What Happens Next?
Author's Note: Thanks for all the reviews. I am really blown away by all the feedback this story is getting. Anyway, I talked to the person who requested this story. She green lighted limes and lemons later on, but wants a more slow build up than usual. So I'm sure my lemonade lovers will be happy to hear that. With that being said, I hope you all enjoy the chapter.
Chapter Notation: Rosewood is a restaurant that I made up for the Leaf Village. It appears in at least one other of my stories. It's not cannon on the off chance anyone was wondering.
Chapter Four
"Did you enjoy teasing your brother about his love life?" Izumi asks with a giggle once and Itachi were home.
"Of course I did. It is my duty as his older brother to taunt him without mercy about such things. If I didn't, he would think I was neglecting him." Itachi says with a mock somberness to his voice.
She smiles and shakes her head in amusement. To most of the village, her husband was a very serious ninja. But he did have a playful side to his personality, that only other Uchihas were privileged enough to see. She adored these moments with him.
"You are going to make such a wonderful father." She says and kisses his cheek.
"And you are going to make an exceptional mother." He replies and kisses her forehead affectionately.
Izumi snuggles into her husband's loving arms and looks out the window of their kitchen. Sasuke was still chasing Shisui. Idly, she was impressed by how swift cousin Shisui was. Then again, Sasuke did look more than a little terrifying when he was holding a Chidori in his hand and giving chase.
"Do you think he would actually hit him with that?" She whispers softly to Itachi as she enjoys being held.
"I'm uncertain. Though if he does, more than likely Shisui did indeed deserve it. Sasuke is not one to lose his temper so easily. I wonder exactly what he said to Hinata that would make my foolish little brother behave so violently towards his own kin." He muses.
Izumi laughs. She could only imagine. Shisui could be down right outrageous when he wanted to be. The Uchiha woman wouldn't put it past him to try to cop a feel just to see what Sasuke's reaction would be.
"That much is true. Do you think that Sasuke actually has feelings for the little Hyuga Princess?" She inquires.
"It's difficult to say. I normally would say no. As he pointed out, he's never really looked at her before. But I can't discount the possibility that he has merely been subtle in his admiration for her. He did overreact to Shisui's teasing. I can't blame him, if he does. She is quite pretty." Itachi states offhandedly.
He gulps when he sees Izumi reach for the frying pan. Itachi backs up slowly. Damn it. He had walked right into this one.
"What was that about her being quite pretty?! Should I be worried?" She demands and approaches him menacingly with the frying pan.
"No. No! Not at all. You are the only woman that I love. You are my wife and the mother of my child. I am merely saying that I could understand HIM being physically attracted to her. That's all. To me you are the most beautiful woman in the world, no one else could compare." He says in a rush, hoping to avoid a beating.
Izumi sets the pan down and smiles at her husband sweetly. Itachi breathes a sigh of relief. She wouldn't have actually struck him, but it was good to make him think that she would. One had to keep such a handsome husband on a TIGHT leash. She was well aware of the looks that Itachi would get when he walked down the street.
"Good. Keep it that way." She says and lays her head on his shoulder, enjoying the feeling of his arms when they wrap around her.
"Always, my love. Always." He assures her.
Uchihas were from a fire clan. Their passion and jealousy burned HOT. If you wanted to die a most painful death, the quickest way to do that was to hit on an Uchiha's lover. And the entire Leaf Village was very much aware of this fact.
Sasuke meanwhile goes and finds Naruto. After that incident with his family, he needed to punch someone. The idiotic blonde would do quite nicely.
"Loser, come on. Let's go train. Put down the damn ramen and get your ass moving." Sasuke says.
"Whoa. What's gotten into you?" The blue eyed ninja asks in confusion and follows Sasuke to the training fields.
Sometimes he truly wondered what went on inside the other man's head. It was like Sasuke had some ON and OFF switch. Naruto had yet to figure out who or what pulled the switch, but when Sasuke demanded to train so abruptly like that, Naruto knew something was up.
