Day 10
- Kissing in the Rain -
The last day of July is a bleak and dreary sort, as if the blank castle that is the Hyuuga complex has sucked the color out of the sky completely. The smell of rain hangs from the clouds, and one of the Hyuuga Branch members drags a paper bag full of umbrellas out to the guards around the estate, which they accept with weary looks toward the sky. The clouds are becoming thick and gray. Surely, it will start to pour soon.
Hyuuga Hinata is still not fond of being in the midst of this place.
It hadn't always been that way. This used to be her home, where she'd read stories to her sister and spar with her cousin and dance around the clean floors with Ko. She used to feel so close to this place that she'd have trouble differentiating herself from the complex, from the Hyuuga surrounding her. She used to be a mere ant in the army, a drop of water in the ocean — and back then, that hadn't been a bad thing.
But ever since she returned from Suna, she could hardly stand the sight of the Hyuuga complex. She'd grow sick and weak if she stayed too long, so she was quick to move out before it killed her. The Elders had informed her, then, that a Hyuuga heiress was not allowed to live outside their walls, so Hinata had simply given up her title to her sister and escaped from the mess she left behind.
Living alone had jolted her system into an episode of anxiety that lasted for a good while. She had never lived alone before. When there's no one around, it's hard to distract herself from her own thoughts, and she'd find herself in an awful cycle that took a hit on her mental health. She was lucky to have Kiba and Shino and Kurenai pull her out of that trap, and for about ten months, she's been doing well on her own.
But, even still, the complex she once called home still has an unsettling toll on her nerves, and Hinata has to swallow down her panic and hold her hands still as she sits on the engawa with her sister.
Hanabi misses her dearly.
She tells her this every time Hinata comes to visit, which is then quickly followed by a nag for her to come back. "Your room is still the same," she'll say. "Father refuses to let anyone touch it."
Hanabi is three-fourths of her whole world. She used to be the entirety of her own world, but Hanabi never liked that image. Some of it has to belong to herself. It can't all be Hanabi — there has to be some Hinata, too. And with the trip to Suna and back, with the months of living alone, going day by day independently, with only her skills and life's lessons leading her forward, Hinata has learned to cherish herself, to let herself be part of her own world. Hanabi, of course, still owns the majority of it, but that's neither here nor there.
Even if Hinata does love her sister dearly (and she truly does), she will never move back into the Hyuuga estate.
Not ever.
Hanabi knows this, too, but that does not stop her from trying.
"If you come back," she says with a grin, "we can have sleepovers again, and we can play around in the pond like we used to do."
Those memories are still colored in fond pinks and nostalgic blues, but Hinata shakes her head. "As tempting as that sounds —"
"Ah, hell, Hinata!" Hanabi kicks her feet up before falling back onto the engawa, pouting. "You've been nothing but a stick in the mud ever since Naruto and Kankuro."
Hinata's head zaps around, hoping no one is overhearing them. Just because everyone in Konoha knows about those two doesn't mean she wants to feed fuel to the fire again. "Hanabi," she hushes, which only annoys her sister more.
"You know I'm right!" Sitting up again, almost banging into Hinata's nose, she crosses her arms. "It's so silly to me. How can you let men affect you so much and for so long?"
A nasty taste circulates around Hinata's mouth, and she struggles to swallow it down and keep a neutral face. It's not as simple as Hanabi may think, and Hinata does not shame her sister for her naivety. It's because it was three men — the two Konoha knows, the one they will never know about — and every single one of them hurt her, and it was the same damn mistake three times — and it hurts because they disregarded her like she was nothing, but it also hurt because she could have prevented two of those three instances, and she should have — but she didn't. The same mistake, over and over and over again, like she'd learned nothing.
It's a wound to her pride and to her judgment and to her status as a powerful kunoichi and noble Hyuuga, and that's why it stings to this day, and that's why it's something she cannot simply ignore and push to the side.
Hanabi does not understand, but Hinata just smiles. "Yes. It is silly."
Though not entirely satisfied with that answer, Hanabi will take what she can get, and she then delves into a more lively conversation. Hinata listens, nodding and humming when appropriate, but hardly says a word more as the sky turns darker and darker. Hanabi must sense she's said something wrong, for when Hinata readies to leave, her sister meekly apologizes and hugs her tightly before letting her go.
The wind is cool on her face as she walks down the streets of Konoha.
