I would like to formally apologize for what this fanfic once was, which was an utter atrocity. It has so much more potential than what I gave it. Back then I was just desperate to get out chapters instead of actually thinking or caring enough about the content that I put out there. When I read through all the chapters their progression and relationship just didn't sit right with me. So, I hope that this time around I will be more successful with Hinata and Sasuke's little love tale. Some things are changed, and if remember the first version you might know what. This story is still by no means going to be any masterpiece, but it will definitely be more fleshed out.

I want to remind everyone that this is rated M. M for much violence, naughty words and other explicit content. I hope you guys enjoy!

Prologue

The early morning spring air was humid when Hinata woke up from her well needed sleep, feeling refreshed. Everything was silent around her as she usually woke up before the first birds started to chirp. Hato turned his white mouse masked face to her.

"You can sleep more, Captain." He was poking at the last remaining cracking embers of the fire with a twig, but kept his attention on the team captain. "If you want to."

Hinata just shook her head and looked for her mask so that she could put it back on her face, she always fell asleep with it on when on a mission. Unfortunately she had not yet succeeded in waking up with it as well.

She huffed, 'Maybe one day…'

The scroll on her hip had managed to stay put the entire night, though, so at least that was something to be glad about.

Besides from her and Hato, no one else was in the clearing with them, she stood up from her sleeping bag.

"Where is Ōkami?" She asked while she brushed some leaves off her trousers.

Hato looked to Ōkami's empty sleeping bag, "She went down to the stream a few minutes ago."

Hinata nodded, but the knots in her stomach did not get untied by Hato's words. Ever since she became a team captain and in charge of missions she could never truly relax whenever someone left the group, but as a Hyūga she had been raised strictly to always give others their privacy and to only use their Clan's abilities when in combat or when else thought necessary. Of course she could use it under her mask without anyone noticing but it was the principle of it that stopped her from doing such things. Exhaling the breath she had been holding she went to grab some of the soup and bread that Hato had prepared for breakfast. She braced herself before she put the spoon in her mouth.

"It is good…" She tried to make it sound as genuine as possible, but her teammate chuckled at her words and shook his head a little bit. Hinata corrected herself, "It is better than last time?"

"That sounds more like the truth."

The only way to eat the dry and rock hard bread was to soak it in the soup, but the soup was way too salty and tasted too much like the protein supplements put into it. But compared to what the young man had concocted previously… Hinata shivered at the mere thought of whatever he had called that thing. When Hato was preoccupied with other things she poured some of her drinking water into her soup to dilute the salty taste.

Hinata spilled some of the water as a loud terrifying screech cut through the, now, instantly wide awake morning air.

The birds flew away without as much as a sound and Hato and Hinata made their way to the stream in a hurry, not a word needed to be spoken to each other. Hinata stopped when she saw her teammate with half of her body face down in the water, a trail of blood leaving with the stream. With her byakugan activated she could not see anything besides Ōkami's organs slowing down and her chakra steadily fade away. Hinata ran over to her dying teammate and carefully pulled her out of the water to hold her in her arms. She pressed her chakra filled hand against the open and gushing wound over her chest, trying to hold it together. The middle aged woman spluttered out a mixture of blood and water but still managed to look relieved for a second when she saw who it was who had helped her out of the water. Her hands reached up and clasped onto Hinata's grey vest.

"I'll help you, d-don't worry, Ōkami, I'll save you, just hang in there!" Hinata pleaded with the dying woman as her blood continued to soak down her uniform and color Hinata's hands red. Slowly those pale familiar eyes faded away and Ōkami's body went limp in her arms.

"No…" Hinata whispered in disbelief.

"Hinata-sama, watch out!" Hato shouted to get her attention. Hinata had been too distracted by her own emotions to register that the danger was still present.

It happened quickly but it felt as if it had taken an eternity. In an awful moment of Déjà vu, Hato jumped in front of her, his mask fell off as he was janked back before he ever landed on the ground.

Hinata was frozen, she couldn't see anything but Hato's frightened eyes. Not even with her Byakugan activated could she tell what was holding the young man above the ground. But she could see how his ribs pressed into his lungs making it impossible for him to breathe.

'Run!' Hato mouthed, his eyes were huge and his face was turning purple.

