A/N: Yes I deserve to write a really long author's note. Naruto has ended and this is over fifteen thousand words Humor me.

1) *clears throat* *fluffs up hair* NARUHINA IS FUCKING CANON SASUSAKU IS FUCKING CANON SHIKATEMA IS FUCKIGN CANON AND AND AND I AHVE NEVER BEEN MORE CONTENT WTH MY EXISTENCE. NO IM NOT OVER IT. CHAPTER 700 IS LITERALLY BAD FANFICTION. CHOUCHOU IS DAMN ADORABLE. SASUKE APOLOGIZED. SARADA HAS ITACHI'S EYES. EVERYONE IS SO SALTY ABOUT IT. THE SASUKARIN FANDOM IS LITERALLY TRYING TO STEAL SARADA FROM US. I CANNTHGOT. I BNANCOOT BELIEVE- NO WAIT IM LYIN I DO BELIEVE I BELIEVED SFOR TSO LONG SO SO LONGHG SIX YEARS BITCHES KISHIMOTO CAME THRU THE CAPTAIN OF MY SHIP CAME THRU.

2)*hyperventilates a bit* *rolls around in my nest of pairings with cute children* *sobs violently over Chouchou*

3) I'm spectacularly happy with the end of Naruto, you guys. It's weird. Naruto looks like a gym teacher in that picture of the Uzumaki/Hyuuga and Gaara looks like a youth pastor. I am still goddamn content.

4) Throughout everything, and throughout my unending love for this manga, I have come to the conclusion that this fandom sorely lacks in quality Hinata-centric fics. So this is me having fun with her development and reliving NaruHina once more.

5) NaruHina isn't my all time OTP, even from Naruto because that spot belongs to SASUSAKU, but I truly have a special connection to this ship. I can't explain it. When chapter 615 came out two years ago, I became a Hinata Hyuuga Defense Squad blog for three months straight. I reread the Pein arc chapters. I read a shit ton of fanfiction. I wrote a shit ton of fanfiction. I shipped NaruHina with a new vengeance. I made them a new OTP tag on my blog. I went through hell and back with them, defending her character and the ship and the beauty of the chapter, as well as all their development that people want to shit on.

6) Because I won't say that Kishimoto was the best writer when it comes to female characters, and I won't say that he executed Hianta perfectly, BUT NARUHINA HAD THEIR DEVELOPMENT...AS CHARACTERS AND AS A SHIP.

7) Hinata had her fucking development. It's there. No one is gonna hold your fucking hand through it if you can't see it (although if you're trying to read this fic...then you probably already agree, but I want to rant anyways). Hinata grew because of how inspired Naruto made her - development tied to Naruto, like Neji and Gaara. People still shit on her for this, though...like...I can't stand it. Both of those lovely boys are always thinking about Naruto whenever they have panel time. Especially Gaara. But everyone loves him. I don't get it. I'm not saying she is the most developed character. Obviously not. She isn't a main character. I wouldn't expect her to. But Hinata has her own backstory, her own feelings, and her own goals.

8) Also, I think that's where Hinata haters fuck up the most: Naruto is not Hinata's end game. She wants to be strong and fix her clan.

9) Maybe people interpret her wanting to "walk beside him" differently than me, so I guess that's just interpretation. I think she would accept him not being in love with her. Making it look like being with Naruto was some kind of goal in her life makes her love loook selfish. I don't like that. She's more than that.

10) And can we note that when the chapter spoilers came out, I was so not worried about NaruHina becoming canon? I didn't care. I knew. I was sure in their canon status, you guys.

11) Sooooo...this is my homage to NaruHina, I guess. I hope you all enjoy.

12) Since I started writing things months before Naruto and Sasuke decided to hack off each other's arms: this fic is technically AU - mostly because Kaguya doesn't exist in this. I personally liked Madara as a final villain moreso. Everyone still went through Infinite Tsukiyomi and lived through their perfect dream. Sasuke didn't go Viva La Revolution on everyone. Also Neji is still dead. And Shikaku/Inoichi.

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I will bring a mirror, so silver, so exact

So precise and so pristine, a perfect pane of glass

I will set the mirror up to face the blackened sky

You will see your beauty every moment that you rise

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Hinata felt her hands clench and strain into Jyuuken-poised palms - because she did not want to leave bruises, nothing as petty as a flesh wound - as her mouth drew into a straight line of thin lips.

"We have come to no other conclusion, Hinata-sama."

"This is not just for your own benefit, but for that of the clan."

She breathed deeply, once, twice and blinked slowly before opening her eyes again. She waited a final moment to find soft enough words for them, while her heart was still aching in her chest. "This is not...a mutually beneficial decision," Hinata replied, keeping her eyes just above their heads to the small scratch four feet above her grandfather's head. "The appropriate word would be unnecessary."

"Producing an heir is one of the most necessary parts of your duties."

"I have been in this position just shy of six months, and you believe that forcing an engagement is what is best for me?" Hinata said slowly, trying to keep her malice from her words. It did not work very well.

"Of course. An heir is needed," her great uncle, Hibashi, said easily, the smoked wood in his voice growing sharp. Her right hand twitched menacingly, but he held firm. "You are still an active kunoichi, and duty can take your life at any moment. Having you dead would bring disarray to the Hyuuga. There are many who desperately vie for the power of clan head, Hinata-sama."

She was shaking her head before he'd even finished. "Hanabi would automatically take my role, and she is well equipped to do so. No one would contest her right. Give more credit to our family."

"He doesn't speak lies."

"And neither do I when I say that it is unnecessary for me to be married at this time," Hinata replied sharply.

Hibashi titled his head as he stared calculatingly at her. "Is that truly your decision to make?" he prompted.

Her face visibly drained of blood, but she stared them down regardless, trying to match the blankness in their eyes.

"Every decision is mine to make," Hinata said. "Am I not your superior?"

Hinata left the room before someone else could speak, the calloused pads of her feet brushing against the wooden floors of her home in a whisper, brush strokes on a plain painting. The cold shard of something bitter, something angry in her throat made her whole body twitch and seize in retaliation, wanting to break something, wanting to hear glass shatter and wood snapping. But she carefully tucked away the malice under the mask of impassivity, carefully slid the shoji door closed door behind her, carefully made her way into her study.

Her hands shook the whole way.

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Six months ago, when Hinata sat with her father beside his hospital bed, she watched him cough out something too close to a death rattle as he spoke.

It had been like that for the past few weeks - staying by his bedside for his company whenever she had the time, speaking to him about the paperwork she was finishing for him, bringing him fresh fruit from the gardens, discussing doctor reports that grew bleaker and bleaker as time wore on. Disease ate away at him more slowly than any enemy had. It was a new ritual, cultivated by the growing desire to spend more time with the father that saw her as the heir to his throne rather than a biological failure on his part.. It was strategic, finding any second she could spend with him. Sometimes Hanabi was there, when she wasn't out on missions, but usually it was just the two of them. She found a semblance of peace within it.

Even if he looked more sickly with each passing day, he was there. So Hinata would take whatever she could get.

The blackness of night pulled over them, no light to pull away the shadows, but the shadows could not envelop her father's form fully into darkness. He breathed thick and wet, pumping air in and out of his damaged lungs with too much effort. "I officially named you heir years ago, but there is still training to be done. You're...young. Too young. Much younger than I was when I took up this position," Hiashi ground out, laying a hand down on her pale wrist. He gripped hard, frail fingers and withered flesh a padlock against her skin."But you have long since laid my doubts to rest."

She couldn't fight the smile that crept onto the edges of her lips.

She couldn't fight the tears either.

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They had the ceremony the next week. It was a small, quiet affair - right after her father's funeral service. The clan elders, a few family members, Kurenai and her daughter, her team, Tenten, Lee, and all of Team Kakashi attended, still swathed in black. She stood out against them, in front of them, changed from her own mourning clothing into an elaborate lavender kimono with white flower petals stitched into it and a thick white obi. All eyes in the room connected to her.

She felt tight, uncomfortable in the formal dress, and heavily out of place - it bordered on painful. The loss of security was stifling.

From the platform in front of the tatami mats, Hinata sat beside her uncle, Hibashi, and recited the oath that formally named leader of the Hyuuga. There was pleasant murmuring as Hibashi left the platform to claim a seat with the rest of the elders as she stood.

Without conscious though, without even a sliver of knowledge, she sought out Naruto's eyes as if an anchor out at see. He looked strained and tired, dressed in all black that washed out the gold of his skin, a flash bright hair and warm skin amidst dark clothing and pale eyes. He gave her a hesitant smile that she returned, although she ached to reach out and grasp his hand, have him whisper words of courage to her before she came up here to falter. Hinata felt foreign and uncomfortable standing before them, in clothes hard to move in and hair that was done up heavily on her head.

