1 Week Later…

It was an arid morning in the desert in Suna.

A typical blistering day with the sun blazing orange drying up any kind of moisture in the air and plastering the sky in reds and yellows with not a cloud in sight, yet there was a depressing atmosphere surrounding them. Crows were cawing loudly setting the scene.

Hinata's breath hitched as she neared the towering Sand's gates that were currently closed and thought of the long walk ahead that she had to make without the special someone she had come to think of as a kind of pseudo-daughter.

While it might have sounded odd to some that she had formed such a heavy attachment, she couldn't help but feel that way. Maruu had been with them for many, many months, through thick and thin, and now they were splitting up with her for the first time in quite some time. Hinata had always had a problem with forming attachments too quickly. Naruto, case and point. She had seen him one day in the Academy stop some bullies and proclaim he would become Hokage and that was that. But it was more than that. The two girls had gotten quite close- going shopping together (which she would rarely ever do), trained her to start out being a ninja and shared many things. Maruu trusted her inexplicably.

All this had formed a motherly relationship and to have that taken away abruptly was sort of devastating. However, Hinata could fight through it. She was no longer the weak, frail heiress she had been a decade ago. No. She had matured and had been nurtured into a warrior by the likes of Pein, Obito, Madara, and even Sasuke. She wouldn't allow herself to cry. Maruu wasn't stupid, she had worked it out herself that she wouldn't be able to stay with them after her Uncle Kuro had been found out. That at least took some of the stress of off her to break the news to Maruu.

Tenderly, she felt her hand being squeezed and averted her gaze from the looming fortification to the smaller girl next to her. They each shared a slight smile and carried on walking towards the way out of the Village.

"There's no need to worry, Hinata," she assured, "I am happy to stay with my uncle. He's kinda growing on me."

Maruu gave her a cheeky grin that made her seem so much more mature than she appeared.

"It's just… sad is all," Hinata sighed in defeat.

"I know. I'm sad as well. I'll miss our adventures," Maruu said, "But look on the bright side, I've been really lucky in all that I've been able to see. I mean, different villages, countless new people. How many kids my age can say that?"

Hinata brought a smile to her face. It was true, they had given her something to remember and treasure for sure. "You're right. 'Always look for the silver lining', that's what my mother always used to say."

Maruu nodded in a way that said 'that's right!'. It reminded her of Naruto a little. "And don't forget nothin' is stopping us from seeing each other again. In fact, Uncle Kuro said something about a Ninja Games starting in a month at your home Village and how he'd like to take me to see it. We could meet there, right?"

A puzzled look appeared on Hinata's face and her smile fell lopsided. "That's true. Sasuke and I can always visit providing we are free to do what we wish, but our Hokage has asked us to stay at another village for the next few months to provide support so I can't come see you during the Ninja Games regrettably."

"Oh," Maruu's smile dropped a little, "Well how 'bout after Sasuke has finished his two-year trip we can visit each other then, right?"

"Yes definitely, that's a good idea. I'll let Sasuke know," Hinata made a mental note to remember to tell him when he got to the gate.

An hour before while getting ready to leave, Sasuke had sealed all of their things into a scroll and told her to make her way to the gates while he finished up doing something. Hinata thought it was peculiar but didn't question him.

Hinata's realisation that she had come to care greatly for the Uchiha- far more so than Naruto- hadn't gone any further than the kiss they shared watching the fireworks. In fact, neither of them had brought it up. Well, when she said neither she meant Sasuke. She had occasionally tried to ask him about it but he would always make an excuse and rush away. Ranging from excuses like: 'The Kazekage has asked me to take care of something' to 'I'm tired right now, Hinata' he always seemed to be busy. Hinata wasn't really sure what to think, but she knew for sure that she certainly didn't regret her actions that night.

'Perhaps Sasuke regrets it', she thought looking down. Would he? It was so unexpected when she looked back on it. Out of nowhere he had leaned in and kissed her and it quickly became the best moment of her life. All she knew is that they needed to talk, badly.


