Author's Note: So, uh... my bad. I may have disappeared for a bit. But I'm back! And I'm excited to get this story going again. I really want to thank you guys for all the reviews and messages. It's kind of amazing to me that even though I hadn't updated this in so long, I still had people asking about it and commenting on it. You guys are seriously the best.

So without further ado, here's the next chapter. I didn't do my usual editing because I was so eager to post so feel free to let me know if I have any errors or whatnot. Enjoy!

Chapter Ten

Hinata hadn't been able to stay at work. Itachi's sudden, intense confession had left her feeling flustered, overwhelmed, and quite restless. After an hour of attempting to force herself to focus she burst out of her office, wished her secretary a good weekend in passing, and made a beeline to her car.

Finally inside her small, purple car, she used her bluetooth to call TenTen. Her friend was supposed to be coming over after work to talk about her date, but she desperately needed to talk to someone right then. Her only current comfort was that she knew the brunette wouldn't judge her for anything she was thinking.

TenTen had received the panicked call from her friend and promptly made her way out of her office. She wasn't as free to come and go as her boyfriend and best friend were - not that they ever really took advantage of it, anyway - but she had done her boss a favor earlier in the week and knew that she wouldn't be in trouble for cutting out an hour early. Especially on a Friday.

She pulled up in front of Hinata's house and opened the front door, half expecting to find her best friend suffering from one of her anxiety attacks. They were very rare nowadays, but had been frequent back when they were in school and she had quite a bit of experience in helping her through them. Luckily it didn't seem as though the Hyuga was having trouble breathing, but the fact that she was pacing and muttering to herself was still not a good sign.

"I'm here," she announced herself, and the look of relief in Hinata's wide eyes was enough to make her rush over and give her a hug.

Hinata clung to her, breathing deeply in a pattern she had learned in a meditation class to help her control her nerves. It was definitely time to find out what had happened.

Ever the hostess, Hinata opened her mouth to offer some tea, but TenTen cut her off before she could even get the words out.

"I'm fine. What I need right now is to know what's gotten into you."

She knew Hinata's lunch with Itachi had been today, and that she had been nervous about it, but she had no idea what could have happened to work her friend into such a frenzy.

They sat down together on the couch, one looking down as she wrung her hands and the other waiting patiently for her to begin talking.

"He, um, he likes me."

TenTen waited for a moment for Hinata to elaborate, maybe give her some context or something more to go on - anything, really - but she was silent.

"Okay," she said slowly, "Is that a bad thing?"

When Hinata's head snapped up, eyes filled with tears, she felt like it was indeed a bad thing, but she had no idea why.

"Is he mean? Was he too forceful about it? Did he threaten you?"

Inky tresses whipped back and forth as Hinata shook her head vigorously.

"No, he was amazing! He's kind and gentle and so, so thoughtful…" she trailed off sounding like she was both revelling in and regretting the memory.

"Alright, so he's wonderful. Is this about his reputation? I know I've heard som-"

"No!" Hinata cut her off before she could even finish. "He's not like that."

TenTen looked skeptical. That's exactly what playboys want you to think. That they aren't actually heartbreakers who sleep with anything on two legs that interests them for more than a few minutes, that the person they are targeting is special and they just hadn't found someone like them before.

It seemed Hinata could sense her skepticism because she added, "I have it on good authority that that's not the kind of person he is."

"Good authority? It's not Sasuke is it, because I'm not sure I'd trust his opinion on that."

"I-it was Hoshigaki Kisame."

TenTen's mouth dropped open and she stared for a moment. "Hoshigaki Kisame? As in the Hoshigaki Kisame from the food blog and food television? The one who just opened a restaurant that was so popular before it even opened that it's still impossible to get a table? That Hoshigaki Kisame?"

Hinata nodded in confirmation. "That's actually where we ate today. He took me to Samehada for lunch."

TenTen whistled. He had certainly gone all out.

"Even for an Uchiha, a table must have been hard to get at that place. And he only got you to agree to lunch yesterday!"

"Apparently Itachi and Kisame are good friends, best friends since University. He's basically guaranteed a table whenever he wants to go, even if they have to fit him in the kitchen."

In her state of shock upon hearing the location of Hinata's lunch date, TenTen had forgotten that Kisame had been the one to vouch for Itachi's trustworthiness. Normally, she may have been suspicious. After all, it was entirely possible for a rich guy to pay someone to vouch for him. It certainly wasn't unheard of, but apparently they were truly friends.

"What exactly did Kisame say to you?"

She did have to wonder if some of it wasn't just Kisame being a wingman, talking up his best friend.

