Mirai Sasuke was still apprehensive about his confrontation with his wife's counterpart. He had gotten aggravated and had said too much. Worse, he had almost grabbed her.

It took constant reminder for him to process that he and Genzai Hinata were strangers. She was not his Hinata, not yet. So he couldn't touch her. He couldn't test her, because she could fuck his world ten times over if he did.

Mirai Sasuke was solitary in his feelings of uneasiness about the current trajectory of the future. He had potentially damaged things, and there was nothing he could do to take it back.

He watched Mirai Hinata lean down, laying their sleeping daughter in the overly-large bed. Hinata kissed each of Kasai's pink cheeks, then lingered there against the child's forehead. After several seconds, Mirai Hinata pulled away, looking content, if just for that moment. Then she paused, and took her an additional moment to detach Kasai's fist from her sleeve.

No protests tonight, Sasuke noted as they left.

"She's getting better."

Sasuke was not sure that he agreed. He followed Hinata into her quarters and leaned on the wall. "We have to switch bedrooms," he noted as he glanced around.

"Why?"

"There was a mix-up."

Hinata raised her brows.

"Your counterpart thinks this is my room," Mirai Sasuke elaborated.

"Maybe you should stop spending so much time here," Hinata mentioned as she doffed her shirt. She replaced it was a sleeveless black turtleneck that hugged her form.

"Hn." He watched her pull her hair up into a high ponytail, though it still swept against the small of her back. "So you're leaving."

"Only for five days or so."

Sasuke couldn't blame her. He watched her slide on long black gloves that covered her arms but still left the ANBU tattoo exposed. Finally she snapped on her arm guards and affixed his—her raven mask, before sheathing her ninjato and turning for the door.

"Your flak jacket." Sasuke stopped her.

Hinata lifted her mask. "I don't need—"

"I'll help you put it on," Sasuke cut her off.

He went to the bed and lifted her discarded cloth armor. It was the dark gray, standard ANBU designation. He returned to Hinata, wrapped it around her, and latched it securely at her back. He connected the shoulder straps and ignored the wary look she gave him, his hands lingering on her shoulders when he was done. "You're in a bad state."

"What does that mean?"

"What happened last night?"

Hinata looked away.

"Your byakugan was activated while you were sleeping."

"Sasuke, it…must have been a bad dream." She gathered her composure and gave him a shrug.

"It went on for a while," Sasuke said.

"What do you want me to do?"

"Take some of my chakra."

She blinked. "D-Do you think that's necessary?" Her hand rubbed her opposite arm.

He could tell that Hinata was depleted, if just by her poor posture and the shadows beneath her eyes. He activated his sharingan to verify his suspicions, after which Hinata sighed, nodded, and met his gaze.

Their hands connected, fingers interlocking as he initiated the transfer. Her eyes went wide, then lowered as she developed a dreamy smile.

Hinata unexpectedly jumped on him, kissing him, causing him to stumble back into the wall. Not one to shirk her advances, Sasuke slid his hand to her hips and enjoyed the sensation of her legs locking around his waist. She continued to absorb his chakra from his lips, and everywhere else that their bodies made contact. Now his fingers were keenly trying to get her flak jacket off, and Hinata was fumbling with the various buttons and latches of his jounin vest.

Sometimes, he suspected, his chakra got her high. Or maybe it was his essence invading her, filling her with the thrill of contact that he would never admit immersed him. Her pants were discarded, his pushed down enough, her arms about his shoulders and face buried in the side of his neck. Then Hinata was hot, and moist, and tight around him, his next breath shuddering through his chest. And just before they could truly exploit that ever-addictive contact—

Sasuke's eyes snapped to the ceiling. "What is Sakura doing upstairs?"

"Sasu…please," Hinata managed.

"I know…" he breathed. "But you're draining me." The two met eyes and allowed cruel logic to ruin the night, Hinata unlatching her legs from around him, and Sasuke gently setting her on the ground.

As their contact broke, the transfer ceased, and Sasuke felt himself slump down somewhat against the wall. He hung his head and tried to collect himself, but still found that he was preoccupied by the movements on the second floor.

He looked at Hinata, whose chest was heaving, her eyes bright and manic. He imagined the power surge wasn't dissimilar to the one he used to get when activating the cursed seal. "Are you alright?" he asked as he zipped his pants.

