To make the reading a little less difficult, here's a little observation:

- The texts between quotation marks, when appearing randomly in the middle of the text, represent the thoughts of the characters. Not everything written between " " are thoughts, but I guess you guys will recognize when it's not. Thanks for your attention!

Chapter Two: The end of the carapace

The Uchiha turned his back and walked away, after a comment of support that has never been characteristic of the insensitive and individualistic boy. She stood there watching as he walked to the end of the street and turned around the corner, to, only then, enter home. At the end of the short ride she had in company of Sasuke, her eyes were no longer swollen, and her features were definitely not as sad as in the moment she was found crying in a tree by the boy who so kindly walked her home, which caused her to calm down.

She was walking slowly through the gardens of her home, and sighed wistfully as stopped right in front of the door, "For some reason, now I would rather be with Sasuke-san." Seeing that she had no other option unless open the door and face her family, Hinata decided to get ahead with everything sp that she could go straight to her room and think about everything that happened that day.

Meanwhile, Naruto was sitting in a dark alley, staring into the space that a second earlier was occupied by an enraged and very different Sasuke. "Hard to swallow that nothing happened to Sasuke. He was always cold, never bothered with more than one or two people, and now came to threaten me, all because I just ended up hurting Hinata. Bizarre".

Sasuke had left the alley, walking still full of anger as he passed Sakura, who accompanied him with her green eyes as expressives as emeralds.

- Sasuke! - Called it the pink-haired girl - What happened?

Stopping, he turned around and, still trying to calm down again, thought about the least offensive way to ask something to his ex-partner.

- Sakura, I need you to answer me something, but you must be completely sincere - his black eyes seemed ready to swallow her if she lies, and they were so intimidating than when activated in their deadly state- This relationship with Naruto, it's for real ?

- What? Something very bad must have happened to Sasuke to be bothering about losing a girl to another guy - played Sakura - Look, I swear I tried to conquer you. I struggled from the day I met you, I gave my sweat, blood and tears for you, and nothing. Until one day, I discovered that I was no longer in love with the same person. From that day until yesterday, I was thinking about it until I decided to declare myself to Naruto. And I saw that he was the one I was waiting for so long. You're not upset about it, are you?

The Uchiha looked at her very carefully, looking for some trace of lie in the words of the girl who had always been sickly crazy about him. And, to his surprise, she was just being honest. This caused a feeling of relief on the young man, who muttered something like "Yeah, yeah, be happy" and left, heading toward his house, thinking about Hinata.

He went home, had to think about a lot of stuff. This whole mess on his head was killing him. "I do not know exactly why I treat her differently. Perhaps because she is a poor thing, rejected by Naruto. It must be painful. "Never before he had been rejected, Sasuke just automatically rejected any girl who declared herself to him so far, but for some reason, Hinata did not arouse the repudiation of the Uchiha. He mentally decided to maintain the argument that she never wanted anything with him, so he had no reason to leave her there. But all that has happened in some way changed his way of thinking.

Once he got home, the Uchiha heir slammed the door of the living room and then locked it. He undressed in his way to the bathroom and took a cold shower to cool off. The heat in his house really was hellish, especially at that time of the year. After the shower, opened the bathwater, and as it was filled, dipped to another session of brainstorming. He had acquired this habit as soon as he reestablished himself in Konoha again, after his suffering two years long trip, seeking revenge for his clan, which has already been achieved.

As much as he struggled to find an apparent reason to show some sort of affection for a girl almost unknown, all he could see in his mind were the scenes of brief moments they were together. The touch of her hand descending from the tree, her breath on his chest when he tried to make her feel a little better, which, by the way, never made sense in the mind of the young Uchiha, were stuck inside his brain. Passed so much time thinking, reflecting and revising scenes in his mind, that he fell asleep there, half of his body immersed in the relaxing hot tub of his suite.

At that very moment, only a few miles away, not many, Hinata was laying in her bed, small and delicate hands resting on her chest, her face slightly flushed, and in her pearled eyes, a look completely lost."Not that I feel something for him, but I was never treated well by anyone. Also, he never treated anyone like that, and that's weird. But those eyes seemed to want to swallow me, I felt lost facing those black globes", squirmed in his bed when he heard knocks at her door.

- Hinata-sama, can I join you for a moment? - Neji was his cousin. In fact he acted more like an overprotective brother than an actual cousin.

Rising from her bed, the girl went and slightly opened the door, not intending to be disturbed until she comes to some conclusion about Sasuke and Naruto. All she could see of the body of his cousin was a small strip of his face, which revealed one of his eyes, pearled as their family heirloom. From what could be seen by the angry tone in his voice, and his aggressive look, Neji found out that she had been accompanied by Uchiha kid up home.

- Sorry, nii-san, but I would rather be alone now ... - Said in a tone so low that if they were not in a very quiet house, the boy probably would not be able to hear - Please leave me now.

