A/N: Well to say I was surprised by the response to my last chapter would be a lie, but I didn't expect it to be so extreme. A lot of people seemed to get quite angry that Naruto and Hinata had a fight - news flash - all couples have the occasional fight. I am trying to steer clear of the typical 'perfect relationship' people normaly give Naruto and Hinata but for those of you who are worried - they will end up together by the end. They will also have at least one more fight before the end of book 1 (yes that's right - I have decided to make a second book for Mai, feel free to bake a cake or something). This book will end in another ten or so chapters (very rough estimate) at which point there will be a time skip and book 2 will pick up in Mai's genin days - though this is only a rough plan for the moment.

I had intended to get this chapter out earlier but I had something called a 'lit. review' to write - if I have to read anything more about Nafion membranes or PAAM Hydrogel I might just scream, or cry in a corner. Oh, and don't get me started on PPy microactuation - I should have picked an easier topic.

I like this chapter; it seemed to flow easily, even if it is rather short, and goes someway to explaining why they had a fight at the end of the last chapter. Enjoy.

"What did you do?" Gaara asked from the comfortable chair in which he currently resided, his hands forming a steeple in front of his face.

"Nothing… I…" Naruto was pacing around Gaara's living room, a spacious affair but sparsely decorated – it seemed to reflect both his position and his personality, "I… Fucked up."

"How so?"

Naruto fell down into a chair opposite Gaara's, "Well… the girl I came with…"

"Hinata-san?"

"Yes… we have kind of been seeing each other, and… I made her cry."

Gaara looked at him evenly, "How?"

"Well, she's been holding back for a long time now…. So long I think she forgot how to actually go all out, but recently she's started to shine through again."

"And this angers you?"

"No… it's just," Naruto ran a hand through his hair, "When I found out why she'd always been holding back I got a little… Kyuubi."

Gaara nodded in sympathy, getting a little 'shikaku' used to happen to him too, it basically meant that raised emotions let out a little youkai which in turn raised emotions etc… it had a tendency to make you blow things out of proportion.

"So why was she holding back?"

Naruto stood up and resumed his pacing, "To protect her little sister; you see in her clan they have this fucking ridiculous rule – it says that of the head of the family's children one will become the heir and the others will be sealed with a barbaric seal and placed into a branch house."

"I see."

"Oh there's more, when they where children her father received a threat that if he didn't play ball with the clan council whichever of his children might find the seal used to kill them. Upon hearing this Hinata decided to hold back so that her sister could live on!"

"Self sacrifice." Gaara deduced calmly.

Naruto growled, "The last right of the coward!" he swore bitterly, "She gave no care to how her sister would feel being left behind like that!"

"Are you sure you are not more concerned about how you would feel?"

Naruto glared at him, "This isn't about me."

"On the contrary I think this is very much about you, if you would please take a seat and calm down for a moment."

Naruto reluctantly took a seat and watched Gaara stand and poor something into glassed, he returned with a small amount of a brown liquid in two glasses.

"Drink this… slowly though – it's expensive."

Naruto smelt it and pulled back instantly, "What the hell is it?"

"Whiskey, single cask," Gaara answered simply, "It will help you calm down – drink it."

Naruto reluctantly sipped at the beverage, he wasn't impressed but it did seem to be calming him.

"Are you feeling a little calmer now?" Gaara asked after a few minutes of silence.

"Yes."

"Good, now I want you to ignore all your personal feelings and argue with me based purely on logic for a moment, can you do that?"

Naruto nodded, "When I attacked Konoha during the Konoha exams, what did you feel where your chances of beating me?"

Naruto began to puff his chest out when Gaara held out his hand, "Logic and honesty only please."

Naruto deflated and thought for a moment sipping his drink, "I didn't think I could beat you."

"Then why did you try?"

Naruto thought again, "I lost sight of the fact I couldn't win and fought through to save people I cared about."

"Would you have given your life to save them?"

"Yes, I would hav…."

"Coward."

Silence reigned in the room for several seconds, "What did you call me?" Naruto asked in an unbelievably cold voice.

