Question readers:

Anyone be interested in being my beta reader. My sister is busy studying to be a nurse.

Oh and this chapter is extra long because I didn't really feel that satisfied with the last chapter, found it too short but that could be because I had a hard time getting into it. Hopefully this chapter is better.

"Mmm… Naruto? May I say something?"

The man in question turned his head to face the aged petit woman. Automatically his gaze drifted to the tea packages held within her slightly wrinkled aged hand, before returning back to her ebony eyes. He was surprised that instead of frustration that he was long used to, there was motherly concern.

"Neh Kasumi san?"

"You accidentally placed these packages in the wrong self,"

Kasumi couldn't help but widen her grin as her new employee's eyes widened in alarm before he swiftly grabbed the packages in her hand and inspected them carefully.

"Chai?" he stated.

"You mixed them with the green teas." Kasumi kindly informed him.

"Oh gomen. Please don't fire me." Naruto brought his arms in front of him forming a prayer while bowing.

Kasumi only laughed at his exaggerated reaction, "Do not trouble yourself Naruto. I'll place them back where they belong."

Leaving no room for argument Kasumi grabbed the tea packages before turning around to relocate them to their proper place.

Her actions puzzled Naruto who was at a loss as to what to do.

As though reading his mind Kasumi hurriedly called over her shoulder, "Naruto why don't you help Ichiraku. My baka husband can't seem to understand that he isn't twenty anymore. "

"Hai," Naruto gave a quick salute before rushing outside the tea shop to the neighboring stand next door.

"Oy Ichiraku!" Naruto called out. He was met with the sight of an older man with a snow-white beard and spectacles greeting him with a broadened smile.

"Kasumi finally get sick of you?" the older man teased

"Neh…of course not she wanted me to help you make sure that you wouldn't break your back." Naruto retorted, which caused the older man to erupt into a fit of laughter.

"She did, did she? Alright here you are then."

Naruto gladly accepted the hammer that was handed to him.

Hinata could a deep breath as she took a moment to recollect her concentration. For the briefest moment she felt her mind revel in the silence that surrounded the house that once been filled with the constant call of her slave.

She recalled his azure eyes that were now filled with more happiness than she had ever seen in them. Tenten had said that it was a big mistake letting him out, but Hinata felt she could trust him. The initial worry she felt when she told him that Kasumi was interested in hiring him as an employee was worth the knowledge that he always returned after a days work.

He could just be buying time. Saving enough money so he won't need you anymore.

Hinata couldn't help but furrow her brow at the negative thought.

"I don't care," she replied more to herself than anything, "As long as he's happy right now, that's all that matters."

Her eyes opened with a vigor that hadn't been there for a long them. Hinata calmly felt the ends of her hair stand on end; electricity flew through her veins underneath the skin as she focused her chakra into her stance.

Powerful and strong, worthy of someone's trust. That was what she could be. Or at least that was what she tried to convince herself .

"So you live with lil Hina huh?"

Naruto's focused altered from the nail that he was about to finish of with one blow of his hammer, towards his elder employer.

"Yea," Naruto answered, "I'm a friend of her cousin-in-law."

The lie slipped through Naruto's mouth like water, although inside he could still feel himself recoil from the lie. Façade or not, hell would freeze over before he actually be friends with that pregnant bitch.

"Oh Tenten-san?" Ichiraku's expression contained puzzlement, much like one would have trying to figure out a rubrics cube.

"That's her. Anyways, I didn't really have a place to stay and Hina-chan offered me her place."

The old man raised a delicate brow, "Hina-chan?"

Naruto quickly got the insinuation and it wasn't long before he was stammering and sputtering some sort of excuse, which only caused Ichiraku to laugh.

"Don't worry about it boy. I'm just surprised is all?"

"Eh?"

Ichiraku diverted his attention to a piece of plywood that he began to pry from its grooves. "The only one that lil Hina ever let call her that was her mother."

"Her mother?"

"Lady Hyuuga." Ichikaru answered, "A crumpled piece in a stack of paper."