"Where are the maps?"

A grey, old lady reading a dusty book peered over her thin rimmed glasses that seemed too small for her and took him in with a keen disinterest.

"At the map section," she said, going back to her book again.

Tch. Gritting his teeth, he asked again, "And where's the map section?"

He watched the women as she rose a steady hand and pointed in the general left direction and immediately went back to her book as if he were just a pest to her.

Tch. Without a, frankly undeserved, thank you, he spun on his heel and stalked off toward where the librarian had pointed. She was more unhelpful than a broken walking stick.

Down one of the aisles on his left he found himself in the corner of the library where maps were pinned up next to each other on one of the walls to form an entire image of all the elemental nations. Despite believing the continent to be a huge place to live, the map made it seem small in his mind. He looked over the coloured countries: Fire, Wind, Earth, Lightning, Water, Rain, and Rice, and found what he was looking for. Despite being told to go to the Droplet Village, he had no idea as to where it really was. When he spotted it he saw why. It was incredibly small, situated just above the Country of Fire and left of the Country of Rice. While other Hidden Villages where, well, hidden on the map, the Droplet Village was clear as to where it was. Close to the coast seemingly where it had gotten its name from.

Looking around, Sasuke found a large book on a pedestal and opened it to its contents.

'Droplet Village pg. 787'

Flicking to one of the far end pages with a loud boom, he found the chapter he was looking for a began scanning all the information about the Village with his Sharingan to commit it to memory. He found things like their imports/exports, chain of command, and weather (which happened to be unsurprisingly but unfortunately pretty shitty), though much of it could be outdated due to the ravenous war.

He didn't bother returning the book to its front cover and took off up the aisle where he found the librarian again. Sending a quick incline of the head to her, he headed out of the library and towards the Sands gates where he would meet up with Hinata, now confident in finding their next desired location.

Outside was predictably warm and clammy, but he had gotten used to it by now so he pulled Itachi's black cloak back around him and set off.

The excitement of being with Hinata alone for the remainder of their trip was overshadowed by Maruu's sad departure- he had grown used to the girl- and the kiss he knew he probably shouldn't have given Hinata. Sasuke had wanted to kiss her so badly, but he knew that Hinata probably deserved better than him to spend her life with. It was a big step forward for Sasuke. Wanting her to be happy rather than hold her back. He knew that it would most definitely hurt her seeing as how close they were but she still had a family and duties to her clan to fulfil. Her Father would most likely flip if Sasuke ended up in a relationship with his daughter. Anyway, he wouldn't be in the village ninety percent of the time in the future because he believed he didn't deserve to relax, and he couldn't drag Hinata around with him for years to come no matter how much he would like to.

But he digressed, wasting time mulling over that particular topic would only make him depressed so he locked it away in the back of his mind and decided to simply flash step to the gate.

Pumping chakra to his feet he felt the grip on his chest pull him forward with such speed he reappeared by the gates in a blink of an eye. His cloak billowed up around him from the sheer speed he had been going before falling back down. Scanning behind him he came face to face with Hinata, Maruu, and Gaara.

"Sasuke." Hinata.

"Sasuke." Gaara.

"Sasuke!" Maruu rushed him, breaking contact with Hinata, and caught his waist in a hug. He didn't like people touching him but Maruu had a free pass. Sasuke let a smile crack the side of his mouth and let his hand land on the top of her head. He heard Hinata giggling and looked up to see her approaching them. She slipped her hand into his and smiled at Maruu.

The moment Sasuke was enjoying was broken when he heard two small clicks of a camera going off in front of him. Gaara stood, smirking, a few paces away holding the offending machine in his hands.

"A nice memory to have, Sasuke," he defended himself and Sasuke relented with a loud 'Hn'. He supposed he was right but that didn't change the fact he didn't like pictures taken of himself. Especially without him allowing it.

Gaara let two pictures print out of the polaroid camera and shook them gently in the wind. He looked at them and nodded, smiling to himself. He looked like an old man content with his meddling.

