a/n Thank you to everyone who stuck with me so far and left comments. I'm still trying to finish this story. worst comes to worst, I'll give it an ending that may be a bit rushed, as you can see. I'm trying to change up the way I tell this story a bit. Instead of focusing entirely on scenes, I'm going to summarize some background info and let the story build from there. It helps the flow a bit better, hopefully.
The next month passed swiftly. The dreary dampness of fall quickly shifted into the freshly sharp scent of a cold winter. Konoha had never been frigid enough for snow, but Hinata almost believed this year might just hit an all new low.
The sky was an intermittently shifting gray and silver, occasionally letting loose torrential rains that made the flowers in the window box dance. She still lived at the inn, for many reasons.
However cold the weather, it was nothing compared to the looks she gets at the Hyuuga compound. The piercing white of the glares she received is almost numbing. She's long stopped caring because they were at a stalemate entirely. Hanabi was branded. There were no other candidates...any who tried were swiftly beat down with that strange new style of hers….a corruption of the Gentle Fist, something entirely too loose and uncontrolled to be fully Hyuuga. Just like her.
She heard the whispers. The rumors of the style becoming tainted. Even subtle threats in the classic way of the Hyuuga, veiled under simple observations of the seasons.
She merely smiled on back, remarking that Spring would always come.
(She had particularly enjoyed sweeping Nori Hyuuga's from underneath him. He'd gone down the fastest out of the contenders.)
So she walked proudly, if still scared, through the sparse halls in her white robes and red framed glasses.
Hanabi was back home, recovered enough that she could laugh again. And laugh she did. She laughed at the irritation her sisters very presence gives the elders. She laughed at the gaudiness of the red frames. She laughed at how nicely that red matched her sisters flushed cheeks when she brought up the subject of the future Hokage.
Hanabi laughed because she was free. She vaguely remembered her cousin Neji once saying something about freedom coming with making a choice...she hadn't understood it then...but she understanded now.
She would never regret her decision. Not when her sister could stand straight and proud, a glasses-wearing, butt-kicking Hyuuga clan head.
She would never regret protecting the one who'd always protected her.
They walked together in their mother's garden, idly caressing the petals of the red hibiscus blooms that ring the koi pond Hinata regularly slept in.
The sky was gray and the surrounding foliage was still verdant. Still, there was a gloom that hung over the entirety of the scene. The flowers drooped ever so slightly, veiny petals turning darker and darker shades of red and pink underneath the weight of winter.
"They're so fragile." Hanabi mused quietly, her words misting into condensation. She shivered slightly and much to her consternation, Hinata noticed.
"Maybe we should go inside, Hanabi-chan. You're still recovering." Hinata suggested gently, taking time to turn and adjust Hanabi's yellow scarf a bit more snugly around her neck. "I don't want you to get sick."
Hanabi simply gave her a petulant pout.
"I'm fine, sister. I'm not a baby."
Hinata merely laughed softly, for once real happiness crossing her face. She had dearly missed these moments, and if there was anything she was grateful for, it was that this entire debacle had lead her back here...back to Hanabi and back to her friends.
Something at the back of her mind whispered a name, but she could not indulge those lingering feelings. They were pieces of a past she broke beyond the reach of time. Beyond any hope of repair...for all his care...Naruto would never love her the way she still loved him.
Her eyes grew dim behind her lenses, fingers stalling slightly on the last fold of the scarf as she recalled a simple wish she had just a month ago. To share a scarf with someone she loved.
"Sister? Are you...it'll be okay. Whatever it is...please just talk to me." Hanabi begged, taking Hinata's slim fingers into her hands and cradling them close to her. She had missed this.
The words resounded familiar and painful in Hinata's mind. Please talk to me.
She had heard them so many times since her return. So many people still cared about her...someone who had left with such little notice and who had never had the courage to burn bridges. Instead she'd silently left the village, letting them fall into disrepair with neglect.
And yet...here they all were, clambering over the remains of those broken bridges to reach out to her.
"The hibiscus flowers are wilting...they need sun." She simply answered, eyes shifting to look at the flowers she was so often compared to.
