Chapter Text
Sasuke knew this was the place. It didn’t look like much, a small house on the border between two wheat fields, a village could be seen in the distance, but it was far enough away that she was still setting herself as an outsider. There was a garden to the side, that was well cared for, and a line of laundry with its careful embroidery drying in the sun.
Before he could bring himself to knock, there was a creak of an opening door, leading them to peek around the back, where a sheet of dark hair spilled down as she sat down and picked up a basket of fabric. She took no time to pull the parked needle out and get right back to stitching.
“I thought she would have seen us by now,” Naruto whispered.
Sasuke snapped a glare over his shoulder.
Hinata’s head snapped up, and everything on her lap spilled out as she stood up in a startle. Her jaw dropped, but she scrabbled down to stuff her work back into her basket. “What… What are you doing here?” She said in a low whisper, as if she thought she needed to be quiet, and with her eyes darting back to the door, he was wondering if there was someone else in the house.
Naruto waved at her. “Hi?” His goofy greeting did little to make her less panicked.
“You two, you have to leave.” Hinata dropped her basket back into place and rushed toward them, waving her hands. “You have to go, now.”
What?
“Hinata, wait.” Sasuke tried to grab her hands to keep her from pushing him, but when he did, it stung him, shooting pain down his arm. “Ah!” He grew, pulling it back. “What is going on?”
“I can’t have anyone find you.” Hinata was in angry tears. “Why would you come here when you know I could be killed for helping you?”
Naruto got between them, waving his hands defensively. “Hinata, Sasuke’s king now.” He explained. “The magic ban has been lifted, you’re not a fugitive anymore.”
Hinata blinked, and tears ran down her face. She went quiet, but her chest heaved with the results of her panic as she looked past Naruto.
Sasuke rubbed his arm. He nodded, confirming. “My father passed away a few weeks ago.”
Hinata stepped back, wrapped her arms around herself, and looked back toward the house.
“Hinata, I…” Sasuke tried to stumble out everything that he had been thinking to tell her, but was caught off guard by a shriek coming from inside the house.
“What was that?” Naruto blinked.
Hinata winced, scrunching her face, but instead of giving them answers, she just let herself back inside, and with the door open, what they were hearing was much more clear. A child’s cry.
Sasuke’s mind went blank. Has she…
“Did she have a baby?” Naruto opened his big mouth. “With who?”
That was the question he was worried about the answer to.
Naruto walked forward, making Sasuke grab his horse’s reins. “You… ugh.” Sasuke quickly tied the horses together and to the nearest post following him into where he had already taken off his boots by the door and was watching Hinata pat at the back of an upset… toddler.
Hinata glanced at them in the doorway, but then avoided them. She might be able to see them even when she wasn’t looking. She moved around the small kitchen area before she had what she wanted in her hand and got the child to lift their head from her shoulder, so they could be handed something that looked like a stick of dried fruit.
The child sucked on it, whimpering like they still weren’t happy, nibbling and laying their head to the side, ignoring the guests.
“We got stung by a bee last week.” Hinata hiked the child up on her hip. “And now we are very scared of wings buzzing, even if it’s just a fly.” She hummed in a soft voice before dropping her eyes to the floor.
She knew what he wanted to know. The child had dark hair, but he could see their eyes, likely the same white eyes as hers.
“Whose… kid is that?” Naruto asked dumbly.
Hinata snapped her eyes to him as a warning, and it made him flinch. She shifted a curtain and placed the child down into a low crib behind it, re-closing it before she faced them again, circling her arms around her like a shield. “You should leave.”
“Is he mine?” Sasuke asked directly.
Naruto’s eyebrows shot up. “Yours? When did you…”
“He’s mine.” Hinata snapped.
Was she trying to deny it? He could do math. He could see how old the child was. Either she was already pregnant when they met, which she made no mention of, or she moved on the minute she left. “Are you really trying to convince me…”
“You have no proof.” Hinata snapped defensively. “Leave.”
“I have a right to my child if he is mine,” Sasuke demanded.
“You aren’t taking him!” Hinata’s voice shook the house, making Naruto duck as if the roof would fall. “Leave!”
It was at this point that his quick anger melted because she was shaking, her fingers were digging into her arms, and she was scared.
Sasuke put his hands up. “I’m not trying to take him, I’m just surprised.” She frowned at him, unconvinced. “Let me explain.” He offered his hand outside to get out of her space, where she clearly didn’t want him.
Hinata eyed the door and nodded him out.
Sasuke grabbed Naruto and pushed him out first to make sure he didn’t say anything else stupid. Hinata took another moment inside, likely checking on the child before she came back out and closed the door behind them.
“How did you not see us coming?” Naruto asked.
Sasuke glared at him. That was his first question?
Hinata’s shoulders fell slightly. “I wasn’t looking for someone to come. Just because I can see through walls doesn’t mean I am always looking.”
“Fair.” Naruto shrugged.
“What is it you wanted to explain?” Hinata sat back down in her seat just outside the back door, her hand fidgeted for a moment before she picked the stitching back to calm her nerves.
“Well, after you left, Itachi came to me…” Sasuke started to explain and ran through everything that had happened between her leaving until now, including his search for her, falling short because of the Hyuga not knowing where she was, and him using the scarf to find her.
Hinata eyes the scarf at the end of his story. Was she regretting giving it to him because it was how he found her? Did she still resent him enough to wish he hadn’t found her? Did she really want to raise the child alone that badly? “Shortly after I returned to Hyuga, I realized I was pregnant, and it’s not something that you can hide.” Not with all-seeing eyes. “I told my father I was pregnant but refused to tell him who the father was because I didn’t want him to use my son as a tool against the kingdom.”
“So wait, he IS Sasuke’s,” Naruto asked.
Sasuke shoved him.
Hinata pressed her lips together. “And I knew I had to get further away, because me being alone was one thing, but a magic child is valuable and vulnerable.” She was scared someone would try to take him and use him.
He wanted to tell her to come home with him, where he could keep her safe, but he felt like he had something more important to do first. “Can I see him?”
Hinata hesitated, but she put her stitching back down and headed back inside. He didn’t follow her. He waited for her to come back. “Have the bees gone?” He heard her say quietly to the child.
She stepped back outside with the child in tow, sat back down in her spot, adjusted him onto her lap, and brushed his hair back out of his face. “We normally don’t cut children’s hair, but his isn’t long enough to pull back quite yet.”
The boy blinked at the hand on his face, scrunching his face before opening his eyes, revealing that his eyes were white, but not totally. They had a symbol in the middle.
“Huh?” Naruto lowered his head. “They’re not Hyuga eyes.”
“Yeah,” Hinata hummed. “I wasn’t sure what that was. A child has never been born into my family with it.” She glanced at Sasuke. “I have my theories, but…”
“I know what it is,” Sasuke told her. “My family line has magic in it. I recognize the pattern from one of the records.”
Hinata adjusted her arms around the child to hold him in place and was still looking at him apprehensively. “That would make sense.” The child reached forward at Naruto in one jerk, making her adjust so he didn’t just fall out of her lap. “Oof,” he reached forward at Naruto with a grabby hand out.
Sasuke lifted his hand to catch him if he fell, but he pulled away when he wasn’t needed.
Naruto got closer until the hand lifted and eventually went right into his hair. “Oh, have you not seen a blond before?” He grinned. “You’re cute, little guy. He’s not going to shock me, is he?”
Hinata’s worried face faltered a little to crack a smile. "No, he doesn't know how to do that."
“What’s his name?” Naruto asked.
Hinata’s eyes slid to Sasuke. “Komugi.” She answered.
