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Title: The Pretty Nurse
Author: Evandar (yamievandar / hikarievandar)
Fandom: Naruto
Rating: T
Pairing: Suigetsu/Hinata
Genre: Romance
Warnings: Swearing, mild sexual references
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto and I am making no profit from this story.
Summary: Hinata is taken from Konoha to play nursemaid to an enemy.
AN: This is dedicated to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
waitingforvira who first put the idea for SuiHina in my head.
Hinata sat looking at her captor through her fingers. He wasn’t a particularly talented kidnapper, per say, as he’d neglected to tie her hands or feet and was completely distracted by the task of lighting a small fire. If it wasn’t for the fact that she was afraid that he’d kill her as soon as her back was turned, she’d have run away.
He was wounded. Even in the gathering dusk she could see his blood darkening the fabric of his tattered Akatsuki cloak. But the wound in his side didn’t seem to be hindering him too much. He’d managed to drag her off into the forest – getting them both completely lost in the process – while holding onto a huge zanbatou that probably weighed about the same as Hinata’s whole body.
“W-why me?” she asked him.
He looked up from the fire. In the light of the tiny fire he’d managed to get going, she could see how tired he looked, and realised that the wound probably was bothering him. He was just trying not to show it.
“You’re from that clan of arrogant bastards with the weird eyes,” he said.
Her first impulse was to duck her head. She covered her eyes again as she made herself as small as she possibly could. She heard him snort and mutter something that sounded very much like “pathetic”, but she ignored him.
He was from the Akatsuki and he’d kidnapped her because of the Byakugan? It made no sense. She knew that the Akatsuki were more interested in Naruto than in collecting kekkai-genkai – that had been Orochimaru’s forte – so it was fairly easy to surmise that he was lying. She just hoped he wouldn’t kill her when she pointed that out.
“Y-y-you’re lying,” she whispered. Her voice was barely audible over the crackling of the fire – slightly bigger now – but he heard her. His head shot up again, and she was surprised to see that there was a faint smile ghosting over his lips. He studied her for a moment.
“Ya wanna hear the real reason?” he asked.
“Please,” she said.
“It’s ‘cause I saw ya healin’ someone,” he said. “And the bitch in my team said she was just gonna leave me ta suffer ‘cause I ain’t as special as her precious pretty boy Sasuke. And it’s ‘cause I wanted ta have a pretty nurse if I had’ta kidnap one.”
Hinata was silent for a moment as she let his words sink into her baffled mind. For some reason, the part of his little speech that stuck in her head the most was that he thought she was pretty. Her. Hinata. Hyuuga Hinata. The shy, useless, stammering kunoichi who couldn’t even perform her clan techniques right. He, the strong and dangerous Akatsuki Shinobi had chosen to kidnap her because he wanted a nurse he thought was attractive.
A more cynical part of Hinata’s mind told her that he’d probably noticed how timid and weak she was, especially when compared to the other, more notable medic-nin in Konoha. Sakura wouldn’t have let herself get kidnapped.
“W-what if I refuse?” she asked.
He looked surprised, as if he’d never even considered the thought that she might say no to him. “Then I’ll kill ya,” he said calmly, sounding as if the words were not a threat to another human being; not important in the slightest. He sounded as if he were used to killing.
“O-oh,” she said. “I-I’m sorry. I just wondered.”
He smirked. “You’re weird,” he said.
Hinata blushed furiously and ducked her head, but he reached out and touched her face, gently – surprisingly gently – cupping her chin and tilting her face up so that she was unable to hide her face. She blushed even harder. His skin was warm and slightly damp, and his palm and fingers were calloused. The zanbatou was definitely not for show.
He was looking right into her eyes. She had grown up with people trying to avoid eye-contact with her either out of fear of her station or the Byakugan itself, so the gesture was alien to her. His eyes were purplish-blue, she noticed, and pained. His wound really was bothering him.
“You’re cute when ya blush,” he said.
