It was snowing when she'd met him first. Her father had brought the boy from across Konoha, telling her to be kind to her brother. She didn't know that she had a brother, but she agreed nonetheless. He looked so sad when he'd first come to the Hyūga compound on that white winter afternoon, and spoke so quietly that she could hardly make out what he had been saying.

Her father introduced him as "Sasuke".

The onyx eyed boy wore a black jacket and a deep, dark blue scarf, shin-high black boots, and white pants. His small right fist was clenched around the handle of a rolling suitcase, which he pulled behind him when he came to the compound's gate with her father. His dark eyes looked shattered... like he'd seen a ghost, or had lost someone very close to him. Out of courtesy she didn't ask, but she was curious, nonetheless.

Later he'd told her, her father, that her brother's guardians had needed to leave unexpectedly, and that he would be coming to live with them from that point onward. He explained that Sasuke was only scared because he was coming somewhere completely new for the first time, and would live with people he'd never met. He just needed time. She'd been told to help him with whatever he may need, but she quickly learned that he needed nothing from her. Anything that he needed, he either asked the servants for it, or went to their father directly.

The thought of asking father, himself, for most things terrified her. She'd always had Kō, though, so she didn't need to go to him.

For almost a year after he'd come, Sasuke had never spoken to Hinata, never given the girl a second glance when they passed one another in the halls, or at the academy, but he opened up to others. He spoke with Father all the time, she'd hear it when passing the sitting room while she walked through the Hyūga compound's quiet halls late in the evenings. He spoke to Neji while they walked back to the compound after leaving the academy, and he even talked to Naruto, though he never seemed to want to. There was a strange tension between those two that she never quite understood, a sort of unspoken rivalry that they bore together out of the latter's resolve to prove that he was as good as, if not better than, Sasuke.

She didn't understand it, because she thought that they were both really cool! She just wished that they would notice her, but neither of them ever really did.

Hinata remembered when she'd first seen Sasuke smile. He was seven, then, a year older than her. It was spring, the sun shone through the open window of their mother's bedroom, and he sat on his knees cradling the newborn Hanabi in his arms. The way he cherished the girl seemed so uncharacteristic for him, because she'd never seen him look at anyone in such an adoring manner. He always wore a look of contempt, up until that point...

But the birth of a baby sister did something to change him. He played with her often, holding her small hands and talking to her, feeding her for their mother, and cuddling the small girl when she would fall asleep in his arms. He seemed to never want to part from her. She never admitted it to him, but his treatment of Hanabi made something in Hinata's gut burst to fruition.

Jealousy.

Sasuke began to speak more, and gave Hinata little nods here and there when they'd come across one another rather than ignoring her altogether. He always went to tend to Hanabi after coming from the academy, and their mother would take him with her whenever she travelled with their father for political issues. Maybe it was because he was so good with Hanabi?

Their sister learned to walk by his hands. She'd seen it herself.

He was sitting on his knees, on the floor in their mother's bedroom. Their mother had been brushing Hinata's long, dark hair, her soft voice humming a tune while she worked to straighten the midnight blue locks of the young heiress. Sasuke slipped his fingers from Hanabi's tiny fists and scooted back, holding his hands out for her, telling her to come on. That she could do it. That he believed in her. The toddler didn't want to, Hinata could tell because she wobbled on her little feet, shaking her head vigorously and reaching for his hands. But he refused to aid her.

"Come on, Hana-chan." He said quietly, beckoning her with his hands. For a moment she stilled, but whilst reaching out for her brothers fingers she took an unsteady forward step. One step and then wobbly stillness before a second. When she lost her balance she fell into the open arms of Sasuke, tugging at his hair while he hugged and congratulated her for her achievement. She was upset with him for the rest of the night, but his fawning won her over the next morning.

As years passed, and she watched him grow stronger, and more introverted, even, than he'd been as a child, though more talkative at the same time, she realised something about him. He kept an eye on her, even though he seemed rather distant. He had been there when she'd began training with Neji, she had scarcely noticed him watching with her father. He'd been standing with the elders on the day that she'd fought Hanabi. He just never spoke to her unless she spoke first, though they had chatted quietly while he tended to her after she'd lost to Hanabi. Father had instructed him to make sure she recovered properly, he'd told her.

