Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ What If? (SasuHina) ❯ Chapter 1

She sighed from the two actors not getting it just right once again. The man standing to her side looked at her in amusement. He knew her too well for him to pick up on it so easily, and so he should - they have been partners for quite some time. "Hinata, you are too soft." His dark eyes bored into white ones. In response, the woman smiled gently.

"Ok, try it again," Hinata said as she looked away from Sasuke. She knew it was pointless; they had already been rolling for a few days and couldn't even get past the first scene. But, she really did want to give these two a shot at becoming something more in their careers. She could see their talent; however it did not match what she wanted to produce.

Her eyes sadly squinted, and that was Sasuke's queue to call over the main actors. The actor and actress stood stiffly in front of their bosses. "We don't think you—" Sasuke said gruffly before Hinata placed a hand on his forearm, effectively quieting him. His dark eyes rolled from her disapproving look and he shrugged before walking away to get them a coffee.

The three sat at the table that was placed on set to hold documents and other knickknacks. She saw the two squirm and she felt completely sorry. This was one of the many things she hated with this job. Sasuke should have been the one to do this, but it was her fault. She did not like the thought of him cleaning up her mess, even if he was much better at doing so.

"Shoda, Rin," she softly started to say, "I am sorry, but I don't think this is working out." The two nodded sadly and Hinata felt her heart wrench, she knew she would have hated to be in their position. No matter how unprofessional it could have been she placed her hands on theirs and gave a weak smile. "I know how much this really means to you, so I will recommend you to some contacts, ok?"

"Really?" Rin asked, her light hair sliding away from her eyes. Hinata nodded and the woman hugged her to her surprise.

It was amusing how she interacted with her employees, Sasuke thought as he walked over to the little group with Suki, his and Hinata's PA, following. The female hugging Hinata awkwardly laughed and quickly detached herself. He placed the drink in front of the slightly blushing woman and sat next to her.

The smile on Hinata's face did not leave until she took a body warming sip. "In future I will probably contact you for a role that will last—" she nervously giggled "—that is if you want to work under me again."

The two happily nodded and said their gratitude towards her, even though she had done nothing yet. Only promised, which she always keeps. Eventually the two were showed the way out.

Hinata and Sasuke sat in peace as they slowly drank their coffee. Their small break was disturbed when Hinata fidgeted. Sasuke raised an eyebrow, silently trying to coax her. Her hand twitched before pulling a paper over. "Ano... maybe, maybe it was my fault - perhaps this scene should have been a low shot and not a high one?"

He shot her a hard look. "Hinata, the script is fine."

She sighed at his blunt comment, letting go of her worries, and believed him.

-x-x-x-

She smiled over her dark coffee in the cafe. It was bitter yet addictive with the unrecognisable ounce of sweetness underlining the strong taste. She took a sip and sighed wistfully, wanting him to be there. Her eyes glazed as she drabbled on the page whilst thinking of the past - a past so long forgotten until recently.

Her scribbling paused as her phone rang.

"Hinata-san! They're here! Where are you?"

Her white eyes squinted past the windows splintering frame. "Oh," she said absentmindedly, "the usual, Suki-chan." Her lips slightly pulled as she heard the younger woman scoff about the place. Hinata honestly loved it; the quant, little shop held a certain charm, even though it needed a lot of work. She waved the waiter over and pointed to her cup as an indication that she wanted it to go. The young teenager smiled and shook his head at the regular customer.

The phone crackled, once again making Hinata listen to the frantic voice. "—have you left the shop yet? I can't keep them waiting forever!"

She made a humming noise as thanks when her warm drink was returned to her hand and briskly walked out. She laughed lightly before replying, "I am paying them; therefore they can wait."

-x-x-x-

"Hinata-chan!" The boy quickly engulfed her in his arms."It's been so long! We hav'ta hang as soon as possible!"

She giggled. "B-but, N-n-naruto-kun, we just s-saw each other a w-week a-ago."

He waved his arm in the air in dismissal. "A week is so long!" He said as he grabbed her wrist, pulling her to the water.

As the two teens swam and laughed their heads off from their silliness under the sunlight, which was much easier to do once Naruto loosened Hinata up, they started to chase each other around, trying to tickle one another. It was fun for them. They usually did this when they had the chance and because of this it was simple for Hinata; she breathed fresh air when he was around.

