After their sparring match, both Sasuke and Hinata laid down on the ground to rest as they were panting from exhaustion. With eyes looking directly to the blue sky, birds were flying in group as they chirped. Sunlight was emitting directly toward them.

Both genins were visibly beaten and bruised from the intense fight, but Sasuke had it worse as his entire chakra pathway was locked after receiving Hinata's blows of Gentle Fist, rendering him unable to perform any jutsu for the rest of the day and more than that, he was very much weakened, but fortunately still alive. If Hinata had gone any further than she could hold back, he would be dead. Hence the fight went to Hinata's victory, and it was perhaps the first time she had ever won against the Uchiha.

"See... I told ya, *huff* that you can control yourself..."

"I know... *huff* and it's all... thanks to you..."

Sasuke slowly raised himself for a better view of Hinata, who was still lying on the ground.

"You have gotten better, Hinata... It now seems to me that your taijutsu skill had surpassed me. Even you've managed to disable my chakra system for the remainder of the day..."

Hinata straightened herself up too and returned a smile while she breathed heavily, "Y-you think so?"

"Yeah, Hinata. Throughout this sparring, you did showed me your true strength and beat the heck out of me. I was right in getting you to come at me with the intent to kill after all. I wanted to see your true strength and you proved me that, Hinata. That's a job well done."

"Mmm... But I also made sure to not end up k-killing you, so I h-held back a bit. B-but thank you, Sasuke-kun. I think that I mi-might have found my potential."

And it's thanks to you too, Hinata. By training with you, my taijutsu has also steadily improved.

"Shall we go home?"

"To my house, Sasuke-kun..."

As he tried getting up, Sasuke couldn't balance himself properly and almost fell to the ground when Hinata quickly got up to catch on him.

"You're hurt, Sasuke-kun... So let me help c-carry you."

"Ah, tha-"

Hinata placed his arm around her shoulder as her other hand helped support his body and slowly walked him away. She then gently placed Sasuke near the tree where he had put his bag and examined his condition. She took out her ointment to treat his injuries.

"Let me treat you first before we get home, okay?"

Sasuke nodded as he rested himself against the tree while Hinata was applying some creams onto the bruises starting from his face.

"Ah, it burns!"

Sasuke complained of the burning sensation that he had felt on his face as Hinata applied the ointment onto the part. Seeing his reaction, Hinata giggled as she said, "Sorry, Sasuke-kun, but the face are rather very sensitive so you have to bear with it."

"Al-alright, but do it slowly..."

Hinata again applied the ointment on the other part of his cheek, and Sasuke tried his hardest to withstand the pain.

After helping him to get rid of the bruises on her face, arms and legs, Hinata was moved on to treat her own injuries when Sasuke grabbed her hand that was holding the ointment as he offered, "Lemme help you."

"Ah? N-no, I can do it myself, Sasuke-kun..."

"Well, trust me, Hinata. Since you've healed my injuries, I suppose myself to return the favor, okay?"

"N-no, it's okay... Plus, it would be embarrassing to do that..."

"Alright, have it your way."

After being denied of his own offer, Sasuke allowed Hinata to apply the ointment on the injuries by herself. All was well until she now had to apply them onto her face and her back, which would be hard as she couldn't see where the bruises were, and given that any further use of Byakugan would lead to eye strain at the moment, Hinata personally requested, "S-Sasuke-kun? I might n-need a help here..."

"I see... You need my help to treat your injuries on your face, right?"

"My back t-too..."

"You can't use your dojutsu for the moment, right?"

Hinata nodded as she began to blush in embarrassment as Sasuke was now going to help her this time. Sasuke slowly reached toward her and grabbed the ointment from her.

"Alright, since the face area is one of the most sensitive parts, I want you to try not to yell in pain as I apply these on your face, okay?"

Hinata nodded again with her eyes close as Sasuke began applying the ointment on her face. Slowly but gently, he applied them onto the skin while trying to avoid rubbing them too roughly as to not make her hurt.

"A... ah..." Hinata moaned in pain, but she contained herself to not let out a shriek. Sasuke too had blushed as he heard her moan.

"Relax, Hinata. And don't move while I'm rubbing these on your face."

As he was done with her face, he proceeded to her back. When he was just starting to lift up her jacket from the back, Hinata was startled and hesitated.

"S-Sasuke-kun, wait!"

"Hm?!"

"P-please... Don't... this is so embarrassing..."

"Look Hinata, I know what you want to say but trust me, I won't do anything stupid here."

