11 months into the relationship

"Naruto?"

The blond feels a nudge to his shoulder.

"Mmm?" Naruto shuffles slightly as he hums, clinging onto sleep with as much fervour as he can muster.

This time, it's a harder shove to the torso that wakes him up properly, and he opens his eyes to find Hinata looking down at him from beside the bed.

He's never seen his girlfriend anything close to angry, but he imagines that this is what displeasure looks like on her face. Pale eyes trained on him, and her lips drawn in a straight line.

"What is it?"

"The toothpaste." She points in the vague direction of their bathroom. "I told you to buy some before you came home last night, and now we're out."

For an instant, Naruto's stunned.

"You woke me up…because of toothpaste?"

Naruto pulls the sheets higher to stave off the morning chill, but Hinata pulls them back down not even a second later.

"I told you I had a clan meeting today. Do you seriously expect me to show up with bad breath?"

"Then don't brush." He frowns. "Buy gum on the way or something. You ain't gonna be kissing anyone, so no one's gonna notice."

Her eyebrows furrow, and her lips purse in blatant displeasure. "That's disgusting."

"Then what's your plan?" Naruto puts his full strength into wrenching the sheets up, and Hinata's hands let go at the suddenness. "I go to the shops, spend a half hour waiting in the lines and bring you toothpaste for a meeting you'll definitely have missed?"

Hinata's mouth opens as if to argue, only to close, and she rises to her feet to make her way out of their bedroom.

She pauses by the door. "You're a nightmare, sometimes."

She leaves before Naruto can make his rebuttal, so he opts for simply going back to sleep.


Naruto's home when Hinata returns, and from what she can see, he's only just started preparing breakfast.

At 3:30 in the afternoon.

She knows she shouldn't find it off-putting. Naruto's got a perfectly valid excuse for sleeping in, and she doubts she'd be doing any better if she was drudging through Hokage training.

It just sucks, though. If she had to put up with his sleeping habits, the least he could do was remember to buy toothpaste. She's not exactly asking for the moon here.

"Morning, Hinata." He calls out from over his shoulder.

She pushes down the need to correct his greeting, and shuts the front door behind her. "Hey."

"Want some?" He shifts to the side to give her a view of the stove, where she spots the starting ingredients of an omelette.

The vegetables smell very good. She skipped breakfast in order to visit the shops in the morning, so she'd love nothing more than to finally dig into a decent meal. It's a miracle she made it through the meetings with only water and chewing gum as her sustenance.

"That'd be nice." She smiles thinly. "Just need to go brush my teeth first." She lifts a small paper bag. "I got half a dozen tubes of toothpaste, so we shouldn't run into more of that issue anytime soon."

She hears the sizzle of a pan, and Naruto turns the heat down before turning to face her. "Yeah, about that." He clears his throat. "Sorry about last night. I've just been a little swamped, y'know?"

Hinata's not heartless, and often sympathises with him as best as she can, but in this case, she's been reminding Naruto to stock up on washroom essentials for the past week. There's a fine line between forgetfulness and incompetence.

Regardless, she keeps the smile on her face. "It's fine, I completely get it."

She makes her way towards the bathroom when she hears Naruto's faint chuckle. "Still, waking me up was a bit harsh, eh?" She's around a wall, and as a result can't see him, but she imagines he's awkwardly rubbing the back of his neck. "I mean, it's just toothpaste, right?"

Hinata's grip tightens on the bag. "Yeah. Just toothpaste."


13 months into the relationship

"Hinata!"

She hears hurried knocks on the toilet door, and she straightens her back as her core tightens.

"W-what is it?"

"My arm wraps." He's still knocking, and his voice is raised to combat the loud pounding. "I gotta head to a meeting real quick, but I can't have my pasty ass arm showing."

Hinata feels like ripping her hair out. She's told him dozens—no, hundreds of times to keep the wraps in the bathroom, as opposed to the toilet, and it's finally coming to bite them in the behind.

"Well, I'm peeing." She sighs. "Can't you give me a minute?"

The knocks don't cease. "A minute and Kakashi's gonna lecture me for an hour. What's so difficult about pissing?"

Her face flushes out a mixture of embarrassment and frustration. "I can't do it under pressure."

