Chapter 76

Meeting with Tsuchikage

In the morning, Naruto woke up and looked over at Hinata. She was still peacefully asleep and he just gazed at her for a moment before finally deciding to get up. 'She's so beautiful' he thought as he watched her quietly breathe in and out onto the pillow she was hugging.

He got out of bed quietly, got dressed, and headed out to get some breakfast for the both of them. He began walking through the village and villagers nodded at him as he passed, he heard many whispers of 'lady Hinata,' and 'not getting married,' on the way. He couldn't be upset with Hinata, of course. He wondered if he had come to his senses sooner if she might have a different response. It did bother him to hear the whispers though, but in time he'd probably get used to them.

He stopped at a bakery shop and picked up a couple things. He wasn't sure what Hinata would want so he picked up about five things for her to try, figuring he'd eat whatever one's she didn't want. When he tried to pay, the shop keeper wouldn't take his money.

"You've done enough for all of us, I wouldn't dream of it!" He said as he put the pastries in a box for Naruto.

Naruto was a little dumbfounded, he had worked his whole life for acceptance in his own village and even people from other villages respected him now. "…Thanks," he said with a smile as he took the box.

On his way back to Hinata he ran into Kurotsuchi.

"Naruto, I was just headed to see you and Hinata," She looked down and saw the box in his hands. "What do you have there?"

"Just breakfast for Hinata, do you want to walk back with me?" He nodded his head in the direction he planned to head.

"Actually, I have many preparations for tonight, but you'll both join us for dinner, right?"

Naruto was a little disappointed, he wanted to start their business with the Tsuchikage. "Yes, thank you. Does the Tsuchikage already know we're in town?" Naruto knew the old man was impatient and he fully expected to be woken up by him this morning.

"Oh, he knows. That's why I'm so busy today! I'll see you guys later," she took off before he could ask her what that meant.

'What the heck does that mean?...Maybe he always has her running around,' he thought. He shrugged his shoulders and continued walking back to his room to meet Hinata.

When he opened the door he saw Hinata sitting on her bed in a towel brushing her hair. He felt himself let go of the box and started to blush. He thought he should back out and shut the door, but he couldn't bring himself to look away.

Hinata also started to blush and held her hand up to make sure her towel wouldn't fall off. While doing so she dropped her brush, and then she met Naruto's eyes and then looked down again. She was hoping to be done before he returned and hadn't considered the possibility of him returning so soon.

He gazed at her as her dark wet hair bunched together in strands, and watched it fall over her porcelain skin while it glowed with a rosy color.

"…N…Naruto," she said shyly.

Her voice brought him back to reality.

"Sorry Hinata," he shouted as he quickly stepped out and closed the door. He stood outside reeling for a moment before she opened the door to let him in. She was dressed but Naruto still couldn't get the image of her out of his mind. He avoided looking at her and looked the other direction as he handed her the box for breakfast.

"What's this?" she asked as she took the box.

"Breakfast, I thought you might be hungry." He kept looking off into a corner of the room.

"Thanks Naruto," Hinata moved over to a table and set out a pastry for each of them. "Are you going to sit down?" She asked hesitantly. She was just as embarrassed as he was over what had just happened, but at least she was making an effort to try to move past it.

He moved closer to the table and took the chair across from her, not next to her, and then stared down at his pastry. Hinata pretended not to notice and they continued eating in silence. When they were done Naruto finally spoke to her.

"I just saw Kurotsuchi coming back from the bakery. She said the old man wanted us to come over for dinner tonight." The shock from seeing her before had started to wear off, and it was getting awkward sitting together and not talking.

"That's great!" Hinata sounded much happier than he did about it.

"What's great? Didn't you think we'd get to meet him this morning?"

"Well, kind of. But at least we are still able to see him today. I didn't expect a Kage to be able to make much time to meet with us for our visits and planned about a week for each hidden village."

"A week? That's way too long!" Naruto complained.

Hinata made a hurt look. "It's not that bad, it gives us more time together, is there a rush to get back home?"

"…No…it's just that I didn't consider a long time frame, that's all." He reassured her. The sooner he got back home to sooner he could talk to Lord Hiashi about his plans for him and Hinata for the future.

