恋の予感 | Koi no Yokan
"A premonition sensed by two people that they will one day fall in love."
Arranged marriages are bad by nature.
That was what Sasuke had always believed in. He wasn't convinced about either the arranged or the marriage part.
To him, marriage meant nothing more than a weakness through the woman who would become his wife. Not because he thought a woman would be weaker or an easier target than a man, but because having someone to keep from harm inevitably would create a crack on his precious self-protecting shield.
But even if it came to marriage, arranged ones were, without a doubt, the worst. In his mind, arranged was just a softer word for forced.
Sasuke adjusted the slightly curled-up sleeve of his black kimono. The faint murmur of the crowded sanctuary painted a grimace on his face, but he stubbornly kept staring at a small hole in the wooden floor. As though relentlessly glaring into the cavity would cause it to grow and suck him in, teleporting him into another reality.
The hem of a white, richly decorated kimono suddenly hid the hole from Sasuke's eyes, but his gaze stayed pinned on the spot.
As the owner of the kimono slowly got closer, more and more details of her body came into Sasuke's vision—porcelain skin, moderately long, almond-shaped nails, shiny indigo hair, elegant red lipstick.
She reached out her tiny hand and instinctively, Sasuke's calloused fingers touched velvety skin. He helped her step onto the podium that was too small for the two of them, and as they turned to face the shrine, their arms brushed together.
Her hands trembled.
Inwardly, Sasuke scoffed—the podium was useless. It was too low to make a difference for the onlookers in the back of the crowd, so its only purpose seemed to be to force them to stand close together.
Without thinking, his lips opened in a scarcely audible whisper, "You can still refuse."
The woman next to him took in a deep breath but stayed silent.
"Hinata."
She seemed unfazed by his voice.
Sasuke's gaze swept over the hand-painted, newly created clan sigil hanging on the wall. The Hyuuga flame inside of the Uchiha fan. A pattern that he would be wearing on his clothes from today—a clear symbol of unison and moving forward.
Slight annoyance flared up in his chest.
"Hyuuga," his whisper had more edge, but he made sure nobody else besides the two of them could hear it.
"The ceremony is about to begin," she whispered back. Her voice could've been a lullaby if the circumstances were just a tiny bit different.
"So, this is your very last chance to refuse."
Hinata wrapped herself in silence and Sasuke suppressed a remark. He directed his attention back to his own thoughts when the soft voice spoke up once again. "This is your very last chance to refuse, too."
Sasuke silently clicked his tongue. "Your father didn't give me much of a choice."
"Exactly."
No more words were needed from either of them.
That night, when Sasuke escorted his bride to the huge house that had been given to them as a wedding gift by the Hyuugas, he was convinced his soul had long left his body. His muscles put one leg after the other without his command while his mind bathed in the embrace of the deep quietness between them.
He glanced at the white cheeks glimmering in the moonlight next to him. The strained smile that had been present on them all day, while Hinata chatted with people Sasuke had never seen before, was long gone by now.
Weirdly, the second thing that Sasuke noticed was that her red lipstick had matted, and it faded to a deep pink hue as compared to the crimson shade she wore earlier.
"I wish they could've been there," the pinkish red lips unexpectedly moved, and Sasuke felt his legs stumble for the sliver of a moment. This was the first time she had directly addressed him. Ever.
"Who do you mean by 'they'?"
"Sakura-chan, Kiba-kun, Shino-kun, Naruto-kun…" Sasuke didn't miss her gazing up at the starry sky for a second before she continued, "And everyone else, really. It was a lonely event without them."
The abrupt feeling of agreement that swept through Sasuke's body made him choose silence as an answer. Her thinking that he was rude sounded way better than admitting that, in fact, Sasuke would've preferred to see familiar faces over the crowd of pupilless eyes. But the Hyuugas were old-fashioned, and no one was allowed at the wedding who didn't possess the famous kekkei genkai.
Their wooden slippers knocked on the ground all the way through as they strolled down the narrow streets. Finally reaching the gate of their new home, Sasuke laid his palm against the hard surface and pushed the gate open.
