This is probably one of my faster updates. Not much for me to say other than thank you to the people who reviewed the first chapter and encouraged me to continue, so thank you to these people:

ribbons-paws, uchihablossom0626, MelissaMichelle87, .midnight, Crescent-Vampiress, midnightcullengirl, shkh4ever

And wow, ten pages. This really spiraled out of control from the four or five I planned. I can't promise my chapters are going to stay this length or that I'll update this quickly.

And just to clarify, this isn't going to be like a full-on adaption of Pride and Prejudice, but there will be some subtle elements. Hope that isn't too disappointing to people. :(

Mr. Darcy
Chapter 2

Sakura groaned aloud as she shut the door of a patient room behind her, running a hand through her pink hair exhaustedly. She had finished her round around the floor, and of course, her last patient had to be one Shiranui Genma. He had broken his leg and lacerated his spleen on his last mission and would remain in the hospital for three more days, but if Sakura had any say, she would've kicked him out of the hospital right now. Though she supposed she should feel some degree of pity for him since he was hospitalized, she couldn't bring herself to do so, especially after that pinch on the butt. (Even while crippled, Genma was still ever the pervert.)

She sighed heavily. 'Only three more days,' she told herself wearily, but even those three days seemed too long. Hand pressed against her forehead, brows knit in agitation, she began walking down the hall.

"Sakura-san!"

Sakura turned around. "Hinata-chan!"

Though her tone held a hint of surprise, Sakura supposed it shouldn't, really. Hinata had been volunteering at the hospital for years now, starting shortly after Pein's invasion of Konoha. Though it started out as a way to pay Sakura back for saving her life, Hinata found that she truly enjoyed helping out at the hospital, even if she was only doing filing and paperwork at the nurse's station and Tsunade couldn't have been happier to let Hinata continue her work here. Privately, the Hokage had mentioned the hospital seemed to be a bit happier with Hinata around and frankly, Sakura would have to agree. Hinata's calm, soothing nature seemed to be perfect for a hospital setting. If it wasn't for her duties as clan head, she was certain Hinata would've joined the medical field.

"Sakura-san, your next patient," the pale-eyed girl said handing over a manila folder. Sakura deftly took it and flipped it open, scanning the patient info.

"Routine check-up for an outpatient," Sakura murmured to herself. Already running the list of tests she'd have to perform, she turned to Hinata, "would you like to come with me?"

Hinata blinked. "Are you sure it's alright if I do?" she asked hesitantly.

Sakura nodded. "It's fine," Sakura said dismissively, "it's an easy case and Tsunade trusts you with patients as much as she does me."

Which was true in some aspect. When it came to patient recovery, Hinata was one of the best. One could find her visiting patients all the time when she wasn't busy with her clan duties and each patient she visited was sure to have a smile by the time she left. Hinata was also a favorite of the older patients because of her patient and attentive nature when they told stories of the old days or their grandchildren.

But Hinata's bedside manner aside, Sakura simply liked having Hinata with her. Since Ino had stopped taking lessons under Tsunade and taking more hours at her parents' flower shop, Sakura had become lonelier. Though she knew Ino had only started medic training to be of more use to her team after Asuma's death, she didn't expect Ino to quit so soon. Truth be told, she had expected Ino to keep training with her until the end, but they both knew that Ino was more suited to interrogation than the medical field and her departure was met with no bad feelings.

It had to be a few months after that when Hinata came to the hospital looking for a way to repay her. Though the Hyuuga clan in general was in favor of repaying her (she had saved the heir, after all), it was Hinata who had uncharacteristically put her foot down and said that she would be the one to personally thank Sakura in the way she felt fit, which was to help lighten her load around the hospital. Though Sakura had initially put up a fight—Hinata didn't have to concern herself with this. She was only doing what any medic would do—Hinata had been adamant, surprising the pink-haired medic. She had never seen the Hyuuga heir so fired up before; maybe that was what had endeared her to the quiet girl.

