"Hinata-nee-sama! Look! They have takoyaki!"
Hinata perked up at that. Takoyaki was her favorite festival food. But she quickly dismissed the thought when she saw her little sister getting even farther away from her.
"Hanabi-chan, p-please slow down" she called, walking after her, not wanting to run. The night was cold and she could see her own breath forming clouds in front of her face. All around the festival was going on strongly, despite the weather. People walked around either in their shinobi gear or winter clothes, with just a few wearing yukatas with haori, including Hanabi and herself.
Finally, Hinata caught up to Hanabi, who was enthusiastically asking for an enormous quantity of takoyaki to take. Hinata quickly interceded, reducing the number to at least a half, much to her little sister's displeasure.
"You want to h-have enough space left for o-other stuff, d-don't you?" she asked, and that seemed to placate her. They took the boxes of takoyaki and went back to the rest of the Hyuuga party that had come with them. Hyuuga Natsu, Hanabi's caretaker, took one of the boxes that Hanabi offered with a smile, and they all sat down on a bench to eat.
"I want to play some of the games, nee-sama! Can we play?" the small girl asked after they were finished. Hinata smiled at her.
"O-Of course, Hanabi-chan."
"I shall go with you" Natsu stood up and followed them, smiling at the two and especially at Hanabi as she tried to land a rubber kunai on a target. Hinata had more luck than her, though it was actually because she had gotten better at kunai throwing since Sasuke started helping her with it.
She momentarily wondered what he was doing. The Rinne festival was a time to spend with family and friends, but she somehow couldn't see him participating with everyone else. It wasn't like he had many friends, after all. In fact, she thought she might be his only one; and, of course, when it came to family…
It was better not to think about it, lest she became sad. Same as with Naruto, though he might actually be spending the holidays with Iruka, something that filled her chest with joy to think about.
"Amazing! Nee-sama won!" Hanabi celebrated, jumping up and down as Hinata handed her the small teddy bear she got as a prize. After that, she kept asking to go to different places, playing game after game and ordering more food. Hinata was a little surprised someone her age could eat so much. Wasn't Hanabi only three years old?
"Hanabi-chan, let's r-rest a little, o-ok?" Hinata asked after a while, more so because she wanted Hanabi to stop eating while walking than because she was tired. Hanabi puffed her cheeks, but nodded, following her older sister and Natsu to a nearby bench.
"I want some yakisoba later, nee-sama."
"Y-You're eating dango now. You r-really want something s-savory after eating s-sweets?"
"What's the problem with that? I can eat sweets again after the yakisoba."
"Hanabi-chan…"
"This is so fun!" the small girl cooed, smiling happily, and Hinata couldn't find it in herself to reprimand her anymore. She softly patted Hanabi's head, receiving a giggle in return. "I wish father had come. But he's always so busy. I bet he actually decided to stay home because he's boring!"
"Hanabi-chan, p-please don't say that about father…"
"Neji-nii should have come too. But he's always so mean. He looks at me like he doesn't like me…" she complained while pushing a dango inside her mouth roughly. Hinata bit her lips, exchanging a glance with Natsu. The older girl quickly understood, and she nodded before standing up.
"I will go see what the others are doing. Hinata-sama, Hanabi-sama, please stay here until I return" she informed at Hanabi's inquisitive gaze. The two girls nodded, and with that, Natsu disappeared among the crowd. Hinata looked back at her little sister as soon as they were alone.
"N-Neji-nii-san is… you s-shouldn't worry too m-much about him. I a-assure you he does like you."
"How do you know? He looks at you like that too. I want to get closer to him because he's always so cool, but he doesn't let me. Tells me to get lost and then goes away."
Hinata didn't know what to say to that. Even she wasn't sure how to deal with Neji sometimes. It was good though that Hanabi didn't seem to fear him, like she did. Then again, maybe Neji didn't feel as strongly towards Hanabi, considering she was still a small child, and therefore wasn't as abrasive with her.
She opened her mouth to try to reassure her little sister again, but, luckily, Hanabi spoke before she could. "Ah! I want to activate my Byakugan soon! Father said you activated it when you were five, is that true, nee-sama?"
"I… y-yes, I did" she answered, a bit bewildered at the quick change of subjects. As expected of a child her age.
"And Neji-nii did it at four. I'm still three; maybe I can activate it before the two of you!"
"M-Maybe" Hinata said, smiling. The conversation continued like that, until the dango were finished and Hanabi insisted on getting something else to eat. "W-We need to wait for Natsu-san…"
"She's too slow!"
"H-How can you still e-eat after all that…?"
"Hinata."
Said girl jolted, surprised at the voice calling her name, not having expected to hear it at all in that place and time. She turned around, surprise coloring her features as she locked eyes with Sasuke, who was standing nonchalantly behind them, hands in his pockets.
"S-Sasuke-kun! W-What a surprise to s-see you here!" she exclaimed, standing up. At her side, Hanabi looked at them curiously.
"Nee-sama, who is this?" she asked, pointing at Sasuke, much to Hinata's horror.
"H-Hanabi-chan! It's r-rude to point at people l-like that!"
