Sunshine Stories

Basically, all my NaruHina oneshots, twoshots, and drabbles will go in here. Because NaruHina is dorky love, and there's very little decent stuff out there. While I do love reviews, I don't mind as long as you read and enjoy it. There may be background pairings and an assortment of ratings, but nothing NC-17 because hey, I'm not even that old yet.

- - - - - First Sunshine Story - - - -

Title : Mimei - Early Morning

Length : Long.

Rating : PG. Fight scene and a hug. A SEXY hug.

- - - - -

"Hey Hinata!"

It's never "Hello, Hinata," or "How are you, Hinata?" or even "Good morning, Hinata" with a nod like Neji always does. It's always "Hey!" and it's always accompanied by a cheery smile and a wave, and he looks so enthusiastic that she always smiles back. And then she blushes, because his exuberance makes her feel self-conscious.

He hurries to catch up to her. It's six o'clock in the morning - her time. It's the time when she always goes to practice, so she can be by herself and not have to worry about other people and how much better they are than her. That's where she's going right now, admiring the solitude of the streets. She's not quite sure what Naruto's doing here, though. He seems the type to sleep in and then fall out of bed cursing when the alarm clock rings, followed by a series of amusing mishaps. Weird.

Then again, she has to admit that he's changed since he came back. Taller, for one. More serious. And the memory of Sasuke always in his eyes.

"Good morning, Naruto-kun," she murmurs. He's beside her now. Too close. But she's not a little girl any more, and she manages to fight back the blush.

"Neji-kun said you always trained by yourself, so I thought I'd come along. It sucks to have to train alone, doesn't it? I did a lot of it while I was with Jiraiya. He's so inattentive, haha..." She smiles softly, and Naruto realizes that he's babbling.

"Oh! Sorry. I, uh, talk too much. It's all Sakura-chan's fault. She rubs off on me." He ruffles the back of his hair. Why does he do that? She wonders if it itches, or if it's just habit.

"I don't mind," she says.

"Really? You're so quiet, Hinata!"

"Is... is that bad?" Aw, no. She thought she'd lost the stammer. As soon as he comes around it returns in full force. Funny. She thought she was over this.

"No! It's cute."

"...You're not making fun of me?" She doesn't meet his eyes.

"What? I would never be that mean, Hinata-chan!"

She smiles. She believes him. "I know." They're heading under the gate, and her practice field is just up ahead. There's bits of broken wood lying around from Lee's last assault. She steps over them and heads to the dummies. Naruto stops a few metres back, and she's unsure of what to do. Normally she works on her taijutsu and byakugan, but it would be nice to have flesh to connect with instead of oak that splinters and really, really hurts.

But she doesn't want to touch him, because she'd faint.

"Hinata!"

She turns around. He's got a confident half-smile on his face, and her heart skips a beat because -

"Fight me."

"W-what!"

He nods, and his voice has a 'duh' edge to it. "I want to see how you've grown while I was away. You don't fight very much, so I don't really know you that well."

"Um, Naruto-kun..."

"Hn?"

She pulls her jacket up to her face, despairing. Oh no. Nonono. How can she? Then she steels herself, because she needs to be confident - she's learned that much from him - and she meets his eyes, brilliant blue and vaguely mischevious.

"Okay."

She pulls her jacket off, since she'd sweat right through it anyway, and ties it around her waist. Underneath, her t-shirt is plain black. There's no point in wearing fishnet during training. Hinata assumes the stance, and waits.

He grins, and forms a handseal (was he always that fast?). There's the usual 'poof' and explosion of white dust, and there's four of him. She activates the byakugan, wincing as she feels the veins around her eyes stretch.

The Narutos leap into the air, forming more handseals. She has a mild panic attack before realizing that she is in no danger if he attempts a close-range attack; her Shugohakke would crush him, and he knows it. She needs to think quickly.

He manages to dodge the shuriken she sends to slow his movement. Luckily, they accomplish their purpose: he's been knocked out of alignment with himself. She rushes forewards, trying to get into close-range so she can land some hits. She can feel her chakra automatically clumping near her foreward fist, and her heart is thumping. Confidence...

