#sasuke's strained relationship with his brother even before

[cebwrites]

lost and found (brotherly obligations)

oc, gen | slight taesui word count: 1.5k

Sasuke, no older than the age of seven, gets lost one cold autumn day.

Maybe he took a wrong left turn somewhere, or maybe he passed a sign he shouldn't have three blocks down - in either case, he's god knows where away from the Uchiha compound and will absolutely be late for practice with Itachi if he doesn't find his way home soon.

And no, he's absolutely not tearing up at the thought of being lost or missing practice with his brother, no matter how busy Itachi is. Or how the wind groans through hollows of old trees. It's midday, there's nothing to be afraid of.

Moreover, he'd be enrolled in the academy soon, trained to be a shinobi worthy of Father's praise. He shouldn't be afraid.

Still, he'd been wandering aimlessly for hours in this lonely part of town without another soul in sight. So Sasuke catches his breath on a bench with a sleeping stranger on the opposite end. Or at least, he thought they were asleep. Their eyes were closed and they sat with their arms and legs crossed, leaned back - although he couldn't imagine it was very comfortable.

If it was a little colder, Sasuke could imagine snow piling high on their head and shoulders, giggling at the thought. The voice that came out of them spooked his wariness back into place.

"Are you lost, Sasuke-kun?"

Sasuke tried his best to hold his own against the golden, almost cat-like, gaze that opened to greet him, determined not to look away in an attempt not to look weak, "N-No! I just.. I'm resting for a bit."

He could recognize the older boy now—boy? The adults referred to his gender differently sometimes, though he never looked happy when they did—Sasuke didn't know him by name but knew that he was Shisui's team mate because they'd hang around his older brother from time to time; it was this person, and the other one Sasuke didn't really like because they had a scary face.

Though now that he thought about it, Father's face kind of fell that way naturally, too.

"Alright."

The not-quite-stranger replied after a beat, closing his eyes and resuming his nap like he hadn't woken up in the first place. That was another thing that Sasuke didn't like about Shisui's team mate - he was almost always flat from tone to expression and impossible to get a read on in the few, sparing interactions Sasuke had had with him.

The silence they sat in bothered the jonin or his nap none.

It would be dark soon and Sasuke's hands were starting to get cold, even through the little mittens Mother made him put on that morning; grateful that she did now even if he did complain at the door. And - to add insult to injury - his stomach made an audible grumble as Sasuke clutched it, angry at his body for the perceived betrayal.

Before Sasuke could stumble out his embarrassed, flustered excuse, the stranger stood to stretch and yawn - but held out a hand to him, "I'm going to see Shisui, want to come? Itachi-kun might be there." It was way passed the agreed upon meeting time with his brother, he'd let precious training time slip through his fingers for as silly a reason as getting lost. Sasuke nodded in agreement.

"You can call me Tae, by the way," he added as they walked, Sasuke only murmured in response.

They ambled in silence, though not quite as awkward as the first time, it was obvious from any passing observers that they weren't close. The kid was obviously upset, nuzzling the red tip of his nose into his scarf in defiance of his "defeat". But even as he struggled to match Tae's long strides, he still had enough pride not to take the lanky teenager's hand or ask him to slow down, for that matter.

Too lost in his own thoughts, Sasuke slipped on a damp portion of slate and would be halfway down the riverbank if it wasn't for the hand that grabbed the back of his collar at the last minute. Sasuke felt himself flush, only vaguely registering the question of if he was alright and giving an equally dismissive answer as he gathered himself.

This was the second time today he'd done something embarrassing in front of someone he didn't know, he wanted to slide into the river completely and disappear. Tae's fingers were icy against the back of his neck, Sasuke rubbed at it to transfer some heat back.

Catching it out of the corner of his eye, Tae knelt down to the kid's height, holding out his palms, "Lend me your hands for a second, Sasuke-kun. I'll show you a trick Gen—someone important, taught me."

He was initially hesitant, of course, but Sasuke placed his palms against the older boy's after a moment of thought; his face then lit up in awe as the faint blue glow of chakra enveloped their hands, momentarily spreading a comforting mellowness throughout both their bodies.

"How.. how are you doing that?" Tae smiled at the kid's amazement, watching the light in his eyes dance with hues of blue, almost warmer than the gentle heat circulating through their systems.

"They say this is possible no matter what chakra type you have because there's chakra in all of us, it keeps us going. It's our life force - just like the will of fire, no?"

"Teach me how!" Sasuke suddenly exclaimed, determination in his eyes reflecting across soft features even though his eyebrows were knit. It almost looked like he was pouting - and Tae couldn't help the peel of laughter that escaped him at the thought, only increasing when Sasuke protested with squawks that he was to be taken seriously—as an Uchiha!

"Maybe not now, it's getting dark," Tae ruffled that ridiculous little duck tail as he stood, "but how does tomorrow before lunch sound?"

Sasuke was prepared for the dismissal he'd gotten used to, his forehead wrinkling preemptively for the errant poke he'd usually get by now; but when it never came, he looked up with hopeful, curious eyes, "Wait, do you mean it?"

"I don't see why not, Rio and I will be at Shisui's anyway. We can play for a while."

Tae wasn't smiling anymore, but his resting expression seemed just that much kinder to Sasuke. He balled up his fists in his sweater, willing to overlook important shinobi training being referred to as "playtime" just this once. Just this once, his needs weren't being held at arm's length.

"Sasuke!"

Sasuke's train of thought, what words he was perhaps struggling to say, fizzled out as Itachi called out him from across the way, Shisui lagging behind him at a much slower pace. "There you are." He shrinks under the authority in his brother's voice, ready to offer a half-hearted apology like the guilty pup that tore up his owner's favorite couch cushion, when Itachi brings him into a hug.

"I was so worried. Don't ever run off like that again."

Like that, Sasuke's reminded of why he ended up on the far side of Kohona again. He'd gotten into a fight with Itachi about never spending time with him because Itachi was being rushed off during breakfast to some important thing with the clan again, unsure if he could even make their kunai practice later. So he'd bolted without looking back.

Now, being tightly held by his brother in a near-vacant district of the village, all of Sasuke's worries are assuaged. Well—most of them, for now.

"Thank god we found you when we did, this—this one," finally catching up to them, one hand on his knees to catch his breath and the other pointing a teasing thumb at his junior, "was on the verge of bothering the Hyuga clan for a spare Byakugan user."

"Is that so.." Shisui laughed between coughs, Tae rubbed his back and once they were upright again, the look they shared hinted that they probably were more than team mates. The kiss they shared after, that Itachi's hands shielded Sasuke's precious, innocent eyes from, was the confirmation no one asked for.

Sasuke was carried home to a hot meal with the backdrop of Shisui's light chatter, Tae tried to decline the offer - feeling like he imposed on them with Fugaku's watchful eye always trained to the back of his head - but Mito insisted, following a sharp elbow to her husband's ribs, that it was the least they could do for him after he kept their youngest company all day.

Shisui, of course, was always welcome over as Itachi's best friend, and - over the course of the night - Mito teased Shisui into oblivion over his budding relationship; it directed at both of them but Shisui seemed to be the only one her well-natured jabs actually flustered.

(When he got home later that night, Tae buried his face in a pillow and kicked his feet off the edge of his bed.)

[secretlyobito]

Arranged marriage! Itachi x reader

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Contains: teeny tiny bit of angst that turned into a lot, fluff, nicer Itachi, hurt to comfort, mentions of itachi's illness.

Part 2 to this

What was that incessant pain? Y/N groans as she awakes from her slumber groggily. Her hands fly to the aching spot, her neck, which was strained from sleeping in such an odd position. Why exactly am I sleeping on the floor she thought but grimaces soon after, as she remembers what happened. She had fallen asleep crying, all thanks to Itachi.

She scowls as she remembers his cruel words and the awful sensation of the genjustsu he had trapped her in, what exactly did she do to deserve that? All that just because she tried to make their relationship civil. She hisses in pain as she gets up from her spot on the floor, her sore limbs cracking and groaning in protest. She could feel the stinging sensation of dried tears on her cheeks and the inevitable puffiness of her face. Above all she felt this immense sadness, she thought he would at least come in to check on her or apologise but he didn't, what a jerk.

The shuffling in the bedroom alerts Itachi that she's awake. He planned to go in earlier but decided against it after hearing how hard she she was crying, the last thing she needed was to see his face. Now however, he had no more excuses to not apologise. He slowly approaches the bedroom, his heart thumping in his chest. What if she tells her grandfather about this? What if Hiruzen decides to cancel their deal and go ahead with the execution of the Uchiha because of this? He couldn't believe he let his emotions get the best of him like this, the Uchiha could be dead by tonight thanks to him.

Knock knock. He knows twice on the door, his mind still racing with thoughts. He needed to make her forget about this whole thing one way or the other, the future of the clan, of his little brother depended on it.

Knock knock. Perhaps he should just be friendly with her, that was what she wanted after all. Maybe if he gave her what she wanted then she wouldn't tell on him. Itachi cringed at his internal monologue, he really let things spin out of control. He felt like he was eight years old again, trying to convince sasuke not to tell on him to their parents by bribing him with attention and piggyback rides. Humiliating

Knock kno- The door swings open revealing an angry Y/N, her eyes were puffy and red, her cheeks stained with dry tears. Itachi's heart sinks at the sight and he doesn't even know why. He absolutely did not want to take it this far, he hadn't meant to hurt her like this. "Y/N..."

She stares at him, as if trying to convey her emotions with her eyes, her eyes that were filled with pain and resentment, towards him. He slowly backs her into the room, shutting the door behind them. He hesitantly grabs her hand and leads her over to the bed, sitting her down gently. He can sense the hesitation in her, it's almost as if she's scared of him now, he sighs, he really messed up.

"I am sorry Y/N. My actions were....unbecoming of someone of my status, much less as your husband". She keeps her head turned a way from him petutantly, he was joking if he thought that was all it was going to take to obtain her forgiveness. She fake sniffles, deciding to punish him, hoping to give him 1/10th of the torment he put her through.

Itachi panicks as he hears her sniffle, before he can stop himself his hand are moving to wipe her 'tears'. They both stare at each other in shock at itachi's very unusual display of affection, he quickly withdraws his hands, clearing his throat as he tries to dispel the now akward atmosphere. "I understand the severity of what I did and while I know I don't deserve your forgiveness, I'm willing to do whatever it takes to earn it" he has to force the words out of his throat, reminding himself he was doing this for his clan's sake.

She looks at him in skepticism, not believing a damn word he's saying. She wasn't stupid, she knew he was only apologising because he didn't want her to tell on him. Her chest twisted as she took in the fact that he didn't even value her emotions, she sighs as she turns further away from him, she wished he would just get out.

The next few moments were like slow motion, one minute she was getting ready to tell him to leave, the next minute she felt him wrap his arms around her. What. The. Heck. She blinked rapidly in surprise as she did a double take, Itachi was indeed hugging her! And....she couldn't say it felt bad. Maybe it was the fatigue, maybe it was the emotional trauma but she let herself relax into him. He was warm and smelt like a rainy day.

Itachi let out a breath as he felt her relax into his touch, he knew he had to show her he was sorry not just say it. It felt strange, all his instincts were screaming at him not to do this, he knew he had started to fall down a bottomless hole, surely he couldn't be falling for her. But would that be so wrong? His whole life he had trained himself like a machine, deliberately preventing himself from getting attached to anyone because the truth was, he couldn't. His health put a ticking time bomb on his life and he knew it was only a matter of time before he would succumb to sickness. He couldn't do this to her, he couldn't let her fall in love with him and then leave her but despite the storm raging in his mind, he felt himself pulling her closer. He held her tight as he breathed in the scent of her hair, he felt all his defenses crumbling and for once, he decided to let it happen. He would let himself this one selfish thing before he eventually met his demise, he would let himself love.

Months go by and true to his resolution, Itachi let himself grow closer to Y/N. They grew accustomed to each other's company, slept in the same bed and even called eachother pet names, Itachi's favourite for her being 'flower'.

Yet deep in his heart, he knew this was wrong. He knew he was doing a terrible thing, letting her love him knowing he could die at any moment, he shook his head trying to clear his thoughts as he waited on the living couch. The sky outside was painted beautifully with hues of orange and pink as the sun set. It was 6:28pm, much longer than when she was supposed to be home from work.

On a normal day, Itachi wouldn't even be home by this time but since he had no missions today, he decided to relax. His relaxation was cut short however, when he realized his wife wasn't back home the time she was supposed to be. Y/N was never really late on the days he was home, she was always home by 5 or a few minutes after. He was starting to get worried, was she ok? Did something happen?.

His thoughts were cut short as she pushed through the living room door "Hi Tachi, sorry I'm home late" she greets with a tight smile. Itachi was up on his feet immediately, something was wrong, her hair was disheveled and she looked shaken, not to mention that fake smile she just tried to fool him with. "flower, what happened?"

Her eyes widen as she hears his question, she shakes her head as she tries to push past him, "nothing I'm fine" Itachi blocks her path as he observes her with worry, he squints as he notices her hiding her left arm behind her back. "What are you doing? What happend to your hand" he asks trying to grab her hand, his eyes widen in shock as she jerks it back almost immediately, stumbling away from him. "N-nothing! I already told you" Itachi frowns as he watches her lie and move away from him "No more games Y/N let me see your hand" "It's fine Tachi, really!".

He scoffs as he approaches her slowly, determined to find out what's wrong with her. "I said I'm fine" she argues bringing her right hand to his chest to shove him away but Itachi uses the opening to grab the hand on his chest and yank her forward. She yelps as she stumbles into him, instinctively bringing out her left hand to balance herself. Itachi sees this and finally grabs the hand she had been hiding, bringing it up to his face to inspect it.

His eyes widen as he takes in the hand, her knuckles are busted, blood caking the skin. Her usually smooth skin is littered with cut and bruises. "What the hell Y/N! What is this??" "I-I fell" "cut the bullshit! Tell me what happened now damnit!" Itachi pleads, his chest tightening as he takes in her injured fist "please...."

She sighs as she takes in the distraught look on his face, she hated when he worried about her.

"My boss came in to work drunk today..." she starts, Itachi nods listening intently as he cradles her bruised fist in his larger one, gently caressing the flesh. "He started making a scene and yelling at eveyone, we had no idea what to do and we couldn't exactly call the police on him. Then he approached me.....he started telling me I was the worst worker here and that i was only in my position because of ji-chan. He called me names too, then he...." she stops her face contorting in discomfort.

"Then he what?" Itachi urges, moving his hand to rub her shoulder comfortignly. She takes a deep breath "......Then he touched me".

"..............."

".............."

"..........he did what?"

Part 3

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Ya'll this was supposed to be fluff but then the spirit of angst possessed me and I started writing about Itachi's illness 😭 guess this story's not gonna have a happy ending. Also just so you know, Itachi's gonna beat a bitch up in part 3, leave a like or reblog if you enjoyed!♡

[depressedhatakekakashi]

Sukea anon again (sorry for the rant)

I'm a sucker for tragedies and my brain immediately jumps to Sukea ultimately having to fight Obito (either as Tobi or unmasked) while Kakashi recuperates after getting injured or something and just- the *angst* potential!!

About Kakashi and Sukea's fight, I like to imagine both were in anbu for a while and that's what ultimately led Sukea to be disillusioned and desert, leaving Kakashi to try and keep others from going after him despite their strained relationship. I also like to think that after the whole Orochimaru fiasco, Sukea encounters Tenzo at some point and gets an update on how his brother is doing (arguably) better when it comes to others.

Let me just add I'm totally picturing Sukea and Gai being pen pals lmao.

On another angsty note, Sukea, Gai, Rin, and Kakashi were like a quartet for the brief period of time after Obito's 'death' and before Rin's. [Maybe this is where Sukea got the idea for using Rin's cheek marks later on, he was formally adopted into their family (and maybe Kakashi was too but he rejected the invitation)] Sure there was some tension at times and things that needed addressing but they had fun and got to be kids for a little while together.

Last thing lmao, not sure where I got the idea but in this mini world I occasionally think about I imagine Kakashi at some point learned how to mix a specific shade of purple and gifts it to his brother on special occasions, and this is the eyeshadow that Sukea likes to use. (Of course, he doesn't tell Sukea he's the one making them for the longest time)

Oh i LOVE the idea of Kakashi making eye shadow for Sukea. I wrote a fic once where Kakashi buys him the make-up but this sounds even better. Kakashi struggles verbally saying ‘i love you’ so he has to find other ways to do it and who he’s trying to say it makes a difference in how he displays that love

For Sukea, it’s that small gift. Something Kakashi can do to show him that he cares and loves him, but without having to try to force himself to say it (he can say it to himself but not to the person)

And Sukea fighting Obito. Perhaps Kakashi goes down with the big reveal and Gai’s trying to pull him back but he’s soiraling really bad, so Sukea steps forward and faces Obito while Gai gets his brother back into action

Also, Tsunade or Kakashi going to sukea to inform him about the war. Maybe Sukea runs into Kakashi while he’s out with Naruto (after taking him to try and pleas for Sasuke’s life with A) and learns about the war and Kakashi’s appointment to hokage from Gaara.

He’d be so worried about Kakashi in that moment because he knows Kakashi’s terrified of being given positions of responsibility and failing again. Sukea following Kakashi back to Konoha for the first time in years because he needs to make sure his brother is ok, and then he ends up being roped into the war efforts and placed onto one of the divisions (probably not the tactical. I feel like Sukea wouldn’t fit as well in that one)

[sociieties]

@kyugens: "when i return i’ll look for you, so listen for your name." - itachi / sasuke

sasuke has long since stopped believing his brother; about three hundred broken promises of later / later / laters — later and maybe tomorrow and sorry sasuke, i'm busy and missions and two million other excuses and itachi's made himself a ghost of a sibling years ago. he does not believe him. not anymore. not for a long time. back when itachi still lived at the house, he was more a ghost than a human and now that he lives elsewhere, that man is even more a ghost than before. nothing and no one. sasuke has been searching for just a glimpse of itachi's visage for as long as he could remember, only ever remembering a pathetic excuse of a smile, pained and forced as he brushed off his little brother time and time again or some blurred shape of person moving away. now that they don't home in the same building, itachi runs from him, disappearing more now than ever. when i return i'll look for you. liar. so listen for your name. he won't. sasuke's not too sure itachi even knows his name. if he ever did. he doesn't know if itachi remembered what it was like to actually be a sibling, and yet, everything that guy does reflects on him. reflects on the clan he's no longer part of / part of a clan that doesn't love him anymore. technically speaking, they're not supposed to see one another anymore. not when itachi's been disowned and sasuke banned from seeing his only sibling ( or was it the other way around? ) / their relationship is less a relationship and more spiteful strain on everyone unfortunate enough to be around the two them. years ago, itachi came back to the compound and argued for the right to see his brother because every talk with a commanding father was more a knife fight than anything. things haven't improved since then, just gotten less strenuous. just barely. it's just become less weird to catch see one another here or there or anywhere, but crossing paths with his brother still feels like he's doing something he's not supposed to be doing. sasuke does not believe itachi. sasuke does not believe itachi. sasuke does not believe itachi. he hasn't believed that itachi would come back for him; hasn't believed him for years. " okay, " he breathes, bored and falsely believing. his throat, swollen with lies and spite and knives, he swallows the truth before it claws it's way up and he feels sick. it's a feeling he's used to, though, more acquainted with the feeling of stability. " how long will you be gone? "

[animeomegas]

Hi!!!, first, congratulations on 1000 followers!I wanted to ask you something, could you make a list of omegas that would have worse self esteem during pregnancy.if you can't don't worry, have a nice day and again congratulations.

(Hey, thank you so much for your congratulations!! Hmm, I’m sure I can make a little list~)

Warnings: Insecurities of all sorts, mentions of sex.

Insecure over appearance:

· Itachi – Itachi is worried about how skinny and sickly he is. He’s always been on the small side but pregnancy has stopped him being able to keep much food down, and so he just kept getting smaller and smaller. It’s a small insecurity at first, but he does find himself staring at his reflection and wondering if his mate finds him attractive. Itachi goes a long while without sex because of how sick he gets during pregnancy and after birth, and that feeds the insecurity that his alpha doesn’t find him attractive.

· Tamaki – He’s completely fine until he gets lost in a rabbit hole on some parenting and omega focused forums. He finds all these posts from other omegas about how their alphas don’t find them attractive anymore, and about how they’ve stopped having sex. Now, Tamaki is extremely sexually needy during his pregnancy, so he’s suddenly paralysed with fear. Has his alpha been forcing themselves this whole time? Have they just been doing it to please him without enjoying it themselves? He cries about it quite a bit until his alpha finds out and knocks a little bit of sense into him.

· Asmo – Asmo puts so much effort into his physical appearance. He’s very proud of it and he’s very reliant on his appearance to carry his self-esteem. So, a drastic change of any sort would be extremely distressing. He buys every cream and treatment imaginable to stop stretch marks, and acne etc. but things still change with his body. And because Asmo views his worth through looks, he assumes that his alpha does also. He tries to hide, to turn down sex, but of course, this alerts his alpha immediately to the fact that something is wrong. He never really gets over the insecurities while he’s still pregnant, but his alpha can minimise the effects with copious love and praise.

· Julian – He’s extremely insecure as it is, constantly questioning why his alpha finds him attractive at all but being pregnant adds enough layer on to the pre-existing insecurities. He always tries to reassure his alpha that they don’t have to touch him if they don’t want, that they should leave the room before he gets changed or when he’s bathing because they probably don’t want to see him like that. His insecurities run very deeply, just like Asmo’s, so they can’t be fixed, but they can be helped with lots of comfort and reassurance.

Insecure over abilities (e.g., being weak physically etc.):

· Sasuke – The fact that he can’t go on missions or train pisses him off. And as the months go by, he’s gaining weight and losing muscle definition and it freaks him out because he feels like he’s losing who he is which drops his self-esteem. Training has been a part of his life for as long as he can remember. Just design some softer workout routines for him with a mednin and remind him that he can still practice throwing kunai before he loses his goddamn mind.

· Bakugou – The physical condition of his body changing isn’t that big of a deal for him. He has a very small tummy, especially considering he’s pregnant with twins, and he knows he can bounce back after the birth because he’s super dedicated to his physical routine. What he’s not so confident about is the slipping control he has over his quirk. He has (had) an iron clad control, and the random explosions while pregnant are so embarrassing. Not to mention the disruption that his quirk causes in his nest. He has to replace so many cushions which makes his instincts go wild because significant changes to an omega’s nest while pregnant is distressing. If his friends tease him about the loss of control, he gets genuinely mad about because it’s something of a sore spot.

