My Heart's Lavender Eyes

"Normal speech"

Sign Language = Name: (Stuff that they sign)

'Thought'

Kyuubi

Other enormous beings

There is a poll on my profile. Answer it if you wish.

There is a forum, it is named:"My Heart's Lavender Eyes Forum." It is for all those who want to discuss this fic. Anything you want to see, or improve, then participate in the forum, and I will read what you have to say. Your opinion can have an effect on this story. Participate if you wish.(Link is in my profile)

"Disclaimer"

I do not own Naruto or any affiliation there being, I am doing this fanfic because I enjoy making this story, not for the profit (which I do not get by the way)

Chapter 1:

Ichiraku's

His name was Naruto. Naruto Uzumaki. There aren't very many short ways to accurately describe Naruto, but there is always the long way.

To tell you a little bit about his life.

He was sixteen years of age last October, and he had just gotten the Chunnin exams out of the way.

Three years ago, completing the Chunnin examines would have seemed like a huge accomplishment. But now that he was much older, he could see that it was not a big deal to him. Most of his friends became Chunnin while he was gone training with Jiraiya, and many of them were already Jounin. He often sighed to himself in defeat. Because despite his strong build and height, Naruto was often tagged as a loser, a failure that could never amount to any formidable strengths.

He was out to prove them wrong, but he didn't have the resources to do so. He needed to be allowed to train full-out, without any hindrances. If he was allowed to do that, he knew that with that training regimin in place, he could beat anyone.

His training with Jiraiya was over, so now he had to train on his own.

That is where I will start the tale.

It all begins in the village of Konoha, in the Land of Fire. We find our favorite knuckle-headed ninja at Ichiraku's ramen shop, doing we he does best…

"You're annoying the crap out of me!" shouted Sakura.

Naruto was laying on the ground next to his seat, holding himself up slightly with one hand while rubbing his forehead in pain.

Sakura was standing next to her seat, her fist was still raised from the blow she dealt to Naruto's skull.

"What the heck did I do!?" exclaimed Naruto.

Naruto was still sitting on the ground, holding his head with a look of distaste on his face.

"What makes you think that I would ever go on a date with you?" asked Sakura incredulously.

She was feeling kind of guilty that she had punched him over such a simple yet hopeful question.

"I've told you a hundred times no…" added Sakura with a guilty expression.

"Well… It still doesn't give you the grounds to hit me like that…" said Naruto, pouting in a childish manner.

Sakura would admit that she was always a bit rough on Naruto, she always felt a bit guilty about it.

"(Sigh) Stop sulking and get back up here, so I can treat you to some ramen you big push-over." said Sakura with a small smile on her face.

"Alright Yeah! RAMEN!" said Naruto happily.

He quickly returned to his seat at the bar.

"Three large bowls of Miso ramen for me please!" said Naruto.

Sakura smiled weakly.

'Naruto always looks for an excuse to make it look like nothing is wrong with him. He doesn't want anyone to know when he's sad... So he covers it up with goofiness and a smile.' thought Sakura.

It was admirable in a way, but it always saddened her to know he was in some sort of pain.

'Naruto, what are you going to do with yourself?' thought Sakura.

She was brought out of her thoughts by a voice from behind the counter of the bar.

"Three large Miso?" asked Teuchi.

The owner smiled at his favorite customer knowing that he always came into his shop with a smile on his face and a look of dedication… and hunger.

"Coming right up!" said Teuchi happily.

Teuchi had owned the shop for several years after his father retired from the shop business, and it was still running strong.

"Ayame, get that order ready while I prepare the dishes." said Teuchi.

"Mmmkay, right away!" said Ayame happily.

She began to prep the noodle batter, getting ready to make a fresh batch for their favorite customer.

Ayame, being the daughter of Ichiraku, has always been kind of shy around most customers. But she always had a smile on her face when Naruto came into the shop, because he always made her feel better. He would walk in and show her his smile, and she would feel happier just seeing it. But today, Naruto was not his happiest.

Naruto had been dealing with a lot lately. Iruka was constantly teaching, Sakura was constantly studying under Tsunade, Kakashi and Jiraiya were always on missions concerning who knows what, and he never seemed to see his friends anymore due to the fact that most of them were Jounin and were needed the most.

