Disclaimer: I do not own nor ever claimed any rights to “Naruto”: it is the rightful property of Miasashi Kishimuto and Cartoon Network. What property I do own is the following OC: Sin, and the plot.

A/N: All right. This is my first Naruto fanfic. I’ve grown fond of this anime ever since I first saw the Manga for it, and then was thrilled when it came on the air on Cartoon Network. So I decided to try my hand at writing something other than Teen Titans (for those of you who know me), for those who don’t, I hope that I can entertain you and make it worth your time in reading my work, thank you. The pairings in this fanfic will be central around Naruto and Hinata; others will follow and will not be listed at this time (Got to save some things for later. XD). On another note, there will be some spoilers for some, so if none of you want to have the show ruined for you, I suggest you avoid from reading this as this will be a major spoiler for the show. Alright, enough of the introduction, let’s get with the story, shall we?

Home Welcome

Riding slowly down the beaten road leading to Konohagakure no Sato, otherwise known as The Village Hidden in the Leaves; a village renowned for the remarkable ninjas raised and trained there, was a wagon, being pulled by six odd horses. The oddity being that each horse had bluish-black fur and horns like those of a dragon. As for the wagon itself it looked more like a funeral carriage, resigned for carrying the mortal remains of those who have past on. Though, this kind of carriage was unseen by anyone in this nation or the bizarre steeds pulling it toward the village. To the guards of the west gates watching this strange carriage approaching them, it was an odd sight indeed.

As the carriage got closer, they could make out the driver of the carriage to be a rather young boy with sliver hair. It wasn’t until the carriage had stopped at the gates did the guards see the cat-like ears twitching amongst the nest of long, spiky hair and a tail twitching idly behind him. The boy smiled down on them with a cheery disposition, freaking the guards out that he could be so cheery when he was driving something out of a nightmare.

The oldest guard, a chunin with a scar rolling from the side of his nose down to his neck, where it vanished under his collar, approached the odd boy, who locked golden eyes on him. Clearing his throat once, he addressed the boy: “Who are you and what business do you have in our village?”

The silver haired boy widened his smile, then fumbled though the short grey shirt he was wearing over a fishnet shirt he had underneath. Not finding what he was looking for in his shirt, he rummaged through the baggy black khakis he was wearing. He must have found what he was looking for, because the ears on his head perked up straight and he let out a triumphant laugh. “Ah-ha! Found ya, you little bugger!” He withdrew a scroll and handed it to the guard.

“We were invited by your Hokage to come and perform for your village,” the silver-haired boy said, after handing the scroll over.

The guard snatched the scroll from him and checked for any hidden traps or deadly jutsu attached to it before he even dared open it. Finding none, he opened it and did the same thing again. When he was sure it was an authentic scroll and nothing more than one, he read the contents and grimaced when he finished.

“Why would Lady Tsunade summon you people?” the chunin questioned the boy.

The sliver-haired boy smirked, making the chunin think of a cat that just caught a mouse. “That’s for us and your Hokage to know. If you were meant to know, she’d have told you beforehand. Now open this gates and let us in. It wouldn’t be a wise thing for you to delay people that your Hokage has summoned personally any more than you already are! We’re busy people and we have a schedule of our own to keep!”

The chunin gawked at the boy’s audacity to order him around. Him, a trained shinobi no less, and here was this odd boy driving a freaky carriage ordering him around like he was some wet-nosed genin. He was about to give the boy a well deserved beaten when he caught the shifting of the curtains from the carriage. The sun was still high, but the west gates were shading most of the area at this time and keeping the rays of the sun from shining and revealing whoever it was who drew back the curtains. He looked into total darkness and gulped when a pair of glowing red eyes appeared and locked onto him.

“…Is there a problem?” a deep, dark and slightly rough voice said.

The boy leaned over the side and looked at the eyes. “Nah, just some wax-eared ninjas who can’t seem to understand that they need to open the gates so we can pass.”

“Is that all?” the voice replied, followed by an eerie chuckle. The eyes narrowed and creased, registering to any who were good with reading faces that the owner of those eyes was smiling. “We are in a bit of a hurry. Please open the gates and let us pass…your Hokage had asked for us to arrive as fast as possible.” He paused for a moment and the eyes tilted. “I’d hate to have to tell her that we were held up by her own ninjas…”

The chunin looked nervous now. Getting on the wrong side of the fifth Hokage was a fate worse than death and he never wanted to witness that wrath first hand. He turned to the other guards and waved a hand. “Open the gates and let them pass!”

The gates opened with a loud groan and the guard motioned with his thumb for them to proceed.

“Thank you…” the voice said and closed the curtain.

“Yeah! Thanks, pal!” the boy beamed, smiling broadly at him and then flicked the reins and the strange steeds moved past the gates and disappeared down the road.

