Updated because the response was completely unexpected! Thank you so much, please don't hesitate to review and share your thoughts.
II
It had been close to his fifth birthday. That day his mother had him dress in formal clothes and combed his dark hair, faintly the scent of her vanilla wash blanked over him as he stuck to her side when they entered the Hyuga compound, it was large almost as big as the Uchiha compound it was intimidating even. Sasuke had clutched the skirt of his mother's kimono wide dark eyes darting around as the waited to be invited in, the soft long finger's of his mother's hand had ran themselves through his hair. Ruining the perfect combed style it was in before.
He hadn't minded it too much. His okaa-san was just being kind.
Looking up at her he saw her wide smile as it spread across her round pale face, hooded by her long dark hair that fell as tumbles. It had been shorter but she grew it out. He always loved her hair grown out.
"Everything is alright, Sasu-kun. We're here to meet your bride." She teased.
Being a four year old boy he sneered and buried his face in the silk material of the kimono. Inhaling the scentless garment, girls were not the most pleasant thing in his young immature mind.
Except for his okaa-san, she was perfect but sadly for him there was no girl like his okaa-san.
The door opened, and Sasuke narrowed his eyes at what was ahead. No one could be as perfect as his okaa-san.
No one.
It was a forgotten memory that hadn't even itched his subconscious all these year but somehow seeing her again brought that out. Hinata had grown up to become a stunning woman. Though he wasn't sure the word stunning would suffice. The room had been captivated by her; even the shinobi like him that were trained to hide their emotions looked entranced. Flickers of emotions like lust and adulation crossed their faces.
Looks that he would proudly wipe off with his katana, after her descent he saw her weave into the crowd as if to hide herself by mingling with the invitees it was a shame that she would seek to do such a thing, something like that shouldn't be hidden.
At least from him anyway, he shifted his weight to his left side leaning against a pillar as he stared shamelessly.
Standing with appropriate posture with her back arched and arms in front, she kept her head bowed mostly. Shying away from what attention she received. A blush spread from her cheeks to her neck, the dark kimono hiding where else it might have reached. The few times her head rose, he couldn't help but stare at her eyes. They weren't emotionless like the rest. They weren't as unreceptive as the rest, they were vulnerable.
It reminded him of a small animal, weak almost but it held something else something even he, as a trained ANBU, could not pick up and that worried him.
What could the doll be hiding?
Surely nothing too grave, after all she was raised in the Hyuga compound her whole life and not allowed outside contact after her mother passed. Maybe it was a secret. Perhaps the little doll knew something she wasn't supposed to? No, he thought shaking his head.
The Hyuga were too much of stuck-up assholes to allow what they call an unworthy (because she was not nin, but just a prize possession to be kept until her husband swooped her away) to know something of importance; he wondered if she even knew how to fight.
He'd teach her maybe when he took her to his compound after the marriage. All Uchiha women knew how to fight even those that were married in. She would be no exception. The thought of her fighting or getting harmed made him upset for a reason that was beyond him.
Sasuke shook it off.
Maybe she would be an exception to the old rule; then again he needed her healthy and fighting made you stronger so she would have to fight to get his children. The doll would have to learn to throw a decent punch. He gave a half smile at the idea of her fighting; she looked too weak to fight. She'd grow strong though. Everyone has to, because life is for the strong not the weak.
Hinata moved away from the older clan member she was speaking to and turned to another, a woman who was not of the clan with long dark hair and red eyes. A shinobi he remembered from his days at the academy, the two looked close. They moved and talked together like they knew each other for years.
He cocked his head to side wondering how they knew each other. His doll had spent almost her entire life caged in the confines of the compound and as far as he knew Kureani Yuhi was not a long lost red eyed clan member or a clan member's lover to the best of his knowledge.
He watched her for what felt like seconds but what was really over an hour. The party died down, less people were there but it was still packed. They were waiting to see the tow together but somehow he hadn't wanted to move he wanted to stay and watch her forever. Not touched by his darkness, still pure.
"Uchiha-san."
Sasuke suppressed the childish urge to roll his onyx eyes and settled for a scowl instead. He turned his head to the side, tearing his eyes reluctantly away from Hinata to view Neji Hyuga, the clan's prodigy looking at him with those same blank eyes and stoic face.
He wondered if when the Hyugas made love if they even gave a look of pleasure or a murmur.
He huffed. Of course they didn't, he glanced back at Hinata, observing her as she giggled with a dark blush on her cheeks as her mouth opened in a fit of gleefully sounds. He couldn't wait to see if she did. Sasuke glanced back at Neji with an equally blank expression a blink away from irritation.
"Hyuga." Sasuke spat.
Neji looked unmoved his tone, arms folded behind his back. "I saw that sick look in your eye when you saw her."
Sasuke smirked, sipping his sake. "She's going to be mine soon. So I don't see how the look has anything to do with you."
Neji's left eye twitched and Sasuke found it amusing how easy it was to fuck with him.
"I know about men like you, Uchiha." Sasuke quirked an eyebrow, not looking away from the male Hyuga wondering where he was taking it, listening carefully.
"Creeps who think they own the world and can have anything. You treat people like possessions, like they should be pocketed and locked away. Men like you like to keep their possessions locked away. They think no one else deserves them that no one should be allowed to even breathe in their direction. Men like you are dangerous." He continued, walking closer to Sasuke, who listened intently. He forgot that Neji along with being a powerful opponent was intelligent. So much so that he was almost considered by the Hokage to deal with the most lethal and dangerous killers not the ones hired to kill but the ones who did it because they liked the color of blood.
He stood stiffer. The Hyuga couldn't intimidate him, at this point in time nothing really could. "If I didn't know any better, Hyuga, I'd think you didn't want me to marry your cousin."
