THIS IS MY FIRST FAN FICTION! PLEASE DO NOT READ IF YOU ARE NOT A FAN OF THE SASUHINA COUPLING. I WOULD LOVE SOME FRIENDLY FEEDBACK SO PLEASE READ AND RATE!

[Sasuke and many of the characters are now 20-21 years old.]

Sasuke had been retrieved by naruto at the age of 18, thus coming back to konoha.

When sasuke had first arrived back to the village he had once abandoned; he received nothing but scowls and bitter voices from the villagers. Naruto being his best friend of sorts was always by his side telling him all those bitter voices would soon go away; as naruto knew that sasuke was a formidable shinobi who'd all would soon respect. As time passed Sasuke reached the age of 20, he soon became the ANBU squad leader; not to mention The sixth hokage's, naruto , right hand man. Though sasuke earned the respect of most, if not all, of the villagers and shinobi; it was more a respected fear. As many have named Sasuke a relentless shinobi who when tempered with will stop at nothing to protect his village. He had become a much more rather suave version of the obnoxious naruto. Though he had a past of abandoning the village, his fan club came rather quickly back to his side; still yearning for him. The usual fan club members such as Ino and Sakura along with practically every young eligible woman were still vying for him.

As sasuke was the very last of the Uchiha clan, he lived in his very traditional compound. He had guards guarding the gate at all times in the front of the compound and many maids and housekeepers to attend to him and his home; though he was never really home to begin with due to all of his missions.

It was a fall morning when sasuke was called the the hokage's office. As his footsteps neared the door he heard a quiet sobbing. He reached to the doorknob and opened the door he was faced with a sobbing Hinata. Now Hinata, as he and practically everyone in the village knew, had a crush on the ever so childish hokage. She quickly ran through the door just grazing sasuke's arm as she ran off saying sorry, her forearm covering her tears as they ran down her face.

Sasuke peered into the room and saw an ever so solemn naruto facing his window eyeing the village.

-Knock-Knock-

Naruto looked over his shoulder

"Ah! Sasuke! How long have you been waiting there! Come in come in" Naruto said with his cheerful voice.

"Chet" Sasuke scoffed as he looked to the side gesturing he had seen the sobbing Hinata.

"Ah…ahah." Naruto said scratching the back of his head. "Well, you see…"

"Forget it." Sasuke said coldly. "What did you call me in here for?"

"Ah, oh right. Well I was thinking… you haven't had a break from your missions recently so I…" Naruto grinned.

Sasuke looked at him with his onyx eyes basically screaming "get to the point already!"

Naruto cleared his throat. "Ahem..mhm.. Well I took you off from missions for one week."

"A week!" Sasuke raised his voice. "But I'm the leader of…"

Naruto cut sasuke off. "Kakashi sensei will be taking your place. We've already agreed on it."

"Kakashi hasn't been a part of ANBU since he was…" Sasuke retorted.

"What's done is done. Kakashi sensei agreed as it was only for a week. You haven't had a break in over seven months! The shortest amount of time I could give you is a resting period of a week, I know you want to do your job but I don't want to wear you out if something more important comes along! You'll be on paid leave starting today!" Naruto raised his voice at Sasuke.

Naruto hadn't raised his voice at sasuke since the day he retrieved him back to konoha, the day of their battle.

Sasuke scoffed under his breath he said a quick "fine."

He walked out of the office with his hand in his pockets.

"Sasuke-kun!" A high pitched voice screeched behind him.

He turned looking over his shoulder as he saw a pink haired woman running towards him with a hand waving in the air. It was sakura in her medical-nin get up her usual pink/red/white outfit underneath with a lab coat. He stopped and turned around. Though sakura voiced her love for him so many times all those times he rejected her as he didn't have the same feelings to return to her. Even so, she was always persistent in her pursuit towards him, she still hadn't given up.

"Sasuke-kun! What are you doing here?" She said slightly panting.

He looked at her with his usual stone face. "Meeting."

