Face Forward
Chapter 20

Several years later had only led the lovers to one conclusion…

Love was an odd thing, boring and routine mostly, when things finally settled into being comfortable. Passion ebbed slightly, Sakura noted. Several years of loving this woman that warmed her bed did nothing to stop her from wanting to make love with Hinata. However, the occurrence was not as sought after as it once was. Kisses that were once hidden from the world out of fear, was now just something they did so often the craving for such a thing was also marginal.

Yet, strangely enough, it was still so warm...so comforting, and soothing to the senses.

Everything about their relationship seemed to be that way...well, more or less. Then again, that was how it started too, back when they were young. A passion made out of mutual comfort. This aspect never changed. They were normally calm, and enjoyed quiet nights in, more often than not.

The only exception was when they fought, because Hinata's silence was deafening, and Sakura's temper was explosive. Both of their tempers were equally vicious when left to their own fears, and their minds were prone to playing tricks on them. Their friends and family knew well enough to stay away from the women during a feud, least they provoke Hinata's silent rage, or Sakura's violent ire.

Today was a mission day, and it seemed to be the selfsame as any other deployment afternoon. Hinata and Sakura were once again in a dispute that would have others cowering in fear.

"I'm taking this mission." Hinata gently asserted, unwilling to be taken off the roster. "It's only three weeks."

"Plenty of time to invite something to go wrong." Sakura pressed, still on shift at the hospital, and crabbier than she wanted to admit. This new information just made her day that much worse. "Tell our esteemed Hokage to eat shit...I don't want you going."

"But I am going to go, Sakura." Hinata pressed once again, her mind made up. "It's a tracking mission, my specialty."

"I've seen you come back after those stupid things. You're ANBU now, and don't tell me that you forgot about the last time you came back to the village. Skewered with poison needles. Fifty of them to be exact." Sakura had been in a livid rage that day, and those images cropped up in her head. "Broken bones, eye strain, you run the gambit on those missions, and it's about time you took a desk job."

"I don't want a desk job." Hinata rebuked.

"Tell Naruto you need something less intensive then." Sakura shot back icily. "A-ranks, fine, I'll cope. This is your third S-rank this year, and I'm sick of the fact that you haven't been home as much as you should be."

"I like S-ranks, and besides, the village is too suffocating." Hinata shot back. She wouldn't budge on this. That she had her mask on only pissed Sakura off more, and Hinata knew it. "I'll be with Kakashi and Shino, and you know they would never let anything bad happen."

"Why do you think I want you staying here?" Sakura hissed. "You're twice as bad as Kakashi is about getting hurt, and there's not a medic on your team!"

"I am the medic."

"I mean a real one!" Sakura bellowed, causing anyone who happened to be passing by to flee as soon as possible. "Where's Hana Inuzuka, or Ino, Tenten, Shizune, someone!?"

"All of them are busy." Hinata fought back the urge to stammer. "I'm confident in my abilities."

"Until Kakashi guts himself on a kunai!"

"Sakura..."

"You know how he is, Hinata! You've brought him back alive a few times, but he's getting older." Sakura slapped a hand to her face, her next words muffled by her palm. "I'm going to give Naruto a piece of my mind." She said as she moved beyond the door. The Hokage, new to the job perhaps, was still going to be dead meat.

"Oh, now Sakura, you'll do no such thing…" At least she hoped Sakura wouldn't as she wrapped her arms around her particularly strong lover. "Please say you won't. Kakashi likes ANBU work. He's very good at surveillance jobs."

Sakura, turned in her lover's embrace and pulled off that infuriating wooden mask. "I'm well aware of his impressive abilities, but you…" Sakura was stronger, and she turned the tables, pining Hinata to her desk, the white lab coat Sakura had on covering the both of them. "You're playing a dangerous game. What, do S-rank missions get a rise out of you? Am I not enough anymore?"

Hinata just smiled at Sakura's foolishness, leaning up to kiss her. It was deep, and long, the softness of it drawing out a sigh that was as much flustered as it was aroused. It was toe-curling, and if they were anywhere else, Hinata would have gone further in the moment, but as it was, she settled for slipping her hands under Sakura's shirt and settling themselves at the small of her back. She would have just enjoyed that warmth she felt all day, taking in Sakura's scent, and her touch.