During Hinata's six-month stay at Sakura's side, she filed paperwork; she prepared patient files; she helped keep track of Sakura's schedule—she even brought Sakura lunch and offered herself as a sparring partner! Soon, Sakura began looking forward to seeing Hinata everyday and when the six months were up, neither was willing to part from the other's side. A friendship had been built on those manila folders and food and coffee deliveries, and Sakura couldn't imagine the hospital without her. It'd be like losing an arm or her pink hair.

And so, Hinata decided to extend her stay. Her father did not protest her decision and after promising the council that it would not interfere with her clan duties, she was allowed to go to the hospital as much as she pleased. Secretly, she was happy for this large amount of freedom and Sakura was just as happy for her. They had become best friends over those six months and had shared many things with each other—things Sakura hadn't even shared with Ino—and now Sakura considered Hinata a dear friend who had earned a large home in her heart next to the other members of Team 7, Tsunade, and her other friends.

Sakura turned a left, then right, and then another right. The sun was beginning to pour in through the windows, the hallways swimming in natural light a bright contrast to overcast morning just a few hours earlier. In these halls, Sakura could hear the echo of her and Hinata's footsteps, and stopping at the second door from the end of the hall, Sakura arrived at the patient's door and opened the door.

"Neji?"

The dark-haired male looked up from his seat on the examination bench and inclined his head in greeting. "Sakura-san. Hinata-sama," he greeted politely before noting Sakura's shocked expression. "You seem surprised to see me."

"I am," Sakura admitted entering the room.

Neji blinked at her owlishly, not quite sure how to respond. "But my name should be on the folder."

Sure enough, it was, and for the third time that morning, she felt a face-palm was in order.

"I must have covered it with my thumb," she admitted sheepishly. "So, we're doing a routine exam as well as checking your broken leg, right?" she asked, already seating herself and rolling up his pants leg, not even needing to look up to see his answer. She already knew that she was, confirmed by his statement of, "You should know. You treated it just a few weeks ago."

The sentence was not condescending, but merely a statement. Many things Neji said could be taken for condescending, but after many months of interacting with the man, she had learned to decipher the meanings of his words by the slight changes in his tone.

As for how she knew, she was the only person other than Shizune or Tsunade he trusted to be his attending physician. This had started around two years ago. After returning from an Anbu mission with a punctured lung and a leg broken in three places along with a bacterial infection, he was scheduled to stay three months in the hospital. During that time, Neji faced a large number of atrocities such as having to deal with the fawning of the nurses, medics, and any fangirl who managed to sneak by security to drool over him. When it was Sakura's turn to check on his room, he found her touch more preferable to any medic who had come prior to her and requested that she be his personal medic. After all, she "didn't drool over him and set his bones wrong so they had to be broken and reset again." (Sakura had a firm talk with the medic who attended to him that day.)

After his three-month stay, she was surprised to find a nice tea set on her desk as a thank-you gift. Flattered by the gift as well as his complete trust in her medical abilities, Sakura continued to attend to him at his request. According to his charts, on the rare occasion he gained injuries, she was indeed the only person other than Tsunade and Shizune treating him. Though it had been strange at first, after a few weeks and some in-treatment/exam conversations, Sakura learned to be comfortable with the Hyuuga genius. Now, like his cousin, Neji was a dear friend who housed a large portion of her heart.

Running her fingers along his left calf muscle, she flexed his leg experimentally and once satisfied, patted it before wheeling away on her chair. "It seems fine now, and I know I don't have to tell you this, but please be careful, Neji."

At her pleading tone, Neji snorted softly as he put his shirt back on. "No promises." But his eyes were bright with a teasing glint. Sakura merely shook her head to herself before her smile suddenly fell and she sighed softly. Neji looked up from his dressing and blinked.

"Is something wrong, Sakura-san?"

Sakura sighed dramatically and kicked her foot against the floor to launch her exam stool into a spin. "Sasuke pulled a prank on me and I rebuffed him. First time ever that I rebuff him—and I looked so cool doing it too!—but I forgot I have to see him again tonight and I really don't want to see him again," she said with a note of dread in her voice as her chair slowed to a stop, her head in her hands.

Neji nodded sagely. Sakura had told him about the Team 7-Ichiraku dates and her distaste for her interactions with Sasuke. So instead of pointless questions of where she was going to see him, he asked, "What prank?" After all, it seemed out of character for the Uchiha male to do something as juvenile as pull a prank. He would've thought that would be something more on Naruto's level.

