They treated their honeymoon as a vacation, since the expenses were fully paid jointly by all five of the hidden villages. As shinobi, they never truly knew the meaning of relaxation or how to enjoy free time, so they relished the experiences of seeing new places and trying new foods. Every night, they relaxed with sake or tea, telling stories unknown to each other, and fell asleep together. Hinata allowed herself to unwind a little, smile a little. He was surprisingly funny, and he seemed to be genuinely entertained by the activities that were planned on their itinerary. They were provided clothes and gifts at almost every stop. With their new camera, they even took pictures like actual newlyweds, and Hinata mused at how their honeymoon actually seemed like prolonged date as she absentmindedly watched Kakashi buy them both desserts. A few middle-aged women giggled and tried to flirt with him before he said something apologetically and made his way back to her. They gasped in surprise and whispered between themselves as Hinata took the sweet crepe, thanking Kakashi, and locking eyes with them — more out of curiosity than anything.

They scampered off as they recognized her pupil-less eyes, and she took a bite. "They must be wondering what a young girl like me is doing with a much desired man — the Hokage of Konohagakure at that."

"Ah, but I have eyes for only one woman," he winked, reaching out to steal a strawberry drenched in chocolate. "Now smile, my pretty wife."

Hinata turned as Kakashi snapped another quick picture, placing the strawberry in her mouth as the camera flashed. She frowned, her mouth snapping shut to chew. "I mmwasn't ready," she said, mouth full.

He grinned, wiping a bit of chocolate off the corner of her mouth with his thumb. "Those ones are the best, ne?"

It was a time to forget about their responsibilities and burdens before they returned to their work duties for the first time as husband and wife.

When their new life finally felt real, like waking up after a dream.

In the dark morning on their first day back, at the time when she usually rose for her daily routine, her husband still snored lightly on the bed next to her.

He only shifted, frowning a little, as her warmth left him.

She did a quick set of katas and finished it off with some yoga and meditation, one trained eye utilizing the byakugan to monitor her surroundings. It was still strange, waking up in their new home next to her new husband, strapping her armor around her limbs, not miles away in the middle of nowhere, but here in her own village. It felt silly, too, knowing that he would put up a better fight against any enemies than she could for him. As she showered, letting the steam engulf her, she wondered where the line between wife and bodyguard started and ended. When the sun rose? When she woke?

She dedicated a bit of her reserve chakra to create a shadow clone to keep up the appearances of a proper housewife — at least until after she returned home. Her clone stared back at her and Hinata tucked a strand of the clone's hair behind her ear and studied her handiwork. She had on a simple, but elegant yukata, one that was reminiscent of the ones her mother used to wear. "Don't scare him too much, ne?" she chuckled dryly. "And don't forget to smile."

The clone's lips stretched widely, almost like a caricature, before it nodded and turned towards the kitchen.

Hinata did a quick patrol, reacquainting herself with the nooks and crannies of the village (which was somehow both familiar and unfamiliar at the same time), all the while with her husband in her extended vision, and then once around the hokage tower, before dropping in from rafters, landing without a sound in the hokage's office.

"Welcome back," a voice welcomed her.

She rose from her crouched position, body not quite relaxed, not quite tense, as she straightened up to full height. The early morning light was beginning to stream through the huge windows, yet her husband was not yet there.

A shadow, nonchalant in his posture against the desk, lifted his head towards her. "Owl-san," he murmured softly. "On time, as expected."

She immediately doused the old flame that sparked within her core with his familiar presence, quenched the chakra that flared as it recognized his. Hinata had already replaced his face in her memories with just that of his mask — empty and unseeing, incapable of emotion, just like it symbolized the person behind it to be. The scar they shared, raw in its edges, just right above the left side of the heart, tingled as the memories she had carefully stored over time to began to trickle out. Of battle-worn days together, tedious, endless stakeouts. Nights together, fighting for their last breaths, carrying each other through storms. Successful captures and kills, reading and knowing each other like the back of each other's hand. And her final one of him being sent back to Konoha by himself after he was fatally wounded and her getting a scroll finding out he wasn't coming back…because he would be stationed in Suna with the kazekage's sister. She received another scroll a year later stating that he had resigned from ANBU because he would be getting married. She never took another teammate again.