"Oh… Sasuke-kun…"Her voice became soft and more feminine than before. "I was wondering…" she looked at her feet nervously.

Sasuke knew what was coming as her face started to blush just like it used to when they were in the academy.

"Sakura." He said with his monotone voice.

Her head still tilted down she raised her eyes to meet his. "Yes, sasuke-kun?"

He pointed at her lab coat's pocket. "There."

She looked down trying to look as lovely as she could "EH!"

Her pocket was soiled with purple liquid. "Agh! No! the Anti-dote!"

She quickly looked into her pocket where the test tube of antidote was leaking. "AHhHh! This took three days to get ready for use!" Her hand in her pocket she looked up.

"Later." Sasuke had turned his back already leaving her behind to tend to her own mess.

He stepped outside; the cool fall breeze swooshing past him blowing his hair to the side, wind nipping at his skin causing it to dry.

He walked calmly through the village, before making it to the uchiha compound; he passed the hyuuga estate. His mind then flashed to when he saw hinata sobbing and running out of naruto's office. He shook his head wondering why he had even thought of her for a second time.

He had always noticed hinata, since they were in the academy he noticed the shy girl eyeing naruto. He wasn't close enough to call her his friend. They never shared a conversation together outside of a mission, she was more of a comrade. He had no particular interest in her, but he had recently heard a story surrounding her and the hyuuga clan. A certain story that was slurred out of one recently stressed out hokage, naruto.

-flashback-

It was a Saturday night and naruto still hadn't gotten used to all the paper work as the new hokage. When Tsunade suddeny fell ill, she chose him as her successor. Naruto was thrilled that his dream had finally come true but he didn't know quite what he was in for. After a week and a half stuck in his office full of mission reports and other important documents, naruto called sasuke out for a drink to relieve the stress of work. Sasuke was one who could handle his liquor quite well, as for Naruto he was very similar to a drunken Tsunade, Loud and rambunctious. After a few too many drinks, Sasuke guided a very drunk hokage back home.

As they passed the Hyuuga estate Naruto blatantly pointed and said "Him! Them! How could they force such a thing!" Naruto slipped forward almost bashing his face in the ground.

"Oi!" Sasuke went and caught naruto mid fall. "Are you crazy! Keep it down!"

Naruto looked up at sasuke with a very drunk smile, pointed and slurred at sasuke. "You, do you know what they want from her?"

Sasuke looked at naruto with a blank face.

"Neji! They want her to marry NEJI! Her cousin! just for an heir!" Naruto said heartbroken.

Sasuke who knew that in such clans it wasn't very wrong or offensive to marry a cousin as it would produce a so called "pure-bred" heir.

Sasuke looked at naruto and lifted naruto's arm over his shoulder creating leverage. Sasuke started to walk away from the Hyuuga estate.

Naruto continued to ramble but sasuke couldn't make out any words as they were too slurred. Naruto soon blacked out and Sasuke had to reluctantly carry the hokage home.

-end flashback-

Sasuke continued past the Hyuuga estate as he heard a few words exchanging.

"Hinata! You have one more week until the final meeting of your engagement!" a stern voice echoed, it was Hiashi, Hinata's father and the leader of the Hyuuga clan.

Sasuke was not usually keen on eavesdropping but something possessed him to listen in on the conversation. He went behind a tree by the estate and listened in.

"Father!" Hinata's small and feminine voice screamed out. As she matured she became bolder in her speech.

"Until you prove to me there is someone else who is willing and worth marrying you, you will be marrying Neji!" Hiashi took his leave; leaving his eldest daughter crying in the courtyard.

Sasuke smirked and thought to himself. "Hmpf, so this is what Naruto was talking about."

