(Urgh. On paper it was twelve pages... now that I typed it it's only 10... bleh. This was killer. and a little too dramatic. and I explain quite a few things next chapter, which will have lots of fluff in it. ooooh yes. lots of Hidan/Hinata fluff. I hope Hinata seems innocent/naive. if she does, then that's good xD. OH this chappie has some fluff in it too. I hope Sasuke doesn't seem to be too much of a jerk... i really wasn't trying for that. by the way, I came up with two nicknames for Hidan. they are: Dan and Dan-Dan. because little kids love him xD)

Chapter 2: Expectations

"Hinata!" she heard Sasuke call in a frantic voice. Before she could speak he embraced her, "oh, Hinata!"

"S-Sasuke-kun..." she stuttered. He pulled back and gripped her shoulders tightly, staring into her eyes, "why did you go in there?"

"I was w-w-worried and f-frightened," she explained as the rest of the group came up. Karin had fallen asleep and Ino was leaning heavily on Shikamaru. She wouldn't stop giggling, and Hinata stared at her with wide eyes.

'What's w-wrong with h-her?' Hinata wondered. Neji frowned and approached Hinata. He wrapped his arm around her waist and tugged her away from Sasuke. Sasuke stared at him and Neji simply said, "we'll be at the car."

"But, Neji -!"

"I don't want Hinata around her," he jerked his thumb at the giggling Ino, and began to walk away, pulling Hinata with him. She obediently went, but Sasuke's hands grabbed her shoulders. He tried to pull her back but Neji had a firm grip.

"It's not like Ino is going to influence her!"

"That's not what I'm talking about," Neji replied calmly, prying Sasuke's hands from Hinata's shoulders. Hinata blinked as him, 'w-what does he m-m-mean? I... I'm so confused...'

Sakura gaped at Neji before exclaiming, "are you implying that Ino's -!"

Neji sighed before interrupting, "no, no, Sakura. But you know better than anyone else how Ino can be when she's drunk."

At this Hinata blinked, craning her neck to look over her shoulder at the now swaying and giggling Ino.

'She's dr-drunk?' she couldn't believe it, and Neji could definitely see the disbelief in her face. He had pried Sasuke's hands off of her shoulders and was now leading her briskly away. He leaned down to whisper, "I'll explain when we're at the car. Hinata nodded.

They walked in silence, searching for Naruto's car in the maze of vehicles. They found it, after five minutes of searching, blocked by three other cars. Hinata turned to Neji expectantly. He took a breath.

"What I meant is, Hinata, that because Ino has taken in so much alcohol that it has caused her to be unable to think properly. He sense are all muddled and her thinking and logic power is about zero."

Hinata stared at him, eyes wide with shock, "i-is that w-what d-d-drinking does to y-you?"

"Hai."

A hand came up to cover her mouth, her eyes widening further.

"What I explained is what it's like to be drunk."

"Neji-nii-san, h-h-have you ever b-been d-drunk?"

Neji sighed again but smiled, "no. Your father told me about a time when he had been drunk. You should ask him about it sometime. It was a funny story."

Other voices then reached their ears. Hinata didn't recognize any of the voices, except for one. She looked in his general direction.

"Yeah, but Kisame should drive, seriously."

"Eh? Why me?"

Hinata stared in shock as Hidan swayed to one side, bumping into a car. The guys following him raised their hands to support him and he laughed out, "that's why Kisame should drive, seriously."

"Oh," Hinata assumed Kisame was speaking, "you're tipsy, eh kid?"

"Yeah..." someone grabbed his arm, the guy with green eyes. Hidan looked up at him.

"You, tipsy?"

"Kakuzu, old man bartender just gave me the drink, seriously. Must'a missed me a lot or shomethin'."

Kakuzu released his arm and by this time they had reached Hinata and Jeni. Hidan saw them and smiled, wiggling his fingers at them as Kisame opened the car doors, "hullo!"

Hinata couldn't help blushing, "H-Hidan-san!"

He gave her an exasperated expression, "eeeeh? I thought I told you not to call me that. Sherioushly."

The blonde with them suddenly burst into laughter, jolting the redhead on his back awake.