"I called you a coward – after all, by your own admission you where willing to give your life and you said earlier that self sacrifice was 'the last right of the coward'."

Naruto blinked and opened his mouth but found he had nothing to say, seeing this Gaara continued, "If you told Hinata about that fight do you believe she would be angry with you?"

Naruto sunk back into his chair looking depressed and contemplative, "No… she'd be proud."

"Why?"

"She always said she loved the way I protected those precious to me."

"Now let us look at her situation, I presume she was young when she made this decision?"

"Five."

"At that age what could she do? She had the options of saving herself or someone she held precious – what was she supposed to do? What would you do?"

After a somewhat lengthy pause Naruto looked at Gaara with watery eyes, "Exactly what she did."

Gaara nodded, "Then why are you angry?"

Naruto was silent again, "Because I'm scared of losing her."

Inuzuka Tsume was heading home, she was tired, irritated and all in all not in a mood to be messed with. Padding along beside her was the large and fierce looking Kuromaru; suddenly aforementioned animal stopped and sniffed the air.

"What is it?" She asked, hoping it was just someone's dinner that had caught her companion's attention.

"Fear… and an Inuzuka clan member."

Suddenly forgetting her previous annoyance she proceeded straight to clan leader mode, "Take me."

Hinata stared at the ceiling above the bed in what was supposed to be the room she would share with Naruto. Her gaze had been blankly stuck in the same place for so long that colours seemed to slowly wash before her eyes and patterns seemed to fade in and out of the stucco.

She was numb, emotionally and physically. She didn't know what she had done wrong, why Naruto had gotten so angry or what to do about it now. A knock came from the door causing her heart to skip a beat, she stood up as her heart seemed to try and make up for it's mistake by going into overdrive. Was it him? Had he come to see her? Was he still angry?

Her hand trembled as she reached out to grip the handle, she turned it slowly and pulled, it didn't open. Realising her mistake her other hand slowly made it's way to the bolt and slid it out pulling the door once more.

"Good evening madam – I have brought your towels."

Hinata laughed; how foolish she had been getting so worked up when it was just a hotel worker. She laughed more, and more, she was hysterical.

"Ma'am?" Asked the young boy with the towels.

Hinata collapsed to her knees, and cried and she laughed, she was so stupid for thinking he'd come, he didn't need her. He didn't need to apologise, he would go home and stop talking to her; she'd never see him – she'd never see Mai.

The boy at the door was gone but it was still wide open, she could hear someone in the distance saying something about a hysterical woman and calling for someone to help her.

She always seemed to need help; it was then that she noticed blonde spiky hair coming down the corridor.

Tsume jumped onto the academy wall and looked in the direction Kuromaru pointed out to her, she could see a group of children cornered by a large panther.

"Ren?" Tsume shouted over to the feline.

The animal turned it's head, "Tsume-sama, Kuromaru," it replied with a bow, "Your arrival is appropriately timed."

Tsume jumped down and walked over, "Really? And why, may I ask, are you cornering a group of children?" She looked through them and recognised two faces, "Some from my clan as well."

To the surprise of the experienced Kunoichi Ren growled, "Look behind them."

The children started shuffling and looking guilty, behind them she observed the shape of a small cat, barely more than a kitten, surrounded by blood, it's breathing laboured but even. To one side was a stone that had evidently been used to hit the animal, a guttural growl came from the woman's throat.

She looked to the children, "Kuromaru, go get Akiko," the large black dog left, letting Ren tend to his kin she fixed her gaze onto her clan members she bared her fangs, "Explain."

In the staff room Makoto was clinging to her mothers kimono as her friends looked on, "And… and then Mai and Kuro showed up, they scared off the bullies but Piro was gone!" Fresh sobs filled the air as Akiko soothed her daughter gently.

She silently made her appreciation known to the two other children as she rubbed Makoto's head, "Ren went out looking for her, and I'm sure Piro's fine. Dry those tears ok? Come one, let's go so if Ren has found her."

She stood up and took Makoto's hand as a familiar voice floated across from the doorway, "Akiko-smma."

