Chapter Fourteen
Disclaimer: They Know Me Here
When she received the message that Sasuke had wanted to see her at 11:00 p.m. in the Hokage's office, Hinata thought that he must have gotten the time wrong. She went to the Hokage's Tower at 11:00 a.m. and was informed that Sasuke was in a meeting, but she was not corrected about her time of meeting. When she inquired, the administrative assistant serving at that time looked puzzled. Hinata shrugged and went home, not particularly disappointed about seeing Sasuke given their recent disastrous outing to Sobetsu almost a month ago.
At five minutes to eleven that night she was awakened by Hanabi who informed her that an ANBU guard was waiting to escort her to the Hokage's office. Hinata scrambled to get ready as Hanabi made quite clear her disapproval of this near-midnight dalliance with Sasuke. Hinata ignored her knowing that keeping Sasuke waiting was a no-no and focussed on getting dressed in less than 30 seconds. She raced past the ANBU and made it to the Tower and into the office by 11:01.
"You're late." Sasuke said as soon as she entered.
"I apologize." She huffed out quietly while he told her to take a seat.
The room itself was dark which was unusual. She could not ever remember a time when darkness pervaded this inner sanctum of Konoha. The windows behind Sasuke reflected only the velvety sky with a few stars and the pinprick lights of the Village down below. Just a few colours of neon blue, red and green managed to stand out against the night. In the room itself they were lit by a measly desk lamp that illuminated their features unforgivingly.
"Why is it so dark in here?"
"I prefer it that way." He replied and she decided not to delve into the obvious psychological connotations that statement had.
"Why did you have to see me this late?"
"This is the only time that I've had recently. I've been busy. Naruto's been in constant meetings and then had to go on this two week summit. He's due back tomorrow as I'm sure you know. Plus I've had to deal with my own Unit as well. I haven't had any proper sleep in a while." She could see the exhaustion on his face.
"Maybe the Hokage should have used a clone." She said softly.
"So he can disappear in a puff of smoke when he so much as stubs his toe? I don't think so." Sasuke stifled a yawn and Hinata a smile. "Plus, given everything that's been happening lately we need more than just the bare minimum of intelligence to run things."
Hinata shook her head in amused dismay.
"You know, despite the constant stream of abuse towards the Hokage, in the end you're here playing your part, marching doggedly with tiredness. I wonder if there's anyone else in the world that you'd go to such lengths for." She said with a slight giggle.
He shrugged and stared at her intently. She cleared her throat and turned her gaze downward from him.
"I'm not sure if you're aware of the reasons why Rock Lee is missing." He started seemingly apropos of nothing.
"I'm missing some details." She said vaguely.
"He was sent to Mori no Kuni to reconnoitre just like you were ordered. He came back with a bit of tantalizing information and he was reinstated into Mori no Kuni. It appears that they became of aware of his presence and began to feed misinformation. We became aware of it and sent back Lee with the intention that he'd give them the chicken feed this time. He was discovered and tortured. He was rescued and returned to Konoha. But then he left and we heard reports that he was indeed in Mori no Kuni, though not as a spy but as a wasted asset addicted to opium. You saw him; you know how he was."
She remembered clearly the image of Lee lying on that dirty cot, his eyes rolled back with a dopey expression. Sunday could have fallen on a Monday and he wouldn't be bothered. He was so damn out of it.
"Why don't you attack Mori no Kuni? Hokage-sama wouldn't leave Lee-kun like that. What happened?"
"We have done that. That was our rescue mission for Lee. I'm sure you remember Operation Steel about two years ago."
"Not much of the details…"
"That's right. That was around the time you and Naruto got divorced. Both of you were wrapped up in your own heads then, up to here in grief." He said with the subtlety of a sharp knife. "Naruto simply disappeared for months while he tried to sort out his mental state and when the shit hit the fan I got the blame for being a war hawk."
