This chapter Hinata spends some time with all the members of Team 7
Chapter 27: The sum is right, the parts are wrong
Sakura's weary face from the morning passed through Hinata's mind as she waited at the reception. When the kunoichi appeared in the flesh, she looked even more exhausted.
"Hinata, what are you doing here?"
Hinata simply held up the bento and smiled.
They sat together in the staffroom, Sakura tearing through the boxed dinner with gusto. Swallowing down a large mouthful, she pointed at the other two boxes, "Aren't you going to eat?"
"Um…I'm meeting Naruto-kun soon, so…" At Sakura's overly interested look, Hinata hastened to add, "For the mission!"
Seeing Sakura prepare to speak, Hinata tried changing the topic. "How's the, um, patient?"
Sakura narrowed her eyes, but allowed it, perhaps because of a lack of energy. Hinata was grateful Sakura was more likely to let something like this go than Ino.
"He's on track with what we predicted." Sakura paused, a thoughtful look on her face as she nibbled on some fried shrimp. "Actually, I had a thought. The rogue extraction attempt was crude, but not completely unskilled. And based on your report, it seems that they had all the equipment they needed, including some specific preservation drugs. The person that got away might have had some medical training."
"Have you told Hokage-sama?"
"I haven't had a chance yet."
Hinata caught onto a slight edge of unease. "Do you think it's someone from the hospital?" she asked quietly.
A look of surprise crossed Sakura's face before she frowned. "No. There's no way Tsunade-sama would have trained someone that sloppy. But it may bring up some bad memories, not only for her."
It took Hinata a moment. "Oh." The last sannin.
"Yeah."
They sat in silence, both thinking of the same dark haired boy.
"Anyway, thanks for the food, Hinata. If you have to meet Naruto, you don't need to wait for me to finish. I can drop the box off at your place later."
Hinata shook her head. "It's fine. Naruto-kun usually doesn't finish work this early."
Sakura's face softened. "Yeah, he's taking the position really seriously. It makes it almost hard to believe he's the same kid that used to skip class to vandalize the Hokage-iwa."
Hinata smiled fondly at the memory. "Naruto-kun grew up well."
"But you liked him back when he was a brat too. Meanwhile I thought Sasuke-kun was so mature."
Brows drawing together, Hinata played with her coat sleeve. She thought framing an angry, traumatized twelve-year-old as mature was rather unfair.
"He was always so handsome and cool. And there was something about seeing him smile after he got something right, when he normally never smiled…" Sakura trailed off, lost in her head. "I guess I was a bit of a brat back then too."
"Eh?"
Looking down, Sakura scraped her chopsticks against the bottom of the mostly empty bento. "I fell for Sasuke-kun for silly reasons. I didn't understand his feelings very well and I think I belittled them sometimes. I would wonder why he couldn't let go and let himself be happy with us…with me."
"But love can be like that sometimes. It starts with something small or silly…then suddenly it grows out of control. Before you realize, it's too late to undo. And it becomes a part of you."
"…Hinata?"
Eyes focusing back on the other kunoichi, Hinata realized she'd been lost in her own thoughts. She blushed. "Ah…at least that's what I think…"
Sakura's green eyes softened and she smiled. "I think so too. The more time we spent together as a team, the more I saw the real Sasuke-kun. He taught me that solitude is suffering. And then I had to watch him isolate himself. It was hard."
Hinata frowned, clasping her hands together in her lap under the table.
"He taught me that solitude is suffering."
Yet wasn't that what Sasuke had been doing up until recently on his journey of atonement?
Eighteen years old and he was still hurting himself the same way he had when he was seven.
A blond boy desperately trying to make himself known to the group, but always ending up by himself. A dark haired boy surrounded by people going out of his way to push everyone away until he was alone.
Hinata didn't understand how she hadn't seen that they were two sides of the same coin. Would anything have changed if she hadn't been so single-minded?
She shook her head. Of course not. She was hardly so important. Incapable of approaching the one she did notice, what could she have possibly done to ease Sasuke's suffering?
Still, she wished…
"Ne, Hinata?"