· Jumin – Jumin tries to keep his life while pregnant as close to his life before being pregnant as possible and in many ways, he nails it. He buys copies of his favourite suits and has them tailored every other week to fit his growing stomach. He buys non-alcoholic wine and drinks it with a grimace. He schedules lots of massages to keep the aches and pains away, so he feels normal. But there is one thing that isn’t so easy to keep normal: his emotions. Now, this fits into this category rather than the one below because Jumin gets insecure about how his emotional control impacts his ability to work. His emotions had never impacted his career before, but now he can’t help but tear up when he gets overstressed, he can’t work long hours without getting lonely and wanting to go home, he can’t take business trips because he doesn’t want to leave his nest for too long. It makes him feel a little like he’s lost himself because these things are things he’s been doing with ease for his entire life. He’s quite irritated by it and it damages his self esteem somewhat.

Insecure emotionally (e.g., unsure about being a good parent etc.):

· Tamaki –Tamaki also makes it onto this category. His insecurities are very specific, but he worries about being a bad role model socially for his pup. If his alpha is very socially adept, I’m not sure he would worry as much, because he knows that his pup can learn from their other parent, but if Tamaki’s alpha is also a little shy or prefers not being around people, then he gets really worried about it. Him being so shy and anxious has really impacted his life and he really doesn’t want it to impact his pup in the same way. He really worries that he’ll be a bad influence in that regard. (but the prospect of an extremely extroverted child is an equally terrifying concept in a different way haha.)

· Lucifer – He is very worried about being a good parent because all he can focus on is the past times when he wasn’t a good older brother. I mean, Satan hates him, and that’s as close to a father/child bond that Lucifer has, so surely that must mean he’s not cut out to be a father? He’s not good at emotions or reasonable punishments or showing affection or… well, point is he doesn’t think he has what it takes to be a good parent, when all he’s ever had is a shitty father himself, and all he’s ever been, is a shitty older brother that drove his family apart.

· Levi – Levi is insecure about most things that have to do with himself, so it’s not surprising that he gets very insecure about being a good parent which drops his self-esteem to an all time low. He can’t even watch any anime that focuses too much on parent/child relationships because he can’t help but compare himself every time, and he works himself up into a mini panic. It’s difficult to calm Levi’s insecurities but his partner can help him somewhat.

· Hawks – Keigo is very insecure about his abilities to protect his pup. His has this conspiracy theory that the hero commission will try to kidnap his child. They were furious when they found out he was pregnant during the peak of his career and they pushed him heavily towards abortion. Keigo leaked the pregnancy news to the public to force the commission’s hands, but he’s still so paranoid that they’ll stage a 'tragic accident' for his pup to force him back into hero work, or try and kidnap and raise his pup as they raised him. He doesn’t have any proof, per se, but he’s terrified that he can’t protect his pup so he really doesn’t like to leave his alpha’s presence. When he’s close to his due date, he’s too insecure with all his conspiracy theories clouding his mind to even let his alpha shower by themselves.

· V – Jihyun sort of convinces himself that he’s cursed when it comes to looking after people (Rika, Saeyoung, Saeran), so he’s very upset by the prospect that he’ll probably fail at raising his child too. He originally says that he wants to give the pup up for adoption to save them, but eventually you talk him around and start working through his problems. He just doesn’t thing he’ll be a good role model. The longer he waits to have children after the more traumatic events of his life, the less these issues crop up.

Miscellaneous:

· Aizawa – Shouta gets insecure when people pay too much attention to him being pregnant. He doesn’t like people giving up their seats for him on public transport, he doesn’t like his students and colleagues asking invasive questions, he doesn’t like those awful shop attendants that try to shoehorn him into buying baby supplies he doesn’t need. He wishes people would just treat him normally. (and he absolutely starts to activate his quirk every time someone tries to touch his tummy without asking first.) But yeah, all the eyes and attention makes him super uncomfortable and it makes him overanalyse everything he does which does impact his self esteem.

· Light – Light has a very specific insecurities while pregnant which revolve around the fear that he’s lowering himself by carrying a pup. All his life he’s had people tell him that because he’s an omega, he should give up on all his dreams and have pups and stay home instead. It really doesn’t sit well with him that he’s doing what all those awful people told him to do (at least it feels that way to him). He feels ashamed and he hates it. He avoids everything stereotypical while pregnant. He’ll kick you in the face if you try to rub his feet, he does everything in his power to avoid giving in to cravings, and he doesn’t make a nest. It all takes a serious toll on his health but it would take one hell of a stubborn alpha to get him to bend on any of that. It puts a strain on the relationship.

[liam-cadmus]

Shikamaru and Sasuke would walk outside the Hyuuga estate, careful disinterest showing in their faces, despite the absolute rage they feel on the inside.

As clan heirs, they both know, that Hyuuga has different traditions, but that doesn't mean it's right.

So whenever they're excused to go, they would slip on tight-lipped smiles, and Sasuke would pull Shikamaru outside the door, hand gripped tight to not let the Nara accidentally punch the stoic face of Hiashi.

He doesn't really know how it started, his and Neji's relationship was one that started off rocky, with their annoyance at each other teetering over the edge every time they meet.

They can somehow just rile up each other, their previous calm and collected figures thrown haphazardly out the window. They leave teasing each other with how better their own dojutsu is over the other.

His annoyance doesn't taint the fact he knows that the screams of pain he hears while getting farther away the main house is not right.

He wills himself to pull Shikamaru farther, not trusting to stop in their steps in case that he himself barges into that house to stop Neji's pain.

He remembers the meetings his mother usually takes, leaving him with Shikamaru and Hinata on a room, the Hyuuga's cousin standing by the corner.

Fugaku was genin teammates with Hiashi and Yoshino, while Mikoto was with Kushina and Shikaku.

So, Shikamaru would mostly be dozing off in the corner, while Hinata would just..read or make flower crowns, that she once placed atop of his head.

He, in his annoying 5-year old body, would bother Neji, looking to bright white eyes with his bottomless onyx ones, glaring.

And..Neji would get defensive and narrow his white eyes, which would then startle the living shit out of him, his own surprise mirroring on pupil-less eyes.

"Stay away," he would say to him, but he never seemed to understand, staying with him while they grew up.

Sasuke, despite his soul screaming at him to come back, doesn't stop dragging Shikamaru to the gates, squeezing the tan hand in his in comfort.

They know, they all know not to intervene, or else Neji would have worse, and he doesn't really want to put the male in much more pain because of him.

Shikamaru seethes with rage, his right hand clenching and unclenching in anger. Sasuke stops by the sidewalk, letting go of their intertwined hands.

He extends his arm, Shikamaru's twitchy hands clasping on his arm covering, tan fingers twisting in the white fabric.

They slowly walk away towards the Uchiha complex, Shikamaru focusing on calming himself down.

"You know that we can't stop him, Shika, as much as we want to." he mumbles, brushing a strand of hair out of his face with his unoccupied hand.

Shikamaru grumbles, "I hate that even I tell my parents, they can't stop Uncle Hiashi."

It's a very known fact after all, you can't fight a clan's traditions, it's against their law, and it's showing disrespect.

Shikamaru knows, for a fact, a lot of things. He knows, after much observation and interrupted naps, that Naruto is (he's sure of it, but he'll find the truth, soon.) the son of the Yondaime and his wife. His uncle...and aunt.

He knows for a fact, that it's illogical, for Itachi Uchiha to massacre the whole clan just to prove his strength.

He seems to be not the only one who has this conclusion, based on his shared glances with Neji when they were sitting by Sasuke's bed side.

He knows, that Itachi loves his brother so much, to death, and did not kill his kin for absolutely no reason.

He knows, that the main family and branch system of the Hyuuga clan is absolutely vile, Neji's pain making him hurt physically, while he and Sasuke wait in the sidelines, helpless in his cries of help.

He knows that once he's a jounin, he'll do everything he can do, to help his friends, survive this nightmare.

He's laying on a patch of grass, underneath a canopy of leaves, watching the clouds pass by.

Neji stumbles up the hill, weak and clutching at his forehead, shivering.

Sasuke looks over from practicing his fire jutsu at the dock, running quickly to support Neji up the hill.

Shikamaru asked him why he bothered to come, that they wouldn't have minded if he was absent, and that he should've rested instead.

All he said was, "I didn't want to be alone."

Shikamaru rapped on the door repeatedly, before stepping away a bit, bowing. "Hiashi-san, would it be alright if I invite Neji to my house, my parents are hoping that he comes to dinner."

Hiashi would frown disapprovingly at him, before relenting, Neji's half smile greeting him when the Hyuuga walked out the door.

He's grateful, that his parents try.

Sees them checking up on Naruto and Sasuke, and by extension, Neji. They try their best to be there for them, the adults being there for their deceased parents, their deceased team mates.

"They would have done the same if they were the one alive." they told him with gentle smile, and a ruffle of hair.

Shikamaru finds out early, that Sasuke and Neji's dojutsu places a strain on their eyes, and chakra pathways, so he learns.

Despite being lazy, he learns medical ninjutsu, on his spare time. He barrels through clan jutsus and training, always making sure to leave space for learning it.

He learns, even if it's so troublesome, he learns.

The grateful smile he receives while green chakra covered hands are pressed to their temples are worth it.

Shikamaru would try to excuse Neji, especially when it's not his fault, just to lessen the pain.

It would never work though, so he just provides comfort after.

Neji, is always brought to the Uchiha compound when he's tired. He would walk through the cold streets towards Sasuke's empty, eerie house.

He would plop down beside Sasuke, leaning his head on his shoulder, while the Uchiha plays shogi against Shikamaru, his right arm across Neji's shoulders, blanketing him in warmth.

His breathing matches with theirs, their quiet murmuring lulling him to sleep.

Neji looks at Shikamaru, the two of them of them sporting frowns on their faces. Yoshino and Shikaku sit by the the table, pale in the face, gripping the table tight.

Shikamaru shared another alarmed glance before pursing his lips, undoubtedly going through multiple reasons why.

Why did Itachi murder the whole clan? Wait, Sasuke-

Shikamaru and Neji's heart stopped, before the two scramble to stand, leaving the table and out of the Nara compound, running with all their might with their small legs.

They pant, looking up to the various yellow tapes surrounding the once loud and lived in compound, splotches of blood smearing across the windows and floor, coppery tang of it making them scrunch their nose.

Shikamaru almost gags when two ANBU guards carry a cold, lifeless Mikoto out of the door, her hand limp on the side.

Neji fights the urge to cry, approaching Chouza, before Shikaku shows up behind them, hugging them both to his chest.

He holds them close, before settling Neji on his hip, and Shikamaru on his shoulders, smiling sadly at Chouza before body flickering to the hospital.

A pale, so so very pale, almost grey looking boy lay against white sheets, charcoal hair falling around his face, furrowed brows and shuffling on the bed.

They breathe out in relief seeing their friend alive, before hearing "He's trapped in a genjutsu."

Sasuke opens his eyes, gasping for breath, crying. He can't breathe, feeling blood all over his body and palms, blood choking him. He sobs, his Sharingan activating for a moment before slumping towards Shikaku's chest, the man letting the boy grieve.

Sasuke hears in the darkness, "We're here, always."

Neji places himself on Sasuke's back, glaring back at the whispers and prying eyes around him. Shikamaru flanks Sasuke's front, scowling at whoever tries to accuse bloody murder on his friend.

They sleep beside him, hoping to lessen his nightmares, and staying up with him when he wakes up crying.

"Sas, you know your brother is not like that right?"

"I know, I just don't understand why."

Shikamaru frowns at him, seeing the scars on his chest and upper arms. He glowers at him before clicking his tongue, muttering "Such a drag." under his breath, mouth turned down in worry.

"I had to protect the idiot. Got the Sharingan though."

They don't bother correcting him.

Neji stares at the cursed mark on Sasuke's shoulder, his thumb absentmindedly grazing across it.

What has Sasuke done to you? Why make him suffer?

Sasuke glares at Danzo, before Kakashi body flickers, pulling at the bandages.

Neji's suspicion was true, it was full of sharingan eyes, Shisui's Mangekyou in Danzo's eyesocket.

Sasuke stiffens, opening and closing his mouth before he staggers back ward, Mangekyou Sharingan spinning in his eyes.

He growls, "How dare you."

  (Shikaku, and Yoshino are protective of the boys, along with Iruka and Kakashi. Tsume even threatened Hiashi if he intervenes with the children.

"I've already seen our friends die, I'm not letting you ruin the friendship we wanted for the kids."

Konoha 12 is very tight knit, very protective.)

[kyriolex]

You know what kills me about Boruto and Kawaki's relationship?

It's just a shitty rehash of Naruto and Sasuke again.

Two "brothers", one stupid and one stoic, rescuing one another, an evil organisation, a boy with a monster sealed in him who wants to devour him? Geee, I wonder when I have seen that. You know if I wanted to watch Naruto I can just watch Naruto. You don't have to rewrite Naruto in a worse way and pretend it's Boruto.

And you what makes it even dumber? It basically shafted Sarada and Mitsuki as characters when Boruto already initially had them as foils. Hell they already did the whole "Track him down and rescue him" thing with Mitsuki already.

And if they wanna give Kawaki a narrative foil, the Anime is already doing a better job at making Himawari contrast with him

I actually like their relationship so far, if only because we’re seeing them actually bond before Kawaki goes rogue.

Sasuke and Naruto fought so much before the desertion that sometimes Naruto’s loyalty strained belief. Even their nice interactions were mostly tsundere tropes.

Even though Kawaki and Boruto fight a lot, I still have the sense that the dominant emotion between them is affection, not jealousy or irritation.

That said, I think the writers are trying way too hard to cram Kawaki into the Sasuke traitor mold. They treat actions of self-defense (ie the Momoshiki incident) like he’s going mad with power, because Sasuke was also “mad with power” (read: seeking justice after his clan’s genocide).

But the writers already showed Kawaki and Boruto fighting in the future, so now they have to railroad the characters toward that scene no matter what.

[pinkhairedlily]

Chapter 10 - Student Council President Sakura

SCPS AO3 | PREVIOUS CHAPTER

To Sakura, world still revolved normally; nothing changed between them, nothing mattered enough for her to behave differently. To Sasuke, the world shifted in its axis, having revealed a glimpse of his true feelings to her however falsely convenient she deemed them to be; everything changed between them, everything mattered enough for him to behave differently.

Like flinching at her slight grazes on his skin or his ears picking up her voice in the middle of the crowd noises or his eyes following the trail of her rose hair tied up in a ponytail, bewitched by the sway of the strands as she tousled to get to the front of the fray, her fingers burning a hole through his sleeve.

“HOMERUN!” The announcer screamed through the microphone, the feedback running through ripples in the throng of people. “Uzumaki Naruto nails a clutch win in the last inning for his team in their first ever nationals!”

Screams erupted around them, and as others jumped and cursed and hugged each other, she stood there frozen in time, her hands on her mouth. “He won. He won, Sasuke.” Her voice quivered, and he knew then that she was crying.

“Yeah, the blonde idiot won.” He allowed himself to smile, picking the blonde among the ruckus that enfolded below.

An hour and lesser filled stadium after, the two went down to congratulate their friend with open arms despite the sweat and the grit. Sasuke went with the flow, jumping up and down and circling about in the middle of the pitcher’s mound. They broke away from each other’s hold after several minutes, breathless in the undertaking, and flushed with all the gleeful screaming.

Two firm pats on Naruto’s back and a ruffle on his porcupine hair. “You did well, idiot.”

“Ah I earned a compliment from grumpy. This truly is the best day of my life!” His teammates broke in laughter in the background.

“I’m so proud of you. I’m so glad we took the bullet train to watch your game,” Sakura said through tears. Perhaps it was the height of the celebration or the ride of her emotions; she reached for Naruto’s face and placed a kiss on his cheek.

Sasuke turned away just in time, thankful for the screams, hoots, and whistles that possessed the student body. In his aversion, he also saw another face who kept looking anywhere but at the two. Hyuga Hinata, his ironic comrade in heartbreak.

Haru was in the group of spectators earlier, a pseudo-coach and mood-raiser for the team, his undercut prominent against his cap. Sasuke guessed him and Hinata were civil enough to be enclosed in a common space. He walked towards her, hands in his pockets.

“I’m gonna confess to him in the cultural festival,” she told him before he could reach her side.

He leaned against the bleachers, shutting out the continuing noises from the student body. In the midst of it, he can hear Sakura scolding all of them for misunderstanding. “And you’re gonna get rejected.”

“At least I told him what I felt,” she replied. “Did you already?”

He shrugged, unsure himself whether he got the point across or not.

“You better make it clear. You berated me for giving mixed signals after all.”

“You don’t hold your punches, Ms. Hyuga.” Sasuke sighed. “I think she rejected me already.”

Hinata let out a small laugh, the first in his vicinity. “Well, I’m just giving back your advice. If you think it so, you should ask again.”

“A second heartbreak won’t do me good.”

“The future has a lot in store.” She finally landed her gaze on Naruto and Sakura who separated now and were engaged by Haru in some funny exchange. “Good luck to us, Uchiha. I’ll take my leave.”

Sasuke detached himself from the bleachers. “Without saying congratulations?”

But Hinata continued on her exit without giving him a reply. To his surprise, it was not only him who caught her leaving; a pair of blue eyes also followed after her, mouth agape, hesitant to call her name not when he was in the presence of her ex-boyfriend and ex-captain. Ah, we’re all stuck in this complex hell, aren’t we?

His phone vibrated against his pocket. On normal days, he would ignore the call, but today wasn’t normal and he had to act nice for the favor he asked.

“Did your best friend win?” Itachi’s voice greeted him.

Sasuke didn’t correct him on the terminology. He just grunted a small yes, and somehow, he can hear his brother smiling on the other end of the call.

“Glad my donation helped fund their team’s expenses. I take it you also spent some for the bullet train?”

Again, another small yes.

“That’s nice.” It was the first time he heard Itachi chuckle again after the accident. “I’m glad you have friends.”

They’re not my friends fell silent on Sasuke’s lips. All he wanted was to consistently rank first, have uninteresting interactions…but all of those foiled because of the two. “Yeah, something like that.”

He heard the beeping pager in the background. “Gotta run, little brother. See you.”

Little brother. Sasuke swallowed back an unfamiliar sound.

It was a sob.

--------------------------------

Sakura tried to look at anything but him – the titles of books on his shelves behind, the heads of other faculty members bobbing, the ticking of the second hand on the wall clock. Kakashi clucked upon seeing her career sheet.

“Haruno, you’ll be graduating salutatorian, just points away from Uchiha Sasuke and yet you haven’t listed a university or a job listing. It’s referral season, and you’ve done a lot of good in this school.” Kakashi held his eyes steady on her, a firm line on his lips. “Don’t you want help?”

She mustered a smile, if that was what they call it nowadays, and handed him a filled out form. Whether he could see that it was written with wavering hands, she’d never know. “I settled on fashion design. I’ve always wanted to be a seamstress myself.”

That was a lie, and she knew Kakashi knew judging by how the firm line stayed. He briefly nodded and let her go.

Sensing the bubbling anxiety, she traversed the noisy hallways and almost sprinted to what has also become her safe space – the hidden spot of the boys behind the library. It wasn’t lunch time yet so Sasuke and Naruto wouldn’t be here. She slumped against the wall, sobs racking throughout her body.

Aimless was what she would describe her direction, untethered her depth, and a black hole her emotions.

“I wish you would let me help you.” Kakashi’s voice made her jump. She scanned her surroundings but cannot find a telling strand of silver in the hedges. He was probably standing on the entrance, just before the canopy of vines. “I didn’t follow you. I just knew the three of you went here for lunch and after-school chats. I’m a faculty, Sakura.”

“Please go away.” She never heard her voice sounded so small…and vulnerable.

“Sometimes, talking it out would make the burden feel lighter.”

She didn’t respond, and he didn’t wait for it. His audible footsteps were an indication he was moving away so she took the bait. If this was one way to be near him, why couldn’t it be in the guise of her pain?

She emerged in the hedges, eyes bloodshot red and strained, only to find him leaning against the wall, waiting with a handkerchief for her.

In an ironic turn of events, he brought her to the program she initiated. When he turned to leave to give her the privacy she needed, she asked him to stay. And that simple silent gesture gave her the courage to face her reality.

That her parents were divorcing, and in a futile attempt to cope, she made herself scarce, almost invisible.

Perhaps she was too much work for a middle-class couple with a lot of bills and unemployed siblings to feed. Maybe if they didn’t have a child that hindered their defining career opportunities to relocate or get promoted to an overseas position. Her outstanding community work and numerous distinction medals just weren’t strong enough to warrant a reconsideration of their decision.

And maybe it was a wrong move to get a part time job and dissociate from the pink-haired, studious Sakura and be the adult black-haired, funky cashier Sakura because it only gave them the idea she can live just fine on her own without any of them worrying about her instead of seeing the whole thing as a call for help.

“If you’re ready, you should share your problem to the two,” her sensei said when they finished with her therapy consultation.

“They have heavier baggage,” she simply replied.

“They’re not comparable. Naruto has an empty baggage, a kid with no past, yet he drags it around. Sasuke has sand for load, it’s leaking at the seams but he refills it. And for you, it could be air or water. It’s because you’re compressing them all inside that they become heavier.” He laid a hand on her head, an action of a sensei to a student. “Thanks for sharing some of those with me, Sakura.”

--------------------------------

Cultural festival was an amalgamation of confessions, last clinchers, and stolen moments. Whoever snatched a dance with someone they liked would be blessed with good relationship – that was how the saying went among the ranks of students.

It was the reason why Sasuke and Naruto hid throughout the day in their spot, content to eat instant ramen, batches of onigiri, and packs of orange and tomato juices. Throngs of freshmen and second years were on the hunt for their feet as dance partner.

“If only they knew I have two left feet,” Naruto grumbled. “I can’t even enjoy the day with Sakura. It’s pathetic to think I’m stuck with you.”

“I second,” Sasuke said. “Do you think she’ll confess to Kakashi later?”

“She hasn’t made a move yet?”

Sasuke shook his head.

“Wait what do you mean you second?”

Minutes of silence ensued. Sasuke put a whole onigiri in his mouth, too flustered to say it right at his face. “I like Sakura.” The words were jumbled with his chewing, and he was sure Naruto didn’t catch it.

But the idiot grinned and laughed maniacally. “The great pretender finally admits! When did you realize it? Did you have the fireworks in your head too?” He even mimicked a rainbow with his hands.

“That’s a rainbow, you idiot.” Sasuke scratched the back of his head. “When she was busy looking at Kakashi playing the piano.”

“Ah, will we ever have the chance?” Naruto snickered. “Let’s confess tonight, grumpy.”

