Chapter 7: Parents

Shino and Tenten were led into the hospital room that Kiba and Hinata had been transferred to by the nurse. This room was NOT the ER, but in the children's ward. The walls in this room were JUST as brightly coloured as the ones in the waiting room.

There was one bed in this room, and Kiba was lying on it. On the opposite side of the room there was a chair with Hinata sitting on it. Obviously Hinata was fine since she had merely fainted. Kiba was slightly worse for wear—the side of Kiba's head was wrapped in bandages. Other than that he was smiling from ear to ear.

Hinata and Kiba looked up, when the three of them walked in. The nurse went over to Kiba and began to question him for information regarding his address and phone number. Since Kiba seemed busy with the nurse, Shino and Tenten meandered over to Hinata.

"H-hello!" Hinata said quietly to the two of them. And then she was silent. She was thinking of what her father would say to her upon finding out that she had somehow ended up in the hospital AND her bum was wet.

Then, to fill up the silence Tenten decided to introduce herself. "Hello!" said Tenten, "My name is Tenten!"

"N-nice to meet you! My name is Hinata Hyuuga," replied Hinata, and then was silent again. She didn't want to be rude, but she was thinking that she should probably call her father to tell him where she was.

Just then the nurse left the room. Hinata got up, and the three of them walked across the room to where Kiba was.

"Hello!" said Kiba cheerfully. It's not like he was going to yell like usual after he had just had an operation.

"…" said Shino. He had probably filled up his quota for talking for today, what with all the shouting and calling an ambulance or two.

"Apparently my operation was a success!!!" Kiba exclaimed loudly.

"…I would ask if you have brain damage, but I knew you already did," remarked Shino.

…I guess he didn't fill up his talking quota just quite yet.

"O-oh! Oh my!" gasped Hinata. How could someone say something so rude?

Tenten gasped…in awe.

"So," continued Kiba, not hearing what Shino had said at all, "The nurse wanted to know my phone number because she has to call my Mom and inform her of my terrible, fatal injury."

Hinata was probably thinking something along the lines of: "How could he NOT notice he was being insulted?" But more importantly he had reminded her about going to phone her father.

"E-excuse me, but I need to go and call my father." Hinata murmured politely.

"Okay, see you when you get back." replied Kiba.

Hinata quickly left the room.

Tenten was standing there, looking like she was about to cry.

…And she did.

"I AM SO SORRY!!!" she wailed. "I PROMISE YOU ON YOUR DEATHBED THAT I WILL IMPROVE MY AIM SO THAT I WILL NEVER MISS MY TARGET SO LONG AS I LIVE!!!" she pledged.

With that she ran from the room with tears running down her face.

...I guess she DID decide to improve her aim. And I suppose this explains why she has no IDEA who he is during the chuunin exams... she thinks he's dead? Right. That works.

"He's not dying…" Shino remarked after a moment of silence. Perhaps he really SHOULD have killed her in the waiting room when he had the chance.

"Hahahaha…" laughed Kiba, "She was a complete weirdo!!!"

At this point, Shino was probably thinking how awkward it was for someone like KIBA to call ANYONE weird. Although, admittedly, she WAS annoying.

MEANWHILE!!!

"Hello?" said Hinata's father on the other line.

"H-hello father!" Hinata said nervously.

"Hinata!? Where are you!!! You were supposed to be home 4 hours 27 minutes and 43 seconds ago!!! WHERE ARE YOU!!!" Hinata's father shouted angrily.

"U-um! I'm at the hospital," said Hinata.

"What were you doing!? As the heir to our clan's Main House you are expected to be…" he trailed off.

Hinata was silent, unsure of what was to come.

"What hospital did you say you were at? The Hyuuga Main House Private Hospital?" demanded Hinata's father on the other line.

"N-no! The Konoha General Hospital." Hinata said.

There was silence on the other end of the line for a moment.

"I am coming to get you at once," and without waiting for a reply, he hung up the phone.