"Umm... okay..."

Hinata nodded as though she trusted him and turned her head back to the front to hide her blush as Sasuke began treating her back, especially when he would be seeing and touching her bare skin.

As he slowly lifted up her jacket, he could see a large bruise on her lower back, then remembering the kick that he had delivered to her back from earlier when they sparred.

"I'm sorry for being too rough on you earlier, Hinata."

Hinata shook her head and stated, "There's no need to apologize, Sasuke-kun. Like you said earlier, we were going to fight each other with the intent to kill, so you and I just did that, and it's okay. And besides, you had it worse though..."

Sasuke smirked as he began treating the horribly bruised area while remarking, "Well, you fucked up my chakra system and now I can't use any jutsu for the rest of the day, so..."

Hinata giggled and replied, "Good thing that I was able to control myself this time, or else you won't live to see the next day."

"It seems that you talked a lot today, Hinata."

Hinata blushed, and began fidgeting in embarrassment, "W-well... I don't know about this but I felt comfortable talking to you so maybe that's why..."

"Hn, you sure had gotten more talkative around me."

"Mmmm..."

As he treated her back, Sasuke tried to not look at the other bare parts of her back, especially of the beautifully pale skin surface and the blue bra. But then Sasuke joked, "You are wearing blue today, Hinata?"

"S-Sasuke-kun, you pervert!" Hinata hissed with the angry blush on her face as she turned to her back.

"Oi! I'm not done yet, so stay put."

"O-okay, just don't look at the other parts, Sasuke-kun."

"I know, though you wouldn't know if I rolled my eyes to take a quick look."

"S... S-Sasuke-kun!"

"I was just joking, Hinata. Besides, it would be super inappropriate for me to peep on you."

Hinata let out a giggle in embarrassment, and Sasuke resumed to treat her back. Feeling the touch of her skin on the back, Hinata shivered, and he noticed, "Hinata, relax. You're shaking."

"A-ah, hai!" Hinata closed her eyes and clenched her nails tightly onto her knees to contain herself from shivering. But she was still apparently embarrassed as her skin was exposed and seen by the Uchiha, and the fact that he was touching her bare skin as he applied the ointment's cream onto the bruise had made her felt slightly uncomfortable. But for Sasuke, he was trying his absolute best to treat her back without getting himself distracted, and the way he had teased her about her bra was a harmless joke and he also didn't want to harrass her either.

"Alright, there. The bruises are healing."

Hinata sighed of relief and pulled down the back of her jacket after her lower back was treated, and Sasuke applied a bit more of the cream on his own right wrist after discovering a small cut on it. He then handed back the ointment to Hinata. As he gave it back to her, Sasuke stared at her face, making her blush out of nervousness.

"Wha... what?"

"Hn, the ointment did an incredible job in healing wounds. In fact, there ain't any more injury on your face though."

"Hm? So wha-what's wrong with m-my face?"

Sasuke playfully chuckled, "You really are cute, Hinata."

C... cute... This is the second time he had said that to me... D-does he like me... As he complimented her, Hinata's heart pounded really hard and her face was once again covered in red.

Seeing her reaction, Sasuke chuckled again and patted her shoulder, "Come on, let's go to your house. You are going to have me in your house for a dinner, right?"

"Ah, ye-yeah! Father h-had invited you for dinner though..."

"Heh heh, you can walk on your own, right?"

"Ah yes, but what about you...?"

"I think I can manage somehow... That ointment helped me regain balancing."

Sasuke slowly stood up, but found himself still struggling to balance his stance. Hinata noticed and grabbed to support him.

"Your c-chakra system had been disabled to the point that your b-balancing had gotten w-weak, so don't push yourself, Sasuke-kun."

Hinata then sat him down again, and went to put on his bag for him. After that, she lifted him up and placed his right arm around her shoulder while her other hand supported him as they began walking back to her house together.

"I'm sorry for making you doing this for this, Hinata."

"No, it should be me to apolo-"

"No, Hinata. I wanted you to try your hardest so that you could actually weaken me, and you did. That was the purpose of the sparring."

"But w-why would you want me to do this? Wouldn't it be b-better if we just spar in the way we did r-regularly like before?"

"Well, I wanted this fight to be more intense so that the both of us could push our limits to become strong, Hinata. That's the main purpose. Not only were your attacks getting much faster, my taijutsu skill had also improved thanks to you, so it's a win-win for us."

"Oh... I see... So you had also benefitted from it, right?"

