Day 13: Secret rendezvous

Sasuke found out rather early the next day that Hinata was gone.

Gone from the village.

Of course, that was not to be a permanent situation. She only had a mission after all. A C-Rank, to be exact.

A C-Rank mission… barely over a month from their graduation…

It would have been nice if she told him yesterday, when he asked her if he would see her tomorrow, but he supposed she was likely only informed of the mission after their conversation. After all, he couldn't imagine her hiding something such as that from him purposely.

…never mind it had barely been over a month after their graduation and her team already had a C-Rank, while his own was stuck forever doing D-Ranks like some type of lackeys.

He wasn't mad.

He truly wasn't.

After all, this didn't mean that her team was better than his. The Aburame might have been impressive, but the Inuzuka was honestly nothing to write home about. Hinata herself was fine, although obviously not on his level…

No, this was Kakashi's fault. The sadistic man liked to toy with their emotions dangling the possibility of a more interesting and worthwhile mission if they only behaved and grew as a team or whatever nonsense he was always prattling on about, all while secretly enjoying how they struggled and humiliated themselves with rescuing cats or painting fences.

So, it was their sensei who was at fault for their lack of progress, and not that his team was behind Hinata's in any capacity. Obviously the female teacher they got had more sense than Kakashi ever could.

"Stop pouting damn it. This is hard enough without having to suffer through your weird moods" Naruto's strangely level voice broke through his thoughts. He turned to him, frowning, and the blond idiot actually had the gall to roll his eyes at him. "What did I tell you?"

"I'm not pouting" was all he could manage to say, for some reason feeling uncomfortable as warmth spread across his face and neck. It must be the heat. The heat of mid-November.

"Just because Hinata-chan's not in the village right now…" Naruto sighed, shaking his head. "Anyway, concentrate, ok? We still need to catch fish for Tamura-san. Maybe if we get enough, he'll give some to us!"

And with that said, the boy returned his attention to the flowing river under their feet, attentively searching for fish in an uncommon show of concentration.

Catching fish… yes, their current, brand new mission was helping one of the local farmers catch their dinner. Or at least, that's what he and Naruto were doing. Sakura was somewhere inside the house, helping with the laundry or something, he wasn't sure nor did he care.

Kakashi was probably on a tree reading his weird orange book.

This was his fault.

"I don't care that Hinata's not here" he said bitterly, returning his attention to the river despite the annoyance at his teammate's words. "But don't you think it's weird how team eight has a mission outside the village while we're still stuck here?"

"What do you mean weird?"

"Why would they get a C-Rank before us" he scoffed, just as a fish swam between his feet. With speed and agility, he bent down and caught it with his hands, quickly tossing it inside the basket at their side before it could slither away. The basket that was already half-full. Mostly his work, of course.

"Maybe they made more progress?" Naruto answered with an angry downturn of his mouth at once again failing to catch a fish before him. He glanced down, throwing himself at the water in his attempt to get one, of course stumbling and splashing all around him, making a fantastic job of driving away the fauna.

Sasuke hissed, kicking some more water at Naruto's face. "Stop getting in the way! It's not exactly summer anymore you know! The last thing I want is to get a cold!"

"I was just about to catch it! You scared it away!"

"Don't mess with me!"

"My, our little genin getting a little too enthusiastic over here."

Closing his eyes in exasperation, Sasuke slowly turned around, finding the old man peering over the basket, his book nowhere on sight. When he seemed to notice the dark look he was giving him, he only closed his eye, the corner crinkling in a way that showed he was smiling.

"Kakashi-sensei! Sasuke's being mean to me!" Naruto complained as he stood up, splashing yet more water.

Sasuke looked at him with disgust. "What are you, five?"

"I think this is enough fish" Kakashi said, ignoring their bickering and lifting the basket with one of his hands. "I'm sure Tamura-san will really appreciate this."

Naruto sputtered some more, offended he was being ignored in his righteous complaining, but Sasuke just rolled his eyes, grateful that at least the 'mission' was progressing somehow, so they could leave early to do something actually useful, like training, and move past these D-Ranks already.

He wondered if his nii-san would train with him when he got home, but then remembered Itachi was giving him the silent treatment after he betrayed him with Izumi, and his mood plummeted once again.