He quickly made his way back to his home. He gave a slight nod to his guards as he always did and entered the compound. His home was very masculine just as he was; Dark wood, and tones of black, blues and greys. He went to his large master suit bedroom and changed his clothes from his typical Jounin outfit to his casual clothes, a long sleeve black v-neck sweater with the trademark uchiha emblem of the bicep of his sleeve, and a pair of dark denim jeans. It was now way past the time for lunch so he headed to the kitchen. He opened the fridge and realized he told the housekeeper not to come in until late evening as he thought he wasn't coming home today. He sighed to himself and decided to go to ichiraku ramen.

He soon found himself entering the ramen shop.

"Welcome!" a cheerful Ayame greeting sasuke. Sasuke nodded back.

"Would you like your usual today?" Ayame cheerfully said

"Sure" Sasuke said as he took a seat.

Beside him he saw long eggplant purple hair, the hair that could only belong to a certain Hyuuga. Hinata was eating a small bowl of ramen as she felt someone watching her. She shyly turned to her right trying to slyly see who was beside her, her hair slightly blocking her view.

"Here you are!" Ayame placed a bowl of ramen in front of sasuke. "Enjoy your meal!"

Sasuke took a pair of wooden chopsticks and broke them in half. Hinata looked over some more before realizing it was sasuke who was beside her. She had never been so close to him before and the awkward air surrounding her was killing her. She quickly looked back down at her bowl of ramen. Sasuke saw her body jolt from the corner of his eye. His head turned slightly towards her way, he smirked to himself. She felt tense! She sensed he saw her clumsily jolt at the fact that he was beside her. She carefully looked over to him.

"Hello, sasuke-kun" she said with a shy smile lightly blushing.

Sasuke swallowed his ramen and tilted his head towards her just acknowledging her as he usually did with everyone. Feeling awkward with someone of his ranking she felt nervous and began to stutter.

"W-W-would you like s-something to drink?" she shyly asked as she thought treating him to something would lessen the awkwardness.

He looked over at her now fully turning his head and nodded. "I haven't heard you stutter for a long time." He said in monotone.

Hinata ordered some sake and turned to sasuke shyly.

Hinata blushed "Well, I took some speech classes… b-b-but I.."

"Here is your sake!" Ayame happily served the sake to Hinata.

Hinata poured a glass for Sasuke and handed it over to him with both hands shyly looking at her feet. He reached his hand for the glass, took it and drank it deliciously. She then poured herself a glass and took a small sip. She placed the bottle of sake in between them gesturing him to help himself. They continued to eat their ramen as well as finishing the sake.

"cheque" Hinata and Sasuke said at the same time. They both looked over at each other. Hinata's face was flushed with the deepest of red and sasuke knew right then she couldn't handle her alcohol. Ayame presented them both with their cheques; Hinata paying first and Sasuke second. After she payed for her meal and the sake she purchased she stood up and politely bowed trying very hard not to stumble as she was on a very high buzz. Sasuke once again just acknowledged her with his eyes. Hinata left the ramen shop first while sasuke was paying for his meal. He stepped out of the shop and started walking home. He soon realized that he and Hinata were taking the same way home as the get to the uchiha compound you first past the Hyuuga estate. He kept his distance from her as he watched her walk slightly zigzagged, luckily they both took the alley ways to their homes instead of straight through the village; so not many people would be able to see them. Unknown to him his walking speed increased and he soon found himself just a few feet away from her as they were turning a corner. He looked down at his feet and back up again where he saw the falling Hyuuga heiress. With his fast instinctive reflexes he quickly went in and caught her waist. She fell over forwardly after tripping on a rock that protruded from the ground. His hands were tightly wrapped around her waist his chest against her back. He noticed her soft whimpering; she was crying.

"Hinata!" a small female voice startled.

Sasuke looked up at ten ten, his eyes guided down to her right hand which was held by no other than neji hyuuga. Neji looked at sasuke and his cousin suspiciously as sasuke shot him a dirty look. Neji quickly released ten ten's hand.

"Hinata…" Neji said while walking towards her; ten ten following behind.

Sasuke released his arms around her waist giving her leeway to move, yet she fell lifeless onto her knees. Sasuke bent down to help her up once again as did neji. Sasuke however got to her first, his arm wrapped around her arm, she leaned against him.

