#i love sasuke having a fixation on neji's hair

[brokencages]

neji: hey love, should i cut my hair-

sasuke: no. no way in hell. i would kill myself

neji: that's a bit dramatic

[asotin]

love that the konoha 12 + sai (minus naruto) just gelled together while naruto was out chasing sasuke. i love the idea that they have inside jokes and they have like sleepovers. every1 gets really close to each other and nart's like "wish i could be close with them too :(" bitch you're not here. kinda hard to get close to some1 if they're never there. maybe if you stopped chasing after McEmo out there, you too would be a part of the group. -mel

the tragedy of naruto is that he started to make friends with a bunch of people but never bonded with them like he could have because he was too busy to chasing after a kid he had a superficial trauma bond with, who expressed little interest in being around him. it makes the whole story frustrating because it isn't framed as "it's tragic that naruto is so burdened by trauma that he neglects the deeper bonds the people around him want to form because he's fixated on one kid". it's "naruto knows this kid and he's right to pursue him to the point of mutual destruction, and these other people don't get it so their attempts at trying to get him to think critically and let them help are actually getting in the way"

that said, there have been a lot of bonding experiences among the others. sai as the resident kid who hasn't been socialized gets treated to the full teen experience. akamaru's claws get painted. lee, neji, and tenten are all competitive (gai's perpetual challenges to kakashi have only made that instinct stronger), so people give them ridiculous tasks to complete. ino and sakura spend months convincing hinata to grow her hair out. trips to a nearby onsen become a ritual; the mystery of why the people on the other side are making a fuss becomes an ongoing joke (there is no peeping in this universe)

[ssa25]

Secret Glances - Sasuhina Month 2020 - Day 5

Prequel to my other sasuhina oneshot by the name of ‘Secret Relationship’. I wrote that piece for shmonth2019. This can be read as a standalone too.

Rating: Mature

“It’s stunning, isn’t it?”, Ino commented beside her. They were moving through the wide hallway of Shikamaru and Temari’s swanky new home. With Shikamaru’s job as the youngest partner at a reputed law firm and Temari being a pilates instructor for high profile clients, they had more than enough money to splurge over their high rise condo right in the middle of the city centre. The decor was chic but sensible. All in all, very good!

Hinata nodded and hummed in approval. “I love the charred grey wooden floors.”

Ino raised an eyebrow and teased her, “I swear I would have taken you for an oakwood type of gal… You know, light and pleasant...”

Hinata laughed at her insinuation. But almost everyone would think the same about her as Ino had. That she liked ‘pleasant’. She like ‘reliable’. She liked ‘safe’.

Ironically, as of late, she was behaving nothing like the Hinata they all know. She was being impulsive. She was making questionable decisions. She was being selfish.

And it felt like a heady rush. The thrill of doing the unthinkable. It helped her from drowning in the deep end. It kept her afloat, and it made her feel alive.

They were greeted by sounds of murmurs when the two women entered the open plan living room. Almost everyone of their friends had arrived on time for the housewarming party. It wasn’t an all out bash, considering the recent loss of one of their own friends. But this was a step towards moving on, because Neji would have wanted that.

Everyone waved and greeted the two latecomers. Hinata was pulled into a bear hug by Kiba and Shino.

Temari came over to hug and chide them at the same time. “Where were you two?!!... You should’ve been here more than an hour ago!!”

Ino raised both her hands to explain, “Not my fault.” Pointing at Hinata, she added, “This one here picked me up late. I was almost about to call a cab. If Sai was not out of the city, I would have been the first one here.”

Hinata pouted and side eyed at Ino, “I said I was sorry Ino.”

Temari rolled her eyes at them. “Fine, fine. Better late than never. Come on in. What drinks can I get you?”

Ino chose vodka, while Hinata decided on some lemonade. She had to drive, after all. 

Hinata was admiring the elegant chandelier when her phone pinged to signal an incoming text.

-‘I see you.’

She looked up from her phone to glance around the crowd and found the sender of the text lounging in the dimly lit corner of the room.

Sasuke sat together with Naruto and Shikamaru, his phone and a scotch in his hands and his eyes fixated on her. His hair was slightly damp and brushed back, while he sported a different set of clothes than a few hours back.

She noticed how his eyes trailed down the length of her well fitted but modestly designed blue dress. There was nothing scandalous about her attire, but his gaze held a heat that made her feel shamefully bare.

She turned away from him and gravitated towards her group of girl friends. She had to avoid him, or their sordid secret would be out, since she was not very good at pretending.

Some of them sat on the high bar stools near the breakfast counter, but she preferred to stand with her glass of lemonade. Her lady parts were still a little sore from that afternoon, and the long drive to Ino’s and then Temari’s did not help either.

Conversation flew easily between them, and Hinata found it slightly easier to resist the urge to look for the pair of intense dark eyes. Before long, the topic of discussion turned to her.

“But seriously, I had never seen Hinata run behind schedule before today. Remember that time in ninth grade when she burst into tears just because she was a little late to school.”

Hinata smiled into her glass but stayed quiet.

Sakura sighed and nodded, “Those were good times. Everything was so much simpler then. There was no pressure, no expectations. You lived, you loved, and that was pretty much it.”

Everyone nodded in agreement. Hinata’s phone pinged again loudly, and the girls looked in her direction. She mentally berated herself for not putting her phone on silent mode, because now she had a group of very perceptive women looking at her.

“Won’t you check that?”, Tenten asked her.

She shook her head to dismiss it when the phone beeped again.

“Sounds like someone is trying to get your attention…”, Ino teased her.

Hinata blushed uneasily and looked away. “It’s just a friend.”

“A friend won’t make you grow ten shades redder.”, Temari commented with a sly smirk.

“Come on, tell us… Is it someone from work?”, this time it was Sakura that asked her. Hinata looked at the green eyed beauty and felt a solid pang of guilt course through her. After all, she was cheating on her friend of many years. Sakura and her were never the closest of friends. But they were part of the same group, so in essence she was being disloyal to her.

And you can never stop with just one lie. 

“You guys are reading too much into it-“, she said dismissively. She took out her phone to read the message just to show them that it was nothing to fuss about.

But it actually was.

-‘Are you avoiding me? Won’t you come say hello?’-

-‘I like this dress on you. Can’t wait to see you out of it.’-

Hinata read the two texts and put the phone back in her leather clutch bag. She could reply later.

“You know… You’ve changed a lot.”, Sakura said to her.

“I think we have all changed Sakura.”, she conceded thoughtfully.

“But you seem so secretive nowadays… It’s like you don’t share anything with us… Ever since Neji’s-“, Sakura was interrupted by Ino’s elbow nudging into her side.

Hinata became stiff with sorrow and dread. Because Sakura was telling the truth. She had changed a lot since Neji’s death. And apparently, she had caught on to it.

Tenten nodded her head and lay a hand on Hinata’s shoulder. “We’re not trying to push you to feel a certain way… This is not an intervention… It’s still too early for that… But try to keep in touch with us through calls and texts… You have become so quiet on our group chat… You don’t pick up our calls very often… It’s like now we’ve got two Sasukes instead of just the one.”, she tried to joke about it. Everyone laughed at the joke. But she was too shocked by the comparison to join in.

She knew what they were talking about. She had seen Tenten’s missed calls late last night, but she was too tired to call her back after Sasuke was done with her. And earlier that day, Ino had left a voicemail because Hinata was indisposed to pick up her call.

