Chapter 4: The Kunoichi Who Loves Me

Anko trailed her finger over Naruto's jaw, "Don't forget me Naru-chan..."

She kissed Naruto passionately, letting her hand run over his back as she pressed herself against him. Anko backed away from him after breaking the kiss, "I won't let you..."

Snakes shot out from the sleeves of the orange kimono she was wearing and crawled up over Naruto's body, who started to panic. The snakes pinned him to the floor beneath him and held him there, unable to move a single muscle no matter how hard he tried to break free.

Anko kneeled down at the end of his feet and crawled over Naruto's body, hey body brushing over his with every inch she moved forward until they were face to face again.

Naruto gulped as Anko loosened her entire kimono with one swift motion of her hand. Just as it dropped open, Anko lowered her body onto Naruto's and kissed him again with an even fiercer passion than before, sending a shiver down his spine.

When she stopped kissing him and allowed him to breathe again, she sat straight up on his lap. After Naruto gasped for air, her snakes retreated and she pulled him up by his shirt. With a flick of her fingers, she untied her hair.

Licking her lips, she put her hands on Naruto's back and let her nails slowly dig in, "Let's get it on. My. Little. Fox."

And just as she lowered both of them again...

Naruto's eyes shot wide open, staring at the ceiling of his own room as sweat drops rapidly dropped down from his head. He looked down his bed, noticing no one there and he dropped his head back down on his pillow.

"Again, huh?...Almost the same as last night...well, at least this time I managed to sleep..." Naruto told himself as his head fell over to the right, looking towards the clock that hung in his kitchen.

"Six AM...I guess I could start my morning training extra early..." Naruto said as he let out a yawn, "But now I just want to rest my eyes for a few more minutes..."

Naruto rolled back over and closed his eyes and just as he relaxed and started falling asleep, his phone loudly rang, which made him jump out of his bed and lose any hint of sleep that remained.

"God damn it...It's freaking early...Hang up already..." Naruto told who ever was calling him as he dropped back down on his bed and covered his ears with his pillow.

However, the ringing wouldn't stop, so Naruto jumped out of his bed again, picked up the phone.

"Hello...?" Naruto let out, as he dug his way back under his bed sheets. He heard loud and heavy panting coming through the receiver of the phone.

"...Hello...? Who am I... talking to?" Naruto asked, with a certain hint of uncertainty.

"Naruto..." A woman's voice panted through the phone.

"...No, that would be me. Or wait! Are you like the future or past me in Sexy no Jutsu form?" Naruto responded jokingly, trying to make the unsettling feeling he felt go away.

"Naruto, it's me, Tenten..." Tenten sounded slightly annoyed.

"Ah, Tenten..."

A moment of silence followed between the two of them, where Tenten still tried to catch her breath and Naruto was unsure how to proceed.

"WHY THE HELL ARE YOU CALLING ME AT FREAKING SIX AM?!" Naruto snapped, causing Tenten to hold the phone away from her ear and as far as possible in case Naruto would shout even more at her.

"Sssh!...Not so loud, Naruto..." Tenten replied as she dropped herself down on her bed.

Naruto grumbled and asked, "Well...why are you calling me?"

"I did it." Tenten's said with a smile on her face.

"Tenten?! What the hell?! Why are you telling me that?!" Naruto shot up from his bed, "More importantly, who did you do it with?!"

"What?! N-No! Not that it! What are you thinking?! You pervert!...More importantly, why would I call you to tell you that?!"

"Beats me, you just said 'I did it'..." Naruto replied and then muttered, "Stupid Anko...stupid Ero-sennin's Icha Icha Paradise..."

"Yeah, no, not that it.I wouldn't just suddenly do it. Unless Neji suddenly like jumped on top of me and..." Tenten went silent as a blush formed on her face.

"Tenten..." Naruto replied, "Just so you know...actively fantasizing about Neji makes you a bigger pervert than me..."

"I-I do not fantasize about him!" Tenten retorted.

"Hmmm, maybe I'll go tell Neji you want him to jump on top of you and do perverted things. It's early in the morning after all. I'm sure he'd love to hear that first thing in the morning."

"Naruto, unless you like having kunai shoved in places where the sun doesn't shine, I suggest you stay put and be quiet about any of this, especially to Neji..." Tenten threatened.

"...I think I'll be quiet.." Naruto said after gulping, "So, what did you do then?"

"I sent a reply to that letter I received." She said with a smile on her face.

"Eh?" Naruto let out, perking up and listening closely to what Tenten had to tell him.

"I just rushed to the postal office to get it sent. I worked all night on that letter and wanted it to be sent as soon as possible."

"You...have been writing that letter all night?" Suddenly Naruto felt bad about threatening to tell Neji about what she said earlier.

"Uh huh. That's why I was panting...I had been running as fast as I could to be the first one at the postal office..."

Naruto remembered she thought it was Neji who had written the letter that she had received. Still, it would be Ayame that would receive it for him and Naruto would be the one to read it.

His curiousity got the better of him and so he asked, "What did you write...?"

"I...I can't tell you..." Tenten said, feeling her face brighten at the thought.

Though, Naruto knew he'd find out anyway his curiousity wouldn't be sated that easily, "Oh, come on! I won't tell Neji or anyone else. I won't even let anyone else know that I know!"

"Well...alright then...I wrote that...I was really flattered by how he thought of me...Then...I wrote about the hunch I had that it was Neji and asked if he could tell me whether it was him or not by now...If he wasn't then I wanted to know what he looks like and...stuff...you know...so I knew him a bit better before agreeing to going out on a date or...something...Then...I wrote that whether he was or wasn't Neji didn't matter because...his words make me warm up inside and..."

Naruto was silently listening to her, even when she paused and a silence passed between them.

"Naruto? Are you even listening?"

"Huh? Yeah, yeah! I was just waiting for you to continue..."

"...Really?"

"Of course! You were saying that...his words make you feel warm inside or something right?"

"Hm...yeah, I did...Um, Naruto...? Can I...ask you something?"

"Yeah?" Naruto replied, feeling somewhat insecure about what she was about to ask him.

"Do you think...Neji... likes me?" Tenten asked, staring at the ceiling, wondering how Naruto was going to answer.

Naruto laid back down on his bed and took a deep breath, "...Honestly, I don't know...He doesn't show his emotions other than just showing that he cares about someone as a friend at least...But he hugged you yesterday, right? And you two are always seeing each other, training together and stuff..."

"Yeah, but he only hugged me because I asked him..." Tenten sounded disappointed, as she rolled over onto her right side in her bed.

"Hey, I think I just had an idea to help you...at least...somewhat of an idea..." Naruto replied.

"Huh? Help me? What is it?" Tenten asked excitedly as she slightly rose up from bed, her eyes widening.

"Eh...You and Neji either way are close friends, right?" Naruto scratched his wiskers.

"Uh huh." Tenten nodded as she replied.

"Then...You can ask him about almost anything and he's willing to do a lot for you...as a friend?" Naruto continued his questioning.

"...I think so." Tenten said, though she wasn't quite sure why Naruto was asking this.

"Can't you have him promise that he'll speak the entire truth to a series of question that you want to ask him...And then you ask things you want to know, including what he thinks of you?" Naruto grinned proudly of his plan.

Tenten blushed, she knew it would be hard to have Neji answer honestly to that question and even harder for her to ask him in the first place, but she decided she'd try to ask either way.

"...Thank you, Naruto...I'll give it a try, though I'm almost one-hundred percent sure it won't work...If it does though, I'll owe you one."

"Well, at least you could always try to find out some interesting stuff about him before asking him what he thinks of you!" Naruto grinned widely.

Tenten let out a small giggle, "Yeah, then I could always tease him a little bit here and there. Thanks for the idea, Naruto. Are you home tonight? I want to call you and let you know how it went with Neji."

"Er...I don't know. Most likely I will be, but I'm not entirely sure...Otherwise you can call me tomorrow morning...Though not as early as today, please!"

Tenten giggled, "Alright, then you'll hear from me either tonight or tomorrow morning. Bye, Naruto."

"Bye, Tenten." Naruto said as he hung up and let out a sigh.

"'His words make me warm up inside', huh...? According to Ayame-chan I mostly said what is written in the letters...So, Tenten likes me? Or at least the way I feel about her? I really need to learn how to talk like Ayame-chan wrote in those letters..."

"But you know..." Naruto said cheerful to himself, "At least I know I'll be getting one reply! Can't wait to read it! And since I'm wide awake now...Let's eat and start morning training!"

Naruto cheerfully threw a fist into the air and snickered.

Feeling rather energetic at the moment, Naruto jumped out of bed again and took a quick shower. After quickly cooking some ramen for his breakfast, he headed out with the cup and a pair of chop-sticks in his hands, eating as much ramen as possible as he ran down the stairs and once he headed out of the apartment the cup was actually nearly empty.

After quickly finishing what remained of his lovely ramen, he threw the cup and the disposable chopsticks away and headed onward towards the training area.

"Yo, Naruto-kun! You seem energetic today! Your spirit of youth is burning wildly!" Both Lee and Gai exclaimed as they ran along with Naruto.

"Fuzzy Eyebrows? Super Fuzzy Eyebrows-sensei? What are you two doing?" Naruto blinked at the two green spandex-suit wearing men.

"Isn't that obvious, Naruto-kun?! Morning training to help Gai-sensei keep his youthful youthfulness!" Lee answered and struck the nice guy pose while running.

"I promised Kakashi that if I had lost this time that I'd go and follow my young adorable yet strong student for an entire day to get the feeling of his youthfulness and then definitely beat Kakashi next time!" Gai said as he struck the same pose, blinding Naruto now that both 'Beasts from Konoha' made their teeth sparkle in the sunlight.

"So, in other words, you lost again, Super Fuzzy Eyebrows-sensei?" Naruto asked, just because it seemed like he normally would also do something like spending an entire day with Lee anyway.

Gai froze on the spot and slumped down the ground in despair, "...Yes. Yes, I lost. I was this close too. I was certain I had him, when he turned the tables around all of a sudden...Ugh...Am...Am I getting old perhaps? Has the spirit of youth left me?"

"Don't lose heart, Gai-sensei!" Lee cheered his mentor on, "I'm sure you will triumph next time! You always come back stronger than before! The spirit of youth is always with you!"

