Team Eight
Hinata exhaled loudly as she leaned back in her chair, away from the papers on her father's desk. Her family had made good progress on the repairs and maintenance that the war had sidelined, but one day of work wouldn't be sufficient for some of these problems. That was why one of the sheets in front of her was a list of remaining tasks. Most of the others were bills, receipts, and a register of the compound's inventory. Though they had owned a good portion of the materials they used yesterday, some had to be purchased. She had to go over what they had left in the storerooms, what they had spent, and how much their earnings from the various Hyuuga-owned businesses would cover. Usually missions were a big part of the compound's income, but with the new peace, assignments greater than escort missions were becoming rare, even after only six days. Therefore, a greater focus was now being placed on commercial assets. Some were complaining about how it felt like they were taking a step down, but Hinata had figured that a noble clan going broke would be a lot more disgraceful.
"Speaking of going broke…"
Hinata fanned out the receipts in front of her so she could see them all at once. There were a lot. The clan wasn't in trouble, but she still jotted down a note for her father that a bit more frugality with funds would be advisable. Setting that in his inbox, Hinata returned to her budgeting. She had been working on a column of income to expenses, and it looked like she was just about done. Whistling cheerfully, (or trying to. She had never been great at whistling), Hinata started stacking the receipts back up. As she did so, a memo slipped out of the stack enough for her to notice that it did not look familiar. Drawing it out completely, she saw that it was a list from her father numbering the shops they went to on their supply run.
"Oh no." Hinata muttered, and quickly counted the receipts. She was missing one. Close to panic, she began searching through all of the papers, hoping it had simply been misplaced.
Inventory was a bust, as she had expected. Honestly, she would like to think that she would have noticed a stray receipt in that small stack, mismatched as it would be.
With dread, the young woman turned to the pile of income reports. She didn't think it was likely (or at least, she hoped it wasn't), but if the receipt had wound up in there, what if she'd counted it as income? Then she'd have to do the entire budget again! Actually, even if she hadn't made that mistake, she knew that she'd wind up doing it anyway to be sure.
She had just started sorting through when someone knocked on the doorframe (knocking on paper doors is a terrible plan that is both damaging and ineffective). Schooling her expression to hide the panic she still felt, Hinata straightened the income pile.
"Come in." she called, and Ino slid the door open.
"I've got a receipt for…" she began, trailing off as she saw who was behind the desk.
"Hey Hinata! Where's your dad?" she asked. Hinata sighed and slumped in her seat, no longer caring about how professional she looked.
"He left me in charge." Hinata said. "He called it "training for when I'm running the clan," and then left."
Ino laughed.
"Skipping out of work, huh?" she said. "Sucks that he foisted it on you."
Ino walked into the room and plopped down in the chair on the other side of the desk, which she then loudly scooted closer. Leaning in, the other girl tried to read the papers upside down.
"What'cha doin'?" she asked, apparently giving up.
"I'm doing an expense report for the Hyuuga clan." Hinata said.
Ino looked incredulous.
"An expense report?" she asked, and Hinata shrunk a little.
"Or, at least, I think that's what it's called…" she mumbled, and Ino shrugged.
"Yeah, I wouldn't know. Daddy never had me do that stuff. I'm just surprised that yours does." absently scratching an itch on her stomach, Ino rolled her eyes.
"Although," she continued, "I don't know why I would be."
Hinata straightened up and crossed her arms.
"That's not fair, Ino." she said, and Ino looked surprised.
"What do you mean? What isn't fair?" she asked, completely caught off guard.
"What isn't fair," Hinata said, fighting years of bad habits and crippling shyness to try and keep her voice strong, "is that you're still judging father for his behavior after the death of his wife. He hasn't acted like that in years."
Then, because she felt like she had been too harsh and needed to be polite, Hinata ended her reprimand with: "Please forgive my rudeness."
"It's alright." mumbled Ino, who was caught off guard by Hinata's behavior.
Feeling embarrassed, Hinata hid her face behind some papers, pretending to straighten the stack so it looked more natural.
"So," she said, "you mentioned a receipt?"
Ino's eyes widened.
"Oh!" she exclaimed, rummaging through her pockets, "Lemme just get that for you."
Feeling better, Hinata set down the stack she had lifted.
"Take your time." she said.
Ino smiled at her, then placed a crumpled slip of paper on the desk in front of her, sliding it over to Hinata.
"There you go." Ino said. Hinata smiled back, and put it next to the expense column.
"Thank you for your help, Ino." said Hinata, and the other girl waved her off.
"Don't worry about it, I was just using this as an excuse to get out of the store."
"Is everything alright?" Hinata asked, and Ino just shrugged.
"Yeah," she said, "I guess I just miss dad. I always manned the counter before, but it feels different without him there telling me that I have to, you know?"
Hinata sighed and leaned forward, resting her elbows between stacks of papers.
"Everything feels weird." she said. "So much has changed that it's hard to believe that any of this is real. I also feel like I'm letting people down again."
"Hey!" Ino said, "There is no "Again," because you never let us down. I don't see how you're starting that now."
Hinata sighed deeply.
"I got my closure with Naruto the day after the war, and though we promised to be friends, I haven't gone to visit him since. And speaking of the end of the war, I haven't seen Kiba or Shino since then."
"Well, Shino's been out of town looking for new bugs for his hive to breed with." Ino said. "But it sounds to me like you should grab Kiba, who is still in town, and go visit Naruto with him."
"What about this stuff?" Hinata asked, gesturing at the various stacks of paper. Ino looked at it too, and said, "Aren't you almost done?"
Inspecting the numbers on the last receipt Ino had given to her, Hinata quickly wrote them in the expense column, added it all up, subtracted that from total income, and slammed down her pencil.
"Yes I am. If you could find father for me, that would be great."
Hinata started walking to the door, and Ino—off balance once again—could only weakly protest from the chair.