"He told me to be careful with Itachi. He said that Itachi doesn't trust many people and that he would do anything for the people he cares about. He said he could tell that Itachi really liked me - even though I kept insisting we were just there as friends - and that I shouldn't start anything with him unless I was sure. He didn't want to see his friend get hurt."

TenTen felt herself bristle with indignance. As if her sweet friend was capable of hurting anyone! Before she could say anything rude about him, though, she looked at the worried face of said friend and brought herself back to the situation at hand.

"I'm still not really understanding why it's so bad that Itachi likes you. I mean, he's rich, he's gorgeous, and apparently he's also an amazing human being, so…" she trailed off as Hinata looked like she was about to burst into tears.

"I can't be with someone like him! He's too wonderful! How am I supposed to live up to someone like that?"

Honestly TenTen was surprised at the outburst. She'd thought her friend had gotten over most of her insecurities years ago, but here they were resurfacing.

"Now, Hinata, you know that you're just as amazing. You're smart, beautiful, and probably the nicest person I know. You worked your ass off in your company to prove to some old geezers that you are capable and I'm pretty sure they're just some old sexist pigs who thought your brain was smaller because you're female. It had nothing to do with how capable you actually are because you know you're damn good at what you do. I don't want to hear any of this 'I'm not good enough for him' nonsense because that is bullshit."

At this point Hinata put her head in her hands and mumbled something that Tenten couldn't hear.

She leaned over to her friend and gently moved her hands away from her face, dismayed when she saw her cheeks wet with tears. "I'm sorry, I didn't hear what you said."

The Hyuga took a deep breath, before replying, "I already ruined it! I slept with Sasuke. That's his brother, TenTen. I slept with his brother!"

The brunette's mouth formed an o and she sat back for a moment, before pulling Hinata to her and letting her cry on her shoulder.

She felt bad for her, truly. Hinata had never done anything crazy in her life and then last weekend she goes out and agrees to some revenge scheme and sleeps with Sasuke. It was so strange, so out of character, and now she finally meets a wonderful guy who is apparently crazy about her and it has to be Sasuke's brother. The situation was really awful.

As TenTen sat there, providing silent support to her distraught best friend, she was startled to realize the real reason Hinata was so upset with the fact that Itachi liked her. Hinata liked him. For some reason, that possibility hadn't struck her immediately. Hinata had been interested in Naruto for so long that most of their friends couldn't even comprehend the idea of her falling for someone else.

That was, of course, ridiculous, but for so long Hinata's love for Naruto had been a huge part of who she was. During their breakup, the Hyuga had confided in her that although she was emotionally hurt by their split, she was also terrified of losing that part of herself. Hinata was old enough and mature enough to realize that she shouldn't just continue to pine after someone who didn't love her back, but her feelings for Naruto had become a part of who she was and suddenly she had to change that.

Personally, TenTen thought Hinata was much healthier this way. It was never good to base your identity around another person. Hinata had spent almost all of her childhood trying to please her impossible father. She was told by her family that she was never good enough, never smart enough, never quick enough. At first the young Hyuga had just admired Naruto; she had been inspired by his drive and his determination - two things she desperately lacked. Later, though that admiration had morphed into romantic feelings. She had been blind to his faults, ever forgiving and when he broke things off it was like this grand illusion she had built for herself had broken.

When Hinata had first told her about what happened with Sasuke, TenTen had been excited because she thought her friend had finally taken a step toward being open to dating. She hadn't thought she would find someone she liked so quickly. And she certainly hadn't expected it to be Sasuke's older, elusive brother. Aside from all of the rumors of his womanizing, which she now knew were untrue, the man was basically untouchable. And now he was interested in Hinata.

Quite frankly, she thought they would make a good match. From what she knew about him, Itachi was interested in some of the same things, donated to a lot of the same charities as her friend, and he knew what it was like to do the kind of job that Hinata did. Of course, the fact that he was gorgeous didn't hurt anything.

"Hinata, I know what happened with Sasuke isn't ideal or anything, but…" TenTen hesitated for a moment. She knew what she was about to say would sound strange and Hinata might not go for it, but she felt like she should point it out, "Itachi doesn't seem to mind, right? I mean, he knows what happened last weekend. And he still went to the trouble to get you to agree to go out with him and told you how he felt."

Hinata looked at TenTen like she was crazy.

"I know it sounds weird, but it's true isn't it? He knows about everything and he doesn't seem to care…"

"But TenTen, I slept with his brother."

"Yeah…" she had tried, but it was hard to argue with that.

"And I'm supposed to meet Sasuke again tonight. I think he's expecting to make some big scene again and then I'm supposed to go home with him. But I just don't feel like I can do it! And I can't see Itachi right now, I just can't. Not after what happened. I don't want to hurt his feelings, but I just can't imagine anything good coming from us dating. I mean what kind of healthy relationship starts that way?"

