Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

There’s ringing in his ears as he struggles to get up.

He can’t hear.

The sulphur in the air burns his lungs as he heaves deep, futile breaths.

He can’t breathe.

Smoke and dust fill everything, an overwhelming sky of grey and death.

He can’t see.

Naruto gets on his knees. Hit by the paralyzing realization that he was alone, all alone, he reaches for a weapon.

He can’t see the enemy. He can barely see his own hands.

He might as well be the last man on Earth.

It had been a miscalculated attack, a failure in intelligence that led to this farce of a battle. They had been outnumbered, five to one, and, unable to deal with the enemy’s superior, never-before-seen weaponry, the men in his division had fled, calling for reinforcements, as he and a few stubborn Iwa-nin gave them cover. A torrential storm of shuriken, exploding kunai, and bombs met them as they tried desperately to protect the retreating backs of their comrades. Creating as many shadow clones as he could, Naruto was a one man army, attacking as many as he could.

Except he wasn’t.

And now, choking, suffocating, drowning in a sea of soot and ash, he is the last one left from those who stayed back. He doesn’t know how long it has been, and wonders if the division had gotten away safely, or got help. Central Command did say that they would be sending in a larger division after them, and that the 7th Division was merely meant for an initial small surprise attack.

He doesn’t see or hear it, but rather feels the heavy kunai slam into his chest, lodging itself to the hilt, throwing him back to the ground. It joins several other shuriken and senbon sticking out of him, painfully reminiscent of his battle with Haku.

But he had Sasuke then. He is all alone now.

He can’t hear his own groans, can’t feel the blood oozing onto his fingers as he clutches at the handle. He tries summoning the Kyuubi’s chakra to heal him — a skill he had gotten far better at since the war began — but feels nothing. The Demon Fox was being spiteful.

Nice job, you stupid fox, now we’re gonna die because of you. All because you got all offended back in Suna.

For a brief moment, he realizes that it must have been thrown, or otherwise he would have already been dead. Then he laughs, or tries to before coughing on blood and dirt, and thinks, what does it, matter, I’ll die soon anyways.

The ringing in his ears dulls and stops.

He hears nothing at all now.

An explosion somewhere rains rocks and dirt on him. Weakly holding on to the kunai handle, he tries to stand again but collapses in pain, coughs wracking his body. His body numbs as another explosion rocks the earth below him. He can’t remember how many times his body had been knocked around and blasted into the air since the “battle” began, nothing more than a ball for a group of hyperactive children.

His senses begin to leave him. Now, there is nothing but death on his tongue, his ears, his eyes; and the fire burning his nose seemed to have died off, leaving behind charred, useless remains; and he feels nothing around him but the slowly retreating sense of pain; and the hand holding on the kunai slips, falling limp on the carpet of ash; and the hand clawing at the ground, trying desperately to hold on to reality, becomes dead, leaving him to drift in an ocean of emptiness; and his body becomes weak as it begins to succumb to something deep, something powerful, something comforting and warm.

Huh, it’s just like falling asleep.

I’m so tired.

I just wanna… close my eyes and… take a break…ya know.

His division had been fighting non-stop for about a month. Central Command had abused Naruto’s seemingly endless chakra and stamina to take advantage of the momentum built up by the Third and Fifth Divisions, allowing the two to rest from their grueling but successful campaign in the Land of Mountains.

But even Naruto had a limit.

He can hardly feel the ground shaking now. He has no idea how long he’s been lying there, slowly drifting away.

So you’re actually just going to give up and die here? Pathetic.

Shut up, Fox. I wouldn’t be dying if you weren’t so damn sensitive, ya know. I’m just…

taking a nap…

for a moment…

just a moment…

dying?

Suddenly, as though panic was a lifeline tethering him to reality, his eyes shoot open. He still can’t see anything, still can only see black and grey, but he becomes abruptly aware of a pounding in his head. The warm, inviting ocean still threatens to pull him in, but now, he is waking up.

He can’t die.

Not now.

He tries to calm down and breathe. He still can’t through the soot and dust, but he stops panicking at the sensation. You don’t train with the Toad Sages of Mount Myoboku and not learn some emergency meditation techniques, afterall.

