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It was already the fiftienth day when they should've come back yesterday.

Sasuke denied the need to pace in his office, so he sat still on his desk, breathing… and penetrating the wall with his gaze.

Something was keeping them and he couldn't do anything about it except wait.

He could blame no one but himself since he was the one who had assigned them, her, into this mission, so why start second guessing his decisions when he never did before?

This wasn't even the first time since he'd been deliberately assigning her to larger missions so she was involuntarily dismissed from two-man missions.

On his, and his alone, will.

More than his fear of unwanted heat, since to his eyes Alpha and Beta were equals, he loathed any prospect of Hinata alone with another human being...

He couldn't stomach the mere idea.

It wasn't just dislike to any man or woman for that matter, this was an uncontrollable possessiveness that came from having had a taste of her.

He knew he should blame himself and reflect to his misdeeds so he would learn from it and promise to himself to never show deference before lust. But, really, was he genuinely repenting or was he actually just impatient to have more?

He knew for sure this was a debate of moral he really shouldn't have and wouldn't ever have had he never met the woman in question.

The sudden flick of the door's knob put his brooding into premature rest. His eyes caught sight of the time—thirty minutes to three—as the door swung inwards to reveal the one he had been waiting in the last twenty eight hours and further back to the last two excruciating weeks of unease.

When Devil Ray walked in, geared in full Anbu garb, Sasuke stood even before his subordinate closed the door behind him.

How is she? was already at the tip of his tongue but he bit back his impatience down to make it less obvious. "How was it?"

"You won't even give me a moment's break, won't you?"

The jab surprised him greatly he didn't really know how to act.

Didn't he want to make it less obvious?

Sasuke swallowed thickly as he took time to actually regard Devil Ray's form. Fabric materials on his garb were showing shallow cuts on his arms and legs. A longer and wider cut on his left flank revealed a bandaged part of skin, connoting a deeper wound. Dried blood, mud, sweat, all the usual stains after a two-week worth of mission. There was also a crack on the left side of the Devil Ray's porcelain face he hadn't bothered to notice before.

"Are you …," Sasuke swallowed again, "injured?"

Devil Ray surprised him again by sniggering instead. "Cut the crap. I'm fine even though it's obvious it isn't really your concern. I mean, I'm not here to report to you about my condition. I'm here for someone else's."

Sasuke could see the hurt behind his imperious front. He wasn't one to feel empathy that often, but without the mask, Suigetsu was a close comrade, most of the times he might even say a dear friend if the Beta wasn't so difficult. So Sasuke couldn't help taking this little strife close to the heart.

He really shouldn't have done that.

"I should've asked for your condition first, that was a mistake on my part." The former was said solemnly, but then he smirked and continued in a lighter tone. "And I'm glad you're alive and breathing fine."

Devil Ray rubbed a spot behind his neck in awkward gesture. "Well, yeah," he mumbled, "thanks."

He was embarrassed, but appeared pleased nonetheless. Sasuke would have mentioned the sight mushy if only there wasn't any need to quench this restlessness.

So he cut to the chase. "How is she?"

Sensing the gravity of the matter as his captain stared him on the eye, openly expectant, Devil Ray settled his arms on his sides and straightened his back.

"She had been away from the squad for more than an hour, I had to look for her quietly so the others didn't notice, when I did find her, I couldn't find out what had happened. She didn't seem in her right mind until she got hurt while we were confronting the target.

"What's weirder though she didn't come to the post-mission medical visit. We separated at the first fork on the east side of the village."

Sasuke needed record time to process all this information but one phrase stuck and his brain could only conclude from that small piece of information alone. She got hurt.

He could understand her choice to avoid hospital visit, but it didn't change the fact that she got hurt.

"What about her injuries?"

Devil Ray wet his bottom lip before he replied. "Nothing can't be fixed with basic medical techniques," he replied. Although his words were supposed to be optimistic, his tone was hesitant. "But…""

Sasuke mouthed "but" in silence, urging him to continue.

He shrugged a shoulder. "I don't really know since I couldn't see through chakra pattern and she said nothing, but she didn't perform any ninjutsu after being hit, didn't even activate her Byakugan. I have suspicion."

It didn't need much to understand. "Her chakra pathway was distorted."

