Hinata stood in front of the door to what she believed was Sasuke's apartment. She paused several times before knocking, trying to make sure everything was in its place, from her hair to her purse to whatever she could think of. She wasn't stalling at all. From the other side Itachi observed the shy woman through the eyehole in the door. He had been watching her for the past ten minutes and yes he did feel like a creep, but he pushed the feeling aside for the excuse that this was to protect Sasuke. Honestly, he felt like a creep for the entire situation he had had put himself and Hinata in. She didn't know it yet, but what would she say when he opened the door and Sasuke didn't come. How would he explain this to her? Sasuke was going to be pissed about so many things that Itachi couldn't figure out which would get him more angry. Secretly using his phone without permission, going behind his back to see Hinata, lying to her by pretending to be Sasuke. What was he thinking when Itachi came up with this idea?

A hesitant knock on the front door brought Itachi out of his thoughts. He gulped once and schooled his face in an impassive mask before he opened the door.

Hinata watched as the door opened to reveal...not Sasuke. She had been expecting him and even had this stupid smile on her face that she didn't realize she had until the door opened to reveal this stranger. Had she been standing in front of the wrong apartment this entire time? A quick glance to the number written on the now open door told her that she was at the right place but then who was this person. It took her a second before she saw the uncanny resemblance to Sasuke. This had to be Itachi. Why else would he look so much like Sasuke and be in his apartment.

Hinata's cheeks reddened at the blatant scrutiny which Itachi was giving her. She felt that he was trying to pry open her biggest secrets with just one look.

"H-hello, is S-Sasuke here?" Hinata asked.

As if her voice had brought back some sense to him, Itachi spoke. "No he is not but you can come in and wait for him."

"Oh," was all she said before she walked in through the door when Itachi moved to let her in.

Her hands wrung around the strap of her purse on her shoulder as she eyed the living room where she awkwardly stood. Hesitantly, she sat on one of the maroon leather sofa while Itachi made his way after her and sat right across from her.

"You must be Hinata." At that her face perked up on the possibility that Sasuke might have spoken about her to him.

"Yes." She smiled at him.

"I'm Itachi. Sasuke's older brother." After that they had stayed quiet in the awkward silence for a few minutes before Hinata spoke again.

"W-when is Sasuke going to be here?"

"Well, about that," Itachi said as he finally found his opening to ask this girl some questions. "How do you know Sasuke?" He scrunched his eyebrows as he tried to assess her actions.

"Oh... um w-we met on the train in Konoha." She averted her gaze as a blush rose on her cheeks when she remembered the incident.

Itachi frowned at her response. That was lie number one. Sasuke would never take the train, not when he could just buy a plane ticket or take his car. He hated public transportation, plus him being an Uchiha made it impossible to safely travel in public places like that.

"H-he was very nice to me w-when I missed my train in the Sound Village." Itachi raised an eyebrow at her answer as he tried to think if she was being serious. He could almost laugh at that. Sasuke, and nice, especially to a girl, never. Lie number 2.

"He took me all the way to my home in Suna after that." She smiled while both of Itachi's eyebrows rose even higher. "He then went with me to the Land of Tea to meet my boyfr -exboyfriend-" Hinata corrected. "He even came to get me back from the Land of Waves when I didn't go home for a year." Hinata kept smiling as she stared at a random spot on the floor thinking about Sasuke while Itachi sat in his spot with a frown on his face.

In the beginning he thought that she was lying about how they met and how Sasuke treated her. It didn't seem like something he would do, but then Itachi realized that Sasuke had indeed gone after her just a few weeks ago when he thought she was missing. At that moment Itachi had thought that she was just someone Sasuke liked but now it was obvious to him what Sasuke felt for this girl. He genuinely cared for Hinata, even if he didn't accept it himself. The question now was whether Hinata felt the same way. Itachi hated to see his brother's heart break again if Hinata didn't see Sasuke as anything more than a mere friend.

"Hinata," Itachi said to gain her attention. "What do you think of Sasuke?"

