Naruto woke up the next morning with a splitting headache, feeling even more tired than when he went to bed the night before. Crawling out of bed, he grabbed a towel from wardrobe, and then walked to the kitchen, where he found Sasuke drinking a cup of coffee and holding his head.
"Morning," Sasuke said groggily. He winced a little when he said it. Naruto had seen him the night before. He had drunk so much sake that he had become like Lee did after one shot. It was a side of Sasuke that Naruto hadn't seen before. Although, he didn't destroy everything in sight when he was drunk.
"Never again, huh?" Naruto asked pouring a cup of coffee for himself.
"Nope. Never again," Sasuke said. He poured some more coffee and said, "At least not if I can help it."
"I hear you," Naruto said. He took a sip of his coffee, then recoiled at the taste that met his tongue. "Yuck. What kind of coffee is this?" He looked down in his cup to see that the coffee was thick and dark, kind of like tar.
"It's espresso," Sasuke said as he leaned against the wall. "I need something strong to wake me up in the morning, and this happens to be the only thing that will do it." He sipped down some more of the strong liquid as he said this.
"No thanks then," Naruto said. "That stuff tastes horrible. Besides, a hot bath wakes me up more than coffee does. Don't wait up for me." With that, Naruto exited through the door on Sasuke's right, heading towards the bath.
"Don't worry, I won't," Sasuke said. He stood there for a minute, and then looked at the clock on the wall. He thought, "Let's see, in about 3, 2, 1…"
Somewhere in the house Sasuke heard Hinata scream, and then he heard Sakura yell, "NARUTO, GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE!!!!!" Then there was a yell, a small thump, and finally silence. Sasuke remained in the same position for another minute, taking small, patient sips of his coffee. Finally, Naruto came back through the door he had exited from. He was soaked from head to toe, a bucket was sitting on his head, and he had a little bit of a nosebleed.
"So, did you see anything?" Sasuke asked with a smile. "Or did Sakura punch you and give you that nose bleed?"
Naruto looked at him for a second, and then said, "I hate you sometimes, you know that?" Sasuke laughed at this. Then, the doorbell rang. "I'll get it," Naruto said, walking out of the room. He pulled the bucket off his head as he went and dropped it in the doorway. Sasuke laughed a little more and went back to his coffee.
Naruto reached the front door of the house and opened the door. He was met by Shikamaru, who had Ino hanging onto his arm like Hinata did with Naruto.
"Oh, hello Naruto," Ino said. "What are you doing here? And what happened to you?" She was referring to the fact that he was still soaking wet, and that he still had some blood on his face.
"I'll answer the first one, but I would rather not talk about the second," Naruto said. "Sasuke and Sakura invited me and Hinata to live with them, so I'm living here now."
"What?!" Ino yelped. Shikamaru even raised his eyebrows in surprise.
"Well, if that's the case…" Shikamaru said. "I bet you walked in on the girls taking a bath didn't you? That's why you're like that, isn't it?"
Naruto felt like he'd been stabbed. A sweat drop appeared on his head and he said, "Yep."
"Well, then you deserved it," Ino said. "Anyway, Tsunade sent us. She wanted us to give it to you guys," she said handing him a scroll of paper. "It's your guy's next mission."
"Thanks," Naruto said. He turned to shut the door, then stopped and asked, " How long have you guys been going out for?"
Both Shikamaru and Ino looked like they had been hit by an electric shock. Then Ino said, "W-wh-what makes you think were dating?!"
"The fact that you're holding onto his arm like he's going to disappear if you don't," Naruto said with lazy eyes. "See you guys later," he said shutting the door, and leaving the two of them there, both blushing like cherries.
"What's that you have there, Naruto?" Sasuke asked when Naruto reentered the kitchen.
"According to Ino, it's our next mission assignment," Naruto said, unrolling the scroll. He read it over, then said," It's not just for us. It's for Sakura and Hinata too. Apparently, there's something going on in the Land of Wind. Were supposed to go there to help stop whatever it is, and were going to be working with… aw, hell."
"What? Who is it?" Sasuke asked.
"Who else but Gaara, Kankuro and Temari." Naruto said in a slightly down voice. "We meet them later today, and head off for the Land of Wind."
"Hey, it's no problem,' Sasuke said. "I heard he has better control over Shukaku than he did before."
"Yeah, right," Naruto said, thinking back to his first fight with Gaara.
Hinata was back in her room. She and Sakura had just finished their bath, and she was getting dressed.
"I can't believe that Naruto… saw me," she said blushing. As she pulled on a pair of pants, she thought to herself, "Did he like my body? Or did he hate it?" She hoped it wasn't the latter of the two, for she didn't want to drive him away.
Just then, there was a knock at the door. Outside the door, Naruto asked, "Hinata, are you decent?"
"Just a second," she yelled. She quickly pulled on a tube top, a net shirt, and vest to wear over them, and then said, "All right, you can come in."
