Title: "Anything and Everything"

Author: King Cobbler

Warnings: AU after chunnin exams, fluff, romance, (very) slight Naruto, Ino, and Sakura bashing by Sasuke.

Summary: Sometimes, in the dank confines of his own mind, Sasuke wished she'd chase him instead.

Pairing: Sasuke/Hinata, Hinata/Naruto

She was blushing again, blushing and stuttering like a love struck fool. All because of him. Naruto. The dobe. Dead last. The idiot of Konoha. He shouldn't be jealous—not of Naruto—but he was. Hinata was giggling again, the sound being slight in the face of her anxiety. He'd never made her laugh before.

She and Naruto had grown obnoxiously close in the course of their mission. She was finally able to avoid fainting in his presence and Naruto had come to decide she wasn't so weird after all. (This had something to do with the fact that Hinata made him ramen, he was sure.)Ino had been fawning over the couple all day—not that he cared. If the Hyuuga had decided to trip all over herself for the sake of a hair-brained, sorry excuse for a ninja, then so be it. More power to her. She'd need all the support she could get to stand him.

The boy glanced over again at the happy pair, barely restraining a mouthful of vomit. Hinata was offering her Naruto her own lunch because of his constant hunger complaints. It looked like the dobe was actually considering it, too. Idiot. Hinata was exhausted from using the byakugan so frequently. She obviously needed the food more. Stupid Naruto. He was bobbing up and down like a twitchy mutt, obviously excited about the prospect of a free meal. Hinata was a wonderful cook.

He didn't even seem concerned that she would be going without. Idiot. He considered interfering, telling Hinata she needed to eat for the good of the team. The dobe couldn't exactly argue with the truth. He slowed his pace to match that of the couple's and watched in a mixture of disappointment and satisfaction as Ino got there first, proceeding to pound Naruto for his lack of manners. At least she was good for something.

As Naruto laid on the ground, trying to drown out Ino's nonsensical lecture, the team leader realized that this was his chance to separate the love birds. He called Hinata to his side, in guise of needing her eyes. He felt guilty asking her to scout ahead when her chakra was so low, but not nearly guilty enough to use a less effective excuse. After affirming there were no enemy nins ahead, she stayed at his right, either too uncomfortable or too polite to consider moving to her previous position.

Ino and Naruto were still trading verbal blows behind them. It could almost be considered suspect, how very aggressive Naruto was being, if you didn't know the knucklehead. Naruto had always been an argumentative person and had a tendency to fly off the handle. This reaction was usually subdued around those of the fairer sex, but Ino appeared to have a knack for irritating him. Odd, considering that her personality was almost a carbon copy of his beloved Sakura-chan's. One fangirl was just as annoying as the next.

That was something he'd always admired about Hinata, her ability to be subtle. Even knowing how much the girl loved Naruto, her affection it wasn't obvious. Well, it was, but somehow she seemed to worship him in a way that was much less crass than anything Ino or Sakura could ever pull off.

"Uchiha-san?" Questioned a soft voice.

Hinata was looking ahead, her bloodline activated again. Her usual timid nature had been replaced with a ninja-inspired seriousness. He favored her with a noncommittal grunt.

"I-Is there something we should be worried about?" She continued.

A smirk twisted his lips. Instead of completely losing her head in his presence, as most females did, she'd kept her mind on the mission. This could be because she held no romantic interest in him (and probably was), but he liked to think it was because of her talent as a kunoichi and underlying maturity. It was a welcome change, to say the least. None of his admirers were quite as annoying as they used to be, but the sly glances were rapidly becoming more troublesome than the outright shrieks.

"Why would you think that, Hinata?" He returned. It was a stupid question, but he done worse to hear her speak.

"W-Well," she murmured, her fingers pushing together. "You asked me to scout ahead. I thought we'd l-left enemy territory. Should w-we be w-w-worried, Uchiha-san?"

"No," he answered simply, distracted. Uchiha-san, huh? She called the dobe Naruto-kun.

"Uchiha-san?" There it was again.