Hinata slipped inside, but instead of going straight toward the traditionally built house, she turned around and stared into Sasuke's mismatched eyes.
"I'm glad you were there, Sasuke-kun."
And with that, she swirled inside with the grace of autumn leaves picked up by a gentle breeze, leaving Sasuke to part his lips upon the unfamiliar feeling of warmth inside his chest.
They had been married for six days when, as usual, Sasuke was preparing his bed in the guest room. Unusually, Hinata appeared in the open door, pulling at a loose thread at the hem of the long sleeve of her nightgown.
"Sa-Sasuke-kun," her voice was low and uncertain and still, it blasted through the stillness of the night with the force of a paper bomb.
Sasuke calmly placed his pillow in its designated place before he straightened up and looked at the figure on the doorstep, shifting her weight from one leg to the other.
They had been married for six days but they barely were roommates. They lived in complete neutrality—Hinata cooked and Sasuke ate everything on his plate, Hinata cleaned and Sasuke took care of the garden, Hinata went out to get groceries and Sasuke helped her put everything in its place once she returned. In Sasuke's mind, it was better like that—he was not the type to be good at small talk. And as much as he knew Hinata, neither was she.
He stared at her without saying a word and she cast her eyes down while a faint blush crawled onto her cheeks.
"Yes?" he asked finally, realizing that she wouldn't continue until she got some kind of a reaction.
"You should sleep in your bed."
Hinata didn't look at him, but her voice was devoid of unsureness. Sasuke wondered how many times she had practiced this one sentence until she could say it without her voice shaking.
He turned back to the bed, reaching for a thin blanket. "That's your bed."
Sasuke heard her take a step forward. "It's our… our bed."
With the blanket in his hands, he turned his whole body toward Hinata. She put a wisp of hair behind her ears and even though she tilted her head downward, her face was visibly burning.
Letting out a hissing tsk,Sasuke threw the blanket on the bed. "I prefer cold rooms."
"I opened the window an hour ago. It's quite chilly now."
During the entirety of that night, Sasuke pondered on what spirit had possessed him as he lay in their marital bed, listening to the soft breathing next to him and making sure that none of their body parts were touching, not even by accident.
They had been married for nineteen days when Sasuke first touched his wife with a touch that wasn't unintentional skin contact upon the both of them reaching for the same bowl on the dinner table, or a leg reaching too far to the side during the night.
He had just returned from a discussion with Kakashi and as soon as he stepped inside the house, he sensed a cloud of oddness around him. The sweet smell of dinner that he got so used to in the past few weeks now wasn't lingering in the air.
His legs quickly brought him to the living room where he found who he was looking for—Hinata, but her usual small smile was nowhere to be found when she lifted her head and quickly wiped away the wet trail running down her cheeks.
"Welcome home, Sasuke-kun," she greeted as she got up from the sofa with wobbly moves. "I was just about to start preparing dinner. I'm sorry it's not ready yet, I didn't expect you to return so early."
The recently shed tears had carved lines on her fine skin and Sasuke felt an invincible urge to put his hand on her shoulder as she tried passing him. She stopped, although definitely not from the force of the touch but the surprise that came in the form of a calloused palm.
"Did something happen?" The corners of Sasuke's lips twitched as soon as he posed the question. Of course something had happened, otherwise, he wouldn't have found Hinata crying on the sofa.
A few moments passed without Hinata's answer as though she was contemplating lying that everything was fine, but eventually, her lips moved, and her low voice filled the room. "I had a visitor."
"I guess it wasn't one of your friends."
"No. It was my father."
The last word hovered between them like a haunting ghost and Sasuke had to gather all his self-control not to squeeze the delicate shoulder under his hand. "If he—"
"It doesn't matter," Hinata interrupted, but there was no tint of anger or annoyance in her tone. "I've dealt with it all my life. I can keep dealing with it. But…" she laid her hand on Sasuke's, the gesture prompting him to suck in some air. "Thank you."
Hinata's hand was small and warm, and her skin was smooth even though Sasuke had expected it to be hardened by past scars. But her hand was silky and warm, and long-suppressed memories danced to the surface from deep inside Sasuke's brain from a time that was long gone.
