OPrincess ShinigamiO here!

I'M BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACK!

... for now. :(

Sorry for the late update! I've been really busy this school term, and it just sapped me off my fanfiction-writing mood. Not to mention, the recent Naruto chapters haven't been helping as well. Fortunately, I recently found the time to write a new chapter, and as you all know what'll happen in this chapter... ;) also, you'll find out a few more tidbits about the past.

Also, I'd like to thank the reviewers and the followers who never lost faith in this story! Hope this satisfies your SasuHina feels for awhile (^_^) Please don't give up on us!

New Trivia:

1. The current Hinata usually has her bangs pinned up her hair in a pink hairband, and her hair's either tied up in a ponytail or a braid. It makes her job easier. She works as a gardener in the Hachi Village's greenhouse, where most plants are used for healing or sold to flower shops. It's not much, but she's happy with her job. While Neji's job as a carpenter and sometimes self-defense teacher for kids and the village chief's bodyguards helps with the income, she doesn't like depending on others even if it's her own cousin. In her free time, she does her house chores and tends to her own little garden.

2. Haru, the little rich fat kid who bullies Yume, secretly treats her that way because he has a crush on her. (Isn't that cute?) It's not a rare occurrence that this happens, even to older people. Haru's just a misunderstood kid who bullies the other kids because that's how he expresses his loneliness at home. His parents are rich (at least in the Land of Honey, they export honey.), therefore he's usually alone at home with only his maids to play with. He's also forced by his father to take Neji's self-defense classes, and is surprisingly quite good at it.

That's it for now! On with the show then! :D

Masayume

...

6th Stop

...

The Encounter Pt. 1

...

Lavender-white eyes suddenly snapped open, blinking rapidly after the sudden bright light painfully pierced her vision.

Her head was still in circles as she groggily got up from her lying position. Her arms were shaky and unstable which effectively could not take her weight and crashed her back down to the soft covers of her bed.

Tired, the heiress rested her arm over her closed eyes. Thank goodness that her beloved warm mattress cushioned her hard fall.

Wait.

What?

Snapping her eyes wide, she pulled herself up and winced as she felt an unusual pain on the right under her chest.

Confused, she remembered clearly that her period for the month was already over.

That was when she looked down and realized that she was almost stark naked save for her sports bra and underwear covering her private parts.

"N-no… n-n-no!" she panicked as several ideas quickly ran into her head of what might've happened while she was unconscious.

A flash of malicious, sinister white eyes flicked into her vision.

"NO! NO! NOT AGAIN!" she screamed, thrashing and kicking all over her now undone bed and ignoring the pain on her rib until she inevitably fell on the hard wooden floor.

The shoji door of her room slammed open. Several pairs of footsteps quickly headed towards the distraught Hyuuga.

"Hinata-sama! Hinata-sama!" an older servant woman knelt towards Hinata while a pair of younger servants stood behind her with their hands on their lips. Hinata swatted away the older woman's hands from her face.

"No! D-Don't touch me!" she wailed, ignoring the salty taste of her tears caught on her blubbering lips.

"Calm down, Hinata-sama! Please!" One of the servant girls pleaded as they tried to console their heiress.

"Nee-san?"

Hanabi appeared at the door and right after seeing her older sister immediately dashed to her side and shakily wrapped her arms around her.

"H-Hanabi?"

"Sshhh sshhh. It's alright. Nothing happened, Nee-san." Her sister whispered as she gently stroked Hinata's disheveled hair, slowly calming her down to soft sobs. "You're safe."

"What's going on here?" A deep commanding voice boomed in the room.

"Hiashi-sama!"

"Father!"

The stern leader furrowed his eyebrows as he saw his two daughters huddled together beside the disarrayed bed. His older daughter, Hinata, was shaking and sobbing in her younger sister's arms as if she didn't notice his entrance.

Marching towards the pair, the older Hyuuga dismissed the servants who bowed their heads and shuffled outside the bedroom with a grim expression glued on their faces.

"Hinata."

Slowly, she lifted her head, refusing to look straight to her father's eyes in shame of her outburst.

"… I-I'm sorry."

Hiashi's frown deepened. His daughter had apparently not forgotten of what had happened a year ago. Not that he could blame her. Anyone experiencing that kind of trauma would of course be extremely distressed when seeing traces of it.