The joy that came over her when he offered to train her was one that she'd never known until that time. She couldn't even keep herself from throwing her arms around her brother, and part of her expected him to push her away. But after a few seconds, his arms came around her as well, and from then on they'd grown closer than she had been with anyone else.

The steady pitter-patter of rain on the bedroom window muffled the already quiet sound of sobbing in the heiress's bedroom. The ticking of the clock seemed to be working in tandem with the downpour occurring outside, because each click was timed well. The picture of the blond haired shinobi she so loved was gripped lightly between her soft skinned hands, and the tears that rolled down her cheeks tapped quietly on its glass case just as the rain did on the window.

Hinata's eyes slid up slowly as she sniffed, first to the window, on which countless streams of rainwater made their way downward, to their certain demise. Something like her heart had when Sakura had told her. Then, the white orbs of her pupil-less eyes shifted to the her room door, where Sasuke stood watching her. His jaw was set, and her fist tight at his side, while he watched his sister cry over a guy. He only wore thin, navy-blue pyjamas and a black t-shirt, but when he turned on his heel and stormed out of her room she knew that he wasn't going to sleep.

"Sasuke-nii-san, wait..."

She stumbled trying to climb out of her bed, almost tripping over the hem of her nightgown. She gathered her skirts and lifted them enough to run. When, finally, she made it to him, the heiress released her gown and moved her hands up to her eyes.

As she wiped her tears with her sleeves and trailed after him, she did her best to pay no mind to the white eyes of numerous paintings of past Hyūga leaders present in the main house. Her midnight blue hair bounced with every step she took after her onyx haired parallel. He would kill the Uzumaki if she let him, but that wasn't at all what she'd wanted. She wanted Naruto to be happy. The blond had been chasing after Sakura since they were in the Academy, and now that he finally had her, Hinata had no right to try to break them up. She was glad for them... she just had an odd way of showing it.

The door opened and Sasuke walked out without a batting an eyelash to the roaring shower outside. For a moment she hesitated, but as soon as she realised that he was seriously about to go fight Naruto because of her, Hinata lifted her skirts again and ran out after him.

It was so deafeningly loud, the rain alone, that when the sound of thunder came to accompany it Hinata was certain that her ears should be ringing. She could hardly see a metre ahead of her, and it didn't help that his hair and nightwear were as dark as it was out here. Activating her Byakugan was out of the question, because it would certainly wake every Hyūga in the compound, if she did. So, she was left with just chasing after him blindly. That was ineffective, to put it lightly. Her bare feet splashed in the ankle-deep water, and though she'd been outside for only thirty seconds, at most, she was completely soaked. From head to toe, she could feel water pattering down on her and rolling over her body.

She stopped at the gate of the compound, and looked out helplessly, a quiet whimper escaping her barely parted lips. There was no chance that she'd catch him in the rain, not without her Byakugan, and probably not even with the help of her All-Seeing Eye.

"Hinata."

The dark haired heiress turned at the sound of his voice, more annoyed than bitter. Sasuke flicked her forehead when she turned around, and grabbed her wrist when she stumbled backward, pulling her into him, hooking an arm around her waist. "You'll be sick. Baka."

His hand gripped her wrist more tightly and the heiress felt something being draped over her head. Her white eyes flicked over to him, to see that his shirt was off, and she immediately felt bad. She'd get him sick... and this wouldn't be the first time, either. He always covered her up whenever he thought that she was cold, or wet, even if it meant that he had to give her his jackets or shirts to do it. And it was useless to argue with him about it, because once he'd made his mind up about something, he wasn't budging on the issue.

The heiress's eyes shot forward as soon as she sensed the excessive weight of her own Kekkei Genkai pressing down on her. Sasuke stopped, so she was sure that he felt it, too.

"Sasuke."

