She Deserves Better

Authors' Note: Thanks for the reviews. We hope that you'll enjoy this chapter because it's probably the one a lot of people have been waiting for ;)

Chapter 14

Naruto was hanging out with Hinata. He hadn't seen her in awhile. He knew that she was trying to hide something from him. "I'm not gonna push ya about whatever is bugging you, but I'm here when you do want to talk about it. Was it one of your patients though or that creep?"

Hinata hated lying, but Sasuke just wasn't ready to tell Naruto. "Naruto, he has a name." So she'd just tell the truth, but not the whole truth. "And yes, Doctor Yakushi has been...well I don't think he understands that I'm not interested in dating him."

Naruto growls under his breath. That damn doctor, always sticking his nose where it isn't wanted. The guy was an S-Class creep, that's for sure. "Hey, just let me know if the guy does anything to you. I can totally arrest his ass!"

She smiles. "Thanks, Naruto. He's smart enough not to do anything illegal though." That and Hinata had made sure he knew that she was a black belt in Karate. One of the perks of being a Hyuga was you were trained in self-defense. "He'll give up eventually."

"Right…" Naruto wasn't so sure about that, the guy was seriously freakish. And he was pretty sure that the guy had been a senior when they were freshmen back in high school. He was creepy back then, too, mostly by being way too friendly. "Anyway, you said that you were meeting someone later, right? You've got a shift today. Is it a patient?"

She nods. "Yes, it's a patient." Hinata pauses. "I can't tell you too much because of patient confidentiality." Which was true.

"Yeah, alright. But they're not being mean to you, right?" Naruto knew that some patients could be awesome, and others were just whining assholes. He didn't like it when Hinata got stuck with the latter. Sakura typically just clocked them with her medical skills. Hinata was too nice to put them in their place.

She blushes and shakes her head. "Definitely not being mean." That was one thing Naruto didn't have to worry about.

Hinata was blushing. Hinata was blushing? "Whoa, Hinata, are you crushing on your patient!?" Sakura had been making him watch a lot of medical dramas lately so that she could point out everything wrong with them, and that seemed to be a recurring theme. The…what was it…Florence Nightingale? That kind of situation? That's what Sakura had said, and Hinata's cheeks were all pink. Logic, right?

The bluenette gulps. "It's... complicated and I really c-can't say anything about it because of the Patient Confidentiality laws." Oh God. She was going to die of embarrassment. "Anyway, h-how are things on the Force?" Maybe, she could change topics.

She didn't think that was too likely, but it was possible. There would be nothing more awkward about talking about the man she was currently attracted to with her former lover, who also happened to be his best friend. His best friend who didn't even know Sasuke was alive yet!

"Huh? Oh, everything's fine. There are a lot of cases coming in lately, which means that some of the feds must be slacking. They usually nab a bunch of our cases." Usually, Naruto hated having cases snatched, but something just seemed…off. "Maybe Itachi's on vacation or something."

He'd made detective a few months ago, and mostly worked as part of a homicide team. It was fun sometimes, and they could talk about all sorts of crazy theories about how people died, not that the dying part was nice or anything, it's just that some of the theories could get pretty comical. And if there was ever a moment when the coroner's report didn't make sense, Naruto would just go home to Sakura and ask her about it. She usually had answers for him. His best contribution to the team was his instincts. If someone was guilty, he knew it, if someone wasn't, he knew that too. If someone was supposedly guilty, but actually innocent, he could tell the difference. He just…knew. And it helped to keep a few innocent people out of prison. If his instincts tingled, they went back to work.

She blinks. Hinata couldn't believe that actually worked. "Oh well that's good." She smiles. "I'm glad that things are going so well for you."

"Yeah, I guess." After all, Naruto had a lot of world-saving to do, what with Sasuke still missing. Had to pull the bastard's share of the weight until he got back.

Then, he hears a sweet jingle, and stares down at Hinata's pocket. "Text message?"

"Guess so." She smiles and reads the text message. "This shouldn't take longer than a minute or two." It was probably her father or sister.

