Gravity
Part Ten
Nara Shikamaru had never been a man particularly suited to the act of comforting, especially when dealing with the opposite sex. In his experience, women were troublesome and unpredictable in their best moods, but when they were upset, it was as if they threw all good sense to the wind and simply reacted. To everything. And never in the right way.
He had a solid foundation to base these conclusions on, and therefore, it followed that he had every right to be dreading the encounter he was about to have with Hyuuga Hinata. Experience had taught him that you could never predict which emotion a troubled woman would react with, even if they were given the same stimulus three times in a row. Ino, for example, had been observed to laugh, scream like a banshee, and cry when presented with similar information in almost identical tones on three different occasions. She had also been known to throw things, and he absently reached up to rub his fingers across a shallow scar on his forehead.
He didn't figure Hinata for the violent type, but again, one never knew. It might have seemed foolish to the untrained mind to compare two female specimens like Ino and Hinata when they were so vastly different, but as an ANBU, Shikamaru had learned never to underestimate your enemy -- not that Hinata was an enemy, per se. He was just going to treat this... 'encounter' as if it were a battle, and he would bear mental arms so that he could handle any barrage of attacks that she might unwittingly throw at him.
Shikamaru firmly believed that even the strongest, most steadfast man could be weakened by the tears of a woman he cared about, even distantly, and so he would prepare himself. He would survive this unscathed. By God, he would be a pillar if it killed him.
Shoulders set, mouth turned down into a grimace, he took a moment to breathe in the last clean breath before battle, and slouched his way through the doors.
The task at hand wasn't one he particularly cared for, and it wouldn't be a lie to say he would rather be anywhere else but on his way to Hinata's garden. Normally he wouldn't have bothered to take time out of his day to visit her unless he had a reason, as social calls were troublesome, but the hospital had all but exiled Hinata a week ago, and he knew as well as the next person that the woman would worry herself into illness if she wasn't informed of even the slightest twitch of her cousin's eyebrow. She seemed to thrive on worrying, a phenomenon that scandalized and even horrified Shikamaru. He wanted to spend as little time in her presence as he could, lest the state of mind be contagious.
In fact, he was highly annoyed with his present situation. He had almost evaded this task entirely thanks to a full day's careful tactical moves and strategic changes of personal routine. He would have been more than happy to leave this sort of thing to Lee or Tenten, who were Neji's former teammates and therefore more responsible for this sort of thing. Shino, even, would have been preferable, as he had come to their aid in the woods the day Neji had been stabbed, and as a comrade of Hinata's, he would have experience in dealing with her. They, along with Sakura who was either a very good person or a very nosy one (and being jaded toward women in general, Shikamaru was inclined to think the latter), had been divvying up the days amongst themselves and making house calls.
He had been content to just drop by the hospital when he wasn't on a mission and periodically assess Neji's state of being himself. After all, they had been on the mission together, and though he knew he wasn't responsible for the wounds Neji had suffered, he knew the other man had taken on a great deal in the battle. He had nearly destroyed himself that day, and it didn't sit well on Shikamaru's conscience to ignore that.
However, he had been by no means willing or eager to volunteer for this particular portion of the dealings surrounded Neji. He wouldn't be here at all if one of the others had been available. Wasn't it just divine that their schedules were all abruptly tangled on the day that the nurses proclaimed Neji would be up and about any time?
Shoving his hands roughly into his pockets, he felt his features arrange themselves into a scowl. Shikamaru had been intending to pass that information on to Lee, who would no doubt bound joyfully down to the Hyuuga compound and inform the entirety of Konoha in his eagerness to be of service. Lee had been busy on a mission with his genin cell, however, and so Shikamaru had sought out Tenten. She seemed the next most likely choice, and was easier to find that Shino, as she spent heinous and likely unhealthy amounts of her day training.
He'd been trekking about for a half an hour in search of her ridiculous bun hair before another of the regulars informed him she had been called off on a mission. By that time of day, he would have normally been lazing about with Chouji, and consequently, he sought Shino while nursing one hell of a snit, which had only festered and grown when that had proven fruitless.