He handed one over to Hinata and one to Maruu. Both of which squealed at the picture.

Sasuke rolled his eyes. Could they get going now?

"Do you want to see, Sasuke?" Hinata asked, holding it out to him.

To his credit he didn't squeal but it was a nice photograph he had to admit. It saw Maruu hugging him with his hand smoothing her hair while Hinata held his hand leaning into his shoulder. For his second ever photo taken, after the death of his parents, of him, it was acceptable. They could probably even pass for a family if someone they didn't know saw it. Not that he would let anyone see it. He would even go so far as to say it looked cute, something completely different to his normal demeanour. Holding on to it for memories when Hinata was back home with her clan felt like a good idea.

"It's a nice photo," he eventually told everyone, "Can I hold on to it Hinata?"

"O-of course, Sasuke," she replied, supposedly caught off guard by his request, "Keep it safe."

Nodding, he places it in his pocket and says, "It's time to leave, Hinata."

She looked at Maruu again and averted her gaze to the ground again, ''Yes.''

She feels tears start to form but they're stopped in their tracks by a warm, comfortable hand taking her own and squeezing it gently, she looked to her right finding of course Sasuke's hand reminding her that they have a job to do and could not stay here forever. Hinata closed her eyes resolutely before opening them again and nodding, "Let's go."

"Goodbye, Maruu, we had the best of time and I'm so glad we met you, we'll see you soon as soon as we can," Hinata finished, giving her one final hug while Maruu giggled and said her thanks before turning away. Maruu looked to Sasuke for him to nod and give her a rare smile she couldn't remember if he had done so before, she smiled back and waved as he also turned his back and slowly but surely walked away hand in hand with Hinata.

"Come on Maruu, we'll get you settled with your uncle, we can even go and get something for lunch if you wish?" Gaara said out of the blue as he placed his hand on the girl's shoulder to comfort her, "You'll see them again, I know it. Come on."


They had been walking for hours now in the heat of the desert and there was still no sign of any trees for the border out of the Land of Wind. They were currently heading towards Amegakure, The Rain Village as considering they were going to live at this Droplet village then it seemed a good time to get used to the rain, especially after being so used to the dry air of Suna. Once at the Rain they would set up camp then they'd walk through the Grass and through the top of the Land of Fire until they would reach their destination. However, all this still seemed unlikely as, even on the horizon, there was no sign of anything but sand dunes and dead bushes with the occasional eagle screeching for food. Even if Hinata looked behind her they had travelled far enough that Suna was no longer in view over all of the hills and miles they had put between them, the thought made her slightly sad but the unknown future with her companion was what was grating on her the most.

"How much further do you think?" she asked, looking towards him. He had taken off his cloak and now just wore his black collared shirt and shinobi trousers. His hair hung down his eyes from the sweat of the sun, but he didn't show any outwards annoyance from it, more focused on hurrying up.

He turned towards her voice and she could just make out his eyes from under his fringe, "Most likely a few more hours until we reach the first few trees inside the Rain country and then from there the rain will start to pick up a lot, we'll find a cave of some sort and stay there for the night."

"Right," she nodded.

They carried on walking far into the early evening until either one of them spoke again, being more focused on not sinking into the sand and searching for any shade of green or blue. It wasn't until around dusk that they finally spotted a few trees sprouting from the soil and patchy grass on the ground mixed with grains of sand a few miles away, she had let out a breath at that, she was starting to get the feeling that they were just travelling in a never-ending desert where they'd end up where they started. They stopped just on top of a dune to judge the time it would take to reach the border and once coming to the conclusion of just under forty minutes Hinata suggested they have a quick drink to re-energise.

Sasuke opened a storage scroll that had been packed away and passed Hinata a flask of still cold water before reaching for his own and taking a sip. The sun's rays could still be seen penetrating the sky in a beautiful lightshow of oranges and reds as the darkness started fighting for the sky. A few stars were starting to pop into existence however the moon was still hidden below the land. He watched this before standing back up and carrying on, not wanting it to be pitch black by the time they made it to the nearest cave, Hinata had also gotten out a purple umbrella Gaara had given to her in order to combat the rain.