Determination fills him as he tries to channel what little chakra he has in him. He had promised Granny Tsunade that he wouldn’t die before becoming Hokage. He had promised Sakura and himself that he would bring back Sasuke. He had promised Nagato that he would find the path to peace.

He can’t let his Ninja Way end like this.

He thinks of ramen, and how he’d never eat it again if he dies. He thinks of Pervy Sage, and the legacy the old hermit had entrusted to him. He thinks of Iruka, and the Fourth, who believed in him, no matter what.

He thinks of Hinata, and can almost hear the horrifying crash as Pain slammed her on the ground, not once, not twice, several times, with enough force to smash the moon. He remembers how she kept getting up, unwilling to give up.

Because that’s her Ninja Way too.

Pain erupts in his entire body. The ringing in his ears returns as he roars in agony. He pushes himself up to all fours. He sees flashes of dim light through the smoke around him. He feels the shaking of the ground, vibrating as though it were nothing more than a sheet of paper. He sits up on his knees. He bites his lip and stares across at where the enemy was hiding, shrouded in black and grey and fire and smoke and death and destruction.

He charges up a Rasengan.

He screams out a battlecry.

A powerful gust of wind, a tsunami of air, blasts the smoke from around him, knocking him to all fours again and dissipating his Rasengan. The sun bursts out of the suffocating grey, shining on him, blinding as it illuminated the charging stampede of ninja surging from around him, racing towards the now visible enemy, who were running away in panic, battered and limping as their retreating backs met a volley of projectiles and jutsu. The previous sky of grey dissolves in the wind and clear blue fills the world, like the warm embrace of a mother after a nightmare.

But he’s not looking at the sky.

He can hardly feel hands lifting him up onto a stretcher as medic-nins swarm him. He doesn’t notice the warm chakra filling him as they healed him, doesn’t feel the slight shake of the stretcher as he was carried away, doesn’t see Temari’s concerned face or hear her loud orders.

No, his focus is somewhere else.

It’s on the massive bird, somewhere between a swan and an eagle, hovering high in the air above the charging ninja, its metallic feathers reflecting the brilliant sun in a way that made it look as though it had wings of light. The massive bird, whose shrill cries filled the battlefield with hope, admiration, and sheer terror. The massive bird, whose powerful beating wings cleared the heavens and brought back the sun.

And, though he couldn’t see from down on earth, Naruto knew that standing on top of the spectacular creature, riding it with gentle care and firm command, was something even more spectacular, a woman, with her dark blue hair flowing behind her, her fists ablaze with blue flames the colour of the deep, soothing ocean and hellfire.

The Fifth Division has arrived.

Chapter Text

“Could you stop staring at her? You look like a creep.”

It’s nighttime. Naruto is sitting at the edge of the campfire, covered in bandages. The fox demon had finally decided to stop sulking and help speed up his recovery. Overall, he’s… mostly healed, but still very sore and still unbearably tired.

He can’t fall asleep though. Not when the Moon is so bright and beautiful.

“Who’s staring? If anyone’s staring, it’s you, Temari, ya know. Mind your own business, ya know,” Naruto quickly states, his annoyance audible, and tries shuffling farther away from her on the rock he’s sitting on, but his sudden movement causes pain to erupt from his still healing wounds. The Kyuubi still isn’t completely over his grudge, it seems.

Temari cocks her head, and gives him a pitying smile.

“Two ‘ya knows’ in a row? Wow, you must be really agitated.”

It’s been two days since the battle. Currently, the Fifth and Seventh Divisions are resting by a forest not too far from the wasteland that served as their battlefield, the enemy weapons factory long obliterated. There are about a dozen campfires littered about, groups of ninja huddled together for warmth. The fresh and rested ninja from the Fifth are busy trying to boost the morale of their still bruised and heavily abused comrades, and the group Naruto and Temari were hanging out with had earlier decided that the best way to cheer them up was through ghost stories.

Suffice it to say, Naruto wasn’t particularly enjoying himself.

But then he caught sight of the Moon, and everything seemed to fade into nothing.