His face felt suddenly very close to hers, and she tried to pull away. His grip was too strong for her to break, though, so she closed her eyes and hoped that he would let her go of his own free will. He chuckled softly and, as if in response to her silent prayers, released her.
“No need to shit yerself, princess,” he said. “I ain’t gonna kill ya unless ya try ta kill me first.”
That was more reassuring than it should have been. Kidnapper or not, Akatsuki or not, Hinata had no desire to kill this man. There was something about him that she quite liked, even though he was meant to be her enemy. She was meant to be a warrior, meant to fight him to the death if she had to, but she knew that he could – and would – kill her easily if she tried. Besides, there was always the hope that he would let slip to her some of Akatsuki’s plans.
“P-Please show me where you’re hurt,” she said, opening her eyes.
He was still very close to her, and judging by the expression on his face, he had taken advantage of her closed eyes to ogle every inch of her body that he could see. He leered at her, and pulled off the remains of his tattered cloak. The blood-soaked, black and red material fell heavily onto the leaf-covered ground. It looked wrong, lying over the fallen emblems of her home village so Hinata looked away, directing her gaze back to her patient.
Under the cloak, he was wearing a tight lavender coloured shirt that clung to him like a second skin. The left side of it, the side closest to her, was stained red by the blood oozing from the long, deep gash that ran down his side to curl towards his over his lower hips. He’d had to tug his black shinobi pants down slightly to show her the wound in its entirety, and she could just see the silver pubic hair poking out over the waistband.
Someone had tried to gut him, probably with a kunai, but they’d missed. It had to be painful, though, and Hinata was amazed that he’d been able to get to Konoha to kidnap her in the first place, let alone do so while carrying such a huge sword. Had his team mate – the one who had refused to heal him – wanted him to die? It was looking likely.
Perhaps it was the way she had been trained, but she couldn’t imagine ever abandoning Kiba or Shino with such a wound.
“I must be very painful,” she said softly, reaching out her hands and leaning over him to inspect the wound more closely. It was not, luckily for him, infected. She was an able medic-nin to be sure, but she was by no means the best and though she had good chakra control and reserves, if a wound of this size had been infected then she would have been unable to heal it.
“Yeah,” he grunted, leaning back so that he was propped up on his elbows, stretched out in front of her. He kept his head up to watch her as she summoned green healing chakra to her hands.
To Hinata, healing someone with her chakra was a surprisingly intimate thing to do. She didn’t know if it was the same for all medic-nins, but there was something about the way that it felt that made the fine hairs on the back of her neck and arms stand on end, and her skin tingle. She could feel his powerful muscles and smooth, damp skin drawing together under her hands and she felt – rather than heard – his pulse pick up and his breathing quicken.
She found herself worrying that his sudden agitation was out of discomfort, and spoke in an attempt to distract him. “What’s your name?” she asked.
“Huh?” he said. Then, “Suigetsu. My name’s Suigetsu. Yours?”
She blushed when she realised how impolite she had been by asking for his name before giving her own. Even though she was in a situation where politeness had pretty much been stabbed to death and spat on – she had been kidnapped, after all – her upbringing told her that manners were vital no matter where she was or who she was with.
“My name is Hinata,” she told him.
“Pretty name,” he said, and she blushed again. From the corner of her eye, she was able to see him leering at her. At least, she supposed, he was comfortable.
“Thank you,” she whispered.
He had called her weird, but Hinata thought that he was the weird one. He was the one who had kidnapped an enemy to heal him just because he thought she was pretty. He was the one who had paid more attention to her than any of the boys in her village. He was the one who was flirting and leering and making her feel like she might be a girl as well as the Hyuuga heiress and a kunoichi of Konoha.
He watched her closely as her hands moved lower and lower down his abdomen, healing him, leaving only a fine, silvery scar that was barely visible on his pale skin.
“So,” he said. “Will ya have anyone lookin’ for ya?”
