Messing with the Middle

The Calm

No. Sakura might have gone crazy but even she must remember how bad the war was. She wouldn't force everyone through that this time round..... would she? Was Sakura so far gone that she would help initiate the 4th Shinobi war? That she would bring Madara back to life?

No way... right? She has to be smarter than that, though... Sasuke is putting a lot of faith in the person who poisoned Haku.

Sasuke let out a tired sigh. There was no point in pondering, all that was gonna do is give him a headache. Looks like he was just as in the dark as the rest of the world.

"Sasuke?..."

Sasuke sat up and turned around to look at Hinata. She had sat next to him and seemed to enjoy the calm moment.

Sasuke didn't say anything, he just sat in silence and enjoyed her presence. Her presence which brought about a calming feeling that he had not felt in a long time. He really did miss her.

"I... I missed you," Hinata muttered. It had seemed they were thinking of the same thing. "Everytime I looked at the night sky... I was reminded of y-you... and the empty feeling w-would appear all over again..."

Sasuke gave an amused smirk at that. "The moon was my constant reminder of you..." He muttered.

"The stars were m-mine of you," She replied.

They both gave a chuckle at that. It had seemed that there were many times when they unconsciously watched the same night sky together and thought of eachother.

Sasuke decided to shuffle closer to Hinata and give her a hug from behind. Hinata although redder that before did lean back into his embrace.

"No more running away Hime... we do this together," Sasuke mumbled as he leaned his head onto her shoulder.

Hinata raised her left hand and gently caressed his hair. "No more running..." She agreed.

This was it. From this point onwards, no longer was Sasuke cleaning up the mess from the first timeline. Now it was a whole new one. One where he had no idea what to expect, but one that he would do with Hinata.

Resting not too far away was Naruto and Ino, both of which who were awake but were pretending to sleep.

"500 Ryo Hinata confesses first," Naruto mumbled quietly to Ino. It wasn't hard since his head was on her stomach.

"1000 Ryo she tries, stutters and Sasuke takes over," Ino mumbled back.

"What a drag, my money is on Sasuke going first," Shikamaru joined in, he had his back turned to the pair, so they were unaware he was awake.

"Sasuke is gonna try first, change the subject, then it will play out like Ino's bet," Haku finished. He was a bit further than the Nara but heard he bets all the same.

"All for 1000 Ryo yeah?" Ino confirmed, her eyes were still closed.

"Deal" The group whispered.

Sasuke and Hinata were looking at eachother with smirks.

"They di know we can hear them right?" Sasuke whispered into her ear.

Hinata just smiled. "Who do you want to win the bet?"

"Haku..." Sasuke muttered. "Hey Hina... I.... really missed you, when I was gone." Sasuke said a little louder.

Yes they were teaming up to let Haku win a thousand Ryo. What Hinata did not know was that Sasuke was going to take it from him later.

"I missed y-you too..." Hinata played along. Who knew the pair of them could be mischievous. "S-sasuke... I.. I l-l- I um... well"

"I love you," Sasuke finished.

The odd part was, despite this being for a bet, they both really did mean it. It wasn't just for the Ryo that was a bonus, Sasuke really did want to tell her how he felt.

Hinata turned around and hugged Sasuke tightly. "I l-love you too," She whispered.

A goofy smile grew on the Uchiha's face. He was onto of the world right then. He felt like he could take on Madara by himself, and win! To hell with that, in that moment Sasuke was the God of Shinobi.

Not so quietly from the side they heard a load of complaints.

"Arghhhh!" Naruto whined.

"Why man," Shikamaru complained.

"Thanks for the money guys," Haku smirked.

"You suck, all of you suck, you two especially!" Ino complained pointing to the new couple.

Sasuke sighed and Hinata giggled in response. "You know we heard everything right?" Sasuke called out.

"WHAT!" Naruto yelled sitting up.

"So you let Haku win!?" Ino yelled also sitting up.

"Oh what a drag," Shikamaru sighed.

"Thanks Sasuke," Haku said with a smile.

"I'm claiming that money later," Sasuke replied.

Naruto and Ino were yelling profanities at the couple who watched them with amused smiles.

"Oh my fucking God, SHUT UP! Some of us are trying to sleep here!" Kiba yelled. Akamaru barked in agreement.

"Shut up Kiba," Ino replied.

"Yeah, shut up Kiba!" Naruto yelled back.

"What was that you blond bastards!" Kiba stood up.

"Say that again dog breath!" Naruto stood up.

With the two idiots yelling in the background, Haku looked over to Sasuke.

"Now it feels like home," He said.

Sasuke smiled at that, a genuine, soft smile as he watched Naruto and Kiba argue, Shikamaru cover his head with a blanket, Ino yelling at Kiba from behind Naruto, and Hinata sighing as she gently rubbed her temples.

Yeah... they were home alright.

"You should all be quiet. Why? Because your waking up the rest of the Shinobi," Shino joined in.

"Oh ill show you waking up Dammit! Rasengan!" Naruto yelled as he charged at Kiba.

Suddenly he was being held down by wood. Yamato stood above the group with a fairly scary looking face.

"Are you done?" He growled. He was tired and not in the mood to deal with this.

"Yes" They agreed.

With that, they were let go, and allowed to return to their sleeping bags.

All the Shinobi slept outside since they were trained for that, while Yamato had worked hard earlier that day to make houses for the civilians to share.

Sasuke laid down and Hinata curled into his side. Tomorrow was another day, and with his Hime by his side, Sasuke would take it on with a smile.

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Oh yes, the war ark is next. Let's see how chaotic that gets.

Hope you guys are enjoying this, we'll be reaching the ends soon.

Ja ne!