"This is ALL your fault." Sasuke hisses at him and throws the first punch, which Naruto barely manages to dodge.
"What's all my fault?" The blonde asks in confusion and charges at Sasuke.
If he wanted his ass kicked, Naruto was more than happy to oblige. Honestly, he could be such a moody bastard sometimes. He was worse than Sakura on some days.
"Now Itachi and Shisui think that I'm in love with Hinata because of your dumbass!" Sasuke snarls at him and grabs Naruto's arm, slamming the other man into a tree.
Naruto blinks. There was no possible way that he had heard that right. Sasuke's family thought he was in love with HINATA?! Were they crazy? The blue eyed ninja couldn't even recall a time where the two of them had even exchanged so much as a, "Hello."
"OWE! That hurt, bastard. What are you talking about? Why would they think that?" Naruto groans in pain and gets up, shaking himself off.
"Because after you broke her heart, I went to make sure she was alright." Sasuke begins to explain.
Naruto blinks. He broke Hinata's heart? But she had seemed fine when she left. The bastard had to be exaggerating. Hinata had actually taken it better than he thought she would.
"I did not break her heart! But go on." He urges his friend to continue his strange tale.
"Yes, you did. But that's besides the point. So I went to make sure she was okay. We talked a little bit. Ino showed up. So I left. Anyway the next day, Hinata got me some tomatoes. She wanted to thank me, I guess. I stupidly told Shisui about it." Sasuke says with a heavy sigh.
Naruto stops fighting with Sasuke for the moment. This was getting GOOD. He knew how much Sasuke's cousin loved to cause mischief. So knowing the other Uchiha, he had done something to get under the bastard's skin in a big way.
"Then what happened?" Naruto asks.
"He found her at the market. Shisui made a pass at her. I called him a pervert. So I took him back to our District to chew the idiot out. Itachi saw us. So he asked what happened and…yeah." Sasuke mutters in annoyance.
Sasuke couldn't believe this. He had tried to be a nice guy and comfort a girl who had her heart broken. Now Itachi and Shisui thought that he wanted to make Uchiha-Hyuga hybrid super babies with her or something. It was ridiculous!
"Whoa. Sorry. I didn't mean for you to get dragged into it. But they have a point. It's not like you to get involved in other people's drama." Naruto says cheerfully.
"…" Sasuke is speechless.
"I mean she is really nice. If you like her, I wouldn't be mad. You should go for it." The blonde continues and doesn't notice Sasuke is now twitching.
"…." Sasuke is still speechless and is now planning to strangle the blonde for his stupidity.
"And just think you two could have super babies!" The blue eyed ninja says and cries out in alarm when Sasuke tackles him and starts punching him.
"You. Are. An. Idiot. I don't like her that way. I was just trying to clean up your mess. She's a nice girl and didn't deserve to have her heart broken in public! Seriously, you are such a fucking moron! You couldn't have at least done it in private? You had to make a public spectacle of it?!" Sasuke demands as he continues his flurry of punches, only half of which his friend managed to block.
Naruto winces from both the pain of Sasuke's punches and his point. He did feel bad about hurting Hinata. But she had taken it so well. At least he thought she did, but based on how hard Sasuke was punching him, he was wrong.
"Alright. Alright. You're right. I should have done it in private. But I can't like go back and time or something!" Naruto protests.
Sasuke sighs. He had a point. Naruto was an idiot. But he wasn't a malicious idiot. He hadn't intended to hurt Hinata. The Uchiha knew this and yet, it still pissed him off.
The fact that it angered him so much, was only making him more angry. He shouldn't be this outraged on behalf of some girl he BARELY knew. This was ALL Naruto's fault and he deserved at least a few broken bones as punishment for his stupidity! Because again, this was all Naruto's fault.
"You're still an idiot. Hopefully, they'll forget about it." Sasuke mutters.
