It'd been a week since the attack on the Hyuga had taken place. After the council meeting, plans were quickly put into motion and on the next day, a funeral for the fallen was help. The whole village, both civilian and shinobi alike had gathered before the Hokage's tower as the service was held. Everyone stood silent as Tsunade stood before them, trying to speak words of comfort and remind people just how much the Hyuga clan had helped the village grow and develop. In the front row of mourners several children started to cry. Surviving the attack because they'd been too young to of had the curse seal placed on them, the children along with just five adults that had hidden them away during the attack were all that remained of the Hyuga besides Hinata, Hanabi and Neji.

Eventually Tsunade finished speaking and stepped away from the podium as Hinata stepped forward with her sister besides her.

"It's hard to find the words to explain how we're feeling." Hinata began as she looked out across the sea of people that had come to pay their respects. "But my sister and I are very grateful for the support that everyone has shown us and our family. To lose a family member is always tough and to suffer a loss on a scale such as this is even more so. But we will be strong, we will heal. We won't let what has happened to us control our future." She looked to Hanabi beside her who gave a small nod of approval. Before the ceremony the sisters had agreed that Hinata would speak for them. While Hanabi had always been the more confident of the two when speaking in front of people, she was at a loss of what to say in such a situation.

"We shall carry on, for the good of the village, and the good of ourselves. We will learn from the mistakes of the past so that a tradagy like this will never happen again. We will never forget what has happened here, and we'll never forget those that we've lost." Hanabi then reached into her pocket and pulled out a scroll which she handed to her sister. Holding it before her she began reading what was written on it. "Katsuma, Hitomi, Ryu, Kenta, Senshi..."

The names of her fallen family.

She slowly made her way through the long list, calling out each name on it for everyone to hear and remember. In the crowd the children broke down as they heard the names of their family being called out, a reminder that they would never see them again. And rather than scold them for acting what was usually considered inappropriate for a Hyuga the adults joined them, shedding tears of sorrow and hugging them tightly, promising them that their lose would not be in vain.

"Motoko, Katsuhiko, Takeshi..." she carried on and with each name she spoke an image of that person flashed before her eyes. While she could never truly get to know everyone in her family, Hinata had made a point of trying to spend time with everyone in order to strengthen the relationship between the main and branch houses. Since her and Neji's fight at the chunin exams the two houses had slowly started to come together, and as she and her cousin got stronger as ninja, so had the bonds within the family. Helping to bring her family close together again was one of her greatest achievements.

As her sister spoke, Hanabi brought her hand up to her face and quickly wiped away the tears that were starting to fall, determined to put on a strong stonic front, just like her father had taught her from a young age, even as her emotions tore her apart inside. Right now it was the only thing she felt she could do to honour her family.

Meanwhile, Hinata chose to let her tears fall. Each name on the list was a reminder of someone in her life she would never see again.

Eventually Hinata reached the end of the list, her voice horse, and tears streaming from her eyes as she struggled to read out the final name. Yet every time she opened her mouth to speak her voice failed her, as if refusing to acknowledge the loss. As the village looked up to her, waiting for her to continue speaking she felt her confidence finally abandon her. As she struggled to find anything to say, she felt her body start to shake as her breathing became more ragged. She wiped her face on her sleeve to clear away the tears only for them to be replaced by more as the silence of the crowd became deafening to her

Suddenly she lost her grip on the scroll and it fell to the ground and started rolling towards the edge of the building. Panicking more so, she quickly dropped to her knees and scrambled after it before it could be lost. Quickly a hand reached out from behind her and grabbed a hold of the scroll just before it fell. Expecting it to have been Hanabi she turned to thank her but instead found Naruto. He looked different to how he normally did, dressed in his black mourning clothes rather than his traditional orange and his bright smile replaced with a look of concern as he took her by the hand and helped her back to her feet before holding the scroll out to her. For a split second a smile graced her lips as she was reminded that that the blonde had always been there to give her strength as she took the scroll from him. Muttering a quiet thank you that was for his ears only she turned forward once more to look over the villagers that had been waiting for her and spoke the final name on the list. "Hiashi." After speaking her father's name she turned to Naruto and pulled him into a hug as she became overcome with emotion, all the while he stood there holding her close to his chest, reminding her that she wasn't alone before guiding her off the podium were Tsunade started speaking once again.

