Role Reversal

Author's Note: Thanks for the reviews. I hope that you all enjoy this chapter.

Chapter Notation: Chapter starts off a bit dark, but eventually transitions onto a lighter note. Hinata uses her Byakugan rather creatively. Warnings will be put up before and after that scene. It's entirely up to you, if you wish to read it. Skipping it will not alter the plot though. Anyway, enjoy!

Chapter 9

Hinata lays on the bed and sighs. Her feet felt better after Sasuke's attentive care, but that didn't mean that she had any idea what she was going to do next. Not that she was going to tell Sasuke that.

"He probably thinks that I'm crazy as it is." The Hyuga Heiress whispers to herself.

The sad thing was that the Uchiha wouldn't be entirely wrong, if he thought that. The lavender eyed woman knew that she had flirted with insanity from time to time. There were times when she truly wondered, if she had crossed the line.

"I suppose that's normal for anyone who spends any considerable length of time in the Sound though." She says.

Hinata's voice didn't sound convinced. Not even to her own ears. That was a bad sign.

Unfortunately or fortunately, Sasuke had arrived just as her training was truly beginning to intensify. She estimated that at most she would have had a few more months before Orochimaru tried to take her body. She had been racing against the clock before his arrival.

"He either showed up at the worst or best possible time." She mutters to herself as she wraps her arms around her legs in a protective gesture.

He still seemed to think that she was the same girl who had left the Leaf. Hinata would like to believe that, but she knew that she wasn't. She'd seen far too much to ever be that innocent girl again.

Despite all that though, Sasuke was still with her. Why she didn't know. He could have gone back to the Leaf. It wasn't as if she was actually going to stop him and Hinata was confident that he knew that. After all, the Hyuga Heiress would be long gone before Sasuke got back to the Leaf and was able to assemble a team to find her.

The sound of the running water briefly disrupted the darker path of her thoughts. There wasn't a reason to worry about such things. Hinata would think about them later. Sasuke was here. She had to focus on that and finding Neji.

"It's just like old times." She whispers to herself as she remembers how she first met Sasuke and Naruto.

"Oh look! It's the Hyuga Princess. The Princess with those creepy eyes!" An older boy taunted her as he advanced towards her with a group of his friends.

Hinata estimated that he was about ten. She recognized him as being a student at the Academy. If he and his friends wanted to pick a fight, she would probably lose.

They were a lot bigger than her and probably knew more Jutsus. Not to mention, they outnumbered her. She gulped nervously and took a step back.

"Awe. I think the little princess is scared. Are you going to cry? Too bad your Clan isn't here now to save you. Like they always do. I can't believe a crybaby like you is the heir of a Clan with those eyes. I thought Hyugas were supposed to be really strong." He continued as he advanced towards her.

"Her Clan might not be around, but we are!" Hinata heard a familiar voice call out.

She recognized it was a belonging to a boy in her year at the Academy. Naruto Uzumaki. He was always getting into trouble for causing pranks, but right now she was so relieved. Maybe, they would leave her alone now.

"None of you are ever going to be real ninjas." She heard a second voice say as she turned around to see who this "we" was that Naruto had referred to.

That's when she saw the second boy. Sasuke Uchiha. She knew who he was because her father had made it a point to point him out. After all, he was the youngest son of the Head of the Uchiha Clan. That made him important in Clan Politics.

"What'd you say, Demon Eyes?!" The ringleader demanded.

"You're never going to be ninjas. You're too stupid and cowardly. If it takes four of you to pick on one girl, there's no way that you're ever going to pass the graduation test." Sasuke retorted.

"Yeah! The bastard is right! You're jerks and stupid! Oh and you smell funny!" Naruto said.

Hinata blinked. She found it weird that Naruto called Sasuke a bastard when they were friends. At the moment though, she wasn't going to argue about it. Though she really hoped that they weren't actually going to fight the older boys.

"It's okay. W-e can just go. It doesn't ma-tter." Hinata stammered out.

"Don't be crazy! Of course, it matters! They're picking on you because you're younger and smaller than them! The jerks didn't expect you to fight back." Naruto grumbled.

"Naruto, remember what Itachi showed you." Sasuke said cryptically.

That's when the blonde nodded and loose a bunch of wooden kunais. They were designed for children or those just learning how to wield the trademark ninja weapons. The kunais were crude, but effective because they pin the leader by the sleeves of his shirt to a nearby tree.

"Got it!" He said cheerfully.

"FIREBALL JUTSU!" The younger Sasuke cried out as he breathed fire out of his mouth and sent it hurling at the leader.

Hinata screamed in terror. She thought that the bully was going to get badly burnt, but that wasn't the case. The fire stopped inches away from his face.

