Hinata shifted restlessly, shutting her eyes tightly against the bright light that was inexorably dragging her awake. She curled further into the covers, burying her face there in the vain hope that she could pretend it wasn't morning yet. For once the new day's chill wasn't seeping into the bedclothes to leave her cold and eager to drag herself out of sleep so she could dress and get warm. If anything it was hot as a furnace under the sheets, and they had wrapped about her so tightly in the night it could almost have been an embrace.

Blearily her mind circled back to that thought, rousing her from her pleasant musings. She shifted and gasped slightly at the twinge of sensation as she stretched her legs out: not wholly pleasant, but not pain either. She stretched, humming contentedly as the discomfort faded to nothingness. Suddenly the weight that enveloped her so completely moved; one moment she was curled comfortably in a cocoon of her own warmth and the next she was being bodily dragged across the futon and into the arms of-

Her eyes shot open, every muscle in her body tensing until she started off the futon, hands scrambling for any sort of purchase until she could pry herself half-stumbling from the nest of sheets.

"What are you-" She rounded on the intruder, all else forgotten in a rush of indignation… only to be confronted by the sight of a golden-haired man sitting up in the futon behind her to rub the sleep from his eyes. He yawned widely, baring teeth that looked just a little too much like fangs for her peace of mind. At last his eyes focused on her, deep blue gaze warming when he caught the way she unconsciously followed the shift of muscle as he stretched. The smile he offered her was too familiar for a complete stranger, and sent a strange frisson of excitement coursing down her spine.

Hinata froze, recognition banishing the last of her cozy warmth in a split second. That smile sparked memories that tumbled through her mind's eye almost too quickly for her to make sense of them. Magnolias and hairpins, the feast, sharing sake from each others' cups, more blushes and happy smiles in one night than she had expected in a lifetime. And after, when they were alone- she could almost feel his phantom touches on her skin even now. Her breath was coming too fast and short, leaving her dizzy with it. His smile had taken on a shade of concern that had him unwinding the sheet from his waist.

"Hinata-"

"Don't!" She shrieked, instinctively raising a hand to cover her eyes. If memory served, and it finally did much as she might wish otherwise, he was naked under that sheet.

Naked. Hinata nearly darted for the futon, reconsidered when she saw the man- Naruto- was perched on the edge of it, looking ready to pounce the moment she stepped too close. Frantically her eyes darted around the room, finding the remains of their garments from the night before. She was in no position to be picky; cautiously she circled the futon, crouching to lift the discarded haori while keeping Naruto in her sights. She couldn't fail to miss the way his gaze followed her, tracing bruises and marks she was only now becoming aware of.

"Don't look." Hinata imbued the words with as much command as she could muster, standing before him naked and vulnerable. Thankfully he made a show of closing his eyes and looking away, even blushing slightly, she thought.

Hinata wrapped the robe about her as swiftly as she could, red as an apple and trembling like a leaf but doing her best to compose her expression and correct her posture until she stood tall and strong as befitted a lady of the Hyuuga. She would never manage her mother's effortlessly regal stance, but not even her father could have found fault with the effort.

What to say? What to do? More and more of last night was gradually trickling back to her; how bold she had been, touching him like she had the right, asking him to return the caresses. Her lips were swollen, skin overly-sensitive where the haori draped over her shoulders. Her hair tumbled down around her, mussed and tangled but lending a false shroud of modesty. She felt clumsy, confused and utterly helpless; it wasn't a new feeling, but this was so much worse!

Her dream had seemed so real. Now she knew why, knew why the night had held so many surprises despite herself. Why the colors had seemed brighter, the sounds more raucous and every touch less ephemeral. It hadn't been a dream. None of it. She had taken a fox's hand and walked out of her family's house, had feasted and drank with demons, had offered vows to the fox that rightfully should have been Shino's. Had already enjoyed her wedding night.

