"Wait, I don't understand... Can you say it again?"
"What's there not to understand. Don't come to Suna anymore."
"Sasuke, I got that part. But what I don't understand is that you're not gettin married anymore?" Sasuke could hear Itachi's confusion from over the phone. He knew how weird it must seem to someone who doesn't know what was going on, but still Sasuke wasn't going to tell Itachi everything, well at least not all of it.
"Itachi, all you need to know is that you don't need to come to Suna anymore. I thought you'd be relieved seeing how riled up you were the last time we spoke."
"I wasn't riled up. I was just concerned about my little brother. I still am worried about you—"
"Is that Sasuke?" Sasuke heard his mother's voice in the background and prayed that Itachi hadn't told her anything. "Give me the phone. I want to talk to him."
"Mom, Sasuke isn't getting married anymore." Itachi replied to her in a calm manner but Sasuke was nowhere near that.
How dare Itachi tell his mother when he specifically said not to. Sometimes Itachi was such an obedient mama's boy.
"Itachi, I told you not to tell her," Sasuke growled into his cellphone.
"Look Sasuke, it was very ridiculous of you to think that I wouldn't find out. I'm your mother!" His mother had the phone right now and Sasuke knew he was about to get an earful about why he hadn't told her about anything. "Sasuke I can't believe you were going to get married without telling me! And I haven't even met the girl. I knew she was someone special when you went to look for her but I didn't know you were that serious? Sasuke don't you dare keep me out of this! I want to meet the girl."
"Mom," Sasuke groaned in frustration, "I wasn't getting married and I'm still not. I found Hinata and then brought her back to Suna to her family. There was just a little... misunderstanding."
"Don't try to fool me!"
"I'm not!"
"I don't care. I still want to meet her." Sasuke sighed at his mother's stubbornness but then he heard a knock on the door.
"Mom I have to go. I'll talk to you later."
"Don't think I'm going to forget about this, Sasuke," his mom said finally as he said goodbye and hung up the phone.
Sasuke got off his bed in the guest room and went to check who had knocked at such a time. He had stayed in for most of the day, not wanting to deal with the questions that would come about the cancelled ceremony. Surprisingly for the entire day no one had come to him to his room until now.
"Hinata," Sasuke whispered, "its almost eleven in the night. Isn't everyone like asleep by this time in your house?"
"Well I'm not sleepy," Hinata pouted.
Sasuke rolled his eyes at her childish response and opened his door further to let her in.
"What's wrong?" Sasuke asked as he closed the door and went to sit on the bed where he had been before.
"W-what do you mean?" Hinata took a seat on one of the couches that was right across from the bed.
"You're upset about something. Come on now spill it."
Hinata's eyes widened at the fact that Sasuke was able to read her so well by now.
"W-well, I spoke to father about somethings."
"And what happened?"
"He isn't really disowning me," Sasuke froze at the mention. Was her father really going to throw her out for a mistake. "Father thinks that it's for he best if I stayed somewhere else for the time being instead of at the compound."
"Why?" Sasuke couldn't help but begin to worry for Hinata. He didn't know why but this girl was causing him feel and display emotions he had never been comfortable with before meeting her.
"There's just a lot of people in the family who are asking about us and the ceremony. Soon there will be rumors too. Father thought I should stay away from all that. Maybe go back to Konoha and stay there until things settled down at home."
"And you're upset about that."
"Well I mean I wish I could stay with my family longer but I know what my fathers means. I don't want to face all the questions and rumours."
"I guess that makes sense... So you're finally going back to Konoha."
"Yeah," she smiled remembering how that was the place where she first met Sasuke. "I probably should leave as soon as possible."
"You don't mean right now?"
"No, I meant tomorrow. Why would you think that?"
"Because the last time you came in my room in the middle of the night you were going to run away." Sasuke smirked at the blush that formed on her face as she remembered the incident.