There had been no time in the past few days to write up a speech, but she had words of her own, more personal than words to recite onto them. This was her family, her friends to watch her ascend to this new, shaky role.

"Tragedy has brought us here tonight," she spoke, flinching when the softness of her voice carried out weak and unconvincing. She continued on in a strained tone. "I hoped that my father would be with me here to today as he passed on his title to me. It would have been a few years time, when I would be older and wiser. I hoped to be in a position where I could be a better leader for you all. But I am a shinobi. I do not rely on hope."

She could see Naruto and Kiba's grins from smiles away, but the curving of Shino's dark eyes and the twitch of his smile really made her stomach churn with warmth. Her voice grew stronger without her even noticing. "I have rely on the capacity of work that my own hands have sought accomplish," Hinata said, holding out her calloused palms before them. "I have relied on my strength of will to create, to build, to make anew. I have relied on my friends, my fellow shinobi, and my family. My life is an architectural wonder that I have built through the pillars of those who reside inside of it, to strengthen me and my own goals."

Her hands fell to her sides, and so did her eyes, following the line of the wooden floors as she continued speaking. "That is what you have all been to me - pillars of structure and support in my life, just as the Hyuuga have been a pillar of support to the Hidden Leaf. That is what I have wanted to emulate ever since my father named me heiress once again. It is my turn to uphold the Hyuuga name," Hinata said, bowing low and grasping her hands tightly in front of her. "So please rely on me."

She waited a moment before she rose, standing straight and stepping away from the raised stage, focusing all her energy on not stumbling. The blood pounding hot through her body almost distracted her from her teammates.

Kiba's hand was already proffered, gripping her upper arm and grinning more fiercely than a hunter capturing prey. She smiled at him, reaching out her other hand for Shino's incoming form. He took it, squeezing hard. The fierce pride they exuded washed over her as they spoke silently between each other.

And then a large, warm hand pressed against the juncture between her neck and shoulder. Immediately she knew who it was.

Her entire body went hot, then cold as she turned away from her teammates to face him. The bags under his eyes made him look older, shadowing his face and the hard line of his jaw. "I'm so proud of you," Naruto murmured. Hinata's face turned a curious shade of pink when shefelt teammates gave very peculiar, nearly matching smirks that she'd grown used to over the years.

"Th-thank you so much, N-naruto-kun. For...for being here," she said, utterly uncomposed, pulling away from him and turning around to give him her own smile. She took a long, deep breath, and tried again, trying not to sound sixteen again. "Thank you...for being here for me."

For everything, she thought wistfully. Her throat bubbled up with sudden, unwanted emotion as her eyes began to sting. Every single thing you've given to me.

He shook his head. Naruto reached for her hand and squeezed it hard. "Don't thank me. This is all on you."

"How can I not?" Hinata replied, squeezing back.

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Shino was the polar opposite of Kiba, but a different side of the same coin to Hinata. They were uncommonly similar at times, the threads of their lives and their habits woven tightly together through friendship and time. He worked so in tandem with her on missions that they coordinated movements without question. On the day to day, their thoughts have a way of mimicking and lilting together in the same course, their ideas tangled together, and even their tastes linking together.

Kiba would always be impossibly close - a friend as good as family, but Shino just knows a little more, a little better, with their natures being so similar.

So it's natural to her when he knows that she's gotten herself into trouble.

It doesn't make the whole thing less embarrassing.

Hinata sat slumped forward at her favorite tea house, twisting small macaroons between her fingers as she stared down at them, her appetite waning. They sat by one of the large windows, at the far left side of the room. The seats were old and wooden, worn with age and heavy use, but still managed an aesthetically pleasing antique adage. Shino had barely touched his tea, while she was working through her's. But now, everything looked a bit drearier. It was hard to ignore the muck of her emotions, the sadness that pulled through even her best attempts at putting her thoughts elsewhere, so she struggled against the silence.

It had been two weeks, and she was already crumbling.

"Are you sure there is no other way that you can avoid this?" Shino asked, the sharp clinical side of his voice going soft with care.

She nodded slowly, pinching the cookie between her forefinger and thumb before it split in half, falling back onto the table. "They've...they've voted on it...like my future is something that they can decide on a whim," Hinata murmured. Her face pinched with a buried strain. "I have no say. My uncle said that they will find a way to remove me from my position as clan head if I don't go through with it. I'm not sure if they can carry it through, but I don't - I don't want to see them try. I don't want my family turning against me."

The dark haired man was shaking his head before she even before she finished. She could not see his eyes through the dark sunglasses that obscured his face, but the strain in his shoulders underneath his jacket didn't lie to her. "You realize the error in your ways, do you not? Relating clan business too closely to those of a genuine family? I believe you are starting to see it clearly now. The only one you should be trusting right now is Hanabi-san," Shino said, leaning back in his seat. Hinata sighed softly.

"I know."

"I can't fault you for it."

"I know."

"And Naruto will be here in a few minutes."

Hinata jerked up, looking at Shino with wide, confused eyes as she felt the familiar chakra come nearer to them. "W-why now? Isn't he supposed to be- be working?" she whispered harshly, looking around at the quiet little tea house and feeling a sharp jolt of anxiety through her gut.

This wasn't afternoon tea. This was an ambush.

"When is he ever doing his job in the first place?"

The sudden urge to skip out on the restaurant filled her entire body.

"Don't even think about it," Shino said, taking a languid sip of his tea before speaking again. "I promised him I'd make sure you wouldn't run away this time."

"Shino!"

"The only way you correct a problem is to face it head on."

"You know I'm trying to avoid him!" Hinata whispered hotly, glaring unkindly at her teammate.

"I KNEW IT."

A blur of orange and yellow poofed to life through smoke and leaves, and before their table, Naruto stood, pointing heatedly at Hinata with the reddest face she had ever seen. She felt her own face flush when he started shouting heavily, the thought of every single person in the restaurant being able to hear them right now making the blush on her face burn even brighter.

"I KNOW WHEN SOMEONE'S AVOIDING ME. I'M THE HOKAGE. WE ARE TALKING RIGHT NOW."

"You've been Hokage for three days."

"SHUT THE HELL UP, SHINO."

"Naruto-kun, please lower your voice! We can't-!"

"NO. WE ARE SETTLING THIS LIKE ADULTS RIGHT NOW."

"This wasn't the best idea."

Shino sighed loudly, still holding his tea cup elegantly in his hand. There was a bored look on his face, as if he'd already seen this coming. Hinata looked at him with sharp eyes, heaving out frustrated breaths and feeling painfully betrayed. "I do suggest that you two handle this away from prying eyes...and ears...you don't need any more gossip circling around you," the Aburame said, giving his teammate a pointed look. "Settle this now. In a much lower decibel than him."

Hinata pursed her lips for a long moment before swiftly standing, grasping Naruto by the wrist, and dragging him out of the tea house.

The dark haired man sighed, finished his tea, and placed a few ryo on the table. He walked over towards the other side of the tea house to where a blonde sat by herself, reading a large book and entertaining a cup of ginseng tea. She looked up at him for a moment, a smile crawling up her face as she desperately tried restraining it.

"That loud idiot," the woman said happily. "He made that so easy."

He sat before her, smirking in a self satisfied, muted way. "That worked better than I thought," Shino said.

The blonde looked up, bright green eyes melting into a familiar pale white as she smiled deviously, before the Henge came up again. "Of course it did," Hanabi said, tossing a thick wave of hair over her shoulder as she leaned back in her chair. "It was my idea."

"Be that as it may, it is a known fact that they can both be incredibly thick. I had my doubts for ample reason," Shino replied, adjusting his glasses and staring at the disguised Hyuuga calculatingly. "We need to do more than just whisper a few manipulating words and give vague direction to Naruto."

Hanabi rolled her eyes. "Oh please. Why are you even wasting your energy worrying?"

"Why shouldn't I?"

She smiled prettily, a vicious lilt in the curve of her lips, giving him a generous wink. "Because you have me."

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After the war, there was no declaration of love. There were no kisses, no sudden bouts of affection, no smile that told the feelings that grew inside her chest long ago. She could remember no pleasantries from that. There was just the weight of Neji's corpse in her arms, the hot sun against her skin, and the blisters on her feet as Konoha's soldiers made their way home. She remember the thick bandages around her waist, the heavy scent of ammonia, and his rough, low voice in her ear as they sat in the floor of a medical tent.

She remembered the medical tent the most. She could remember the darkness of it. She could remember her sitting still inside her chest, as if missing a heartbeat. She could remember his catching breaths from the six broken ribs that sang an uneven symphony in her ears.

It felt surreal in that moment: beaten and slumped against the boy she'd loved for so long, speaking about the shinobi world's cycle of hatred, the aftermath of war, the comrades to be buried, and his crippling fear in the chakra chains that bound Sasuke's wrists.

