strode over, clapping his hands. "He's got you there, Tsunade! He made you use your right hand this time, and that's after you were the one who insisted -over his objections, mind- that it was all he needed to do to win."

Jiraiya's declaration sent up an uproarious cheer from the crowd. Tsunade's shocked expression gave way to anger, then sour resignation. "So... you got me, huh?" She sighed miserably and looked around herself at the sloping walls of the Fortress of the Senju. "I guess that makes this my home now. I'm stuck here... with you lot. I can't believe this."

Keiji and Sakura lifted Naruto to his feet, the pink-haired girl giving Tsunade a smug look as she did so. Naruto was all smiles, despite his battered state. "Hey, I'm glad to have you with us," he chuckled good-naturedly. "And come on, you must have been starting to get bored of doing nothing but wandering around gambling. You don't think a change of pace would do you some good?"

Shizune came up behind them, smiling and clutching Tsunade's haori. Her master caught her eye and sighed again, but this time she smiled as she did so. "Fine, whatever," she grumbled, "but I'm not gonna forget this, boy." Before anyone could move, she lashed out again with the same blinding speed... and flicked Naruto gently on the forehead. The boy blinked in surprise. "Come on, Naruto, let's go the hospital," she added, using his name for the first time. "I beat you up, I guess now it's my job to make you better again."

Naruto grinned again. "Sounds fair to me, Tsunade-neechan."

She cast him a sideways glance, then shrugged. Together the two of them parted the celebrating crowd and headed across the grounds towards the cave mouth that marked the entrance to the hospital. As they went, Tsunade called back over her shoulder. "Shizune! Go fetch my spare obi."

oooOOOooo

The moon was rising into the night sky as Naruto walked up the inner wall of the caldera, channeling chakra through his feet to ascend the nearly-vertical surface. Tsunade had kept him in the hospital bay for the better part of the day, insisting that he get several hours of extra sleep after she'd used her healing touch to repair the damage she'd inflicted on him, particularly the cracked ribs, and he'd ended up sleeping longer than he'd planned, not waking up until the evening. Obviously the disruption they'd caused had forced whatever mission Kakashi had originally intended for Team 7 to be put on the back-burner until the next day at least. Naruto had been forced to take a late dinner, with the dining hall almost completely empty.

He'd been so distracted by his clash against Tsunade that most other things had completely slipped from his mind, but now that was over there was one pressing need that was gnawing at the forefront of his consciousness. Stepping out of the dining hall, a few minutes of searching led him to Sakura, crossing the grounds from the civilian quarters towards the current women's barracks, presumably after visiting her parents again. After a few awkward questions, she'd pointed him towards what he sought, smiling mysteriously as she did.

At eight points around the top of the caldera rim, roughly equivalent to the directions on a compass, camouflaged observation posts were hidden in the trees fringing the top of the crater. While the 'magic ceiling' genjutsu seal set into the basin floor would automatically turn back anyone who climbed the 'plateau' and saw it, forcing them to believe the narrow band of foliage was too thick for them to proceed any further, these small hideouts were kept manned as an extra precautionary measure, keeping watch for any particularly determined, well-informed, or just plain powerful invaders who would not be so easily deterred. Every shinobi in the Fortress of the Senju would have to take a turn manning one of these observation posts if they weren't occupied with a more urgent duty, much the same way that Naruto and Keiji had been assigned a shift on gate guard duty the day Inuzuka Hana had returned. Sakura herself had already taken two shifts during her time at the Fortress and Naruto would have to stand his own when his turn came up.

This evening, though, he wasn't charged with standing watch over their new home. No, he was up here for another reason.

Cresting the top of the vast crater, Naruto looked around for the telltale signs Sakura had advised him about. Eventually he spotted the observation post, concealed among the leaves and branches half-way up the tallest tree on this section of the rim. A few quick bounds took him into the tree, perching on a branch next to the small wooden cylinder that had been half-built into the living trunk. He hesitated, his heart racing, then knocked gingerly on the side of it.

A muffled voice spoke up from within. "Yes? Is my shift over already?" The observation post was positioned to face outwards, giving the occupant a clear view of the forest surrounding the Fortress and the cliffs leading up the caldera, but anyone coming from within the Fortress would be out of their field of view.

