The wheelhouse ground to a stop yet again. There were three loud clomps as the driver climbed down and headed off into the bushes. Sakura hurled her magazine to the floor in frustration. "Gods dammit!" she snarled. "I don't have to stop this much for bathroom breaks, and I'm pregnant! What's the matter with our driver?"

Hinata looked up from the sudoku puzzle she was doing. "Well, he does seem to be drinking an awful lot of water. Maybe... he has a medical condition?"

"I'll give him medical condition," muttered Sakura angrily.

Hinata sighed. It was true, the carriage had not been the fastest mode of transport. Still, they had plenty of time to get there and they had made sure to bring plenty with them to keep themselves occupied.

Only… Sakura seemed to be getting... more than a little frustrated with their trip. "Is everything okay Sakura?" Hinata asked putting as much concern as she could into her voice.

Sakura opened her mouth to snap out a reply, but managed to take a deep breath and calm herself down. "No… I'm hot and I'm sore from sitting in this damn wheelhouse and I'm bored and I just want to be there already." She took another deep breath, and laughed a little. "I'm sorry," she said a little less harshly, "being like this," she patted her stomach, "tends to bring out my bring out my bad side." Sakura brushed her sweaty bangs out of her face and smiled at Hinata.

Hinata smiled too, glad her friend seemed to have calmed down a little. "Well, I can't do much about the heat, or you being sore, but maybe we can do something about the boredom. Do you want to... share stories?"

Sakura looked up with a frown on her face. "Share stories?"

Hinata colored slightly, instantly realizing her faux pas. Of course Sakura Uchiha would be apprehensive discussing her past. Especially the parts that involved her clan. "We don't have to if you don't want to. I only thought that… It might help pass the time." She turned back to her sudoku book and buried her face in it.


Sakura pulled the book down to get her friend's attention. "No, I didn't mean I didn't want to do it," she said quickly. "I'm just not... sure what you mean by 'sharing stories.' Do you just want to… talk?" Inside her head she gave a small groan. Hinata was head of the Hyuga clan, she argued with other clan chiefs and could hammer out contracts and trade deals with no hesitation or doubt. However, every now and then, when she was with her oldest friends, her bashfulness would raise it's head. Sakura always felt so guilty when she was the one that made it happen.

"Oh," Hinata paused and pulled her legs up onto the bench to make herself more comfortable. "Sharing stories is a game the children used to play growing up in the Hyuga compound. All the girls would sit in a circle and one by one someone would ask you a question." Hinata's eyes flicked to look outside the window for a second. "Usually it was an embarrassing one. Anyway, once asked you were honor bound to answer it truthfully."

Sakura felt herself smile, a little twitch of her lips. "I've played this before… And then when someone asks you a question you don't want to answer, you'd have the option to take a punishment, right?"

"A punishment?" the Head of the Hyuga clan asked with eyebrows raised.

"A dare." given Hinata's puzzled look Sakura clarified further. "Nothing too severe… usually something embarrassing, like standing outside the house in nothing but your underwear for five minutes."

Hinata looked slightly horrified. "That... would be one way to play... I suppose… The only recourse someone had in my version of the game when asked an embarrassing question was to ask an even more embarrassing one in retaliation."

Sakura picked up her magazine and used it to fan cool air into her face. "That was how I used to play when I was sleeping over at Ino's house. Of course the stories we told were all about how we were in love with Sasuke." She smiled. "It sounds like the perfect thing to play at a slumber party. Only without the braiding hair and the makeup and the pillow fights."

Hinata giggled. "That sounds like fun, but the Hyuga minders would have never allowed pillow fights. The other girls did braid each other's hair sometimes though."

Sakura thought about it a little bit more. She still felt too hot and sore and didn't really want to do anything. But the more she thought about it, the more she realized that Hinata was right, at the very least it might help pass the time. She shrugged. "Okay, let's try it. But I'm a bit surprised you suggested it. I mean... nothing personal, but it doesn't seem like the kind of thing you would have enjoyed as a girl."

Hinata blushed again. She looked down. "Actually... um… I was never allowed to play. My father said that such games were beneath the head family and... well, to be honest... I never had that many friends back then to play with anyway." Hinata paused and looked up at Sakura with a small smile. "But now… all grown up, with no minders, and since we're friends, I thought that maybe we could…"

Sakura sighed. Refusing Hinata right now would be like kicking a puppy. She shook her head, but smiled. "Fine… but since you came up with the idea, can I ask the first question?"

A broad smile broke across Hinata's face. "Okay!" she said eagerly. "Ask me anything!"

Sakura leaned back and thought for a second. She wanted to start the game off with something tame. "You know, I once asked Naruto how he went about proposing to you… He got all embarrassed and mumbled something like 'I pulled out the ring and asked her… She said yes, what's to tell?' but it was always obvious he wasn't telling the whole story… So… How did it happen?"

Hinata froze and blushed bright red. She started to fidget with her fingers and Sakura instantly regretted asking it. She was about to retract the question, when Hinata took a deep breath and began. "It all started when Naruto asked me out to a very special very fancy dinner… It was the first day of the clan gathering and I had just had the most horrible day…"

Hinata continued her tale, and Sakura listened and gasped and laughed. Then Sakura launched into the next one, the story about she tried to protect Naruto and Sasuke from the sound ninjas during her first chunin exam, and how people kept showing up to help her…


They grew so engrossed, that they didn't realize that their driver had returned to the carriage. He climbed the steps and glanced upwards into the sky. The two messenger doves he had released circled once and then flew off in opposite directions, one towards the Leaf Village the other towards the Fan-fan resort. He nodded, his report successfully sent, and picked up the reins.

He clicked at the horses and the wheelhouse started to roll on. He smiled to himself as he listened to the two unsuspecting fools babble on inside, and took a long sip from his canteen. Travel always made him so thirsty.