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The sun shone brightly through the lively green trees, branches rustling softly in the breeze that brushed over the land of the Village Hidden in the Leaves. Birds chirped and sang their morning melodies, gracefully dancing through the wind of the forest just beyond the bustling town of the village.
You squinted against the rays of sun that managed to make it past the abundant gathering of leaves overhead, dots of sunlight dancing on the ground by your feet. Pushing your [h/c] hair out of your face, you sighed, looking over at the array of kunai lodged in the tree in front of you.
“Stupid throwing practice,” you muttered, stalking over to the tree to tug out the stubborn kuni, “Just being able to dodge these should be good enough!” Grumbling to yourself with the occasional use of profane words, you stowed the kunai back in your bag, wondering why it was so essential for ninja to master the art of throwing.
As if on cue, a very slight whistling sound met your ears, not giving you much time to hop up and swing yourself up to rest on the tree branch above you, a shuriken whizzing through the spot you had occupied just moments before.
A chuckle met your ears and your eyes narrowed, locking in on the figure that promptly emerged from the tree line and strode into the clearing you had been practicing in.
“You should never let your guard down,” the smug voice, coupled with that arrogant smirk on his face, made your blood boil.
“Sasuke,” you ground out, eyeing the black-haired ninja with obvious irritation.
You had a relatively simple relationship with the quiet, sharp-tongued Uchiha, a relationship that seemed predestined from the moment his darkened eyes met your [e/c] ones: a relationship of utter tension and begrudging dislike. Or, rather, from your perspective, anyway. The Uchiha seemed to take pleasure in your annoyance, sometimes even pushing it to the point where it’s all you can do not to knock him upside his face, even though you probably wouldn’t be able to even if you did try.
From the very day the two of you met in the academy, you had absolutely no tolerance for his haughty I’m-better-than-you nature, and eventually got so tired of playing the back-and-forth banter game with him that you ended up trying to avoid him. Alas, it seemed wherever you went, Sasuke appeared, so often that sometimes you had the paranoid feeling that maybe he was following you, before reminding yourself that you did live in a small village.
Moral of the story is, the boy prodigy drove you crazy.
“What are you doing slinking around in the woods when there are practice grounds at the academy?” Sasuke asked, keeping his gaze on you as you dropped down from the tree. Brushing yourself off, you stared at him for a moment before clearing your throat.
“I can do what I want,” you huffed, crossing your arms. Walking closer, you stopped a few feet from him, looking indignantly into his egotistic gaze. “More importantly, what are you doing here?”
“What, you think I’m following you around or something?” he asked, letting out a breath of sarcastic laughter. “Why would I want to do that? I’m on an errand. It’s beyond me how you of all people acquired the princess syndrome.” You could feel your face burning up as you gaped at him.
“I wouldn’t believe any girl would ever like you if I hadn’t seen it myself,” you growled, turning slightly. “They just might be crazier than you are.”
“You’re one to talk,” Sasuke murmured, smirk seemingly ingrained into his features as he leaned forward, “You act like you’ve never looked at me that way before.” You were silent with disbelief.
And yet, as much as you hated to admit it, he was right. He was handsome, more so than you’d ever care to admit. Even though you found yourself at the mercy of your youthfully lustful eyes that travelled all too slowly over the Uchiha’s frame more than once, his perfection only seemed to anger you more, which in the back of your mind you chalked up to the shame in your own faults.
At the end of the day, he did have many redeeming qualities, but nothing that warranted the arrogance he wore like armor around him. And that’s precisely what it was, too: armor that would shield him from making any serious relationships, armor made from the very nightmares that no doubt haunted him more nights than he’d ever admit.
Sometimes you wondered what it would take to break that armor, because somewhere far beyond the anger he aroused in you, you felt your heart ache for him.
“What about you?” You turned the question on him, just daring him to reply. Planting your hands firmly on your hips, you unflinchingly leaned forward, your face audaciously close to Sasuke’s. “You seem to pay an awful lot of attention to me for someone you supposedly hate.”
A scoff. “You think too highly of yourself,” he said, not backing down.
You couldn’t seem to identify the tension that hung between you two, so close and not willing to give in - was this heavy atmosphere just thick with dislike? Why, along with stubbornness, was there such a feeling of hesitance?
“Who knew you were as arrogant in your looks as you were your skills,” you hissed after a moment, obstinately narrowing your eyes at him. The smirk that graced his lips began to strike at your hormones, making a blush rise to your face that you tried with all your soul to ignore.
“You certainly seem to be enjoying it,” he mused, his low, condescending voice biting viciously at your nerves.
After a few more moments of tense silence, realizing that the situation wasn’t going anywhere, you tersely gave in, turning away and stepping past Sasuke.
“Spare me the pleasure, then,” you muttered, sighing. “Next time, just take the direct route back to the village.” Taking another step towards the woods, Sasuke’s voice stopped you in your tracks.
