A/N: Hello everyone and welcome to the Know Your Village Arc, which will span 2 days. Day 1 has been split into 2 parts due to length, so I've named the chapters accordingly, but these aren't official chapter titles. Thanks as always to Ser Serendipity my beta for smoothing these chapters out.
Enjoy!
Chapter 13
Know-Your-Village Day 1 Part I
The morning on which Team Kakashi discovered the Masked Uchiha's true identity would occur three mornings after Naruto's talk with Jiraiya. On the first of these three mornings, Naruto himself suffered an extremely painful awakening.
"Naruto! Wake up!"
"OWWW! What the hell Sasuke?!"
"Someone's been in our house!"
"What?" Naruto snapped to wakefulness and sat up quietly, his muscles tensing. The claw punctures in his arm could be dealt with later; they were already healing anyway.
"How d'you know?"
"Look." And Sasuke pointed ominously to the offending object beside Naruto's bed.
It was… another bed.
Much smaller than Naruto's, it was round with a simple wooden bedhead engraved with the Uchiha symbol. And it looked so soft, much softer than the mattress Naruto was currently sitting on. It was perfectly made with fluffy blue blankets and pillows.
And most notably, it was just Sasuke's size.
Naruto glanced down at the kitten who kept a cautionary hold on his arm, then at the bed and back again.
"It's a bed," he said tonelessly. Absently he realised, 'so that's what I kicked last night. I was so tired I didn't turn on a light.'
"Yeah," Sasuke sounded as though a bomb was hidden under those fluffed and oh-so-inviting pillows. "Why's it here? You didn't buy it. And there are weird scents all over it."
"I didn't buy it, but I think it's for you."
"Why d'you think that?"
"Well, the Uchiha symbol kind of gives it away."
Sasuke conceded the point, and considered the new bed for a few moments. "I don't want it."
"Why?"
"They came into our house and put it here without our permission. Kaa-san would say it's poor form."
"Uh, Sasuke, you're not one for surprises, are you?"
"Once my home's not invaded."
There was a short pause of silence. "Sasuke. You're really territorial, aren't you?"
"What's wrong with wanting to protect your house from outsiders?"
"That's a yes then."
Sasuke's ear twitched. "You're naïve, Naruto."
Naruto's eyebrow twitched. "Sasuke."
"Yeah?"
"You're going in the bed."
On the street below Naruto and Sasuke's apartment, a couple dozen people, shinobi and civilian alike, had gathered since the break of dawn.
Not by actually gathering in a single crowd; in a shinobi village, even the smallest civilian child had the sense to employ a little stealth when staking out someone's home. The shinobi, either camouflaged or Transformed, stood waiting in complete stillness and quiet. The civilians, keeping in mind their lack of chakra, were camouflaged almost as effectively.
They milled around in natural poses, chatting with friends, reading, watering nearby plants that were not theirs, delivering food to non-existent addresses, and for those who just did not have the zeal or the resources to put on an act, standing around in complete nonchalance.
A genin fresh out of the Academy would take all of five minutes to figure out who belonged to the group of patiently waiting spectators from those genuinely minding their own business. That was something for a civilian to be proud of.
But, in a single moment, their painstaking acts were almost rendered void. For when a vicious screech exploded from the apartment they secretly watched, shaking the windows with its passage and followed by a very loud and crystal clear shout of, 'Dammit Sasuke you almost took my freakin' ear off! It's just a bed!' every civilian, regardless of intent, halted to a dead stop and whipped their heads to the noise.
When the apartment was quiet again, the number of 'passers-by' on the street below had doubled.
"So, how is it." Naruto could not help if his words had to squeeze themselves through his teeth to escape. He was nursing a rapidly healing but still stinging cut to his earlobe. Though Sasuke did look rather cute snuggled up under those blankets, only visible as two fluffs of ears, a darling pair of coal black eyes and a pair of plump pink cheeks.
It was worth it.
Sasuke did not answer at first, and he refused to look at the bloody cloth Naruto held to his ear.
"Sasuke."
The kitten flinched and dived under the covers. Naruto's eyes followed the wriggling mass until a tiny face popped out from under the blankets at the foot of the bed to look at him.
"I didn't mean to," the small voice mewed.
Naruto almost rolled his eyes. "Don't waste time saying obvious stuff Sasuke. I just want to know what you think of the bed."
Sasuke blushed and pressed deeper into the mattress. "It's soft. And warm."
"You like it?"
"Yes."
"See? Surprises aren't so bad."
Sasuke pouted. "It still smells like a bunch of weird people."
Naruto took the cloth away from his ear. The cut was nothing more than a scar now.
"Well when it was in the store a lot of people probably…"
Sasuke's nose was buried in the mattress, inhaling deeply. Naruto blinked. This was probably another weird cat thing that had a perfectly logical explanation.
Sasuke closed his eyes and inhaled. Naruto's eyebrow twitched.
"What are you doing?"
"Digging for the origin scent."
Naruto did not even waste a second trying to think that out. "What."
"All these scents are jumbled up and I'm looking for the strongest one."
"Oh. Why?"
"That's the smell of the person who got the bed. If I find it, I can make my nose smell it alone and ignore all the other scents."
That explanation only opened up several more questions for Naruto, but before he could ask any of them, Sasuke's eyes slowly opened. He smiled.
"Jii-chan…" Suddenly delighted, Sasuke threw off the covers and bolted off, tracking more of 'Jii-chan's' scent.
"Naruto!" Found it. About to follow, he paused when he felt something press against his hip. It was Jiraiya's book, tucked into the waistband of his pants the night before.
"Tales of a Gutsy Ninja, huh?" It really did not look like Jiraiya's usual fare. 'I already told you it wasn't!' he almost heard Ero-sennin yell. He smiled and flipped through it, seeing his name pop up in a few places. Grinning, he eventually reached the back. Inspired by…
"Naruto! It's here too! Jii-chan's scent."
Sasuke zipped by the new bedroom door on all fours, the old one having been irreparably damaged by his, and Naruto's claws. Wincing a bit as he remembered, Naruto shut the book and trotted after the kitten.
His kitchen had changed. He had an actual countertop now, which was laden with baskets of fresh fruit and some new appliances.
"Naruto, here!" Sasuke was calling him to the fridge, the door still too heavy for the kitten to open.
Naruto set down the book on his new counter and opened the door; he and Sasuke inhaled. For the first time in Naruto's memory, his fridge was full of food, real ingredients people actually cooked with. More stuff than Naruto had ever felt the need to buy. After all, how many extra ingredients could one possibly add to cup ramen?
