Author's Note: So, I'm thinking that zip was when Sasuke zipped down Hinata's jacket, slap was obviously when she slapped the shit out of him, gasp was Sasuke's pain, surprise, and heartbroken anguish, rip was when he unintentionally ripped her jacket due to the momentum of her slap throwing him into the lake, and splash was him connecting with the water. Or...you could just use your imagination. I did. xP
"I hear she was fighting off an attacker down by the training grounds. She passed here a little while ago. She was wet, her clothes were ripped, and she looked like hell."
"Yeah, I saw her too. I think she was going back to the Hyuuga compound. Some are saying it was The Uchiha. I think he was trying to have his way with her."
Since returning to Konoha, he had become The Uchiha. A creature so nefarious He-Must-Not-Be-Mentioned by his given name.
Sasuke ignored the whispers as he walked down the street, his hair in his eyes, and his clothes clinging to his skin. He clenched his jaw, resisting the urge to set fire to the gossiping women. What did they know about his advances on Hinata?
Sasuke's abdominals ached, his stomach heaving every now and again in result to whatever the Hyuuga had done to his insides. He had considered going to the hospital, and the less desirable idea of giving in to his urge to vomit, but eventually settled on neither. Instead, he would find Hinata. He had to...to...
What? Sasuke wondered, as he climbed through her bedroom window, covering its ledge in muddy footprints. The footprints spread to the impeccable white carpet as Sasuke glanced around for the cruel kunoichi.
But she wasn't there. Maybe she was cleaning herself up or something. He glanced around.
Hinata's bedroom was fairly plain. She used only a few things to decorate it, such as a vase of purple flowers, a white teddy bear, and a photo on her bureau of her smiling between Kiba, Shino, and Kurenai. It was all uncomfortably feminine.
As Sasuke lurked alone in Hinata's empty bedroom, he did what any other boyfriend (or X-boyfriend, or whatever he was at the moment) would.
He went through her things.
In the bureau Sasuke found a few more big tan jackets (which made him twitch), multiple orange panties (which made him twitch even more for some reason), and a few other...girl...things.
A small gasp cut through his thoughts. He looked up to see that Hinata had entered the room. She was clothed in only a fluffy white towel that reached mid thigh, her crème colored skin glistening with droplets of water. Hinata clutched the towel tightly to herself where it didn't sufficiently cover her cleavage. Her knees quavered, as if threatening to give out.
Sasuke couldn't help but to stare.
Hinata's gaze was fixed on his for a moment, before it shifted to the ground, a deep blush covering her cheeks.
Sasuke stopped himself from moving forward. All he wanted to do at that moment was touch her, experimentally, to see if her shaking would worsen or stop. He absorbed every bit of her body in that towel, wondering what lay beneath it, needing at that moment to know. He failed to notice his sharingan had activated until everything turned into colors and shapes.
Sasuke glanced away, squeezing his eyes shut, and opening them, black. "Sorry," he said, surprising even himself. He silently suspected he was turning into Kakashi.
Hinata lifted her eyes as Sasuke mechanically marched himself toward the window, when suddenly she blurted out, "So am I!"
Sasuke paused and glanced back to her.
"I'm sorry," said Hinata. "I was distracted during training because, I was thinking about you...and also, about Naruto-kun."
Sasuke turned to face her, his face remaining indifferent.
"I didn't even realize when you were s-sick," Hinata continued. "Because all I could think about w-was-"
"How do you feel about him?" said Sasuke, approaching.
As Sasuke's distance from her decreased, her anxiety did the opposite. "You know how I feel," she whispered, not meeting his eyes.
"Tell me again." He was right in front of her now. Hinata allowed him to take her chin, forcing her to look into his eyes. Why is she shaking so much? Sasuke wondered. His hand traveled up her back in an effort to quell it, but this only seemed to worsen the matter. Because she's this beautiful?
The heiress stared helplessly up at him. "I-I don't-"
Sasuke's gaze again drifted to her skin, down her slender throat, along her collar bone, to her perfect shoulder. He hadn't noticed her stutter had diminished until it came back in full force.
"I d-don't love N-Naruto-kun, as m-much as I-" she took another deep breath of air, her face pink. "As much as I love-"
Sasuke felt heat rise to his own face. "Shut up," he muttered, covering Hinata's lips with his own.
