First of all I'd like to thank all of you. I got a lot of response for the last chapter. Special thanks to those who tried to cheer me up after the horrible Naruto chapter last week.

Just one thing. I'm not giving up on Naruhina nor do I plan to any time in the future. All I wanted to say last time is that I don't think it'll happen in the manga. But I don't think Naruto and Sakura will happen either. I think there won't be any pairings at all.

I was only depressed because it is clear now that Naruto still has feelings for Sakura, that is all and I was pissed at him because he said that with Hinata right there. That was all.

Anyway I got a lot of reviews telling me that it is getting frustrating to wait for Naruto and Hinata to finally figure it ou, but I have this planned out, so wait just a bit longer. I promise it won't take too long anymore. Matter of factly I'd might want to wait for the chapter after this one... :)

Also with this chapter I will upload the last preface and with next chapter I'll put all the small prefaces into one, so then there will only be three. Naruhina, Gaara and Hanabi, and all other couples. Since once someone told me that many prefaces were a little turnoff :)

I don't own Naruto.

All my thanks go out to Writer's Convexity for editing this chapter. Thank you so much.

The sunlight was shining warmly on him, promising him a bright sunny day starting from the moment he got himself out of the warm comfort of his bed, however the tall blond couldn't care less about the sunshine. It was hard to tell if the even realized the rays of light that were shining down on him.

The finally piece of his memory had returned, he had woken up this morning when the event of that time crashed down on him with their full consequences. He remembered everything, he remembered how he killed his best friend and he remembered his own despair and guilt at what he had done, but more importantly he remembered every word Hinata had said to him that night, every move she made and every feeling rushing over him. It all made sense now.

She was the reason he didn't hate himself, she was the reason he didn't feel as guilty as he should feel, it was all because of her.

Even after he had been such a complete and utter idiot to her, she had still been there for him when he needed her most.

After he had assimilated that information, he had been ecstatic at first. She still loved him. Hinata loved him. She still did after all that time he hadn't screwed up. He still had a chance. Now he could ask her out, they would be a real couple, they would kiss and hug and embrace each other and…

The more he thought about it the more excited he got. But at some point his thought had turned on him and the deeper he had let those thoughts invade him the more scared he had gotten.

And by now he was just lying in his bed petrified and unable to move. The thoughts and feelings weighting him down and depressing him more and more and all he could do was staring blankly at the ceiling.

A soft knock on his door finally made him snap out of his stupor.

"Naruto?" Hinata's soft voice trailed to his ears from behind the door.

"Yes I'm awake! I'll be there in a minute" he shot up and tried to ignore how panickyhis voice had sounded.

Naruto scolded himself to get a grip and to pretend nothing happened. He still needed more time to think this over and he couldn't let her know about his feelings. He had to weigh out the risks first.

"Wow the breakfast looks great, Hinata," after a refreshing shower Naruto sat down at the full table, the smile on his face barely reached his eyes.

"Well, I wanted you to have a good start to your fist day, Hokage-sama," the Hyuga woman sat down opposed to him. She smiled but after looking more closely at him, her face altered to a frown "Are you ok? You look down."

Inside Naruto sighed, of course he couldn't hide it from Hinata; he never could hide anything from her.

"I'm fine just nervous," he lied and Naruto was a bad liar.

Hinata decided that if he didn't want to talk about she would wait.

…

"You are the most disgusting person in the world Kankuro!" Sakura could barely control her anger. She had never met a person who managed to make her more furious.

"What the hell did I do this time, Sakura?" the puppet master turned annoyed.

"I can't believe there are women out there who would sleep with you willingly," Sakura shuddered at the bare thought.

"Jealous that I wouldn't even touch YOU if you were the last woman on earth?" he mocked her.

"Like I would let you," a vein popped on her forehead. This guy really knew how to push her buttons.

Just a moment ago she had had to witness another one of his "victims" crying because he shot her down after sleeping with her.

"I still can't believe Gaara made YOU my guide. He probably assumed you would be grateful because I saved your sorry ass."

"Oh please that was ages ago! Besides trust me I would have preferred getting saved by a smoking hot nurse too, not by a flat chested bitch."

Sakura put as much force in her punch as she could but Kankuro had expected something like that for some time now and dodged it while already leaving the pinkette standing in the dust.

He really didn't mean to make her angry, at least not that much, but last night had just been so damn frustrating. He had had this really hot chick and she was nuts for him and as always they had ended up in his room. Then when things had started to get heated and Kankuro had reached out in his drawer…only to realize it was empty.

He couldn't for the life of him figure out what had happened to his condoms, he was a hundred percent sure that he had an almost new package. But just where did it go?

