"Hey Naruto," Sasuke said loudly from outside Naruto's and Hinata's door the next morning. "Hinata? Are you guys awake yet? We've got to leave soon." He knocked on the door with his left hand while he took a sip of coffee from the cup in his right. "C'mon, wake up you guys!"
"What the hell?" Sakura said walking out of her room. "Haven't you woken them up yet?"
"Trust me, I've tried," Sasuke said a little irritated, "They might as well be dead for the response I'm getting."
"Well then, why don't you go inside and try?" Sakura asked.
"Please, I can't pick locks that well," he said. While he took another sip of coffee, Sakura knelt down, summoned up a little chakra, and manipulated the lock on the door with it until there was a click. Sasuke almost spilled coffee down his front he was so surprised. "When did you learn to do that?"
"Please, I always forgot my keys when I first moved in with you, so I had to learn." Sakura said. "So, shall we?" she asked, opening the door.
The two of them walked in to the room. The first thing that they noticed was that neither Naruto nor Hinata was in bed.
"What the heck," Sasuke said very surprised. "Those two aren't even here."
"And all of their stuff is packed and sitting on the bed," Sakura noted, spotting both Naruto's and Hinata's backpacks at the one end of the bed.
"Well, then where the heck are they?" Sasuke asked. "It's not like they left after all." Suddenly he noticed something that he hadn't when they first walked in the room. There was a light coming from the crack at the bottom of the bathroom door. Noticing this, Sasuke went over to the door for the entire room, then opened and closed it, making it loud enough to be heard.
"Sasuke, what are you…" Sakura tried to say, but Sasuke brought a finger to his lips and pointed to the bathroom door. Sakura looked to where he was pointing and noticed the light at the bottom of the door. Nodding, she tiptoed towards the door, and so did he. They both pressed an ear against it when they reached it. They could hear a pair of muffled voices coming from inside.
"Man, I thought those two would never leave," Naruto said from the other side of the door. It sounded like he had a mouthful of something. It sounded like the shower was running too.
"Oh Naruto, they were just checking up on us," Hinata said. "It's not like they mean any harm."
There was the sound of water being gargled and spit. "You're right Hinata," Naruto said. "Anyway, they're gone now. So, mind if I join you in there?"
There was the sound of kissing from the other side of the door, and they heard Hinata say, "Mmm, minty." Then there was a giggle.
Sasuke and Sakura couldn't believe what they were hearing. The two of them were already bathing together.
"Yesterday she screamed when Naruto walked in on us in the bath," Sakura said quietly. "Now they're showering together."
"At this rate," Sasuke said quietly to her. "It won't be long before they're like us."
"You mean…" Sakura started to ask, but didn't get to finish her question. A yell came from behind the door.
"Waterfall Jutsu!" Naruto yelled.
"Huh?" Sasuke and Sakura thought. They didn't even have time to react as the door opened and they were slammed with a wall of water. They flew backwards about 3 feet, and landed on their backs, completely soaked.
"I told you it would work," Hinata said from the doorway.
"Yeah, but I didn't think they would actually fall for it," Naruto said. Sasuke and Sakura sat up. They were greeted by the sight of Naruto and Hinata, both fully clothed and dry as a bone.
"What the heck?" Sasuke said. "We thought you guys were in the shower."
"Nope," Naruto said. "We knew you two might snoop, so we decided to play a little trick on you."
"Oh, you two are both dead," Sakura said as she wrung the water out of her hair. "So, was everything we heard fake?"
"Well… the kiss wasn't," Hinata said blushing.
"Figures," Sakura said wringing more water from her hair. "If you'll excuse us, we're going to go change into some dry clothes." The couple left the room, dripping water as they went.
"You know that they are going to be mad at us for a while," Hinata said as they left.
"Yeah, but isn't it our business what the two of us do behind closed doors?" Naruto asked looking down at her. She blushed and nodded. "I still can't believe that they thought we were in the shower together." He laughed a little, and then both he and Hinata turned red at the thought. "That won't happen anytime soon," Naruto thought to himself.
"Naruto, let's head downstairs and wait for them," Hinata said, still a little red.
