Chapter 21

After dinner they cleaned up and walked over to the living room.

"So should I bring down a dress for you?" she mused not wanting him to forget the dare he had to do.

"Sure… why not!".

With a huge smile on her face, Hinata ran upstairs and went through her closet (yes her family had sent her all her clothes, what she was going to do with all this while quarantined was beyond her). Most of these dresses wouldn't fit him... but finally she stumbled on a black evening gown that was more flowy than tight. It was easy to slip on and it was not form fitting... so he might actually be able to get into it.

Without delay she came back downstairs and handed him the dress, which he took with a smirk. Without any words he took off his shirt and stepped into the dress pulling it up and over him.

She had gotten rather quiet when he took his shirt off but as he pulled the tiny spaghetti straps over his shoulders she smiled. The dress barely covered his chest and it couldn't be zipped in the back. In fact most of his arms, shoulders and back were uncovered. And Hinata resisted the urge to laugh or fan herself... or maybe both.

"Well now you have to do a catwalk and model the dress" she said seriously.

"Ah of course". So without any pushback, he started walking up and down the living room like a model. At this point she was rolling on the couch laughing. He actually did that fairly well.

"Are you okay?" he asked after he had finished.

"Yes… I'm fine… sorry. You um.. You pull that dress off really well. I'm a bit jealous actually" she replied.

"Well we can't all be lucky enough to look good in everything" he teased her. "Alright it's your turn". With that he sat down on the living room accent chair with his dress still on. Is it weird that it was starting to look attractive on him, she thought distractedly.

"Truth or dare?"

"Umm.. truth I guess" she murmured.

"Do you love Ryoko" he asked.

She blinked at him for a few minutes. He had asked that question without any hesitations or preamble. Why would he ask her this? Why was that any of his business? He had no right to know who she was or wasn't in love with. Hinata found herself struggling to breath in anger and she contemplated lying. She truly did.

"Ummm…" she hesitated looking down at her hands trying to calm down. She expected him to renege the question then, but he continued to stare. He was a man who was comfortable letting silences drag on until he got the response he was after.

"No, I don't," she whispered.

In the end she hadn't been able to lie looking into his eyes like this. The silence between them stretched and grew…

"Actually we broke up earlier today" she couldn't help but add. Why had he asked her this question? She felt frustrated with herself for sharing or caring enough to do so... she got up to leave.

"Hinata I…" Kakashi started seeming a bit guilty now, but she cut him off.

"I'm going to go to bed now Kakashi... It's been a long day. Thank you for dinner" she bowed lightly and semi ran up the stairs.

.

.

The next few days passed by in much of the same format. Kakashi seemed to be getting increasingly impatient waiting in this house because it wasn't easy to run a country quarantined. He had some good people out there working but it didn't inspire confidence in national governance when your leader could be infected with an unknown disease.

Hinata had tried her best to stay out of his way for the last few days. He seemed to alternate his time between closing himself in his office to work for hours on end and spent the rest of the time training. She would be lying if she said that she hadn't spied on him training a few times. He took his shirt off when he trained and there were no other sources of entertainment around here.

Hinata had already read most of the books that had been on her reading list, she worked out everyday… sometimes more than once a day and she played the piano that was in the loft. She had even attempted to do some oil painting recently after having the supplies delivered.

Kiba and Shino called her almost every day along with her family, so that passed a decent chunk of time. And she had started walking in the woods around Kakashi's house. There was only about six days of quarantine left… she could do this, she thought determinately as she walked out to a nearby clearing. It seemed like this area had been built as a woodsy training ground. It was very peaceful around here but it was also isolated. Why did he want to be this far from the city?

Shaking herself out of her daydreams, Hinata lightly adjusted her tights and tank top and put her hair up into a ponytail getting ready to do some light stretches. Just as she was doing a side stretch she heard someone clear their throat behind her, she turned around instantly recognizing it was Kakashi.

"Want some company?" he asked, looking her up and down.

Since he threw her off balance so often she decided to return the favour, "Am I supposed to just ignore the fact that you check me out all the time?" she asked in a placid voice.

