Uchiha Itachi loved his job. It afforded him the luxury of being able to live a life without worrying about his financial wellbeing, provided him an opportunity to win cases because he was that good, and, under normal circumstances, kept him just busy enough to not be bored. He was not a man who had hobbies. In any other moment except right now, he would still feel this way.
"Ino, I did receive your email. I'm glad he finally got an attorney." He said, rubbing his temple. His work phone is on speaker, his office door is shut, and he is on the verge of getting a migraine. "However, your client's behavior before obtaining counsel has been inappropriate."
He hears the blonde scoff. Professionally, they are colleagues who come across each other on occasional cases without issue, maybe even see each other at other Konoha Law Association seminars around town. As a courtesy, Itachi's kept her firm on his list for holiday greeting cards. This case may shatter the previous landscape of their work relationship. "Do not speak on my client's behalf for me. He is doing the best he can with your client's refusal to cooperate."
"Did you see the message he sent her? This is one of many. I have no issue waiting for your revisions to the Agreement I drafted, but he has to cease harassing my client."
"Itachi, under my supervision it will not happen again. Now, if you can focus on what's actually at stake here, I read your draft and you are denying Mr. Uzumaki significant custodial time with Souta. My client is still adamant about trying to recover his marriage, and she is not budging. Can you at least see if marriage counseling can be attempted before we can even discuss settlement?"
It felt like his turn to scoff, but he would never do this while in work mode, especially with one of his younger brother's peers. It shouldn't have surprised him that Naruto would hire his friend to represent him, but it did surprise him that he'd also be essentially hiring one of his wife's friends. He was not the brightest at being emotionally intelligent.
"I wonder how this is not a conflict in the interest of both parties, since you know them personally."
"Don't worry about me. Let me know by the end of the week what she says." Click.
Hinata is not okay. This was known since before she obtained a divorce attorney, but it's been solidified after she read Itachi's latest email to her. The only words that stood out to her were "marriage counseling", "attempt", and "by Friday". It's Wednesday.
She's also not doing well because this email hit her phone alert while she was in the middle of grocery shopping, with Souta staring right at her. He's whining because he wants her phone to play games on, and she's trying to maintain her composure for his sake.
Counseling. What is there to say? Yes, she's open to rehashing the same wound over and over about her husband cheating on her, with a stranger, no less? That she married a man that promised her the world, stood by him during his worst times, and reluctantly agreed to having a family with him because she wanted to make him happy? It was a plus that Souta is the best thing that's ever happened to her, but the guilt of feeling like she was no longer providing him the functional family dynamic he deserves breaks her heart.
Is she going to be seen as uncooperative for not even considering it? It would beat being alone, it would maybe give her a Lemonade period to heal and try again. She would be, in a sense, making small steps to let him in again. She has been cold to Naruto since she caught him, keeping all conversations short and sweet to avoid crying. It's not as frequent as before, but she's so tired of fighting him mentally.
Before she can do anything else, she gets another email. Itachi responded to the thread.
Please attend one meeting. It's Konoha policy for those considering filing petitions, so you must complete so before Friday as well. The details are below. No kids. Thanks, Itachi.
It's Wednesday.
Sasuke is adjusting himself in the flimsy foldable chair in the auditorium of his daughter's preschool, but he is not there for her. The location, after school hours, serves as a support group for divorcees. He had to do it years ago when everything first went to shit with Sakura, but he attends here and there as an act of strength for his own sanity. Divorce sucks, and he never really healed from it. So, he's here, because there's only 4 other adults that regularly attend, it's lowkey, and it comforts him that shit sucks for other people, too.
"I'm glad to see some familiar faces." Kurenai smiled. "We do have a new attendee today, so please be respectful." New? That was odd. Sasuke turns his head, and he sees none other than Hinata to his right. He didn't think she noticed him, either, but once she caught his eyes on her, she turned back to Kurenai. He noticed she was trying to shield herself from him with her long hair, but he could still see the flush on her face.
He contemplates leaving. He's not one to really share his feelings during the meetings, and he certainly wasn't going to start with his best friend's soon-to-be ex-wife in the room. It felt inappropriate. Intrusive, even. Sasuke was about to get up when he heard her whisper "Don't go."
He doesn't.
Eventually, some of the attendees start sharing things about themselves. The group works because everyone's identity is not discussed, even if you happen to know someone, no one is allowed to mention it. The group is meant to serve as a neutral environment for citizens dealing with separation to seek an outlet they may not have with similarly experienced peers.
"I feel defeated, like if I stay it would be only for the kids. But I don't love him anymore and he's telling the kids everything." Spoke one woman, earning a shoulder squeeze from Kurenai and soft whispers of support from the rest. Sasuke is silent and Hinata, in his eye, is notably looking at the ground, mouth in a tight line.
He can tell she's tensed up and he can only imagine it's because she relates to the stranger. What he didn't anticipate, however, was hearing her speak again, this time loud enough for the group to hear.
"My husband wants to go to marriage counseling." She says, as if it's the first time she's said it out loud. "He thinks that I am not listening. That I am ruining everything by not trying to fix it."
