Shikamaru's POV
My eyes fluttered open to see the cloudy sky. I gave out a stretch that felt like heaven to me. A yawn escaped my mouth once I noticed I was leaning against a tree. I rubbed my eyes then focused on the scenery in front of me. Hinata's cousin, Neji, was on the grass, a couple of feet away from Yami.
I let out a sigh and ran my hand through my hair and prepped myself up to wake up. I stayed sitting down by the tree and pinched the bridge of my nose while thinking.
So from what I can tell, it's probably around five or six o'clock. Kiba and Hinata should probably be still on their date. If Neji happened to wake up, the first thing he's going to do is stalk Kiba now that he isn't tired as hell from our fight. If I wake up Yami to fight him, he might slip past us both and get to Kiba before we even realize he's gone. But if I wake Yami up and then leave, then Neji might be able to defeat both of us individually. So the only thing that would work is… a distraction.
I got up in a crouching position and rubbed the back of my neck. Man, why the hell did Neji have to be so difficult? How troublesome.
I got up and quietly walked towards Yami. I nudged her sternly enough to wake her and thanked Kami that she didn't wake up loudly. When she opened her eyes, I looked at Neji to make sure that the Hyuuga didn't wake up.
I put my pointer finger to my lips and signaled Yami to be silent as I tugged her away from Neji. She slowly got up then followed me without a fight. Once we got to a far away distance, I told Yami the plan.
"Alright, so we all know that Neji is a smart bastard. Here's what we're gonna have to do," I started off.
"Wait, wait," she interrupted me. I raised my eyebrow at her in question. "We fell asleep with Neji," she giggled. "Hell froze over, didn't it?"
"At least you didn't wake up to him spooning you," I remarked with a smirk. She threw me a face of disgust and noticeably shivered.
"Going back to the plan, before I was oh so rudely interrupted," I mentioned with a glare. "We're going to have to find someone who's really good at doing transformation jutsus and we're going to have to find them fast. We'll have them make a decoy Hinata and a decoy Kiba. They'll be close to Neji so hopefully, Neji will notice you and think you're covering for Kiba. He'll be very stealthy and probably attack Kiba. Decoy Kiba will poof because he's a fake and Neji will be…pretty pissed if I'm correct," I continued.
Yami looked at me a little baffled which made me feel a bit uncomfortable. "What?" I had to question her.
"If you're correct?" she asked. "You're such a strategic nerd. I seriously doubt you're wrong, oh captain, my captain."
"Aren't you a higher rank than me, Miss Jonin?" I said, slightly pushing her buttons. She brushed off my sarcastic comment like I knew she would. I'm so glad she's not a overly serious person or else she probably wouldn't be able to stand my sarcasm sometimes.
"So if Neji is going to be pretty pissed… it's safe to assume that he's going to use his eye technique to find Hinata, right?" she assumed.
"Correct. He's going to use the Byakugan. The Byakugan allows him to see just about in a 360 degree x-ray vision that shows him chakra networks. So he will no doubt find Hinata," I explained. "So who's good at performing transformation jutsus?"
"Well, I don't know. I'm pretty decent at it, but if I use it, Neji might definitely know it's me. Can't the Byakugan see right through it?" She guessed.
She was right. From my calculations, he'll use the Byakugan after he finds out that the 'couple' were transformation jutsus… but there's no reason as to why he wouldn't use it before. So Yami needs to not use it or else he'll know right away what she's doing.
A sudden thought came to mind which caused me to frown.
"What is it?" she asked, noticing my expression.
"I know who's good at the transformation jutsu…" I trailed off. It was Naruto. Naruto was pretty skilled at it from what I can remember, but I don't know how Yami would handle it.
"Naruto's good at it…" I softly suggested, just waiting to see her reaction.
She looked at me blankly as if it caught her off guard. She blinked once or twice and said, "So lets find him."
