Disclaimer: Naruto does not belong to me, otherwise Minato and Kushina would still be alive and Naruto/Hinata would be canon.

THE WORST WEEK OF MY LIFE

PROLOGUE

IT WAS AT THE VICTORY DANCE THAT HINATA CAUGHT HIS EYE.
He'd admired her for being able to expose herself, in front of a powerful enemy, and was prepared to sacrifice her life for him, Uzumaki Naruto. Since that day, he had wondered why Hinata had chosen that particular time to confess to him, but perhaps there was no greater thrill than telling the one you loved for the first time in a life and death situation.

The Victory Dance was held in one of the function rooms beneath the Hokage Building which during the war had been reserved for top secret strategy meetings. The large oak table that had dominated the room during the war had been removed and a light coloured wood panel floor replaced the dreary carpet that had definitely seen better days. At the opposite side of the room from the entrance doors, was a string quartet playing slow, western style music. Naruto noted after his entrance that there were three waiters serving champagne and another two serving canapés. As one of the champagne servers passed Naruto, he gave him a look of mild disgust. As the war had only officially finished a couple of days ago, this Victory Dance Party had been hastily thrown together at the last minute, and despite the invitation to the event stating that the dress code was 'smart/casual', Naruto had not given much thought to his attire for that evening.

For this formal celebration, Naruto had arrived in a suit (to say the least), but this suit was easily too small for the blue eyed blond and was covered in cat hairs from the stray cat that sometimes visited Naruto's apartment in search for leftovers. Underneath his jacket was a clean white shirt and a black tie, but his shoes, his shoes were another story. On his feet were the sandals he wore for training which prompted the look of disgust from the waiter, when the waiter looked back up at Naruto he handed him a glass of champagne and left.

The turn out for the dance had been impressive, Naruto saw some of the Rookie Nine dancing together on the dance floor and toasting to the allied victory. As he approached his friends, he spotted Hinata in a purple kimono, which was embellished with floral stitching, sat alone in the corner twiddling her fingers.

"Hey, Naruto!" Sakura called, waving her hand and gesturing for him to join her on the dance floor.

Just as Naruto started to make his way over towards Sakura, he glanced back at Hinata for a second and did something he never thought he'd do, reject an invitation from Sakura.

"Sorry, Sakura-chan!" he shouted across the dance floor, she simply shrugged and turned back to dancing with the others.

As Naruto made his way over towards the lonely Hinata, he quickly adjusted his tie, shook his jacket in a vain attempt to get some of the cat hairs off it, and tried to flatten down his wild blond hair.

When he reached Hinata he asked, "Can I have a dance?"

Immediately after asking her to dance, he could hear the voice in his head shouting at him for not being more casual, and that his out-of-the-blue dance request would probably cause Hinata to faint.

For a moment, all Hinata seemed able to do was stare at him, but not in a rude way, more in a way that she couldn't quite believe what he had just asked her.

"I—I—I—Um—" Hinata's cheeks began to visibly darken, but she used all of her might to keep herself from fainting after this perfect moment.

Naruto, being the impulsive person he was, simply took Hinata's hand whilst she was still in a confused daze and led her onto the dance floor. Hinata could feel her palms start to sweat, which made her more flustered about the situation she'd been thrown into. Naruto led Hinata over towards a reasonably quite part of the dance floor and gave her a reassuring smile. Hinata tried to smile back at him, but it looked more she was talking to a questionably crazy acquaintance, and she was simply smiling and nodding at whatever they said.

Naruto put his right hand on Hinata's hip which made her jump slightly, and he mouthed out to her above the noise, "Relax."

Hinata reluctantly (although she had waited so long for an opportunity like this to arise) put her left hand on Naruto's shoulder and they awkwardly shuffled from side to side in time with the music. Hinata still couldn't look at Naruto. She'd felt that for so long her feelings for Naruto would never be reciprocated, and this was especially the case after her fight with Pain.

Sensing that Hinata was feeling slightly uncomfortable, Naruto asked, "What's wrong, Hinata?"

Her eyes started darting over the room as she searched for words, "N—Nothing, Naruto-kun."

"Are you sure? I haven't made you feel uncomfortable?"

"N—No, I'm sorry."

"Why are you sorry? I asked you to dance."

"I—I feel…"

Suddenly, the distance between the two closed in. Naruto was now closer to Hinata that he had ever been before.

"I wanted to dance with you tonight, Hinata," Naruto said with a grin as he tucked a loose strand of her violet coloured hair behind her ear.