Thankfully, Naruto came over to say hello to her before inviting them all over to where the guys were.

“If you ladies are all done with your gossip, can we all please hang out together…”, he said with mock exasperation.

“Oh please, men gossip just as much as women…”, Ino rolled her eyes but followed after him. “You just like to pretend like you don’t…. I’ve got receipts to prove it…”

Naruto bickered with Ino, while they joined the men. Hinata took the corner of the large L shaped sofa, with Tenten right beside her. Her eyes caught Sasuke’s as he sat almost exactly opposite to her on the ottoman bench. He had the faintest of smirk on his face, that messed with her brain and good sense.

She couldn’t stand to latch on to his stare for more than a second, she had to look away. But involuntarily, her eyes slid back at him again. Their secretive glances were bound to get caught by someone, she feared.

“I hope you didn’t mind what I said earlier Hinata.”, Tenten spoke as everyone was settling in.

“No… Ofcourse not… I know that you all care for me.”, Hinata replied with an understanding smile.

“We do.. We all really do…”, Tenten agreed with her. “In fact, I think it got some of us closer than before.”

Hinata nodded but did not comment. She knew Rock Lee had stood firmly by Tenten when she was heartbroken by Neji’s tragic accident. Tenten always had a soft spot for her cousin, even if it never developed into anything more than friendship. She had needed someone too. No doubt, her family and friends were all there for her. But only one of them was able to quell the sense of utter hopelessness that plagued her at times. It had all started when her self worth had hit a new low and she lay awake at night blaming herself, cursing her very existence. Sasuke had saved her from that depressing train of thoughts. In probably the most primal and questionable way, he had kept her distracted. Because when they came together, they were nothing more than animals in heat. It was lewd, it was vulgar. But it got her out of her slump. And she desperately hoped that some day, she would have the strength to stop relying on him.

“Like seriously, it was so unexpected to see someone as cold and temperamental as Sasuke become so close to you.”, Tenten remarked casually.

Hinata had to physically restrain herself from reacting to her observation. They knew that the two had become closer and they concluded it to Sasuke’s empathy for her, as he had lost his own cousin a few years back too.

She hummed noncommittally and turned to listen to what Naruto was saying. The rest of the evening was all fun, chatter, great food and booze. A few of them like Sakura, Kiba and Lee  had to work the next day, so they decided to end their party before midnight.

Ino was already wobbling on her feet, as they headed to the door.

Sasuke called out to Ino, “Don’t you think you have had a little too much to drink?”

“Ohhh, what is this?... Uchiha Sasuke is worrying about me??!... Are you regretting turning me down all those years back? Hmmmm???... Well, it’s a little too late now darling.. I’ve moved on to green pastures…”, Ino replied with a mild slur.

Shikamaru, who was standing near them had overheard the conversation, and grew a little concerned.

“Ino, will you be okay going back home in this condition?”

“Ah, don’t worry Shika… I’m not nearly as drunk Sasuke thinks…And anyway, Hinata is taking me home… She’ll take good care of me… Right, Hinata?”

Hinata nodded instantly. “I’ll see her to her apartment Shikamaru.”

“Or… She could just stay the night here. I mean, we have bedrooms to spare. She can be our first overnight guest.”

“It’s no problem for me to drive her home. You must be tired already.”, Hinata offered again.

“Oh don’t be silly… It’s fine… Besides, you might have trouble carrying her up the flight of stairs if she drifts off to sleep… That’s it… It’s decided… Ino can spend the night here.”

“But-”, Hinata interjected at the sudden change of plans. She looked over at Sasuke who was trying his best to hide his wicked smile. She realised that he had planned for this to happen.

“Okay!!... I agree to staying over...”, Ino clapped her hands together, and added slyly to Temari. “But only if you promise not to f*ck each other in the next room.”

Drunk Ino had zero filter. Shikamaru looked red in the face, but Temari was a tough cookie to embarrass. 

She laughed and replied sarcastically, “Don’t worry… We will try our best to keep our hands off each other for one night, however difficult it will be.”

-

Hinata parked her car and got out to see Sasuke leaning against his near her block of apartment.

“Took you long.”, Sasuke commented.

“I had to stopover for a fuel refill.”, Hinata said honestly. “I wasn’t expecting you here.”

Sasuke pulled her closer and murmured, “Why not? I didn’t get rid of Ino for nothing.”

Hinata frowned at him, but her cheeks felt hotter from his attention. “That wasn’t a nice thing to do…And I’m… I’m actually a little… sore...”

That revelation did not dampen his smirk. “I thought as much… You were wiggling too much in your seat…”

Hinata pulled away and folded her arms. “Then why are you here?”

“To take you for a late night drive.”

Hinata could not stop the smile that spread on her face. In that moment, all the guilt, all the shame was wiped away. It was only him and her.

Wordlessly, she walked around his black convertible and opened the door to slide in.

x

[365daysofsasuhina]

[ 365 Days of SasuHina || Day One Hundred Fifty-One: A Joke ] [ Uchiha Sasuke, Hyūga Hinata, Uzumaki Naruto, Haruno Sakura ] [ SasuHina, NaruSaku ] [ Verse: A Light Amongst Shadows ] [ AO3 Link ]

“...this is a joke, right?”

“No.”

“...but, uh…?”

“What’s so funny about it?”

“Well, nothing! I guess, uh...I just…” Hands gesture vaguely as he tries to think of the right words. “It just seems kinda...y’know...out there.”

Expression neutral save for a hint of a deadpan stare, Sasuke doesn’t blink as he locks eyes with his childhood rival. “...or maybe you just haven’t been paying any attention. Because to everyone else, apparently, it’s made perfect sense.”

The accusatory tone makes Naruto go pink, jolting back a bit, eyes wide. “...I-I just, y’know…”

“What? You seem so shocked, but you refuse to say why. Something bothering you, Naruto?”

“...no…?” The slight upward lilt to the blond’s voice, however, says otherwise. After a long, awkward silence, he heaves a sigh, shoulders slumping. “...I guess it just seems weird to hear that after...everything…”

Visible dark eye narrowing a hair, Sasuke asks, “...everything?”

“Well, there was...the incident when Pein attacked. And then, in the war…”

“You mean Hinata’s confession you never responded to? Risking her life for you? And the snap she gave you when you lost track of your goal and your drive in the middle of a warzone?”

Again Naruto flinches. “...w-well, when ya put it like that…”

“Hinata’s changed a lot, Naruto. Even from when we were kids. Admittedly...I didn’t know her well, then. But neither did you, did you? You never saw her. You were too fixated on me, and because of me...Sakura. Someone was there in your corner, quietly cheering you on, and you didn’t have the presence of mind to even notice.”

At that, Naruto actually hardens just a hair, still somber. “...you can accuse me of a lot of things, teme...but that’s taking it a little far.”

“No, it isn’t.” Sasuke doesn’t back down, tone unwavering. “I’m not the rest of our class, Naruto. I won’t sugarcoat the things I say to you. Admit it: you barely even knew Hinata existed. Not until we were genin, at any rate, and she stuck by you in the exams. Offered you help in the written test, and later tried to prove she had your bravery in her match against Neji. She almost died.” Sighing, Sasuke glances aside. “...but it was never your bravery. She took inspiration from you...but all she’s done has been her doing.”