She had the pleasure of seeing his face turn slightly red, "Well you are hot, what can I say?".

There was a small awkward silence between them. "I was just about to start training" she said curtly in the ways of a reply despite the pleasure that unfurled in her chest at that compliment.

"Want a partner for a spar? it's hard to stay in shape without sparring", Kakashi stretched his own limbs. She could understand his desire to stay on top of his game, especially now that he was the Hokage.

"Okay, any rules?"

"You can block my tenketsu but none of the techniques that can suck out my chakra in one punch, deal?"

"Deal, and your chidori?"

"Obviously I won't electrocute you to a crisp" he smirked.

She smiled and raised an eyebrow acknowledging his challenge.

Without further ado Hinata advanced on him in a flash step and aimed a punch at his chest which he barely evaded with a deflection. She then turned and aimed a kick at his legs to swipe him out, but he jumped and aimed a hit at shoulder blades which she ducked to avoid while immediately falling into a back handspring to put some distance between them.

He was right… now this was a workout. Kakashi's eyes had gotten dark since she attacked without warning. In a second he advanced on her so quickly all she felt was a breeze ruffle by before she flew backwards to a tree.

Hinata got up with a grimace. Right... he wasn't kidding around anymore. She couldn't forget that he was not only one of the best teachers in the country… he had also trained three of the strongest Shinobi to have been produced out of Konoha. She braced herself and flew forward again where they engaged in a battle of taijutsu. Of course he was also a master at that.

She had to focus hard to make sure that she was able to provide counter moves to his increasingly aggressive attacks. He had managed to land quite a few blows on her and finally she managed to land a hit on his shoulder blocking the tenketsu point there.

She almost wanted to shout in triumph, but he shook it off and advanced on her anyway. Hinata side stepped and moved away wanting to catch her breath. Kakashi took that opportunity to take his shirt off and wipe his face, they were both now drenched in sweat. Hinata prided herself in not getting distracted and instead advanced on him from behind with a kick aimed at his back which he turned sideways to avoid. He grabbed her foot and turned to aim a hit at her shoulder.

She squeezed her eyes shut and resisted the urge to make a sound. That hurt.

She advanced again, focusing on increasing her speed to match his. It was exhilarating, she thought as she finally landed another hit to the tenketsu point on his knee. And then followed that up with a roundhouse kick to the waist. That took him off balance enough to fall forward… which would have been great if he hadn't grabbed onto her to steady himself. Unfortunately since her ankle was a bit injured she went down along with him.

Kakashi braced himself on his palms so that his full weight wouldn't crash on her but that only softened the impact as one of his shoulders gave out and he partially fell.

Both of them were breathing heavily and very sweaty. Wisps of Kakashi's hair were stuck to his face and she could feel that her own hair was in a similar state. She glanced up in pleasure to observe his face. It was flushed with color and his eyes looked bright. He was the most attractive when he was training and she hadn't had a chance to be this close to him in ages. Her heart rate raced.

"My e-eyes are u-up here" she gasped.

With a small smile devoid of self-consciousness he moved his gaze from her chest back up to her face…. very slowly.

Oh he was good… that look had been as good as if he had physically touched her. While she continued to look up at him, he made himself more comfortable and fully laid on top of her.

"W-what are you doing?".

"That was a good fight," he used his good arm to cup her flushed cheek. "Did you know that you are even more beautiful now than you were two years ago. It's… not fair" he murmured.

They stayed like that staring at each other for a bit. Looking distracted by her lips Kakashi started moving his face down to hers, as if he was going to kiss her. Adrenalin was moving fast through her system and her endorphins were in full gear, it would have been so tempting to just kiss him and use all this pent up energy… but instead she used her strength to roll him off her.

"Fuck" he muttered while he rolled onto his back next to her. "I'm sorry Hinata".

She didn't bother replying, instead she sat up and applied some healing chakra to unblock his tenketsu. After a while Kakashi did the same to her injuries.

"You want to join me for a walk?" she asked as she stood up and dusted herself off.

"Sure… why not".

Before long they were moving along a nearby walking path towards the ruins she had stumbled upon recently. As they drew upon the frame of a large ancient house she finally voiced what she had been wondering for days, "What is this place?".