His voice sounded slightly odd, strangled, and she glanced up at his face. He was flushed slightly, and his gaze was glued to her hands, but he looked fine.
“Yes,” she said. “My team and my family will be on your trail.”
“Damn,” he muttered.
She looked back down at her hands. They were hovering just over the jut of his pelvis now. If they were found then the remains of his wound wouldn’t kill him. On the contrary, it would probably heal fine on its own as long as he kept it clean although it would scar horribly. However, if her team mates and her family did catch up to them then his current injury would be the last of his worries. They would, if he was lucky, kill him immediately. More likely, considering he was Akatsuki, he would be captured, tortured, interrogated and then killed as soon as he was of no more use to the village.
She found herself hoping that she wouldn’t be found until he was healed and gone. Then, at least, he would be able to get away unscathed. She puzzled at her treasonous thoughts. He was her enemy! She should have poisoned him or finished the job that his would-be assassin had started, not healed him. But still, she couldn’t help but like him somewhat.
Her hands slid lower, and she thought she heard him whimper slightly. “A-are you alright?” she asked. “Please tell me if I’m hurting you.”
She didn’t want to hurt him. Not only because she was well aware that he would probably kill her if she did hurt him, but because of the same little impulse that told her that she was doing the right thing by healing him.
“You’re not hurtin’ me,” he said. His voice still sounded slightly odd, but she believed him. “Hey, Hinata.”
“Yes Suigetsu?”
His name felt alien on her lips and tongue, but she thought it quite suited him. She liked it, really. It went well with his attitude and his hair and his eyes and the way that his skin felt slightly moist to the touch. It went well with him.
“I’m glad that not everyone in Konoha’s like that fucker Sasuke,” he said.
She looked at his face again. He was still flushed. “You mean Uchiha Sasuke?” she asked him.
“Yeah,” he said. “Arrogant bastard.”
Hinata could well remember. She had watched as her female classmates had thrown themselves at his feet, fawning and arguing over him as each and every one of them hoped that they would be the one he chose to rebuild his clan with. She had set herself a goal that had seemed – at the time – far more attainable. Naruto, at least, didn’t have a heart of ice even if he was completely oblivious to her affection.
“I remember,” she said softly. “I knew him, in a way, when he lived here.”
He snorted. “Don’t tell me ya were like that bitch Karin” – Hinata assumed that was the female team mate who had decided not to heal Suigetsu – “and fancied the sonovabitch.”
“No,” she said truthfully. “I didn’t.”
And she knew that even if Naruto did achieve his goal and manage to somehow redeem his wayward team mate – though now that Sasuke had joined the Akatsuki that goal seemed impossible – she would be the last woman in Konoha who would seek out his company. She preferred boys who were alive; boys like Naruto and Kiba and even Suigetsu, who smiled and laughed and leered and made fools of themselves in a manner that went completely against everything that her clan held dear.
“Good,” Suigetsu said. “He’s a bastard. I dunno what girls see in him. It’d be like fuckin’ an ice cube. He’s borin’ too.”
Hinata blushed furiously at his language and phrasing, though privately she had to agree. “I think that’s why he was so popular,” she said. “The frosty, aloof image appeals to some girls.”
It certainly made her cousin attractive enough, if the gossip she had been forced to listen to was anything to go by. Neji was very popular among the women of the village even though Hinata, Hanabi and TenTen were the only ones that he showed any inclination to speak to.
“Girls’re weird,” he said.
Again, Hinata agreed. It made her feel hypocritical, because she had spent years mooning over Naruto like the lovesick teenager she had been in a way similar to the way that her classmates had lusted after Sasuke – though far less obviously. But she still couldn’t understand why the ideal man had to be someone who was either shy to the point of being obnoxious – like Neji, who was doomed to be a loner forever because he was terrified of rejection – or only likely to ever fall in love with their own reflection.
“Ya ain’t like that, though,” he said. “I’m glad.”
“So am I,” she admitted. Loving someone like Sasuke would be a horrible, lonely existence.
