I'm tired, just read it.

I don't own Naruto, but I do own 3 sugar free red bull

Chapter 12:

She and Sasuke had been running nonstop ever since they had received the letter.

Sasuke had attempted to summon Garuda, but it seemed the giant hawk was busy with his own affairs. Nevertheless, they had still made it to the border by daybreak of the third day. However, being unaware of the present situation made Hinata nervous. In a way, she felt that she had let the village down. It was her and Sasuke's mission to keep this from touching Konoha, but here they were entering the gates of their homeland which seemed to be the final battle ground.

"Hinata, relax," Sasuke murmured running beside her. Could he sense her inner turmoil?

"I thought I was the sensory type," she said off handedly.

"Not my fault I'm forced to do everything around here," Sasuke smirked at her playfully. His light teasing served to lighten her mood. Neji had said she had to be strong to love a man like Sasuke Uchiha. However, she reasoned that Sasuke had to be equally as strong to love someone like Hyuga Hinata as well. The parallel was a bit beautiful when she thought about it.

After the long extent of their travels, a little over half a year, it felt odd to be returning the Hokage's office. Then again, after leaving for five, this wasn't really anything to feel nostalgic about.

They walked into the Hokage's office, and to Hinata's surprise, there were others gathered. It also was not Kakashi they were addressing as Hokage; it was Naruto.

"Well we're doomed," Sasuke stated. His hands were leisurely tucked in his pockets.

"What did you say bastard!" Naruto exclaimed, standing up from his desk but not moving any further as he shook his fist at Sasuke.

"Kakashi had to be drinking Tsunade's sake to put you in charge at a time like this," Sasuke retorted, seemingly void of emotion. However, from the smirk that tugged at the end of his lips Hinata could tell that he was somewhat proud of his friend.

Hinata scanned the room. The members assembled were Shino, who stood stoic on the far side of the room. He had grown taller and half his face was hidden by his high collar which was a vibrant shade of green. He still wore his glasses, but his hair was tied in a neat bun on top of his head. Hinata felt sad that the kinship they once shared as team mates seemed to have disappeared; now they no longer knew each other. Next to him, looking bored out of his skull, was Shikamaru. He had his usual ponytail which Hinata always thought was a little too tight; and he seemed to be growing a goatee. Ino was there, surprisingly in ANBU attire, and had not changed much. Next to her was Sai, equally dressed. They looked more mature, but it seemed as though they had both been frozen in time. She saw Sakura as well, her eyes fixated on Sasuke. It was nothing unusual for the pink haired girl. The only difference was this time the looks she was giving the dark-haired man did not sit well with Hinata. But she had seen a side of Sasuke that Sakura, or anyone for that matter, would never see. A vulnerable side, one that longed to be loved and still missed his brother. This thought reassured her and sent away any insecure doubts she had; at least for now.

To her surprise, tucked behind Naruto, was Kakashi himself. He was out of the Hokage robes and decked in his usual jonin vest once more; eyes scanning a book with a suspicious looking orange cover. She imaged that he was happier back in his usual element, free of so much responsibility.

Hinata found herself smiling, she felt Neji there as well. In the smiles of the teammates that he loved so much.

"Ramen head."

"Tomato brain!"

They were resorting to name calling now and Hinata knew it was time to intervene.

"Hokage-sama," she said, addressing Naruto. "Where is Hisami now? Why have you gathered everyone when this is our mission?"

Naruto and everyone else in the room turned to her. With the exception of the Kakashi, Sasuke, and Naruto; everyone looked at her as though they were seeing her for the first time. Unlike the Hinata they most likely knew before, she did not blush, didn't stammer and her lean muscles and chakra signature indicated the aura of a highly advanced shinobi. She was someone that could be of use, even to someone like Sasuke Uchiha.

She didn't address the stares around her as she waited for Naruto to answer her questions. Naruto grinned; the same smile he held when he was a boy. It was kind of ridiculous to see the smile of a boy on the face of the man Naruto had become.

"Will your first act as Hokage be to tell your shinobi they are incapable of completing their mission," she said, her tone like ice. She didn't like being coddled. It could be that fact that she was surrounded by people that only knew the old her, but she felt that Naruto was insulting their skill by amassing a bigger team to complete the mission they had spent so much time executing.