"Are you okay with that?" I asked. I knew it bothered her on some level, but she wouldn't let me see it.
"Yeah, I'm totally fine," she tried to reassure me. I frowned, knowing she was lying to me on some level, but if she's not crying right now, so I guess she can handle it… I think.
"Man, Kiba better appreciate this," I mumbled to myself, but Yami heard me and smiled.
"Let's go before the Hyuuga wakes up. You got your cell on you?" she asked. I nodded my head in response while subconsciously clutching my phone to make sure it was there. "Let's go show off our skills," she smiled at me.
"Where would Kiba go?" I asked her. Surely she spoke of this with Kiba when she was dressing him up.
"Oh. Probably that new restaurant, Japo," she suggested.
"Oh… well that's not very far," I said, feeling somewhat disappointed and taken by surprise. "Alright. Split," I ordered then separated our ways.
The restaurant was only a couple blocks down from the park. It wasn't hard at all to find Kiba and Hinata. From what I could tell, Kiba was making a fool of himself but Hinata didn't seem to mind.
Yami's POV
I passed by Neji to find that he was still sleeping, but that wouldn't last too long. My main objective was to find Naruto and keep an eye on Neji… how was I supposed to do that?
I walked away far enough to keep Neji in my view and wandered around frantically. I paced back and forth until someone tapped my shoulder. I looked over my shoulder and saw… Sakura. That instant sour feeling came back in my heart, but I shrugged it off with a smile. "Oh. Hi, Sakura," I greeted.
She looked at me in wonder and asked, "Are you okay? You've been pacing for a while now."
"Oh, my bad," I apologized while rubbing the back of my neck. "I'm just doing a friend a favor…" I trailed off when a sudden thought came to my head. "Sakura… you know where Naruto is, right?"
She looked a little bit taken aback but then cutely nodded. "Is he far?" I inquired. She shook her head 'no'. She paused and then concentrated a bit. "He might actually be at Ichiraku's Ramen Bar since it's like, his favorite place to eat at," she giggled with a smile. I slapped myself in head and said, "Why didn't I think of that!"
She smiled at me then her face changed to one of confusion. "Do you need him?"
I frowned then thought to myself, 'More than you think…' "Yeah. I need his help on something. Do you think you could tell him to meet me by the playground?" I asked her. It felt really awkward asking her that, but she didn't seem to mind at all.
"Oh, okay," she smiled at me. Jeez, she's pretty nice these days, isn't she? Now I feel bad about liking her boyfriend… at least I don't act on it. Thank Kami.
"Well, good luck on helping out your friend," she said. As she walked away, I stared at her disappearing figure. At first I didn't want to interfere in their relationship because of Naruto's happiness… but now Sakura's kindness is part of it too. Who knew she would change this much over the years.
I hated how I couldn't change how I felt…
I refocused on my original subject and gazed over Neji's figure to see that he was still asleep. I pulled out my phone and texted Shikamaru, "He's still asleep. How're things over there?"
I waited for a moment and received his reply, "Kiba's being a total clumsy idiot but Hinata doesn't mind" That comment made me smile. I looked at Neji and noticed he was moving a little bit. He probably would be waking up soon.
I looked behind me and saw Naruto walking towards my way. His blond hair stuck out like a sore thumb. He was wearing his ninja outfit and looked somewhat swollen. "Hey, Yami," he somewhat shouted with a grin. "I just finished my seventh bowl of Ramen. It was delicious! Choji is a great cook."
I smiled when I looked into his blue eyes. They felt very comfortable to me. "So Shikamaru tells me you're really good at transformation jutsus. Well, are you?" I asked.
He looked at me a little lost but then gave me a bright smile right after. "Heck yeah!"
"Can you make a Kiba and Hinata out of those two rocks?" I asked.
Now he really looked at me confused then performed hand seals. Then poof. There were replicas of Kiba and Hinata right in front of us. "Could you make them look like they're dating too? And please don't make Kiba look like a jerk to Hinata," I pleaded.
