Author's Notes – I claim no rights or anything associated with the Naruto series and/or its characters.  Please leave me your comments and reviews telling me what you think. Thanks!

 "..." regular speech, '...' beast speech, *...* mental telepathy, CAPS - ATTACKS, (author notes)

Chapter fifteen: Hinata, Sakura, & Haku

Once Naruto had calmed down and Kyuubi had explained what happened. The three monster teens stood there in silence. Never would they expect to have human mates whom have powers close to their own. It seemed that their beasts knew more about this than they did.

"I guess the best thing to do would be to find these mates. But how can we tell if they are truly our mates?" asked Sasuke.

"Trust me you will know. You will experience emotions that we haven't experienced before as it will all hit you at once. They also possess a certain scent to draw us in to them and we won't have to hold back our powers when we are close to them." replied Naruto as he began to feel bad about how he reacted around Hinata. He knew that he had to find her again and apologize.

'Don't worry Naruto. This time I will definitely help you out. I just didn't expect to find ours this soon.' Kyuubi replied. It was still early enough in the day so the three decided to head out after transforming into their human forms. The three of them walked around the village. Ever since that incident with the Akatsuki, the three of them have been openly excepted by the people in the village even though they aren't human. Never since they had first been created they have never been excepted. They knew that they were different from other humans as they had no control over how they were created and what they were but at least they were putting their talents to good use. As they walked Naruto could smell the familiar scent of lavender.

"Excuse me guys." he stated quickly running off on all fours. Both Sasuke and Gaara looked at each other almost aware of why Naruto had taken off.

Naruto darted off following his senses towards the woods. He easily found Hinata in a clearing making a bouquet of flowers. Naruto breathed deep and then swallowed harshly before he approached Hinata. Hinata seemed aware of Naruto's presence as she turned sharply which cause Naruto to freeze in his tracks.

"Hinata, I am sorry about earlier. You have to understand why I acted the way that I did." he stated shyly. He could feel Kyuubi's presence in the back of his mind urging the teen forward. Naruto breathed deep as Hinata didn't move one inch. Hinata listed to what Naruto had to say as he explained all of it including the part that Hinata maybe his mate. When Hinata heard the word mate, she blushed

three shades of red. Ever since Hinata first saw Naruto she kind of fell in love with him. Even after she had learned the truth about what Naruto truly was, she felt even more attracted to him. Hinata finally moved walking up to Naruto giving him a quick peck on his cheek causing him to blush a bright shade of red.

"I would like to learn more about you and I would like you to learn more about me. Maybe from there we can work on our relationship." Hinata stated bashfully. All Naruto could do was to nod his head as he began to blush.

Sasuke and Gaara continued walking through the village stopping to talk to a few people. They both noticed that there was still a lot of repairs being made because of the battle with the Akatsuki.

"How do you think Naruto is doing with his mate.?" asked Sasuke.

"Considering that we haven't seen him bolting back, I think that he is doing rather well. Plus Kyuubi is there to help him out." replied Gaara.

"Thank goodness for that. Naruto has it a lot harder than either one of us can either understand or comprehend." stated Sasuke. A strong scent of cherry blossoms caught Sasuke's attention as it seemed to be coming from the cliff area. "I will catch you later Gaara." stated Sasuke as he allowed his wings to rip out of his back before he jumped up into the sky taking off towards the direction of the cliff.

As Sasuke flew towards the cliff he activated his Byakugan to see Sakura climbing up the sheer face of the cliff. A questioning look stretched across Sasuke's face as he wondered what in the world she was doing. Sasuke flew faster as it seemed like Sakura might end up falling. Sasuke knew that Sakura possessed a unique healing power but could it be possible that she possessed more power that his eyes couldn't even see? Suddenly Sakura lost her footing and her hold on the cliff as she began to fall. Lucky enough Saskue was there to catch her.

"Don't worry Sakura, I have you." stated Sasuke gruffly.

"Thanks Sasuke!" Sakura replied.

"What in the world are you trying to do?" Sasuke asked breathing in her scent. The smell of cherry blossoms was definitely coming from her.

"I was trying to pick the medical herbs that manage to grow only on the sheer cliff." Sakura replied.

"It looks like you could use some help." stated Sasuke.

"I would appreciate it." replied Sakura. Sasuke held Sakura gently but firmly in his hands as Sakura directed him to the herbs. "This is much easier with you helping me. What brought you out here anyway?" Sakura asked. Sasuke finally landed on the ground letting go of his hold on Sakura.

"To tell you the honest truth your scent. We had just discovered that we actually have human mates." replied Sasuke. He knew that Sakura had read the files about the three of them so she knew the most about the three monster teens.

"Your not joking are you?" she asked in a small nervous laugh as Sasuke shook his head no. "So whom are these mates?"

"Naruto's potential mate is Hinata Hyuuga. Gaara and I have yet to find our mates. But there is a strong possibility that you could be mine." Sasuke replied with a slight blush.

"How can you tell for certain?" asked Sakura.

