Chapter 10

Not So Subtle Differences

~Chapter 10~

To say the last few days crawled by slowly would have been a gross understatement in Hinata's opinion. In her mind it seemed time had almost stopped completely. The last few days blurred together into tortuous gray nothingness.

Her stomach was tied in knots and sleeping was nearly impossible for her. Whenever she tried to study she sat there and looked at the journal he gave her and could only admire his penmanship.

To make it worse, her father hadn't spoken to her at all, so she still didn't know how or when he was going to punish her. Whenever he was around her he would only stare at her with a strange almost speculative look on his face, before he would just ignore her completely.

Hinata was a wreck - a bundle of nerves, distracted, and completely on edge.

Sighing to herself as she walked to her training class, she knew there was only one thing that was going to make it all better for her. She pulled out the now crumpled looking note he gave her and lightly ran her finger over the writing on it, and noticed the fact that it was written in purple ink still made her smile.

"Hinata wait up!"

She heard her sister's strident voice yell out to her and hurriedly shoved Itachi's note back into her pocket.

"Yes Hanabi?" She replied somewhat distractedly when her sister caught up to her.

Hanabi looked at her older sister with worried eyes and blamed some of it on that bastard father of theirs. He was obviously plotting something against Hinata, but she hadn't been able to find out what yet.

"You look tired," Hanabi stated bluntly.

Hinata smiled wanly at her little sister thinking how overprotective she was sometimes.

"I am fine," she replied with a falsely reassuring smile.

Hanabi rolled her eyes skeptically. "Whatever...I just wanted to let you know Mikoto sent me a message after you left, inviting us to lunch and shopping with her. She wants to help us find dresses to wear for the Valentine's Day party."

A spark of interest entered Hinata's eyes at the thought of having Mikoto's help with finding a dress for the party. If left on her own, Hinata would have just ended up wearing last year's dress. Shopping for clothes, and pouring over fashion magazines, just wasn't her thing.

However, this year was different - she wanted to look her best, in case he attended.

"Okay, where do you want me to meet you?"

"We'll meet you in front of the hospital and walk to the shopping district from there," Hanabi told her sister as she began walking away. A frustrated grin formed over her face as she hoped the Uchiha would get back from his mission soon, so her sister would finally stop moping around.

"Okay, bye Hanabi," Hinata said as she waved to her sister and headed over to her training class.

Staring out the window during class, Hinata doodled on her paper with her purple pen and tried to concentrate on the material being taught at the front of the small classroom by Shizune. Looking at the sky and the puffy clouds she knew she it was no use, she could only think about Itachi and how he said he would be back from his mission today.

Her lips curved in a soft smile as she remembered how his lips touched her forehead lightly when he laid her down the other night, she had thought she had dreamt it, but she knew it really happened.

Tapping her purple pen against her lips, she hoped he wanted to see her again…

"Class dismissed." Shizune told the class. Turning toward Hinata she beckoned her towards her. "Hinata, come see me, for a moment before you leave."

Gathering up her books with a sigh, Hinata was upset at herself for allowing her personal life to interfere with her ninja duties. She took her job as a ninja extremely seriously, and always took pride in herself that she never allowed anything to keep her from performing at her very best. Tightening her lips slightly in determination, she promised herself she would do better tomorrow, and be completely on task—no matter what.

"You wanted to see me Shizune?" Hinata asked her when she came up to her desk.

"Y-es Hinata," the older ninja replied somewhat hesitantly. "I've noticed you're not as focused as you normally are while you are here. Is everything alright with you?"

Hinata was somewhat touched at Shizune's concern for her, but still felt bad for allowing her emotions to distract her from what was really important in her life.

"I-I'm sorry Shizune, I promise to be more focused from now on," Hinata replied a little evasively. It had been drummed into her since childhood to never disclose family or personal problems to anyone. She was to bear her burdens silently, and never complain, because that was the Hyuga way.

"Okay, well, I am here if you need me and I expect you to come back tomorrow focused and ready to go, I don't want you to fall behind."

