Disclaimer: Sigh, why bother. I don't own Naruto, I won't own Naruto, and marrying into Naruto would be just as bad as prostitution but with way awesome pay…..

Note: I'M BACK!!!!!!! Moving was a terrible experience! I had no air conditioning, no water and no electricity for the first week. My cable just got turned on last week after a month of no Internet, and my car broke down.

On the plus side though, I've gotten to be closer to Jesus (the church down the block had central air) and I've won the Quidditich World Cup three times, so yeah, bow before my awesome!

I'm really really sorry for the delays but when life handed me lemons, all I did was manage to get acid in my eyes.

ThankYou's: Right so, I have a lot of big honk'n THANK YOU'S to hand out, and the lucky recipients of them are; Emmeline Creazil, Kawaiitahina123, Bleubutterfly, Mimichan88, Rimas, Winterkaguya, Sarcasic Proserpine, Iloveme0808, Gabiruchis, ShikamaruMariUchiha, TwilighPheonix, Miyakiki-sama, (breathes) Paranoidbychoice (x 2), Midnight blue08, Likes to Smile, HinaHyuugaSan, Amethyst, Anonymous, and last but certainly not least Darth-Taisha!

YOU GUYS ROCK MY SOCKS! And a smaller but no less important thanks to all those who added me to their favs and alerts!

YOU INSPIRE!!

Chapter Three:

Two Lawyers and a Backbone:

"That's spying you know," TenTen quipped, looking over the top of her magazine at Ino. The blonde lifted her ear from the large double door and leveled her bun-haired friend with a glare.

"No it's not."

"Really?" Ten arched a sardonic brow.

"No." Ino scoffed putting her hands on her hips, ponytail pouring over her shoulder as she tilted her head. "I think of it as 'Accidentally listening on purpose.' Keep typing Susie." She added with a hiss at the staring secretary, whose name was not Susie, but in fact, Karin like her nameplate scrawled.

"Not that she can probably read it…." The redhead groused sourly, looking back down at her computer screen, mind quickly drifting towards more perverse grounds that featured a certain younger Uchiha brother as the star performer.

Tenten threw an apologetic glance at the now drooling secretary before lowering her magazine with an admonished huff.

"Ino-"

"Don't Ino me!" The Yamanaka cut in, stomping back to collapse down onto the couch next to Tenten. The fluorescent lighting of the waiting room making her eyes squint. She leaned her head on the brunette's shoulder, pouting. "I'm just trying to make sure he doesn't kill her with his oppressive assholeness."

The martial artist snorted, Ino was loyal if nothing else.

"I'm sure she'll be fine." Ten consoled. "She's a big girl."

"Not yet. Give it a few months, then, she'll be a big girl." Ino smirked puffing out her cheeks. TenTen playfully smacked the blonde's arm.

"That's not nice."

"I know," Ino sighed, her head shifted on the brunettes shoulder. "God. I'm gonna be so jealous of her boobs."

"I know," Ten patted her friends head, eyes falling back to the article in Modern Ninja, "Me too."

--FlashBack—

She couldn't remember the last time she had dared the corridors of the Uchiha mansion at night. Hinata could barely find her way around in the day let alone stumbling around in the shadows.

The bluette barely made it down the grand staircase leading to the entrance hall without breaking her neck, before crossing the marble floors to the kitchen. As her hand fell on the doorknob, a loud crash followed by a moan resounded from within.

Taking a breath Hinata pushed open the oak door and stepped through the threshold and into the swarthy darkness. Fingers fumbling across the wall for a few moments, till she finally clicked on the lig-

"Turn that damn thing off."Came the answering growl. Hinata jumped, immediately flipping the lights off again and twirling around, opal eyes fell to the half-shadowed face of her husband, Itachi Uchiha.

"What do you want?" He murmured; eyes drifting closed as he leaned back against the oven door. A half empty bottle of scotch winked in the moonlight next to him, pots and pans littering the floor from where Hinata stood all the way to his stretched out legs.

"A-are you okay?"

"Hn."

Hinata took a tentative step forward, careful of the glass shards peppering the stone floor.

