Summer is the Time for Love
Summary: "When will I see you again?" "Next summer." "And after that?" "Every summer, Hinata, I will come." But he didn't keep his promise. I never saw him again. Sasuke/Hinata
Naruto © Masashi Kishimoto
+Prologue: Solstice
"Ow!" The diminutive girl tripped over the tree root and fell face first into a patch of mushrooms. She pushed herself up with her small hands, her knees and hands scratched and dirt on her face. Hot tears left a clean streak as they ran down her grimy cheeks. She started crying softly, "Hn..hn…hngh…"
"You're such a crybaby."
She looked up at the speaker, a young boy just around her age. He was standing in front of her, watching her, not bothering to help. His eyes were black, matching well with his hair, but standing out painfully from the bright forest scene around him. She stared at him for a second, her tears dried in surprise at the stranger.
"Who…who are you?" Her tiny voice trembled, not from fear, but from habit.
"Those mushrooms are poisonous, you know." He didn't answer her question, but instead, looked down at the place where she was sitting.
"W-what!" The little girl stood up quickly and tried to brush off her hands on her shirt. Using the back of her hand, she wiped her face, smearing the dirt and snot around in a terrific mess.
"Here." A white handkerchief was thrust into her vision. She stared at it. The owner of it rolled his black eyes and pushed it out to here again, "Don't just stare at it, idiot!"
"Th-thanks…" She stuttered softly and took the white cloth from his hand. The material turned dirty in a few hard swipes at her face, but it only served to make the mess worse. She stared at the cloth sadly. It was too dry to clean her face.
"It's not working?" He asked, perplexed. She nodded softly while biting her bottom lip.
"S-sorry…"
"What do you mean?" His eyes bore into her white ones. Quickly, she averted his gaze, letting her dark bangs fall over her eyes, again, out of habit. "You don't have to say sorry. It's not like you did anything wrong."
"S-sorry…" She bit her lip again. What an odd stranger.
"We should find some water."
"Th-there's a cr-creek over there." She whispered quietly and pointed in the direction where she had been heading.
"Oh." He looked in the general direction she pointed at, as if he could see the creek through the thick foliage. His skin was pale; he wasn't from around the country. She had never seen him before; and she was sure that she knew everyone in the tiny farming town. "Well, let's go."
He headed off, stepping over the fallen branches and climbing over the fallen tree. She stood up quickly and tried to shake off the dirt on her purple dress. Her mother would scold her again for getting it dirty. She followed the strange boy, this time, paying attention to the tree roots and branches on the ground. The boy was already far ahead of her, occasionally looking back, waiting for her to catch up.
When they had passed the same mushroom patch twice, she knew that they were lost.
"W-wait!" She called out to the boy in front of her, still obliviously searching. "I-I think we're going around in circles."
"I'm not lost!" He replied hotly. His flustered face told her quite the opposite. She giggled, covering her mouth with her slight hand when he scowled. "Stop laughing! It's not funny!"
"I-I think we just have to go through there," she ran up to him and pointed to a grove with wild peonies growing on the side. They both looked over there, and the faint sound of water reached their ears. She smiled, "See? You can hear the water."
"I was going to go there anyway." The boy said brusquely, and stomped off. The girl giggled again; this was a funny stranger. Or was it just because he was a boy? She caught up to him just as they reached the dark grove. Sunlight fell in patches on the overgrown dirt path. He stopped apprehensively, as if wondering if he should take a step inside. She nudged his shoulder gently.
"Y-you're not scared, are you?"
"Of course not!" He retorted and walked into the grove. Halfway through, they stopped in front of a small creek. The clear water flowed quickly over moss-covered rocks and small, worn-down pebbles. It was only a bit more than four feet wide. The shallow water was only two or three feet deep. At the bottom were shadows of fish darting around, mere grey specks. Sunlight made the water shine.
The boy knelt down and dipped the dirty handkerchief into the water. He handed it to the girl. She winced as the cool water made the small scrapes on her hands sting.
"I'll do it." He took the cloth and wiped her hands gently, and then wiped the grime off of her face.
"Ow…" She bit her lips and tried not to yelp. He dipped the handkerchief into the water again, washing it clean before wiping down her knees. "That hurts…"
"I know," he answered. "How old are you?"
"I.." She held up her fingers, counting silently in her head. "I'm six."
"I just turned seven." He smiled proudly. "But you act like a baby."
She pouted at him. "No I don't."
"Then why were you crying?"
"I fell down!"
"It's just a small scratch."
"It hurt!"
"Only babies cry when they get hurt!"
"Well," she balled her fists. "You were the one who got lost."
"No I didn't!" He scowled again and retorted angrily, "I didn't get lost!"
"Yes you did."
"No!"
"Did too!"
"Nu-uh!"
"Did too!"
"Did not!"
"Did too! Did too!"
"Did not! Did not! Did not! Did not! Did not! Did not…" He stopped as the girl began to giggle. Then he started to laugh too. The lighthearted laughter filled the grove, reverberating across the forest. A frog jumped in between them, startling the boy. Ribbit.