"You don't know?" Kakashi sounded surprised. "I thought the Hyuga clan had access to ancient blueprints of the city?"

"Well… I've been a bit busy with other things since being the head of the clan" she said with a blush.

"Right, how is the merging of the main and branch houses coming along? That's a really ambitious project".

"It's going as well as can be expected, the Hyuga elders aren't pleased but I think once we live with the changes for a few years everyone should reach a homeostasis. Anyway don't change the topic, what is this place?"

He laughed halfheartedly, she could be single minded when she wanted, "It's the ruins of the Hatake compound".

The change in her face and attitude would have been comical if the situation was more relaxed. Once his words sank in she flushed and turned to look back at the ruins with her mouth open floundering for the proper response.

"It's alright, it hasn't looked too good for a while now" he said hoping to help get that foot out of her mouth.

"Oh… oh my god, I'm so sorry… I had no idea. I guess I never stopped to think about where the Hatake compound was…" she glanced at him nervously, "Umm… did you… how long did you live here".

"Until I could afford an apartment," he said with a gentle smile.

"Ah… I see…., after your father passed away who took care of you?"

"Ah… no one really… he was kind of ostracized by many people towards the end. The Hatake clan dispersed soon after his death and I was left alone…" he said looking back at the house with a serious face. "This wasn't exactly a place of much happiness for me".

"You stayed here by yourself? Taking care of this whole house?" Hinata turned back to the run-down building.

"Yeah… It's not as sad as it sounds, the Shinobi training kept me busy so it's not like I was here for much other than sleeping and eating".

Hinata nodded tight lipped while still looking at the house. Her heart was too heavy at the moment for words. As if sensing that Kakashi continued onwards.

"If we walk around we can find houses of the rest of the clan" he took her away from the main house towards some of the smaller buildings. She had seen these from her previous walks of course, but some of the buildings were surprisingly well preserved.

"Now that you are the Hokage are you planning on contacting the clan, asking them to come back?"

Kakashi sighed deeply before continuing, "They are already established in different parts of the world, it would be unfair to ask them to come back and they did kind of abandon the clan by choice. But... yeah… maybe someday I might send out word to see if anyone is interested in coming back. But that's a big maybe".

After their walk Kakashi had gone back to work while Hinata meditated for thirty minutes and then took another stab at painting. It was a relaxing exercise but she didn't think she had much talent for it. She walked into the Kitchen towards the evening and planned to make some tea when Kakashi came out of his office.

"Hey" she said simply and he nodded looking tired.

"Is everything okay?".

"Yeah… just finished signing over proxy Hokage authority to Shizune until the quarantine is finished".

"What… how come, you are doing well aren't you, we are done quarantine in six days?"

"Yes…" he said running his hands through his hair looking fed up, "but there's been a lot of unrest recently because of the unknowns surrounding what we were exposed to. This will provide a security blanket for the nation should anything happen to us… or to me suddenly. This way there won't be a power struggle or a vacuum. And as much as I hate to admit it, with us being isolated here it's hard for me to stay connected with what is going on in the 'real' world and to make informed decisions. So… this is probably for the best."

Hinata nodded, he was right, this was the responsible thing to do, however she understood that signing over proxy authority must be extremely tough for him. In the Shinobi world even a temporary loss of power could have serious consequences.

"I'm sorry, but it's a good thing you have Shizune to count on… the same way you covered for Tsunade-sama back in the day" she patted him on the arm sympathetically and walked over to the kitchen to make the tea. "Would you like some?" she asked, pointing at the pot while filling it with water.

He nodded.

"I was going to make Onigiri today" Hinata said while she added tea leaves to the pot. "I did promise you a while back that I would make it for you someday".

When she turned around he was smiling again and she sighed in relief.

"Can I help?" he asked standing up and stretching.

"No… you should go for a run or something. Clear your head. I'll take care of dinner today!".

After Kakashi left she looked around contemplatively. She wanted to keep things simple tonight so she was hoping to make onigiri and zosui, a rice based soup. Without further ado Hinata got to work.

