I got a little inspiration to write the past few days. This chapter isn't particularly long, but it's the end of what I envisioned as the "prologue" to the story before it gets into the meat and potatoes that I have planned. You'll see how I progress things in the near future; this was the hardest part for me, because I have an actual "plot" upcoming that has been in my head for quite some time.

I hope the wait has been worth it. As always, thank you for your support.

Chapter 4

It didn't take too long for me to find Hinata. I knew the area pretty well, and, well, I knew Hinata nearly as much. The village had indeed undergone a lot of restoration over the past few years, but the layout remained much the same. One of Naruto's favorite parks that he went to when he was a child remained mostly intact from the old days, with the same swings and slides. At this time of night, just after dusk, it was abandoned, and the eerie lamps casting shadows fighting with the last straggling rays of sunshine made the atmosphere surreal.

I found her there, sitting in one of tIhe three swings, looking comically oversized compared to the equipment. Her knees were pointed up, and her feet trailed in the sand as she slowly rocked back and forth. She looked so sad. My heart broke to see her like this, and as I wondered what I could say to her to make her feel better, she glanced up. I could feel her apprehension, that instinct inside of her that drove her to leave.

She had never been so great at confrontation with her friends or family. Very much so had she always been the kind of girl to roll with the punches, so to speak, and no matter how talented she was... I don't think she ever really learned to stand up for herself.

"Hey, Hinata," I said as I slowly approached her, my hands clasped behind my back. I nodded at the swings. "Can I join you?"

She looked at me, thinking for a second or two longer than I would have liked, but she nodded. She turned her head away as I sat beside her, the chains clinking and creaking above us. The village was nearly silent around us but for the sound of birds and insects. It was peaceful and serene. A false peace, perhaps. We sat there for several moments, each lost in our thoughts. I'm sure that she was doing the same as I, planning the conversation in her head, rebuttals, conclusions, arguments, defenses, accusations...

It was she who broke the stillness. "I... I always knew it would be you he ended up with," she said after a while. I looked at her, but her eyes were cast upward at the moon, three-quarters full, in the sky. "He's loved you for a long time, you know."

I knew I had to be careful. I had a plan, but I needed to tread lightly here. "It just kinda happened, Hinata. I didn't mean for it, but a few weeks ago..." I shrugged. "I just knew that I was falling for him too." I let out a sign. "I'm a horrible woman, aren't I?"

"No!" The outburst caught me by surprise. "Sakura, you're not horrible at all! You're wonderful! I'm glad he's with somebody who cares so much about him!" Arms wrapped around the chains, she brought her hands to her chest. "But still, I wish... I wish I had had the courage to tell him how I feel. But I don't."

"You don't hate me?" I asked her.

She shook her head vigorously. I could see a tear or two fly off into the night in the moonlight as her hair whipped around. "I could never hate you," she said. "That wouldn't be fair. You're a good person, Sakura-san. You're one of the people I admire most! You're so strong, and brave, and kind... I wish I could be more like you. But as much as I try, I could never push myself to have the kind of courage to express myself." She hung her head. "I'm not the kind of girl who could tell the boy she loves how she feels."

"Hinata? You're plenty brave," I retorted. "When Naruto was at the mercy of Nagato, you were the one to stand up for him. You proved that day, to the whole village, the whole world, what you are made of. Maybe you lost against that monster Pain, but I don't think I could have done any better."

Hinata's shoulders began to shake as she cried. "B-but I lost!" she said. "I c-couldn't s-save him! I t-told him that I want-ted to walk beside him, but I s-still lost!" She sniffed. "All I could do was fight and die."

I put a hand on her shoulder. She flinched a bit at the contact, but let me try to comfort her. "You think Naruto could have beaten Pain without you?" I knew the truth better than anybody. "He was on the brink of defeat when you showed up. It wasn't that you bought him time, but... him losing you, right after you told him you loved him, it was what gave him the strength to push forward."

She looked at me in surprise. "What?"

Well, cat's out of the bag now. "Let me guess, he told you that the whole thing was a blur right before he transformed and lost control, right?"

Hinata nodded. "Wasn't it?"

I shook my head. "That was... I think it was a white lie. Maybe some parts are fuzzy, especially when his powers swelled. But even the shock of losing the village to disaster couldn't make him snap." I gently rubbed her shoulder some more, and it seemed to help. "But losing you? Seeing your courage and dedication to defend him, the village, and everybody you loved, watching you die like that, I don't think anybody other than me in that scenario could have propelled him to victory. In a way, you're responsible for saving Konoho. Maybe even the world. Hinata, he knows."