Alas, she didn't have time, and she regrettably made a motion to get up and compose herself.

"Two weeks, I promise." Hinata said then, as gently as she could.

"So I'll see you next month then, if I'm lucky." Sakura muttered, nearly doubling the time. She knew how these sorts of missions went. There was always a chance for prolonged extensions that lasted weeks or more. "Swear to me this'll be the last one of the year for you. That you'll tell Naruto you're over worked."

"If I say that, I might not be able to keep my promise."

"Then lie to me, just once."

Hinata refused to do that, holding Sakura close before slipping on her mask once more. "I'll write often to keep in touch."

It wasn't a battle Sakura could win. Since the ANBU handled missions that were top priority village matters, she had to watch Hinata journey off. Extra shifts at the hospital would ebb away the time, but, it wouldn't lessen Sakura's anxiety. Even so, she exited her office to see the same Hyuga guard waiting to escort her home.

It was merely a token gesture from the Hyuga clan. Less about protection, and more about the clan politics, most of which Sakura still didn't understand because she was never given the reasons. Hinata was happy not to complicate Sakura's life with those messy rules, regulations, and fighting amongst blood relatives. Sakura, for her part, had learned to stop asking. Sakura suspected that Hinata was placed under several clan related gag orders...but Hinata had never said the truth of that fact one way or the other.

Purse in hand, she greeting the awaiting guard. The two began heading for the small apartment not far away from the Hyuga clan's premises. The walk was silent as always, and just a twinge uncomfortable, although the reason why was obvious. Hiashi Hyuga was not a man for small talk, and he was not enthused that his daughter saw fit to lay with a woman...and not just any woman, but one that wasn't even a blue blood.

He was not the man of power he used to be, though, and orders were orders. He would see them through if only to uphold his honor, and highly regarded respect among the clan. "You should not dress yourself in such indecorous attire." He said, the small waft of blood touching his nose. "It's ill-befitting."

"Better get used to it." she bit out. "I'm a medic, and like it or not, that's not exactly clean work."

"Surely..." Hiashi agreed. "Honorable though."

She took the small reach for civility for what it was, and nodded. the silent truce made between them for the walk home. "This is going to be inconvenient if you escort me every night." Sakura told him. "Hinata's going to be gone for a long time."

"I will not have it said that I failed in my duties." The man replied as coolly as ever. "When the head of the clan speaks, all must obey."

"Hanabi is reasonable though." Sakura pointed out, having gotten to know the girl quite well.

"Your lack of reverence is disgusting." Hiashi sneered.

"I'm not a Hyuga."

"Indeed, you are not."

Sakura had been grudgingly accepted among the Hyuga as Hinata's flight of fancy, but no one believed they would last. As the years had trickled by, that suspicion dwindled, and so with it, the disapproval of the council. They began to realize Hinata wouldn't be easily swayed, and when Hanabi took authority, she permitted Hinata leave from the clan willingly so long as she remained in service to the compounded, retaining all of her expected duties.

As such, when they arrived to the small apartment that belonged to Sakura and Hinata, Hiashi once again considered that the sparse dwelling was unfit for his eldest daughter. It was too small, too unkempt. Hinata had refused to hire a cleaning lady, and both women kept odd hours. There were dirty dishes in the sink, and a thin layer of dust on the windowsill. He found it appalling, but kept that to himself. This was the life his daughter claimed made her happy, and he would never understand why.

To him, it was all so lackluster. His task done, he left to go back to his home with hardly a goodbye.

Sakura watched him go with the same quiet acceptance that she had learned from Hinata. When it came to the man, it was the best she could do. A younger version of herself would have been outraged. She probably would have struck at him verbally, maybe even picked a fight with him. Age, perspective, had changed that. As it was, she merely took his disgust with mild disinterest.

As powerful as the Hyuga were, so long as Hanabi retained her position, there was nothing he, or any of the elders could say about Sakura. For now she was safe to live Hinata as she wanted, the rest of the clan be damned...

However, that small parting comfort aside, Sakura wouldn't rest easy until Hinata was home.

…

Acceptance, a strange word when one came to think of it, was something so freely given at the end of the day.