Hinata blinked a few times. "Fine." She leaned down to pull up her panties. "I'm late for my mission."

He nodded. "I'll see you in five days."

Sasuke left the room, and tread lightly along the corridor to the stairs. He walked up them, and turned to the left of the landing, into a hall that was not so dark that he could hardly see the pink-haired intruder. Sakura.

She didn't stop walking, just continued from one door to the next. Yes?

What are you doing? He utilized telepathy so not to wake the Hyuugas sleeping in the surrounding bedrooms.

The one thing I'm supposed to, Sakura said.

Where's Naruto?

Why?

Because I can't deal with you when you're like this.

She turned sharply, sending a withering glare. Then. Go. To. Bed, she said emphatically. Sakura finally stopped at one of the doors, and faced it squarely, an eager look on her face. "This one." As her hand descended on the knob, Sasuke grabbed her arm, halting her. In response, Sakura's opposite hand caught his elbow. She began to squeeze, bending his joint unnaturally, and reminding Sasuke of how adept she was at breaking bones.

"Shhh…" he urged, and reluctantly, Sakura released him. Perhaps she realized that the sound of his arm snapping might not correspond with the delicacy of her purpose. Okay, Sasuke said, hoping to appropriate the calm way that Naruto said it. Okay. He slid his hand down from her arm.

They held each other's eyes for a while, in silent understanding. Finally, Sakura turned back to the door and reached down to break the lock.

The hilt of Sasuke's chokuto impacted against her skull with a nasty cracking noise, blood vapors puffing into the air as he struck her two more times. Sasuke scooped her up before she could fall, tucking her head down and swiftly carrying her away. To an outsider, it might have looked intimate, and perhaps it was. He took her downstairs and carefully laid her in her bed.

Part 2

Mirai Hinata was not Hinata.

In fact, she was a different species.

Genzai Sasuke could not rationalize his certainty of this. He just trailed along her bright white chakra under the cloak of darkness and forestry. He knew that he was expending energy by using the sharingan, but he did not necessarily care. He told himself that he wasn't following the woman, he was simply going in the same direction.

She crossed Konoha's perimeter, after which he exited the forest to watch her continue through the gates and along the proceeding road. Scowling, Sasuke turned away, but blinked at sensing her presence abruptly return.

He spun around to see her standing there, her arms were crossed, and curiously, she was dressed in ANBU gear. Though her mask concealed her expression, her words betrayed an apparent distaste: "So you'll only follow me this far?" Her words taunted him. She took a heaving breath. "Pathetic," she spat.

Genzai Sasuke clenched his jaw as Mirai Hinata walked off again, her long hair swinging behind her. Tempted as he was to pursue her, he stayed firmly in place.

Sasuke watched as her body incrementally disappeared into the shadows, the path swallowing her as she took to a run. So Mirai Hinata knew his limitations. He supposed it made sense.

That year, Sasuke had gone from a missing nin to a homebody. He could not physically leave the village had he wanted to. If just to test this truth, Sasuke moved his pointer finger slowly forward. It made contact with an invisible wall, and a static hum filled the air.

It sounded as though something was being seared in oil before him. Sasuke withdrew his hand and stared at his blackened fingertip. He placed it into his mouth, because burn wounds were painful, and no one was around to witness his petulant act.

Seals that had been transparent flared into existence on his wrists and ankles, as well as a single character on his chest like a tattoo:

氐

Root.

Tsunade's seals continued to bind him within Konoha's borders. He would therefore be the obvious candidate to be excluded from Kakashi's mission that night.

"Teme."

Sasuke shoved his hands into his pockets and turned as Genzai Naruto and Genzai Sakura approached. Half a kilometer behind, he could spot the members of team 8 trudging along. The grouping of the two teams was becoming oddly routine.

"Kurenai-san's pregnant," Sakura answered his silent inquiry as she and Naruto joined him. "Over here!" she waved to the trio of trackers.

Kiba responded with a yawn and Shino nodded, but Genzai Hinata's eyes were on the ground.

There was a poof of smoke, signaling Kakashi's arrival. "Yo," he greeted them lightly. "I can only take four of you along. And we have to move fast—we have a tight deadline. Sasuke, Hinata, you two stay behind and train. No doujutsu. I don't need you killing each other before we get back."

