The warehouse is in an odd area, some shops, some storage. It used to be the old red-light district and has some shady history. By some kind of miracle, Ino seems to just be happy to get her living room back. Hinata is sold that it is a rent-to-own and on the bus system.

Hinata only laments later that working in the warehouse at night is downright terrifying. She feels like a skittish cat, praying to god that nobody sees her actually sprinting to the bus stop around midnight, pepper spray out, almost hyperventilating and not because of the exercise.

Taking the bus eats up more of her time than she can really afford. Between the weeks and weeks, Hinata had been working on the website, ordering and making alterations to the clothing and trying to keep up with her actual job at Hyūga Hotels, Hinata is working herself into an exhaustion. She was thankful for that at first, but not even someone that wants to can survive without sleeping.

Bags are starting to form under her eyes and she can't close them for too long without nodding off. She had an embarrassing couple times of her head falling down onto her desk, or sewing her finger into the machine. (Ino's gotten pretty crafty at getting blood out of some more of the expensive pieces, much to Hinata's embarrassment.)

It's only temporary that she'll be working these hours. In a matter of days now, she'll be resigning from Hyūga Hotels and all of the perks that go along with it. A steady pay check, though not great was deeply appreciated, and soon will be needed. Her healthcare and with that, cheap to almost free medication and access to her physiatrist and therapist. Her living situation, in her father's house, is also coming to an end.

To some people, it would seem incredibly cold to kick out their daughter in her time of need. But, Hinata doesn't hold her father to that. Hiashi Hyūga has already been far more generous than Hinata ever gave him credit for. He allowed her sister the time off to stay and care for her for two months to be transferred home, housed her in his house, gave her a job, though incredibly low on the chain of his business, but one she didn't deserve none the less, with full benefits. Hinata is equal parts thankful with her entire heart, and mortified that it had to come to this. She's twenty-eight years old, closing in on thirty and just now learning how to go out on her own.

No, she doesn't fault her father for more or less forcing her out on her own.

She is, however, incredibly nervous.

"Sissy… you cannot be serious." Hanabi blanched.

Hinata had made the grave mistake of allowing Hanabi, Konohamaru and Ko to come along with her and tour an apartment she was considering. Hanabi couldn't even pretend to hide her horrific expression. She had started asking "Sissy, are you sure this is the right place?" Before Ko even pulled up to the building. The neighborhood was admittedly, not the best. Not the worst, but not somewhere she'd be taking late night leisurely strolls. The building looked somewhere between those really nice prisons in those Nordic countries where the inmates get to have their own apartments and make their meals and just go to therapy, or like the really old Soviet area apartments that dominated places like Pripyat before Chernobyl.

It was tall, grey, hard concrete looking exterior. The apartment was a studio, the hard wood floor was dull and scuffed with deep scratches that she wasn't sure would ever be able to be buffed out. The appliances should've been white but faded to a yellowish color and the fridge was louder than a diesel truck engine and knocked occasionally. The walls had also faded to a dingy grey and were spotted from scuff marks that tenant before had left behind.

Hanabi kept turning around in circles, eyes fixing on chips in the molding, the crookedness of a few cabinet doors, the single light fixture that had a wire hanging out of it. "Sissy," Hanabi had also taken to calling Hinata by an incredibly old nickname. One she hadn't heard in almost two decades. Since their conversation at the engagement party, Hanabi seemed to stand by what she had said about their relationship. Text checking in every other day, the occasional lunches together, and digging up the ancient nickname of Sissy that had nothing to do with Hinata being an overall pathetic human being (she hoped) and more to do with trying to memorialize the time that Hanabi thought the world of her big sister.

Boy did she grow up and learn the truth.

Hinata watched with dread in her heart as Hanabi stepped into the closet sized bathroom, just to hear her sister give an audible gasp and almost shrieked, sounding a little too real to be faux outrage and disgust. It was all real.

Hinata's fingers tangled together. "It probably needs to be re-grouted."

"I don't know what 'grouted' means, but if its 'burnt to the ground', then yes. Yes, it does."

"Hanabi." Konohamaru chided his fiancé softly, either for being rude or for still standing in the bathroom, Hinata wasn't sure.

He was still in his business suit, hands shoved in his pockets as to avoid touching anything. Hinata knew that being the heir to the Sarutobi family, working such a prestigious job at the embassy along with Naruto, that he was not used to places like this. His own apartment had as many square feet as a middle class, suburban house and had its own cleaning team. He was being much more respectful than Hinata had given him credit for.

