The kiss was due to pure spontaneity. Whether or not she was still riding on her bold high from earlier or if this was something entirely different she didn't know.
Nor did she care.
The only thing that mattered at that moment was the fact that she had her lips firmly pressed up against Naruto's. It was a closed-mouth kiss, almost awkward in the way she held her position against him, not once moving her mouth against his. After a couple of long seconds she pulled away, the shock of what she'd done finally hitting her.
When Naruto set her down on her feet, her hands shot up to cover her mouth as her eyes widened. She didn't speak a single word, almost too nervous to open her mouth.
She had no idea why she'd done that. She was almost too afraid to look up at him, in fear of seeing some sort of disgusted, confused look.
She'd just ruined everything! She knew it! She was going to have to go grab her things and run out of his apartment before she broke down due to her own stupidity. She couldn't believe she'd been so stupid as to—
Before she could even finish her train of thought she looked up at him, sparing him a quick glance, only to see her immensely focused on her.
No disgust. No confusion. Just a pleasant-looking surprise graced his features.
Much like she had the day before, Hinata found herself standing completely still, frozen under his gaze. She didn't dare to move a single inch in any direction. She just stared right back at him, her hands slowly falling back down to rest at her sides.
She wasn't going to stop him this time.
When he placed a hand against her cheek, just as he had before, instead of freezing up she instead leaned into his palm, relishing in the warmth that heated her skin. Closing her eyes she inhaled deeply and exhaled slowly, willing her heart to remain calm.
But the warm, exhilarating feeling that was heating up every inch of her body wasn't something she could ignore. So when she opened her eyes only to find Naruto leaning down toward her, only inches away from her face, eyes half-lidded and mouth just barely open, she closed the space again.
The kiss was much slower this time, their lips meeting together gently and less forcibly.
She could sense the hesitance in him, in the way he held his position, not once moving his hand from her cheek—she had seen his other one clenched at his side before closing her own—and not once moving his lips against hers.
Suddenly, it wasn't enough.
Adrenaline pouring through her like water through the cracks in a broken dam, she took a step closer to him, closing the already small gap in between their bodies, until she was almost completely pressed up against him. But since she'd moved so quickly she stumbled slightly, accidentally stepping on his foot.
Their lips parted for a split-second, but before Hinata could utter out an apology he'd slipped an arm around her waist and pulled her up against him, holding her body firmly to his.
Although the action had caught her off guard and she let out a quiet squeak, she replied immediately, lifting her hands up and placing them around his neck. In the very, very back of her mind there was panic, but as Naruto slowly began to move his lips against hers, the panic became suddenly very easy to ignore.
Hands linked together at the base of his neck, she couldn't help herself when she lifted one of her hands upward to run her fingers through his hair on the back of his neck. His hair was soft yet thick—surprisingly so—and felt nice between her fingers. When she could hear—and feel—a low moan rumble deep in his chest, she felt an electric current shoot through her body, as if she was subconsciously reacting to the sound.
And as he moved his lips slowly against hers, she responded eagerly, pulling his head closer to her, and moving her lips slightly faster against his.
Despite their proximity, it still wasn't enough.
Hinata felt like she had a fire inside of her, burning, growing, and spreading throughout every cell in her body. It was all-consumable, unquenchable, and unstoppable.
And to be honest; she didn't want the feeling to end.
Finally, after all this time, after dreaming and wondering if anything would ever happen between the two of them, she was finally there with him in his apartment, kissing him and holding him and simply praying that this moment would never end.
Hinata never wanted to let go, so she decided to take matters into her own hands.
Not even wasting time to be slow or hesitant she opened her mouth slightly, deepening their kiss immensely.
She didn't know when it happened but suddenly their kiss intensified. She found herself stumbling back as Naruto moved his feet forward quickly, and when her back hit the wall she gasped suddenly, her mouth opening and their kiss breaking for a moment; but for only a moment.