"He's really amazing." Her smile grew even bigger.

"No." Itachi shook his head. "Maybe I should word it better. What do you feel about Sasuke?" Itachi observed the girl in front of him as her smile slowly diminished from her face.

She looked at him for a moment trying figure out what, or why Itachi was asking. Deep down Hinata knew what she felt for him, but it was a matter of whether she was ready. She had wasted so much of her time loving and chasing someone only to be rejected in the end. Was she prepared to do that again? What if Sasuke didn't feel the same way.

"I...I don't know-"

"Don't lie," Itachi cut her off. "Do you...have feelings for him?"

Hinata bit her lip as she contemplated telling Itachi what she felt. Maybe he might be able to help since he was close to Sasuke.

"I do but...I'm not sure if that is what is best for me right now." Itachi frowned but did not say anything. "I...I was in a relationship until l-last year. I almost gave up everything just to be with him but in the end he j-just left me because he didn't feel the same way...I don't want that t-to happen again. This time I want to be certain that I am on the same page with the other person on our feelings and what we want before we start anything."

Itachi smirked inwardly as he heard what Hinata said. So it seems that they're both afraid to start something new, Itachi thought. Sasuke had trouble opening up or finding a stable relationship again after him and Sakura broke up. He never said it out loud but Itachi new that his brother was afraid to let something like that happen to him again. Now it seemed that Hinata was in the same boat. Itachi thought that he had to do something because without some urging, they would forever avoid the next step.

"Oh, I forgot to tell you something, Hinata." He snapped his fingers as if he just remembered something while Hinata just looked at him curiously at his random gesture. "Sasuke told me that he would be meeting you at the theatre. He told me to tell you just in case you came here but I completely forgot. My apologies." He smiled at as he got up to escort Hinata out. "

"That's weird. He could've just texted me," Hinata said but then shrugged and followed Itachi.

"Yes. I guess he must have forgotten. I would suggest that you don't bring up coming here because he would get really upset that you had to travel this much at his expense." He smiled sweetly as Hinata walked out his door.

"Okay. Goodbye Itachi." She smiled back with a blush as she remembered how she used to have a crush on the older Uchiha when she was younger, but now who would've guessed that she would be falling for the younger one.

Hinata bit her lip as she realized what she had just thought but shook her head in the end to forget that she ever had that thought.

Outside the theatre Sasuke waited on a bench for Hinata to arrive. She was late and the movie had already started. They would have to get new tickets and that would push back all their other plans.

Sasuke was about to get his phone out to call her but then he saw her running towards him.

"I'm sorry Sasuke," she panted. "I was at...uh...I got stuck in traffic." Sasuke rolled his eyes at her stupid excuse but decided to drop it because now they had to figure out what to do next.

"Well, we missed the showtime already. Do you want to buy another ticket?"

"No that's okay. We can just...I don't know, hangout before the dinner reservation." Sasuke raised a brow at her suggestion.

"Well where do you want to 'hangout.'" He felt like a teenage in high school talking like that.

"I don't know," Hinata shrugged. "Can we go for a walk? I want to show you my favorite spot in the city."

"Okay," Sasuke said as he smiled in amusement.

Without thinking Hinata grabbed his hand and started leading the way. In response Sasuke enclosed her hand in his grip and he didn't know why he held on as if he didn't want her to let go. With a slight blush on Sasuke's face, and a brighter one on Hinata's, the both of them walked hand in hand to the park without uttering a single word, but they were comfortable with that.

"We're here," Hinata said as she extended her free arm out to the area in front of them. It was the park where a clear lake ran through diving it in to two sections. This one was more bare and had less of the aesthetic looking plants that were placed around the other side of the park, but you had a bigger view of the lake from here. "Come on." Hinata tugged on Sasuke's hand as she walked further towards the edge of the lake. There was a stone bank all around the lake you could even sit by it.

"This is your favorite spot?"

"Yeah."

