日向導 - A Hyūga's Guide

Chapter Ten: Venturing Out

The first time Sasuke found himself having a nightmare years after the death of his mother and brother, he expected to hear the padding of the maids' feet and the feeling of their hands as they rushed to comfort him, but instead, he felt her hand enveloping his own. How long has he been asleep? He couldn't tell day from night, they all felt the same to him.

"You're alright." She whispered, her fingers brushing his hair. "It's morning."

He held her wrist to stop her from continuing the soothing action. Sasuke sighed and closed his eyes again as he let her hand go once he figured that she understood his silent request.

It had been a week — maybe more or less, he didn't know — since he's been away from the Palace. The days were the same; she'd bring him food, sit at the desk taking care of her personal things as he listened, he'd wait for Naruto to visit for the day to give him an update, and repeat. If he wasn't listening to Hinata, he was sleeping or just slowly losing his mind due to pure boredom.

Besides that, the only new thing to happen was the horrible dream he had. Years ago, he thought that he would no longer be tormented in his sleep, and he wondered if it was because he was away from the Palace. He could still feel the slight throb in his eyes, he was curious to know if he had bled throughout his dream, but hearing how calm 'Hina' was, he figured that his cheeks weren't caked with blood.

"Are you hungry?" She asked.

He could hear her organize the food on the table and stood up without having her ask him to. Sasuke was still deep in thought about his dream, barely hearing her explain where the dishes were. Picking up his chopsticks, he frowned and set them back down.

The pain in his eyes was hard to ignore, so was the lingering touches of his mother and his older brother's fingers against his forehead. The day that he heard the news that they had died, he went on a rampage and caused damage to his eyes. That pain was never forgotten. His heart had hurt immensely and his father offered no comfort beyond telling him to cry for just a moment and then pick himself back up for the sake of the people.

"I have no appetite." Sasuke mumbled as he pulled his blindfold down. His hair was a mess and sweat still caked his skin but he didn't care.

Hinata watched him sit there quietly, unbeknownst to him, he was constantly picking at his clothing as if it bothered him. She recognized those blank stares and the flushed look on his face because she too had the same one whenever she was reminded of that night.

"Is something the matter?" She asked, covering the food again so it didn't go bad by the time he was ready to eat.

"Hn."

She had spent so much time with him unintentionally that she could understand the tone in his voice. The brief moment of silence that followed after was usually reserved for when he was trying to get his thoughts together. Hinata was never privy to anyone's business unless it concerned her; as seen by her lack of interest in any problem Sakura had unless she personally asked for help.

But ignoring how he was feeling at the moment would probably do more bad than good. The last thing she needed was for him to do something foolish before Naruto came to visit for the day — the Uzumaki would have her head if Sasuke hurt himself under her supervision.

"Do you want to talk about it?" She offered, mentally kicking herself for behaving like an advisor for the Crown Prince. On any other day, under different circumstances, she would not have offered her time at all. Hinata blamed being around Naruto and Sasuke so often.

"Have you ever lost something you held dear?" He turned to where her voice came from. He was genuinely curious to know her answer — she was from a noble family, there was no way she knew what pain was.