She studied Suigetsu for a moment longer, before returning her attention to healing him. Her hands moved lower and began to follow the line of the wound as it started to curve round across his lower belly.
That was when she noticed what had been bothering him. There was a very definite bulge in the front of his shinobi pants, just centimetres from her hands. She blushed furiously, feeling slightly lightheaded as what felt like all of her blood flooded into her face. She forced herself to stay conscious and keep healing him, but she couldn’t quite hide the nervous trembling of her hands.
She couldn’t believe that she hadn’t noticed his arousal before. It wasn’t as if he was small or anything…
He’d obviously noticed her embarrassment because he chuckled again. She closed her eyes and willed her hands to remain steady; willed them not to feel the warmth that was radiating from his flesh.
“Told ya I thought ya were hot,” he said.
Hinata felt the last of the wound knit back together and cancelled her output of healing chakra. She drew her trembling hands back and forced herself to open her eyes and look at his face. He wasn’t watching her hands anymore; he was already beginning to gingerly sit back up. He didn’t rearrange his clothing at all; apparently he was completely unbothered by his own condition.
“Thanks,” he said.
“Y-You’re welcome,” she replied.
He looked at her, and for the second time she found herself marvelling at the colour of his eyes. “Ya know,” he said. “Ya ain’t meant to heal yer enemies.”
She nodded. “I know,” she said. “But I wanted to.”
He blinked slowly. Evidently it was beginning to dawn on him that the girl he had chosen to steal from her village was weirder than any other girl he had ever met. Then, before she could remove herself from his proximity, he leaned in and pressed a kiss to her lips. Hinata squeaked in shock as his soft, moist lips touched hers and parted, letting a surprisingly long tongue slip briefly into her mouth.
It was her first kiss. She had, intentionally or not, given her first kiss to someone she was meant to fight. Slowly, she closed her eyes and relaxed into the surprisingly gentle touch.
“Ya need to get strong,” Suigetsu told her when he pulled away. “Akatsuki are gonna be comin’ for the village soon and ya need to be strong and live through it.”
“Will you be made to fight me?” she asked, twisting her fingers in the soft, sturdy material of her shinobi pants.
“Maybe,” he said, shrugging. “If I am then I won’t.”
She nodded. “I won’t fight you either, then,” she said.
He grinned at her, flashing his pointed teeth. In the momentary silence that fell, they heard a faint, unnatural rustling over the crackling of the small fire. The shinobi sent out to retrieve her were closing in.
“See ya, princess,” he said.
He stood, rearranged his clothes and his erection at long last, and stooped to pick up his cloak once more. The black and the red clouds didn’t suit him in the slightest, and he seemed to know it because he wrinkled his nose slightly as he slipped it on. Then he bent to kiss Hinata gently, briefly on the lips and left, taking his huge sword with him.
She activated her Byakugan to watch him as he slipped through the trees and past the Konoha shinobi to vanish into the gathering night.
Moments later, Kiba, Akamaru, Shino and Neji burst out of the bushes behind her. They were spoiling for a fight, fury radiating from their every pore, and she deactivated her Byakugan.
“Hinata!” Kiba said loudly, apparently not caring for subtlety at all. “Are you okay?”
“Yes,” she said. She turned and smiled at them. “I’m unharmed.”
She saw Neji look her over, Byakugan activated, and she found herself wondering – even though she knew it was impossible – if he would be able to see the imprint of Suigetsu’s lips on hers.
“Neji-nii-san,” she said. “I’m alright. Please, take me back to the village. I need to talk to Hokage-sama.”
She had to. She had to tell Tsunade that it was too late to save Sasuke – and maybe, once he heard the news, Naruto would realise the truth as well – and that he had joined the Akatsuki. She had to tell her that they were coming. She had to tell her everything…though perhaps not everything.
Hinata smiled as she was led away from the make-shift campsite and through the darkening forest back to the village. She would never admit to everything.