"Hinata, are you drunk?" Neji raised his voice.

"Hinata are you okay?" Ten ten said softly.

Hinata looked up at both neji and ten ten; she then turned to her right at the person supporting her.

"You can't go back to the estate like this Hinata!" Neji said aloud grabbing Hinata away from sasuke.

Neji took Hinata and started walking away leaving tenten to trail behind.

"Uh.. Thank you sasuke-kun for your help!" tenten yelled back at sasuke as she was trying to catch up to neji and hinata.

Sasuke seemingly not caught off guard at what just happened returned to walking back home.

Neji took a different path and led Hinata to a dead end, he let go of hinata's hand, Ten ten soon joined them.

"What is wrong with you? Why are you like this? How did it go with naruto today?" Neji said impatiently.

Hinata boldly looked up at neji her eyes still hazy, she started to tear up as she told Neji what had happened earlier that day.

-flashback-

[In the hokage's office]

"Naruto-kun…" Hinata shyly said.

"Oh! Yeah hinata, what's up!" naruto said in his usual cheery mood.

"Well, you know …I" Hinata barely looked up at naruto.

"Yeah, I know…" naruto said calmly.

"You do?" she looked up at him sitting at his desk; he stood up.

"I can't hinata, I can't marry you." He said softly.

Hinata surprised stood there in shock. "How did you…"

"Hinata I'm the hokage now, I have to stamp and sign your wedding certificate, your father came and talked to me about it a while back; I know all the details." He said sternly.

"Hinata, I'm so happy you found your courage to come here to explain…but you know I have eyes for someone else, It wouldn't be fair to you Hinata." Naruto said looking out his window.

Hinata's tears started to fall as she exclaimed "..but I love.."

Naruto cut her off. "I'm sorry Hinata; I only want the best for you, I only want you to be happy."

"But I'll be happy with you!" she tearfully said "Even if you don't love me I'll be happy I'll let you go see anyone else I just…" she stood there crying harder, not able to finish her statement.

"I'm sorry…"Naruto said.

She started to make her way to the door when it opened…

-end flashback—

Neji stood in front of his crying cousin. "So, that's how it is…"

"Did you explain this to your father?" Ten ten asked.

Hinata nodded her head. "He said I have one week…"

Neji looked at ten ten then back at hinata with worried eyes. "Are you going home like this?"

"You can stay with me if you want Hinata." Ten ten said kindly.

Hinata sniffed back some of her tears. "No, I'll stay out a bit before going home…"

After reassuring tenten and neji she was going to be fine alone, they soon departed ways.

Sasuke arrived home, he entered his en suite bathroom and took a long needed shower, wondering how he was going to get through the next seven days without going on missions. He made his way out of his bathroom with nothing but a towel around his waist, when he heard a knock on his bedroom door.

"Come in." sasuke said in his usual mild voice.

"Sasuke-dono…" A maid walked in clearly flustered at the sight of the half naked man. "Someone is here to see you at the gate.."

Sasuke nodded his head and the maid left him to change. He made his way to the front gates of the compound where he met one of his guards.

"Sasuke-dono, there is someone here to see you." The guard guided sasuke to the gate where he saw Hinata.

"Should we let her in sir?" The other guard asked.

Sasuke looked at hinata intensely as if trying to read her mind. He nodded at the guards and they opened the gate gesturing Hinata to enter.

She walked in towards sasuke looking at the ground very shyly.

"Hello, s-sasuke-kun."

"What is it?" he coldly replied.

"I-I was wondering if we could chat for a bit.." she looked up at him with her light lavender eyes.

He hesitated."This way." He kept his words short as he walked away leading her into his home. They sat beside each other on the couch in his formal living area as a maid came in.

"Would you like anything to drink this evening?" She kindly asked.

"TEA." Sasuke looked over at Hinata.

"Tea, would be great." Hinata smile kindly to the maid.

