As years went by, Ichiraku restaurant had become quite popular at Konoha, but now, it was all around the world. So Naruto wasn't surprised to see the queue at the entrance at dinner time.

Summoning his patience, he stepped at the end of the queue before seeing Kiba, Shino and Choji a few meters before him. He was about to join them, being in a way better mood than earlier, when his loud brown-haired friend started to be agitated.

"I don't understand what Hinata's doing. It's been three days now since Naruto came back, and yet I heard Sakura saying to Shikamaru that Hinata hadn't come back home even once."

"I heard their meetings are really long." Choji said. "Poor Hinata, she must be so tired."

"I'm not saying they're not. I just don't understand, that's all. We don't even know what these stupid meetings are about."

Immobile, Naruto saw Shino suddenly turn his head in Kiba's opposite direction, as if to avoid his gaze.

"Shino... You. You must know something."

"Why will I know something, uh? Because Hinata reveals more secrets to me?"

"No way, buddy!" Kiba screamed. "Hinata reveals a lot of stuff to me! As much as she does to you. So what do you know?"

Pinching the bridge of his nose, Shino sighed. "Weddings are the meetings' main topic."

Naruto felt his blood turning cold all of the sudden. Weddings?

"But it's just rumors-"

Kiba laughed, "So Naruto proposed to Hinata and she's harassed with questions. Poor her, she's so shy... Wait! Why do I know that only now?"

"Because that's not what I meant." His teammate looked at him.

"Yeah, I don't think your theory's valid Kiba because my dad told me Hyuuga's weddings are arranged marriages."

At Choji's last words, the three friends fell into silence, whereas people around them kept chatting happily.

"Do... Do you think Hinata's wedding's already planned with another man than Naruto?" Kiba voiced his friends' quiet concern.

Reality crashed onto Naruto's face. Oh no, no, no, no!

"Hey, Naruto!"

Head lowered, Naruto ran away from the queue without noticing Ino and Shikamaru approaching him.

He tried to remember any detail he might have missed when the head of the Hyuuga clan had come to thank him for saving his younger daughter. Was he the only one who had thought to have found some common ground with the old man when Naruto told him he wanted to date Hinata? Did Hyuuga Hiashi wanted to get rid of him even since that day? If he did, did it mean he had already found another suitor for Hinata?

Anger, soon turning into rage, squeezed his heart. It was so overwhelming that he couldn't understand who he wanted to unleash it on. Hinata? Himself? Hiashi?

It was so painful that only one clear idea crossed his mind: once he had destroyed everything, he'd take Hinata back because she was his and nobody else's.

***

Hinata wasn't very comfortable being alone with those men. It was true, she knew all of them, but they were much older than her and them having a block when it came to celebrating love matches was starting to get on her nerves.

Rubbing her forehead to get rid of her annoyance, she told herself she was just tired. She would've given everything for this interminable day to end, or for her father to come back.

They had moved away from the wedding proposals to sit and eat at the enormous diner table. Hinata could hear them talk, but wasn't paying attention to what they were seeing, her mind being elsewhere. Thinking about Naruto. How bad she was missing him. Unfortunately, she didn't dare to ask to leave again. Before sitting, she had made Natsu understand with a glance that she wanted to leave earlier today, but she got an unnoticeable shake of her maid's head for only refusal.

Suddenly, a sweaty and rough hand landed on top of hers, dragging her back to reality. Hyuuga Iroha approached her, squeezing her hand to prevent her from escaping. Holding herself from wiggling her nose, she smelled the oil he used on his hair, making it greasy.

"If I may say, you are stunning tonight, Hinata-sama."

"If it is alright with you, I would prefer we talk about the weddings. Hokage-sama really wants all of this to work out well." Hinata was on the defensive, trying to free her hand.

It's at that moment, noises of glass and porcelain, metallic clicks and loud steps were heard every time one of the sliding doors shot close.

Thrown into panic like the other Hyuuga, Iroha hid behind Hinata who was feeling her body tensed, ready to fight. This agitation wasn't usually; someone was opening all the doors to find them.

Confusion got higher when the dinner room door opened with Naruto's all might, his breathing broken, face red, bows frowning and his eyes staring at Hinata.

"Uzumaki-san? You can not come in here!" Ko hadn't been listening.

