CHAPTER 12

"Sasuke!"

"What?" The man in question did not even bother to spare the loud blonde a glance as he grunted out a reply. Naruto barged into Sasuke's room, seeing as he was not paying him any attention. Sasuke whipped his head around when he heard a pair of footsteps stop right behind him and rolled his eyes. A person walking into his room without his permission – even when the door was ajar – remained a pet peeve of his, but Naruto clearly decided that his desire for attention was more important than his self-preservation.

"I can't believe you didn't tell Sakura-chan and I that you were leaving for three days," Naruto grumbled. "I had to hear it from Kakashi!"

Sasuke ignored him and resumed his task of packing his luggage. Clothes were strewn carelessly all over his bed, and he did not look forward to hanging the remaining items back in his wardrobe once he was done with his luggage.

Naruto made an annoyed sound when he realised that Sasuke was once again not paying him any attention. He reached out to elbow his quiet companion. Sasuke turned around and let out a 'tch' sound.

"Stop ignoring meeee!" Naruto whined.

"Fine," Sasuke groused and let the last piece of apparel in his hand fall into his luggage. "I'm not ignoring you now." Naruto made a satisfied noise this time and, to Sasuke's utmost displeasure, swiped aside the clothes that were lying on his bed to hop onto it. He settled down comfortably and gave the scowling man a toothy grin.

"How's life?"

"You barged into my space just to ask about my life?" Sasuke replied in disbelief.

Naruto shrugged. "I mean, something big happened to you recently, and you almost never talk to Sakura-chan and I about your life."

"I'm fine." With that curt response, Sasuke bent down to pick up the apparel that he had carelessly tossed into his luggage to begin folding it neatly.

"How's Hinata-chan then?"

Sasuke paused to take in his words. Naruto's eyes did not leave his frozen form for a second. In the end, Sasuke merely gave a nonchalant shrug and resumed his packing. "Some of our fans have been harassing her, but she's coping with it."

"Maaan that doesn't sound good. Maybe I should ask her out."

Sasuke turned to fix his blonde friend with a glare. Naruto caught a flash of his sour expression before he managed to school his features back into something neutral. This caused him to burst into laughter. "What's with that face?"

Sasuke shook his head and tried to ignore the teasing noise. Naruto was so effortlessly annoying sometimes. He refused to acknowledge the burn of jealousy in the pit of his stomach. Hinata was surely going to agree to go out with Naruto because…well, because it was Naruto.

"Teme, you really like her don't you?"

"I don't." His reply was quick, but apparently that only caused Naruto to break out into a fit of giggles like a schoolgirl.

"It's written all over your face!"

"I don't," he repeated, stressing each syllable this time. Yet, he could not bring himself to look Naruto in the eye as he denied his claim.

"Ah, if you say so. Then I'm sure you won't mind if I ask her to hang out?"

Sasuke shoved his last shirt into his luggage and turned to face Naruto fully. "Go ahead," he replied monotonously.

Naruto gave him a skeptical look, but his attention was quickly redirected to the doorway. His face brightened up by a few notches as he exclaimed, "Sakura-chan! I didn't notice you there!"

Sasuke peered over his shoulder and saw that Sakura was leaning against the doorframe with her arms crossed. She met his gaze for a split second but quickly directed her focus elsewhere to avoid commencing a staredown with him. His relationship with Sakura was still strained after the time she broke into his room to interrogate him about Hinata, and Sasuke was not about to step forward to mend things between them because he remained adamant that he was not at fault. Besides, Sakura should take the initiative since she likes to flaunt her leader status, Sasuke reasoned to himself.

"You didn't tell us that you were leaving…" she finally said. There was a distinct sadness in her voice, which did not escape Sasuke's notice.

He paused to regard her tense posture for a moment before turning to walk to the other end of his room to retrieve a series of other items to be packed. "You may enter," he told her simply, completely ignoring her statement.

Sakura took a few seconds to blink at him in surprise, but she broke out into a wide smile when she realised that this was his way of telling her that she was forgiven. It was such a Sasuke thing to do – and she might not have caught on if not for the fact that she had spent so many years in close proximity to her group member. With newfound ecstasy, she skipped into his room and shamelessly plopped herself onto his bed next to Naruto. Sasuke pointedly ignored the eyesore at the corner of his eye, that was NaruSaku sitting on his bed.