He didn't known why he'd cut her off, he just didn't think he was ready for what she intended to say. As their kiss deepened, and the two stumbled across the room, Sasuke wondered how he would have responded.
"Sasu…ke," Hinata mumbled, as Sasuke's kisses went from her lips to under her ear. He glanced at her, enjoying her blush. Her innocence should have repelled him but it only made him want her more.
When they hit the bed, both knew that their conversation had gone in the wrong direction, though neither did much to stop it, instinct suppressing logic. All Sasuke wanted to do was get Hinata out of her towel, but he made the mistake of meeting her eyes. And the world froze.
"We can't," she told him.
He kissed her regardless. "Why not?" He felt her skin burn as he traced her throat; her collar. "Naruto?" he said, still kissing, greedily kissing her.
Hinata was overwhelmed by his affections. "No, I-" she struggled. "I-I just-"
"You're scared?" he presumed.
"Scared" didn't sum up the mountain of reasons to forgo the enterprise, but Hinata keenly nodded. Right. Scared of how wonderful he felt atop of her, and his lips, on her lips, his fingers running rampant and-
Her eyes widened and she caught his hand before it could slide up her thigh.
Her towel had begun to pull apart on the bed, revealing a strip of skin from her leg to her breast. Sasuke had left her body with muddy marks, evidence of all the places he had gotten away with touching her! In fact, as he regarded her, he felt satisfied with his progress. He idly brushed his thumb along her cheek, leaving it with a new mud smear.
"You need a shower," he mentioned dryly, causing Hinata to finally smile.
"He's only using you for sex," snapped Kiba, Akamaru barking in agreement beside him.
"But we're not – w-we never-"
"Well, he'll dump you as soon as you give it to him."
Hinata sniffed. How could Kiba-kun say such cruel things?
"Hinata – he's evil. Why don't you get it?"
She stammered, "B-but he's – he's n-not that bad, he's even kind of…n-nice, sometimes.
Kiba guffawed. "He must have you brainwashed or something."
The three members of team eight were walking together to the training grounds. Hinata desperately covered her ears with her hands, but nothing would block out Kiba's chortles!
"If Hinata likes him, maybe we should let it be," suggested Shino. Hinata looked up at him in surprise.
"Whose side are you on anyway!?" snarled Kiba, splattering Shino with bits of saliva. "Hinata should be with a nice guy like – like Lee over there," he said, at hearing Lee releasing one of his trademark "Ohwahhhhh!"s. The three approached the wooded grounds from which they had heard Lee, only to spot him having a feisty make-out session with Tenten. The two teens collapsed in some nearby bushes as Tenten struggled with his spandex bodysuit. Team eight blushed, and kept walking.
I thought she was dating niisan… Hinata thought in confusion.
"Sure, the Uchiha has good looks, but so does – Chouji. You know Chouji, don't you? I'll introduce you," Kiba went on.
As far as Hinata could tell, Kiba was just listing random boys in their age group. "But I l-like Sasuke."
"Why?"
She twiddled her thumbs and thought for a moment, though she couldn't come up with a definitive answer. If asked to describe Sasuke in one word, she felt the only answer she could come up with was "weird." What was it about him that she found so appealing?
Kiba scowled as the silence persisted, so she blurted out, "He's very handsome." She scratched her cheek, embarrassed for producing such a vain response.
"We'll stop by Chouji's house after training," said Kiba flatly.
Their footsteps. Sasuke and Hinata were back.
Naruto could tell this based on the fact that the footsteps had come in a pair. Kakashi always made his visits alone, as did Tsunade.
When the door opened and the feet approached, Naruto relaxed his body, hoping to be ignored.
"I know you're awake, dobe."
Naruto cringed. Sasuke wasn't nearly as distracted as he had been during his last visit. Naruto opened his eyes and forced a smile, trying to hide his embarrassment, and to feign weariness, so maybe they would go away. He began to close his eyes and pretend to fall back asleep, when Sasuke poked him in the nose. He glared.
"I'm glad," said Sasuke, with the utmost apathy. It was probably the only thing he would say on the matter of Naruto's survival. Naruto couldn't help but to smile genuinely. "Thanks," he said.
