A small crack in perfection

A small crack in perfection
By eternalshiva

Disclaimer:
I do not own Naruto or any of the characters portrayed by Masashi Kishimoto, nor do I make any monies off this fanfiction.

AN – Ah yeah, I know I should focus on chapter fifteen of Twice Shy but... plot bunnies are strong in this one. Look for chapter 15 by the end of this week. Sorry!

Thank you Jolly Green for the beta, I appreciate it.

Large chunks of italic texts = memories. Don't get confused now~
'italics' thoughts

Chapter 6
Yielding to the sun

He hadn’t managed to get past the point of “I axed the server line”; his hearing had malfunctioned and he was positive the room had turned into a dull, fiery red. Maybe that was just the hue of his rage painting the walls. Either way, it didn’t bode well for Kiba.

“What the fuck, Kiba! I leave you alone for not even twelve hours and you destroyed the servers?” he tried to whisper, but it sounded like a harsh, squeakier version of his screaming. Kiba pulled the phone away from his ear and glared at Shikamaru, who was quietly pissing himself laughing in the corner of the newly reconnected server room. He mouthed at the technician to cut it out, but the lazy computer geek only ignored him as he continued to hit keys while snickering.

“It’s all fixed up!” he tried to interject between Naruto’s odd sputtering and gargles, but there was no way he’d get the time to cut through the rage emanating through. He could almost see the blonde’s face twisted up in rage, tinted red and his fingers pulling out his hair. A sight he was exposed to at least once every couple of days.

“Like I give a shit! You broke my babies!” his boss continued to rant. Kiba rolled his eyes and put the phone down on a desk while Naruto continued his tirade.

“He’ll be at this for a little bit,” he explained when Shikamaru glanced his way. “You want something from the kitchen?” Kiba asked before heading towards the exit. The lazy man shook his head and watched the other man disappear through the doorway. He raised a brow as the sharp bark of Naruto continued to yell through the abandoned phone, making it hard to repress the bubble of laughter that was building up.

It was close to ten minutes before Kiba returned and Naruto was still whisper-screaming into the receiver. Kiba checked his watch and picked up the phone, counted to three on his fingers, and as though on cue, Naruto stopped yelling.

“Ok, you got it all out of your system?” Kiba casually asked, taking a bite out of his ham sandwich and winking to Shikamaru.

“I hate you so much right now,” Naruto said through gritted teeth.

“Glad we agree on something,” he added sweetly. Naruto collapsed on his bed, exhausted.

“What’s the damage?” the blonde asked while rolling over to his side, towards the door of his bedroom. He could see Hinata’s room across the way, bathed in the darkness of the hallway. There was a light illuminating the crack by the floor and he wondered if he’d woken her up. ‘Fucking retarded Kiba… why do I keep leaving him in charge?’

“Well, Shikamaru discovered that someone’s been downloading pretty much all of your finished drafts from Sai,” he heard his partner explain.

“Shikamaru? Is that who you dragged in there to fix your stupidity?” he grumbled.

“Ha ha, very funny.” Naruto smirked at the response. Kiba tried to ignore the obvious smirk from his friend and went back to the topic at hand without much more delay, “Anyways, seems like we have a regular hacker.”

“What do you mean by that?” he managed to say while in mid-yawn. He looked at the digital clock and saw the minute change to four a.m. He really needed some sleep. He heard a shuffle and an offended yelp from Kiba.

“Means someone’s been stealing your work,” Shikamaru’s voice chimed at the end of the line.

“Really? Who the hell would want to steal landscaping designs?” the blonde asked, half-laughing at the ludicrous idea.

“I don’t know, Naruto. That’s not all though,” the technician replied. He caught Kiba’s attention, motioning to listen closely while keeping Naruto in suspense. “I consoled into your server and did a trace on the last IP address that connected to it from outside your firewall.” Kiba raised a brow as the technical jargon started to fall out of his friend’s mouth. Although he could make some of it out, he knew Naruto wouldn’t.

“Turns out they bounced the connection through about a half-dozen cloaked proxies before attempting to connect to your server, even though they already had a dedicated backdoor set up.” He paused a moment before picking up where he left off, the snort from Kiba had distracted him. He gave him a quizzical look when the dog owner shook his head.

“So I went into the archives and used my personal algorithm to track every occurrence of this guy snatching your data so I could do follow up searches.” Shikamaru turned back to his laptop and hit a pair of keys to bring up the list he’d built from his searches.