"You are a war hawk," She said quietly. He didn't react. She was right. "Did the war in Mori no Kuni help anything?"
"No. As a matter of fact there were more civilian causalities than in the last Great Ninja War. I was tried for war crimes against humanity. And we still didn't recover Lee."
Hinata's eyes bulged. She remembered that time when Sasuke was under trial. Old bitterness had resurfaced among the Hokage and the nations against the Uchiha and Konoha. Naruto came out of his exile and again had to come beg/make a case for his best friend. Luckily, this time it worked instead of conceiving another Great Ninja War.
But now that Hinata thought about it, the fact that a repeat of the Land of Iron incident didn't occur showed that it was a testament to how far Sasuke had matured mentally and emotionally.
"Whether we use the methods of the war hawks or the doves, it doesn't matter. This matter is intricate, ongoing, insidious and devastating."
They exchanged furtive glances as they no doubt recalled the wreckage that drugs were causing on not just civilians, but ninja in particular. From the economy to family life, the long acidic arm of drugs burnt up everything it touched. The atmosphere grew heavy for a while.
"You once told me that you were bored. Does this bore you?"
He seemed taken aback by her question for a second. "The politics side of it, yes. Everything else is just a big fucking headache. There is no end to this. I have to constantly revise my goals and strategies. Naruto was right to give me this job. Continuously I have to think of ways to quell threats that are not as simple as 'I want to put the world under an eternal genjutsu'. This 'war on drugs' as they say have multiple threats taking varying forms. Keeping up is like constant mental training. It's tiresome and yes, eventually I could get very bored."
"Hmm. You run the danger of losing your purpose." It was directed at him, but he recognized that it was also a personal revelation.
"I was in danger of it recently. When I told you that I was bored, I think that I was heading in that direction. I was thinking of even leaving Konoha. I was sick and tired and couldn't find a reason to stay."
Hinata was shocked by his answer, yet somewhere in her heart she admitted that she never expected him to stay for so long. A strange and unexpected grip on her heart made her realize that she didn't want him to leave.
"Have you changed your mind?" She asked quietly as she studied her hands under the harsh, concentrated lighting. He took a little while to answer her and she was forced to look up at him.
"I think so." She held his gaze and could feel him looking into her, deep into her. She felt her heart speed up and she avoided his gaze and licked her lips.
"Ahem. Why umm, why did you want to see me tonight?"
"We recently discovered a mole."
"What?!" He said it so drily and she reacted as if someone had dashed a bucket of water on her.
"Moles are part of most institutions like these. It's simply a matter of how far they've dug."
She conceded that he had a point.
"Our mole escaped before we got a chance to properly deal with the situation, however." Hinata knew that the Torture and Interrogation Unit must be livid about that. "We've been studying the aftermath in the last few weeks of all where he touched. Naruto's been busy calling back all of our network, but most of them have had their cover blown and been terminated in various creative ways. We've lost a lot of good nin. Naruto's taking it very hard. We can barely trust anyone now, but I figured that you've been so out of it that you'd be welcomed."
Hinata felt offended, but said nothing. He was right, as usual, that she was out of it. She was more upset that she couldn't realistically blame Naruto for it either, not without admitting her culpability in her professional idleness.
"For now, you'll be doing the same thing that you'd do in the field, but this time you'll be in the registry going through files." Hinata cringed. She had seen the registry. It was dark, smelled like rat pee and there were thousands, probably millions of scrolls and files on all manner of subjects just waiting to stifle you. She supposed that she had to start from the bottom. "We'll be looking at missions, especially failed ones, coming out of Mori no Kuni since…well since ever. You'll start tomorrow and you'll be working with people you know and trust, but tonight, I want you to go over with me your mission to the Forest."
They went over in painstaking detail her mission to Mori no Kuni. They took a break in between when sometime after midnight she went to the kitchenette and made tea for them both.