Hinata froze, a knot finding her throat and silencing her immediately. The white eyes of the patriarch, their father, standing in the open doorway burned into the obsidian-coloured ones of her brother. His grip on her wrist tightened a little before he relented and bowed his head lightly, water dripping down from his limp locks, the rain beating down on his form heavily.

"Sumimasen, otō-sama. I was upset... Hinata was only coming to stop me from making any reckless decisions."

For a while their father was quiet, and the water continued to pour down them. Every second that passed, Hinata wanted more and more to give him back his shirt, but she knew that he wouldn't take it.

"Go dry off, Hinata. Sasuke and I need to talk."

"H... hai... tō-sama..."

She bowed, as Sasuke had not too long before, and stepped inside ahead of her dark haired counterpart. The girl started down the hall, father would make her if she didn't just go on her own, but she heard the older man tell Sasuke to come into the sitting area.

Phew...

At least she could be assured that father wouldn't hurt Sasuke, now.

Her room echoed with the consistent thumping of rain on the window. It was more comforting to the young woman, now, than it had been antagonising earlier.

The cotton nightgown cascaded over Hinata's curvaceous form, the fabric tickling her skin before pooling on the floor around her legs. Her left foot touched the soft carpet that covered her floor before her right, and the young woman stepped to the wardrobe. She had never been one to ogle her own body, and she didn't intend to start now, so she shifted her gaze away from the mirror and to the countless gowns and robes that hung there. It had never occurred to her that she didn't have any real clothes in her wardrobe, that they were all in her walk-in closer on the other side of the room, but she found it rather odd that she, or anyone else, would arrange a room that way.

It flowed freely on her form after she'd tied the straps of the black and blue silk robes, and the much softer material felt warm against her skin. Crawling back up into the bed, and lying down with her elbows underneath her chest, the heiress took the framed picture of Naruto into her hands and laid it face down on her bedside table. A sigh escaped her parted lips, and she rolled over her back, splaying out her arms but pulling her right leg up so that her knee pointing to the ceiling that she couldn't see.

The ends of the silk robe slid down her erect leg, revealing the whole of her right leg. Her eyes closed again when her thoughts turned to the Uzumaki. There was a way to suppress her longing for him... but she had hoped to enjoy it with him. She had, for years, restrained her impulses due to the hope that one day he would notice her affection.

Her hands came to her chest, and the Hyūga lifted her left leg, rubbing her thighs together slowly. Both her hands slipped under her bosom, and trailed slowly over her flat stomach through the robes.

Stop...

She sat up at the tickling feeling in the back of her mind, looking to the closed door, half-expecting to see Sasuke there. Or her father. But no-one had come into her room, and for a few seconds she just stared at the door in silence. Hinata let out a quiet sigh and plopped back down on the bed that was far too big for her alone. Even spreading out her arms and legs, she couldn't take up all the space in the bed. It could fit five of her, at least, and would have room for another two or three at the foot.

For a few minutes she rolled and twisted and turned atop the covers, and finally let out a groan. Frustration had so quickly built in her that she couldn't just go to sleep, even if she wanted to. A nagging in the back of her mind wouldn't allow it to happen. Almost as though someone nearby was using their Byakugan. It wasn't quite the same, though, so she quickly pieced together the situation and sat up again.

It was so dark in her room that she could hardly even see the door, now, but she could very clearly make out the pair of crimson eyes that locked onto hers as soon as she spotted them. A quiet grin came from him, from Sasuke, and when she pulled her thick covers over herself he either closed his eyes or deactivated his Sharingan. Either way, the beacon she'd used to spot him before was gone now, and his silhouette went with it.

Her eyes shot around the room, and she spun on the bed. His hands still caught her, though, and she felt the bed shift underneath her when he climbed into the bed. A gasp left her lips, and she jerked away, but he wasn't so easily escaped. The left hand of her brother caught her wrists, and his right hand came up to her cheek. Their contrasting eyes met and his thumb gave her face a soft stroke. His eyes moved down to her cheek bones, and then to her lips, before returning to her eyes.