“Turns out they’ve been using the same six proxies every time. I was able to use that to track down where the hack originated from and tried to dig deeper, but as soon as I got Telnet-ed into their system, their firewall smashed the connection like a hurricane,” he finished, quite proud of his handy work.

Naruto had taken the phone away from his ear after the word “I” and was holding it in front of him in confusion. It seemed that Shikamaru was under the impression that Naruto was a genius in technology and not landscaping. Hearing the explanation finish, he brought the phone back to its rightful place and spoke with tired annoyance.

“So... Repeat that in English this time.” He pressed his thumb and index to the bridge of his nose, trying to push away a headache that was threatening to take over. “Oh, can you make sure a three-year old can put that long winded alien jargon together and understand it, please?” he added, making it clear to Shikamaru that he was dumb as a post in computers. Naruto heard the technician sigh as Kiba chuckled in the background.

“Basically I checked your old records to find how long this guy has been stealing your work and managed to almost track him down by following his electronic footprints.” He surmised again, dumbing it down to a respectable level without resorting to a drawn graph. “The only reason I didn’t find out more than that was because of their own security measures.” He prayed that was daft enough.

“See? Now, was that so hard?” Naruto asked pleasantly. He could have sworn he heard a muttered ‘troublesome idiot’ on the other end of the line. Despite his amusement, the blonde honed in on the major point. “So did you figure out who exactly has been stealing my Death Star plans?” he asked with a smirk.

“They’re originating from the parent company of the one you hired to monitor your network.”

Naruto blinked and cursed loudly when the small and barely audible laugh of Kiba resonated again in the background.

“I told you to reject that shifty deal!” the dog owner gloated, yelling with a sense of self-satisfaction that was not missed by his boss.

Fuck he hated it when Kiba was right.

* * *

The wail of the ambulance woke her from her sluggish sleep, sounds of people arguing made her frown, and she couldn’t breathe. The mask pressed hard against her mouth and she tried to reach for it, but her arms wouldn’t move. Couldn’t move. She felt sticky, her head hurt and she wanted the wailing to stop.

‘Where am I?’ she thought, but a bump in the road made her cry out instead. The paramedic glanced down her way and tried to give her a smile, but it was clouded; filled with worry she couldn’t quite figure out. She heard he sister crying, calling for their mother. She tried to reach for her but her body wouldn’t move. Darkness fell again and she let herself be swallowed by it.

The light came once more and stirred her from the depths of darkness. She could hear the voice of her father speaking to someone. She tried to open her eyes, but nothing was obeying her. She wanted to call out to them, let them know she was awake, but there was a tube in her mouth. She wanted to gag, she was thirsty and the beep of some machine was driving her mad.

“Your wife was killed almost instantly. If it wasn’t for Hinata’s quick thinking, your youngest wouldn’t have come out of there alive...” the female voice drifted inside the room. Her father was barely out of sight, his brow furrowed in anger.

‘Mother is dead?’ The reality of situation was slowly dawning on her. She had distracted her mother in the van; they had collided with a truck. Hinata tried to squeeze her eyes together to let out a tear forming, but they were already shut. How could she see so clearly if her eyes were still closed? She didn’t really have time to think on the possibility when she heard a sound in the room that caught her attention.

Her head tilted towards the sound only to find that the room she occupied empty. She noticed that it was still raining outside as the constant patter of water hitting the window finally filtered through her semi-consciousness. Her attention focused on the vacant seat next to the bed as she heard the sound once more. It was an almost ghostly whisper; one that was calling her name.

Her mother’s bloodied face slowly appeared before her; her body faded in slowly and it was reaching for her. Hinata tried to shoo away the ghostly figure, but it stood there grinning unknowingly as a death ate away at its flesh, exposing the teeth from her missing lips. Was this truly her mother or was it an evil spirit trying to drag her into the darkness?

Her heart monitor beeped quickly, attracting the doctor’s attention. The blond woman entered the room and frowned when she noticed Hinata’s opened eyes focused near the window. Her eyes were void of recognition when her father entered the room behind her.

‘Her eyes shouldn’t be open; she’s in a deep coma.’ Tsunade thought to herself. There was something going on with the girl’s brain if she was giving any signs of life. She pulled at the paper print out of the girl’s brain waves and noticed a sharp increase of activity in the last few minutes. She ignored the man behind her as she made her way around the bed. She reached for the girl’s eye lids and pulled them back, flashing a light to see if there was any reaction. There was none, which troubled the doctor.