"Y-yeah, okay," Naruto said, walking to the bed to get his pack. As he walked, his foot caught on one of the bedposts.
Oops," he said right before he fell on top of Hinata. They both hit their heads off of each other's.
"Ouch, Hinata said, rubbing her forehead, and wincing in pain. She opened her eyes and was greeted by Naruto's face.
"I'm sorry," he said, staring down into her light purple eyes. " I didn't mean to do that."
"It's okay…" Hinata said. Her words trailed off as stared deeply into his blue eyes. They both blushed a little but neither of them moved. Each of them was mesmerized by the beauty of the other's eyes.
Neither of them said anything. Naruto took action though. Leaning his head down, he kissed Hinata. She felt his tongue brush her lower lip, and she gladly responded, allowing his tongue to enter her mouth, and he did the same for her. Not wanting this kiss to end, Hinata put a hand behind Naruto's head, running it through his messy blonde hair. Naruto responded by putting his arm around her and pulling her body closer to his than it already was. Hinata moaned a little at this, approving the advance that he had made. Their kiss had become fierce and rough, and it was what each of them wanted desperately. They parted from lack of breath, and Naruto leaned into her neck and started kissing it. He sucked on the skin right next to her pulse. When he came away, a small purple mark was in the spot.
"Ah," Hinata said when she checked the spot. "You gave me a hickey."
"Sorry about that," Naruto said, trying to catch his breath.
"It's okay," Hinata said. She started kissing his chest and neck, and she left a hickey in the exact same place that he had left the one on her neck. "There," she said catching her breath. "Now we match."
Naruto couldn't help but smile. Neither could Hinata. They loved each other, and they wanted to show it. Naruto got up, and Hinata sat up with him. She buried her head in his chest, saying, "Naruto, I love you so much. Do you love me too?"
Naruto smiled, then embraced her, saying, "Yes, and I promise that I will never stop loving you."
They stayed like that for a while, and then Naruto said, "C'mon, they're probably waiting for us." Hinata nodded into his shirt, and the two of them got up, grabbed their packs, and left the room, arm in arm.
"Naruto, what is that on your neck?' Gaara asked halfway through the day. He had kept quiet as always, but he was curious. Naruto hadn't had the mark the night before, and he had wondered where it had come from.
"Huh?" Gaara's question had caught Sasuke's attention. "Naruto has something on his neck?" Sasuke walked up closer to Naruto, trying to get a better look.
"It's nothing," Naruto said, adjusting his jacket collar, and a sweat drop appearing on his forehead.
"Hey, Hinata's got something on her too," Temari said from behind Naruto and Hinata, who were still walking arm in arm. Hinata pulled closer to Naruto, so that the hickey would be hidden from view.
Sakura obviously was curious, because she got really close to Naruto's one side and glared at Naruto's neck. She spied a little bit of the mark just above the top of his collar. "Hmm, just what did you two do after we left this morning?" She asked with a devilish grin on her face.
Another drop of sweat appeared on Naruto's forehead. Hinata started to blush a little. "W-why do you ask?" Naruto asked nervously.
"Mainly because you both have a hickey on your neck," Sakura said. Sasuke eyes snapped in Naruto's direction, and he cocked an eyebrow. Both Naruto and Hinata turned the brightest red that they could.
"Looks like we've been found out," Naruto said to Hinata.
"Oh, maybe it was a bad idea to give each other one," Hinata said.
Suddenly, Sasuke came up and put an arm around Naruto's neck and pulled him into a headlock. He then proceeded to give him a noogie.
"Ow, Ow! What the hell are you doing?!" Naruto said.
"Man, I never thought that you had it in you," Sasuke said. He kept walking and kept Naruto in a headlock. Sakura stayed behind with Hinata. So did Temari.
"What happened when we left?" Sakura asked again. Hinata blushed again, but then proceeded to answer the question. When she finished, Sakura said, "Wow, so he tripped, and you both ended up kissing on the floor. Jeez, you guys are farther along than when me and Sasuke started dating."
"Really?" Hinata asked. "Wow, I thought you guys hit it off."
"At first we didn't," Sakura said. "We hadn't heard from each other in such a long time that we didn't know what to say to one another. It didn't take long for us though."