When she looks at the sky, she feels it sink into her, and her eyes reflect the murk, the cloudiness, the foreshadowing of rain.
...
She does not want to go to her house.
She does, but she doesn't.
It holds the same issue as it did when she had just gotten it: it's empty, and it's lonely, and there's no one there to distract her. And that's what she needs right now: distraction.
But she doesn't want noise, and she doesn't want chaos, either. She wants something peaceful. She wants a head against her lap as she plays with his hair. She wants to hear the soft, soothing breaths of a relaxed Uchiha resting in her living room.
Sasuke?
The name hits her like a bat.
She's . . . thinking about Sasuke.
When did that start happening?
...
Blankly, she trudges on with no mind or aim to go.
That's how Kiba and Shino find her. They look at her like she's a low-hanging cloud about to cry rain all over their shoulders, so they come to her side and guide her under the cover of their umbrellas.
"Hinata," Kiba calls. "I'm starved! Let's grab a bite, okay?"
"Stay close," Shino tells her, "so you don't get rained on."
They travel down the road, and they guide her to a place they know she likes in a quiet part of the village. Kiba twitches in smothered worry. Shino's jacket is warm.
It takes Hinata five minutes to realize it's not raining at all.
...
Frosting coats her tongue, and Hinata feels better.
The bakery is warm, smells of bread and cakes filling the air, and the overall murmur throughout the sitting area is quiet and tranquil. Kiba bought her an entire loaf of lemon bread drizzled with frosting, and Hinata takes delicate measures to slide her knife through the soft bread to cut a piece for everyone. Shino and Kiba take their offered pieces out of politeness, and Kiba tries hard to hide the scrunch to his face when he eats his snack.
Clearly, he's not a fan of lemon cake.
But Hinata finds it heavenly, and she smiles as she eats at her piece.
"Feeling better?" Shino asks.
She nods, not to talk with her mouth still full. Kiba swallows his down and chugs most of his water before speaking. "Good! You looked sick back there!" Then, in a softer voice, "Everything alright?"
She swallows so she can answer this. "I think so," she says. "A lot's on my mind."
Kiba frowns, peeling back the wrapper of his blueberry muffin. "Let me guess: two people. One's a Konoha idiot, the other's a Suna moron."
Shino taps his fingers along the side of the table as he ponders. "Or maybe it's one person in particular."
"Huh?" Through bits of food, Kiba asks, "What's that supposed to mean?"
Shino doesn't say another word. His attentive gaze turns Hinata's way, and she doesn't have to look to know he's read her mind, that he knows exactly who it is that has recently popped into her mind and refuses to go away. Shino has a way with knowing everything, and she can't say she's shocked by it anymore. She cuts another piece of lemon bread and eats at it slowly.
"Hinata," Shino says, "what's going through your head?"
"What's going through both of your heads?" Kiba asks. "I'm lost."
Trapped between leaving Kiba in the dark and confessing her mind, Hinata wavers for a moment. The taste gets lost on her tongue, so she places the piece on her small plate and wipes her hands on her napkin before placing them on her lap. A flush comes to her face that she cannot hide, and her pulse dances under her skin.
Collecting words. Gathering courage.
Then, finally, she says, "There's . . . someone."
Kiba's eyes narrow. "Someone?"
"Um. He's nice to me —"
"HE!?" Kiba looks ready to jump across the table. "And you like this guy!?"
Hinata starts. "NO!" Then stops. "Maybe. No." Then starts again, miserable. ". . . I don't know."
"Kiba," Shino tries, "just —"
"No. Shut up." A rumble starts in his chest, so loud that Hinata fears the whole place may hear. "You're going to tell me who it is."
Shino grimaces. "You're insensitive."
"No, I'm being cautious!" Kiba's head swings to him, hair sticking out all over the place. "Do you want her to get with some trashy guy that will break her heart for the third time? Huh!? Want to see her like that all over again?"
Shino's the kind of quiet that is deadly. His chakra rolls, and his insects hiss, and Hinata's scared a fight will break out between them.
"I-I'm sorry." Her hands squeeze into fists until her fingers feel numb. "Am I being stupid?"
This throws Kiba off, anger switching to shock in the matter of seconds. "No — Hinata — that's not . . . ."
