Chapter 50

Journey back to the leaf

After each of their conversations with Gaara they headed out of the Sand village and were on course to return to the Leaf. As soon as the group headed out, the girls led the group, chatting quietly back and forth to each other as the guys hung back.

"What do you think they're talking about," Naruto asked Shikamaru.

"Us," he answered, he was pretty sure that he was right.

Naruto and Shikamaru were both trying to see if they could overhear what was being said. After a few moments Naruto spoke again.

"This worked out pretty good for us."

"Yeah, we both are pretty lucky." Shikamaru returned. "Thanks for being such a loud mouth Naruto, who knew it would ever help me out so much," he teased.

"I know, somehow I didn't see it working out that way, but I'm happy it did," Naruto added.

"I'm getting pretty tired, do you think we could rest pretty soon, there's a good spot ahead that would be perfect." Shikamaru asked.

"Fine by me, I'll let them know we're going to stop soon." Naruto said as he went several paces ahead to talk to the ladies. Temari noticed him catching up to them and shot him a smile.

She started laughing as she looked back at Hinata, "See, I told you he would eaves drop eventually, I saw you two talking back there," she said to Naruto.

"Actually, we were hoping to rest for the night and I wanted to let you know. You guys seem to have plenty of energy, but Shikamaru and I have been traveling for a couple days already and we need to rest for a little bit." He returned.

The look on Temari's face changed and she looked back at Shikamaru and saw the worn look on his face. 'He had been traveling for a while already' she thought 'no wonder he's exhausted.'

"Sure Naruto, that sounds good," Hinata replied.

After a few minutes they pulled off to the area Shikamaru had mentioned and Naruto and Hinata gathered wood while Temari and Shikamaru prepared the rations.

Hinata was able to find enough wood for them to burn through the night to keep warm and Naruto helped her to move it closer to their site. Usually on missions the group slept near each other but the girls slept further from the boys so there were no issues. Naruto wondered if that would be the same tonight.

When they sat around the fire they were mostly silent and Naruto tried to get Shikamaru talking in front of Temari. "Hey Shikamaru, have you told Temari about how good you are at Shogi," Naruto asked.

"No, he hasn't," Temari smiled and looked at Shikamaru. "I did kind of guess though, since he was one of the strategists in the war," she replied.

Shikamaru wasn't sure what to add so he just stayed quiet. He could see what Naruto was trying to do and it made him feel more pressure than before.

"I think he also likes to cloud watch," Naruto added while trying to remember other facts personal to Shikamaru.

If he ever wanted Naruto to stop he was going to have to say something "Thanks Naruto," he added in a less than happy tone. Naruto picked up the hint.

"Cloud watch," Temari pondered. She curled up to Shikamaru "I prefer to star gaze, wanna?" she asked.

"Yeah…sure," Shikamaru answered with a smile on his face as he wrapped an arm around Temari.

Naruto got up to put a few more logs on the fire, as he did Hinata got up too.

"I'm going to get ready for bed, alright?" She told Naruto.

"Oh, okay," he said in a sad tone, he wasn't ready for his night with her to end just yet.

He watched her roll out her sleeping pack and pull it close to the fire. When she was done she grabbed Naruto's pack and rolled his out too right next to hers.

He decided to go and lie down and be close to Hinata. When he laid down she turned onto her side so she could still look at him and he scooted a little closer to her and covered her with his arms. They were face to face by the fire resting for the night. He leaned in and kissed her forehead and she snuggled in closer towards him and laid her head on his chest. After a while he could hear that Hinata had fallen asleep and he started to drift off too.

Hinata was the first to wake up and she noticed that she stayed curled up to Naruto all night. The fire was reduced to coals so she got up to put another log on the fire for breakfast. She noticed that Shikamaru and Temari were still asleep, they were in the same spot they were in when she went off to sleep, except that they had a few blankets over them. Temari's head was tilted down on Shikamaru's chest and his arm was draped over her, they were both still sitting up slightly. Hinata was happy for Temari, she knew how much she liked Shikamaru and was glad that things seemed to be working out for her. Although she spoke her mind a lot, Temari was just as shy about sharing her feelings as Shikamaru was. Hinata started looking for rations for something to cook.

She reached in her pack and remembered she had a few things she could cook and started pulling them out. She grabbed the pot they had used last night and rinsed it out and started to pour her things inside. As they started cooking Naruto began to stir and then woke up.

He saw that Hinata was already awake and cooking and came up to the fire and sat next to her, just watching her cook.

"Good morning," he said as he smiled at her.

"Morning Naruto," she returned, "Did you sleep well?" She knew she had fallen asleep first and hoped she hadn't snored.

"I slept like a baby, as soon as you fell asleep I was out," he replied.

Their talking started to wake Shikamaru up and he began to move, jarring Temari slightly in the process. He stopped moving as soon as he felt himself moving her. He was so comfortable that he didn't realize that he fell asleep this way. A moment ago he wanted to get up, but now he just wanted to stay with her like this. He laid his head back and rested for about 20 more minutes when the smell of the food started traveling over to him. He leaned his head down to whisper in her ear as he rubbed his hand on her back.

"You're so beautiful Temari, I hate to wake you up, but it's time," he watched as her eyes started to flutter and look around. Her eyes stopped when they made contact with Shikamaru and she smiled and pulled closer to him and closed her eyes again.

"I know you don't want to wake up, me either," he continued to whisper as he was interrupted.

"Hey, Shikamaru and Temari are awake," Naruto announced loudly to Hinata.

Temari let out a groan as she relaxed her grip on Shikamaru and started to get up. She looked at Shikamaru and rolled her eyes.

"I know how you feel," he answered as they walked closer to the fire to warm up and eat breakfast.

They all ate together around the fire and then quickly got started on their journey for the day. Shikamaru put out the fire and Naruto cleaned the pot while the ladies packed up their site. When they finished they set out towards the leaf again.

The couples walked together today, Naruto had no trouble talking to Hinata since he had a social personality anyways. Once in a while Shikamaru felt like he should be saying something and tried to overhear the questions that Naruto was asking Hinata so he could use those on Temari if he ran out of conversation topics. .

They covered about 2/3 the distance to the leaf before they discussed if they should rest again or if they should keep on going. They knew that once they returned to the village neither of them would have a night like they did last night. They wouldn't be able to get that close again with other villagers around and Naruto thought specifically of Lord Hiashi and how he might react.

"I say we rest, come back to the village refreshed, ya know?" Naruto said while rubbing the back of his head.

They all started laughing because they were feeling the same way.