Chapter 71

The mission begins

As requested, Naruto met Hinata at her house for breakfast. He knew he couldn't avoid Lord Hiashi forever, but luckily he wasn't there when Naruto showed up.

"Where's your dad," Naruto asked as he took a seat across from Hinata. "I thought he'd see us off before we go…" After what happened last time he left Naruto and Hinata alone together he was surprised that he trusted him alone with his daughter.

"He's in town but he said he'd meet us at the gate after breakfast," she smiled at him.

"Oh, okay," he replied as he started eating his breakfast. When he was done he looked at Hinata and asked her if she was ready to go.

"Yes, but…" Hinata gave him a hesitant look before she began again. "We have sometime before my father is due back, this time I'm sure his business will take him awhile to finish." She put her hand on his. "Is there anything you want to do before we leave?" She asked him as she took her jacket off, revealing a tight and low cut shirt.

Naruto quickly pulled his hand back. "What are you, crazy? Put your jacket back on!" Naruto yelled as he looked at her in disbelief. Sure they had kissed and even made out, but that was before her dad had caught them, things were different now.

"No, I don't think I will." She smiled at him, a smile he hadn't seen on her face before. She got up and came over to stand next to him.

He got up out of his chair and used the chair as a barrier between them. "Hinata, I don't understand why you're acting this way."

"We're alone, aren't we? No one will find out." She changed the strange smile into a sad pouting smile. "I see," she said. "Your feelings have changed…" She was trying to manipulate him and it worked.

He stared as her, shocked. "Hinata," his tone sounded hurt as he slowly scooted the chair out of the way. He reached out and grabbed her shoulders, "please don't ever think that. My feelings have changed, but they've only gotten stronger." She was looking down so he moved his hand off her shoulder and placed his fingers under her chin and lifted it until their eyes met. He realized being this close to her, touching her, made it very hard to keep his word to her father. Being in danger of kissing her, he dropped his hands and took a step back.

She hadn't responded to his confession and the pained look on her face hurt him as well, but he needed to keep his distance. "I was thinking…maybe this mission is stressing you out? Are you sure you're feeling up to going?" He asked in a patient voice.

While Hinata waited to reply the front door closed and he heard someone coming towards the kitchen, humming as they were walking.

"That's odd," Naruto thought, "It sounds like Hinata…but then again, maybe Hanabi is home," he knew her younger sister was often stopping by at sporadic times because of her schedule with her squad.

The humming carried into the kitchen and stopped at the doorway, and to Naruto's surprise, it was Hinata.

He looked back and forth from Hinata in the doorway to Hinata in the kitchen before the Hinata in the doorway activated her buyokigon.

"Father!" She shouted in disbelief as her other form puffed away in smoke, leaving her father behind.

Naruto couldn't believe his eyes. 'No wonder she was acting so weird, it wasn't even her…' he shook his head as he looked at Lord Hiashi. "That means you…you were trying to come on to me!" Naruto pointed at her father as he shouted.

"I was testing you. After what happened do you just expect me to leave you alone with my daughter?"

"Father, how could you do this?" Hinata had an image of her scantily clad self burnt into her brain.

"You did good Naruto, I can see that you took me seriously, that you will protect Hinata's honor."

"Is that what this is about? My honor? How about my honor as a shinobi? Or my honor as a member of this clan?" Hinata was fuming and Naruto had only seen her this angry one other time, when she left the village.

"Hinata, do not forget that I'm your father, and don't speak to me that way." It embarrassed Lord Hiashi that Hinata was speaking to him like this in front of Naruto. She did lose her temper at times and he usually invited her to talk to him openly when that happened, but this situation was different.

She slammed her fist on the wall "don't talk to me about which way to act, you just impersonated me to my boyfriend as a test!"

"Hinata, it's okay, calm down." Naruto didn't like seeing her upset or fighting with her father.

She looked over at Naruto and her glare softened. She looked back at her father as she walked over and stood next to Naruto.

"I don't expect you to always agree with me Hinata, but I am your father and I will decide what is best for you. You do need to think about your honor whether you like to acknowledge it or not. You're not just a shinobi, you're a Hyuga." He could feel himself laying down a boundry that might push her away rather than guide her. She hadn't ever been the rebellious type, never been one to cause him any trouble. Until today.

"Hinata," Naruto began, "Please listen to your father," he understood what Lord Hiashi was trying to do and respected that her father cared so much for his daughter, even if he did show it in weird ways.

After Naruto's speech Lord Hiashi looked at Hinata with a gratified smirk, thinking he had won the argument.

'I'm tired of this and it has to stop,' she thought as she looked up at Naruto.

"So, Naruto, you agree with him?" She asked.

Naruto gulped as he nodded.

It all happened so fast

Hinata quickly grabbed Naruto by the shirt and pulled him down until his lips were on hers and kissed him for a moment.

Lord Hiashi was frozen in place, not believing what his daughter had just done in front of him.

When she was done she let go of Naruto's shirt and glared over at her father.

"I'm capable of making my own choices and it's time you realized that." She turned around to Naruto "We're leaving," she said as she turned into the other room, grabbed some supplies and headed out the door.

Naruto couldn't help it and looked over at Lord Hiashi who was frozen with an angry look on his face. He quickly looked away, he remembered what happened last time her father saw them kissing and didn't want a repeat.

He was quiet as him and Hinata walked to the gates of the village, he figured she might be upset with him for agreeing with her father, but after a while decided to talk with her anyways.

"We're stopping in Iwagakure first, right?" He asked her.

"I thought that would be a good first stop." She was relieved that Naruto was talking to her, she had thought that he was put off by her anger towards her father, but judging from his tone things seemed fine. She took a look over at him and when he made eye contact she smiled.