"I'm not worried about that," Hinata admitted to her as she pulled the journal out that Itachi wrote for her and showed it to her. "I've been getting some help with training."

"What is this?" Shizune asked her curiously. "I've seen you reading it, but just thought it was some notes you took in class."

Blushing, Hinata looked at the notebook. "They're not my notes, Uchiha Itachi gave them to me…he told me he went through the course before he entered ANBU Black Ops."

Shizune looked at her with a knowing smirk on her face. "So the rumors about the two of you are true, huh?"

Which ones? Hinata thought with bitter amusement as she let out a frustrated sigh. Over the past few days she has had to fend off rumors about the two of them that, at times, bordered on the ridiculous.

"We are only friends," Hinata answered weakly, without much conviction in her voice.

Shizune didn't answer as she was too busy reading through the notes with a slightly amazed look on her face.

"These notes are incredible; he broke it all down so simply that it would be impossible to not be able to understand it," she said more to herself than to Hinata. Looking up she saw the Hokage outside the door.

"Hey Tsunade, I need to show you something," she called out to her boss.

"What is it Shizune?" The Hokage asked impatiently as she walked into the classroom.

"Uchiha Itachi wrote these notes out for Hinata from when he took the medic training course before entering ANBU."

Raising her eyebrows with curiosity, the Hokage took the notebook from her and began scanning through it.

After only a few minutes she had already made up her mind, this material needed to be published, and used as additional training material in the basic medic course. Looking through the back of the journal she decided the information on advanced chakra training should be published separately and given to the academy for the advanced students to use over there.

"He never ceases to amaze me," Tsunade said shaking her head in amused incredulousness.

"Why is that?" Hinata asked her with a slight frown on her forehead.

"I wasn't here at the time, but I have heard that Uchiha Itachi holds the record for passing the medic course and survival course in the shortest time ever. What normally takes six full weeks of training…he learned in just one day…and completely aced both tests the next morning," she told her in slightly awed tones as even she who was an acclaimed medical genius didn't pass the course as quickly as he did.

"The scary part of all it is…" Shizune added with a grin. "I heard he was only about 11 years old when he did it."

Hinata sat there and listened fascinated as she heard just how incredibly smart he really was. It made her like him even more because he never flaunted his intelligence or tried to make people feel like idiots around him, like her cousin and Sakura sometimes did.

"Hinata, I need to borrow this and get copies made of it," The Hokage told her and Hinata knew she had to give it up, as it wasn't a request.

She nodded her head and felt a little lost without it, the last few days it never left her side, except when she was training, and even then she took it with her. In fact she even slept with it.

Tsunade looked at her with amusement and realized the rumors and what Mikoto told her about the two of them were true, they were definitely a couple.

Looking at the relationship rationally, she thought it would be perfect, not only for the two of them, but also for the village. An alliance between the Hyuuga and Uchiha would finally put an end to the stupid bickering between the two clans. And when she thought about the offspring they would produce together, she became positively gleeful.

"I'll give the notebook back to you next week," Tsunade promised Hinata as she handed it to Shizune to take care of it.

"Okay," Hinata replied as her shoulders drooped a tiny bit.

"Hinata, would you like to join me for lunch?" The Hokage asked her as the younger ninja was leaving, seeing her as a good chance to escape work for a while.

"Well, I am already supposed to meet my sister and Mikoto to go to lunch and then shopping," she told her apologetically.

At the mention of lunch, shopping and Mikoto all in one sentence, the Hokage was already grabbing her things.

"I'll be right back Shizune," she told her assistant as she was walking out the door and pulling Hinata along with her, and was gone before Shizune could even begin to complain.

Releasing a super long suffering sigh, Shizune walked over and pushed a button and an ANBU member appeared.

"Okay, I am ordering a code pink for now, which, if they are still out after 2000 hours tonight, will become a code red."

"Hai, understood ma'am", the ANBU member said and swallowed nervously before he dissipated. He knew this time if the Hokage ended up married to someone, heads were definitely going to roll.