"Teme! So you're really okay if I ask Hinata-chan out?"

"Do whatever you want," Sasuke replied as he busied himself with stuffing a series of toiletry bags into his luggage. Somehow he did not like the bewilderment that he detected in Naruto's voice. After a thoughtful pause, he turned to look at Naruto suspiciously. "I thought you weren't into her?"

Naruto scratched his head sheepishly. "Yeah well… But Hinata-chan is a great person, isn't she?"

Another pause. "She is."

Naruto grinned at this admission. "Well, I haven't sat down to talk to her properly for years. It'll be fun!"

Sasuke nodded grimly and resumed his packing to distract himself. His heart was pounding against his ribcage, but he did his best not to let his anxiousness show. Deep down, he knew why he was upset about this whole affair, and this awareness of his own feelings towards Hinata only caused him more agony. He could not even name another time in his life when he felt this troubled. (Even the lead-up to the announcement of Konoha's next debut team back then could not compare, because Sasuke was confident enough to know that he would make it in anyway.)

Naruto began rambling about how it was so nice that Sasuke was catching a break from their mad idol schedule by travelling to the outskirts of Konoha to film the last few scenes of his drama. The raven-haired man decided to ignore him, because the more he thought about what Naruto was saying, the more he began to realise that he was going to need an exorcism after spending two whole nights with the pretty demon.

Unbeknownst to him, Sakura was quietly studying him as he lost himself in his thoughts.

The next day could not have come more quickly. Sasuke was scheduled to show up at the filming location in the late afternoon, since he was not needed for a few scenes that were to be filmed in the earlier part of the day. Sasuke left his dormitory with his luggage on time, but Kakashi surprised him by being punctual for their departure – for once. He proceeded to spend the next two and a half hours in the car, listening to his own music with no small amount of disappointment.

Make no mistake – Sasuke was satisfied with most of the songs that Team 7 released, but he had heard them so many times over rehearsals that he would much rather listen to other things in his free time. Yet, Kakashi insisted on playing all of Team 7's albums on loop in the car, simply because he wanted to prove that he was proud of them. Sasuke could only acquiesce, albeit with no small amount of reluctance.

Finally, they reached their destination, that was a beach in the countryside of Konoha. From the carpark that the pair was standing at, they could already spot a clear view of the horizon. There was bound to be a beautiful shot taken of the sunset that was fast approaching. Sasuke greeted each of the crew members that he passed on the way to the cabin, where he assumed he would be staying at overnight along with the rest of the cast and the filming crew.

After depositing his belongings in the cabin, he followed Kakashi out to the filming site. From a distance away, he could see that Hinata was filming a scene with dog-boy. A few other minor characters were loitering around them, waiting for their turn to contribute a line or two. He recognised one of them to be Tenten. The woman had been acting in several films and dramas, but for some reason she never received much screentime. He almost felt bad for her, keyword being almost.

The moment the director yelled "cut!", Hinata turned around to look at him. Her pearlescent eyes widened and she immediately ran up to him with a smile on her face. She looked rather idiotic given that her bare feet kept sinking into the sand, but he shoved his hands into his pockets and waited for her to close the distance between them. She stopped right before crashing into him and looked up to greet him excitedly, with her little hands balled up into fists in front of her chest.

"S-Sasuke-kun! It's nice to see you."

"Hn. Good afternoon." As he said this, he could not help but reach out to push a lock of hair behind her ear since it was obscuring part of her pretty face-

"Do you want to take some pictures?"

Thank goodness she interrupted his thoughts. He really had to pay more attention to what was happening in reality. It was truly alarming how she could make him lose all focus on his surroundings the moment she was up close and friendly to him. Sasuke swore that he was possessed by some kind of spirit everytime this happened, because this simply was not like him.

His eyes followed Hinata's hand, which was now pointed towards the sun that was approaching the horizon. "You want pictures of the sunset?" he murmured.

She turned back to look at him and nodded enthusiastically. "Mm. Maybe a few with me in it too…" Sasuke stared at her quietly for a moment, which prompted Hinata to shuffle her feet nervously. She brought her index fingers to her chest and began poking them together. "I-If you don't mind helping me take them, o-of course…" she added.

