What Happens Next?
Author's Note: Thanks for the reviews. Unfortunately, looks like the reviews are glitching on the site again. I can see most of them in my email, but if I don't respond to yours, you know why now. All reviews you submit now, should pop up when the glitch is fixed. ^.^ Anyway, I hope you guys enjoy this chapter.
Chapter Notation: Aoda is Sasuke's snake summon in Cannon. I use him in most of my Sasuke x Hinata stories. He may or may not be IC, as I just go by the wiki description of his personality.
Chapter Five
Sasuke heads back to the Uchiha District. Oh he was going to kick Shisui's ass for this. Bad enough the idiot hit on Hinata, now he was trying to play matchmaker?
He had to be insane. That was the only logical explanation. Shisui knew just as well as anyone that things were at best tense between the Uchihas and Hyugas. His cousin was trying to play with fire. Sasuke very much doubted that Hiashi Hyuga would be amused if he found out about the game Shisui was playing.
"Oh hey, Sasuke. Nice kimono. You going out?" Shisui asks innocently.
"CHIDORI!" Sasuke growls and charges up his trademark lightning attack as he lunges at his very confused cousin.
Shisui barely manages to dodge. He blinks. Was Sasuke still mad about the Hinata thing? Boy, that man could carry a grudge.
"Geez. What's gotten into you? You aren't still upset about the Hinata thing, are you? I wasn't thinking straight. I shouldn't have done that. You're right. It could have ended badly. But sheesh, calm down." Shisui says.
"I would be calm, if you hadn't set me up on a blind date with her!" The younger Uchiha snarls at him.
Shisui looks at the younger man utterly baffled. Blind date? What was Sasuke talking about? Someone was causing mischief and for once it wasn't him. That was outrageous!
"What are you talking about? I never set you up on any blind dates." Shisui says.
"You know exactly what I am talking about. Don't try to play innocent. Does this look familiar?" The dark haired man asks as he shoves an invitation in his cousin's face.
Shisui looks at the invitation. He reads it. Sasuke had won a free dinner? He didn't get why the other man would be upset about this. Wasn't that a good thing?
"I don't get it. What's that got to do with Hinata?" He asks.
"I showed up and she received the same invitation in the mail. It had to be a set up. What are the odds we would both win a contest that neither of us actually entered in? Wait are you seriously trying to say this wasn't your idea?" Sasuke demands.
He shakes his head. Shisui wished it had been his idea. It was brilliant. But he couldn't claim the credit for this one.
"No. I didn't set you up. So how did the date go?" Shisui asks.
"Shisui, that isn't the point! If it wasn't you, then someone else set us up." Sasuke snaps at him.
"Or you both just won the contest. Sometimes the simplest explanation is the right one." His cousin argues.
Sasuke gives him a look. The look quite clearly said, "I know you don't actually believe that." Shisui noted that Sasuke always did have such expressive eyes. Even as a child, he had these HUGE adorable bubble eyes. Now they were more proportional with his face, but they were still very expressive.
"What are the odds that a Hyuga and an Uchiha would just randomly win the same contest, THAT NEITHER OF US ENTERED?!" Sasuke demands.
"Yeah. I guess you have a point, when you put it that way." He replies.
"YOU GUESS?!" Sasuke bellows and twitches.
"Sasuke, lower your voice unless you want the entire clan to know that you went out on a date with the little Hyuga Princess." Shisui says to him.
Sasuke gulps. It looked like Izumi had overheard him. The youngest son of Fugaku and Mikoto Uchiha flails as he is dragged off into her house.
"Did you really go on a date with Hinata?" She asks.
"No! Well yes! But it doesn't fucking count! It was because of this stupid contest." Sasuke grumbles.
Izumi cuffs Sasuke behind the ears. She wasn't going to allow her brother-in-law to use such foul language. He was an Uchiha and should conduct himself with more class than that.
"Language! What contest are you talking about?" She asks.
"Owe! You are so lucky you are pregnant right now." He grumbles.
"Little brother, WHAT contest?" Izumi asks him again and taps her foot impatiently, letting Sasuke know that he was running out of time before she unleashed the might of her full fury on him.
"Some contest that randomly selected two people to have a free romantic dinner. I was sure that Shisui was behind it. He hit on her to see if I'd get jealous. But now, I don't think he did it. Which means someone else set us up!" Sasuke explains.
Izumi blinks. Someone had tried to matchmake a Hyuga and an Uchiha. That was ridiculous. There were three possibilities.
First, the "mastermind" behind this "plot" wanted Sasuke and Hinata to get together for benevolent reasons. The second possibility was that someone was trying to soothe over tensions between the Clans by encouraging two of their most prominent members to fall in love. And finally, someone was trying to start a Clan War by having Sasuke and Hinata fall for each other. She didn't know which was more likely.