It was why she had avoided finding out their meanings all these years...because she feared what it meant for her character….what had her mother seen in her to compare her to such delicate blooms.
Why not a cactus that could so easily survive through drought?
Why not a sturdy sunflower that stood bright and tall in the middle of a field?
Why not a sakura blossom, short-lived, yet beautiful and well-loved by many?
She would never know the answer for sure, but she dreaded it. So how does a fragile flower seek the sun when it's afraid of its own weakness?
Hanabi simply made a thoughtful hum, looking up at the gray sky. She gave Hinata's hands once last comforting press before she let them fall away.
"Well, it's a good thing the sun's always shining...even if you can't see it." Hanabi says cheerfully, tilting her head pleasantly in amusement as her hidden reference is not lost on Hinata. "He's looking out for the pretty hibiscus...I'm sure."
"Ha-hanabi-chan! That's not...oh dear! What are you…" Hinata sputters, hiding her face behind her hands.
She's never seen her sister blush so beautifully, but she predicted that on her wedding day, Hinata would be the most beautiful blushing bride Konoha had ever witnessed.
Winter was always her season. Naruto had never thought otherwise. The rain had always crested so wonderfully on her dark hair, drenching her pale face and beading on the tips of her long lashes.
Her cheeks would flush easily, whether from the cold or his proximity was always hard to figure out, but he adored it nonetheless.
And it was in winter that time remained at a stand still. Worries of competing against Sasuke for the Hokage title and civil unrest were swept away underneath laughter like raindrops. He was caught in a crystalline lattice of cold and misty days, woven by her innocent conversation and the strange, new feelings he felt creeping like frost through his heart.
So different from what he had thought love was...it was something entirely fragile, entirely gentle and something he wanted to protect...just like her.
Winter crowned her queen of its world and ruler of his heart for the interim...even if he wasn't sure if Spring's hold on him was gone or simply buried for now.
But she would break. She would break if that were true, and to break her would mean to melt away this world of silvery wonder he'd built up these last few months by her side.
He held her hand still...tentatively as they made their weekly walk to the orphanage. Her chin buried in that red scarf he's so jealous of.
Her soft smile as she looked up at him was all it took to convince him that he couldn't break winter...not now...and maybe not ever.
But he forgot that Winter always leaves and time moves forward, leaving behind only memories of loving, drunken kisses under the cold light of the stars.
Logistics had never been his strong suit. Contracts and loopholes and the like wove strangely intricate paths that only served to make his thoughts hazy and his worries multiply.
Marriage contracts were hardly the exception. But there was something that may be a downfall of the Daimyo court, and that was tradition and rules and regulations.
All of their former marriage contracts followed a template. Something easily predictable and with stern wording of terms.
So it wasn't too difficult to piece out a loophole as he bent over his research at his breakfast table, marking paragraphs and highlighting key phrases.
There was one section that stood out thoroughly. The surest way to break off any engagement. It was logical. It was reasonable...and it had so many implications, both pleasant and unpleasant that it made Naruto's insides squirm at the mere thought.
Infidelity.
And the cogs turned in that sharply working mind of his, willing to put everything on the line for the person he loved. To free Hinata from her chains, he might just have to bind himself to her.
It scared him how reasonable and welcoming the idea sounded to him...but there was so much to be done. So much else to worry about, but she rested in the center of it all and he would have been lying if he said the idea of spending the rest of his life with her wasn't the most pleasing dream of the future he'd had in a long time.
So he worked well into the evening, deciding on course of action woven through with the most sincere of feelings.
Woo Hinata. Propose marriage to her. Help her break the contract.
Simple right?
But he remembered her distance and her sadness and her lies and his head hurt with all the emotional imbroglios tied into this.
Sasuke was not going to like this at all….not one bit.
And Sakura...well...she'd already let him go a long time ago...and he had done the same.
It was inevitable. Spring and Winter were always separated, save by the tail end of silvery cold melting into the bright warmth...so it was with little surprise that Hinata found herself encountering Sakura Haruno, almost a month and a half after her return.
