AN: Chapter 10! Whoop whoop, celebrate :D I'd like to dedicate my Author's Note to these people today:
acethehunted , AlucardY17, apocalyps24 , 3ls, batripe, bigbru39, BloodEureka, brnmac560, chelsearuls, Chischi, chrisgetsu45, D.S. Willow, DarkDesh, DARKNARUTO115, diego7288, Dragonteeth, druneko, EaSnowPw, ExplodingKunai, Festgiven, Fierce irbis, Flaming Eagle, gabyxx21, Gavedin, gt0627, happycheese,
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These, my dear readers, are the 53 lovely people who have put this story on their alert and/or faves list! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Free cookies for you forever!
Now for some blatant self promotion… Please have a look at my new story, Heirs, and leave a review. It would be amazingly helpful for improving my writing skills!
Also, someone review and tell me whether or not the short quote at the start of each chapter is any good! One last thing, sorry about this insanely long Author's Note _
DISCLAIMER: Does anyone actually read my disclaimers? I don't own Naruto. Ownership will never come to me :(
Chapter 10 – Making Conversation
Absence make her heart grow fonder
While I'm conquering the last frontier
Lately I've found myself wondering out loud
Wondering what I was doing here
- Opshop
To call Shikamaru a hard worker would a blatant lies. He was no more a hard worker than Chouji was a diet fanatic, or Kiba was an avid reader. Lazing around and watching clouds were his absolute favourite things to do.
Unfortunately for him, he also happened to be what you would call 'a genius'. This little trait of his ensured that the Hokage assigned to him to many missions involving meticulous planning and strategy.
So when someone came knocking on his door, naturally he assumed it was a summons from the Hokage.
"You get it!" Temari called from the bathroom.
Shikamaru sighed, and got out of bed slowly, leaving the sheets a rumpled mess. He'd really been looking forward to sleeping in for a loooong time. Temari was lucky to wake up with only a light headache, considering that she had been the one to get them all kicked out.
Not that he really cared. Last night had been when his already icy relationship with Ino finally degenerated into enmity. Which was too troublesome for words.
Shikamaru trodded slowly out of the bedroom towards the door. Reaching one arm up to scratch his head, he opened the door to see a petite, dark haired girl standing outside.
"Hinata?" he said, surprised. "What are you doing here?"
The girl twiddled her fingers and blushed lightly, averting her gaze to somewhere left of Shikamaru's head. Shikamaru felt his brain kick into action. He hadn't seen her twiddle her fingers for a long time. It was an old habit, one that he thought she no longer had.
"Hello Shikamaru." said Hinata, nervousness evident in her voice. "Did I wake you up?"
"Kind of, but whatever."
Hinata nodded, still not looking at him.
"Oh! I'm sorry!" she exclaimed apologetically.
Shikamaru shrugged in indifference. It wasn't as if Temari wouldn't have woken him up anyway.
"So did you want something?" he asked.
"I was wondering if you had a moment. I sort of wanted to talk to you about something, but I can come back later…"
Her voice trailed off.
Shikamaru looked down and realised that he had answered the door in his boxers. No wonder Hinata was avoiding looking at him.
"Oh, right. Now's fine, I'll just go change." he headed back inside, slightly embarrassed, and then turned back to Hinata. "I guess you can wait inside."
Hinata followed with a degree of uncertainty. Shikamaru left her in the living room as he went back into the bedroom.
Temari was out of the shower, fully dressed and ready to go. She nodded towards the living room.
"It's not that blonde pig is it?" she asked, resentment clear in her voice.
Shikamaru snorted.
"No. Do you really think I'd let her in? It's Hinata. She wants to talk to me about something."
Temari's eyebrows rose.
"Hinata?" she said in a softer tone. "Do you know why?"
Shikamaru thought about that. He and Hinata were friends, but not particularly close, so it probably wasn't something trivial.
A message from the Hokage? No, that couldn't be it. If it was shinobi business, Lady Tsunade would have sent someone like Kotetsu or Izumo, rather than go to the trouble of tracking down Hinata.
Hmmm…
Hinata had arrived in what seemed to be a nervous state. At first, he'd put it down to her natural modesty, and his state of dress. But that probably wasn't it. Hinata was innocent, but she was also a shinobi. His lack of clothing would have been embarrassing, but wouldn't reduce her to finger twiddling.
