Hinata came in late. He knew she would. It didn't matter how late she came back from a mission. She always came back to him after, even if it was just to shower, steal his sweater, and sit with him on the couch.

She seemed surprised he didn't come to the door to meet her. "Sasuke?" She asked as he heard her shoes slipped into place by the door and her bags rustled as she set them down.

She came to the kitchen, where he sat faced away from her. She came up behind him and lightly touched his shoulder when he didn't flinch. She slid her arms around his shoulders and laid her face down. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah." He turned his head to kiss her ear.

"Hey!" She squeaked, turning her head to pout at him.

"I have a question." He hadn't thought about how he would ask. He knew he wasn't getting on a knee. He would feel stupid, and she wasn't one for tradition. He fiddled with the ring in his hand, idly. Maybe he should just give it to her. Perhaps she would be offended if he didn't ask.

"Hmm?" She asked with curiosity catching the movement. He watched her eyes slide down to his lap and the ring. "When did you get that?" She wondered.

He held it up over his shoulder to her. "It's for you."

Hinata hummed. He hadn't given her anything before, well, other than his shirts. "Me?" She loosened her grip to take it, still slumped on his shoulders. She turned it over in her hand, examining it. "It's lovely. Is it handmade?" She hummed. He nodded. "Where did you get it?"

"I made it." He mumbled, taking it back from her fingers and taking her left hand, slipping it on. Luckily the strange woman had been right about the size.

"You did?" He nodded. "You have trouble patching clothing." She giggled at his frown before turning back to the ring, examining it. "I really like it."

"You don't get it to, do you?" He smirked. He didn't know what he was worried about.

"What?" Her eyes flicked back up.

He chuckled, kissing her. She gave another confused look as he pulled away.

"I don't get what?" She asked, unraveling her arms so he could turn around. Her nose wrinkled at him as she pouted. "What?"

"I thought it might show to the village that I propose to keep you forever." He nudged, tugging her closer by the end of her top.

"Keep..." Her eye widened. "Propose?" She squeaked, her face turning pale and blood-red at the same time, covering her mouth. She searched his face in the hope that she was right, and she didn't just make it worse. He nodded slowly, raising his eyebrow.

"Is that okay?" He asked.

She opened her mouth and only released a squeak before nodding furiously, making him laugh. He got up and engulfed her. She hung on him tightly.

Hinata didn't know whether to be touched or embarrassed. Sasuke looked at her, amused. It was a happy memory for him. She was glad. She smiled, slightly leaning on him. Even if it had its rough spots, she liked this story.

He rubbed his thumb over her ringed finger, and his voice hollowed. "I hope someday, the answer will be yes again."

She looked up at his pained frown as he looked at the two rings settled there, and her heart clenched. She let her face scrunch and leaned toward him. He glanced up at her, closing his eyes and kissing her forehead.

Sasuke hated that she had to see him like this. He could hide it from her, but that would be worse. He pressed his forehead to hers where he had kissed, feeling the comfort she tried to give just in her look. Always trying to fix him even if she didn't know what was wrong, but now she did know what was wrong, and somehow that made him feel worse.

Her warmth spread over her face, and he opened his eyes in surprise to find hers lightly closed with tears in her eyelashes.

She had kissed him.

She wasn't pulling away, but she was turning red, terribly red. Sasuke then made an observation he hadn't formerly made. To her, they haven't slept together, never kissed, meaning she once again had no clue what she was doing.

Sasuke backed slightly. She opened her eyes to his amused face and turned even redder, covering her face reeling back as he laughed.

Hinata squeaked. "I'm sorry!"

"You're adorable." He chuckled, leaning over her, taking her wrists to uncover her face, giving her a short peck. One to return hers. "Lunch?" She nodded furiously, thoroughly embarrassed.

Hinata curled up on him on the couch, looking at her single ring. "I'm guessing you like it."

"No one's ever made something for me before." She turned it, looking at the tool marks and blemishes.

He frowned, tugging her closer to press his nose into her shoulder. She hummed in question, turning her head to look at him.

"You're depressing." He sighed.

She giggled. "Where did you learn to make a ring?"

"Some bossy female ninja with a rather odd obsession with weaponry." He told her.

She flinched.

"Hmm?" He lifted his head.

"Tenten-chan!" She squeaked.

"That might have been it, is that bad?" Her reaction made him nervous.

"No, but when did she learn it?" He explained the woman's ramblings about her teacher finding this a good step to weaponry. "Did you know who she is?"

"Uh, no, should I?" He wondered.

"She's on nii-san's team." She explained.

"Shit." He grumbled.

"What?" She turned to look at him but kept curled in his lap.

"Well, I didn't exactly go by tradition here." He rubbed the back of his head.

She took a few blank moments before understanding. "You mean you didn't ask for my hand?" He nodded. Her cousin finding out before he went to have a row with her father might be an issue. He looked to the side, trying to think of possible outcomes when he was hit full force with the whole of her body as she wrapped her arm around his neck.

"Woah!" He readjusted her arms around her rib cage. "You okay? Hey, I can go now. I think it's stupid to ask. You are an adult, but..."

She recalled back. "No!" She smiled, wiping away what he could now tell were happy tears. "I'm so glad. Thank you for giving me a choice."

