"Can't you just wake up earlier?" She complained over the phone.
"I can, but can you?" Naruto walked along the night road, "Young lady, time is tight, and the mission is urgent. How about you come to my place right now?"
"Ugh! No way!" Ino spat at him, thought for a moment, and said, "Fine, I'll come find you in the afternoon."
"Deal! I wholeheartedly agree." Naruto chuckled before finally hanging up after some back-and-forth. He sighed, and knew he had to go to bed early tonight.
The night passed without incident.
…
The next day.
Dawn had barely broken, and Naruto was still sound asleep in bed. Half-conscious, he saw a shadow crouched by the window and assumed it was Yugao.
He couldn't help but turn over, not even bothering to open his eyes, and swung his hands while muttering, "Don't bother me today, I'm fully booked today!"
Knock knock knock.
The tapping on the window continued.
"Open the door, you bastard!" Kurama was furious, "Why'd you lock the balcony? Damn it, were you doing something shady last night?"
His face was pressed against the window, hiseyes wide like copper bells!
"Open the door!"
In the room, Naruto continued sleeping soundly, not being woken up by the commotion outside. He even had the luxury of scratching his butt before rolling over and resuming his slumber.
In his dream, he vaguely saw Kurama, but the content of the dream was a bit absurd, as the background seemed to be in modern times, and he was sitting in a car.
Kurama was outside the car window, banging on the car window, and seemed to be saying something loudly. His flailing limbs looked ridiculous, his expression frantic.
"What the hell? Is this dog insane? Can't he even leave me alone in my dreams?" Naruto couldn't help but hold his forehead and complained, "What on earth is this bastard even saying?"
Outside the window, Kurama had given up and wanted to smash the window directly. But the thought quickly faded, as it understood the difference between a one-time feast and a lifetime of meals.
After struggling for a while, it finally surrendered and jumped down from the second floor. Just as it was about to escape along the edge of the wall, it suddenly looked up and saw a familiar figure.
He stood up upright, squinted his eyes and looked for a long time, and suddenly his craving for alcohol flared up.
Hinata was walking towards Naruto's place with some trepidation, wrapped tightly in her coat and feeling a little nervous. Along the way, she kept looking around as if afraid of being seen.
Originally, she didn't need to leave so early, but after agreeing to meet, she immediately regretted it. She hesitated for most of the night and didn't dare to tell Naruto that she'd changed her mind.
She couldn't sleep at all, so after thinking it over again and again, she decided to go out at dawn. She was nervous all the way, and her senses was on high alert.
The Hyuga Clan's compound wasn't too far from Naruto's place. Taking the main street might require a lot of detours, but taking the small road would not take too much time.
As she stepped out of a shadowy alley, Hinata was startled by a sudden flash of red in front of her.
"Ah!"
"Oh… it's just you." When Hinata saw Kurama clearly, she breathed a sigh of relief.
She squatted down and reached out to stroke Kurama's head. Kurama looked eager, thinking in his heart, 'Give me booze! Buy me alcohol! Consider it compensation.'
But Hinata was a little absent-minded today, and combined with her sleepless night, she was both exhausted and tense.
As she looked down, she didn't notice Kurama's expectant gaze. She merely rubbed the dog's head for a while before standing up.
"Alright, I should get going." Hinata stood up, smoothed her skirt was about to leave.
Kurama stood there dumbfounded, 'This wasn't how things were supposed to go. Weren't this human supposed to feed me alcohol like before?'
'Women are so fickle.'
He looked in the direction Hinata left, narrowing his long and narrow eyes, 'That direction… she's going to see that brat, huh? Heh. Good luck getting in.'
Kurama shook his head and walked away with a look of gloating.
…
After Naruto opened Hinata's heart, he was about to have a heart-to-heart talk with her when he suddenly realized that Hinata was not in a good state. He frowned and asked with a worried look on his face, "What's wrong?"
"I-I'm fine." Hinata turned her face to the other side, her hands fidgeting, "I'm just a little sleepy and didn't have much energy."
"Didn't you sleep last night?" Naruto raised an eyebrow, then pulled Hinata up, and smoothed her hair, "You should've told me. You didn't have to force yourself."
"No, I was a little nervous and couldn't sleep." She sounded a little guilty, "I thought… it wouldn't be a big deal, so… I came anyway."
"You're such an idiot." Naruto pinched Hinata's cheek lightly.
"Ow."
Naruto: "…"
He didn't understand women's pain thresholds, 'How was that painful when she hadn't reacted earlier?'
But he knew it was just her way of acting spoiled. Deciding not to delve into the Hyuga Clan's future, he simply held her.
They chatted for a while, and as Naruto comforted her, Hinata's tense nerves gradually relaxed. After a while, Hinata's breathing steadied as she fell asleep.
Naruto looked down at Hinata, then glanced out the window and sighed silently.
'This is all that bastard Kurama's fault! If he hadn't appeared in my dream, I wouldn't have overslept! If I hadn't overslept, I would've noticed Hinata's exhaustion sooner.'
'As expected, details determine success or failure.'
His arm, which is pinned under Hinata's head, was now completely numb… both metaphorically and literally.
'Fortunately, Hinata didn't have the habit of sleeping for a long time. Maybe she was just too tired and just dozed off with her eyes closed.'
Hinata's beautiful eyelashes trembled slightly, and her delicate profile, which is utterly defenseless in sleep, was unbearably cute.
Naruto wanted to reach out and touch her, but he held back, not wanting to wake her, so he could only maintain this awkward position. It was not until almost noon that Hinata slowly woke up.
Her eyelashes trembled first, then her eyelids lifted slightly, and her mouth opened slightly to let out a soft moan. Her long black hair cascaded down like a waterfall, covering half of her face.
It seemed that she was not fully awake yet, and she slowly opened her sleepy eyes, revealing a confused look in her eyes. She was probably wondering where she was and who she was.
Seeing her adorably clueless expression, Naruto had to look away.
"Hinata, are you awake?"
"Ah! Wh-when did I fall asleep?" Hinata blushed a little, probably because she didn't expect that she would really fall asleep, "I'm sorry, I... I had already promised you, but…"
"It's fine. Just remember to get proper sleep next time." He was also a little helpless.
Hinata quietly slipped out of Naruto's house and walked around the streets for a while. In fact, hermind was still a little fuzzy, so she walked into a shop and asked the owner, "...Do you have yarn for knitting scarves?"