In the bustle of the wedding planning, it had slipped her mind that he would be working alongside Kakashi. Not that she thought there was someone else who would've been a better advisor, but that time and fate had somehow aligned for them to meet again. She vaguely remembered seeing an outline of his form at their wedding reception amidst the rest of the congratulations.

Hinata wondered what the word was for someone who had been more than a friend, less than a lover, and she decided it didn't matter.

He had been just a teammate, in the end.

He had been just all they'd ever allowed themselves to be.

"You know what they say," she said, her voice morphed in the concealment jutsu she used on the job. "Early bird catches the worm." She tapped the beak of her mask.

He snorted. "Glad to be working with you," he said gruffly. He shifted his weight. In discomfort, she knew. The angle to the tilt of his head, the jut of his lip, the slight wrinkle in his brow — all indicating he was itching to be elsewhere. It was hard to completely forget someone's characteristics once they've been ingrained in your memory. "Again."

She nodded, though she knew 'glad' wasn't a word to describe the feeling that had come over them since she presented herself. "As with you."

He lifted himself off of the desk and strode slowly towards her. "How was your honeymoon?" He looked like he wanted to embrace her or touch her shoulder or her face or say something else, but his hands remained in his pockets. His dark eyes seemed to be burning, and Hinata realized that he probably hadn't heard about her well-being for a long time either.

She tilted her head. "And yours? Deer-san?" she asked with her normal voice. "Sorry, I never got to ask. Never got to send my regards, as it were."

Shikamaru seemed to freeze for a moment as the familiar sound of her voice chilled him and her words even more. He pressed his lips together before he smiled wryly, sadly, and their bodies turned instinctively towards the door before the hokage even put his hand on the doorknob.

"Shikamaru, Owl-san, ohaiyo," Kakashi greeted, seeming to float in through the door.

"You're late, Kakashi," Shikamaru muttered.

"Sorry, I got lost on the road of life…" he trailed off, making his way to his desk. Kakashi seemed to feel the tension in the quiet room as he sunk into his chair. His dark eyes went between two of who would be his most trusted people, standing in attention in front of him, waiting for him to speak. Kakashi started slowly, "I hope this won't be too much of a distraction."

"Not at all," Hinata said smoothly, raising her head pointedly at the advisor.

Shikamaru nodded, eyes boring into the carved eyes of the Owl. "We've never been anything short of professional." His gaze returned to the hokage. "Haven't we?"

"Yes," Kakashi noted the stiffness in their postures. "Of course." He inhaled a quick breath and asked, "First order of duty?"

Shikamaru moved to sweep up some papers from the edge of the table, studying its contents as his face became a smooth, blank slate. "Meeting with elders."

While he caught Kakashi up to speed of what went on in the village while they were gone, Hinata came to stand behind Kakashi. She realized that Kakashi had probably been the one to send him to Suna in the first place and wondered how much else he knew about their past. Shaking her head, she calmed the lability of her chakra, letting her ANBU instincts quell any free thoughts and emotion, and allowed herself to disappear.

Being directly at the hokage's side was, as Kakashi said, as mundane as it sounded. The politics bored her, yet she was familiar with its workings, growing up as a Hyuuga. Who honestly would ever dare threaten a kage, and Konohagakure's at that? The village where arguably the strongest shinobi were produced? They already a handful of ANBU watching anyway, though their chakra was as hidden as hers. It was hard to imagine what she would be doing otherwise as Kakashi's wife (even as her shadow clone was obediently doing laundry leftover from the honeymoon), so she endured the day as it seemed to drag on and on, trying to get a feel of the routine that would be the rest of her life. Few minutes in the office, with the elders. Meeting with clan heads, going over proposals for the village. Following him from here to there, seeing whoever needed to be seen next. Answering letters, overseeing new constructions. Approving this, responding to that. Assigning various shinobi missions, while the mountain of paperwork grew higher and higher. And though she essentially did nothing, she still felt exhausted.

"Well, I'll head home first," Shikamaru said, when the shadows were finally lengthening in the early evening. "We'll finish the rest tomorrow." He placed the papers in his hand in a folder and then shoved it in the drawer. His eyes drifted to the corners of the walls before he turned and made his way out.

Kakashi finished straightening a stack of papers, tapping the thick pile against the desk and called after him, "Thanks for your work, Shikamaru," as he closed the door behind him.

"You'll be okay? With things like this?" Kakashi asked the empty room, once they were alone. It echoed with his voice, until he cleared his throat. "Hinata?"