That was a habit he thought she'd broken years ago. And even when it had been something that she did a lot, she'd only really done it around…
Of course, That's what this was about.
"I think it's to do with Naruto. I don't really know why she's talking to me though." he said with a casual shrug of his shoulders.
"Ah. Rite." replied Temari. Temari may not have been a Konoha nin for long, but even she knew about the Love Dodecahedrons that Konoha shinobi seemed to specialise in. It helped that she subscribed to the Konoha Letter, of course.
Temari and Shikamaru exited into the living room together. Hinata was standing awkwardly by the door, not really sure what to do.
"Hey Hinata." said Temari with a smile. Temari liked Hinata. She was one of the few who'd stayed neutral during Shikamaru and Ino's break up. Temari admired the younger girl's spirit. She'd been there when the Hyuuga had gone head to head with her own cousin during the Chunin Exams, and she'd heard the story of how Hinata had stood up to Pain during the Konoha Invasion.
"Oh, hello Temari." Hinata relaxed a little, glad to see two fully -dressed people. "I'm sorry if I woke you."
Temari waved her hand.
"No, it's fine, I was already up. Thank you for waking up Mr. Lazy though."
Hinata smiled back at Temari, while Shikamaru rolled his eyes.
"So what did you want to talk about Hinata?" he asked, changing the subject.
Hinata opened her mouth to speak, and then closed it again. Sensing discomfort, Temari stepped in.
"Hey, I've got to go meet with the Hokage to arrange for Gaara and Kankuro to visit. How about you guys go get some breakfast? We can all walk into the village together."
Hinata nodded. Shikamaru remained silent, deciding to just go with whatever idea Temari had.
"Great!" chirped Temari, leading the way out the door.
"What am I going to do?" Ino wailed. Sakura sighed. God, she'd forgotten how emotional Ino could get. Not that Sakura could blame her in this case.
"It'll all blow over eventually Ino." she said with what was meant to be a comforting pat on the back. "Besides, you know it was going to happen eventually. I mean, even I could see that this whole thing was going to explode sooner or later."
Ino glared at her best friend.
"But I figured that when I finally decided to try and kill them, I'd do it in private! Where no one would see me! But instead, I had to get drunk and pick a fight at Natsuki's! Natsuki's Sakura!"
She buried her head in the cushion she was clutching.
"I can never show my face in Konoha again!" said Ino, voice muffled by the couch cushion.
"Think of it like this! Isn't all publicity good publicity?" Sakura said, attempting to console Ino.
"That is the biggest lie I have ever heard!"
"But you like being in the Konoha Letter!"
"Yeah, when it's about where I shop, or how great I look, or how I'm 'the embodiment of shinobi style'! Call me shallow, but that stuff is good! Being in the paper for getting drunk off my ass, screaming insults at my ex-boyfriend and wrecking a restaurant is not a good thing!"
Sakura opened her mouth to reply, but decided against it. The conversation was going in circles. The best thing to do would be to let Ino rant until she calmed down, occasionally interjecting with a soothing comment and sympathetic word.
Unfortunately for Ino though, Sakura had to get to work. She was already late.
"What! You're ditching me? What am I supposed to do? I can't go home, I'd have to go through the village! Everyone will just stare at me with their judgy little eyes! EVERYONE READS THE LETTER!"
The last sentence was almost yelled. Sakura backed away from her friend, and headed for the door.
"You're a ninja Ino. Just transform or something. I'm sorry, but I've got to go."
With that, Sakura left her apartment.
She loved her friend, but at the moment, Sakura just couldn't deal with Ino's newspaper drama. She didn't really want to sit there, sympathising and remembering the events of last night.
What she wanted- no- what she needed was to move forward, to focus on something non-personal. Heading to work fit that bill perfectly.
Nothing like hours of mixing medicines and fixing injuries to help you avoid thinking about yourself.
Hinata sat across from Shikamaru, eyes downcast, seemingly focused on the pastry in front of her.
Shikamaru swallowed a mouthful of coffee, his normally unfocused dark eyes now concentrated on the girl in front of him.
They had sat in near silence ever since Temari had left. Neither one of them was a big talker.
Shikamaru sighed. Unless Hinata asked him what she wanted to know, he would be there forever. How troublesome. It seemed he would actually have to start the conversation.
"So what did you want to talk bout?"