"W-wait, but I have stuff to do—"
"You just said you were using this as an excuse to avoid the store. I just gave you another one."
Ino stared at the door for a few minutes after Hinata had left. Her new assertiveness would definitely take some getting used to. Finally, Ino stood and walked out.
"Yeah, I guess she did just do me a favor. Still, since it involves me doing a favor for her, I won't owe her anything!"
xxxxx
Hinata found Kiba and Akamaru being swarmed by puppies. While it was not unusual to see him working with dogs, he was never alone like this.
"Hello, Kiba." said Hinata, stepping up to the boy, "Where's your help?"
"Help?" asked Kiba, patting down his jacket as he rose from the eagerly yipping crowd, "I don't have any. Most everyone else is too caught up in the whole "lasting peace" idea to keep training the new dogs, so it's just me."
Hinata looked at him quizzically.
"You don't think the peace will last?" she asked. Kiba backtracked hurriedly.
"No, no, I think the peace will last! Just…you know, not forever."
Hinata smiled at her flustered teammate.
"Well no, nothing lasts forever. I was just surprised you weren't running around celebrating victory. You have always been a bit of a hot-head." she said.
Kiba crossed his arms and looked smug.
"I do think I've matured some since the war." He said, as a puppy chewed on his pants leg.
Hinata bent down and brushed the little dog off. Kiba, who had just barely remembered to watch her movements instead of her ass, snickered a little at the goofy little puppy.
"I'm going to go visit Naruto." Hinata said as she stood back up. "Why don't you come with me? I'd like to see how you've matured, and I'm sure he'd like to see you."
Kiba nodded cheerfully.
"Yeah," he said, "and we also get to visit—" he stopped talking abruptly and faked a cough. Not fooled in the least, Hinata crossed her arms.
"Visit who?" she asked.
Kiba acted innocent.
"Visit who? What are you talking about?" he said, pretending to be confused. Hinata wasn't buying it.
"Kiba," she said, "tell me what you were going to say."
The boy looked extremely uncomfortable.
"Well," he said, "It's nothing bad, It's just that I didn't know if you knew that…uh…"
Hinata figured out where he was going, and finished his sentence for him.
"You didn't know if I knew that Naruto and Sakura are in a relationship. Yes, I did." she smiled at him and put her hands on his shoulders.
"I knew they were together because I talked to Naruto about it. He knows how I feel, and I got closure on that."
Kiba perked up.
"You did?" he asked.
"Yes," she said, "I did. Thank you for your concern though."
Ankle deep in cheerful puppies, Kiba tried his tough guy act.
"Well, y'know, I wasn't actually concerned, just, um…"
Hinata laughed and pulled him into a hug. She had really missed her idiot teammate. After a quick squeeze, she let him go again.
"So what were you going to say?" she asked.
"Nothing big," Kiba said, "just that if we were visiting Naruto, we would also get to check up on Sakura."
"Oh, that would be—" Hinata started, but stopped as something occurred to her.
"Excuse me, but are they living together?"
Kiba was very quiet. Hinata suspected he was trying to come up with the best way to answer her. Evidently, he couldn't think of the proper phrasing, because he just gave up and said: "Yes."
"Well," said Hinata, smiling serenely, "isn't that nice?"
Kiba looked shocked.
"Hinata," he said, "are you okay?"
She nodded, still smiling.
"Yes." she answered, surprised with herself even as she spoke.
"I'm doing a lot better than I thought I would."
"But didn't you like him?" asked Kiba, trying to understand what was happening with his friend.
"I confronted Naruto after the war ended." she said. "We talked about the fight with Pein, what I had said to him then—"
"Wait," Kiba interrupted, "what did you say?"
Hinata chuckled.
"I forgot that I never told you." she said. "When we fought Pein, I confessed to Naruto."
"And did he say anything?"
She shook her head.
"I got killed after that. Then things just returned to the status quo." Kiba shifted his leg to bump away a puppy that was trying to climb him. Hinata paid him no mind, and continued to talk.
"That time after the war was the first we'd talked about it. He told me that he and Sakura had started a relationship, and we agreed to be friends."
Kiba had to move again as a puppy started chewing his pants leg.
"And what then? It's been, like, a week. Has anything happened?"
Hinata shook her head.
"No." she said, "That's why I figured it would be a good time to visit."
xxxxx
Upon reaching Naruto's apartment building, Kiba stopped them both at the foot of the external staircase which led to the second floor. Behind them, Akamaru sat down with a muffled "thwump." Taking Hinata by the shoulders, he turned his friend to face him.
"Now," he said, "before we go in, are you sure you're okay?"
Hinata reached up and patted one of his hands.
"Yes, Kiba." she said, "I'm sure."
Kiba didn't seem to hear her. He kept talking as if she had never responded.
"It's just that, when we go in there, there's no telling what we'll find."
He had developed that distant look he got when he was acting cool. Hinata couldn't shake the feeling that he had practiced speeches like this in front of mirrors for a long while. She heard Akamaru flop onto his side behind her. She guessed the dog had heard this presentation before. She also guessed that she was in for a wait. Kiba remained oblivious to his audience's growing apathy.
"You might be exposed to toxic levels of affection." he said, speaking with an authoritative clipped tone. "There will likely be kissing."
"This is probably something he had prepared for when he became a team leader." thought Hinata. "I hope it's a modified version, because if this is the original form of that speech, I don't want to know what kind of missions Kiba thinks he would be leading Genin on."
"We stand now at the point of no return. This is your last chance to turn back."
Hinata was starting to get involved in this hypothetical situation. Behind her, Akamaru trapped an ant between his paws and was trying to eat it.
"Seduction missions are only available to Chuunin and up," she thought, "and only after special training. He can't be expecting to take twelve-year-olds on one of those."