Naruto took this as an opening to talk to her about what had happened. "Can I ask you something Hinata?"

"hm" Hinata nodded her head, she had a feeling she knew what this was about.

"What happened back at the house, it was weird, but why did you kiss me?"

Hinata started to blush but knew she had to answer. "Well, I know that something changed between us when you talked to my father. I can see that you're trying to keep your distance from me to make him happy. But we haven't gone through everything so that you could make my father happy. My feelings for you and yours for me have nothing to do with him. I wanted to show you both that point…" she faltered, wondering if he even understood what she meant.

"But do you disagree with what he says, about respecting your honor?"

"I think my honor should rest more on my abilities than just family tradition," she gazed at Naruto and noticed he seemed deep in thought. "What do you think?"

Naruto furrowed his eyebrows as he started to reply. "I think if I didn't care about your honor, then it would be the same as dishonoring you and your family. It would be the same as saying I didn't care about you…"

"Are you serious? I didn't know you were so old fashioned!" She started to laugh.

Naruto stopped walking and grabbed her hands in his. "You're important to me Hinata, and I want to do this right."

She liked how he held her hands. "Aren't we already doing this right? We're together…"

"Yes, but it's not like we're married," he blurted out. He instantly regretted it.

Hinata wasn't sure why he was going there. She wasn't ready to talk about getting married, she was only 18. She pictured herself getting married later in life, even though she knew she always wanted to be with Naruto.

Her eyes were distant and surprised as she removed her hands from Naruto's. "Are you suggesting we get married?" She asked reluctantly.

Judging from her reaction Naruto realized he had probably gone too far. He brought his hand up and rubbed the back of his head. "No, just pointing out the facts is all."

Hinata turned and started walking again and Naruto kept pace by her side.

"How do you picture getting married?" he asked her

She looked at him, disbelief still written on her features and just raised her eyebrows.

"Really, I want to know." He pleaded.

She hesitated but then knew she would probably tell him about it eventually anyways. "I picture myself being much older, at a time in my life when I'm ready to settle down." She wondered if she'd be in the position soon of telling Naruto she wasn't ready for this.

Naruto saw the way she grimaced and changed the subject.

They walked the entire day until nightfall, when they decided to rest for the night.

Naruto waited for Hinata to lay out her bedding and then laid his on the other side of the fire from where she was. She was irritated by his actions and picked up her bedding and laid it directly next to his. He didn't argue, he did want her next to him. He tried to distance himself like Lord Hiashi asked, but Hinata was right, she could do what she wanted to.

While they ate dinner Naruto hoped to quiz Hinata more about her thoughts on marriage. He was hoping she wouldn't repeat the grimace from earlier. He thought with how much she already loved him that she would want to get married, so her reaction surprised him. He hadn't had the luxury of having a family, and after spending so much time with Hinata and her family, he liked the idea of finally having one that he shared with her. This was another reason that he didn't like to see Hinata fight with her father and why he didn't want to go against him.

He never had much tact when something was on his mind.

"We should be reaching Iwagakura late tomorrow," he said to start the conversation.

"Yeah," Hinata agreed. She had been pretty quiet for the remainder of the afternoon.

"Can we talk about earlier?" He asked nonchalantly.

She froze for a moment, she wasn't sure where he was going to go with this, but if it was anything like earlier she wasn't sure if she wanted it. It was awkward for her to tell him she wasn't ready for marriage yet. "Sure…"

"I can see you're on edge about this, but I just want to know why you feel the way you do, if you don't want to talk about it, that's okay."

She sighed in relief, she was surprised Naruto would let her off the hook so easily.

After Hinata didn't respond he also sighed and looked down with a disappointed look on his face.

Hinata felt guilty, she loved Naruto, more than anything, and didn't like the idea of disappointing him.

"What did you want to know?" she asked reluctantly.

"I guess I just thought you'd have no issue with marriage since you have such strong feelings for me."

She did a double take. "Were you wanting to talk about my ideas of marriage in general, or ideas of our marriage?" She adjusted herself and laid down her eating utensils.

Naruto didn't want to freak her out, he sensed how tense she became as she tried to clarify his meaning. "Well, don't you see us getting married some day?" He thought it was better to answer her question with a question.

"I guess it just bothers me that you only wanted to talk about it after you heard about Shikamaru and Temari. We were together when we found out, I saw the look on your face when he told us."

"What look? I was just surprised, we had come back with them from the sand village and seen them since, and never did the mention it…you looked shocked too."

"I was," she replied. "You looked like someone had punched you in the stomach or something, you didn't look happy for them."

'Nice choice of words' he thought as he smiled at her. He wanted to grab her hand and pull her closer while they talked, but thought twice about it. "I was, I mean I am happy for them. It's like the same thing you said earlier, I didn't imagine getting married until I was much older too. But then you meet the right person and it makes sense."

Hinata's heart started to flutter and she wanted to kiss him for a second time that day. She was sure Naruto was keeping distance between them again on purpose and wanted to be respectful to him for as long as she could. She thought about what Naruto had said, "I know what you mean," she replied as she smiled at him "I do see us getting married someday, and even having a family…" the more she thought about it, she realized he was right, it wasn't that hard to imagine.

When she talked about them having a family a jolt went through Naruto's body. She had mentioned the one thing as close to his heart as she was. "A family…" he said in a dreamy voice and seemed lost in thought.

A moment ago her heart fluttered but now it ached. After seeing Naruto's reaction she saw how short sighted she was about him having a family. She got up to move and sat down directly next to him and laid her head on his shoulder.

"Naruto," she whispered in his ear as he looked down at her. "I'm your family now."

He wrapped his arms around her frame and whispered back "you're worth every ounce of your dad being mad at me," and leaned in to kiss her.