Hinata jumped from tree branch to tree branch, eyes roving over every corner of the forest. She zeroed in on a small clearing a tiny distance away.
"Ahem, Shino-kun, Kiba-kun, Naruto-kun, we can set up camp over there," she said.
"Gotcha," said Naruto.
The four shinobi plus Akamaru jumped down from the treetops and landed on the forest floor with a soft thump.
Shino retrieved a storage scroll from an inside pocket of his overcoat. As he unfurled it and placed a hand on the word "tent," a leaf-green canvas appeared in his arms in a puff of smoke. Trust Shino to have packed a camouflage tent for the purposes of overnight camping.
Kiba's nose twitched as he took in a whiff of westerly wind. "There's a tea stand three miles away in the direction of Konoha. We can take a break there tomorrow morning before we reach home at night."
The other members of Team 8 nodded their assent.
"Okay, now it's time for dinner!" Naruto said far too loudly, almost single-handedly defeating the purpose of having a camouflage tent in the first place.
Shino and Kiba looked at him in reproach. Or at least, Kiba did. It was hard to tell with Shino due to the eternal presence of sunglasses on his face.
Naruto unfurled his storage scroll with an excited sweep of his lone arm. Out popped four cups of noodles.
Kiba groaned. "Naruto, why do you have to always pack ramen? You always pack rations like we're hiding out in an underground bunker."
Naruto blinked at Kiba owlishly. "Huh? Underground bunker? What are you talking about?"
"Kiba, Naruto did not pack cup ramen because it is a non-perishable food suitable for underground bunkers. He packed it because he is addicted to ramen like some people are addicted to cigarettes," Shino explained.
"For the love of – it was a figure of speech, Shino! I know he's addicted to ramen! Don't take everything so literally!"
"I'm not addicted to ramen," protested Naruto.
"Yes, you are," said Shino calmly.
"Am not!"
"Everyone, please stop arguing," Hinata broke in. "Shino-kun, we can discuss Naruto-kun's addiction later. Let's eat."
"Yeah, yeah, okay," Kiba said.
Akamaru barked in agreement. Shino gave a slight nod of his head, unclasping his satchel and rummaging around in it.
Surprisingly, Naruto made no objection when Hinata called his extreme ramen love an addiction, a fact that did not go unnoticed by Hinata's teammates.
Kiba looked at Hinata and Naruto quizzically. Well, that was...strange.
Shino abruptly paused his rummaging. "Naruto, I'm afraid that we may have trouble cooking your ramen. Why? Because we have no firewood for boiling water."
Naruto laughed almost triumphantly. "Don't worry about that, Shino. Watch this!"
He made a series of one-handed signs while somehow holding onto the cup noodles. Wait, when did he even learn how to do that? Kiba wondered.
"Boil Release!"
The cup ramen in Naruto's palm cooked instantly. A pleasant steamy aroma of miso ramen arose from the container.
He repeated the same process with the remaining three cups of noodles, remaining completely oblivious to Kiba's slack jaw and Shino's insects buzzing in shock.
Naruto plonked himself down on a nearby log, trying to break apart a pair of wooden chopsticks with great difficulty. Still oblivious to the extreme confusion he had generated.
"Naruto, what is Boil Release?" Shino finally asked.
"It's a kekkei genkai combination of Fire Release and Water Release," Hinata said.
Her teammates whirled around in shock. Since when did Hinata know about this?
"Yup," said Naruto cheerfully. "The greatest thing about it is that I don't have to wait three minutes for the noodles to cook anymore."
"At what time did you suddenly acquire a new kekkei genkai?" asked Shino again.
"Naruto-kun acquired Boil Release during the war," Hinata elaborated. "He befriended the Gobi, Kokuo, who gave him the power to heat his chakra to the boiling point."
"When did that even happen?!" Kiba almost yelled. "We were all there during the war. I didn't see you talking to the Gobi."
"This happened before you guys all showed up," said Naruto. "It was just Octopops and me – we were fighting Obito and he threw all the Edo Tensei jinchuuriki at us, and then Kakashi-sensei and Uber Brows-sensei came to help, and that's when I met all the other Tailed Beasts and became friends with them. Then we bumped fists and they gave me their powers!"
Naruto went back to clumsily trying to hold his chopsticks in his left hand, apparently under the impression that his explanation made sense.
The explanation most definitely did not make any sense to Kiba and Shino, but Hinata, once again, seemed to have no problem comprehending whatever Naruto was talking about.
What. The. Hell?
Naruto had apparently befriended not just the Kyuubi, but all of the Tailed Beasts. And he had somehow acquired an extremely rare kekkei genkai from the Gobi and was using it to...cook noodles. The world was going insane.
