Blood is Thicker Chapter 4

A/N: Hello! Thank you to everyone who faved and followed! Please enjoy and review! ;)

M Night Seiran: Don't you worry your pretty little head, it totally is NS! I just have a special fondness for GH that is going to set up part of the story! ;) In fact, a nice slice of NS goodness is coming up ahead! And yes, I do know that Karin is an Uzumaki, the question is, does she?

"Marry me."

Hinata gasped and immediately turned away from him. "M..marry you?"

"You can escape your life. You can be free to do whatever you like, you could work as a Konoha diplomat, be a Jonin squad leader, make whatever career choice you'd like. No pressure, no clan leading and all you'd have to do in return is appear at events with me as my wife."

"I..I don't know... My clan... I..." Hinata wracked with nervousness.

"Are you telling me your clan wouldn't let you marry the Kazekage?"

"They probably would leap at the chance," she said lowering her head. "We're young though, I'm only 16."

"It could be a long engagement. You could even plan the wedding." Somehow, that didn't comfort Hinata.

"I've always wanted to marry for love though..." She said, feeling overwhelmed. "I..I mean I just... I could escape clan drama, but I'm sure there could be drama in Suna. And I could pick any career I want and do as I please, but I couldn't do anything to cause a scandal. And what if I fell in love?"

"What if you fell in love with me?"

Hinata was left silent at this. She truly did not know what to say. Feeling indecisive, she sighed.

"You'll have your answer by tomorrow morning."

Gaara nodded, and she pointed in the direction of the door, almost afraid to look at him.

Gaara didn't know how or why he came up with such a proposal. He didn't even know what he cared so much about sheltering some girl he just met from her cold home life. He wasn't normally like this, usually he didn't care for such trivial things. But after she shared all her problems with him, he felt like he knew her. Like he was close to her, and being close to anybody was all he wanted in life. Sure he had Naruto, Temari and Kankuro but they couldn't offer him the companionship he seeked.

He just didn't want to be alone.

Hinata laid on her bed wearily. She simply did not know what was appropriate to think of her situation. The handsome Kazekage was also greatly feared among the nations, once for being a monster, but now for being a hero.

She felt like marrying for something was wrong, but she also felt his offer was too good to give up.

She considered the downsides. She wouldn't know anybody. She'd have to live in Suna, away from her friends and family. She'd even probably be expected to have a child.

The upsides? She was exempt from becoming clan leader. She wouldn't have to deal with any politics or tradition. For the most part, she could do whatever she pleased. That seemed very attractive to her, and oh, there was another reason. Gaara was pretty darned handsome.

She continued to muddle it over, while Gaara almost nervously awaited his answer.

Naruto checked the time once more, waiting for Sakura to get off of her hospital shift. The final minute seemed like a laborious wait of ages and ages, until he finally looked up to check the clock once more and saw Sakura standing in front of him. He immediately sprang up and greeted her with a hug.

"Thank goodness, Sakura! I've been waiting forever!"

"Somehow I doubt that, Naruto. What do you have planned for the evening?" she asked, offering him her arm. Naruto smiled a foxy grin.

"That, my dear, is a surprise!"

It turned out, the surprise was dinner on top of the Hokage monument. Naruto had clones set up a blanket and a candle. Of course, another clone had been sent to pick up dinner- Ichiraku ramen. Naruto seemed really pleased with himself.

"I told my clone to surprise me, and boy he was on the money, this is exactly what I wanted!" Sakura giggled at Naruto's excitement over ramen. He offered her her usual order, which she immediately accepted, being a little drained from her shift.

For a while it was silent, as Naruto happily inhaled his dinner and Sakura savored hers slowly per usual. When she had finally put her chopsticks down, she took a deep breath and looked down at the village.

"I almost never come up here. Kinda sad, because it's really beautiful up here."

Naruto nodded in understanding. "I used to come up here a lot. It was a good place to watch them look for me after I pulled a prank," he said with a laugh. "But I also came up here to think.

"What did you think about?"

"Its kind of heavy... I'd think about why I was unlucky, why I didn't have any parents, why I didn't have any friends. When my life started getting progressively better, I stopped coming here so often because there was less to think about."

Sakura smiled sadly. He looked at her, with all seriousness in his eyes. "I met my parents, during the war."

Sakura's quizzical expression must have encouraged him to elaborate, because he continued.

"It was in my mind of course. My mother, her name was Kushina Uzumaki, and she was the Kyuubi container before me. She was pretty, with long red hair."

Sakura smiled. "What about your father?"

"My father was Minato Namikaze."

This statement was met by a gasp. Sakura covered her mouth with her hands.

"The resemblance... It..it's truly uncanny."

"I got my looks from my Dad, and my personality from my Mom."

"Was it like you expected?" Sakura asked softly, looking at him.

Naruto sighed and laid on his back, looking at the moon and starry night sky.

"I..I don't know... I expected Mom to be...Mom-ish, you know, loving and gentle. She was, but she kinda hit me once... And, Dad... I didn't expect him to be the 4th. Kinda ups the ante for me to be Hokage, huh? It's in my blood..."

Sakura smiled. "It just gives you more incentive to live up to your family name!"

Naruto laughed, and the two continued their banter with more trivial topics, such as How long it'd take before Shikamaru and Temari were official, or Tsunade's frightening excitement over Karin doing her paperwork. Throughout their conversation, Sakura put her head on his chest, and joined him in looking at the clear night sky. She then asked a question which truly frightened Naruto to his core.

"So when are you coming to meet my family?"

A/N: And that's a wrap! Please be kind, and leave a review! It really makes a writers day when you leave a comment with your thoughts.

Look forward to a Naruto and Hinata confrontation next time on Blood is Thicker!

With Love,

-MyHikari