Chapter Eleven

The heat on my lips was filled with passion, and I couldn't help my arms from constricting around Naruto's body. I grasped the back of his shoulders, holding him tight as we finally embraced.

I had never experienced anything of this sort before, so I was almost at a loss. Naruto pried my lips open and bit my bottom lip, and I gasped.

He retreated, his eyes fluttering open to see me, standing before him, face cherry red. I breathed hard, my body trying to decide which was more important - oxygen or Naruto. I blinked a few times, wondering if this was a dream, but I could feel the cold eating away at my flesh as we stood there, gaping at one another.

I wondered what had brought that impulsive act on. He had never hinted to desiring me in the way that I wanted him, so I was momentarily confused. I began sorting through the information in my head, attempting to find the reason behind his heated kiss.

"I did what Neji said," Naruto spoke up, grasping my hands in his, and an electrical charge sparked between us. "I knew what I wanted, and if I waited any longer to take her, somebody else would win her over."

I continued to gape at him, and couldn't seem to convince myself that this was reality. My cheeks were flushed and my head was spinning, and I feel as though I had the potential to lose consciousness.

"Naruto, you..." I said lightly, but he didn't let me finish my thought.

"I really like you, Hinata," Naruto confessed, and my eyes grew wide. My Naruto - the boy who I have secretly admired since junior high - was confessing his attraction to me. "In complete honesty, I never thought that I would end up falling for you. Of course, I've seen you around since middle school, and you always looked so busy. I couldn't help but wonder why you tried so hard at school, and completely neglected a social life.

"After meeting you and coming really close to you, I figured out why; you had to work hard, because you needed to find a good job to help out your family.

"But also, I realized that you weren't just some quiet girl that focused all of her time on schoolwork; you were a girl who had problems with confidence. I figured that out that very first time we talked in the storage closet."

"The reason why," I began, turning my eyes to our entwined hands, "the reason why I was so nervous around you is because I fell for you in middle school." There, I finally admitted it. "I fell for you hard, Naruto."

I noticed a single snowflake fall in between us and land on Naruto's hand. I watched as it melted, and noticed that he followed my gaze. In unison, our attention was drawn to the night sky, where individual and unique snowflakes fluttered down upon our freezing figures.

Ever since I was a little girl, I enjoyed watching the snow fall. I felt it to be peaceful, and somewhat romantic. Whenever the tiny flakes of frozen water oscillated from the sky, I would always sit by the window and watch them dance, and I would dream about a day where I would fall in love with a man.

I never thought that my dream would turn out so ironically true. Because here I was, standing in the cold, watching the snow drift down from the heavens, and in the presence of the man that I hold dear to my heart.

I could have cried, but I didn't. Instead, I let my eyes fall upon Naruto's face, which illuminated in the darkness. He was my light, and he was the one would could save me from anything.

"Let's get going," Naruto said, dragging me onwards in the direction of my house. "It's getting a little too cold."

OoO

Naruto and I sat together on my bed, and I realized that he was as nervous as I was. Neither of us had any clue how this relationship would turn out, and we didn't want this to tear apart our friendship.

Although, I was relieved that the two of us sat down together and discussed what we were looking for, and we set our limitations for the start of a new and beautiful relationship.

While I really and truly wanted to know what the physical relationship between Sasuke and Sakura felt like, I was willing to hold back and just take everything slowly. I wanted Naruto, and I would hold myself back from everything, if it would end up driving him away.

"Hinata," Naruto held both of my hands in his and faced me, throwing all of his attention onto me as if I were the star of a famous play. "I don't care how far our relationship takes us. What I need you to know is that if I ever do anything that makes you uncomfortable, you need to let me know."

With that, I fell in love with Naruto Uzumaki all over again.

"I will never force anything on you, and that's a promise."

Even if he tried, I don't think Naruto would be forcing anything on me. However, I don't think I could be sure until the moment that it was happening. And there I was, thinking about the physical relationships again. So I just had to ask about them.