What had seemed so sweet and perfect at the time suddenly felt horribly wrong. The memories that could heat her skin even now were tainted with the knowledge that she shouldn't have had them at all. There was no undoing it, not what she had done with Naruto… perhaps not even the words she had so freely offered. She recognized the weight of shame settling in her gut, the sting of tears gathering at the corner of her eyes and the way her breath caught in the back of her throat. So much for her ladylike mien; any moment now the illusion would crumple to leave her sobbing before a complete stranger that she barely remembered marrying.

Naruto's eyes snapped open at the first strangled sob, his lady's orders forgotten at the stab of concern in his gut. Hinata had draped his haori about her, fingers curling into the fabric so tightly her knuckles turned deathly white. Her eyes were clenched shut, but her head was still held defiantly high to bare a vulnerable throat only now beginning to show the marks of their play. He valiantly ignored the prick of guilt at the back of his mind, feeling the mild soreness from thoughtless bruises she had left in her turn.

Ah, but he was a fox and no better than he should be. The woman standing before him was a blooded lady, and whatever her scars said of her past he had clearly been too rough with her.

"What's wrong?" He started to rise, remembered her panicked glance when she had first awoken and quickly draped the sheet over his hips. Hinata was as different now from the woman of last night as the winter was from the summer.

Her eyes snapped open at his approach, unnaturally still gaze fixing on him unerringly. He tried not to see the pinkness where her tears were gathering; he wanted nothing more than to wrap her more snugly in the haori, drape the sheets about them and curl around her in the futon until she finally relaxed again, but everything about her stance screamed that she didn't want him coming any closer. He stopped, fingers twitching with the aborted thought of reaching out to her.

"Who are you?" The words were tremulous, but she didn't stutter. Wound tight as she was, she didn't run either. Naruto wasn't sure she could, stiff and frozen as she looked.

"Uzumaki Naruto," he reminded her gently, puzzled that she could have forgotten so easily. Humans were different though, or so Sakura often liked to tell him, even short as their lifetimes were they couldn't remember even half of them. He was sure the sake had helped, only the strongest brew for a wedding feast.

"No, not-" Hinata cut herself off, swallowing again and becoming even more rigid in her stance if that were possible. "Are we- did we… marry?" She whispered the last word, eyes frantically scanning his face to look for an answer he couldn't even begin to guess at. She held her breath waiting for his answer, eyes wide and searching but their nakedness completely forgotten.

"Yes?" While true, Naruto had the nagging feeling it was the wrong answer. His suspicion was confirmed when Hinata froze in shock, lips moving to shape words but no sound emerging.

A tear slid down her cheek, solitary and unchecked, another until gradually her face began to crumple into a tragic mask of confusion and distress.

"Hey, are you all right?" Stupid question, but Naruto could feel an icy claw of fear raking his spine, clamping about his throat until he couldn't breathe. Something was obviously wrong, but he didn't know what it was or how he was supposed to fix it if Hinata wouldn't even look at him-

She opened her eyes at last, visibly forcing herself to swallow another sob and clumsily palming the tears from her eyes even though more quickly took their place. "I don't even know you. Why would you take me? I need to go home." She seized on those last words, eyes widening in unpleasant surprise. "I need to go home. My family-" she swallowed, "they'll be looking for me."

"They won't find you here." He said honestly; the home he kept hovered on the edge of the natural world, but it would take an exceptionally skilled human to find it. As to her family… remembering the tears she had shed as she confided in him, Naruto did not think it would be such a great loss if they could not find her; his blood was fit to boil in his veins for the sake of what they had been prepared to put her through.

Though he hadn't done much better. Hinata didn't resist when he reached out to her at last, drawing her a step closer. One more hesitant step after that. A Human and a Woman. He was baffled on two fronts, all the more when Hinata's hand clamped about his wrist, gentle but firm and simply stood near him, gaze turned inward.

"Hinata?" She roused from her brown study, tears she had already shed still tracking down her face but no new ones beading in her eyes much to his relief.

"We can't be married. I'm already promised to the Aburame clan."

He didn't answer, stung despite himself. Somehow he thought-

It didn't matter. Clearly he hadn't made his intentions plain to her, and just as obviously she didn't understand the bond they had consummated. "You are promised to me."