"Lee! My student!" Gai beamed up, "You truly understand me, don't you?!"

"Gai-sensei!"

"Lee!"

"GAI-SENSEI!"

"LEEEEEEE!"

After a manly embrace and tears that hardly could be considered as such, Gai jumped back to his feet and he and his student struck the nice-guy pose again.

"Spirit of youth revival, successful! Let's keep the pace up!" They chanted in unison.

"...Honestly, sometimes I wonder how they can change their pace so fast..." Naruto thought as Gai and Lee's teeth sparkled in the morning sun.

"What about you, Naruto-kun?" Lee asked as he looked curious towards the blonde shinobi, "What are you doing so early?"

"I'm heading out for morning training as well." Naruto grinned widely, hoping that for once his teeth would sparkle and annoy them as well.

As a matter of fact, his teeth did sparkle and Lee and Gai were squinting with their eyes from the light that it emitted.

"Such huge sparkle! Naruto-kun! I will beat that dazzling sparkle of yours!" Lee exclaimed as Naruto's teeth still sparkled.

"That's the spirit, Lee! You shall out-dazzle Naruto-kun's teeth sparkle and prove that you and I are the most youthful persons here in Konoha!"

"Ossu!" Lee saluted his sensei.

"Let's go, Lee!" Gai dramatically pointed out forward into no particular direction as his teeth sparkled again.

"Ossu!" Lee exclaimed as his teeth sparkled for a moment as well before both of Konoha's Beasts ran off at an incredible speed.

Naruto shrugged and let out a sigh, "Really, their pace is way too hard to follow."

As Naruto steadily started getting closer towards the training grounds, he saw Lee and Gai again. However they weren't running this time and Naruto could see why.

"Ooow...That's gotta hurt..." Naruto thought as he looked at the telephone pole that now had the imprint of Lee bend into it and Lee, who was now lying down on the ground, clutching on to his face.

"Lee! Hang in there my youthful student!"

"My nose! My beautiful youthful nose!" Naruto heard Lee crying.

"All he hurt was his nose from that...That's...pretty impressive in a way..."

"Don't worry, my adorable student! I'll get you to Tsunade-sama this instant and we'll have your youthful nose restored to it's previous youthfulness in no time!" Gai picked Lee up and sat him onto his back and rushed towards the Hokage's Tower, assuming to find Tsunade there at this time in the morning.

"Is it just me, or do those two get weirder every time I see them? ...And to think I have one of their suits lying in my closet back at home..." Naruto shook his head and headed on towards the training area.

After running a little while, he finally reached the training area where had first become a genin, which was still one of his favourite places to train at. There he found, to his surprise, Sakura leaning on one of the three treelogs facing away from him.

"Good morning, Sakura-chan!" Naruto cheerfully greeted Sakura, waving his arm energetically in the air.

Sakura turned around towards Naruto and he noticed the somewhat sad look on her face before she flashed a smile at him and waved back, "Morning, Naruto. You're up and bright early in the morning."

Naruto ran over towards her, "I could say the same for you, Sakura-chan. I thought the training area wasn't being used at this time, so I headed out extra early."

"Ah...I'm not using it really...Just...thinking and all..."

"You looked kind of sad before you saw me... Sakura-chan...Is something wrong?" Naruto asked, realizing she might have been thinking about Sasuke, considering they were standing at the training grounds where the three of them had become genin.

"Hihi." Sakura giggled and stuck her tongue out at Naruto, "Nothing to worry about, really! Ever since I've become Tsunade-sama's student, I've grown in popularity. Can you believe it? I've been asked out by several guys for Valentine's Day...I even received a love letter! So, I was just reflecting here on...some past decisions and all..."

"Damn it..." Naruto hung down his shoulders in disappointment, "Tsunade-obachan's students become respected and popular...and Ero-sennin's students mostly get zero popularity until they reach a certain level, like Yondaime...Maybe I should've tried to convince Tsunade-obachan to train me or something."

Sakura whacked Naruto around the head, "Idiot! Jiraiya-sama might be a dirty old pervert and a lot of other things according to Tsunade-sama, but he's still one of the Legendary Three! He is the one that brought forth the most powerful shinobi Konoha has ever known! You shouldn't just say things like that..."

"Hehehe! I know, I know!" Naruto laughed, "He has taught me a lot while we were away. But, you know...He isn't really great if you want to be popular and all..."

Sakura giggled after hearing Naruto worrying about popularity, "Don't worry, Naruto. I'm sure people will still like you even with Jiraiya-sama as your sensei. Well...I've got to go now. I still have a letter to bring to the postal office. Naruto, do your best during your training. All that hard work pays off in the end, right?"

"Thanks, Sakura-chan! I'll show you my new jutsu once I'm done with it!" Naruto yelled as Sakura headed off.

"Looking forward to it!" Sakura replied before facing forward again and running off.

Naruto quickly turned around and jogged onto the training field, heading towards the small forest near the river that ran near the training area. Once there, Naruto took out the picture of Jiraiya and Yondaime he had been entrusted the night before.

"Getting his face right shouldn't be that hard...Coming up with my own clothes and voice is going to be more troublesome...Also, keeping the Henge up under most circumstances and for at least 10 hours are my goals in order for this to work out in the end." Naruto nodded to himself.

He decided to first go with just a normal look, trying to get a voice that seemed to fit Yondaime's looks and from there on working out on different clothes.

"Henge!" Naruto exclaimed, performing the single seal.

When the smoke cleared up, Naruto noticed that he was slightly taller then usual, just as he wanted.

The first thing he examined then were his clothes, "Alright, A dark blue shirt, dark red konoha mark on it, blue pants like Kakashi-sensei wears and most other shinobi in Konoha. Casual clothing set, check! Now lets have a look at how well I made my new face..."

Naruto walked over to the river and glanced down on the water, looking at the image the water reflected. He took out the photo and held it next to his reflection in order to compare the two, "Alright! Another success! Now all that's left is..."

"My voice." A cheerful I-have-nothing-to-worry-about-in-the-world like voice came out of Naruto's mouth, "Ah crap that wouldn't fit Yondaime one bit nor would it really fit his looks."

Naruto hung his shoulders down out of disappointment and let out a sigh as he released the transformation.

"Alright, let's come up with a different voice!" Naruto tried to speak some confidence into himself and used Henge again to change into the same looks as he just had, hoping to have it alright this time.

"Yo, I'm Nemar." Naruto said with a laid-back and relaxed voice, "How the hell did I think up a Kakashi-sensei voice?"

Naruto tried to get a different voice once more, "Yo, I'm Nemar."

"Oh my god! Now I sound like Ero-sennin!"

Just then Naruto heard someone approaching the training grounds and quickly shot back behind a tree.

"Gai-sensei! Naruto-kun isn't here!" Lee sounded like he had a broken nose.

"I know, my adorable yet now injured student! I guess we'll have to use our youthful spirits to find Tsunade-sama on our own now that we didn't find her at her office this early in the morning!"

"Gai-sensei!"

"Lee!"

"Gai-sensei! My nose! My nose!"

"AH! Lee! My student! What have I done to you! Let's find Tsunade-sama quickly and heal your nose!"

Once Naruto heard the two rushing off with their 'youthful spirits', he headed back towards the river. Again he tried to perfect a voice that would seem to fit Yondaime's looks, "Yo, I'm Nemar."

"AH! NOW I SOUND LIKE FUZZY-EYEBROWS! DAMN IT!" Naruto mentally shouted as he heard what voice he used for henge this time.

"Alright, this time I'll get it. A voice that deep and dark, powerful and friendly...Focus...Focus...Focus..." Naruto closed his eyes, focused on Yondaime's looks and a voice to match it.

"Henge no jutsu!" Naruto said and after another loud poof, he tried out his voice once again.

"I'm Nemar." Naruto said and blinked, "Hey this one doesn't sound that bad at all...Let's try some more phrases..."

"I'm sixteen years old, resident in Hidden Village of Leaf. Nice to meet you." Naruto said, his voice sounding like what he imagined actually fit Yondaime's image a lot more.

"Finally got the voice right...I guess." Naruto said as he looked at his reflection.

"Don't be afraid, I'll protect you no matter what." Naruto said in a serious tone, liking the way the words rolled out of his mouth, he continued on to the next type of speech in his mind.

"You know that you'd do the same in my position." Naruto said and then laughed heartily, again satisfied with how he sound.

"I really had a great time today, I hope you did too." He flashed a grin, that reminded him somewhat of his own but that didn't really matter to him.

"I don't know what it must be like for you...but I think I can understand, even if it's just a little bit..." Naruto closed his eyes at the end, nodding once to himself, being satisfied that his voice was good for any emotion as a voice could possibly be.

"Now let's try to keep this up until noon and all of that while working hard on perfecting Rasengan!" Naruto told himself.

He was getting slowly better at having the chakra randomly rotating in one hand, but it was still far weaker than his own version that he used with help of his Kage Bunshin.

As Naruto closed his eyes and focused chakra in his right hand, a funny thought crossed his mind, "Heh maybe now that I look like Yondaime, maybe I'll be able to perfect the Rasengan as well."

Naruto opened his eyes and looked at the rotating blue orb of chakra in his hand. It was rotating but only in a few directions that could obviously be seen. Wanting to figure out how powerful it was this time, Naruto thrust his palm into a nearby tree, "Rasengan!"

As the orb hit the trunk of the tree, it didn't last very long before shattering and leaving a mark behind.

"Just as I thought...I still suck at controlling it with just one hand..." Naruto let out a sigh, "Oh well, better train deeper inside the forest in case anyone plans on coming to this specific training ground and hears me training, only to find someone they've never seen before...most likely."

Naruto put his hands in his pockets, looked around twice and then jumped into the deeper part of the forest. Just as he left, the tree he had hit with his Rasengan cracked and fell back, landing on a tree directly behind it, barely making any sound other than the leafs rubbing against one another.

As Naruto had told himself, he trained until noon, or in other words, he stopped training when his stomach loudly growled out of the need for food. Satisfied with the result of being able to keep Henge up all the time until then, Naruto popped back to his normal looks and headed towards Ichiraku Ramen.

He arrived there soon enough, and was greeted by old man Ichiraku as usual, "Welcome, Naruto! The usual, I presume?" He asked jokingly as he knew Naruto would most of the time order his favourite ramen.

