Disclaimer: No ownage whatsoever of any characters or things related to Naruto.

"Hey! Hinata-chan, you're back!"

It was the first thing she heard as the gleaming elevator doors slid open. Jerking her eyes away from her retreating somber reflection in the doors, she saw Naruto, running up to her at breakneck speed, his arms outstretched.

Before she knew it, Hinata was enthusiastically being pulled out of the elevator by the wrist, with Naruto chattering to her at a speed that rendered him incomprehensible to Hinata.

"I'm so glad you're back, you know, we didn't expect you to come back today, thought you might have needed the whole day to thoroughly get the nasty bits on that guy. Anyway, you wouldn't believe the amount of work that Sakura's piling up on my desk, that crazy girl, she won't even let me take bathroom breaks!"

"W-wait, Naruto—"

"But now that you're back, you can help me hide from the she-devil! Or at least be a good excuse for me to leave my desk. Sakura can't say no if I tell her that you needed a little help from me, and personally, I don't mind, either! Anyway—"

The avalanche of Naruto's words suddenly ceased as he sniffed the air.

"Hey, Hinata, do you…Do you smell tobacco? This whole place is supposed to be non smoking zone."

Hinata's stomach plunged like a stone. The scent of the smoky room that Cloud Nine had stayed in was still on her. Knowing Naruto, he might take it the wrong way, and he never took no for an answer. Hinata remembered when slandering tabloids had posted something about Sasuke making a secret visit to a local gay bar. Naruto had so loudly announced it that by lunchtime, the men were giggling and the women were blushing. But before anyone even had the chance to punch out for the day, Sasuke had made it clear that it was certainly not him being straddled by the rather large, beefy man in the picture. Naruto, however, still prodded him about it every week, and kept the front page tacked proudly to his bulletin board.

Hinata tried to think of something, anything to say that would snag and reel Naruto's attention elsewhere.

"Um, Naruto-kun, don't you think we're being a little…distracting, just standing here like this? I mean, people are working."

She nervously chewed at her lip. For someone as spontaneous as Naruto, it would have been better to tell him Sasuke was coming out of the restroom with toilet paper stuck under his shoe, or even better, his pants. He would have surely dropped whatever he was talking about for something like that.

"Nonsense! It's chaos here every day!"

"Yes, and it doesn't help when you add to it, Naruto!"

Hinata and Naruto both swiftly turned their heads to Sakura, who had just appeared right next to them, looking like she could breathe fire out of her nostrils any second.

Naruto visibly wilted for a moment under her fiery jade stare.

"Well, Hinata-chan just got back, and I really missed her! At least she doesn't deny me of my right to go to the restroom under the punishment of getting the daylights knocked out of me," he tried reasoning before Sakura had seized the chance to carry out his punishment.

"Naruto, you know full well how busy things are for us whenever that time of the month rolls around." Sakura's glare softened to look wearier, but never lost its hard edge as it bore into Naruto.

"Oh…I…I understand perfectly." Naruto looked solemn, as if he truly understood and was remorseful for the extent of his antics. He turned to whisper to Hinata behind a concealing hand.

"It's probably that 'time of the month' that's making her all moody like this, also." He gave her a secret wink.

Hinata raised her own hand to her moth to suppress a giggle and hide a grin.

However, those words were not eluded to Sakura, for the color and the anger returned her cheeks and eyes.

"NARUTO!" She screeched, her hands clawing at the locks of pink on her head.

"Now now, you wouldn't want to be a distraction to all the good people working here, would you?" Naruto looked innocent, but the upturned corners of his mouth said he was delighted that he never failed to get a rise out of Sakura.

"You. Are. Impossible." She breathed out slowly, her hands were now rubbing her temples, as it was much less destructive to her scalp and image than pulling out her hair.

It was then that Hinata decided to intervene before Naruto wanted to do some more damage—which Hinata was sure that it was what he had in mind—and cause some real damage to himself, Sakura, and the office. She was sure that if provoked enough, Sakura would not hesitate in upturning desks and chairs to inflict pain on Naruto.

"Naruto-kun, could you please, if you don't mind, go get me some tea? It's been a rather…long day."