On top of that, there was only one guy that had ever been close enough to Naruto to consider him his brother. But he vanished, and Naruto considered it all his fault.

But that happened three years ago, just before he left Konoha with Jiraiya.

He was always alone, there didn't seem to be anybody that he could talk to or bond with except...

"Me..."said Kyuubi with a smirk.

"(Sigh)"

It had been awhile since Kyuubi had talked to him last.

"It's been a few days kit... Are you still mad at me?" asked Kyuubi with a snide smile.

Even though Naruto did like to talk to people, he still did not think that a demon sealed inside you since birth was a good thing to talk to. But he had been talking to him for a long time now, usually on a normal basis. But the Kyuubi had recently become insufferable due to his need to be freed.

"(Sigh) What do you want?" asked Naruto in an annoyed and accusing manner.

Kyuubi's form blinked at Naruto through his cage, his eyes being the only thing visible to Naruto at the time.

Even though Naruto couldn't fully see Kyuubi's body like usual, it didn't make it any harder to hear his deep and powerfully demonic baritone voice.

"Hm... you might want to just think our conversation in your mind, instead of speaking aloud. I'll still hear you, and your female friend there won't think you're a weirdo..." said Kyuubi.

Naruto looked over at Sakura to find that she was looking at him with a confused face.

"Wha... What do you mean?" asked Sakura.

"Huh?" said Naruto confusingly

"You said: What do you want?" said Sakura.

'Ooops, guess I did say that out loud...' thought Naruto.

"Oh, I was wondering what you wanted to eat... I wouldn't really feel right unless I offered some food to you too." said Naruto.

He hoped that she would believe his quick lie.

"Oh, I'm not hungry..." said Sakura as she looked at the counter.

"Oh, Okay." said Naruto.

'Phew that was close... (sigh) Now what do you want?' asked Naruto again.

"What do you mean by that Naruto? Can't a thousand year old Demon Fox Lord talk to his host without him being suspicious to his actions?" asked Kyuubi innocently.

'Uh... No. Whenever you talk to me, it is either during a battle and you are lending me your power so that you can survive, or because you want to talk me into doing something that would be of great personal gain for you.' said Naruto.

"That's not true and you know it. I've helped you a great number of times. Whether it was advice, or a question about training. I've always been here with you." said Kyuubi matter of factly.

'Yeah well, lately you've really become annoying. Every other thing you talk about has to do with me letting you go free.' said Naruto.

"Fine, be that way! I just wanted to be nice and strike up a conversation with you for once! You know it gets boring sitting in here doing nothing..." muttered Kyuubi.

'Hmmmm... I suppose it does...' said Naruto.

He decisively ended the conversation with that. He didn't want to talk to talk to Kyuubi, especially right now.

He ate his ramen contently, enjoying every moment of his lunch. He began to notice that Sakura kept looking over at him in a curious yet worried manner.

He glanced at her sideways for a moment, noticing she was sort of spacing out.

'I wonder what she's thinking about…' thought Naruto.

'I wonder if he notices that I'm looking at him...' thought Sakura as she worriedly observed him.

What they didn't notice, was that there was a figure hiding in the shadows across the street, watching the two Shinobi sitting at the ramen shop.

She had lavender eyes, long indigo hair, a lavender and white wind jacket, and baggy dark blue capris.

Her name was Hinata Hyuuga. She had always seen Naruto as an inspiration and a good friend, but a long time ago she realized she had more feelings for Naruto than a simple crush. She had desperately fallen in love with the boy, and she very much wanted to be closer than just friends. She often found Naruto trying to go after Sakura, ever since the academy days. And Naruto had never shown any interest towards herself. No matter how hard she tried, she never could muster the courage to tell Naruto how she felt. But it wasn't like she hadn't spent a lot of time with him. She'd spent as much time as possible with him. On missions, Friendly get-togethers, and even dinners. Even though she spent more time with Naruto than most of her friends, she had never once had the courage to tell him how much she cared for him.

She hated to see it this way, but she figured that practically every girl in Konoha had a better chance with Naruto than she did. And one of the prettiest girls was on the same team as Naruto.

So she decided to try to forget about Naruto so she could move on and look for a realistic man to eventually call her own.