"But it's so...empty." Hinata looked at him questioningly as if trying to ask what he meant. "I thought you would like all those cherry blossom trees or the gardens on the other side."

"I do like them. But the view of the sunset is the best here." As if on cue the sun began to lower on to the horizon right above the lake creating a reflection on it of all the colors in the sky.

It was like the sky painted the water and the ripples there made it seem like it was smudged like an oil painting. Looking back to his life Sasuke realized that he had never taken the time to ever watch a sunset and enjoy it. He turned to look at Hinata who was standing right beside him with her hand still in his grip. The shades of color from the sky brightened her face and Sasuke just kept staring at her as she watched the sun set. He gently squeezed her hand and she tore her gaze away from the view to stare back at him. They stood there like that for a while just staring at each other and not saying a single word. Slowly, Sasuke brought up his free hand to trace her cheek before he held it in his hand. Hinata parted her lips and soon both of them began leaning closer. It was just like the time in the hotel in the Land of Waves before Neji called, but this time there was no disturbance to stop them from going in for a kiss.

When their lips finally met, Hinata let out a sigh as she brought her free hand to his shoulder. Both of them closed their eyes as Sasuke pressed his lips closer to hers feeling how soft they were. They still held each other's hand as the kiss deepened with every second. His hand slowly moved in to her hair pulling her head closer to taste her. Hesitantly, Hinata parted her lips for Sasuke when he licked her bottom lip but slowly she began to respond to him with her own tongue.

When they finally parted to catch their breaths, Sasuke didn't let go of Hinata and she didn't mind. He touched his forhead to hers and couldn't help the smile that broke out on his face when he took in Hinata's blushing face. She was smiling back at him as a bubbly feeling began erupting in her stomach. She knew she had been keeping this feeling at bay whenever she was around Sasuke, but she didn't want to hold back on it anymore. As long as Sasuke was with her, she was happy.

For the rest of the evening, Sasuke and Hinata spent their time like they had planned. They went to the new restaurant that Hinata wanted to try and afterwards Sasuke drove her in his car to get some ice cream.

"You're ice cream is all melting," Sasuke said as he sat right next to Hinata on a bench outside the ice cream shop.

"I know," Hinata huffed.

"You should've gotten a cup, idiot."

"But I wanted a cone." Hinata glared at him and went back to eating her strawberry ice cream while Sasuke occasionally took a bite from his coffee one. He wasn't a fan of sweet things, but the bitter taste of coffee made the ice cream bearable.

"Are you sure you don't want to try some of mine?" Hinata asked.

"No." He wasn't going to abuse his taste buds with the sugar overload of Hinata's ice cream. She even got a sugar cone as if she didn't have enough from the ice cream.

"You should try it. It's really good." With a shake of his head as a response Hinata pouted but went back to her cone.

After she had finished hers, Sasuke threw his away and they went back into his car.

"It's getting late so I'll take you home." Sasuke said as he started his car. "What's your address?"

Hinata gave him her address and then they drove in silence to her place. When he got to her apartment, he parked his car in the front.

"Thanks for s-spending the day with me." Hinata smiled as she peeked at him from her seat.

"Yeah...I had fun." Sasuke looked at her blushing face before he returned her smile.

"Goodbye Sasuke," she said as she reached for the handle to open the door.

"Goodbye Hinata." When Hinata didn't move to leave his car Sasuke spoke again. "What's wro-"

He was cut off by her lips as she quickly turned to give him a kiss before she jumped out the car and ran away giving a wave to him before she went into her apartment building.

Sasuke bit his lip as he saw her walk in. He didn't want to leave but reluctantly did so when she was inside. He hadn't been lying when he said that he had fun but he secretly wanted more.

The day after the next day, Sasuke went back to work as so did Hinata, but they both had the events from the weekend stuck in their head. Hinata was giddy and excited that they had finally kissed, but what did it mean in the future for them. They never really said anything afterwards and Hinata still wasn't sure if she was ready for commitment. All she knew was that she just liked being with Sasuke.

