On the second day of their trip, the shinobi neared the border of the Wind. For several hours already the surrounding forest was populated mostly by pines and was significantly thinner then that of their Konoha. The ground became a mix of sand and clay, and all but lost the rich and fertile dark brown color. Thus, when a small island of oaks hinted at water, they decided to enjoy the last of the real forest before entering the Country of the Wind. With the pretext of early lunch, the team stopped under the shade of a particularly large oak tree, closer then a hundred feet to a river.

Neji and Lee were asked to scout the area; Sakura and Sasuke were put in charge of getting food together. Shikamaru took it upon himself to gather the wood for the fire, thus leaving Naruto and Hinata without a task.

Naruto quickly attached himself to Sakura, helping her set up the campfire. And when Hinata, finding her lack of duty awkward, offered help, Naruto shooed her away with pleading eyes and winks. Well, seeing how Sasuke left to hunt, I surely would be a fifth wheel, Hinata supposed, leaving the blond and pink-haired shinobi to themselves.

Deciding to refresh herself, Hinata searched for an opening in the river-side shrubbery, and soon was within reach of water. Crouching on the gray warm boulders, she submerged her arms to her elbows into the cool stream and sighed contently. Truly, it was becoming too hot. And they still had a couple of hours until they reached Wind’s borders. How unbearable will it be in the desert! she began to wonder, but quickly halted that thought for fear of melting prematurely. Instead, focusing on the pleasures at hand, Hinata washed her neck and face, trying to remind her skin that sweat was not the only liquid in existence. Giving into temptation, Hinata kneeled onto her knees and shoulders, clutched the surrounding grass into her small fists, and ….slowly… lowered her chin… then her face…and then the whole of her head into the clear water. Feeling well balanced, she opened her eyes, and shifted her head to see as much of the stream as she could.

Individual sand particles shone in the sunlight and jumped over small rocks at the river’s bottom. Several lilies took root just beneath the bolder to her right. Young carps, the biggest no longer then her pinky, strained to swim again the current, their silver sides – like shimmering ripples under the surface.
Hinata was exhilarated to witness such wonders. Greedy to see more, she activated her Byakugan and… almost fell over.

Sasuke was sitting on her left in the lotus position. His perfectly indifferent face was turned to her inconveniently positioned bottom. Jerking out of the water, Hinata tried to smooth her drenched hair in what she hoped was a graceful gesture. Pointedly looking away, she wished he would pretend not to have witnessed the Hyuuga heir in such a compromising situation.

And as if by divine grace, Sasuke was all politeness.
-“I was hoping you could take a look and tell me which would be the best locations to fish. I am in charge of lunch today,” he reminded her when she composed herself enough to glance at him.
-“Oh..Just..less then a half mile upstream there’s a widening to the river. The older fish seem to prefer the depth,” Hinata mumbled, felling awfully stupid and tense. Focusing her eyes at a nearby lily bud, she kept hoping Sasuke would leave her alone to mope in her shame. Distractedly, she reached a rock’s surface and traced a picture of an open lily with her wet finger. Sasuke couldn’t help but notice the fading image.
-“Should I, perhaps, model for you in that spot?” He inquired in a passive voice, “I imagine the color of the water there would complement my complexion.”

Stunned, mortified at his mention of her hobby, Hinata blushed a completely new shade of red. Forgetting how to produce sounds, she could barely force herself to look him in the eye. Yet once she perceived Sasuke’s expression, Hinata immediately cooled down.  His usually frozen face wore a new mask. Sasuke’s mouth was pressed into a thin line; the muscles of his cheeks tensed; his right eyebrow arched in a questioning manner. 'So now he’s laughing at me, is he? Hmk! I suppose then Naruto sees this expression often', Hinata thought, 'That… high and mighty... superior… I-allow-all-to-bow-to-me expression'. And still feeling slightly put out, Hinata dropped her hand into the water, stemmed chakra to her palm, and willed the water to shower her offender.

She had splashed him!

Hinata’s boldness took Sasuke by surprise. For an instant, shock reflected in his widened eyes, and it was Hinata’s turn to suppress laughter.
-“Beware Hyuuga, next time I will not hesitate in my retaliation,” Sasuke threatened, but even his discourteous choice of words could not conceal his friendly disposition.

