Author's note: I can't believe people are still reviewing this and... still waiting for updates. You guys have more faith in me then I do. I hope this lives up to people's long awaited expectations.

"My advisers inform me a marriage to you would be beneficial to us both."

It would not be the first time I've heard these words. As the eldest daughter of a prominent clan, my family has fielded these types of requests since before I was born. As I grew, it fell to me to deliver the appropriate response to them, something I have done on occasion, and usually with enough grace so as to not embarrass either party. This situation, however, proved a bit more difficult.

After all, I suppose it's not every day that a Kage asks you if you want to be his wife.

The day didn't start out so exciting. We were slowly wearing out our welcome at Suna which is understandable. Kankuro was still in the hospital, recovering from what had been officially dubbed "Righteous Retribution". 'Officially' meaning that Ino-san had made it clear that that is what we should call it because it was the only course of action she could take after he stole her first kiss.

In an attempt to prevent further violence, Tenten-san had mentioned that there was a hermit somewhere in the desert who could apparently cure any ailment, including restoring the virtue of a maiden. I think she may have made that last part up but it was enough to convince Ino-san to make it a personal mission to find him; and so the two had set out in the morning.

Sakura-san had taken to staying in the hospital in attempt to make up for the amount of time the Suna medic-nin were spending healing the Konoha-nin (as well as any Suna-nin who got in their way). I helped when I could, but as Naruto-kun was a frequent visitor to the hospital, Sakura-san was forced to ask me to leave. It wasn't as if I wanted to mummify those patients. I just... get distracted when Naruto-kun is close.

Kiba-kun and Shikamaru-san had disappeared. The latter was probably off with Temari-san, the former most likely hiding from Sakura-san's wrath at putting Naruto-kun back in the hospital. So only Neji-niisan and I were left, walking through the market awkwardly.

Well, at least I was awkward. Neji-niisan simply took the situation in stride and seemed perfectly unaffected at the prospect of spending the day with me.

"Ano... what about this one?" I asked, holding up a bit of fabric for him to see.

He ran his hand against it and nodded once. "It should please Hanabi-sama greatly."

Several years ago, this would have been impossible, you know. He would have glowered and brooded and generally hated the entire situation while saying those same exact words. But now, I can hear in the slight inflection of his voice that he actually means those words.

"Is there anything else you want to purchase?" I asked, bringing the silk to the saleswoman.

He looked at me blankly. "Is it not enough for Hanabi-sama?"

"Not for Hanabi-sama," I replied. "Perhaps for someone else?"

He looked at the bags in his hands and I could already see what he was thinking. "I thought we had purchased something for everyone."

He started to rummage for the list of names but I quickly stopped him. "No, someone not in the family."

We looked at each other for a moment, blank eyes not moving as we waited for the other to speak first. Subtle bits of conversation were usually more then any Hyuuga would need to relay necessary information. But not in this case.

It should be known that Neji-niisan's feelings for his female teammate are perhaps the worse kept secret in Hyuuga history. At first, it was out of politeness that we didn't intrude on whatever he was planning. After all, Neji-niisan is well... you see he...

He has enough pride to fill Konoha and then some. So no one wanted to offer assistance in 'getting the girl' because he would probably think we were insulting his ability to do so. And more so, his attempts to keep it a secret meant that if we said something, he would most likely take it as a failure of his ability to be secretive.

Either way, he would revert to his former sullen self and the Hyuuga compound would once again fall under the perpetual black raincloud known amongst my family as the Neji-gloom. Having lived through many years of it, no one was anticipating its return.

And so, subtly, we attempted to push things along. Hanabi-sama demanded to be trained by the weapon mistress at least three times a week, conveniently around dinner time. If one of the weapons in the compound was broken, Tenten-san was who we called over first to look at it.

And of course, the most obvious action, well, to anyone but Neji-niisan, was the fact that I had been regularly going on missions with Sakura-san and the others. The honor of protecting the heiress was only to fall to family members or, in this case, expected future members.

Recently the more mischievous of the compound's inhabitants had tried to make the family's position more obvious but Father quickly brought them into line. So, I realized as he's staring at me waiting for an answer, Neji-niisan was most likely worrying again that his 'cover' has been blown and I should act quickly.

"Lee-san," I said with a small smile.

The relief would not be evident to anyone but another Hyuuga. "Of course," he said. "And sensei as well. Otherwise they'll both be impossible to deal with."

The second worst kept secret in Hyuuga history? That Neji-niisan actually enjoys the company of the Dynamic Green Duo quite a bit.

"Hinata-chan!"

I froze in place and tried not to look over at the familiar voice. Sure, there were no unwilling patients around at the moment but if I lost myself in the joy that comes from hearing his voice, then I was liable to do something silly again.

"Are you... interested in those?" the saleswoman asked me pleasantly.

I glanced down and found I had managed to grab a handful of silken boxers. I dropped them quickly and shook my head as I backed away, only to run right into Neji-niisan. At least he had the good grace to not falter even a bit when I did.

"Are you shopping too?" Naruto-kun asked. I realized now that Kankuro-san was with him, still looking very damaged but standing at least.

"Ano.. we... Hanabi..." I faltered and forgot how to speak. Again.

"Hanabi-sama wanted some fabric for a kimono," Neji-niisan said, preventing any further embarrassment on my part.

"Neat! Let me see!" he dove for the bag but Neji-niisan deftly lifted it away, eying his sticky fingers with a frown. Naruto-kun looked down at them sheepishly. "Sorry, we got sweet rolls and they're soooo good, you can't eat just one! Hinata-chan, try one!"

I started to protest but he had already taken one, torn off a bit and popped it in my mouth before I could even formulate what I wanted to say.

