Hiya! I'm sorry with the late update but my school is killing me. I don't have any other excuse other than that though but please bear with me until two more days. Christmas break is very nearly there.

Ps: i beg of you thots to forget my many, many mistakes in this chapter. English is all over the place so don't kill me, okay?

Fun fact: First off, I have an exam tomorrow so you're welcome and I'm very sad right now so that's why the chapter's name is called grief. But I'm okay now lol. SIKEEEEEE

Enjoy ;;;;;;))))))))

Chapter 10: The Grief

Soft wondrous sensations seeped into her flesh and resided itself under her pumping veins. Every hair on her body stood erected in anticipation for his next action. Although deep within her flesh and maybe beyond her thumping heart, something moved in her spiritual soul. By this time, Hinata was aware of how her body and soul react dramatically to his small kindness, yet she couldn't stop the tingling sensation surging like droplets of acid throughout her body. It clearly wasn't something inappropriate actually, rather something much deeper. That seemed odd.

Recognizing her deep thoughts, Sasuke gently (as gently as he could) pulled her hand alongside him as he walked over to her untouched bed. She followed like an obedient princess, he amused the thought. Deliberately, with his hand on the small of her back, he let her slowly rest against the bouncing mattress as her pearls for eyes peeked curiously at him through hooded-lids, and he knew she was very much immersed in her thoughts that no doubt was brimful of him.

He shoved a chair beside her bed, settled himself on it and crossed his arms, monitoring her changing face. Indigo tresses sprawled over the beige pillow as she drained herself of her energy by busying herself with various of thoughts in that pretty little head of hers. "Anbu-san?"

"Hn?"

"Why did you kiss me?"

She was implying to their brief intimacy shortly before arriving here and definitely not when he was fulfilling his duties by half-screwing her. That brief moment when it wasn't a necessary kiss. Though he refused to open his eyes behind the porcelain mask, choosing instead to stay in solitude of pitch black darkness behind his eyelids. "Just because."

Not satisfied with his ridiculous riddles for answer, she pressed, a little more adamantly than before, "Why?"

Coal eyes darted to her white ones that could never reflect his. Hinata didn't look angry, disappointed or at all disgusted that he half-molested her, instead she blinked in pure curiosity and maybe something else. "You don't need to know," he whispered softly. "Sleep."

"But—"

Once again, Sasuke surprised her by shedding his cloak until he was left only in his inner black shirt, pants and his mask for safety's sake and scooted in her bed beside her. Her face was slammed by his forceful hand against his chest to shut her up and screwed his eyes shut from exhaustion. He shouldn't be doing this. Any contact with her, even a little, was wrong. Not only didn't she know she was exposing her vulnerability to a former renegade of the whole entire nations by letting him touch her intimately and letting him invade her personal space, but he had kissed her way more than necessary and was dragging her into his problems.

He inhaled her scent contently and pressed her further to his body. Soft, delicate curves fitting into every hardened corner of his cold, disgusting being.

"Don't talk," he snapped but softened it by securing his arms even tighter around her. "Just don't."

Ignoring the fact that he was lightly blocking her airways to breath against his chest, she felt even more safer in the arms of one stranger that she didn't know a thing about. Everything about him was belied. Hidden behind that wretched mask that she slowly came to hate so much. She wanted to see his face. Truth be told, she didn't care anymore if he was a greasy old man, fat man or even anyone. His kind gesture and protective demeanor allured even her who never found any man to be worthy her attention...Actually, she never thought herself to be some superior official to feed the notion of anyone being 'worthy' for her. More like she never thought herself to be worthy for anyone. Not even Naruto, but he was a different story. He never gazed twice her way and throughout the deserted years she learned to accommodate with that grief. She experienced much gruesome heartbreak than a lost for love, namely losing her beloved cousin Neji. Her eyes stung just thinking of him so she buried herself closer to the stranger's warm embrace—flinching a bit as a little pinch of electricity brushed her fingertips where she touched him. She wanted to get nearer to his heart and soul. This was unhealthy for her. As a compassionate and trustful Shinobi, she tended to find herself in a trap often with anyone who showed her kindness. Even once she knew it obscured ill intentions. That was what made her vulnerable against this man. But she couldn't help it. That was how Hinata was. Always yearning for kindness.