Beautiful

However, there’s a dark cloud now obscuring his light. He sees her speaking with an Iwa-nin at the other side of their campfire. His rational side recognizes him as the Fifth Division’s quartermaster sergeant, the man in charge of supplies, vaguely remembering the interaction they had a few hours ago. The other 99.9 percent of him recognizes him as a heathen in need of a serious beating.

What the hell have they been talking about for so long? I bet the creep’s just harassing her, and she’s too nice to say anything about it.

Naruto’s rational side also recognizes that that is an unfair, and frankly untrue assessment, because, no matter how gentle and kind she is, she is nowhere close to being a helpless damsel. Naruto knows better than anyone just how assertive she can be, especially since the war began. Naruto also knows that the quartermaster sergeant wasn’t the type of man to randomly harass women, far from it. He definitely wouldn't harass a superior officer, at least.

Yet, somehow, the knowledge that she isn’t defenseless and that the quartermaster sergeant is actually a great person makes Naruto want to beat him up even more, so he ignores it.

“Damn, you look like you’re about to vomit, then spontaneously combust.” Temari smirks at him knowingly, but Naruto doesn’t take his eyes off the sight responsible for the frankly accurate statement, praying for their conversation to finally end.

“I don’t need you to keep prodding me, ya know,” he mumbles while cursing the man that dared to steal his Moon.

“If it bothers you that much,” she says, a sly edge to her voice, “you could just join them. You’re pretty high ranking yourself, it wouldn’t be weird for you to want to speak with a fellow ranking officer and the QMS.”

“That’s not it at all. I was just thinking that he’s standing too close to her, ya know. She’s too nice to people, she’s probably too shy to say so ya know. But I know that really, she’s feeling super uncomfortable ya know. Why aren’t you doing anything, you’re supposed to be her friend ya know, and while we’re at it, why can’t you —”

“Okay, now I’m 100% sure that you’re losing it. I used to think that your verbal tic was adorable in a baby-learns-a-new-word sort of way, but now you sound like Kankuro. Whenever he works on a new puppet he doesn’t sleep for days then sounds like a lunatic while ranting about puppet stuff no-one can understand. Completely unhinged.” Temari sighs, and turns her attention to the pair that to Naruto, was the centre of the wretched universe. She’s quiet for a minute, then, in a low voice, says, “It’s not like you to be so… quiet about this kind of thing. I thought you’d be yelling about this for the whole damn shinobi world to know.”

Naruto scoffs. “I have no idea what you’re talking about, ya know.” He sinks further on his rock, hunching slowly so as to resemble an old man. Or perhaps a really, really heavily bandaged camel. “I just think they’re standing too close together.”

He can’t stand it. It’s been almost half a year since she was promoted then transferred to the Fifth Division, and for that entire time, Naruto felt like he was on the verge of exploding. He’s obviously extremely proud of her, but hates the decision nonetheless. Really, he was actually really glad that Central Command was working him to death (almost literally, as it turned out), because it took his mind off the fact that the two of them couldn’t fight side by side anymore. That he didn’t have her company anymore. That she was surrounded by a bunch of random strangers. He had been glad that Temari was in this division to take care of her, but, judging by the lax attitude the Suna-nin is presenting right now in response to her speaking with a stranger (Naruto ignores the fact that she had known the shinobi in this division for five and a half months), Temari apparently can’t be trusted.

His heart gives a painful lurche as he hears quiet laughter from across the campfire. The QMS walks away, which is a relief, but he’s chuckling, and Naruto can now see her in all her beauty again.

It’s like seeming light again for the first time in years.

She’s laughing softly, and he feels his insides melting at the sight, except he remembers that it’s because of the sergeant, and his blood boils, his fists clench, his whole body shakes, but only for a moment.

He can’t get angry. Not at her. Not when she’s smiling so beautifully.

Fidgeting on his rock, he watches her slowly turn and walk away, away from the fire, away from him. Making her way around the sea of tents, he can just see her smile fondly and greet the ninja she passes, who all stop what they’re doing and energetically call out to her, wave at her, run over to her. Everyone in the Fifth seems to greatly love and respect her, and he really can’t blame them.

He hates them.

He wants to call out, wants to ask her to stay by their fire, allowing him to forever watch the flames illuminate her pale skin, the small breeze to play with her flowing hair, the light shining in her lavender eyes.