Hinata started to tear up again and TenTen reached out to hug her.

"It's okay. You don't have to do anything you don't want to. Why don't you message Sasuke and tell him you can't come? You can just say you don't feel well or something. And if he gives you crap then I'll kick his ass. We'll just have a nice girls weekend. We can do those face masks we got like a month ago and paint each others nails. It'll be fun!"

Hinata sniffled a bit, but couldn't help the small smile that came to her face as she nodded. She was so lucky to have a friend like TenTen.

Sasuke was in the middle of a conference call when he felt his personal phone buzz in his pocket. He pulled it out and frowned when he read the message.

I'm not feeling well and won't be able to come out tonight. Sorry.

First his brother had shut himself in his office and asked not to be disturbed. Now Hinata was "not feeling well." Something had obviously happened at lunch this afternoon, but what could have gone wrong? Those two were ridiculously compatible as far as he was concerned, and he felt like he had a pretty solid foundation for that assumption. He'd known one his whole life and the other for most of it, getting to know her better during the two years she dated his best friend.

Itachi had told Sasuke the night before where he was planning to take Hinata and he was sure Kisame wouldn't have allowed anything to go wrong while Itachi was there. They hadn't been gone long enough for them to have gone anywhere besides the restaurant, so what could it have been?

As soon as his call was over, he walked out of his office and down the hall to his brother's office. He knocked and tried the knob, but found the door was locked. His frown deepened.

"Itachi," he said through the door.

"I'm busy, Sasuke."

"Itachi, I know this isn't about work. Just let me in."

"I'm in the middle of something."

"Don't make me try to get the key from your secretary," Sasuke threatened. He didn't honestly think he could get the old woman to give it to him - she was very loyal - but he was banking on the fact that Itachi didn't want to put her through that. Being caught between the brothers was never a comfortable situation.

After a few seconds, Sasuke heard the clicking of the lock and the door opened slightly, revealing an ever so slightly annoyed looking Itachi.

"What do you want?"

"I want to know what happened at lunch," the younger brother said, not backing down despite Itachi's intimidating demeanor.

Onyx eyes narrowed. "Nothing happened, now I need to get back to work," the eldest said before starting to shut the door.

Sasuke stopped the door with his foot.

"Don't lie to me. First you go all shut-in and now Hinata won't come out tonight. Something happened and I want to know what it was."

Itachi sighed, knowing there was little use arguing. Sasuke would definitely stoop low enough to call their mother and by then this would be much more troublesome than it already was.

"Fine, come in," Itachi said before disappearing back into his office.

Sasuke shut and locked the door behind him, knowing his brother would appreciate it. Itachi sat back down at his desk and began typing again.

After another minute of silence, Sasuke rolled his eyes. "Look, I'm already here. You might as well talk about it."

The sound of typing ceased and Itachi stilled for a moment before saying, "She doesn't like me."

Sasuke was skeptical.

"Like, as a person? Seems unlikely."

Itachi looked at his brother with narrowed eyes. He was not in the mood for his sarcasm at the moment.

"You know what I mean."

"Did she say that?"

Itachi tensed. "She didn't have to. It was pretty clear."

Sasuke sighed. He was glad his brother was comfortable enough with him to show this side of himself, but it was kind of strange seeing him act like this.

"Alright, why don't you just tell me what happened."

"We went to the restaurant, Kisame gave her a tour, we ate and talked, and then when we drove back I noticed she wasn't looking at me. I thought I'd upset her so I asked her what I had done. She insisted she wasn't upset, but still refused to look at me so I thought that maybe she believed all those rumors about me and I should clear things up. Once I did that she proceeded to flee from my presence."

"Flee seems like a strong word."

"Trust me. She fled."

"What did you say to her? Did you tell her you didn't sleep with a lot of people?"

"No, I thought that would be something that a guy who actually did those things would say. I didn't want her to think I was lying to her."

"Okay, so what did you say?"

"I told her how I felt about her."

Sasuke narrowed his eyes. Did Itachi mean what he thought he meant?

"What exactly did you tell her?"

"I'm not going to go word by word. Suffice it to say I told her I'd been observing her for a while and that I have strong feelings for her. I said that I wanted to get to know her and that I thought our lives would meld perfectly together."

Sasuke put his head in his hands.

"Oh my god, you didn't."

Itachi furrowed his brows, unsure why his brother looked so horrified.

"Of course I did. I wanted her to know I was genuinely interested in her. I didn't want her to think I was just trying to sleep with her."

"Fuck, Itachi, you can't just say shit like that. Today wasn't even a date!"

"Yes it was. It was a lunch date."