Naruto opened the door and walked in, catching her eye when he did. They both blushed, remembering what had happened not much earlier. Naruto was the first to speak up. "Sorry about earlier," he said. "I didn't know you two were in there." He blushed a little harder as he said this.
"It's okay," Hinata said, even though she was so embarrassed that she could barely look at him. She was going to be even more embarrassed after she asked the question she had on her mind. "Naruto, I want to know something."
"Huh? What is it?" He sounded a little confused.
"I want to know… did you like it? Did you like my body?" She had muttered the last question to the ground, and her faced burned with embarrassment. Naruto's face was about the same, but he didn't falter.
He swallowed, and took a deep breath. Then he said, " I couldn't see much through the steam, but I could tell one thing." Hinata looked at him hopefully. "You have a fabulous body, Hinata." He smiled at her, and she jumped on him and hugged him.
"Thank you Naruto," she said as she pressed herself against him. It was at this point that he noticed that she had very large breasts. He blushed a little more, trying to keep his mind off of them, but it was very difficult. She finally let him go, and he breathed a sigh of relief. A little more time, and he would have been in a bit of trouble.
"What's the matter?" Hinata had mistaken his sigh of relief for a troubled sign.
"Oh, it's nothing. I came to tell you that we have a mission. We leave in a little bit to meet up with the sand ninjas," he said.
"You mean… Gaara and his squad?" Hinata asked nervously. Naruto nodded, and Hinata hugged him again. "Those guys. Why them? They scare me to death, especially Gaara, and that demon that possesses him." She shivered a little in his arms, and she pressed her head against his shirt.
Naruto could see that she was obviously afraid, so he put his hand under her chin and positioned her head to look him in the eyes, and then said, "Don't forget, I have a demon living in me too. You don't have to worry about him, because if I have to, then I will protect you from him."
"Oh Naruto," Hinata said, looking into his deep blue eyes. Then she leaned up and kissed him. While they kissed, Naruto's tongue brushed her lower lip. She parted with him instantly, bringing her hand to her lips.
"I'm sorry," Naruto said. "I was being to forward."
"No, it's okay. You just surprised me is all," Hinata said. "Would you like to try again?" This time when they kissed, she allowed him to enter, and let his tongue explore every part of her mouth, while he allowed her the same freedom.
The three siblings from the sand village were waiting on the outside of Konoha. Gaara, was standing against the village's wall, Kankuro was in a tree, and Temari just stood there with her arms crossed. Noon rolled around before Naruto and everybody else shoed up.
"It's about time," Temari said impatiently.
Kankuro jumped down from the tree, swinging his puppet over his back, and said, "We thought you guys were never going to show up."
"Yeah, sorry about that," Naruto said. "It took us a little longer than we thought it would to get our gear together." Just then, he noticed Hinata was hiding behind him, and with good reason from what he saw. Gaara was staring at her like he was trying to burn a hole through her skin.
"Who is this?" he asked in his usual voice. He looked at Naruto when he asked it, clearly directing the question towards him.
"This is Hinata, my girlfriend," Naruto said with a threatening tone, which basically said, "Lay a finger on her, and I'll gut you where you stand."
"Girlfriend, huh?" Gaara said. Then with a little chuckle, he said, "Lucky fox." He started walking the path that lead away from the village, and everyone else followed, while Naruto and Hinata lagged in the back.
After a while, Kankuro slowed down to join them in the back. Hinata was leaning on Naruto's right shoulder by this point, while his arm was around her waist.
"Don't worry about Gaara you two," Kankuro said in a low voice, but still loud enough for the two of them to here. "He's been in a bit of a bad mood lately."
"About what?" Naruto asked. "What could he be in a bad mood about?"
"Well, it's the fact that he can't find a girl," Kankuro said. Naruto and Hinata looked shocked by the answer. Neither of them had been expecting that answer. Kankuro continued, saying, "You see, lately Temari has been going out with that Kiba kid from your village, and I've been going out with a girl from our village. He's a little jealous of us, so he's kind of against most couples right now."
Naruto and Hinata couldn't believe what they were hearing. The terror of the sand village was upset because he couldn't get a girlfriend. They almost laughed, but then Sasuke and Sakura lagged back to join Naruto, Hinata, and Kankuro.
"Hey Kankuro, what's going on in the Land of the Wind anyway? Why did you need to call in help from Konoha?"
"We didn't just call for help," Kankuro said. "We called for specifically for you and Naruto."
"Why us?" Naruto asked sounding confused.
"Because the one causing the trouble is the one that both of you faced, and walked away from alive," Kankuro said.
"What are you…?" Naruto started to ask, but then the answer hit him like a ton of bricks.
Sasuke must have come to the same conclusion, because he said, "You don't mean…" His voice was low and quiet.
"Yes," Kankuro said. "The one causing the trouble in the Land of the Wind… is Itachi Uchiha."