Idiot, idiot, idiot! Narutos inner voice yelled at him as he ran along the main street and headed into the alley running up to his house. Idiot, idiot, idiot! He slowed down to a halt, sat down against the planks. He looked down on his hands, and lauged. “Idiot,” he confirmed and stood up again, walking towards his apartment. Why did he have to go and do that for? He hadn’t been sad, he hadn’t been. He had just felt empty. Confused. Why did he have to go and get mad for that? She had probably meant well… No, she had meant well. He knew. Han refused to believe anything else. She just wanted to be nice; it was in her nature to be kind.
It was just… Well, he didn’t want her to be kind to him. He didn’t want her to think of him as weak. But she did, otherwise she would not have felt the need to try and comfort him. Well, it was his own fault, if he had not started crying, it would’ve never had happened. He leaned backward and looked up into the grey sky. It was the time of year when it was never really dark outside, so he had no idea which time it was. It wasn’t raining as hard as before, but the wind had increased instead.
His teeth began to clatter, and he walked faster towards his home. He fished out his keys from his overall pocket when he arrived at the base of the stairs, then climbed the stairs and went by all the other apartment doors. He stopped upon reaching his apartment door, but instead of unlocking it, he turned around and looked out over the backyard; a square patch of grass, a tree, and a bench. He couldn’t wait until the day he became the Hokage. He would get himself a house, not necessarily a plush one, but a house with a view. As an extra bonus, he would also have a good view over Konoha from the Hokage’s office.
He sighed. Not even the thought of becoming Hokage could cheer him up. What would Hinata think of him now? He had behaved like an ass. Not even Sasuke would be so insensitive. She had started crying, but he had ignored her, feeling no compassion, only emptiness. He had really been a complete ass, yet his conscience failed to arrive before now, when it was too late. Great. A Kakashi-like conscience.
He turned around unlocked the door and went inside. He closed and locked the door behind him and turned on the light. The light bulb flashed three times and then lit up. The room wasn’t very big, and the combination of kitchen and greeting hall wasn’t the best, but Naruto was happy as long as you could eat Ramen in it. And you could always eat ramen. He took off his wet clothing and dumped them in a basket in the bathroom. He then went to his bedroom and got himself a new, dry set of clothing, but he didn’t mind getting a new overall. Blue shorts and a black T-shirt would have to do.
It felt good being back in warm, dry clothing, and the thought of ramen made his stomach growl, so he went back into the kitchen and started making himself some cup ramen. He very carefully removed the aluminium sealing and added some water. Naruto considered it a death sin to spill ramen. He poured the spice into the ramen and put the cup in the micro wave for four minutes. He then went to the kitchen table, currently turned on its side and backed up against the wall in order to save some space, tipped it over and put two chairs on opposite sides of the table. He drew out the chair closest to the window and sat down, waiting. The waiting was the worst part of making ramen. He felt as if he was starving to death every single time.
Hinata jumped between the rooftops, shivering from the cool breeze against her wet clothing. She had managed to get lost, since she had not been entirely sure where Naruto’s apartment was. She only had a vague idea that it was somewhere near the main street. She knew she had to walk down an alley way to get there, but which one of the almost identical alleys was it? She jumped from the roof, hit a wall, pushed away with her legs, spun around and hit the street light as a feather. She figured it would be better if she walked, the jumping between the rooftops was faster, but she couldn’t see the alleys as good from up there.
She walked down the main street, all the way to the big gate that was closed for the night. The guards and their dogs eyed her suspiciously, but she ignored them. Maybe they could point her towards Naruto’s apartment, but if she’d ask them, her father would know, and that would lead to some embarrassing questions about what she was doing at a boy’s place in the middle of the night.
She turned around and went back, still following the main street, trying to locate the correct alley. She passed the ramen shop where Naruto used to eat ramen. She also used to eat there sometimes, but if Naruto was already there, she used to wait for him to leave. Suddenly she remembered that his home should be somewhere near. Yes! She thought as she recognised the entrance to the alley Naruto used to choose when he left the ramen shop. She entered it, and immediately recognised the tree with its branch extended across the alley. Now all she needed to do was figure out which house and apartment was his.
