A/N: I didn't spend as much time on this chapter as I'd have liked, but I wanted it up before I'm back at school next week, and before everyone goes off to devour the last Harry Potter (If you haven't already been spoiled by the Internet leak, like me.).

Happy reading.

Chapter Six: Uncertainty

The scene was taking far longer than expected.

Hinata ran the side of her thumb carefully under her eye, resisting the temptation to just out and scratch it. Kakashi was asking for yet another take of a scene featuring all four leads, and she didn't think he'd look too kindly on her for delaying them with a full eye make-up redo.

'This is still not good enough,' he announced, ignoring the general glare directed at him by both cast and crew alike. Sakura's hair was slowly falling out of its complicated twist and Naruto was tugging at his tie uncomfortably. 'I'm not asking you to do a cereal commercial; I want real passion.'

'I'll show him passion when I'm beating him to death with these shoes,' Sakura hissed, indicating the impossibly high stilettos on her feet.

Hinata smothered a grin and sat patiently in her seat as Kakashi ordered the stylists on set for a quick touch-up. Their characters were at a charity ball, with Katsu, Kasumi and Nori gathering information for their spy agency at the same time Mira was doing a little reconnaissance work. It often meant darting around in slippery shoes, and their sweaty and flushed faces were constantly requiring attention.

'How are you so calm and happy, Hinata?' Sakura moaned. Her face bore no traces of her allergic reaction of three days ago. 'I'm exhausted.'

'She drank a few cups of tea before filming,' Sasuke put in, completely at ease as Satomi attacked his hair. 'Something in the range of five to six cups.'

A furious shout echoing from beyond the set turned everybody's heads and interrupted Sakura's musings of switching from coffee to tea. A heavyset man with thick brown hair stormed into view with Tsunade, whose rising voice indicated the full force of her temper was close to being unleashed.

'If we could take this to my office-'

'I refuse!' he barked. 'If anyone has a problem with my food, I want it told to my face!'

'I have been telling you to your face,' Tsunade insisted, sounding dangerously near melting point. 'I don't see any reason for us to be here at all! You either want to cause a scene or you just want a peek at my actors!'

'I couldn't care less about your actors,' the man shouted, 'unless they're insulting my company! Orders have been down twelve percent ever since your people claimed they found maggots in their food!'

'We did find maggots in our food,' Naruto said. He joined Tsunade with obvious anger at being suspected of lying. 'But who the hell are you, anyway?'

The man swelled with indignation at having not been immediately recognised. Hinata, staring at him with the same hushed intensity as everyone else, thought she recognised his strong build and furious defence of the food.

'I'm Akimichi Chouji,' he said, confirming her suspicions. 'And I own the catering company you've all been defaming!'

'Defaming?' Sakura snapped. She too stalked over, impressively intimidating with the height her shoes added. 'I could have died from the peanuts your company neglected to inform us about!'

'Akimichi Catering takes pride in its food preparation,' Chouji said, sounding as though he was reciting the company's brochure. 'Saying we carelessly put peanuts in food when there was a specific request for no nuts is like-like-' He stopped, unable to find an appropriate simile.

Tsunade seized the opportunity to begin herding him from the set, where everyone was still frozen and gaping at the unfolding drama. The man made little resistance, apparently still attempting to find a strong simile to finish his argument.

'Do we intend to finish this movie sometime this century?' Kakashi's voice rang out irritably, sending everyone scurrying back to their tasks.

'Can you believe that man?' Sakura fumed, as the stylists hurriedly resumed their work. 'Acting as though we're causing trouble for the sake of it…'

'I didn't know he was our caterer,' Hinata said. She was still gazing thoughtfully in the direction Chouji and Tsunade had disappeared in. 'He's handled business functions of my father's before… He's supposedly the best. I wouldn't have thought his company would be so negligent.'

'Well, it's either they were negligent or we made it all up,' Sakura said.

'Enough chatter!' Kakashi called out. 'I want this scene done today!'

'Stop searching for perfection, then,' Sakura muttered, sweeping up her gown and returning to the set with a smiling Hinata by her side.

x . o . x . o . x . o . x

Shizune looked flustered when she appeared for the next scene, which fortunately required attire less formal than evening gowns and stilettos. Hinata asked her where she had been, mentioning the incident with Akimichi Chouji, but Shizune simply appeared startled at the news and hurried away without answering.

'Everyone in this production is cracking up,' Naruto observed, during a break Kakashi had mercifully granted them. 'How long do you think it'll be until Kakashi does?'

Sakura spitefully suggested two days: Kakashi had ordered an individual scene of hers, featuring a sprint in the stilettos, six times by the end of filming.

Sasuke, looking as bored as he usually did in their group conversations, didn't answer. Hinata remained equally silent, though only because she thought the subject was somewhat inappropriate. After listening to ten minutes of enthusiastic discussion regarding Kakashi's breakdown, Sasuke turned to his quiet co-star.

