Naruto brooded. Dinner had been eaten in a rushed silence, before Sakura had quickly outlined her plan for the night. They would split into two groups, one which stayed by the fire, one for back up in case of an attack a distance away. Unsurprisingly, Sakura and Sasuke were the group away from the fire. He had wanted to object… to come up with a reason why the grouping should be different. But as he pondered for a reason, Sasuke grunted agreeance and even Hinata had been so forward as to squeak her approval of the plan.

He wanted to be happy for Sakura. She had finally gotten what she wanted, and it honestly warmed his heart to see her smiling brighter than she ever had. But the loss was a festering wound, and each brush of her fingers against Sasuke's shoulder, each warm look, was salt ground into the hurt. There was no anger, no target for him to lash out at… only grieving pain.

Hinata dug a small hole to bury the discarded fish bones, casting a sidelong glance at her sole companion. She had never seen him so… quiet… like the flame of his happiness had been smothered. He noticed her glance, and she hurriedly turned away. "Um…" she mumbled softly. She saw him opened his mouth to say something, but no sound came out. His eyes fell back to the ground, the same ground he had been studying for the last ten minutes. She ached… he was her bastion of warmth, the boy who could smile and laugh even when so people hated him. But what could she do to cheer him up when she couldn't even muster the courage to speak his name?

Eventually he found his own voice, breaking the uncomfortable stretch of silence. "So what's your favorite food?" he jabbered, the words spilling over each other in a tumbling rush.

She blinked. "Um… red bean paste."

Naruto grinned. "Really? Mine's…"

"Ramen." she said in unison with him, offering a shy smile.

He looked confused. "How did you…"

"I watch… I see you eating at Ichiraku's ramen stand all the time."

The implications of that small phrase rang through his head. Even though he knew Hinata vaguely as a classmate, this conversation had felt like an introduction of sorts. But she had been watching him… all this time. Where had he been? What had he been doing until now? He flashed her his normal, cheery smile. "Yup… the old man's ramen is the best in the village." She smiled shyly with him. "But…" he traced aimless patterns in the soft earth in front of him, his eyes downcast. "Hinata-chan… why did you come with us?"

Her heart tightened in her chest. "I wanted…" Her throat closed up, the words unable to come any more. She weakly pulled out her jar of medicinal paste, pointing towards it.

He looked at her doubtfully. "Because Sakura-chan told me…" He scratched his head in embarrassment. "Well… it doesn't matter." A long pause. "Do you really… like me?"

Her eyes widened. "Umm… well…"

He watched her silently as she cupped her head in her hands. "Its okay… you can say it, Hinata-chan. I know what everyone thinks of me. The names they call me."

She uncovered her face in a panic, shaking her head. "You're wrong. Not everyone calls you names, Naruto-kun. I know what its like… to be lonely."

He looked at her in the firelight, a faint smile on her visage. What was it that made him look at her differently now? She hadn't changed any… and yet he felt a yearning for her. "Look… I think…" He swallowed bitterly. In the end… any feelings he had for Hinata were only because of the rejection from Sakura. A rebound of sorts. He wanted to forget that all and take the ivory skinned girl into his arms, hold her close, feel her warmth, and pretend her hair was pink. But thoughts more mature than he wanted to hear wouldn't let him. "I think I need to be alone."

Hinata could have cried. She had cried over much smaller things before, certainly. But instead, she gave him an unsteady smile and nodded, moving over to the opposite side of the fire from him. She curled up into a fetal position, rocking back and forth with her hands locked over her knees. For him… for him she would hold back her tears.

-----

Sakura laid herself down right next to the prostrate Sasuke, leaving barely an inch between them, prompting one of his closed eyes to open a bit and giving her an amused half smile. "So Sasuke-kun… how'd I do during the battle back there?"

He grunted. "Alright I guess. I could have handled them myself but… you were slightly helpful."

She smacked his shoulder. "I finally got to save your sorry butt." She smiled coyly. "It felt kinda good."

He nodded slowly. "I suppose I should thank you. If you hadn't interceded… I would have had to use…" He shrugged. They both knew the dormant power he would have had to expend. She wrapped her arms around him awkwardly, pressing them together. He squirmed in her grasp, pulling away. "Sakura… chan." Her heart skipped a beat with the new affectionate addition to her name. "We've got a long day ahead of us tomorrow…"

She pulled back a little and put on her best pouty face. "I don't know when we're going to have another night alone together, Sasuke-kun."

Sakura could swear she could almost see his cheeks reddening in the soft moonlight. "I don't really… know…" He sighed. "What do you think this is, a vacation? We're on a mission to kill my brother." She looked back at him, her expression an unyielding pout. "What do you… what are you asking me to do?"

She grinned. "Nothing." She drew him into a kiss, feeling his resistance break down as he melted into her grasp. "Nothing at all…" Her hands drew his shirt up over his head, leaving it discarded in the grass. She rose up to her knees, sliding one leg over him and kneeling over his as she kissed, running her hands through his silky, raven hair. His hands caressed her cheeks, and she caught each hand by the wrist and gently pinned them over his head as they twined their tongues. After the pink haired kunoichi pulled back for a moment, her lover realized his vulnerable position and tried to break her hold.

Though he was physically stronger than her, her advantageous position and gravity were on her side. His arm muscles strained, and his body bucked into her straddling hips, making his arousal obvious even through the multiple layers of clothing between them. He strained with all his might, gaining an inch off the ground, before his strength gave out. He lay panting beneath her, a single rivulet of sweat streaking down his cheek. His smile was sardonic, his voice filled with mock anger. "Consider yourself lucky, shinobi. No one has ever been able to get me at such a disadvantage before."

