He would sit there a lot, back when he was a kid.

Not because he liked swings that much, but because it was a good place to be when things were tough, when he was so close, yet so far, like that time when he couldn't graduate from the Ninja Academy.

There were so many proud parents and proud kids, showing off their new hitai-ate and babbling happily about what life as a genin would be like.

He was so close, yet so far. So when they all left, he would swing his legs hard, soaring into the air. When he closed his eyes and extended his hands, he could almost feel everything he wanted, right within his grasp.

It was a good place to be lonely.

After Iruka-sensei and Sakura and Sasuke and Kakashi-sensei, things changed a lot. He didn't have to close his eyes anymore to feel everything he wanted, right within his grasp.

He just didn't have to go to the swing that much. Not when he could drag Iruka-sensei over to Ichiraku for ramen and beg for seconds, or listen to Sasuke hmph while he and Sakura yelled, "You're late!" at Kakashi-sensei.

Not when he could try to pawn potato chips off Chouji while Ino and Sakura bickered like no tomorrow and Shikamaru gazed up at the clouds in boredom.

Not when Lee kept challenging everyone under the sun to some kind of youthful competition while Neji and Tenten sighed in exasperation, or when Shino spoke in his annoyingly complicated way and drove him and Kiba up the wall.

During those days, when he closed his eyes, he could feel the future in front of him, right within his grasp.

He was getting closer and closer.

There was only one time in those intervening four years that he ever returned to that swing.

Technically speaking, it wasn't a swing anymore, just a few broken wooden beams, torn apart just like everything else in the wake of Pain's invasion. But it was still a good place to be lonely.

She'd gotten frighteningly close to the end a mere few days ago, and that thought was enough to push him over the breaking point, ready to give into the Kyuubi, to give up his heart to the fox, if only he could be free from the pain.

Tears of relief had leaked from his eyes when he realized that she'd survived, that she was still so far from the end, despite being so close.

So he closed his eyes and imagined that when he saw her again, after she was released from medical observation, she would give him a big, bright smile. He just had to wait for a few days, that was all.

He was getting closer and closer.

She also used to sit there a lot over the years.

When she couldn't handle training drill after training drill, when she stumbled and fell too many times, when the muttering and gossiping about her came to be too much, she would go there, to that spot near the woods where she'd met him for the first time.

He was sitting on that swing, wasn't he? When those older boys had called her a white-eyed monster.

From what she could recollect about him over the years, he would go to the swings a lot; after one botched jutsu after another; after many a lunch break with only one cup ramen after another; one scolding from a teacher after another.

It seemed that they were both looking for good places to be lonely.

Like him, she stopped going there after Kiba and Shino and Kurenai-sensei came into her life. After Neji nii-san finally gave her a warm smile for the first time in over a decade. After Sakura and Ino would both drag her around Konoha to take her shopping and Akamaru would demand her attention with a pout and a whine.

Those were the times when she could close her eyes and imagine that everything was in her grasp.

The only time she returned to a swing in the intervening seven years was when she thought he was out of her grasp, when she saw the green scarf wrapped around his neck and felt her throat close up.

I hope you're happy, Naruto-kun.

She tried to imagine his smile from when she met him for the first time, as he was sitting on that old swing, and her eyes burned, tears leaking out and staining the red scarf in her lap.

She was so close, yet so far.

The next time she laid eyes on one was during a bright spring day, when she was closer and closer, with everything she ever wanted right within her grasp, after she thanked Iruka-sensei for agreeing to be Naruto's father at the wedding. A small creak caught her attention.

It was the old swing, though newly repaired, if the sanded wood was anything to go by, swaying gently and cheerfully in the breeze.

Hinata smiled.

Thanks for being here all the time.

A/N: And that's the end of NH Week! :) Thanks for reading and reviewing, RamenIsLife, NikiVA, Jove21, GBAboy313, Minako K, EvilRegalNeoQueen, Jean Sanders, Guest, Iwik, DRaupe, and johnnycatalina! :)

Hope you liked these little one-shots.

I'm going to be very, very busy from July onwards, and I might not be able to post here too much (though I hope to still check reviews and PMs and read more stories). But I want to write as much as I can until then, so do any of you have ideas? I might write them out.

Till then, I'm going to echo the last line of the story: Thanks for being here all the time. :)