As Tsunade spoke of how the village would more on from the tradjedy Koharu and Homura spoke amongst themselves while sparing disapproving glances at the heiress, unimpressed that she was unable to maintain her composure. But Hinata was unaware of all of this as she continued to hug Naruto, only stopping briefly to pull Hanabi in as well. Held by her sister she too finally let her tears fall, her Hyuga pride finally giving way to all the emotions she'd been bottling up throughout the service. Naruto, surprised by the new addition decided the best thing to do was to just continue what he was doing and wrapped his arms around both sister, embracing them. Stiffening at the sudden appearance of Naruto's arm around her waist her first instinct was to hit him for taking liberties like her instructors had taught her to, but instead pulled him closer along with her older sister, their presence giving her comfort.

When the village had finally finished paying their respects, the ceremony was moved to the Hyuga compound were in a private service, the fallen were laid to rest. There, overseen by the remnants of the Hyuga and the village council, the bodies of the deceased were lowered into the ground one by one.

As the final graves were filled in the group started to break apart. Tsunade returned to her office to resume her duties of running the village while the council members made their way home to spend time with their families, after being reminded just how precious they could be. The Hyuga returned to their temporary home, the children emotionally drained after saying their goodbye's to their family, leaving just Naruto, Hinata and Hanabi.

Silently the three of them made their way through the grave site until the girls finally found the one they were looking for. Their father's grave. Laid to rest besides beside their mother, the girls stood before them silently talking to them while Naruto stood further back to give the girls some privacy.

Hanabi apologised for not visiting her mother sooner and was sorry that it was happening under these circumstances. She apologised to her father that she wasn't strong enough to do more on the night of the attack and was determined to make herself stronger so such an attack could never happen again. Hinata meanwhile promised that she would do everything she could to make them proud and help the clan recover and become stronger as a family as well as following through with her father's wishes about telling Naruto about her feelings.

Eventually the skies began to darken and rain started to fall as the girls each laid a single flower on the graves and said their goodbyes, promising to return soon before rejoining Naruto and returning to the village, ready to try and move on.

"That's the last one boss." A group of Naruto clones called out as they dropped the boxes they'd been carrying about on the floor in the foyer.

"That's great." The original called out from the other side of the houses. "You guys can go now." And no sooner had he finished speaking the clones vanished in a puff of smoke as Hinata and Hanabi walked through the door also carrying boxes.

"How come we have to do all this carrying, he could easily make enough bunshin's to do all this himself." Hanabi complained as she dropped her box on the floor, causing the kunai and shuriken it held to rattle from the impact.

"He's letting us stay in his home Hanabi. You shouldn't expect him to do everything for us." Hinata chided her sister as she set her box on top of the ones the clones had left and started to look around the house.

When Naruto had said that they could stay with him she'd expected the three of them to share his small apartment, but Naruto had something better in mind. Because of his new clan status within the village the council had suggested that he invest in a new, bigger home. Tsunade however had told him not to worry and had explained that hidden away towards the back of the village, was a small compound that once belonged to his parents. The place had suffered from years of neglect and would need renovation but it was his whenever he wanted it. So since finding out about it he'd been spending everyday there with an army of bunshin's working on it, from fixing the holes in the roofs and floors to rebuilding the fences around the perimeter. He'd originally intended to just do the place up and let Tsunade use it for important guests that were staying in the village while he stayed in his apartment since he didn't like the idea of staying in such a big place by himself. But now that the Hyuga sisters were staying with him he realised that his small apartment would be too cramped for the three of them to live together for very long.

So while one group of bunshin's went to retrieve his belongings and another group went with the girls for their stuff, Naruto had gone to their new home to finish off the repairs.

"Well he could have given us more help to carry all this." Hanabi complained as she sat down on a box and jested to the dozens more that littered the floor.

"Well to be fair you only carried one box in the end." Naruto said as he appeared from one of the bedrooms and made his way down the stairs to join the girls and opened the box she'd been carrying. "And it's the box I said you could have left; this place has plenty of weapons." He laughed as he saw the contents.

"Well now we have more." She cheekily smiled back.

"Yo Naruto, where'd you go?" a new voice called out, surprising the girls as they looked towards the source of the voice at the top of the stairs were Kiba stood resting against the banister. Before Naruto could answer him though, he caught sight of his team mate and her sister.

"Oh, hey Hinata how you doing?" he called out as he leapt over the banister and landed in front of the girls, almost landing on one of the many boxes on the ground.

"I'm fine Kiba, thank you for asking." She replied, while Hanabi levelled a hard glare at him.

"Was it really necessary for you to jump down the stairs?"

"Cause not, it's just a lot more fun that way." He laughed with a wide smile that showed off his fangs. Naruto laughed along with him while Hinata hid a small giggle behind her hand, Hanabi however wasn't amused.

"You should show more respect when you're in someone else's home" she scolded him.

"Right the furniture's all just about set up." Kiba said as he turned to face Naruto, completely ignoring what the young Hyuga had said which only infuriated her more. "I'm gonna have to go now, I've got to be ready for my guard shift soon and I need to get Akumaru from my sis first."

