When she left the bathroom, after almost ten long minutes of trying to calm herself down after her encounter with Naruto, she found the main room empty. As her eyes flickered to his bedroom and took note of how the door was now closed she found her question answered.
Not knowing exactly what to do she walked across the room slowly, her eyes just looking around his bare apartment. Stopping to look out the window was when she finally realized that it was dark out; the sun must've gone down sometime after she'd arrived back at the apartment. Eyes trailing off into the distance she smiled softly as her eyes easily found the Hokage monument.
Leaning against the widow frame and pressing her forehead against the cool glass she allowed her eyes to close, thinking back to when they were all children. Naruto's constant declaration that he'd be Hokage was something that everyone had come to expect to be bellowed out from the loud, troublesome boy. Yet, Hinata had never known that he had such a clear, beautiful view of the monument from his apartment, which was something that must've kept him motivated day in and day out.
For a moment, eyes still closed, she visualized what the monument would look one day with Naruto's face etched into the stone directly by Tsunade-sama's. Never in her mind had Hinata doubted that he'd become Hokage, but now she simply prepared herself to wait for the day when it eventually would happen.
With the amount of change he'd set forth in just seventeen years of life, and with all he'd done for the entire shinobi world, there was no doubt that he was next in line for the prestigious title of "Hokage".
Forehead still pressed against the glass, she opened her eyes upon hearing the sound of Naruto's bedroom door opening. Turning slightly to glance toward him over her shoulder, she immediately took note of how he was now clothed; a pair of dark shorts and a white t-shirt now adorned his body.
He met her eyes quickly, offering her a wide grin as he ran a hand through his still-damp hair.
"Sorry about that," he spoke, letting out a quiet, almost awkward laugh, "I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable or anything back there."
At his reference to their almost-but-not-quite 'kiss' that had nearly happened a few minutes before, Hinata's cheeks immediately lit up with a blush. She hadn't been expecting him to bring it up at all; especially so non-challantly so soon after the incident.
"I—" she tried to swallow the lump in her throat, "It's—I wouldn't…. um."
"Hey," he walked toward her as she tried hard to form a response, "it's okay. You don't need to make up any excuse!" He smiled softly at her. "Don't sweat it."
"… okay?"
He let out another light laugh, nodding his head toward his kitchen. "Come on," he turned and began walking, "I'll make us something to eat. "
Hinata followed him closely across the room, still too embarrassed to say anything. Upon entering the kitchen, Hinata was shocked as she watched him open up his cupboards and pull out something that clearly was not ramen. For some reason she, and many of their friends, had come to the assumption a long time ago that somehow he managed to live solely off of ramen.
"Any requests?" He asked, peering closely into his cupboards, an oddly pensive look on his face.
"Not really," Hinata shrugged, "I'll eat anything." With her assurance he then confidently picked up a bag of what Hinata assumed was rice. For a few long seconds she watched silently as he ambled around the kitchen, grabbing a few more things and even putting a pot of water on the stove to boil.
"Do you… need any help?"
He looked over his shoulder and smiled. "Yeah, sure! If you could grab some veggies out of the fridge that would be great!"
Watching his excitement grow at her offer to help, she couldn't help but smile softly back at him as she walked over to the fridge. "Okay."
Before doing anything she leaned forward, flipping her hair over her head before gathering it in a pony tail. Tying it up with a small hair-tie, she blew some of her bangs out of her face before looking up to once again meet Naruto's eyes.
The look he was giving her was similar to the one he'd given her only minutes before, but this time instead of coming off as focused, he had a dazed look in his eye, his mouth hanging open only slightly.
She had to fight to overwhelming urge to look away from him; his eyes were boring into her.
"Are you okay Naruto-kun?" She asked awkwardly, trying not to shift on her feet or stutter as she remained under the scrutiny of his eyes.
Seeming to snap out of it, Naruto shook his head slightly, his mouth snapping shut as he smiled sheepishly. "Uh, sorry," he laughed awkwardly, lifting an arm to scratch the back of his head, he almost looked nervous—or embarrassed, she realized with surprise. "You look good with your hair up."
Hinata blinked, "Thank you," she replied quietly, her hands immediately going toward her hair, holding the dark strands, playing with the ends.
And like usual, his compliment caused her to light up red like a tomato, unable to hide the fact that she was flustered and embarrassed. As Naruto turned back around to work on their food, Hinata tried to refocus on her task, opening the refrigerator to seek out the vegetables she was to retrieve.
To say that Naruto was competent in the kitchen would be a total understatement. Hinata was almost embarrassed to say that she was surprised to find out how good of a cook he was. Though she could only assume he didn't cook for himself very often since the amount of ramen in his kitchen far outnumbered the amount of other types of food.
"When you're on your own when you're a kid, you pick up on things like cooking pretty quickly," he remarked offhandedly as they ate together at his small table.
"How old were you when you were officially on your own?" She asked hesitantly, lifting some steamed vegetables to her mouth, blowing on them before popping them into her mouth. She didn't want to pry, but he seemed more than welcome to discuss his childhood with her.
Naruto didn't wait before jumping right into the conversation gladly.
"They had me in this foster-home type of thing until I was five or six I think? There was this old lady who took care of me; I don't exactly remember her too well," he shrugged, "but then they stuck me in here." He took a couple of seconds to take a few bites before speaking again. "The Third would stop by pretty often during the first year or so. But when he started showing up less and less I just had to figure things out on my own." He let out a quick laugh. "For the longest time I didn't know that you were supposed to wash socks, so I would throw them away after they got dirty."
