She had been watching as he ran off in the distance, chasing after his love, acting more like the prince of fools than prince charming; but, wasn't that more important than doing nothing at all: trying and failing than never trying at all? Hinata didn't really know anymore, all she ever really did was follow when told, block when struck, fell when pushed; always watching herself from afar, hidden by her own shadow, a shadow like the one she was in now, watching Naruto leap from branch to branch, off on another mission with the Konoha squad.
She was alone again, staring off into the winding traill off into the great woods of Konoha. She wandered through brush and thorn until she came across a calm pond glimmering with the sparkle of sunlight. it was here she took her afternoon dips into this secluded haven. she didn't necessarily like swimming for the sake of improving her form, but the cleansing touch of water across her imperfections.
Hinata removed her stifling clothes and graced her nimble toes in the water's edge. A shiver ran up her spine until her body acclimated with the temperature. She walked into the navy blue, feeling the cloying water wash her legs, hips, torso, and finally, shoulders met the cooling pond.
With a quick breath, she dived into the deep, striking through the tension until she was surrounded by an endless dark. She ensnared her legs, curling into a fetal ball, and closed her eyes to the great submergence. it was here she found her element: Silence. No sound could reach her here in the bottom as no sound would escape her lips.
Gently, her body began to rise towards the surface, an inevitable climb that she wouldn't lift a finger to make. her thoughts began to crawl her inner pit, focusing on the twine and dance of her hair in the expanse. If only she could be as supple as her hair, waving along with the rolling water. Eventually her lungs cried for air, and she had to arise, spraying the sky with scattered droplets.
Hinata wiped her eyes, clearing her murky vision. Slowly, the surrounding forest came into view. She peered out at oak and vine, when she noticed something wasn't quite right. it wasn't that someone was watching her, in fact, she apparently had been watching someone lying asleep against the lush grass. Shikamaru was snoring on the adjacent hill, practically dead to the world.
"Nyah!" she shrieked, then covered her mouth. His leg twitched, but then declined back into his resting poise as he snored away the day.
Her cheeks swelled in a rosy pink and she froze. How am I going to get out without waking him, she thought, especially while I'm naked? Apparently she had been so consumed with herself, she failed to notice someone else had been nearby. She searched her mind and discovered Kourinai had taught her about quelling sound with Jutsu in case they ever went out on B-ranked missions. Rapidly, she completed the signs and a blanket of Chakra silenced her movements. Ambly, she waded to the slope, clawing at the ground until she could finally stand ashore. Yes, I did it, she nearly screamed in victory, or moreso, in vain because while focusing so much on being unnoticed, she failed to notice the mud underfoot, and splaying her arms out, she slid back in a mighty crash against the water, dispelling her Jutsu in a plume of energy.
"Huh, wha?" Shikamaru muttered, picking his back off the cushy grass, and spied a naked Hinata swimming in one of his favorite ponds around Konoha.
They met each other, eye to eye, and didn't say anything.
They stared.
They stared longer.
They stared so long that neither knew if it were a contest.
"Um," Shikamaru said.
"Um," Hinata replied.
"You didn't know I was here, did you?"
"Um," she repeated.
"I, I didn't think so. How about we make a deal? I'll pretend this didn't happen if you do the same, how about that?" he asked.
"Um," she answered.
"Oh, okay? Well, since we're both pretending, how about I pretend to close my eyes and you pretend to put on some clothes, alright?" he asked.
"Um," she said yet again, like it was her new catch-phrase.
He shut his eyes while she put on her clothes. Should I leave? She thought to herself, feeling her black taint-top smother her trim belly.
"Are you done yet?" he asked, slouching beneath the shady oak tree.
"Um, ye...yeah I am," she said.
"Geez, what a pain. I guess I should say sorry, but logically we're both to blame, so I'll also say you're sorry too and leave it at that," he said, scratching his tuft of black hair.
"That's...that's fine Shikamaru," Hinata said.
"Well, since we're still pretending this didn't happen, why don't you join me?" he mused, fixing her with his brown eyes.
"Join you?!" she almost bellowed. Join him with what?! she thought, turning from a rosy pink to a blazing crimson.
"Yeah, join me lying down. It's my pasttime, it beats helping my teammates trying to catch that old lady's cat. It's such a pain, why does she want that thing if it doesn't want her?" he said, staring longingly at the drifting clouds.
"Um...I guess...I guess so," she uttered, barely able to speak let alone move.
"Problems?"
"Um...I can't...I can't move," she said.