Are you busy? ~ S

Out with a friend on a lunch date with a friend. Is something wrong? I could come get you, if you need me or if you just wanted to hang out. ~ Hinata

No, it's okay, I just wanted to know if you knew where Naruto was. ~ S

Yeah. I know where he is. Do you want his number? ~ Hinata

I don't think that this is something to do over the phone. And if I ask Itachi, he'll probably track Naruto's cellphone and go all FBI stalker over it. If he's busy, it's fine, I'll try another day. ~ S

Well he's kinda...sitting at the same table as me. It's not...a date. He just likes to check on me sometimes and we're still friends. ~ Hinata

…Do you think that you being there would stop a war from breaking out? He's going to kill me when he finds out that I've been back over a month and haven't told him. ~ S

Um I don't know really. He'd probably just try to nudge me out of the way, but I could try? ~ Hinata

Then do you mind if I drop in? ~ S

I don't mind. We're at the Ramen Shop. And I know, Naruto hasn't changed since high school. ~ Hinata

The Ramen Shop? I can be there in fifteen minutes. I was just swimming with Suigetsu. ~ S

Oh that's good exercise for you. I'll be waiting. ~ Hinata.

Naruto blinks at Hinata, who'd gone quiet for almost five whole minutes. "Hey, are you okay? That was a lot of texting, is there an emergency?"

She adverts her eyes from his. "Well it's a good thing, but please don't be angry. I invited another friend to join us." Hinata felt horribly guilty about keeping it a secret from him, but it was Sasuke's decision. Not hers.

"Huh?" Naruto tilts his head. "Why would I be angry? The more the merrier. Is it Ino? Kiba? Shikamaru? Or is it someone new?"

Hinata sighs. "None of them, but not someone new either." She bites her lower lip. "He needed time to get better first, Naruto. He just didn't want anyone to see him until he could walk on his own and stuff...please don't be angry." She looks at her feet. "You'll see what i mean in a few minutes."

Naruto was perplexed by the cryptic clues. Who needed time to get better? Why couldn't he walk? This was a guy? Why would he be angry about it?

After what felt like the longest fifteen minutes in history, a pair of footsteps draw closer, piquing Naruto's interest. Was this Hinata's mystery friend? The one who got hurt and couldn't walk?

The mystery guest approaches slowly, Hinata getting the better look at him first. Sasuke smiles softly at her as he comes into Naruto's line of sight, his breath nearly stopping as he takes in the sight of his best friend for the first time in more than a year. "Hi, Dobe."

Naruto's eyes widen. "S-Sasuke?!" He looks at Hinata in shock. "Hinata, are you seeing what I'm seeing or am I hallucinating?" Was it possible that he had eaten some bad ramen or something? There was no way that could be the real Sasuke, could it?

Naruto looked like he was going to slug Sasuke. "YOU DAMN BASTARD!" The blond was furious as he had a right to be. "I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU MADE ME THINK YOU WERE DEAD FOR A MONTH LONGER THAN I HAD TO!" He had his fist raised for a punch, but Hinata managed to catch it. Not easily though. It was obvious the blond had more muscle than she did.

"Naruto, stop! Everyone's staring!" She winces. "Just let him explain!"

He slowly lowers his fist. Probably more out of guilt for having accidentally hurt Hinata to a degree than anything else. "Well you better start talking, bastard!" He couldn't believe this. Sasuke was alive and hadn't told him that he was back for a fucking month!

Sasuke nods slowly, controlling his twitch at the mention of the hospital. He was getting better, slowly. "If it makes you feel any better, until a week ago, Kakashi, Itachi, and Hinata were the only ones who knew that I survived my last mission. Plus, I guess, whoever found me." This was a long story, and he couldn't tell all of it, because…clearance, even Naruto didn't have the needed clearance to hear this. And he definitely didn't want the whole restaurant to hear it. It was bad enough that they were staring. It was making him anxious. "And…I didn't want anyone to see me lying in bed, not even able to walk across the room. So we held off on telling anyone."

"I would have!" Naruto actually growls at him. "God dammit, Sasuke!" He sighs. "I'm glad you're back, but as soon as you're better...I'm gonna have to kick your ass for all this."