Hinata couldn't help but laugh at that revelation. "How did you figure out that they weren't disposable?"
"One day the Third asked me why the hell I was spending so much money on socks and then the truth came out."
She laughed with him again, imagining a tiny Naruto, looking up at the Third Hokage with confusion as he was told to wash his socks instead of throwing them away.
"I didn't master the art of doing laundry until I was a little older though," he admitted, a grin still on his face. He shrugged, "I just figured that you washed them like dishes."
After their laughter died down, Hinata watched him eat for a long moment. "It's amazing how you managed to do everything on your own when you were so young."
"You gotta do what you gotta do," he smirked slightly, finishing off his plate. "I'm going to get seconds," he stood from his spot, "want any more?"
Hinata shook her head, "No, thank you."
As he walked into the kitchen to refill his plate, he spoke loudly so she'd be able to hear. "So what about you? When did you figure out how to do all those things?"
Hinata frowned slightly. "I think I was eight or nine?"
"That's pretty young too, don't you think?" He asked, walking back into the room, a new plate of food in hand.
"My great aunt did most of those things when I was younger. When she got older, I would follow her around and watch what she did so I could learn. By the time she died I'd basically learned it all so I tried to help out around the compound as much as I could."
"How old were you when your mom died?" He asked as he sat back down. Then, his eyes widened. "Oh, sorry. You don't have to—"
"It was just before my sixth birthday," she answered quietly. "Hanabi was only a baby; she doesn't remember her at all."
"Do you?"
Hinata nodded, "I have a few good memories of her."
"Tell me about her."
Meeting his eyes she saw the genuine interest he held, waiting patiently for her to tell him. The way he watched her, as if she were the only thing that mattered to him at that moment, made her heart beat faster.
"She was…" she thought to herself for a moment, "one of the kindest, most compassionate people I've ever known."
"I can't imagine anyone being kinder than you are," he declared offhandedly.
Trying not to let the compliment distract her, she shook her head. "I can only hope that I'll be half as amazing as she was." She smiled as she reminisced. "She meant the world to Father. I think… that when she died, she took lots of things with her. One of those things being Father's kindness." She frowned as she stared down at her plate. "Her death changed him."
"He loved her," Naruto nodded to himself.
"Yeah," Hinata agreed to his observation as she nodded as well. "It makes me sad when I think about it, knowing that he loved her so much it ruined him when she died."
"Love is scary." His mumbled words were so soft that she hardly heard them. He glanced up toward her for a quick second before averting his eyes. Hinata's chest ached when she took note of the sad look in his eyes; no doubt he was thinking of the times she's been willing to sacrifice herself for him.
"Yeah," she agreed, "but it's so much more, too."
"How is it that—well, how do you know when—I mean," he scratched his head, his eyes still on his food. "What's it like?"
"What? Being in love?" She immediately noticed how he blushed lightly as he nodded, trying to pay attention to his meal as closely as humanly possible. "Well… it's a lot of things. Scary, for sure. But it's also amazing in so many ways," she smiled as she spoke, trying not to let her embarrassment show outwardly. "It can made you sad, sure," she shrugged, "but the good definitely outweighs the bad."
"How do you know… or like, how does it feel?"
"You get this light feeling whenever you see them. You get happy when you see them happy. You get sad when you see them sad. And you want to be with them all the time. You just get this fluttery, happy feeling in your chest and tummy and it makes you feel warm all over."
Naruto nodded, "It still seems pretty scary."
Hinata smiled. "The good outweighs the bad," she repeated, reminding him.
"I'll have to keep telling myself that then, huh?" He offered her a small smile before standing up, taking his now-empty plate with him as he began to clean up from their meal.
Helping him clean up, she studied him from the corner of her eye. He seemed very contemplative with his eyes scrunched up in concentration; he looked almost sad, really.
"How're you feeling? You know," she bit her lip, "from earlier and everything."
From when she'd held him as he cried over his broken teammates.
"I'm alright. I feel a lot better now that I've had time to cool off. I even saw Sasuke before I got back here."
"How did that go?"
"Not too well. But he did listen to me instead of storming off in a huff. So that's something."
"I hope Sakura's okay," she frowned, thinking back to the way Sakura looked so utterly devastated and so completely exhausted with Sasuke.
Hinata could only imagine what it was like to watch the man you love allow himself to throw away his future like that; to risk his life so carelessly.
Eyeing Naruto she could only be thankful that she was in love with someone that radiated sunshine and happiness. Her own personal sun.
"I'm going to go grab Sasuke and force him out of his apartment," Naruto spoke after they'd finished cleaning the kitchen, "feel free to do whatever. I'll probably get back late tonight, so don't worry about waiting up for me." Walking toward the door he grabbed his orange jacket from its hook before throwing it on.
"Okay."
He smiled, "See you later."
As the door closed behind him, Hinata let out a long breath, trying not to let the things they talked about go to her head. It was just a conversation between friends. Nothing more and nothing less.
Although, hours later, as she laid down to sleep, sinking comfortable into Naruto's bed, she couldn't stop herself from thinking about every single word they'd exchanged. And when she fell asleep, she was sure she was still smiling from ear to ear.