"I-it's just t-that y-you d-d-" She hated how nervous she became around him. No matter what she did, no matter how many breaths she took to calm her jarring nerves, Itachi's presence unsettled her more than anyone else could ever hope to.

"Don't speak to me unless you can use whole sentences."

She winced under the weight of his criticism, the heiress had half a mind to just leave him curled on the floor in a pool of his self-pity, but swallowed her resolve.

'He buried his best friend today, what do I expect him to do, welcome me with open arms and sweet nothings?'

She almost chortled; Itachi wouldn't touch her with a ten-foot pole even on his best of days, let alone start now. Hinata looked thoughtfully at her husbands face. Gone was the controlled, immaculately kept business tycoon of Uchiha Industries. And in his place, slumped against the kitchen floor, was a desultory caricature.

The perfect, shoulder length locks now disheveled, as if he'd been pulling at the strands, clumping them in greasy fists. Suit jacket wrinkled, tie gone, the top few buttons of his shirt open revealing a few pale inches of his smooth ches-

Hinata looked away, a tomato blush crawling up her neck and blooming on her cheeks. She'd never seen Itachi so…so….

Grungy… And despite her steadfast fear of the man, a small spark of lust brought on by years of sexual repression, fanned to life between her thighs. Opal eyes widened before falling to her quivering knees with an accusing glare.

Itachi cracked open his blood shot eyes.

"Still here?"

The bluette hardened her features, willing away the butterflies multiplying like rabbits in her stomach.

"I'm not going to let you sit here alone." Hinata, somewhat surprised at her ability to speak with such conviction, straightened her shoulders, stepping closer.

"Hn." Itachi lifted a brow.

'Well, well, well….' Onyx orbs lazily traced down her scantily clad figure as he lifted the bottle to his lips. He took a long draught of burning liquid, his thoughts immediately shifting to flashes of what else he'd rather be tasting.

Despite her bravery only moments before, Hinata's traitorous body shivered under the heat of his gaze. She couldn't help it. Itachi was, regardless his icy demeanor, a beautiful man; a beautiful man now eyeing her like she was Sunday lunch.

"Cold?" Itachi smirked darkly, the purple smudges under his eyes crinkling. Hinata gulped, twisting a piece of long indigo hair with her fingers. "I have something that can warm you."

Of that she had no doubt.

The heiress gulped. Ignoring that voice in the back of her mind screaming at her to turn tail and run, she stepped closer to her husband.

--End of Flashback—

-s. Hyuuga. Ms. Hyuuga?" She jumped as a hand fell on her shoulder, ripping her out of her memories. Hinata looked up from the cherry wood finish and into the eyes of her lawyer, Shikamaru Nara.

"S-sorry." She mumbled averting her gaze, feeling the damning blush staining her cheeks red.

Although she' d managed to avoid direct eye contact so far, Hinata could feel, once again, Itachi's eyes burning a hole through her from across the table.

"It's fine, Ms. Hyuuga,"

Hyuuga already? Hinata shook her head; did she sign the papers while she was dreaming?

"We were just going over housing arrangements." Mr. Nara continued, shifting through a stack of papers in front of him. Across the tabletop, Itachi's lawyer, Genma Shiranui, did the same.

"Right, well in regards to the Uchiha mansion, my client is adamant in his stance." Genma started, sliding the heiress a small glance. Next to him Itachi turned her chair to the bay windows taking up the expanse of the West wall.

"The grounds have been in his family for generations and he'd like to keep it that way."

Shikamaru nodded. "Fine, but seeing as my client is now without residence and unable to move back into the Hyuuga family estates due to…" The Nara looked over at a blank Hinata. "Personal reason, she would like in exchange, the Konoha pent hou-"

"No." Hinata cut in looking up, her opal eyes dancing back and forth between her lawyer and Genma. She ignored the way Itachi, swiveled around, ( A/N: Okay I giggle every time I think of Itachi swiveling around in a spinny chair XD) and leveled a glare at the side of her head through the curtain of her blue hair.

"Hinata I must degr-"

"I don't want it." The heiress stated firmly, locking eyes with Shikamaru.

