To the untrained eye it wasn't there, it was just nothing in the slightly blowing breeze. To a ninja, however, whose eyes were far beyond superior to those of a normal human, it was as clear as a light in the darkness. It was a tiny flash of a shinning drop of ruby red. Or, more definitively, it was simply blood. Naruto saw it probably even before the victim knew it herself. He sighed, Hinata had over worked herself again in an attempt to increase her strength. Not that she needed it though, over the years she became one of Konoha's top kunoichi, if not the strongest herself. He didn't know why she kept training as hard as she did, although he frequently did it himself. He found no point for the Hyuuga heiress to do it herself. She had claimed her status as clan leader a year ago,but she would not take over until her father felt ready to step down. If anything she should have been home studying over financial papers and reviewing clan rules.

So why was she out here training? He often questioned that and frequently asked people for an answer. The one he got most often from people was that she simply was trying to increase her skills as a ninja so that she could be an effective clan leader. He would have settled for that answer, if Shino had not told him something different. When he approached Shino about the subject one afternoon, instead of getting the same old response from everybody else, he got a different one. Shino simply stated that even though she was already strong, she was trying to get the attention of someone who she had thought she remained pretty unnoticed to. When Naruto asked who this person was, Shino simply turned around and walked off, leaving a very confused Naruto standing in his spot. He couldn't imagine who she was trying to impress. She had already gotten her father's and clan's total approval after the defeat of her father himself and Neji soon after that. All of her friends were seriously impressed over the transformation this once shy girl had gone through over the years. It certainly couldn't be himself because he was certainly amazed by Hinata, just about everything about her had changed for the better and he couldn't imagine what she had gone through over the years. Not only that but they had grown very close over the years after his return and were pretty much best friends at this point. Maybe it was Sasuke? No it couldn't be Sasuke he was already taken by Sakura, who certainly loved Hinata as a sister after all of the missions they had been together.

He could have stood there longer but decided to go home and try to forget about it. He had more important things to worry about, including his training under Tsunade to become the next hokage. Well, he thought he had more important things to worry about, but in fact this turned out to be more important than he thought. He just couldn't think of someone she was trying to get the attention of. She was incredibly smart, strong, kind, graceful, and beautiful to top it off, and yes he couldn't deny that after they became friends he had feelings for the girl that he thought once belonged to Sakura so many years ago. Those feelings did die off of Sakura after he left and he never thought twice about them, well at least not until now. Much to the displeasure of his current teacher, these feelings and this question plagued his mind for the next week and a half, in which he received many blows to the head and even one or two to the stomach. It was also during this time that he began to walk around town a little more. He didn't know if it was to help him think or he just wanted another excuse to run into her outside of work. Today he decided to take a detour through the training grounds, where he spotted her training again and decided to stop and watch. It had been about maybe fifteen minutes since he had stopped and she still hadn't noticed him even though he was in plain view. Her moves were graceful yet deadly and could probably take down any elite ninja within a couple minutes of fighting if she got her timing right, and most of the time she did much to the chagrin of her opponent. It was after her last attack on the wooden pole when her hand started to bleed. Once she noticed she cursed and collapsed to the ground to wrap up the wound with bandage. Unfortunately for her she had already used up all of he bandage during the week and didn't think to buy some more before she headed out to train today. It was lucky for her that Naruto just happen to have some in his own pack. He went out to her and handed her his bandage supply.

"You know your probably going to kill your hand before you do yourself" he joked. Hinata turned around sharply ready to attack, but eased off when she saw it was Naruto. She was able to suppress her annoyance but she unable to suppress the soft blush that soon caressed her face.

"Well it would probably kill you first if you keep sneaking up on people like that," she retorted back laughing.

"Sorry but you were so busy I figured I wouldn't disturb you, not that you need to train anymore or anything, it just seemed like you were concentrating really hard," he stated. At this he sat down next to her while she slowly wrapped her hand..

"Thank you, and you right I probably should stop training so hard. Father will have my head if I don't get those stupid financial papers done by the end of the week," she said remembering the massive pile of papers currently stacked on a desk in her room. She had only gone through half of them at most and she still had a long way to go.

"Ugh I HATE paper work! Tsunade baa-chan makes me do it all for her while she goes out to drink sake in the hotsprings. Do you know how many lazy people are in this village!? I mean I even got a request to have them do someone's grocery shopping for them when they live right down the street!" Naruto complained in an exaggerated manner, which made Hinata laugh, which in turn made Naruto turn a faint shade of pink himself.

"I guess we try and find excuses not to do them huh? Like training until we 'kill' our hands" Hinata said jokingly.

"I still don't see why you're still training. I mean you even beat Neji for crying out loud! I beat him too but now a days I'm sure he could beat me easily with all that jutsu hes learned," calimed Naruto

"You've learned a lot of new jutsu too Naruto! I don't think anyone in the village could beat you these days save Tsunade and Sakura," she laughed. It was true though, Naruto couldn't help but remember how often the two ladies beat him up for not paying attention, most recently today in the head again.