A younger chunin came up to the older one with a look of concern on his face. “Do you think it was a good idea to let those weird people in our village?”

The older chunin grunted. “Couldn’t be helped. Lady Tsunade sent for them, so she must have a damn good reason for allowing freaks like that into Konoha.” He ran a finger lightly over the scar on his face, a habit he developed after receiving it. ‘At least I hope so…’

At the same time of day, Naruto and Sakura were celebrating his return to the village after being away for almost three years when he left to begin his training with the Toad Hermit, Jiraiya, who also happened to be the infamous author of a certain copy ninja’s favorite series, Icha Icha Paradise. It was actually because of the copy ninja and their old sensei that they were celebrating. Upon returning to the village, and after reacquainting himself with everyone that missed him, which wasn’t much if he included just the plain villagers, but if he only focused on all the ninjas, then he indeed was sorely missed by almost all of them, that Kakashi challenged him and Sakura to his bell exercise to see how well the two have progress after three years.

The two had proven to have become very strong and fast, much to their ex-sensei’s satisfaction, but even with the combine teamwork and their training from two of the village’s legendary Sannin, the two had trouble retrieving any bells from Kakashi. What he never expected to happen to him was for the two to use his one joy in the world against him.

Upon arriving to the training field, Naruto had given Kakashi the newest Icha Icha series, “Icha Icha Tactics!” as a gift from him and Jiraiya. When the two found they weren’t able to get any of the bells off of him the old fashion way, Naruto secretly told Sakura his plan, and the two began talking about the contents of Kakashi’s new book. Out of fear of having the ending ruined for him, Kakashi covered his ears and was forced to close his eyes, as he was able to read their lips with his Sharingan eye. It wasn’t until it was too late that the two snatched the bells from him and left him to gawk at their retreating backs, ringing their individual bells as they left him to go celebrate their victory and Naruto’s return. And where were the two celebrating? None other than at his favorite ramen stand, Ichiraku, where the two talked about their training and what their life had been since he left the village.

“So, how much did Jiraiya put you through?” Sakura asked of the matured ex-knuckle headed ninja. Mature because he no longer acted like the baka he used to when she last saw him. In its place was a true, almost fully grown man and ninja, and quite the handsome one at that now. ‘Thank Kami I think of him more as a brother than anything.’

The said ninja was chowing down on his fifth bowl of ramen. He inhaled it quickly, letting out a satisfied sigh with a slap of his lips, and ordered another bowl, then said in a deep, non-pitched, yelling voice he used to have, “It was tough! I never got a break from that pervy-sage…well, I did get a little bit of a break when he was off peeking at women, but sometimes then he’d leave me with some intense exercise or new technique to master.”

Sakura rolled her eyes. “Yeah, that sounds like what Tsunade-sensei has told me of him.”

“Yeah! But he did train me well…I feel a lot different than when I left the village to go train with him,” Naruto replied with a silly grin, the one thing that never seemed to change, much to Sakura’s dismay.

She kept that little fact from showing on her face, smiling to hide the annoyance she felt when she looked at that smile. It was a sign that she, too, had changed and matured some. Three years ago she would have smacked him over the head for looking so goofy…but that was until she learned that it was just a part of him, one that deep down, she never wanted to see disappear from him.

“You look different,” Sakura said, upon continuing with their discussion and acting casual on the outside while observing him.

Much of everything else had changed about him. The biggest change she first spotted about him was his change of style. He still wore orange; there was no changing in that, but where once the color blue was the other dominant color with the orange, now black was in its place. From the long black cloth of his hitai-ate, to the black sandals he wore now. His pants were all orange, like always, but in place of the orange jacket he was known for, he now had on an orange zipped-up sweater with black along the shoulders and sleeves and along the bottom with the spirals that adorn the same places as his old jacket. His hair was in a different style, it no longer point in every direction but rather hanged over his hitai-ate in a stylish fashion. And tall! Did she forget that he had had a huge growth spurt when he was away, now he was taller than everyone, save for Kakashi, Jiraiya, and the fifth Hokage herself. Her observation stopped there when he looked at her.

“You think? I haven’t really noticed,” Naruto said, hiding his redden cheeks behind his new bowl of ramen.

“Yes, you do. You don’t walk around like the clumsy, short little numbskull you used to be,” Sakura jeered playfully.

Instead of getting mad like he would used to when someone called him such things, he just shrugged and looked at her with a casual smile. “Yeah...I was all those things when I was younger, huh?”

“No…not all those things,” Sakura quickly apologized. “You had other traits that I’m glad to see have gotten better since you were gone.”

“Like what?” Naruto wondered, putting his bowl down and looking at her curiously.

“You still have that determination to get stronger, for one, and it looks like it’s paying off,” Sakura admitted, with a faint blush on her face.

“Like what you see, do ya?!” Naruto teased, earning him a punch upside his head from the pink-haired kunoichi.

