The Difference Between Us •NaruHina•

♥08

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The concept of love was something that the people of the ocean were unfamiliar with. The ocean itself was cruel, cold, and unforgiving so it made sense for its inhabitants to share the same traits. At least the merfolk. The dolphins were definitely an exception.

Hinata was a stranger to love until Sasuke introduced her to it. Literally introduced her to what the word Love meant. It was a human word, different from their mermish language.

"It's like," he slid further up onto the shore, his legs dangling into the tide pool Hinata was still in. "When you just want to cherish something or someone so much you would do anything for it or them. For example, I love you."

Hinata wrinkled her nose. "You love me?" The raven hair boy nodded but let her think it out. "So... you want to... kiss me?"

"No," Sasuke laughed. "There are different kind of loves. Romantically or platonic, the love you feel to family. For you, I love you like my closest confidant and my best friend."

Hinata thought about it for a long moment. "Okay, so you love me like you love... Itachi?"

He let out a bit of laughter, something that Hinata found strange about her friend. "In a way, yes. I love him because he is my brother."

"So then I love you like I love... um... Hanabi or Neji?"

"Well do you love them? Or me for that matter?" Sasuke asked back. "Our kind, Hinata, are not familiar with many human emotions. I've read and researched about them for years now. Just because I say that I love you doesn't mean you have to reciprocate."

The bluenette pulled her hair over her shoulder revealing her chest (which is normal) and slumped her head onto the sand next to Sasuke's thigh. "But isn't love meant to be reciprocated, according to humans?"

"Again, yes, but just because it is meant to doesn't guarantee that it will be."

"Humans are much too complicated." She mused out in frustration of failing to grasp yet another human concept. "I am glad that our kind don't often feel such complicated emotions."

Sasuke was going to argue that they did feel human emotion constantly but they were taught to repress it at a young age. For merfolk life was easier this way. Be born and have an easy childhood to an awkward stage of growing your tail out in your teen years and then to being dutiful citizens of the ocean. You find someone that you feel connections to and may or may not start a family with them, simple. 

However, Sasuke was one of the few merfolk that didn't wish to live that way. He wanted love and heartbreak, confusion and excitement. He wanted to feel.

"Hinata," Sasuke mumbled as he slipped back into the water, navy tail replacing his legs. "I think I want to live on the island for awhile."

She blinked at him. "But, our kind that leave the ocean never come back. You will be killed."

Again, another misconception. Those who left found happiness and chose to stay rather than to come back to the cold sea. Sasuke didn't know what would happen if he chose to stay. He had many responsibilities in the ocean. He was the son of a respectable man in their colony and was expected to have a family with another respectable family. 

"I'll come back, I promise. And we will be what everyone wants us to be."

Hinata frowned at that. A family. Everyone wanted the handsome young son of Fugaku Uchiha and the beautiful eldest daughter of Hiashi Hyuga to be together so that they would one day be one of the head families in the Pacific Ocean. They were friends but Hinata felt a bit off about being wed to him, would prefer someone that she hadn't known since birth.