ONE

I woke up in the middle of the night, startled. I had had another dream with the death of Neji-niisan. I looked at the date on my phone and noticed that it has been two years since he died to save Naruto-kun and me.

I took a deep breath and went to get a glass of cold water in the kitchen of my house.

My house.

Three months after the war, after giving up my rights and obligations as heiress of the clan, I moved to a house in the center of Konoha, next to the Hokage building. My father had said I could leave the clan and continue to live in the main mansion or even in some of the vacant homes of Hyuuga district, but it did not seem right to continue living there.

I did not feel like there was my home.

Actually, I also do not feel that my house is my home, even though it is comfy and sweet. It is small and only has five rooms: living room, bedroom, kitchen, laundry area and bathroom. It also has a backyard big enough for me to put all my clothes - that now that I was outside the clan, were not many. I left all my clothes that had the clan symbol on my old closet, now I was Hinata.

Only Hinata.

After a long glass of water, I went back to bed.

Okay, Hinata, you will not get to sleep anymore.

I growled angry and stood up, going to the window. The tones of the sky began to change and the sun began to appear and spread throughout his light on Konoha, as it did every morning.

It was a beautiful sight and I ended up smiling, but then I fell to the ground, alarmed when the alarm on my cell phone started ringing, warning that there were already six in the morning and I needed to get ready.

I had a meeting with the Hokage at eight, where he would probably try to convince me to become an Anbu, ask me for help in the Chuunin exam, or give me some tracker mission.

I bought some sunflowers and went to Neji-niisan's grave; I stayed there for a while, allowing myself a moment of distress. When I was feeling a bit better, I made my way to meet the Hokage at his building.

Once there, I knocked on the door and then heard a "come in".

"Good morning, Hokage-sama," I greeted him by making a slight bow.

Hatake Kakashi looked away from the other person who was in the room and stared at me, shaking his head.

"Good morning, Hinata," he said.

I finally looked at the other person in the room and came across the most ridiculous shawl in Konoha, and probably in the world too. I had to lift my head slightly to look into the eyes of the other man who was in there. I held my breath when I found the black orbs staring at me with curiosity.

"I believe you know Uchiha Sasuke from the times of the Academy and also from the times of war." I turned my eyes to the Hokage and nodded, letting my breath go out slowly and returning to breathe normally.

I haven't thought about him in months; and for some reason I felt my whole body getting warm when I noticed the curiosity in his eyes. After all, why was he curious? Did he not remember me? Does he find me interesting?

Hinata stop the madness; why would Uchiha-so-damn-hot-Sasuke would find you interesting?

I blushed at my thoughts; after all, I had just called Uchiha Sasuke hot! I took a deep breath and tried not to blush even more when I realized that the two men stared at me.

Kakashi cleared his throat.

"Anyway, Sasuke came to town last night and said he plans to live here and rebuild the Uchiha clan," said the Hokage.

Sasuke intends to settle here? That is surprising.

"But now he will work in the village and will help in the preparations for the Chuunin Exam, which will be headquartered in Konoha this year," the Hokage stared at me. "Hinata, you will prepare and oversee the first phase of examination," he turned to Sasuke. "And you will prepare and supervise the second stage."

"Hai," we said together.

I was surprised and excited, and Sasuke was ... Well, he seemed indifferent.

"You are dismissed," Kakashi announced and took a book from the table, locking his eyes on it.

Sasuke stared at me for a few seconds, and I stared back, but now I could not decipher anything of his gaze. What was he thinking?

I shook my head, trying to stop thinking about it and decided to walk back home, thinking about what I could organize for the first stage of the Chuunin Exam.

On the next morning, I went to the supermarket to buy food and ended up running into Ino-chan.

"Hina!" She exclaimed smiling and gave me a big hug. "I'm glad I found you!" She said as she released me, "Can you help me?"

"Of course, with what?" I smiled gently.

She hesitated, apparently choosing her words carefully and my smile faded a little. The help she wanted probably had something to do with Naruto-kun.