"Sasuke-nii-san... You can't be in here..."

The loving hand left her cheek and he flicked her forehead. When she tried pulling her hands down, and opened her mouth to speak, his finger found her lips and he shushed her. "Make another sound and I'll tickle you to death." He ordered, and after a few second stare-down, she nodded. "Good." His voice was edged with a grin and his right hand slid down to her jaw. A pair of fingers ran down her neck and over her pulse before slipping down to her collar bone.

"You weren't thinking of the dobe, were you?"

She shook her head, and immediately felt terrible for lying to him. His eyes flicked back up to hers for a moment, a knowing look flashing on his face before it returned to the over-confident grin she was so used to him wearing. Hinata tried to twist her wrists from his left hand, whining quietly and then yelping when his hand slid into her robes and found her belly, the pads of his forefingers digging into the soft skin there. Her eyes widened when he started to rub her stomach slowly, the feeling send shivers up her spine and she didn't even know why.

But she could care less... she wanted him to keep going...

"What did I tell you, Hinata?"

The heiress choked on her breath when the tickle torture began. She arched her back underneath him and tried to turn her small form away from him, but he wouldn't relent. The hand that held her wrists up dropped from her and came down to her waist, his arm secured the small of her back and both of the woman's hands shot down to his shoulder, vainly attempting to push him away with what little strength she could muster while being tickled that way.

Her breath hitched and then her efforts to contain her laughter began to fail her. It started as quiet giggling, with her patting his arms and telling him to stop between breaths, but he still continued. "S... Sasuke-nii..." the woman plead, her arms shaking when she tried to push him away again. "I... I'm going to cry..." she tried, and his hands slowly came to rest.

Hinata's panting was joined by the thudding on her window as soon as the white noise left her ears, and she let her head fall back onto the bed, her chest rising and falling underneath Sasuke's bare form. She could feel the lush material of his pyjama pants brushing again her leg, just like she felt strands of his dark hair stroked her forehead. He lowered himself so that they were pressed together and for a moment he hugged her, his cheek touching hers and his hair gliding over her nose.

The kunoichi opened her eyes when her breaths were steady, and wrapped her trembling arms around her brother. Her eyes fell shut again and the blackette buried her face in his neck.

"Gomen, Hinata..." he drew back slowly and crawled off of her, sitting on the bed by her while she tugged her covers back over her body. She sat with him for a few minutes, their eyes never meeting, mostly thanks to her willing herself to avoid his. When he finally spoke again, though, she looked up to him. He caressed her chin and jaw, and despite him being the person she was closest to, she still blushed at his touch. "You shouldn't cry over him. I hate to see you cry... Especially over a dobe who doesn't deserve you."

The woman nodded while lifting her hands to clasp his between them, diverting her gaze from his and to their touching hands. "I know... Sasuke-nii-san?" The girl's white eyes flicked upward again when he tipped his head slightly to meet them. "What did tō-sama want to talk about?"

A slight twitch in the corner of Sasuke's lips was quickly replaced by a smile, and he tucked her dark tresses behind her left ear. She half-expected him to flick her forehead before he'd done so, but still she sat and took it, leaning away from him and rubbing her brow when the stinging sensation began. "Sheesh... You flick too hard, Sasuke-nii."

"Hinata." The dark eyes he bore returned to hers and the heiress scooted back on her bed, only to be pursued by her now crawling brother until she felt her back pressing against the headboard. He closed the distance between them and brushed his lips gently against her cheek, patting her head when he drew away from her and smiling, his onyx eyes locked with her pearl-coloured ones. "Go to sleep. I'm sparring with you in the morning, so get some rest."

"Hai... hai..." All the joy in her voice had gone and his smile changed a little, less arrogant now, more saddened.

A hand found her shoulder when she lied down, and he gave her a gentle squeeze. "Don't be that way, Hinata..." he spoke quietly, leaning down and touching her forehead with his, wrapping his left arm around her form and hugging the wrapped-up girl, holding her the way a child would to cherish his or her favourite teddy bear. "I would gladly stay up with you, but you know that we can't. Otō-san would kill me, first, and then you." The kunoichi nodded and felt him kiss her where he'd previously been flicking. A soft, brotherly touch of the lips to her brow.