'Besides the fact that we don't have to hold back our lightning when we are around you.' replied Taka bluntly. Sakura shot a questioning look to Sasuke whom just nodded his head. This caused Sakura to sit down onto a nearby rock as Sasuke transformed back into his human form.

"This comes as a surprise Sasuke. I mean for a while and not just as friends. I have read about what happened when you three mated with humans. How are you three certain that those same results won't happen again?"

'Because those humans weren't our actual mates. Humans believe that there is only one person in the world that they are meant to spend the rest of their life with. This is true for us as our mates will hold similar powers and/or abilities that mimic our own. We had acquired the same healing capabilities that you possess but it seems that you have another power that even our eyes can't detect.' replied Taka.

"How do you feel about me Sasuke?" asked Sakura. Sasuke's heart pounded hard in his chest as he blushed stumbling over his words.

"I...really...do like...you...Sakura." he stated slightly embarrassed. Sakura quickly got up and gave him a peck on the cheek causing Sasuke to blush even brighter.

"We will work slow on this since you are still new at this whole concept of love."

"Thank you Sakura." Sasuke replied grateful that the pink haired teen understood him so well.

Just before Gaara ventured out of the village he ran into Shikamaru whom was caked in sand.

"Shikamaru what happened?" Gaara asked as he used his powers to break the sand that was caked on the teen.

"Quicksand. There has been several unmarked areas of where quicksand pits are. " Shikamaru replied.

"If you want, I can mark them for you. It would be easier with my powers to find the sink holes." stated Gaara.

"I don't see why anybody didn't ask you before but will anyone listen to me...heck no. Thanks Gaara. If Temari hadn't shown up when she did I would have been buried alive." Shikamaru stated as Temari ventured up to him.

"Well someone had to save your cute ass." she stated with a wink before walking off.

"Please note when a girl calls you cute, it is a sure sign of trouble." Shikamaru moaned.

'Speak for yourself. I find it enduring. Besides I think she likes you Shikamaru.' replied Shukaku. This caused Shikamaru to blush as he handed Gaara the supplies to mark the quicksand areas. Gaara just shook his head as he set out to complete the task.

Gaara made short work finding the quicksand areas marking them clearly so people could tell where the pit was. Suddenly the smell of honeysuckle drifted up his nose as it smelled like it was being buried by sand. Gaara darted off on all fours towards the direction of the smell. He arrived at a large quicksand area finding a girl's hand still sticking out of the sand as she laid in the middle of the area. Gaara acted quickly as he dug his hands into the sand willing the quicksand to move releasing its prisoner. Gaara could feel Shukaku's help as the sand obeyed shifting a young girl over towards Gaara. Gaara propped open her mouth willing any sand within her lungs out and back into the quicksand. The young girl began to cough opening up her jet black eyes.

"It is all right breath easy, I have you." Gaara stated as he helped the girl sit up. Gaara marked off the large area grateful that he found her in time. The scent of honeysuckle seemed to be coming from her.

"Thank you Gaara. I don't know that huge area was a quicksand trap." she stated.

"A few people have been caught in them so they asked for me to mark them." he replied half lying.

"Well I think that the village chose the right person for the job. With your special talent dealing with sand, I am pretty sure that you will find them all." she replied getting up to her feet feeling around her waist before she screamed out loud.

"What's wrong?" Gaara asked.

"The shells that I worked so hard to collect are still in there. And it took me such a long time to find those sand shells." she stated as tears began to streak down the girl's face.

"Wait here!" Gaara stated as he walked on top of the quicksand to the same exact spot that he saw the girl in. Gaara squatted down putting his hands into the sand. He then closed his eyes focusing deep as the quicksand began to ripple like water as Gaara's hand reached deeper as he then retracted his hand slowly pulling out a net bag full of shells. These shells looked like shells found by the sea but these shells were actually made from sand hence the name sand shells. Gaara then got up and walked back over to the girl handing her the bag. The girl literally broke down into tears hugging Gaara as he turned beat red. Gaara allowed the girl to cry as she was happy for Gaara's help.

Finally she seemed to calm down as she then apologized to Gaara for her actions.

"That's all right." he stated with a slight blush as she was truly breath taking. "You never did tell me you name." he stated.

"Haku." she replied blushing.

"Haku may I ask why those sand shells are important to you?" he asked.

"It's my lively hood. I make jewelry out of them." Haku replied. Gaara's eyes shot open wide as he stared at the teen. He never heard of someone making sand shell jewelry. He knew how hard it would be to find them let alone craft them. But this girl does it! "Pardon me for being blunt but I kind of have a crush on you Gaara. And it doesn't bother me that you aren't human." Haku stated blushing. Gaara stumbled backwards blushing as he felt like his heart was going to explode. Even though he had just meet Haku and saved her life, he felt like Haku was the one.

"I kind of like you too Haku." Gaara stated bashfully as he large tail came out trying to hide his embarrassment. He was fully aware that he had shape shifted into his half form. Seeing Gaara embarrassed caused Haku to laugh.

"Your embarrassed. That is so cute! Don't worry Gaara we will go slow and work on this relationship." she stated. Gaara swallowed harshly as he just simply nodded his head as Haku took a hold of his paw.