I haven't written anything for a couple of months now, so forgive me if things seem out of place or changes are made after posting. This is a story I came up with yesterday. It's NaruHina centred, but starts of with some minor NaruSaku. I don't really dislike Sakura that much, however I'm not to fond of Sasuke. This will however not be a bashing for either character, though both might come of seeming worse for wear. And since this is my first story focusing on a possible realtionship between Naruto and Hinata, things might go amiss. Anyway, this story is set about 4 years after the current timeline in the manga, so the characters are about 20 years old (I think that's right?), and things that happened before the story may be alluded to, but if not, it's not something important to the story.
This is fanfic. I don't own Naruto
As Naruto stood there watching them kissing after committing themselves to each other, one thought became ever present in his mind. This is really it. He could no longer kid himself. There standing, wrapped in each other's arms were his two best friends in whole world. One of them, his sworn brother. The other, his long-time crush.
He had pined after Sakura for years, since the first time he saw her. And as the years progressed that feeling manifested into love. Yet she never returned it, instead focusing all of her attention on Sasuke. What was a fan-girl crush, turned into love. Even after he betrayed the village to join Oorochimaru on his quest for vengeance against his brother Itachi, Sakura never stopped loving him. And after years spent chasing him, Naruto and Sakura finally got their friend and teammate back.
During those years that Sasuke was gone, Naruto and Sakura trained to their limits, every gain in power putting them one step closer to their friend. It was also during those years that Naruto and Sakura started to become closer. First it was merely teammates consoling each other over their loss. Then a friendship that allowed for them to help the other when needing help or comfort. Then it reached a middle ground between that of friend and that of something deeper.
At first Naruto had thought his dreams had come true. He and Sakura had moved on into a relationship, though neither knew it at first, and it was only when their friends started teasing them every day that they finally looked at what their relationship was. Both denied it naturally, for different reasons. After spending several days apart looking at their relationship, they both came to the same conclusion.
They had both developed feelings for the other. For Naruto, those feelings had always been there. Now that they had spent more time together, those feelings had become stronger. Sakura, having only ever thought of Sasuke, found herself lost without her close friend and teammate, and realised her new found feelings. Things though, did not go according to plan.
Their new relationship, though not publicly declared, was rough at first. Both stuck in their ways, Naruto and Sakura continued to act the way they always did around each other when in public. Privately, things were awkward. Naruto started to get the feeling he would always be second to Sasuke, and Sakura would always want Naruto to be Sasuke. It wasn't until Sakura's 18th birthday that it all fell apart.
The party was long and loud, with everyone enjoying themselves. As things started to wind down, Naruto and Sakura slipped away, Naruto wanting to give Sakura her present in private. On top of the Hokage monument, Naruto gave her a beautiful necklace in the shape of a sakura blossom, loving words inscribed on the back. Their senses heightened from the party, the scenery and the loving atmosphere, they both went back to Naruto's apartment, where they made passionate love to each other.
From there it went downhill. They didn't regret what happened, but it unfortunately brought to light the differences in their feelings towards each other. Soon after Sakura's birthday, they ended their relationship. As it was then, Naruto could see that things would never work out the way he imagined. Naruto and Sakura still loved each other very much, but quickly found that it was more a love of family towards the other, though Naruto would always think of Sakura more passionately then he would admit.
Now he watched as Sakura walked away in the arms of his brother. The reception was a blur to him, even as he gave the speech, and it was only til he was dancing with Sakura that he let the tears manifest. Joy and sorrow mixed together, and though the tears were few, they were enough for Sakura to see. And then both Sasuke and Sakura were gone, off on their honeymoon, Naruto left without two members of his family. The party went on for a few more hours, until finally everyone went home, citing various reasons from that of having to work in a few hours, to being dragged home by their significant other, lest they embarrass themselves further.
Eventually only a few people were left, being those that helped organise most of the wedding and reception. Naruto took stock of who and what was left. On his right, Ino was hassling Shikamaru to get up and help, though she was having no luck, either because Shikamaru was being lazy as usual or because he was drunk, Naruto couldn't tell. And to his left were the members of team 8. Shino and Kiba were starting to pack up empty tables while Hinata went about collecting chairs. Also present were several waiting staff, who along with his friends, were beginning to clean up the mess for tomorrows next event.
Sighing, Naruto sat done in an empty chair, exhaustion starting to get the better of him due to the emotional stress of the wedding of his two closest friends.
"Are you alright Naruto-kun?" came the voice of Hinata to his left, a small smile on her face as she bent down next to him.
"Hmmm? Oh, yeah Hinata, I'm fine. Just resting a bit." Naruto replied as he looked at the girl next to him.
"You don't look fine to me, Naruto. In fact, you look like the walking dead." Ino said as she walked over towards them, Shikamaru still laying on the ground behind her.
"Geez, thanks Ino. You know just to compliment someone don't you."
"Don't give me that baka. You've been going non-stop since what, yesterday morning. I know you're a stamina freak, but you should tone it done a bit." Ino now had the attention of everyone in the room.
"Is that true Naruto-kun?"
"Well, maybe a bit true Hinata." Naruto replied like a naughty child caught with his hand in the cookie jar.
"It's one hundred percent true and you know it." Ino chimed in. "Why don't you just go home while you still can, so we don't have to carry you back later."
"I'm fine. Besides, I've got to help with the clean-up."
"Don't worry about it Naruto, we got this. You go get some rest." Kiba said as he and Shino folded up another table.
"But..."
"Naruto-kun, we can handle the rest. You go home and get some sleep." Smiling, Hinata stood back up.
"Yeah, Hinata's right. Besides, mister lazy over there on the ground can help out since he's only pretending. Yeah, I'm talking about you Shikamaru." Walking back over to her fallen teammate, Ino kicked Shikamaru in the side, eliciting a yelp, that had some of the staff giggling.
"Ow! Ino, that hurt."
"And it will hurt a lot more if you don't get up right now and help."
"Okay, okay, I get it. I'll help clean-up."
Standing up from his horizontal position, Shikamaru and Ino started collect some of the chairs scattered around the room.
"I'm not sure about this. How about I just help out for a bit." Standing up, Naruto started to put his hands together in a familiar seal, when he found another hand covering his.
"It's okay, Naruto-kun." Still smiling, Hinata removed her hand from over his. "We have a mission tomorrow, so you go get some rest."
"Okay. Thanks Hinata." Unable to resist any longer due to his tired state of mind, Naruto slowly made his way out of the events room located in the Hokage tower, his body on auto-pilot as he made his way home for some rest.
Woops! I just realised I posted this without really checking it and the end sentence was wrong. My bad. Fixed now though. I've tried to write this as something I would enjoy reading, so I hope everybody who reads this enjoys it as much as I did.