And the puppet master couldn't imagine someone stealing them. Who would steal condoms from his drawer? More importantly who could steal condoms from his drawer and have access to his room? He lived with Gaara after all, security was insanely high. No matter how he thought about it, he came up empty.

Oh shit, the pink banshee was a lot faster than he had anticipated.

…

Gaara looked down at the sleeping form of Hanabi Hyuga. What happened between them two weeks ago and all the following days still seemed unreal to him. He'd never thought that a relationship like that was possible for him, but Hanabi proved him wrong.

Gaara knew that he cared deeply for Hanabi; he was in love with her. It amazed him that he was able to feel so deeply for someone and it was even more amazing that she reciprocated his feelings. It was funny how he never even doubted her feelings for a second; Gaara was aware of his trust issues. And he'd assumed that sooner or later they'd become a problem for their relationship, but he didn't have any reason not to trust her completely.

Because Hanabi trusted him completely as well, she made him feel like secure and unafraid of pursuing a deeper connection with her. He'd never experienced something like that before. It also put him at ease that she never had an experience like this either. He was the first to ever make her feel this way and it made him proud.

He doubted that he deserved her. One of the reasons why he had accepted the position as Kazekage was because he had felt like he owed it to the village that suffered so much under him. By now he loved his village and his position, wanting to make sure everyone was safe, but initially it had been an obligation.

This was not the case that with Hanabi, he didn't owe her anything and she didn't owe anything to him. Absently he ran his hand through her auburn hair, admiring his soft texture.

Hanabi didn't know much about what and who he used to be, she didn't know of all the horrors he had done.

Would she leave him if she knew? The thought scared him to no end.

Gaara was sure she knew about his past as Jinchuuriki but it didn't mean she actually knew what he did and who he used to be. Sometimes he still felt the guilt when he thought about the wrath he used to feel, all his hatred he let out on this village, and all the lives he took. No, he didn't deserve her. Hanabi was too innocent and pure and sweet and she was basically all the things he was not. Despite all he once did, Hanabi trusted him without a second though and despite the fact that he did not deserve her, he wanted to keep her at all costs.

Gaara didn't even trust himself that much. He was still cautious about sleep. Sixteen years of complete sleep deprivation had left its marks. The only time he was able to sleep deep and peacefully was when Hanabi was next to him. Without Shukaku there was no logical reason to fear sleep but old habits die hard.

"Let it go, Gaara. You have to forgive yourself" Hanabi's silver eyes looked up at him gently.

Gaara didn't even ask how long she had been awake or how she knew what he was thinking about, for she always seemed to know.

"You don't know what I did. Who I used to be," he said not stopping his hand from caressing her skin.

Hanabi pulled the blanket closer to keep out the cold and snuggled closer to Gaara.

"You would be surprised," she told him simply.

"What do you mean?"

Hanabi smiled, "You don't think I came to Suna as an ambassador without knowing who I was going to work with. In negotiations it is vital to know you counterpart. How do you think Hinata and I were able to change our clan?

We had to gather information about every member of the family, find out every strength and every weakness, what they liked what they dislike, every piece of their past. We had to figure out how to talk to them, how to behave around them.

When I was assigned to Suna I did just that, about the other ambassadors, about the council members and about you."

Gaara smiled sadly "It's not the same, you weren't there. You don't know what I did. You didn't see it."

"Gaara, we all have things in our lives we regret. Actions we wish we never had done."

She saw the unasked question in his eyes. What did she do that she regretted?

"When I was younger I was a real bitch. I was spoiled and basically I was a stuck-up brat, who didn't care about anyone but me. I was so mean to Hinata back then. Everyone always treated me like a princess so I felt like I was better than all of them. I was such a horrible person. Hinata was the one who always received the bitter end of me. She never did anything to me but I was nasty to her all the time. I said things to her that make me sick now and when we had to spar I hurt her a lot.

Instead of turning away from me, she was understanding and nice and sweet and it made me feel bad, so I was even worse to her. I was main family and therefore better than anyone else and Hinata…. Well she was weak so I thought it was alright to be mean to her. I thought she didn't deserve to be a Hyuga, much less part of the main family - Neji was the one to set me straight.

After his fight with Naruto at the Chunin exams he started to change and I kind of tagged along. Looking back I still feel terrible about what I did, but Hinata forgave me and I realized that feeling guilty about it did not make anything better," her smile had vanished from her face as she talked.

"In the end we all made mistakes in the past, but the past is not what matters, what matters is the present and the future."

His sea green eyes looked at her pale ones, "You didn't kill anyone, though. I terrorized everyone, I killed and what that is something I can never make up again. You can't call that a simple mistake."