"It's been a while since you've made tea for me." He said quietly which she recognized was his way of saying that he missed their little evening sessions of quiet tranquility. It was where she got to see another side of him – not the side where anger constantly bubbled right under the surface, but the side where he was still like a pond; any disturbances were like a few raindrops on a still pool – nothing too upsetting.
It was then that she realized that she had reached a level of comfort with him that was a far distance from when she could barely muster up a word of conversation with him. He was interrogating her, rechecking names and dates and times in a very protracted manner. His Sharingan was flaring darkly as he listened for flaws and discrepancies and omissions and emphasis, but she felt comfortable. He was not in this situation the menacing Uchiha. To her, he was simply Sasuke-san.
It was after one when they finished and he stood up and yawned and she smiled at how human and childlike he could be. His dark grey shirt rode up a bit when he stretched and she glimpsed a toned stomach. She took a deep breath and stared and stared. She looked away a bit too late and he caught her staring. She hurried to distract him with conversation.
"You should get some rest." She said as she stood up too. He opened a drawer and took out a dark green shopping bag. He came around to her side to sit on the desk.
"I'll try. Here, this is for you."
It was clearly a gift.
"Umm, this is not necessary."
"Take it."
"No, thank you. I couldn't possibly."
"It's nothing important. Here," He insisted.
"Really, it's not necessary."
"Take. It."
He left no room for bargaining. She bowed stiffly and took the bag. Unexpectedly, he took her right hand in his left, holding her by the wrist, pulling her towards him.
"Does this bother you?"
She remembered the strawberry farm and her shameful behaviour at the end where she ran away from him.
"No." She said quietly. He rubbed small circles with his thumb on the inside of her wrist.
"Does this?" She stared at his pale thumb making concentric circles on the delicate skin.
"No." She whispered her lie.
He linked his fingers with the delicate and small fingers and pulled her in some more where she now stood between his legs. Her eyes were wide like the moon.
"What about this?"
She automatically tried to pull her fingers away from his, but he didn't let her go.
"Sasuke-san," She gently pleaded, though they both realized that she wasn't giving much effort to extricating herself from him. She turned her head away from him, but he softly touched her chin and turned her to face him.
"Look at me." He said quietly when she insisted on avoiding his gaze. A strand of hair was stuck in her mouth. He gently pulled it away, marvelling at the way the hair glided across her lips. She looked up at him with a mixture of wonder and fright.
It seemed to Hinata that for an inordinately long time they were in that pose. Someone could have set off a paper bomb in the next room and still they wouldn't have moved their eyes from each other. The unsaid things between them were coiling inside, ready to explode. Sasuke put his hand around her waist and pulled her towards him when they heard the slam of the door behind them. Hinata spun around so quickly that she almost lost her balance. In an instant her Byakugan was activated as she took out a kunai and she could see clearly too that Sasuke, already in that short space of time, had drawn his katana.
"You guys are horrible ninja." Another Naruto said from the chair behind the desk with the biggest grin Hinata had ever seen him wear. A shiver ran down her spine as she noted the cruelty in his eyes.
They relaxed their guard as the clone at the door flicked on the lights and Hinata and Sasuke adjusted to the sudden illumination. The clone disappeared in a cloud of smoke. The real Naruto who was sitting behind the desk cocked up his legs onto the desk and smiled.
"What have you two been doing in the dark here?" He asked jovially and Hinata felt her stomach do flips. Sasuke ignored the question and turned to Hinata.
"Report for duty later this morning at 9 a.m. sharp."
She nodded stiffly and left. Sasuke turned to Naruto whose smile dropped.
"I wasn't expecting you so soon. You're back early."
"Maybe I'm too late." He replied cryptically.
"I was debriefing Hinata on her role in my Unit."
"Shut up. Just shut the hell up about her for a minute." Naruto said wearily as he rubbed his face tiredly.
Sasuke stared at him dispassionately. "I'm going home. I'll talk to you in the morning." He turned to leave.
