"Hinata, the man's desperate! Please help my friend." The blonde exaggeratedly fell on hands and knees in front of her, pleading her with words and expressions.
"I just don't understand why he would only include the duration of the mission and the gender of the shinobi requested? Does he not think we need to know what he's asking for?" Her reply was soft but strong as she stared down into her lap.
"Maybe he forgot." Was the casual response, delivered with a shrug. They sat in silence as Hinata contemplated her response, knowing to keep her irritation to herself.
"What about Tenten?"
"Off on a mission with Chouji and Bushy brows until next month." Reasonable.
"Ino?"
"You know I can't ask that of her now. She's so busy with wedding preparations." Definitely reasonable.
"Sakura?"
"Eh?"
"What about Sakura?" She repeated firmly.
"I-I don't think Sakura is very suited to this mission." Naruto jumbled, rubbing his neck whilst chuckling nervously. Bull crap.
"But you said you don't know what this mission is." Her eyes narrowed at the blonde, knowing his true intentions here. He wouldn't dare send his precious love interest when he could just get rid of her. Not that she'd ever voice that assumption.
"I-I don't! Just a feeling."
Sometimes, it felt like her timid nature was a curse. Her inability to decline requests from family, friends or even strangers, on occasion, always seemed to place her in unpleasant situations. This situation was particularly unpleasant. She cursed herself for being so compliant. For once, she should have said no.
If she had just been able to say no, she wouldn't be travelling through the hot desert, on her way to accept a mission that was possibly months long, a mission that she was entering blindly.
Hinata resumed her walking with a soft grunt, shaking the hot sand from her legs with each step. She couldn't help but wallow in self-pity as she trekked to her destination. She didn't even get to show him how angry she was, she was too polite for that. She would not dishonour herself and her family by complaining to the Hokage. She couldn't grasp how he had the nerve to accept and force a shinobi of his village into a mission without being aware of basic information, like what the actual mission was comprised of. A desperate request from his close friend or not, the Kazekage should have at least included a little side note. Like Hey, I need to borrow one of your kunoichi to count all the kittens in Suna. That had better not be the mission, as cute as kittens were, their fur made her sneeze like nothing else. She remembered back in her genin days, the many D-rank, kitten catching missions that her group was assigned. The memories were still vivid. Akamaru barking at their targets, making the job that much harder, Shino complaining about Akamaru's lack of obedience, Kiba's grouchy responses to Shino's questioning of his training and by far the most vivid, the constant sneezing while she clasped the small wiggling creatures to her chest. She had spent endless hours ridding her body of their fur. She was more of a dog person anyway. She smiled at the thought of her cheeky old teammate and his now large, protective nin-dog.
Shaking her head at the thoughts, Hinata sighed, giving up on her anger. She wasn't mad at the Kazekage for not putting more detail in his request, she wasn't even mad at Naruto, she could never be. This mission just upset her because it threw the hard truth that Naruto didn't want her, back into her face for what seemed like the hundredth time. Even if the initial borderline obsessive crush was absent from her side, it still hurt her that after all that had happened, he'd willingly give up his friend without a second thought to what he was sending her to.
She had given him all that she had. She became stronger to impress him. She jumped to his defence when it was needed, ready to sacrifice her own life for his. She let go of her shy identity after she had noticed that even after she had thrown herself in front of him to stop the powerful Akatsuki leader as well as the ten tails, he still didn't give her the time of day. She even came close to dying in a pitiful attempt to save his half decade long conquest. Naruto was not interested in her. Maybe if she had pink hair and brute strength then he would have given her a once over, but that wasn't going to happen. She didn't need Naruto Uzumaki.
Even if she had been kept waiting for years to receive a response to her confession to him, she still wouldn't be mad at him. Even if said response was only given because it was forced by someone else. Even if he sent her, without an escort or any form of information, to melt in the confines of Sunagakure.
Not mad.
Her romantic feelings towards him were long gone. Unfortunately, the rejections still felt fresh, even after so much time. Even still, she wasn't mad.
Hinata cringed as the sun shone directly in her eyes from behind the village of Sunagakure that had come into view. She could feel the drastic effects that this mission would have on her pale skin, internally groaning at the thoughts of tender, red skin.