He'd become a lost, confused boy, speaking to a lost, confused girl.

So when he suddenly went quiet and spoke again when she was beginning to drift off into sleep, her entire body jolted back into consciousness.

"I was supposed to give you an answer a long time ago. Before this started. I was supposed to talk to you," Naruto grunted out - and immediately she knows what he's talking about, knows where he is headed, knows that the words won't be kind on her heart. He coughed, flinched in pain, and gave out a soft sigh. "I got caught up when I shouldn't have."

Hinata shrugged. "We had responsibilities to take care of. You especially."

He chuckled, low and bitter. "You didn't have a responsibility to save me from Pein."

She went still.

Naruto continued on without notice. "You didn't have to come for me when I told everyone else to stay out of my way. I thought I could take him. I thought I'd gotten strong enough," he said, rasping and struggling for breath as his words grew in emotion. "And then you come along and- and you're almost killed.I couldn't get the fucking job done like I was supposed to."

The dark haired girl shook her head, almost angrily, reaching over to grasp his wrist and squeeze hard. "Naruto-kun, listen to me," Hinata said, a breathlessness to her voice. "Pein was not your responsibility alone. All of Konoha came together to fight him like I came for you."

She felt his arm begin to shake. "I-I couldn't even- even now- how can I become Hokage if I can't keep my friends safe?" Naruto said as his voice cracked. "You almost died because of me."

"That was a choice I made. That was a choice I would make a thousand times over." She squeezed his wrist again, then reached for his fingers as she threaded them through her own. The callouses of his left hand felt familiar, but colder, without the heavy pulsing of chakra that flooded from his body into her own. "Naruto-kun, I was watching you the minute you stepped into Konoha. I knew that you were on a different level than me. I came to Pein ready to die."

He shifted, went completely still for a moment.

"What?" Naruto intoned.

"I didn't think I would be able to put up a fight against him. I didn't think I'd last more than a few minutes, to be honest. I'd seen the damage he'd done to the village," Hinata murmured to him, a watery smile breaking out over her face. The helplessness of those moments could swallow her whole, even in memory. "But I knew that the chakra blades were holding you down. I had to give you some kind of fighting chance."

His grip on her hand turned from lackadaisical to frantic, almost squeezing the life out of her fingers. "But why?"

Her smile was weak and watery, but she gave it to him in the darkness between him either way. She hoped he could hear it within her voice. "Because I love you. I was going to protect you in whatever way I could, no matter what," Hinata said. She clasped her other hand and squeezed one last time.

They were silent for another moment, but this one was thick with momentum; her heart was thrumming horrifically inside of her chest, ready to send her into a panicked frenzy. Her skin was overly warm, her sight was still dimmed in the dark, and her stomach had settled somewhere between her toes. Her entire body was a lit fuse, waiting for a match.

Speaking to Naruto was frightening, so frightening, but she'd faced down a man who could level an entire village with one hand and came out still alive. Her chest was burning with all the things she wanted to say.

Naruto did not owe her a requited love - and that was okay. Hinata was not stupid. She was not a desperate child. She did not want a fairy tail out of him.

Love was something that grew, cultivated with time and happiness and warmth, be they friend or lover. It was what he'd taught her as children when she watched him thread together friendships like leather bracelets, with knots that lasted through damage and the passage of time. There wasn't much that she expected in the midst of a battlefield, or at what she'd thought to be the end of her life.

But he owed her acknowledgement - for Naruto to know she'd made her decision on her own, to know that she did not expect anything from her.

So when the air between them had turned heavy enough to swim through, thicker than the blood coating her hair, she braced herself for the let down.

Yet it never came - Naruto was pulling her hands closer to him when a medic burst through the flap of the medical tent and shouted orders, whisking away the blonde for treatment before she could even wonder what was going on.

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They came back to Konoha as friends, as comrades - a boy and a girl who fought side by side against a terror that threatened their entire philosophies. Uzumaki Naruto, her friend.

That had been enough.

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He was barely eighteen when Kakashi-sensei took him off for training.

They sat in front of one of the memorial stones in the rain, sharing an umbrella and a thick silence. Their eyes drilled into the characters Hyuuga Neji etched into the black surface as if in search. Naruto kept sneezing, wiping away his nose on his sleeve, while Hinata looked strained and drowsy, chewing away at her lip.

"Where will you go?" she asked him suddenly, focusing hard on her cousin's name again, as if it would give her courage.

She felt him shrug, the rustle of his clothes brushing against her own. "All over. He said there wasn't going to be a set destination. He wants me to travel like Sakura-chan did, but for more political stuff, I guess. We're going to Kumo to see the Raikage," Naruto answered in a low, illness-strained voice. It made her want to lay down and sleep, caressed by the wet grass and the rain. "I wonder how the ramen tastes there."

"Please don't eat any unhealthy foods until you get better. Focus on drinking enough soup," Hinata replied, patting his knee. "The broth in ramen doesn't count."

"But it's easier to make than soup."

"It won't make it easier to get better."

He groaned aloud, leaning heavily into her as she squealed and tried not to let them fall into the grass. Naruto sighed, tossing an arm around Hinata's shoulder and pulling her back upright. "You need to come. Your future Rokudaime commands it. I'll need a personal nurse, and someone to hang out with when Kakashi-sensei gets boring. We can try all the ramen in the world, spar a little, visit cool places, and when we get bored you can kick my ass in shogi," he said, smiling hugely, as if he'd already pictured it in his mind and was pleased with the image.

And she could see it for herself, as if he'd painted it for her - sunsets spent looking out hotel room windows, traveling by day and stargazing by night, flitting through the different hidden villages of the world like a personal circus, eating strange foods, finding strange environments, all the while training beside him. It wasn't the first time that Naruto proposed it to her. It was a pretty dream, filtered through the sunlight of her love sickness.

But she was still so very fresh from war, made from scars instead of skin. There were responsibilities to take care of, people to look after, and things to learn.

It had been a tumultuous past year, at best He was caught up in the whirlwind that was Sasuke's trial, and she was caught up in the village's reconstruction efforts and mission work. They only seemed to see each other when they visited Neji's grave together on Thursday afternoons.

Hinata shook her head, willing her face to keep from turning red. His smile curled around her chest like a physical thing. "Convincing me to go is like convincing you to stay," she replied, trying to squirm out of his grasp half heartedly.

"Yeah, yeah."

"You won't even miss me, Naruto-kun."

He grunted, shifting away from her to look her in the eye, a skeptical, calculating look that she saw the older he got. Hinata didn't like these looks focused solely on her instead of a battlefield - not when it felt like he could see through her so thoroughly. Not when he wasn't supposed to be the perceptive one.

"As if," he muttered, eyes falling back onto the memorial stone.

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He'd been gone for five years. The village was still healing, growing, expanding with different shops, new commerce, and business that gave birth to a flourishing economy. There was no time to keep track of the Copy Ninja and the Savior of the World when there was so much more to do.

Especially when there were more than enough rumors to keep Tsunade busy - more so on Naruto's part than his mentor.

All Hinata heard was whispers of him: the Yellow Flash's son gallivanting about the five great nations and beyond, picking fights with as many legendary shinobi as he dared and claiming them as friends. It made Hinata proud, knowing that Naruto was still being so recklessly, unabashedly Naruto.

It made his absence bearable.

Yet there was still so much to do - their growth would be found in different places, so she decided that she would let her roots grow right where she was. Hinata pushed herself into training, immersing herself into her father's lessons on politics and clan history, passing the jonin exam with all her limbs attached, and caring for the terribly rambunctious Yuki Sarutobi. Her father taught her the Eight Trigrams Revolving Heaven, Kurenai taught her new genjutsu, and she taught herself to speak without a stutter, without a hunch in her shoulders, without cowering from another's gaze. She cultivated her own strength out of kindness and silence, out of patience, out of the confidence in her own abilities, out of a path to the future she knew she could build.

It was a decidedly quiet five years, without Naruto, blossoming into a woman she hoped her mother would be proud of.

Things changed, and so did people, but the the fundamentals were still there: Shino was still quiet, Kiba was still loud, Sakura was still kind, Ino was still valiant, and Tenten was still radiant. The sky was still blue. The grass was still green. Konoha was still beautiful.

Time passed, wounds healed, and she thought that just maybe her love for him would be able to fade. And it was okay; there was nothing everlasting about a love that was not returned. She had long since made peace with it.

Growth came in many different forms. Why wouldn't her feelings?

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Hinata stood in the shadows of the tea house, trying valiantly to avoid his sharp blue gaze. Her eyes lingered on the uneven dirt path between the buildings, the cracks in the old bricks that formed patterns behind him, the scar on his left index finger that was four shades paler than the rest of his skin, and the rippling of shadow from his cloak, floating around him in the breeze.