“You’ll never change will you!” an enraged, and blushing, Sakura roared.

“Hah, hah! Nope!” Naruto declared, rubbing the growing lump on his head.

Sakura fumed for another moment, then she, too, started laughing with him. Their laughter grew louder for a brief moment and the two collapsed against each other and held on to the other for support, to keep from falling off their stools. Right when the two were calming down, a head popped into the ramen stand; a ninja with a long horizontal line across his face and black-hair pulled back in a ponytail that spiked up above his head.

“Hey, you two, what’s so funny?” Iruka asked.

Upon hearing his voice, Naruto jerked his head around and grabbed the chunin around his neck and pulled him into a hug. “Iruka-sensei!!!”

Iruka yelped as his old-student hugged and choked him. He managed to pry them off his neck and cleared his throat and patted Naruto on the head with a warm smile. “Hey, Naruto. I was looking for you.”

“You were?” Naruto uttered, looking at Sakura once and then back at his first sensei. “What for?”

The genin teacher gave him the broadest smile he had even given to his favorite student. He reached into his one of the pockets on his vest and pulled out two large tickets and handed one to Naruto and the other to Sakura.

“What are these for?” Naruto asked.

“They look like concert tickets,” Sakura said, examining her ticket. “Why are you giving us concert tickets?”

“It’s a surprise and treat for Naruto and all his friends from the fifth Hokage,” Iruka replied with the broad smile still on his face. “After all the grief and hard work you’ve all done, she thought she’d reward you guys. It wasn’t easy from what I hear, either. The band she requested are foreigners, and they don’t play in any known ninja village…until now.”

“A band, huh? A band of what?” Naruto asked, dumfounded.

Both Iruka and Sakura sighed.

“They’re a musical group, Naruto,” Iruka explained patiently. “They travel from village to village performing for people.”

“Sounds like an odd life,” Naruto said bluntly, leaning against the counter.

“Yeah, but what’s even odder is that his band only plays at night,” Iruka added. “And for the kind of entertainment they do, I guess it’s more appropriate.”

“Only at night? That is odd,” Sakura said.

Iruka shrugged his shoulders. “I know, but that’s what they do. Oh! I almost forgot to tell you, the concert is tonight. The times are on your tickets and so is the location.”

Naruto looked at his ticket, but never got to read it as it was yanked out of his hand by someone. He jerked his head up and glared at the person who was now holding his ticket. “Hey! What’s the big idea, huh!? Oh, Ino, what are you doing here?”

The flower-girl didn’t reply. She was staring at his ticket in disbelief. “…You got tickets to Crimson Blade’s concert tonight!? You suck!”

Naruto had to bite his tongue to keep from making a rather perverted remark. Being with the perverted Sannin had unfortunately rubbed off him and he now had a tendency to think along the same line as his Ero-sennin. Instead, he said, “You know about this band?”

Ino gave him a look as if he asked the dumbest question in the world. “Are you serious? Where have you been, Naruto? Out prancing in the woods?”

“Actually, I was,” Naruto replied dryly, narrowing his eyes seriously.

Ino gulped and felt a shiver of fear run down her spine. “Oh…sorry.”

Sakura read her ticket. “Hey, you’re right. These are tickets to Crimson Blade!”

“You know them, too, Sakura?” Naruto gawked.

“Kinda, they’re this new band that have been introducing a new kind of music…I think it’s called, heavy music?” Sakura replied, tapping her chin.

Naruto looked her with a perplexed look. “How can music be heavy?”

Ino gave the two an inpatient sigh. “It’s heavy metal! These guys use a new method to produce music that’s never been seen before…well, in our nation or this side of the world for that matter, but they are so awesome!”

“How do you know? Have you heard them before?” Naruto asked.

Ino smiled and placed her hands on her hips proudly. “Yup! I was on a surveillance mission with Tenten and Lee, and we happened on them by chance, really.”

“I heard from Tenten that you ditched them to go sneak in to see them,” Iruka said with a frown.

Ino waved his accusation away with one flick of her hand. “Either way, I got to listen to them…and I never heard anything like what they play in my life! And they’re playing here!!” She started jumping up and down where she stood, but then her good mood disappeared when she realized something. “…But, I got no ticket…awww!”

“Actually…” Iruka interjected, pulling another ticket from his vest and handed it to her. “You do.”

Ino gasped at the ticket and took it and hugged him furiously. “Oh, thank you! Thank you! Thank you!”

“Wait!? She gets a free ticket, too!?” Sakura exclaimed.

“Tsunade got tickets for all you guys, remember? I volunteered to deliver the ticket to everyone so I could come and see Naruto…it gave me an excuse to stop grading papers for a while and come see my favorite student.”

Naruto beamed and rubbed the back of his head.

“Well, I gotta go, Naruto. I’ve got to finish delivering these tickets out to everybody else,” Iruka said, waving to the three.