He doesn’t.

She wears the standard issue Konoha jounin uniform, simple black pants, green flak jacket (she keeps it on though most have taken theirs off for the night); her sleeves have been burned off from excess use of her Twin Lion Fists, which she combines with her fire style chakra for devastating effect, leaving her arms to be wrapped in rolls of bandages from fingers to elbow. Usually, she keeps a massive scroll strapped to her back, but she’s removed it for the night, and her Shinobi Alliance hitae-ate, obligatory for all high ranking officers to wear proudly on their foreheads, is hanging loosely around her neck, like how she used to wear her Konoha one back before the war.

Dirty, battered clothes with rips everywhere, tired, baggy eyes, and her hair hasn’t been washed in forever. In reality, she looks like the rest of them — like she’s been buried in a mine for a year.

She’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.

They haven’t had the chance to interact much the past two days. She’s been too busy being awesome and securing the area and leading troops and pushing back the enemy, and he’s been busy… well, being scared of the medic.

He doesn’t understand. Are all medics exactly like Granny Tsunade and Sakura?

“Go.”

“Huh?”

Temari grins at him, nods in her direction (she was already out of sight), and nudges him once more.

“Catch up to her.”

Naruto looks up at her in disbelief.

“But—”

“Just go already.”

He smiles faintly, then slowly gets up on his feet. Groaning slightly, he can’t help his wobbly knees as he starts to walk swiftly after her, quickly breaking out into a sprint before crashing down on the ground. The ninja around him look at him in alarm, rushing to aid him, but he gets back up as nonchalantly as he can, trying to stifle his moans of pain. He shakes them off and continues to hobble after her, dogging around tents and ignoring the curious stares he was getting. Naruto is super popular, as popular as she is with her own division with both present divisions.; he is the Hero of Konoha, afterall, admired by all within the Shinobi Alliance, so it was fairly unusual for him not get the same treatment that she got. Still, he realizes that it is probably hard to fangirl over someone who looked like a constipated old mummy with a noodle for a spine, staggering and groaning like he’d just been run over by an elephant or two.

There’s a part of him that doesn’t want to catch up with her.

It’s the part that screams at him as he finally catches sight of her, walking away from the encampment and stopping at the edge of the forest. It’s the part that’s been keeping him from speaking to her about Pain’s invasion, about the words she said to him as she valiantly sacrificed herself to save him, to buy enough time for someone else to come down to help, or for him to help himself. It’s the part that’s afraid that he just imagined it, that she didn’t mean it that way, that he was reading into it. She’s too cool for that, afterall. He had been watching her, admiring her since their first Chunin Exams. He saw firsthand how she strived to get stronger, trained with her for the brief period of time between Granny Tsunade’s return to the village and his departure with Pervy Sage. He had seen the improvement she made after he came back, the effects of her training with Neji, of her determination, the way she was the first of the Rookie 9 to make jounin right before Pain’s attack, even before Shikamaru. He had seen up close the respect and fear she commanded on the battlefield from back when they were on the Seventh together, the way she could care for a wounded comrade then Jyuuken a malicious enemy.

Most importantly, he had seen how she continued to be the same gentle, kind, caring person she always was despite becoming more and more powerful, always thinking of peaceful solutions even as she acquired more and more deadly techniques and skills, seeking power to help, not to hurt nor to simply become ‘the best’. That, in his eyes, was her true strength.

It’s what made her so much better than him.

They used to talk all the time back when she was on the Seventh. Casual, back-to-back conversation that flowed with ease between them. Talking to her had used to be awkward back when they were genin, and when he first returned from training with Pervy Sage, but as they spent time together, occasionally training together, going to Ichikaru with friends or simply stopping to chat whenever they bumped into each other, he discovered how much he loved talking with her. He loved the way she listened to him, the way she spoke, just being around her really. So whenever they talked after the war started, he could forget about the awkwardness and uncertainty he felt about her speech during Pain’s assault, and find peace in her words and her brilliant, albeit slightly bashful, smile. She never brought it up, didn’t even seem to remember or think about it, and acted like she always did, so he too, acted like nothing ever happened.

It would always haunt him later on, anyways.