Giving a mix of a scowl and a pout, Naruto asks, “...how do you know all this stuff?”

“Because I talk to her. Hence deciding to date her. With you and Sakura too busy with each other, we were left in the wayside. It helps she’s one of the Uchiha clan’s closest allies...and then joined the new police force with me. There’s a lot you don’t know about her, dobe.” Another hint of a glare. “...did you really balk at the idea of us being together because you assumed she’s still hung up over you…?”

“...w-well -”

Sasuke cuts in with a scoff. “...you really think everyone wants to kiss your ass all the time, don’t you? Is it really so hard to believe she’s moved on?”

Bristling, Naruto counters, “I didn’t mean it like that! And I don’t expect everyone to worship the ground I walk on -”

“Really? That’s news to me -”

Grabbing the Uchiha’s shirtfront, Naruto hauls him up, ceruleans sparking as Sasuke gives a one-eyed squint, Rinnegan covered by his hitai-ate. “You’re a right bastard, y’know that?”

“Never denied it. I’ve made peace with my faults and have been trying to better them, unlike someone I know.”

“I’m gonna hit you so hard it’ll make Madara dizzy -!”

“Hey!”

Turning, both men freeze, wide-eyed at the pair of women staring at them. Hinata’s own eyes are round, expression shocked. Sakura, on the other hand, is glaring with the heat of a sun in her gaze, arms folded.

But they probably won’t stay that way for long.

“What the hell is going on here?!” the rosette demands.

“Uh, S-Sakura-chan, we were just, uh…”

Completely ignoring Naruto’s stuttered attempts at an explanation, Sakura marches forward, her boyfriend dropping Sasuke like a hot coal in order to stumble back from her. A finger pokes his chest accusingly, making him flinch. “What have I told you about starting fights with Sasuke-kun?”

“I didn’t start it -!”

“Well, in a way, you did,” Sasuke rebukes.

The other couple both round on him then, coming up short as Hinata steps up in front of Sasuke. Facing him, she gives him her best stare down.

...Sasuke will admit, his girlfriend can be extremely terrifying. He’s seen her get serious before. But this isn’t quite that level.

This is just cute.

But he doesn’t betray that thought, staring at her with a perfectly blank expression in turn.

“...what were you arguing about?”

“Naruto’s ego,” Sasuke offers simply. True enough.

“And you being a prick!” Naruto shouts back over Sakura’s shoulder, earning a whipped-around warning glare that flinches him back.

Studying him closely, Hinata seems to have a silent conversation with Sasuke before turning around. She knows well enough how easily sparked confrontations are between these two...especially since tensions are still a little high between Sasuke and the rest of his old team. He hasn’t fully forgiven them for their treatment of him...nor have they fully forgotten his actions while away from Konoha.

“...I think maybe we should just...break it up here,” she then advises softly. “You’re both clearly too riled up to apologize.”

“I’m not apolo-!”

“That’s her point,” Sakura cuts in as Naruto rebukes, giving him a look.

“I’m hardly riled up,” Sasuke counters.

“Yes you are.”

He squints at Hinata as her arms fold, giving him a look that dares him to refute her again.

Sighing curtly with a hand at her brow, Sakura offers, “You know what? Let’s just go. I am not in the mood to deal with you two brawling. Nor am I in the mood for a therapy session.”

Grunting disgruntledly, Naruto just glowers (and pouts) as Sakura rather forcibly steers him away.

Sasuke just stares back, expression cool.

“...let’s go home,” Hinata announces. By ‘home’ she technically means Sasuke’s place. She doesn’t live there...yet. But it’s where they spend most of their time, given Hinata still lives at home, and...doesn’t have much privacy. Sasuke’s new house might be neighboring his brother’s (with Shisui’s on Itachi’s other side), but Uchiha, she finds, aren’t nearly as nosy as their distant Hyūga cousins.

Stuffing hands in his pockets, Sasuke follows as she starts walking. “...I really didn’t start that argument.”

No reply.

“...he was being a pretentious ass. About you.”

That earns a glance.

“I told him we’re dating, and he, apparently, found that hard to believe.”

“...that hardly seems like a good reason to get angry.”

“He found it hard to believe because he figured you were still hung up on him. Even though he and Sakura have been dating for ages now.”

“...and?”

He heaves a curt breath. “It...bothered me. That he thinks you’re so weak and wishy-washy, you’d still be clinging to him after all this time, rather than moving on and and getting stronger on your own like you have. It felt...insulting to you, and how far you’ve come.”

This time, Hinata turns to him fully, expression alight with surprise. “...you really…?”

“What?”

“...you told him that?”

“Well...maybe I didn’t phrase it exactly like that, but...yeah. I told him it’s a bit pretentious of himself to assume everyone wants to love him all the damn time. Especially you, after how he just...left you hanging. I mean, you risked your life, and -”

At that, Hinata holds up a hand, gently cutting him off. “...that’s in the past.”

“But -!”

“I don’t think about it anymore, Sasuke-kun. And you shouldn’t either. What happened between Naruto-kun and I - or...rather, what didn’t - isn’t important anymore. He’s happy with Sakura-chan. And I’m happy with you.” She offers a soft smile. “...so why dwell on that, when we can be f-focusing on what’s here, and now, making us happy?”

After a pause, Sasuke gives a hint of a pout. “...hn.”

“...still...I do appreciate you standing up for me like that. You’re right...I have changed a lot since then. I think...it was good for me to stop striving to impress other people, or follow them. I grew so much more when I started focusing on myself, for myself, and growing for my own sake...and for those I care about. To protect them.” Softly, Hinata giggles into the cuff of a sleeve. “Still...I don’t think Naruto-kun meant to come off as, um...self-centered. I liked him for a long time. It must be odd to think that all that time is just...severed now. That’s probably more what he meant than expecting me to cling to him forever j-just because he’s ‘so admired’. Ne?”

“...I guess.”

“...I know how easily you two still fight. I know, um...some nerves are still raw. And I don’t blame you. But...from now on, just know that this at least doesn’t have to be a point of contention anymore, okay? You’ve got more important things to worry about than defending my honor,” she giggles.

“...I’ll try to bear that in mind.” After a stubborn pause, he withdraws a hand from his pocket and instead finds her fingers, weaving them with his own. It’s true...there’s a lot more going on for him to think on than old love triangles and teenage drama. Most importantly regarding his family’s safety.

...but he tries not to dwell on that for now. Instead, he gently squeezes her hand.

Time to go home.

                                                        .oOo.

     Welp, not too much to say about this one! Actually cranked it out pretty fast, too! Got those first few lines, and the rest just kinda wrote itself!      In ALAS, Sasuke has...A LOT of bond rebuilding to do with his team. And, in ALAS, he didn't have TOO much with them to begin with. The way I write and view Sasuke, he didn't really WANT to invest in his team. Sure, he slipped up a bit as he got a bit complacent, but overall, he found the ideas of friends and a team as anchors weighing him down. So add in how Naruto and Sakura got in the way of his plans (and later, even after learning what Konoha did to his clan, insisting he be dragged unwillingly back), he's very much convinced they never respected him, and just felt owed his time, attention, and affection due to THEIR views of him, and their bonds. Which he never wanted to give in the first place.      Buuut I'm rambling xD I could pick apart this story for hours, so I'll stop myself there. This is just one of Naruto and Sasuke's lingering hot spots: Sasuke thinks Naruto has too much ego and "I'm the hero, so everyone has to love me" complex. And Naruto thinks Sasuke is just a jerk who has to nitpick everything to start fights. Which...both sides, at least with how I write these characters, are partly true xD      Hence the ladies stepping in and saving the day, lol - more things I could expound a lot on: how those ships work, and how the ladies are canon divergent, too.      Aaanyway, it's...very late, so I'ma head off! Thanks so much for reading n_n

[fangren]

okay! I’ve finished up to the Third Hokage’s memorial in both the anime and manga, so it’s time for some more Naruto thoughts.