"Yeah. I mean what's the big deal? She got you some tomatoes, so what? It's not like she proposed or something." Naruto says and Sasuke nods, surely this would blow over in a few days.
Meanwhile back at the flower shop, Sai looks at Ino a little skeptically. He wasn't entirely sure this was a good idea. This could backfire on them and badly.
"Are you sure about this?" Sai asks.
"Of course I am. Everyone loves to win contests!" Ino replies as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
Sai couldn't argue with that logic. But it was as contest that neither Sasuke or had entered. Surely, that would make them both suspicious?
"But neither of them entered a contest to win a free dinner. Won't they find that odd?" He inquires.
"Maybe a little. But we can say they were randomly selected!" Ino says and beams with pride at her own cleverness.
Sai didn't have the heart to tell his girlfriend that this was crazy. There was no possible way that this would end well. He knew that was a losing battle though. Once Ino got an idea stuck in her head, it was impossible to get it out of there. She was quite possibly the most stubborn woman that he had ever met.
"And assuming they both buy that, what good is this going to do? Just because they have a meal together doesn't mean much." Sai points out.
"It will be a romantic dinner!" The blonde protests.
Sai raises an eyebrow. He didn't see Sasuke as a particularly romantic person and Hinata was so shy. They barely knew each other. He failed to see how this constituted a romantic dinner and told her so.
"It's not very romantic if they don't know the other one is going to be there. This doesn't even qualify as a blind date because neither agreed to go on it with the knowledge they'd be meeting someone." The former ROOT member tries to reason with her.
"It'll work! You'll see. A romantic dinner by candlelight can work miracles. Just imagine them eating and staring into each other's eyes all throughout the evening. Beautiful music will of course be playing in the background. They will quickly realize their feelings for each other and fall deeply in love!" She say with stars in her eyes.
Sai shakes his head in amusement. Ino really seemed to think that life was movie and she was the director. He kisses her cheek and helps her with her plan. He was positive this wasn't going to work, but he would do anything for his precious flower.
"You'll see!" She continues as they work on the letters and Sai nods, humoring her.
"When you put that way, I can not see how this could possibly go wrong." He says with a smile.
Later that day, Hinata blinks when she sees she had a letter. Curious, she opens it and reads. She'd won a contest? That was strange. She didn't remember entering one.
Congratulations, Miss Hinata Hyuga,
You have randomly been selected as a winner of our contest. All Leaf Villagers were automatically entered to win a free dinner at Rosewood with another Leaf Villager, who also has been randomly selected. We believe this will foster closer ties between villagers. Please enjoy! Your reservation is for 8:00 P.M. this evening. Please wear formal attire.
Enjoy! (Your reservation card is enclosed below.)
Hinata decides to go. It would seem rude not to. She quickly dawns a formal kimono. It was a black silk one with white flowers on it. It was a little bit more low cut than she was used to, but she damns it not scandalous and heads off to Rosewood.
Meanwhile Sasuke receives the same letter. He slips into a navy blue formal kimono. Then the Uchiha goes to the restaurant and shows his reservation card. He's quickly seated at his table.
"Hinata?" He calls out in surprise, seeing that she was being led over to him.
"You won to?" She asks.
"I got some letter in the mail saying I won some contest for a free dinner and someone else did to. Guess it was you." Sasuke says and suddenly he feels like they might both have been set up.
"That's exactly what happened to me." She says and sits down at the table with him.
Sasuke notes it was a rather…romantic restaurant. There was classical music playing in the background. The tables had a white cloth over them with a vase of roses in the center and there were scented candles. No, this couldn't be a coincidence. Someone had definitely set them up. Damn Shisui.
"Might as well enjoy it." He says, not wanting to seem rude.
There was no reason to just dart off. The girl had already been through enough with Naruto. He could have dinner with her. She knew it wasn't a date and that's exactly how he would explain it, if anyone asked.
