"It's sticky." Naruto wiped his hands on his orange jacket, trying to dislodge the tree sap and succeeding only in ruining his clothes.
And I just washed it yesterday.
He scrunched up his nose in distaste.
Hinata, on the other hand, hummed softly to herself, knees and elbows caked in thick mud, palms green with grass stains. Serene and unperturbed with how messy and gross this part of Konoha's forest was.
Yeah, she was different.
He went back to his own gardening, pushing the irksome, glue-like texture of the sap to the farthest reaches of his mind. It was odd how challenging this was, when he could easily ignore the coppery scent of blood when he was in a fight.
The sun beat down mercilessly on the back of his neck and beads of sweat soaked his torso.
And the sap. The stupid tree sap.
It had gotten into his nails.
You're such a big baby, Kurama said. The toddler who won the Fourth Ninja War.
I am NOT. Naruto glared at his belly. It was a good thing that no one but Hinata was out here. They'd think he was insane.
They already do. Kurama's voice was smug. By the way, you should duck.
Duck? What do you –
He yelped as a baseball-shaped glob of tree sap came hurtling towards him at light speed and burst in his face like a bubble.
I told you to duck.
He wiped the gooey sap out of his eyes, but Hinata had clearly done something to it when she threw it at him, and now his hand was glued to his cheek.
Kurama guffawed.
Naruto squinted at Hinata through the gap between his fingers.
She was still humming to herself all innocently, like she hadn't just played a shocking prank on par with the ones he used to do when he was a kid.
Naruto grabbed a fistful of mud with his free hand, taking careful aim.
Hinata won. The stains wouldn't come out of his clothes for weeks.
A/N: For the prompt "It's sticky." And for the person who asked, these are random, not chronological.