Over the past few days, Kakashi had begun to notice differences in Sasuke's behavior, such as the fact that he had begun to sleep in more than usual. Kakashi also began to notice Hinata's absence in the mornings and evenings, and the fact that Sasuke didn't go off to train as often as he normally did.
Frowning to himself as he realized what had transpired, the jounin decided it best not to become involved. He was disheartened that Sasuke's relationship with Hinata had ended, as he knew that it had become something substantial to both of them, but decided that trying to reason with either of them would probably do more harm than good.
Kakashi looked up as Sasuke's bedroom door creaked open.
Although it was already late in the afternoon, Sasuke seemed to be only just getting out of bed. He stalked to the bathroom in a zombie-like fashion, barely seeming to notice his sensei's existence over the past week.
Kakashi sighed, and returned his attention to his mission scroll.
It wasn't until that evening that Sasuke exited the apartment, somewhat disgusted by how warm and starry it was outside. Sword clutched in his hand, he headed for the training grounds, hoping that beating the crap out of some trees would help calm his frustrations.
It was annoying, how much leisure time he suddenly had. When not attacking inanimate objects, Sasuke spent his time sleeping or working out. His schedule had changed since he'd started dating the Hyuuga, and he was having difficulty remembering how it had been originally. Once or twice he had stopped by the hospital because Sakura seemed to be the one person who he didn't want to kill at the moment.
Whereas Hinata…
He was done with her. He could do nothing for her, and give nothing to her. Her request for love was out of his hands.
Just as he was attempting to cast Hinata from his mind, Sasuke sensed her chakra nearby, and unintentionally glanced in the direction it was coming from. His eyes locked on Naruto sitting on a bench beside her, planting a soft kiss on her cheek. Afterwards, the pair looked up, finally noticing him.
Feeling his muscles tense, and his body to become hot for some reason, Sasuke walked off, wondering why he had stopped in the first place. He didn't even notice that he had activated the sharingan, and he suddenly felt too unfocused to train.
To his increasing displeasure, he sensed Hinata following him, despite that he hated her at that moment, and wasn't beyond castrating Naruto in the next.
But Sasuke bit the inside of his cheek and maintained his calm demeanor. He increased his pace and decided to go to the hospital, as he suspected his only hopes of not hurting someone at that moment was Sakura's sound counseling.
So instead of passing by the hospital to go to the training grounds, as he had originally intended, Sasuke walked inside. Hinata was hurrying to catch up to him, but he hadn't expected her to follow him through the doors.
She nearly collided with him as he turned to face her. "Sasuke!" she said, grabbing his hand.
The mere contact sent a shock through his body, waves of pain and pleasure crashing through his mind. It was so unnatural, he almost snatched his hand away – but couldn't. He wondered if Hinata had experienced a similar affect, but she barely seemed to notice, still breathless from her run.
She unconsciously entwined her fingers with his, her face wet, and cheeks raw. It was only there that he noticed she had been crying. His chest tightened, though he didn't know why.
"N-Naruto-kun, he didn't-" Hinata struggled to explain herself.
"I don't care," Sasuke said, still attempting, and failing to detach his hand from hers. She didn't even notice that he was her captive. Why wasn't his body heeding his commands? "Stop trying to explain."
"But I want to," Hinata said, despite her sudden onslaught of sobs. "B-but all you wanted-" she took a deep breath, and what she managed to say next was spoken softly, piece by piece, "all you wanted, was sex."
"All I wanted was you!" Sasuke snapped.
At this, both were shocked enough to break their linked hands. The silence that followed was so potent that both were drawn to awareness of the hospital lobby, and the dozens of people frozen around them, staring.
Leaving Hinata there looking pathetic, and vulnerable, and beautiful, Sasuke stalked down a nearby corridor, his feet carrying him to Sakura's hospital room, though his mind couldn't have been further from his path. He entered the room and slammed the door shut behind him, then leaned upon it, and breathed. His tomoe spun and his heart raced.
"Why were you yelling at Hinata?"
Sasuke finally registered Sakura's presence in the bed across the room. He deepened his breaths and closed his eyes. When he opened them again, his sharingan was deactivated.
Most of Sakura's surface injuries had faded, no doubt due to the assist of healing chakra, but she still seemed to be exhausted, he based on the dark shadows that were beneath her eyes.
