Life was not a fairy tale. Everything wasn't perfect. There were dark times, and hard times. Times, he didn't want to think about anymore.

Especially when he was younger.

Even in his marriage, there were times that were harder than others. He also remembered a very recent, dark time when his own son hated him.

But Naruto loved his life.

When he woke up in the morning, birds weren't singing. The sun wasn't shinning. There was no pitter-patter of little children feet, or their giggles echoing through the house. His wife wasn't wrapped in his arms romantically, or waking him up with breakfast.

It was a little after four in the morning. It was dark and cold outside. Winter time, nearing the Rinne Festival. Boruto was on a mission and Himawari was on a school trip. His wife was on her side of the bed, in warm pajamas, peacefully sleeping.

Naruto yawned and rolled closer to his wife. He didn't want to wake her up, it was too early for that. But he missed her. He liked her. He wanted to be around her.

He pressed his face into her back, his arm laying across her side softly. She was squishy under all the blankets, and the ends of her hair tickled the top of his head. He took in a deep breath, smelling their laundry detergent, Hinata's shampoo, the understated floral tones that he always associated with his wife, and especially their room.

As he exhaled, she shifted away. "That tickles."

"Sorry." Naruto pressed his face tighter against her back, feeling her shoulder blades, her spine digging into his cheeks.

'She's getting too skinny.' Naruto frowned to himself.

She yawned, her back arching away from his involuntarily. Her head fell back, her hair now going into his eyes. It ended with a hum, her curling back into the blankets.

"Did you wake me up to make you breakfast?" Hinata asked, face muffled by her pillows.

Naruto smiled. "No."

He felt Hinata turn her head, narrowing her eyes to appraise his reply.

Naruto ducked further down her back, hiding his grin, trying not to laugh. He could never hide from her though.

"I just wanted to snuggle you!" He finally let out a laugh. "Honest, 'ttebayo."

She hummed again, in a way that only she could, like 'you're full of shit, Naruto-kun' but still sound cute and sweet.

He finally started laughing for real. "I promise!"

Her hand came up to caress his, drawing soft circles on his arm, slung across her stomach. He lay like that in total bliss for a couple minutes, trying not to fall back asleep but lulled into a soft rest. Alone time with Hinata like this was always peaceful, relaxing. Like meditating, but better.

And rare.

Too soon, her hand circled his wrist, pulling him off.

"Noooooo," He whined, but obliged, throwing himself back on his side of the bed, frowning.

He thought she was forcing him to get ready. But instead, she was getting out of the bed.

"Where are you going?" He watched her, through hooded eyes.

She stood up and grabbed a little over sweater from a chair next to the bed, slipping it on easily, much to his distain. She was super hot. Like, villainously hot. She was blocking his view. She knew it too, giving him a smile, because his wife didn't smirk, and tied the knit loosely under her bust, barely framing her hour glass figure.

"I'm going to make you breakfast."

Naruto smiled. "I promise that's not why I woke you up."

"Mmmmhmmm." She hummed again.

"Hime!" Naruto laughed after her as she walked out of the room. "I promise!"

He could hear her walk down the hall, to the stairs headed to the kitchen. He lay in his bed for a moment longer, smiling.

Couple minutes later his face was washed, clean clothes on, mouth minty fresh and he was sliding into his seat at the kitchen table. She looked over from the pot she was stirring and smiled at him.

Oven grilled salmon, fresh miso soup, warm rice and pickled radish, along with piping hot tea was the extent of his breakfast spread. She laid it all in front of him and turned back to the kitchen.

He caught her quickly. "Eat with me."

Naruto didn't think that Hinata lost weight on purpose. She was just prone to feeding everyone else and working on the house all day, and he had seen her enough times get side tracked from eating herself. Now that Himawari was at school, he was sure that there was less of a reason for her to remember meal times during the day. It was definitely starting to show on the hollows of her cheeks, the bones on her arms, the bagginess of her pajamas.

"I was going to make your lunch."

"Ehh," Naruto pulled her back to the table. "Screw lunch."

"Is that what your tummy is going to say at noon today?" Hinata asked, smiling.

"Don't worry about my tummy woman and sit down with me." Naruto almost tugged her onto his lap, making her laugh.

"Alright, alright, alright." She giggled trying to get back up. "Let me go get a bowl."

She came back with her own bowl of rice, and a bowl of miso. Naruto gave her a piece of his salmon and was disappointed when she sat in her own chair. They ate together in relative silence for a few minutes.

"Hey, why don't you come have lunch with me today?" He asked.

"Your tummy is already at noon?" She poked him lightly in the ribs.

"Nooo," He sang. "I just miss you and wanna see you at lunch, you know. Works slower right now because of the festival, and the kids are gone. I thought it would be… nice."

She smiled, nodding her head.

"Only if you're not busy." Naruto amended quickly, because Hinata would never actually let him know if she was or not. "What do you have planned?" He asked, genuinely interested in her day.

"Mostly cleaning. I was going to walk to my dad's to see if he still needed my help with some stuff. Then maybe walk around downtown, see if the kids need anything else for presents." She took a sip of tea. "But, I could certainly have lunch with you."

Naruto smiled. "Thank god your cleaning the place. You're really letting it go."

She looked like she was going to bite him but instead shoved a piece of fish into her mouth, frowning at him while she chewed. Naruto's house was surgically clean at all times. The last time he had even seen an inkling of a mess was right after Himawari had been born.

He cackled at his own joke. His poor wife.