Her body flickered, appearing right in front of him. "Yes. It will be fine."

Kakashi reached out to push her mask up from her face, revealing her blank expression. "Honesty, Hinata. Remember?"

"Trust me. It will be fine. He...was a different life. You are mine now," she said sincerely.

"I wondered whose reunion you'd take harder."

She shrugged at the images of the both the blond jinchuuriki and shadow user that appeared in her thoughts. "I haven't been affected for a long time. Besides," she continued, her face still schooled to indifference as she whisked the images away. "I'll be seeing them both very often, won't I?"

"I'm sorry. If I had known —"

"You don't have to be sorry. It's all part of the job. He had to do what he had to do. As did I."

Kakashi's eyes softened. "You've grown quite well, haven't you?"

She looked away, and the subject was dropped.

Understanding passed through them in the silence as they eased into the roles they had learned while on their honeymoon. Him, less of a politician, and her, less of a soldier. "Will we… go home together?" she asked uncomfortably.

"Let's." He smiled. "Or — as 'together' as we can." His eyes traveled in a line from her mask, to her armored vest and sandals, and back up again, and Hinata knew she was comparing her current self with the other she presented in her clone. He looked like he was trying to suppress a laugh. "I suppose you are technically already at home. Ichiraku's?"

She turned her lips down in a frown. "Maybe not."

"I thought you liked Ichiraku's."

"There are many things I used to like," she said pointedly.

"Hmm, I think my little wife has been spoiled a bit from her honeymoon," Kakashi reached out for his robes throwing his arms into the sleeves as they walked out. "We don't have nearly as much options here as we did."

"I didn't cook anything," she mumbled, replacing the mask back on her face as the shadow clone at home who was busy unpacking the rest of their luggage poofed from existence.

"My 'other wife' isn't quite as efficient as you now is she?" Kakashi cocked his head. "Yakiniku?"

"Too public." Hinata shuddered thinking about all the people that would greet them. "Is it okay for me to go out like this in plain site?" She motioned with a sweep of her hand to her uniform.

"Sushi then. After we go home and change. And then we'll go grocery shopping." Kakashi stuffed his hands on his pockets. Hinata noted the orange book in one of his back pockets that he, surprisingly, hadn't touched. "What do you like to eat?"

"I haven't had much of an appetite, really."

"Either way, we need to fill up the cupboards and shelves in our new home." He walked in silence thoughtfully in the direction of said home before he asked, "I don't suppose you like eating cup ramen either do you?"

She frowned. "Is that all you've been eating on your own?"

"It's no different than the standard-issue shinobi dried food packets you've taken a liking to."

She grunted guiltily.

"And packaged sweets."

Hinata disappeared, hiding her chakra once more, and Kakashi chuckled again. "I'll see you at home, dear."

She was already dressed and ready by the time Kakashi sauntered into their room, though this time she was in a plain, black long sleeve shirt and plain black pants. She slipped her feet into a pair of her less worn sandals and was tying her hair in a low ponytail as Kakashi put his hokage robe on a hanger next to her ANBU uniform. "Your vest is in the laundry room."

"Thank you, dear," Kakashi said. He could feel her bristling at the term even as he left the room. When he reached their front door, she was frowning as she waited. "What else can I call you? 'Wife' seems too impersonal."

"Hinata?" she enunciated slowly, as though it was obvious, the door locking behind them.

He sighed. "Hinata as student and Hinata as shinobi and Hinata as wife still has some time to come around and become just one Hinata in my head," he admitted, giving her an apologetic smile. "I was hoping saying something like that would make it more convincing. I thought it'd be easier, with the honeymoon..." he trailed off, one hand scratching the back of his head.

She pursed her lips in thought but then exhaled a quick breath in agreement as they fell in step together. "You're right." She was still having a hard time telling herself that Kakashi the man she had grown up with, the man she served, the man beside her in bed, and the man in front of her now was all the same person. Just yesterday, she was still wrapping her mind around the fact that he was her husband, and as soon as she woke up, he was her assignment and superior, and now, he went back to being just her husband. It was confusing to recognize the switch and ignore it because it wasn't supposed to matter anymore. Somehow knowing he was struggling too made it a bit easier and she angled her head to give him a small smile she hoped looked reassuring at least.

His shoulders relaxed. "Then, how was your day, Hinata?"