She landed on the ground noiselessly, her weapon extended to her right, gripped firmly between her fingers. Strands of hair fell loose and were seen through her hood that effectively shadowed her face. Her eyes, pale yet lucid, so unlike a blind man's eyes, scanned the area behind her. It was as if she had eyes in the back of her head, because she did so without turning around. Two heads rolled onto the ground, and their bodies fell down soon after. She did not bother looking at her two victims again, and lowered the curved blade she held in her hand.

There was blood everywhere as fight had been rather messy. The blood was mostly Naruto's, in fact, as he tended to charge around, uncaring of who or what he hit. The raven hair girl sighed. The battle itself was over, and one of her latest mentor's was taking care of the ruins of the shinobi they had fought against. Sound-nin they were, and they had been after Naruto. From what she could gather, Orochimaru still wanted Naruto out of the way, and away from Akatsuki. Well, she smiled softly, gazing into the trees, good luck with that.

Naruto smiled at her, and she turned to look at him. Her eyes didn't let any of the other's movements go unnoticed. Especially when it came to Naruto: she was extremely overprotective of the boy she looked up to. He stood not too far away from her, his blades still in hand and his chin high. It was another success, and even if he wasn't jumping around in joy, like he would have, he was still very happy.

Their eyes met, and he complemented her. "Good one, Hina-chan!" his voice was loud in the resounding silence, and he walked closer to her, bloody katanas in one hand, pointed to the grass below their feet.

"Thank you." She smiled. He was no longer a loud, stubborn little boy. Although he could still be rather overwhelming, and he was as stubborn as ever, he had grown. In more ways than one. He towered over her at the proud height of six feet one, and was still growing, by the looks of it. He was a late bloomer. In fact, it had taken a year before he had surpassed her in height, which had greatly annoyed the blonde. As for her, she hadn't grown a quarter of an inch taller since she was fourteen. She was tall, however; and measured five feet eight.

The two teenagers looked at each other for a little while. For them, this fighting was more or less a routine. They had countless people that needed to get off their backs. And they had countless of messy jobs like these to take care of in the future.

"You two, get that blood off you. You're targets."

They both turned, and eyed the speaker. He was tall, as tall as Naruto, with raven hair and red, glowing eyes. He was an outlaw, and maybe just a little insane, but he was their mentor and they found the fact that he was their friend comforting.

But it was true, about them being covered in the thick liquid. Naruto and Hinata were entirely covered in red, fresh blood. It was not only a little gross, but also very smelly.

Hinata took a quick look around. She reached out for Naruto's bruised hand, and smiled. "There's a stream not too far away from here... We'll wash off there." She looked at Itachi-san. "We'll be back soon." Years ago, back in her genin days when she lived at the compound, she might have stuttered. But she never would have dared look at him in the eye. But Hinata was stronger. She was taller. She was more confident and stared at the older man unwaveringly in the eye.

Itachi turned his back to them and walked away, a sign of his agreement. The two of them smiled at each other. They walked through the thick wood, and she let go of his hand; he would follow her anyways. He trusted her. Another one of her achievements.

The stream was small, and reached their knees. The water flowed down the mountain at a face pace, and the water was delightfully cool. She took off her black jacket, her hood finally coming off.

There was blood all over her. Oh how she loved her main weapon dearly, but it was such a messy tool. The scythe, a traditional Eastern symbol of death (so she had learned during their traveling) was a frightening tool. She grasped its handle and dipped the blade into the spring, letting the current carry the bright red blood down the mountain and away from them. Hopefully, the water would dilute the redness before another passerby came by, or else their current position would be compromised. But they would be moving soon anyways.

Naruto completely cleaned his two katanas, the black hilted one was washed first and the orange hilted one right after. He sheathed both of them, satisfied with the day's work, and laid them on the grass. He then proceeded to take off most of his clothes and sloppily cleaned them in the water.

Hinata stepped in the water, wearing nothing but her underwear and a tight black T-shirt. She quickly shook the blood out of her clothes, and set them out to dry.

She then produced a tiny bottle of shampoo from her jacket's inner pocket. It was one of her little treasures, and was hard to come by, as they never passed long enough in a city for her to get some. She would often find herself stealing it from those they attacked. What was shampoo to a corpse?

She dunked her hair in the water, grimacing in disgust as some red liquid was squeezed out. It was even in her hair?

Naruto watched his partner, amused. Hinata was adamant about her hair. She hated when it got dirty, and would go at somewhat great lengths to wash it properly.

He watched her as she lathered her long, glossy black hair in the white soap. She was probably smiling. He could tell even when her back was turned, and he didn't even have the Byakugan!

He sneaked up behind her, but she knew he was trying to surprise her.

He touched her shoulders gently. He was so close to her.

"Enjoying yourself?" he asked playfully in her ear.

She nodded.

"Here, let me help you with this…" he let his voice trail off as he ran his fingers through her slippery, soapy black hair. He massaged her head a little bit and played with her hair. It was completely free of blood now. His hands felt nice on her scalp, but Hinata decided to end it by rinsing her hair. Without giving a word of warming, she disappeared in the shallow water, out of his reach, and shot back upright. Her hair was clean and she wiped the water out of her face.

"Thanks Naruto-kun." She said softly, smiling. He grinned back.

"You're very much welco-?" he was pushed into the water, something he definitely wasn't expecting.

"You still have blood in your hair, Naruto-kun." She said simply, a mischievous twinkle in her pale eyes.

