Leadership

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

Warning: This story includes (but is not limited to) mild language, a perverted Shino, and Fluff that will suffocate you. I can promise you one thing. This story contains no Lemon. (And I don't think any character is OOC.)

Now that you've been warned...

Hinata awoke after a three hour nap, ready to train by herself in the dark as her teammates and Naruto slept. She had to be extremely quiet while sneaking out of their tent. Kiba and Naruto were heavy sleepers, but Shino was a different story. In fact, she was pretty sure that if she screamed as loud as she could in both Kiba and Naruto's ears neither would stir, while if she merely breathed loudly near Shino, he would awaken. So, she tiptoed out of the tent and headed to the nearest waterfall, that just so happened to be her favorite training and bathing area. The waterfall was peaceful and solitary. Perfect for her. She liked peace, loved peace and liked being alone on occasions.

Once she arrived at the waterfall she quickly and neatly shedded her clothing to train. She needed to become stronger, earn respect, and get Naruto's attention. Naruto, her long time crush, had long, spiky, blond hair; lively, daring, (what others called) sexy, sky blue eyes; and not to mention, a build that could apparently melt ice... and Hinata wasn't physically attracted to him at all. She couldn't quite understand it. She found the boys personality pleasant, even admirable, but to her not even his personality was attractive. Yet, for some odd reason she'd stutter, blush, and even faint when ever she was around him, hence the 'crush' she had on the boy. To Hinata, Naruto was like a heroic figure. He had all the traits of a super hero; strong, outgoing, daring, courageous, nice, etc...

It wasn't the fact the Hinata's hormones hadn't kicked in yet. She knew, a little too well that they had, because she did find someone very, very, very attractive. His body made her want to go crazy and his personality was, strangely, the sexiest she knew. Oddly, she didn't...couldn't faint around him. In fact, she hardly ever stuttered around him. He believed in her, expected good things from her, but never got disappointed in her. He was...

Hinata tried not to think about him. She shouldn't be thinking about him in such a manner. It was dishonorable, rude, and unmoral. She shouldn't want,he wouldn't want,They couldn't...

Hinata stood under the waterfall, letting the water fall over her. Once she was thoroughly soaked she began training. She always felt a little odd training in this way. She had to activate her byakuugan before she undressed just to make sure no one was around. Then she could finally relax.

She remembered the first time she found out about her affection for her teammate. Yes, her teammate. Quiet, stoic, serious, and, above all, respectable Shino was the man that stole the place in her heart that was originally for Naruto.

Hinata remembered the first time she ever found Shino really attractive.

She had been training (surprise surprise) with Shino. Kiba and Akamaru were training separetly a few yards away. Of course, when she was training with Shino she was fully dressed. 'Unfortunately,' Hinata thought. She shook her head, erasing the thought from her mind. That was a very forbidden thought.

They'd been training for hours and both were tired. Shino's bugs were crawling all over her, exploring. Their little legs were tickling her, not hurting her like they were meant to do with any other opponent.

Shino took off his glasses and revealed his dark silver eyes. He sighed as he used chakra to attract the bugs. One by one, like mini soldiers, the bugs marched or flew back to Shino.

Hinata could hear Shino's deep breaths. He was really tired, which she had a sneaking suspicion that it wasn't because she'd improved. 'No,' Hinata thought, 'He's sick.' He looked pale, but Shino always looked pale. So, the hieress decided there was only one way to find out if he was running a fever or something...

Hinata walked forward quickly narrowing the distance between herself and Shino, she then placed her hand on his forehead. It wasn't till then that she'd noticed his face was a little redder than usual and he did feel warm. He must have trained with her even though he was ill.

"You're running a fever. You shouldn't have trained with me if you weren't feeling well," Hinata softly rebuked. Shino didn't answer. He had this look about him. He looked...dazed. He lowered his head and his lips were a mere centimeter away. That was when some thing started to burn in Hinata. She had a rush of adrenaline, but didn't act on it. She stayed put even though she wanted to move her head forward ever so slightly and...

"Hinata, I'm fine," Shino stated flatly as he backed away from her, looking slightly hurt.

(end flashback)

Hinata snapped out of her daydream as she caught one of her mistakes in her form. She need to keep her elboy and knee slightly bent when...

Naruto awoke from a pleasant dream that involved him living on a planet named Ramen Kingdom where he was the Hokage or king.

"Gotta pee," He said to no one in particular as he lazily unzipped the tent and loudly fell out of it after getting tangled in a mess of blankets.

Naruto headed into the thick forest.

