Replacement
written by GaleSynch
beta'ed by He-Who-Shall-Live
Summary: AU, She laughs bitterly, her voice catching in a sob, her pale eyes looking at anywhere but him. "I... I guess I should've known from the very beginning. Whenever we're together, he's never seeing me, he always sees her."
Pairing(s): Naru/FemSasu. Slight KibaHina. Onesided HinaNaru.
Disclaimer: I OWN NOTHING you recognize.
Author's note: This is written for Delaraxx so I sincerely hope you enjoy it. Others can enjoy it too, though and remember to leave a review and tell me what you think!
P.S: To those who'd read Felo de Se - also a NaruFemSasu - you'd know about the autumn leaves reference. XD
Inuzuka Kiba at the age of twenty-two, still a bachelor, shouldn't be feeling like a teenage, lovesick boy when he's going to meeting his teammate and old friend at a restaurant.
Just the two of them.
He blushes at the notion then curses himself for it. Hinata's already married to Naruto, what is he thinking? He shakes his head rapidly to clear the crazy ideas running around.
Hinata just wants to talk, nothing else.
He wonders what the Hyuuga—no, Senju matriarch wants to talk about. Ever since Hinata married Naruto, she's now Senju Hinata regardless of her Hyuuga heritage. Her position as clan head is now her sister's and he has to admit, Hanabi (who's now happily married to Neji) is quite the dedicated leader despite her bratty attitude as a child.
"Kiba-kun."
His heart leaps to his throat and he turns, a grin blossoming on his lips when he sees the beautiful Hyuuga. Hinata smiles slightly at him, and Kiba frowns slightly, seeing the changes in the gesture.
The Hinata he knows has a beautiful, carefree smile.
This Hinata has a wistful, bitter and heart-wrenching smile, but not any less beautiful.
Hinata gestures for them to enter the restaurant, politely requesting for a secluded area. Kiba seats himself from across her in the small booth, and he can't help but notice how their feet are touching and how he can easily lean in and—
Stop, he chides himself and tries for an easy grin.
"So, what's the occasion?"
Hinata arches a brow as a waiter approach, setting down glasses of drink which both thank him politely for. Hinata turns her attention back to him. "Is it wrong for me to greet my friend privately on his birthday?"
Ever since she's hit womanhood, her stutter has died, only coming back with a vengeance when she's upset or truly terrified. But with a husband as strong as Naruto, he doubts that she has anything to fear.
Kiba instantly knows something's wrong. "Uh, Hinata? My birthday isn't for months."
Her smile falters, dropping entirely when he frowns at her in concern.
"I... I just want to talk to you," she hesitates, fiddling with the end of her red kimono's sleeve. Sometimes, Kiba wonders why she even wears red when she's so much prettier in purple or lilac.
"Spill it."
"I-I-It's about Naruto-kun," she says softly and his heart beats faster. She's stuttering which means that she's either upset about that Senju or she's scared of the Rokudaime—
"He didn't do anything to you, did he?" Kiba asks suspiciously and Hinata instantly shakes his head. "Well? Then what's the problem?"
She casts her gaze down at her kimono. "You know why I wear red even when I don't like the color?"
"Uh... no."
"It's because..."
~x~
It was the Kyuubi Festival, but unlike many years before, this festival on October 10th was now celebrated as their beloved Jinchuriki Hokage's birthday and a sign of gratitude to the Kyuubi who had helped protect Konoha.
This year, Hinata wouldn't be going with her cousins or sister or anyone. Just Naruto, just her husband and her alone. She couldn't help the silly smile playing on her lips.
She waited patiently for the man to show (he still had his Hokage duties to finish first) and her smile widened, along with the deepening of the color of her cheeks, when she saw her beloved.
He grinned at her, his eyes dazed and bright with the colors painting the dark sky.
"H-Hello, N-Naruto-kun," she greeted, smiling still.
He didn't say anything in return, but he cupped her face in his hands, looking deeply into her eyes. Hinata's breath hitched, her cheeks heating up when she saw and found herself drowning in the Senju's sapphire dreams.
He was perfect: with his gravity-defying blonde hair, bronzed skin and those drowning blue eyes. His every grin and smile demanded loyalty and his voice garnered him many loyal followers.
