A/N Sorry for the long wait! I ended up working on schoolwork through spring break and since then there has been no let up in my course load until now.

This chapter is a bit longer than the other so hopefully that makes up a bit for the wait.

I am anticipating two more chapters. I hope you enjoy this one!

He was exhausted. It was currently one o'clock in the afternoon and Naruto had just made it back to his office for a brief reprieve. He had been going non-stop since the attack at the Chunin exams the day before. And since then, he had eaten only a couple onigiri that he managed to grab before Boruto snatched them up. Up until now he had been checking on all the injured and helping to organize relief efforts; setting up a team to work on rotation for medical attention and finding more cots and supplies for the injured, and then setting up a team to assess the damage to the arena and determine whether it needed to be repaired or demolished and rebuilt. The latter was most likely, which meant now he had to make arrangements for it all well.

Not only that, he had used the chakra he gained back from the moment of rest after the battle and the onigiri to surround the bodies of the more severely injured to help stabilize them so the medical ninja could move on to those with less serious and non life-threatening injuries. All the while, he kept seeing children walking around, lost. Families had been separated during the attack. So after he finished with the injured he rounded up all the children and managed to help them find their parents. Luckily he had been overseeing the hospital for a while and know where a lot of them were being treated. It wasn't until then that he started working on the arena, where he had been overseeing until a few moments prior to now.

His right arm needed adjusting and new bandages. And his stomach needed food. He hoped Hinata would come soon with his lunch. If she wasn't in a hurry, he planned to ask her to help fix his arm. But for the moment all he could do was rest and try to regain his strength, so he just sunk quietly onto his desk.

Naruto was just about to fall asleep when his door opened. He sat up right away thinking it was Hinata having finally come with lunch, but his body sagged back onto his desk and he let out a sigh when he saw Sakura walk through his door. Not food, he thought.

"Temme~! What kind of reaction in that?! Here I am graciously coming to check on you. Tch," yelled Sakura with one fist gripping her medical bag and the other raised, shaking in the air. She would have struck him in the head too, if he didn't look as drained as he did and she wasn't about to fall on her feet after working around the clock at the arena and the hospital heading the team attending to all the injured.

Already raising his hands to cover his head Naruto cried out desperately, "Ack! Sa- Saku- I didn't mean it! Don't hit me, I am the Hokage now~~~ . . . eh? Sa- Sakura?"'

"Idiot! I'm not going to hit you, but if you keep it up I might! Now, give me your arm," she said as Naruto slowly lowered his arms and let out a slow breath and feel back into his chair before she sat down and grabbed his bandaged arm. He let out a yelp at her sudden rough hold on him.

"Ouch! Sakura!"

"Sorry, I'm just a little tired."

"If you're so tired why don't you just go home, Hinata can do this."

"No, It's fine."

Naruto was her last patient before she went home for some rest. She still needed to check on Sasuke and she hadn't seen Sarada since Sasuke left with the others on the rescue mission. This was the first time Sarada had been up against a threat so powerful and Sakura wanted to check to she how she was coping.

Sarada wanted to show her father what an amazing shinobi she was and was embarrassed to show him anything less. Although Sakura knew Sarada loved her father, Sarada was still awkward around him; still scared to open up to him. That was the second thing she was worried about; the two being left alone together. Just thinking of what the atmosphere might be like in the house right now was enough to make her internally cringe.

As much as she wanted to go home right now, she had to check on Naruto. He was her best friend, closer, if that were possible. They were teammates for life.

Though she would never admit it, but when he had disappeared after the attack, she had frozen. She didn't want to believe Naruto could have been done in so easily. He couldn't have been gone. Her heart ached in that moment, just as shocked as the rest of village. Her relief was tremendous when Sasuke said he was still alive. Only then could she focus on her duties with all her heart and effort. Like now for instance as she began her exam of his condition. She knew he was exhausted, you see it in his face, but she hadn't expected what she found.

"Naruto!" She gasped.

