The next day Natsa had come to check on Hinata and was pleased with the healing and gave her the okay to start walking around.

Hinata instantly took the opportunity to go for a walk in the woods. She put on her jacket and headed out for a stroll.

"Hey Hinata wait up!"

Hinata turned and saw orange heading her way. "Hi Naruto." She gave him a smile.

Naruto smiled back and rubbed the back of his head. "Do you mind if I go on a walk with you?"

Hinata was surprised by the request and her heart couldn't help but do a little flip. "S-sure."

Naruto smile got bigger as he went to walk beside Hinata.

"So how are you feeling?" He asked.

"Good for the most part. I just hope I heal soon so we can get back to the village. I don't want to keep everyone waiting."

"Don't worry about that. We already sent a message that we are all good for the most part and that we got Keiko."

"I guess you're right."

"Besides, the most important thing at the moment is you." Naruto looked over at Hinata and smiled. "You need to get better, but at your own pace."

"Thank you Naruto." Hinata smiled back.

The two then continued walking in silence. Both unsure of what to say. There was something that Naruto wanted to talk about but he wasn't quite sue how to say it, until finally he couldn't wait any longer.

"Hey Hinata…."

"Hm?"
"I kind of…sorta…wanted to talk to you about some stuff that happened during our fight with Kenji."

At this Hinata paled. A million different things went through her head about what Naruto wanted to talk about and all of them ended with Naruto being mad at her. Mad at her for stepping in, mad at her for being a bad leader, mad at her for everything.

"First I want to say thank you."

"F-for what?"

"Well for one being an awesome leader. You are really good at it. You listen to everyone's ideas and are fair and smart about your decisions. I also want to say thank you for stepping in when you did. If you didn't then I would have probably died or have killed Kenji. I mean, he sort of deserved it in the moment. I honestly thought that he had killed you and I lost you."

"R-really?"

"Yeah. I don't know what happened to me. At one moment I remember seeing you getting pierced and the next I'm filled with rage that I have never felt in my life before. Well almost never. It felt a lot like my match against Pain."

Hearing Naruto mention Pain made Hinata stop breathing for a moment. That was when she confessed and that's the moment that Naruto doesn't remember.

"And that's what I really wanted to talk to you about. You see…when I saw you get hurt again I sort of had some sort of flashback. Back to my fight against Pain and it this flashback there was some things that I didn't know about before."

"L-like what?" Even though Hinata had a pretty good idea of what it was.

"I finally remembered you stepping in and pretty much saving my life."

"I see."

"And I also remember what you said...and I wanted to say…"

Part of Hinata wanted to hear what Naruto had to say but the other part was to afraid. Still after all this time she wasn't ready for the rejection, so instead of staying and listening, Hinata ran.