But it wasn’t, isn’t the time to talk about stuff like that.

They had a war to fight. To win.

They haven’t talked much since her promotion and subsequent transfer. The Fifth and Seventh rarely crossed paths. The enemy was far away, and the resting shinobi could take solace in this one undisturbed night. This is his chance to reconnect with his friend.

What if things are awkward now?

Having her near him, treating him like how she always treated him, had kept him calm, slightly on edge, but confident that whatever was bothering him could be dealt with later. Spending almost half a year apart, only hearing about her division’s epic victories from Central Command, and finally seeing her be so graceful and powerful when he was on the verge of death destroyed that.

I… can’t do it. I can’t approach her.

There had been too much going on after he defeated Pain to address her sacrifice, so by the time they really got to talk again, they both acted like nothing happened.

He doesn’t want to do that anymore though. He wants to be certain.

But she’s my precious friend. I can’t ruin things because I’ve assumed stuff. Besides, people say that stuff to their friends all the time, right?”

In the end, he’s too weak. He stops at the edge of the camp and looks at her.

She’s like the Moon, an ethereal beauty, a celestial being too holy to touch or look at.

What am I thinking. I should just… go.

He stands there for a moment, though, and watches her inspect a tree.

He finally turns around to leave.

“N-Naruto… kun?”

Crap

He turns back to her.

Naruto was wrong. She’s not like the Moon at all

She’s so much more beautiful.

Chapter Text

“N-Naruto...kun?”

Panic seizes him and makes him stop. He’s not ready, not prepared to deal with this.

It used to be so awkward between them, before being constantly in each other’s presence knocked it out of them. What if that awkwardness has returned?

Quick, think of something to say

He decides that it would look very suspicious if he just stood there any longer, and turns around as slowly as possible without looking like a guilty child.

His breath catches in his throat, and something of an undignified squawk leaves him.

She’s gorgeous. No, that’s not quite it. Naruto hasn’t been able to get a proper look at her in a while, but now, illuminated by the starry sky, standing by herself by a tree, he can’t help but forget everything.

You gotta say something, ya know.

Eyes brighter than the moon above, hair as inky as the heavens themselves. Here, by herself, he can’t see the assertive, capable shinobi capable of unleashing hell on her enemies. Edging closer to her tree, she looks uncertain, her left arm hanging by her side, her right one clutching it tightly. Her head’s slightly lowered, and, though Naruto isn’t sure if he’s seeing it correctly, it looks like she is blushing. All in all, she looks exactly like she always did back home, before the war.

Evidently, old habits die hard, even when you’re the badass leader of a whole brigade.

Holy crap, please say something, you’ve been standing here forever.

Raucous laughter from the camp behind him wakes him up from his trance. He blinks, and realizes that it's probably been over a minute since he turned around. She is still just standing, looking at her feet, though it looks like she’s pressed herself even closer to her tree, and is currently in the process of circling around it to hide from sight.

She’s running away because you’ve just been staring at her all this time, you fool! Say something damn it!

“Yo, Hinata!”

Good. Greeting her first, good start.

“I was just, uh, admiring the trees, ya know!”

Kushina would be ashamed.

Shut up about my mother, and stop butting into my life, ya know.

That’s not what you said when you were bleeding to death on the battlefield.

Hinata squeaks at his sudden greeting

“Yes, they’re, umm, nice, aren’t they? Nice, pretty trees.” Her voice is a bit higher than usual.

“Yeah, not as nice as the ones we have back at home though!” Naruto says with a grin.

“Yes, well it’s not called the Village Hidden in the Leaves for no reason,” she agrees.

“Yeah, very pretty leaves, ya know!”

“Yes, very pretty.”

He was wrong. It's not awkward at all.

It’s painful.

They stand there in silence, still quite a bit apart. Hinata starts to shift around nervously, and Naruto scratches his head.

Talking about trees? Really? That’s the best you can do?

Why are you suddenly interested in my life? You’ve never paid this much attention before, ya know.

Well, you’re never this bashful, so I thought that this might be an interesting spectacle to watch

He tries to ignore the ancient demon that could read his thoughts and takes a step forward.

I’m a man. I’m Uzumaki Naruto! The number one knucklehead ninja! I can do this!

