A/N: I forgot why I had an idea like this, or even why it's ShikaHina. But, meh, inspiration is inspiration. So, I have to deal with it.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto

Officially Yours

The first night, he saw her crying.

He had thought he found another wonderful place to stargaze. Aside from cloud watching, it was his second favorite activity to do, mostly because he couldn't see much of the clouds during night. He had almost drifted off to sleep on the wide grassy field when he heard a sob. Though it was barely audible, the clearing was also quiet, so his ears picked up the soft sound. He would have shrugged it off if it weren't for the rustling sound he heard in a distance. Being a chunin-ranked ninja, his instincts forced him to be alert.

He whipped out a kunai and slowly approached a tree where he had heard the sound. When he reached the spot, he heard the sound of crying rather clearly. Preparing himself for a possible trap, he gripped his kunai and spun quickly around the tree only to see an indigo-haired girl sitting on the ground with her face buried on her arms. He paused.

When she noticed his presence, she raised her eyes up at him and he immediately recognized her wide grayish-white orbs, the eyes of the Hyuuga clan.

"Hinata…?" he breathed out and noticed a tear roll down her pale cheeks.

"Sh-Shikamaru-san…" Her voice was raspy because of her crying and her eyes were red and puffy. Perhaps she had been crying for quite some time already. She quickly wiped her eyes and even lowered her head in a sad attempt to hide the fact that she was crying. But, her whole body still trembled and her tears continued to fall.

He was at a loss for words and idea of what to do. It was the first time for him to see the warm-hearted Hyuuga cry. His advanced mind had already thought up of various reasons, but they were only guesses. It was troublesome, so he had not asked her what happened.

Maybe it was an hour later that he just stood there and watched her cry. He had thought of leaving and giving her privacy, but he felt it would be heartless of him to just ignore a comrade in need.

But he didn't have the slightest idea how to comfort someone, so he just watched and waited for her to calm down. It was then that she looked back up and asked a question he had not expected.

"C-Can I…hold you, Shikamaru-san?"

He looked at her in pure shock.

Her eyes slid down to the ground. "P-Please? J-Just for a while…"

They never had a close relationship and she was a very shy person. So for her to ask him of such a thing, she would have to be very depressed, he thought. Hesitantly, he went and sat down next to her. She immediately wrapped her arms around his waist and laid her head on his shoulder. Then, she sniffed and continued crying.

He tensed on her hold. He was afraid that if he moved even an inch, she would break. So, once again, he stayed put and settled on stargazing instead.

Since then, Nara Shikamaru officially became Hyuuga Hinata's crying shoulder.

The eighth night, he saw her training.

Not a taijutsu training, but a no-clothes-included ninjutsu training. He felt his entire face burn at the sight that greeted him. She was so focused on what she was doing that she hadn't noticed him watching her "dance" the whole time.

By the time she finished, he had managed to hide himself on a tree branch. He watched her dry herself with a towel and dress in her usual clothes. She had a very attractive body with a well-endowed chest and he understood, there and then, why she wears loose clothing.

He realized that he was practically spying on her while she continued her training and meditated, but he couldn't bring himself to look away, much less leave. He wondered why he still hadn't stopped visiting the place and went back to his previous spot.

His first reason to himself was that it was too troublesome. But then, he caught himself and realized that coming back every night to her spot was more troublesome. The previous nights, all she did was cry on him and he hadn't been able to reject her. It also had been hard to stargaze because of her firm hold on him.

His second reason was because he cared as a comrade and was worried about her well-being. Though he appeared uncaring and disinterested most of the time because of his lazy nature, he wasn't a cold-hearted man. If any of his family or friends needed his help, he would help no matter how troublesome it was. And it appeared that was the case with Hinata. She was fragile, though not physically but mentally.

For the rest of the night, instead of doing what he preferred to do, he watched her train.

Since then, he officially became her guard.

The twenty-second night, he caught her staring at him.

She had just calmed down from crying and she still held him by his waist. She was looking at him in a way that was unfamiliar with him. For the past few weeks, he had allowed her to hold him whenever she cried and he watched over her whenever she wasn't looking. He could say he had a very troublesome time ever since seeing her that first night to the point where he could already read through her every word and action. But the look she was giving him was odd and new.

"What is it?" he asked.

She was snapped out of her trance and looked away, blushing. She was embarrassed at not only her action but also at being caught. "I-It's nothing" she said.

She was a bad liar and he would've have dropped it if he hadn't caught her staring at him again. He wasn't used to such attention, so it made him feel a bit awkward. "Just say it, Hinata" he said. Her blush darkened and she fidgeted. She was nervous. "Go on, I'll listen."

After a few seconds of hesitating, she gave in and let go of him, her eyes on the ground. "Well, I j-just realized" she paused and glanced at him, "how h-h-handsome y-you are."

For someone who has a mind with an I.Q. over two hundred, it sure took time for him to process her words.

And the effect it had in him was overwhelming.

His face went into flames, beating Hinata's blush. His stomach suddenly coiled and almost felt like there were hundreds of butterflies in it. He was left speechless.

She hadn't noticed his reaction for she was busy staring at the ground and blushing at her own confession.

