A/N: Here's longer chapter for you guys. We've gotten off to a rather slow start, but I hope you like this one better. Thank you very much to kisskissfallinlove92, Breezy2319, wolf-enzeru, Little lily, 00-night-eyes-00, Robotchick1 (Thank you, I do my best!), and Rosebunse!
Ai miei lettori italiani, mandatemi un messaggio! Vorrei praticare il mio italiano con voi... Possiamo parlare dell'anime! :)
Disclaimer: Naruto not mine.
"Hinata-chan, you really didn't need to stay here while Kumiko is asleep." Yuuhi Kurenai sat perched on the windowsill of her apartment, watching Hinata scrubbing furiously on one leg of her center table.
"Kurenai-sensei!" Hinata straightened up from her cleaning and bowed low. "Welcome home." The moonlight backlit her charcoal hair, and not for the first time, Hinata marveled at how beautiful her sensei was.
Kurenai entered her apartment through the window. "It's good to be back home, but it also felt good to be out on missions again." She looked around. "And you certainly didn't need to clean up! But thank you, Hinata-chan, I appreciate it."
"It was no trouble at all, sensei. I didn't have anything else to do, anyway."
Her former sensei looked at her sharply. "Nothing else to do? And how are things going with Sasuke?"
Hinata blushed. "I... Well... We haven't seen each other for a week." She looked away from her sensei's penetrating gaze. She heard Kurenai sigh and flop down on the sofa.
"Sit," Kurenai said, and she did. "Now, Hinata-chan, I distinctly remember three days ago that you promised you would take the time to know him while I was away on my mission."
Her blush deepened. Hinata knew that it would be useless to use Kumiko as an excuse since Kurenai only needed her to check in once in a while to see if the apartment was still standing. At seven years old, Kumiko was already self-sufficient enough to prepare her own meals and put herself to sleep while her mother fulfilled her duties as jounin. "I didn't do it," she mumbled. "Besides, I already told him that I wouldn't get in his way."
"So you're still following your routine as though you're still unmarried," Kurenai concluded.
"Yes," Hinata said with a trace of defiance. Her white eyes met her sensei's red ones. "Kurenai-sensei, I don't want this." Her lower lip trembled. "You know I don't want this." She willed herself not to cry. "I'm sure he doesn't either. He didn't decline when I told him I wouldn't be in his way. I didn't leave the Hyuuga compound only to be forced back into another one."
Kurenai put an arm around her. "Hinata-chan, whether you wanted it or not, and whether it's fair or unfair, you're already in this marriage. I know you're unwilling to let go of your lifestyle because you worked very hard to become who you are right now, and it wasn't easy. I'm proud of you, Hinata-chan. You're strong, and I know you have it in you to make the best of a good situation. But right now, what your marriage needs is an honest effort." She patted Hinata's arm. "And if Sasuke makes it difficult for you, you can always kick his ass. It'll be good training."
Hinata, who had been silently weeping, laughed at the last part. She wiped her hands on her sleeve and stood up. "You're right, Kurenai-sensei. And it's not like me to give up already. Thank you for your words." She took her leave and returned to her room in the Uchiha compound.
She had taken up residence in one of the rooms in the unused wing of the compound. She would time her returns to the compound in the middle of the day while Sasuke was still out training so as to clean her room and the whole wing, and then cook dinner. She would then leave for Kurenai's apartment and welcome Kumiko home from school.
She felt guilty when she recalled the question Shino had asked during training. "You're not hiding from Sasuke, are you?" She had been taken aback at the question that her guard had slipped and his kikaichu were able to get ahold of her.
I'm sorry, Sasuke, she thought, tucking the covers under her chin. I'll do better from now on.
Hinata rose at five in the morning as she usually did and was showered and dressed in ten minutes. On her way to the kitchen, she considered writing Sasuke a note with his breakfast. What would she write, though? Something casual, maybe. Not too heavy. Not too apologetic either.
She turned on the light, and suddenly - "aah!" There was no need for any casual, non-apologetic note because Sasuke was there, in the flesh, sleeping with his head on the kitchen table.
He raised his head at the sound, suddenly alert. "What time is it?"