You are aware of what ‘knucklehead’ means, right?

Stubborn and forceful, right? Cause you’re like an unstoppable fist?

...sure. Let’s go with that

Naruto takes a deep, steadying breath, and takes another step forward; Hinata’s still fiddling with her hands, awkwardly leaning against her tree. He takes another step and feels his confidence growing a little. He takes another step and feels a bit more like himself. Afterall, this is just going to be a casual conversation between two friends catching up. Another step, and he remembers that this is Hinata, who makes him feel bolder, more alive than anyone else. Excitement builds as he takes yet another step. Another step as he allows himself to smile widely, Another step and he falls flat on his face.

“Naruto-kun!”

She’s there, immediately by his side, as he groans and rolls on his side, clutching his face. The Kyuubi roars with hysterical laughter as Naruto holds his throbbing nose.

“Naruto-kun, hold still please.”

Suddenly, he feels relief as she jabs at different points on his body, dulling the pain and loosening his tense muscles. His chakra pathways clear, and he feels the Kyuubi’s healing power surge in his body faster than before.

The Demon Fox stops laughing.

“You shouldn’t be out here, Naruto-kun! You’re still healing. You might accidentally reopen some of your wounds, and I’m not that great at medical ninjutsu to help you if you do,” she gently scolds as she helps him sit up. She looks concerned, and Naruto grins sheepishly at her, embarrassment threatening to cook him from the inside.

Hinata was the one person who would never judge him for his mistakes.

Hinata was the one person he never wanted to show his mistakes to.

“You did a pretty good job now, though, ya know. You’re awesome at it.”

She blushes.

“I—- I can only help with dealing with pain through your chakra network, b-because of the Byakugan, and that wasn’t that big of a fall,” she mumbles, worriedly watching him absentmindedly rub his nose. “Plus you already have Kyuubi-san…”

‘Kyuubi-san’ has a name, little girl

We know, you just won’t tell us what it is you stubborn bastard.

Well, look at the Uzumaki calling the Bijuu wild.

Eh? What?

Old Warring States idiom, you wouldn’t get it.

Idi— what?

“Naruto-kun?”

“Oh, sorry, what did you say?” Naruto has the sudden realization that it probably looks weird to people when he randomly pauses to speak with his Bijuu.

“Were you talking to Kyuubi-san?” With her this close, he can see the soft flush adorning her cheeks, and the moonlight reflecting off of her eyes.

“What? Oh yeah, the dumb fox’s been more chatty lately. It’s super annoying, actually,” he grumbles, ignoring said fox’s howl of indignation.

“Really? I thought you’ve always wanted to get to understand him a bit more, especially since, well, uhh, the war began.”

Ah. What she really meant was ‘since Pain.’

“Yeah, well, he’s been a real bother, ya know,” he complains loudly like he usually does while carefully watching from the corner of his eyes.

“Hmm I just can’t help but remember all the times you tried to goad him into talking back when I was in the Seventh.”

“That’s what you remember? I just remember yelling at myself like an idiot because I had trouble entering the Sewer.”

“The Sewer?”

“Oh, it’s what I call the place in my head where we talk. Kyuubi’s told me that’s just how my head sees our chakras talking or something. I don’t really get it. All I know is that it looks like a big disgusting sewer, which really matches his personality, ya know.”

“Don’t say that,” she repriminds him, but it lacks force as she smiles. “I think I’ve actually seen a bit of the, um, the Sewer, with my Byakugan, back when we were experimenting with Kyuubi-san’s chakra. But really, you shouldn’t say that about him, he’s an ancient and powerful being, and really intelligent.”

“He’s a stupid, unhelpful fox who either sleeps or says weird things about my mom at the worst moments.” He puts on a gruff, angry voice. “You can’t even aim that kunai at that attacker properly! You’re dumber than your mother, and she used to sniff ninja superglue.”

Hinata giggles quietly, and Naruto could float with happiness at being the cause behind that incredible sound. He’s sure that he could hear nothing but that sound for the rest of his life and die the happiest man on earth.

You sappy idiot. What happened to the ‘everyone hates me, so I’ll do nothing but train until I become Hokage ya know’ Naruto who didn’t spend all his time thinking about one woman?