Her first smash is blocked by an arm, but the force is enough to evaporate the bunshin. The other Narutos are suprised; they hadn't expected her to take it so seriously. She smiles to herself and kicks out at another, who dodges - it wasn't a real stroke, anyway - and she spins around, feeling silly.

Perhaps a mild Juuken would help; at least she'd be able to remove the clones. She doesn't quite like the way one of the Narutos is holding his fist, though; using her byakugan, she can see chakra beginning to accumulate...

Her palm smashes his chin before she's pulled off and tossed in the air. She flips and dodges the kunai (stupid Naruto, she thinks fondly, I have eyes in the back of my head) and grabs it and lobs it back. It misses, of course, but she's back on the ground and running behind the offending clone.

The other one thankfully succumbed to the Juuken; there's only three Narutos left to deal with, and she can feel the fight now. Wait. Three. There's two in front of her. One of those two is accumulating chakra in its palm again, and the third is -

She squeals as a foot connects with her back and she stumbles, twisting and raising her arm. The clone grabs it and yanks her forewards. Please! she thinks, then realizes that it won't do any good.

She pulls herself foreward and punches the clone in the face. It yells - "OW!" - and blood spurts from its nose. For a second she's afraid it's Naruto, but it evaporates and she breathes out.

"Come on, Hinata," he says from behind her. She doesn't need to turn around; she can see both of him perfectly fine. "I'm not even sweating."

Not even sweating, she thinks. You say that, but you're using a lot of chakra to mantain your clones. You can't keep it up forever. But neither can I.

She smiles sweetly and rushes forewards, preparing to use her Hakke Kachuushou (Eight Trigrams Vortex Palm, her own specialty. She and Hanabi had worked on it for months. Hinata had achieved it first. She was rather proud of that). She manages to circle behind and catch one of the Narutos just as he's turning around. Her chakra keeps her hand locked to the target as the other one strikes. It's a weak move, but it's useful for opponents who won't stay still. Tactics, and all that fun stuff.

Naruto manages to stifle a rather rude word that she knows he didn't know before his absence and tries to grab her hand. A burst of chakra scorches it and the other clone manages to get a choke-hold around her neck. She kicks it in the groin. Wait. Two left. Either one of them is Naruto, or -

How could she have missed it? The real Naruto is hiding in a tree, where he probably knows she can see him. The choking clone evaporates, followed by the gurling one as she punches it where the kidneys would be. She blushes and stands, embarrased, her sweater lying abandoned on the ground a few feet away and probably filthy from all the running-around she's done. Mother will be very disappointed.

Naruto jumps down and walks over, picks it up.

"You must think I'm an idiot," she says. "I should have seen that. I'm sorry, Naruto-kun."

He laughs, but it's not malicious at all.

"I don't think that at all. If any of your attacks had hit me, I'd really have been hurt. Besides, you were holding back."

"Yeah." She knows she shouldn't have, that she won't grow, but blah blah blah. It's more embarrasing that she fell for such a childish trick. She's fifteen.

"It's okay. I was holding back too."

"Of course you were, Naruto-kun."

"Hey! Now you're making fun of me."

"No I'm not! I mean - er -"

He looks at her, affecting injury. That expression looks odd on him. Then he grins, and it's infectious, and she giggles. And then she's ashamed, because she doesn't giggle. And then chemical reactions happen in her brain and she runs and she hugs him.

Her sweat is cold on her shirt, but he's really warm and it's okay. She's trembling - with fright or with cold or with leftover adrenaline, she's not sure. Still nervous. Um. Uh...

"I'm glad you're back," she says. Her voice is perfectly level.

"Yeah."

She should really have tied her hair back, she thinks. She's pretty sure it's in both of their eyes. But he doesn't seem to mind, and he pushes his nose a little deeper into it. He's hugging her, and suddenly the world is a lot more complicated. She feels a little dizzy.

"Hinata?"

The sun rises.

She faints.

- - - - -

OMG SLEEP.