Breathe Again

When she’s away on a mission, Naruto finds himself wandering around his house aimlessly. Since he and Hinata got together six months ago, you would only ever find one without the other when they were on missions.

One the most recent incident of Hinata being away, Shikamaru, Choji and Sai kept Naruto busy that day with sparring and lunch, but when he got home, he couldn’t but help missing her.

“I’m home,” he called to the empty, dark apartment as he threw his jacket on the couch.

His heart clenched when Hinata’s sweet voice didn’t respond with “welcome back”. It was amazing to him how much she had fit so perfectly into his life – making it even better – by just being around. Although they weren’t living together, Hinata was at his place quite a few nights a week, even if she didn’t stay over.

He had become used to his lights being on, wonderful smells permeating the house and the ‘welcome home’ kiss.

He liked that one a lot.

He remembered the first time he arrived home and found Hinata there. He had just returned from a mission involving a megalomaniacal noble running a human trafficking ring. He was unharmed but he was dirty and in need of a bed not made of hard earth.

As was his habit, he murmured his arrival to what he thought was an empty apartment and took a step back in surprise and bewilderment when he heard a voice respond.

“Welcome back, Naruto-kun.”

There stood his girlfriend of one month with a mild blush on her cheeks and an apron covering her lovely dress. His heart swelled as he took in the wonder of the moment and then showed his appreciation and love by pulling Hinata into a deep embrace and kissed her with as much feeling as their first kiss.

Naruto was disinclined to leave her lips but Hinata was insistent in pulling away just enough for her to speak.

“Welcome home, Naruto-kun.”

Her whisper of delight was accompanied by her small hands cupping his face. Naruto didn’t fight the tears that collected in his eyes at the utter joy that collected in his chest. He was so full of love for the woman in his arms, he couldn’t hold her close enough.

He lifted her up into his arms, kissing her as he went. Hinata squeaked in surprise but responded to the kiss enthusiastically. His lips wandered from hers and down towards her neck and he couldn’t but help smile as she gasped and gripped a hand into his jacket.

He set her down gently on the corner of the table as his hands began wandering down her sides. Their exploration came to an abrupt halt when Hinata leant back down onto the table and knocked a plate to the ground, shocking them from their lusty haze.

Hinata’s cheeks bloomed into a rosy blush as she realised how heated their exchange had gotten and Naruto felt his own cheeks warming when he realised his blood had started relocating lower on his body.

“That was the best welcome ever,” he said, shifting his hips away from her lest he scare her.

Hinata smiled. “I’m glad. I think we broke a plate though.”

“Worth it.”

Naruto smiled as he passed the kitchen, remembering how – after they untangled from each other – he’d headed for a shower to clean up and cool himself down and Hinata headed to the kitchen to take food of the stove before it burnt.

What had started as the best welcome home turned into the best home cooked meal, as Naruto revelled in having her all to himself.

“Naruto-kun, do I have something on my face?”

“No, why?”

Hinata’s cheeks flushed. “Because you’re staring at me.”

He grinned but his eyes didn’t leave hers. He had been leaning forward, resting his head on a hand with his elbow on the table as he looked at her

“Just having you here is making me so happy, I can’t believe how lucky I am.”

“Naruto-kun – ”

“You’re so beautiful.”

“N-Naruto-kun!”

He grinned at his ability to make her stutter, it was an endearing trait that was occurring less and less as they spent more time together. He reached out a hand and brushed away some hair that had fallen near her eyes.

“You are.”

He didn’t catch her mumbled response but watched her with a lazy grin as she stood – her face still flushed – and took some plates to the kitchen. He watched her with bated breath as she left and came back, unable to believe she was here in his home.

“Hinata,” he all but cooed, reaching out a hand.

She took his hand as she returned and found herself in another embrace as she stood before him where he sat at the table. His head was pressed into her chest and he held her close. Hinata would have found the fact that his head was nestled over her breasts rather overwhelming, were it not for the desperate way in which he clung to her.

She ran her fingers gently through his hair as he hugged her fiercely. For several minutes there was silence as Naruto clung to Hinata like a lifeline. Because she was his.

