Day 14: Missed Connections
To Sasuke's extreme irritation, the girl wasn't at the next corporate party. Or the next. Or the one after that. He was starting to wonder if she had even existed or if she was just a product of his imagination. But there were too many details that stuck out to him - her pale eyes that crinkled at the corners when she smiled, the way she pressed her fingers together when she was thinking - for it to be all a product of his imagination.
So why couldn't he find her? Sasuke grumbled to himself, having done yet another lap of the Akimichi property without any luck. Finally, he resigned himself to sulking in the back corner of the ballroom, annoyed to have once again come up empty-handed.
"I'm surprised to see you out and about, little brother." Sasuke looked up to see Itachi striding over, glass of champagne in hand. "Normally you'd have disappeared within the first hour."
"Hn." Sasuke stared at the crowd, pointedly ignoring his brother. As much as Sasuke liked and respected Itachi, he wished he would stop treating him like a little sibling.
"It seems to me that you've been looking for something," Itachi continued, sipping his champagne. "Though judging by your expression you haven't had any luck. Would you like some help?"
"No," Sasuke said automatically, then paused. Even though Itachi didn't come to these corporate parties often, he still seemed to know everything about everyone. "Do you know a girl with dark hair and really pale, grey-ish eyes?"
"Oh? Has someone finally caught my little brother's interest?" Itachi teased, the corners of his eyes crinkling in amusement.
"Just answer the question."
"And deny my little brother the joy of the search? Never." Itachi flicked Sasuke's forehead before Sasuke could move away, eliciting an indignant 'Hey!'. "Maybe next time you'll pay attention when Father introduces you to our business network."
Sasuke scowled and moved to stand on the opposite side of the room. Typical Itachi, he thought furiously. He should have known better than to expect any help from that smug weasel. He was going to find out who this girl was if it killed him.
He spent the next few weeks going through Uchiha Corp's business contacts with no luck. He racked his brain for people that his father had introduced him to, but despite his near-photographic memory all the faces blurred together. The only people he had bothered to remember were the business leaders, who were mostly old men. Eventually, he had to admit that he needed help. Itachi was out, for obvious reasons. So he contacted the second most well-connected person he knew.
"Sasuke!" Ino shrieked, her voice so loud and shrill that Sasuke had to move the phone from his ear. "I've been abroad for three months and that's the first thing you text me when I get back? No hello, no how are you. Just a long description of someone you met at a corporate party. What am I, your human phone book?"
"...How are you," Sasuke said, not wanting to admit that he had completely forgotten that she'd gone to work in Iwagakure for a couple months. Keeping track of other people's lives was Ino's thing, which is what made her such an effective diplomat. "Do you know who she is?"
"Probably. Obviously I can't say for certain since you don't have a picture of her, but I'm about 80% sure. Why do you want to know?"
"...She was interesting to talk to," Sasuke said. To be honest, other than proving Itachi wrong, he wasn't sure why he was trying so hard to find out who this girl was.
Ino was quiet for a moment before finally asking, "Are you interested in her?"
"What? Where are you getting that from?"
"Oh god, you are." Ino sounded amused, disbelieving, and amazed all at once. "I can't believe it. I cannot believe it. It's like seeing a cat bark."
"Are you going to tell me who she is or not?" Sasuke asked, scowling at his phone.
"Uh no. You're a terrible boyfriend. I can't do that to my friend. That's practically a war crime."
"What? I'm not-Arghh." Sasuke ended the call with a frustrated yell and buried his head in his hands. His phone immediately lit up with an incoming call from Ino which he muted. He would get hell from her later about sending her to voicemail, but he'd deal with that later. Maybe texting Ino had been a mistake.
As Sasuke later found out, it indeed had been a mistake.
"Ino told me not to say anything," Shikamaru drawled, exhaling a lungful of cigarette smoke after Sasuke approached him. "Threatened to snitch to my mom that I picked up smoking again if I did."
("I could threaten to do that too," Sasuke pointed out. Shikamaru gave him an unimpressed look and took another drag.)
"Sorry bastard, Sakura won't tell me who she is," Naruto said apologetically after laughing his ass off at the situation Sasuke had, somehow, found himself in. "She did say it's nice to see you struggle to find a girl for once. Can't say I disagree." Sasuke had a feeling that his shitty teenage dating habits had finally caught up to him.
And so, after weeks of dead ends, Sasuke officially gave up. It wasn't worth the effort or the humiliation anymore. That one-time conversation had eaten up too much of his time, and he badly needed to focus on work. His father had asked him to take over the Hyuga deal because Itachi apparently needed to focus on other things. The deal was in its final stages and all Sasuke needed to do was meet with the Hyugas, sort out a few minor details, and make sure the contract was signed. Fairly straightforward. Neji Hyuga was an arrogant ass, but he was competent and direct, which was more than Sasuke could say for a lot of the people he had worked with. This deal would be wrapped up within an hour.
Which was what Sasuke had thought until he arrived at the agreed meeting place, an upscale restaurant in downtown Konohagakure known for its privacy, and saw not Neji Hyuga but the girl he had spent the past few weeks looking for. "You're not Neji Hyuga," he blurted out before he could stop himself.
"No, Neji had a conflict and asked me to stand in for him. Didn't someone notify you of the change?" the girl asked, her brows furrowing.
"Ah well, I'm also a stand-in for Itachi, so maybe that email didn't get forwarded," Sasuke fibbed, taking a seat at the two-person table. Itachi didn't just 'forget' to forward relevant emails. Sasuke should have known something was up when Itachi wrote "Hyuga representative" in the meeting invite instead of specifying who he was meeting with. "We've met before, but I'm Sasuke Uchiha. It's nice to meet you," he said, bowing his head.
"Hinata Hyuga, it's nice to meet you." Hinata bowed in return. "I hope my company is more welcome this time around," she added with a small smile.
Sasuke grimaced. "I apologize for how rude I was last time we met. For what it's worth, I did enjoy your company quite a lot. I had hoped to talk to you more, but you weren't at any of the following parties."
"It's alright. This last month was very busy, so I wasn't able to go." A waiter appeared and took their drink order. "But I'm being asked to attend the next one."
"I'm looking forward to seeing you there," Sasuke said honestly. It was the first time he had said that about those networking parties ever.
Hinata blinked in surprise, her brow furrowing slightly in confusion before giving him a polite smile. "I-I am too," she said, her face flushing pink.
She's cute, Sasuke thought, then mentally slapped himself. It was time to get things back on track. "Anyway, shall we start discussing the terms of the business partnership?"
"Ah yes." Hinata ducked down to retrieve a folder from her bag and pulled out a paper copy of the contract with small, neat notes written in the margins. "There are just a few things I wanted to go over..."
A/N: I was planning on wrapping the story here, but it didn't go the way I wanted so one more chap and then an extra. Thank you to everyone who followed, favorited, and commented! You really made my day.