She wanted to ask why, why of all nights, that he wanted to dance with her but words failed her.

"I've wanted to dance with you for a long time, Hinata." As the music in the background reached a decrescendo, Naruto cupped Hinata's face and kissed her. Her first kiss.

After their kiss, Hinata was able to find her words, "Oh—Naruto-kun."

Naruto laughed, "I'm just sorry that it took me so long to get around to doing that."

Hinata laughed too as she noticed a blush growing on Naruto's cheeks, "It was worth the wait."

And then their moment was soured. Hinata's Father took a firm hold of Naruto's arm and pulled him away from his eldest daughter.

He narrowed his eyes at Naruto as he looked at his jacket, "What the hell are you doing with my daughter, Uzumaki?"

Naruto had never been faced by the angry Father of a girl he liked before, and decided that playing innocent might help to get him out of trouble, "I was just dancing with your daughter, Hiashi-san."

Hiashi's eyes flared up with rage, he grabbed Naruto's jacket and pushed him up against a wall, "How dare you call me 'Hiashi-san'," he growled.

Thankfully, Hinata's mother, Mayu, appeared, "Hiashi, be nice."

"How can I be nice? This ruffian was dancing with our daughter."

"Hinata isn't a little girl anymore, Hiashi. She's a grown woman now and you can't suddenly become so protective towards her," Mayu said calmly.

"Fine," Hiashi said through gritted teeth, "I'll forget about this, but I don't want my daughter involved with you anymore, Uzumaki."

Just as Hinata's parents started walking away from a slightly confused Naruto, he asked, "Hyuga-san, can I marry your daughter?"

Hiashi spun around so quickly that he nearly knocked his wife over, "What?" they both asked in unison.

"I'd like to marry Hinata," Naruto replied coolly.

"I thought I told you, you are no longer to be associated with my eldest daughter."

"Now, Hiashi, Naruto-kun may not have been the gentleman you wished for Hinata to marry, but he has turned out into a fine young man. And he's the son of the Fourth! Where else in Konoha are we going to find a better husband for Hinata than the son of the greatest Hokage this village has ever seen?"

She took her husband's hand, Hiashi started rubbing his temples before making a reply, "I give you permission to marry my daughter," he said with reluctance.

Mayu squeezed her husband; Naruto bowed and said "Thank you both so much."

"I'd always hoped that Hinata would marry Kiba," Hiashi muttered as they walked away. Now all Naruto had to do was ask the Hyuga heiress if she would marry him.

Naruto pushed his way back through the sea of dancers, frantically trying to remember where he'd left Hinata before he'd been dragged away by her suddenly overprotective Father. He still wasn't too sure about how he would go about the whole proposal thing, or that she would even say 'yes' for that matter.

He saw Hinata with Sakura, Sai, Neji, TenTen, Lee, Kiba, Shino, Ino, Shikamaru and Choji.

"Oh hey, Naruto," Sakura said.

"Um, hey. Hinata, can I borrow you for a mo?" Naruto asked with sweaty palms.

Hinata looked confused for a moment, even more so when her Mother appeared beside Naruto and started pointing (not so subtly) at Naruto and then at her wedding ring.

"Um, sure," she answered and followed Naruto back to the spot where they had shared their first kiss.

"So, um, hey…" Naruto started.

"There's something I'd like to ask you, Hyuga Hinata."

"What is it, Naruto-kun?"

Naruto got down on one knee, just like in all the cheesy romance novels Hinata had read and fantasised about being in this exact situation some day, "Hinata, will you marry me?"

Hinata gasped and brought her hand to her face, "I don't have a ring or anything, but I'll get you the prettiest ring in the world for the prettiest girl in the world."

"Oh, Naruto-kun," Hinata started to cry, "I've waited so long, I—I."

Naruto stood up, "So is that a yes then?"

Hinata wiped away some her tears, "Yes!"

Six months later, Uzumaki Naruto and Hyuga Hinata were due to be wed, but the seven days leading up to the wedding could only be described as the worst week of their lives.

A/N: So I've been wanting to write a Naruto multi-part for a while now, and since 'The Konoha Detective Agency' turned out to be such a flop, I decided to have a shot at writing for a pairing and not having a story line as complicated xD I've tried to keep this in canon-verse and hopefully I have. I named Hinata's mother 'Mayu' because the etymology of her name reflects how she was characterised in the anime (Shippuden 166.) MOTIVATE ME TO WRITE MOAR~