"It would be...unfair for me to start something between us when I'm not sure if I really will be...engaged by winter," she said softly, following the lines of the cracked brick. She saw him shift minutely in a hitched breath.

"I was an idiot for kissing you in the first place," Naruto muttered. He sighed, long and loud.

"Don't...don't say that."

He walked forward, slow, deliberate steps, ready to let her step back, but she stood firm. Hinata prayed that she wasn't shaking on the outside like she felt how badly she was trembling on the inside. "I'm always an idiot when it comes to you. I hate it," Naruto whispered harshly, trying desperately to catch her eye. She did not relent. "I have the shittiest timing."

Hinata took a while to breathe, the air around her turning thick and uncomfortable. "It might be better this way," she mused aloud. The forced airiness in his voice made her twitch.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"You couldn't answer me, Naruto."

She met his eyes when she saw the pause in his breathing, the stall in his entire body as her words sunk in like an electric shock. It took a moment for him to bristle, wire up defensively before he completely deflated.

Hinata knew love; she had been drowning in it since she was a child. Hinata knew love like she knew the sun would rise in the east and set in the west. Hinata knew love like she knew her bed sheets against her skin in the morning, like she knew the blade's edge of expectation in Byakugan eyes whenever she walked into a room, like she knew how exactly she could make an enemy's lungs explode with bursting seven particular tenketsu along the trachea. Hinata knew love, knew how it looked, and knew when it did not exist.

It might not have been healthy - how impossible it seemed to be to let this man go - but it was as real as her flesh and bones. It would not be dismissed or ignored. She'd come to terms with it a long time ago.

Maybe some emotions couldn't part from you without ripping you apart.

"That's not fair, Hinata."

"But it's true."

There was thick silence. The shuffle of his hands shoved into his pockets as he stared down at his toes filled her. "I was scared, Hinata. I was scared. Terrified. I'm not sure what I feel. It's...something- and don't give me that look! It's a valid something. It's not what I felt for Sakura, or any other girl, and it's not...I just - I look at you and I wonder why I didn't start something the second we came home from the war. Everything I said was true," Naruto murmured. He avoided her gaze this time, though his was pinched in frustration. "I looked at you and I wanted to kiss you. Not out of pity. Not because I thought I could get away with it. I kissed you because I wanted to - want to. I want you."

"Naruto-kun, please," Hinata whispered in anguish, reaching out to place a shoulder at his bicep. "I don't want you to think that you have to force feelings on yourself or to misconstrue what you want just to appease me. You don't."

He snorted quietly, rolling his eyes petulantly as he stepped away from her tough. "There was nothing forced about that kiss and you know it."

Hinata stiffened, turning a brilliant red as she remembered his tongue tasting like every pastry she'd ever tasted in her life, ten times sweeter, better, hotter, replacing time and space and reason.

Her hands dropped to her sides. "Maybe I took advantage of the situation. I don't know," the dark haired woman murmured, smiling with a grimace, guilt beginning to strain the inside of her ribs in a painful manner. He already had too much on his plate for her to be manipulating him, albeit unconsciously. "Either way...this is...this is one thing that I don't want you to pursue."

Naruto stepped forward, hands falling to her hips as he stared her resolutely in the eyes. "Stop me this time," he muttered, leaning in so that their foreheads pressed together. She let him, let her eyes fall closed, let the sound of his breathing against the skin of her jaw slow down her heartbeat into soft bubbles of pond water. "Tell me to stop, and I'll walk away like none of this ever happened. We can pretend none of this ever happened. I don't give a damn about your family right now, and neither do you. They don't dictate your love life. I already made my choice. You need to make your's."

But how was it his choice when he could not bare her heart in the way that she could? She'd made her's when she was sixteen, faced up against what would be her death just to protect him. She had long since made her choice. And he knew it would always be him, after all these years and dates her friends pushed her into and the waiting that she'd unconsciously sat through for him.

She would always choose him.

Hinata should have known that the second his hands came into contact with her body, she wouldn't be leaving that alley any time soon.

.

.

.

Naruto's homecoming was more anticlimactic than she imagined it to be.

For Hinata herself, in the middle of picking at her unappetizing plate of shrimp, she was more or less zoned out. Her lunch outing with Kiba and Ino had turned into her third wheeling and more public displays of affection that fell past cute and went into uncomfortable. And she absolutely despised seafood - but she didn't have the heart to turn down the couple when they wanted to take her out for lunch. They sat at a table seated for six, strangely enough, with the restaurant half empty.

She focused on the heated gossip between two waitresses behind her. She stared down at her plate, ignoring the heated conversation between her friends and holding back a smile for a completely different reason.

"I'm serious! I saw him this morning running around screaming at the Uchiha, with his arm around him," the first voice said with a happy cackle. "It was hilarious!"

"Is he good looking?"

"Gorgeous."

"And he looked so cute next to the pink haired girl!"

"The Godaime's apprentice? I thought she was dating the Kazekage."

"She could do better. My older sister married a Suna shinobi and she told me about him. He doesn't have any eyebrows, you know." At this, Hinata bit down on her bottom lip almost painfully as she turned her head to the side to control the mirth bubbling inside of her.

"How do you do better than a kage?"

"You could do better than any man who's missing his eyebrows."

Hinata coughed out a laugh, bowing her head low enough for her dark hair to shadow her face as she strained with laughter. It took a her a few minutes to compose herself and the laughter that shook her silently. Kiba and Ino were staring suspiciously at her.

"What's so funny?" Kiba asked suspiciously, raising a brow at her.

"Why aren't you eating?" Ino asked inquisitively, her frown bordering on worry.

Hinata's face flushed pink, and she laughed lightly, stabbing her chopstick into a shrimp in her plate of salad. "It's a bit too spicy for me. I'll be fine," she lied, hoping to dismiss their concern. "And I was just thinking about what I'm supposed to be packing for next week."

Kiba hissed and leaned back in his seat, rubbing his forehead and glaring past Hinata's shoulder at the wall. "I forget about that. This has to be the fourth long term intelligence mission for this year," he said, sighing in exasperation. Ino pouted and patted his shoulder in comfort.

"How long are you supposed to be gone this time?" she asked.

"About seven weeks or so," Hinata supplied.

"Fucking tensions between Iwa and Ame," Kiba added, crossing his arms over his chest dejectedly. "There are too many rogues from Ame that head into Earth country territory and cause trouble. They're starting it up with Ishigakure too. Shikamaru said he expected it to just escalate into more than just petty skirmishes, and it's been messing with our trade routes. People are turning up dead. The Daimyo isn't liking it."

Ino scoffed, leaning forward into the table and recrossing her legs under the table as her eyes flashed. "Who do you think you're telling? Tsunade-sama ordered out a cell for information gathering to watch the situation from inside Ame until the end of the year - she took two of my boys from Torture and Interrogation. They've already gotten into a fight with a group of Ishigakure shinobi who were trying to rob them," the blonde said, a scowl creeping onto her face. "The bastards were lucky I wasn't there."

Hinata frowned. "You weren't apart of the cell?"

"No! God, Ibiki has me on another paperwork stint," Ino hissed.

Kiba rolled his eyes. "The less you're out on the field, the better. That's not something you should even be focusing on when you have a unit to help run."

Ino scoffed aloud, smacking Kiba on the chest. Hinata bit back a grin. "Whatever. They would've had all the information they needed if I was there," she grumbled.

"As if," Kiba shot back.

"He knows that you're excellent at your job, Ino," Hinata said, jutting in as quickly as possible to avoid an argument. "Ibiki-san probably wants you to learn more about the unit itself than just doing missions."

"It's still boring."

"Who are you telling?" Hinata said, smiling secretively. The blonde grinned back in understanding - paperwork took up at good thirty percent of the clan heiress's time daily. "Find growth in it, Ino. Paperwork teaches a certain kind of patience."

Ino shrugged a bit and stared dejectedly at her food before straightening in her seat suddenly. Kiba followed, tossing her a vicious smirk. "Finally! This asshole took his time," she snapped.

He barked out a laugh. "You know he likes to make an entrance."

Hinata frowned, about to ask what they were talking about, but then she blinked and her metaphorical sixth sense of feeling that extended past her body, into the physical world. And she felt a bright, uncontrolled flare of chakra that she had not felt in years.

She took a century to find her lungs again, with eyes brighter than the moon. "Naruto is coming here?"

Ino smirked. "Turn around."

The dark haired woman gasped and turned around in her chair, looking over her shoulder in a frightful manner as the door to the restaurant opened loudly and three very conspicuous looking shinobi walked in. The head of pink hair was a given - shorter than the other two by at least a head and a half. Sakura was poking Sasuke in the side as she spoke to him with a teasing smile pulling at her lips, while the Uchiha languidly stared down at her with a raised brow. Naruto - a ray of sunrise blonde hair and gold skin - clapped him on the back as he grinned.

