Thank you for the reviews Nee-chan8, foolycoolyshippo, juliagula1017, Blue Quartz Foxy, and Jyukai Koudan! It really encourages me to keep writing!
I'll be trying to establish a more teenage-vibe from the cast, they are pretty old now. Hinata being 18 and the two boys 19… I guess I can't really refer to them as boys anymore. Akamaru has grown as well, just think… he's big enough for Kiba to ride around on now. Hinata is now much more confident and relaxed, especially around her team mates.
Thank you again for reading.
Chapter 2
The morning had started deceptively calm enough as Team Eight embarked towards the direction of the village, the sun had not risen and the dark silhouettes of Team Eight were barely distinguishable amongst the shadows cast by the moonlight.
Kiba stopped on a branch mid stride, his companion Akamaru halting 10 feet below.
"Hinata, how much further?" The disgruntled teen swept rebellious strands of hair from his eyes and carefully glanced at his female companion that had just released her dark tresses from a ponytail and retied it quickly with grace before mopping her own brow.
They had traveled pretty quickly since midnight, 4 hours, the sun would be up soon, and the festival started in the morning.
With well-rehearsed preparation the kunoichi muttered the familiar trigger word.
"Byakugan."
The world was transformed with startling clarity; her mental scope raced quickly past rows of trees and finally spotted a village 5 miles north. Releasing her blood limit she dutifully reported the news to her team mates.
"Good. We'll arrive shortly. The client lives in the outskirts of the village. Seems that they're a tailor by profession and we should be able to slip into the village without drawing much attention."
Hinata couldn't suppress the swelling nervousness that threatened to consume her; her sensei's words rang in her head.
She couldn't mess this up. It wasn't an option.
"Hinata." The sharp voice of Shino snapped her back into reality and she temporarily forgot she stood precariously on a tree limb. Stumbling, she fell back.
"Uwaah." The fall was short, she felt herself fall into strong steady arms, peering up she saw the familiar face of Shino who wore an unfazed expression, as if he caught falling girls from trees all the time. Well, at least Hinata, who had kept her childhood habit of dazing off at times.
"Seems like some things you won't grow out of no matter how great of a ninja you become." Even behind the high collar Hinata could tell Shino wore a smirk. She raised an eyebrow and feigned a pout.
"Sorry, was distracted." she mumbled a bit embarrassed, a tint of red escaping on her cheeks, something about being around Shino made her feel like she was the timid genin of her younger days.
She felt the chest of the jounin vibrate against her with a soft chuckle, and she looked up and raised an eyebrow, only to see her comrade smirking secretively to himself musing on his own thoughts.
At first, one would think to never see the stoic Shino laugh, but years of being with his companions had revealed a side to him that took years of companionship to see. Hinata smiled contently. Some things, like the way she smiled, would never change.
Kiba landed next to Shino and grunted very animal-like seeming to be slightly disturbed.
"Alright, let's get going." Kiba motioned his head towards the direction their destination.
In a swift movement, Hinata jumped out of the arms that held her and used Shino's arm to propel herself upwards to a tree limb just above.
The poker-faced jounin grunted.
"Great. Now I'm a stepping stool." He fazed quickly past Hinata and she swore she could feel his breath on her ear as he moved past her. The closeness of their bodies for that split second threw her off and by the time she had regained control, Shino stood ahead of her on a nearby branch, smirking at Hinata's momentarily flustered reaction.
Pouting she sped forward and yelled across her shoulder.
"Come on you two, I bet I can beat you there." Sticking out her tongue playfully to see her two, now grinning, comrades follow her.
At the rate they had sped along they had reached the village in an hour and a half's time. Panting, Hinata plopped unceremoniously onto the floor and caught her breath, a wide smile of contentment across her face.
An equally tired Akamaru lay next to her and Hinata collapsed onto the large white fluffy pillow that was the dog's stomach. She smiled in happiness from sheer exhaustion and closed her eyes for a moment's rest.
"Ey! Hinata! What's this? You'll sleep with my smelly dog but won't spend a night with me?" Kiba feigned a hurt expression as he scooped Hinata's body easily under one arm and locked his arms around her waist, pressing her small frame against his larger one.
"Well, if you were as comfortable to sleep with as Akamaru…" a tired Hinata replied, rubbing her eyes and feeling slightly grumpy from not being able to rest a bit after the morning's travels.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Kiba inquired a bit fiercely in opposition to being upped by his dog.