"Do you have any idea who did this?" Izumi asks.
"I thought Shisui did it. But I guess he didn't. He looks shocked. So no, I don't have any idea who is doing this or what game they are playing." He mutters.
Izumi frowns. She didn't like the fact that neither of them knew what was going on. She was definitely going to have to talk to Itachi about this. Maybe he would have some idea what was going on and who was behind this. Her husband was enormously perspective after all.
"I'll talk to Itachi and see what he says. You stay safe. Be careful. We can't be sure if it's just someone trying to play matchmaker or trying to start a Clan War." She warns.
"I'll be careful. Thanks. Yeah, maybe Itachi will know something." He says with a sigh.
Meanwhile back at the Hyuga Estate, Hinata gulps. Damn it. Hanabi had seen her. She'd have to come up with an excuse quick.
"Oh um someone spilled something on my clothes. A friend gave me his spare uniform. It was that or walk home soaked." She answers truthfully, but vaguely.
"Oh that was nice of him. Guess that explains why it's so big on you. Was it Kiba? It looks too big to belong to Shino." Her sister replies.
Hinata blinks. She was frankly a little disturbed that her sister was analyzing this so much or had even noted the physical differences between her teammates. But Hanabi had thrown her a lifeline. She might as well take it.
"Yes. It was Kiba." Hinata stammers out.
"Thought so. Well you might want to go check into something that actually fits. You look a little silly walking around in something that's so much bigger than you." She says with a smile.
Hinata nods. She mentally lets out a sigh of relief. She didn't know why she had told that white lie to her sister. But she felt like she had to keep the dinner with Sasuke a secret. Their Clan relations had always been icy at best. If anyone found out that they had dinner together, well she'd have a lot of explaining to do.
Sasuke was just trying to be nice. She honestly, hadn't expected him to notice her after the Naruto Incident, much less to care. But he had. She wasn't going to repay his kindness by forcing him to endure an interrogation by her father. He didn't deserve that and frankly the results of such an interrogation were scary to imagine.
"You're right. I guess I do look a little silly." Hinata says with a giggle and heads to her room.
She shuts the door behind her. The Byakugan could see through walls. Thankfully, her Clan was one that respected privacy. A shut door was a very clear message in her household. RESPECT MY PRIVACY. That was the simple message that a closed door conveyed to any Hyuga Member, be they Main House or Branch House Members.
The Hyuga Heiress idly mused that she was a bit loathed to take off his uniform. It was so much warmer than hers. Vaguely, she wondered if Uchihas actually had a naturally higher body temper than most people. It sounded ridiculous, but they were from a Fire Clan, maybe they did.
"It even has his scent on it." She muses as she slips out of it and changes into a nightgown.
Sandalwood, pine trees, and rain. She supposed it was to be expected he'd smell like a forest. He did live in the Leaf Village after all. Though the sandalwood was somehow uniquely Sasuke in a way she couldn't quite articulate.
She glances at herself in the mirror. She didn't look like someone who would keep a secret from her sister. Hinata didn't look like someone who had just gone out on a secret date with someone from a rival clan. The Hyuga Heiress certainly didn't look like someone who would behave in such a foolishly reckless fashion. And yet, she had.
"Am I that pathetic?" She asks herself.
Hinata was training to be a medic. Her exceptional chakra control and gentle nature made her a natural fit for this role. She still went on missions with her team while she was training though. Some of her medic training included lessons about human psychology. So she was smart enough to realize what transference was.
Was it possible that her sudden fondness for Sasuke was merely her transferring her old feelings for Naruto onto his teammate? It was logical, in a twisted sort of way. She shakes her head, dismissing that thought. The two men couldn't be anymore difference. If Naruto was the Sun, Sasuke was definitely the Moon.
"That can't be it." She mutters to herself.
She supposed it didn't matter. Sasuke might be being nice because he knew she was hurting right now. But that didn't mean he wanted to be friends. Sasuke was loyal to his Clan above anything else.
He knew just as well as she did, that their Clans at best had an aloofly polite relationship and at worst were only one or two steps away from a Clan War. (That was just what happened when you had two powerful Clans unofficially competing for the top slot.)
"Probably best to just go back to the way things were before." She mumbles.
Being friends with him would be a risk. Being more than that, well that was just courting disaster. Besides, Sasuke had never even looked at someone that way before (as far as she could tell anyway.) Even if she did like him that way, which she most certainly did NOT, he wouldn't be interested.
The Hyuga Heiress feels she had come to a decision and potentially adverted a disaster. She heads to her bed. The bluenette settles into it to get some sleep.