She clicked her teeth together with playful menace. "I'll agree… I'm very lucky." She bowed her head to trace her tongue along his neck before gently nibble on his earlobe. "And now… what to do with you?" she purred. "I wonder…" Her teeth left small love bites down his shoulder, and her kisses made a wet trail down his smooth chest. Even when they dropped low enough to the point where she was forced to relinquish her grasp on his wrists, he didn't make an effort to escape. Her fingers traced along the edges of his pants, letting the first digits slip under the waistband. Her heart hammered as she hesitated on the brink of doing what she had been planning on for some time. All those novels she hid from her parents under her bed would finally pay off.

She pulled his boxers down, examining her prize with a mind half full of scholarly analysis and half girlish awe and curiosity. She took him into her mouth delicately, letting her lips trail over his ridge before licking around his head with her tongue. She was rewarded with small sounds of enjoyment from Sasuke, gentle gasps of pleasure that she had never thought him capable of making. The initial tenseness of his frame relaxed into the loose posture of someone not worrying about how their body is positioned, concentrating only on the pleasure. Closing her eyes with a smile, she encircled his shaft with her thumb and forefinger, stroking him in synch with her head movements. He propped himself up on his elbows for a moment as she opened her eyes. Their gazes met, his unrepentant awe, hers smolder seduction. His elbows slipped through the dirt, landing his head back on the ground. She grinned, increasing her pace, enjoying herself immensely. As time passed, his hand shakily stroked through her hair, and he murmured praise to her name in a quiet, breathless voice. To hear him reduced to a quivering reverence by her ministrations, made her redouble her efforts even more. When he could stand no more, he pulled her head up violently, and they crushed a kiss together he came. He gasped wordlessly into her mouth, wracked by the throes of his climax.

His chest still heaved as her slick hand was slowing in its movements. She was still watching his face… his eyes still unopened from when they had clenched shut in his ecstasy, his brow stippled by beads of perspiration, his breathing ragged. He cracked his eyes open, looking into her facing over his. "That was… amazing." He managed.

She felt herself blushing fiercely, wiping her hand on her dress. "Anything for you Sasuke-kun." And she meant it too.

He drew his pants back up, buttoning them shut. His arms clasped behind her back, holding her to him, and he rocked back and forth, feeling her breasts pressed to his chest through the soft fabric of her red dress. "Thank you… Sakura-chan. For everything."

-----

Naruto opened his eyes slowly as the dawn light broke his troubled sleep. He pulled himself to his feet, kicking at the smoking firepit absently, walking over to wake Hinata. He hesitated when he reached her, watching her eyes twitch behind her eyelids, her fragile chest rise and fall. He felt the longing seize at him again, and swallowed. Shaking his head to clear it, he wandered over to the general direction of Sakura and Sasuke's camp.

There was a finality to seeing their sleeping forms. Sakura's dress' straps drooped from her shoulders, and her grinning face was nestled on Sasuke's lean, bare chest. Sasuke's face, a peaceful expression on his features, rested in the pink hair. He waited for something to hit him… envy, fury, panic… but he only could feel a dull loss.

He trundled back to his own sleeping area, dropping to his knees next to Hinata. He tried to form words, words that might stem the hurt from what he said the night before, but nothing came to mind. None of his normal ways of dealing with pain would work; he wanted to smile, to laugh, to make boisterous jokes, but the weight on his heart wouldn't let him.

Hinata's eyes opened slowly, woken by Naruto's very presence rather than noise or light. She smiled gently, an expression she had never had the courage to show him before. He gazed back at her, his troubles breaking up somewhat, and he eased into a natural expression himself.

"It's dawn." he managed to say, not wanting there to be silence, but not knowing what else to say.

"The start of a new day." she agreed meaningfully in a voice thick with sleep, turning to glance at the rays of sun broaching the tree line.

"Do you think... people ever get a chance to start over?"

Hinata kept her eyes locked on the sunlight, contemplating Naruto's uncharacteristically phillisophical question. "Sometimes, yes. When old lives have set, and new ones begins... people can start over."

Naruto scooped dirt up in between cupped hands, watching the fine grains pour through the small gap he created between his palms. The dirt cascaded down, pouring onto the ground and creating a raised ridge on the ground. "And do you think our lives have set?"

She turned back to him, her lips pursed. "Someday, I want to return to Konoha. But... for now, I want to travel around the world, training and learning, and return home. When I come home, I will prove to everyone that I deserve the position I was born into." She blushed furiously after letting that all out. It seemed silly, in a way, even to her. She had very little talent, and even less force of will to back it with. True, she had always wanted to change herself, but confessing all of this aloud, where someone could hear her and make fun of her...

"Wow." That was Naruto's only reply for a long moment. Hinata's heart pounded like the wings of the hummingbird as she watched him contemplate her confession. Finally, he turned to her with a grin. "That's really something. I hope you can do it."

"I... I hope so too Naruto-kun."

"And..." he rose, holding out a hand to help her up. She accepted it graciously, standing and watching his expression. "Maybe I can help you along the way."

He didn't wait for her to respond instead turning and heading off to the stream they camped by, presumably to catch breakfast. She watched him walk, her eyes following him until his orange jumpsuit was out of sight.

"I hope so too, Naruto-kun." she repeated finally.