"That's a warning shot. If you ever mess with her or someone with "freaky" eyes again, the next one won't miss." Sasuke growled at him.

The Hyuga Heiress had heard that the Uchihas specialized in Fire Jutsus, but she'd never actually seen it before. That and Naruto was so good with kunais. They were both the same age as her, but had scared the older Academy Students like it was nothing!

"Whatever! You're psychotic!" The boy yelled as he ripped himself free from the tree and ran off with his friends.

"Hey, are you okay? Sorry, about that. The bastard can be pretty scary sometimes, but he's really as cuddly as a kitten. Deep, deep down. Well a kitten that likes to scratch things, but still!" Naruto tried to comfort her.

"Y-eah. I think that I'm okay." She stammered out.

"Come on. Let's get you home. They'll probably be back and with more friends soon." Sasuke said and with that, her friendship with Naruto Uzumaki and Sasuke Uchiha officially began.

Hinata sighs as she looks at the closed door to the bathroom. In some ways, not a lot had changed since then. Naruto and Sasuke were still trying to protect her, especially Sasuke. In other ways though, a lot of things had changed. Some very important changes.

Sasuke wasn't a cute boy who threw fireballs to protect scared little girls anymore. He was a fully grown man. A man who was taking a shower, only a few feet away from her. She knew it was wrong, but curiosity got the better of her. After all, Sasuke had seen her naked. It was only fair!

"Byakugan!" She whispers under her breath as her bloodline trait activates.

Meanwhile Itachi's Team had made it back to the Leaf. The elder Uchiha Brother knew that they had to hurry. God only knows, where Hinata had taken Sasuke.

His foolish little brother would probably let him take her on her Quest for Vengeance without any hesitation. On one hand, it was romantic that he was willing to walk into the Serpent's Death for her and face the Clan Slayer. On the other hand, his devotion might get him killed!

"I'm going to find him. Then I'm going to kill him. Then I'm going to revive him. Then I'll kill him again. After that, I'll revive him a second time and smack some sense into him." Itachi hisses under his breath as he heads into Tsunade's Office with his team.

They were going to need more people. As much as he loathed "wasting" time, this wasn't really a waste of it. It was more productive in the long run.

Unfortunately, they didn't know where Sasuke and Hinata went. That meant that it would be smarter to get more ninjas on the case. More people could cover more ground quicker. He just hoped that Tsunade could cobble together a lot of teams in a short amount of time.

"Itachi, what's wrong? Why do you look scared to death?" The busty Hoakge demands.

"We found the Sound Village. A skirmish ensued. Hinata grabbed Sasuke and Flickered off. We have no idea where they went and it took us the better part of a day to get back here. I need you to authorize some search teams." He says quickly.

Itachi could feel every pair of eyes in that room on him. It was rare to see someone address the Hokage as if they were equals or their superior. Sadly, Itachi was beyond caring about formality at this point. His foolish little brother was in danger.

"I'll authorize as many people as I can spare. It's not safe to have someone with the Byakugan and Sharingan wandering around. Neji and Orochimaru are the greatest threats, but there are others." She whispers ominously.

"Thanks, Granny Tsunade! Don't worry, we'll bring them back! We'll bring both of them back! Safe and sound! You'll see! Believe it!" Naruto promises her.

Itachi really wished that he could share in the blonde's eternal optimism, but he just couldn't. Not this time. Not when he knew exactly what the Hokage was talking about.

There was quite the Black Market for ninja body parts, especially those that were related to bloodlines. Sharingans and Byakugans could actually be transplanted into people who weren't Uchihas or Hyugas.

That was part of what made them so valuable and why the members of each Clan were trained to be wary at all times. One never knew when someone might try to kidnap you and steal your eyes.

"Thank you, Lady Tsunade. You have no idea what this means to us." Shisui says.

Those who were kidnapped and had their eyes cut out were often murder victims as well. After all, why would you leave the disfigured and blind Clan Member alive? There was always the slight chance that they might somehow survive the "surgery" and make their way back to their family.

If that happened, Clan in question would want revenge. There were only a few instances throughout history that such a thing had actually happened. That a kidnapping victim survived and their family avenged them. Those incidents had been recorded as a warning to anyone who might attack a ninja from a Bloodline Clan. Don't do it or you will die screaming.

"Of course. Hinata and Sasuke are two Leaf Ninjas. That means the two of them will be protected by this village. Though Hinata will have some explaining to do when she gets back. Itachi, Shisui, you'll need to tell your Clan what is going on. I'm not going to be the one to do it. I have teams to dispatch and frankly, Aiya and Kenji scare me." She says with a sigh as she begins working on the team assignments.

