CHAPTER THREE
The Steam Ninja Appears!
XXX
Once again, the team approached their target village as the sun's rays began to disappear over the horizon. Naruto could see Iwagakure from miles away. The village was surrounded by a jagged mountain range with only one building clearly rising higher than any other, which was most likely their version of the Hokage Tower. From what he could see, all their buildings were made of rocks, hopefully, their beds weren't the same.
While hopping from branch to branch, Naruto reached into his frog wallet in search of coins. "Oi, does anyone mind paying for my place to sleep tonight, I promise to pay them back… someday, dattebayo," he said.
"I'll pay for your room, Naruto-kun. You don't have to pay me back," Hinata replied.
"Don't worry, we'll see how much money we all have and put it into a pool," Gaara explained.
"Sweet!" Naruto grinned sheepishly. He returned his attention to the group to ask one more question, "Hey, does anyone actually know anything about Iwagakure? I've never been there myself so I wouldn't know."
"They're hard-headed and hard-working people who'll do anything, even die, for their Tsuchikage… that's all you need to know," Gaara explained. He looked back at Hinata for a moment, "And if I were you, I'd put your headband away… in fact, I think we should all put our headbands away while we're in the village."
"Why? Do they have something against Konoha?" Naruto wondered.
"They have something against everyone. I just don't want to take the risk of being made, especially since we have lines running through our headbands," he said unclipping his headband from his sash. Naruto did the same, slotting his into his pocket.
At some point, the lush green forest turned to stone forcing Naruto and the team to land and walk towards Iwa's gates. Iwa's entrance was a slit in the mountain range, meaning the wooden gate and its guards sat nestled between harsh terrain on either side. The two shinobi manning the gate just looked at them up and down before dismissing them, wishing them safe travels as they scaled the rocky incline that led into the village.
They were able to find a cheap hotel near the centre of the village. Despite its rocky exterior, the hotel offered comfortable living conditions for relatively cheap prices, with bookings available for a few hours, a night, or a whole week. Only three rooms remained though.
"Okay, how much money does everyone have?" Naruto asked, whipping out Gama-chan, his little frog wallet, to reveal ten ryo.
Gaara folded his arms, "I don't carry cash. I used to have Temari and Kankuro do that for me."
Fuu pulled out the little bag Hisen gave her before her departure and started counting. It was more than enough for one of the rooms, but she felt the need to figure how much was actually in the bag. "300 000 ryo."
"That's perfect! Thank you, Hisen, dattebayo!"
Hinata pulled out a bag of her own and handed it to Fuu to count. The Seven-Tails jinchuuriki glared at Hinata in bewilderment, "Are you some kind of mafia boss, ssu? Why are you carrying around this much cash?"
Hinata pressed her index fingers together in pure embarrassment as Gaara and Naruto turned their attention towards her. "It… It… it was my allowance for… the day, back in Konoha…"
"For the day?" Fuu looked at the large bag, she looked at Hinata, this time in disgust, then back at the bag. She handed it back to Hinata before bursting out in a fit of laughter, "It's okay, we can use your money if we need to put a down payment on a new house. For now, my money should suffice for a hotel, ssu."
Naruto and Gaara couldn't help but join in on Fuu's contagious laughing fit. Hinata, still red in the face, gave a little giggle before twiddling her thumbs. They booked a room for the night with an option to extend for another night before making their way up to the room.
XXX
"I'm starting to see why this room was so cheap," Gaara said, pulling out a large purple dildo, still in the packet, from one of the dressing table's many cupboards. "It must be a love hotel."
"A love hotel?" Naruto wondered.
"Love hotels… they're basically…" Gaara turned around to see Naruto standing over the bed wearing a white apron over his grey jumpsuit. "You have no idea how disgusting that apron probably is… Why are you wearing that?"
"It was just laying here on the bed, dattebayo. I never turn down a free change of clothes," Naruto shrugged, "Why are you judging me?"
"Take it off before you catch something"
"Make me."
Fuu emerged from the bathroom to ask the exact same question Gaara just did, "Why are you wearing that hideous apron?"
"I… I think it looks nice on him," Hinata said exiting the bathroom.
"See, Hinata thinks it looks nice on me," Naruto smirked.
"Hinata is lying to you. Take it off," Fuu replied.
"Make me."
"Don't play like that, I actually will, ssu!" Fuu closed the distance. Naruto let out a soft squeak as the Seven-Tails shoved him onto the bed and untied the apron while pinning him against the queen-sized piece of furniture. She yanked it off him, leaving the Uzumaki to lie there defeated.
