AN: Last one! Sorry for the lateness! There's a lot of errors that I saw when I proofed it from my iPhone but it's late and I'll fix them later.

This fic is somewhat of a dedication fic to Fairheartstrife over at DA who drew an absolutely beautiful picture from chapter 10 of A Traitor Branded. I was very humbled and moved by how much she liked the story and I hope she enjoys this as well.

The fic is based off of a picture she drew that you can view with this link fairheartstrife(dot)deviantart(dot)com/ ar t/ Secret-Kiss-175206092 It is followed by art from VioletVolchok: violetvolchok(dot)deviantart(dot)com/ art / SasuHina-manga-spoiler-150671814

This was a ton of fun, thank you to everyone who reviewed and faved. If you haven't checked out the club yet please do so, there were some absolutely amazing SasuHina submissions: sasuxhina-fanclub(dot)deviantart(dot)com

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SasuHina Week Day Seven: Free For All

Tired of Waiting

By: Catriana

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He found her lying there one day. It had been raining at the time but she had seemed oblivious to this, instead her white eyes merely stared up at the darkened sky, her face empty of emotion. He hadn't known her long but normally when he saw her she always seemed to be almost too emotional, so the look on her face that day had seemed so odd.

He would have walked away but there had been something about her that had given him pause. So instead of walking away like he normally would have, instead he had ended up walking towards her, his hands in his pockets.

"You're going to get sick." He had said to her but there had been no reaction, not even a blink. With his hands still in his pockets he had poked her arm lightly with his toe "Hey. Hyuuga. Get up." No answer. It wasn't until he had knelt down and moved his hand over her face that he realized she was out cold. Well hell.

So he had taken her back to his place. He would have taken her to the hospital but people were still suspicious of him and he would have gotten pissed if anyone had accused him of foul play. The Hyuuga had ended up catching a fever and for a few days he had housed her and took care of her. He still did not to this day know what prompted him to do such a thing, only that he still did not regret it.

When she had finally awakened she had been disoriented and frantic. When she had discovered that it had been the fallen avenger that had cared for her she had been stunned, amazed and perhaps had been even a little intrigued. She had asked him questions and he had ignored them, not wanting to get any more involved than he already had.

Little did he know he had already fallen deep within the rabbit hole with absolutely no way to get out.

She had given her thanks and left once recovered. For a while he didn't see her. Not that it had mattered; her lack of presence made more of an impact on him than when she had been near. His apartment began to feel empty, he thought of her often. Whenever he would see her in the village he would automatically do a double take and his heart would skip a small beat. When she smiled at him his breath would catch and he would abruptly walk away, confused and frustrated.

'Not being fond of' said feelings was an understatement; initially it had royally pissed him off, to the point where he had begun snapping at anyone and everyone for anything and everything. His old teammates had noticed, of course, but normally asking the Uchiha "What's wrong?" ended in hostility so it had been avoided. After a while he began to reluctantly accept it; what else could he do?

So he approached her.

Of course, his courting skills were little to be desired. Having always had females in his face, it was difficult to know or decide how to act around the only female that he had ever encountered besides his family that didn't seem interested in him romantically. For a while it had actually been a blow to the ego; why didn't she find him appealing? She wasn't really blind and he knew he looked good so what the hell? He had spoken to Kakashi about it once and only once and swore never to make that mistake again. He detested being laughed at. At first he ended up frightening her instead of getting her to like him, so he had switched up his game plan to something else; compliments.

He discovered very quickly that he sucked at giving compliments. Sasuke had to scratch that one since he had been trying to get her to like him, not royally piss her off – a feat that her team mates had sworn was impossible until then. That had also done little for his already bruised ego.

So he tried gifts; which had been absolutely and utterly embarrassing for him and he had actually taken the coward's way out by sneaking into the Hyuuga compound and dropping them off in her room…without telling her who the gifts were from. He could admit to himself that it hadn't been the greatest – or most intelligent – move he had ever made but by that point he had been growing desperate, frustrated, angry, and other things he hadn't known he could even feel until he had fallen for Hyuuga Hinata.

It worked…except she hadn't known it was him sending the gifts and for some reason telling her had been impossible for him. By the time he had found the courage all of the girls in the village were gossiping about the mysterious admirer that was in love with Hinata and he had backtracked.