Hinata had been on her way to help Naruto with the Hokage ceremony details. Beyond all the planning and the invitations and logistics, she'd been thrown between her clan and her duties as a shinobi, seeking reprieve in the few hours she could spend with either Kiba, Kurenai-Sensei...and sometimes Shino-kun...with a reasonable buffer and a strained sort of silence.
(It still hurt, but there was nothing more she could do besides show him she had changed. She would keep meeting up with them and keep visiting all of them...while she was still here.)
The thought of returning to the Capital loomed over her as a threat and her thoughts were running circles around her. Leaving her caught in a tide not under her control. She wanted out. She wanted to run away again, but the thought of golden hair and wide smiles away a promise kept her going.
So it wasn't exactly her fault she hadn't noticed she had bumped into the medic on the wide busy street.
Just in front of a dango shop, Hinata watched with horror as the stack of papers Sakura had so carefully ordered fluttered to the asphalt. A handful of bystanders gasped in pity and Sakura merely looked at them with a strange kind of apathy, green eyes dull.
"Oh god. I'm so sorry. Here, please let me help!" Hinata cried out, already on her knees and picking up as many of the papers as she could. Tears of embarrassment pricked her eyes and a sharp sensation of bitter pity filled her up.
"It's okay. It was an accident." Sakura chided, still looking down at the papers she was stacking.
But something that clicked when she glanced up and fully realized who she'd bumped into.
"Hinata! Where...I mean...I didn't notice. I'm sorry." Sakura rambled, setting aside some of the papers to tuck back a strand of her lovely pink hair. She seemed frazzled somehow and Hinata felt a little on edge about it all.
"Good morning Sakura-san." Hinata offered patiently, smile soft and welcoming despite her anxiety.
She handed her the rest of the papers...medical documents it seemed.
Sakura smiled wanly, her beige sweater making her look paler than usual. She looked tired and sad and Hinata knew the look of one who was lost...she wore it still too.
So she simply acted on her emotions, kindness and patience and all kinds of bittersweet memories leading her to say-
"If you have time, would you like to share some dango Sakura-san?"
Sakura startled, grabbing the last few papers and clutching them to her chest as her green eyes sparked with something a little bit friendly and a little bit challenging.
"I...I would love to."
And so they did. They sat down at the pale wooden table with their order of sticky dango. Hinata primly nibbling at the tops of her treat and Sakura enthusiastically munching on hers.
So different and yet they both were filled with the same emotions.
"Hinata...I let him go." Sakura said suddenly, setting down the stick of dango politely.
Hinata was left momentarily speechless. She briefly wondered if something about team 7 made them inherently ignore all small talk or subtlety regarding delicate matters.
Even Sasuke-san suffered from the same abruptness.
She coughed lightly into her napkin, sipping a drink of her tea to clear her throat.
"Pardon?" She managed to squeak, her face flushed.
Sakura merely gave her an understanding look, picking at what was left of her snack.
"I let him go. The day you arrived, I let Naruto go." She said simply. Each words growing in confidence and levity.
She felt free. Free in a way she hasn't for a while.
Hinata was thrown of kilter, her usual gravitas flown out the window.
" I don't...it's not my…"
"Take care of him please. All of us...really love him, and the last time you left...it broke him. I can't say...I don't blame you...not entirely." Sakura continued on, not letting Hinata edge in any excuses. She was too tired to hear them. She knew them well because she had once used them herself.
But no more. Sakura Haruno was a woman of integrity, and honesty was always her best policy.
(Fake confession not withstanding.)
"You." Sakura looked at her pointedly. "He loves you and you still don't see it. I don't know what it'll take, but you need to know that since I doubt you give him any opportunity to get too-."
"Sakura-san…" Hinata cut her off. "whatever goes on between my friend and I is none of your concern. But I...I understand...somewhat where you come from...but you are mistaken. There is no possible way he could love me as you say."