His shoulders were more broad than she remembered. They filled out his dark shirt under his flak jacket. He was still lanky - more tendons and sinews than muscle, and much less bulky than Sasuke. His skin was flushed with a deeper tan and his hair was cropped short. The only thing that remained resolutely the same was his bright sky-blue eyes that she could still make out a dozen feet away in the dim lighting.

Then he looked directly at her and smiled.

"What the hell kind of growth spurt did he go through?" Kiba said in exasperation from behind her. She barely registered it. "The bastard looks tall as hell."

Ino clucked her tongue. "Someone sounds bitter," she supplied. There was an audible growl heard. "And who cares how tall he is? I can't believe he's actually wearing a uniform. With no orange."

Hinata turned in her seat, breaking her gaze with Naruto and feeling distinctly winded. She nodded a bit to herself and tucked her hair away from her face. "Much taller. Definitely taller," she said to herself. She sounded winded too. She picked up her glass of water. The dark haired woman drank down half of it in one go before setting it down. Her eyes found her friends once more. "Why didn't you just tell me?"

Kiba shrugged. "Her idea," he said, tilting his head in his girlfriend's direction. "Besides, this is kind of funny."

"You're adorable when you're flustered," Ino added.

She gave her friends a rare glare of frustration as she set down her glass of water and placed a hand on her cheek. She could already hear their footsteps - seconds away, only seconds away when four and a half years stretched between them like a barren wasteland, he was only seconds away from her now - as her face bloomed with heat.

"You two are evil," she mouthed. Her glare settled further into her face when the two began to shake with silent laughter.

Hinata jumped and gasped, startled, when she felt a warm hand press just between her shoulder blades. She turned her head to the left and stared wide-eyed as she saw Naruto flashing a spectacularly bright, toothy smile at her. She didn't have to think about returning her own. It's good to see you, she could almost hear in the space between them, except softer and honeyed with warmth.

The urge to embrace him enveloped her entire system, but she held still.

He leaned into her as he sat in the chair directly beside her. "What the hell are these idiots laughing about?" Naruto muttered, jerking his chin towards Kiba and Ino. The thick rasp of his baritone voice washed over her like a hazy dream.

"I ordered something too spicy and choked a little bit," Hinata lied back in a whisper.

He nodded sagely. "Probably forgot to chew when you saw me," Naruto said, pulling a cocky grin. Her mouth fell open in shock. "I understand completely. It's been a while."

"N-naruto-kun!" she sputtering. Did he really just say that!?

He gave her another warm smile before calling out across the table angrily. "Oi, you idiots!" Naruto snapped. Kiba and Ino's faces immediately pulled into twin glares. Sasuke was already sighing quietly. "Why the hell are we at a seafood restaurant? Hinata hates seafood!"

A rush of warmth and unadulterated happiness flooded her system as she watched the three of them begin to bicker.

.

.

.

Naruto bloomed.

He was still the same boisterous and cheerful boy he'd always been, but that boy was wrapped away in the layers of a man - there was a strain to the expanse of his shoulders when he leaned in for mission debriefs and there was a calculating focus to his eyes of seriousness hard learned through the battlefield. Watching him on missions was a vision of leadership and decisiveness that she'd never experienced before. Yet it wasn't surprising to her. Not quite. She'd always known him capable of turning into a leader. The title of Hokage was no longer a pipe dream that the villagers could scoff at. It was his future. It was the title of Tsunade-sama's successor on his shoulders. It was his brotherly smile as he explained how to kunai to Academy students. It was his years upon years spent travelling, perfecting his craft.

He'd grown; there were no other words to describe it. Hinata wasn't sure what he'd learned when he was away, but it changed him in an irreversible way.

Sometimes, she found it easier to talk to him this way. Conversations ranged from politics (which was never far away from her tongue's reach these days) to upcoming chuunin exams to weapon sharpening techniques to how he'd missed spicy pork ramen at Ichakiru's more than indoor plumbing.

But, without fail, this version of Naruto could still tie a knot in her throat and destroy all sense of her reason.

Because some things truly never, ever change.

.

.

.

Yet she couldn't claim stagnancy for herself.

She had more scars with terrible stories decorating her skin. She spoke easily, fairly audible and calm, without a stitch in her tone. She could walk through a crowded room with her chin up and her walk even. She was faster, stronger, smarter, more powerful, with eyes that could see for miles in any direction. She smiled more, with just a hint of teeth. She could hold a conversation with eye contact. She'd grown up in a more subtle way than her love. There was less blooming, less bursting with color, and more unfurling, peeling away the layers of insecurity and doubt that suffocated her.

There was still the quiet, shy girl inside of her, that stuttered whenever Tenten complimented her or Naruto gave her a particular smile, because there were some things you don't grow out of.

But now she was a reserved woman, who stood tall in her seat and and spoke only when she knew just what to say. There was very little she was afraid of now.

Bravery taught her nothing: time and a war's horrors taught where to place her fear in this life.

.

.

.

Hinata came home that afternoon with kiss-bruised lips and tearstained cheeks. She made her way into the Hyuuga compound through her personal garden, walking through the stone path and into the door that led to her room.

It was easy avoiding her family when she needed to. There was a distinct amount of privacy in the clan head's position, even in a home known for walls being useless against Byakugan eyes. Thankfully, no one in her family could see tear stains through walls. All she had to do was keep quiet - something she was incredibly skilled at.

She left the lights off, the only light coming from her windows and the glass door that led into her garden. The dark haired woman pulled off her jacket, shoes, and pants, before making her way towards her bed. It was large and plain with pale bedding, but uncommonly comfortable. She relished in the cool, silken sheets as she slid inside of it and laid down her head. She didn't bother tying up her hair or putting on pajamas.

The feeling of Naruto's hands against her skin was burned into her senses, more visceral than any other experience. She sank into the memory of it, breathed through it, absorbed it into her skin.

His lips were firm and unyielding against her own, moving so in sync she could have sworn they'd kissed a thousand times before. It was physically painful to pull away from him and walk away, holding back tears with only willpower and her teeth biting the inside of her cheek.

She shouldn't have let him in the first place.

It would have been easier going the rest of her life not knowing how sweet his mouth tasted against her own.

.

.

.

The next morning, Hanabi dragged her bright and early to the training grounds. She found Kiba and Shino already there, ready for bloodshed.

She hadn't been on a mission in a good two months - there was too much work to be done in Konoha for her to be on the mission roster at the moment. But she trained almost daily, whether it was practicing kata by herself, or accepting her sister's challenges for a friendly spar. The sweat, the heat, the picture perfect precision of her eyes to catch every single node of tenketsu in the human body, and the feeling of cool metal inside her palms as she aimed seemed to be apart of her genetic makeup now. There was nothing more natural than a good fight.

Especially when she spent most of her days cooped up in her study doing paperwork.

While Shino and Hanabi sat under the shade of a thick oak tree, talking quietly as they cooled down from their own spar, Hinata was sprinting at Kiba with two kunai and a surprisingly bright grin. He met her with a kunai of his own, shooting forward with hard, heavy strikes against her fast, swift ones. She knew just where to dodge, just when to slip out of reach, and he knew just when to hit, just when to rush forward without precision. Kiba toppled her to the grass more than once while he pinned her down and Akamaru rushed over to lick her face.

"No no no no no!" Hinata shrieked happily, trying to wiggle from her friend's grasp as the large dog panted and slobbered all over her. "This isn't sanitary!"

"I keep telling you dogs' tongues are cleaner than humans!" Kiba said triumphantly, flashing canines happily. "Besides, Akamaru hasn't made out with you in a while. He's gotten super lonely."

Hinata giggled breathlessly and went back to shrieking when Akamaru gave her face another big lick. Regardless, she knew she wasn't struggling as hard as she could have.

The sun was piercingly bright, the sky was listlessly blue, her best friends were with her, sweat clung to her brow in a constant downfall of activity, several shallow cuts patterned themselves along her skin, and her blood was singing an old, ancient warrior's song. She felt good.

When Kiba finally relented and let her sit up, he fell back onto the grass, limbs splayed out. Hinata watched him, bringing her knees up to her chest and wrapping her arms around them. Akamaru panted happily and circled the two of them before plopping himself down beside Hinata to curl up to her side. He whined loudly until she reached a hand over to scratch behind his ears.

"Sakura is requesting us for a mission," Kiba said quietly, letting his eyes fall closed.

Hinata frowned in question. "Why is she requesting the both of us if I'm not on the missions roster?" she said. "S-class?"

He smirked slightly. "Duh."

"Reconnaissance?"

"Kind of. You know the raids that have been going on in Wind Country? They're starting up here now," Kiba replied, huffing out a loud breath before continuing. "Two towns at the south western border of Fire Country were attacked in the same way - all the villagers getting sick a few days before a bunch of nukenin come through and ransack the whole place. There's reports of the same jutsus being used to burn the place down."