Author: Evandar (yamievandar / hikarievandar)
Fandom: Naruto
Rating: T
Pairing: Suigetsu/Hinata
Genre: Romance
Warnings: Swearing, mild sexual references
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto and I am making no profit from this story.
Summary: Hinata is taken from Konoha to play nursemaid to an enemy.
AN: This is dedicated to
waitingforvira who first put the idea for SuiHina in my head.Hinata sat looking at her captor through her fingers. He wasn’t a particularly talented kidnapper, per say, as he’d neglected to tie her hands or feet and was completely distracted by the task of lighting a small fire. If it wasn’t for the fact that she was afraid that he’d kill her as soon as her back was turned, she’d have run away.
He was wounded. Even in the gathering dusk she could see his blood darkening the fabric of his tattered Akatsuki cloak. But the wound in his side didn’t seem to be hindering him too much. He’d managed to drag her off into the forest – getting them both completely lost in the process – while holding onto a huge zanbatou that probably weighed about the same as Hinata’s whole body.
“W-why me?” she asked him.
He looked up from the fire. In the light of the tiny fire he’d managed to get going, she could see how tired he looked, and realised that the wound probably was bothering him. He was just trying not to show it.
“You’re from that clan of arrogant bastards with the weird eyes,” he said.
Her first impulse was to duck her head. She covered her eyes again as she made herself as small as she possibly could. She heard him snort and mutter something that sounded very much like “pathetic”, but she ignored him.
He was from the Akatsuki and he’d kidnapped her because of the Byakugan? It made no sense. She knew that the Akatsuki were more interested in Naruto than in collecting kekkai-genkai – that had been Orochimaru’s forte – so it was fairly easy to surmise that he was lying. She just hoped he wouldn’t kill her when she pointed that out.
“Y-y-you’re lying,” she whispered. Her voice was barely audible over the crackling of the fire – slightly bigger now – but he heard her. His head shot up again, and she was surprised to see that there was a faint smile ghosting over his lips. He studied her for a moment.
“Ya wanna hear the real reason?” he asked.
“Please,” she said.
“It’s ‘cause I saw ya healin’ someone,” he said. “And the bitch in my team said she was just gonna leave me ta suffer ‘cause I ain’t as special as her precious pretty boy Sasuke. And it’s ‘cause I wanted ta have a pretty nurse if I had’ta kidnap one.”
Hinata was silent for a moment as she let his words sink into her baffled mind. For some reason, the part of his little speech that stuck in her head the most was that he thought she was pretty. Her. Hinata. Hyuuga Hinata. The shy, useless, stammering kunoichi who couldn’t even perform her clan techniques right. He, the strong and dangerous Akatsuki Shinobi had chosen to kidnap her because he wanted a nurse he thought was attractive.
A more cynical part of Hinata’s mind told her that he’d probably noticed how timid and weak she was, especially when compared to the other, more notable medic-nin in Konoha. Sakura wouldn’t have let herself get kidnapped.
“W-what if I refuse?” she asked.
He looked surprised, as if he’d never even considered the thought that she might say no to him. “Then I’ll kill ya,” he said calmly, sounding as if the words were not a threat to another human being; not important in the slightest. He sounded as if he were used to killing.
“O-oh,” she said. “I-I’m sorry. I just wondered.”
He smirked. “You’re weird,” he said.
Hinata blushed furiously and ducked her head, but he reached out and touched her face, gently – surprisingly gently – cupping her chin and tilting her face up so that she was unable to hide her face. She blushed even harder. His skin was warm and slightly damp, and his palm and fingers were calloused. The zanbatou was definitely not for show.
He was looking right into her eyes. She had grown up with people trying to avoid eye-contact with her either out of fear of her station or the Byakugan itself, so the gesture was alien to her. His eyes were purplish-blue, she noticed, and pained. His wound really was bothering him.
“You’re cute when ya blush,” he said.