Naruto noticed the bite in her tone and sat back in his chair.

"I see the bastard has worn off on you," he commented.

"Something like that," Sasuke smirked. Hinata couldn't hide her face as it turned red.

Naruto, in a very mature action for the yellow haired boy, chose not to comment.

"I'll show you an even bigger bastard," Naruto murmured before reaching into his desk and pulling out folded piece of parchment. "Hisami is not happy Sasuke and Hinata took out his team. He feels they were only able to do so because he and his team were made to sleep, and in their wake the leaf was able to surpass them. He believes that he has finally regained his former strength and has recruited a better group to wipe the leaf out."

"That's ridiculous," Hinata remarked. "Besides, even if he thought that, why send correspondence? Why not just use the element of surprise."

Naruto nodded in agreement. "He sent this letter." Naruto said. "Inviting us to send our strongest warriors to attempt to outmatch him."

"That sounds like a trap if I ever heard one," Shakamaru commented. Hinata couldn't help but agree.

"It is," Naruto muttered. "His alternative, however, is to infiltrate the village and start the battle there."

Hinata clenched her jaw with the rest of the room. It would be fine if they had an inclination in what they looked like, but these people were faceless. They could be anyone, anywhere, at any time. That thought alone was frightening.

"So, here's where we stand," Naruto said. "This group and myself is all we can spare right now, which I think are some damn good odds."

"Our hope is that the enemy has overestimated himself and his forces. If he has, we crush him where he stands, no prisoners. Hinata or Sasuke will need to be the ones to take out the enemy; he does not die."

Hinata flicked her eyes toward Sasuke who still carried his bored expression. She knew Sasuke was not one for debriefings, or briefings, or any meetings for that matter. However, she wished at that moment she could confirm some of her suspicions with him. Like the fact that she had the nagging suspicion that the group Naruto had gathered did not know what was at stake. They also did not know that this was one of the villages longest kept secrets.

Hinata clinched her jaw, but she was duty bound not to speak. Her hope was that Naruto wouldn't fall pray to tricks and espionage as those that had proceeded him had. However, those hopes seemed to be for not. She relaxed the tension in her shoulders. Her friend was the kindest and most morally correct shinobi she had ever encountered. Naruto respected everything and everyone. If this was something he felt needed to be preserved; she owed him her understanding.

However, as she looked at Sasuke, she wondered if the man wasn't so crazy after all for wanting his freedom from the village. After talking to Neji she realized that her hope in life was not to serve the Hokage's whims blindly, but to keep following her own path. Despite the old Hinata's weakness in combat, her true strength had been doing what she believed was right despite what any authority or majority felt about it. Be it loving the town outcast Naruto or befriending a branch member like Neji. She missed that version of herself, one that wasn't so bound by duty.

"You know the protocol, you have 6 hours to get your affairs together, we end this tonight," Naruto said with so much steel behind his eyes she was reminded of the face of the Fourth etched into Hokage mountain.

Hinata and the others nodded their heads. They all began to funnel out of the office, but there was an unspoken agreement that she and Sasuke were to stay behind. The last one to funnel out was Sakura. She cast a longing look at Sasuke as he greeted her indifferently.

"Sasuke I-" She started. Hinata regarded the woman's frazzled and flushed frame. Hinata pitied her a bit. That must have been what she had looked like when encountering Naruto all those years ago. The feeling of not believing you were worth anything unless you saw it in the other persons eyes. However, unlike Sakura, when Naruto had rejected her after Neji died she had taken her lumps and used it to make herself better. She wished Sakura would follow in her example. She and the Uchiha clan were as distant in relations as the sun was to earth, but she felt a particular kinship in the possessive nature of the fire clan. The Hyuga were just a little more…tactful.

"Thank you, Sakura," he interrupted her, drawing Hinata and Naruto's glances. "I've realized a lot of things about myself because of you. Though I'd hate to admit it, I am standing in this room because of what you and that grinning idiot over there did to bring me back."