"If you choose to turn away, I will not judge you. I will understand completely. This is no easy task, seeing such displays as what awaits us in there."
Hinata was looking at Kiba's attire again with new eyes.
"He's dressed like he's supposed to be a bad boy. He's also got tattoos, and a dog. Maybe this whole time, he's been aiming to become a seduction specialist?"
She had stopped paying attention to Kiba's speech, fully invested in this bizarre alternate world she had created for her friend.
"It might be a good idea. Female seduction specialists are the norm. I don't think anyone would see a male one coming."
Kiba squeezed Hinata's shoulders, calling her back to reality.
"So I'll ask you one more time," he said, staring intensely into her eyes, "are you sure that you're okay with this?"
Hinata forced down the color that had started rising in her cheeks.
"Good intensity and technique." she thought briefly.
"Yes, Kiba. I'm fine."
He grinned and patted her right shoulder one last time.
"Good." he said, removing his hands. "Then before we go in, I just want you to know that I'm proud of you."
Hinata didn't know how to react to such dorky and misplaced sincerity, so she just settled on smiling at him and following him up the stairs. Akamaru trotted after them after shaking the dust from the road off of his fur.
Upon reaching the door to Naruto's apartment, Hinata moved to knock, but was beaten to it by Kiba. His knuckles hit the painted wood only seconds before hers, with the resulting awkward syncopated sound making her cringe in embarrassment. Wheeling around to glare at Kiba, Hinata grabbed his wrist.
"Kiba!" she hissed, her cheeks starting to flush with blood.
Kiba was shocked by her forcefulness, out of character as it was.
"I-I was trying to be considerate of your feelings!" he stammered. It was something that sounded good in his head, but was the wrong thing to say right then. Hinata let go of his wrist and crossed her arms.
"You don't need to concern yourself with my feelings. They're fine." she said, in a voice that was strangely heated for the usually timid young woman.
"I told you that Naruto and I already talked, and he and I are on good terms now. Don't worry about me, and don't bother waiting for me to faint. I won't."
Kiba's shoulders slumped, and Hinata found herself feeling—very appropriately—like she'd kicked a puppy.
"I'm sorry." said the boy. It was a testament to how much he cared that he'd been so direct with his feelings. Kiba was of the ranks of men who hide their emotions behind bravado. His sister and mother didn't even get direct apologies. Hinata knew this, and it only made her feel worse.
Naruto opened the door before she could forgive him, and all of Hinata's access to Kiba's emotions were immediately cut off as his iron wall of machismo slammed back down again.
"Hey guys!" said Naruto, predictably oblivious to the way Kiba's shoulders quickly raised and straightened.
"Sorry I took so long to answer the door. I was kinda…" he trailed off, seeming to lose his train of thought. Luckily, he was saved.
"Busy!" yelled Sakura from the back of the apartment, finishing her teammate's sentence for him.
"Busy." he repeated, before flashing a grin.
"So what's up?" he asked. He tried to lean against the doorframe, but Kiba's jovial punch to his shoulder quickly dislodged him.
"Naruto, you dog!" he said, laughing boisterously. Behind him, Akamaru woofed in the hopes that this conversation was about him.
Naruto grinned at him uncertainly and rubbed his arm. Hinata stepped forward and clasped her hands uncertainly.
"Um," she said, "we came to visit, but if now isn't a good time, then we can come back later."
She felt shaky and timid again as she watched the man who had been her crush for so long think of how to respond to her. She was already expecting him to tell her that later would be better, and she was ready to turn around with Kiba and leave. All she needed was the go-ahead from Naruto, and she'd be off. Instead, it was Sakura she heard.
"I'm good! You can let them in!"
Immediately, Naruto dropped the pensive expression he had adopted and stepped to one side of the doorway.
"Come on in!" he said, somewhat redundantly.
Hinata was surprised by this strange reversal of her expectations, but Kiba pulled her into the apartment before she could say anything about it.
xxxxx
Inside the apartment was a bit of a mess. It was cluttered by the meeting of two lifestyles, and strewn with habits that had yet to find their proper order around one another. Books lay on the couch, as Naruto owned far too few bookshelves to house them. A stack of folded clothes lay by the door to Naruto's room, having been evicted to make way for unexpected extras.
Hinata and Kiba sat on a cleared space on the couch. Sakura sat in the small wooden chair across from them. Hinata did not know how awkward the situation was going to become, and Kiba seemed convinced that there was about to be an epic catfight. Every time one of the two girls made a noise above normal conversational tones, he jumped a little. This was made worse when Naruto entered the room. He had spared them a glance, briefly debating joining Kiba and Hinata on the couch, and then decided against it and sat in Sakura's lap. He had a self-satisfied smirk on his face. His body shook as Sakura beat her protests into his back before he shifted, allowing her to poke her head around his shoulder to breathe.
Kiba edged away from Hinata very carefully. He didn't need to, as the girl still seemed perfectly placid. Spying a particularly comfy looking spot on the carpet between them all, Akamaru flopped down and claimed it as his own, his massive bulk creating a sort of fluffy coffee table or footrest for all of them.
Across from them, Sakura spluttered, making a great show of wiping her mouth.
"When's the last time you washed this jacket? I'm not sure what you just got on my mouth, but it was either bits of Sasuke's arm, or pulverized valley."
"Probably the valley." said Naruto, somewhat proudly. "Sasuke's arm never got near my back."
"Considering the hole he put in you last time, I don't think it would matter. He could've just reached through your chest."
Naruto groaned.
"Don't remind me." he said. "That's still probably the worst injury that I've gotten, if only because of who inflicted it."
"Speaking of the valley," Kiba said from his seat by the armrest, "What do you think it's going to be called now? I mean, you destroyed the statues, so that bit of history is gone. It's also not even a valley anymore."