Sasuke nodded and reached into his pocket to fish out his mobile phone. Hinata beamed at him before turning around to walk out further towards the sea. Sasuke trailed after her slowly till he found a suitable distance between them. He clicked onto the camera app and began to snap some photographs. He gulped more than once, seeing how heart-stoppingly beautiful this demon was under the golden rays of the sun, but he forced himself to focus on the task at hand. He pointedly ignored the thought of keeping these photos of her in his gallery and looking through them again when she was not around.

After taking more than a dozen pictures of her, Hinata skipped up to him – in the same cute, idiotic manner – to scan through them. Her fingers brushed against his gently as she touched his phone. Once again, Sasuke willed himself to ignore his traitorous heart that was about to beat out of his ribcage.

Their moment was interrupted by a cough. The pair spun around and spotted a very amused Sai. He gave them his trademark eye-smile and said, "Do both of you want a photograph?"

Sasuke was about to refuse when Hinata readily agreed. How could she be so carefree about this? he thought in disbelief while handing over his phone to their makeup artist. In a moment, he found himself standing awkwardly next to Hinata, evidently fearful of how he should position himself. Never in his life had he stood so stiffly.

Sai must have caught on to his inner turmoil as he broke out into another one of his smiles behind Sasuke's phone. From a certain angle, it looked like Sai was mocking him, but he could not be sure.

"You two look awkward," Sai commented dryly.

"O-Oh no," Hinata muttered. She quickly angled her body towards her co-star, which prompted Sasuke to do the same. His hand slid around her waist instinctively, and Hinata responded to his touch by leaning into him. Sai smiled at their new pose in satisfaction and snapped a few shots.

"That's better," he commented. "Ah, I should have done up Sasuke-kun's makeup before taking these photos, but it's alright."

Sasuke felt a vein pop around his temple. "What are you trying to say about my face?" he deadpanned. As always, nobody could tell if he was being serious or if he was joking. That was Sasuke's biggest charm as an idol – apart from his looks and talent, of course.

Sai settled for a contrived laugh. "Nothing bad at all, Sasuke-kun. You are very handsome with or without makeup."

Hinata startled him when she brushed her hand against his fingers suddenly. "T-That's right. Sasuke-kun is always good-looking." she chimed in. Sasuke knew that her intention was not to boost his ego but to comfort him, since innocent little Hinata was probably operating under the mistaken assumption that he was offended by Sai's remark. Yet, he could not help but feel a surge of warmth in his chest upon hearing her words.

After Sai left them to their own devices, he suddenly spoke up, "Do you mean it?"

Hinata turned to look at him, but Sasuke kept his eyes fixed on the waves washing up the shore. His mouth was turned down and his jaw was tense. She blinked at him several times before facing the sea together with him. "Y-Yes."

"Tch." Hinata's eyes shifted to look at her companion as he put his hands back into his pocket and stepped out towards the sea. The next wave that came in washed over his bare feet. "I thought I wasn't your type," he added as an afterthought.

Hinata's lips turned up into a smile the moment she recalled the interview that he was implicitly referring to. "Sasuke-kun is Sasuke-kun," she replied. It was almost equivocal, but her meaning was plain. He angled his head slightly to look at her silhouette from the corner of his eye.

Hinata slowly trudged back to the cabin, but between the sounds of the waves he heard her say, "He means a lot to me."

That night, Sasuke really did find himself scrolling through the photographs that he had taken of Hinata in his gallery. He was pleasantly surprised to find that he had the luxury of having a single bed to himself, as along with the bed came a degree of privacy that he otherwise would not have had if he were sharing futons with some others.

Sure, he was occupying only the bottom bunk in a double-decker bed, of which the top bunk was occupied by Kiba, but he was not about to complain. A bed was a bed; and his privacy was much appreciated. Even if it implied that he was about to spend time admiring the countenance of the pretty demon on his phone.

As if possessed by the spirit again, Sasuke swiped down the notification bar to check for reception. There was a weak signal for data, but thankfully there was Wi-Fi in the cabin. He had no idea how that was a thing, but he was abundantly grateful to that kind soul responsible for it as without the Wi-Fi he would not have been able to do what he was currently doing, and that was to scroll through pictures of Hinata on Google.

He felt like a creep, looking through candid photographs of his only female friend on Google because he came to the (terrifying) realisation that he was not satisfied with looking at only 27 photos of her in his gallery. He could already hear Naruto's annoying cackle at the back of his mind, and he knew that that was the sound of his guilty conscience speaking.