-fuck Jiraiya, fuck his introduction, and fuck his whole character archetype. such a sleazy bastard. thank god Naruto didn’t pick up any of that awfulness.

-that said, the scenes of Naruto actually trying to learn how to summon toads are pretty fucking good. especially when he summons the one that has all four legs, but still has a tail so he freaks out.

-Naruto vs Neji is still such a good fight. it’s the first time Naruto really gets acknowledged by a large group of people, so there’s a lot of really good feelings at the end. It’s a shame Hinata was unconscious for most of it though.

-I didn’t say this last time, but I don’t like Shikamaru’s attitude towards fighting women. I also don’t like how his role so far in the tournament has basically just been to make promising girls look like fools. I mean, he has his good points, but still...

-fuckin’ Sasuke. how the hell did his hair grow out that much in only a month? or maybe I’m just seeing something that isn’t there. anyway, he has a couple good moments in this part, but they’re really only just steps back towards how he was at the end of Waves, and obviously there’s a lot of backsliding around here and in the future so...

-I had thought that more giant snakes had been summoned for the attack rather than just the three, but apparently I was wrong.

-the Sound Four make their first appearance! nothing else to say about them right now.

-my god does Orochimaru vs the Third take a long time to finish, even in the manga. good on the Third for hanging in there with a fucking sword sticking through him though.

-the original three Sound nin (Dosu, Zaku, and Kin) 100% had such unnecessarily shitty deaths. one killed mostly off-screen by Gaara, the other two used as sacrifice fodder for Edo Tensei. they deserved better.

-Shino vs Kankuro is short, but pretty good. Shino should have been used more, and I will say that I really loved him in the first arc of the Boruto anime.

-the Gaara fight... honestly, what can I say? it was a good culmination of what’s been going on up to that point. also, remember when Naruto sticks an exploding kunai into mostly-transformed Gaara’s butt? well, you do now.

-Sasuke... whereas Gamakichi, Pakkun, and even Temari are just astounded by Naruto, Sasuke very much has a vein of ‘holy shit, when did Naruto get this good?’ with an underlying fear of even Naruto being stronger than him now. it’s... it’s not a good reaction. just like in the last stretch I reviewed, Naruto definitely has a few moments of wanting to engage in ship fuel with Sasuke but... Sasuke is definitely not really interested in that right now. he’s already fixating on his avenger bullshit.

-not a lot of shipping going on in this stretch in general, of course. a few tidbits of NaruHina during the Neji fight, and maybe some waters-testing with Team 10. also, some I guess allusions to NaruSaku during the Gaara fight? though mostly its just the toads assuming stuff. Sakura is unconscious at the time. either way, though, it hasn’t aged well.

-and then there’s the funeral itself... I’m not ashamed to say I cried watching it. that sort of thing always gets me. the Third Hokage wasn’t perfect, but he was a very loving old guy and how much he meant to and would be missed by the village was very palpable.

-oh and Itachi and Kisame show up at the very end to be mysterious and shit. assholes.

that’s all for now... next post will probably be after Tsunade? not sure.

[orangeflavoryawp]

Sasuhina - “Bone-White”

My first foray into Naruto fanfic.  I hope you can forgive my failings.  Please enjoy.

Bone-White

“Here’s the thing: he thinks she’s beautiful.  Not beautiful in the conventional Hyuuga way – because there is a Hyuuga kind of beautiful. Hanabi has it.  Neji had it.  It’s a kind of straight-backed, hollowed-out beauty that promises to sear you if you get too close. But not Hinata.”  -  Uchiha Sasuke and Hyuuga Hinata.  The familiarity of ghosts.

Can be read here: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12678402/1/Bone-White

And here: http://archiveofourown.org/works/12280812

* * *

Hyuuga Hinata doesn’t actually see him the day of his return.  But then, she doesn’t have to see to know.  Hinata knows many things without ever having actually seen them.   Most things she knows are unseen. Like Naruto’s fear.  Like Sakura’s regret.  Like Neji’s presence.

Like her father’s love (he loves her, she knows this – even when she doesn’t see it).

She knows that Uchiha Sasuke is back, but ‘back’ is such a vague, undisclosed destination in the first place, since she couldn’t exactly figure out what he was returning to anyway.

Home?  Maybe, but not the kind he left.  Never the kind he left – if he had one in the first place.

Kakashi?  It wasn’t likely.  The Uchiha compound?  That didn’t matter without Uchihas to fill it.  His duty as a Konoha shinobi?  The idea would be laughable if it wasn’t so painfully, blatantly pathetic.

Perhaps his team?  What was left of it anyway (hard hearts and clenched jaws, what else did he expect – but somehow Sakura manages a faintly whispered ‘Sasuke’ and no one had ever expected her to say that name with anything more than contempt again, but then – but then).

One night, Hinata is walking home when she catches sight of him standing at the end of the street, hands stuffed in his pockets, gaze turned toward the part of town that would have been the Uchiha’s if things had been different.

If they hadn’t all died maybe.

She thinks she should be sorry for thinking it, but it isn’t anything more than fact and she’s so perplexed by this distant-gazed Sasuke and his stiff shoulders and left-heavy lean, the casual bend of his elbows when he stuffs his hands deeper into his pockets and shifts his weight to the other leg – she’s so perplexed by (and maybe a little cautious of) this ‘returned’ Uchiha, that she doesn’t even notice when her hand slips to the kunai at her thigh, her touch hidden by her jacket’s sleeve.

But then he turns to her.  Directly.  As though he knows.

Hinata stills, nicking the edge of her finger on the edge of her kunai with her abrupt halt, her hand tightening reflexively along the comforting metal at her thigh.

He blinks at her, and then there’s the crooked, inscrutable twist of his lips and he walks away.  Past her, but not close.

Not close enough for her to unsheathe her kunai completely, but enough to wonder if maybe Hyuugas weren’t the only ones who could know without seeing.

Uchiha Sasuke is back and Hyuuga Hinata doesn’t know what for.

She walks stiffly back home, never minding the prick of blood at her fingertip.

 * * *

In this world, there isn’t always a beginning, middle, and end.  Sometimes it’s just the long stretch in between.  The vacant space amidst the moments, the minutes, the months, spent waiting.

The ghosts at Sasuke’s fingertips are familiar with waiting.

Sometimes it’s just a beginning, and middle, and middle, and middle and –

 * * *

“Hinata!”  Naruto calls happily, which is a strange sound for Sasuke to hear – not because he hadn’t expected Naruto to ever be happy again, or because he couldn’t recognize it in his voice when it was there – but really just because he hadn’t ever expected to still be alive long enough to hear it himself.

War is a taxing, grotesque thing.  Sasuke was good at it.  But it made a stranger of him – to himself, and to the world.