Months ago, when she was on a mission with him, he ended up calling her out and she said she would think. In fact, she wanted to accept at the time, because – according to her – Naruto-kun was surprisingly mature and they had an interesting conversation during the mission. However, she remembered my platonic love for him, and decided that she would just go out with him if I gave her my blessing.

It hurt to hear that, after Sakura-chan, the first person Naruto-kun thought about asking out was Ino-chan. When she came to ask for my blessing, I did not answer immediately, but – obviously – I gave my blessing. I am not selfish enough to keep my two friends apart; I want them to be happy. After some hidden encounters, they started dating. They make a nice couple, while maintaining the relationship in secret. Naruto-kun has many fans, and Ino-chan, with that extraordinary beauty, has several admirers. As I am the only person who knows about the relationship, I have to hear complaints of jealousy on both sides, which is funny and sometimes annoying.

"Do not be afraid to ask for something for..."I looked around to make sure no one was around and muttered: "Naruto-kun."

She took a deep breath and smiled.

"Next week is our first Valentine's Day together," she said, "and I wanted to surprise him, you know?" She smiled in a way that was just too innocent for her. "We can go to a sex shop in a little while and you help me choose some accessories, what do you say?"

I blinked a few times and felt my face get hot.

"I..." I took a deep breath. "I do not know how to help you, Ino-chan," I said in one breath and began to gasp.

The blonde-haired woman started laughing.

"Oh, Hina!" She wiped a tear. "Relax. I'm just kidding!" I went back to breathing normally. "You're so funny when I talk about sex. Anyway," she smiled, "I want to make a romantic dinner for both of us, but I do not know much about food," she bit her lip and looked at me with hopeful eyes. "Would you help me cook for him?"

I took a deep breath and smiled. Despite feeling a little jealous, I was genuinely happy for those two crazy blond people.

"Yes, I'll help."

It's not like I had something interesting to do on Valentine's Day.

"Hinata-chan!" Naruto-kun screamed and desperately knocked on the front door of my house. "Hinata-chan!"

I got out of bed and walked lazily to the front door, while the beats became more and more frequent.

"Hina... Ouch!" Someone seemed to have beaten him. "Damn, teme!"

"Dobe, enough with that screaming," Sasuke said with a slurred voice.

I opened the door and came across a blond person rubbing the back of his head and an idly dark-haired man and a bored face – I was almost disappointed when I noticed that Sasuke was not wearing the hideous shawl.

"Hinata-chan!" Naruto-kun opened a huge smile and hugged me, which made me blush a little.

"Hyuuga," Sasuke greeted me with a nod as soon as the blond man let go of me.

I cleared my throat as I stared at his chin and felt the smell of aftershave from it.

"I'd rather you call me Hinata," I murmured, "I'm not a Hyuuga."

"Uh," he grunted and looked down to face me directly. "All right, Hinata." He uttered the syllables of my name slowly, as if savoring the sound of the word in his mouth.

I felt my body heat and this heat spread all over my body, including my cheeks.

I glanced at Naruto-kun, who was looking from Sasuke to me and from me to Sasuke, but then he turned his gaze to me.

"Anyway," he said and came into my house when I opened passage. "I need your help."

I sighed.

"It has something to do with Valentine's Day?" I asked as I closed the door and he nodded.

"I have a saved money and even though I'm dating Ino-chan for just six months, I think I want to be with her forever and," he smiled excited "I will ask her to marry me."

I blinked a few times, and then I went to the couch, absorbing the information.

Of course they were going to get married someday, Hinata!

I massaged my temple and took a deep breath, feeling the eyes of Sasuke and Naruto-kun staring at me.

I turned to face Naruto-kun and showed him an honest smile.

I was not as sad as the day that Ino-chan told me that they were dating. I was confused, surprised, happy and a little jealous, I cannot deny, but I could suppress it all with the thought of how happy they are together.

"That's good!" I said truthfully and raised from the couch to give the blond man another hug. "So... How can I help you?"

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I hope you liked it, and thank you all so much for reading this!

Special thanks to aj davis, malea anne and Selena Dark Blood for reviewing!

Kisses, Raykk.