“Already thought of that and already prepared for it.” Despite the seemingly downfall trajectory of their common affections, Sasuke still managed a smirk.

Not to be one-upped, Naruto pulled out his phone and flashed a small bouquet of dahlias. “Ready to be picked up tonight.”

A Greek tragedy, that was them; two best friends falling in love with and being rejected by the same girl.

--------------------------------

Majority of the school population have gathered around the giant bonfire on the campus grounds, but Sakura knew Kakashi would be stuck in his cubicle in the faculty lounge, nose-deep in a novel, headphones in to drown out the noise, and feet propped up on his desk.

Tonight was the night she would bare her other truth naked to him.

But before she could even step foot in his space, she already heard the voice of his favorite book drifting across the nooks and partitions.

“You should be with your students.” Giggling and a sound she would only assume was a string of kisses.

“I don’t have much time with you. Let me be greedy just this time.” Hearing her sensei say that painted him in another light. So there was this very attached Kakashi, far from the laidback and chill professor she knew.

Sakura should turn her heels and join the rest of the student body. She should act like a good student model, ignore her teacher’s affairs, and pretend she was never here. Except she tripped while running, and that summoned the two of them to her aid.

“Sakura? Did you need something?”

She side-eyed Rin Nohara and shook her head, her one only good chance blown to bits by her own recklessness and stupidity. She muttered an apology and starts to walk away with limping feet when Rin stopped her.

“I’ll get a drink in the vending machine. I’ll be back in five minutes Kashi.”

Thank God for women intuition, Sakura thought.

But inevitably she was left alone in the corridor with her heartbeat far stronger than the noise of the band outside around the campfire and the unknowing subject of her admiration. She held tightly to his rubber tie around her wrist, the mark etched deeper by each day she leaves it there mangled with her pulse.

He crossed his arms and leaned back against the wall, a smile etched on his face, the soft moonlight falling on his features only to highlight his beauty mark. It was unfair seeing him like this only to have him break her heart.

She knew she didn’t stand a chance, but even then, she had to hear it clear and loud.

“I like you.”

Were three words ever enough to encapsulate the three years of affection she held for him? One word for each year she felt content with glimpses of him, may they only be passing shadows in the halls, an echoing voice in the adjacent room, the silent arbiter in council meetings or a silver strand she could easily pick out in a sea of black of white.

Kakashi looked at her, his smile still etched, his face still immaculate. “That wasn’t a question.”

“And that wasn’t a reply.” It was nature to look away when one was too scared to face truth, but for the many times he helped her, even without him fully realizing the extent, she owed it to him to be brave.

“But you already know the words.” A head pat, the same gesture that gave her comfort in the past was the same gesture that broke her heart just now. How easy it was for the breaker to give and take minute and mindless affections, but what right did she has to think they were special to begin with?

It was the end of an illusory conception.

--------------------------------

A bouquet of dahlias and a bouquet of daffodils were hidden behind Naruto and Sasuke. It was dark, already past seven, the bonfire in its final vestiges, its sputtering flames waiting for last-minute lovers to dance in their splendid light.

Within the shadows came the girl of their dreams, hair untangled and morose emerald irises dipped in pools. Sasuke first noticed the bare wrist, the rubber tie gone, and he knew then that she confessed, and she was heartbroken.

He didn’t need to say anything to the blonde beside him. Her stance was enough to convey her present state of being. What she needed right now were her friends, not aspiring lovers stupid enough to break the friendship label.

And so they hid the bouquets on their backs, safe in the clutches of the dark, and when she reached out to them, their free hands already grasped her trembling fingers in waiting.

There they were, three broken-hearted people, wallowing in their own respective pain, sitting on the dewy grass that would leave stains on their clothes the next morning. When the school band started the last song, Sasuke stood up, abandoning his bouquet on the side, and pulled the other two up.

“Would be a shame to end our last cultural festival like this.”

Ten steps later, they were in the middle of the crowd of couples, three awkward friends holding each other’s hands and stepping on each other’s foot.

“For the love of God, you really can’t dance Naruto. Can’t you do a simple turn to the right?” Sasuke complained.

“Why are you putting all the blame on me? You’re the one who can’t differentiate the right from left!” Naruto spat back.

She laughed, and it somehow stopped their bickering for a moment. Bent at her stomach and eyes clinched shut in crinkles, that was their Sakura.

AO3 LINK | NEXT CHAPTER | CHAPTER 11

[tariah23]

My brother and I were talking about naruto (I know that I’ve been pretty annoying about it (sorry) but I’ve always loved it this much lol. I just take breaks from the stuff I super love and dive back into them at random times. But anyway. My brother and I usually talk about it and a bunch of other stuff often so haha) and I was telling him about a HC of mine, or perhaps, a story that I’d like to probably write. The one where Itachi has a kid (I won’t get into that but it’s pretty… lol) who Sasuke suddenly runs into by chance and decided to be his mentor in his own away after a bunch of shenanigans and, yada, yada, yada. I mentioned something about the kid’s mom having Gazookas and my bro was like “…that’s not realistic-“ and I was like “IT’S FICTION! If I want Itachi’s baby’s mother to have big tiddies then so be it!” And then he stormed out laughing after I told him that Sasuke and Sakura divorced after he told her that he couldn’t grow to love her after all- (you know….) and that he’s sorry. But he’s tried. (He’s there for his daughter and isn’t a deadbeat like how he is in canon lol…. But he also still travels an awful lot. His relationship with Sakura is awkward and strained. Rumors have spread about their relationship having to do something with Naruto, further complicating Naruto’s political and family life as well. It’s always awkward whenever Sasuke returns back to Konoha after his long travels because of what happened. Of course he had some issues with Naruto because he tried to be honest about his feelings for once (you know this is HC territory when Sasuke is being honest for once in his life lmfao…) and kissed him etc. (Naruto and Sasuke have a minor falling out because of this. It’s just.. too late for them to go any further even when though they obviously care deeply for each other but Naruto will always have all eyes on him. He can’t hide in the shadows like how Sasuke can. He wished that they could’ve told each other how their feelings years ago before they all started to get married and have kids. It’s awkward… a lot. Emo… lmfao. I’m so… embarrassing.) My bro was like “UGHH STOP! You’re ruining everything 😭! At least make him kiss his cheek!” Lmfao. I don’t think the story would focus on this part at all since it’s stuff that’s happened in the past. Like two year prior to the start of the story probably. The kids are all like 6-8 years old, not 12 and up like in canon. I’d like it to focus more on Sasuke’s travels and bond with his little nephew? Slice of life kinda thing. Whatever… Basically, I still really like the idea of a more mature Sasuke attempting to be more of an open person? Like he’s awkward and lame as hell but he’s trying. He has a better relationship with his daughter and he develops a relationship with Itachi’s kid. All he had were the memories of his brother and nothing else. The only picture that he has of him is the one printed in one of those dated old bingo books. So his child is all that he has left of his brother now. He wants to be a positive influence in his life in some way lol. He didn’t even want anything to do with the kid at first before he knew his identity. He brings the child and his mom and grandfather to Konoha where they can live with better accommodations. They were poor and lived in a old, isolated village that had been completely cut off from the shinobi world and it was hard to get by. The mom is actually really goofy? I want her to be kind of annoying too lol. She’s embarrassed to live in such an established place because of where she came from and doesn’t want others to look down on her thinking that she’s dumb and all. (It’s a lot… the people in the village weren’t all that educated because of being cut off from the rest of the world after a war, kind of fucking over and displacing most of the villagers who had no where else to go. Only a handful of villagers could even read? She’s embarrassed because she can’t read some of the signs in the village. Um. TRAVELING… Journeys… BONDING, and childcare orz. Amazing tropes and themes that make me so soft in the head.

[gaasaku-fanfests]

Broken Hearts (Empty Grave)

Title: Broken Hearts (Empty Grave) Author: ofhealinglove Rating: T Word Count: 2,940 words Summary: Haruno Sakura was killed in action fighting Akasuna no Sasori. While Konoha grieves the loss of a beloved shinobi and friend, Gaara is keeping her safe and secreted away until she falls in love with him. He's the one who saved her. He's the one who brought her back from the brink of death. Konoha couldn't keep her safe, so he will. Forever. Trope: Yandere.

.

Gaara attends the memorial for Haruno Sakura.

He, his siblings, and several council members who want to suck up to the grieving Hokage (they didn’t even know Sakura) travel the two days it takes to get to Konoha and stay for three days: one to rest and settle in, one for the memorial, and one for politicians to politick and Gaara to spend with Naruto, and then leave that evening.

The memorial is enormous; most of Konoha is in attendance. In her work at the hospital, Sakura had saved countless lives and it seems like there isn’t one family or friend her healing hadn’t affected in some way. The flowers come in all shapes and sizes; the mourners are genuine in their grief. ANBU, jounin, chuunin, genin—all of them have something to thank her for.

But it is the Konoha 11 that grieve the hardest. Some stoic, some with tears streaking down their faces, some still standing shell-shocked, like they can’t believe she’s really gone. These are the two blonds of the group, both with blue eyes: one is a Yamanaka kunoichi Sakura’s age, and the other is Naruto.

Gaara watches Naruto closely, a small part of his heart guilty for what’s happened. After all, it’s because of him that this memorial is taking place; if he had been strong enough to defend against the Akatsuki by himself, Sakura would never had fought Akasuna no Sasori—a criminal from his own village, at that—and been injured as she was.

There are other reasons why he feels guilty, but with a clan that has a mind-reading kekkei genkai in attendance, Gaara doesn’t dare to think of them.

The Godaime is one of the stoic ones, but there is more than that: she is furious. Gaara thinks, looking upon her face from his seat in the delegates box, that she has lost one person too many, and knows it when she announces all-out war against Sakura’s murderers.

Sakura’s death could have been prevented. Chiyo had been old and Sakura not ready to fight an Akatsuki with just a retired jounin at her side. They should have had back-up and they shouldn’t have been left alone, no matter what Chiyo said. When the old woman had crawled out of the wreckage of the fight, Sakura’s body lost to the cave-in and Sasori dead (by Sakura’s hand, Chiyo had solemnly emphasized with her head bowed, “I wouldn’t be alive without her,” and “She sacrificed herself for me”), Gaara heard that Hatake Kakashi, her team lead and jounin sensei, had just about killed her on the spot. It was only with the restraint of Maito Gai that Chiyo had been alive to revive Gaara, and Hatake still hasn’t recovered.

Naruto had told Gaara on the day of their arrival that “Kakashi-sensei” was on a two-month-long suspension and had mandated weekly appointments with a Yamanaka psychologist after he had attempted suicide, but Gaara had to keep it a secret.

(Gaara doesn’t feel guilt for that, not like he does for Naruto.)

After the memorial is over, everyone leaves except for the Suna shinobi and council, Konoha 11, and the Hokage and her assistant. They meet in a room in Hokage tower and drink and reminisce. Gaara doesn’t partake and doesn’t say anything. This isn’t a sad occasion for him, it’s a victory. While everyone else grieves over Haruno Sakura, Gaara doesn’t.

He knows she isn’t dead. She’s recovering in a secret room beneath the Kazekage manse, well enough that he was able to leave her alone for a few days.

Temari had said that Konoha deserved to know. Kankuro disapproved of what Gaara had done. But they’re both his brother and sister as well as shinobi of Sunagakure, loyal to him before all, and by the time they’d figured out what was going on, it would endanger the alliance to reveal the secret.

Now that the memorial is over and Haruno Sakura officially declared dead after weeks of excavating the rubble trying to find her body (long gone), there will be war if Sakura is ever discovered.

She won’t be, though. All the world needs to know is that she died a hero killing Akasuna no Sasori.

And Gaara is going to keep it that way if it kills him.

 When Gaara first noticed Haruno Sakura, she had been doing her best to defend Uchiha Sasuke and was going to pay for that with her life. She hadn’t been strong or particularly useful, either; just cannon fodder, likely as her council had intended. She squirmed and fought under his crushing sand but didn’t give up until she passed out from lack of air, but even in her unconsciousness, he had noticed that she still twitched against death like she was fighting to survive even when her mind was gone.

This had intrigued Shukaku and Gaara had hesitated, and then Naruto saved her life and changed his.

Shukaku had seen something in her, something he liked, and that was why Sakura had survived. Gaara had been fast enough even then to end her before Naruto arrived—it was Shukaku’s order to stop that had spared her.

Even moving forward on a different path to a different destiny, Shukaku kept going back to the pink-haired girl and Gaara found his interest piqued, as well. It started with wondering why Shukaku had hesitated, then soon enough, he was following the bijuu down the rabbit hole.

What led such a weak kunoichi to fight for her life like that? As soon as his sand was upon her, she had to know that it was over, and yet she struggled even near death. For a shinobi of some caliber, that was to be expected. To a pathetic little genin who hadn’t even made it past the preliminaries? It made no sense.

Naruto talked about her in his letters, and while Gaara did his best to be circumspect, he learned much about the kunoichi he’d grown so interested in. Shukaku praised every tidbit of information—except for the fact that she was in love with Uchiha Sasuke.

But he was kidnapped and she was killed in action.

After he was revived and Sasori defeated—they had found his body, or at least the splinters left of it—he thought he’d never see her again. Shukaku was gone but the obsession was not, and he had spent his time off during the rebuilding venting his fury deep in the desert.

That was how he found her.

 Sakura had not, in fact, been killed by Sasori’s poison.

When Gaara had found her, deep in the desert between Iwa and Suna going vaguely north, she had been grievously injured by the cave’s collapse, traces of poison flowing through her veins, fever, severe dehydration, and on death’s doorstep.

His first thought was that he was seeing a mirage but he went to her side anyways. Later, he found out she had kept herself alive through complex ninjutsu that she had subconsciously invented purely to survive just that much longer; her Will of Fire, but more importantly her will to live, had kept her going this long, delirious and confused and injured but alive.

She would have died within the day if he hadn’t found her.

Without hesitation, he hurried her back to Suna, but with hesitation, he didn’t take her to the hospital. He took her into the bunker beneath the Kazekage mansion and brought a traveling doctor in to care for her, supplying all his needs with the best money could buy. He hadn’t known what it was he was doing until the next morning when he woke up and realized that he should have immediately sent for Konoha to bring their med-nin to care for their kunoichi before bringing her back home, but…

She was alive—because he found her. She was going to recover—because of the money out of his own coffers. She had been found—because he grieved her.

Didn’t that make her his? And why should he send her back when it was her own team lead’s neglect of her that had gotten her declared KIA in the first place?

So he didn’t say anything, and killed the doctor (quietly, discreetly, no sand coffins or blood splatters) as soon as she was stable and Gaara knew how to care for her.

No witnesses.

 He remembers the moment she first opened her eyes. She still looked sickly and burnt from the sun, but they had opened with clarity and she had looked around quickly, assessing her situation even as her hands and feet flexed and twitched against the restraints holding her down.

She saw him and whispered in a croaky voice, “…Kazekage-sama…?”

He’d hurried help her sit up and drink a glass of water to wet her throat. She drank greedily but not too fast, not needing his advice to not make herself sick. A prodigious med-nin, to be sure.

Once he’d pulled the cup away, she’d blinked and asked in a clearer but still thready voice, “…Where am I? Why… why am I restrained?”

“Safety precautions, Haruno-san,” he’d told her. He would stay polite, even if he wanted to be able to speak the caress of her name on this lips and tongue. He would stay distant for now. He didn’t want to scare her.

“Where… am I…?” she asked again, eyes roving over the interior of the bunker’s main room.

“Safe,” he said.

She seemed wary of him but was too out of it to be outright suspicious, and once he let her drink a second glass over water, she fell back asleep. He laid her down carefully, determined for her to never feel any pain ever again.

It was Konoha’s fault she had almost died.

He didn’t want her to die.

She was better off safe down here in his bunker where he could protect her. He would never let any harm come to her.

Ever.

 It didn’t take her long after her first awakening to start asking questions. Her memory of recent events was spotty at first, but once she started remembering healing Kankuro, going to save him, bits and pieces of her fight with Sasori before her injury and ‘death,’ their relationship became strained.

He told her what he could, and most of it had to be lies. He truthfully told her that she had killed Sasori in the end and Chiyo had been a casualty of the fight. Gaara had had Shukaku taken from him, but he’d survived. She had been searched for, but only for a few days before her team headed back home. Naruto was going to try to come back for her body, but they all assumed she was dead and he heavily implied they didn’t care.

(Hatake didn’t, sending her in unprotected like that.)

Some of the lies she believed, some she didn’t. It took time and constant repetition to get it to sink in that Konoha hadn’t really cared about her. She fought against the lies about Naruto and Tsunade the hardest; she’d been suspicious of being restrained.

And then she found out she didn’t have chakra anymore because of Sasori’s poison, just enough to survive with civilian levels, and she’d just about broken.

He’d been sad to see it, but it was necessary. It was, in fact, a seal he’d discovered deep in the family’s library, used for subduing dangerous criminals for execution. Archaic and brutal, he’d gotten a sealmaster to bastardize it into being temporary. He was no Uzumaki, but he said the seal should hold. Gaara didn’t want Sakura in the bunker forever. Once he felt she could be trusted, she would ‘regain’ enough chakra to defend herself. Maybe one day, she’d ‘miraculously’ get all of it back.

But that would be after they were married, after they had children, once they were older and there was no chance of her defection. He had to keep her safe.

He made sure to repeat that to her. She was safe, he was always going to keep her safe. Konoha hadn’t kept her safe, and they didn’t care what happened once she wasn’t. She’d been left behind, by her team, by her village. No one was coming for her; no one cared enough.

That was apparently her worst fear and what started breaking down the fastest.

He brought her meals, took her to the bathroom, brought her knowledge and entertainment. He was her only source of social interaction, the only person she relied on for all her basic needs, by design. He needed her, so she had to need him.

It was basic conditioning. He was sad he had to use it on her, but there was no other way to make sure she’d willingly stay by his side. The first time he had touched her, she’d flinched. The day he’d left for the memorial, she had initiated a hug goodbye.

(He knew she would fall for him eventually, just like he’d fallen for her.)

Telling her about his three days away for her memorial service had been very, very difficult. Of course, she hadn’t known it was her memorial service, but she had still cried and pleaded for him to stay. She didn’t want to be without him, she said. What would she do, all alone? What if the food ran out? What if something happened to him?

It was hard to leave her, but he did.

 He’s eager to get back to her more than anything else, but he doesn’t show it. He worries that if he’s away for too long, some of her conditioning will start to wear off and she’ll regress. If she thinks too long, she might untangle some of his lies; after all, he knows she’s extremely intelligent and it’s only been a little under a month. There’s a large margin for error here, leaving so soon, but it would have been more suspicious if he hadn’t come. She’d killed one of his village’s own missing-nin in the conflict to save his life. If he’s not there, barring an emergency, it’s a blow to the alliance.

Gaara needs this alliance, but he might not always. If Sakura were to surface back from the dead in, say, five years or so, Konoha’s reaction might not matter.

(She won’t want to go back anyways. He’ll have made sure of it by then.)

When he comes back to the bunker, Sakura is pacing the room. It doesn’t look like she’s tried to escape and there’s no damage speaking of any fits of pique or defiant anxiety, which is somewhat surprising.

“Gaara-sama!” she calls with a smile once he’s sealed the door behind him.

“Sakura-san,” he replies, finally able to call her by her given name, a small smile quirking his lips. He doesn’t necessarily expect her to run up and hug him, but it’s nice anyways.

His sand doesn’t even try to keep her from him. He thinks it’s a sign.

(A sign that they’re meant to be. He’s doing the right thing, keeping her here.)

“Don’t leave me like that again, okay?” she demands. She’s still got a temper, which is something that is so integral to who she is that he’s glad it’s not completely conditioned out. Still, she hadn’t destroyed anything. It’s a sign of progress. And the desperation with which she’d run up to him…

Maybe he should leave her alone more often, but his heart says otherwise.

(He has to keep her safe. He loves her, he loves her, he loves her.)

“I’ll do my best,” he says. He’s always been a man of few words.

“Did you bring any food?” she asks. “I’m pretty hungry—I ran out this morning.”

No, Gaara had not brought food. He’d been too excited to come see her.

“I’ll go get some for you,” he tells her, and turns for the door. Sakura steps back to give him space—she always does—and he unseals the exit.

He doesn’t see her coming from behind him and his sand doesn’t react when she hugs him again; she doesn’t mean to harm him, if the sand isn’t reacting. “Don’t take too long, okay? I’ve missed you.”

“Stand back, Sakura-san,” he orders her quietly, warmed by the fact that she’s so desperate to touch him, feel him, hold him.

Sakura nods against his back. “Okay…”

In a move he hadn’t expected and therefore was unprepared for, Sakura’s hands snake up under him and grab his throat.

He chokes on her inhuman strength. She shouldn’t have chakra! What is going on?

“Next time you put a seal on someone, you should make sure you know it’ll hold,” she snarls, and her hands clench brutally.

 When Gaara wakes up, it’s three days later in the hospital. Sakura had crushed his windpipe, but Temari found him in time to get medical treatment and survive.

He grieves that Sakura got away, but he swears he’ll find her. She can’t have gotten back to Konoha yet and therefore he still has time to find her and bring her back. He’ll leave her in isolation for much longer this time, a punishment. He’d hoped to never have to do that to her, but Sakura has a strong will (Naruto had emphasized that so often and Gaara had seen it firsthand when she fought against his sand coffin) and it needs to be broken down more… thoroughly this time.

“I’ll find her soon enough,” he tells Temari.

And then Kankuro rushes in with a crumpled missive with the Hokage seal in his hand, announcing with worried eyes that Konoha has declared war.

[plantb0t]

Actually I have a lot heres a rapid fire ask: Naruto, Itachi, Temari, Neji, Guy, The Third (🗡), Deidara, and Nagato

Just answered Naruto!

Itachi: Itachi did everything wrong. Like obviously the stuff leading up to the Uchiha massacre wasn't his fault and he was in a very difficult situation but he really went above and beyond in being a terrible person and ruining sasuke's life and mental state every chance he got. And then at the end of it we're supposed to think he's a pure and good person who did nothing wrong. I don't think I'd have as much of a problem with Itachi if the narrative didn't want me to believe he did nothing wrong

Temari: I wish she was allowed to do more, she's really cool but the least developed of the sand siblings :( She takes on a lot of responsibility for both of her little brothers (who are BOTH handfuls in different ways) and if kishimoto wasn't such a mysoginist she could have had a really good arc about that responsibility and how she had to grow up really fast.

