So...next chapter...read and review. I hope this is better than the last one...which sucked by the way...Have fun! ^_^

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto...I wish I did, but I don't.


Four months had passed. To Hinata, it seemed almost timeless. It was like a river, time just keep flowing by, while all she did was stand on the banks. Niko on the other hand had done something in those four months. Realizing that he was literally useless as ninja, he decided to try culinary instead. By some weird streak of luck it turned out that Niko was a genius, a prodigy at culinary arts. Within weeks he was top chef in the Queen's kitchen and made more money than Hinata had ever made in her life. At first she was slightly jealous, but then Niko pointed out that with his income, she really didn't need to work. Not working didn't work out so well though. Finding herself alone, every day, every night, with nothing to do. It wasn't good, Hinata could almost feel her mental state deteriorating, the dreams and nightmares got worse. Even during the day now, she would remember things, something Shino said, something Kiba did. It was horrible, sitting alone in room full of unfamiliar things. She would have been married right now, back in Konoha. She would probably be sitting with Neji eating lunch or something. 'Is this any better?' Hinata thought. There was a knock on the door.

"Hello, hello! I have big news!" Niko strutted into the room, a large smile plastered to his face.

"Hmm? What is it?" Hinata smiled, Niko's childish antics always took her mind off matters.

"You have to guess!" Hinata rolled her eyes, 'No matter how much money he makes, he is still a Dobe.'

"Umm, I don't know. Did you get a girlfriend?"

"Huh? No…" Niko's face fell and he stared off into space for a moment.

"Niko, hey? So what's your news?" He snapped out of his daydream.

"Ah! I bought us a house!" For a moment Hinata thought she had misheard him.

"A-A house?" Niko nodded searching her face for any emotions.

"Niko, you didn't have to. You shouldn't have done that." Hinata's hair fell about her face; it grew quickly and already reached her eyebrows. Niko smiled softly at her.

"I wanted to, and besides, you and I both know that sharing a room wasn't working."

"Well, I guess I can't argue with that logic." Both of them exchanged smile and a quick glance. Having to share a room with Niko had been hell, and both of them had realized this. So far they had been living in an extremely small apartment; it only had one bedroom and one bathroom. The kitchen and living room were connected and rather small as well.

"I got to get back to work, but I thought you might benefit from the news. We can start packing up when I get off later, okay?" Niko gave a small wave as he walked out the door. Hinata glanced around, 'Niko had bought a house, damn.' There wasn't much in apartment, that either one owned. All the furniture in the place was theirs but; there was only a small table and chairs, the mattress in the bedroom. 'Maybe I'll just pack up for Niko.' She glanced around again. 'It's not like there's much to do.'

And so Hinata wandered out of the apartment, and into the street looking for a place that sold boxes and packing tape. Amazingly it was much harder to find boxes and tape then it might seem, but after an hour Hinata had gathered all the boxes and tape she might possibly need. Truthfully she figured she was covered with boxes in case she needed to move five more times. Getting back to their apartment took longer than she had thought, it was rush hour and the streets were full of people. Even though she lost quite a lot of time shopping and navigating the streets Hinata realize she could make up for by simply packing. Even with her and Niko's stuff combined it only took fifty minutes. Hinata smiled as she put the last label on the last box.

"Done!" she flopped down of the floor. 'I wish I had left some pillows out, then I could take a nap.' Hinata thought, as she sighed and stretched out on the floor. Next thing she knew, she was asleep, shopping and packing was exhausting.

"Hey Mikako, Mikako," Niko gentle shook his friend awake.

"Did, did I fall asleep?" Hinata rubbed her eyes, and looked at him.

"Yeah, you did. Do you do all this packing yourself?" Niko's blue eyes were smiling; the small little wrinkles around his eyes were showing.

"I-I wanted to surprise you. You're always working so hard now. I wanted to surprise you…" Hinata drifted off to sleep again. Niko smiled; for once he didn't see a trace of fear on her face as she slept. Gently picking her up bridal style Niko carried her out of the apartment and all the way to the new house. Furniture came with the house and he gently laid her down on the sofa. There were three bedrooms in the house but he wasn't sure which one she wanted. She rolled over and muttered something in her sleep.

"What was that Mikako?"

"I-I'm gonna get that pancake…" Niko let out chuckle.

"Pancakes are what were having for dinner then I guess." He said to himself as he began to cook up batter in the kitchen. He had made sure the kitchen was fully stocked right after he bought the house.

Hinata stirred, she smelled something cooking. Something good. Opening her eyes she studied her surroundings. 'This wasn't the apartment, oh, wait. Niko bought a house.' Hinata sat back and relaxed.

"Niko, what are you doing?" The head of shaggy black hair in the Kitchen turned.

"You're awake! Why I'm making pancakes!" Hinata smiled, pancakes, she had been dreaming about pancakes.

"How did you know?" He smirked at her.

"Lucky guess." He turned back to his cooking while Hinata got up to inspect the house. 'Wait, I had been dreaming, I dreamt about pancakes.' Hinata splashed some water on her face in the bathroom. 'I didn't even see Kiba and Shino once,' That's when the idea started to dorm in Hinata's mind, if she could just make herself so exhausted that she had to fall asleep then the dreams would come.

At first she tried getting a job, despite Niko pointing out that she really didn't have to she insisted. After a few days Hinata had secured a job as a secretary for the Queen's social events. It was a boring job, all Hinata did was answer phone calls and make appointments. She was good at it, all the work she had done for her father when she was younger seemed to pay off. It didn't always work out though, after a while she got better at what she did. She finished work faster, and it got easier. When it was easy, she did have to try as hard. When she didn't try, the dreams came back. But she found a cure for the dreams once again, one day after work a few other girls asked her to come to the gym with them.

"Wow Mikako, that's amazing! I couldn't even do that, and I've been working out for years!" Hinata smiled, she had been running on the tread meal for an hour, really running. All she had to do was think about her life before, when she ran until she passed out. 'Compared to that, this is easy.' She thought to herself and laughed. A few weeks passed and Hinata quit her job, it didn't help, it was only a waste of time. Instead she started working out, going to the gym, running.

The day Kiba and Shino died, Hinata had always wondered why. Why had they given up their lives for her? She was weak, useless, a liability; all she ever did was get in the way. Why would anyone give up their life for her? She had tried countless times to improve her skills, to become someone her father could be proud of, but something always happened. Maybe she would give up, maybe her cousin would send her to the emergency room, and maybe she would take a blow for someone she loved. Something always happened that caused her to look at the bigger picture instead, focusing on her training. Now she had nothing to focus on but her training. Before she had wanted to improved herself so that she could finally make her father proud, so that her friends didn't have to be embarrassed by her anymore. Now she was doing this for herself, well really so that she wouldn't end up going crazy from all the memories. She was doing it to forget, to erase all traces of her old life.


Please review people! I need to know if this sucks or not!