Dreamcatcher

By Airyo

Sunrise, Sunflower - 1

Itachi's claim of 'several' training suggestions had been a gross understatement. The next day, he presented her with a scroll as thick as her arm detailing her new torture schedule. She had seven years worth of training to make up for...which Itachi was apparently trying to compress into seven weeks, given the pace of her lessons.

They would meet in the mornings at six am sharp, and warm up with ten laps around the village. Maybe it was a warm-up for Itachi, who hardly broke a sweat as he accompanied her, but it was certainly not the case for someone who hadn't run in nearly a decade. Red-faced not just from embarrassment, Hinata huffed and puffed with determination the entire way.

(Sometimes, they crossed paths with two very strange and...green ninja. Gai and Lee greeted them with loud exclamations about 'youth' and 'springtime' and 'love'. She still wasn't sure which was man which, as she tried really hard not to look directly at them. No matter how exhausted she was, both she and Itachi ran much faster as soon as they saw any glint of too-white teeth.)

After the run, Itachi had her doing conditioning exercises to strengthen her body. Her muscles were already liquid at this point, but he was always impressed by the number of sit-ups she could pump out.

Conveniently, neither of them credited the real reason for her motivation: for this exercise, Itachi held down her feet for her. Each time she sat up, their faces would draw so close she could see that his pupils weren't completely black, but black with dark flecks of Sharingan crimson. Their breaths would mingle warmly, and the only obstacles between them were her bent knees.

While running endless laps around Konoha didn't phase him, Hinata's sit-ups left Itachi's cheeks with just a tinge of pink.

Conditioning always ran a little over, but Itachi had planned more than ample time for them to spar afterwards. Jyuuken was an art that required a lifetime of dedication, not a jutsu to be mastered once. Instead, Itachi had her work separately with a Hyuuga tutor in the few spare hours of the week, and spent his time drilling her on the basics of mobility.

He taught her to vault herself through the giant trees with ease, until she felt as if she were flying, wind singing by her ears and whipping through her hair. He taught her to water-walk with steps so light she barely caused ripples as she graced across the surface of a lake.

Hanabi later told her that when Hinata and Itachi sparred, they resembled two dancers performing a choreographed routine. (Like partners, Hinata thought. Maybe even equals.) Her little sister's flattering description eased the sting of the memory when, earlier, Hanabi had openly grinned as the Branch head Tsuru had scolded her for tracking water into the house after being dunked in the pond, courtesy of one sadistic Uchiha Itachi.

Thankfully, Itachi wasn't a complete slavedriver.

After their spar, he allowed her a full hour for lunch. Even though the cooks knew exactly how much Hinata could eat, her bento always suspiciously contained far too much for her. Neither Itachi nor Hinata could stand waste, so they inevitably ended up sharing her lunchbox. Just as suspicious was the fact that the Uchiha cooks had been suddenly afflicted with an incapability of cooking anything edible for Itachi, though they seemed to manage just fine for every other member of his clan.

With hair from her braid tickling the back of her neck and her clothes stale with sweat, Hinata never felt more happy. The chill of the spring of the air was just beginning to warm, but still felt soothing on their damp skin. They would sit side-by-side on the gentle slope of a hill, balancing the layers of her gargantuan bento on their knees.

"My compliments to your cook," Itachi would say every time, with an odd expression of resignation. Then he would comment on the food item of the day. "The onigiri are...exactly how I prefer them." Or "the seasoning of the cabbage is so good...it tastes just like home-cooking."

Hinata just giggled, and made sure to pass on his words.

(The cooks were some of the worst gossips in Fire Country, since they all saw each other at the morning markets. Several gleefully kept her updated on Hiashi and Fugaku's activities. She didn't want to be taken by surprise again. Fortunately, after secretly setting up her apprenticeship, Hiashi had reverted back to his distant handling of the Uchiha. Much to Fugaku and Mikoto's dismay, apparently.)

But no matter how wonderful or amusing lunchtime could be, it was a small respite. Afternoons were for either genjutsu study or D-rank missions. While neither were difficult in theory, both more than made up for it in how exhausting they were.

Hinata liked genjutsu study the best. He was giving her the tools, the skills, to stand on her own - the knight was equipping the damsel with her own weapons. Genjutsu practice was nothing like the experiments from before. Now that he had confirmed she could handle genjutsu, Itachi did not hold back when he made her practice breaking herself from such techniques again and again.

He taught her to disrupt it with a flare of chakra even before it took hold. He taught her to sidestep the draw of genjutsu as soon as it was cast on her, as fighting it delayed her precious seconds.

At first, Hinata had been worried, as Kurenai had suffered from the recoil of her strange mind. But Itachi's genjutsu was as slippery as water, and more subtle than shadows, and she could never quite find him in order to fight him. He was one of the greatest genjutsu users of this age, however, so Hinata only resolved to train harder to catch him.

(The D-ranks were a thankfully rare formality, as even Hinata could only tolerate so much weed-pulling or grocery shopping on top of her existing Branch duties.)

Be it genjutsu or missions, afterwards, Itachi would always escort her back to the Hyuuga complex. At first, it was out of necessity, as Hinata could barely walk straight due to her fatigue. As her body adjusted, their conversations became reminiscent of the times he walked with her after their experiments. Her weariness always caught up with her at night, though, and it was all Hinata could do to make sure she collapsed on her bed instead of the floor.

So sunrise and sunset blurred between the days, but each morning Hinata woke feeling herself growing stronger and, finally, blooming.

AN: So much cute to write, so little time. I've got other plotty things to talk about, so here, have everything in a massive movie-montage chapter.

To borrow a phrase from evilbananalol's review last chapter, the cooks are so in on 'Project ItaHina'. ;)

Also, why am I not surprised that Itachi's favorite foods are cabbage and onigiri? Healthy weirdo, that one.