I think Temari collects fans with all different designs on them. I think that would be fun

Neji: Neji deserved so much better. I liked the fact that he taught himself hyuga techniques that he was forbidden to learn- I also like that this implies the rest of team gai helped him do this. Team gai said fuck the hyuga clan and their shitty customs. I want Neji to have friends and be happy and live a long life free from being fated to die for the main branch. I feel like the moral of his story actually ended up being "he can't escape his fate, he just needs to stop being so mad about it and live life while he has the chance, and accept the role he was forced into" which is... depressing.

Gai: He's married to Kakashi. People give Kakashi shit for playing favorites (probably because his team imploded) but gai is so transparent in his favoritism shffshdjgdgj rip tenten and neji. He still loves all his kids though. I have a lot of issues with the way he handled Rock Lee's injury (there was some weird codependece going on there) but he makes up for it by being actual disabled rep in boruto (hopefully this is treated well, I haven't watched boruto yet)

The Third: Bastard. Piece of shit. I'm glad he's dead. Allowed the Uchiha massacre to happen because he was just too gay for danzo. Despite this, he is homophobic. He's also canonically a fucking creep so 0/10 would stab. 🗡 🗡 🗡

Deidara: Deidara and Kurotsuchi were friends before Deidara defected from the village. Deidara and Konan are Art Friends. Deidara and Hidan hate each other but they hang out sometimes anyways.

Deidara really looks up to Sasori despite their disagreements about art, and sees him as a mentor in art, ninjutsu, and in the akatsuki. I think it's interesting to see how consistently Deidara defers to Sasori, looking to him for direction most of the time. It's a very unique partner relationship (PLATONIC) to see in the akatsuki. It definitely has something to do with the difference in their ages imo, especially considering how young Deidara must have been when they met.

Nagato: Nagato did nothing wrong. "He killed Jiraiya" As I said. He did nothing wrong. I love Nagato so much. He had so much hope, so many plans for the future and how the akatsuki was going to change the world, and it was all ripped away from him in a moment and it hurts..

Nagato Yahiko and Konan are all in love and dating.

Nagato had some sort of chronic fatigue/pain due to the strain his powers put on his body (which you can see even before Yahiko died and he did. Whatever that was) and used a cane a lot of the time.

I want a world where Jiraiya took them back to the leaf and he, Yahiko, and Konan took Naruto in after his parents died.

[dayseternal-blog]

Summary: She knit a red scarf for him.  She never gave it to him.  Days turned into months, months turned into too late.

Naruto starts dating. Hinata decides to move on.

A sickness takes root in the heart.

Inspired by SasuSaku fanfic “Medicine” by @grimmjowkurosakidrake

Rating: Mature

Read Chapter 1: Smoke on her tongue

Read Chapter 2: He’s not a ghost

Read Chapter 3: Weeds

Read Chapter 4: Leave himself behind

Read Chapter 5: She’s always (still here)

Chapter 6: Much more than friends

The bustling activity of the hospital fades away as soon as they step outside.  The silence between them magnifies in the bright sunlight.

She feels anxious, a small excitement fluttering about, as she follows him toward the road.  Naruto has always done the unexpected, and with today, she thinks he’s really lived up to that reputation…

She has no idea what’s coming next for them.  

It leaves her hopeful, so, so hopeful, that she doesn’t dare speak.  Out of fear of disturbing this dream, any wrong word could turn all of it into a terrible joke.  

Naruto stops.

She freezes behind him.

He turns around, looks directly at her, and feels his stomach drop straight to his feet.  The question he wanted to ask forgotten.

She’s blushing so much, and it’s adorable.

He stuffs his hands into his jacket pockets, a reactive heat rising to his own face.  The sudden onslaught of nerves makes him feel warm, as if someone just complimented him, and at the same time, he feels incredibly scatterbrained.

He feels like he can do anything or nothing.

Two steps away from remarkable or lost...

“Soo,” he regrettably starts, immediately and unfortunately finding himself weakly at her will, but he manages to continue, “...what are you doing now?”

“Oh, I, I guess I should meet up with my family...at the...cemetery.  It should be about that time.”  She sounds so soft, even to her own ears, she’s not sure if he could hear her.

But he nods.  “Right...right.”  Since the moment Hinata entered his room, he pretty much forgot what today was.  So much happened just this morning, it’s a surprise that it’s still afternoon.

She peers up at him, trying to gauge his expression...muted, thoughtful.  She decides against telling him that she went without him earlier.  She knows the reason now why he didn’t show up, and she doesn’t want to make him feel bad about something that wasn’t in his control.

His disease, his explanation for it, it’s all something she still can’t quite wrap her mind around.  And she’ll dedicate time to mull over it later, but for now…  “Would you like to come with me?”

“With your family?” he asks, a hand swinging up to work the uncertainty from his neck.

“Mhm,” she quietly affirms.  “They won’t mind.  I’m sure they’d love to see you.”

He didn’t get a chance to go earlier, and he really does need to pay a visit.  Maybe without the flowers, he’s seen enough flowers for awhile...Neji would understand...Neji probably doesn’t actually care about the flowers, right?  And if Hinata’s family won’t be bothered by him...  “Sure, yeah, thanks.”

She hums a disagreement at his appreciation.  He doesn’t owe her that, it should be a matter of course that he would be invited.

He smiles at her.

And with the way his gaze lingers on her as they start walking once more, fluffed cotton fills her legs, her stomach, her head, and she feels she may be nothing more than a cloud in the sky.  Any slight breeze from him would send her clear in any direction he pleases.

It’s headying.

It’s frightening.

Though no one gives them much of a passing glance, she wonders, what others must think of them together?  How much distance between them is appropriate?  How much distance was there before today?...Are they now more than friends?

So whenever thrust into an unexpected, socially nerve-wracking situation, her hands find each other, clasping together tightly.

His fingers interlace behind his neck, cradling his head, walking as if lying back in the grass.  It’s always been a tried-and-true way to appear as relaxed as possible, even if he feels far from it.  “You…”  He frowns at the sky.  “...didn’t go this morning, did you?” he finishes quietly.

“Ah...I did.”

She went.  Of course she did.  It’s Hinata, and she’s always been reliable like that.  And he...he didn’t go.  His guilt darkens even the blue sky above.  “Sorry...I wasn’t there.”

“Oh no.  You were in the hospital after all.”

“Yeah but still.  Sorry, Hinata.”

She hums another disagreement quietly, trusting that the nearing view of the cemetery will lighten the air between them with shared purpose.

Murmurings from somber crowds carry over the field.  Families pray around headstones.  Little gifts and flowers decorate every grave across the field.

But despite the numerous people, Naruto sees that no one pays him any mind.  It’s a welcome surprise.

And their presence seems to be a welcome surprise, too, for the rest of her family.

Hanabi’s eyes widen.  “Oh, Nee-sama, we would have waited for you, but none of us knew where you went!”

“I’m sorry, I was helping Sakura-chan at the hospital.  Naruto-kun was there, too, and I invited him with us.”

He takes this as his cue, slightly dipping his head in a bow, awkwardly, to her stoic family.

In the following beat of silence, his eyes draw directly to the only reaction...Hanabi’s expression: brows arched high, a quick glance at her older sister, mouthing a silent ohh.  A look that sends self-conscious warmth to his cheeks.

“Thank you for coming today.”  Hiashi is as serious as usual, but the words sound genuine.

He nods, for lack of anything else to say.  In front of all of her family, some he knows by name, some strangers, all of them in quiet appreciation of the moment, he can’t help feeling a little out of place, like their collective pressure on him just forces him to shut up.  Unlike other families, noisier in their prayers and conversation, the Hyuuga are quiet.  Silently cleaning and visiting graves of others besides Neji who were lost in the war.

Hinata has always been quiet.

And as he expected, this is the quiet family she’s grown up in.

The people who raised her into the person she is today.

Like Neji.

Hinata mentioned to him in passing the things Neji had done for her.  Helping her perfect a move, build stamina, assist her when she strained her eyes.  When he asked why she calls Neji “Nii-san,” she explained that he was more of a brother to her than a cousin.  She said she understands why it might sound silly to others, since during the chuunin exams, in front of everyone, he so vocally demeaned her.  How maybe to others, it might sound silly that even through that difficult part of their relationship, she still saw him as her brother.

He quickly reassured her that “No, it’s not silly.  I get it, believe me.”   He understood.  Perhaps better than anyone else ever could.

She looked at him, eyes, usually so pale, shining warm.  She smiled.  Her head tilted, her bangs sweeping over, the white skin of her forehead peeking through. “Sasuke-san?”

He smiled, too.  “Yeah.”  That asshole of a brother.

She nodded, her gaze drifting back to Neji’s grave, her smile muting to something lonely.

He remembers he wanted to hug her, words failing him when he could imagine what such a loss would feel like.  He can still remember back on that time when he was afraid that he really did lose Sasuke.  He turned his fear into determination to get him back...but Hinata can’t do the same.  And in that moment, he wanted to hold her tight.

But he didn’t hug her, didn’t touch her.  The very ache in his limbs to feel her weight solidly against his body, to squeeze her and never let go, made him freeze up.  He couldn’t gather the courage to do it and he didn’t know why that would be so, when he’s touched her before.

He knows why, now.  Aware of the heaviness in his heart, of how her loss felt like his own loss, of why standing next to her now makes him feel obscure, fuzzy, eclipsed by her.

The immediate thought that follows, each time, and he thinks he’ll never get over it, that it could have been her.  It could have been her, and he always sensed that that loss would have left him utterly, terribly helpless, a million times worse than losing Neji.

“Thank you” will never be enough.

But he prays it over and over.  Thank you.  Thank you, thank you.  Thank you.  Thank you, Neji.

It’s endless, a prayer never meant to find closure or be restricted by time.

Yet the sun begins to burn low, and Hiashi approaches their quiet vigil.  “Naruto.  If you are available, please join us for dinner.  We would be honored to have you.”

Her father’s kind offer is surprising, and it brings her so much happiness to know that his attitude toward Naruto has changed with the rest of the village.  “Yes, Naruto-kun, please join us,” she quietly adds, hoping he can hear her sincerity.

He gapes at their invitation.  No one’s parents ever invited him over.  None of the adults liked him, maybe except Iruka-sensei, but his old teacher claimed once that he’s not much good at cooking, so they always just ate out.

Hinata watches his hesitation, wondering.

Naruto studies the man’s stoic expression.  Does her father really want him for dinner?  He’s probably just asking out of courtesy...  “That’s really kind of you, Hiashi-san, but I need to head to the Tower before it gets too late.”

She tries not to let her disappointment show.  He had been saying since earlier that he wanted to get back to work.

“Sorry, Hinata.”

“Oh, no...”  She supposes she was never any good at hiding her feelings from him.

Hiashi nods.  “You must be busy.  Thank you for joining us today.”

“No, thank you for allowing me to join your family today, Hiashi-san.”

Her family starts heading off down the street, away from the cemetery gates, but she lingers behind.

Everything that Naruto said to her at the hospital was clearly direct, leaving no room for confusion.  So why does she feel unfinished?

“Your family is leaving-” he starts.

“I know.”  She looks up at him, as if his face will clarify her incomplete thoughts.

He takes in her soft gaze and soaks her attention in.  He doesn’t really want to go.  He doesn’t want her to walk away, either.  “Hinata…”

“Naruto-kun?”  

He reaches out uncertainly, his hand folding with hers, his grip light.  He held her hand in the hospital.  But suddenly, out here, it’s just...different.  As if the soft connection is a thin thread, gently tugging at his heart, pulling it toward their entwined fingers.

It’s a familiar warmth.  She never got used to holding Susumu’s hand, probably because she was always comparing it to this.  Naruto’s warmth almost feels natural against her.  She dares to think that it’s meant to be.  It’s where she always wanted to be, after all.

“...Let’s meet up again.”

She nods, her gaze leaving their hands to look into his eyes.

Her earnest expression makes his heart squeeze, his grip on her smaller hand tighten.  “I don’t know when, though.”

She nods again.  That's just how mission schedules are.  “Then, I’ll see you soon?”

“Yeah.”

She lets go of him reluctantly, backing away to rejoin her family, when she remembers.  “Um, Naruto-kun?”

He perks up.  “Yeah?”

“Happy birthday."

He shyly grins.  “Thanks.”  He’s not exactly sure if “happy” is the most accurate way to describe today, but it’s certainly been an unforgettable one.

She smiles a little more, taking in his warm expression, before reluctantly starting to turn around.  She holds his gaze for one last second, then steps away to catch up to her family.

Naruto slowly turns toward the Tower.  Some steps forward, though, has him glancing back, catching her looking back at him, too.  Warmth rises to his face, as pink visibly tinges her cheeks.  He smiles through it, widely, and turns around fully to wave at her.

She reddens even more.  She waves a little, too, shyly, before turning around for good, dashing away.  

She’s so cute.

And he’s so happy.

*

Kakashi puts him right to work.

He’s thankful for it.  It’s such a relief to stretch out his muscles, to move, to get his chakra circulating and working in a healthy, normal way, to finally feel like his body is his own and not a victim to a force larger than himself.

That force being...death.

Missions remind him that he’s young and...not dying.  Work makes him feel like he’s a functioning adult, doing what he’s supposed to do.

He remembers how he felt before.  That month of confusion that led to anger, that spiraled into depression.  A month of...kind of just...getting worse and worse and worse, and it was so completely unlike him.  No energy.  No direction.  No sense of self-worth.  He didn’t recognize himself.

He doesn’t even really know how to reflect on the whole thing.

Thing.  He really doesn’t know what else to make of it.

The descent seemed to happen so slowly, and suddenly he was in the thick of his disease before he realized it.

Then as quick as a snap, he was fine.

...That, too, his cure…

He never gets too far in his reflection on everything he’s been through because he always pictures her soft, pink smile when they parted ways at the cemetery.  She has the softest smile he’s ever seen, and he can’t wait to see her again, he just, can’t, wait.

He needs to verify her feelings again with his own two eyes and ears.  With his hands, too.  He’ll hold her hand again and maybe he can hug her.  Maybe he can hold her.

He wants to hug her.

The thought always leave a vacancy he can feel against his body, like she should already be there in his arms but isn’t.

On a mission like this, even with a fun teammate like Shikamaru, he finds himself thinking about her in a moment of downtime.  Thinking about when they’ll meet again and what it will be like.

It’s real.

His feelings for her are an excitement and distraction quite apart from anything he ever felt for his past girlfriends.

...He pretty much never thought about Rumi while on a mission.

...Rumi…

He tries not to think about her at all.  The memory of her makes him feel like a piece of shit.

He really sucked.  He couldn’t even be a decent person, he really…

Anyway, he should just focus on his mission.

*

He’s been really busy, and she knows she needs to be patient.

But she can’t help but wonder if she’s just his next girl.  She knows that just a week ago, when he told her that he loves her, she thought that he didn’t need to prove anything to her.  She knows that she’s supposed to trust him, after all, Sakura told her so, too.

She knows that she needs to not make any assumptions and just put her faith in him.

But...wasn’t it fast?  Between his breakup with Rumi and his confession to her, wasn’t it...just...fast?  She’s not sure exactly when he broke up with her, but Sakura would have told her something, probably, or the rumors would have traveled before Naruto would have gotten a chance to tell her.  She thinks at the most, maybe a week passed since they broke up?

And, and!  Between Kanae and Rumi!  A little over one month.  She thought that was fast, too…

She thought a lot of things.

She wondered if Rumi, a girl he seemed to hardly know, might be a quick relationship, like Kanae was.  But Naruto and Rumi went out all the time.  They seemed effortlessly happy together, going out on so many dates.  They were seen all over town, eating meals at trendy restaurants, looking...cute...as everyone said.

And Naruto tells her now that dating Rumi was a mistake?

What exactly did he mean by that?

Is it because he was...jealous…...that she was with Susumu?  And he got sick because of that?  He...got...sick?

She even asked Sakura on a day-off what Naruto’s illness was really all about.

Sakura said almost the same things Naruto had said, just with more technical language.

That should be “proof” enough for her, right?

Somehow, it’s not enough.

...She needs to be patient.

*

She’s heading out on a mission with Kiba, Akamaru, and Shino when she notices Naruto with Shikamaru, making their way toward the Hokage Tower.

She doesn’t have time to wonder how to react when he completely stops in his tracks, obviously assesses that she’s leaving the village, and then runs right up to her.  “Hinata!  How long?”

She can sense Kiba’s and Shino’s curiosity.  She wonders, too, at how obvious Naruto is making himself.  But it’s also incredibly reassuring to know that he was hoping to meet up with her.  “It’s just a one-way escort mission, estimated at nearly a week long.”

He nods, frowning, disappointment clutching his gut.  “Alright.”  He looks up to finally acknowledge her teammates.  “Be safe, guys.”

Kiba smirks.  “‘Course, man.”

Shino nods his appreciation.

“I’ll see you guys around when you get back.”  Naruto’s gaze pauses on her, and she senses that he wants her to do more than just nod in agreement.

She tentatively smiles, hoping that he’ll smile back.

He does, a gentle one that she’s seen before from him on rare occasions.

It’s always made her heart flutter.  She bites her lips, then responds, “We’ll be back soon, Naruto-kun.”

“‘Kay.”  He takes a step back, knowing that he’s holding her team up from leaving.

She reluctantly turns around, waving goodbye as he waves a bit, too.

Kiba and Shino have the strangest look on their faces, like they’re thinking about a lot of things.

They don’t divulge their thoughts to her, but she knows their worry.

It’s her own concern, too, after all.

Be careful.  But I can trust myself, too.  And I can trust him...and be careful.

She wants to hurry back home, but as soon as they were ready to leave the Land of Water, a typhoon hit.  All ships are docked until the typhoon passes and clears the surrounding waters.

So as rain lashes at the windows, they stay holed up in their accommodations, drinking tea and waiting out the storm.

Shino’s been unusually quiet.

She herself has had her own troubles, but both her teammates seem to already know that it’s regarding a certain old classmate of theirs (nothing new).  However with Shino, who so rarely seems to have a problem he doesn’t already know how to deal with, she’s been wondering what could possibly be bothering him.  So she asks directly, “What’s on your mind, Shino-kun?”

“Yeah, buddy, what’s on your mind?”  Kiba and Akamaru jump onto a bed to listen in.

Shino adjusts his sunglasses.  He takes a breath.  “I have a decision to make.”  He looks at them and sees that they’re listening.  “I’m thinking of applying for the education program.”

Kiba’s eyes widen.  “To teach at the Academy?  That’s awesome!”

“...The application deadline is in two months.”

In two months?...  “Good luck, Shino-kun.  I know you’ll make a great teacher!”

“You’ll make a fantastic teacher!  They’ll call you ‘Shino-sensei!’ like that,” Kiba cheers.

Shino looks between them, a tiny, amused smile on.  “But I am hesitant.  The reason is it would mean that I would not be able to go on regular missions with both of you anymore.”

Hinata and Kiba exchange looks, knowing that they both had already thought of that.

Kiba moves beside him, swinging an arm around Shino.  “Listen, you’ll make the greatest teacher, even better than Iruka-sensei!  Of course I’ll miss working with you, but, this is a great opportunity.  And Hinata and I would never want to hold you back.”

Hinata is thankful for Kiba’s encouraging tones.  It’s putting her in the right mindset, too.  “Kiba-kun is right.  We would never want to keep you from reaching for your goals.  Do your best!  We’ll be cheering for you all the way!”

“Thank you.  I’ll miss both of you,” Shino says.

She shakes her head.  “We’ll never be far away.”

“We’ll come and be guest instructors!” Kiba offers.

“Yes!” Hinata agrees.  “We’ll always be your team.”

“Thank you.”  His voice is heavy, emotional.

They smile together, and she feels tears coming on, but she doesn’t let them fall.  She supposes they all knew this would eventually happen.  The possibility of disbandment as they entered adulthood only increases with new responsibilities, new windows of opportunity, and challenges presented.

She just didn’t know it would happen so soon.

Sometimes she feels like it was only yesterday when she was selected for Kurenai’s Team 8.  Sometimes it feels like a forever ago when the four of them were tasked with finding Madam Shijimi’s cat.

For the entire way home, they reminisce on their trainings and missions together and make promises to continue meeting up whenever they can.

It’s bittersweet.

To realize, not for the first time, how wonderful her team is.  To hold so much excitement for Shino’s next stage in life.  To hear Kiba’s plans for the future.  To wonder about her own.

Maybe become a jounin sensei?

Maybe eventually work at the Academy, too?

To see that…

So much time has passed.  She really has grown.

And she still has so much of life ahead of her.  There’s no rush at all.

*

It’s a stroke of luck to see her coming out of the Hokage Tower.  She’s smiling, looking well.  She bends over to pet Akamaru.

She straightens and looks toward him, despite the distance.

So she knew that I was-- He bites down on that memory and runs forward to meet them.  “You’re finally back!”

“We got held up in the Land of Water due to a typhoon,” Kiba answers.

“Good thing you guys didn’t get caught in it.”  He nods at Kiba briefly before turning his attention back to Hinata.  “How was the mission?”

She almost wants to shrink away from his obvious, directed attention.  It’s almost too strong.  But no, she wants this.  She really wants this.  “It went well.  There was one scuffle along the way, but they weren’t a problem for us.”

“Yeah, I bet you beat them up easily.”

She blushes at his confidence in her.  It’s almost like from before...It reminds her of those times before he started dating.

Shino clears his throat.  “Are you hungry, Naruto?  The reason is, we’re going out to get lunch together.”

“Oh yeah?”  He was planning on trying to get Hinata alone, but this is almost just as good.  “Can I join?”

“No!  No, no.”  Kiba leans forward, his voice cutting Shino off.  “We’re doing Team bonding, and if you come along, you’ll just ignore us and try to hog all of Hinata’s attention!”

Naruto frowns.  Yeah, he probably would’ve but…  “The three of you were together for the past week!  More than a week!  Isn’t that enough bonding time?” he protests.  “Plus, Shino was about to invite me!”  He looks at the quiet guy for affirmation.

But Shino suddenly looks as silent as a rock.

Naruto’s jaw drops in disbelief and betrayal.  “Shino!”

“The reason is that Kiba is right.”

He rolls his eyes and looks at Hinata.  “Hinata?  You’re just going to let these guys treat me like this?”

She’s still absolutely red from Kiba’s sudden and shameless words.  It’s the first time he’s verbally acknowledged Naruto’s attentions toward her in almost a year, out of consideration for her feelings.  “Oh, I would like to, Naruto-kun, but…”  She looks at Shino.  “We’re not going to be Team 8, officially, for much longer.  Shino-kun is going into education.”

Naruto looks at the usually stoic bug boy.  This guy?  With kids?  A sensei?  “What?!  No way!  Shino?!”

“He’s going to be a wonderful teacher,” Hinata states solidly, not leaving any room for him to not believe her any further.

