Hikari had been making steady progress, at a glance, she looked as healthy as other kunoichi, and all of her struggles seemed so far away from her. Sasuke had paid special attention to her training and noticed that it was more than just strength training, which it usually was, instead he noticed that she was improving. He could not help, but be proud, she had always been a fast learner, still her power did not hold a candle to his, but he could see getting her very close before the end of that very year. Much of her potential was due to the fact that much like his brother she was her clan's prodigy, but unlike the Uchiha, the Hyuuga had kept her abilities very quiet. Despite it being one of their lesser-known facts,  it was clear that she had been her clan's pride and joy when they were younger, both main and branch families alike adored her. Sasuke could not be happier that they willingly removed their shackles from her when she came back, and he was aware of the great loss that they were experiencing having given her up. However, having her back was proving to be one of his greatest blessings, the amount of time they spent alone together was slowly becoming an uncontrollable addiction of his. 

His train of thought broke when he felt a shifting beside him, it brought him back to his current situation, Hikari had been forcing him to meditate before all of their training sessions. It is not a common practice for him, preferring to only spar in preparation to train, sitting a trying to maintain a certain train of thought for an extensive amount of time was an absolute torture to him. He would much rather be looking at her...touching her. 

He slowly opened his eyes and peeked at Hikari through the side of his eye. She sat still as a statue, her posture so poised as if she were sitting in a room with Kami himself. He looked at her face, his breath taken away, as always whenever he looked at her. She was so stunning, he could not find the words to describe what it was that he found so breath-taking about her.  He had found her beautiful when they were children and always assumed that she would be gorgeous when they were older, but nothing could ever prepare him for much he had underestimated how blessed he would be. Maybe it was her long flowing inky hair, maybe it was her flawless porcelain skin, perhaps it was her bountiful curves...he felt his face heat up at the thought. His eyes were as if controlled by chakra strings could not help but trace the contours of her figure. He felt disgusted in himself, he was no better than his sensei, his train of thought becoming much less innocent. 

It took him a moment to realize that his Sharingan had activated itself, it became apparent when the threads of her yukata became noticeable details in his eyes. He gasped slightly and tried to deactivate it, he could already tell that his traitorous kekkai genkai had served its purpose by how Hikari's figure was now engrained in the back of his eyelids and committed to his memory in detail. Sasuke frowned, 

"As if her beauty does not haunt me enough as it is," Sasuke thought, cursing his Sharingan. It is not a well-known fact that the Uchiha clan's Sharingan activates itself whenever the user feels overwhelmed or highly emotional, even if the experiences were good ones, such as during a marriage proposal, the birth of children, and even during bedroom activities. Which often meant that they remember all of their good, bad, embarrassing, and overwhelming memories in great detail. It was quite an embarrassing feature about their kekkai genkai, it gave away much more than their stoic faces ever would.  Not many knew that about his clan and it was always assumed to be a warning sign for outsiders to back off. Only people that were considered close to the Uchiha were privy to that knowledge. People like Kakashi sensei and people like Hikari knew that. 

Which also probably explained the smirk on her face when he finally opened his eyes having calmed down his Sharingan. 

"Well, well, well. As it turns out the Uchiha Patriarch is a red-blooded man after all," she teased having caught his Sharingan flustered gaze before he closed his eyes. 

"I-I don't know what you are talking about," Sasuke stuttered, feeling as if the flames of Amaterasu were consuming his being, leaving none of his skin without an uncharacteristic blush. Hikari did not verbally reply as she raised her eyebrow, Sasuke struggled to maintain her teasing gaze. She giggled and leaned forward removing herself from her crossed-leg meditation position, starting to crawl towards him. From where  he was sitting she was giving a full view down the front of her yukata, making him even more flustered and his Sharingan activate all over again.

 Hikari laughed at the sight Konoha's mighty Uchiha, blushing and scrambling backward away from her. He was always the person stalking through the village, like a panther, dark and mysterious. Similar to the hunter, his concealed power was noticeable by any trained eye, it lay dormant waiting for its moment to pounce, like a whisper about to be spoken.  Seeing that person reduced to this, stuttering and fumbling man brought her an undiscribable thrill. 

His back hit the couch behind him, blocking his escape as he was still on the floor. Hikari seized her moment and crawled into his lap, the Uchiha gasped,

"Hi-Hi-Hik,"

"Hmm, Sasuke, it is so unlike you to stutter and your face is all red, do you perhaps have a fever,"  she feigned concern as she moved his hair out of his face to touch his forehead, her amusement, quite apparent in her eyes. 

"Hikari, g-get off, we shouldn't be doing this," he said, he sounded like he was more telling himself that than her, she looked down at him, inspecting him, 

"You are saying one thing, however, your body language says otherwise," she chuckled softly, looking into his lap. Sasuke knew exactly what she meant and tried to shift himself away from her. 

"Do not-" She tried to caress his cheek and lean closer to him, but was stopped by him grabbing her wrist, 

"No," He said, his voice stern, his eyes were slightly glossy and his cheeks were still bright with colour. He looked so vulnerable, but not at the same time. She sighed, 

"But why? Does my body not please you?" Clearly getting frustrated that she was getting denied once again. 

"What? No. You c-can clearly see that that's not the case right now," Sasuke said, sounding equally frustrated, averting his gaze feeling very embarrassed. He has never had this much of a reaction to a girl before. He had never felt like he had needed to fight for control over his body to this extent before, baring the curse mark, seemed like a walk in the park compared to this. 

"Then what is it? You have pushed away every advance I have made on you." She said accusingly, her eyes moistened from her frustration, she willed herself to not cry. She did not want him to think that she was emotionally as weak as her body had been. She tried pushing away the nagging feeling at the back of her mind that Sasuke and her mind he would disappear for hours after she had tried to instigate anything physical between them.  It has been two weeks since they last spoke about their relationship and what they meant to each other. Was her progress not being fast enough, she knew that she was far weaker than a kunoichi her age should be, especially one who was planning bare the title that came with wearing the Uchiha clan's symbol. Was it possible that he was having second thoughts? Was she not good enough?