There was a loud snap and Hinata could see it all too vividly. Hato's spine had been snapped in two as if he had been nothing more than a small dry twig. His eyes faded and he was thrown to the side like a piece of trash.

Hinata's heart sank but she wasted no time to be killed just as her teammates had been. So she ran. Fast and far. Leaving everything behind. She could feel someone behind her, just at her heels. Chasing - hunting. Sometimes she could hear water splashing behind her or leaves being rustled. She didn't dare to slow down, not when the sun slowly set nor when it once again sank behind her on the skyline. For them, for Hato and Ōkami she couldn't fall.

'It's a mirage,' she thought when she saw the large open gates of Konoha. Even though she had not heard anything from whatever had followed her for more than a couple of hours, she did not stop running until she was inside the gates of Konoha.

I

For months now, since Sasuke had become an ANBU, the Hokage had presented him with suitable partners for him to choose from. The young man had repeatedly claimed that none of them were good enough for him, or as he liked to put it "They'd all be dead within a week." But frankly, Kakashi had now lost his patience with the stubborn and quite rude Uchiha.

"I refuse to choose any of these." Sasuke said with a frown of disgust, taking a step back from the table where all the photos and journals lay scattered, he hadn't even picked any of them up, barely even given them a glance to begin with. He crossed his arms over his chest and looked at the grey haired Hokage, unimpressed.

"They are the only ones that you can choose from" Kakashi raised his hand to stop the Uchiha from talking. "We've gone through this already, Sasuke, no you can not be in an ANBU Black Ops team without any teammates. No exceptions. That's final… Now - choose one."

"Hn", It was to no big surprise that the Uchiha wasn't very fond of the idea of having a teammate to drag him down. Because that is what they would do. If it had been completely up to him he would have made Sasuke a solo ANBU weeks ago, but the council were not as trusting in the vagabond, which the Hokage completely understood, basically they wanted someone to keep tabs on him.

"It's almost only women here." Sasuke stated.

"Yes, since you didn't pick one for your team the first few times when I called you over, most of the men have been chosen." Kakashi shook his head in disappointment. "I can give you a few suggestions. Mira Yamanaka for an example, she got one of the highest scores in the test. If I'm correct, I think she was a year above you when you were in the academy."

Sasuke scoffed and shook his head. "I want a teammate, not some crazed fangirl. But the only guys that are left would be nothing more than unnecessary baggage, they wouldn't last more than a day. I didn't know that the standards for becoming an ANBU were so low."

"Ayasaki-san?" Kakashi said and pointed towards an older lady, ignoring the last part of the young man's statement .

"Give me a serious suggestion."

The hokage would've been offended if he wasn't used to Sasuke's speaking mannerisms already. They were clearly not getting anywhere and Kakashi got a feeling that Sasuke wasn't even trying anymore.

"If you don't choose a partner I'm afraid you'll have to go back to being a Genin Sasuke. Then you'll have to go through the Chunin exams again. This was the only fast way that you could do anything above a c-ranked mission. I've been lenient with you, as your old teacher or as a friend, this special treatment ends now. But I'm sure that you don't mind doing D ranked missions since you don't even want to choose a teammate for yours-"

A knock on his office door interrupted Kakashi from continuing. And frankly he doesn't mind it one bit. Trying to reason with the Uchiha was about as fun and rewarding as talking to a wall, if not possibly worse.

"You may come in!" He said, ignoring Sasuke's glare.

In walked the small framed Hinata in her ANBU uniform, she didn't acknowledge the Uchiha standing in the room and went straight past him to Kakashi. The ANBU bowed deeply towards the hokage, a blood stained white rabbit mask still on, with only two pale purple pointed markings on each side of its cheek. The smell of sweat and death reeked from her when she walked into the room and her arms were completely covered in dried blood.

"The mission was completed Hokage-sama, here's the scroll from the snow village." She handed him the scroll, her hand was shaking. She halted when she gave Kakashi the scroll, her head turning to her hand. Quickly, as if burned, she released the scroll and crossed both of her bloodied arms over her chest, staining her vest.

Kakashi could sense Sasuke's judging eyes staring at the back of the young Hyuga, clearly taking notice of what state she had entered the office. He could only assume what the young man was thinking, but whatever it was, that face meant it could not be any good.