Hinata was never so proud to be with someone. She blushed under his intense gaze. She'd never imagined a life like this, married at the age of seventeen, and to the boy she loved too!
Life couldn't be anymore perfect.
She glanced down at her kimono—a gift from Naruto!—and though the intricate design of the autumn season was beautiful, she found that it didn't suit her but since Naruto chose it for her...
"Don't look away now," Naruto said, a small wistful smile on his face. "You know you're beautiful."
She blushed even worse. "R-R-Really?"
"Yeah," Hinata tensed at the dazed tone his voice had taken and when he looked at her, his eyes seemed to be gazing far away. "You've always been so beautiful in red, your favorite color. Remember the time we just stood and let the autumn leaves rain down on us? You said you liked autumn best, right?"
Hinata smiled painfully, silently wondering when such a thing had happened.
Her favorite season was spring, her favorite color was purple.
"Here," Naruto pushed something into her hands. She glanced down and the Hyuuga received a nasty shock. She jerked but Naruto just smiled. "You look perfect with the uchiwa fan."
~x~
Kiba flinches. Giving Hinata an uchiwa fan... that's like rubbing salt into the wound.
He balls his hands into fists, feeling angry on Hinata's behalf. "You should wear what you like best," he says lamely when Hinata looks imploringly at him.
"Do you know why he gave me red kimonos?"
"No..." he says slowly but he already knows the answer. He sighs and says with resignation, "I mean, yes."
She laughs bitterly, her voice catching in a sob, her pale eyes looking at anywhere but him. "I... I guess I should've known from the very beginning. Whenever we're together, he's never seeing me, he always sees her."
Kiba tenses. "That's not true!" he yells and when a waiter approaches them with menus in hand, he waves him away, irritated. "He— I'm sure he loves you, who's to say—wait, what proof do you have?"
Hinata smiles wryly. "Really, now? Then can you explain..."
~x~
Cleaning the main house wasn't much of a chore, even if she was doing it herself.
Hinata pushed her hair out of her eyes as she swept the floor, crouching to pick up a stray, misplaced paper. She scanned the contents, and made a mental note to pay for the electric bills as soon as possible. She shook her head, seriously, Naruto, despite being the Hokage, could still forget such matters.
Hinata placed the paper on the desk, taking her broom and ascending the stairs. Her eyes, due to the lack of anything better to do, or maybe it was simply fate that whatever she saw today stuck out like a sore thumb.
Over the time since she'd moved into the newly rebuild Senju Compound, she noticed something. She chided herself for not noticing any moment sooner, she was a Hyuuga in blood and eyes, she should've seen these details long ago, should've seen them the moment she stepped foot in the Senju Compound.
Should've seen them before she's married.
Then maybe she wouldn't be suffering.
Hinata had gotten into the daily routine of a normal housewife, send her husband off after breakfast, clean the house, visit her husband during lunchtime and welcomed him home during dinnertime with dinner prepared. It was quite boring but she decided that it wouldn't be for long once she and Naruto got to work with their personal life.
She couldn't wait to be a mother, to have children.
She hummed softly to herself as she when she ascended the stairs, but when her eyes caught sight of it, she stopped.
It was just pictures, memories forever captured in time and kept here for display.
She studied them, she saw the Konoha Nine (plus Team Gai) as kids, back when they were Genin and just starting out in the world of shinobi. She saw the bonds of friendship and smiled, happy that Naruto had kept his picture of them all together.
She saw other photos, not just of Naruto's generation, but of the past generations: those his ancestors had kept and passed down. She saw the Shodai and a long-haired, grumpy looking Uchiha. She saw Naruto's father and his team: an Uchiha, a civilian and Kakashi-sensei. She saw a Tsunade, Jiraiya and Orochimaru in a picture with the Sandaime when they were younger, the former three but mere children.
Her gaze lingered particularly long on the former photo before it drifted to the other pictures.
She studied them, nearly activated her Byakugan, and swallowed the bitterness and the taste of something utterly wrong with the picture.
She saw pictures of a certain female Uchiha. She saw Sasuke in every picture but those of olden days of other Senju. Hinata found herself in pictures that were taken in groups and even then, there were very few of her.