Hinata hung up her phone as well. She hoped he did not think she was in mortal peril. She started hurrying down the hall towards Kiba's room, but before she got there she saw two angry women and dogs barking at the secretary.

…The two women weren't barking, just the dogs. I just thought I'd clear that up.

One woman was more masculine, with short spiky hair, and the other one was more feminine, with long hair in a ponytail. The interesting thing was that they had red markings on their faces, which looked AWFULLY familiar…

"What do you MEAN!?!" yelled the more feminine woman.

Hinata tried to think where she had seen those markings before…

"I meant exactly what I said. I cannot release personal information about the patients," said the secretary, sounding quite annoyed.

Think. Was it someone at school?

"MY SON IS IN THE HOSPITAL AND YOU WON'T TELL ME WHAT ROOM HE'S IN?!?" screamed the slightly more masculine woman.

…YES! She knew EXACTLY who it was.

"Will you please not yell? This is a hospital! People are trying to sleep!" said the secretary, raising her voice.

The dogs were STILL barking and the two women looked like they were about to tear the secretary limb from limb.

"U-um!" Hinata interrupted, raising her voice to be heard above all the noise, "A-are you by a-any chance related to Kiba?"

The two women, dogs and secretary fell silent and turned to look at Hinata.

Hinata blushed under the pressure and averted her eyes.

This was all followed by an awkward silence that lasted about five seconds.

"You know my son?" asked the masculine looking woman, who will now be known as Kiba's mother.

"Y-yes," stuttered Hinata.

"Then I assume you know what room he's in," queried the other woman, who was NOT Kiba's mother, but certainly related to him.

"Y-yes," Hinata managed to stutter again.

"Well then lead the way," commanded Kiba's mother, and Hinata could do nothing but obey, as she led the way to Kiba's room.

MEANWHILE!!!

Kiba was telling an AMAZING story of the time when he fell in the toilet when he was rudely interrupted by people barging through the door, and it happened like this.

"…so THAT'S when I slipped and fell right into the TOI—"

"WHERE IS MY SON!?" demanded Kiba's mother, barging through the door at the speed of light. …Or close to that.

"HI MOM!!! HI SIS!!!" yelled Kiba. Clearly he had recovered enough from his operation to be able to yell again.

Shino turned around to look at the people who had PRACTICALLY knocked the door down. And he saw a masculine looking woman, a feminine looking woman, and a couple of vicious looking dogs, followed by Hinata.

"MY SON!!!" she yelled as affectionately as you can possibly yell.

All of his family members ran to his bedside. Well, not his whole CLAN. But, you know what I mean.

Shino turned to Hinata who was still standing in the doorway and gave her the look that said: "Let's give these people some alone time".

Hinata—who is very good at deciphering looks even when the person is wearing sunglasses—gave a look that said: "Okay".

With that, they both left the room promptly, shutting the door behind them, but they were only to come face to face with—

"There you are," said Hinata's father crossly.

"H-hello father!" said Hinata, nervous once again.

"Why are you at the hospital?" demanded Hinata's father.

"U-um… Well things happened… and I fainted and… I woke up here." Hinata mumbled.

Hinata's father looked at Shino and asked, "Is this is rascal that drooled on your sleeve, my daughter?"

"U-um…." mumbled Hinata, but did not say anything to defend Shino.

"Tsk tsk, I always knew those Aburames were bad news," scoffed Hinata's father.

After a moment of silence in which Shino glared, Mr. Hyuuga glared back and Hinata just stared at the floor, Hinata's father said, "Let us leave at once!" And with that Hinata and her father walked away, leaving Shino to stand there alone.

Shino was very angry that he had been mistaken for KIBA! And he was also angry that Hinata didn't say anything in his defense. But now that he was all alone he was unsure of what to do next. Should he go back to where Kiba and his crazy family were, or should he just go back to his house? But his house was far away and it was late. Therefore, should he call his father to come and get him? No. He was Shino, independent and strong!

…but first he would go and sit down in that comfy armchair in Kiba's room.