"The relationship that Sasuke and Sakura have," I began, and I realized that that may not have been the best way to open up, but I continued. "What does it feel like?"

"You mean the sex?" Naruto's mouth shifted to the left as he thought. The way he worded it caused me to become quickly embarrassed, and I blushed and turned away. "I don't know. Never been in real relationship before." He stopped and turned his eyes to me. "In their case, they started with that right away. The two of them started doing the deed after homecoming sophomore year."

The blood under my skin boiled and I bit my lip.

He's going to think I'm such a weirdo.

"I'm actually surprised that their relationship has lasted this long. It seems like all they do is get naked."

Hearing Naruto talk like this really made me grow hot with nerves. He probably knew so much about sex because of Sasuke. And here I was, knowing only what I've learned in health class and romance movies. I was completely oblivious to these sorts of things, and I hadn't really noticed that fact until now.

"Are you okay?" he asked me, touching a cool hand to my burning face. "Your whole face is red."

I nodded, quickly turning my eyes away in order to calm my nerves. "Yes, I'm fine." I was just completely terrified about talking about Sakura and Sasuke's sex life. I didn't know how much Sasuke had told Naruto, and I wasn't entirely certain that I wanted to know. For the life of me, I couldn't get the image of my two friends crawling passionately over one another; that sure didn't help the discoloration of my face.

"You look tired," Naruto commented, and it was only then that I apprehended the truth in that statement. I was deathly tired. The funeral sucked out so much of my energy, as if it had been a leech. My eyelids grew heavy, and I nodded in response to Naruto's observation.

Luckily, I was already dressed in clothes appropriate for sleep, rather than crashing in the dress that I had worn to see my parents for the last time. My pajama pants had little hedgehogs on them, and the T-shirt that covered my bare chest was a long-sleeved Konoha shirt. My socks clung to my feet, keeping them warm.

Naruto had brought sweatpants and a sweatshirt over this morning when he returned from changing into his formalwear, and I knew he was planning on staying the night. I didn't mind. I enjoyed having the company, and I was well aware that I would need it tonight.

If Naruto wasn't here, I think I may have suffered greatly, just as I had those three days in between finding out about the accident and being saved by Naruto. I would have been alone, trapped and consumed by the anger and the guilt that I could still feel swirling throughout my body. It was still there, I was well aware, but it was diluted by Naruto's affection. For that, I was grateful.

I yawned, and my eyes watered a bit as a result. Lying down on my pillow, I tried so hard to tell myself that I wasn't tired. I didn't want to go to sleep, for fear that I would wake up and find that this was only just a dream. I didn't want to wake up in the darkness and wrythe at the pain of my entire body. I didn't want those needles to penetrate my flesh and rip out my nerves. I thought that if I had to endure my heart being ripped from my chest one more time, I might just collapse and give up.

More than anything, I didn't want to be alone.

I think that Naruto sensed my fear, because he laid down beside me, resting his hand on the curve of my waist, and he snuggled close. Shivering, he reached down and grasped my comforter in a single hand, heaving it upwards and covering both of us.

"It's okay to fall asleep," he whispered in my ear and turned off the lamp on the table beside my bed. He moved closer to me, and I could feel every inch of his body pressed against my back. Both arms constricted around me, holding me together. "I'll still be here when you wake up." He breathed out a sigh as he settled into bed. "I promise."

I was going to hold him to that promise.

Gradually, I let myself slip into the peacefulness of unconsciousness.

OoO

When I awoke all too quickly, the sun's rays were muffled my my curtains, which were still yanked shut. I instantaneously noticed that Naruto was no longer clinging to my body, as he had been whenever I fell asleep the night before. Concerned that he may have broken his promise, I rolled over swiftly, sitting up. I glanced to my right, and I saw him cuddled against himself, shivering in his sleep.