It has definitely been a long day, Hinata thought sullenly. A long and wasted day.

Naruto stopped cackling at Sakura, and eager to fulfill his friend's small request, started to make a beeline to the staff room.

"Sure! Anything goes for Hinata-chan!"

"Thank you," Hinata called after Naruto's retreating form. She then turned her attention to Sakura, who was still massaging her temples, her eyes pressed shut.

"Sakura-san? He's gone now." Hinata quietly coaxed.

Although judging by the amount of goofing off that Naruto often did, it would seem as if Sakura and Naruto enjoyed an easy post as Sasuke's right and left hand man and woman. Compared to Hinata's other coworkers, who were often frantically typing, or downing coffee with dark rings under their eyes, Sakura and Naruto seemed as if they were sipping tea and munching on biscuits while chirruping happily about their lives behind the closed doors of Sasuke's office. But when the day for another issue of Konoha Heat to be released, Hinata knew that there were no other people busier than the three. She could tell that with all the stress that Sakura was under; it would not take much more for Sakura to snap.

Sakura stopped rubbing the side of her head, and nervously looked up and around, as if to make sure that Naruto really was out of sight, and not hiding under a desk somewhere waiting to pop out and yell "GOTCHA!"

"I sent him to get some tea. I thought you might like some," Hinata explained.

Sakura let out a sigh of relief and smiled warmly, grateful that her friend finally gave her a moment's reprieve away from Naruto.

"Thank you, Hinata-san. You don't know how glad I am that you're back.

Hinata returned her smile. "Oh, you don't know how glad I am to be back."

"So how'd it go? Did you get a good haul? You're back so early!" Sakura's eyes shone with excitement and interest, like a schoolgirl asking her friend if she had just landed a date with a longtime crush.

"Well, I—" Hinata's sentence was cut midway as she found herself, yet again, being dragged off her feet, this time to her own desk.

"Cloud Nine's a national sensation, Hinata! You can't tell me all the juicy details of your interview with just small hallway chit-chat!"

There, Sakura asked her all the usual questions – was he remotely as ravishing everyone thought him, did he have a bad attitude, and was if even mildly interesting—questions that told Hinata Sakura was interested in the sensational singer, but not overly so. Sakura had been in and out of being part of a groupie too many times. Hinata was sure that if anyone else was asking her about Cloud Nine, they would have ripped her to shreds about him, extracting any sliver of information that the other magazines could not disclose.

But it was just as well, Hinata could not answer any of the questions as well as anyone wanted. When Sakura had asked what Hinata thought about him overall, she simply answered, after a pregnant pause, that the man was definitely more than what everyone thought he was.

"Well, was he at least nice to you, Hinata?"

Hinata felt color drain from her face. Nice? He had offered her a drink, offered her to make herself comfortable in his presence with all his guffawing friends. But he had crossed the boundaries of nice when he planted himself on that couch, just inches, maybe not even that far, from her. And from the way he stared at her with his cloudy, heated eyes, she just wanted to bolt out of the room, away from all his "niceness".

Had he been nice? He had been. He had been nice, and a whole lot more. Nice and disarming and insinuating, all at once. The manager could not have had better timing. What would have happened if she had to stay in that hazy room for a minute longer—with the smoke fondling its way into her clothes, and the alcohol on the breath of everyone around her was nearly tangible, while she was being prodded and played with like a child's plaything—she did not want to know what could have happened to her.

But one thing was for sure. It was her own battle, and Hinata could not let Sakura or Naruto, being as busy as they were at this time of the month, do so much as hear a word about her troubles. In the worst case scenario, the only scenario, that Hinata could fathom happening was both of them blowing a gasket and then taking it up to Sasuke about it, which about then, everything would just combust and Hinata would be the one who started the fire. Anything that would bring Sasuke in should be avoided at all costs.

Hinata looked up into Sakura's curious emerald eyes, those eyes that could be so piercing when they wanted to be, seeing through any bluff as if it were right in front of her, Naruto had always said.

She sighed, and hoped that Sakura would not see through this one.

"Yes, he was." To the point of making me feel ill at ease.

"Really?"