Love? That word had left him highly uncomfortable and all courage to confess had died. He liked her, love was a completely different story altogether. So he stopped with the gifts and decided that it would be better to just ignore her and try to forget about his bout of stupidity over a girl. It was her own fault anyway; all the girls liked him, what was her problem? As far as he had been concerned, she had been the one with the malfunction, not him.

So how did they come together? A shouting match. Well, she had been lightly arguing, he had been the one shouting about how much of an idiot she was that she had been unable to notice the obvious. It hadn't been obvious and they had both known it but Sasuke had this habit of ignoring details that didn't help his case concerning being correct. And so finally they got together.

His attitude did a complete one eighty.

Now that he had her, his ego went right back up to where it had been and he became overly confident since he didn't have to work hard to get her attention any longer. Being young, male, and hormonal, he was more than happy to explore the more physical aspects of their relationship…well had tried to anyway. Hinata was extremely prudish and so kissing had been as far as it had went for a while. Anything past that had been Great Shinobi War-ish in epic proportions to achieve. Of course, he wasn't considered tenacious for nothing and eventually got his way.

Their relationship was currently a secret. He wanted it that way, it was less hassle for her due to him being who he was. Being with her had been everything it had felt it would be; Hinata was gentle, kind, compassionate, and yet had an inner strength to her that he could only admire from a kunoichi such as herself. She was humble and unobtrusive, he didn't have to bust his chops just to get her to smile. She wasn't high maintenance and he thoroughly enjoyed her company. There was one really annoying thing about her, and that was her aversion towards intimacy. The first time he had tried to kiss her she had actually fainted, which had been…well awkward. Hugging her had ended up with the same results and so he had come up with a plan. Instead of backing off he became more emboldened and eventually, after many painstaking moments of fanning her until she awakened after coming on to her she finally calmed down.

Despite it all, they actually didn't spend much time together. If he wasn't doing missions for the godaime she was out on her own. This was a shinobi's life but for Sasuke, who had finally found something after years of having nothing, he began to realize just how dependent on her presence he had become. Not seeing her often quickly began to take its toll and with them having to keep their relationship under wraps it only made things even more frustrating. He worried about her constantly although he never showed it, and thought about her constantly when she was gone. Quickly, he found himself wanting more with her, much more.

He was tired of hiding.

xxxxx

A soft gasp left her when he slipped his arms around her from behind, turning her to face him. He was being daring today; he had managed to get Hinata alone and only feet away from the forest was a clearing where a large group of their friends – Sasuke preferred to call them loose acquaintances on a good day – were having a get together. He had kind of tricked her, motioning that he had something to tell her when really he just wanted to push the envelope. Was there a chance that they'd be discovered? Probably, but he didn't care today. He wanted someone did find out; they realistically couldn't hide forever and they both knew it. If they wanted to take their relationship further, something would have to give. That had actually been Hinata's argument and he had dismissed it at the time, unsure if he wanted to expose her to the pain that would follow her decision to be with someone like him. Three years had passed and he was finally giving in – he knew she wanted more; why not give her what she wanted? Of course, he wasn't going to tell her his decision just yet.

He liked making her squirm.

"S-Sasuke…" her pale eyes darted around frantically, making sure they were alone. He smirked and tugged on her wrist, pulling her towards him. "I thought…you had something to tell me…" her face flushed as she took in the look in his eyes. She knew that look and it never foretold of good things ahead.

"I do," he purred, the smirk widening as she tried to tug away "you have to come here first." Inwardly he was chuckling as he watched her resist the urge to activate her bloodline limit. He was being a bastard – she was only panicking because he was the one who had wanted to keep their relationship under wraps and hiding had become second nature for her – but he really couldn't help it; she was so fun and easy to tease.

Another quick look before she looked up at him. He snaked his other arm around her waist and pulled her flush against him, dipping his head. She let out another soft gasp "Sasuke what…what if someone sees us?"

He made a small noise from the back of his throat "Don't care." He did actually sense someone near but he recognized the chakra. Hinata wouldn't, because this particular person's chakra signature was now very subtle…but not for him. Not after what they had been through together.

She tried one more time but her defenses were quickly crumbling. She had always had a hard time resisting him when he was persistent "But, Sasuke –"

He lightly brushed his lips along hers and just like that all care and consideration for anything and everything around them completely faded. It was always like that when he was with her this way; she had this way of making nothing else matter. "Shush, Hinata." He murmured, voice low, the teasing note gone.

