Hurrying to her room to avoid any more badgering from her sister, Hinata finally felt able to breathe again after her door was shut firmly behind her. Hanabi's words replayed in her head. Her face blushed at the thought of being the object of his affections, but as she tried to recall all her recent interactions with him, she was certain that she was not. The thought caused her to feel something, and it was awfully similar to the feeling of disappointment. But that wasn't possible, because to be disappointed one has to have been expecting or wanting something, and that certainly wasn't the case. Or at least that's what Hinata thought to herself.

Packing her bag, she also considered all the trouble she was sure Hanabi had put Sasuke through when he had simply been trying to return her things to her. Knowing the pain of dealing with the younger girl, Hinata felt it was only right to make it up to him somehow. Tomato onigiri. According to Sakura he really liked it. That was the best course of action, she'd make him some before she left on her mission as an apology.

Packing for a mission was always relaxing for her. It was routine, but still required her full attention as a mistake could be devastating to her team later on. But she liked the familiarity and the nostalgia of when Kurenai-sensei used to have them all get together to prepare the night before a mission. So Hinata took her time, but still she was finished rather quickly, save for her last task. Food.

As new genin she would occasionally bring homemade snacks for the team. It evolved, just as they did, being promoted to chunin, and she regularly packed lunches for them all. Eventually Kiba and Shino told her to stop, saying it wasn't fair for her to always do that, and that they'd never learn to do it themselves at this rate. The two did try to take in her role a few times, but it was disastrous. Honestly it saddened her to stop helping them in this way, but she did because she knew they felt it made the team unbalanced which wouldn't be fair to them. That was why she was honestly glad she'd decided to make Sasuke some food, then it would be like it used to.

While in the midst of preparing the food, Ko entered the kitchen and observed her a moment before asking, "What are you doing all this for?"

She turned and smiled at the man, "I have a mission tomorrow, so I'm packing my lunch."

His eyebrows joined together in a frown, "This is a lot of food for you...and you never cared for tomatoes much before..."

"Yes, well we accidentally ordered too many and it'd be a shame for them to go to waste, so I've been trying to use them up," she sighed, " and I'm fine with tomatoes, but either way those aren't for me. Those are for Sasuke-san."

The older man choked on the water he'd gotten while she was talking, "The Uchiha? Why are you making him food?"

Hinata put down the utensils she'd been using and turned to fully face him, "Because Hanabi got a hold of him earlier and we know how she has a way of tormenting people, even strangers, so it's only right to offer him an apology, and Sakura said he liked these."

Eyeing her, Ko was quiet for a moment before speaking, gently this time, "He's a very powerful ninja, he can handle Hanabi just fine. Also, he's a grown man, I'm sure he doesn't need someone fixing his meals for him." He shook his head before turning to leave, "you've always been too caring Hinata-sama."

Now Hinata scrunched her face, his words confused her. She had similar thoughts after she gave him food the first time, but now hearing it spoken aloud by another, Hinata realized the ridiculousness of it. Because Sasuke was strong, she shouldn't show him the same kindness she extended to her teammates, to Naruto and Sakura, to her sister's team, even, at times? She would have understood the argument had he said that she hardly knew him, even if she would have disagreed with that logic. But to say Sasuke did not need this form of kindness seemed absurd. He probably needed this more than most because he spent so much of his life without it. She shook her head in hopes it would also shake off the uncomfortable feeling creeping into her gut and got back to work.

Like packing, this too did not take long, and she had 3 servings of tomato onigiri packaged up in no time. Setting them next to her own lunch she did one last run through of her mental to do list. All that was left was delivering this and getting to bed early.

She remembered her way to his apartment in town easily enough as Naruto and Sakura had both pointed it out multiple times, so the darkness left by the setting sun was no problem. It wasn't long until she was standing before his door. Debating whether she should just leave it at the door with the note she prepared or hand it over directly, her face displayed a focused look, and she became unaware of her surroundings. So unaware that Hinata didn't notice the Uchiha walking up behind her until he spoke.

"What are you doing?"

Hinata was ashamed of the squeak she let out from the shock of hearing his voice. "Oh, Sasuke-san, I didn't see you there."

The signature blank look on his face that was somehow more intimidating than when he looked mad remained when he spoke again, "why are you here?" At hearing his words aloud, Sasuke winced internally. Hinata wasn't sure what to make of this contrasting behavior, compared to the unexpected softness she experienced from her earlier that day. Suddenly the urge to leave was strong. Much stronger than her desire to apologize for her little sister's behavior, and so she started to rush past him to exit the building, all while muttering something about being at the wrong apartment. Before she made it two steps past him, she felt something clamp down on her wrist. Her mind could not register something as cold as that was as being human, so she had to activate her kekkei genkai before she could trust her eyes when she turned and saw that it was Sasuke's hand.

Her reaction was quick, and the untrained eye would not have seen the activation of the byakugan before it was released, but the Uchiha did. His quick analysis of the situation led him to believe he frightened her. He let out a sigh, and released her wrist, "Why don't you come inside?"