Shino heard someone climb out of the tent and fall onto the hard ground with a loud thump. He didn't bother to look at who it was at first. He didn't see the point, but then he couldn't get back to sleep. He sat up, looking to his left where he expected to see a sleeping Hinata, Naruto, Kiba, and Akamaru. Instead, he saw nothing but a sleeping boy, his dog, and a mess of blankets strewn in and out of the tent. Both Hinata and Naruto were gone, it was late, and, worst of all, they were probably together. This slightly unnerved him. No, Hinata wouldn't, not even if it was Naruto. He was positive of that, but still it bothered him.

He decided he could at least go make sure they weren't in any trouble. He sent some bugs out to scower the area for Hinata first. Within ten minutes they'd found her and reported back. She was at a waterfall, or so his bugs informed him. 'Why is she at a waterfall?' he wondered as he followed his bugs to the spot.

Akamaru licked Kiba's face, attempting to wake up the boy. When Kiba didn't budge, the dog barked, loudly, in his ear.

"Akamaru, what is it? I'm trying to sleep boy," Kiba complained while affectionately patting the dog on the head.

The dog whined, telling Kiba something was wrong.

Kiba finally woke up fully. He looked at Akamaru, who was now tromping around the tent to tell Kiba what was bothering him. Kiba noticed immediately. No teammates.

'They left me! They fucking left me!' Kiba screamed in his head. He was pissed.

He left the tent and had Akamaru search for Shino, Hinata, or Naruto's scent. Not suprisingly, the dog smelled Naruto first. So Kiba followed his little dog to find out where the hell everyone was at.

Shino jumped from tree to tree following his bugs. The mission had been aggravating so far. Neither Kiba nor Naruto had been listening to him, and even worse questioning his leadership. They each thought they were the leaders. Hmph. They were mistaken or so Shino thought. He was the leader, that's all there was to it. He could hear the waterfall now. He was close. Within seconds his bugs came to a sudden stop. Shino landed firmly on a tree branch. When he looked down, it wasn't the beauty of the waterfall glistening from the full moon that caught his attention nor was it the surroundings of the waterfall, but the girl standing on the water. The night wasn't that dark because of the bright moon, but Shino still had to take off his sunglasses to see her. Once he did get a good look at her, he noticed she was... Shino lost his balance and fell out of the very tall tree.

He was able to land gracefully on his feet, but unfortunately now his precense was known. Shino was face to face with a very red faced Hyuuga.

Akamaru and Kiba had found Naruto, who apparently had no clue where either Shino or Hinata were.

"Shino was in the tent when I left, I think. And I don't remember if Hinata was there or not. I just had to pee!" Naruto had said when Kiba began his interrogation.

Kiba believed him and he had Akamaru sniff out Shino. Who they were on there way to finding right now.

Hinata stared, unmoving, at her teammate. Her mind and body decided to torture her. They were going to shut down with out really shutting down. No, she couldn't faint, no matter how much she wanted to, but she also couldn't move or speak. She just had to stand there, staring into Shino's silver eyes.

Shino wasn't moving either. His body was being particularly stubborn and his mind even more so because his mind was telling him to act. Something, he couldn't do.

Wouldn't do.

Akamaru, Kiba, and Naruto came jumping down from a near by tree without the slightest hesitation. They didn't look to find Hinata, they simply followed Akamaru and Akamaru followed his nose.

"Hey, Shino! What the hell? Why'd you take off li..." Kiba stopped mid-sentence when he saw Hinata about two yards in front of Shino. He was at a lack of words as he felt his face get hot from embarassment.

"H-H-Hin-Hin-Hin..." Naruto tried to speak, but he couldn't. The words refused to come out and for once even Naruto was speechless. All three boys turned and looked straight at Hinata.

Hinata promptly fainted.

Now the boys were faced with a bigger problem, Hinata Hyuuga fainted...in water. One of them would have to pick up her naked body and lift it out of the water so she wouldn't drown.

Kiba and Naruto looked at each other at the same time, they came to a silent agreement as they both pointed to Shino.

"You're the leader!" They said in unison.

"Now I'm the leader?" Shino said in disbelief. It was just like these two, the moment they had something they didn't want to do they backed out.

Both Kiba and Naruto nodded, "After all, you were the one that was peaking on Hinata in the first place," Naruto added.

Shino was furious. They made him sound like some kind of pervert, like Kakashi or Jiraiya.

"Urg, go find her clothes," Shino ordered in a low threatening tone.