This time the Hyuga shocked him by giving him a smile and walking away. Sasuke clenched his fists before relaxing his hands and looking back out for his doll.
Only to find that she wasn't there anymore.
There was something that had always been something peaceful about the garden. It provided serenity and privacy she usually didn't get as the Hyuga doll. The bench beneath the sakura tree her favourite aspect. There she got a good view of the koi fish in the pond and listened to the soft sound of the water running from the little waterfall into the pond. It was also what she thought was the most colorful part of the compound. The ginkgo trees surrounded it and the sakura trees along with the lilacs, jasmines, roses and numerous other floras that were planted there. It was beautiful.
This was perfection.
Closing her eyes, she let her hair down, allowing the dark curls to tumble to her shoulders. She moaned at the relief of not having her long hair up or the heavy comb in it. Now she only wishes she could untie her kimono and wear one of the simple dresses from town. It would appear that she unlike the rest of her clan preferred comfort over flaunting their wealth.
Taking off her geta she threw it aside, two or three feet away from where she sat. The socks pulled off shortly after. Revealing her small feet, a groan slipped from her lips as her feet planted on the cool grass.
Resting her elbows on the back of the bench, she leaned her head back. Letting the pink petals fall like kisses to her face. A smile graced her lips. If she wanted she could run now but it wouldn't make sense. The guards were at every corner and would catch her before she even had the chance.
Tonight she had caught a glimpse of her husband to be.
The man they had trained her love and who they expected her to marry. To hell with who she wanted to wed. Sasuke Uchiha would be her husband because that was the agreement of the clans. That was what was planned and what was set in stone by the council members.
She frowned.
Was she not allowed to even know the man she would marry? How could she not be allowed the human right of finding love and marrying? No, she wasn't a shinobi hence she was lesser therefore not worthy of it. Hinata would have cried if she had any more tears left.
Instead she crossed her legs and let the petals fall. They would be her tears instead. Licking her lips, she tasted the bitter red lipstick and the melon lip gloss that made her lips shine. A cool breeze rolled over her skin.
She mused over her would be husband. He was handsome, tall and lean. Attractive to most women but she didn't want a husband just for his looks. The servants and her younger sister had raved about his strength, one of the most in Konoha. An elite ANBU but she saw it as him being nothing more than a skilled murderer.
Hinata shook her head, making the petals fall down to the grass and off her face and out of her hair. She of all people should now that shinobi weren't like that; they weren't these stone cold killers her maid had spewed about. Not all of them anyway.
"Good evening, Hinata-hime." She jerked out of her seat. Standing bare foot on the grass, staring wide eyed at the owner of the unfamiliar voice.
It belonged to a handsome face that had not moments ago plagued her thoughts. She blushed and looked down at her toes.
"Uchiha-san." She said without a stammer but in a small voice.
If her father could see her now he would have given her a harsh slap for not carrying herself like the Hyuga doll. Barefoot with her hair in a loose common style and her kimono slackened. He would have hit her ribs and told her if she wanted to be a common whore she should have left the clan. She hurried retied her obi and slipped on her geta without the long white socks. Running her fingers through her long tresses she ignored the burning gaze of her fiancé.
The silence felt heavy and she refused to meet his gaze, to look into those empty black eyes. "What are you doing away from your party, Ningyō?" he asked kindly, a tone she knew he most likely did not use often.
She fidgeted with a small nervous smile realizing he was going closer to her. "I-I w-wasn't aware, t-that they noticed me missing."
He didn't answer right away; Hinata couldn't help but stare at his features in the dim light of the garden. He truly was handsome in a polished way unexpected from that of a warrior. It made her speculate what he was like in the midst of a battle.
For some reason she knew he wasn't as clam and polite then. Definitely not as charming.
"I did."
Hinata blushed, looking up at his through long eyelashes. Sasuke Uchiha was a tall man, not large but lean but with board shoulders, he made her anxious. Like a rabbit trapped by a wolf in the wild. She trembled, her heart beating faster as the wolf's hand touched her hair, the tip of his finger in the midst of her thick hair pulling out a pink petal.
He flicked the petal away and she continued to stare up at him. His dark yukata brushed her kimono and she moved closer to him. Something invited her and pulled her closer for some reason. Yet she kept a distance, her mind more powerful than instinct. Hinata pressed a hand on the trunk of the sakura tree. The wood rough against her delicate hand, she continued to stare at him and he did the same to her. They were both memorizing each other's features. Hinata felt strangely self-conscious.
Sasuke pressed a hand on the trunk beside her head; her eyes glanced at the hand before going back to him. This time his eyes revealed an emotion she least expected and knew of the less.
Lust.
The thought made her blood pump faster and her cheeks grew warm. He bowed his head to her own, his face a bit crazed but she ignored it. The place was dark. It was a wondered she saw his face at all, the look could have been the shadows or her imagination.
His lips touched her forehead, then her lips. It felt strangely good but it was a kiss from a man she barely knew, her supposed fiancé albeit but such physical contact was frowned upon. He licked her lower lip and she almost squealed, her own hand on his chest which felt hard even beneath the yukata. He pulled away, jumping at least ten feet from her. Now she couldn't see his face. A face she had just started to like to see.
"Time to get back to you party, Ningyō." Sasuke offered a hand. She smiled at the gesture, shivering with a new unfamiliar feeling in the pit of her stomach.
A kiss, she could remember the last time someone had given her a token of affection like that. If anyone except her mother ever did. Tentatively she walked up to him and accepted the hand and together they re-entered to party with a pair of eyes watching them warily.
Ningyo- means doll.
Geta- japanese shoe that resembles clogs.
Yukata- japanese garment similar to kimono.