A/N Back by popular (LOL more like a couple of alerts, favourites and even less reviews. D;) demand.

Yeah, I know it's awkward to end things so fast, but I've been paper writing and then transferring to laptop lately, so it's a bit of a process because I've been traveling abroad with a few friends. Hope for a final chapter after this. :)

Days and days of somber awkwardness passed between the Hokage and his subordinate, until finally, it was time for Anko to be off. The Rokudaime had gotten into a fight with his fiancée's father-in-law about his infidelity. At least it was good to see Anko not get involved, he had thought to himself. She had it bad as it was. He could not bare the rumours and such to irk her emotionally and disrupt the mission, or so he believed. Naruto sent the woman he loved away, he could not bare her presence during his sham of a wedding anyhow.

Naruto pondered upon what would happen if he had never gotten so upset, and had forgiven her, for several days, up until it was two days before the wedding. Anticipation and fright was present throughout the young man's body. He was utterly a mess. He had come to realize it was not because he valued the outcome of the mission so very highly, it was because he valued her so highly. He loved her, dear God he loved the woman. She was peeking around every corner of his mind, spewing out of his every damned thought. He could barely hold the woman he was supposed to marry without wanting to rip his arms off of their sockets. What he did not know was that the woman already knew. She had planned from the start for her father to find out, hoping he'd freeze the marriage. Her father did no such thing. Marrying the Rokudaime was too much of an honor to him.

Naruto sighed and looked to the sky. He was on top of the Hokage monument, a special place to him and his dearests. There was Jiraiya, Tsunade, Team 7, and then finally Anko. He could not scream, he was all too "high and mighty" for the overkill showing of emotions. It was burning him up on the inside, the way he -wasn't- marrying the person he loved the most. Perhaps he would've been better of marrying Sasuke. The woman he was marrying was not the problem. No, not at all. She was a rather nice girl, and she understood. She was actually the one reason he was still sane. He vented everything to her, because Sakura would only punch him and tell him to do as his heart said. At one point, he would've. After becoming Rokudaime, he could not. His heart hurt, and still does. Oh, how it all hurts him deeply. He is the lone man who clutches his heart and smiles warmly at his fiancée, not bothering to do any more than that.

It was a simple conversation with his soon to be wife that caused him great controversy within the confines of his already broken down mind.

"Uzumaki-san." She called out.

"We're getting married, are we not? Formalities are things I never like, you know. Call me Naruto."

"Naruto-san. I w-"

Naruto raised an eyebrow, and he pouted slightly.

"Naruto. I was meaning to talk to you, before the big day. I wanted to tell you a story. A story of how all of this, this sham, came to be."

"Sham?" Naruto questioned with mirth, knowing full well what she meant.

"Oh please, just listen." She looked at him, and then continued. "Before my father arranged our meeting and love affairs, I loved to pretend to be a normal civilian. I had my little village homestead, and a nice little district of which I could call my neighborhood. It was wonderful, really. Honest to all things above, I absolutely loved the simple life I held. I always played with the little children, and made friends on my own accord. They were never the spoiled ones that would love to berate others and look down upon those poorer than they."

Naruto opened his mouth to object the recounting of her past, only to be hushed by her.

"Let me finish. As I was saying; I had a nice, simple life. My father objected harshly, he stopped at nothing to deprive me of the only joy I had in life. It wasn't so serious until he sought to destroy the base of all my joys and worry free days. You see, I fell in love, with a boy from another village. Iwagakure, it was. My father despised him from first meeting. His name was Kazuhiro. I loved him so dearly. He was poor, but he had the pure white soul of an angel. He was a simple peddler, one that I came upon one day. He had offered to sell me the most beautiful, mesmerising amethyst encrusted shell comb I'd ever seen. He told me it matched my eyes, and from then on, he wooed me to the ends of the Earth, or so he put it. We fell in love, and Father found out. He wrecked us, and soon after, arrangements were made for us.. Although he wants me to see him one last time before I marry you.." She finished, tears already cascading from her eyes.

"It seems to me you've got quite the love tryst there."

She looked at him with sullen eyes and then knit her eyebrows tightly together.

"Alright, alright. I understand. And now where is he? Or rather, where does he wish to meet you?"

"That's where I need your help, Naruto-sama. I need you to pretend where going on a little getaway before our lovely façade takes place. I really do wish to see him, if only for a final good-bye." She said sadly, tears threatening to pool over her cerulean eyes.

"I'll do it.. Where will the rendezvous take place?"

"It's in Suna." She replied.

Naruto stared blankly at the woman in front of him in shock. Anko. Her name was all Naruto could think of.

And so Naruto sat at the top of the monument, his mind racing through possible choices. Go through with it to help someone he cared about, or tear apart another.

His old flame, ignited once more, or his fiancée. He had a simple choice. Why couldn't he make up his mind?