"Of course! How's business today?" Naruto asked grinning widely.

"Ah, we've made enough profit in the morning. Surprisingly so, considering usually you are one of the few that come and eat ramen in the morning..." Ichiraku-san said as he rubbed his chin in thought.

"Well anyway, let's get your ramen up and ready! Ayame, Naruto will have his usual ramen." Ichiraku-san stated as he turned towards his daughter, who was busy preparing more ramen since around lunchtime, usually more people would drop in.

"Good afternoon, Naruto-kun." Ayame smiled at Naruto as she turned around to face him.

"Good afternoon, Ayame-chan! How are you?" Naruto asked grinning widely.

"I'm fine, thank you. Oh! That reminds me! Father, do you mind if I leave for an hour with Naruto-kun after he's done eating his ramen?" Ayame slapped her hands together and begged her father.

Ichiraku-san looked at Naruto, who looked slightly dumbfounded back towards him and then Naruto's stomach loudly grumbled. The old man flashed a grin at Naruto, "Well, it looks like Naruto plans on staying here for a lot of bowls, so you'd better get to work then. Though that hour is coming out of your pay, of course."

"Thank you!" Ayame tilted her head and smiled at her father, "You greedy old man, you already decided to cut out of my pay for the hours I missed on that date with Naruto that you forced me to take..."

"Hehehe..." Naruto grinned sheepishly and rubbed the back of his head, "Wow, I sense a weird atmosphere here...Like someone's plotting something or stuff like that."

Half an hour and eight bowls of delicious Ramen later, Naruto finally had his stomach full.

"Ah...I'm stuffed...Ramen is extra good after training..." Naruto slouched and let out a joyful and content sigh.

"Then, let us be on our way, Naruto-kun." Ayame said as she walked over towards him from behind the counter.

"And you're leaving me behind with eight huge dishes to clean up?" Ichiraku-san asked as he looked at the pile of dishes he had to clean up from Naruto's lunch.

Ayame stuck out her tongue at her father and grabbed onto Naruto's hand, "Come on Naruto-kun, let's go!"

As Ayame abruptly pulled Naruto from his seat, he needed to start running after her, "Oi! Take it easy, Ayame-chan!"

After pulling him after her for a block, they slowed down a bit, "What's the rush anyway?"

"Don't you want to see if you've gotten any replies?"

"Eh...This fast?" Naruto said before the thought came to his mind that he'd at least be able to read, "Well, I'm certain there is one reply, but I don't think we need to hurry to read it, right?"

"Well, I want to read them too, you know. And besides we need to write replies to the replies."

"Then, will an hour be enough?"

"Let's hope so, else you are on your own." Ayame winked and playfully stuck her tongue out at Naruto.

As soon as they arrived at Ayame's house, the mailman did as well, handing a bunch of letters to her before heading on to the next house.

"Naruto-kun, could you open the door for me?" Ayame asked, as she had her hands full carrying the scrolls.

"Eh...sure. Where's your key?"

"It's in my left pocket."

Naruto reached in her left pocket and Ayame slightly turned red as hand gently ran over the thin fabric that was between his fingertips and her leg.

"Ah, there it is." Naruto grinned and pulled the keys out, unlocking the door the next moment.

"Thank you."

Once inside they put the scrolls on the table, Ayame sorted them out and then handed four of them to Naruto, "These belong to you. Looks like it's more than you expected, Naruto-kun. Let's go up to my room so we can start writing as soon as we finished reading all of them."

"Wow...I got four replies." Naruto blinked at the scrolls and as he followed Ayame to her room, he wondered what was written within them.

They sat down across each other on Ayame's bed. Naruto stared at the four scrolls on his lap, still processing the fact that four out of the five he had sent had replied already.

"Well, open the first one then!" Ayame smiled at him, eager to know the contents of the letters for herself as well.

Naruto took a scroll and let the others rest on Ayame's bed. With a quick and swift movement, he opened the scroll and read the first few lines, "It's from Tenten."

"Well...? Come on, tell me what it says."

"Ahem...Alright, here goes..." Naruto replied and scratched his throat.

Dear Nemar-kun,

To sum everything up what your letter did to me, I melted instantly.
However, I do not know how to reply to be honest...I have an idea about who you might be, but I might as well be dead wrong about that as well.
Either way, whether you are or aren't him doesn't really matter. Based on what I read in your letter, I still like you the way you are.

I...never really thought someone would think like that about me. I even cried after I finished it! Isn't that just silly of me? Hehehe... But...I just want to know this first... I want to know if you are Neji. Because that's who I think you are.

If so, Neji...I'd love to go out on a date with you...All you had to do was ask me in person...
Oh god, now I'm starting to cry again! Sorry...I'm being kind of emotional at the time I'm writing this...Don't really know why...

And...'Nemar-kun', even if you aren't Neji...I'd like to meet you...I want to see if you are just as kind and sweet and...well, all the other things I think you are after reading your sweet letter.

If you really are someone like that, then I'd gladly go out with you on a date at least once.
After that we'll see what happens, right?
Please write back soon. I'm anxiously awaiting your reply.
Love,

Tenten.

"Hmmm...Well, it looks like she really likes that Neji person as well." Ayame's first reply to the letter sounded.

"Yeah, I guess so. I didn't expect her to cry at the end of reading that letter though." Naruto scratched the back of his head, "I kinda feel bad for making her cry."

"Oh, come on Naruto-kun! She cried out of joy that the letter was so sweet! It was your thoughts and feelings for her that made her melt and cry!"

"Yeah, I guess you're right about her crying out of joy. Still, I don't really like to see a girl cry...It makes me feel kind of bad, ehehe." Naruto grinned widely.

"Alright. So, we'll have to set something up for you and Tenten so you can meet then. But we'll discuss those matters later. On to the next letter, Naruto-kun!" Ayame said as she shuffled over to his side, leaned her head on his shoulder so she could read the next letter with him.

"Ah..." Naruto looked over to Ayame's face next to him, "Wow, she really looks pretty..."

"Naruto-kun, what's wrong?" She asked as she looked with a slight hint of worry in her eyes at him.

"Ah! Nothing at all! Let's open the next letter!" Naruto waved his hands frantically while grinning sheepishly before opening the next letter.

"Let's see...this one is from...Ino, it seems." Naruto stated as he looked at the sender's address.

Dear Nemar-kun,

Just so you know I'm going to give you a couple of questions right away that I want answered.
Why? Well, because it's important for me to know and so you instantly can write that in a reply to me, of course!
Well, let's start the questioning then.
How tall are you? I don't want to go out with some giant guy that scares the crap out of poor little old me.

How old are you? If you're some perverted old man I'm going to hunt you down and have you arrested!

What color are your eyes?

What color is your hair?

How much do you weigh? Sorry, but if you're too fat then well...we just wouldn't match, I'm kind of thin you know and I don't believe really in the whole 'Opposites attract' thing...

What size shoes do you wear?

And since we're on the topic of clothing, what are all your other clothing sizes? Maybe I could get you something cute then on our date and all, hehehe...

Oh! And...what...eh...hm...is the size of yo...

"HOLY CRAP!" Naruto cried out as he threw the scroll away from him like the Kyuubi's claw just snapped out of it, trying to kill him.

"I think...she wants to go out with you." Ayame nodded and then started giggling.

"...I got that, alright...She's probably Anko's prodigy or something..." Naruto said and let out a sigh.

"Oh! That date! How did it go?" Ayame asked, excited to know about Naruto's date last night.

"I'd rather not talk about it, but if you really want to know, I'll tell you later..." Naruto grabbed the next scroll and opened it.

"Oh! This one is from Sakura-chan!" Naruto's mood instantly improved and a huge smile formed on his face.

Dear Nemar-kun,

I don't really know what to say...I'm flattered by your letter.
But I'd rather not go on a blind date...But I do want to meet you!
Ehm...Well...This is kind of embarrassing to say but...recently a lot of guys kind of started asking me out and all...
I think I've grown a bit too popular for my own good, wouldn't you say so?

Anyway this might sound a bit bitchy or...whatever but, sorry, you have to go and stand in line along with every other guy that wants a date. But like I said before, I DO want to meet you. Maybe...Maybe if I get to know you a bit better, then I'd go out with you, but not right now without even having the slightest clue about who you are.

So please, tell me where I could meet you...And it better be a public place or else you are in a lot of trouble, mister! I AM the Hokage's apprentice you know...! Just so you know who you'd get on your ass when you try something weird with me...
Anyway, let me know where and when and I'll come and meet you in person!
Buh-bye!

Haruno Sakura

"Oh...Sakura-chan doesn't want to go on a date with me...also I have more competition than I did three years ago it seems..." Naruto pouted.

"But, she wants to meet 'you'. If you give her a good first impression, she might reconsider about whether or not to have a date with you." Ayame said reassuringly to Naruto.

"Yeah, you're right...! Then, I'd better get ready for it! I'll show you my amazing jutsu after this last one!" Naruto cheerfully picked the last scroll.

"It's probably from Hinata...A letter from Sunagakure takes a bit longer to arrive here, probably..." Naruto stated as he opened the scroll, confirming that he was right and that the last letter was from Hinata.

Dear Nemar-kun,

I'm truly honoured that you think of me this way. I was surprised when I got the letter, no one ever sends me a letter, let alone one like this... I even fainted just because of...well...who I thought it was from.
I'm sorry, please forgive me, but I...can not go out with you.

I really hope you aren't hurt too bad by this, but...there is someone who I already love with all my heart and so much more. And...and no matter what you say, I won't change my mind about him. I love everything about him.

His beautiful blonde locks...His shining blue eyes that are filled with joy most of the time...his strong will to become strong and protect his loved ones. But, I just faint every time I'm near him...I doubt he even thinks of me as more than just another friend...
I really love him no matter what though! Even...even if he...

So, that's why I can't go out with you, Nemar-kun. If he'd see us and he did have even the slightest hint of feelings for me, then I'd hurt him terribly and I never want to hurt him.
Please forgive me and I hope we can still meet each other and be friends, if you want to.
Sincerely,

Hyuuga Hinata

"Hinata likes someone? Wow, I never thought of that..." Naruto rubbed his chin in thought.

"Naruto..."

"Hm? What's wrong, Ayame-chan?" Naruto looked at Ayame with a hint of confusion, as she was reading the letter again.

