Sand Knight
Chapter Three : Almost a Friendship
Disclaimers: Yeah, yeah, not mine. Well, the rave reviews have been POURING IN!
Gaara: She means the pleasantly surprised reviews have been trickling in.
Starr: Yeah, yeah, whatever. Anyways, on with chapter three. As I said before, this starts in Hinata's flashback from the last chapter. Yeah, yeah, I know what you're thinking.
You, the Reader: Why's she telling me this again? Does she think I'm stupid?
Starr: Well, no, not you personally. But there are some people who just don't seem to get it...or their computers are so slow that they forget during the changing of the screen when they press the handy Next Chapter button. This way, if anyone says...
Anyone: I don't get it.
Starr: ...I can just point them back here. Aren't I nice?
Current Song : The Wind by Bassic
"THIS SUCKS!"
Shino winced as he watched Kiba kick over a metal bucket, causing a loud crash and directing most of the attention to him. The insect trainer grabbed the Almost-A-Dog by the scruff of his neck and hauled him off, a stress mark forming on his temple.
"I know you don't like it. Neither do I. But causing a scene will not aid us any."
They had been searching for Hinata for two weeks, and for what? Nothing. Neji had been VERY unhelpful in his suggestion that she had probably gotten kidnapped and died, which had changed Kiba, Naruto, Sakura, Lee, and Tenten's objective from Find the Missing Ninja to Find and Kill the Kidnapper.
"We have to get back to training," Shino added, noting that when Kiba growled, he sounded a lot like Akamaru. "Don't give me that."
"It still sucks," the boy with the painted face said, crossing his arms over his chest. "Dammit..."
Kurenai stared down into her drink, a blank expression on her face.
"Oi, oi, shouldn't you be training Kiba and Shino or something?" Kakashi asked, more than a little drunk. Kurenai rolled her eyes – it was shameful, seeing the other three drunk in the middle of the day. Of course, Gai was acting the same as normal – it was physically impossible for him to act dumber. Asuma was, to her pleasant surprise, rather subdued, humming a little off-key tune to himself.
"I could ask the same of you," the red eyed woman said, taking a sip of her iced tea. Really, she had nothing against drinking, but that much at two in the afternoon?
She felt like drinking, of course. Hinata had been missing for two weeks, and Hiashi wasn't doing anything. She even thought...the Hyuuga might actually be glad about his oldest daughter's disappearance. Hanabi seemed a lot more smug as well...and Neji was acting slightly worried. She wondered...had something happened in the Hyuuga household?
The woman shook her head and closed her eyes. For one thing, she was sure that, if anything had happened, it was nothing that would cause harm to Hinata. For another thing, it was none of her business what their family decided to do. But it bothered her that, of all people, Hyuuga Neji was worried about something.
She supposed she could always ask Gai about it...and if he didn't know, the simple question would spark his curiosity enough to ask Neji about it. Not that there was a guarantee of Neji saying what it was, either. He was very touchy on family matters...though, of course, it wasn't without reason.
She leaned back on her stool, sipping her iced tea again. Whatever happened would happen. She was sure Hinata would return soon, anyway.
He should probably tell someone. Then again, watching them run around pointlessly was vastly entertaining.
Neji stretched his arms over his head from where he sat on the edge of his bed. He had been sitting still and pondering for far too long.
He knew that they were all severely worried, but if Hinata had wanted them to know, she would have told them. That was just her nature. But he didn't understand what the purpose of her disappearance was.
She wasn't really one to act rashly...not usually, anyway. He had been monitoring her for a while as per Kurenai's request using his Byakugan, and it seemed that her self-esteem was still getting lower.
Apparently, she was still screwing up on the missions, and if they failed, she took all of the responsibility no matter what Kiba had been doing. He had also monitored her lone practice sessions that she would carry out far too long for her own good.
He knew she had never really recovered from her heart problems. He also knew that Hiashi had demanded it, and threatened the girl with her life should she ever tell anyone outside the family about it. He knew why, too – Hiashi had wanted Hanabi to become the heiress for years, and if Hinata died, it was the perfect excuse.