Naruto grinned as he splashed a smiling Hinata, which made her further giggle from the childish antics. This was why she liked him more than a friend. Her heart swelled. They were great friends, basically best friends even though they did have others; it was evident on the website 'Myspace'.

Her eyes sparkled as she looked at the blond. They had a connection that made her heart pump. She knew she was walking on a thin wire with him, though, and was tipping. She was starting to love him which was scaring her. Although she knew she didn't, but she easily could.

-x-x-x-

Her heart stilled as she saw pink and blond through the distorted window. She knew they were going to be here and she didn't particularly mind. It just hurt. Hinata's lips pulled. She knew she did not like him anymore and the resent in her heart happily said that. She was a married woman with a loving family; if she were to go through all that pain again to get where she was today, she would.

It was different seeing her in the flesh after so many years, Naruto thought as she stood tall in front of them. Even though she was still small, she radiated with warmth and confidence. The confidence was hard to see, but he could. She was now a woman you would not want to cross, and he did not see exactly why. Sure, she was rich, especially since she was an author who worked beside the all time movie producer, Sasuke Uchiha.

Sasuke was the one who made the big money in this particular industry; she did smaller projects because her main career was with books - which were the one thing he hated. He tried to avoid those particular roles that were based around books. It took far too long to study the characters.

His blue eyes pierced her. The shimmering hair was now longer and she defiantly filled out. He looked around the room once again, wondering where Sasuke was. He was the one that made Naruto accept the job; he was working his way up the career ladder, and he knew this was the best opportunity even if Hinata—no, not Sasuke, to his complete disappointment—was the main leader of this movie. No matter, he would still get prestige.

"Thank you for coming on such short notice, Sakura, Naruto," she said and it surprised him once again. Albeit soft spoken, she finally got rid of the stutter. His eyes looked back at her; even though she got rid of that trait she still could not look him in the eye easily. Now that made something in him twist.

"Not at all!" Sakura said happily as she shook her hand before him.

The smile on Hinata's face was soft; she had a homely glow to her unlike Sakura. Sakura's looks were exotic, something that easily nabbed him the first time her saw her. He grinned.

"As you already know I'm Hinata H. and this is Suki Sato," she said as she addressed the person next to her. It was strange how she referred to her last name with only an initial. Both Naruto and Sakura knew that is was Hyuga. He shrugged. Since it was her penname on her books she must tell everyone that.

Tapping his hands against his jeans as they walked, he said, "so... Hinata, where is Sasuke?" It was awkward being the only guy there especially when he and Hinata had a history.

White eyes glanced at him. "He's in a different studio filming right now. He isn't really needed until later."
He swiftly nodded with a frown and continued following her through the long hallway. He guessed he would have to see the teme later then.

The clicking of Hinata's heels stopped and the double doors opened to reveal a made up set that was well lightened. He whistled at the state of the art technology and because of this he knew it was going to take a long time.

The small woman picked up the laptop that was sitting at a messy table and quickly typed. Once satisfied she looked back at the two main characters that, she hoped, were very versatile with their acting as people have said. Her posture straightened. "I hope you learnt the first scene because we will be starting straight away."

And that was the first time Naruto saw Hinata gain authority in her voice. 'Damn, the teme must be rubbing off on her...'

-x-x-x-

"Why is the dobe before me?" Dark eyes glared.

She squirmed. "A-ano... I-I didn't think y-you would mind-d."

His eyes darkened and she changed her top friends on Myspace. She really didn't mind. He was her best friend, more so than Naruto, due to them going to elementary school together. She only did it because Naruto moved her up on his. "T-there." She softly smiled and he smirked.

-x-x-x-

Half a year passed working under Uchiha Industries. The blond grumbled as he unlocked his apartment door. He should have looked into Hinata's profile before agreeing to work for her. Sure, she was nice and all that but she had a work ethic like Sasuke.

The fridge's contents were blurry as he pulled out a snack and he happily groaned as he sunk into the couch. He growled in the back of his throat when he thought of Sasuke. The bloody bastard only came here and there to help. He harshly bit into the food. It was frustrating when the aloof male didn't even blink an eye at his acting.

As the silence settled in and the darkness crawled across the floor the blond sighed. The apartment was once again empty and it almost overwhelmed him. He placed a hand over his eyes in weariness and sunk some more.

Throat choked up on chilling air, he wondered why his life turned out like this. He wanted to have a family—it was such a dazzling dream he had—be an actor, be married to someone beautiful and have kids that would follow in his footsteps. No one believed him when he said he was going to be famous. He smiled crookedly. 'Well now look, assholes!'