He nods, getting used to the idea.  Certainly unexpected, but has Shino ever been anything other than surprising?  “That’s really awesome.”  And he means it.

“Thank you, Naruto.”  Shino looks like maybe he’s smiling.

And so he takes a step back from them, now completely understanding what’s going on.  What wouldn’t he do to have just one more meal with his team, as if time never happened?  “Hinata.”

“Yes?”

“Tonight?  Dinner?”

She tries not to feel Kiba and Shino’s stares boring into her as she gives a quiet hum of affirmation.

“I’ll see you at your place around 6, then.”

“Okay.”  She tries not to look as shy as she feels because Naruto doesn’t seem shy at all.  And she needs to do her best to keep up with him.

“Great!  Have a good lunch then, guys.”  He waves his goodbye and heads off.

And then it strikes her.

She’s having a date with Naruto.

She’s really having an actual date with her longtime love.

He simply asked her out like no big deal, like this was the idea all along, and that the two of them are really, actually--

“So the two of you are a thing?” Kiba bluntly asks.

She turns to look at him, blinking out her disbelief.  “I think so.”

Kiba seems to hold back a frown.  “What do you mean, you ‘think so’?”

“I mean, he…”  Self-consciousness floods her, but Kiba and Shino are both waiting expectantly for her explanation.  So she quietly continues, “...said he loves me.”

Kiba and Shino exchange looks, nodding.

“Well, that’s what we’ve thought for a long time,” Kiba states before leading them away from the Tower.

Hinata stares at them, finding their simple acceptance incredible.  She really wasn’t the only one who felt there was something between them.  But she can’t help needing that affirmation even more.  It’s still something she can’t wrap her mind around.  “You both thought that?”

“Yes, the reason is that Naruto has always paid more attention to you than any of us.”

She looks away, shyness warming her face.  So it wasn’t her imagination?  “...but…”  Self-doubt rears up, making her feel suddenly slightly nauseous. “He dated others.”

“Oh yeah, Hinata,” Kiba starts, the roll of his eyes practically audible, “You could’ve…”  His hands turn up in a shrug.  “I dunno...tried to save his life a couple of times.  Hold his hand in front of the enemy and the entire Shinobi Alliance.  Eat out with him all by yourselves.”  He gives her a pointed look.  “And he wouldn’t have the faintest idea that any of it was romantic.  Hm.  I wonder why...maybe because he’s an idiot?”

She stares at him, processing his sarcasm, and Shino lets out the quietest cough of a laugh.  She pouts at both of them for making fun of Naruto, but Shino clears his throat, obviously ready to launch into a long explanation.

And she really does want to hear it.  Because, if anything, she has always interpreted Kiba’s list to mean that Naruto simply never returned her feelings.

“The reason is Naruto does what feels right, and if the outcome is fine, he will continue to move forward without reflection.  Unless you force him to stop by questioning his actions, he will articulate neither his reasoning nor his purpose outside of the obvious goals, and he will not consider or care about how others might perceive him, so long as he was able to manipulate the situation to meet his ends.  The reason is--”

“Naruto’s a gigantic idiot,” Kiba interrupts.

“--because Naruto thinks he has nothing to lose,” Shino continues, unfazed.  “Therefore he acts accordingly, always behaving as rashly as possible, not realizing that anyone might value him as much as he values others.”

“Or that,” Kiba tags on in agreement.

“The reason for that is,” Shino says with a sense of finality, “not very many people have stopped him to ask for his opinion.”

“What?  He’s always airing his opinions.”

Hinata shakes her head at Kiba’s denial.  “No, I...I think I understand.”

“Did you ever ask him why he held your hand in the war?”

Her eyes widen at Shino’s question.  Of course she hadn’t!  How could she ever ask a question like that?!

“Did you ever ask him what he thought of your self-sacrifice?”

“No!” she defends.  “That’s embarrassing, I couldn’t have asked something like that!  And...and I didn’t do any of that expecting anything from him.”

Even with his dark sunglasses on, she can see Shino’s measured look.

Kiba lets out a big sigh.  “Hinata...those exes were pushier than you.  And, I don’t mean this in a bad way or anything, but, well, it’s not like, uhh, well, I mean, Naruto’s an idiot, so, anyway, I get what Shino’s saying, y’know, Shino’s right, like, Naruto didn’t know you value him.”

She blinks at him, feeling inexplicably hurt, recognizing that they’re putting some amount, however small, of blame on her.  “But...I didn’t know he values...me…”

They pause outside of Yakiniku Q.

“And that’s why we didn’t say anything about this when you were dating Susumu!  He’s ‘pushier’ than Naruto!  You knew for sure that he at least valued you, it was obvious to you, and we thought it was good for you!  Both you and Naruto are the same!”  Kiba’s voice had risen enough that other pedestrians glance their way.

But she doesn’t take much notice of them.  Their words are putting all of her decisions, all of her choices to back away, to give Naruto space, to listen instead of probe, to watch instead of interrupt, into a different perspective.  She did that because she respected his decisions.  So are they saying it was wrong of her?  “I...didn’t know…”

“Yeah.  We know.  ‘S not your fault, Hinata, Naruto’s an idiot after all.”  Kiba leads them into the restaurant, and the hostess takes them to their table.

When they’re seated, Kiba continues, “And anyway, the two of you are together now, so it doesn’t really matter anymore.”

She tilts her head, wondering if it’s true that it doesn’t “really matter”...

“I’m happy for you, Hinata.”  Shino smiles at her.

She gratefully returns his smile.

“Yeah, we’ve all been waiting for this,” Kiba jokes.  “Hinata, you have no idea, but this has been a long time coming between the two of you.  Good luck with him.”

“Thank you,” she murmurs.  Maybe Kiba’s right.  Maybe it doesn’t really matter what happened before, who they dated, and what they thought the other was thinking.  Because the truth is that...they love each other?

It’s a truth she’ll be able to experience later, and she’s left breathless in anticipation of the unknown.  Logically, she shouldn’t feel nervous because she knows him so much better than she ever knew Susumu...but still…

Kiba snaps his fingers in her face.  “Hey, focus on us.”

Her expression pulls down in an embarrassed frown.  “I’m sorry.  I’m just…”  She shakes her head.

Shino nods.  “You’re just happy.”

She ponders that for a second.  She was thinking, more nervous or worried, but…  She agrees.  “I am.  But not just because of Naruto-kun.  I’m so happy that I have you two as my teammates.”

Hinata knows that they feel the same way as her by their surprised yet pleased smiles.  They were and are lucky to have each other.  She couldn’t have asked for a better team.

Kiba huffs out a breath.  “Before I start crying, let’s order some food.”

“Agreed,” Shino states, unfolding the menu.

She laughs, so, so, so appreciative.

No matter what happens to them in their futures, she’ll always have Team 8.

*

He restlessly waits outside, arriving much earlier than acceptable.

He’s been waiting for this for almost exactly two weeks.  And he’s readier than he’s ever been for a date.

Because he knows exactly what to do to make her happy.  He has a lot of money in his wallet.  He’ll compliment her when she comes out.  He’ll hold the door to let her in first, he’ll pay, and he’ll walk her home.  And at the end of it all, maybe he’ll get to hug her, hold her, like he’s been yearning for, but only if she seems open to it.

Only if she wants to.

He won’t rush this.

He’ll make sure she understands how serious he is.

Because despite the break-ups, he’s learned.  And he’s not going to mess this up with Hinata.   He completely understands what he’s doing with her and what this means for them, and, he’s not just doing this for fun, or because she asked him to, or to have a girl flatter his ego.

He’s doing this because...

He hears quiet footsteps coming from beyond the wall.

The gate pulls open.

And she steps out with a tentative expression that lights up into the shyest, cutest smile he’s only ever seen on her.

He takes a deep breath, grinning, unable to contain his excitement.

“I’m sorry to make you wait.”

“Oh no,” he dismisses.  “I got here too early.  I hope I didn’t rush you.”

She shakes her head.  The truth is, she had gotten ready really early, too.  It was a surprise to see him outside when she thought she was just being too impatient.

He feels giddy, like they have so much to do, but he knows now that dates need to be taken at the girl’s pace.  That, in general, his ideas aren’t the most reliable, and that he should just let the girl pick.  He tries his best to calm all of the adrenaline dancing in his veins.  “Anywhere you want to go?”

She blinks at him.  “Oh.  Um…”  She hadn’t thought about it at all.  She had assumed that since Naruto asked her to dinner, he had someplace in mind?  Like Ichiraku?...  “I don’t really know...”

“Anywhere is fine, Hinata!” he encourages.  “Don’t worry about me, I’m up for anything.”

She bites her lips, still surprised, not ready to think of a good place for their first date.  “Um…”

He watches her smile slip into a look of discomfort.  And he realizes just as quickly...he fucking forgot.  In his excitement, he forgot to compliment her.  Kanae always wanted to see if he noticed her efforts.  Is it too late to say something?...  He looks her over to see if he needs to comment on her fashion choice.  She’s wearing her comfy-looking jacket, appropriate for a chilly night.  He remembers what she wore with her old boyfriend...how she looked...different...yet tonight, she looks like she normally does.  Jealousy pinches his gut, but he forces that down.  It doesn’t matter.  It’s not like he dressed any differently.  

Just in case, he should say something, especially if that’s why she’s being so hesitant.  And, anyway, it’s not a lie, either.  No matter what she’s wearing, no matter if she’s clean or dirty from a mission, no matter if her hair is up or down, it makes no difference to him.  “Hinata, you’re beautiful.”

She pulls out of her worries at the compliment.

His gaze is focused on her so intently.

Warmth seizes her face faster than anything else.  How could he say something like that to her so casually without warning?  Isn’t that too much?  She wasn’t even paying attention!  Embarrassment has her shaking her head, shrinking back a step, refusing to look him in the eyes again.

Her reaction isn’t what he expected.  Instead of a coy, pleased expression, she looks like she honestly doesn’t believe him!  “You are beautiful, Hinata.”  Maybe she doesn’t believe him because she didn’t dress up?  “You’re always beautiful.”

She gapes at him.  Naruto has never lied to her.  She has no reason to not believe that he actually feels that way.  She squeezes herself together, trying to gather her wits about her.  It’s hardly two minutes into their first date, and she’s already falling apart like she can’t handle him.  Naruto deserves better from her.

She takes a deep breath and forces herself to really face him.  Kiba told her that Naruto never knew how much she values him.  And right now seems to be the time to start making amends.  She steadies her gaze on his openly warm expression and finds the sparkling blue of his eyes.  “Naruto-kun, you’re the one who’s beautiful.”

He squints at her.  “What?” he can’t help bluntly asking, a weird grimace cracking open.

“I mean it,” she quietly asserts, trying desperately to keep her blush at bay.

He shakes his head and lets out an awkward laugh.  “Don’t joke like that with me, Hinata, that’s not nice...so anyway, is there anywhere you want to go?”

She blinks, jarred by how quickly he dismissed her heartfelt confession.  “I...I guess...Ramen Ichiraku would be nice.”

His brows furrow.  Why would she want to go there?  Is she just saying that because she knows it’s his favorite?  Why won’t she tell him where she wants to go?

She doesn’t trust him enough?

She didn’t like that he called her beautiful, and then she turned it into a joke, too…  Excitement begins to fade into worry.  Why…  “Hinata...we eat there all the time, it’s not special to you.  You don’t have to choose that for me,” he awkwardly mumbles out.

She tilts her head and frowns, realizing the way she worded her request.  “I do want to go to Ramen Ichiraku,” she repeats, simply and clearly.  She knows for certain that they’ll both like it.

“Uh, okay,” he relents.  And then unwilling to risk making more mistakes, he starts leading them away from the compound.

They walk together, and he tries to find words for conversation, but suddenly, he doesn’t know what to say.  He’s already somehow messed up because of course he would mess up.  So he shoves his hands in his pockets and keeps his focus on the road.

After a few streets of unusually discomforting silence from him, she can only conclude that he’s bothered.  She gathers her confidence together.  “Naruto-kun?  Do you not want to go to Ichiraku?”  Maybe he actually wanted someplace fancier?  Maybe his tastes have changed?

He shrugs.  “You know I always want to go there,” he admits.  “I just don’t want us to be going there if you don’t actually want to go.”

She...she was clear wasn’t she?  She stated very clearly that she wants to go, didn’t she?  “I want to go, Naruto-kun.  I like their ramen a lot-”  She recalls his earlier hesitation.  “-And I think Ramen Ichiraku is special.”  She smiles at him.  “It’s your favorite.  That makes it a special place to me, too.”

He processes her explanation, the reasoning almost too simple to accept.  “So...I’m not, like, forcing you or anything, right?”

She smiles wider, unsure of where he’s getting the silly idea that he might be forcing her.  “Of course not.  If I didn’t want to go, I wouldn’t have chosen them.”

She’s saying that like it should’ve been obvious to him…  It should’ve been.  He forgot that Hinata’s always been easily uncomplicated with him.

“We’ve eaten there together before, like you said, Naruto-kun.  And we’ve always had a good time there, right?”

He nods, recalling the same memories that she’s referring to.  It’s sudden, a soothing balm over his nerves.  Those times back then...she enjoyed them, too.

“It’s a good place,” she summarizes happily.  “It’s a special place for me.”

Not that he wasn’t certain before, but he’s even more, completely, totally sure.

He really wants this to go well.  Not just nicely, either.  He wants Hinata to have the perfect date with him.

But he has no idea now how he’s supposed to make that happen.  The date didn’t start off the way he thought it would.  It’s not going the way he thought it would.

Hinata’s not acting the way he thought she would…

Instead, she’s acting the way she’s always been.

Has it been so long since he hung out with her?  That he forgot how easy it is to just be with her...no need for plans or strategies...that whatever he thought, well, Hinata makes it so much better than that?  “You’re really amazing,” he sighs out.

She shakes her head, believing him to be exaggerating over nothing.  “Everyone knows how much you love their ramen, Naruto-kun.”  She peeks up at his gaze, glad to see that he seems slightly more relaxed than earlier.

The storefront comes into view.

“I really did expect that we would be going here tonight,” she continues.  “My heart’s been prepared, I was thinking about this all afternoon,” she laughs, breezing over the fact that it wasn’t really Ichiraku, but spending time with Naruto, that was on her mind.

He perks up at her giggle.  “My heart never even needs to get prepared, I could walk here in my sleep!”

She nods, knowing full well that he probably already has.  “Have you come in the middle of the night before?”

He raises his brows, grinning a What do you think?, and she laughs as they take seats at the counter of the familiar establishment.  “Hinata, I’ve come here at every single hour, if not every single minute, on the clock.”

She considers that his obsession sounds a little worrisome, but it’s also just so him.  “That’s impressive!”

“Yeah, it is,” he brags, proud of being a round-the-clock customer.

Ayame comes over to them, cheerily smiling.  “Naruto, Hinata, welcome!”

“Ayame-neechan, long time no see!”

“It has been a long time, hasn’t it?  Now, what shall I get for you two?”

“I’ll get the large miso ramen with extra char siu.”

“I would like the same thing, please.”

His eyes widen, and he turns to stare at her.

“Got it!  Please wait for just a moment,” Ayame promises before hurrying off.

Hinata notices his shock, understands that it probably has to do with her order, but she still asks, “Ah, yes?”

He clutches his jacket over his heart, incredibly thankful to be here with her.  “You’re really amazing,” he reiterates, not knowing how else to articulate himself.

She hesitantly explains, “I had all afternoon to think about what I’d want.”

He nods, recalling the last time they ate here together, just the two of them.  “I almost forgot how much you can eat.”

She blushes, knowing it’s not exactly the most ladylike thing, but to the utmost of effort, they came all this way here, she might as well take the opportunity to eat.  “I-I thought it would be better if I just get the large serving this time instead of smaller servings.”

“Yeah, Hinata, I love it,” he bluntly states.  Then repeats as realization hits him, “I love it.”

Shyness freezes over her, and she timidly looks up at him.  She can remember the last time they came...

He expressed enthusiasm about her order for another serving, saying, “Wow, you’re eating a lot, Hinata!”

And she fumbled out in excuse, “I guess I’m just hungry…”  She actually just wanted to extend their time together.

He smiled widely, bright-eyed, excited, and eagerly ordered more for himself, too.

But this time, he carries that serious expression from earlier and leans down, ducking his head to be eye-level with her.  “Hinata, I love you.”

She can see vulnerability there, a precious, precious balance of uncertainty and trust.  Bare and unaffected.  He really means it.  Even at such a sudden moment as this, or maybe because it’s in such an inconsequential, unplanned moment, she knows he means it.  He really wants her to know it.  Emotion wells up, leaving no room for air, she can’t breathe, she can’t speak.

He straightens, starting to wonder at her silence, beginning to notice that he was expecting a response.

What he was expecting...the lack of anything empties him.  “So uh Shino wants to become a teacher?”

She blinks at the sudden topic.  She can’t let this happen again.  Kiba was right.  She hesitantly pulls on the sleeve of his jacket and draws herself closer.

Otherwise he won’t be able to hear her over the hammering in her heart.

She averts her eyes, feels the blush spreading over her face, and whispers, “I love you.”  She squeezes her eyes shut for a second and lets an easing breath out.

This somehow felt so much harder than her confession two weeks ago at his bedside, but the accompanying fluttering warmth here is much, much nicer.

She settles back in her seat.  Her gaze flicks up to his.

He smiles shyly, his pulse resetting double the pace as color floods his being.

He didn’t quite realize it, he had no idea how wonderful it would feel to hear those words returned to him.

He just carelessly tossed a part of himself out to her, expecting something, not knowing he expected those words, that exact piece of her given in exchange.

And it glows in him.

She can see it, just as much as she can feel the same blossoming within her.  She thinks that if only he could see himself, he would see how beautiful he really is.  She realizes she can’t let him get away without knowing she was being honest.  If she needs to work on letting him know how much she values him, she’s the one who needs to prove herself to him, not the other way around...  “Naruto-kun,” she whispers.  She can feel herself growing even warmer.  “I really do think you’re beautiful.”

Sudden self-consciousness grips him, and he focuses on her.

But she doesn’t let his puzzled expression deter her, not this time.  “Your smile is beautiful.  Your determination is beautiful.”  She looks away, down at the counter, as her bashfulness fights against boldness.  “Your laugh, and your bravery, and how you treat everyone...I think everything about you is beautiful.”

She timidly looks up to see his reaction, but he’s looking away now.  A hand works obvious discomfort from the back of his neck.

It reminds him of Rumi’s blind admiration.  Hinata doesn’t set him up on a pedestal, too, does she?  She’s always been kind to him, built him up in ways that others haven’t, but still...

“You are,” she whispers again, wondering now if she was too forward.

Certainly she thinks so...she actually wasn’t joking earlier...but he knows better about himself.  He shines a quick smile at her.  “Thanks.”

She can tell he’s deflecting.  After all the times she’s done that with Susumu, of course she would know.  She tries to think of a way to respond when a cry of “Oh, isn’t that Naruto-senpai!” and hushed murmurings behind them catch her attention.

“I haven’t seen him in so long!”

“Should we go over and talk to him?”

“It looks like he’s with someone, though?”

“That’s not Rumi.”

“Didn’t they break up?”

“I think so--”

She shuts them out, second-guessing how “hushed” they’re actually trying to be.  They want him to notice, don’t they...

He hears them, and Hinata’s uncertain look doesn’t quell his worries.  Bringing up Rumi?  Here?  Now?  The last person he wants Hinata to think about?  “Sorry,” he mumbles out.

“Oh, no,” she denies.  She should’ve expected this.  Like they said, she’s not Rumi…someone who successfully made her status very public in a short amount of time...approved by the general crowd for her cute and bubbly demeanor...

The girls continue talking, his anxiety climbing as their voices get louder with their approach.  He makes to stand.  “Maybe I should...” deal with them?

Hinata’s eyes dart to him, silently wishing that he wouldn’t pay them any attention.

It strikes him through.  “I’m not leaving!  Hinata, I just don’t want them to bother us!”

She nods, biting her lips, surprised that he overreacted.  “I understand.”

He hesitates, looking closely at her.  “I’ll be right back, I promise.”

Once he catches the renewed faith in her eyes, he smiles, sealing his word.  He hurries out past the curtain, to the group of girls’ great excitement, and he recognizes them...

“Good evening, Naruto-senpai~”  Ahh, he should know her name.

“Are you busy?”  That girl..he’s supposed to know her name, too.

The four gather around him, and he can’t quite establish any personal space.  “Yeah, I’m busy right now.” They frown and sigh, then try to invite him out with them anyway.

In the past, he’s given in, having nowhere better to go necessarily.  That’s not close to the case now.  “I’m sorry, I’m on an important date.”  He angles his body back toward Hinata.

They immediately quiet as their eyes dart to the girl, amongst each other, back up to him with much less giddiness in their gazes.

“I see, so sorry to interrupt!” one apologizes, and he thinks that’s pretty nice of her.

“We just wanted to say hi,” another says.

He smiles and nods, tries to steadily back away from them.  “Good seeing you guys!”  He gives a wave, hopefully finalizing the end of this exchange.

As soon as he sees them nod, hears them mumble out goodbyes and next times?, he blasts an appreciative grin and completely turns around.

Slipping into the seat next to Hinata has the same sense of completing a mission.  He did it, and hopefully that didn’t take too long.  He studies her...she’s not looking at him.

“I’m sorry...” she murmurs apologetically.  

Sorry?

“Maybe you would’ve liked to-”

“No!” he interrupts, catching on almost too late.  “I’m sorry!  I’m sorry for all of that, for making you wait.”

She shakes her head firmly.  “No, you were really fast, but you could’ve talked to them for longer if you liked.”

It seems he also forgot how stubborn she is.  “...I didn’t want to talk to them.  I just want to talk to you.”

Her cheeks pinken.  She frowns, brows furrowing.  

“This, our date, it’s really important to me, okay?”

She turns even redder and nods.  “This is important to me, too.”

He smiles, satisfied.  “So tell me about Shino!  He really wants to be a teacher?  What made him start thinking about that?”

She sees how much he’s trying to reassure her, and how easily he does it, too, never holding back, even in a moment like this.  He leaves no room for her to doubt herself.

So she’ll stop thinking about other girls.  She’ll focus only on him.  “Have you seen Shino-kun with Mirai-chan?”

“Your sensei’s baby?  Mmm...no, I don’t think so...”  

“He’s really, really good with her, and he’s found that he likes kids a lot.  Shino-kun's always been very empathetic, very understanding, so I think he relates to them easily.”  She goes on to tell him about Shino’s expectations for the education course, and Naruto tells her about the times he’s visited Iruka’s class to assist or demonstrate.  The kids he’s met and their terrible antics.