Mild surprise captured her features as the distinct blood red spikes of the Kazekage came into view. Was he so desperate that he needed to greet her himself? How important was this mission that the Kazekage himself, had to wait for her arrival? Hinata noticed two other figures, one on either side of him. Recognizing them to be his older siblings, she felt her eye brows furrow with confusion on why it was necessary for such high ranking shinobi's to be the ones to greet her. Usually it was just genin or chunin who would await visitors, one time on a mission to Iwakagure they just had a civilian greet her.
As she approached the authoritative figures, Hinata noticed how tall the Suna ninja's seemed to be now. From memory, Gaara was a rather short teenager, like Naruto, but he seemed to have gone through a dramatic period of growth, from where she was, it looked like she'd barely measure to his throat. His older brother, Kankuro, stood to his right, equal in height now and Temari stood on his left, slightly shorter.
The Kazekage's face also seemed to have undergone changes. His dark rimmed eyes seemed to give off a wiser aura, which was a shock considering he had already been very much an intelligent and insightful man the last time she had seen him. The aging was obvious on his facial features, but this fact did nothing to deter his physical attractiveness. The world was so cruel to women, that men grow more attractive with age whilst their beauty fades away as quickly as it arrives.
The last time she remembered seeing Gaara of the Sand was a 4 years ago at the Kage Summit, when she was accompanying Naruto while Sai was injured. Even though 4 years isn't so long as to make such a difference on his appearance, she realized now, her attention had been focused on her Hokage and how uncomfortable it felt to be silently listening as he and Sakura bickered amongst themselves. The whole ordeal had been unpleasant for her. Thinking back to it, she had only really paid attention to the redhead back at her first chunin exams out of fear and a few times during the war out of admiration for his abilities.
The Kage Summit had also been the last time she had seen his older brother, Kankuro. Hinata noticed that he had maintained his bulkily muscular physique. Although his brother had grown to be the same height as him, Kankuro's larger build asserted his dominance over his younger sibling. She felt her nose scrunch involuntarily at the sight of purple lines across his face, curiosity bubbling within her as to why he painted his face when it did nothing but make him look odd. If he was anything like his brother and sister, then underneath the makeup there would be no doubt that he was handsome.
Temari was someone she used to see quite frequently. She had disguised her visits to Konoha as mere diplomatic pleasantries but that façade was clearly seen through by everyone. Hinata remembered one time when she had gone to say hello to Kunernai sensei and her baby when she found Shikamaru and Temari babysitting the child. It was interesting to watch the two bicker as they changed Osamu's dirty diapers together. She hadn't particularly thought it to be a two person job.
Approaching the trio, Hinata bowed her head politely to the Kazekage, her cheeks flaming from the three scrutinising looks she was being given.
"Naruto sent the shy one?" Kankuro whispered to his siblings, unaware that his question did not go unnoticed by the byakugan user.
"Hinata, are you escorting someone?" Temari asked, curiosity engulfing her face. Why did they seem so relaxed when Naruto had mentioned that the mission request was desperate, from the Kazekage himself? Hinata raised her head before replying with a thoughtful response.
"Eh?"
"What's your mission here?"
"I-I'm not quite sure." She internally cursed herself for letting herself be overwhelmed by their questions.
"You aren't sure?"
Hinata was startled to say the very least, when the gruff voice of the Kazekage tuned in. She wasn't sure how, but she had been so focused on Temari and Kankuro that she had been completely oblivious to her employer. It seemed that whenever she was in his presence, something would direct her attention away and Hinata couldn't help but think how weird it was that she could be so unaware of such an overpowering figure like Gaara. She turned her attention to him and how wide his eyes looked, his head inclined slightly to the right as he stared at her blankly. His curiosity was kind of... cute. Although she wasn't sure if that word should be applicable to someone with so much power.
"Hokage-sama said it was an urgent request from you, Kazekage-sama. He mentioned that you didn't include the mission details?" At her response, she watched as Kankuro rolled his eyes, his sister rubbed her head in frustration and Gaara… remained the same. Then there was the sinking feeling that she had been lied to. Naruto Uzumaki, what have you gotten her into?