His mouth was back on hers in an instant as he removed his arms from around her waist, lowering them to grip her hips tightly. As he squeezed, holding her hipbones in the palms of his hands, Hinata unwillingly threw her head back, gasping as the most amazing feeling jolted through her. And when Naruto used that moment to gently kiss her neck, right at her pulse-point, Hinata could feel her knees begin to shake.
"Naruto-kun…" she whispered, her breathing light, rapid, and completely out of her control.
In response he kissed her neck a little more before kissing his way back up until he locked his lips with hers once again.
As they kissed Hinata almost jumped when she felt his tongue dart out of his mouth and brush against her lower lip, as if trying to ease his way in. Not willing to back down or stop yet, Hinata opened her mouth slightly, letting him inside.
The feeling of his tongue brushing up against her own was unlike anything she'd ever felt in her entire life. She'd never imagined that this was a very real—very amazing—part of kissing that she'd get to experience. A part of her wondered if she was doing this right. Was there a way of doing this wrong? But as Naruto let out a low moan, she immediately stopped caring.
If kissing him was eliciting those types of noises from him, then she must be doing something right.
Pushing her luck, she shyly moved her tongue to brush against his own, the feeling of their tongues dancing around each other making her chest erupt with a sensation she could only describe as wonderful.
But when he leaned forward, hands still holding her tightly in place, he pressed his hips up against hers firmly, causing Hinata's already weak knees to begin to shake dangerously.
Gasping again, she couldn't hold back the breathy moan that escaped her throat. She immediately made a move to grip him by the front of his shirt, holding onto him tightly as if her fingers curled around his shirt was the only thing keeping her upright.
He seemed to notice her sudden weakness and promptly released her hips, his arms moving again to once more encircle her waist, keeping her standing.
"Maybe we should stop," he gasped, looking down on her with glossy eyes as he panted softly.
"Yeah," she replied, nodding. Their bodies were still pressed together and neither of them made a move to separate themselves from one another.
Her heart was racing, her thoughts were muddled, and her hands were still clinging to his shirt tightly.
When Naruto tried to take a step back, Hinata panicked, not wanting the moment to end quite yet. She felt as if she was on fire, and she was overwhelmed at the way kissing him made her feel. The fire inside of her was something she wanted to keep going.
Not letting him keep the space in between them for more than a couple of seconds, Hinata marched back up to him, throwing her arms back around his neck, and pulled him back down to kiss her.
The kiss was desperate, passionate, and exhausting.
And Hinata was loving every second of it.
"We can stop," she whispered in between kisses, "in a little bit?"
"Yeah," he panted, grabbing her hips again and planting kisses down her neck, "good idea."
But neither of them slowed their pace, instead, opting to increase the intensity of their kisses.
Before she knew it, she had been backed up into the couch, the back of her legs hitting the side of it and shocking her, causing her to break away from him for a split second. As Naruto only continued further, only pulling away from her mouth to plant kisses on her neck or her shoulder, she leaned back, letting him lower her down onto the couch.
As she scooted backwards—trying hard to do so without breaking their heated kiss—he slowly climbed on top of her, supporting his weight with an elbow with his other arm wrapped around her waist to hold her body close to his.
It was intoxicating, being this close to him. She never thought she'd feel the way she did now; she had never even been remotely aware of the types of sensations she could experience simply doing acts like this.
Despite the fact that she never wanted to end this, there was a voice in the back of her head, repeatedly telling her to 'stop', that was slowly getting louder and louder the more she carried on with Naruto.
And when he pressed himself against her once more, grinding his hips firmly against hers, she gasped as she felt his hardness through his pants.
Shocked at first, she didn't stop her movements until he pressed against her again, feeling him against her upper thigh. At that moment she froze up completely, her entire body stiffening in an instant as her mouth halted its movement against his.
To his credit, Naruto noticed her lack of movement immediately, quickly breaking their kiss and lifting off her ever-so-slightly.
"Are you okay?" He asked breathlessly, looking down on her with clouded eyes. He lifted himself up a little more, placing each of his hands beside her waist to hold himself up better and get a more clear look at her face.
