A/N: Don't worry everybody, this IS a GaaHina fic. Gaara will show up in the next chapter. I hope you enjoy this chapter and please review.

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The Price of Honor

Chap. 3: Learning the rules to rule

It's been three months since Konohagakure went to war with Sunagakure. No one understood or knew why Sunagakure wanted war. The two kingdoms weren't allies but they weren't exactly enemies either. There's been little feedback from Sasuke on the progress of the army, but what information they did receive from messenger birds were enough to tell Hinata and the council that the war was far from over.

The past three months has been hard on Hinata, all she's been doing is working and nothing else. For the first month since the war began, Hinata did nothing but read documents, reading laws and the punishment for violating those laws. She been reading documents about how the kingdom is run, the system Konohagakure use, and she also got quite a history lesson from reading certain documents.

The second month after the war began Hinata had been doing what was expected of a ruler. She was expected to keep the clandred and lesser communities in line, to collect tithes from business and households, and to resolve the complaints of the people in Konohagakure. Hinata was able to do the first two responsibilities just fine with the help of Shikamaru.

Hinata and Shikamaru have actually grown close in the past few months and became friends. Besides being one of the few council members who accepted her ruling in Sasuke stand, Shikamaru was a great adviser to her.

Flashback

"Well it seems you have the finances under control, it's not unusual for tithes to be higher this time of year in spring." Shikamaru said.

"Yeah," was Hinata's only response as she continued working. Shikamaru sometimes came to her office in the late afternoon to see the progress she made and give her advice. They would often talk after he was done making suggestions about her work, but today she was trying hard to finish her work before sunset so she could get a good night's rest.

"You do know this is the month you have to do your first sitting of complaints from the people in Konohagakure, right?" he asked.

Hinata sighed to herself. She did know this was the month she'd have to listen to the complaints of the people in Konohagakure and she dreaded it. Complaints could expand for over a week to listen to everyone, even though a person was limited to six minutes. "Y-yeah," Hinata voice started to break, "I know." She pushed away from her desk, signaling she was done for the day.

Shikamaru chuckled, "It's not as bad as you might think. You'll probably get some serious things dealing with Konohagakure, but it will mostly be trivial things."

"I hope so."

"You'll do fine." After that they conversation died down and the only sound that was heard in the office was the soft snoring from Tomoko. Tomoko was sleeping in the corner of the room with a snot bubble visibly coming out of her nose and her head bent in a position that look like it would hurt after she awoke.

"Well isn't that a beautiful sight," Hinata said smiling.

"That it is, my lady." Shikamaru said and they both burst into a fit of laughs. Tomoko jerked awake when she heard their laughter which caused her snot bubble to pop and that made them laugh even harder.

End of Flashback

Today was the first day Hinata had to listen to the complaints from the people of Konohagakure. The meeting was held in the throne room which took up most of the first floor in the king's tower. It was a grand room with several large pillars to help support the weight of the tower. The throne room could easily up to three hundred people comfortably. And boy was it filled up with people.

Out of respect for King Sasuke, Hinata didn't sit in his iron throne chair. There were several large steps that the iron throne chair set upon, Hinata had a beautiful chair made and set just below the step the iron chair was on. Even though Hinata's chair did not rival the king's chair in size, it did surpass it in beauty.

There was a guard in every corner, two that stood at the double doors and there were a few more guards spread among the people in the room. The room was well enough secured assuming they were among loyal citizens. Hinata nodded her head towards the announcer as a signal for him to call the name of the first complainant.

"Daichi Dazai, lesser," the announcer said. It's was considered protocol for an announcer to say the name and kindred of the person they were introducing.

Daichi bowed respectfully before voice his complaint. "Some teenage clandred been stealing merchandise out of my shop and been using their powers to escape before I can even see their faces."

Some people in the room began to snicker, obviously proud that their young been making such a stir for the lesser shopkeeper.

"They didn't come back for a long time after you visited my shop but they have started back thieving," Daichi said and the laugher in the room cease. The queen had actually came to the lesser shop as an indirect warning to the teenagers, but they was foolish enough to start back.

"I'm surprise the teenagers continue to take things that don't belong to them, especial since everyone knows the penalty for theft. I'm sure no parent would want to find their child missing a limb because of their childish pranks." Hinata said loudly. She was sure the people who laughed earlier where the parents of the troublesome teenagers, if she could bluff hard enough that she would have the children hands cut off for their crimes then the parents would stop them before she would. "You know how to contact me if they steal from your shop again," Hinata stated.

Daichi didn't quite understand what Hinata just did but he bowed respectfully and left the throne room. A few people left shortly after him, Hinata had no doubts that it was the parents of the teenagers. Hinata gestured towards the announcer again.