But mostly to the things he used to know.  Or wanted to, at some point.

(He likes to think he knew what happiness sounded like – just once.)

Hinata blinks down at the seated blonde, his mouth full of ramen and eyes full of something else.  Her cheeks tinge a faint pink and then there – there.

Sasuke reminds himself that some things never change.

Naruto pats the stool next to him, and Hinata takes it demurely.  She barely glances Sasuke’s way.

It doesn’t seem to matter though, because he’s placing his chopsticks across his half-empty bowl (or maybe it’s half-full, he’s never really understood that, or wanted to, really – a bowl is a bowl, and empty is empty- even when it’s full), pushing from his own seat and moving to leave.

“Where are you going?” Naruto asks, looking up at his friend.

‘Friend’.  What a fucking joke, and somehow wrong, because the taste in Sasuke’s mouth is bitter (has been for a long time) and he doesn’t really have an answer for him.

“Elsewhere,” he finally replies, lips pursing tight. He flicks a glance to the Hyuuga girl, but she is staring at her bunched hands at her knees.

When he walks away, Naruto still hasn’t lost that happy lilt to his voice, turning to Hinata with a dismissive wave. “Ignore him.  Anyway, where have you been?”

Sasuke thinks maybe some things do change.

 * * *

Somewhere along the line, he shoves his way into her periphery.  Not intentionally.  That is easy enough to tell.  Sasuke has never really cared for others’ attention, least of all hers.  But he has it all the same.

It starts with his constant presence in Naruto’s company.  At first it is necessary, a condition met upon his return, along with the Hokage’s invisible seal at the base of his spine, the heightened ANBU patrols, the general sense of unease that pervades the village whenever he is out.

“Does it hurt much?” she asks him once, watching as he holds a hand to the junction where his neck meets his shoulder and Hinata imagines the curse seal is brimming just beneath the surface of his skin. She only wonders at the sensation of teeth piercing skin for a moment – just long enough to remind herself that Orochimaru is no man and Sasuke is no victim, not in the sense she knows.

He doesn’t look at her.  Has never looked at her.  “Does it matter?”  His hand slips back to his side.

Out in the field, Naruto is sparring with Sakura and the shade over Hinata’s head shrinks more and more beneath the blaring sun. She blinks at his question.

He finally looks at her.

This is the thing though: Sasuke doesn’t see like she does, for all the merits of the Sharingan.  “It’s not like you could lessen the pain, anyway, so why ask?”

Belatedly, she realizes she had asked for Neji, and not for Sasuke.  Because she had never asked the question when Neji was still alive, and maybe some part of her resents herself for it.  Maybe some part of her still wants to fix it, but dead men feel no pain, and it’s a pointless question to ask now, so she filters her regret through Sasuke and pretends it means something.

Seals are like doors, Hinata finally understands. At the juncture of neck and shoulder, Sasuke’s stays closed, Orochimaru on one side, and Konoha on the other. Somewhere in between, is Sasuke.

Hinata remembers Neji’s eyes when he had died, the blank, paleness of milky irises, the sheen of sweat over his Hyuuga curse as his hitai-ate slipped from his forehead – his mouth tipping open as though to speak but it is only a trickle of blood that emerges.

Hyuuga is a house of closed doors.

Hinata stands on the other side, fingers curling around the doorknob, perpetually waiting.

Sasuke’s hand inches back to his neck, stiff with remembrance.

 * * *

It is easier to see the faults in each other, than in themselves.

Neither of them has ever liked mirrors.

 * * *

His Sharingan is still sealed for his first mission. The Hokage keeps a tight leash, but Sasuke is too worn to care.

Time is all he needs.  It mends and breaks all things.  Even trust.

Hinata takes a kunai to the thigh when she steps in front of him – stupidly, because even without his Sharingan, he is fast enough to evade it.  

“What the hell, Hyuuga?” he curses, watching Naruto bandage her thigh when the fight is done.  He wonders if maybe Naruto’s touch lingers too long, or Hinata ducks her head a little too low, or maybe he’s just fixating on things that don’t need to be fixated on (like he hasn’t already fixated on the stark contrast of red blood along her pale thigh, or the harsh exhale of breath that leaves her lips when the bandage is pulled tight, or the heavy curtain of her hair when she bends over the wound – like he hasn’t fixated on any of this and more).

“We each…have our missions,” she answers cryptically.

Sasuke narrows his eyes accusingly at her.

Because if he was her mission – if the Hokage had sent this weak, hesitant, ghost-like Hyuuga to watch over him – then the world really was at its fucking end – but then wait.

She looks up at him, a whisper of hesitance crossing her eyes, bone-white in their stillness (bone-white because the lilac is a lie, a trick of the light – there is nothing there but hard, hollow marrow).

Sasuke swallows thickly, and she turns away, eyes along the grass.  She takes Naruto’s offered hand and doesn’t look at him.

Sasuke suspects that – though he will never truly know until many years later (and even then, he has to practically drag it out of her, his breath in the hollow of her neck) –

He suspects that this was no assignment.

 * * *

Hinata thinks of that story.  The one about the wolf and the crane.

The wolf had a bone lodged in its throat after feeding, and went to the crane promising a handsome reward if they removed the bone.  The crane was hesitant, of course, to stick its long neck and head down the wolf’s throat, but it acquiesced in the end.  And when the bone was free, and the wolf walking away, the crane stopped him, asking “What about my reward?”

The wolf had sneered, teeth glinting in a threatening promise.  “Isn’t it enough that I have not snapped my jaws shut on your pretty little neck? Isn’t it reward enough that you escape with your life?”

Hinata looks down at the gash along Sasuke’s collar bone, his bloodied shirt hanging off his shoulder.  She is no medical nin, but Sakura is still unconscious, and the faint green that glows at Hinata’s fingertips isn’t the right hue.  It’s sharper and blunter all at once.  Sasuke feels her incompetence acutely.  He winces slightly in response, but otherwise there is no show of pain.

Her hair falls over her shoulder, obscuring her view.  She huffs in annoyance, the raised veins around her eyes throbbing with exertion. Just as she is about to twist her neck in hopes of flipping the hair back, Sasuke raises his hand to brush the strands past her shoulder.

His fingertips graze her neck and seem to still there, his hand hovering just by her shoulder.  She flicks her gaze to his, eyes crane-white, and catches the sharp ends of his lips curving upward like a fish hook.  

Her mouth opens, as though to say something, or maybe just to breathe (she seems to have forgotten how) or maybe just to taste the air, her tongue flicking hesitantly over her lips when her eyes dart back down to his collar bone.  She can feel, rather than see, his intake of breath, because she has stopped looking, at least with the Byakugan – though she never stops seeing (not the way all Hyuuga’s know how) and she begins to wonder –

Expect no reward for serving the wicked, the tale had always ended.

Hinata turns her long, white neck for a better glimpse at his wound, bone in her grasp.

If he should snap his jaws shut, she doesn’t think she would mind.

 * * *

Here’s the thing: he thinks she’s beautiful. Not beautiful in the conventional Hyuuga way – because there is a Hyuuga kind of beautiful.  Hanabi has it.  Neji had it. It’s a kind of straight-backed, hollowed-out beauty that promises to sear you if you get too close.

But not Hinata.  

