Despite how cliche it sounds, Sasuke fell in love with Hinata because of her eyes, but he didn't that way at first.
Back in his Academy days, he actually hated her, and would go as far to say he absolutely loathed her. Why, you ask? Because of her eyes. Those disgusting white eyes associated with the Hyuuga clan. He would look at her and see what he would have had. A clan, a family, to come home to, just like he used to have. There would be someone to greet her at her arrival, someone to look after her training, someone to make dinner for her, while he had no one. He was merely envious of her life.
And as he observed her- discreetly of course; the fangirls were annoying enough and he didn't want to deal with rumors as well- he felt himself enraged with her. 'How dare she be so depressed, pathetic, weak, while she still has a family- has everything he wanted. While he had nothing! Her family wasn't the one that was massacred! That pathetic excuse of a kunoichi!' Needless to say, he hated Hinata almost as much as Itachi.
That was the only way he thought of her, that is, until the month prior to the Chunin Exams' main event.
During his time stuck in the hospital, Kakashi came into his room one day carrying a bunch of tapes. His sensei actually went out of his way to record all of the matches after his for him to study. He was completely uninterested in seeing them, but there was nothing else to do in this horrid building, so he complied. The first one he saw was the Aburame's match, which was exactly after he left to seal the cursed mark. He remembered his opponent, Zaku, as the one whose arms he broke. He slightly shivered at the brutality of it all. He was impressed with Shino's strategy, and a little intimidated by those kikaichu bugs of his- the idea of those crawling all over his body made him cringe.
Up next was the boy from Suna, Kankuro, and Kabuto's teammate, Tsurugi, the latter being the first to attack. Surprisingly, his limbs stretched to amazing lengths and constricted around Kankuro to break his bones, the mysterious bundle of bandages dropped to the floor. He really thought it was the end of him when his neck broke, only for his head to suddenly turn all the way back and for wooden arms to burst out of his clothes. The bandages unraveled and Kankuro appeared, his hand connected to chakra strings.
'A puppeteer?' It proved to be an interesting technique, and a dangerous one as well, when the puppet broke all of the bones on his opponent's body besides the neck. The irony of it all.
Sakura's and Ino's raised some eyebrows. Huh. Who knew they had it in them? Then again, Sakura did look after Naruto and him when the Oto team attacked them, so he knew she wasn't entirely useless. Ino's mind control technique is intriguing, but can be countered easily and leaves her body vulnerable. In the end, there was a draw.
He didn't pay that much attention to the next one, but he took note of Temari's fan wielding abilities and Tenten's expertise with weapons. Nara is quite the genius when he wants to be, and if Sasuke were to face him, he might be outsmarted by him. He's quite the formidable opponent. The dobe's match against the Inuzuka was amusing, to say the least, and, as always, unpredictable. His eye twitched at Naruto's fart, and how he used it to his advantage to win the match. Unpredictable, indeed.
As soon as he saw the kanji for Hyuuga printed neatly on the next tape, he went for the other two below it. He didn't need to see that one for him to know that weakling lost.
Gaara's and Lee's proved to be the most interesting of them all. It was quite a show to see Lee drop those weights and, eventually, open the gates. His fist clenched the blankets as he watched, remembering his defeat at Lee's hands. Lee didn't even need to drop the weights to beat him to a pulp. How pathetic of him. But Gaara proved to be stronger, even when his sand armor broke and was thrashed around. His sand crushed his body, so much that his ninja career may very well end. It's a shame, really, for such an impressive ninja's lifestyle to end.
The Akimichi's match against Dosu wasn't all that interesting, for it ended quickly. And all that's left is...
"No." He glared at Kakashi.
His sensei put up a hand in defense. "Now, now Sasuke, I didn't put forth all this effort for you to just discard it. Watch this match- in fact, I even recommend it. It'd be good for you to watch the Hyuuga in action- they're a surprising bunch."