The conversation is easy, interesting, and Hinata marvels at how none of it feels forced.

She doesn’t have to count his good points.

She doesn’t have to add up everything she admires about him.

It’s so easy to talk with him, it’s so, so cute to see him joyfully eat his ramen, and it’s just so incredible to smile at him and receive his smiles in return.

His soft gaze is indescribably warm.  Happy.  The way she’s looked at him for so long…

To feel that from him, directed at her, it’s almost too much…

But she wants this.  She wants all of it.  To feel so free to look at him.  To let her affection for him show in her gaze.  To not have to put a cap on her love, bottle it up inside and hope none of it spills.

“Be careful,” she had told herself.  But how?  How can she possibly be careful?  How can she possibly withhold all the love she’s been hurting to give him for so long?

She doesn’t want the night to end.

But eventually, they’re walking side-by-side back to her place, slowly, slowly, until there’s no more distance left to keep.

She faces him and smiles with as much appreciation as she can show.  “Thank you for walking me home.”

“Yeah, no problem.”  He has no idea how the night ended so quickly when all they did was eat.  Usually at this time, rather than only just finishing dinner, he’d be seeing Rumi off after all of the fooling around at his place--  Simply spending time with Hinata is even better than any of that perverted stuff.  “Did you have fun tonight?”

She nods and hums her affirmation.  “I did.  Thank you for everything.”

His hands ache in his jacket pockets to hold her, but he’s going to be considerate even if it kills him.

“Did you have fun, Naruto-kun?”

He nods.  “Yeah, I can’t believe how fast the time passed.  It already got so late.”

“Mhm.”  The fluttering feeling she’s felt all night continues unrelenting.  “I didn’t notice how late it got, either.”  Only now does the dark silence of the late night seem to close around them.  Only the chilling wind creates a stir, but she failed to notice that, too.

He studies her cute, shy smile, can hardly believe that she enjoyed herself as much as he did.  “Can we meet up again soon?”

“I’d really like that.”

“I don’t have a mission tomorrow.”

“Me, neither.”

“Then, tomorrow?  I can come by around 11?”

“Okay.”

“Okay.”

They both realize that the night is over.  The only thing she has left to do is turn around and head inside.

But she wonders if that’s not good enough.

She knows this was never good enough for Susumu.  And is this good enough, perfect enough, for herself?

She casts her eyes down, unwilling to let him see the wavering of her nerves.

She takes two steps, closing the space between them, and mercifully, he doesn’t back away.  Carefully, she leans into him a bit, his body warmth flushing her entire system hot.

He only just gets his hands out of his pockets to touch when she backs up, his hands left mid-air.

She’s staring at him with the funniest, shyest expression he’s ever seen.  “Good night, Naruto-kun.  Thank you for tonight.”

But he’s still trying to process the one-second hug.  “That’s not fair,” he accuses before his brain can catch up with his mouth.

“Hm?”

“You-”  He bites his lip, remembering that he wasn’t supposed to rush her.  But what’s he supposed to do with this?  How could she do something so cute and innocent?

...How innocent is she?

And with that wondering burning a small pit of jealousy in his gut, he turns his hands, showing her how she left him hanging.  “...Will you let me?”

She fidgets but nods, not making eye contact.  She takes one step forward, and that warmth surrounds her, his hands at her back, gentle.  She thinks she’s never felt anything nicer, warmer, so intimate.

To be so close to the one she loves, it’s different.

To touch the person she’s longed to touch, it’s unreal, a waking dream.  The slight rise and fall of his chest as he breathes--isn’t that alarmingly amazing?  She’s too happy.  This is what she’s wanted for so long, what she didn’t want to share with anyone else.  How could she have dared to force herself to touch another man?...  Well, she didn’t know this would ever happen.  “Naruto-kun…”

“Hinata?”

“I love you.”

He squeezes her a little closer, the intimacy of her words and body turning his face hot.  Three times now, "I love you", and each time feels sweeter than the last.  “I love you, too, really.”

“Mm.”  It’s impossible for her to distrust his word.  She tightens her grip, savoring him for one more second, breathing in his warmth, before letting go and stepping back.

She can barely look at him for how happy she is, but he’s smiling with a softness that’s as smushed up as her feelings.

He’s so beautiful.

“Good night, Naruto-kun,” she manages to breathe out.

“Good night, Hinata.”  He watches her step away, give him a final, gorgeous smile, and then disappear behind the gate.

And suddenly, he’s left alone with only his heartbeat thudding out the slipping memory of her form.

It was too perfect.

He somehow messed up at the beginning, and then those girls interrupted the start of their dinner, but everything after, everything, just being with her, and then holding her, it was all perfect.

She was perfect.

When he was with Rumi, every moment was new and strange, and so he thought that’s how it must be.

Yet with Hinata?  Familiar.  Warm.  Easy.

So comforting.

The whole night was dazzlingly wonderful.  He could sprint the rest of the way home with how great he feels, give outlet to the elation jumping beneath his skin, and exclaim his delight to the stars in rushing breaths.

But he walks, choosing instead to wallow in his happiness and count his blessings quietly.  The last thing he wants to do is tempt fate to twist up his fortunes and slide him backwards like he so rightly deserves.

One wrong move, and the universe might find him unworthy of its favor.

So he makes sure to arrive on-time again the next day.

When she steps out to meet him, she looks completely different, something about her demeanor, something about her smile.  It’s not the clothing or her hair.  Something softer?  She’s not quite the daring warrior who stood at his side in the war, who protected him in battle, who’s sealed his tenketsu in spars or had dirt streaking her arms and legs after a mission.  She’s not guarded at all.

She’s just...

This Hinata is somehow...

Still, warm familiarity flutters and warms him all over.  It’s still Hinata, but this Hinata is only for him.  He just wants to protect this.  Rather than selfish, this feeling is purer than a kiss from the sun on a breezy day.

He used to feel a kind of self-gratification, a proud slickness that settled in his gut, when he walked around with Rumi.  Each date felt like an accomplishment, each step closer to her an affirmation of his growth.

The comparison is a sickening damper on his mood, and he doesn’t dwell on his ex as they head onto the shopping arcade.  “Have you tried that new game center people have been talking about?” he asks.

She shakes her head.  She doesn’t mention that she assumed it was entertainment for kids, but they are not too old, yet, right?  She can see some young teenagers crowding around machines inside the center.  “Have you?”

“No…”

“It looks fun,” she observes aloud, noting machines filled with plush toys, screens with small dancing visuals, and the obvious tension stringing groups of friends to stay glued to their games.

He grins.  “Shall we go in?”

And she nods, pleased that she read his hidden curiosity correctly.

They investigate one of the machines that advertises its mission simulation in neon lettering.  A pixelated little man jumps around the screen, dodging what they imagine must be flying kunai and leaping across trees.  Naruto tentatively hits a round button and the screen changes, names of people scrolling upwards.  He taps a different round button and the screen shifts to instructions.

“How do we play this thing?”  He jabs at a few more buttons randomly, and the words Insert Coins flash at the top.

“Um…”  Hinata looks down at the rest of the machine.  “Over there.”

They peer at the slot.

“Okay…”  Naruto opens his wallet and slips coins in until the machine makes a startling amount of music.  He stands up straight, suddenly realizing he has no idea how the game works.  He hits a button, and the man jumps.

“Maybe these buttons make you move forward,” Hinata guesses.

He presses it and the man starts running.

“Oh, jump!” Hinata exclaims as a gap in the trees appears.

He hits the button to jump, and the man leaps up…

And falls in the hole.

Game Over flashes obnoxiously red on the screen.

They stare at it for a second, dumbfounded.

“What?!” Naruto argues.  “Why did he jump in the hole?!  Let’s try again.”

“Yes, try again,” Hinata encourages.

On a second try, he gets the timing of the trees, but only makes it to the flying kunai.  “Whaaat!” he groans.  He fishes out more coins and feeds them into the machine.  “You wanna try this?  Maybe you’ll be better than me,” he laughs.

“I think I know what to do.”  She takes over and manages to get past the obstacles.

Naruto cheers her on throughout her play, then goes silent when she comes up against another little figure.  He watches her throw shuriken at it, and eventually, the figure disappears.  In its place poofs out a scroll, which her character seems to collect.

The game alerts them that she made it to level 2, where she promptly gets knocked out by a swinging log.

“Ah.”  She watches the screen mock her in giant lettering and hears the intense music fizzle out.  “Oh well,” she sighs.

“You made it to the next level!” he congratulates her.  “Do you want to try again?”

She considers it for a second.  She gets the feeling that she could be really good at this game if she kept playing, but then Naruto might get bored.  “Maybe let’s look at the other games?”

“Hmmm.”  He scans around the room and sees one that two people seem to be playing.  “Maybe we can try something like that?”

“Oh, we can play together!” she happily observes.

“Yeah, looks like it.”

They settle on one that’s much simpler and less realistic, playing as two mice trying to collect as many blocks of cheese as possible without getting eaten by cats in a maze-like setting.  It’s surprisingly harrowing, living the life of mice, and they both cry out in horror, then laugh, when a cat finally corners them.

He watches the smile bunching her cheeks and honestly feels relieved to see that she’s enjoying herself as they try out the different games.  The new game center was a spur of the moment idea, and he didn’t actually think she would be interested.  He’s pretty certain that Kanae and Rumi would not have been too keen on playing games that seem to be marketed for children.

When they finally decide to stop and get lunch at Ichiraku, they discuss the new experience, marveling at the technology.

“It’s like a television, but you can interact with it!” Hinata considers aloud.  “I wonder how they did that?”

Naruto nods with equal fascination.  “They had all kinds of games, too.  Technology’s really changed in the past couple of years, hasn’t it, like people can have their own video recorders now.  Makes you wonder what they’ll come up with next, you know.”

She blinks in surprise.  Because actually, she hadn’t wondered about what will happen next.  “Hmm…”

“Like that video game we played with the ninja character.  Maybe they’ll make technology for shinobi.”

She tries to imagine what they could possibly need, but comes up empty.  “...Like what?”

He shrugs.  “Maybe different tools or medic-related things?  I have no idea,” he laughs.

“Hmm…  Technology that could make our work safer somehow would be nice.”

“Yeah.  Or make communication faster when we’re on the job.  There’s a lot of things we can do to ensure more safety for shinobi.  Technology might be the key to that.”

She hums in thoughtful agreement.  “You’ll be a great Hokage, Naruto-kun.”

He draws out of his musings and looks at her.  His lifelong dream is more believable to the general public than it ever was before, but it’s still surprising to hear that kind of simple confidence in him.

She just took a mouthful of ramen, so she can’t do much to address his look.  She tries to give him a closed-lipped smile and swallow as quickly as she can.  “You’re always thinking about the future for us.”

“Oh,” he murmurs, inexplicably shy when usually he'd be peacocking at the recognition.  Dazed, he slurps up more of his ramen to fill the silence.

She watches him eat through his blush, and she’s glad that at least this time, he’s taking her compliment without argument or deflection.

She sees that slowly but surely, they’ll grow more comfortable in each other’s presence.  She looks forward to the day when he’ll acknowledge all that she sees in him.  When that day will be exactly, she doesn’t know.  Around 10 years worth of admiration and love would be a lot for anyone to take on, but she’ll do her best to convey all of it to him.  In words and action.

So she lets herself enjoy his careful hug at the end of their date.  It’s still daytime, and anyone could see them, but it’s still just as amazing as the night before.  “Today was fun, Naruto-kun.  Thank you.”  She readies her heart for the separation, committing his warmth to memory, and steps back.

“Thank you, Hinata.  I had a lot of fun, too.”  He already misses her.  He can’t wait for the next time, but…  “I’ll see you when I come back from my border patrol.”

She nods.  “Be safe.”

His heart grows heavy, the knowledge of a perfect date coming to an end disappointing.  “You, too, if you get called for a mission in the meantime.”

“Of course.”  She smiles to make her promise with confidence, and she can see his promise to return safely in his eyes, too.

*

In any downtime, he finds himself musing on Hinata.  He’s eager to see her smile, hear her laugh, and hold her again.  And supposedly she’s returning from a mission today after another week apart.

So he weaves through the busy throngs of people as he heads to the Hokage’s Office.  He’ll be helping with some administration duties, and if he’s lucky, he’ll get to see her while he’s there.

He enters the spacious lobby, and instead, his hopeful look around lands on a small brunette.

Rumi with her team.

He hasn’t seen her since that awful night.  Eyes averted, he walks past them with as normal a rushed gait as possible to the stairs.

“Naruto.”

And he stops, her voice, once so intimate to him, freezing him in anxious guilt.  He turns back to see her.

Her gaze is steely, slightly pinched with a look akin to anger, but he’s not sure.  Distrust?  Hatred?  Any of those is what he deserves.

But he doesn’t have any idea as to why she would call out to him.  “Rumi,” he murmurs.

And she grimaces.  She strides forward, leaving her teammates sides, who are both in unfriendly stances toward him.  She takes an obvious breath as she looks up.  Her brows furrow, and he realizes, he’s the enemy.  “I want to hear it from you.”

He waits for clarification.

She takes another breath.  “You’re dating...Hinata-san.”

He watches how she doesn’t cry, she doesn’t look at all broken like that night.  She’s hard, defenses up, prepared for his blow.  It’s relieving, while simultaneously condemning him even more on his folly.  He misjudged her strength.  “...Yeah,” he quietly affirms.

He hears the doors open, and he looks up.

It’s Team 8.

He sees Hinata’s bewilderment at the situation, how her eyes widen, her pace slows.

“You’re the worst.”  Rumi’s voice, scathing.

He looks back to her, alarmed by such an unfamiliar tone from her.

Her eyes squint with obvious scorn.  She shakes her head.  “I can’t believe you.  I really-”  She takes a step back.  “You disgust me,” she gasps out.  She turns around, rejoins her team, and walks out without hesitation.

He stands there stunned.  He can’t bring himself to acknowledge Team 8’s uneasy presence, he can’t look at Hinata.

“We’ll go turn in our report,” Kiba murmurs.

Kiba and Shino leave.

He wishes she didn’t see that.  Then he could at least try to pretend this never happened, suppress this memory like everything else he does when it comes to Rumi.  He just wants to do better, be better.  Move on.  He doesn’t want Hinata to see what a disaster he’s been in the past.

She draws closer, though unsure of what to say.  She can make a good guess as to why Rumi said those things to him.   From what little Naruto told her at the hospital and what Sakura told her after, it seems like he broke up with Rumi so that he could be with her.  If she didn't know that, then of course Rumi would be hurt to find out…  “Naruto-kun?” she whispers.

He finally glances at her, surprised to see only concern in her eyes.  “Sorry…”  He doesn’t know what he’s apologizing for, he just feels like he should.

“No…”  She tries to dig for words to set him at ease.  It’s obvious his break-up was bad, much messier than her own.  And as far as she knows, he broke up with Rumi only about a month ago, or even less, for about the time that they’ve been together.  Was their relationship just too soon?  What can she say?

“...I’ll talk to you later, Hinata…”

“Oh, okay.”  She watches him run up the steps and disappear.  Is it her place to follow?  Or is this where she needs to give him space?

She decides to do what she must do.  First, she goes to report in with the Hokage and help her team.  Then after she’ll go looking for him, at least to tell him that she’s available.

He hurries to the Analytics Office to log data with Shikamaru.  He can bury himself in work, be productive at the same time, and hide from humiliation.

He was such a fool to date Rumi.  If he had never dated her, he would have never made such stupid mistakes, hurt her, wasted her time, wasted his own time, made Hinata wait, made Hinata date that guy, made himself sick and jealous.  If he had just figured out Hinata’s feelings sooner, or if he had figured out his own feelings sooner.

If he had been smarter or more mature.

If he hadn’t been so foolish...

She hovers in the doorway, hesitant to bother him, when he seems to be ignoring her.  But she finally steps in, making her presence obvious.

He looks up, surprised. “Hinata...Sorry, I can talk to you later…I need to help Shikamaru with all of this.”

She nods, wondering if she should have given him more space.  He already promised to talk to her later after all, and so maybe she didn’t need to go looking for him.

“How annoying,” Shikamaru groans, looking up from his journal.  “I don’t need help.”  He looks pointedly at Naruto.  “No need to put on a professional front, you missed her, right?  You can thank me later.”

Naruto gapes at his friend.  His excuse from confronting his stupid life taken away, just like that.  “There’s still a lot left.”

“Just go.”

“But I’ve only helped for less than a hour.”

“You can just come back after.”

“I-it’s okay, Shikamaru-san.”  Each of Naruto’s protests tears at her a little.  If he needs more time away from her, then she should give that to him.  She didn’t realize that she’s been getting spoiled by the last two dates.  “I didn’t mean to bother, I just wanted to tell Naruto-kun that I’m free this afternoon.”

He can feel the emotional distance he’s putting between them, but it just feels like the right thing to do for now.  His mind is so scattered with regret.  He wishes he never dated Rumi.  He wishes he never got so full of himself.  He wishes he wasn’t so stupid, so disgusting, the worst.  “...Sorry, Hinata, I don’t want to leave Shikamaru with all of this.”

“I understand.”  She smiles to show that she really does.  “Both of you are working really hard.  I’ll be checking in at home, then, okay?”

Her smile cuts him.  He’s obviously not doing the right thing, but what is the right thing in this case?  “Alright, I’ll see you later, Hinata.”  He watches her turn away, disappear from view.  But for now, just for now, he can’t talk to her.  She said she understands, right?  Can she tell that he doesn’t know what to do or say?

“What a drag.  If you’re going to look so forlorn, then why the hell are you staying here?”

His gaze darts to his friend.  “I’m not ‘forlorn’!”

Shikamaru presses his hand to his forehead, like he might have a headache.  “I don’t want to ask.  I’m asking anyway.  What happened?  You missed her all week, didn’t you?”

“...Yeah.”  He frowns at the desk, not wanting to talk about this at all.

“...And?!”

“...And I saw Rumi downstairs.”

“...So?”

“Hinata saw us.”

“........So?!  Isn’t that more reason to make sure that Hinata didn’t get the wrong idea?”

Naruto sits up, confused.

“Or are you thinking of breaking up already and going back to Rumi.  Is that what happened?”

“No!”  He stands, indignant at the suggestion.  “Of course not!”

“Then why didn’t you want to talk to Hinata?  She just came back from her mission.”

All of the fight drains out of him.  “...I don’t know what to say.”

“That’s not like you,” Shikamaru intones.  “Out of all of the times to choose to think first and act later, you’re choosing now to hesitate?”

“What do you mean?  I just don’t know how to act!  Rumi said some stuff in front of everyone, and it was really bad, embarrassing.  I’m not hesitating!”

“What did Rumi- No, it doesn’t matter.  You don’t have to say or act anything special, Naruto.  You should at least just greet Hinata properly.”

“...You’re right.”

“Of course I’m right.  Get out of here already,” he sighs.

“Yeah.  Sorry, Shikamaru.”

“Yeah, yeah,” he says carelessly and waves him off.

He runs out of the building, and it doesn’t take long at all to catch up.  “Hinata!”

She turns at his voice, surprised, but glad.  “Naruto-kun!”

He walks in pace with her, energy falling just as quickly.  “I’m sorry.”

She frowns.  “No?  There’s nothing to apologize for.  I-I’m sorry for bothering you, I didn’t mean to be impatient.”

“No, I’m sorry for...earlier, and just now...”  

The sight of Naruto and Rumi’s confrontation bothered her, but she doesn’t think she should push him about it.  She’s not sure it’s her place to ask what happened.  But she does want to know if… “Are you okay?”

He shrugs.  “Yeah.”  He still feels shitty about all of it, but it’s not like Rumi said anything untruthful.  He already knows he’s the worst.  And at least there’s some reprieve in knowing that...that he disgusts her…

She tries to assess his serious expression.  Should she ask?  Should she give him space?  Do people talk about their exes with their new partner?  In the past, he just talked about Kanae without any curiosity on her part, so she’s never had to ask before.  “...Do you want to talk about it?”

“Not really.”

She nods silently.

“Ah!!” he shouts in realization.  “I didn’t go up to her myself or anything like that, Hinata!  She asked me if I was dating you, and I said yes, and then..yeah.”

She stares for a second, surprised by his sudden outburst, but she nods even harder.  “I...I kind of thought so.”

He lets out a quiet sigh of relief.  He realizes that Hinata could have interpreted everything differently.  Like Shikamaru said, she could have suspected he approached Rumi first.  But she didn’t.  She trusted him.  Out of her forgiveness, he somehow didn’t ruin the faith she’s putting into their new relationship.  He can't take her patience for granted.  He needs to try harder.  He needs to do better for Hinata.

He stops in his tracks.

Noticing that he’s not keeping up, she turns around.  “Naruto-kun?”

“You know that I’d never cheat on you, right?”

The thought hadn’t occurred to her at all.

“You know that my...previous relationships...don’t compare to this, how I feel for you?”

She feels a blush rise.  “...Naruto-kun...you said something similar before…”  Of course she didn’t forget!

“I’m sorry I dated them, I wish I never dated them.  I wish I realized my feelings for you earlier, and I wish I only had had you this whole time.”  The regrets that clamored about his mind rush out, and in his vulnerability, he watches, afraid that he’s only reminding her of his mistakes.  Where does she draw the line in her patience?  In her forgiveness?

“N-Naruto-kun,” she stutters out, flustered, “I didn’t think you were cheating on me.”  It’s true that at the start of their relationship, she told herself to be careful, but he’s since given her the same concentrated attention that he would to a mission.  She hasn’t once felt like his affection is a lie.

“Hinata…”

She nods.  She swallows down the butterflies.  “I get to be with you now, and I’m very happy.  I’ve never been happier.  So, don’t worry about me.”

Her warm smile sets him at ease.  How fortunate is he to have someone like Hinata willing to deal with him?  And on top of that, be happy about it?  “I hope I can keep you happy.  I’ll make sure you’re happy all the time.”

Her expression scrunches up.  She doesn’t know whether to smile or reprimand him for such silly yet earnest promises.  She can’t handle it.  She shakes her head, and looks down.  “Naruto-kun, that’s too much.”

Too much?  “No, it’s not.  It’s my job as your boyfriend.”  If she’s not happy with him all the time, then she’ll leave.  It’s the very least of his duties!

She meets his gaze again, slightly perplexed.  “This isn’t your job, please don’t think of this as your job.  When it’s us, it’s just us.  Of course, I want to make you happy, too, Naruto-kun, but happiness is something we do together, right?  We’re a team?”

“A team…”

“If we have bad days, or if we ever disagree on something, we work through it together, and we come out happier together.”

“Bad days?  I’ll never let you have a bad day, Hinata!”

