Hinata bolted up out of bed. Something was happening. She could feel it. Gaara blinked at her questioningly, also awake.
Her chest raised and fell with her overreacting lungs as she looked around with her blood limit.
"What's wrong?" Gaara asked, sitting up. She could feel sand jittering around the air anxiously.
"Masuri-san?" She wondered, getting out of the bed and heading to opening the door before Matsuri could knock.
Matsuri stared for a moment of confusion before moving past it. "Hinata." She addressed her. "There is a team here from Konoha for you."
Hinata looked back at her husband, who was getting out of bed with equal confusion. "We weren't expecting them?" She confirmed.
"I was not informed," Gaara noted. So no, they weren't.
"Are they hurt? Is it something urgent?" She asked.
"I have no clue it's your cousin's team," Matsuri explained, frustrated. "They won't tell me anything. They just asked for you specifically."
She nodded, closing the door briefly to dress in house robes. Giving her husband a meaningful worried look.
He shared her stare for a moment, frowning before following the two women down to where the team had been asked to rest.
"Nii-san?" She asked as she came upon them. None of the four were hurt. They didn't seem in a panic.
"Hinata-sama." He stood up immediately, crossing the room. "I need to talk to you." He glanced at the Kazekage and frowned before returning his eyes to her.
She caught on. "Gaara, will you excuse us for a minute." She mumbled, prompting him not to follow as Neji led her away.
He could feel the beast's anxious tail flicking in his mind. Gaara understood he was not needed, and this was likely a clan matter of importance.
The beast didn't care about the damn clan and was being held back from trying to intervene.
"No." She told him flatly.
"This could be dangerous Hinata-sama, Hanabi-sama asked specifically for you as head." Neji insisted.
"I can't just pick up and leave. I can not be ordered even by the head of the clan." She told him stiffly. "I have responsibilities, and I can't just leave Gaara here. Shukaku-san wouldn't allow it."
"Hinata-sama, Hanabi-sama needs you for this. She will fail without you. The council is talking about breaking contracts, and that might cause a war." He pressed.
She chewed her lip and sighed. "I need to speak with Gaara about it. I can't just pick up and leave in the middle of the night."
Neji stayed silent.
"I will see what I can do." She assured him. "I'll make sure you are given a place to rest." She added before rejoining the main room.
Gaara was at her side with a few short strides. She looked back at Neji, showing he got the point.
"Matsuri-san, can you make sure they are given board tonight." She asked. The younger girl nodded. Though she was sure, she already thought of that. She headed back to their room, feeling her husband's shadow her until they were out of sight, then she felt the sand swim between her ankles.
If Gai and Lee didn't look so tired for once, she was sure it would have been a much louder affair overall. They must have taken the entire trip in one go and possibly decided they were carrying all the packs for 'training'.
When she got to their bed, she sat with a sigh and patted her lap. The tanuki formed on her lap and curled its tail protectively around her hip.
He sat beside her as she put her stress into the sand, giving the pampered demon attention. He frowned as her brown continued to furrow.
"I have been called back to Konoha to settle a matter." She explained.
He was overwhelmed. His interest and confusion were overpowered by Shukaku's sudden anger and possession. The tail curled tighter around her, and the growling was loud in his head.
Hinata frowned, curling fingers over the sand in an attempt to soothe him. "I said I couldn't leave you." She promised, lowering her face so the tanuki could press its nose into her cheek. "But the matter could cause our contracts to become broken. I understand the need for my presence."
The tanuki was not assured. 'She is not leaving us.' He vowed.
Gaara sighed, rubbing his temple. "We would both have to go." He knew there was no other way. It annoyed him that this was so limited.
"I can't ask that." She mumbled, leaning on him. "You have responsibilities."
"You didn't." He noted. "Avoiding war is my responsibility." He added.
"That's an excuse." A small smile grew on her face as she looked up. She buried her face into his shoulder.
"Shukaku will not see us separated that far." The tanuki proceeded to press his sand face into her stomach. "Repeating events will have consequences."
