AN: Hello! This is Acain Keyrose with a story for one of my favorite couples! XD

I'm so happy to post this because I've had the idea for a while now and I've always loved both of the characters in this. But this is also my first Naruto story and my first attempt at portraying these characters, so please review and let me know what you think!

Green With Envy

Inspired By Masashi Kishimoto's Naruto

In a well-lit forest filled with bird song a dark-haired man slid smoothly between the trunks of ancient oaks. He wore the mostly black cloak dotted with red clouds easily recognized as belonging to a member of the Akatsuki and a wide-rimmed, woven straw hat that barely allowed his coal-black eyes to peer out from under it.

He was none other than Itachi Uchiha, just coming back from his latest "mission". It wasn't a difficult one, it was just another assassination. The only unusual thing about it was that it took place near the Leaf Village. This in itself wouldn't be a problem if it wasn't for the male's sudden feeling of nostalgia and urge to visit the place that had once been his home. Even then he didn't decide to go until he had thoroughly thought out all the possible outcomes for such a quick- and admittedly foolish- venture.

And so he ended up where he was now, in one of the training areas. It was the closest to the living quarters of the village he would dare to go without official orders. He was simply walking through the trees, taking in the simple, calming atmosphere of the village he held so dear. If only his brother had found such peace there…

A sudden crash made him snap from his reverie and leap into the branches of the nearest tree, senses instantly alert. For a moment he didn't dare to breath, going over the possibility that someone had already discovered him before finally discarding the idea.

It was someone using the training ground.

Cautiously he masked his chakra and began to move towards the noise. The logical part of him said it was a bad idea, but he felt the need to indulge his less intelligent curious side for once. Before long he was crouched in a tree a safe distance away from the person training.

Though he couldn't see very well due to his deteriorating eye sight he could make out the fact that he was watching a girl with long, dark blue hair that wore black pants and a plain black shirt with the standard Shinobi pouch on her leg. He was also able to make out a small, lilac form off to the side that could have been her jacket. The last thing that he realized- perhaps the most important- was the fact that she was a Hyuuga, if her pale, whitish-lavender eyes were any indication.

Once more his logical side said he should leave before her Byakugan caught sight of him. Once more he listened to his curious side instead, only double-checking to make sure his chakra was well hidden before resuming his observations of the girl.

She was fast, he could tell, and was as fluid as water with her movements. He could see potential in her even with his bad eyes, but he also saw mistakes. Her strikes were too soft, almost as if she didn't want to hurt the tree she was practicing on, and her body didn't always stay in the correct form for whatever action she was performing. Sometimes her foot was too far forward- making her stance loose and her easy to topple over- and other times her arm lowered just enough to make her already gentle attacks weaker and miss the intended targets.

The last two were easy mistakes for even seasoned ninjas, but the first mistake Itachi attributed to her seemingly natural kind nature. Upon closer inspection he also realized that she seemed exhausted from her training, however long it had been going. Studying her briefly once more he decided she had probably started in the early morning, and considering it was already past noon he was a little impressed. He hadn't seen a great deal of younger ninja so determined with their training these days.

As he continued to watch her for the better part of an hour she finally took a break, wiping sweat from her brow and drinking from a jug of water she had brought with her before proceeding to sit in the grass and lie against the large tree she had been practicing on not too long ago. Even as he watched her eyes began to droop and she began to dose off. In minutes she was sound asleep.

This should have marked the end of his time watching her, but it didn't. After seeing her train as hard as she had he felt like he should "throw her a bone", so to speak. This time he didn't even consider all the risks of what he was about to do- and he knew there were a lot- before he pulled out a pen and paper and quickly jotted down a few pointers to help her improve her technique.

Once he finished he silently leapt from his tree and crept forward, carefully making sure she was still sleeping. When he came to a stop beside her he made sure to look closer at her face, wondering what the face of the girl he had been watching for so long looked like. He blinked in surprise.

She looked to be about his brother's age, but was already a beauty. She didn't appear to be as flashy as other females he had met, but he thought that was part of her charm. As far as he could tell she had the elegant poise of a typical Hyuuga, but the fact that she had no mark on her exposed forehead proved she was not from a branch family and instead of the main family. Perhaps she was even the heiress.

That was when, for the first time in his life, Itachi envied a tree.

He had, in the past, thought about the good parts of being a tree. You never had to talk, nobody really talked to you, and most people ignored you completely. You'd never have to do things you didn't want to and your biggest problems would be termites, fire, and someone chopping you down- the last two being a problem for anyone in his line of work anyway.

Even with all this though, he never really wanted to be a tree until this moment. The thought of resting in the shade with the girl in his arms was nice… and brief. The Uchiha finally decided it was time for his sensible side to return to him. He dropped his helpful note in the grass beside her and readied himself to leave, but before he could his illogical side had one last triumph.

He bent towards her and gave her brow a feather-light kiss.

Before anything else could happen he disappeared into the trees and prepared himself to put on the mask of a monster once more.

~oOo~

Hinata's eyes snapped open and she sat up, looking around her confusedly. The last thing she remembered was lying against a tree and taking a break, but it felt like she had been resting longer than intended. Her pale eyes widened when she realized that she had fallen asleep instead of just resting briefly as she was supposed to do.

She moved her hands to the grass on either side of her to help her stand, only to stop when she heard a faint crinkling sound. She looked to her side to see that a piece of paper was beneath her palm and being pressed further into the ground. She seated herself properly once more and took the piece of paper, looking at it curiously.

The paper itself was a pale cream in color, and the writing on it was neat and done in black ink. She read it carefully, quickly realizing that it was a list of tips to improve her fighting techniques. She flushed at the thought of someone watching her as she trained without her knowing and activated her Byakugan to give a quick sweep of the area. As far as she could tell the person who had been there was long gone.

She was a little disappointed that she didn't know who had been watching her and had been kind enough to leave her a list of ways to advance her fighting abilities. She would have liked to meet them, whoever they were. With a soft sigh she stood, brushed herself off, and began to train again, this time following the suggestions the mysterious person had left her.

Never would she know that she had been the cause of Itachi Uchiha's first moment of weakness since the day he had let his brother be the sole survivor of the Uchiha Clan.