The ass-kicking aside, since he still wasn't in any shape to take Naruto on, Sasuke sighs. "But I didn't want you to, Naruto. Kakashi…was necessary, Itachi was support, and Hinata seeing me was an accident." His eyes flick to his physical therapist. "She got assigned to me when I got back. But apart from my parents and my platoon, well, they've probably gossiped enough that now the whole base knows, no one else knows that I'm back. You…were on the list of people to see first once I could walk again. I've only been walking on my own for a week now."

Naruto grumbles, but seems pacified. "And here I thought Hinata was into one of her patients." He rolls his eyes. "She was apparently just worried that I'd have a fit when I realized what a bastard you are, but I forgive you and it's okay Hinata. It's not your fault."

"Thanks…" Sasuke breathes out slowly, not realizing that he actually had stopped breathing while waiting for Naruto's verdict. Then, he smirks. "But it would be pretty bad if you had to arrest yourself for assaulting a ranking military officer on medical leave. Imagine the scandal."

Naruto glares. "That's fighting pretty damn dirty." And Sasuke knew it!

"I see it as preserving your honor by making sure that you don't fuck up." Sasuke crosses his arms, still smirking away. "And I'll be able to make sure that you behave from now on since I'll be in Brooklyn for the foreseeable future."

Naruto tilts his head. "Why Brooklyn?" He didn't get it. Fortunately, Hinata apparently did.

"They have a military base there." Hinata glances at Sasuke. "He's probably crazy enough to resume active duty, once he's better and getting transferred."

"That's not all…" Though Sasuke didn't appreciate being called crazy by Hinata, of all people. "I'll be moving up into logistics, planning, and training when I go back. It seems that the colonel has it in his head to promote me early. So…I won't be seeing combat again, at least, not unless things get really messy."

"Which is the only reason, why I don't just handcuff him to one of the beds at work for his own good." Hinata crosses her arms in a quiet huff.

Sasuke raises an eyebrow at that, his mind going straight into the gutter. "Kinky, but alright. I'm sure you'll find another reason to do it."

She blushes scarlet and Naruto blinks. "Bastard, quit teasing Hinata!" He shakes his head. "You know that's not what she meant!"

"Maybe." Sasuke knew that Hinata was into some…interesting things, and she'd once suggested handcuffs to Naruto, in front of him. So it's not like she'd never thought about it. "Though there's no need to worry about it or cuff me to a bed, I still have to complete four months of mandatory weekly psychotherapy, as well as the rest of my physical rehabilitation. So I won't be up and about causing trouble for a while."

Naruto shakes his head. "Yeah! Well be a good patient for Hinata!" He smiles at her. "Don't let the bastard push you around! Show him whose boss!"

Sasuke's cheeks burn a little as he contemplates just how much Hinata might actually like to get pushed around. But…not by him. "Stupid Dobe. I behave myself plenty." Not that he wanted to…

"Sure you do, bastard!" Naruto rolls his eyes. "Anyway, I'm glad that it's Hinata and not some random woman. They'd probably try to jump you with a spongebath or something."

Sasuke shudders at the thought. "I'm sure that some of them would have tried." Thankfully, he hadn't had a spongebath while conscious at least, he wasn't sure about before he woke up. "Hinata is very good at what she does, even if she worries too much."

"Someone has to." In Hinata's opinion, Sasuke didn't worry enough. "If it was up you, you'd probably be trying out for the Olympics."

"I doubt that." Sasuke had no interest in the Olympics, training and ops were more than enough for him. "I know my limits, and trying out for the Olympics would be impossible like this, if I had an inclination for it in the first place."

Hinata nods seemingly satisfied with this answer. "Good." At least he had SOME limits on himself.

"Swimming in the base pool with Suigetsu on a daily basis, however, is doable." Sasuke was quite proud of the progress he was making. His stamina was far from what to used to be, but he was slowly building it back up as his muscles got stronger.

"You are quite possibly the most stubborn man that I have ever met." Hinata shakes her head. "But I suppose…a little swimming is okay."

Sasuke nods. "As long as Suigetsu and Karin aren't skinny dipping." He did not need to see that again after yesterday's 'incident'. How those two haven't been reported yet, was unknown. But Sasuke figured that everyone just humored them.

Hinata blushes again. "Y-You're never going to let me live down the skinny dipping thing, are you?" Naruto chuckles and pat pats Hinata's shoulder comfortingly.

