Killer
Chapter 5: Look
Naruto started noticing her when she stood up for him. His eyes never leave her again, until he does and she stays.
He never looked at her.
Not in the academy, not in the fields, not during training. Didn't notice her sad little face when he brushed off another nasty comment that he wasn't supposed to hear. Didn't see her eyes well with tears as he got beaten up by her bullies. Didn't bother to turn around and see that somebody was watching over him as he brushed off a hundred nasty comments that he wasn't supposed to hear.
He started noticing her when she stood up for him. Saw her trembling frame stood in front of him, facing down some mean boys, shouting at their faces, yelling in that young high-pitched voice; "Don't underestimate Naruto-kun! He wants to be the Hokage!". He glimpsed her face, the mischievous little smile playing at the corner of her lips as she shifted her elbow to reveal the answers on the written Chunin Exam paper. Didn't hear the thousand nasty comments that he maybe was supposed to hear.
He stares at her as Neji humiliates her.
And he looks, truly looks, deep inside her, so intimate that he can see all of her feelings and thoughts and bruises and frustrations — right into her eyes. They're ones he's never been able to meet properly, a direct hit would be dangerous. Because looking directly before would have either been that he would see the hate in her eyes or have been consumed by her soul. But now, it's personal when she walks up those stairs, ones that she wasn't supposed to walk back up again, and passes him and stands next to him in all her imperfect glory, cuts and bruises and ragged breath and bleeding welts.
His breath hitches; for just that moment, he feels something deep within him call out, a sound of sparked interest.
His eyes never leave her again, until he does and she stays.
This was also written shortly after I first wrote the first chapter for Killer. It's Naruto's POV about Hinata. It's kind of AU-ish in the sense that I had Hinata stand up for Naruto when they were still little kids in the Academy. What I mean by the last part "until he does and she stays." Is that Naruto keeps looking at her until he leaves the village while she stays in it. I'm not really sure if I would keep it canon central (or as much as I can) or not because I feel that it's a bit of a cliché.
If anyone would like to make a request for a Cutthroat AU just leave a review!