Ichikaru didn't miss the confusion that crossed the young man's face. Inwardly Ichikaru sighed; the boy clearly wasn't the poetic type. Placing down the crowbar Ichikaru took a seat across from Naruto to look him square in the eye.

"You know that lil Hina has a large family?"

Naruto simply nodded his head despite the fact that he knew very little about his mistress' back-story. However, he wasn't objected to some education and so he played along.

"The Hyuuga's are all the straight pieces in a stack of paper. They're all the same and they work uniformly as one unit," Ichiraku brought his two hands closer to another and interwove his fingers together to demonstrate his point, "They're also blank and goodness boring as hell. Pride this, pride that; a bunch of garbage if you ask me." Ichiraku waved his hand as though dismissing the entire thing.

Naruto blinked.

"Now, Lady Hyuuga, she was the crumpled piece. The one with dimension and life. She was so different from the rest of Hyuuga's that your eye would automatically be drawn to her."

Ichikaru laughed suddenly, "The way lil Hina followed Lady Hyuuga. It was too priceless. The poor thing would always cry if she couldn't see her mother."

Naruto smiled as the image of a tiny Hinata filled his mind.

"So Lady Hyuuga must have been amazing."

"She was,"

Naruto's smile immediately fell "Was?"

Ichiraku nodded sadly, "She passed giving birth to her second child. A big brat apparently. Hiashi spoils her rotten."

"What about Hinata?"

Ichiraku just shrugged, "She's like her mother."

"So why would that affect anything?"

"What happens to the crumpled within a stack of paper?"

Naruto thought for a brief second before he quietly replied. "They get thrown away."

Ichiraku simply turned away, "Lady Hyuuga was protected by Hiashi. The Hyuugas couldn't harm her. Unfortunately Hiashi didn't expend the same courtesy to his eldest."

Naruto felt a phantom sensation of anger erupt from the base of his chest. Had it not been for Ichiraku's calm touch on his shoulder Naruto was sure he would've lost it.

"Both of you must be close. Good thing, Hinata deserves a friend."

A revelation struck Naruto as he looked into the old mans grey withered eyes. He realized at all his actions up to that point had been self driven. Despite the fact that he should've been at home training with Hinata to help convince her family that they were an item, thus saving her from an unwanted marriage, he whined and complained the entire time. Naruto was no fool; he knew he could've had the tea ceremony down in less than a week if he set his mind to it.

Why Hinata allowed him to work and didn't beat him like she should was a great mystery to Naruto. Any other owner would beat their slave at the first sign of disobedience not treat them to ramen or help them get a job so they would be able to support themselves in the near future.

So why didn't she?

Naruto's mind remembered Ichikaru's words.

She's like her mother.

The next words tumbled out of his mouth without him realizing it.

"A crumpled piece in a stack of paper."

"I still can't believe that you let that baka out!" Hinata winced as she brought the telephone an arms length away from her ear.

"H…he's a dog, Tenten. H..he .wwould've gone insane if he s..s..stayed i..inside any longer."

Hinata heard Tenten sigh on the other line. "You are way too nice, Hinata. That's your problem. Haven't you ever heard the saying 'give a man an inch and he'll take a mile?'"

"H..hai"

"And we have to help you with that stammering of yours."

Hinata sighed once more. "I…I… d…don't stammer."

"Y…yea you do." Hinata couldn't help but feel Tenten's jab took a hit to her ever so slowly building ego.

Tenten realized that Hinata's silence was a strong indication that she had gone too far,

"I'm sorry Hinata. You know I only wants what's best. Hiashi bastard knows that you stammer whenever your nervous. If you do it in front of Naruto he might think something is up."

Hinata wanted to bang her head against a wall at Tenten's logic. "Y…y..our r..right."

"No worries girl. I'll help you get through this, even if it means I have to beat a certain pain the ass."

Hinata couldn't help but laugh at that.

"Hina…" Hinata stopped at the somber tone that Tenten's voice took, "I really want to know, why did you let Naruto get a job. Did it have to do with what happened two weeks ago?"

