It's not like he didn't expect her anger and hate. Sasuke knew the moment he placed a genjutsu on her. Even the timid Hyuuga knows anger - and had tasted it before.
They arrived in front of the client's door. Sasuke realized that Naruto lived in the same apartment block but a different floor. He hoped that they wouldn't bump into him.
Hinata raised her fist and knocked on the cream coloured door twice. She dropped her hand and waited patiently for the door to open.
Not a minute later, the door opened revealing an elderly woman with greying hair. The woman gave them a confused smile. Sasuke shifted his weight, feeling uncomfortable. Had they gone to the wrong house? He could have sworn they were at the right place. "Can I help you?" she asked politely to the two shinobi.
Hinata returned the smile. "My name is Hyuuga Hinata and this is Uchiha Sasuke," she introduced, gesturing to herself and Sasuke. He could felt his lips lifted into a small smirk as the woman widens her eyes. "We're here to find your grandson."
The woman's eyes lit up in memory but her steel gray eyes were laced with worry. "Gomen," she apologized. "I didn't realize that they were sending you to find him. Would you like to come in?"
"No thank you," Hinata declined politely. "Can we have a picture of your grandson? They didn't provide his picture when we received the mission."
The old woman nodded and disappeared behind the door and reappear not long after. She held out the picture and Hinata took it carefully, treating as if it was glass. She looked at the picture in her hands. The boy in the picture was smiling with a cat wrapped in his embrace.
"What does the boy like?" Sasuke questioned which made Hinata turn her gaze on him. She did not expect him to care about the mission.
He gave her a side glance a look that said 'what'. The Hyuuga turned her attention towards the client. A small satisfied smirk tugged on his lips as he spotted a faint blush on her cheek.
"He likes catching cicadas," she provided, "and he - he always has this fascination with birds." The woman's grip on her yukata tightened with a guilty look on her face. "I should have been more careful with him. I - I hope he's all right."
Hinata took her hand in hers, trying to assure her grandson's safety. Her steel grey eyes met with the Hyuuga's wide lilac eyes. "Yuna-san, I promise you we will find him," she vowed, offering a smile. "It will be fine. We will find him in no time."
There were certain places in Konoha that cicadas choose to inhabit. One of them was near the Aburame Clan but it was considered as a place to steer clear whenever children wanted to catch bugs. It was a basic rule each and every children in Konoha was taught because it might offend the bug users. The horrors in what they might do to you.
Unbeknownst to most of the children of Konoha, there was a place where the cicadas lived in harmony that is before two children from two rivalling clans found the place - Sasuke and Hinata. That was where the first chapter in their life begins.
Hinata fingered their carved name on the tree. It was faint but still recognizable. She remembered it was Sasuke who decided to carve their names. He brought a kunai he had taken from his brother's room to one of their meetings. He passed the kunai to her and she carved her name right under his.
"Did you found him yet?" Sasuke asked, emerging from behind one of the trees. Hinata didn't move from her spot, still staring and touching the carved names. Intrigued by this, he moved towards the stilled Hyuuga. He paused when he caught the sight of it. "Brings back memories ne, Tomato-chan," he whispered.
The Hyuuga heiress flinched at the name. Did she really hate that name so much? "It does," she whispered back and turned to face him. For the first time in their encounters, he had regret in his eyes. "Let's continue finding the boy."
Chapter Six
Start from the beginning
