#And Naruto would probably have chosen cats of different colors

[narusasuart]

Here's my half of the art trade with @opens-up-4-nobody who wished for

- anybody looking after/caring for Naruto and/or Sasuke

or

- Sasuke hanging out with a bunch of cats.

Well, don't mind if I do(odle). :D

Soft and domestic SNS >>>>>

Check out their wonderful half of the trade! Thank you again, this was so fun!

I'm gonna ramble about my headcanons for this in the tags so this post doesn't get to long.

[raendown]

I almost forgot today was the start of @narutorarepairweek! This is my entry for the day 1 prompt the moment love hits. 

Pairing: SakuraHinata Word count: 2149 Rated: G Summary: Pink is a color that represents many things. Friendship, affection, harmony, love, all of these things and more, all of them perfect for the one who stole her heart. Hinata never imagined that a feeling like this could ever be hers.

Follow the link or read it under the cut!

KO-FI and commission info in the header!

Pink

It took hours of walking and a dozen different shops to find the perfect gift. Hinata was glad she’d come out early today, although the guilt still weighed quite heavily that she hadn’t been able to get out and buy anything before now. Usually she was the sort of person to be ready with gifts well in advance but her genin team had been running her ragged these days and time had been slipping past faster than she realized lately. She’d already made seven different mental notes just this past week to thank Kurenai-sensei the next time she saw her old teacher. 

When she finally spotted the figurine it was as though her ancestors were guiding her, turning her round and bidding her to look at just the right angle to spot the last item tucked in behind a row of novelty teddy bears. Her hand was moving almost before the rest of her caught up and a moment later she was holding a beautiful porcelain figurine of a rose pink cat, elegant and feminine, yet the beautiful green eyes spoke to her of a certain fierceness. It was perfect. This was just the sort of gift she’d spent the last several hours looking for.

The rest of the shop was surprisingly empty so Hinata made her way to the front counter unhampered. As she set the figure down with careful hands she noticed a sign hanging just behind the bored cashier and smiled. 

“Hello,” the man greeted her in a dull voice. “Did you find everything alright today?”

“Yes I did, thank you. Ah, I’m sorry to be of any trouble but I see you offer gift wrapping?” 

“Bag or box?”

Shifting her weight back and forth, Hinata gave that some careful consideration. “I would like it in a box, please.”

The cashier nodded and brought out a sheet of thick paper to wrap the item before pressing it inside a small cardboard box. He pointed out a selection of wrapping paper and waited with an empty expression until she chose one with a design of blue and green balloons. In just a couple of minutes he was handing over a beautifully wrapped present for which Hinata handed him back the right change with a small tip that she hoped would brighten his day. 

After making sure the gift was tucked away safely in her admittedly oversized purse she checked her watch and gasped, hurrying out of the shop and down the street so fast her hair blew out behind her like a handkerchief waving in the wind. She hadn’t realized it was so late already! 

Luckily the streets weren’t nearly as busy now as they had been earlier when she began her shopping. Hinata was able to make it across town in record time, just fast enough to pause on her friend’s doorstep and smooth her hair back down before knocking on the door at precisely six o’clock, exactly when she’d promised she would arrive. 

Sakura’s welcoming smile as she opened the door was like a ray of golden sun doing its best to outshine all the rest. As it always did the sight took Hinata’s breath away and left her with nothing but a tiny squeak to give in response. The kind soul that she was, all Sakura did was chuckle a few times and lean in to brush Hinata’s cheek with a gentle kiss, generous enough not to comment on the blush that rose in the wake of such blatant affections. 

“I’m glad you’re here,” she murmured. 

“Well I promised,” Hinata reminded her. “I…I like spending time with you.” 

The two of them traded bashful looks before a young voice called for Sakura’s attention inside and she beckoned Hinata in as well. After nearly a year of pining in silence, believing with all her heart that such a wonderful person could never return her feelings, it was still a shock for Hinata to realize that Sakura did. It had already been a handful of months since that first date filled with nervous laughter and shy smiles and still she woke some mornings wondering if this had all been just a wonderful dream. 

“Mama where’s my red jumper? I wanna wear my red jumper!” A tiny face with wide black eyes peered around the corner. 

“It’s in the wash, sweetie.” 

“But I wanna wear it!” Delicate eyebrows furrowed with childish temper and Hinata bit her cheek to hold in a smile at the sight of Sarada stomping her foot. At four years old she already had enough attitude and independence to rival either of her parents. 

Sakura, however, was a good enough mother to take it all in stride. “Perhaps you should have thought about that before you covered yourself in soy sauce yesterday. I’m afraid you’ll just have to wear something else. What about that pretty blue one?” 

Eyes narrowed in thought, Sarada weighed her options. A few seconds passed before she apparently decided to forgo having a temper tantrum. Instead she blinked rapidly in Hinata’s direction and then disappeared back around the corner where they could hear her little feet patter away towards the bedrooms, ostensibly to find a different jumper. 

“I hope you don’t mind if Sarada joins us for dinner,” Sakura called over one shoulder, walking back towards the kitchen. “Naruto was supposed to watch her for the night but something came up at the office and he’s going to be in a meeting with the elders until well after her bedtime.”

“That’s okay, I don’t mind,” Hinata assured her. 

“Are you positive? This was supposed to be a nice romantic night for just us.”

