Hinata never understood much about Sasuke.

The boy was a shell of what he used to be it seemed. Consumed with grief, he shut down and crumbled after what his beloved brother had done to him. That, everyone was positive. But what he ever felt besides the constant loathing for a memory of a person he once trusted remained a mystery.

But for Hinata, things were a little different. There were times during her academy classes when she would sneak a glance to the boy all the girls were mutedly gossiping about, only to find his gaze already locked on her. Bashful, Hinata would shy away from his attention.

Though Hinata was almost certain the young Uchiha held some sort of affection for her she could unfortunately, and almost ironically, not return, his eyes never slipped from their cold and hard black. No, they wouldn't soften so kindly and his eyelashes wouldn't flutter in a display of schoolboy puppy-love like those girls sighed so heavily at the fantasy of him doing so, they just stayed so... blank.

But why her of all people? Failure-ridden Hyuuga Hinata, who was merely a painfully average ranking among her classmates? This is where she would put her wandering mind at ease, and remind herself of how ridiculous she was acting. She shouldn't be wasting her time on thinking of such foolish things. Even if her eyes would gloss over while fondly watching the blonde boy with the sun-kissed complexion, she wasn't that fickle.

Soon Hinata learned to ignore what felt like heated attention from Sasuke when she ate her bento on the swing set, or when she trained, or when she did anything it seemed.