My Darling Naruto, My Sweet Kyuubi

Naruto didn't know if he'd actually slept once throughout the course of the night, instead he'd pictured
himself in front of the gates that held the Kyuubi within him, screaming at him, challenging him, but he'd
never once received a reply, not even a taunt or it's evil laughter. He hadn't even bothered to put his
clothes back on, instead he'd stayed outside of the shelter on the other side of the fire with just his
jacket over him and the rest of the clothes he'd put under his head as a pillow.

When he opened his eyes it was only just beginning to get light, but the clouds they had seen the previous
night had now drifted overhead and it had started raining. in truth he wasn't sure if he'd woken up because
of the small drops of water landing on his face or if he'd been awake to see the rain start. Picking up his
things he glanced over at the sleeping form of Hinata, feeling fresh pangs of guilt and self loathing as he
noticed she was still turned away from him before walking off to the river to wash himself and his clothes,
taking his knives to get breakfast, and to collect some more firewood on the way back. He quietly moved over
to the shelter and propped his opened water bottle against a post to catch some fresh water and headed for
the sound of running water.

Hinata waited until his footsteps had fully faded from her hearing before she rolled over to look out of the
shelter. She'd cried silently between nightmares, waking up every so often and wondering why Naruto hadn't
joined her in the shelter. Even with what had happened it was stupid to stay out in the cold, she looked at
roof of the shelter, a smile coming to her lips as she thought about how they had made it together. They had
a good job, even with the rain beginning to fall harder there were no leaks. She looked down at herself,
dressed in her clothes but still sweaty and dirty underneath, she knew she had to wash herself, and he clothes
but at the time she'd just wanted some form of protection, even if it was the flimsy material of her clothes.

She crawled out of the shelter and stood up, staring at the sky and allowing the cold rain to hi her face,
trying to wake herself and to wash away some of the pain from the happenings of the night before. She wasn't
sure how long she stood there enjoying the feel of the water soaking into her clothes and skin, she'd never
enjoyed rain before but right now it felt like if she stood there for long enough it would wash away all of
her fears and doubts along with all of the troubles she'd faced. She opened her mouth and gulped down several
mouthfuls of the clean and fresh rain water before heading off towards the lake herself, although she made sure
to head a little upstream so that her and Naruto could see each other but not have to talk. She wasn't ready to
face him yet, and didn't know when she would be.

Naruto watched as Hinata emerged from the trees a little further up stream from him, he felt a little saddened
that she was so far away from him yet glad for the distance and space at the same time. He watched her as she
stripped off and carried her clothes into the stream to wash them along with her body, a part of him felt guilty
looking at her body and remembering what he had done to it only hours ago. He hurriedly gathered up his own stuff
and headed back to camp, although it wasn't great a cold water wash was better than nothing and so long as they
warmed up quickly afterwards then it wouldn't be too bad for them. Naruto stopped on the way to gather as much
dry wood that he could find, searching areas sheltered by trees before returning to camp and starting a small
fire. He had debated on whether he should use the remnants of the old fire, but with the rain coming down harder
by the minute he had decided against it and set some leaves down inside the shelter to sit on, hung his clothes
up against the shelters walls and lit a new fire inside the shelter itself.

It wasn't long before he was joined by Hinata, she was still naked and Naruto looked away from her when she sat
down on the opposite side of the shelter, he didn't feel like he had any right to even look at her after what had
happened.

"As soon as our clothes and bodies are dry enough we should make a move..." Naruto said as he grabbed his trousers
and held them closer to the fire to dry them out quicker.

"Y-Yes.." Hinata nodded as she agreed and copied him by holding her trousers closer to the fire, turning them
every so often so that it dried all the way through and didn't burn.

It didn't take long for them to dress themselves once their clothes had fully dried, not bothering to clear away
the shelter or the dried ash piles from the fires they had used, both wanting to continue and finish their journey
as quickly as possible. Continuing their journey south the stopped only to drink from Naruto's refilled bottle and
to eat some berries that Hinata had pointed out and remembered were edible from one of her lessons.

They continued their journey, trying to avoid the issues that they had, several times one would turn to the
other as if ready to discuss where they would go from here in their relationship, but each time either fear
or some other emotion would stop them. The silence hurt both of them, but neither one knew how to go about
recapturing the lost enthusiasm of the day before.

Naruto hated the quiet, but he couldn't seem to be his usual loud and boisterous self, in fact both of them were
so down from thinking to themselves all day that the sight of the entrance to a village felt almost too good to
be true. Night was fast approaching and they would have to either stop here or risk another night in the cold rain
and whatever food they could scrounge.

Neither one was sure where they were, and the village was so small that it was unlikely it had ever registered
itself for help with any of the hidden ninja villages, but right now size wasn't the most important thing on the
minds of Naruto or Hinata, as they thought about spending some time at an inn and restocking some of their lost
supplies.

Hinata and Naruto shared the first smile of the day as they looked at each other and headed towards the Inn,
whatever shopping they both had to do would wait until the morning, right now they could have a proper bath and
meal, as well as find out more details on their current location. Hinata followed Naruto up to the front desk and
watched him produce his purse, happy that they had the money to make the most of this sudden turn of events, and
realised that it might give her a chance to talk with him about what had happened instead of avoiding him and the
issues they had.

Naruto looked at his purse, he'd nearly lost it on a couple of occasions when he and Hinata had been dragged
over the cliff by the tidal wave, but each time he'd managed to grab it with his free hand whilst his other
hand had held Hinata close to him to save her. Now that he was at an inn he was glad that he'd managed to keep
it safe, but there wasn't all that much in there. He looked at the prices on the wall, if he paid for two
separate rooms then it would use over half of his money and he didn't know when they'd need the rest, plus some
of it had to go on food and supplies for the rest of the journey.

Hinata knew from the way Naurto had stared at the price list and then his wallet that they were on a tight
budget, she also needed to talk to him and have a long soak in a warm bath along with a good meal, she also
understood that they still had to get some supplies for the journey ahead. She nudged Naruto's side, bringing a
smile to her face when he turned to face her and she told him "It's okay Naruto-kun... We can share.."