Chapter Eighteen

A sigh escaped the boy's mouth as he changed his stance to a more comfortable one. His muscles had gotten a little tense from being in the same position all the time he had been waiting for Hinata to arrive. He lay his hands on the railing on the top of the Hokage mountain and sniffed in the breeze that usually refreshed Konoha's air this early in the morning. It's around nine-ish now, and she still isn't here. I wonder if she got my message right…

Just as he was about to go down and check whether or not Hinata had received his message, he heard someone coming his way, breathing heavily.
'Hinata-chan! You're finally here! Man, I've waited for you like- Hey, are you okay? You're panting.'
He lay his hand on her back, trying to comfort the girl as she was catching her breath.
'I'm- I'm fine, Naruto-kun, it was just kind of hard for me to climb all those stairs after being inactive for a while..'
'O, right, I guess I forgot about that. I'm sorry.' He said with his hands behind his head, his face decorated with a goofy grin.
'O, and Hinata-chan? What did I tell you about the suffix?'
'Right, I'm sorry, Naruto…'
For a moment all was silent on top of the mountain, then Naruto continued: 'Okay', he said with a chuckle, 'shall we stop apologizing to each other now?'
'Yes, I'm sor-'
'Shhhh' He cut her off by laying his finger on her lips, just like he had done in the forest. It seemed like forever ago. The blush on her cheeks displayed she remembered well, though.
After she had found her ability to speak again, she said: 'But you're adding a suffix to my name too…'
'Yeah, well, that's 'cause it sounds cute…Just as you are…'
She looked at him for a moment, had he really said that?
Not much time to let those words hit her conscience, because Naruto went on: 'Are you sure you're okay now by the way? I mean, I heard from Sakura-chan you were in the hospital for like a week, and you're still using medicine, is that right? Must've been a really harsh jutsu you've been hit with.'
'Yeah, I have to take my medicine for two more days or so, and then I should be okay…
But how are you?'
'Aah it's nothing, just some small scars that bastard gave me. Here, wanna see?' He asked and started to put out his jacket before Hinata could even answer.
He turned sideways to her and showed her his left upper arm. A very muscled arm. Wow, I wonder what it would feel like to-
'You wanna touch? The skin feels pretty weird.'
Bashfully she placed her finger on his arm, for a moment electrified by the contact between their mutual skins. The pinkish scar tissue was shaped in two straight lines parallel to each other, both were about two inches long. It feels like caressing plastic…
'How did this happen?' she asked, her fingers still on his arm. She had noticed a soft blush had started to appear on his whiskered cheek.
'Well, I guess you wouldn't know since you passed out…The guy you saw fighting the enemy was my clone. He was the one you saw getting killed before you fell unconscious. After my clone disappeared, the real me who'd been watching the whole thing, jumped from behind the bushes, and in the confusion that followed, I attacked the enemy -what was it, Yushiro or something?- with another rasengan. Then the fight really started. You should've seen me Hinata, I was pretty cool.'
I wish I had.
'He scratched me with his kunai during that fight, hence the scars, it was pretty deep and it was bleeding as if there was no tomorrow!'
He had started to use wild gestures with his arms halfway his story, and right in the middle of one, he realised: 'Oi, I'm exaggerating again, ain't I?'
Hinata giggled and nodded. 'But that doesn't matter, I like you as you are.'
Silence. Eyes widening.

'W- We- H-Hinata-chan…'
With a blush as red as Karin's hair, she muttered: 'No, it's true.' Then a little clearer: 'You are great as you are, really. You have something that I didn't have until recently. Courage.'
He was a bit dumbfounded by her sayings, what was there to say now?
'Thank you, Hinata…'
She took her hand of his arm and turned towards the wide view over Konoha laying below her, and she felt her hand getting cold were smooth skin had previously warmed it.
Naruto took the time to look at her, then faced the same way.
'You know, Ero-sennin once told me something I'd like you to hear too.'
He paused a second or two, a tribute to the genius pervert.
'He said this… "Courage is nothing less than the power to overcome danger, misfortune, fear and injustice, while continuing to affirm inwardly that life with all its sorrows is good; that everything is meaningful even in a sense beyond our understanding, and that there's always a tomorrow" '
'Your sensei was a wise man.'
'Yeah, he was…'

Hinata eyed him as long as she could until she thought he would notice it. This boy, this young man. Life had not been kind to him, and yet he proceeded to share his heart with people. He continued caring for his long lost friend, even when all hope seemed lost. Isn't that true courage? Isn't that genuine strength?

