Sasuke was waiting for her in his seat, leaning back when she came back from her meeting with Shikamaru. "How'd it go, he wondered."
"I'm fired." Hinata quipped, rolling herself into her desk.
"What? Really?" Sasuke asked, sitting up abruptly.
"No." Hinata giggled. "Shikamaru-san told him the same thing and told him that Naruto-sama would not only not be hearing it, but if he kept his tirade wasting man-hours, he would be banned from submitting to the program."
"So it's over?" Sasuke took his offered bento.
"According to him, it's not. He was still shouting about discrimination on the way out. I'm not sure what more he can do other than hold a protest outside my house." Hinata shrugged.
"You know I thought I recognized that guy," Sasuke said thoughtfully. "I think my team did a lot of work at his house."
"Neji-san's team did too. The first time he came in, he mistook me for him," Hinata explained, opening drinks.
"Neji might have put him through a wall," Sasuke commented.
"He would have if he was the one who came in when all that shouting was going on." Hinata made a face that said she didn't want to see that. "You know he's actually happy that we are doing this." She waved at her desk and their lunch. "I thought I was going to get a lecture about taking care of others when I should be focusing on myself."
"You told him it was me?" Sasuke wondered. Hinata shook her head with her mouth full. "Tell him that, then see if he's still happy about it."
Hinata snorted.
Hinata rolled into her office late. She sighed as she finally rolled into her desk, only to have a knock on her door frame. "Wasn't sure you were coming. I was about to head over to your place." Sasuke told her.
Hinata waved her hand and pointed her hand at her tire. "I got a flat tire. I was halfway here this morning, and I realized there was a nail in it. I didn't want to damage my chair trying to roll it back on a flat, so I had to wait for someone to come by, had them get me a nin, the nin got a rookie team, and they carried me and the chair back to my apartment. One of them found nails on the walkway up to my house and cleaned it up. Then I was able to repair the tire, but of course, the rookie team recognized me and had questions."
Sasuke smiled, setting their drinks down on her desk. "Quite the morning."
"I'm just glad I ran over the rails instead of someone stepping on them. At least it doesn't hurt." Hinata huffed.
Sasuke leaned back against a wall holding his meal for the day. Sometimes he forgot just how good he had it now with Hinata's help until he was on a mission and was reminded just how bad food on the road could be. Now it wasn't all bad, there were some really good restaurants and little shops you could come across but when you were on a mission sometimes the best you could do was convince food. The worst was sometimes more common, an empty stomach and a soldier pill.
He looked over to his team for the mission, and he also found he missed Hinata as well as her cooking.
Since coming back to the village, it was an odd day when he found a nin that didn't hold a grudge or a civilian that wasn't afraid of him. Did he hate it, no, he would gladly take the quite distrusting glances over small talk, but after being isolated for so long, it was warm to have someone talk to him like he was another person.
Naruto and Sakura were different. They had been through almost too much together. Their past gave them a distance that he wasn't sure if they would ever really close. He just hoped that they could be happy together.
Sasuke wasn't sure if he could really explain how it felt having a friend he hadn't tried to kill. As ridiculous as that sounded, there weren't many people that he hadn't tried to kill that were talking to him.
He made a face, was there something about trying to kill people that made them want to stick around?
Sasuke's thought was broken by a teammate signaling to him it was time to go. He tossed the rest of his dinner. It wasn't very good anyway.
Hinata looked at the half-healed cut on her hand and huffed in frustration. Another nail on her way to work. This time because of the cut, she noticed it before she got too far away from her apartment, and she was able to make it back before the tire deflated. After repairing her tire, she took a different way to work because clearly, someone was working on something that way.
Sasuke was coming back later this week, so she couldn't even complain about it to him.
She rubbed her face and turned toward her work. She swore if the man had submitted another pile of requests, she might actually slide them all in the trash.
Sasuke could have probably used a shower, but they were running late. He knew Hinata was expecting him back today, so he didn't want to miss lunch. She knew what a long mission could be like, so she always doubled down when he came home.
He was surprised her office was closed. She wasn't just not there. The door was closed. He knocked but no answer, and it didn't look like the light was on. He leaned his head into the office across the hall and waved. "Did Hinata call out today?"
The heavily pregnant woman's face turned down. "She collapsed yesterday. As far as I know, she is still in the hospital."
Sasuke felt his stomach drop. "Uh, thanks." He turned toward Hinata's door and wondered what had happened when he was away.
He shook off the feeling of dread and headed toward the hospital when he arrived. The nurse had first offered to have him checked out, seeing he was still dressed for his mission. He waved her off and asked what room Hinata was in. He was pointed down the hall.
Sasuke moved down the hall to a room where he saw her chair in the corner first. He knocked, and she looked up, but she didn't move much.
"Your back." She said weakly.
"Yeah, I was told you would be here." He wasn't sure what else today. He set the drinks on the best side table.
"I'm sorry I wasn't able to make anything." She half-smiled.
"What happened?" He asked, sitting down.
Hinata winced, lifting her hand. "I got another nail in my tire and got tetanus."
"Another one?" Sasuke asked.
"It happened twice while you were gone. I even went a different way, but I only cut myself the once." Hinata laid her head back. "I thought my arm was just sore from being careful with the tire. Then I got a fever at work. I thought I just had a cold."
"I'm glad it happened at work," Sasuke mumbled. Maybe he should have said that.
Hinata raised her eyebrows agreeing, guess she wasn't bothered by it. "I'm just glad my coworker didn't go into labor. She was frantic. Imagine if I still fainted as often as I did as a child."
"She does look like she's ready to pop." Sasuke agreed.
"Oh no, she is only 6 months. She's having twins," Hinata explained.
"Sasuke? What are you doing here?" Both of them turned to see Sakura with a clipboard on her hip, looking confused.
They glanced at each other. Busted.