"Eh... Hinata, huh?"
"Yeah, I have a crush on her, though..."
Sasuke gulped after admitting to Sakura that he loved Hinata. Some sweats were seen dripping from his head out of nervousness.
"Other than me, has there anyone who you've told that you liked Hinata?"
"Other than you, it's just her cousin. Well, he was the one who first figured out though. But as for Naruto and my jonin sensei, I don't know if they knew about me and Hinata's relationship. But judging by their reactions recently, they probably figured out too."
"I see. Well like I said earlier, it's unlike of you to have a crush on somebody, considering that you always ignored every girls who have a crush on you but to be honest, you two would make a really good couple."
"Hm? What makes you think of that?"
"Well, you both have a lot in common though. You and Hinata are quiet, you both came from very prestigious clans, and you both have your clans' Kekkei Genkai, right? The Byakugan and Sharingan."
"Umm... I guess we have a lot in common."
"Other than that, can you tell me what do you like about her?"
Sasuke thought in his mind for a while on what he liked about Hinata. After think thoroughly, he finally came up with some ideas.
"Well, she is shy and quiet. Apart from that, she is actually a genuinely kind and caring girl, and a person that I feel very comfortable talking with. I mean, she is more mature than almost every other girls who were infatuated with me before, and talking to her was like talking to my mom. She is also a strong ally that I can depend upon on. Working with her as a team makes me feel safe. That's what I really like from her, and I guess that these were what attracted me to her."
As he explained, Sasuke blushed in embarrassment, prompting Sakura to giggle and elbowed the Uchiha, "So, how do you think of her look?"
"Her look? Well, she's pretty cute by the way."
"I heard rumors that you liked girls with long hair, and Hinata has a rather short one. What do you think about her hair, then?"
"I don't know where do you guys get the rumor from but I don't care about how long or short her hair really is. What matters is that I really like her."
"As a friend?"
"No, not as a friend. Something... more than that..." Sasuke scratched his cheek with his finger sheepishly, and proceeded to ask the pink-haired kunoichi.
"I planned to wait until we both become chunin. But if you have any tips, would you kindly share some with me?"
Sakura crosses her arms and joked again, "Oh ho ho, the 'Mr. I'm Too Handsome To Care About Love' wants some relationship advises, eh?!"
"Quit goofin' around, 'Ms. Flat Chest'," Sasuke retorted, infuriating the kunoichi as he offended her by the nickname and she slowly rose her right fist at him.
"Excuse me, Uchiha Sasuke-san?"
"Hn, you started it, Sakura."
Containing her anger, Sakura sighed and began to advise, "As you wished, dobe."
"Hn," Sasuke merely returned a smirk, showing satisfaction of her losing the argument.
xxx
After the clan meeting, Hinata proceeded to eat lunch along with her sister and father at the dining hall.
"Hiashi-sama, would you like a tea?"
"Yes, pour them to the cup, please."
"Hinata and Hanabi-sama?"
The girls shook their heads as no, and the maid helped pour tea into Hiashi's cup. As they ate their lunches, Hiashi asked the eldest daughter, "Hinata, are you going to train with Uchiha Sasuke tomorrow?"
"Yes, father," Hinata answered quietly with a smile as noticed by both Hiashi and Hanabi.
"In the house or outside?"
"We'll be training at the training ground, father in the m-morning."
"Hmm... Well, why don't you invite him over to have lunch with us after training?"
Hinata dropped her food from the chopsticks while Hanabi almost choked on her food as they heard him said so.
"Eh?!"
"What's with that reaction, you two? Is that wrong to offer an invitation to other people?"
"N-no, it's not wrong at all!" Hinata flushed and bowed her head down while Hanabi giggled awkwardly, then she asked, "B-but, why... father?"
"Well, to be frank, I simply wanted to talk with that boy."
Father's inviting Sasuke-kun for a lunch t-tomorrow... I'm kinda excited, yet... nervous... I have no idea what to do when he eats lunch with us...
Hanabi patted Hinata's shoulder as she teased her elder sister, "Well, it looks like father wants to have a talk with my brother-in-law! Ain't you excited, neechan?"
B-bro-brother-in-law?! "Hanabi!" Hinata yelled at her sister as her face was covered in red.
"You're excited, aren't ya?!"
"Hanabi, that's enough, let your sister go," Hiashi ordered Hanabi to stop teasing, and Hanabi complied. He then turned to look at his eldest daughter, who appeared to be blushing and sweating nervously.
"Ahem... so anyway, you may invite him over after both of you finished training around lunchtime. Or, Hinata. Are you going out to meet him today?"
"Ah! Ummm... maybe. I d-don't have any training at home t-today, right?"
"Well, I don't know if you have training at home today but if you want to go outside to meet him, you may also invite him here to have dinner with us tonight."
