I thought I knew you better than this. I thought I could trust you like this. I thought I loved you with everything within. I no longer want to think because when I do, I doubt everything about me and you.

He was gone, another day another mission. She wonders not for the first time, if he'll come back alive. Today maybe the day he dies, she has no way too know. She tightens her apron and begins to stir the boiling pasta.

It was her dream come true when he asked her in matrimony. The wedding was as beautiful as she imagined, something was off. Was wrong and she knew when she was walking down the altar and noticed his blank face that perhaps she was making the biggest mistake of her life.

Years had gone by and still he was as icy too her as the cold winter winds. Her free hand rested subconsciously upon her swollen stomach. Four months along, four months alone. Well, as alone as one can be in a house full of servants.

All the company in the world means nothing when you go to bed at night and go unnoticed by the man you love. Loved would be a better word, she felt she had too let go, because to hold on..she feared her heart would be consumed by his icy and uncaring attitude.

Better to let go and be free, then stay and freeze. She didn't know how much more she can take. She loved him openly and without fail, but he didn't care. She thinks back and not once has she heard the words I love you come from his lips.

He is a Hyuga, proud and strong. That's probably why he never whispered sweet words of endearment to her. They were a formal couple, everything they did was for a purpose. Even to make love, was just to give him an heir.

He grew bitter when Hinata took the title of head Hyuga. More reclusive he was, and she hated him for it. For years she loved him, but now, was it suppose to be easy to turn love into hate?

If only he knew her thoughts, her fist clenched and she forced all thoughts of him away. "Oh my Hyuga-san, please allow me to do the cooking. A woman in your condition should stay strong, for the two of you."

The maid was young and had hair that matched her cinnamon irises. Tenten did not wish to fight, but to be left alone with her thoughts. She nodded absently, relinquished her hold on the spoon and laid her apron upon the old oak table.

"Hai, I shall. Before I retire for the night I wish to walk through the gardens." The maid was bubbly in attitude, and smiled widely without any care in the world. "Good idea Hyuga-san. I believe this time of year the sakura trees are in bloom."

Tenten made her way to the sliding door and slipped her feet into the sandals that rested there. "How long before dinner is served?" The stirring slowed for a second as a piece of pasta was drawn out and blown on. The maid chewed the cooling pasta piece in her mouth before answering.

"Six minutes should be enough Hyuga-san." Tenten nodded before leaving through the open door and into the cooling day. She breathed deeply the perfumed air and her eyes took in the painted skies. Oranges and yellows danced together, streaks of red was abundant in the darkening sky.

The sun was setting and it cast an orangish glow upon the pink petals of the cherry trees. Languishly Tenten made her way through the pathway between the rowed cherry trees. Their blossoms loosened their hold and rode with the wind all around her.

Lazily she caught one in her open palm and examined the paleness of the pink. One hand rubbed her protruding stomach and she whispered. "If only you can see this." For it was a beautiful sight to behold, the petals and the wind, intermingling like the old lovers they were.

The wind caressed her face and the petals invited her deeper between the meticulously planted trees. Her long sepia hair, which was braided and cascaded down her back, caught the flowers as they flew. The flower in her hand, she brought to her nose and sniffed its' delicate fragrance, before letting it go.

This is what she wants, this is what a lover should be like. Warm and inviting, a lover should make your heart race and your knees tremble. A lover should have the capability to sweep you off your feet and dance with you as wonderfully, as openly as the wind and the petals.

But alas this is what she wants, but not what she has. Her lover is frigid and cold, as untouchable as fire, and as expressive as a glacier. A formal marriage, a formal life, why must they be so formal? Even in the company of each other.

Formality she hates it, she hates having to hold her tongue in the presence of the elders. She hates having to wear kimonos unless she trained. Even now she wore one, silky and cool but it restricted movement. Freedom, she misses running without restraint. Jumping from building to building, to running through forests with such abandon.

She misses the fiery passion he invoked before their marriage. She misses dancing beneath the moonlight, her own company as an audience. She misses sleeping in the woods in enemy territory and the thrill she got when fighting.

That untamable, uncontrollable, piece of her that she loves. It was still there, trust that, just so far buried beneath the formality of being Neji's wife, being a Hyuga's wife. She swore to herself, here and now that she will find a lover such as this.

She will be free of the frigidness of her current husband. She will be free of the bonds of being a Hyuga. Angrily she turned on her heels and put the lovely scenery to her back before returning to the confines of her life.