Shino walked over to Hinata trying to keep his eyes on her face and not wandering down. Damn, his eyes weren't very obedient.

He quickly bent down and picked the girl up.

'Naruto and Kiba better hurry up!' Shino thought, as he set his teammate on the ground.

Naruto, Kiba, and Akamaru dawdled, walking so slow you'd think they were walking backwards. They weren't about to be around when Hinata woke up. She'd be so embarrassed! Of course, she'd be even more embarrassed without her clothes, but to take Hinata her clothes would mean they'd actually have to return to face a very angry Shino and embarrassed Hinata. They'd pass. They would go back to the tent and go back to sleep. Shino could handle everything on his own. He was after-all the leader.

Shino was an Aburame. Aburame's could control bugs using chakra. Aburame's had great control, excellent self control. It made sense, really. If you couldn't control your own body how could you control hundreds of little bugs?

For some reason, today of all days, Shino was lacking his great Aburame self control.

His eyes wandered over to her one last time. That's when he noticed her shivering. Of course, Hinata was cold. It was the middle of the night, she was naked, and she was wet.

Shino had a feeling Kiba and Naruto weren't coming back any time soon with her clothes so he took off his jacket and layed it over her. It wasn't much, but it was better than nothing.

Hinata didn't want to open her eyes even though she doubted anyone was there. They probably took off the moment she fainted. She couldn't blame them.

"Are you awake?"

She wasn't quite sure she really heard the voice, maybe it was all just in her mind, but she opened her eyes and answered anyway.

"Y-yes," She answered, keeping her gaze downward towards the ground.

Shino could see the red that stained Hinata's face clearly, even though she tried to cover it up with her bangs. Maybe he should have left so she wasn't so uncomfortable. At least he had covered her up with his jacket, because without it she would have probably screamed.

He let his gaze meet her just once, before he turned around, facing away from her, to make her more comfortable.

"Kiba and Naruto went to get your..." He stopped mid-sentence realizing that she would probably be even more embarrassed.

"I-I'm sorry. I've been n-nothing, but a b-burden on this m-m-mi-mi-ma-ma-ma," Hinata stuttered, but not because of embarrassment.

Shino turned back around noticing that she was stammering more than normal.

Achoo. Hinata sneezed, muffling the sound with her hand.

Shino couldn't help but smile. She was just too cute.

Hinata looked up at him and saw the look of amusement on his face. Without his sunglasses or jacket on Hinata could see his entire face and any emotion on it.

"You're never a burden Hinata. You're a comrade, a...friend," Shino said stepping closer to her and sitting down next to her.

"I-I don't know about that, e-even f-friends can be a b-burden sometimes," Hinata said, as she let her eyes drift upwards to her teammate next to her.

"You could never be a burden," Shino whispered, letting his head dip nearer to hers, "...never."

Hinata's face turned a shade of red that even the most talented artist can't copy. (A/N: No, not even Sai could get this shade of red)

"S-S-S-Shino," Hinata whispered; her heart racing. Was he about to...?

"Hmm?" He question as his face got closer to hers.

"What are you doing?" Hinata asked as she rose her own head a little closer to Shino's. This was just like before, except this time she was going to do something about it and not just let the moment pass by.

Shino instantly straightened up and rose his head away from Hinata. He mumbled an apology and turned away, a slight pinkish color covering his cheeks.

"For what?" Hinata said quietly, as she put her hand on his shoulder. She really hadn't expected him to stop; she hadn't wanted him to stop.

"For..." Shino couldn't continue his sentence. He didn't want to and he was distracted. Hinata used her 'ninja sneakyness' to get a mere centimeters away from him without him noticing. She had apparently sat up and was holding his jacket up with her other hand so it didn't fall.

Shino kissed her lightly on the lips without any hesitation. Her being that close was torturing him, teasing him. He was surprised she hadn't fainted yet. Her face actually became less red, but a pink color still stained her cheeks and there was something about her eyes that was different. If he didn't know any better he'd say they looked kind of...lustful.

He kissed her again, but this time longer. The hand that wasn't holding up his jacket was resting on his chest. He moved down her neck, until he got to a part covered by his own jacket.

"Hinata," He began, taking a break from talking to nibble on her neck, "can I have my jacket back?"

THE END!!

I know, I know. Stop writing dumn one-shots and update my other stories. Don't worry, I will. I just got this in my head and had to write it.

Sorry.

I only proof read this once. So there will be some mistakes I missed. Sorry, again.

Of course, if you have problems with it, FLAME as much as you want. Seriously. I welcome flames! Call me a pyro maniac. lol