But even the never-used vegetable drawer, only brought to Naruto's attention by his new roommate, was fully stocked, almost to bursting.
Excited now by what else he might find, he picked Sasuke up and opened the freezer. Sasuke squealed.
Meat. And more meat. All wrapped up fresh in chakra-sealed paper. Beef, pork, chicken and even lamb. And separated from the juicy packages was a tub of ice-cream. Not just any ice-cream. It was one of those gourmet flavours with the ridiculously long names that tried to detail the ten and a half pounds of luxurious chocolate one was guaranteed to receive in each bite.
"What's this taste like, Sasuke?" Naruto was almost dazed. He had heard of them, seen them, and was even close enough to touch one once. But he had never tasted. When he was young, he never had enough money. When he was older, he felt too guilty to spend his hard-earned money on such decadence.
Ramen was different. That was a staple.
"I dunno," Sasuke sounded just as dazed. "Kaa-san never allowed it and Nii-chan would only buy me vanilla."
The two looked at each other. Then, as one, they reached out to touch the frozen nirvana.
Chakra sparked. They recoiled. Blinked. Tried again. Zap! Tried again. ZAP!
"Jii-chan…"
"Ero-sennin…"
They sighed. Heartbroken, they turned away from paradise. And blinked. On the table lay two letters, placed neatly side by side.
Leaving Sasuke on the counter to rummage through the fruits, Naruto picked up the letter that caught his attention first for its peerless white envelope. It made the other letter, a white scroll, look filthy.
Naruto opened it and pulled out a crisp, white invitation.
He read aloud, "'Addressed to Uzumaki Naruto and Uchiha Sasuke. You are cordially… cordially?'"
"It's a fancy way of saying that they're being pleasant and respectful," Sasuke piped up, sniffing around a basket of tomatoes.
"Oh. 'You are cordially invited to Hyūga Manor for breakfast at eight o'clock. We would be greatly pleased if you would accept this invitation, as it would also prove beneficial to completing the Know-Your-Village mission. We eagerly await your arrival. Sincerely, Hyūga Hiashi.'"
For a moment, Naruto was speechless. He'd never gotten a written invitation to anything, much less breakfast at Hyūga Manor. He read that line again.
Yup, he and Sasuke were officially invited to breakfast at Hyūga Manor.
"Wow." For some reason, his face was flushed. Oh, what time was it now? Naruto ran back to his bedroom and grabbed up the clock.
They had half an hour.
"Sasuke! Let's get ready to –!" The sound of several plump fruits bouncing on the ground interrupted him. Sasuke had knocked over the basket of tomatoes.
The kitten stood on the countertop, embarrassment making his face the same shade of red as the fat fruit he was holding.
In the past, Naruto would have yelled at him, or laughed, calling him an idiot either way. Now he only smiled - "clumsy cat" - and picked up the rolling fruits.
He was the idiot. Always picking a fight, insulting him, jealous of what Sasuke was, of what he wished he could be. Happy when Sasuke lost his family, and became the only other able to understand the despair of his own loneliness.
And knowing of his first bond's pain, what did the idiot do? He'd left him alone.
Not once did he treat him like a friend. Not once did he eat with him, play with him, invite him over to his house. He knew someone out there was just as lonely as he was and he had just been too jealous, too blind to…
"Naruto?"
Naruto, startled, looked up at the kitten. Worried eyes blinked back at him. "Are you okay?"
Naruto smiled and put the last of the tomatoes in the basket. He took the one Sasuke was holding and tapped him on the nose with it.
"If you eat this now, you won't be able to eat breakfast. Let's go get cleaned up okay?"
"'Kay," Sasuke pouted, looking longingly at the fruit.
"You like tomatoes?" Sasuke nodded. "Oh? I thought there wasn't anything you particularly liked."
"Why'd you think that?"
Naruto blinked. For a moment, just for a moment, he was sitting with his new team on those steps again, talking about his dreams.
He shook his head.
"Nothing. Never mind."
One ear dropped, an eyebrow rose. "Naruto you're weird."
"I'm not the one spilling tomatoes you clumsy cat!" He lifted the kitten high, tickling him mercilessly. Sasuke squealed, his cheeks pink with laughter.
'Second chance?' Naruto asked Jiraiya. After wailing his heart out for what seemed like hours, he was exhausted and half-asleep. Jiraiya had volunteered to escort him home, just to make sure he did not fall asleep on a rooftop somewhere.
'Yeah. Ever since Sasuke's arrived, it seems we've all got one.' The Sage looked out to Konoha, his eyes becoming firm.
'I promised Tsunade that I'll never leave her side again.' He turned back to Naruto, his expression gentle.
'Sasuke has a chance now to actually live without being held back by hatred. And you… only you know what circumstances you can change, what mistakes you can fix. Take full advantage of it. Any shinobi who has desired a second chance would willingly give their lives for it. It is not to be handled carelessly…'
Naruto bundled the kitten in his arms. "C'mon, let's go Sasuke."
This was his – their second chance. This time, the idiot would do it right.
Jiraiya tilted his head back. He was lounging in his new favourite spot; the frame of the window right behind the Hokage's chair.
"Tsunade."
She did not turn around. When he first starting using that spot as his personal couch, she found it irritating, but now she barely noticed. Jiraiya laying there just seemed so natural now.
"Yeah?"
"Do you think it's possible to love someone too much?"
This time, she did turn around, and fixed him with a glare similar to when he had perched behind her the first time.
"For the last time…"
"No, not that. Though my offer still stands."
"As does my answer."
"Pity."
"What are you talking about then?"
"Naruto told me last night that he loves Sasuke too much."
"What did you say?"
"I told him he was being ridiculous."
"Well there you go."
"But then I started thinking about it," he continued. Tsunade blinked. "It's an undeniable fact that loss of love can lead to hate. That's what created the Sasuke of old. It's what created Pain."
"You think that if something happens to Sasuke, Naruto will turn out like one of them," Tsunade stated tonelessly.
"No."
"Good, because that would be –"
"I think he'll be worse." Jiraiya slowly turned to Tsunade who stared at him with slightly widened eyes. "Sasuke's more than precious to him now. Sasuke's his."
Tsunade's eyes narrowed at the inflection. "His?" she repeated.
Jiraiya shook his head, gesturing in empty air while his mouth searched for words. "Naruto's a guardian now. Sasuke's guardian. Sasuke belongs to him. Sasuke is his."
"Don't you think you're getting ahead of yourself? He'd act the same for any of his other friends."