She can practically feel her bladder turn to steel, and the increasingly loud knocks aren't helping her relax.

Then, the door swings open, and she barely registers the situation before her boyfriend's rummaging through the overhead cabinet.

"N-naruto!" She slouches with her arms around her knees, doing her best to preserve her modesty.

He glances at her for a second, then rolls his eyes before resuming his search. "It's nothing I ain't seen before."

He doesn't take long to find what he's looking for, and he disappears in a flash of orange.

Hinata's too agitated to be thankful for his promptness.


Naruto arrives home late, as always, but this time, he finds the bedroom door locked.

He's about to knock, but stops himself. He has a sneaking suspicion as to the reasoning behind this, so he sighs and heads back to the living room instead.

He knows he's not the perfect boyfriend. He's a little dumb, somewhat clingy, and not home as often as he wants to be.

The toilet situation, however, is something he can't find any faults in.

They've both seen each other naked hundreds of times. Hell, they even used to shower together, back when he had more free time and she was a little more head-over-heels. They've been sharing a bed for the past year, so it's hardly like pissing is the most embarrassing bodily function he's had to deal with. If she really didn't want him bursting in, she should have just sucked it up, and finished her business quicker.

But that's not even the most irritating part about the situation. Hinata's the entire reason his wraps were in the toilet to start with.

His prosthetic arm is still largely experimental, and the regenerative properties aren't perfect. On occasion, the cells become hyperactive, causing extra tissue growth, which leads to his bandages soaking through with zetsu-goop.

As rare as the occurrence is, it's inconvenient, and very gross, so it's something he'd much rather sort out in the comfort of his own home, but the last time he did it in the bathroom, Hinata complained that the sludge clogged the drains.

And Naruto wasn't fond of wasting time scooping up goop and taking it to the toilet to flush, so he opted for keeping the bandages in the toilet, and performing his duties there.

But lo' and behold - Hinata's somehow found a way to get pissed off at his attempt at efficiency. Kakashi's thrown the phrase 'catch-22' around over the years, and it feels like the perfect description for what's taking place here.

Still, it's been a long day for him, and he's not keen on arguing with Hinata to let him sleep in his own bed, so he sets up camp on the couch.

It's hardly the first time he's had to do this, and after taking into account their impressive record of arguments, he highly doubts it'll be the last.


23 months into the relationship

Hinata is…content.

Naruto's still just as swamped with his Hokage prep as ever, but if anything, it gives them an excuse to not argue as often. They only see each other either at night, when Naruto's too tuckered out to talk, or in the afternoon, when Naruto wakes up and is about to leave for more training.

Hinata hasn't been on the active Shinobi roster for a few months now, content on instead overseeing her clan's affairs, so she's flush with free time. For the first week or so, she was more than pleased with the R&R, but the novelty's worn off since, and she instead spends her free hours with a book in her hand, counting down the minutes till bedtime.

Others certainly have it worse, and it's that thought that keeps her from going insane. Sakura's all but heading the hospital, with Tsunade acting as leader only in name, and Ino's got it even worse, considering her father isn't around to show her the ropes around the barrier team. In their recent brunches they've done nothing but voice their jealousy at her lax lifestyle, saying that they'd literally kill to be in her position.

So, after taking all that into consideration, Hinata's perfectly content.

Maybe even content enough to have a baby.

It's an idea she's been toying with for a while. She's 22, which might be a little early (by civilian standards) but it's hardly going to turn any heads. Her own mother was around the same age when she first gave birth, and plenty of women from prestigious clans have their offspring young.

It'll even give her one more thing to occupy her time with. It certainly beats watching the clock while feigning interest in literature.

Naruto's always wanted a big family, and who knows? Maybe it'll be the key to bringing them closer.

So, she waits until he returns, and sets the mood up perfectly.

The lights are all dimmed, and the fireplace that's remained untouched throughout their entire tenancy is alight for once. There's a distinct smell in the air that indicates whatever she's burning is not meant to be disposed of in fire, but she can't bring herself to care all that much.

Naruto eventually arrives home with a few grocery bags in each hand, and he has to kick the door shut behind him.

When he takes a proper look at the apartment, he's at first a little stunned at the lighting situation, before his attention is stolen by the lit fireplace, and Hinata in the couch beside it.

