Naruto had never had a hard time telling Sakura that he liked her. It had always been easy to proclaim his feelings. He had told her hundreds of times that he liked her, asked her out on dozens of dates and tried everything he could think of to get her.
This was why it bugged the hell out of him that he didn’t seem to be able to do any of that with Hinata.
They were sitting in a familiar position, side by side in front of the fire, leaning back against the couch with their books spread out around them. They had sat just like this dozens of times before, studying the books that Sora gave them. Everything was just the way it always was: Hinata’s pot of tea sat next to her hip, while he was surrounded by empty ramen cups. She was reading a thick book on the theory of the echoes she was able to see, while he was reading accounts of some of the most famous of the West’s gang wars.
He looked up at the clock on the wall. In fifteen minutes, Hinata would get up to get more tea and offer to get him another cup of ramen. He would accept and then watch her walk down the hall to the kitchen. Then he would start berating himself for not telling her how he felt about her now while they were alone and away from eavesdroppers (especially his sister). Then she would return, smile and hand him his ramen and they would go back to studying until they were exhausted.
It had been this way for weeks.
He just couldn’t get himself to tell her. No matter how hard he tried. All he wanted to do was close the distance between them, hold her close just be still.
Little did he know that it was exactly was Hinata was thinking as well.
She couldn’t concentrate on her book. All she could think about was that he was so close. You would think that after week after week of sitting here, next to him, after nearly a year and a half of being out here on this mission with him, she would be a little more immune to the blushes and escalating heart rate. But while she was able to ignore it better than she used to, it was still there, always lurking, ready to pop up and prevent her from doing anything at a moment’s notice.
The tension between the two of them was thick and nervous. Both were going to explode if something didn’t happen soon, but they thought they were the only ones who felt it.
Hinata finally turned and pointed to a sentence in her book. “Does this make sense to you?” she asked nervously.
Naruto leaned in to look over her shoulder. Spikes of blond hair brushed her ear and he bent his neck to read the writing. It sent a shiver down her spine.
“In addition to the type A echoes, characterized by large amplitudes and short periods, which result from the engagement of the jutsu, there should, theoretically, be the traces of these waves that have regressed into type B waves, the residual echoes of the echoes so to speak.” He sat up and made a face. “I don’t get it.”
Hinata sighed. “Neither do I.”
“Does this have to do with the jutsu Yasu’s working on?”
She nodded. “Right now, everything I see is a big muddle. I’m apparently seeing all different kinds of echoes at once. We need to isolate it so that I only see one.”
He raised his eyebrows. “And then what?”
She sighed. “I don’t know. Hopefully something will happen. Right now, even if we isolate them, I don’t know what we’ve isolated. I’m working through the theory now so that hopefully I’ll be able to understand what I see.”
“Oh,” he said, at a loss for words.
There was a long silence.
“So what are you and Nori working on now?” she asked brightly.
He shrugged. “I finished most of the electricity jutsus, the lightning strikes, shocks, nerve attacks. He says I like the flashy techniques too much and has handed me back over to Nee-chan for jutsu training. Now I’m just doing the taijutsu with him.” He grinned. “And we’re doing the partner training with him, of course.”
She smiled back. It was one of the best parts of coming down to live with Yasu and Nori. He had been old enough when he left the Kaze that he had done some of the partner training. She loved the hours she spent doing the partner training with Naruto. There was a whole series of exercises that she got to do with him, learning how to fight in a pair, knowing that if she came in high, he would duck low, knowing when to step to the side so that he could dart out from behind her and strike.
Then she realized that she was just sitting there, staring at him and smiling like an idiot. “Ano, I’m really glad Sora took us down off the mountain. I like Nori and Yasu.” Dear gods, what a stupid thing to say. They had been living here for months now; he had to already know she liked them.
Naruto was just thankful for something he could reply to. “Yeah, yeah! They’re really...nice.” This was going downhill fast.
“And Miki-chan is so cute.”
“Mmm-hmmm.”
There was another long pause.
“Would you like some more ramen? I was going to get some more tea...”
“Yeah, ramen would be great.”
She smiled and stood up, grabbing her teapot and his empty cups of ramen.
He started hitting himself in the forehead as soon as she left. Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!
Why couldn’t he tell her?
“Uhhh, Nori-san?”
“Hai?”