Naruto took a deep breath. "Um, no. It's me." He heard a bump and the cylinder shook, as if the occupant had jumped like a startled cat and banged their head. "Um, do you have a few minutes to talk, Hinata?"

A few centuries passed in awkward silence, which Naruto counted on the beats of his heart. Then a few seconds after he'd spoken, the concealed entrance on the side of the observation post clicked open and Hyuuga Hinata timidly stuck her head out. She looked around rapidly as if expecting an ambush to descend on her as soon as she showed herself, then climbed out of the post to perch on the branch beside him. "Oh... N-Naruto-kun..." she said staring down at her hands as she gingerly twiddled her fingers together. "Um... I'm supposed to be on watch duty for another hour at least, but... I guess I can talk to you for a bit. If we're quick. Um, I'd invite you in, but..." She gestured helplessly at the observation post. It was designed to be as inconspicuous as possible, and was subsequently small enough that even an average-sized adult would have to struggle to cram themselves inside; it was why particularly large men like Jiraiya were exempted from observation duty. Even though both of them were only kids, and small even for their age, it would still be awfully cramped if they tried to both squeeze in at once.

The thought of squeezing together with Hinata into such a small space, forcing them to press their bodies together to fit, set an unavoidable blush racing up his neck towards his face, and he rapidly shook his head. "Uh, that's fine, Hinata. Why don't we, y'know, climb a bit higher up the tree and keep watch together from there while we talk?"

A few seconds later the two of them breached the treeline, settling down next to each other on a sturdy branch near the top of the tree. While full moon had passed by several days ago, there wasn't a cloud in the night sky and the bright silver light washed over the treetops of the forest far beneath them. The two of them were sitting at possibly the highest point for miles around. Naruto thought he could even make out the tiny speck on the far horizon that marked the shattered walls of Konoha and the broken mountain where the Hokage Monument had been carved, several hours travel away, although he may have been imagining it.

He glanced at the girl sitting on the branch beside him and felt his heart beat just that bit faster. This was just like that night in the desert only three days ago, that same night of the full moon. Only this time he knew and understood what the source of the butterflies in his stomach was.

Well, that and Hinata was sitting on his left side this time rather than his right.

She turned her head from the beauty of the night scene before them and their eyes met. Instantly he blushed and looked away- but then he caught himself. Jiraiya's taunt echoed in his head. "You're not afraid are you, boy?" He wasn't afraid of anything. "Not even of a pretty girl?" Not of this pretty girl- and he'd be damned if he allowed himself to screw this up again!

Forcing himself to look back at Hinata's face again, he smiled shakily at her. "Uh, I've been needing to talk to you for a while now."

"So have I, Naruto-kun," she answered quietly, shyly returning his smile.

That stopped him dead in his tracks. What could she want to talk to me about? he wondered, his mind working furiously. "Oh..." he managed. "Well... would you like to go first?"

She hesitated for a moment. "No, you start, Naruto-kun," she said. "I... I think we may... may be talking about the same thing anyway."

Now that set his heart beating faster. "Um... OK then," he said. "Um..." Where to begin, exactly? What was it Jiraiya had said again? "It doesn't really matter what you say as long as, by the time you're finished, you've let her know how you feel about her!" OK, too soon to start with that. "Firstly... it's about that... thing from three nights ago." He could sense Hinata tense up beside him and he started to sweat, but he plowed on recklessly. "So, like... I just want to say that... I'm sorry for... for what I did. Or almost did."

"Please, don't be," Hinata said quietly.

His heart fluttered again. She's so forgiving. Even though I almost k- k- kissed her she doesn't want to make me feel bad about it. "No-no, I really am sorry. I shouldn't have tried to k-kiss you without asking you."

Hinata shook her head. "No, you really shouldn't be, Naruto-kun." She stared down at her hands, clenched tightly together in her lap. "I should be sorry for running away from you. It was my fault."

"No, no it wasn't, Hinata!" he insisted fervently. "You shouldn't blame yourself for my-"

"It was my fault!" the girl declared firmly. Lifting her head, she stared directly into his eyes. "You see... you see, I really wanted you to kiss me."

Naruto stared back at her.

She stared at him.

He stared at her.

She stared at him.

He leaned over and kissed her.

...

...

...wow...!

