Blooming Flowers

Chapter 9: Arigatou, Kyuubi

By: Ashuri-Chan

© Masashi Kishimoto (Naruto, Hinata, and Izumo)

Rated: T for slight language, violence, and blood.

"I..I c-can't...do this..." He sat there knees clutched tight to his chest. "I...I think that I just made a h-horrible mistake...I-I didn't have all the i-information I-I needed...I...I..." He didn't know what else to say, or do anymore. He couldn't bare it. "N-Naruto!! SAY SOMETHING!!" The man screamed, and waited for an answer. But it didn't come. Naruto seemed frozen.

All Izumo could hear was his heavy breathing. "Naruto..."

The boy unfroze and looked up at Izumo. "Wh...what...?"

--

Izumo look up at Naruto, ashamed of himself. He then found himself sweating, more than he ever had before. His eyes were wide, and it felt as though he couldn't breath. He was staring into the eyes of the nine-tailed demon, the Kyuubi.

"N-N-Naru...Naruto...y-your ch-chakara...it's changed c-color. Is th-this the..." Before he could finish his studdering Naruto broke in.

"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU MEAN A MISTAKE!! ARE YOU GOING TO GIVE UP!!" The boy's voice was deep and vicious, it sounded more like two voices than one. The whiskers on his cheeks began to widen.

Izumo closed his eyes and tried to run everything through his head. "N-Naruto...you've g-got to control yourself..." Izumo tried to stand up but he couldn't, due to a clawed hand on his head. The man's eyes wandered up the arm to see Naruto's face. The anger seemed to be going away, but the sadness was deepening.

"Please...let me help." Naruto begged.

"Wh...what do you..?"

"Continue the healing jutsu...now." The whisker-like stripes on his cheeks shrunk back to normal size.

Izumo couldn't thikn anymore. He didn't understand. He couldn't deal with this...he couldn't deal with himself. 'Naruto...' He whispered as he obeyed his student and put his hands, one over the other, above Hinata's wound. Naruto knelt down next to her and took a deep breath in.

'His chakara is still red...what is he planning?' He watched as Naruto began to lift his hands, and place them onto his own. 'What is he...?'

"NOW!!" Naruto shot a piercing look at Izumo, giving him the hint to start the jutsu. So he did. The green light came out of Izumo's hand once more, and spun into Hinata's left shoulder.

'This is the same as before...' He was about to cancel the jutsu, untill something weird happened. Suddenly, Naruto pushed a massive amount of chakara into his hands, and it went through Izumo's, changing the color of the light. As the green color changed to red, the size grew, and it forced itself into the hole in Hinata's shoulder. Naruto let out a scream, as he continued pouring chakara into the wound. Then, he was pushed back. A light filled the room, as Naruto and Izumo hit the wall. When Naruto opened his eyes, the light was gone.

He leaped up and hurried over to his friend's side. "Hinata!" He looked down at the wound, to see that the skin was back together, and all that was left, was lots of blood, scrapes, and horrible bruises. Just now, finally after he had settled down a bit, had he noticed that Izumo had taken her jacket off. He had been to worried before to notice. Naruto blushed a little as he looked out how...nice she looked...and pretty.

He put his hand under her head, and placed it on his lap, like he had always done before on previous missions. With her head in his lap, he just gazed at her face. He didn't notice Izumo stand up and walk over to him. "...Is she...okay now..?" He asked, bending down to sit next to Naruto.

"Hm?" He quickly looked up at his sensei. "Oh...well, I guess. The hole...it's gone."

"That was a retorticle question, Naruto." Izumo smiled, as he realized that Hinata would be just fine.

"A what?" He asked, without lifting his head from it's position.

Izumo chuckled a little at the boy's stupidity. "Hinata will be just fine, thanks to you." He smiled as his student's head shot up.

"A-are you sure!?" He asked excitedly.

"Yes." He wiped the tears from his eyes as he stood up. "Well, I'm gonna leave to attend to this house. It seriously needs some dusting." He turned to walk into the kitchen. "Come get me when she wakes up." Another smile appeared on his face as he left the room.

The boy gazed at the ceiling for a quick moment. 'Thanks...demon fox, for your power.'

Naruto sat there, with Hinata in his lap for over an hour, only looking at her. Old memories continued to come back into his head. Old missions, and the good times. He wondered what would happen over these next two and a half years. He broke out of his daydreams when he heard a soft noise. He looked down at Hinata to see her head turn. The girl's eye's fluttered, before she fully opened them, to see Naruto's face. Her eyes widened as her face turned bright red. "Naruto-kun..." She wispered as she tried to sit up, to get herself out of this embarrasing situation. But when she tried, she couldn't. She felt very, very weak. All che could do was keep her head on his lap.

