As you should know from the previous chapters, I do not own Naruto okay? I know it took me literally years to update but writer's block, life and a computer crashing does not help anything. But hey, I got back into the spirit and any fans of this one can rejoice. Anyway, enough of this A/N, on with the fic!

Sakura finished her rounds and headed back to check on Naruto and Sasuke before she had to leave for the night. Tsunade had insisted medics have shifts away from the hospital during peace time to keep their performance sharp. She headed in and saw that for once, both boys were asleep at the same time, so she headed out and clocked out for her time off. Once she left the hospital she headed to a local tea shop and sat down ordering a cup of tea and an order of sweet rolls. "I need to calm down!" Sakura said rubbing her eyes. "Hinata is not going after Sasuke! Sasuke is not trying to leave me for Hinata!" She said, hoping that if she said it aloud it would make the fear go away. Trying to distract herself from the feelings, she pulled out a book on specialized treatment of wounds to tune out her paranoid thoughts. "Besides, Sasuke isn't Hinata's type." She smiled as she opened the book. But in December, they will be married if we don't find something... a voice in her head said. I have to check the details of the arrangement and try and find a loophole. Sakura thought as she began to read the first chapter when her tea and sweet rolls arrived. "Thank you." Sakrua said as the waiter bowed and walked away. Taking the cup of tea she gulped it trying to clear her mind. It would do no good to get worked up on the marriage when people needed healing.

Hinata waked home to Naruto and her's apartment thinking. Ino said she had pretty much outgrown Naruto. She remembered how in the Academy, Ino would stare at Sasuke and hardly ever pay attention to the lesson. It never seemed like she would find Chouji attractive, but Hinata had to admit that she and Chouji were a good couple. Was that how she and Sasuke were becoming? We are just friends! Hinata thought but as she looked at Nartuo's Team 7 group picture, she sighed. Sasuke was handsome, there was no denying that. And while she didn't know him that well back then, but in the past few weeks, she had known him to be a nice, but mysterious guy. Hinata could confidently call him a friend. But she had also grown close to Sakura as well. As a sensei to her trio of new genin, she had taken them to the hospital during many of her shifts. While as it sat at the moment, Hinata was engaged to Sasuke, and would marry him come December. She looked at the calender and saw it was the day of Hanabi's chunin exam final. The plan was that she would meet up with her father and they would go to the arena together. Hanabi's opponent was a genin from the Village Hidden in the Mist who specialized in water clones and shuriken techniques. However, Hanabi was quite skilled and one of the top in the academy so she was a favorite to win. Looking at the time, Hinata took a deep breath and headed towards her house. She opened the door and went inside. "Father? Are you here?" She asked.

"Hinata, come in." Hiashi said as Hinata walked in. "I was just looking at a few old relics of your mother's. She always wanted to see you and Hanabi when you became Chunin."

"No, you haven't. But you were looking on these?" Hinata asked as she walked in beside her father.

"Yes. I was looking at a few things of your mother's like I said." Hiashi said. "You know that your mother and mine's marriage was arranged?"

"It was?" Hinata asked looking at the wedding portrait. She could never recall a time she saw her mother and father that happy.

"It was." Hiashi nodded. "I had only really met your mother a few times when I was in the Academy myself before then. It was her father and mine that arranged it."

"Why did mother's father arrange it with Grandfather?" Hinata asked. She knew well why her father arranged for her to be married to Sasuke, but could not see why her father and mother's was arranged.

"She was from a merchant clan but wanted to study ninjutsu. It turned out she was good at it and her father wanted her to marry into a powerful ninja clan, and thus he thought of the Hyuuga. At the time we almost lost our property due to taxation issues. Her father arranged to pay off our debts to the village if I married her." Hiashi said as he looked at Hinata's startled face.

"So you married mother to pay off clan debts?" Hinata asked.

