Dedicated to: Little Lilac Lady.
Book II:
Earth
Hinata tapped her foot quietly on the dirt ground of the small house of Sasuke the blacksmith. Of course, finding the house was easy; she was granted with powers humans didn't have. She was at first shocked at how small Sasuke's living quarters were (it was a one-room house), but after a while she found it rather cozy. A crackling fire burned on the hearth, the smell of fresh meat permeated throughout the room, and the sheepskins Hinata was currently sitting on were quite comfortable.
The goddess looked over at the handsome mortal, who was sitting on a makeshift chair across the room, polishing a newly made spearhead. "You live on your own? No woman to keep you company?"
Sasuke glanced up at her. "If I had a woman, I wouldn't be asking a goddess to marry me."
Hinata pursed her lips. "Hmph. That's not the attitude most mortals have."
"Women are beautiful creatures who deserve respect," he replied lightly. "Of course, I often get criticized for using that logic."
Hinata felt her heart start to throb again. No man had ever thought of women that way. To them, the whole female race was only good for popping out children. This man…he was different, though.
"So you've never bedded a woman, then?" Hinata blurted out.
Sasuke looked up at her with his mesmerizing eyes and grinned. "I guess not."
Hinata stared at him for a moment before averting her eyes to the ground. "Why? You seem like the type of mortal man women swoon over. You could have wars waged over you."
Sasuke lifted the spearhead to the firelight. "Goddess, please don't flatter me so. It's rather embarrassing."
"Then I've paid you back for humiliating me today," Hinata said tritely.
The blacksmith raised his brow. "For the goddess of love, you sure are huffy." He set the spearhead down on his lap and leaned forward. "So…you're stuck with me until you grant my wish. We're going to have to figure out sleeping arrangements."
Hinata let out a wavering sigh. "Mortal-"
"Please, call me Sasuke."
Hinata looked back at him and bit her lip. "Sasuke…I simply can't grant your wish. It's…impossible."
Sasuke shrugged. "Then I guess you're stuck here forever. That's the only thing I want: the goddess I've been praying to for my entire life to become my wife." He nodded his head towards her. "Tell me, are all the legends I've heard about you true?"
Hinata considered that for a moment. A lot of the stories mortals have been telling about her were mostly false. Probably the most famous and popular one about the goddess of love was that she had gone to a party, gotten drunk, and had conceived one hundred babies over night. Humans loved degrading the almighty ones.
Another frequently told tale about the goddess was a half-truth. Apparently, she had promised the king of a prosperous land a night with her if he would kill and eat his own wife. Of course, the king immediately cooked up his wife, but the goddess told him she was disgusted and went back to her home, leaving the king in tears (the truth was, she had only told him to send his wife away; the rest was basically the truth).
After a minute or so, Hinata replied, "No. The tales you humans tell about me are not even remotely close to the truth."
"So you didn't actually convert a man to cannibalism?"
Hinata rolled her eyes. "I'm not that manipulative."
"Hm…"
The two stared at each other. Hinata tilted her head slightly, getting a better look at the blacksmith's nearly perfect face. He was extremely good-looking, rivaling some of the gods in Olympus. If only he wasn't mortal…
Hinata swallowed, feeling that thump-thump of her heart. There was that familiar heat in her body that she only experienced when lust was so thick in the air you could almost cut it. And, to her astonishment, her lips were trembling.
Her chest continued to pound. 'Oh gods, please don't let him hear the sounds of my heart.'
Sasuke smiled. "Goddess, you look flustered."
"I…I…"
He reached his hand towards her, but pulled it away, as if thinking better about it. "Someday, people one hundred years from now will be talking about Hinata the goddess of love and Sasuke the blacksmith."
