A Light in the Night
Uchiha Sasuke, aged seven and a half, was particularly happy that morning as he entered the Academy. His mother had prepared his favourite food, tomato-filled onigiri, which were carefully packed and stowed in his backpack. He was walking towards his classroom, his inky hair bouncing up and down with each footstep; the corridors were currently empty since he was amongst the earliest to arrive.
A dedicated early riser herself, his mother had made it a must to inculcate her morning habit in her two sons, although it seemed that only the elder one, Itachi, had grown accustomed to it. As for little Sasuke, he was always grumpy in the morning, even when he overslept, with a perpetual case of untamed spiky hair sticking up at the back of his head that lasted all day long. Still, he made sure to maintain a straight face in front of his classmates who all appeared to admire him.
As he entered the classroom, Sasuke's pitch black eyes immediately spotted the only other pupil who had already arrived. Seated at a desk in a corner at the back of the room, next to the wall farthest from the windows, she was probably the most silent and discreet child Sasuke had ever met up to now. Plus he so rarely heard her speak that at first he had thought her to be a boy because of that extremely short haircut of hers until she had answered during morning roll-call.
She was Hyuuga Hinata.
"G'morning."
"O – Oh! G – Good morning… S – Sasuke-kun."
And Hyuuga Hinata had a serious case of constant stammering. While treading casually towards his own desk found halfway up the elevated rows of desks, Sasuke could sense her gaze on him. Hinata's eyes were as white as Sasuke's were black. He knew that the other kids would sometimes bully her because she was different. Yet he had never seen her riposte.
Whenever Sasuke looked at her, he instantly thought of a porcelain doll (more particularly, of the one he had accidentally broken at home a couple of years ago) – pale, frail, immobile. Speaking of which, they could rival each other in terms of complexion, but Sasuke was definitely far from frailty and passiveness. For instance, he made sure to engage in his afternoon training almost daily to improve his skills in ninjutsu as fast as possible, all in the hope of making his parents as proud of him as they were of their prodigious Itachi. And maybe a bit more.
The hour ticked by and the pupils slowly arrived, mostly in chattering groups. The last persons to show up were their Chuunin teacher, Umino Iruka, and the troublemaker Uzumaki Naruto who was currently being dragged into the room by an annoyed-looking Iruka-sensei. The dark-haired teacher placed Naruto in the middle of the front row, where he could keep an eye on the blond boy during the lesson. The latter was known throughout the village for pulling pranks, which was most probably why, according to Sasuke, the adults forbade their children from playing with Naruto.
Class finally began. Today Iruka-sensei was talking about chakra theory again, focalising on elemental affinity this time – so far, the young Uchiha knew that he had fire affinity. As the teacher went on with his lecture, the blackboard was gradually covered with chalk – tak tak tak – white words and diagrams invading the dark expanse. As usual, Sasuke was so engrossed in the lesson, busy listening in and scribbling down every single bit of notes in his copybook, that time seemed to fly by in fast-forward – punctuated by Naruto's numerous comments and mumblings and whining – and slowed down to a near-stop only at the sound of the bell signalling lunchtime.
At last, he could relish the delicious rice balls awaiting him inside his backpack. His expression as nonchalant as he was inwardly thrilled, Sasuke took out his blue lunchbox swiftly and revealed its contents. Itadakimasu!
While he was munching on his first onigiri, completely oblivious to the furtive looks that the girls cast at him, his attention was suddenly directed from his meal to a small group of boys passing by him on their way up the steps to the back row of desks. Oh, not again…, thought Sasuke, imperceptibly scowling at the wall on his far right. Have they no shame?
Soon enough, he overheard one of them drawl out, "Hey, Hinata-chan. This bento looks nice, eh?" Pause. "Share some with us? Please?"
Unfortunately, Iruka-sensei had already gone out to eat, so those three bullies who were the biggest and coincidentally amongst the less intelligent kids in Sasuke's class, had free rein at the moment. The others preferred not to get involved with them and their lot for fear of being targeted as well. Therefore, most of the pupils were blatantly overlooking what was currently occurring at the back of the classroom. Sasuke could feel his blood pulsating with irritation but he remained where he sat, convinced that Hinata should start standing up for herself and that intervening would not favour such a development. Strangely enough, he was having more difficulty to eat his onigiri, each bite taking much more time for him to chew and swallow than the last. He surprised himself toying with the edge of the sleeve of his shirt, rubbing the dark fabric between his fingers.
But Hyuuga Hinata said nothing at all. Minutes later, Sasuke saw the same three boys walk down beside him, their cheeks round with what he assumed were undoubtedly mouthfuls of food. He chanced a peek at Hinata out of the corner of his eye. His heart sank, a heavy feeling settling in his mind, as soon as he saw her lowered head – her straight fringe was concealing her eyes but he could clearly see her bite down on her lower lip.
When the lesson resumed, it took Sasuke all the pain in the world to focus once more on the teacher's words – some stuff about shuriken throwing, a topic which he should be utterly captivated by.