Sakura merely stared at her as if the Hyuuga had grown a second head. And then...unexpectedly...she laughed. She laughed so hard, her breathing became shallow. Her giggles devolved into snorts as she pounder a fist on the table.
"Oh my god. You're just as clueless as he is. Oh my god. I'm out." She said, standing up and leaving a crumpled wad of bills to pay.
She walked out the door, still laughing and waving at a thoroughly confused Hyuuga.
Hinata is struck dumb again, merely wondering if the medic had finally snapped. But something in her had seemed more...light? Better?
And then she smiled softly.
"Sakura-san...you really are a marvelous kind of person aren't you?" She said, recalling the strange encounter she'd had with the Uchiha and comparing it to this one.
"And yet you and Sasuke-san are still just as dense as you claim me to be." she sighed into her tea, mulling over the insanity that was her life.
The clock ticked pleasantly, marking the hour as the fluttering of wings and the occasional crooning filled the Hokage's office.
Hinata was entirely too caught up in filling out the papers splayed out all over the desk to notice the presence behind her.
She had but a fraction of a second's warning when Alba-chan's beak clicked shut in surprise, glancing behind her with humor in his beady eyes.
A pair of very warm and calloused hands slid smoothly over her lenses.
"Guess who?" His voice chirped, assuming a higher pitch to poorly disguise himself.
Her face burned underneath it all and she was all too aware of that roiling heat of Chakra humming in his vicinity. Ever since the mission in Kusagakure, he'd been a lot more...touchy. She had chalked it up to renewed friendship, but still her forehead burned with the lingering memory of a kiss.
But she'd gotten somewhat used to it all, telling herself that he doesn't mean it that way and don't be a fool, Hinata.
She managed to regain her composure enough to chide him gently. Still, she felt a reluctant smile quirking across her lips.
"Naruto-kun...you really should get to work. There's still about a hundred more invitations to send out and Alba-chan can only do so much to help."
He laughed richly, deep and full of a happiness she'd never known he could express.
"You never change, Hinata. Always a stickler for the rules." He says as he takes his hands off her glasses.
She turned in her chair to glare at him, removing her frames to wipe away his fingerprints on her dark long sleeve. She placed them back on, peering over the lenses with bemusement.
He laughed sheepishly, running the back of his neck in that oh so familiar manner of his. His cheeks were tinged with red, but she again, would chalk it up to something like the cold and not her.
(Maybe there was a point of obtuse denial she would eventually have to reach, but for now, this was her only saving grace.)
"Ah...sorry...I just umm...I went to get us some lunch."
He stooped down and pulled up a plastic bag, orange emblazoned with the characters of his favorite Ramen shop. The steam beaded on the inside of the bag, the delicious scent of miso Ramen and pork Ramen wafting towards her.
"Sorry I took so much time, but the line was really long and then the old man was telling me about how he was going to be a grandpa again and I thought it was the coolest thing." He went on, moving his hands excitedly even with the bag still in his grasp.
His smile was wide. His eyes bright blue with the excitement. He was beautiful when he loved his village...when he loved his friends and his home.
She felt a rush of sudden affection. Something entirely too dangerous for the precipice she kept herself on this whole time. She needed to settle herself. She needed clarity...but the sky was still gray and she was mired in an inextricable situation.
To act on anything would be selfish at best...infinitely cruel at worst.
The pendant burned bright under her sweater and she felt it to be more constricting than before. She could tell him...tell Naruto anything but this...anything but the feelings she still held for him.
The guilt settled, leaden and filling up he stomach until even the smell of miso Ramen could not entice her to eat.
"I uh...I'm sorry Naruto-kun, I ate lunch earlier. I didn't know...I uh...I'm sorry. There's a clan meeting soon." She says quickly, giving a simple signal to Alba-chan that had him quickly gathering up her belongings into her leather satchel.
Her guilt weighed heavier as she caught sight of his dimming expression. She mentally called herself all kinds of an idiot, but the deed was done. She wasn't lying. She was just...leaving a little earlier than needed.
"Oh...I umm...sure. I'll just ah eat both of them?" He cheered slightly, trying very hard not to let his smile slip in front of her. But she knew him too well and the taut lines of her neck and his jaw told her he was hurting.
