Okay so I made it to chapter nine, I must say I have worked my ass off and I'm sorry it took so long...Review!

Disclaimer: Don't own Naruto.


Hinata stood routed to the spot until he was out of view. 'He kissed me…' all of a sudden her headache kicked in again. Stumbling into the house she saw Niko in the kitchen.

"Hey Miko, where have you been?"

"Went for a run."

"All day?"

"Hmm, sorry what were you saying?" Niko just shook his head.

"Don't worry about it. Here." He placed a bowl of beef ramen in front of her. "Breakfast." Smiling Hinata gratefully took the bowl.

"Hope it's good, I got to get to work."

"What? You're not going to stay and eat?"

"No, I made it for you, but you just up and left."

"I'm sorry. I got caught up in something,"

"Yeah, well I never see you anymore." Hinata lapsed into silence. 'Not to mention that you stay up until four in the morning fucking.' She thought but kept her mouth shut. Niko took one glance at her face and turned away.

"Why don't you trust me?" He yelled spinning around to face her. "Why won't you tell me what's wrong!"

"Nothing is wrong Niko." Hinata spilled some of her ramen on the counter, 'What brought this on?' she wondered.

"Nothing is wrong? Oh really? Then please explain to me why you cry in your sleep, or why you lock yourself in your room for days on end only to leave to go work yourself to near death! Can you explain any of that Mikako?"

"Why do you have to go poking around in my life? Can't you just leave me alone?"

"No I can't, because I've lived with you for the past two years! You're like family to me! You are my family!"

"Niko, I'm fine." Hinata said exhausted. "Besides, don't you have to go to work?"

"They won't care if I'm late for once. Mikako…look anyone in their right mind can see that something is wrong, you're depressed or something, please can't you just tell me? There probably people that have know you all your life, people that know you inside and out, they could probably tell what's wrong in a second, but there not here right now. I'm here, and I want to help you, please." Niko's blues eyes seemed to penetrate her mind.

"Niko…"

"Just tell me what's wrong…"

"What's wrong? What do you think is fucking wrong?" Hinata was getting worked up. All the feelings she had never let out had been building up inside her. "You said that there were people who knew me inside and out, yeah well not anymore! My friends were killed and I ran away like a fucking coward!"

Tears began flowing out of her eyes. She had never told anyone what happened, not a single person for two years and now she was about to go spilling her guts.

"Do you know how it feels, to know you could have saved them, but instead you ran away to save your own life? Do you know how it feels to never be able to see them again?" She tried to control the shakes that were racking her body, tried to stop the sobbing. "I messed up and they paid the price. They were better than me, they were some of the best ninjas I've ever known and now their dead because I couldn't save them. Because I fucked it all up!" And finally she realized that it was useless to keep it all pent up, she was sobbing uncontrollably and the tears were streaming, her nose was running and she was a mess.

"Oh Mikako…" He held her in his arms until her tears stopped. "You're going to be okay," He rocked her back and forth for a moment longer all the time whispering "You're going to be okay."

"I-I should clean up the ramen." Her voice was shaky but Hinata peeled herself off Niko and started to clean up the kitchen.

"Niko, you're late for work."

"I don't think they'll mind if I take a day off for once…"

"It's okay; I'm going to be fine. Go to work, you know you want to." She smiled at him and nodded toward the door, her eyes were red and bloodshot but the tears had stopped, for now anyway.

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, go have fun cooking whatever it is that you cook…" He kissed her on the cheek and grabbed his coat before taking one last look at Hinata as she scrubbed the kitchen before walking out the door.

Hinata watched as the door locked shut and then hurried to the bathroom. Staring at her face in the mirror she shook her hair out so that it fell around her shoulders. 'I wouldn't even recognize me anymore.' She thought. Her eyes were red and hollow looking from crying and lack of sleep. Hinata's long blue black hair was unkempt and brittle falling in long tangles around her. She splashed some cold water on her face, being too tired to take a shower. Wandering into her bedroom Hinata caught sight of the calendar Niko had given her and did a double take. 'January 30th,' She thought, 'exactly two years have passed since they died, how could I have missed it?' Shaking her head she lifted up her mattress and propped it against the wall, kneeling down she wiggled the loose floorboard under her bed up and examined the small metal safe she had installed under it. Quickly dialing in the combination she pulled it open, despite never being used it opened easily.

Inside was a small wooden box which Hinata carefully lifted out. Opening the box she gently fingered the diamond necklace Kiba had given her for her eighteenth birthday, the day she was supposed to become head of the Hyuga clan. The day her father decided that she couldn't lead the clan properly without a spouse. Smiling she unclasped the necklace and put it on admiring the beauty. Next she took out a small pocket knife, a kind of Swiss army knife for all occasions that Shino had given her on their one year anniversary. 'Shino gave practical gifts while Kiba gave beautiful gifts,' Hinata smiled as she ran her fingers over the engraving. 'Together forever. Shino was always a good liar.' A small tear fell and landed on the last item in the box, 'Hmm, seems like I have an unlimited supply of tears today.' Hinata's pale fingers gently wiped the tear off the photo.

'Team eight before we even knew there were teams.' Hinata thought and smiled. It was an old photograph of the three of them in the park from when they were eight years old. They had all gotten ice cream cones that day. 'Kiba got chocolate, Shino got vanilla and I got strawberry.' She studied the picture and saw the remains of an ice cream cone on Kiba's shirt. 'Kiba had the smart idea to try and make Neapolitan ice cream out of our cones.' A half laugh half sob escaped her throat and she gently placed the photo back in the box along with the knife. Unclasping the necklace she placed it in box as well and closed the safe and replaced the floor board and her mattress.

"I wish you guys were here today, I wish you could see how far I've come. I'm training my own student now. I know you'd be proud." Hinata wiped a final tear from her face and turned out the light.

"I miss you guys." She whispered softly before falling asleep.


Please review! Hope you liked it!