"I see." Gaara drawled, not taking her eyes off her face. To her, the undivided attention he was giving her was rather uncomfortable. She internally agonised over what would be so interesting that he could stare at her face for so long without even letting his eyes flicker away. Did she have something on her cheek? Toothpaste perhaps? This wouldn't be the first time that happened, she had a habit of letting things like that go unnoticed for hours. Was he even blinking? When the thought arose, Hinata found herself anticipating the next moment when his eye lids would meet. How was it possible for someone to go so long without blinking? Reaching up unconsciously, Hinata found herself rubbing her cheek, relieved that no white substance came off with it.
"Oh! I have a scroll from him!" She cried out, feeling stupid that she had forgotten something so important. Naruto had given her the scroll right before she left his office, telling her to make sure she gave this to the Kazekage at the first possible opportunity. She assumed that was now.
Dropping the bag of weapons she had brought with her, Hinata reached into the backpack that was swung lazily over one shoulder, to retrieve a small scroll, extending it towards the redheaded leader.
She didn't know how to feel as she watched Kankuro and Temari look over the Kazekage's shoulders, reading along, occasionally glancing back up at her in mild surprise. She felt heat rise to her face, wondering what on earth Naruto had put into the scroll to trigger the reactions. From the way even Gaara's invisible eyebrows seemed to rise slightly as he glanced at her, Hinata had no doubt that it was something about her. She felt herself sweat at the embarrassing things that he may have included. Even if they were on good terms with the sand shinobi, that didn't mean he would overshare with them, did it? She hoped that he didn't include the story of when she had forgotten to pack a decent amount of clothing for a mission and had to wear his spare jumpsuit for 3 days after her clothes had been torn in battle. That had been an embarrassing venture, orange was definitely not her colour.
Kankuro's groaning pulled her out of her train of thought. Kankuro seemed more irritated now, Temari was now glancing at her youngest brother with humour in her eyes and surprisingly, Gaara's expression had changed to an uncomfortable and nervous one that didn't suit his face.
"This," Gaara paused, glancing down at the scroll, "might complicate things." Two obnoxious snorts followed Gaara's simple response.
"Kazekage-sama?" Gaara glanced up at Hinata, showing that he was listening to her without giving a response, "Did you really not include the mission details?"
"I think that you've been had." Hinata blinked. Did Gaara really just say that? The humorous sentence sounded foreign out of his mouth.
"By her own Hokage too!" Kankuro chuckled.
"May I ask what my mission is?"
"I think it would be better that we discuss this over tea." Gaara responded, gesturing for her to follow him as he spun on his heel, walking towards the village centre.
"Somewhere near a seat." Kankuro muttered to his sister, earning a quiet chuckle. Hinata couldn't help but wonder if Kankuro didn't know how loud his voice actually was.
Picking up her weapon bag that was discarded on the hot sand, Hinata trailed after the fast paced Kazekage. As she stared behind him, she couldn't help but to be amazed by something as simple as his walk. She had never actually imagined him walking before. More often then not, he just appeared places without her seeing how he travelled. She had always just thought that he'd travel majestically on a cloud of sand, yet here he was, one long leg after another, broad shoulders swaying slightly. Perhaps it was because she hadn't particularly considered Gaara's method of transport very much but walking just didn't sound right. Even teleportation seemed more plausible to her. Hinata had to actually jog to maintain his speed. Perhaps he didn't need the cloud of sand after all.
Hinata turned back slightly to glance at the duo behind her, playfully shoving each other as they argued over something. She felt her heart warm at the evidence that their family relationship had improved even more. On her arrival she had noticed how closely and protectively they stood. Gaara seemed more comfortable with his siblings and how sweet as that thought was, she found herself mildly jealous that even he was able to have such a good relationship with his sibling when she could barely speak to her younger sister. She really did care for Hanabi, but she had inherited Hiashi's cold personality and it made it hard for Hinata to be open with her and vice versa. There was definitely some kind of bond there but she could never put herself in a place where they'd be sitting on a bed, reading magazines and discussing men together. Even still, she would sacrifice herself for Hanabi in a heartbeat.