"Well, no, I'm not, but I was serious about that one." Sasuke wrinkles his nose. "Naruto, I never want to see THAT much of your cousin ever again." Or his friend, for that matter.

Naruto shrugs. "You act like I have any control over THAT!" He fails.

Sasuke watches his best friend with amusement. "So…I guess that it. I just…wanted to come and see you. And preferably walk away alive from the encounter, which is why I asked Hinata if she'd mediate this."

Hinata nods. "That's true. He was pretty terrified." She giggles.

Sasuke shoots her a glare that turns out more like a pout. "I wasn't terrified, I just…expected him to try and punch me in the face."

The bluenette laughs and smiles. "Mhm. Of course." It was nice to have the upper hand for once.

"I wasn't!" The pout withers, but before Sasuke can roll his eyes or smile, a twinge of pain makes him twitch. Maybe he'd pushed himself a little too hard today trying to do two whole hours in the pool before walking from Itachi's apartment. His hand snakes towards his left shoulder, massaging the sore muscles there.

"Sasuke, are you alright?" She looks at him in concern, noticing the twitch.

"Yeah, just sore." Sasuke knew that he was healing quickly, he just wished that it would go a bit faster. These random bouts of pain were really annoying, and seemed to choose the worst times to crop up.

"Well if you want, I could always give you another massage." Hinata offers and Naruto blinks at that.

A massage?! What was he missing here?! "Wait. What?!" The shyest woman that he had ever met was offering the bastard a massage?!

Hinata blushes. "Medicinal, Naruto! MEDICINAL!" She didn't even want to know where his mind was going.

Okay, Sasuke saw that he was going to have to step in here. "First of all, not in the middle of a restaurant, and second, it's part of my physical therapy, Naruto." Honestly, the idiot hadn't become any less dense while he was gone. And Sasuke was NOT taking his shirt off in public.

"Well...I figured we could go back to my place or yours." Hinata blushes and then she realizes that could be taken the wrong way. "Y-You know what I mean!"

Naruto blinks. "Right. I forgot the bastard is completely asexual. Anyway, let's head back to Hinata's place. It's closer."

Sasuke resists the urge to cuff Naruto over the head, more though because it would hurt him more than Naruto. "Fine." But he wasn't going to correct the assumption on his sexuality, no matter how WRONG it was.

A few minutes later, they were in a cute Victorian mansion. While it was definitely on the upper end of the scale, it was modest compared to what Hinata had grown up in. "Make yourselves comfortable." Hinata smiles as she leads them into the living room.

That was probably because presumably, she lived alone. It was a nice living room with ivory white walls, an oak wood floor, and a plush baby blue couch with a coffee table and TV in front of it. Oh and a fireplace. That was a nice touch. Here and there, there were some house plants and paintings. Mostly nature scenes.

When Sasuke took in everything around him, he had to admit that it was definitely very…Hinata. Well, at least, it was the shy Hinata. Elegant and innocent, very cozy and warm. Soothing is the word that came to mind. He liked it here. It was the opposite of what he was used to, but he liked it here.

So, making himself comfortable meant finding a spot on the couch where he could lean onto an armrest and take some pressure off his back. His aching muscles thanked him for the decision.

"I can get you some pillows, if you want." Hinata smiles at him. It was amazing that he was up walking around like this already. "Naruto?" She blinks. Hmm…where did Naruto go?

A few minutes later, the answer became clear. He comes out with a bunch of coffee. "Figured the bastard would like a decent drink for a change!" He grins. "I'm assuming the asshole still likes straight black?"

Sasuke rolls his eyes and takes the cup. "Yeah. And pillows would be nice." They would probably help relax his muscles a bit more if he didn't have to work to keep himself straight.

He reaches for a cup and blows on it. He would have to be careful, since the caffeine was a stimulant, and he didn't want to stimulate his nerves too much. Still Sasuke liked the rich taste on his tongue as he sipped slowly at the hot coffee.

Hinata nods and heads up the stairs. A few minutes later, she comes back with a few pillows. "Hope these are okay." Mostly of the silky or old fashioned fluffy white variety.