"Sasuke," the voice caused him to turn around to realise Hinata was staring at him with her large lavender eyes, unmoving. He raised an eyebrow for her to continue.

"Why did you kiss me?" she asked quietly, "At the fireworks, why did you kiss me?"

Sasuke gulped internally. He knew that she would bring it up again soon, he couldn't blame her, he'd kissed her out of the blue just on impulse, hoping he could steal a taste of her lips to show himself what his life could have been if he hadn't walked the path he did. If his clan had never been killed, if Madara and Kaguya weren't revived would he have just been another Uchiha going to the academy where he would meet a lavender eyed girl and fall for her. Would his parents have approved? He didn't know. His mother probably would have been jumping for joy at the 'cuteness' of it all and drawing up marriage contracts for the Hyūga clan leader. He sighed. Why did he kiss her indeed?

"I don't know," he said, hoping to avoid the situation altogether.

Hinata looked away for a brief second before returning her gaze to his, "You don't know, or don't want to tell me?" she accused, "I just want to know why my best friend kissed me and why he won't even talk to me about it."

This was going to be worse than he thought, "I... I did it because I could. I'm not one for sharing my emotions, Hinata, you should know that by now."

"Because you could? What's that supposed to mean, Sasuke? When you kissed me, I felt so happy. I- I just want to know whether it was by mistake or... something else."

"It wasn't a mistake, Hinata. It... made me happy too, you should know that, but it was just that, a kiss," hearing himself trying to let her down hurt more than he thought it would have.

"Just a kiss..." she looked upset and it hurt, "Right."

Sasuke turned back away from her and started walking slowly towards the tree line, he could hear small footsteps behind him trailing along. It felt like he had an internal war going on inside of him, half of him wanting to tell her that they could never be together and the other half telling him that he was being an idiot and that he should turn around and wrap her up and thank her for being with him.

He carried on walking-

"Do you love me?" he heard her say quietly behind him, causing him to stop dead as his breath hitched. He could feel his heart pump faster like it did when he was in Kaguya's dimension watching the Otsutsuki almost kill them all. He wanted to look at her, he did, but his feet wouldn't let him move. He said nothing.

"Because... I-I think I love you, Sasuke."

He stayed still, unmoving, silent, begging for her to say more. His jaw was aching from grinding his teeth unknowingly and his heart felt like it was ripping through his ribcage. Why did she love him? What could he offer her?

"It's okay if you don't, but I now realise why my feelings for Naruto disappeared. You are everything to me Sasuke, and I'm here for you whenever you want to talk. You don't have to say anything," she giggled quietly, "Knowing you, you're probably struggling to figure out what to say."

He could hear the humour in her shaky voice, as if she was making the joke to calm herself down. She had just confessed her love after all. She sounded lighter, but she was wrong, he knew what to say.

"Why?" was all he said. His voice was cracking.

"Why do I love you?" she replied, hearing her say it again hit him even harder, "I suppose because after everything we've been through, how could I not? You're my best friend, Sasuke, you've shown me a new life, you've opened up to me when you haven't for anyone else. I want you to be happy, and I'd do anything to make you happy. If that isn't love then what is?" she finished, smiling.

It was silent after her confession for a while, neither of them wanting to break the silence. Sasuke had heard her of course, her words had resonated with him, but she hadn't thought of the kind of life he could provide her, that was what was stopping him from responding to her.

He angled his head towards the sky, the last rays of sunlight were almost gone and there was a slight chill in the air now. He could make out the rustling of the trees now, not so far away, and he could start to see cumulonimbus clouds forming in the distance. They were almost at the border.

