Thank you YukiKitsune95 for the story follow and cathyscloud9 I appreciate the review and I'm glad that you can see this may become an interesting story. I just hope that I can keep it Enjoy this chapter y'all. :)

Thirty minutes. Thirty minutes we have been sitting at this corner booth in the hibachi restaurant. It figures that there was some type of celebration for a missions success too, the place was packed and all of our 'friends'- face it, Naruto is my only real friend- are in booths on the other side of the place staring at us. Hinata hasn't looked up from the menu once; that's right, we still haven't ordered. The dumb waitress looked at us and ran away blushing, stupid fangirl.

"Maybe we should go somewhere else…" Her face reddened as she spoke, but she still wouldn't look up. It was getting on my nerves.

"Hinata."

"Y-yes?"

"Look at me." Her face turned yet another shade of pink but she did as was told and looked up at me. "Is there anything wrong with this place?"

"No…It's just…"

I sighed, "We are staying here, I don't care that we are being watched and scrutinized, it was bound to happen anyway." She nodded her head and shut her menu, this time she kept eye contact. "I assume you are ready to order since you did that?"

"I've been ready for twenty minutes." I nodded my head and raised my hand. The waitress looked reluctant to come over and I rolled my eyes in annoyance. I may have imagined it, but I think Hinata stiffened a giggle at that, it annoyed me but at the same time I saw it as some sort of progress. She better not do it again though, nobody laughs at the Uchiha.

"Hello, can I help you?"

"We're ready to order and have been for twenty-three minutes."

"Ok, sorry for the wait. What would you like Uchiha sir?" Heh, that was new. I decided to play around a little and raised my voice for our friends to hear, "My girlfriend will order first." I turned away from the waitress' blank face to the crazy expressions coming from our usual groups' table, had I been anyone else I maybe would have laughed. Naruto's jaw was on the ground, literally as Sakura hit him for saying something obnoxious to what I said. I felt anger like waves coming off of Hinata's team mates, Ino was banging her head against the table while Choji choked on a piece of pork. Shikamaru was still taking a nap, lazy ass. Ten Ten and Lee were whispering in each other's ears and Neji just calmly took a sip of his drink, he didn't look surprised though. She must have told him. Finally I looked at her, Hinata was the reddest that I had ever seen her, but she had a slight smile. I didn't understand why. There was nothing to smile about, she was strange.

The sound of the waitress' voice brought me from my thoughts on the girl. "Yes, sorry. What would you like Miss Hyuga?"

I watched as she took a deep breath and passed the menu to the waitress while she spoke, "Pork and shrimp with rice. Keep the veggies." Veggies? Really? How old were we?

"I see, and you Uchiha sir?" Heh, she's still nervous, she should be.

I didn't look from Hinata there was no need to as this waitress was obviously not worth my time in the first place. Instead, I continued to look at Hinata and continue wondering why she would smile. "The same."

From my peripheral vision, I saw her bow before walking off. A few minutes passed and I never looked away from Hinata, she began to fidget under my scrutiny but she continued to look back at me. To some it might look like we were already in love, as if I would waste my time on such an emotion. But in reality, we were trying to figure the other out. We knew virtually nothing about the other besides heritage.

"Why did you smile?"

I watched as she frowned. "What are you talking about?"

I tried hard not to roll my eyes in annoyance as I elaborated, "I called you my girlfriend, you smiled. Why?"

The waitress arrived with our food and we began to eat. She looked thoughtful for a moment, then sad but then her expression was blank. "I enjoyed seeing our friends flip out over it and I liked how you just said it like it was no big deal. It tells me that you really are going to try in this and it stops me from answering two million questions from them later on; now it will only be around a million." She gave a small laugh at her little joke; I tried to give a small smile back but imagined that it was more of a grimace. She didn't seem to notice though.

"I have a question for you as well."

"Yeah? What is it?"

"Just last night you told me that we were acquaintances, but just now you said we were together."

"That is a statement, not a question."

"It's just…Which is it? You only confused me more."

"Both. Technically to the public we are together, but in reality, we are acquaintances." She nodded her head in agreement and just like that we began to talk about our team mates and training regimens. We talked about sparing some time but never set a time out. "I would like to see how my byakugan would fair against your sharingan. The abilities of both are so different, and if we do end up getting married like we're supposed to…Well, I think it would be nice to know the other's abilities, in case something were to happen."

I simply nodded my head while I took another sip of my sake; I had nothing to actually say to her little comment. She assumed if anything happened to us I would need her help. It is she that would need mine, and I could fix anything with her never needing to lift a finger. Well, assuming that I cared enough to save her.

I came out of my trance when she began to pull out money for the bill, my little girlfriend comment made the waitress put us on the same tab, annoying. I knew it was customary for the man to pay so I pulled out the money and handed hers back to her. She didn't argue which earned her points, but she did smile which showed appreciation and annoyed me. She lost those earned points.

After payment was received we walked out of the restaurant, I was in front and she followed. Suddenly the place got quiet like they were waiting for something; I ignored it and walked out the door. I probably should have held it for her, mother would have told me to, but I didn't.

I'm an ass, I know that, but she needs to know. Otherwise this whole thing won't work. And I don't need her thinking that I'll change for her and all that other dumb crap women think men will do. I come as I am, I am Sasuke Uchiha, and she will know it.

Hinata POV

Dinner was alright, I mean the food was great but I didn't very much enjoy being scrutinized during the whole meal. Everyone that we grew up with was there celebrating something…And they all just stared at me until Sasuke spoke up to the waitress and said that I was his girlfriend. I wasn't at all prepared for that, I knew it was kind of true, but still. Part of me wish he would have talked about it with me before he just announced it like it was common knowledge, but the other part of me is glad that he did it. It made for fewer questions to be answered later on when my friends decide to harass me.

I tried to pay for the bill, but Sasuke surprised me by pulling out his own wallet and giving me back my money, it was a very nice and unsuspected surprise. I kept thinking about it and remembered that he had bought my groceries for me earlier today, perhaps he just likes to pay for things? I continued to think while I was following him out the door, he didn't hold it and I nearly ran into it…I should have known he wouldn't hold it.

We walked down the street in silence. I was by his side but at the same time kind of behind him. He never looked back.

Before long I noticed that we stopped in front of my secret spot, though it's not so secret anymore since he found me here yesterday. "We're going to climb up the tree and watch as the moon rises."

His wording was still odd to me, this was not a moon rising but a sun setting. I decided to just nod and follow him up the tree and to the same branch we sat on last night. This time I made sure not to sit so close. I think both of us liked it better this.

We sat there in complete silence. I watched as the sun set and he watched as the moon rose. I have no clue as to how long we sat there. Time wasn't really something that mattered at this moment. Then I saw him stand.

"I have a mission tomorrow that I need to prepare for." I nodded my head and stood up as well.

"I see, when will you be returning?"

He shrugged. "No clue, it should be a simple mission though. I didn't see any reason to read the details." I nodded my head and he continued, "I'll be gone before the village wakes, you will know when I am back." He jumped off the branch and I watched as he landed on the ground flawlessly. "Hinata, do not tell that we are arranged or even getting married. I don't care what story you come up with, but leave it at the status I gave them tonight at dinner." I nodded my head once again and watched as he ran out of the small clearing towards the village.

He hates that this is arranged as much as I do, if not more. I appreciate silence and alone time, just like he does but for different reasons. I decided that I will honor his wishes and not tell a single soul that sad truth of our fates, besides Neji. After all, Neji already knows part of the story if not all of it, and Sasuke's wishes happen to coincide with mine. I smiled, it was sad of this I am sure. But a small piece of myself was happy.