Ghosts and Haunted Houses
Summary: Team Ten are given a mission to clear out a squatter infested house but it might just be haunted instead. Shikamaru decides that he needs a Hyuuga to help him and clears up the mystery with a shy Hinata by his side.
Disclaimer: I actually don't own Naruto. No, don't cry, it's better this way, you'll see...
A/N: For DateMe's October contest on DeviantArt. Check out the other fanfics and fanart when you have a second, they are in need of your love!
Also: K+! No lemon! Shock! Gasp! What is the world coming to?!
Shikamaru didn't like things that couldn't be explained.
In fact he hated them.
The quandary of an improbable solution to an impossible circumstance left his head spinning, which made him irritable which, in turn, made him mad.
Which is the emotion he's feeling right now.
"I'm telling you that that house," screamed an incredibly loud Ino while gesticulating wildly at the house sitting to their left, "Is haunted!"
"And I'm telling you that it can't be," a calm Chouji replied back. He turned to Shikamaru with a pleading look, "Come on Shikamaru, tell her it's not haunted."
Instead of replying, the Nara simply scowled and looked to his right, not ready to answer those questions.
It was a beautiful day he should be watching clouds damn it!
The Akimichi could only gawk at the other boy's silence which could mean only one thing.
Chouji shook his head in denial, turning his attention back to his other teammate who had folded her arms and was smugly smiling at him, "No, no, no, it can't be haunted," He turned back to his other friend, unsure, "Can it?"
Sighing out loud, the genius put a hand to his head while digging in his pockets for Asuma's lighter, "I'm not sure Chouji."
"You're not sure, you're not sure?" Chouji loudly asked, not quite certain what this could mean, "What did you guys see in there?"
Ino's arms came down from her chest and her previous look of arrogance was replaced by the warranted emotion of fear.
"It was crazy Chouji, I-I don't think I could go back in."
Shikamaru had finally found his lighter and proceeded to flick the flame on and off to keep his mind centred on fixing this current predicament.
The three had been assigned a mission that had seemed pretty simple at first. They were to clean out a house that was currently full of squatters. Unbeknownst to Tsunade or the team though, was the fact that there were no squatters. The owners had only assumed that simply because the furniture had been moved around, lights had been turning off and on, and noises could be heard from different rooms. Shikamaru didn't blame the people who had commissioned them for this mistake; anyone else would have thought the same.
He had almost assumed the same thing until it became apparent that there was no one in the house.
Chouji had been outside, ready for any stragglers who escaped, and Shikamaru and Ino had gone inside to clear out the rabble.
Upon entering the building though, Shikamaru hadn't felt right, he knew that something was amiss and that he, with Ino and Chouji couldn't complete this mission.
His thoughts were only proven correct when unusual things started happening.
At first he had presumed that it was simply a homeless person who was making the noises in the kitchen but when he slid the door open, he found a sink, a fridge and chairs around a table. But atop the table a long and sharp filleting knife was spinning with its blade pointed down and the handle pointing up at the ceiling.
As soon as Ino had come in and seen it she went still beside him, her body shaking slightly in fear and Shikamaru couldn't help but feel relieved that she hadn't screamed.
Suddenly, as if happy that it had gained their attention, the knife stopped spinning and slammed back on to the table. Before either shinobi could talk, one of the chairs around the table slowly and haltingly slid out and then slammed into the cupboards beneath the sink. It slowly rose and trembled slightly before it fell to the floor with a loud bang.
A slightly perturbed Shikamaru carefully, keeping his eyes on the kitchen, backed away keeping Ino close in behind him and slowly, noiselessly, closed the door. It wasn't a second later when he heard a thunk and he crossed his eyes slightly to see the filleting knife had been thrown at the closed door and was now currently less than a centimetre away from his face.
Ino screamed and ran out of the house while Shikamaru, a little dazed, followed out behind her, casually walking through the smashed glass that came from the light globes around them that had obviously been broken in a previous fit of unexplained phenomena.
They were still standing outside while Ino had explained what had happened to Chouji when Shikamaru felt his anger turn to puzzlement, which in turn made its way to problem solving.
When silence reigned, Shikamaru herded one shaken and one perplexed shinobi to the closest Korean Barbeque. He needed to calm his two teammates and friends and he needed to think through the problem and decide on the best tools needed to complete this mission.
He was sure of one thing though, he needed one person above all else. He needed the Byuukagan, he needed a Hyuuga.
~~~*~~~
"Hinata-san"
Shikamaru called out to the pretty Hyuuga as he caught her talking to Iruka outside the Academy.
She had succeeded in gaining employment there and was teaching with Iruka before she could teach a class on her own. The genius shinobi personally thought that she didn't need to be supervised but if it made everyone happy then who was he to express his opinion?