“Well,” she makes out as she stifles her laughter, “ it sounds like at least, you’re making headway with him. You’re probably on better terms with him than any other jinchuriki has been with their Bijuu, aside from Bee-san of course.”

“Yeah, I’m actually super jealous of him. His Bijuu actually helps him out instead of trying to get him killed.”

“Sorry?”

“Well, remember that incident my division was involved in like, three months ago? In Kumo?” he tentatively asks.

“Oh, right, that incident,” she says with a slight giggle.

“Heh, yeah. That incident.” Naruto can’t help but blush a little. He’d give all the chakra in the Konoha to erase that experience from history. “Well, let’s just say that his bad attitude and his sudden talent for gossip really put us in a bind, and we sort of, ah, had an argument.”

“Really, Kyuubi-san? In that situation?”

“Yeah, you’d think that the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox would be smarter about these stuff,” he says, laughing nervously and rubbing his neck. Remembering the details of said incident, and recounting some of its details to Hinata of all people should have made him more uncomfortables, but somehow, he’s enjoying himself. “Anyways, we fought, almost got killed, and then he got a little offended, and, ah, I guess that’s why he refused to heal me the other day.”

It wasn’t like I was actually going to let you die. I’ll let you know that the Shimura clan used to have a tradition of throwing a thousand senbon at the impetuous and the ill-mannered at the most painful spots without actually inflicting life-threatening damage as a lesson. I was just trying to —

“Anyways, not to sound like Shikamaru, but he’s been a real pain since then, ya know,” Naruto quickly interrupts aloud. He doesn’t want to hear anymore about senbon in painful places, having personally experienced that far too many times.

What does ‘impechuwas’ mean anyways?

“That’s really terrible of him. You…” she trails off, the worry and fear clearly visible in her eyes from her proximity. “You could have died,” she finishes off quietly.

Well, what a way to kill the mood.

He’s silent as she looks down, hands resting on her lap, her legs folded neatly under her. The smile from before is long gone, and though she’s still blushing slightly, her face is far paler than before. Not quite sure what to make of the sudden somber atmosphere, he grins and tries to lighten the mood.

“Yeah, but imagine if old Kyuubi was in Bushy Brows, they’d be like, arguing over the springtime of youth all the time, heh heh, ya know!”

He cringes. If he listened harder, he’d probably hear an old man coughing in the background.

Hinata doesn’t smile.

“I was… so scared. That that was it. I saw… with my Byakugan.” She swallows. “ I’ve never seen your chakra so low, and I’ve seen people pass from lesser injuries. You’re… so strong.” She whispers this last bit.

At this, Naruto’s grin vanishes, only to be slowly replaced by a gentle smile. It's smaller, calmer, more genuine. It’s the type of smile one only shows the ones they care for the most, full of warmth and fondness.

“Yeah, well, people say that I have quite a hard skull. That probably protected me from some of those attacks. Or, like Pervy Sage once told me, I’m just too dumb to know when to die.”

She’s about to say something, probably to protest at the self-deprecating insinuation, but he cuts in ahead of her.

“Still though, I’m nowhere near as tough as some people that I know,” he declares as he playfully nudges Hinata, who’s head shoots up as her face grows red from the sudden contact. “I can definitely think of someone who’s definitely too stubborn to die, even more so than me, ya know.”

He laughs slightly as she squirms in embarrassment, looking straight back at the grass as she shakes her head profusely.

“It’s true! Remember that battle we had in the Land of Rivers? They had weapons made from the Yonbi’s chakra, and you rushed in to protect our comrades.” He smiles, a bit bitterly, but with affection nonetheless. “We were all pretty messed up by the end, but you had been right there in the middle of it all. You looked like you forgot that you probably were supposed to die, ya know.”

It wasn’t actually that funny. Having happened not too long after Pain’s attack, Naruto had nearly lost it right then and there, but the calm manner with which Hinata handled herself, as well as the fact that he was actually able to do something about it, made the fact that they were covered in goop and sludge and cooling lava all the funnier later on.

People in war tend to latch on to strange things to stay sane.