With no idea what to say, neither of them speak. Kiba scratches at his face, agitated with no idea what to do with it, and Shino tries to calm his insects, and Hinata has lost her appetite completely. It's like that until a dash of movement catches her eyes, and when she peeks out the window, she spots Sasuke in front of the bar across the street.
Kiba and Shino notice, too. There must be some kind of expression on her face, so Kiba understands instantly.
"Sasuke's the guy?"
She nods, and he sits back, stunned.
Shino pats one of her hands before curling his foot behind one of the legs of her chair, pulling her back so there's a considerable amount of space between herself and the table.
"He's the one who can give you the answers you want," he says. "Go talk to him."
Kiba croaks, astonished, but no words of protest leave his gaping mouth.
She's still unsure, but as Shino said, Sasuke's the only one she can talk to about this; so, she stands, kisses their cheeks, half in goodbye, half in thanks, and rushes out to the bar across the street.
...
Sasuke's . . . not alone.
At the bar, he sits with two men that she cannot make out, as their backs are turned to her. But his back isn't, and when he sees her enter, he shakes his head and signals for her to leave.
Leave?
Despite herself, she takes another step forward, and he grimaces. "Leave!" he mouths, expression nothing but stern and cold, and that is what makes Hinata freeze up.
Leave . . .
Did Kiba have a good reason to worry? Maybe Sasuke's already through with her.
. . . But Sasuke's honest, and he speaks his mind, and she's always found that admirable about him. He'd have told her. This would not be the way he would go about it — not across a bar, thrusting his arm out to motion for her to turn around and exit the same way she entered.
There's something else.
She scouts the area with her byakugan, finds nothing but drunk drinkers and busy bartenders, and signals to him: Danger?
Before he can signal anything back, one of the men drops a hand on his shoulder, using him as leverage to turn in his stool so he may look over his own shoulder in her direction. His face is fuzzy through the haze of cigarette smoke, but Hinata's positive she knows that man from someone.
He smirks something sickening and says something to Sasuke she cannot read. The other man, shorter and rounder, looks her way, as well, and his expression is gentle but curious.
She . . . knows him, too. She's sure of it.
Something's going on here.
Hinata pulls away from herself, falling into the instincts of a kunoichi. The building is loud, but she can pick up voices further down the bar and all the way across the room. It's only in Sasuke's general direction where she can't hear the conversation he's having with the first, bulky man to his immediate right.
Silencing jutsu, she recognizes.
And there's a way Sasuke holds himself that is not normal. He's not that able-bodied ninja who was once a terror to Konoha. He's meager, and he slumps to his side, and he makes his missing arm obvious with how he holds himself. It's an act to make him purposefully look weaker, a strategy Hinata, herself, has used multiple times during missions.
Mission.
That's it.
He's on a mission, and these men must be his targets.
And she'd almost stumbled upon it and ruined everything.
Before she can leave, however, the bulky man approaches her, with the smaller one on his heels and Sasuke, vastly unpleased, with them.
"Hyuuga Hinata," the tall one says, his voice slurred and his eyes taking in everything about her. "What a treat to meet you here."
Now, she recognizes this man.
He is Tanta Akiru, one of the men who would have been Ambassador Ki's replacement, if only he hadn't been caught swapping classified Konoha information with other villages. Last she's heard, he was still in prison, and she's unsure how someone with his crimes could be let out so soon.
And the smaller man next to him — that is Ki Kenzo, Ambassador Ki's son. Despite his father's remarkable title, the one thing most well-known about Ki Kenzo is that he's a simple and foolish man.
. . . The perfect target for a criminal against Konoha.
Ah. She meets Sasuke's eye, who turns more and more displeased by the second. So this is what this is about.
...
"You ought to join us for drinks," Tanta invites with a wicked smile and an obvious leer.
Sasuke looks as though he has a million and one excuses for her to absolutely not join, but Ki beats him to it. "Oh, wouldn't that be swell, Hinata? Come join us. I'm sure Papa will be quite pleased to hear I've had the time to talk with you."
She looks at Sasuke again, discreetly, so as to not make it obvious. The minute shake of his head tells her to walk away, but Tanta's hand is already on her waist, guiding her to the bar. Sasuke sneers, fighting off the urge to yank that arm off of her, and Hinata waves her hand, telling him not to, and forces a smile and a timid, feminine 'thank you' as Tanta roughly pulls out a stool for her to sit.