He hoped the fish were at least worth it.

Being alone at home was more boring than Sasuke could have imagined.

His father was working, his mother out buying groceries, and Itachi of course was nowhere to be found. Sasuke had been reduced to throwing shuriken for practice in his backyard, but even that was becoming tedious.

He just couldn't stop thinking about it.

Hinata got a C-Rank.

After her apology yesterday, he had been… well, eager was not the exact word, but he did expect that something would happen. Honestly, he had not been planning to forgive her at all, less of all apologize himself, but the moment she approached him and told him she was sorry…

It had been easy, easier than it should have been. Maybe it was Hinata herself who had that quality, where anything she said or did was so…. sincere. He didn't miss her or anything like that as Naruto would have suggested. However, something about her just…

…there was a reason he accepted her confession, despite rejecting all others, he realized. Despite the fact he didn't like her at all romantically, there was a reason he had decided to date her. He just hadn't admitted it before, and he certainly wouldn't now.

But there was a reason.

And because of that it was weird, that he was here alone while she was outside the village, already doing more advanced missions than him.

Sasuke guessed the mission couldn't have been one too complicated. Maybe an escort mission. Those were the types that were usually given to genin teams, right? He could do that too. He definitely could do that.

Maybe one day… even together…

"Stop with that" he grunted, throwing the shuriken in his hand forcefully against the target, hitting bullseye without much effort. He wondered how Hinata's aim was. With her eyes, it probably wasn't bad at all. When she came back, she definitely had to train with him. There were no excuses anymore.

When she came back…

"Sasuke!" he tensed for a moment due to surprise, hearing the voice of his mother suddenly calling him from inside the house, relaxing just as her face appeared from the corner of the paper door. "Sasuke, are you busy? Help me put away the groceries, yes?" she asked with a sweet smile.

"Fine" he sighed, letting the rest of his shuriken fall to the ground as he walked towards her. He would pick them up later, when he was done, even though the glare his mother gave him at the action was a bit intimidating.

Come to think of it, maybe he could speak with his mother about Hinata…

Yeah, no, not in a million years.

Two days later, Hinata had still not returned.

It was already dark outside, the mantle of night covering everything as it was the new moon. Sasuke was outside, glaring at the sky as he lied down on the grass, kunai and shuriken strewn all around him in the empty training ground.

How long could a simple escort mission be?

Maybe something went wrong… maybe they were ambushed and now Hinata was hurt and…

Stupid. Of course something like that wouldn't happen. No one got hurt on stupid C-Ranks. Why was he even worrying? This was normal for a shinobi, sometimes taking a little longer with missions.

Still… there was this feeling inside Sasuke, this… energy. As if he couldn't wait to go see her. He blamed it in how abruptly their last interaction ended, as well as that small realization he had just a few days ago.

He wasn't used to feeling this antsy…

"Haaa" he shook his head as he stood up, dusting his pants and beginning to gather his weapons. It was close to nine, and although he had told his mother he would be coming home late, he didn't want to worry her too much. Plus, he was hungry, and the thought of a warm dinner filled him with expectation.

He slowly walked back to his district, the world completely black, just the rushing of the wind being heard across the trees. It took him a while to reach the village proper, the light of the streetlamps slowly appearing in his vision as he continued down the path to his house.

That's when he saw her.

She was walking ahead of him, a slight limp in her step. His heart skipping a beat, he rushed towards her without really thinking, and grabbed her arm, spinning her around as she yelped in surprise.

"Ah! S-Sasuke-kun…?" she asked, eyes big and surprised.

"Hinata!" he looked at her, taking inventory of her messy hair, some dirt and a bit of blood on her cheeks as well as clothes, and finally, her right ankle, that she was holding a little over the ground. "So you're finally back home. What happened? Is your ankle fine? What took you so long?"

"Ahh" Hinata fidgeted, glancing around, before shaking her head. "Sasuke-kun, this… this place…"

"What" he asked roughly, annoyed by her attempts to try to get away from him. She closed her eyes, letting out what sounded like a huff, before opening them and giving him a determined look. Unexpectedly, she pulled her arm away, but instead of leaning back and leaving as he would have expected, she grabbed his wrist and pulled him along towards an alley, shoving him against the wall due to the abrupt movement.