“N-no, stop it,” she whimpers, now covering her face in embarrassment. She’s shaking though, and Naruto thought he could hear a bit of laughter from her.

He crawls over the tree Hinata had been looking at earlier, and sits against it, watching the night sky. He looks over at her, and pats the grass next to him expectantly, and she slowly makes her way to him, and sits by him.

“There was the time you fought Neji,” he continues, his voice quieter and more serious. “He was the top genin in Konoha, you had no chance, but you still gave him a good fight.”

He doesn’t want to mention her greatest show of guts. It’s too painful.

She pokes her fingers together beside him. “It was probably a bad idea, looking back. You won against him later anyways, and changed his whole perspective. All I did was make him feel guilty later on.”

“Are you kidding me?” he almost yells in shock, and turns around to stare at Hinata in indignation and disbelief. “Hinata, I was only able to win against him because of you. You inspired me, gave me a purpose. Besides, it isn’t like one fight changed him. One conversation can’t do that, ya know.” He looks ahead, straight at the moon, a fierce look dominating his eyes. “Zabuza, Neji, Gaara, Nagato, I could only help them because they already weren’t sure about things themselves. All of them already had a part of them that felt that what they were doing was wrong, and were acting out of desperation.”

Desperation? Wow, you’re vocabulary truly is getting bigger

Shut up.

Hinata is blushing furiously, but manages to fight off her own bashfulness and smiles as she too looks up at the sky. “You… you really are humble, Naruto-kun. All those people who owe everything to you, and you won’t take the credit.”

“It’s true though. And Neji especially, he was already on the brink. I really think that you had an effect on him that fight.”

She hums in disagreement, but says nothing, content with sitting on the grass next to him, leaning against the same tree. They sit in comfortable silence for a while, watching the starry sky.

“Why were you here, anyways? Inspecting the trees for traps?”

“Oh, I just saw some birds that looked really pretty with my Byakugan when I was doing a perimeter sweep. I wanted to get up close to them.”

‘Oh sorry, did I scare them away?”

“No. It’s all fine.”

Heh, I guess I forgot.

Occasionally, one of them makes a small comment, and they laugh, then go back to sitting quietly together.

“Of course you’re the strongest! Didn’t you see how scared those Ame and Kusa ninja were when you showed up? They must have known how powerful you are, ya know!”

“Well, it’s pretty easy to be intimidating when your summoning is a giant bird with metal wings. Doesn’t mean I personally am particularly strong.”

“All Pervy Sage did was summon toads to do the job for him, and everyone called him super strong.”

“Are you comparing me with Jiraiya-sama?”

“What? Of course not. No, definitely not. Definitely not. Absolutely. Not.”

No matter how awkward it feels at first…

After a while, they start talking about their friends, wondering what they were doing, and trading stories about their genin teams. The last of the campfires goes out as they laugh together about Sai’s antics, and discuss the Aburame clan’s obsession with sunglasses. The ninja on nightwatch, patrolling around the camp, stare from a distance at the two beloved heroes who sit huddled together by a tree, giggling, embarrassment long having faded away as the night deepened.

... it always feels amazing when I’m by her side.

Their eyes begin to droop, and, sleepily, Hinata’s head falls against Naruto’s shoulders. He momentarily tenses, but then relaxes. It feels like an onsen, except a million times better, and he’s never been more at peace.

It’s like a big, nice bowl of Ichiraku’s best ramen, but better.

“The sky is so beautiful,” she yawns, and her eyes flutter, barely staying open. “Don’t you just love the stars?”

He looks at the sky and the stars. He admires the inky blue sky, the way it seems to flow and cascade like a river, seems to go on forever, infinitely, endlessly, soft and deep, but in a comfortable way, like the warm embrace of sleep. He sees the way the stars seem to twinkle in it, sparkling like diamonds. He examines the pale clouds and how they fit perfectly with the night sky, delicate, but with the potential for a storm. He sees the twin moons, the way they reflect the light, impossibly beautiful, unreachable, yet kind, loving. He watches the moons flicker, disappear as she closes her eyes.

She’s at peace.

It’s the middle of the war. It’s not the time for questions or confrontations.

“Yeah, it really is.”

He closes his eyes too, and lets his head fall against hers.

“I really do.”