Though he knew it was his fault, he hadn't really felt much sympathy towards her. During her training with her team, she always stopped right before she hit her heart's collapse point. Over the years, it was as though she knew exactly how much she could handle and for how long.
But she always pushed herself far too hard when she was training alone, and was never capable of doing much the following day. He assumed that was the reason their missions probably failed half the time.
But now he was worried. He was really worried. The previous night, the Hyuuga main house had held a combined mourning and celebration banquet, which the young Hyuuga had seen as a very detestable act. It was both to 'mourn' the loss of Hinata, whom they claimed dead only two weeks after her disappearance, and to celebrate Hanabi's promotion to heiress.
It was nights like that which reminded him how disgusting his family truly was, and reinforced his pleasure at not being a member of the main house.
Neji was confused. He didn't know why he suddenly cared about what happened to Hinata...but he did.
He also trusted her. If running away was what she deemed necessary, then that's what he would let her do. There was no telling how far she had gone, even with a Byakugan user on their side, and now that she had been declared dead, they couldn't even launch an official search party.
And if she did come back, it wouldn't change her demotion from heiress. He hoped it wouldn't hurt her, though he couldn't see why it would. It also kicked her into the branch family until she was able to get married.
Neji sighed and stood up, cracking his knuckles and walking outside to see the latest development of Find and Kill the Kidnapper.
"Again! And faster this time!"
"Hai!" Little hyperactive balls of sand seemed to fly everywhere with that one word. Hinata moved swiftly, hitting or kicking each one as it got near her. When they were hit cleanly, they fell into little sand piles at her feet.
She had to admit – the little balls of sand were pretty cute. Temari had called them sand spirits, which the Kazekage kept for training purposes. It was wonderful target practice as well. If they crashed into her, they disappeared, but they left a nasty red mark as well.
She knew she had good chakra control – better than most of the others her age, at least – but that wasn't what she was wanting. Chakra control meant nothing if you didn't have the strength to back it up. Well, except for when she was really mad and got a good Gentle Fist hit on Kiba or Shino.
She supposed she wasn't really weak, per se. She knew she had grown considerably since she was twelve...but compared to her friends, her skills were standing still.
And Temari was an even tougher instructor than Neji had ever been. It was a pretty grueling training regimen, but she knew that she was increasing both her strength and her speed at the same time.
The only thing that really bothered her was that she hadn't seen Gaara at all. Apparently, he had left on a trip the day her leg had fully healed, and he still hadn't come back yet. She wanted to thank the sand nin, but it seemed that she was going to just have to wait a while before that time came along.
When she began to feel that she was close to coughing up blood again, she fell over and groaned. Temari immediately stopped the sand spirits and laughed quietly.
"That's enough for today," the blonde said with a smile, extending a hand to help Hinata up. "Come, we'll get food."
Hinata smiled gently and nodded, taking her hand and hauling herself to her feet.
As they walked towards the dining hall, Temari glanced down at the younger girl. She had told her that there was a point at which she had to stop training for the day, but she didn't say why. And the blonde was so used to not asking Gaara what was wrong that she didn't pry.
She figured that either the girl would tell her, or she would find out on accident. Either way, she was going to know.
"Took you long enough to come back."
Gaara glared over at Kankurou as he walked into his room. "Did you just stay here the entire time I was gone?"
Not like either of them expected much of a greeting from the other. Ah, brotherly love.
"Nah, I just knew you'd be back soon," the puppeteer said with a shrug. "Why'd you go to Water Country, anyway? You didn't have any business in Mizugakure, I know you didn't."
"None of your business," Gaara muttered distractedly, pulling the gourd off his back so he could take off the cloak he was wearing.
"If you were running away from Hinata..."
"Now why would I do something like that?" the redhead snapped, not bothering to look back.
"Yeah, I figured that was it. Anyways," he pressed on, ignoring the younger male's growl, "if that's what you were doing, you weren't gone long enough. Temari's acting like the girl's her long lost sister, and I think you'd have to kill her to get Hinata to leave. She's training here."