Her fingers traced over his kanji symbol gently, "I know, Gaara, but you have to forgive yourself for what you did. You cannot give back their lives but you did whatever you could to repay this village for your past mistakes."

Your mistakes, the things you regret… they are a part of you; they made you who you are now. Our mistakes, no matter how badly we regret them, they make us who we are and they'll make us who we will be.

Your mistakes made you to the person you are now and I would not want to change a single thing about you. You have to find it in yourself, accept your mistakes as a part of you, it doesn't mean you don't regret them it just means you have accepted them and can move on," her eyes locked with his only a breath away from him.

For minutes there was nothing but silence. The Kazekage let the words sink in; in awe he looked at the woman lying next to him, wrapped in his white sheets, vulnerable as she was, yet completely trusting him.

"Thank you Hanabi."

She smiled at him before she leaned in and kissed him softly.

"Now get back to sleep, you need it" he told her.

"Mmh what if I have a better idea?" she let her fingers trace his abs slowly making his insides burn with want and need.

"How are you doing this?" he pushed her under him and growled in her ear.

…

"I already hate this!" Neji crossed his arms, emphasizing just how much he disagreed with it.

"Oh come on Neji, this is going to be fun!" Tenten tried to convince him, not so sure about this herself.

At first it had sounded ok. A double date with Shikamaru and Temari wasn't that bad, right? Shikamaru would probably be half asleep and would leave Neji alone and so the girls could talk. There was only one slight problem…it wasn't a double date anymore.

First Lee had go a whiff of this and faster than lightning invited him and Karin along. But well there were used to Lee anyway and Karin was usually really cool…if not combined with Lee.

But to make matters worse the red head had decided to invite Karui and Kiba. And when those two were involved somehow things always ended dirty to say in the least.

And as if that wasn't enough, after Ino heard she had declared that they would come too because they would not be left out, Choji didn't say anything though.

…

"This is so troublesome. Can't we just stay in and watch a movie tonight?"

"No, we did that yesterday. Tonight is going to be fun!" Temari told her boyfriend while applying make-up.

"Why are you getting so dressed up anyway, we'll just have dinner."

The pretty blonde stopped for just a second, "Yeah….about that…" she stretched the words.

The man with the ponytail looked up alarmed, "We are just going to have dinner, right?"

…

"I'm so excited Lee-kun," Karin was dancing along to the loud music.

Lee joined her and twirled her around exclaiming happily, "Me too, Karin-chan! And I'm so glad Ino suggested we try out the new club that just opened in Konoha instead of going to dinner!"

That being the reason they were practicing dancing in the house - well not the only one but it was why they did it today - it was a warm up for the dancing tonight.

"We are not going to lose to Neji and Tenten!"

…Not at dancing anyway…

…

"Kiba were going to be late," Karui warned her canine boyfriend. She had opened her door for him and instantly she had realized the look on his face.

"Yeah I know. But trust me it is going to be worth it," he pushed her in softly and next thing you know there in her bed with significantly less clothes than before.

…

"So, we won't eat?" disappointed Choji sank down on Ino's chair as the blonde tried on what felt like her fifth outfit.

"No" she answered as she exited her room again.

This time she wore a light blue strapless dress that fell in waves down to the middle of her thighs. "What do you think?"

Chouji was still sulking and his head moved up only slowly, his mouth was hanging open when he looked at his gorgeous girlfriend.

"Perfect! Just the reaction I was hoping for" Ino smiled satisfied. "Now, I got some pizza for you," she kissed him delighted.

Choji could only wonder if he would have gotten the pizza without his 'perfect' reaction.

…

"Hey Hinata!" Naruto yelled, "Karin came to the office today and invited us to go out tonight with pretty much everyone else. You wanna?"

The bluenette asked in return, "Do you want to go?"

Naruto knew what she was playing at, first Sasuke's death, though he was dealing better with it, and for the past week he had been behaving weird around her. But what else was he supposed to do?

Every part of him screamed to get closer to her but the fear in his mind just wouldn't back down. So he was tense and jumpy when she was around. Worst part was how he could see that he was hurting her with his strange attitude but he couldn't help it. Hopefully a night out would help him cool off.

Considering all this Naruto nodded, "Yeah, why not?!"

Hinata signaled him that she was in as well. The heiress wasn't sure that it was a good idea; maybe she should try to talk to him about what was bothering him. She was terrified that he had remembered everything she had told him the night Sasuke had died. It was the only logical explanation as to why he was avoiding her as much as possible. If he knew she was still in love with him, it was probably weird and uncomfortable to be with her. Hinata suppressed the hot tears, she really wasn't in the mood to go out.

