Disclaimer: Shino, Hinata, and Kiba don't belong to me.
Author's Note: Short drabble. Slight ShinoHina. Please rate. :)
Hinata watched her teammates spar on a particularly cold winter day. It wasn't snowing, but the wind that buffeted her skin was chilling. Kiba was shaking, but Shino didn't seem bothered by the temperature.
How does he stand it? She wondered. How does he not shiver in the cold? Her brain mulled over this for a minute, and another question popped into her head as a result of the first.
Is Shino ticklish?
The simple inquiry burned in her mind for weeks. It was one of those unanswerable questions, like What is the meaning of life?, and it pestered her. Every time she was close to him, she had to resist the urge to run her fingers against his stomach to see how he would react.
One day, a few weeks after her initial pondering of the question, a chance to find out presented itself. Hinata was lying on a grassy hill with her teammates, biting strawberry ice cream off the cone. It melted over her lips, making her smile to herself. Kiba announced that he was going back to the vendor to purchase another vanilla ice cream cone, and he ran off with Akakmaru chasing after him.
Hence, Hinata was left alone with Shino on the hill. He was lying to her left, breathing softly as he licked his own chocolate ice cream. Hinata turned her head to look at him, watching him as his sunglasses were cast towards the sky.
"H-hey Shino-kun?" She stuttered, not really sure how to ask.
He moved his head so his sunglasses were facing her. "Yeah?" His voice was low. His expression at the moment was a mystery to her.
She hesitated before spitting out her question. "Are y-you ticklish?" She blurted out, suddenly turning pink for asking something so stupid.
His voice had a bit of suprise in it when he answered a few moments later. "Yeah." He turned his head back towards the sky, trying to remain nonchalant.
Hinata smiled softly. "Really?" She said, her hand creeping over towards his belly as she smiled mischieviously.
"Yeah really..." He was cut off by a burst of deep-voiced laughter that was emitted from the back of his throat. He laughed uncontroably, turning to his left and swatting her hand away. "Stop it, Hina-chan!" He managed to gasped past his roaring laughter.
Hinata didn't listen. She had already dropped her cone in the grass, and had both hands on his stomach. She was sitting on top of him, so she could reach his sheltered stomach. She laughed lightly as well, happy to see her stoic teammate showing a positive reaction to something to childish. "You shouldn't have told me!" She sang, feeling outgoing and jovial because of Shino's reaction.
He thrust his hands up towards her stomach, tickling her with his long fingers without saying anything because he was too busy laughing. Hinata began to laugh too, her voice a melody as she giggled at his touch.
Hinata finally stopped and rolled off of him and back onto the grass, both ninjas still laughing. Their faces were pink, but they were also both blushing furiously.
When they had stopped laughing and Shino had caught his breath, he spoke again. His seemed a bit happier. "Please don't tell Kiba." He begged.
"Of course I won't. Hinata said, smiling to herself.
Both ice cream cones were discarded in the grass, to both of them folded their hands beind their heads and looked up at the blue sky and the snowy white clouds.
Kiba returned shortly after, very confused as to why Hinata was blushing and Shino had gotten closer to her on the grass.