His face felt suddenly very close to hers, and she tried to pull away. His grip was too strong for her to break, though, so she closed her eyes and hoped that he would let her go of his own free will. He chuckled softly and, as if in response to her silent prayers, released her.
“No need to shit yerself, princess,” he said. “I ain’t gonna kill ya unless ya try ta kill me first.”
That was more reassuring than it should have been. Kidnapper or not, Akatsuki or not, Hinata had no desire to kill this man. There was something about him that she quite liked, even though he was meant to be her enemy. She was meant to be a warrior, meant to fight him to the death if she had to, but she knew that he could – and would – kill her easily if she tried. Besides, there was always the hope that he would let slip to her some of Akatsuki’s plans.
“P-Please show me where you’re hurt,” she said, opening her eyes.
He was still very close to her, and judging by the expression on his face, he had taken advantage of her closed eyes to ogle every inch of her body that he could see. He leered at her, and pulled off the remains of his tattered cloak. The blood-soaked, black and red material fell heavily onto the leaf-covered ground. It looked wrong, lying over the fallen emblems of her home village so Hinata looked away, directing her gaze back to her patient.
Under the cloak, he was wearing a tight lavender coloured shirt that clung to him like a second skin. The left side of it, the side closest to her, was stained red by the blood oozing from the long, deep gash that ran down his side to curl towards his over his lower hips. He’d had to tug his black shinobi pants down slightly to show her the wound in its entirety, and she could just see the silver pubic hair poking out over the waistband.
Someone had tried to gut him, probably with a kunai, but they’d missed. It had to be painful, though, and Hinata was amazed that he’d been able to get to Konoha to kidnap her in the first place, let alone do so while carrying such a huge sword. Had his team mate – the one who had refused to heal him – wanted him to die? It was looking likely.
Perhaps it was the way she had been trained, but she couldn’t imagine ever abandoning Kiba or Shino with such a wound.
“I must be very painful,” she said softly, reaching out her hands and leaning over him to inspect the wound more closely. It was not, luckily for him, infected. She was an able medic-nin to be sure, but she was by no means the best and though she had good chakra control and reserves, if a wound of this size had been infected then she would have been unable to heal it.
“Yeah,” he grunted, leaning back so that he was propped up on his elbows, stretched out in front of her. He kept his head up to watch her as she summoned green healing chakra to her hands.
To Hinata, healing someone with her chakra was a surprisingly intimate thing to do. She didn’t know if it was the same for all medic-nins, but there was something about the way that it felt that made the fine hairs on the back of her neck and arms stand on end, and her skin tingle. She could feel his powerful muscles and smooth, damp skin drawing together under her hands and she felt – rather than heard – his pulse pick up and his breathing quicken.
She found herself worrying that his sudden agitation was out of discomfort, and spoke in an attempt to distract him. “What’s your name?” she asked.
“Huh?” he said. Then, “Suigetsu. My name’s Suigetsu. Yours?”
She blushed when she realised how impolite she had been by asking for his name before giving her own. Even though she was in a situation where politeness had pretty much been stabbed to death and spat on – she had been kidnapped, after all – her upbringing told her that manners were vital no matter where she was or who she was with.
“My name is Hinata,” she told him.
“Pretty name,” he said, and she blushed again. From the corner of her eye, she was able to see him leering at her. At least, she supposed, he was comfortable.
“Thank you,” she whispered.
He had called her weird, but Hinata thought that he was the weird one. He was the one who had kidnapped an enemy to heal him just because he thought she was pretty. He was the one who had paid more attention to her than any of the boys in her village. He was the one who was flirting and leering and making her feel like she might be a girl as well as the Hyuuga heiress and a kunoichi of Konoha.
He watched her closely as her hands moved lower and lower down his abdomen, healing him, leaving only a fine, silvery scar that was barely visible on his pale skin.
“So,” he said. “Will ya have anyone lookin’ for ya?”