"I was just about to suggest not touching anything, especially considering we don't know what they cleaned and what they didn't," Gaara explained, "Love hotels are hotels people visit specifically for the purpose of love-making."
"Did you just say love-making? What are you, forty?" Fuu joked. Gaara just glared at her. Her bright orange eyes were unfazed by his cold blue-green gaze. The redhead nonverbally admitted defeat by turning his eyes away from her.
"Please tell me they at least wash the sheets," Naruto whined, face pinned against the white sheets.
Fuu ruffled his spiky hair, "I'm 100% sure they washed the sheets," she promised. "That apron on the other hand might be a different story."
Hinata looked around the room, concern written all over her face.
"But let's forget what the original purpose of this room is. Since, according to Fuu, the Four-Tails is not in the village, our objective is to find the Five-Tails. Do you at least know what he looks like?" Gaara asked.
"He's supposed to be a very large man, I mean extremely tall with broad shoulders, who's always wearing a mask. You can't miss him."
"Everyone heard that? Tonight, when the village is a little more alive, we'll go out into the city and look for him. Fuu, you can go with the heiress, I'll go with Uzumaki."
Hinata nodded.
"Why go at night?" Naruto wondered.
"The darkness of night-time will provide us with ample cover from shinobi searching for us, and the village is a little dead right now, odds are it'll come back to life at night, meaning we'll have the best chance of finding him then."
"Great! In the meantime, we can get to know each other," Fuu said. She sprouted a pair of wings to hover over the bed and land in front of the tinted window overlooking the village centre.
Naruto rolled into the centre of the bed, giving Hinata space to sit at its foot. "Those wings. How are you able to fly like that?" Naruto wondered.
"These?" Fuu asked pointing a thumb at the two large wings protruding from the base of her spine, "They're two of Choumei's seven tails. I can use them to fly at will."
With nothing better to do, Gaara decided to partake in the conversating. He sat on the dressing table with his back to the mirror and arms folded, "That's impressive. You're able to summon your tailed beast at will… you must have a very good relationship with them."
"Of course, ssu! Choumei's my best friend. He matches my energy, he lends me chakra when I need it, and, I mean, there's been days when I've been lonely and down and he's been the only person I've had to talk to. Why? Don't you two have good relationships with your tailed beasts?"
"If I fall asleep, Shukaku slowly eats away at my personality and psyche, and threatens to kill everyone around me."
"That's gonna be a yikes from me, dawg," Fuu turned to look at Naruto.
The Uzumaki shrugged before explaining, "I've never even talked to my tailed beast."
"Really? So, I think it's safe to say that I'm the most powerful person in this room then?" Fuu smirked crossing her arms. "Don't worry, younglings, Seven-Tails Fuu will teach you how to become a perfect jinchuuriki, ssu!"
"A perfect jinchuuriki?" Naruto had never heard that term.
"Yep, that's what you call a jinchuuriki who has an unbreakable bond with their tailed beast," she explained. "It's something that can take years to master, but once you've ascended to perfection, there's nothing like it, ssu!"
"Where do you get all that energy?" Hinata giggled.
"I'm just an energetic gal really," Fuu scratched the back of her head, "What? Am I too much?"
"Yes," Gaara groaned.
"No," Naruto replied.
"Of course not, I think your energy brings life to the group," Hinata said, punctuating her compliment with a warm smile.
Fuu shifted her attention to Gaara. She stood over the brooding jinchuuriki with a deadpan expression written across her face, "You got a problem with me, buddy?"
"I don't remember saying anything of the sort," Gaara continued looking forward.
Naruto finally realised something, "Hey, Gaara, what happened to your massive gourd?"
Fuu paused, "Gourd?"
"It was destroyed during our battle, and I didn't have the time or the chakra to reform it."
"But how will you use your sand without the gourd?" Naruto wondered.
"I'm Gaara of the Desert. I took the life of the woman I was supposed to call mother in the process of being born… so in order to become the world's strongest shinobi… an incarnation of sand was implanted inside of me… as long as there is beneath my feet, I will always have sand."
That was another yikes from Fuu. The atmosphere in the room was blanketed by an eerie cloud of darkness. A wave of silence so powerful that not even she was willing to break through it, swallowed the teenagers alive as glimmers of Gaara pre-Naruto fight began to peek through the cracks.
"The world's strongest shinobi?" Naruto threw his fist out, "As long as I'm alive, you'll need a lot more than just sand to achieve that title, dattebayo!"