Naruto had meant it for a simple statement of fact, but the words came out with a possessive growl that had Hinata dropping his hand like it had become molten lead to wrap her arms protectively about herself once more.

"We exchanged oaths last night." He continued, hurting, reeling as much as she but unwilling to cede ground on this point. "Whatever promises came before that don't matter. You are my wife."

"I can't- Who are you?"

Finally he understood what she was questioning; not who he was but what. For her, last night had not been the first of many between them, but a fever dream. She hadn't known him, and she didn't know him now, their oaths resting so much lighter on her than they did on him.

"Your fox."

If he had thought she seemed pale before, it was nothing to the complete absence of color in her face now, the dazed look on her face a split second before comprehension dawned. "Impossible."

He would've corrected her, but there was no weight to the word and even as she spoke it he could see her connecting all the pieces together and coming to the only conclusion she reasonably could: She had married a fox spirit. Had slept in his bed, woken in his home and was even now instinctively turning to him for comfort.

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He's not human. Death won't sever these vows.

What had seemed like poetic whimsy last night fell like a hammer's blow as she remembered Sakura's warning. She had given her word to a fox, her fox he had claimed. Everything fell into place all at once, memories slotting neatly together with Naruto's answers to her questions. She clutched the haori in nerveless fingers, lips numbing with shock while the world spun a little before righting itself. She couldn't possibly have named what she felt then, some chimera of fear and relief, nervousness, determination… too much to feel at once.

She stepped back slowly and he allowed it. Her fox, her little friend in the forest, the man that had held his hand out to her and told her she was his bride. She was now, and if not even death could sever her vows then she was sure no number of heartfelt appeals would either.

Hinata cleared her throat, swallowing the lump that was restricting her breathing, "I need to get dressed."

More than that, she needed to scrub the memories from her skin, sluice them off under the water and set herself to rights. Once she was clean and dressed she could face him again, not as the pitiful waif she felt like right now but as his unwitting bride. His equal, she reminded herself. But she couldn't manage that with his clothes draped about her shoulders and his scent on her skin.

"Are you all right?" He repeated, blue eyes open and honest, no trace of trickery in them however betrayed she felt.

"I need to get dressed." She repeated, fingers flexing in the thin fabric in a bid for any sort of comfort.

Naruto opened his mouth, thankfully shut it and nodded. Hinata couldn't hide the way her shoulders sagged with relief when he didn't press; she could see the urge to speak in the way he clamped his lips shut, hear it in the helpless grinding of his teeth but for now she needed time to think.

Mercifully, he gave it to her. He didn't speak as he led her to the same room where the other women had prepared her for her wedding night. Didn't even look at her until he noticed that someone had already filled the tub.

"Sakura." He snorted, an edge of fondness in his tone that pricked Hinata with the very real memory of her own name spoken in the same tone not too long ago.

"Clean up. I'll see what sort of clothes I can find for you."

"Thank you." Hinata mumbled, every bit as shy and uncertain as she had ever been. He scowled, but eyes cast down she didn't see it. Turning back to the tub, he dipped a hand in, he swirled aimlessly.

"What are you-"

Steam began to rise from the water, a comforting warmth that she could almost feel wrapping about her already. Hinata wet her lips, more grateful for the small kindness than she had the words to express

"I'll be waiting for you outside." The tone of his voice brooked no argument and Hinata dared to glance up again, studying his expression, for what she wasn't certain. He didn't leave until she nodded at last, sealing some unspoken agreement.

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True to his word, Naruto paced restlessly just outside where he had left her, stomach twisting into knots while he listened for the tell-tale splash of water. She wasn't crying any more at least; he had caught a muffled sob a few minutes after he had left her, but she had stifled it quickly. She was going to ask him to break their bond as soon as she found the courage, he knew. He glanced to the thread about his finger, the one Humans either could not or would not see. Even if she hadn't accepted his vows and given hers in turn they would have been inexorably bound. But how to make her understand that?