Hinata stood a few feet away. She gave Naruto a sweet smile of her own, in a way she never did, that made him absently stare. Normally she was too busy stuttering around him to formulate feminine giggles or beautiful smiles, or any of the other things he had seen her do around Sasuke. At present, there was no physical contact between her and Sasuke, no eye contact either, in fact, they were so divided at that moment, Naruto almost suspected their previous encounter had been a dream.
But there was a blatant piece of evidence that had accompanied them to the hospital that day. The fact that they were mutually present. In fact, they were always together. Of course, this corresponded with the terms of Sasuke's punishment, but the Uchiha could have gotten rid of her weeks ago if he had wanted to.
Naruto adjusted himself, so he was propped up on his pillows. He watched Hinata's eyes widen in surprise of his quick recovery.
"I know, I'm a medical miracle. What do you think, Hinata-ch-" Naruto stopped himself.
Both Sasuke and Hinata blinked at his hesitation.
Great, now they're getting suspicious, Naruto thought nervously.
"I'm surprised that you woke up before Sakura," Sasuke remarked. "How do you feel?"
"Fine – great!" Naruto winced, and rubbed a bruise on his side.
"I, ano...I baked you a cake..." said Hinata, twiddling her thumbs as Naruto's eyes lit up. Maybe being stuck in the hospital wouldn't be such a bad thing after all. "But the nurse said you couldn't eat it. So I gave it to Kiba-kun."
Naruto's face fell. He glanced Sasuke, who smirked. "That's right, Sasuke doesn't like sweets, does he," said Naruto sarcastically, causing Hinata to blink again, and Sasuke's expression to fall. Naruto realized his error and quickly tried to recover, "Nor does Shino, I don't think, ne? Hinata-ch-?" Again he cut himself short of saying "chan," and snapped his mouth shut.
Now Sasuke and Hinata were staring at him.
Stupid, stupid, stupid! Naruto refrained from hitting himself. Now that he knew Sasuke and Hinata were together, he was no longer comfortable with calling her such a cutesy nickname, as it could be seen as flirtatious, or even disrespectful. But following Hinata's name with a "chan" was as instinctive to him as following Sasuke's with "teme." It would take some time to get used to not saying it.
To worsen matters, changing the way he addressed Hinata was probably suspicious in itself.
Knowing he was in a lose-lose situation, Naruto pulled his covers up to his nose. Hinata, though, had come to her own conclusions, and looked away from him.
"I understand if you're angry with me Naruto-kun. It's my f-fault you were almost killed."
Naruto saw her eyes shine in the threat of tears. As Hinata turned to leave, he opened his mouth to protest, but fell speechless.
Sasuke caught her arm.
She stiffened and tried to pull away, but as her tears spilled, she threw herself into his chest, as if to hide them.
Sasuke was caught off guard by this action. Naruto could only stare as Sasuke's expression flickered from surprise, to unease, and finally satisfaction. He wrapped his arms around her, returning the embrace.
He lowered his lips to her hair. "We all made mistakes on that mission," he told her. His gaze flickered upwards, catching Naruto's stare. "Isn't that right, dobe?"
Naruto snapped out of his stupor. "Of course!" he stammered, then winced, blushed, and glanced away.
Hinata jumped at hearing his voice, only then remembering her whereabouts. The top of her head hit Sasuke's chin before she stumbled away from him, blushing much the way Naruto was.
Sasuke merely sighed as he rubbed his abused jaw. "So you knew?" he asked Naruto.
The blonde snorted. "How could I not?"
Hinata had taken to looking anywhere but either of the boys. Naruto couldn't help but smile as his gaze drifted back to her. He was starting to understand why Sasuke liked her so much. "Can I still call you Hinata-chan?" he asked. The name seemed to suit her well.
He expected her to weakly nod in consent, the way she normally did, but to his surprise, she shook her head. Even with her face flushed, and nose pink, she said, "J-Just call me Hinata."
It was the most declarative statement he had ever heard her make. It seemed to surprise even Sasuke, who glanced at her, but Hinata continued to avoid his eyes.
Beneath her insecurities, she was a girl, and she had just made it evident that she was his.
Naruto bit his mouth, suddenly regretting that Sasuke had spotted her first.