His daughter, no matter how stronger she had gotten, was no exception.

Slowly, he knelt down beside her, held out his arm and with a light awkward cough, rested his hand on her bare shoulder.

"Nothing has been done to you." He said.

Her eyes finally looked up to his. Slowly, she turned her head around and studied her surroundings.

"… What happened? Why am I here in my room?"

Last time she remembered, she was on her way to her usual private training place. And then, there was smoke and she saw lightning and then Sasuke-

"Sasuke-kun!" she suddenly exclaimed before wincing as she felt pain again.

Hiashi grimaced.

"The Uchiha brought you back here… in a not very fit state. He said that both of you apparently had a very… intense training session until you tired out and fainted."

"He said that he, and I quote, "accidentally" grazed you on your right rib." Hanabi added, her eyes closely examining her sister's appearance with disapproval. "Not to mention, he wasn't very gentle with you all around either."

True to her word, Hinata's body was covered with small wounds and black and blue bruises. And aside from the pain of the wound on her rib, she could feel the ache all over her body as soon as her numbness fell away and she became fully conscious of her own appearance.

"I-I see…" she mumbled as she stared at the bruises and scrapes on her arms. Now she felt even more embarrassed.

Not only did she lose the battle AND her favorite spot in a very shameful manner, but her recent outburst made it look like the Uchiha had done something so immoral to her.

Oh, how will she ever be able to face Sasuke again?

"Hinata."

The young heiress looked up to see her father's hard expression.

"I don't want to see that Uchiha in my grounds again. In your current level of strength, it is not wise to try to face that derisive brat. The Hokage may have allowed him back in Konoha just because he is her successor's friend. But that does not mean that I approve letting that traitor come back and walk among us when any time he could just be plotting on burning the whole village down."

Hinata bowed her head down, knowing exactly what her Father's telling her.

She's forbidden to see or talk with Sasuke Uchiha for good.

Not that it saddened her too much about not meeting him. They weren't actually close after all, maybe not even to the level of friends even. Not to mention, she wouldn't be too happy to see him either after she sees her ruined training grounds.

It just made her remorseful that her Father only sees the Uchiha as a threat to his clan, just like the rest of the villagers.

Most especially since she never mentioned that she owed him her life several months ago.

She nodded her head. "Yes, Father."

Sighing, the Hyuuga leader stood up and turned towards the door.

"Dinner will be in awhile. I expect you to put yourself together and look presentable when you make your arrival." He looked at his other daughter and frowned as his eyes scanned her dirty clothes and slightly disheveled hair. "Both of you."

Hanabi blushed after realizing that she had forgotten to change out of her training attire after hearing Hinata's screams.

Unwrapping her arms around Hinata, she stood up and pulled her sister up, supporting her as Hinata shakily made use of her weakened legs.

"Father's been in a really bad meeting with the elders earlier, so don't mind him being all high and mighty on you again."

Hinata managed a small humored smile.

"I know."

The heiress plopped down on her bed, flinching slightly as she saw the large cut on her right rib. It was a wonder she hadn't noticed the wound before realizing that she was almost naked in bed.

"He's dead, Nee-san."

Hanabi placed a hand on her shoulder, her eyebrows furrowing in worry. "Remember? Father and Neji-nii took care of him already. He's never coming back, ever."

Hinata closed her eyes, forcing the images out of her mind. "I know."

Hanabi sighed, retracting her hand and placing it on her hip before allowing herself a smile.

"Then if you know that, you better get a move on. Father's not in his best moods right now, although in his standards, I could've sworn that he almost melted when he saw you in that awful state. I could already imagine Neji-nii's face if he comes home early and sees you like this. He'll pulverize Sasuke for sure."

Hinata giggled lightly, resting a hand on her chest.

"Thank you, Hanabi."

Speaking of which, she still has to apologize to the Uchiha despite her father telling her not to meet him. Even if he was rude and merciless towards her, she still didn't want to feel like a burden to him. That means she'll have to hide her pain the best she can behind Neji's back and as much as possible not let him know that it was Sasuke's doing that led her to much bruises and wounds.

That is, if her father, the elders, or the servants had already not informed him.