The fist he thrust into the air dropped lifelessly. He wondered where Sakura was. They had been dating on and off since they were fourteen and were steady once again. Fingernails bit into skin when his fist clenched; he did not understand why she refused to move in with him.

Disappointment invaded his brain when he thought about their relationship and the frown tugged at his lips further when he thought of Hinata and Sasuke. Digging up information on the two was hard. He knew something was going on there, especially since he knew they dated when they were sixteen. How could he not know? They were going to the same wretched school.

He even looked on Myspace (which was last resort - the blasted thing took ages to load) but saw it was vacant of updates from them. What was he kidding, Myspace was dead.

The only place Naruto couldn't get to was their Facebook accounts since they hadn't accepted his friend request. This aggravated him beyond belief; they were all friends once! Accept! Air whooshed out of his mouth in a calming breath. The tension between Hinata and Sasuke was so thick it gave him shivers.

Although he had no clue on the matter, he was constantly thinking of the past since he was always in Hinata's face. Before working for her it was easier to ignore her articles. He finally, honestly, got to see what the woman was like these days. It was such a striking contrast to the weird, albeit nice, girl she was when they were younger.

Multiple times she surprised him. Her former self he often referred to was almost a ghost now. He could see her main attributes still there, but they were more refined and... and different. "Idiot," Naruto quietly said to himself which was startling because it pierced the loneliness of the apartment.

One thing Naruto could humbly say these days is that he regretted how he treated Hinata. He wondered what life would have been like if he didn't ignore her like he had.

"Most have recommended them; actually, some were surprised when they didn't initially get it." The words rolled around Hinata's head as she used a critical eye on the blond and pinkett. She wasn't happy when her PA told her that, but as she watched the two she knew the words were true. They were fantastic at bending backwards whenever Hinata got a spurt of inspiration.

Without disrupting, Sasuke quietly entered the room and saw the satisfaction on Hinata's face. He placed a hand on the small of her back to gain her attention. She looked at him and cutely smiled. "Hi," she whispered.

Sasuke looked at her with hooded eyes and his lips twitched before looking at what she was doing. It was a matter of time before she would be finished and they could move onto writing a different movie they had been planning together. He darkly smirked; those projects appealed to him the most.

"Are you finished for the day?" Hinata asked and he nodded.

His eye twitched when Sakura stumbled over her words. "Do the whole scene again." He cut in with an emotionless tone. It was annoying how it seemed whenever he entered the room someone stuffed up—his jaw tightened—because it meant that they weren't doing their best around Hinata. The actors sighed.

A few hours passed when Hinata finally told everyone to have a break. "She's changed... Her stutter has gone." The Sakura observed the small woman who was quickly chatting with the dark haired male while still sending out orders to their staff. 'And so has he.'

Naruto clenched his fist. 'And a few other things have, too.' Blue eyes connected with green ones.

Sakura and Naruto did talk about the mystery of Sasuke and Hinata. It was mind boggling. She really did want to know what happened, if anything did, between them. It was weird how life worked when she thought about it; Sasuke was once her crush while Naruto was Hinata's.

Sakura felt sorry for Hinata when she started dating Naruto, her green eyes narrowed, but that was before Hinata started dating Sasuke. Human beings were terrible; Sakura started dating Naruto because she thought Sasuke wouldn't budge in finding a girlfriend for a while. She knew Hinata and Sasuke were as thick as thieves; however she never blinked at the notion of them going out. The possibility of them dating. And that made her jealous when it happened even though she was taken by the one person Hinata was so close to dating.

The rest of the day went in a blur for Sakura. The words and actions came easily to her as a burning question coiled her insides the whole time. She was thankful when Sasuke stayed to the very end. "Sasuke Uchiha, 'big time movie director', it has been a long time—" she smiled "—I never thought us four would get this far in the industry," she said and tucked some pink hair behind an ear.

He grunted.

That made her pause; he still talked very little around her. She almost glared because she saw him and Hinata in quite a deep discussion earlier. "The last I heard back in high school was that you and Hinata were dating. How did that go?" Sakura asked inquisitively. She bit her tongue when the saying curiosity killed the cat came to her.

"Fine," he said curtly, making the discussion end.

She frowned.

The quaint little cafe was nice compared to Naruto and Sakura's rushed life. It was good to have a break once in a while since life was far too short. The casual talk easily flowed between them and Naruto almost wished they could stay like this forever.

