Author's Note: This story has some really graphic and disturbing content in it. Read at your own risk.

Cocoon

Chapter 1

~o~

Hinata's head tilted back, her locks of dark blue pouring over the warm, milky skin of her shoulder. She inhaled sharply, her hips flowing to the rhythm of the other pair beneath her. Her cheeks were tinted with the hot blush of a pleasure that she had become quite accustomed to at this point, but still cherished. She felt his fingertips trailing up her bare thighs, which stopped to seize her flesh as he entered her, again and again.

She fell forward, her hands gripping at the pillows on either side of his head. She gazed into those deep, blue eyes...then found herself being pulled towards them. Their lips met...wet, and tender...the lips she had dreamed of kissing since she was a little girl. He felt so amazing inside her...her prize. Her beautiful, handsome, cheerful...courageous...and oh so irresistible Naruto.

"Hinata...I'm close..." he whispered, the rhythm beginning to speed.

"Go inside me..." she replied, replacing her lips back on his.

It was fine, of course. She reveled in it. Every moment she spent with him, she drank in with a never-ending thirst. He flowed through her like her own streams of chakra, and it was all she could ever want.

He was silent, his expression clenching...then with a howl, he let himself go. Hinata made a special effort to tense the muscles within her just for him. His moans were her orchestra, and she his maestro.

Exhausted, she rolled off of him into the dampened sheets and rested on his outstretched arm. He did not look at her, but only breathed.

"I love you..." she mentioned quietly.

"You too, Hinata-chan," he replied without turning to her.

"Can it be my turn now?" she asked with a hint of timidness. Only then did he turn his face towards hers.

"I'm...I'm really sorry Hinata, not today. I've got some really important business to deal with...I only had this much time to spare for you to begin with."

With that, he rolled off the bed and wiped himself off on their designated "clean-up" towel, then began shuffling on his various orange-tinted garb.

Hinata lay naked on their futon, watching him with a pitiful disappointment. She would forgive him, of course. He was...so busy now, she was lucky if she could even have a moment like this alone with him.

Naruto took one more garment off the nearby chair, fluffed it out, then donned it with the same pride he always did when wearing his father's cloak. Then, he took his Hokage's hat and placed it neatly over his wild, messy hair.

He turned to Hinata, and smiled at her from beneath the cloth.

"Don't be sad, Hinata-chan. Your team mates are supposed to be back today, remember?"

Hinata blinked, and watched her lover leave without another word. How could she have forgotten?!

She quickly rolled out of bed, dabbed herself dry, then threw on her clothes as fast as her body would allow her to fit into them. She was out the door before she could even slip her sandal over her heel.

~o~

It had been three years since the event with Obito and the Akatsuki. After Sasuke had returned and proven himself in the fight against the ultimate ninjutsu, it was difficult to declare who would become the next Hokage. All three members of Team 7 had been skillfully trained by all three sannin, and each shinobi had shown an equal prowess and potential for protecting the Hidden Leaf Village.

As a result, the village elders and fifth Hokage, along with a majority vote from the civilians of Konoha, decided to take a different route. All three shinobi...Naruto Uzumaki, Sakura Haruno, and Sasuke Uchiha, would take up the title of Hokage and rule as equals. This would not only provide a balanced center of government, but would allow the Hokages to be in more than one place.

Communication between the Hidden Villages was at an all time high since the Great War, and it wasn't long before a couple of the other villages started adopting the practice of the "Three Shadows" form of rule. The Sand Village was the first, where Gaara was soon accompanied in rule by his brother and sister. Overall, it allowed a wider balance and much more opportunity for a career as a Kage, (as it seemed to be a very popular goal among young ninjas).

Hinata Hyuga had been very proud of Naruto's accomplishment, and as she had promised him, she had stubbornly stuck by his side through thick and thin. After the war, and after her efforts to assist Naruto, the two were inseparable. With Naruto's promotion to Ichihokage, not even the prestigious Hyuga clan could deny her relationship with him.

But, when Hinata moved in to the living quarters of Hokage tower, she found that she had little time to spend with her significant other. Even with two other Hokages, keeping track of income, order, and all manner of government was terribly time-consuming. Yet, for the most part, Hinata was happy.

~o~

Today, she was filled with another kind of joy. After almost half a year in the feild, her beloved team mates, who she had grown up with and shared so many adventures with, were returning to the village. As she raced down the spiral of the Hokage tower, her thoughts swarmed with hazy images of their faces. Kiba, with his shaggy mop of hair and the incessant stench of canine and leather, and Shino...mysterious Shino...under all those hoods and collars, accompanied by that ominous hum of his hive.