Sasuke turned to give Hinata a smile as he nodded, "Yeah, and other than that, we also must prepare for the Chunin Exam."

"Chunin Exam?!" Hinata gaped in shock as they stopped walking on the road. "B-but for a fresh genin, we normally wait for a year until we can r-register for the exam, right? We only b-became ninjas a month earlier. This is way too sudden!"

"Well, tell me, Hinata. Are you scared to take the exam?"

Hinata's eyes widened as Sasuke asked. "I-it's not like that..."

"Well, the exam will be held two months from now, so you have time to think about it. If you don't want to participate then it's fine, but actually, I do hope for you to join the exam with us. That's the reason why I made you sparred more viciously with me. To further develop your skills and your dojutsu."

Sasuke raised his left hand and touched her face firmly as he spoke, "I sincerely hope for you and me to participate and pass this exam so that we can get promoted to become chunin together. I don't wished my own teammate to stay in the same spot while I am constantly moving forward."

Feeling doubtful, Hinata looked down on her feets in uncertainty, "D-do you believe that I can make it?"

"Yes."

His confident tone jumped her a little, and she turned to look at his eyes directly, "But why?"

"Because it's you, Hyuga Hinata."

W.. w-what? Hinata looked shocked by what he said to her. Although it was a short sentence with only a few words coming out of his mouth, it held deep meanings for her. He was actually encouraging her to participate because he acknowledged her abilities and knew very well of what she was capable of. The day when she first graduated to become a genin, she was a rather weak girl that stood no chance to go against anyone and would only get crushed. But since she had become Sasuke's teammate, she saw a rapid improvement in herself in just within a month to the point that she could probably go toe to toe with her cousin, Hyuga Neji, who was considered to be the most talented even when he hailed from the side branch family of her clan, although on the downside, her emotion was still a bit of a problem for her development. So it made sense for her to participate in the exam.

"But it's still up to you, Hinata. You have two months of time to think over, or better yet, train with me."

Sasuke gave a smirk, and Hinata returned a smile as she had agreed to him, and the two of them continued walking back to the Hyuga mansion.

xxx

"The Chunin Exam's coming, huh..." the man spoke while sipping on his tea as he sat on a couch while Sandaime was looking at the village from the window in the Hokage Office.

"Yes, and your brother are training really hard for it, with his teammate, apparently."

The man lifted up his head to glance at the Hokage, revealing his entire face. The man's face resembled Sasuke in every details, except for the pronounced tear trough on his face.

"But even then, Itachi. You're still refrained from seeing your brother as long as he hasn't know the truth. But you are allowed to watch him, as long as you remained out of his sight."

"My brother just isn't ready for it yet, Sandaime-sama. But when he becomes strong enough, both physically and mentally, I will tell him everything, starting from head to toe."

Sandaime let out a sigh, and approached Itachi and placed his right hand on his shoulder, showing him a pitied look, "You will have to tell him one day, and it's something unavoidable, regardless if he's ready or not."

"I am aware, but thank you."

Sandaime proceeded to sit on the opposite couch and lighted his E-pipe cigar to start smoking.

"So, can you tell me how's things going with Akatsuki."

"So far, Two, Three, Four, And Six-Tailed has been captured. The rest of six bijuus are still safe within their own respective jinchurikis. We've been trying our hardest in sabotaging the Akatsuki's attempts in capturing the rest of the bijuus. Last night, me and Shisui had fought two Akatsuki members while we were protecting the Seven-Tailed's jinchuriki. The two members we were fighting are relatively new recruits coming from Kirigakure, Hoshigaki Kisame and Haku."

"So how many members are there in the Akatsuki, currently?"

"As of the latest update by Jiraiya-sama, there are now ten members in total, four were newly-recruited in recent, two of which are the Kirigakure rogue nins that I mentioned earlier, the other one is also from Kirigakure named Zabuza and the last one from Iwagakure, who specialized in bombing, Deidara."

Sandaime placed the cigar on the table as he stopped smoking, then rested his arms on his knees and leaned his face against his hands while muttering, "The organization is getting more powerful, and this is becoming an issue for the world, especially when they are so focused on capturing the tailed beasts."

Itachi placed his cup on the table after finished drinking the tea, and assure the Hokage, "Don't worry, Sandaime-sama. Lately the Akatsuki have been busy in taking care of many of their mercenary jobs, so they won't be going after the bijuus as often, although we still need to keep an eye out of them, especially when they are increasing in power. Hence, we are still gathering and updating the intel regarding the Akatsuki. So leave things for us to handle, you just need to focus on protecting the village and the Kyuubi's jinchuriki."

