"I thought you hated me."he muttered as their contact quickly came to an end, being conscious of their setting although the empty headed young people were not paying them any attention, most of them were not active enough in their own community to recognize either of them. It was so uncharacteristic of him to even appreciate whether she had negative feelings of him or not. It was the moment, that was all. His smirk reflected the power of his vanity. He did care somewhat but not enough to give the girl a sincere look. The setting, if he ever saw the light of day he'd never dare to speak so pleasantly to her.

"How did you know that?" that even surprised her. That was quite mean she'd figured in her own head then again she'd rather not flaunt her weakness especially not in front of him.

"You told me so." his smirk turned into a frown quickly, then recovered it's animation and became the usual casual scowl. It was better than a frown to him. She thought back to almost 6 months ago, when they stood in their bedroom together as her eyes were clouded with a disappointed rage. How could she have ever said that?

"Oh" she offered as a reply, looking down at her own feet. She didn't quite remember it as clearly as Sasuke did but it was an embarrassing time for her. One moment when she let her feelings go, they took over and she said something she would regret. And she did regret it.

"But that doesn't seem to be the case." he sighed to himself a very sarcastic notion, rolling his eyes then resting them on her face. It was somewhat confused, humiliated, furious. Her eyes furrowed as her blush stained her cheeks and she continued to look down, deciding that she would not justify his bigoted theory with a response. "You seemed to have been very excited to see me."

"Sasuke please." she squinted under his scrutiny, she hated it when he did this. He would stare at her until she cracked and broke to pieces and said everything he wanted her to say.

"I may be wrong, I just assumed seeing that you've never voluntarily kissed me before-"

"I have to go." she squawked, completely ignoring whatever Sasuke thought he would say to demean her. She dropped all closeness and made her way for the exit, which seemed to be getting farther away as she got closer.

"Hinata wait." he walked up behind her, clutching her shoulder the gentlest he could possibly be. "Can't we talk about this?"

"What are you doing my Lord?" Hinata's eyes darted to the slender woman that walked up behind him. Now she was confused. He turned to her as if she were a ticking time bomb. The girl slyly rubbed the side of his shoulder as he gave her the one of the deadliest looks he could muster. The body language didn't matter as much to Hinata as what she was wearing did. She quickly recognized the ring the girl held attached to her middle finger and it didn't take long for Sasuke to notice Hinata's knowledge as well. She could feel the heat rising to her head, the surface of her eyes filled with moisture.

"You bastard." she spat, almost breathlessly. Sasuke placed one hand over his face, he was in disbelieve that this woman could screw up his night even further. "I can't believe I began to reason with you. You're nothing but a liar. You don't feel bad about anything that happened. While I'm hiding my face for no apparent reason, you're going out clubbing with whores." she spat, her eyes darting to the young women beside him for just a moment.

"Hey! I'm not a whore!" she squealed in offense, looking up at the man next to her and expecting him to retaliate and say something in response to Hinata's insult. He was only slightly perturbed that she picked now of all times to be emotional.

"Well it's all fine for you to get up on your high horse all the while, you're also in a night club, dressed like that."his words dripped with vehement.

"But I'm not with another man." she gawked, it was something simple that any common idiot would understand.

"I'm not with a man either." how could he be humorous now? How could he be humorous ever? That was only 1/100th of the things Hinata silently hated about him. He was like a dagger. He enjoyed to watch her squirm and tortured her by always saying the exact opposite of what any average person would. He had a sharp tongue. "Hinata if you're going to complain you can at least make sense of it."

"That...just brings me back to the bastard thing." she began before looking around the room, seeing that she and her half-wit of a husband were making a scene. Everyone in those dark four walls was staring at the two of them, well the three of them. Most were silent, many giggled and pointed at the site. almost 300 people stood, mouth agape with drinks in their hands.

"My Lord, I think we should go outside." Hinata spoke loud enough so that most people could hear her as she tugged on Sasuke's hand.

