Author's Note:

I'm so sorry for the wait! Life has been exceptionally hectic these past couple weeks. I got engaged, my fiancé got in a car accident, and school has midterms and papers due.

Anyway, I'm sorry for the wait! I hope you enjoy!

Thank you!

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

PART ONE

Chapter Eleven: Fists and Fury

After two days of waiting for Hinata, Sasuke was irritated. The ANBU rarely talked to him, even though they dropped his food off every other day, so it was difficult to know what exactly was going on.

Now that it was almost a week since he had last seen Hinata, Sasuke was moving towards pissed.

Sasuke was certain, from their conversation the other day, that Hinata was no longer mad at him. She had actually seemed genuinely happy to be around him. Plus, it was Hinata who had suggested they go back to training together every day.

Plus, Hinata should be getting her sword from Tenten soon, and she had made it clear that she wanted Sasuke to help her train with that weapon specifically. The Hyuuga had also suggested that she would arrange for him to have his sword back soon enough. Which he told her he needed—especially to train her with her sword. Being able to show her what to do through practice and observation was going to be the best way to teach her.

That, and Sasuke really wanted his sword back.

He felt naked without it.

Normally he kept his sword on a sling that left it resting on his back. The weight of it making him feel confident and safe, even if he wouldn't admit that to others. A majority of his training after Konoha revolved around that sword, and to be without it felt like he was missing a limb.

At least all this effort with the Hyuuga would result in something good, even if she ended up married and whisked away to another village. She wouldn't be his problem anymore. He wouldn't have to train with her anymore. And he wouldn't have to worry about her existence anymore—rather, he wouldn't have to worry about how her being dead would affect his life because it wouldn't.

Sasuke felt his stomach churn.

Probably because the Hyuuga still isn't back and all my hard work will have been for nothing. Sasuke explained away to himself.

Sure, he remembered the Hyuuga girl from when they were younger. Sure, he had found her interesting then and still does now. That doesn't mean anything beyond that.

Back in the academy, Sasuke had been extremely focused on his goals. He needed to be stronger so that he could obtain his goal of killing his brother to avenge his family. At times, he lost focus of that when he was young, but he always found his way back to his family's vengeance being the most important thing in his life.

Sometimes he had time to notice that the Hyuuga girl was odd and quirky. She didn't make a whole lot of sense sometimes either, especially with her fascination with Naruto. He hadn't been sure what that was about at the time, just thinking her odd, but looking back now it makes sense. Hinata had been infatuated with Naruto in a way that affected her deeply. Sasuke wasn't sure why, but she obviously found value in Naruto.

From all of Sasuke's training sessions with Hinata, it was apparent that she valued persistence. He understood that. To be a decent shinobi it takes half skill and half persistence. Both are necessary.

That actually explains a lot about her…

Looking up, Sasuke's thoughts were interrupted by the ANBU dropping food off again for him, as was routine at this point. They always brought bags of groceries and supplies and left them at his front step. He understood why they didn't come in, because he was likely to attack them out of habit, but he did not appreciate the fact that they left his food where animals could take it.

Which was why he had taken to waiting at the front porch at dawn, when the shift change usually happened, in anticipation of his supplies being dropped off.

"Where is the Hyuuga?"

"Excuse me?"

Sasuke snorted at the ANBU. "You heard me. Where is she?"

The ANBU shook his head. "You know I can't tell you that."

Sasuke rolled his eyes in irritation. "You know what I mean. Is she done with her mission or what?" Sasuke snapped.

The ANBU appeared taken aback by Sasuke, but still looked like they were not inclined to answer him. That lit a fire in Sasuke's chest. If he had his full abilities right now, this man would be begging for mercy by now. Groveling at his feet for forgiveness and telling Sasuke everything he wanted to know.

As things were currently, that was not an option that Sasuke had. Which made him even more irritated

Sasuke's eyes lit up. Chakra being called to them out of instinct. Whenever his blood pressure went past a certain point, his eyes reacted. It was just part of having his eyes. He assumed that all Uchiha ran into this problem after having their sharingan for as long as he had, but Sasuke didn't have anyone to ask—given that everyone was dead—so he couldn't know for sure.

As the chakra built behind his eyes, Sasuke noticed the ANBU falter. The man definitely felt Sasuke's blood lust, but knew full well that Sasuke was incapable of acting on it right now.

That didn't change the fact that it was intimidating though.

"S-she's…" the ANBU cleared his throat. "She's still on her mission." The ANBU clarified, shrugging and easing himself away from Sasuke—just trying to do his job.

"What the hell. I thought she was supposed to be back days ago?"

The ANBU shrugged, obliviously at a loss for words.

"Hn." Sasuke grunted, his irritation building. "Tell Kakashi I want to see him."