Sasuke's pictures were everywhere. Sasuke as a child, in the arms of her older brother, caught in camera during mid-laugh. Sasuke holding a cat, disgruntled as she shoved it at someone who seemed to be backing away. How did Naruto get his hands on Uchiha property?
She abandoned her mop and ran down the stairs, to the drawers where she knew Naruto had kept his photo album. She'd seen him tending to it a few times and whenever she asked to see it, he would smile and tell her that it was of things she'd already known and she didn't persist.
She gave Naruto his space and she never snooped around his belongings.
Until that day.
She skimmed through the first few pages, seeing his team pictures and of the Konoha Eleven. The rest were filled with Sasuke and himself, she stopped flipping the pages because she'd seen enough.
She swallowed the bitterness in her mouth and placed the album back where she found it and returned to her cleaning.
~x~
Kiba splutters, trying to find a way to reassure Hinata who looks ready to cry.
"Uh... well, Sasuke's like, Naruto's best friend, right?" he tries, raising his hands in a placating manner. "So, it's natural to have many pictures of her, right? I have a lot of pictures with you and Shino and Kurenai-sensei and even little Asuna-chan—"
"So it's natural to have pictures of a childhood friend who had turned her back on you and pretend like you've never married your wife?" Hinata laughs, the sound can't be further away from a sob.
"Um, maybe?"
She shakes her head, bringing her handkerchief up to hide the lower half of her face. Her shoulders are shaking but Kiba isn't sure she's crying or she's laughing over the cruelty fate has dealt to her.
"Hey," he says gently, reaching over to pat her shoulders. "It's all going to be okay, you know? Just... just talk to him about your issues or you can go find a marriage counselor—or hey, maybe you're just paranoid, how can he not love someone like you—"
Her shoulders stop quaking and Kiba thinks for a moment he's succeeded when she says, "So that isn't enough proof?"
He pulls back. "What other proof is there?" he asks, doubtful Hinata had caught Naruto and Sasuke doing anything indecent since the Uchiha's, well, sort of dead.
"I caught him once, with Sasuke... just very recently..."
~x~
"Hokage-sama isn't here."
Hinata blinked, before nodding in understanding, fiddling with her sleeves. "Ah, then can I enter?"
The guards, Kotetsu and Izumo, shared a glance, shrugged and stepped away, letting her pass. Hinata entered with a grateful smile and a word of thanks. She placed her basket, Naruto's lunch on his desk, clearing away a pile of papers before she set it down.
She walked around the place, usually, she just sat at the table as he ate, watching him devour his food hungrily and praising her for being a good cook.
(She recalled Lee's boasting of how wonderful Sakura's cooking was and how glad he was to have her as his wife. She had also seen other boys say the same, how great their wives were, but Naruto never once said the same words.)
She tilted her head to the side, seeing the hastily placed frame and picked it up. It was of Naruto's Genin days; she glanced at the frame, noticing how worn it was from the touch of human hands and smiled slightly, Naruto must have treasured this.
She tilted the frame, about to place it on the desk properly when the picture caught the sunlight. Hinata nearly crushed the frame when she saw the nail marks on Sasuke's face in the picture. With great effort, she placed it on the desk, as she turned the frame, she saw something she wished she hadn't spotted in the first place.
i love you, S'ke -S.N
It was scratched over and over again but Hinata still managed to make it out.
She exhaled gustily, spreading her chakra like a net to find her husband's chakra. She needed to see him, she needed the reassurance that he still loved her.
She ran, taking the rooftops to where he was: the hospital. She swallowed, politely asking the nurse where the Hokage was. She shouldn't have looked, shouldn't have gone, shouldn't have even bothered.
She should've just sat in the Hokage office and waited for him, then she could've gone on and on to build herself a world of illusions that her husband loved her and not some other woman.
Against her will, she glared at the name on the plate—Uchiha Sasuke—and her Byakugan bulged into life, forming veins around her eyes and she gasped at the sight that greeted her. She had been in the midst of pushing the door open, as silently as possible but what she saw—Naruto leaning over the comatose Uchiha, lips pressed firmly on hers and his right hand in her limp one—
She gasped, her Byakugan dying as Naruto whirled around to face her, eyes wide.