"Well, one thing's for sure," Kakuzu said, shoving Hidan into the car despite his complaints, "he swears less when he's tipsy."

Kisame guffawed as he climbed into the driver's seat. The blond and the red head – groggy from just waking up – clamored into the back with Hidan. Kakuzu nodded at Neji and Hinata before getting in the passenger's seat. Hinata watched in awe as the red head settled himself across Hidan and the blonde. Music was suddenly blaring from inside as they drove off.

Another car followed them, Itachi present in the vehicle.

When Hinata turned her eyes back to Neji he was staring after the vehicles.

"I'm surprised that Kakuzu guy wasn't bothered by that loud music."

"I-I am too."

Neji gave her a skeptical look before saying, "you're interested in Hidan, aren't you?"

Hinata gasped, "Neji-nii-san!"

He chuckled and was about to say more when Sasuke, Naruto and Sakura showed up, Sasuke was hanging his head.

"I'm sitting in the back."

Sasuke began to protest, "but -"

"Either you or Sakura are in the front," and with that Neji sat next to Hinata, who was already seated and buckles into the middle seat. Sakura and Sasuke ended up playing rock, paper, scissors, which Sakura won. She gleefully took her place on the other side of Hinata after crawling over Neji and Hinata's laps. Neji's eye twitched.

"You could have walked over to the other side," Neji commented. Sakura yawned and leaned against Hinata, "too lazy," she mumbled. Neji scowled but relaxed against Hinata as well. Half-way home, Hinata fell asleep.

When she awoke from her slumber on Saturday, she found a note on her vanity:

"Meet me at the park at 2 pm tomorrow. My

brother's insisted that he come along, and I've

decided to let him. Your father insisted I leave this note.

Sasuke"

Hinata quickly grabbed her phone and called Sasuke. His groggy, sleepy voice answered, "hello?"

"S-Sasuke-kun?"

She heard shuffling, "oh! Hinata!"

Hinata smiled at his attempts to become more awake, "uh, about the park... t-today?"

She heard more shuffling and Sasuke uttered a small curse, "yeah. Today. In twenty minutes."

At this Hinata gasped and frantically searched for her clock. She found it and it glared purple neon numbers at her reading 1:40 P.M.

"Uh. I-I'll let you g-get ready then."

"Okay. See you soon," he made a 'muah' sound that she giggled at, "o-okay. See you."

She hung up, and hurried to wash he face and clean her teeth.

'I have no t-time to think of an o-outfit,' Hinata told herself, pulling on a pair of white shorts and a purple turtleneck. She stepped into a pair of silver sandals, grabbed her white purse and shoved a few things into it, like her wallet, keys and purse. She slipped her mother's ring onto her right middle finger before tying her hair back into a messy pony-tail as she flew down the stairs and into the kitchen, gabbing a piece of toast. She then flew out of the kitchen and called a good-bye to her father who sat at the table reading the paper as well as apologizing for being in such a big rush.

"I want you home by ten!" he called after her as the door began to close.

"Hai!" she yelled back, mouth full of toast before running as quickly as she could down the sidewalk toward the park, munching on her toast the entire way.

--

"Itachi!! Hurry up already! I'm gonna' be late, and it will all be your fault!"

Itachi couldn't help laughing lightly at his brother, "Sasuke, foolish brother, it's only ten to. We live five minutes from the park. I'm almost ready I promise."

Sasuke released an irritated sigh, and began heading down the stairs, "fine, fine. I'll wait downstairs."

Itachi shook his head and raised his phone to his ear. There was a click and the person on the other line said, "yeah?"

"Hey, it's Itachi. I need to ask a favor."

"What might that be?"

"At the park, five minutes?"

There was a silence, "yeah sure. I'll be there."

Itachi could hear the smirk in the other man's voice and he smirked as well, "great. I'll see you then."

"Sure, sure."

Itachi hung up and walked out of his room, hopping down the stairs. He tugged at his leather vest, "alright, Sasuke. I'm ready. Let's go."

"Finally! Argh! Don't do that again!" Sasuke complained as he charged out of the house. Itachi blinked after him before following, smiling a little as they walked to the park. It would be very interesting, after all.