Sakura blushed, looking down at her hands. "I've been wanting to hear you say that for a long time Sasuke."

"Hn," Sasuke murmured. Hinata thought for a moment he had reached his quota of words for the day; but he continued. He reached over and took her face gently in his hands. Hinata did not like that one bit, but she knew that he needed to do this, and if Sakura was going to be any type of help on a battlefield with him, she needed to hear it.

"I'm sorry after all you've done for me, I can't give you what you want Sakura." Tears started to pool in Sakura's eyes. She let out a small chuckle and exhaled as if it were something she had been holding in for too long. "I'm also sorry that I dismissed your feelings as bluntly as I did. I think… it took me falling in love with someone to understand the way you felt."

Hinata's heart almost leapt from her chest. Sasuke…love…

Naruto was grinning from ear to ear as though everything orchestrated up until now had been all his doing.

"Sasuke…" Sakura's voice came out in a whisper. Her eyes briefly flashed to Hinata as Sasuke let go of her face.

"I hope you find someone that deserves that look Sakura, but it's not me. It never will be." His final sentence held all the sting of a Chidori. It was blunt, which was Sasuke's style; but it seemed to serve as a needed wake up call for Sakura. It was the rejection that Hinata and Sakura both needed to move on with their lives, just in different ways. Sakura did argue back, which tended to be her nature, she smiled. She then nodded at him with the first look of acceptance Hinata had ever seen her show when it came to the dark-haired man.

However, Hinata knew that Sakura was the product of Sannin training, with all the recovery power of the most skilled kunoichi; this would only make her stronger. She parted from the room; and when she did the only remaining party was Hinata, Sasuke and Naruto. Hinata spoke nothing of what had transpired to Sasuke, and she never would. Sasuke was growing and she wouldn't patronize him for it.

Naruto leaded back in his chair, his blue eyes suddenly appeared drained and less full of life. Heavy is the head that wears the crown, Hinata couldn't help to think.

"That robe suits you," Hinata murmured after a while. Naruto chuckled, his laugh empty. He looked as though he carried the weight of someone that had lived several lifetimes.

"I was appointed Hokage right after you left for mission," Naruto began. He leaned his head down to run his fingers in his hair. "In the five months I have been in this chair; I don't think I have done a single thing right."

His eyes were down cast. This was not the Naruto either one of them was used to seeing. Hinata shot Sasuke a glance, when she did, she saw the glare that was fixated on his face.

"What did you think it was going to be like dobe?" he spat.

"Sasuke-" Hinata started, wanting to advise the man to take it easy. But Sasuke brushed past her and walked up to Naruto's desk.

"Sasuke, you have no idea the toll that this takes."

"Are you fucking kidding me right now? A person that sat in that desk ordered the death of my family and another from this corrupt village put it in my brother's head that it was his job to pick between having a family, or a village; and he ended up with neither."

Hinata's eyes flickered between Naruto and Sasuke, processing this information. "So, spare me Naruto, about how hard it is holding the secrets of this village, cause your stupid, stubborn ass dragged me back here and I'm not going to defend this sorry ass village unless you're leading it."

Naruto looked at a Sasuke like he had thrown a bunch of cold water in his face. Sasuke had just insulted him but Naruto looked like someone had told him that he could have Christmas, New Year and is birthday all in one. Hinata reasoned that she could live on this earth for a thousand years and never understand the bond that Naruto and Sasuke had.

"What is there a special on long winded speeches from bastards today?" Naruto grinned. Sasuke crossed his arms and smirked at him.

"Someone had to fill in for you while you were being a pussy," Sasuke reasoned, returning to his board tone. "I thought you were a shinobi, I guess not."

"I am, believe it!" Naruto declared. Hinata smiled. When the tension in the room dispersed, she casually stuck her hands in her pockets and felt something crinkle. She pulled it out and saw the fire burned edges of the seal that they had found when the cabin had exploded.

"Naruto, is Tsunade still in the village? Can you see what she makes of this, we found it in the cabin of the target that died." Tsunade was the leading expert on seals, if anyone could figure this out, she could.

Naruto took the paper out of Hinata's hands and looked at it like it was complex math problem, scratching his head.