Hinata’s beauty is in the calloused skin between her knuckles, in the way she pours her tea last at the table, in the way light seems to cocoon in the hollow of her elbow, a casual grace as sensual as it is polite.

He has her pinned to the tree one day mid-spar, their kunais grating against each other as she barely holds back his weight. She winds a foot behind his knee and tries to tug him off balance, but he adjusts quickly, shoving her back against the bark with a heavy shoulder.

She grits her teeth, a blunted cry of pain trapped behind her tongue.  Narrowing her brows, Hinata stares up at him, and then stops.

He watches as her whole face shifts into – something.  A bloom of realization lights beneath her skin and before he can realize what he’s doing, he’s leaning his weight back from her.

What makes her beautiful is also what makes her dangerous, and Sasuke thinks there’s a lesson in there somewhere, but he’s too far gone to learn it, and lessons were never his thing anyway (ask Kakashi) because what couldn’t be branded into his flesh wasn’t worth learning in the first place (maybe this was why cursed seals and cursed eyes were the only things left to him – he was a stubborn student, after all).

Still, it makes more sense to say Hyuuga Hinata is beautiful than to say Uchiha Sasuke has learned his lesson.

Which lesson is that, anyway?

He never really finds out – because then her shoulders are slumping in something of defeat (though never quite defeat, because her body is unfamiliar with it, and he’s sure she’d break before she ever admitted to it but still) – something like it.

Something yielding and quiet.

“You have your brother’s eyes,” she says.

And what the fuck?

He shoves away from her.

How could she know?  How could she know?

(At some point in the future, she tells him how she’s always known, even without seeing, because that’s what Hyuugas do, and that’s what Hinata is best at, and even if she was blind and deaf and dumb, she’d be a fool not to see that – because dead men feel no pain, and yet here – here is Sasuke.)

His eyes blaze red, and then she is sure. “It’s why you came back.”

He doesn’t answer her, instead flicking his kunai to her throat, and then stilling at her utter lack of resistance.  Her hands slip to her sides, her features softening.  “You’re living for him.”

It’s such a stupid idea, once she says it aloud. And one he can’t threaten her to take back, because it’s true.  Because it’s the biggest fucking cliché in the book and it’s true.  Right down to the quiet, blood-tinged eyes – right down to the unobtrusive, compliant ‘shinobi way’ he vowed to undertake the moment he stepped through that gate.

Because Uchiha Sasuke died.  (And sure, the same could be said for Itachi, but ask Sasuke which one of them deserved to live and well, here we are.)

Because he never planned to come back for himself. He had already given his name up for lost, already resigned himself to an uneventful, unfulfilled life – but a life nonetheless (beating heart, clenching lungs, blood-rushed veins – something – this at least he owed Itachi).  Because he had already settled for the grey monotony of a fallen Uchiha.

He stares at Hinata, breathless and aching.

The worst part is that he’s still lying to himself.

 * * *

The truth is, they were all choking on bones – some of them their own.

 * * *

“Anything?” Naruto asks her, lying face to face beside her on the bed mats.

Her Byakugan rescinds, the veins flattening out past her eyes as she blinks back into the present.  “It’s clear.”

Naruto sighs in relief, the first she’s heard since this mission started, and the vulnerable flutter of his closing eyelids makes her heart clench.

She brushes the hair from his forehead before she can stop herself, and he catches her wrist in the quiet between them. Behind her, Sasuke sleeps soundlessly. The night is cool and crisp, and the tender thrum of Naruto’s thumb along her pulse point makes her tug her hand back unsurely.

Narutos’s eyes sift open to hers.

The trouble with love is that it never comes to you when you’re ready for it.  And maybe that’s Hinata’s real curse.  A perpetual state of unpreparedness.  

“Hinata.”  His voice is low and breathy, and Hinata pulls the sheet tighter to her.

“I’m sorry,” she whispers quickly, a tense flutter of recollection settling in her gut.  This is familiar, somehow.  Familiar in all the wrong ways and yet – she knows this moment intimately.

“It’s okay,” he assures her, lips pursing into a tight line.  He blinks in the dark at her, steady and quiet, and then he shifts closer.

Everything shifts closer.  The axis of their world, the far horizon over the hills, the inevitable break of dawn at their backs.  Everything is suddenly immediate and instant and insatiable.

She should kiss him, she knows.  She should, and she would – but she doesn’t.

“Hinata, I –”

“We should get some sleep.”  She turns over.

Naruto stills, staring at her back for many moments, before he sighs and succumbs to sleep himself.

Hinata realizes Sasuke has been awake this whole time. She realizes, because he is staring at her when she turns.

She realizes, because she should kiss him, and she would –

But she doesn’t.

 * * *

“You love him, don’t you?”  He asks it as he spins a kunai along his knuckles, his fingers flexing with the conscious effort of keeping it aloft.

She hesitates a moment, as though she is thinking about her answer, but really, what is there to think about?  They both know the truth, and truth is hardly ever something universally known, but this – this they know.  It is impossible not to.

“It is easy to love Naruto.”  Her non-answer is as damning as silence would have been, but somehow this is worse.

“Being loved by Naruto is easy,” he corrects, or adds, or maybe just says because he can, because he knows it intimately.  And he isn’t sure if this is a comment on her or a comment on Naruto, or whichever variation may hurt more.  Because if it was easy to be loved by Naruto, then why was she not?  Or if his love was so cheap, then why did it matter if she had it in the first place?  Because even Sasuke had it, and he wasn’t even sure he wanted it, not really, not truthfully (he did, but she would never know that, and neither would he, not consciously at least).

She smiles – a hesitant, fluttering thing – her eyes shifting down.  “I suppose you’re right.”

He doesn’t want to be.  God, he doesn’t want to be.

Sasuke has never known ‘easy’ love.

 * * *

He is especially rough this session.  Hinata flits from tree branch to tree branch, kunais lodging a hair’s breath from her position, again and again.  His chakra crackles the air between them, even from this distance, and she wonders if it would be easier to fall.

To fall and let him win this time.  And all the times after.    

Or maybe just this moment – this moment when the intensity of his katana cracks the tree beside her into two clean halves, unlike anything she’s seen before (in practice at least – because she isn’t stupid enough to think she’s seen the extent of his abilities, and she isn’t pretentious enough to think he’d care to show her – because who was she really, who was she to him?)

Her eyes flash with the Byakugan, veins coming to life, everything suddenly clear and precise and chakra-lined.  Pulses of blue and white that outline her surroundings as well as her enemy – her enemy at her back – and she twists, palms forward (there has never been anything gentle about the Hyuuga’s Gentle Fist but she has never pretended as such) and before she can strike, his katana slices clean across her shoulder and then back along the other one.  She cries out, flipping back to anchor to another branch, one hand steadying herself, the other twirling her kunai out of its pouch and it’s instant – the scrape of his katana along her kunai as he presses again.

His eyes are already red but she expects this. Pushing him off, she follows with a feather-soft palm aimed at his rib – the resounding wave of chakra threads through the air and it’s heady for a brief moment, for a split-right-down-the-middle second, when he inhales the burning scent, mouth parted at her shoulder, and then her elbows lock and his weight gives way and he’s following her down through the tree branches.

The fall is harder than either expects, her back along the moss-strewn ground, his arms on either side of her.  They lay there panting for many long moments – many long moments that might have been the start or end of it all, she’s not really sure, and doesn’t care to find out, if she’s being honest with herself.