He knocks on the bartop to get the bartender's attention. "Golden Salsa for the lady."
That's made with a damn strong whiskey, from what Hinata remembers. "He means a pinot noir," she corrects.
Tanta grunts, "No pussy drinks here, Hyuuga."
"Pinot noir, or I'll leave."
He doesn't smolder in frustration. Actually, he looks amused as hell, and he nods to the bartender and lets her have her drink. "You win this one."
...
From what she can tell, they're trying to figure out what sort of information Tanta's trying to squeeze out of Ki. Sasuke keeps his question artfully pointed, covered by just enough disguise to be read as simple questions, when truly, he's trying to drill into Tanta's mind to figure out what he'd be after. If ever Ki's mouth turns sloppy and loose, either with drunkenness or foolishness, Sasuke is able to ease the conversation into a different direction before anything dire slips.
They drink like they're buddies. Hinata can smell Sasuke's IPA, even with Tanta's large body between them.
Dodging close calls with Ki is simple, but Tanta's a stubborn bull who avoids Sasuke's questions with grunts, with barks of laughter, with the guzzling of his drink and the call for another one.
Hinata stays on the sideline, answering any questions prompted and sipping at her drink enough to not cater suspicions. She's polite to Ki, if only so her spiteful nature towards Tanta all the more obvious. He enjoys it, of course. He grins along the lip of his drink and side-eyes her profile, and Hinata thinks with the amount of drinks he's consumed, her chances at getting him to slip are easier.
"I don't imagine this is your crowd," she says, leaning back so her elbows can rest on the bartop.
Tanta snorts. "I'm not your crowd, heiress, and yet you're here."
"That's strange," she says, smiling.
"It's a lovely coincidence — co — co-in-sidence — that you're here." Ki sways a bit in his stool. Unlike Hinata, he takes any drink Tanta buys him, and he's smashed before anyone else is. "You come here often?"
"No," Sasuke answers for her. "Of course not."
"Then you must have a special reason to be here." Tanta takes one — two — glugs from his drink. The glass rings when he slams it down, and he yanks one of her arms to wipe his mouth against it, as if she were a paper towel. "I wonder what it could be."
Skin crawling, she pulls her arm away, reflexes working in overdrive so she escapes before his grasp can harden around her.
"Not for you," she confirms.
He throws his head back, laughing. "That's shit! Of course it's because of me!" He thrusts his thumb Ki's way. "You and Mr. Traitor are here because I want to know all of Daddy's little secrets." He snorts and gives her a look. "C'mon. I ain't stupid, Hyuuga."
Sasuke doesn't look bothered at all. It's like he's listening to something he already knows, like it's a song he's heard a thousand times.
Ki, red in the face, waves his hand flippantly, as if he's swatting an invisible fly out of the air. "Nonsense, Tanta," he coos. "I trust you completely."
"Dumbass." Tanta doesn't bother to lower his voice. "It'd be damn easy to get what I want if you two weren't on my damn ass."
Hinata turns to Sasuke. It's his mission which she was unwillingly dragged into, so it'd be best to follow his lead. All he does, however, is drink the rest of his IPA and relaxes his chin into his hand.
"Looks like we're dragging you back to the police force," he says.
"Drinkin' with the Ambassador's son's a crime? Looks like I'll be havin' two cellmates, then." He winks at Hinata, and she fights to keep her smile. "Take me there if you want. All I'll say is the only way you're gettin' me to talk is right here in this bar."
Though that's not ideal, at least it's something they can work with.
"How can we convince you?" she asks.
Drink finished, he leans over to grab hers — only, he doesn't lean back, and her shoulder is wedged into his chest.
He hums, and he analyzes, gaze slipping down, then up, then landing on her face. "You've got a pretty mouth," he notes. "Lend it to me, and I might just spill."
Red blinks across the bartop as Sasuke's sharingan burns into light. His teeth crash together, but she holds her hand out, stopping him.
"You'll need a lot more than a few pieces of gossip."
"Gossip!" The word comes out half-laugh, half-balk. "Pray tell, what is my gossip worth, then?"
She tips her head and analyzes him like he'd done to her, and she muses, "A kiss."
As expected, he barks, "A KISS!" Ki, stirring from his sleepy spell, fakes an exaggerated laugh to feel included. Tanta wheezes, slamming his fist into the table. "A kiss from a bitch like you? Hyuuga — princess — surely you get that's more of a punishment than anything else."