"Yeah I'll have her take a look."

After their debriefing, they left the Hokage office. Sasuke told Naruto he had better things to do with his 6 hours then to spend time with an idiot like him.

He pulled Hinata out of the Hokage office and they walked casually through the Konoha streets. Sasuke led them quietly to the Uchiha compound and Hinata had the faintest feeling of déjà vu. This was how it all had stated. Walking to the Uchiha compound to brave the big and bad Sasuke Uchiha and convince him to work with her. She looked at him. He hadn't changed much; the only thing difference was the wild look in his eye was now more focused.

He guided her through the fallen Uchiha district and to the main house she had approached over half a year ago.

As they entered the house, Sasuke removed his cloak and she and Sasuke removed their shoes at the door. She looked around though house in quiet interest. It was bigger than it looked on the outside. The paint was the dark navy blue of the Uchiha clan, and everything was tidy and minimal. Sasuke watched her she studied his place of residence. Hinata noted that everything in the house, from the long black sofa, to the fighting post, and the bare bones decorations; were things that Sasuke would probably use every day. There as no extra. No unnecessary extravagance. The Hyuga household, Hinata always felt, was for display. Vases and tapestries from kingdom negations stood on pedestals that were dusted and maintained by the branch family. There was no dust, no dirt, and no wear and tear. The goal of the Hyuga house was to show refined superiority, the only problem was that no one could really live in a house that wasn't meant to be lived in.

"It's peaceful," she remarked silently.

"Hn," Sasuke nodded in agreement.

"Were do you sleep?" she murmured. He looked at her with a curious expression before he rounded on a pair of stairs that were made out of dark wood. He led her up the stair well and across a bridge like structure that allowed them to look into the living room. From a shinobi standpoint, this house was built very intelligently. Then again, the Uchiha had been well known for being an intelligent clan.

He led her into the room that was furthest down the hall. The room was big, and the walls were a cool color of gray that Hinata found quite soothing. In a way Sasuke's house was like a reflection of himself. Smartly built, deadly tidy and efficient, and very still and soothing like sleeping in the midst of a thunderstorm.

Being the last one in, Hinata closed the door and pressed her body against it. Sasuke regarded her with the usual intensity of his gaze.

"You realize that we could all die in six hours…if this mission fails than this is the last time, we'll ever be together."

He regarded her with a stoic face, his eyes however gave off the heat of a thousand suns as they burned through her.

"Hn, you want to back out," he asked. The question held no judgement, just pure curiosity.

"Are you going to?" She countered.

Sasuke looked up at the ceiling as though it were a distant memory. "Those who don't follow the rules are scum, but those who abandon their friends-"

"-are worse than scum," Hinata finished. She shook her head and chuckled. For a moment she was a chunin again, watching Kakashi say those very words as she spied on Naruto.

"I think you have my answer," he murmured. He was a breath away from her, pinning her against the door, not with force but with the shear intenseness of his gaze.

"You also have mine," she countered.

Sasuke studied her, from her bangs, to her eyes, to her lips.

"Marry me." He said it so bluntly and smoothly that Hinata almost didn't catch it.

"What?" she murmured, her mind still not catching up with her. He parted from her for a moment, fishing something out of his nightstand drawer, then joined her again at the door pinning her once more. He had a small box that he held open for her to reveal a shining red ruby incrusted ring. The ruby was the most unique red that Hinata had ever seen; it was Sharingan red.

"You just keep that in your drawer, waiting to propose to the unsuspecting women you lure to your room?"

Sasuke raised an eyebrow.

"No," he simply answered. "This was my mother's ring."

Hinata looked at the ring once more, it was littered with diamonds and rubies all fused into a white gold band that looked to be in pristine condition. The ring was worth more then the disgraced heiress's life.

"Sasuke that ring is far to valuable," she whispered. She reached her hand out and closed the lid over the delicate object. "I also don't want you proposing under some rash life or death situation."

"Hyuga, I'm the king of rash decisions, I'll be the first to admit," Sasuke smirked.

Hinata couldn't help but agree, deserting the village, training under Orochimaru, then siding back with the village the war; that had all been one big rash decision after the next.