“W-what!” she laughs.

“I’ll protect you from everything bad, and we’ll never fight or argue or anything like that!”

“Naruto-kun!” she protests.

He knows it sounds silly, but he means it.  “I never want to make you sad or mad.”  ...It strikes him that he’s made this promise before, truly believing he would hold his end up.  And he didn't, his words far lighter and more easily broken than he could have ever realized of himself.  Now, a heavy shame he doesn't even know how to hold.

“I never want to make you sad or mad, either."  She wonders at his sudden downcast expression, if he's still thinking about Rumi, and if he always puts so much pressure on himself for his relationships.  She doesn't want to be another weight on his shoulders.  She just wants to see his smile.  "If you’re happy, then I’m happy.”  She gazes up at him, hoping he sees that she needs nothing else.  

Before her, his past guilt is forced back so easily.  Everything with Hinata is so easy.  He would have never known.  He hurt Rumi for a reason, he broke that promise because they both have better things to move on to.  Each moment with Hinata affirms his decision.  No matter how selfish it was, if Hinata's happy, then it was worth it.  She makes everything worth it.  “I’m happy if you’re happy, too.”

Pink fills her cheeks as her smile brightens.

“Thank you for being my teammate, Hinata.”

She can’t help fidgeting from his sweetness.  “Thank you for being my teammate, Naruto-kun.”

He lets her returned affection settle in, calm the vestiges of his anxiety.  He’s constantly afraid that he’s going to mess up, but Hinata makes it seem as if he’s been doing fine this whole time.

It makes him hopeful that they will last.  Past one month, today, tomorrow, next month, next year.  This is only the start, but he’s already made so many promises to make up for everything he's lacking.

At the very least, he needs to prove his word is worth her faith.

That he has love, the real thing, behind each of his pitiful apologies.

He wants to start giving, not always receiving.  Even if she says she's already happy, he knows he can do so much more.  But how?

[depressedhatakekakashi]

The Temari/Itachi fic made me wonder what will be Temari's reaction to see Sasuke calling Itachi "Nii-san", because pretty sure that Kankuro and Gaara never called Temari "Nee-san". Then after that she asked Gaara and Kankuro to call her "Nee-san"

I don’t think Temari would want them too personally.

Her relationship with her siblings is diffrent than Itachi and Sasuke’s. She was never allowed to reach out and protect Gaara and that strained their relationship for years, and we get the idea that it was sort of similar with her and Kankuro (though not nearly as bad)

Rasa’s way if parenting created a scenario where they weren’t really close siblings until after his death.

I’m not a fan of Fugaku and his parenting style, but he never put a barrier between Itachi and Sasuke. They were allowed to be close and Fugaku even expected Itachi to have a certain protectiveness over sasuke (asking him to watch over sasuke before he murders him and mikoto)

I think Temari would find it could and lament how she never got that life that would have allowed that closeness when they were all younger, but she has her brothers now.

It’s too late for her to expect them to refer to her as ‘nee-san’ and I genuinely don’t think she cares. I think her concern is making sure her brothers are safe and able to grow the way they should have been allowed from childhood. If they ever did refer to her as ‘nee-san’, even jokingly, i think she’d find it weird

I hope you enjoyed the fic though! It was my first actual shot at Itachi/Temari so i wasn’t super confident but i think they’re really cute

[pain-somnia]

ssm 2k20 day 10: colors of you and me Title: when eye see you Rating: T Disclaimer Day’s Notes: are y’all sick of soulmate AUs? ‘Cause i’m not! Here’s a soulmate au where everyone has heterochromia until they look their soulmate in the eye. And yes there is some inspiration from Jun’s Kitchen in this. It’s my favorite YouTube channel. Minor pairings: ItaKarin and SasoObi. I could have made this longer but I needed to make it shorter lol this fic was impossible to end it was actually meant to be shorter than it is

Sighing to himself, Sasuke brushes his hair out of his face, moving his bangs aside to reveal the vivid sea foam green eye.

Unlike his own dark gray eye, the green one has perfect vision. The optician marks the measurements for both eyes, noting that he needs a slightly stronger prescription for his own eye and a false lens for his partner eye. It was suggested that he switch to contacts so that he would wear one on the eye that truly belonged to him, but Sasuke hates putting things in his eyes.

Some thought he was lucky. The color of his soulmate’s eye is uncommon and that supposedly meant that it would be easier to find them. If he wants to, he can hire one of those people who made a living off of locating people with matching eye colors, but Sasuke doesn’t care about any of that.

Yeah, it was annoying that his eyes were unbalanced when it came to visual impairment and maybe it was ridiculous how often people told him his match had such a beautiful eye color, but Sasuke wants nothing to do with society’s obsession with soulmates.

Riding the train home, Sasuke hides his partner eye behind his bangs. The color catches attention wherever he goes and he’s tired of it. People always want to see the contrasting colors, how vivid it is against the dark colors of his eye and his hair.

It is said that green eyes are lucky, that when people meet their green eyed match that their union would be blessed with great happiness.

Sasuke doesn’t feel very lucky about it when he has relatives fussing over him about finding his match.

Walking into his family home, his nose is invaded with the stench of burnt vegetables. Slipping out of his shoes and tossing his bag next to the genkan, Sasuke opens up the screen door that opens up to the engawa and backyard.

“Karin?” He calls out towards the kitchen from across the informal sitting room. His phone chimes with the arrival of a message and he opens it, not bothering to walk into the other room to check on her. “What are you trying to do now?”

“It’s called cooking!” He heard her shout back from somewhere in the kitchen.

“Oh, gods…”

Karin is his older brother’s match. Originally just a classmate, then his friend—and now most likely his future sister-in-law—Uzumaki Karin is one of his closest friends and, truthfully, the worst cook in the world.

But that’s okay because Itachi is one of the best cooks in the world and spoils her by feeding her and her ridiculously large appetite.

When Sasuke first met Karin, he hadn’t thought anything about her russet color eye paired with a dark gray one or of it being just like the combination his brother had. It’s a common coloring pair, nothing special. But when Sasuke brought her home with two of their friends and she looked Itachi in the eye, they witnessed the moment Itachi’s partner eye shifted colors to match his actual eye and when Karin’s eyes shifted to a matching russet set.

And then they all winced when she shrieked in discomfort because Itachi's prescription for his lenses is a lot stronger than her own.

He really should have known that Karin is his brother’s match. Karin said that her mother told her she was born with her partner eye and Itachi’s had manifested when he was five years old. And then there were the anecdotes of her life that matched with some of the visions Itachi had shared with him.

The ability isn’t as common as their color pairing and it catches more attention, but it’s usually negligible as most sight sharers are not given any visions that help them locate their matches especially because it is an ability more common in children.

Karin’s line to him on their first day of high school was: “I swear I’ve seen you somewhere before. But like as a kid.”

They call it sight sharing and that strong emotions are required for it to work. That is why children who are more free with their emotions and are having new experiences to react towards are able to send visions to their matches. Due to their age, most children aren’t even aware that they are sight sharing.

Sasuke has seen his own glimpses. Blurry images impeded by tears and a long fringe of pink hair. A blonde girl with a blue-green eye and one inky black eye holding out a red hair ribbon. The largest bowl of anmitsu he has ever seen in his life. A harbor with boats rocking where they were docked, the water choppy and the sails flapping wildly in the middle of a storm.

He still gets glimpses, even this late in his teens, and he’s not sure how he feels about having a match that felt so strongly, whose emotions were as vivid as fireworks on a clear night sky.

“How did you convince my mother to let you cook in her kitchen? Alone?”

“She loves me.”

And it’s the truth. Uchiha Mikoto has always been a sucker for soulmates finding each other. She showers Karin with affection whenever possible and even Sasuke’s cousin’s match—a short redhead named Sasori with hazel eyes, a curious combination of brown and gray with flecks of gold and green—is subject to her doting.

Sasuke couldn’t describe what Itachi and Karin have as love. There is a fondness his older brother has for Karin that cannot be hidden when he’s giving her soft smiles and treating her gently. It could be love with time, but Sasuke can’t help but wonder if Itachi would have opened up to a relationship with Karin even if she wasn’t his match, or was the opportunity to become more only presented because the universe had forced them into it.

He is told he is lucky because of the color of his match’s eye being uncommon and thus easier to find. He’s lucky because his soulmate is close to him in age, his partner eye not having formed until he was still a baby of only eight months. But Sasuke believes the truly lucky ones are his parents who share the same eye coloring and are in love. They could be soulmates or maybe not. But they love each other despite the odds and it’s not something the universe can say it had a hand in.

Universe or not, Sasuke wanted more of a choice.

.

.

Blinking her eyes, Sakura waits for her contact to settle in her partner eye. It was unfortunate that she had needed to adjust the prescription, but at least she saved money by only needing a contact for a single eye.

Grabbing her eyeliner, Sakura traces her lash line delicately, first over one green eye like seaglass and then over the eye with the color reminiscent of storm clouds. Her partner eye has always reminded her of those clouds, fat and heavy with rain, rolling over the sea and waiting to unleash over her harbor hometown.

It’s a beautiful eye, but Sakura had the misfortune of being born with her partner eye. It made it impossible to age her match. They could be someone only a bit older or a grown adult. With the state of their visual impairment, Sakura wonders if her soulmate is someone that is elderly.

It’s something that she perhaps will never know. She isn’t as lucky as her cousin who found his soulmate while he was bar hopping so Sakura’s decided that it’s probably best that she doesn’t search for her soulmate, not to put her hopes on someone she may never find.

It makes it easier to forget them considering she’s so sure she’s in love with her online friend.

It’s strange but she loves him, she really does. She’s never seen his face because they agreed that it would put a strain on their relationship if they knew about each other’s eyes. What had started as a simple exchange with a boy from Tokyo about a photo she had posted to her blog ended up becoming so much more.

His name is Sasuke but he went online by Taka. He wouldn’t give Sakura his last name and asked that she didn’t give him hers so that they wouldn’t be tempted to search for each other online. He had just turned eighteen in July and was planning on going to Handai for university not even an hour from Tsuji Culinary Institute.

Sasuke is going to be so close.

The two of them had been talking to each other ever since they had entered their respective high schools and after two and a half years of conversation they had decided that the time to meet in person was approaching. Sasuke was going to visit with his cousin and his cousin’s soulmate during winter vacation to look into apartments and the area that Sasuke would make his new home after he graduated high school. It was presumptuous that he would pass the entrance exam and be accepted but she knew how confident Sasuke is and about his test scores. Sakura is supposed to meet with him when he is able to shake off his cousin and his soulmate. They played games together and streamed shows and movies but mostly they streamed the same music and listened together sending messages or talking softly on the phone, but they didn’t call them dates so that their first official date would be one where they were face to face.

More often than not, Sakura falls asleep listening to Sasuke talk over the phone. She is an early riser and he is a night owl so she tends to drift off in the middle of their hours-long LINE calls. She enjoys listening to his voice, the deep timbre of it is soothing.

She can’t wait to hear it and see if his face matches the wonderful sound.

.

.

He found her through a video his brother had been watching to learn a new recipe.

Sasuke had found it unusual that Sakura━or “Cherry” as she went by online━didn’t show her face. It’s easier to find one’s soulmate if one’s eyes are exposed, but she never showed her face. Even in her social media accounts she never posts selfies. Sakura’s photos are always of locations or foods she made or of food spots she visited.

She had told him she didn’t want to be bombarded with messages from people claiming she was their match. She didn’t want strangers bothering her and raising her hopes up for nothing and that the only thing they cared about was her eyes.

Sasuke doesn’t care if it’s abnormal to feel affection for someone that he’s never seen. It started with a curiosity that led him to looking through her blog and then he saw it. He saw a photo of the sea before a storm hit over a harbor and it looked just like the glimpse he received a few years ago.

All he wanted to know was where the photo was taken.

And now he’s in a relationship with the person that took the photo.

Sasuke knows the odds of finding his soulmate are low and there’s no guarantee that he would even like them. His cousin Obito had gotten lucky and even Itachi who is fond of Karin despite their differences and Karin’s comparatively high energy levels. It is a gamble and he doesn’t care for the odds. He would rather grow to love a stranger that isn’t his match and be like his great-uncle Madara who never found his soulmate and when his soulmate died, his partner eye turned milky white and blind.

It is much preferable to be blind in one eye and happy than perpetually alone simply because he couldn’t be with his soulmate.

“Here you go.” His older brother interrupts his and Karin’s study session and offers her a small tray with a glass bowl that was leaking a cool mist. Karin squeals and takes out her phone, taking a video as she reveals the smaller bowl inside with a chocolate lid that is cutely decorated with flowers made with icing and berries.

“Did...did you really use dry ice for this?” Sasuke looks on as Karin takes a bunch of photos before digging into her sweet treat.

Itachi shrugs and hands Karin a spoon. “Cherry posted a video about a blueberry cheesecake made with homemade yogurt, so I had to recreate it.”

“I’ll tag her on Instagram when I post these photos.” Karin shoves her books away and pulls the cheesecake closer so that she could dig in. “Ohmygawd this is so good.”

Of course it is. Sasuke looks over Karin’s study materials for Todai. His parents want him to go there, but he made his decision to be closer to Sakura.

.

.

She wonders how he would feel about her accent. The Kansai dialect would be something Sasuke has to get used to if he is going to live in the area. Her cousin is still thrown off at times when he hears the dialect.

Sakura has invited him out to eat some tecchiri at Zubora-ya in Dōtonbori because it’s the best place for fugu despite it being almost an hour by train from Handai. Luckily his cousin has a car and is able to drive them around just so she doesn’t cause Sasuke any trouble before he even gets to meet her.

Snow is swirling around her, flurries landing in her long lashes as she waits under the giant blowfish lantern. She’s never been good with the cold but it’s keeping her grounded as her stomach tumbles with anxiety.

Would Sasuke see her and decide he would prefer to wait for his soulmate?

Will three years of conversations come to a halt when they sit across from each other and are unable to carry on the conversation in person?

Sakura is tempted to walk over to the Lawson and grab something hot to drink and use the walk to calm her nerves. She’s just about to make a break for it when she spots a trio heading towards her. The person standing in the middle is roughly the same height as her with rusty red hair—the red Sasuke had told her to expect from his cousin’s soulmate. Red that belongs to—Sasori?

What was he doing here? Her cousin hadn’t mentioned anything about traveling to Osaka. And now he was walking towards her with his boyfriend, Obito, and a pretty boy she has never seen before.

For a moment Sakura can’t breathe properly and it takes her a few seconds to realize it’s because her inhales and exhales are at too fast of a rhythm for her to actually be intaking oxygen. Hyperventilating will have her passing out right when she’s supposed to meet Sasuke—right when he’s potentially in front of her.

Her hair is pink, a soft shade he couldn’t miss, so when the attractive boy makes his way to stand in front of her, Sakura knows that it’s Sasuke.

Inky black hair frames his angular face. Why hadn’t he warned her that he was pretty? Sakura’s eyes rove his face, taking note of the curve of his lips, the point of his nose, and his high cheekbones that are kissed by eyelashes just as inky black as his hair when he blinks.

Those eyelashes frame one visible eye—the other hidden by hair—and what a beautiful eye it is. Shielded by a pair of glasses, his eye is gray and stormy and oh so familiar.

And the moment she looks at it directly, her left eye stings in discomfort.

.

.

“Shit!”

Sasuke’s eyes widen as the pink haired girl clutches her left eye. She’s cursing as she messes with her eye and throws something on the ground.

A contact.

His feet had moved and his hands had raised to steady her and help in any way he could before he had even processed what just happened.

“Ow…” She grumbles as Sasuke examines her red rimmed eye. His hands freeze from where he’s cupping her face as he looks into a matching pair of seafoam green eyes.

It’s at that moment that he realizes his left eye’s vision is blurry behind its false lens.

“Are you Sasuke-kun?” Sakura asks—because of course she’s Sakura, how many pink haired girls would be waiting under a giant blowfish and asking for someone with his old fashioned name?

“Sakura?”

“Well, that’s a little forward,” Sasori scolds him, attempting to shove him out of the way. “No honorific? Already getting handsy? Tsk, tsk.”

“Sasori-niisan?” Sakura’s attention is stolen for a moment and she turns her focus on Obito’s boyfriend despite the fact that Sasuke is holding her face in his hands. “What are you doing here?”

“Fugu. Why else?” Sasori snaps his fingers and gestures to Obito who is pulling eye drops from his messenger bag and ready to play nurse.

“What were the fucking odds?” Sasuke mutters under his breath, taking the saline solution from his cousin and dropping it into Sakura’s irritated eye. Fortunately, all of her poking hadn’t done much damage.

She’s crying, but with how she’s smiling it can’t be anything bad and he always knew his soulmate was an emotional person. Sakura’s brushing his hair away from his left eye and letting out a watery giggle at what she sees before covering her mouth with her hands to suppress the sob that leaked between her laughter.

“You have no idea how happy I am that it’s you.” Sakura looks up at him in awe but then her eyebrows draw down into a frown. She was going to make him dizzy with how quickly she flickered through emotions. “Gosh you’re tall.”

“Good thing your hair’s pink.” Sasuke cards his fingers through her hair and teases her. “With your height, I might have never found you.”

Sakura pouts, narrowing pretty green eyes at him, and it makes the moment all the sweeter. A small part of him cheers at how lucky he got that Sakura ended up being so cute but mostly he’s still in shock at the discovery that his online girlfriend ended up being his soulmate. He had given up on the idea of finding his soulmate just for them to be the person he chose over the idea of the universe’s match for him.

But, with the coincidences, did the universe actually have a hand in their connection? His older brother was a fan of her cooking vlog and his cousin was paired up with hers.

And speaking of her cousin...

“Are we getting fugu or what?”

“We’re having a moment here.” Sasuke should have just asked his older brother to come with him on his apartment scouting trip. He had no one else but himself to blame for letting Obito and Sasori come along. He should have known better.

“Have your moment inside.” Sasori pushes at the back of Sasuke’s knee with his heeled boot. “It’s cold and I want the fugu I was promised.”

“Wait a minute…” Sakura’s voice is low, and she eyes her cousin suspiciously. “You knew Sasuke-kun this whole time, Sasori-nii?”

Straightening up, Sasuke turns to glare at Sasori as well. He has been dating Sasuke’s cousin for five years and not once had he mentioned having a cousin with the exact eye pairing that Sasuke has—had.

A rare color pairing that’s supposed to be lucky. Sneaking a glance at Sakura with her green eyes and with the knowledge that she’s the person he’s been growing attached to all of these years, Sasuke’s ready to admit—if only a little—that maybe he is lucky.

No one let his family know that he had that thought.

“You guys didn’t want to know,” Sasori answers, opening up the door to the restaurant. “So, fugu?”

Sasuke and Sakura exchange a look and she smiles up at him encouragingly. Sasuke didn’t come here looking for his soulmate. He came to meet Sakura—just Sakura. He now had a matching set of eyes but it didn’t change anything, not really.

He had already made his choice and it was just luck that the universe had dealt him a winning hand.

“Let’s go find out why this place is so great.”

“Well, have you ever had blowfish before?” Sakura asks, allowing him to guide her inside the restaurant with his hand on the small of her back.

“No, but I kind of like not being potentially poisoned.”

“It makes me feel alive,” Sasori interjects, raising four fingers at a server to signal how many are in their party.

“You’re going to have to be more adventurous.” Sakura flashes a mischievous smile in his direction as they follow their cousins to a table. “I’m going to drag you everywhere and make you try lots of different food.”

“Tough talk from someone that can’t eat spicy food.”

Sakura splutters, cheeks burning red. She hides behind a menu and mutters something about “an abnormal dislike of sweets.”

He’s only seen her face for less than twenty minutes, but he’s decided that he likes how easily her feelings come across it, especially when she flushes from embarrassment.

“It will be nice to video call you from now on,” he casually mentions from over his own menu, watching from his peripheral as her fingers tighten around her menu.

“Your weird flirting is going to spoil the taste of the fugu.” Sasori glares at him over his tea, taking a prim sip.

“You don’t even have taste buds,” Sasuke mutters, wishing even more now that he hadn’t asked Obito to drop him off. “You shouldn’t even have any fugu rights. How could you not know that we were meeting your cousin?”

“Sakura is a common name, don’t try to come for me. I still haven’t given my blessing to this union.”

Sakura snorts from behind her menu and says, “Okay, sure dad.”

She sets her menu down and smiles so sweetly that Sasuke’s tempted to stand up and make a run for it with her, just completely abandon their cousins. Sasori is distracted by the promise of raw blowfish and he’s sure whatever punishment Sasori could come up with would be worth it.

“Video calls would be nice,” Sakura offers, ignoring Sasori’s forced gagging sounds. “But maybe tomorrow we could go out and fix your glasses situation?”

“Yeah,” Sasuke clears his throat and adjusts the pair he’s wearing with only one true lens, “that would be helpful.”

“Then it’s a date!” She chirps. Her eyes gleam when she’s happy and green really is such a nice color, especially on her and not in his reflection. 

“Awwww,” Obito coos, pinching Sasuke’s cheek. “You two are adorable.”

“We’re leaving Obito and Sasori behind tomorrow,” Sasuke snaps, slapping Obito’s hand away.

“I don’t care,” Sasori waves a hand dismissively at him, “just let me eat my fugu and you can keep my cousin for the day. Just return her how you leave with her.”

“You’re incorrigible, Sasori-nii.” Sakura rolls her eyes but she smiles fondly at her older cousin as he steals slices of blowfish from Obito’s artfully decorated plate.

Sakura chats cheerfully with his cousin and talks about how one of the things she wants to do in the future is learn how to prepare fugu properly. Sasuke’s seen the stuff she’s made for her vlog and he doesn’t doubt that one day she’ll be able to prepare it and even make the slices of blowfish into the flower shapes the restaurant forms for their plating.

It’s then that Sasuke is hit with the fact that in a few months that he won’t be watching her from a monitor, that he could be in the kitchen with her if he asked and she was okay with it. He’ll get to spend afternoons with her the same way Karin and Itachi do and go on day trips like Obito and Sasori.

And he made that happen. It was his decision to message her. It was his decision to continue talking to her and get to know her.

Maybe the universe had a hand with all of the coincidences, but it was Sasuke that Sakura wanted. Not his eye but him.

“What’s up?” Sakura asks him as she polishes off the last bit of her serving of tecchiri.

Just thinking about how the universe works.

“Were you ever told that green eyes were lucky?”

Sakura’s eyes widen at the question. Her lips part in shock but she quickly closes them when Sasori snorts behind his napkin. Leave it to Sasori to find a way to snort primly. Even his chuckling has an air of superiority to it. It’s no wonder he didn’t link him and Sakura as familial relations.