He did it effortlessly then looked at me a little baffled. "So…why am I doing this?"
"Oh, Kiba and Hinata are on a date. And Neji is so against Hinata dating that he's about to murder Kiba. But Kiba is really a good guy and actually likes Hinata, so Shikamaru and I are tricking Neji to buy Kiba some time," I roughly explained.
He looked at me with a lost expression and then mindlessly nodded to everything I said. "Okay. It kinda makes sense…" he muttered.
I looked over my shoulder and saw that Neji had already sat up and was rubbing his head. My eyes widened in fear. "Oh, shoot! Come on and make 'em look cute!" I harshly whispered while nudging him away.
"I gotta look like I'm by myself and watching over them. Thanks a bunch!" I said, pushing him away.
After awkwardly pushing Naruto away, I went up to go hide above a tree branch. I made sure that Neji was able to catch a glimpse of me if he would want to look for me or Shikamaru…which he would. Naruto was still looking at me confused, so I kept having to mouth him the word 'date'. Eventually, he made the replicas looking like they were legitimately dating…
But they were so intimate looking. Kiba was all over Hinata and Hinata was just accepting it as if they've been dating for years. I looked at Naruto with a stern look and mouthed him to 'tone it down'. He looked at me, still baffled, then made them look…somewhat proper.
Thank every and all gods or god because Neji missed their overly intimate moment. I looked from the corner of my eye and saw that Neji had seen me… and then he disappeared from my site… like Shikamaru predicted. In less than a second, Neji came out of nowhere and literally tackled Kiba to the floor!
"Get your hands off of her!" he shouted to a… rock? Yup. The transformation jutsu ended, and because of Neji's surprise attack, Naruto almost peed himself from fear, thus dismissing the transformation jutsu that made the Hinata replica.
"Gyah!" yelled Naruto in fear as he was clutching his chest.
Neji was so in shock that he just stood there and stared at the two rocks. He didn't even look at me or even the loud Naruto. He just simply stared at the rocks. He started clenching his fist so tightly that it started to tremble. Then his face slowly started getting darker tints of red. He took a sharp look at me and sent me a furious glare.
If Neji wasn't the silent but deadly type, right now he would be breaking a thousand year old tree in half in less than a minute. He was down right terrifying right now. I pulled out my phone and started texting Shikamaru with speed, "Distraction terminated. Defend now"
When I looked up, Neji was gone but had thankfully gone the opposite way of Japo… but it wouldn't take him too long to find him…not with ninja speed mixed with rage.
Wait… wasn't he supposed to use his Byakugan? The idiot will probably use it when he calms down a little bit and starts thinking. Which should give me…what? Two minutes extra till I fight off a ninja on the verge of killing my best friend? Nice.
I hopped off my branch and jogged to Naruto, who was still trying to catch his breath. "You okay there, Naru-chan?" I asked with a chuckled. My heart skipped then I realized what I called him and immediately wished I took it back.
He looked up at me and sincerely smiled at me. "You haven't called me that in… four years."
Wow… his blue eyes seemed bluer than ever in that moment. I teared up a little bit, feeling all those four years of regret weighing down my heart.
"Sorry I dragged you into this," I apologized. I really didn't want Neji to be mad at him too, especially since he didn't do anything. He waved off my apology and gave me a hug.
The hug shocked me since it was unexpected. He nuzzled into the crook of my neck and held me tighter. My heart pounded as hard as a hammer and as fast as a rabbit. He swung me lightly from side to side while he hugged me and chuckled, "Man…we used to hug like this all the time. Feels good."
My heart ached. We did used to hug like this, didn't we? Back then when I was oblivious to how I felt for him… this used to be a best friend hug, but now it's just a painful one that leaves me lingering.