"Where are your teammates?" Kakashi leaned forward on his desk, he had an idea of what could've happened, just based on the sight of her appearance. He wasn't stupid after all.

"We were on our way back, when something took us by surprise, something I couldn't see with my Byakugan, Hato and Ōkami… they didn't make it," the ANBU informed, her voice quivered a bit as she did her best to hold back her tears and she lowered her head.

"I'm sorry to hear that, I know… how it feels to lose team mates" Kakashi didn't know what else to say. Hinata had changed so much since she became an ANBU two years ago, but she and her team had definitely been one of his most efficient ANBU teams, he would give them that.

"So that means she needs a new teammate." Sasuke's sudden statement cut through the thick air in the room. He turned to Kakashi.

Kakashi gave Sasuke a mean look and he wanted to smack the young man over his head for his poor taste in words and especially in timing.

"She just lost her teammates, don't be so inconsiderate, she probably needs some time before she can go back to work again, and that is fully understand-"

"No!" She interrupted the Hokage and coughed awkwardly before she continued, "Excuse me, Hokage-sama, but I would rather go back to work as soon as possible."

"Hi-... Bani, are you sure? There's nothing wrong if you feel like you need a break." Kakashi tried, almost forgetting to use her ANBU name, her actions hadn't been healthy lately, pushing both her and her teammates to their limits, and now perhaps beyond. He knew he would have to talk with her eventually, or maybe he could order her to be sent to a Yamanaka. If he had to resort to something like that he would.

"You heard her, she said she's fine,'' Sasuke snarled, an annoyed look on his face.

Kakashi could just guess what he was thinking. Sasuke probably couldn't understand why Kakashi was treating an ANBU as if she was some sort of baby in need of being taken care of. Sasuke was after all twenty now, practically a senior when it came to Shinobi terms. Hinata would turn twenty at the end of the year, she was no longer a child.

But Kakashi had a lot of people on his shoulders counting on him to keep the Hyuga girl as safe as possible. Some of them didn't even know that she has become an ANBU. Frankly, he knows that he's babying her, but the last person he would want coming after him would be Hiashi and the Hyuga clan with him.

"If this is what both of you want…" Sasuke waited for the young woman to nod her head before he did. Kakashi wasn't too pleased with the situation, but he guessed this was the only way that Sasuke would choose a partner. He opened his drawer and pulled out Sasuke's and Hinata's files, as well as both of her deceased teammates. Kakashi handed over her teammates files to her, Hinata didn't even look down at them.

"I couldn't get their name tags…" her head was lowered with shame.

"Well have to do something about that then, give me the full detailed report of the mission by tomorrow evening and I will come up with a plan."

Hinata nodded, "Yes, Sir".

Kakashi looked down at Sasuke and Hinata's files, eyebrows raising slowly as he compared their files to each other. Hinata had almost gotten as high points as Sasuke in her tests before, in stealth she had been best of her year.

'Sasuke and Hinata. An Uchiha and Hyūga… they are… very compatible partners, I must admit. Sharingan, Rinnegan and Byakugan. Very powerful, indeed.' Kakashi paused with his reading and looked up at the two of them, they were as silent as usual. Now that he was thinking more about it they were actually very similar to each other, only The Hyuga had less of a killer vibe to her, even though he knew that she had taken more lives than he could count on his fingers and toes, just like any other shinobi who had survived the last war. But she has definitely increased those numbers by quite a bit over the last year.

"I don't want to do anything without being sure first. I want the two of you to be sure as well, especially you, Bani." Sasuke frowned, getting more irritated by the grey haired man the more he talked.

"I'm assigning the two of you to a month of sparring together, if it still feels right after that for the both of you, I'll see what mission that will find suitable. After that I will make my decision." Kakashi ignored Sasuke's grumbled words and shot a glance towards the clock. "I'm afraid that I'll have to end the meeting here, I have an appointment with Naruto soon. Bani, don't forget the mission report."

"Yes, Sir."

"Tomorrow at training ground 7, at dawn." Sasuke said simply.

"Yes", and almost as soon as she disappeared out the window, Naruto barged into the office.