“Hey, wait! Uh…Iruka-sensei?” Naruto muttered.

“Yeah, what is it, Naruto?” Iruka replied, looking curiously at him.

“Do you have a ticket for…Hinata?” Naruto asked.

The scarred chunin smiled at him and pulled out another ticket. “As a matter of fact, I do…wanna give her her ticket for me? It save me a trip.”

“Sure!” Naruto exclaimed excitedly and yanked the ticket from his hand.

Iruka smiled once more at him and waved at them again. “Okay, I’m going now…and good luck, Naruto.”

He left Ichiraku and Naruto reached into his frog pouch and paid for his and Sakura’s ramen.

“Hey, I can pay for myself, Naruto…you don’t have to,” Sakura stated.

“My treat,” Naruto replied with a smile. “I’ll talk to you guys later, I gotta go!”

He jumped off his stool and was about to leave when both Ino and Sakura grabbed his arms and pulled him back against the counter.

“And just where are you heading to, hmm?” Ino questioned with a sly smile.

“Yeah, Naruto,” Sakura said, with the same smile on her face.

“W-Well…I was gonna go find Hinata and deliver her ticket for Iruka-sensei,” Naruto replied with a worried look on his face.

He was really worried with the looks on the two kunoichi’s faces. He didn’t like how they were grinning like cats at him. He forgot how much Ino liked to gossip…and question people who had something she thought was juicy. It bothered him to see that Sakura had developed this same attitude. From the look on her face, it told him enough that she was just as interested in knowing as Ino was…and that for both part-time rivals and friends to act the same way…was a scary thing for the world.

“So...you’re gonna go see Hinata, huh? Is there a reason why you asked if she was going?” Ino demanded, squeezing his arm.

“U-Uh…well,” Naruto stuttered, blushing like crazy. “I hadn’t seen her yet since I got back…and wanted to say hi. It’s been a long time and I was hoping to see her today…”

“OH?!?” Both girls hummed, then looked at each other behind his head, then back at him.

“Y-Yeah! Umm, I better be going or I’ll be late in getting this ticket to her…you two should be getting ready for the concert tonight, shouldn’t you?” Naruto inquired.

At his suggestion, both girls let go of him and proceeded to panic.

“Crap! I got to get my hair done…then pick out something to wear, Gah!” Ino said frantically, fussing with her restored long ponytail.

“Eek! What about by hair, too!? This is so sudden!” Sakura groaned along with her. “Bye, Naruto! We got to go! But don’t think you’re off the hook with us yet!”

With that said, the two kunoichi darted off in a blink of an eye. Naruto slumped against the counter and sighed in relief as he avoided their probing questions for the moment. There would be no escaping them next time. He knew they wouldn’t let up until he confessed to them what they wanted to know. But hopefully, if all went well, he won’t have to explain anything to them. Stuffing his hands in his pockets, he left the ramen stand and strolled down the street and disappeared with nothing but a swirl of dust as evidence he was ever there. He reappeared on the rooftops and leapt easily over the familiar domes and flat tops that made up most of the roofs in the village, thanks to the architects that built them for a village full of shinobi, with that purpose in mind for them.

He headed for the training field after not finding her at her local residences, where he was met with some hostility. Even after all he’s accomplished and changed, there were still people that thought of him as the demon that was locked up inside his body. He learned during his training with Jiraiya to not hate the people that acted hateful to him…they were just scared of him, and the Hermit once told him that people, when scared, will act out in hate to protect themselves and hide their fear. So he just brushed off their glares and left with a defying smirk on his face towards them, knowing that would agitate them to no end.

Arriving to the training field, for the second time in the day, he caught a familiar scent before he saw something large and drooling come running up at him. “Ah! A monster!” Naruto yelped, when a huge dog that was almost bigger than himself plow right into him and knocked him down, then pinned him with one massive paw on his chest.

He protected his face with his arms over his head, but when he felt no teeth tear into his arms or threatening growls, he opened his closed eyes and looked up at a large, panting Akamaru. “Huh? A-Akamaru? Hey! You’ve gotten big!” He reached up and pet the dog’s head and it barked out happily and started licking his face.

“Hah, he still looks like a pup to me. How you doing, Naruto?” a familiar, rough voice said, appearing from behind a tree.

“Kiba!” Naruto exclaimed in recognition. “What have you been feeding this guy, more of those ration pellets?”

Kiba laughed out and walked over to his partner and pulled him off of Naruto and knelt down and pet him. “Nah, the dogs in the Inzuka clan grow to large sizes…but I never really noticed a change in his size.”

Naruto gawked at him. ‘How could be not notice when his dog got to be the size of a pony!?’

He got up and brushed his clothes off and spotted someone else in the trees. A teenager with black glasses and a trench coat with a high collar hiding his face and a hood over his head, with a hitai-ate hiding the rest of his face from view. He walked up to them and waved at Naruto. “…Been a long time, how’ve you been?”