"I—" she started with her voice unsure, her hands still frozen in front of her, "I think we should stop."
She muttered the words so quietly she was almost afraid he wouldn't hear them, but when his eyes widened and in the next second he was completely off of her, she let out a shaky breath of air. Her emotions were mixed at first, there was a part of her that was disappointed, but the part that was full of relief was suddenly the stronger feeling in her body.
And as she sat herself up slowly and carefully she kept her eyes trained on him. She could practically pinpoint the moment where things seemed to click for him.
Quicker than her eyes could even follow, he'd grabbed a throw pillow from behind him and placed it right on top of his lap. His face was burning brighter than Hinata had ever seen it before; she was almost worried he'd pass out judging by the redness that had taken over his face. His eyes were wide and he looked completely mortified.
"I—fuck—Hinata oh, my god I am so sorry," the words seemed to explode out of him like air out of a deflating balloon; quickly and with no real direction. "I didn't mean for that to happen at all I have no idea why—well that's not true I mean I know why because—you're just super attractive and just doing that kind of stuff just seemed to—fuck, I didn't mean to do that I'm so sorry Hinata like so damn sorry."
Hinata was positive that at that moment, she'd never seen him more flustered in her entire life; she'd hardly been aware that he was capable of expressing such humiliation and shame. It only took her a few seconds before her own embarrassment seemed to dissipate and instead she found herself feeling bad for Naruto.
She knew that he hadn't meant for his body to react… that way… and he was certainly right when he said about how it just seemed to 'happen'.
Despite the intense moment they just shared—and the following moments of pure and utter humiliation on both of their ends—Hinata lifted her hand and placed it on his cheek. It was as if his own proof of embarrassment had only served to comfort her slightly and make her feel almost entirely better about the situation.
"It's okay, Naruto-kun," she spoke, her voice still timid and slightly unsure. "You don't need to apologize, it's alright."
"Yeah, but you gotta know, like—I didn't mean for that to happen at all—I just—!"
Hinata silenced him with a kiss. It was soft, chaste, and a bit hesitant now, but it served it's purpose and caused Naruto's rigid form to soften slightly. Once she felt him sink down into the couch, she opened her eyes and pulled back, still keeping her hand on his cheek. "Naruto," her voice was firmer this time, "I told you, it's fine. I'm not angry or anything."
"Yeah but I took things too far!"
Hinata almost cracked a smile at that, "And what was I doing? Just standing there doing nothing? I was pushing it just as far as you were." If not more, she added to herself, a bit ashamed of her actions.
She could hardly believe they'd gone straight from their first kiss right until things almost started to get a bit too heated. She'd never imagined being the type of girl to do such a thing. She felt her face redden despite everything—oh god, what would her friends think if they knew!?
"I guess so…" he rubbed the back of his neck uneasily, his cheeks still flushed and red, "I just… I don't want to ruin things between us, y'know?" He let his eyes flicker up to hers for a second before looking across the room. "I just…" he groaned, "I'm not good at this kind of thing, I think? But I… I really like you, Hinata. And I…. really, really, don't want to fuck this up." He lowered his hand from his neck and finally looked her in the eye. "I don't want to scare you off or drive you away or anything like that. So, can you forgive me?"
The way he looked at her, so embarrassed, so suddenly scared, it caused her to stare back at him for a long moment. With his admission that he felt something more than normal friendship for her, she could feel her body warm up with a pleasant feeling like no other she'd ever felt before.
She smiled, a warm, purely happy smile that touched every inch of her face. "There's nothing to forgive, Naruto-kun."
Sighing loudly out of relief, Naruto found himself grinning back at her, his smile widening steadily as he took in her blissful expression. "Okay," he laughed lightly, "good."
She laughed right along with him, and when her hands reached forward to seek out his own, he met her halfway and encased her small hands within his large, more calloused ones.
"So can I—and feel free to say no!—but am I allowed to kiss you? Now? Maybe a little bit?"
