"...a little bit."
The word floated in the tense and strangely intimate air of the small room. A barely audible whisper, tinged with a childish embarrassment Naruto had never heard from her before. A total surrender of pride in the face of hunger and humiliation.
Naruto, still kneeling awkwardly in front of her next to Hinata's futon, stared at her. He saw the dark blush on her cheeks, the way she avoided his gaze, the tension in her shoulders under the oversized black t shirt.
A small smile, genuine and a little compassionate, appeared on his lips. He wasn't mocking her. He understood. Or at least, he understood hunger.
"Okay," he said softly, nodding. "'A little bit.' Got it."
With almost reverent care, he unwrapped the pale blue furoshiki cloth that enveloped the bento. The knot came undone easily under his fingers (Hinata tied practical knots, not complicated ones).
He opened the top lid of the lacquered box with two levels.
A delicious aroma instantly filled the small room. The remaining piece of grilled fish, with its sweet and savory glaze shining enticingly. The golden tamagoyaki rolls. The vibrant green steamed broccoli florets. The thin slices of pale pink pickled ginger.
Naruto's stomach roared again. He swallowed.
"Chopsticks," he muttered. "Oh, wait."
He stood up awkwardly, almost tripping over his own feet. He rummaged in the only kitchen drawer that now held clean utensils.
He found a pair of simple wooden chopsticks, probably the only clean ones he had in the entire apartment.
He returned to the room and knelt again in front of her. He offered her the chopsticks. "Here you go."
Temari still wouldn't look at him directly. Her face was still stained deep red. She accepted the chopsticks with fingers that trembled slightly. The brief contact made her jump.
"...Thanks," she whispered.
Naruto offered her the open box, holding it with both hands. "All yours." He paused. "Well... half yours. Or... whatever you want. Hinata made extra. She said... it was for sharing."
He sat on the clean floor across from the futon, crossing his legs, keeping a respectful but close distance. He waited.
Temari hesitated for a long, tense moment. She looked at the food. Her stomach let out another small, embarrassed growl. She looked at Naruto, who was watching her with a patient and... kind expression.
Finally, her hunger was stronger than her shattered pride.
With quick, efficient, almost furtive movements, she picked up an onigiri with the chopsticks and brought it to her mouth.
She began to eat. Fast. With an urgency born from the genuine hunger she had been ignoring. She chewed with her gaze lowered, fixed on the bento box, as if she feared that if she looked up, the food would disappear or he would make fun of her.
Naruto watched in silence for a moment. The soft sound of her chewing was strangely comforting in the stillness.
He decided to break the ice. Carefully.
"It's good, right?" His voice was soft. "Hinata is... amazing at cooking. I don't know how she does it. That fish was delicious this morning! I ate almost all of it!"
Temari swallowed the bite of onigiri. She still didn't look up.
"...Yeah," she muttered, her voice almost inaudible. "It's good."
She picked up another onigiri. Then a piece of tamagoyaki. Her eating pace began to slow a bit as the most pressing hunger subsided. The uncomfortable tension of the situation began to seep back into the silence.
"Better?" Naruto asked quietly.
Temari nodded stiffly, without looking at him. An almost imperceptible movement.
Naruto scratched the back of his neck. Okay. Progress. She hasn't yelled at me or hit me with the chopsticks.
He tried again. Something safe. Something stupid. His usual style.
"Hey, did you see that piece of burnt egg I made this morning? The orange tamagoyaki! It was... epic! I almost set the kitchen on fire! The smoke was...!"
He stopped, realizing that maybe reminding her of his own culinary incompetence wasn't the best strategy.
"But Hinata laughed!" he added quickly. "Really! I thought she was going to yell at me, or pass out from the smoke! But she just said my 'moral support was useful'!" He smiled at the memory, a genuine and slightly goofy grin.
Temari stopped chewing for a second. She looked up slightly, just her eyes, with a hint of curiosity mixed with her embarrassment in them. "She laughed?" Her voice was an incredulous whisper.
"Yeah! It was great! Well, not the part about burning the food! But her laugh was! I thought she was going to hit me with the frying pan, like Ayame chan did to her dad."
Temari looked at him for a longer second this time. She saw his genuine, goofy grin. She saw the lack of malice in his eyes.
A conflicting emotion crossed her pale face. She looked away again and picked up a piece of fish with her chopsticks.
