After

Nineteen

When she woke up the first thing she saw was the ashtray. He had left late the night before and she felt too exhausted to clean the place. She stood between the rooms with her hands crossed, examining the very thing that had got her attention as if it was the most peculiar object she had laid her eyes on. There was a feeling, lingering for weeks now, he was coming closer with each passing day. She wasn't stopping it, in times like the night before she was almost encouraging it. It was wrong and she knew it, but something in this man made the transition from strangers to friends easier than she had imagined. Perhaps he was really special, a trait she had dismissed a long time ago when all she saw was a selfish, rude person, incapable of giving back the love he has received.
She collected their cups and thought for a moment to leave the ashtray as it was, in case he came back today, even if they didn't have made plans. She refrained the last minute, someone else might come and saw and his secret would be known.
At first sight it seemed childish to cover such a thing, like a kid that hides their smoking habits from their parents, but in reality it was more than that. Like the arm he was hiding, he didn't want to seem vulnerable.
She prepared to go to the main house, she had made plans with her family, with the thought of his hurt arm in mind. Skin healed sloppy and desperate, hidden, just like him.

____

There was an odd atmosphere passing through the plates and the food, hanging above the tea they were drinking, touching the lips along with the porcelain and finally resting on the two set of eyes across her.
They had made plans to meet and eat breakfast, just that, but with her sister's and father's busy schedule that was enough. They missed her, she knew, and they were worried even when she was staying here. When she left their worry just grew more.
Hanabi had smiled when she hugged her, had laughed after a comment she made, she was totally herself and still Hinata thought that something was off. Her father was quiet and stern but he was always as such, yet she was searching for something in his ever cold eyes.
They spoke of things, meaningless yet important, asked her about her days and in the surface everything was fine. Everything was exactly as they were every time she visited. Perhaps it was her own mind that imagined things. Maybe she was the one that was a little off. Then she remembered how many times she had said that excuse, how many times she had blamed her head of her uneasyness, how much time she had lost in the past when she didn't trust her gut.
"Is everything alright?" She asked as the last plate was removed by a servant.
She didn't miss the quick glance her sister gave to her father.
"Yes, yes everything is fine." She said cheerfully.
"Just...Have you found any buyers for the house?" She said in a slight lower tone.
"No.." She said and passed her eyes from each. "Not yet."
"But you wanted it gone." Hanabi said with more enthusiasm than before.
Hinata looked at her father. His expression hadn't changed, he sat proud with his arms crossed, observing.
"I do. But it's a little difficult for someone to want that place. It's the Hogake's only failure." She said as a joke, to lighten the mood.
"But if the one wanted it was him?" Hanabi said with her previous tone.
"What do you mean?" Hinata asked as she let her cup on the little plate.
Her sister took a deep breath.
"We know that you want it gone. And it will be good for you to earn some money from it anyway." Her sister shook her head. "You don't need them of course. We will, I will provide you with anything you need, I just know how you can be."
"Hana what is going on?"
"He requested a visit with me a father yesterday." She said and her voice became more serious. "I thought it was to discuss about our project but soon I realised that wasn't it."
She stopped and looked at Hinata.
"He wants to buy the house." Hanabi said and crossed her arms in the same way their father did.
Hinata left to stare. She should probably think of something to say, think of something in general but the statement was so absurd that her mind went silent.
"I told him that the matter is not one to discuss with us, it's your house in the end, but he said that you forbidden him of contacting you. So he approached us with his proposal, in order to inform you. It is a good thing, isn't it sister? He is finally living up to his responsibilities."
Hanabi was happy. She knew how much Hinata wanted to get rid of that house. How pained she looked everytime she needed to go there.
She should be happy, she supposed. Naruto would take the burden, she wouldn't have to clean it again, maintained it to be presentable, show to strangers a piece of her life.
She should be thrilled. Yet she was not.
When he had given her the house, when her name was the only one on the ownership, she had taken the burden because she didn't want to be involved in further conversation of something that seemed meaningless. Neither of them wanted it, but his denial was more than hers. It reminded him of his failure and Naruto didn't have many on his records.
"Why?" She asked.
"Does it matter?" Hanabi answered.
"It does to me."
Her sister didn't like the way the conversation went. She thought that she would be thrilled on learning the news. She didn't even have to meet with him to discuss anything. He was willing to buy it, that was enough.
"Do you want it?" Hana asked then.
"No." She said and the girl across her made a move with her palm, as if to ask what was the problem.
"It's just..Do you not find it weird?" She spoke mostly to herself.
"You don't have to sell it, if you don't want to. As your sister said the clan has enough wealth to support you." Her father spoke for the first time.
"I have my own mone..."
Her father dismissed her with a wave.
"But what is the point of keeping it?" His cold eyes examined her.
"It's not about keeping it..." She said lower this time.
"You don't want him to have it, then?" He said trying to hide the judgement in his voice. Petty things like that didn't work well with Hiashi Hyuga.
"No, it's not that either." She stopped and they waited. "I don't believe he wants it more than I do." She looked at her fingers.
"Who cares?" Hanabi spoke and took a breath. "If you are worried that he does it out of pity, don't."
She raised her gaze once more to look at her sister.
"He wants to use it actually."
Her eyes widened on that sentence.
"Not for himself. He said that it would be good to have a place for his friends to stay when they visit. Such as the Kazekage. Something more friendly than a hotel room."
She crossed her fingers until they pained.
"I think he said something about the Uchiha too. I am not sure." Her sister looked up as in thinking. "I believe he said something about lending him the place until he finds a house for himself. He said something like that, wasn't he father?"
"I see." Hinata replied.
"We are to leave later today. But think about it, okay?" The hands across her reached her own. "Tell us when we return. We will handle everything, so don't worry." Hanabi spoke with care as her fingers covered her own curled ones.