I gave off a pretty pathetic laugh and slightly pushed him away. I couldn't meet his gaze because this hurt too much. "Thanks for helping, Naruto," I smiled, meeting his gaze. He looked a little hurt, but mostly confused. His face changed immediately to a smile when he said, "No problem!"
"I owe you one," I smiled. "But now I gotta go save Kiba. Peace out," I gave him a wave. My happy expression slightly died off when I took one last look of him. Starting from his beautiful blond hair, going to his drowning blue eyes, to his amazing smile and strong body, and ending at his neck… he was still wearing my necklace. It was an odd blend of silver and gold and the symbol of my clan hung loosely off of it.
That was the last thing I gave to him before I left and he still wore it to this day.
Tears flooded my eyes when I finally turned away from him. He then called out, "Since you owe me, hang out with me tomorrow!"
I gave him a thumbs up, unable to look back at him. I let the tears flow freely down my cheeks as I started running and hopping towards Japo. I looked up and searched for Shikamaru as I was sniffling. When I found him, tears started falling like waterfalls as I ran towards him. He was leaning against a tree, not really trying to hide himself. He was paying deep attention to Kiba and Shikamaru, but when he heard my footsteps, his concentration on them died and was focused on me.
I ran towards him and gave him a nearly crushing hug as I tried not to sob. "He's still wearing it!" I complained to him with sniffling interrupting each word I managed to say.
"What is he wearing?" Shikamaru asked, feeling oh so confused. "Who's he?" he added on.
"Naruto… is still...wearing…my necklace….the one I gave him… when I left," I cried. My god I felt weak. But that just made it so much worst for me. That means he never forgot me. That he probably wore it every day. That I truly was a horrible friend and left him.
Shikamaru stood still for a minute, then tightened his arms around me, as if to make me feel more secure. It helped…a lot. Man, I just hated feeling like an emotional wreck. From him being my oldest best friend, I've realized I'm so attached to him… Unrequited love fucking stinks!
All of a sudden, Shikamaru got intensely still. "He found him."
He let go of me and threw me an apologetic glance. The sun was setting, emitting quite a bit of shadows to Shikamaru's advantage. In my saddened state, I looked all around me and noticed the shadows… it's been a while since I experimented with either of my elements. Shadow and Fire.
I inhaled through my nose and exhaled through my mouth to calm myself. I slowly started calming myself. I performed a series of hand seals and called out, "Shadow puppets no jutsu."
This technique…took an awful lot of chakra, but I didn't care at the moment. I just wanted to completely focus on a battle… just honestly take off all of my attention from my feelings. My weak feelings.
"Neji…"
He came up out of nowhere, looking ready for a battle. "I know she's in there…"
"I dare you… to get passed me," I whispered… I was really just looking for a fight.
Shikamaru's POV
I could tell as soon as she performed those hand seals that she was about to get serious… I gotta find a way to keep her calmed down though. If she gets mad, then she'll pass out from the Hokage's seal.
"You're using way too much chakra… you'll pass out in no time," gloated the Hyuuga who was still activating on his Byakugan.
Damnit! She just passed out yesterday from using too much chakra, so the Jyu-sanbi can't give her any more of its chakra if she uses too much of her own!
"Don't worry… I'll make it quick…" she mumbled with a smirk.
… She seemed scarily sadistic… Oh, man. She was going to take out her frustration on Neji in a scary way… Tsume-sensei never let her experiment with her elemental side because he wanted her to focus on self learning and being able to understand and control the Jyu-sanbi.
Thank Kami Neji was also a Jonin… I didn't have to worry so much about his life.
But now I have to worry about her own health, because she never practiced this jutsu…
She did a claw motion towards the shadows on the floor and… lifted the shadows from the floor?
She lifted one…two….three shadows off the floor and made them real. I assumed that chakra flowed right into them, which was giving Neji an advantage, no doubt. She moved her fingers and actually shaped the shadows into…wolves?