"Hey! I'm not through with you!" Naruto shouted after him, but didn't make any serious efforts to go after him.
When Hinata returned home she quietly sneaked into her room, her heart racing. Her mind kept alternating images of Sasuke's soul-searching gaze and Naruto's cruel, blue eyes. She could still feel Sasuke's fingers intertwined with hers, his hand on her waist. She had been standing between his legs. That was so . . . intimate! Her mind kept creating all sorts of scenarios of how things could have ended... She took a deep breath and swallowed hard trying to re-focus her thoughts. She just wanted to climb into her bed and sleep when she remembered the gift bag in her hand.
In the bag there were two boxes. She took out the bigger rectangular box and felt the heavy weight of it settle into her hands. When she rest it on the bed and gently lifted the cover she saw the delicate white tatoushi. Instantly she knew what was the gift. The paper felt light like a feather when she gently lifted it to see a shy, powdery violet gradually darkening into indigo and then eventually a dark blue hue as background on a kimono. She needed to see this properly so she moved to the other room where she could display the garment properly.
In the next room, she hurried to light the lamps. Rain started to fall and she remembered the last time that Sasuke was here with her in this room rain had fallen the night before and he remarked that the scent of rain and kerosene reminded him of his childhood home. Hinata didn't know if that was a good thing or not, but she had decided not to press the issue. Now her mind flooded with memories of the New Year.
The garment was hung over the top pole of the kimono stand. She spread outward the front panels and fastened them to the side with clips. Now that it fell gracefully to the floor, beautifully spread out to display everything, she could see clearly the artistry and exquisiteness exhibited.
"That's a Tamaki Jozen kimono!"
Hinata spun around to see Hanabi at the door. She should have known that her sister would have been spying on her.
"Is it?" She tried to reply casually as Hanabi came to stand next to her and inspect the kimono with awe.
"You know it is. That's a yuzen design. Only he uses yuzen anymore and he only does it on special commission."
There was no mistaking the dyeing technique. The delicate free-hand plum blossoms and the subtle colour gradations highlighted the artist's skills. The gossamer ume blossoms were falling gently and were being scattered in the wind.
Hinata face-palmed. This was bloody expensive! What the hell was he thinking?!
"Where did you get this?"
Hinata sighed. She couldn't deal with her sister right now.
"Well? Did Sasuke give this to you?" Hinata turned away from her and went to inspect the obi.
"He did, didn't he?!" Hanabi marched over to her sister and turned her around. "What did you do? Why did he give this to you? What happened? Did something happen in Sobetsu?"
"Nothing happened in Sobetsu." Hinata quickly replied, though there was a tiny voice in the back of her head that whispered, 'And that's the problem right there.' She dismissed the voice.
Hanabi gave her an eyebrow pop of disbelief.
"Remember how he threw up on Mother's kimono? Well I guess he just thought that he'd repay me." She quickly averted her eyes and went back to taking out the obi.
"That is worth ten or maybe twenty times more than Mother's kimono!"
Hinata anticipated that response. "Is it?" She feigned nonchalance.
"The leaves on the tree are couched with gold floss." Hinata indeed noticed the shusu effect and was amazed that her gamine little sister knew so much about kimono design. "Good grief, if it weren't for the sombre colours, the thing could be used as a wedding kimo – Oh my God! Onee-san!" Hanabi spun around her sister. "What do you think Sasuke is trying to say with this gift?"
Outwardly, Hinata looked like she couldn't quite get so steamed up about the connotations of the gift, but on the inside she was burning a fever.
"You want to know what I think?"
"Not re–"
"I think that Sasuke is wooing you. Didn't you say that he invited you to go strawberry picking? I mean, that should have at least sparked some alarm bells. Why did Sasuke of all people want to go strawberry picking?"
