Chapter 26

Sasuke was chasing after Naruto, pushing chakra into his feet to catch up to him. Naruto had been pretty level-headed as they waited at the information drop-off for the mole. When the man had stepped out of the darkness, he flipped.

The man, noticing their presence, had took off running. Naruto had chased after him. Sasuke had sighed, running a hand through his hair—he really needed to cut it eventually.

"Don't," Hinata had blurted out. "I…I l-like it long."

Or maybe he'd let it go for the time being.

He caught up with the blond and tackled him to the ground. He pinned him down, pulling his Anbu mask on top of his head so he could see him eye to eye. Naruto had already gotten rid of his own. "What the fuck is wrong with you?"

"That man!" It was part beast, part human. A normal person would have high tailed it out of there. Fortunately, Sasuke wasn't a normal person. "That man is a traitor!"

"We knew that from the beginning. Why do you sudden care so much?"

"When we…when I was younger, he and his wife were nice to me. His wife would invite me over and make food for me. That man gave me my first kunai." Naruto slowly settled down as he spoke. So the Hokage's warning was not directed toward Sasuke because she feared he would react, but she feared he would need to stop Naruto when he reacted.

"Get your shit together, you're a shinobi. People will break your trust—you should be used to that. People will use you—it's their way of life. You're a ninja, you exist as another person's tool."

"But it shouldn't be like that! A village should rely on each other!" Naruto began thrashing in Sasuke's hold, his elongated nails piercing Sasuke's skin and making him hiss in pain. If there was one thing Sasuke did not want to deal with, it was an angry kyuubi Naruto.

"If you don't get your shit together right now, you'll be letting down your village." Naruto stopped moving, going still in his hold. "Right now, there's someone who is purposefully trying to harm the village. It's our job to determine how and why. It's our job to stop him—in order to protect the village."

Naruto sighed in his hold, finally calming down. The red chakra surrounding him finally started to dissipate. The elongated nails went back to normal, the bold whiskers became little wisps of hair, and his cat-like eyes went back to their normal blue. "You can get off me now." Sasuke didn't need to be told twice.

"Thanks, by the way. For keeping me under control."

"Someone has to." Naruto scratched the back of his head awkwardly.

"Hehe. Well, we should go after that guy now shouldn't we?"

"Seeing as you completely screwed up the mission and probably just lost us the informant," Sasuke said bitterly before going after the two men. Naruto grinned, despite Sasuke's tone. He knew Sasuke could have gone after the informant just fine, but he had calmed him down instead. Sasuke was a real softie once you got to know him.

Hinata was talking to Hanabi in her office. She still had a hurt Neji and friend at her and Sasuke's house. That left a sweet taste in her mouth—not the hurt people part, but the dual possession of the house. Her and Sasuke's house—she liked the way it sounded.

"I'm a weak leader," Hanabi said, plopping her head onto her desk. "I have absolutely no control over the people I'm supposed to lead."

"Bull," Hinata stopped herself from saying anything more. Really, Sasuke was not the best influence on her. Her words were much sharper than they used to be, and her vocabulary had never been so colorful. "You just need to take proper control."

"How?" Hinata felt guilty for leaving the weight of clan head on her sister's shoulders. At the time she was only thinking of saving her sister from the pain of the curse seal, she never thought of the pain of being clan head.

"Call a council meeting, make a new law. Anyone that uses the curse seal on a person will be severely punished." Hinata was careful not to bring up the fact that Hanabi had taught them how to use the curse seal herself. That was a topic for another time.

"But they'll just undermine my warning." Hinata gripped the girl's shoulders—hard. Hanabi's eyes fixed on her own.

"You are the head of this clan. Your word is law."

"But the council has to agree."

"The council is a fancy name for advisors. Let them advice, and then do what you want anyway."

"When did you get so strong?" Hinata's mouth sat open before she slowly closed it shut.

"I am not."

"You lost your stutter too."

"I-I still have it. Not as bad as it once was."

"So what changed? You only used to not stutter around me, and only once in a while."

"Someone taught me how to have courage even when I'm most afraid." Hanabi eyed her sister. She would have to meet this someone that her sister held in such high regard.

"How?"

"Through example." Sasuke was strong. He was smart. He was brave. But she had seen him afraid. She had seen him wake up from his nightmares, the only emotions in his eyes being fear and panic. She had seen them then glance at her and witnessed him wrapping his arms around her, hugging her closely to his chest.