"We can't—"

Sasuke snatched the bags of food and slammed his front door in the ANBU's face.

"—do that." Sasuke heard from the other side of the door. He knew that the ANBU provided Kakashi with reports of his behavior. They'd tell Kakashi what happened today at the end of their shift, and Sasuke would see Kakashi. That worked for him.

Then he could get some answers.

And see about getting back my fucking sword.

"F-follow me, S-sasuke-kun!"

"I told you not to call me that!" Sasuke yelled at the girl he was chasing. She irritated him, but not the same way that everyone else did. She was nice, a little odd, and entertaining. Her stutter was incredibly irritating, though. Every chance he got, he corrected her and chastised her, but if anyone else said anything, there was hell to pay.

Sasuke felt elated that she was here, but there was a sick nervousness under that happiness. As if something horrible was about to happen at any second.

Chasing after the girl and her fit of giggles, Sasuke felt his soul soar. She felt like freedom and happiness. She felt like sunshine, and he just wanted to be near her, and he could not explain why. At least, that was all the five-year-old could equate the feeling to.

Sasuke caught up to her when she stumbled to a stop, bumping into her.

"Hey!" Sasuke shouted, irritated that their game was over, she rarely came over, and even though she was odd, she was the most fun to play with.

Sasuke immediately regretted yelling at her, realizing that something was horribly wrong. The girl stood still, but it seemed like she was vibrating and humming with energy.

"What's wrong?" Sasuke asked, looking around and trying to understand.

The girl didn't answer, and Sasuke realized that she wasn't what was vibrating and buzzing with energy. Everything else was. She was the only thing standing still.

"H-hey! What's going on?"

Sasuke ran in front of the girl so he could look at her. Trying to understand. He felt fuzzy, but he wanted to understand.

All he saw was the ground slick with red and the girl crying. Her hands were covered in it.

Sasuke felt lightning strike through him. He was familiar with the feeling.

Memories flooded through him. His parents being murdered in front of him and not being able to do anything about it. His brother dying in front of him, at his hand. Regret eating him alive like hundreds of bugs until there was nothing left but bones.

Sasuke woke up screaming more often than not. He was used to it at this point. His dreams usually ended with his parents crying out for him. Sometimes for help, sometimes because they hated him for what he did or failed to do, and sometimes it was just their lifeless eyes staring at him, accusing him of all his failures.

This dream had been…odd.

He had no memories of chasing a little girl—ever. That's it. He knew no little girls when he was younger, at least not that he remembered, and he hadn't had any girl cousins that were close to his age when he was young.

And yet, the dream felt like a memory.

Sasuke tried to hold onto it, but the details of the dream quickly faded away. It wasn't important anyway. If it was, he would have remembered it in the first place. This had to be because he was back in Konoha. The place was giving him stress dreams.

Sasuke slept fitfully after waking up the first time because of his odd dream. He kept having different versions of the same dream, all ending with the girl crying with blood on her hands. The only thing was, Sasuke did not remember this girl at all, and any identifiable features she had slipped away from him by the time he woke up.

So once again, Sasuke started the day off irritated.

Naruto coming over for a spar was just a lucky coincidence.

After a half hour of sparring with only taijutsu, Sasuke was livid and breathing hard. He was tired of his chakra being so limited. It didn't help that it made it seem like Naruto was leaps and bounds ahead of him.

Naruto feeling guilty about it though was a nice plus. It definitely helped even the playing field, or at least made it feel like it because of Naruto holding back.

Even though Sasuke hated the fact that Naruto was holding back, it didn't make repeatedly punching Naruto in the face any less satisfying. At this point, it was routine for Sasuke to take out his feelings on Naruto—at least to some extent. It had been when they were younger, and they were back in that routine again.

Of course, Kakashi chose that time to interrupt.

"Sasuke! What are you doing?" Kakashi asked, suddenly standing beside Sasuke as he punched another Naruto clone in the face.

Sasuke gave Kakashi a sarcastic look that said "What does it look like?"

"Well stop beating up Naruto, you have more pressing matters to address." Kakashi chastised.

"Like what?" Sasuke snapped. "I'm not allowed to leave or to do just about anything, and my other main source of entertainment is missing."

Kakashi raised his one visible eyebrow at that. "What do you mean, other source of entertainment?"

"I mean the Hyuuga girl. She comes by all the time and we train together. You sent her away on a mission a few days ago and I haven't seen her since, so it's been exceptionally boring." Sasuke said. Sasuke was trying to sound annoyed but disinterested at the same time, which was why he continued to spar with Naruto while speaking to Kakashi.

"Ah, well, she should be returning today or tomorrow. There was a delay in her mission."