Once her breathing evened, her tight arms around him loosened but didn't pull away, he raised a hand to slip off his mask and let his aristocratic nose linger deeply into the crest of her small head, remembering her smell. Without any further thought, he lightly pressed his lips on her head. Repeatedly until he felt himself dozing off. Guards slowly crumbling down.

Sasuke spent his whole night in Hinata's embrace and warmth, no nightmares, no gory images of the death of his clan, no eyebrow creases and worry over his current issues, nothing but her. He was beginning to feel as if she had done something to him.

The next morning, once the sun had hit the horizon Hinata woke up to the sun beaming through the crack of the shades of her grand window right beside her bed. Her eyes fluttered in confusion for a second as all memory occurring yesterday turned blurry. She didn't recall tempting herself some liquor and ended up falling asleep with no evident memory—oh my lord! She bolted awake with a squeak. Explosion of redness tinted her pale face as the memory had finally conjured up in her head. So she waited for him because she couldn't sleep, then he happened to stalk in and, with ease, put her to sleep without her realizing it...with him in bed.

Darting her appalling gaze to a porcelain mask laying in the nightstand, frown dawned over her features. His mask? She reached over and marveled at the heavyweights of it. Pittering and pattering sound of the showers reached her hearing range and she looked over her shoulder towards the deserted hallways where it led to the bathroom. Once again, seemingly to be a woman's curse, curiosity overtook her and she padded through the hall, the mask clutched to her chest. Her night robe managed to emphasize her defined bosoms and slim curves, exposing a small portion of her pearly legs so she looked like a ghost against the dark, oaken walls despite the sun beaming outside.

She was already surprised by seeing the mask without its owner as it was, so imagine her surprise when she discovered that the door was left slightly ajar through the crack. For safety's sakes, Sasuke had left the door slightly open—keeping sensory watch for any ambush for her. The shower had stopped, which made her squeal loudly if it wasn't for the sound of wet feet splatting around the mundanely luxurious bathroom.

She knew the Anbu was there and even though his warning that day hovered inside her mind as a reminder to not go against his wishes and seek his true appearance, she couldn't stop herself. She wanted to see the face of the unlucky man who she was beginning to have mixed feelings for.

The door opened a few inches wider but it was enough for her to sneak her head, blood pumping throughout her veins underneath snow-coated skin and heart hammering against her chest, threatening to burst through her chest. It wasn't foggy because he clearly took cold shower—judging by the temperature that hit her face. She could see clearly. The mirror was behind the door so she couldn't see anything from the opposite side of it, but she could definitely make out the outline of a structured body of a man from his backside. Scars etched and jagged across his muscled back as he dried his hair with a spare towel. But what actually caught her eyes where the black marks of sealings curving on pale-tanned skin. The seals, one of them she recognized, to have been chains, a temporary conditional restraints for prisoners in her village. She frowned in confusion, but then, like anyone would, her eyes fell again on his back full of juxtaposed muscles and scars. Cheeks tinted way past red because then her eyes fell lower to—

The porcelain mask slipped through her fingers and fell with a thud that echoed throughout the bathroom.

Her breathing stopped, Sasuke stopped his drying his hair. Everything stopped. The time might as well stop.

Then he disappeared. Sasuke vanished into thin air. Or maybe he was—

"Saw enough?" Raspy and hoarse voice hovered over her heating ears and she was pushed further inside the bathroom. The sound of the bathroom door closing and locking made her heart go absolutely nuts to the point she was at the brink of fainting. Though Sasuke's arms held her effortlessly upright. Cool, dampened hand was gently placed over her eyes and she was angled away to expose her milky neck for Sasuke to savor and devour.

"P-please," her breath came through hiccups because she was so very close to fainting when she realized her body was pushed flush against his toned front and he was completely naked. Damp hair brushed her cheek and neck. "I d-didn't mean t-t-to—"

"Shut up," he bit ferociously at her skin and pulled her night robe down to kiss over her shoulder, trailing kisses with his marks. Sasuke was relieved she hadn't saw his face, yet her unexpected appearance made his cooled erection buzz up even though he had taken upon himself to jerk off in the shower in the early morning. He could not hold himself or the monster inside of him down any longer. Everyone already knew he was an animal in the face of icy stoicism, why hide it? His hot breathed fanned against her reddening ear when he moved to place a peck in the spot right behind her ear. The moment he did so, a mewl came out of her and he grinned bashfully at the effects he had over her body. "This is what happens when you try to see me." He bit the spot and she tried to trash out of his arms.

