Disclaimer: I still do not own Naruto, yet for some strange and unnatural reason the plot is still mine ... strange ...

As I mentioned before, if you spot any mistakes or don't understand something, please tell me and I will try and fix it.

Anyway, enjoy!


I tell Naruto I am going out for some fresh air, and then promptly leave . Finding the old wooden bench in his garden, I sit down and take deep breaths, my mind racing.

A dark figure steps out of the shadows, and I jump, feeling panic start to build inside of me.

Sasuke sits down beside me and I pray he can't hear my heart beating. I sigh, half relieved he's not a madman out to get me, yet nervous, for reasons I don't understand.

"Why are you unhappy?" He suddenly asks bluntly, his voice quiet and deep. I look at him, shock written clearly in my eyes and wonder how it is he can read me so clearly.

"How... how do you-"

"Know?" He finishes for me and I find myself nodding. "I can see it... in your eyes."

I look at him and I see my own eyes reflected in his own. "Why are you unhappy," I ask him.

He smiles slightly and I find myself drawn to him. "I asked you first," he whispers.

I laugh softly and shake my head. "So you did..."

I look at Narutos house and imagine the man I will marry, the life we will have.

"I don't love him..." I whisper, my smile now gone. "My father, he wants me to be happy but I know he wants me to marry Naruto. I want to make my father happy, but..."

"You also want to make yourself happy." Sasuke finishes for me.

Nodding, I hang me head in shame. "I just wish that... that one day I could be free to live my own life. I love my father and I want to make him proud, but I am being destroyed by the pressure."

Sasuke smiles and looks up at the stars.

"You are not unlike me," he whispers, his gaze never wavering from the overhead night sky. "When I was little, my mother used to tell me stories of finding love and being happy... but she became really ill. I watched her fade and, with her, all my dreams of ever finding love. My father told me that love was worthless, that it would never last. I see now it was because of mother... how heartbroken he was about her death... But then Sakura came around and, well I guess you could say she made me feel loved. She made me want to spend time with her and start to believe that I would one day love her. I proposed, hoping that with it I would find hidden love, yet I never truly have loved her. Never truly will..."

Sasuke sighs and lowers his head, his eyes so full of pain. "I also wish I was free, Hinata."

I take his hand in my own and squeeze gently, offering him all of my support. He smiles at me and I find that familiar ache return to my heart.

"Thank you," he whispers as we sit in silence, watching the stars, our hands entwined and simply watching as life passed us by.


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