His voice sounded slightly odd, strangled, and she glanced up at his face. He was flushed slightly, and his gaze was glued to her hands, but he looked fine.
“Yes,” she said. “My team and my family will be on your trail.”
“Damn,” he muttered.
She looked back down at her hands. They were hovering just over the jut of his pelvis now. If they were found then the remains of his wound wouldn’t kill him. On the contrary, it would probably heal fine on its own as long as he kept it clean although it would scar horribly. However, if her team mates and her family did catch up to them then his current injury would be the last of his worries. They would, if he was lucky, kill him immediately. More likely, considering he was Akatsuki, he would be captured, tortured, interrogated and then killed as soon as he was of no more use to the village.
She found herself hoping that she wouldn’t be found until he was healed and gone. Then, at least, he would be able to get away unscathed. She puzzled at her treasonous thoughts. He was her enemy! She should have poisoned him or finished the job that his would-be assassin had started, not healed him. But still, she couldn’t help but like him somewhat.
Her hands slid lower, and she thought she heard him whimper slightly. “A-are you alright?” she asked. “Please tell me if I’m hurting you.”
She didn’t want to hurt him. Not only because she was well aware that he would probably kill her if she did hurt him, but because of the same little impulse that told her that she was doing the right thing by healing him.
“You’re not hurtin’ me,” he said. His voice still sounded slightly odd, but she believed him. “Hey, Hinata.”
“Yes Suigetsu?”
His name felt alien on her lips and tongue, but she thought it quite suited him. She liked it, really. It went well with his attitude and his hair and his eyes and the way that his skin felt slightly moist to the touch. It went well with him.
“I’m glad that not everyone in Konoha’s like that fucker Sasuke,” he said.
She looked at his face again. He was still flushed. “You mean Uchiha Sasuke?” she asked him.
“Yeah,” he said. “Arrogant bastard.”
Hinata could well remember. She had watched as her female classmates had thrown themselves at his feet, fawning and arguing over him as each and every one of them hoped that they would be the one he chose to rebuild his clan with. She had set herself a goal that had seemed – at the time – far more attainable. Naruto, at least, didn’t have a heart of ice even if he was completely oblivious to her affection.
“I remember,” she said softly. “I knew him, in a way, when he lived here.”
He snorted. “Don’t tell me ya were like that bitch Karin” – Hinata assumed that was the female team mate who had decided not to heal Suigetsu – “and fancied the sonovabitch.”
“No,” she said truthfully. “I didn’t.”
And she knew that even if Naruto did achieve his goal and manage to somehow redeem his wayward team mate – though now that Sasuke had joined the Akatsuki that goal seemed impossible – she would be the last woman in Konoha who would seek out his company. She preferred boys who were alive; boys like Naruto and Kiba and even Suigetsu, who smiled and laughed and leered and made fools of themselves in a manner that went completely against everything that her clan held dear.
“Good,” Suigetsu said. “He’s a bastard. I dunno what girls see in him. It’d be like fuckin’ an ice cube. He’s borin’ too.”
Hinata blushed furiously at his language and phrasing, though privately she had to agree. “I think that’s why he was so popular,” she said. “The frosty, aloof image appeals to some girls.”
It certainly made her cousin attractive enough, if the gossip she had been forced to listen to was anything to go by. Neji was very popular among the women of the village even though Hinata, Hanabi and TenTen were the only ones that he showed any inclination to speak to.
“Girls’re weird,” he said.
Again, Hinata agreed. It made her feel hypocritical, because she had spent years mooning over Naruto like the lovesick teenager she had been in a way similar to the way that her classmates had lusted after Sasuke – though far less obviously. But she still couldn’t understand why the ideal man had to be someone who was either shy to the point of being obnoxious – like Neji, who was doomed to be a loner forever because he was terrified of rejection – or only likely to ever fall in love with their own reflection.
“Ya ain’t like that, though,” he said. “I’m glad.”
“So am I,” she admitted. Loving someone like Sasuke would be a horrible, lonely existence.