Hinata was almost out of breath by the time she reached the massive gates of Konoha. The location was pretty much void of anyone minus Izumo and Kotetsu, faithfully reading their magazines as opposed to actually guarding anything. Hinata timidly approached them, and was greeted with the kindly gaze one would be greeted with at the tax office on a Monday morning.

"Um...e-excuse me?"

Izumo graced her presence with a glance over his magazine.

"D-do...do you know if Kiba Inuzuka and Shino Aburame have arrived yet?"

"Nope."

"N..n-nope?" she asked meekly, a bit confused. She was answered with silence.

"Um...you mean...'nope' as in you don't know? Or... they aren't here yet?"

"...yeah," Kotetsu responded with complete disinterest.

Hinata sighed and let her shoulders droop, then decided to take a seat near an adjacent bench.

"Why do we even have guards at all?" she muttered to herself.

She ended up waiting there for about an hour...or at least it seemed like an hour. It could have very well been only twenty minutes and she was just growing impatient. There's a certain feeling one gets when they're waiting to meet someone that they've never met before, or haven't seen in quite sometime. It's an agonizing and exciting feeling...it starts in the stomach, then makes it way to the heart. Palms sweat, and it gets difficult to breath. So when Hinata thought that she had been waiting for an hour, she had actually only been waiting five minutes. Fortunately, after those five minutes had passed, a hand clasped on her shoulder from behind. The sudden touch made her jump what felt like forty feet in the air.

When she turned, she found Kiba's sly grin, adorned with a gruff and scraggly...well, it couldn't really be called a beard. More like what happens when one barely pays attention to their face while out on a six month mission. Along with him was his equally shaggy beast, Akamaru. Hinata held her hand over her heart and took a breath.

"K-kiba-kun...you gave me a start."

"Hah! Me? Sneak up on the great Hinata Hyuga? What happened to your Byakugan? I hope dating the Ichihokage hasn't softened you up!"

Her cheeks swelled, and she looked away in shame. It had been an embarrassingly long time since she did any real training...but how could she help herself? She wanted to be with the man she had waited for for years, and they had just defeated the greatest evil known to the ninja world. Didn't she deserve a break? Or time to be with her love instead of out in the field?

It was then she saw him. Mr. Tall, Dark, and Hooded himself, Shino Aburame. Though, something was a bit off. His face looked different.

"Shino? Is that you under there?" she asked, peering under his hood as he approached.

"Most of me," he replied solemnly.

Then she noticed it. A great big scar, right under his goggles on his left eye. It was similar to Kakashi's, but even larger.

"Oh my goodness, what happened to you?" Hinata squeaked, pulling her fingers to her lips.

"Ah...opponent got a little too close to our ol' pal Shino, here..." Kiba began to explain while placing a hand on Shino's shoulder. "Lost his eye in the midst of battle."

Hinata could feel her own eyes become cloudy and moist.

"Fortunately I still have one left," Shino stated in a manner which might have been interpreted as humor to the common sociopath.

He also might have been smiling, but it was lost under his robes. Either way, Hinata was overwhelmed with a painful guilt. Had she been on that six month mission with her team like she was supposed to, Shino would still have his eye. But, with Naruto in charge, she was allowed to stay as opposed to spending half a year without him.

Hinata felt a warm, gloved hand on the side of her face. She realized she had been staring at the ground, where great globules of tears had began to splatter on the pavement beneath her.

"Don't feel as if it were your fault, Hinata. All missions are dangerous, and Aburame do not need eyes. I could do just as well with no eyes at all, as long as my hive thrives within me."

"We definitely missed ya though, Hina-chan," Kiba said while giving her back a gingerly rub. Akamaru woofed in agreement, flopping his great fluffy tail behind him.

"Hey, why don't go grab some barbecue? It's been ages since we had some decent chow. We can tell you all about our grand adventure without you!"

As jolly as Kiba was, and always had been, Hinata couldn't help but feel like he was hinting that it really was her fault, that she should have been there, and how could she possibly abandon them for some pretentious, self-centered...

But she was probably just imagining things.

~o~

Team Eight spent their evening discussing their adventures through treacherous territory, the legendary fight that resulted in Shino's injury, and how well Naruto fared in the sack. Well, the last bit wasn' t really a discussion, more like an out-of-bounds jape from Kiba which ended in Hinata splashing her sake in his face. It wasn't like she was making use of it anyway...Hinata was tipsy on a thimbleful of the stuff, but even that couldn't crack the safe that was her intimate experiences with Naruto. Yet, the team managed to have a very pleasant get-together, and by the end of the night, even Shino's cheeks were touched by a bit of pink.

They left the restaurant hoarse and exhausted, and Kiba was eager to head home and sleep in his own bed. Hinata hugged him goodbye, then turned to Shino.