Sasuke froze for a second, the sight of Hinata being wounded and bleeding out flashed before his eyes. Naruto took this opportunity to strike Sasuke with some pay back. Sasuke spun with the blow he received to his gut and pushed Naruto to the ground. Seeing that this wasn't a clone, Sasuke took a foot and stood on top of Naruto to keep him down while he talked.

"So she's on her way then?" Sasuke grit out.

Kakashi shrugged with a smile. "It's hard to keep tabs on ANBU, especially her team."

Sasuke tossed Kakashi an incredulous look. How are you Hokage? Sasuke thought, his irritation rising.

"What does that even mean?" Sasuke snapped, his irritation bubbling over to show in his voice.

"It means, I don't actually know, and I can't actually tell you anyway." Kakashi said, continuing to smile.

"Hn." Sasuke sighed lightly. This presented a slight problem for him. He was definitely not on schedule for his plan at this point, and he wasn't sure how to get back on track, especially with the threat of her leaving the village looming.

Grunting, Naruto escaped from under Sasuke's foot. "What the hell was that for!" Naruto griped, dusting himself off.

Ignoring Naruto, Sasuke walked away from the scuffled looking blonde and contemplated how to sabotage Hinata's future suitor.

"You'd think you'd at least keep track of the person in control of all of my seals." Sasuke chided. "She is somewhat important, you know, so that I can actually be a functioning person again."

Kakashi nodded his head, following along with Sasuke's line of thought.

"So shouldn't she, I donno, be assigned to stay with me or something?" Sasuke offered, sounding irritated even though he had just stumbled upon a perfect solution to his problems.

Kakashi raised an eyebrow at Sasuke's suggestion. "I sincerely doubt that her father would allow her to sleep in your house…" Kakashi paused, weighing his options as he took in Sasuke's demeanor.

For all his training and knowledge, Sasuke was still a bad liar. He was decent at sounding apathetic and disinterested, but bad at convincing the rest of his body that he felt that way. Sasuke looked tense, and deeply invested in whatever Kakashi was about to say. The Sixth Hokage wasn't exactly sure what to make of that, but took note of it none the less. The fact that Sasuke might have some sort of interest in Hinata definitely helped.

And Kakashi did enjoy killing two birds with one stone.

"But, I will think about it." Kakashi decided, smiling.

Sasuke let out an irritated grunt. "You know, the least you could do is give me my sword back for all my trouble." Sasuke figured he might as well reach for more while he was at it.

Kakashi cocked his head to the side, appearing pensive for a moment. "Now Sasuke, why would you need something like that?" Kakashi smiled, obviously messing with Sasuke. "I think we'll wait a little longer on that."

"I need it to train Hinata." Sasuke snapped. "You could keep it locked up outside of training or something, but she asked me to help her with weapons training, and I need my sword to do that."

"Hrm." Kakashi hummed. "Well, I'll have to think about that then, too."

Sasuke groaned in irritation.

Hinata was absolutely exhausted. After days on her mission, she felt like she couldn't bear to stand a moment longer. She had just finished informing the Hokage of her team's arrival and debriefed him. Hinata still had to shower though, because there was no way she was crawling in bed covered in grime.

A part of her cursed Kiba and Shino for making her debrief this time, but it was only fair. They were supposed to trade off, but she somehow always ended up with the responsibility of doing it. Which was likely part of her admittance into ANBU as a Captain.

Sometimes it didn't feel real for Hinata, but times like this, when she was covered in mud and blood, it was incredibly real—and not just because she could smell it. Tonight she felt the fact that she was an ANBU in her bones. It made her body ache in ways she never thought possible, but she was still elated that she made it.

Neji would be proud of her, she was sure of it.

A sigh of relief escaped Hinata when she caught sight of her bedroom window. The light was on, which was odd, but it was possible that the maids knew of her arrival home. Kakashi was good about keeping her family informed of her comings and goings, even when she wasn't. It made things a lot easier on her, and them.

Hopping onto her windowsill, Hinata pried her window open and dropped deftly into her room.

Her father standing in her room waiting for her was definitely a shock.

"F-father!" Hinata yelped. "Wh-what are you doing here?" Hinata tried to hide her shock. She had assumed that a maid had been in her room, and she had been very very wrong.

"You have been avoiding me, Hinata." Hiashi deadpanned, looking glum. "I decided to wait for you where I knew you would definitely be when you arrived home."

Hinata felt guilt tug at her heart. She had been avoiding her father, only because she did not want to confront him. But, Hinata never would have guessed that he had noticed her avoidance. Hiding emotions was never her strong suit, but she did not realize that her father paid enough attention to her comings and goings to notice that she had been avoiding him all together.

"I'm sorry, father." Hinata looked down, feeling chastised. "I heard about the…" Hinata hesitated. She didn't want to talk about this. For the past week she had avoided thinking about being married off by focusing all of her attention on her mission. Of course all that effort was proven worthless as soon as she came home.