"But I promise, the decision on who I chose to continue my clan with is not one I made without tremendous thought."

Hinata felt her heart speed up.

He paused for a moment and then let out a chuckle at his thought, "May father used to tell Itachi and I that the fireball jutsu, that is our clan's signature, only burns as hot as our compacity to love. That once we find who we're mated to be with, that jutsu would become our strongest weapon."

"Your father sounds like a hopeless romantic," she smirked.

"He was a stern man," Sasuke said, thinking of another distant memory from long ago. "But he loved my mother, and he gave her this ring, just like I am giving it you."

"Sasuke-" she let out a breath. She tried to rack her brain for another excuse but found that she had none, and that thought honestly elated her.

"Your heart is as big as you head Hyuga," he smirked, and she glared at him. "So, what do you say, want to spend what could be your last 6 hours alive, an Uchiha?"

Hinata smiled at her smirking lover. "Yes," she said before she could get any stupid thoughts otherwise.

She allowed Sasuke to put the ring on her finger and marveled at how perfectly it fit. She placed her hand on his chest as he pulled her into a soul shattering kiss.

When he pulled away, she curiously asked, "weren't you supposed to get to down on your knees."

He looked thoughtful for a second, and then smirked.

"As you wish," he said darkly. Sliding his hands down her body as he made his descent, his eyes never left hers. There was something arousing about having someone as powerful as Sasuke Uchiha on his knees in front of her.

His hands dipped into the waist band of her pants and he eased them down her legs and over her ankles discarding them in his room. Being as tall as he was, his head lined up with the area just below her chest. Her fingers wound into his hair as his hands moved slowly up the outside of her thighs, and up the curvature of her hips. Linking two fingers into the waste band of the lacy black underwear she wore; he swiftly had those down her legs as well and she was bare from the waist down before him.

"Kami, you're beautiful Hyuga," Sasuke breathed. She smiled down at him, looking into his sharingan as it swirled.

"What are you going to call me when you can't call me Hyuga," she teased him. He gave her a thoughtful look.

"Uchiha," he said as though it was the one logical answer, and that her first name was not even a contender.

The back of his hand was smoothly glided up the inside of her left thigh; inching closer as it had the night they were ambushed by enemy shinobi. This time, at least for now, they had plenty of time. Sasuke seemed to know this as he took his time committing her body to memory as his hands glossed over it inch by inch.

"Leave it to you to call your own name during sex."

"Fine Uchiha number 2," he chuckled, then edged her back against the door frame and pulled one of her legs over his shoulder. Hinata blushed as the area between her legs was spread open for him.

"That's a mouthful," she said, regarding the name he had chosen for her.

"That's exactly what I was thinking," he murmured. Before Hinata could figure out what he meant, his mouth had attached itself to her entrance. His tongue snaked out and lapped across her wet fold. Her breath hitched. It was a slow and languid pace as he took turns flicking his tongue toward her entrance and then coming back up to circle her clit. It was a maddening dance as he explored her. When he had built up a faster pace, one hand clutched her thigh and the other her hip as he made repetitive fast circles with his tongue. Once again Hinata saw stars. Would each time with the man just get better and better?

At some point her other leg had given out and she had slid down the door. Hinata lay propped against it as Sasuke dug his nails into her thigh as he continued the assault her with his tongue. She couldn't control her hips as he carried her over the edge, and she felt her favorite feeling of released pleasure in her upper abdomen.

Sasuke seemed to revel in her scent as she descended from the high he had given her. Standing, he let her catch her breath and used the opportunity to relieve himself of his clothes; pulling all of his mission gear off. Once Hinata's top hit the floor, the carpeted area had gained the complete set.

He lifted her up almost tenderly and wrapped her legs around his waist, and as she circled her arms around his neck; he looked at her. For the first time he let her see the smallest bit of his feelings for her. It was a small glimmer in his eye that she had once seen in her father's eye when he looked at her now deceased mother. A look of trust, a look of understanding, it was a look that would be heart breaking to watch fade away if the one it was meant for perished. Hinata gingerly reached out and touched his face, moving her hand behind his neck she crushed her lips to his and let his mouth devour her. His tongue sliding along the roof of her mouth making her moan.