"..." Hinata remained speechless as Hiashi again offered her to invite Sasuke for dinner as an another option.
"Well, that's up to you. If you wish to invite him for dinner, then tomorrow he won't have to come."
Hiashi then turned to glare at his younger daughter, "And Hanabi, please be respectful to our guest when he comes here, okay? You are the heiress to the clan and you should behave properly."
"Hai..."
After eating lunch, Hinata went back to her bedroom and laid down on her bed. As she thought about the event where Sasuke would be eating lunch or dinner along with her family, she blushed shyly and rolled on her bed, letting out a high-pitched shrieking out of excitement.
Sasuke-kun's going to eat with us! Oh my god, oh my god!
She quickly straightened up after rolling for several times and thought to look for Sasuke right away at the moment. She got off from her bed to reach the drawer, then took out clothes and went to change her clothing. While changing her clothes, she stopped halfway through to look at Sasuke's figure in photo frames that she had taken together with her teammates, before continuing to put on her jacket.
After changing herself, Hinata brisk out happily from her bedroom and went outside of her house as she exclaimed, "I'm going out now!"
As soon as she exited the mansion, Hinata jumped onto the roof and hopped from buildings to buildings while she searched for Sasuke with her Byakugan.
"Bullseye."
Sasuke landed another kunai onto the centre of the target board, and threw another shuriken at the board. This time it almost hit to the centre.
"Well, missed it."
Sasuke shrugged it off and continued throwing kunai and shuriken.
After finding Sasuke at the training ground, Hinata was about to approach him directly when her instinct told her to not do so as she saw him practicing kunai and shuriken. She then hid behind a tree to watch, letting him continued his practice without interrupting.
Sasuke picked up all of the knives and shurikens he had thrown from the board, then proceeded to stand further than he was from the target and continued throwing them. A while later, Sasuke stopped practicing altogether and packed all of the knives and shurikens along with the target board into his bag as he prepared to leave the area for home.
Hinata exited out of the tree and followed him but Sasuke instantly vanished out of her sight.
"Ah? Where did he...?"
"Behind you, Hinata."
Sasuke reemerged behind the Hyuga, startling her as she jumped back several steps.
"Sa-S-Sasuke-kun?!"
Sasuke gave a smirk and asked, "You've been watching me just now, right?"
"H-how do you know?"
"Well, I just felt like being watched, and I glanced my eyes over to see your faint silhouette behind the tree."
"O-oh... I see..."
Hinata fidgeted and slowly looked up at Sasuke, only to find the raven-haired Uchiha giving her a blank gaze with his black onyx eyes.
"Um...?"
Sasuke kept staring at her without expression as if he was dazing, causing her to cover her face in embarrassment as she blushed.
"I-Is there anything on... my face?"
"Oh! Umm... Sorry, Hinata. I was probably lost in thought."
"Oh... Okay..."
Hinata lowered her hands and resumed to fidget her fingers again as she was about to try telling him about the invitation but was hesitating.
"What is it, Hinata?"
"F-father would like you to come over to have d-dinner with us tonight."
"Mmm???"
Sasuke pointed at himself in confusion as he asked again, "Me?"
"Y-yeah, just you only."
Even Hiashi-sama thought of you like a son of his own Remembering Neji's words earlier, Sasuke bit his lower lips and moved his eyes around to glance at the surroundings, then calmly answered, "Alright, Hinata. I'll come over to your house for dinner."
"Yes! I get to have dinner with my cute Hinata! I'm so damn hell lucky!" The Inner Sasuke said as he emerged.
"S-so, while there's still time... Wanna do something to spend t-the day?"
"Hmmm... Lemme think."
FLASHBACK
The morning before Sasuke went for a kunai and shuriken practice, Sasuke happened to stumble upon Kakashi who was reading his Icha Icha Violence as he walked.
"Kakashi?"
"Yaahhh, what a coincidence, Sasuke. Where you going?"
"I'm going to train, isn't Naruto with you?"
"He's at home, probably. I was just going out to buy some groceries."
"Probably? What do you mean?"
"Mah, that idiot son of mine could be going out of home anytime he'd want to. So when I'm back home, he probably isn't there."
"Geez, you should take better care of him. You're his guardian, after all."
"But he's grown up into a full-pledged ninja, right? I'm sure that he can handle many things on his own. He deserves some freedom, anyway. And where's Hinata?"
"She is having a clan meeting right now, so it's just me training on my own at the moment."
"Hmmm... Yeah got some news for you. Two months from now we'll be having a Chunin Exam. Interested?"
Chunin Exam? That's right! Sasuke grinned upon hearing the news, and asked the silver-haired jonin, "I'm in. Any further detail?"