Neji has watched their exchange in fascination. Arriving at the river right before his cousin had sprayed the Uchiha, he stayed in case of a negative reaction on Uchiha’s part. Instead, his morning speculations were affirmed. He was wrong about the Uchiha – the fellow did have a human side to him. The sharingan user just happened to show it to a small amount of people. What Neji still could not embrace was the notion of his cousin being included in that exclusive group. Moreover, if he relied on his latest observations (and his observations were always accurate)…if Naruto could be called the president provocateur of Uchiha’s humanity, then the Hyuuga heir was the executive assistant. Truly, such a change in Uchiha in his cousin’s presence was unforeseen – of all people, his cousin! The weak, shy, stuttering child… But quickly Neji reminded himself that he has not seen her for over two years. That she had fooled him completely the evening before. That the title of a jounin reflected on her physical abilities. That her sunshine smiles revealed confidence, something she rarely possessed as a child.  

It was foolish to underestimate her.

Thus, resigned to watch the Main branch’s older daughter more closely on this mission, Neji allowed himself to continue his observation.
The Uchiha had left. Neji expected his cousin to follow him, but she stayed. He watched as she worked her hair into a loose thick braid. She leaned forward a bit and seemed to observe her reflection in the water.

She did that for an awfully long time, Neji thought. He had almost convinced himself to leave, but then he saw his cousin cross her eyes and try to reach the tip of her nose with her tongue. She still does that? Even Hanabi stopped when she turned twelve. Hinata squashed her nose down and visibly strained to connect it to her tongue; amused, Neji shook his head. A futile attempt. Only the talented are capable, he thought with mild pride. And as if to prove his point, Neji licked the tip of his nose without any visible effort. (One may rest assured that if Hinata saw the feat, she would have been jealous.)

She had stopped making faces, and Neji still watched.
Thinking about it, his cousin’s face was rather uncharacteristic of a pureblood Hyuuga. Not at all like Hanabi, or her father. Although of pale skin, she did not possess the high and sharp cheekbones, or the wide mouth, or the thin eyebrows, or the straight nose. She looked… much softer. A slightly celestial nose, moderately full lips, thicker and longer eyebrows, and very large, widely opened eyes. Long eyelashes. She smiled, revealing a dimple of her right cheek.

Neji continued to stare.

Her wet hair stuck to her porcelain face; a lock embraced her round cheekbone in a gentle caress. Her skin was still flush from embarrassment. The sunlight reflected of the water and lit her complexion with the warm colors of a sunrise.
The longer Neji watched at his cousin, the clearer he understood that he had not really looked at her during the past two days.  And the longer he looked at the kneeling girl, the more it occurred to him that his cousin possessed exquisite beauty. The kind of beauty that was often masked by charm; the kind which blossomed only for an attentive spectator; the kind that stole your breath when you caught a glimpse of it unprepared. 'The kind that mother had when she was happy', Neji remembered his father’s words. Neji felt slightly shaken. He has wanted and waited to encounter such beauty, but never expected to find it in his cousin. 'Not my cousin, not…Hinata-sama'.

He did not tear his eyes away from her when she stood up and stretched with a luxury of a sleepy kitten; kept watching as she took off her jacket and tied it around her waist. His gaze traced the movement of her figure: as she made her way through the bushes, away from the river, toward a rising wisp of barely visible smoke. 'Smoke?.... Lunch! I had forgotten to report to Shikamaru!'
And deciding that his unforgivable distraction must be amended for in some manner, he took off to scan the area once more.

Upon his return, Neji found the rest of his teammates cozily sitting around a professionally constructed campfire. Munching on a fish tail, Lee pointed Neji to his share of food – a large bowl of rice and fried fish, situated close to the flames to keep it warm. All the others have finished eating. Nodding his thanks, Neji noted that Naruto was making progress.

Sitting thigh to thigh with Sakura, he was complaining about the lack of ramen. Delighted with his childishness, no doubt, Sakura reached out and affectionately straightened a crown of flowers on his golden head. (Neji noted the delicacy and taste with which wild forget-me-nots intertwined with young daisies – the colors suited the blond perfectly). Naruto reddened, and Sakura laughed so hard that her own daisy crown fell off her head. Naruto picked it up, smoothed the large grown flowers into place, and gently placed it back onto the pink hair. Suddenly shy, Sakura turned to Lee for salvation.