She wanted to do more, but to do so would be too much and so she merely gives him a strained smile on her way out.
"I'll be back tomorrow to help some more." She called out, keeping a slight distance as she made her way to the door.
Alba already rested heavy on her shoulder, head tucked into the strands of her hair to keep warm.
"Hinata...wait...I…" Naruto stopped her, one hand outstretched and reaching for...for what? She was never sure. His eyes looked melancholy, scintillating azure with so many things she could not name and still she hoped...hoped for something she should not have hoped for.
"I uh...could you let Alba-chan stay with me for a bit? If it's not too tiring to keep him here? He's really good with organizing the files and I...uh..yeah…" He trailed off, letting his hand fall to his side sadly.
(She wanted to hold it. She wanted to lunge for it and cradle it to her and tell him everything that roiled within her.)
But she was weak. Always had been. Even Sakura-san had noticed that and she had rightfully warned Hinata, just as Sasuke had. So she only nodded her head and raised her shoulder so that Alba would understand.
He flew over to Naruto without protest. He'd gotten so used to this human, that it was second nature to the albatross to land on the nest of blonde hair and croon his pleasure.
It broke the tension. Naruto looked up skeptically before bursting into laughter and Hinata couldn't help but laugh along, her giggled discordant and his bubbling...but still there was melancholy there.
"I can leave him here for another hour if you want?" She offered through her trailing laugh.
Naruto hesitated.
"It's umm...if it's too muc-"
"No! It's perfectly fine. I've um…"She tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear and he had to hide the sharp pain of it all when he caught sight of the faint scars on her temple.
"I've been practicing. This is good to test my stamina. So an hour should be very easy to keep him with you."
Naruto laughed unexpectedly, reaching up to scratch the feathers on top of the birds head.
"You're so strong, Hinata...I'm sorry I never told you."
The words shattered her, releasing the last bits if doubt she'd might have held. It would take a while for the message to sink in, but his words meant something to her and she turned swiftly with a muted thank you and closed the door behind her with a gentle click.
Naruto looks at the closed door, still scratching at the bird on top of his head. His face finally crumpled into the despair that had been wracking him, the steaming Ramen no longer seemed as appetizing as before.
Heartache and loss settled deep in his chest, making it hard to breathe.
"You are strong Hinata...just...let me in...please. I need to tell you something important." He whispered to the empty room, lowering his hands into the pocket of his orange jacket.
Alba-chan merely fluttered his wings...whether in agreement or not, it was hard to say.
It began to rain shortly after that.
The clan meeting had ended in the same disheartening stalemate, neither party willing to make concessions.
Hinata had ideas, but they were still in the planning stages and Hiashi was being unusually taciturn this week with whatever his one on one's with the Hokage consisted of.
He had asked Hinata to trust him after the meeting.
"If not as your former clan head, then as your father."
She had wanted to scream. She had wanted to cry and rage and say that as a father, he had failed her more than as a clan leader...but her old habits had kicked in. The darkest parts of her...the ones that had been honed to precision in the spiders Web of the Daimyo's court had taught her that patience was a virtue.
And so she had stilled her breath and called upon the latent bits of love for her father she had kept safe all these years.
She agreed. His smile had never been wider.
Still uncertainty was never a thing she did well with. Assumptions had proven time and time again to be dangerously flawed ideas and it irked her not to know more.
Sasuke was still glaring at her at every turn. The ANBU were on her tail...she was sure of it even as she made her weekly trips into the market.
Her rent was due in a month and Naruto had made it abundantly clear that he wasnt going to force her to stay until the ceremony...even if Tsunade-baa-chan said otherwise.
(Again that rush of affection for someone out of her reach. He was being so careful with her...so gentle and patient...She wished he would hate her…remain angry like Shino or scold her like Kurenai-sensei…she didn't know how to deal with this.)
And finally, she'd forgotten her glasses back at the inn.
So her day ended here.