His comments do not mean a thing to her, but when Ki drunkenly nods, agreeing that she'd be the worst woman in all of Konoha to kiss — that stings a bit, and she can't wipe the hurt from her gaze before Sasuke sees it and grimaces.
"Okay," she drones. "No kiss."
She stands, but Tanta's hold on her arm prevents her from leaving. "Wait." He wheezes a bit more, wipes a tear from his eye, and grins like a goblin. "A kiss. Sure. I'm the sort to enjoy disgusting things, after all."
Sharingan spiraling like mad, rinnegan swirling in its own whirlpool of irritation, Sasuke grits out, "Talk."
And so, Tanta does — at his own leisure, of course.
...
"Lord Kazekage's in a mess, I've heard."
Tanta drums his palms along the bartop as he listens to the buzz of the bar and the busy botherings of the bartender behind him. Hinata sits because she must, and when she hears this, she's glad she has something to stable herself against.
Gaara? A mess?
"Somethin's brewing," he continues. "Buddy of mine says the whole village is displeased with him. Apparently, he's done something to earn their mistrust." The trust of a leader is the bloodline of any village. It's like the body distrusting the heart, or the brain. It can't function without it, and soon, it will die. "That's all I know. I'm figurin' Ms. Ambassador Hyuuga or that boy's daddy know something about it, 'nd that's what I'm aiming to figure out."
In all her years in Suna, stuck close to the Kazekage's side as Ambassador, not once has Hinata gotten the impression that he'd ever do anything to earn the distrust of Suna. He's their savior from the hateful leadership of Rasa. He is aiming for the betterment of Suna, and Hinata knows that, and so do his people.
"Gaara's a good leader," she says.
Tanta shoots her a doubtful look. "Reality says otherwise."
Ki scratches his head, thinking hard, and stumbles upright when he catches up with the conversation.
"I've been hearin' about it from Papa," he muses.
Tanta cackles. "That so?"
"It's a real mess, if you'd believe me. If I'm recalling correctly, Lord Gaara has been rumored to —"
"Ki." Sasuke finally steps in the way, tall and threatening, no longer slouched in a fake weakness. He gets between Tanta and Hinata, taking hold of her arm to lift her into a standing position from the stool. "That's enough."
"Damn," Tanta moans, "and it was just getting to the good part."
The silencing jutsu falls just as three jonin enter the bar, effectively surrounding Tanta. He doesn't try to escape — he doesn't even try to move. He just sits there, grinning.
Sasuke's hand finds Ki's back, pushing him gently in the direction of one of the jonin, who he orders to take Ki home. Sasuke, himself, is about to escort Hinata out when Tanta turns in his stool to give her a final leer.
"You forgot about the kiss," he simpers.
Hinata doesn't make a move.
She doesn't get the chance to.
Sasuke grabs the back of his head and slams his nose into the bartop.
...
The cool, damp air outside reminds Hinata that she no longer has to play kunoichi, and she shivers first, then sways, feeling sick to her stomach. Tanta's grip is still stuck in her skin, tight and bruising. She sees the bakery where she left Shino and Kiba is closed, and she's glad.
She feels gross.
She doesn't want them to see her like this.
Sasuke is adamant to stay at her side as she gets a hold of herself. He tries to get a good look at the arm Tanta squeezed without touching her. "Are you injured?"
"I'm okay."
His face is stuck in a grimace. His sharingan has yet to deactivate. "You shouldn't have been dragged into that."
"It's okay," she whispers.
Obviously, her tone isn't convincing enough, for he tries to meet her eye, to search for what she's really feeling. Hinata knows she's obvious. A baby would be able to recognize her thoughts from just a glance. She steps a bit further into the street, stops, worries, and tries to reassure again — or else he'll worry all night, and he shouldn't have to. She's a ninja. She's been through worse.
She turns, and her words die, and she feels his hand on her untouched arm as he looms over her.
All she can think about, suddenly, is how much Ki and Tanta didn't want to kiss her. A punishment, they said. She'd be the worst person to kiss, they said.
It's not like she had any desire to kiss them. She'd rather see Tanta rot in bars than kiss him.
But criminals like Tanta and simpletons like Ki can still speak the truth. A hypocrite can tell the truth, and so can liars, and so can dubious people.
Hyuuga Hinata: the person no one wants to kiss.