"Hey Hinata did you meet the new resident in the emergency department?" asked one of Hinata's colleagues.

"No, I haven't really met any of the new resident doctors here," Hinata replied to Ino.

"Oh, well she's pretty good from what I've heard. And a lot of the male nurses and doctors are already talking about how hot she is." Ino rolled her eyes. "Honestly, sometimes I think that we're working with a bunch of stupid frat guys when I hear them talk." Hinata giggled.

"Well, it's nice to know that she is getting along with the staff and the hospital. I hope all of the residents are getting along here too."

"Yeah, well you keep hoping. I'll see you for lunch," Ino said as she waved to Hinata and went back to work.

When it was Hinata's lunch break, Ino took hers as well so they could eat together. They sat in the hospital's cafeteria eating their food when a group of doctors in their white coats passed by them.

"All the residents like to stick together. They even try to eat lunch together." Ino looked at the group sitting a few tables away from them. "He's kind a hot," she said as she stared at one of the men sitting there. "Oh, that's her. You know the woman I was talking to you about earlier." Ino subtly pointed at one particular person in the group.

Hinata turned to see who it was but as soon as she did, she made eye contact with the person Ino had pointed to. A few seconds later the pink haired woman excused herself from the table she was sitting at and walked towards Ino and Hinata's table.

"Hello, my name is Sakura Haruno. I'm the new resident in the emergency department." She looked back at the two with an expectant smile waiting for them to say something.

"I'm Ino and this is Hinata." Ino indicated towards her lunch partner. "We're both in the emergency department too, but I think our shifts have never really been at the same time as yours so we never got to meet you."

"Oh. My shift is about to start soon but I decided to get some lunch before it did. Well I'm glad I get to work with you guys today. I'm going to head back but it was nice to meet you two." She smiled sweetly at them before going back to say goodbye to her table and then went to start her shift. She looked back to Hinata's table one more time before she left the cafeteria.

Sakura had seen Sasuke around town after their break up and had never dared to go up to him even though he was mostly alone but just last weekend she had seen him with a girl in a restaurant. Was he on a date? Had he started a new relationship? Sakura didn't know who the girl was but she had seen her face, and now when she saw her sitting in the cafeteria she immediately recognized her so she had to go and meet her. Even though Sakura and Sasuke had broken up years ago and now she was married, Sakura couldn't help but think about Sasuke and all the what-ifs that would come up when she thought back to their relationship.

"She seems nice...a bit too nice." Ino frowned before she went back to the discussion they were having before Sakura came.

Hinata pretended to listen but she kept thinking about Sakura and how she spoke to them. She couldn't believe this was the woman who had broken Sasuke's heart. She was absolutely beautiful, and she did seem nice, but she couldn't believe that this person was capable of betraying Sasuke like that and breaking his heart. She was just going to keep her distance from Sakura because even if she didn't know her, Hinata knew her past and she wasn't really fond of her already.

Over the next week Hinata continued her work as usual and she had gone back to talking to Sasuke over the phone every night even though she never told him about meeting Sakura. She was afraid that if she did then some of his old emotions would come back whether they were good or bad. She wasn't sure what Sasuke would say about Sakura but she couldn't find out until she told him which she decided to do at the end of the week.

"Sasuke...what do you think about Sakura?" Hinata asked as she held the phone to her ear waiting for a response.

Sasuke froze at her question and did not say anything. Why was she asking this all of a sudden?

"I used to date her a long time ago."

"Did you love her?"

"...Yes"

"Do you still do?"

"No...why are you asking?"

"What happened between you two?"

Sasuke sighed at her question, knowing that one day she would ask about it but he didn't realize it would be so soon.

"I already told you. She left me to be with my best friend." Sasuke didn't give any details as he thought that if she really wanted to know then she would ask him again.

"What about your best friend then? Do you...hate him?"

"I used to...but I guess now I just don't care anymore."

"Why?"

