I DON'T OWN NARUTO…WISH I DID THOUGH

"Ugh- my stitches itch and this bed is making me sore!" Kiba whined petulantly. Hinata turned her face away to hide the amusement she felt, but she couldn't stifle her giggle.

"Are you laughing at me woman?" Kiba asked in a tone of mock offense. She giggled some more.

"No-o-o…" she denied, turning her back to him to hide the grin growing on her face. He stealthily slide off the bed and grabbed her from behind, pulling her firmly against him.

"I think you need to be punished." He said with in a leer in his voice. He rubbed his hardening body against her back, giving Hinata a clue as to what he considered suitable punishment to be. Her giggles turned into a breathy moan as he ran his hands slowly up over her breasts, teasing her gently.

"Kiba-kun, your wounds aren't healed fully yet." She said huskily as she pushed him gently back towards the bed. "Now be a good boy and go back to bed."

"Only if you come with me." He replied slyly as he pulled her down onto her side facing him. Gently he reached out and laid a hand onto her stomach. In the month he had been recuperating, her stomach had begun to round, and he loved to touch her there. It was still amazing to him that she was carrying their child. He leaned forward and placed a tender kiss on her lips. They were gazing into each other's eyes when they heard someone speak from the doorway.

"I used to look at your mother just like that when she was pregnant with you." Her father said quietly. Hinata gasped and turned to look at her father. He had a strange look on his face. Kiba growled at him and started to rise up from the bed. Hinata pushed him back down. She knew that he was in no condition to fight her father. He glowered at her, and contented himself with threatening the older man.

"If you even think about raising a hand or your voice to my mate, I'll kill you! Don't think that I have forgotten what you did to her either!" His voice lowered, and his features became more bestial as he remembered the damage that her father inflicted to Hinata's face.

"What do you want, Hyuuga-sama?" she inquired coldly.

"I owe you an apology and an explanation. Please will you hear me out?" he asked her pleadingly. She nodded, and grabbed Kiba's hand both for emotional support and to silently ask him to let her father speak without interrupting.

"First of all, you need to know just how much you look like your mother." He approached the bed slowly, holding out a photograph. She looked at it and then let out a small gasp of astonishment. He handed it to her and she showed it to Kiba. We looked like twins, she thought in amazement. Kiba whistled.

"Your mother is almost as beautiful as you love." He told her, making her blush. She stroked her finger over her mother's face lovingly. It was the first time she had ever seen a picture of her. In the Hyuuga compound there were no pictures of her mother hanging up anywhere. She was not spoken of either. It was almost as though she had never existed. She looked back up at her father, her eyes full of questions.

"I loved your mother with every fiber of my being. She was truly my soul-mate. When she died, it was as if I had died as well. Suddenly, I felt nothing except anger. How could she have left me was the question I asked myself endlessly. I took down all the pictures of her, boxed up all of her possessions, and even made it forbidden to talk about her. But there was one thing that reminded me of her that could not be boxed up. You. As you grew to be so like her in beauty and temperament, it hurt to be around you. The sight of you was a constant reminder to what I had once had and lost.

"So I began to push you away, to ignore you, deliberately hurting your feelings so that you would avoid being around me. You began to fail at everything and developed a stuttering problem. I knew that I wasn't being fair to you, but I felt cold inside, like your mother stole the warmth from me when she died. There is no excuse for how I treated you.

"The night the aide came to retrieve you, and I realized that you were pregnant, I felt betrayed. Isn't that ironic? All those years I pushed you away and was a horrible father to you, and I blamed you for failing me. But it has always been the other way around. You have always tried to be the best daughter you could be while I was the worst possible father to you.

"You were right to hit me, I was being a monster. And what a hit that was! I was proud and sad both at the same time as I laid there looking up at you. You could say that you knocked some sense into me. The whole week I was stuck in the bed, I had plenty of time to think about how badly I had treated you. Your mother would be furious with me if she saw how I have been acting towards you and Hanabi. She was always fiercely protective of you girls." He smiled at her weakly before continuing.

"I know that there is no way that you can forgive me, but I had to come apologize to you. You needed to know that there has never been anything wrong with you, it has always been me who was at fault. Please feel free to come visit your sister and Neji anytime you want. You will be welcome. Also, there are some things of your mother's that she always intended for you to have." He started to leave the room, but turned back to stare Kiba in the eye.

"I can see that you truly love my daughter. Hinata is a treasure, much like her mother. Guard her well or answer to me." He stated sternly. Then he left.

The young couple sat in silence for a few minutes, and then Hinata began to sob. Kiba gathered her in his arms, and laid them back onto the bed. He stroked her hair and placed gentle kisses on the top of her head until she finally fell asleep, exhausted from the release of emotions her father's words had caused. He drifted off to sleep, holding her protectively in his arms.