A/N: Thank you my friends for the reviews. They made me happy. (Nice guy pose Ting)
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Sakura was starting to get curious as they left the village and started racing into the deep woods. "Shino, I thought you said we were going to see Kiba?'
"We are. He likes to sit in the woods were it is quiet."
"Oh, OK."
After a few more minutes of travel Kiba came into view sitting against a tree. Spotting them he stood up. "Sakura thank you for coming. Shino how'd it go?" At this point Sakura was confused; it seemed as if Kiba knew she was coming.
"Good," Shino replied. "How was Hanabi?"
"Cried her eyes out, it was disgusting. Did the Hokage seem convinced?"
"Slightly skeptical but didn't push. It was the best we could hope for. Did she believe you?"
"I think so. Can't tell with the way she was bawling. Truth is if I didn't know what she was capable of I may have believed her myself."
"What on earth are you two talking about?" Sakura finally screamed in frustration.
"You didn't tell her?" Kiba questioned.
"No, I was waiting until we were here so no one could overhear."
"Oh, sorry Sakura I thought he had told you."
"Told me what?"
"We need to ask you a favor." Kiba told her then looked at Shino silently asking him to continue.
"You wouldn't be able to tell anyone, not our friends, not the Hokage, at least not yet." Shino told her.
"How long until I could tell?"
"Maybe two weeks for our friends" Kiba said.
"Longer for the Hokage" Shino continued.
"This is important?" she asked.
"Yes" Shino stated.
"Life and death." Kiba told her.
"Tell me."
"They are alive." When he saw the furrowed brow on Sakura's face Shino decided to elaborate. "Hinata and Neji are alive. Someone tried to kill them but they escaped."
"Oh!" Sakura exclaimed in shock. "Why didn't you tell the Hokage?"
The boys shared a look. "We think it was the Hyuga trying to kill Hinata. Until we have proof we didn't think it would be a good idea to say anything. There is more.' Kiba said then passed the explanation off to Shino with a look.
"Hinata is pregnant." A gasp escaped Sakura. "That is why we need you."
"How far along?"
"Five months" Shino told her.
"Who's the father?"
"I am." It was said with total conviction. If Kiba hadn't known the truth he would believe Shino was the father.
"Why can't we tell the others?"
"We need their reactions at the funeral to be natural. Once that is over we will need their help."
"Ok, take me to her."
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As soon as they walked in Kiba could tell that Hinata had been crying. Shooting Neji a dirty look he walked over and gave her a hug. "You ok?" he whispered in her ear. She nodded her head against his chest. "I can kill him for you." He felt her smile and give him a squeeze. Pulling away from her he lead her to the couch and urged her down before sitting next to her with an arm slung over her shoulder.
Sakura had watched this exchange curiously. Sneaking a glance at Shino she saw him stare at his two teammates but read nothing in his expression. She wondered why Kiba was the one comforting Hinata. The good thing about this was she missed the hurt and longing present on Neji's face as he watched the two.
Sakura decided to get down to business. "So Hinata Shino told me about the baby. He said you are about 5 months along." Hinata nodded her head. "Have you been looked at yet?"
"Not since Tsunade-sama told me I was pregnant." She replied in a soft voice tilting her head into Kiba's chest.
"Tsunade-sama knows?" At Hinata's nod Sakura continued. "Is this why you left Hinata?"
"Yes. I could not face my father."
"He wouldn't approve of you and Shino?"
Stealing a glance at Shino Hinata responded "No." Silently apologizing with her eyes for the lie; this was the moment where the future was decided and the burden was put on Shino to carry.
"Why don't we go in the bedroom and take a look? Do you want Shino to come with us?" As expected Hinata shook her head no, Sakura had not expected the shy girl to want anyone with them.
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Once the girls had left the room Neji turned to Kiba and asked "what happened?"
"I think maybe I should be asking you that question. Why was she crying?" Kiba sneered.
Lowering his voice to a whisper Neji explained. "She was upset because we can no longer be physical. I don't think it had really dawned on her until now."
"And were you kind in your reminder?"
