Hinata Comes of Age

Chapter 6: Step Three, The End of Childhood Dreams

Hinata sat in the bathtub soaking, in pain. She’d been going out with Naruto for three weeks now. She’d had more sex than she’d imagined possible. Naruto had always been able to get up in a fight after being knocked out cold, something Hinata admired. Evidently he was always able to get it up sexually as well. He’d made love to her—no, no, Hinata wasn’t going to lie—he’d fucked her on just about every surface in the apartment, including the ceiling. Why he thought that using their chakra to hang on the ceiling while having sex was fun, she didn’t know. It had been terrifying. And when they’d fallen when he’d finally started to cum, she had passed out. He’d thought it had been awesomely intense and wanted to do it again.

Hinata had been trying to cling to her childhood dream of being Naruto’s girlfriend, his love. But the reality of it was ripping that dream to shreds. She’d watched Naruto eat ramen for years—from a distance mostly. Up close, the noise, the gulping, the slurping—it was, well, vulgar. She’d thought it rather clever and amusing when Naruto had beaten Kiba with a fart to get into the final rounds of their first chuunin exam. His farts were not funny, however, in her apartment.

She’d know he’d read porn as a kid, but she hadn’t expect him to want to talk about porn or share it with her. He just assumed she liked what he liked. If she came right out and said she didn’t like something, he immediately respected her wishes. But she could see the disappointment in him. What had she expected? Naruto was Naruto. He deserved someone that loved him enough not to care about the ramen, the dirty clothes, the dirty dishes, the farting, the porn, and, and, yes, the sex. Hinata admitted it, finally, sitting there in the bathtub soaking her sore crotch, Naruto was too much for her sexually.

Well, gosh, what did she expect? She’d hardly been able to talk to him without blushing and passing out for years. She just wasn’t able to be so, so—sexually exuberant? There was more to love than sex, but Naruto was a very physical guy. She’d wanted physical love, but not this much of it. It sounds very romantic to have a lover who wants to make love to you several times at night, in the morning, and at lunch. But having sex four to eight times a day, everyday, week after week, month after month—my god, she was exhausted and dreaded it, and it was only three weeks into their love affair. Affair—yes, it was just that, an affair, Hinata thought. She and Naruto were not destined for each other.

For one thing, she wasn’t even giving Naruto what he really wanted. He’d given her that book of sex positions, and he kept suggesting different ones. Hinata had a hard time saying no to Naruto, but really, really—god, what sort of sicko couple had come up with some of these? Even with all her conditioning as a ninja, some of the positions stretched muscles in ways that left you aching the next day. And the dull pain in her crotch seemed to just be sort of constant since she’d started sleeping with Naruto. It wasn’t that she didn’t have orgasms or Naruto didn’t make sure she was lubricated, it was just the constant pounding. She could probably get Naruto to be gentler, but, but—no, how could she tell him that? This was the kind of lover he was—she was sure Sakura or Ino would love it. Ino was always whining about her men not lasting or not being able to “keep up.”

The water in the tub was getting cold. Hinata got out of the tub and pulled on some comfortable sweats and shuffled into her kitchen to make some hot tea. Naruto wasn’t due back until six or seven—she had four or five hours. She had to tell him it was over. If she stayed with Naruto, she wouldn’t be able to still love him. Already, the seeds of discontent were sprouting and growing. If she didn’t weed them out now, they’d grow and smother her love for Naruto. And she loved him, she would always love him—but she didn’t want to be his lover or live with him. She wanted to be his friend.

But how, how to break up with him? She needed advice. Hinata did what she always did when she needed advice—she called her teammates. They came more quickly than she’d expected, arriving together: Kiba, Akamaru, and Shino. She hurled herself at them and began to cry. They moved inside the apartment in a mass and toppled over, ending up in a pile in front of the door like they had sometimes ended up during missions when the nights were cold.

Hinata, for all her shyness, had no problem laying half on Shino with Kiba half on her. Akamaru tried to run around them in circles barking excitedly like he had when he was little. Since Akamaru was now the size of a small children’s pony, it really wasn’t possible for him to circle them in the narrow hallway, so he was sort of shifting and leaping. Hinata stopped crying and had to laugh. Kiba rolled off her and called Akamaru over to lay down at their head and act as a pillow with his face near Kiba’s. They did this sometime on missions—all lying together and using Akamaru as a pillow.

The three teammates looked up at the ceiling. Hinata wasn’t sure how to start. To her surprise it was Shino who opened the conversation, “Hinata, I like and respect Naruto, but I’ve never thought you two would be a good couple. He’s never seen or appreciated you as much as he should. Is he neglecting you?”

“I wish!” said Hinata before thinking, shocking all of them.

