Hello! This is a little au where Naruto confesses his love right after the war, and not during the last. Other than that, everything else is the same. Make sure to leave a review or favorite if you liked it!
The first thing she did was breathe.
She gasped as she collapsed on her knees, as the binding that surrounded her body just moments ago recoiled away. She continued breathing heavily as she looked around, watching her fellow soldiers do the same thing. She turned directly to her right and watched as her teammate, Kiba, tried to stand.
"W...what happened?" She asked. Her body felt tired and heavy, so she wasn't surprised when Kiba decided to stay on the ground as well.
"I guess... I guess they did it, Team 7, that is." Kiba replied, watching from the corner of his eye as Hinata's face relaxed and her shoulders fell a bit as well. He smirked.
"He needs to stop showing me up, or else I'll never be Hokage."
"Kiba I'm sure if you try, you can do it!" Hinata tried to encourage, but the odds of that happening weren't in his favor, and they both knew that.
Hinata turned forward again and watched as others emerged. Some were shouting cheers of victory, others were embracing each other, and the sun was high above, illuminating the battlefield.
Hinata thought it was a nice scene until she realized something. The sun wasn't up the last time she remembered being conscious. It was nighttime, and now the sun was in the western part of the sky.
"How long were we...?" She muttered to herself.
"What was that?" Kiba said while trying to stand again.
"Oh!" She replied, standing up with him, "nothing, just thi-"
"Hinata!"
She turned her body towards the person shouting her name and could see them running towards her. If she had the chakra to, she would have used her Byakugan, but she could only figure it to be one person, but he looked different. Nonetheless, she started to run towards him. The thought of it being him was enough to make her do so.
"Naruto!" She started, running towards him in the distance.
"A-are you sure that's him?" Kiba said, running to catch up to her.
"I'm sure of it!"
'He's alive. He's alive he's alive and he's here and the war is over, and he's alive.' She kept repeating as they drew closer. It wasn't until they were about a hundred feet from each other that she noticed something.
His arm was gone.
"Are you ok-?" He yelled as they closed the gap between them, panting and out of breath. He wanted to collapse on the ground from exhaustion, but he knew it wasn't the time. He would deal with Sakura's reprimanding later; right now he had her to worry about.
"N-Naruto, your arm is completely gone!"
"Don't worry about me; I want to make sure that you're o-"
"I don't know a lot of medical ninjutsu but I know some, sit down and let me try-"
"No, Hinata I'm fine! Are y-"
"No you aren't! You're missing a limb completely! A-and your face is all torn up, your eye is swollen shut!" She stopped for a moment to catch her breath. The sight of how hurt he was made her want to cry, but she held it in for now.
"What happened to you!?" She asked, trying to set him down, but he wouldn't have any of it.
"I'll tell you later, and Sakura already healed me, so you don't have to worry! I need to make sure you aren't hurt!" He said, desperately trying to find an answer from her.
Hinata stopped trying to coax him to sit down and instead just stared at him, how red his face was, how many bruises he had, and his jacket was completely gone, heck, even his arm was too! He was in such a terrible condition and yet he came to her. She couldn't help but let out a small smile.
"I'm never okay, since I have you to worry about." She told him, touching a hand to his swollen eye, trying to make the swelling go down.
He stared at her for a second before chuckling slightly, until it turned in to a full laugh. Hinata started laughing with him, even though she didn't find anything happening to laugh at. His laugh was just contagious.
He grabbed her hand that was on his face, and held it in his.
"Sorry I make you worry, but you have to let me worry about you sometimes, okay?" He said, bending to where their foreheads were touching. His eyes locked with hers, and even if she had wanted to look away, there was no way she could.
"Why would you worry about me?" She asked, still trying her best to heal his face.
"Because... you're very special to me." He said, followed by a moment of silence, before he continued. "When you risked your life for me in front of Pain- that was the worst pain I ever felt. When you flung yourself in front of me, prepared to get hit by the ten tails attack, my heart hurt. And just earlier, as you were being consumed by the Infinite Tsukuyomi, I felt helpless that I couldn't help you, and the only way I could save you was to stand there and not just watch, but feel you being taken by it, I... I realized something."
Hinata stopped trying to heal him for a moment, trying to comprehend what he was saying.
"What was that?" She asked quietly, just loud enough for him.