Naruto eyed the teenager. “Do I know you?”

The teenager stiffened some and his eyebrows, what could be seen of them, raised up in question. “Don’t you remember me, Naruto?”

Naruto stared at him for a minute, pondering on who it could be, then it clicked. “Oh! Shino! Now I remember!”

“..Glad to hear it,” Shino grumbled lowly.

He was pulled out of his slump when Naruto wrapped an arm around his shoulders and pulled him close. “Hey, I’m sorry, man! It was hard to recognize you with that hood and collar you’re wearing. I couldn’t tell.”

Shino smirked faintly behind his collar and adjusted his glasses. “Yeah, I guess that would confuse someone who hasn’t seen me in a few years.”

“Believe it! Hah, hah!” Naruto laughed, but then abruptly stopped and looked around the area. “Hey, guys…uh, you wouldn’t happen to know where Hinata is, would ya?”

Kiba grinned wolfishly and Naruto swore he heard a faint chuckle from Shino.

“So? You finally clued in, huh?” Kiba said, standing up. “I was beginning to think you really were dense.”

“Clued in on what?” Naruto asked, then his eyes widened somewhat. “…Oh, that…”

Shino unhooked himself from his arm, politely. “Yeah, she’s been waiting for you since you left.”

“She has?” Naruto couldn’t help but feel excited by that news. “…I bet she’s had some boyfriends, though…while I was away, huh?”

“Actually, no,” Shino said flatly.

“Yeah, she hasn’t tried dating or seeing any other guys, ever,” Kiba added, stroking Akamaru’s thick neck. “Heh, heh! Hey, Shino! Remember that time when Ino tried to get Hinata to date?”

“How could I forget that? Ino was steamed when she kept turning down every guy she sent her way,” Shino said.

Naruto was puzzled. “Why did she turn them all down? Wasn’t she interested in any of them?”

“Nope…she told Ino one thing when she demanded why she kept turning them down,” Shino said, raising a hand. “She said ‘I’m waiting…” Then he pointed a finger at Naruto. “…for him’. That’s just how our Hinata is.”

Naruto was so taken by this news. He never would have thought that anyone, let alone a girl, would wait for him of all people. Well, there was Sakura, but that was different and the crush he once had for her had faded away and focused on someone else when he left the village. That someone who had been waiting for him to return just like he had been…

Ever since he left, one thought had run over and over in his mind, and that was the incident at the lake when he and Hinata’s team went in search for the scent bug to track down Sasuke. At first, he really didn’t know who it was, but the more he pondered it, the more he came to understand that the pretty girl he saw that night was the heiress of the Hyuga family. It made sense when he really thought about it. The shape of the silhouette matched hers, the gleam and color of her hair was the same as hers when he looked at her at night…it was no one else but her. That wasn’t the only reason why he had started finding himself thinking about her. There were more important things than just looks to him. It was her belief in him, what made her face her own cousin when at the time she was scared of him the most. Then faced the ninjas from the Kamizuru clan all on her own and succeeded in defeating them all, because she wanted to protect him.

He admitted to himself he was an idiot for not getting any of this when he was younger. Though, at the time, the only thing that mattered to him was training and working up to his goal to become the next Hokage. But then, one day, Jiraiya asked him a very important question when he started his daily ramble about becoming Hokage. When you became Hokage and changed the village to your ideals, what then? He asked him this and who would he share his life with when he was Hokage, that someone that would support him all the way, in the good and the bad. When all seemed lost and no hope was there, who would he lean on for strength? Then he told him that when the right person came along, don’t hesitate for a minute, and don’t ever lose her.

Somehow Naruto figured he was really talking about himself and about a certain Sannin…but he caught the hint. From then on, he had spent nights laying in bed or on the ground where he and Jiraiya camped and wondering who would it be that would be the person that Jiraiya meant. At first, he thought of Sakura, but he quickly ended any causes of entertaining any thoughts of her. He was still in love with Sasuke, even if he betrayed the village for his search for power to kill his bother, and he promised her that he would drag the baka back one day, whether he was all in one piece or covered in bruises: He will bring Sasuke Uchiha back to Konoha.

When he thought of who else might be special to him…she popped into his mind, or rather the memory of her training in the shadows and moonlight at the lake. Maybe it was just the perverted side that had developed in him—no thanks to his Ero-sennin—or it really left an impression on him. Whatever the reason, he thought about it so much that he began thinking about all the other times he spent with Hinata Hyuga and compared her to the girl she saw on the lake and come to the conclusion that the two were one and the same. Why she cared about him in the first place was a mystery to him. He only thought this because no one ever showed him any kindness because of what he was, until Iruka-sensei, but the ones that didn’t know; they just picked up where their parents left without any real reason as to why to act grudgingly against him. He no longer cared what they thought of him. He was becoming stronger every day and if things continued like this, then he would achieve his life ambition…and if things did continue working out good as they finally were for him, then maybe, just maybe, he’ll have more.