Guilt radiated through my body whenever I grasped the concept that I had been a blanket hog last night. In complete honesty, I had become accustomed to being swaddled by that blanket, because of those three terrible days that I did nothing but sleep and cry.

I peeled the lavender comforter off of my skin and gently threw it over Naruto's trembling body, tucking him into it. I put that on my list of things to invest in; a second blanket. Actually, come to think of it, I believe there was a stack of blankets in Neji's room.

Curiosity coursing through my veins, I threw my legs over the side of my bed and touched my feet to the smooth floor, which emitted chills through my socks. I was used to my room being cold. This house was cheap, and it didn't have a lot of insulation. I used to have a bunch of blankets on my bed to make up for that, but Mom had taken them and put them in the wash. I never got them back.

Mom...I became conscious of the fact that the little things she did would no longer be done. My laundry wouldn't magically be done for me and clean in my closet. My room wouldn't miraculously be swept and dusted. Food wouldn't suddenly appear in front of me. I was going to have to do everything on my own, and I was going to have to take care of Neji, once he was free to leave the hospital. However, I feared, that would be a long time from now.

I opened the door to Neji's room and entered. Just as I had thought, there was a thick stack of heavy blankets piled on the floor by his bed. But none of them were the ones that used to be in my room.

My eyebrows pulled together as I thought about where they could be. Even if I couldn't find them, I knew that I still had access to extra blankets. Still, I went searching throughout my house for them.

My first guess was that they were still in the dryer, because Mom would have put them back on my bed if she had folded them. I trotted down the stairs leading to the first level of my house, and then I turned right into the kitchen. In the corner of the far left wall, there was a door that led to the basement, where the laundry machine was. I moved in that direction, twisting the knob and opening the door so that I could continue my hunt.

I reached into the darkness of the cellarway and flicked on the light so that I would not trip and fall down the stairs. My feet moved slowly and carefully, and I payed close attention to where I stepped. These steps were old and creaky, and a few of them had broken in the past. Dad had replaced most of them last year, so I wasn't entirely worried about them. But still.

Dad... He always fixed everything. Anytime something went wrong, whether it be with wood, the gas stove or water heater, or anything, he would come to the rescue and figure out a solution. I don't know how exactly I was supposed to do that. I had never taken woodshop class, and I didn't really know much about electrical parts or anything of the sort. As a handyman, I would be pretty useless.

Maybe Minato had some wisdom on the topic, and perhaps he could teach me a few things.

I reached the base of the steps and turned towards the right, moving in the direction of the old washer and dryer. First off, to be sure, I opened the washing machine, and there was nothing in it. That was a relief, because anything that would have been in there would have to be part of the trash. Mold would have rotted anything that had been wet and left in the washing machine for almost a week.

I bent over and opened up the dryer, listening to its echoing click as the door was yanked from its body.

Here they were. There were a total of six blankets in the dryer, and I heaved them out one by one and balled them into a pile in my arms. They were freezing cold from being down here for so long, but they would warm up.

All of the blankets had filled the dryer's mouth to the max, and I subconsciously thanked it for taking on such a challenging load. My mother had faith in her old machines, and so I would too.

I closed the dryer door with my foot and began moving blindly back towards the stairs. The format of my house was so familiar to me, that I only needed to feel around with my feet to know where everything was in proximity to me. I could sense the stairs before I felt my toes tap the bottom one, and so I slowly ascended, using precaution, as so not to stumble.

The moment I reached the acme of the stairs, I heard tapping on my back door. Throwing the giant bundle of blankets on the table, I glanced at the door on the next wall and saw Sakura and Sasuke standing on my back porch.

Sakura waved to me when she saw me, and I returned the gesture with a simple smile before unlocking the door and lugging it open. As if it wasn't cold enough inside, the winter air seemed to rush into my house full blast. However, I knew how physics worked, and I knew that my previous statement was only an exaggeration; rather, the heat was fleeing from my house, crying out in freedom.

