"Sasuke-kun, a word please."

The said genin had just stepped out of the estate when Hinata appears at the doorway. Kakashi seeing this, came toward his ward, putting a hand on his shoulder.

"How about you two go to the garden? It'll give you some privacy."

Sasuke sighed, "But you're still going to be lurking Kakashi since you have to make sure I don't leave your field of vision."

"That's why I said some privacy Sasuke. The rest will wait here but don't take too long."

The Uchiha sighed, and Hinata smiled softly in understanding before taking him by the hand as they walked together to the Hyuuga compound's garden. The Uzumaki family waved at them as they went whilst Rina winked, mouthing good luck causing Sasuke to blush.

When the two finally reached the garden, Hinata led him towards the giant tree where the swing set was. They used to play there all the time. Sasuke blushes hard as Hinata leans back against the tree, his hands in hers as she looked at him. She was so close to him; it made his cheeks warm.

"H-Hina d-dont...your kimono will get dirty."

"The dinner party is over; it doesn't matter anyway."

Sasuke felt his heart pound hard in his chest, looking into her eyes. Hyuuga's have pupilless eyes, yet he always felt something when he looked into Hinata's eyes. The Uchiha's face reddened, so he comes closer and wraps his arms around Hinata's waist tightly, his face over her shoulder, causing Hinata to smile at the surprise hug. She hugged him back, concluding that Sasuke was too cute when it came to her.

"Mashiro!"

Rina turned to see Hiashi walking toward her, his expression stern. She sighed deeply; she knew this night went a little too well.

"Hiashi-sama."

"Drop the formalities child. I'm here to discuss something of a sensitive nature."

That no-nonsense look on his face was enough for Rina to wordlessly nudge her wards forward to wait for her at Hyuuga property's gates.

The special jounin stood tall, looking carefully at the Hyuuga Head, "What do you want sempai?"

"My oldest daughter has been asking too many questions about you lately. We need to put your gifting to a halt."

Rina tilted her head, "Come now senpai, you allowed me to gift the girls presents on their birthdays, and one of the rules was to allow you to check them first. You said the last gifts I gave them fine."

"Yes but I never imagined Hinata to become so relentless now even my youngest has ganged up on me, and it is your fault."

The tanned woman in front of him scowled as she crossed her arms, "It's not my fault your children are tired of you keeping me a secret from them. They deserve to know their family."

"You are not their family. You are just a godparent! You-"

Rina closes the distance between them, her voice dropping dangerously low, "-delivered Hinata, you ungrateful bastard."

Hiashi's flashed, his volume entirely the opposite, "How dare you! You brat!"

"You want me to kick your ass again? And in front of your clansmen?"

Naruto who was watching from afar with the others, perked up when he heard Hiashi's raised voice. The boy's eyes practically twinkled; he would love to see this fight!

"Did you mean what you said back there?"

Sasuke nodded his arms above her head, resting onto the tree as she left her hands on his chest. She appreciated that Sasuke seemed much calmer after their embrace.

"I think your father would have my head if I said anything insincere."

She lets out a small giggle, "Fair enough."

Hinata smiled, her fingers brushing against his cheeks, "Who knew the stoic Uchiha could be so passionate, hmm?"

Sasuke flushed, "You're worth it."

Hinata blushes at his words before shyly lifting her head, closing her eyes and tenderly pressing her lips against his, surprising the Uchiha.

The kiss obliterated every thought. For the first time in forever, the present time fixed onto Sasuke's mind. The worries of the past evaporated like a summer heatwave onto a pool of water. Sasuke had no wish for the kiss to end. Drunk on endorphins his only desire was to touch her, to move his hands under her smooth kimono layers and feel her perfect softness. In moments, the soft caress has become more firm; he savoured her lips and the quickening of her breath that matched his own. A kiss like this was a beginning, a promise of much more to come.

"Leave Tenshi-onee-chan alone!"

Hiashi turned to see across looking Hanabi and his nephew standing hesitantly before him.

"Hinata onee-sama asked for a meeting with Tenshi onee-chan, not for you to fight with her!"

Rina blinked, clearly confused, "Hanabi-chan, when did you figure it out?"

Hanabi came forward, explaining that Hinata was the one to figure it out. She had recognised Rina from what their mother described her in her journal after she first saw her at the hospital on the day of Naruto's discharge. Later, when Hinata saw Rina signing the discharge paperwork, she recognised the handwriting instantly as the handwriting of their mysterious godmother Tenshi that always left birthday presents and cards for them.

Rina couldn't help but feel proud of Hinata, as the girl got more involved with Kurenei and her teammates, Hinata bit by bit was breaking out of her shell and expressed more of her talents as she gained more confidence. Indeed, Rina was very happy for the heiress.

"Tenshi onee-chan, why have you kept a secret from us, to begin with?"

Rina smirked, turning to Hiashi, "You want to tell her or should I?"

The Hyuuga Head glared, "Leave Mashiro, or you are never welcome into my property again."

Before she could respond, Hinata seemingly appeared out of nowhere with Sasuke in tow and Kakashi walking not too far behind, looking very confused by the tension. Before Hinata could ask, Hiashi gives the order to Neji to take his cousins away.