Gaara muttered something indistinguishable and twitched, causing Kankurou to smirk. He had hit the nail on the head – Gaara hadn't wanted to explain why he had saved her, or listen to any expressions of gratitude, so he had left before Hinata was able to move around easily.
Yet, according to Temari, the Hyuuga girl wasn't going to leave until she got a chance to thank Gaara. Though, why anyone would wait two weeks just to talk to that brat was beyond him.
"I'll tell Temari you're back. Ja ne," he said with a wave, headed out the door.
As soon as he heard it shut, Gaara groaned and hung his head. Did this mean...he was going to have to be...nice? Feh, he didn't know how. He didn't want her to thank him, just go back to Konohagakure. And he didn't want to explain why he had done it because he still didn't know why himself.
'Gah, it's hurting my brain thinking about it.'
Gaarablinked several hours lateras he heard a gentle knocking on his door, slowly looking up from the book he was reading merely to pass the time.
Gentle knocking wasn't something he was used to. The only three stupid enough to disturb him were Kankurou, Temari, and Baki, and they pounded so hard he was always afraid they would break down the door.
"Hai?" he called with his usual level of perkiness. If it was one of those three, and they were knocking like that, they probably had news that was going to piss him off.
He quirked an eyebrow as the door tentatively opened, Hinata slowly sticking her head in. "A-anou...Gaara-san...?"
Yeah. He had figured this was coming.
"Hai, Hyuuga-san?" he asked quietly as he closed his book and stood up.
"Well..." she said, looking down at the floor and playing with her fingers again. Yeah, that was officially a habit that annoyed him. "I just...wanted to thank you...for saving me..." she said quietly, trying not to stammer again.
"Don't worry about it," the male said with a shrug, shoving his hands into his pockets. He was waiting for the next question – why did you do it?
Instead, she merely giggled.
The sand nin blinked at her, a sweatdrop forming on the back of his head. How was 'don't worry about it' funny?
"Nani?" he asked quietly, trying to keep the curiosity out of his voice and not doing too good of a job.
"Well...that's...just what Temari-chan says whenever I thank her...so does Kankurou-san. I guess that's how your family says 'you're welcome', ne?" she said, tilting her head up to smile at him, one of the ultra-cute smiles she didn't know was ultra-cute.
However, Gaara noticed it, and it both knocked him off his mental balance and triggered a feeling in him he had never felt before.
Failing to come up with a smart remark, he just shrugged and looked over to the side. "Yeah, I guess."
"I think it's sweet."
"Sweet?" he repeated blandly, looking back at her. She just smiled wider and nodded.
"Hai. Sweet." She then bowed slightly. "I just wanted to say thank you. Oyasumi, Gaara-san."
He nodded, watching her retreat and turning back towards his chair. As he heard the door open, he found his mouth operating on its own. "Hyuuga-san."
"Hai?" she asked, her hand on the door as she glanced back at him.
He didn't even turn back towards her as he asked, "How long are you planning on staying?"
"A-anou..." she began, looking down at her feet. "I don't know...if it's a bother, I could just-..."
"You're welcome to stay as long as you like."
She blinked and looked back at him. "H-hontou?"
He nodded, still not turning around. "Hai."
"Arigatou!" she said, bowing deeply to him. After she left, he went back to his book and stared at the page he had been on, but couldn't concentrate on it. He stared down at his hand before slowly raising it to his chest and gripping his shirt with his fist.
Somehow...some of the pain in his chest seemed to have disappeared.
"Oi...the stress, the stress...HINATA, YER KILLIN' ME!"
"I think you're even louder drunk than sober." Kiba groaned and fell over, his leg twitching slightly. Shino watched with a sigh, gently removing the sake bottle from his teammate's hand. He wasn't sure how he had managed to buy sake, but he had, and he had drank too much of it.
The insect trainer had suspected that Kiba had a crush on Hinata for a long time now. This just confirmed it.