Hinata almost ran into the back of the redhead, who she failed to notice had stopped in front of the door of a large building, narrowly avoiding contact by stepping to the side. It was moments like this that Hinata felt her training really paid off. She wasn't sure how comfortable with physical contact that the Kazekage was now but she had heard stories when they were younger.
Opening the door, Gaara stood to the side, holding it while Hinata strolled through, surprised that he'd even bother.
The interior of the building was surprisingly welcoming, pretty cream coloured curtains were decorating the windows, beautiful flowers on most surface tops and two large staircases led to another level of housing beauty. This was something else she hadn't been expecting, rather than dull, dark and gloomy colours the house was filled light, comforting tones and colours.
Leading Hinata to a small sitting room, he took the single seat across from the three seater, forcing Hinata to be squashed to the right to make room for his brother and sister. They sat silently for a while, the only noise being Hinata's nervous foot tapping against the duffel bag of weapons she had yet to be rid of. She noticed how Gaara seemed to be going to extreme lengths to look anywhere but her. It was either that or there was something extremely entrancing above her head. She noticed again he managed to stare without blinking for so long. It was obvious he was on edge about something. It was made clear by his uncharacteristic constant shifting. She almost wanted to laugh as he wiggled around on the small chair. His was dressed formally in his robes, she took the time to notice. They fell longer as he sat down, pooling on the ground and around his feet. His hands sat stiffly on his lap, leading up to his tense shoulders. Was he going to do anything? She felt herself breathe out in relief when he finally shut his eyes for a second, attracting the attention of all the occupants of the room.
"So, the mission?"
"Tea?" Gaara asked, standing up expressionlessly. Hinata felt her brows unintentionally furrow at his obvious deflection of the topic.
"No thank you, Kazekage-sama." She watched as his eyelids drooped exasperatedly at her declination of his offer. It almost looked like he was pouting as he slid back into his seat, slouching slightly.
"Do you mind if I look at what you've brought?"
Hinata shook her head, handing Kankuro the bag under her feet. She watched as he frowned, pulling out kunai, shuriken and various other tools. Then came out the several pairs of her basic black anbu style shirt and bottom duo.
"Is this all you brought?" Kankuro asked, scratching the back of his head as he continued to rummage through the main compartment of the bag.
"Yes?"
"I really wish Naruto had told you what the mission was. This isn't exactly the equipment you needed." He chuckled lightly, twiddling a kunai in his hands.
"Speaking of which, Gaara do you just want me to tell her?"
"No, I'll do it."
"Today?" Temari replied with a smirk.
"Well, I would have done it a minute ago but you interrupted."
"As if."
"Do you doubt me?" Hinata gulped at the dark look he gave his sister, he still held the ability to terrify her, even with the knowledge that he had become a kind hearted man.
"Yep." His blonde sister replied, cheekily poking her tongue out at her stoic brother who was now grumbling something incoherent at her. Their relationship confused her.
"The Sunagakure council mainly consists of village elders who are rather old fashioned," Gaara paused, turning his bored look onto her as she nodded in understanding. "They believe that it is of the village's best interests that the Kazekage should be married by 26."
"That's not so unusual, to ensure that there will an heir, ne?" He nodded swiftly before continuing.
"I'm twenty-five years old."
"I'm sorry Kazekage-sama, where exactly is this conversation going? Are you asking my help in finding your future bride?"
"The council have been rather insistent on sending what they deem 'suitable options' my way. In an attempt to deter them, I declined on the grounds that I was currently seeing someone and planned on proposing."
"Congratulations!" Hinata breathed with a smile, still confused to the direction of the conversation and why Kankuro and Temari were now laughing beside her.
"-but I'm not." He continued, shooting a sour look at his siblings.
"So, why tell the council that?"
"I'm not comfortable with the idea of," Gaara paused, shifting again on his seat, his eyes trained on the ground, "women parading themselves for me or arranged marriages."
All she could do was nod along, she understood exactly what he meant. Arranged marriages were also a not so outrageous an idea to the Hyuuga council, her father included, she remembered grimly.
"What is my part in this, Kazekage-sama?" She asked, her voice blank as unpleasant memories of her father resurfaced. Their relationship had been on the mend when she was younger, but after the war, unsurprisingly it went nowhere but downhill.