That turned out to be an easy task, as there was only one house to choose from. The only thing that remained now was finding out which apartment was his, but she did not dare use Byakyugan for that. The thought of what she might see in the neighbouring apartments deterred her. Therefore she decided to do this the traditional way, by reading the name signs on the doors. It didn’t take long for her to find Naruto’s apartment door. His sign had, apart from his name, various handwritten profanity and small hand drawn pictures of himself doing the “nice guy” pose. She knocked carefully, three gentle taps in a row. To begin with there was only silence, but then she recognised the small audible “black spot” that signified that someone was trying very hard not to make a sound. She politely knocked again, three light taps. Still no answer. Hinata sighed to herself. What was she supposed to do now? She couldn’t give up now and surrender her nindo, not now when she had made it all the way here and had forfeited a warm, dry night in the hospital. She tried knocking a last time, but to no avail. She thought of trying to speak to him through the mail slot, but then thought better of it. That would be too intrusive. Well… She thought. I must not give up. He won’t like this, but I have no other option…
“Jouken!” she yelled, and with a flow of chakra in her arm for greater impact, she hit the door. With a rain of wooden splinters, the door was ripped out of it’s frame and went flying into the apartment, landing on top of Naruto’s kitchen table, skidding over it and finally stopped as it nudged Naruto’s cup of ramen. The cup stood there, balancing on the table’s edge, balancing on it’s very center of gravity, and then, slowly, it lost the fight against gravitational pull, and fell into Naruto’s lap. Naruto had watched the door’s flight, following it with his eyes as it skidded along the table. He had then stared in disbelief as his beloved ramen fell into his lap.
“Ouch!” He screamed and flew of the chair with his hands waving about, trying to cool the hot ramen on his thighs. “Ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch…” he said through gritted teeth, dancing around in the kitchen.
Hinata stood in the door way, her arm still in fighting position. She looked at it, followed it, and yes, it was attached to her. It must be her arm. WHAT HAD SHE DONE?! Her face felt as if on fire, and she tried hiding her hands behind her back. He would think she was crazy!
“Why did you go and do that for?” Naruto asked and stopped dancing around, but he still tried to use his hand as a fan to get the hot water to cool. “A normal person would have knocked you know!”
“I-I…” Hinata tried hiding behind her hands so that he could not se her blush. “I… I did knock.”
”Yes, and a normal person would have gone away if they didn’t get an answer.” To Hinatas surprise he laughed, a clear, happy laugh. ”You are full of surprises, Hinata.”
Hinata felt happy, but blushed even more. She didn’t know what to say. Naruto stopped his futile attempts to cool his burnt legs, and looked up into her face, suddenly serious again. “I hope this is important. You just spoiled a good cup of ramen.”
Suddenly she lost her tongue again, so she tried to look away from his eyes. “I-I came to… tell you that I… um…”
“Hmm?” Naruto encouraged. ”What?”
She couldn’t think of anything to say. What was she supposed to do? A Jouken to his chest would stop him from pursuing her if she fled, but that wouldn’t do much good. “I didn’t mean to… to… I mean…” Say something! Naruto’s gaze was fixed at her, so she couldn’t look away. “Im sorry.” She finished quietly and awaited his reaction.
To begin with he didn’t say anything, but then he grinned, a sincere grin, one of the grins she hade come to love so much. And he was grinning because of her. She felt her legs turn to jelly, and her face was so hot it almost hurt. Even she begun to grin uncertainly. “It’s OK, Hinata,” he assured her. ”It’s OK.”
She felt faint again, but Naruto was prepared. “Don’t even think it, Hinata!” he warned her gently. “Have a seat instead.”
“Mhm…” She said and tried not to faint. To her surprise, Naruto went and fetched her one of the chairs, and she thankfully slumped down on it. The water squished out from her clothing and began to drip on the floor. “Um…” she began, but Naruto was faster.