"Hinata...?" Naruto wispered kind of loudly, lowering his head a bit to make sure that she could hear his words.

"Y-yes?" Hinata quietly asked. She then found herself being lifted off of Naruto's lap, by Naruto. He sat her up on her knees, keeping his hands on her shoulders.

"Thank God, that you're okay." Naruto said.

Hinata's eyes widened once again, as she saw tears fall from her love's eyes. She also realized that he was shaking. But he had a sincere smile on his face, not the cute goofy one he always wore. His cerulean blue eyes stared into her own, making her blush darken.

"N-Naru.." She couldn't finish her question, because suddenly, Naruto had pulled her into a very gentle hug. But he held her tight, as to never let her go. She could feel her right shoulder getting wet, and she found that it was the tears that Naruto was crying. She opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out. All she could manage to say was, "Wh-what...happened?"

Naruto said something interesting, he said something that normally wouldn't be like him to say, but, he said it anyways. "You're alive, and that's all that matters." He smiled as he stood up and offered the girl a hand.

Hinata didn't know what was going on, she couldn't remember what had happened, and she wasn't sure that she wanted too. All she knew, was that Naruto had been very concerned about her. 'W-was he th-that worried a-about m-me?' She blushed as she bravely took the boy's hand, and tried to stand up. When she did, a deep pain in her shoulder struck her, and before she could fall, Naruto caught her, and pulled her body up against his.

"Woah! Are you okay?" Naruto asked, looking down at the blushing girl.

"Y-y-yes...th-thank you...N-Naruto-kun." Hinata wanted to move, but she knew that she couldn't.

"Come on." Naruto smiled. "I wanna talk to you." He put one arm under Hinata's knees, the other around her good shoulder, and carried her bridal-style to the couch on the side of the room.

'N-Naruto-kun has b-been getting v-very c-close t-to me...' Her blush remained on her face, along with her small, cute smile. He placed her down, and took a seat next to her.

"Hey, are you really okay? You're very red..." He began to reach for her forehead when she quickly pulled her arms up infront of her face.

"I-I'm f-fine! R-really, N-Naruto-kun."

"Okay, anyways..." He looked up at the ceiling. "Back there..." He faded off as his glance was directed towards the ground.

"Wh-what...is it?" She looked at him with concern.

"You...saved me...?" He turned to look directly into her eyes.

Hinata blushed and then moved her eyes to break the connection between them. "I...y-yes..." She softly muttered. She glanced back at Naruto to see his expressionless face.

"Wh...why? Why did you put yourself in danger for me? You could have died! I was worried about you!! I--" The confused boy was cut off by a soft voice.

"I...didn't w-want you to be hurt...N-Naruto-kun..." She tried her best not to studder, but she couldn't help it.

"You didn't?" He asked dumbly.

"Of c-course not!" She spoke a little louder than usually to make sure that he had heard her. "I...I..." Hinata couldn't find the right words. "I...didn't w-want my f-friend to be h-hurt...s-so I..." She faded off, not sure if what she said was a bit too quere or not. She wanted to faint so badly, but she had to hold it back.

"You got stabbed by that crazy man in order to protect...me?" Naruto still looked slightly confused, but he tried not to show it.

"Y-yes...N-Naruto-kun."

Hinata gasped as Naruto reached over and hugged her again. A massive blush appeared on her face as he wrapped his arms gently around her body. 'W-why is he...h-hugging m-me...again!?' She was trying to figure out if she should return the hug or not, but by then, he had already pulled back.

"...Thank you...Hinata." He smiled and offered his hand out for the girl. "Come on, we have to go tell Izumo that you're okay. We were very worried about you." Naruto said, continuing to smile.

It was hard, but Hinata managed to answer. "O-Okay..." The girl was still injured, and in shock from being hugged twice by Naruto. 'He seems so m-much more...c-caring...than usual...' She thought as she forced herself to take his hand.

When he pulled her up, he grabbed her other hand, to make sure that she didn't fall. Then, he pulled her close to him. And right at that very moment, Izumo walked into the room.

"Okay kid," He said, while yawning with his eyes closed. "I'll watch Hinata now, it's time to go to bed..." He opened his eyes, and before they could move, Izumo's jaw dropped like a dead fish, and he screamed "WHAT THE HELL IS THIS!!"