Hinata unclenched her hands, laying them flat on her thighs and giving Sakura her full attention. "Yes, Sakura-san?"
Sakura had a strange expression on her face, not quite happy but not quite sad. "Sasuke-kun seems different lately. Maybe from the traveling, or something else. But whatever the reason is…I'm glad. His happiness will always be important to me."
Thinking of blond hair and blue eyes, Hinata nodded. She understood that feeling perfectly.
Outside the hospital, Hinata paused and slipped her hands into her coat pockets. Enjoying the brisk winter air for a moment, a quiet sound drew her attention. When she turned the corner, it took Hinata a moment to identify the wispy white smoke in the air as more than warm breath.
"Oh my, I've been caught," Mayumi said drolly. Her coat was unzipped, thrown on top of her iryō-nin uniform, and a lit cigarette dangled between her fingers.
"Mayumi-san! Sorry to disturb you," Hinata said with a small bow.
"It's no bother," Mayumi said with a wave of her hand, dispelling some of the cigarette smoke hanging in the air. "I hope you've been well taken care of. Io-san can be a bit…capricious. When Genji isn't around, it's a wonder anything gets done."
"Oh! I wasn't injured. I just brought dinner for Sakura-san."
Mayumi smiled coyly. "Isn't that every girl's dream? To have her lover stop by with a homecooked meal."
"Eh?!" Heat flooded Hinata's cheeks. "Sakura-san isn't — we aren't —"
Mayumi burst into laughter, eyes glistening with tears of mirth. "Hinata-san, you are too cute." Taking a pull of her cigarette, Mayumi turned to exhale away from Hinata. "It would be quite the romantic gesture for your partner," she added almost wistfully.
"Ah…" Hinata remembered bringing lunch to Naruto a few times, only to have just missed him ducking out to Ichiraku Ramen or to find him too busy to take a break. She'd felt guilty for bothering him, but there had also been an unwelcome feeling of rejection. Soon after, she'd stopped. Hinata shook her head, clearing her thoughts. "Sakura-san often says she doesn't have time to cook. I'm sure you're all very busy."
Mayumi smiled at this. "Yes, all the iryō-nins work hard, but none as much as Sakura-san. The hospital staff too. Especially Genji, always so busy." She inhaled more smoke before releasing it into the air. "I suppose that's just being an adult. It's easy to lose track of things and to forget to make time for other aspects of your life."
The iryō-nin could only be a few years older than Hinata, but held herself so maturely. There was a sadness beneath her cool persona that made Hinata wonder.
Somehow it made Hinata recall the night of her birthday, tears dripping down her cheeks…
"I should head inside, can't leave Io-san unsupervised for too long," Mayumi said, stubbing the cigarette out in the standing ashtray beside her. "Have a good evening, Hinata-san." She left with a teasing smile.
"You too, Mayumi-san," Hinata called after the older iryō-nin. She tightened her grasp around the bag holding the bento boxes and then turned to leave.
Hinata had been waiting for twenty minutes at the stairs to the Hokage Tower when Naruto appeared.
"I hope you didn't wait too long," he said, ruffling his already messy hair.
"I didn't."
As they walked, Naruto took the lead with Hinata trailing a half step behind him while he told her about his day. It was too easy to fall into his orbit. It almost felt like nothing had changed, if not for the aborted gestures of Naruto reaching out to touch her.
Hinata wanted to tell him it was okay, but she wasn't sure if that was true. Casual touches were common for Naruto, but they'd never been casual to her.
She wanted him to treat her like a good friend, but could her heart really handle that?
Fortunately, they kept a quick pace and reached their destination before Naruto ran out of stories from the day.
Though usually traveling the world, while in Konoha Jiraiya had lived on the outskirts of the village in a rather grand cottage with an abundance of toad decorations in the surrounding garden. Naruto let them in with a key and while Hinata was closing the door she heard him yelp and bump back into her, pushing Hinata face first into the door.
"Ow."
"Whoa!"
"Shut up, idiot."
Turning around with her fingers massaging her nose, Hinata found a grumpy Sasuke holding Naruto by the collar of his coat.