Hinata tried to speak, but the tubes were keeping her from screaming as the ghost closed in on her. The bloody fingers reached out, grazed her skin and her small terrified mind couldn’t handle the cold feeling it left behind as it reached for her heart. She tried to push it off, tried to call for help, but she was just laying there, letting her soul be sucked away by those cold, uncaring hands.

This was not her mother.

‘Come now, child...’ it whispered, grinning as the stench of rot invaded her sense of smell; demanding retribution for the unwelcomed death she had caused. Hinata could feel the coldness behind the vacant eye sockets, the grinding sound of exposed bones against the floor. It made a sickening sound, almost like a hushed tone of a gargling wet breath as though it was drowning in blood, when the bony rotting fingers reached for her head.

‘You should never give up, Hinata! It’s important to always promise yourself you’ll do your best. Don’t let anything get in your way!’ a memory fluttered in the way; blonde hair and sparkling blue eyes distracting the ghost. Hinata felt her resolve return and focused on the brightness of Naruto’s words, but it was too late. The ghost had touched her mind and she felt something lock before darkness swallowed her again.

‘Don’t give in, Hinata!’ The smile from the boy flashed brightly, illuminating the room. The ghost disappeared and Hinata felt the whisper of Naruto’s voice leave her.

“What’s going on?” her father shouted as the monitor began to falter. Her eyes rolled in the back of head and Tsunade pressed the red emergency button. The voice of a nurse calmly greeted the doctor as Hinata’s heart flat lined.

“Code blue!” she shouted. Everything around Hinata turned into a blur.

Darkness lifted once more, but this time all she felt was a void. She blinked at the light in her eyes; her voice was unsteady so she only nodded when the doctor asked her a few questions. She didn’t know where she was, she didn’t know who the man was in the room. The small child next to him looked to her with warmth and reached for her, calling her Hinata.

“You’re recovered Hinata,” the blonde woman said pleasantly. The smile did not match the concern in her eyes, but the young woman in the bed ignored it, not quite sure how she was supposed to react to it. Tsunade walked out of the room, motioning at the man to follow her. The younger girl stayed with the bedridden one. They stared at each other; one frightened to wake up to this chaos, the other oblivious to her sister’s distress.

“She’s lost her memories,” she heard the female voice say quietly.

“How? She was fine before!” the man shouted before getting hushed. Hinata smiled at the younger girl who was attempting to climb into her bed, babbling on about blankets, a new room and something about Christmas.

“It must have happened when she was flat-lined, lack of oxygen to the brain,” she explained. Hiashi turned towards his daughters. Watched them interact. Hinata was like another person, she was awkward to say the least.

“Is this permanent?” he asked, his mind already planning on how to deal with his daughter’s most unfortunate situation. Despite its negative implications, he could easily turn it to his advantage and turn his daughter into something other than what she was.

“I have no idea,” was all Tsunade could say as she watched the man disappear into his daughter’s room.

* * *

Hinata woke with a start. Her eyes focused on the T.V. in front of her bed, blinking away the revenants of her dreams. More trickles of memory she assumed as she blinked away the unwanted tears threatening to form at the edge of her sleepy eyes. She curled into herself a moment, her thoughts still wandering down this new memory corridor she had unearthed and she finally let herself cry when the television emitted the high-pitched sound indicating broadcasting was finished for that night.

The TV had flatlined and the sound rushed back unwanted, frightening memories like a flood. She sat up in her bed and looked around her room, listening for the scratch of bone against floor, her heartbeat was deafening and she nervously bit her lip.

‘Get a grip, you’re in control of this situation. Not the other way around. Don’t let yourself be controlled by silly nightmares and childish emotions,’ she tried to convince herself, but she was unusually afraid of the dark.

‘How shameful...’ she repeated over and over as she brought the blankets closer to her. She tried to steady her heart beat, but the imminent threat of the fleshed ghost was making her irrational.

She had to get out of there.

* * *

Naruto was struck once more by the insomnia demon. He sighed and wondered how he would be able to defeat his long time foe, but he couldn’t really think clearly. His thoughts were still focused on who had hacked into his affairs. He was really angry that his security company was doing it from the inside. Snakes really can’t be trusted after all it seemed.

