A/N – Are you guys curious about the events that led up to the Bloody 17th of March from the 'Girls' Night' chapter?

Of course you are!

Here you go!

Valentine's Day

Team 8 were strolling through Konoha, listening to Kiba complain about the D-rank they had just completed (an unfortunately common occurrence, given their status as Genin). This time, however, it was less about the mission and more about the day it had been given on.

"Why the hell did we have to do a mission today!?" Kiba grumbled, stomping ahead, with Akamaru on his head yipping an agreement. "It's Valentine's Day! What if I wanted to take a girl out, huh? What then!?"

"Interesting." Shino commented blandly, adjusting his glasses. "And this girl you were going to take out, is she with us in the Fire Nation right now?"

"Oi!"

"Woof!"

Hinata thought about mediating, when she noticed Sasuke... hiding behind the menu stand of Ankorodō (or at least, he was attempting to). He had a death grip on a kunai and was shiftily looking around, as if he was being hunted.

'He might be, actually. It is Valentine's Day.'

It was almost kind of sad, if Hinata was being honest. Sasuke was chased by girls desperate to catch him on a normal day, today must have been a special kind of Hell (the fact that they always gave him chocolates even though he hated all manner of sweets probably hurt more than the actual hunting).

Although it was very surprising to see him out and about. Usually he decided to spend this day in hiding ('It's called a strategic retreat, Yūhi!').

'Maybe I should do something nice for him'

Hinata looked around, seeing what was available to her. The rest of her team arguing, a ramen shop closing for the day (Naruto's fangirls must have cleared it – 'I still have to get a gift for Naruto-kun!'), a vegetable vendor –

Hinata got an idea.

'This is perfect!'

She went up to the vendor and took out her purse.

"Excuse me," She called for his attention. "One tomato please."

The vendor looked at her a little strangely, but obliged.

"Here you go miss."

Hinata inspected the tomato. 'Looks good'. She squeezed it a little. Firm enough. "Thank you."

Hinata paid for the tomato (which seemed to weird out the vendor even more, for some reason), and went back to where Kiba and Shino were standing in the shade.

They were now looking at her curiously, absently continuing their arguing (it was a skill they had honed 3 weeks into the creation of Team 8, arguing while focused on something else important. Kurenai bragged about it to anyone who would listen).

Hinata took a deep breath.

'Center yourself'

She took aim.

'Steady'

And threw the tomato at Sasuke's head.

It landed with a thwack on his shoulder.

'I need to work on my aim more'

Kiba let out a howling screech and Shino buzzed in a way that signified amusement as Sasuke turned to look at the culprit, Sharingan activated.

The moment he noticed her, Hinata booed him.

Sasuke looked at her, bewildered, then looked back down at the sad remains of the martyred tomato. He raised his hands in a 'what the Hell, Yūhi!?' gesture (now that she thought about it, she had been getting quite a bit of that gesture in the past few weeks)

Hinata smiled at him and gave him a double thumbs-up.

'That should do it!'

Sasuke kept staring at her blankly for a long moment. Hinata hunched her shoulders as she felt eyes on her.

Then, Sasuke broke out into maniacal laughter, his shoulders shaking almost painfully. Hinata nodded decisively and returned to her teammates.

'All in a day's work'

Itachi heard Sasuke laughing from outside the shop, and quickly paid for the dumplings Mikoto had asked him to get on his way back home. There was no way Sasuke laughing out loud on Valentine's day when he was supposed to be hiding from rabid fangirls could be good.

"Otōto..." Itachi trailed off when he saw red on Sasuke's shoulder, and his Sharingan quickly activated.

'Tomato...?'

It deactivated just as quickly it had activated.

Why was his foolish little brother covered in tomato?

Sasuke just kept laughing, pressing his knuckles into his eyes and wheezing. It sounded painful.

'Perhaps I should speak with Otou-sama. We should have his psychiatric evaluations started early'

White Day

"So, Sasu-chan," Mikoto began during the family ( Shisui) breakfast. "It's White Day today."

Sasuke froze in place, then forced himself to continue eating. He already knew what this was going to be about.

Both Shisui (who seemed to somehow be exempt today!?) and Itachi (who was going out with Izumi, which granted him exemption as well, of a sort) looked on in interest. Fugaku did his best to pretend he didn't know what his wife was going to ask (even though she asked the same question every year).