"That I need you in my life, because... I love you, Hinata."
Hinata couldn't take it anymore. The man who she admired from the very beginning, who stood up for her, saying she was strong, was in the worst condition of his life, confessing his love for her. She finally started crying.
"I love you too." She said as she buried her face in his chest, feeling his one arm wrap around her back.
Naruto tightened his grip around her, not wanting her to leave. This was the first time in a long time where everything felt right. Her jacket was torn, her hair tangled, and her skin covered in dirt, but it didn't matter, he wouldn't change a thing.
"Weeeeeell, what's going on over here?" Not like I've been only ten feet from you guys the entire time, but I'm pretty sure everyone else hasn't. Why don't you recap?"
Hinata let out a small yelp at the voice breaking through the barrier that they put up, Naruto even flinched at it. They both turned their attention towards Kiba, who had a small army of people next to him. They were all staring at the two of them, the ones that knew them were smiling, and the others just were staring wide eyed.
"K-Kiba! What's going on?" Naruto asked, still having his left arm around Hinata. Hinata could feel her face getting hot at the thought of all these people watching as Naruto confessed his love to her.
"Well everyone saw your blond hair running over here in the distance, so they wanted to come congratulate you on a job well done, but you seemed to have been caught up in something." He smirked. "Didn't know you had such a mushy side."
Naruto wanted to protest, but the exhaustion he had was slowly creeping up on him, and he felt like he didn't have the energy. Instead he just laughed.
"I didn't think I'd have an audience." He joked out, finally turning himself towards the group of people. He moved his arm off of Hinata to scratch the back of his head.
"Well, it took you long enough to confess, Hinata's been waiting for a response for a while now." Kiba explained.
"Kiba, it was fine that I didn't receive a reply right away. There was so much stuff going on after the attack, that there was no way that we could have had any time-"
"Hinata." Naruto said, interrupting her. In the back of her mind she was glad he did, or else she felt like she would have only dug herself in to a hole. She turned back towards him, and his eyes looked serious, as much as they could, anyway.
"I'm sorry I made you wait so long, you didn't deserve that. But I'm glad I waited until now, because I know what my feelings are for you, but back then I couldn't say. But still… I hope you can forgive me." He told her. He felt like his body was going to go out from exhaustion, but for now, he owed her at least that.
"Naruto, it's okay, really it is. Even if I never got a reply, even if you didn't love me back… you being happy is all that matters to me." She replied honestly.
"I'm glad then… that the person who makes me happy… is you." He said, feeling his eyelids close.
'This is embarrassing.' He thought as his consciousness drifted away. The last thing he heard was Hinata shouting his name.
He woke up in a bed, something that hasn't happened in what feels like months. His eyes adjust to the darkened room as he moves his body up off the bed. He recognized this place; it's the hospital in Konoha. His right arm is bandaged professionally, and his other injuries seem to be taken care of as well.
"How did I…get here?" He asked to himself. Looking at the clock on the wall for the time, but he still couldn't get his eyes to focus right.
"I'm glad you're awake." A soft voice spoke from the chair in the room. He knew that voice, it was hers.
"Hinata! What are you doing here? What am I doing here?" he asked, turning his head towards her.
"Well… you collapsed from exhaustion, so I carried you back here, and they put you in a room. Sasuke is in one down the hall, and Sakura is with him. She… told me everything." She said, removing the blanket that was around her body. She stretched out her limbs before getting up.
"You carried me? That's pretty uncool for me to make you do that, sorry." He apologized, but Hinata shook her head.
"I wouldn't think you'd want anyone else doing it, would you?" She asked, taking a seat on the edge of the bed next to him.
"I guess I wouldn't." He admitted, laughing slightly. She smiled back at him, and he loved that smile. It was genuine, and full of love for only him. He leaned forward towards her, wanting to look at that smile forever. He wanted to be with her forever. He wanted to love her forever. He wanted to kiss her.
His lips met hers, a bit unevenly, but after Hinata realized what happened, she fixed it by kissing him back. He couldn't describe what the feeling was like other than happiness. Nothing had ever made him this happy in his entire life. He'd be damned if he would let someone that made him this happy go.
The slowly broke away from each other, but they didn't move far apart, just enough to speak.
"I love you, Hinata."
"I love you."