The mess was going to be massive, he could feel it already. Although the contract could potentially be breached and they could get counter-sued, he requested that Shikamaru do a full investigation on the hacks and the information that has been downloaded.

He couldn’t really think off hand who would benefit the most out of taking his work, but there had been a lot of landscaping companies looking to buy rights to some of his more famous designs. He wouldn’t necessarily be surprised if it was one of his major competitors.

It seemed ridiculous to him in general; he planted flowers, created peaceful sanctuaries. It’s not like he was some sort of international spy or some high-class organisation with secrets that would dominate the world. He shrugged to the ceiling and sat up in his bed. He passed both of his hands through his hair while shaking the strands lose in an attempt to rid himself of the current worries, but it was futile. He slid across the bed expertly before standing up unsteadily, his eyes focused on his goal, and took a few steps towards his graph table before digging out the pictures provided by his hostess.

‘Might as well work on the drafts for Hinata’s garden,’ he challenged himself and quickly went through shiny images, trying to situate the room in his head as he walked out of his bedroom and tiptoed carefully past Hinata’s room. Last thing he wanted to do was disturb her. He knew what Sakura was like when he would accidently wake her on one of his missions to design and conquer; he didn’t really want to find out what the bi-polarism in Hinata would create at four in the morning.

Just because he had insomnia didn’t mean he had to push it on other people.

‘First things first,’ he thought excitedly as the image of a fresh brewed cup of coffee floated teasingly before him, ‘I need to find the coffee pot.’ He stalked the hallway and invaded the kitchen, searching for the contraption and nearly fell into depression thinking the Hyuuga’s did not like coffee.

‘Ludicrous!’ he thought as he resumed his efforts. Within a few more minutes, he’d found it sitting next to the grinds. He tried to hide his glee, but his shit-eating grin betrayed him as he filled the coffee pot with water and measured the grounds. He flicked on the switch and resumed his original search.

Making his way out of the kitchen, he ended up inside the living room. He glanced around quickly, his right hand resting on his hip as he used the other one to bring the picture closer for inspection. He could see some of the living room in the back ground, so he wasn’t too far off.

The rising sunlight caught his attention and he stared at the gigantic panes before him. He followed the gleam of the window’s reflection to a very stylish orange piece of furniture. He smirked as he spied this very comfortable looking ottoman sitting alone before the sunrise and decided that chair would look perfect in his room. He made the mental note to take it there once he found the room he was looking for.

He crossed the living room into another one that was emanating a huge amount of light. Being a very curious individual, Naruto bee-lined straight for it and strolled in like he owned the place.

“Here you are,” he spoke out loud to no one but ghosts and morning light. He grinned as the room stood empty, prepped for his little future sanctuary. He walked around, taking mental notes on where the morning light began and eyed outside the large glass panes to where it would end in the evening. There were no buildings in the way, so this room would basically be flooded with light all day.

The glass was fairly thick, assuring Naruto that there wouldn’t be much of an issue with the coldness of winter. No door to the outside was even better. He cracked his knuckles and smiled, an idea forming inside his head, but before he could finish the thought, the coffee’s aroma snuck in behind him and his shoulders drooped, took in a deep breath and made a lengthy ‘Ah’ sound.

Naruto mentally prepared his schedule for the day. He deleted most of his other engagements, sleep being one of them, and added Coffee, Orange Chair and creating a rough draft.

***

‘How much more could there be hidden inside my mind?’ Hinata thought to herself as she fought an unwelcomed chill despite the warmth in her room. She had calmed down enough since waking that she was now positive there was no zombie waiting in the shadows to eat her soul, but the scrapping noise in the hallway earlier had nearly caused her a heart attack.

It took a few moments to realize that it was Naruto dragging something back to his room. He had unknowingly managed to dispel her from her childish nightmare and she begun to think rationally once more.

Hinata threw back the blankets and climbed out of bed. She disregarded the comfort of her slippers and remained barefoot, enjoying the coolness against the pads of her feet. She dug out an old sweat shirt and threw it on before adjusting her pyjama pants and strolling out the door. She carefully tiptoed past Naruto’s room when she didn’t hear any sounds from inside. She knew what she was like when it was four in the morning and unceremoniously awoken, so she wasn’t willing to find out what he was like just yet.