“You’ve been acting strange lately.”
You turned slightly to look at him out of the corner of your eye, blankly, before stepping past the treeline and into the woods, too exasperated to look back at the Uchiha’s shaded features as he stood alone in the clearing.
The dew sparkled on the grass just outside the training grounds the next morning, giving a fresh scent to the breeze that drifted along with the subtle colors of dawn. Songbirds greeted each other in the morning light, occasionally cut off by the abrupt thump, thump of palms against the wooden training figures standing tall by the edge of the training grounds.
Sweat trickled lazily down your throat as you trained, pushing yourself harder and harder up against the figures before class at the academy started. I need to graduate this year with my classmates, I can’t let up .
You weren’t a particularly skilled ninja, and other than your innately muscular build, you had no particular skills to work with. Your current level of dexterity had been a result of your hard work and unrelenting effort, your own self-esteem barely in the healthy range with all of the self-deprecating thoughts you harbored in an effort to improve yourself.
No doubt had you earned the respect and recognition of your instructors and fellow ninja-in-training, but it never seemed like enough to you. No matter how gifted people praised you to be, no matter how many classmates looked up to you and complimented your efforts, nothing ever seemed like enough.
You landed a particularly forceful palm strike, feeling the wooden dummy shudder under your hand.
You had wondered on more than one occasion if you measured yourself by Sasuke’s standards, and that’s why even your most valiant efforts seem to pale in comparison to his gifts. If maybe, one day, he acknowledged your efforts, you wondered if then you would be satisfied.
No . A bruising kick landed with precision on the place where the wooden figure’s head would’ve been. Screw him, I don’t need that asshole’s validation .
After pressing yourself for another half hour, you decided to finally take a break, brushing off your black training clothes and heading toward the water faucets by the education buildings. Striding tiredly toward the facility, you dabbed at your face with a towel that hung around your neck, wanting to get off the field before the younger students started to arrive for morning lessons.
To your surprise, a figure was already standing by the water faucets, rinsing their face in the running stream of water before abruptly shutting it off. You squinted, watching the boy run his dripping fingers through his dark locks, and then your gaze met the white and red symbol on his back.
Sasuke .
Sighing, you resigned yourself to just rinse off anyway, cringing at the smell of sweat that clung to your skin and the knowledge that your warm skin was probably pink from exertion. Walking to a faucet a few feet from the quiet Uchiha, you turned it on, feeling oddly self-conscious about splashing cold water on your warm cheeks and the slight bit of water that trailed down to stain the cloth covering your chest.
You let out a breath of satisfaction, relishing the coolness that soothed your overheated skin. Running your hands through your [h/c] locks, you shook out your shoulders, throwing a slight glance over at Sasuke who quickly averted his gaze.
Your eyebrows furrowed, disbelief crossing your features briefly. Was he staring at me? But of course, you would never believe that the bluff you put out the previous day actually held weight.
“You’re here awfully early,” you commented, raising an eyebrow. Sasuke’s gaze landed on you again, his usual disparaging attitude only enhanced by the aloof expression he wore.
“I should be saying that to you,” he mused, crossing his arms. “You’re the one who always rolls out of bed right before class.” Your mouth twitched in irritation.
“God, I would love to beat your ass into the ground,” you growled half-heartedly, giving Sasuke a hard look before moving to step past him.
“Why don’t you?” His taunting words stopped you in your tracks, and you threw him an incredulous look. “Even though you’d never win, you could still try.” You whirled on your heels, taking up firm stance, eyes flashing.
“You’re going to regret that,” you snapped, taking in the automatic adjustment in your opponent’s stance. Launching yourself at him as fast as you could manage, you slid a leg between his and attempted to hook it around his right calf, palms bare and aimed at his shoulders to push him down.
He turned, shifting his leg to knock out the knee of the leg you had put forward, sliding deftly to the side as you fell forward. You quickly ducked your head and tumbled, landing firmly in a crouch before leaping forward again, delivering a slower but powerful right hook directly at him. His arms blocked it, but you were sure that would end up as a nice bruise on his fair skin later.
You quickly followed up with a left palm strike, sliding your legs back as Sasuke tried to take them out again. Your strike missed, and Sasuke used it as a chance to get up in your personal space and deliver a forceful roundhouse kick to your torso, throwing you back.
You recovered quickly, shaking off the surge of pain that followed. In alarm, you realized he was no longer in front of you, and a gasp left your lips as you felt something cold press to your throat from behind.
“Dead,” his warm breath ghosted over your neck, making you blush.
“Am I?” A voice identical to yours came from further behind, and the cold kunai at your throat disappeared, giving you the opportunity to hastily make your escape. Turning, you caught sight of Sasuke quickly taking out your shadow clone, donning a refreshingly startled expression.