"Ah!" He jumped back, pointing at the slimy amphibian. "It's a frog!"
"A frog!" The girl exclaimed. "I-it's so cute!" She reached out to touch it but the frog jumped out of her reach, into the creek and swam off. Looking disappointed, she withdrew her hand.
"You wanted to touch that thing?" The boy, recovered, looked at her incredulously as if would never think of touching such a thing. He probably never would.
"It's cute."
"You're crazy!"
"Scaredy cat." She stuck out her tongue at him. "I-it's just a frog."
"I've only seen them on TV." He scowled and poked her cheek.
"Ow!" She rubbed her cheek. "Y-you're not from Konoha, are you?"
"No. I'm from Tokyo."
"Tokyo?" She tipped her head. The name sounded vaguely familiar. "Is that near here?"
"Here?" He snorted, "No. Tokyo is a really big city. It's really far away from this dump."
"Hey!" A city boy had no right to insult the place she called home.
"I mean, there's nothing to do here. No toy shops, games, or even people." He gestured at their surroundings. "There's just a bunch of trees and frogs."
"It's fun here," she insisted. "It's much better than some place called Tokyo!"
"Yeah," he said, looking down at his hands, strangely quiet. "Probably."
She looked at him, stunned at his subdued answer. He smiled sadly. "You can see the sky here."
"In Tokyo, the sky's always gray and dirty. I coughed a lot." He sat down on a moss covered rock. "There aren't any trees there."
"What?"
"No, I mean, there are trees. But they all look dead and stuff. They're not really green like the ones here." He smiled at her sad expression. "It wasn't that bad though. There are a lot of people. And cars, and trains and stuff like that. It's pretty cool."
"There – there weren't any frogs?" She asked, as if that would be the determining point. Tokyo sounded like a big, noisy mess the way he was describing it. In contrast, the tiny town that she lived in seemed much better. There were green trees and a summer breeze continually flowing from the large lake nearby. It was quiet and peaceful here.
"No," he laughed, his black eyes sparkling merrily. "No. There aren't any rivers in Tokyo. They'll dry up. We have lots of birds though, lots of pigeons."
"I have a bird," the dark-haired girl offered. "Her name is Toki. She's a parakeet."
"A parakeet?"
"Yeah, she's really pretty. She's blue and white."
"That sounds nice."
"Do…" she gulped, "do you want to go see her?"
"Really?" He perked up, but then looked down again. "I don't think I can. Okaa-san would get mad if I don't go home."
"Oh." She looked down sadly.
They were silent. The cicadas on the trees chirped happily and the creek under them gurgled in the sunlight. Squirrels ran along the uppermost branches of the tall trees, covered with moss and spotted fungi. A bird squawked as it flew away. The boy finally stood up.
"So…" he began, "uh…how do we get out of this forest?"
"Huh?" She looked at him for a second.
"I said," he looked embarrassed. "How do we get out?"
"Ohhh." She laughed merrily, the tinkly sound filling the grove. "I-I almost forgot. C'mon, the town is just past the tree."
She started off across the forest, though he quickly caught up to her. He refused to walk behind her, stubbornly staying by her side. She looked at him sometimes, giggling to herself. A strange person from Tokyo who had never seen a frog. He was weird, but strangely, she thought, he seemed pretty nice. Not at all like what she thought a city boy would be like.
When they reached the edge of the forest, they stopped. She could see her house a bit down the road. She turned to the boy by her side.
"Wh-where do you live?"
"We're staying in the house with the blue roof."
"Oh," she brightened up. "Th-that's right next to mine!"
He smiled. "That's nice."
"S-so you can come over and play a lot, right?"
"No…" his voice trailed off. "I'm going back to Tokyo tomorrow. I only came for the summer."
"Aww," she sniffed, suddenly devastated. There weren't any other children her age that wanted to play with her. And just when she thought that she would finally find a playmate, he turned out to be a tourist.
"It's alright." He patted her shoulder with a small hand. "I'll try to come next summer. Then we can play."
"O-okay…" she wiped her eyes. "Uh..um…wh-what's your name?"
"Oh!" He smacked his forehead. "I forgot to tell you. I'm Sasuke Uchiha. What about you?"
"Hinata Hyuga," she smiled shyly.
"That's a pretty name."
She blushed and fiddled with her hands. Nobody had ever said that too her before. "Th-thanks…"
"Haha, no problem." If she had looked up, she would've seen the small blush on his cheeks, almost identical to her own. "So..uh…how about we get going? I'm starving."
"Oh! Okay…" Hinata replied. "L-let's go."
The two children started on the well-worn path, leading the way to the small village.
Author's Note: This is going to be a relatively short and carefree story. I'm trying to make Sasuke and Hinata stay in character as much as possible, but since I'm changing around their life a lot (and because they're kids), they'll bound to be a bit OOC. Any suggestions and constructive criticism is welcome! Please review :]
moonhaku