She blinked slowly in consternation; again with the rain. This was too much. She missed the sun, missed the warmth and her flowers needed the light. They were probably drowning by now.
The pitter patter of the rain brought back memories of a broken, white umbrella and an equally broken promise.
She huffed, having forgotten her new blue umbrella and the heavy emotion lingering from her discussion was still present, the rain not helping in the slightest. Hinata sat on the stoop, the awning of the closed store serving as shelter. She brought her knees closer to her, her boots squeaking against the wet concrete. Her knit gray sweater was hardly enough warmth, and she recoiled deeper into her unbound locks, the heavy tresses enveloping her in dark blanket of self-sustaining warmth.
And a nagging voice at the back of her head asked "Aren't you a shinobi?"
She furrowed her brows in slight annoyance. Yes, she was a shinobi, one who had seen war and who had been through hell and back. A shinobi who had lost precious people and had seen lands stranger than the average person could fathom. She was a shinobi who had failed and succeeded, sacrificed and lied for what she held so dear.
She had twisted her ideals, her very self, into a mockery of the girl she had once been, and the rain never ceased to remind her of that.
Lavender eyes turned nearly slate gray, reflecting the sky above from underneath her fringe.
"Hinata!"
Her eyes widened and she turned to squint down the street, her blurry eyesight made worse by the sheets of water falling upon Konoha on this unusually cold and wet day.
She saw orange and yellow and she knew who it was. She ignored the acceleration of her heart in favor of embracing the slight moodiness that seemed to be her default mood on these kinds of days. But before she could even straighten out her melancholy expression, a small smile involuntarily curved across her face as she saw him approach her, seemingly as umbrella-less and drenched to the bone.
He grinned, her gray mood and the gray sky not dampening his spirits in the slightest.
"Hello, Naruto-kun." She said lightly, wishing she could find the source of his eternal happiness.
And he jolted a little, still unused to the feeling of having his suffix returned to him. He was still unused to the sheer landslide of joy and lightness that washed over every time those four syllables flew from her tongue like sparrows in flight. His smile softened and he took note of her huddled state, completely dry and looking very trapped.
He could see the beginnings of that same expression on her face, the dark circles ringing her eyes reminiscent of the picture in her file. And he frowned slightly, because he had promised himself to never let her feel that way again. He would help her; support her in whatever way possible until each and every lock on her cage was rusted and broken.
The rain seemed to fall harder, as if agreeing and he chuckled because getting metal wet was the swiftest way to rust.
She tilted her head slightly. She grew curious at the myriad of expressions crossing his face like the frames of an animated film. Her hair drifted off of her shoulders and she shivered slightly. She then noticed how the rain had gotten harder and how Naruto didn't seem to care. But she still worried and so she scooched on her stoop, giving enough room under the awning for him to sit by her.
He looked at her incredulously, as if asking if it would make much of a difference now.
And for some reason she began to laugh. Because really, in the state he was, her little stoop wasn't very much help. She shrugged lightly, as if to say that it was worth a try.
So he gave a wry grin, and plopped his wet buttocks on the concrete step with an audible squelch. He winced at the sound and she laughed some more. It was a wordless exchange, but one just as precious as any words they could have shared at the moment.
They turned towards the gray sky, Naruto's face settling into a peaceful expression and Hinata's frown becoming more apparent by the second.
She frowned and frowned, and Naruto asked, "Do you hate the rain, Hinata?"
She looked surprised and her breath hitched as she admired the way the water droplets seemed to caress his skin as they rolled down his hair and down his neck, tracing over every line her fingers wished they could.
"Not really." She said a bit breathlessly. "It just reminds me of a lot of things."
He glanced at her, as if he reading her mind. And maybe he could because he saw the image of a white broken umbrella in a soiled puddle, and he heard the regret in her voice.
"You were frowning."
"I was squinting."
"Nope, I'm pretty sure that was a frown." He smiled mischievously. "And if you keep doing it, you'll get really deep wrinkles and look as old as Baa-chan."
Then he poked the area between her eyebrows where her forehead had furrowed.