Hanabi's disgust did not surprise Hinata in the slightest. She was wearing a pantsuit, giving off a Hillary Clinton-esq vibe. Her long hair smoothed down around her. Hanabi wouldn't have given this apartment a second thought if it wasn't her older sister moving into it.

Ko, who was also wearing a suit, was much more composed than his younger companions. Though the tightens of his expression alluded to his displeasure, he was putting on a good show for his former (and current) charge.

Ko cleared his throat politely. "I'm sure there are some qualities that you have found value in." He spoke stiffly, inviting Hinata to explain herself as politely as he knew how.

She smiled.

Hinata had been shoved into an olive green sweat suit, Ino not allowing her to wear the normal comfortable clothing Hinata usually found herself in. Even back in high school Hinata had preferred comfort to style, and now ironically owning a clothing company. Ino thought that by dressing Hinata in their clothing accomplished a variety of herself imposed goals. Publicity for the company and Hinata's fashion to name a few of them.

She pulled the sleeves down past her fingers and fidgeted with the two white stripes running down her sweat pants. "It's month to month, so I don't have to sign a lease. It's closer to the warehouse, so the bus ride will be short. And, it has the security thing down stairs."

The locked door that either needed a code or to be buzzed in by a tenant. Living alone was unsettling enough. Living alone in that kind of neighborhood would make anyone nervous, even someone that hadn't been dealing with some… issues. The security system meant a lot to Hinata.

"Monthly?" Hanabi had finally exited the bathroom. "Doesn't the lease provide more security?"

Security. Technically, yes. But that wasn't the kind of security that Hinata was looking for. No. She had no idea how this clothing business would go. She tried not to let the small business statistics scare her, but she'd be lying if she didn't sit up late into the night, terrified to failure, as if she wasn't tired enough. Losing the money for Hyūga Hotels and only relying on her savings, which was pathetic if she was being honest, she couldn't allow herself to be trapped into paying 9, 12 or even 18 months' worth of rent with a shady foreseeable income.

Ko gave her a knowing smile.

It wasn't but a couple days later that her father had called her into a meeting.

Sitting across from him at his desk was something she knew she would never get totally comfortable with. He was intimidating, imposing, and he reached his peak of both of those things in his own winged back desk chair. It was a business tactic to make his opponent feel inferior, off kilter, not able to negotiate as well. Incredibly useful for business. A little less useful for father-daughter chats.

"This is your last week of work." His voice was always powerful, even when speaking candidly, or as candid as he could muster.

He paused, inviting Hinata to speak, but she nodded instead.

"Everything is sorted out at your business?"

"Yes, sir."

"Good." He nodded. "You're moving into your new apartment."

She nodded again. She had already started moving her few belongings that she didn't need to use on an everyday basis.

"I'll have a moving team bring your larger belongings this Saturday." He moved to press the call button to harass his secretary.

"Father, you don't have to do that."

Hinata had not expected to be able to take the furniture from her bedroom. She had been scouring thrift stores, praying for an unstained mattress and resigning herself to an air bed and back pain for the foreseeable future.

"Don't be ridiculous. What am I going to do with your old things?" His voice was annoyed and flippant but Hinata knew better.

He had kept her high school bedroom in its complete integrity for that last ten years, preserved the way she had left it like a museum, or shrine. She knew that forcing the furniture on her was him showing that he cared.

"Thank you, father."

He waved off her thanks as he barked through his intercom. There was a couple minutes that Hinata flinched, thinking that her life was at least leagues better than whatever life her father's secretary was living.

"I will not be able to attend your launch party this weekend." He announced finally, folding his fingers together in front of him.

Hinata nodded slowly.

"I have some business in Iwagakure, but," He paused, shifting his jaw around. "I'm impressed with the way you've changed course. Putting all stock into one endeavor is never a smart business move, but the things you've done to minimize losses is… smart. You remember what I said about you still represented to Hyūga family?"

Hinata nodded.

"Especially working with Ambassador Namikaze."

Hinata tried not to roll her eyes at him giving Naruto such a title. Her father once kicked him out of the house for eating all his crackers in the eighth grade and banned him from attending one of her birthday parties. Now he gets the title of Ambassador and she needs to be warned about treading on reputations.

"You've already seen my repayment plans. For Mr. Namikaze and yourself." She smiled tightly.

"Yes. You've created an aggressive plan, and I went over ours personally." He nodded.

Finally, after taking a deep breath. "My next appointment is due any minute and you should get back to work. You haven't finished here yet." He admonished.

She smiled and nodded at her dismissal.

"Hinata," He stopped her before should could make her exit. "I'm proud of you."

The floor fell away as her insides liquefied. Did her father just say...?