"Why leave? What can we say alone that we cannot say in front of hundreds of people?" he fondled her hand, she gave him a wreckingly cross look as his defiant grin remained. What face was he putting on? "But if you feel as though we should be going, we probably should be going, I do respect your opinion." Hinata finally let go of her breath, releasing her furrowed brows. "Mia."

"It's Mina." the woman beside him corrected, putting emphasis on the N. Hinata felt sorry for her, when would she learn? Why do girls always fall for guys who don't give a shit about them?

"Misa, go start the car will you?" he continued on smiling, pulling his car keys out of his pocket and dangling them in front of her face. The girl who was his ride for the night easily became his personal assistant, that was the way he operated.

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The ride was bumpy and slow, Hinata stared out the window in a desperate need to ignore the prodigy beside him. It made him slightly unsettled, not quite broken down but he was now only half as confident as he was when he entered the car. It was a small loss. He never loses his confidence. Just because Hinata had gained some, does not mean she would overcome him. After all she was still smaller than him, sweeter, less cynical. She was also very beautiful and in her case, that was a disadvantage. He targeted her. That day as he lay in his bed, thinking of who's life he should ruin, he targeted her. She would be his bride and she'd dread it for the rest of her life. That night they stood all together, dressed like kings and queens he targeted her and silently forced her to confess and undying love that did not exist. That day he targeted her as they sat together at a table with her father and he stealthily bought that 'burden' off his hands. He wanted to target her. He would always target her.

She felt his eyes on her back and she squirmed under them. It seemed like they hadn't gone but a few miles into the town, Naruto's house was not that far. "Sasuke. Stop." she spoke, showing no sign of weakness in her sour words.

"Stop what?" he countered. She saw that coming, he wanted to start something with her. He wanted them to converse so he could drink the nectar of her discontent. It had been such a long time, and he was so thirsty.

"You know what you're doing, stop staring at me." she replied.

"Does it bother you that I'm undressing you with me eyes?"

"Go to hell."

"Ouch. You've become so naughty." he rarely acted like this. It disgusted her. Not even when they were having sex did he utter such disgusting things to her. The only thing she could hear as he suffocated her with his muscular chest and generically acidic stench were heavy groans and the occasional 'I love you's that were dryly whispered into her ear whenever she began to move too much.

"Can this woman drive any slower?" she ignored Sasuke's immature ploys to sharply urge the young woman to drive faster.

"I have a name you know." she squeaked, Hinata was beginning to hate her high pitched voice. She had to be in high school, Sasuke aimed young.

"Do I look like I care?" she stabbed venomously.

"Is that what this is about? Do you want a ring too?" he asked as if she were a toddler.

"You know what, I do want my ring and I want half of the house, I want half of the maids, I want half of the land, I want half of the bank account, I want half of the cars, I want half of the clothing line, I want half of the vacation homes and I want half of the furniture. you're lucky we don't have any kids or you'd be in trouble, I want half of everything." she spat at him, rolling her eyes and counting her assets on her fingers. His expression instantly dropped when he realized what she was saying.

"You mean like divorce?" he stared at her in shock. She turned away from him and nodded her head with her arms crossed. He felt as if he were about to have a heart attack but retained his stern look. "I'm afraid you can't do that." he kept it steady all the while the color was draining from his face, and with the little color he had-he turned a ghostly white.

"Oh, you don't want your precious Hokage position to waste away? You've gone on for 6 months without me, I'm sure getting to be Hokage will be easy." she mocked.

"No Hinata. Why is it so hard to believe I care about you?" he touched her shoulder.

"You treat the people you care about like this? You keep me inside a dark house for three years, you make me give up my friends, then your trot me around your sick little friends like a toy and expect me to have sex with your brother? And now I catch you treating some random girl better than you treat your own wife?" she looked into his eyes that stood blank in the same way that they always are. "And you! You're no better!" she shouted to the girl driving who made eye contact with her in the mirror. "Don't you see that he treats you like a common whore? He's just using you, he doesn't love you, in fact he doesn't like you. To be honest he might even hate you. You are his quick fuck for the week, once he's done with you, he'll throw you away and you'll be marked as the town slut for the rest of your life. Get out now while you still have some dignity."