Sakura elbows her cousin in the arm to silence him and he throws a glare in her direction.

“Actually,” Sakura’s face flushes once again, “in my family the superstition is that gray eyes are the lucky ones.”

Heat travels up Sasuke’s neck, and the pleasant feeling in his chest can’t be stifled even with Sasori’s smug expression—probably brought on by the fact that his eyes have splashes of gray in them.

“But if it’s green in your family, I guess that means we’re doubly lucky, huh?”

Sakura’s eyes are bright and with the way they sparkle when she’s feeling so fantastically happy, he can’t help but think once again that her left eye was definitely wasted on him.

Sasuke smiles fondly at her cheerful expression and has to suppress the desire to roll his eyes at his own thoughts when he remembers his mother’s stories about green eyes bringing joy.

“Guess that makes us triply happy then, Obito,” Sasori interjects yet again. “I’ve got green and gray in my eyes and you have gray eyes.”

“I guess we are,” Obito cheers, tapping his pint of beer against Sasori’s glass.

“We were having a moment here,” Sasuke grumbles over his cousin’s chortles.

He’s definitely ditching them tomorrow.

[fiercyy]

Chapters: 11/? Fandom: Naruto Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence Relationships: Haruno Sakura/Uchiha Sasuke, Haruno Sakura & Uzumaki Naruto, Haruno Sakura & Hatake Kakashi, Team 7 - Relationship, Uchiha Sasuke & Uzumaki Naruto, Haruno Sakura & Hatake Kakashi & Uchiha Sasuke & Uzumaki Naruto Characters: Haruno Sakura, Uchiha Sasuke, Uzumaki Naruto, Hatake Kakashi, Tsunade (Naruto), Orochimaru (Naruto) Additional Tags: AU, Post-Chuunin Exams, post chuunin exams attack, Minor Character Death, Trauma, Team 7 Family bonding, Genin Era, Everybody moves in with Sasuke, he's got room, semi-au, Plot Twists, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Roommates, Friends to Enemies, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, BAMF Haruno Sakura, Dai-nana-han | Team 7 (Naruto) Feels, BAMF Dai-nana-han | Team 7 (Naruto), Team as Family, Slow Burn Series: Part 1 of Post-Chuunin Exam AU Summary:

Sakura always wished she could relate to her teammates better. She wishes she could take it back.

In which Sasuke acquires some unwanted roommates and a team becomes a family.

.

.

"You skipped training," Kakashi's one visible eye is narrowed in a foreboding expression. His large body takes up the whole doorframe when he holds himself up at full height.

Sasuke turns back to his book, earmarked not him but by Sakura, who the book belongs to. It's a historical account of the longest battle of the First Ninja War. For something so violent, it's extremely boring. "What's the point?" He asks petulantly.

"What's the point in training?" Kakashi asks incredulously. Surely Sakura's win hadn't hit him that hard.

"What's the point in the training we're doing? I'm not getting any stronger!"

"I'm teaching you restraint," begins the lecture he's heard what feels like a hundred times, "The Chidori is powerful and dangerous. You could hurt someone without meaning to."

Sasuke scoffs, "Sakura can beat me. I don't need restraint. In a fight, I'm trying to hurt someone."

"If your ego is so fragile then you're not ready for the responsibility of power."

"I am!" he argues. "But if power is such a burden then why can Sakura and Naruto keep getting stronger and now me?"

"They don't want power for power's sake!"

"Neither do I, I want power so I can use it."

Kakashi's eyes narrow, "I'm your mentor, not theirs. If you want my techniques you'll do things my way."

"Then I don't need you!" And desperate to escape the conversation, he jumps out the window.

"If you had control you wouldn't have hurt Sakura!" Kakashi shouts after him.

"I don't care!" he screams back. But that's a lie.

.

.

Sakura, for her part, has never been so thrilled to lose a fight. It doesn't feel egotistical to think that she basically won. She's just a softy who couldn't let him fall. It's a good thing, isn't it? That her instinct was to protect her teammate. (Even if, had he been thinking properly, he could have grabbed onto the wall with chakra.) That was what Kakashi was always ragging on her about, no? Not putting her team first?

She managed to surprise Sasuke and get the upper hand. She never thought she could do that. Never would have thought to… before.

Thinking about her parents brings her down. She can't do it often, it hurts too much. Since her heart to heart with Kakashi, she's being trying to focus on what she does have, not what she lost.

Her life has been in a quagmire since the attack, but at least she isn't alone. For that reason, she pities Sasuke. They both lost so much but afterward he had nobody. And she had so much. She's learning to be grateful for that, honest she is. She just gets so mad sometimes.

It's like when she was little. She was an angry kid. Her parents worked with her and taught her all the calming techniques; breaking deepy, counting, shoving it all into a box… The box worked best. All her longterm furies shut up where no one could see them. She let the bullies hit her as hard as they wanted. She wouldn't strike out. They could tease her all they liked, she wouldn't give them the satisfaction of a reaction.

She can't hold in that inner Sakura anymore. She won't be contained. Instead she's trying to come to terms with it all; work through it as best she can. It's freeing, to be a being who can feel anger again. The fight now, is to not allow it to consume her.

.

.

"Hey," Naruto starts, only for Sasuke to stalk right past him and slam the door to their room. He glances at the clock on the VCR. It's 11:00. The lock clicks. Shit. He's terrible at picking locks. "Aw man, what am I gonna do now?"

Sakura—who sits on the opposite side of the table, books open and post-its at the ready—is unsympathetic. "Sleep on the couch."

.

.

Alone in his room, the nightmares plague him worse than before. The prophecy of being swallowed by the earth came true. He finds new things to fear.

Sasuke wakes in the middle of the night.

The voices no longer reside in sleep. Orochimaru's whispers reverberate all around him; promises of power, of bargains. How will you kill your brother if you keep you as you are? He asks with condescension.

Sasuke shakes his head and for now, the pressure in his skull is dislodged. He rises and leaves the bedroom for the living room.

The apartment is dark. There is just enough moonlight to see by. He treads softly into the living room and stares at Naruto's slack body, thrown over the couch and covered in the red wool blanket. It's large enough that all three of them fit under it but in the heat of sleep he's kicked it off his feet. His soft snores, so familiar, settle Sasuke.

He didn't want Naruto to hear his nightmares. They've woken him before, but he never seems to grasp what the nightmares are about. He knew he'd be talking in his sleep tonight. It's always worse when he goes to bed angry. Orochimaru is preying on those feelings, he won't be taken in.

Except he's told no one. They might see it as a sign of weakness, or Kakashi might try and reseal him. What power reserves would be taken from him then? The temptation of more than a taste of what the curse can give him… He's stagnating here, while others flourish. He needs to be stronger. Now. And Orochimaru wants to give him strength. It's that simple.

He'll kill him before fulfilling his end of the bargain.

That thought, formulating a plan, is what makes it too real.

.

.

Sasuke's birthday is last in the calendar year and on the first morning of his 13th year, he wakes up to yelling and the sweet smells of an unhealthy breakfast.

"I made you an omelette actually," Sakura assures, plating her pancakes. It's dry and over seasoned, but he eats every bite slathered in ketchup. There's candles in it and they make him blow them out.

The day is spent in his favourite manner: outside, training. They read together in peace in the grass, for a while after that. (Sasuke and Sakura read. Naruto doodles crude caricatures in the margins of a magazine.) They go to lunch, then the baths. They henge into adult versions of themselves, laughing all the while at their absurd visions of the future. They use the illusions to sneak into a bar that's hosting a pub quiz. A jolly civilian in his 20s hosts. Naruto's only correct contribution is a question about the minutiae of the Teenage Mutant Firefighting Turtles lore.

They win second prize—a pitcher of beer. Their weak, 13-year-old tolerance ensures than they're unable to hold their henges for long after that. Once one breaks, the others do too and laughing all the while, they're kicked out of the bar.

"Technically this is your fault for giving it to us!" Sakura argues, "We didn't order any drinks!" The bouncer is unamused.

They stumble home, leaning on each other.

And when Sasuke stares at the spinning ceiling that night, he doesn't think of his childhood, his anger or the future. For the first time, he relives the same day he'll relive for years-the best birthday he ever had.

.

.

"Teach me how to unlock the Magekyou Sharingan," Sasuke demands. He doesn't know what he's asking.

Kakashi tries to tell himself this, but when he reaches inside himself, looking for compassion, he finds only rage. "No."

"It's my clan's legacy, the next logical step. I need it if I ever hope to-!"

"If you're very lucky you will never have the Magekyou," Kakashi warns, "The cost is too great."

"I'll pay it!"

"If you do," he replies, enunciating carefully, "I will strike you down myself."

.

.

They ambush him in the evening on his way home from another seemingly useless session with Kakashi. The Sound Four and all of their formidable strength and second-hand arguments (such as they are) meant to persuade him to defect on his own. Or to take him by force.

His curse seal burns, curling across his body.

The time has come to remember his purpose.

.

.

Sasuke strains against his restraints, spitting and snarling at his teacher. Kakashi's impassive eyes rove around, but his fingers are tight on the wire. The bark itches and the blood trickles down his arm where the wire has cut him.

"What's this all about?!" He demands.

"Sorry, but I knew you wouldn't want to sit still for another lecture." The second today. "Let it go, forget about revenge. Trust me, following the path of revenge never ends well. You'll only tear yourself apart. Even if you succeed, what will you have then? Nothing. Emptiness."

"Shut up!" Sasuke's blood boils, "What makes you think you know anything about it? You have no idea! Maybe if I were to kill the most important people in your life, anyone who's ever meant anything then you'd understand," he threatens cruelly, uselessly.

"Interesting theory, but everyone I've ever loved is already dead," he says it so calmly. Sasuke never knew that about him. "Besides you. And Naruto and Sakura."

Sasuke's sharp intake of breath is the only indication that his words have any effect.

"You and I are lucky. We've found new people to love, who love us."

The boy looks so small, his head drops so Kakashi can't see his face anymore. He loosens the restraints.

"That's all I wanted to say. You'll do what you want."

.

.

In the room he shares with his teammate, only feet away from his bed, Sasuke packs a bag in the dark. There's a photograph on the desk that he considers taking with him, but that wouldn't be wise. He lays it face down and leaves the room.

He hesitates at the front door and doubles back.

He doesn't know which cousin Sakura's bedroom belonged to. He never visited them before the Massacre. It's one of the reasons he feels safe here, it's untouched by death. They died at the compound with everybody else.

He opens her door a crack. The hinges are well oiled so they don't creak.

Asleep in bed, Sakura's back is to him, arm tucked under her chin and hair falling over her shoulders. He watches her for longer than he should, heart hammering in his chest. He's really going to do this.

He stays until he can't stand it anymore, it's too much.

Outside, the village is quiet. The streetlamps haven't been fixed in many neighborhoods, so he passes through the light and darkness with equal swiftness. His unhurried gait stops at the gates. They loom in front of him, a portal into his future.

"SASUKE!" Sakura shouts, breaking the stillness of the night.

He turns and can't hide his surprise at seeing her. He's a fool. He must have woken her with his goodbye. "What are you doing here?"

"This is the only way out of the village," she evades.

"Go home Sakura."

Before I say things we'll both regret.

"No," her voice breaks. She darts in front of him to block his path. "Why? I thought I understood you but I don't. I just don't. How can you throw everything away?"

"You could never understand me," he replies coldly. "I'm throwing away everything that doesn't matter. Anything that doesn't help me accomplish my goals."

"I know in the beginning you couldn't stand me. You probably hated me. But I thought-" here Sakura hesitates and the tears drip from her chin. "I thought that things were different now. You told me once that I have no idea what it means to be alone, well now I do. I do and I wish I didn't. It's horrible. But it's a little less horrible with you." She chokes on a sob and slaps a hand over her mouth to muffle it.

"You're just as annoying now as you were then." He steps up to her, so they're standing close. "Move," he commands.

"No."

"Move or I'll move you."

Her stance widens but her knees quake. "Try it then."

"Don't you understand that I'll kill you if I have to?" Move!

She laughs, so sad, "For the sake of your revenge."

"I'm travelling a path that you can't follow," in telling her so, he hopes to be kind.

Sasuke pushes past her. Like a willow branch, she moves aside then springs back to watch him walk away. All the fight has gone out of her. "You don't have to be alone. You don't think we would help you?" She cries, "Naruto and I would do anything for you. Why won't you let us?!"

"I don't need you!" He roars. "We aren't the same."

"I love you, don't you understand? Please don't walk away!"

With his back to her, neither can see the effect their words are having on the other, but they can hope. They can imagine.

"Stay," she whispers brokenly. "Or take me with you."

He turns. "Where I'm going, I have no use for you. Forget you ever knew me."

"No. You know that I can't," she says with force. He advances and her speech quickens. "If you move I'll scream, I swear I will, I-" In a flash, he's behind her. A sharp pain in her neck. Darkness descends.

Whispered words. Thank you.

.

.

.

.

12 hours earlier…

Though some ninjas choose to work under the cover of night, many realize that it's far easier to work in plain sight, in the day, hidden by the crowd. Sasuke has only been to Kakashi's apartment once before, but he remembers the way. It's not so odd that a student would visit his master in the day time.

He knocks and Kakashi's surprised to find him at the door.

"Can I come in?" He trusts that his sensei's home is secure.

"Sure, Sasuke," Kakashi replies in his usual breezy tone. "What can I do for you?"

"I need you to get me a covert meeting with the Hokage."

In under an hour they're in her office. Shizune, their only witness. Tsunade surveys the boy over her steeples fingers. "What can I do for you, Uchiha?"

"I need you to assign me an S-rank mission, to infiltrate Sound." Kakashi's eye cuts to him, "As a double agent."

[365daysofsasuhina]

[ 365 Days of SasuHina || Day Three Hundred Forty-Nine: He Walked Past ] [ Uchiha Sasuke, Hyūga Hinata ] [ SasuHina ] [ Verse: A Light Amongst Shadows ] [ AO3 Link ]

Every day, without fail, Uchiha Sasuke walks to the training grounds on the outskirts of Konoha to practice the shinobi arts. He’s done so since his release from the hospital, and even before the massacre, his habitual training was intense for one his age. But as the years have passed, and his graduation date grows ever nearer, his hours at the dusty, well-worn swathes of ground have been growing.

...but he’s not the only one.

Since the loss of her title, Hinata has also called the training fields home more often than not. Her clan, of course, has several of the nicest dojos in the village, thanks entirely to their rather hefty coffers. The Hyūga want for very little, and their pride means investing in having the grandest of any comparable object.

But there’s a few reasons why Hinata prefers the training grounds of the village itself. Mostly is the privacy. No risk of being walked in on, and no feeling of being constantly watched: hard to avoid within the Hyūga compound...especially given that judgemental gazes have only increased upon her over the years since her defeat by Hanabi.

Partially, however, it’s a feeling of being...unremarkable. She’s hardly actually here alone, after all - plenty of shinobi come and go through the multitudes of training spaces day by day. But here, she isn’t just the disgraced Hyūga ex-heiress. No...she’s just another Academy student here to practice her taijutsu, maybe some bukijutsu if she feels up to it. No one’s eyes linger on her, judging and sneering. Here, she’s unnoticed. Just how she wants it.

Sasuke, on the other hand...doesn’t have that respite. Instead, it’s here, among the rest of the village’s population, that he’s the most recognized.

The last of the Uchiha.

Even Hinata can’t help timid glances when he walks by, pausing in her routine to subtly follow him with her eyes. Unlike most of the girls in their class, she isn’t as charmed by his appearance or cold exterior. She’s never really understood why they seem to romanticise it. After all, she can still remember when they first met, when the Academy began that April several years ago. He’d been a bright, if not slightly shy boy eager to learn, and full of hope for a future as a shinobi like his brother and father.

...but now, his only drive is vengeance born of a loss so monumental, Hinata doesn’t even dare pretend to comprehend it.

...why the other girls suddenly found him so alluring once he’d suffered so much...she just can’t understand.

Of course, she has her own fallacies in logic: like trailing after a boy who wants nothing to do with her. But she can’t help but find Naruto’s resistance inspiring. While she only knows bits and pieces of why he’s so alone...she also knows that - in spite of it all - he keeps his head up. And with her own challenges to face, and her own insecurities to overcome...she can’t help but idolize him.

Him. Not his losses. It’s about his perseverance, his tenacity, his refusal to let what ails him drag him down into their depths...as she’s so often felt tempted to do.

But that’s not how the girls see Sasuke. They don’t offer sympathy, or empathy. They all want something from him. Attention, affection...neither of which he seems in any way wanting to give. Their shallow vying for his time grates on her...but she’s never had the courage to say anything. Sakura, Ino...they’re popular. Loud. Assured. If they were to turn on her...well, it wouldn’t be pretty. And Hinata already has the weight of her clan’s disappointment resting on her shoulders. She’s not sure she can bear much more.

All of this goes through her head as he goes by, her stance losing its rigidity and instead just...wilting loosely, somberly. It’s all so unfair, isn’t it…?

...but what can she do? What can any of them do? Children with burdens beyond their means tied to their ankles as they try to stay afloat. Those like Ino...those like Sakura...they don’t know that weight. And though Hinata finds herself frustrated with them...she could never wish that knowing upon them.

It would be cruel.

“Oi.”

Startled from her thoughts, Hinata actually staggers back half a step, heart leaping up her throat with a gasp. Wide, pearly eyes stare openly at her addresser.

It’s...Sasuke?

“S...Sasuke-kun…?”

“You have the Byakugan, right?”

“Um...y-yes…?” Why does her reply sound more like a question? He’s never really spoken to her directly before.

“I need your help.”

Blinking, she watches him turn around and start walking, not even giving her a chance to acquiesce. Not...that she has any reason not to, but he seems to just assume she’ll help.

After a brief pause...she follows.

He leads her to a training ground several over from her own. Like her typical spot, it’s partially nestled in the treeline, hidden from most angles (and other training nin). It’s a spot with several targets set into the trees for kunai and shuriken training. “I was trying a new technique that got out of hand. Several of my knives went off-course, and I’m having trouble finding them in the underbrush. Can you see them?”

There’s a moment to take in his words. They’re so...blunt and to the point. It reminds her of her father’s speech, wasting no time and inflected with little to no emotion. “...um...I-I should be able to…” Taking a steadying breath, she lets chakra build, rushing to the pathways leading to her eyes, which swell with energy as her dōjutsu activates.

Immediately, the world is shifted into an inverted black and white, images and energies outlined and layered. Without moving her eyes in her sockets, Hinata scans the area.

There’s...actually a lot of random gear out here. Kunai, shuriken, senbon...even a sai blade lost and abandoned in the overgrowth. Hinata can’t help but blink in surprise.

“...well?”

“Um...there’s q-quite a few. I...I’m not sure which are yours? There’s...weapons everywhere…”

That gets him to frown. “...really?”

“Yes, a-all sorts. Um...I guess I’ll just...s-show you the kunai…”

“Wait.”

She pauses.

“...we can pick it all up. Someone might get hurt.”

Shock holds her in place for a long moment. He...he wants to…? But it’ll take much longer than just finding what he’s lost.

Understanding then gets her to soften.

...maybe parts of him are still the same.

“...all right.”

With Hinata’s eyes and both of their hands, they scavenge up every piece of equipment in the area, ending up with a rather impressive pile. Some has been here so long, it’s all rusted over. The pair bend over their hoard curiously before glancing to each other.

“...w-what should we do with all of this…?”

Sasuke seems to mull it over. “...dunno.” He reaches in, taking up a few senbon, having already claimed the kunai he recognized. “Is there someone we can tell about all this? People might be looking for their gear...or at least someone might be able to use most of this if no one claims it.”

“T-that’s true. Um…” Reaching into her leg pouch, Hinata withdraws a scroll gifted by one of Neji’s teammates. “We could seal it in here, and t-take it to the administration building.”

“You know about seals?”

“Just...just a little bit.” Tenten hasn’t exactly given her private lessons, given the strained relationship between the cousins. “It’ll be easier than carrying it all by hand.”

After a short while sealing up all the blades, needles, and stars, Hinata stands awkwardly for a moment. Is she...supposed to take it by herself? Or is he going to invite himself along? There isn’t much left to do but turn it in, and...surely he wants to get back to training.

“I don’t know what department to take it to…”

“M-me neither. Is there...a lost and found?”

“No idea...guess we can ask.”

‘We’. Not ‘you’, implying she won’t be going alone. Well...all right then. Scroll in hand, Hinata just...makes her way back toward the village and into the administration building. An obliging chūnin listens to their story, and he points them to a desk for missing items.

“So, this is all unsorted weaponry?”

“Y-yes. We, um...we found it all in the training grounds. Some might not be...worth anything. But we didn’t want it to injure anyone unaware.”

The attendant tucks it away after giving the scroll a label. “Good thinking, you two. We try to do sweeps for lost or forgotten supplies, but things always get missed. Guess we might have to start relying on some Hyūga to help!”

At that, Hinata goes a bit pink, bowing sheepishly as they retreat, deed done.

“Thanks for the help.”

“Y...you’re welcome. I’m glad we found them, and...all that other stuff.”

“Least the lady seemed happy about it. And no students will fall and hurt themselves on a dropped blade.”

“That, um…” Hinata pauses, seeing him glance to her. “...that was a g-good idea.”

“Just trying to think ahead.”

...an awkward silence blooms.

“W...well, you probably want to get back to training, so…”

“Not heading back?”

“It, um...it’s getting a little late. I don’t want to get in trouble.” She avoids directly mentioning her father, conscious of how it might make Sasuke feel. “I can always go back tomorrow.”

“Mm…” He hums in response before adding, “...I’ll probably see you there.”

“Y...yeah.”

“Maybe one of these days we could spar.”

“...eh?”

“Never gone up against someone who can use Jūken,” he replies, a hint of a grin on his face. “Might be...interesting.”

At that, Hinata can’t help but go a little pink. “I...I’m not the b-best at it…”

“Then consider it practice. If you want.”

She hesitates...but then nods. “...a-all right.”

“Cool. See you then, Hyūga.”

“Y...you can call me Hinata!” she calls after him, earning nothing but a wave over his shoulder.

...well, that wasn’t how she expected today to go.

                                                     .oOo.

     I keep telling myself to make these a little shorter to make it a little easier...and yet I keep overshooting my word count goal xD      Anyway, some canon verse stuff! Genin era (or...right before it) cuz I love writing them as kiddos. This'd probably be in my team seven!Hinata AU. I just...I'm thirsty for Sasuke and Hinata interacting in canon. Like at all. YOU LEFT ME HANGING, KISHI.      ...*sighs*      Anywho, I gotta get to bed, so...that's all for now - thanks for reading!