He snorted, and then noticed that he didn't Lee's other teammate, the supposed strongest Konoha genin. Could it be that he faced Hinata? Who is the mystery genin anyway? "Is it because of Lee's teammate?"
To his irritation, the cyclops chuckled. "Well, sure, you can watch Neji, but I think it would do you some good to watch Hinata-san as well."
'So his name is Neji...' he thought. At the sound of her name, his glare intensified. "That weakling?" he huffed. "Please. The day she's of use to me is the day when Naruto stops eating ramen, or being annoying."
Kakashi sighed. "Just watch the video." He turned to leave, his hand ghosting over the door. "Like I said, the Hyuuga are a surprising group." He left.
Sasuke's stare lingered on the door for a bit, wondering about his teacher's parting words, and then turned his attention to the tape, hoping his glare would help it burst into flames. Eventually he relented, and set up the tape, grumbling throughout. The once black screen now showed a scene of the two genin standing opposite of each other and he sneered at the cowardly stance Hinata was in. Some help she would be, the girl afraid of her own shadow. His sensei seriously needs to get his eye- and also his brain- checked.
Oh, the match is starting.
"I never thought I'd be facing you... Hinata-sama." Hinata-sama? What is she, the heir of the clan, or at least, a direct family member of the head of the clan? Oh, that's fantastic- a failure of high rank.
"Neji-nii-san..." What? Siblings? So Neji is a Hyuuga too. He didn't get to see his eyes at this angle of the camera, so he had no idea, nor did he bother to look up at the screen displaying their names. After hearing Kakashi's, and, shockingly, Lee's explanation clarify their relation to each other, he was even more furious at Hinata than ever before. She, a Main family member, inferior to someone of the lesser house. How pathetic.
The proctor announced the match start, and all of a sudden, Neji started pressuring Hinata to forfeit. He certainly knows her weak points, for Hinata's shoulders slumped and she looked defeated before he even touched her. Neji's next statement of her joining this exam for her teammate's benefit aroused a response from her.
"N-No I..." He rolled his eyes. She stutters- great. "I just wanted... wanted to change myself... do it... myself..." He raised an eyebrow. Change, eh? Well, she certainly needed one if she's ever going to survive as a ninja. Neji, yet again, went into a monologue, destroying Hinata's spirit and her beliefs of change. He briefly mentioned something called a "Byakugan" and Kakashi explained what it was. Apparently, it was a kekkai genkai- more specifically, a dojutsu- that surpasses the Uchiha in sight. He might need to look it up more if he were to ever face a Hyuuga in battle.
Hinata jumped a bit and stared fearfully- so Neji is using the Byakugan. There was a pause again, until Neji broke it, again. He listed off a bunch of observations and the cause of each one.
"... your painful past." A painful past? Hinata, the princess of the Hyuuga clan? Yeah right. She had everything: a family, a lavish lifestyle, an opportunity to be something more. What exactly is painful about that?
And then he remembered. She's part of a clan- and not just any clan, a prestigious one, much like his own. And clans always have their problems, especially in politics. He was so clouded by the loss of his family to realize that it wasn't that perfect. His father neglected him and chose to pressure Itachi into being the prodigy, the pride of the clan. He tried so hard to make him proud, so that he would look at his direction and say, "As expected of my son," like he does to Itachi. During that time, he had his mother to comfort him, and baa-chan to give him a warm greeting everyday. The few times Itachi wasn't busy was spent with him, doting on him, loving him, when he knew his father couldn't.
Did Hinata's father act like his? Did he pressure her so much she broke, or did he ignore her, despite her trying her best? Did she have someone to comfort her in her times of pain?
Was he always this blind?
"... I no longer... want to run away!" Her hands were in the Ram hand seal as spiderweb-like veins surrounded her eyes, which was lit with a fire of determination. It was quite weird to see her like this, in a peculiar fighting stance, and he noticed some chakra leaking out to coat them in blue.
