Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. If I did, I would give Kiba a cat for Christmas.
Hinata tentatively picked up her jacket and put it back on. An uncomfortable silence had fallen over the room after she had thanked her savior, mostly because Gaara had no idea what to say and Hinata didn't want to say anything for fear of upsetting him in some way. Kiba and Shino were just afraid to speak altogether, mostly because of the murderous intent behind the glare they had received earlier. Needless to say, it was very quiet in the room, the only sound coming from the roaring waterfall outside.
It was Kiba who broke the silence. "So, Hinata, what exactly did that creep do to you?" he asked, looking at Gaara out of the corner of his eye for any signs that the Sand shinobi was upset with his attempt at conversation. He saw none, however, and turned back to his teammate.
Hinata's face turned bright red at Kiba's question. Now that it was over, and she had time to think about it, she realized what had happened. Michio had tried to rape her. Not only tried, but almost succeeded. The very thought of it made her both embarrassed and ashamed, and she looked away from Kiba's questioning gaze. The other genin quickly got the message and backed off.
"Well, we can't exactly just leave the other two out there forever," he said, changing the subject. He was referring to Temari and Kankuro, whom they had left outside incase any unwelcome shinobi happened to come for a visit, mainly the perverted old ninja's friends. Kiba stood from where he kneeled on the floor and began to walk over to Shino, who was still standing in the middle of the room, having been in the exact same position since receiving Gaara's death glare. Not that he was afraid, exactly; he just didn't really want to take his chances.
Hinata nodded, though no one was paying attention to her at that precise moment, seeing as how Gaara had followed Kiba and was heading towards the door. She tried to stand, but winced as pain shot through her leg from her wounded ankle. The other three shinobi all turned when she made a small squeaking noise, followed by her sitting back down on the bed.
"Hinata, are you alright?" Kiba asked. Well, that was a stupid question. She had been kidnapped, sexual assaulted, and now couldn't even stand properly. Oh yes, she was just perfectly fine. He looked down to where blood was seeping through her bandage. The damn thing just refused to stop bleeding. "Do you need me to carry you?"
"Oh, no!" Hinata said, shaking her head. "I've caused you so much trouble already. I'll be fine, really!" She tried to prove her point by standing up, but this time only fell to the floor. Obviously, she was not 'fine' by any means.
Gaara, being the closest one to her at the time, walked over and grabbed her by the collar of her jacket, lifting into the air. "Idiot," he muttered, adjusting his gourd and flinging the startled kunoichi over his shoulder. He then resumed his journey out of the hut, while Kiba and Shino just stared at him.
"Ehhh?" Hinata cried, her face turning a bright red. "G-Gaara-kun, w-what are you-?"
"Shut up," Gaara said, for the second time that day. If she wasn't so damn stubborn…Gaara didn't even bother to finish the thought, mostly because he wasn't sure himself why he was holding the small girl in the first place. But then again, he didn't really understand anything anymore, so what was one more thing to be confused by?
He had reached the doorway only to find that Hinata's teammates had yet to move. Their eyes were glued to Hinata, who, since she had been flung over so that she was facing the opposite direction as the Sand shinobi, only shrugged helplessly. She was even more confused than they were. After a quick glare from Gaara, however, they immediately began following the odd pair, making sure to keep a safe distance behind them.
Moments later, they exited the hut and made their way around the waterfall that hid the cavern where it stood. On the other side, Temari and Kankuro were waiting for them, three shinobi lying on the ground around them: Michio's allies. The two Sand shinobi turned when they heard footsteps. "Hey, Gaara! What happ-?" Temari stopped mid-sentence when she saw her brother. He was carrying the girl that had been captured! Ok, so he didn't exactly know how to carry her without practically trapping her in a headlock, but the fact still remained that he held her. Weirder still, the girl didn't seem to be complaining about it! Temari shot a confused look at her brother, who only returned it.
"Um, Gaara? What are you doing?" Temari asked when he had reached them, getting straight to the point. Gaara grunted. "She was being an idiot and wouldn't let her teammate carry her, so I did it instead." He seemed slightly annoyed with the fact that her feet were dangling in his face, even though it was his fault for throwing her over his shoulder in such a strange position. He turned his head around so that, when Hinata looked up, they would see each other. "Can you walk now?" One advantage of having the girl's feet directly in front of his face was that he could see that her ankle had stopped bleeding.
"Oh, y-yes!" Hinata stammered as she was not-so-gently dropped to the ground. Indeed, her ankle felt much better now. Gaara then began to walk away, going past Temari and Kankuro without a word. The two siblings exchanged glances before following, leaving the members of Team 8 alone.
Kiba sighed. "Damn, that Gaara is one strange guy," he said, petting Akamaru, who was still in his shirt. The small dog barked in agreement. Beside them, Shino nodded.
"H-he's not that bad," Hinata said, causing both of her teammates to stare at her. "I-I mean, he did save me…" her voice trailed off. She didn't even know why she was defending him. It's not like they had ever met until the mission. Yes, they had seen each other at the Chuunin Exam, but hey had never actually spoken to one another. Yet she felt strangely…connected to him. It was as if their meeting was more than just a simple coincidence.
Kiba scratched his head. "Well, yeah, I'll give him that much…" he muttered, for lack of anything else to say. Shino remained silent. Big surprise. He didn't talk much, anyway.