All she knows is that when he finally bears himself up, his weight still pinning her to the forest floor, her chest still heaving with the exertion, his dark hair obscuring her view, and when he finally lifts his gaze to hers ,when his blood-red eyes meet her own bone-white ones –

It’s not Itachi’s eyes she finds staring back at her.

The red dims into a faint black – black like the hollow of forest they left decimated behind them and suddenly she clings to him, her fingers curling into his shirt, kunai still clutched between them. Sasuke’s arms tremble with the weight of holding him steady above her, his eyes flicking to the cuts along her shoulders.

She opens her mouth but he speaks first, and she thinks that was a mistake because –

“I’m not Naruto,” he pants heavily, accusingly, hands curling into the dirt between them.

She knows this – has known this –from the very beginning.  But it hasn’t been so adamantly clear until the faint scent of Sasuke – like burnt light and wet pavement – sinks into her skin and stains her.

(She doesn’t discover until much later that it will never truly wash out.)

She’s about to croak her answering ‘I know’ when he sinks lower, head falling to rest along her stomach, still kneeling over her, above her, around her.

She is drowning in him.

“I’m not Naruto,” he whispers again, this time softer.  This time with the tender hesitance of someone who maybe wishes they were.

Hinata never knew anything could sound quite so tragic.

 * * *

A beginning, and middle, and middle, and middle, and –

Sasuke is just so tired of living for ghosts.

 * * *

The seal at the base of his spine has been gone for a while now, but even with the use of his Sharingan back, he cannot make out her expression.

“I miss Neji, sometimes.”  She says it from across the fire, and maybe he should have been surprised, but it isn’t surprising really.  She misses a lot of things from before the war.  Neji would be no different.

He remembers Neji, too.  Perhaps not as accurately and painstakingly as some things – things like Kakashi’s sighs and Naruto’s bloodied jaw and the faint glint of light off Sakura’s pink hair when she thought he wasn’t looking.

Fact is, he was always looking.  Etching every minute detail of them into his skull, because even if they took his eyes, some things he would always see.

Burning their imprint in the backs of his eyelids. A seared reminder of what it meant to be Uchiha Sasuke.  Or at least, what Uchiha Sasuke meant to them.

He doesn’t rightly know what it means to himself these days.

“I miss Itachi,” he whispers to the fire, or perhaps to her, or even to the dead (they are always listening, you know).  

It isn’t a whole lie.  It isn’t a whole truth either, but he thinks maybe she knows this, because he’s become embarrassingly easy for her to read and he realizes that whether he says it or not, the sentiment is there, as sheer and apparent as the sheen of sweat on her brow.

She blinks those painfully white eyes at him beneath the fringe of her dark hair.  And then she inches closer, her knees shuffling in the sand until she is kneeling before him.

The fire crackles in the still air, her hand alighting on his knee.

“I know,” she says faintly.

Except she doesn’t.  She will never really know (even when she does – because he tells her, when the nightmares are more than hooks in his mind and the only thing keeping him awake is the steady thrum of her fingers at his collar bone and her breath at his ear – he tells her then, when more than shadows keep nightfall at the foot of their bed).

She’ll never truly know.

But it’s a nice thought anyway, and he’s okay with that.

He thinks it says something that he doesn’t remove her hand from his knee.

 * * *

It’s easy, she finally realizes, once she actually makes the decision.  It’s the easiest thing in the world.

“I want you, Sasuke,” she says, her hands folded demurely in her lap, eyes unblinking on his.  She has that straight-backed, hollowed-out Hyuuga beauty – but it’s frighteningly more palpable now, because it’s coupled with the calloused skin between her knuckles, and the way she pours his tea before she pours her own, and the way the light gathers in the crook of her elbows as she kneels expectantly before him.

His arm sweeps out and the table is upturned instantly, the tea crashing along the floor beside them.  He crawls to her, threateningly, one hand grasping the hair at the base of her neck, the other gripping her chin as he forces her to look up at him.

“I’m selfish, Hyuuga.  You of all people should know that,” he growls above her lips.

She swallows thickly, her hands inching for his waist.  They settle tentatively at the edge of his hips.

Sasuke’s fingers flex in her hair, pressing closer to her, his other hand dropping her chin to boldly venture beneath the edge of her kimono, his hand stealing up her thigh.

He means it as a threat, she’s sure, but she takes it more like a plea.  Because she already knows he isn’t Naruto, and she already knows he doesn’t share, and more than anything, she already knows – even if he doesn’t yet –

She is just as selfish as he.

“Does it hurt much?” she whispers in question, a hollow memory of a time before.  A time when seals were doors and Hinata spent her life waiting.

His eyes flash in uncertainty – not quite red yet, not quite there, but close enough.  He licks his lips in anticipation.

“It won’t, soon enough,” she says, without waiting for an answer.  And then she is leaning into him, lips pressing against his, fingers digging into his waist.  Her tongue presses tentatively to his bottom lip and the hand along her thigh drags her forward across his lap as he opens his mouth to her, his groan of desperation lost against her tongue.

In the end, she is right.  It doesn’t hurt at all – even when he thought it would.

Some days his eyes are blood-red.  Hers remain – always – bone-white.

 * * *

Hyuuga is still a house of closed doors.

But Hinata never promised to stay a Hyuuga.

[bwl656]

TCT - Tattoo - Original Scene

Old TCT scene which has since been rewritten.

-

"If you want to come in you'll have to lose the shirt, Uzumaki."

Mirai Naruto raised an eyebrow. "Right, right, Uzumaki," he retorted, pulling off his jacket.

"The mesh too."

Eying the woman, Naruto pulled his mesh shirt off over his head. Sakura smiled impishly at his tan, muscular body. "What's this about?" questioned Naruto as Sakura allowed him to enter her room.

"I need to see this." she pointed at the ANBU insignia on his left shoulder. "Sasuke's being a prude."

Sasuke ignored her. He and Hinata stood in the corner of the room quietly discussing something Naruto couldn't catch.

"What's going on?" The blonde watched Hinata cut Sasuke off by abruptly turning away from him.

"I'm giving Hinata the tattoo."

Naruto blinked. "Oh," he said, trying not to seem amused as they approached the quarreling duo. "You have one Sakura. Why don't you just use yours as a reference?" He felt a little awkward being the only one without a shirt on and suspected it was a perverted conspiracy.

"I can't see my shoulder from a good angle." His wife poked him in the back of the head. Sakura had no qualms with her friend's request. Hinata had been offered an ANBU position on various occasions, but had opted to inherit the title of her family head.

Sasuke, however, was livid. He reached out to snatch his wife's turned arm, but Naruto obnoxiously squeezed himself between the pair. "Sorry we missed you," he said, slinging an arm around Sasuke's shoulders. "Baa-chan asked me to bring these for you guys." He held up his free hand, presenting a neat pile.

A decent enough diversion, Naruto hoped.

Sasuke narrowed his eyes at the blonde. "Thanks," he said, snatching the uniforms. He hesitated momentarily to eye the ANBU getup, when Sakura tore it from his hands.

"This is Hinata's," she said sweetly, before turning away and linking arms with his wife. "Ready?" Sakura tugged the Hyuuga to the other side of the room, where there were dyes, and needles, and other terrible tattoo-devising instruments.

