Chapter 32
“It’s hot,” Naruto said bluntly, staring dazedly ahead into the stream. “It’s—”
“It’s ungodly,” Ino groaned dramatically, stretching back further on her lounge chair. “That’s what it is.”
“Summer is here in full swing, huh?” Choji agreed, wiping a bead of sweat from his brow. “It’s always like this. We deal with it.”
There was a pregnant pause, and then the both of them glanced in perfect unison across the creek to the closest tree and the only spot of cast shade. Naruto followed their gazes a moment later. There was Shikamaru, lying in the shade of its canopy, his towel laid over his eyes. Not even an hour spent, and already sunburned. Choji added offhandedly, “Some better than others.”
“He’s a wimp,” Ino groused, blowing a puff of air up at her bangs. She turned over to her back, evening out her impending tan. “I’m at least three shades paler, and I’m not sleeping in the shade like some boring recluse.”
“Ino-san,” Choji spoke pleasantly, “Give him a break.”
“Too troublesome?” She said, not without amusement. Choji returned her smile, and Naruto watched them in confusion, feeling distinctly like he was missing parts of this conversation.
“Definitely.”
“Well,” Ino sniffed, glancing into the stream where most of their generation still swam. It was less swimming, actually, and more roughhousing, but Naruto wasn’t about to split hairs with her on one of her only days off from interrogating S-class criminals. He knew well enough for that. “If I burn and Sakura doesn’t, then you’ll all learn the true meaning of troublesome.”
“Let me get this straight,” a new voice joined, coming over their shoulders. Choji shifted on his lounger and grinned, offering his knuckles as Kiba approahced. Naruto turned to him with a nod, and Kiba’s eyes trailed over him curtly before casting away. Naruto didn’t have to guess why. Kiba was notoriously protective, and Naruto had become notoriously interested in Kiba’s female teammate over the past few months. “You want your girlfriend to burn?”
Ino pursed her lips. “No,” she said petulantly, in the same tone of voice she used in every argument she knew she was going to win. Which, really, was all of them. “I don’t want to burn alone.”
Kiba shook his head. “You are something else.”
Ino smiled. “And don’t you forget it.”
“I don’t get you,” Naruto added offhandedly, not entirely invested in the conversation since he’d missed so much of it. They’d clearly been speaking silently about something, but damned if Naruto had a clue about what. “And if Sakura-chan heard you say that, she’d probably dunk you in the water.”
Ino’s smile was a weapon shaped for war. “She could try.”
Naruto shivered bodily, his eyes casting out to their friends wading in the stream. Tenten was riding high on Neji’s shoulders, and across from them Rock Lee was rapidly approaching atop—was that—Shino?
As if reading Naruto’s thoughts, Choji asked, “I don’t think I saw Shino-san. Is he coming today?” Naruto glanced over and watched Kiba blink down at him as he twisted a finger in his ear to dig something incriminating out. He flicked it away without a second glance.
“You kiddin’?” Kiba asked, laughing a little; Choji’s expression became cluttered. Kiba jutted his chin at the stream, waited for Choji to follow his direction, and said, “Shino’s in the water already. Playing chicken.”
Choji turned red enough to put a flustered Sakura to shame. Ino looked on calmly, unbothered, though one of her eyebrows tilted curiously.
“I didn’t know he was a social butterfly,” she said.
Kiba pointed at her, finger waving as though stuck between sassing her and giving credit where credit was due. Her puns never ceased to amaze. Naruto watched him contemplate praising her, then let it drop. Instead he just said, “You’ll get used to it eventually.”
“I apologize,” Choji offered a moment later, embarrassed—but Kiba was already shaking his head, tossing his hand carelessly.
“No harm, no foul, man.” He unceremoniously adjusted himself, ignored Ino’s cluck of disgust, and asked about their teachers. “Weren’t they supposed to show up?”