"But- if he does, did- why didn't he ever tell me?" She'd stopped crying, but her lavender eyes were stained with tears.

"He wasn't ready, I think," I said. "I think he was afraid of losing you, or you losing him. In his own way, he was protecting us. You and me. I don't know when exactly I fell for him or if it's been a process years in the making, but I don't think I could ever love him as much as you always have. Or if I can, it will take a long time to get there." I placed my free hand on my heart. "When I see him, when I think about him, my chest feels like it's about to explode."

"M-mine too."

I let out a small sigh and rubbed at my forehead. Why did this have to be so difficult? Why all of this at the same time? Naruto loved everybody, that was the kind of person that he had always been. He really didn't deserve to be caught in the middle of the two of us fighting over him, and I didn't want that either.

Of all things, he wanted everybody to get along. I knew that a bit better than most, after all. How were we going to get through this? Could we resolve the crisis peacefully?

"Hinata-chan..." I spoke, but trailed off. What could I say that could help her feel better? Did I even have the right to console her?

She wiped at her eyes, but I could see her pull herself together bit by bit. "A lot of people love him, don't they?" she asked me.

I nodded. "Yeah, they do." I nudged her in the shoulder with my fist. "Hey, Hinata-chan? You know it's okay to feel whatever you feel, right? Liking- loving somebody- it's not a taboo. If there was anything wrong about all this, put it up to the timing of it all and not the people."

Hinata gulped quite audibly. "I k-know," she muttered.

"And at the same time, liking someone that isn't meant for you isn't bad either. Imagine if people had chastised me too much for having that ridiculous crush on Sasuke when we were kids."

Hinata turned her head from me sharply and stood. "Are you saying that you're meant for Naruto?" she almost yelled. "How shallow do you think my love is?! All these years, after everything we-"

She wasn't ready for my hug. I wrapped my arms around her torso from behind and pulled her in close to me. I don't know what I was thinking, my body acted on pure instinct. I don't even think I chose the words that came out of my mouth anymore. "That's not what I'm saying, Hinata-chan," I murmured. Her body, tense and ready for a fight, I felt it quiver against me. She and I had been friends for a long, long time. To this day I still draw strength from remembering her battle against her cousin in the Chuunin exams, smack dab in the middle of Training Ground 44. In a world full of shinobi, few exemplified the notion of "warrior princess" quite like this woman.

"Then what do you mean?" she asked.

"I'm saying that... hell, I don't know. Maybe I'm telling you it's too early to give up. Maybe I'm not the one meant to end up with him. Maybe you aren't." I gulped, because I knew the next words to come could be the difference between being friends for life or comrades when necessary. "Maybe we both are. I don't know, really."

Listen, I know it was a heavy moment for both of us. But that little "eep!" that she barely suppressed as she heated up with a blush that I was sure was gonna cover her from head to toe. "B-b-both?" she managed to stammer out. "Wha... what d-do you mean?!"

I laughed and let her go, and the little scamper she made when she turned to face me was just too adorable. "I'm kidding, I kid," I said. Mostly. Kinda. "But really, we're both talking about what we want and not really thinking about what Naruto wants." I laced my fingers behind my head and looked up at the stars. "Sometimes, I wonder if Naruto really knows how to be happy outside the context of his job. He's made a lot of friends since he came back with Jiraiya, and everybody believes in him like some kind of messiah. Did you know that there was a group made of both civilians and shinobi who were actually starting to worship him a few years ago?"

Hinata nodded. "I remember them," she said. "They, uh, they tried to recruit me too, actually."

I cocked an eyebrow at that. "Doesn't surprise me," I told her. "What did you say?"

"Obviously I turned them down!" she said, her face still red. "I know he's not a god, really..."

"Even though you have a small altar in your room for him?"

Hinata sputtered at that while I laughed; it was a very open secret in Konoha how she felt about him. "H-how did you know?!"

"I didn't, until now."

She hung her head in shame. "I am a failure of a shinobi," she muttered darkly.

"Nah, you're just easy to push around when you're flustered," I told her. I put an arm around her shoulder and pulled her in for a side hug. "Hey, Hinata? Let's go back to Naruto's for right now and clear the air a bit. I'm sure he's still worried about you."

She rubbed her tears away with the sleeves of her jacket and sniffed for a moment. "Are you s-sure I'm welcome?" she asked softly. "I don't wanna intrude on you two..."