"I was just so stupid," she said as she shook her head of the embarrassment. It was different this time when she chided herself because even though she realized her mistakes, she wasn't devastated by them anymore. It was as if she had finally moved on from her past mistakes.
"You still are," Sasuke responded. He smirked as he dodged a couch pillow Hinata threw at him. He was really starting to enjoy teasing her since making her blush always satisfied him.
Hinata huffed her bangs and crossed her arms as she tried to glare at Sasuke. He was acting weird ever since she told the truth to her father. She blushed remembering what had happened in the office once her father left.
"Who have you told so far about us?" Sasuke asked taking her out of her thoughts. He got up from the bed and decided to sit on the couch with Hinata. Unlike last time when she had sneaked into his room, Sasuke didn't feel worry or any awkwardness. Maybe it was because people already assumed they were married, or maybe it was because he didn't care if they assumed or not.
"Um, I only told my dad, uncle Hizashi and Neji." Sasuke froze at the mention of Neji's name. Who knew what her cousin was going to do now that the truth was out. "Oh, I also told Hanabi..." Hinata's face fell as she remembered how that encounter with her sister had gone.
"What happened?" Sasuke asked as he saw how sad Hinata looked.
"N-nothing really, just...she was kind of upset t-that I didn't tell her the truth...but she understands now." Hinata smiled. "I just wish I hadn't wasted a year ignoring my family after Toneri rejected me."
At that moment, Sasuke wanted to hold her. He couldn't take how remorseful she looked. He knew he had thought of her as naive from the beginning, someone who would understand the realities of life the hard way. But he hadn't meant for it to happen to her in such a way.
"Sasuke," she turned to look at him, "when we get back to Konoha, do you think maybe we could...still stay in touch?" Sasuke frowned at her question. "I-I mean, we don't have to! I k-know you'll probably be b-busy with your company, a-and you've already done so much for m-me-"
"Don't be ridiculous. I'm not going to ignore you in Konoha."
"So...does that mean we can be friends?" she asked hopefully. She had been scared that once Sasuke left she wouldn't be able to see him anymore. She had always gotten him through so much unnecessary trouble so to her it made sense if her decided to ignore her.
"Hn," Sasuke shrugged indifferently on the outside, but on the inside he felt weird. He had never really had a girl as a friend. Sakura was someone he knew from childhood but later on became his girlfriend so technically he wasn't really friends with her.
"Well, actually, before we can be friends, I have to know more about you. I barely know anything."
"You know enough."
"I didn't even know you were an Uchiha until two days ago!" she said incredulously.
"Okay, fine. What do you want to know?" Sasuke said as he rolled his eyes.
"Hmm," Hinata thought as she tapped her chin. "What's your favorite color?"
"Is that really what you want to know?" he raised an eyebrow.
"I'm just getting started."
For the rest of the night, Sasuke and Hinata stayed up, asking each other about themselves. Well, Hinata was the one who did most of the asking but throughout the night they got to know more about each other. Sasuke was glad she hadn't asked about things he wasn't yet comfortable sharing, like his mother, Itachi, or even Sakura. He was way past the point where these things didn't affected him anymore, but that didn't mean he was ready to talk about it. Sasuke wasn't ready yet to open up about what happened with Saukra. He knew why his mother and Itachi did what they did, and even though it had hurt him, he forgave them because they had tried to do what was best for him and the family. But with Sakura, he still didn't want to think about why they had broken up. The truth was, he still wasn't sure what had went wrong, and that was the worst feeling, not knowing if you had done something wrong or not.
Soon the sun was beginning to rise and Sasuke realized that neither of them had been tired to fall asleep throughout their conversation. Sasuke and Hinata then decided to leave for Konoha together. They were going to leave early in the morning, before anyone in the compound could stop and question them. Hinata's father, uncle and Neji had driven them to the train station in the morning and had said their goodbyes as they dropped them off. None of her family paid much attention to Sasuke now that he wasn't really married to Hinata, but Neji still had his doubts. Sasuke didn't mind being ignored because he didn't want to deal with these people at the moment either.