A soft sigh escaped her when his lips slid over hers and he growled low, practically crushing her against him as he deepened the kiss. Whenever he touched her, kissed her, or was intimate with her it always affected him in ways he would never be able to properly explain to her or anyone else. Hatred was a powerful emotion that he had always been rather intimate with over the years; but love was its complete opposite and for someone who felt in extremes it was just as overwhelming every time. And he did love her although it had taken a good two years for him to admit it to himself. After being drunk on one emotion for so long, this new state of inebriation was a welcome relief and at times it was hard for him to control those feelings and urges.

Thankfully, she always matched him when it came to their passion and she clung to him, tilting her head for a better angle. Her free hand rose and he felt fingers brush along his jaw. A shiver went down his spine.

Then reality came slamming down on them when they heard something rustle in the bushes. They didn't break apart but both activated their bloodline limits, eyes snapping over towards the disturbance.

"Uh…" blue eyes stared at them as if they had both completely lost their marbles and it took them a moment to realize that he had been staring at them like that for quite some time. The newcomer stood, still blinking at them blankly as a hand began to scratch the back of his head. "Uh…" he repeated, lost for words.

His girlfriend stiffened in his arms and he immediately realized why when she began to hastily pull her jacket back over her shoulders and zipping it up. Oops, had he done that? Sometimes his hands had minds of their own, he refused to take responsibility if she blamed him. Her face was bright red and she tried to stammer out some sort of explanation. Rolling his eyes, Sasuke pulled her against him, burying her face in his chest.

"We're going out." Was what he told the blond haired, blue eyed male that was still staring at them like an idiot "No, you're not seeing things, stop looking stupid."

That snapped him out of it and he took a few steps forward, fists raised "What was that, bastard?" he paused, blinked a few more times and then shook his head at the couple. He even went so far as to rub his eyes, as if in doing so they would magically disappear or not actually be in a tight embrace "Uh…" it was too much for his poor mind to process and so it reverted back to its dumbfounded state. The Uchiha rolled his eyes.

"Hinata and I." he began, as if speaking to a very small child "Are together. As in. We are dating. A couple. Having se –" dainty hands slapped over his mouth and he looked down at his girlfriend who looked horrified.

"P-please don't t-tell him things like that!" this time he rolled his eyes at her. And they called him the strange one.

"So uh…" a hand rose and Naruto's mouth did this sort of fish out of water movement before noise emerged again "you two…?"

"Yeah." Sasuke answered, tilting his head "Is it really that hard to grasp?"

"Well…yeah!" when the couple blinked at him his eyes squinted and he looked thoughtful "I mean…Hinata is so sweet and nice and you're a complete jerk so like…" he looked at Hinata "Seriously, what do you see in this grumpy bastard anyway?"

Eyebrow twitching, Sasuke resisted the urge to go and pommel the blond – mostly because he preferred soft curves pressed against him over inflicting pain on one loud mouthed idiot. "Maybe the question is, what didn't you see in her?"

Low blow was low and Naruto winced and he almost regretted the words. Almost, and only really because Hinata had looked down for a moment; a little sad. She leaned against him, however, so he took that as a good sign that she wasn't really mad at him. "Sorry." He said it mostly to Hinata who nodded. He was honestly grateful Naruto had never returned Hinata's feelings, otherwise he wouldn't be feeling all of these new sensations and emotions. If anything, it was the one time he could actually thank Naruto for being stupid. He had no idea what he had missed.

"Nah, it's cool." And just like that Naruto recovered "So…how long this been going on? A few weeks?"

"Try a few years."

"Eh?"

"Don't worry about the details." Sasuke quickly said, not wanting to deal with another neural meltdown with the blond "Just do us a favor. Cover for us," this got Hinata's attention but he didn't look down at her "there's something I want to do."

"Huh?" this came from both of them this time but instead of responding right away he shifted his body, smirking when a small yelp came from his girlfriend as he pulled her over his shoulder. She wiggled a bit and let out a few light protests before relenting, knowing that he wasn't going to let her go.

"Sure…" Naruto frowned in confusion "Wat'cha gonna do?"

Turning to the future hokage he smirked, but there was something serious behind his dark gaze "Something I should have done a long time ago." He murmured and with that he carried his 'bundle' deeper into the forest.

xxxxx

AN: What was it that Sasuke should have done? My dear readers, I shall leave that up to you ;)