I waved my hand aimlessly. "Of course you are," I told her. "You know he loves it when he has company over. He kinda hates being alone, right?"

"I know, but that's not what I mean... Do you welcome me?"

And there it was. She was asking me how I felt about everything that had happened so far tonight. I let the question hang in the air for a moment while I thought of the best answer. "Don't get me wrong, Hinata," I said. "I want you to be happy. But I want Naruto to be happy even more than that. I don't think that what I feel for him is temporary; whether he'll be my 'the on that got away' or if we'll be together forever depends on how we proceed with that future.

"At the same time, he's still figuring things out for himself. I've been attracted to Naruto for a few years now, but even though we never let ourselves be anything other than friends, and we've both had other romances before, we've kept that distinct line between us. But not anymore. It's not fair to you to make you watch me fall for him when you told him how you felt when Pain attacked the village." I held a finger up to finish my point. "But we're not kids anymore, Hinata. Each one of us have so many real world responsibilities now. I'm in the hospital most days I'm not in the field, you're pulling in more missions than the average Hyuuga, Naruto has the spotlight on his every move when he leaves the village, not to mention the politics that go behind the scenes when people try to treat him like a walking bomb instead of a goddamn human being. Let's be adults and talk this all out. Don't you think... I mean, don't all of us, haven't we all earned the right to just decide to be happy in our own ways and go for it?"

Hinata looked at me with a strange expression. I didn't know what was going on inside her head- I was no Yamanaka- but I usually was better at reading people's faces than this. "Yes..." Her eyes went up fractionally, then her blush renewed. Oh, that I could read.

"Come on," I said as I turned, glad she couldn't see my shit-eating grin in the pale moonlight from that angle without activating her Byakugan. No point keeping Naruto waiting.

"O-okay, maybe just for a little while..."

She fell into step behind me, then was at my side. "Sakura?" she said as we marched.

"Hmm?"

"Er, hypothetically, um. What if... you know... he chooses me over you?"

I pursed my lips for a moment. "I don't see that happening," I said flatly.

"Oh." She cast her gaze at the street below and slumped her shoulders. "I see."

"But," I continued, "that doesn't mean he won't choose you anyway."

"Bwa?"

I couldn't help myself, I am such a goblin. "At this point, he's more likely to try to get us both at the same time so he doesn't have to choose, right?"

I heard her stop walking, random sounds pouring from her mouth, and as I pressed on into the heart of the village, I knew that we were going to have quite an interesting night ahead. "He waited for you, you know," I continued. "After the war? He was waiting for you to tell him how you felt. He wanted you to come to him because he didn't know how to go to you. Hinata?" I took her hand, her expression still shocked and confused. "I'm not saying it'll be easy, but it's not too late for you. Not saying I want to lose either. But if there's a chance for everybody to get what they want and everybody is happy... do you think that there's a world that we can live in where that is the reality?"

She poked the tips of her fingers together, that habit of hers hadn't quite died yet. I think that the implications of my question were running through her head and slamming into each other at unexpected angles. "I d-don't know," she muttered. "Why would he want me when he has you? I'm just..."

"You aren't 'just' anything, Hinata," I cut her off. "What are you talking about, huh?" I started ticking off fingers. "You're a super talented shinobi, you're the kindest woman I know, and people are already calling you the most beautiful kunoichi since Tsunade's prime. You're dependable, reliable, and-" I stopped when Hinata grabbed the back of my shirt and buried her forehead against my shoulder blades.

"Stop, it's embarrassing when you say it like that!" she said.

I laughed again, but kept walking with my friend in tow. "You never let your ego get to you, but at the same time you have trouble taking pride in your accomplishments to the point that you don't even really know how awesome you are. You take criticism better than compliments, but don't worry, I'll help you with that for a while."

"Sakura-chaaaannn!"

"He really needs to move to a new place," I said as we walked up to Naruto's door. While it wasn't a bad part of town to live in, the apartments in his building weren't exactly made for large groups of people to congregate in. Little more than barracks for single shinobi (or two, if they happened to not mind the limited personal space) no amount of soundproofing could provide the kind of privacy that a singular home would afford. I knew that Naruto had quite a bit of funds saved up over the years to get his own home, but he never saw the necessity of a more isolated living arrangement. The same could easily be said of myself, of course...

"I agree," said Hinata. "I am used to living with my clan, but when most of them can see through walls..." She shivered a little bit. The lack of privacy in the Hyuuga compound was a known problem for visitors to deal with. While that objectively made it safer to do business dealings there, it was also that much harder to keep a secret.