"And how do you feel?" Kurenai asked, her eyes softening. For the fifteen years she's volunteered to work in the program, it always pained her to see someone going through such a recent wound.
"Like I have to do it, like I have no choice." Hinata at this point is, from the looks of it, fighting the urge to cry. "I hate that I can't talk about this without feeling like I failed."
You didn't, Sasuke wants to say. But he can't.
Hinata feels lighter. For the first time, the breath she's held for six months left her chest and she can feel the fresh air in her lungs again. For all the support she has during such a difficult, emotional time, she has never quite been able to be so vulnerable about her struggles.
She was, however, wondering what to do about Sasuke, who was very much there, and very clearly heard her pour her heart out about her husband.
Does she talk to him? She can't feel embarrassed, because that feeling went with the initial shock of Naruto's affair. Well, whatever he fucking calls it. Even cursing in her head made her frustrated. She was never one for doing that, even in her mind.
So, when the session finally ends, of course she taps him on the shoulder. If there was anything she was learning with everything else going on, it was to speak up. He looks up to her with no real expression on his face, but for all she knew, maybe he was keeping tabs on her to tell Naruto. She didn't know him that well, after all.
"Please don't tell him anything I said." She says. Maybe she offended him, because his eyes go wide for a brief moment, but he doesn't say anything.
"I'm here just like you are." The understanding was there, and she nods, appreciative. She wants to thank him, but doesn't. She grabs her coat and leaves.
Hey, Hina. I know you're upset, but it's just my job. Please call me.
Ino is staring at her phone conversation with Hinata and only sees that her notifications are silenced. She wants to believe Hinata has had that setting on before she became her husband's attorney in their messy divorce, but that likely wasn't true.
"Ino, I really don't know what the hell you were thinking," Sakura says between sips of her iced tea. Ino's opposite of her at their local coffee shop, eating breakfast before Ino has to go to her office. "You couldn't have said no?"
"What was I supposed to say? Gee, Naruto, I can't help you, even though my law degree says otherwise. He asked me first!" She whined, cutting her banana muffin with her butter knife and fork. "Besides, she asked his best friend's brother to be hers. Clearly they're even now."
"That's not the point! You're one of her friends! She is not going to talk to you after all this."
It pained her to think that Sakura may be right about that. "Well, it's not fair, Sakura. I am just doing my job!"
"Yeah, and guess what? When I got my divorce, I didn't use you either! If you had helped Sasuke I would've told you to go fuck yourself, too."
"She told you to tell me to go fuck myself?"
"No, but on her behalf, I'm telling you what she should've said to you."
Ino rolled her eyes, taking a swing of her large caramel latte. "I am only focusing on numbers. Naruto thinks they can work it out, and that's what I want to do. I want to help our friend's marriage."
"Pft." Sakura scrolled through her phone, swiping right on every profile on her screen. "Nothing could've saved mine. And after what Naruto did, I doubt she will go back."
"Well, maybe that isn't a bad thing." Ino shrugs. "Hey. Could you at least try to get Sasuke to talk to her? I don't care about the case as much. I just don't want any bad blood over this."
"I'm not asking him to do that, especially when we aren't exactly friends." Sakura mused. "I'll give Hinata your regards when I see her next." Sakura's phone dings and she sees her dating app notification. "Ino…you're saying he wants to save the marriage, huh?"
She turned her screen to Ino and all she could do was groan. There was Naruto, shirtless, on a dating app, with a bio that read "Just want to have fun".
"For fuck's sake, please do not tell Hinata!"
"Naruto, are you fucking stupid! Seriously, why the hell would you create a profile!" He could hear the venom out of Ino's voice over the phone. Naruto adjusts his earbuds and continues to curl the weights in his hands. He's now able to do 4 reps at 30 pounds per arm. "Of all the things, I told you to stop texting her, and to lay low! Wait a minute, don't tell me you're the gym! This is serious!"
If Ino wasn't a childhood friend, he would've hung up by now, but being yelled at felt nostalgic for some reason, and Naruto couldn't exactly fight back when she was right about everything. In between reps, he replies "I made that months ago."
"How do you not see that this detail makes it worse!"
"Hey, you're helping me, right?" Naruto says, sighing. "I haven't been using it for anything besides sex."
"Naruto. As your attorney, which I am acting as right this moment, you are protected by attorney-client privilege. But admitting that you had this fucking profile for months, potentially before Hinata caught you, and the chance that Itachi may find this fact out, will not look good for you anywhere. Not to the Court, and especially not to Hinata. How the fuck do you plan on winning her back if she finds out you did this, too?!"
"Ino, I only recently started using it for sex. It's barely 4 months old!"
"Well, stop fucking people. If you want Hinata to even entertain the idea of trying to make amends with you, you need to cut this shit out."
"Did she say if she'd try?" He asked, setting the weights down on the rack. He's lost weight in the face, in part because he's eating like shit again (all the ramen and no other food groups), and because he hasn't had his wife's cooking since the spring.
"I haven't heard back yet. I'll let you know. Can you please delete your fucking profile now?"
He pulled his phone out, and quickly tapped the app open to click 'Suspend'. Just in case, he mused. "Done."