--

Hinata arrived at the park five minutes after and she played with her ring nervously; there was a lot of people leaving. Her phone started playing a ring-tone Sasuke had made and she answered.

"Hello, S-Sasuke-kun."

"Hey, Hinata. Where – oh. Never mind. We see you," Hinata looked to her right, "no, no, darling, the other way."

Blushing she looked to her left and Sasuke waved at her, snapped his phone shut. She did the same as his brother smiled at her. She returned the smile timidly.

"Hinata," Sasuke sighed, embracing her and giving her a kiss. She jumped a little in shock at the public display of affection. Itachi seemed surprised as well, but he released a short laugh, "you think I've planned something, don't you?"

Sasuke glared at him and said nothing. Hinata mentioned that she would like some ice cream, and Sasuke began to lead Hinata in that direction. Hinata also suspected that Itachi may have planned something; he was the meddling type, after all.

'I wonder... d-did he have s-s-something to do with what happened l-last n-night?'

Itachi sighed and tightened his pony-tail before smoothing out his leather vest. Hinata looked between the two brothers, noticing for the first time how much they differed in style.

Sasuke was wearing light colored clothes that were probably made out of cotton, where as Itachi was dressed in dark clothes made of heavy material like denim and leather.

'I w-wonder how I n-never n-noticed that before.'

The ice cream stand was coming into view, and a light breeze came up, bringing with it voices.

"... oh really? That's nice, Dan."

"Heh, yeah, I guess, seriously."

Sasuke grimaced at the sound of Hidan's voice and Hinata smiled a tiny smile while glancing at Itachi. She did a double take, but the knowing smirk she had seen was gone.

'D-did I j-j-just imagine that?' she wondered, a little frightened. Had Itachi called Hidan and asked him to meet them there?

"No really, Dan. Come on. You act like I'm a stranger, kid."

Hidan laughed and Hinata decided she liked his laugh.

'Actually, his v-voice sounds nicer t-than S-Sasuke's.'

Hinata immediately resisted bringing her hand up to her mouth in shock at her own thought. Her cheeks were warming, and she glanced at Sasuke worriedly. He was focused solely on avoiding Hidan.

"Technically, you are, seriously. But, man, the girl is freakin' cute. Like, too-cute-for-words cute."

"That all?" the voices became clearer as they got closer. Sasuke had given up trying to avoid the ice cream because Hinata had tugged on his sleeve and stared at it for a moment, and Itachi had come up to walk next to him, blocking him on the other side.

Hidan was visible now, wearing the same jacket as yesterday but this time there was a white shirt on underneath. He wore skinny jeans and Nike's. He glanced in Hinata's direction and grinned, changing his positioning so that he was resting his arm on the counter of the stand. He leaned against it and spoke to the man behind the glass, "hot damn," he said.

The man – an older man, kind looking with a smile in his blue eyes – leaned forward a little as Hinata and Sasuke came up to the counter. Hidan moved away and spotted Itachi, his eyes going wide with surprise, "Itachi!"

Itachi looked equally surprised, "Hidan? My, what a surprise that you're here!"

The two dropped into a conversation as Sasuke stiffened and wrapped his arm around Hinata's waist tightly. The man gave Hidan a look and proceeded to ask, "what'll ya have?"

"V-v-v-va-va-" but Hinata couldn't speak because she could feel Hidan's eyes roaming over her torso. She swallowed and blushed before covering Sasuke's mouth with her hand.

"A v-vanilla cone, p-please," she requested. She felt Sasuke's lips turn up in a smile. She released an inner sigh of relief as she let her hand fall away from his mouth. He rubbed her back in admiration while Hinata wondered what Hidan had meant when he said "hot damn".

The man smiled as he handed Hinata the cone, and Sasuke gave him the money.

"See you around, old man," Hidan said, giving a salute. The man laughed and saluted back. The four of them walked away, Hidan flanking Hinata on her right despite Sasuke's glares. Hidan's fingers tickled Hinata's palm and she started blushing.