"No! E-Enough...please..." His other arm that held her upright this whole time caressed over her flat stomach in circulation motion, sending shivers through her body.

But her hypocritical protests went to deaf ears. He wouldn't pursue his darkest, lewd fantasies with her right now if he knew she didn't want this. The hand on her stomach fell south and lifted up her slip to have his own touch of her creamy leg. In pleasure of his enticing calloused hand riding up her robe, she gripped firmly on his wrist to steady his hand as to not go to the place she feared he would.

Sighing in exasperation, he let go of her but kept a firm hand on her eyes. Hinata almost jumped on her skin when his velvety voice once again muffled by her skin, "You're so stubborn, princess." He dragged her laconically forward until she felt her hands touch a marble counter and she almost squirmed in protest when she felt a cloth was placed on her eyes. Again.

All of her restraints and muscles against his superior strength faltered and she found herself slacked against his body, her back hitting his front. At this, Sasuke frowned at such behavior and watched as she pursed her lips in dispassion. "If you're going to take me, at least have the decency to show me your true face." Hinata's voice dripped with distaste and iciness so much that he loosened his hold around the waist.

Wether he was scared that she would judge him for what he was or was gonna blow his cover, he didn't really know anymore. The mild worry residing inside his very depths resurfaced again and haunted him again like a plague as he put up his guard, knowing his place. How could he let himself caught in his unwanted desires he failed to see things from her perspective? The night she had half-given him her precious thing was already bad as it was. Hinata shouldn't have let him consume her even when she was suffering because no woman in the right mind would let someone so foreign and emitting dark aura touch her body but apparently she held no worries for that. Instead, she was willing to give him her body as whole in trade to see his actual identity, which was something he could never consider to give. Considering he neglects his actual feelings towards her, he would play with the idea of revealing himself to her. But he couldn't. The Raikage could find out his identity and priority here in Kumo for all he cared, but not her. Never her. And the reason to that was still unknown. Maybe he just feared the idea of her rejecting him and glaring at him with scornful eyes, just as many people had. He never cared what they think, but he did care if it was her.

He took another step back, letting her hair slip like waterfall through his fingers. "Then get out," he sneered strikingly. He turned around to retrieve his left-off mask and languidly placed it on his stoned face. Wrapping a towel over his frustration and yearning for her, he turned towards her, "While I still have my patience get the fuck out." Sasuke was as clueless as Hinata was as to where this hot rage came from. Maybe she could start hating him already. At least it would be expected. Sasuke had gotten used to that sentiment around him.

Tentatively, she lifted up the cloth from her eyes, staring downwards. She stayed glued to her place, fidgeting her alabaster fingers together like she did so many times in the past. "Are you afraid I'd be scared of you?"

He balled his hands in rage. "Get the fuck out."

"N-no."

"What?"

"You heard m-me." She turned around and it looked as if she was able to see through him, through his walls and into his very soul. White eyes glowed along with her beatification, he reminded himself to exclude any thoughts or comments on her celestial beauty. But he couldn't. She struck him in the heart and she might as well serve his beaten up heart in plate because, damnit, he couldn't handle her as easily as he handled enemies.

"You'd be terrified," he drawled haggardly.

"I don't care. After what you've done to me, I think I at least deserve a name."

He furrowed his eyebrows in fury, so instead of really lashing on her, he turned around and left her alone. Alone with her confused feelings and broken heart. Was she...? It could hardly matter what she felt for him. Which connection she felt for him. Because as it appeared, it wasn't mutual.

Once the last blurry image of his pale back swirling with dark ink seals that still remained a big mystery to her, she leaned into the walls for support and let a few twinkling tears streak down in thin crystallized line. All that was visible when one was to observe her from the side was her chin, tear-streaked, and quivering lips frowned in a small pout. The rest was hidden behind curtains of violet locks, shadowing her face as she shadowed the world, feeling rather contented in her own isolation.