Yet, he continued to scroll down the search results for the next twenty minutes even though he knew that he should be sleeping. While scrolling, he noticed that Hinata had always kept her hair black – or if he were to be specific, indigo. There was one particular era where she bleached the inner layer of her hair, which resulted in a gorgeous contrast of silver and her natural indigo, but she had never returned to that style. He wondered absently if the bleaching had damaged her hair in some way.

Regardless, Hinata was pretty in her natural hair colour. He let out a resigned sigh at this conclusion and tossed his phone to the side. He needed to sleep this off. Sasuke rolled over to his side and faced the wall. I shall wake up tomorrow and forget all about this stupid crush, he chanted to himself. It took him at least several rounds of incantation before he finally succumbed to his fatigue and fell asleep.

Unfortunately, Sasuke was not very lucky as he could not even get the restful sleep that he thought he deserved. He woke up to the feeling of warmth emanating from behind him. This prompted Sasuke to turn over, and the moment his sleepy onyx eyes fell onto luminescent opal ones, he immediately sobered up.

He opened his mouth once or twice, trying to think of the right words to say as his mind grappled with the unusual situation that he found himself in. Before he could say anything, Hinata whispered, "I-I'm sorry…" She shifted back slightly to make some space between them.

"Why…are you here?" Sasuke finally asked. The incredulity in his voice was not masked.

The sliver of moonlight that peeked through the window lit up the side of her face, and Sasuke could see that there was a small blush that dusted her pale cheeks. Hinata avoided eye contact with him this time as she replied, "I just had a bad dream. I was a l-little scared."

Sasuke's features softened when he heard this. They lay next to each other in silence for a long moment before Sasuke broke it. "Why did you come here when you woke up?"

His question was pointed, and this did not escape Hinata's notice. She gave him a shaky smile. "S-Sasuke-kun usually makes me feel better…" This time, her hands came up to her chest and she began to twiddle her thumbs. It was an idiosyncrasy of hers that Sasuke could never really wrap his head around.

Another moment passed with neither of them saying anything. The atmosphere in the room grew heavier with each passing second before an emboldened Sasuke decided to pluck one of her hands from her chest to hold it in his. Hinata looked back up at him in shock, and her mouth dropped open at his unexpected move.

"Hinata," Sasuke began lowly.

"Y-Yes?"

A pause. "You shouldn't climb into the beds of men. It can turn out to be scarier than any dream you've had."

The blush on Hinata's face intensified, and she averted her gaze in favour of staring at the smooth line of his jaw. "I-It's okay…if it's Sasuke-kun…"

Sasuke could not believe what he was hearing. In a flash, he had her lying under him as he stared at her face, which was only barely illuminated by the moonlight. Her hand trembled in his, but she did not pull away. A heavy silence hung over them as Sasuke studied her thoughts from the myriad of expressions that flitted across her face. It was surprising how expressive Hinata could be when she was splayed out under him vulnerably.

Finally, Sasuke leaned down and closed the distance between their lips. The kiss started out slow and almost cautious, but it quickly intensified the moment tongue was involved. Hinata slid her arms around his neck to pull him closer, and Sasuke had to stifle a pleasured groan at her initiative. She was actually reciprocating! Maybe Hyuuga Hinata was not a world-class scammer after all! He cradled her face gently with one hand while the other slid down her neck and arm before it settled on her waist. She was fairly lean, but somehow she was still so enticingly soft to touch.

"Kami, that is a new level of desperation right there…"

Naruto's annoying voice in his head suddenly brought him back to reality. Sasuke broke away from the kiss to look at the result of his work. Similar to the last time they made out in the toilet cubicle, Hinata stared back at him with dazed, half-lidded eyes and swollen lips. She looked like a wreck, but he liked it that way when he knew that he was responsible for it.

"Hinata."

She blinked at him several times to collect her wits before replying, "Y-Yes?"

Sasuke brushed his thumb against her waist and paused for a long moment before he gathered the courage to say, "Don't do this with other men."

Hinata's mouth turned into an 'o' shape as understanding slowly dawned on her.

Sasuke then furrowed his brows and continued determinedly, "And don't go out with anyone else."

Don't go out with anyone else but me.