Hinata slowly chewed her lip as she contemplated how she would phrase her next sentences so it wouldn't send her slightly unstable friend into a fit of rage that would end with her Naruto-kun's demise.

"I..I just thought t..t..that i..i…it would b…be better t..to. give him s..s..space."

"Space? But he seemed fine with you before?" Tenten's voice raised a few octaves higher.

"H…he was u..unhappy."

"That idiot. What does he have to be unhappy about. You gave him everything. Food, shelter and he doesn't even have to do the dishes." Tenten was absolutely livid now. So much for trying to play it down.

"I t..think he m..misses a f..friend back at the b…brothel," Hinata explained.

"Girl or boy?" Tenten's question caught Hinata of guard. She didn't expect Tenten to be that intuitive, but you never know with pregnant women.

"G…girl."

"I knew it!"

"Nani?"

Tenten's voice contained an edge that sound too much like a jealous girlfriend who caught her boyfriend cheating on her. "I mean he was sleeping around."

Hinata tried her hardest to hid her anguish as she quietly replied, "W..w..what does it matter Tenten? H…he d…d..doesn't be..belong to me."

"Actually,"

"I have something on the stove. I should go." Hinata noticed her lack of stammering as she quickly pulled the phone away and clicked the end button while replying "Bye."

The tears began to fall as Hinata looked ahead staring blanking outside of her kitchen window that overlooked her garden.

Despite the hot weather, Hinata noticed the formation of overcast towards the west. The thunderous clouds loomed ahead along the skirts of the village, promising a night of summer rain.

"You loved summer rain storms didn't you oka-san." Hinata mumbled to herself, as she felt herself succumb to her old introverted self.

All promises of growing stronger and being the best she could be to prove everyone wrong, diminished with her conversation with Tenten.

Tenten had only confirmed what she had tried so hard to forget.

Through the reflection of the glass window, events of garden replayed themselves in her mind.

Hinata's thoughts moved at a million miles per hour while her eyes stung with the sensation of suppressed tears. Agile, and swift she tended to her delicate garden with such practice precision she didn't even notice her actions.

Before long, she heard a pair of footsteps heading in her direction.

Inwardly she begged the gods that it wasn't Naruto.

Of course Kama wouldn't have any of it and so Hinata was helpless as she drew her gaze away from her garden towards her impending doom, Naruto's bright blue eyes.

He possessed a solemn expression as he looked down at her, opposite of what was the truth.

Hinata simply blinked as she gave her best doe blank face.

"N..Naruto-kun…" Hinata busied herself as she brushed the dirt away from her hand on her apron before wiping a strand of her long indigo hair away from her face. Unknowingly her gesture left a patch of dirt on her left cheek.

Naruto felt the corner of his mouth twitch at the innocence Hinata portrayed at that moment. She was the opposite of everything her title suggested.

Naruto frowned as he remembered why he was here. Although he wouldn't fully take Sakura's suggestion to heart, he would remain weary. He would act as his station would suggest, even if his mistress would refuse to do so.

"Hinata sama." Naruto took quick notice as the soft smile left Hinata's petal like lips. "I wanted to give back the room."

Hinata could only gap in shock at Naruto. Of all the things she was expecting she wasn't expecting that. After she recovered her mind she replied, "W..why?"

"Because it isn't proper."

Naruto watched as his mistress tilted her head to the side. Like a broken record she repeated him, "I..isn't proper?"

Nervousness fluttered through Naruto's stomach as he brought his hand to scratch the back of his head, "Yea."

When all he got was a confused look Naruto thought that it would be best to explain, even though he felt himself losing clarity of the situation. "Look Sakura told me that there is a code between master and servant. This isn't part of the code. You shouldn't be giving me gifts, you should be ordering me around."

"Sakura?" his mistress voice had become more soft.

"Yea my friend back at the brothel house."

"What does she look like?"

Naruto could only step back in confusion as he didn't see the relevancy. However he knew that if he wanted to get his point across he thought it would be best to answer his mistress's question.

"She has pink hair and bright jade eyes, and red lips,"

Hinata immediately noticed the light blush that decorated his tanned cheeks. She was no fool, she knew an emotion when she saw it.

