Disclaimer: Don't own Naruto or these characters.

Prologue

Blood rushing.

Heart pounding.

Breaths panting.

Hinata closed her eyes tightly as she muffled her cry in his shoulder, her back arched up and her nails dug into his skin. Pleasure exploded everywhere, flashing through her body like electricity, prolonged by his short and fast thrusts. It took her several moments for awareness to even come back to her, thoughts too difficult to form just yet. Her body was still being manipulated, gripped to mold her hips and legs into positions eliciting the greatest pleasure for him. She found herself raking her nails down his sweaty back to grab his backside in a firm grip. He moaned softly above her, bending his neck to whisper her name in her ear, a sign that he was almost at his limit. With her inner muscles still spasming from her orgasm and her hands still on his firm glutes, she whispered to him, knowing it was usually her voice to that sent him crashing over the edge.

"You don't know how often I think of you. Of the things you do to me…and how they make me feel." She softly spoke in his ear, keeping her words slow, still speaking even when he groaned against her neck as his muscles suddenly locked above her. Lifting her hips she continued rocking against him, helping him ride out his orgasm before he collapsed, spent.

She sighed contently as she grazed her nails lightly up his back before embracing him, reveling as long as she could in the afterglow. Without removing himself out of her, he wrapped his arm around her waist and shifted them both so that he was on his back, her legs still straddling his hips. They didn't speak, both too exhausted and unwilling to dispel the intimate air between them. She smiled slightly, though, when she felt him trace invisible patterns on her shoulder, but her smile turned sad as she felt their moment ending. She couldn't help wishing in her heart…that it was a different man tracing patterns in her skin.

Without a word, without a glance, he stared up at the ceiling above them. He nearly counted down to the very second when she lifted her body off of his, making her way to her bathroom to shower. He sighed deeply before sitting up, raking his hand through his hair wondering why he always found himself in the same situation. It appeased him, though, to know that it wasn't always him seeking her out. Dressing quickly, he left her room and made his way down the hall, reminiscing about how their complicated mess started.

The thought had never even crossed her mind about his feelings until the war, when he nearly died on the battlefield protecting her and Naruto. It was never his intension for her to find out, he would have died happily knowing that he gave his life for the ones most dear to him, his feelings forever hidden. But afterwards, in the hospital on the road to recovery, she had cried, asking him why he didn't just protect Naruto. Why was he willing to die, to suffer for her? Though he didn't give voice, he had lightly caressed her fists for a moment and allowed his eyes to betray his heart. When he pulled his hand back, she had only cried more.

He was grateful to her afterwards. Despite the powerful knowledge he imparted to her, she made sure that their relationship remained the same, close friends, close comrades, close family members. It didn't change until the day that Naruto finally achieve one of his lifelong goals, attaining the heart of Haruno Sakura. He had been in her room, holding her in his arms as she wept. After the Chuunin exams, he had worked hard to be the one she turned to for comfort, to help repair the damage done to their relationship. But as the years had gone by, he found himself with a pure desire to just be there for her.

Once her tears had finally ceased, she remained in his arms with her face buried in his neck, too exhausted to move. He remembered feeling shock swirling with disbelief when he felt her lips lightly caressing his skin. His body felt frozen, unsure of what he was feeling was unintentional or deliberate. It wasn't until she dragged her lips, with her mouth slightly open; up his neck to just below his chin did he truly recognize what she thought she wanted.

"I k-know what I'm asking of you i-isn't fair, but…" she had left her whispered sentence hang in the air when he had pulled himself away from her, her face lighting up to a bright red. "I can't love you like I love him."

Her statement was so soft that he barely heard her. She, at that moment, was the very essence of vulnerability. So many times he had seen her stripped down to nothing but her heart in her hands, watching as those she cared about, including himself, ripped through her like a tornado. But she had always had Naruto to look at, to shine a light as she picked up the pieces of her broken self. What was he to do now that her source of light had been the one to cause the darkness? How was he to inspire her to pick up the pieces, especially when he wanted her the way he did? He didn't know. But where she was, offering. It wasn't her heart she offered him, but her body, a shadow of what he truly desired. It was the cruelest thing she could have ever done.

"But you're not asking for love are you Hinata?" he stated rather than asked. Without his meaning to, he gathered her back into his arms and leaned his face down until his lips lightly touched her ear. "And I am not expecting any."

Stepping out of the shower Neji dried himself and slipped on his sleeping yukata, making his way to his cold and empty bed. Lying down he stared up at the ceiling with his hands behind his head. It had been over a year since that first night and he knew without a doubt that he claimed a piece of her heart. A piece that wasn't reserved for friends or family, but…other. He still was the first one she turned to for comfort, though not always in this manner. He knew all her secrets and she would quietly listen to him when he felt the rare need to tell her his. But they were sure to never give away this secret they held together.

Neji suddenly frowned as he thought about their friends, or two in particular. It was obvious to all of them that Naruto and Sakura's relationship was heading towards an end and soon. He wondered what would happen then? Would she end their trysts? She had tried a few times. He would respect her decisions, knowing that in this aspect of their relationship, she was given free reign. He stopped seeking opportunities when she was alone and no longer visited her at night. He treated her exactly how he did prior to their involvement, self-control second nature to him and denial of his desires a practice he had long mastered. The first time she had lasted two weeks before he found her in his room, face red with embarrassment and shame. The second time only a week had gone by, after her week long mission. The third time, she had found him in the woods training, mere hours later. It was the last time she had tried to end it.

He wondered, in retrospect, if he never objected to their parting because he knew that she would come back to him? The object of her love was still out of reach and there had been no one else who was willing, or even had the knowledge, to replace him. He provided an outlet for her frustrations, sexual and emotional, as well as the opportunities to play out her fantasies, to pretend it was someone else. Though he knew she never did, for it was always his own name that she would sigh or moan; he was grateful for that.

Fate had always been cruel to him; taking away his father, turning his boyish crush into hatred, giving him the sin of nearly killing one he was meant to protect, falling in love with a woman who devoted her life to another man, and then giving him her body without her heart. What was fate going to do now? Will Naruto finally realize that the woman who understood him the most, the woman who loved him the most, was the one woman Neji could never have?

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AN: So, I'm assuming that this would be considered an AU since I have decided to change chapter 614. NejiHina are my absolutely fave pairing, I can't just NOT think of stories for them anymore. So this is inspired by 'Clarity' by Zedd ft. Foxes, though as I was writing this it occurred to me that 'She Will Be Loved' by Maroon 5 works too. Was thinking of making it an amv actually, but due to my lack of a good video editing software program and that an amv just wouldn't go deep enough, I decided to try my hand at writing what was in my head. Still trying to figure out a plot, so please forgive me if I am slow at updating. I've got two other multifics swirling around in my head.