"Hear me out Hinata." Hiashi said. "It sounds bad, I know. It sounds like we were never in love, but before our wedding, I got to know her better, much like you are with Sasuke and I knew she was the best, most wonderful woman in the world. You remind me of her so much. I see a little bit of our courtship in the few times I had seen you and Sasuke together. Now, I will always have some reservations on the Uchiha, but I want you to see something I have been keeping here since the Uchiha Massacre" Hiashi opened a closet in his bedroom and showed Hinata a set of wedding kimonos. She remembered the fine white one trimmed with an edging that looked like a sunrise as her mother's, so she assumed the black one was Sasuke's father's. "They are Fugaku Uchiha's and your mother's wedding kimonos. The intent was for Sasuke's father to give him his old kimono and I give you your mother's wedding kimono." Hiashi explained. "I was trusted with Fugaku Uchiha's when he was killed and I was left to keep up the arrangement."

"I see..." Hinata said looking at the kimonos. She felt a little uncomfortable as she was already struggling with feelings for Naruto and a budding interest in Sasuke that ever since she talked to Ino was even more confusing. "Father, if you don't mind me asking, why are you showing me this?"

"I want you to think carefully about your heart. Love isn't easy and marriage is harder still. I cannot tell you your heart but all I will say is that after the Uchiha Massacre I could have annulled the arrangement. I almost did when Sasuke left the village. But once Sasuke returned and I was verified he had successfully killed Itachi Uchiha and gotten his revenge, I knew he was worthy. While I have little respect for his clan, I admire the man." Hiashi said. "Just looking at your mother's picture reminded me of that is all."

"I will think on what you said Father." Hinata said. She was not about to tell him all that she was feeling at the time. Nor did she want to tell him she didn't want to marry Sasuke, so she remained as respectful as she could.

"Well, I have breakfast ready if you are hungry. You know Hanabi's match isn't until this afternoon." Hiashi said leaving the room.

"I will join you for tea in a few minutes Father." Hinata said. She ran her hand along her mother's kimono as if she felt her hugging her back, comforting her in this time of stress. Yes, she did want to wear the kimono for her wedding, but she wasn't sure about Sasuke as the groom. That was one dream where you had sex with Sasuke was just that, just a dream. A voice in Hinata's head said. You love Naruto. Ino isn't an idiot, but her case is not mine. She looked at the picture of her mother and father on their wedding day. So what if her parent's wedding was arranged, hers didn't have to be. "I just hope Sakura finds something. Maybe in the village's law, if Sasuke and I refused it would annul it..." Hinata said to herself as she walked into the kitchen and joined her father for tea and a light breakfast before they went to watch Hanabi's match.

Tsunade checked in on Sauske and Naruto while they were in the hospital. Normally, Sakura would tend to this, but before she could wear herself out and maybe harm a patient, she was sent home to rest for a few days before she came back to work. She was going to check on Naruto's health and vitals and see how well he was healing and with Sasuke she had to check his vision to make sure there was not too much damage done to his vision. During his fight with Orochimaru, Sasuke had activated Mangekyou Sharingan, a feat not seen in many Uchiha and there was few records of it in the village's medical history. It was assumed to be only a myth or a closely kept clan secret. However, from what Tsunade read and learned from Kakashi when he overused his Sharingan, vision loss in more skilled Uchiha was reported, so Tsunade was concerned. Sasuke was laying in his hospital bed with a cloth over his eyes when he heard the door open.

"Sakura-chan?" Sasuke asked.

"Nope." Tsunade said. "It is me, Tsuande."

"Oh. Where's Sakura?" He asked.

"I sent her home to rest." Feeling Sasuke's annoyance she continued, "As a valuable member of the hospital corps and a skilled medical nin, she is to take a few shifts off a week to keep her mind and body sharp. A tired medic is a deadly medic."

"So, why don't you take a day off?" Sasuke said.

"I do. You know the days Shizune runs the place?" Tsunade said.

"Yeah." Sasuke replied.

"That's when I have my days off." Tsunade said annoyed at Sasuke's arrogance. "Now, when I remove the cover from your eyes, read the eye chart where I point to. Okay?" She headed over and took off the cloth cover on his eyes.

Sasuke sat up and looked over at Tsunade. She was pointing to a row of letters that he was to read off. "A-P-T-C-G-O" He read off.