Because he knows that I like those kinds of things, Hinata answered in her mind, not that she had any intention of feeding Hanabi any fuel to her manic fire.
They were quiet for a while as they stared at the magnificent kimono, each lost in their own thoughts until Hanabi spoke up.
"If Sasuke-san has intentions,"
"I don't think that he –"
Hanabi barrelled over her and continued. "And let's face it, this kimono is speaking volumes, I must say that I'm quiet appalled by his behaviour. How dare he not come to Father or me?"
"We really shouldn't be making assum–"
"I must speak to Father about this."
"NO!"
Hanabi looked at her sister with shock.
"You cannot do that!"
"But Onee-san–"
"No. Do not do that. Sasuke-san has never expressed any interest in me and to approach Father or Sasuke-san would be to court possible embarrassment for all parties involved. Do not speak to anyone about this. Do you understand me, Hanabi?"
For the first time in a long time Hanabi saw the role of Clan Head Regent re-surface in her sister. Gently forceful, an embodiment of true Hyuuga spirit, it was a shock to see her sister fall after the death of her son and subsequent loss of her marriage. And to get a glimpse of it now after all this time because of Sasuke Uchiha…Well, Hanabi didn't know what to think.
"…okay." She conceded, but her mind was spinning. She wondered what her sister felt for Sasuke Uchiha. Did she know the effect that he was having on her? Hanabi left soon after. At the door, she turned to see her sister staring at the kimono as she tapped her fingers together nervously. Only the sound of the rain could be heard pelting hard against the roof.
The next day found Hinata steeling herself to face Sasuke. She felt anxious and tired. She couldn't sleep at all last night as she wondered what to do about his gift. She was no fool and neither was her sister. It was clear that the gift had connotations. The matter was, what, if anything, should she do about it.
She went to the office and found that Shino was the administrative assistant for today. It had been months since she had last spoken to Shino for any length of time, though she knew that he periodically checked up on her as every now and then she would notice a bug on her, when she was training, especially. After brief greetings she found that they hardly had anything to say and regret weighed her down as she knew that she could blame no one but herself. The renewed guilt dampened her so much that she couldn't even feel even the minutest of joy at discovering that Sasuke had delegated instructions to Shino on what Hinata would be doing that day, and thus, she would not be seeing him.
They descended into the bowels of the Hokage Tower and amidst the skyscrapers of files and dark and serpentine pathways she eventually found out that her old team was her new co-workers in the quest to uncover the trail of the mole. Under a harsh lamplight sat Kurenai at a table, reading through a report. A loud crash, followed by a curse and Hinata realized that Kiba was somewhere around the corner, probably lying under a rubble of caseloads. Kurenai looked up at her in obvious surprise.
"Hinata! Long time no see." She got up to embrace her in a long hug. Hinata felt like an utter fool as her guilt walked all over her. The familiar hug wrapped her in warm feelings of security and familiarity.
"What are you doing here, Sensei?"
"We got tasked with a mission from the TODU. I was told that another member would be joining, but Sasuke didn't let on that it was you. What a nice surprise!"
"As soon as my shift is over I'll be joining you as well." Shino said from behind her.
"Looks like we're a team again. Now we just need Akamaru to come help us and we'll really be back together again." Kurenai said with a chuckle.
"I don't think Sasuke-san likes animals, especially dogs. He might make an exception to a hawk though." Hinata said quietly and Kurenai gave her a knowing look and a slight smile.
"Hmm. I'm sure that you'd know." She said with a twinkle in her eye and Hinata looked at her feet and pretended that she didn't catch Kurenai's meaning.
"Umm," She cleared her throat in an attempt to clear the air. "Where should I start?"