"You're kidding, right? Kenji and Aiya are really nice." The blonde ninja protests.

"They're nice until someone messes with their grandsons. That's when they stop being nice." Tsunade corrects him.

Elsewhere Sasuke was continuing his shower. Well at least he could be clean. That was something.

Running around all night was bound to make anyone work up a sweat. A hot shower would at least make him feel better. Though it wouldn't solve any of his immediate and long-term problems.

"What am I going to do with her?" He growls in frustration under his breath.

Hinata was being extremely stubborn. If she would just listen to him, they'd already be back in the Leaf. The Leaf Village would likely send several teams off after Neji Hyuga.

A Hidden Village as a collective would be able to track Neji much more effectively than Hinata ever could alone. The village's odds of finding the wayward Hyuga were also much higher than just him and Hinata working on that goal together. Why couldn't she see that?

"It has to be pride. When did she gets so damn stubborn?" He asks himself as he washes his hair.

That was a dumb question. He already knew the answer to that question. The Hyuga Heiress had gotten stubborn on the day her family was slaughtered. Slaughtered by one of their own.

God help him, he was in love with a beautiful and endlessly stubborn woman. A woman who would probably lock up his chakra points, if she ever found out that he very much would have preferred not having to shower alone. On second thought, maybe he should change the water's temperature from hot to cold.

"Itachi's right. I really am his foolish brother." The raven haired man scolds himself.

Now was really not the time to be bombarded by images of a naked Hinata. His imagination was decent, but he knew what the real thing looked like. That gave his imagination more then enough to work with.

Enough to work with, that a cold shower was definitely going to be necessary. He didn't know what was more likely to get him killed actually. Romantic longing/sexual frustration, regular frustration, or the actual mission.

"I really, really fucking hate Neji." Sasuke says as he lathers up his hair.

If it wasn't for Neji, they'd both be back in the Leaf. Hinata would be happy with her family and Sasuke's biggest problem would be Hiashi. Convincing Hiashi Hyuga that he should consider an Uchiha for a potential son-in-law.

"Actually, maybe Neji might be less vicious." Sasuke decides and with that, he changes the water from hot to ice cold.

Overprotective fathers were extremely dangerous animals. Not that Sasuke could blame Hiashi in this imaginary scenario. If Sasuke had a daughter, he probably would be hurling some fireballs at the local village boys who dared to come near his daguhter.

"And Hiashi would have locked up my chakra points." Sasuke says.

At that same moment, Hinata's face turns a brilliant shade of scarlet. She really shouldn't have looked. It was wrong, but her curiosity had gotten the better of her.

Before going to the Sound Village, she had been extremely sheltered. That was just the life of a Hyuga Heiress (or Heir). You weren't really supposed to spend much time around the opposite sex, if they weren't related to you. There was simply too much potential for a scandal to form.

"Unless you're on a mission." She reminds herself.

The only exceptions really were for missions or instructors. Instructors like say Iruka at the Academy. Only upstanding members of society would be granted the privilege of speaking with the Hyuga Heiress alone. That or her teammates.

Hinata thought that Kurenai, Shino, and Kiba were also upstanding members of society, but she digressed. When she left the village, she had only been twelve. While some of the members of her generation had already had crushes for several years, almost no one had actually acted much on their feelings yet. It had all been innocent.

"It wasn't that way at the Sound though." Hinata remembers.

"Hinata, are you well. You're looking rather flushed." Orochimaru said.

That's when the Hyuga Heiress knew that she had been caught. Her new "Sensei" had caught her blushing. This wouldn't end well.

"I-t's nothing." The young girl replied as she tried to hide her blush from the Legendary Sannin.

"Your face is completely red. Perhaps, you're coming down with something and I should have Kabuto have a look at you." He suggested as he pressed his hand against her forehead.

The man was obviously checking her temperature. Hinata might have been thirteen at the time, but she wasn't completely foolish. Orochimaru wasn't doing this because he actually cared about her. No. He just wanted to make sure that his Vessel stayed healthy enough for him to use later on.

"No! No! I'm f-ine! Really!" Hinata assured him.

"You're not running a fever. Well then I think I know what happened. You must have been walking around and gotten an eyeful. So tell me, did you stumble upon two lovers or someone changing?" Orochimaru asked and Hinata squeaked in response.

It wasn't like she was trying to look! She had just been walking by someone's room and the door hadn't been fully shut. So she saw everything!

"It was an accident! Someone was ch-anging and the door wasn't fully shut!" She told him.

"Of course, it was. Well I'll have a talk with everyone. It was never my intention to make you uncomfortable. You're going to be my Vessel. It's in my interest to protect your mental health as well as your physical health." Orochimaru told her.

