Sasuke had some of the most beautiful eyes Ashita had ever seen. They were onyx black and surrounded by thick, long eyelashes the Uchiha never got credit for.

If you asked most people, they'd say they were cold. But Ashita had spent literally hours staring into them, like a scientist dissecting some poor, stupid creature down to the bare bones.

It didn't make him any easier to read. Don't be confused for a second. But the young woman did get to taste a whole range of emotion no one else ever got to see. The whole thing was comparable to a relationship with a unicorn, or some other mythical creature everyone sought out like a brick of gold.

That day was covered in thick rain clouds that took the sky, not letting a single patch of blue poke a hole through that thick grey pall. It absorbed the sunset and faded into an inky blue color, with no stars or interruption from light.

Ashita and Sasuke were sitting on the forest floor, against the sturdy bark of an ancient oak tree, staring on upwards, searching for the moon.

They had just finished sparring and were out of breath, from beating the hell out of one another. Feet peaked into the cool grass, as the humid spring night ate up the whole forest.

Then Ashita spoke.

"I think we should go inside soon."

But either of them stuck like tree sap.

It was at this point that Sasuke looked over to the woman. To her pale white cheeks now soaked up in a light rose and those lucid, insane green eyes that just cut though everything like a battle axe.

Now they were staring at one another, without words. Either looked like they were thinking of something heavy, like anvils tied up to the bottom of their skulls, but that wasn't the case. The dizziness from shortness of breath and lack of oxygen and energy just made speech this impossible, tar thick concept that wasn't going to work.

Then Sasuke leaned over and kissed her right on the mouth.

He kissed her hard and he kissed her slow.

And after a couple of seconds, he pulled away and almost smiled at the beat red his lips had spit onto her face. Making Ashita blush was fun for anyone, because all her skin would swell up to a hot crimson hue. Her neck and cheeks and forehead, even the tips of her ears.

"Sasuke."

Even so, it didn't take long to kiss him back. They pushed themselves together like two excited magnets, slowly exploring the crevices of one another's mouths. Exchanging little bits of saliva and blood and taste buds.

The two went on for an entire minute, pushing their pale skin together and grabbing one another by the hair. Ashita's fingers got right into Sasuke's scalp while their lips fought it out and their tongues collected bruises.

Then they separated with a pop and a line of spit between them.

"Why did you do that?"

Sasuke looked at Ashita a while before answering.

"I don't know." His hands were holding her just beneath her little breasts, right above the waist. And she had her palms at his shoulders, underneath the collar of that Kimono, like she was ready to peel it off. "There's no taking it back, so who gives a damn?"

"You're right."

Ashita looked like she just got out of a bathtub of scalding hot water. Even her pale, smooth, egg shell white hands were filling up with rose tinted bashfulness. One of them caught him at the side of the face, with that pinky snuck beneath his earlobe.

"Would it matter if we kissed again?"

"No."

While their lips found one another, and their mouths became even more swollen and battered, hands went exploring beneath folds of cotton.

Really, this was tectonic plates finally breaking due to the tension. Maybe in retrospect, it was coming from miles away, ready to pop both of those stupid kids right the mouth. Everyone got curious. The fact that this hadn't happened sooner was astonishing and a testimony to the serious nature surrounding either of them.

But there it was anyway. Naïve and plain and young and nude. This was the reason the girls hated Ashita. It was the reason nearly everyone's eyes caught the pair of them with an awful scrutiny. The accusations had been correct. It just took Ashita and Sasuke practically four and a half years to realize it themselves.

The kissing stopped when the dinner bell rang.

Ashita disappeared in an instant, to go play the role of a good, obedient daughter that would never, ever have those terrible urges nearly everyone else did. To sit at her father's side and try to wash the happy out her flesh.

And without Ashita there, Sasuke returned to being the cold and quiet assassin that did nothing but train.

And no one had an inkling of the chain reaction that exploded inside the forest.