Dreams are Dreams
Chapter seven
By cocoa-latte
AN: Here's the next chapter! I would like to thank everyone for reading and a huge thanks to those who reviewed!
The rambunctious night of the dance was coming to a slow end. Yet, the stars still twinkled as brightly as they started. Up high, in the mountains, was a lodge, where a CD player was playing its last song before retiring for the night.
A certain blond and an ebony-haired girl were sitting on top of the snow-covered roof in brief silence. The many stars were shining brightly in the clear cold night, but they had given up on counting stars long ago. Naruto rubbed his eyes and looked down at his rare watch that was settled on his left wrist. Today was a special day, after all. Naruto looked up at Hinata.
"We should start to head back," Naruto started, "The dance should be over soon and we should head back before the others begin to worry."
"Hai," replied Hinata, her voice quiet.
Hinata slowly got up, followed by Naruto. They jumped off the snowy roof and landed on the trail that would lead them back to the lodge. They walked silently back; the only sound they made was the crunching of the snow beneath their feet. In the distance, faint pounding music could be heard, very likely coming from the dance.
"Naruto," Hinata began, but stopped short when the saw a black and white mammal scurry around the trail. It stopped directly in front of them. Its beady eyes eyed them.
"It kind of looks like a skunk, don't you agree?" he asked casually.
"W-well, it doesn't really look like a skunk. S-skunks hibernate in the winter. I think."
Naruto had a crooked grin on his face. "Oi, Mr. Skunk-thingy. I don't care what you are, but could you please move out of the way so we can go by?" Before Hinata could hush the clueless shinobi, the skunk raised its tail and sprayed both Naruto and Hinata with a foul odour.
Naruto felt his eyes burn. "My eyes!" he exclaimed loudly. His hands immediately clasped to his eyes. Hinata followed his suite.
Hinata didn't say anything for a while. "Naruto," she began.
Naruto gulped, when hearing Hinata say his name with the usual "kun" suffix. "I'm sorry, Hinata-chan!" he apologized fretfully. "Forgive me, please? I honestly didn't mean to make the skunk mad."
Hinata wanted to not forgive him. But looking at his face made her forgive him. How could anyone be mad at someone so adorable? Hinata smiled at Naruto.
Hinata looked down, not really wanting to forgive him. The odour of the skunk was giving her a headache. She glanced up at him quickly, gosh, he looked adorable. She gave him a weak smile. She couldn't resist. "Forgiven," she said uncertainly.
"Arigatou, Hinata-chan! Now we just have to go back to the lodge and take a nice long shower with lots of pink bubbly soap!" Naruto replied happily.
"I-I don't think it just comes off with a shower. In fact, w-we'll probably have to bathe in tomato juice, in order for the smell to wear off…" she trailed off.
Naruto stopped in his tracks. "You mean we have to go to a store and buy cans and cans of tomato juice?" he asked, exasperated.
"I don't think so," said Hinata, "The others will probably get the tomato juice for us. A-at least I hope they will."
"Let's hurry back then!" he said, while taking large steps to the lodge. Hinata agreed silently.
Finally, after a twenty-minute walk back to the lodge, Naruto and Hinata arrived at the front steps of the house.
"I don't have my keys with me," Naruto announced with a small shrug. He looked at Hinata.
She bit her lip, "S-sorry, I didn't bring my keys along either."
"Ah, it's okay. We'll just have to knock them."
Hinata nodded and reached forward and knocked heavily on the thick wooden door. After a couple seconds of waiting, the worn gold doorknob began to turn. Tenten stood there holding on to the worn doorknob with Neji standing behind her.
"Finally!" Said Naruto. "Took you long enough! Why w-" Naruto stopped short as he saw Tenten take a large sniff of the skunk odour and took a few steps back before grabbing the doorknob and quickly shutting it into their faces.
Neji opened the door slightly and gave a glare at them, when he saw the two of them together.
"Come back when you buy tomato juice."