He rolled his eyes as he propped himself back up, spitting out water. That was a little unexpected, and he was the number one ninja when it came to being unpredictable. He didn't complain, however, when she sat on her ankles right next to him in the shallow waters, and started rinsing the blood completely out of his hair.

His hair was soft, she realized once again. It was beautiful, unruly blonde hair. No matter what Naruto did to it, it always looked like he had plastered it with tons of hair gel. She smiled at him. His hair was an unusual color, really, but she rather liked it.

"You need a haircut, Naruto-kun." She smiled, her eyes looking into his. His head was cradled in her hands, and all he could see was her face. He grinned rather naughtily.

"Only if you do it."

She rolled her eyes.

He moved out of his position (he was practically lying on top of her) and kneeled in front of her.

She raised one eyebrow at him, her smile curious. What was he planning now?

To her surprise, he did nothing funny, and didn't splash water in her face or anything childish like that. Not that she'd mind, but she preferred what he opted to do instead.

He kissed her.

It was like any of their kisses: soft, but meaningful.

His hand touched her cheek and he smiled in the kiss.

"Hinata…" he said, and the girl didn't know whether he was asking her a question or simply saying her name…

He moved his face away, but they were still close in each other's arms.

"Mm?" she said softly.

He shrugged and smiled.

"I don't know…I was…kinda wondering…" he took a breathe and looked to the shore, "Do you want to go back?"

"Back?"

"Back to Konohagure…Like Itachi said..."

His gaze returned to her, and she was caressing his hair, gently moving his wet bangs from his face. She had water on her eyelashes, he realized. It was kind of cute.

"I…I want to be with you, Naruto-kun. But I do want to see the others too. Going back won't be too bad." She said softly. Her voice was always soft.

"Think they'll take us back?"

"Maybe. Maybe not. If we convince them that we didn't do anything against Konohagure's interest, which we didn't do, they just might. Besides…didn't you want to be Hokage, Naruto-kun?" she asked him. His dream…was it still his dream? So much had changed, in so many years.

"Yeah. I still want to protect Konohagure. And you. I want to be with you, Hina-chan, always." He said seriously.

She smiled at him. It was cute and hilarious to see him express those things. But it made her heart beat faster, and she became insanely happy.

"And I'll be with you. You never have to worry." Her smile was a peaceful, happy one.

They moved to the rocky edge of the small stream, and they sat by each other. Hinata's toes splashed the water. A bare arm wrapped itself around her shoulder. Naruto wasn't wearing a shirt. She didn't blush.

Well, she blushed a tiny little bit.

It was extremely calm and the birds chirped happily somewhere away in the forest.

The sixteen year olds looked at the water in front of them. Hinata leaned against the blonde.

"In a week, I'll see Konohagure again…" Naruto said, as if in a daze.

"It's…ano… it's a little bit frightening…" she said slowly, her eyes lowered.

"Your family?" Hinata nodded.

Her family…had decided she wasn't worthy. In short, it was a blessing in disguise when she had decided to follow Naruto. Away from her family, she had been able to evolve. Away from her fears, she was finally able to grow. The Hinata he was holding today was very different from the one she had been at twelve.

Four years, and so much had changed. Akatsuki had taken them in, and they were both members, and with Itachi and Kisame, they were the top pair of fighters the organization had. They were partner trained, and together, they worked like one. They were extremely effective, and both had developed a friendship and a romance that only they shared. It was an incredible bond that helped their fighting very much: they worked together and fought together. Many partner fighters were forbidden to become so close in fear that their chemistry would deteriorate their effectiveness, but here, it could only help Naruto and the girl.

After a few moments of silence, the two started kissing again. Hinata was shielded in Naruto's arms and her hands played in his hair as their kiss became more passionate. The water made a clean sound as it ran beside them.

Hinata noticed the shark-nin approaching.

"Naruto-kun…" she whispered as their lips momentarily separated for air.

He shushed her. He knew the other was coming, and frankly couldn't care less. He was allowed to kiss Hinata when he felt like it, and that guy could go hump a tree for all he cared!

"You two!" Kissame's voice boomed loudly over the silence. "Stop eating your faces and get ready. We're leaving, punks."

Naruto growled, and glared at the towering man, but all Hinata did was caress his whiskers-stripes on his cheek. His cheeks were smooth, and the birthmarks made no dent in the skin.

"I don't know why he lets you two have even a second on your own! You're so damn irresponsible, you could've given our position away!"

Naruto retorted: "You're just jealous because I have Hinata-chan and you're stuck with a perverted serial killer!" he stuck out his tongue.

"Itachi? Perverted?" Hinata whispered, smiling, "I would never have guessed."

The boy smiled coyly. Kissame groaned.

"You both have thirty seconds to get ready."

They both went to their clothing lying on the grass and quickly got dressed. Kissame was already walking away, muttering madly.

The moment he was out of sight, Naruto kissed Hinata on the lips rather chastely (compared to their last kiss) and chuckled.

"Bah. He's just pissed because we got to kill those idiots before he could take out his shark sword!"

"Of course."

She was still as calm and quiet as she had been, but there was confidence in her movements and for those who managed to madden her, she was probably the more dangerous of the two. She went in for the kill faster than he did; he was the type who liked to land a few more hits and gloat to his opponents.

Dressed, Naruto put his two swords on either side of his hips, attached to his leather belt and started walking towards where Kissame had appeared. The sun was starting to set, and they were going to move soon.

"Coming?" he asked the dark-haired girl.

Hinata smiled, and took his outstretched hand.