"Hinata," he finally spoke, he could hear rustling behind him, "You have to understand that for the rest of my life I am to travel this continent to atone for my crimes, I have no money, no clan, no family, no home to give you, and you are the Hyūga clan heiress, your duty is to your clan and Konoha, I am not good for you, you must know this."

And there it was. The reason for why he hadn't turned and kissed her and told her he felt the same way. It was better to let her down than to string her along. He knew her Father would agree, as hard as it was.

"I would give that all up, Sasuke. My... my father already wants me to step down as heiress and pass it to my sister, that is why he wanted me to be trained by you- in order to become stronger. I don't care about being my clan's leader, I know Hanabi would make a far better heiress than me, and as for everything else, you believe I care about you so little than you having no money, or home would stop me from loving you. Travelling the world with you? Nothing would make me happier," she finished resolutely.

He was stunned, he hadn't thought she would have thought about the consequences already. Could he ask her to give up everything for someone like him?

"Hinata, there's no reason to give that all up. You know that you wouldn't always be able to accompany me. You will always have ties to Konoha regardless of whether you are the Hyūga clan heiress or not. Your friends and family are there and you are a registered Shinobi who takes orders from the Hokage," he countered.

He heard a giggle behind him, "Sasuke, you're not going to scare me away. I love you and that won't change, if you ever have to leave and I cannot accompany you then I will deal with it. I'm not some sad housewife, I'm a ninja."

For the first time since their conversation Sasuke grinned. She had broken down and outwitted all of his arguments and still wouldn't let him go. He slowly turned around to face her, she was closer than he thought unless she had snuck up on him during his self-reflection.

Her entire face was smiling at him, her lips curved upwards showing her dimples on her rosy red cheeks, and her eyes shone at him with so much emotion inside of them, contrary to what most would believe. He activated his Sharingan and etched yet another memory of her into his mind and to her credit she didn't shy away from the red eyes suddenly activating in the darkness.

He raised his real arm up towards her face and cupped her cheek. She leaned into his touch warming up his palm. Her skin was soft and warm. He opened his mouth but no words came out, too caught up in the moment, hesitancy and doubt fogged up his mind once more but he fought them down.

"Take your time, Sasuke-kun," she smiled up at him before moving onto her tip toes and kissing him gently on the lips, "I'll be right by your side when you need to talk. Now let's find a camp spot, it's getting dark."

Once again, he was reminded of how much he cared for her. She didn't force him to confront his feelings for her pleasure. She knew him well enough to know that wasn't comfortable for him.

Hinata walked past him humming and smiling as she carried on towards the tree line. He watched her as she walked by him, raising his hand to touch his own lips, similar to how she did after he kissed her, and nodded dumbly following along like a lost puppy, "Yeah."

Eventually they crossed into the Rain country, shown immediately by rainfall lightly tapping against the umbrella that Hinata was holding, her other hand encased in his own. It was one of the more beautiful countries in the Elemental Nations in his opinion; it suited his attitude and bleak outlook on life. The trees shook in the wind, spraying rain droplets in every direction. Being so far from the centre of the Rain, the clouds weren't as heavy and as such wasn't too bothersome, but they knew it would only get worse with every step.

Soon enough they found a cave just a few minutes after crossing the border. It was a small clearing with a few trees in a circle formation around the hill side. The cave looked small but big enough to shelter them both and stop the majority of the rain from disturbing them.

They quickly entered the cave where Sasuke immediately set to pitching the small tent they shared while Hinata made a fire from the twigs she had taken from some of the dead bushes in the desert before using a small fire jutsu to light it and create warmth and a little light.

Before long, the tent was ready. They ate a quick midnight snack to keep them from starving through the night and got into the tent one after the other.

Hinata was on her side next to him, shivering slightly from the rain that had permeated her clothes. With a small sigh, he rolled over and grabbed her waist before dragging her closer to him so that they could spoon. He heard her gasp through her chattering teeth until she eventually settled into his arms and said, "Goodnight, Sasuke, I love you."

He blinked, staring at her hair and couldn't help the smile that came to him, "Goodnight, Hinata."


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