Naruto shifted his weight from side to side uncomfortably. They were sitting up on the roof of the house, taking a break from training. “Ano...how did you know when you were in love with Yasu?”
Nori grinned. “The first time I saw Yasu she was sitting at the bar where I was supposed to meet up with the girls in order to talk over the job. She was quietly and with a very dignified air sipping a glass of wine while Sora waved some sort of chocolate alcohol concoction around and flirted outrageously with the man next to her. I had only occasionally seen Sora over the past eight years and in my mind she was still the thirteen year old girl I had left the Kaze with: watching her flirt with this rather unappealing character was not something I was handling well.
“I was about to go punch his light out, when I saw Yasu place a few bills on the counter for their drinks. Then she reached up and grabbed a fistful of Sora’s hair, bent her over backwards to look her in the eye and said ‘Your standards have reached new lows and your taste is making me nauseous. If the man we are meeting is as good as you claim he should have no trouble figuring out that we’ve moved.’ Then she dragged Sora out of the bar by the hair.”
Naruto smiled. That sounded like them. “And that’s when you knew you were in love with her?”
Nori shook his head. “It’s rarely possible to pinpoint these things down. But that was the moment I knew I was going to be a fool if I didn’t pursue her.”
Naruto swallowed. “And how did you know that she...well that she...”
“Wasn’t going to slap a jutsu on me if I tried to kiss her?”
“No!” Naruto yelled. Well, maybe. Damn it, he wasn’t a pervert like Ero-sennin or Kakashi-sensei!
Nori chuckled. “Well, if you don’t want to kiss Hinata-“
“Who said this was about Hina-chan?” Naruto went beat red.
One black eyebrow arched. “If it isn’t about her, then who is it about?”
Naruto looked at the ground, pressing his chin into his chest. “Nobody,” he mumbled.
“Ah well, so this is all just hypothetical.”
He grabbed onto the word like a lifeline. “Yeah, yeah. Hypothetical.”
“Well, then since you are just hypothetically asking me how I knew, I suppose that I don’t, hypothetically, have to tell you?”
“Huh? Wait, yes you do!” Naruto yelled, almost panicked.
Nori chuckled again. “Sorry, I couldn’t resist.” He grinned ruefully. “I can’t tell you.”
“NANI! Hey, hey, why not?”
“Remember when Sora threatened to tell you that story about the inn?”
It took a moment to remember what Nori was talking about. “You mean when she was threatening to show us pictures of Sora’s ex-boyfriends?”
Nori nodded. “That was when I realized that Yasu was interested in me back. She would kill me if I told you how she told me. But she was the one who told me.”
Naruto’s eyes went wide. “And now she doesn’t want anyone to know?”
He chuckled. “Well, it wasn’t exactly the...smoothest declaration of affection. It ended up being rather embarrassing to her. But in the end, look where it got us.”
Naruto looked out over the farm. Suddenly he spotted Hinata and Miki out in yard. Hinata was wearing one of Yasu’s old leneghas, the traditional dress for unmarried women in the West. It had taken quite a bit of cajoling on Sora’s part to get her into it, insisting that she was probably going to have to wear one when she got to the West anyway. Hinata was not thrilled with the large gap between the top of the skirt and the bottom of the top, even with the scarf tucked into the skirt and thrown crosswise across her shoulder. She was kneeling in front of Miki, trying to teach her a clapping game.
She looked beautiful.
He buried his nose into arms. “I don’t even know what kind of guy’s she likes,” he mumbled.
Nori bit his tongue to keep from saying that he thought this was all hypothetical.
“She seems to like you. The question is whether or not she’d like you to kiss her.”
“Hey! I told you that’s not what this is about!” It really wasn’t. Mostly.
Nori shook his head. The boy was so stubborn. “Naruto, everything is a risk. You just have to ask yourself in what situation you are risking more, telling her or not. How much are you going to lose if you don’t tell her? What are you going to do if she goes after someone else and you never even tell her how you feel?”
Naruto swallowed. The idea of her with someone else cut him to the core.
He couldn’t lose her. He had to tell her.
But what if that was what would drive her
away?
“He’s figured it out.”
“Figured what out?”
“That he loves her.”
“How the hell do you know that?”
Yasu arched an eyebrow. “I can tell.”
Sora rolled her eyes. “Oh sure, you can just see it when you look at him.”
“I’m a married woman. We are wise in the ways of love.”