She released him before he could even blink in surprise.

"Sasuke-kun" she said firmly, squaring her shoulders and narrowing her eyes at him.

He gulped, cowed for reasons he couldn't understand.

"Hey, what's with the attitude? I just wanted…"

"I told you I didn't want anyone from my family finding out, didn't I?" she interrupted with something that only managed to confuse him even more.

Sasuke stared at her, at her angry pout and her reddened face that always looked so unattractive… and then he got it.

"We're close to the Hyuuga compound" he said, staring past her towards the entrance of the alley, where, just a little distance away, he could see the beginning of the white walls of her home.

Hinata huffed while nodding. "Exactly. So I would be grateful if you didn't… that is… you…" she started with force, only to gradually lose steam. It seemed she had finally caught up with her assertiveness, and she was starting to get self-conscious. She glanced down, her delicate brows furrowing, and bit her lip. "Please don't do that kind of thing in front of my compound…" she finally said in the end.

Sasuke frowned, straightening and observing her with befuddlement. Part of him felt heavy seeing how adamant she was not to be seen with him in front of her family, but the other…

"Don't they have the byakugan?" he asked, making her look up at him in shock. "Even if we hide here they might see us" he clarified.

Hinata shook her head after a moment's hesitation.

"We don't use it inside the village… and if someone's training at this time, the range won't be enough to see all the way out here" she explained briefly. Sasuke nodded in acquiesce of her words.

"So you're only worried about the guards in front of the door…"

"Yes…"

A brief silence filled the space between the two, before Sasuke sighed, gesturing with his hand towards her. "So" he began, his frown growing deeper as he examined her once more, "how was the mission? You took your time there…"

"Ah, the mission was fine" Hinata nodded, adopting her usual, meek pose now that things were starting to calm down. "We only ran into bandits once… but that was on the way back home, not while escorting the client."

"And that's how you hurt your ankle" he stated, nodding towards it. Hinata hummed in affirmation.

"I landed wrong… it was actually kind of stupid of me" she raised her hands, starting to poke her fingers while glancing away. "I… was actually a bit surprised when I saw the blood…"

"Did someone attack you?" he asked, unable to hide the concern in his voice. He quickly cleared his throat, horrified with himself. What the hell was going on with…?

"I mean, it was an ambush" Hinata shrugged, not noticing or deciding to ignore his blunder, something he was grateful for. "And they weren't shinobi so it wasn't that hard… but at one point, one of them tried to attack Kiba, so Shino defended him and… cut them accidentally" she winced. "It wasn't anything grave!" she quickly corrected, waving her hands in the air as if believing she had to cover for her teammate. "Just a shallow cut! But the blood flew towards me and I got surprised and…"

"You stumbled and hurt your ankle" he completed, and she nodded. "I see… still, was it a long journey?"

"Not really… we actually stayed a little there because the client needed some last minute help with something… were you…" at this point, she slowly looked up, the angle making her eyes seem big as her eyelashes fluttered gently, her fingers stopping any motion but instead gathering closer to her chest… "Were you worried because I took a little longer than expected?"

Sasuke blinked, his mental processes coming to an abrupt halt at… at…

He gulped.

Then took a step back.

For some reason, he was beginning to feel hot under the collar…

"I…" he took another step back, this time catching Hinata's attention, who frowned in confusion at his actions. He gulped again. "I was just curious what was taking you so long, I didn't… that is, I…"

Hinata glanced at him owlishly, her posture relaxing as she continued to stare at him… until her eyes suddenly widened. "Sasuke-kun! Can it be…?"

He didn't wait for what she had to say. Without another word, he turned around, not shoving her but practically stumbling upon her in his haste to leave the alley behind. He heard her call his name, but he didn't stop, and only when he was a good distance away from her, he glanced over his shoulder, finding her in the same spot as before, staring after him with a look of disbelief.

He glanced back at the front, shouting a see you tomorrow! quickly before running the rest of the distance to his home.

That was scary.

For a moment there, he thought… he thought that Hinata was actually…

Cute.