"It means… that you have things left to be desired for in bed." A smirking Shino appeared next to the duo.
"Ey. Slow poke, 'bout time you got here." Kiba turned towards Shino and tried to brush the jounin's last statement off, but it had irritated him nonetheless.
Hinata, still looking a bit sleepy and grumpy that Kiba was picking on her so early in the morning, frowned a bit irritated but also disgruntled to see that her comrades had not taken the morning's excursion as hard as she did.
"Actually, you two were late, I've already met with our client." As if on cue, a silver haired man of twenty appeared a couple yards away approaching them.
Kiba looked surprised.
"I thought you said the client was a seamstress… you know, a girl?" Kiba couldn't help being a little disappointed.
"Tailor. Male seamstress, problem?" Shino cocked his head slightly, obviously amused by Kiba's disappointment.
Hinata had now wriggled free of Kiba's hold and stood curiously watching the client approach.
"Good Morning, the rest of your team Shino-san I presume?" The client smiled, his eyes surveying Hinata who felt uncomfortable under his gaze.
"Yes." Shino answered crisply noticing the client spend a rather long time glancing towards his female companion, which inexplicably disturbed him, and not many things could disturb a man whose body was host to bugs.
"Kiba." The impatient brunette interjected, offering his name to the shifty-eyed client.
"Hinata." She bowed respectfully, her ebony strands that loosened from her ponytail spilling over her shoulders.
"Hinata-chan, a pleasure, I am Kazuo." He bowed politely in return and didn't pay much attention to Kiba, which was fortunate, for Kiba seemed to have an immediate dislike for this particular client.
His eyes scanned her frame up and down and he walked a slow circle around her, making Hinata feel extremely uncomfortable.
"Yes, you will do quite nicely, Hinata-chan, shall we get you changed?" Kazuo's smile left Hinata utterly baffled, and feeling extremely uncomfortable.
"Changed? What for?" Kiba growled a bit defensively, he was thoroughly perturbed by the client circling Hinata like a piece of meat.
"Her attire is simply unacceptable for the role she shall play." Kazuo turned his attention to the disgruntled Kiba for the first time, still smiling, knowing that Kiba, no matter how vicious he acted could not cross the wishes of his client.
Hinata looked down and grimaced, having to agree that the worn out clothes she had picked to wear were dirty and had been kept in mind for comfort during missions, not exactly something that would impress.
"Ah, understood." Hinata nodded.
"Excellent," Kazuo chirped a bit too cheerily, "I'll explain the details of the mission on the way to my humble abode."
Having reached the small house that was Kazuo's home and tailor shop, Kazuo led Hinata to a room with a dressing screen in the corner and handed her some clothes.
While she changed behind the screen, Kazuo continued to explain the details, Kiba leaning against a wall paying particular attention to the wandering eyes of their client lest he peek behind the dressing screen.
Shino remained the presence of one who was merely handling matters "strictly on business."
"Once the sun rises in a few minutes, Hinata-chan will go into the festival grounds, hopefully to be able to identify the culprit at hand who will probably be somewhere near the booths around young women, if all goes well Hinata-chan should blend in unnoticed."
"Why can't we accompany her?" Kiba protested a bit loudly.
"Think. If we were to accompany Hinata, she would have a harder time passing by the culprit unnoticed." Shino stated factually, though inside he did feel reluctance in having Hinata by herself, he faced the fact realistically that both he and Kiba were too much of a liability that may blow Hinata's cover.
"It's alright Kiba, I understand." A rustle of fabrics could be heard throughout the conversation but suddenly it stopped and Hinata stood behind the screen silently.
"Hinata?" Shino inquired to his friend's sudden silence behind the screen.
"K-Kazuo-san… there must be some mistake…" Hinata's voice faltered and stuttered.
"This dress is… much too…" her voice broke off. Kazuo stepped behind the screen, which immediately caused a rise out of Kiba.
"Hinata-chan, it's perfect, you look beautiful." The client praised and tugged a reluctant Hinata out from behind the screen, her face blushing furiously and stepping out from behind the screen with defeat.
Kiba had gotten up halfway to stop Kazuo when he went behind the screen, but he halted when he saw Hinata.
His eyes widened and his ears started to redden furiously and he quickly turned away to hide his reddening face from Hinata.
'The nerve of that pervert…'
Kiba tried to suppress the hormone-driven fantasies that threatened to flit across his mind.
Shino remained wordless.
"S-see… it's much too short."
-Continued in Chapter 3-