Chapter 22
The first night
They were silent for a while before they started talking again.
"Hey Hinata," Naruto whispered.
"Yeah," she whispered back
"Is it okay if we talk a little bit, I'm really not sleepy."
"Well, I do want you to rest, but if it will help then sure." She moved her chair closer to his bed so they didn't have to whisper so much.
"I'm glad you're here." He said
"Me too," she replied. "Last time I visited you you were on so much pain medicine and were totally out of it."
"I hope I wasn't rude or anything, sorry if I was," he mentioned.
She pulled her hair to one side and replied "no, you weren't rude at all. It was cute actually." She did want to be friends but she needed to know if there was something more, if he wanted more. She was trying to flirt with him and hoped it was working.
When Naruto didn't speak she thought maybe he had fallen asleep. She sat back in her chair and breathed out, and then decided to get up and walk around the room. As she stood up he grabbed her hand, "Don't go." He whispered.
"So he did remember this from last time," she thought. She slid her hand away from his grasp and he left his hand open, like he was missing something. She slid her fingers between his and he tightened his grasp.
"You didn't mind last time, did you?" He asked her.
She responded by holding his hand close to her lips and lightly kissing the back of his hand.
"Hinata," he whispered as he opened his hand to let go of her fingers. He moved his hand up and turned the back of his hand to lightly stroke along her jaw bone. "You're so pretty."
"You…you think I'm pretty," she stammered. She had wondered for so long if he thought that, and it felt good to hear how he felt.
"Of course I do," he responded. "And not just when you're standing and looking calm, but even when you fight, even tonight with blood everywhere, I know it's weird to say, but even then. You always are."
Even in the dark she could see a dark spot on his arm where his cut was, it looked like blood soaked through the bandage. "Let me take a look at that," she said as she turned on a table side lamp. She leaned over him and looked at his arm that was regenerated with the juitsu from the 2nd Hokage. "Amazing," she uttered as she looked his arm over. She found the cut and changed the bandage, it wasn't very deep but it wasn't wrapped tight enough to stop the bleeding. After she finished she went to turn the light back out and sat down. She resolved not to talk much more to Naruto for the night so that he got some rest and she didn't lose her mind.
"Thank you," he whispered as he turned in bed
"No problem," she whispered.
After about 20 minutes she heard him snoring and knew that he would be waking up rested in the morning.
When the morning came a medic came in to give Naruto meds and a change of clothes.
"Ma'am, I'm going to have to ask you to step outside," the medic said to her.
She still felt strongly about protecting him after seeing his life in jeopardy again. Hinata sat there and looked back and forth between the medic and Naruto.
Naruto could see that Hinata felt uncomfortable about leaving, and he had just put on clean clothes the night before. "If she says no then it's no." Naruto piped in. "Besides, I just put on clean clothes last night."
It was nice that Naruto was okay with her being overbearing, she looked over at Naruto to see him smiling. At least he wasn't complaining. If he began she probably would consider giving him his space.
After the medic left they were quiet again, she wasn't sure what to talk to him about, but thankfully, he was the talkative one.
"Aren't you tired," he asked her
"No, not at all," she replied.
"Are you staying tonight too?" he asked
"I planned to," she started to walk back to her chair, "if that's okay?"
"Yeah, I'd like that," he smiled again "You're the best Hinata," he whispered.