"We are going to have to disperse our responsibilities." She chewed her lip. "Do you think Matsuri-san would be able to take on some of my work."
"Not Temari?" He asked, curling around her. He was feeling the fact it was the middle of the night as Shukaku's emotional overload calmed with assurances she wasn't leaving.
"Your job needs two people easily. She will have her hands full." She explained, yawning. "We can think about it in the morning." She mumbled.
He agreed, crawling to the bed beside her as she removed the layer she put on to meet her cousin. The sand demon curled up over the blanket at her back. They decide he stayed out of the blankets after an incident of his deforming and Hinata waking up in a bed of loose sand.
He started a list in his head of what tasks he would delegate to who if he was going to be gone for a couple of days.
She sighed into his shoulder as she buried her face into it. "Don't worry about it, just go to sleep."
He glanced at her. She was already asleep. He agreed silently.
Masturi agreed though she looked confused as she took note of all the things Hinata handed her. "Oh dear, I was supposed to visit the orphanage today." She pierced her lip. She couldn't ask Matsuri to do that, so she was already giving her her work while she was running off home.
"I'll go," Matsuri said quickly like she was taking note of another piece of paperwork.
"No, it's fine, you don't need to, you'll be busy. I'll just have to send to tell them I won't be able to stop by until I get back and that I'm sorry." She frowned and sighed. This was inconveniencing everyone.
"I can sit with some kids for a while," Matsuri told her solidly like she was taking it as a challenge. Hinata wasn't sure if that was a good character trait or not. "What do you usually do with them?"
"I sit with them, give them some attention, and teach them manners." She explained. Matsuri gave her an odd raised eyebrow. "What?"
"Okay, sounds fine." Hinata passed it off and made sure that the message to the children that she was sorry would reach them.
She knew this was going to be a long trip. Her husband stayed incredibly close. She could feel the protective sand on her skin that sneaked around her. They were both anxious. Neji was no better. He wanted to talk to her about what he could about the clan matter alone, but there was just no stepping out of ear range of her husband and beast. She slept against him with a ball of formed sand proactively tucked at the back of her neck. He curled his tail over her, protecting her blind spot, Gaara told her. The demon stared directly at her cousin, challenging him to say something, anything, as she tucked herself in beside Gaara in their travel mat.
"He believes your cousin will find an issue with our sleeping arrangement," Gaara whispered, hooking an arm around her.
"We're married..." She mumbled in protest. "We are resting, not being intimate." She reminded the beast.
"He thinks we should do otherwise to make him uncomfortable." He wrinkled his nose, and though she knew well Shukaku was joking, or at least she hoped he was, she frowned and scolded him.
"Shukaku-san that is highly inappropriate." She felt his tail flick against her back, and she knew he was listening.
She also noticed the alert of the demon made it difficult for Gaara to sleep. She woke in the middle of the night to his light touch on her hair as he rolled strand between his fingers, examining in the moonlight.
"Can't sleep?" She mumbled.
"Shukaku believes that while we are in the open, we should not risk such things." She frowned at his passiveness. "I'm sure he means to insult the guard by what he is calling him."
"Lee-san is very good." She defended, feeling the tail twitch.
"I agree with him, partly. No matter how good he is, we can not trust your life." He told her softly.
She sighed, curling tighter to him. "You can sleep when we get there. Clan matters mean they won't be letting you in, especially as Kazekage. I'm surprised they are calling me at all now that I am married."
He hummed in agreement though she knew they weren't happy with leaving her with the clan.
"Your hair is… different." He mumbled out loud after a full minute. Was he looking at it? She thought he was mindlessly playing.
She could almost laugh at him, of course, he couldn't do that, too simple.
"It's a trait of my mother's. Hyuga tends to have softer brown hair like nii-san's or slick dark hair, either way, it is thick and straight." She informed, closing her eyes.
"We have thick, coarse hair." He mumbled. She could hear it more in his chest as she repositioned her head to better rest on his shoulder. "Temari says it makes it hard to style." His deep rumbling voice was going to put her right back to sleep despite the uncomfortable sleeping pack.