And Hinata was going along with all of this like it was old news. Why did she know all of this while none of their other friends did? What was Naruto telling her? Did they talk a lot?
After finishing dinner, Kiba grabbed Shino by his collar and dragged him off to the edge of the campsite.
"How long have they been like that?" Kiba asked, gesturing towards Hinata, who was trying to help Naruto hold his chopsticks properly (though he was refusing, saying that he needed to be self-reliant).
"From what I have observed, they have been interacting with great frequency over the past few months," said Shino hesitantly. "However, I was not aware of the extent of their close relationship."
"Yeah!" Kiba exclaimed. "We're supposed to be Hinata's best friends! Why didn't she tell us that she was...really close to him, or whatever they're supposed to be?"
"Kiba, I highly doubt that Hinata would ever knowingly exclude us in such a way. I suggest that we ask her tomorrow about the nature of her friendship with Naruto."
They glanced back towards the campsite.
"Good night, Naruto-kun," said Hinata. "I really need to rest now. My eyes are a bit sore from keeping my Byakugan on all day."
"Your eyes hurt? Hang on, I've got just the thing." Naruto closed his eyes and concentrated, his left hand bubbling with the crimson chakra of the Kyuubi.
He gently massaged her eyelids, easing the tension in her muscles immediately with the Kyuubi's healing power.
Hinata sighed in relief and smiled at Naruto. "Thank you so much, Naruto-kun. You're always so kind to me."
What was going on?
"Shino...he just massaged her eyes. Tell me I didn't imagine that," Kiba said.
"We can ask her tomorrow," Shino repeated firmly.
"Hinata, wake up."
"Mmmm...five more minutes," she mumbled.
"We have to get going soon. Please wake up."
Hinata grudgingly opened her eyelids just a sliver. Something yellow and shiny twinkled at the edge of her vision. Maybe it was gold. She smiled sleepily and reached out to grasp the object in her hand.
It felt nice and soft. Hmmm...why was the gold soft? She tugged on it a bit more.
Someone kept shaking her shoulder. She frowned and finally opened her eyes completely.
Naruto was staring down at her, smiling softly when she finally woke up.
She froze. The thing she'd sleepily grabbed wasn't gold. It was Naruto's hair.
She let go immediately.
"I'm so sorry, Naruto-kun! I just – sorry! I was just sleeping and I didn't realize – "
Naruto didn't seem remotely bothered. "It's okay. You're up now, right? Let's get going!"
Akamaru pushed his nose into her hand and whined, urging her to move, as Hinata's teammates beheld the scene with bemusement.
Naruto and Hinata walked far ahead of the rest of their little group, with Akamaru trotting behind at a leisurely pace. Kiba and Shino brought up the rear, which was just as well with them. The incident that occurred in the morning had brought up a very inconvenient facet of Hinata: her shyness and tendency to fluster.
"I no longer think it is wise to question Hinata about her friendship with Naruto," Shino said in a low voice. "Why? Because in the six years of being her teammate, I have long since noticed that the subject of Naruto is a very sensitive one for her, and as her friends, we should not cause her any undue distress."
"Yeah, I guess," Kiba mumbled, staring at the well-worn dirt path. "I mean, she's liked Naruto since forever. She must be trying so hard to talk to him without letting her shyness get in the way."
"Yes," said Shino. "However, I must confess that I do not know why she was so comfortable with him yesterday but not today."
Kiba shrugged. "Hinata's always been a bit strange like that. One minute she becomes this super brave and strong person, and the next minute she goes back to being a wallflower. I can't figure it out."
Shino paused. "But what are Naruto's feelings regarding this subject?"
"We'd have to ask Sakura or someone else about that. We don't know him as well as his teammates do."
"Quite," agreed Shino.
They exchanged a conspiratorial look. Team 7 interrogation it was.
A/N: And chapter 3 is up now! I really like writing Team 8 (although Team Guy is my favorite Naruto team ever). And NaruHina fluff. :)
Also, I hope I'm not the only one who looked at Naruto's Boil Release and thought about him using it to cook ramen. Because Naruto would definitely make everything revolve around ramen, you know? I mean, he even brought it up when he met the other jinchuuriki and bijuu...remember how he was all, "You died without eating good ramen and kissing a girl!" to Yagura?
Hope this breaks up the sadness of the last chapter...I have plans for oblivious Hinata, which is just as hilarious as oblivious Naruto.
Thanks to Ninja Fan, nirmtheworm14, Guest, El Publicano, Papaleta, ms chocoholic19 and mihikamomaya for the reviews for the last two chapters! I remember some of you guys from my previous story "No Ramen, No Life." :)