"Yeah well you still haven't answered my question," he said trying to turn the subject back to where he had intended it to be.

" I think I still train for the same reason you still train Naruto-kun.You probably train more then I do yet you could probably defeat everyone with a single hit or too. I guess I feel like the more strength I get, the more people will acknowledge me as a strong person, and not a stuttering shy wimp like I used to be."

"Hinata you were never a wimp!" interrupted Naruto "The Hinata I used to see was incredibly strong and kind and believed in everybody including people who had hurt her. She was just hiding it because she just didn't believe in herself. We shouldn't measure each other by our strength, but by the strength of our heart. Or, at least that was what Iruka-sensei told me a long time ago. If that's the case then you were probably the strongest person I knew back then," finished Naruto whose face had turned a touch pinker from his comment. On the other hand, Hinata's had turned a deeper red.

"Same with you Naruto-kun, your heart is probably the strongest one in the world the way you care for everybody. Yet you still train hard when you didn't need to, even from the beginning," she said.

"I train so I can protect the people who are close to me. Well, at first it was about beating Sasuke, but when we lost him and I saw everybody falling apart, and even when I saw my friends on the brink of death, including you Hinata, I realized that training to beat someone was not a valid reason to be training. Rather I should be training to protect my friends," he said thoughtfully.

"Wow Naruto I think that was the deepest thing you have ever said to me," Hinata joked back.

"Yeah, that I still want to kick all of the villagers who made fun of me back then," he told her laughing.

"What happened to protecting them?" asked Hinata

"I'll protect them after I give them a good kick in the butt!" Naruto said making a funny motion which made Hinata giggle. He feel on the ground and looked up at the sky. It was faint colors of orange and pink as the sun slowly said goodbye to the earth that it had spent giving hope and light to, and making way for the bright moon that was soon to follow in its path. Hinata soon laid back with him and together they watched the evening become twilight as. After what seemed like an eternity of silence, Hinata finally decided to speak up.

"You know Naruto-kun, in all honesty I was always training because I needed to become clan leader, and just so you could notice me," she finally admitted to him.

"Me!?!" asked Naruto in disbelief after finding out the person who he was trying to figure out for the past week was himself.

"Yeah, I always admired how much you believed in yourself. I guess I always thought that if I got you to notice me then maybe all that self confidence would rub off on me. Kind of a silly thing to think of huh?" she said laughing a bit.

"It would make sense when we were younger, but Hinata I have always noticed you! I've always noticed how strong you were, how kind you were, how beau-," he started but he stopped himself before he made a fool of himself in front of her.

"Well, I guess I'm as blind as you are Naruto-kun," she said giggling before she stood up.

"Wait what do you mean I'm blind!?" asked Naruto who was getting very confused now. Hinata stopped for a moment, debated to herself whether she should tell him or not. She decided not to though when she saw Lee coming down the training field most likely looking for Naruto. She sighed because she had missed another chance to tell him, but since this one was technically not her fault, she left herself feeling positive rather than defeated like she normally did when she considered telling him.

"Naruto-kun!" yelled Lee. Naruto quickly jumped up and turned around to see Lee several feet behind him. He was disappointed though because it ruined his conversation with Hinata, and who knows how long it would be before they had another one, considering how budy they were.

"Hey Lee what's up?" he said cheerfully despite his disspointment

"Tsunade needs you immediately back at the office, she says that we have a new mission she is going to send us on! I have been preparing for a mission all of these weeks! Gai-sensei and I have been doing laps around Konoha everyday and his training is even more intense! Isn't it exciting to see the flames of youth burning inside our own hokage as she prepares to send us out to do our duty! Ah it is truly humbling indeed! Infact-"

"Yeah Lee can you give me a second I'll be right there," Naruto interrupted hoping he could keep talking to Hinata. He turned around to see Hinata laughing at Lee's antics once again.

"Its ok Naruto-kun I have to get home anyways, I have to get that stupid paperwork done. Have fun on your mission!" she said cheerfully. With that she turned around and started to walk off, with Naruto goggling behind her at beauty and the way she walked that made his whole heart stop a beat or two. That and he couldn't stop thinking about their previous conversation, how she was always training for him when she had so much else to train for. What did she mean when she said he was blind anyways? He started to feel sick, but a good kind of sick, a kind he had never felt before. It was then he realized that those feelings he had for her, weren't the ones he had Sakura so long ago. No these feelings were different, he couldn't describe them, but after thinking about it for a second, he realized it was love.

"Naruto-kun are you coming?" asked Lee who was already turning to leave.

"Yeah," said Naruto slightly dazed, but he smiled and started to walk off to the hokage office with Lee. Lets just say that he didn't pay attention very much on the mission, or for weeks after that.