"I'll give you later. Be sure to notify Hinata about the exam, and when free, try to do some trainings, okay?"
Flashback ended
"Let's do some trainings together, 'kay?"
"Ah, umm..."
"Well, from now on I would want the both of us to train harder. We will be focusing on increasing all of our basic skills and developing our dojutsus."
"S-so... we will have to spar together, r-right?"
"Correct," Sasuke confirmed as he put down his bag to the pole in the middle, then continuing, "But this isn't just going to be a regular sparring."
"Eh? What do you mean?"
The Uchiha approached and placed both of his hands onto her shoulders, making her flushed at the same time she got confused, "N-nani?"
Sasuke leaned close to whisper to her left ear, "I want you to come at me... With the intent to kill."
Hinata's eyes widened, then remembering her first murder that had happened several days back. She pushed the Uchiha out of the way as she yelled, "What are you saying?! Wi-with the intent to kill? Why would you make me want to do that?!"
"Hinata, look.. That's not what I mean..."
"I can't, Sasuke-kun! T-this isn't a fight to death match! I only wish a regular spar with you because I don't want myself to hurt or even kill you!"
"Hinata... Lemme explain!"
After a brief panic, Hinata bowed down her head and clenched her fists, trying her hardest to contain her emotion as she muttered, "Why would you say something like that? I don't wish to harm anyone who's a precious friend to mine, especially you..."
Sasuke stood still for a brief moment as he examined Hinata's reaction, then gave a chuckle and slowly burst out laughing, much to her confusion.
"What's funny?"
"Ah well, I'm sorry for making up words that made you misinterpreted the meaning earlier. What I meant by the 'intent to kill' is that when we are sparring, I want you to take it as a real fight, just like you did to those scummy bandits yesterday."
"W-what? That doesn't make sense..."
"Well, it does. I want you to come fight me with your full strength possible so that you could defeat me. After all, like I said earlier, we must train even harder starting from now. But even then, Hinata. If you can, steadily control your power and emotion, because I do not want you to kill me though. So fight me with all you could possibly got, and I will do the same, but do make sure to keep yourself in control."
As she now understood his words, Hinata nodded and finally calmed herself.
"S-so... when I did go too much, would you be there to stop me? I'm afraid that I might lose control if I don't remind myself again."
"Trust me, I will," Sasuke moved forward to her again and poked her in the forehead as he continued, "But y'know, I believed that you will be able to control yourself."
"Hm, how can you be so sure?"
"Because I have faith in you, Hinata. You'll get to know how and what to do to avoid going overboard subconsciously."
Sasuke moved his hand to hold her back head, as he softly collided his own forehead to hers, "You just got to believe in yourself, Hyuga Hinata."
S-s-Sasuke-kun's close...
"Well, let me clarify one more time. You and I will go all out against each other with the maximum strength possible, so try your hardest to fight me. At the same time, you should also control yourself so that neither you or me will get killed, okay?" Sasuke stated as he moved away from her.
When he turned around to her direction once more, his eyes had already turned into the crimson Sharingan eyes, this time with each eye having two tomoes.
"Ready to fight now, Hyuga?"
"Um, o-okay!" Hinata nervously replied as she stood in her fighting stance while activating her Kekkei Genkai.
"I won't hold back, so neither will you!"
"Um, h-hai!"
The two genins charged at each other, starting the sparring match.
xxx
"I'm home," Naruto murmured as he entered his house and proceeded to took out his shoes. He was then greeted by Sakura, who was in his house.
"Oh, you're back, Naruto."
"Sakura-chan, what brings you here?"
"Well, have you eaten breakfast? It's now lunchtime though."
"I ate ramen at Ichiraku for breakfast. So what are you doing here?"
Sakura sighed as she facepalmed after hearing Naruto that he ate ramen for breakfast, then reprimanded, "Naruto, look, how many times did I tell you to eat less ramen? Eating too much is going to harm your health."
Naruto sheepishly scratched his head and apologized, "Mah, mah, I'm sorry. Oh, don't you tell me that you brought food for my breakfast?"
"Sakura here had brought food for your breakfast, Naruto," Kakashi emerged along with Kurenai from the living room.
"Oh, father and... Kurenai-sensei?!"
"Hello, Naruto," the female jonin greeted.
"But since you were away for the whole morning, I had to left the food on the table for you to eat for lunch instead. Good grief, you don't know how much work I've put to make this healthy food for you but you just went away to eat that damn ramen."
Naruto went to gave Sakura a hug as he felt guilty after hearing her said so.
"Hey, Naruto! Don't do this in front of your father and Kurenai-sensei, ain't this emb-"
"Sakura-chan."
Sakura's eyes widened as she heard him calling her name.
"Arigato-ttebayo."