"The same was true for me and Kiba," Temari chimed in. "We weren't sure of what to say to each other at first either." She smiled, and it looked to Hinata and Sakura like she was reminiscing of old times. "Anyway, we get along like you guys do now. He even gave me a hickey too." She pulled down her neckline to reveal a small purple mark. "His teeth caught though," she said pointing out two little scabs where Kiba's teeth had scraped.
"Wow, I wouldn't have guessed," Hinata said. "He doesn't talk about his love life."
"Anyway," Sakura said. "What else happened between the two of you?"
"N-nothing," Hinata said.
"Oh c'mon," Sakura said. "You can tell me." Hinata refused to answer, and Sakura ended up begging her the rest of the afternoon while Sasuke and Naruto talked.
The gang of ninjas stopped for the night in a clearing in the woods. A small fire burned in the middle of the small clearing, crackling and popping as it burned. Around the fire, the entire gang sat. Naruto and Hinata sat off to one side of the clearing. Naruto was asleep against the trunk of a tree, and he had his right arm wrapped around Hinata, who was sleeping up against his chest with her arms around his middle.
Sasuke and Sakura weren't far off, or much different for that matter. Sasuke was asleep too. He was leaning against one o the biggest trees in the clearing, while Sakura leaned against his shoulder, sleeping, and with a small smile spread across her face. Temari was spread out in front of the fire. She mumbled, "Kiba" as she slept. Kankuro was asleep just like everyone else, but he had a couple of Kunai knives around him as he slept. The only one who wasn't asleep out of all of them was Gaara, who was currently up in one of the tallest trees around the campsites. He stared up at the moon, and the moonlight reflected in his eyes. Taking his dark eyes off of the moon, he looked down at his sleeping friends.
"All of them have somebody," he thought as he looked at them all. "What do I have to do to get somebody like that? What do I have to do to make a connection like that?" He let the matter go, and turned to stare up at the moon again. As he turned, something caught his attention. It was fast, but he had seen something move in the corner of his eye.
"What was that?" He thought as he stood up. He leaped from the top of the tree, and landed silently. He looked around for a minute, and found footprints leading away from the clearing.
"Whose are these?" he thought to himself. "They're too small to belong to one of the others." He decided to follow the prints, moving fast and quietly. He followed the prints to about a mile from the clearing before he spotted a fire. Gaara hid, taking refuge in one of the trees. Looking down he spotted three figures, one small, and two large, all of them wearing red and black cloaks.
"It's Itachi Uchiha," Gaara thought. He removed the cork from his gourd, and then moved farther down the tree. He was now within earshot, and could hear what they were saying.
"… And we'll have him," Itachi said.
"Yeah, and all of that power," Kisame said, smiling with glee. "But how do we get close enough to replace one of them. It's not like they're going to let us."
"Oh, that's all taken care of," Itachi said. "It seems that one little fly has wondered carelessly into the spider's web." Itachi glanced up into the tree, right at Gaara.
"How did he-" Gaara's thought was cut short as he was jabbed in the neck from behind. Tokiko had moved from here position so fast that even the sand didn't have time to react. Gaara was out before he even hit the ground.
"Well, that was easy," Kisame said looking down at Gaara. He started to approach the boy.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you," Itachi said. Kisame gave him a strange look, but then got what he said. The sand in the gourd moved, and wrapped around Kisame's leg. Tokiko was at Gaara's side instantly, and she stuck a needle into his neck. The sand fell to the ground almost instantly and stayed there.
"What the hell was that?" Kisame asked.
"You forget," Itachi said. "This boy is possessed by Shukaku of the Sand. The boy may be unconscious, but the demon is awake and well. So, I had Tokiko hear create a special drug to keep it at bay. Now there should be no problems in keeping him here."
"Won't they know that you've taken his place?" Kisame asked.
They won't know the difference," Itachi said calmly. Making a few hand signs, he changed into Gaara's double. "I'll check in regularly." Glancing down at the real Gaara, Itachi said, "Make sure he goes nowhere." With that, he left, heading back towards the clearing, and towards all of Gaara's unsuspecting friends.