Chapter six

A/N:

Ah, don't you just love Christmas time? It just seems as if everybody is a little more generous during this wonderful holiday…I love Christmas. Mostly because we have the wonderful opportunity to celebrate our Saviors birth and everybody is just in better moods. And everybody has their lights on and snow is everywhere (unfortunately for me I don't get snow because I live in the south) on the ground for some people.

Anyway, since Christmas for me is on Tuesday I decided to post this chapter earlier because I felt as if all my wonderful reviewers deserved it and Santa's watching. Hopefully I'm not on the naughty list this year D

Have a Happy Christmas!

--------

Hinata stood frozen and confused. She didn't know what to do and Ino's grip on her petite wrist was starting to tighten. What was she going to do? She hardly knew this man, Sasuke Uchiha, but he was her husband whether she wanted to believe it or not and Ino, who she had known practically all her life, was one of her closest friends. If she refused either side would she be hated for it? Would she be shunned for not knowing what to do?

She grimaced as everybody got very quiet and still as they waited for her choice of person. Sakura and Neji were personally enjoying this display of emotions and hard decisions that could change life. It sounded shallow and cruel but it's not. It's quite simple really and that's why they enjoy it. It's looks complex but in reality it's very simple. The person Hinata choose would be the one she would be staying with for the remainder of her life. Neji knew for a fact that once you married in the Hyuga family you couldn't come back to live in the household and if Hinata choose Ino she would be staying with her until she got her own place. It was vice versa in the Uchiha's case.

What would Hanabi do in a situation like this? Or better yet what would mother do? Hinata asked herself as she tried to picture what each person would do. That was a hard thing to do because Hanabi was very unpredictable and her mother was dead before she even had the chance to get to know her. All Hinata knew was that she was a nice and tender woman who loved everybody no matter who they were and she made that assumption by just old pictures.

It was right at that moment that another somebody entered the room. Instantly all eyes focused on him and his slender figure. Hinata and Neji had no clue who this person was but Ino, who had done her research thoroughly, knew and she didn't keep her mouth shut like all the others in the room.

"Have you ever heard of knocking?" She barked out at him while he observed the situation as Neji had, making the assumption that something interesting was going on.

"I didn't know I had to knock on my own door." He said calmly and smoothly just in the way he entered the room.

"You live here?" Neji inquired with a frown on his face.

He nodded and then turned to Sasuke. "We split wards due to an agreement…" He slowly trailed off as he eyed Hinata interestingly.

"And who is this pretty little thing? She's not for sell is she?"

Neji raised an eyebrow while Sasuke closed his eyes trying to conceal his annoyance. He just had to make his annoyed and unwanted visit right when she was about to make her decision! What did he even want?

"No, Naoto she's isn't. In fact this is my wife, remember that." Sasuke snapped.

"Oh, well forget what I said then. I can't have a woman that's not mine." He said simply.

"What do you want Naoto?"

Naoto pretended to look offended. "What? A man can't rest in his own household?" With that he walked over to the couch, took a seat, and propped his feet up on the table in front of it.

"Carry on. I was never here." He said with a lazy wave of recognition.

Hinata wished she could carry on and pretend that her apparent board-mate wasn't there but she couldn't. It was already hard for her to say anything with just the people in the room but with this guy added in? This made everything even harder!

"I'm getting tired of waiting Hinata!" Ino barked out as she narrowed her eyes. She knew she was being selfish but it was for Hinata's own good.

"Um…well…I can't do it, Ino!" She blurted out.

"We all know that Hinata. The real point is that you'll have to make a decision sooner or later and we all want to know what that is" Neji said.

"Why? I'll be honest with you Neji, because you're my cousin and I love you, but I'd rather keep my thoughts myself. I'd rather be by myself if it meant having to choose between my best friend and my…husband." Hinata said loudly so everybody could hear.

"You'd have to get a divorce and we both know that's worse then getting pregnant before marriage in the Hyuga family." Neji countered smartly. He was going to push Hinata until she could take it no more. Why? Because she was his cousin and he loved her.

"Can I be alone for a while?" Hinata choked out.

"You've been alone for the last five years, Hinata. I think it's about time you started thinking and quick." Neji said sharply.

"I don't want to! Does anybody not get that?" He had driven her to her limit and now she was to break down.

She snatched her wrist away from her captors and collapsed on the couch on the side of her. She looked down at her lap, like she had down when he father told her the astounding news and slowly but surely the tears came, they fell just as hard as when she retreated to her room. She put her hands over her eyes to hide herself from the shameful and humiliating gazes. She was acting like a child, she knew, but at the moment she didn't care.