"No." A simple, absolute rejection. "I talked to him last night. What he's feeling scares him. He's never felt a love this intense before, and if it's broken…" Jiraiya shook his head violently. The less-than-a-year old wound on his chest, gouged out by crimson hatred, throbbed dully. "Naruto will break. Broken shards can end up anywhere."
Tsunade slowly raised a finger, ready to poke some sense into Jiraiya's thick skull.
"Broken shards huh?" Jiraiya tried not to wince as her perfectly manicured digit drew closer. "I wonder if Naruto's really your student."
Her finger hovered less than a centimetre from his temple. Jiraiya's eyes strained to keep it in his vision.
"I thought we talked about this. Naruto is not Nagato."
"I know he's not. I'm just saying –"
"What are you saying? Are you telling me that after three years, Naruto has none of your teachings buried in his heart? That there's nothing of you in him to keep him from becoming broken shards?"
Jiraiya did not answer right away. When he did, there was something in his eyes that made Tsunade have to stamp down the rising warmth in her face.
"I think you just gave me an idea, Tsunade." He sat up, slowly pushing himself off the window frame, his eyes bright and his smile fierce.
"What are you going to do?" she asked, while her sixth sense registered a prickling disturbance at the edge of her awareness.
"I'm going to need some time," Jiraiya genuinely did not hear her; ever since they were genin he had never purposely ignored her. Though not gaining his attention did irritate her: on some vague inner level that she would rather have Danzō's exorcism room seal her right arm than acknowledge.
"Jiraiya."
"I don't know if it's even possible at this point."
Tsunade's irritation travelled from her vague inner consciousness to a tick above her right eye.
"Jiraiya."
"I could probably get that Tori girl to help."
Okay, she was going to hit him. As she pulled back her middle finger with her thumb, her sixth sense came to the fore, prickling sharply along her skin.
She looked up.
Jiraiya's sixth sense, dulled by his construction of mysterious plans, came a second too late and the man was effectively glomped by two grinning kids.
"Naruto! What in the world are you –?"
"Jii-chan." Jiraiya looked down into a flawless pair of black eyes. Sasuke smiled and his cheeks became an even brighter shade of pink. "Thank you for the bed, Jii-chan."
Jiraiya, whose ears had not felt this hot since he was Sasuke's age, averted his eyes, only to meet Tsunade's sparkling with mischief.
"I told you it wouldn't work," she said with a matching smile.
"Shut up," Jiraiya mumbled, trying to find a place to look that would not look back at him. "And get off me already!"
He shoved Naruto off, who scowled.
"We're just saying thanks."
"Yeah, well, I'm your sensei so it's normal for me to do stuff like that. You don't have to thank me."
"But Kakashi-sensei's my sensei and except for vegetables he doesn't…"
"Enough! How'd you know it was me, anyway? The scroll clearly said that –"
"What's the deal with the ice-cream Ero-sennin?"
"Yeah, that was mean! Putting it there and we can't even eat it?"
"Yeah!"
"That was my idea," Tsunade sniffed. Both of them turned accusingly to her. "I knew you two would try to eat it first thing in the morning and I could not allow it. The seal will come off after dinnertime tonight."
"All the way till tonight?"
"Baa-chan that's –"
A carefully painted fingernail stabbed two centimetres into the hard oak desk. "I'm sorry, did you two have a problem?" she asked with a honey-sweet smile.
"No, no problem," was the simultaneous, and terrified, reply.
"Good."
"So, how did you know it was me?" Jiraiya asked irritably.
"Sasuke sniffed you out."
"Yup!"
Jiraiya glared at the softly purring kitten on his chest. "So the Hokage's scroll means nothing in the wake of your nose, is that it?"
The kitten tilted his head. "What scroll?"
"Ah, the one on the table, right? We didn't read it," Naruto answered cheerfully. Tsunade made a sound between a genuine laugh and a viciously triumphant 'ha!'
Jiraiya's frown deepened.
"What'd it say?" Naruto tried to placate his master.
"Nothing important," Tsunade answered with a wave of her hand. "Just a bunch of lies." She received twin looks of confusion. "So you sniffed out Jiraiya and came straight here. Let me guess, he tried to cover up the scent?"
"Yeah," Sasuke pouted. "I didn't like it. Don't do that next time, Jii-chan."
"Yes, Jiraiya, Sasuke-chan doesn't like it," Tsunade's voice trembled with mirth.
Jiraiya's face was crimson now, the painted lines on his cheeks blending in perfectly. "Why didn't you read the scroll?" he asked helplessly.
"Oh. Because we got this," Naruto pulled out an envelope from his pants pocket that was so white Tsunade's eyes watered. There was only one clan in Konoha who used paper as flawlessly white as that.
"A letter from the Hyūga?"
She and Jiraiya read the invitation. In mirror images of each other, their eyebrows shot up.
They slowly looked up and finally noticed that Naruto was wearing the formal orange shirt with black sleeves that Jiraiya had bought him, along with full length black pants. Sasuke was dressed in his only Uchiha shirt but he was wearing full length pants as well.
As one, the two turned to the clock.
"You're going to be late," they said in unison.
"Ah! You're right! C'mon Sasuke, we gotta get going!" Tsunade returned the invitation to him.
The two watched as the blond shinobi leaped over Konoha's rooftops at lightning speeds, drawing closer to the Hyūga compound.
"Breakfast at the Hyūgas," Jiraiya said emotionlessly.
"Hiashi must've heard that the Inuzuka's got the jump on him."
They turned to each other.
And burst out laughing.
It was quiet. Not silent, since the air was penetrated by the various sounds of dishes clinking, chopsticks tapping and jaws working.
Barely, though. The Hyūga ate so quietly they rendered any sounds they did make negligible.
Naruto swallowed. The food was excellent. Never had he tasted a piece of grilled fish so succulent, not even during the feast Princess Koyuki had prepared for them in the Land of Snow. And the miso soup slid down his throat like salted silk.
He glanced at Sasuke, who knelt beside him in a cushion three times too big for him. He ate as quietly as the Hyūga, and with elegance so inbred it almost looked comfortable. The graceful ease with which he navigated his food with his chopsticks made Naruto even more self-conscious than he already was.
Sasuke and the Hyūga came from a world that Naruto had never experienced as anything other than an outsider. A very distant outsider. Though it did make Naruto feel a little better when he saw his friend subtly but doggedly avoiding the nattō.
As Sasuke picked up a prettily painted bowl to drink his miso soup, Naruto quickly noticed that his eyes were not the only ones on the kitten.
Though Hinata had probably tried to explain to them the best she could, even the blond could tell that they were not fully prepared for Sasuke. The cushion aside, the previous dishes they had set out for him, while small for a human child, were still much too big for the Uchiha.