Neji's eyes lowered but nodded as he came forward taking his cousin, Hanabi by the wrist.

Hinata turns to Sasuke, mouthing sorry and turns to open the sliding door, about to go in but Sasuke tilts her head and gives her a chaste kiss on the mouth causing Hinata to blush in turn. She pouts a little at him, causing Sasuke to smile until Neji comes up behind, obviously wanting to obey the order he was given and take his cousins inside. Sasuke gives his fiancee a wave before leaving and headed towards his teammates.

Rina kept her face expressionless throughout, Hiashi made a small grunt before leaving towards the house; not even bothering to wish her farewell or even goodnight. Regardless, Rina gave a slight bow to Hiashi's retreating before turning on her heel and leaving; she could feel the rage boiling inside of her and damn did she hate it.

Kakashi made a quick jog to Rina and takes her hand in his, she says nothing and grips it firmly as she walks toward the Uzumaki cousins who were waiting for her at the front gates.

Naruto and Karin watched, noting their guardian's stony expression but were shocked to watch Sasuke following Kakashi's example and holding her hand too. It was enough of a surprise for both adults to look at Sasuke in wonder. Sasuke said nothing with his eyes lowered to the ground, his grip strong onto Rina's hand.

Karin couldn't help but smirk, looks like Sasuke wasn't a complete utterly unfeeling bastard.

Once they were closer to the market area on their way home, Kakashi offered to buy ice cream. The Uzumaki family enthusiastically agreed while Sasuke merely shrugged, but Kakashi was in a good mood, so he took the shrug as a yes. After asking all of them what they wanted, he went forward to the ice cream stall.

"Kakashi-kun, it's been a while since I last saw you. How are you doing?"

The ice-cream seller was a nice man with friendly eyes, Minato-sensei used to take them to this stall to buy ice cream for them. It would be the first time Kakashi was at the booth with his team physically present.

He ordered one strawberry for Karin, two chocolate for Sasuke and himself, one cookies and cream for Naruto and one mint chocolate chip for Rina. He requested precisely word for word, mentioning the group's names, not realising that there was a glint in the seller's eyes when he said Naruto's.

He waited patiently as the ice cream man scooped up the ice cream, eyeing his ward talking with the Uzumaki cousins with Rina watching them too with a gentle expression.

She would make a fantastic mother one day.

"Here you go Kakashi-kun."

Kakashi eye smiled and moved to pick up the tray that held the cones but as soon as he lifted it, he felt something was off about the weight.

The ice cream man watched worried, as Kakashi put down the tray to pick up the single cookies and cream cone and the man's single eye narrowed at him.

"Why is this so heavy? What did you put in it?"

"Just big chunks of the cookies Kakashi-kun! Nothing to worry about!"

The older man flinched when Kakashi leaked out his killer intent just a little not enough for his teammates to sense it but enough for the ice cream man to feel it. Wordlessly, Kakashi took the whole scoop of ice cream in his hand, his expression unchanging even with the cold temperature. The weight was too heavy. He crushed it in his hand, deadpanned under his mask when he realised he felt something tangible in the scoop in his hand. When he opened his fist, his eye widened in shock.

Rocks?

The ice cream man closed his eyes, knowing the jounin was probably going to hurt him. He opened his eyes again, Kakashi whispering harshly obviously trying to control his anger so that the group wouldn't hear. "How dare you! How could you put rocks in a child's ice cream? What do you have against Naruto?"

The elderly man scowled, "That runt is a demon. He has the Kyuubi inside him, and he even took our Yondaime's looks to laugh at us!"

Kakashi couldn't believe what he was hearing. He knew the villagers hated Naruto for being a jinchurrki but this? Kakashi could practically hear Minato-sensei rolling in his grave at this moment.

"You know what? Fuck you Aruto-san."

Kakashi took the tissue from the tissue dispenser cleaning his hand, leaving the ice cream with the man as he went back to the group who looked at him strangely.

"Kashi, where's the ice cream?" Rina asked, looking at him, concerned at his stiff posture.

"They didn't have the flavours we wanted, sorry about that."

Karin pouted while the rest looked at Kakashi suspiciously, knowing if that were the case, Kakashi wouldn't have taken so long at the stall at all.

"Let's just go kids."

The male jounin urged Sasuke forward and ruffled Naruto's hair affectionately as he walked behind the 14-year-olds with Rina next to him, quickly figuring out what happened & watched Kakashi looking at Naruto.

Rina leaned her head toward her lover so that her lips were close to his ear, "I'm guessing he was hateful towards our blonde?"

Kakashi nodded numbly, not sure what he could say.

He knew the villagers were unkind to Naruto but this extent? He didn't know what to think. He silently vowed he would speak to the Hokage about this as soon as he could.

"Mistukai-sensei thank you for coming with me today and thank you for looking out for Hinata the way you have over the years. Hina told me a little about the gifts she received from you. Thank you."

Rina almost tripped over her own feet in surprise, but Kakashi keeps her steady. She blinks her eyelashes, truly bewildered by Sasuke's words. He merely looks back at Rina with a blank expression on his face but with sincerity in his eyes.

"You called me Mistukai and sensei?"

Sasuke nods, saying nothing else and walking forward with everyone else staring after him.

Guess he wasn't just all talk about doing better after all.