He didn't know how long it was until he became aware of himself and his place in the cosmos again. Was it a minute he'd been kissing Hinata for? An hour? A thousand years? Three seconds? Regretfully he leaned back to try and find out, their lips reluctantly parting. He opened his eyes and found himself gazing at Hinata's face, her own eyes still closed, her pretty pink lips slightly parted, a soft blush on her pale cheeks. She let out soft breath which tickled his tingling lips and her eyes cracked open, ivory slivers glowing in the moonlight. They widened like an owl's as they focused on him and for several seconds the two just stared at each other. Naruto felt his cheeks flushing scarlet as the immensity of what he'd just done finally began to sink in. He bounced up and leaped away from Hinata again, swinging around the tree trunk to a branch on the opposite side, as far away from her as he could go without his footing becoming dangerously unstable. "Oh... damn it, Hinata, I'm sorry!" he exclaimed, appalled with himself. "I-I didn't mean to..." Pinned in place by the gaze of Hinata's white eyes, he sputtered into silence, steam practically drifting up from his collar.

Then Hinata's mouth quirked... and she started to giggle. Naruto didn't know what reaction he'd been expecting from her, but that certainly hadn't been it. Nonplussed, he just stared at the girl as the giggles got bigger and her shoulders began to quake from the force of her barely-contained laughter. Surely he couldn't have been that bad a kisser, could he? OK, so his only other kiss had been that time he'd been pushed mouth-first into Sasuke, and he didn't really think that counted (at least he hoped it didn't), but surely he didn't need that much practice did he? And he at least had enjoyed the kiss the two of them had just shared; in fact, it was one of the most-wonderful experiences of his life, up there with the first time he'd ever tasted ramen. "Uh... Hinata...?"

"I-I-I-I just can't... can't believe I j-just did that!" the girl gasped out between her giggles. "C-can't believe I a-actually managed to say that to you, Naruto-kun! I-I never thought I could actually..." Something glistened at the corner of her right eye and a droplet of pure salt water trickled down her face. The giggles dissolved, by fits and starts, into sobs that shook the Hyuuga girl's slender body as she started to cry in earnest.

Shocked to the core of his being, Naruto's body moved by itself. Leaping back over to the girl again, he crouched beside Hinata and pulled her into his arms, holding her close. "Hinata, what's the matter? Why are you crying? I'm sorry! What can I do? Please don't cry!"

Hinata shook her head and buried her face in his shoulder, her arms closing tight around his back. "N-no. No, I'm sorry, Naruto-kun. It's not... not your... I don't... I don't even know why I'm crying. I'm... I'm happy, but I'm so... so confused. I don't even know what..." She trailed off aimlessly.

Naruto squeezed her tighter, feeling the warmth of her body tremble against his. He didn't know exactly what to do, what to say, or even what to feel either, but the one thing he did know he had to do was stay with her for as long as she needed him here, so he settled down beside her again to wait. Fortunately it was only a few moments before the sobbing subsided and Hinata just gave a soft, contented-sounding sigh. She made no move to free herself from his grasp, so Naruto was perfectly content to just sit there with her in his arms for however long she wanted him to.

Eventually she stirred. "Hey, Naruto-kun?" she asked softly. "Do you remember the first time we met?"

Naruto went still. The first time? As far as he could remember, Hinata had always just been there, hiding in the background of his life ever since he'd first enrolled at Konoha's Ninja Academy as a child. The first time they'd met? "Um... I'm not sure." he admitted, glad Hinata couldn't see his face as it burned with shame. "What's the earliest you can remember?"

The girl in his arms was silent for a moment, then she began to speak. "It was the week before we were due to start at the Academy. I'd run away from my home on my own when I accidentally bumped into three older boys. They didn't like me because of my family, accusing me of acting like I was better than them and calling my Byakugan 'freaky', and they made me apologise for running into them. I was really afraid that they were going to hurt me." She took a deep breath. "And then you appeared and told them to leave me alone."

A spark of memory flared in the back of his mind, one that was unexpectedly familiar. Was this the... incident he'd mentioned to Gaara back when they were talking about is childhood? "...there was one time when I was a kid, before I started at the Academy, I got beaten up by some other kids... Was there someone else there?" So that had been- "I... I remember," he said. A lump formed in his throat. "I... I tried to make a clone and... and screwed it up. They laughed at me. I was so... so lame."