"Pretty good. The P was a D but that was close. The next one?" Tsunade said.

"Z-X-W-F-M-K" He read.

"You seem to be healed on your vision." Tsuande said. "Your vitals seem to be good as well. You should be able to return to light duty tomorrow. I will send a note to chief Yagami about your return. You are good to go, but next week, I will do a check up before I will let you go back to regular duty."

"Fine." Sasuke said as he got up form his bed. "See you later idiot." He said to Naruto as he pulled a change of clothes from under the bed that Sakura had left for him.

"Yeah, but who is in ANBU, huh?" Naruto teased back.

"Whatever. You know why I am on the police force." Sasuke said as he changed his clothes. He then walked out of the room, waving carelessly to Naruto and headed back to his apartment hoping to see Sakura there. The only thing he liked about being in the hospital was that Sakura was the one most often tending to him during his recovery. While he did love Sakura tending to his wounds, he did get a little annoyed at her, even if he didn't say it, when she yelled at Hinata for getting too close to him. He knew it was because she was anxious about finding a way to annul the marriage, but there was no reason to be harsh to Hinata about it. She wasn't the one who arranged it and no matter what either way, she was a good person. Sasuke knew she was good to Naruto and she as a very good sensei. Hinata was not of the same style of teaching as Kakashi was but she was sort of a motherly teacher and in a way reminded him of what he knew of Kurenai's teachings. As Sasuke headed to his apartment, he saw Hinata and Hiashi walking to the chunin exam arena.

"Sasuke!" Hinata said waving. "Lady Tsunade let you out of the hospital?"

"Yeah. Just before she has to go to the arena. Said something about the chunin exams to Naruto as I left." He said.

"Yeah, it's the finals. Hanabi, my sister, is competing." Hinata said.

"Well, tell her that I wish her luck." Sasuke said.

"I will and it is good to see you well again Uchiha Sasuke. I understand you fought against Orochimaru himself." Hiashi said.

"Yes I did. But to honest, I could not have done it without your Hyuuga style. Hinata's Byakugan really helped to disable his chakra." Sasuke said. He knew all too well how Hiashi was as a father; his own was a lot like that. Because of that, he had to make sure Hiashi knew how important Hinata's role was.

"Don't be so modest," Hinata said blushing.

"It's true." Sasuke said smiling at her. "You have become more confident than I had known in our genin days but you are still hard on yourself. Give yourself the credit you deserve."

"We must be going." Hiashi said bowing. "It was a pleasure meeting you and I am pleased to hear of your recovery."

"Thank you. Pleasure talking to you." Sasuke said.

"Same here. Goodbye." Hiashi said as Hinata followed.

"Goodbye!" Hinata waved.

"Bye!" Sasuke waved.

"SASUKE UCHIHA!" Sakura yelled from behind him. "You got released from the hospital and the first people you tell is Hinata and Hiashi?!"

"I just ran into them!" Sasuke yelled, trying to defend himself. "No need to be jealous!" He was getting irate at Sakura's attitude. "I am not going to be rude to them for no good reason!"

"Oh yeah, don't want the in-laws to hate you." Sakura said rolling her eyes.

"No, all we were talking about was Hanabi's chunin exam! And I played up Hinata's help in the fight with Orochimaru so he dad wouldn't be a douche to her! My father was the same way so I had to make it sound good!" He said hoping to calm Sakura down. "I don't care about any arrangement our fathers made, no one needs to be made to feel their sibling's more important than them!"

Sakura rolled her eyes. She didn't believe him entirely, but he was right. Hiashi was harsh on Hinata and what Sasuke said might ease him on her. "You're right. Let's just go home and lay about. I'm off duty."

"And I'm off too." Sasuke smiled as they walked to his apartment.

"Nice," Sakura smiled.

So how was that? Good? Bad? Long? Boring? Dialogue-heavy? Let me know in a review. I am sorry this update took so long, but my first A/N, says it all. I don't have much more to say here, so remember to read (well you just did) and to review. Ciao for now,

otherrealmwriter

aka

Realm