“They’re at the bar,” Ino rolled her eyes, resting her head back to allow the sun a full glimpse of her upturned face. “Because nothing says welcoming Konoha’s blazing summer heat like welcoming further dehydration with alcohol.”
“Huh,” Someone said to Ino’s left. The moment Naruto heard his voice, he knew they were all destined for trouble. As such, Naruto pretended to stretch, lifting himself off the ground all the while. “Never would’ve taken you for someone to bash alcohol, regardless of the time of year.”
Ino’s upper lip stiffened. “Sai. Are you trying to call me an alcoholic?”
Naruto whistled, and Choji took that moment to examine one of the pockets in his swim trunks. Sai set the canvas tucked under his arm to the side and unrolled his towel beside Ino’s chair, each move meticulous. He settled in and perched his canvas on a portable, fragile looking easel before responding.
“Is the daytime sky blue? Do fish swim?”
Kiba flinched, and Naruto purposefully looked in another direction, still whistling. There was a distinct sound of gnashing teeth and then a startled yelp, before Sai’s voice returned again, unrepentant and fearless.
Naruto glanced over to see his hair a little mussed, as if he’d been lightly smacked upside the head. Ino’s hand was still raised. “A very persuasive argument.”
Before Ino could leap into his mind and eviscerate his every memory, Sai was saved by Sakura’s oncoming approach, and the instantaneous way that she caught Ino’s attention. Sakura’s red bikini was stark against the pallor of her skin, unmarked and unblemished and still glistening with droplets of water. Naruto glanced over her shoulder curiously, eyes searching. He didn’t see Ino’s sharp gaze turn in his direction, seeing far more than he thought she could.
As Sakura came over and sat in Ino’s lap, pressing wet kisses to her throat as Ino tipped her head back and laughed, Naruto searched the waters. Team Gai plus the bizarre but somehow fitting addition of Aburame Shino were still playing a vigilant and—from the sound of it, youthful—game of chicken. Naruto heard Tenten’s pealing laughter as she called out, “Is that all you got, bug boy?”
He watched Shino’s lips trace the words, bug boy, before he grabbed tighter to Lee’s thighs and charged. Lee’s wail was loud enough to raise birds from their branches, one of his hands threaded through the tufts of Shino’s hair like he was at a rodeo. Naruto felt his lips sliding into a familiar smile, calm and comforted, nearly perfectly content.
But still, he searched.
And there, further down the stream, he found her.
She was radiant; so beautiful she took his breath away, and she—
Was talking to Sasuke; perched on flat shamrock stone, feet dangling in the water, side-by-side. Naruto’s mouth fell open of its own accord, surprise flitting across every one of his features. Sasuke was not the type of person to come to these outings, even when Naruto and Sakura incessantly pestered him (which usually ended up in a beating) or when they attempted to physically drag him (which always ended up in a beating). What had changed his stubborn mind this time? Or, Naruto thought with sudden jealousy, who?
His feet moved, and before he even realized it he was heading towards them. Hinata noticed him first, turning to him with a smile muted in reserve. Sasuke watched Hinata’s profile a moment longer, lingering in a way that unsettled Naruto, before turning to him. His expression tucked itself away, left nothing behind but flat apathy at Naruto’s approach. He stopped in front of them and felt a tremble in his vocal chords, an uncharacteristic nervousness.
But Hinata was in a bathing suit and she looked so beautiful he could barely think. He swallowed heavily and fiddled with the waistband of his swim trunks, suddenly uncertain of what he should say. They stared up at him for a moment before Hinata greeted him, soft as silk.
“Hey,” he responded easily, bobbing his head. He glanced over his shoulder and he could see Ino laughing at him, Kiba shaking his head in wry sympathy. Somewhere nearby he heard Rock Lee wail in what sounded like defeat.
“Nice, uh, day today, huh?”
He completely and totally ignored the expression that moved over Sasuke’s face in waves of amusement, and focused entirely on the way Hinata’s eyes narrowed with affection.
