The feedback, follows and alerts I've been receiving for this story have been wonderful. Thank you all so much! I decided I'll continue with the story despite not knowing when I'll update (because that's always fun!) If anyone wants to beta this shit, it would really help me out. Not having one for With Hope on Our Lips destroyed me (I'm still desperately trying to edit typos), and I'd like to not have a repeat of that. So gimmie a shout if you're interested! Alright then.

Please enjoy.


Chapter 2: Stiletto Heels


The darkness was something Hinata used to think as an ally. It concealed her presence and made it easier to carry out her job inconspicuously. The shadows had always protected her but she realized it also protected her enemies.

At an abandoned warehouse just on the outskirts of the city, her team had business to do. A politician from New Kiri sent some of his cronies to pick up his monthly fix; opium and cocaine. The last time she had spoken to him on the phone, he had tried to make a joke out of it – saying he was a kid in a candy store and would like to purchase some gum and candy.

She involuntarily rolled her eyes at that statement and had chastised him, informing him that their company would never partake in such criminal acts. He was calling on her on their normal business phone, where the calls were monitored. If he had a lick of intelligence, he would know that all orders went straight to Kurenai on a burner cellphone to avoid any complications. And he was supposed to lead people?

Pathetic.

In any case, once informing Kurenai of the situation, Hinata was told that she, Shino and Kiba needed to deliver the goods that same night and was dismissed – but not before receiving a warning. Apparently, this man seemed to be taking Kurenai for a joke and "forgot" to pay her the right amount of money last month. The red-eyed drug lord was not one to be crossed and made sure Hinata knew the money would need to be paid up front in cash and that every single dollar should be accounted for.

If he was even just a dollar short tonight, she wouldn't hesitate to dispose of unwanted clients. And that was why Hinata was currently positioned at one of the balconies at the warehouse with her sniper rifle, waiting for Shino to give the signal if need be.

She couldn't hear them very clearly, but everything seemed to be in order. Kiba and Akamaru appeared to be calm, so there wasn't much to worry about as of yet. With interactions such as this, Shino did most of the talking. He was articulate enough and had quite the poker face. He was unbreakable.

Kiba sometimes wore his heart on his sleeve and that was bad for business. His anger would get the best of him, resulting in either a bloodbath or failure to collect their earnings sooner. He was always antsy and ready to kill on command.

This made Hinata a bit weary of him when she first met him, but the kindness he showed her on their day off together warmed her heart and he treated her as if she were his younger sister. It was something that she longed for – to know that someone was looking out for her too.

Her eyes widened slightly at the aggressive stance Kiba suddenly took on and she gently placed a finger on the trigger, on high alert and ready for Shino to light his cigarette. That's when she would shoot. However, she missed the signal when she felt a sharp pain from her scalp. She was yanked away from her post by her hair, and a tear formed in her left eye from the monstrous grip this big brute had on her.

A large hand clasped her tiny wrists together and the throaty laugh in her ear sent a shiver down her spine. "Well well, what do we have here? A little spy I see. I knew that bitch up at Crimson couldn't be trusted – and she sent a bunch of brats too. How careless."

Hinata's attempts to wriggle out of her attacker's grasp were futile. He was at least 150 pounds heavier than her and was probably over six feet tall. Hinata was only 5'7 in three-inch heels. Her breath was caught in her throat, and she slightly panicked before the idea to kick him in the shin came to mind.

He staggered backwards, calling her some obscenity before she pulled away from his now loose grip on her. Attacking her from behind was one thing, but Hinata did not take too kindly to hair pulling. Petty high school catfights called for those types of things – not life or death situations over money and drugs.

While the man tended to his aching shin, Hinata regarded this as the perfect opportunity to go on the offensive. Her fist connected with his jaw, and he let out a low grunt before grabbing her by the wrist to fling her to the banister.

Her back hit the metal railing and Hinata let out a small cry of pain before her body had slumped. Her breathing was erratic and her hair disheveled – through some of her locks she could see him charging at her and waited for the last second to duck out of the way. He hit the railing with a little too much force, Hinata noted, as he let out a strained gasp.

She crawled underneath him to get to her purse. It was the closest thing she could reach right now and her pistol was in there. However, this man was persistent in his assault on her and Hinata found herself being dragged on the rough flooring of the balcony by her leg.

Quick thinking caused her to hold on to one of the metal bars of the railing. The grip he had on her leg was a strong one and her sweaty palms couldn't hold on any longer. They slipped, and she rolled over to see the disgusting grin of satisfaction this man donned as he dragged her. Hinata grimaced and shoved her three-inch stiletto heel into his already weakened stomach from when he hit the banister.

He let her go, and doubled over in pain. Now, Hinata didn't consider herself too much of a petty person, but she gave him another swift kick to the face with the foot he had just released – just because he ruined her cute outfit by dragging her across the filthy floor.