The adult jonins both giggled as they watched the two genins embraced, and Kakashi whispered, "Yare yare, ain't he troublesome?"
"But he's cute too," Kurenai stated as she giggled
After releasing her, Sakura grabbed his hand and pulled him as she ordered, "Alright Naruto. Now you'll be eating lunch with us. Let's go heat up the food with that microwave."
"Alright, alright, but don't pull me so hard-ttebayo!"
"Painful, right? I know, and this is to punish you for going out to eat ramen without my knowledge when I made food for you as breakfast."
"Ah! Be gentle, Sakura-chan!"
The genins and jonins proceeded to the kitchen to eat lunch together. As he ate Sakura's food, Naruto remarked, "It's delicious-ttebayo! Your food is good, Sakura-chan."
"I know right? I've poured all of my heart to make this food though," Sakura replied as she ate Kakashi's homemade sandwiches.
"After eating this, can I have some sandwiches?"
"Sure, Naruto. There's plenty more of them on the plate," Kakashi said.
As Naruto ate quickly, Kurenai told the blonde, "Hey, Naruto. Don't eat too quickly or you'll choke."
"Ah, gomen but it was so good that I can't contain myself."
The rest couldn't help but laugh a bit.
"So, Naruto. Wanna go train together after lunch? We have to prepare for Chunin Exam though." Sakura asked in the middle of lunch.
"Wha- Well, of course-ttebayo."
"Yeah, but make sure the both of you don't get hurt in training, so be careful."
"Yes, dad!" Naruto nodded in comply.
xxx
"It seems that you did hold back a little, Hinata. But keep up, 'cause I'm going to be even faster right now."
"H-hai!" Hinata complied as she kept exchanging blows with Sasuke in hand-to-hand fight. Particles of chakra were emitted each time Hinata blocks off Sasuke's fists and foots. Sasuke ran behind Hinata to deliver a knife hand strike but Hinata dodged as she crouched down and kicked him straight to the stomach, but Sasuke managed to raise his left leg to block it and he ended up moving backward several steps.
Hinata pulled out three shurikens and threw them right at him. Sasuke managed to dodge them as he moved left and right and Hinata launched herself with two fingers aiming toward him. Sasuke quickly rolled away and she proceeded to throw five more shurikens at him.
"Katon: Goukakkyu No Jutsu!" A big fireball were shot toward her and Hinata did the same to counter it. As two fireballs collided, they ended up exploding, creating a thick smoke as the result of the explosion however both genins could still see through for their opponents with the help of their dojutsus.
Hinata emerged from the smoke as she jumped to the air and weaved hand signs for her next jutsu.
"Kage Bushin No Jutsu!"
Three Hinata's shadow clones were summoned mid air, and together they weaved out the next hand signs.
"Katon: Hosenka No Jutsu!"
By performing the Phoenix Sage Flower Jutsu, all Hinatas fired many small fireballs that were heading toward him. Sasuke quickly weaved out signs and slammed both his hands to the ground yelling, "Douton: Taju Douryuuheki!"
Several mud walls emerged from the ground forming a curve to surround Sasuke, blocking out all of the small fireballs.
She has only just learned it few days earlier and now she got the hang of it?! Such powerful chakra control, Hinata...
A kunai with a paper bomb attached hit the ground directly near Sasuke, but he noticed and quickly jumped over the walls to avoid the explosion. As soon as he landed on the ground, Hinata delivered a palm onto his chest, colliding him with the wall he had just created. But as soon as she tried to deliver another Gentle Fist with two fingers, Sasuke dodged and grabbed her arm, then pushed her to the wall and retreated as he began weaving out hand signs for the Fireball Jutsu.
Sasuke successfully shot a fireball at her when she was still leaning against the wall, but the fireball he had created this time appeared much smaller than the size he would usually do as it lost power due to the disruption of his chakra caused by her blow earlier.
Hinata quickly moved away and avoided the fireball. She reappeared close to Sasuke and they both proceeded to exchange blows from each other once again in close taijutsu combat.
Meanwhile, the Sandaime was watching the two sparring from a distance awayas he smoked with his E-pipe cigar, seemingly enjoyed watching the young Konoha genins training.
Kakashi has led his disciples really well, and it seems they are already preparing for the Chunin Exam.
Behind the Sandaime, there appeared murder of crows that flew closely to each other, forming a humanoid figure. As the figure formed, the figure appeared to be a fairly tall male wearing a black cloak and a hat that is large enough to cover almost of his entire face.
"Hokage-sama."
"So you've come to visit?"
The man stepped in front and stood beside Sandaime to watch both Sasuke and Hinata sparring in taijutsu, and Sandaime remarked, "He has grown, hasn't he?"
"Yeah."
The man raised his head up, only revealing a pair of black onyx eyes with stern expression.