“You’d better get some dry clothing on before you catch a cold,” avoiding looking her in the eyes as he did so. He fetched a cloth from the bench and begun cleaning up the ramen. Hinata felt as if her blush was becoming permanent.
“Na-Naruto…”
“Hmm?” He still refrained from meeting her gaze.
“I… I have no spare clothing…” Naruto tensed a bit, but then continued scrubbing the floor.
“You can borrow some of me. I think I have some stuff that should fit you. No underwear though, unless you want to borrow some of my boxers, but that’s entirely up to you.”
“Yes, I would like that,” Hinata said and wished she would wake up soon. She felt both glad and embarrassed for being here. “But… um… Ehere shall I…”
“I’ll just go get you some clothes,” said Naruto without listening to her question.
She nodded, but since he wasn’t looking in her direction, she added an acknowledging “Um.” He then put away the cloth and went into what she assumed was his bedroom. She heard him rummaging through his clothes, and after a short while he entered the kitchen again, sliding the door shut behind him. He handed Hinata the clothes he hat fetched for her.
“You can change in my bathroom,” he said and pointed at a door on the left of what remained of the front door. Hinata hadn’t noticed it before. She nodded and rose from the chair and wentt towards the door. “And Hinata…” he continued, so she stopped half ways there. “Use the door handle. That’s what it’s there for, you know.” He began to giggle, and Hinatas blushing, that had gone down while he was rummaging through his stuff, came back with full power. She hurried into the bathroom and shut the door behind her, hearing Naruto get thrown into a laughing fit. She realised that she too was laughing and stopped, looking around feeling guilty. The bathroom wasn’t very clean, but it filled it’s purpose. It had a shower, a toilet, a washbasin and a bathroom cabinet with a mirror, and on a hook next to the shower he had hung a bathing cap that looked like some sort of animal with two big teeth. Hinata thought it was kind of cute.
She stepped inside the shower and started the tiresome process of undressing. She had to practically wrestle herself free from the wet clothes that stuck to her body like glue. Once freed from their grasp she stepped outside the shower and went for the dry clothing. A breeze from the open bathroom window made her shiver as she bent down and picked up Naruto’s boxer shorts. They were blue and, for some reason unknown to her, had Konoha’s symbol on the left buttock. She then put on the white T-shirt and the short black trousers that ended right beneath her knees. She had a look in the mirror, and realised that they in some ways looked like her own clothing. Maybe he had that in mind when he chose them? She smiled. He was actually quite considerate, although not in an ordinary way. She felt weird wearing boy’s clothing, but it couldn’t be helped. She was never one for dresses or other fancy girl clothing, but she still felt weird. She realised that she smelt a bit like Naruto, and put a piece of the t-shirt under her nose and drew the smell in. She then looked back into the mirror, and a smiling face with white eyes and short dark hair looked back at her from it. She blushed and so did the mirror image.
She hadn’t felt so happy since… Well, she couldn’t remember ever being as happy as she was right now. She couldn’t understand why she was happy. It wasn’t like she had made much progress. She was just borrowing his bathroom to get changed. But not even that thought could dampen her spirits. Something just felt… Right. That was not a feeling she was used to.
She turned around and faced the door, but as she was moving to open it, she thought of something. Did she look alright? She looked back into the mirror. No, she didn’t look alright. She looked stupid, as usual. She sighed, and guessed there wasn’t much to be done about that. And besides, why would Naruto care how she looked? It was not as if he had even realised she was a girl. He wouldn’t react different from seeing her in this clothing than seeing Kakashi in them. But if she’d see Kakashi going around dressed like this, she’d say something was really wrong. She laughed at the thought and turned the door handle, stepping out into the kitchen.
Naruto had cleaned the place up and put the door up against the frame with the table holding it in place. He was now sitting on a chair, leaning against the wall in the back of the room. She carefully shut the door behind her and looked at him. He sat there, eyes closed and with a huge smile painted over his face. She wondered what he thought about.