“Yeah, right. Wise in the ways of love, the Ice Queen.” Sora popped another chocolate in her mouth and went back to looking at the map she had spread out on top of the kitchen table.
Yasu continued to stir the light batter she was mixing in a large ceramic bowl. “Be quiet. Think about the way he looks at her. Think about how he’s been talking around her recently.”
“He’s been sounding like an idiot.”
“Exactly! He’s nervous.”
“Oh dear lord! Why should he being in love with her suddenly make her hard to talk to?” She popped in another chocolate.
Yasu put the bowl down and moved to the stovetop. “Spoken like someone who had truly never been in love.”
“Nor do I wish to be. It’s a pointless exercise for me.”
“Sora...”
“I don’t want to talk about it.”
“But there are ways,-“
“I said I don’t want to talk about it. We are now changing the topic. Which do you think is worse on a trip, two teenagers in love who know they love each other or two teenagers in love who won’t tell each other?”
“If it’s number one, we’ll suffer that glow that all new relationships give. Number two, that is, if they haven’t figured out they’re in love yet, they’ll keep coming for you, me and my husband for advice on how the other one feels.”
Sora stuck out her tongue and made a face. “Eewww. OK so what is the quickest way to push them together?”
“We could lock them in room together.”
“We’ve already done that to them. Come on be creative.”
“We could send them out on a mission together.” Yasu started dropping globs of dough in a pan of hot oil, frying them up before removing the little balls and dropping them on a rack.
Sora rolled her eyes. “They’re already on a mission together! Maybe I should just tell them they like each other and leave them to sort it out for themselves.”
“No! Where’s the romance in that?”
“Who care’s about romance? I just want them to get together already before we go out on this damn trip!”
“Don’t worry, we’ll figure out something. Speaking of the trip, have you decided where you’re going?”
Sora shook her head, and then used her finger to trace out the route she was planning on taking. “We’re going to cross the mountains and cut south down into some of the smaller towns. You and I never really hung out there, but our reputation should have traveled enough if I need to use it.”
Yasu marched over and jammed her finger into a town Sora would rather forget. “Sora we didn’t travel there for a reason. You’re going to be cutting it awfully close to Kaze territory...”
Sora waved her finger away. “I know, I know but I can’t figure out a better way to go. There are a lot of people I don’t want to run into.”
Yasu glared at her. “I think running into one of your ex-boyfriends is a little less threatening then running into the clan you left after a revolution!”
Sora sighed and rested her head in her hands. “It’s not the ex-boyfriends. I don’t want to take the kids to places we really worked. Places we used to be feared. I would be perfectly happy if Naruto and Hinata never really got exposed to how people thought of us.”
Yasu reached down and placed her hand over Sora’s. “Are you regretting it? The dGra Klesha?”
Sora shook Yasu’s hand off and leaned back in her chair. She sighed and shook her head. “We’re fighters, Yasu. Even if you’re a farmer and I’m just sort of wandering around, training these two, we’re still fighters. Life made us this way and we can’t go back. It was a skill and we were damn good. We took the life fate offered us and tried to go about it in the best way possible, killing those who needed to be killed, steeling from the rich. And in the end, we gave it up. It’s still part of us, though, waiting just beneath the surface. You know it, and I know it, and we ignore it as best we can.’
She looked off into the distance and ran her hand through her hair. “But Naruto...he doesn’t have it. Oh he’s a fighter all right, no question about that. But not in the same way we are. He fights for something. Every time he fights it’s for something. Even that pathetic village that makes him suffer in that way.” She looked down at the floor. “And somehow, when I watch him, I don’t want him to see the way I fought. I don’t want him to find out.”
“Sora.” Yasu waited for her old partner to look up. “I know. I wouldn’t want Miki-chan to find out either.” She laughed. “Dear lord, what softies we’ve become. Me with my husband and daughter and you with your brother, both of us trying to keep secret a reputation it took us years to build. Had you told me this was the way it was going to turn out, I never would have believed you.”
“Life is a funny little thing. Remember the time that man said he had a vision from a Buddha, telling him that he was supposed to marry both of us in order to-“
They both realized what was going to happen a second before it happened. They had just enough time to dive beneath the table before Naruto came crashing through the window.
He barreled through, shoulder first, protecting the back of neck with his arm. He flew over the sink, sending pieces of glass flying everywhere. The table slid up against the wall as he smash into the table.