Now that he was down, writhing in pain, the dark-haired beauty rocketed over to her purse, pulling out her go-to pistol. She stood over him, gun in hand as she panted heavily. He looked up at her and she saw the blood trickling from his nose. "Heh, you've got balls kid. You think I'm scared to die? You'll be doing me a favor!"

There was no change of expression on her face. Hinata was unreadable. "I've always been told I was a nice person. Completing favors are nothing new."

He let out a low laugh. "Go ahead, shoot. It's not like I'm worth shit on this God dammed planet anyway." Hinata slowly lifted her pistol, aiming it right between his eyes.

"I'm glad that we can both agree on something."

The man cringed, and sweat slowly began to pour from his face. This child was really intent on killing him - his bluff wasn't working at all! If he didn't think fast – surely he would be dead. "W-wait a sec! I can offer you –!" The gunshot rang out through the warehouse and Hinata prided herself on another clean and precise shot. His body slumped and then keeled over. She watched it for a moment before dropping to her own knees. He was stupid, but strong. She certainly would be feeling the effects of their little scrap in the morning.

Now that she was out of her own little world, the sounds of struggles and gun shots from down below were clear to her and she quickly made her way back to her position to take a look at what was happening. When she found Kiba and Shino still alive and mostly unharmed, Hinata breathed a sigh of relief. Kiba seemed to be holding his own, viciously gutting another one of that strange politician's cronies.

Shino on the other hand wasn't doing too hot. He was hiding behind a large pillar, clutching his left shoulder. Hinata pursed her lips as her eyes darted from him to the man gradually approaching on Shino's right. Hinata's eyes narrowed and her finger gingerly sat on the trigger. She waited until he was close enough before squeezing the trigger, getting a clean shot right through the head. Shino looked towards her direction and motioned for her to come down.

It was quiet, and it looked like these guys had no more surprises waiting for them so regrouping with her friends was easy. As soon as she reached them, she placed a hand over Shino's, the one cradling his shoulder. "Is it bad?" He shrugged off his jacket to reveal the gash running from his shoulder all the way to his bicep.

"I'll be fine." He murmured.

Hinata bit down on her lip. "I… I'm so sorry. If I hadn't missed the cue then –"

Shino held up his hand to stop her. "You don't need to apologize, Hinata. Why? Because I'm sure you had your hands full."

"Yeah," Kiba said. "Just look at your leg. Looks like you got cut kinda bad." Her eyes widened, and she quickly looked down to see that Kiba was indeed right. The same leg that her attacker was holding onto was not only bruised; blood slithered out of the small wound on her left calve.

The adrenaline rush she received from her fight was wearing off now, and everything was starting to hurt. "Yes. I left the body upstairs… What happened with the deal?"

She heard Kiba suck in air through his teeth. "Half of their shitty briefcase had counterfeits in there. That bitch of a man wasn't planning on paying it all from the get-go." He took a pause to look at his friends. They were hardly paying attention. "Look, I'll call Boss Lady and tell her to send someone to clean this mess up for us, alright? You two aren't exactly in great condition to do much of anything right now."

Shino nodded. "I appreciate it."

Hinata gave her own sign of gratitude as well. Now that this was all over with, Hinata just wanted to crawl in her bed and drift off to sleep – but not before taking a much needed bath. She felt absolutely gross. She fell to her knees once more, fatigue finally setting in. Shino noticed this and sat down beside her. "You can rest your head on my shoulder if you need to."

She normally would decline to do such things since she didn't want to inconvenience him but right now, a shoulder to lean on was exactly what she needed.


She was always dressed so simply, yet elegantly. Her black pencil skirt was neat and formfitting. Her white button down did nothing to hide her curves and she left a few buttons from the collar open. One button lower, and he probably would've been seeing something society regarded as taboo. The pearls around her neck accentuated those opalescent eyes of hers quite nicely and Naruto concluded that she looked rather lovely with her hair pulled up in a ponytail.

Her newest accessory was bothering him quite a bit though. On her leg, a gash surrounded by purplish bruising was prominent and he had to wonder how she obtained it. Was it an accident? Or maybe she had run into some trouble one night. Crime in Konoha City was starting to become more rampant and he hoped that she would take good care of herself.

When he saw that she was done with her task, Naruto hurried over to her. Concern was apparent in his eyes. "Hey, Hinata. Is everything alright?"

She titled her head to the side slightly, giving the blond a quizzical look. "Um, everything is fine. Is… something wrong?" He shook his head. "No, but… what happened to your leg? It looks painful."

Hinata looked down at the wound she had received last week. It looked much better now and was healing quite nicely. However, this was the first time she had seen the mayor's son in since that incident so of course he'd react in a panic as soon as he saw it. Her eyes met his and she graced him with a warm smile. "Please, don't worry about it Mister Namikaze. I'm a lot tougher than I look."