"Goodnight, Hinata."

The Hyūga clan elders stood by the doors of the compound, watching the siblings, both dressed in training gear, matching one another blow for blow. They knew that the boy was holding back for fear of hurting his sister, but it didn't annoy them enough to make them enjoy the battle any less. To see a non-Hyūga so proficiently wielding Jūken was astonishing, as astounding an even as watching a battle between users of two of the great dōjutsu.

Sharingan versus Byakugan.

They'd think he had an All-Seeing-Eye of his own, if they were looking at the Wicked Eye, themselves.

The sun pounded the area with its golden rays, its glow brightening he sky to a bright blue and giving the Hyūga Compound's training grounds a faint glimmer. The air was still, but each strike that the pair swapped was backed with enough chakra to white the air around. Hiashi stood among them today, and that seemed to encourage the sister to fight harder, and the brother to ease off more than was necessary, because after two or three minutes she'd taken the lead in their battle, putting him on the defensive.

Their patriarch usually only watched Neji spar with Hanabi, but he had come today to watch Hinata and Sasuke. It was rare that the two would spar here for all in the compound to see if they wanted, the two usually went out to the lake to train. The brother insisted that it was quieter there, and that he preferred that they fought away from prying eyes, so that there wouldn't be any derision directed at his sister. Though they argued against him most of the time, the elders wouldn't lie and say that they wouldn't express their disappointment more openly if the heiress was weak.

The collective attention of the elders had their white eyes following the battle which had sped up substantially since the start of the sparring match. The heiress had, before, very rarely showed any prowess in battle, but on this unnaturally hot summer morning she was doing just that. Her strikes were fast and precise, and though he did well to keep from being knocked down by them, Sasuke wasn't completely unscathed.

But then again, neither was Hinata.

"Sasuke. Hinata."

All eyes turned to the Hyūga head when he spoke, and the siblings' sparring came to an abrupt halt. Sasuke's palm an inch from his sister's jaw, and her kunai pressed firmly against his Adam's apple. The clan leader gestured the two toward him with his forefingers. "Come with me. We need to talk."

The clock ticked quietly in the dimly lit room, the aroma of hot tea filled Hinata's nostrils while she and Sasuke waited for their father to pour their tea. He handed each of them a small glass before pouring his own, and sipped quietly as they did.

For a few minutes the three were quiet, and the heiress was beginning to feel a little uncomfortable sitting together with her brother and father, neither of which seemed at all bothered by the silence. In fact, they looked like they were enjoying it. That was so like them... to be able to just sit in silence like this, and drink their tea. She sometimes wondered if they were having conversations in their silence, because they connected so much better than she could ever hope to with Hiashi.

Finally, the silence was broken by her father's steady voice.

"I already spoke with you, Sasuke, so the surprise should be reserved to Hinata." The older man said to his dark eyed son, who nodded and dropped his eyes, watching the tea as if it were something interesting. He spoke again, now to her: "Your brother has been tending to your training for quite a while now, no?"

Hinata tipped her head forward, a short nod of confirmation. "Hai, tō-sama."

"Well, from your sparring session today, I see that you've progressed a lot in the last two years." He stirred his tea with a small spoon and the heiress held her glass between her hands, taking in its scent while she waited. "I've decided that it's best that Sasuke involves himself more in Hanabi's training, as well. So, starting tomorrow, he and Neji will alternate."

It was selfish, she knew, that she wanted to argue against it. But... it had taken years for her to finally get Sasuke to talk to her, or to even notice her at all. And even longer for her to get him to train with her, after she'd lost to Hanabi. She didn't want to lose their special relationship... but what could she really do, but agree? That took a lot more strength than she'd hoped, too, because when she managed to force herself to nod, she knew she'd taken too long in her response because her brother's eyes had flicked up to hers.

"Well then, if you have no objections, I'll inform Neji upon his return. You are dismissed."