"Okay. Great. I'll talk to you later." She hangs up, and he's relieved, because the awkwardness of admitting such intimate details of his life to her was already humiliating, but the realization that he was demanding so much of Hinata but doing very little to fix the problem that caused it all but winded him.
Sitting on the bench, he just stared at his phone. He was told not to reach out again, but he was running out of ways to see or speak to her without him getting in more trouble. It frustrated him how confusing all of this was, when his mistake was simply that. A mistake.
He didn't want to lose his wife. He didn't want to lose his family. It never occurred to him that the risk of it all ending was very much real, or that she would actually walk away from something so insignificant. A mistake.
There was no particular reason why he chose that woman, and he didn't know her name, age, or anything of pertinence. He remembered where he met her (his favorite bar three blocks from the office), the date (July 3rd), and what he was wearing (his beige slacks Hinata ironed the evening prior). He remembered the small details that didn't matter, but couldn't give Hinata anything besides heartbreak.
For the life of him, he couldn't pin it. No matter how many times Ino asked him during his consultation, he could not explain the 'why'. They had been together for nine years. Nine long, beautiful years. She had been by his side since the beginning and he felt betrayed that something so short - a misjudged mistake - could be the end. They only got married three years ago. Sasuke was his best man, and they had a big wedding, in part because of the massive size of the Hyuuga clan. He always joked with her about how many of them lived in Konoha. Now, most of them he sees on the street give him the stink eye for ruining their reputation amongst social circles.
Things were hard. They hardly touched, she was so distant. She was never excited to see him, always focused on Souta. Her pregnancy was terrible on her. Hinata was always tired, so sore, so unbelievably silent. It was the opposite of who she was before the pregnancy. Naruto thinks, as he's driving back to their home, that she never really told him what she was going through. She never opened up, never sought his comfort. It was weird how that transition did so much.
But what if he was lying to himself, making up excuses for what he did? He knew what he did was wrong. But it was only so long until there was just a shift, and there he was, underneath a woman that was willing to be there in her stead for even just a moment.
He presses her contact on his car's screen and calls her anyway, fighting advice and the bullshit that was forcing him to comply with the arbitrary way of communication. "Hey," He says, and she of course picked up, because she always did.
There's silence again, but he can hear her breathe into the phone. "Happy Birthday, Hina." He says. "I sent you a gift, did you get it?"
"Thank you. Yes, I got it today. They are beautiful." He chose the largest size bouquet of lilacs for her, her favorite flower. Same ones used for their wedding. A gesture he knew she would love.
"Maybe I could take the three of us to dinner to celebrate?"
"Naruto, I can't."
"What, because of your lawyer? Please, Hina. I just want to see you."
"It's just not a good time right now."
"Okay." He resigns, pulling into the garage. "Will you let me know when it is a good time?"
"I'll try." He wants to believe this means she'll try everything, but he's not sure. He doesn't want to pressure her too much, but just enough so that she knows that he was willing to wait.
"Okay. Please give Souta a hug for me. I want to see him soon, too."
"I can drop him off tomorrow if you want. I have some errands I need to run."
"Okay. I'm glad I can see him. Thank you. Hina, I love you. I want you to remember that." He can hear faint sniffling, and he deems the call a success in his books to get any reaction out of her. Maybe she will say it back.
She hangs up.
Hello Mr. Uchiha,
I attended the meeting yesterday. I consent to an attempt with marriage counseling. Naruto sent me flowers for my birthday, which I forgot was today (not that this is relevant). I am willing to try because I don't want to fight. He asked to see me and Souta, and to take me out to dinner. I rejected that offer, but I will be dropping Souta off at our home tomorrow so he can have the weekend. I hope this was okay to do without your guidance.
Thank you.
Hinata is drinking a glass of her favorite wine as she presses 'Send' to her email. The aforementioned flowers are in a grand vase on the kitchen counter. She is sitting on her couch, lights dimmed, dried mascara on her face. Souta is asleep - earlier than normal - so she could properly grieve her 33rd birthday. One filled with so many mixed emotions, primarily the fact that her husband was teasing her with affection she hadn't felt in months.
Where was this husband, three years ago? One that surprised her with gifts, pursued her endlessly. She couldn't recall the last time he ever put this much effort into getting her attention. Told her he loved her. It was just hard not to still feel something with the divorce playing in the background.
She pleaded with her friends and family to just give her today to be on her own. There was no occasion worth celebrating. She was alone, and maybe it was her choice. She could invite Naruto over. She could go see him. She could pretend nothing happened and just return to her married life, one that was rarely filled with light and laughter.
It embarrassed her to be in this position. Unsure what to do or feel. Does she go back, or plow through, accepting the end? What if she did go back? What if it happened again? She couldn't understand what the best choice was, because none of them would eliminate the feeling she felt in her stomach.
She scrolls through her laptop until an iMessage notification pops up. It's Sasuke.
Happy Birthday. It read. That was kind of him. She certainly didn't remember his, and did not anticipate that he would remember hers.
Thank you, Sasuke. She writes back. She can thank him now.