The next morning, Naruto was heading to the training grounds. He guessed he must have looked a little worse for wear because Ino stopped him. The other blonde asks what happened. Naruto mentally winces, figuring he probably had a black eye or something. (Sasuke could be pretty vicious when he got pissed off.)
"It's a long story." He mutters.
"Is it about Sasuke and Hinata?" She asks.
Naruto blinks. What did the flower lover know about Sasuke and Hinata? Well Ino was Hinata's friend. Maybe the shy heiress had told her something?
"Um kinda. Yeah. I guess. It's really weird and complicated. I don't get it." The blue eyed man replies.
"What happened?" Ino asks.
"Well I guess Sasuke went to comfort Hinata. He says she was pretty upset about…what happened or well what didn't happen between us. She's great! I mean I really like her! But I just don't like her that way. I never meant to hurt her feelings." Naruto says in a rush.
Ino shakes her head. She believed Naruto. He was many things, but malicious definitely wasn't one of them. The female ninja gestures for him to continue his story.
"Anyway, he says Hinata felt grateful and got him some tomatoes. I'm not really sure how she knew he liked them. But the bastard really does love his tomatoes. He told Shisui about it. Shisui read too much into it. Now Shisui and Itachi think that he LIKES Hinata that way. And Sasuke was pretty mad at me because he thinks this is all my fault. That's why he was rougher than usual at training." He mutters with a sigh.
"Well if he really went after you that hard, that just proves he likes her!" Ino says cheerfully.
Naruto was far from an expert on love, but he couldn't disagree. Though it was hard to wrap his mind around that fact. Sasuke might like Hinata? Yeah, he never saw that one coming.
"That's why Sai and I are working so hard to get them together. I know you didn't mean to hurt her. But she deserves love. Maybe you can help us. You know Sasuke a lot better than Sai and I do." She suggests.
The blonde blinks. Ino and Sai were trying to match make Sasuke and Hinata. Oh this was going to be fucking hilarious. He was so in.
"Yeah! Sure! What'd you have in mind?" He inquires.
"Well we are still working on the next phase of our plan. The dinner was somewhat of a success. I mean at least they talked a little." The other blonde replies.
"Dinner?" Naruto asks in confusion and Ino explains about the contest.
"Oh that was pretty sneaky." He muses and rubs his chin thoughtfully, as he tries to brainstorm some other ideas to help Sai and Ino with their matchmaking attempts.
"Yeah. So do you have any idea what Sasuke is up to today?" She asks her friend.
Naruto thinks about it. He knew that Sasuke had a physical scheduled for today. Hinata was training to be a medic. Suddenly, he gets an idea.
"I think I might have an idea. Hinata's training to be a medic right? Sasuke's got his yearly physical today." The blue eyed man says.
"Naruto, I take back everything I've ever said about you being an idiot before! That's brilliant! But hmm, how do we make sure she's the one who examines him? I better talk to Sakura about this! Maybe she can help." The flower lover says.
"Hey, what's that supposed to mean?!" Naruto demands, but it was too late, Ino had already took off running to find Sakura.
"Sakura! Sakura! I got a great idea. Can you assign who treats what patient?" Ino asks.
"Yeah. Tsunade gave me a promotion. So I'm in charge of that. Why do you ask?" The pink haired woman replies curiously, not at all sure what was going on in her friend's head.
"Can you assign Hinata to be the one who gives Sasuke his physical?" She asks.
"Um I guess I can. It's just the standard yearly exam. She's qualified to do that much. Why though?" The green eyed woman inquires.
"Great! Just do it. I'll explain later. Naruto says his appointment is in an hour. We don't have much time." Ino answers.
"Ino. What the Hell is going on and you can't just boss me around like that!" Sakura protests.
Ino sighs. She smacks her forehead with the palm of her hand. Sakura was going to be difficult. She just knew it. The blonde didn't have time to explain everything to her.
"If you assign her to Sasuke, I'll let you have the pink roses you like so much in our shop for free." She offers.
"Deal." Sakura says and heads off to make the change.
Ino mentally does a happy dance. This was going to be perfect. Who could resist a shirtless Sasuke? No one, that's who.
A short while later, Sasuke arrives for his physical. He had no idea that Ino had just meddled in a big way. He waits in the exam room and looks around in a bored fashion. As a general rule, he hated hospitals. Most ninjas did. But at least this time it was just a checkup and he wasn't in the emergency room.
Hinata walks into the room, looking at the chart as she does so. She blinks when she saw she was supposed to see Sasuke. This village was getting suspiciously small. First the dinner and now this? She was beginning to suspect someone was plotting something.