Her heart was beating fast. She felt like she had been ambushed, but that was absurd, because this was Sasuke's house and he had a right to sleep anywhere he wanted. She tried to calm herself down. Nothing's happened yet, Hinata. He won't attack you. "F-five-fifteen, Sasuke." She went further in and started taking out a chopping board and onions and garlic, beginning her preparations for breakfast. She hoped the ritual actions would soothe her, as well as having her back to him. "Why... Why are you sleeping here?" She chanced to look at him.
"I haven't seen my wife for a week," he said, looking straight at her.
Last night's guilt came back, doubled, which caused her to flush. "A-ano... About that, I-I... I'm..."
"What's for breakfast?" He cut in, like she wasn't reduced to a stammering, nervous wreck.
"O-oyakodon," she answered, trying to match his nonchalance. She looked up to see him suddenly standing beside her, leaning against the counter. "I'm sorry if the meals I -"
"You haven't done anything yet, so stop apologizing," he said, irritation lacing his voice.
Hinata could feel the familiar feeling of a hand gripping her throat, as was the case during her childhood, when her stuttering was more pronounced. She deliberately slowed chopping the onions, and timed her breath with each slow stroke. Her nervousness dissipated somewhat. "I just wanted to say that, well, you should tell me if... If there is any of my cooking that you, um, don't like. I don't have the experience - ah, I mean, I have rarely cooked for anyone else - just my team, you know Shino-kun and Kiba-kun - and I don't know... I am, uh, not familiar with your-with your palate."
"Hn," was all he said.
He didn't show annoyance, which she took for a good sign. An honest effort. She plowed on, "Like me... I, well... I like things a little bit sweet, so I might add, put in, more, um, brown sugar than you'd like, especially for the sauces." She was gaining confidence from familiar conversational topics. "Shino-kun likes light - light meat, light... meals, like, uh, vegetables and fish and chicken. Kiba-kun, though, he likes those... uh, big juicy grilled steaks. Sometimes he gives Akamaru - Kiba-kun's, um, friend, some after missions. So when they used to come over... I had... I had, um, a heck of a time deciding what to cook." She was rolling chicken in panko now, and heating the saucepan in preparation for frying.
"So what do you cook for them?" He asked, and she could have collapsed from the relief that this was turning out to be a normal conversation.
The chicken made a healthy sizzle upon contact with the oil, and she leaned back to avoid the spitting. "Well," she turned to him with a smile, "I'd cook whatever I want."
She was rewarded with a twitch of the lips that could have been a smile. "Anything else to do here?"
"Oh, the rice!" She exclaimed. "If it's a-all right with you, make some rice for us, please."
"You want me to cook the rice," he repeated. She turned in time to see him look around the kitchen with almost a bewildered air.
She stifled a laugh and said, "Sasuke, the rice is in the lower cupboard here," she indicated with a foot.
The next surprise came when he held out the whole twenty-kilogram sack of rice to her. "I don't know how."
"You can put the whole sack back in," she said, smiling. "We only need two cups." She handed him a cup and a pot. He followed her instructions quickly and meticulously, and after a few moments, they were standing in companionable silence, waiting for the rice to boil. When it was done, she filled two bowls with rice and topped them with chicken and eggs. She poured tea in two small mugs. Sasuke wordlessly took the hot bowls from her and placed them on the table, and she smiled at him in gratitude. He went back to wash two tomatoes from the cupboard.
To her surprise, he bit on one raw. Noticing her stare, he held out the unbitten one to her, but she could only shake her head. So that's why he has so many tomatoes, she thought, nodding thoughtfully to herself as realization dawned.
They were silent except for the clink of chopsticks. In the name of making an honest effort, she cast her mind about for a suitable topic of conversation. Nothing came to mind, however, so she kept on eating.
"I'm going to see if there are any missions available today," he was the first to break the silence. Her head shot up. Now that they were both jounin, they would be assigned A-class or B-class missions, which could take anywhere from a minimum of three days to a week, or maybe even a month.
What is a wife supposed to say? Come back, honey? I love you? It didn't feel right to her, saying these things, so she simply nodded.