As much as she loathed Orochimaru, the man had kept his promise. Rarely, did such incidents occur again. Though they didn't happen often, Hinata had still seen glimpses here and there.

She was far from a medic and she was completely inexperienced when it came to love, but Hinata had seen enough. She had seen enough of the male body to know what was considered normal and what was considered exceptional. Sasuke just happened to fall into the latter camp.

"I s-houldn't have looked." She mumbles as her face burns even brighter.

Warning Shower Scene

He was completely naked, but that was to be expected. Who had ever heard of showering with your clothes on? To be fair though, Hinata's brain was no longer fully functional at the moment. That view was very distracting.

She had seen men train shirtless before. Men were quite fortunate in that respect. They could just tug of their shirts whenever they liked to cool off. Women couldn't get away with that, but she digressed.

"No wonder, Orochimaru wanted him for his next Vessel." She observes to herself.

That was one well sculpted chest and the biceps were nice to look at. The abs didn't escape her notice either as her gaze descends further south. At this point, her more rational mind tried to take control.

"I really, really shouldn't have looked." She whispers to herself.

It was too late for that though. Hinata saw everything and she knew enough about human anatomy to realize that Sasuke's kunai was NOT in its resting mode. Sasuke was definitely excited about something or someone.

That thought bothered her more than it should have. Did Sasuke already have a girlfriend back in the Leaf? Had he left her behind to "save" Hinata? Was that why he needed the presumably cold shower because he was thinking about her?

"I'm being ridiculous. It doesn't matter." The Hyuga Heiress scolds herself.

It was the strangest sensation. Being torn between embarrassment, jealousy, and appreciation for what she was looking at. Almost everywhere she looked was ivory colored muscle or raven black hair. Well except for his kunai.

She really shouldn't be comparing, but Hinata couldn't help it. The bluenette supposed that it was simply human nature to do so. Compared to the men at the Sound, Sasuke's kunai deserved an upgrade to a sword.

"Uh oh. He's turning off the shower." Hinata says as the water suddenly stopped running.

End of Shower Scene

That's when Hinata quickly deactivates her Byakugan and wraps the blankets around her.

The last thing that she wanted was for Sasuke to realize that she had been looking at him while he was showering. The Hyuga Heiress still couldn't believe that she had done it or what she had seen, but that was a thought for another day. Right now, she had to pretend to be asleep.

"Hinata, I'm done with the shower. If you wanted to use it, you can." Sasuke says a few minutes later as he comes out.

Hinata ignores him though. It was important to pretend to be asleep. There was no other way that he wasn't going to figure out what she had done. She had behaved outrageously and she knew that.

Sasuke might have seen her before, but that had been accident. The Uchiha hadn't been intentionally peeking at her. This was different.

"Oh. Guess you fell asleep." Sasuke says and that's when Hinata feels him lay down on the bed next to her.

Hinata had looked by choice and that was why the other ninja would have every right in the world to be angry with her. She had completely invaded his privacy. The young woman could only hope that he would never find out.

"What am I going to do with you? You must have completely exhausted yourself on that run." Sasuke murmurs as he wraps his arms around her and pulls the blankets around himself and her protectively.

Hinata was suddenly glad that her face wasn't towards him. She must have been ruby red by now. This was nice though. She was quickly becoming spoiled by sleeping next to him all the time.

She needed to focus though. Neji had to die. He was going to die and nothing was going to get in her way. It didn't matter that she liked snuggling up to Sasuke while she slept.

"Damn it. You're bright red. We can't run, if you're sick." He mutters as he touches her forehead.

She was lucky. Sasuke had looked and assumed that she just had a fever or something. This could have gotten awkward and rather quickly.

"I'm going to have to talk you into staying here a day or two longer." He says with a sigh as he looks down at the "sleeping" woman in his arms.

Hinata was sick. Hinata was stubborn. Those two facts were at odds with each other, but Sasuke knew that he was going to have to talk her into resting.

There was no point in trying to fight Neji while she had a bad case of the sniffles or whatever she had. He was going to have to put his foot down. Sadly, that was easier said than done.

"And I know you're going to fight me on that, but I'm more stubborn than you. Remember that you said it yourself. I'm even more stubborn than Naruto. So we're going to stay here. At least for a little while." The Uchiha says.

He was so screwed and Sasuke knew that. He was in love with the beauty who was currently sleeping so sweetly in his arms, but he knew that there would be Hell to pay in a few hours. After she woke up, the kitten would transform into a tigress.

Hinata wasn't going to want to rest. Sasuke would have to force her to. This wasn't going to be pretty, but it was the right thing to do.

"I mean it though. I am more stubborn than you." He whispers as he kisses her forehead and yawns, before snuggling up against her and falling asleep himself.