"What are you doing here, you bastard?!"
Sasuke shoved Naruto away from him. "Did you forget what Kakashi said? We need knowledge from the Hyuuga, Uchiha and Jiraiya when investigating the seal. I brought a few more of my clan's scrolls with me."
"Okay, then why were you lurking here? Could have joined us from the beginning," Naruto muttered, straightening out his collar.
Sasuke scoffed. "Unlike you, I know the meaning of stealth. It's bad enough half the village saw you taking Hinata to the house of the village's seal expert. It would have been even more suspicious if it was all three of us." He frowned, looking at Hinata. "That being said, they're going to draw a conclusion that might cause you trouble."
Meeting Sasuke's eyes, Hinata paled.
A few beats later, Naruto cursed. "You mean the Hyuuga council?"
Sasuke took a moment before dragging his gaze away from Hinata back to Naruto. "Obviously. You better fix it."
"Yeah, I'm on it." Naruto conjured up two kage bunshin, one with a henge to look like Hinata, and sent them out the front door. "At least it'll look like it was a quick stop."
Sasuke looked unimpressed, but Hinata shot Naruto a grateful, if weak, smile.
"Alright, Jiraiya's office was through here. It's where he kept most of his books."
Despite its size, Jiraiya's cottage was cozy and comforting. It was well decorated with only a few odd knickknacks that showcased its owner's flamboyant personality. His office on the other hand was an explosion of toad figurines and risqué paintings.
Technically speaking, it was all tastefully done, no intimate body parts on display, but it was enough to turn not only Hinata, but Sasuke and Naruto red in the face.
Naruto scratched his whiskered cheek. "Yeah, this is definitely that old perv's office."
"Tch."
Hinata held her breath, trying not to faint. A hand on her shoulder had her relaxing. "Hinata, breathe." Doing as she was told, her vision stopped swimming.
Smiling faintly at Sasuke, Hinata turned her attention to the piles of books littered across all surfaces.
"He couldn't have been an organized pervert?" Sasuke groused.
The three of them spent at least half an hour combing through Jiraiya's office, finding nothing for their efforts except more fiction novels.
"Oh man, what if it's in some other place?" Naruto groaned, wiping the sweat off his forehead. He threw off his coat carelessly.
Feeling a little overheated herself, Hinata unzipped her own coat and looked around for a spot to put it. Thinking of returning to the hallway to search for a coat closet, Hinata turned back to the office door and stopped.
Hanging on the door was an old scroll. The inky black characters on the aged parchment formed a poem about a beautiful woman illustrated in bold strokes. The style was not dissimilar to other paintings hung on the walls, but something about the shape of the characters and the swirls of the woman's untied kimono caught Hinata's eye.
She gasped quietly, coat falling to the floor as she reached out to run her fingers against the ink. "This is a seal."
"Eh?" Naruto rushed over. "It is?"
Sasuke hummed thoughtfully, walking over to Hinata's other side. Head tilted, his dark bangs hung around his face while both eyes studied the scroll.
"There are basic structures depending on what you need a seal to do, but the caster can add variations. This can be either to alter its purpose or to add a unique signature. It gets even more complicated when you get into combining different structures to create new seal types. And seal masters seem to like adding their own flourishes." Eyes widened in awe, Hinata's finger stopped on the tail of the woman's kimono. "Still, I've never quite seen something as elaborate as this."
"Heh, sounds like Jiraiya."
Sasuke turned to Hinata. "Well?"
Wordlessly, Hinata activated her kekkei genkai. Strictly speaking, it was chakra that made a seal, not ink, or chalk or graphite or whatever other substance was used to draw it. Reading the traces of chakra engrained into the scroll along with the shape of the ink, all while recounting everything she'd learned about seals, Hinata brought her hands together. Her fingers ran through the hand signs easily. "Kai."
With a puff of smoke, the painting flittered to the floor gently in contrast to the dozens of tightly coiled scrolls that came flying through the air. The pattern of the woman's kimono was missing a few swirls, but it was so inconspicuous it could only be noticed by someone who had seen it in its previous state.