"What?!" He bit out harshly. Too harshly if her wince was anything to go by.

"Ano . . .I-I j-j-just wanted to say thank you, for e-earlier."

He looked down at her. "Earlier?" He prompted.

Her head bowed. "Y-You s-s-saved m-my life."

The instance in question came back to him with startling clarity. Their mission had been simple; escort an emissary out of the land of fire. They expected low level enemy-nin, so they'd been combat ready. In one of their skirmishes Sasuke had put himself at risk to deflect a kunai coming straight toward Hinata's undefended back. At the time, he'd been thinking more along the lines of helping a teammate avoid injury instead of protecting someone he cared about, but Hinata didn't need to know that. Now was a perfect time to pull out a sappy comment, like her beloved idiot. Oh, how the mighty have fallen.

He shrugged. "Teammates . . . Should help each other." He was surprised that the sentiment was truthful.

The Hyuuga smiled. "Y-You're a g-good p-p-person, Sasuke-san." She blushed.

His eyes widened at the new title and compliment. They weren't quite as affectionate as 'Naruto-kun' and 'the person I admire most', but they were getting there.

"Hinata-sama, your father has requested your presence for training." The girl's head bowed. Neji had, on her father's orders, met Hinata at the gate. He'd allowed her to give a brief goodbye to Ino and Naruto, but wasn't patient enough to wait out Sasuke's turn.

If Naruto had been there, he would've protested the ridiculous 'order' and Neji's ridiculous attempt at ignoring him in his usual loud, obnoxious fashion, but he wasn't. Sasuke was. "She's suffering from chakra exhaustion, she doesn't need to train."

"I think Hiashi-sama's judgment is superior to yours, Uchiha," Neji scoffed. "Who are you to question it?"

"I'm her team leader." Hinata glanced nervously between the two prodigies.

"Ano, S-Sasuke-san-" She tried to interrupt.

"The mission is over," Neji hissed amid his gentle cousin's protests.

"Her condition relates to it, which gives me jurisdiction," Sasuke smirked. "You know as well as I that if she were to disobey direct orders from me she'd be undermining the entire system. That's hardly suitable behavior for a Hyuuga."

"You've given no orders concerning her health, " the older Hyuuga stated apathetically.

Sasuke's eyes narrowed. "Hinata?" She looked towards him. "You're to have yourself looked over and healed by a medic. Following that, you should do nothing strenuous for several days, including training of any kind."

"Hai," Hinata agreed, head bowed again.

Neji turned. "Come, Hinata-sama."

"N-Nii-san, could y-you g-go ahead without me? I-I'll catch up . . ." She whispered awkwardly.

Neji's brow furrowed in protest, but after being subjected to Hinata's pleading gaze, he nodded reluctantly. He shot a glare at Sasuke, knocking his shoulder purposely before stopping a few paces ahead. Sasuke wasn't sure exactly how he'd gotten on Neji's bad side, but the feeling was mutual. When the hell had everyone started preferring Naruto over him, anyway?

She turned to Sasuke. "Y-you didn't have t-to do t-that, Sasuke-san." Her bravado faded and she blushed. "Thank you . . ."

He waved his hand. "I told you before, teammates should help each other . . ."

"H-hai." Hinata nodded. "B-but I thought that, maybe, w-we could be, uh, friends . . ." She trailed off, her eyes cast downward and her face beet red.

There was a tense silence.

"I would like that . . .Hinata-chan."

She flushed even deeper, if possible, bowing quickly before following after her cousin. He looked after her in silent contemplation. For saving her life, he'd been upgraded from Uchiha-san to Sasuke-san, and for protecting her well-being, he'd been moved from team leader to friend. He couldn't help but wonder what he'd have to do to make her call him Sasuke-kun.

He was sure it'd be worth it.

Know the Lingo:

-San: The equivalent of Mr. and/or Ms., respectful

-Chan: Cutesy term of affection

-Sama: Even more respectful than -San

-Kun: Affectionate/Respectuful term, usually for a male.

Hai: Yes, okay

Ano: Um,

Nii-san: Brother