"He said he wanted me to marry him. How unbelievable is that?! The nerve of that Naruto daring him to do that! When I get my hands on him…" Her hands were miming a gesture of her wringing the blonde boy's neck, eyes full of malicious intent before she threw her hands up and sighed, wincing when she felt a sharp tug at her scalp. Looking back, she freed the hairs that had gotten caught under her arm. She growled; she knew growing her hair out again was a bad idea.

"That does seem a bit extreme, even for Naruto. Are you sure it's a prank?" Neji asked.

Sakura nodded somberly. "Of course. Why else would Sasuke propose to me?" A muffled frustrated scream left Sakura's mouth which was buried in her hands. "I really don't want to see him alone tonight. Sure, Naruto's there, but he gets so into his stories, he doesn't notice anything around him and Kakashi-sensei is still on that mission and Sai…Sai…he's just going to make things worse somehow," she said dismally. Hinata approached the girl and patted her shoulder comfortingly. She had no idea what else to do. Her teammates were nothing like Sakura's. Kiba may have been animated, but nowhere near Naruto, and Shino was so serious, he would've never done something like a proposal, even as a prank. Actually…she didn't even know if the bug-user had ever pranked someone before.

"It's okay, Sakura-chan. I'm sure it won't be too bad. And I'm always here if you need help."

Sakura looked up and smiled. "Thanks Hinata."

Sakura was genuinely touched that Hinata would go so far for her friend, but that's how Hinata was: kind, giving, and dependable. She even said that she would always be there to help. With Hinata, she'd never feel alone...

Wait. That's it!

"That's it, Hinata! You can come with me to dinner tonight! It'll be my treat!"

Hinata seemed aghast. "Sakura-chan, I can't do that! I'd be intruding! And I'd have no idea what to do! No, this is your weekly team get-together and I just can't intrude."

"But Hinata, I can't face Sasuke alone. I need your support. You're the only person I can count on!"

"But—!"

Sakura held Hinata's hands clasped in hers and looked into her eyes beseechingly. "Please, Hinata. I can't do this by myself. I need you with me tonight," Sakura pleaded seriously, eyes searching her friend's. Hinata looked at Sakura, and then sighed.

"Alright," she said at last.

Sakura could've leapt for joy. "Thank you!" she said throwing her arms around her petite friend. Hinata looked over Sakura's shoulder to her cousin who merely nodded.

"I'll tell the family that you will not be dining with us tonight."

"Thank you," Hinata said quietly.

And with that, Neji left, leaving a slightly nervous Hinata and a relieved Sakura. Sakura fell back into her stool and twirled listlessly around the room. Now it was just a waiting game.

Uzumaki Naruto loved ramen. It was a well-known fact that he did. It was also a well-known fact that he ate it at every meal. Sure, Sakura made sure he ate something other than just ramen when they did training sessions by bringing lunch for them both, but even she knew that if he could, ramen would be the only thing he would ever eat. It was this subtle appreciation for ramen from Sakura that made him love her so much. She knew how to appreciate the broth-filled dish, unlike the two he sat between.

He slurped a noodle and turned to point his chopsticks at the Uchiha to his left. "You know teme, I've been thinking…maybe if you ate more ramen, you'd be less…I don't know…emo."

The stunned look Sasuke sent the blonde did not deter the boy. In fact, it encouraged him.

"I'm serious. It makes sense. I mean, I eat it all the time and look at me! I'm the happiest ninja in the country! Sakura-chan eats it too, and look at her! Hell! Sai eats this stuff and he's smiling all the time."

"He doesn't even know how to emote. And I doubt you could call that a smile," Sasuke commented scathingly as the ROOT nin turned to him with the aforementioned plastic grin. Sasuke inwardly shuddered. Something was not right with that boy.

"See! This is exactly what I mean!" Naruto shouted with his hands up in the air. Leaning down, he said in a conspiratorial tone, "I mean I know Sai's smile is creepy, but he's trying—which is more than I can say for you. I mean, seriously! You're acting more pissy than usual. What happened, teme?"

