Hinata sighed, holding the bento to her chest.
It felt a little cheap, resorting once more to giving Sasuke bentos in order to diminish the distance between them, but it was what she was used to, and what had worked for them over and over in all these years they have known each other.
She couldn't exactly pinpoint the reason why today's demonstration hurt her so much. Sasuke was, of course, free to pay attention to anyone he wanted, but the way he looked at her during the fact… was he trying to convey something she was unable to understand? What exactly could it be?
In any case, Hinata knew only one thing, and that was that she had to make things right, once again. There was no time to keep speculating in the nature of her blunder and then come up with a proper apology. She needed to act, and then, maybe Sasuke would be so kind as to tell her exactly what got him mad in the first place.
He was on the training grounds, practicing late at night as it had been common for a while now. She knew he must have sensed her, as she wasn't trying to conceal her presence at all, her footsteps sounding quite clearly as she stepped on grass and dried leaves, but he didn't turn around, or moved at all to acknowledge her presence.
This reminded her so much of that one time, not long ago, when she had angered him with her thoughtless words. That time after he had found out about Neji and she had unwittingly compared him to Itachi…
But Hinata didn't believe it was as bad as back then. Standing at the edge of the training ground, she waited, knowing that at one point, he had to stop what he was doing and look at her.
He didn't.
Hinata cleared her throat. "Sasuke-kun" she called, stepping closer. The sound of kunai hitting the wooden target resonated with even more strength in the dead of the night. "I brought you a ben-"
"Is that supposed to be an apology" he said in a flat tone, interrupting her but still without looking at her. "Are you even conscious of…" he clicked his tongue, shaking his head and lowering his arm, finally stopping with his practice. Still, he wouldn't look at her.
"If you're asking if I understand the reasons why you got angry with me… I must admit I don't" Hinata confessed, feeling ashamed of herself. But her confession seemed to get a reaction out of him, just the smallest of twitchs, despite the fact he was adamantly keeping his gaze fixed on the front. "However, I don't want us to fight. We are friends and… and we should be able to talk to each other and tell us when…"
"So you don't even know why I'm angry, but you still want to apologize?" he finally turned to her, incredulity painting his features. "What's the point of apologizing if you don't even know what you did wrong?"
"Because I want to understand, and if you could explain it to me…!"
"I told you" he hissed, frowning fiercely and clenching his fists. "I told you what was it that bothered me, but it seems you're still way up your head if you continue to refuse to admit it!"
"You, you told me?" Hinata asked in befuddlement, her mouth opening. Sasuke gritted his teeth, and opened his mouth as if to ready to yell at her… but then he closed it, seemingly thinking better about it, and looked away, grabbing another kunai from his pouch and starting to throw it against the target once more.
It was another moment before he spoke again. "Leave, and come back only when you're ready to stop pretending as if you're stupid."
The corner of Hinata's mouth turned down, the blow another close to her heart. She wanted to protest, to insist… but she knew when her presence was no longer desired.
With her chest feeling amazingly heavy, she bent down and placed the bento next to his stuff under a tree, and then bowed to him despite him not facing her, before leaving.