Ninja live fleeting lives. That was a lesson that Hinata was taught over, and over, and over again. Every single mission. Even the one she had newly returned on, battered, bleeding, and clinging on to the very thread of life itself. If life is that precious, happiness was even more so...and her friends, her family, wanted her to be happy, even if nothing else. Time and time again, they proved that.

It was in the way that many worried about her as she slipped in and out of consciousness. It was in the curses she could hear bellowed down the hall, across the corridors, and even in the strong arms that had carried her back to the village as an injured party. It was in the way Kakashi lay next to her, no better, and sharing in the bitter smirk that graced Hinata's features.

Something she learned from him.

It was in the way they were kept in the same room because Sakura couldn't be both places at once, but she knew she had to be. Even when exhaustion kicked in, and Sakura fell asleep in the chair, refusing to leave her lover's side, or relinquish Kakashi to someone else's care. Further, it was in the way that Ino dressed their wounds, and Naruto made sure that they had good meals from any street vendor they wanted.

That spoke of something too, when the Hokage himself was doing the work of a probationary genin out of worry for his friends.

And though Kurenai never spoke deeply on the matter, the sigh that drifted from her lips was enough to tell Hinata that it had been a close call. The cold cloth, and hints of dried blood were proof enough. Kurenai's worried glances hammered the truth home. So, when Hinata ran her fingers through pink tresses to soothe both herself, and the woman who was twitching in her sleep, she knew there wasn't an ounce of judgement to be found among them.

"That was my last mission as an ANBU operative." Her words were so quiet, but Naruto and the others were able to hear. "I can't do this to her again."

Naruto bit his lip, eyes squinting as he took in the severity of that statement. This time, it was too close a call. Too risky, and he nodded. "No, you can't."

"I want a genin team." She said then, as if somehow that would make amends for yet another Hyuga releasing themselves from the ANBU. She cared about Naruto too much to die in front of him, or because of him. "Give me that at least."

Naruto nodded, and that wonderful word, something she never thought she'd have...acceptance...entered her life once more.

Acceptance. It was strange word, but powerful.

...

With chakra depleted, it sometimes took a woman of Sakura's caliber a few hours to wake, and Hinata waited for her to do so. It came as no surprise that Sakura woke with a start. Her eyes growing wide as her memories took her back to what made her pass out on the first place. She felt that warm hand still tangled in her hair, and that small hint of comfort boiled away as soon as her eyes glimpsed the distance of the room.

"Kakashi?" The man had practically been gutted last she saw him. When his bed across the room was empty, what else was she to think?

"He's fine." Hinata murmured, guiding Sakura to look at her. As soon as she caught on to what exactly was running through the medic's mind, she tried to quell it. "He's fine, I'm fine, and you can rest now."

"You promised me that you'd be careful." Sakura said, her voice as uneven as it tended to be when Hinata managed to upset her. It wasn't anger that shook it, but outright fear. A terror that still lingered.

"We were careful."

"Six!" Sakura hissed hotly. "Do you know the significance of that number?"

Hinata tried to think of why that number seemed important. She didn't have a clue.

"Shit." Sakura cursed, as she lifted a hand to Hinata's chest, her palm falling over a spot where bandages covered swollen skin. "If you weren't already so injured, I'd slap the absolute shit out of you." That her fingers had clenched dangerously around the fabric of Hinata's gown was no consequence at the point. "You're both idiots, you and Kakashi."

Six more centimeters, and the gash over her chest would have been right over her heart. It made sense now, and guiltily, Hinata sucked in a breath as she let her fingers shakily run along Sakura's arm, yanking her into her lap. Hinata hissed at the force of her own strength, and the weight of Sakura pressing into her ribs. Sakura hissed too, but for an entirely different reason as she bit the tip of her tongue. Stifling anything else she wanted to say.

Hinata was more than just a little injured, and Sakura knew this wasn't conducive to any sort of recovery as she remained very still.

"I'm sorry." Hinata murmured. That soft and tender apology was something so usual now. "It won't happen again." Almost as routine as the ANBU's hospital stays themselves. The way it slid past Sakura's ear was new though. That hot breath a soothing reminder that Hinata was in fact alive and well…for the most part. "I'm resigning from ANBU active duty…I promise, Sakura, I won't take any more of those S-ranks again…"