Disclaimer: I own not Naruto.

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Maybe this was supposed to happen. Maybe everyone was right and happiness was not the way he was supposed to live. Maybe he was being a selfish idiot the whole time. Maybe he deserved no more than this. This solution to the problem. Not his problem though. Everyone's problem but not his. He was supposed to be happy. Is that not what his parents wanted for him? What his mother always hoped for and what his father worked hard for? His happiness? Then they failed. Horribly. Happiness was foreign to him. He had lost the feeling. He forgot how it felt like. How it would always make everything better. How with it, perfection came.

How he would never have it again.

Before he could continue rambling on his own misery there was a knock on his door. "Neji, are you ready to go?"

How much those words cut deeply into him. Ready? Ha. He wiped the tears from his eyes and tried to adjust his clothing. He spotted something at the edge of his vision as he did. He turned to look at it. A jacket draped on his unmade messy bed. Her jacket.

Almost immediately his mind flooded with thoughts of her. Her silky dark brown waist length hair. Her pale skin. Her chocolate eyes. Her smell of vanilla and lavender honey. Her pink lips on his own. Her body against his own. Her voice whispering in his ear.

Her love.

His sanity.

Another knock, more impatient. "Neji, are you in here? Are you ready?"

No, he wanted to say, to shout. He would never be ready…just as he would never be happy.

Just as he would never have her.

The door opened and he tore his glazed eyes away from the jacket. From her jacket. From her memory. He closed and opened his eyes again, the insane-filled look on his face gone. Now all he wore was stoic. The only thing he could now wear was stoic. Any other emotion was too far away to reach…too far like her.

"Neji," the voice said again, calling his name. He unconsciously compared the way the voice said his name to the way she would say it. While this one was cold and as stoic as his current emotion, hers was teasing, velvety, filled with emotion…with love.

The love she had for him.

The love he reciprocated.

The love he lost.

"I am ready."

He pondered over his own words. How serious he sounded. How sure of himself. How monotone. Without her in his life everything would always be monotone. He should get used to it.

He would get used to it…eventually.

For her sake.

The voice spoke again. "We must go. The wedding will start in half-an-hour. We are late." Late? They were late for the wedding…late for his wedding. He had always thought about his wedding with a sense of full and complete bliss. How he would look standing at the altar waiting for her.

How she would be dressed in white, as it was custom, looking as beautiful as ever. How she would make her way down the isle, where she would make a pact with him. Where they would be bound until death did them part.

Where she would belong to him.

Like he would belong to her.

He turned and met eyes with the owner of the voice. Who would have thought that his own uncle would be the one to rush him into this hell. His uncle never knew of his one true love. Of his reason for living.

His reason for dying.

"Tell me uncle," he said, his voice carrying the same emotion he was wearing on his face. His uncle's pale eyes, which he also had, slightly widened before he continued speaking.

"Did you love your wife?"

His uncle narrowed his eyes. "Of course. Why would I have married her otherwise?" His uncle's eyes widened in realization, sadness and pity flooding over his face while his nephew merely watched him, resentment and jealousy rearing their ugly head, trying to rip off his mask. He wondered how his uncle could have happiness while he could not.

How unfair that was.

How unfair life was.

"You will come to love her someday," his uncle weakly replied, awkwardly. His nephew's eyes narrowed almost invisibly. "You have no previous attachment with anyone. She is kind and good hearted." His uncle paused. "She will be a very good wife for you." Another pause.

"After all…you have never loved."

Oh, how much he wanted to tell him. How much he just wanted to shout it out to the whole world that he had indeed loved someone. That he still did. That it pained him to the point of insanity. That his heart was no longer there.

That he would do anythinganythinganything to get her back.

But he did nothing. Flooding in the feeling of emptiness that washed over him. Relishing over the fact that it had become a common feeling since she was not a part of his life. He merely nodded almost robotically.

"Yes, maybe one day." His voice sounded hollow to his ears, empty like the rest of him. He was lying and he knew it. He would never love this woman they were making him wed. He barely knew her and he was keenly aware that she was also in love with someone…just as she was aware of his love for her.

His timid cousin passed by his room, stopping in front of the door. Her face betrayed unhidden sadness which made him want to give in to his emotions. "It-it is time to go."

Time to leave everything behind.

His uncle nodded, signaling for him to step out. His nephew did as he was told, shoulders tensed dangerously and head held uncharacteristically high. The three of them made their way down the hall. The young man trying to look uncaring at the situation as pale pupil-less eyes stared at them, whether directly or indirectly through walls.

Time seemed to have no meaning as he was now on the altar, his uncle besides him, speaking to him.

Though he heard nothing.

She was not there.

He would expect as much. Seeing her face again-her porcelain-doll-angelical-face-would have probably cost the village its safety. Would have caused him his heart…or what was left of it…if there was anything left. All he felt was a dull pounding throb where his heart once was… one that hurt so much it burned.