And her eyes... they didn't seem so white.
The Hyuuga leaped out to each other, engaging in battle, although it looked more like a intricate dance, much different from the way the others fight. Hinata was surprisingly more graceful than he assumed she'd be, and fiercer than anyone could've imagined. He heard Gai's voice explaining the fighting style of Jyuuken, where they aim to damage internally and he wondered if Hinata was as deadly as they described.
When Neji slammed a palm to her chest, she suddenly coughed out blood. She obviously is suffering from a blow to the heart, but that didn't stop her from aiming for another attack, to no avail as Neji stopped her as well as pushing two fingers up towards her arm. He pushed the sleeve back to show multiple marks. She seemed shocked as she stuttered out weakly, "No way... so from the beginning..."
"Exactly. My eyes can see the tenketsu." After learning from Kakashi what exactly he's been saying, he knew that this fight is over. Neji made that point when he threw her down to the ground, asking her to forfeit. It was a logical choice, seeing as she no longer can use her chakra and is ultimately useless. She can barely contend the Inuzuka's dog, let alone the strongest Leaf genin. But she stood up, not backing down, not going back on her word (seems that Hinata is a nindo-stealer).
He had to hand it to her: she's as stubborn as Naruto. Even when she coughed out more blood- that, for some reason, caused some dread to well up inside- and stumbled, she stood her ground and attacked, albeit clumsier than before. She was thrown back, beaten to a pulp, but she persevered, until Neji once again landed a hit to her heart, and then fell. She can no longer fight. She would die at this point.
It didn't stop her from standing up again, much to everyone's shock, shaking and panting. Neji looked shaken up, and it was as if he was begging for her to stop throwing herself into danger. What she said next broke his calm.
"That's not true, Neji-nii-san... because... I can see with my eyes... the person lost and suffering within the destiny of the Main and Branch houses... is you."
Neji was so enraged, so much that he ran to her, a palm aimed to kill, yelling in outrage, while she just stood there. 'You idiot, get out of the way. He's going to kill you!'
To his relief- that suddenly came out of nowhere and confused the hell out of him- the proctor, what he presumed as Hinata's sensei, Guy-sensei, and even his own teacher stopped Neji from touching her. Hinata started coughing again, and fell to the floor, the female jounin rushing to her side. His eyes briefly saw Naruto, Sakura and Lee drop down to the arena to Hinata's side. Naruto, angered by the Hyuuga's words, recklessly charged at Neji, only to be stopped by Lee. Naruto grumbled as he relented, and everything was calm again.
Until Hinata coughed up more blood and caught everyone's attention. The woman yelled for the medics, and as they placed her into a stretcher, their words shocked him to his core.
"At this rate, she won't last 10 minutes! Take her to the emergency medical room, hurry!"
He stopped the video, and turned off the tv, suddenly feeling very empty. Just when she proved some worth, proved that she could change, she was ten minutes away from Death's door. Sasuke abruptly climbed out of the bed, his legs a bit wobbly for being so bedridden, as he painstakingly made his way out of the room. He remembered that the emergency medical room was up a few floors and made his way to the left for the stairs. He accidentally glanced inside the window of the nearby room and stopped. He fully pressed himself to the glass and saw a head of black-blue hair that belonged to the only person that would fight her cousin to the death and mess with his mind. How coincidental that her room was right next to his?
Sasuke didn't bother asking himself why he had the sudden urge to see Hinata when he stared at her through the window, nor when his hand reached to open the door to the aforementioned room. Only when he entered her room, saw her hooked up to so many machines, and plopped himself down on to the plastic chair by her bedside to stare at her sleeping face did he question his sanity.
Why did he go through all that trouble to see her after he watched her made a death wish? When did his hate for her turn to whatever it is he felt now? What made it different from before? She's still weak and pathetic, but in a different light, something much more that he can't figure out.