She pouted, self-consciously placing her pale fingers over the area in a defensive maneuver.
"I will not." She squeaked indignantly.
"Look there they are again! The wrinkles!" He joked, pointing at her face and he laughed as her ire rose and her ever blooming flush with it.
He laughed as a worried expression marred her face and she became cross eyed trying to see the wrinkles for herself.
"Naruto-kun!" She cried in consternation as he kept laughing, and then she laughed with him, because what else could she do?
Their chuckles faded into the pitter patter of the rain, and after a long moment, he continued.
"The Hokage ceremony…it's in a month."
She heard his unspoken words…'Will you be here?'
"My rent is due in a month." 'I don't know yet.'
He grunted noncommittally, surprisingly taciturn. He seemed to be mulling over what to say next, she could see the cogs turning in his mind, nervous energy threaded through him from his erratic breath to the tips of his damp hair. It was somewhat comical, as if it cost him an enormous amount of energy just to remain still.
She looked down at the flooded sidewalk, her boots dangerously close to the rising puddle. The droplets were fat and loud, bouncing off the concrete in cute, little dances, like tiny little Naruto's leaping about in unabated glee, dynamic and never still.
She began to mentally panic, her thoughts erratic and filled with the scent of sunshine and blue. She was so screwed, her heart inextricably attached to the idea of him. No matter what she did, the constant flushing and sweaty palms would not go away. And it was so frustrating because just a month ago, she had been able to maintain a pretty calm demeanor around him.
She pressed her palms against her cheeks, hoping her chilled fingers could cool the heat radiating from them.
He interrupted her thoughts, like always at just the right, or wrong, time…depending on what mood she was in.
"I love the rain."
She turned towards him in surprise, because he who was so bright and sunny loved something as dreary as the rain. Her silence asked the question for her.
He extended his fingers, stretching his arm out past the shelter of their little alcove, turning his wrist to catch as many of the droplets as he could, as if he wanted some of their kinetic energy, and she wondered how long it would be before he felt the need to leap up in action, to run and just do things that were uniquely Naruto.
"I love the rain because it's like taking a shower after a very long, hot day. It washes away the mistakes and the dirt and grime, and it kind of feels like a blanket. Everything feels smaller, more familiar, you know?"
She nodded the negative. When his brows lifted in question and his outstretched fingers curled back into a loose fist, his expression slightly crestfallen, she blurted out her answer.
"I-I love the sun. I love the warmth and the comfort and the freedom it gives. I love the blue sky that looks so infinite, that you cannot help but feel the possibilities."
He looked at her in wonder, wide eyed and she paled because she realized just how much she had revealed about herself with that response. He smiled softly, and turned to look back at the downpour, the dim street lights creating wavering haloes of light in the puddles.
He loved the rain because it gave him the chance to wash away the mistakes he felt were too heavy to bear. He loved it because it gave him the somewhat forced comfort of close quarters and contact that had so long been denied to him.
And he loved the rain because it made everything the same silvery color that shifted and hid in her eyes.
Still flustered from her reveal, she looked at the bouncing droplets, once in a while glancing at her companion. His form was slouched, the droplets running down his hair and face. He looked cold.
He looked lonely.
She loved the sun, because it reminded her of the brightness and the light that chased away the dark of secrets. It was the burning warmth that gently cupped everyone in its supportive grip, never quite suffocating.
And she secretly loved the sun because it was the color of his hair and the sky the color of his eyes.
They stayed silent, each unwilling to continue, because it was truly frightening how each encounter managed to pull a little more of themselves to the surface.
Hinata's guilt ate away at her, and she remembered cold, dark eyes threatening her…that if she were to hurt this man…this embodiment of all that was good, and warm, she would pay. And Sakura's pretty voice echoes in her mind.
"You broke him."
All the while, a tiny, indefinable and unstoppable force closed the distance between them. And though the force was tiny, it was enough to shift her hand just a little closer to his.
"Let me be selfish."
Their hands met, fingers intertwining shyly.
He walked her home that day under the cover of the white umbrella with orange patches he had stored in a seal.