"I'm not demanding, I'm merely asking. The plan was for Naruto to find a kunoichi who was willing, he must not have understood that part," Hinata almost felt like rolling her eyes at that part, she doubted that Naruto misunderstood him. "This is a strange request but I'm asking you to pretend to be my fiancé, temporarily."
Silence.
Hinata knew why Uzumaki Naruto assigned her to this mission and not someone else. She knew why he didn't tell her himself. She felt herself sink into the seat, her eyes half closing as she stared at the pale sandal clad feet of the Kazekage. She could feel the two beside her stiffen as they watched the exchange. Naruto had pulled a dirty trick. She felt like throwing something at him. Softly, ofcourse.
"You are under no obligati-"
"Kazekage-sama, I accept." Hinata said firmly, standing up to stare down at him with determination. His mouth was still open from his unfinished sentence, his eyes wide gazing back at her. She turned back to look at the equally surprised looks on the other seated shinobi's faces before they smiled. They were relieved.
Distracted momentarily, she turned back in front of her when she felt something cold touch her finger. Gaara was standing in front of her, looking down at her hand as he slid on a small silver ring with a modestly sized diamond poking out of it.
"Well, first off, we need to get you new clothes because I don't think any of these are quite suitable for what we need them for. Unless there's something in here." Kankuro continued, opening the slightly smaller compartment of Hinata's bag before she could register his words.
"No!" Hinata turned back, feeling lightheaded when she realised that she was too late.
Kankuro stared wide eyed at the pair of lavender and black lace panties he had blindly pulled from the bag, a small lopsided smirk forming. Temari snatched the bag and underwear away from her brother before stuffing it back in the bag and zipping it up, smacking him behind the head when she finished.
Hinata knew her cheeks were red, she could feel it. Sending Temari a grateful look, she turned back, jumping when she saw Gaara staring blankly at the bag that was now on the ground at his sister's feet.
"U-uh, Kazekage-sama?" That snapped him out of it.
"Gaara. We won't fool anyone if you call me Kazekage-sama." He responded plainly, reaching down to pick up her black bag before walking out the back of the house.
"D-do I follow him?" Still in shock from the disappearance of her bag and the Kage of the Sand. She glanced at Temari who nodded and Kankuro who gave her a thumbs up. She could see herself and Temari becoming friends. Kankuro was still a wild card at this point.
Turning in the direction of the door, Hinata marched out of it, desperate to retrieve her troublesome bag.
He was waiting patiently against the wall of a quaint cottage, sitting in the back yard of the building she had just exited. Her bag sat loosely dangling from his left hand as he opened to door for her with his right.
She had no idea what this place was but she wanted to go back in the other building. There was something creepy about this place. Maybe it was the fact that it had items in it that should make it homey, photo frames for instance, but they weren't being used properly. The walls were littered with photo frames, yet all of them were empty. Why even bother having photo frames?
There was a distinct lack of colour in this place too. The walls were a bland shade of grey and the curtains were slightly darker.
The area looked bare. There was one sofa, sitting across from the world's smallest television. A coffee table sat between the two, a newspaper sloppily placed on it, open to an article about current currency conversion rates. He placed her bag lazily onto the couch.
"G-Gaara?" She stuttered over the name, disrupting him for his seemingly peaceful moment leaning against the wall. He turned to face her, raising an eyebrow quizzically. "Where are we?"
"My house, make yourself at home" he put simply, pulling up a stool at the kitchen bench.
The sitting room in front of her led directly to a kitchen that was openly connected to it. She crinkled her nose at the sight of dozens of boxes of instant ramen sitting on the bench. What was with these Kage? Were they incapable of eating fresh food?
"Do you spend much time here?"
"No."
Hinata sighed at his brief answer before walking towards a door on the far right, turning back to assure she had permission to enter. At Gaara's brief nod she opened the door to find a bedroom. The bed was unmade, no, there were no sheets or pillows or comforters to be unmade, it was a plain mattress that lay flat against the ground. She felt herself twitch at the sight.
"Do you sleep here?" She asked, turning back to find him watching her with that same curious look as before.
"No, I prefer the couch."
"That's not good for your back," she frowned staring back at him.