"Yes, Okaa-san..." Sasuke agreed, trying to not sound like he was ready to bolt. Shisui snickered under his breath and Itachi smirked into his rice.

'Enemies all around me, I am my only saviour'

"Did you have any plans today?" Mikoto asked with obviously false casualness. "Maybe a gift you wanted to return..."

Sasuke thought about his answer.

He did have a plan to return a gift (his dearest friend has been so thoughtful, his honour demanded it), but his mother was already weird about his friendship with Hinata. He didn't want her to get any ideas.

"Yeah, Sasu-chan," Shisui cooed condescendingly. He leaned forward onto the table, then quickly sat back when Mikoto glared at him. "Aren't you going to give your little girlfriend a nice gift?"

Sasuke glared at him with his customary vitriol. "Yūhi is a friend, not a girlfriend."

Shisui's expression immediately shifted to surprise. "You call your friend by her last name?"

"I call all my friends by their last names."

Sasuke munched on a piece of cucumber, hoping the conversation would end there, but Mikoto was looking at him in disappointment, and he always hated that expression directed towards himself.

Sasuke sighed tiredly, and ignored Itachi's widening smirk as he did so. "She's an idiot who keeps worrying about the Hyūga and what they think. She needs to occasionally be reminded that she's not a Hyūga anymore and she can do whatever she wants, forever."

Sasuke hunched lower to avoid Mikoto's beaming smile and Fugaku's considering look.

He should have just kept his mouth shut.

"Aww! Sasu-chan," Shisui crooned again, ignoring Sasuke's hissed 'don't call me that!'. "That's so positively sweet of you!"

"Repeat that disgusting slander again and I'll shred your teeth in your mouth!" Sasuke hissed back, gripping his chopsticks like a dagger to stab him with.

"Sasu-chan!"

"Again."

Hanabi diverted focus from the pain in her arms to the anger she was feeling at having to do this again, and lunged forward.

She went for the tenketsu in her father's right leg (she will get taller and then it will be over for him). He blocked her, hitting a tenketsu in her arm that almost didn't hurt from how numb everything already was, and knocked her back onto the dōjō floor.

"Again." Hiashi dispassionately commanded, hands behind his back because he wasn't taking her seriously and Hanabi was ready to claw her own eyes out in frustration.

"Hiashi-sama, I have returned."

Hanabi cast a quick glance as she stood up, then had to do a double take in disbelief.

Neji was... wet?

'Did he go swimming? At this time?'

Hanabi took a deep breath, and conspicuously looked around. There was a strong scent of green tea in the room that wasn't there before, and she couldn't see a tea service anywhere.

Hiashi looked at Neji blankly, turning halfway towards him. He must have been truly astonished. "Explain."

"It is of no concern, Hiashi-sama."

Hiashi simply kept looking, awaiting an answer.

"There was an... altercation," Neji spat out through gritted teeth, holding himself up straight and brutally forcing down any shame or fury he might be feeling (he was doing good with the shame, but absolutely not with the fury). "With Uchiha Sasuke."

"And this... altercation," Hiashi said with an emphasis that made both Hanabi and Neji flinch. 'That's never good'. "Explains why you seem to be covered in green tea?"

"Yes."

To Neji's credit, he was bearing this strange humiliation quite stoically. Hanabi would have cried (and then closed the tenketsu of whoever saw her cry).

If she was going to be covered in anything, she would like it to be banana milk.

Hiashi suppressed a sigh, his eyes closing for a moment. Hanabi cast a quick look. He looked kind of tired.

'Maybe I can ask to end the training here?'

"Go wash yourself and change." Hiashi dismissed Neji, who bowed and left, probably (hopefully), to take a bath.

"Hanabi."

"Otou-sama." Hanabi snapped to attention. She dodged the first attack coming her way, but faltered at the second one and fell down again.

"Pay attention to your surroundings, but don't forget your objectives." Hiashi stood back, staring down at her (she was going to scream and cry and she was so tired – ).

"Again."

A/N – This became kind of a tradition for them. Every Valentine's Day Hinata throws a tomato at Sasuke, with the rest of the production she did the first time. Sasuke used to dump green tea on Neji, but since he and Hinata are now on good terms, he just lets Neji 'catch' him and dispose of the tea however he wants to.

Next up: Hanami!