When Onyx Met Lavender

II | "Confusion"

The raven-haired male stared at the very first photo of Team 7 and smiled as he reminisced about the old days. When they all first got together. When he had so much fun with them that he forgot he was an avenger.

He thought about what would have happened if he had never left the village. If he had listened to Naruto, and Kakashi, and Sakura, and never let the hate he so strongly felt for his brother take over him. If he had never associated himself with Orochimaru...

He sighed and got up, walking to the living room to get a better view of the moon. As he stared at it, the image of Hinata flashed before him. He shook his head in confusion, wondering why that had happened.

Then he remembered her pale orbs with their distinctive Lavender tint. The moon reminded him of her eyes that he stared at for so long just hours earlier. His face flushed as he remembered Shikamaru and all the teasing.

It was the first time he had ever felt so nervous. He choked on air the moment she walked past the four of them, which caused her to giggle. He never knew much about Hinata. He never paid attention to her back in the days.

All he noticed was that she was shy, awfully quiet, and she always blushed or fainted whenever Naruto was around.

As the thought came to him, he frowned, he remembered that when he came back, his friends would talk about it a lot. But knowing Naruto and how dense he is, he apparently never took a single hint of her feelings for him.

Then he also got married, and the Hyūga was heartbroken. But again, at the time he didn't pay much attention to her, because he was focused on how happy his bestfriends were.

He regretted his naiveté and hoped that he would be able to redeem himself. But then again, is he so sure he really likes this girl already? He was deeply enchanted by her in an unexpected encounter but he was still so confused. He had never felt like that before, how was he supposed to know?

He looked around his living room and set his eyes on the framed photo of his mother. Now that he thought about it, they do look alike. They both have long, dark blue hair and displayed one of the prettiest smiles anyone could ever make. His mother looked so beautiful even in a simple apron.

The Uchiha then realized what he liked the most in women. It's when a beautiful woman hides her beauty that she is truly breathtaking, there's nothing more adorable than that, he thought.

Hinata fit in well. Noticeably, she liked to cover up a lot, but it suited her as well, or perhaps everyone's just gotten used to her covering up that it's quite fitting.

Sasuke sighed again, he was actually deep in thought because of someone like her? Shocking.

Frustrated once more, he decided to go make himself some tea. It was almost daybreak but his head was filled with too much for him to sleep so he decided to just stay up the whole way through.

-----

The birds began to chirp and stores were opening, everyone was getting into business. He watched the busy street and wondered why everyone woke up so early today.

He stuffed his hands in his pockets like he typically would and thought of something to do. He hasn't been assigned to missions for 2 days now and he would usually complain but decided that he had better things to do and appreciating this free time wouldn't be so bad.

The sight of a guy in weird-looking glasses and a loud middle-aged man caught his attention.

"HOW DARE YOU SAY CATS ARE BETTER?! WHAT'S THE DEAL?"

He chuckled as he continued to walk in their direction, trying to see if he can listen in on the conversation. The early morning was never quiet when Kiba was up this early.