'W-w-w-what is he doing!?' she exclaimed inwardly, looking at him. He suddenly wrapped his fingers around hers and brought her hand up to his lips. He brushed his lips over her knuckles, the cold metal lip ring making her shiver a bit. The gasp that she released caught Sasuke's attention.

Hidan took off running, laughing and leaving Hinata with Itachi. He slung his arm around her shoulders as she stared after Hidan and Sasuke. At first Sasuke looked furious but slowly his expression changed and he started looking like he was trying not to laugh.

"Don't worry. Hidan is just trying to get Sasuke to loosen up. He has odd methods, doesn't he?" they came to a bench and Itachi hopped over the back of it, "let's wait here," he informed her, patting the spot next to him.

She sat and finished up her ice cream, then devoured the cone. There weren't that many people about. A swarm of little kids was running around, and Hinata smiled and shook her head at them. When she glanced over her shoulder she saw that Hidan and Sasuke were making their way toward them. A little boy with curly green hair came dashing over, and expertly slipped Hinata's mother's ring off her finger. He dashed off as she gasped, and Itachi was about to go after him but Sasuke was already chasing the boy around. Hidan stood next to Hinata and watched as she stared at her hand, her eyes wide.

'Mama's ring!' Hinata wailed inside, tears filling her eyes. She focused her eyes on the scene before her – that a few other people were watching – and saw that Sasuke was yelling at the little boy, who had been surrounded by a large group of kids. They were yelling back at Sasuke in high-pitched voices. Hidan snorted then and called out, "hey, dumb-ass! You aren't gonna' get it back from them that way!"

Sasuke stopped yelling and then stalked back over to the bench and challenged, "fine! You go get it from them then."

"Okay," and Hidan walked away from the kids, toward the park path. Hinata watched as he went to the right, acting like nothing was happening. She stared down at her lap, blinking back her tears as Sasuke groaned, "he isn't going to get it."

Suddenly there was a delighted squeal and the three at the bench snapped up their heads to find that Hidan was in the middle of the kids, holding one of them over his shoulder. Hinata's face brightened up a little at the cute scene, and when the cry of the kids reached her ears she couldn't believe what they were saying.

"Dan-Dan!" they hollered in delight as they attached themselves to his legs. The boy over his shoulder wouldn't stop laughing.

The scene made Itachi chuckle lightly and Sasuke's jaw dropped open. Hinata – whose tears were not being cooperative – just stared, a small smile gracing her lips.

'H-he's great with k-kids,' she thought to herself as he set the boy down and crouched in from of him. He peeled open the boy's little fists and gasped out, "you don't have it!"

He poked the boy in the chest, making him giggle. The whole group then giggled as a whole, and they looped around the boy with curly green hair. He glared at them like they had just betrayed him to the cops. Hidan's expression changed to a gentle one.

"Hey, you wanna' give that back to me?"

The boy shook his head vigorously. He didn't want to give it back. Hidan held out his hand anyway. Finally Hinata's smile faded and her tears slid quietly down her cheeks.

"Hurry up already," Sasuke growled. Hidan glanced at Hinata and then looked back at the boy.

"You made her cry," Hidan informed the little boy, gesturing at Hinata. The boy looked and his eyes widened – obviously he hadn't thought that the ring was important. He instantly offered Hidan the ring but Hidan held up his hands as if surrendering, shaking his head. He turned the boy and placed a hand on his back, giving him a push.

"Nuh uh," he continued to push the little boy toward Hinata as he stood, "you gotta' give it back to her now."

The boy had no choice but to go; he couldn't fight against Hidan's strength or get away from him. Hinata wiped at her eyes and the boy held out his tiny fist.

"Sorry..." he mumbled, dropping the ring into her waiting hand; his prize. She curled her fingers around it instinctively, as if the boy were going to try and take it again. He looked up at Hidan with pleading eyes and Hidan moved away. The boy bolted back to his group of friends who were all giggling.

"Thank you," Hinata whispered putting her ring back on. Hidan grinned at her and stuck his tongue out at Sasuke. Hinata stifled her giggle as Sasuke swelled up and stormed off. Itachi followed and muttered, "I'll go talk to him."