He held up his hand, stopping his uncle mid-sentence. The older man blinked, surprised at the rudeness of his nephew's action, though the soulless young man could care less. "Is something wrong, Neji?"

Everything is wrong.

"I love someone, you know," he began, figuring there was no turning back at this point in time. He was going to marry. It was a fact. His uncle looked shocked. "I've loved her for more than three years now. We've been together for two." He met gazes with his uncle before saying the next words.

"I wanted to marry her."

He breathed out, tears-he was really feeling empty-threatening to fall as his uncle still looked completely frozen in place.

"Because I loved her."

Then the traditional wedding music resonated across the open field the wedding was taking place at. He switched his empty eyes-avoiding his uncle's-along the people sitting in the chairs, ignoring the ones that walked down the isle. He noticed how none of his closest friends were present.

He knew how they felt about the wedding. How it hurt them too.

Since they all knew about him and her.

Since they would all do something they would regret if they were ever present.

She was now besides him. Waterproof makeup on her freckled face as tears fell from her dark blue eyes, hidden by the veil over her face. Unlike him, she was in no control over her emotions. He looked past her as the man in front of them began to talk useless rambles of marriage. Before, the concept excited him, knowing that you belonged to the person and they belonged to you after you spoke a few words and signed some papers.

But now he resented it, he hated it with a passion. The concept should have never been invented.

He watched one of the soldiers from the bride's-because he would never call her his bride-country shift in his position. He noticed how the soldier would vaguely lower his head so the tears that were falling from them would not be noticed. He could see them clearly though. The soldier was in love and he was about to take his bride from him.

"Do you, Neji Hyuga, take Kira Takanoshi to be your lawfully wedded wife?"

This brought him back to reality. He knew the words. He'd heard them a million times. He even had the urge to laugh aloud at his once naïve-filled head. How dare he think that he would one day be saying those words with euphoria? How dare he think that he would want to remember this day for the rest of his life, when right now all he wanted to do was to throw himself off a building?

How dare he believe in a happily ever after?

"I-"

"Wait!" A voice. He recognized it. It was his best friends' voices. It was the spandex-wearing idiot. He turned to look at the owner of the voice, his teammate. Though he couldn't see her, the pain in his chest nonetheless resurfaced. He suppressed a wince.

The idiot was standing, breathless to the left of the once sobbing bride. He looked odd wearing the jonin vest over green spandex at a wedding, his dark hair in disarray. His eyes were almost wild as he spoke again, his words caught between huffs. Besides him stood their sensei, looking just as breathless.

"This is all a fix! There is no invasion!" The idiot in spandex yelled.

"The soldier's outside the village's borders are clones! I have youthful proof here that the man behind it only wanted revenge for his clan's death!"

"There is no need of a wedding!"

Those last words were like kunais to his head. There is no need of a wedding? The soldiers who were threatening to invade the village were clones? There is no need of a wedding? There is no invasion?

There is no need of a wedding?

Before he could do anything to express his joy and relief the bride ran toward the open arms of the soldier. Their mouths clashed into a feverish kiss as she cried from joy and he took a hold of her as if she was about to slip away at any moment.

The pale-eyed man noticed how everyone was murmuring, whether form shock or from anger he didn't know. He didn't care. He saw his best friend and sensei speaking with the superiors present, showing them documents of the falsehood in the invasion. How it was all a fix. How it was all for revenge. How there was no longer a threat.

How there was no longer a wedding.

His sensei met eyes with him and the spandex-wearing man smiled in relief, something the no-longer-groom had never seen him do before-since he always smiled in happiness rather than anything else. He had no time to react to the smile before the man signaled to his right.

The pale-eyed man's eyes veered to the left. Past the red carpet sprinkled with flowers, past the now stirring people, past the arc the bride had passed through not minutes before.

And to the shinning eyes of her.

He smiled breathtakingly in relief as she also smiled, euphoria taking its toll on both of them.

He bolted for her as she did the same. He wanted to feel her, to smell her, to hear her voice.

To just hold her.

They embraced; their mouths connecting, her fingers lacing around his face as his own tangled in her hair. Neither cared whether they were being watched, whether people looked shocked, or angry, or happy. Whether the Hyuga elders, his uncle, anyone watched the bombarding display of affection.

They didn't care.

He didn't care.

They stopped to take a breath, foreheads touching as they both closed their eyes, loving the feeling of having their significant other back in their arms.

Loving the feeling of his heart back in his chest.

"I love you, Neji. I love you so much," she whispered, grip tightening around his face.

He welcomed the feeling of complete bliss at her words, welcomed her presence around him.

"I love you just as much. So much it hurts. So much I would lose my sanity without you."

"I love you. I love you. I love you, Tenten."

…

And he finally remembered the feeling of being happy again.

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I'll start posting a few of these so you guys can get to know my writing better. Though one-shots are a pain, they still are pretty fun to write.

(If you like then please check out my main story Yaoke Mae on my stories' section)

Thanks for reading!