No Matter What
Hinata yawned and stretched on the bed in Naruto's apartment. She groaned and rolled over, smiling when she looked at her boyfriend, who just so happened to be awake and looking at her as well.
"Good morning, Naruto," she said sweetly.
" 'Morning, Hina. How did you sleep?"
"Very well, thank you. I appreciate you letting me stay here. I hope I didn't cause you any problems sleeping because I do tend to talk in my sleep..."
The blonde shook his head and took her hand in his, lacing it in his own. "No. I slept perfectly fine, Hina. You didn't bother me one bit. You could never bother me."
The blue haired girl blushed and looked at their entwined fingers shyly. "N-Naruto?"
"Yeah?"
"Do you think that we could do this more often?"
"Sure!"
"Oh, that's good because I was thinking that the next time, we should sleep with no clothes on!"
Naruto's eyes grew as wide as two gold pieces. There was no way that his sweet, innocent girlfriend just said that. He must not have heard her correctly. "Um...hehe, could you say that again, Hina?"
The girl smiled at him and replied, "I think the next time we sleep together, we should do it naked."
"Holy shit!" Naruto scrambled out of bed and out his hand on his heart, staring down at her in shock. "Hina, are you crazy?! We cuddled last night and now you want to have sex??"
A red blush grew on Hinata's face and she sat up, bending her knees to her body. "Well, yes. Isn't that the next step in a relationship?"
"Er, only if you want it to be. Where is this coming from? It's not like you to be so, uh...forward."
Her eyes widened. "Oh, is that bad?"
Naruto saw the look of fear in Hinata's eyes and he came back to the bed, taking her hand in his again. "No, there's nothing wrong with being assertive, Hina. It's just...this is pretty sudden. I mean, we've only been dating for two months. I would've thought you'd want to take things slow between us."
"Well, I do, but....I don't want you to leave me."
"Leave you? What are you talking about?"
Hinata bit her lip for a moment, silently hoping that he wouldn't take this the wrong way. "Well, Sakura told me that, unless we have sex, our relationship isn't real and you could leave me because I'm not doing my job."
Naruto's eyes flashed and he growled angrily. So Sakura Haruno had been telling his girlfriend lies again, eh? Typical! The pink haired idiot just did not know when to leave well enough alone. Naruto made a note to give her a piece of his mind when he saw her at the hospital today.
"Ow! N-Naruto, you're hurting my hand..." Hinata winced and tugged on him to get his attention.
He blinked in surprise and loosened his gold on her hand. "Shit! I'm sorry, Hina!" Naruto rubbed her fingers gently and kissed the knuckles. Then he held her chin up so their eyes met.
"Listen, I'm not going to say I'm perfect, but I do want to be a good boyfriend for you, so I'm going to be honest with you on a few things. Do I want to have sex with you? Yes, but right now, I want to focus on the intimacy of our relationship without bringing sex into the equation. I want us to get to know each other more as people before we do something like that. There's nothing that says you're obligated to have sex with me because we're in a relationship. I didn't get involved with you just to get into your pants."
At this, Hinata blushed again and started to look away, but Naruto took her head in his hands. "Hina, I want you to know that I would never leave you. Ever. I care too much for you to ditch you like that. Whatever Sakura told you is a lie. She doesn't know the first thing about me, okay? I'm not Sasuke. I'm not going to treat you like garbage for years and dump you when I'm 'finished' with you. I'm in this for the long haul, alright?"
Hinata listened to Naruto in rapt attention and she nodded. "Yes, I understand."
Naruto smirked and moved a piece of her hair behind her ear. "Besides, I was thinking that, maybe we could move to that stage of our relationship after we get married."
Those lovely lavender eyes shot up and stared into Naruto's in shock. "Y-you mean it?!"
It was impossible not to smile at Hinata's squeal.
"Hell, yeah, I mean it. We've spent nearly every day together these last two months. Your family likes me and everyone keeps telling us that we'd look great as a married couple, so why not? I was never dating you for fun, Hina. I've been courting you."
Tears began to slide down the girl's face and she threw herself into her boyfriend's arms. "Do you really mean that?"
Naruto rubbed her back and kissed her cheek tenderly. "I do. You already know that I love you and I...I just know that you're the one. I can't see myself with anyone else and I don't want to, either. You're the girl for me, Hina."
"Oh, Naruto!" Hinata squeezed him tightly and cried, the wetness from her cheeks dampening his shirt, but he didn't care. He was in the arms of the girl who loved him and that was the only thing that mattered.