Determined to feign ignorance, Neji squeezed himself between Shikamaru and the Lee, ending up directly across of his cousin. That was not on purpose, he protested, trying to assure himself that having the opportunity to look at her directly (and without an excuse) did not please him in the slightest.  
Blaming his curiosity on curiosity alone, Neji liberally observed his cousin finish another daisy crown. Like Sakura’s, this one contained large adult flowers, but every three blossoms were followed by a young fern leaf. Tying the flower chain into a circle, the Hyuuga heir offered it to the Uchiha. Neji concealed his surprise when the sharingan user bent his head and let Hinata place the flowers onto his dark locks.

Sasuke probably would not have been so obedient had he known in advance that Naruto and Sakura both found the sight of their emotionless friend draped in forest greens unbearably hilarious.
-“Oi, Sasuke! You look like a fairy!” Naruto screamed, scaring off the birds in the nearby bushes.
-“So true!” Sakura piped in, “An emo fairy, but a fairy none the less!”
-“Yes, Sasuke – show us your mysterious power – make the baka shut up” Shikamaru chuckled, clearly adding the fuel to the fire.
-“Arigato, Hinata” Sasuke nodded quietly before taking the crown off and attaching it to his bag.
-“Hm” she accepted, looking at the Uchiha with unconcealed fondness.

'Really, every time he is nice to me I feel so accomplished. For what it is worth, I will be a good friend to him', Hinata thought, moving again towards the Wind’s border with her team. 'I think I know how to paint him now. Him and Naruto'. And she imagined two men standing together, one as bright as the sunshine, another as serene as the moon on the eve of a storm, with flowers in their hair.

Hinata’s team had stopped for the night in a strategically located cave, frequently used by the Konoha shinobi in their trips to Suna. It provided good protection against the sand storms. Although its ceiling hung low, the cave was deep enough to accommodate all seven of them.

To pass the time till sleep, the shinobi decided to train. Four could fight, while the three others watched the eternity of sand for danger.
During her turn to spar with Sakura, Hinata managed to twist her ankle. And as expected, Shikamaru forgot his laziness and caution and yelled at the girls for jeopardizing the mission. And as expected, Lee did his best to restrain Naruto from hurting Shikamaru for being rude to his female friends. And, as expected, Neji quietly observed from the sidelines, ready to mediate the conflict if the tensions escalated.

And only Sasuke unexpectedly kneeled by Hinata, rolled up her blue pants, felt her ankle for any bone damage (concluding that the injury was merely a sprain), and bandaged her ankle with unforeseen gentleness.
Neji thought that hers was the most fragile looking ankle he had ever seen.

Hinata winced and blushed. Shikamaru cooled down and revised their plans: they left Konoha on Wednesday morning. They would not reach their destination by tomorrow: with Hinata’s ankle they were lucky to reach the Hidden Sand Village by Friday’s nightfall. They would proceed to their destination Saturday morning. Sasuke would summon two messenger dogs: one to warn Suna of their unexpected visit, the second to notify their client that they would arrive at their designated meeting place Saturday at noon. Lee would take the first shift tonight. Concluding the briefing with a trademark “troublesome”, Shikamaru went to sleep first.

The shinobi shuffled into the cave after him, Naruto appeasing the fuming Sakura, Sasuke helping the injured kunoichi climb the jagged rocks.
Every kind action on Uchiha’s part caused Neji to feel more vigilant. 'It’s one thing to be unnaturally human with her (anyone would after she smiles like sunshine and looks at them like a sweet doe) –but it’s completely different to be unnaturally human AND gentlemen like! What the HELL does he want?' He could not think of a sensible reason for his growing suspicion towards the sharingan user. But Neji was used to trusting his intuition.
Word of gratitude passed between the Uchiha and Hinata. Neji sat at Hinata’s side and watched her eyes look upon the Uchiha in a naïve trusting way; watched her exonerate Sakura and thank Sasuke with stunning whole-heartedness; watched her chew shyly on a strand of her hair when Naruto complimented her tai-jutsu form.

Neji watched Hinata and did not even realize that somewhere below his diaphragm his feeling of cautiousness had solidified. From that moment on, Hinata crowned the list of the Main branch Hyuuga he would protect willingly.