You couldn’t help but let a wild laugh escape your throat at the sight of your opponent so flustered, giving him the chance to take advantage of the situation and attack you straight on. Dodging his kick, you grabbed his leg and pulled it to your waist, swinging him around and planning to let him go flying. At the very last second, he shifted, hooking his leg around your hip and knocking you over, sending you both sprawling to the ground.
With him directly on top of you.
Sheer embarrassment attacked your reflexes, giving Sasuke the chance to forcefully pin both of your hands above your head, his figure straddling your hips and bending over to put you face-to-face with the skilled ninja-in-training.
Your breath lodged in your throat and you swallowed thickly, uncomfortably staring up at him in shock, his face just inches from yours. You both froze in that moment, looking at each other incredulously, before a smirk took over the boy’s face.
“I win,” he whispered, his breath mingling with yours as he spoke, his dark eyes dancing in the morning sunlight. But strangely, he didn’t dare move, just watching your burning face in growing satisfaction.
You were in such an awkward position. If you tried to buck up your hips to throw him off, you’d end up partially grinding into his own hips, and if you just arched your neck to headbutt him, you’d probably end up somewhere with your lips on his face. The thoughts made your cheeks a vivid pink, and you wiggled your arms against his grip.
“I could do this all day,” he chuckled, his grip on your wrists tightening ever so slightly.
Your heart pounded in your chest, and you quickly looked over your options before realizing that you had the surprise factor on your side. This better work! Easing up on the resistance, you took one long, searching look at his face before you reached up to press your lips to his, eyes squeezed shut as you did so.
You felt him recoil slightly in shock, giving you the opportunity to surge all your strength forward in an effort to overwhelm him. To your own surprise, it took him only a brief moment to recover and push back with full force, his lips still molded to yours with bruising intensity.
You felt the barest of movement in his lips, softer, before he pulled away, a riveting look on his face that you hadn’t the slightest idea of how to interpret.
“You’re not good at kissing, either,” he remarked bluntly, gazing at you with such force that you couldn’t tear your own gaze away. You choked on air, mortified.
“I-I wasn’t trying to be!” you said a little too loudly, feeling suddenly extremely self-conscious. To your further chagrin, Sasuke snorted slightly, rolling his eyes at you.
“If you want to distract me,” he said slowly, the way his eyes took you in making you tremble, “you’d have to do something like this.” With half-lidded eyes, he leaned forward, bringing his pink lips forward to lightly caress your own, gradually adding more pressure and a faster rhythm that sent your head spinning.
Oh my god, he’s actually kissing me, you thought dizzily, breath hitching as he tugged slightly on your bottom lip with his teeth. Why the hell not?
You pushed upward, taking more initiative to kiss him back as heatedly as you knew how, back arching slightly to press your chest against his. He faltered for a moment before smirking against your lips, elbows coming down to rest on the ground beside your arms as he still kept your wrists back.
After a few more moments of thoroughly enjoying Sasuke’s touch, you pulled back slightly, out of breath and warm-faced, eyes searching his face curiously.
His cheeks had abandoned their normal paleness in favor of a blush, his lips glistening in the light. His eyes seemed almost a warmer dark than they had been before, finally making him seem like he was human for once.
“We should train together,” you suggested breathlessly, suddenly feeling the urge to need to take advantage of Sasuke’s openness to feelings for once to get closer to him. His eyebrows came together slightly, taken aback by your words.
“Sure,” he replied, letting out a breathy chuckle as if he had surprised himself by agreeing. You tugged slightly against his grip on your wrists, becoming slightly uncomfortable in your position under him.
“As much as I don’t mind this,” you started, eyes shifting to the side to glance in the direction of the training grounds, “we are in a public place.” His gaze followed yours and he sighed, releasing your abused wrists and getting to his feet.
Sitting up, you ran both hands through your hair, brushing off your knees and back. A gloved hand entered your vision and you looked up, grinning faintly at Sasuke’s grudgingly embarrassed expression.
You gripped his hand and he pulled you to your feet, tugging you right up close to him and looking down at you, having replaced his indifferent demeanor.
“Don’t tell anyone about… this.” he mumbled quietly, and you huffed a laugh.
“Puh-lease,” you rolled your eyes, throwing him a joking smile. “Your fan club is a thousand times more dangerous than you, I’d have to have a death wish.”
“You’re right about something for once,” he commented, turning toward the training grounds. Just as he was about to start off, you strode up right beside him, pausing briefly to give him a hard, approving slap in the middle of the back.
“You’re hilarious,” you snorted, giving him a mischievous look. His dark eyes connected with yours, and for a moment you could’ve sworn you’d seen a spark in them. You stepped past him before you paused.
“You said I changed,” you brought up, staring ahead. You turned behind you to reveal a smile, your eyes meeting his briefly, “Maybe I just got tired of hating you.”
And with that, you walked off, leaving Sasuke’s lips turned up slightly and just a little bit more sincerely in your wake.