"Uh…Hinata?"

"Hmm?"

"I'm like 90% sure we don't have spare firewood lying around." He points towards the flame. "So what's burning?"

"Condoms, birth control pills, plan Bs." She casually lists them off. "Anything that'll get in the way."

Naruto's always been slow on the uptake, so he tilts head inquisitively. "What for?"

A giggle escapes her lips. "Because we're gonna make a baby, idiot."

There's a brief silence, in which Naruto's face flashes through a series of expressions.

It's initially different stages of confusion, before settling into wide-eyed realisation, then complete joy as a grin stretches across his cheeks.

He lunges forward, dropping the bags in order to lift her, and she can't contain a yelp as she's spun in a circle, but it's thankfully suppressed as he presses his lips to hers.

They separate after a few seconds, and he's looking at her with boundless reverence.

"I love you."

She feels a warmth swell in her chest, and for the first time in months she returns a genuine smile. "I love you too."


They've been trying for 6 weeks now, and the baby making's done wonders for their relationship.

She feels like she's back in her teenage years, where Naruto had a constant ethereal glow to his skin, and from the way he looks at her, she's certain he sees the same glow in her. They don't argue - they don't even have minor disagreements. It's as if they're on the exact same wavelength, where he can read her every thought and does everything she wishes.

Even without the baby, Hinata feels like she's in paradise. She'd give anything for the rest of her life to be the last 6 weeks on repeat.


They've been trying for 9 months.

She's been considering the possibility for a while now, and for every week that passes without conception, her conclusion only gains more merit.

Hinata traces her hand across her abdomen, where a faint scar resides, and despite the emptiness in her chest she can't even bring herself to cry.

Her body's broken.

It's not an uncommon thing among Kunoichi - their bodies endure a lot while on active duty, and the vast majority of the ones burdened with infertility can't even track it down to one specific incident.

But Hinata can; the proof's there, plain as day on her skin, and just touching it brings back memories of the metal rod that was once impaled in her torso.

She can go to the hospital, but she doesn't see the point. They'll only confirm what she already knows to be true, except this time, she won't be the only person suffering for it.

There's Sakura.

Poor, brilliant Sakura, who at age 16, managed to rescue her from a life threatening injury at the hands of Pain.

Sakura would blame herself.

For being too sloppy; too inexperienced; too young to stitch Hinata back together properly, despite the fact that, save for Tsunade, nobody in the village at the time could have done a better job.

Sakura doesn't deserve that burden.

Hinata wishes she could offer that same blissful ignorance to Naruto, but she knows it wouldn't be right. After their rollercoaster of a relationship, the least she owes him is the truth.


There aren't any tears, but Hinata knows that's only because he wants to appear strong in front of her.

She wishes he'd just break down instead. At least then, it might prompt her to do the same. She'd give anything to finally let some tears loose.

"We could adopt, y'know."

Hinata absentmindedly fiddles with the hem of her shirt. "Yeah."

"…do you want to?"

"No."

The answer comes out harsher than she intended, but Naruto's not phased. He sits still beside her on the couch, and she directs her gaze towards the armrest beside her.

There's a few droll spots on it, and it takes a second to recall that Naruto occasionally slept on the sofa.

She can't even remember what stupid-somethings most of those occasions were for.

"Hinata."

She looks away from the armrest and towards him, and he's staring at her with more focus than she's ever seen in his eyes.

They're watery now, though, and the sight tugs at her heartstrings, which have been numb for hours.

"I don't care about kids." He reaches over, and grabs her right hand in both of his. "Really, I don't - they're just something extra. Like corn on Ramen, or menma."

She feels like she should laugh at Naruto's textbook dorkiness, but can't bring anything to the surface beyond a blink.

"It wouldn't make a difference whether I had zero kids, or a thousand of them." His voice cracks a little. "All I really need is you."

A tear finally falls down his cheek, and she feels a twinge of guilty relief. It's nonsensical, and selfish beyond belief, but she's glad someone is suffering alongside her.

"I love you." His hands grip her a little tighter.

Hinata raises a hand to her cheeks, and is disappointed to find them completely dry.

She sighs. "Yeah."


Hope you enjoyed!

(Discord incase you wanna contact me about anything: IzuWoo#4163)