He paused on his musings when Hinata turned ever so slightly to him, as if sensing him subconsciously, with locks of midnight obscuring his view of her face. Impulsively, he brushed them back behind her ear, horrified that he actually enjoyed the feel of her soft cheek.
What is wrong with him? He can't be this affected by her- it's preposterous. He rushed to the door and was about to leave when he heard Hinata's voice.
"Kaa-san?..." That simple word was drowned in sorrow and sprinkled in hope.
He slammed the door on his way out.
The next day, Kakashi appeared at his window to train him. Sasuke's eyes furtively shifted to the right and snapped back to him.
He left.
4 years passed, and Naruto succeeds in bring him back and settling the politics surrounding him. He re-associates with the Konoha 11-now-12 at Yakiniku Q, the popular barbeque place Team 10 often go to. The mini reunion is at full blast as Sasuke finds purchase at a table far away from everyone and finds Hinata there as well. She changed a lot from the last time he saw her and seems a bit more confident than the mousy 12 year old he knew. Both parties are surprised of the meeting, but Hinata takes it in stride as she greets Sasuke warmly and converses with him. He respects that Hinata has not once flirted with him or even hinted at being involved, considering the many girls that come up to him to ask him out.
Throughout his talk with her, he stares at her eyes, observing the not-so-disgusting hue and wondering what changed in those eyes.
Then he realizes that they aren't white at all. They are grey.
She is the white, cool, calm Hyuga clan. She is also the black, fiery, passionate Uchiha clan. She is also just Hinata, with specks of lavender with the pools of grey. She is kind, caring, loving.
Black. White. Grey.
Uchiha. Hyuuga. Hinata.
He doesn't notice that while he's gazing into her eyes, he draws himself closer to Hinata. He also didn't notice Hinata's eyes widening and his closing as his lips brushes against her cheek, the same one he touched all those years ago.
He does notice, however, everyone suddenly getting silent and Hinata's tomato face. The silence is broken by none other than Naruto.
"What the hell?" he voices out everyone's thoughts.
He shrugs. "I wanted to do it for a while." And he has, ever since he sat next to her in the hospital.
"How long is 'a while?'"
He pauses, wondering how everyone will react. "4 years."
He isn't all that surprised when this happens.
Kiba and Neji are being held back by Shikamaru (who keeps muttering "troublesome emo"), Choji (who doesn't care all that much), Tenten (who's happy her friend finally "got herself a man") and Lee (who's ecstatic that the "lovely lily of Konoha" has found love).
Sakura and Ino cry themselves into a corner.
In another corner, Shino is secretly plotting his death.
Naruto... just stands there shell-shocked.
Sasuke feels a tug at his sleeve and he turns to Hinata, whose blush died down to a lovely pink hue. "A-Ano... Sasuke-san... How- I mean why-"
He takes her chin into his hands, forcing her into eye contact. "It's your eyes."
She accepts that blunt reason with a smile on her face, as she returns the kiss, much to his shock and pleasure.
"Thank you."
A/N: Writer's block is a mean bitch. I started writing random ideas down in order to overcome it, and then this happen 15 hours ago (or 1 am). Sorry for any mistakes, signs of OOC-ness, and/or tense issues (I'm working on those!).
I love irises- they have so many meanings~! An iris symbolizes eloquence, a purple one means wisdom and compliments, a blue one faith and hope, a yellow one is passion, and a white one symbolizes purity. Or, an iris can mean "A flat, colored, ring-shaped membrane behind the cornea of the eye, with an adjustable circular opening (pupil) in the center." See what I did there? ;D
See that little white box down there, with the words "Type your review for this chapter here?" You see, it's a wonderful little thing that helps me out with any mistakes made or gives me a little pick-me-up for the day. Would you ever be so kind as to write a few words in there? No flames, though- that's a big no-no. ^^
Suffering from summer homework,
- Failure-chan