"They could keep the "of the End" part." volunteered Hinata, doing her best to contribute to a conversation between three outgoing personalities. "It's still where a last battle took place, just a different one."
"I hope it was the last battle," said Sakura, rolling her eyes, "but knowing those two, I'm not exactly hopeful. They're probably going to have a new one whenever Sasuke gets back from wandering the country like he's trying to find religion, at which point they're going to level some other perfectly good piece of landscape. And since we can't have thirty or so Geographical Features of the Ends, I vote that we call this one "Lake Dumb-ass.""
Everyone had a good laugh as Naruto blushed and ducked his head.
"Wait," gasped Kiba, "I have to know. Why Lake Dumb-ass?"
Sakura grinned, and the way that Naruto's head drooped even further told that this was a joke she had told him before.
"Because," she said, "the war was already over, but those dumb-asses still had to blow each other's arms off, destroy an ecosystem, and pulverize historical monuments that likely took years of artistic labor just because Sasuke couldn't accept that Naruto was right, and Naruto doesn't know how to talk sense into someone without beating them half to death first."
"I don't know what it is!" Naruto protested, "It's like my fists are therapeutic or something! I punch people in the face, and it somehow makes them feel better!"
"Maybe you just keep fighting folks who get off on that sort of thing." Kiba suggested. He then made the worst decision of the day, when he turned to Hinata and said: "Hey, Hinata. Naruto beat reason into Neji's ass once. Did you ever get the impression that he liked it?"
There was a beat of appalled silence as the situation finally caught up to Kiba.
"Oh." he said, before chuckling weakly. "Open foot, insert mouth."
"Seriously, Kiba?" Sakura demanded, "What, did you leave your brain at home?"
"I forgot! It's hard to think of someone as dead when they've only been that way for a little over a week!"
"How the hell is that an excuse?!"
"Um, excuse me…"
Hinata trailed off as Kiba shouted over her attempt to join the conversation.
"It's not supposed to be an excuse! I was explaining myself!"
Akamaru barked in agreement (to what, he wasn't sure, but if his master was barking, he would too).
Sucking in a breath, Hinata prepared to be assertive. She screwed her eyes shut and slammed her hand down on the cushions next to her. She heard several heavy thumps as a few of Sakura's books bounced off and hit the floor. When the room was silent, she exhaled.
"I understand what Kiba means. I too, have trouble remembering that Neji is dead. Being reminded of that is always painful, but it is also a part of remembering him. Trying so hard to avoid making jokes, or speaking of him in any way but in the most reverent of tones does not honor him. It is acting as if his memory is fragile, which was not who he was. Please, make jokes. Tell every story, even the embarrassing ones. They were a part of him too."
Hinata turned to her teammate.
"Kiba, I don't remember seeing anything that indicated masochism, but I do remember something else." She smiled wickedly.
"Did you know that he used to practice his speeches about fate? Every so often, I would walk by his room and hear him."
Kiba was slack jawed.
"Are you for real?" he asked. Laughing, Hinata nodded.
"He started after he and Lee were put on the same team. After he fought Naruto, there were a few weeks of confused mumbles, then that was the last of it."
Naruto looked a bit dazed.
"I didn't know I had that kind of effect on people. And that was that? No more speeches?"
Hinata didn't meet his eyes.
"Well, no." she admitted. "There were a few times that I heard him practicing after that, but it wasn't the same."
Kiba snorted and leaned back on the couch. "What, it just didn't have the same spark?"
"No. He was trying to emulate you, Naruto. After dragging others down, I think he wanted to try and inspire."
Sakura nuzzled Naruto's side, causing Kiba to twitch fearfully.
"Aww," she said, "You completely turned his life around. Screw Hokage, you'd be a great motivational speaker."
Kiba shook his head.
"No." he said, "I veto that. You hear me? Vetoed. He would probably wind up starting a religion."
"I fail to see how that's a problem. We beat up a god, maybe it's high time we got some more recognition for that. I mean, I'm pretty sure that's a qualification for godhood, right?"
"Pein thought he was a god," said Hinata, "and Naruto still beat him."
Sakura rolled her eyes.
"Yeah, thought. That rabbit lady actually was one."
"Let's go back to the religion thing." Kiba interjected. "Are you sure you would be okay with a bunch of people worshipping your boyfriend?"
"I wouldn't."
Everyone turned to look at Hinata, who went bright red under the attention.
Petulantly, she muttered "I was worshipping him before it was cool."
They all lost it, laughing the hardest they had all week. It was wonderfully cathartic.
After calming down, the group of friends lapsed into a comfortable silence.
This was fine with Hinata. She had always found a certain quiet enjoyment in still moments. She knew it would not last though, with the nature of her friends.
Over in the chair, Sakura shifted Naruto on her lap and peered around him to get a better view of their guests.
"Hey, Kiba," she asked, "why is there so much space between you and Hinata? Are you leaving a seat for Shino?"
Kiba had forgotten about the distance he had put between himself and his teammate.
"No," he said, "I'm not."
"Where is he anyway?" asked Naruto.
xxxxx
It was a gorgeous day. Shino was spending it in one of the few meadows near the village that hadn't been either crushed by Pein, or pulverized by Naruto and Sasuke's spat. It was an all around pleasant place with a fair amount of greenery, but as his colony buzzed around him, Shino was only reminded of the desolate pockmarked wasteland that had been left by the Fourth War. He seemed to remember that battleground as a forest, originally. It was a shame, not only how much life had been lost, but how much of the land had been destroyed because of a broken system, some asshole ninja, and a bitch of a god. It would be tiresome work, replanting all of that by hand.
As Shino looked on, one of his Kikaichu landed on a flower to rest, and head butted a rather territorial bee. As the now pollen-smeared beetle attempted to help itself to some nectar, Shino felt the stirrings of an idea.
"Perhaps," he thought, "those seeds don't need to be planted by hand. There might just be another use for my family aside from war."