“I love you, Hinata.”

“I love you too, Naruto-kun,” came her prompt and sincere response.

One instant she was kissing his freshly-washed hair and the next she found herself in his lap as his lips attacked hers. Her fingers held tight in his hair as the passion between them escalated. She moaned into the kiss as his hands ran down her bare arms, mildly distracted by the different sensations between his right and left hands

Naruto’s whole body was alive with happiness and warmth. He couldn’t comprehend Hinata’s being in his apartment and the fact that she looked like she belonged there made him breathless.

“You’re really here?” he whispered against her lips.

Her fingers traced through his hair and caressed his cheeks. “Yes Naruto-kun, I’m really here. And here I’ll stay, if you’ll have me.”

Naruto’s eyes softened and his mouth dropped open in awe. Wordlessly, he slipped an arm under her legs and picked her up. Her arms slipped back around his neck and she smiled as she snuggled into his hold.

“Just try and get rid of me.”

That had been a night he would never forget, Naruto reflected as he wandered around his bedroom. He looked at his bed and remembered with fondness and just a little bit of arousal about how they had pledged themselves to each other in the most intimate way possible.

He threw himself on the bed, looking at the empty space where Hinata usually lay. He smiled as he remembered the morning after their first time, when they’re woken in each other’s arms and had a blushing, stuttering conversation.

After they had each assured each other there was nowhere else they’d rather be, the conversation turned to a topic he had never considered.

“I’ve never had a side of the bed before,” Naruto said.

Hinata smiled, snuggled against his side as he lay on his back with one hand behind his head and the other around her shoulders. “Me either. Do you prefer this side, do you want to switch?”

Naruto grinned. “I don’t know, maybe we should try.”

He slid his free hand under the covers and around her naked waist and rolled her over, until they were a tangle of sheets as she came to a rest on his other side. Hinata made a show of testing her new position.

“No, I don’t think so,” she said.

“Oh good, I think so too,” he agreed as he rolled her back over with a laugh. “I like being able to have my unbandaged hand free to…” his unbandaged hand trailed down her arm. “Touch.”

Hinata hummed and buried her face in the crook of his neck. As his hand begin to trail along her arm and tentatively to her side, their interactions turned from playful to sensual.

Naruto sighed and rolled onto his back, throwing an arm over his eyes. Thinking about their first morning together made missing her all the harder. Thinking about their intimate times made him yearn for her all the more, he felt like he was suffocating.

Sharing a bed with Hinata had taught him many things about her, though. About two months ago, Naruto woke to the sound of heavy rain on his bedroom window and smiled as Hinata snuggled into his embrace.

His hand had been on top of the covers but over her waist and he smiled at the contentment settled in his very core.

He loved watching her sleep, she was extremely expressive when she slept. She mumbled each time she turned over, her face contorted depending on the kind of dream she was having and the way she sighed his name in her sleep made him warm all over.

On that rainy morning, Naruto realised there was nowhere he’d rather be than in bed, snuggling with Hinata. In their line of work, they had been conditioned to sleep lightly and the ability to sleep deep was often referred to as a Lover’s Spell. This was because in a truly loving relationship, the partners recognised there was no danger and completely trusted the safety to the person they were sleeping with. Sleep made you vulnerable, but under a Lover’s Spell, that vulnerability didn’t matter.

It made him breathless to think Hinata was so at ease around him that she could sleep deeply.

In her sleep, Hinata mumbled out the name of her sister and her father. Naruto watched her face shift through concern and pride. She shifted closer to him, a move he thoroughly enjoyed, and he was better able to examine her face.

He marvelled at the length of her eyelashes, the curve of her adorable nose, the enticing pout in her lower lip and the colour and silken feel of her hair. He loved each and every part of her, but put together, those eyelashes, those lips, that nose and that hair was what made her so unique – physically – among the Hyuga.

She had always been unique in her clan. From the very beginning, she had strived to forge her own path. And while she hadn’t developed her fighting style at the same rate as a normal Hyuga, she had bloomed in her own time and by her own hand, making her transformation all the more stunning and rewarding.