He was right, they were delicious. Almost as good as the realization that Naruto-kun was so close that he actually touched my lips. In fact, if I close my eyes I can almost imagine that it wasn't his fingers but...

"Ma'am... really, you don't need to do that."

I followed her gaze and found a neatly folded pile of silk undergarments on the table. The saleswoman was looking at me sympathetically. I retreated once more and found that Neji-niisan had covered for my reaction by asking them what they were doing here.

"Buying something for the blonde," Kankuro-san said sullenly. "Don't know why, not like I did anything wrong."

"Because if you don't, Sakura-chan said she'd make sure you were stuck in the hospital for months," Naruto-kun cheerfully reminded him.

"Whatever," he said, though I could tell he was not looking forward to testing Sakura-san's wrath. "She's not around or anything. It's supposed to be a surprise or something."

I shook my head. "No, she went on a mission."

"What mission?" he asked.

"Not a real one," Naruto-kun chirped in. "She heard something about a hermit who could fix whatever you did to her."

Kankuro-san stared at him for a moment and then smiled. "Wait... wait... what was the guy's name?"

"Fujiyama," I replied.

Kankuro-san started to laugh, loudly enough that people in the market turned to look at him. "Perfect! The guy is the biggest lech in the country. He's probably asking her to strip as we speak."

I frowned. "That doesn't sound perfect at all."

Kankuro-san almost looked sheepish. Almost. "Sorry... but believe me, what I did will pale in comparison to whatever he thinks of."

"Hey... didn't Tenten go with her?" Naruto asked me.

As I nodded, all the joy faded from Kankuro-san's face. "Oh... hell. That sucks. He's probably having them make out right now and I'm not there."

There's a long pause as we all absorbed what was said. And then suddenly Neji-niisan cleared his throat and spoke.

"We need to find them before they find the hermit."

"Oh," Kankuro-san said with a sly smile. "Want to make sure you can see the action."

"No, I want to prevent the international incident that will result when those two kill him."

"I'll come!" Naruto-kun said.

"Fine, let's go. Hinata-sama, my apologies" Neji-niisan said, holding out the bags.

"Good luck," I replied as I took them from him. The two of them moved quickly onto the roofs of the village.

Kankuro-san looked at me with a smile. "So.... how you doing?" he asked, leaning in a bit.

There was a puff of smoke and Neji-niisan reappeared. "You're coming with us," he ordered, grabbing the other boy's shoulder and taking him along before he could protest.

Alone in the market, I made my way through the remaining stalls. There was one selling stuffed animals and I couldn't help myself. I bought the stuffed fox and placed him in the bags along with everything else.

By the time I finished with the market, the sky had started to go dark. My stomach reminded me, rather loudly, that it had been hours since I last had any food. I struggled to decide whether to drop off the packages first or just go directly to the restaurant. As I came to a decision, I suddenly noticed that no one was left in the streets.

I glanced around, trying to understand what happened. I even turned on Byakugan to scan for danger. But I realized quickly that there was no attack. Everyone had simply gone inside.

How strange. I wonder why they would do that?

As if to answer me, the entire village shook under the force of thunder. I stumbled a bit and stared up at the sky, realizing only now it was not just the sun setting that created the darkness. Storm clouds have gathered and in the distance I could see the curtain of rain.

It approached with a speed I was unprepared for. As the sandy ground ahead of me melted into a brown mush, I prepared to be drenched, only to find the rain did not fall anywhere near me. I glanced above and found a shield of sand acting like an umbrella.

"The rain here is sudden."

I watch as Gaara-san... sama... Kazekage-sama approached. He was as he always was, his face looking as if he had been carved from a block of stone. In the past, I would have trembled in fear of being so close to the sand that has killed so many before me. But he was Naruto-kun's friend and so I felt he must be a good person... even if he was a bit scary still.

"Thank you," I replied with a bow.

"It will be over soon," he continued, taking the bags from my hands as I thanked him again. We stood silently in the middle of the street, the rain battering against the makeshift roof above around heads.

The lightning was incredible to watch. It arched across the entire expanse of the sky and disappeared into the desert almost instantly. The thunder was loud enough to rattle the windows around us. The ground could not absorb the water fast enough and pools formed quickly in every depression in the road.

"My advisers inform me a marriage to you would beneficial to us both."

He said nothing after that for a while, which was good. A reply to this would not be as easy as others. A part of me understood exactly why his advisers informed him of this fact. That same part was also mindful of the great honor it would bring my family.

But politics and love rarely go hand in hand. And though I knew the chances that Naruto-kun would ever return my feelings were slim at best, it was something I wanted to hold onto for a little bit longer.

Before I could formulate a reply, he did it himself. "I fought him once and lost. Doing it a second time would be pointless."

I smiled a bit, knowing that I was blushing as I stood next to the most feared person in all of Suna. But he never said anything of it, just stayed there as the rain fell around us. And then as suddenly as it had started, it was over.

People started to emerge from their homes. The sand shield above me disappeared and I felt the dying rays of the sun start to warm my back again. Children ran into the street and splashed in the puddles.

I turned to take the bags back. "Thank..." But he was already gone.

It took a day for everyone to reappear. Kiba-kun had made amends to Sakura-san by bringing her a box of sweets at the hospital (something he had learned from regularly dealing the large number of irate women in his clan). Shikamaru-san would only mutter about restaurants and flowers when asked where he had been. The mission to the hermit had been a failure for the most part, though I suppose Neji-niisan would be happy that no one was hurt... especially the hermit.

I felt happy to have everyone back together. I missed Konoha and I was ready to go home. But after dinner, Sakura-san rounded us up for an all-girl meeting.

"We have a mission," she said. "Someone from Sound wants to defect and we're going to bring him in."