And so Shino began to plan for the future.
xxxxx
"Probably geekin' out over bugs." said Kiba.
Hinata interjected, "he'd be happy you remembered him, though."
Naruto grinned sheepishly, and Sakura reached around him to point at the empty spot on the couch.
"Well if he isn't coming, then budge over. You two are acting like you've just met or something." She stopped and considered something, briefly.
"Actually, you know what?" Sakura stood up, and lifted Naruto with her.
"You two talk." She dumped her boyfriend onto the couch next to Kiba, then grabbed Hinata's hand.
"You're coming with me. We're having a little girl time."
xxxxx
Sakura took the two of them outside, and leaned them both against the railing across from the apartment doorway. On their backs, the orange heat of the setting sun kept them warm where it squeezed through the buildings. The normally warm lands they lived in were cooling down with the arrival of the winter months, so the heat was welcome.
"I wanted to talk to you about Naruto." Sakura said, and was amazed by how much kindness Hinata could express when she smiled. Here was a girl who had little else but love in her heart, and not for the first time Sakura felt envious of the other woman's purity.
"I would be surprised if you didn't" she said. Sakura was faintly confused.
"Why is that?"
"Well, all of our friends have been concerned about my feelings towards him. It is the tactful thing to do, and you've never been anything but tactful."
"I hope that was sarcasm, because if not, then I don't think you paid much attention when we were younger. Or now."
"It was." Hinata said. "I'm trying something new. Clan heads need to be strong, right?"
Sakura shook her head.
"Sarcasm doesn't make you look strong, it makes you look cynical. You don't need to change who you are just to take on your father's role. I would be sad if you did."
"You would?"
"Hinata, you're an admirable person. We live with one of the most brutal jobs available, and you somehow managed to be the kindest woman that I have ever encountered. All that you ever needed was more confidence in your actions, and that doesn't come from acting meaner or more jaded. Just keep doing what you enjoy, and find a way to live with who you are comfortably. That was probably one of the most important lessons that I learned from Lady Tsunade."
"It is a very good one. Neji taught me something similar, though I don't know if he ever meant to. I will try and take both to heart."
They remained comfortably quiet as the sun set on their backs. As the cool of night began to crawl into its place, Hinata spoke again.
"I know it was just a common phrase when you said 'one of the most important lessons I have learned,' but I'm still curious. What was the most important thing that you learned?"
Sakura grimaced.
"Easy." she said. "How to keep a heart beating."
And Hinata, who had not been there and did not hear the story, missed the special meaning behind that lesson. Instead, she laughed softly at the somewhat morbid joke that Sakura had told.
"That is a very important thing for a medic to know."
They both had been facing the apartment, but Sakura's focus seemed to be more on who was inside.
"You have no idea." she said.
Through the door, she heard the laughter of the single greatest way she had surpassed her master.
"Weren't we going to talk about Naruto?" Hinata asked, as his voice had served as an excellent reminder.
That was a conversation that Sakura no longer wanted to have. She shook her head and took the hand of her friend.
"No need. He talks about himself well enough. Let's go back in."
Holding hands, the two walked into the warm and well-lit apartment, and left the chilly night air on the other side of the door.
xxxxx
It was around dinner time when Hinata and Kiba left the apartment, and Kiba was far from ready to let this day end.
"Wanna get food now?" he asked. He had offered Hinata the crook of his arm to hold, which went against his bad boy image a bit, but only served to further cement Hinata's ideas of Kiba as a seduction specialist. Not particularly eager to get back to her duties as future clan head, Hinata decided her father could handle whatever was going on, and agreed.
"I would be fine with that." she said. "Would you mind if I checked in on someone?"
"Not at all," said Kiba, and Hinata began to walk.
"Who are we meeting?" he asked, "I know them, right?"
"It's TenTen, so yes. It isn't very far, I just want to make sure that she is doing okay."
"Oh, right. Because of the whole Neji thing."
"Yes, Kiba. Because of the whole Neji thing. Can I trust you to be sensitive?"
Kiba laughed.
"C'mon, Hinata, you know me! I'm not really a "sensitive" kind of guy."
Before she could reprimand him, he patted her shoulder affectionately.
"I'll do my best for you though."
He sounded incredibly warm and sincere. Hinata could actually feel her face heating up a bit.
"Have you considered working for the seduction core?" she asked on a whim. Kiba looked puzzled.
"No, why? Isn't that usually a job for girls?"
Hinata wondered why she had asked, too. She was now throughly embarrassed, and turned bright red as a result.
"I-it was only a thought."
Kiba crossed his arms and stopped moving. His face was pensive, which was an odd expression for him. Behind him, Akamaru sat and waited for his partner to keep walking. Hinata had no words. Whatever part of her that usually churned out sentences had locked up under indecision. Should she be trying to run damage control? Should she be offering an explanation? The option to curl up in a ball and die was looking particularly good.
"I mean," started Kiba, rescuing Hinata in a way he would never be able to see, "I guess nobody would see it coming. But I wanna know why you had that thought in the first place."
Hinata hid her face. This was exactly why she shouldn't try and act like Naruto. He could get away with blurting stuff out, but there was too much weirdness in her head for that to ever be a safe option. Kiba noticed this action and how red her face was, and jumped to a conclusion.
"Uh-uh." he said. "No. I am not going to be the rebound."
This was the closest Hinata had been to fainting from embarrassment since Naruto had come back from his trip. There was only one thing left to do. She head-butted Kiba in the sternum.
"T-t-that's not what I was asking you to do!" she protested. "I just thought it was what you were going for!"
Winded, Kiba rubbed his chest.
"What do you mean, "what I was going for?" Why did you think I was trying to be a seduction specialist?"
Hinata was well aware of the audience they were getting. Kiba had never been good at volume control, though he was still better at it than Naruto.