The dark haired woman breathed, her jaw locking. "That's horrifying."

"Yeah. Gaara already contacted Tsunade-sama last week before she stepped down. Gave her the information that he had on the attacks. Apparently he chased them away himself or something when they hit a town close to Suna," the Inuzuka said. Hinata wondered herself - she'd heard about the attacks going on for the past seven months in Wind Country. They were all extremely calculated. Was meddling with a Kage's village what scared them off? "She tasked Sakura with picking a team to investigate."

Hinata nodded slowly. She stopped scratching Akamaru's head when she heard the soft sounds of his slumber. "Who else would be on the team?"

"Her, us, Ino, and Shikamaru," Kiba answered, shrugging a bit. "Kind of a big team for this investigation if you ask me. We should be keeping it low key."

Hinata shook her head. A bigger team for this situation was better than anything. "Reports on the raids kept talking about how large a group there was. An estimate of twenty to thirty, by survivors' accounts. I think a larger team is absolutely necessary if confrontation arises again with enemy that outnumbers us," she replied, sounding text book and factual. Kiba opened an eye to raise his brows at her.

"Larger teams make things more complicated. It's harder to travel efficiently and be inconspicuous with several shinobi. We wouldn't wanna catch these guys' attention too quick."

"It's a complicated mission, with varying necessary skill sets. Having extra people on hand isn't a draw back," Hinata answered. She took a moment to adjust her legs so that she sat cross legged. "Is Sakura handling the whole thing?"

Kiba groaned. "Basically. Naruto gave her free reign to spearhead it. He's busy settling in and starting peace talks with the new leaders of Ame and Iwa. The old Tsuchikage finally stepped down," he replied. He stayed quiet for a minute before his face caught a frown and he sat up and ruffled his hair. "You don't have to take this mission if you don't want to, you know. I know how you're always busy with clan stuff.

Hinata shook her head. "This might be good for me. I haven't been on a mission for a while. And besides," she said, looking over her shoulder to where her sister and Shino sat under the shade of the trees. "I don't want Hanabi taking this on."

Kiba huffed. "You get too over protective with the cub. I don't even wanna see you when you have kids," he said gruffly. "You can't deny it. She's been doing a damn good job filling in for you on mission with us, Hinata. Give her credit."

Since Hinata had become clan head, there was almost no time for mission work. Her father had ended his career as a shinobi when he'd taken up the title himself - only putting back on his uniform and hitai-ate when the village needed him against a threat. She wasn't too fond of the idea of ending everything so early. Her father was thirty one, and she was only twenty three. Just sticking to training was supremely boring.

So Tsunade had decided to send Hanabi in as a substitute for her mission with Kiba and Shino. They worked out amazingly - probably better than herself, because Hanabi was nothing if not a brilliant kunoichi. It was not a matter of credit to be due; she would always be the first to praise her sister's achievements in any situation. Chuunin by eleven, and jonin by fifteen, Hanabi had proven her worth as a shinobi, in rank and in battle. For years, Hinata had accepted that Hanabi was a better ninja that herself. It would never be a matter of credit being due.

The thought of her baby sister going on dangerous missions in her place made her feel something in between paralyzing fear and nausea. It gave her nightmares and kept her awake at night, pondering the situation she'd been put in.

Hinata gave her own little pout before she scolded her teammate. "She's not my only cub. You and Shino are too. I can't turn it off. I'm always going to be concerned," she said, worry thick in her voice. "I'm going on this mission, Kiba."

.

.

.

It had been a simple morning; she had woken up while it was still dark, had breakfast, trained a bit with her sister before she went off on her mission with Kiba and Shino, and started on more paperwork. She hadn't thought of the date whatsoever. It had been a fairly normal morning.

But while in her study, her great uncle Hibashi had paid her a visit.

The creaking of the door startled her - only Hanabi ever came into her study, and she'd just seen her off an hour ago - but when she looked up to see the old man walking through, she became immediately apprehensive.

Hinata pulled on a measured smile. "Hibashi-jisan. Good morning."

He nodded, large, heavy-lidded eyes seeming to find something interesting in the room until they finally landed on her. "Good morning, child," he replied, if not a bit condescendingly. Her smile faltered. "Your presence will be needed in the audience room at noon today."

Hyuuga Hibashi was a tall, thin old man, with thick white hair that he secured at the base of his neck in a bun and a sparse beard that covered most of his face. His eyes - like her entire family - were an opalescent white that held a tinge of soft blue. Through the hunched shoulders, pale skin, and gaunt features, his eyes were the only thing that reminded her of a shinobi. They were cold and never held an ounce of emotion.

They never ceased to unnerve her.

"What for? A meeting wasn't scheduled for today," Hinata replied.

"We are sealing Tokuma's son today, Hinata-sama."

The words turned Hinata's entire body into a stiff, unresponsive board. Her throat went dry and her face drained of blood. She felt like ice cold water had been dumped over her, a freezing apprehension and terror flooding through her veins and stealing her breath - thoughts going rampant and repeating deliriously in her head, I am not ready, I am not ready, it is still too soon.

It took her a minute to find her voice again, not bothering to look her uncle in the eye. "Today at noon?" she prompted, standing from her seat behind her teak wood desk. The dark haired woman shifted the papers and folders around her desk until she found a thick, dark red folder. Her hands clutched it desperately. "I'll be there, Ojisan."

The old man nodded before he turned around and headed for the door. "And remember, if you are not present at the required time, then we are obligated to continue the process without you," Hibashi said, just barely over his shoulder.

Hinata's lungs faltered again as she stared up, glaring hotly, tears burning in her eyes.

.

.

.

Within the confines of the Hokage tower and her own trembling body, she burst through the doors of Naruto's office with a heart that beat too fast and clenched too hard within her chest.

Hinata could have smiled - Naruto was leaning back very far into his chair with a cup of instant ramen in one hand and chopsticks in the other. Sakura was dressed in her hospital clothes, hands shoved into her white lab coat with a scowl marring her face. Shikamaru was holding up a file, reading through it and looking bored to tears.

All three pairs of eyes landed on her when she entered.

"They're about to seal Hiro's today," Hinata said breathlessly, much louder than she should have. She held up her dark red folder. "Tokuma's son. They're sealing him today."

It took all of two seconds for the confusion on Naruto's face to warp immediately into horror as his eyes zeroed in on the folder she held out for him. He was on his feet in a second. "Today!?" he shouted. Frantically, he looked around the room until he saw Sakura and shoved the cup of ramen into her chest. She sputtered indignantly as he looked amid the myriad of files and mission scrolls. Naruto hissed, glaring angrily on his desk until he checked a drawer, eyes going wide with relief as he pulled out his own dark red folder. "What time? What time are they going to start?"

"Noon," Hinata said, walking forward until she was in front of the desk. "My uncle made it clear that he will start without me."

"Two fucking hours?" Naruto snapped, suddenly looking viciously angry.

"They wanted this to be last minute. This- this wasn't scheduled," Hinata lamented, shaking her head as bile began to creep into her throat at her abject horror. "They must have suspected something."

"Evil goddamn bastards," Naruto muttered, walking around his desk and opening up the folder to flip through the myriad of stapled papers before finding the page that he wanted and snatching his official Hokage stamp from his desk. He stamped the page and tossed the stamp away before blowing on the ink for it to dry. "The council's meeting was supposed to be for next month. I'm not sure if they're all in the village right now."

"Wait, wait, wait, hold up here," Sakura said, raising her hands up and looking between Hinata and Naruto suspiciously, holding the discarded cup of ramen in her right hand. Shikamaru read on in his file, occasionally flipping the page without worry. "Can someone tell me what the hell is going on here?"

Shikamaru huffed in the background, rolling his eyes and closing the file he was reading. All eyes in the room turned to him at the quiet nose, as they were prone to do. "They've been working on a clan, village, and council-approved edict that will end the Hyuuga sealing practice for good," he replied, walking over the Hokage's desk and tossing the file into the fray of other papers. "And I happen to know that all council members are currently in the village today."

"Thank the gods," Naruto said, slapping a hand to his face.

"I'll call them together for an emergency meeting and have them meet in the Tower's audience room in thirty minutes then," Shikamaru said, nodding before walking out of the room. He held out his hand for the folders from them both, tucking them under his arm and leaving.

"Make it twenty!" Naruto shouted as he left.

"Got it," Shikamaru replied.

"Why didn't I know any of this?" Sakura huffed, dumping the ramen in her hand and

"I don't wish to stress you, Sakura-chan. This is my burden to handle," Hinata said mutedly, smiling slightly.

Naruto smiled softly, reaching over and placing his warm hand on her arm. "Our burden," he corrected.

She met his eyes and smiled tightly, feeling the sting of terror in her throat.