He cleared his throat awkwardly, turning back to his computer, fingers flying on the keyboard. "Let's go, Hinata. It's is unbecoming to procrastinate. Get back to work."

Hinata managed to make it to that floors bathroom before bursting into tears. Her father praising her was something that she would never get used to. Also, currently being more fragile than she'd like to admit. The uncertainty of her future had also been grating her nerves into fine powder. Never the less, these are happy tears.

This just reaffirms what she wanted anyways. She had to succeed. She must. Not just so she can support herself. Not just to pay back Naruto, which she desperately wants to do. But to make her father proud.

During the week, she gets several emails and text messages from Naruto, as always.

From: Naruto U. Namikaze

To: Hinata Hyūga

Excited about the launch party this Saturday.

She wasn't quite sure that was a necessary email, and doesn't reply.

From: Naruto U. Namikaze

To: Hinata Hyūga

Heard you got a new place. Congrats.

Maybe I can bring a house warming present over sometime?

Hinata can't believe that Naruto even knows what a house warming party is. Nor can she fathom letting Naruto see what kind of apartment she was renting. She can only imagine what kind of house he lives in now, and would be beyond mortified for him to know what she's had to sink to.

Not that she isn't proud of where she's come. How far she's been able to go. But in the grand scheme of things, she's still almost some thirty-year-old women, going through a mid-life crisis, and just now branching out on their own. Naruto had been taking care of himself since he was old enough to get out of the foster care system.

He had gone so much further in life.

Hinata was a fledgling baby bird, just spreading her wings.

From: Hinata Hyūga

To: Naruto U. Namikaze

Thank you so much.

Gifts are unnecessary.

That was the nicest way she knew how to rebuff his advances.

From: Naruto U. Namikaze

To: Hinata Hyūga

I have some **cough cough**business questions.

Wanna meet for dinner and further discuss?

;)

Hinata ignores this one too, but it does make her smile. How did his keyboard not autocorrect wanna?

There is no time to entertain Naruto, and whatever he was trying to accomplish by attempting to spend any amount of extra time with her. Hinata does her best to end her week at Hyūga Hotels and double, triple and quadruple checks the warehouse and their cataloging system. Hinata and Ino both agreed that knowing absolutely everything about their products and their exact location in the warehouse would only heighten efficiency when the time came for the business to actually be up and running.

And that time had come.

The website was going live that Saturday, and Ino had been publicizing on every social media outlet that Hinata had heard of and a some she didn't even know. She had hyped up a pretty decent following, and Hinata just hoped that those numbers would correlate to dollar signs. It was one thing to have people interested, a completely different thing for them to actually be paying customers.

Hinata could only sit back and find out.

The launch party that Ino had planned, didn't seem as daunting as Hanabi's engagement party.

The only people there were ones Hinata had grown up with, had known intimately at one point. Old friends, and Ino's family members that she recognized from previous birthdays at the Yamanaka house. Nobody had questioned the sparkling apple cider in her plastic flute. She was making easy conversation with Kurenai, Mirai, Shino and Kiba.

Admittedly, Hinata had slunk back to the group that she was far and beyond most familiar with, but being in this kind of crowd and feeling as at ease as she was, well, she wasn't questioning it.

Hinata was comfortable.

"What the fuck?" Kiba spit suddenly.

Hinata jerked back on instinct, dropping her flute. It didn't break, only made a barely audible 'doink' as it bounced on the concrete, splashing the sparkling juice on her heels. Her hands came up defensively near her chest and she took a step back. Half of her was embarrassed by this ridiculous display. The other half was physically shaking in fear. Rationally, she knew Kiba would never hurt her.

He wasn't going to hurt her.

He wasn't.

She whimpered.

"How could you fucking invite them?" His eyes rounded on her, blazing.

Out of the corner of her eyes, she could see Shino take step towards him, hands up, trying to warn him.

"W-w-w-w-w" She couldn't get her lips to form the words. What was he talking about?

"Kiba." Kurenai hissed.

Kiba was not looking at any of them. His eyes were focused somewhere over Hinata and Mirai's head, but Hinata couldn't keep her eyes off her friend. The threat. The predator.

Hands wrapping around her throat. Glass cutting through her neck and scalp. A sharp slap to her cheek bone. Hands gripping her shoulders so tight they left bruise marks. Falling down the stairs – no, being pushed. Laying in the bathtub while some screamed above her. Her eyes squeezed tight, silently sobbing, imagining she's anywhere else. Lying in bed, shaking after he had sex with her. Because they definitely didn't have sex together. Is it rape if she didn't say no? It's easier to just lay there and stay quiet, she didn't want to fight him. A couple drinks, a couple pills, and she couldn't even feel his fingers sliming over her.