Devil Ray nodded. "Yeah, the Alpha was, after all, a specialist in chakra alteration."

In times of crisis, Sasuke was used to be depended upon as a constant source of decisions. But at this exact moment, his brain came to a complete stop he could only revolve around the fact that she got hurt. She was injured and it affected her chakra pathway.

Hinata was hurt.

"Last time I checked her bleeding hadn't stopped completely," said Devil Ray as an afterthought.

Sasuke's eyes focused back to Davil Ray's. His worry must have gotten the best of his composure that it laid bare for Devil Ray to see.

"What makes you go to such length for this Beta?"

Devil Ray had never attacked him with an offensive question before, he simply did what was asked of him but it didn't mean he understood his captain's intention completely. He was trying to find reasons without invading his captain's privacy. Sasuke understood, more than he needed to.

But he couldn't say anything without giving away this privacy they both held dear.

"Though I just see no reason to pass the hospital visit," Devil Ray continued and this time his tone had settled down to that of indefinite surrender rid of any impudence he was so known for, "she can take care of herself, Sasuke."

Sasuke took his words quietly, eyes zeroed in on a spiral pattern on the mahogany desk that was uncovered by stacks of scrolls and stationery, but he knew that Devil Ray knew that he was listening.

"Look, for whatever reason you have in store, I'm doing you a favor because I am grateful to you, for taking me in, for taking Karin and Juugo in. But this… even I believe you've overstepped your boundaries. She is a capable Anbu, you should first acknowledge it."

At that, Sasuke's eyes widened. He hadn't accounted the fact that she was a capable Anbu into the equation he was trying so hard to solve. He trusted her as an Anbu, he had admitted himself in front of her. So what justification that he had to this crippling worry?

"… And yes, I'm done," Devil Ray finished sourly, folding his arms over his chest.

At his petulant demeanor, Sasuke let out a scoff. He tapped his fingers atop the desk twice before he regarded Devil Ray again on the eye. "Suigetsu?"

The man in question merely stared back. Sasuke had no doubt the man was raising an eyebrow behind the mask.

"Thanks. You don't have to do it again."

The Suigetsu behind Devil Ray smirked. "So you did listen."

Sasuke too smirked. "I did and you're dismissed."

Suigetsu nodded then unstrapped the mask that called for a replacement. Staring at him as his friend not as a subordinate, Suigetsu offered him a touch of sentimentality on his countenance.

"Sasuke."

At the mention of his name, Sasuke folded his arms atop the desk and inched closer toward him as much as the desk between them could allow.

"Don't you think it's not supervision from an extended hand such as me that she needs?"

Surprisingly to both, or not at all to the only Alpha inside the room, the answer came out confident.

"I know."

Sasuke didn't think much when he made his own steps out of the office once Suigetsu took his leave.

Still, he didn't think much when he realized he was hovering above rooftops of unfamiliar neighbourhood towards a solid destination. He had only come to this neighbourhood once and not from the direction of his office yet his feet took him there easily as if he had passed the streets a million times before.

He didn't have to think much, hadn't had from the start. Because if he wasn't the one putting an end to it then it wouldn't stop. He would only find more things to muddle with what he had known hence staying further away from the closure he severely wanted to reach.

Coming her way did not mean he had come to a conclusion about their situation.

Coming her way did not mean he would mark her nor should they mate.

No one said he would, no one said they should. What was left to ponder about?

He wanted to see her.

He wanted her.

So he did.

"I heard you were injured." was supposed to be what he was going to say.

But all thoughts about necessary courtesy and worry of impending heat were left forgotten once his eyes caught sight of her weakened state peeking behind the door.

In an instant, he activated his Sharingan and assessed her from head to toe.

"Your chakra pathway was disturbed," he mentioned instead.

"S—Uchiha-taichou..."

Her voice was a mere hesitant whisper, but it easily engulfed him into its embrace and pulled him into an overwhelmingly wistful yearning.

"Hyuuga," he breathed, she gasped, and his heart ached when he recognized the tears that refused to fall from her eyelids. "Let me in… I'm here to help."

Author's Note :

Y'all be excited when you finally see present tense in the next chapter.

We're back to monthly updates~~

Until next time.

- Crowds