Chapter 7
(Intensity, part 2)
Gaara avoided her for the rest of the day, refusing to tell anyone why that might be. Temari, as usual, attended Hinata when Gaara was unable, and their afternoon had been riddled with a mix of paperwork. D-rank mission assignments were doled out by the fist full. Hinata was now beginning to learn the names of the young graduates, and could remember a great deal of them now. Their jonin superiors were mostly men, but there was one woman who stood out. She was older, commanding a huge squad of six girls.
"Why does she have so many?" Hinata asked Temari, honestly confused. "Three students to a team is the usual, correct?"
Three of them were older genin, around Hinata's age, and three of them were young…very young. Temari considered this as she gave Hinata a shrug. "Those girls are special cases. Young academy graduates, great potential." At this, she handed Hinata the team file. "Maybe, too great. I didn't want to put them with a man because of how young they were. I felt like, they still needed a woman around. They're at a hard age to be genin."
"An eight year old!?" Hinata couldn't believe it. The youngest girl was just a child. Well and truly, just a child. She should be at home, with her family. "Temari, she's too young."
"That one's no slouch, damn kid freaks me out. She killed her mother's assailant at seven." Temari said darkly, remembering the incident. "Single mothers are often subject to biases. People here view women as lesser beings, especially the civilian ones." Temari shook her head. "Anyway, her father had been a noble chunin, killed in the line of duty. He'd been training the girl. An academy student with that kind of skill, it's unheard of. We graduated her immediately."
The other two were young as well. Two ten year olds. Hinata took a breath. "I think I need to rest a bit."
The elder sand sibling nodded. "Come on, I'll take you to your room." As they walked, she thought about how young she was when she began to take missions. It had been an early age too, being the daughter of the Kazekage, it had been a requirement in order to earn respect.
When they got there, Hinata noticed another chakra signature in the room. She knew by now the owner of that pattern. Gaara was in there, she just didn't know why. As they opened the door, it soon became apparent.
"What is it?" Temari asked, Hinata never stopped dead in her tracks like that before.
"He's…sleeping." She walked in slowly, Temari following behind. "Does he do this often?"
Temari rolled her eyes. Gaara was sleeping in the chair Hinata occupied. "He doesn't sleep." Temari reported, knowing that his bed often went unused. He'd nap at his desk, sometimes, but never in the chair by the fire. "He probably passed out again due to exhaustion." Temari didn't bother asking why her brother chose this particular day to sleep in the odd place. "He'll be awake in an hour or so. He never rests long."
"I'm afraid I don't understand." Hinata covered him with a blanket, but he didn't move an inch. "How can he even function like that?"
"It's just the way he is." Temari shrugged. She never really knew why, no one did. As long as Shukaku wasn't running amok, no one really cared. As a result, Gaara's heath wasn't well monitored in his youth. Many of his habits were left alone, untreated. Thinking back on it, the eldest sibling could only pity her little brother. Hinata's white and purple hoodie rested on the chair under his head. The article of clothing was one she only put on at night anymore, and Temari made note of it. "That little shit. Think I he's got your sweater, Hinata."
So he did, but that only left her more confused. "Why would he have that?"
"I have no idea." Temari couldn't even fathom a guess. "Maybe he just likes the smell?"
"Now why on earth would he like the smell of-" Hinata's words died instantly, and a deep blush burned her cheeks. "Oh." She took a step backwards, and then another. "Oh gosh…"
"Uh, are you okay?" Temari asked, not ever having seen Hinata appear so ill at ease, looking as if she might actually faint. She knew the girl had spells, but, she'd never actually seen one. Temari moved quickly, pulling the girl out of the warm bedroom and into the cooler hallway. "Here, let me look at you."
"I-I'm fine." Hinata pulled her chin away from the older girl's hold. "I'm fine…" Her back was still resting against the wall so that she wouldn't fall and hit her head.
"You looked like you were going to keel over." Temari said, highly unimpressed. "I knew you had a weak constitution. I just never figured it'd hit so suddenly."
"I'm just light headed." Hinata said, but in truth, she felt a little queasy too.
Temari's room was next door, and she yanked the girl inside, dragging her to the loveseat that Temari kept in the corner. "It's cooler in here. Do you want a cold cloth?"
"I only need a moment." It was because of her bloodline limit, on top of her shy demeanor. "It's just that my chakra points are larger than yours around my face. My blood vessels are too. When I activate the Byakugan in my eyes, you can see them it clearly. The problem is, if get nervous or flustered, well, I can get lightheaded."
"So that's why your blushes get so deep." Temari clicked her tongue, amused. "But why would you freak out about Gaara sleeping on your sweater?"
Hinata sighed, glancing at Temari. No, she wouldn't know the reason behind that, now would she? Hinata hid her face in her hands. She honestly wished Kiba were here, he'd be able to explain unabashedly. He also had a good sense of smell, thanks to the chakra he collected at his nose. "Animals have a keen sense of smell. Sometimes so do tailed beasts. That gets passed onto the Jinchuriki."
"Yeah…so what?" Temari asked, hands now on her hips. "What's so embarrassing about that?"
"It just is!" Hinata proclaimed, shame in her voice. Even thinking about it gave her embarrassing flashbacks of her youth, when Kiba used to smell the air around them during missions. He'd always act very strangely during particular times of the month, and that normally when Kurenai would scold him for being improper. "Gaara can probably….smell when I'm most fertile."