To say the least she looked pretty when she cried unlike most women. Naoto noted that. And being the handsome gentlemen he was he found a few tissues and handed come over to her with a grin of understanding. (He had no idea why though for he didn't understand her a bit)

"Thank you." She said quietly. "For being so considerate."

"Think nothing of it, Mrs. Uchiha."

She wanted to correct him, despite her tears, but she stopped herself because he was right. She was Mrs. Uchiha but that didn't mean that he couldn't call her by her true name.

"Hinata. You can call me Hinata." She carried on the conversation as if it was only them in the room and nothing had ever happened. She wanted to believe nothing had happened and that it was only them in the room but Ino jumped in.

"Alright, Hinata Uchiha you win this time but only because I'm starting to get a migraine." She glared in Sakura's direction who only looked the other way a content smile on her face.

"I'll be waiting in the car, Neji. If you have anything else to say, say it but hurry up." Ino said hastily, she then left the room but quickly re-entered to give Hinata a hug.

"Any problems you call me." Ino whispered to her before she exited the room. She was trying to keep her scream of anger inside her. At least until she got outside. Neji on the other hand had nothing to say. He merely nodded to Hinata curtly and made his way out of the room. Things became quiet after that until Naoto said.

"Anybody thirsty? I make a killer cocktail."

Hinata shook her head. "I don't drink."

He raised an eyebrow. "Hopefully you're past twenty-one…come on a few drinks won't hurt you."

Sakura couldn't help but scoff. He had said the same thing to her when she first started working for Sasuke and the next thing she knew she was pinned to the wall. But she was single and Hinata was not so he shouldn't try anything. Assuming that Sasuke didn't follow behind them. He could be very touchy when it came to things that were his.

"I'm sorry I don't like to drink…it makes me woozy." Hinata said sheepishly.

"You've drunk before?"

Hinata licked her lips. "Once…when I was eighteen, my younger sister gave me some telling me that it was ginger ale. I, of course, after the first sip found out that it wasn't ginger ale. I felt sick afterwards and promised myself that I would never take another drink again."

Naoto sighed. "You're parents kept you locked up didn't they? I'm guessing you're still a virgin."

Sasuke frowned. "I wouldn't have married her if I knew she wasn't, Naoto. Don't you have anything better to do?"

"Have you not been listening the last five minutes we've been talking? I intend to go downstairs and get a drink."

"Then get moving!"

Naoto shrugged and exited the room as Ino and Neji had done minutes before.

-------

He amazed her. He was simply amazing. After Sakura had announced she had some errands to run, he had begun talking as if nothing had ever happened before. What she hadn't noticed before was that the whole time she had been looking down into her lap he had been staring at her, as if she were the most interesting thing in the world. Not because he loved her, or that she amazed him, but because he had just witnessed a moment when he had made a woman cry. Not that he hadn't made other women cry but this time it was different.

He actually felt accountable for making her burst into tears and that bothered him. What was so different about her that separated herself from other women? It took him a few minutes to understand his question and he instantly scolded himself for asking a silly question as that one.

She was his wife.

-------

Hinata had followed him when he led her upstairs. He led her to a room with two large doors. When the doors were opened (they were locked) Hinata became introduced to a very furnished room. Their room. The funny thing about it though was that the room was cut in half (metaphorically speaking of course).

Half of the room belonged to one and the other have belonged to the other. There were two bathrooms on each side. This would be new to Hinata because she had never been in the presence of anyone at night besides herself. It would be strange to her actually.

"Would you rather prefer the left or right side?" He asked her as she looked around the room.

"I'd prefer the right, thank you."

He nodded. "Good, because I've already arranged it that way. My side is the left side while yours is the right."

He was about to say something else when she turned to him, an apologetic look on her face. "I'm sorry for my outburst a while ago. It was a silly thing for me to do…and well…I shouldn't have done it."

"You're a woman. It's what's expected." He told her simply and she, not so sure how to reply, nodded her head simply and went back to examining her new room. It wasn't until a few minutes later did she spot something gleaming on the dresser on her side of the room.

Curiously, she ventured to her part of the room. When she got a clear visual advance of the object, despite earlier happenings, her eyes lit up with surprise. There, sitting in perfect order, was a brush set. The outer covering was silver, swirling designs captivated the whole brush. What she adored most about the brushes was that her name was engraved in perfect script on each one.

"Do you like it?" Was his simple question. "It's a yes or no question." He added.

"Yes, I do." She said with a smile on her face though she was not facing him.

"Good." And he left it like that.