"It just doesn't hurt like it used to before so I can let go of things easily now." Sasuke smiled as he thought that Hinata was the reason why he didn't feel that way anymore.

"Oh...So you've moved on?"

"Yes."

"So does that m-mean that you're ready to..." What she wanted to ask was that whether he was ready to start a new relationship, possibly with her, but she was too afraid to ask it out loud.

"What is it Hinata?"

"Uh...do you want to hangout again this weekend?" She tried to divert the subject.

"Sure," Sasuke responded but he knew that she was going to ask something else before. He decided to just wait for Hinata to ask whatever it was when she was ready. "I'll pick you up tomorrow, but you might have to come to my apartment first..."

"Why?"

"Well...my mom has been asking me to bring you over so she could meet you."

"Oh..." Hinata blushed at the thought of meeting his mother.

"Yeah...she's coming over for lunch with my brother tomorrow, and if you want, you can join us too so that way she can finally shut up about wanting to see you."

"I-I guess." Hinata bit her lip nervously.

"I'll pick you up at noon tomorrow."

"Okay. Goodnight Sasuke."

"Goodnight Hinata." Sasuke hung up the phone and went to sleep with the anticipation of having Hinata meet his mom tomorrow. He kept telling himself that it wasn't a big deal but he knew his mom wanted to meet her for a reason. He just hoped that she didn't do anything to scare Hinata away.

The next day, Sasuke picked up Hinata from her place and took her back to his apartment. She was wearing a blue sundress since it was kind of hot today but Sasuke couldn't help but stare at her because she was wearing his favorite color. They both kept blushing every time she would catch him staring.

When they got to his apartment, Hinata gave him a confused look as she saw that this building was not the same as the one she had gone to last time when she met Itachi.

"This is where you live?" asked Hinata in disbelief.

"Yes. Is something wrong with it?" He raised a brow at her question.

"N-no! I thought you lived with Itachi."

"Itachi lives at least a few blocks away from here. This is my own apartment. But today my mom and Itachi are over so you'll be seeing them."

Hinata eyes widened as she heard what Sasuke said. So if Itachi didn't live with him then how come Sasuke gave her his address to meet him for the movies? And Itachi didn't say anything either when she asked for Sasuke. She would ask him that later.

They went up to his apartment as Hinata kept thinking to herself and when Sasuke opened his door they were greeted by his mother who seemed like she had been waiting for them all this time.

"Is that Hinata?" His mom spoke before he even got in through the door.

"Yes. You wanted to meet her so badly so now she's here. But don't say anything stupid to her," Sasuke whispered to her as he gave his mom a hug before walking into his room for something.

Mikoto just smiled as she went to Hinata to greet her with a hug.

"I'm so glad to finally meet Sasuke's girlfriend. When I found out that Sasuke was going to marry you, I was so upset because first of all he didn't tell me and second of all I never had a chance to meet you. I wasn't sure what kind of girl you were. I never even knew that Sasuke had a girlfriend. But now that you guys aren't getting married just yet, I have my chance to meet you before you actually do. He barely brought any girl home so I never knew about his girlfriends, but he was ready to marry you so I had to force him to let me meet you. I needed to see who had taken my baby boy's heart." She smiled at Hinata's blushing face thinking how cute she was.

Hinata wasn't sure how or if she should explain that the wedding was just pretend, but then she kept calling her Sasuke's girlfriend which made Hinata a little sad because they hadn't really spoken about their relationship after the kiss. His family misunderstood and thought that they were dating because of the wedding thing and Sasuke never denied it, but she wanted Sasuke to tell her himself that he wanted to be in a relationship with her. Only then would it be real.

"Mom, stop embarrassing her," Itachi spoke as he walked up to them. "Hello Hinata," he said with a nod and went to the kitchen afterwards. He avoided making eye contact with her for a long time and didn't say much to her after that. Hinata on the other hand said a small hello to him in response and blushed even more when she remembered that she was alone in Itachi's apartment the last time she met him.

This was going to be an interesting lunch.