"Of all the kunoichi in Konahagure, you gave him MY girlfriend."
Hatake Kakashi glanced up from the paperwork on his desk, his single eye displaying his curiosity.
"Hyuga-san never said anything about being attached."
Shikamaru was taken aback. His expression shifted into something a kin to shame or embarrassment. He had initially tricked her into the relationship, telling a love forlorn heiress that he'd be so kind as to play a practice boyfriend for her, so she'd be able to make Naruto happy when that time came. It was a stupid boy trick to get her to sit next to her, to get her to hold his hand, to talk to her, to hold her, to kiss her. He had always insisted they kept the relationship a secret, so her beloved Naruto-kun wouldn't think she was unavailable, and they could both be free to pursue others.
In the three years since the beginning of their 'relationship' he never imagined that it'd be the Uchiha she'd leave him for.
"We... weren't quite official..."
---
Quite frankly she was rather indifferent to the game. Her time with Shikamaru had made her an adept shogi player, her stubbornness made it impossible for her to accept that he won every time so despite her cool feelings for the game she'd still challenge him to matches. Her hours spent practicing with old men on park benches made her date seem to think it was something she enjoyed.
"Hinata,"
She looked up from the game board, blushing when she caught Sasuke staring at her with such intensity.
"I know I'm not your first choice."
He had stopped there, and Hinata was not sure how she was supposed to respond to that. She broke eye contact, and looked back down at the shogi board. He wasn't even her second or third choice. Hinata had even considered the first hokage a more likely candidate for marriage than Uchiha Sasuke, and he was dead.
Hinata picked up a game piece and repositioned it on the board, flinching slightly at how loud the soft click of wood against wood sounded in the empty room.
Sasuke wasn't as good at shogi as Shikamaru.
"Tsumi, Sasuke-kun."
---
"He pointed her out in the marketplace, inquired after her."
Shikamaru slouched up against a wall looking rather menacing in Kakashi's opinion. He ignored the killing intent radiating from the other boy and continued to stamp papers.
"I assumed he held a preference to her, he had shown no other interest in any of the girls I had introduced him to."
Shikamaru practically growled, obviously annoyed. "He asked her name, that's why you assigned her to this 'mission'?"
"She could have refused, Shika-kun."
---
She'd been avoiding him, and it was pissing him off. Nara Shikamaru was a level headed person, he didn't like this feeling, this anxiousness- this anger that was nagging at him.
He had resorted to stalking her, he needed answers.
"I was only gone a month,"
She didn't seem surprised, only mildly annoyed, like he was a child throwing a tantrum, or bee buzzing in her ear.
"What is your business with me, Nara-san."
That burned him, he dropped her captured wrist.
"He doesn't even love you, he can't. You know the sort of atrocities he's committed. He just needs someone to tie him to Konoha, to get the village council off his back."
She sighed, rubbing her temples.
"Sasuke-kun has been honest and forthright of his int-intention with me from the very beginning."
That's more than I can say about you.
---