This is me ignoring homework and pushing the envelope on deadlines. So what else is new? Standard disclaimers apply, and stick. Like what happens to Laura's mummy-chicken when it's thrown against a wall. I'm going back to bed, please leave any complaints in their pigeonholes, it's just not worth it.
She is untouchable, apart from this world, but trapped in its mundanity anyway. It's too late to fall in love with her, but human nature is never so compliant. Because he is who is his, the fleeting fondness he held when she was simply a familiar presence of pale comfort turns to want when he is told he can not have her. She tells him she loved him for so long now, since before they became genin, since she stalked him slurping ramen, since she learned what true warmth felt like. She tells him she's getting married, and she didn't want to leave this a loose end, and that she doesn't want him to love her, she just wanted to tell him for her own sake, and that of her marriage, because she wants to make sure it ends. She bows goodbye and leaves, never once meeting his eyes, and he is left, speechless and confused. He thinks about not having her there, about her leading a clan he vowed to change himself. It didn't mean much when he was twelve, that he said he would change the Hyuga for her, but now it sounds like he made a promise to her, for her. He does love her, like he loves this village, like he loves learning, like he loves everything; with all his heart, with all his determination, with all his body.
He finds her the next day, walking with Neji and Sasuke and Hanabi, and he acts on his all encompassing affections and kisses her, there in the street, in front of the people in the stores and the passersby. Neji sends him into a wall, and dazedly he watches as if through water and a hundred years as Sasuke's arm comes around her and she clings to him weakly, burying her face into his shoulder.
"You shouldn't go around kissing other people's fiancées, you know," Hanabi informs him. "Even if she has bad taste in men, you're too late to take advantage of that."
Hinata approaches, not fighting to Sasuke's claim on her hand, and Naruto has to look up into red eyes. Hinata reaches for his face, hand glowing green, her touch is cool and impersonal and efficient. He had never known Hinata could be cold.
"Don't. I loved you, but this isn't that. I want to be happy with Sasuke; I want to change the Hyuga with him. So, please don't."
She turns to leave him again, but this time, she glances back, he isn't angry or upset, just blank and she hates herself for being the one to do it.
"He's my rival, remember?" Sasuke states quietly. If only I could make you mine, completely, so you wouldn't remember, so I wouldn't worry, so you wouldn't have gone to him last night. My wife, my bed, my family.
"He made a promise to me. And I've made my promise with you. Your wife in more than just name." She clasps his hand tighter, feeling him warm for her. More than just doing this, she wants it, like she hasn't wanted anything else. It means more to her than Naruto's smile that she is able to have what she wants.