They had been married for twenty-six days when they first joined their friends on a get-together where they celebrated Ino and Sakura becoming a jonin. Sasuke would've preferred to spend the evening sharpening his sword, but when he noticed gifts neatly wrapped on the dinner table, he put on his cloak and waited for Hinata by the door.
"Sasukeeeee," an arm hooked around his neck as soon as he stepped inside the small bar. He didn't even need to catch a glimpse of the blond hairs on the tanned arm to know to whom this annoyingly high-pitched voice belonged. "I was waiting for you so long I started thinking you wouldn't even come."
Sasuke forcefully removed the limb that uncomfortably clutched around his neck. "You stink of sake," he scoffed, but Naruto didn't seem to hear.
"Hinata-chaaaaan," he rushed to hug her, and as soon as his arms closed around her, Hinata's face reddened.
A strange, squeezing sensation started throbbing inside Sasuke's chest as he watched his blond teammate suffocating his wife with his bear hug. He concluded that Naruto got on his nerves more and more with each passing day.
Naruto dragged Hinata inside and made her sit between him and Sakura. As soon as he pushed her down on the seat, Sakura's jade gaze found Sasuke's with a curious gleam.
"Naruto," she called out without turning her head in his direction. "We should let Sasuke-kun sit next to Hinata."
"It's fine," Sasuke interjected before Naruto could start his drunk rambling and hopped down on an empty seat at the end of the table, at a safe distance from the others.
His dark eyes locked with Hinata's pearly ones and he read concern out of her glance.
Tilting his head slightly to the side, Sasuke glared at the pink and purple gift boxes in Hinata's lap, communicating without words that there were more important things than where he had been sat. Hinata must've understood the gesture because she gave a small bob of her head and reached for the gifts to congratulate her friends on advancing in their ninja careers.
The night was rather uneventful from Sasuke's point of view. He drank some sake, enough to help him tolerate the constant noise and all the jokes that were meant to be funny but were not funny at all. However, it was not enough to become drunk and be able to ignore the pitying looks his so-called friends shot in his direction.
Arranged marriages were bad by nature and everybody was aware of that. The gloomily lingering looks that sometimes stopped at Hinata, sometimes at him, suggested that people felt some kind of sorry for the situation. That the two of them were forced to live together, to have their lives forever intertwined, to lose the privilege of marrying for love.
Arranged marriages were bad by nature and Sasuke knew it, but he was a man of logic and as his gaze wandered over the girls present, he didn't doubt his own choice of accepting the offer he had got from the Hyuugas. Hinata, by far, was the best option for him. She was calmer than Sakura, quieter than Ino, and less wild than Tenten.
Besides the rational part of his mind, another part of him that Sasuke was not familiar with, also whispered to him that being married to Hinata wasn't as torturous as others probably imagined.
He was so lost in trying to locate the source of that vexing whisper that he jumped in surprise when someone slid onto the chair next to him that had been left empty the entire night.
"Are you enjoying the party?" she asked with a smile.
Sasuke crossed his arms in front of his chest and closed his eyes. "You don't have to babysit me, Hinata. You can go back to your friends."
"But are you enjoying the party?"
Sasuke opened one eye and stared at the genuinely curious face leaning toward him. "I don't like parties."
Hinata hummed and reached out one hand but stopped herself midmotion as though she had realized what she was doing. Her hand unsurely froze in the air for a few, sluggishly passing seconds before her muscles moved again and she gently placed only her fingertips on Sasuke's forearm. "Let's go home then, Sasuke-kun."
It was either the soft touch or the thoughtfulness of that one sentence, but after such long years spent in utter hatred, the gratifying feeling of not being annoyed by the person he was talking to completely engulfed Sasuke's soul.
They had been married for forty-one days when Hinata first left for a longer mission. She stood in the entryway in her mission gear and with her backpack on, counting on her fingers as she repeated the information needed for survival for the hundredth time that morning.