"It's not?" His eyebrows rose in shock as his hand absentmindedly touched his lower spine.
"Don't you ever get lower back pain? Neck pain?" Hinata asked incredulously.
"I assumed that was normal." Even Naruto wasn't THAT bad. Although thinking more about it, she doubted Gaara had attended any basic health classes as a child. He didn't have a mother to teach him these things and Hinata had heard all about his father. It made sense that he was like this.
"Do you eat anything other than ramen?" She asked approaching to sit herself down on the stool beside the Kazekage.
"Temari occasionally brings take out." Gaara shrugged.
"T-that's not a great diet to have, Kazekage-sama."
"Gaara-kun."
"Right, Gaara- ku- wait, kun?" She asked, a light pink covering her cheeks.
"Since you seem to enjoy using honorifics so much I thought adding one would make it easier for you to adjust." Hinata couldn't help but giggle at Gaara's comment. He remained blank-faced. She wondered whether he was purposefully being playful or his comments just came across as such.
She awkwardly pulled out the chair next to him and pulled herself onto it. He watched her through the corner of his eyes but remained silent. She stared at the cabinets in her vision, spacing out in thoughts of how the redhead beside her had managed to keep the house relatively sand-free yet she had managed to drag in most of Suna with her.
"My favourite colour is white." Gaara said suddenly. Hinata turned to face the man who was now staring at her in anticipation.
"Huh?"
"You're my fiancée for now, we need to know basic things about each other. Like our favourite things," he paused, "My favourite colour is white."
"Why white?" Hinata asked, wanting him to maintain his talkative streak.
"It's calming.. And innocent" he spoke slowly as he stared at his hands resting on the bench.
"I suppose you're right," Hinata smiled. "I like green. It reminds me of Konoha. Of home."
"There isn't much green around here." She nodded in response. "You've been travelling all day, are you hungry?"
Gaara seemed blissfully unaware at the attention they were attracting. While he was used to everyone staring, Hinata wasn't totally comfortable with the extent of attention she was receiving. She felt she should have changed and freshened up before making her debut in front of the people of Suna. Still dressed in her travel clothes, she did not feel she played the role of the Kazekage's fiancée well. Self-consciously, she ran her hand through her hair, detangling the aftermath of her journey. Hinata was careful not to slip as she increased her pace to match that of the Kazekage's. She pulled her sleeve over her left hand, wary of the scrutiny the ring was bringing her. Donning a sad smile, she couldn't help but feel nostalgic in the moment. The words "girlfriend" and "secret" made it to her ears as she past civilians attempting to be discrete about their gossiping. It was the same everywhere. Gaara watched Hinata curiously.
"About time," Temari sighed as they approached the restaurant. Kankuro was seated beside her, his hood pulled back revealing the mop of brown atop of his head. He frowned slightly as the couple took their seats.
"You're going to need to act more like a couple than that, you know," the puppet-master informed the duo who now stared at him in confusion. "You literally avoided all physical contact. You aren't going to fool anyone if you don't work on your act."
While Hinata realized their mistake, Gaara continued to stare blankly.
"Like maybe hold hands or just be closer?" Temari suggested. Hinata stared bashfully down at her hands before shuffling her chair slightly closer to Gaara's so their thighs were somewhat near touching. He stared wide eyed at her before mutedly thanking her for the effort.
The waitress approached shortly after, taken aback by the Hyuga's proximity to the Kazekage. Though she addressed the whole table in her request for orders, her eyes remained on the limited space between the duo. Unfamiliar with all the items on the menu, Hinata allowed Gaara to order for her. Kankuro had afterwards warned her of his unique palette.
Gaara continued to refill her glass as Hinata downed the milk with an impressive speed. Temari watched sympathetically while her brother laughed hysterically. Through teary eyes Hinata attempted to glare at the brunette.
"Are you alright, Hinata?" Gaara asked for the hundredth time.
"Don't worry Gaara-kun," Kankuro and Temari smirked, "I think I'll just stick to the salad."
He nodded.
"Okay well 'Gaara-kun', 'Hina-chan'," Kankuro teased, earning an eye roll from both siblings, "You'll need to make your introduction to the council tomorrow."