'Have you been keeping up with Curiosity, Hinata?' he questioned.

Startled, Hinata could only stare at him for a moment. She wondered how he'd arrived at the decision to open that particular conversation topic.

'No, I haven't…' she said cautiously. 'What have they been writing?'

'That you've been seen leaving my home twice in the last week,' he told her very casually, but unable to hide a smirk at her reaction. 'I'm tempted to write in about that; surely, Hinata, you would think I'm enough of a gentleman to invite guests to stay, and not force them to leave at the crack of dawn?'

'Oh, I…'

'They still think you two are a couple, then?' Sakura asked, in a voice that was nearly as casual as Sasuke's.

'Something like that,' Sasuke replied indifferently. 'Which reminds me: They have a new target.'

He left for a few minutes and returned with the latest issue of Hinata's least favourite magazine in the world. A grainy cell phone image of Sakura and Naruto, beside the distinctive white-sheeted beds of a hospital, took place of pride on the cover.

'Me and Naruto?' Sakura gasped, rapidly turning pages to the main article.

Apparently, several hospital visitors were 'horrified' to see Sakura's 'beautiful face so devastatingly ravaged by what appeared to be an allergic reaction' but were 'delighted to see Sakura and her new beau Uzumaki Naruto together.' Naruto 'remained at her side during her stay and tenderly offered her words of support throughout the ordeal.'

Sakura appeared to be at a genuine loss for words. Naruto shook his head with a smile, but Hinata saw his eyes wander curiously to Sakura's face after he'd finished skimming through the article.

Sakura's mouth opened, her expression still incredulous, and Hinata had the wild idea to whisk Sakura away before she said something to hurt Naruto. It was obvious Naruto's feelings towards Sakura were largely unrequited- anyone who regularly watched their interactions knew that- and Hinata could never help a pang of sorrow when Sakura hurt him. It was unintentional, she was sure, because Sakura was always bluntly honest, but that knowledge probably did little to lessen any pain Naruto felt.

Hinata never felt any more gratitude to Kakashi than she did then, when his voice- though ever increasingly grating on her nerves- ordered them to hurry up and earn their pay. He did what she couldn't: stopping Sakura from commenting on the Curiosity article.

'Sakura and Naruto have a short scene first,' Kakashi said, waving aside his assistants to focus on the leads. 'Quiet on set!'

Hinata and Sasuke walked some distance away to observe, keen to avoid the frantic rush that always accompanied that call. Hinata didn't expect Sasuke to talk, but he caught her off-guard by doing so.

'You don't mind that I brought up Curiosity's trash-writing after all this time, do you?' Sasuke asked.

Hinata frowned a little, but decided it wasn't worth an argument with him over the fact that she did mind.

'No, I suppose not.'

'Good. I wasn't sure how to introduce the idea of a relationship with Naruto to Sakura… It was the magazine or a long, private chat with her, and they aren't exactly my forte.'

'You're… playing matchmaker?' Hinata said faintly, thinking learning pigs could fly would be less of a shock to her. She had the sudden, fleeting image of Sasuke as Cupid and blushed at the thought.

'I'm just tired of listening to Naruto moan about his love for Sakura,' Sasuke said, his eyes still trained on the scene and thankfully missing her embarrassment, 'so don't go thinking it's for any noble reason.'

The conversation obviously closed, Hinata discreetly watched him from the corner of her eye. Despite his insistence that it was all just to end Naruto's moanings, she was sure he could see as well as she could how deeply Sakura's words and actions could cut. She didn't harbour much hope that his promotion of the match would help; besides Sakura's lack of interest in Naruto, it was obvious where Sakura's heart lay.

'You continue to surprise me every day, Uchiha Sasuke,' she sighed, thinking she would let him meddle in their friends' love lives for now.

He looked as startled at the comment as she did when he'd mentioned Curiosity again, but as they rejoined everyone on set, he offered her a small smile.

'I'm glad.'

x . o . x . o . x . o . x

Hinata and Sakura left the set together that night, animatedly discussing Akimichi Chouji. The subject had been renewed by a reappearance of the man on his way out of the studios; he'd again accused them of defamation, which led into an insult-slinging match between him and Naruto.

'The man just can't accept the fact that his company is in the wrong,' Sakura said, emerging from the changing stall in her usual clothing.

'I don't understand why he thinks we're defaming him,' Hinata said. 'Has anyone actually mentioned this out of the studios?'

Rolling her eyes, Sakura reached around Hinata for her bag.

'I may have mentioned it to Ino, who happens to be a close friend of that moron. She probably told him.'

'What did you say?' Hinata asked curiously, wincing a little as she brushed her hat of hairspray out.

'I can't remember… Although I might have threatened to have the business closed down.'

Hinata couldn't help a smile at the thought of Ino relaying that threat to Chouji.

