Chapter 3 – All Along
The broken team 8 and Naruto settled in for the night. Kiba and Naruto had searched for Shino for about three hours before giving up and realizing he was nowhere to be found, and most likely did not WANT to be found. They agreed the best thing would be to get a good nights sleep, and head out early to get back to Konoha as quickly as possible to organize a search party to find him. Maybe he even went on ahead and would be home before them.
The next morning they zoomed through the trees towards Konoha as quickly as they could. Hinata was still holding Shino's sunglasses in her hand.
"Hoy, Hinata," Naruto smiled over at her, "You think I could see those for a second?"
Hinata thought about it for a minute, then blushed and handed them over. "P-Please be careful with them N-Naruto-kun…They are important to Shino…" She said gently.
"Yea yea, I will!" Naruto smile and took them from her outstretched hand.
Kiba was just ahead of them. He was suddenly startled by Naruto zooming up past him to his side, "HEY KIBA! Check me out!" He put his hands in his pockets and ducked his head into his collar, "I'm Shino!"
"Nar-U-t-O!" Kiba yelped at him, "Take those off! They ain't yours! Shino would KILL you if you broke them!"
"Aweee, you're no fun," Naruto sighed, but still was wearing the shades.
"I mean it Naruto," Kiba frowned.
Naruto rolled his eyes, "Hoy hoy….alright," He took them off and handed them to Kiba.
Kiba raised and eyebrow, "That's better."
Hinata came up along side Kiba, "I, I'll hold onto them…" she blushed. She didn't want anything to happen to them.
"Hinata?" Kiba blinked, surprised at her forthrightness. He handed them back to her, and she kept them in her hands as they continued on home.
They arrived back in Konoha by mid afternoon. Sadly, they reported back to Hogage Tsunade-sama about the failure of the mission, only to be surprised that she already knew.
"How?" They all questioned.
"I got word from Aburame Shibi that Shino had returned separate from you three. He told me all about the mission from what Shino told him." Tsunade laid her head on her clasped hands.
"Oh…well, that's good then…" Kiba breathed a sigh of relief, "We were worried he had completely run off."
"What HAPPENED? It's not like him at all to do something like that."
"We have no idea, Hinata was the last one to talk to him," Naruto and Kiba looked over at her. She blushed profusely and looked down at her fingers.
"Hinata, what happened?" Tsunade-sama said sternly but softly.
"It….he….ummm…." She could only stutter.
Tsunade-sama sighed with annoyance and sunk back into her chair, "It's okay, I'll let you rest from missions for a few days, but please make sure you tell me later, okay? This kind of behavior is not smiled upon in the Konoha shinobi. As for you Naruto, I have another mission for you."
"WHHaaaaa! Why do they get to rest and I have to do another mission right away?!" He complained, freaking out considerably.
"Their teammate obviously is in some kind of trouble, and they need to work it out. You on the other hand," She dug through her desk for a mission scroll.
As Hinata and Kiba were walking out of the Hokage's office they could hear Naruto screaming about getting ANOTHER D-rank mission. They giggled a little and walked off to the streets below.
"Whew, I'm beat," Kiba sighed as they walked, "At least it's a beautiful afternoon."
"Yes…that's true," She smiled meekly.
Kiba paused, then said, "Hey, maybe we should go see how Shino is, and return his glasses. I'm sure he misses them," Kiba grinned.
"You mean…visit his clan's home? W…we've never been there."
"That's true, he is usually the one that comes and gets us in the morning for training, haha!" Kiba looked down at the sunglasses in Hinata's grasp, "hey…you think…I could try them out too?" He smiled. Akamaru grinned.
"Kina-kun!" She blushed and yelped at once.
"Oh come'on! I'll be more careful than Naruto with them!" He grabbed them from her and promptly put them on. He laughed, "Wow, they really don't make anything THAT much darker...but still, at night you'd think they'd be annoying,"
Hinata looked down at her fingers, "I…I guess."
Kiba looked over at her, still wearing the glasses, "What happened up there, Hinata? You can tell me you know, I won't tell anyone."
"Well, I…" She stuttered, "I saw Shino without his glasses on…"
"So you really DID see his face huh? Woah…" Kiba grinned again widely, "What did he look like, did he have like little kid eyes or something? Were they like crazy and glowing radioactively?"
"N…no, nothing like that."
"Well what then?"
"…"
Kiba's playful expression faded as she walked silently looking at her fingers.
"Hey," He said about as sincerely as Kiba can, "It's okay, you don't need to tell me…I don't want to force you or anything if you don't want to…." He paued, then his normal playful voice came back, "…even if I am deathly curious what Shino looks like!"
Hinata smiled meekly, "Thanks Kiba."
Kiba stopped, and so did Hinata when she saw him do so. She looked up to see the mark of the Inuzuka clan on an archway above her head.
"Want some dinner?" Kiba motioned for her to follow.
"O…oh, sure!" She ran after him.
As Hinata was trying to eat her dinner at the table with Kiba and his mother and sister ('trying' the key word because Hana's three dogs kept begging at her feet for scraps) she wondered to herself if Shino was all right. In fact, she surprised her self at how much she had thought about him since what happened the night before.
"Shino, said that he liked me, maybe even, that he loves me…" She thought to herself, poking at the perfectly char-grilled steak in front of her. Kiba was making short work of his own piece of meat, "How long has he….and…this whole time I've really liked Naruto, and I STILL like him, but…he never notices me, he's so loud and I' m so quiet…but Shino-kun, he…he acknowledged me, he NOTICED me. And…I was doing to him what Naruto was doing to me. He must feel the same way I do…"
She met eyes with Kiba's mother in her thinking.
"What's the matter dearey, don't like it? Too rare?" She said gruffly but very motherly.
Hinata blushed, "I- no! It's fine! I…was…thinking," She quickly went back down to her steak and took a big bite, nearly choking.
"Hey, Hinata, don't wolf your food, that's what mother always tells me!" He laughed, giving a piece to Akamaru.
Hinata swallowed, then looked up at him, "Kiba…I know what we're doing tomorrow."