He would have given anything for Sakura's advice, but like everyone else she had retired to give the new couple time to learn each other without interference. He could guess at what she would think though: Send her home, let her struggle against the bond, let it draw her back to him again however she struggled. Sasuke would be more direct; he wouldn't even have given her leave to go, would have kept her near him by any means necessary if she had attempted to leave.

Returning her to her family whilst she was bound to him was out of the question. Undergoing the grueling ordeal of severing a thread of fate when he had only just found his mate was equally untenable. Dammit, foxes were supposed to be cunning beasts but he had always been exceptionally straightforward for one of his kind. Laughably so, but then whom would he have learned his tricks from alone as he had been from the beginning?

No tricks then. He would have to find another way to persuade her. Running his fingers through his hair, pulling strands out in his agitation he didn't hear her creep out behind him. Didn't see the searching look on her face as she watched him pace to and fro like a man possessed. When she knelt to gather up the plain yukata he had left for her, he finally caught the movement from the corner of his eye, just late enough for her to duck out of sight. He turned to face the door where she had disappeared, crossing his arms and trying not to squirm with impatience.

Finally, finally, she emerged, yukata clinging slightly to her damp skin. For both their sakes Naruto tried to pretend he didn't notice, tried to pretend he didn't remember what she looked like under the plain clothing or what her skin had felt like under his hands. It was heartening to see the way she blushed though, eyes darting everywhere but to him. So. He wasn't the only one with pleasant memories of last night.

It came to him then, how he might keep her; just the seed of an idea but enough to lighten his heart and put the spark of confidence back in his eyes.

Before he could speak though, she had dropped to her knees, pressing her palms to the floor as she doggedly refused to look up at his face gone slack from shock. "Please release me from my vow."

Again and again she managed to take him by surprise, never the same woman from one moment to the next. First timid then bold, reticent then blunt. Her voice didn't quaver as she spoke the request, phrased so that it came just short of a demand despite her humble pose.

"Get up." He hated seeing her like that. Hated the way he couldn't watch her eyes. He didn't wait for her to comply, reaching down to haul her up gently but firmly. "Don't bow to me like that. Don't ever bow to me." I'm your husband. Even he had the good sense not to add the last few words.

"Then please release me from my vow," she pressed, as though it was that simple. As though he didn't feel the thread of fate painfully tangling about them already.

I can't, he started to say, but it wasn't the truth. He could, and he wouldn't. "Why?"

It was the safest response he could think of. Why would she want to return to a family that could trade her off like so much chattel for political advantage? Why would she want to return to a world where she felt marginalized and forgotten? Why wouldn't she want to stay with a man whose fate demanded that he love her, when her fate demanded the same?

She hadn't been expecting that response, obviously, had probably been preparing for an outright denial. She didn't have an answer for him immediately, searching his eyes for the answer she thought he would expect but in vain.

"My family will be worried-"

"Will they?" It was an honest question, but he regretted it immediately when she winced as though struck.

"I need them to know where I am, I owe them that." Her voice gained strength as she continued. "And I am already betrothed, it's an agreement we can't breach-"

"You're already married." Naruto corrected inexorably. He loathed how easily she skirted that, hated that even after all that had passed between them she still didn't consider him her husband.

"And I don't know you-" Fraying at the edges, she pressed on. "I don't know anything about this world you've dragged me into, I don't know where I am or what will happen to me, what you expect-"

Naruto caught her wildly gesturing hands, soothing, brushing a thumb along her pulse while he felt it race like a bird's beneath her skin. "I expect you to find a better reason to leave your husband."

If she wouldn't acknowledge it, he would force her to. He continued, speaking over the beginning of her protest, "I expect you to give me a reason for returning to your family that has to do with what you want-"

"I want to go back to my family." Temper. He could hear an edge of it in her voice now and it delighted him, mild as it was.

"You're asking me to sever an unbreakable bond, but it goes both ways."

"I didn't know-"

"So you're not responsible?" It was a low blow, and it found its mark unerringly.

"That isn't fair." Her voice broke, desperation mingling with frustration.

"What isn't fair is marrying me one night and demanding your release in the morning."