Sasuke merely grunted and looked away. Just then, a cheerful voice echoed from up the street.

"Hey Naruto!"

"Sakura-chan!" the blonde nin said boisterously as he enveloped the girl in a hug. Sakura laughed.

"Ugh, Naruto. They invented a thing called toothpaste a while back. Maybe you should think about using it," she joked, but nevertheless pulled her head back from Naruto's ramen breath. "And I hope you don't mind, but I brought Hinata-chan to eat with us."

Naruto looked over her shoulder as if just noticing the shy girl before giving a beaming smile. "No! The more the merrier!"

Running back to the counter, Naruto patted the two remaining empty seats invitingly, ducking his head as Sai moved to complete their seat switch, sitting down and smiling up at the Uchiha as if to say 'Fuck you.' Sasuke's eyebrow twitched in irritation. Bastard.

Sakura motioned for Hinata to take the seat besides Naruto as she took the seat on the farthest right. Though the Ichiraku Ramen stand was a small establishment, Sakura was going to put as much space between her and Sasuke if she could help it.

Placing an order for a shouyu ramen, she smiled at Ayame and sat quietly as she waited for her order to be made. Naruto noticed her silence and loudly asked, "What's wrong, Sakura-chan?"

Sakura was usually quiet during these dinners—he had some notion of why. It involved Sasuke, he knew that—but even then, her silence was aimed at Sasuke only. The fact she was quiet to him and brought a friend to act as a buffer did not sit well with Naruto and in all the years of knowing her, these actions could only mean one thing: he'd pissed her off somehow.

Sakura looked at him scathingly. "Don't act like you don't know," she said, snapping her chopsticks with such savagery, it sounded like a lightening clap. He winced.

"Know what?!" he said, half-shouting, half-whining because honestly, he was lost and it didn't bode well for his mind. Sai looked over Naruto's shoulder from the corner of his eye. He wanted to know as well; Sakura had told him this feeling was curiosity.

Sakura made an indignant sound and crossed her arms over her chest. "That you dared Sasuke to propose to me!"

The subsequent loud choking sounds coming from Naruto immediately made Sakura's feelings of indignation waver, but she held firm. He was probably faking it so she wouldn't kick his butt.

Naruto continued to pound on his chest. He could feel his face burning and the tears prickling at his eyes as he tried to cough out the noodles. Sai seemed to notice his friend was having trouble breathing because a look of understanding seemed to dawn on him. From the many books and dramas Sakura had lent him to help understand feelings and interactions, he knew Naruto was choking, and as a friend, it was his duty to help him dislodge the offending item from his throat by patting him on the back. And with that thought and a blisteringly cheery smile, Sai pulled his hand back and hit Naruto's back…swatting him face-first into his bowl of ramen.

Sakura watched as Naruto landed in the bowl, noodles and droplets of broth flying everywhere as he did so. Suddenly, Sakura was more thankful for her seat. If she had sat there, her nice cream-colored coat—her favorite coat—would've been ruined, though she did feel bad for Hinata. Some of the soup had landed on the hem of her jacket and pants. She'd pay for the dry-cleaning bill later.

Naruto pressed his hands against the wooden counter and looked up. Part of his hair was drenched and his face dripped ramen-broth, a few stray noodles hanging from his eyelashes and cheeks. He blinked his eyes and spluttered a couple of times before staring at her in shock and shouting as if he hadn't just been dunked face-first into a bowl of lukewarm ramen, "SASUKE-TEME PROPOSED TO YOU?!"

Sakura blinked owlishly. Naruto seemed genuinely surprised. "You didn't know?"

"NO!" Naruto shouted aghast, voice shooting several decibels higher. Sakura blinked once more and craned her head around the line of mayhem before her.

"So you were actually serious when you proposed to me? It wasn't a joke?"

Sasuke glared at her with his arms crossed over his chest. If she looked hard enough, she would've seen his eyebrow twitch in anger. "Did you think I was kidding when I proposed to you?" he asked, his words cold and clipped as he ignored Naruto's shouts of 'So you DID propose to her!'

Sakura mirrored his gesture and turned away, half in frustration, half in indignation. "Of course!" she replied.

