With You, Forever | Naruhina

Chapter 16: Just Wing It

Hinata returned from her mission two days later, she was utterly exhausted and mildly injured. Naruto was pacing around, waiting for her to return at the main gate for the last couple of hours, and at the sight of her, he was beyond happier than he has been in the last few weeks. Looking at her emerge from the forest, it took every cell in his body not to rush towards her and engulf her into a warm, never-ending hug. Only as she drew closer, he noticed how tired and injured he is. 

Hinata was surprised to see Naruto at the main gate.

"Naruto-kun?" she asked smiling, "are you leaving for a mission?"

"Hinata, I uh-no- I was-I was kinda waiting for you to return," Naruto said looking anywhere but into her lavender eyes, his stomach was doing somersaults and his face betrayed him as it turned redder than the setting sun. 

Perplexed by Naruto's answer, she wasn't sure what to think. Neither did she care, his warmth was extremely comforting, a familiar face was all she wanted to see once she was back home. And as she looked at Naruto's beetroot red face, it reminded her of herself when she was young and wasn't able to make conversation with Naruto. At that moment, she allowed herself to relax, her mission had been exhausting and even though she only had minor injuries she knew didn't rest enough to be even on her feet right now. As her tiredness got the better of her, all Hinata could manage before fainting was, "Waiting f-for me? Why?" 

Naruto grabbed her by the waist and engulfed her in his arms. 

"Hinata!!" he panicked, "oye! Hinata?" She didn't respond. Instead, it was Izumo Kamizuki who replied. 

"Naruto!" He said grabbing Naruto's attention, "don't scream her name. Take her to the hospital!" He stated the logical thing to do. Picking Hinata up in his arms he rushed to the hospital. 

#

"Sakura-chan, is she going to be okay?" Naruto asked the ninth time, Sakura all but screamed back at him.

"Of course," she said with the most threatening smile on her face, "as I said she didn't rest at all during the mission and that's probably why she fainted."

"Can I stay with her?"

Sakura thought about it for a while, and with an ambiguous smile on her face she replied, "Of course you can." 

Naruto gave her a wide smile and rushed into Hinata's room. He pulled up a chair and sat beside her. As he observed her, he thought how could he have been so stupid? After the mission it was the first time, he was so close to her. He realized she was everything he was missing from his life and more. He knew at that moment he knew his love wasn't pitying her for not loving her all those years, it was really there beating in his heart very, very hard. He felt confident in the decision he was about to me. He didn't know how big of an idiot he was until now, how could he have not seen her? How could he have missed it that she acknowledged him before anyone did? 

Will she forgive me? What am I going to do?

He kept on thinking about the various ways he would confess to her but nothing gave him the feeling of "perfect" confession, but a perfect confession is needed for the perfect girl. He held her small hand on his big, rough ones and kept on thinking bizarre situations like I'll give her a thousand roses! Oh no.. I don't think I have enough money? Hm! Maybe I can take her to star-gaze, someone asked me to it with them once...wait I don't think I know the stars! Ugh, why is this so fucking hard!

This went on for a long time and he fell asleep on the chair with her hand in his. 

#

The moon was shining brighter than ever, it was midnight when Hinata stirred in her sleep, and the moonlight was shining on her body. She tried to move her hands but one of them was squeezed tightly by someone, she was startled and was about to make punch whoever was holding her hand when the moonlight showed her the handsome face of the blonde sleeping on the chair. His mouth half-open, and a dried-up drool was visible on his right side. 

Naruto-kun..?

Only then she noticed that it was his hand that was holding hers. She started blushing and wondered why on earth was Naruto in her hospital room. And as if on cue Naruto moved a little and his eyes opened a little. Moonlight flooded the room and both of them were staring at each other for what felt like an eternity. Naruto's blue eyes found Hinata's lavender ones and he leaned in closer to her. Hinata stiffened a little but melted as she saw a smile on his face and his eyes fixed on her lips. Naruto was not sure why but he just knew that this was the perfect moment he was looking for all along. The moment, he thought, isn't decided by how much effort one put in but by whether the feelings are very clearly communicated. And so, he did it.

He shifted his attention from her lips to her eyes and he whispered to her.

I love you, Hinata.

And then he kissed her under the moonlight.