"Morning, Sasuke. This is just a regular physical. So um I'll take your vitals and that's about it. Are you in any pain?" She asks and Sasuke shakes his head.
He felt fine. The Uchiha let's Hinata take his height, weight, blood pressure, check his eyes, hearing, and the other standard procedures. He raises an eyebrow when he suddenly noticed she was blushing for no apparent reason.
Hinata blushes. She really wasn't sure how to ask the next part. The bluenette knew she was a medical professional and she hadn't had any issue asking the other male patients to do this, but it just felt more personal when she was asking someone she knew.
"Are you alright?" He asks.
"Yes, I'm fine. Please take off your shirt. That way I can get a more accurate reading of your heart rate and check your spine." She stammers out.
"Alright. If you're sure. I'm not really sure how you are going to be a medic when you are blushing that much over seeing someone shirtless." He says and leans over, so she could check his spine.
"It's different when I know the person! That's all. I'll get used to it." She mumbles and runs her hands along his spine, checking to make sure it was straight.
Soft. Her skin was very soft, he mused. It felt like pure silk against his back. He felt his eyes begin to bleed red and mentally panics.
Damn it! He really needed to deactivate his eyes and quick. He didn't really know how much Hinata knew about the Sharingan. Did she know it could be triggered by arousal?
"Well you're spine is in a really good shape." She says cheerfully, unaware of Sasuke's inner turmoil.
It would make sense if the Hyugas would learn everything they could about the Sharingan. After all, their Clans were unofficial rivals. But was it possible they could figure out such a…personal detail?
He didn't know. But Sasuke knew one thing. He didn't want to find out. He quickly deactivates his eyes and sighs in relief when he felt them go back to their normal black color before Hinata has him stand up again and goes to check his heart rate.
"Alright." Sasuke says and lets her place the stethoscope over where his heart was.
"You're heart is racing. It's like you just finished running a marathon. Did you run all the way from your District to the hospital?" She asks, frowning a bit when she felt how quickly it was beating.
She was relieved to see that it was slowing down though. His heart wasn't beating too fast constantly. He had just either done some strenuous physical activity or was nervous about something.
"I ran part of the way." He replies.
That was true. He had run part of the way. But that wasn't the reason for his fast heartbeat. He had been terrified Hinata would see his Sharingan and know what that meant. Thankfully, he had dodged a kunai in this case.
"Oh that explains it. We can wait a few minutes then. I need an accurate heart rate measurement." She says and Sasuke nods.
A few minutes later, she places the medical instrument back on his chest. She blushes slightly as she does so, using one hand to hold it steady. Which meant her hand was on his naked chest. She could feel the muscles underneath her fingertips and was having a really hard time focusing enough to get an accurate reading. Somehow she manages it though.
"Was that one better?" He asks.
"Yes. Your heart rate is perfectly healthy." She replies and suddenly lets out a startled eep as the room shifts underneath them.
It was an earthquake! Thankfully, Sasuke catches her before she fells. But the force of the earthquake was so massive, they both go flying and so does most of the medical equipment in the room.
"Are you alright?" Sakura comes racing into the room and blinks when she saw Hinata on top of a shirtless Sasuke, suddenly blushing.
"I think so. Damn that was one Hell of an earthquake." Sasuke mutters.
Hinata looks outside the window. Her eyes widen in shock. It definitely hadn't been a natural earthquake. It had been created from the shock of massive snakes moving across the Leaf, lots of them.
"It wasn't an earthquake. We are under attack…by snakes?" Hinata asks in disbelief.
Sasuke tilts his head. What was Hinata talking about? He looks outside the window and blinks. Yes, there were at least a dozen or so, giant snakes slithering around the village and trying to knock over buildings.
"What the Hell?" He mutters and flits off to investigate what was going on.
"Sasuke! Be careful. We don't know if they are venomous." Itachi warns his younger brother, once he came into view.
Sasuke nods. A bunch of giant snakes was bad enough. A bunch of poisonous giant snakes was even worse, much worse.
"Maybe Aoda can talk to them?" Shisui says.
"Maybe. I don't think they are in much of a talking mood though." Sasuke says as he summons his largest snake summon, just in time to see a building get bashed in.
"Hello, Master Sasuke! How may I serve you?" The snake asks.
"Ask your friends over there what the Hell is going on." Sasuke replies and Aoda tilts his head curiously.
"Oh…those are Orochimaru's Summons. We don't talk much." He says knowledgably.
"AODA!" Sasuke says warningly and the snake slithers over to speak with the other massive reptiles.
Itachi frowns. Orochimaru's Summons? But that would mean the Sannin was nearby. This wouldn't end well.