She could smell coffee from the kitchen and she raised a brow in a curious manner; maybe she had been stealthy for no reason considering the coffee maker had just finished pouring itself. Recalling the scraps and grunts earlier from the hallway she decided to track down where it could have come from. The first logical thing was to consider what was heavy enough for Naruto to be unable to lift off the ground.

She narrowed her eyes at the scratched surface of her hard wood floor and followed the trail backwards from his room. She arrived in the living room and stared at the beautiful view from the window and was struck with a dreadful feeling.

Her favourite chair had gone missing.

She narrowed her eyes and kept her annoyance in check for who ever had taken it. She hoped it was Naruto, because if it wasn’t in his room, she would make sure that heads would roll. She back tracked towards the kitchen and sighed, knowing full well that it was most likely her unwanted company that had taken the ottoman. He had a perverse obsession with orange for one thing and he didn’t seem to have any conscious knowledge of etiquette as a guest.

So far, he’d manage to completely re-write the book on “How to stay at a Hyuuga Homestead” and threw aside Hinata’s personal boundaries like a used cup of instant ramen. She took two cups out of the cupboard and placed them on the counter, filled them coffee and made her way carefully towards his room.

Usually when she was feeling unsettled, she’d crash on her chair and watch the sunrise, but a certain chair stealer had prevented her routine. He would have to suffer the consequences of her presence in his sanctuary.

* * *

Naruto watched her from the corner of his eye as she settled down on the large chair he’d brought in that morning; she had placed two cups of coffee on his draft table a few moments before, startling him. Her feet tucked themselves as she leaned against the large arm of the ottoman; she stared outside the patio door, not wanting to disturb him.

He turned his head slightly towards her; his hand had stopped gliding the pencil across the paper on the draft table and he squinted his eyes a little in confusion, wondering what exactly had brought her into the guest room. He picked up the cup of coffee and took a small sip, lifted it in acknowledgement and nodded his thanks. She merely glared at him.

She exuded anxiety despite the angry look. She chewed on her lower lip and he thought he saw her shaking a little, as though there had been a chill in the room. He shrugged slightly and focused his attention on the private garden he had finally begun to design. He was on a roll after his morning exploration and didn’t want to lose the inspiration provided by the morning sun.

As Hinata listened to the sounds of the pencil scratching, she suddenly became very aware of the man sitting before her, deep in concentration. His brow furrowed and his mouth moved lightly while he chewed on a piece of gum. She followed the scars on his cheeks down to his jaw and continued from there; she was fascinated by the movement of muscles. Her gaze nearly licked the skin when she noticed his heart beating at a pulse point. The beat was slow, steady and powerful; she felt her own match his unconsciously, her nerves settling.

She was startled slightly when he stretched, scratching the back of his neck. The popping sounds of the vertebrae would normally make her cringe, but it only made her watch the movement of his shoulders closer as he pushed them forward in an effort to release tension building there. He grunted in relief when it popped again and for some unknown reason that made her cheeks warm.

‘Childish,’ she thought, but she couldn’t tear her eyes from his back. She wanted to touch him. She averted her gaze when the thought crossed her mind and missed his glance over his shoulder. Naruto raised a brow; he thought he felt her heavy stare on him, but she was still staring at the floor. Her body language had shifted slightly, more relaxed, but it was still stiff and unpleasant.

“Is something wrong?” he asked finally. He didn’t mind her in the room; she wasn’t as loud as Sakura and far from an annoying distraction from his work. She was quite calming to be honest. He was well aware, however, that Hinata wasn’t one to come near him unless there was something she needed to speak to him about.

She looked up with a blush still dusting her cheeks as she argued with Ero-Hinata and Heiress-Hinata on their conflicting opinions in regards to the blonde. Their eyes met and, unlike her newly emerging self, he didn’t waver from their meeting. It was a bit confrontational for her and he was obviously oblivious to her inner conflict. She felt her heart beat increase when his eyes focused on her, his attention entirely on her.

Why had she come in here? All thoughts of the chair flew out of her mind and she was suddenly feeling nervous, unsettled and insecure all at the same time. How could one look make her fall apart like that?

She did, however, recall the original reason as to why she had ventured outside of her room. She didn’t want to be alone and had come in here without thought of the consequences after her nightmares and her brush with the imaginary zombie in her room. The one thing she knew about this man was that he exuded calmness, confidence and he was a beam of light in her darkness.

