11. Realization

Sasuke finished his bath, and walked back towards Hinata completely clean. He found her laying at the base of the tree trunk, eating an apple and staring into the sky. Hinata looked up at him and smiled, blushing slightly while pondering his strange behavior back at the stream. Her mouth gaped as she looked at him, without all the dirt clogging his features, he truly was a prince, just as every girl in Konoha had described him. The Hyuuga heiress blushed another shade of red and quickly averted her gaze back towards the sky, secretly willing him to not notice.

"Hey…" he said while he took a seat next to her, making a grab for another apple. It was a good thing he picked plenty of them before heading back. Hinata turned slightly to continue staring at him in silence while he looked up at the sky to gauge the time. 'Roughly 3:00 p.m. by the height of the sun…' he sighed. They wasted the entire day recovering from combat. 'One thing's for sure.' he thought 'If we can barely hold back Jounin level ninja, than there's no way in hell were capable of taking on a Legendary Sannin yet…' he frowned at this thought and closed his eyes while taking another bite from the fruit in his hand. "What's wrong?" Hinata asked him, raising one of her hands and tapping his arm. "Well… I was thinking,-" he said "- we really need to train more, Orochimaru is sure to be stronger then Kakashi, Kurenai, or anyone else that we've fought so far, and seeing as how we barely scraped by that last one, we really need to increase our skills."

Hinata nodded as he spoke. It was too true, they barely won that fight and that was because Sasuke had resorted to the painful alternative of willfully releasing the curse seal. 'I hope he never does it again…' she closed her eyes and frowned at the memory of watching him cringe as he struggled to disable the seal's power. 'Never again…

"Come on-" Sasuke got up, taking her hand and helping Hinata to her feet also "-we need to decide where were going next. If we go back to Tanzaku again, then they might have ANBU Black Operations waiting there this time." Hinata nodded and the two of them set out to get some distance between them and the city before deciding their next move.

They jumped the treetops for roughly 10 minutes before dropping down to a wide road. Hinata scanned with her Byakugan. "I don't see anyone else out here, I guess were alone." she blushed slightly at her words. Sasuke only nodded, and walked forward, motioning for her to follow. Hinata couldn't help but feel slightly disappointed at his seemingly lack of a reaction, and it momentarily displayed on her face while she followed him.

Sasuke did not trust his voice at the moment and was silently fighting down the levels of red tint in his face…


Sasuke and Hinata stopped after traveling for another hour, Hinata had a habit of settling in earlier than most people, which irritated Sasuke slightly, but he complied to her wishes without a fight. He chose a nice spot in the middle of a green meadow, and then remembering that they did not have any supplies to set up a camp, began looking around for suitable cover. 'I guess it'll be a warm night out.' he thought, as the warm summer breeze swept by him. Hinata seemed to think otherwise however, and she activated her Byakugan in slight frustration at the lack of suitable cover. The sun was setting now, Sasuke decided to let Hinata find a suitable location for them to settle in, seeing as how she was not satisfied with sleeping out in the open. He drew Samui Kaji from his shoulder, the blade had been had seen its fair share of use yesterday, and that promoted the reasoning that he should practice with it more.

Hinata sighed as cover seemed to be impossible to come by, and with ANBU probably on their tail now, sleeping out in the open was a big risk. The Byakugan sighed and went back to rest as she turned to watch Sasuke swing Samui Kaji in slow motion. The runes flared dully in the sunset as he swung it towards an imaginary enemy and then raised it to parry the counterattack that would have probably been carried out in a real life combat situation.

Sasuke felt her eyes upon him, and sheathed the blade, "So-" he asked "-what's the verdict?" she smiled and shook her head "I don't see anything out here Sasuke-kun."

"Then I guess well have to settle for my choice this time." he smirked. Hinata had always been the one to decide where they stopped until now. Sasuke raised his hands and beckoned to Hinata in a Jyuuken pose. "Let's go." he smirked as she raised her own hands in preparation with a confident look in her eyes. "I'm looking forward to this."

They lunged towards each other and met in the middle of the meadow. They traded blows and parried one another for a full 30 seconds before finally breaking apart. Neither had sustained a single hit, Sasuke smirked "Is that all you got?" he teased her to which she countered with a highly confident smile "Not yet!"

The night sky filled with stars over their friendly yet intense skirmish.

Hinata lay next to Sasuke, both of them still breathing hard from their training match, In the end, Sasuke, his body being unable to react in time to his Sharingan's warning, was pegged next to his cheek, although neither of them flowed chakra into their hands, so he wasn't really hurt. "Heh… Ill let you get away this time…" he said to which she giggled. 'Maybe, just maybe when this is all over, I might be able to live in peace.' Sasuke thought, his vengeance for his family grew less and less important with each passing day as his mind was set on their current journey.

Hinata cuddled up next to him as she always did, but this time the both of them blushed harder then the first time they did it. It took 2 minutes for them to fight red tint down without making each other notice, and they both stared up at the sky for what seemed like an eternity when Hinata reached up with one arm, and grasped the air in front of her. Sasuke glanced at her quizzically but didn't say a thing as she turned her palm for examination. "I wonder if we can really do this." she admitted, this entire time she was not sure if defeating Orochimaru was an accomplishable task for just the two of them. "Don't be stupid-" he replied quietly "- were more then enough for this." he smirked in the pale moonlight. Laying flat on his back, his arms tucked behind his head as a makeshift pillow, watching the moon and stars, and having Hinata next to him made his happiness skyrocket for the first time in several years. He reached out his hand and repeated Hinata's gesture.

'Well win through this, ill make sure of it.' he thought.

He closed his eyes and let sleep take him away

Dare mo ga minna shitteru

Keseya shinai kizu o

Dore gurai tsuzuku no?

Mou iranai yo

Dare mo ga minna matteru

Arasoi no nai hibi o

Senshou no heishi-tachi

Omoi dashite yo

Ima haha no Nukuoro o

Kono hateshinaku hiroi sekai ni

Jibun dake no chizu egaite

Namida koraete

Bokura wa auiteyukou

Furimukanaide

Mae dako o mite

Sono karada kuchihateru made

Nigeteyuku n da mirai e

Omoi dashite yo

Ima haha no Nukuoro o

Kono hateshinaku horoi sekai ni

Jibun dake no chizu egaite

Namida koraete Bokura wa aruiteyukou

Furimukanaide

Mae dake o mite

Sono karada kuchihateru made

Nigeteyuku n da mirai e

'Well win through this, ill make sure of it' she thought.

She closed her eyes and let sleep take her away

We all understand

That wounds can't go away.

How long will it go on?

We don't need them anymore

We all wait for the day

That there will be no strife.

Wounded soldiers,

Remember now

Your mothers' warmth.

In this vast and endless world,

Drawing our own map,

And holding back our tears,

We'll continue on walking.

Stand up now,

See now, however many times

Sleeping lions are awakened,

Live on tomorrow

We all carry

A fragment of love,

Even if we feel hatred,

Nothing will be born of it.

That's something we don't need.

Within the limits of time,

Setting out for a paradise we've yet to see,

As far as it takes us,

We'll continue on walking.

Don't turn back,

Only look ahead.

Until your body wastes away,

Live on to the future

Remember now

Our mothers' warmth.

In this vast and endless world,

Drawing our own map,

And holding back our tears,

We'll continue on walking

Don't turn back

Only look ahead.

Until your body wastes away,

Live on to the future.

Song : Rakuen by Do As Infinity

A/N: Sorry, the lyrics were really long for this song, but it fit so much that I just had to slap it in heh. I dont blame you if you skipped over it, just be aware it carries a bit of significance eh?

R&R please.