The kitchen was silent for a few moments as the shards of glass settled to the floor and Naruto breathed hard. A barely heard “Ouch” could be heard from him. Slowly Yasu and Sora looked out from under the table.
Nori poked his head through the now broken window. “Whoops. Sorry about that.”
Yasu stood up and pulled herself up to her full height. Her eyes narrowed. “You broke the window.”
Nori reached up and scratched the back of his head. “Yeah, well things got kinda rowdy.”
One eyebrow arched dangerously high. “Things got kinda rowdy and you broke my window?”
Sora touched Naruto’s shoulder. “You okay kid? Don’t move. We need to get the glass away from your face first.” She looked over at Yasu. “Do you have a feather duster?”
“Second hall closet. You broke my window.”
“Hey, what about the boy. Aren’t you worried about him?” Nori asked.
“He’s got Kyubi in him. He’s going to be fine. What you are going to be is the question.”
“Naruto-kun?” Hinata’s appeared beside Nori, Miki in her arms. “What happened?”
“Well, we started working on some of the push kicks and I landed one.”
“He broke my window.”
Hinata’s eyes were wide with worry. “Are you okay, Naruto?”
“Hold on he can’t move yet. We need to get the glass off his face.”
Hinata pushed Miki into Nori arms and ran to the front door, grabbing the feather duster our of Sora’s hand as she came down the hall. She entered the kitchen and carefully stepped over the glass. Sliding her hand into his hair, she lifted his head and gently started brushing the glass away from his face.
Sora leaned against the doorjamb. “You haven’t said anything since you came through the window. You’re worrying me.”
Naruto scrunched up his nose as the feathers swept across his face. “Yeah, yeah, I’m fine. I’m just trying not to get cut.”
“You got an awful cut from on your arm anyway.” Hinata breathed in sharply as she looked at the deep cut on Naruto’s upper arm. “We’re going to have to bandage it up. I’ll go get the first aid kit.
“Huh, I don’t need a fist aid kit.” But Hinata was already headed for the kitchen cabinet. “Hina-chan, I’ll be fine...”
“I need to clean it out and then stitch it up.”
“Don’t do it in here,” Yasu said, glaring at her husband. “Someone has cleaning up to do.”
“We’ll go sit on the porch,” Hinata said, grabbing the med kit in one hand and Naruto’s wrist in the other. “Come on.”
Sora smiled. “A year ago she wouldn’t have don’t that.... Hell, a few months ago she wouldn’t have done that.”
“Maybe she’ll actually tell him how she feels,” Yasu said.
Sora snorted. “Yeah right. He’s the only hope we’ve got.”
“You’re probably right.” She turned back to glare at her husband. “Hand over the daughter. You have cleaning to do.”
Nori sighed as he handed Miki through the
window to his wife. “Oi Sora, don’t you have a jutsu for this?”
“I heal fast because of the Kyubi, you don’t need to do this!”
Hinata didn’t argue with him. She didn’t stop bandaging up his arm either. It wasn’t healing up fast enough to warrant leaving it alone in her opinion and as she was the one with the bandages, it was her opinion that mattered. He was just going to have to sit still and put up with it.
Naruto sighed. He really didn’t need all of this, but he was having a hard time telling her no. Hell, now a days he was always having a hard time telling her no to anything. He closed his eyes and fought back a wince as she put a small amount of pressure on the wound, contrasting with the softness of her hand pushing up the short sleeve of his shirt.
“She can WHAT?” Sora’s voice could be heard through the open window.
Naruto looked back over his shoulder to look towards where the sound was coming from. “What’s she yelling about now?”
Hinata smiled softly. “Yasu is probably telling her about the new jutsu.”
Naruto perked up immediately; he loved new jutsu. “Nani, nani? New jutsu?”
She laughed softly and shook her head. “Sorry, Naruto-kun. It’s the one she’s been working on for me.”
“Huh? With the echo thing?”
She nodded. “We’ve managed to isolate on type of wave. There are probably more that we could eventually isolate, but for right now, we’ve been able to isolate and identify one.”
“Really? Which ones?”
“It turns out that there are echoes that stay with a person that sort of follow them around. They are the remnants of old jutsus. We’ve managed to filter it so that if I engage my bloodline and then use this jutsu, all I see are those waves.”
Naruto frowned. “If that’s all you can see, you can’t fight with it.”