Pearly and blue eyes met, gazes now scelled, turning everything surrounding their owners out. Both froze, feeling anything but happiness to see other other, their heart stopping the torture they'd been enduring for days.

Except anger came back to the surface when Iroha got out of his hiding place with a questioning look on his face. Not liking the proximity of that man and his girlfriend, Naruto gritted his teeth.

"You!" He roared, marching towards his target, but Hinata stood up, "Naruto-kun!"

His eyes landed back on her while the tension created by his presence got heavier and heavier as he was approaching her. She understood right away that something was wrong when she saw his gaze going back and forth between her and Iroha. Unfortunately, the situation was too complex for her to reassure Naruto.

Shocked by the blond intrudor's manners, the oldest Hyuuga stayed speechless while the youngest were fidgeting on their seat, impressed to see Konoha's hero passing by them.

"The Naruto?"

"I can't believe it."

"It is Uzumaki Naruto."

Whispers faded away when Naruto stopped before Hinata. Head up to look at him, her gaze didn't flicker, trying to calm everybody and especially her boyfriend.

After long seconds of silence and observation, she saw him slightly tilted his head to the side, blond mane following the movement, before catching her hand and getting out of the room.

"Hinata-sama!"

The intrusion had fanned agitation into the Hyuuga domain. Confused, Hinata glanced around and saw guards knocked out amongst the bits and pieces due to Naruto's lightning visit. Hearing that Ko was running behind them, trying to catch them, she turned her head and saw her little sister in the stairs, altered by the chaos.

"Onee-chan?"

"One minute" she asked Hanabi who seemed to understand Hinata really needed that one minute with her kidnapper because she ordered Ko to let them leave.

All the while, Naruto never looked behind him, keeping his pace until they arrived in the garden. Thinking he would stop, Hinata was surprised when he speeded up once out in the street. He dragged her on a few meters further before feeling his girlfriend struggling in his grip.

"What are you doing, Naruto-kun? Let me go!"

"For you can go back to those pervers?! No way!"

Surprised by his answer, Hinata didn't know what to say, but snapped out of her state of shock. This time, she succeeded in freeing her hand from Naruto's and he then stopped. He finally turned around and she saw the blue of his eyes had turned into a threatening and darker colour.

"You don't understand." Hinata said. "Right now, I'm on a mission for-"

"Damnit, Hinata. Mission or not mission, I refuse you go back, ok! It's been days since you are inside." His tone and words were like whiplashes, burning Hinata whose fists clenched.

"I don't allow you to talk to me like that! And if you had let me explain, we wouldn't be both angry. You just came back from a mission and it's your way to welcome me?"

Naruto didn't recognize her voice. She didn't scream, but her voice was colder than usual. As if it was his fault if they were in this situation.

"It's been three days since I came back, but how can you know? I was expecting to find you home, not with those men who can't control themselves! I was supposed to find you in bed, resting from your last mission. Do I have to remind you that you were hurt?"

"I was hurt?" Hinata repeated. "It's been weeks. I'm healed now!"

"So what?"

"So you wanted me to wait for you patiently, looked at home for weeks and weeks?! Without doing anything? Is that it? What am I? A piece of furniture? A beautiful doll? You know what? You behave like Toneri! Like a spoiled child!" She added before turning on her heels.

Her words hit straight at Naruto's heart. Knowing that Hinata was too kind to lose her cool, he understood that what he did and said was really bad. His first reflex was to catch her hand. His voice was quiet, "Hinata, I-"

"Let go of me!" She cried.

As she was snatching herself from him, Naruto saw her face wet with her tears and this picture struck him on the spot. He hurt Hinata. He didn't understand how yet and he didn't care. He didn't want to see her cry because of him. Unfortunately, guilt tore his heart apart.

Wiping her tears away from her face, Hinata cursed herself for starting crying that easily. "I have to go back. I'm going to apologise to everyone for our behaviour. I'll go back home only when I'm finished here." She added. "If I'm calm and you're ready to listen, we'll talk. If not, we'll wait."

He heard her voice fade out her last words and before he could add something, she turned around again and ran before disappearing without looking back at him.

Little by little, Naruto felt like getting control of his body again.

What just happened? When did the situation get out of hand?