"You realize that I may have caused some problems." She nodded with only a twitch downward to her bright smile. "You don't care, do you."

"I won't behead. I don't have to marry within the clan because I won't need to produce the next heir." She tilted her head and frowned. They both knew that it would be fought anyway, but they had already come this far with the village frowning on them.

"They won't take you from me." He growled. "I would even get the idiot's help." He would lose the last of his self-respect, of course, but if he got to keep her, what did he need her pride for.

She squealed happily as she tossed herself at him again.

Bath time was now rather enjoyable, with Hinata now needing no more help than to make sure she didn't fall. It wasn't necessary for him to be there anymore. She still asked him to stay, and they would soak in the tub together while they talked.

Hinata was surprisingly comfortable being nude in front of him. She always covered herself with her knees, but she was still naked, she was sure he saw, but what made her comfortable was he didn't leer. If she was facing him, he would look directly at her face or away. He was her husband, he had seen her naked before, but he was respectful enough to keep his eyes averted because she could be uncomfortable.

"Do you want to go out into the village?" He asked, his arm supported by the tub and his head supported by that.

She thought for a second. "I'm not sure if I want to yet, maybe a little more of the story. I'm not sure who and what relationships I have."

Sasuke watched her flutter around the kitchen with a look on her face that told him that she was trying to hide something.

"Hinata." He sighed, she turned in question. "What are you doing?"

"I'm making herb bread. I thought we could add some tomatoes and melt cheese to the top and have it with a salad." She mumbled. He now noticed her face was covered in streaks of flour where she had pushed her hair out of the way as she covered the bowl to rise.

"Okay, why are you making it?" He elaborated.

"I thought you would like it." She wiped her hands.

"Though I would like it..." He pushed. She frowned, knowing he saw through her act. He smirked. "You can't make food for me, everything someone insults me, we've been over this."

"It makes me feel better." She pouted, making the flour on her nose all the cuter.

"Well," He rounded the counter to pluck the towel out of her hand and dusted her face. "It makes me feel better when you tell me what's wrong and when I don't need to interrupt your cooking to find out."

She blushed as she took the towel to finish wiping her face.

"So?" He asked, pulling her into him.

"Kiba-kun and Shino-kun… have decided..." She leaned on him. "They were wary before. They said they trusted my decisions, but recently… they thought to voice their... concerns."

"About me." He concluded.

She nodded. "They worry that you are… using me." She whispered.

"To get to the Hyuga? Why the hell would I do that? I thought they knew your situation with them." He watched her turn red and realized she meant something else. "Oh… really?"

She nodded. "I hadn't mentioned the engagement." She explained. "they were concerned with… how often and late I was here." She continued to turn redder. "I thought telling them about the engagement would make it clear… that started a different … discussion." She whimpered. "Kiba-kun is very upset, he…"

"Doesn't think I'm worth it?" He put it bluntly.

"I think you have other motives." She frowned. "He's set that you are somehow using me to get back at Naruto-kun or want a …broodmare to restart your clan, and this is all some plan that I am just a part of."

"Your friend said this to you?" He growled. "Did he say broodmare?"

"I'm not saying what he said. Kiba-kun jumps to conclusions, attacks first. He means well, he's simply worried that you don't care and are using me as a means to an end." She explained with a sigh.

"Do you think that?" He asked low, hoping he knew the answer.

"Of course not. I know you have no interest in recreating a clan on your own." They had spoken in length about it. She could understand and seriously talk about with him the issue of starting a clan from just one person. He would have to have multiple women have multiple children. Out of those children who had the Sharingan, he would have to breed sparingly with each other to keep the Sharingan. However, this was possible in a large clan with distant cousins to marry to keep the main branch relatively strong it was unhealthy and could cause birth complications with just him.

The only way they could think to do so without inbreeding too heavily was going two generations hoping there were enough children born with it and breeding them with distant documented relatives to the Uchiha's and hoping it was enough. The more he thought about it, the more it made him sick. He would be breeding his children and grandchildren like pure breed puppies. He couldn't do it.

Hinata mentioned that her mother and father were 4th cousins.

Though they never mentioned he knew if he wanted to rebuild his clan, he couldn't do it with her anyway. It was known that a child with a parent from each clan would have one Sharingan eye and one Hyuga eye, kind of defeating the purpose. Though down the line, that did have the potential to make something new. Mostly he did not want his clan to be under the Hyuga; he did not want his children to grow up like he did.

He thumbed over her hip. "You don't mind. He thinks you wouldn't see through something like that."

She pierced her lip, turning red. "Uhm, that's not the whole story."

"Well?" He quirked an eyebrow.

"Well, Shino-kun asked a similar question to Kiba-kun and… Kiba-kun said he thought I was too easily infatuated and to… look at my previous crushes." She squeaked.

Sasuke was both surprised and enraged. "What?"

"And I didn't mean to." She covered her face, hiding into his shoulder. "But I hit him."

Sasuke paused, and an amused smirk came across his face. He told himself he could not laugh as she whimpered her embarrassment into his shoulder. It was adorable, her friend insulted her, and she knocked him on his ass.

He could not laugh in front of her.