"She... seems nice," she said quietly, almost grudgingly.
"She is!" Naruto said, his enthusiasm returning. "She's the best! Super nice! And super patient! She has to be to... well, to be 'engaged' to me!" He laughed nervously, realizing he had just reminded her of their impossible situation.
Temari didn't react. She continued eating the fish in silence.
They ate like that for a while longer. In a strange silence. He on the floor, watching her eat. She on the futon, eating slowly, avoiding his gaze, wrapped in his oversized black t shirt. The only sound was the occasional soft click of her chopsticks against the bento box.
The tension didn't disappear completely. How could it? But it lessened slightly. It transformed from sharp panic to a strange stillness, full of subtext and shared embarrassment.
Temari finished the last piece of fish. She carefully placed the chopsticks on the lid of the closed box. There was still some rice and vegetables left.
She took a deep breath. She seemed to be gathering her courage.
Finally, she looked up. And she looked him directly in the eyes.
Her face was still flushed, a soft pink now instead of the furious red from before. But her green eyes were serious. Focused. The eyes of a Jōnin taking control of a difficult situation.
"Uzumaki."
Her voice was low, but firm. There was no longer any tremor in it.
Naruto sensed the change in tone. He became serious too, straightening his back. "Yeah, Temari."
"What happened." Her voice was firm. "This morning."
"Yeah."
"At the training ground."
"Yeah."
"The... the clothes." She swallowed. The embarrassment returned momentarily to her eyes, but she pushed it away. "The fall." She carefully avoided mentioning his reaction. Or hers. "Everything."
Naruto nodded slowly, waiting. He knew what was coming.
Temari stared at him. Her voice was low. Intense. Every word carried weight. "Nobody can know."
Naruto understood immediately. The seriousness of her tone left no room for doubt. "Got it."
"Nobody, Naruto." She repeated his name. It was the first time she had done so without it sounding like an insult. "Not your friends. Not Kiba, obviously. Not even Sakura, even if she seems trustworthy and hates Shikamaru as much as I do."
Naruto nodded again. "Nobody."
"Not the Hokage." Her voice became even more tense. More urgent. "Under any circumstances. She... she would ask questions. Too many questions."
"Got it. Not Grandma."
"Especially," she continued, her voice dropping to an almost inaudible whisper, but one that carried a deadly warning, "nobody from Suna."
She paused for a long time. Her green eyes bored into his with a terrifying intensity.
"And by all the gods of the desert and the wind, Naruto... never. Ever. Under any circumstances. Not even in your worst nightmares. Say a single word of this... to Gaara."
Naruto felt a chill run down his spine, despite the residual warmth of the ramen in his stomach. The image of Gaara Kazekage, with his cold, empty stare and his sand swirling around him, filled his mind.
"Got it!" His voice was a hoarse whisper. "Absolutely! One hundred percent understood! Sealed! SSS level! Nobody will hear anything from me! Ever! I swear on ramen!"
Temari stared at him for a long moment, searching for any sign of mockery, of lying, of a lack of understanding. She saw sincerity.
Finally, she nodded. Slowly. "Good."
She let out a long, shaky sigh. Her shoulders visibly relaxed a millimeter. "If this gets out... if Gaara finds out that his ambassador... his older sister... was found... like this... with you..." Her voice trailed off, unable to finish the sentence.
"It won't get out!" Naruto said with sudden conviction. "Trust me! With this! I'm good at keeping important secrets! Well, sometimes! I've had practice! But I'll keep this one! I promise!"
They looked at each other. They were in this together, trapped by the same potentially deadly situation.
Temari sighed again, this time a more tired sound. She ran a hand over her face, pushing away a strand of ash blond hair that had stuck to her cheek with cold sweat.
"Great," she muttered, her voice regaining a touch of its old, bitter sarcasm. "My diplomatic career. My life. Now depends on the loudest ninja in all of Konoha keeping his mouth shut for the first time in his existence."
Naruto felt offended. "Hey! I can be stealthy! When I want to! I'm a ninja!"
"Sure you are," she said, unconvinced. She hugged her knees again, suddenly looking very young and very tired.
The silence returned. But it was different now.
Naruto broke the silence. "So now what?"
Temari looked up. "Now what, what?"
"The plan," he said. "The... the escape."
She glanced out the window. The sun was already high in the sky. The midday light flooded the room. "I'm still trapped here." Her voice was flat. Resigned.