“Hey, Naruto? You okay, buddy? You’re zoning out on us,” Kiba remarked, waving a hand in front of his face.

Naruto snapped out back to reality. “Oh! Sorry…I was just thinking.”

Kiba grinned knowingly at him. “About a certain someone?”

“…Yeah, you caught me, so umm…where is she?” Naruto asked.

Shino placed a hand on his shoulder and slowly turned him around and pointed at one of the trees. “She’s right there…”

Naruto followed where the finger directed him and stared at the tree that the finger was pointing to. At first, he thought Shino was playing around with him, but then someone stepped out, looking very nervous, from behind the tree. A girl with dark, long lavender hair and pupil-less, blank eyes that would freak other people, but not Naruto; to him, they fit her just right and made her uniquely enchanting, stared awkwardly at the ground before her. She wore the same clothes she always, only doubled in size to fit her developed body, and if his eyes were telling him true…even with the bulky sweater she was wearing, he could make out quite a figure she had underneath it.

“Hai…Hinata,” Naruto greeted nervously. “B-Been a while, huh?”

“H-Hai…Naruto-san,” Hinata greeted back with the same nervousness in him. “…I…I…missed you.”

Naruto smiled at her. ‘She’s still the same as I remember…’ He walked up to her causally, rubbing the back of his head. “Hey, Hinata…I was wondering…have you heard about a band that’s coming to our village?”

The Hyuga heiress fumbled for a moment, too shocked that he was actually talking directly to her, then gently nodded her head. “Hai…I’ve heard rumors that one is playing here…W-Why do you ask?”

The smile on his face grew as he pulled out her ticket and handed it to her. “Well…I just so happen to have two tickets, one of them is for you…” He blushed. “…A-And I was wondering—no, hoping, that you would like to accompany me to it. What do you say, huh?”

Her hands hid her gasping mouth and her eyes stared at the ticket he held out for her in complete dumfounded-ness. ‘He…He’s asking me out on a date?!’ She couldn’t believe it! The boy she has had a crush on ever since she started her ninja training was standing right in front of her and asking her out on a date!

Blood started rushing to her head at the excitement building up in her. Shino and Kiba cautiously positioned themselves next to her on either side to catch her in case she fainted again, like she always used to whenever Naruto noticed her. To there relief, she didn’t faint. Instead of fainting, she focused on breathing deeply and calming herself down. Naruto must have gotten the wrong impression from this when she wasn’t acknowledging him or taking the ticket.

“…Umm, I guess you don’t want to go to the concert with me.” He lowered his gaze. “That’s okay…the ticket is still for you if you want to go on your own, anyway…”

Hinata reached out and grasped the ticket, but didn’t pull it out of his hand, giving them some connecting to one another. “No!...I mean…Oh…I’m just…” She shook her head and solidified her determination. This was her moment to show to Naruto how much she really liked him, and she couldn’t turn him down since he was the one that asked her first! She couldn’t let herself miss this chance, the one that she’s been waiting for for so long to acknowledge her feelings. “I’d be…happy to go to the concert with you.”

His whole face lit up and he smiled so happily and his whole body became lighter it seemed. He couldn’t remember when he felt this happy before. In his enthusiasm and without thinking, he pulled her into a hug and squeezed her once then let go. “Thanks, Hinata! You’ve made this the greatest day of my life! I’ll pick you up at your place at seven. I need to go now and get myself ready for the concert. Cya then, Hinata-chan!”

He left with a swirl of dust and some kicked up leaves where he had once been. The two remaining boys caught Hinata, as she almost fainted this time, murmuring to herself: “He called me Hinata-chan….”

Kiba laughed and hoisted her back up on her feet. “Way to go, Hinata! Your first date!”

“Indeed…although, I do kinda wish I could go to the concert everyone’s been talking about,” Shino admitted, with a note of depressiveness to his usual tone.

“Really? I didn’t think you were interested, Shino,” Kiba replied, looking over Hinata’s head, who was still murmuring to herself.

“…What made you think I wasn’t?” Shino asked, looking slightly annoyed.

“Umm…well, er, you never acted in anyway excited when you heard about the concert,” Kiba said, feeling some sweat build up on the back of his neck.

Shino sighed faintly.

At that moment, they heard the sound of approaching feet and quickly positioned themselves in defensive positions, pulling Hinata behind them, but then relaxed their guard when they saw it was Iruka walking up to them.

“Hey, guys! What’s going on here?” Iruka asked, on seeing Hinata still murmuring to herself.

“Huh?” Kiba looked at where Iruka was looking at. “Oh! You won’t believe it, but Naruto was just here and asked Hinata out on a date!”

