There was something wrong with her wheel, and she could feel it. It was coming loose or something. She couldn't see it, and she didn't want to get out and have someone find her on the floor, even if it was to look at her chair.
"Could you just take a look and tell me if you see anything wrong," Hinata asked, pointing to the wheel after they were done eating.
Sasuke looked surprised and looked heading over and kneeling by the chair. "Should I be looking for something?"
"It feels loose. Does it look like something is loose?" She asked, looking down.
He put his hand on the wheel and gave it a jiggle. "I think the wheel is about ready to fall off, but I don't know what to tighten." He admitted.
"There is a tool kit in my bag." She reached for it, and she felt the chair tip.
He snagged the chair and put it back on its wheels, and the chair made an awful snapping noise. "That can't be right." He leaned down closer. "Did you run over something?"
"Not that I remember." She admitted.
"Jam a stick in the wheel?" He asked.
She shook her head. "Not recently."
"Looks like whatever was holding on to this wheel was damaged. And I think you just broke it." He lifted the chair, and the wheel fell off. "Maybe it was rusted."
She looked at it in horror. "How was it holding the chair up."
"I think it was just barely resting on what was left of the connection." He slid his knee under the open side of the chair. "Here, hold on and put you in another chair. I only have one arm, so you're going to have to hold on so I can take your legs."
She nodded. Wrapping her arms around his neck, he scooped under her legs with his arm and lifted her up, leaving the chair to fall on its wheelless side. He set her down in the chair he sat in for lunch.
He drug her chair over to her and set it on its side.
She ran her finger over the broken material. "I'm not going to be able to fix that." She whimpered.
He watched her defeated face. "Is there a wheelchair shop nearby?"
"I work on it usually. There is no one locally that makes this kind of chair. They are imported from a different village. The shop I bought it from only sells new chairs, no parts." She sighed.
He scratched the back of his head. "You could get a new chair and use this one for parts." He nudged it with his foot.
She rubbed her face. "They take weeks to order. I should have gotten a spare."
Sasuke looked at the ruined chair and came up with no answers. "Do you have a backup?"
"My old fold up they sent me home in is in a closet at my house." She replied weekly. She looked so defeated. Her entire independence was lying on the floor in two pieces.
He held out his hand. "Give me your keys. I'll go grab it."
She pointed weakly at her bag that was set by where she usually sat. "I can't get them."
He grabbed it and put it in her lap. While she pulled her keys out, he pulled another chair out of the corner of her office and put it where she usually sat. He wasn't going to be able to take her and the chair she was sitting in the back.
She held out the keys. He took them and deposited them in his pocket. He put her bag on the desk. He leaned back over to her, and she didn't hesitate to wrap her arms around him for support. He had a feeling she probably had to rely on someone carrying her from one place to another lot in the beginning. At least to and from her chair.
He sat her back down at her desk, snagged her chair, and promised he would return soon.
He jiggled the keys into the lock and looked around. 'Closet in the spare room,' 'might be buried.' He drugged in her chair and deposited it out of the way. He went down the hall to the spare. He had been here before, never in the closet. He opened the closet door, and it felt… wrong. Inside lay a folded-up chair, old medical braces she was likely sent home in, what looked like a box of her nin clothing, and weapons that hadn't been touched probably since they were put inside. He took a deep breath and pulled out the chair, ignoring the other contents.
He gave the chair a good wipe down to get the layer of dust off it. Then he was faced with a problem… Getting a chair that was designed to be pushed with two hands. He weighed his options, probably should just carry it.
And it was way lighter than the other one, flimsy even.
It smelled like a medic office even after being in a closet for ages.
He kinda felt bad bringing her back this awful memory.
Hinata felt… numb. She should be embarrassed. Sasuke was having to do something for her that, sure, he had offered to do, but she was relying on him. He was doing things for her after seeing her being nearly fully independent, and this time she didn't know how she would be paying him back.
But after a few years of being this helpless, she had become numb to it. What else could she do?
He came to set down the chair, tossed her keys on her desk, and then dragged the chair her way. She hadn't thought about it, but one arm would make it difficult to push a chair. More difficult than a cart.
"This thing even holds your weight?" He asked, holding it still while she moved her hips from one chair to the next.
She raised an eyebrow at him.
"It does feel like much." He clarified.
"It's garbage quality." She admitted. Moving her hands to the wheels, it was clear it was not made to be controlled by the person in it.
She made a face as she moved it back and made it turn much wider than she would usually and sat herself back at her desk. "Thank you." She bowed her head.
He could feel the resentment coming off her, he wasn't sure if it was her pride and being seen so helpless, or it was still toward the chair.
"What was that shop's name?" He asked.
She gave him a confused look.
Naruto made a face. "You're requesting a mission?"
"Anything going to that village. That will take less than a week." He said, shrugging his shoulder with his hand in his pocket.
Naruto shook his head, no less confused. "Why?"
"There is a store there, I need to pick up something from, might as well do its official business." He looked to the side, bored. Why did he need to know all of his reasons for everything? Wasn't this better than him disappearing for a few days?
"I guess I can look, but it probably won't be S-Class." He grumbled, looking through his papers.
"Prefer something lighter. I don't want to be injured. I'm picking up something heavy." He mused.
Naruto made another face and started looking through his stack thoughtfully. It wasn't long before he opened his mouth again. This was Naruto. "Hey, what is with you lately anyway." He asked.
Sasuke raised his eyebrows.
"Don't look at me like that. You haven't had lunch with me in weeks. When you're not on missions, you're always busy on the weekends. I get that from most people, but you?" Naruto wondered.
"Why do you care so much?" Sasuke didn't want to tell him about Hinata yet.
"Well, are you hanging out with some else? I thought maybe it was Sakura, but she was complaining she never sees you." Sasuke rolled his eyes.
"I would prefer to see less of her than I do." He grumbled.
"You're changing the subject." Naruto snapped.
"Yes," Sasuke said.
"Yes?" Naruto asked, confused.
"Yes, I am hanging out with some." He stated.
"Who?" Naruto asked.
"Does it matter? I can only take so much of you. I need a break. It's not like I disappeared. We have dinner like twice a week, we train together. Why are you so interested in what I do otherwise?" Sasuke huffed. "You're like having a mother."
"It's just, you never show any interest in new friends," Naruto mumbled.
"Jealous?" Sasuke teased.
"No." Sasuke frowned, he was expecting a hard defensive response, but it was soft. "I'm glad you're making new friends."
"Give me a break." Sasuke hissed.
"Did you order your chair?" Sasuke asked for a mouth partly full of rice balls.
Hinata nodded. "It won't be here for three weeks."
"When will it be done?" He wondered.
"They are specially ordered and sized for mobility, so it takes about a week. It's two weeks to ship, though." She sighed.
He nodded. "I'll miss the next couple of days of lunch and Sunday. I have a mission won't be back till Monday."
She nodded, not thinking anything of it.