Chapter Seven

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto

When Sakura had turned in bed that morning, she squinted at the bright green numbers of the digital clock letting her know that it was a bit after two-thirty in the morning. She looked to her right and realized that Naruto was not in bed with her. She squinted at the bathroom door, her eyesight still seeing green numbers floating blurrily in front of them, and judging from the latch firmly in place on the outside of the door, noted that her husband was not in the bathroom either. She listened and heard no noise in the kitchen. Reluctantly she got up, checked on the twins who were soundly sleeping in their own room and then proceeded to venture to the rest of the house to find him. She found him sitting in the back veranda, staring out at the half-dead garden in their backyard. He was sipping a beer.

"Are you alright?"

"Huh? Yeah. I just…" He trailed off and sipped on his beer as a suitable reply instead.

She sat down next to him.

"Naruto, it is two-thirty in the morning. You came home from work at half-ten and the twins kept us up until one. Our day usually starts at four or five in the morning. What is keeping you up and don't tell me it's Kurama's energy or anything like that. Let's just get through this quickly so we can get back to sleep, okay?"

He gave her a half-smile for her practicality.

"That mission I sent Hinata on…I don't know. I may have messed up."

"What do you mean? Is she alright?"

"Yeah, I think so. I haven't gotten any word of distress or anything like that, but I shouldn't have sent her on that mission."

"Well, she hadn't been on any missions for a while. She is a ninja, Naruto. I know that she would have been glad for it."

"I know that too. It's just…" Naruto didn't quite know how to tell Sakura what was on his mind.

"What kind of mission was it?"

"It's part of the wider counter-insurgency effort in the Land of Forests. I sent her as part of a three-man team to do reconnaissance on a particular section of the forest and track someone in particular. I've heard some rumours there that I needed to confirm."

"Naruto, why did you send her on such an S-Class mission? Didn't you say that the situation in Mori no Kuni was getting extremely dangerous?"

Naruto's back seemed to crumple like water on paper. Once the intensity of spiting Sasuke had worn off, he had deeply regretted sending Hinata on such a mission. He didn't know how to tell Sakura that it was basically out of jealousy that he had sent her on a mission like that. He could never tell Sakura that.

He basically had spent the last three weeks wavering between regret and annoyance at Sasuke. Sometimes, he even felt the two emotions at once. He was an uncomplicated guy and could barely translate such complicated expressions to the face so a lot of the time he just ended up with one and a half expressions forcing a lot of people to ask if he was alright, especially during his sparring sessions with Sasuke that made the Uchiha nastier with his blows with each week that Hinata had yet to return home. But he knew that what bothered him the most was that he was unable to come out directly and tell Sasuke to stop worrying about Hinata, to stop fussing and growling at people because Hinata was on a dangerous mission, to stop it because he had no claim to her. He couldn't say any of those things without having to admit to true feelings and hurt a lot of people in the process. So in the end he said nothing with unsaid things blocking and burning his chest like indigestion.

"I've set up a Quick Reaction Force and they're ready to do an extraction at a moment's notice." He protested, somehow believing that that was a good enough response.

"Ugh! Naruto!" She balled her hands into a fist and Naruto braced for a pounding, but none came. When he looked over at her, her hands were fisted, but resting on her knees as she stared straight ahead and breathed hard. He could practically see the gears turning in her head and anticipated her question before she asked it.

"I sent her because I thought that she could handle it." He lied. His guts felt as if they were too heavy for his stomach to handle when Sakura turned to look at him, her expression clearly saying, 'Really? You want me to believe that?'

"Well then you have nothing to worry about." She said quietly.

He looked at her. Was she really not going to call him out? She too had been seeing the passive-aggressive behaviour of Sasuke; the non-words that were not passing between the two men. She smiled tightly and got up and pulled him up with her too. "You should come to bed." He followed reluctantly. His mind no more at ease than it was five minutes ago. If anything, he felt even hollower. Pride was going to be the death of his marriage. It had already killed the first one. He hoped not to repeat the mistake, but it already seemed as if he had again fallen into a pusillanimous relationship; both of them afraid to step on each other's eggshell hearts.

"Sasuke-kun!"