"Uh, I guess I can help with that," he said. He quickly mimed his Shadow Jutsu, and then a bolting streak of shadow shot out of his and attched onto her own.
He sat up and gracefully walked over to Hinata as she did to him, mesmerized by his mahogany eyes. They turned around and sat back on his little hill as he released her from his Jutsu.
"Um...thanks," she said.
"Forget about it. So, I take it you like to avoid missions too?" he asked.
"Um...no, no I just...it's...it's...my day off. I...want to go for a swim," she replied.
"You know, Konoha has a pool, it even has parts of the pool partitioned off in case you want to do laps or something," he said.
"I...I like...I like to be...alone," she squeeked.
"Oh yeah," he yawned.
She didn't know what to say to that.
"I like to be alone too. People can be such a pain sometimes. it's nice just to be alone, y'know? Just lounge around while everyone else goes crazy around you, well that's mostly what they do, anyway. Why can't people just stop and lie down?" he asked.
"Um...well, I...I was busy earlier," she said.
"Oh, really? You were going crazy too?" he asked.
"Um...sort of, yeah," she said.
"I remember when I used to go crazy when I was little. I used to think the sky was going to fall on me. I would find a nook or crevice and curl up there, thinking the roof could possibly protect me from the clouds colliding with the ground," he said, staring off into the vast teal atmosphere.
"Oh...I'm sa...sorry that happend to yoy," she uttered, thinking about how she felt, sinking into the pond just before.
"Yeah, but y'know, I figured out something when I was by myself," he said.
"Wha...what di...did you figure out?" she asked.
"I figured out it really didn't matter where I was, if the clouds were going to fall, they would fall, and there's nothing I can really do about it, is there?" he asked.
"Um...I guess you really can't," she replied.
"And guess what? I walked outside and the sky didn't crack, the clouds didn't fall; everything really wasn't as bad as I thought it was. In fact, if it all happened that day, I would've missed something incredible, all those puffy clouds smothering the ground and the sky breaking off in pieces. Who knows, maybe there was something I could've done to stop it afterall. Imagine that?" he chuckled.
"But, you're too lazy Shikamaru!" she said, then covered her mouth for saying something so rude.
"Haha! Yeah, I really am. Also, if I continued to stay there, I wouldn't be where I am today, right here, staring out at the beautiful sky and feeling the cool breeze," he grinned, "I also would've missed seeing a naked girl too!"
She light up a bright red, feeling all the heat escape her ears in imaginary steam.
"Ha! Got you right back!" he chortled.
What am I feeling, she thought, what's happening?
"Hey, are you alright? You look like you're about to pop," he said.
"Um...fine, I'm really, really fine now."
"Alright Hinata."
They both stared off at the listing clouds outlined in soft amber. Carefully, she looked over at Shikamaru, admiring how still and calm he was. He was so close to her, almost a hair's length away. She remembered all the times she would lean against a tree, staring at Naruto from so far away. But now she ws staring at this boy so close, feeling the tremors from what she felt, or thought she felt for Naruto. What was all this? Was all this planned somehow? Did things just randomly happen this way? And furthermore, why was she talking to herself so much today?
In the time she took to have these thoughts, Shikamaru fell back asleep with his arms supporting his head and his right knee propped up for extra foundation.
She watched him slowly breathe, his ribcage expanding and contracting as the leaves left their shadow trails across his face. She felt an urge, a compulsion to kiss him. All her reprimands and constraints instilled by the Hyuuga clan forbid this, considering how he was of lesser blood. However, did she really need to be concerned with what they wanted? All her life she had been told what to do, so much so that she had become a programmed specimen to act only when commanded, only when oppressed. But this, this boy beside her was so disillusioned by the world, so unconventional that she felt she needed to be like him, to change and change another. Similar to her emotions towards Naruto, these threads wound around her heart. Could anyone cause these feelings in her? Was Naruto just the one, a true love? Or was that just fantasy, an imaginary concept to be filled by any other being? Yes, she thought, but this boy was her choice, whether good or bad, to take, to chose something on her life that was completely and utterly her own.
She leaned over, grazing his cheeks with the smooth fibers of her hair. she gasped a breath and plunged her lips into his, feeling a wealth of warmth seep into her body. He opened his eyes, perplexed by this junction, but then eased his thoughts, and gently caressed her temple, sliding his hand onto the nape of her neck.
Finally, they released each other from thwir embrace, and stared seeply into their reflections in each other's eyes, as if they each belonged in the other, to play and mold into their own.
"I, I thought you looked lonely?" she said.
"I thought you too," He replied.