"Ow… My head." Naruto said and sat up off the tree branches and dirt of the forest floor. He rubbed his eyes and than opened them to find he wasn't in the fight anymore, he wasn't even on the river anymore. "Oh great… I'm lost. Stupid conflicting chakra…"
"Hm…?" Said a soft voice from behind him. He turned and saw Hinata slowly sit up and look around until she saw his face and blush. She turned away and looked around. She place her hands up by her face and began panicking. "Naruto… I don't have any chakra! Where are we?"
"I'm not sure… I'll check." Naruto said and began running up a large pine tree. A look of utter surprise came as he fell back tot eh earth landing in a thin pile of snow. He stood up shaking off and got his confidence back. "That's weird… let's go again!"
Naruto back up as far as he could from the tree. Hinata raised her hand but Naruto was already at full speed and aimed himself at the tree. "Naruto, we don't have chakra."
"I'll get to that later, let me see where we are first." He got up two meters from sheer speed and determination before falling as he had before. He sat up and looked to Hinata with a small mound of snow on his head.
Hinata clasped both her sleeved hands over her mouth and began laughing lightly at him. "You can't run up a tree if you don't have chakra…"
"Don't laugh at me… I'm trying…" Naruto said and stood up thinking. He looked at the tree and sighed. Turning to Hinata he pointed his thumb at the tree. "Alright, up you go!"
"What? Up?" She said throwing her hands down surprised.
"Yeah, I don't think you could lift me up the tree so up you go." She let out a small 'oh' and walked over to the tree nervously. She looked at it than to Naruto who wove his hands together for her to step up. "Come on, we need to figure out where we are."
"I guess." She muttered and put her foot in his hands to be tossed mostly up the tree. She grabbed onto a tree branch that was as thick as Chouji and pulled herself up onto it and than clung nervously to the trunk. She looked around for a second than pointed out over Naruto's head. "I don't see anything but trees… There is a tree line 10 kilometers that way though."
"Than that's where we've got to head to!" Hinata gulped and took a deep breath looking down. She quickly sat on the tree branch and realized she was still very far from the ground. Naruto held his arms up. "I'll catch you. I promise."
"Um… Okay." Hinata inhaled deeply. 'I'll only be caught in… his… arms… You can do this!' She exhaled and pushed herself from the tree thinking she was going to hit the ground, instead Naruto kept his promise and did catch her. Hinata looked at him, he was smiling at her. She pointed to the tree line for an escape. "Um… I… The tree line's this way."
Naruto set her down carefully and retightened his headband. "Well… that's our heading. Let's get going."
They began to walk throught he forest trying to keep as true to the direction as they could. Hinata mashed her fingers together nervously. 'He's right there, just say something.' "Where exactly are we supposed to be going from there?"
"I don't know, but nothing's going to get accomplished standing around here in dense woods." Naruto said and than looked to see the terrain change. He quickly turned and slid own a small hill landing casually at the bottom as if he was still a chakra user. He looked up and watched as Hinata followed his example and slid to the bottom landing right next to him gracefully. She smiled and he turned continuing on. He nearly tripped over an above ground root; Naruto corrected his posture and laughed trying to look cool. "Watch your step."
"Oh right… Um Naruto, I…." Hinata said in the middle of a step, it was than her shoe slipped on a patch of ice. She slid side ways and her arm slammed into the bark of a tree before she fell to the ground with a small moan. Naruto carefully rushed over grabbing her around the waist to pull her up.
"Are you alright?" She nodded and quickly pushed his off her with a bright red face. She felt pain in her ankle that had slid and tried to keep it hidden as she began to move on. "Good, I thought for a minute you were going to get hurt… Are you hurt, you're limping?"
"It's just my ankle. I'll be fine." She said trying to be strong. Naruto refused to see it her way and moved a few steps ahead of her.
"Here, hop on my back. It's okay." Hinata sighed and nodded. Carefully she wrapped her arms around his neck and he grabbed her knees and began to walk. "Walking on a hurt ankle isn't going to improve anything. It might make it worse."
"I guess so." She said and buried her head into his shoulder embarrassed by the situation. 'Oh great, I come off as clumsy now.' Hinata began grumbling to herself in her head completely unaware that she was that close to Naruto or the surroundings. Naruto went carefully down a hill and smiled when he touched the bottom without tilting at all. He became more confident and promptly hit his shoe on something cold and metal. He fell face first into the snow with Hinata on top of him. She quickly got off him and rolled him over to see Naruto's face cringed. "Naruto!"
"I'm fine… It was only a face plant." He said taking a deep breath. He sat up and rubbed his face getting the snow and mud off it. He kicked his feet and what he tripped over and an iron tack appeared out from under the freshly showered snow. "Look!"
"Are these train tracks?" Hinata said looking at them. She turned to Naruto who nodded. Silently Hinata helped him to his feet on one of the wooden planks beneath them. "To bad there isn't a train coming right now."
"Let's follow them. Come on." Naruto muttered. He quickly turned offering his back to Hinata who began to protest in small whispers. "It's not like I'm going to trip over the train tracks again, plus, it didn't hurt my legs at all… Only my face."
Hinata giggled a bit and followed his orders climbing up on his back again. She lay her head back down as she had before, the bridge of her nose nuzzled against the nape of hi neck. She listened to the gently falling snow coming with the wind through the trees and fell asleep on his back to the motion of his walking.