Turning to see the owner Akiko was taken aback, "Kuromaru? What are you doing here?"

The animal hung his head slightly, "Please follow me."

Hinata felt arms wrap round her and carry her over to the bed, once there she was gently placed down and the person that had helped her left briefly to talk to someone at the door.

"I'll look after her now, thank you for showing me the way."

The owner of the voice sat down on the bed next to her and put an arm round her, "It's a good job Gaara sent me over here to see what was going on, I don't know what that idiot did but I'm sure it's not worth crying over."

Hinata turned bleary eyes toward the speaker and tried to focus, "T-Temari-san?"

The older woman wiped away Hinata tears and smiled softly, "Yes, I met you earlier remember?"

Hinata nodded dumbly and shivered, within seconds the sheets from the bed had been pulled around her in a sort of impromptu jacket.

"Why don't you tell me what happened, Gaara was vague and simply said I should check on you."

Hinata sniffed, "Naruto hates me."

Temari snorted, "That idiot doesn't hate anyone, hell he befriended Gaara when his idea of friendship was introducing you to his sand and then feeding you to it."

Hinata giggled slightly, "Now that's more like it!" Temari shouted happily with a smile, "Just a sec, I'll be right back."

Temari popped out for a few minutes during which Hinata tried to calm down, "I didn't know what you'd prefer so I got triple chocolate."

Hinata found a tub of something very cold thrust into her hand, the label told her it was in fact ice-cream, "It's for eating not staring," Temari told her after a few moments.

Hinata lifted the lid and absently drew a pattern in the top with a spoon, "So tell me," Temari began to ask, "What happened?"

"How is she?" Tsume asked Ren, her eyes never leaving the crowd of children in front of her.

"She will be fine in time; however she will likely be concussed when she regains consciousness."

Tsume looked at the children from her clan, "You have shamed our clan, you have shamed yourselves and you have shamed me." The two boys shuddered, "do not expect your punishments to be light."

Behind her she heard a horrified squeal and fast approaching footsteps, a girl with red hair suddenly appeared knelt down in front of Piro's unconscious form. Tsume turned to see Akiko approaching with a solemn look on her face.

It was at this moment that Tsume did something that no one would have expected, it was something that the two boys from her clan would never forget, and something that would make them feel disappointed in themselves each time they remembered it. The proud head of the Inuzuka clan, the powerful Kunoichi feared by many slowly sank to her knees. Once there she placed her hands on the ground in front of her and pressed her face to close to the ground.

The leader of the Inuzuka clan bowed, and begged forgiveness, "Akiko-san, please forgive my clan, I am truly sorry for what has happened today."

Akiko nodded, "Please stand old friend."

Tsume stood up but kept her gaze down, "It is good to see you again, though I wish it was not under these circumstances."

"I find it hard to believe it is good to see me again when you refuse to look at me." Akiko replied her eyes twinkling with humour in spite of the situation.

Tsume finally raised her gaze to meet Akiko's to find her smiling, the women walked toward each other and hugged, "It has been far too long."

"Yes, it has," Akiko agreed, "and as you say, I wish it where under better circumstance, however the moment must be dealt with."

"Ren informs me that she will be ok." Tsume told her.

Akiko waved her off, "I know, if that had not been the case he would already be tearing the place to pieces – however, I may be overstepping my boundaries, but I do request an example be made of those boys."

Tsume shook her head, "No you are not, in fact I think an ideal punishment would be that – I haven't heard of it's use since sensei passed away."

Akiko smiled, "Ah yes, that, I seem to remember mother using it quite effectively."

Tsume smiled at the boys, "You boys didn't know my sensei was a Sawatari did you?"

Akiko and Tsume watched with ill concealed glee as the boys cleaned out the cages of the Sawatari clan cattery. Not too bad a punishment you say? The Sawatari clan have in their possession over three hundred cats, many of which are of the 'big cat' variety. Cleaning also involved getting them move out of their cage first – cats don't like being woken up.

By the end of the day the boys stank, where covered in unmentionable things and looked like they had just given Tora a mud bath.