Hinata's head jolted upwards, startled. She'd been thinking. She was starting to have second thoughts about talking to Shikamaru, but now that he asked… well she didn't want to have woken him up for nothing.
"It's… well…" she said, uncertain.
"Let me guess. Last night's disaster?"
Hinata nodded, and bit her bottom lip. Right, he was a genius. He probably already knew exactly what they were here to talk about.
"I'm sorry about what happened with you and Ino last night. It-"
"It won't ever happen again." Shikamaru cut her off with a dismissive remark, surprised at the fact that he'd actually taken the effort to avoid that topic.
"Oh. I'm sorry I mentioned it." she said. She started picking away at her pastry.
He shrugged.
"So you want to talk about yesterday. Does it have anything to do with Naruto?" Shikamaru got straight to the point.
Hinata didn't reply. Her fingers ripped the flaky pastry into smaller pieces.
Shikamaru waited. What was the point of pressuring her into talking. When she was ready to respond, she would.
After a few moments, Hinata reached into her pocket and brought out a crumpled newspaper. She put it onto the table. It was open at page 10.
Shikamaru picked up the paper and started reading.
Sitting on the bed, Tenten watched as her fiancé brushed his long, brown hair in front of the mirror. She reached out and offered him a hair tie.
"You know what Neji?" she said. Neji put down his hairbrush, and turned to face Tenten.
"What Tenten?" he responded, accepting the proffered accessory.
"I will never, ever get over the fact that your hair is silkier than mine. Never." she stated with a grin, running her fingers through his hair. Neji smirked. He tied his hair up a few inched above the end.
"And it's the same length as mine to. You, Hinata, Hanabi, even your uncle! Seriously, is it just me, do all the Hyuugas have freakishly good hair? Is that your actual bloodline trait? Not Byakugan, but fabulous hair care?"
Neji rolled his eyes at Tenten's teasing. He walked towards her.
"Yes, that's it. The Byakugan is simply a front." he replied with good natured sarcasm. "So what was that you were saying about Hinata?" he asked, changing the subject.
Tenten stood up, leaving the bed messy .
"Oh right! I bumped into her as I was leaving. She seemed a bit, I don't know, distant, I guess?"
The two left the room and headed for the kitchen.
"What do you mean?" asked Neji.
"Well, you know what happened yesterday…" replied Tenten.
Neji nodded. The whole affair had turned into a farce. Fortunately, he'd been sensible enough not to drink, unlike almost everyone else. In fact, the only sober one's there were those formerly of Team Gai. Alcohol was never an option when you were on Team Gai. They'd all seen what happened after Lee even had the tiniest drop.
Neji shuddered at the though and Tenten looked at him.
"Drunken Fist." he replied simply. Tenten nodded, understanding him perfectly. Neji nodded for Tenten to continue her story.
"Hinata was leaving, and we had a bit of a chat. I was reading the Letter, which, by the way, was delivered to your door this morning!"
Neji snorted.
"I don't read that. It's for Hanabi. For some reason, she enjoys reading it.'"
"Riiiiight…" said Tenten in mock disbelief. "So, anyway. She asked what it was, I gave it to her. She went all pale, started stuttering, and walked off. It didn't really seem like she knew where she was going either."
"So, the newspaper startled her?" asked Neji, puzzled.
"I don't really know. I think so, but I also think it had more to do with what was in the newspaper. I mentioned it had another big spread on the 'Konoha 11'. Actually, there was a whole page on her."
"What was the page about?"
"I didn't quite get to it, but from what I read before Hinata took the paper, it was about… well… Naruto."
Neji's eyebrows shot up in concern.
"Naruto? Of course."
Neji loved his cousin. He admired her sense of perseverance, and her uncrushable spirit. When his shy cousin had started dating her Inuzuka team mate, he had been very happy for her. Mainly, he was glad to see her out of her room, doing something other than… whatever she'd done there for a whole year.
For three years, Hinata had been quite happy with Kiba. Neji thought she'd really grown. However, in the back of his mind, he'd held a sneaking suspicion that Hinata was still in love with Naruto. Not that he didn't want them to be together. In fact, he had been quite the adamant supporter of the boy who'd helped him find the courage to fight fate.
Since he'd heard the news of Naruto's return yesterday, Neji had had an underlying feeling of uneasiness for his cousin. He had hoped greatly that Nartuo's return would not affect her, but he hadn't believed it wouldn't.