"I am so glad to have you guys keeping things on the outside in check, Itachi. I greatly appreciate your service to the village."

Itachi smiled and replied, "It's an honor, sir. After all, I am Uchiha Itachi, the shinobi in service to Konohagakure."

The Sandaime smiled back and nodded as an acknowledgement. Itachi stood up and wore his hat, "I'll be going for now, Sandaime-sama. Thank you for your hospitality."

"Take care now, Itachi."

xxx

Sasuke rested himself on the couch when he was being healed by a Hyuga branch member with the Mystical Palm Jutsu. Hinata came out of the kitchen and offered a glass of water to the Uchiha.

"Thanks, Hinata."

Hinata smiled as he took the glass and drank it. Hinata then turned to the healer, "I'm sorry to have you bothered."

"No, Hinata-sama. It's a service that I must carry out for you and the main family," the Hyuga shook her head as she was treating Sasuke. After healing him, the medic asked him to try standing up on his own. Sasuke did as she said and easily stood up, no longer struggling to keep himself balanced.

"Thank you for your treatment."

"It's a pleasure, Sasuke-san."

The medic the left, leaving both Sasuke and Hinata in the living room. Sasuke then sat back, followed by Hinata beside him.

"You can now s-stand and walk without trouble, although i-it's too bad that you are not be able to use a-any jutsu 'till tomorrow."

"Well, it's okay. Like I said earlier, you did a good job in locking my chakra points. Anyway, we will do this again next time, alright?"

"A-ah! Uhm... If that's what you want then I t-think it's fine by me... But next time I'll ve more carefu to not hurt you, Sasuke-kun," said Hinata as she fidgeted her fingers.

"Un," Sasuke nodded as he leaned against the couch while crossing his legs and arms. "But don't hold back too much, alright? We do this in order to hone our skills."

"I guess y-you're right, I will be more careful but at the same time I w-won't hold back either. N-nevertheless, I will try my very best to become s-strong, so that I can pass the exam with you!"

"Hn," Sasuke grunted with a smirk in satisfaction of her self-confidence, then he stood up as he stated, "That's to be expected from you, Hinata."

Sasuke then turned around to Hinata who had also just stood up, "Tomorrow I'll be teaching you a new fire jutsu."

"E-eh, nani?"

Sasuke gave a childish smile along with a chuckle and said, "You'll know about it later. Besides, there are a lot that I can teach you with."

Hinata smiled back and titled her head to the side slightly as an agreement. Sasuke turned his head back to the front and moved his eyes around, looking for any other people who could be nearby to watch them both. As he found no one, he turned around to face Hinata again, only to see her standing still fidgeting nervously. Deciding to ignore her nervousness, he asked her the other question, "Say Hinata, since we are still hours away before dinner, wouldn't it be a bit awkward if I stay here until that time?"

"Ah, no! Not at all. You can stay in the house as much as you like, actually. Y-there's nothing for you to feel awkward 'bout it."

"Oh, I see.. I guess I should be doing something else before dinner time reaches," Sasuke stated as his eyes moved around again, Sasuke saw a bookshelf in the living room. As he approached, Hinata said, "Oh, if you are interested in any of these, you can take and read them."

"Thanks, Hinata. I'll look for a book that interests me." Sasuke moved his fingers on each book he could find, then coming across one that caught his eyes. He took out a novel titled 'The Disgraceful Rebel' that plotted about a shinobi who had been exiled from his country and became a rogue ninja after he attempted a murder on his village's kage who was a corrupt dictator, yet loved by his people due to the influence of his propaganda. The rogue nin spent his times as one being constantly hunted by other ninjas as he ran from places to places while trying to find a safe haven to live peacefully for the rest of his life, and he eventually (and unintentionally) took control of another hidden village after killing its corrupt kage, destroyed a major terrorist organization and rose in power as more and more small nations were being absorbed into his own country, becoming a powerful kage-level shinobi and waged war with his former village.

Sasuke sat on one of the smaller couch as he began to read the book as he sounded, "This is an interesting book." Hinata too sat on the other couch with another book on her hand as she stated, "This book that you're reading is my personal favorite. It's full of actions and puzzles. I can assure you that y-you will like it."

"Well, since you said it, you have made the book even more interesting. I can't wait to read it though."

