After

Two

The rain fell heavy for the last five days and it didn't seem it would stop any time soon. She closed the book after she finished the last page. It would be a good time to return them back now. The streets would be empty, as well as the building she was going to visit. She could easily pick the next patch of reports and began her work again. Her work. She had chosen that on a whim, yet it proven to be more satisfying than what she had thought. In one of the dinners they had on her old house, on their house with Naruto, Shikamaru had pointed how much time, resources and lives could be spared if they knew of the things they learned later accidentally. If they knew the originate of the Sage of Six paths, of the Sharingan, of the history of the world. Hinata had agreed, yet she had forgotten it until years later, when she was lost about her life and herself. She decided that it would be a productive passing of her time and as she always liked books, it would be easy.
It wasn't easy. She had to search, reports after reports, of things forgotten and buried and compare it with books and tales of times long gone. Yet it was productive. And it kept her mind busy.
She had proposed her idea to Shikamaru, and she knew he would pass it on his Hogake. Naruto agreed but she was sure only one of them understood the importance of her job and her ex husband was not the one.
He just didn't want to say no, yet Hinata didn't care.
She looked outside one more time and then turned to search for a plastic container to place the books, so they wouldn't wet. She opened her umbrella and took a step out in the heavy rain.
The streets were indeed empty as she had predicted and she took a moment to appreciate the queitness. Her feet were wet, as well half of her long dress but she didn't mind. It felt as if the village was abandoned and she was the last resident, a ghost still wondering around the silence. She looked at the sky and then her gaze fell on the roofs of the houses, visible smoke coming out of the chimneys. She sighed as the it dispersed her fantasy immediately. Then her stare met the faces carved on the rock and her head fell on the water of the ground and her wet feet. She started to walk quickly, drowning her shoes in pools of water. She arrived at the library, checked her card and entered. A man was sitting at his desk, sullen that he had to leave his house in a day like this. He looked at her with surspise, as if she was crazy, but said nothing. She walked to the section, dedicated to her work. The shelves were empty, with only few books placed on them. She wiped her hands on the dry part of her clothes and began to put the new ones next to the others.
Then she moved to another part, searched for the next ones she needed to pick and put them back on the container. Her steps were heard on the floor, when only the drops echoed on the roof of the large building. The man was already looking at her direction, a sheet and a pen was placed at the other end of the counter for her to write. Normally he should check, but Hinata was a frequent visitor of the place and the stuff here was aware of her work. She nodded on the man and he smiled at her. She nodded again, not able to return the gesture. She knew that smile, she had seen it many times in the recent years. A bit of pity and a half sympathy for the woman abandoned by the great man that was their Hogake.
She opened the door and cursed when she saw her umbrella was missing. She had left it outside, not to wet the floor more. The air had risen and she searched around, finally finding it a few feet away. She run to take it, pointless as she was already wet when she got there. She raised it and saw it was broken on one of the edges. A breath was taken as she closed it.
"Do you need help?" She heard a voice and turned, thinking who else was as mad as her to walk outside with a weather like this.
It certainly wasn't her lucky day.
"Thanks you Uchiha-san. I'm fine." She said as she bowed and tried to open her broken umbrella again in a futile attempt to hide under it.
"It's broken." He said with the same monotone voice he always had every time she had seen him.
She didn't care to answer as she began to walk to the direction of her house. He walked beside her, they must have been a surreal sight if anyone saw them.
"I live near by." He said when she looked at him as to question why was he following her.
She nodded again and turned her gaze to the road ahead.
The wind blew, shattering the remaining pieces of her cover. She found a dump near by and tossed it away.
She stood for a while, looking at nothing really, before she turned to her destination again.
The man walked beside her, without offering further help, not that she wanted him to.
She saw little drops of water, entering slowly at her plastic container. She pressed it on her chest, wishing they wouldn't be ruined until she returned home.
"I can take you to your house if you want." He spoke again but his voice didn't betrayed any sympathy. He would take her, but it didn't matter to him either way.
She had seen him many times in the days of her marriage. They never really talked, Naruto was the link that binded them in the same room. But he always had this apathy in contrast to her husband, whose emotions bursted out from every inch of his skin.
She looked at her books, one more time. She could not make it in time. It would be pity to ruin them, the opposite result of her work.
"Okay." She answered finally.
The man stopped absurdly and she halted her movement.
He extended his hand and she looked at him with disbelief.
"It will be quicker this way." He only said.
She reluctantly touched it.
"Hold tight." He said, more commanded but Hinata didn't have the time to decide which it was.
Her surroundings turned and twisted and a haze covered her. For a moment she felt as if she was a child again and she took a really high jump from a cliff, not sure if she could land safely, yet excited for the foreign feeling in her stomach.
It all stopped as sudden as it had begun.
They were outside the compound. It was the only place he knew, she thought. She left his hand and backed away.
"Thank you Uchiha-san. I am a little further behind." She said and bowed slightly.
"I thought you lived here. Naruto told me that you went back to your family house."
She flinched slightly at the mention of his name.
"I have a place of my own." She said and turned to walk away.
But Hinata was raised properly. She was trained to be respectful, polite and even if she had grown past those years, some things are meant to stay. And he had taken here, even if it was a simple task for him, a few seconds of his time.
"I can offer you some tea if you like. As a thank you." She said and she wished he would refuse.
She was sure that he would.
But he walked at her direction and waited for her to show the way.
They entered her house and he pulled of his shoes, along with hers. She removed the books and checked if everything was fine.
The kettle made a noise when she had finished changing her wet clothes.
He was sitting on her small sofa under her window.
She sat on the chair across him and poured them the tea.
They stayed silent for longer than it would be comfortable. She didn't know why he had agreed, maybe he thought he was doing her a favour, maybe he believed his comment on her last offer was bad enough that he had to accept this one.
"You have a nice place." He said, again without any flattery.
"Nice of you to say." She answered.
"Not my kind of taste but it shows that you live here." He continued while looking around.
"What do you mean?" She asked out of courtesy, not really curious about his thoughts.
"Not something specific." He said and dropped the conversation all together.
More silence emerged as the cups leaving and placed again on the table filled the room.
"About your house, the other day. I didn't mean to offend you Hinata." He said and she rolled her eyes on his poor attempt for an apology that wasn't needed.
"I was not offended Uchiha-san." She answered calmly and questioned when his departure would come.
As if he read her thoughts he got up.
He walked to the door and she followed. She could sit and watch him leave, the exit was a few feets away but her upbringing held the better of her.
He opened it but then turned, like he remembered something.
"How come I call you by your first name and you address me as Uchiha-san?"
She looked at him. They had been doing it for years, she thought.
"Because you used it and I never corrected you." She said, looking straight at him.
"Probably because you heard it frequently by Naruto-kun." She added, with the mention of his name leaving a bitter taste on her mouth.
"Hn." A noise he did when he didn't care to speak.
"Yet the dope calls me Sasuke." He said, probably with a question that was left unspoken.
"I wasn't requested to change the way I address you Uchiha-san." She responded in the end. "It's impolite, I believe." She answered simply.
"I see." He turned and took a step outside.
She was already holding the door, ready to close it when he spoke again.
"Perhaps I'm wrong." He said and stopped.
He kept staring at her.
"But do you hate me?"
She looked at him. He had droplets of water on his hair and his clothes were a little wet in the parts that she had touched him.
"Goodbye Uchiha-san." She answered calmly and closed the door behind her.