She sighed. Right.

If the elders were informed of this, there would be no doubt that they'd file a complaint towards Sasuke.

"Worried that Father might tell them?"

Hinata raised a surprised eyebrow at her intuitive younger sister.

"H-How did you know?"

Hanabi shrugged.

"Well, you're doing that face again. The 'Even-though-it's-not-my-fault-I'm-still-the-guilt y-one' kind of expression. Oh please!" She flipped her hand. "Believe me, I've seen that face all the time whenever Father caught me bullying you. And don't you dare tell anyone, but sometimes those looks actually did make me feel kinda guilty especially when Father yells at you."

Hinata muffled a laugh.

In the past, she and Hanabi were never really close. And with their father favoring Hanabi more than Hinata, the former would never let her older sister forget that she was in a higher place than her, which in sometime Hanabi admitted was because she felt threatened by her.

Even when Neji and even their father began accepting her, she still remained stubborn to her pride.

But after Hinata became Chuunin and after hearing the news about almost losing Hinata to Pain, their whole relationship changed, and step by step they began repairing the sisterly bond they should've had.

Eventually, the younger Hyuuga became quite bold and open towards Hinata, and all the bullying was demoted to light teasing.

It was a relief for Hinata to know that the hard shell that was her sister back then had cracked open and allowed her to enter in her life.

She'd never been happier since.

Snapped fingers spurred her out of her reverie.

"Oi, Nee-san! I just told you to hurry up and fix yourself! That is, unless you need my help. Or maybe the servants?"

"No thank you, Hanabi. I can do it myself." Hinata waved a hand, but winced as she felt an ache on her arm. Hanabi looked unconvinced.

"You sure about that? Coz you don't look that fine with me."

"Of course I'm fine. The pain will go away eventually."

Still, knowing Sasuke's insane strength, it was a miracle that Hinata's still in one piece even though he obviously held back.

"W~ell, if you're sure then."

Hanabi pointed on the table drawers near her bed.

"The ointments and pills are in the first drawer, bandages on the second. I think the servants already prepared the bath for you in the second bathroom, so you'd better hurry before the water turns cold."

Hinata thanked her sister again before the latter turned and hurried to clean up on her own.

Left alone, the heiress sighed, plopping her back against the disarrayed cushions.

She'll have to convince her father to not do anything to Sasuke before any of the elders or Neji finds out. She'll have to hurry and see him before dinnertime then.

Slowly pushing herself up as painless as her bruises would allow, she stood up and walked to her closet. Opening the knobs and taking the hanger with her usual purple attire, her eyes wandered to the white shirt hung on the very edge of the line.

After all this time, she still had forgotten to return his shirt to him.

Then again, whenever they meet she usually wouldn't think of bringing it at those times.

Her fingers brushed against the dried brown sides of the shirt's sleeve.

"Tomorrow." She whispered to herself. "I'll return this to Sasuke-kun tomorrow."

"And then, I'll try not to speak to him again, as much as possible."

…

"Of course, that didn't go too well."

Hinata laughed halfheartedly as she washed the soapsuds off her hands, before dropping her lips into a sad frown after giving up distracting herself.

Truthfully, she was extremely worried about her daughter, who still until now was missing ever since the party. She said that she was only going to hang her wish on Hachi's Wishing Oak, and when Hinata refused for her to go without a guide, Yume slyly slipped away from the crowd pretending to go to the bathroom.

Izumi had assured her that she'd be fine since Hachi Village was not only small but also safe for the last several years.

Still, Hinata felt uncomfortable for letting Yume go on her own, especially since it's nighttime and she's only a young child. A clumsy one.

Hinata wondered when her child began to become brave enough to rebel.

Yume was definitely his daughter.

It's been an hour and a half since Yume's disappearance, so she sent Izumi and her cousin to search for her in the tree's location.

But that was half an hour ago, and yet there was still no news even after the party ended.

Could it be that Yume actually got lost on the way?

The young mother bit her lip frantically, clenching her hands together as she silently prayed for her safety.

Maybe she was just overreacting. Everyone in Hachi Village and even the others in the Land of Honey were genuinely kind people, and if they did find her lost child, there's no doubt that they'd help her get back home.