"I heard about the letters you sent out regarding my need of suitors and—I just—I felt—" Hinata put her hands up, finding herself at a lack for words and full of frustration. Hinata looked around the room, trying to focus on everything but her father. She couldn't bring herself to look at him, but seeing everything was just making her feel more trapped.

Covering her face with her hands, Hinata gathered her thoughts. This was important and she didn't want to mess it up. Hinata loved her father, but he needed to understand.

Hinata took a breath and set her arms at her sides.

"You took the one choice I had left away from me."

It felt like the air had been sucked out of the room, but Hinata still felt relieved. She hadn't even realized that she had been shaking, but it made sense. It felt like she was bubbling with every emotion imaginable, and she wasn't sure how to contain it all.

Before Neji's death she had been shy, but she had been level headed.

Now, everything felt off balance.

All the time.

Hiashi took in a deep breath and sighed.

"I knew you would see it at some point, but I did what I needed to do." Hiashi said, sounding defeated. "I did what I needed to do to protect you, and I'm sorry that it still ended up hurting you." Hiashi grimaced, searching Hinata's face.

Taking a step forward, Hiashi cautiously approached Hinata. "I'm sorry, Hinata. I needed to protect you, and that meant moving forward and doing what I thought was best I—" Hiashi faltered. Hesitating in his approach when he saw that Hinata was on the verge of tears. Maybe he had chosen wrong. Maybe he should have waited. Maybe he should have—

Hiashi steeled himself. "I'm sorry that you feel that way, but I did what I thought was necessary." Hiashi deadpanned, stepping away from Hinata. Giving her a moment to collect herself, Hiashi stood there, waiting for her heaves tears to quell themselves.

"You have suitors who are arriving tomorrow. Be prepared to entertain them for the foreseeable future. I will make Hokage-sama aware of the necessity for you to be at home." Hiashi stated, all business now that he had locked away his emotions. "We will expect you at dinner tomorrow. Do not be late." Hiashi finished, and headed to Hinata's door.

Passing through the doorway, Hiashi looked back at his now crying daughter and hesitated. He should comfort her. Her mother would have. But that's not who Hiashi was or who he could be for anyone. Being the clan head meant remaining strong and steadfast, even at the bleakest of times.

Hiashi quietly shut the door and left Hinata to her thoughts.

The next morning was dreary. Hinata didn't want to get out of bed, but the idea of staying at home and greeting the suitors as they arrived sounded horrifying. So she quickly and quietly go up before dawn. She had cried for a good portion of the night, and hardly slept, but that didn't matter. Leaving the house would at least distract her form her thoughts.

Donning her favorite outfit of late for training, Hinata left the house in her all black pants and shirt, her ninja mesh creeping out onto her arms from under her shirt. It had taken a while to figure out how to cover the ANBU tattoo. Hinata had come to the conclusion that sleeveless shirts were simply off the table for the foreseeable future.

Hinata tried to enjoy the gloomy morning. The fact that the sky looked like it was ready to pour at any minute did not help her mood at all. However, the fact that she was heading to Sasuke's helped. She hadn't seen him in over a week. He was sure to be irritated with her, which made her giggle. The mission going on for as long as it did was hardly her fault, but he would act as if it was, Hinata was sure of it.

That didn't matter that much though. Sasuke would quickly get over it when she told him that he was allowed to have his sword for training purposes as soon as she retrieves it. Kakashi had also asked her to pass on the message to Sasuke that "his other request is pending, but it looks promising."

Hinata wasn't sure what it was, but Kakashi had been grinning from ear to ear.

Arriving at Sasuke's Hinata felt her body hum. She knew that sparring with Sasuke was helping hone her skills, and it also helped a great deal with processing her emotions. Maybe she could even work through the fact that her father had suitors arriving later today.

A smile spreading across her face, Hinata reached out to knock on Sasuke's door, only for the door to swing open before she could even touch it.

"You're back."

Hinata's face flushed at Sasuke's proximity. No matter how often they sparred, she was still not used to how attractive he was. He was taller than her, his hair was an inky black and messy, but definitely healthy. He looked more like how he had been before the war—like a force to be reckoned with.

Hinata felt Sasuke's chakra crackle in the air between them. She knew his chakra was inclined towards fire nature when they were children, but it had moved more towards lightning as they'd grown up. As Sasuke received more and more access to his chakra, soon his chakra was going to be wafting off of him with the power of it.

"Y-yes, I am." Hinata smiled, starting to relax at the prospect of being around Sasuke.

"Well, come on then." Sauske said, pushing past Hinata and walking immediately towards the field. Hinata felt his chakra crackle against her arm, setting her skin on fire with the power of it. Hinata felt her stomach flip.

She really enjoyed sparring with Sasuke—even if he was odd.

Author's Note:

Thank you for reading!

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