Choking. She's choking. She can't breathe.

Why did you make me hurt you Hinata? Do you want me to get in trouble? You made me do it Hinata. I don't want to hurt you.

"I-I-I'm s-sorry." She finally manages to choke out.

Kiba finally looks at her and freezes, the situation finally dawning on him. "Holy fuck, Hina-"

"Hi-na-ta."

The warm, raspy voice washes over Hinata. In high school, it calmed her like the soothing ocean waves. Now, if she could become any more hyperaware, any more like a cat with every hair follicle raised, any readier to shatter into hundreds and thousands of pieces, that voice would just about do it.

She still can't quite piece together what had made Kiba so upset. Out of the corner of her eye, she can see Naruto, who has arrived late as usual, flanked by Sasuke, a girl on his arm.

Fizzing, bubbling. Her nerves feel shot, shaky. She needs air. She barely manages a quick wave, at least acknowledging Naruto, and makes a quick exit.

Her arms are still shaking as she tries to wrap them around herself. Her therapist mentioned something about the pressure being soothing. Comforting. A self hug. Trying not to dwell on the thought that there was nobody else around to hug her, and trying to reframe it as an empowering kind of mood.

It wasn't really working.

Most days, it was easy to push thoughts of Toneri out of her head. He didn't dominate her thoughts like he had ten or eleven months ago. With work and time, she's been able to avoid him in her mind. The symptoms he'd left behind were still wreaking havoc most days. Anxiety, insomnia. Those things she was trying to fix herself with work and packing her day planner full till the last second.

But every now and then, it was like he was back, at the forefront of her mind, like he never left. Like she never left him. His cold, calculating stare. His employees, basically puppets, head down, pretending nothing was going on. Countless ruined dinners. Hundreds of sleepless nights. Drinking, taking pills to make anything a little more bearable.

Even worse.

Sometimes Hinata remembered memories that weren't bad. Times when she could've considered herself happy. Toneri getting her the book she wanted randomly on his way home from work. Him taking her on business trips. Buying her cinnamon rolls. Taking her out to dinner. Sitting down on the couch and watching whatever she wanted on Netflix.

He wasn't all bad, the sick part of her tried to remind her. When they had told her that he had been arrested, Hinata had asked, 'Why?' 'Is he okay?'

He tried to kill you! She screams at herself, pinching her eyes tight.

"Cold?" Naruto askes casually.

Hinata almost falls over onto the dirty ground.

He looks like he's just come from work. His white button up is pristine and today he's in a navy suit with a bright orange tie, reminding her a lot more of high school.

She doesn't know what he's talking about. The sun hasn't started its decent yet, and it's not particularly cold today.

But her arms are still wrapped around her, pressing her arms so tight against her chest that she's crushing her breasts. Her body shivers. Like a human straight jacket that she belongs in.

She shakes her head 'no' anyways.

Naruto rolls his eyes, giving her a little laugh. "The pride of the Hyūga, eh? I guess you couldn't avoid it forever."

She frowns, trying not to feel slighted. She's already shaken up. She doesn't need Naruto of all people cutting into her.

But, when she feels his coat ghost across her back and settle softly around her, embracing her in a sent that she doesn't recognize as his at all, she realizes that he's teasing her.

Always teasing.

"Sorry about Kiba."

"You didn't do anything." Her voice is quiet but firm.

Naruto has never done anything wrong in her eyes. He's spray painted school lockers, keyed cars, got in fist fights at football games, shoplifted, cheated on tests, snuck weed onto their bus. But, Hinata has never seen his faults. Not like she's supposed to.

"Do you know Tamaki?" He asks her.

Dread pools into Hinata's stomach. Tamaki? Kiba's girlfriend? Is this where Naurto tells her about his own girlfriend, that he has to be stashing away? You can't be that kind, that beautiful, that successful without one. She's missed her chance. Again.

Chance? There's no chance. There's no… nothing. She can't date. She's not ready. She just burst into tears because one of her close, personal friends raised his voice a couple octaves.

She's not even divorced yet!

"Kiba's girlfriend?" She asks weakly, after a long, awkward pause.

Naruto tilts his head back up to the sky, hiding his smile from her. He's trying not to laugh. Hinata can feel her face flush red hot, and she looks back to the dirty road.

"Um, Tamaki is now technically called 'Sasuke's Girlfriend'."

Hinata's head whips back to Naruto's.

The confusion on her face must be enough because Naruto actually does start laughing. "Yeah." He nods, replying to her wordless questions. "Right?"

