Hinata might have felt cool and confident when she had spoken those last words at Kurenai's, but the reality was not as classy. In truth, she had no idea where to start.
Lying snug under the covers in her bed, Hinata laboriously chewed on her lip as she stared at the ceiling in thought.
The most obvious answer was to go directly to her father or council member and ask. There were several problems to this plan though; Hiashi would ask why, to wish she couldn't honestly answer, the council members –who were generally a crusty bunch anyway- would demand for her to be punished for such arrogance, and most of all she was plainly terrified of asking either of them.
The image of rotting eyes might have fueled that fear. Although technically the heir, Hinata sadly didn't think that they would hesitate in "eliminating" her if dirty secrets were threatened to be surfaced. After all, Hinata cynically mused, she was weak and unworthy to them.
So, she grumpily shifted, very few options were left. Everything had to be done discreetly, if she didn't want to arouse their suspicions. This, of course, left Tsunade out since the brazen Hokage had taken the prisoner and was general incapable of doing anything discreetly or quietly.
Hinata was going to need help, and though it made her fretfully uneasy; she knew two guys who'd help no matter what.
She just hoped she'd keep face around Shino. It'd be no time to show him how affected she was by his promising threat of …well she wasn't even sure.
……………….
Hawk eyes bored into the others as she brought finger tips up to poke against the swollen skin. The gentle touch caused liquefied decay to burst forth from the inflamed lid – receiving a pitiful pain filled groan from its owner.
A few of the masked shadows shifted uneasily when a hand slowly curled into a fist.
"Who allowed this?"
A contagious shiver passed through the toughest shinobi branch at the icy tone.
"….H-hyuuga, mam."
…………………
Shino loved his parents; their support helped him through some of the roughest moments in his life as a shinobi.
Still, despite the fact that they don't show much public affection, they excluded so much love for the other with simple glances that it was almost suffocating.
"Shino, where are you going?"
Glancing at the spot where his parents were, Misao sitting in a low chair while her petite feet were propped up on Shibi's strong thighs, his hands gently rubbing circle on the soles. The bump was barely starting to show through her comfortable dress.
They presented such a peaceful picture, that if Shibi's stance was a little less tense, they would have looked like a normal civilian family.
He almost snorted at "normal". What a joke.
"To meet my team, I'll be home for dinner."
It wasn't completely untrue, he was meeting a teammate. Kiba to be exact.
"Team huh? Sure you aren't sneaking off for a hopefully well concealed lip wrestling session with a certain comrade?"
Shibi's ministrations paused as his eyebrows rose. Per house rule, his dark eyes were visible to express themselves as they looked at his son.
"No, not Kiba?"
Shino quickly left, the sounds of his mother's laughter echoing in his skull.
They definitely weren't normal.
……………………
"AaaaaCHOO!"
The noise resounded off the surrounding shelves, and she quickly brought a hand up to miserable dab at the reddening tip of her nose.
Konoha's library had to be the shabbiest neglected book keeping place in the world!
Smells of musky paper and dusty dank rooms clogged her olfactory as she inched through the ancient crinkled scrolls; squinting in vain at the ridiculously tiny writing in hopes of finding a hint of her family history.
It was a fast becoming shame that here the Byakugan was useless, and when she needed the darn thing too.
Setting down the scroll she was currently pouring over, Hinata straightened from the hunched position with several audible cracks as her spine stretched. Pressing the heel of her hands against her aching lids, she jumped when a voice spoke in front of her.
"Ms. Hyuuga?"
Owlishly blinking at the blurry figure, she fought not to lean forward and narrow her eyes in attempt to see as she answered.
"Y-yes?"
She wasn't quite sure why she felt guilty at being caught reading about her family's history, but couldn't stop the movement of her hands –covering the inelligible writing with her fingers as she peered through the floating dust particles at the young man.
It was always a bit of a shock when she meets or talks to a person who is not a ninja – being so use to them and their casual-but-never-truly-casual way of life. A ninja was always on the alert for death, being as it was literally always lurking around the corner, but a civilian didn't have to worry about assassination.
They were really free just to live their lives as average as possible – and as ignorant as possible. Hinata found it amazing sometimes how the people of Konoha could be so naïve about the political workings of their village, but, as she took in the comfortable nonfighting outfit the tall blonde hair teen wore, she felt a little bit better knowing she was protecting something so…innocent.
"There are two..young…men out front waiting for you"
His tone was apparent that these particular men were lacking in several areas; all that she could intimately describe.
"Oh, thank you."
Feeling vaguely flustered at the amount of papers strewn around her, Hinata was more than grateful to hand over the task of putting them away to the offering librarian – though she was sure it was more out of his fear of her putting things away in the haphazard way she had mentally been planning.
Usually a stickler to organization – she just could not stand musky, dusty, bookshelves.
With that perfect escape, Hinata rushed out with only a bit of embarrassment at her eagerness to get away from the ancient building, she swung the doors wide. Closing her eyes against the bright light, she took a deep gulp of fresh clean air.
"That bad huh?"
Blinking through the haze of going from dark to very light too quickly, Hinata didn't bother turning her head towards the picture group to her left.
Kiba slouched against the crumbling wall – arms crossed in customary pose of relaxed masculinity- faithful sidekick lounging in a sit at his feet. Shino would be standing upright and covered from head to toe a few feet from the other two – in a natural if not casual defense pose. All three made up a good triangle in case anyone decided to attack from any sides.
No, Hinata didn't need to see that, breathing in all the gloriously uncluttered oxygen and snorting out all the dirt from sniffing dead parchment was much nicer.
She refused to admit that it was always a good way of not becoming distracted by a certain man's presence, no, Hinata needed to clear her head of that and focus on the problem at hand. Time enough later to fall apart and let herself be all mushy and girly.
"So, what did ya need us for 'Nata?"
Shaking final thoughts of being a complete girl in a secluded area with Shino away, Hinata took another breathe – this time in preparation of what she needed to explain.
"I need your guy's help, but…I can't explain here."
They each stiffened at the seriousness in her quiet tone, noting the way her perceptive eyes darted around the area in a manner that marked that what she was going to divulge to them was dangerous and important.
It didn't take much for Shino to guess what it was about; after all, despite her family affairs Hinata was fiercely loyal to Hanabi and Neji.
Nodding once, he made a casual gesture towards the north; a move that they all knew meant the location of a training ground that was particularly open. An airy field that didn't have many trees around it thanks to the help of Tsunade's training with Sakura. Where plenty of trees once were rooted, there were now numerous craters that were shallow enough to see in but deep enough to be useful in some training.
Good place for not being overheard.
………………………………
A/N: It was longer but so humorous reasons I cut it off here.
Enjoy.