"Look on the bright side, at least we get to spend the day together! And they have beautiful sights around this village, why don't we sightsee?"

Naruto agreed and they both headed out to look around the village together, asking other villagers on the way about sights they should see.

Naruto watched Hinata carefully as she pointed out sight after sight of the things she loved; mostly waterfalls and gardens, which didn't surprise him much. He watched her features as someone who was very much in love with her, and it was written all over his face everytime he looked at her.

She always noticed but pretened not to because she wasn't sure what to say. There were moments when her eyes captured his, and after a smile she would always look away.

After several hours, Hinata decided to take a break and pulled some lunch out of her satchel and handed half of it to Naruto.

"Bean cakes, thanks Hinata!" Naruto took a big bite and smiled at her.

She laughted at his reaction and then ate her bean cake as well. She set one more cake on a paper towel between them to share. When she was done she reached down for the cake at the same time Naruto did and they bumped heads.

"Ow!" Naruto shouted while Hinata rubbed her head.

"You go ahead Naruto," she tried to smile but was in a little pain.

Naruto broke the cake in half, popped his half into his mouth, and then scooted close to Hinata. He scooted her hair out of the way and then looked at her forehead. He noticed a slight bump and leaned in to kiss it.

She looked up at him and thought it was best that they head back. "We should probably go and get ready for dinner."

Naruto stood up and reached his hand out while she placed her hand in his and was guided upwards. They held hands all the way back to the village.

When they got back to Iwagakure they saw that many people were in the streets, like they were preparing for a parade. Naruto wanted to stop and ask, but they didn't have time. They were already in jeopardy of being late for dinner.

He stood out of the room so that Hinata could get dressed. When she opened the door she looked amazing. She was wearing a summer dress with a small knitted shawl, but he felt something was missing. He looked down and picked a red flower and put it behind her ear. She leaned in to kiss him lightly on the lips and then pulled back slowly.

He brought his hand up to rub her cheek. "Hinata…" he smiled at her.

"You better get ready," she pulled him by his shirt into the room and rested her head against his chest. He started blushing but brought his hand up to rub her back and then lightly held her head in place.

"I can hear your heart…" she whispered while releasing her grip on his shirt. He moved his hand from her head to her now free hand. He rested both of their hands back on his chest.

They were both so lost in the moment that they had forgotten about the door being open. Kurotsuchi stood in the doorway and after she realized they hadn't noticed her presence, decided to clear her throat. Both of them jumped slightly.

"I didn't mean to sneak up on you guys, the door was open…" she remarked, trying to let them know she hadn't intended to come snooping on them.

"Its fine," Hinata reassured her. "Naruto just needs to change and we'll be ready to go." She walked into the doorway where Kurotsuchi was and closed the door for Naruto.

"Thanks again for getting us a presence with the Tsuchikage, especially on such short notice." Hintata bowed her head.

"You should wait before you thank me," she begun but was interrupted when Naruto opened the door. He had put on a nice shirt and had made an effort to comb his hair. Hinata had a hard time taking her eyes off of him and completely forgot her conversation with Kurotsuchi.

"I'm ready, where is this dinner at?" Kurotsuchi blinked twice, it was weird to see Naruto dressed up, she wasn't sure if she liked seeing him like that.

"I was just trying to tell Hinata, but I suppose telling you both at once is better. Dinner will be after the parade, we're waiting on you so we can start." She urged.

"We can catch up, we'll only be a few minutes behind." Naruto mentioned.

"Yeah," Hinata echoed "Is that okay?"

"I'm afraid not. The thing is, this is a parade in your honor, and you will also be leading it, so…" she shifted between her two feet until one of them spoke.

"But you didn't mention this before, a parade?" Naruto blurted out.

"That's our tradition here!" Kurotsuchi yelled at him.

"That's no problem, we were just caught off guard, but we're very honored." Hinata tried to save face and grabbed Naruto's hand and squeezed it too hard.

"Yeah, no hard feelings, I had no idea. We'd love to be in the parade, lead the way!" Naruto added.