"Still, you'll never know…"

Shaking her head, she decided to pour herself a cup of hot chamomile tea. It always relaxed her whenever she had her favorite midnight indulgence, especially when she couldn't sleep at night.

She fidgeted as she turned off the stove, which had heated her teapot earlier, before turning to one of her cupboards above the sink and pulled open the knobs.

Several cups sat inside, including a large purple mug painted with yellow daffodils, with a smaller pink mug, decorated with an orange cat on its face and its tail wrapped around the handle, resting beside it.

Hinata picked up the purple mug and was about to pour herself some tea when she suddenly heard some muffled voices outside her house.

"Hina-Mama! I'm home!"

Jumping up at the voice, she quickly spun her head and sighed in relief as she saw her little girl open the entrance door with a giant grin on her face despite her messy overall appearance.

"Yume! Kami, have you any idea of how much I worried about you?!" she exclaimed as she sauntered towards her daughter without realizing that she had forgotten to settle the teapot on the table counter.

The little girl, however, looked far from concerned about the upcoming scolding she was about to receive as she leaped excitedly towards her mother until she was able to hug her lower waist.

"Hina-Mama! Look! Daddy's come back!"

Hinata frowned at her daughter. Her ears perked up as she heard several feet scrambling outside her door porch.

"That's impossible, honey. You don't even know what your father really looks like. That aside, why are you still wearing that eye patch your Aunt Tenten gave you when it's already this late at night? It could've been dangerous!"

"Yume's telling the truth!" she exclaimed, flailing her arms in effect. "Papa really is here! Umi-bro and Papa's friend are carrying him because he's very dizzy and heavy!"

"Yume." Hinata's patience began to waver. "What did I tell you about being dishonest? More importantly, why did you disobey me earlier when I clearly told you not to go alone?"

"Hinata-sama?"

Hinata looked up to see her cousin at the door. Curiously, the loud grunting and muttered curses began to grow louder outside.

It didn't escape her notice that Neji's face had hardened excessively, a little too much like her own father when he's lost an argument against the Hyuuga elders. His white eyes were widened in an unusual mix of emotions incomprehensive to her.

"No, it couldn't really be true right?" she thought to herself.

"Neji-nii, what's this I keep hearing from Yume about this stranger looking like her father-"

"It's Papa, Hina-Mama! You have to believe me!" She impatiently pointed her finger to the open door behind Neji, where finally Izumi and a slightly familiar young man with brown hair and a long scarf entered the household carrying a limping man in their arms. She couldn't see the injured man's features as the two struggling men unintentionally concealed him from her view as they tried making the fumbling man walk straight, the latter muttering incoherent curses in his lips.

"See? Yume told you she's telling the truth!"

Her eyebrows scrunching in worry as she saw a hint of the rips and blood all over his clothes, the former heiress quickly turned away and headed towards the nearest table drawer to collect the headache pills, bandages, and special ointment only to realize that she still held the already lukewarm teapot in her hands.

"Yume dear, why don't you help me get those medicines in that drawer so that I could quickly help the injured man? If you do it quickly, I might lessen your punishment for lying and disobeying me."

"But Hina-Mama, it really is Papa." The little girl pouted, her unconcealed white eye starting to fill with unshed tears.

Hinata sighed as she was about to put the teapot down. She turned to face her daughter.

"Now, Yume. You know I don't like hearing lie-"

She froze. Suddenly, her lavender-white eyes looked straight into his familiar dark orbs.

At that moment, it was as if time stopped as soon as their eyes met once again.

"Hinata-sama?" Neji whispered worriedly at his almost catatonic cousin.

"Hinata?!" the shorter young man blurted out in shock after just realizing who the owner of the house really was, with the confused silver-haired man asking him since when he was suddenly familiar with her.

The staggering Uchiha shrugged off the two men's hold of him and stood unmovingly before her as if studying a piece of abstract art.

To everyone's surprise, he let out a humorless chuckle before smirking at the frozen Hyuuga woman before him.

As soon as he saw her, his head began pounding painfully hard again. Visions of the mystery woman in his dreams kept flashing back and forth as he observed the similar corporeal woman closely.

Flashes of purple.

The familiar scent of flowers.

Pale white skin.

