Hinata had perked up in the following weeks. She seemed happier, although she had upgraded the size of her waitress uniform. She was absent from the apartment now, so he was left alone in his apartment. He could watch tv without worrying about the volume bothering her. He could pee with the bathroom door open. He could even take a nap in his bed if he wanted to.

Unfortunately, it seemed that none of that would be possible, as a loud pounding echoed through the apartment. Naruto was here.

He considered not opening the door. But if he humored Naruto for a few minutes, he could kick him out and end this suffering. The other option was to let Naruto wear himself out, something that anyone would recognize as impossible.

He opened the door, his mouth pressed into a firm line.

"Hey, bastard, I came to invite you to guy's night." Naruto beamed, his hands folded behind his head.

"I'm not going." Sasuke grabbed for the door, but Naruto stepped inside to stop him, throwing an arm around the boy's shoulders.

"Hey, I'm just trying to—"

Naruto stopped abruptly, his eyes scanning Sasuke's wall. Sasuke took the opportunity to shrug the offending arm from his body, stepping away to create a respectable distance from the hyperactive blond. But Naruto, for once, was speechless, his cerulean eyes glued to the wall.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Sasuke snapped, before he remembered.

The pictures.

Oh god, the pictures.

"So, you like bushy-brows?" a slow smile crept onto Naruto's face. How could Sasuke have forgotten the dozens of modelling pictures of Rock Lee he and Hinata had taped to the wall? It's not like they lorded over him in his sleep. It's not like he had vivid nightmares of the green-clad model he slept under.

Naruto cackled as he snapped pictures of the wall, smugness etched into his features. Sasuke growled, yanking Naruto's arm down and pushing the offender out of his apartment. Naruto protested, latching onto Sasuke and trying to pull him with him out the door.

They toppled over, Sasuke landing on top of his best friend. His knee had wedged itself between Naruto's legs, and his hands pressed on either side of the boy's head as he pushed himself back up. Naruto smirked from beneath the brooding man.

"You gonna kiss me or what, Sasuke?"

Sasuke sprang immediately to his feet, taking a few steps backwards but still glaring at his friend, who had pushed himself into a sitting position at the soonest opportunity.

"Get up so I can punch you." Sasuke ordered. The blond laughed as he complied, but his expression turned serious as he met Sasuke's eyes.

"You wanna get a round in, just like the good 'ol days?"


Naruto won, if only because Sasuke was rusty. He sat back on the couch as a message flashed across the television, announcing his defeat. He held the controller loosely in his hand. Naruto celebrated beside him.

The apartment was messy, as expected from Naruto. Clothes were strewn not only on the floor, but on the couch, the table, the kitchen counter. Food stains covered the floors and the wall. The box he had collected from Hinata still sat by his door, the contents untouched.

"What happened with you and Hinata?" Sasuke asked as he eyed the box of junk.

"Oh, boy. Is that a story." Naruto chuckled, scratching at one of his whisker tattoos. Sasuke remained silent as Naruto collected his thoughts.

"Well, as you know, we all went to the academy together."

He did not remember. He couldn't remember most of the people he went to the academy together. He remembered a horde of screaming girls, he remembered Naruto, he remembered the teachers that would never give him enough power to avenge his family. But in the end, they all melded into one entity that served only to hold him back from his goal. High school was different. There was an established group. He remembered their faces but not their names or their stories. He remembered general characteristics but not the people themselves. He left after his first year, anyway, not to return until a brief week after the war.

"She apparently liked me all through high school, but I was too dumb to notice." Naruto continued, breaking the seal on a can he had retrieved from a small table that perched next to the couch. "I guess she confessed to me once when she was trying to protect me from one of the Akatsuki members, but I didn't realize. Then, after the war, Hinata's sister was kidnapped by some weirdo. A lot of things happened, but Hinata ended up agreeing to run away with him and get married so she could try to protect her sister. Sakura told me a lot about how Hinata felt and all, and I guess all the fear of losing her and admiration for her strength added up, so when we finally got her back, I couldn't help but ask her out."

Naruto took a long swig from his can. Sasuke was disturbed slightly that Naruto was drinking warm beer, but he overlooked it, waiting for the blond to continue.

"We dated for about three years. It was a lot of fun, but something just felt off. Like our relationship was built off of something it shouldn't have been. I genuinely care for her, and I really did love her, but our relationship didn't feel right. I think she realized, too, because she's the one that brought it up in the end. We broke up, and I thought it would be the kind of deal where we could remain friends, but I guess I was wrong."

Naruto stared forlornly at his can, his grip looses on the thin metal.

"She just wants space." Sasuke cleared his throat awkwardly. Naruto sad was almost as annoying as Naruto happy.