He was becoming a sanctuary of sorts for her and that revelation startled her to the point that her eyes widen. Something which only made Naruto more curious, being the nosy individual he is by nature.

“Do...” she started, but she was suddenly overwhelmed by his presence. His charisma had taken over the room and she was feeling unsettled.

“Do?” he repeated, his eyes were twinkling in the early morning sunlight coming through the patio door. She fidgeted under his stare and he blinked and raised a brow wondering what had her all tongue tied.

“Do you... ever,” she looked away from him, “wish you could go back?”

“Go back where?” He was a bit confused at the question. She shifted her weight in the large chair and sunk deeper into the material, trying to persuade the furniture to swallow her whole. It wasn’t working and she was starting to believe she was knowingly setting herself up for intimate moments in rebellion to her careful planned isolation.

“To the past,” she continued. Naruto put his pencil behind his ear after she looked away, embarrassed that she’d brought up such a silly hypothetical question. He leaned back against his chair in thought to the heavy question.

“Depends.” He looked her way before linking his hands behind his head and crossing his feet as he got himself comfortable. That position was quite distracting for the Ero-Heiress. Her eyes tried not to gaze upon his form and focus on the floor, but her attempts were failing miserably.

“Depends?” she asked as she dropped one leg off the ottoman. Her foot settled on the small carpet and dug her toes into the material, trying to distract herself. She decided to focus on his face, but she had forgotten she had deemed him handsome and she was devastated when her pale lilac eyes met with golden skin.

“Yeah, depends on the reason,” he said again, a bit more confident. He wasn’t sure where the conversation was going, but he wasn’t about to turn her away considering she was finally opening up a little to him.

“What... what if it was about regret?” she asked softly, her gaze moving from his face to the messy draft table. Her eyes lingered on the drawings there, almost drinking up his hand writing, trying to etch the curves and smoothness into her memory. For what reason, she didn’t know, but she wanted to know more about him.

It struck him as odd the way she was acting and it sort of dawned on him why she would allow herself to enter his room, dredge through foreign territory and meet with the enemy bringing a peace offering of coffee. She was lonely. While she was looking down at her fingers, he didn’t miss her haunted eyes, playing a memory that had resurfaced.

He hated to admit it, but there was only one way to drive the Heiress out of the Hinata driver seat and he prayed he wasn’t going to earn himself a kick in the ass from Hinata or Sakura for this attempt at comforting the troubled young woman.

“No,” he answered after a few minutes. She was surprised by his answer and her raised brow made him smile, subsequently disarming her from her defences. He debated a few more seconds on his decisions, weighed the positives versus the negatives and mentally shrugged. He pushed his doubt out of his mind and went for it. He got up from the chair and swallowed the few steps between them as he motioned to her with his right hand to move over.

“Scoot, woman,” he said teasingly. She glared at him.

She started to argue that there was no room, but he pushed her over quite forcibly, making her more compliant than she wanted to be. He was refusing to listen to her deranged reason and rolled his eyes at her incoherent sputters and excuses. While she was ungraciously shoved into the corner of the ottoman, her hair had spread out even more, getting caught up in the lint, cracks and nooks of the material.

He put an arm over the top of the large seat and settled next to her, squeezed in while she tried to avoid touching him. She struggled to break free, but his weight was winning and she stopped when he gave her a confused “where are you going” look and gave in. His warmth against her was somewhat unwelcomed, but she didn’t mind it entirely; she had been chilled to the core from her nightmare and secretly appreciated the body heat he provided.

‘Just this one time,’ she justified to herself as a blush spread lightly. She stiffened when she felt his breath on her neck and glanced at him from the corner of her eye. He was leaning his head against the back of the chair and staring at the ceiling, trying to come up with the right words to explain why he had said no.

“I wouldn’t want to go back,” he started, but she was having trouble focusing on his words. His warmth was invading her; his very masculine scent of coffee, sleepy sweat and musk assaulted her nose and she could hear his heart beat. She was mesmorised for a moment by how that constant regular beat exuded power, strength and comfort. She wanted to lean on that feeling, wanted to claim it as hers.

Again, she was startled by her own admission and tried to suppress this new feeling, but Ero-Hinata had won the battle against her other persona and was relishing the feel of his flesh against her own, even if it was just through clothing. His voice fluttered the edge of her miscued sanity and brought her attention back from her lingering want to the topic at hand.

