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Thanks for reading.

oOo

Chapter Eighteen: You Say I'm Foolish

Itachi could barely register Hinata's presence. It felt like she muffled her already low chakra. Which caught his attention, because most nin only did so when they were in enemy territory and wanted to appear civilian. Or when they needed to hide their life force from other nin.

He looked around the room and no one else seemed to notice or care. The rest of the group, the clan heads, the elders, the representatives, whispered amongst themselves.

Then, Hiashi walked in. And Hinata's presence disappeared so suddenly, Itachi turned a bit to look out of the corner of his eye and see if she was still there. It shocked him.

That's when the anger came.

It engulfed him before he could even think to stop it, to squash his feelings to analyze later.

He never saw Hinata cower before. Not in front of him, or Shisui, or even the ANBU. Yet just the appearance of her father in the same room made her hide every trace of herself.

Itachi knew what that meant. When a capable nin was afraid of their own family.

Itachi's killing intent flared suddenly, violently. It came so quickly he could not reign it in, even if he wanted to.

He did not want to.

Everyone's eyes focused on him, even those belonging to the civilian representatives. Hiashi, the one who always stayed expressionless, stared with wide eyes.

Itachi never really cared about reminding people of his power. Some nin did. They walked around practically dripping in malice and dark, roiling chakra. However, that did not suit Itachi's purposes, so he did not.

He liked it when people forgot his lethality. It made him uncomfortable when others felt afraid of him. When they treated him like a faulty exploding tag about to go off.

Now, however, he did not mind the stares. Good. Let them be afraid.

Itachi blinked lazily at the group of clan leaders and village elders surrounding him.

His voice held touches of the wildness, of the rage still sitting inside as he spoke: "Our civilian representatives will be informing us of a problem they have encountered with the upcoming harvest. I expect everyone to treat them with respect and with the knowledge that they have done everything possible to keep every person in this village fed."

No one spoke. No one moved.

Itachi did not need to tell them to respect the representatives. No one had ever said anything negative to them in these meetings, and honestly, he expected that trend to continue. No matter how terrible the news.

However, a person in this room had been disrespected. Was currently being disrespected. And Itachi could not calm down, could not be reasonable about it.

The female civilian representative collected herself first. She stared at Itachi for a long while before sliding her gaze behind him to Hinata. Her eyes narrowed slightly but she quickly bowed to the room before she delivered the bad news.

He listened with barely leashed calm. He knew this information already, but from the badly hidden shock from around the room, no one else did.

"Thank you," Itachi said into the silence, "for both your hard work and your honesty."

The woman bowed her head, her face pale and drawn.

Itachi addressed the room. "I am waiting for news from the Daimyo. I have requested he sends us livestock and other provisions immediately. But I suggest everyone starts to make plans in case we need to implement rationing."

"If you had planned better for a natural disaster-" Hiashi began.

Itachi once again unleashed his anger, almost lazily. The closest nin to him shifted away slightly. Hiashi pressed his lips together so tightly, they became white.

"It was not a natural disaster that destroyed the dam." Itachi's voice deepened with the malice he felt. "And we are still recovering from the war. All of our reserves were depleted, and our food production has not returned to pre-war levels. If you are not going to contribute anything useful, I suggest you don't bother. Unless you're willing to volunteer the Hyuga reserves?"

Hiashi's fists, resting on his thighs, tightened in anger. He did not say anything in response.

"Not willing to help out, eh?" Kakashi asked quietly. It was more an observation than an attack.

Neji, who was sitting behind Hiashi, looked up for the first time since the meeting began. His lips quirked in amusement.

"Any more news?" Itachi said after the silence stretched on for too long.

A chunin from the Cypher Corps cleared his throat. "We're getting more communications coming in and out of the village. We're still cracking the code, but we are close to a breakthrough."

"Thank you. I read through that report. Good job with your work." Itachi nodded. "If there's nothing else? No? Then meeting is adjourned."

At the end of every gathering, Tsunade usually clapped Itachi on the shoulder as she left. This time, she only eyed him warily.

"Watch yourself," she warned before walking away.

The scribe ran out of the room like he needed to turn his stove off at home.

In the end, only Hinata and Itachi remained in the room. Even the ANBU stayed posted outside.

He still could not feel a trace of her. Finally, he listened as she stood from her spot and paced in front of him. He sat on the floor as she remained standing, but with her hands clasped together in front of her and her shoulders hunched, it did not feel that she held the position of power.

"Are you okay?" she asked the floor.

Itachi sighed, feeling slightly exhausted from the adrenaline rush. "Are you safe at home?"

Very pale lilac touched Sharingan red. The gaze did not break until Itachi intentionally blinked back to black.

He noticed now, the dark, heavy exhaustion under her eyes. The heavy stress lines around her lips that came from frowning. Her limp, dull hair.

"Please don't ask me questions you don't want the answer to," she whispered.

He got to his feet, slowly, trying not to startle her. He only noticed then; how much taller he was. "Are you scared of me?"

She took a step closer to him. "No."

"Are you scared of your father?"

She took another step closer until they were almost toe to toe. "I'm scared of what he's capable of. Of what… of what the elders are capable of."

He meant to ask something, but she inspected his face. Her eyebrows rose in surprise. "You… you care about me?" she breathed.

This is what Izumi could never see. Itachi noticed everything about Izumi because he was in love with her. He stayed attuned to her moods, even when he stopped understanding them, even when she pulled away from him. But she did not notice him in the same way.

Hinata saw him.

He did not know the extent of his feelings for her until she pointed them out. "Yes."

"Is that why you were so angry?" she asked.

"Yes. He makes you afraid."

She reached out a shaking hand to lightly touch his bicep. Her face flamed red. "Can… M-may I…"

Itachi slowly caught her hand and used it to draw her into a hug. Her whole body trembled. She felt cold, and he arranged his robes around her, to let his body heat warm her. Her cheek pressed against his shoulder, and her small, hitching breaths hit his neck.

"I can protect you," he said, forming a plan on the spot. "You can stay in the Tower, which will not be inappropriate. You can stay in my apartment, and I'll sleep on the lower levels. And then-"

"You can't," she said. "You can't get close to me."

She was right. This had pushed past inappropriate a long time ago. Itachi was just now realizing his feelings, but he should not have feelings for his assistant. Much less a Hyuga.

"Do you need me to let you go?"

She reached up, grabbed at his uniform shirt, and pulled him closer. "You should."

But she did not let him go or push him away. He kept her close until she stopped shaking. Resting his cheek on her hair, he closed his eyes and drank her in.

oOo

Coming up: Neji tries his best to drop hints.