Hidan sat where Itachi had originally been, and stared at Hinata in silence. He continuously angled his head, trying to see her face from different angles. Once in a while his eyes would look over her body then return to her face. She became self-conscious and raised a hand to her face, as if she was going to tuck her hair behind her ear.

"W-w-what?"

"Your hair looks nice like that."

She blushed and looked down at her lap. He moved closer, draping his arm over the top of the bench. Hinata leaned away from him blush deepening.

"You're so damn cute, seriously."

Hinata decided to use this as a chance to ask him about some things. She pressed her left hand against his side, making him look down in shock. She pushed lightly while asking," ah, Hidan-san... l-last night, um, I-Itachi-san p-planned that d-didn't he?"

She saw the 'should-I-lie-or-should-I-not' expression his face took on and she put a little more force into her push, even leaning toward him more, "please be h-honest."

He smirked, "yeah. That was Itachi's idea."

He straightened and stared off into the distance, watching the kids as they played. Hinata tried to recall her father's expectations of the man that was to be her husband but... her memory failed her. She did remember him telling her, however, to compare men if two were vying for her attention. So she did.

Sasuke was sophisticated, attractive and well raised. She liked how he was so gentle with her but sometimes a part of her would always wish he would break the rules that her father had set for him. Sasuke was one to keep his promises though, and if her father asked him not to get too aggressive, he wouldn't. One of his biggest faults was his pride, and more than often it got in the way of him spending time with Hinata. He almost always reserved Saturday's for her, but other than that, he didn't have the time. In Hinata's mind, Sasuke wasn't as protective as he could be, but right now, since Hidan was here, he was a lot more protective than usual.

'His t-temper is a-another issue,' she added as she looked over as Sasuke and Itachi. Sasuke was stalking around a tree, and Itachi was just shaking his head, trying to convince Sasuke of something. Hinata let her eyes stray over to Hidan.

He was handsome, like a diamond in the rough. A part of her mind protested against her calling him merely 'handsome' and demanded that she call him 'sexy'. She refused, and scrutinized Hidan instead. She knew very little about him, but he didn't seem to have too bad of a temper. He was great with children – the previous incident proof enough for that. She figured that if her father told him the rules he would definitely break them. He appeared so rebellious, and she tilted her head, inspecting his looks more closely. She didn't realize that he had noticed she was doing so until he turned his body toward her.

'Oh!' she quickly looked away, face turning red. He chuckled and she looked back at him to find that he was watching the kids again, though his body was still facing her. Her eyes widened when she saw his tongue flick between his lips, and she realized that he was playing with his lip ring. The small flashes of his tongue were proving to be very distracting. She swallowed a bit too loudly.

Hidan smirked knowingly and he drew his lower lip into his mouth. Hinata's mouth dropped open a little, and she quickly looked away, her face turning red. Hidan laughed and Hinata scowled a little, before looking up to see that Sasuke and Itachi were finally approaching. She waved cutely at them and froze in her actions when Hidan deliberately fingered her hair. She didn't notice that Sasuke had seen this and she turned her head to ask Hidan was he was doing when he stood and stretched. Hinata visibly resisted looking down at his minutely exposed stomach while chanting to herself, 'don't look don't look don't look!'

Sasuke took note of this and his eye twitched.

"We're going, Hinata."

"Ah, hai!"

She stood quickly, making sure her purse was still with her. She walked next to Itachi with Sasuke lagging behind, near Hidan. She was confused.

"S-Sasuke-kun...?" she asked, turning. She stopped and Itachi turned as well.

Sasuke and Hidan were glaring at each other, and Sasuke suddenly demanded, "have you no shame?"

"Apparently not. I wasn't raised all proper like you," Hidan spat back, voice challenging. Hinata stared between the two, 'w-what's g-g-going on?'

"you're right. Seeing as I actually have one."

The look on Hidan's face was unspoken pain. Hinata's eyes widened unnaturally, 'did Sasuke j-just say that?!' she was stunned to silence, and turned to Itachi for help. She found that he was staring at Sasuke with an agape mouth. Then his jaw snapped shut and he exclaimed, "Sasuke!"