Hinata didn't answer, but he could see a certain slyness in her eyes that warned him she was already considering how she would evade him long enough to get home. If she could find it on her own, here in a world where Humans had no business being.

"Hinata." He was surprised at how softly her name left his lips, as much a plea for her attention as a brief prayer for hope. "These vows weren't meant to break. You're asking a lot of me." Now. "But I would be willing to try."
Now it was her turn to look suspicious, rather than seizing on the words like he had expected she drew back. "Why?"

His wife was no one's fool, least of all his. "Not for free, and maybe not ever."

"I don't understand." She did, or at least the suspicion of what he was about to propose had occurred to her.

"Give me some time. We married last night and you hardly know me at all."

Exactly. The thought was written on her face plain as day.

"Give me time to change your mind. Not long, say… live with me as husband and wife until the beginning of the season when the leaves begin to turn. If you still want to return then, I'll free you from your bond and take you wherever you ask." He could free her from the bond created by her words with effort, but the string linking them would not be so easily broken. He wasn't sure it was in his or any other spirit's power. And fate was a devilish mistress prone to punishing the fools that tried to escape her weaving; he needed to look no farther than his own closest friends for proof of that.

If she left though, he would try it. For his own sake as much as hers.

They stood frozen in what felt like an eternal silence. Hinata's eyes locked on his as she weighed what he offered against what he asked. If he had taken her measure, and some bone-deep conviction assured him he had, then she would not want to steal away secretively. It would eat at her, the knowledge that she had surrendered her honor when it might have been restored for the sake of a few weeks of her time. She would think of the vows she had already offered when she took her new husband, would look constantly over her shoulder for the one she had left behind.

"Until autumn, then we agree that my duty by you is done. " She stated, not looking away from his eyes even for a second. It was a question, if a stern one.

"If you come to me then and tell me you still want me to release you, I will. I'll make no other claim on you." If.

A few weeks of her time in exchange for the promise of a clear conscience. He hadn't misjudged her, she nodded.

"I agree." She forced the words out on a shaky breath, jaw firm and eyes determined.

Caught. Naruto held out a hand to her, a peace offering between them.

Steeling her resolve, she took it, tensing as though she expected him to pounce. He didn't, only squeezed, offering her a smile that had her blushing to the roots of her hair again; she knew exactly what he intended, and he wouldn't have had it any other way.

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Neji was the first to notice Hinata's absence. Dawn found him running through his forms near the pond that Hinata liked to frequent; most mornings she would have joined him, shadowing his movements or sometimes content to watch from a distance, but never far. After the news she had received yesterday, he thought nothing of it when she didn't come out to join him at first. Even when she missed breakfast, all the faces around the table betrayed only understanding and relief.

By noon though, he set his work aside and made for her room. It was one thing for Hinata to miss a practice or a meal, but the lady of the clan couldn't be seen to lock herself away in a fit of melancholy no matter how unwelcome the news. Better that he find her than her father.

Except she wasn't in her room. Her bedding was disturbed, and her cloak lay forgotten beside it so she had stayed here last night and awoken at some point, but discrete inquiries around the compound revealed that no one had seen her all morning. Still he delayed reporting it to Hiashi. Hinata and he had grown apart since their childhood, but for the sake of the friendship they had once shared and that dogged sense of protectiveness he had never quite been able to stifle, he tried never to be the cause of another humiliating public lecture on responsibility.

His second sweep of the compound gave him a piece of the answer, one that had him bolting headlong for the Southern court where Hiashi was training Hanabi again. The compound's outer gate had been opened sometime in the night. Opened and left open for anyone to wander in or out.

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I am shocked it took this long, but I shouldn't be. It turns out morning afters are incredibly tricky to write. I still have my issues with this rendition, but it fits better than previous drafts I think. Frankly, I want this one uploaded so that I can start on the meat of this frail plot and I'll come back and hammer out the kinks when I feel steadier with the characters.

That said, thank you everyone for your kind encouragement and patience. I went through my outbox the other day and realized I had responded to absolutely no one, so be sure to check your inboxes!

Next up: Naruto is wilier than he gives himself credit for, and Hinata is not above temptation.