He had been so weak and vulnerable, yet he worked to protect her. He held her there as she cried out from the pain of trying to see, and being unable to. When she had later woken up from the pain inflicted haze, she realized that he had been shaking the entire time he held her. He had been trembling in fear, and yet he had fought away his own nightmares so that he could fight hers away too.

"Do you love him?" Her eyes darted to her sister's. She thought of Sasuke's smirk, the way one side quirked up. She thought of his sarcasm and his sense of humor. She thought of the way he teased her lightly, sometimes without knowing it. She liked the way he would purposely lighten the mood. Yes, he was insensitive and damaged. He was broken, but so was she. Two broken pieces making a whole.

"It would never work." Sasuke was out of her league, and she had accepted that. She had accepted the fact that should could only yearn for him from afar. She had Naruto, and Naruto was perfect. He was a gentleman. He was funny, brave, loyal. He was everything Hinata had ever wanted.

"Have you ever tried?" Hanabi was quick to notice the yearning look on her sister's face.

"He's in love with someone else." She felt bad for her sister. In that moment, she dedicated her time to fixing her sister's muddled life and teaching whoever this jerk was what he was missing out on. Once she got her hands on the man, there would be hell to pay.

What the crazy lady had told Sasuke plagued his thoughts. He had little to no sleep after that. When he would finally fall asleep, he would wake up a short while later from a nightmare of Hinata dying in someway.

"Hurry or you'll lose her."

He was extremely happy to be coming home. When he and Naruto got through the front gates, he was in a rush. Sasuke was holding the mole on top of his shoulder, but quickly deposited him onto one of the chunins guarding the gate.

"Sasuke, where are you going? We have to report to the Hokage!" Since when did Naruto follow the rules by the book? It didn't matter, he did his job and he wasn't about to sit through that meeting.

"I've got things to do." He disappeared, reappearing in his house. The situation he was greeted with was a strange one. There, sitting on his couch, sat two Hyuugas. One he recognized as Hinata's cousin, the other he had never seen before.

"Uchiha," Neji said, jumping to his feet.

"Hyuuga." The two studied each other calmly before Neji went back to sitting on the couch and Sasuke went back to searching for a previously blind girl.

He found said girl in the kitchen, frying some kind of delicious food on the stove. His muscles relaxed when he saw her. Her eyes lit up when she saw him. "Sasuke!" The food was forgotten and she threw her arms around him. Sasuke was stunned still. Hinata blushed a dark red.

"How are you, Hinata?" She let go of him, showing him a bright smile that he had never seen before.

"I'm good," she said, with a hint of a giggle. "I'm really good."

"Good."

"Good?"

"I'm glad that you're doing well." She fidgeted with the spatula in her hand.

"It was weird—without you here, I mean." She bit her lip, her heel digging into the floor.

"The food is burning."

"Shit!" Hinata rushed over, turning off the burner and trying to remedy the situation. Sasuke chuckled. She looked over at him sheepishly.

"I had planned to make you a welcome home dinner."

"How did you know when I would return?"

"Naruto."

"Hn."

"How do you like your dumplings?" Hinata held the frying pan in her hand and Sasuke eyed it warily. The dumplings were quite blackened. They would be hard to chew and he was sure they would taste like frying pan.

"Burnt," he responded, meeting her hesitant gaze.

After suffering through some crispy dumplings, Sasuke found himself looking for a place for the two guest Hyuugas to stay. There were plenty of places in the compound, though the couple would have to live without electricity or running water for a day or two. He found a place close enough that Hinata would be happy and far enough that he would be happy.

His aunt and uncle had owned the house, but he refused to dwell on the topic. "Thank you," Hinata spoke beside him. "It means a lot that you are letting them stay for awhile."

Sasuke wasn't used to thanks. He responded with his typical grunt. "Hn."

He spent the rest of the day cleaning his mucked up house. Hinata tried to help, offering to mop. He cringed at the offer. Instead, she had agreed to dust. That was a safe option. Sasuke picked up trash around the house. When he came to his sitting room, he noticed that the girl had left her sweater on his couch. He went over to pick it up and noticed the journal peaking out from under the couch.

He lifted it up, running his hand over the front cover. Was Hinata the girl who wrote it? He heard her shuffling around in the other room. And if she did, did he have any right to read it? It was a journal—all of her personal feelings were written inside of it. Hinata was a very independent person that locked her innermost feelings inside.