"Yes." She says with a smile.
She'd never really seen him in anything that wasn't his Jonin outfit or casual training clothes. The blue flattered him, she decided. When did his shoulders get that broad?
"I really am sorry about Shisui being an idiot earlier. He should know better." Sasuke says with a sigh.
"Oh it's okay! I'm not angry. He was just being nice." She says.
Sasuke raises an eyebrow. Was she actually innocent enough to believe that? He glances at her from head to toe and decided, yes she was really that naïve.
"No. He was just trying to embarrass me. I mean he's right, you are beautiful. But he was just trying to see if I'd get jealous. It was annoying. He acts like a Genin sometimes." Sasuke states and looks at the menu.
Hinata blushes as red as a tomato. Sasuke had called her beautiful. No one had ever called her that before, other than Shisui. (Secretly, she figured the fact she was normally surrounded by her teammates or Clan Bodyguards might have been the reason for that.)
"Hinata, are you okay? You're turning really red." Sasuke says.
"Oh I'm fi-ne." The bluenette replies shyly and grabs her menu to hide her blush as best as she could.
Sasuke raises an eyebrow. He still couldn't believe that a woman who was a Jonin still stuttered. Well, while he was here, he figured he could give her some advice.
"Hinata, you don't have to be that shy. You're a ninja of the Leaf Village. You're a Jonin. You're a Hyuga. You have a lot to be proud of and shouldn't be so worried about what people will say to you that you stutter." He says as he scans the menu.
"S-orry." She mumbles and Sasuke sighs.
It looked like the stutter was just deeply ingrained. He doubted it was a speech disability. She really was just that shy. The woman lacked self-confidence.
Sasuke blamed the fucking loser partially for that. He knew the main reason was her Clan though. They were so traditional and aloof, that it must be nothing short of pure torture for someone as sensitive as Hinata to live with them.
"And you DON'T have to apologize for everything." He says with an encouraging smile.
"Okay." She says with a shy smile and at the moment, Sasuke wanted to kiss her for both her progress and the fact that she looked so…cute when she smiled like that.
He mentally smacked himself. Sasuke should not have thought that. He definitely should not have thought that. It was one things to be friends with her. Anything more than that was just asking for trouble. Yeah, he was going to kick Shisui's ass later for this. It was his fault for putting these thoughts into his head!
That kimono was not helping matters. Hinata normally wore her Jonin vest or a jacket over her shirt. So by pretty much anyone's standards, she dressed rather conservatively. The fact that the kimono had a lower neckline and was shorter than anything he'd seen her in before, was NOT fucking helping.
"Good. That's better." He says with a smile.
Sasuke ordered a steak dinner. Hinata ordered chicken. He tries to keep his eyes focused on his meal. But while the neckline wasn't THAT low, it was JUST low enough that such a task was proving to be annoyingly difficult. He was after all, a teenager.
"So are you going to join the police force?" She asks, trying to make conversation.
"Most likely. It's just easier." Sasuke replies honestly, not knowing why he added that last part.
"What do you mean?" She asks in confusion.
"It's just easier." Hinata mulled those words over in her head. She knew that there had to be a deeper meaning than that. With Uchihas, things were never as simple as they appeared to be on the surface.
They were a lot like volcanoes. Uchihas might look calm, but you never knew what was lurking underneath. Eventually, the magma would spill over and become a fiery explosion of lava. Well at least that's the image she had crafted in her head before she got to know Sasuke.
She mentally kicked herself for that one. She didn't know Sasuke. Not really. He'd been nice to her in her darkest moment. But she knew next to nothing about him, other than he had been an exceptional student at the Academy and was on Naruto's team. And there was that whole issue about his last name…
"It's just always easier to work with your Clan than not." Sasuke says with a shrug.
Sasuke could tell that he had probably said too much. Hinata was an observant person and probably knew that there was an underlying meaning to what he said. But fortunately for him, she wasn't one to pry either. So he was confident he could change the topic of conversation.
