Sasuke knew she was going to ask eventually. He hoped she would remember something while he told her, but the doctors told him it was unlikely. The house not jogging her memory was making him lose hope.
He glanced over at his wife. She had her head laid to the side on top of her knees with her arms wrapped comfortably around her pale legs. Her hair draped everywhere and floated in the water.
He expected her to reject him entirely when he brought her home, but now that he thought about it, if that was who she was, he wouldn't have married her. They wouldn't have even been friends, and he would likely be dead.
This shy little woman, who had saved his life and rebuilt it from debris and dust, didn't know who he was. He had nothing else. If she rejected him now, he wouldn't have handled it well at all.
He loved nothing else, all he did anymore was for her.
And he couldn't deny her story, despite it not being a romantic one in his opinion.
"I insulted you the first time we met in the village." He started.
Sasuke shoved his hands in his pockets and growled at the wind that was making him shiver. He didn't have a coat. He didn't have anything anymore.
He had finished his task, learned the lies of his life, and yelled his lungs out already. He had been dragged back to this damned village by those that called themselves his friends but didn't know him anymore. He didn't have anything left. He didn't even have the will to keep running from them.
The Uchiha compound was empty and cold, waiting for its lone inheritor to return. He didn't want the damn ghost town. He had found the smallest house he didn't recognize to live in and kept his head down when he passed the rest.
Despite the cold, he didn't want to go back to it.
He wandered around the village as he shivered and sulked. He knew he was sulking. He knew people knew. He just didn't care anymore.
He heard a soft voice directed at him, breaking him from his self-loathing. He fully intended to tell the fangirl off, but when he turned, he realized he recognized her.
"Are you okay, Uchiha-san? You look cold." Hinata repeated.
"What do you think?" He growled at her.
"I think you're shivering." She told him with a frown and started to take off her scarf.
He frowned. "Keep it."
"You're cold. You don't even have a coat on." She told him, offering it. "It's not much, but please take it."
"I don't need your charity." He glared deeply at her calm pale eyes.
"Then I expect you to return it." She replied with a slight smile and a tilt of her head.
He huffed at her taking the thick light-colored scarf roughly, and threw it around his neck. It still had warmth from her body. The isolated heat gave him goosebumps around the base of his skull.
"You'll catch a cold out here." She added.
"I'm sure you are concerned." He mumbled sarcastically.
"I am." She countered.
"Because of the idiot." He rolled his eyes.
"No. Naruto-kun has nothing to do with it." She looked genuinely confused. She was a good liar.
"No more hero worship?" He asked with smug annoyance.
"We are just friends." She noted. "I hope to see him go far, and I hope to be near to see it, but I don't want to be the one at his side anymore. It's not my place." She noted her smile didn't look so pure and happy anymore.