"I…I mean, the way you dress and act…I thought you were trying to look like a bad boy."
Kiba looked shocked. Then, he began laughing.
"Kiba?"
He grabbed her shoulders and spoke in an exaggerated husky voice.
"Oh, but I am a bad boy! Better be careful around me, 'cuz I'm a beast!"
She grabbed one of his wrists and dragged him off with her.
"We're going to visit TenTen now, and you will never speak of this again."
"Ooh, baby. You know I don't play by your rules!"
"Kiba!"
"Yes, ma'am."
Akamaru trotted behind them, happy to be moving again.
xxxxx
TenTen's door was answered by Lee in an apron, and the smell of cooking food.
"Hello, friends!" he said, "are you here to visit?"
"Who is it?" called TenTen from the kitchen.
Kiba and Lee both answered at the same time.
"Kiba and Hinata!"
"Hinata and Kiba!"
There was a beat of silence from the kitchen as TenTen untangled the cluttered syllables.
"Are they staying for dinner? We don't have enough ingredients left to make ravioli for them, but we could probably think of something!"
Hinata and Kiba shared a look.
"Ravioli?"
"A food from distant lands." Lee explained. "It is similar to dumplings, but it is full of cheese and covered in a tomato sauce. It is quite delicious!"
He wilted a little.
"…when the recipe is followed." he added.
"Did you not?" asked Hinata, and Lee shook his head.
"Not yesterday. TenTen and I took liberties with the food that we should not have, and were punished accordingly. Tonight, we are making sure to follow instruction."
"Or at the very least," TenTen said, "know the flavor of the spices we add before we add them."
"So are you here to join us?" asked Lee.
"We were actually going to invite you two out to eat with us," said Hinata, "but if you two are already cooking, then we will have to do it another time."
"Of course." Lee said, "are you certain that you do not wish to join us?"
Kiba waved him off.
"No need, man. We won't interrupt your quality time. Hinata just wanted to check in on everything."
He turned towards the kitchen and yelled, "How ya doin', TenTen?"
"I'm fine!" she yelled back, and Kiba was satisfied.
"Well, looks like our work here is done. You two be good!"
Lee grinned and gave them a very enthusiastic thumbs-up.
"Understood! We will be excellent!"
The door closed and Kiba turned to Hinata.
"Okay," he said, "all's well. Let's go."
"Wait, why the hurry? I still wanted to talk?"
She had to walk quickly to catch up. Kiba was taking stairs two at a time.
"Didn't you see? They were having a moment! We couldn't interrupt that!"
"What? No they weren't."
"Look, Hinata. Just trust me on this one. I could smell the chemistry there."
"No, Kiba, you could smell their cooking."
He reached the bottom of the stairwell with her hot on his heels. His feet crunched faintly in the hard dirt of the road, and Hinata pulled up short as he spun to face her.
"I could, and that was just as good of a reason to leave."
"Oh." Hinata thought for a moment. Akamaru whined behind her. "Well, should we go check on Ino?" she asked, determined to find at least one friend to bring with them. Kiba looked a little guilty. Hinata assumed it was because he had needed to remind himself that Ino's father had died.
"Has she been okay?" he asked. Behind her, an impatient Akamaru nudged her back and whined again. Hinata reached back to pet him as streetlights flickered on, replacing the faint white glow of the waning moon with the muddy yellow of their bulbs. Thinking back to the morning, Hinata answered him.
"She seemed fine when I saw her."
Kiba grinned wolfishly, something he was effortlessly good at. Considering his family, that trait might be genetic.
"She's been pretty distracted with Sai around."
Hinata was a little put off by that. It did not seem like something Ino would do.
"Really?" she asked, obviously incredulous. Kiba waved her off.
"Naw, I was just joking. He's been trying to help though."
Hinata finally joined Kiba on the street, allowing Akamaru to slip past and take his place next to Kiba. Hinata knew it was not entirely polite, but she had to ask anyway.
"Has he been any good?"
Kiba laughed.
"From what I've seen? No. He might be loosening up, but that dude is still totally Mr. Roboto. We're just lucky that Inoichi gave his daughter lessons in psychology and therapy. I mean, parents don't want to die as young as he did, but they still plan to die before their children. Given our profession, I wouldn't be surprised if he had given Ino lessons on how to cope with his death. You know what I mean?"
Hinata nodded, then motioned with her hand towards Ino's home.
"I do. Let's talk and walk."
"Right."
The conversation continued as the two of them began walking towards one of the more central commercial areas in the village, where the Yamanaka flower shop/ Ino's house was located.
"It would make sense," Hinata said, "for her to be the one among us best suited for coping with close deaths. I do wonder how Shikamaru is doing though."
Kiba cursed lowly at another recent death forgotten.
"Maybe Ino's been to talk to him? Fuck."
Hinata took his hand and rubbed it soothingly.
"Don't worry, Kiba. Inoichi and Shikaku were people who were alive for as long as we knew. It is not surprising that you would assume that they still are, and it is nothing to beat yourself up about."
"I'm not—"
Hinata stopped walking and placed a finger on his lips.
"Hush." she said, and he complied. "I am not done talking."
He listened in stunned silence.
"It is difficult to lose a person that we have known for a long time. This is something that I have noticed from Neji's death. They have become such a large part of our lives, that it takes time for our minds to fully understand just what is now gone. We do not realize how much of our lives are based around their presence, and it is only natural that we will catch ourselves making assumptions that they are still around. Do not feel bad about these moments. It does not mean that you have forgotten them. You are only discovering a place where their life was a part of yours."
She remover her finger and hugged him, thankful that his jacket was leather, as he would notice no wet patch from her tears.
"I am done," she said, keeping her voice level only through force of will, "you may speak now."
He hugged her too, but only after wiping away one or two tears of his own.