He still had no idea where Shino was. The damn man knew the exact position of every person in the village because of those bugs of his, but you couldn't find him unless he wanted to be found. On a good day, Shikamaru admired that.
This date would never again be a 'good' day. It would be forever tainted with infamy on his calendar.
The last person he could possibly pass the responsibility on to had been Haruno Sakura, and as she was a workaholic with no social life to speak of, he knew where to find her. It was just his luck that the hospital had four new admits on her floor and one of the other med-nins had called in sick. She had quite grumpily and harshly shoved him onto his metaphoric ass in the hallway and snapped that he do it himself.
He swore women were invented to plague man, and she was certainly doing a fine job of it. Reminded him of Ino more and more every time he talked to her.
Scowling deeply, he slouched his way into the garden and squinted against the sunlight. Just one more thing to add to his rapidly growing list of annoyances for the day. The sun would be obnoxiously bright when he was looking for someone.
He was more than a little startled when Hinata all but sprang up out of thin air and accosted him.
"Shikamaru-san. Is Neji..." The word 'awake' was unspoken, but in this instance, implied, Shikamaru imagined. Or perhaps it was 'dead'. Though he certainly hoped Hinata wasn't thinking along those lines.
If she was, God help him. He didn't want to deal with this.
Rolling his eyes to the heavens in a silent plea, he cleared his throat. "No. He's still out."
He could picture her facial expression perfectly in his mind. He didn't need to be looking at her to know she was chewing her bottom lip again, and that her eyes had filled with a bone-deep weariness.
The woman had hardly slept for two weeks, after all. She never complained, but you could tell by the shadows under her eyes. Shikamaru had seen that all too often on a long mission, and he imagined this sort of situation was as emotionally taxing for her as a mission could be mentally.
God give him patience to deal with it.
Lowering his gaze to her face warily, lest he find her crying, he studied her a moment. She seemed calm, and resigned. That was good. If she'd gone into hysterics he didn't know what he would have done. Run, maybe.
She met his gaze with a wobbly smile. "Th-thank you for coming, just the same. You didn't have to."
If only you knew, he thought with a sardonic mental smile. That Haruno woman would have given him no peace if she'd found out he had shirked his duty. It was really less troublesome to be here, especially as it looked like this wasn't going to be as emotionally scarring as he'd expected, than it was to deal with her yelling at him.
He got enough of that from Ino. She was always finding something to throw a fit about. Of course, he'd learned a long time ago to listen to what she said only so that he could repeat it verbatim and then escape her evil clutches.
However, he was being distracted from his mission.
Rolling his shoulders, he reached up and shoved stray hairs behind his ear. A kunai had chopped him a crooked set of bangs in battle, and they were annoying him to no end. Just one more thing, he thought, expression souring.
"Nurses say he'll be up and about soon," Shikamaru stated bluntly, and watched in mild fascination the way her expression underwent several rapid transformations.
"R-really?" She blurted, then seemed to get ahold of herself again, and began to wring her hands. "I wish I could go see him..."
"They all but threw you out," Shikamaru reminded her dryly. Before she could react, he added, "Someone'll come get you when he wakes up, though."
This seemed to bolster her, and she smiled again. "Yes. Thank you. Oh. Oh! Are you going back to the hospital?"
He hadn't been intending to, but she looked hopeful. When had he become so susceptible to females?
Resigned, he said, "I can."
Without waiting another moment, she turned and hurried off, leaving him to stare after her in bemused silence. She wasn't gone lone, and came back clutching a bundle to her chest that was almost wider than she was. His eyebrows arched when she offered it to him, saying a bit breathlessly, "Please give this to the nurses and have them give it to Neji when he wakes."
Shikamaru accepted the package grudgingly and nodded. He was already in this thing, what did one more errand matter?
After this, he was holing himself up in a dark corner and only emerging for food and water, he promised himself.
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It's been a long time since I updated, hasn't it? Sorry to all for the long wait.
It's funny how this chapter decided to be completely from Shikamaru's point of view. I really don't know what came over him. I think he just laid the ground works for my next fic. (scratches chin)
Look for the next chapter very soon. :D