"Hey, Hinata," Sakura laughed, lightening the mood in my house and embracing me in a quick, effective hug. After she retreated, I brushed the bangs out of my face and glanced back and forth between the couple, and remembered the conversation that Naruto and I had last night about their relationship.

My face turned red, of course.

"What are you doing here?" I asked shyly, taking inconspicuous deep breaths and trying to get the redness to fade from my cheeks. I admired Sakura's pink locks that she had pulled up into a messy bun, her fringe still hanging around the sides of her face.

"A bunch of us are going out to breakfast together, to jump-start the Thanksgiving break, and I figured that you might want to come."

"Who is coming?" I asked curiously.

"Me and Sasuke, of course, Shikamaru and Temari, Kiba, maybe Choji. I think Lee is still in town for break, so I texted him and asked if he wanted to tag along."

"What about Tenten?" Sasuke thought aloud, his eyes flickering to Sakura, who returned the look. Her face scrunched in thought.

Tenten, I pondered the name, and after postulating for a moment, I came to the connection. I think she and Neji were really close before his parents were killed. They may have been on the verge of being a couple. I remember I heard Neji mention her name all the time when we were in middle school, and the way he talked about her reminded me of how I talked about Naruto.

"I dunno, I think she said she was busy." Sakura turned her attention back to me and brightened her mood again. Anyways, what do you say?"

I let my eyes fall to the table, where my massive, unorganized pile of blankets lay, and I thought of Naruto still passed out up on my bed.

"I'd have to go wake up Naruto," I said innocently, and Sakura's grin widened.

"Naruto slept over here last night?" Her voice grew high with excitement for juicy gossip. While I had become quite fond of Sakura, I wasn't sure I wanted to tell her about the possibility of Naruto and I becoming a couple. I didn't want her and Sasuke talking about our relationship, because I definitely felt uncomfortable talking about theirs. In a response to Sakura's question, I nodded. "Tell me everything!"

I shrugged. I wasn't going to lie to her, however I just wasn't going to tell her about the fact that he kissed me with the heat of a thousand burning suns. Thoughts of that kiss made my skin ice over and goosebumps formed.

"We slept," I said. "It was a long day, with the funeral and everything, and Naruto stayed with me at the hospital until nine. We were tired."

Sakura didn't seem satisfied. She placed her hands on her hips as stared at me as it I had two heads.

"So you're telling me that he was here all night and you didn't sleep together?"

"We slept together," I said shyly, but not realizing the context that she meant.

"So something did happen?" I cocked my head at her, confused at what she was getting at. I wasn't sure what part she wasn't understanding. We were tired, so we slept together in my bed.

"Sakura, I think she means they shared the same bed," Sasuke spoke up. "I doubt they went any further."

Only then did it occur to me what she was talking about, and the discoloration came back into my face. She thought we had sex.

"No, no, no," I waved my hands out in front of my body nervously. "We didn't have sex. We slept; nothing more."

I heard drowsy footsteps puttering down the stairs, and all eyes turned to see Naruto in his sweats and bare feet walking into my kitchen. The moment he set foot into the small room, he knew he was being watched. He dragged his feet over to me and placed his hand at the small of my back, and I watched as his eyes flickered back and forth between me and Sakura.

Sakura lifted an eyebrow, clearly noticing the physical contact between the two of us, and I had to say it one more time to get it through her head.

"We didn't have sex!" I shouted in a voice barely over a whisper, and Naruto's face flushed, clearly as embarrassed as I was to be discussing intimate matters, even though they did not happen. It could happen eventually, which is why I believe we were both flustered at the mention of a physical and private relationship between Naruto and me.

If and when it did happen, I planned to keep the matter to myself, sharing that information with nobody. If Naruto and I ended up making love to one another, I wanted to keep that bliss between the two of us. I was selfish, and I didn't want to share any part of my love for him.

Yes, he was that precious to me.

I love him.