"Is Akumaru alright?" Hinata asked with a hint of worry in her voice. The only time he ever left Akumaru with his sister was when there was something wrong with him.

"Naw, he's fine. He just picked up some fleas from that last escort mission we did and nothing we seem to do will get rid of them. So Hana's having a crack at them with some new stuff she's got." He explained, putting her mind to rest as he started making his way through the minefield of boxes, and out the front door.

"Ok well thanks for the help Kiba, and remember to let the guys know if you see them before me." Naruto said as he waved good bye to his friend before a thought crossed his mind and he ran to the doorway to call out to him. "And don't you dare bring Akumaru with you if he's still got fleas, or you'll be the one getting a flea bath."

"What did you mean when you said tell everyone?" Hinata asked as she watched Naruto make his way back towards her, as she picked up a box and started to climb up the stairs.

"Well since the three of us have moved into a new home, I thought I'd be cool if we had a party. You know, kind of like a house warming." He replied with a smile as he stacked two boxes on top of each other and quickly followed behind her.

"Ano, I don't know if that's a good idea, we've not had a chance to settle in yet." Hinata said as she entered her bedroom and set the box down on the bed, ready to be unpacked.

"Aww come on sis, it'll be fun." Hanabi pleaded as she poked her head through the door, before her voice became more solemn. "It can't be worse than the last time." She said as images of her birthday passed through her mind.

"I know that. I just don't know if it's really appropriate to have one so soon?" She said as she pulled out several small items from her box and placed them on her night stand. It just didn't seem appropriate to have a celebration so soon after the passing of their family.

"Please." Naruto and Hanabi pleaded together, forcing Hinata to turn and look at them, but she was not prepared for what she saw.

They were both giving her the puppy dog look.

She normally found it hard to say no to her sister and Naruto, but with them both looking at her with those big wide eyes and pouting lips, she realised there was only one thing she could say.

"Okay then."

Naruto and Hanabi danced about the room excitedly as they celebrating their victory as Hinata covered her ears from the deafening noise they were making.

"So when was you thinking of having the party?" she asked the pair finally started to calm down, allowing her to think.

"Well I was thinking tomorrow night"

"But we haven't got the house ready yet" Hinata said, shaking her head. "We can't have a party with all the boxes scattered around the house.

"Well we better hurry up and do something about that then shouldn't we." He replied with a smile as he made a small group of bunshins. Instructing them to move the boxes that were at the bottom of the stairs into the right rooms and unpack them they quickly disappeared with Hanabi leaving him alone with Hinata.

Eager to get the unpacking done as quickly as possible be quickly dove into one of the boxes he'd brought up. "You finish that box and ill unpack this one for you. Where do you wa..." he was about to ask where she wanted him to put the contents but was caught by surprise by what was sitting at the top. Hesitantly he reached in and picked the item up.

"What was that Naruto?" she asked as she turned round to face him but quickly froze when she saw what he was holding. There were a few things she wasn't comfortable with the man she loved seeing just yet. The letters she'd written for him while he was training with Jiraiya that talked about her feeling, but never had the nerve to send. The picture of her dressed up as a baby onbaa by her mother when she was an infant.

It was neither of these though as instead he held a thong in his hands.

Her face turned beet red from embarrassment as he continued to stare at the flimsy garment. It had been a gift from Ino after a day out shopping with the girls, saying she was sure that a special someone would enjoy it. Eventually she caved under the pressure from the girls as they took delight in talking about her new relationship with Naruto and she reluctantly accepted the gift despite trying to argue that they just had a closer friendship now than before and he wouldn't be seeing her in her underwear. The girls had laughed and looked at her knowingly, and she had admitted a little to herself that she wasn't averse to the idea in the future. But right now, seeing him staring so closely at it she wished she could hide under a rock far, far away.

Naruto meanwhile couldn't believe what he held in his hands. Travelling with Jiraiya he'd seen his far share of women's underwear. The old toad sage seemed to take great joy in claiming the underwear form the women he'd spent the night with and then leaving it at the bottom of his bed for him to find when he woke up. When he demanded to know why he kept doing it Jiraiya would just ask if he was gay then laugh at the way he'd over react. No what surprised him as the fact that Hinata, who looked so sweet and innocent, would wear something so skimpy, so sexy? The image of her wearing it quickly appeared in his head as a small trickle of blood started to run from his nose.

Quickly wiping the blood away, he threw the underwear back in the box it came from and mumbling an apology quickly made his way out the room embarrassed that he'd thought of Hinata in such a lewd way as the girl continued to stand there like a statue, trying to come to terms with her boy she likes seeing her underwear.