Downfall

ALMOST

HINATA came face to face with him again not too long later. Give or take a couple months since their collision in the dead of night when he was making an escape from banshees to squealed his name and begged for his approval – he didn't understand why - and when she had cried in front of him, embarrassingly so.

He hadn't thought of her since, and her mind had been filled with Naruto, Naruto, Naruto when she realised that the very image of him in her mind was enough to send her heart into a frenzy. It seized and it squeezed and it made a lump form in her throat – she couldn't fathom it. Her body was acting all on its own. So she hadn't had the time to wander to the mystery of Uchiha Sasuke, the sole survivor of his clan.

Hinata couldn't comprehend how he must have felt, how he must feel. The mere thought of attempting to understand overwhelmed her, and she knew it was an all-consuming feeling – guilt and hatred were. She supposed she was just as guilty as Sakura and Ino who claimed to love him but didn't want to try to truly think about Sasuke.

He stepped towards her, fists in his pockets. The breeze in the air brushed her bangs off of her forehead ever so slightly and in the corner of her eye, she saw Sakura had been partnered with Inuzuka Kiba and Naruto with Ino.

They were outside for the day's lesson, despite it still being winter. The snow had started to melt so that only mean the icy season was about to slip away with the rolling days as they came tumbling by, but the air was still nippy and cruel to bare skin.

Hinata wondered if Naruto was warm in his t-shirt and zip-up jacket. He hadn't complained about the cold once but his lips looked blue to her. Ino and Sakura cast glares at one another from their distance between the class and often flitted glances over at Sasuke who so easily dismissed their stares with nothing but emptiness.

Iruka-sensei went over the rules of the spar once, and once only. Taijutsu that was taught in class only. His eyes flickered with purpose to Hinata, to Sasuke and to Inuzuka Kiba who was told to put Akamaru away. ("Away?! Sensei, put him away where? Akamaru is an extension of who I am! My kaa-san already told you and this stupid academy! Didn'tcha hear her? If I'm here, Akamaru is too! That's the way of the Inuzuka!")

The practice would last ten minutes and ten minutes only before swapping partners. The aim was to pin your partner as many times as possible within the time limit. Hinata felt her stomach churn uncomfortably. She didn't quite like these types of lessons.

She preferred the shuriken lessons, practicing chakra control, practicing her henge. Despite being raised in a dojo that was built solely on taijutsu, she loathed engaging in physical battle.

Hinata wasn't listening now. Her mind had drifted off to other things, her ears unfocusing from Iruka-sensei's words. Sasuke watched her face intently and he was staring so hard but she hadn't been bothered by his intensity.

He found himself asking himself why such a tiny girl wished to become a shinobi. Did she even want to be a shinobi? Because Sasuke knew he did. More so for a reason opposite to everyone else's whose purpose was to live and serve and protect the village – Sasuke wanted a strength powerful enough to slaughter the likes of his aniki. Because Sasuke might have only been eleven now but he had lived all his life up until this moment with one thing on his mind.

Sasuke was thirsty was vengeance, and rightfully so.

His aniki – his beloved, disgusting, treacherous aniki – gennin by age eight and climbing the ranks at incredible paces to become an ANBU captain at thirteen, Uchiha Itachi was the one Sasuke was aiming for and he was the person Sasuke was going to kill.

Sasuke supposed he might find himself spiralling into insanity but he was fine with that because his only purpose in this world was to avenge the fallen members of his clan, to avenge his mother and his father whose bodies had been lying together, facing each other, hands intertwined with one another's. Sasuke shook at the thought of it. His eyes burned and his heart began to pound hard.