"If you don't get around to looking for presents, maybe we could walk around after work together? If they still open." He added, as an afterthought.

Just because it was a slower time of year, didn't mean that he still had a lot of shit to do.

Hinata finally smiled, forgiving him for even insinuating that her house was anything less than pristine. At least for the moment.

"I'd like that."

Work went by slower than normal, he found that usually happened when he had something to look forward too.

But his last meeting before lunch time, was with Sakura. She was the hospitals head for medical ninjas stationed there. Their liaison for anything they needed, if it couldn't be handled with the hospital's higher ups.

After finishing up most of their business talk, Naruto asked Sakura to stay and chat until Hinata arrived back. He didn't want Shikamaru giving him anything else to do and possibly ruining his lunch time with his wife.

They talked about Boruto and Sarada and their mission they were currently on. Naruto had assigned it, as he personally assigned every mission. But he couldn't give too much away. Protocol and red tape were thick and Sakura might've been a head of a department but that didn't mean she was privileged to everything.

"If Sarada doesn't make it back soon, I'll be spending the festival by myself." Sakura lamented. "I'll probably just go to your house. Hinata's dinner will probably be better than Ino's."

Naruto rolled his eyes. "No contest." His chest puffed out with pride. "But we'll probably have to go to her dad's house." He frowned.

"Trouble with the in-laws?" Sakura asked like she had any experience at all with that.

She didn't.

"No." Naruto like Hyuga Hiashi well enough. They got along and he was a good grandfather to his kids. "Hinata just does too much when we're over there. I don't want her to get stressed out."

"Plus," Naruto got a stupid, chummy look on his face. "Rinne Festival is kinda like the anniversary when we got together."

"You're so pathetic." Sakura laughed.

"It's called being 'romantic' and don't come at me because you've never experienced it." Naruto huffed.

Sakura stuck her tongue out.

"So, is she still keeping herself way too busy?" Sakura asked.

Naruto gave her an exhausted look. "Honestly, I think she works more than I do in a day. She never stops. She never has an off switch. I have to force her to cuddle me on the couch just to give her a break."

"I don't need to hear about your intimate cuddles." Sakura laughed.

Naruto shrugged. "Jealous."

"Hinata's always been like that. Just let it go." Sakura spoke off-handedly, leaning back into her chair. "Probably from her dad."

"What do you mean?" Naruto asked.

"You think you could grow up with Hyuga Hiashi and come out unscathed?"

He thought of Hinata's almost detrimental work ethic. Her inability to seek any sort of help. To have anyone even allude to her not being able to handle every single thing, completely by herself.

He saw the scars on her hands, torn open over and over again from repetition. At first, he thought that it was a normal consequence of training with Gentle Fist. But he had never seen any other Hyuga with scars, or if they did, nowhere near as bad as Hinata's. Never seen them on Hanabi. Couldn't even remember them on Neji. Nothing close to either of his children training so far had led to a single mark on their hands.

It really just the way his wife was. Whether from her upbringing, her desperate need to please, to prove herself. So similar to himself.

Paired with her raw determination and support to ensure that he himself succeeded in everything he did. Including being Hokage.

Those two traits meant that she would never, ever cave and ask him for anything. Even if she actually needed it.

It was a deep realization that left him feeling hallow. He had seen it before in her. One of their biggest fights to date had been about it. Because he loved his wife, more than anything. He wanted her life to be the best life ever – dattebyo.

"Get that look off your face. Looks like your brains broken." Sakura laughed. "Plus, you're not much better. Not only are you a people pleasers, but you want to take care of every single thing in Hinata's life."

Naruto frowned. "I do not."

"Yes you do."

"Do not."

"Yes, you do."

His door clicked open.

"Naruto-kun," Hinata smiled at him before, turning to Sakura. "I'm sorry. If I had known you'd be here, I would've brought you some lunch too." Hinata bowed, apologetically.

Sakura looked ready to wave her off when Naruto beat her to it. "Sakura doesn't deserve any of your food, Hina. She's a cranky old hag that needs to get back to work."

"Don't be such a brat, Naruto-kun." She sneered at him, making fun of him, not Hinata, and cuffed him on the back of the head.

"Ow, that hurt 'ttebayo." He rubbed the spot, frowning.

"Big baby." Sakura shoved her papers into her bag and threw them over her shoulder. "Enjoy your lunch, Hinata."

The girls bid farewell and Hinata soon took Sakura's place in front of his desk. Which Naruto rolled his eyes at, and personally got up, scooting Hinata's chair to his side of the desk, next to him. She smiled and followed behind him, sitting so close their thighs touched and got out two matching bentos and handed him a pair of chopsticks.

"Sorry I called you Naruto-kun at work." She bit her lip nervously.

Naruto scoffed. "It was only in front of Sakura."

"Well," Hinata took a little bite of rice and chewed slowly. "You're probably getting too old for it anyways. It's probably embar-"

Naruto choked on a piece of chicken. "Excuse me?" He sputtered.

Hinata looked over at him, surprised by his change in octave.

"You cannot stop calling me Naruto-kun." He pressed.

She wrinkled her nose a little at him, one of her eye brows raising in her silent question.

Naruto looked down kind of embarrassed, stirring his food around. "It's my favorite." He finally caved, quietly.

He was sure he was blushing, his bottom lip pouting, very un-Hokage-like. He felt kind of silly. Just like the big baby Sakura said he was.

Hinata set her food down, perched on the edge of Naruto's desk and leaned her head on his arm.

"You will always be my Naruto-kun."