She studied Suigetsu for a moment longer, before returning her attention to healing him. Her hands moved lower and began to follow the line of the wound as it started to curve round across his lower belly.
That was when she noticed what had been bothering him. There was a very definite bulge in the front of his shinobi pants, just centimetres from her hands. She blushed furiously, feeling slightly lightheaded as what felt like all of her blood flooded into her face. She forced herself to stay conscious and keep healing him, but she couldn’t quite hide the nervous trembling of her hands.
She couldn’t believe that she hadn’t noticed his arousal before. It wasn’t as if he was small or anything…
He’d obviously noticed her embarrassment because he chuckled again. She closed her eyes and willed her hands to remain steady; willed them not to feel the warmth that was radiating from his flesh.
“Told ya I thought ya were hot,” he said.
Hinata felt the last of the wound knit back together and cancelled her output of healing chakra. She drew her trembling hands back and forced herself to open her eyes and look at his face. He wasn’t watching her hands anymore; he was already beginning to gingerly sit back up. He didn’t rearrange his clothing at all; apparently he was completely unbothered by his own condition.
“Thanks,” he said.
“Y-You’re welcome,” she replied.
He looked at her, and for the second time she found herself marvelling at the colour of his eyes. “Ya know,” he said. “Ya ain’t meant to heal yer enemies.”
She nodded. “I know,” she said. “But I wanted to.”
He blinked slowly. Evidently it was beginning to dawn on him that the girl he had chosen to steal from her village was weirder than any other girl he had ever met. Then, before she could remove herself from his proximity, he leaned in and pressed a kiss to her lips. Hinata squeaked in shock as his soft, moist lips touched hers and parted, letting a surprisingly long tongue slip briefly into her mouth.
It was her first kiss. She had, intentionally or not, given her first kiss to someone she was meant to fight. Slowly, she closed her eyes and relaxed into the surprisingly gentle touch.
“Ya need to get strong,” Suigetsu told her when he pulled away. “Akatsuki are gonna be comin’ for the village soon and ya need to be strong and live through it.”
“Will you be made to fight me?” she asked, twisting her fingers in the soft, sturdy material of her shinobi pants.
“Maybe,” he said, shrugging. “If I am then I won’t.”
She nodded. “I won’t fight you either, then,” she said.
He grinned at her, flashing his pointed teeth. In the momentary silence that fell, they heard a faint, unnatural rustling over the crackling of the small fire. The shinobi sent out to retrieve her were closing in.
“See ya, princess,” he said.
He stood, rearranged his clothes and his erection at long last, and stooped to pick up his cloak once more. The black and the red clouds didn’t suit him in the slightest, and he seemed to know it because he wrinkled his nose slightly as he slipped it on. Then he bent to kiss Hinata gently, briefly on the lips and left, taking his huge sword with him.
She activated her Byakugan to watch him as he slipped through the trees and past the Konoha shinobi to vanish into the gathering night.
Moments later, Kiba, Akamaru, Shino and Neji burst out of the bushes behind her. They were spoiling for a fight, fury radiating from their every pore, and she deactivated her Byakugan.
“Hinata!” Kiba said loudly, apparently not caring for subtlety at all. “Are you okay?”
“Yes,” she said. She turned and smiled at them. “I’m unharmed.”
She saw Neji look her over, Byakugan activated, and she found herself wondering – even though she knew it was impossible – if he would be able to see the imprint of Suigetsu’s lips on hers.
“Neji-nii-san,” she said. “I’m alright. Please, take me back to the village. I need to talk to Hokage-sama.”
She had to. She had to tell Tsunade that it was too late to save Sasuke – and maybe, once he heard the news, Naruto would realise the truth as well – and that he had joined the Akatsuki. She had to tell her that they were coming. She had to tell her everything…though perhaps not everything.
Hinata smiled as she was led away from the make-shift campsite and through the darkening forest back to the village. She would never admit to everything.