A couple hours later of hanging out with the Hokage and Mikoto, Hinata and Hanabi were beginning to feel exhausted and couldn't bear the thought of going into any-more stores. They were both carrying bags full of clothes the older ladies told them they just had to have.

Hinata thought about the clothes in the bags and had to admit, Mikoto and the Hokage had excellent taste. Her and Hanabi were about the same when it came to shopping for clothes, neither one of them liked it. Most of the formal kimonos, and the clothes they had to wear to dinner were provided by the clan's seamstresses.

"Gah, this shopping is cutting into my training time," Hanabi complained to her sister when she got her alone for a moment.

"Well, you have to admit you are going to look great in that workout outfit Mikoto made you buy," Hinata told her with a smile trying to stay positive.

"Whatever," her little sister scoffed. "When I get a body like yours, then maybe I will care about what I put on it. Right now, I just end up destroying all my clothes during training."

Hinata blushed at her sister's compliment, but noticed her clothes were hanging on her slightly after losing so much weight from her bout with the stomach flu. And then, over the past few days she just hadn't felt like eating much.

In front of them, Mikoto and the Hokage had just spotted a formal dress shop. And where they were already heading toward it with a single minded intensity that was beginning to make Hinata and Hanabi a little nervous, as they both knew it was going to be a while before they got out of this store.

"Oh crap," Hanabi complained.

"Well Hanabi, we still need dresses for the Valentine's day party," Hinata reminded her reasonably.

"I know, let's just get this over with," her sister muttered irritably.

An hour later Hanabi was squirming in a chair almost chomping at the bit to leave when Hinata came over to her and told her she had one last dress to try on and then they would leave.

Mikoto and the Hokage had noticed Tenten when she came in and saw she had no taste what-so-ever, they just had to help her out. They were fighting over what color would look best on her when Hinata stepped out of the dressing room, and stood in the front of the store in front of a large three way mirror.

"So, w-what do you think?" She asked them with a slight blush. The back was still open slightly as she couldn't close it all the way. The dress was lavender shot with silver threads sewn through it so that when the light hit it just right, it shimmered a silvery mist color.

"You look lovely, dear," Mikoto told her mistily as she dabbed a tear from her eye. "You look just like your mother did when she was your age."

Everyone began to gush over her and Hinata was slightly embarrassed by all of the attention. Turning to look at herself in the mirror, she thought she looked nice, but didn't know what all the fuss was about.

Just as she began walking towards the fitting room to change, Itachi walked through the front door and stood there frozen after he saw her.

Hinata turned when she saw the door open and saw him standing there and seeing the almost stunned expression on his face, her heart slammed into her ribs as she stared back at him.

Itachi quickly pulled himself together as he began walking toward her, and noticed all of the eyes watching the two of them. A few of them he noticed belonged to his mother and the Hokage.

Tired of people always watching the two of them, he used his chakra-enhanced speed and propelled himself to the back of the store and swept her into the fitting room, closing the door behind them with a decisive snap.

Out of breath and in a very tight space the two of them stood there almost touching as they stared at each other.

"You're back," Hinata breathed out the first thing she could think of to say.

"Yes, my team and I returned from our mission about an hour ago," Itachi told her as his warm onyx eyes began to slowly search her face and drift lower.

After reporting in to headquarters, he immediately took a shower, changed clothes and came looking for her. In his need to see her, he hadn't even been home yet.

Hinata swallowed nervously as she watched as he put his hands around her face and began lowering his head towards hers.

Her heart began hammering like a wild captive bird when she saw he was going to kiss her.

Oh kami!

A surge of excitement swept through her as she lifted her face eagerly toward his, Hinata slowly began to close her eyes as his mouth touched hers. Sliding her hands around his shoulders she leaned into him as she felt his hands burying themselves in her hair and pulling her closer to him.

Knock-knock-knock, a cane rapped against the door.