Hinata shook her head, her short black hair brushing against his ear. "No you weren't, Naruto-kun. While they were laughing at you, you threw yourself at them and fought them even though they had you outnumbered three-to-one. And you fought... you fought like you did today. Like you did against Orochimaru, when you saved Hanabi and I. You fought like you always fight, Naruto-kun, never hesitating or giving up, no matter what. You were so cool." She tensed up. "I... I'm sorry that I didn't help you then. I'm so... so sorry. My bodyguard, Ko, found me and dragged me away. I couldn't even check if you were alright. I always wanted to make that up to you. I'm sorry."

He stroked her hair reassuringly. "You don't have to be sorry, Hinata." The tension eased out of her body again, either because of his words or his actions. The Hyuuga girl shifted in his arms, pulling back from the embrace so she could look him in the face again. Her face was completely flushed pink with embarrassment and the sight of it made Naruto blush all over again himself. But at least she was smiling.

"All through our time at the Academy I watched you, Naruto-kun," she continued quietly. "I was... timid and weak. I had no confidence. I told you before how I didn't believe in myself." He remembered very well the conversation they'd had under the tree on the outskirts of Sumigawa, when he'd made that promise with her. "But you were my idol, Naruto-kun. Not because you were strong, or the best ninja in the class, but because you never gave up. You failed over and over again, but every failure still made you stronger and more determined to succeed. I believed you could do anything. Even after Konoha has been ruined, I still believe you will one day be Hokage as you said you would. More than anything, I wanted to be like you. You've always been my hero, Naruto-kun."

Naruto stared at her in silent awe. She stared back, the silver moon highlighting her pretty face and making her eyes shine. Hinata had mentioned before that she'd watched him during their time at the Academy, but... this was beyond anything he could have ever have even imagined. That choking lump in his throat was back again, and something was stinging at the corners of his eyes. Hinata... of all the things I ever wanted... He struggled for a moment to find his voice. "Hi-Hinata... you know, all my determination back then...? It was all bravado. Empty boasting. I never really wanted to be Hokage, not seriously. Not at first, anyway. I was just a kid shouting about how I was going to be in charge one day, just craving attention. All I really wanted was... just for someone to acknowledge me. Someone to believe in me as a person. I thought becoming Hokage would force everyone to do that." A single tear overflowed his eye. He understood now why Hinata had cried before. Some emotions were just too strong to be contained. A delicate hand came up and wiped the tear away and he stared at the glistening drop, the moonlight shining off it as it balanced on the tip of Hinata's finger.

"Hinata... you were there... all along. You believed in me before anyone else did. How did I... I not notice?" His face fell. "I feel like such an idiot..."

She cupped the side of his face with her hand and lifted it again, forcing him to look at her. "No, Naruto-kun. I should have come to you. You were alone, and I should have let you know I believed in you, instead of just watching you from afar. I'm sorry. But I'm here, now. And..."

Something went click in his head- or was it in his heart? Filled with a surge of resolve, Naruto climbed to his feet, offering Hinata a hand to stand up as well. Holding her hand in his, he took a deep breath. "Hinata... I'm... still just a dumb kid. There's a lot of things I don't understand yet. And I don't know what I can do for you, but... but if I..." He struggled to find a way to put his thoughts into words, desperate to get his feelings across. "If I-"

Hinata put her hands on his shoulders, leaned forward, and silenced him.

Naruto mind froze. Hinata's mouth against his was just as soft and warm as it had been when he'd kissed her the first time, but somehow it felt even better. Was it because she was the one who'd kissed him this time? After a disappointingly-short period of only two or three millennia, she stepped back again, her eyes shining like pearls as they gazed into his. "I love you, Naruto-kun."

His next actions had been preordained by ancient prophecy that no force on Earth could prevent from coming to pass. "Hinata... I... I love you." Leaning forward again, he brushed his lips against hers- then pulled back. "Thank you," he whispered.