“Naruto…” she mumbled uncertainly. ”What are you doing?”
Naruto opened his eyes and smiled innocently. “Nothing.” He assured her. ”Are you heading home now?”
Hinata was surprised. She hadn’t thought much about it. She’d be wet again before she came home, since she had spent most of her chakra while training and jumping between the roof tops trying to find his home. She would catch a pneumonia long before reaching the Hyuga compound, but if she stayed here, her father would notice her not coming home. Well, what could he say? She had just stayed here to avoid getting sick. Not even he could argue about that.
“Could.. Could I…” She swallowed. ”Could I stay here?” Her face turned red again.
“Hinata, why do you always blush?” Naruto asked instead of answering the question. “You say one thing, and then you either blush or faint. Why is that?”
“Um, I…” Her blushing intensified. ”I, um…”
“Are you… Afraid of me?” he asked. His voice wasn’t empty or cool, as before. He just seemed on his guard.
“No!” she blurted out, to her own surprise. “No, it’s just that… that… I…” Say it, just say it. “I guess I’m… Shy.” She almost whispered, and quickly hid behind her fingers. She had thought he would laugh at her, but he just nodded.
“I see,” he said, visibly relieved. “I have never thought about it much before now, but that makes sense.”
Hinata relaxed. It felt so weird. It suddenly felt so normal, as if he didn’t think it was weird. He hadn’t judged her, calling her weak. Not in words, not in actions. He had just accepted that this is the way things were. She felt the butterflies flying within her, and she smiled. Luckily her fingers hid her smile.
”Anyhow,” he smiled. ”It’s getting late. You can sleep in my room, and I’ll crash here in my sleeping bag.”
Hinata felt a great jolt through her entire body. It felt as if all her shyness had disappeared. “I… It’s OK you know. We can share the bed, so you won’t need to sleep in a sleeping bag.” She blushed again. Well, not all of it had disappeared after all. She looked up from behind her fingers and into his face. He was smiling, but shook his head.
“Nah, I think it would be best if I slept here.” He said, which made her feel ashamed of herself again. “Don’t mind me, I’ll manage.” He thought she was a pervert! She laughed, but quickly stopped, hiding her mouth with her hands, terrfied.
He had never heard her laugh before. She was so beautiful when she was happy, and she smiled at him sometimes, even if she thought he couldn’t see it. He wanted to make her smile again. He wanted to sleep in the same bed as her more than he wanted anything in this world, feeling her warmth, smelling her… Maybe then he would dare to sleep, with her close to him, even though the Kyubi might abduct him in his sleep. He mentally shook his head. You are behaving like a pervert, Naruto, his inner voice told him. She just wanted to be nice, she didn’t really want to sleep in the same bed as you. You should know that.
He rose from his chair and led Hinata into his bedroom. She looked around the room, curious what to find there. She had half expected to find dirty magazines, pinup posters, dirty clothing strewn all over the place and a huge mess over all. She didn’t expect to find a neat little room with a bedroll, a small television, a chest and a small dart target on the wall with a hand drawn picture of Orochimaru nailed to it. The picture had some kurenai and shuriken shaped holes in it.
She closed her eyes and activated Byakyugan. She was curious whether this neatness was some sort of gen-jitsu or if he had somehow managed to stove everything away somewhere. No, it was no gen-jitsu, and there wasn’t any secret compartments to conceal that kind of stuff. She did notice some kurenai holes in the ceiling, and she smiled to herself. Well, at least he wasn’t completely pedantic.
She closed her eyes again, and guiltily disabled her Byakyugan. She had no right to spy, not after all he had done for her. She turned around and looked towards the door. She heard Naruto rummage through one of the cupboards in the kitchen, probably looking for his sleeping bag, and then she heard a loud thud and some swearing as he hit his head. She listened as he unrolled the sleeping bag and crept into it.
