That's My Boy

Chapter 8

Chapter Eight

Sasuke takes Hinata and Haru to one of the old Uchiha Fortresses. Haru was rather pleased to find out that the place was filled with cats. Well...at least he didn't have to worry about Haru being bored. Hinata seemed more in awe at the size of the fortress than anything.

"Haru, we are going to be staying here for awhile until we get this all sorted out." Sasuke says.

"Okay!" He replies and was too busy petting a kitten to really pay attention further to his father's reassurance.

"Talk about low maintenance." Sasuke mutters to Hinata.

"Yeah." She agrees.

Sasuke makes a clone and leaves the clone with Haru, before walking off with Hinata. The place had hundreds of ninja cats. He knew that they would at the very least distract any enemy ninja so Haru could get to safety or rush to Sasuke if something happened. The clone was just added insurance.

"My Clan built this place during one of the other Great Ninja Wars. I forget which one. This place could survive almost anything. It's also fully stocked with supplies. We could stay here for five years without having to leave, if we really had to." He tells her.

"That's good." She says.

Sasuke could tell she was trying to hide it, but Hinata had never been very good at concealing her feelings. She was rattled. He couldn't blame her. People wanted to cut their son's eyes out and sell them, that would terrify anyone. He sighs and pulls her into his arms.

Hinata eeps and blushes deeply. She still wasn't really used to this new version of Sasuke. The one that apparently didn't mind physical contact, even sought it out. It was hard to reconcile him with the terror on the battlefield from the War.

"He'll be fine, Hinata. He's been here before." He tells her.

"Part of me knows that. But what if we altered the timeline somehow and don't realize it? What if something goes wrong?" She asks.

"We won't let that happen. There's no safer place on earth for him right now than here. We have hundreds of ninja cats to keep an eye out. No one knows about this place. I can always summon Aoda. Not to mention he can use the fireball jutsu, which is something at least. And then there's us. We fought in the War. We won. We can handle some black market dealers." He assures her.

"Yeah. I'm probably worrying too much. But he's so...little and innocent." She says.

"Yeah. I know." He says and kisses the top of her head.

"You remember when you said that I should get a hobby that didn't involve punching people?" Sasuke asks, deciding distracting her was the best tactic to take.

"Yes." She says.

"Well I brought some paint and brushes..." He says.

"Oh. Good. That will help pass the time and maybe Haru would like to join you." She says, smiling.

"I had a more adult version of painting in mind." Sasuke says.

"I don't understand." She says and Sasuke takes her by the hand, leading her into one of the many rooms in the fortress. Hinata could see lots of paint and brushes scattered about it.