He hardly believed her when she told him he played a great part in inspiring her to become who she was. He believed that she would always have become as kind and strong without him. The only thing he would ever teasingly take credit for was her blush.

“Naruto-kun…”

He was dragged from his thoughts as he watched her open her eyes with lethargic blinks. He peppered her with kisses as she woke, pressing her flush against him.

“Good morning sleepy-head,” he said.

She attempted to sit up and he got a fair indication as to the extent of her bed hair, a phenomenon he found mesmerising. Her hair was thick, a trait not shared with the majority of the Hyuga, who mostly had fine hair. He surmised it was this thickness that made her hair prone to bedhead in the morning. Not that he wanted to see the state of other Hyuga as they woke. Hinata was all he wanted.

“No need to get up,” he said, stopping her attempt to sit up. “It’s a Saturday and it’s raining outside. I say we just stay in bed.”

Hinata smiled and hummed, her arm moving across his chest. “That sounds wonderful. Shall I make us breakfast in bed?”

“Ah, no need!” Naruto summoned a clone and gave him the task of making breakfast.

Said clone whined at the “unfairness of the boss getting to stay snuggled with Hinata, while he braved the cold to make food”. Hinata apologised and again offered to make the breakfast, but both Naruto and his clone stopped her. With a whispered thanks to the clone, Hinata snuggled into Naruto’s side and sighed in happiness.

Opening his eyes, Naruto realised he had a goofy grin on his face at the utter contentment brought about by remembering their shared happiness in snuggling together in this very bed. With a final, deep sniff of Hinata’s pillow, he jumped off the bed with the intention of making himself useful.

He threw a couple of dirty clothes in a hamper Hinata had bought and straightened out the bed spread. Making his way to the kitchen, he washed the few dishes there were in the sink. He moved into the living room and sat down on the couch, throwing an arm over his eyes.

“Naruto-kun? What movie do you want to watch?”

Naruto lay on the couch, Hinata standing before him in his living room. It had been two months since they started dating and she had become a fixture in his home. Little things that screamed ‘Hinata’ were finding their way into his house. From the pale orange blanket kept on the couch for snuggling, to her favourite books making it into his sparse bookshelf.

“What do you want to watch, Hinata? Something with action, comedy or romance?”

“How about…” she turned to his small collection of movies and chose a family comedy.

She plopped herself onto the couch and snuggled into his side as the movie began. Within the first 10 minutes of the film, her attention wandered and she picked up his hand to study its lines and minute scars.

His attention – already partly fixed on her when she picked up his hand – was firmly planted her way when she kissed each of his fingers. He didn’t breathe, didn’t say a word, because he didn’t want her to stop. He watched out of the corner of his eye as she compared their hand sizes (the difference took his breath away) and fought the urge to squeeze his hand lightly when she entwined their fingers.

When her lips met the pulse point on his wrist, he couldn’t hold back anymore and pulled her into his lap. Hinata’s gasp of surprise was muffled by his lips on hers, but her shock almost instantly changed into reciprocation.

By the time the credits were rolling, Hinata and Naruto were on the floor clinging together under the orange throw rug, shivering and panting after the vigorous round of love-making.

Shaking his mind clear of the arousing memory, Naruto ran through all the hand seals in his head. And did so again. On his sixth repetition, he was interrupted by a key in the lock. He sat up abruptly and leapt over the couch, throwing the door open before the key was out of the door.

Hinata stumbled into the room due to the force of the door being opened and she fell into Naruto’s eager, awaiting arms. His face immediately went to her hair, breathing in the scent that was uniquely Hinata. She threw her arms around his neck and laughed as he spun her around.

“You’re back, I can finally breathe again. I missed you so much,” he exclaimed.

“I missed you too, Naruto-kun. What have you been up to, have you been keeping busy?”

“I’ve been wasting away, thinking about you.”

“Oh no,” Hinata teased as her feet touched the floor. “My poor Naruto-kun. What can I do?”

With a smile, Naruto swept her up into his arms and kicked the door closed. With a mischievous twinkle in his eye, he carried her towards the bedroom.