"That is a very nice kimono." He offers, feeling awkward.
Well he had to change the topic somehow! Girls liked talking about clothes. Normally, Sasuke didn't give a damn one way or another. But it was a good excuse and he DID like the kimono. More accurately, he liked what was probably underneath it.
Bad thoughts. Bad thoughts. Damn Shisui. His perverted cousin was rubbing off on him. Sasuke wasn't like this. He didn't ogle at women. Alright that was a lie. He did a LITTLE. It's not like he was Jirayia or Kakashi though. Now there were two world class perverts.
"Thank you. It said to dress formerly, so I…did." She replies and it was clear that he wasn't the only one that felt awkward.
"Yeah. I did as well. So…anything new with you?" He asks.
"I'm worried that Ino will try to set me up with someone. She means well but…" Hinata trails off.
"You're too nice. She means well but she should mind her own business and let you decide if you are interested in anyone." Sasuke finishes and bites into his steak.
"Something like that. What about you?" Hinata asks.
"I'm going to be an uncle. Itachi and Izumi are expecting their first child within the year." He answers.
Hinata blinks. It was hard to imagine someone as young as Sasuke being an uncle. But then again, if ninjas were sent away on potentially deadly missions at the age of twelve, it really wasn't that surprising.
"That's wonderful news! They must be so excited." The Hyuga Heiress says with a smile.
"Overjoyed. Izumi is going to milk this for all its worth. Probably drive Itachi damn near insane by the end of it. But I've never seen two people more in love than them." Sasuke continues.
Hinata nods and giggles. She knew Izumi in passing. The bluenete might not know the woman well, but she knew her well enough to realize that what Sasuke was saying was likely entirely accurate.
"I'm sure you will make a great uncle." She offers and Sasuke nods his head in thanks.
Someone wasn't watching where they were going and accidentally tripped a waiter who was crying lots of wine glasses. Hinata got completely drenched.
"Oh no! I'm so sorry!" The waiter apologizes profusely.
"It's okay. It was just an accident." Hinata says and desperately tries to use her arms to prevent the entire restaurant from getting quite the view.
"Hinata, come with me. I always bring a spare of my Jonin uniform. It'll be big on you, but it's better than wearing that home and catching a cold." Sasuke offers and escorts her towards the bathrooms, effectively blocking her from the vision of the other patrons.
He quickly hands her his spare uniform and she heads inside the bathroom. A few moments later, she emerges. Hinata looked a little sheepish. Sasuke could see why, the uniform had to be at least two, if not three sizes too big for her. But thankfully, it stayed on.
"Well better that than going home soaked. Want me to walk you home?" He asks.
"That's very nice of you to offer, but…" She trails off.
"Right. Your family wouldn't like it. Don't worry. I get it. You can keep the uniform. It looks better on you anyway." Sasuke says.
"Thank you." She says and blushes.
There was something disturbingly, hot about seeing her in his clothes. Damn it. Alright. He could deal with this. He was physically attracted to her. It didn't really mean anything. It wasn't like he was dumb enough to act on it.
"You're welcome. So I'll see you around." He says.
"Yeah. Good night, Sasuke." Hinata says and the two quickly head off in different directions towards their family homes.
Hinata races towards the Hyuga Estate. She had to get out of Sasuke's Jonin uniform before anyone else saw. Her family would wonder why she was wearing a uniform that was far too big for her. That would result in some rather awkward questions.
"I mean he's right, you are beautiful." She remembers him saying and blushes.
Sasuke had just been trying to be nice. She was sure of that. Still she kept thinking about it. Hinata gulps when she noticed her sister had seen her.
"Hinata, is something wrong with your uniform? It looks so big on you." Hanabi asks and at that moment the bluenette knew beyond a shadow of a doubt, she was doomed. (There was no way that Hanabi was going to let her get out of this without some sort of explanation.)