Long dark blue hair.

Clear lavender-white eyes.

Her kind, genuine smile as his name formed in her pink lips.

Then it hit him.

Oh, so it was her.

"I… f-finally… found y-you…"

Losing his balance, he stumbled and fell face flat to the ground, much to everyone's shock and disbelief. This time, he was unconscious for real.

A ceramic teapot crashed on the wooden floor.

"Papa!"

"Sasuke! You idiot!"

"Sasuke-kun!"

Everyone scrambled towards the sleeping Uchiha in a flash. Hinata quickly sped to his side, gently nudging the others away and immediately turning his heavy body over till his bruised and bloodied face was facing the ceiling.

"Yume, honey. Please fetch the bandages. Izumi-kun, could you get the medicine, a towel and some water in a basin please? You know where they are."

"Yes, Hina-Mama! Yume will help save Papa!"

Yume quickly stood and went to do her duties.

Izumi's eyes zoomed back and forth between Hinata and the not-so-stranger with unusual curiosity. But he nodded and also quickly went to obey her instructions.

Strangely, she could smell a very strong stench as he breathed in and out in his sleep.

"… W-Was he drinking a-alcohol?" she muttered as she wiped the burning sweat from his forehead.

Konohamaru yelped slightly and turned his head away in embarrassment, which thankfully went unnoticed to the others.

Almost.

"Konohamaru."

The young Sarutobi winced at the older Hyuuga's rigid tone. Everyone turned and directed their attention to him.

"I-I-It was an accident! Really! I-I didn't know that I gave that to him!" he tried to explain. His eyes pleaded towards Hinata to save him from her scary cousin.

Her eyebrows knitted into a small puzzled frown as she brought her attention back to the unconscious Uchiha.

It was strange. Although he wasn't much of a drinker, she knew for a fact that Sasuke could tolerate strong alcohol.

"What's done is done." She said. "Calm down, Neji-nii. We'll talk all about it in the morning. Right now, we need to let Sasuke rest-"

The Uchiha suddenly moaned and began muttering curses again about murdering a damn crazy swordsman and an idiot miniature Naruto, to that the shivering Konohamaru reacted with dread.

"- in an appropriate area." She finished.

…

As soon as Sasuke was transferred onto a futon Neji took out in the living room and Yume and Izumi brought the things Hinata asked for, she began to work on cleaning and bandaging the sleeping Uchiha.

Konohamaru had been offered a place to rest in Izumi's place. Neji has escorted Yume to her room for her to wash, change to her PJs and go to sleep, much to her dismay.

The Sarutobi had explained that the alcohol came from Suigetsu, who was very fond of creating pranks for Sasuke. Initially, the latter did find out about his scheme and threw the sabotaged bottle away, but Konohamaru decided to keep it for the sake of making his own prank on Naruto back at home.

Everything was going well until they found a hideout of the rogues that attacked the Fire Daimyou, and they were soon ambushed. The enemies were experts in illusions, most especially camouflaging, which should've worked in Sasuke's favor.

Unfortunately, they were quick in both thinking and speed, and even though they were still not up to Sasuke's level, some of them were bright enough to escape Sasuke and use his illusions to their favor.

In order not to strain his sharingan any further, Sasuke had used up his own water to create a diversion for his lightning to strike the invisible enemies left behind who've touched the wet ground, attracting the lightning towards them.

After quickly eliminating the remaining enemies, Konohamaru in a rare act of kindness towards him offered the exhausted Uchiha his own bottle of water.

Unfortunately due to their similar containers, it turned out that he mistakenly gave him the wrong bottle, and with his worn out partner not knowing that he had picked up Suigetsu's bottle after throwing it away, he didn't bother to check the contents and heartily drank half of it down.

It turns out that Suigetsu's bottle was filled with something he stole from the Konoha's experimenting laboratory; a special liquid tasteless as water but twice as powerful as alcohol that could only be tracked down by poison experts through its very mild scent, developed by poisoning experts to painlessly disarm enemies to the same effects of alcohol, and eventually to sleep.

It was apparently effective on Sasuke, as he had suddenly begun cackling like a madman. His past goals grew back to his mindset and he began running around swinging his Kusanagi like a baton and swearing to the trees and the dead bodies around them that he will burn Konoha down, even setting some of them on fire with his Mangekyou Sharingan.