"Did you say the word 'date' when you invited her? If not, then she might not have thought of it as a date. And you can't tell a girl you're not even dating that you've been watching her and think you would be perfect together. You sound like a stalker."

Itachi reflected on his brother's words while Sasuke raked a hand through his hair. His older brother was a genius in pretty much everything, but he was too damn intense sometimes. If this was some girl that was already chasing him then it'd be fine, but this was Hinata. No wonder she'd run off. He'd probably freaked her the hell out.

"Look, I'm not saying that you need to play hard to get or anything. It's just that Hinata went through a bad break up less than a year ago with the only guy she's ever had feelings for. She's a little traumatized and you need to take it slow with her."

"You didn't take it slow," Itachi said, as his lips thinned.

"That was different."

"I'm not sure it was. You seem very concerned with her feelings. And you are obviously attracted to her. I saw you about to kiss her in your office. You can't tell me that everything you are doing right now is a show. I believed you at first because I didn't think you had a reason to lie to me, but I know when you aren't telling me the whole truth. And I think I have a right to know."

Sasuke sighed. He really didn't want to talk to his brother about this. Itachi was the kind of guy who would sacrifice his happiness, his whole life for the people he cared about. Then again, he had kind of slept with the girl Itachi liked and then thrown them in each other's way. He supposed his brother deserved an explanation if his relationship with Hinata did end up going anywhere.

"I might have thought about dating Hinata. I might have even started to have some feelings for her at one point. But she was with Naruto and that was fine because he'd never had someone like her and I was happy for him. It's part of why I was so pissed when he broke up with her.

"I admit that I thought about asking her out myself, but what I said to you last week was true. I'm not ready to settle down right now. I'm really focused on work and I enjoy going out. And I think she deserves better than what I could give her. You're the best person I know and I know you'd treat her right. I'd noticed your attentions toward her so after what happened, I thought I might help you out.

"I know what I did was selfish and probably stupid, but I can't be that sorry about it because I wanted it. But I meant it when I said it won't happen again. So you don't have to worry about me."

Itachi let out the breath he had been holding. He'd had his suspicions, but having them confirmed was something else entirely. If he'd known the full story then he'd never have started this in the first place.

Sasuke could see his brother thinking and knew where his mind was going, "Stop. Seriously, stop. I didn't tell you all that just for you to decide not to pursue her anymore because of me. I really think you guys would be good for each other."

"Isn't the idea of this scheme of yours to get Naruto to realize his mistake? What if he wants to get back with her when you're done?"

The younger of the two shook his head. "Nah, it won't happen. Hinata's definitely over him. Last weekend proved it. Besides, are you honestly telling me you are worried about losing to Naruto in something?"

Onyx eyes flashed and Sasuke smirked. His brother was extremely competitive. Itachi started to say something, but stopped for a moment.

"This whole conversation is moot as Hinata is not interested in me."

"She was probably just flustered. You kind of ambushed her so you can't really blame her for freaking out."

"Fine. Then what do you suggest I do?"

Sasuke wanted so badly to tease his brother about asking him for advice, but he knew if he did the conversation would be over. Deciding he would just have to hold it over his brother's head later (and relishing in the fact that he finally had something to hold over his perfect brother's head), he stood up.

"You know, just normal stuff. Send her flowers. Buy her some coffee or tea or whatever. Give her a little space then see if you can spend some time with her. Give her the opportunity to get to know you without, you know, practically proposing to her. If you give her a little time I'm sure she'll come around."

Having accomplished what he came for, Sasuke made his way to the door. Before he could step outside, however, Itachi spoke.

"Sasuke, are you sure about this?"

The younger man paused, hand still on the doorknob. This was really his last chance. He could tell that his brother was serious about Hinata and if he didn't want him to pursue her, now was the time to tell him. He gripped the knob a bit tighter, and didn't turn to face his brother when replying, "Absolutely. I want you two to be happy."

He swiftly made his way back to his office, not sure how he felt about what had just transpired. He didn't realize his older brother was in much the same state.

Well there you have it! I hope this explains some of their mental and emotional states better. Hinata can tell she's attracted to Itachi and could start to have feelings for him, but feels like she already screwed things up too badly to go for it. Itachi is not used to being rejected and is also hesitating because of his brother. Sasuke had some feelings for her, but knew that Itachi did too and thought they would be better for each other. Lots of stuff going on.

So, I have some fun things planned. Sasuke told his brother to take it easy, but we all know Itachi tends to go a little overboard. It should be fun to see.

And don't you guys worry about the revenge. It's still happening. There's just a temporary hiatus so Hinata can get a little less overwhelmed.

Anyway, I would love to hear your thoughts!