- I understand. Thinking about that Uchiha brat, right? - The tone of irony was not very well accepted by the ears of the firstborn of the family, which just closed the door on Neji, who laughed and went away, determined to hit it at a future opportunity. Since they met each other in the initial phase of the Chuunin exam, Sasuke and Neji considered themselves rivals. And the black-haired boy always had the perfect personality to make enemies and rivals.

Sasuke suddenly woke up in his bathtub. He ended up falling asleep, forcing himself to figure out a reason for his strange behavior. The weirdest of all was not what happened, but the dream he had. He dreamed about Hinata, two hours back in time, still on that tree's branch. But he never said anything, just looked at those penetrating pearled eyes of the girl, her soft and tender lips were very inviting, her smell only made him numb. By impulse, the boy approached, and the distance between the two was getting smaller, since he kept coming closer. He put one of his hands on the girl's face, pale-skinned, and felt the touch of her skin on his hand again. It was unbearable, that game of seduction, where no one knew whether who was the seducer or the seduced, as much as Sasuke thought he was superior. After all, he always had to be on top of everything. Their faces were together, their breath mingled in the short distance between their mouths. When their lips would finally touch hers, at the time he'll put an end to the wait and, with it, his moral and mental torture, the Uchiha woke up, frightened and plunged to the waist in hot water, inside his bathtub.

- What in the name of my sanity, was it? - Exclaimed the boy, putting both hands cupped under the water and throwing it in his face - I wasn't like that. I've never been, not even when my parents were alive.

He emptied the contents of the bath and got dressed. Left the bathroom with a white shirt, wide, and black shorts that covered up to his knees. Always dressed like that, baggy clothes and neutral colors. The most different thing he did was put the emblem of his clan on his clothes, even though he was the sole survivor. Yet, with the feeling that he needed to unwind, Sasuke was exercising, doing sets and more sets of pushups, crunches, all sort of exercise to maintain his perfect fitness, something that he considered his pride and joy, besides the fact, of course, of having avenged his family, killing his brother.

Hours after closing the door on Neji, Hinata finally left her room, still uncertain about the nature of the acts of Sasuke. She needed to figure out what was going through the mind of the young black-haired, dark eyed man. This desire gnaws at her soul, and occupied her mind, causing her to madly daydream with the insensitive boy feeling sorry for her. Hinata, however, was ashamed to be lost in thoughts, especially about someone she barely knew or spoke with. But her desire was so deep within her, that created a certain anxiety, she was afraid he could treat her like the others at another occasion. She didn't know, however, that the Uchiha was dying to figure out the same things as her: why he acted that way and what was going on with his mind.

Two days passed without anything new happening. Unlike the day Sasuke and Hinata met each other, the sky was dark grey, full of clouds. Many people decided to go home sooner, due to the catastrophic rain that was about to fall. The only good part about this rain was that there was no forecast of strong winds, which turned out to be the determining factor for a person to stay where he was: Uchiha Sasuke.

He remained in the great edifice of Hokage, where the majority of professionals of his area worked, excepting those who were out on mission. He was analyzing some cryptic secret messages intercepted by some of his colleagues. Yes, it was a job that was definitely not his favorite, but someone had to do it, and Sasuke never yields a challenge. But something was disturbing him: the scene of his dream when he and Hinata almost kissed had been imprinted in his mind, making him catch himself in the middle of some mad reverie.

- Damn! It is the fourth time, only in the last 20 minutes! - The boy complained aloud, as he was there alone - I have to fix this head of mine, and take those thoughts out of me.

He was sick of it. He didn't liked that he has ceased to be cold and apathetic with someone, especially a girl, which could create dirty ideas in the most polluted minds of all young girls who were part of the Uchiha fan club. She could mess with his mind, with his fans, but not his work! He lived for it, and did this for a living. It was a relationship of interdependence, very sad for someone in his condition, but it was pure and raw reality.

Threw it up, "What the hell, I'll go home." She had won on this one. Little by little, the boy was getting rid of its old features, on behalf of the incomprehension of his own feelings. It was too humiliating for him to expose it to someone, but too strong to do nothing about it. He closed the door to his office, and went downstairs. Never took the elevator, said it was "lazy and sedentary people's habit." However, upon arriving in the vast floor of the building, there he meets the only person who he had no intention of seeing at that moment: Hinata.

When he saw the Hyuuga there, looking through the transparent entrance door, Sasuke could not help but notice how much attractive the girl was. She was wearing a button shirt, white short sleeves, and blue sea pants, which highlighted her well-developed curves, and her shoes, black. She had not very large hips, but, also, not too small, "Perfect size," according to Sasuke. Her thighs were very close to perfection, but what really caught the attention of Sasuke was the fact that he was seeing her from behind (Needless to say where he looked at her), which caught the attention of the young man for a few seconds, before he realized that he was acting like a pervert, like Kakashi or Jiraiya. Shaking his head sharply, the Uchiha started walking, with the intention of passing by Hinata and be on his way home without turning to the girl who watched the rain falling with a worried face.