"Think about it for a second. Who do you know with blonde hair and blue eyes?"

"Ehm...Yondaime Hokage has that but I don't know him personally and he's dead..." Naruto tapped his chin in thought.

"Naruto, didn't you tell me that Hinata always faints around you?" Ayame emphasized the last part hoping to get through to him.

"Ehm...Yeah, she does that a lot...I don't really get why though..."

Ayame placed her hands on his cheeks, turned his head towards her mirror and tried to ask him again, "Look in the mirror, Naruto-kun...Who do you know with blue eyes and blonde hair? And who does Hinata faint around?"

"Er...me?"

"That's right. You."

Naruto blinked at his reflection a couple of times and then he slightly jumped up, "EEEH?! ARE YOU TELLING ME HINATA LIKES ME?!"

"Correct." Ayame stuck her tongue out at Naruto in the mirror.

Naruto jumed up from her bed and started freaking out, "But how?! When?! Why?! What should I do?! Oh god! Hinata?! She likes me?! What the in the world?!"

"Hey, Naruto, calm down." Ayame got up from her bed and held Naruto still, "It's obvious, isn't it? You can go out on a date with her. And if all goes well and you like her enough you two can go out on Valentine's Day and become a couple."

"But what about...Sakura-chan...?! And Ino?! And, and Tenten?!"

"We need you to meet all of them as 'Nemar-kun', so you can still go out with them if needed be and all. Listen up. We'll just write one letter that is directed at all the girls and tell them you'll be meeting them on a certain time and place or something...Also, if Temari sends in a reply later we have always the chance to have 'Nemar-kun' meet her later since she's in Sunagakure anyway...Do you understand?"

Naruto nodded and Ayame let go off him as he had finally calmed down.

"Then, I can meet all of them tomorrow!" Naruto flashed a grin.

"Huh? How so?" Ayame looked confused at Naruto, who was still grinning.

"I already figured out who to henge in and all. That's what I wanted to show you!"

Ayame smiled warmly at Naruto, "Well, go ahead and show me then."

Naruto cracked his knuckles, "Alright...Here goes..." He smirked and formed the 'henge-handseal'.

Naruto didn't even need to speak out the words anymore and just transformed into Yondaime Hokage, with his own set of clothing. Ayame blinked and stared at him as the smoke slowly vanished.

"I'm Nemar. Nice to meet you." Naruto said and instantly, Ayame's eyes seemed to sparkle as she slowly stumbled forward towards him.

"Is something wrong Ayame-chan? You look...different."

Ayame got as close as her body could to Naruto, who eyed her kind of awkwardly as she stared into his eyes.

"Ayame-chan?" Naruto placed a hand on Ayame's arm, something he regretted a moment later as Ayame squealed as loud as humanly possible and then fainted into Naruto's arms.

"What in the...?" Naruto thought as he picked Ayame up and carefully laid her down on her bed.

A couple of moments later, Ayame slowly opened her eyes again.

"Ayame-chan? Are you alright? You just passed out, just like that." Naruto blinked at her, still being in his Yondaime form.

"Naruto...?" Naruto nodded in reply.

Ayame squealed again, this time less loud than the last time, jumped onto Naruto and brought him down on the floor.

"CUTE! TOO CUTE!" Ayame exclaimed as she looked looked at Naruto's face again, before dropping her body onto his and tightly hugging him.

"You're so cute! Not to mention extremely hot!" Ayame gave Naruto a kiss on his cheek,"Hug me, Naruto! Kiss me, Naruto! Anything!"

Ayame squealed again and rubbed her cheek against Naruto's. Naruto slightly pushed Ayame up, so he could breath normally at least, "Eh...Ayame-chan? Do you know what you are saying?"

Ayame stared into Naruto's confused eyes, that were looking awkwardly at her as well, and she flushed red, "Of course I do. Right now, you're the hottest guy I've seen in a long while!"

"Well, I guess Yondaime was as good looking as Ero-sennin said then." Naruto grinned sheepishly, not really sure where all this would lead.

"Really...You look so cute, Naruto-kun." Ayame let out a sigh and rested her head on Naruto's chest, "I wish that guys like him were more common..."

"Ehm...Ayame-chan?"

Ayame tilted her head up and looked at Naruto, "Yeah?"

"Even though I like you complimenting on the succes of my new Henge no Jutsu, we still have to write those letters..." Naruto said before adding softly, "...and it's kinda hard to breathe with you pressing the life out of my body..."

Ayame sat straight up on Naruto, putting all of her weight onto Naruto's stomach, "What was that! Are you telling me I'm heavy?!"

"Ah! Ayame-chan!"

"Don't 'Ayame-chan' me! You're telling me that I'm fat?!"

"You aren't! But you're pushing the life out of my body!"

"If you were at least just a bit man you would be able to resist a feather light women like me!"

"Ayame-chan!"

"Oh no, you're not going to pass out, mister! Not because of just my body!"

"Naruto-kun?" She let out when Naruto stopped replying.

"Alright then...Time to give CPR to the hotty." Ayame smirked and got off Naruto to give him CPR.

"AH! ALRIGHT, ALRIGHT! I'M ALIVE AND WELL! NO CPR! I NEED A GOOD NIGHT'S REST!" Naruto jumped up and looked frightened at Ayame, who was sitting on her knees next to where he had been lying only a second ago.

"...I...give you...bad dreams?" Ayame asked and Naruto could notice there was an obvious hint of sadness in her voice.

"No, no. that's not it. Really. Though I'd rather not say what it is though...But you don't give me nightmares! At all! Unless you maybe like put on a very scary face and jump out of the dark all of a sudden or something..." Naruto said as he sheepishly smiled and rubbed the back of his head.

Ayame blinked at Naruto, though she was happy she didn't give Naruto nightmares, the other thought of that he did dream about her began to sink in.

"Oh my gosh! Naruto!" Ayame pointed at his face as she stood up rather abruptly with a look of shock on her face, "You mean you..."

"Huh...what?"

"You mean you actually dream those kind of dreams about me!"

"Huh? Those kind of dreams?" Naruto had a clueless expression on his face as he looked at Ayame, who slowly backed away until she hit the wall behind her.

"I don't know what to say, Naruto...Should I feel honored or be afraid..."

"Wh-Who knows...? I'm not sure what you're talking about, ehehehe...What are those kind of dreams?" Naruto asked innocently, scratching his cheek, "There's no way she knows exactly what I dreamed...right?"

"You're even going to try and make me say it out loud? Naruto, you're awful..." Ayame avoided his gaze to the best of her ability and tried to hide the bright red blush on her face.

"Eh...no, I...I didn't...uhm..." Naruto let out, not sure if anything he could say at this point would help him.

A silence followed that Naruto felt was all too awkward, until he heard Ayame giggle.

'Uhm...Ayame-chan?" Naruto tilted his head in wonder as Ayame threw a wonderful smile.

"I'm awful for teasing you like this, I suppose. Let's pretend this conversation never happened, shall we? It's probably the best for both of us." She declared.

"I guess? If you say so..." Naruto said tipping his head over to his other shoulder, feeling more and more unsure as to what was really going on inside Ayame's mind.

"I have to say though, seeing you at a loss for words in that form is...odd. You better not do that on your dates." Ayame replied as she walked back to her bed.

Naruto looked at himself and realized he was still maintaining the Henge no Jutsu to look like the Fourth. He canceled the technique and shrugged, "I'm pretty sure I won't be having conversations like the one we just had, so I should be fine."

"Well, you never know. I got an idea for the replies we're sending to these letters though, so let's stop messing around and get to it, shall we?" Ayame said as she hopped back onto her bed, "Oh, and go visit Hinata-chan later today. The sooner we know if the person she likes really is you, the better!"

"Hehehe...That will be hard to do...I have the feeling she'll just faint again and her family will probably hate me for it...Her old man's pretty scary from what I remember. Maybe it's best if I don't go there...? Ahahaha." Naruto laughed sheepishly.

"I don't care about any of that. Just go, Naruto. It's a mission of love or death." Ayame said and stuck her tongue out at Naruto.

"Mission, huh..." Naruto let out a sigh, feeling Shikamaru's most common thought going through his head, "This is going to be troublesome..."

About an hour later, Naruto's heart was pounding as he was standing in front of a door, staring at the scroll he was holding in his hands.

"Haruno Residence." It read on the name plate that was crafted onto the front door.

"Mom! I'll be heading out now!" Naruto heard Sakura's voice yell from inside.

"Crap!" Naruto quickly dropped the scroll onto the floor and quickly ran away.

Just as the door opened, Naruto disappeared around the corner and Sakura noted the scroll lying on the floor as she nearly stepped on it.

"Huh...A scroll? That's odd...Who is it addressed to?" Sakura said as she picked it up from the ground.

"To: Haruno Sakura, Yamanka Ino, Hyuuga Hinata and Tenten..." Sakura read out loud and blinked at the scroll.

Naruto ran as fast as he could, in case Sakura still noticed him going around the corner.

His pace did not slow one bit until he was far away from Sakura's house, to be precise, near the Hokage's Tower, "Damn, that was scary...If she had seen me I'd be in a lot of trouble..."

Two particular green suited men then got Naruto's attention with their loud voices.

"Hokage-sama is amazing with medical jutsu, isn't she my adorable student Lee!"

"Hai, Gai-sensei! She is truly amazing! I barely feel pain in my broken youthful nose!" Lee saluted his sensei.

"And she's burning with youth as well! Lee! I think I'm going ask her hand in marriage so we can have many youthful children!"

"Eh..." Naruto walked up towards the duo, "Gai-sensei, you...really considering to ask Tsunade-obachan to marry you...?"

As Naruto look dumbfounded towards Gai as he struck the nice guy pose, "Of course I am! She's brimming with the spirit of youth and therefore she is the only woman worthy to marry my youthfulness!"

"Gai-sensei! Can I be the big brother to all your youthful children!"

"Of course Lee!" Gai said pointing his nice guy pose at Lee and his teeth sparkling once again, "We'll adopt you right away!"

"O-Ossu!" Lee straightend up again and saluted once more.

"Now I shall go back inside and ask Tsunade-sama to marry me!" Gai said and headed back towards the Hokage's Tower.

"...Oh boy...Who should I feel more sorry for, Tsunade-obachan being embarrassed by him or Gai-sensei for getting punched in the face by Tsunade-obachan..." Naruto let out a sigh.