Hey playful tone relaxed him just a little, but he was still concerned for her. His hand instinctively reached out to touch the side of her cheek as his eyes watched her intently. "I'm serious when I say you should be careful. Konoha's a wonderful city, but it reeks of crime. Promise you'll be careful?"

It took all of Hinata's willpower to keep from laughing. She was one of the people who had a hand in raising the rate of crime in Konoha – if anything, he should have been being careful. She knew people who would have loved to cut his head clean off of his shoulders just because he was the mayor's son.

Nevertheless, her smile widened. "Yes, I'll be sure to do that. Thank you." For another moment his hand lingered at the side of her face, his thumb gently brushing her cheek. Hinata blinked. "Is there… something else?"

Naruto nodded and his look of concern was replaced with a rather flirtatious one. His hand traveled from her cheek to hold her chin and his thumb rested right underneath those soft pink lips of hers. He wanted to kiss her right then and there, but Naruto was a gentleman and would refrain from planting a kiss on a woman he hardly knew in a place like City Hall.

Now, if it were the club or something of that nature, that would've been an entirely different story. "Don't think that I forgot about our dinner date."

"With that statement, are you trying to insinuate that I forgot about it?" Hinata asked. Naruto, who was slightly thrown off by her genuinely curious question drew his hand away from her and shook his head vehemently. "No, no. Not at all!"

She let out a small giggle. "Tomorrow night at seven, yes?"

"Yeah," Naruto gave a chuckle of his own. "I'll see you then?"

"Of course." Hinata smiled, under the presumption that she'd only see him once or twice.

However, she hadn't planned on seeing him so many times this month. Tonight was their fifth night out together and Hinata was actually enjoying herself. They planned on meeting at the boardwalk and Hinata found it a little strange for a night out but after spending time with Naruto, she learned that he could be a pretty down to earth guy.

They sat at the end of the boardwalk with their shoes off to the side, kicking their feet under the light of the moon. The gentle whispers of the waves splashing against the shore numbed her body with a serene feeling, and the cool breeze of the night tickled her bare skin.

The last time she remembered being able to sit and enjoy her surroundings was when she was a teenager, still in high school. When they spent their summers together, she would always wake up Neji to watch the sunrise with her. It was the start of a brand new day, something she thought she would enjoy with someone special. Even when he was away, she'd still watch the sunrise, and hoped that he was as well. It was okay because they were looking at the same sky.

After she turned 16, she never watched another sunrise again – because it wouldn't be the same without him.

When she was 18, she was so busy that she hardly had the time (and money) to eat or sleep – sitting around to watch the clouds go by was out of the question in her schedule.

Now that she was 23, pushing on 24, watching the moon cast its benevolent light on them felt beautiful. It was a lovely change of pace from risking her life on certain nights when asked. And Naruto was proving to be wonderful company. He made her laugh – though 40% of those times weren't by actual jokes and she was laughing at his playful nature.

He was intelligent – and had to be if he was ever going to pass his Bar Exam. That intrigued her; the fact that he wanted to become a lawyer and not a politician like his father. He said that he looked up to his father, but he wanted to protect people in his own way and becoming a lawyer seemed like the right course of action.

Naruto was an admirable man, she had to admit, but Hinata would have to cut him off rather soon. Earlier today, her sister stood by the door frame of her bedroom, telling her that the tabloids were calling her "Naruto's Mystery Girlfriend."

She remembered her eyebrows knitting together in annoyance and her sister reached for a rolled up magazine in her back pocket saying, "See? They even have your silhouette with a question mark on it on the front page!"

Hinata really had to stop hanging out with him soon – for the sake of protecting her reputation against those muckraking journalists… If one could even call them that.

The reporters were beginning to get annoying. They followed her to the entrance of Crimson Therapeutics every day for the past two weeks and to the parking lot when she left work. Hinata was quite upset when she adjusted her rear view mirror one day to see them right behind her in their own little car. She was forced to drive all the way to a different part of town to rid herself of them.

This was beginning to get risky. She couldn't afford to have them trailing her during a job.

If one of those reporters followed her and walked in on something they weren't supposed to see, she'd be forced to kill an innocent person to save herself and the people she worked with. Taking an innocent life didn't sit too well with her, but it was for the greater good. Most of the people she knew were only doing this "side job" to help support their families. If they were all thrown in jail, many families could suffer and she didn't want that resting upon her conscience forever.

Yes, cutting her ties with the mayor's son would be a smart move. Hinata's eyes widened for a split second and she turned to see Naruto's large hand resting on top of her small one. He gave another sly grin and she pulled her hand away from him, staring up at the moon with a content smile as she could hear him whine about how cruel she was.

Hinata laughed. Maybe just one more date wouldn't be too harmful, right?