Naruto had always cared about Hinata, but she was only a very good friend in his eyes. He had simply never thought of her that way, and never really could see her true feelings. But when she protected him from Pein, he saw her true feelings for the first time. He came to terms at that moment with the feelings he never knew he had for the girl then. But even then he hadn't quite realized it himself yet. Her words however, combined with his true feelings led to Naruto's first brush with true pain. Naruto gave in to the fox.
His emotions bearing down on him like a weight that was constantly increasing, and the fox offered him an escape. The pain of seeing the girl who he had always cared for that he now knew loved him may have just died was enough to make him accept the foxes offer, and release the fox and give in to the fox's powers. The fox let loose a terrible rampage of destruction as it devastated the Hokage Mountainside. And soon Naruto would kill Pein... Or rather, the fox would. But then the light of his father, Minato, the Fourth Hokage entered Naruto and freed him from some of the pain and resealed the fox. Naruto then beat Pein with his own strength and found the true Pein, and earned his trust. The pain of the village's destruction was not gone, the pain of the deaths of the villages was not gone but it was being healed as they all embraced their loved ones who had passed. Now Naruto had returned to the village and was praised as the village's hero. Only... As he was tossed into the air as a hero, as he was embraced by Sakura who had feared they may have lost him, he slowly realized he didn't see Hinata, and remembered just what had happened to her.
Now Naruto was running through the debris of a devastated Leaf Village, heading towards the medical tents, rushing through each if them shouting the name of the girl who professed her love to him. "Hinata! Hinataa!! Where is she?! Where's Hinata?!" The medical staff rushed to deal with the walking tornado that was Naruto "Naruto! Calm down! She's all right!" The med ninjas tried to restrain Naruto to make sure he was all right. Naruto pushed them off and ran into a tent right in front of him which had slightly open flaps and saw Hinata right in front of him on a medical table and rushed over to her placed his left hand in the side of her head gently, her beautiful soft black hair running through his fingers, and his right hand gently grasped her hand and he began to cry ever so slightly as he said "Hinata... Hinata I'm so sorry! The only reason she got hurt was because of me!" Naruto's voice began to crack slightly as he said this and a tear fell from his left eye landing on Hinata's gentle, serene face.<|im_end|>
Hinata had begun to stir a bit with all the commotion, but hadn't fully wakened until he was there and touching her. Slowly, she opened her eyes and gazed up at him, blinking a few times as her brain slowly pieced together what was happening. She blushed lightly and bit her lip. "N-Naruto?" she asked, wincing slightly as she tried to move only to feel a sharp pain go through her. "Well... kinda," she added, frowning as she settled back into the pillows.
She was honestly a bit surprised he'd shown up. Most of this time, she'd been asleep but she'd expected him to avoid her. The confession, she had hoped he would have forgotten about that, it had slipped out without her wanting it to, and now she was terrified of his reaction.<|im_end|>