Chapter 10: Shikamaru vs Hinata, and the Third Hokage gets involved!

Asuma Sarutobi could see Shikamaru was growing restless, as they neared the Hokage tower to hand in the cat, along with a verbal conformation that their D mission was a success. It was after team 10 received their pay that Asuma decided to say something.

Only that he didn't have to. Because as soon as Asuma's eyes brown eyes shifted to the young genin, the boy merely grunted.

"What?" Shikamaru asked.

"Come on, you can't be that mad about our mission, kid." Asuma knew that his tone of voice, which had portrayed amusement, wasn't gonna help his case.

Chouji looked concerned as he stuffed his face with chips.

"Sensei, I feel just as angry as Shikamaru. We almost wasted our whole day chasing that damn cat!" Ino said as she took out a mirror and inspected her face. "If that thing had lay its claw on my beautiful face, I might've murder it for sure!"

"You guys weren't the only one suffering. I had to skip a meal because of the Feudal lord's wife, and her evil cat." Chouji said.

"Of course only a glutton would say something like that." Asuma said bluntly. His attention then shifted to where Shikamaru had only been a few moments ago. "Where did slacker go?"

As if answering his question, Ino pointed towards some direction.

"I think that's him, sensei." Ino said. Asuma followed the trajectory of her finger which landed at some far away rooftop of a house. Asuma chuckled.

"He couldn't wait to get away from us." He muttered to himself, as he watched Shikamaru's disappearing figure.

Shikamaru knew immediately that his lateness caused a diversion in plans. He knew this because when he arrived at team 8 training ground, he saw found Sakura with Hinata.

'Great, it's pinky.' He thought to himself. 'I only have that evil plotting cat to blame.' Shikamaru didn't take too kindly with Sakura being there. The last day at the academy, along with Sakura's rude behavior towards Naruto was still fresh in his head. God knows that only a traumatic experience would change her for the best. He was hoping for that, even though it was probably a bad thing to hope for someone.

"S-Shikamaru you actually came!" Hinata said. She sounded surprised that he actually showed up instead of falling asleep god knows where.

"Hello Shikamaru." Sakura said. The sound of her calmed voice, and the way her polite words rolled off her tongue made Shikamaru do a double take to make sure it was actually Sakura.

How strange.

"It's such a drag to be late, when I'm the one that asked you to spar with me." Shikamaru said.

"I-I understand things happen. But Sakura kept me company…"

"Hinata, you gotta stop being so nice. Ask him what happened. He's like an hour late." Sakura said as she crossed her arms and glared at the lazy boy.

"It's a troublesome story. You won't even believe it if I told you. There was this cat-"Shikamaru was immediately interrupted by Sakura.

"No! Not this excuse!" Sakura said. "Do you and Kakashi-sensei go to the same bookstore and buy the same book on excuses?!"

'And there's the Sakura I know.' Shikamaru thought dryly.

"Wait Sakura, I-I actually want to hear it. He did say I might not believe it…so it sounds interesting." Hinata said. Both girls turned their attention back to him.

Shikamaru took in a deep breath before he recounted the story of how the Feudal lord has a fat wife who owns an evil cat. But he was interrupted by both Hinata and Sakura.

"I know that cat…" Hinata said.

"Been there, done that too." Sakura said.

"Ugh, so now you believe me?" He asked. The two girls laughed at him, sympathetically.

"Sorry we doubted you." Sakura said, which he found strange because she doesn't really apologize.

"What happened to you?" Shikamaru asked.

"What do you mean?" Sakura's automatic response hinted that she didn't want to talk about it.

He wasn't going to push the subject since it wasn't any of his business anyways.

"S-Sakura…you can tell him." Hinata said.

"Um, actually I think I should go." Sakura replied. "Thanks for the talk, Hinata." Sakura then turned to Shikamaru and waved at him as she ran away from the training ground.

"You're very perceptive." Hinata commented, in a thoughtful manner. "Y-You don't really know Sakura, y-yet you could see something was off about her."

"I don't always watch the clouds. I also like to read." He also liked to read people that is. "So what did happen?" He asked.

"T-Team 7 went on a mission. It was supposed to be a C-rank mission…which turned into an A-rank. Sakura…and her team almost died. I feel bad for her, I know she actually wanted to talk to Ino, and not me."