"Kaoru Ijiri, clandred; and Shinobu Aizawa, lesser." Said the announcer.

Two little kids, no older than six years old, walked up to the throne. When they were standing in front of Hinata they started muttering back and forth to each other, something along the line of 'no, you do it.'

Hinata smiled at the young children and asked "How can I help you young citizens of Konohagakure?"

The boy, Kaoru, lifted up his chin and inhaled deeply. "I just wanted to say there isn't enough sand in the sand box," the boy shouted as loud as his little lungs would allow. He bowed quickly and ran out the room, his female friend followed suit.

When the children were out of sight, Hinata through her head back and laughed. This wasn't quite as bad as she thought it would be.

. . .

The day was nearing its end and there was still many people who where wait for their complaints to be heard. Obviously Hinata would have to sit through another day of this, but she couldn't complain it was something new to do other than looking at paperwork. Hinata nodded towards the announcer to call for the last person she would see today.

"Sakura Haruno, clandred," the announcer said with a sigh, he was glad to be done for today.

Sakura made her way towards the throne and just stood there for a long while. Eventually she lifted her head and stared a dead glare at Hinata.

Hinata was taken aback by this, no one has glared at her while she was listening to their complaint. Hinata suddenly had a feeling Sakura was about to complain about her.

"I. Hate. You." The words can out like a growl from Sakura, sounding pained and throaty. Everyone was on edge after those three little words were spoken. No one would dare to speak to anyone of power like Sakura just did, and less more to the queen. "You were with my Sasuke in which could have been his last days alive here in Konohagakure."

'Oh, this is the scorn of a bitter lover,' Hinata thought to herself. She folded her hands in her lap and crossed her legs. Hinata was bracing herself for the rating of Sakura.

"You are weak and unfit to be queen and the wife of Sasuke. Your own clan through you into an arranged marriage to remove the shame of has you carry the honorable name of Hyuuga." Sakura insults continued.

"Bitch! Who the hell do you think you're talking to?" Hinata looked around for the owner of the voice. Tomoko walked straight up to Sakura and put her fingers in the girl's face. "You're talking to the queen, your queen. She's my best friend and I'll be damned if I let your sorry ass talk to her that way," Tomoko shouted. Hinata felt a nearly unbearable love and pride for having a friend like her.

"You better adjust your tone, lesser." Sakura snarled. The Haruno clan had the power to heal, but anyone who could control their power well enough can paralyze and injure anyone. The Haruno power to heal sometimes skipped generations, unfortunately for Tomoko, Sakura was not in one of those generations.

When Tomoko didn't back down, Sakura began to gather power into her hand getting ready to strike the girl. Sakura lifted her hand and Tomoko didn't react quickly enough. Before Sakura brought down her hand to collide with Tomoko face, she collapsed. Tomoko looked shock when she saw Hinata standing next to her.

Hinata, being a Hyuuga, saw the blow coming. She jumped of the throne to protect Tomoko. She aimed for Sakura's neck to paralyze her and she succeeded.

"Guard," Hinata gestured for one of the guards at the door. When he stood in front of her she said, "Could you p-please take Miss Haruno home. Tell anyone who lives with her that she'll gain c-con-control of her body in a few hours, she just needs rest now."

"You stuttering bitch, how da-" Sakura's stop speaking when her mouth was covered by the hand of the guard who had to take her home.

"I think your mouth has gotten you into enough trouble for one day," the guard said. Sakura tried to muffle some words through his hand but they were unrecognizable to anyone.

People slowly left, clearly today's gathering was over. Hinata too was about to turn and head home for the day until she heard the desperate voice of her friend.

"Why," Tomoko asked with tears filling up the wells of her eyes. "Why would you protect me?"

Hinata stared at her for what felt like a long time. "I'm s-surprised you would ask that Tomoko, especially with the way you've just defended me."

"But that was my duty as your friend and servant."

"You make it sound as if we just have a one sided friendship." Hinata smiled. "I did it because you're my friend and I promised myself that I'll never let anyone hurt you just because you are powerless."

Tomoko engulfed Hinata into her arms. She hugged Hinata as tight as she could and manage to lift Hinata off her feet. Hinata hugged her friend back and they stayed like that for a long while. Eventually they parted and went home. All throughout the night Sakura's words keep repeating in Hinata's mind.

"You were with my Sasuke in which could have been his last days alive here in Konohagakure."

"…which could have been his last days alive here…"

'You should always be careful of the things you say,' Hinata though. 'For you never know if it may come true.'

a/n: I hope ya'll liked this chapter. Gaara is making quite an entrance in the next chapter and it's very long, but i'm almost done with it. I'm also changing the rating of this story 'M' for mature because of the next chapter.

Until then, please review and give me your input (I love reading reviews).