“…because regret is what creates who you are, how you will be and how it will teach you to treat others, either with great respect or disrespect.” He shifted in the ottoman, forcing the heiress closer to him. “It’s very humbling to regret and to understand what regret means.” He was picking at her walls again and she wasn’t mad about it, necessarily.

“W-w-what do you mean?” she asked softly, embarrassed she had stuttered. Naruto grinned at the slip and he had unknowingly grabbed on to a strand on her long tussled hair thinking it was the lint on the chair. He rolled it between his thumb and index as he continued to think, blissfully ignorant.

She, on the other hand, had noticed and had frozen at the subconscious action. Her heart was picking up a strange speed and there was a lump in her belly, heavy and light at the same time. Fluttering memories hazed barely out of reach as he continued to touch her lightly, unknowingly unleashing unimaginable conflict as the Heiress resurfaced, trying to unseat Ero-Hinata from the current throne. She could have sworn she heard a maniacal laugh from the seat of her mind, but she chose to disregard it for the sake of her mental stability and focused again on Naruto.

“Well, if I were to go back and prevent certain things that happened to me, or whomever, I think it would entirely change my view on life and how I react to it.” He spoke softly, his voice held a sadness to it that made her turn towards him. She caught him looking distant, his eyes unfocused and she used that tiny window to capture his eyes for her own selfish reasons.

It was intimidating to say the least. His eyes were touched with green, gold and she thought she saw a hint of red in the iris. They whispered promises she didn’t want to listen too, afraid of what they would uncover from her. She was growing increasingly bold as the seconds ticked by and without thinking, she wanted to know what had brought on that fore-longed look.

“Did something happen that made you regret?” she asked tentatively. Her curiosity to learn more about this man, to discover what it was that everyone seemed to know about her history with him, had suddenly become more than just a curious endeavour. It was her purpose that morning. He let his head roll towards her before lifting it. He gave her a soft smile, but she didn’t buy it; his eyes weren’t reflecting the feeling he was trying to show.

“Well...” he looked away towards the patio door, “a lot of things happen in life that make you regret, I think. Promises can’t heal another’s heart,” he said absent-mindedly. She frowned at his comment.

‘What did you promise?’ she wanted to ask, wanted to take his own haunted look away from the sunlight he brought into the room, but she couldn’t bring herself to form the words. Something about the way he was twisting her hair, the way his body leaned against her for support and the distant stare prevented the question.

“What is making you regret, Hinata?” he whispered the question, breaking her train of thought. The intimate position, the thick sound of his voice made it hard for her to focus. She turned to look at him and found him staring at her intently.

“I...” she started, he moved closer to her and her eyes fell to his lips. “I... was the reason my mother died,” she revealed. He frowned at her words and stopped twisting the hair between his fingers.

“And what, on this good earth, would ever make you think that?” he asked, surprisingly stern. She tried to shrug and look away, but her eyes clouded over which made her blink, frowning at the unusual feeling that was lumped inside her.

“I...” she squeaked out, her hands covered her face and she let out a sigh. Her fingers were pried apart by his hands. She blinked another tear away and she didn’t want to look up.

“Look at me,” he whispered. She shook her head and he squeezed her hands in comfort. “Look at me, Hinata,” this time his voice held a command she found hard to refuse and looked up. His face held a seriousness that made her pause.

“You have nothing to be guilty of, Hinata. Forgive yourself.” He smiled softly at her and once the words left his mouth, she understood finally that he was right. She truly needed to forgive herself; to shed the guilt caused by her father’s anger and to forgive her father’s indiscretions.

She cracked. Her carefully built wall had finally been pierced and it crumbled.

Naruto pulled her close once the thick tears began to fall freely, her mouth open in a silent wail of regret. He pulled her tightly against him, shushing her while caressing her hair in comfort. Forgiving was the hardest thing to do, but to forgive yourself was nearly impossible - but with Naruto’s permission, she could finally begin.

* * *

This was really hard to write ~_~ How emotional! I’m relatively pleased with how it turned out. I think anyways. What a girly chapter XD

No, don’t worry – She’s on an emotional rollercoaster as her memories return so she’s not acting like herself in this chapter, a bit OOC I can say for my fanfic but trust me, she’s far from back to normal – Next chapter gonna be angsty ah-wee~

Look at the shinny button below – It has review written on it o.O!