A lot of them had given up hope of finding her on their own. They knew that she wasn't dead, but her family's declaration of it had made it sound so convincing that they had let it sink into their minds too.
Not that it had phased Kiba, Naruto, Sakura, Lee, or Tenten any.
Shino grabbed Kiba by his arm and flung it over his shoulder, dragging him to the living room. They were in Shino's apartment, but it was late, and Kiba was in no condition to go home.
Kiba groaned and closed his eyes as Shino dumped him on the couch. "You're sleeping there tonight. I'm gonna get you a pillow and a blanket, stay there." Of course, he wasn't worried about Kiba trying to leave – he was currently struggling with basic motor skills.
When he came back, he saw that the dog boy was already asleep. Shino laughed quietly before blinking as he saw tears on the other male's face.
Sighing, he draped the blanket over him, tucking the pillow under his head. 'Hinata...come back soon...'
"You're hiding something."
"Huh?"
"You're hiding something?"
"What makes you think I'm hiding something?"
"Because you're being nice."
"So if a guy's being nice, it means he's hiding something?"
"If it's you, yes." Neji sighed and closed his eyes for a brief reprieve of his teammate's glares.
"Two against one really isn't fair," he said, putting one hand on his cheek and refusing to look at the other two.
"Who cares?" Lee asked. "You're hiding something, out with it. Is it about Hinata?"
"...I can't tell you."
The other two opened their mouths before blinking. They had expected another denial – Neji didn't give up so fast. Well, technically, he wasn't giving up, since they still had no information.
"Why not?"
"It wouldn't be fair to her," he said, standing and walking out of the restaurant they had been sitting in.
The other two watched him go, confusion apparent on both of their faces. What was that supposed to mean?
End Flashback
"Ah, you're already awake?"
Hinata blinked a few times, snapped out of her dreamland due to the voice behind her. She looked to see that Sakura was awake, and Ino and Tenten were in the process.
"Ah, hai. I've been awake for a while."
"Aw, you should have woken us up," Ino said, stifling a yawn. She then stretched, standing up.
"It's eight. I don't normally wake up this early except for on missions," Tenten said with a groan, reaching to her bedside table, opening the drawer, flinging her clock in, and slamming the drawer again. "Stupid time of having too many mission...crap...things."
As soon as the three of them managed to haul Tenten out of bed, they went to IHOP. (A/N: I'm just kidding, don't hurt me.)
They went to the local inn, which was run by Konohamaru's parents. They had arranged to meet Neji, Shikamaru, Lee, and Kiba there the previous day, just to talk and have breakfast.
Neji was already there, sitting with his arms crossed over his chest and his eyes closed, the beginnings of a stress mark formed over his temple. The four girls exchanged looks – if he had been here long enough to get pissed, they were probably pretty late. Well, actually, he hadn't slept much the previous night, but that was beside the point.
"Ohayo, Neji-kun," Tenten said, sitting down next to him. The Hyuuga male's eyes opened and he blinked up at them.
"Ohayo," he responded in a drowsy tone. Hinata gave him a nervous smile, and when she saw him give her the biggest smile he had since they were kids (which wasn't much), she took that as an okay to sit beside him.
Sakura and Ino sat beside each other with one place on either side of them – Hinata assumed they were so Lee and Shikamaru could sit beside them.
The other three males arrived at the same time, Shikamaru looking as though he had woken up right before walking through the door. He raised his hand in greeting, moving his other hand to cover a yawn, before slumping into the chair beside Ino with a drawn-out groan.
"Big baby," the blonde muttered, thwacking her boyfriend on the back of the head. She only got another groan in response.
Lee plopped down next to Sakura with a bright, "Good morning everyone!" which provoked another groan from Shikamaru.
Kiba sat next to Hinata, who smiled at him. "Ohayo, Kiba-kun."
He blinked at her before smiling and rubbing the back of his neck. "Hi."