"It's fine, it's fine!" completely disregarding her sister's warning tone, she approached Sasuke, looking up at him with a toothy grin. "Hey, who are you? Are you a friend of nee-sama?"
"…you could say that. You must be Hinata's sister" Sasuke said. The girl's grin widened.
"Yes! I'm Hyuuga Hanabi! Hinata-nee-sama talked about me?" she asked excitedly. Sasuke nodded.
"A few times."
"That's e-enough, Hanabi-chan. You're bothering Sasuke-kun…" Hinata tried to pull her away, but Sasuke held up a hand, halting her.
"It's ok. I don't mind" he said, alleviating only a few of her worries. He turned to Hanabi again. "My name is Uchiha Sasuke, and I'm your sister's classmate."
"Uchiha?!" Hanabi gaped, her eyes growing big. Hinata felt herself getting paler. She had no idea if Hanabi, at her young age, knew what had befallen the Uchiha, but she wasn't going to risk her saying something that could hurt Sasuke. She decided to intervene.
"S-Sasuke-kun, I didn't expect to s-see you here."
"I didn't expect to be here either, but there wasn't anything better to do at home, so I came" he shrugged. Hinata nodded.
"I-I see. I hope you're having a g-good time, at least."
"It's decent, I guess. But there's too many people."
"Neji-nii said the same thing!" Hanabi exclaimed, apparently over her shock at discovering who her classmate was. "We invited him but he said he didn't like crowds. If you don't like crowds, then why are you here? Is it the food? Ah! Did you eat the takoyaki? It's yummy!"
Hinata could only sigh at this point. Hanabi was always like that, a firecracker that jumped from place to place, exuding energy. She looked at Sasuke from the corner of her eye, hoping he wasn't bothered by her little sister's exuberant personality. At the very least, he didn't seem to.
"Curiosity, I suppose. I haven't eaten anything though" the boy answered her questions patiently. Then, with a tilt of his head he asked, "Neji-nii?"
"H-He's our cousin. He's a y-year older than us, and also attends the a-academy" Hinata explained.
"Hn. I never knew."
"Hey, Sasuke-nii-san! Do you want to eat with us? Hinata-nee-sama and I were going to get more food!" Hanabi asked, jumping in place with excitement. Sasuke looked at Hinata, who tilted her head, not understanding the reason for it.
"I don't mind as long as your sister's fine with it" he finally said, causing Hinata to understand. She quickly nodded with a smile.
"I-I don't mind. In fact, I'll l-like it very much if you e-eat with us."
"Yay!" Hanabi exclaimed, turning. "Come on! I wanna eat yakisoba now!"
"Ah! Hanabi-chan! We have to w-wait for Natsu-san f-first!"
"She's taking too long!"
"Are you talking about her?" Sasuke asked, pointing with his chin at the figure of a girl with the same eyes as the sisters approaching them. Natsu's eyes grew wide upon seeing him, but she quickly fixed her expression, walking up to them with a smile.
"Hanabi-sama, Hinata-sama" she greeted politely, before turning to him, "Uchiha-sama. Such a surprise meeting you here."
"Just Sasuke is fine" the boy said with a small grimace. Natsu tilted her head, but ended up nodding.
"Natsu-san! Sasuke-nii-san said he will come eat yakisoba with us!" Hanabi bounced towards Natsu, taking a hold of one of the sleeves of her haori. Natsu blinked, surprised, before looking at Sasuke.
"That's very nice of you, Sasuke-san. If you allow me to say so, I did not expect you to be friends with Hanabi-sama and Hinata-sama."
"…it's not such a big deal" he murmured, and Hinata could see that he was finally becoming uncomfortable. She cleared her throat, catching the attention of the other three.
"I-In that case, shall we go?"
They nodded, before going over towards one of the stalls. Hinata noticed that while Hanabi was still holding onto Natsu, talking excitedly, Sasuke was silently walking by her side, his face slightly turned down and looking at the ground.
She cleared her throat, taking advantage that the other two were walking a little in front of them and out of their hearing range. "I a-apologize if we made you u-uncomfortable, S-Sasuke-kun. Specially H-Hanabi-chan. She's still y-young, so she doesn't yet know h-how to behave properly with o-others."
"It's fine. Don't worry about it" he answered, shrugging. Then, as if sensing that wasn't enough to dispel her worries, he added; "your sister's fine. She's amusing."
"A-Amusing?"
"Yes. It's been too long since I've been near children her age" he said, before they stopped in front of the yakisoba stall. After that, with their orders in hand, they returned to the bench, where Hanabi sat near Sasuke, asking him a lot of different things. To Hinata's joy, the boy answered her questions without much trouble, even looking a bit engaged in the conversation at certain points.
The night calmly continued like that for a while.
Please forgive me if Hanabi's a little too articulate for a three-year-old. It's been a while since I've been with any children her age and ages since I was that age myself, so I don't remember well how they should speak. She should also be speaking in third person, as Japanese children tend to do, but you'll understand that writing all the time 'Hanabi wants yakisoba', 'Hanabi wants to play' and so on gets too tiresome after a while, so forgive me for that as well.
And, since it's been asked quite a bit: is Sasuke still going to leave the village in this story? The answer to that is: state secret :P. You'll have to wait until we reach that part to know, sorry!