A/N:

Lizz: Alrighty! Chapter Two! And guess what, I still have Rock Lee in a bishi headlock! So review! Really, i need the advice. If you read, i am begging you, review!

Lee: PLEASE! THINK OF ME! REVIEW!

Lizz: Haha, here we go!


Last Time...

The girl was hesitant. "I won't molest you, promise," Shikamaru reassured her.

Hinata needed someone to hold her, anyways. So she complied, burying her face in Shikamaru's chest. She cried softly, and the rebel leader stroked her hair again. He could feel her crying herself to sleep, her sobs were softening, and so he relaxed his muscles. Hinata let sleep overtake her, but Shikamaru couldn't relax enough to let himself for about another hour. Instead, he wondered if he'd done the right thing for Konoha, that'd been his intention the whole time. Do good. But look where it landed him. Holding a now orphaned princess, on the run from Anbu. He was screwed.

His worries faded out, and eventually, Shikamaru let himself sleep. He needed rest for tomorrow, when they would continue on their journey to the Hidden Sand Village, to seek help from a man named Gaara.

-Chapter 2-

Gotta Grow Up

When Hinata woke up the next morning, Shikamaru was gone, and some new clothes were sitting on the sleeping bag next to her. "Where did these come from?" she thought.

They were her size, and they were normal people's clothes.The princess assumed that they were for her, and changed into them. There was a light gray teeshirt, some shorts, ninja shoes, and leg wrappings. Hinata also noticed that there was a Konoha leaf forehead protector next to it all. They had been banned since the Hyuuga's took over Konoha. She put it on loosely around her neck, and tied it on like a necklace. She looked at her elegant dress she took off last night before going to bed, "I've got to grow up. There is obviously no turning back now." she reasoned with herself.

Still, Hinata couldn't help but feel a little bit alone in this new world.

She left the tent to see the boys outside packing up again. "Thank you for the new clothes," she said to them, waiting for an answer. Shikamaru shrugged, "You needed new ones, so I got some. It's just necessary."

"And this?" she said, motioning to her headband.

Sasuke answered, "You're a rebel now." He pointed at his own headband, now in place.

Hinata started rolling up the sleeping bag from inside the tent, and then pulled out the dress and shoes. "Uhm, should I take these?"

Shikamaru nodded, "I've got a friend who'll take care of those a few miles from here."

"Right," she answered, and put them in a bag.

Naruto helped her bring down the tent, making small talk with her while they did so. Well, if you call small talk a form of interrogation. "Shikamaru didn't touch you did he? You aren't scarred for life, or anything? You didn't have nightmares?"

A blush ran across Hinata's face, and she assured him that nothing happened. It was so sweet of Naruto to care so deeply for her. She wondered how the blond got mixed up with people like Sasuke and Shikamaru.

- - -

They rode for about an hour and a half on horseback til they stopped in a small village. Shikamaru was greeted by a male with red triangle-shaped tatoos on his face, and a bunch of dogs. "Oi! Shikamaru-san!" he waved them over.

"Kiba!" Shikamaru got off his horse and told the man called Kiba about the clothes, and he said it'd be no problem to 'deal' with them.

Hinata assumed he meant destroy the evidence.

They didn't stay long, Sasuke, Naruto, and Hinata didn't even get off of their horses. Kiba gave Shikamaru some food packages (and some 'supplies' for Hinata, when necessary) for the road ahead, and they set off again.

It was a long day, with few stops, but according to Naruto, who was in charge of riding next to Hinata today, was a lot more often than usual. They didn't the food Kiba gave them, because they had to save it up for emergencies. Instead, they ate fish, rabbit, or even snake throughout the day if they were hungry.

At sunset, Shikamaru announced that they'd only have to travel one more day to get out of the Fire Country. Hinata was getting weary, and Naruto could see that. Naruto figured it'd be a while until he'd get to share a tent with Hinata. Mainly because it took so long for Shikamaru to trust someone, and at this rate, it'd be about a month until Shikamaru even thought about letting Hinata sleep in Sasuke's tent. Sasuke was just as watchful as Shikamaru, too!

'I just don't want Shikamaru-san to hurt Hinata.' Naruto thought.

He reached over and patted Hinata's shoulder. Hinata looked over to the blond, "Naruto-kun..."

"You're so pretty, Hinata, 'ttebayo," Naruto smiled, "A real princess."

Hinata blushed again, and smiled at Naruto, "You're so sweet..."