I paused before knocking on the door when we reached it. "Hey? Hinata?"

"Yes?"

I turned to her and put my hands on her shoulders. "You're going to be okay, you know that, right? You'll be fine. Nobody is going to make you do anything you don't want to do. If you just want to talk to Naruto alone, I'm happy to give you two your space and privacy."

The color crept back to Hinata's cheeks. "A-alone? No nonono, I c-can't do it alone, please don't go!"

Gosh, she was cute when she was flustered. "I'll stay, but only if you talk, okay? You need to get over your nervousness eventually." She just nodded with a pout, but I was willing to accept that for the moment. "Ready?"

"No."

"Too bad." I turned and rapped my knuckles on the door. "Hey, Naruto! We're here!"

I heard shuffling from inside. "Come on in," I heard him say from somewhere in there. I opened up the door to see him in his kitchen. The stove was on, and something smelled really good. One of the little-known facts about the man was that while he didn't often entertain parties, he was actually a really good cook.

"What's cooking?" I asked him as we crossed the threshold and closed the door behind us, Hinata taking care to keep me in between her and Naruto. I understood why she would be shy, but this girl was on another level.

"Beef hotpot!"

I pumped my arm up and down in celebration. "Yessss, jackpot!" I looked at Hinata and grinned. "You've never had his home cooking, have you?" I asked her.

"N-no, not really... I've eaten his food when we're on missions together, but not like this."

"Bah, campfire food is one thing, but you really should see him in action when he's in the kitchen. He'll make a great wife someday."

"Hey, I heard that!" Naruto protested.

I snorted. "Your apron is a light lilac and has sunflowers on it."

"Well, sometimes a guy just wants to feel pretty, you know?" Hinata snorted at this, then when Naruto and I turned to look at her she went "Eep!" and covered her face with her hands. "Hey, Hinata!" he said with a bright smile. "Come on in, don't be shy. I didn't know how long you would be, but I guessed that nobody's had dinner yet."

"I am kinda starving," I said. "I only had chips earlier. Hinata, you hungry?"

"A little bit," she admitted. "I had planned to eat at home, though..."

"Eh, don't worry about it," I said. "I already asked Tsunade through Katsuya to send a message to your family that you'd be with me tonight."

"You what?" exclaimed Hinata.

"Just a precaution," I assured her. "I figured we all had things to talk about, and if worst came to worst, you can just go home early."

"Were you that confident that you would be able to convince me to come back here?" she asked me.

"Pretty much, yeah," I quipped. "Now come on, take off your shoes. The sake Naruto serves with his hotpot comes straight from the Elder Toad Sage's personal stash."

"Sake? I, I um, I don't really drink alcohol..." she muttered.

"You don't like it?" Naruto asked, still working in the kitchen, his hands busy stirring and adding some seasoning to the stew.

"More, um, I never really drink it at h-home, I don't know how well it'll agree with me."

I looked at Naruto. Naruto looked at me. We caught each other's gaze. His eyebrow arched, I lowered mine for a split second. His head tilted to his right by a few degrees, my nose tipped into the air, just slightly. "Agreed," I said.

"Huh?" Hinata said, somewhat bewildered.

"Hinata?" Naruto said, wiping his hands on his apron, taking care not to smear the sunflowers. "I know we've got a lot to talk about, okay? But tonight, I just wanna hang out with my friends." He gestured at her and I with his hands and smiled. "So, what do you say? Let's turn on a movie, eat some good food, and get wasted, just for tonight?"

Hinata looked like she had no idea what to do. Her hands covered her mouth in mild anxiety, the sleeves of her jacket bunched up over her wrists. She was probably nibbling on the cuffs to stop from squeaking. "Not exactly what I had in mind when we got back," I told him, but I had to admit that his idea was better.

"Card night can wait for another time," he said. "I just thought that it might be easier to just hang out tonight, ya know?"

I shrugged. "That's fine with me," I said. "Hinata? Do you wanna stay for dinner?"

She was poking at her fingers again. "I, um, I guess," she said. "I don't think I'll drink that much, but dinner and movies... that could be fun. What kind of movies do you have?"

Three hours and two horror films later, all of the food had been eaten to great critical acclaim. Naruto had set up a kotetsu in front of his couch while we all warmed our legs underneath it; the night had turned chilly, and though the interior of the apartment wasn't quite cold yet, the temperature was starting to creep down a bit.