She was full of surprises, he concluded. Normally, he would find it troublesome. But, he was not bothered by it at all. In fact, he found himself liking it. For one, she complimented him. He never thought of himself as handsome, not even close to it. But here she was, saying otherwise and he immediately believed the truth in her words. She was a bad liar because she was almost too honest.

And he admired that.

Although it may be a problem considering her occupation as a ninja, in a way, she was a living proof that not everyone's an untrustworthy person. He knew very well, without anyone saying, that a lot of people respect and admire her as much, if not more, than him. She probably even has a few suitors after her.

If he would count on some of the points that made them want to get her, one of those would be her title as heiress. But he knew that wasn't half of it. Aside from her title, she was as beautiful as a porcelain doll, has a very enchanting lavender-tinted pair of eyes and luscious lips. She appears delicate but she's actually a highly-skilled chunin-ranked shinobi. She's kind, polite, neat, intelligent, hard-worker, graceful, selfless—

He caught himself. He just realized he respected her so much.

"Aside from th-that," she said, "I wanted to…thank you for…tolerating my sh-shameful behavior."

If he were anyone else, it would've been hard for him to believe that those words came out from Hinata's own mouth. But he had already expected such a reaction from her. He gave her a blank stare. "What are you talking about? Crying is not a shameful behavior."

She didn't say anything and further lowered her head. She didn't believe him.

He sighed. "Look, I admit that it was troublesome the first time I saw you cry" he said. "But you are not troublesome."

Her head shot up and she looked at him with wide eyes.

"I hadn't thought of you that way" he said. "For one, when you talk, you don't damage my ear drums. Also, you don't demand, you don't scream like you're ripping your throat out and you don't beat people up without a good enough reason." He looked up at the starry sky. "You needed someone and I happened to be around. I couldn't just leave you alone in your grief."

"Shikamaru-san…" she whispered. Then, she lowered her head back. "I'm…sorry…and thank you."

"You're welcome…I guess." He smiled lopsidedly. There was silence for a while before he spoke again. "Well, it might not be any of my business, but I think I deserve an explanation."

He could see the hesitation in her eyes. But she answered him, nonetheless. "The night you found me was the time when"—she bit her lip—"when Naruto-kun r-rejected me" she said. "I l-loved him for a long time, and his answer to my near-death confession affected m-me greatly."

No wonder, he thought, she had been desperate for comfort.

"I supposed I c-cried for various reasons. Naruto-kun's rejection, my one-sided f-feelings, the pain, my w-weaknesses and f-failures, my family, th-their insults, my f-father's disappointments, and most of all," she smiled weakly, "me. You see, ever since I was rejected, I w-wasn't able to f-focus on my duties. And the d-disappointments of everyone in my clan, especially the c-council and my father, increased tenfold." Tears formed in her eyes and her voice shook. "And e-every night, I would come by here and c-cry it out."

It was those words that made him reach out and pull her to him. "Then, cry it all out" he said to her.

Since then, he officially became her listener.

The forty-third night, she caught him.

She captured his heart. Over time, his admiration for her grew into something else. He hadn't known it at first.

She was training and he offered to spar with her. It was obvious that she was surprised by his offer, but she accepted it more gladly than he had thought. It had been just for a while, but her lips formed into a smile.

When their spar ended, he had scratches all over him from being thrown a few times away by her attacks. She felt guilty and rushed to him to treat his wounds. For the whole time she treated him, he watched her. And by the time she was done, she gave him another smile. It lasted longer, and he was able to get a good look at the smile that warmed his heart. He felt his heart skip a beat and the butterflies on his stomach. He suddenly felt giddy.

And that was how he knew.

He fell in love with her.

Since then, he officially became her admirer.

The fiftieth night, she loved him.

He had been perfectly fine with their friendship and really couldn't ask for more. He had been satisfied with just being there for her. A shoulder to cry onto whenever she's lonely, a guard to protect her whenever she needed protection, a listener to every emotion she bottled up inside her, an admirer to respect and love her the way she is. He had been fine with all of it.

But as it turned out, not always could one keep a secret from another. There really would be times where one could blurt things out. And as fate would have it, it was for those times that his tongue slipped and he confessed his feelings to Hinata.

"E-Eh?" she gasped.

"I—uh—well—err" he intelligently explained. It was true he loved her, but his mind had already calculated and the probabilities were low for his feelings to be reciprocated. That explained why he was sweating like there's no tomorrow, his heart rate was abnormally high, and he froze like a statue. He could've sworn he would've run away if only his feet would listen to him. This was why he hadn't intended to pursue a deeper relationship with her.

This was too troublesome.

"Shikamaru-san…is…is this true?"

How could he take back what he had said? He didn't want to go through the trouble of hurting her feelings. So, he nodded and waited for the highest probability of being rejected to happen.

But she surprised him when she blushed and a smile graced her features. The next thing he knew, she had her arms wrapped around his neck and she was hugging him tightly.

It took him a few moments to cope up with Hinata's reaction and on the fact that his calculations were ultimately wrong for the first time. Realizing this, a big smile slowly crept up his face and he hugged her back.

Since then, he officially became her lover.

-FIN-