Naruto watched from where he lay on his apartment floor as Hinata paced back and forth on the village road below. Well, he was pretty sure it was Hinata. The blinds covering his window were pulled up a few inches and from where he lay he could see familiar knee-high boots and dark thigh-high socks walking a path between the library and the hospital.
He stood, sighing, and picked up the bowl of watermelon from the floor. He had planned on laying there and eating the chilled fruit, the hardwood floor of his apartment the coolest place with the summer heat. However, curiosity got the better of him. Stepping through the open door and onto the balcony he confirmed that it was Hinata. She was looking down at her device with an annoyed expression on her face.
"Oi, Hinata!" Naruto yelled down, her head snapped up, a hand going to her brow shading her face as her eyes met his.
"What are you doing?" He asked as she walked across the road to stand beneath the balcony.
"We were meeting here to leave for a mission, but Kiba and Shino are late," Hinata yells up at him
"Wanna come up and wait?"
"Oh no, I'm fine" The blush on her cheeks was evident even in the summer heat.
"Come on, I have watermelon, and it's cold!" Naruto grins down at her
"I mean if you don't mind." Hinata took a step towards the stairs leading up to his apartment.
"Doors unlocked." Was all Naruto said in reply, before sitting, feet dangling off the edge of the balcony, arms resting on the railing.
Hinata climbed the steps, taking deep breaths, and calming herself. Pausing once she reached the landing, typing a message to both teammates, wondering where they were. Both replied almost instantly. Shino, cryptic as ever, saying he was 'around' while Kiba's reply did little to calm her nerves. He had said 'Oh, just letting you have a little alone time with Naruto before we leave.'
Those two She thought to herself They must be close by if Kiba knows what I'm doing right now.
Hinata pushes on the door, toes off her boots, and walks silently through Naruto's apartment. She had been in more times in the past two years than she ever thought she'd be. Playing cards with friends, and eating cups of instant ramen with him, their friends that normally accompanied her almost always find an excuse to leave the two of them alone. Kiba and Sakura all but shoved people through the door, winking at her as they go.
Much to Hinata's displeasure nothing had happened in their times alone behind closed doors. If Naruto noticed that people were intentionally leaving them alone he never let on. He always acted the perfect gentleman, once they were alone. Keeping his distance, not letting himself touch any part of her. Almost the exact opposite of when others were around.
Hinata had taken Sakura's advice and started being more forward (or at least she thought so, Sakura still poked fun at her, saying she was flirting at a snail's pace) with him. Leaning in when he sat next to her to talk, choosing to sit by him when they were together at a table instead of somewhere else or by the force of her friends.
And Naruto didn't seem to mind; he had let her thigh press into his while sitting on numerous occasions, draped an arm around her to rest on the back of whatever furniture they were sitting on. But the second they were alone, he stopped. Scooting away from her, even if it was just in the slightest way, just so they weren't physically touching. And Hinata didn't know what to think about it.
She had confided in Sakura, of course, her friend said it was simply Naruto being Naruto. While he was bold and carefree in his actions, being around a group made it easy for him not to think about how he touched her or oriented himself around her. But when they were alone she had 100% of his attention. Sakura made her claim that he shared Hinata's feelings and became nervous, even in a slight way, when they were alone with each other.
"Hi," Hinata says with a smile, stepping onto the balcony. Naruto looked over his shoulder, a wide grin spreading across his face.
"How late's your team?"
"About twenty minutes, Kiba messaged though and said they'll be here soon." Hinata sits, and Naruto tilts the bow of watermelon l in her direction.
"Oh no, I'm fine." Hinata looks at the remaining piece of fruit alone in the bottom of the bowl
"Take it, it's too hot to sit up here without it."
"If you don't mind." Her sentence was cut off by Naruto sighing, taking the fruit in his hand, and holding it to her mouth.
"You're too nice, ya know," Naruto says, laughter coating his voice.
"So I've heard." Hinata, laughing too, folds her hand around the rind, fingers brushing his.
They sit in comfortable silence, enjoying the cold fruit, trying to combat the heat radiating around them. Out of the corner of her eye, Hinata notices Naruto moving, he takes the bowl before laying down, stretching his arms above his head, t-shirt riding up his stomach, he sets the bowl just barely back inside the apartment door. Hinata feels the heat rising up her neck, as she glances down. Noting the fine line of hair that disappears into the top of his pants. The blush flares across her cheeks.
Before she even realizes what's happening, Naruto's sitting next to her, his bare hand brushing over her cheek and up to her forehead. "You feeling okay?" His tone is light, almost teasing.
"Ye-yeah." She pauses, slowing her train of thought. "I'm great actually."
"Your skins so light, days like these must suck for that, ya know, with the heat and all." His fingers slowly trail back down her cheek, before he rests both hands back on the railing.
"Not all of us can get a nice tan." Hinata teases, gently knocking her shoulder against his.
Naruto laughs, "I'm still not as pale as you even under my shirt." He turns, eyes locking on hers.
Hinata does everything in her power not to think about what's under his shirt, not to think about where that line of hair was leading to.
"Hina!" Kiba breaks through the silence "We gotta go."
"Coming!" She yells back, her gaze not leaving Narutos. "I'll see you when I get back?"
"Yeah, I'm off for a month or so, Kakashi-sensei said I 'earned a break'" Naruto stands with her to walk back inside.
Hinata bends to put her boots on, feeling Naruto's eyes rake over her, fighting the urge to activate her byakugan to see exactly what he was looking at.
"Bye, Hinata." Naruto holds the door open for her.
His stomach is in knots, Naruto thinks of the way her lips wrapped around the watermelon. Juice dripping down her chin. How nice the blush on her cheeks had looked. How he liked the way her laugh sounded, how she had grown to tease him with ease and not dissolve into a stuttering mess. Naruto shook his head as he replayed the way her lips looked biting into the red fruit. Groaning, he threw himself onto his bed, trying to ignore the growing tightness in his pants.
I want to get to Naruto being a pining idiot so badly, I feel like physical attraction is what comes first for him. Just with his history of liking Sakura because she's "cute" but also just being a teenage boy. We'll be seeing that very explicitly in the next chapter!