She didn’t feel tired at all, not really. A lot of things had happened during the night, she had followed her nindo all the way, they had been alone and had talked to each other, without anyone interfering. She had become closer to Naruto than ever, and it felt good.
She looked at the bedroll. It looked promising, and she too went to bed. She lay there for a while, staring at the ceiling with it’s kurenai and shuriken holes. She turned on her side and looked out the window. She felt calm. She had never felt as at peace as she did right now. Never. The rain had finally stopped, but the wind was still raging outside. She thought of the offer she had made Naruto. She would never have the courage to do something like that again. Tomorrow she would be back to her normal, shy self, of this she was certain. She remembered being close to Naruto, feeling his warmth, his smell… She went on her other side and looked into the wall separating her from Naruto.
In the other room Naruto was laying awake, thinking just as Hinata did. He had hung the door on what was left of it’s hinges, and put the kitchen table behind it to stop it from tipping over. It helped some against the wind, but Naruto still felt a chilly draft from somewhere. Maybe he had forgot to shut his toilet window? He didn’t mind that too much. Hinata wouldn’t notice, her room was cut of from the kitchen, and he had his warm sleeping bag. His night too had been eventful. Kyuubi. Hinata had become beautiful and had started talking to him all of a sudden. He turned towards her thought about her in his room, and he wondered if she had fallen asleep yet. He noticed that his mind was set on Ero-senin thoughts, so he forced it to think of something else. That would be unfair towards her, being forced to come here just because he was such a wuss. She was too kind and conciderate for her own good. Sure, she had kicked his door in, but still, she had done it because she wanted to apologise.
He thought about what she had told him. She was shy. How had he not realised this before now? Maybe he was immature, maybe Sakura was more right about him then he would admit? Well, actually talking to Hinata and realising she was shy was a step in the right direction at least.
Oh how he wished he had been insensitive enough to sleep in the same bed as her. The floor was hard and uncomfortable, and he missed the warmth from when he had carried her earlier that evening. He tried to remember the feeling when she had cuddled up against him. It had been… Fantastic. It had felt as if he was important to someone, as if someone wanted him… He had felt… Loved? Yes, that must be it.
He turned on his back again and listened to the sound of the night, listened as it slowly turned into the sound of the morning, heard people starting to move about their business, heard the birds chirp in the trees. It was almost morning, and he had to sleep. He forced himself to do so, closing his eyes and clearing his thoughts. It didn’t take long before he felt drowsy, and just as he was falling asleep, a noise made him wake. He heard the bedroom door slide open as Hinata entered the room. He presumed she was just going to use the toilet, and thus he pretended to be asleep, so that she would not feel bad about waking him.
To his surprise she didn’t go to the toilet, she snuck up to where he was laying in his sleeping bag. Probably just checking me, he thought. Then he felt her carefully climbing in his sleeping bag, felt her as she put her arms around his chest. He felt her warmth against him and didn’t know what to believe.
“Hi-Hinata..?” He asked, but she didn’t answer, she just burrowed her face in his back and hugged him. Was she awake? Maybe she was sleepwalking, thinking she was back at her place? “Are you awake?” he asked incredulously.
He felt her smile against his back. ”Sch.” She replied softly.
Naruto couldn’t believe this. The butterflies fluttered back to life, and generated enough lift for him to float away. Yet he didn’t dare to. He didn’t dare to move at all. He just laid there, frozen, staring into the wall. After a while Hinata started breathing with deep, steady breaths. Her nose whistled, and that final touch almost made him cry again. Was this true? Was he dreaming?
If I am, atleast it’s a good dream, he thought and cuddled into Hinatas embrace. Their legs were intertwined, skin touching, making him shiver. A very good dream.
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Chapter notes: Hiya all :) This chapter might differ in terms of language, as I wrote this chapter in swedish first and then translated it to english instead of the other way around, as was the case with Chapter one.
Tell everyone about this story :) Need more reviews. Alot more. Otherwise I don't see the need to bother translating to english ^^