At the speed of light, the shadow wolves were already pouncing on Neji. Neji's eyes even opened in shock at the speed, but he barely dodged them with a jump. He landed gracefully on his feet and threw kunais at the shadow figures but I just went thru them as if they weren't solid at all.
One thing I managed to notice right away though was when the shadows were hit, she would freeze. I think it probably due to the chakra flow, but I knew if it had anything to do with chakras that Neji would notice it in a heartbeat.
And speak of the devil, Neji's eyebrows were furrowed together as if he was in deep thought. I had to stop this before he wrecked her.
"YAMI!" I yelled. She didn't move her head towards me, she just shifted her eyes towards my direction.
"Stop it. Right. Now," I demanded her. She slightly glared at me, leaving her eyes slightly opened. I performed hand seals and got my shadows to reach out to hers. "Shadow Imitation Jutsu."
She tried to jump away, but thank goodness it was late, so she couldn't flee from the shadows because they surrounded her. She growled at me once I caught her. I glared at her. She actually growled at me? The nerve…
I moved away backwards and she was forced to do the same. Neji, however, didn't really understand the program since he deactivated his Byakugan. He attacked Yami while she was defenseless. She doubled over in pain.
"Would you stop! I got her under control!" I screamed at him.
"GET OUT OF MY WAY THEN!" He countered right back.
"What the f-!" Yami started.
I heard the door slide open, followed my two sets of footsteps rushing towards us.
"Hinata, what's wrong?" I heard Kiba said from afar.
"Neji!" she yelled… well. She didn't really yell since her tone was still high pitched and soft.
Neji instantly stopped what he was doing and stared at Hinata. His stare instantly turned into a glare as soon as he saw Kiba behind her, who looked frightened of him. He never took off his gaze off of Kiba. His glare got intense as he said, "Hinata. Go. Home. Now."
She teared up as her breathing quickened. "How dare you ruin this night for me…" she whispered. "For once, I'm actually going out and making my own decisions!" She raised her voice.
Although Hinata wasn't really yelling, she never ever raised her voice before. Even so, her voice still sounded soft and gentle yet scary.
Kiba's POV
I wished I could try calming Hinata down, but even as she's scolding Neji, he never took his eyes off of me. I was actually extremely scared.
"Neji! For once just look at me and listen to the words I'm saying," she demanded. He instantly stopped staring at me. I felt a huge weight lift off my shoulders…but I was still really worried about Hinata. Her angry expression quickly crumbled to one of heartbreak.
"Ne-Neji… you and fa-father never let me do anything… and I ne-never do anything wrong… for once in your life just tr-trust me…" she begged with tears were streaming down her face… it saddened me extremely.
She covered her face with her hands and started sobbing. I neared her and pulled her close to me. I could feel Neji's glare intensify at my action, but I didn't care. I hugged her and smoothed her hair down. "It's okay, Hinata. It's okay…"
"I think it's best for you to go now. We'll bring Hinata home safely shortly," hinted Shikamaru with a stern expression on his face.
Neji held a pained and angry expression as he turned around. He did a double take to look at Hinata and walked away hesitantly. I felt her little arms wrap around my waist as she buried her face in my chest. I let out a sigh and rocked her side to side to comfort her. "It'll be okay, Hina-chan…"
I looked to my side and noticed that Shikamaru looked pretty angry. "Start walking her home, Kiba. We'll be right behind you," he demanded.
I looked from him to Yami and noticed the tension between them both. I gave Shikamaru a nod and separated from Hinata to hold her hands. I flashed her a smile and led her away from the drama. She looked at me very innocently through her tears and gifted me with a smile.
"Let's go, Hinata…"
We took a silent walk to her mansion of a house. The silence was comfortable and throughout that whole time, we held hands. My heart started beating slowly and fast at the same time, but I didn't mind whatsoever. I smile kept trying to come up, but I tried to hide it from her, feeling embarrassed at how she could make me feel.