Sasuke shrugged off his brother's fury. Hinata's eyes flicked back and forth between the two. She wondered if maybe she should intervene and drag Sasuke away when Hidan retaliated, "thank God mine can't be hated!"

Sasuke growled and Hidan tossed his head in the direction of the kids, who were watching them. Some other people in the park showed a keen interest – after all, the Uchihas were famous and infamous for several things that happened around the community. When Sasuke finally looked at the kids Hidan informed him, "you may have come from a famous family but damn, you have no idea about kids. If you had any they'd probably cower at the freaking sight of you. I know damn well that my kids would be happy," his eyes flicked in Itachi's direction and Hinata read his lips: "what the hell?"

Itachi wore an angry expression as he shrugged. Hinata started nibbling on her lip, 'I d-don't like w-where this is g-going.'

She was about to step between them when Sasuke retorted, "oh yeah? At least I'd be able to support mine! At least I'd be able to put food in their mouths, and I wouldn't have to work my butt off day and night for the money either!"

There was silence from Hidan, wide eyes from Hinata and shame from Itachi as he hung his head in disappointment at his brother's attack on Hidan's personal life. Sasuke, thinking he had won the argument, turned to face Hinata.

"Ah -!" she gasped, right before Hidan grabbed Sasuke and slammed him against the ground.

"You fuckin' prick! I'll teach you a thing or two about minding your own damn business!"

Hidan straddled Sasuke's chest and held down one of his arms while he beat down mercilessly on him with the other hand. The small ruckus caught a lot of attention, and a group of at least five other teenagers were cautiously approaching.

"Itachi! Itachi! M-make them s-s-stop!" Hinata screeched, grabbing his arm. Itachi refused to intervene, "Sasuke's getting what he deserves for saying that. He should know better than to make such a personal attack, especially against someone like Hidan," Itachi looked down at her frightened expression and explained further, "there are some things I know that Hidan would definitely rather talk to you one-on-one about, and only one person who knows a lot about him."

Hinata thought on that for a moment and recalled Hidan's pained expression when Sasuke had said that "at least I actually have one" and the strained, hurt sounding voice when Hidan threw Sasuke into the ground earlier. She made up her mind though, and thrust her purse into Itachi's hands. Sasuke, by this time, had managed to catch Hidan's assaulting fist in his free hand.

"T-then I'll stop them!" Hinata informed Itachi, dashing toward Hidan and Sasuke. The group of kids was starting to undulate toward them as a whole, and one of the male teenagers walked a little more briskly, saying something to the others.

"Hinata!" Itachi cried, reaching for her. However, she already had a dainty hand wrapped around the wrist the Hidan had just wrestled free of Sasuke's grasp. He stopped all action immediately, staring at her in surprise.

"S-stop it, p-please!"

Sasuke threw a punch that narrowly missed Hidan's chin.

"What the hell!? Tryin' to hit me when your girlfriend is right here!"

Hinata knew that she had to get Hidan off of Sasuke; both of them were getting angrier by the second.

'I h-have to g-get myself i-in-between them.'

She threw her arms around Hidan's chest, just under his under his arms. There was a quick, powerful blow to an area around her right ribcage and she squeaked before using her full weight to push Hidan off of Sasuke, her head pushing his back. They fell to the right and rolled a few times; Hinata ended up on top.

There was a throbbing pain in her side and Hinata pushed herself up a little, her hands on Hidan's chest. She opened her eyes to find that he was staring at her in shock.

"P-p-please! No m-more!" she pleaded, her eyes flicking to the group of teenagers approaching. A little girl, who had broken away from the swarm of little kids, came into Hinata's line of sight, her chubby face full of worry as she plunked down on the ground and patted Hidan's cheek, "Dan-Dan?!"

"Ah, I'm okay just – I'll stop. Okay? No more."

Hinata nodded her head and shuddered, letting her head rest against his neck. She might have fainted from all the drama - she was very dizzy – but Sasuke was on his feet and he yanked Hinata off of Hidan. Her ribcage protested and Hidan jumped to his feet, putting himself in front of the little girl who clung to his pant leg.

'Protective? Hidan is d-definitely protective... j-just w-what father w-wants,' she mentally checked this off.

