sasuhina flyaway 10

PART 10

Kana didn’t know how to act. She had never been hugged before (at least she didn’t remember being hugged before). And never had she felt a new feeling flood into her so easily like an ocean wave. It was a warm feeling, and she felt as if she could just cry into the person holding her. Never had she felt so safe before, so…protected. The marble skin of his face pressed against the side of her cheeks warmed her, and her heart fluttered like the wings of a bird.

Sasuke didn’t know what in Kami’s name possessed him to embrace this girl, and now, he just couldn’t let go of her. It was as if she was meant to be there with his arms around her. He breathed in her scent of lavender and felt her soft hair brush his nose. He noticed that at first she was stiff, but then she relaxed, but just a little bit. One hand was at the back of her head, and the other was pressed gently on her back. Sasuke closed his eyes, and wanted to just stand there forever. Holding her was like walking through a dream. Without realizing it, he had moved his face from the side of her head to in front of her, extremely close to her lips…such pale soft lips.

Sasuke’s eyes widened, and he let go of her, and turned away with a terrible blush creeping up his face. Behind his back, Kana was also blushing, but she quickly extinguished that feeling. Now she was the cold Kana again. But all this time, they didn’t realize that there was a certain red-headed girl watching them the entire time.

XXXXXX

How dare that girl think to take away my Sasuke? Karin fumed. She had been looking for Sasuke, after she had gotten that disgusting cloth out of her mouth. Her eyes had captured the moment when Sasuke had pulled Kana into his arms, and she noticed that he held her for quite a while. But it was also Sasuke who had let go of her. So he wasn’t completely hers yet. Karin still had a chance.

XXXXXX

Kana lied on her bed, thinking about the feeling she had just experienced a moment ago. She felt as if, whenever she was with Sasuke, new emotions were unlocked. But this was a first for her to experience an emotion like…she didn’t know what it was called. Kana had also been taken by surprise when he suddenly grabbed her into a tight embrace. The pain from her broken wrist soon numbed into nothing after he held her.

Later, Kana went to Kabuto to ask him to heal it. When he asked how she got a broken wrist, she had lied and said, “Training.” Relieved that he had accepted her lie without question, she had later learned that the place keeping Juugo prison was the North Wing. The place that she was supposed to forbidden from. But she had felt such great pity toward Juugo, she often sneaked in to visit him once in a while. And when she visited him, she never saw that mad blood lust in his eyes. In fact, he looked more at peace.

Sasuke had begun to notice that Kana would go missing some days, but he also noticed that he had been thinking about this girl too much. He trained more to get her off his mind, but whenever he trained alone, he was reminded of her so much, since she used to train with him. So ever since she had entered his life, things had never been the same. And, to make it worse, Karin had started flirting with him more and more whenever she got the chance. It was extremely irritating.

But even though he got enough attention from Karin, he felt he hadn’t had enough from Kana. She didn’t swoon at the sight of him, or didn’t turn red. She just smiled as if he was her equal. Nothing above that, and nothing below. I like it that way, but I wish she would see me as more than just a frie-

He shook his head immediately and denied to himself, “I did not just think that. I did not just think that.”

“Think what?”

Sasuke jumped at the sound of Kana’s cool voice. “It’s nothing,” he lied quickly. He heard her footsteps near him, and soon she was standing right beside him. He felt her hand at his shoulder, and could hear the worry in her voice, “Are you sure?”

A thought crossed his mind: say you love her. But he wouldn’t. The avenger would not do such a thing. Instead he lied again, “Yeah, I’m sure.” He turned away to hide the emotions that rushed to his face. But there was one that she could still see. And it was the one that she didn’t know the name of.

Maybe I should ask someone what it’s called.

Kana again visited Juugo, as she did every once in a while. Juugo sensed her presence and gave her a friendly, relieved smile. She had learned that the experiments he went under were even more painful than the ones that she had once endured. But she felt glad that she could offer out a hand to one who was suffering so much.

“Kana, is something wrong?” Juugo asked when he saw the calculating look on her face. She shook her head but then said, “Well, I was just wondering…” she began to describe the emotion she had felt before with Sasuke. A warm feeling that sent butterflies to her stomach, and a fast heart beat. She had never felt so comfortable with anyone before.

