Naruto looked up from his desk at his beautiful fiancee, Hinata Hyuuga. "You can come in, Hina-chan," he said. He watched her face turn red and her fingers push together almost magnetically.

"A-a-ano, N-n-naruto." Naruto knew something was wrong. She hadn't gone all red, fingers-together, and stuttering since he had proposed to her.

"What's wrong, Hinata?" he asked, taking her hand in his. He noticed when she tried to subtly pull away. This only increased his curiosity as she had never tried to pull away from him before.

"I-I-I have s-s-something to t-t-tell you," she stuttered in a near-whisper.

"Ha-ha-ha!" Naruto laughed. "With the way you're acting you'd think you were cheating on me or something." Hinata finally got her hand out of his grip and her fingers, instead of poking magnetically, started wringing together.

"N-Naruto, I w-w-wanted to tell y-y-you something. C-c-can we go b-b-back to the h-h-house?" She stuttered out, looking extremely uncomfortable.

"I'll see if I can get out. Tsunade's got me doing all of her paperwork." Naruto disappeared then came back with a little bag. He took Hinata's hand and led her back to their house, still curious as to why she was trying to pull her hand away. They finally got to the house and Naruto reached to unlock the door only to find it was already open.

Now he was weary- he had enough experience to know when something was serious. Hinata led him to the table, where she sat down and grabbed her cold cup of tea then set it down. She repeated this process a few times, until Naruto finally took it from her and put it on the other side of the table. He tried to meet her eyes but she looked down, away from his eyes.

"A-a-ano, Naruto. I-I-" she started crying, and when Naruto reached over to comfort her she shied away from him. "I-I-I c-c-can't do it."

"Can't do it? Can't do what? What's going on, Hinata?" asked a very confused Naruto.

"I-I-I can't m-m-m-marry you."

Naruto was, in the least amount of words, shocked. He couldn't process her words, couldn't believe his own ears. He knew he had good hearing, but somehow he had to have heard wrong. She couldn't have said- but no. He wouldn't even think the word, that would make it true. He could stop it, just don't think it. He looked over at Hinata, who had tears in her eyes. No. He couldn't fool himself anymore. She had really said that she wouldn't marry him.

"What is it, Hinata? Do I work too much? Because I can try to spend more time with you. I promise I've been faithful to you. What more do you want that I haven't given you? Everything that is in my power to do, I'll do it."

"You d-d-don't love me."

"What?"

"You d-d-don't love me. I f-f-feel it in every t-touch, every k-kiss. You're j-just marrying me b-b-because I had a c-c-crush on you. But I f-feel like I can't h-h-have you, because h-h-he was the only one who c-could show me real l-l-love, and he did, and n-now I realize it, and I c-c-can't come back to you knowing that I c-can never love you like I d-d-did, and you c-can be with whoever you w-w-want now. You aren't t-tied down to m-m-me." At this point, she could no longer talk she was crying so hard.

Naruto was furious. She didn't love him? He didn't love her? Who made that up? He proceeded to yell until Hinata finally broke down and went into her room, emerging with a large bag. She left, walking down the street until he could no longer see her. He walked back to the office and immersed himself in his paperwork to get his mind off of the previous events of the morning.

Hinata walked until she got to the inn on the opposite side of Konoha. She talked with the owner, trading her services as cook to stay there until she could find a more permanent residence. Her room was small, a tiny little chest for her things, a small cot, and a bathroom with just the necessities. She sighed. This was home now.

At lunch time, she went down to the kitchen and cooked up a small meal for the inn owner. She then gave it to his servants, who dealed with the rest. She walked down to the hospital where she knew Sakura was. When she walked in, there was so much going on that she knew she wouldn't be able to find and talk to Sakura. She had never been close to any of the others, and she was deliberately avoiding Neji so she didn't have to talk to him.

She had no clue where to go, so she started walking into the forest. She found herself in the meadow where Naruto had proposed to her. She knew that Neji had proposed to Tenten there too. She looked at the winter flowers, the little gold and purple buds surrounding the pond, through blurry eyes. She didn't even process moving until she found herself lost, so deep in the trees the sun didn't reach her eyes. She broke down sobbing, her legs no longer holding her weight and folding under her as she fell to the ground, the soil staining her silk kimono.

She felt a warm pair of arms wrap around her, and a strong voice whisper a nursery rhyme that always calmed her down as a child. /Two by two, the turtle doves flew. Two by two, is how much I love you. Two by two, my heart belongs to you. Two, by two, by two, by two, by two. Now you know that I love you./ Her mother had written it for her and as a child Neji had sung it to her to help her calm down. As he had done many, many years before he was calming her down with her mother's song.

She again found comfort in his arms and they knew that no matter what had come before, or what would come after, they knew that they would make it through all the hills in the roller coaster of life, if they did it together. And so they did, staying together 'till their dying days.