Hinata pulled off her jacket revealing a dark formfitting tank top that left some of her midriff exposed. She and Sakura took seats on the white carpeted floor, Naruto soon after joining them. The bed was unsteady and wouldn't suffice for Sakura's intricate task.

She began to meticulously stab Hinata in the shoulder.

Sasuke turned, feeling rather disgusted that his wife's skin would be marred on an impulse – an internal crisis Hinata couldn't otherwise deal with. He dropped to the bed and stared at the ceiling.

"Hey! Get your shoes off my sheets!"

He ignored the pink-haired Janus, gritting his teeth and attempting to tune out the stifled grunts.

Baby.

He imagined Hinata frown, or maybe bite her bottom lip. Baka, she responded.

Is that the best you can come up with? After what – eight years?

Hinata didn't respond but closed her eyes. The tattoo was necessary. She had lied to the Hokage by claiming she was in the ANBU division and if she didn't have the mark to prove it, Tsunade would withdraw her trust in her, perhaps all of them.

Hinata...

Un?

You don't have to go through with this.

"What happened to your neck?" Sakura interrupted them, touching the bandages that encircled Hinata's throat.

Hinata felt heat rise to her face. She jerked away without thinking, but luckily, Sakura had extracted the needle. "Ano – nothing – a training accident!"

Sasuke sat up.

Green eyes narrowed. "That's nothing to be embarrassed about." Sakura lowered the needle. "Let me have a look see-"

"No!" Hinata cried defensively.

The room fell silent. There was an offended air in which Sasuke sighed and Hinata received twin glowers of disapproval from the Uzumakis among them.

"Hinata-" Naruto started.

"I left marks there when we had sex last night," Sasuke intervened, his voice laced with annoyance. "Can you try not to give her an anxiety attack – particularly while you're mangling her arm?"

Hinata remained silent, her flush deepening, and her expression indecipherable.

"Oh," said Sakura, blushing. She quickly went back to dabbing the Hyuuga's shoulder, not meeting her eyes.

"Sorry," mentioned Naruto, coughing and looking away.

Sasuke stood and approached the trio, all three who were blushing, Hinata who was sweating. He took a seat behind his wife, his back to hers, if only to correct her deteriorating posture. The back of her neck felt hot against his. Breathe, he told her, closing his eyes.

Upon completing her work Sakura had healed her shoulder. The curved red ANBU tattoo conflicted with her light skin.

They didn't discuss it. She didn't let him. Instead they stood in a heavy silence, broken not when he approached her, kissed the top of her head, or began unraveling the bandages around her neck.

He examined the bruises. He'd gotten carried away. "Sorry," he muttered as Hinata's arms encircled his torso.

"Hmm?"

She looked tired. He knew she hadn't been sleeping well, but what could he do? What could he say?

"About last night."

Hinata blinked and pulled away from him. She touched her chin, as though trying to articulate what she wanted to say.

"What I did to your neck," Sasuke said, watching her.

His wife turned away from him and stared at the opposite wall. "I..." she started.

Sasuke raised his eyebrows.

"I liked it."

His eyebrows didn't lower. He advanced, slipping his arms around her waist. Glancing over her shoulder he spotted a faint blush on her cheeks. "You're not lying..." he muttered.

Hinata nipped her bottom lip and looked up at him.

"Pervert," said Sasuke, kissing her again.

Hinata smiled against his lips. I love you, she said it without thinking, without needing to think. Sasuke's screams had liberated her from her own nightmares. For that, she was grateful. She'd never had the dreams when Sasuke was beside her. She never woke up wheezing, or crying, or fighting her sheets.

Sasuke pulled away from her, a smirk crossing his face. "I love you too," he mentioned. "Now take your clothes off."

But she was far more interested in his, in touching his chest, in wrenching up his shirt, and feeling his muscles shift beneath her fingers. Sasuke unbuttoned her pants, and they fell around her ankles, leaving dark panties and long legs.

Nice legs.

She gasped playfully when he picked her up. He walked to the bed and dropped her to the mattress, pausing to observe the way the tattoo complimented her lips.

Hinata gave him her worst glare – and she wasn't even good at glaring. Sasuke climbed over her. She latched to his chest, kissing.

Desperately, kissing.

"No."

She panted when Sasuke pulled back, evocative eyes scrutinizing hers. She brushed strands of hair away from his face, to better see those eyes, when Sasuke pulled completely away.

He dropped himself to the mattress beside her, his half-lidded gaze resting on the ceiling. He bit the inside of his cheek as Hinata leaned over him. "Why are you trying to seduce me?" Their lips met, and there was a considerable pause.

"Do I have to try?"

His dubiousness was fleeting, it would be, Hinata decided, straddling his waist and unbuttoning his pants. She kissed down his jaw line, then his neck, where she knew he was sensitive. She carefully found the hollow at the center of his collarbone, and her tongue traced the spot then her teeth grazed it.

"I – have to leave," her husband said. Though he had been relieved for air, he found it difficult to breathe.

"No you don't," Hinata returned, pulling back to glare at him. She slipped off her tank top causing his eyes to become fixated on her heaving chest and lean body. She began to unclasp her bra.

"Kakashi knows," he said.

Hinata faltered. What?

"Kakashi knows," Sasuke repeated, sitting up. She climbed off him. "Soon Neji will probably figure it out – and everyone else."

"Sasu..." she wanted him to stop. She wanted to breathe, just for that night.

"Your counterpart will find out and hide away – like you always did."

She turned away to hide her helplessness. "You're being obsessive," she said hoarsely.

"You're being careless," Sasuke said back, standing and recovering his shirt from the ground. "Find yourself another distraction, little mouse."

Mouse. A reference to her ANBU mask.

"It's a rat."

"I say it's a mouse."

Her cheeks burned in indignation. He was calling her weak, but hadn't he been weak the previous night? Hadn't he needed her? It wasn't fair! It wasn't. "Sasuke."

It was her turn to need him.

"Stay," her voice became weak, desperate. "Stay with m-me?"

A tremor? thought Sasuke as he pulled his shirt on. He didn't look at her again. He didn't want to meet her eyes.

She sat on her heels and stared at her lap, eyes burning with tears. "I never had the nightmares when you were with me."

Sasuke walked to the door. "I know," he said. His fingers enclosed the knob.

"Not then. Not now." Hinata sniffed, impatiently wiping her face on her arm.

"I know, Hinata." He grit his teeth in frustration.

"Stay...stay with me tonight."

His wife was requesting a temporary solution, but he would not submit...he couldn't allow himself to.

"I can't sleep." Her voice had become high and frantic. "I won't. Not when I'm there, every time I close my eyes."

Sasuke finally turned to face her. Hinata had buried her face in her hands, her hair splayed around her shoulders. She had on only a bra and panties. Black, like her hair, his eyes, and their world. She still wore the mesh bands that had been under her clothes, the fishnet material around her knees and elbows.

Sasuke felt his legs carry him back to the bed. He took a seat beside his wife and watched her. "Look into my eyes," he instructed.

Her hands lowered, revealing the raw skin on her cheeks. She lifted her head and reached up to rest her hands on either side of his face. She didn't know what he planned to do, or that she would be met with the sharingan.

"Close your eyes."

She complied, but not of her free will. Her body fell, but Sasuke caught it, her head rolling listlessly to the side. He lowered her to the mattress. "This should offer you a deep sleep. Perhaps you won't have any dreams tonight."