'Her play actually used Akimichi Catering too, you know,' Sakura informed Hinata as she began settling her own hair into its normal style. 'Nara Shikamaru- I suppose it's his play, really- is a good friend of Akimichi's too.' Sakura paused. 'I wonder if he knows about this.'

Hinata lifted her shoulders in a shrug, knowing any attempt to dissuade Sakura from warning the world of the horrors Akimichi Catering had in store for its clients would prove fruitless. The two women gathered their belongings and had set off for the door when Satomi stopped them.

'Oh, I'm glad I caught you before you left, Miss Hyuuga,' Satomi said, slightly out of breath. 'Someone just delivered this to you.'

She handed Hinata a bouquet of deep red roses.

'Ooh, who are those from?' Sakura wondered out loud. She plucked out a white card nestled between the flowers. 'Read it!'

Hinata obliged, pulling the card from its envelope with just as much curiosity as Sakura was exuding:

Careful now, Hinata.

A shiver rippled through her at the sight of the subtle threat. Sakura had read the card over Hinata's shoulder, without any memory of the previous note, it seemed, and was now abusing the sender for the odd message.

The flowers rapidly losing their beauty, Hinata quickly placed them onto a make-up strewn table.

'Who gave you these, Satomi?' she asked.

'No one,' Satomi answered, puzzlement crossing her face. 'I found them just outside the studios and noticed your name.'

Sakura let out a sudden shriek and Hinata whirled around to find a terrifyingly large spider crawling out from the flowers. All three women took a hasty step back at the sight and stayed a fair distance from the creature until Shizune, Naruto, Sasuke and Kakashi arrived, alerted by Sakura's scream.

Shizune dashed off to contact the appropriate pest controllers after the situation was explained, and five of the remaining six debated the possibility of preventing it from wandering around. Kakashi was adamant that the spider was a venomous kind, which effectively stopped the others from any further attempts to keep the spider from crawling about.

Tsunade joined the group only after the spider had been taken away. The dark shadows beneath her eyes betrayed her exhaustion, despite her effort to sound normal.

'What is going on?' Sakura asked, frustrated at the few answers she'd received.

'I don't know,' Tsunade replied. She was still looking at the flowers in the same, oddly expressionless manner as she had while looking at Sakura's peanut-tainted salad.

'Tsunade…' Shizune said, strangely beseeching.

'What is it, Shizune?'

Hinata's eyes shifted like everyone else's to Shizune, whose tone would have suggested even to the dimmest of people that she had information she was not revealing. The warning in Tsunade's voice, however, appeared to have escaped everyone except Hinata, Kakashi and Sasuke.

There was silence as Shizune seemingly struggled with an answer that would not form.

'I'm sorry for this, but I'm sure you'll agree this was another unfortunate incident that no one could have prevented. The spider may have accidentally found its way into the flowers.'

The little conviction with which Tsunade spoke was laughable; it was plain that a spider of that species and size could not have been wandering around the studios and happened to chance on the roses. Hinata was ready to protest at the lack of any kind of information or speculation, when Sakura beat her to it.

'You can't just leave it at that!' Sakura snapped. 'How can one production encounter so many unfortunate incidents in so little time?'

'What do you want from me?' Tsunade answered, just as angrily. 'I don't have the ability to predict the future; I can't prevent them! What would you have me do?'

Her words were met with more silence, and without waiting for further questions or comments, she departed.

'Satomi, are you sure you didn't see who left the roses?' Hinata pressed desperately.

'I'm sure. But I don't understand…'

'You aren't the only one,' Naruto muttered, just as Sasuke rounded on Shizune.

'Why were you pleading with her like that?' Sasuke demanded. 'What do you know?'

'What are you talking about?' Shizune returned. 'Do you honestly believe I'd keep any helpful information to myself? I want this to stop as much as you do!'

'You're lying,' Sasuke said, roughly. He advanced on Shizune, and somewhere in her overwhelming anxiety, Hinata felt a spark of fear at the dark look settling over Sasuke's often stoic features.

'Sasuke,' Kakashi interrupted, very quietly. He placed a restraining hand on Sasuke's shoulder, who made no move to approach Shizune further. 'That's enough.'

'Let's just all go home,' Shizune said, recovering some of her business-like manner but refusing to meet their gazes. 'We have work tomorrow.'

Sasuke scooped the flowers up as everyone trailed out of the room, either quietly reflecting on the day's events or heatedly criticising Tsunade's handling of the issue, as Sakura was doing.

'I presume you don't want these?' Sasuke asked Hinata. She searched for that frightening darkness she'd seen, but it was gone.

She shook her head, shuddering at the thought of what may have happened had she continued to hold those flowers. On their way to the studio parking lot, he dumped the roses into the trash for her.

x . o . x . o . x . o . x

'Delivered?'

'Delivered. And with a smile.'