Neji Hyuga Love Story: Into the Dark

Chapter 7

A/N: Ahhhhh! It feels good to be back:) I'm sorry this has taken so long, with school starting I've been busy heh! Anyway, wanted to say thanks to all of you great followers who decided to vote for my story/chapters! As much as I appreciate that, I appreciate reviews/comments even more. It really is awesome, and I think that asking or requiring reviews/comments is wrong, so I won't but I'm just saying it is really nice, thanks!

Chapter 7

Hinata looked through her bag, checking to make sure she had brought everything that she needed for her mission. Her squad; Shino, Kiba, Akamaru, plus Naruto, started setting up camp after they had traveled enough for that day. Oh no... She thought, I forgot a blanket again... She mentally scolded herself for this was not the first time this had happened. However, it may have been easy to, considering how flustered she was when she found out Naruto was coming.

Lady Tsunade assigned them a fairly simple B-ranked mission. Their task was to locate a group of shinobi wandering near a small village on the outskirts of Konoha. The village had asked Lady Tsunade if she could assign some of the leaf shinobi to investigate, in fear that the group may be dangerous. So far, spottings consist of three shinobi in the group. Hinata set up her sleeping bag around the fire they had made, as well as the others. She looked up. The night was cloudy, and looked stormy almost, however the weather reports did not say anything about rain. Once they had all assembled their sleeping areas, Hinata looked over, and noticed that Naruto had set up his sleeping bag next to hers. She looked surprised and blushed. He chose to sleep next to me?? She thought to herself. "Hey Hinata, is it ok if I sleep here?" Naruto asked.

"O-of course, Naruto," she said quietly as her blush grew deeper.

"I just thought that since your the only girl, I wouldn't want you to get scared or anything like you always do!" Naruto said, unaware of the obnoxious way it sounded, as he stretched his arm behind his head and smiled widely. Hinata's gaze lowered and she felt a bead of sweat form on her head. Oh great so that's what he thinks...

"We should probably start to sleep now. Even the smallest life forms need to rest." Shino said in a factual way as he stared at the fire.

"You got it! Akamaru and I are beat after sniffing out that trail for so long!" Kiba exclaimed and Akamaru barked in agreement. They flopped onto their sleeping bag and sighed a snore. Hinata settled into her own sleeping bag, as did Shino and Naruto. They all fell asleep soon after.

Hinata woke up the next morning, feeling very warm and comfortable. I feel so... Nice, she thought as she opened her eyes slowly. As soon as she got adjusted to the light she looked to her side, and found Naruto only a couple inches away from her face, sleeping. She turned bright red and snapped back into her senses; he was lying on his stomach with his arm around her torso and practically almost on top of her while she was lying on her back. Eeeep! She sat straight up and scuttled away to the other side of the fire pit, hands covering her surprised expression. Naruto was awoken by the movement and lifted his head up sleepily. "Ooh, Hinata" he said groggily as he realized he was halfway on her sleeping bag, "Sorry about that, I must've rolled over in my sleep heh." He said enthusiastically and scratched his head. All Hinata could do was sit there with a worried look on her pink face. They heard a yawning whimper come from Akamaru, and Kiba stood up from his sleeping bag.

"Some dream you were having." He snarled at Naruto.

"Hey, shut it Kiba! It's not like you don't cuddle with Akamaru when you sleep!" Naruto exclaimed and crossed his arms.

"THAT'S COMPLETELY DIFFERENT YOU IDIOT!" Kiba barked back at a stubborn Naruto. Once they were all up and ready to leave, they packed their things, squashed their fire from the previous night, and continued on the trail to the village of Tohokuu. By the time they arrived it was late afternoon.