"Probably not, but it had to be done."
"Watch how you do it next time." Kiba warned him.
"Hanabi's reaction?" Shino interjected.
"I don't think she suspects we are on to her. Acted real broken up though, might be hard to get others to believe us."
"The Hokage Shino?" Neji questioned.
"She was suspicious but she accepted my assertions. Wouldn't do for us to get complacent." Neji's reply was a nod.
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Sakura had Hinata lay on the bed. She then brought chakra to her hands and used it to try and detect any physical problems with the small kunoichi. "I never suspected you and Shino were together you were always so infatuated with Naruto. "
Hinata blushed at the other girls probing. Ever since they had come up with this plan she knew she would need a back story. The problem with planning something with men is they used men guidelines for dealing with things. They just assumed you could give the facts and it would be accepted. Hinata knew that their female friends would want the story. "Naruto never noticed me, I gave up awhile ago. Shino, he is so kind, he believes in me, he has always believed in me."
"Yeh, I guess you can't pass up on that kind of support. Surprised you didn't let anyone else know."
"It was no one else's business." Hinata had given Sakura a little in but now let her know that no more questions would be welcome. She knew that when time came to tell the others the pink haired kunoichi would pass on the information.
"Well everything looks good. I'll have to come back and get some blood. Check vitamin levels and what not but physically you seem fine. Try and get plenty of rest. Keep the stress to a minimum though I know that might be hard given the situation. If you feel off in anyway contact me. It doesn't matter what time; you don't feel right you let me know, ok?" Hinata nodded. "Good now let's go talk to the boys and find out who is trying to kill you."
"Well Shino you will be happy to know both mother and child are doing fine." At this Hinata blushed and Shino nodded. "Now do you think you can inform me what is going on?"
After a moment's pause Hinata started "Hanabi found about the pregnancy soon after I did. She helped convince me to leave and found a place for me to stay"
"I came back from a mission to find Hinata-sama gone and was sent out to find her. Which I did after several months." At this Neji gave Hinata a resentful look.
"Hanabi told Shino and me that she had heard from Hinata and asked us to go find her as she did not want her father to know where she was. When we got there we found a smoldering ruin." Kiba told her.
"We spotted someone coming left some sleeping shadow clones and hid. The assassin burned the cottage down around us. Once Shino and Kiba came we took off to regroup. We have no direct proof it was Hanabi but it seems like too much of a coincidence." Neji explained.
"If I'm dead Hanabi gets control of the clan." Hinata contributed.
"So what is the plan and what do you need from me?" Sakura asked.
"We need you to take care of Hinata at the moment. Also if you can find out what will happen to the bodies when they get here we are going to need to convince whoever is doing the autopsy to help us." Neji told her.
"Well that part is easy. I'm doing the autopsy just tell me what you want Tsunade to know."
"Basics, the bodies are Hinata and Neji's; they died of smoke inhalation and burns." Shino told her.
"I can do that. What do we do about Hanabi?"
"I'm going to keep an eye on her until we can bring the others in after the funeral. We'll come up with a more elaborate plan after that." Neji explained.
"Good. Do you need anything else from me now?" They shook their heads no. "Ok I'll get back to the hospital. Hinata I'll come back later today for the blood sample." With that Sakura took off.
"That went well." Kiba said. "Now let's get working on those traps."
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Neji was glad that Hinata's eyes could not see as far as his. He would not wish the knowledge his were currently gaining on anyone. Today was their funeral. The village and the Hyuga's had come to pay their respects. While he felt bad for their friends he was honored by the genuine sorry they where showing at his and Hinata's demise. Unfortunately for Hinata that is where the sorrow ended.
The Hyuga, with the exception of Hanabi, showed calm indifference to Hinata's passing, going through the rituals of mourning with no real emotions. Hanabi was epitome of restrained sorrow; this would make it hard when they tried to get the village to believe them. Beside the few who were close to the rookie nine none of the other ninja seemed overly upset by her passing. Neji felt so bad seeing the reaction for Hinata especially after seeing the grief expressed for him.
