Hinata stared over the hillside and waited. Sasuke went from disheveled to somewhat determined in a moment and had tossed clothes at her and told her to get dressed. She thought that this must be his idea of a date or at least what he thought people considered a date. She wasn't sure it was needed, but from what she could tell, he was trying to be sweet.
He had asked for her to make a basket of snacks, and they had trekked up an empty hillside, and he had told her to wait as he ran off. She sat down and waited for him, but she wasn't sure what he could have possibly been getting that they couldn't have gotten on the way up.
When he had jogged back into the clearing, he didn't seem to have anything with him.
"Forgot something." He flopped down beside her.
"What?" She giggled at his dramatics.
"You'll see." He dug into the basket, getting out the food.
Hinata giggled, covering her mouth as she had been chewing. She wasn't different now. A few more scars, but she got those every mission. She was still just his odd little wife.
"Are you going to tell me what you ran off for?" She asked, brushing off her hands of crumbs.
"Oh." He dug into his back pocket for the one thing he meant to bring but realized he left the house without. It was stupid, but he was sure if she was the same person she was before, it would mean something to her, and he would have achieved his goal of having a cheesy date like she enjoyed.
Not because she wanted to be taken on a date, but because she just found it amusing when he tried.
He held out a small black drawstring pouch. "This is what is meant to be a ring box." He took her hand, slipping both her rings off and replacing the wedding band, dropping the engagement ring in the bag.
"I thought you didn't have a box." She hummed, looking at it intently as he dropped it into her hand.
"I didn't give it to you in one, and you never used it, but it was there. I don't think it's ever actually made it into the bag any longer than when I was trying to figure out to give it to you in the bag or the way I did." He explained, he had taken it out of the bag so many times it had been a few weeks after their engagement he gave it to her, and he had offered it when they were publicly separated, but she still had wanted to wear it, so she had refused.
"I'm guessing you didn't make it." Hinata giggled at his frown as she looked at the well-made stitching.
"No." Sasuke rolled his eyes.
"So why did we have to have a picnic to see a bag?" She hummed with a smile, knowing something was up.
"Well." Sasuke plucked the bag from her. "We got remarried, but I didn't ask again."
She giggled. "I asked."
"Well, I'm asking now." Sasuke took the ring back out of the bag and held it up to her. "Hinata Uchiha, would you marry me again."
"I would, and I have." She giggled, letting him slip her wedding ring off to put them both back.
"Well, then we shouldn't be worried then." He laid back on the blanket.
"Did you do all this because you want to justify sleeping together?" She asked, laying on his shoulder.
"You assume our first time was our wedding night." He got no reply, and he chuckled. "No, I think I should have done it before. I was worried you would refuse or chalk it up to beware already married, but I think it's fair to say you have already made your choice." He explained.
She buried her face in his shoulder. "We were married, but we didn't have a honeymoon." She said, barely audible.
He looked down at her hidden face to see its bright red and getting redder. "Your right." She grinned shyly with red cheeks. She was just the same.
Sasuke rubbed his Sharingan eyes and glanced over at his wife, who had fallen asleep on her research, head poorly propped upon her hand, and leaned against the wall the table was slid up to. Her hair draped over her shoulder and face made a curtain that blocked out the light.
Sasuke stared for a moment more and yawned, looking up at the clock. They had stayed far too late. He closed his work and slipped hers out from under her and returned it to the restricted work section of the Hokage library.
He rested his hand on her shoulder, making her jump. "Hmm?"
Hinata groaned, getting up with a sway shaking her hand that had gone to sleep. She lent over to pick up the meal, and he set her coat over her shoulders. She spread her hand over her face to cover her yawn, and her eyes became watery.
He hummed, put his arm around her shoulder, and tugged her into his side, where she buried her face in his sweater. He kissed her hair, and she let out a tired whimper. "Let's go home."
Hinata looked over the notes that Sasuke had given her that she kept under their bed. The Uchiha seal was amusing her to her somewhat. She opened and skimmed through it, she understood most of it, and it was her handwriting, which was a little weird because she didn't remember writing any of it.
