1 Day Later

"The flower arrangements are done, and the cake is being baked so it will be fresh for tomorrow. Did you pick up the wedding gown?" Ino swerves around and turns in a circle as she searches for Hinata, spots her and points at her with the pencil she is holding in her hand.

"Got it!" Hinata announces, and Ino checks it off on a long list she has pinned down to a clipboard.

Several people are buzzing around me in the large hotel ball room. They are decorating it for the reception with the colors French rose pink, teal and white; the colors of the wedding of course. I drum my fingers on the back of my hand as I watch everything happening. There's not much for me to do since Ino took over everything, and Hinata was taking care of me. All morning Hinata carefully styled my hair and then set it in rollers to keep the style, gave me a manicure and now she's painting my toe nails.

"Hinata you really didn't have to- " I repeat for the thousandth time today.

"Ssh!" She responds without even looking at me.

With nothing to do, there's not much for me to think about and I'm trying not to worry about what could go wrong.

"Come on people! Chop! Chop! The wedding is first thing tomorrow it's almost 5' o clock! Let's get this done!" Ino orders the workers and a small nervous girl standing beside her trips over the strings of the balloons in her hand.

She falls, and the balloons fly up to the ceiling.

"Nice one Suki!" Ino rolls her eyes.

"Now who is going to get those?" Ino says in a slow and patronizing tone. The girl shakes with fear, but a young boy from the academy races up to collect them all off the ceiling.

"Here Ino!" He salutes her as he hands her the balloons. Ino snatches them away and hands them to a different worker passing behind her.

"I'm not in charge of the balloons!" He protests as he shows her the large video camera he's holding and points it at her.

"I! Don't! Care!" Ino screams into the camera.

The young boy, Suki, and the camera guy all run away from her.

Lady Tsunade comes over to me and places her hand on my shoulder.

"And we all thought you would be the bridezilla!" She laughs.

"With Ino taking care of anything there's nothing to worry about."

"Except for-" Tsunade pauses, "But don't worry he'll be back."

I smile half heartedly and Tsunade walks away. I can feel my stomach turning in circles and I gasp for air fanning myself.

Hinata looks up as she closes the nail polish bottle.

"Is it too strong? Are you okay? Water! Water! Can someone get some water?!" She calls out.

In seconds a glass of water is pushed on my lips and I drink even though I wasn't thirsty.

"Thank you." I say as I swallow.

Hinata rubs my back.

"Don't worry he'll be here. He always keeps his word."

I nod at her. "Who got his tux?"

"The best man picked it up."

"Ok."

Hinata eyes me cautiously.

"I can't believe this is happening! I- I'm getting married!"

"Isn't it exciting?" She asks looking around with wide eyes.