Chapter 5

Awake day 2

Naruto was awake the next morning when Hinata came to visit him.

"You're back," he stated with a smile, "is that for me?" He asked pointing at the flower.

"Yes," she said, and she replaced the flower on his bedside table. As she went to step back from the bed Naruto grabbed her hand again, like he had done the day before. She didn't jump today.

He held her hand while he closed his eyes and laid his head down on the propped up pillow. He raised her hand up to his lips and kissed it softly and rested her hand on his heart.

Hinata started blushing and wasn't sure what to say or do. She just kept a hold of his hand. She had wanted to be so close to him for such a long time now that she couldn't believe this was finally happening.

She was standing at an awkward angle and resolved to sit down next to him on the bed with the little room that was there. When she sat down he opened his eyes again and looked started.

"Oh, Hinata," he said with tired surprise.

His eyes appeared dilated. He was hooked up to a tube today that wasn't there yesterday. She pieced together that he was probably on medication to help with his pain.

"Are you in much pain Naruto?" she asked

"No, I'm feeling pretty good," he responded. He let go of her hand and reached out to touch her hair.

Hinata flinched because she wasn't expecting it, and his hand stopped momentarily in mid-air when she flinched, but then he proceeded. He felt her long dark locks in his hand and smiled at her. "Your hair is so soft, it's like feathers."

"You talk as if she's a bird Naruto," Sakura said as she and Sai walked into the room. Hinata hadn't even heard them because she lost her ability to focus. "Sorry to interrupt like this Hinata."

"I've read that one only gets that close to a girl if he likes her, but you like Naruto too, don't you Hinata?" Sai questioned.

Naruto quickly dropped his hand at the same time that Hinata stood up from the bed.

"Sai, would you shut it?" Naturo growled.

Sai pulled out a book and cited "When a woman likes a man it is often easy to tell because of a few key things that she will do. 1. She will blush when said man is around 2. She will speak softly or gently "

"Sai if you say one more word I'll punch you myself," Sakura interrupted.

Having been punched by Sakura before, Sai decided to shut his book and his mouth.

"Anyways," Sakura began, "I was looking for you Hinata."

Hinata tried her best to smile and asked "Me Sakura?"

"Yes, I wanted to see if you could make some healing balm for Naruto and for some of the other patients here. I know you made one for Naruto that he used after the preliminary tunin exams that was pretty effective. Do you think you might be able to?"

"Yes," Hinata answered "It's pretty easy to make. If I get started I can have an initial batch done for you in just a few hours. I will bring it when I come back to visit Naruto this afternoon."

"That would be great Hinata, I really appreciate it!"

"It's no trouble at all." Hinata turned to look at Naruto, "Bye Naruto, I'll see you later."

"You'll be back this afternoon though, right?" he asked

"Naruto's on a lot of pain medicine right now, he seems so out of it," Sakura mentioned.

"Yeah, I noticed he seems very tired." She continued looking at him and hesitated, "But I better get going so I can work on that for you Sakura. Bye Sai," she smiled.

He and Sakura nodded at her as she closed the door.

Through the door she could hear Sakura yelling at Naruto "You should know better than to lead her on like that Naruto!"

"I'm not leading her on!" he yelled back.