Hinata And Naruto: After The Kiss

Chapter 16

The rest of the trip passed uneventful. The traveled the rest of the day and then camped in another clearing. Tanaka had made good on their promise and the had spent two hours or more telling the story of how they met. The finished the story with the moon mission. By then Hinata was growing tired and was leaning against Naruto's shoulder.

The men had decided to stick with the same watch pattern as the night before. Hinata was tired and was trying to stay awake. The heat from the fire and Naruto's body heat were combining to wrap her in a blanket of warmth.

Hinata started with a small jump. She had dosed off. Naruto chuckled and Tanaka chimed up, "Take her to her wagon. No funny business, you hear me." Naruto chuckled again and help Hinata up. He supported her around her shoulders and they walked to Hinata's wagon.

He lifted her up into the wagon then hopped up after her. Hinata had already burrowed under the blankets and was trying to regain the warmth from the fire. Naruto was about to leave when Hinata grabbed his pant leg. "Stay here," she whispered. Naruto swallowed the lump in his throat. He could see that she was cold.
Naruto cursed the possible consequences. He slid in under the blanket. It was awkward for a few seconds until they got sorted out. Hinata's back was to his chest. Naruto wrapped one arm over top of her and held her close. They settled in and were soon asleep.

Tanaka knew perfectly well that Naruto would end up staying in the same wagon as Hinata that night. But how close these two were was a little much. He had gone to the wagon the two had slept in to wake Naruto for his turn on watch duty. When he had climbed up he saw the two not just sharing the same relative space, they were heavily intertangled. They just looked like a mass of limbs and hair.

He knelt down and shook Naruto's shoulder. The boy groaned. His eyes cracked open and he glared at Tanaka. "Le'me sleep." The boy closed his eyes again. Tanaka sighed. This was déjà vu from when his son still lived at home. He shook Naruto again. This time when the boys eyes opened they stayed open. He tried to sit up but he was pinned down by Miss Hinata's arms.

Tanaka his a smile as the boy slowly extracted his limbs. A blush was clearly evident on Naruto's face as he slowly got to a sitting position. He slid out from the blankets and immediately wrapped the blankets around Miss Hinata. He stood up and at least had the brains to look abashed. He silently followed Tanaka down to the ground.

Tanaka turned to face Naruto and raised his hand. Naruto didn't flinch back or try to run. He stood there as Tanaka's hand got closer. Tanaka flicked Naruto's forehead. Naruto looked wide eyed. He'd been expecting at least a full on smack.

Tanaka pinched the bridge of his nose. "Just get going and pull your turn on watch. I'm going to bed." And with that Tanaka walked off. Naruto didn't have any thoughts. He just walked off in another direction climbed a tree and sat down on a branch. He sat and sat. Nothing happened. He was bit chilly but it wasn't to bad. That was until he sneezed.

He hadn't even felt the sneeze coming. All of a sudden he felt the pressure building in his nose. He sneezed and fell. He hadn't been up that high thankfully. But he still landed with a nasty thud. He lay there groaning. That hurt a lot. He tried to sit up but quickly found out that was a bad idea.

At least he now knew he hadn't broken anything to important. He tried to sit up again and was met with a burning pain in his side. Not his spine but his ribs. If Hinata healed him the pain would go away. In comparison he had felt a lot worse pain before but that didn't dull the pain he felt now. He lay there as the sun grew brighter. He heard sounds of someone up and about and called out.

"Over here please. I sneezed out of the tree." The foot steps paused then started to race over to him. Before he knew it Hinata was there kneeling down by his side. "What happened?!" "I sneezed." "What?" Naruto groaned in embarrassment. "I sneezed and I fell out of the tree." Despite the seriousness of the situation Hinata couldn't help but giggle. "Haha." Naruto said sarcastically. "Sorry Naruto but it is funny." "Just help me up please."

Hinata helped ease Naruto to a sitting position. He was grinding his teeth against the whole time. Hinata lightly presses her hand against Naruto's back to see where the most pain was. Naruto hissed in pain and Hinata pulled her hand away. "Sorry!" "No, no its okay. It just hurts all over." Hinata bit her lip.

"If we get you back to the camp I can look at this better before I heal it. I don't want to heal bones in the wrong place." Naruto nodded slightly. He should have realized that possibility.

Hinata ease him up to his feet. It was slow going with Naruto nearly biting through his lip to keep from yelling. They hobbled back to camp with Naruto leaning on Hinata for support. They made it to the camp and Hinata set Naruto down by the fire. She slowly ease his jacket and shirt off. She pressed her fingers around on his back until she found the break in his ribs. She started to heal his ribs and when it was all said and done, they were both exhausted.

Naruto was still sore and Hinata was tired. Once life started to show its face around camp they both wanted to go back to sleep. But that was not to be. They were almost back to Konoha. Just a few more hours.

Okay I know that this chapter is crap. My brain completely died on me. I'm sorry but at least its a chapter. I'll try to do better for next week.