"Hey, hurry up!" Temari called. The three Sand shinobi were waiting atop a nearby hill. "Come on, we're heading back to the village! We're going to leave you behind!" The three genin exchanged quick glances before following, and the six made their way back to Konoha. The mission was officially over. Technically, it had failed. Not only had they failed to take Michio back to his home in the Village Hidden in the Mist, but they had killed him in the process. Not that they had had much of a choice, but it would still be an adventure telling Tsunade about it.
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"WHAT?"
The shinobi were standing in the Hokage's office, in front of a very angry Tsunade. They had told her that the old ninja was dead, but had yet to tell her why he was dead. Needless to say, when hearing the news, Tsunade was not very happy.
"But Tsunade-sama, we haven't told you why he's dead yet," Kiba protested. For the moment, they had left out the fact that Gaara had killed him. Without explaining why first, they were sure that random objects would be flying across the room before they could actually get to that part. "He kidnapped Hinata."
Now that got her attention. The numerous exploding veins on her forehead ceased their throbbing for a moment as she leaned forward in her chair. "Did you just say he kidnapped her?" She glanced at the Sand ninja, who nodded. Well, two of them did. Gaara just stood there, looking annoyed at everything.
They then continued to explain what had happened on their mission. When asked what had actually happened when she had been captured, however, Hinata had only turned a bright red and immediately ran out of the room, leaving four very confused genin and one confused Hokage. Gaara continued to just stand there, seeing as he was the only one who had any idea of what had happened. After all, he had walked in right in the middle of it. After that, they decided to stay clear of the topic of what had actually happened before they had arrived, and continued to tell the rest of the story.
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Hinata sat in the cool shade of a large oak tree. After leaving the Hokage's office, she hadn't stopped running until she was completely out of breath and had then proceeded to a nearby park; she and her teammates had often trained there, and she liked to go there sometimes and just relax in the shade. This time, however, she wasn't exactly relaxing.
When she had been asked about what had happened, she had panicked. How exactly was she supposed to talk about it? "Oh, nothing much. I was sexually assaulted by that perverted old man who wanted to rape me. What's for lunch?" No, that wouldn't go over very well. So she decided to run. Well, her legs pretty much decided for her. And so, here she was, wondering what she was supposed to do now. So far, she wasn't getting any ideas.
"So, this is where you ran off too."
Hinata looked up to see Gaara standing above her. "G-Gaara-kun?" she stammered, thoroughly surprised to see the Sand ninja there. Weirder still, he was actually talking to her, even though the mission was over and he was no longer obligated to be with her at all. She could feel a slight blush rise to her cheeks, though she wasn't really sure why. "W-what are you doing here?" she asked, silently cursing herself for stuttering.
"No reason," Gaara said, his face remaining emotionless. "We had finished telling Tsunade about the mission, and I just saw you sitting here." Hinata noticed the lack of respect he had when saying the Hokage's name, though she wasn't exactly surprised. He didn't exactly seem like the type to respect anyone.
"Oh," Hinata said, looking at the ground. For some reason, she had been hoping that he had come specifically for her. She shook her head to rid the thought from her mind, resulting in a strange look from the other ninja. You like Naruto-kun, remember? She said silently to herself, though her heart didn't flutter nearly as much as it normally did at the thought of the blond-haired shinobi.
Gaara grunted and surprised her even more by sitting down beside her. Hinata glanced up at him, whose hair was blowing in the breeze, and saw specks of sand in it as well. She let out a soft giggle, causing Gaara to send her a questioning glare. Had anyone else laughed at him, they would be as good as dead, but for some unknown reason, he didn't feel the urge to summon his sand to strangle her, or something else of the sort.
"S-Sorry," Hinata said as she stopped laughing. "It's just…you have some sand in your hair…" She stopped when she realized that she didn't really want to tell him that it looked funny. No, she didn't think that would go over well. He really didn't seem like the type who liked to be called funny. She was silent for a moment, then said cautiously, "A-ano, I can take it out for you if you want."
Gaara stared at her. He had never been particularly bothered by the sand in his hair. After all, when you used large amounts of it to kill people, odds were that some of it would end up buried in your hair. However, when the small kunoichi had started laughing at it, he wondered if perhaps he should find some form of sand removal to extract it from his hair. Then came the perfect opportunity: the girl offered to take it out for him. "Hn," he said, nodding. There it was again. Hn. It seemed to be his favorite word – erm, syllable.
Hinata tentatively leaned towards him, one hand outstretched while the other pushed against the ground for support. When he didn't try to kill her, she reached out further and touched his hair. It wasn't as scratchy as she thought it would be; it was actually quite soft, considering he lived in a desert. It really wasn't much of a surprise that the roots of his hair were covered in tiny grains of sand. She was just about to pick one up and dispose of it when she heard something behind her. Both she and Gaara turned to look.
Standing at the entrance to the park were Temari, Kankuro, Shino, and Kiba. Hinata realized that they must have all been together when Gaara left, and had decided to stick together to search for the two of them. A fallen bag of souvenirs lay at Temari's feet, meaning that the sound they had heard was her dropping them.
All four of them were staring at the two shinobi in the park: Gaara sitting in the shade of the tree with Hinata leaning over him.
Ok, that wasn't as exciting as I promised it would be. -sweatdrop- I decided to add some humor to this chapter instead. Mostly with Gaara. I know he was a little OOC, but when you write a story with a pairing like this, it's kinda hard to make them not OOC, ya know? Anyway, as always, reviews are greatly appreciated, and they make me very happy and urge to me to write the next chapter soon. -wink-
Ja ne!