"You... you guys okay?" one of the guy's from the group of teenagers asked. Itachi answered, his red eyes on Sasuke, "we're alright now. Thanks for the concern," Itachi shook his head a few times when Hinata and Sasuke came toward him. He gave Hinata her purse and stared after Hidan, who was now surrounded by little kids.

Sasuke and Hinata stared as phrases like, "Dan-Dan, are you 'kay?", "why that happen, Dan-Dan?" and "Dan-Dan, I don' lie him!" came from the swarm of children.

Hinata saw that Hidan's knuckles were bleeding, but she tended to Sasuke's black eye and small cuts. If she decided she wanted to go tend to Hidan's knuckles – which she wanted to do, being the caring girl she was – it would only make the situation worse. Sasuke, however, didn't seem to appreciate the fact that she was tending his wounds and he snatched the tissue from her. She glared at him and stomped over to Hidan in response. Hidan was surprised by her approach but said nothing as she grabbed his hand and starting dabbing at his knuckles with another tissue she had gotten from her purse.

'H-his pride makes me s-s-so angry sometimes,' she huffed to herself, inspecting Hidan's knuckles. He grasped her hand, making a light blush appear over her cheeks and she looked up at him.

"Hey, thanks," then he released her hand and walked over to the bench that they had been sitting on earlier. The swarm followed him, and swarmed him again. Hidan brought a hand up to cover his eyes, his lips turned down in a frown. Hinata shook her head at the children; they really seemed to like Hidan. She turned back to Sasuke and took a tentative step toward him. He was clenching the tissue in rage.

A boy with short brown hair stomped over. Hinata guessed that he was about elven. He jabbed an accusing finger at Sasuke, "you're cruel! I feel sorry for any children that are unlucky enough to get you as a father!"

A woman gasped and Hinata looked up at Hidan. He was looking at the boy in surprise and Hinata jumped a little, 'i-is that a t-tear?!'

There was something glistening on Hidan's cheek. Hinata turned her attention back to Sasuke.

"Why you little - !" Sasuke snarled, going for the boy. He shrieked and high-tailed it back toward Hidan.

"Dan-Dan!" He cried as Sasuke reached for him. Hinata almost went but Itachi snagged her and the mother of the boy was sprinting toward Sasuke and the boy, yelling something along the lines of, "my baby!"

Hidan's shoulder connected with Sasuke's chest as Itachi stomped forward, radiating fury, leaving Hinata to stand with her hands clasped together in front of her mouth. Sasuke was forced to let go of the boy's arm and the boy clung to Hidan's waist, staring fearfully at Sasuke. Hidan was glaring over his shoulder at Sasuke.

"Let me at the little -!"

"Back the hell of Sasuke! He's just a kid!"

"Like I care!" but Sasuke didn't get to do anything because Itachi had grabbed his arm and flung him back toward Hinata.

"Fuck off, Sasuke!" Hidan clapped his hands over the boy's ears at Itachi's outburst. The little kids copied the action.

"Who's side are you on, Itachi?!"

"His side! I'm on his side!" Itachi yelled, gesturing toward Hidan, "get Hinata and get the fuck out of here. Just go, go!"

"Okay, okay..." Sasuke turned to Hinata. He reached for her but she backed away, "don't, touch me," she made an effort not to stutter.

He reached for her again and Hidan called, "at least pretend you know what respect freaking means."

Sasuke smiled stiffly and gestured for Hinata to start walking toward the exit. She watched Hidan over her shoulder as the mother of the eleven year old thanked him for protecting her son. She didn't know what Hidan's response was but the woman kissed his forehead. Hinata stopped then and stared intently at the mother, reading her lips as she said: "you'll make a great father one day."

'Great w-with kids. T-that's on m-my list,' Hinata thought to herself, walking a bit more swiftly in the direction of her house. Sasuke silently followed, and Hinata knew that he was also silently fuming.

(burrr. i'm making you waaa-aait. xD. soo we find out that Hidan's great with kids, and next chappie Hinata learns a bit more about his past and why he shot out at Sasuke like he did. Her informer is... OMJ!! WHO TOLD HER!!)