EN: Before you proceed, be warned: I'm a very blunt person by nature; so if you're unable to brace whatever I've got to say, it's for the best that you steer clear of my work as it reflects my nature as a person: I see the world as it is, not what it could be; you may agree with it, or you may disagree with it, but that's how it is and I don't see any reason to be apologetic about it. I detest fluff and consider modern and post-modern Romance to be a threadbare genre that's worthy of scorn as it's manufactured to the extreme in this post-capitalism world—to the point that it's turned into a commodity to reflect a middle-class buyer's mundane world, and Fan-Fictions have done this issue no favours. And that, frankly, has never interested me. (Romance can work, provided that it's in the background and another genre, a far stronger genre, takes the foreground and uplifts it from the muck of sentimental slop.)
Anyhow, coming to the problem at hand: There appears to be a lot of confusion as to why this story was penned (no happy SH?! No way!), and it's fairly simple: It deconstructs a pitifully overused SH trope—that is, they'd get closer; he'd open up; and then they'd ride off into the sunset, with a couple of bastardized Sharingan-and-Byakugan-carrying pop-outs in tow. It's a cliché, and you'd have to pen an absurdly out-of-character Sasuke for that to even remotely get off the ground, let alone work and reach some sort of conclusion. (Don't even bother with the "they're similar!" nonsense; this discourse is so surface-level that it tickles me pink as to why it's even a thing; they're nothing alike as characters!)
This story was a deconstruction of that particular trope, an endeavour from my end to see if it even works. It doesn't, not without butchering Sasuke's characterisation beyond recognition; and trust me, I tried. This was also more of a side-piece thing (Murasaki remains to be my main focus). I've done so many deconstructions in different works, especially Murasaki: I'm always interested in breaking apart well-loved tropes and granting them the spin of verisimilitude and seeing as to which road they lead to, as I've never particularly liked manufactured concepts of relationships; and this is what SH is, a painfully manufactured one at the expense of one character's characterisation; and that's the main reason why I penned the story, and Hinata was chosen as the observer as she's the one who "heals" Sasuke in many of these narratives. (The healing cliché never ends.)
Furthermore, people's desire for a better life isn't really the same as turning people into caricatures in narratives. Two different things. Life isn't completely a set of tropes, and art ought to reflect that. Now, why was Sasuke's avenger persona chosen and not his toothless redemption version? This one's also very simple to clarify: The plot makes perfect sense as Kishimoto admitted that he didn't agree with Naruto's perspective, but Sasuke's; the ending was something he himself never wanted, but he'd written it due to public and editorial pressures, to give people "hope" as he mentioned. These aren't my words, but Kishimoto's, so there's that. Going by the author's own statements, it's only prudent to keep Sasuke's revenge as fresh as before, because Kishimoto further went on to state that, like Sasuke, he'd never forgive the people responsible for the massacre—no matter what. Again, not my words, but the author's. So I'm unsure as to why do these "docile Sasuke" fictions keep popping up as it's an absurd disservice to a character that's so exceedingly complex, especially since the author's insistence on Sasuke's revenge being justified don't bear out these less-than-comical interpretations; the narrative, which I've written, takes on a natural course as it was meant to take.
Perhaps you're used to seeing a certain template for this pairing in which both the characters move through a set number of worn-out clichés (they open up to each other; get closer; she heals him; etc. sort of nauseating romance tropes that litter the fandom spaces) till they settle down into a routine that makes that lord awful audience-pleasing patter palatable. Basically, Sasuke's characterisation is butchered to itty-bitty pieces in the process to overcompensate for his Fanon outing. So you came to a very wrong place if you wanted to read yet another iteration of that . . . candy-floss romance trope; and that, I'm afraid, isn't my fault. (This isn't an attack from my end; I'm just being straight-forward about this; you can read and write whatever you want; I can assure you, it wouldn't interest me.)
And as an aside, all the characters are as they are in canon (you're more than welcome to bring your arguments here, though it'd be quite fruitless as I know the manga like the back of my hand). You might want to reread the manga if you're under the impression that I've deviated from them in any manner. A lot of times, readers have this bizarre perception of characters that's not only never supported by canon but is also far removed from it. It's a side-effect of the fanfictionification of canon and the subsequent unearned pretension that an average Fan-Fiction author even possesses the skill to out-write a seasoned writer at his craft (this had to be said). Sasuke in romance stories would be one such hilarious aberration. I, on the other hand, chose to deconstruct his Fanon caricature and construct a plot around his canon characterisation. That's all. Besides, if you don't like avenger Sasuke, you don't like Sasuke as a character (period; and I truly don't care whatever half-hearted justification you have on you to counter this; I can't say I'm interested as I've seen them all, and they're all silly at best), because that only makes up about . . . what, 99.99% of his characterisation? His entire character is built from the ground up on that single theme with a remarkably terrifying precision, enough that the manga's entire commentary on the evils of the military industrial complex is made through him and him only—till the very end. No other character goes through these motions but Sasuke. Not a single one. Why would you even read stories about a character that's only that in name, stripped of all that makes him what he is just to make him play house-house with some unimportant girl from another clan? Beats me! Only you can answer that question, albeit I've always found that pastime bizarre. Anyhow, thank you for the . . . reviews?
Regards.
P.s: This was written as a response to some PMs from the readers that didn't understand the reasoning behind the story. I do this quite often for Murasaki, but this is the first time I've written something of the sort for these short-pieces. Anyhow, like or dislike this blunt approach, I don't see how it's my headache.