“He did?!” Iruka gawked, his mouth almost hitting the floor, then quickly composed himself. “Man! I was afraid he wasn’t gonna do it.”

“You knew?” Shino said with a raised eyebrow.

Iruka placed his hands on his hips. “I had an idea when Naruto asked if he could deliver Hinata’s ticket to her himself…he seemed really anxious to see her, so I just assumed that he was gonna do something like he did. I was worried there that he wasn’t gonna do it. I’m glad my worry was for nothing.”

Hinata returned to her senses when she heard that. “….N-Naruto-chan asked to deliver it to me…p-personally?”

Iruka smiled and rubbed his nose. “He sure did!”

Her spirit soared and the warmest of smiles adorned her face. “…I can’t believe he actually acknowledged my existence, but that he…he wanted to do that personally, that’s unbelievable.”

“But it did happen. Kiba and I were standing right here when he did, so it’s not all that unbelievable anymore,” Shino stated, stuffing his hands into his pockets.

“Then…I-I better go get ready!” Hinata said and started running, then stopped and bowed to her teammates and Iruka and said good-bye, and then ran off again.

“Heh, I’m happy for her…she’s been talking about Naruto since I could remember,” Kiba said, watching his teammate disappear into the forest.

Shino shrugged his shoulders, looking kinda down. “…It’s good to see her so happy, and she’s lucky to go to that concert with Naruto.”

Kiba dropped his head and Akamaru whimpered next to him. “Yeah…lucky bastard.”

Iruka clasped the two boys’ shoulders. “I think I can fix that.” He waved the tickets that he had pulled out before he placed them on their shoulders between his fingers in their faces.

Kiba yanked his ticket out of his hand. “You’re serious!?”

Shino took his ticket with a slight nod of thanks. “How come?”

Iruka stood up proudly and smiled at them with his hands back on his hips. “It’s a gift from the fifth Hokage for all the hard work you guys have put in.”

“This is great! We get to go to the concert, this rocks!” Kiba exclaimed, waving his ticket over his head, then paused. “Oh, wait…will they allow me to bring Akamaru?”

Iruka smirked at him and pulled out a collar with a security tag on it from his chunin vest. “Here, put this on him and you won’t have any problems.”

Kiba snatched the collar from him. “Whoa! Thanks, Iruka-sensei!” He bent down and patted his furry partner’s muzzle. “Here that, Akamaru? We all get to go!”

The large Inzuka dog barked out happily and licked his master’s palm.

Iruka laughed heartedly. “Okay, I need to go. Got more tickets to drop off, so you guys have fun at the concert. Later!” He performed a hand sign and disappeared in a poof of smoke.

The two boys and the dog left the training field quickly to go get ready for the concert. Both were highly excited in their own way at the anticipation of what tonight’s event would bring.

In the fifth Hokage’s office. Tsunade was sitting at her desk when she heard a faint knock at her door. The Sannin stopped working on the paper form she was currently doing and looked up at the door, glad to have some excuse to stop working on all the blasted paper work piling up on her desk.

“Yes?” Tsunade addressed.

“It’s Shizune, Lady Tsunade,” her assistant replied.

“Come in,” Tsunade ordered.

The assistant medic-nin entered the office with her hands folded together, looking more nervous and jumpy than usual. “H-He’s arrived, Lady Tsunade…”

Tsunade immediately forgot her fatigue and quickly started trying to make her desk look more presentable and checked to make sure no empty saki bottles were peaking from anywhere. After she was sure that everything in her office was in order, she looked up to her assistant. “All right, send him in.”

“I’m already here…” a deep voice said from the corner of her office.

The two women jumped in fright, clinging to each other, and turned to the corner.

A man was leaning against the wall in the shadows in the corner, with his arms folded over his chest and a creepy grin on his face. It gave Tsunade the notion that he seemed to know something that no one else did, like he knew her darkest secret that only she could know and he was playing them over and over in his mind…it was a very devilish grin.

Most of everything else about him was hidden in a veil of shadowy veil, even with her excellent night-vision, she couldn’t make out anymore details of the man. Regaining what dignity she had left, she straightened out her official robes and walked over to her desk and took a seat behind it, then gestured with a hand for him to take the empty seat in front of her desk. “Please, have a seat…Sin.”

The man called Sin waved her offer away. “You’ll forgive me…but your office is…too bright for my liking.”

Tsunade nodded to Shizune, who quickly hurried behind her and closed the curtains to cancel out the light from outside, and then went to stand next to her teacher. Sin grinned more and pushed away from the wall and walked over to the offered seat and planted himself in it with a grace that took ninjas years to master.

He rested his arms on the armrests, raising up one hand to inspect his nails, then acting as if he remembered who he was present before he looked up at Tsunade. “Forgive the slight delay…I had come as soon as I received your summons.”

