Sasuke supposed he was curious.
But it didn’t help that Naruto basically pushed him into finding out who was responsible for the flowers on Itachi’s grave. Someone was leaving behind a posy of white tulips every Sunday.
Sasuke suspected random villagers wanting to pay their respects to his brother after word spread of his sacrifices for Konoha.
It never crossed his mind that it could be Hyuuga Hinata.
But there she was at the memorial park, kneeling in front of Itachi’s cemetery plot. A familiar bouquet of tulips arranged carefully beside the marble stone.
He observed her from afar, his shoulders resting against a tree trunk, hands inside his pockets. He concealed his chakra, not wanting to let her know of his presence.
The urge to reach her grew stronger as he saw her lips move, a slight flush covering her pale cheeks.
He inhaled sharply, his jaw clenched, his hands trembling with repressed anger. An anger that had been sizzling and boiling for two weeks now, two weeks since he returned to Konoha and found out about the flowers on his brother’s gravesite.
How can she empathize with Itachi when she was nothing but a spoiled sheltered princess?
It was when he caught a genuine smile on her face that his annoyance was complete and for the first time, he felt something more than a distant curiosity towards the heiress.
His feet moved on its own, his sharingan activated unknowingly when a hand grabbed on his shoulder, a familiar faint of chakra seeping into his skin. “I know I’ll found you here.”
Naruto appeared in his peripheral, his cerulean blue eyes softening at the sight of the Hyuuga heiress. A long silence passed before Sasuke heard him speak. “She brings tulips to Itachi’s grave every Sunday since the Fourth Shinobi War.”
Sasuke stood motionless, totally stunned with what he just heard.
“Why?”
Naruto carefully chose his words and looked at his friend thoughtfully. “She lost a brother too,” Sasuke heard the quiver in his best friend’s voice. “Neji died protecting us.”
No words were spoken but the Naruto saw understanding reflected in those sharingan eyes.
Sasuke felt a soft and warm feeling in his chest, a sensation so foreign to him. Hyuuga Hinata was an anomaly; a beautiful, haphazard broken thing unknowingly worming her way on the walls he had built.
“Is that why you led me here?”
Naruto shrugged, smiling sheepishly, “I guess I wanted to help both of you. I may not understand your pain but I know someone like her would. Someone who’s grieving just like you,” he continued softly.
Sasuke stood in silence, his eyes continuing to follow her every movement until she left.
A week later, Hinata found a bouquet of lavender roses and white lilies beside the rich grey of marble on Neji’s tombstone.
“Might be Hanabi…,” Hinata whispered to herself but then she noticed a similar looking set of flowers a few steps to her left on the grave of a beloved brother.
Taking a deep breath, Hinata closed her eyes. A single drop of grief broke free from the corner of her eye, the rest following in an unbroken stream. She dried her tears with the sleeves of her shirt, her lips turning up into a smile and a wash of emotions settling over her heart.
“Thank you, Sasuke.”
A/N: I’m thinking of expanding this story into a multi-chaptered fanfiction. I’ve always wanted to write a PostWar SasuHina fic. Let’s see where my imagination goes.
My askbox is open for SasuHina prompts! Just drop me a line. 🙂
Hope you like it.
Zyllah
Ink Child Writing 