As she tried to climb to a sitting position, Sasuke went over to her bed and helped her, if only because Sakura had helped him to stand on countless occasions in the past. The Uchiha noticed that she had moved to the bed that had been Naruto's, but tried to ignore this, as it only seemed to temp his anger.
"I heard you. Well – just the sounds of your voices," she continued.
Sasuke was not interested in discussing the matter. "It wasn't anything," he said tersely.
"Oh…" said Sakura, giving him a skeptic look. "So you don't want to talk?"
It was obvious to her that something was wrong, so he attempted to relax his bearing.
It wasn't working.
"Yes," he said, his gaze drifting to her shoulder, where he counted the faint plaid patterns across her hospital gown, one two…one two… though he had never been good at mediating. His eyes returned to her increasingly concerned expression.
He breathed in.
Breathed out.
"I feel like a bath," he mentioned, to her confusion. "Can you teach me some water techniques?"
After copying the two or so water techniques Sakura knew (it wasn't her element either. That, or she didn't like to share…), Sasuke walked through the Konoha streets. As the sky grew darker, less people were out and about, but thanks to Kiba, Sasuke was familiar with the main point of popularity to the Konoha teenagers. He slipped into the bathhouse he had been to a week before.
Finding the male pool, Sasuke quickly stripped naked before lowering himself in. He soaked his head with water so to distort (improve) his trademark haircut, then glanced around for the person he was looking for.
With his face partially submerged in his continued efforts to be stealthy, Sasuke's eyes met a few familiar faces.
There was Kiba who was running around the rim of the pool buck naked, and Chouji, who this time was snacking on soggy potato chips. Neji and Lee (who both seemed a little tipsy) were wrestling with each other, and Shino was abruptly shoved beneath the water's surface when Kiba leapt onto his back.
Sasuke cringed and hid behind a large rock, only to notice Shikamaru on the other side, resembling himself: soaked and sulky. The strategist stood there completely motionless, and Sasuke searched for another bolder.
Don't these morons have showers? he wondered, scanning the room until his eyes caught a flash of blonde.
Sasuke didn't know what he was planning, but he climbed out of the pool and grabbed a towel, before stalking Naruto to the changing rooms. There, the blonde was hastily pulling on his ramen-printed boxers. Sasuke tied his towel firmly around his waist.
"What do you want?" said Naruto, throwing him an ugly look.
He could have probably produced a cooler answer than, "To kill you!" but that was what Sasuke found bursting out of his mouth.
He launched himself at the blonde, and the two quickly became a slippery scuffle, their amazing ninja skills somehow forgotten in lieu of biting, scratching, strangling, and hair pulling. Sasuke even attempted to drive a stake through Naruto's tiny heart, only to realize, belatedly, that it was a toothbrush.
He was caught by a wave of dizziness when the blonde smashed his head against Neji's toaster. "If this is about Hinata-"
"This has nothing to do with Hinata," Sasuke returned, sticking his fingers into Naruto's eye sockets, and causing the blonde to release an extraterrestrial scream.
As Naruto clutched his face in agony, his knee accidentally connected with Sasuke's groin. The Uchiha collapsed to the ground with his arms between his thighs, fearing he was going to die.
Not. About. Hinata.
...but wasn't it?
Hinata.
Who else?
Every – single – time – he entrusted someone with something so fragile as his confidence, all they managed to do was break it.
Naruto crawled over to him, looking worse for wear. "How could you say it isn't?"
Sasuke's fist collided with his face, knocking him back down. "Shut up, dobe," he hissed, beginning to climb up, himself.
Just as Sasuke regained his footing, Naruto released an animalistic snarl and tackled him. The two slammed into the wall.
...the paper wall.
Somewhat dizzy, Sasuke and Naruto found themselves on the floor of the reception area. At the sight of the two half-naked prodigies straddling each other, several women fainted. A dozen or so simply attacked them like horny zombies. Naruto screamed in agony as sharp teeth tore at his tan, beautiful flesh.
Adept in evading fangirls, Sasuke managed to get away. He slipped outside in only his towel, cursing at seeing that it was pouring rain. Naked and shivering, he took to the alleyways and stalked off.
As he skirted passed the Hokage tower, he spotted Kakashi strolling out of it. Sasuke froze and the two stared at each other for an entire minute, his sensei's expression remaining completely aloof.
And then he pocketed his hands. "Sasuke? A word?"