"What?! What is it?!" He said quickly, worried due to the tone of her sudden exclamation. Whatever it was it didn't seem like good news, which wasn't something he wanted to hear considering she was doing a medical scan on him.

"Your chakra . . . h- how are you still standing?! It is so low, it's practically gone!"

"Ah~. It's fine. Once Hinata come with lunch, i'll be fine."

"But Naruto, this is dangerous! You need to lie down right now."

"It's fine~! I will be back on my feet after I eat. I still have things to do before I can go home and rest."

Sakura let out a short huff of a breath connotating her disapproval. There would be no reasoning with him. She would just fix his arm and then leave him to deal with the consequences of his stubbornness. . . . Damn, like she could. She would fix him up, wait until Hinata got there, and then alert his assistants to keep watch over him and make sure he didn't expend any unnecessary chakra. Hmph, like that will do any good. She thought with a small soft smile.

"Just make sure you do go home tonight. The village can wait. Things are stable enough that you can take a good rest. And if you are this weak you aren't much use, so get some rest soon. You have been up for 36 hours already and the day before yesterday you had already reached your limit preparing to spend time at the Chunin exams.

"Besides, you should be with your family right now. That disappearing act you pulled scared the whole village, imagine how your family felt. You need to go home not just for yourself but for them too," she argued. These was a long silence after that. Even more of a testament to how drained he was if he wasn't going to retort back. When he did finally speak, it was so quiet she almost missed what he said.

". . . family . . ." he whispered incredibly. His tone gave her pause and she looked away from where she was unwrapping his arm to look at him, waiting for him to continue.

"Huh . . . even after all these years it is hard to believe. I don't know if i'll ever get used to it . . . the word family."

Sakura didn't know what to say so she stayed quiet for while figuring it was best not to say anything at all and just listen. He didn't go on further, however, and so they collapsed into comfortable silence as she focused back on her task.

His prosthetic had taken some damage. She was glad she was taking a look at it because she didn't know if Hinata would know how to fix this kind of damage. Sakura had taught her how to look after his arm, but that instruction hadn't included repairing battle damage. That required Sakura's expertise, especially since she helped design the arm.

It took her a good 15 minutes to make the repairs. She was just wrapping his arm back up as Hinata came in rather hurriedly.

Hinata had slept fitfully once she got home and when she got up, Boruto was on her like moth to flame asking her endless questions about his father. It had been quite shocking yet, amusing seeing his sudden change in attitude toward Naruto. But, as much as she loved answering his questions, she was having trouble focusing as she continued to worry about Naruto's condition.

Noon had come before she knew it and she hadn't even made it to the market for supplies. Boruto with his endless questions and her lack of sleep was making it difficult to work quickly, so she sent Boruto to his grandfather's to visit for the day with orders to bring Himawari back with him before dinner. Her father had been wanting to do some training with the two for a while now, anyway.

By the time she made it back from the market and finished packing the lunch, it was past one o'clock and she was rushing out the door trying to be as careful as possible not to jostle the large lunch she hurried to his office. Luckily it wasn't far from their home and only took her a couple of minutes to reach.

As Hinata made her way through the hallways of the Hokage's headquarters , she overheard one of Naruto's assistants talking quietly about an incident that happened an hour or so earlier.

Naruto had been using Kuruma to hold up and lift large sections of the arena that had broken off and move them to a more secure location so as to not cause and further damage. When moving the second to last one, he had collapsed. The section he was holding up would have fell too, if it hadn't been for Gaara being there assisting in the task. Naruto had blacked-out briefly before shakily pushing himself back up. Shikamaru had stopped him from continuing and left the last piece for Gaara to handle. Once it was done. The group had spent another thirty minutes going over details before leaving the building inspectors to do their assessment. That was when Shikamaru was finally able to bring him back to the office because there was nothing more they could do until the assessment was complete.

The story is what made Hinata speed up and rush through the door to his office.