However, some time before the end of class that day, Naruto, who had been miraculously less talkative since lunch, finally spoke up again.
"Argh! Iruka-sensei," whined the young Naruto, his upper body sprawled all over his desk. "Can't you let us go some minutes earlier? Class is almost over anyway and I'm getting really bored—'ttebayo!" Sasuke silently scoffed at Naruto's antics – he had always been the active type, unable to remain still during class with an attention span of about thirty seconds.
"Stop complaining and let me finish this lesson, Naruto. Then you'll be allowed to go," responded Iruka-sensei with furrowed brows, pausing in his lecture to look at the whiskered face of his student who vaguely resembled a miserable puppy at the moment. "Alright, so… as I was saying… shuriken throwing is among the basic—"
"But, Iruka-senseeei!" An attention span of fifteen seconds, Sasuke amended.
The dark-haired instructor took to ignore Naruto completely. Mentally, the young Uchiha began to count down: three… two… one—
"That's it! I'm getting out of here!" A defiant Naruto was instantaneously up on his feet and dashed to the door. Before he could exit, Iruka managed to catch him by the collar of his T-shirt and dragged the protesting child towards the teacher's table. Sasuke watched with an amused expression the scene unfolding before his eyes as Iruka-sensei began to moralise his most unruly pupil on the importance of discipline as a shinobi.
A quarter-minute later, the young Uchiha noticed that Naruto's azure eyes had begun to sweep the room, in search for some distraction. They soon locked with Sasuke's ebony orbs. The Uchiha raised an eyebrow, silently questioning his classmate on his next course of actions.
The bell rang.
Naruto was outside in record time, Iruka on his tail shouting after the boy, "Come back here! I'm not done talking to you!"
Around Sasuke, the pupils started to pack up their things and head out. Silently, he closed his copybook, put away his material and got up. As he turned towards the steps, however, his gaze involuntarily flicked in Hinata's general direction. He couldn't see her.
He couldn't see her because a half-dozen of kids had converged around her desk, blocking her from Sasuke's view with their backs. As he lethargically made his way down the steps, his sensitive hearing instantly perked up as those idiots started asking the poor girl to please copy the notes on the chalkboard for them because they themselves couldn't for blah blah blah reasons.
"S – Sorry, I can't—"
At her words, Sasuke's faith in her was immediately restored.
"Come on, Hinata-chan. I thought that we were friends and if…" – blah blah blah. Something that suspiciously resembled pure blackmailing reached Sasuke's ears as his feet found the last step. What should he do? He had not stopped walking and now here he was, nearing the door.
This is not my problem. I've got training to do and then I have to go home…
He passed through the threshold.
She should have more confidence in herself and stand up to them! This is her battle; I have absolutely nothing to do with it.
He was now walking down the corridor, following the throng of Academy students towards the exit.
She'll be fine.
She'll definitely be fine…
… Right?
His pace had drastically decreased to a lethargic walk despite the fact that the crowd of children had already thinned considerably – after all, everyone was eager to return home.
Haaa…
The exit was just before him, a few more steps and he would be outside with the others.
What to do?
He stopped in his tracks, his fists gripping the straps of his backpack tightly. He quickly relinquished the straps and shoved his hands into the pockets of his shorts. At that moment, he saw a group of six kids run past him, their feet thudding against the floor, and head out through the double doors of the Academy. A sudden silence fell in the entrance hall and Sasuke realised that everyone else had gone.
Almost everyone else.
Sasuke didn't think twice.
At once, the young boy whirled around and sprinted off in the direction where he had come from. Around him, the corridor was a blur. The rhythmic sound of his footfalls was echoing around the hallway, making the few teachers still remaining glance at him as he passed by them.
Finally reaching his classroom, Sasuke made a sharp turn towards the door and promptly entered.
Hinata was still seated at her place, head bent over arms which were folded atop the wooden surface before her. An untidy stack of copybooks was standing precariously by the edge of her desk. Quietly, almost inaudibly, Sasuke made his way up the steps, his gaze never leaving her midnight-blue locks, absentmindedly wondering whether he should pretend to have forgotten something. However, she seemed not to have noticed his presence, and even when he had reached the topmost step and went over to her and plopped his bag down next to hers, she did not react at all.
Now he really wanted to get her attention. He momentarily looked at that short hair of hers and, impulsively, he placed a hand atop her head and ruffled her dark locks.
To say that this sudden gesture surprised her was a huge understatement. Hinata nearly jumped out of her chair at the unexpected contact, her head jerking upwards in alarm and her eyes wide in shock as she looked up at him. "Ah… s'rry," said Sasuke, startled himself by Hinata's overreaction. At a loss for words to come up with a valid explanation, he simply uttered the first thing that crossed his mind: "I was wondering why you've got such short hair. I think that long hair looks much better on girls." An image of his mother crossed his mind at that moment.
"Oh… well… It's my f – father who w – wanted that." Sasuke hadn't actually expected an answer, which made him speechless for a moment.