Two hours, she thought, and it'll be a four year old's burden that will weigh on his shoulders for the rest of his life.

"Our burden," she answered him.

Because if they were going into this together, then she might as well let him share the blame.

.

.

.

The night of the festival left Naruto and Hinata hiding out in his office with a large box of cinnamon buns, takeout spicy pork ramen, and a very good view of the upcoming fireworks.

"Baa-chan said this desk wouldn't be clean for long," Naruto said, looking at his neat and organized working space with trepidation. "And I don't trust Shikamaru."

"Of course you do."

"Well, I don't trust him to get actual work done."

She covered her giggle with a bite of cinnamon buns.

They both sat in his over sized, ridiculously plush office chair - a gift courtesy of Sasuke. It was big and spacious enough to fit the both of them, thanks to Naruto's almost comically skinny legs. Hinata was basically sitting in Naruto's lap, with on leg on the chair and the other half on top of his thigh. The second she'd seen the large box of her favorite pastries, she'd forgotten to be embarrassed about it.

The sun had all but disappeared from view in the horizon, hiding behind the Hokage mountain. The fireworks would be coming soon and her eyes were already growing heavy with tiredness.

It had been a rush getting ready this afternoon - she'd gotten home late from a mission with mud at the bottom of her sandals and a smile on her face. Hanabi had already ordered her an especially tailored kimono: soft, pale green, silk with delicately stitched white and orange flowers stitched into the front and back just under her waist; sleeves that trailed to her knees; a hunter green obi with a small yellow slip that tied snugly around her waist, just below her bust. Her younger sister pulled back her hair into a large bun with loose baby hairs falling over her face, smudged a Tokumahl liner over her eyes, sweeped on a generous amount of mascara, dusted on a mauve blush onto her cheeks, swept a champagne highlighting powder over her cupid's bow and the high points of her cheekbones, and added a berry lip stain to her lips.

Hinata was more than pleased with the end results. She would only get to see Naruto become Hokage once in her lifetime, and she was determined to look her absolute best.

"Shikamaru is brilliant. He'll work for you very well," Hinata replied. She ripped off a piece of her cinnamon bun and offered it to him. "Would you like some?"

Naruto nodded, chewing and swallowing the ramen he'd stuffed into his mouth before reaching out and taking the proffered pastry with his teeth. He chewed it and swallowed thoughtfully. "These cinnamon buns were a really good idea," he said, nodding. "Today was the best. My birthday is probably gonna be lame in comparison."

"Hopefully not," she said, smiling brightly. "You only turn twenty four once."

"I know!" he shouted, smiling and slapping the thigh she wasn't sitting on. "We're super old."

She nodded. "Ancient."

"And there's a lot of work to do," he said. He turned silent for a moment, giving a soft sigh and looking at his desk as if in search. "There's a lot of work I need to do."

Hinata watched his face fall, concentration and brooding falling over him so quickly that she became scared. She remained quiet herself, knowing that he would eventually say something - Naruto was never one to keep his thoughts to himself.

But what he said nearly made her fall out of the chair.

"I promised Neji that I would change the Hyuuga clan during our Chuunin exams. I can finally do it now," Naruto breathed out. He held a hand to his forehead and stared down at his desk with apprehension. "I've got a lot of promises to keep."

The dark haired woman watched him for a moment, following the line of his set jaw and the tightness in the corner of his eyes, before she reached for the hand that was pressed worryingly into his forehead. He looked at her carefully as she clasped in her own hand and squeezed hard. His calloused brushed against her own and brought warmth and goose bumps through her body.

"That's a promise we're both going to keep," Hinata whispered, leaning her head into him. She felt the need to be quiet, as if speaking of secrets to sacred for a normal voice. The vision of Neji's bloody face would wake her up from the most violent of nightmares, but it would also stay present in her mind to ponder his words, to soak in his absence like an old sore. "He died to protect us, but he died for his own freedom. It was his choice. I don't want another Hyuuga to grow up and believe that their only freedom in this world is how and when they choose to die. I can't accept that."

Naruto nodded, squeezing back. She bit down on her lip. "I know. We are going to change this clan. We are going to end this tradition," he murmured back. His eyes shone.

"And I will be there every step. You're not doing this alone."

They stayed quiet for a moment, looking at one another, and Hinata had never felt chills like this before. She'd felt the butterflies, clenching with anxiety and fear and such visceral hope she felt it in her intestines. This wasn't like that. Her skin was cold and hot, tingling with knowing, a quiet understanding of the truth in her words.

You'll never be alone again. Not while I'm still breathing, she promised to herself.

Whatever position she held in his heart, she would be there - that was her own selfishness. For his own protection, and for her own greed. She would stay with him however he needed. She would not hide from a distance and give silent prayers for his happiness anymore.

His hand wrapped securely around her own was the only prayer she needed.

"You're always here. You've always been here," Naruto said gruffly, his voice thick and too raspy for its own good, He let his eyes fall closed as he squeezed her hand once again. "I haven't been able to see it for so long."

She shrugged a bit, ducking her head down as a blush overtook her face. "I spent most of my time hiding behind trees instead of showing it," Hinata muttered. "I was too much of a coward. That's my own fault."

"You are the bravest person I know. All my friends are shinobi and have been through a war, and you are the bravest one," Naruto said reverently. Hinata looked up at him, face going redder, but the firestorm and the blizzard that danced inside her skin "You're brilliant, Hinata. You're blinding. I'm sorry it took me so long to see it."

She breathed, an almost-gasp she wasn't sure she'd been holding in. "Naruto-kun," she said. "Naruto-kun, you are more blinding than I could ever be."

"I'm not. I look at you and I get stunned. It's like I can see the sun for the first time," Naruto said. He opened his eyes again. "You're all that I can see."

Her lips spilled the words from her body like a physical ache. "I love you, Naruto. I love you so much," she said desperately.

She was sure she didn't lean forward first - the stress she kept on her body to keep herself still and motionless put a strain on her bones. But suddenly she felt her lips on his, smelling his thick, masculine scent and found his body pressed thoroughly in her own. There was fire flooding through her system, registering his own warmth and drinking into her cells.

Hinata went on instinct; her arms wound around his shoulders and her mouth moved against the urgency of his own. He responded eagerly, heatedly, with one arm curving around her hips and the other grasping her knee to shift her entirely on his lap. She breathed, opening her mouth slightly, feeling the kiss deepen and her head bubble with sensation. Behind her closed lids, she saw the flashes of dim light through the office windows, hearing the muted bursts of fireworks that burst into the sky.

They seemed too supercilious, as dim and dull in the darkness of her sight, when Hinata melted her body into a supernova of rough hands and warm lips.

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.

.

It took twenty three minutes, Naruto's lost hitae-ate, and her own hair falling from it's precarious updo to realize that he hadn't said I love you back.

It took her thirty seconds to remove herself from him and nearly sprinted out of the Hokage tower.

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It was sixteen minutes before noon when Naruto and Hinata made it to the Hyuuga compound, carrying two dark red folders and a thick, official looking, dark red scroll with Konoha's council emblem stamped on the front of it. Hinata carried the folders in both hands, held upside down in front of her stomach with a too-tight clasp in a vain attempt to keep her hands from shaking. Naruto held the scroll underneath his left arm, both hands shoved in his pockets.

They had been silent the entire way to the council's meeting, all throughout their deliberation, and as they finally, finally made their way to her home.

There was a thick river of tension between them, but Hinata could only bear to ignore it and hope for the best. There was still to much to say right now. They needed focus.

When they made their way to the front gate of the Hyuuga compound, Naruto held it open for her and she murmured some sort of vague thank you as she stepped inside it. He stepped in front of her to open the door

"My stomach feels like it's gonna explode," Naruto murmured, slipping off his sandals as they entered her home.

"My stomach feels like it's missing," Hinata replied quietly, staring down at her bare toes as they walked towards the audience room.

"I like your toes," he mumbled, uncharacteristically nervous. She blinked, registering the dark red color she'd painted her toes the other day. They were glossy and eye catching.

"Thank you," she replied.

Before she knew it, they were already in front of the audience room, the doors paperthin and ready to be shoved aside in fury. Because there was anger - a cold, vicious anger that flooded her body like a mist. Hianta drew from it, picturing the seal from Neji's forehead disappearing as the life flooded from his eyes.

Her hand found the shogi door without her conscious knowledge, eyes finally pulling away from her feet. Her fingers trembled, not matter how hard she clenched them.

Hinata felt Naruto's warm had between her shoulders, pushing her forward. "I'm not letting you do this alone either," he whispered. She could not look at him, could barely find her lungs in her chest. "You're strong enough."

"I hope so," she replied, swallowing back the dryness of her throat.

She opened the doors.