"Hell yeah! All four of us are gonna become the strongest shinobi to ever exist!" Fuu wrapped her arms around Naruto and Hinata's necks, pulling them together, forcing their faces to touch. Hinata passed out from having Naruto's whiskered face touch her own. The blonde looked over at her, a little worried. Fuu shrugged, "She must've been tired."
"She's got the right idea," Gaara said, "You guys, rest up, I'll wake you when the time comes to head into the city."
XXX
Hours passed and finally, the night was upon them. Clouds had rolled over the tall mountain range and dumped gallons of rain on the Village Hidden in the Stone meaning they had to equip raincoats before heading out into the village. The team went the extra mile with Hinata's disguise, with Fuu ripping off a piece of her white armlets for her to use as a mask. The rain was pouring as they exited the love hotel. Naruto and Gaara going one way. Hinata and Fuu going the other.
"Do you actually know what the Five-Tails looks like?" Naruto wondered over the sounds of rain hitting the hard surface below.
Gaara shook his head, "Not really, but going off Fuu's description, we can't miss him."
The pair ducked into a long and dark alleyway to avoid a large crowd of people, none of whom were two metres tall with broad shoulders. "What do you think of her? Fuu?" Naruto asked, the alley's roof shielding them from the brunt of the rain.
"She's loud."
"But do you like her?"
"Like her in what way?"
"Like… do you consider her a friend?" Naruto asked.
"Uzumaki, I don't even consider you a friend."
The blonde shinobi held his chest as crocodile tears ran down from his eyes, "Ouch… why the hell not?"
"Until a day ago, I used to think the word 'friend' was just that… a word. Nothing more, nothing less. But when I met you, I realised what was important was the word's meaning. I'm willing to learn about friendship and the meaning of having people who are precious to you, but until I fully understand what the word itself means, I can't consider you an actual friend."
The pair kept walking in pure silence until they reached the end of the alleyway, which was when Naruto finally replied, "Well you're my friend, dattebayo."
Naruto walked out into the rainy streets of Iwa but Gaara stopped just short of the alley's end to process what Naruto had just told him. The Uzumaki paused. He looked back at the redhead. Gaara's eyes zoned in on a puddle reflecting his frame on the village's cobblestone pathways. A bright red neon light advertising tsukemen ramen illuminated his frame before turning off a few seconds later.
"Oi, are you okay?" Naruto asked, bringing the jinchuuriki back to reality. His eyes slowly lifted to meet Naruto's cerulean pair which echoed back to him the vastness of the ocean's depths.
Gaara exhaled, "Yeah, of course," he walked out into the street. "I just thought I saw something."
They somehow ended up in Iwa's residential area, evident in how the tall multi-storey apartment buildings thinned and shortened until they resembled family homes created partially from stone and partially from wood.
"What about you?" Gaara asked. "Do you see Fuu as a friend?"
It had been a few minutes since Naruto had asked the question himself, so the knuckleheaded shinobi needed a moment to calibrate his brain. He lowered his head and grinned, "Hell yeah! She reminds me of myself, dattebayo. Plus, she's been very helpful so far… if every other jinchuuriki is just like her then this should be a piece of cake."
"What about the Hyuuga heiress?"
"Hinata? I'd trust her with my life," Naruto said. He scratched his cheek, "She might be a bit weird with all the blushing and quietness but that's just classic Hinata, dattebayo. She's been like that since we were kids. She might not be the strongest shinobi there is, but she has a heart of gold, and in a world full of powerful ninja, sometimes a strong heart is more important than a strong fist."
"Has she been your friend since you were kids? I remember you saying she was the only one who treated you like a human being."
Naruto chuckled, "Only one? Maybe that was a bit of an over-exaggeration… Shikamaru, Chouji and Kiba were pretty close with me too… I guess a more accurate thing to say is that she was the only girl who ever treated me like a human being. Adults in the village were always protective of their children around me, but that protection seemed to double when their daughters were concerned."
"I believe that's just a generalised comment that would apply to most parents around their daughters."
"Well not me, if I have a daughter, I'll let her play with anyone she chooses whether they're a boy or a girl, dattebayo. I'll even schedule regular playdates between my daughter and your kid, so she won't feel any different based on their gender."
"If I ever have kids, I don't want them anywhere near your crackhead of a household," Gaara shut it down immediately, "Plus, I admire your ambition in thinking we're going to live until adulthood."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"The ninja world is a dangerous place… if you add on top of that the fact that we're a bunch of kids, we're missing-nin and we're jinchuuriki, then you could say the odds are firmly stacked against us."