This time, the kiss lasted much, much longer.

oooOOOooo

Miles away, the same moon shone down on the broken ruins that had, only a matter of weeks ago, been the Hidden Village of the Leaf, Konoha. Days after its destruction, once the surviving shinobi and citizens of the village had secured themselves in the Hidden Fortress of the Senju and the scouts left to watch the ruins for any late-returning shinobi had ascertained that none of the attackers from Oto were still prowling around the area, scavenger teams had been dispatched to salvage anything that could be used from the devastated ruins, as well as provide an honourable repose to the hundreds of dead that had been left behind during the retreat. The shinobi and citizens of Konoha had been cremated with dignity; the (considerably fewer) corpses of the fallen Sound-nin, abandoned when their erstwhile allies from Suna had turned on them, were unceremoniously disposed of in a single mass fire pit. Once the smell of decay had given way to the smell of smoke, and as much useful material as possible had been dug out of the ruins, the dead village had been abandoned again, empty aside from the intrusions of a few wild animals as the forest that surrounded the village began the process of slowly creeping in through the broken walls again.

There were no clouds in the sky this night to shroud the moon. Yet as the night breeze howled mournfully over the broken walls of the once-proud village, clouds did drift on the winds above Konoha. Red ones.

"Real shame, huh Itachi-san? And to think, this place used to be so lively."

"..."

"Hard to believe that damn Orochimaru was able to do this practically by himself. Sometimes I think it's a shame he left our group. He was certainly resourceful, if nothing else."

"..."

"Oh don't look at me like that, Itachi-san. Yeah, yeah, I know, he couldn't be trusted. I wouldn't have tolerated him if he'd, I dunno, tried to steal my Samehada either. He was resourceful, but he wasn't really interested in our greater mission. Well since he couldn't get your eyes, now he's destroyed your village instead. Does that upset you?"

"Kisame."

"What? I know I wouldn't be happy if Kirigakure was destroyed by someone else. You have to feel something for this place, even if it's just frustration that you didn't get to destroy it yourself."

"This village was nothing to me. I had already grown beyond it back when I first left, when not even my own family was able to pose me any challenge, and by now it was beneath my notice. The only thing of interest here was already gone even before Orochimaru destroyed it."

"Oh, you mean your little brother, right? You mean you really were hoping he'd one day get strong enough to be able to kill you? Bit of a strange wish if you ask me."

"..."

"OK, OK, you don't have to glare at me like that. But seriously though, Itachi-san, no matter what you thought about this village, there was one other thing we needed from it and, well, now we're kind of screwed."

"The Fourth Hokage's Legacy."

"Bingo. What are we going to tell the leader? He won't be happy if we have to report that Orochimaru destroyed the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox before we got here."

"The Fourth's Legacy is still out there somewhere."

"What makes you so sure, Itachi-san? I mean, I guess it's possible that the kid with the Kyuubi was out of town when all this went down, but... you thinking about what that Sound-nin we caught said?"

"There were survivors from Konoha, at least enough of them that Orochimaru wants them found and wiped out. The Kyuubi would not allow itself to be destroyed so easily. Even if it did not physically manifest in the battle against Oto and Suna, if there are survivors, the host will be among them."

"Well, I like your positive attitude, Itachi-san. Where do we start looking? Do we go ask Orochimaru ourselves? Might have been easier if you hadn't killed the Sound-nin before we thought to ask where his new base is."

"First we should report in and get further instructions. Then unless we're instructed otherwise, we resume our search. Akatsuki's plan will not fail so easily."

The red clouds blew across the sky above Konoha one more time, then vanished.

TO BE CONTINUED...

################

AUTHOR'S NOTES:

Well!

Well well well well well!

Well well well.

First things first: I'm sorry this took so long. I KNOW I said during the afterword of Chapter 11 that I was splitting the single chapter into half because it was getting too long (as I'd done multiple times before) and I was hoping to get the second half out before Christmas- Christmas 2016! Things did NOT go according to plan in any way: not only did I succumb to my worst attacks of writer's block (and crippling near-suicidal depression) to date (I got over the former at least), but once again my work ran away on me until this "second half of a chapter" ended up well over 26,000 words long again (the fight with Tsunade was supposed to be a short scrap lasting barely a page and ended up as one of my patented Epic Battle Scenes instead)! So here I am, well over a YEAR after my last release (of this fic anyway; I did eventually release my second fic, 'For Love', during the year to moderately good success in its own right) finally getting this out to you. I hope it was worth the wait.