After they had arrived and heard many cheers from the crowd, they walked through and shook hands with many of them. At the end of the Parade was the Tsuchikage who wanted to say kind words about Naruto and Hinata in front of the people of his village.

When they reached him they noticed a smile on his lips and were glad the visit would start off in a positive manner.

"Naruto and Hinata, hero's from the Leaf!" was his first statement used to address them. "We are honored by your visit and hope your stay will be for some time."

"Actually, we only have a short visit planned this time around," Naruto got right to the point.

The Tsuchikage glared, he was expecting better news.

"Iwagakure has a reputation for some of the most beautiful gardens and after seeing some today I know we can't stay away for long." Hinata added to soften the mood.

It worked. He was back to smiling, and even Naruto looked at her and raised his eyebrows, as if to say, 'nice going.'

"That is true. Our gardens are world renound. Did you know even the hidden cloud village Kage visits here every few years just to see our gardens. There's nothing like them anywhere." He boasted as he snapped his fingers.

At once guards came up and lifted his platform. "We're headed to my home," he ordered as the men picked him up.

The parade led all the way back to the Tsuchikage's house. People were reaching out and shaking their hands, others were saying how they fought in the war together with Naruto and Hinata and what an amazing experience it was. It was overwhelming for Naruto that a whole town would show up to greet him, he realized he was sweating and starting to become nervous. He looked over at Hinata to see how she was dealing.

Hinata smiled at people and shook their hands and carried herself with such confidence that it inspired him. She seemed comfortable, he couldn't understand it.

"Psst," he whispered to get her attention.

"Hm?" she thought a noise came from his direction, her eyes turned towards him and she saw the nervous expression on his face. "Naruto? Is something wrong?" She tried not to touch him or show obvious concern so that she didn't make their conversation too obvious.

"Hinata, I don't get it, aren't you nervous?"

"Nervous? No, why, are you?" she returned while still smiling and nodding at people in the crowd.

"Yeah I'm nervous. I'm not used to this, but you look like you're doing fine, what's your secret?"

"It is quite a bit to take in, all these people, but it will only last a few more minutes. I guess I just try to think of them as being comrades on a battlefield, I'm not trying to think about what's actually going on. Mind trick…"

Naruto nodded his head and tried to work on Hinata's strategy. Not much later they reached the Tsuchikage's home and were led inside.

Hinata could see that Naruto was sweating and hoped the change of environment helped him.

When Kurotsuchi came up behind them and called out their names Naruto jumped.

"Dang it Kurotsuchi, don't you know better than to sneak up on a fellow ninja like that!" Naruto yelled while flailing his arms in the air.

Hinata started giggling and both of them turned and looked at her. She put her hand on Naruto's shoulder, "Please forgive Naruto, it's been a long day for him. He gets like this when he's hungry." She flashed a beaming smile at Kurotsuchi.

"I understand, believe me, I've spent all day running around!" A guilty look came to her face, "not that I regret being busy, anything for our guests, but you know how it is…"

Hinata nodded her head in agreement although she had no idea what Kurotsuchi was going on about.

"Why don't we start dinner first so that Naruto can relax, if you could see how tense you look…" Kurotsuchi added.

Naruto was a little nervous because of the parade, but also because he didn't know what to expect with the Tsuchikage. He always did well on missions, but this was different. He had seen Shikamaru and Temari together, and if he didn't pull this off right, he'd be risking their chance to be together. It was a lot of pressure. He didn't want to fail them.

When it was just the two of them in the room Hinata quickly grabbed Naruto by both shoulders and shook him. "You need to pull it together Naruto, we're here for our friends, and I'm not going back on my word!"

Naruto snapped out of it. "You're right Hinata." He realized where her strength came from and let his promise fuel his will of fire. "We can do this." While she still had her hands on his shoulders he leaned down like he was going to kiss her.

…but at the last minute he put his hands around her waist and lifted her up and pulled her close to him. She was still grasping onto his shoulders while she had a smile across her lips. He lightly set her down and brought his hand up to caress her cheek as the Tsuchikage walked into the room.

"Please, follow me," he said as he sauntered down a hallway, "I hope you're hungry."