The meal had been adorable. I don't know what it was about Naruto and Hinata acting so awkward around each other while struggling not to bring up the topic that was hanging between us all, but once the movie had begun halfway through the meal and the lights went out, we all began to relax bit by bit.

I'll be honest; the things that the three of us had all seen in our short careers didn't let us get impressed by horror flicks too easily. "Oh come on, how did she NOT know the monster was behind her in the woods the whole time?" I complained when one of the cast was shoved down a hill, a machete planted through her ribs from behind.

"No Byakugan," Hinata answered sagely, her sixth or seventh cup of sake in her hands. In an entertaining twist, the more she drank and the drunker she became, the less shy she seemed. "The Byakuuuugan, no sneaaky up on" *hic* "uuss Hoogaaa..."

I was just about as toasted as Hinata, with Naruto not too far behind. We had gathered pillows and blankets from around the house and piled them up between the television and kotetsu, having moved the couch backwards a few feet to make room while we all lay on our sides perpendicular to the TV. At the back was Naruto leaning on his right side, with me in the middle and Hinata in front. I wasn't sure how we were going to arrange ourselves at the beginning; Naruto and I had taken one side of the kotetsu while Hinata had taken the other and we tried to keep our legs from getting all tangled, but once the movie began and we had begun settling down, I felt bad for Hinata for being all alone on the other side. If she had been a bit more sober, she probably wouldn't have agreed so easily, but eventually all three of us had just laid down together for the movie and passed the bottle around.

Naruto was about as drunk as me, but was handling it much better than either Hinata or I. His tolerance has always been better than mine, freaking unfair Kyuubi healing.

"The Byakugan is shoooo unfair," I slurred. "Youuu can beat ALL the monshters! ALLA dem! No sneaky!"

I felt Naruto laugh behind me while he tried to muffle his voice. "Ooooh, sshut up, whiskerfashe," I said while finishing off my sixthish cup. I lost track, this toad wine was POTENT. "Yewr a bigger monshter than any of thosh cheap ones!"

The room began to spin as the final scene of the movie began; the hero of the film, a dashingly dark-haired man who was the son of the woman who had turned the villain into what he was, was fighting for his life as he was chased through an old abandoned factory. "I may be drunk, but I'm a monster with feelings!" he joked.

"To hell with your feelings!" I crowed, my sake cup raised. "You're drunk!"

"How does that make any sense?" Naruto mused. "Okay, that's it, you're cut off for the night."

"Nooooooo!" I groaned. He reached over me to try to grab the cup, but I held it away from him and over Hinata. "Not my sake delivery service! Hinata, help, hesh bullying me!"

Hinata snatched the cup from my hands and held it away. "Yuuuve had too mush, Shakura," she said. "I... I now have two cups..." She looked at the cups in wonder. She whispered, "I can drink shoo mush sake now..."

"You're both cut off now," Naruto said. "It's late, ladies. Time to get some sleep, okay?"

"Nooooo!" I whined in resignation. "Don' wanna go to bed yet."

"More sake!" Hinata chimed in.

I remember Naruto picking me up from the floor and tossing me over his shoulder; the world spun about again, and before I knew it I was laying down in his bed- for the first time ever, I might add- with Hinata eventually placed beside me on the king-size mattress. He gathered up the blankets and pillows that had been strewn around the living room and tossed them on the bed with us. "I'm gonna get you some water," he told us when we had been situated, "because you're both going to have one hell of a hangover in the morning."

My eyes were beginning to droop as I buried my cheek into the soft cotton pillowcase. "An... an den yer comin' to bed?" I asked.

I could hear him chuckle. "I'll sleep on the couch tonight," he said. "Not that much room left on the bed right now, and I don't want Hinata waking up and freaking out."

"Ehhh, I won' freakout," Hinata mumbled, pulling the blanket up to her chin.

"Riiiight," Naruto said. "Best not to risk it though." He left and returned with a pitcher of water and two empty glasses, which he set on the table by Hinata's side. "Get some sleep, girls," he said. He pulled up the blanket to cover me more, much more tenderly than I might have thought he would, and brushed my hair from my eyes. He kissed my temple with a light brush of the lips, then to my surprise, walked around the bed and planted a smooch on Hinata's forehead. "I'll see you two in the morning."

A/N: I'm kind of a bastard, aren't I? I'll do my best to not be such a troll in the future. Leave a review, let me know what you're thinking about the story so far, feedback is IMPORTANT.

Praise the log!

Be kind to each other, we're all we got.

~DeadWitch