Sasuke nods as he puts down the coffee and takes the fluffy potential weapons. After all, he wouldn't put it past Naruto to hit him with one. Spreading them out on the couch, he slides off his jacket, hesitating a moment with his shirt. No, this was Naruto, he wouldn't say anything stupid, not for something like this. And just like every other time this past month, he slides it over his head and lays face down on the pillows, breathing deeply to calm himself.

She smiles and starts massaging him as if it was the most natural thing in the world. "That's better." Hinata was shocked he was willing to get the massage in front of Naruto. He must have been in a lot of pain.

Sighing, Sasuke's muscles slowly start to relax under her touch, and he sinks deeper into the pillows. Her fingers were heaven, they had to be. Touched by Midas or something. And despite the initial pain of the touches, the slowly building relief was what he looked forward to the most.

Hinata nods approvingly. "That's better." Fortunately, Naruto hadn't said anything yet. She could only pray that would remain the case. "They're looser than when we started anyway."

"Muscle memory…I've gotten used to it." Sasuke had gotten a lot of massages from Hinata while laid up for a month, so he knew her touch very well and responded instinctively to it as her fingers ran over the scars.

"How many massages have you given this guy?" Naruto blinks. "And why is he being a bastard, if he's getting all those massages anyway?"

Hinata shakes her head in exasperation. "Naruto, he's my patient. I don't know a dozen maybe?"

"Sixteen, actually." Sasuke's gaze drifts over towards Naruto. "And it's a gift." Seriously, it was. Without his ability to be a spiteful bastard, he would have shattered completely in that place.

He blinks. "You actually counted?" Naruto blinks again.

Yes." How could he not, he was bored half to death in that place. "Apart from teaching my body how to walk again, there wasn't much to do but lie around reading, eavesdropping, and counting things." Well, and training himself out of panic attacks.

Hinata shakes her head as she continues the massage. "Well you do seem in much brighter spirits now." She smiles.

"On the outside…" But that's what the psychotherapy sessions would be for. And Sasuke's first one was in two days.

"Well if you need to talk about the inside, I'm here." She smiles and massages more. "And so is Naruto."

If only it were that simple. "Neither of you have the clearance needed to know exactly where I was or what I was doing, the mission, the deployment, or its specific details. What I can tell you is what I shouldn't tell you, and not only is it dark, but I don't know if I even remember half of it." And it was killing Sasuke. His memory was vivid, but a blur. The events were perfectly clear, if sometimes void of important details, but the timeline was…fuzzy, at best. Time has no meaning when you're locked in a room without a clock, or even daylight. He slept when he could, was woken whenever they liked, whether it be an hour later or a day later, he didn't know. His sleep was never restful, so he couldn't tell if any time passed while he slept, if he slept.

She sighs. "It's okay, Sasuke." Hinata rubs his shoulders. "We understand. You don't have to tell us anything that is classified or that you don't feel comfortable discussing."

He scoffs quietly. "And exactly what part of it is supposed to be comfortable to discuss? The whipping? The injections? Or being locked in a pitch black room for…" He didn't even know how long he was in there at a time, only that it was apparently not as long as it felt. Still…that touch felt good on Sasuke's shoulders, right on the skin displaying his tattoos.

Hinata sighs sadly. "Sasuke, you know what I meant." Without thinking about it, She places a soft kiss on his shoulder.

Sasuke shivers at the touch, inhaling sharply, before shrinking a little. "I know…" He removes one of his arms from the pillows, turning it over to reveal a purplish vein standing out starkly against his ivory skin, permanent scars from small puncture marks and the precise work of scalpels tat cut into his skin too many times to heal. "Don't ask me what they put in me or might have taken out, because I don't know." He stares at the scars apathetically. "I was usually in too much pain to even think about asking."

Naruto decides it was probably in his best interest to give them some alone time, so he wisely heads upstairs. "Sasuke, I"m so sorry." Hinata stares at the scars in horror of what they had done to him. "No one should have to go through that."

"No, but some of the injections must have helped in the healing process, because most of the injuries from…" Well, his sense of time was skewed so maybe… "The first six or so months, I think, aren't there anymore. They sealed up completely."