Once we got to the front of her home, she stopped and turned around facing me. "Th-thank you, Kiba… a lot."
She got on her tippy-toes and got her face really close to mine. My heart pounded harder and harder the closer she got to me. Then as quick as a heart beat…she kissed me on the cheek.
She pulled back and I noticed how red her face had gotten. "Thanks again…" she trailed off as she walked away from me. She slowly walked away backwards from me into her house as she kept her eye contact with me. She gave me an embarrassed smile before going into her house. I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding and let out the biggest smile I could muster.
"YES!" I whispered to myself.
Shikamaru's POV
As soon as Hinata and Kiba left our site, I clenched my fist. Yami was still on the floor panting and trying to catch her breath. She was clenching her sides and she clumsily got up. "Man, he packed in quite a punch…" she said out loud.
She looked at me and noticed my expression. She stopped looking pained and suddenly looked confused.
"What's wron-" she started.
"Don't ask me what's wrong…" I interrupted her. She looked a little taken back, but a look of worry blanketed her.
"Yami… don't growl at me. I'm your friend. I'm one of your best friends," I snapped at her. "I'm not some kid who'll forget about you in a couple of years and I'm not a guy who'll stop being your friend after a fight. Remember that."
She looked down onto the floor in shame and apologized to me. I was so irked, I didn't really listen to her.
I walked off. I generally don't like to snap at people because it's so bothersome, but I had a line and she nearly crossed it.
Yami's POV…I forgot how good of a friend he was to me…
"I'm sorry, Shikamaru," I whispered. I needed to treat him better and I knew that. I rubbed the back of my neck and felt so crappy about how I treated him.
"Yami, you okay?" asked a certain blond.
I became alert and looked around for him and found Naruto. My heart skipped… again.
"What are you doing here?" I asked, purely confused as to why he was here when we separated ways not too long ago.
"I still live in the same apartment and it's over there," he mentioned as he pointed behind me.
"Oh…" I dumbly said, not really knowing what else to say. It never occurred to me that he still lived in the same house. I almost completely forgot that we were neighbors too four years ago.
There was a silence between that slowly grew awkward as I tried to find words to say. My hand automatically went behind my neck and started rubbing it out of pure nervous habit.
"So are we hanging out tomorrow?" he asked.
"If you're not busy…" I lamely said as an excuse. "With our background? Of course, I'm not busy! I'll always make room for an old friend!" he replied as cheery as ever.
His smile somewhat faded as he stared at me. I started getting self conscious. Was there something on my face? Did I mumble something? Did I have a booger in my nose or something?
It honestly took nearly all of my willpower not to touch my face to reassure something in my nervous state.
"Was it worth it to leave…?" he asked, as if that particular question had plagued him for years…and it probably did.
I looked at him and truly pondered… was it worth it?
If I didn't go to train with Tsume, I would've hurt him if I lost control of my emotions. When I went to go train, I probably lost Naruto as my best friend… but at least I didn't try to kill him by accident in a state of pure rage.
"In the long shot it was," I answered as I shot him a sad smile.
"Oh…" he responded with a frown still on his face. Then a smile slowly grew back. "As long as you think it was the right choice, then it's fine by me."
I looked at him with such sad eyes. "Did I lose my chance with you?"
"What?" he asked, looking completely confuse.
Oh, no. What the hell did I just say. "Uh," I stuttered, not knowing what to say.
"Man, I'm getting really tired. Gotta go before Kiba starts worrying about me," I said as an excuse as I shot him a lame, nervous smile.
"Uh…sure. Okay," he said, confused as ever.
"Bye!" I waved him off as I basically fled away from him. As soon as I turned away from him, my face reddened from blushing. What. The. Hell. I just accidentally admitted my love to my oldest friend without even noticing it! What the hell was I thinking?
Naruto's POV
…I heard what she said. But what the hell?
What a completely random question…
…In what sense did she mean it?
"Did I lose my chance with you?"….
… What?