After they had all ordered, they launched into telling Hinata all that had happened while she was gone – Naruto beating Sasuke in the race, Akamaru disappearing for three days and coming back with a pregnant female dog (who had since gone to a different home), Lee beating Neji at a fight, Ino pulling off Shikamaru's hair band to show that no, his hair was NOT frozen like that, Choujii going on a diet that lasted for a grand total of two hours, and a few peace treaties that Konoha had been starting with the rest of the allied nations.
They talked for almost two hours. Neji even laughed a couple of times. Once most of the stories were out of the way, Tenten leaned around her boyfriend to flick Hinata on the nose.
The Hyuuga girl blinked and went cross-eyed before rubbing it with her palm. "Nani?" she asked as she lowered her hand...and blinked as she saw Tenten, Sakura, and Ino with identical evil grins. Suddenly, she got a feeling of foreboding.
"So, Hinata-chan..." Ino began.
"Hai...?"
"Tell us about that boy you were traveling with."
"EEP!" the girl said, putting her hands over her face and turning bright red.
Ino smirked and turned to Shikamaru, pointing at him. "HAH! Told you so!" He just 'meh'ed back.
"Boy?" Neji asked in a blunt tone.
"He was just a guy I was traveling with, nothing to get all excited over..."
"Your blush suggests otherwise."
Hinata shot a glare at her cousin between her fingers, who just looked back at her.
"Come on, at least tell us his name," Sakura pried.
"Nope."
"Come on..."
"Not gonna do it."
"What, do we know him or something?"
"Yes." The others blinked at her as she shrugged. "Well, you do."
"Then WHO!"
"You wouldn't believe me."
"Sure we would!" Tenten said. This discussion had even caught Shikamaru's attention, since he was actually propping his head up with his arm.
Hinata crossed her arms over her chest. "Would you believe me if I said Sabaku no Gaara?"
They all blinked at her before shaking their heads in unison. "No."
"Then how do I know you'll believe me if I tell you who I was traveling with?"
A pause. "She's right, you know," Shikamaru said, putting his head back down.
Kiba was sort of off in his own little world. 'Another guy? So I'm competing with someone who's not even here?' he thought, twitching slightly.
Hinata smiled gently. That threw them off the trail...for the time being, anyway.
Starr: YOSHI! Chapter three, done with!
Yoshi: (Blinks)
Starr: NO! NOT YOU! I meant the Japanese exclamation of 'alright', doofus.
Yoshi: Aww.
Starr: Right...back to the FRIENDLY SHOUTOUT SHOW!
rikkufx: Yay, glad you like (Smile, smile)
khmer shinobi: Yack, I'm updating, I'm updating, don't hurt me X.x
The Infamous Jack: I understand the anti-NarutoXHinata thing. Whenever I see evidence of that in the show, I'm going, "Hinata! No! You deserve better!" And don't worry about dear Kiba-kun, he shall be taken care of as well. Eventually...uh...sometime...ya know, I should probably plot out my stories better. Oh well!
Xoni Newcomer: A reviewer sent straight from Kami-sama! ARIGATOU! I love getting constructive criticism – it really helps, ya know? I hope that I answered some of your questions in this chapter, and don't worry, they'll find out about her heart problem in Sunagakure. If I didn't answer any more of your questions, please tell me. I need to know these things (sighs)
M-python-girl: I'm with you – normal is weird. What is normal, anyways? If someone was normal, they'd still be different than everyone else, so they'd STILL be weird...but enough of this nonsensical banter. Here, have an update, and keep the religious fanatics from killing me, please (Hides behind Gaara)
chibi-kaitou: Hee, I know. Aren't Gaara and Hinata uber-kawaii? It's almost too much cute to be allowed in one fanfic.
MegDeity: Yay, more liking of the story! Sure, I'll send you an email of fun.
Starr: SO! Now that we have THAT out of the way...
Gaara: ...it's time to stop the story.
Starr: It is not.
Gaara: It is too.
Starr: You just don't like it because you get emotional pretty soon.
Gaara: I don't have any emotions.
Starr: Says you. Anyways, thank all of you for your reviews. Expect another chapter soon!