It took a while for Hinata's embarrassment to fade. The young Kage still didn't seem to understand what he had said to cause her reaction. They resumed their tour until they were greeted by a flash of orange.
"Hey, guys!" Naruto bolted through the market crowd to them.
"Naruto-kun." Hinata greeted him.
Naruto looked pointedly at his friend. "You're not being mean still, are you?" He asked childishly with his hand on his hips.
Hinata blushed. This wasn't necessary.
"I am not sure. I seem to be regularly offending her." The Kazekage replied bluntly.
"Really?" Naruto looked over to her for answers.
Hinata promptly waved her hands to reject the claim. "No he hasn't, he's been very kind."
Naruto looked between them in confusion. The Kage looked at her with a simpler expression of the same feeling.
"Really, Kazekage-sama. I'm fine." She continued to assure them. She was embarrassed by his choice of conversation, but he hadn't purposely tried to attack her. He didn't seem to realize when he was being insulting, even to himself.
"Good, I'll see you guys later then." He waved, running off before she could protest.
She sighed.
"You do not wish to be left with me again?" He asked.
A flash of child Kazekage asking questions replaced him for a second. She shook it away. He did ask questions like an insecure curious child. She blushed at the idea of thinking of him as a child. How disrespectful. "No, it's nothing like that. Let's continue."
"Father it's embarrassing!" She protested.
"That's it? You embarrassed like a child? You knew it was to be asked." She shrunk on the inside.
"I thought we would make it clear that I was available and looking then wait for suitors." She closed her eyes, trying to calm her reddening face.
"We'd never find someone that willing." It hurt much more than it should have. She knew what her father thought of her. Why did it still break her heart to hear it out loud?
She felt tears starting; she tried to blink them away before they got to the surface. She bowed and excused herself and quickly headed down the hall and out the compound wiping her eyes. She begged them to hold off until she left. She didn't want her sister to see. She took back streets and alleys, keeping to the shadows as she crossed town. She didn't even know where she was going. She just wanted as far from her father as she could get. When the tears blurred her vision, she finally stopped at a building to wrap her arms around herself. She slid down the wall and let them fall.
She heard some land harshly beside her. She didn't want to look up, but with a heavy wipe of her sleeve, she cleared her eyes enough to see who had approached her. It was the last person who needed to see her cry.
"You are upset." He pointed out bluntly.
"I'm sorry, Kazekage-sama." She whimpered as she attempted a bow of her head, but it probably looked more like a nod from his angle. She glanced up from where he had jumped down from the roof. Why was he up there?
"Why?" His blank eye-brows crinkled in confusion.
"It's nothing for you to be bothered with. Please excuse me." She wiped her eyes, trying to dry them more. She looked at the building she stopped at. It wasn't the head building or where he was staying. He picked up on her confusion.
"I followed you here." He explained. "I thought I would have to apologize again."
"No, it wasn't you, Kazekage-sama." She whimpered, forcing herself up to a standing position. All she wanted to do was curl up and be left alone.
"It hasn't been an hour since I took you home, and you are crying." He pressed. It was kinda sweet that he was so concerned, but she would assume that it was to avoid upsetting Naruto again.
"I promise it wasn't something you did." She was hoping he got the point.
He frowned only a twitch.
"Would you like me to take you back home?" He asked, looking unsure what to do.
"I don't want to go home, no." She looked at her fingers, sniffling.
He studied her for a moment. "Your father."
She pressed her lips together, not answering.
"He is forcing you to court me." She nodded. "You're upset about that."
She shot up straight, shaking her head "No! I wasn't upset about that really, it's just..." She looked back down, frustrated. Should she tell him the whole truth? She had been honest so far. He had been so honest with her. Did she know anyone who was so honest and blunt as he was? "My father has expressed my need to court because no one would be willing to court me." That was the briefest, least evasive answer.
"He thinks you're undesirable?" This was not a conversation she wanted to have with the Kazekage. Was blunt honesty a good thing?
"He made that point, yes." She could feel the tears coming back.
"You are not." She didn't hear that. She did not hear that.
"What?" She looked up to make sure this time.
"You are not undesirable." Hinata blushed. She doubted he knew the weight of his words in other contexts. She couldn't take it seriously, though. She knew he was only being nice to her because Naruto had asked him to. She could keep the blush down with that knowledge in mind.
"Thank you, Kazekage-sama." Maybe blunt honesty was a good thing.
He led her around the village aimlessly, never letting her fall too far behind him. He would ask about customs he didn't understand, she would answer and ask what they had similar. Suna seemed nice, deeply rooted traditions of a proud and strong people.
He was interested in the customs of the village and its people. She could see why people saw him as a true leader despite his hard exterior and horrid past. She was having a hard time believing this was the same man she met yesterday. She assumed this was how he was to Naruto, calm, barely expressive, like Shino. Despite that, he asked questions like a toddler. He was curious about everything, with a follow-up question after a follow-up question. She wasn't complaining. It wasn't often someone would make an effort to keep a conversation with her. Not only that, but he still enjoyed the silence of scenery gazing.
One thing that was becoming painfully obvious was his holding back questions. The way he stared and would deliberately close his mouth. He was likely curious about the event that led to him finding her, and he wasn't satisfied with her answers. He knew there was much more to the story, but it was at least polite that he wasn't asking. At least he understood that she didn't want to talk about it. To counter the blunt honesty, sometimes he just kept his mouth shut.