A dirty little smirk slid across her face. She thought about the perplexed expression her brother had on his face earlier that afternoon. The blush, the annoyed little glare he gave her when she asked if he was okay. His disappearance, and finally, his draw to Hinata's hoodie. Then a laugh bubbled up, and she couldn't contain it, peals of laughter filling the air. "The poor guy." She had to lean one hand on the wall for support. "He probably scared himself shitless."
"P-poor him!?" Hinata flushed red again. "Poor me…"
…
It was late at night when she finally returned to her room, Gaara wide awake and fiddling with a few kunai on his desk. He was changing the tape around the handles by the looks of it. She didn't inquire, and he didn't lift his gaze to her. If he could detect anything, he didn't indicate it. With a breath, Hinata went over to her chair, gathering her book up to read the next chapter.
'The bed." He intoned quietly.
"I'm sorry?" Hinata thought she might have misheard.
"You will utilize it." Gaara said, lifting his eyes from his project. "The bed."
It was a strange conversation to have, considering he never made a fuss before. She always occupied the chair late at night. She'd been sleeping there ever since she arrived. True, her neck sometimes bothered her, but she called that a fair exchange. It wasn't the most comfortable place to be, but she was used to sleeping in trees, and on the hard ground. She was a ninja trained for the field, and as such, she occupied much of her sleeping time away from a warm bed. This too, she considered a mission of sorts.
Figuring Gaara out was no easy task, after all.
"I don't mind, truly." Hinata said slowly. "I enjoy being by the fire."
"It doesn't do." Gaara continued. "If you require, I shall arrange the bed closer."
She wasn't getting out of this tonight, by the looks of it. She swallowed hard. "A moment, please, Gaara."
She gathered her pajamas, and walked into the bathroom. She had yet to see him undress, and he had yet to see her. Hinata planned on keeping it that way for a while longer, her own modesty demanded it. It was only after she got changed and ready for bed that she eyed the reason for Gaara's displeasure once more. That chair, her only safe haven. He didn't want her sleeping there. She withheld a breath, her mind clawing at her to not run fleeing back into Temari's room.
One, she knew the girl wouldn't let her stay there. Two, she didn't want to hear anymore uproarious laughter at her modesty's expense.
"You fear me." His statement was dark. Untrue perhaps, but the implications was there all the same. "You do think me a monster. It is why you distance yourself. Why you cannot condone nearness at length." He would test his theory. Test her words against his firm handedness. His eyes found hers, emotionless in their gaze. The one place that Hinata was beginning to learn of the man, was little more than a void. "Cowardice is advisable, there is no shame in it. You should be so, honestly."
She knew, in spite of his accusations he was nonplused. That she even had to guess at all to his emotions, meant he didn't feel strongly enough to act in any particular way. Sound reasoning and ironclad logic on his behalf would win out. Still what he was saying went against her nature.
It angered her. Infuriation was not an emotion to which she was well accustomed.
Hands balled into fists, she fought hard to keep her chakra out of the equation. As a Hyuga, that was particularly difficult, control was a perfected state of breathing and difficult training. "You…you doubt me?" It was a hot question gifted by a cold shaking in her voice. "You think that's the reason why I…" She forced air through her nose, a hard swear gifted no sound. She shook her head. "You are a ludicrous man, aren't you?"
He inclined his head. It was not something he expected to be called. Such a word had never been aimed at him. At his siblings, such a definition would befall them, but never upon him. Neither as a monster child, or the Kazekage. It would have been a fatal error, in many cases, it still was.
Hinata stalked forward, getting into his personal space. What she hoped to accomplish was lost to her, but her actions startled him. "It…it is not your nearness that bothers me." She was too close, an inch more, she'd would be pressed up against the man entirely. Even so, she could feel his breath upon her neck, hear his deep exhales, and hear a deep rumble from his chest. She lifted a hand to him. Palm outstretched upon his chest, and he took a step back out of surprise alone.
"I'm a woman of the Hyuga clan. I was born and raised to submit to my betters." She told him, unflinchingly agitated in herself. She never thought herself so unclear. In fact, she assumed herself rather direct for a woman of her particular nature. "I…um…I was also taught by my jonin leader that the old ways, are perhaps not always the right ways." She backed away then, swallowing hard. "It's not because of what you are, it's because of your intentions."
"You are to be my wife." Gaara told her. "The concept is not difficult."
"It is." Hinata murmured. "Some marriages are for appearances. Others, are diplomacy. Of course the obvious ones are for progeny. There are ones to protect clans, and further alliances. There are even some that are made to plot against others. Arranged marriages for ones such as ourselves, they hold weight." She wondered at his aims, his goals. "Very few are…for…f-for…love." At this, her gaze fell to the floor. "I don't…we never spoke of it….what you hope to gain from all of this."
It worried her.
She bit her lip, missing Konoha all the more. With Kiba and Shino, she had always just been one of the guys. How many times had wrestled around in the soft grass? How many times as they grew older did she rest her head Kiba's chest, or let Shino wrap his arms around her on winter cold training nights? How many times had she pushed her modesty aside when Naruto decided to get a little perverted outside the safety of his bedroom?
It never mattered, because in the end, she knew what they wanted. It was never anything impossible to give. They knew her limits, she knew theirs...Gaara wasn't like them. He was a different kind of man, resolute, lonely. She sighed, so very angry at herself. At the unknown. She was afraid of the unexpected, and surprises.
"I expect for you to take sleep in the proper place." Gaara intoned. "That is all I expect for you on this night."
"That..." Hinata swallowed hard. "That doesn't answer my question." Face to face, too close for comfort. "I...I need an answer."
