Chapter 2

NxHxNxH

Hinata had no idea how she got here in the first place, in this uncomfortable predicament, as she faced the dark-haired shinobi in front her, exuding displeasure. They never really talked much. The few times that they went on missions together, he was actually courteous…and daresay, nice…once in awhile.

She mentally sighed. She could hear Sakura in the background, shouting at Naruto for being an idiot to injure others and himself and so on. Sakura and Hinata happened to walk by Team 7's old training ground when they spotted orange and blue clashing. Hinata supposed it was inevitable that Naruto and Sasuke sparring together would end in bloodshed of some sort.

"Aren't you going to fix me?" His black eyes settled on her, displeasure fading to give way to indifference. At least he wasn't glaring at her.

"Well yes," Hinata answered back, eyeing the arm that was bleeding heavily. She concentrated her chakra and focused on closing the deep part of the wound as much as possible. Then she washed out all the blood and applied disinfectant and started wrapping his arm with a wrap, all the while feeling uncomfortable under his unrelenting gaze.

"Ow, ow!" Naruto yelled out, trying to take his arm back from Sakura, who was purposely pressing on his wound harder than necessary. "It hurts, it hurts!"

She forgot that she was treating Sasuke for a second and looked at them amusedly, a smile forming on her face. Not a few moments had passed, when her companion cleared his throat beside her, which broke her out of her reverie and she jumped slightly, remembering that she had a task at hand to finish.

"Sorry, Sasuke," Hinata muttered. After few minutes, she finished tying his bandage.

"Doesn't it feel stifling?" Sasuke asked, looking down at her with unreadable expression. It took her few seconds to actually register his question. "To be their puppet," he clarified, his gaze settling on her form. She finished putting things away in silence.

Hinata looked up at him, her eyes shone with resolve and determination, hint of sadness lying beneath. "It's a duty I must follow and it's considered an honor in the eyes of others." Hinata sighed, looking back down to the ground. "I didn't have a choice but I'm luckier than many other girls who are married off to some foreign country."

She felt something touch her forehead as Sasuke brushed away her bangs, which made her flinch slightly at the unexpected contact. "No seal," he deadpanned. Just as quickly as his hand came, it left. He never touched other people out of his own free will as far as she knew and his behavior was odd. But then again, Hinata considered him as one of the more unpredictable people, and probably he felt spontaneous at the moment.

"I can only take what I can get," Hinata whispered, putting her hand in her forehead, remembering how close she had been to being branded. "Neji prevented it from happening."

"A considerable risk," Sasuke claimed, coming to stand beside her, leaning against the tree and crossing his arms.

She gave a sideway glance, as tension rolled away from her shoulders. "Yes." She let out a breath that she didn't know she had been holding.

"I heard someone tried to attack you," Sasuke said, as if he was asking her about the weather. His tone was almost casual.

She looked at his ebony eyes in surprise. There was no way that he could have been informed unless… "Are you in the team that is investigating?"

Sasuke nodded. "We tried to track them down but…" He let the words hang in the air.

Hinata spotted a flash of green flying through the forest. A familiar voice boomed loudly. "My fellow Konoha comrades! I am also here to train. I will start with push-ups. If I can't do 400 push-ups, I'll hit the dummy 800 times! If I can't hit the dummy 800 times, I'll do 2000 jump ropes!" Rock Lee appeared filled with energy and enthusiasm that made other people flinch. "This is what the youth is all about!"

In the corner of her eyes, she saw Sasuke visibly cringe. Hinata laughed softly, knowing it was rare sight to see Sasuke lose his usual composure. She suddenly felt a dark aura emanating that was not really coming from the companion beside her.

"It's rude to glare," Sasuke said, sarcastically, as he looked back at the guy who appeared after Rock Lee.

Humorless voice shot back. "What do you mean?" Neji appeared in his jounin uniform, his eyes dark and irritation evident in his voice. Neji arrived just in time to see Sasuke visibly cringe and Hinata laughing beside him. He himself cringed at Lee's antics. But something akin to anger arose when he saw Hinata laughing at Sasuke's expense.

Sasuke smirked, shrugging. "I was just having a nice long conversation," Sasuke said, rubbing it in, knowing that it would annoy the other male. Neji's glare became more deadly.

"I'm guessing it's time to go?" Hinata asked as she smiled at Neji, breaking the staring contest between the two.

Neji nodded and smirked at Sasuke, unspoken threat emitting from his eyes, "Let's spar next time."

"Anytime," the other immediately replied, voice just as flat. He disappeared, putting his head up in a brief gesture of goodbye.

Hinata looked back at Neji, who was looking back at her with nothing of the emotion he displayed just seconds of ago. She looked down, uneasiness settling in, feeling slight tension in the air.

"What were you doing?" Neji asked, his voice neutral.

"He was injured so I helped," Hinata said, looking down medical supplies in her grasp. "Naruto and Sasuke were sparring and both got injured."

"I see," Neji said. 'Nice, long chat, eh?' Neji smirked, remembering what Sasuke had said. Then he felt foolish for feeling better. He needed to get his emotions in check because it was haywire as of late.

He felt something sliding in his arm as Hinata stepped to stand by his side. "Let's go?" Neji looked down at her hand curled up on his forearm. "Neji?"

Instead of answering, he grabbed her hand that was settled on his arm and slid it down so that they were hand-in-hand. She looked flustered by his action, especially when he didn't let go. "Let's head home."

Hinata looked positively embarrassed, but didn't try to break out of his grip and let him guide her while she tried desperately to hide her blush away from people's stares.

NxHxNxH

-NightKDuet