“It is,” she agreed easily, flicking her eyes between the two of them. “I’m happy to spend it with friends.”
Naruto melted towards her, finding a seat beside her on the shamrock. She was so blithely kind. He let his feet dip into the water, felt the icy prickle of it along his skin. He hummed in response to her, turning only to gauge her expression. He watched the way the light caught the water and reflected off her unblemished skin, entranced.
“Hey,” he said suddenly, without restraint or filter. “So, do you wanna swim?”
Hinata blinked at him, and both of them ignored the way Sasuke pointedly sighed, then rose to his feet. He offered Hinata a simple, “Talk to you soon,” and turned to Naruto with that same bridled amusement in his dark eyes. “Idiot,” he said, his only parting offer before he turned and headed for the shade at the tree line.
Naruto glared after him for only a moment before turning back to Hinata, expression hopeful. She seemed all the sudden self-conscious, aware that now it was just the two of them. She pressed her elbows together in her lap, fiddled with her fingertips. She tried to shirk away from him completely, her cheeks growing red. But Naruto was having none of it; instead, he leapt to his feet with a smile that could rival the sun, and then he leapt headfirst into the stream.
By the time he re-emerged above the surface, Hinata was looking concernedly after him, half-standing. She shook her head, expression discerning, and Naruto couldn’t help but to laugh.
“Naruto-kun,” she scolded, voice low. “This stream is far too shallow to be so reckless. You could’ve injured your head.”
“Please,” he laughed, “Have you met me? My head’s harder than anything in these waters.”
Startled at how self-aware he apparnelty was, Hinata was caught between laughing and sighing, even as she idly edged a little closer to the water. Naruto swam a little closer, too, a new and devilish gleam in his eyes. Hinata was so busy self-consciously not meeting his gaze, however, that by the time she caught it, it was far too late. Naruto leapt up out of the water just as she said, “Naruto-kun, don’t—”
And he pulled her all the way in after him, just like that. They both emerged sputtering and laughing, before Hinata turned to him with a mighty splash. He got some water in his nose and choked on it, but when he turned back to her, dripping and glistening in the midday sun, he breathed easier. He moved towards her like a shark, low and quick, sweeping her up into his arms and dunking them both.
Naruto lost track of those around them, felt nothing but the comfortable weight of Hinata in his arms, the way the water moved around them, the way Hinata’s laughter chimed like a song. She matched him splash for splash, taunt for taunt, laughing all the while. Her smile made his heart feel heavy, but his chest feel light; an oddly bubbly sensation he couldn’t quite understand.
All he knew and all he cared about was that she was happy with him, allowing him to reach out to her.
That she was now reaching out to him.
“Naruto-kun,” she gasped, breathless from laughter. “Truce!”
“Fine, fine,” he conceded, his arms not budging from their hold around her. She didn’t make to move away, either. She hadn’t wrapped her legs around him yet, and it was just about all he’d been thinking about for the past several minutes. Her arms were around his neck, though, her fingers in his hair. He felt the heat of them even amidst the icy lap of the stream. Ahead of them he could still hear the chatter and laughter of their friends, some tanning, some still playing chicken.
“Aren’t you glad I pulled you in?” Naruto asked, turning back to look at Hinata. This close, he could see the slight wrinkles at the sides of her eyes, marked from years of smiling. Her eyes were as striking as he remembered first thinking them, when they were only kids. They seemed endless and drawing, offering a constant pull. Moons of distant galaxies, and all that. Naruto was enamored and breathless with want, and wondered almost desperately if Hinata felt similarly.
He knew she had once liked him, enough to sacrifice her safety and her life to protect his. He realized, almost suddenly, that since the battle with Pain he had never responded to her confession. The words were on his lips, brimming, begging to be said—but Hinata was looking at him with heavy eyes, lips so soft he could almost feel them a breath away. He could see her heart in her eyes, the way they softened as they traced his features.