She had low expectations about who would eventually end up with her, especially when her father might pair her with some pompous pure-blood Hyuuga. She didn't think any guy would really go for her, unless they knew of what they would be gaining by marrying into her regal family.

She looked down at her hands that clung around the post. They were mostly covered up by her long sleeves.

'Even my hands seem timid, hiding under my sleeves...' thought Hinata depressingly.

Even with these low expectations for herself, she just couldn't find any other man. Every man she looked at, just wasn't Naruto. No man would never ever even come close to Naruto. He was so kind and courageous. Happy and caring. Funny and lively. Helpful and strong. Not to mention that he wasn't too bad to look at.

'Not too bad at all...' thought Hinata with a sigh.

It didn't help that as the years went by, Naruto started developing more… maturing features. This caused her to not only long for the boy even more, but she had caught herself almost drooling over him many times. She regretted it every time it happened to her. Normally she had impressively strong self-control, but when Naruto was around, she turned into butter. She knew it was improper to react to something in such a manner, and no matter how many times she would tell herself she wouldn't do it, she would anyways. She always embarrassed herself when she did it, but so far, no one but a small few of her best friends had caught her doing it.

And God knows what would happen if her father or the Hyuuga elders caught her. But she couldn't help it. Naruto was so inspiring and amazing, goofy and funny, talented and strong. She knew that Naruto would always be amazing to her.

'Naruto… What I would give just to have enough guts to tell you how I feel...' thought Hinata.

She continued to hide behind a post of a merchant shop on the corner across the street, watching then with a look of longing. She never dared get any closer then where she stood, she really didn't have the guts.

'Sakura has way more of a chance with him then I do... and she's not even interested in him. I want Naruto... Naruto wants Sakura, and Sakura wants Sasuke. But none of us can have who we want. Naruto can't have Sakura, because Sakura doesn't want Naruto. Sakura can't have Sasuke because he's a missing nin. And I can't have Naruto... Because I don't have the courage to tell him...' thought Hinata sadly.

She thought to herself silently while clinging to the corner post for support, leaning against it like it was comfort itself.

Back at Ichiraku's, Sakura found herself still thinking about similar things.

'Naruto… why do you have an interest in me? Is it plainly because I am pretty, or because you like who I am as a person? If you like me for my looks, then I can easily reject you without feeling guilty. Even after everything that has happened... I still have feelings for Sasuke, and I will wait as long as it takes to resolve these feelings I have. But I still don't like rejecting Naruto in the mean time.' thought Sakura.

She continued to stare at Naruto, wondering what he was really thinking.

"Sakura, is something wrong?" asked Naruto confusingly.

Sakura snapped out of her thinking to see a worried looking Naruto frowning at her.

"Oh, sorry! I kind of lost concentration there..." stammered Sakura.

She realized that she had probably been gawking at him the entire time like an idiot.

She looked away in embarrassment, hoping that he would just continue eating his ramen.

But Naruto had already finished eating, and was giving her quite the look of concern.

"It's okay. You trained hard today. So it is no big surprise that you aren't sleeping right now." said Naruto, assuring her with his trade-mark grin.

Sakura smiled at his reply.

'I'm surprised I'M not sleeping right now, my life is so boring... We don't get ANY interesting or exciting missions... Except for that one a month ago when Shikamaru almost got laid to remain incognito... And Ino was not happy about that one, considering she was the woman that was supposed to be with him. That was funny... But that was a while ago now, and I'm unsatisfied with how everything is panning out. I feel as though something is missing, but I can't place what it is. Whatever it is it hurts. It feels like some ebbing pain... It seems familiar like loneliness, but it pains me so much more.' thought Naruto.

"Whatever pain you are feeling, I assure you that it is not physically life threatening. I cannot sense anything wrong with your body at the moment aside from some bad spirit energy."said Kyuubi.

'Spirit what? (Sigh) Never mind.'said Naruto.

"...Never mind?" asked Kyuubi.

'Look what good you turned out to be...' muttered Naruto.

"Don't you back-sass me kit!!" warned Kyuubi angrily.

Naruto rolled his eyes.

"(Sigh) I am just telling you that I can't feel whatever pain you are feeling. It must be a feeling foreign or distant to me. I cannot help you." said Kyuubi.