"I refuse!" Just as Gai was about to head into the tower, Anko's voice came yelling out of it followed by a flying Jiraiya with a red hand print on his face.

Jiraiya knocked into Gai, sending the youthful noble green beast of Konoha flying back as well, gasping for air and soon they both landed on top of Lee, who fell face down on the ground as he tried to escape the flying men.

As they lay down on the ground, steaming off from the high velocity at which they traveled through the air and from Anko's slap to Jiraiya's face, said female jounin took a step out of the Hokage's Tower and pointed towards Jiraiya, "I'd never go out for dinner with a dirty old lech like you!"

Naruto blinked at the pile of men in green and the Ero-sennin lying on top of both of the green beasts of Konoha, only to realize a second later that Anko could see him. Before he knew what happened, Anko was behind him with her arms wrapped around him, "Yo Naru-chan. Do you feel like having a second date with lil' old me?"

Naruto carefully turned his head towards the widely grining Anko. She had his full attention, but that was mainly because he thought he felt some crawling over his back.

"Jiraiya-sama! What are you doing! I was just about to declare my pure and youthful love to Tsunade-sama and ask her hand in marriage!" Gai shouted, drawing Naruto's attention back to the three men.

Jiraiya jumped off them and pointed at Gai, "You were about to what! Like Tsunade would marry a guy like you!"

"Of course! She's burning with youth and so am I!"

"You'd drive her nuts!"

"I wouldn't! I'd have her carry my youthful babies!"

"Even though she looks like twenty, she's over fifty! She can't have babies!"

"Oh yes she can! Her youthfulness will make sure of that!"

"My nose! My nose! It's bleeding again!" Lee wailed in between the two arguing men.

"My...They're so loud..." Anko said as she looked with one eye towards the men and held her other one shut, "How about we go to...Naru-chan?"

Anko noticed that Naruto was missing from her hold and thus she was holding nothing but air and frantically looked for Naruto around her, "Naru-chan?!"

"Sorry, Anko-sensei! I have something else to do! Maybe we'll chat again!" Naruto shouted as he darted off as fast as possible, before adding in a whisper, "...like in my next life."

"Naru-chan! Don't leave me with these goofballs!" Anko cried out.

"Sorry, can't hear youuuuu!" Naruto yelled and ran around the nearest corner and out of sight.

Meanwhile, the heated argument between Gai and Jiraiya reached it's climax.

"Alright, that's it! I'll show you that Tsunade wants someone that isn't some crazy lunatic!"

"What was that! Am I crazy?! I'm burning with youth! I can not be crazy!"

"The hell you are!" Jiraiya quickly formed a couple of handseals as the soil underneath Gai's feet began to soften and sink the noble green beast of Konoha into it.

"Ah! That's unfair, Jiraiya-sama!" Gai said as he tried to pull his feet out.

"Like I care!" Jiraiya said and then quickly ran into the Hokage's Tower, passing by some chuunin and jounin that were on their way to do their own business.

As he reached Tsunade's office he slammed the door wide open, "Tsunade!"

Shizune jumped at the sudden entrance of Jiraiya while Tsunade just looked dully at him, "What is it this time, Jiraiya..."

Jiraiya jogged over towards her in sennin-style, surprising Tsunade when he kneeled down besides her and took her hand, "Will you marry me?"

Shizune gasped in shock as did Tsunade and a cold breeze passed through the room as Jiraiya awaited Tsunade's answer.

In the time it took for Jiraiya to trap Gai and run all the way through the Hokage tower, Naruto had run all the way to his next destination, the Hyuuga compound.

As he was catching his breath from his escape from the, for him at least, ever scary Anko at full speed for what felt like ages, Naruto glanced into the Hyuuga's courtyard to see if he could find the heiress of Hyuuga main family. Unfortunately for him, Hinata was nowhere to be found. Neji, however, was making his through the courtyard, which was the second best thing that could happen to Naruto.

"I'm lucky...I'd hate to go and ask Hinata's father for being accepted into the compound...He looks so strict and perhaps like...overprotective or something..." Naruto thought as he quickly headed towards Neji, "Yo Neji!"

Neji, who was just about to enter a different part of the compound turned around to face Naruto, "Naruto? That's a surprise...I never thought I'd find you visiting us here..."

"Ah...Well, you know..." Naruto sheepishly grinned and rubbed the back of his head, "I kinda...came here to see Hinata...Do you know where she is?"

"Hinata-sama...?" Neji blinked a couple of times at Naruto, "...She's in the second garden. Most likely taking a swim in the small lake we built there, as it has become her second favourite activity...I'll show you the way."

"Second garden...?" Naruto looked dumbfounded towards Neji as he followed him to where Hinata was.

"Yes. We have two gardens, and as a matter of fact also two courtyards...One is open and is able to be viewed by the 'public' that climb over the compound walls...The other is more...concealed from nosy outsiders and is a place of recreation for most of us. Hinata-sama likes to go and take a swim there from time to time."

"I see...Your uncle must have a ton of money for something like that." Naruto nodded.

Neji glanced towards Naruto, "...We're here."

Naruto looked forward and saw a path leading through various vines and bushes, "Eh! It looks like a jungle there! How am I going to find her!"

"Don't worry, it might not look like it but we used some spray from the Aburame clan to keep annoying and dangerous insects away. The plants there are all harmless. The small lake Hinata-sama is most likely at, is easily found as long as you follow the path. And since I have some matters to attend to, I'll leave you to find Hinata-sama on your own. If you don't mind." Neji stated.

"Eh, I guess that's not that hard then? Catch you later, Neji."

Neji nodded at Naruto before parting ways with him, leaving Naruto standing in front of the path to the second garden.

Naruto gulped and then starting heading down the path in front of him, pushing away the vine that obstructed the entrance to the garden. His worries and fears of the dangerous looking garden soon vanished as he was greeted by beautiful exotic flowers and singing birds from the trees.

After wandering over the path for a short while, it widened and a small creek joined it with water steadily heading towards a single direction. Figuring the water lead towards the lake where Hinata was supposed to be, Naruto decided to follow the creek and see where it lead.

A little over a minute later, Naruto found the lake he was searching for yet the young Hyuuga heiress was nowhere to be found.

"Damn. Looks like I missed her..." Naruto said as he was just about to turn around when he heard the splashing sound of water.

Hinata rose up in the center of the small lake, water still dripping of her hair from her dive out of it.

The water drops that fell off her shined in all the colors of a rainbow due to the sunrays that managed to pierce through the roof of vines and leaves, Naruto being amazed by the sight and spoke his thoughts out loud, "Wow...Talk about beautiful..."

Hinata's face turned into a state of surprise upon hearing the familiar voice and she turned towards the direction from which the sound came, "N-Na...Naruto-kun?"

"Yo Hinata." Naruto grinned sheepishly at the young lady from the Hyuuga clan and rubbed the back of his head.

Her face flushed red as she realized Naruto was really standing there, "Naruto-kun...He's...he's really standing there...I'm not dreaming!" She thought and then something else hit her in her mind.

"Kyaaa!" Hinata screamed yet not too loud and quickly dropped down into the water until it covered all the way up to her mouth as she blushed a deep shade of red.

She followed him with her eyes as Naruto walked around the shore of the lake, "This looks really great...Hope you won't mind if I just jump in."

"Eh?" Hinata let out as Naruto grinned widely at her with his usual grin, "Naruto-kun...is going to...oh my..."

Hinata flushed a deeper shade of red and turned around to face away from Naruto as he began to take off his clothes.

Naruto stripped down to his boxers and then dived into the lake and spoke up once he stuck out above the surface once more, "Wow! This is amazing! The water feels so good!"

Hinata shyly nodded and Naruto made his way towards her enjoying the lake's pure water as he did so, "Hey, Hinata. I know this is sudden, but I came here to have a talk with you. Face to face, that is."

She nodded once again and shyly looked towards Naruto, who was now standing only a few inches away from her. Hinata put her hand towards her lips and took a slight step back, scared of fainting from standing this close to Naruto.

"You came to...talk to me?...W-why?"

"Well...I've got something to ask you." Naruto grinned and rubbed the back of his head again.

"A-ask me!...Wha-what is it?" Hinata asked, growing more nervous every second.

Naruto blinked at Hinata, who was turning brighter red as time passed as well.

"Listen, It's really important to well...both of us, so please don't faint around me like you usually do!" Naruto grabbed a hold of her hands, pulling her look up towards him as she blushed so badly that she felt like fainting, but she refrained from that by biting on her lower lip.

"I...I'll try my best...Wha...wha...what...d-d-do..." Hinata stumbled over her own words as Naruto still hold her hands and her mind was longing to find out what it was he wanted to ask her.

Her mind had already imagined the possible situation being her over reacting to something like this while the question would be, "Could you lend me some money! I'm short of my regular nine bowls of miso ramen!" and then her reply would be nothing but disappointingly calling out his name.

Naruto stared into her eyes and knew that she was about to faint as she averted her eyes and trembled ever so slightly.

"I...wanted to ask if..." Naruto started, hoping she really wouldn't pass out halfway during his question.

"Y-yes?"

"If you wanted to go out with me... tonight...?"

Hinata's mouth dropped open, her hands fell out of Naruto's and she felt her entire body go numb. The red shade on her face disappeared and she felt light headed as her entire face went pale white and her body swayed back and forth, before her eyes shot towards the heavens and she passed out.

"Oi! Hinata!" Naruto had caught the out cold Hyuuga girl in his arms, hoping that she heard his question at least and remembered it.

"Come on, let's get you back to solid ground so you won't drown...I can't hold you here forever if you're going to pass out continuously or something..." Naruto whispered to Hinata, who was still unconscious, as he wrapped an arm around her and started swimming back to the shore with her.

"Oneesan, I've come to..." A young girl's voice reached Naruto's ears, making him turn towards the entrance of the lake.

There, he found a girl that resembled Hinata a lot, only with sleek long hair and a slimmer body than Hinata's. She stared towards Naruto and he stared back at her until she yelled loudly, "Oh my god! A pervert! What do you think you're doing to my oneesan?!"

"Huh..." Naruto looked shocked towards her as the young girl start running over the water towards him, "No! This is a misunderstanding! I'm not a pervert!"

