Hinata was tired, but she wouldn't let it show. She dressed in new clothes, did her best with the new hair and makeup. She was there with coffee in hand. She was there at the door to greet him, she read him his day and his charts took his snippet notes, and did as she was told.

The job was demanding. There was always someone calling or emailing her. This needed the director's approval, that was a correction he asked for, and now he needs to see it again. He asked for this to be done yesterday, but it won't be done until next week. What do they do?

On top of that, she was given short worded orders from him, but that didn't mean that it was a simple task. He needed 'designs for the arrival of a new product' and 'an event for my son's homecoming.'

She didn't dare ask about his son's arrival after the look he gave her when she asked 'which new product.'

This wasn't a job for one person.

After many hours of rearranging, delegating, writing up, and fixing documents, her door opened. She looked up, not recognizing who came in, but the expensive suit told her that it was someone important. She stood up and bowed and looked at the time. It was two hours past when she noticed people start going home.

"Can I help you?" She asked, worried she had not turned in something incorrectly.

"Are you the new director's assistant?" He asked, eyeing her desk.

She felt subconscious of the slight mess. She had fanned out documents as she was planning how to take them all on.

"Um, yes. Please excuse my mess." She mumbled, closing a few folders.

He waved his hands and stepped forward, holding his hand out. "I'm Itachi Uchiha."

She gaped at him for a moment before quickly shaking his hand. "Hinata Hyuga, it's nice to meet you, Uchiha-sama." She bowed deeply again, standing up red, realizing not knowing who he was might be a great insult. "I'm sorry, are you here to see your father?"

"Nope, I wanted to see how you were doing." He said, glancing down at her desk again. She wondered why he would possibly want to check on his father's assistant. He glanced down at her clothes, looking a little confused.

She straightened her blouse. Though he seemed quite nice and she couldn't feel ill will from him, she felt like she was being too closely examined.

Though he seemed to not find what he was looking for, he sighed and looked back down at her desk, raising an eyebrow. "Backlog?"

"I'm not sure what you mean." She admitted.

"That's a lot of projects. Did the old assistant drop all his work on you?" He asked, waving his hand at the folders.

"Uhm no… this all came in today." Itachi raised an eyebrow at her. Did he think she was lying?

Was she not working fast enough? Should these have already been handled? She didn't want to pass off work that she didn't properly know where it was going and what should be done with it.

He pulled a document that seemed to catch his eye and, with one finger, pulled it toward him to get a better look.

Without warning, his demeanor changed, and he smiled at her bowing his head a little. "Excuse me. I do think I will see my father."

"I… okay," Hinata mumbled as he went out her front door and rounded to his father's rather than taking the door connecting their offices.

Fugaku looked up as his son opened the door without knocking. Silently Itachi closed the door walking into his office and sat down with a sigh.

He glanced at his son and then back at his screen. Something was bothering Itachi, and if he had to guess, he was the cause.

Finally, his son decided to break the silence. "I got an email today."

"Interesting," Fugaku told his son, annoyed that his clever little brat was going to force him to take the long route to find out what was bothering him.

"Do you want to guess what it was about?" Itachi asked.

"No." He told him flatly.

"Well, it wasn't really to me. It was to my assistant." Itachi continued.

"Does this have a point?" Fugaku asked, looking from his screen to his son's awaiting fake content. "I don't like this game."

Itachi gave him an innocent look.

Fugaku sighed. "What email did you get that you felt the need to come up here to tell me about."

"Sasuke's coming home event." Itachi relented. "Your assistant asked mine how to properly honor the event. Seems she had no other instructions than to plan one. She didn't even know if it should be public or private." Itachi shifted in his seat, leaning over the arm of his chair towards his desk. "She also has 6 documents that are normally handled by my department."

Fugaku rubbed his temple. His son was too quick for his own good.

"You are being purposely hard on her," Itachi concluded.

"You wanted me to have a young assistant, 'to keep up with me,' I believe you said. She needs to keep up." Fugaku excused.

"By giving her work that she shouldn't be handling? By not giving her enough information to do what was assigned?" Itachi asked.

He growled. "Why do you have such an interest in my assistant?"

"Why are you so interested in driving her into the ground?" Itachi asked.

"I think I need to get back to work." Fugaku glared at his son.

Itachi nodded acceptingly, which was concerning, but what concerned him more was the smile he gave him just before he turned for the door.

Itachi lightly knocked on the assistant's door again before letting himself in.

She promptly stood and bowed. "Is there anything you need, Uchiha-sama?" She asked quickly.

"You asked Kisame about my brother's welcome home party?" He asked.

She looked flustered, but she did try to hide it. "Yes, sir. I'm sorry I have no reference for such an event in the details I was given." Her hand passed to the book he had seen pass many assistance hands. "Was that not what I should have done?"

"No, no. It's resourceful, ask him anything you need. Don't be afraid to double-check with him. I'll make sure he knows to keep an eye out for you." Itachi smiled at her.

She turned red and looked down, ashamed. Interesting girl.

"Oh, and my brother's party?" She looked up at him attentively. "Would you mind if I took that off your hands?"

She looked down at her paperwork, flustered like she had made a dire mistake. "I'm sorry..."

He waved a hand. "You didn't do anything wrong. I just wanted to plan it myself. It's not often I get to show my little brother off."

Hinata seemed to calm. She nodded, pulling out the folder and handing it to him.

"You'll be there, won't you?" He asked her to take hold of the folder.

Her hand faltered, and she nearly dropped to the folder. "Uhm, that depends."

"On?" He asked.

"Well, I am to be with Director Uchiha-sama at all public events. However, if the event is a family matter, I would only be there if Uchiha-sama felt he would need me." She explained, her hand wandering back to the rule book.

She had memorized it already, it would seem.

"It will be public." He announced.

Hinata nodded. "Alright, then I will be there."

"Good." He smiled.

She looked at him, confused. She could tell that he was up to something.

He bowed his head a little biding her good night but right before he slipped through the door, he added. "Those documents for my department. Send them over to Kisame. I'm not sure how they were assigned to you. You shouldn't have to worry about it. My father is a hand full enough on his own."

Hinata looked down at her desk and back at him and nodded though she looked unsure. "Don't let him scare you off." She looked back up at him. "I think he needs someone like you."

She stared at him, thoroughly confused as he offered her a final smile and exited.