The wares he used now, quaint but peerless white enamel painted with lavenders, were so tiny and mismatched from the stern whites and blacks on the rest of the table that Naruto deduced they came from a little girl's very expensive tea set. It was probably the same for the chopsticks.
They were all staring. Quietly, and subtly, but Naruto could tell. He had been under the gaze of countless eyes for most of his life, after all. And no matter how they tried to hide, the Hyūgas' eyes carried too much presence; with so many pearly orbs focused on one point, the object of focus could not help but feel he was being slowly smothered by a thick, white blanket.
There were even some activations of the Byakugan, though those were swiftly retracted.
Sasuke flawlessly ignored all of it, never squirming or changing the speed at which he ate. It reminded Naruto of the kitten's old self that never batted an eye at the blunt (and deluded) stares of affection he received from all of his female classmates.
Well, all except Hinata. Even Naruto, whose gaze of blue envy had never strayed from that bastard's back, noticed that those white eyes had never alighted there. She always seemed to be looking somewhere else. Naruto, in the total second of his life that he had dwelt on it thought it strange, but that was not a problem: Hinata was a strange girl, after all.
Even now, her eyes were not on Sasuke. She was sitting opposite the kitten, but had only glanced once or twice his way.
Naruto shrugged it off and returned to his food. It was weird that Hinata was blushing, but it probably didn't mean anything.
After swiftly depositing one of his fish onto Sasuke's plate, and bluntly averting his eyes from those happily wiggling ears, his eyes strayed to Hinata again.
And found that hers were staring right at him. He froze. So did she. Her face and ears turned bright crimson. Naruto swallowed. Hinata hiccupped and her face suddenly disappeared behind her bowl of rice.
He felt a sudden stab of intent from the head of the table and looked. Hiashi Hyūga was staring at him. For a moment, Naruto could not feel his own heartbeat.
Hiashi cleared his throat. All at the table turned to him, some more grateful for the distraction than others. He addressed Sasuke directly, making the tiny Uchiha sit up straighter. After thanking them for coming and a few more pleasantries (Naruto bowed his head in thanks whenever Sasuke did), he questioned the kitten.
"What do you know about the Hyūga?"
"Otou-sama said that they were a powerful dōjutsu clan and a noble family of Konoha like us. Their Kekkei Genkai is the Byakugan and by using it, they can wield powerful taijutsu known as the Gentle Fist."
Mumbles of approval rose around the table. An elder Hyūga, whose gaze made Naruto cringe, avouched Sasuke's words.
"He's been taught well."
"Indeed," affirmed Hiashi. "Well, Sasuke, all of what you said is true. The Hyūga protect and serve Konoha by using our Bloodline Limit in conjunction with the Gentle Fist…"
And so Hiashi expounded. It was all basic knowledge for one who had studied it, or in Naruto's case, for one who had to rip open his tenketsu with the Kyūbi's chakra and still break all of his fingernails just to beat it. Hiashi was rightly proud of his clan's Kekkei Genkai and unique taijutsu, but only revealed enough to keep Sasuke's attention, and earn a bit of admiration.
Naruto tuned out after ten seconds and glanced at Hinata, nonplussed as to why she was watching him earlier. She was blushing (which only grew worse under his gaze) and fiddled with her fingers in her lap as her father indirectly praised the distance of vision her Byakugan had achieved.
When the Hyūga patriarch was finished, Sasuke released a small 'oh' and his ears stood up: he was impressed.
Hiashi caught the motions and turned to his eldest daughter, whose crimson cheeks swiftly drained their colour.
"I think father likes you, Sasuke-chan," Hinata Hyūga smiled as she led her two guests to one of the training courtyards. "I've never heard him talk so much in one sitting."
"He's kind of like my dad," said Sasuke, who was riding on Naruto's shoulder. His ear fur tickled Naruto's neck, but the blond did not mind.
That and he was a bit distracted by the young girl who was hiding as she followed them. She had been staring at Sasuke all through breakfast with eyes sparkling in unabashed adoration. Naruto suspected that she might have been the previous owner of that tea set.
"He gets really proud when talking about the clan," Sasuke noted. Hinata gave a small smile.
"If father's allowing me to show you the Gentle Fist personally, I think it means that you've made it into his good books."
Sasuke's cheeks became a little darker and he purred shyly. Hinata smiled at him, but quickly looked away when she caught Naruto's eyes on her.
His face was so close…
"Are you in your dad's good books?"
The question stopped Hinata in her tracks. Sasuke was looking right at her, his bottomless eyes suddenly piercing.
"W-why would you ask that?"
"I want to know, Hinata-neechan." At Hinata's gaze, Sasuke's ears suddenly lowered. "I never made it into Otou-sama's good books."
"What?" Naruto finally entered the conversation. "What does that mean?"
"I told you, Naruto, that Otou-sama would only look at Nii-chan. He never noticed me: all he wanted was for me to be like Itachi. Even after I learned my first jutsu, all he could say was 'grow into a fine shinobi like Itachi.' He was always proud of Itachi and would say to him 'as expected of my child.' I wanted him to say that to me at least once…" Sasuke looked up, meeting Hinata's frosted lavender gaze. "When you talked about your dad, it sounded like you never heard it from him either."
Naruto watched her, and for the first time, she did not look away. Her mouth drew into a line and she took in a gentle breath.
"Thank you for worrying about me, Sasuke-chan. I'm sorry, but I cannot answer your question. I honestly don't know what father thinks of me now, or rather, if his thinking of me has changed at all."
Sasuke breathed out a soft mew. Hinata brushed his hair gently with her fingers. Her knuckles grazed Naruto's face, but she endured it along with the rising heat in her ears.
"You're very sweet, Sasuke-chan."
That was all she could take. She whipped around and walked briskly to the courtyard, leaving two faintly blushing boys in her wake.
"Shugohakke Rokujūyon Shō!"
Hinata danced and the air around her sparked into shining blue life. For four meters around her, the azure trails traced by her nimble fingertips curved, gathered and fell, the veritable chakra lasers forming a criss-crossed web of protection around the single Hyūga.
Naruto could feel the energy of her chakra crackle through his hair, sparking sharp and deadly. It was fearsome, but strangely exhilarating to watch.
After half a minute, though it seemed much longer than that, Hinata finished, her arms that had whipped into a continuous blur around her now coming to a gentle rest at her sides. The chakra dazzled out like winking stars and a perfect ring was grooved into the ground around her.
Panting slightly, she looked over to her audience, two of whom were sitting on the engawa and one hiding behind the rice paper door behind them.
"Amazing," the object of the hiding person's affection whispered. "That was amazing Hinata-neechan!"