…

Half an hour later the doorbell rang. Hinata opened followed closely by Naruto who naively assumed they would be leaving the next instance.

"Oh no, not like that Hinata. Not tonight!" Ino said after taking in Hinata's outfit which consisted of jeans and a nice deep blue shirt.

Naruto could not find anything wrong with it, to him Hinata looked absolutely stunning but Ino appeared to disagree strongly. She dragged Hinata back into her room by the wrist, ignoring Hinata's remarks about how she liked her outfit. With a sign Naruto turned to the others that were dropping into the apartment.

"So you want something to drink?"

Neji's brows furrowed dangerously, "You know Naruto you sure a behaving a lot like you live here and come to think of it you do spend a lot of time here. In fact you are constantly here now that I think about it."

Naruto shifted uncomfortably under the huge amount of pair of eyes directed at him. It was true officially he didn't live here; it wasn't like he moved in with her. And he still had his own apartment plus neither he nor Hinata had felt obligated to tell anyone of their… 'unclear living arrangement'.

"Ah well you see Neji, the food here is really good and Hinata lets me…" before he could keep on blabbing nonsense he was saved by Ino.

The tall blonde woman huffed in frustration, Hinata outright refused a dress and Ino could not get her to get rid of the jeans. According to Hinata, she was very happy in this outfit and was unwilling to trade it for something that made her feel uncomfortable. Even when Ino remarked that a certain blond might notice her more if she'd dressed up, but that was apparently the very wrong approach, since Hinata closed up totally after that.

At least now she wore a sexy silver tank top that went down over her buttock accenting every curve she had. It was the best Ino could do.

…

There was only word that Naruto found fitting to describe this evening: 'torture'.

He was perfectly able to control himself around Hinata when he could only imagine what she was hiding beneath those ridiculous lose fitting layers of fabric… Well more or less perfectly but still he hadn't ravished her until now that had to count for something, right?

Every day until now had been hell but how could he possibly survive this night?

Naruto had lost count of how many times he had thought about Hinata and decided she couldn't become any more appealing to him and every damn time he got proven wrong. The Jinchuurikigrabbed his glass tighter until he almost felt it crumble. The way he had fantasized about her body did not do her justice. Naruto had felt like he lost the ability of speech when he had seen her after Ino was done with her, using all of his fast vanishing will power he had tried his hardest not to look at her.

Sadly he had ended up ignoring her and, boy, he was not happy with it. If another idiot tried to touch Hinata again, he was going to explode. This one guy had really pushed his buttons. He had just walked up to his Hinata and then he had asked her if it was true that all the Hyuga women were incredibly bendy. It was like the jerk asked to be punched in the face. Before Hinata could answer Naruto had already stepped in front of her and took care of the problem. Not violently, even if he had really wanted to, but the look in his eyes must have made the guy pee his pants and he took off at full speed.

The Hyuga girl on the other hand was not having a great night either. First Ino dragged her off and forced her to wear something that felt like second skin making Hinata feel very self-conscious and then Naruto didn't talk to her for the whole evening. She felt miserable, Naruto had been acting strange all week, first she had assumed it was because of Sasuke but the more time went by the surer she became that it wasn't.

By now she just knew it had something to do with her and judging by his reaction to her it wasn't anything good. And she was almost a hundred percent sure that it was because he remembered.

The fear she had tried to ignore over the past weeks resurfaced worse than ever.

"Hinata will you at least try to fake a smile?" Karin asked in a desperate attempt to get Hinata to cheer up.

"Huh? Oh sorry, I'm just not feeling so well. I think I should go home."

Karui rolled her eyes at her, "Come on, Hinata you haven't danced all night. I'm not letting you go until you give one of the guys that stare at you with their tongues rolled out a chance!"

"She's right. Why don't you give one of them a chance? You shot down at least ten of them tonight, not counting the ones who were too terrified to approach you because Neji is glaring daggers at them."

"No I really just want to go!" Hinata insisted.

Finally Tenten intertwined, "Let her go girls. If she's not feeling like it, then she's not. We can always try another time"

She found a grateful look from Hinata sent her way.

…

When she fought her way to the exit Hinata debated with herself if she should tell Naruto she was leaving or not. He obviously didn't want to talk to her and if he was having a blast she didn't want to spoil his fun. Still…she could just let him know.

A second before she turned around a strong hand was put on her shoulder. She whirled around but relaxed when she looked into sky blue eyes; eyes that were showing his confusion.

"You didn't plan on leaving without telling me, were you?"

She smiled and shook her head,

"I was just about to look for you."

Any thoughts, suggestions, notes, critism and whatever you have to say are welcomed and appreciated.