“I am,” she said, so quietly, almost impossible to hear. He felt her legs, then, come up to wrap around his waist. She turned away from him at first, so noticeably embarrassed. “You never cease to surprise me.”
“That’s my specialty,” he boasted, puffing his chest up ridiculously while he silently had to control his body’s response to feeling her so wrapped up around him. It was his heart he couldn’t tame. And then, while he was still reeling from her unexpected daring, she surprised him again. For one precious, irreplaceable moment, Hinata dipped her head to his, allowed their foreheads to touch as she laughed under her breath. She pulled away the next moment, uncertain and guarded but still smiling. Naruto held her tighter, just against the wide breadth of his bare chest. His heart raced, and raced, and raced. “You surprise me too, you know.”
Her eyebrows jumped, surprised. “Really?”
“Yeah,” he grinned, wading through the stream, his hands moving to her thighs. It took all his willpower and Iruka’s teachings about manners for him to keep them there, still and polite. He wanted desperately to search, to explore. His hands itched to touch her in any capacity that she’d allow him. He wanted to ask—it was his first instinct, to respect her boundaries but to be honest with his own desires, especially regarding her. He thought, can I touch you, can I touch you, please, please. But Hinata was so shy and he had known from the moment he realized he was interested in her some years ago that theirs was a journey that would take time, but would last. For her, he would go slow.
So he kept still, clutched lightly at the wealth of her thighs, and focused entirely on the way she opened herself up to him in this moment.
“Since we’re both pretty good at being surprising,” Naruto started to say, watching her eyes. Her eyebrows jumped a bit, intrigued, her eyes swirling with curiosity. With added enthusiasm, he turned Hinata so that she could see their friends grinning at them, waist deep in the stream and already prepared to meet them. “Why don’t we become our generation’s stream chicken champions?”
“Please,” Ino snorted, flicking her hair as Sakura shifted beneath her, showing far too more teeth than a friendly game of chicken called for. “As if you could.”
“A worthy enemy,” Shino muttered, while Neji cast him a wayward glance of pity. Rock Lee repeated the sentiment, at thrice the volume.
“Bring it,” Tenten laughed, purposely jostling Neji on her shoulders. He reached down and steadied her with a hand on her shoulder, a gentle squeeze. “We’re ready for the challenge.”
Naruto grinned and turned back to Hinata, whose cheeks rivaled the sunset. She studied him with wide eyes, a deer in headlights.
Something there must have soothed her. Maybe it was the steel in his eyes, soft and heavy-lidded with affection, watching her deliberate with their friends at their back. Maybe it was the certainty written into every line of him, so carefully encoded in his DNA, straightening his wide shoulders, the column of his neck.
Maybe it was the way he reached out to her, gave her the choice, and was so willing to accept whatever she answered with.
Whatever it was, it was beautiful. It softened every line of her, rid her of her insecurity. She gave him the subtlest of nods, the tiniest dip of her chin. He dropped under the surface and felt her legs (so soft) slide over his shoulders (so sturdy) and everything in the world felt right. There was no war, no fighting, no blood, no dying. There was only this: the way Hinata trusted him; the way they came together surrounded by friends; the way they shared each other with each other under an impartial sun.
He felt his feet sink into the sand beneath their feet but find purchase; he rose out of the stream with Hinata on his shoulders, one hand in his hair, his hands on her calves. She pushed her hair out of her face and in an unexpected but wondrous bout of confidence, she pointed across the water straight at the most self-assured person among them.
“You’re going down,” she promised, and Ino’s mouth dropped wide open as all their friends erupted into wild hoots and hollers, laughter interspersed amongst the taunting. Naruto glanced up at her, and Hinata glanced down at him, and he gave her calves a gentle squeeze.
“Ready?” He asked, with the chorus of their friends behind his voice. Hinata ran her hand through his hair once more, brave as he’d ever seen her, and smiled.
“Ready.”