Hinata opened her mouth to thank him.
"That was impressive."
It was Hiashi Hyūga. Hinata's thanks died in her throat, replaced by a squeaky 'meep!' Her eyes followed her father as he walked slowly up to her spectators.
As though to explain his sudden appearance, he stated, "I saw the light of your technique all the way from the opposite end of the compound. For a moment I thought that Neji had returned to the village."
He stopped beside Naruto, who was either suffering from severe paralysis, or simply fascinated with the bamboo fountain at the opposite end of the courtyard.
"You've grown the technique," he noted, when a few seconds of silence passed by.
"Y-yes, I have father."
"And how is your work on the actual Kaiten?" Hinata's entire body turned to ice. Her lips pressed together and her eyes quivered, the faint pupils constricting a bit.
But her father would not let minute signs of his daughter's distress keep him from getting an answer. Sasuke glanced to the ground, frowning slightly under the pressure he felt from the man; pressure that reminded him of unhappy times.
Finally, when it was evident that her father would not leave, Hinata spoke.
"I-it's not ready for combat, but Neji-niisan said that I have perfected the basic form. All I need to do is focus on how much chakra I'm producing."
"Show me."
The two words she dreaded most were spoken with dreadful finality. It was bad enough to do it in front of her father, but why in front of Naruto?
His blue eyes were on her and a heavy heat bloomed in her stomach, making her wonder if she could even manage the spinning part.
She trembled as she got into her stance.
"Hinata." Her head snapped back up: Naruto was staring right at her. And he was smiling. "All you gotta do is say you'll do it, and your nindō will take care of the rest."
"My…"
'I never go back on my words. That's my nindō, my ninja way.'
Naruto. Thank you.
Her stance firmed and veins bulged around her steadied eyes.
"I will now perform the Kaiten," she said, her voice crystal clear. Hiashi's eyes widened minutely.
"Hakkeshō…" Naruto, I'll show you just how much I've grown. "Kaiten!"
She spun and her chakra spread, spinning with her in a luminous blue dome. It only reached about one and a half meters from her body. The dome was not perfectly closed: blurred openings showing her dizzyingly whirling form, her skin and hair glowing in the light of her own expended chakra.
It was nowhere near Neji's technique. But Naruto did not mind. Watching her try so hard and seeing the small smile on her face at her own progress made Naruto much fonder of this incomplete Whirl that sang of her nindō.
When Hinata came to a stop, Hiashi was already walking away.
Naruto scowled and stood up, about to speak despite Hinata's face drawn in panic, when the head of the Hyūga clan stopped.
"Hinata. Keep at it."
"Y-yes father."
"Hanabi, hiding like that from an Uchiha is disgraceful to our clan. If you wish to meet him, present yourself proudly to him."
With those words he walked away, leaving a slightly dejected but greatly relieved daughter, a furiously blushing one, an annoyed Naruto and a silent Sasuke in his wake.
"You are the cutest thing I've ever seen in my whole life," said the identity of the shadow that followed them to the courtyard, Hyūga Hanabi.
She looked up at Naruto, her eyes hopeful. "Can I hold him?"
"Uh, that's really up to –"
Sasuke went to her quietly, purring in slight discomfort as she hugged him and nuzzled his soft fur against her cheek.
"Sasuke-chan is really kind." Naruto turned to Hinata, who was standing next to him, her cheeks faintly flushed. She spoke to him, but could not seem to look directly at him.
"Yeah. The old him was kind too."
"Really?" this surprised Hinata. She had always thought of the Uchiha as she did of frozen acid. Cold and too dangerous to touch.
"Yeah. You kinda had to spend a lot of time with him to see it. And then you had to squint really hard and stay really positive and…"
Hinata was laughing. Naruto smiled.
"You're laughing. Good." Hinata finally turned to him, and was startled at the open look of relief on his face. "You wouldn't look at me. So I thought I was doing something wrong."
Hinata looked distraught. Naruto, now startled himself, backed up a step.
"Wha – wha – no, I didn't mean anything bad I –"
She took his hand; pressing on in the face of Naruto's shocked expression. She did not even consider it. Naruto was a guest in her home and she had made him feel so uncomfortable.
It was inexcusable. "I'm sorry, Naruto-kun. You didn't do anything wrong. I'm so happy that you're here, so please, don't think that you've done anything wrong."
Looking into those earnest eyes, Naruto could only nod dumbly while Hanabi and Sasuke watched them both. After a moment or two had passed, at her younger sister's call of her name, Hinata's face, ears and neck turned fiery red and she dropped Naruto's hand like a hot brick.
"Hinata?" Naruto asked cautiously when the girl did not speak for another several more seconds.
"Naruto," Sasuke called and Naruto, grateful for the distraction, turned to him. "We have to go see Iruka-sensei."
"Ah! That's right, we promised to do the Academy before lunch. Um, sorry for this Hinata but –"
"Come with us, Hinata-neechan."
For the first time since meeting Sasuke-kitten, Naruto had a knee-jerk reaction when confronted with one of Sasuke's old habits: with unrecognised authority, Sasuke would make statements about where to go, or what to do, or how to train, as though there was no other course of action but to obey him.
And it always pissed Naruto off.
But, since he was dealing with the baby version of the bastard, he tried to be nice and twisted his face into the best smile he could manage.
He looked like he had biting ants crawling up his spine.
"Sasuke, Hinata has a lot of stuff to do today and –"
"You don't know that Naruto," came the frank reply. Sasuke jumped from Hanabi's arms into Hinata's, ignoring the girl's disappointed pout. "I want Hinata-neechan to come."
That's that, Naruto could not help tacking on to the end of the baby's sentence. He snapped and grabbed Sasuke out of Hinata's arms.
"I told you that Hinata has stuff to do today," he said sharply. Hinata's eyes widened; she had never heard Naruto sound so strict. Neither had Sasuke.
Naruto did not notice. "You can't go around telling people what to do and where to go Sasuke. Don't be so spoilt."
Sasuke's body jerked in shock. Before anyone knew it, tears overflowed, and the kitten was bawling. A moment later, he was swiftly lifted from Naruto's grip and brought into Hinata's gentle embrace.
She rubbed his back soothingly, whispering soft, sweet words to him. When Sasuke's cries reduced to hiccups, she spoke to Naruto, her eyes to the ground beside his feet.
There was something troubled in those eyes.
"Sasuke-chan is not spoilt," she said shortly. "He was right – I don't have much to do today. If I'm not too much of a burden, Naruto-kun, I can accompany you to the Academy."