"I don't have anything to say either," he said, "you shut down all the shit I was gonna whine about."
"Good." she said.
Kiba looked around them. The street was fairly empty, with quiet houses on either side. Most were lit, but some were dark. Not everyone had made it back from the war. Though Hinata was still holding him tightly, Kiba still wanted to leave this street. The empty homes were like corpses, and he who had lost no one felt them judging him. Behind their darkened eyes were rooms that should not have been empty, and sacrifices that should not have been made. Sacrifices he had not made. He wanted to go.
Bending down, he held Hinata behind her knees, scooping her up into a bridal carry.
"Talk and walk." he said, and keeping his eyes on a lit house in front of them, walked briskly down the street. Akamaru huffed and trotted after them.
He expected Hinata to squirm, insisting she could walk on her own. He expected her to blush. Instead, she wrapped her arms around his neck and held on.
"Do you feel guilty?"
He shook his head.
"No."
"Please don't lie to me."
"Maybe a bit, but we aren't talking about it here."
"Can we talk about it later?"
"I don't know."
"We will."
"Fine. Whatever."
xxxxx
"We're here," Kiba said, breaking two minutes of silence. His manner was brusque, but he was still gentle when setting Hinata back on her feet. Her shoes clacked on the wood of the front porch, wood that creaked soon after as Akamaru laid his bulk down on it.
"Let me knock this time." she said.
Kiba was puzzled. "Why? Is there a secret knock that only you two know?"
Hinata shook her head.
"No. I wanted to avoid repeating what happened at Naruto's apartment."
Kiba sighed.
"I'll remember that her dad is dead. The hell does that have to do with knocking, anyway?"
"Nothing! I was talking about when we both knocked at the same time!"
The boy looked perplexed.
"That happened?" he asked.
"Yes." Hinata answered, and then knocked on the door. Kiba felt like he had been cheated by this, but he could not explain why.
"Wait…" he mumbled, "did you…did you plan that?"
"What are you talking about, Kiba?"
Ino opened the door, interrupting Kiba's explanation.
"Yes?" She said, "Can I help you two?"
"We were just visiting."
"How you holdin' up?"
Hinata and Kiba answered at the same time, showing a proclivity for awkwardness matched by few others.
To her credit, Ino took them in stride.
"I'm holdin' up alright. Sai's been over here helping out in his own weird way. Don't tell him I said this, but I'm helping him more than he's helping me. That guy has a lot of issues that need working through."
"No shit." Kiba deadpanned.
"Yeah, it has been a nice distraction untangling mister robot's emotions into something resembling healthy. Something to keep me from obsessing over my dead dad."
Hinata and Kiba stood quietly in the doorway. Ino patiently waited for them to speak. Finally, Kiba nudged Hinata and said:
"So, is it okay if she brought it up?"
His companion smiled.
"Yes, it is."
She then turned to Ino, who had been watching them.
"Did you have any trouble finding my father?" she asked. Ino shook her head, grinning.
"He was at a bar, unwinding. He was really nice and polite."
Kiba looked surprised by this.
"Wait, a bar?" he asked, "Not a teahouse?"
Ino shook her head.
"Not a teahouse. Trust me, I think the people there were just as weirded out as you, Kiba. Especially the poor guy who was sitting on his right."
"What happened to him?" asked Hinata, who was feeling curious, but worried about what she would hear. Her father had a naturally cold manner about him that was wonderful at starting bar fights. She hoped the man that Ino was talking about had not been hurt too badly for trying to start something that he could not finish.
"Oh, nothing happened." Ino said, and Hinata felt relief wash over her. That was not lost on their blonde friend, who patted her shoulder sympathetically.
"Sorry," she said, "I shouldn't have left you guys hanging like that. He didn't do anything to the guy, but he didn't have to. The man had no idea what to do. I don't think he went into that bar expecting the head of the village's most affluent family to come in, get plastered, and start trying to make friends with the bar."
"Then why bring him up specifically?" Kiba asked. "Her dad was being friendly to the entire bar."
Ino smirked.
"Her dad wasn't patting the rest of the bar on the back. That man probably went home paranoid, certain that Hiashi did something to his body that he just hasn't seen yet."
Kiba winced.
"Ouch," he said, "poor guy."
"I know!" Ino laughed, and Kiba shook his head.
"No," he said, "I was talking about Hiashi. It sucks that he was just trying to be friendly, and that bar was just suspicious. He should be able to unwind too."
Kiba earned major brownie points with Hinata that day.
"Oh." Ino sounded embarrassed that she had not though of it like that. She bounced back quickly though.
"Yeah, preconceived notions are a bitch." She said. "You'd've thought that we'd've learned that by now, after Naruto went and proved us all wrong."
"Habits are hard to break." Kiba remarked. "We get that in dogs too. Something they learn at a young age can be one of the toughest things to train out of them. Humans are pretty similar like that. Who'd'a thought?"
Ino snickered.
"That's something psychologists have been saying for a long time, but of course you were the one to relate it to dogs."
Kiba grinned wryly. Were he his younger self, he would have taken exception to being simplified to being "the dog boy." Now, he took it in stride.
"Hey," he said, "it's what I do."
Kiba started a little when Hinata laid an unexpected hand upon his shoulder.
"I think it's sweet. It shows that you're a caring person."
Kiba was at a loss for how to respond to that. His was a personality better suited to banter and roughness. So instead of saying anything, he lifted his hand and patted hers before she let it drop.
"Yeah, he's a real doll." Ino snarked. "So anyway, sorry to cut this visit short, but I was about to go grab Shikamaru. He and I are having dinner at Chouji's house. Are you two doing anything?"
This seemed like one of those branches of opportunity to Kiba. Like, what would happen if he said yes? What would he miss out on if he said no? More often than not in situations like this, he said yes out of curiosity.
"Naw, we can go with you." He said, and was immediately worried when both Ino and Hinata looked uncomfortable.