"Embarrassed of her failures, afraid of her shortcomings. She will never speak if you never listen."

He didn't know why he was taking advice from a crazy woman that believed she was psychic, but he wanted what was best for Hinata. If not prying about her past and personal affairs was what was best for her right now, then he would let it be. But if that were to ever change, he would pry in an instant.

"Sasuke?" Hinata had stopped dusting and was watching him from the entrance of the room. He let the book fall softly on the couch, turning to face Hinata. "Are you okay?"

"Hn," he responded, moving to go into the other room. "Just thinking."

"About…a-about what?"

"What's your favorite color?"

"Ano, yellow."

"Yellow?" His first guess would have been purple.

"Hai. It is cheerful. It reminds me of the sun…of happiness." Sasuke nodded, grabbing a broom from the closet and handing it to her. He then grabbed a mop and bucket and took it to the sink to fill with water.

"My favorite color is black." Not plain black, but a certain shade of black that had a purple hint to it. The exact color of her hair.

"Why?"

He shrugged. "Just something about it."

"I see."

"Hn." Once the bucket was full of water, he waited for her to finish sweeping the kitchen before he began mopping.

"What's your biggest fear?" Hinata asked, figuring that if he could ask questions, so could she. If he were to be completely honest, his first response would have been losing himself. He was afraid he would lose control like he had once, becoming ruthless and cruel.

Instead, he summed it up by saying, "Not being able to protect those close to me." Hinata nodded, that was a good one. "You?" It made her response seem petty and selfish. She was going to say being worthless. That was her initial response, but she realized that wasn't completely true.

"Not being there when someone needs me." Sasuke grunted to himself, mopping up a spot he had missed. Hinata dutifully went back to dusting.

Both quietly cleaned, engrossed by their own thoughts. Sasuke thought about what the woman had told him about protecting Hinata. Hinata thought about what Naruto had told her about helping Sasuke.

"When he first got back, he was bad. He wouldn't even look at me or Sakura-chan. She went up to him, crying, begging for him to listen to her. His red sharingan eyes glared down at her, his hand slapping hers away. 'I don't need your pity. I don't want your help,' is all he said before going back to staring out the window."

Hinata watched him work on the task at hand. He dumped the bucket of now muddy water out into the bathtub. Hinata was going to help him, whether he liked it or not. She was going to make him get out of the house and talk to other human beings. When all else failed, she would be there waiting for him at home.

Sasuke came up to her, touching a finger to the wrinkles between her eyebrows. "What are you thinking about?" Hinata turned beet red, eyes focusing on him.

"Y-you." It was Sasuke's turn to get embarrassed. His cheeks didn't turn red, but he became introverted and shy.

"What about me?" The tone was different then his usual demanding one. It was slightly defensive, ready to have to defend from a verbal attack.

"How I'm ever going to pay you back for everything you've done for me."

"Che," Sasuke scoffed, reverting back to normal. "Forget it. I haven't done anything."

"You helped me when no one else would. You helped me when I was blind and useless."

"Seriously, forget about it," he said awkwardly, grasping for humor as a defense. "I have a reputation to uphold."

Hinata giggled, poking his forehead. His response was immediate. His eyes widened, arms going slack, mouth going dry. He stared at her so ferociously that she fidgeted in her place.

"W-w-what?" Sasuke didn't respond for a moment, thinking about his brother, the only other person who had ever done that to him. He lived every day with the guilt of killing his own brother, his own innocent brother. The brother who gave up everything to protect him.

"Nothing." Was this his brother's way of showing him that he was forgiven? Was this a sign of hope? He eyed Hinata as she continued to fidget in front of him, growing wary and anxious. "Why did you do that?"

"It just, uh, i-it felt like the right t-thing to do at the t-time." Sasuke chuckled to himself, looking up. Itachi was up there somewhere laughing at the awkwardness he had caused his little brother. He was up there somewhere smiling with his family members. "I-I'm sorry."

"Don't be." He looked back at her, touching the tip of her nose with his finger, causing her to smile up at him. "I like it when you open up around me."

Unknown to the last Uchiha, Hinata's mother had always bopped the end of her nose when she was little. She would touch the tip of it, making a little Hinata giggle and grin. Then she would say, "Never be anything but yourself, Hinata."

"I love you" is what Hinata wanted to say.

"I love you" is what Sasuke stopped himself from saying.