So anyway, Chapter 12 marks the end of the first half of Secret Songs of the Ninja. After this there will be, similar to how there was in the manga, a timeskip of a few years, although not as long as the three-year gap in canon. I promise that (unlike Masashi Kishimoto) I won't suddenly retcon my entire story to go off in radical new directions after the timeskip. However, I also want to indulge in a little side project at this juncture, something I've been thinking about and planning for a very long time- Naruto: Melody of the Shinobi. Think of it as a sort of gaiden fic to the main story here which will tell a variety of short, one-shot stories taking place during the timeskip to explain some of the plot developments that will have taken place between now and Chapter 13. It won't be "filler" as it will all be canon to the main story, but I'll try not to make it essential reading that you won't understand the story without, so that you can skip it without ending up completely lost when you continue with the main fic. So if, for example, you want to know where Naruto got his new hobby from (which, you have to admit, isn't exactly the kind of subject that would warrant a chapter of its own in the main story) you'll be able to find out by reading the first chapter of Melody of the Shinobi... once I've written it, of course. I've started on the first one already. Don't worry, I'll be doing it on my tablet as well rather than my desktop PC, so it won't obstruct the writing of the main story (it'll probably distract attention away from For Love, unfortunately, but that's the price I have to pay).

Oh, and speaking of gaidens: in the year since I last released a chapter of this story, I managed to read ONE more chapter of the Naruto Gaiden! At this rate, I should be up to reading Boruto by the middle of the next decade. Thrilling stuff!

So to address the other elephant in the room: stop eating my peanuts! And also: yeah, I pretty much warned you last chapter that this one would be resolving the NaruHina stuff. And now it's resolved and out of the way. They're a couple now so, as promised, the story can go on. Like I said, this isn't a romance fic (despite the evidence of these last two chapters), it's an action-drama. Hinata will not be a central character from here on out: certainly she'll be a MAJOR one, but she's not on Team 7, so don't worry about her hogging the limelight away from Keiji and Sakura. Last chapter I tried to compare my take on Naruto and Hinata's relationship to Aang and Katara from Avatar: the Last Airbender- a love story that's always there, but isn't really all that important compared to the whole "saving the world" thing (although since Katara was the main heroine, her relationship with Aang would be closer to NaruSaku, with NaruHina being more like if Aang had fallen in love with Toph and... uh, never mind). Another comparison that springs to mind would be Akame ga Kill!, where the protagonist Tatsumi falls in love, not with title character Akame, but secondary heroine Mine, and their (quite serious) romance is secondary to bringing down the corrupt empire they're struggling against (and whether they get a happy ending or not depends on whether you read the manga or watch the anime). So seriously, if that second-last scene was just a bit too glurgy for you, then rest assured that there won't be many more (if any) in the story from here on out. Except maybe in Melody of the Shinobi, because that's the sort of thing it exists for (although not exclusively, of course). Anyway, there's a reason I ended the chapter with a teaser of Akatsuki instead.

Oh, as an aside, you might notice that Hinata's recollection of her first meeting with Naruto is based on the "prototype" version from Shippuuden episode 166, not the winter version from The Last. I like The Last, but version of the scene where Naruto saved Hinata from the bullies wasn't as good, because it was too comical- Naruto's failed bunshin was even sillier and the bullies just beat the crap out of him (even using his scarf as a swing) before running off, making him look pathetic, whereas he actually fought as hard as he could in the original. I know that scene isn't technically canon any more and the version from The Last is, but even if it took place before the timeskip it's "ret-canon", so it falls under my remit to cherry pick what is and isn't canon for my fic from the post-timeskip material.

Again, I'm sorry but I can't even give you a rough ballpark estimation of when Chapter 13 will be finished. It could be a couple of months if I really hit my stride. It could be more than another year. I might die before I can finish it. No promises, except that as long as I live, I'll see it done eventually. But I will leave you with the usual teaser...

NEXT TIME:

Having worked to rebuild their power, the survivors of Konoha now move to reestablish their presence in the shinobi world. Naruto and his friends step onto unsafe ground as their time finally comes. But dark forces search for them and a mortal enemy is eyeing them with ill-intentions. When they walk into the hornet's nest, will they end up being stung? Find out in Chapter 13 of Naruto: the Secret Songs of the Ninja, 'The Song of the Deadly Feast'.

- Arcane Azmadi