. . . Right.
...
Sasuke watches, and he sees everything passing through her mind, and he scowls.
Hinata, embarrassed and ashamed and so many other things, finds her voice again.
"It's okay."
"Stop saying that."
"It makes sense."
Something angry and vicious springs from his lungs. Civilians duck under trees and along poles, searching, wondering where such a terrible growl came from. When they find an Uchiha with a Hyuuga trapped in his talons, they slip away with held breaths, praying for the poor soul to have a safe journey to the afterlife.
"It doesn't!" he says. "It's bullshit."
Her wrist croaks, uncomfortable but not pained, within his hold. She's teetering between his white knuckles and his dripping, poisoned gaze.
She smiles, which makes no sense. She should be upset — and she is, a little. But Sasuke is so much more pissed about this than she could ever be, and it's funny in an ironic way.
"Don't do that," he says. "It's okay to feel hurt by it."
"I'm not," she tries. "It doesn't bother me."
His nose flares, and then he jerks his head back. The air changes, and he hisses a breath through his pursed lips.
"It shouldn't," he agrees, eventually, though the poison is still rich in mismatched eyes. "But for different reasons."
His hand relaxes, so she slowly removes her wrist until her fingers rest on his.
"They wouldn't kiss me," she says, watching the way his mouth turns weird and one-sided by the word. "It makes sense —"
"It doesn't."
"Why would they?" Despite her smile, her cheerfulness slips when a certain face creeps into her thoughts. "Why would anyone?"
"Wha— Why —"
Sasuke croaks in disbelief, the words hardly leaving his vocal cords. His hand snaps away, and Hinata's careful to hide her hurt. It's only natural. People leave when they're angry with her. It's only expected.
But he doesn't leave — and that hand is suddenly on her shoulder, pulling her so close that she can smell his shampoo and see the dance of red lily in his eyes.
"I would," he says.
They hit her mouth — those words. Like rain. Her lips are soaked.
Her heart buzzes and shivers, and she tries to stay in reality. "You don't mean that."
Sasuke's mouth is a firm, stern line.
"I would kiss you," he says. "And I would like it. I'd be —" His words are faster than his tongue. He squints, frustrated, but keeps trying. "And I wouldn't ever regret it, and you shouldn't expect me to regret it. Not . . . . Not you, Hinata."
He stops — all of him. Then he starts again, gaze falling as drops of rain hit the top of her head.
"I'd kiss you," he murmurs, "and it would make sense."
...
I'd kiss you.
Maybe . . . Ki and Tanta weren't telling the truth.
Maybe — maybe there's one person who will kiss her.
A Sasuke kiss. What would that be like? She's only been kissed by one person. Her first one was dry. Her second one was warm. Her third one was sandy. What will her next one be like?
. . . Will there actually be a next one?
"I don't believe you." That's a lie. She does. All she's doing is daring him.
And Sasuke takes the dare.
...
Kiss #4 is with a man named Uchiha Sasuke, who told her just moments ago that he'd kiss her and he'd like it and that it would make sense. Uchiha Sasuke is not a liar, Hinata understands. He does not lie about his thoughts, he does not lie about his values, and he does not lie about his kisses.
It's sort of shy, in a bold sort of way, if that makes sense. It's a proper kiss that has him craning his neck to meet her mouth. It's not a whisper against skin. It's lips against lips, but they're gentle, and they are tentative, and they're what Hinata thinks Uchiha Sasuke is: wonderful, but in his own way.
Kiss #4 is wet with rain, and Hinata thinks, quietly, that she likes this a bit more than a dry kiss. Dry kisses are scratchy. Wet kisses are unfamiliar and new and beautiful.
His hand rests on her elbow. Her fingers pinch the hem of his shirt.
Kiss #4 tastes like rain and beer, and it's lasting, and she doesn't think she'll ever forget about it.
This is another memory of Sasuke she'll keep safely stored in the crevices of her brain forever — in case he leaves again. Only this memory is different. The others will comfort her when she misses him. She'll think about baking with him on his birthday and finding a music box in an abandoned house and feel close to him.
But this memory will make her miss him terribly. She'll think about this kiss, and she'll feel hollow without him around.
Kiss #1 - #3 do the same, but Sasuke tends to make a lasting impression.
Kiss #4 is a Sasuke kiss.
What . . . will the next one be like?