"Okay?" Agreed Naruto blankly.
Hinata gave a sigh. "I-I can't believe that they just told us to leave."
They began walking back down the path that lead to a nearby supermarket.
"How far will it take to get there?"
"Thirty minutes, I think. We might, well, we probably will stink up the entire store just going there," she said in her usual quiet voice.
"Who cares? Naruto retorted, "As long as I'm skunk-free, then I don't care."
Naruto opened the dirty glass door politely, allowing Hinata in first before he himself went in. The man behind the counter wrinkled his nose in disgust. Naruto and Hinata saw him reach into the drawer, pulling out a clothespin and then plugging it on his nose.
"Why do you think he would keep a clothespin in his drawer?" Naruto asked, eyeing the man.
"I don't really want to know."
Naruto shrugged and took one of the trolley carts located at the front of the show. "Aisle eight," he murmured to himself. He pushed the cart, noticing that it was rather hard to control. He turned the cart around the corner, bumping into a few bottles and cans, knocking them down.
Hinata was already there with a few cans of tomato juice in her arms. She sighed. "H-here, you pick up the things you knocked down and I'll load the cart."
He nodded while grimacing. Things weren't going his way today. Naruto picked up the bottles and cans and hastily put them back onto the shelf.
Hinata was already finished by the time Naruto was done. "You can steer the shopping cart, if you would like," Naruto said.
"Alright," she replied.
"I'll pay Hinata-chan, it's my fault that we smell," Naruto dejectedly. The cashier was waiting impatiently for Naruto and Hinata to finish talking. Naruto stuck his hand into his jacket pocket. Nothing. Pant pocket. Nothing. He searched around a few more times. "I don't have my kawaii frog wallet with me, Hinata-chan. I think I left it back in my room."
Hinata blinked. "I have some money with me, but not enough…" she trailed off.
The cashier groaned. "Look, it doesn't matter anymore. I don't really care, so it's on the house. Take more tomato juice if you want. Just leave." said the plugged-nose man hysterically.
Naruto's eyes grew wide. "Are you serious? Would you mind if I took some ramen as well?"
"Naruto!" Hinata hissed, giving a small kick in the shins. She took out her wallet and dumped the remaining contents out. "Sorry, but it probably won't cover the cost of everything, but…"
The man waved her off.
"Thanks," they chorused. The picked up the white plastic bags before speeding back outside.
Hinata and Naruto had reached the lodge. In front of the door lay a large bin, two towels and some of Hinata and Naruto's extra clothes, along with a note.
Hinata and Naruto,
Go to the woods and take a bath in the tomato juice before you step a foot into the house, if not, don't give a damn thought of coming back in here. We know you don't have your keys.
Sincerely, everyone
Naruto looked at Hinata with a twinge of pink on his cheek. "You know this means that we have to take a bath in the WOODS. With out any walls! Or anything to cover us," finished Naruto, his cheeks more red than before. He glanced at Hinata, whose cheeks were burning.
Hinata didn't say anything, but she picked up the overly large bin and motioned Naruto to help her carry the other side. They trudged through the woods, until they were in the heart of the forest.
Hinata felt another blush creep up her cheek. "S-so should we just… fill the bin up with the tomato juice first, then we take turns taking baths."
Naruto nodded and they silently filled the bin up with tomato juice, which took a short amount of time, considering the size of the bin. Naruto gave Hinata a sheepish grin. "I suppose you wanna go first?" asked Naruto as he looked down at his feet.
Hinata had seldom seen Naruto look so shy. "Sure," She replied happily. She loved the fact that she could be more open around him.
The thought of being smell-free was bliss. She waited until Naruto was out of sight before slipping into the tomato-juice-filled bin, with her smelly clothes on. She reached to the bottom of the enormous bin and found a brush to scrub with. After another twenty minutes in the tomato-juice. She stepped out and wrapped the white fluffy towel, staining it temporarily a watery-red colour from the tomato juice. She'd take another shower later on. She made sure that the towel was fully covering her body as she fished out her own fresh, clean clothes from the neat pile of clothes.