"Nice job, Hinata-chan!" Naruto cheered, kneeling down and trying to gather as many scrolls into his arms as possible.
Sasuke's praise came in the form of a proud glint in his eyes and the press of his arm against hers. Hinata felt a happy flush rise to her cheeks.
Between the three of them, they managed to pile the scrolls on the largest table in Jiraiya's house which was in the kitchen. While Hinata and Naruto both took a seat, Sasuke remained standing to rearrange the scrolls neatly.
"I don't know how much help I'll be," Naruto admitted as he puzzled over the contents of a random scroll.
"Naruto-kun, I'm sure you have paperwork and other assignments that are just as important as this. It's alright if you work on those instead," Hinata said.
Naruto hesitated, looking torn.
Sasuke finished tidying up the scrolls and sat down. "Hinata's right. We've got this."
Naruto acquiesced and they passed the next hour productively with Hinata and Sasuke reading through the scrolls while Naruto worked. The only brief interruption was Naruto getting up to turn the heating on to ward off the winter chill now that they were no longer moving around.
After an hour, a growling stomach broke the peace. "Heh." Naruto grinned sheepishly as Sasuke shot him an annoyed look.
"Oh! It's gotten pretty late," Hinata said. She went to fetch her bag but stopped short of emptying it onto the kitchen table. Staring down at the two boxed dinners, Hinata bit her lip.
"Did you cook?" Naruto asked, jumping to his feet in excitement. "I've really missed your cooking," he added, quietly. The yearning in his voice would have undoubtedly tugged at Hinata's heart if she weren't so preoccupied with her current dilemma.
Two bentos. Three people.
"Ah, there's just two!" Naruto announced, peeking into the bag. "That's what you get for sneaking up on us, Sasuke!" He stuck his tongue out teasingly.
Hinata stared across the room in horror as annoyance flashed across Sasuke's face. She could imagine what it looked like, her packing food for Naruto, playing at romance instead of taking the mission seriously.
Sasuke turned to leave and Hinata raced out to follow him into the hallway, abandoning her bag on the table.
"Sasuke-kun!" Hinata reached out and curled her fingers into Sasuke's sleeve. He had left his cloak draped over his chair in the kitchen. He stopped much easier than Hinata expected and she ended up tumbling into his back.
Sasuke didn't budge an inch despite the collision and only glanced at her over his shoulder.
Stumbling over her words, Hinata struggled to explain. "It isn't — I didn't —"
It was important to Hinata that Sasuke didn't get the wrong idea.
Frustrated with her stuttering, Hinata's eyes screwed shut. Then a hand swept through her hair and cut right through the negative feelings bubbling up. Letting out a surprised exhale, Hinata opened her eyes and was met with a mismatched pair.
"Hinata, I'm going to get more food. I'll be back soon," Sasuke said calmly. His hand was still tangled in her hair and he gave her bangs a light tug before letting go.
"Oh…" Embarrassed by her overreaction, Hinata busied herself with straightening out her hair. When she looked back up, she could see the telltale signs of one of Sasuke's portals closing in on itself. Returning to the kitchen, Hinata found Naruto waiting for her with an unreadable look on his face. But in a matter of seconds it was gone, replaced by a grin.
"The bastard knew I was kidding. Of course, we're gonna share with him," Naruto said, dismissing the exchange in that easy manner of his. Hinata took the out.
Together they cleared some space on the table and opened up the bento boxes in the center. Hinata hadn't thought to bring anything to drink, so Naruto grabbed some glasses from the cupboard. After washing away the dust, they filled the glasses with water and set them on the table. Hinata searched the drawers for an extra pair of chopsticks as well. By the time they were done, Sasuke was back with a plastic bag in hand. Once he dropped it on the table, Naruto needed no invitation to dig through it.
They picked through Hinata's bento with their chopsticks while munching on the onigiri Sasuke had bought.
"Ah, these are from that corner shop! You could have at least got some cup ramen while you were there," Naruto whined.
"Sorry! I made the bento with Sakura-san in mind, so didn't think to include ramen," Hinata said, though the comment had been aimed at Sasuke.
