Right right. Blanket disclaimer no jutsu I own nothing, and it's better that way, and while I /should/ be held responsible for my creative messes... I plead oddity of the nth water.
10 breathe again
Hanabi is not a ninja for nothing. It isn't very difficult to understand that Aiko can't reconcile her friend with her job, but it makes things rather strained. She can't stand to be around Hinata or Hanabi, which makes guarding her a little more complicated.
The towering walls that guard Sunagakure loom on the horizon. Hanabi can't help but point out that both Konoha and Suna's defenses, forest and giant brick respectively, need idiot-proofing. She looks pointedly at Naruto, so she doesn't have to meet Aiko's eyes.
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Aiko doesn't seem to breathe again until they are three feet away from the village proper, being greeted by her new husband.
Hanabi appraises the latest addition to the family from next to Hinata. She doesn't like how this jerk stares at Hinata, like a drink of water in… a desert. She puts him at eighteen or nineteen, going to take over his father's trade lines, and blames hormones. Aiko is fifteen and sheltered and very much still a girl, while Hinata is elegance and dignity and kunoichi and Hanabi doesn't understand what the hell guys find so damn fascinating about her sister's chest.
Hinata, if she notices the attention, doesn't react to it. She greets her cousin's husband with a formal bow that reveals nothing of her actual status.
"Your family wished to have certain stipulations revised? Please know that they will be carefully considered with the family in mind."
He gives her the scroll, without looking away, and Hanabi fights the urge to gag. The face she makes draws Sasuke's attention from the void it was previously occupied with, and the black stare of the last Uchiha is enough unnerve the moron into a hasty retreat. Hinata is too busy reading and thinking to do more than ask Kakashi to stay with Aiko's party until the marriage is signed and sealed.
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Temari detaches herself from a wall and invites the rest of the Konoha contingent to stay in the Kazekage's estate.
"At least until the party's over," she adds, laughing.
Hanabi isn't done glaring death at Sato or Suzumi or whatever the hell his name is, so Hinata answers for her.
"I'm afraid we must impose on you. Hanabi will be the Hyuuga witness to the marriage. The other men who came here will be staying with Aiko as Satozuki retainers."
"So you can't leave until everything is over and done with. Sweet." Temari bows as the bride is herded off to her new home. "Gaara's going to be so happy to see you, Uzumaki."
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Gaara's happy face, Hanabi decides, is deceptively named. Not so much being happy as much being less scary. Marginally. Sasuke might have serious competition here. She wonders if he is making notes.
Surprisingly, Naruto is taking a professional interest in Gaara's position as Kazekage. For future reference, he tells them cheekily.
"Being able to read is a requirement," Sasuke informs him blandly. He walks out before Naruto can form an appropriately loud and nasty response.
Temari suggests leaving the boys to catch up, so Hanabi demands a tour, since this is her first time in Suna, and Temari seems more than happy to oblige.
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Sasuke does a basic perimeter check before going to inspect the rooms they've been given. Eight tatami for the five of them, second floor, one window to the north. The elder heiress has been busy he sees, taking in the discarded drafts littering the floor around her and the smell of freshly ground ink.
"Aren't last minute negotiations in bad taste?"
She looks up, taking her cheek off her fist and revealing a stain of ink, the mirror of the one on her hand.
"They are, but since this was an arrangement to demonstrate good will, negotiating to begin with was poor conduct." She sighs and toys with a jade seal. "It would be bad to back out of the marriage agreement entirely, but there's no way we could sign to the terms they proposed just like that." She smiles wanly at him. "I apologize; Team 8 may be here for quite a while."
"Protecting the Hyuuga is part of the job description." He shrugs disinterestedly. He doesn't need to say that Hanabi is the only one of them with any family at all. "Try not to get killed."
Hinata's expression sours slightly, reminded of something unpleasant. "As long as we can get the contract signed by both families, I could die happy."