"You think so?" Naruto quirked his head slightly before his lips stretched into a cocky grin. "I gotta tell you, though, even the break-up sex was amazing."

And now he wanted to punch him all over again.


Hinata found herself ducking behind a large plant in the entryway of Konoha hospital. She had been prepared to look for the telltale shock of pink hair that would give away Sakura Haruno, but she had forgotten that Ino frequented here, as well. She had also forgotten how adept Ino was at talking. She had been waiting for at least fifteen minutes for the blond to leave, but there were no signs of her relenting.

But Sasuke had not yet replied to her about picking her up, so it's not like she was in a hurry. She leaned against the wall, bracing her legs against the pot of the fern to provide extra support. She felt bad for relying on Sasuke so much, so she had asked a coworker to take her to the hospital after work instead of asking Sasuke. She figured it would be a safe move, since the the coworker wouldn't know where she lived. But it seemed that by ignoring Sasuke in favor of the flamboyant young waiter, she had lost him.

She opened her phone, scrolling through her messages to read through her latest one-sided conversation with Sasuke. Usually he replied right away to tell her he was coming, but this time, she had been left on read.

Or so she assumed. As far as she could tell, Sasuke didn't have read receipts turned on.

Placing the offending object back in her pocket, she pulled herself up to get a look over the top of the pot. Ino was still talking, apparently squealing about something, if the fists held under her chin were any indication. Even watching Ino talk was entertaining, and Hinata found herself captivated by the blond's performance, even such little things as her long ponytail swaying with her slight movements. Maybe if she had a daughter she could convince her to wear ponytails. She never could get Hanabi to wear ponytails until the girl was in high school, and by then, Hinata had moved out.

A buzz in her back pocket pulled her attention back to the matter at hand. A little giddily, she pulled the device out of her pocket, unlocking it to read the message.

An unknown number.

"I'm back."

She sat in stunned silence as she stared at the text. Her heart hammered in her chest. Her legs turned to quivering jelly and yet she couldn't move. Then in one quick movement she blocked the number and resisted the urge to throw her phone across the room. Pulling her knees back to her chest, she took a deep breath, trying to convince herself that it was just a wrong number. It couldn't possibly be who she thought it was.

The small space between the plant and the room was all too claustrophobic now. She struggled to breath in the space. It smelled too much like dirt. Deep breaths, she told herself, as she sucked air carefully in through her nose and expelled through her mouth.

Another buzz, and she jumped. She didn't want to look at her phone, but her movements were mechanical as she pulled it back out, vision too blurry and hand shaking too much to read the message at first.

"Here."

The word sent a chill down her spine. She gulped, her mouth dry. Tears prickled in her eyes until she read the name.


Sasuke tapped impatiently at his steering wheel. A full five minutes passed before his phone pinged, Hinata's message lighting up the screen.

"Can't leave yet, Ino's here"

He sighed heavily, reclining back in his seat to wait for her. A headache pounded against his skull. He was irritated. He wanted to go home.

The sound of his door opening startled him, almost visibly. His eyes slid to her as she lifted herself into his seat, pulling the door closed behind her. She held an envelope in her hands, which trembled almost imperceptibly, and she looked pale, her eyes wider than usual.

Although she looked terrible, she still forced a smile in his direction.

"Is everything okay?" she stole the question from his throat. He shrugged.

"Naruto dragged me to 'guy's night'." He grimaced. Once he was at Naruto's house, it had become impossible to leave, even when a gaggle of unwanted men appeared at the door.

"I remember." Hinata giggled sweetly, some of the uneasiness that had followed her into the car disappearing. "Were Kiba and Shino there?"

"Yeah, the mutt was there. Shino was busy, though." Sasuke gritted. He would have preferred the bug boy to the ranging lunatic who had threatened to tear the apartment apart when he saw Sasuke. And that was before he got alcohol in his system.

"Shikamaru and Choji?" Hinata pressed.

"Yeah." He didn't particularly mind those two, they weren't as obnoxious as Naruto or Kiba. "Neji was there, too."

"Of course, Neji loves Naruto." Hinata beamed. Sasuke snorted.

"And to think, I almost respected Neji."

"Neji is a respectable person!" Hinata argued, her voice raising an octave as she turned to regard Sasuke out of wide eyes. Sasuke smirked in her direction. She was getting flustered again. Her cheeks were tinged red, she seemed ready to argue on her cousin's behalf. Some part of him wanted to press her. See how far she would go.

But as they pulled into his parking spot, she turned her attention to the envelope in her lap, her flustered blush now becoming excited as she withdrew a picture from the yellow container. She thrust it towards him, somehow expecting him to see it in the dark.

"Look at the baby!"

Even when he turned on his phone's flashlight, he couldn't really see anything.