"I didn't mean to complain, Hinata-chan! Everything looks great!" Naruto was quick to say, before turning back to Sasuke. "I bet this melonpan was a freebie from the obaa-san! There's no way you bought something sweet."
Sasuke continued to eat, neither confirming nor denying.
"The obaa-san at the corner shop thought Sasuke was the cutest back when we were genin. She would always sneak him freebies when we would stop by. Meanwhile I swear she used to overcharge me for the cup ramen," Naruto explained to Hinata.
"I like onigiri."
Hinata remembered Sasuke telling her that. How often had a young Sasuke stopped by the corner shop to buy himself food? Had anyone taught him how to cook?
To this day Naruto did a terrible job of feeding himself. While Naruto had found something convenient and delicious and overindulged, Sasuke seemed to have had the same issue, but followed a different route.
"I didn't have time to think about things like that. Food was necessary for survival and to grow stronger. The taste was inconsequential."
It was strange how Naruto and Sasuke were like mirror images. So similar and yet opposite.
Watching them now, as Naruto needled Sasuke while the latter responded in short, annoyed sentences, Hinata was brought back to their academy days. Back then, Naruto's loneliness had made him even more overbearing while Sasuke's anger had made his responses sharp enough to cut. They always ended up coming to blows until Iruka had to break it up. Even as genin on Team Seven there had been an undercurrent of antagonism between them.
They'd been rivals, then teammates, then enemies.
Now in their late teens, their interactions finally had the lightness they were missing as children. There was still competitiveness, but no edge of animosity tainting it. They bickered, but it was friendly, brotherly.
Yet, just about a week ago they'd been at each other's throats again, though certainly to a lesser degree than their previous conflicts. They'd seemed less at odds this morning, but Hinata couldn't help but wonder if it was a sign of growth or only a temporary ceasefire. She hoped it was the former. Hinata didn't know if the world could handle them on opposite sides again.
Shaking off the bleak thought, Hinata let herself be drawn into the conversation. Naruto regaling her with tales from their genin days that put Sasuke in an uncool light and Sasuke correcting his every other sentence.
It occurred to Hinata that Naruto had never gotten the chance to talk about his genin team like this before. When Sasuke had left the village, it would have been nearly impossible to have a lighthearted conversation about him. Even after the war, there had been a sadness caused by everything they had been through, everything Sasuke was still going through out there on his own.
The way they were reminiscing as they ate at Jiraiya's kitchen table reminded Hinata of her own team. It was just so normal. And nice, definitely nice.
It was nice to see Naruto and Sasuke both so at ease and content.
"Then this guy ate so much that he threw up —"
"You did too."
"And I still beat him to the top of the tree!"
"You wish. I was the first one up there."
"Well technically the first one was Sakura…"
"Tch. She stopped practicing after getting halfway up. Doesn't count."
"Hm, I guess you're right. So that makes me the first one from Team Seven to climb to the top of a tree after all!"
"Stop lying to make yourself look better."
"Lying?! Say that to my face!"
"Just did, idiot. Hinata, what about your team?"
"Eh?" Meeting Sasuke's inquisitive gaze, Hinata paused for a second to process the question.
Meanwhile Naruto turned to her as well. "Yeah, Hinata-chan. Who was the fastest to learn tree walking on Team Eight?"
"Um…I guess it was…me?" A satisfied smile curled Sasuke's lips and, flustered, Hinata immediately tried to wave it off. "It wasn't a big deal. Chakra control is important for my family's fighting style, so I had an advantage. And Kiba-kun and Shino-kun caught up quickly."
"Whoa, even back then, you were really cool Hinata-chan." Naruto's blue eyes were warm as they held hers and Hinata's heart skipped a beat.
With a noncommittal hum, Hinata forced her attention back to the meal and Naruto quickly thought of another tale to recount.
After they had finished eating and cleaning up, they returned to the work at hand for another hour before Hinata's eyelids started to droop. It had already been late in the day when she'd met Naruto and now it was well into the night. Still, there were so many more scrolls to look through. Hinata forced her eyes open with great difficulty.
Naruto was still scrawling away at his paperwork, oblivious to the hour.
