She was just as troublesome as most women were to him. Although, it was in a completely different way than normal. She was too shy, quiet and timid to the point where he just wanted to yell at her to do something; to stand up for herself and make herself known. She was worth more than she and others made her out to be.
And then when it came to the Naruto situation; he really pitied her. She admired him so; loved him even and Naruto didn't even bat an eye at her. He didn't see her in any way other than a friend. He was so focused on his love for Sakura and his need to bring Sasuke back; he was blind to Hinata.
He was blind to every bit of her. Her beautiful hair; long, dark and silky. Her translucent eyes that seemed like they were a light mauve color. He didn't even notice the curves she had, that most of the girls their age didn't have and probably never have. She was a beautiful young woman; Shikamaru could see that.
What he couldn't fathom was how Naruto didn't and how Hinata acted as if she wasn't. How she covered up with baggy clothes in such an insecure way. If Sakura and Ino could wear the type of clothes that they did; certainly Hinata could as well. Probably even better than the other two.
Why couldn't she see that? It bothered him in the worst way. Why couldn't she just realize that Naruto didn't care for him the way she did him? Why didn't she see that there were people, men and women alike, who were better for her than that knucklehead? Shikamaru didn't get it; he couldn't understand it. But even so, he admired her; simply because she was troublesome in such a way.
He liked that she wasn't like the other girls he knew. That she had her own separate way of being bothersome for him. She wasn't loud and didn't stand out like Ino. And she didn't have Sakura's cruelty or her slight temperament. Instead, she was quiet, gentle. She was strong in her own way and may stutter a bit but that's what made her Hinata; it was what Shikamaru liked.
She was average but in the most extraordinary way. She may not be someone who was important but was definitely someone. Shikamaru liked how she stood out without being the center of attention; how his eyes could be drawn to her without a thought. She could have been sitting down, staring off into space and to him; it would have been enough to have his eyes glued to her for hours.
He loved that about her; she could captivate him. Even so, she didn't notice; that was the real problem. That was what made her most tiresome; she was too focused on Naruto to notice. She was just like him in that sense; not seeing what lay about her. Even with those special eyes of hers, she couldn't see the people who cared for her more than Naruto ever could.
Shikamaru sighed in annoyance at the thoughts of her. He hopped up from the ground; he couldn't enjoy the cloud as he had wanted. He was getting frustrated with little things lately and with thoughts of her in his mind; it was difficult to just relax. It was a nice day too; there were many clouds in the sky, all puffy and pure white, just like little swabs of cotton.
She was beginning to get to him; she was just a simple woman. He didn't need to worry himself sick over her. It was just a simple mission and Kiba was with her; she was fine. If worse comes to worse, he'd protect her. Kiba cared for her just as Shikamaru did; he could tell.
He wasn't sure what to do with himself, he had already done what was needed for the day and Lady Tsunade had told him he wasn't needed for anything else, to go home. But he couldn't bring himself to make a decision about what he wanted to do. He aimlessly walked down the streets of Konoha in a state of ignorance.
It was getting more difficult for him to keep his mind from wandering to her. Everything about him was just a mesh of noises and blurred colors that faded into the backgrounds. Nothing interesting could be found around him and he gradually started to feel like all he wanted to do was go home.
Just as he was turning a corner, about half a block from his house, he heard, "Yo, Shikamaru!" from behind him. He knew the voice well and mumbled, "What a drag." as he turned toward Kiba. The rest of the squad was following behind minus their sensei.
Kiba's nose scrunched up and he looked pretty irritated. "Is that anyway to greet your friends?" Shikamaru's gaze turned toward Hinata. She had been limping as she followed behind the two boys. "It depends on who I consider my friends." He needed to let his frustration out on someone; and the person who should have made sure Hinata didn't get hurt was the perfect candidate.
Although, Shikamaru really didn't mean any real harm by it; it was just one of those comments. Kiba took great offense to it; taking it too personally. "What's that suppose to mean?" Before Kiba could go into a rant about it, Shikamaru interrupted with a sigh and reassured him that it was nothing. "Just forget it."
Kiba pushed it aside almost as quickly as he took offense and began babbling on about the mission they got back from. Shikamaru started to walk off in the direction he was previously headed, team eight following behind casually.
Kiba was still going on about something but Shikamaru was ignoring it; his attention was focused on Hinata. He noted how her eyes were darting around the village; as if she was looking for something or perhaps someone.
She had been doing that since Naruto had gotten back. She would try to spot that blonde hair and orange outfit within the crowd around her. It bothered Shikamaru in the worst way; he found it pathetic but could understand how she couldn't help it. He did the same thing when it came to her.
Today, however, it was an off day and he wasn't in the mood to deal with it. "Looking for someone?" Hinata flinched in surprised and Kiba glared at the Nara for cutting him off, making it clear that he wasn't listening. Hinata opened and closed her mouth a few times, not sure what to say, as her face tinted pink from being caught.
"It's kind of pathetic, you know. Looking for him." Shikamaru's gaze never left Hinata. Shino and Kiba's eyes turned to her as well; both of them knowing how the comment was affecting her. She started to defend herself but Shikamaru continued cutting her off, "I heard he's off training for something. You won't see him around."
He paused in step and fully turned her way, "So, you can stop looking for him." He told her adding a tinge of harshness within it. Hinata's face turned red and she avoided eye contact with him. She was staring at the ground intensely, seeming to ponder over what he said; her expression saddening with each second.
And that's when he started to regret it; he didn't want to make her sad. He grimaced, mentally slapping himself when he realized he sort of did mean to hurt her. But he just wanted to communicate with her in some way that made her realize it bothered him. Though, maybe that wasn't the best way to communicate it.