Blue eyes looked out the window when he saw some kids running, and his eyes crinkled at how they were having such childish fun. Back then it was so simplistic because nothing mattered. As far as you knew, your father's shoulders were the highest thing in the world while your mother was always there when you got hurt. 'To be a kid again.' It was a nice thought.

It was a surprise seeing Hinata outside of the set when Naruto saw her walk past the window. She didn't wear the stark, uptight clothing he usually saw her in. It was another surprise altogether when she didn't wear what she did when they were younger. Hinata had finally gained a feminine touch to her clothes and they actually fit her properly instead of being twice her size.

Her step was light and before she knew it—Naruto cringed—a kid ran into her. Sakura looked outside to see what the ruckus was about since she noticed Naruto was ignoring her. The child who ran into Hinata started to tear up and she crouched down to his level. They both saw the concerned look on Hinata's face as she inspected his knee. She placed a bandaid on the scrape from the bag she was carrying and placed a kiss to make it better.

"That was cute," the pinkett said as she took another sip of her tea and almost choked when she saw the ring. Sakura bent over the table and quickly said in a hushed tone, "did you see the diamond on her finger?"

Naruto shook his head and continued watching as Hinata crossed the street.

There were some things you regret and there were things you really regret, Naruto thought when he saw the bright smile on Hinata's face as two dark haired children ran up to her after leaving the father. He saw the children run around, animatedly talking to the two parents as they kissed.

The air stilled in his lungs and his veins froze. It was such a happy reunion it was hypnotising.
"Is that..." Sakura said in shock.

His eyes could not leave the family, even at Sakura's question. "Y-yes," he croaked out. He felt like a fool.

The male with his arm snugly around Hinata's waist ruffled his son's head. The boy pouted before pointing to his sister and saying something that made the parents laugh. Dark eyes finally connected with blue ones and at this moment as Naruto looked through the glass, he realised what completely different worlds Hinata, Sasuke, Sakura and he were on. Hinata had completely moved on from him; she settled down and had a family with Sasuke.

It was finally finished, Hinata thought as she watched it on the screen. She smiled at her husband; this was the most satisfying part of her job. Not the praise, not the money, but the fulfilment of knowing someone somewhere will like the two hour showing when it took much, much longer to make.

Even though Naruto hurt Hinata so long ago, Hinata knew she proved to herself, and him, that she was not who she used to be. She was not someone who idly sits there and allows others to do whatever they wanted with her. She knows how to pick her friends.

It still saddened her how flighty he was when they were younger because she wouldn't have minded him dating Sakura. She had no say on the matter, she was not with him. She preferred his friendship over relationship, and that is why she didn't tell him about her feelings until she knew she had lost him as a friend. Nevertheless, that hurt the most because he took their friendship for granted; he ignored her to point that he would completely change directions if she was in the vicinity. It was unbearable.

However, the tension was still in the air between Hinata and Naruto. She glanced down at her ring and smiled as she fingered it; perhaps it was time to start letting go. She knew her resent towards Naruto would decapitate eventually because she did not regret what happened.

All four of them stood outside the locked building in the warm air. "It was a pleasure working with you Hinata and Sasuke." Sakura said while Naruto agreed. Sakura eyed their wedding bans and almost sighed wistfully. They knew there was no point in hiding it from them and that was why they stood so very closely together now.

The four finally said their goodbyes and went to their respective homes. Although, as Naruto walked away from a past he will never forget or gain, he knew in the back of his head that he would always wonder of the future him and Hinata could have possibly had.

-x-x-x-

"Mummy! Daddy!" Their children said as they ran up to Hinata and Sasuke while saying how much they missed them.

Sasuke watched as his shy little wife crouched to be in level with the two monsters. "You've already got your costumes on," Hinata said while kissing them both on the cheeks. "Do you want me to paint your faces now?"

The two said their yeses as they raced up stairs to get the stuff Hinata asked for.

Sasuke bristled with pride for his family, especially his wife. He knew being a mother changes you, but he would have never guessed this. Except, maybe, that was only a small portion to her growing. Either way—the younger version of herself or this one—he adored her.

Hinata linked her fingers with Sasuke's as a smile crossed her face. His eyes darkened as he softly pressed his lips against hers, which after all these years, still made a delectable shiver travel down her spine. Out of everything Hinata had been through in her life, one thing she was certain of is that the best revenge was living well.