Sasuke's brow twitched once again, his anger now slowly threading the air in the Ichiraku. Sakura could've sworn she felt the air temperature drop, but held her challenging glare firm, watching Sasuke's glare narrow further at her.

"Tch. I'm leaving," he said abruptly getting up from the counter. After all, he was not going to just sit idly while his pride was being trampled on.

Grabbing his coat, he dropped a few bills on the counter and turned to give a curt nod to the dining party before stalking off towards the clan district. As he left, the air temperature rose to its previous state. The tension in the air seemed to dissipate as well, as if his poisonous hatred was being called back into his body since it seemed to hang around his body like a thick fog as he departed. His shoulders were slightly stooped and his body seemed tense. In Sasuke-ese, the language of Uchiha Sasuke that Haruno Sakura had learned and still retained from her genin days, this could only mean one thing: he was mad. Not only that, he might have even seemed slightly disappointed.

At the thought of him being disappointed, a foreign sensation began spreading through her chest. It started at her heart, dulling the sensation of the rhythmic beats and cooling the warmth of her blood as the sensation began spreading in tendrils through her body and coiled around her lungs. If she didn't know any better, she would've sworn it was…

'No! No way am I feeling guilty! Okay, that was kind of bitchy of me to assume the worst of him and throw that proposal in his face…what…three times?'

The guilty feeling began coiling itself further into her body. She could feel it coil around her throat. She suddenly felt really bad.

'But he totally deserved it!' she hastily amended in her mind. After all, it was his fault for being so abrupt and proposing to her when they hadn't spoken to each other since he returned. How dare he assume that just because she loved him once, she would just drop everything and stupidly say yes? Did he not consider her feelings at all? The changes she'd gone through while he was away? Or did he still see her as just that worthless, weak, selfish genin from years ago? If that was indeed how he saw her, she'd be disappointed. In fact, she might just break off ties with him indefinitely if he did see her like that; it was such an insult to her career as a kunoichi and to herself. She'd changed. Couldn't he see that?

Sakura sighed to herself. It'd be bad to stay on that topic any longer if she wanted to keep this semblance of a good day. Deciding that she needed a change of scenery, Sakura turned her head, about to start a conversation with Hinata when she noticed the girl was gone from her seat. Instead, she was kneeling on the floor by Naruto who had somehow managed to stumble from his seat to the street just outside the ramen stand. Handkerchief in hand, Hinata was carefully dabbing away the soup from his face.

"Thanks, Hinata-chan," Naruto said with a nervous smile, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly as reality began dawning on him. He just got smacked face-first into a bowl of ramen and his hair looked and smelled horrible (even he was willing to admit ramen and hair was a bad combination). Kami, he'd need a shower after this.

Hinata merely shook her head. "It's n-no t-t-trouble, Naruto-k-kun," she stammered with a small smile and delicate blush painting her features that Naruto missed. Sakura, however, didn't and she smiled warmly to herself. She knew that Hinata still harbored a crush for her blonde idiot of a teammate, a fact that had shocked the medic when she had first learned, not because Hinata had a crush on the boy—it had been obvious for years—but because she still had one. Even her own crush hadn't lasted so long, and for Hinata to have held out hope of all hopes for the boy, it was cute. What was more, it was touching and endearingly innocent despite their careers and Sakura couldn't help but feel happy for the girl and encourage her and hope with Hinata for the day that Naruto returned her affections.

Now that was an idea, and what better way to pay Hinata back for all that she'd done? Besides, it was infuriating that Naruto was too dense to notice—even after she'd confessed to him shortly before being skewered on a sword trying to defend him. If that wasn't love, Sakura didn't know what was—and they'd be so cute! Her mind was already spawning images of their children.

So it was decided. She would try to get Hinata and Naruto together. It was the perfect plan, practically fool-proof. After all, Naruto would be too dense to notice, and even if he did, if it didn't hold his attention, he'd soon forget about it; and Hinata was too innocent and trusting to think Sakura, one of her best friends, would be scheming to get the two of them together.

And with a smile and devious chuckle to herself, Sakura reclined in her seat and began finishing the rest of her dinner. The ramen had never tasted better.