Turning to him, the Hyuuga heiress smiled quickly before turning back to her sempai to bid him farewell for the day.
Catching himself from smiling back – that wasn't something he made a habit out of doing – the Nara waited patiently while leaning against a tree, watching her as she walked up to him. She was dressed in her usual jacket and pants and in her arms she carried a few folders. Apparently she had some grading to do.
"Good afternoon Shikamaru-san, how are you today?"
"I'm well, thanks for asking Hinata-san," He pushed himself away from the tree and started walking with the young Hyuuga as she made her way home.
"I'm sure you can tell that I'm here for more than a social call." Shikamaru has always played teacher with his friends, spelling out things that seemed obvious to him but with Hinata he felt that he didn't have to do that, somehow, she seemed to understand him.
"Hai, did you need me to do something for you?" She shuffled her books around in her arms, trying to gain better purchase of them before Shikamaru lifted them from her and held them in his arms. Surprised, the young woman blushed prettily before thanking him as they continued to walk. He made a note to try and be nice like that to her again, he liked that look.
"Yeah, Hinata-san," he said, trying to keep his mind on track, "I need your help with a mission."
Facing the road, Shikamaru saw her nod slightly before she spoke. In reality, there was only one thing that she had that he couldn't, in some way, get.
"You need the Byuukagan," she stated matter-of-factly before turning to look at him, "What do you need to see Shikamaru-san?"
"Ghosts," was his reply.
"Ghosts?" she asked, her voice betraying her scepticism.
"Yeah, so are you free tomorrow?"
"Unfortunately I'm not, the children have their tests then."
He could feel her eyes on him as he watched the sun dip over the horizon. He was about to ask her if she knew anyone else when she spoke up again.
"What about tonight?"
Shikamaru was smart, incredibly smart but he was still male and therefore did not want to appear weak in front of this pretty, intelligent girl. If it was Chouji he would have told him that night was not an option for this particular mission. In fact if it was anyone else but Hinata he would have told them that day was the only time he was visiting that house but this was Hinata and he was irrevocably male.
"Sure, what time do you want to meet?"
Her face lit up and she quickened her steps leading her to her home as she hefted her books out of his arms, smiling all the while.
"If you can wait a few moments, I will drop these books off and we can head off straight away."
Unsure of what to make of the shy Hyuuga's sudden want to see ghosts, Shikamaru shrugged and matched her steps till they came to the compound's gates.
"Wait here, Shikamaru-san, I'll be out shortly."
Grunting out a reply, the Nara waited for his new teammate to reappear before heading back, at night, to the haunted house.
He hoped she didn't scream.
~~~*~~~
"So just to make this painfully obvious to you, I need you to see if there is anyone inside this building. I can't see a physical body but if there is something with chakra controlling things or something else, I need to know."
Hinata carefully stepped over the smashed glass at the entrance to the house, nervously eyeing every piece of furniture as she nodded to his request.
Shikamaru had told her of what he and Ino had seen and she was only now becoming a little scared of what this house was capable of doing. He assumed that she had been excited because she had never been to a haunted house before but now that reality was setting in she was becoming frightened at the possibility of something she couldn't see, seeing her.
It freaked him out; it was very plausible that it freaked her out too.
Hinata turned and looked at him, her face calm but her eyes betraying her feelings. She was scared and he felt something inside him want to comfort her.
"I'm sure that it's just someone playing a trick," he watched with satisfaction as she felt relief at his words, "I've never heard of an actual haunting so this must be some kind of practical joke."
"Hai, you're probably right Shikamaru-san," she replied, her eyes taking in more of the house as they made their way to the kitchen, "I'll see if I can see anything then."
Her hands formed the seal necessary for the Byuukagan and he watched as veins appeared at her temples, allowing her second sight to take in the house and its inhabitants.
He waited for a few moments, watching the young Hyuuga slowly walk in a small circle, taking in every centimetre of the house. The hairs on the back of his neck raised when he heard a soft creaking above him and saw Hinata quickly glance up and gasp softly.
"Can you see anything Hinata-san?" He asked, his hand trying to smooth down the feeling at his neck. The vibe he was getting was that someone was watching him and he had learnt very early in life to adhere to what his instincts were telling him.
"H-hai," she answered, her eyes riveted to one particular spot on the ceiling. Her mouth was open slightly and her whole body was tense. Shikamaru started to walk over to her, trying to track with his eyes what she was looking at exactly. When he came to stand directly behind her he found that one part of the ceiling was slightly darker than the rest. He had assumed that it was water damage but with the way that Hinata was staring at it he could tell that it was obviously something more.
Leaning in closer to the Hyuuga, Shikamaru kept his eyes on the spot as he whispered into her ear, "What is it Hinata?"