"Oh, Sasuke! There you are! Sakura's been looking almost everywhere for you!"

"Idiot stop shouting, it's annoying." Naruto ignored his harsh words.

"Anyways! Before you go, Mr. Grumpy, Konoha 11 are having a little get together, now that everyone is actually in the village for once, Ino thought it was worth a celebration. Will you come?" Naruto didn't look like he really expected Sasuke to even answer his question.

The Uchiha thought about it for a second and decided that he could just leave if he didn't like it. "Sure."

Naruto looked at him in disbelief, "Really?"

"Why not," he said as he headed towards the door.

When Sasuke was gone Naruto looked at Kakashi with a puzzled face, "I did not expect that…"

They were all already seated and eating when Sasuke arrived at the restaurant, Naruto was the first one to notice him (obviously) and welcomed him to sit down with a big smile and a pat on the pillow next to him. They had a private room, it was annoyingly warm and smelled like cooking oil and cheap alcohol, the kind you only drink for one reason. Sasuke didn't say anything as he sat down, everyone in the room seemed to grow awkward and quiet except for Naruto who complained loudly about his time with Kakashi going through some "stupid and boring" papers, as he liked to phrase it.

After a while the conversations were back to normal (which was loud and obnoxious, with everyone talking over each other). Sasuke sat quietly and looked at all of them, they hadn't changed that much, except for the fact that everyone were taller and looked slightly more mature, mostly it was just less baby fat in the face and different clothes.

"What a fucking trade off… They take away Neji and we get the one and only Uchiha Sasuke back!" Tenten grinned at Sasuke but her words were soaked in sarcasm and jumbled by the alcohol she had consumed throughout the dinner. She stared at Sasuke, or at least at Sasuke's general direction with her drunken eyes from the furthest part of the table opposite of Sasuke. With one hand holding onto the sake bottle she took another big swig of it and slammed the bottle back onto the table.

The people around the table were awkwardly silent once more and looked at Tenten with pity in their eyes as her head fell down. Maybe if Sasuke cared for this drunk he would feel just like the others, but he barely even felt annoyed by her words.

"It isn't fair, Neji was good... doesn't even make any sense!" she was rambling to herself but in her drunken state she spoke loud enough for everyone around the table to hear her.

Rock Lee squeezed her shoulders and spoke. "We live in memory of Neji now, let's shine bright and make him proud!"

"She needs to sleep this off. Lee, can you bring her home?" Sakura's voice cut through the tension in the room.

Ino grabbed a pill out of her purse and instructed him to feed it to the brunette when she got home. Rock Lee took it and nodded.

After the commotion of a loudly resistant Tenten being dragged out by Rock Lee was over, Sasuke turned to the only two members of team 8 that were present at the table.

"So, where's your teammate?" Sasuke asked bluntly, he did not feel like beating around the bush, he knew what happened to Neji but he did not even remember that much about team 8. They hadn't left much of an impact on him.

The table fell silent, everyone looked at each other as if it was a taboo subject to talk about.

The dog boy looked ready to jump at him, but he sat still with his hands and jaw clenched, his face slowly shifting into sadness instead of rage he shot a glance at the uncharacteristically quiet Naruto before he took one large swig of whatever was inside his beverage. His fists were clenched tightly around the glass, a little more and it would surely break in his hand. Sasuke could practically already taste the pungent smell of blood in the air.

"A war can change a person… She lost many who were close to her,'' the bug boy answered, short and simple.

"Hinata is almost never seen in the village anymore." Naruto said, mellow.

"Naruto..." Sakura didn't know what else to say so she just put a comforting hand on his shoulder.

"Naruto, you shouldn't blame yourself, Neji died protecting Hinata. That isn't your fault. It's Hinata who is just having a hard time accepting it." Ino spoke up, she sounded tired.

Sasuke thought back to the time at the academy, he could remember the shy Hyūga heiress, mostly because of her bloodline. It did not surprise him that she would break after the war, he had not remembered her to be the strong type, it had been an often occurrence that she would avoid sparring sessions in the academy. It seemed almost cruel that they had even sent people of her meek nature to the war to begin with.

After that, they had all lost their appetites - even Chōji.

Thank you for choosing to read this story, I appreciate any compliment or criticism.