'Whatever. It's not that important anyway...' said Naruto.

"..."

"Well, based on your past experiences with pain, what do you usually do?" asked Kyuubi, although he already knew the answer.

'I will do what I always do, train hard and ignore it.' thought Naruto decisively, as he always did.

He looked over to the stool next to him to see that Sakura looked kind of fidgety in her seat.

"Well, I had better get on home, my mother doesn't like it when I am late coming home from morning traini…" began Sakura.

(Poof)

She was suddenly interrupted by a loud noise to their left.

It was a cloud of smoke that suddenly appeared on top of the vacant seat next to Naruto.

The cloud quickly faded to reveal a man with a very serious look on his face.

Although the bottom half of his face was covered by a mask, and his left eye was covered by his headband, you could easily tell that he was not in the best of moods.

"Kakashi sensei!" exclaimed Sakura.

She was surprised to see the normally content Special Jounin looking so… depressed.

"Naruto, Sakura, the Hokage requests your immediate audience." said Kakashi.

Kakashi may have always worn a mask, but his only visible facial feature clearly depicted sadness.

Naruto hadn't noticed this feature, so he immediately replied without another thought.

"Alright, don't get your panties in knot." said Naruto.

Naruto jumped up from his seat, and began searching his pockets.

'Panties?' thought Kakashi.

He discreetly checked his person.

'That was a crazy party last night, and I didn't have time to change...' thought Kakashi.

"Here, I'll pay." said Naruto.

He lifted up the back of his shirt to get to his back pocket which held his Froggy wallet which he had aptly named Gamma.

Across the street, Hinata was turning a shade of red as Naruto lifted up the back of his shirt, revealing a little bit of his boxers.

'I wonder what he would look like with just those on...' thought Hinata as she blushed even deeper.

She caught herself thinking this and immediately hit herself in the forehead to rid herself of such perverted thoughts.

'NO, NO, that is improper!' thought Hinata.

She found it embarrassing in the least to be believe how easily her mind would jump to such things about Naruto.

She brought her hands together in front of her, and began to clear her mind.

She clouded everything else out. It was just her, and her mind. With her eyes closed and her mind calmed, her other senses heightened. She even began to smell the ramen aroma coming from Ichiraku's. The soothing sound of the wind and low random mumblings of the people passing by, seemed to have her calmed down.

As Hinata cleared her mind, she heard a loud noise behind her and by instinct, turned on her Byakugan to defend herself.

She whirled her vision behind her to find that the source of the loud noise was coming from the ground at her feet.

But it turned out to only be a leaf in the wind, brushing against the ground to make a strangely loud scratching noise.

Back over at the shop Naruto felt the chakra activation from Hinata's Byakugan, so he quickly put himself on alert by standing up, and concentrating on his surroundings.

As soon as Naruto jumped from his seat, Sakura and Kakashi also jumped from their seats.

"What is it Naruto?" asked Sakura worriedly, looking around for any signs of danger.

Kakashi and Sakura had immediately reacted, they knew from past experience that when Naruto's instincts became defensive, that it was time to be defensive as quickly as possible.

Naruto quickly looked about his surroundings to find the source of the small spike of chakra. He relaxed when he noticed that it was coming from a certain little Hyuuga girl across the street.

Naruto relaxed from his position and went back to standing, signaling Sakura a quick thumbs up.

Then turned and smiled at Hinata.

"Hey! Hinata!" shouted Naruto.

Surprised to hear her name being called, she focused on the source of the noise, and turned to look at Naruto using her Byakugan. She turned an even darker form of red and froze as though she had become ice. She had just accidentally peered right through his clothes, to see an extremely mature Naruto.

"Na... ru..." mumbled Hinata as her eyes went wide.

Kakashi and Sakura turned to see Hinata after Naruto called her name. They were about to say hello as well. But before they could, blood suddenly shot from Hinata's nose and she fell over onto the ground... unconscious.

Naruto saw what had happened, and quickly ran across the street to her side. Sakura and Kakashi immediately followed.

Kakashi noticed that Hinata's Byakugan was still activated while she was unconscious.

'Her Byakugan... Is that what had Naruto so jumpy?' thought Kakashi.

After Naruto examined her, only finding the nosebleed, he turned and looked up to Sakura and Kakashi.