"Let's call it a night."
Hinata turned away from Naruto to see Sasuke standing up and taking his cloak in his arm.
"Huh?" Naruto glanced up and then at the window. "Oh man, it's late!"
"Can you manage getting back to your place? I cast a genjutsu when I got here, so it should provide you cover."
Naruto huffed. "I'm a ninja, aren't I? Of course, I can get back to mine." He then shot Sasuke a look out of the corner of his eyes. "But if you're offering to use your teleportation no jutsu —"
"How many times do I have to tell you, it's not —"
"Sorry, sorry! I meant if you're offering to rip a hole in the space time continuum —"
"Naruto," Sasuke bit out.
Naruto folded his arms behind his head with a careless grin. "All I'm saying is that I wouldn't say no."
"Lazy ass," Sasuke muttered under his breath.
Regardless, he opened a portal right there in the kitchen that led to Naruto's own kitchen.
"Nice! Thanks!" Naruto paused, one foot already in the portal. "Ah, Hinata-chan! Do you want me to see you off first? I mean, it's the middle of the night."
Sasuke scoffed. "Idiot. Decide things like that beforehand. I can take Hinata home safely."
Naruto ignored him, keeping his full attention on Hinata.
Feeling faint from a mixture of fatigue and the power of those bright blue eyes, Hinata could only nod. At Naruto's continued stare, Hinata found the words to speak. "I'll be fine, Naruto-kun. Goodnight."
Naruto held her gaze for a moment longer before nodding. "Goodnight, Hinata-chan."
The blond shinobi stepped into his own apartment and was in the middle of turning to look back when the purple edges of the portal closed in on themselves and rippled back to show Jiraiya's kitchen.
Hinata blinked, still awed by the impressive jutsu. "Sasuke-kun, you don't have to take me home. I can make my own way back. I'm a ninja too, after all," she joked lightly.
"Are you doubting my abilities again?"
"I'm not!" Hinata denied emphatically. "But you told Hokage-sama not to treat you like transportation…"
"So, you are thinking of me as transportation?"
"No! I —" It took her a moment in her tired state to register the slight curl at the corner of Sasuke's lips. He was teasing.
Hinata pouted while Sasuke opened another portal with a flash of his rinnegan. She was expecting to see the Hyuuga compound gates but was instead met with the sight of her bedroom. She'd forgotten Sasuke had been there before. Of course, a portal opening up in front of the Hyuuga guards would cause undue alarm and this was the better option.
Remembering to shut the heat off and grab her coat, Hinata then turned to bid goodnight to Sasuke and paused. Sasuke looked fatigued. She wondered just how much chakra he'd been using today, on top of opening at least three portals. Mind made up, she took hold of the edge of Sasuke's sleeve. Ignoring his look of surprise, Hinata tugged him into her room.
The difference in temperature was immediate. Hinata had left her window open and the cool late January air filled the room.
She nudged him to sit on her bed, distantly marveling at how easily he let her. "Please rest for a minute before you go home."
Sasuke stared up at her with a rare open expression and nodded without argument. Something about the tiredness lining his shoulders and the way he was looking at her made Hinata want to fuss over him. She wished she could offer him something to eat or drink, but making the trip to the kitchens in the dead of the night didn't seem like the wisest course of action. Instead, she turned to the wooden rack on her desk that housed her homemade remedies. Grabbing a vial of peppermint oil, Hinata turned back to find the portal closed and Sasuke tracking her movements with half lidded eyes.
Slightly flustered under the haze of her own tiredness, Hinata held up the vial. "Peppermint. It's good for headaches."
Sasuke eyed her for a moment longer, saying nothing. Then he shut his eyes and inclined his head.
Again, it took her a moment to catch on and, once she did, pinpricks of heat warmed her cheeks. Carefully, Hinata uncapped the vial and poured a few drops of peppermint oil onto the fingertips of her left hand. She recapped the vial and set it back in its place on the rack. Pressing her fingers together to evenly distribute the oil onto both hands, Hinata slowly approached the bed. Coming to a stop in front of Sasuke, Hinata hesitated.