Neji had always known that his abilities were respected both in the village and by the other Hyuga what he had not expected was the sorrow at his loss. While the branch members showed distant respect for Hinata true grief was shown to him. Women cried, men bowed their heads and paused for several moments in respect. Even fellow ninja, some he did not even know well, paused for a moment of extended respect. It only served to make Neji feel guilty for the way he had been treating Hinata for the past week. She truly had so little, so few to care for her, and he took one of their number away.
After several hours of ceremony, as befitting members of a prestigious clan like the Hyuga's, the service was over Neji headed back to the cottage to check on Hinata. Shino, Kiba and Sakura were planning on gathering up their friends for a "drink in their honor"; in reality they were going to bring them back to let them in on the plan.
"How did it go Neji?" Hinata asked as soon as he walked through the door.
"Good Hinata."
"Where there many people?"
"Many came to mourn us Hinata, we are truly blessed." Feeling bad for the lie Neji went over and gave her a reassuring hug. Hinata was a little startled at first after spending a week with Neji avoiding her but eventually she relaxed into the hug. "Come Hinata let us wait in the bedroom so we do not scare the others."
After about a half and hour they heard people entering the house. "Why didn't we invite Lee and Tenten? I'm sure they could use some cheering up too." Naruto commented.
"We couldn't Naruto just leave it at that." Sakura told him. Naruto, Ino and Choji found seats. Neji knew from Sakura that Shikamaru had left on a mission and would not be back for a month or two. They decided to hold off on including Sai at the moment. He was out of the village for the next few days so it wasn't an immediate problem but they want to see the other's reactions before bringing in anyone else.
Kiba had gone into the kitchen to get some glasses and sake; he figured the "resurrection" was probably going to require some alcohol. "So guys we actually had another reason for asking you here."
"Huh?" came from Naruto. The others just looked at Kiba with a questioning glance. Unsure how to break the news Kiba turned to Sakura, after seeing the look on her face he sent a pleading look to Shino who just sighed and shook his head.
"They did not perish." He told them.
"What?" Came from Ino. Choji was used to Ino talking for him in situations like this so just stayed quiet. One look at Naruto and it was obvious they were going to need to elaborate.
Sakura finally decided to step in. "Hinata and Neji aren't dead. They are in the bedroom."
'Why on earth would they do that to us, to their families? Everyone was upset. What is wrong with them?" Naruto exclaimed.
"I cried, why would they let us think they were dead if they weren't?" Ino asked.
Choji finally spoke up, "What happened that they needed to play dead?" His question shocked the other two into silence, they had not thought about that.
Hinata and Neji decided to make their presence known while Kiba passed around the sake. Ino downed hers in one gulp and put her glass out for a refill.
"W…we are so sorry," Hinata apologized only briefly meeting their gazes before bowing her head.
Neji put a comforting hand on her shoulder. "The deception was necessary. Someone tried to kill us; we need for them to think us dead. We couldn't let you know before now. We also need your help."
"Sure Neji, we'll give you any help you need." Choji told them. Naruto nodded in agreement.
"Does this have anything to do with the baby?" Ino asked causing the two boys to startle and then stare at Hinata's belly.
"Possibly Ino" Hinata responded with a slight blush to her cheeks.
"Who got Hinata pregnant? He better do right by her or he'll have me to answer to!" Hinata was touched by Naruto's concern.
"It is ok Naruto. You do not need to defend my honor."
"The child is mine Naruto."
"You got Hinata pregnant Shino?"
"Yes Naruto."
"Are you going to get married?"
"No Naruto."
"Why the hell not?"
"Naruto please do not yell at Shino." Hinata asked. "We have discussed this, we can not both lead our clans if we marry. It wouldn't work."
"You shouldn't have made a baby then!" Smack, Sakura hit him on the back of his head.
"Let it go Naruto, it is not your concern. Now," Sakura said turning to include the others, "let's figure out what we are going to do to help find out who tried to kill Neji and Hinata so we can get them back to the land of the living.
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A/N: My grandmother just passed away, between that and Christmas I don't have a lot of time so next chapter will probably be post New Year.