"You said you were nowhere near a breakthrough with current seals, and you were going to look into seal making, but if you had started, you hadn't said anything." He looked over the shoulder idly at her neat handwriting.
"I don't know where I would begin to pick this back up." She chewed her lip, looking up at him.
"Well, as the current seals were a dead-end, maybe you should start looking into making your own." She frowned. She was smart enough for something like that. "Don't make that face."
"Sasuke, seals take years of research, teams of people who know what they are doing, outrageously unethical experiments." She tried.
"You know that is only what they tell us in the academy to deter kids from trying to make something without proper research and hurting themselves. You know some of the most powerful techniques were made by accident, so I'm sure you could stumble across something possible." He assured her. "Don't act like you're not capable. You got the same scores as I did on written exams in the academy."
Hinata pouted with little more to say. He was right, but her academy-written scores meant nothing before. It had never meant anything to her father or the council; they were unhappy that Shikamaru had the best scores. It wouldn't matter to her what their opinions were, but they would be who she would be convincing with the final product.
"I don't know." She said finally.
"Don't think about it now. You should talk to your sister before making any decisions anyway." He assured, rubbing her shoulder.
Sasuke held a piece of hair up for his wife. She was doing it up for the meetings like she always did, and she hated doing this. She scrunched her little pale nose in the mirror as she pulled her thick hair up in a traditional style. She held pins in her teeth, and one by one, they disappeared into her hair until the piece he held up no longer needed his assistance.
She continued to make faces in the mirror, and he couldn't help his amused smile. She pouted at him.
He leaned his head down and kissed her shoulder. "You're adorable."
"It's not funny." She said through a mouth full of pins.
"Yes, it is." He took the hair she held up and grinned at her puffed-out face.
Hinata held onto his arm lightly at his elbow and giggled at the snide, cranky comments he made. "Oh, she is not that bad. She's simply a little snippy." She tried to defend the woman that had just spoken to him.
"She acted like a judgmental mother. I don't need anyone mothering me this late in life." Sasuke grumbled.
She covered her lips with her fingertips, keeping back a louder laugh.
Hinata was enjoying herself more than she thought she would. She wasn't sure if this tactic of surviving the meetings developed over time or was immediate, but his comments did make the somewhat stuffy atmosphere much more bearable. She couldn't help the giggles that aroused with every rude comment.
"Did they seriously dress the poor dog to match that peacock?" She followed his eyes to a woman for a further village who was dressed ridiculously brightly, holding a small creature that she wasn't sure was a dog or not in a matching costume. The creature seemed well fed by the looks of it and didn't look uncomfortable, but she wasn't sure if it particularly liked the outfit. She tried not to smile at the horrible observation and turned to bury her face in his shoulder so she didn't laugh looking at the woman. "I hope she doesn't have children."
Hinata coughed another laugh. "Stop." She giggled.
"Incoming," Sasuke whispered to her.
Hinata looked up at red hair and smiled. "Gaara." She addressed and bowed.
Gaara bowed his head slightly with a twitch of his face that looked like a relief to her. He never was one to show much of his subtle emotions. "You do still know me."
Hinata offered a reassuring smile. "Yes, it's not that far back." She explained. "As far as I am aware, I only don't remember the last two times we met."
"Naruto was vague on your condition. I was told you were injured in one of his letters. I was unsure how much you had recovered." Gaara glanced at Sasuke, acknowledging his flat look before looking back at her.
"I'm well now, mostly." She shrugged and tightened her grip on Sasuke's arm. "I've been handling the lasting effects."
"Is there any sign of a full recovery?" Gaara asked, looking up at Sasuke's now sour face.
"Not really." She frowned.
Gaara nodded and then paused, looking at the side, looking mildly unsure if he should continue. "Naruto voiced concern on your well-being in the village as you have had trouble with your public view in the past."
She gave another reassuring smile. "I was… displaced by it. However, I think I understand most of the reason for it."
Sasuke kept quite looking uncomfortable. He wasn't one to be so vague.
"I am glad you are physically recovered. I hope it extends." He offered.
Hinata smiled. "Thank you."