"Yes," Hinata gave an affirming nod. "In fact, he even invited to come visit him again. At the club Leaves on Fire."

Sakura's face immediately shot up into a smug grin, as if she had just found out a dirty secret. "Ah, so Hinata's got a date!"

"I-it's not like that! I just…I didn't get enough in my interview today. He had to leave early and cut it short. So he told me I could meet him there," Hinata defended, perhaps a little too quickly. It sounded as if she really did have some dirty secret to keep sealed. It made her feel all the more guilty.

"Oh." Although Hinata was glad that Sakura did not further pursue the subject, the smug grin had not slipped completely from her face.

"Hey, I'm back! Did I miss any of the nasty bits?" Naruto had reappeared, nursing a piping hot mug of tea.

"No, Naruto, none of this concerns you," said Sakura, sounding like a sister shunting out a petulant little brother from one of her "big-girl" talks. "And I'll be taking that." She reached over and lifted the mug from Naruto's grip, like taking candy from a baby.

"Hey! I made that for Hinata!"

"She said I could have it."

"Well, I made that for Hinata, though! You should have gone and made your own if you wanted one so badly!"

"Enough, Naruto. We should get back to doing our own work, and leave Hinata to do her's." Sakura bade Hinata farewell and went off in the direction of her own office.

"Hey wait, Sakura! Don't think I'm through with you stealing other people's drinks!" And Naruto chased after her, brandishing a fist in her direction, leaving Hinata with nothing but the chatter of the workplace to keep her company.

In the absence of the lighthearted, playful bickering of Naruto and Sakura, the full impact of it all bore down on her. Her work and how nonexistent it was, was staring her blankly in the face. The cursor blinked on the screen, and Hinata's fingers remained silent and still on the keyboard. It was deafening.

Today was supposed to have been a day of great rejoice. She could have been writing down the first draft of her article right at this very moment, and laughing without care at Naruto's silliness. Yet she had gotten nowhere, save for an invitation to meet Cloud Nine again at a date perhaps too late to save her career that had never had a chance to bloom. If possible, Hinata felt that she had gone backwards, ending up on a square that was worst than square one. This morning, she had a plan of action, and that was to give a deep, in-depth interview with the famous Cloud Nine. Now, all she had was nothing, her hair and clothes smelled like cigars, and this certain dislike for the singer, whom she was to meet again on Friday.

Friday. The day of her deadline. It brought up another predicament. If she had not wanted for Sakura to blow a gasket at Cloud Nine for brushing up against her the wrong way, Sasuke would probably blow away the whole building, or at least blow her away, for not turning anything in when she was supposed to.

Hinata sighed in defeat as she rested her head on her fist, frowning. Nothing could be done right now, that was the only thing she was sure of.

The rain poured down in torrential sheets, the wind whipping the droplets sideways.

Hinata stood behind the entrance doors, watching the raindrops pelt the glass panes. Only the weather seemed to know what she was feeling inside, she mused.

As per usual, she was the last employee remaining. Everyone else had the sense to leave when they spotted the dark, heavy clouds overhead blot out the sun. Naruto had left two hours ago. Sakura had offered her dinner and a ride, but Hinata did not want to trouble Sakura any more than she had to. All Hinata could do now was wait out the storm. She hoped it would let up before—

"Hyuuga," Hinata heard from behind her. Too late.

A familiar jolt traveled up her spine every time she heard him say her name. She had managed to steer clear out of his way for the last couple of days, but today, his gaze was inescapable.

"Uchiha-sama!" Hinata gave him her usual polite bow every time he addressed her.

"What are you still doing here, Hyuuga?" His tone had not been a demanding or patronizing, but it still sent her into a dither.

"Ah, um, well…" Hinata was flustered and at a loss for word the second time that day. This time, the situation seemed less dire to get out of. But only a bit less.

"Well, regardless, I'm going to lock up. So unless you want to be locked up in here for the whole night…" Sasuke had already stepped outside, and was holding the door open for her with a questioning look in his eyes.

"Oh! Yes, I-I mean, I'm getting out right now." Hinata blushed; embarrassed and a bit surprised that Sasuke was actually holding opening the door for her. He would more readily slam it in front of others.