She walked off in the direction of the compound gates, with Sasuke in her embrace and a dumbfounded Naruto staring after her.
Neither of them would look at him now. And he had no idea what to do to change that. They walked along the sloping banks leading to Konoha's lake in the thick, uncomfortable kind of silence that Naruto hated. Despite that, he was not the one to break it.
"You should not have yelled at Sasuke-chan like that."
Naruto stopped. So did Hinata. The wind blew, shifting her hair to reveal Sasuke's sleeping face.
"But Hinata, he – he was forcing you…"
"That is not why you were angry, Naruto-kun." The skin under her eyes was dusted pink, but her eyes, staring straight ahead, were stern. "I know that you understand Sasuke-chan better than anyone else. I believe he simply wanted to spend more time with me, but he was awkward in expressing himself. Am I wrong?"
Naruto thought back. 'Come with us, Hinata-neechan.'
His cheeks were too pink then, his smile too small, his eyes lowered. It was not an absolute request, but a shy one.
Naruto groaned, putting a hand to his forehead.
"Why did you miss it?"
"I thought of Sasuke the way he was back then and I…" Naruto shook his head. "I'll apologise."
Hinata nodded. "You should."
They continued walking, the air cleared between them.
"Naruto-kun?"
"Yeah?"
A small undulation stirred in her throat. The action stirred a memory like long-settled soil from a riverbed.
She's gulping again. Like the Chūnin Exams.
"Why were you so harsh with Sasuke-chan in the first place?" Naruto slowed his walk. Hinata adjusted easily to his pace.
"I saw it in Tsunade-sama's office. When Sasuke-chan was being disobedient, you were gentle. Just now, I don't think he was being as bad."
Unaware, Naruto stared at the same patch of ground as Hinata.
"You said he was kind, right?"
"Yes."
"He's really sweet too. He says really cute stuff sometimes. He likes to play around, and he's a little spoilt. He's even a little clumsy. And… he's strong. Stronger than you would believe, Hinata."
Her eyes were on him now, mesmerised. She had never heard Naruto speak like this. He was proud. When it came to Sasuke, he was just so proud.
"A lot of shi – stuff happened to him. It changed him and turned him into an arrogant ice-prince bastard."
Hinata caught something that was too close to a laugh in her throat and shoved it down.
"But when you melt all that ice, this is the real Sasuke. I kinda knew that when the old Sasuke was still here, but the ice-prince bastardry was too thick back then."
"I see," Hinata's voice quavered with suppressed chuckles.
"I couldn't do anything about it back then." Hinata's laughter died in her throat. Naruto's pace dropped to a snail's crawl, his eyes straying in the direction of his feet. "I couldn't pull him out of the ice. I couldn't save him." Naruto suddenly looked ahead, his eyes firm.
"I promised myself that I won't let him go back to what he was before."
Hinata understood. As Naruto spoke, many things began making sense.
"So you were angry because you thought Sasuke was going back to his… arrogance?"
"Yeah. He used to put on his 'ice-prince authority' voice and try to boss me and Sakura-chan around." Naruto smirked. "I never let him."
"That's not good enough, Naruto-kun." Like before, her sternness stopped him cold, and her eyes were troubled. "Sasuke-chan was shaking. All of a sudden, you just grabbed him and started yelling in his face. You scared him."
She swallowed thickly before turning fully to Naruto and looking up into his stricken blue eyes.
"Sasuke-chan is Sasuke-chan. But Sasuke-chan is also Sasuke-kun. It's inevitable that he will show parts of his old self, because a person's core does not change."
Hinata wanted to look away now. Hinata wanted to blush and stutter now. But she knew, from Naruto's unwavering attention, that what she was saying was too important for her to do either.
"But if you're so afraid of him 'changing back' that you lose your temper every time you're faced with – his ice-prince bastardry – then he'll become scared of you. And then he will lose himself trying to conform to you, or rebelling against you."
Like me and Neji-niisan.
"If that happens, your desire to preserve his heart will become pointless."
She bounced the baby a little on her shoulder, smiling affectionately at him.
"He really loves you. He's a good child. If you correct him gently and firmly, like you did in the Hokage's office, I think he will listen."
Naruto's voice was lost somewhere in his throat. It took a lot more effort to find it and push it out.
"Y-you're right. You're right, Hinata."
Hinata smiled at him, the blush returning to her cheeks.
"I like it better when you're gentle too."
His face grew warm. He knew he was embarrassed, but more than that, like dust in the rush of a summer breeze, his dejection was swept away.
Come to a silent understanding, they walked on in quiet ease.
"Thanks."
Her heart jumped. "W-what for?"
"For knocking some sense into my head. Sasuke's not going to go to the darkness again just because he's a brat sometimes, right?"
Hinata smiled. "Yes."
"I was worse than him anyway, right?"
"Yes."
"Hinata!"
"A-ah! Th-that's no fair – Naruto-kun you tricked me!"
"Keekeekee," Naruto snickered foxishly. "Now we're even."
"Geez…" Hinata blushed.
Naruto put his hands behind his head, leaning back into an ambling gait. He glanced casually at Hinata, who held the sleeping baby tenderly as she walked. A second wind passed, blowing her hair softly around her head.
Naruto swallowed and looked ahead.
This… is nice.
He missed when Hinata glanced at him and thought the same, her ears glowing pink beneath her hair.
After a few more steps, Naruto's shoulders stiffened and a bead of cold sweat trickled down his face. Hinata imperceptibly swallowed.
"Naruto-kun…"
"Yeah. I know. They are part of the tour. Guess I have to face them eventually."
"Yes."
"Hinata, it doesn't help if you agree like that."
"O-oh. I'm sorry, Naruto-kun, I –"
"Forget it," Naruto sighed. He took a comically large inhale, his chest swelling, and turned around to face the two Green Beasts of Konoha 'stealthily' crouched behind him.
Tenten was standing behind them, a throbbing crease in her temple.
How did it come to this?
The heel of Hinata's palm grazed Lee's chest. The spandexed ninja jumped back, wincing, and realised that he had made a mistake. Hinata did not give him time to regret it; she dashed in, spinning on the balls of her feet like a dancer. Dangerous sparks of chakra flashed from her fingertips. Lee went into his own spin, sticking his foot out like a steel pipe. The two spins collided with a great flash of chakra.
Hinata's feet made twin grooves in the ground as she skidded back. Lee backflipped through the air, landing on one knee in perfect form.
The leg that made contact with Hinata's chakra was smoking. The hand that had touched Lee's kick was bleeding.
Lee glanced at his leg, a slight frown on his face.