"The odds have always been stacked against us, we're jinchuuriki, not once have our backs never been against the wall, but we've made it this far, dattebayo. We survived thirteen years, so what's another thirteen years."
"As I said, Uzumaki, I admire your ambition."
XXX
Hinata ducked into an alleyway with Fuu to avoid the crowds of people moving up and down the village's streets. Fuu looked around to see if anyone was watching them. No one, "Go ahead," she told the heiress, a giddy expression written across her half-covered face.
"Horse, tiger, boar, hare, rat, horse, dog, hare, tiger, rat, boar, dog," Hinata whispered before forming the ram seal beneath her raincoat and whispering, "Byakugan." Veins welled up along her temples leading to her eyes. Hinata's pupils hardened as her vision shifted from physical sight to chakra-vision. She dropped her arms and turned to Fuu.
"That was so fucking cool!" Fuu wanted to touch the veins running along the sides of Hinata's eyes but the Hyuuga reclined into her hood, "Okay, okay, I won't touch your face… but how far can you see with those things?"
"Fifty metres in all direction."
"In all directions? As in fifty metres up?" Hinata nodded, "Fifty metres to the left?" Hinata nodded, "Fifty metres to the right?" Hinata, a little tired of the questions, nodded. "Fifty metres down?" Hinata paused.
"Well, technically yes, but usually there's nothing down there unless I'm in the air, so not really."
"Okay, last question. What do I look like right now?"
"You're a body of chakra," Hinata told her, before placing her tiny hand on the right side of Fuu's flat chest, "With a dense concentration of pure white chakra here."
"Oh shit, you can see where Choumei is!" Fuu's mind was blown, "So, then you should be able to see the Five-Tails within Han, even if we don't spot him at first," she realised, to which Hinata just nodded slightly.
"That's perfect! We'll have that jinchuuriki caught in a matter of minutes," she said assuredly.
Two hours later, they stopped in front of a yakitori bar with bags developing under their eyes. Fuu was getting tired of walking. Hinata was getting tired of having her Byakugan active. Both girls were tired of being pelted by non-stop volleys of rain, so they entered the yakitori bar and took a seat.
"You know what, fuck that guy," a pissed-off Fuu groaned, "If he doesn't want to be found then I'm not gonna force him, ssu." Hinata massaged her temples as the veins retreated, eventually disappearing under the fair Hyuuga's skin.
"What would you ladies like?" an older man asked from behind the counter after placing down two menus.
"Can we just get chicken with plain miso, two skewers each please," Fuu ordered on behalf of the Hyuuga heiress.
"Anything to drink?"
"Just green tea please," Fuu replied. The man got to work preparing the pair's orders. Fuu interlocked her fingers to stretch out her aching muscles before turning to Hinata and asking, "So, how did you get wrapped up in this mess?"
"Huh… what do you mean?"
"I mean… I understand why Naruto and Gaara are here… they were treated like crap by their villages, but why did you decide to tag along. I'm sure your life was perfect when you were the heir to the most powerful clan in the world."
"I… I don't know why I left the village… I was just bored," Hinata replied.
Fuu immediately called her bluff, "Riiight. You just defected from the Hidden Leaf… out of boredom." Hinata never was a good liar.
"I… I was never happy being the heiress of the Hyuuga clan, my sister was always better at the princess stuff than I was anyway. Being the leader of an entire clan comes with so many responsibilities and clan politics that I just wanted nothing to do with. You're told from a young age that you have to walk a certain way, talk a certain way, act a certain way. You're only allowed to talk to certain people and as a child, I was only allowed to play with my sister Hanabi when I wasn't in the academy… it was just hell. I was in hell."
"Damn, it sounds like we're in the same boat there," Fuu chuckled, "I used to always say that I wished I was a princess… so, thanks for crushing those dreams."
"No, I'm sorry, you can still pursue your dreams. Ignore what I said."
"I'm joking, Hinata, I'm joking," the green-haired jinchuuriki burst out laughing. "If you don't want to be a princess anymore, the first step to being a normal peasant is knowing when to laugh at yourself and others." Fuu's laughter was cut off by a man with a very dominant aura stumbling through the bar's Noren and filling up what little space was left. Fuu's smile turned to confusion as to turned to stare at the man.
