Late
By
Hibiki
All rights go to Masashi Kishimoto.

Everyone was gone.

Everyone had long since passed on.

Everyone had moved on in their lives.

Everyone had forgotten him.

No...

Not everyone.

She had waited for him.

Only he had failed her.

He had taken too long.

Kneeling before a small memorial in the late evening sun, his fingers ran on the smooth and worn letters cut into the stone nearly thirty years ago.

Hyuuga Hinata

Died 103

Farewell

Until we meet again

"Hinata." His eyes refused to shed the tears they were holding. His chest heaved as he put his hands in front of him to keep from collapsing completely. "I'm sorry I'm late." He would have probably wept, had not the sound of footsteps on the gravel announced another person present.

"She died happily, surrounded by her family." A voice so similar to hers broke the silence. He turned only enough to see the classic long black hair and pale skin of the Hyuuga. She appeared to be in her mid twenties, given her full figure and poise. Similar, but still different to the woman he remembered. There was much of her sister, Hanabi, in this girl. "Very few outside the family know of this place, so when I see someone walk to it purposely I tend to be a little curious."

"Are you sure that is wise, miss?..." He trailed off. Even though he knew he was being rude not offering his own name first, he had become too cautious in his many years.

"My name is Hina. I was named after my Grand Aunty." Hina smiled gently to the man who looked no older than her. "Would you like to hear about her?" He nodded almost imperceptibly, but her families nature picked up on it easily.

"She grew up in the years before the fourth war, and was considered to be unsuited to being the heiress of our clan. However somewhere during or after the war she fell in love with the hero of the war, I'm sure you have heard of him?" The man nodded and so she continued. "However peace would not last so long as the bijuu were still somewhere people would try and abuse their powers. So in a selfless decision my Grand Aunt's hero left with the nine bijuu to lands far away. Most say he would never be able to return, that despite his families bloodline he would never make it back home before he died of old age. A few others, ones of my Grand Aunty's generation had full belief in him. My Grand Aunt waited her whole life for him to come back." His heart clenched at hearing that. "But she never once was sad about it. Grandmother always said she had this incredible will that never gave up, even at the end.

It's sad really, Grand Aunty Hinata passed away only minutes before I was born, so I never got to meet her. Yet I feel really close to her, you know? Like I know how she felt, how come she willingly took the cage bird seal and let my great grand mother become heiress before they both did away with that seal. She did it because she loved that man with all her heart, she had followed him for years, and then, when she found out he had to go away for a long time, she decided to wait for him. That's why I know what she said. She said...

"I'll be right here, under this tree waiting for you, Naruto. From now, until the day I die, and waiting even further still." Her voice faded out as his took over. For the first time since she arrived he turned to look at her. "Because I want you to know how much I love you, and even if it takes a hundred years, I will be right here... For you. For us." Her white eyes seemed to pierce through his sapphire ones much like her great grand uncles did to him. She moved up beside him, bowing to the grave before turning to speak at him.

"And I bet he said he would try his hardest to make it back to her. He, from my grandmother's words, was a man of his word, his Nindo. I bet even if it took him two hundred years, he would appear before Grand Aunty's grave, apologizing to have kept her waiting. However my grandmother never mentioned he'd be so handsome." Naruto's eyes widened as his cheeks flushed.

'W-what makes you s-say I'm him?"

"Because when I saw you here you made my heart flutter the same as they say as my grand aunty's." She leaned in with a small smile. "and eveyone always have say I'm rather like her." Naruto coughed into his hand, looking away embarrassed.

"I'd say that attitude is more like Hanabi." Hina giggled, clapping her hands in joy at learning her guess was right.

"Well, she was my Grandmother. Though I always felt like I took after grandpa Konohamaru."

"K-Konohamaru married Hanabi!" Hina laughed, bowing to Hinata's grave once more before taking Naruto's arm.

"I know of a wonderful little tea house still open nearby, why not talk over a cup or two, Naruto-kun?"

"Ah. Um Sure." He blushed. He turned once more to the grave, given a sad but tentative farewell. As they brushed past the underbrush Hina turned back to look at her Gran Aunt's Gravestone.

'Don't worry, I'll make sure he'll be happy. For both of us, Aunty Hinata.'

Then the two were out of sight.

This may be the only and I do mean ONLY NaruHina I will ever do. Frankly I'm not that fond of Hinata, but I respect the character, and I could honestly see her doing this. And since I don't want to squash whatever tidbit my muse gives me I felt like I should go with it. Read review please, as it helps my wounded muse offer more tidbits.

Until next time: See ya