For his part, Sasuke's eyes were still closed, giving the appearance of complete ease.
Biting her bottom lip, Hinata leaned forward and brought her hands to frame Sasuke's face, hovering over the skin. It was a bit of an awkward stretch, so Hinata took a step forward, bringing her between Sasuke's spread legs. She delicately brushed Sasuke's bangs away with the backs of her hands before finally placing her fingers at his temples.
It was only because the room was so silent that Hinata heard the slight catch in Sasuke's breathing.
Throat suddenly dry, Hinata swallowed. She massaged Sasuke's temples with her fingertips, feeling the oil warm between their skin. The scent of peppermint grew stronger and something about the sharp smell made Hinata feel more awake.
Sasuke let out a sigh and Hinata relaxed, knowing that the peppermint was doing its job. When she finally began to draw her hands away, Sasuke made a soft sound of protest and Hinata had to bite back a smile at the cuteness. Eyes still closed, he took hold of her left hand, grip warm around her cold wrist.
She should really close the window.
With a tug, Sasuke pulled her down to sit beside him even as he lowered himself onto his back. Hinata stared down at the boy beside her laying still enough that she almost would have thought he was asleep if not for the thumb stroking the inside of her wrist. She'd never seen him quite so unguarded.
They stayed like that for a few minutes, Hinata watching over Sasuke, sparks flickering up her arm with every stroke of his thumb.
"What were you thinking about earlier? During dinner."
Hinata didn't register the question at first, mind focused on the deep pitch of Sasuke's voice. When she did, she still didn't quite understand. "Hm?"
Sasuke opened one eye, a black orb peaking out at her. "You were staring at Naruto a lot."
Had she been?
Hinata's brows drew together as she thought back. "During dinner? I guess I was mostly thinking about how nice it was to see you two getting along."
Sasuke huffed. "We were arguing the whole time."
Hinata smiled. "You looked happy even while arguing. Is it because you're rivals?"
"What, you've never had a rival?"
He was teasing, but Hinata answered him rather seriously. "Nobody's ever wanted to be my rival." She'd been the invisible girl. Too mediocre to inspire rivalry. Not even with her father and the elders trying to stoke the flames between her and Hanabi. And calling herself anything resembling a rival to Neji was laughable at best.
Sometimes she'd looked at Naruto and Sasuke or Sakura and Ino and wondered if she was missing out. A close relationship with someone you considered an equal, both pushing each other to be their best. Even now when she spent time with Sakura and Ino she often felt like she was on the outside looking in.
"I suppose I wouldn't understand your relationship," Hinata added.
Had Sakura ever felt that way on Team Seven?
"It's really not that complicated. Your cousin tried to kill you and then almost died protecting you. I'd say you have some experience in complex relationships," Sasuke said. His words were blunt, but his eyes were gentle when he looked at her. He had them both open now, head turned to her. Spiky black hair was flattened where it was pressed into her comforter and his larger hand was still curled around her wrist.
Hinata couldn't look away.
Then Sasuke smirked, a spark of mischief entering his eyes. "If you really want a rival, you should talk to Lee. He's been asking me to be his Eternal Rival Number Two." He got to his feet and picked up his cloak.
Without the heat of his hand on her wrist, Hinata was left feeling cold. "Then that would make me Eternal Rival Number Three? Being third choice is a little too sad." Hinata looked up at Sasuke from where she was seated on her bed as he shrugged his cloak on. "If we were rivals of the same person, would that make the two of us rivals as well?" she mused.
After fastening the clasp of his cloak, Sasuke reached out and brushed Hinata's bangs away from her face. "I don't want to be your rival, Hinata." He pulled his hand back and then he was gone.
An unobstructed view of the courtyard filled Hinata's vision and she could see leafless branches swaying soundlessly in the wind against the backdrop of the night sky.
Sasuke had shut the window on his way out.
Naruto may be back in the picture, but the SasuHina train is still chugging along. Also anyone else now thinking about an alternate universe where Naruto, Sasuke and Hinata were on a team together? We could have had it all ;_;
Thank you to all of my readers as usual ^^
MVH