Kiba laughed and said, “Well, I sure couldn’t live with him, and I can’t take much more than an hour of him before I want to punch him. But gosh, Hinata, how’d it go so wrong, so soon?”

Hinata just got redder and redder. Shino and Kiba were now reclining on their elbows, looking down at her. Akamaru got excited and also jumped up, joining the two in looking down at her. Hinata sighed. When all three ganged up on her, she couldn’t resist.

“It’s the sex,” she said in a low mumble. When they didn’t laugh or tease but still looked at her with serious concern, she continued, “He needs too much of it and too, too much, ah, um, weird stuff.”

Shino raised an eyebrow, and Kiba frowned and said in a worried tone, “How weird is weird? You’re ok, right? You aren’t physically hurt are you?” Being Kiba, he immediately started running his hands over Hinata checking for injuries—Kiba was just physical by nature.

“Stop it, silly,” said Hinata pushing his hands away. “It’s not like that. I’m just sore, and, well, I don’t like all the weird positions. And why the ceiling? And I really don’t want him to make clones, but he keeps asking about that, and it’s so hard to say no, and—“ Hinata stopped because Shino’s hand was covering her mouth.

“That’s all you need to say, Hinata,” said Shino. “I’m sorry.”

Hinata started to cry again, rolling into Shino for comfort. He lay back down with her head on his shoulder and held her, stroking her back. Kiba curled up behind Hinata, adding his own gentle, comforting touches. Akamaru lay back down at their heads.

The sudden jerking open of the door and the shout, “Hey, sexy lady, it’s your lucky day!” by Naruto startled all of them. Akamaru jumped up and barked loudly. Kiba sat up and scowled at Naruto. Hinata shrieked and buried her head into Shino’s shoulder. Shino was annoyed with Naruto, but it’s hard to intimidate a ninja stronger than you when you are laying on the floor with their lover in your arms.

Naruto’s mouth was open in shock, but he didn’t seem angry. “Hinata, did you invite your teammates over to try position 88?” asked Naruto in voice filled with awe and eager anticipation.

At that Hinata just wailed, crying even harder. Kiba stood up, shaking his head in disbelief.

“Are you hurt, Hinata?” asked Naruto, trying again to figure out the scene in front of him.

“She’s dumping you for Shino,” said Kiba. At that Hinata stopped crying, Shino stiffened, and Akamaru fell silent. “She loves you, she’s always loved you, and she always will. But Uzumaki, she can’t live with you or be your lover any more.”

Hinata rolled off Shino and sat up, wiping away her tears. “Stop it, Kiba, thank-you, but just no more. Can you guys just go now? I need to do this myself.” To Hinata’s shock, Naruto turned around and started to leave. Kiba lunged for Naruto, reaching for his orange jacket, saying “Yo, Baka, she means us, not you. She wants to explain it all to you.”
But when Kiba grabbed Naruto roughly, he dissolved—it was one of his clones!

Shocked the three of them exchanged glances. Shino and Kiba were even more shocked when Hinata jumped up and ran into the living room screaming, “How could he? I can’t believe it!” The crash of something breaking drew Shino and Kiba down the hall to the opening to the living room room. Hinata had smashed a vase and was methodically stamping on the broken pieces, pulverizing them into china dust.

“Hinata, what is it?” asked Kiba.

“Get out!” screamed Hinata.

They got out, feeling a new respect for Hinata. As they shut the door behind them, Kiba said thoughtfully, “Maybe she and Naruto will patch it up; she’s getting spunkier by the day.”

Shino just shook his head and rolled his eyes.

“Think we should stick around?” asked Kiba.

Shino frowned, thinking on it. They ended up leaving Akamaru and some bugs of Shino’s to monitor the situation.

Inside the apartment, Hinata had returned to crying. For some reason, knowing that Naruto had sent a clone home to have sex with her in the afternoon bothered her immensely. It had seemed odd that Kakashi would let Naruto come home from training for a half and hour or so everyday, but she hadn’t questioned it. But that greeting, that “Hey, sexy lady,” was what Naruto usually said when he came to the apartment for a “quickie.” But maybe she was misjudging him? Could a clone really have sex and not poof out?

Hinata decided she wasn’t going to wait for Naruto to come back; she was going to go confront him. She took a shower, however, and changed. She needed to look her best to give herself courage to confront Naruto. She showered, dressed nicely, and carefully tied on her hitai-ate. When she left the apartment, she wasn’t surprised to see Akamaru.
“You can come,” she told him, “but no barking or interfering.”

Akamaru barked and crouched a little, his way of offering to carry Hinata on his back.

“No thanks,” she said, moving towards the training grounds.