Sasuke started to descend the first three of the steps that connected the entrance to the sidewalk below, but Hinata did not step forward from the doors behind her, and stayed under the shelter of the awning.

He stopped and turned under his umbrella when he noticed she was not following.

"If you really wanted to stay here, you could have just said so," Hinata heard him shout above the blasting noise of the rushing rain.

"I-it's not that! I don't have an umbrella. I'd be soaked! And w-well, you can see where the problem lies!" Hinata gestured to her white blouse.

Hinata gave a small gasp, appalled when she heard him reply "So?" Was he simply oblivious, or was he implying something else?

"Fine, Hyuuga, if it bothers you that much…"

Puzzled, Hinata blinked.

Before she knew it, Sasuke thrust something at her, and she caught it in her hands. Upon closer examination, she saw it was a suit jacket, made of very fine material. Very fine and pricey material. She glanced back at Sasuke, who was now missing his own jacket. She looked back at the material in her hands.

The thunderbolt struck; Hinata put two and two together.

She had already opened her mouth to protest, that she could never possibly take anything from him, that it would get wet and ruined, but when she looked in his direction again, Sasuke was already at the bottom of the steps, with hands in his pockets, casually making his way to his car.

"W-wait! Uchiha-sama," she bellowed at the top of her lungs.

"Don't a fool, Hyuuga! Who knows when this storm will stop! Security will kick you off the premises eventually, anyway!"

Hinata bit her lower lip, hesitating.

"That's an order, Hyuuga!" And he continued on walking, without so much as a last glance, effectively shutting down any other protest that Hinata might have left.

And Hinata, never being one to go against an order, could only wrap the jacket on and over her for a meager, but certainly appreciated piece of shelter from the rain.

Donning the jacket and trudging home, for the first time since entering Cloud Nine's sickening suite, Hinata did not smell the foul smoke that had lingered on her. Instead, she sensed a musky, sultry scent. It was intoxicating, veiling her mind. But it was not unwelcome nor did it assault her senses like when she was Cloud Nine. It was sensual, it was sultry, it was…Hinata took a whiff of Sasuke's jacket, and immediately recoiled when she realized what she was doing. But the deed was done, and sure enough, it was coming from Sasuke's jacket.

Strangely, as the cold rain came down in bullets from above, with the jacket covering her, Hinata felt warm all the way home. An umbrella definitely would not have been able to do that.

And strangely, in the middle of the living room in her modest apartment, soaked to the bone, her skirt dripping trails onto the floorboards, she was a bit reluctant to peel Sasuke's jacket off her.

To a man whose days are numbered, execution day could not come any faster.

To Hinata, whose death sentence has not been announced but was inevitably doomed anyway, the day before Friday came before she even had a chance to sort out her problems.

The only difference between a man on death row and Hinata was that she would be tortured slowly before she got her head lobbed off.

Hinata came in early Thursday morning with lead in her stomach and her mind as heavy as steel. She could already see the lights in the offices of Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke were already on. Publication day was nearing, and Hinata did not hear so much as a peep from Naruto.

Hinata endured the eerie silence for an hour before the first of Sasuke's admirers came bearing coffee. She watched as they turned away dejectedly after knocking on his door for a good three minutes.

Seeing that the progress on her article had not moved in the least ever since she set her heart on it, Hinata began to feel guilty. She should do something. The title, at least. She wracked her brain for something, anything that would come to mind.

Cloud Nine to Seventh Heaven: What Makes This Star More Than a Star. Hinata deleted the title not even a second after she had typed it out. It certainly highlighted how godly his imaged showed him to be, but was it really what caught the attention of the masses?

The Shooting Star That Has Everyone Dazzled. How original. And was truly everyone dazzled?

Cloud Nine: He Clouds Up Your Mind. Hinata pondered. With just that title, it could be taken so many different ways, but she was sure that no one would know it like Hinata knew it. Her experience with him was like a wound that kept on being rubbed at and refused to heal. Somewhere, Hinata hoped that it was just a onetime slip up, that maybe she had just caught him on an off day, and she just happened to get caught in it. After all, booze, smokes, and women did often go together. But on the day of his own concert? Hinata just wanted to think of any reasonable explanation as to why a superstar like him would be like that.

