Why yes, this does seem to be a two in one day day. How lucky for you, my sweets, that my muse was up and kicking to make up for her lack of performance as of recent.

And LadyArinn, you might be saying, isn't this title a bit familiar?

Yes, it is. I shall refer you to chapter 47, and we shall move on to the reading.

Hinata lay back on the crisply sheeted bed, gently moving her fingertips over the white cloth as she looked to the wide window that sat in the wall and the little slice of outside life that it revealed to her. The sun was bright and shining, causing the pale walls of the room to glow with a warmth they hadn't previously held. Leaves, bright and green and big, moved in the light breeze, dancing together and brushing up against each other to create the gently skittering song that had calmed her her entire life. There was a bird somewhere singing, and Hinata smiled to herself at the sound.

It all looked so beautiful.

"Do you think we can open the window?" She murmured quietly, turning her face towards the man who was sitting in the chair beside her bed, though when she saw him her smile fell.

"Oh," She sighed, reaching our a slim and wrinkled hand and cupping his face, "Oh Naruto."

Naruto closed his eyes as he reached up to put his hand over her's, leaning into her soothing touch as his face scrunched up in pain, and Hinata took a moment to study the man she had been married to for over sixty years with sad eyes. His hair had grayed long ago, though it still spiked as it always had, and his face was marked from the happy years with creases at the corners of his eyes and lips from all of the laughter and grins, and as she stared at them Hinata couldn't help the small and gentle smile that curved her lips.

Naruto opened his pained and sad eyes and met Hinata's, the blue just as bright and just as vibrant as they had always been, though she couldn't see the laughter in them at that moment and knowing that she was the cause of that happy light fading away made her so terribly sad.

"It will be okay." She whispered as she lifted her free hand and ran it soothingly through his hair, setting up and leaning forward so that she could press a kiss to his forehead. As she laid back down she tried to remove her hands but Naruto caught them, gathering them into his own and gripping them desperately as he pressed their joined hands to the spot that her lips had just touched, bowing his head so that all she could see was the top of it.

"Why does it have to be you? Why do you have to go first?" He whispered hoarsely, and Hinata could only smile at him indulgently, though there were tears in her pale eyes.

"Why couldn't it be me?"

"Because they still need you, Naruto. They still need their Rokudaime Hokage, even if you aren't serving anymore. They need your strength and your determination and drive, and they need you far more than they need me." She squeezed the fingers that were entwined with hers and tried to find the words that would make him strong, that would somehow magically make all of this better.

"...I need you." He finally whispered so quietly that she barely heard it, breaking her heart but making her smile grow as well, though the curve of her lips trembled.

Her Naruto. Needy and so dependent at times, but incredibly strong and firmly unbending at others.

"I know. I know and I'm sorry, Naruto. I really am. But you'll be fine. It might take a little while, but you will." He shook his head and clutched her hands even tighter, and Hinata stared at his stiff and forlorn form for a moment before shaking her head. He wasn't able to see it just yet, but she knew it would happen.

Somehow, even though that was what she wanted most, that was the thing that hurt the most.

They stayed there like that for a few silent moments as Hinata watched the leaves and sunlight through the window, and when she felt his hands -such steady and strong hands- begin to shake she knew that she had to talk, to try and distract his mind for just a little while before he broke.

"Are the kids here?" She quietly asked him, and there was a moment of almost uncertain hesitation, like he was teetering at the very brink and her voice had just barely brought him back from the fall.

"...Yes. They're all outside. They wanted to give us a little bit of time alone."

"It's good that everyone is here." She murmured, and after a moment Naruto lifted his head to look at her with tortured eyes.

She had aged, but it had happened with the elegance and grace she had always naturally held. There were slight creases around her eyes but she looked younger than her age, defying the laws of time. Her hair, still gloriously long, had gone white with the years and was currently twisted comfortably atop her head to allow her to lay down, and her lips were curled up slightly as her eyes glowed warmly at him.

She was still so achingly beautiful, made so even more by the years.

He cleared his throat and looked away from her for a moment, his eyes landing on the bright window and he remembered that she had inquired about earlier.

"You said you want the window opened?" He asked her, and when she nodded he pushed himself up to go and do as she had asked.

Hinata smiled at his back as he walked over before closing her eyes, sighing as she heard the wood slide up and let the breeze drift through, bringing with it the smell of sunshine and spring days. She had the brief thought that she hoped someone would help him with the garden. His bones were getting old and she didn't think that he'd be able to handle all of it by himself.

Naruto placed his hand on the wood of the frame and stared outside for a moment, breathing in the fresh air free of the thick medicines and antiseptic smells that littered the halls of the hospital where he had practically lived the past few weeks. It was bright with the warm natural light devoid of the artificial glare of the harsh ceiling lights, and he distantly heard the sound of someone laughing.

Hinata had been right, it was better with the window open. She was always right.

"Thank you, Naruto-kun."

He didn't bother turning around at her voice, filled with the warmth and love that had surrounded their years together. He knew what he'd find if he did.

A gentle smile on her lips and her eyes closed as if in sleep, looking peaceful and beautiful as she lay against the sterile white sheets.

Not breathing.

Shifting forward so that he leaned against the wall, the side of his face pressing into the frame of the window as he stared out at the picturesque world that continued on as if nothing had happened. As if his entire world, the woman he had loved nearly all of his long life and the woman who had supported him no matter what throughout the years hadn't just... stopped.

And so he did the only thing he felt he was able to do, the only thing he could do.

He took a breath and closed his eyes to the happy world that sped by him as if he wasn't grounded to a halt, turned to unmovable stone within this one moment in time with all the breath torn from his body. And he cried.

He cried because his heart had just been torn from his now gaping and bleeding chest and he didn't know if he could ever fix it. The only person who had ever had claim to that ability was gone now. He cried as if it were the only thing he knew how to do, as if tears were the only answer.

He stood in the sunshine and warmth that felt too cold, and he cried.

You see, I had originally planned to write all the couples as old in chapter 47, but Kathy stopped working on me and I couldn't. And originally, Naruto and Hinata's chapter was going to be filled with hand o=holding and garden tending and cutesy old people stuff, but as you can see here (almost fifty(!) chapters later), things got change up a teensy bit.

Okay, okay, I nuked the old idea and built this from the ashes and fumes.

Toodle-loo, my lovelies, the way things have been going I might see you sooner than either of us expect.