"What can you expect? In this line of work, not everyone makes it back home." Shikamaru replied. "It's good she was exposed to that. Experiences like that are supposed to build character, so I heard. If she wanted a normal life, she should've stayed a civilian." Who was he kidding? He was the one that should've stayed a civilian. It's not like his folks couldn't just try to give him a sibling and have that sibling become a ninja instead of him. Life can be such a drag, but not in suicidal way.

"I-I want to disagree with you, but I can't." Hinata said with a sigh, then turned to face him. "Would you like s-something to eat before we start?" She asked.

He was about to decline the offer, but his stomach sent him a signal that he was really hungry. Thus he accepted, feeling betrayed by his needs.

All throughout their small picnic on the grass, he had watched her suspiciously. Hinata had packed enough food to feed herself and another adult. He wondered if the portion he was eating was supposed to be, in her mind, for Asuma-sensei. But he would never dare to ask her that.

Hinata had admitted that he was perceptive. So why couldn't she see that he knew her secret?

"S-So how was it?" She asked, after they were finished eating lunch. Shikamaru could see the hope in her eyes as she waited for a response.

"Almost as good as my mom's." He said. Shikamaru almost patted himself on the back after he saw his answer had made her genuinely smile.

Shikamaru tried to make one of his rare contribution when he offered to help her clean up. He had been tasked with the disposal of garbage. Upon his return from his trip to the trash bin, he watched Hinata bend slightly by the bench, to unclasp the weapon pouch on her leg, to leave it on the sitting area. She then adjusted her black stocking, which had rolled down earlier on its own; all this ninja stuff and running around had her losing a bit of weight. When she straightened and turned to Shikamaru, she tucked her hair behind her ear and tilted her head in confusion.

He knew what that look is for. So felt like an idiot for openly staring at her. The heat he felt rising on his cheeks was an indicator that he was probably blushing. Ugh.

"I'm leaving my weapons because we're only training hand-to-hand…" She explained.

Shikamaru recalled the memory game they played. And if anything, that game revealed to him that Hinata could be sort of oblivious. He was certain that he could stare at her all he wants and she wouldn't think it means anything. Not to say that he wanted to stare, but he was simply pocketing this information to avoid his cheeks from turning red in the future; in the event he gets caught staring at her again.

It was such a drag. Shikamaru was a man first, ninja second. He was well aware of the changes he was going through both physically and mentally. So he didn't attribute his curiosity to anything other than hormonal changes. In other words, he knew he didn't have a crush on her. Hinata was just…pretty.

He had been groaning all kinds of complains under his breath as they walked to the center of the training ground to spar.

"I wanna be sleeping right now." He said. "But since I want to spend a whole afternoon playing games with Asuma-sensei, I need to show improvement by the end of the week."

"Y-Y-You're spending time with Asuma-sensei!" Hinata's reaction made him smirk. He gave her a smug look, because he knew about her crush, which is why he decided to say that in the first place.

"That's right." Shikamaru said, confidently. "So let's get this over with."

Hinata reached him relatively fast. And struck her palms forward, in successions. Shikamaru had switched from attack to defense, a habit of his, in order to study her before he thought of striking back. She was notably faster, but he had more strength. He managed to hold his defense, only just barely, as his smug expression vanished, replaced by a serious one.

Shikamaru leaped away, and recalled the pattern in her movements. Perhaps it had been too soon on his part to establish a pattern, but he went ahead with his gut and welcomed her with his own attack as she closed the distance once more. She fell on one knee in time to dodge his kick, and swept across his feet with such speed that left him on his back, with the grass tickling the back of his neck. Hinata stood up and lifted one leg, while bringing down her heel to attack him while he was on the ground.

But she paused inches before her attack connected to his stomach, when she noticed he had simply given up and closed his eyes as if to take a nap.

"S-Shikamaru?" She asked. But what she didn't notice was that he had switched his strategy at the last minute. Hinata was obviously more impressive than him, so he wanted to know what she would do against unpredictability. "You can't be giving up! Y-You don't know how lucky you even are…" She mumbled, her mind drifting to the deal Shikamaru had with Asuma-sensei.

To her surprise, he directed a low strike at her legs, powerful enough to throw her out of balance. But she recovered, and by then Shikamaru had already jumped on his feet, and soaked up every strike she threw. Eventually she leaped back as if wondering why he didn't look like he was in pain. Hell, it hurt a lot, but at least he had given the illusion that her punches were weak. Such doubt would surely have her making mistakes. He had gained the upper hand, when she had switched from attack to defense. His blows, though slower, had been more powerful than hers. So Hinata knew she couldn't block forever, because her arms were starting to hurt. Each step he took forward, was two step she stumbled backwards. On his last hit, she lost her balance and fell on her back.