Neji had hated the year after Naruto left. Hinata had really, well, broken down. He'd tried so hard to fix her, but it was like someone had flicked a switch in her mind. The lights were out in her eyes. She was recovered now, but Neji was concerned that she would spiral downwards again.
Neji relayed his thoughts to Tenten, who listened sympathetically.
"Hinata's strong though, Neji." she said. "It's been three years. She's happy. She just needs time to adjust, that's all."
Neji nodded, not quite believing his fiancée's words.
"I do hope you're right Tenten."
"So to put it simply, you have absolutely no idea what's wrong with you?"
Hinata nodded as she stared at the remains of the pastry. Her finger twirled around a stray piece of hair.
"I just… I don't know Shikamaru."
Shikamaru sighed.
"Before I say anything, I just need to ask one thing. Why on earth did you decide to talk to me about this? Isn't this something you should discuss with, I don't know, someone else?"
"I wanted to talk to Shino, but he's out on a mission. I would have spoken to Tenten, but with Neji, and the wedding…"
"And you couldn't well talk to Sakura could you?"
Hinata shook her head.
"Huh… well I'm not exactly the best person to talk to, but I guess I'll have to do."
He took another gulp of coffee, emptying the cup.
"From what I understand, you're happy with Kiba. You were 100% sure that everything you felt for him was unbreakable. But with Naruto back, you feel confused. You loved him for a long time, didn't you?"
It was more a statement than a question. Hinata gave no verbal response, but lifted her head to look at Shikamaru.
"Look, I think you should talk to Kiba about this."
Hinata jolted.
"W-what?" she exclaimed.
"You love Kiba. If anyone can help you sort out your feelings than it's him. Besides, that way you'll find out how you really feel."
Hinata shook her head quickly.
"No, no I can't! It'll hurt him too much!"
"Hurt him? Don't you think you'd hurt him more if you distanced yourself from him and ended up stringing him along?"
Hinata looked crestfallen.
"No… I'd never… I love him Shikamaru. Kiba is… he's just so bright. He's the light that saved me from darkness after…"
Shikamaru was silent. Yes, even he had noticed what happened to Hinata when Naruto left. Her downward spiral had been speculated upon by many people, including his mother.
Hinata looked up properly, new resolve in her eyes.
"Naruto… he's not… it's nothing. Just remnants of something that was there in the past. He left us. I… I can't forgive him for that."
Hinata seemed to believe her words. Shikamaru stopped himself from replying. He could hear the unspoken message, almost feel the emotions Hinata was now mentally locking back away. Hinata smiled at him.
"Thank you for listening to me Shikamaru. You've been very helpful."
Shikamaru smiled back, wondering whether she'd really needed advice at all. Hinata excused herself and left the café, leaving Shikamaru at the table with an empty cup of coffee, a plate of shredded pastry an a crumpled newspaper. Shikamaru pocketed the newspaper. Maybe Temari would like it. Or his mother.
Shikamaru waved down a passing waitress and asked what the time was.
"It's about quarter to twelve." cooed the waitress, batting her eyelashes at him. Ignoring this, Shikamaru thanked her and left the café.
Who was she kidding? Hinata asked herself this as she left the café.
Shikamaru was a genius. He could probably tell she was leaving the conversation in more of a muddle then before.
His advice was to speak to Kiba. But how could she do that? He was so… exuberant, so sure of himself. She was so shy, so confused. Now was not the right time.
Did she really believe what she'd said to Shikamaru? Did Naruto mean nothing to her?
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a familiar brown haired figure, and her heart stopped.
Kiba. Half of her wanted to run towards him and pour out every single thought in her head. The other half begged her to flee.
Her mind ached. Why did she feel that way? Why?
She needed to stop thinking, to stop feeling.
A hurricane of emotion battered the inside of her head, reducing logical thought to rubble.
She couldn't deal with this. Hinata chose which side of herself she wanted to obey.
She had to get out of there.
In an effort to actually get this chapter up, I've written most of it over various nights in bed. It's kind of a bad chapter. Well, it's a rather average chapter. Apologies for any major OOCness and rather bad writing on my part.
I was sad to see not a single review on my last chapter :( I don't bite! Leave a review, even if it's just a smiley face! I appreciate criticism! So... free cookies AND fondue for all reviews :D