"Oh well that's good." She didn't want to think about what else the injections might have done. "Well your bloodwork came back surprisingly normal considering everything." Hinata wanted to offer him some sort of reassurance.

"Whatever they were injecting me with stopped near the end. So that's probably why." At that point, he just assumed that they were going to kill him, since they couldn't get anything out of him, and his body nearly gave out after their last injection. But no, they just kept trying the old-fashioned way. And he wasn't sure if he was lucky or not that the whip marks ended up covering the burns.

"They were sadistic, Sasuke." Hinata doubted words would ever be able to convey the full horror of what he had experienced. "They can't hurt you anymore though." At least not physically, mentally was another matter it seemed.

"I know that." Sasuke's fists clench as his body shudders with pain long past. "Logically, I know that. They're thousands of miles away, locked up or dead, and they can't touch me." But his body still remembers the pain, the fear, the instinct to hide and shrink away, even as his conscious mind had resisted every tactic they tried to use. "But…" His lungs seize up for a few seconds, making it hard to breathe. "There's things I don't remember. And I don't know…what will happen if I do remember. I don't know what I'll remember." And that ignorance…it scared him.

"Don't think about it then." She sighs as she caresses his cheek. "It'll come back naturally or it won't. If you try to force it, you'll be opening yourself up to a lot of potential pain. Pain that may be unnecessary." Her heart ached for him.

Just talking about it was almost enough to send him into some kind of attack. "It's common for POW and other victims of traumatic stress to black out parts of it. That might not have anything to do with what they did exactly, more like your mind was trying to protect you. To shut off the pain." She caresses his cheek more. "To make it slightly more bearable. At least, for a little while."

Sasuke closes his eyes and bites his lip for a brief moment, before turning over to lie on his back and look up at Hinata, the sight of her preferable than seeing his own memories. "Then it failed, miserably."

"I don't think anything would have worked completely." She sighs as she looks down at him. Eyes filled with concern. "You made it out with your sanity, Sasuke. Most people wouldn't have."

"…Sometimes I wonder about that." He did wonder if his sanity was still intact. Still, he couldn't let this destroy him, he wouldn't. He would try his best to crawl out of this hellish pit, for the sake of his pride, and so that she wouldn't wear that look on her face anymore.

"Sasuke, you're perfectly sane." She sighs as she straddles his hips and looks down at him. "If you were truly insane, you wouldn't be sane enough to worry about whether or not you were sane. If that makes sense?"

Sasuke stares up at her, eyes widening at the position. She was sitting on top of him, why was she sitting on top of him? Wait, she was saying something about…right, if you're insane, but recognize that you're insane, then you're actually sane, not insane. "Uh…yeah." She was making it REALLY hard to resist kissing her, and not the only thing. But resist he would, because this did not count as consent. Mixed signals maybe, but not direct consent.

"If I had known all I had to do was straddle your hips to make you such an agreeable patient, I would have done it sooner." She giggles.

…Yeah, definitely mixed signals. Straddling his hips in a very sexual way, and yet…giggling because she'd gotten him to behave. He knew what she liked, but that didn't mean at all that she wanted HIM to be the one to do it. And she shouldn't, considering what was wrong with him. Did she KNOW what she was doing to him?

The expression on his face, would've been quite comical at any other time. And to a degree, it still was even now. "I know that I probably shouldn't. You're still in a very fragile place." Still, she didn't think that it was right to play mind games with him, even if they were unintentional. "But you said that I s-should practice asking. So I'm a-asking." The bluenette blushes and bites her lower lip nervously.

There she had said it. She had said what she had probably been thinking about unconsciously for a few years now and even more so since the Hyuga woman saw him in the hospital. "If you... want to and o-obviously, we wouldn't do anything you aren't comfortable with. Besides, we can't do much more besides kiss now. N-Naruto is upstairs, but he has really good hearing and there is a c-chance that he could walk downstairs."

And that was consent. Well, Sasuke knew for a fact that although it was possible to think with both heads at the same time, that kind of thing was very, very difficult. His pupils dilating, a smile curls his lips as he reaches up to cup the back of her head, fingers tangling and long midnight blue locks as he pulls her down into a fiery kiss. At the back of his mind, he knew this was a bad idea.

The rest of his mind didn't give a fuck.