“I was expecting you yesterday. What held you up for so long?” Tsunade demanded, trying to hide her nervousness. She was always this way when she was near him…he gave off an eerie and unsettling feeling that made her want to flee the room as fast as she could. If it weren’t for the times she knew him, she’d have never allowed someone like him in her office or in Konoha, ever. And it was because of those times that she was able to convince the man sitting before her to perform in her village…and even then it wasn’t easy.

As if he somehow knew what she was feeling, Sin smiled, flashing off gleaming white teeth and canines that looked a bit longer than they should be. “I had run into some unfortunates that deemed to keep me from arriving on time.”

“Unfortunates?” Tsunade echoed.

“Yes, some silly ninjas with a music note on there hitai-ates, and wearing some rather tacky clothes,” Sin replied, returning to examining his nails. “From the impression they left, I think they had planned to kill and replace us and use their disguise of us to enter your village for whatever reasons. Sadly, the poor idiots had no idea just who they were trying to impersonate.” He let out a dark, soft chuckle.

Tsunade shivered for moment as the chuckled made her skin crawl. Pushing off her creepy feeling, she placed both hands on her desk and stared at him with her most professional look. “Seems you had a run in with some Sound ninjas…they’ve been causing this village problems ever since Orochimaru fled from Konoha.”

“Orochimaru, you say?” Sin commented, looking up with interest now. “Hmm, I remember you mentioning him once…No matter, whatever he had planned was quickly halted when he tried to replace us.”

“Sin…by any chance did you keep any of them alive?” Tsunade asked.

He smiled impossibly more. “Afraid not. They were very adamant about stopping us, so we had to reply with lethal force…why do you ask?”

“I just thought that maybe one of them might have been a runaway that left our village to go work for Orochimaru,” Tsunade replied carefully.

“Another runaway? My, you sure seem to have some oddballs that run away just to come back and cause trouble for you lot,” Sin mused. “But to answer your question, I couldn’t tell. All of them had on the same tacky clothes and masks, so it would have made identification hard if I were looking for this runaway.”

Tsunade smirked this time. “Trust me…if you had met up with this particular runaway, you would have noticed him for sure…”

“Really?” Sin said with a low purr. “He sounds special.”

“He…was,” Tsunade replied, sighing some as her gaze rested on the top of her desk. “He, and along with someone else from his family that left the village, was last of a great bloodline in our village, a very powerful one at that…”

Sin was quiet for some time, then sat up from his seat. “It’s almost dusk. I must go and prepare. If there isn’t anything else, I must say good evening to the both of you…”

“Actually, there is one more thing, Sin,” Tsunade said quickly.

He gazed down at her with eyes that she knew were looking at her from the darkness hiding them. “Yes?”

“Keep a watchful eye out tonight. If Orochimaru was trying to keep you from coming, then he may be planning something soon for the village,” Tsunade warned.

He bowed his head a fraction. “Thank you for the warning. But be sure that I and my friends are always ready for the unexpected.”

Tsunade blinked accidentally when something bothered her eyes, like a spec of dust or stray eyelash brushed over her eyes. When she looked again, he wasn’t there anymore and the darkness in the room lessened greatly. Shizune opened the curtains to light up the room once more. Tsunade reached under her desk to the hidden shelf that stored a full saki bottle and two glasses, and proceeded to pour herself and her assistant a glass and handed it to the shaky medic-nin.

“W-Who was that, Tsunade-san? He was scary and strange like…like,” Shizune didn’t dare finish who she was about to compare him with.

Tsunade decided to voice it for her. “Like Orochimaru? Trust me, he may appear creepy…but he’s not as twisted as Orochimaru is. Sin is actually a reliable man, even if his nature causes people distress.”

“I kinda got the impression that wasn’t a man in here just now,” Shizune remarked, downing her saki.

“Oh, he’s a man all right…the only one of his kind that’s close enough to it, anyway,” Tsunade stated.

Shizune gave her a puzzled looked, but the fifth Hokage waved her look away and downed herself another shot of saki. “Now then…get back to work; we have all this crap to finish before the concert.”

Shizune nodded and walked halfway to the door, until she stopped and spun on her heels and faced her teacher. “Wha? You plan on going, too?”

Tsunade gave her an impatient look with a twitching eyebrow above her left eye. “Is there something wrong with that?”

“No! No! It’s just…I didn’t think you’d go to something like that, is all,” Shizune said hastily.

Tsunade smiled and slowly leaned on her desk and rested her chin on her raised right wrist. “Shizune-san…I wouldn’t miss this concert for anything in the world…”

A/N: That’s it for now. I will have the next chapter ready…but that all depends on the response I receive for this fanfic, so please, if anyone wishes for this to continue and continue soon, please leave a review with your thoughts and questions. I welcome all reviews, even flames (which I like to use to roast smores on. XD), all I ask if you do see fit to flame me, let it be constructive and not a waste of time for everyone and myself who will read it. Thank you.