Author's Notes: Well, everyone, thank you once again for a great trip. I had too much fun writing this, and now it's going to be interesting getting back into fics that aren't totally on crack. I may have to do some drastic angst to balance out. But for this last chapter, you get enough fluff that you can probably float on it. This whole fic has really been one huge fluff overdose.

Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, The Swan Princess or Swan Lake.

An Everlasting Vow

By Nessie

Epilogue

Two embers joined and became the unified kingdom of Fire on the day Prince Neji Hyuuga married the princess Tenten. They were crowned side by side in a coronation held on the steps of the castle in which Tenten's father, King Jiraiya, had lived. It was Neji's first visit to Tenten's home.

He watched his wife tilt her head slightly forward to accept the glistening coronet befitting a queen. The young man did not yet consider himself a king although he bore the weight of the crown his uncle had passed down to him. Part of Neji was still locked in the past, in the moment when he had believed he'd lost his friend and love forever.

But that was over now, he remembered when, once bearing the bejeweled circle of gold, Tenten turned her eyes to his and smiled. A similar expression curved his lips. They both stood from their kneeling positions before her mother and his uncle, Neji's cape fluttering at the tops of his high boots, the white skirt of Tenten's silken wedding gown flowing about her. Shizune, on hand as always, stooped to arrange the long train so that she did not trip. When the royal couple leaned in for a kiss as binding as the rings on their fingers, the multitude of onlookers – citizens of both the former East and West – broke into earth-shaking cheers.

Tenten ascended a couple of steps in order to enter Tsunade's embrace. The woman who shared her eyes fondly stroked the wavy length of her brown hair. “One day,” said Tsunade, “you will have to tell me the whole story.”

Tenten beamed at her. “It was a dream, Mother.” Glancing at Neji, “Just a dream,” she insisted.

Hiashi had very little to say to her, but his words were always approving. She did see the man who was still a king in most regards (although he now wore a medallion rather than his crown) clasp hands with her husband and say something to him that was too low for her to hear. She did not need to hear it, Tenten decided at once. She no longer required words.

Neji extended his hand to her, and Tenten slipped her fingers through his with a grin. They had come full circle. Together they climbed into a wide, open carriage in which they would ride through the streets of both Tenten's homeland and Neji's before continuing on through the forest to the site of the castle where their story had unfolded. The palace and the grounds had undergone renovations while wedding preparation were made, and from there they would rule.

Neji pointed, and Tenten looked around to see a familiar head of pink hair. Sakura stood with her lover, Sasuke looking on broodingly. Her emerald gaze alternated from them to Sasuke and back again. It gave Tenten comfort to know that they would be together and inseparable from now on, and she waved to them. Sakura waved back, but Sasuke merely slipped his arm casually through hers, as though every second was perfectly natural and anticipated.

Along the way, between the throng of people that filled the streets on either side, the new king and queen saw Gai and Lee. Gai would remain on the grounds of the main Hyuuga palace but Lee would be moving west with them. His timely moment of help in that place had easily secured for him the position of advisor to his friends. It was probably due to this fact as well as the day's event that both Lee and his bright-toothed father sobbed enthusiastically, calling their names in adoration and shouting wishes of health and happiness.

Tenten was the one to first spot Hinata. From their vantage point in the carriage, neither one might have seen her at all. Though she was no longer as invisible as she had been, the petite princess still had a knack for disappearing into crowds big and small. It was the attention arresting presence of Lord Uzumaki, known by the monarchs as Naruto, who set Hinata pleasantly apart from the rest. The lavender she wore nicely complimented his hair.

Mischievously, Tenten threw the bouquet toward them. Hinata caught the bunch of white roses on reflex, startled only a little when her companion set a hand on her shoulder. Tenten had just enough time before the carriage rounded a street corner to see Naruto pluck one of the roses from the bouquet and weave it through Hinata's hair behind her ear.

Turning to Neji, she asked, “Does this mark an ending for us?”

The expression his face adopted, soft and intense all at once, was for her eyes alone. “No. We have had our ending.”

“A beginning, then.”

He passed an arrow-calloused thumb over the back of her hand, shaking his head so that dark locks fell over his shoulders, contrasting with the fabric of his wedding day clothes, pale golden like the locket that had been retrieved for her and which she wore at her throat; a sign of devotion and a way to never forget what they had endured together. “We have had that, too.”

Tenten agreed. To think of beginnings and endings was to think of a time when they were apart, and both of them intended to forget such a time.

As they were edging out of the old border into the open fields of Neji's former home, the new queen thought she saw a woman sitting on a fence, watching quietly. She was not at first recognizable in a clean dress without patches, her hair combed and her face washed, but Tenten knew she was looking at Anko Mitarashi. And from her contented smile it appeared, despite her obvious fixation on Orochimaru while the sorcerer had lived, that she was happier than before.

Once Tenten looked a second time, Anko was gone.

“I have been thinking,” Neji said and gaining her attention, “what changes should be made now that the two kingdoms have fused again. Laws will need reconciliation. Borders will have to be redrawn.”

She would liked to have nestled into his arms, but as they were in public, that would have to wait. “Changes will have to be made.” Laughing shortly, she added, “I am familiar with that!”

Neji's palm rose to cup her cheek. The smile had departed, replaced by his usual solemnity. Surely he was thinking of the various forms in which he had seen her; the winging swan, the black-garbed artificial princess, and, of course, every stage of her from infancy to womanhood.

“Whatever changes you may undergo,” the king told her, his voice soft without actually being quiet, “one change that you will not face is the way I love you.”

She gripped his wrist to draw out the contact. “For all of our lives, Neji? Until we both die?”

His mouth quirked. It was the face he took on when he was most pleased. “For longer even than that, Tenten.” To seal the vow, Neji pulled her to him in the plush seat, his fingers gentle upon her shoulders left bare by the gown.

Tenten indulged in a sigh as his lips met hers in the sparkling day, his hand behind his head. She needed no more vows. She believed in and trusted Neji. They had proved their love for each other.

The King and Queen Hyuuga would live long, destined to prove it to everyone else as well.

The End