"What could have caused this?" asked Naruto.

Kakashi and Sakura looked at each other, knowing that the other had a pretty good idea of what had happened with Hinata.

Knowing for a fact how Hinata felt about Naruto, Kakashi spoke up first.

"It was probably just a side-effect of using the Byakugan for too long." said Kakashi, lying through a smile behind his mask.

"Oh…" said Naruto, oblivious to the obvious signs.

Naruto set Hinata's head face-up on his lap and started to wipe the blood from her nose.

Naruto looked down at her and noticed that she had a really calm and peaceful face. He enjoyed looking at it, and then he realized that it also made her look adorably cute.

He kept looking at her face, noticing the warmth of her body on his and continued to look at her, until he realized a feeling that seemed to tug at him in a foreign way. He began thinking to himself, trying to figure out what was going on. But every time he tried to think, the feeling came back, and his mind wandered away from him.

'Wow… She sure is cute… and pretty, and... beautiful...' thought Naruto absent-mindedly. He never realized that she really looked like this. Every time he would see her, he would look upon her as a friend, and wouldn't think of being… attracted to her…

'Attracted to her? To Hinata?!' thought Naruto jumping up a bit.

'No... That's absurd, Hinata is my friend...' thought Naruto.

As he was thinking, Hinata woke up to see Naruto looking down at her and her head was really close to his…..

"EEEK!" squeaked Hinata as she jumped away from him.

She then froze and turned completely red. She still had her Byakugan activated, and he was MUCH closer this time.

Blood gushed from her nose again, and she fell unconscious back into Naruto's lap.

Naruto looked down at her unconsciousness, and decided to continue his mental discussion later.

"Oookaaaaay..." said Naruto reaching down to get Hinata.

"What even just happened?" asked Sakura.

"I'm not entirely sure that you want to know." whispered Kakashi.

After wiping the blood from Hinata's face, Naruto picked up Hinata bridal style, and walked over to Kakashi.

"Well Anyways, you said that Baa-chan wanted to talk to me?" asked Naruto.

"Yes." said Kakashi.

Kakashi's demeanor noticeably saddened.

"About what?" asked Naruto curiously.

Kakashi paused for a moment before speaking.

"It's Sasuke." said Kakashi.

That earned a gasp from both of the Shinobi.

Sakura immediately put her hand up to her mouth in shock.

It had been a while since Naruto had lost his fight to Sasuke. A while since he failed to bring him back from Orochimaru's clutches. Sasuke was lost in his own mind with the power of the curse seal blocking his real personality. The only thing that kept him going was the hatred to kill his brother Itachi, who killed off the entire Uchiha clan, not including Sasuke and himself.

"Sa… Sasuke…" whispered Sakura.

Tears quickly started to well up in her eyes. Sakura had long ago fallen in love with Sasuke who in return kept rejecting her. But she kept steady and faithful hoping he would return her feelings… Until he left for Orochimaru.

"Without a doubt, we know where he is." said Kakashi.

"Sasuke…" whispered Naruto angrily.

"Grrrrr... Lets GO!" shouted Naruto.

He quickly flew from the ground to the rooftops, with Hinata in his arms, and with Kakashi and Sakura close behind.

A few minutes later at the Hokage tower, Tsunade had just finished her paperwork on "government utilities".

"Phew… All done! Any more paperwork coupled with the meeting coming up, and I'd probably get a splitting headache" said Tsunade to herself.

She reached down under her desk to get her job-well-done Sak'e.

As she disappeared under her desk, Naruto and the others flew in through an open window.

"Hey Baa-Chan!" said Naruto.

He adjusted Hinata in his arms, and looked around again.

"Baa-Chan?" asked Naruto.

Naruto looked around the room to find that it was empty, along with her desk being vacant.

"Grrrr… She asks for my IMMEDIATE audience but the drunk old hag can't even show up for it?!" exclaimed Naruto incredulously.

Suddenly Tsunade got back up with her bottle of Sak'e, along with a look that Naruto was familiar with.

Naruto saw Tsunade and realized that she had been there the entire time.

So he took a few steps back with a worried expression on his face.

Tsunade stomped around the desk and rolled up her sleeves, ready to teach him some manners.

END OF CHAPTER