Hinata finally lost the last of her patience and called their bluff. She calmly waited for the speaker to stop whatever he found so important he needed to interrupt her. She closed her folder painfully slowly. She looked up with a sigh. "If we can find no middle ground, then we will have to stop construction, and my husband and I will return home. If the plans can not be changed, you will have to find a way to build the compound without hiring Suna workers. You will have to find your way to transfer the materials that are not common and deal with the local laws on transporting them in and building on your own. If the structure falls, you will have no help repairing it. If you are not willing to work with Suna, we are not willing to work with you." She picked up her folder and bowed her head, preparing to leave.
"You can't turn your back on your clan!" One of the enders squawked.
Hinata raised her head and frowned lightly. "I am no longer a Hyuga, or have you forgotten I am married now." She flicked her eyes over the upset and panicked faces of the council. "My involvement was unwanted, I am aware. I came as a request of my sister to keep the peace with direct involvement rather than second hand through messengers. If no peace can be made, my husband and I will still allow the Hyuga settlement as promised and help with it within our means. However, we will not help you build something that will not stand."
The speaker gaped at her.
"With no further word from you, we will leave the day after tomorrow and monitor your progress when you come to take over the work." She walked out, and her sister quickly followed her.
"Onee-chan wait!" Her panicked cry only furthered the panic silence as the door banged shut.
Hinata continued to walk out of earshot before turning to her sister "What are you doing!" She screeched.
"They are seeing how far they can push me. They have reached their limit." Hinata huffed, releasing the stress. "I'm not a puppet anymore, Hanabi-chan. My position and loyalty have to be to my village, not because I am married to Gaara, but because they have trusted me with the position they have. My being the head of the Suna based clan was a nice thought to make this go smoothly, but I will not let the wants of the clans succeed the need of my village."
Hanabi's eyes filled with tears.
"No, no." Hinata tucked the folder under harm and held her sister's face. "I'm not abandoning you or the clan. They will call Gaara or me back by tomorrow, I promise you. This is a power play, they wanted to push their luck, and they are setting themselves back."
"You're sure?" Hanabi squeaked, bowing her head in her sister's hands.
"Trust me."
"Interesting," Gaara noted as Shukaku laughed maniacally in his head. "Shukaku is amused."
His wife sighed. "Hanabi-chan is tied in knots about it, but if they are so stubborn, they won't call on me before we leave. They will find resistance and learn what I have already found. The Suna people respect the hard way."
Gaara nodded. When they had come, they were under the impression that there would be bigger issues. He wouldn't think a clan with such power and respect would have such a temper tantrum over design changes for structural integrity. He was sure he was missing the real point of them picking this fight.
"I hope you agree, and I haven't stepped over a boundary." She tucked her hair behind her ear and looked down. "I had lost my temper."
"The Hyuga, public relations, and labor laws all fall under you. That is why we came." He reminded her. She worried too much.
"Okay."
Naruto spoke loudly over dinner, mostly updates and mindless gossip she thought he would have at some point grew out of. She still enjoyed watching his enthusiasm even now.
Hinata had received a note from the council by the messenger before they got back.
Hinata smiled up at Gaara as they walked back and had stepped a few feet in front of him to look into a shop she didn't recognize. It must have been new. He stood back, letting her look as he did usually, but she soon felt sand circle her middle, and she braced as Shukaku yanked her back to Gaara's side. She activated her eyes and looked for the threat he had wanted her from, only to be quite confused. "Father?"
Hinata felt a much larger version of Shukaku form at her side, about the size of Akamaru. She stepped in front of the tanuki shield, both him and her father. This was not safe for anyone.
Her father glared at her, and she found herself wondering why he was out. He did not leave the compound often. His companions were likely his guards. Her stomach swirled with anxiety, the only time her father ever left the compound when she was a child was when she had done something gravely wrong.
Shukaku's massive head came under her arm to bared his fake teeth.
"Shukaku-san." She whispered in scolding.
He didn't move. Hinata could feel his paws on either side of her feet. He fully towered her as he grew.
Her father showed no fear, only more disappointment at her inability to control him.
"What are you doing out, father?" She jittered.
"I need to speak to the Hokage." He told her flatly. "It seems you have made me another mess."
"Certainly not something that needs to be brought to the Hokage, it's clan matters." She frowned at him. The clan was trying to weasel their way through with politics.
"We will see, watch your dog. If it bites, people look to the owner for scorn." He warned.
Shukaku tensed, and she could feel the anxious sand over her skin. What she knew and her father didn't was that Shukaku didn't care.
"He can understand your father. Please don't be rude." She felt her face fall into a glare she didn't want as she put her arm around the massive head. She felt the massive tail flick irritably.
Her father's eye flicked from her to Gaara, who watched calmly. He gave the Kazekage a bow of his head before continuing on his way.
"Shukaku-san." She whimpered to the large stiff shouldered beast.
It's sand ears lower to flatten to its head. She pet between his false ears.
In the darkening, empty street, he watched his wife coddle the beast that had been growling and spewing profanity at her father. The beast nudged her, and she sank to her knees to hug the massive beast, and he frowned. Her father was not someone he could harm sadly as much as Shukaku would enjoy it. She handled him well on her own. However, the interaction hurt her. He hated that. He hoped that this matter with the Hokage led to a situation he got to intervene.
Gaara told the beast they should take her home. He agreed, nudging her to stand back up and follow.
The night was somewhat soured by the incident. To heighten her mood, the tanuki refused to shrink down to its common size of a lap dog. This made it difficult for him to fit through the door. He struggled for a while before he dematerialized outside of it and rematerialized inside, making her giggle.
Gaara sat by the bathroom door and patiently waited for her to finish her nightly routine and then made a fuss over trying to get up on the bed.
Gaara watched the whole thing with great interest. He wasn't sure what the beast was doing. Purposely inconveniencing her, getting in her way while she was trying to pick out clothes or move the bathroom. Trying to sit on her lap when he was much too big, resolving to sit next to the bed and placing his head on her lap instead.
He was inconveniencing her in the most irritating way possible, yet she was smiling. She would giggle and try to get around him, then when he blocked again, she huff and pout.
Cute.
The beast ignored his questions, with only a 'you don't understand humans, kid' as an answer.
What did that mean?
He found himself lying next to his wife, just watching the two in interest as the beast interrupted her book reading for a few minutes until she was too distracted with it, and he calmed, letting her idly pet the massive head.
He still did not know so much about her and her wide range of feelings. He wanted to.
Hinata glanced over at Gaara. He was doing that stare when he was thinking about something that awed him. Likely his gourd was full of as many questions as grains of sand, and there was no way to answer them all. She had seen the same look in young children, the look of unbound curiosity.
She once again wondered what he would be like with children. She thought about it a while at the orphanage. She couldn't picture him in the room. She couldn't picture him holding a child unless it was coming from a wreckage.
For that reason, she wondered if they would ever have children. Well, something else would have to happen first. She blushed. She hadn't got him anywhere near they had been on their wedding night. Anytime they would be, he would back away from her or start to panic. They hadn't talked about it, and maybe they should, though not tonight.
"Your face is red," Gaara noted bluntly.
Hinata blinked out of thought. He must have focused in from his curiosity as she got lost in her thoughts. "Oh, sorry, I was thinking."
"About what." He asked with a tilt of his head.
She pierced her lip and turned redder. "Oh, it was nothing important."