Disclaimer: Masashi Kishimoto made and owns the series Naruto. I disclaim any intent to profit or benefit from this fiction. Etc on all other pertinent details, because it's easier.
He was confused. Really confused as he sat their hovering on the brinks of his training with the Sage chakra and gaining control of the Kyuubi's chakra. Recent events in his life had greatly upset what he considered to be the norm and now it was all tangling together in ways he did not want to think about much less consider.
Especially when he thought about how the girls in his life really affected him.
How he felt when he came even close to the feelings he had for them and the realizations that his emotions were telling him something new. That his heart was telling him something he had always known and it completely terrified him.
So, maybe that was why he chose the other path for a time.
In the end though… It was just as it should be.
Fear.
The day she confessed Naruto learned the taste of that word better then ever before and it scared the living hell out of him. So simple were the words she had stated and her actions truly opened the world of just what love was… And because of that Naruto was scared of her and for her.
Hinata had become the type of woman who would die to protect her loved ones no matter the cost.
Perhaps that was the reason he found himself tailing her however possible. Through toads, clones, or baiting Neji to keep eyes on her. Hinata had become a precious person. His precious person…
She frightened him.
Safe.
She had lied of her feelings to him the day she went to confront Sasuke. That moment was almost as bad except his heart didn't quite rip as much as it should. He still feared. Bending to the task of saving his precious people, his heart thundered in his ears.
So deafened by his own blood he promised the other. He would die for their protection and for him. Promises were safe, weren't they? Even if you failed to keep the ones that mattered most you could always rely on the fact that you had tried.
So, Sakura was safe. Safer to love and safer to be with because in the end it was nearly impossible for her to ever truly love him as she did their teammate. That was just the way it should be.
She was safer for him.
"You may now kiss the bride." The sentence hung between them as sound told them that running away to Tanzanaka Gai was perhaps not one of his better ideas. Though the reasons were perhaps some of his better ones.
So, he was eloping with a woman who was quite possibly a miracle in life. Even if she was the daughter and heir to one of the most powerful clans in the village it still was worth it.
Worth every last ounce of pain he knew would be visited upon him once Sakura got wind of the news and Neji was certainly going to make things twice as hard. He smirked. A very Sasuke-worthy smirk that was almost out of place.
Maybe fear wasn't such a bad thing in the end.
With that thought he bent close and touched his lips to hers and sealed the match.
Who knew that she was all he'd ever needed and wanted in his entire life.
"Hey, Hinata, how do you feel about a dozen kids or so?" he asked when he broke the kiss.
Blanching at the question, Hinata looked up at her new husband with questions in her eyes. "What?" she asked, slightly alarmed at the devilish smile her new husband was giving her. Her face fired red as she realized what he was meaning and was truthfully thankful that she had agreed to this outrageous plan right from the beginning.
"I think that is a wonderful plan." she answered her husband of twelve minutes.