They worked all day. They'd cleaved the archives in half with Kurenai leading the pre-war Mori no Kuni missions and Kiba heading the post-war files. They drank tasteless tea and coffee, ate cheap bento and combed through files. When Hinata tired for a while of manually sifting through reports she sat in a quiet corner and tested her Byakugan to its limits. She scanned through files and inadvertently caught snippets of conversations between her former teammates due to her lip reading ability. It was natural for any Byakugan wielder. When she automatically read Kiba's lips telling a very rude joke to Shino, she decided that maybe she shouldn't use her kekkei genkai inside here.
Sometimes they thought they had a lead, but like an illusion the promise faded into nothingness. By the end of the night they were no closer, only more doggedly exhausted and Hinata was happy for it. All day she hadn't thought of Sasuke or her horrible behaviour at treating her teammates these past couple of years or anything at all besides her mission objective.
The next day the anxiety at meeting Sasuke returned. She again met Shino on administrative duties.
"Good morning, Shino-kun. I brought breakfast for you. We'll see you downstairs after your shift?"
"Thank you. Yes, you shall. Did you hear what happened?"
"Hmm?"
"Haven't you heard?" Hinata looked puzzled. "Sasuke and Naruto put each other in the hospital yesterday morning."
"What?!"
"A training session turned serious. There are…lots of rumours going around actually," He said quietly. He still wore his sunglasses so as usual she was unable to discern his complete countenance, but she had a feeling that he was looking at her pointedly.
Unlike yesterday, Hinata could barely focus today. Her mind darting to all sorts of things like was Naruto and Sasuke okay? What exactly did Shino mean? Was he dropping words for her? She kept remembering the night before last when Naruto walked in on a relatively intimate moment between herself and Sasuke. She kept remembering Sasuke's touch on her waist and Naruto's bright smile and incongruously cruel eyes.
Kurenai and Kiba tried to lift the mood by making silly jokes and playing little games and creating ludicrous competitions, but still Hinata couldn't tear her focus away from her worries. Eventually they all went back to quietly burrowing. Hinata ignored the concerned glances and whispers that passed between her teammates, but were directed at her. Unlike yesterday when she was so engrossed in her work and relished the hunt, today she couldn't wait to go home. The team finished later than usual though and Hinata only saw natural light again the next day when she left the Hokage Tower at minutes to five in the morning.
She came up the stairs and through the glass doors of the ground floor. The Village was just waking up, the sunrise only now peeking through. The streetlamps were still lit and ashen fog curled around it like the smoke from a fire. She was about to go to the hospital. She needed confirmation that the two most important men in her life were alright.
Hinata stopped.
When did Sasuke take up such a position in her life? Naruto always held that number one spot, followed by her father, then Neji, then her male teammates. It was a shock to realize that Sasuke had stolen a way into her life and settled down importantly into her psyche.
Just to make sure that Naruto and Sasuke were still at the hospital she decided to use her Byakugan in order not to make a wasted trip.
Instantly, from her position of over a mile away she spotted Sakura at the front desk giving instructions to young interns. Hinata had no interest in engaging the pink haired darling of Konoha in any conversation, especially if the rumours about the real reason for the fight between the Hokage and his best friend were true. She inwardly breathed a sigh of relief at choosing to use her Byakugan. With her lip reading her ability she inescapably caught the middle of Sakura's scolding to an intern.
Just two floors up in ward three she spotted Naruto and Sasuke. They were sharing a hospital room. Odd, but Hinata decided not to question it. She supposed that was Sakura's way of forcing them to work out their differences. They were both physically fine, but still sore. Sasuke had bandages on his chest and ribs and Naruto's arms and head were still wound with gauze. Her heart ached for them. Why had things gotten so out of hand, she wondered. But at least they looked fine.
"Hey man, I'm really sorry about what happened. I guess I let my head get clouded." She saw Naruto say. He threw his arm over his eyes as he scratched at his toned stomach.
"Your head is usually clouded. You'd think that you'd eventually get a brainstorm, but…" Sasuke swung his feet off the bed and was already cursing Naruto six ways to Sunday. "I should have stifled you last night with my pillow." She saw Sasuke mutter and she ended up shaking her head and giggling. She was glad to know that he was still his regular, jovial self.