"I won't listen to your lies!" The girl cried out as she readied her open palms to strike Naruto.

Just then, Hinata woke up, noticing her sister charging towards her and Naruto, not even paying mind that Naruto was holding her and sped forward to stop her sister from hurting her love, "Stop, Hanabi! He's a friend of mine."

Hinata pulled herself out of Naruto's arms and stopped her sister by pulling her into the water.

"Geez...How was I supposed to know something like that, oneesan?" Hanabi pouted as she was now floating in front of Hinata in the water, "Besides what was he doing then? Holding you like that and all?"

"H-holding me?!"

"Sorry Hinata, you passed out so I wanted to take you to shore so you wouldn't drown or something...uh..." Naruto stared towards Hinata's back.

"T...thank you N..Naruto-ku..."

"Don't turn around!" Naruto quickly spun around and pointed towards her with one arm, "Y-your top..."

"Heh...?" Hinata looked down to her bikini top along with her sister and noticed that it had been untied on the back, making it partly float in the water and yet still holding onto her behind her neck.

Hinata shrieked and Hanabi pointed at her sister's bikini top and then at Naruto, "See! He wanted to do H stuff to you!"

"No, I didn't! Now hurry up and tie it up already so I can turn back around!"

Hinata flushed red and turned her back towards Hanabi, "Hanabi...would you please...?"

Her younger sister let out a sigh and helped her sister out.

A while later, Hinata and Naruto were standing on the shore and Hanabi was swimming in circles. Hinata had a towel wrapped around her shoulders and offered another towel to Naruto, "H-here...You c-can use this one...Naruto-kun..."

"Thank you Hinata." Naruto smiled warmly at her as he took the towel and dried his torso with it before laying it over his shoulder.

"Eh...ehm...you're...welcome..." Hinata said in a whisper.

"Do you... remember what I asked you before you passed out?"

"Ehm...you..." Hinata said as a shade of red once again appeared on her face, "asked me out?"

"Yeah. So...are you available tonight?" Naruto looked away, feeling embarrassed to ask the same question again.

"I'd love to go out with you...I mean...Yes! Of course! I have time! Kiba-kun and Shino-kun haven't scheduled training or something! Nor does my father or...something." Hinata was nervous, and for the first time she actually was talking really fast, not knowing what kind of responses to give to Naruto.

"The only point is I don't really know where to take you...Since I kinda feel like eating ramen tonight and I don't want to take you out to something like Ichiraku's ramen..." Naruto grinned sheepishly.

"..E-Eating r-ramen...w...with Naruto-kun...w-would be nice as well..."

"Nah, I'd just be stuffing my face and it wouldn't really be fun for you at all..." Naruto replied grinning widely.

"Fun...for me?"

"Come to think of it I don't know that much about you other then that you are a sweet girl." Naruto tapped his chin in thought as Hinata blushed bright red.

"Say, Hinata...What would you like to do with me?"

"Wha-wha-what I'd like to do with...Naruto-kun?" Hinata's face turned as red as a full grown tomato as a train of thoughts went through her mind of what she'd like to do with him.

Naruto looked surprised towards her as she started mumbling a lot of things, looking away from him and glancing at him in between mumbled phrases.

"Hey, I know something! Why don't we just go and see what we can do like start off with a walk through the park and then see if we can find something fun to do while we get to know each other a bit more!" Naruto proposed.

Hinata mumbled a couple of more things, glanced less than a second at his boxers before turning even brighter red in her face and then she snapped out of it as Naruto's words sank in, "Ah! uhm...y-yes...I'd like to g-g-et to know you a bit...better..."

Naruto grinned as he quickly dried the rest of his body with the towel and got his boxers as dry as possible before slipping back into his clothing.

Hinata held a finger against her lips and still blushed as Naruto was done getting dressed again.

"Then I'll pick you up at seven, if that's alright with you." Naruto stated and Hinata shyly nodded.

As there was a silence between them, and Naruto didn't know really what to say, he decided to take a closer look on Hinata, who was still in her bikini.

"Wow...Hinata is quite good looking...I never noticed it with the clothes she wears but she really has a nice figure..."

Naruto took Hinata's hand away from her face and tilted his head to the right and then to the left, examining and evaluating Hinata in this new light he had found her as the Hyuuga heiress gave him a confused look.

"S...Something w-wrong...Naruto-kun?" She asked hestitantly.

"Hinata..."

"Y-yes...?"

Naruto let his eyes wander over her one last time before realizing how fast Hinata fainted and thus he decided to flash his wide grin, "Ah. Never mind. I don't want you to faint again really."

"Eh...?" Hinata let out as Naruto dropped her hands and walked past her.

"I better be going now. See you tonight." Naruto stated as he continued walking onwards.

"W-wait! N-na..Naruto-kun...!" Hinata said as she hurried after him.

"My sister really acts weird sometimes..." Hanabi told herself as she continued swimming in the lake.

"What's wrong, Hinata?" Naruto asked once Hinata had caught up with him.

"Eh...ehm...w-would N-Naruto-kun...w-wait for me to...get dressed a-and...then...p-perhaps..." Hinata said fidgeting with her fingers before adding softly, "...spend some more time with me...?"

"Well, I don't really have other plans for today really...Well, not until seven tonight of course." Naruto flashed a grin at Hinata, "Sure, I'll wait for you and all."

Hinata looked with wide eyes at Naruto and blushed before heading on to her room where she could get dressed.

"Wow...She really does like me, I guess...I thought it was normal for her to act like this around all guys except maybe Kiba and Shino right now...but she really blushes a lot more around me then around other people..."

Naruto followed Hinata to her room and along the entire way they hadn't spoken a word to each other, yet Naruto felt the silence between them wasn't awkward. When Hinata headed into her room and closed the door behind her, Naruto leaned against it and waited a few moments before speaking up, "Hinata?"

Naruto waited for Hinata to reply before continue to speak up and after a second or two she finally did, "Y-yes Naruto-kun...?"

"Do you think...that I'm scary?" Naruto asked as he remembered what Ayame said on his date with her about that Hinata might be scared of him and that it was because of that she passed out. Although Ayame said it was a joke, it could still have been a possibility.

"N-no...Of course n-not...Na-Naruto-kun...isn't scary...Did N-Naruto-kun think that...I thought of Na...Naruto-kun as a...scary person?"

"No." Naruto smiled widely, "It was just that might be the reason why you faint every time I'm near you...that or the other thing I had in mind. And since you don't find me scary, it is the other thing, right?"

In her room, half dressed Hinata flushed red and waited for Naruto to say more, wondering what he'd say.

"I know what it really is...but it's still too soon to let you know so, sorry Hinata..." Naruto grinned to himself and spoke up, "That you faint because the power I'm radiating! Must be a lot of pressure to feel for some girls!"

Hinata hung her head down in disappointment,"...Naruto-kun..."

Naruto chuckled for a moment and then Hinata smiled to herself before giggling a little bit.

"Oi, what's so funny!" Naruto asked grinning, though Hinata didn't see the wide grin on his face and thought he was mad at her.

"S-sorry...N-naruto-kun...I...I didn't mean...I wasn't...please...d-don't be m-mad a-at me..."

Naruto blinked at hearing Hinata almost burst out in tears and then knew exactly what would cheer her up.

Laughing heartily before speaking up again would most likely do the trick, "Weird girl. I wouldn't get mad at you for being happy. I guess it's one of the things I like about you. Always wanting to spread love through the world and make sure everyone's happy."

"I...I'm sorry..." Hinata said in a soft tone but loud enough so Naruto could still hear it.
"Siiiilly." Naruto said playfully, "There's no need to apologize. Just hurry up and get dressed. If you take too long, I'll have to go again."

"Done!" Hinata said as she quickly pulled the door open. Naruto who was leaning against it fell back by loss of the support to his back and fell on top of Hinata.

"Geez...That was quite a surprise...I didn't expect you to be in such a rush." Naruto said as he got off Hinata and rubbed his sore butt before flashing a grin at her.

"S-sorry..."

"Ah, don't worry about it. I'm more worried about hurting you than getting hurt myself." Naruto said as he got up and dusted himself off before helping, although she didn't really need it, Hinata up from the floor as well.

Hinata flushed red, still feeling the warmth of Naruto's body on her own as Naruto just grinned at her.

"Well...ehh..Let's get going or something, right?" Naruto asked and Hinata only shyly nodded in reply.

As they walked back out to the courtyard, a silence hung between the two of them as it did before.

"Hey Hinata! ...Naruto? What are you doing here?" Sakura yelled from the entrance of the Hyuuga compound.

"Sakura-san?"

"Sakure-chan?!" Naruto said at the same time as Hinata, the only difference being Naruto's eyes widening, "Oh crap! I forgot that she'd go and visit all of the girls!"

Just then Ino walked up next to Sakura, looking rather annoyed at the world of some reason and followed behind her was Tenten, whose gaze was constantly fixated at the ground for some reason.

"What are you all doing here?" Naruto asked, pretending to not know why they were here.

"None of your business, Naruto..." Ino said and stuck her nose up in the air.

"Oh boy, she really is annoyed...Yesterday she was all friendly and stuff and today she's like this...man, am I glad I'm not 'Nemar' right now or what..."

"Tenten, do you mind telling me why?" Naruto asked grinning at Tenten, as he considered Ino to be far too annoyed or pissed off to try once again, "I'm sure it isn't because of me or Hinata for that matter, right?"

"Actually Naruto..." Sakura spoke up before Tenten could even reply and looked at the scroll.

Just as Sakura wanted to state that they were there for Hinata, Tenten interrupted her, "Naruto! Where's Neji?!"

"Neji...?" Naruto repeated as Hinata looked equally confused at the weapons mistress.

Tenten's eyes saddened for a moment before she abruptly ran past Hinata and Naruto and into the courtyard.

"Hey Tenten! Wait up!" Naruto called after her before running after her.

Sakura blinked at the two for a moment then turned towards Hinata, "Hinata, we came to get you as we have a message for you and...well...Ino, Tenten and myself as well apparently..."

"Huh...?" Hinata said dreamy.

Naruto ran as fast as he could after Tenten, who ran through the halls of the Hyuuga compound in search of Neji. He didn't know what really made him run after Tenten in the first place.

Maybe to stop her from getting more heartbroken than she already was. Then again, maybe he'd be in the way of her confession to Neji in a few minutes and have the Hyuuga turn the girl down because Naruto was around and he didn't want to lose his 'reputation' or something.