"Hinata-san. I believe I have underestimated you." He slowly got to his feet, gingerly testing the weight on his smoking leg. He winced again. "Please forgive me."
"Not at all, Lee-san," she said, covering her own wound in glowing green chakra. "It is my honour to spar with Neji-niisan's teammate and closest friend."
Lee's eyes widened, shimmering with ever-ready tears. "I am Neji's closest friend?"
"Yes. He speaks better of you than of anyone else."
The tears burst their banks, flowing like miniature waterfalls. Off on the side-lines, Gai made a choked sound, tears bulging in his own eyes.
"Hinata-san, I am truly happy to receive that news. I believe that, in honour of our duel, we should no longer hold back on our techniques."
This shocked the Hyūga. "You think I am a worthy opponent for it?"
"Yes," Lee smiled, while his hands dipped beneath his leg warmers, his fingers unhooking a series of clasps. "You are much different from Neji, but I do not believe that you are any weaker than him."
He pulled out the leaden grey weights from his leg warmers and tossed them; they tumbled through the air, jangling loosely, until they hit the ground 10 meters away. Their impact cratered the earth and the shockwave shook the entire Training Area like a localised earthquake.
Sasuke's ears flattened to the sides of his head. His eyes bulged and he stared in unhidden shock at Lee who, noticing this, flashed him a thumbs-up and a blinding smile.
"Also, Hinata-san," he placed one arm behind his back, the other held out in a traditional fighting pose. Hinata tensed and the veins around her eyes bulged with the extra blood flow.
"I am determined to prove my ninja way to little Sasuke. Therefore, I will be defeating you today." He inhaled deeply.
Hinata's eyes widened and her body moved, a desperate dive to her left. It was not nearly fast enough.
Lee disappeared. Half a blink later, thunder cracked on the field.
Lee's kick was an inch away from Hinata's temple. That inch was protected desperately by the great volumes of chakra pouring from Hinata's arm, which was raised in a standard block.
Hinata focused, and crackling bolts of energy discharged from the chakra shield, cutting through Lee's leg-warmers and overalls. The stench of scorched flesh permeated the training field.
Lee, seeing that it was no use, kicked off of the near physical chakra protection and leaped back, landing almost five meters from the Hyūga. He closed that distance in milliseconds, aiming for a decisive punch to Hinata's gut.
Her chakra leaped again; there was another deafening thunder-crack. Lee kicked off her chakra again, and Hinata stumbled back, panting.
"Hinata-neechan!" Sasuke finally managed to call out. Lee's two attacks had occurred in less than two seconds, giving the kitten no time to breathe let alone speak.
Hinata smiled at the kitten before sinking into her Jūken stance once more, her jaw set. Lee was literally running circles around her, kicking up clouds of dust and grass as he searched for an opening.
Hinata took a deep breath and spread her arms.
"Hakkeshō Kaiten!"
The dome of whirling chakra had not improved much since its appearance an hour prior. The gaps in the dome, where the chakra was significantly thinner, made easy openings for Lee.
He launched, digging out a patch of the ground as he kicked off of it, seeking to end the match with a ridiculously powerful Dynamic Entry.
The sole of his foot barely grazed the flimsy chakra of the Kaiten when Hinata dropped. Lee kicked a hole through her hair as her upper body flung itself backwards and her legs spread into a painless split, dodging the concussion by millimetres. The only blond in her audience swallowed, unconsciously moistening his dry mouth.
The speed and power of Lee's attack threw him sailing over Hinata's head; the Hyūga turned on her hands and the balls of her feet, her lips peeled back from her teeth in a rare smile.
She sped after the flying beast, dense chakra gathering in her palms.
"What happened?" Sasuke asked, not taking his eyes off of Hinata as she raced after Lee, who was still screaming through the air, helpless under the force of his own power.
Since Tenten had been holding the kitten in her lap since the match began (ignoring the jealous glances from the blond who was not even aware he was giving them) she was the only viable choice for answering the question.
"I think Hinata used the Kaiten as a sensory screen instead of defence."
"What does that –?" Sasuke ran out of time.
Lee threw out his feet, making contact with the ground in a localised quake and accompanying crater. In the fraction of seconds it took him to rise, Hinata took a single step and leaped five feet into the air.
The chakra in her palms trailed deceptive wisps around her hands. She charged for Lee, hair blown back from her face, the full map of veins around her eyes exposed.
Lee did not have time to look up. He only moved, rotating on the ball of his foot like Hinata had done earlier and throwing out his smoking and burnt leg into a final blow.
Lee's Whirlwind collided with Hinata's Double Palm, and the entire field shook.
Seriously, how did it come to this?
As the chakra dispelled, shredding the air with searing beams of blue light, Naruto glanced at Tenten, or more specifically at the kitten she was hugging close to herself as they rode out the blast.
It had all started with him, hadn't it?
Sasuke had been immediately enamoured by Tenten's weapons. As she switched from blades to cudgels to chains, handling each weapon with flawless expertise, Sasuke had asked if she had a Kekkei Genkai.
Flattered, a smiling Tenten explained the truth to him about the seals and scrolls she had tactfully hidden in exorbitant numbers all over her body. After showing off the huge scroll she wore across her back, an excited Sasuke had then turned to Lee, expecting an ability that was just as amazing.
What he got was the news that Lee could use neither ninjutsu nor genjutsu.
Kindly put, Sasuke's interest in Lee immediately poofed away like one of Tenten's chokutō.
At Lee's insistence, the kitten flippantly told him that someone who could not use ninjutsu or genjutsu was not a shinobi.
As a true student of Konoha's original Green Beast, Lee took this insult as encouragement to push on to greater heights, and immediately challenged Hinata (the only viable replacement for his absent rival) to a match.
Lee had not expected much of a chance to show off his true skill against the 'weaker' of the two Hyūga.
Hinata swiftly taught him how mistaken he was.
And now there was a smoking crater three meters wide and two feet deep in the middle of Training Field Four, which was going to give the groundskeepers a fair headache to patch up.
Needless to say, Lee had accomplished his purpose.
"Amazing," Sasuke whispered, running up to meet the two fighters who were wearing similar grins of satisfaction.
Hinata had managed to prove something herself after all, if the floored look of admiration Tenten was giving her said anything.
"Y-you fought a dōjutsu with just taijutsu?!" Sasuke gasped, his cheeks flushed with awe. Lee smiled brilliantly and crouched, meeting Sasuke's eye.
"That is the Power of Youth."
Sasuke blinked. "The thing you were talking about before?"
"It's also called the Will of Fire. Have you heard about that before, Sasuke-kun?"
"No, I haven't."
Unnoticed, Tenten's eyes sparkled. Lee, you remembered.