Naruto, oblivious to the fact his companion had been staring at him for quite some time now, let out a deep breath.
'I know I just said we should stop apologizing, but there's still one thing I need to say.' He turned to face her. 'I'm sorry you got into all this mess because of me, and I'm sorry for the pain you've endured for it.'
'Naruto, really, it's okay….You….I know you didn't mean for it to happen, believe me, if anything is to blame, fate is. It was just a bad confluence of circumstances. It's nobody's fault.
If anything, I am more grateful for the fact that you are alive, Naruto…'
'…Hinata…I…No one has ever said something like that to me…'
'Just as you were the first one to ever believe in me, even before I could myself. And for that I should thank you.'
Scuffing with her nails on the painted layer of the railing, Hinata resisted the urge to crawl back into her shell again after revealing that much about herself to him.
'You really are one of a kind, Hinata, you know that?'
She smiled at him. 'Well, something similar could be said of you.'
'I guess it could' He said with an ironic undertone, placing his hand on his stomach.
'But there was something else I wanted to talk to you about, you know, after what happened the night before…'
Hinata nodded and stared into the distance, as to not face him as they were about to start the conversation she'd thought and fantasized of for so long.
'I asked you to come here, because…Well, I don't really know why, but up here it always seems so calm. It's a could place to go when you want to clear your thoughts, or…well, have a good talk with someone.'
Naruto rubbed the back of his head as he was searching for the words he was about to say.
'So, I think I'm just going to ask…What you said last night, you know, the part where…'
Even without his eyes and his body language speaking she knew exactly what part he meant.
'You mean, right before you…?'
'Yeah, that. Were you really….I mean are you still…?'
It took Hinata a moment to gather her racing thoughts and answer; she was a little afraid of where it would lead to. But in the end, this was what she had aspired to do for a long time, and now it was for real. He was really standing in front of her, asking her the question.
'In love with you? Yes I was. And I still am.'

All of her fantasies had ended after her answering his question, she had never dared to think ahead of it. She was surprised she didn't feel like running away or fainting, but she couldn't look him in the eyes either. And so she was facing the ground, wondering what his reaction would be, what his face looked like now that she had actually told him to his face. Therefore she didn't notice Naruto approaching her until she felt his arms sliding around her waist and pulling her in for a hug.

The first three or four seconds Hinata's mind was totally blanked by the sudden intimacy, but then she found her arms pulling herself tighter into his warm body, and she nestled her head on his shoulder.
A shiver went over her back as she felt his breath upon her neck, and she closed her eyes. Everything to live this moment to the fullest.

Reluctantly he started to pull back to look her in the face. 'I'm so stupid for not noticing earlier, Hinata-chan. And then to think I've been hanging around with the ultimate pervert for about five years, and I still don't know anything about women, makes me even more of a fool, doesn't it?'
She didn't answer, heck she couldn't even think now that his eyes were focused on hers. Her knees felt weak.
'But you know, I actually….For a while I've been…While we were on that mission, I…well, I figured some things out; how it was you who always cheered me on, how it was you to always believe in me, how it was you that night at the waterfall…I think, in a way, it's always been you, and-'
It's now or never.

Two soft hands on his cheeks, pulling his face closer. A hint of jasmine in the air and lavender in her eyes as the taste of her lips entered his. Now he was the one to be surprised. Softly he turned his head a little to the side, so their noses wouldn't get in the way, and took their kiss to a new level.
Closer.

A few moments later the need for oxygen obliged them to brake apart, leaving them both speechless of what just happened. Right now, for each one of them only the other existed, nothing in the world would disturb this happy moment Hinata knew she would be repeating in her head like a broken record, until life itself would steal its very breath away from her, like Naruto had done just moments ago.
Nothing could ever-

Grumble, grumble.

Hinata giggled as Naruto's empty stomach made its presence clear to the both of them, and Naruto mumbled an apology. She took his hand and kissed it, as a way to let him know it was okay. It was all okay.

A squall blew some leaves into her face, and she shivered from the cold air touching her skin. Naruto noticed it and lovingly put his jacket around her shoulders.
'So, how about we go to Ichiraku's and have some early lunch?'

A/N: This chapter gave me the greatest joy while writing, as I'm sure you can imagine.