"Would you mind walking me home?"

"Not at all," he replied softly, then held out his elbow like a gentleman. Hinata smiled at the offering and took it, appreciating the warmth in the cool night air.

Hinata and Shino weren't ones for chattering. They never were, even at the best of times. Yet, Hinata had never felt more comfortable at anyone else's side than at his. Perhaps it was the fact that he never judged her or intimidated her, or maybe the odd humming sound he always emanated had some kind of soothing effect on the brain. Regardless, he was a cherished friend to her, and she was happy to have him back.

Except, something was still irking her.

"Shino-kun...I..." she started, barely audible. She wasn't even sure if he could actually hear her, until he replied with a monotone "Hmm?"

"I...I really am sorry...about your eye..."

"I told you, Hinata. Don't blame yourself. The mission was a success, and both Kiba and I are back alive. There are far worse things to lose than an eye."

It seemed like he meant something more then that, but Hinata didn't question it. Shino was very straightforward, so when things sounded cryptic, it was usually just her imagination.

"May...may I see it?" she asked timidly, as the two came to a stop under the glow of a street light.

Shino stood in silence for a few moments. He looked down at her through the clouded lenses of his goggles, but said nothing. Hinata had known him for a long time, and this was his way of giving her permission to do something that he wasn't entirely sure he should give permission for.

She reached to the sides of his hood, and slowly, cautiously pulled it back to reveal his messy, wiry hair. He remained as still and as silent as an old tree in a graveyard. Then, she pulled the goggles up to his forehead.

Shino didn't reveal his eyes very often, but there wasn' t all that much to hide. His eyes had always been brown and ordinary compared to Hinata's misty Byakugan. Yet, when she revealed that scarred and reddened slash where his eye once was, the remaining one seemed all the more somber and lonely.

But Hinata did not fear the wounded. She had seen many an injury in her time as a kuonichi, and Shino's wasn't even worth the bat of an eye. In fact, it prompted her to run the tip of her finger across it. Why she did such a thing, she couldn't be sure. Perhaps she wanted to fully absorb the consequences of her actions, or somehow sooth them in a way. Shino grunted at her touch, but remained unmoving.

"It gives you character," she said, after a long silence. He continued to look at her with his monocular stare. She withdrew her hand, but he caught her by the wrist in a swift movement.

"Hinata, I told you, don't blame yourself. I know you, and I know your tendencies for feeling weak. You are not, and this is not your fault."

The last three words were spoken as if they had been carved in stone. Hinata looked deep into his remaining eye that stared back at her like an immortal deity. That stare could have made Orochimaru slither under a rock, but to Hinata, it brought a sort of...peace.

Then something strange occurred. Before she knew it, she was suddenly wrapped in a warm, earthy embrace...surrounded by the calming hum she'd known for so long. But this, this was unusual. Shino certainly wasn't a touchy person, and while Hinata had surely hugged him on more than one occasion, this was the first to be initiated by him. Regardless, Hinata returned the hug without conflict.

A moment passed, and the length of the embrace started to enter the zone of awkwardness.

"Shino...?" Hinata asked openly, hoping to prod for an explanation.

"I've missed you, Hinata."

"I...I missed you too, Shino-kun..."

She felt the embrace tighten. She was starting to get nervous, but she returned the squeeze. It wasn't that she didn't truly miss him...by all means, she was happy to have him. It was just such a peculiar gesture on his part that it made her wonder if he was alright.

Then, she felt something even more unusual. Something briefly pressed against the front of her thigh, but vanished just as soon as it had appeared. She almost thought she had imagined it, until she felt it again a moment later. When it occurred to her what it might have been, she quickly pulled away from him.

She intensely stared at the ground, her cheeks flushed. She couldn't look at his face, for fear of him seeing her reaction. This had already ventured well into a quagmire of awkwardness, and Hinata didn't want to confirm that she had felt a flicker of his yearning for her.

"Um...I..I can walk myself home now, th-thank you for accompanying me," she said in a flurry before giving him a polite bow. She quickly turned and began to dart away, then Shino snagged her by the hood of her jacket.

"Wait..."

She could feel a bead of sweat trickling down her temple.

"Could I have my goggles back, please?"

"Oh, right...of c-course, here."

She outstretched her arm, presenting the goggles while still in a bow. She was stiff with nervousness. Shino calmly removed the goggles from her palm, and she retracted her arm instantly afterwards.

"Th-thank you again...Sh-sh-shino-kun. Have a good night."

"Good night, Hinata."

At least she thought she heard him say that. She was half a mile away by the time she realized he had even responded.

~End of Chapter 1~