She quickly recalled the pink haired girl. It was no wonder that Naruto was infatuated with her, she was gorgeous. At the most Hinata knew she was plain.

Dejected she didn't even realize that had stopped listening to Naruto till he stopped.

"W…w..would y..you w..want t..to m..move back t..to the couch?"

"Hai Hinata-sama."

Hinata met his eye and saw the determination there. He didn't appreciate the gifts she bestowed upon him and that hurt more than anything else.

Forcing a smile on her lips she reverted to the cold mask she witness so many times on her relatives faces, "Alright."

The weeks after that were filled with silence. Although Naruto insisted on doing most of the chores, he wasn't as diligent in the training as he had been, which drove Tenten on the brink of insanity.

Hinata ended up sending Tenten home for a week to recover from all the stress that Naruto was giving her.

On occasion Hinata would hear Naruto practicing in the dojo in the late hours of the night. She wondered why he never asked her to spar with him.

Rather than asking him, she kept her thoughts to herself, not wanting to trouble him. If that was what he wanted, she wouldn't deny him.

She hoped that he would come around.

When Kasumi posed the opportunity of hiring some help around with her business, Hinata thought of Naruto. The opportunity would give him a chance to be out of the house, make money and not draw too much attention to himself.

Hinata was careful in her proposal with Naruto. As much as she didn't want to, she told him that he could use the job as a way to make money to pay for rent for the room. She didn't bother to inform him that she was charging him half of what the average pay for rent was.

Naruto accepted and had been working for Kasumi five days now.

The house was beginning to revert back to what it had been before he arrived. As much as Hinata tried to deny it, cluster phobia was beginning to set in. Naruto-kun had been living with her for two months now. In four more months they were expected to attend the party that would either liberate her or imprison her.

Apart from the martial arts training, Naruto hadn't progressed in the other training aspects. There were faults in his movement that Hinata could ignore but her cold relatives couldn't.

There was also the matter of intimacy. Hinata dreaded working on it and desired it at the same time. Dreaded it because she never wanted to force Naruto into doing something he clearly didn't want to do. After all he had Sakura, why would he want to betray that.

However she desired it, because as much as she tried to suppress it she was deeply attracted to him mentally and physically. He always brought a smile to her face and made her feel that she was worth than what her family had claimed she was.

The matter of it being a performance didn't matter, she didn't have to pretend to be attracted to him.

He would though, and that was where the problem lay.

The fact that he tried so hard to divide them into their roles didn't help.

She was his mistress and he was a slave.

That was what seemed to make him happy, so Hinata didn't oppose it.

The soft sound of pitter patting on her window disrupted her thoughts. Without any hesitation Hinata placed the phone back on its headset and headed for the front door. She didn't even bother to put on a pair of shoes. She wouldn't need it after all.

Naruto began to finish off the last part of the stand before it had began to rain. The warm rain didn't really bother him, but it made it difficult to continue work, so Ichiraku and Naruto headed back into the tea shop, where Kasumi greeted them with warm ramen.

"Oh Arigatou Kasumi san!" Naruto exclaimed as he furiously dug into his meal.

Kasumi and Ichiraku watched fondly as he finished off his ramen with fierce vigor.

"I think you found your number one customer," Kasumi whispered to her husband. Ichiraku could only laugh and nod in agreement.

"I think we'll have to call it a day Naruto." Ichiraku replied as he looked at the rain with disproval. So occupied with the rain that he didn't notice the blank look cross Naruto's face. However Kasumi did notice and was quick to mention it.

"What's wrong Naruto?"

Naruto just placed a smile that was clearly forced causing the elderly couple to look at one another in confusion. "Nothing Kasumi san. Thank you for the meal."

Shoving the bowl aside Naruto hoped off the stool and headed for the exit. He was immediately stopped by a warm hand on his bicep.

An umbrella came into his peripheral vision causing Naruto's eye to widen.

"Wouldn't want you to get sick." Kasumi gave Naruto a motherly smile.

Naruto graciously accepted the umbrella before heading out.