"8 months." those were his only words as he looked down at his own hands.

"8 months? What's going to happen in 8 months?" Hinata snapped at him. She had no time for him to be cryptic.

"That's how long you had in Konoha before me. That's how long your father was going to keep you around until he married you off to some stinky, rich guy across the world. You couldn't fight. You couldn't have children. You couldn't dance or sing or do anything of use to him. You didn't even want to be a nurse or something. Getting married was the only thing he saw that you were good for."

She didn't know why he was saying this, was it to hurt her feelings of comfort her? "So I guess I failed at that too." she mumbled.

"It doesn't have to be that way. All you have to do is cooperate with me-"

"Cooperate with you? And I'm guessing that involves selling my body for a quarter-million dollar business referral?"

"You know that's not what I mean."

"I don't care. Nothing is ever what you mean because the only time you say what you really think is when it benefits you and your stupid company which I don't care about." she spoke over him with a nasty expression that showed him just exactly how awful she could be if she wanted to. "I don't want to hear your voice unless you're saying what you really feel."

"Hinata I'm never gonna be all sappy and sweet and loving, emotion is for the weak and feeble, for those who need saving not for those who are going to save an entire village."

"I'm your wife, you keep me around for that exact reason, to share your intimate thoughts."

"I don't have intimate thoughts Hinata. My mind consists of planning and business functions, brutal murder and campaign tactics, and money. Always money. Everyone I know is an asset, everything I own is an advantage, every colleague I have is a Swiss bank account. Do your realize how hard it is just for me to tell you I love you? I never even told my own mother that I loved her."

"Therefore you hate your mother?" she nodded to him trying to make sense of whatever nonsense he was feeding her. Whatever he was selling he really knew how to deal it.

"Therefore I love you more. I may not always do things that an average man would but I'm not an average man. And like I said, no matter how much you mean to me, you're still an asset, a tool. If I use you, it has nothing to do with you personally. It could be anyone."

"But it's not anyone, it's me."

"It won't ever be again." his words made her heart stop, his voice was almost angelically smooth and it bought her attention like a magnet. She knew he was a good liar, if he was telling a tale then e should have been a lawyer rather than a politician-he was an excellent liar. He could lie to God himself and he would believe him the first time. Maybe he wasn't lying? Maybe he'd honestly changed for the better? Hell no. Why would he? He's had half a year to jump from woman to woman as often as he pleased right in front of her face? He'd give that up to become sweet? She doubted it. "If you want me to be sulky and sappy and romantic I can be. I can bring you flowers home from work, I can buy you everything you've ever dreamed of, and yes we can go out to eat every now and again. Just tell me what you want."

There stood a long silence between the three of them, the only sound that could be heard was the bumping of the rocks on the road against the rubber tires. They both felt and uncomfortable shift in the speed of the car, it began to go slower and slower until Hinata was sure it was going 35 on a highway.

"Show me." she said, breaking the silence. "Show me that you're going to be a better person." she didn't look at him as she talked, he could tell there was an intense battle going on inside her head.

"How can I show you?" he asked.

"If you're legit, it should be easy. If you're not, don't waste my time." it was as simple as that, she felt very high up in the leather she rested her back on. She was now the master, the Lord. She controlled him for once and not the other way around. Whether it was love or lust he was after, she had control of both and she was going to use that power well. She would milk it for everything it was worth, everything.

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Sorry for the long wait with this chapter

I got caught up in some supplementary writing

Sadly, I may not be able to post for a while since I'm sort of in a rural area right now and we only get wifi sometimes

but I'm gonna start on the new chapter right now and hopefully it'll be up by next week