Neither Sasuke nor Hinata responded, both of their faces blank.

"Have fun." The jounin offered one of his one-eyed smiles. And with that, the group of five departed.

When Sasuke turned to face Genzai Hinata, her eyes were half-lidded, and she looked unfocused. Something was wrong, but it wasn't his place to inquire. They walked off to training ground eight, where he matched her familiar Hyuuga stance with one of his own.

Genzai Hinata took to the trees, feeling Sasuke always a breath behind her. One mistake and he would catch her. She gasped as she narrowly avoided his sword.

Her face was flushed, her heart pounding, both which she attributed to adrenaline. It was undeniable that she was distracted, still caught up in what Mirai Sasuke had told her the day before.

You're going to be raped in a few days.

She couldn't help fearing that Genzai Sasuke would be her attacker—he had been giving her an undue amount of attention as of late. Still, it didn't seem logical, and it didn't fit his character. In fact, if it wasn't for the arrival of the time travelers, Genzai Sasuke would have continued to be oblivious of her first name.

With this under consideration, Hinata concluded that Genzai Sasuke had no real incentive to attack her, unless he was as deranged as the rumors claimed. Genzai Hinata could not corroborate this. While he was known for his savagery in battle, he seemed like nothing more than a teenager to her. Sometimes she could spot something jaded in his eyes, a blank look that made him seem idle and passionless.

Hinata attempted to jump down from her latest branch and disappear deeper into the forest, but Genzai Sasuke finally reached her. He caught her throat and slammed her against the tree trunk, causing her to cry out in pain.

As Sasuke squeezed her windpipe, her vision blurred, and she thought she could spot a certain depravity. The black spots expanded like dripping ink in her vision. Just as her eyelids began to lower, Sasuke released her throat.

Gasping for breath, Hinata held her bruised neck. Her knees buckled, but Sasuke caught the scruff of her jacket before she could fall. He still wouldn't let her slip off. Instead he pulled her up to his height with ease.

"What is wrong with you today, Hyuuga?" he inquired testily.

Hinata was still breathless, her skin flushed. "Mirai Sasuke said that…that something b-bad, is g-going to h-happen to me," he forced out.

Genzai Sasuke tilted his head. "What?"

Hinata opened her mouth to respond, but her words seemed to get caught in her throat. Instead she pressed her lips and looked away.

"Why would he warn you?" Genzai Sasuke tried a different approach. "Why would he care?"

Was the inquiry for his benefit, or hers? She felt like she was in the academy again, and Iruka-sensei was asking her to analyze an ambiguous text. "He's my c-comerade," Hinata echoed Mirai Sasuke's words.

Genzai Sasuke scoffed and shook his head. "Why are you so stupid?" he muttered, and made the mistake of releasing her.

Hinata closed their distance, biting Sasuke's neck before he had the chance to react. Her fingers gripped his shirt as she felt his heart race faster. He tasted salty, like sweat, but it didn't bother her. She stood there and counted the beats of his pulse on his carotid artery where it was nestled within her jaw. It would take her a fraction of a second to bite it out, after which Sasuke would die.

He grunted in pain when her teeth tightened on him. He had underestimated her capacity for savagery. He was not good with kunoichi, and she exploited that.

It almost seemed a shame to kill him, there. Despite his present, taunting self, he was meant to develop into a decent enough man. Mirai Sasuke was commanding, but quiet, and not unkindly towards others. He was patient, fatherly, and…sort of protective. Sometimes he talked to her with a fastidious amount of tactfulness. He treated her like glass, but…he treated her well.

Hinata relaxed her jaw, her impulse resigned. She was left standing there, against Sasuke, her lips to his skin. She finally pulled away from him, with an abashed shrug. "No doujutsu," she said with a bloody grin. And then her eyes rolled upwards, and she collapsed in his arms.

He dropped down to the ground and rested her against the tree, wondering whether he should have been peeved that Hyuuga Hinata had...

Bitten him.

Genzai Sasuke swallowed.

Hinata. She was...

Very odd, Sasuke decided, touching his neck and feeling...

Odd.

He scratched the back of his head, which wasn't something he did, so he quickly dropped his arm. He was aware that the Hyuuga had weirdly marked him in a way, and he felt offended, but also mortified, and a little bit awed. He was flooded with a jumbled myriad of emotions that he was not accustomed to having to deal with. Nothing ever had this impact on him. He felt utterly disconcerted.