The kiss was slow and meaningful. Their relationship had been based off of an unspoken bond that Hinata could not have described if you paid her. But Sasuke was hers, she had no doubt about it. It wasn't the ring that proved it; it was that look in his eye that convinced her. It was a look that protected her with Sasuke's very existence.

He laid her on the bed. This wasn't something to be rushed or dictated like their last time. Their first time they had put off being together for so long that it was something they could not wait for. However, this time, a time that might be their last time was something they both knew needed to be thorough.

Sasuke's lips were back on her. Her mouth savored the familiar heat one last time before his lips ghosted down her neck and she felt his breath as it traveled down toward her breast. She tilted her head back into the pillow as he took one of the pink tinted nipples into his warm mouth. Sasuke had learned that Hinata's breast were especially sensitive, and he took full advantage of that as he rolled them in the palms of his hands.

Once he had decided he had his fill; he position his lips on her ear.

"I want you on top of me," he whispered.

Her breath hitched at his words as he repositioned her. He slid his body into a lying position and pulled Hinata to straddle him.

She looked down at his swollen member and bit her lip. She wanted to know what would happen if she just grabbed it. If she grabbed Sasuke's penis could she do what he did to her and reduce him to a puddle of Uchiha flavored goo?

She looked at him, he stared unashamedly back her with a smirk. His face was almost daring her.

Finding her confidence, she reached out and lightly wrapped her hand around the shaft of Sasuke's erection. He hissed.

"Fuck," she didn't miss the slight rotation of his hips as he moved into her hand.

She liked that. Feeling renewed, she slowly moved her hand from the bass to the tip making sure to apply firm pressure like she had before. Sasuke moaned, tilting his head to the side as he continued to adjust his hips to the movement of her stroking him. Feeling inventive, she leaned down and let her mouth cover the head of his penis as she continued to stroke the shaft. Sasuke's eyes widen as she looked at him through her eye lashes. She had thought the taste would be bad, but it simply tasted like skin. Satisfied that this was something she could do. she tentatively leaned down coating Sasuke's penis with her saliva covering about two thirds of Sasuke's member and then pulling back. Once she had gotten the hang of a decent rhythm, she spread up her actions.

"Hn," Sasuke groaned, lacing his fingers in her hair.

She moaned around his hard member. She loved reducing Sasuke to an uncontrollable mess. She was shifted her legs as she felt herself become moist. She could probably get him to do anything in this moment.

"Hinata," He groaned. He used her hair to release himself from her mouth and she glared at him. It was her turn to reduce him to nothing. "If you keep doing that I won't last," he pointed out.

He yanked her forward, slamming his mouth to hers in a scalding kiss.

He used the leverage to pull her hips down, aligning his hard cock at her entrance and slammed into her. She staggered a bit. Falling forward into his chest she threw out her hands to catch herself. This was a different angle and the fullness of it was something Hinata had not experienced the last time.

"Fuck," she hissed.

As though she had issued a command, Sasuke propelled his hips up into her and she felt her breath hitch. There was that spot, the spot that only Sasuke knew about, the one only he could reach.

He set a hard-steady rhythm as he slammed into her, not one to be outdone she thrust back to match her pace. However, eventually he stopped moving as Hinata sat her own pace. She bounced up and down on his shaft as fast and rhythmal as her body would allow her. Every time she crashed back down; he would hit that spot again. Sasuke's hand griped her waist steadying her as his eyes fixated on her breast moving up and down in his line of vision.

"Sasuke, I'm-" she tried to warn him before the dam exploded and her body clenched around his cock. Reaching his own release Sasuke slammed Hinata's hips down and filled her with the evidence of his arousal.

She collapsed, letting her hair coat his chest as his arms found their way around her waist.

"You know, if we die today, I think I'll be alright," she whispered. Burying her face into the warm confines of his chest.

"Hn," he murmured in agreement. Spending their last remaining hours rubbing his fingertips along the arch of her back.

Some authors make you wait, I give the people what they want! It's almost the end, read and review.
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