“Sasuke-san…I thought you said you knew the way!” She exclaimed, her nerves getting the best of her even as she caught sight of the expansive horizon, the white gulls careening through the sunset sky…even as the sand slipped between her toes and the water roared in her ears.
Sasuke did not deign to answer, closing his eyes and savoring the briny sea air as she had once described. Her description had not disappointed one bit…she had been right. She just didn’t know it yet.
“This is the right way. I just took a detour.” He shrugged lightly, taking off the top layer of his robes and then slipping of his dark shirt, exposing a pale, sculptured chest to the warm sun.
Hinata blushed profusely. And he chuckled when she turned away, listening to her mutters about propriety and scheduling and proper behavior fade into squeaks as removed as his pants as well, leaving him in only his dark boxers.
“Come on Hinata…the water’s warm.” He beckoned her with a slight laugh in his tone, eyes shining in mirth with what Hinata had come to recognize as his teasing her.
She huffed slightly, the air from her mouth blowing her bangs upwards.
She stepped with trepid feet into the waves, the foam welcoming her in a friendly embrace, curling its tendrils around her tiny ankles. She looked out at the horizon, the sea and sky meeting in a place where no mortal could hope to reach. Her lips parted in wonder and for once she felt free.
She could forget about clan business and unrequited love and confusing emotions for just a bit. As she stood there watching the sun set and orange and red fade to purple and then black, she mused that the transition reminded her very much of one from home to here.
Orange was the color of Naruto and the falling autumn leaves in Konoha. Red was the color of the Hyuuga flame and the spiral symbol of her flak jacket. It was the color of Kiba’s triangles and Shino’s special lady bugs bred just for her. It was the color of Kurenai’s eyes and Asuma-kun’s favorite toy. It was the color of Sasuke’s Sharingan
Purple was the color of his other eye, the one that pulsed with power and one she had learned not to fear. It was the color of his beaded necklace and her personal favorite.
Black…the kind found on a raven’s wing and the kind found in his hair and eyes…that was the only black she had ever deemed beautiful, because it brought out the light.
She watched as Sasuke caught a few more fish for their dinner, his back muscles rippling as he lunged with all the grace and presence of natural predator, and so alien and pale was his beauty in the fading light, that she felt the distance between them grow. And she regretted that they would part ways after this journey…
So even if his detour was a slightly longer route…it didn’t feel that far from home after all.
By the time Sasuke waded back to shore, his eyes alight with discovery, the sky was already dark and Hinata was already building a fire with white drift wood. The blue flames crackled merrily and she was comfortable.
“Hinata!!” He called her name with more excitement than he had ever shown before, his hands gripping the tails of three large silver fish and his grin slightly wider than his largest smirk.
She stood up, alarmed at his display of enthusiasm.
“Sasuke-san…what is i-”
“Come on! Hurry up!” He cut her off, grabbing her gently and all but dragging her to the water’s edge again. The dark made her a bit more fearful of the sea, and a lot more hesitant to enter it.
Impatient and excited, he clicked his tongue. “Don’t you want to wake up the stars?”
She dug her heels into the wet sand, jerking them both to a stop. “Sasuke-san! What are you talking about?!”
Without further ado, he picked her up much to her noisy protests and swiftly plopped her into the deeper end of the water. Hinata came up spluttering, the still warm water burning her nostrils and eyes in its saltiness. Anger and annoyance surged through her because she had been fine and comfy by the fire.
She stood up to her full height (not much), and was ready to chew out a quietly chuckling Sasuke.
“Oooof! You…YOU….” She batted the water with tiny fists, and finally noticed what Sasuke had been talking about.
Every time she had moved through the water, a series of glows had followed. In colors of red, pink and green. She twirled experimentally, splashing here and there, bringing up the lights…like tiny stars in the night sea…
"This is…this is…” She said.
Sasuke waited with baited breath, wondering if his gift to her had been good enough..
“THIS IS AMAZING!!!” She laughed and splashed, twirling and swimming to create patterns. The stars soon came out in the sky above, but she was too blinded by the light around her to really notice them much.
Finally, she turned to her companion who was standing there, shirtless and watching her with the strangest look in his eye. Self consciously, she noted that her dark shirt was sticking to her form very much and that her hair was extra puffy from the humidity.
A little more shyly, a little more happy….she whispered the thing that meant most to him at the moment.
“Thank you…Sasuke…”
He simply nodded and they looked out to the stars, at home in the expansiveness of their journey and company..
……………………………………………………………………
“I…I can’t.” She said tiredly, her voice breaking along with her heart. She reached across her body with one arm to clutch the other, her back hunched and her flak jacket rustling with the movement.
He grew angry, because she was leaving him. He was going to be all alone again. She had handed that last document without regret, without even the slightest thought as to what it would mean for them…what it would mean for him.
He reached for her, hands gripping her shoulders as he shook her slightly, trying to make sense of her response…they had been through so much, become so much more…she had rejected his invitation so quickly, no thought put into the decision.
“Why?! What’s over there for you?!” He raised his voice, scaring several birds from the nearby trees. They waited at the fork in the road, one path leading back to Konoha and the other to the North..or were both simply paths to loneliness?
Hinata clenched her fists, because her whole life she had worked hard for exactly what was over there. Her father, her clan, her position, her friends, her family, her life…her life before Sasuke had become the only thing she could definitively call home.
“Everything! Everything I care about, Sasuke!” She shouted without thinking, and immediately regretted it.
And it was those words that did it…the final blow to everything that had made them what they were on this journey, friends, companions, comrades on the same path…the potential for something more had rested just beyond their reach, a possibility obliterated by diverging lives and past bonds pulling her in one direction…far away from him.
His hands slowly lifted from her shoulders, his gaze closing off…this had been a mistake…this had all been such a huge mistake…
“I see.”
Hinata’s eyes widened in horror, realization striking her just a bit too late. “Sasuke, it’s not like that. I care about you too-”
“I don’t care.” Came the flat tone, exactly the same one he had used on her at the beginning. When they had been nothing more than passing strangers on the same path.
“Sasuke!” She reached for him, but he stepped away, his gaze impassive. “Talk to me.”
“There’s nothing to say Hyuuga! You’ve trapped yourself! You always will be trapped…always stuck in the same place with no one to blame but yourself.” He spat out, bitterness lacing his insult.
She gasped slightly, words hurting more than kunai ever could.
“A-and what about you Uchiha-san! You always run away from those you get close to! You’re a coward! That’s why you won’t come back with me, isn’t it!?”
By the end of her rant, she was panting. Her face was red and her stance was solid, ready for more verbal attack. But he merely shrugged at her and finally said…
"So that’s it then…”
“…”
He straightened. “I don’t think…we’ll ever see each other again.”
A pain through her chest, one which her anger burned right through to burst out in a harsh reply.
“No. I don’t believe we will.”
“Hn.”
With that he turned away from her, heading down the fork to the North and raised a hand in a seemingly lazy salute, as if swatting away anything that might have been between them like a noisy fly.
She watched his back get smaller down the path. A part of her wanted to follow, to scream that she was sorry…but the pride she had worked so hard for became her shackle, and she stayed where she was…at the fork in the road watching as disappeared through the trees. It was only then she let the tears fall.
And Sasuke…for all the pain he was feeling and anger at her decision. He still could not help but mutter to her under his breath as he made his way down the road…
“Take care of yourself…Hinata.”