Neji had promised to meet Hinata as soon as he got back to Konoha since his he was living there with his girlfriend now. Hinata's father had given her a long lecture reprimanding her about running away and all the other mistakes she had made, but in the end he had given her a hug which surprised Hinata. She returned the gesture with a tight hug and finally said goodbye to her family.
"Tell me why we're not taking the plane again?" Sasuke asked as he eyed the crowd of people waiting on the platform. They were walking inside the station trying to find the spot where their train was going to arrive
"Because there wasn't a flight available this early. Plus, I don't have enough money to buy a ticket, and I refuse to take any money from you." Hinata responded haughtily as the train to Konoha finally arrived.
As the passengers got on one by one, Sasuke and Hinata looked at each other once before they both rushed to the train. They barely made in time before the doors closed. They went to their seats and sat down with a sigh. Hinata looked to Sasuke once more before she burst into laughter. Sasuke couldn't help but smile as well.
"I swear, if we had missed this train, I wasn't going to be the one to bring you all the way to Konoha this time." He smirked as Hinata kept laughing.
It was funny how they had met on a train in the most unpredictable circumstances. Yet, somehow they hadn't turned into some strangers they met on a train somewhere. They were actually friends now. But was their journey going to make a full circle and end where it had started?
After their long and tiresome journey from Suna, Sasuke and Hinata finally arrived in Konoha.
"Ah, it feels good to be back!" Hinata cheered as she stepped out of the train, not minding the people who just walked by her, either ignoring her or giving her weird looks.
Sasuke just walked away, not wanting to deal with her overjoyed mood. It might have been Hinata's first time coming to Konoha in a year, but Sasuke had only left for a week. Now he had to go back to work. The thought of work made Sasuke even more tired, and he wanted nothing more than to go to his apartment and sleep. The events of this past week and the lack of sleep from last night were finally getting to him, draining the last of his energy.
"Wait Sasuke!" Hinata ran upto him as she lugged her bags behind her. She didn't have much but it still seemed heavy for her.
Sasuke took her bags from her and started unloading them in a taxi he had found outside the station.
"Oh I think I'll probably have to stay with Neji and his girlfriend for a while before I can find my own place," she said as she realized she had to tell the driver the address.
"I'm just going to call for a car from my office. I have to stop by there to get some work done," Sasuke told her since he hadn't placed his bags with her in the taxi, and he knew she was about to ask him from the puzzled look on her face.
"Oh..." she responded a bit dejectedly since she was hoping she would get to spend some more time with Sasuke. "I'll probably start working at Konoha General Hospital again," Hinata said trying to keep the conversation going.
Sasuke recognized the name and it made sense to him now that her call in the Land of Tea had been to her workplace, probably telling them of her absence.
"So...I guess I'll see you around?" Hinata tried asking casually but she couldn't help but be hopeful.
"Yeah." Sasuke took out his wallet to find his business card in there. On the back of it, he wrote down the number to his personal cell, and then gave it to her. "Here, this is my number...just call if you need anything, I guess," Sasuke shrugged. How did people do this without feeling awkward? "I know how much trouble you like to get in." He glared at her.
"I swear, I don't do it on purpose!" Hinata defended.
"Bye, you idiot." Sasuke just smirked, "I'll see you around."
"Bye!" she said with a big smile as she got in the taxi. She waved through the window as she drove away while Sasuke just watched her go.
The rest of the day, Sasuke stayed in his office trying to catch up on all the things he had missed this past week, but often he would catch himself thinking about nothing in particular or someone in particular. He shook his head to clear his mind and went back to concentrating at the object at hand.
There was one thing that was nagging Sasuke in the back of his mind and he couldn't figure out what it was. What he didn't know was that the Konoha General Hospital was the same place where Sakura had decided to do her residency when she ended medical school, which happened to be same time when Hinata was going to start working there again.