The maid made her way out as Hinata admired Sasuke's home. "Your home is very lovely…"

"What was it you wanted to talk about." Sasuke asked.

"About today… thank you." Hinata looked at sasuke again with her kind eyes. "I'm very sorry for causing any trouble." She looked back down at her hands her vision started to blur and she felt lightheaded. She fell on her side her head landing on sasuke's lap she had fainted. Sasuke felt her head.

"Damn it." He thought to himself; she was burning up he wasn't sure of what to do. Sasuke picked hinata up, her body limp as if exhausted. The maid walked in with the tea on a tray, her eyes lit up as she saw sasuke carrying hinata's body walking towards the guest room.

He laid her body on the guest bed and watched her fidget uncomfortably. He turned on the lamp on the night stand and his eyes gazed over her. She still had on her jounin vest along with her light purple hyuuga clan long sleeve zip up sweater on. Annoyed, he sat on the edge of the bed lifted hinata's upper half up and proceeded to take off her vest and thick sweater revealing her mesh top which hid little from his eyes and her tight shorts just above her knees. He laid her back down and placed her clothing on a desk near the bed. He couldn't help but look at her and her curves. She had certainly grown up into a woman, and a beautiful one at that. Her body wasn't too lean she had the right curves in just the right places. He felt strange, utterly attracted to her. Not once had he felt anything like this before. His heart pounded faster, his breath rapidly increased. Though he had had a few women in the past none of them made him feel anything close to this. He reached for the lamp and turned it off, he looked at her one last time and left the room; Closing the door behind him. He took a deep breath in to calm his breathing but to no effect. He made his way over to the table in the living area and grabbed the cup of tea which had now long cooled down; he drank it in one gulp as if drinking a shot of sake. He wiped his lips with the back of his hand and walked towards the bathroom grabbing a small hand towel and filling a small basin with cold water. He walked towards the guest room again turning on the ceiling light. He looked over at her and saw her eyes twitch and clench from the light hitting her eyes. He smirked to himself as he found it charming. He walked over to her bedside placing the filled basin on the nightstand, he felt her head once again, and it had cooled down slightly. He placed the towel in the basin and rung out most of the water leaving the towel just moist and cool enough, he placed it on her forehead hoping it would cool her down and make her more comfortable. The maid soon entered asking if she could be of any assistance.

"Go and call sakura here." He said calmly looking at Hinata. The maid quickly rushed away to do so. She ran out of the compound looking for sakura, as she made her way into the village she passed the ichiraku ramen where she heard sakura and naruto's voices. She entered the ramen shop where both sakura and naruto were enjoying a conversation.

"Sakura-san" the maid said urgently

Sakura and naruto looked over at the disheveled maid. "Oh, you're…"

"Sakura-san Sasuke needs you to attend to him at once."

Sakura hearing that sasuke needed her jumped up at the thought and quickly got ready to leave, naruto also got up thinking sasuke was in danger; naruto quickly paid for the both of them and they all proceeded towards the Uchiha compound as fast as they could.

Back in the guest room Sasuke was nodding off to sleep, he suddenly heard a slight moan. He opened his eyes sleepily and saw hinata who was awake. She was examining the room trying to figure out where she was. She sat up; her back against the head board the damp towel fell on her lap. She turned to sasuke and looked deep into his onyx eyes, she felt something change; she felt warmth exuding from him.

*SSCCCHHEEKK THUD* they heard a screen open through the door. Sasuke and Hinata looked towards the closed door.

"SASUKE!" naruto's voice called out in agony.

The door opened sakura, naruto and the maid in the door way. Sakura and naruto both looked at sasuke, their eyes both averted towards the woman in the bed.

"Hinata!" Naruto shockingly said. Naruto looked over to his right as he felt a sort of fiery rage beside him. Sakura noticeably jealous tried her best to be calm.

"You're here." Sasuke said.

"What happened?" naruto asked worriedly

"Could you check up on her sakura?" sasuke said as he walked toward his two teammates.