He was massive. So tall that whilst standing, the top of his head was only a few inches from the bar's ceiling, and so broad that he needed to sit on the stool furthest from Fuu to give her space to exist. He sat there dressed in all-red armour which extended upwards until it covered his nose, with a red conical hat to top it off. Fuu's eyes locked onto the furnace on his back. "Oji-san, can I get some sake and some chicken thighs on a stick. Make it six," he demanded in a loud, booming voice.
"Sure thing, Han," the older man confirmed Fuu's suspicions. The man delivered Han's sake, as well as Hinata and Fuu's cups of green tea.
"You're him. Han. The Jinchuuriki of the Steam," Fuu said with stars in her eyes.
The large man's brown eyes, void of eyebrows, glared at her, "Yeah, what of it… do you want an autograph or something?" he asked lowering his mask to take a swig of sake.
"My name's Fuu, I'm the Seven-Tails, and I'm in the village with the One-Tails and the Nine-Tails to…" Han was quick to cover Fuu's mouth. The Seven-Tails aggressively licked his hand forcing him to let go of her.
"Meet me outside, kid," Han ordered. Hinata and Fuu left the bar. Han took one last mouthful of sake before lifting up his mask and telling the bar owner, "I'll be back in a minute, let me just hear what these kids are saying."
They went around to the back of the bar away from the crowds of people. Han slammed Fuu's shoulder against a wall, "You can't go around announcing things like that when there are people around." The tomboy squirmed under his hand.
"You're hurting her!" Hinata yelled.
Han eased his grip on the girl's shoulder slightly before asking her to repeat what she said. Fuu grabbed a rock from the ground and bashed it against the side of Han's head, cutting him open. Hinata's eyes widened. "You bitch!"
"Don't you ever touch me like that again, ssu!" Fuu demanded.
"I'm trying to protect you!" he replied. "The Tsuchikage sent out an order for the capture of the One-Tails and Nine-Tails. Normal shinobi and civilians don't know about it yet but if any of the Tsuchikage's most trusted shinobi heard what you just said they would've had your head."
"You have a weird fucking way of protecting people then, you big oaf," Fuu said dusting herself off.
Hinata stepped in between them to calm the situation down. Han noticed the young lady's eyes, "You're the Hyuuga heiress?"
"Oi! Now it's your turn to keep quiet," she warned him, "Yes, Hinata is with us. We're here to fulfil, Naruto, the Nine-Tails jinchuuriki's dream. He wants to collect all nine jinchuuriki and move east until we find a place where we'll be free from oppression and responsibilities as jinchuuriki… a place where we're not ignored or used as weapons, rather are treated like humans."
"And why do you need me?" Han wondered.
"Why do you think, ssu? We're here to collect you and the Four-Tails. Can't really have a paradise for all jinchuuriki without the majority of the jinchuuriki."
Hinata calmed down as Han took a step back to think about the offer. The constant pitter-patter of torrential downpours slapping the earth beneath their feet filled the silent alleyway with ever-present noise as Han turned to stare at the Tsuchikage's office. The heavenly tower loomed over every other building in the village, its spire nearly piercing the heavens. He closed his eyes in thought. Fuu lowered her guard too. She dropped the rock on the wet floor below before using a trickle of rain to wash her hands.
"Fine," the jinchuuriki, donned in red, replied, breaking "We can leave together, but it's too dangerous to leave right now. Meet me by the village gate tomorrow morning and we'll search for the Four-Tails," he said before returning to the yakitori bar. Taking his word on the matter, Hinata and Fuu grabbed their chicken meat on a stick to go before heading back to their hotel.
XXX
The clock struck eleven o'clock and Naruto and Gaara had failed to find the Five-Tails. They hadn't even found any trace of him. Who he was, where he lived? It was all a mystery to them. But Iwa's nightlife was in full swing, and if they couldn't find him when the night was young, there was no point in looking for him any further. All they could do was return to the hotel and hope Hinata and Fuu had found something they hadn't.
A fatigued Naruto opened the door to his hotel room to see Hinata curled up under the blankets on the queen-size bed. "Tadaima," he announced his presence as Fuu emerged from the bathroom wiping her drenched hands on her mini skirt.
"Naruto, you're back. Good to see all your limbs are still attached" the green-haired jinchuuriki grinned. Gaara entered the room behind the Uzumaki, so Naruto found a spot on the dressing table and sat down.
"Did you find anything?" Gaara asked closing the door behind him.
"Yeah, we did actually," she nodded, "We found Han, the Five-Tails jinchuuriki. He's a bit of a jerk but he agreed to come with us. He doesn't seem to know where the Four-Tails is though, so we have to meet him by the village gate tomorrow morning, and after we snap him up, we can start searching for the Four-Tails as a unit."