The young lawyer sighed, shaking his pineapple-shaped head before facing the opposing pair. "The pent house is yours." He shuffled more papers. "Now about-"

"Where will you stay?"

It wasn't so much the question that caught her off guard, but the person asking her.

Hinata chanced a look at Itachi. His onyx eyes had a red tinge as he continued to stare chasms through her.

Perhaps she was tired of being walked on. Maybe it was the idea that she was out from under her families' thumb, and the contract of a loveless marriage.

Or it could have been that she had friends right outside the door, namely TenTen who was a professional martial artist that would kill Itachi at the snap of her fingers.

Or maybe, just maybe it was the fact that she now had another person growing inside of her, needing her to be strong for the both of them.

Whatever it was that was fueling this newfound courage, Hinata liked it. She liked it a lot. Hinata often looked back on her life while sitting away in her empty room in the Uchiha mansion, wondering if she'd ever have the chance to start over. Start fresh.

This was it. And when life handed you a clean slate on a platter, you sure as hell didn't sneer at it! Mrs. Uch-

Ms. Hyuuga, sat up a little straighter in her leather chair, shifting her brand-spanking-new backbone deeper into the cushions.

"I-it's none o-of y-your business."

The heiress bit back a triumphant smirk at Itachi's surprised flash of ire at her dismissal.

Itachi shrugged her answer off, eyes growing even colder, if possible.

Shikamaru cleared his throat, trying to pick up where he left off. "About the issue of allowance-"

"Right," Genma nodded glancing uneasily at the Uchiha, who had yet to drag his eyes away from Hinata. "Even though a prenuptial was signed at the beginning of the marriage allotting your client, Ms. Hyuuga, a 7,000 a month sum for 5 years totaling 420 thousand, Mr. Uchiha has decided to disregard the prenup, and award Ms. Hyuuga a total income of 5 million up front."

Shikamaru's voice caught. "Five Milli-"

"No." Hinata spoke up again, trying hard to not let her mind contemplate the reasoning's why Itachi would be so generous. For half a second she thought he'd found out about the pregnancy.

'I only just figured out two hours ago…' The bluette sighed.

"Ms. Hyuuga, I think my client is being more than fair." Genma lifted a well-groomed brow, his handsome face twisting with a disbelieving smile. "If you want mor-"

"I don't w-want any-"

Itachi slammed his fist onto the table, making everyone in the conference room jump in their chairs.

"What are you playing at, Hinata?" He seethed.

Again, a shiver of triumph crept down her spine, leaving tingles of pride. Hinata couldn't fathom how she felt so alive literally staring down death, but something snapped in her earlier and she was still riding the adrenaline wave.

"No house, no money, you're family won't take you back. Are you going to keep sleeping your friends couch?"

Okay, she had to admit hearing them listed off, maybe her plan of independence had a few holes.

'A few? It's a piece of effing swiss….' Hinata grimaced internally. But there was no backing down now. If Itachi was dead set on getting rid of her and their child, granite he didn't know about the baby, she wasn't going to sit back and let him stuff her away in a pent house somewhere like some paid-off employee.

He was awarding her 5 million dollars? What was this, the divorcee lottery and she just happened to possess the magic numbers?

"I think it best we recess till further notice." Shikamaru breathed through the tension, earning a complacent nod from Genma.

"Lets continue tom-"

"No." Itachi shot a poisonous glance at the lawyer before looking back at his soon to be ex. "We settle this now."

A/N: Okay so who thinks just about everyone is OOC this chapter? (looks around before tentatively raising hand.) Yeah, sorry guys but this is how it played out in my nogg'n.

So Itachi's pretty much of an ass in this chapter, but isn't he pretty much an ass in the show half the time as well? But don't worry about his mood swings toward Hinata, all will be revealed as the plot continues to develop!

And Whoot Whoot! Hinatas starting to grow some backbone! I know from your reviews that some of you readers didn't like my favorite Hyuuga being so timid and mousy. Sorry if she grew a little to suddenly, but based on personal experience, people learn to grow a spine very quickly when faced with certain obstacles. Divorce and Pregnancy just happened to be Hinata's.

I would LOVE to hear feedback for this chapter! So

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Happy Reading : )

~Ambrosia