His eyes came away from the splotch when he felt her turn around and face him, her eyes wide and the veins around her eyes strained. She was very close to him and the Nara had a hard time trying to keep his thoughts completely pure as she whispered back into his ear.
The kunoichi had never seen anything like it. Seeing the cluster of chakra on the ceiling with no apparent connection to any living person or thing gave her chills. What really started to freak her out though, was when she wrenched her eyes away from the clump of chakra to find that the entire room was covered in little dots of it. When she had first activated her Byuukagan, Hinata had seen nothing amiss because the chakra was so infinitesimal but once she had espied the cluster above their heads the other spots became clearer to her evolved sight.
The presence of the genius shinobi behind her leant her comfort and she tried not to be distracted as she turned around and leant into him to whisper back to his question.
"They're everywhere," She whispered, noticing how his muscles tensed as she put a hand to his shoulder, pulling him in closer so she could reach his ear, "I'm not sure if they can hear us or not but they are all over this room."
Shikamaru was stunned, "Chakra? Chakra is all over the room?" He whispered back, putting his hand to her waist to keep her still so they could converse quietly, "But how?"
"I've only seen this with Shino." The young man was starting to understand now what that meant.
"They're bugs aren't they?" He asked her, "Do you know if they're controlled by anyone?"
"I'm not sure," she whispered back, his touch on her hip starting to burn her like her hand on his shoulder, "I think we need to leave before we find out."
Shikamaru nodded but couldn't seem to move himself from the kunoichi.
Hinata pushed her face back from him but not from his grasp. Her eyebrows rose slightly as his fingers tensed around her waist, bringing her closer in to him.
His head ducked back to her ear and he whispered to her, "I think it would be prudent if we put some kind of show on for whoever might be listening."
The heiress gasped and her cheeks blushed a hot red as his words dawned on her.
"W-what do you," she licked her lips, trying to get the right words out, "th-think we should do Sh-Shikamaru?"
"That's good," he replied, happy that she was going along with his plan, "refer to me like that and they'll be fooled." He watched the blush spread over her face and had the briefest thought that all this trouble had been worth it to see the Hyuuga heiress like this. He continued to whisper into her neck, looking to the world as a loving boyfriend, and gave her instructions on what to do next.
Slowly, with the blush still staining her cheeks and neck, Hinata slid her hand down from his shoulder to his hip as they walked side by side out of the door and into the cool night air. She had adopted a very girly, airy laugh as they walked away from the house and down a couple of blocks before they were happy that they weren't being watched.
Shikamaru thought that he liked her real laugh better, better than the airs and graces that she had learnt from Ino and Sakura.
Dropping her hand abruptly from his hip, the shy young Hyuuga looked to the ground and shifted her feet.
The young Nara more slowly than her, slid his hand from her waist, not happy with having to give up her warmth from his side. He never thought that he would be taken by a woman so quickly and had never thought that it would have been Hyuuga Hinata of all people.
But he had and tonight had shown that she was not unresponsive to him either.
Hopefully this wouldn't become too troublesome.
Hinata watched as the spiky haired young man seemed to weigh up different thoughts in his head and she couldn't help but become enamoured by him. Stopping her feelings from evolving too far without further thought, she started to walk home, hoping that he would walk with her.
He didn't disappoint as he started walking by her side, his head staring at the pavement as a hundred thoughts seemed to crowd around in his head.
Looking for something to say to him, Hinata kept walking as she turned to the young Nara, "So what are you going to do now Shikamaru?"
Caught unawares by her familiar phrasing, the shinobi stopped in his tracks and smiled at the kunoichi for the first time. "Well Hinata," he stressed the informality and the young woman smiled beatifically at him, making him re-evaluate his thoughts on this becoming troublesome, "I guess there's only one thing we can do. But we can't tell Shino."
Hinata had also stopped and watched as Shikamaru started walking again and passed by her, smiling slyly at her before looking to the sky.
"It's time to call an exterminator."
Hinata laughed and ran to catch up to him. The smile never left her face and only grew as the young Nara boy took the young Hyuuga woman's arm in his and escorted her home, away from the chakra-bug-infested home and into a night full of promise and trouble.
Because isn't new love always troublesome?
A/N: So I hope you liked it! I hope I got Shikamaru right too, I haven't written anyone but Kakashi and Jiraiya in a while so I was a bit worried...
Also: I had the biggest compulsion to put ina few lines that didn't really, ah, belong. Firstly there was putting in the line from an old disgruntled janitor after they'd pulled off his mask:
"And I would have gotten away with it, if it wasn't for you meddling kids!"
And the other line coming from the midget sized woman/exterminator with a real southern accent after the house was rid of the bugs:
"This house is clear."
A cookie to whoever knows where those two quotes are from.
Yours,
Jaggarte x