A countless number of possibilities ran through Naruto's head what could be the situation in a couple of minutes, yet there was one he didn't even think about. Tenten stopped at the end of a hallway and Naruto stopped a feet or two behind her.

"Naruto..." Naruto heard her say and he decided to listen to what she wanted to say to him.

"I'm...an idiot, am I not?"

Naruto's face looked stunned for a moment, before he grinned widely with his usual fox grin, even though she couldn't see it, and placed his heads behind his head "What are you saying? You're no idiot. I'm supposed to be the biggest idiot of them all and you are way smarter than me. All that distance calculating and stuff with weapons. I'd never be able to do that. You're smart, Tenten."

Tenten turned around to face Naruto and streams of tears ran over her cheeks, "That's not what makes me an idiot...I'm an idiot for believing that he'd actually write something like that..."

Naruto blinked at her, pretending not to know that Neji wasn't the guy that wrote her a love letter and that it wasn't in fact Naruto himself who did so, "You found out it wasn't him?"

Tenten stumbled forward and suddenly hugged Naruto and cried onto his shoulder, "I wanted it to be him so badly...I'm an idiot."

"Then...If you like him why won't you just say so?" Naruto asked as he looked down towards Tenten who still let tears run freely onto his shoulder.

"Don't be foolish..." She cried, "A guy like him would just coldly ignore any confession...And...and...I don't want to lose him as a friend..."

Naruto placed his hands on her back as she softly sniffed before resting his head on hers and closing his eyes, "It's going to be alright..."

Tenten's sniffing stopped but she still continued letting tears run from her eyes onto Naruto's shirt.

Unnoticed by the two young shinobi, a certain Hyuuga from the Branch Family stood around the corner with his Byakugan activated. He saw the two hugging each other and he had only been there for a split second, missing the fact that Tenten was crying out on Naruto's shoulder.

Shocked to find the two of them here, he gritted his teeth tightly, not moving from his spot.

"Alright, let's head back to the others now...ok?" Naruto whispered.

Tenten softly nodded and pulled herself away from Naruto, who in return let go of her, though he held a arm around her shoulder for comfort to make sure she'd feel alright and the two of them walked back towards the others.

Unknown to them, around the corner on the other side, Neji tightened his grasp on a scroll. A second later he threw it up into the air and with a fierce swipe of his feet, snapped the scroll into two.

"To Ten..." One half said as the other half read the remainder of the person who it was addressed to, "Ten."

With anger raging through his body, the young Hyuuga Prodigy turned around and fiercely walked back towards his room.

Meanwhile, Naruto and Tenten were making their way back towards the courtyard. Tenten felt relieved and was already joking around with Naruto though her apology about wetting his shirt was sincere, "I'm sorry I messed up your shirt, Naruto."

"Hehe. Don't worry about it. I bet it felt good to let it all come out or something like that. But you know. Even though that guy isn't Neji, you still liked what he said in his letter right?"

Tenten grinned shortly at him but her grin grimaced before she spoke up, "Yeah...But I'm not the only one he likes...He also likes Sakura, Ino and Hinata..."

"Well...er...maybe he just doesn't know which great kunoichi to chose! I mean your all really great and stuff!"

Tenten stared at him for a second and then started laughing at him, "Thanks, Naruto. I appreciate the compliment, even though I didn't expect it from someone like you."

Realizing what he just had said, Naruto waved his hands energetically, "I...I don't mean it that way! Really! I just think you all like...gotten a whole lot stronger since two and a half years ago! That's all!"

"That's another compliment, Naruto." Tenten said still snickering about Naruto feeling embarrassed for complimenting her and the others.

Tenten's laughter was what made Hinata, Ino and Sakura take notice of the two shinobi approaching them.

"Oh...This is a surprise..." Ino said as she noticed Tenten's sudden cheerful mood and the large wet stain on Naruto's shirt.

"Huh? What is?" Naruto asked.

"Naruto...Why didn't you tell us Tenten was your..." Ino said teasingly as she raised a pinky at him.

Tenten slightly blushed as did Naruto as he looked with wide eyes at Ino and Hinata shyly towards Naruto.

"N-No, we're not...!" Naruto replied, "Well at least she is in a slightly better mood now as well..."

"Oh...really, huh?" Ino said teasing as she nudged Tenten who just looked moderately annoyed towards Ino.

"Na-Naruto-kun?" Hinata stuttered as she looked Naruto, who looked back at her at this point.

"No, really, Hinata. Tenten and I are friends, nothing else!"

Sakura decided to join Ino in teasing her blonde team-mate as apparently he was getting quite embarrassed from the entire situation, "Oh...Why are you apologizing like that towards Hinata...maybe...Do you like Hinata then?"

"Sakura-chan! Not you too! I-It's not like I like Hinata or anything!"

"...Na...Naruto-kun..." Hinata said as her eyes saddened.

"N-no! Hinata! I didn't meant to...! I do like you!"

"Ohh...Was that a confession I just heard, Sakura?"

"Ahh...I wonder about that too, Ino..." The two girls grinned wickedly at Naruto.

"N-no not a confession, no-not at all! Come on, Sakura-chan! You know I like you!"
At this point, Tenten decided it was time to give some payback, even though Sakura had to be the victim, "My...Sakura...I believe that was a confession..."

"No, it wasn't...!" Sakura gasped and threw a quick glare at Tenten and Naruto.

Naruto's eyes shifted back and forth between all of them before he jumped back and made his famous seal, "Looks like I have no choice then."

The girls looked at Naruto, wondering if he was actually going to fight them.

"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" Naruto shouted and four clones were created, "Hug version!"

The girls' mouths hang open as the final two words ringed through their ears before they let out an echoed reaction of surprise, "E-Eeeeeeeeeh!"

"Alright everyone let's go!" Naruto commanded his clones, who started charging towards the girls.

Hinata was the first one to be hugged by one of the Naruto clones as the other girls jumped away in time. As the clone cuddled Hinata, her face shot a shade of bright red while the other clones tried to hug the remaining girls.

"Saaaaakuuuuraaa-chaaaan!" One of the clones sang as he nimbly evaded Sakura's punches, something he had surprisingly gotten better at due to his training with Jiraiya.

"Naruto! Get away from me!" Sakura yelped as she tried to blow the clone to smithereens.

"Inoooooo! I'm going to hug youuuuuuuu!" Another one sang as Ino desperately tried to slice the clone to pieces with a kunai she had flinged out of her kunai bag.

"You are so dead, Naruto!" Ino said with a smile on her face.

"Ah! Naruto! Stop it!" Tenten said as she tried to escape the clutches of one of the Naruto clones as well.

"Hehehe...This is my great 'new' escape technique!" Naruto said proudly as he stood in the center of the hugging, or attempts to hug, frenzy.

"Naruto! I'm so going to get you for this!" Sakura said as she finally had been caught by one of the clones' hugs.

She was unable to punch him in the face or anywhere else because she knew her fist wouldn't stop there and she'd just end up hurting herself.

"Hehehe...I know, that's why it's my ESCAPE jutsu! Bye all! Oh and I'll see you tonight, Hinata!" Naruto said, though the young Hyuuga girl was unable to hear the last part since she was too caught up in the hugging, and then he waved Hinata and the girls goodbye before he started running away from them when Ino had finally been caught as well.

When the distance limit between Naruto and his clones had been reached, the clones popped off leaving the girls behind.

"Naruto...You are so going to pay for this!" Sakura yelled, shaking her fist in anger even though Naruto was long gone.

"Oh come on. Cheer up, Sakura." Ino said smiling, "Be glad he didn't take after that perverted sensei of his. That was kind of...fun. Though being caught was less fun."

"I guess that lightened our moods pretty much huh?" Tenten said smiling along with Ino.

"Really, you guys..." Sakura let her shoulder hang in disappointment, "I thought you were with me on this..."

Ino and Tenten giggled and Sakura shortly after joined in as Hinata shook out of her moment of bliss when she realized the Naruto clone was gone and now all she had to do was wait until the clock would strike seven.

...Or so she thought for a moment, but then she realized that the others had come over for a reason, though due to what just happened it had completely slipped her mind.

"Uhm...Why did everyone come to visit me again?" Hinata asked.

"You already forgot that?" Sakura asked.

"Something...about a letter addressed to the four of us...right?" Hinata tilted her head sideways.

"You received a letter from Nemar-kun too, right?" Ino asked her with a straight face.

"Huh? You too, Ino-san?" Hinata gave the blonde kunoichi a look of a surprise, "Then...could it be that everyone else...?"

"Yeah, we all got one from him too. A love letter, that is." Tenten said, her expression slightly sullying, though not nearly as downcast as she was before.

"This morning, as I was about to head over to Tsunade-sama, I found this scroll on my doorstep." Sakura said, handing Hinata the scroll in question.

"...We didn't get an individual letter this time?" Hinata wondered as she opened the scroll and began to read it.

"To: Haruno Sakura, Yamanka Ino, Hyuuga Hinata and Tenten.

I'm sure this comes as a surprise, but I recently introduced myself to the four of you. That's right, this is Nemar again!

I have to confess something, as you might be able to tell from the fact that this letter is addressed to the four of you. No, it should be the five of you, but I suppose I won't get a reply from Sunagakure for a while at the very least.

If you're wondering if I meant what I wrote in the letters I sent you individually, I still do. I like all of you and honestly, you're so amazing in my eyes that I have no clue who my heart desires the most.

You have my thanks for replying so soon to my letter. I felt warm inside just reading them, despite...certain comments."

"Certain...comments?" Hinata repeated and looked up from the letter at her three friends.

"Ah...I think that would be my letter he's referring to." Ino said with a sheepish smile on her face, "I got a little too excited and kind of, sort of wrote something I started to regret once I calmed down...Ahahaha."

"What in the world did you write in your letter?" The three others all thought. Hinata dived back into reading the rest of the letter.

"Starting tomorrow, I will meet with everyone to properly introduce myself in person. I'll leave this letter in the care of Haruno Sakura, who I think will be the most responsible and contact all of you to share this information with you. I would have written to you individually, but I wanted to bring you together at the very least, and have the truth out in the open. After all, you are friends! I don't want a weird situation where everyone thinks I'm the bad guy for deceiving you in some way!

