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Ino called it the love trapezoid of doom. Trapezoid, because currently Sasuke and Hinata were at the base and as far apart as possible. She had also done enough digging around in Sasuke’s head when he first returned to Konoha that Sasuke couldn’t protest much for fear of her brandishing something even worse.
And Konoha’s resident mind sifter and gossip queen had no shame of her own for him to blackmail her back with, if the (shudder, shudder) love fests she and Chouji forced the public to endure with frightening regularity were any indication.
“As if you wouldn’t make out with Hinata in front of a whole class of Academy students if you thought she’d let you,” dismissed Ino. “Here,” she said, shoving the bunch of flowers she’d been preparing into his hands.
Sasuke eyed the flowers with distaste. “What am I supposed to do with these?”
“Whatever you want. But I know for a fact that Hiashi’s been guilting Neji into an arrangement with Hinata, and the only reason he’s held out so long is that he’s still weirded out by her calling him brother. You could always give them to him,” replied Ino.
“Why are you being so helpful?” asked Sasuke, suspiciously.
“Betting pool. Odds are a one to a billion that Hinata will say yes to you before Sakura does to Naruto, and I have the wedding of the century to pay for. Now shoo,” Ino said and shoved him out the door.
--
The knocks on Hinata’s front door sounded as hesitant as he felt, and Sasuke decided to chicken out just before she opened the door.
He gave her the flowers. “Ino wanted to congratulate you on your last mission. Said you were getting a commendation for it.”
Hinata welcomed him, thanked him, and went off to bring out some snacks. This was one of the things that made her so special, that she could see right through people, yet chose to let them maintain their illusions as long as they needed to. Even if he’d been stalking the mission office, even if he’d been standing outside her door for the past ten minutes, she’d never mention it.
So she deserved someone who would be honest and open with her. She deserved someone like Naruto. But love had little to do with what one deserved, and he’d seen that from all the years Naruto and Sakura wasted chasing after him, so when she sat down, he asked, “Are you free tonight? Because I’d like to take you out to dinner.”