"This isn't what you think," he said with a calmness not present in his eyes. "I was just checking to see whether or not she had opened her eyes. Nothing's happened here."
The funny thing was: she never asked.
~x~
Kiba swears silently, his knuckles white from clenching the table and preventing himself from flipping it over. Protectiveness surges over him like a tidal wave, how dare Naruto treatHinata like that? If he's never loved her in the first place, why did he bother marring Hinata and hurting her when it's so damn clear she loves him?
"Hinata..." he whispers, desperately wishing he has something intelligent to say. But really, he isn't much of the thinking type, Hinata should've gone to Kurenai-sensei instead. "You... are you happy?"
She shakes her head, her head down as she fiddles with her sleeves.
"Do you want to stay by Senju's side?"
She considers and nods, but then she raises her head and smiles, painfully brittle. "Yes, I love him very much, but..." her glassy eyes look out the window, gaze wistful but accepting. "Thank you, Kiba-kun. Talking to you was a huge relief, I could finally clear my thoughts and let out what I've been keeping in for so long."
"What do you plan on doing now?" he asks suspiciously, silently glad that she's found peace in herself.
They say that all you ever need to do is lend an ear to make your friend feel better. So they're right, he's glad because he's really no good with this touchy-feely heart-to-heart talk crap.
Hinata smiles.
"What I should've done from the very beginning."
Kiba blinks.
"Will you please accompany me?"
He considers, then he nods because Hinata really needs a friend by her side in this time of need.
-replacement-
Naruto turns his head of blonde spikes, eyes widening in surprise when he sees his old friend and wife. He offers them a painful smile and subtly, pulls his hand from Sasuke's limp grasp.
"Ah, Hinata-chan, Kiba," he nods politely at the brunette. "What brings you here? I wasn't aware either of you are fond of Sasuke." He winces when he says the Uchiha's name but he still looks imploringly at them.
Hinata smiles at Naruto, a pained smile of someone who's just starting to accept her losses and approaches Sasuke. Kiba pulls a struggling and confused Naruto away from the girls—one in eternal slumber and the other in torment—and out of the room.
Naruto seethes. "The fuck?"
Hinata fiddles with the ring on her finger. It's jewel is ruby red, the rest's made of silver gem. It's beautiful and Hinata doesn't really feel like parting with it but for her own peace of mind, for Naruto's future, for Sasuke's salvation, she tears the ring from her finger.
She strokes Sasuke's cheek, a part of her musing how easy it'll be to kill the defenseless Uchiha, how easy it is to snap her swan-like neck or crush the machines sustaining her life but she pushes those evil and vile thoughts away and takes the sleeping girl's hand.
If she's aware of them, not in coma, Hinata knows that Sasuke wouldn't have let anyone sans Naruto touch her, even in sleep.
"Sasuke," her voice trembles when she says the name of the beautiful, powerful, sleeping Uchiha. "I believe this is yours. The delivery's long overdue, isn't it?" she smiles wryly at her own lame joke, as she slides the ring onto the Uchiha's ring finger.
"Hinata?"
Naruto's staring at her like a confused child. "What are you doing?" he asks, baffled, but even as he speaks to her, he isn't looking at her at all. His eyes are on Sasuke's listless form, but come to think of it, when has he ever lifted his eyes from her?
"Returning the marriage ring to its rightful owner," she says simply.
And she does what she also should've done from the beginning: move on from Naruto because it's clear he's hopelessly in love with another girl.
She's moved on from Naruto and she's never been any more free. No longer is she a replacement, she's finally Hyuuga Hinata again, not the replacement of Uchiha Sasuke and never will be.
She's no longer the lovesick girl from before, she knows she's all grown up and can accept things better than take it in face value, so she says, "Hey, do you think Sasuke-chan will wake up in time to see the autumn leaves fall this year?"
Naruto takes Sasuke's hand, his face wistful and hopeful.
"Perhaps," he murmurs, taking her hand and pressing butterfly kisses on her knuckles.
Kiba grins.
"Maybe, once Uchiha wakes up from her beauty sleep, let's all go watch the autumn leaves fall together!"
End