“No really, it’s fine!” Slipping off her shoes, she hurried forward without removing purse or coat, following her partner in to the kitchen and meeting Sakura’s eyes with a gentle expression. “I like spending time with both of you – and I was hoping to see her anyway.” 

Sakura gave her a curious look but her question was interrupted as Sarada marched back in to the room with all the bold swagger of a model on the catwalk. Odd as it was to see her in any color but her very favorite she did look very nice in blue. And it appeared that she had realized this, making an obvious effort to do a fancy walk as she modeled the pretty outfit she’d chosen to attend dinner in. Hinata clapped her hands appreciatively while Sakura only rolled her eyes with a chuckle. 

“You look lovely,” Hinata told her. To her delight Sarada dropped a very off-center curtsy. 

“Thank you!” 

“I’m glad you’re here; I have something for you.” 

With no further prompting Sarada zoomed across the tile floor to hug her around the knee. “Presents!?”

“Just the one. Yesterday was your birthday, wasn’t it? Sorry I didn’t give it to you then. I tried to get us back from our mission in time but Miho-kun wanted to stop and look at some rare insects and I just couldn’t tell him no. I’m afraid he’s too much like his uncle.” Hinata tried for an apologetic smile as she pulled the gift out of her purse and held it out. 

Clearly she was forgiven for her tardiness if the squeal Sarada let out was anything to go by. Wrapping paper went flying carelessly in every direction until the birthday girl was left holding a teeny pink cat that stared up at her with graceful nonchalance. Waiting to hear what she thought was absolute torture, not one of them speaking or even moving for several minutes, until finally Sarada carefully pressed the figurine to her chest with dark eyes wet and shining. 

“It’s perfect!” she declared. “I love it! It’s like Mama but as a cat!” 

“That’s why I liked it too.” Hinata’s lips curled in a relieved smile only to part with a dawning blush as she realized what she had just said. Gaze snapping up, she needed only a single glimpse of the look on her partner's face before looking away again, heart thundering with nerves in her chest.

“Mama look! Look! Won’t this go perfect on my windowsill? I’m going to put it there right away!” In a flash the little princess was gone just as quickly as she had come in to the room.

This time being alone with Sakura felt so much more precarious and Hinata desperately wished that she had a reason to call Sarada back in to the kitchen. She kept her eyes on the floor in the silence that followed, resisting the urge to fold down under the weight of the stare she could feel from over by the stove. The more time passed without either of them saying anything the more flustered she grew, wondering just how much of a fool she’d just made of herself. It had only been a few dates after all. They weren’t all that serious. Had she overstepped some sort of boundary that she hadn’t known about? 

Soft footsteps approaching nearly made her flinch. If it weren’t for the years of hard work that had gone in to improving her self-confidence she would have turned tail and run or simply fainted dead away on the spot. It was, she would realize a few moments later, lucky that she did neither. 

“You didn’t have to get her anything,” Sakura murmured softly. 

“It really wasn’t much.”

“I...didn’t even realize you knew when her birthday was.”

Hinata shuffled nervously. “You mentioned it a couple of months ago and I know I should have started looking for a better gift much sooner but I just always seemed to be busy! Next year I promise that I’ll be more prepared. Do you really think she likes it? I could–”

Whatever other nonsense was about to spill from her mouth was lost to the tender press of pink lips against her own. Hinata sighed and tilted her head instinctively for a better angle. When they parted she found her head fuzzy with bliss in a way that happened all too often around this incredible woman. Sakura smiled, her eyes as wet and shining as her daughter’s had been. 

“I love you,” she whispered. Hinata’s jaw fell open. “I know that it’s probably much too soon but- oh I don’t care. I don’t! You listen to me, you remember the little things and the big things, you’re so good with Sarada and she likes you too! Please don’t freak out! And don’t feel obligated to say it back just because I did! No rush! No pressure! I just…I had to say it. Do you know what you do to me?” Sakura lifted one hand to stroke the lines of Hinata’s jaw, reaching out with the other to steady her when she trembled. 

“You give me too much credit.”

“No, love, I really don’t.” 

“I…I love you too!” 

Once more Sakura paused to stare at her but this time Hinata understood that look of awe. She felt quite the same to know that her feelings were returned. 

A moment later she had been gathered in to strong arms and her girlfriend was kissing her as though the world were ending around them and Hinata really had no problems with that. Because she also understood the feeling of that moment when your own heart comes crashing down on you and the realization hits that your world would never be the same again. Poets had been trying to capture love in words for centuries. Standing outside of a rundown café with the sun in her eyes watching this woman before her greet one of her young patients with a smile, Hinata had known then that love could never be explained, only felt, cherished, protected at all cost – and most importantly shared.

“Is this too soon?” Sakura whispered, pulling away only far enough to breathe her words across Hinata’s lips. 

“No. I don’t think so. Um, it feels right to me.” 

Sakura graced her with a smile so bright she could have rivalled Naruto with it. “It feels right to me too.”

From the other side of the house they could hear Sarada squealing over how cute her new figurine looked next to the plants that already lined her windowsill and Hinata thought to herself that surely she would never feel this happy again, this content. It was hard to imagine how anything could be more perfect than holding Sakura close and feeling love brushing against her skin over and over knowing that in only a few minutes Sarada would return and the three of them would sit down for dinner together in a way she had hoped for yet never dared to presume until now. 

As a family. 

Hinata could think of no family she would ever love more than the ones who had chosen her as surely as she had chosen them.