The love y'all give to this story makes me so happy! I'm glad you're all enjoying what's been affectionately dubbed "jealous Naruto." I'm trying to balance the part of him that knows Hinata can and will kick your ass and the 'I've never had a Hinata but that's my Hinata even if I don't know it yet, so maybe don't look at her.'
"Hey," Naruto's voice cut through the early morning silence at the café. "I didn't know you were back." He pulls out the chair across from hers.
"Oh, hi, we got back yesterday afternoon, but I didn't sleep much on the mission so I crashed and was up early today."
"It is really early isn't it?" Naruto looks around the shop empty save the woman running the register.
"Why are you up so early?" Hinata questions, looking from him down to the giant cinnamon roll sitting in front of her.
"Meeting with Kakashi-sensei and a few others, I was just walking down to the market to grab something to make at home when I saw you. And I just, um, kinda wanted to apologize, ya know." Blush creeping up the back of his neck.
"What for?" Hinata pushes the plate across the table, moving the extra fork across to him.
"Thanks, but well, Sakura kinda got on to me for how I acted at Ino's last month."
"Still a little confused here Naruto-kun."
"To be honest with you I was drunk and Sakura told me I was an ass to you." Partially a lie, Naruto remembered the night just fine, but he saw nothing wrong with how he acted
"I don't remember you being an ass, concerned friend, but not an ass."
"Thank you! Sakura was going on and on about, well, some things but, ya know, never mind." The two ate in silence, Naruto thinking over how Sakura had yelled at him about how he had taken everything out of context and he had no right to act the way he did.
"You don't really have the best track record when you're drunk, on medications you know, same difference." Hinata shrugs, Naruto giving her a confused look.
"Wait, you don't remember after the war, in the med tent. It's the only other time I've seen you, well not sober."
"You were there after Sakura gave me all those pain meds?" Naruto's face pales.
"You really don't remember me?" A smile spreads across Hinata's face. "You were, Gods, you were a mess." Hinata giggled, remembering how he insisted to Sakura that he was okay to sit up once she had gotten the bleeding to stop. Shocking everyone by staying awake with the blood loss combined with medications he should have been passed out on the cot as soon as they hit his system.
After he argued with Sakura about sitting, he continued to fight with the other medics about who stayed in the room. Refusing no matter how much they complained to Sakura to let go of Hinata's hand as she sat on a stool pushed against his cot.
"Shit Hinata, I remember Sakura finding Sasuke and me, taking a handful of pills. Sakura, I think, stopped the bleeding and gave me some IV, then it's blank. Was I an idiot?"
"Could I tell you later?" Hinata's turn to blush at the memory.
"How bout you tell me about that or you can tell me about the white Zetsu you mentioned when I first got this arm." Naruto smirks at her across the table.
"You would remember that. Fine." She pauses, looking over to him, lazy smile, eyes bright that same teasing tone from the last night she saw him in his voice.
"Everyone was so worried when they brought the two of you in. Almost all of us were already in the med tents, a medic had just finished some stitches on my leg when Lord Six laid you down on the cot. You just kept mumbling about how you were glad that it was all finally over. Asking where we all were, rattling off names of people, making different medics run off to find out how people were." Hinata takes a deep breath, the next words running out of her mouth. "You then refused to let me leave, almost pulled your IV out when I tried to take my hand back. You were holding on to it so hard. You kept telling me how glad you were that I was alive."
"I am, ya know." Naruto mumbles down at the table. "Glad you're alive."
"Naruto-kun," Hinata starts, before her device starts ringing from her pocket. "Hey Hanabi," She pauses. "Yeah, no, I'm in the village, I'll be right there." She stands, device still held to her ear. "Bye, I'll see you later." Naruto watches her walk off, her voice trailing after her "It was just Naruto" followed by a sharp laugh "hush it was not," the door shutting behind her.
Naruto sits at the table, fingers drumming on the edge, racking his brain for the slightest bit of memory from the night the war ended. He dug through his thoughts as the café filled with people. When finally something sparked. Hinata perched on a rickety stool, her small hand clenched in his. Her other hand brushing across his forehead, fingers softly grazing around his swollen eye. He had sat in a cot tucked away in the corner of the tent. Mummering to each other, being thankful for each other. Naruto remembered Hinata crying, laying her head against his good shoulder.
Naruto hadn't remembered any of this up until now. The twisting feeling in his gut anytime he was around Hinata creeping up his throat. He stands, walking back to his apartment. Thinking over all the time he had spent with Hinata since the war. The warm feeling in his chest growing when he thought about how calm she made him, how there wasn't anyone else he'd rather be around, couldn't think of a better friend.
"Friend." He said to himself, toeing his shoes off at the door. "Yeah, she's a great friend." The word sour in his mouth.