"What?" Kiba asked.
"KIba, she was just asking that to be polite."
"Really?"
"Yes, Kiba. Really." Said Ino. "I wasn't actually asking. It'd be pretty rude for me to show up with extra guests."
Exasperated and more than a little embarrassed, Kiba threw his hands up into the air.
"Well how was I supposed to know that? You sounded sincere!"
"Well of course I did, dumb ass! I'm a ninja! We're supposed to be believable!"
"You're supposed to sound believable to your enemies!" Honestly, this shit was why Kiba didn't bother with manners. Too much hassle.
"Whatever." He quickly said, cutting off her response. "I bet Sai didn't have to put up with this."
Ino grinned wickedly.
"Oh, he didn't." she said. "He's already there, because that boy knows what I want him to do."
Kiba did not back down.
"Already meeting friends, is he? Has he graduated from fuckbuddy so soon?"
Ino buffed her nails on her shirt, acting unconcerned.
"Well, he was nice enough, so I gave him a chance. Even if he wasn't, you know I'd be keeping a pretty boy like him around for a while."
"You really expect a lot from your boyfriends, don't you?"
"More than you expect from your girlfriends, I'll bet. Just find a leg to hump and you're happy."
Kiba hissed through his teeth. Ino might not be as scary as Sakura or Hinata, but she was still a wicked bitch with a sharp tongue. Behind them, Akamaru whined.
"Ouch." he grunted. "I actually felt that one."
Ino pinched his cheek.
"Aww," she cooed, "poor baby."
Her hand was quickly swatted away, then Hinata pulled him back.
"Okay, that's enough." she told him. To Ino, she said, "Thank you for the invite, but I wouldn't have been able to go anyway."
"Why not?" Kiba asked.
"If my father was in a bar, then I want to go and make sure that he's alright, and keep him company. I think that I'll be heading home."
She gave Kiba a hug.
"Thank you for spending so much of your day with me, Kiba."
Ino bid her goodbye as Hinata walked down the street, towards her house in the higher part of town. In the porch light, Kiba seemed frozen in place. Behind him, Ino called into the dark after his friend.
"Bye, Hinata! Thanks for visiting!" satisfied when she saw Hinata turn to wave at her, Ino then patted her other guest on the shoulder. "And you too, Kiba. Thanks for swinging by."
Grabbing her keys and locking the door, Ino stepped around Kiba as he watched his teammate leave.
"Yeah…you know." he mumbled, "always happy to visit. Call whenever."
Now alone in front of a house that wasn't his, Kiba stared at the back of the girl who had been with him since he was young. He exhaled heavily, struck suddenly by the weight of time, and the realization of how much had passed since then. How much he had once been the short-sighted young boy, puffed up with aggression and arrogance, never thinking that the world would change. It was inappropriate for one so young as him to say that it felt like a lifetime ago, but those words still echoed in his head. Lives had certain passed for his friends. They were no longer the same people as the kids he had graduated with. So much had been altered. So much was now different. As he looked at Hinata down the road, stopped in the wash of light from a store, he thought about her. How her dreams seemed to only be available in halves. She was going to change the laws of her clan to abolish the caged bird seal, but Neji would not be around to see it. She was finally calm and confident enough around Naruto to hold conversations with the boy, but it was long after he was attainable. Although she seemed to be okay, Kiba could not help but imagine her as hurting. And though she had made it clear to him earlier that she needed no coddling, he still wanted to take care of her.
"I swear to whoever cares enough to listen," he growled, "I will make sure that you're happy."
It was really the best that he could do. He began walking to his house, uneasy about having to turn his back on Hinata to leave. Kiba never paid much attention to symbolism, but even he was observant enough to be unhappy with the image this presented. Irrational as it was, he was half tempted to walk backwards just to ruin the message being created.
You know what? Fuck it. He was walking backwards. He knew nobody was watching, he was proving nothing by doing this, and that just walking home did nothing to diminish his conviction to help Hinata, but he was doing it anyway. Spinning on his heel, Kiba turned 180 degrees and found himself face-to-face with a very surprised Hinata. He almost jumped out of his skin.
"Holy SHIT!" he yelled, leaping backwards just as his fist lashed out in surprise.
Hinata went totally red and held her hands out placatingly.
"I'm sorry! I didn't mean to startle you!"
Kiba straightened up from where he had landed on the road. He tugged his jacket to make sure that it wasn't crooked. Akamaru licked his hand to make sure that everything was okay, and he wiped the drool off on his pants.
"It's alright. I thought you were going home. Is something wrong?"
"No, nothing. I just…" she poked her fingers together, a gesture that he had not seen her make for a long while. "…I forgot that we hadn't had dinner yet. I didn't want the day to end like this either."
Kiba's heart had been so tight in his chest up until now. It relaxed at this moment, leaving him shaky. His words were heavy with relief when he spoke.
"It felt weird, right? Like a sad ending? I felt that too! So what now? Do you want to come get dinner at my place? I promise I have no plans."
Hinata smiled and shook her head.
"I do still want to get back to father. I don't want him to be lonely. But I would like it if you came with me. Would that be alright?"
Kiba felt nervous all of the sudden.
"Would your dad be alright with that?" he asked, and was shocked to see Hinata roll her eyes.
"He knows you, Kiba. You have been my teammate for years."
"Okay, fine. I get it." He still felt nervous, but he could cover it up well. He was a ninja, after all. "I'll come with you."
Evidently, the night was full of surprises for Kiba, because shy little Hinata took his hand to lead him off. Akamaru followed behind them, happy to just be a dog, and to see his master—after years of being a soldier—just be a boy.
xxxxx
AN: And that's that. I might make an epilogue later, but for now, I think I'll work on Zero Sum. I will not put this story as complete just yet, but don't expect much else for a while.
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