"Well, when I found out that I could not use ninjutsu or genjutsu, my dream was to show the whole world that I could still become a fine shinobi with only taijutsu."
"Only taijutsu? I would have given up."
The corner of Lee's lip quirked upward, "Well, that was my dream, but there were many times where I too almost gave up. But then Gai-sensei found me. He never allowed me to give up and taught me the true value of hard work. That's how I got to this level."
"Is that the Will of Fire?"
"Yes. Gai-sensei took me under his wing and passed everything on to me. He called me a genius of hard work, and gave me my nindō."
"Your ninja way?"
"Yes. To work hard and never give up, that's my nindō! To inherit something, to live and fight by an honourable code of life, and to protect your comrades and those most precious to you, all of those things together are the Will of Fire. Those who have it burning inside will always be strong and never give up; they will be Leaves that stay green and youthful forever."
He presented a fist to Sasuke, who slowly looked at it, and back at him. Lee smiled, an open offer of friendship.
Sasuke took it, bumping fists with the Green Beast.
"Now we are comrades, Sasuke-kun." The kitten, startled, looked back up at the bushy-browed youth. "I swear to you, I shall protect you with my life."
Two people in that field could no longer hold back their tears. One obvious, the other less so.
"Lee! You've grown, grown beyond my wildest expectations!" Gai powerfully exclaimed, rushing over and grabbing his student in a crushing embrace.
"That was beautiful Lee!" Tenten rushed over, in a rare moment joining in their 'embarrassing' behaviour. "You remembered, you really remembered!"
"You thought… I would forget?" Lee squeezed out, Gai's hug constricting his lungs. Though he looked quite happy, even with his steadily decreasing air supply.
"I thought about what to say… all night… and even while doing… my early morning five hundred laps around Konoha."
And suddenly, Tenten looked less enthusiastic.
"What's Lee talking about?" Naruto asked the only person in the field able or willing to talk to him. Though she started blushing again.
"Well, last night we got together and talked about who would tell Sasuke-chan about the Will of Fire. We all agreed it should be Shikamaru-kun, but he's not here so we decided that whoever got the first chance would tell him."
"Oh. Then why didn't you tell him?"
"U-um, w-well – I was going to but – you see – um…"
"Uh, it's okay. Really, forget about it Hinata." Naruto was worried; the girl's face suddenly burned bright red and she was fidgeting like someone covered in biting insects.
It was not a good look.
Hinata's lip firmed. How long could this go on? She had managed to talk to Naruto normally – she had even spoken sternly to him had she not? And the worst had not happened.
He had not scorned her.
"I forgot," she said in a steady but quiet voice. Naruto heard her. "I was happy that you came to visit. So I forgot."
Naruto's face was warm again.
So was Sasuke's.
"Lee? There's something I don't understand."
Gai released him; Lee fell a full foot before he hit the ground. "Yes, Sasuke-kun?"
Sasuke averted his eyes, his tail swishing meekly. "Well, I don't understand how I'm your comrade. I'm not a shinobi."
Lee blinked, his prominent lower lashes fluttering. "I am afraid I am now the one who does not understand, Sasuke-kun."
"I only know one jutsu. So I'm not a shinobi. So I don't think I can be your comrade."
Lee crouched again. "Ability does not determine friendship, Sasuke-kun. Shinobi or not, we are friends. Therefore, we are comrades. But I am surprised Sasuke-kun. You know a jutsu?"
Sasuke nodded shyly.
"Ah!" Tenten realised. "It's that fireball thing, right little cat? Let's see!"
Sasuke acquiesced to Tenten, quickly forming the seals. Naruto's eyes narrowed. Sasuke's tail was trembling.
Baka, you're too nervous.
Sasuke blew out as hard as he could. The thin stream of fire, ending in a little bubble of flame, drew nothing but silence from his audience.
"That sucked."
Sasuke whipped round to the only one blunt enough to point that out, his face crimson but his eyes narrowed. "What?"
"You heard me," Naruto threw his hands behind his head and looked to the side. "Don't lie and say you can do something when you can't."
"I can do it!" the kitten screeched indignantly, the hair on his tail rising.
"Believe it when I see it."
That did it. Furious, Sasuke spun round to face Naruto fully and whipped his hands into seals.
Naruto's eyes widened; he dived spectacularly out of the way as the large fireball roared towards him, scorching the ground beneath it in an impressive diameter.
As the flames petered out, the blond slowly turned from the blackened grass to the Uchiha who caused it.
Sasuke was looking at him over the glowing embers, his cheeks still preventing him from making a true scowl.
"Huh. I've seen better."
"Naruto!" Sasuke dashed for him, his claws ready to scratch into that impassive face. He was caught mid-sprint and lifted high.
As he struggled, his eyes caught a flash of white. "No!" He won't be fooled by that smile. "Put me down! I don't like you!"
"Sasuke."
"Leave me alone!"
"Sasuke… Sasuke? Sasukeee…"
Sasuke felt him nuzzling his cheek. His lip twitched. "Nooo! Stop it Nawuto!"
"Nawuto? Who's Nawuto huh? Huh? Baby Sasuke can do jutsu like a grown up but can't talk like a grown up," the blond sang.
Off-key. Sasuke broke.
Team Gai and Hinata watched the glowing moment in silence, as Naruto fell back in the grass, laughing and tickling the baby who squealed in delight.
When Hinata returned home, she immediately went for her room. Certain wounds from her battle with Lee needed to be treated and dressed, especially her hands.
When she opened the door, the last thing she expected was to see Hanabi kneeling in the middle of her floor amidst a sea of unravelled yarn, fumbling with her pair of knitting needles and looking like she was about to either cry, or stab someone with them.
Hinata blinked, took in the scene for a few moments, then went to get her medicine kit. She sat on her bed and started applying ointment to the massive bruise on her forearm from where she had successfully blocked Lee's kick.
She shuddered. An attack that could still deliver damage even when it was successfully blocked was nothing to trifle with.
"Hanabi?" she said to the girl who was staring at her with unhidden despair as she slowly bandaged her arm. "What are you doing?"
"I wanted to make something for Sasuke-chan," the girl confessed in a trembling voice.
"Oh, I see." A few more moments of silence passed, as Hinata tended to the rest of her wounds.
"What happened with you?" Hanabi finally asked.
"I sparred with Lee-kun."
"Did you win?"
Hinata shook her head. "It was a draw."
When she tied off the last of the bandages around her fingers, she reached into her knitting basket and pulled out a ball of orange yarn.
She smiled.
"Well now, how about we knit something for Sasuke-chan together?"