"I left food in the fridge that should be enough for a few days. After you eat it all, you can go to the shop that's two streets away. Don't be lazy and go there instead of the one on this street because even though it's closer, the ingredients they sell are not fresh. I washed and ironed each of your clothes. They should be enough but if you need them washed, I asked Hanabi to help so you can go to her. We have some medicine in the cupboard in the bathroom, they are in a small, white box. Don't forget to—"
"Deliver the documents on the coffee table to Kakashi by next Monday at the latest," Sasuke finished the sentence instead of her. "Thank you, mother."
Hinata's lips curled into a pout. "These are important."
"You do realize I successfully lived on my own for most of my life, don't you?"
Sasuke's eyebrows arched as a shadow of sorrow passed through Hinata's face.
"Right, you will be fine," she bobbed her head up and down twice and Sasuke wondered if she was simply agreeing with him or was trying to convince herself that indeed, everything would be fine.
"Alright. Take care on your mission," he said and balled his hand in a fist.
Hinata followed suit and pushed her fist against his. "Thank you. See you soon." And with that, she turned around and walked out the gate.
For bystanders, it could've been strange that a married couple said goodbye to each other with a fist bump instead of a peck on the lips or a hug. But for Hinata and Sasuke, the fist bump was an affectionate sign that they were caring for each other—more so as friends than lovers, but in Sasuke's mind, that was a compulsory side effect of an arranged marriage.
They came up with it two weeks prior when Hinata was asked to participate in the upcoming chuunin exams as a proctor. She came home with starry eyes and shared the news with a voice trembling with joy, and for the first time, Sasuke felt as though words were too simple to congratulate with.
He awkwardly lifted his fist and gulped when Hinata pinned her gaze on the limb, confusion swirling in the opalescent eyes.
"I saw this from Naruto," Sasuke hardened his voice in an attempt to hide the fact that at that very moment, he wished for nothing more but for the ground to open and swallow him whole.
Hinata giggled and reciprocated the gesture. "Thank you, Sasuke-kun."
Since then, the fist bump was what they used when other couples would've kissed or hugged.
The first few days of Hinata's absence passed quickly—Sasuke kept himself busy with training, sharpening his weapons, and harassing Kakashi to finally give him a mission.
After the fourth day though, he noticed a drop in his mood when he returned home and nobody greeted him. His nose started longing for the smell of freshly cooked dinner. His lips tingled with the urge to complain about the village still not trusting him enough to let him out of the walls. His hands were reaching toward the empty space on the other side of the bed during the night.
However, he would've rather died than admit that, in fact, he was missing the woman he had been living in an arranged marriage with.
Because arranged marriages are bad by nature and that meant they could've never brought any kind of pleasance with them.
They had been married for sixty-five days and Hinata had been away on her mission for twenty-four days. Not that Sasuke counted the days, he just happened to know.
The day had started out as usual—he woke up, ate breakfast, and pretended that he wasn't home when Naruto was banging on the front door. When he finally left, Sasuke put on his training gear and headed for the door, but it magically opened before he could reach the doorknob.
The dainty figure in the doorway wore a smile reaching from one ear to the other as she lifted up the box closed with a ribbon in her hands.
"Happy birthday, Sasuke," she sang.
The absence of the honorific behind his name sent a warm wave of belonging through his body. He knew that Hinata only addressed people without any honorifics to whom she was really close.
Sasuke didn't care about his birthday.
He didn't care for any birthday gifts either.
He only cared for one thing—that Hinata had come home safe.
Hinata must've thought that Sasuke hadn't even noticed the birthday gift because she shook it gently. "I hope you will like it. I was rushing my team so I could be home on time for your birthday and—"
She couldn't finish the sentence she started.
The gift box fell from her hand.
Sasuke pulled her close and tangled his fingers into her hair.
His lips found the softness of hers and she responded by hooking her arms around his neck, pressing her body into his tight embrace.
Perhaps, not all arranged marriages are bad by nature.
This oneshot has been written for SasuHinaMonth 2022 - Day 12 (I know, I'm in the future) and it was a good opportunity for me to dust off my fingers and return to the fandom. I hope you all enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.
Huge thank you to LavenderEyedAssassin who beta read this story for me.
If you're wondering about A Sign That You Were Here... an update is coming.