She was about to deactivate her kekkei genkai when Naruto said something unexpected.
"I'm sorry! To be honest, I've wanted this for you for so long. I've wanted you to fall in love and be happy. Everybody deserves to know how love feels. I just didn't think that you and Hina…"
Hinata saw the spike in Sasuke's chakra at the casual and intimate way Naruto mentioned her name.
"I'm not over her."
Sasuke froze. He was hoping that Naruto would remain his usual self and continue as if their usual early morning spar got out of hand for no reason at all.
"Well then you shouldn't have divorced her, dobe." He replied faux casually. Every time he breathed his ribs ached. Maybe he needed some adrenaline. If he was in a battle he wouldn't have noticed the pain, he lamented silently.
"I didn't give in to her initially." His self-proclaimed best friend had moved his arm from over his eyes, but now he was staring at the roof as if the ceiling had inspired him to confess his best kept secrets. "Her father asked if there was anything that I could do to give his daughter some sort of happiness. That's why I gave up."
Sasuke was trying his best to block out Naruto. He stood up and stretched, or rather attempted to stretch. Pain ricocheted through his entire body. Not a searing pain, but a dull ache seemed to exist in every fibre and marrow, especially his chest and ribs. He hoped that his Susanoo had lit a fire through every nerve in Naruto's body. Slowly, he moved around the bed, making sure to show no interest in this conversation. He had almost reached the closet when Naruto started up again. Naruto sat up in bed, ignoring any lingering pain in his arms and legs. He should have known. Just because he wasn't responding didn't mean that that would deter Naruto. It had never stopped him before.
"I thought two wrongs would make a right."
"Naruto, if you're not over her, then you shouldn't have agreed to the divorce."
Hinata's eyes bulged.
"I didn't want to." She saw Naruto answer quietly. Sasuke was moving sluggishly. Naruto continued, "I only gave her the divorce because her father asked me to. He wanted to know if there was something that I could do to make her happy. I was dragging her down. I never wanted to make her unhappy, so if she thought divorcing me was going to help her, then I gave her what she wanted. I just wanted her to be happy...even if it was without me."
Hinata felt like someone had kicked her in the chest at that revelation. Are you not happy Naruto-kun, she wondered frantically.
"I suppose you found comfort for your grief between Sakura's legs."
Hinata was absolutely focused on this conversation. She could see the molecular changes in the chakra distribution throughout Naruto's body. She could see blood pumping more to his frontal lobe – the part of the brain that controls reasoning; the only thing keeping him from hitting Sasuke's back with a rasenshuriken. She saw Naruto take two deep breaths. She had channelled her entire bloodline into those two people in that hospital room. So much for near 360 degree vision. If someone touched her shoulder from behind, she would jump because she had blocked out everything but those two men.
Sasuke removed the hospital gown and pulled on his pants. She could see that his breathing was a bit laboured and his posture was not as straight because of the ache in his ribs and chest.
"You know with Sakura, it certainly looks so, doesn't it? Everybody knows, but nobody really knows…what happened is not what everyone thinks…"
Sasuke turned to give him a skeptical look as he pulled on his black sweatshirt, but Naruto apparently did not feel the need to clarify.
"Hn. Naruto, you're being a selfish cunt."
"Man fuck you! You just want her because she doesn't want you! She's just another goal to you, isn't she?"
Sasuke shrugged carelessly and it was the worst. Hinata felt like someone was squeezing her heart. She could barely breathe properly. She waited for him to counter Naruto's accusation, but he only left Naruto to seethe alone in the room. She deactivated her Byakugan and for a minute longer she stood there at the side of the Hokage building until shame and anger and disappointment and self-disgust swelled in her like a typhoon. When the tears fell down her cheeks she wiped them away and turned to go home.
A/N: Review please!