Ino shouted in alarm when he had opened the door to his apartment armed with his katana unsheathed. To her credit she didn't simply throw up her arms in surrender, mouth agape. No, in that one instant she had already drawn a kunai and locked her gaze with his, ready to mentally battle and subdue him if necessary.

That alone softened his mood and he stepped aside to let her in. It was hilarious that she thought she could fight him, but he would have been offended if she hadn't even tried.

"You scared me half to death! Who answers their door like that?" She said as she put away the kunai and removed her shoes at the foyer.

"Karin was just here." He gave no further explanation and Ino nodded understandingly. She hated Karin with a deep passion that stemmed from the deepest and darkest pits of her soul. She was not so myopic that she couldn't see that her hatred stemmed from the fact that Karin's behaviour around Sasuke reminded her an awful lot of her actions towards Sasuke when she was younger and nursed a severe crush on the Uchiha.

"I understand. That woman would make anyone want to run a sword through her."

Sasuke wondered if Ino knew his history with Karin. She averted her eyes from him when he looked at her and her movements told him all he needed to know as to her reasons for hating Karin.

"What did she do this time?"

Sasuke lazily swatted the air around him as if the mere mention of his interaction with Karin was as bothersome as a mosquito. He re-sheathed his sword and placed it on the coffee table. He already knew why Ino was here. It was the same reason Karin came over and before that Suigetsu. He hoped that Ino would have more tact about her curiosity over his relationship with Hinata.

She took at seat at the counter table at the kitchen, perching high on a bar stool; her short skirt riding up provocatively around her legs. He wondered if she did this naturally or if this was all part of her kunoichi ways of gaining information. It wasn't often that she wore a short skirt these days...

"What do you want?" He asked.

"Aren't you going to offer me something to drink?"

He was trying to be patient and that's probably why he rifled through the cupboard for something to offer her. He rarely had guests and for a moment he had to wrack his brain to figure out what to put forward to her. He suddenly remembered that Hinata always offered him tea when he spotted the two tea bowls.

He had bought the tea bowls in case one day she decided to drop by and have tea with him. They always went to her house and for good reason – she knew all about tea and entertaining. But just in case she one day decided that she desperately needed to spend her afternoon balancing a cup of scalding hot water while she sat in his precariously slanted apartment, he decided to be prepared and he got as far as buying two porcelain tea bowls with a simple design of pine trees with golden clouds. And despite those special serene evenings where he had spent time with her and learned that he preferred white or red tea, he had gone out and bought green tea, which he knew that she preferred.

Now he was at a loss as to what to offer Ino. She had only been to his apartment once or twice before and both times she had not stayed long enough to warrant being offered a drink – only delivering a message or inviting him to somewhere or the other. Now though as he saw her take up a seat, wiggling her shapely behind into the stool, he realized that he was being called upon to entertain. He set the tea bowls on the counter and turned his back to her as he went about searching for the tea leaves and putting hot water to boil. Never once had he asked her if she even wanted tea.

Ino looked at the two tea bowls and raised an insouciant eyebrow. A small smile escaped her, but she cleared her throat and rearranged her features into a more neutral expression.

Sasuke turned to her and for one moment she forgot what she was going to say. Sometimes she couldn't help but notice that he was dangerously good-looking.

"What?"

But he was also a social retard.

"I didn't know that you were into tea, Sasuke-kun."

He shrugged as he put a kettle of water to boil. He leaned against the back counter, his arms crossed, his expression clearly wondering why she was here.

"You know, Hinata-chan is a very private person."

Sasuke knew that she was coming here to tell him something along the lines of Hinata, so he waited patiently for her two cents. Suigetsu came to congratulate him on 'boning the Hokage's hot ex-wife' and Karin came to wail that Hinata did not deserve him and if she ever saw him near her, she would rip Hinata's hair out. He nearly ripped her hair out and she had run from the apartment screaming. He knew from hearing about her Chuunin exam fight with Sakura that losing her hair only meant the beginning of the fight for Ino. He mildly considered doing just that to see her reaction.

"We've been hearing rumours, especially of your behaviour after Hinata-chan left for her mission."

Sasuke gave her a slightly amused look and Ino felt reluctant to go on, but she persevered.

"Sasuke-kun, what are your intentions for our Hinata-chan?"

"Intentions?" Sasuke almost laughed at Ino's deathly serious stare.