"You two get out of there - I need to use it. Go make out somewhere else," a crotchety old lady griped through the door.

"Back off, old lady," Mikoto threatened as she bore down on her, bristling in defence of her future grandchildren. The irritated old lady quickly left when she saw the Hokage standing behind her with folded arms.

"It's alright now, my dears, you just take all the time you need," Mikoto told them soothingly through the door before walking away with a huge smile on her face.

Grinning and blushing at the absurdity of it all, Hinata buried her too-warm face in his chest. She began to melt into him when she felt his hand caress the nape of her neck. After a few moments of holding her he backed away from her and looked down at her.

"Have dinner with me tonight?" He asked her as his warm eyes roamed over her face.

"Alright, where do you want to go?" She replied breathlessly without any hesitation as she felt herself sinking further into depths of those dark eyes of his.

"Denali's" Itachi stated in a low voice before leaning over and trailing sensual kisses down the side of her face. "I will pick you up at your house at seven."

Hinata froze as she remembered her father. She just knew it would get ugly if Itachi came to her house to take her out.

"No, I will… meet you there," she told him in a slightly tremulous voice as she prayed he wouldn't dig deeper into the reason why she didn't want him meeting with her father.

As Itachi looked down at her and saw how anxious she became at the mention of him going to her house, he knew it had to be something with her father.

"Fine, I will meet you there," he conceded not wanting to upset her further.

Hinata looked up at him with gratitude. "I will, um… talk to you about it later," she promised him hesitantly with a weak smile.

He nodded before he made a hand-sign and began to fade out.

Collapsing against the side of the fitting room, Hinata lightly touched her lips to remind herself he had been here with her and…kissed her.

Noise from outside soon brought her back to reality and forced her to begin to change her clothes. As she got dressed, a dazed smile lit her face as she thought of going out with him and hoped maybe he would kiss her again.

Standing outside the dressing room door, Mikoto waited for Hinata to come out. As she waited her mind kept replaying the way her son had stared at Hinata. She had never seen him look at anything or anyone like that before; she had seen a rare but fleeting and unguarded glimpse of just how much her son cared for her, and was stunned.

In his whole life, Itachi had never needed anyone, in fact, she mused to herself. He practically raised himself to supremely self-sufficient adulthood with very little help from her or Fugaku. And throughout the years, he proceeded to raise Sasuke as well. Even when he was younger, he was always more of an adult than he ever was a child.

Deep down, she knew he loved all of them, especially Sasuke. But she had always wondered if he had the emotional capacity to care for others in a normal sense, or for some reason he was just indifferent to it all.

Smiling secretly to herself as she looked at the door, she realized her son, did indeed have the capacity to love. And judging by the way he looked at Hinata - it was probably more than most people had.

Hinata stepped outside the door and was shocked when Mikoto pulled her into a tight hug.

"Thank you so much, dearest," Itachi's mother whispered emotionally.

Hinata clung to her not quite understanding why Mikoto was acting that way, but was touched by it nonetheless.

"Well, I am not sure what I did…but you're welcome," she replied with gentle politeness.

Mikoto just smiled at her and shook her head as she thought just how perfect she was for her son.

"Never mind dear," she said as she tucked her arm around Hinata and began leading her to the front of the store. "So, where is he taking you tonight?"

Blushing profusely, Hinata muttered weakly, "Denali's."

At her mention of Konoha's swankiest and most romantic restaurant they all squealed and gathered around her, except for Hanabi who was supremely bored by all of it, and just wanted to go home.

Within moments the Hokage and Mikoto found a stunning black dress and forced her back into the dressing room.

"Are you thinking what I am thinking Mikoto?" The Hokage asked her friend suddenly as they looked at the dressing room door.

A knowing grin lit her features as she smiled back at her. "Oh yeah, I am with you on this one."

They both looked at each other and said the word out-loud. "Make-over!"

Inside the fitting room Hinata blanched paper-white, and prepared herself for a long couple of hours.

Author's Note: Hope you all enjoyed.