She maneuvered her body in midair so that the fall would be more smoothly and less painful.

"B-Break." She mumbled from the ground, while panting. Upon hearing those magical words, Shikamaru also dropped, out of exhaustion. Their heads were next to each other, facing the sky, even though their bodies were on opposite directions; one of them north while the other was south. "You know," She began, as if she was in the process of choosing her words. "I-I trained hard today…so you didn't catch me at my best…I was already tired by the time you got here…" She explained.

"You should own up to your loss. When you're outside those gates the enemy isn't going to say sorry right before he kills you." Shikamaru said dryly while his eyes followed a passing cloud.

"S-Shikamaru!" The tone of both warning and embarrassment was present in her voice. He closed his eyes and smiled. "And I thought I was a downer…" Hinata commented to herself. When she didn't hear anything from him for the next few minutes, she figured Shikamaru had fallen asleep.

Not being one for staying idled for too long, Hinata stood up and got back to training on her own. Her family's gentle fist still didn't feel as natural as it should. When she explained this to Hanabi one day, her younger sister had only looked at her in confusion. Moments like those made her feel like a failure.

Her soft grunts were louder than the sound of tree rustling, and cicadas. Her volume had increased in time. Shikamaru woke up to the sounds of her struggles, and he turned on his side in time to witness her jump and throw a vicious kick in midair. He groaned and looked away, because he didn't understand why everyone around him tried so hard and seemed so determined as though it was the most natural thing in the world. All he's ever known were his feelings of not wanting to do much in life. So in his point of view, it was everybody else that was insanely fueled with an overabundance of energy. It was just not normal.

Looking at her made him feel tired.

But he was actually tired because today he had put in the extra hour of training, for the first time since he began this genin thing. The grunting and soft sounds of footsteps had stopped. And he turned on his side only to jerk away like a cat that doesn't want to be handled by a human. Hinata was there, crouched down, but still staring down at him never the less. How did she cover that much distance without making a sound?

"I scared you?" She asked, while tilting her head.

"Troublesome." He said while getting up on his feet. "Tomorrow, same time?" He was now the one looking down at her. Even though she had gotten up again; she was still relatively shorter.

"Mhm."

He watched her retrieve her weapon pouch and ninja bag before joining him again. The two exited team 8 training grounds. Once they reached the perimeter, they parted with waves and good byes.

That same day, Asuma, curious as to why Shikamaru had ran off to in such a rush, decided to find out. He visited his father, and asked him to look for his student in his crystal ball, to see what he was up to.

"Hinata Hyuga." Said a male raspy voice as he stood next to the lord third Hokage, his father. "Her gentle fist form is pathetic and sloppy for her age. She's supposed to be seventy-one percent better than this." Asuma commented after they witnessed the spar between Shikamaru and Hinata. "Shikamaru isn't all that good, yet she still lost to him."

"Asuma, we both saw how your student never rushed to fight. He studied her first before making a decision of how to defeat her." Hiruzen, the third Hokage said. "But this spar has brought me most concern over the future of their generation. I suppose I will send word to Hiashi demanding him to explain himself. He's supposed to be raising his daughters to be exceptional. Even if only one has an easier affinity to gentle fist. The village needs every clan's heirs and heiresses to be at their best."

"There you go again, father, trying to get involved." Asuma commented dryly. "It's because of you that I don't get involved in things unless it's necessary."

"You don't think it's necessary?"

"All I'm saying is that is too soon." Asuma said. "And I have a feeling it will only get worse if you tell Hiashi how to raise Hinata, Hokage or not."

Asuma walked to the window, which gave him a good view of the village. He tapped his pack of cigarettes, placed it in his mouth and lit it up. He took a drag and released the smoke while looking towards the direction of Kurenai's apartment. He then turned to his father, while the cigarette was in his hand.

"Don't do anything about the situation yet, father." Asuma warned him before he exited the Hokage's office through a window.

Hiruzen merely shook his head and reached for an ink pen and a scroll. He's the Hokage, damn it. He's not gonna listen to his son that thinks he got life figured out just because he's a full grown adult. The third Hokage began to write a message addressed to none other than Hiashi Hyuga.

He loved his village too much not to get involved.