A/N: Decided to upload two days in a row. I've got the time, so why not? This'll be a very NaruHina chapter.
Time for chapter 83
Enjoy!
Hinata snapped awake from her sleep in a cold sweat. Her breathing was ragged, and she was shaking. She had been ravaged by another nightmare. As she attempted to regain her composure, Naruto stirred and sat up.
"Another one, huh?" he asked, his voice fraught with concern. The Hyuga girl nodded and pulled her knees up to her chin.
"I just can't stop seeing their faces. All of the men and women I killed. They won't stop haunting me" she said quietly. It had been three days since the battle, and several of the chunin, Hinata included, had not fully recovered mentally. The Jinchuuriki sighed and wrapped his arms around her. Hinata buried her face in his chest and squeezed him hard.
"I feel like a psychopath. I was actually having fun killing people. What is wrong with me?" she said shakily. Naruto ran a hand through her hair and shook his head.
"You aren't a psychopath. Not even close. You're the purest person among us. You only had 'fun' because you were looking for ways to distract yourself from what you were doing. You hated every moment of it, but you did what you had to" he said reassuringly. The Hyuga girl relaxed in his arms slightly, leaning her weight on him and fighting back guilty tears.
"You aren't Kron. That's what a psychopath looks like. Even if it isn't entirely his fault, he enjoys murder in a way you never could. Hell, I'm a whole lot closer to that than you are, and I hate killing people" Naruto said. Hinata moved her head from his chest to his shoulder.
"I still dream about them, Naruto-kun. I can't get the images of their faces out of my mind" she said. The blonde nodded stiffly.
"The fox has been showing me that kind of thing too. They say that the people you kill stay with you. They become a part of you. Don't hate yourself for what you did to them. Hate the circumstances that forced you to commit murder. Hate this war and the people who started it" he said. The former Hyuga heiress looked at her partner's face and sighed.
"I don't like hating things, Naruto-kun. I just want things to be peaceful" she said quietly. Naruto smiled and kissed her on the forehead.
"I know you don't. War is a terrible thing, and it pushes the sweetest people to do awful things. People like you are what motivate ninja to fight. You're what motivates me, at least" he said. Hinata returned the smile and cuddled up to him more.
"For such an energetic person, you can be quite soothing when the mood strikes you" she said as she settled to return to sleep. The Jinchuuriki shrugged and pulled the blankets over them.
"Well, I've come to realize that sometimes, toning it down is better for everybody, including myself. We should sleep now. Yugito-sensei says she wants us out in the desert tomorrow morning" he said, closing his eyes to sleep. Hinata chuckled at this.
"I heard from a little birdy that she may have something interesting to tell us" she said. The blonde yawned and hugged the Hyuga girl into himself.
"I guess we'll have to wait and see"
"What?!" both Naruto and Hinata said in equally shocked tones. Yugito grinned and nodded, rubbing her abdomen as she did so.
"Yup. I'm having a baby. This moron right here is to blame" she said while pointing at Itachi, who looked monumentally uncomfortable. Naruto looked to the Uchiha, a mix of admiration and confusion in his eyes.
"Being in bed with that demoness doesn't sound like a survivable experience. How the hell are you even alive?" he asked, clearly dumbfounded. Itachi sighed heavily and shrugged his shoulders.
"Self belief and lots and lots of prayer are what allowed me to come out alive. I'm not even religious" he said tiredly. The blonde woman laughed out loud.
"I made him a believer with nothing but my personality. I'm on fire this week" she said through her laughter. After calming herself down a bit, the jonin looked to her students and began her explanation of their drilling for the day.
"Today, we're going to be working on one concept only" she began, immediately gaining the undivided attention of the children. They both motioned for her to continue. The jonin diverted their expectations by asking them a question.
"What did the two of you struggle with when facing Yushin and Kron Miura in the taijutsu? What about their tactics made them difficult to deal with?" she asked. The chunin both thought for a moment, with Hinata seeming to reach an answer first.
"They were both frustratingly agile and slippery in tight spaces. Even when I thought I had them cornered, I would miss badly with my strike. I would usually get hit for my efforts too" she said. Yugito nodded and looked to Naruto, who appeared to have been preparing to say the same thing.
"You're both on the right track. In fact, you actually said it, Hinata. What gave you both fits was the fact that they both countered you each and every time you stepped into range. There were no free shots. That's what exhausted you against Kron, right Naruto?" she asked. The Jinchuuriki nodded and thought back to his brutal match with the Miura boy.
"Yeah, he nailed me while I was trying to hit him more times than I can count. What I ended up realizing, though, was that If I could just get him moving backwards, I could hit him if I threw enough volume his way" he said. The blonde woman grinned.
"I noticed that. You made an intelligent adjustment. Kron is a genuinely tricky and nuanced close-range combatant in open space and when he's moving forward, but he gets wild when he's pushed backwards. Hinata did more or less the same thing, and it worked. Albeit, Kron was more or less dead in the water by that point" she said.
"So, what exactly are you going to be teaching us, sensei?" Naruto asked curiously. Yugito held up a fist and extended it toward her students.
"I'm going to teach you how to counter. Neither one of you are good at it by any metric, so we'll be working on it until you are. We're splitting you up today. Naruto will work with Itachi while Hinata works with me" she explained. The chunin both nodded. The group then split off, with Yugito taking Hinata about a half mile from the boys, who remained in place. Once Yugito and Hinata were gone, Itachi looked to Naruto.
"First and foremost, what we're going to be doing today is incredibly repetitive and basic. There's nothing complicated about it, but I think you'll find it fairly difficult at first" he said. The blonde raised an eyebrow.
"What are we doing?" he asked. The Uchiha stepped back and assumed a taijutsu stance, prompting Naruto to do the same.