"Why?"
Hinata opened her mouth to reply but then closed it again. Instead, she simply looked at him, as if pondering on how much she could – or should, he didn't know – reveal to Sasuke. At last, she stuttered out, her mellow voice going quieter with each word, "M – My father always wanted a… a son."
An awkward silence suddenly fell all around them, during which Sasuke merely stared at the crest of the Hyuuga clan which was emblazoned in Hinata's long-sleeved shirt. After a while, he said quietly, "You know… You shouldn't just agree to everything others tell you to do." The young girl remained silent but she was now looking at him again. "And… Right. Start by speaking up more, okay?"
"Y… Yes…," she finally said.
"And louder too."
"Y – Yes," she said again, her voice slightly less mellow.
"And you don't have to agree with everything I say either."
"Ye—" At this, Hinata's face visibly blushed in embarrassment and she ducked her head in a desperate attempt to hide it. This sudden burst of shyness from her did not leave Sasuke indifferent. The latter could faintly feel his own cheeks grow warmer as he looked at her, realising that he was the cause of her timidity. And this made him feel slightly awkward as well for some unknown reason.
Quick, quick! Find something to say—
"Your name is Hinata, right?" She nodded, still not looking at him. "What does it mean?"
"It m – m – means 't – towards the sun'," said Hinata in the tiniest of voices.
"Ah? What did you say?" His extra-sensitive hearing had actually failed Sasuke for the very first time in his life. He automatically leaned in closer to Hinata.
"It means 'towards the s – sun'!" She repeated much louder this time while suddenly raising her head. It bumped against Sasuke's forehead, who instantly stepped back, a hand reaching up to massage his throbbing skull.
"Ow…," he let out softly, closing his eyes tightly as the pain settled in.
"Aaaah! I – I'm really sorry…"
"It's okay…," replied the young boy automatically, although his furrowed brow belied his words. Truth be told, it hurt – a lot. He was now slowly rubbing his palm against his forehead, a bit relieved that the impact had not been hard enough to leave a bump. He didn't want to go explaining everything to his all-seeing, all-knowing mother… She just seemed to have a gift in this domain.
When Sasuke reopened his eyes, they locked immediately with Hinata's twin white orbs. He raised an eyebrow at her worried face, partly aware that he had just shown her an un-cool side of THE Uchiha Sasuke-kun. Suddenly feeling ridiculous, he let out a "Hmph!" and looked to the side. He could already feel a blush colouring his cheeks.
A delicate sound, like tiny chimes in the wind, caught his attention. He turned towards its source and saw Hinata with a hand over her small mouth, her shoulders shaking lightly.
She was laughing.
Wait, is she laughing at me?
He wanted to look affronted but, really, at seven years old, every feeling, every emotion was much more easily communicated. Sasuke didn't know how, but he burst out laughing too.
Afterwards, the silence that followed felt much less awkward.
"So…," Sasuke was now saying, "what will you do about their copybooks?" Hinata just shrugged her shoulders. Both were thoughtful for a moment, and Sasuke briefly wondered about the whereabouts of their sensei. Since he was chasing after Naruto, they had probably reached some ramen shop by now. How much time had already passed now since class dismissal? But this thought was pushed aside as an idea rushed to the front of his mind. "I just learnt a new fire technique. We could burn them with it!" Seeing Hinata's eyes grow wide in shock, he swiftly grabbed the pile of copybooks off the desk and raised them high above his head before Hinata could reach for them, shaking her head vigorously. Fear was apparent in her eyes.
"… Kidding." A mischievous smile on his face, the boy lowered his arms, cocking his head to the side as Hinata grabbed onto the other end of the pile and once again ducked her head, most probably, he assumed, out of embarrassment.
"Meanie…"
Well, as Sasuke had previously wanted, Hinata finally expressed herself. However, this honest externalisation of her thoughts was in no way flattering to our dear Sasuke-kun. She tugged on the stack of copybooks but he didn't let go.
"Okay, I deserved that. But I'll give them back only if you promise to start saying no to people from time to time."
"… No." Since Hinata's head was still lowered, he could not see the small smile now gracing the young girl's lips.
"Hey! That's cheating. And I'm still not letting go. And what's so interesting in…"
Sasuke leaned down to take a peek at Hinata's face, this time tilting his head to the side so as to avoid any eventual forehead bump. He could see the corners of her lips curled slightly but her straight fringe was veiling her eyes. Curious, he drew even closer to her until the tip of his nose almost brushed against her cheek. For a split second he managed to glimpse those white pupils, now bright with a new light, just as Hinata suddenly raised her head.
It took Sasuke a whole second to register that something soft was now pressing against his lips.
Maybe part of Sasuke had unconsciously known all along that this might happen, that daring part of him which was always keen to try out new things.
But what he had not anticipated at all, though, was a flushed Hinata unexpectedly passing out.
They had just kissed.
[Author's Note]
Here's the prequel to Towards the Sun! Please let me know your thoughts about it :)
Running Bird