"Please watch me," thought Naruto as he stared at the carving of the head of Minato Namikaze on the Hokage monument.

Suddenly Naruto was awakened from his daydream as Jiraiya yelled, "What are you doing?! I'm going to leave you behind, Naruto."

The yellow-headed ninja screamed at Jiraiya telling him to wait up. Little did he know that a girl with light lavender eyes watched him from behind a post thinking to herself, "I'm going to work hard so that I can keep up with Naruto-kun!" Slowly the blond-haired ninja began his journey walking away with his sensei leaving Konoha behind as they became specks in the sunset.

6 months later…

Konoha Training Grounds

A girl with lavender eyes was quietly talking with her two teammates. One had a small dog inside his jacket, while the other stayed absolutely still and said nothing. "I w-wonder what K-Kurenai-sensei called us here for," wondered the girl with lavender eyes asked the boy with the small dog.

"Well Kurenai-sensei probably gathered us here so we could go on a mission Hinata," replied the boy with the dog.

"I g-guess s-so Kiba-kun," replied Hinata meekly. She slowly thought back on that day before the final rounds of the Chunin exams. That was the day the blond-haired ninja had talked to her in this very exact spot.

Flashback

Hinata was standing behind a wooden post deep in thought as a blond-haired boy called out to her. It was Naruto-kun she thought to herself as she turned around nervously. "Why did you come here? Isn't today the main matches?"

The blond boy replied, "I uh …You know. I just came to see this training area. Since this is where I became a Genin."

Hinata replied cautiously, "Really? But why?"

"No reason! Who cares about the reason," the boy replied.

"Yeah. Sorry," she muttered

The blond asked the girl, "Hey, Hinata. Neji is your relative, right?"

"Yes," replied the girl.

"Is he strong,"

"Yes…"

"I see," said the boy with a tinge of insecurity.

"But… You might be able to defeat him, Naruto-kun."

"Yeah! I am strong!"

"I'm sure you can beat him, Naruto-kun. Um, when you cheered me on, I felt like I had become stronger than before. After the preliminaries, I was able to like myself a little more. If a stranger looked at me, it might seem like I haven't changed… But I think I was able to change. And I think it was thanks to you Naruto-kun."

"Hey, Hinata. Did you really think that?"

"What?"

"I may look strong from your point of view. But I always screw up, and I just act strong because I'm mad.'

"That's not true! Even if you did make a mistake, you were always … …from my point of view, a proud man who makes lots of mistakes. When I looked at you there was this impact on my heart. You're not perfect… You make mistakes and get stronger from them. I believe that is true strength. Naruto-kun, you are a strong person, I think." After saying this, Hinata's short lapse of courage was up as she moved behind the post which hid half of her body from the one that she truly loved.

"Thank you, Hinata. I've always been last place in everything. I was nervous over nothing. I was a bit depressed, but I feel better now!"

"Naruto-kun."

"I'll be off to the matches now. Hinata… I always thought of you as…"

The girls thoughts were racing. "What?What?"

"… a dark, timid, and weird person."

"Naruto-kun…"

"But you know something… I like people like you."

End Flashback

Hinata was jolted out of her daydream by Kurenai as she poofed out of nowhere telling the three young ninja that they were to report to the Hokage's office at once.

A few moments later…

Hokage's office

A woman with blond hair sat behind her desk staring down the four people who had just entered the room. The tallest and leader of the four-man team decided to break the silence. Her red eyes met the gaze of the blond-haired woman. "Hokage-sama," Kurenai spoke, "you called for us?"

"Indeed, I did," replied the woman that Hokage.

"Tsunade-sama, why did you call for us?"

"Well," replied the woman named Tsunade, "I have a mission for the four of you. "Hyuga Hinata, Aburame Shino, Inuzuka Kiba, and Yuhi Kurenai," Tsunade said, " I am asignning you a B-ranked mission. You are to go to a hot spring in the Land of Tea called Kamikure. The leader of the town is an old friend of mine and has requested that some Konoha ninja assist with his problem. He has hired you four to rid the village of two troublesome men who have been caught peeking on the woman while they are bathing. Capture them alive and bring them back here. I want them alive." When Tsunade was talking about bringing them back alive, knuckles could be heard cracking in the background. "Dismissed."

"Hai," the four man team replied in unison.

"But before we leave Tsunade-sama, why is this a B-ranked mission? They're just some random perverts, you never see a village ask for help getting rid of them. That's what the security guards that are stationed there for," questioned the boy with the dog in his jacket.

"Well Kiba, the two men have already taken out all the guards and two chunin teams from the Hidden Mist Village," whispered Tsunade quietly.

After Tsunade had finally explained that to the four they walked out of the Hokage's satisfied to test their skills against the two unknown men.

Karikure Town, Land of Tea

Meanwhile, two men in dark coats were sitting in a tree in the village of Kamikure. This particular tree overlooked the women's bathhouse. If you looked very carefully, you could tell that they were discussing something very important.

Konoha Main Gates

Three people were gathered at the main gate of Konoha discussing their upcoming mission. "Gosh, Tsunade just keeps on piling on the easy missions. Sheesh , aren't there any better missions," Kiba yelled.

"Anou ... Kiba-kun … This is a B-ranked mission.

"I guess you're right Hinata."

Finally, with a poof of smoke Kurenai appeared. "Shall we start," Kurenai asked her team. The three young ninja took off into the sunset as Kurenai trailed behind them. Kurenai muttered to herself, "These three have grown so much since the time I took them on as Team 8. She thought back to the Chunin Exams. Shino had advanced all the way to the finals, Kiba had put up a good fight against Naruto, and Hinata had finally come out of her shell enough to fight her cousin. She had gathered up the courage to give Naruto some healing balm. They had all improved much more since then each maturing and growing closer together, like all teams should.

Kamikure Town, Land of Tea

The taller man with the black hood spoke quietly to his apprentice, "Go back to the room, I have some work to do."

The Boy in the black hood appeared angry and yelled at his sensei, "Geeze, you're probably going to go 'research' those women in the hot springs. So much for your promise to teach me a new jutsu."

"I only promised to teach you a new jutsu if you mastered the other one. I know,quite frankly, that you haven't mastered it."

"Fine, if I master it tonight, you have to teach me two new jutsus and you can't do your 'research' for three days."

"I will take you on my little apprentice."

"Don't call me little!"

"Whatever," said the taller man in the blackhood as the boy walked back to the room, "I got some serious business to take care of."

Yay, finally done with the first chapter of my first fanfic. Also, I do not own Naruto or any places associated with this fic except Kamikure Town. Please review so I know what to do better next time. Next on 2 and a Half years: Trouble stirs in Kamikure Town. Team 8 gives it their all!