When she got close to the training ground, Hinata was impressed by the number of clones Naruto was training with. When he’d told her he was training with a thousand clones, she hadn’t thought he literally meant a thousand, but it was obviously true. Her doubts about his ability to hold a clone through sex were fading. Naruto had also told her his training might take him away from Konoha soon. This was something big he was training for—Hinata couldn’t help but feel proud and happy for Naruto that he had come this far. The little boy who couldn’t make a replication was long gone.

`And maybe that’s the problem,’ Hinata thought. `I loved that little boy, and I kept thinking of Naruto as that boy. But he’s a man, a man with more talent and needs than I can handle. My god, he shouldn’t be able to move after training like this. What sort of sex will he want when he isn’t exhausted from training?’ One of the clones came up to Hinata. Hinata’s anger flared up, and she punched him, and he vanished—just a clone. When the next came up to her, she said, “I want to talk to the original, please,” and punched that one, too.

The third clone didn’t come as close as the others, saying, “He’s focusing on holding a thousand clones, so unless it’s an emergency, can you wait until tonight?”

“No,” said Hinata, throwing a kunai at this one.

A Naruto finally emerged from the mass, this one saying, “It’s me.” Hinata walked over to him and slapped him. When he didn’t vanish, she said, “That was for sending home a clone to have sex.”

Naruto blushed, but he didn’t deny it. Suddenly Hinata worried she was wrong, “The ones in the day were clones, right?”

“They’re all me, Hinata, really. When I break the jutsu, I’ve lived everything the clone has lived,” said Naruto.

“How many times have you been a clone with me? Please, Naruto, I need to know—it’s, it’s a girl thing. Please?”

“Well all the lunch time visits, but I only used clones at night twice.”

Hinata felt the world around her spinning. She could hear Naruto cursing and begging her not to faint. His voice seemed to come to her from far away. When he turned his back to her, however, she snapped out of the state she’d been in. “Naruto, thank-you for being honest with me,” she said, “Thank-you for my birthday night. I do love you, and I always will, but, but, I, ah, I--”

“You realize you love Shino more?” asked Naruto.

“No, it’s not that. I just realize that you are too much for me. I used to faint all the time around you, and it’s still hard not to. You’re, you’re too immense, too intense, for me. I’m so proud of you, Naruto, look at this—you are amazing!”

“Yeah, I am! I’m going to be Hokage! I’m training really hard, Hinata! I’m going to get Sasuke back!”

“You will, Naruto, I believe in you,” said Hinata. “I’m sorry, but I can’t be your girlfriend any more, but I hope you will let me be your friend.”

“Sure! Of course, Hinata-chan! It’s ok if you don’t want to be romantic any more. You can do better than me, anyway!”

“No, Naruto, it’s not doing better. It’s just that, well, well--I don’t like ramen very much or having sex so much,” Hinata confessed.

“You don’t like ramen??” the look of shock and disgust on Naruto’s face made Hinata smile. “How can you not like ramen?” It was so Naruto to ignore the comment on the sex and focus on the ramen, thought Hinata.

“Friends?” she said, holding out her hand.

Naruto took it and shook it, then pulled her in for a hug, saying, “Friends. But really, Hinata, not liking ramen?”

“Really, Naruto. Good luck training!”

He grinned at her and gave her a thumbs up, and then he ran back into the crowd of his clones all doing something with leaves.

Hinata watched a while before turning away. She felt an immense relief. She’d had her childhood love. She had the perfect memory of that first sexual encounter—the time when he’d been holding back. She really owed Neji for making Naruto promise to hold back. It was the first time since the attempted rape that Hinata had thought of Neji and not felt a wash of negative feelings. That awful night with Neji seemed to have happened to someone else. Hinata remembered how good it had felt to punch Naruto’s clones. Hell, she should go punch Neji. Hell, she should do more than that, she should cut the bastard’s hair off—he was so damn vain. Suddenly determined, she told Akamaru to have Kiba and Shino meet her back at her place. She wasn’t dumb enough to take on Neji by herself. But with her teammates at her side, she was going to pay the bastard back. All the way home, Hinata turned over plans to hurt and humiliate her cousin.

About four blocks from her apartment, Hinata ran into Ino. “Hey, Hinata, what’s up? What do you and Naruto have planned for tonight?”

Hinata blushed, trying to think how to explain her break-up with Naruto.

“That good, eh?” said Ino with a laugh. Hinata just looked at Ino, confused.

“I wish I had plans that would make me blush like that, you like lucky girl! Well, I’ve got to go—say hi to blondie for me!” And with that Ino was gone, leaving a rather dazed and guilty Hinata behind. It seemed incredibly callous to have dumped her childhood love, the main she’d been obsessing over for ten years, and just forget about it. She wasn’t crying, she wasn’t despairing. The world hadn’t ended.

Hinata broke into a smile—she was tougher than she thought! Yeah! Hell, yeah! And she was going to make Neji pay!