"The plan for tonight!" Naruto said, trying to inject some optimism. "Wait! Until it's completely dark! And then... sneak out! I'll get you out of here! It'll be a stealth mission! Our own infiltration! But in reverse! And easier! I think!"
Temari reluctantly considered the idea. She looked around the small, clean room. She looked at the closed door. "I guess it's the only option," she said finally, her voice devoid of enthusiasm. "Are you sure your... fiancée... Hinata san... won't be back before dinner?"
"Nah! Impossible!" Naruto said confidently. "She said 'for dinner.' That's hours and hours away! She's probably stuck in a council meeting! We'll have plenty of time for your... escape! Your great escape!"
Temari sighed again. The sound was becoming familiar. "Fine. Wait." She sat back more comfortably on Hinata's futon, leaning her back against the wall. Her expression was miserable. "And what am I supposed to do until then? For... how many hours?"
Naruto calculated mentally. Noon... dinner... seven? Eight hours? "Uh... seven or eight hours?"
"Seven or eight hours?!" Her voice rose with disbelief. "Trapped here? With you? In this... box?"
"Hey, it's an apartment! Not a box!"
"What am I supposed to do?" she repeated, her voice tinged with bored panic. "Count the stains on your ceiling? Read your stupid training scrolls?"
"Hey, my scrolls aren't stupid! And the ceiling stains are interesting!" he said defensively. "One looks like... a toad! If you squint! And the other one looks like... a flying ramen bowl!"
Temari stared at him. "I'm going to go insane."
"You're not going to go insane! We can... we can talk!"
"Talk?" She raised an eyebrow. "With you? About what? Your love for orange? Your secret techniques for burning eggs?"
"Hey! We can talk about... about Suna! About Gaara! About... your fan!"
"I'd rather count the stains," she said dryly.
"Or we can train!" he said, perking up. "Right here! We can do... pushups! Or... meditation!"
"Meditate? With you?"
"Or we can...!"
KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK!
The sound echoed off the apartment's front door.
Naruto and Temari froze instantly.
They stared at each other. Eyes wide with identical, renewed panic.
"Who is it?!" Naruto whispered frantically, jumping to his feet. "I'm not expecting anyone! I swear! Is it Hiashi?! Did he already find out?! Did the old lady sweeping see us?!"
Temari leaped off the futon, grabbing the sheet and wrapping it tightly around herself over the black t shirt. "How should I know!" she whispered back, her voice sharp with panic. "Don't open it! Make them go away! Tell them you're not here!"
KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK!
The knock was more insistent this time. Louder.
"Naruto kun!"
The voice cut through the door. It was clearly audible. Slightly anxious. Feminine.
And painfully familiar to both of them.
"Are you there? It's me, Shizune!"
Naruto looked at Temari, whose green eyes now reflected pure terror. She shook her head frantically.
"Please open the door!" Shizune's voice continued from outside. "It's important! I need to talk to you!"
Naruto looked at the door. He looked at Temari, who was now trying to become invisible under Hinata's sheet, despite wearing his t shirt.
"It's Shizune!" he hissed, his voice barely a thread. "Tsunade's assistant!"
"Worse!" Temari hissed from under the sheet, her voice muffled. "She's her lead spy! Her informant! Don't open it! For your life!"
Shizune knocked again, this time harder, almost making the wood vibrate. "Naruto kun, I know you're inside! I can hear you whispering! Please open up! I need to talk to you urgently!"
He looked at Temari. "What do I do? I can't ignore her! It's Shizune!"
Temari poked her head out from under the sheet. Her hair was a mess. Her eyes were wide with panic. "NOTHING! Absolutely nothing! Pretend you're not here! Pretend you're dead! Pretend the Archivist ate you!"
Shizune sighed audibly from the other side of the door. "Naruto kun! Listen! This is serious! It's about Ambassador Temari! Have you seen her? She didn't show up for her meeting at nine with the Chūnin exam logistics team! And no one has seen her since she left the Hokage's office with you last night! We're worried! Tsunade sama is worried!"
Silence.
Naruto and Temari stared at each other in pure, absolute terror.
Shizune was at the door. Looking for the missing ambassador.
The missing ambassador... who was hidden under a sheet on Hinata's futon, wearing nothing but Naruto Uzumaki's sleeping shirt.
Crap.