Hinata giggled at his joked, and as Sasuke opened for the first chapter, Hinata opened hers too but she wasn't reading. She pretended to as she covered her face partially with the book while her eyes were secretly observing him. The more she looked, the more shy she got as she blushed when admiring his cool and handsome face with the serious expression as he read the novel.

S-Sasuke-kun's even cooler when he is serious...

Moments later, Sasuke's eyes flashed red, activating his Sharingan, which made her jumped a bit in shock. She was about to ask what he was doing with the eyes but quickly kept quite as she saw him flipping each page in a few mere seconds. She then realized that he was using his dojutsu to read the book faster, and she had to admit that the novel had more than two hundred pages, so much so that he wouldn't finish reading it even if he had to spend the entire day on the book. So he got rather impatient and resorted to using his Sharingan. It was pretty funny, and Hinata covered her mouth to contain her laughter.

"Laugh all you want, because I know that it's weird to do that too," Sasuke spoke as he stopped reading for a while, and Hinata paused to look at his red eyes directly. He then looked back to the novel and continued flipping pages as he read. Hinata positioned herself to look at his eyes, and could see the tomoes spinning around as he read. This prompted her to wish that she was born into the Uchiha Clan instead, so that she could use the Sharingan to quickly finish reading and perfectly memorized all the information she had received in an instant.

Five minutes and a half later, Sasuke closed the book as he had finished reading it and deactivated his dojutsu.

"So, how was the story?"

"Well, the plot was kinda messed up and it seems that the author had only focused on developing two of the main characters and basically ignored the others who had the potential to shine in the story. But other than that, it was okay..."

Hinata looked a bit disappointed and asked, "S-so, you didn't like it...?"

"No, I think it's okay too. It's just that I hate how the side characters were sidelined in favor of the main characters when they too were important for the story," Sasuke stated in his own opinion. Trying to change the topic to avoid making her upset further, Sasuke crossed his left leg on top of his right, rested his left arm on it and supported his head with it as he leaned his body forward to Hinata, along with a grin that he gave to her.

"W-what?" Hinata asked nervously as the Uchiha did the flirtatious posture, to which she blushed and clenched his hands together.

"You were watching when I was reading my book, weren't you?"

Sasuke knew all along that she had been watching him secretly as she pretended to read her book, and that was the second time in a day that she was caught.

Why does this keep happening to me? I should be more careful next time...

"I-it's not that I would look at you all the time. I was just checking t-to see what you were doing with your eyes..."

"Well, I don't like to spend a lot of time on this book so I used my Sharingan as a shortcut to read all of them as quickly as possible. But other than my dojutsu, you were looking at the other features, huh?"

"Hmmm... I d-don't even know myself..." Hinata laughed awkwardly and then paused herself to look at the Uchiha, who was still giving her the flirty grin. And to her surprise, it wasn't creepy. It actually made him look attractive than he usually did when he gave the grumpy look to everyone almost all the time. She thought to herself that had he smiled like this often, he would have become perfect 10.

"Y'know, you really are... c-cute too when y-you smile."

Sasuke lowered his smile and widened his eyes in shock. That's when he realized that Hinata had took the similar words from him that he had said to her two times earlier, and were now using on him. Silence set in between the two and both turned to look the other way in awkwardness as Sasuke ran his hairs with his right hand while Hinata resumed in fidgeting her fingers.

Sasuke stood up to leave the house as he told the Hyuga, "I'm going back home first, Hinata."

"B-but why? Can't you s-stay here until d-dinner?"

Sasuke stopped, then bent down for his eyes to meet her own at the same level, and raised two fingers to poke her forehead, promising her, "I will come back again for dinner."

Sasuke turned around to walk to the door, with Hinata who was still sitting on the couch eyed at him as she absentmindedly rubbed the spot he had poke on her forehead. As he opened the door, he spoke again, "I will come back with a box of cinnamon rolls at hands."

As he exited the house, Hinata smiled toward his direction, murmuring, "Thank you, Sasuke-kun."

Just outside of the mansion, Sasuke walked back home in his now joyous mood. However he stopped and looked around as he felt he was being watched.

Weird... Sasuke thought when he found no one and resumed back home again. Somewhere from a distance, behind a street pole, Itachi was watching his younger brother, with his Sharigan that consisted three tomoes in each eye.

"He's fine, so don't worry."

Itachi still faced in front without turning back. Standing behind him was Sasuke's jonin leader, Kakashi, who was holding the Icha Icha Innocence on his right hand.

"Hatake, Kakashi..."

"Yo, Itachi," Kakashi greeted as he waved his other free hand at him.