Hinata only laughed in reply, not able to verbalize, and instead nodded a few times.
As Naruto leaned forward and kissed her softly, she could feel tears begin to prick at her eyes. This was unlike anything she'd ever imagined she'd experience before. Of course she'd had childhood dreams and unrealistic expectations, but even with those expectations—that she'd always just assumed to be unrealistic—nothing could have prepared her for the insanely blissful feeling that would encompass her by just kissing him.
After a few seconds, she broke the kiss just to press her face against his shoulder and wrap her arms tightly around him. He responded just as promptly and pulled her onto his lap, holding her close to him and burying his face in her hair.
They remained like that for a couple of peaceful minutes; Hinata tried hard to hold back her tears and eventually succeeded—she didn't need to give Naruto another reason to worry about her. Eventually she spoke.
"You did it," she smiled, inhaling deeply and exhaling pleasantly, "you actually did it."
"Three days from now at the compound."
"We'll finally be able to give Neji the goodbye he deserves," she could feel a new round of tears prick at her eyes as she tightened her hold on Naruto.
"Not just Neji," he said quietly, still embracing her tightly.
Suddenly confused, Hinata lifted her head up, disentangling herself from his firm embrace and looked at him strangely. "What do you mean…?" She asked slowly, suddenly not caring about the tears in the corners of her eyes. She didn't understand.
"I know I told you that I'd talk to your father about getting Neji his proper burial, but I did a little more than that—I hope that's okay with you?"
Her head tilted to the side slightly as she studied him closely, "I'm… not sure that I'm following, Naruto-kun."
He laughed once—a loud, blissful sound—and promptly pressed his lips against hers quickly before pulling back. "I got all of the Hyuuga who died a proper burial."
Hinata simply stared at him for a while, Naruto's words running through her mind multiple times as the severity of what he'd said hit her.
"No way," she whispered, eyes widening, "there's no way."
Naruto grinned, nodding fiercely with tears filling his own eyes once more. "All of them. There's going to be a giant ceremony at the compound, open to ninja and villagers alike to pay their respects to everyone from your clan that died."
"There's no way," Hinata repeated, in shock, "there's no way that you managed all of that… just… how did you do that?!"
"Well, Hiashi tried to dismiss me pretty quickly but when I went to go find the council members myself he actually sat down and listened to me. I mean, he had to call in a couple council members eventually, but that wasn't my doing…"
"I just—I can't believe it!" She was freely crying now, tears slowly falling down her cheeks. "You did it, you actually did it!"
He was shaking his head before she even stopped talking. "I didn't really do much. You did most of it really." He shrugged.
She stared at him for a long moment. "Okay… now I'm lost."
"All I did was tell them what you already told your father. I was just… a little louder probably," he admitted sheepishly. "I just sort of reminded them that you're the clan's rightful heir and that they'd better take you more seriously to prevent further shit like this in the future."
Hinata found herself smiling. "It also doesn't hurt that you'll probably be Hokage," she told him, laughing lightly when Naruto's smile turned a bit coy.
"Probably?" He teased slightly, leaning back from her and giving her a fake-offended look.
"Definitely," she corrected, laughing wholeheartedly as Naruto nodded his head firmly, grinning widely back at her.
"That's better," he laughed along with her, grabbing her around the waist and embracing her tightly. As she laughed he let his fingertips run lightly over her stomach, tickling her.
Hinata immediately let out a high-pitched squeak as she began to move. "Naruto-kun! What are—AH!" She was only able to struggle for another few seconds before he began to tickle her once more. Trying to force down her hysterical giggles, she eventually wiggled her way off of his lap before scurrying to the other end of the couch, laughing the entire time.
By the time she turned herself around and faced him once more, Naruto was already in front of her, his face mere inches from hers. Letting out another laugh she locked eyes with him and smiled widely.
There was no trace of hesitance or nervousness as she leaned forward and kissed him, smiling against his lips as he wrapped his arms around her and held her close.
This beat out all of her dreams she'd ever had, easily.