"Oh! No no, I'm fine really!" Hinata said aloud.

Sakura nodded at sasuke and proceeded to make her way to Hinata. Sasuke walked out of the room naruto following behind. The maid went to Sakura's side for assistance. Naruto followed Sasuke to the living area they both sat down across from each other.

"Is this because…" Naruto started to hesitate. Sasuke looked up at him with a slight tilt of his head.

"This morning she… and I said.." Naruto again hesitated.

"Chet…" sasuke scoffed, and lightly closed his eyes. "I knew something happened when I saw her this morning." His eyes opened again looking at naruto.

"Heh, I hope this didn't happen because of that…" naruto said sadly while looking at the ground.

Naruto started explaining the story to sasuke.

In the guestroom, sakura finished examining Hinata's symptoms.

Sakura took a deep breath and sighed. "It seems you only have a mild cold. But you should rest, the more you rest the quicker you'll get better."

Hinata smiled "Thank you, sakura-chan."

"You seem to also have a bit of exhaustion, when was your last mission?" sakura asked.

"Yesterday kiba, shino, and I returned from a one month mission." Hinata quietly stated.

"One month? You'll need to have a reasonable resting period then; I'll talk to naruto." Sakura said concerned.

"No, there's no need for that sakura-chan I can.."Hinata was cut short by sakura

"No, I'll talk to naruto about it you need to rest before you completely are put in bed rest from exhaustion."

Hinata could do nothing but nod her head and agree with sakura.

Sasuke was listening intently as naruto finished his story.

"I told her the truth, I tried to do it so she wouldn't hurt, but it seems it didn't work the way I thought it would." Naruto ended his story.

"Hmph." Was all sasuke replied with and that's all naruto wanted to hear, to hear a full explanation of what he did wrong or right wasn't something he wanted to hear as he already felt bad enough, thinking that he himself was the source of hinata's hurting; which was partially true. As if he didn't marry hinata, she would have to marry neji for sure.

Foots steps came from the guestroom as Hinata, Sakura, and the maid appeared. The maid left to put the basin and towel away, while Hinata trailed behind sakura, now with her zip up sweater and vest back on, they walked towards the men in the living area.

"She's going to need a week of rest." Sakura said to naruto.

"Mmm! of course." Naruto replied with a happy grin.

Hinata couldn't bear to look at naruto straight in the face after what happened this morning; she looked to Sasuke. "Thank you, Sasuke-kun for your concern and all of your help."

"I'll walk her home." Said sakura

Sasuke nodded his head . The two girls made their way out of the compound.

Naruto still sitting across from sasuke looked at him suspiciously. "So, how did she end up here anyways?"

Sasuke looked up a little confused as to what naruto was trying to get at. "Oh.." for once the always so sly uchiha was at a loss for words. Naruto's eyes looked at him even more suspiciously. "Eh…" Naruto said with a devious smile.

"She fainted and I helped her." Sasuke said very shortly.

Naruto smiled and chuckled it off as he stood up. "Well I should get going! Lots of paper work to do tomorrow." He headed towards the screen door. "It's nice to see you like this sasuke." Naruto said as he made his way out the door.

Sasuke smirked to himself as he got up and left to his room.

"So…" Sakura said curiously.

Hinata looked up shyly at sakura.

"What were you doing at sasuke's?" sakura asked straight as she really wanted to know the reason. Her and hinata were friends but sasuke was "off limits".

Hinata blushed "No, it's not what you think. I just went to say thank you and… I don't know what happened, I think I fainted."

Sakura looked at Hinata, there was no way Hinata would be able to tempt sasuke anyways sakura thought herself as she looked at Hinata. "Well, you're lucky he was there to help you." Sakura said a little bitterly.

"Yes, your right" hinata smiled at sakura. They approached the gate of the Hyuuga estate. "Well, be more careful, and don't forget you have a week off okay? I'll see you around Hinata!"Sakura said as she walked away.

Hinata smiled at the thought of her having such good friends and entered the estate.