"I'm going to stand right here, and you're going to attack me. I won't move. I guarantee that I will beat you to the punch every single time" Itachi said. The Jinchuuriki took the subtle invitation and charged the Uchiha, throwing a long, reaching punch at the left side of Itachi's jaw. As the strike approached, Itachi slid his head off to the left. As Naruto's punch missed, the former Akatsuki threw a short, right handed punch, which connected on the point of the Jinchuuriki's chin.
Naruto instantly crumpled to his knees, badly stunned by the punch Itachi had put on his jawline. The Uchiha stepped back and allowed the blonde to recover.
"Tell me what I did to land that punch" Itachi ordered. Naruto Itachi to his feet and replayed the sequence in his mind several times.
"You moved your head off to the side and made me miss before you returned fire" he replied. The former Akatsuki nodded and assumed a taijutsu stance.
"Precisely. Now, I want you to do the same thing to me. I'm going to attack you this time" he said. The Jinchuuriki nodded and prepared himself for the onslaught. Itachi charged forward and nailed the blonde with a right handed punch right between his eyes, snapping his head back and buckling his knees.
"You have to move before the punch has reached you. Not right as it's touching you" the Uchiha said as Naruto regained his footing. The Jinchuuriki rubbed his nose and re-assumed his stance. He was subsequently knocked to his rear end by exact same strike. This pattern continued minute after minute. Despite his repeated 'failure' to grasp the concept, he improved steadily.
Eventually, he landed a punch, which was more than even the Raikage could muster.
Naruto rubbed the side of his jaw as he and Hinata walked back towards Suna. He had been struck time and time again in the exact same spot, resulting in great soreness.
"What did you and Yugito-sensei work on?" he asked as they walked through the front gates of the village. The Hyuga girl tapped one of her kneecaps as they trekked on.
"Counter knees. Mostly to the ribs. My midsection is incredibly tender right now. What about you? What did Itachi-san teach you?" she replied. The blonde sighed and held up a closed fist.
"Counter punching. I got hit with the same counter right hand at least twenty times. My face is numb from them" he grumbled. Hinata smiled and poked the left side of his face, eliciting a groan of pain from her partner.
"Well, I think I can make some ointment for the swelling. It shouldn't be hard to apply. There appears to be a single bruise. Almost as though you were hit in the exact same place every time" she said. The Jinchuuriki chuckled to himself and nodded in agreement.
"I think he might have been aiming for the bruise to motivate me to move my head. It worked, honestly, it wasn't pretty, but I would jerk my head around, and sometimes, it would make him miss" he said proudly, earning a laugh from Hinata. The pair continued to discuss their training until they reached their apartment.
They made their way up the stairs of the complex and entered their dwelling, making their way to the couch, where they both flopped down tiredly.
"Somehow, Yugito-sensei's training sessions are more tiring than a huge battle like we had a few days ago. She's got a knack for finding ways to run us ragged" Naruto said. Hinata nodded in agreement and yawned.
"It's hardly even noon, and I'm already feeling like going to bed. Would you mind if I used you as a pillow, Naruto-kun?" she asked. The blonde grinned and shook his head.
"Not at all. You do it every night anyways. Try not to fall off the couch. You squirm a lot in your sleep" he said. The Hyuga girl furrowed her eyebrows.
"I do?" she asked skeptically. Naruto nodded and thought back to the numerous strange positions he had seen Hinata awake in.
"Yeah, you kind of crawl all over me in your sleep. I don't really mind. I've seen you pretty much tie yourself into a pretzel in your sleep. Your super flexible" he said. The former Hyuga heiress turned red.
"Have I bent myself into any...embarrassing positions?" she asked. Naruto laughed out loud, earning a glare from Hinata.
"Answer the question, Naruto-kun" she commanded. The blonde calmed himself down slightly and grinned.
"Well, you've attached yourself to my back before, kind of like a backpack, and you've also managed to work your way into doing to splits before. I don't know how you do it, honestly" he said. Hinata sighed.
"I backpacked you intentionally. It was a countermeasure against your sporadicness as a sleeper. It was quite comfortable, actually. It also kept you still" she said. The Jinchuuriki shrugged.
"So we both move around a lot in our sleep. I guess we're just brimming with leftover energy" he said. The Hyuga girl shook her head and crawled her way on top of him on the couch.
"Maybe you are, but I'm not. You tire me out. In the best possible way, but you still make me quite tired. It makes for good sleeping medication, though" she said. Naruto raised an eyebrow.
"So I'm your sleeping medicine, huh? That's a new one" he said humorously. Hinata smiled and poked him on the nose.
"You're my remedy for just about everything, Naruto-kun. You make me feel warm and happy. Last night, for example. You're just the right flavor too" she said. Before the Jinchuuriki could respond, the Hyuga girl pressed her lips to his and closed her eyes, prompting Naruto to do the same. After a moment or two, she pulled her mouth from his and smiled down at him.
"I never knew I liked the taste of salt until I kissed you" she teased. The blonde chuckled and scratched the back of his head.
"And I didn't know that I liked cold lips until you kissed me, so I guess we both learned something" he replied. Hinata frowned.
"My lips are cold?" she asked, seemingly concerned by this information. Naruto nodded and gave her a smile.
"Yup. Like ice. I love it" he replied. The former Hyuga heiress relaxed, relieved by his appreciation for the temperature of her mouth. She then rested her forehead on his and cupped the sides of his face.
"In that case, should I kiss you again?" she asked. The blonde nodded and adjusted his position as to not fall from the couch,
"That would be nice"
A/N: Felt really good to write some NaruHina for once. I love them as a pairing, so I'm a little guilty I haven't been giving them as much love lately.
See you next chapter! Read and Review!