Chapter 14
Cold windy morning. Hinata wraps her stall and gets out of her cottage. She meets Sasuke standing on the bridge glaring at the forest.
"Ohaio, S-Sasuke kun!"
Sasuke turns towards her. "Hyuuga, you had fun last night?"
"Uh..Yes, and y-you?" She asks softly.
He stares at her for a while with one eye behind his fringes, plain expression, "Plenty", gives a weird smile and walks away.
Unsure of what he meant, Hinata watches him walk. She goes to the kitchen and brews some coffee. Sasuke lies on his hammock, facing the sky, one of his arms rested over his eyes to cover.
"Coffee?" Hinata asks from the kitchen window. He remains still. "Black!" He puffs a word "Strong!" He adds still rigid.
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"S-Sasuke kun!" Hinata calls holding a mug.
Sasuke shifts his arm, turns towards her. He rolls from his hammock to sit. The sea breeze from behind her flows her black hair strands towards her face, her lavender eyes offer a perfect contrast to those strands. Her beautiful neck and those collarbones. She has put on a cotton shift cut dress that falls loose just above her knees. She always wears shuttle colors of linen, mostly hues of blue, and lavender. For the first time Sasuke is so observant. Coincidentally, Sasuke wears the same hues too. Perhaps because flashy colors usually tortures his eyes, eyes of the Uchihas. Do they affect the Hyuuga eyes too! He thinks. By the time he realizes that he has been eyes gluing at hers, she lifts her hand slightly gesturing him to hold the mug. He stands tall, raises his hand but to her surprise, it reaches her cheeks instead. He smoothly slides his fingers to crease her strands from her face. "Call me Sasuke!" He whispers.
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After a week of their vacation, they head back to Konoha.
For many reasons, Hinata wishes Sasuke to be less involved. It has started to get awkward and perplexing. The relationship between them had been unworried and natural since their childhood. They walk the same road home, they have been sharing formal talks in no sense otherwise. Pretty much everyone in the circle knows that this boy is comfortable around her since they remember. Not much of a topic occurred regarding them, they have never been passionate about it, and it has just been.. natural.
But Sakura, she expresses her absolute love for this Uchiha. She is gorgeous, she is tough, and she wishes to be noticed, to be acknowledged, to be accepted by him. What was possibly wrong with it? But she also overlooks the same feelings that Naruto has for her. She has emotionally walked the same path as Naruto yet she refuses to turn for him.
Naruto is the hero of their movie. Naruto is a son of The Yellow Flash. He is cheerful, he is caring and he is damn strong. He lets things go on its flow. And he is always the life of a group.
Sasuke... Sasuke is like water, unpredictable and unstable. He is cold yet refreshing, he is clear yet mysterious, and he is harsh yet pure. He has intensity, he has ultimate power. He is a proud bearer of Sharingan and his clan's symbol. But he has faded fractions of his life, and he is...lonely.
For now, things are different, things are getting gauche. Hinata somehow keeps crashing into this Uchiha and he seems to care about it which is so out of his character, he never used to bother much!
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Back in Konoha, it's been a week since they have arrived. Shikamaru, Choji and Ino are gone on a mission. There has been no unusual report on Sasuke's health so far. Previous teams of the academy are an individual squats now. They are no longer assisted by their sensai, they different comrades depending on the mission ranks. Sometimes they even go solo. They get their missions according to their battle specialties.
Back in Hyuuga house, Hiashi has travelled to neighboring village on his political missions. He has taken Hanabi to represent her the future successor. Hinata and Neji is left to look after the district. Neji and Hinata are training on their yard as usual. Hinata is equally competitive to him.
Hinata was never a weak person, in fact she might be equal or stronger than Neji himself. Her personality was not her weakness. Her choice of not hurting her comrades was not her weakness. She never craved for any position or competition. She was not unaware of her strength, and would use it should she require to save the things she valued. She valued her friends, she valued her family, and she valued her village. None of this would represent her as a weak shinobi.
Neji had always known this. He wanted to push Hinata just to see how far she could go. He and Hinata have been training since they were young and Neji has seen her strength.
This time Neji is extraordinarily persuading her to fight more. She attacks with her gentle fist, she fights with her eight Trigrams, Sixty-four Palms, one after another. Neji uses his absolute defense to save his chakra till the end, persuading her further. She finally uses the clan's advanced secret Step Twin Lion Fists. The blue chakra releases from both of her hands into exceptionally large guardian lion shaped shrouds. Neji get astonished by their sizes this time, he sees Hinata give her final blow before he rises his arms for defense.
End of chapter 14
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