He wondered if Sakura would heal him, but then dismissed the idea, and self-consciously tugged his collar up. Then he wondered if the bite would leave a scar, after which his uneasiness increased exponentially.

He reminded himself that it had been an attack, and nothing to be em…embarrassed about. It was all just part of the spar. Hinata had been testing out the assault, as she had every right to. If anything, he was at fault for falling victim to an established kunoichi finishing-move. The more time he spent in Konoha, the more Sasuke was becoming acquainted with the weaknesses of his gender. It was his fault for getting soft, and worst, for lowering his guard.

I learned something today, Sasuke mused, and it wasn't often that he did. He should have been appreciative.

The sun was setting, and Sasuke deeply wanted to leave, in fact, to put as much distance between himself and the Hyuuga as possible. Walking away, however, would only validate his vulnerabilities. Besides that, it didn't seem right to leave her alone and unconscious in the forest.

She was flushed and sweaty, her skin burning, as though she was feverish with stress. He had tried taking her jacket off, but had stopped at seeing the tank top she was wearing beneath it, not because it was inappropriate, but because she was more developed than most other girls, and timid about it, and it…really wasn't his place to expose her.

Fucking Hyuuga. He scratched his head as he paced, but then pocked his hands, but then folded his arms across his chest.

Maybe it was worth it to acknowledge that she made him uncomfortable. Maybe this was actually...progress.

He mostly found interest in Genzai Hinata based on her subtle similarities to Kasai, and the fleeting glimpses of her body that served as a distraction during training. He considered both of these things to be tangible reasons to pursue the girl, things he could tabulate like math on one of the academy chalkboards. But when he added in these uncomfortable feelings, things got harder to explain. He had experienced fleeting glimpses of it around Hinata in their past encounters, but it had been nothing like this present barrage of it that unnerved and repelled him. The uncomfortable feelings, as he deemed them, were presently dominating him, if evidenced by his current mental distress. Pragmatism had flown out the window by that point as he considered vital differences between the two versions of the woman.

Mirai Hinata was an enigma. He could put his fascination for her into words. She was calculating, strong, aloof and threatening. The way she carried herself was what drew him in, and there was no denying that they were compatible.

Genzai Hinata was small, feeble, pitiable, and pathologically shy. There was no logic in what set her apart. Yet she was the one who made his heart pound. She was significant in an ineffable, queasy, alarming way, that left him mentally imploding, as he paced there, fidgeting like a school child. What was this, anxiety? He didn't like it. He wanted no part of this shit.

Sasuke abruptly stopped and faced the unconscious Hyuuga. "I would have never noticed you if it wasn't for Kasai," he stated flatly. The sharingan revolved. He was not sure when it had activated, and couldn't have shut it off had he tried. He wondered if this was what was meant when people spoke of Uchihas being emotional. But he shoved these thoughts aside, and continued to try to rationalize.

Before Kasai, he had not known Hinata's name. Before Kasai, she had been irrelevant. Perhaps he was mistaken in assuming that Hinata was the child's mother. Perhaps it was a mix-up with a girl who wouldn't flee, or bite, or rouse anxiety.

Much as he tried to distance himself from the uncomfortable feelings, he forced himself to stay put. It was then that Hinata stirred, and awoke, her white eyes lifting. Sasuke knelt down to face her, and their gazes locked.

"You bit me," he said icily.

"S-sorry," she said, her face still flushed. She was giving him the same foggy look as before. He attributed it to weariness, but then she trembled somewhat.

"I want you to speak to me," he said impatiently. "And then..." he trailed off, not sure why the distance between them was decreasing, their eyes half-lidded, and the Hyuuga's lips shining. "And then..." He felt her breath pressing his face, warm, and short, and surrendering.

He heard the whispers of bodies in the leaves. The two looked up as figures appeared in the surrounding branches. Hinata drew up her knees and blushed deeply. Sasuke climbed back up to his feet.

Kakashi landed lightly beside them, glancing curiously from one to the next. "I said no doujutsu." He raised a brow to Sasuke's glowing eyes.

Sasuke ignored him, pocked his hands, and stared off.

So it was Hinata.