"Yes, intentions." She sighed heavily wishing she had some tea now to distract from his unwavering gaze. "Hinata-chan is a very shy and private person. If you have intentions, you should state it plainly now because negative talk…" She trailed off, a bit unsure of how to broach the topic.

"Negative talk?"

"Look, how to say this? She lost face when the baby died. She was Clan Head Regent when that happened."

Sasuke's eyes grew shrewder. How much did Ino know? Tell me, he wanted to shout. Ino noticed that she had finally captured his attention. She spoke more bravely.

"She lost the Clan heir and shamed her family by asking the Hokage for a divorce. She appeared weak especially when she gave into Naruto's demands to bury in the public cemetery. She was demoted as the Clan Head Regent. She finally had everything she wanted and then all was snatched away from her. People talked. They talked a lot. You should know that she is shy and hates gossip about her. There was no way for her to save face. She grew very withdrawn and unstable and had to suffer further indignities of having Naruto gradually take her away from missions. No one blames him though. She was not able.

"Things have settled down for her now. People have moved on from talking about her life. But now here you are – People have heard about your quarrel with Naruto after he sent her on that mission."

Sasuke wondered how in the hell that got out.

"People at your Unit have been talking about your behaviour since she left. You're creating a scene for her."

"Naruto acts worried for her too. How come no one questions his behaviour?"

"He has a right to. They are forever linked. They may be divorced, but it is proper for him to still be concerned about her."

Sasuke thought that the dobe was more than just 'concerned' about Hinata, but he didn't say anything.

"Ino, Hinata and I are just…friends…I guess."

"Friends?" Ino had never really heard Sasuke directly refer to anyone as his friend, despite the extremely close relationship he had with Naruto.

Sasuke mistook her expression. Did Hinata not see her relationship with him that way? What did she tell Ino? Now that he thought about it he had never defined out loud his relationship with Hinata and it came out sounding odd. He didn't even know if Hinata saw it that way. She always came across as oddly detached from him... His mind began to question and reconsider.

"You seem more…interested. If you have intentions, then you should state them plainly."

Sasuke rolled his eyes. This was getting out of hand. He was just about to unceremoniously kick out his visitor when one of the tea bowls slid off the counter and broke. Ino looked like she just found out that her mother died. Her jaw slackened as her eyes widened. Sasuke wondered just how priceless the bowl was.

"That's a really bad sign!" She twisted her fingers. "Something bad is going to happen. We were talking about Hinata-chan. I hope that she is alright. If not to her, something bad is going to happen."

"You're correct in that respect. Something bad is going to happen because something bad always happens in life. Joy is followed by sorrow and vice versa. This doesn't mean anything, Ino. It doesn't herald anything that wasn't going to happen anyway. Bad things happen. Good things happen. It's the way of life. Plus, my apartment is lopsided."

Ino rolled her eyes at what she clearly thought was Sasuke's naiveté. With his non-believing words he practically conjured up a death oni for Hinata.

During a rather tumultuous nightmare at two the next morning, Sasuke was awaken by a banging on his door.

"Sasuke, open up!"

Naruto was at the threshold dressed not in his Hokage robes, but in his travelling outfit – an all black tracksuit with the Uzumaki swirl crest on the he had on his red, short-sleeved coat with the black flames at the bottom. Sasuke was instantly on the alert to receive bad news.

"Teme, I've gotten word that Hinata's team is in trouble. The QRF has left already to do an extraction and I'm on my way." Naruto paused a bit, swallowed thickly and cleared his throat. "Will you be coming?" He avoided Sasuke's eyes.

Sasuke opened his mouth to answer, but remembered Ino's recent visit. Were he and Hinata even friends? Don't worry about me. Those were the last words she had said to him. She was always so detached...

"No."

Naruto looked at him in surprise, wondering why the sudden change in heart. Of all the times for him to stop caring…

"Fine. You're acting as Hokage until I'm back." He seemingly pulled the huge conical hat out of nowhere and stuck it on Sasuke's head before he turned to leave.

Sasuke looked on as Naruto disappeared into the darkness. He was right, he concluded. He had no claim to Hinata.

A/N: I apologize for the late update. But as you read this I am already working on the next chapter, so hopefully I'll update soon. Up next: Some awkward SasuHina interaction.