Hinata shook her head. “But...in a fight is not when it would be useful.”
“Huh? What do you mean? When will it be useful?”
She blushed. “Well, with a lot of practice, I should be able to see the patterns in the echoes that correspond to different jutsus.”
Naruto’s eyes went wide as a thought occurred to him. “You mean...”
“Well, I’m going to have to have a lot of practice. I mean, there is only so much I know right now and it will take me a long time to learn enough to be able to confidently identify everything, but...” she looked up at him shyly. “I should be able to look at a person and see what jutsus they favor, what one’s they used recently and what they are particularly strong at.”
They sat there staring at each other, her face painted with nervousness and his struck with awe. No one said a word for a few minutes and then Naruto whopped in joy and stood up, grabbing her as he stood up. He started spinning them around in circles. “Whoohoo! Hina-chan, this is so cool!”
She clung to his shoulder as he spun her around. “Naruto-kun, your arm!”
He put her down and started to dance around, making her laugh. “All right! We’re going to kick so much ass! No one is going to be able to stop us!”
She laughed and he spun around to face her. “Hey, hey! I’ve got an idea. Let’s start training now. Yeah, yeah, I’ll do the jutsu and you can watch me and learn all the ones I know. Then we can get Nori, Yasu and Nee-chan to show us all the jutsu they know, and while you’re learning to recognize them, I can learn how to do them!”
She laughed again, caught up in his enthusiasm. “Slow down,” she said.
“Why?” he asked, as he ran up and grabbed her by the waist. Completely forgetting about the gash in his arm, he lifted her up over his head and turned her in a wide arc. She shrieked and grabbed at his shoulders. He laughed and set her down on the ground in front of him.
And then he realized exactly what had happened, or more specifically, where they were. The light from the house illuminated the ground around them, but the darkness was edging in from the other side. His hands still rested on her waist and hers on his arms, her right land lightly grazing the bandage she had put on his arm. They were standing close, closer then they ever would have circumstances otherwise.
Eyes without pupils, eyes that were nothing but white, should have been empty. They should have appeared unseeing, like the eyes of the blind, and invited someone to slide their gaze on by. Instead, her eyes seemed to hold everything. It wasn’t as if he was drawn in and caught up; drawn and caught would have implied some sort of intention on her part. It was more natural than that and he suddenly couldn’t imagine anyone who wouldn’t be unable to break her gaze. She was naturally captivating.
This was what dreams were made up. Here she was, not afraid, worthwhile, and able to stand beside him finally. On in this case, right in front of him. And while her nerves were going crazy, it wasn’t from self-doubt. It was exactly like all of the times she had sat outside in the formal Hyuuga family garden, legs carefully tucked up under her, staring at the pond and dreamed. Dreamed of being able to run and laugh, of someone who would take her hand and run with her. Of someone who didn’t ask her to be what she didn’t want to be, someone who would help her be who she dreamed she could be.
And he always had the same face.
And that face was dangerously close to her own. Her nerves weren’t going to take it. She had to get out, but at the same time she couldn’t seem to break away.
Naruto swallowed hard. The inside of his thumbs and index fingers were brushing against her skin at the gap between her skirt and top. Her hands were still resting on the top of his arms, one on the bandage, and one on his skin.
This was it, he realized. This was the perfect time to tell her. Or at least to bring up the subject.
“Hina-chan, I-“
“Naruto-ni-chan?”
The two of them jumped back from each other and looked down at the little girl standing on the ground next to them. She stared back at them with wide eyes.
“Are you okay?” she asked.
Naruto looked at Hinata. “Ummm, yeah, yeah Miki-chan. Whatcha need?”
She grinned. “I wanted to see if you were okay.”
He smiled ruefully. The kid was too cute to even be irritated with. “Yeah, I’m fine.”
“Miki-chan?” Hinata said. She was thankful the girl had come when she did; it was the perfect was to break of the situation. “Weren’t we going to get you some ice cream?”
“Yeah!” she yelled and grabbing Hinata’s hand and starting to pull her back into the house.
Naruto sighed. Why was everything always so
hard?
Author’s Notes: This is actually only the
first half of Chapter 18. However, I just finished finals and
didn't think you wanted to wait another week so that I could
make the additions. The second half, which is now Chapter 19,
should be out relatively soon.
This site is published by Samizdat Express, Orange, CT info@seltzerbooks.com
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