Hinata wasn't surprised to see everyone already present except for her; the elders were already seated to the right of the audience room with utterly composed faces, in front of where Tokuma, his wife, and their young son Hiro sat on tatami mats with bowed heads. Hiro, with his messy dark hair and terrified white eyes, sat in front of them as he stared resolutely ahead. Tokuma's wife was silently crying, a viciously bitter expression marring the quiet beauty of her face, and Tokuma himself was fighting back the tears with the most horrified expression on their face. They'd both foregone their shinobi clothes, opting for the traditional Hyuuga robes.

Their seal marks stood out on their foreheads stood out as an almost florescent green against the ashen paleness of their skin, but Hiro's forehead was still pale and clean - unmarred by generations of Branch family servitude.

Her stomach rolled.

All heads turned towards them, specifically landing on Naruto, as they were quick to bow and greet their new Hokage. There were murmurs of greetings that Hinata could not make herself return. She stayed silent until the room's noise fell back again.

"Hinata-sama, are you ready to begin the ceremony?" Hibashi prompted, staring at Naruto in annoyance. A glare found it's way onto her face.

"There will be no ceremony," she replied.

She felt the shock flow slowly into the room, watched it twist Hibashi's expression into anger, watched it drop the jaws of the rest of the elders, watch it silently wipe away Tokuma's and his wife's expressions of grief, and brought Hiro's gaze to her face.

"What?" her great uncle spat.

Hinata walked forward, brandishing the two folders that she held in her hands, and slapping them on the ground in front of the elders. The noise startled them, and she took a cold pleasure in watching them jerk in surprise. "The first is a clan edict, personally written up by myself, outlawing the sealing practices against the branch family. The second is a village edict, signed by the Hokage, outlawing sealing practices in any clans that are used for controlling purposes."

"This is a disgrace," he spat vehemently, rising slowly from the tatami mat. Hinata saw his eyes, wide and filled with hatred. "You are a disgrace to this family."

Hinata reached over, holding out her hand for the scroll Naruto held. He handed it to her, and she saw the venemous glare he sent her uncle's way. She stepped forward, past the folders, to stand right before the old man. "And that right there," Naruto said as she held out the scroll for Hibashi, with the cockiest voice he could muster, "is a ruling from the council, outlawing sealing practices in any clans that are used for control. It's also illegal to activate existing seals under any circumstances."

His face went blank.

She smiled just a bit. "No loopholes," Hinata said. "I can promise you that."

Hibashi stayed silent a moment, and his silence seemed to suck the entire room into a soundless vacuum, taking away her strained sense of hearing. She could not focus on Naruto's breathing or her own thick heartbeat. The old man struggled to hold onto composure. Her eyes focused on the trembling of his mouth, the corners attempting to pull downwards against the lined, wobbily skin.

"You are a disgrace to this family," Hibashi ground out smoothly, eyes fluttering from her toes to her head. "You are a shame, through and through."

Naruto physically bristled - she did not need to look at him to feel the anger. "Don't you dare speak to her like that," the blonde hissed. "Don't you dare."

Hinata shook her head. "It's alright, Naruto-kun," she said. Her eyes never left her uncle's. The urge to whisper you have lost suddenly jumped into her mind, but she pushed the thought away, decided against it.

She stepped away from the elders, and towards Tokuma's family. She bowed low, and did not raise herself when she spoke. "I have not yet found a jutsu to undo the Branch family's seals. For that, you must forgive me," Hinata said, in an almost pleading voice. The shakiness crept into her voice desperately, but she resisted. "But I will develop a new seal that all of us will wear, to protect the Byakugan at death.

"All of us?" Tokuma whispered, looking hopeful and terrified.

Hinata rose, and nodded. "Yes. All of us. A seal that will unify us, and not establish rank. We are all Hyuuga,," she murmured. "You're free to leave now. I officially call this ceremony to an end."

Tokuma tried taking his family away quickly; he and his wife bowed low, waterfall dark hair falling over their shoulders in a quiet waterfall. He gathered Hiro into his arms, letting the child rest at his hip. But his wife - Bunko, a jonin of twenty eight, with a scar running along the left side of her jaw - held on tightly to his arm to hold him still.

"You- you are the greatest clan head that this family has seen for generations," Bunko said reverently, voice drowning with emotion. Her tears still fell, mingling with the dried stains against her cheeks. She did not bother with wiping them away. In that moment, she did not know any other's existence, just this woman with the heavy scar and the tears. She did not know her uncle's fury or Naruto's pride. "I owe you my boy's life, Hinata-sama. Truly."

"You owe me nothing," Hinata said on instinct.

"I owe you everything," Bunko replied.

And then she led her husband and child out of the room.

Hinata watched the small family leave the room in the echo of the shogi door, feeling a smile pull at her lips and tears sting at her eyes. Neji's face presented itself in her mind, free of blood and gore, but clean and smiling softly.

She reached behind her, grabbing Naruto by the shoulder and gently pulling him along. Hinata knew her family's decorm as well as she knew the white-washed walls of her home - it was entirely inappropriate for non-Hyuuga to be present in meetings and for the elders to be the last to leave the room. But she also knew that she did not want to be in that room to witness her great uncle's true displeasure.

The second the door behind them closed, she breathed shakily, pressing a hand to her forehead. Hinata did not look up at Naruto, and already she felt a blush beginning to stain her cheeks. He hovered too closely for comfort.

She took a while to speak - they left the door of the audience room and the compound all together, and found themselves walking along a mostly empty street. The sound of their sandals crunching against gravel, voices softly bouncing around, and the sway of leaves in their branches soothed her. The sun was still high in the sky, bright and shining down on the roads. She looked up, not even squinting into the sky.

"I still can't feel my stomach," Hinata said aloud.

He gave a croaky, raspy laugh. She could almost feel the shakiness in it. "I feel kind of...great. Like a weight's been lifted off my shoulders," he said, words in a normal voice. "You were amazing."

"You were."

"This was all your idea in the first place. I wouldn't have bothered with covering my bases and given them a shit ton of loopholes to work with."

She shook her head, almost in response, and her voice came out more scolding than what she'd meant. "You're too clever for that."

"Yeah, yeah," Naruto said. His nose scrunched up, half smiling and half grimacing. "I'm starved. We should get lunch."

"You should head back to your office and finish your work," Hinata said, shaking her head. Her eyes skimmed over the skyline once again, feeling the sinking of her chest that was starting to become familiar. She knew it was a rejection on her part, but it felt too much like a goodbye.

And she could see it in his eyes, the way he digested her words and the distance between their bodies and the tone of her voice. It was physically painful, watching the soft smile fall away from his lips to be replaced by a blank mask. The cerulean of his eyes lost all their depth, all their mirth, replaced by a cold understanding.

It wasn't often she didn't let him have his way.

But Hinata had meant what she had said in he alleyway, with kiss-bruised lips and a heart that ached with fifteen years of love for the boy who stood before her.

Except that he was no longer a boy, and she was no longer a girl, and they had responsibilities that would always come first. Or maybe it was just her - the tightrope of expectation that she had to balance on to please the Elders and keep her family safe, politics be damned. There were no more excuses for holding out her heart to him when she knew he didn't know if he could return it. There were no more excuses for her own selfishness, her own inability to grow up. She would not let them come to ruin like that.

She couldn't afford to.

"I'll walk you back," Hinata said. It took more effort than it should have to continue walking towards the Hokage Tower. He followed, almost reluctantly.

And as she stood behind him, walking down the near empty roads as their shoulders brushed together, Hinata felt the goodbye in every step she took.

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Hinata didn't go home after she took Naruto back to his office. She declined his offer of dinner, tried swallowing back the guilt, and decided to visit Neji's grave.

She sat in the grass before his headstone, feeling freer than she had in a long, long time. Summer was ending; the night cooled enough to nip uncomfortably at bare skin and the leaves were just beginning to change color.

She always felt grateful for the end of summer - that was when her memories of Neji were the most prominent: becoming Chuunin together in the sweltering heat of Iwa as they battled their way through the final tournament round, celebrating his birthday with his team, training in the afternoon sun for hours on end, reading silently along side each other in the compound's library, and long conversations on heavy topics that made her sit too still, think too deeply.

Hyuuga Neji belonged to the dying heat, the chill of the night, the early setting of the sun. The change went with him.

But at that moment, Hinata wanted to grasp the very edges of summer and suspend it in time.

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A/N: And fourteen thousand words later, I'm still not done. But can you blame me? Worry not, there will be a part two coming soon. But for now, you can rec me your favorite, super quality NaruHina fics because I'm desperate for some. Truly desperate.

Now I know I'm going to be getting some reviews saying, "Saykun, you piece of SHIT, how are you going to have Hinata just suddenly give up on Naruto when she's literally loved him her whole life?" And I get that. I do. That's the basis of her relationship to him in the series. But if you do say that, I'm probably just going to say you have to reread until you get it.