Naruto was waiting at the edge of the woods impatiently. At this time, Hinata would already be smell-free, and he'd be the only stinky one. He could here faint footsteps, hitting the hard snow from a distance. Naruto stood and brushed the snow off his pants.
"You're turn!" said Hinata smiling as she continued to dry her hair.
Naruto leapt up and dashed to the heart of the forest where the tomato juice was. Naruto jumped into the bin, trying to make as little splash as possible. But no avail, as some of the tomato juice spilled down the sides. Naruto found a brush to scrub himself with. After twenty minutes of scrubbing, Naruto wrapped the white fluffy towel around himself, and carefully got changed into the fresh clothes that laid on a heap on the snow.
Naruto dug a hole in the snow and poured the contents of the tomato juice into the hole he previously dug. He used his hands to cover it with fresh white snow. Naruto dragged the now empty bin towards the edge of the woods. He knew Hinata would be there, waiting for him.
"Hinata-chan, we're smell-free! Damn that stupid skunk. All that work."
"It wouldn't have sprayed us if you-" started Hinata.
"-I know!" Naruto said grumpily. "It was my fault"
Naruto and Hinata walked back to the cabin together, side by side. The walk was silent. Naruto felt Hinata's cold hand brush against his. Naruto wrapped his hand around Hinata's.
Naruto frowned, "Your hands are cold."
Hinata blushed heavily, "I-it's n-nothing."
Naruto took of his orange jacket, revealing a black tee-shirt with the leaf symbol on it. He handed the jacket to Hinata who draped the orange jacket across her shoulders.
"Arigatou Naruto-kun. It's much better now," Hinata whispered without stuttering. Her eyes widen. Had she really felt so comfortable with Naruto-kun that her stuttering stopped when she was around him?
A/N: Yay! Another chapter finished! I'm really sorry that the only people in this chapter are Naruto and Hinata. I promise that the next chapter won't be like that! I would like to thank everyone who reviewed! Also, a big thanks to evil-mittens, for beta-ing.
Note: Thanks to shikashikanaranara for pointing out that I have double paragraphs of everything in this chapter. I like to go back on the older chapters and re-write some paragraphs. I think I uploaded the wrong version, so maybe that's why… I fixed that now.
Thanks to:
Evil-mittens: thanks for editing all the chapters of this fic!
animEvivvErz: Thanks so much! Yes go Sakura! I'm sorry that there weren't any Sasuke and Sakura moments in this chapter!
Wormkaizer: Here's a Naruto and Hinata chapter!
Joekool: Oh! Singing in the rain then! Lol, snow in the summer would be so cold! But then, it mind as well snow where I am right now. It's freezing.
Destiny1029: Thanks for the review! Here's the next chapter! I hope you enjoyed it!
Chibihatsuharu: Sorry that there wasn't really any Neji and Tenten moments in here. ! I love your pen name! Haru is one of my favourite characters in Furuba! )
HimitsuKokorO: Thanks!
Shidolover: Thanks, every chapter is longer than the previous. With an exception for chapter one, because that one is reposted.
Sakura Haruno: You make it sound as if that was the last chapter. There's more to come, so don't worry.
Aiko004: There's no Sasu/Saku in this chapter either! I'm sorry. I think that they'll be the last pair to actually get together. I'm sorry that it took me so long to update! Thanks for reviewing!
Millie-chan: Yah, poor Sakura. Sorry that there isn't a Sasuke POV in this chapter! Thanks for reviewing!
Hehehe….: Yay, I get a cookie! Thanks for the review, by the way!
Magicians of the Yami: Here's the next chapter! Thanks for reviewing!
Tammie: Yah, someone uglier than Lee. Well, Lee can kind of be cute, if you pass the bushy eyebrows, I suppose.
Alexires: Thanks for the review! There's tons of Hinata and Naruto moments in this chapter. I hope you enjoyed it