Naruto felt terrible. Not only did he fail to save his best friend from the hands of the evil Orochimaru, but now it seemed like most of his friends were acting oddly towards him. It had already been a week since the mission and Naruto was already healed and was "Released" from the hospital. Everyone else that was on the mission with him were all alive and well. Shikamaru and Kiba were all fully recovered and were cleared for release, but Choji and Neji were still recovering since there injuries were the worst of all.

But it wasn't just his friends that were acting strange; whenever he would walk down the street, people would give him these strange looks, but the worst part of it was that these looks he was getting from people, were the same he received when he was younger, looks that said: "Why are you here?" or "you're a disgrace." He had seen Sakura and the rest of his friends a few times around and had tried to talk to them, but every time they would either give him an excuse as to why they couldn't stay and talk or just brush him off without saying a word. It was starting to get irritating, between nobody wanting to talk to him and all the other villagers giving him hateful looks, it was like a repeat of his early childhood, and it made Naruto sad. And a little scared.

'I don't understand what's going on with people lately, ever since we got back from that mission last week, everyone's been acting weird towards me', Naruto thought as he made his way down the street towards his house.

As he walked past a restaurant he heard voices coming from inside, and he happened to overhear someone his name.

"Did you hear about Naruto?"

"No, what about him?"

"A week ago, he went to go save that Uchiha kid who had left the village but when he got back, the Uchiha wasn't with him. But it turns out that while he was with Sasuke, Naruto supposedly began to transform into the Nine-Tails, if he can't control the demon, then I don't think he should be in this village."

Naruto was traumatized 'That's why everyone's been acting hateful towards me? It just like it was years ago; everyone's been looking at me with disdain because they think I'll transform into the Nine-Tails?'

"Well fine, they can think that if they want, I'm gonna go train so I can get stronger using my own strength, then I'm gonna get Sasuke back and show them I'm not the Kyuubi." He states as he takes off towards the training field.

When he arrives at the training field, Naruto finds it empty, which was perfect. He always preferred to train alone. He began with some warmup stretches and then started his favorite training routine, making his signature hand sign.

"Shadow Clone Jutsu!" He yelled as 100 clones filled the training ground, and then began to fight each other; all the time he was fighting he couldn't escape the lingering depression growing in the back of his mind, could they really think that about him? He couldn't help how the fight turned out, he couldn't have known that Sasuke would be taken over by Orochimaru's curse. But no matter, he gained the villagers respect once, he could do it again.

After about an hour of training Naruto decided to take a break, so he found a tree he could sit under while he drank some water. He couldn't help but be worried about what his friends had to say about him, and he dreaded when that time would come. As he sat there thinking, he sensed a presence approaching, he had hoped that no one would show up there, whoever it was, Naruto knew what was coming when they saw him. As he sat there bracing himself for what was about to happen, he heard a soft voice,

"N-Naruto?"

He jumped and shot his gaze in the direction the voice had come from. He saw standing there, a girl with indigo hair and a cream colored jacket, looking at him with a blush on her face.

"Huh, Hinata? What are you doing here?"

"W-Well I was just c-coming here to train, but I didn't expect to s-see you here."

He started to feel happy that she didn't say anything mean, but quickly snapped back to his earlier thoughts,

"Did you come here to call me a demon to?"

Hinata felt a little hurt by his question, but decided to push on as best she could.

"No, of course not, why would I ever think that about you?

"Because that's the way everyone else thinks of me, everyone says it's because I fought using the Nine-Tails power on our mission to retrieve Sasuke, so now I guess they think I'm the fox itself. I don't blame them though, all my life I've been ridiculed because of this thing inside me, and I've tried my hardest to change people's opinion of me, by showing them I'm just as human as everyone else."

"You shouldn't think like that Naruto, you are not the fox and you never will be. Who cares what people say? I believe you're not the kind of person to get discouraged by others' words, instead, you've always been the type of person to prove people wrong. Peoples' opinions don't define who you are, only you can do that."

Naruto was shocked, he had expected to find scorn from her like he did from everyone else, but to actually be esteemed was definitely a surprise. "Thank you Hinata, you don't know how much I needed to hear that." Before she could respond, Naruto leaned forward and hugged her, Hinata's face turned beet red, but even through the surprise she hugged him back.

"D-don't mention it N-Naruto, I'm…glad I could help."

"You know, that's the second time you've brought me out of depression, you always know just what to say. I mean, I was ready to give up, but now I feel so much better, you're the best."

Hinata's blush intensified "I…I didn't really do anything, it's all because you're such an amazing person N-Naruto."

"That's not true, you've always been there for me. You really are a true friend."

Hinata had to focus all her willpower to not pass out, she's never been this bold around Naruto before. 'What do I do? I want to tell him. I've got to do it, now or never.'

"Um, Naruto?"

"Yeah?"

I…I need to…to tell you something."

"Sure Hinata. What's up?"

I…I...I really…like you, Naruto. I have for a long time"

Surprised at her sudden act of courage. "I like you too Hinata."

"Naruto, I mean I like you as in…I-I want to be with you" she stumbled. Keeping her eyes focused on the ground. It was all or nothing.

Nodding his head, with light pink on his face. "I know that's what you meant, and I feel the same way about you."

Surprised was an overwhelming understatement for what Hinata felt right now. "You…do?"

"Of course, to be honest, I've felt that way about you for a while, but I could never figure out the best way to tell you."

"B…But If so then why did you always…"

"…Chase after Sakura? I really don't know, I don't like her in that way, she always felt like more of a sister to me. So I guess it was because she liked Sasuke, and I didn't want to lose to him…" Looking down with a sad look. "But now he's not here anymore." Looking back up at Hinata with one of his signature grins. "I like you in the real way Hinata. Although I'm surprised you felt the same way for so long. I guess that explains why you were always the only one who didn't hate me."

Hinata was in tears. And all she could do was jump forward and throw her arms around him. "I could never hate you Naruto."