Hinata can still not wrap her head around this. She knew that Kiba and Tamaki had split, they had done so while she was still married. Well, to be fair they had split countless times. They fought like cats and dogs, which they both had an abundance of.

The girl on Sasuke arm. She must've been too shook up to fully recognize her, and Hinata only glanced.

She had always liked Tamaki. She was a sweet girl, and she liked her hair cut, almost a messier version of her own. She was quieter than most girls, still chatty and made easy conversation on the few occasions that Kiba had visited Kumo while Hinata had lived there. Hinata honestly couldn't fault Tamaki for her and Kiba's relationship problems. Hinata intimately knew how hot headed, stubborn, blind Kiba could be.

But… Tamaki and Sasuke?

"Apparently they were childhood friends. They started dating just a little bit ago. Maybe eighteen months."

"Does Sasuke even like cats?" It's an odd question, but not if you know Tamaki.

"He does now." They both smile at this.

Imagining Sasuke cuddling kittens is beyond what Hinata can currently comprehend.

"He tries to act like they aren't serious. She lives with him. Her names on his mailbox. Sasuke and Tamaki Uchiha. 'Fuck off Naruto, were just dating.'" He ends with his best, sassy Uchiha impression.

Hinata actually laughs out loud. The whole idea is absurd. But it reminds her so much of high school that she can practically feel the adolescence surround her.

"Speaking of dating,"

Hinata tenses again.

"You've been avoiding me." Naruto pokes her in the stomach.

She looks at him incredulously. They're adults. You cannot just poke an adult woman in the stomach. Is this how he acts at the embassy? Just childishly poking his female employees?

Her wrapped arms, which have loosened considerably during their chat, lower to protect her stomach from further protrusions from this gigantic man-child.

"I'm not avoiding you."

Since poking her in the stomach, Naruto ignored her shock and affronted expression in lieu of un-cuffing his sleeves and rolling them up, revealing tanned, toned, muscular forearms.

"Psht." He dismisses her excuse. "I've emailed you like a bajillion times. Believe it."

He reaches up and tugs his tie loose, and unbuttons the top two or three buttons, freeing his neck. A neck that seems wider than his high school senior neck had seemed in that basketball uniform. It's tan, just as tan as he always was. He catches her eye, smirking and she looks away quickly, trying to formulate her response.

But words are just so hard in the presence of Naruto Uzumaki's clavicles.

Namikaze. She chides internally.

She clears her throat. "That's for business."

"The non-business emails, Hyūga." He chides her, playfully.

She bites her lips, unable to look at him.

"You are currently a lender in a business that I am a joint owner of. Do you not think that it would be inappropriate to go on a date?"

She can see Naruto out of the corner of her eye finally look away from her. His hand awkwardly comes up to rub the back of his head, blonde spikes immediately popping up from the simple brush. She wonders how much gel it takes to get them to look presentable and professional enough for work.

"Can't an old friend just want to catch up?" Naruto rounds back on her, his eyes catching her's again so fast that Hinata can't pretend she wasn't ogling him.

The warehouse door slams open so fast that Hinata flinches and a little ball of blonde smashes against Naruto's navy clad legs.

"Dad!"

Shinachiku smiles up at his father with a scarily familiar face. Naruto smiles back down at his son, ruffling the shaggy blonde locks of the little boy.

Hinata has seen Shinachiku a few times now, always flanked by the Yamanka and Nara boys. He's a well-mannered child, at least for Naruto's son. She hasn't ever had a full conversation with him, just seeing him in passing, either running outside or nose deep in a Nintendo DS.

"Sorry, he heard you were out here and dashed." Sakura is standing in the doorway, looking awkwardly between Naruto and Hinata, trying to have some precedence of nonchalance.

The only thing keeping Hinata from feeling like she's fallen straight back into high school is the kindergartener who is still attached to his father.

"That's fine." Naruto replies without looking up at his ex-wife. "He's just excited about DAD'S HOUSE!"

Hinata flinches away from the yell, but gives a soft smile when the little blonde giggles. "Yeah, Dad's house!"

"That is so weak Shina. We gotta work on that enthusiasm. Believe it."

Sakura groans, but clearly used to this display. "Hinata," She smiles, acting like she's just now noticed the other woman standing directly next to ex-husband.

Wearing his jacket.

"The website looks amazing." Sakura smiles.

"Thank you."

Hinata takes this opportunity to shrug Naruto's coat off and rejoin the party inside.

Kiba is gone. Shino and Kurenai both apologize in his behalf but Hinata cuts them off, bulldozing her own apologies over their own.

"I shouldn't have reacted like that." She cuts off any further discussion about it.