"He asked us to meet him by the village gate?" Gaara wondered. "That's odd."
"What's up?" Naruto asked.
"I'm just thinking, we've got the One-Tails, the Seven-Tails and the Nine-Tails with us, and we're about to remove Iwa's last jinchuuriki, the Five-Tails, from the village. That's 22-Tails worth of power… I doubt we're just going to walk out of the village without a fight. You'd expect him to agree to meet us somewhere a lot more discreet than by the gate. The one place people will definitely see us leaving," Gaara growled, "I smell a trap."
"A trap? C'mon, Gaara. According to Fuu, it was definitely the Five-Tails jinchuuriki she spoke to. Then why would he lead his own kind into a trap?" Naruto asked.
"Maybe the Hidden Stone Village treats its jinchuuriki a lot better than Konoha and Suna treated you and me… if that's the case then he might see himself as less of a jinchuuriki and more of an Iwa shinobi. He may be a jinchuuriki, but at the end of the day, he still wears a forehead protector that reflects his allegiance to the Stone. For all we know, he could be ratting us out to the Tsuchikage as we s-."
Fuu threw her arm around Gaara's neck to catch him in a loose headlock. The redhead didn't know how to react to the sudden physical contact. "Calm down, ssu! You're way too paranoid about this guy! I spoke to the guy myself, he's a bit of a prick, but he's got the same eyes you and Naruto have, eyes that reflect years of sheltered pain, ssu. Believe me when I say we're not walking into any traps."
"Get your hand away off my shoulder," he demanded. A slightly concerned Fuu slid her arm away from Gaara's neck before stepping back to give the redhead some space, "Regardless of what his eyes reflect, I'm going to make sure I'm prepared for anything. I've been gathering sand all night," Gaara said as grains of sand rose from the floor, descended from the ceiling and began peeling off different sections of his body. The smooth grains gathered on his back until they solidified into a sandy gourd.
A cocky smirk formed across Naruto's face, "Looks like Gaara of the Desert is back, dattebayo."
"Shush, don't wake Hinata," Fuu warned.
Naruto's eyes darted to the Hyuuga, who was still curled up under the sheets. Seeing her sleep so peacefully deepened the bags forming under his eyes. The exhaustion hit him like a truck. "My bad," he apologised, unzipping his grey jumpsuit jacket, "You know what. I think I'll follow her lead and get some rest… we should all get some sleep, so we're not exhausted for our 'ambush' tomorrow morning," Naruto reasoned.
"I'm right there with you," Fuu giggled before leaping into bed head-first, which contrary to her own warnings, woke the Hyuuga princess up. Seeing as there would be no action tonight, Gaara placed his gourd on the floor, leaning it against the dressing table. Naruto fell onto the bed. He was absorbed by the love hotel's sterilised white sheets as he slid under the bedsheets to try and get some sleep.
Fuu, who was behind the Hinata, wrapped her arms around the princess to spoon her before pulling her in close. "Eh?" Hinata's eyes shot open as Fuu fondled her from behind. She continued squirming as Naruto threw his jacket to the side before lying down in front of her. Everyone was too close to each other. Hinata started sweating. Feeling Fuu's hands grip her waist and Naruto's warmth radiating onto her skin reddened her face.
"Well… what are you waiting for?" Fuu asked, staring at the redhead.
"There's no way all four of us are fitting on that bed," Gaara noted. He was right. Even though all three teenagers were quite slim and short in physique, there was not enough space to fit a fourth party, but Fuu knew how to make more space.
"Oi, Naruto! Close the gap a little, Hinata doesn't bite," the Seven-Tails jinchuuriki promised. Naruto, too tired to argue, shifted under the sheets until he was basically inside the white-eyed woman.
"Meep!" she squealed. Fuu's grip on her abdomen tightened as the green-haired woman packed them onto the bed like sardines. With Naruto pressed against Hinata, the space behind the Uzumaki was just large enough to feet a 4'10", but Hinata was fighting for her life under those sheets. She could feel everything. Every spasm of the muscle, the tension and relaxation in his chest as he inhaled and exhaled, the warmth of his presence, his coarse battle-hardened skin on her soft, smooth fleshy layer. Hinata couldn't handle it. She needed some air.
"Are you having a heart attack?" Naruto asked. The slight vibrations running through his body into hers as he spoke was what did it. Her muscles loosened up.
Hinata was out.
Naruto was left concerned.
Fuu burst out laughing.
Gaara just wanted some sleep.