When she finished, Juugo smiled, glad that his new friend had discovered such a precious feeling. “It’s called love, Kana.”

Love? That is what they call Love? Shock hit her so easily. She knew that love was affection for others but she never imagined that it would appear to her in this form. But she had to admit, she quite liked the feeling: of finally being safe and free. But another thought crossed her mind: love could be a nuisance.

Juugo, as if reading her mind, said, “Love actually completes a person. Kana, I think, that by obtaining this emotion, you have become much closer to finding who you are. And I know that that is what you want most. But you really can’t help love. You don’t take love. Love takes you.”

Confused at her words, she was forced to leave before anyone discovered her there. Love…it’s so complicated. I don’t understand. Sighing with a slight headache, she resorted to thinking about it later. She would trust that thought she had before: love could be a nuisance.

XXXXXXX

Karin stomped over to Kana who was standing against the wall of the dojo. Her face was red with rage, and Kana just looked at her with the same indifferent look, and uncaring eyes. The memory of Sasuke and Kana hugging drew Kana mad, and she all of a sudden struck her hand out to slap Kana across the face. But she was stopped by Kana’s own hand holding her wrist so tightly, she could feel the joints rubbing against each other, threatening to snap.

Hiding her wince, Karin glared and growled, “Stay away from my Sasuke. He doesn’t need you.”

Kana continued her unwavering stare that held absolutely no glint of emotion. But her mouth opened to speak, but then closed as if she changed her mind. Kana didn’t care about Karin. But at the moment, Karin didn’t know how torn Kana felt at the moment, watching Sasuke spar with Orochimaru, and thinking about all those people locked up in that bloody-smelling experimenting place, where one of her friends was. Karin didn’t know that Kana felt torn between being an accomplished assassin and someone who just wanted to help.

Karin left with her fists clenched, and Kana still stayed leaned against the wall, not realizing that Sasuke was waiting for her to spar with him, since Orochimaru just finished and left. He coughed to get her attention, but she stared at the ground, and he felt confusion cloud over in the atmosphere around her. Wiping the sweat off him with a towel, he neared her and stood before her. Her body was shaking and he could see tears threatening to come out. He could see that she was struggling with who she was, and all she did was keep it bottled up.

Resting a hand against her shoulder, and using his other hand to lift her chin gently to face him, he didn’t see a gifted ninja. He saw a girl. Just a girl and nothing else. His heart softened and Sasuke leaned in toward her, his lips whispered in her ear, “It’s okay to cry.” He heard her sniffle a little bit, still refusing to cry. He wrapped his arm around her waist, pulling her close to him, and whispered again, “It’s okay. Cry. I won’t let anyone see.”

Then she broke. Kana buried her face in his chest and tears flowed in streams. She could taste the salt of her tears and his sweat mix together, and when she tried to stifle her sobs, he just held her even tighter, and she would keep crying. And he would listen to her sobs, he could feel her pain radiate around her, and he was trying so hard to heal her wounds.

Kana…

Sasuke…

XXXXXX

What is this feeling curling inside me? It’s such a light and free feeling. Like sunlight in the cold winds of winter. Is this love?

XXXXXXX

Sasuke couldn’t sleep, and was propped up in bed in the pitch blackness of his room. Not a single beam of light or flame of fire lit the room. It was pure darkness. But Sasuke found the darkness slightly comforting, as if hiding his private thoughts. And at the moment…his thoughts were on Kana.

At that moment, he longed to hear her musical angelic laugh, or at least a voice of emotion. He wanted to touch her soft dark hair, and see her snow skin and pale lips.

He couldn’t take it anymore, and he threw off his covers, and pulled on his sandals, and turned the knob to go out and head for her room. But he found that her room was unlocked, and when he opened the door, he found her sitting against the wall in the dark. Her eyes were closed, but he could tell that she wasn’t singing. Her breaths were slow and steady, and when he neared her, he saw moonlight glint off her white skin from the window. Kana’s eyes opened and she stood up slowly and walked forward to Sasuke.

Sasuke reached out and found that she had too, her hands on his chest, and his on her elbows. They both opened their mouths to speak. And they both spoke at the same time:

“I love you.”