Hinata crossed her legs in frustration, and accidentally knocked a neat, shiny white bag.

Gasping in dismay, she quickly checked the contents and moved it to a safer area, where it could not get kicked, or even worse, stomped on. Hinata knew it was a bit silly to check on Sasuke's jacket when she had just merely kicked it a bit, but she would hate for anything bad to befall on it, as she would be the one to blame if anything ever did. She had diligently taken it to the dry cleaners the day before, treating it as if it was a sheet to glass. She resisted the fleeting temptation of one more whiff of it to see it the same musky scent was still there. After seeing Sasuke's admirers get blatantly rejected from entering, Hinata had decided to wait until he came out of his office to return it.

The morning passed by like a breeze, and it was finally lunchtime when she finally heard from Naruto. He looked exhausted, but managed to flash her a grin before plopping down next to her at the table and helped himself to one of her octopus wieners.

"Where's Sakura?" asked Hinata.

"Ah, still working. Whenever she's working on something, she's hell-bent on finishing it. I only managed to slip away. But at least even she goes out of her office for breaks, too. Unlike that Sasuke, who hasn't come out ever since he came in," said Naruto, his mouth full of one of Hinata's onigiri.

"Oh…I wonder if he's all right."

"Aw, don't worry about Sasuke. He sure doesn't worry about you. Or anyone else for that matter. Why waste your energy on him?"

Hinata was not convinced. She stared blankly at her white rice and her chopsticks dangled between her fingers.

Seeing this, Naruto hurriedly tried to bring back up her falling mood. "Hey, he's probably just really busy, you know? It's not like he's collapsed from pneumonia from the other day's rain or something."

Hinata gave a worried gasp. "Y-you don't think he really did, do you?" If Sasuke really had, it would have been because Hinata had taken his jacket that day, leaving him vulnerable to the ravaging weather. She voiced her concern to Naruto.

"No way, that selfish jerk lent you his jacket? He wouldn't even lend me an extra umbrella that day," Naruto sounded as if Sasuke was running a kissing booth for his all his admirers. He quickly recomposed himself, however, after seeing the alarmed look on Hinata's face. "Well I'm sure he's fine. Anyway, even if he did get sick, it wouldn't just be because of you. The guy's been under a lot of stress and stuff lately, and that would have gotten to him first."

"I…I guess you're right, Naruto. " Hinata pushed aside her bento to Naruto. "I don't feel like eating much, so you can have it." She stood up and left a baffled Naruto to himself.

Half past ten. It was what the clock on right wall read, and judging by the silence and darkness that engulfed the office building, the clock was not far off. It was half past ten, and Hinata was still in front of her computer screen, with the only word she had so far for her title: The. It did not even sound like the beginning of an interesting article. The guilt was eating her up inside, and Hinata felt like she just had to churn out something. And there was another thing.

Sasuke still had not left his office yet. The bulbs in his office still blared as brightly as ever.

By this time, Hinata was actually starting to believe something terrible had befallen him. She debated with herself on whether or not to gather up the courage to actually knock softly on his door. What if he thought she was just somebody snooping around, hoping to ambush him? Would he be…angry with her? She flattened all doubts however, when she decided that the weight of just leaving Sasuke there, possibly ill, would bear down on her more heavily. Grabbing the white bag that held Sasuke's jacket, she approached the entrance to his office.

Taking in a deep breath, Hinata quietly tapped on one of the two grand oak doors. No answer.

She wrapped her fingers around the golden door handle. Surprisingly, it easily turned. She pushed the door open with little effort. Hinata tentatively took two small steps inside.

Suddenly, she found herself with her back to the wall, with two larger hands on either side of her hand boxing her in. Whatever attacked her was pushing her back closer to the wall with its own body. The charcoal eyes that stared at her held so much fury, she thought they looked blood red. Hot breath was hitting her neck. Somewhere, though, there was that familiar, sultry scent.

"U-Uchiha-sama?" Hinata heard herself whisper.