"Say hi to lil Hina for us!" Ichiraku called out.

Naruto couldn't help but tighten his grip on the umbrella at that statement. Hearing Hinata's back story he couldn't help but feel extreme guilt at the way he had treated her for the past few weeks. He had wanted to prolong seeing her by staying for dinner at Ichikaru's and Kasumi's teashop. Now he had no choice.

A stray pathway caught his attention, as Naruto's acute eyes caught sight of rice patties five houses down from him. He diverted his gaze back to the main street that would take him directly to Hinata's home, before drifting his gaze back to the pathway.

The pathway would most likely lead back to her home, it just would take longer.

Without a moment's pause Naruto diverted his steps, risking the less paved pathway.

He must've walked for five minutes before he caught sight of a clad figure in white looking up at the rain. He continued his path and the closer he got the sooner he realized that the figure was a woman. Her arms were spread wide as though catching every raindrop.

Naruto gasped then as he realized who the figure was.

Without out realizing he uttered, "Hina-chan."

The object of his attention drew her focus from the rain to Naruto. Naruto was able to read so many emotions in that one second stare, serenity, peace, happiness, to shock and embarrassment.

"N…n…Naruto-kun." Hinata squeaked as she quickly bowed at the waist before him. Once again, Naruto immediately saw the irony. If anyone should be bowing, it should've been him.

Amidst her bowing, some her long tress splashed rain water on him, Naruto couldn't help but blink in shock as he was hit with warm rain. The rain couldn't be that warm could it?

Many questions were reeling in his mind, including why she was standing in the rain without an umbrella and on a deserted road. However no question exceeded his curiosity than the one that escaped his mouth.

"Why don't you have shoes?"

Naruto watch with fascination as Hinata curled her toes in embarrassment. Without moving from her bow she began stammering out excuses.

"I..I.. w..was j..ju…my…o..ka-s..san w…wou..do it."

The mention of Lady Hyuuga brought Naruto back to his after noon conversation with Ichiraku. A crumpled piece in a stack of paper, was what the old man called Hina-chan and her mother. Seeing her now in the rain, barefooted without an umbrella enjoying it as though she were experiencing the best gift ever, proved the statement. Naruto doubted that any blue-blooded elite would do this kind of thing for fun.

Naruto smiled softly as he stepped closer to his mistress before raising the umbrella to cover them both.

Hinata quickly took notice of the lack of rain pouring down her back. With hesitation she looked up towards Naruto who was giving her the softest look that it tore her heart to pieces, especially since she knew he had feelings for another.

"Wouldn't want you to get sick." Naruto stated.

To his surprise Hinata objected, "I…I..d..don't ge..t sick b..by standing out in the rain."

Raising an arm Hinata showed him what she meant. Looking closely Naruto saw small streams of steams drifting off her arm. Every time the rain would hit her, Hinata would practice her chakra control and focus heating up a part of her body while simultaneously heating her head and feet.

"You were training?" Naruto asked incredulously.

Hinata ducked her head out to avoid his intense stare. "S..sort of. M..my o..oka-s..san would say kama i…is in..the rain. I..I wanted…"

Hinata left of with her incomplete sentence, leaving Naruto to wallow in his uncertainty and guilt. Looking at her now, Naruto realized he was wrong placing her in the same category as the rest of her kind.

His gaze drifted to her hand that clung warm and wet at her side. With his calloused fingers he carefully clasped her hand causing her to snap out of her stupor and look at her with wide eyes. To his surprise, her hands were amazingly soft, but he couldn't deny the strength that lay beneath.

"Your party is in four months right?"

Hinata nodded.

"Then we should start practicing the intimacy part."

A slight blush dusted Hinata's cheeks and Naruto couldn't help but think it was the cutest thing.

"W…w..e're g…going to k..kick ass." Hinata replied.

Naruto blinked in astonishment, not believing what his ears had heard. Hinata had actually cursed. Throwing back his head he howled in laughter as Hinata smiled shyly at him.

"That's right Hina-chan. Because that's…"

Hinata finished his sentence, "your nindo."