Eventually Konohamaru lost track of him and searched for him the whole night until he found him collapsed on the ground with a little girl with an eyepatch poking him with a toy sword. That's when Izumi found them and brought him to Hinata's home through Yume's stubborn insistence.

They met Neji on the doorstep, with the Hyuuga ultimately shocked and horrified at the surprise presence of the very person who was the very reason for Hinata's abdication from Konoha.

Immediately, the Hyuuga began scolding both Yume and Izumi for taking a "dangerous, unstable-looking stranger" to Hinata's house until Konohamaru recognized him and begged him to help him recover.

The angry Hyuuga would not have allowed them to if it weren't for Yume using her puppy-dog eyes on him and threatening to forever disregard Neji as her favorite uncle. Sullen, the doting uncle tentatively gave in, but made Konohamaru promise that by the next day they would leave this village and not say a word to anyone about their whereabouts, as well as to Sasuke when he becomes sober.

Finishing her treatments, Hinata placed a wet towel on Sasuke's forehead, before hesitating in gently brushing back some of the fine hair from his cheek.

His face wasn't peaceful at all. His eyebrows were scrunched up angrily, and his pale, cracked lips kept making little movements here and there as if talking in his sleep. But at least he finally calmed down enough to keep quiet and not move around.

At that moment, so many questions and emotions filled her head.

All the memories they had together six years ago, the good and bad, they all came back to her like a movie in fast forward mode.

The first time she and Sasuke hung out normally in Ichiraku, the hard punch Naruto gave him when he thought that he hurt her which the action was reciprocated a few minutes later, him standing up to her father, the first kiss he stole from her during training together, the sounds of thunder, pouring rain, and the crashing waters when they first made love…

"Hinata-sama?"

Breaking out of her memories, she looked up to see her cousin give a stony expression at the Uchiha.

"We have to move him to the healing house. He can't stay here, lest he'll recognize you and maybe even Yume-sama." He said.

Hinata lowered her head as she rested her eyes on his sleeping figure.

"It might not be wise to move him now that he's stable. I don't want him to get hurt any further. But you're right." She clenched her hands together. "I… I'm not ready to face him just yet. It's j-just not the right time for me, and especially with Yume-"

"Don't you think it's time for Yume-sama to know her father, Hinata-sama?"

Hinata snapped her head up, surprised that it was Neji who was questioning her that.

"… I-I thought that you don't like-"

"I'm most especially not fond of… him." Neji grimaced. "… But this also concerns Yume-sama's well-being. We both know how much she wishes to see her father, and with her fully believing that he is really her father without even knowing that she's on the right track, how will we be able to convince her that he is not? More importantly, what if Sasuke actually recognizes her and tries taking her from you? How will you explain all that to Yume, who is no more than a child?"

The young mother bit her lip, almost to the point of bleeding. She gently pulled on the tail of her braid, unsure on what to do and say.

After Tenten's appearance, she realized that their existence would be found out soon enough. But for Sasuke to personally appear before her and their daughter so soon, it was just too much to take in.

Hesitant, she refrained herself from taking the Uchiha's scarred hand in comfort, like she always did in the past.

"I… don't know." She whispered. "I don't know what will happen from this moment onwards. But as much as possible," she clenched her fists. "I want to protect my daughter. Knowing Sasuke-kun and his temper, he will definitely not take it well when he finds out about Yume. He might take her away from me, by force if he wills it. I cannot let that happen."

Slowly, she stood up from her sitting position and turned away from Sasuke's lying figure. Determined, she gave a steely look at her waiting cousin.

"Tell Izumi-kun and Konohamaru-kun to come by early tomorrow to take him and bring him to Hachi Village's healing center. And if possible, please inform Tenten-san as well. We cannot risk letting Sasuke-kun know about Yume. It'll hurt her, but I just can't take any chances. It'll be dangerous if more people find out about her. "

"Tomorrow, he has to leave this place."

…

See you all next chapter! I'll try to be quicker this time, though I still can't promise that because my schoolwork's load is about to get heavier. :(

Leave some reviews if you can! A real meeting's about to start next chapter! ;)