Kiba growled in aggravation, "Hinata, don't listen to that lazy ass. Naruto picks things up quickly; he'll be back before any of us notice." He patted her shoulder and gave her a grin. Shikamaru frowned at them when Hinata gave Kiba a smile. Softly telling him, "Thank you.. Kiba."
Shino picked up on the mood of the Nara right away, he could tell something was wrong but he wasn't a mind reader. "Is something bothering you today?" Shikamaru's head snapped towards the bug boy. "What makes you think that?"
Shikamaru couldn't tell, but was sure Shino was staring him down through his sunglasses. "You seem… tense." Shikamaru didn't want to deal with this. He didn't want to explain himself, it wasn't worth it. "I'm fine." He turned away from the three and Akamaru and gave them a wave, "I'll see you." And left them there wondering what could be his problem.
Shikamaru felt like a prick; the way he just wrote Naruto off bothered him. Naruto was his friend and probably wanted him back in the village just as much as Hinata did just in a different way.
Kiba stared at Shikamaru's back, trying to figure out what was wrong. "Something definitely crawled up his ass." Shino and Hinata looked over to him and back towards Shika. Something was definitely bothering him and Hinata felt a little bad about it. Maybe she did something to anger him; he did seem to aim his words toward her the most.
It didn't take long for Shikamaru to get home. He listened to his mother nag at him about something, although he didn't really listen to her. He just nodded and didn't argue or make a comment that would bother her. Instead, he let her finish and told her calmly how he didn't feel like dealing with her because he didn't feel too well; though, that didn't help him with her.
Ignoring her, he walked to his bathroom and closed the door quickly behind him. He really needed a hot shower to help him relax. He stripped and stepped into the warm water, feeling his muscles relax almost immediately. It felt great and he appreciated the feel of the water running over him. It could always calm him, no matter what mood he was in.
His thought began to wander the more he relaxed. Closing his eyes, he tilted his head back and let the water rush over his face as she popped into his mind. He could see her crawling onto his bed toward him with a coy expression. He saw her dancing, twirling about and laughing with him. He imagined her in his kitchen making his breakfast, her hair tied up and a pink apron over her pajamas.
A groan escaped his lips and Shikamaru shut the water off. There was no way he was going to be able to relax. Not when his mind kept wandering to other things. He dressed quickly and laid in bed for hours. It didn't matter how many times he told himself to stop thinking over things, his mind wouldn't calm and kept running in circles until he managed to fall asleep.
Waking up to bird chirping and sun shining in through the window would normally make most people feel calm and peaceful. Although, for Shikamaru, he just couldn't find any good reason as for why he would enjoy it. He laid there staring at the ceiling blankly; it was too early for him.
The fact that he had a hard time falling asleep should be a good enough reason for him to have slept in late. But now, he was wide awake and it was too early. He knew he wouldn't be able to get back to sleep and not knowing what else to do he slid out of bed and got dressed, then headed over to the Hokage Tower.
Though, that did little for him; Lady Tsunade only had little things for him to do. Which he finished in no time; leaving him with nothing but boredom. Walking down the semi-crowded streets, he tried to think of something to do. He knew Chouji was with his father and Ino was probably off doing something "extremely important," not that he really wanted to spend time with her then anyway.
He thought about finding Asuma and challenging him to a game of shogi but decided against it. It wouldn't keep him occupied long enough. Looking about him in an uninterested way, he finally figured he would just find some place to grab a bite to eat and then go to his usual spot and cloud watch until he could think of something better to do.
After he had chosen a place to eat and ordered, Shikamaru stared out the window beside his table. He was thinking things over; he knew what he wanted to do now, he figured out that much last night when not being able to sleep. He just didn't know how to put it into action.
"Oh," a soft voice said beside him. And then another voice came, more loud and familiar. "Shikamaru!" His head quickly snapped in that direction. Hinata was standing next to his table, Ino and Sakura beside her. "Fancy meeting you here!" Ino grinned widely at him and sliding into one of the chairs at the table, while Sakura and Hinata hesitantly took the other two.
Shikamaru narrowed his eyes at Ino. The tone she used was too over the top; something was up. "Not really. You know I come here a lot." She began to giggle, "Oh, you do? I completely forgot." He wasn't falling for this pathetic act.
The girls ordered what they wanted and began to chat merrily with each other. Surprisingly, Shikamaru couldn't help but listen in every once in a while. But it didn't take long for Shika to realize what Ino was up to. As soon as the words were uttered, it wasn't hard to figure out. "I need to use the restroom. Sakura, will you come with me?"
All he could think of was how Ino couldn't mind her own business. "What a meddlesome brat." He thought as he watched the two walk off. His eyes flickered back to Hinata; she looked uncomfortable. There was an awkward silence between them; neither really knew what to say. His brain ran through the possible topics, but he couldn't choose one that he liked.
"Sorry." He blurted out; he wasn't looking at her anymore. Instead his eyes were back to the street outside the window, his head resting on the palm of his hand. Hinata didn't say anything, she wasn't sure what he was sorry about; she just watched him quietly.
When he was sure she wasn't going to reply, his looked at her out of the corner of his eyes. "About yesterday. What I said," He started, turning back to her. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean anything by it." Her cheeks tinted a light pink and she nodded. "It's.. alright. I understand."
He scoffed at that, rolling his eyes. There was no way she did. She was trying to be polite with him; he could tell. "I really don't think you do, Hyūga." His tone was full of frustration and anger. She didn't understand him at all. "There's no way you understand. None."
Hinata stayed silent; there wasn't much she could say. She didn't know how to reassure him that she did understand. Ino and Sakura returned before anything else was exchanged between the two. Both of them cheerful and chatting on and on about things Shikamaru could give a rat's ass about. When his food arrived, he ate quickly and paid; telling the girls he'd see them later. He just needed to get out of there.