Honestly, I didn't expect all of you to reply like this, so that's why I wrote to you individually. I hope that clears up any potential misunderstandings.

I'm really looking forward to meeting everyone up close and personal tomorrow!

-From Nemar with love."

Hinata looked up from the letter again and rolled it back up.

"So, what do you think, Hinata?" Sakura asked.

"Eh...What do you mean...exactly?" Hinata asked in return.

"Just as she says. If this guy is as..." Ino coughed, "Cool as he sounded in the letters addressed to us, I'm sure the four of us will compete over him."

"You mean five, right?" Tenten added, "He mentioned someone from Suna as well. No matter how I think about it, that must be that wind element user. The Kazekage's older sister, Temari. She's the only one that stands out enough."

"Ah...Like that." Hinata said, "I'm...not really interested though."

"Also, something is very strange about all this." Sakura said with a serious look in her eyes.

"There you go again..." Ino sighed.

"Strange?" Hinata repeated.

"That letter was delivered personally to my house by someone. I found it in front of my front door rather than in the mail box." Sakura stated, "Why would he hide from me today, yet be fine with meeting us starting tomorrow?"

"Maybe he's just a little shy?" Tenten said with a smile on her face, remembering that Neji seemed to be the shy type as well when it came to things like this.

"I don't think anyone who'd aim for five different girls at the same time would be shy." Ino retorted, "I don't want to agree with Sakura here, but he's definitely not a shy fellow."

"Maybe he had other things to do today?" Hinata wondered out loud.

"That might be true, but..." Sakura protested, "Something is definitely odd here..."

"I guess that's all the business we had for today then." Ino said as she stretched out, "I'll see you all tomorrow and may the best girl win...if everyone's still interested after tomorrow."

"I'm still concerned, but...I guess it can't hurt to just wait and see what happens." Sakura hesitantly agreed that there was nothing else they could do today about the situation.

"Then, let's try to meet up tomorrow after we've all met him." Tenten suggested

"That sounds good." Sakura agreed.

"I don't mind." Ino said with a nod as she turned around and started heading for the exit of the Hyuuga compound.

"I suppose...that's fine." Hinata said softly.

"Then, see you guys tomorrow." Ino waved goodbye.

"See you tomorrow." Sakura said as she followed her best friend's example and headed out of the Hyuuga compound.

"Bye Hinata!" Tenten said with a cheerful smile and wave at the Hyuuga heiress.

"Bye everyone." Hinata said meekly as she saw her friends off.

When they were all gone, she sat down on the ground and took a deep breath.

"Even though I said I had someone I liked, he wants to meet me too? Wh-what should I do? What would Naruto-kun think if he saw us together?" Hinata wondered when her eyes widened, "That's...that's right! I have to get ready for tonight!"

"What's tonight, oneesan?"

"Tonight I'm going to-..." Hinata's face flushed red, both at the thought of tonight's date and at the fact there was someone listening to her.

"H-Hanabi!" She yelped as she turned around to face her younger sister.

Her little sister was drying her hair with a towel, seemingly having just finished swimming as she was still wearing her bathing suit.

Her eyes had a calm demeanor to them as she looked down upon her older sister, something Hinata believes to be mostly the result of her father's rigorous training.

The younger Hyuuga wasn't nearly as cold as her looks would suggest, but Hinata knew better than to try and deceive her in any way. After all, Hanabi had a talent for being able to persuade her older sister.

"Come on, oneesan. What are you going to do tonight?" Hanabi repeated her question.

"Uhm...I...I have a date...w-with N-Naruto-kun..." Hinata admitted with a bright blush on her face.

The cold look in Hanabi's eyes melted like snow before the sun, "A date?"

Hinata slowly nodded, feeling tremendously embarrassed to say those words out loud to a member of her family, even if it was her little sister.

"Amazing! What are you going to wear tonight, oneesan?" Hanabi exclaimed, her eyes shining with a rare light that not many got to see.

"Uhm...I'm...not sure yet." Hinata admitted.

Hanabi leaped with joy at her older sister, grabbing both her hands, "Then, let's go shopping, oneesan!"

Despite how serious she took her training, and no matter how much stronger she became than Hinata or how much more potential she had according to their father, Hyuuga Hanabi loved spending time with her older sister. It was at times like these, the times where the young girl could take her mind of all the work she had to go through on a daily basis, that she brightened up and smiled a smile only a few people were honored to know.

"Uhm...sure." Hinata nodded and the smile on her little sister's face grew wider.

"All right! I'm going to get dressed right away!" She cheered as she ran off.

Hinata stood up and dusted herself off, a smile firmly pasted on her face, "I'll have to thank Naruto-kun for this too."

Not long after Hanabi had dashed off to get dressed, she came back out into the courtyard and started dragging her older sister along towards the shopping district of Konoha. Being dragged from store to store, Hanabi made Hinata wear all sorts of different outfits before she finally stopped and said, "Hey oneesan?"

"What is it, Hanabi?"

"Did you know? I heard there's an outdoor concert tonight. I was thinking, if you were to go there, which you probably will...It's kind of like a festival right, so..." Hanabi said eyeing her sister intensely.

"S-So...?" Hinata asked, tilting her head to the side.

Hanabi tiptoed and raised a big grin at her, "So I was thinking, we should probably get you a yukata after all!"

"A...a yukata? Is...is it really alright if I wear something like that?" Hinata wondered, fidgeting with her fingers.

"Of course it is! You'll look amazing! You want to impress him after all, don't you?" Hanabi asked.

"W-Well...yes...I do, but..."

"No buts! Come on, I know where we need to go!" Hanabi exclaimed, cheerfully dragging her sister off to another clothing store.

Hinata tried several different beautiful yukata, all based on her little sister's insistent recommendations, and although she was fine with any of them, Hanabi disagreed every time and made her try something else.

Finally, Hanabi handed her a white-silver yukata that caught her eye. When Hinata had put it on in the changing room and looked at herself in the mirror, she was feeling a mixture of astonishment and increased self-confidence as she actually thought she looked pretty good in it.

Her silence left Hanabi impatiently waiting outside the changing room however, "Oneesan, are you wearing it yet? I want to see it already!"

"Ah, yes, you can come in now, Hanabi." Hinata replied.

Hanabi quickly hopped behind the curtain and gasped when she got a good look at her sister, "O-Oneesan, you look more beautiful than ever."

"Y-You think so too, eh?" Hinata said as she checked her potential new yukata out in the mirror once more.

Hanabi patted her hands along every curve of her older sisters body, "Wow, it fits you perfectly...I think you'll blow him away with your looks alone, oneesan."

"B-Blow him away?!" Hinata yelped.

"And if this isn't enough for some reason..." Hanabi evaluated eyeing Hinata up and down before pulling slightly at the top of the yukata, revealing more than just a little bit of her older sister's skin and cleavage.

Hinata quickly threw her arms in front of her, "H-Hanabi...! Wh-what are you doing?!"

"Ahahaha, I'm sorry, oneesan." Hanabi laughed, "Don't go and do that in front of him, please. You'll disgrace the Hyuuga name...and probably bleed him to death in the process."

"She has a weird sense of humor..." Hinata thought and let out a deep sigh. Surprisingly, Hanabi sighed as well, making Hinata look at her in surprise.

Looking in the mirror, Hanabi patted her own chest and said, "I wonder when I'll grow up like oneesan..."

Hinata let out an embarrassed laugh as she slightly blushed, "I'm...I'm not sure either..."

Having finally finished their shopping, the two Hyuuga sisters returned to their home, each with a cheerful smile on their face as they further enjoyed this rare moment in which they could act like sisters, unconcerned about the future of the clan or the state of the world.

By the time they came back, it was already time to prepare dinner and after placing the yukata in her room, Hinata and Hanabi parted ways to do their own part in preparing dinner.

Hinata's mood was brighter than ever though and she was anxiously sneaking glances at the clock. She wouldn't mind missing out on dinner if it meant it would be seven o' clock right away.

However, time progressed slowly while Hinata's heart kept on racing with anticipation.

She even started humming as she brought her father his dinner. The head of the Hyuuga family looked up from his meditation at his daughter. "Hinata...You're unusually cheerful tonight."

"Ah!" Hinata let out when her father suddenly addressed her, "I...I guess I am."

"Did something good happen?" Hiashi asked.

"Uhm...I...I'm meeting up with...a friend in a bit..." Hinata meekly said, though the sentence itself brought another smile to her face.

"A friend?"

"Y-Yes...N-Naruto-kun, as a m-matter of fact..." Hinata said as she blushed and looked away from her father.

"Uzumaki Naruto? What are you going to do with him exactly?" Hiashi inquired.

"I...I...I'm just going to-..." Hinata paused for a moment.

She couldn't lie to her father, but she was afraid of what he might do if she told him it was a date. So she decided to speak the truth, yet not the entire truth, "H-Have fun with him, of course. Wh-what else could it b-be?"

Hiashi stared at his daughter for a while and then closed his eyes, "I see."

"Th-then...I'll be getting ready to head out now...So if you'll excuse me, Father..." Hinata said as she shuffled towards the exit of the hall her father always seemed to reside in.

Her father grunted in reply and waited for the sound of the door closing again before he opened his eyes and followed his daughter with his Byakugan.

When she was out of the range of his eyesight, the blood vessels on the side of his eyes resided and Hiashi flipped the table in front of him over.

"Fun?! She means a date, right?! That's got to be it! My little baby girl is going to go out on her first date tonight! I won't let him sully the Hyuuga name by doing indecent things with my baby girl...! Uzumaki Naruto is that Jiraiya's pupil after all..." Hiashi shouted, rare as it was for him to lose his cool attitude.

Unbeknownst to the head of the family, his nephew was standing right outside his door as he continued flipping tables and releasing any frustration he had with the situation.

Neji had stopped cold in his tracks, both because of the tantrum Hiashi was throwing and because he could hear every single thing he was shouting in his rage.

"Hinata-sama and Naruto are going out on a date tonight? What's the meaning of this...? Weren't Naruto and Tenten...?" Neji wondered as he silently moved away from Hiashi's chamber, "I have to know..."

Neji jumped to the roof of the compound and hid himself in the shadows.

"I don't know when you'll leave, but just for tonight...I'm going to become your shadow, Hinata-sama, and find out what's going on here."