When the door opened, both Sakura and Naruto looked up to see who was entering. Both gave a sigh of relief. Sakura could leave the rest to Hinata, while she could go home and relieve the atmosphere in her household before laying down for a good long rest and Naruto could finally eat and regain some strength. Hinata's presence soothed him like nothing else.

"Hinata . . ." He said in quiet reverence. After the talk he just had with Sakura her existence in his life seemed all the more important. He needed to talk with her about yesterday, but now wasn't the time. For now, he would just enjoy her company.

Hinata's eyes met his and held them for a few moments before dropping to his arm, which was only partially wrapped. Quickly she looked back to him. "What's happened to your arm?" She asked with slight alarm.

"It's nothing. I just hurt it a bit yesterday. It's fine, now."

"Exactly," replied Sakura "I was just wrapping his arm back up. If you would mind finishing up, Hinata, I need to go home and check on things there."

"No, that's fine. Leave it to me. You go home and rest. You haven't stopped since yesterday."

"Alright then, I am off. Naruto, get some rest soon. I don't want my sleep to be disturbed by being called in to pick up your chakra depleted ass off the floor of the arena."

"Temme~" started Naruto before being interrupted by Sakura.

"Bye!" She said excitedly before disappearing out the door.

"Tch," was the only response he gave before having his attention brought back to Hinata, who had sat down beside him during his row with Sakura and finished wrapping his arm; she was holding his hand face up in both of hers tracing patterns into his palm with her right thumb.

They stayed in silence for bit. She stared down at his hand continually tracing the same patterns, while he stayed staring at her. He had no words. After a while, all he could do was whisper her name, wordlessly beckoning her to him.

He caught hold of her hand and pulled her to him and into a tight embrace, winding his arms around her and holding her against his chest.

The action forced her out of her chair, leaving her little choice but the sit on his lap. She wrapped her arms around his neck and nestled her face against the hollow of his throat. Only then did she let out a long breath of air she hadn't known she was holding. As exhausted as he was and looked, his arms were firm around her and warm.

His left hand found its way into her hair and prompted her to lift her head. Their faces were so close. He cupped her face and gave her the tenderest look before leaning in to press his lips against hers.

The kiss was slow and gentle but held so much emotion. She unwound an arm and brought to rest on the side of his face.

The moment couldn't last forever, unfortunately, as his stomach let out a growl. They both paused in that instant before Hinata pulled back giggling quietly. "You should eat," she whispered rested her forehead against his. "The sooner you eat, the sooner you can finish with work and come home to rest."

He just nodded his head with a mixture of agreement and resignation as she slipped off his lap to set up the food.

She sat by, keeping him company as he ate. After a few bites, he held out his chopsticks to her while a portion of rice in between them. Hinata looked at him puzzled. When she didn't eat it he looked up and swallowed. "You haven't eaten yet, right?"

"No, you eat it. I have some stuff at home i'll eat later."

He just stared at her and raised his eyebrow before shoving the rice in his chopsticks toward her once more. "Eat."

Knowing how stubborn he was, Hinata knew he wouldn't stop until she ate and she was pretty hungry, so she ate it. From then on they ate together alternating turns with the chopsticks until all the food was gone.

Having finally eaten, they were both feeling a lot better.

A knock sounded at the door before it opened and Shikamaru walked in casually.

"The assessment is done. We need to go down there to meet with the inspectors. Now that you've eaten, let's get this done quickly so we can both go home sooner," announced Shikamaru.

"Got it," said Naruto as he and Hinata rose from their seats. Hinata was already packing up the lunch. He turned to her then. "I probably won't be home in time for dinner. I will send a shadow clone with an estimate later."

"Okay. Do your best."

"Un. Thank you for lunch. I will see you at home." His words held a promise for later. They would talk when he got home.

"Alright, I will save some dinner for you."

And like that he and Shikamaru were off, while she stayed behind to straighten up his office a bit. She didn't need to start dinner for another hour or two and with the kids gone for the day she had nothing to do with the village in disarray.

After she finished, she decided to go home for a nap before she had to start dinner. She needed a little rest to make it through the night that lay ahead of her.