He didn't like the look Kankuro was giving him. "I heard about your dress-up sessions." He said with a giant grin, amused.
He sighed. "And?"
"Temari said you acted like a pet dog." His brother chuckled pointedly. Was he teasing? Kankuro didn't tease him. He looked at his brother briefly, wondering if he had been replaced.
"I'm not sure what you mean." He answered irritably.
"Hinata, playing with your hair." He explained. "Is it true, did you blush?"
Gaara sighed. "I'm not sure I would know." He said honestly.
He did enjoy the experience. He had never had the experience before. Who would have touched his hair? He didn't handle his hair particularly gently, so the light sensation had been greatly welcomed. She ran her warm fingers through it with care not to hurt him. Was she truly so gentle?
"Temari said you gave her puppy eyes afterward and everything. You've gotten attached to this woman." He chuckled.
"Though I do not believe I am capable of 'puppy eyes,' I do enjoy her company, and I do believe that is the point." He was growing annoyed with his brothers' teasing'.
"Oh, come on." His brother whined.
It would seem that his little fiancee had effects on everyone. Baki seemed to like her paperwork. More specifically, he liked her neat handwriting over Temari's chicken scratch. Matsuri still disliked her, but she kept quieter and gave more constructive but still rather rude comments when she gave them.
He wasn't sure what had gotten into his young student. She didn't usually outwardly despise someone, and he wasn't sure what she disliked in Hinata. She was quite likable.
Hinata blinked at her window at what had woke her outside. She ran in her nightgown and house robe down to Temari's room, but she wasn't there. She ran down further to see people rushing around. "What's going on?"
One of the people rushing by stopped only briefly to explain. "Sudden sand storm we weren't expecting, we're preparing to bring in people who got caught in the storm." Hinata blinked and ran back upstairs, getting dressed coming back down.
Someone stopped her. "What are you doing, Hyuga-sama."
"I'm a tracking nin." She excused herself only to be stopped by the person throwing a wrap around her head and tucked face in.
"Be careful." They warned. "The storms can pick up, take people to anything solid and tuck them inside, stay low, and don't try jumping." She nodded, understanding. They opened the door, and she bolted out, activating her eyes. She could see the village had essentially shut down. Awnings turned into shutters. There wasn't a single thing outside of the doors. Some were taken inside, some were blowing in the air. She began to seek out people who were not inside.
It was difficult to walk, so she kept low as she ran against the wind and kept close to the buildings like she was told. She ushered people she found into nearby houses. What worried her the most was a cluster of chakra she saw on the edge of town. She couldn't see a structure. She worked her way toward the outer wall and the strays.
Gaara scoped the town again. Everyone was inside by now. He could return. He opened the tower door to a panicked and frantic sister.
"Hinata's still out there!" Temari shouted in his face grabbing his robes, trying to turn him back around.
Gaara was instantly confused, shocked, and angry. "Why did she leave?" He growled at her. Temari immediately released him and looked up at him like she had many years ago. He retracted but could wash the anger from his features.
"She went out after we did!" She explained. "Kankuro said people have seen her, but she was heading further out. He went to go find her."
"Why did she go out? She hasn't seen a sand storm before." He barked as he turned.
"She's a tracker," Temari explained to his back.
Gaara growled as he went back out into the storm. He headed in the direction Temari told him she had been, but when he got to the edges of the house line with no sign of her, he started to feel fear. He was sure she could see, so why would she go past the house line? She should know there would be no one out there.
He continued toward the wall, and finally, he saw something. He bolted toward movement, feeling his knuckles turn white as his stress rose.
Hinata was exhausted and fighting against the wind and blasting sand to get to the nearest houses. She clutched tightly to a child tucked in the folds of her clothes he held on as he wailed. Under her free arm, she had his mother, whose face was buried into Hinata's shoulder, stumbling behind her, shielding her face from the sand. She gripped tight to Hinata's waist and the arm of her older child, who was hiding his face in Hinata's rib cage on her other side.
She knew they were getting closer to cover, but she wasn't sure how much further they could go before she would have to carry all of them. To her luck, she saw him.
She could see he was angry. He came at them in a rush, and she stopped as he encapsulated them, and she gasped, pulling her face quickly out of the wrap as soon as the air was clear. She looked up to his stern face, and he said nothing as they were moved. He stared at her with his frustration, and she stared back with no apology. He let them into the Kage building, where the mother recovered from her shock and gave her and her sons a crushing desperate hug.
Hinata tried lifting the crying toddler in her arms out of the outer robe, uncovering him. She attempted to rock and hush his distress while his mother tried to clear her and her elder son's eyes.
The scared child didn't want to release her, so her mother left him where he was. She cradled the head of her older child as he trembled, rubbing his back whispering to him as people rushed around.
She shifted her hips as she cuddled the child and skimmed the room for Gaara. When she found him, he looked at her sternly from across the room where he was receiving reports.
Hinata sat in the main hall with the few citizens who took shelter there, not trusting their homes. She stood out with her pale skin and dark hair among the tans and light hair. She laid back, cradling a child to her breast, a teen curled up with his head in her lap, and an older woman leaning on her shoulder. All four were asleep.
He couldn't explain the level of fear he felt when he found she was missing. He had snapped at his sister, who had felt comfortable enough in the fear and panic to touch him. He had to remind himself who she was. This gentlewoman he had grown accustomed to having to do paperwork with was a nin just like he was. Just like he had to remind himself that she was an heiress. She was amazingly all of these things, and tonight he realized he was afraid of losing her.
He stepped forward to the small sleeping group. His presence waked the village woman. She looked up at him in shock and bowed her head, looking over at what he was interested in. She took care to try to gently pry her children away. The movement woke Hinata as she protectively clutched the toddler and moved an arm over his elder brother. She blinked awake wildly, taking in her surroundings. She understood what was going. She handed the child to his mother, rubbed the boy's shoulder to wake him, and whispered an apology.
She rubbed her eyes, then looked up at him, and her delicate features turned hard. He stiffened, was she upset with him? He wasn't sure if he wanted another argument in the state he was in. He held out his hand, she took it and let him help her to stand, but he didn't release it but lead her out of the main hall with it.
She was exhausted, he could tell. Rings under her eyes, the way she stumbled despite their slow pace, and she was likely only sleeping two hours before she headed out.
He led her to her room and stopped. "Clean up. We can talk in the morning."
"Well, there are two reasons that's difficult." She mumbled, looking up at the door.
"Why?" He sighed.
"Well, I don't like to put off pressing conversations. I know what pent up feelings do to a person." He nodded reluctantly. They were talking tonight then. He hoped he was wrong and she was not upset with him. "And this isn't my room." He blinked, looking up at it. He thought it was her room. "My room is on the other side of Temari's." She pointed two doors down.
"Wash." He pressed.
"You too. I'll meet you in your office."