She started on making the broth for the soup with dashi and soy sauce. While that was simmering, she put the rice on to cook. Then she started cutting all the vegetables and the protein. Once the broth was ready she added chicken to boil and she proceeded to make a salted salmon and a seasoned kombu filling for the onigiri. To the soup she gradually added carrots, onions, mushroom, seasoning and rice followed by an egg at the end. Then she moved on to make the rice balls wrapping it in a bit of Nori to give it an accent.

Once all that was done she arranged the food artfully on a plate and started setting the table. She had some side dishes she could serve to round up the dinner and she had the cupcakes she'd baked yesterday to serve as dessert!

By the time Kakashi came back from his run and had washed up, everything was ready to go. As he walked down the stairs she reheated the soup and topped it with scallions.

"Wow this smells amazing" he said sitting down at the table.

"I hope you don't mind that I made fairly traditional onigiri".

"I love traditional onigiri!"

"Itadakimasu!" they said before they dug in.

Kakashi went right for the onigiri and popped one into his mouth, "This is really good!" he said after chewing.

"I'm glad you like it". She said watching him eat for a bit. She had brought out a wine bottle for tonight so she poured their drinks.

"Why aren't you eating?" he looked at her quizzically. Shaking herself out of her daydream Hinata started serving herself food.

"So… how has it been being a clan leader, was it everything you thought it would be?".

Hinata smiled ironically. "Actually.. I don't know if I ever had expectations of what it would be like to be a clan leader. I spent most of my life wanting to be strong enough and to prove that I was worthy enough to be a leader that I never thought about what came after."

"And….?"

"It's… it's good. Helping my clan makes me happy and its very satisfying. I am grateful for the opportunity to make a meaningful difference for the Hyuga". Kakashi watched her carefully while he drank some of this wine.

"But…?" he probed.

"What do you mean?"

"I can see that you had to force yourself not to say a 'but' at the end of that sentence".

She sighed. Damn his perceptiveness!

"It's just that being a clan leader is a lifelong commitment. I am not sure if this is what I want to do my whole life. I just feel like there are so many other ways and other areas that I could make an impact, plus the thing is...there are clearly qualified people who can run the Hyuga clan. Hanabi especially is doing an exceptional job so far".

"Yes… the life of a clan leader isn't easy, it's a very serious commitment. If you feel this way Hinata why don't you retire early someday and pursue other interests, maybe Hanabi would want to be the clan leader on a more permanent basis, have you asked her?"

"Oh no… I am only admitting this to myself now. I mean after all I've barely been leading the clan for more than six months… and to give up an opportunity like this would feel like I am failing… which is the one thing i've been trying to avoid my whole life".

Kakashi was quiet at that comment. Instead of looking at her in condemnation, he was gazing at her with kindness and understanding. She didn't know if it was the wine or if it was his eyes but she felt her heart melt. Hinata had to suddenly look away to break the spell when he finally spoke.

"Hinata, it's not a failure to pursue your dreams. Recognizing your potential and wanting to make a difference in the world is one of the most admirable things I can think of. I love that you care enough to make an impact for the betterment of the lives of our people. I also love how much amazing work you have already done. No matter what you do, I don't think you would ever be a failure."

She took a deep inhalation to brace herself from the way her heart jumped at that compliment and his use of the word love. Why was he being so nice to her? Hinata swallowed thickly past the lump in her throat and took a drink of the wine as a distraction.

"Anyway don't be so hard on yourself. Do your best and everything will fall into place" he smiled at her.

"I had no idea you were so optimistic" she finally managed to get out.

"Only when it comes to you…" he murmured, but he changed the topic rapidly noticing the changing tone of the dinner. Before long he had her cracking up with stories about the escapades he and Guy sensei had gotten into over the years. And before they knew it another hour had passed.

Hinata stood up from the table to clear the food. Kakashi had finished all of the onigiri at the table, good thing she had stored a few away for his lunch tomorrow.

Hinata was just settling into the couch not wanting to wrap up the night when Kakashi received a call. She looked at him quizzically and he said he would be right back before walking into the office. She poured herself a glass of wine and settled down to wait.