He walked, putting his hand into the pockets of his coat, a black coat, made of a special material that kept the temperature pleasant in any season. It was the garment that Sasuke gave more value, actually, was the only one he valued. He was also wearing dark trousers, just did not reach the ground, because their shoes would not let the bar of the piece drag on the floor. He took an umbrella from one of the pockets of his coat, and went on, but his eyes did not resist looking in the face that had persecuted him constantly in his dreams. He noticed that she had nothing to protect her from the storm that rumbled outside. "No Sasuke, no!" Too late. He stopped right besides Hinata.

- Hello, Hinata-san - Sasuke said, again contradicting himself - I see you're without an umbrella.

- Oh ... - After an exclamation of surprise, she continued to speak in a very low tone - Indeed, I forgot mine.

- Well - "Sasuke, do whatever you want, anything! Except offering yourself to walk her home" - as I have one and I must be the last living soul in this building, what if I give you a hand? - "Ugh, I did it again!"

Hinata blushed with every word spoken by the voice deep and serious of the young man beside her. "Again", she thought. "Again, having thousands of people across Konoha, he had to be the one to help her". For a moment she forgot everything else, and looked back inside those black eyes that made her lose herself in its mysterious immensity. But this time something new happened. Sasuke felt that she admired him, and blushed. Sasuke blushed because of a woman!

- I. .. - Having no other option and, to the horror of the inner Sasuke, which was still thinking as the regular Sasuke - I ... I accept your help, again, Sasuke-san.

The two left the building, stopping under the awning in order to open the umbrella. Once the instrument was opened, the two were positioned so that it covered them both, but Sasuke knew it would not be possible for the two to be covered completely. They went out in the rain, and the boy, surreptitiously, holded the umbrella to cover Hinata completely, leaving half of his shoulders on the rain, strong, cold and cruel rain.

Calmly walking through the town, the Uchiha couldn't help but notice that his companion was inactive. Still staring at Hinata, several hypotheses were formed in his head, from something bad that had happened to her at work, even ... She was not enjoying his company. The girl noticed that Sasuke looked at her with an inquisitive face, so she decided to say something to see if she could break the coldness of Sasuke.

- It's cold, isn't it, Sasuke-san? - Commented, with too much effort, the young blue-black haired woman. So that's what she had! Cold! A big relief came over Sasuke, who stopped by the time she opened her mouth.

- Hold here for a minute, please - said, handing her his umbrella. He took off his coat, his favorite coat, and gave it to her - Use this or you will catch a cold.

Both the boy and the girl blushed deeply. Trembling from nervousness, Hinata grabbed his coat and put it on, even with it being too broad. He felt nice, suddenly. He was warm, but not on the outside, it was his heart that was warm. They walked in silence until they reached a fork.

- Well, here we are splitting up - Sasuke said - But you can get my coat and umbrella, no drizzle is able to take down Uchiha Sasuke - ended with an arrogant tone.

- S-sure, Sasuke-san? - Asked the boy, his eyes focused on the boy's face.

- Completely sure.

They bid farewell right there. In fact, it was not a goodbye. He just passed the umbrella to Hinata, and started to get going when she called again.

- Sasuke-san?

- Yes?

Hinata blushed a lot, but went to him and gave him a small but meaningful kiss on the cheek. The two were very stained, and the girl finally broke down and ran home, leaving the stunned Uchiha under the rain. Moments later he woke up that very real dream, even if unconsciously, and started running to protect himself from the rain at home, which he reached a few minutes later.

He entered the house, soaking wet, and angry with himself. "Foolish of me to have cast off my stuff to help another person". On the other hand, something inside him made him feel peaceful and relaxed. The kiss she gave him burned his skin, not in the body, but in his tormented soul, which has always suffered from loneliness, until he got used to it. Waking from the nightmare was becoming not so hard to believe. He began to consider possibilities.

Hello, everyone! I'm here to say something about this story. English is not my mother language, even though I studied a lot during my school days. However, I'm still very inexperienced in writing in this level of english. Since I'm brazilian and this fanfic was originally written in portugues, the translation is proving itself a little harder than I expected it to be, so, PLEASE! Forgive me for my mistakes, I'm really doing my best to improve my writing, in order to make everyone understand the plot. I'm accepting corrections, advices, anything that could make my texts better, just write it on reviews, and I'm promising to have a look. And, of course, I would like to thank you very much for reading my story, it's very important for me to have constant readers. For those who are already giving me some support, GOD BLESS YOU! That's all folks, bye!