Naruto thought about talking to Shikamaru about letting Hinata stay with him, but he wrote it off as soon as he reminded himself what a hard-ass he was about trust. Still, Naruto really wanted to be near her.

They stopped when it was really late. It'd been dark for hours, so Hinata figured it was around eleven or midnight. They set up tents and a fire. Everyone sat around the campfire this time. Hinata in between Naruto and Shikamaru, of course. They listened to Shikamaru explain the game plan for the next week. They'd stay the night and half of tomorrow here, cleaning up, washing clothes and whatnot. Then they would go to the nearest town, and get Hinata contacts.

"Contacts?" Hinata repeated.

"Yeah," Shikamaru stated, like he was saying 'duh', "Everyone knows those eyes are Hyuuga's. If we want to leave the Fire country alive, you're getting contacts."

Hinata sighed, and looked at her reflection in the bucket of water next to her, "Yeah."

After they got her contacts, they'd head to the the border, and go for about a week before getting to the Hidden Sand Village.

The team agreed on the plan, and everyone turned in for the night. Sasuke and Naruto in one tent, Shikamaru and Hinata in the other.

Hinata didn't cry that night, but let Shikamaru hold her anyways. Shikamaru needed someone, too. He had to keep up a tough image and be a leader of a rebel group, so he couldn't go around just hugging or crying when he felt like it. Instead, he'd latch onto Hinata, and run his fingers through her soft hair and stroke her cheek.

She didn't mind it, and it wasn't like he was hurting her. In fact, she sort of liked that he would love on her. Hinata didn't get much affection when she lived at home. She spent a lot of time with Naruto and the horses. It's how she stayed happy. So having Shikamaru kiss her forehead when he thought she was asleep was a very welcome change. Although, she'd always be loyal to Naruto, which she feared that Shikamaru might get angry about if he developed feelings for her.

But for now, it was fine. She'd deal with that silly problem when it came around. Besides, she felt relatively safe with Shikamaru, it was a safety that was comfortable, but dangerous, if there was such a thing.

- - -

The next morning, Hinata woke up before Shikamaru. She was pressed up against him, with one hand on his waist, and their legs intertwined. Shikamaru had his arms around her back tightly. She paused a moment, trying to figure out how to get out of the tent without waking him, but soon realized there was no way. So she did the best she could, first by trying to take his arms and move them off of her, which didn't work because he woke up the moment her hand moved off of his waist.

Shikamaru rolled away from Hinata, and sat up. He yawned, and Hinata moved to sit up. "Do you need to go bathe?" Shikamaru asked.

Hinata nodded, and crawled out of the tent. She was in her dress slip, which she decided to keep for pajamas, it was all she kept from the mansion, well, that and her undergarments. Shikamaru emerged soon after, and yawning, said, "There's some clean clothes in that bag." He pointed at a saddlebag hanging off of his horse.

Sasuke and Naruto were sitting by the campfire cooking ramen for breakfast. When Hinata crawled out, this immediately had caught Naruto's attention, and he stared at her to see what she was going to do next. Shikamaru took another set of clothes, a couple towels, and two bars of soap from a bag in the tent and began to follow Hinata to a small freshwater lake nearby.

Hinata paused, and turned around to look at him, "Uhm, Shikamaru-san, what are you doing?"

"Going to wash myself, you?"

"Well, I was... but if you are going to, then I'll wait."

"I'll be down there anyways. I have to keep an eye on you to be sure you don't run off."

At this point, Naruto was fuming. He stared at Shikamaru with jealousy burning in his eyes. Luckily, Sasuke had a good grip on Naruto's shirt, so he couldn't go charging after him.

"Naruto, you dobe," he tried to calm his friend down, "It's fine. Shikamaru won't do anything to her."

Naruto turned around to face him, "Oh, how do you know, Sasuke? How do you know that he doesn't molest her every night, and she's too afraid to talk about it!" he yelled at the Uchiha.

"Because I know Shikamaru-san! He wouldn't do that!" Sasuke snapped back.

While the boys were arguing, Naruto didn't even realize that Hinata and Shikamaru were nearly to the lake.

"You're not just going to watch me," Hinata stated.

"Yeah, yeah, I'll be too busy washing. Just shut up and go over there." Shikamaru replied. Hinata headed over to a seperate part of the lake, that still wasn't out of his view, but now he couldn't openly gawk at her.

She looked back to see what Shikamaru was doing, but instead of seeing him staring back at her, she saw his naked figure wading into the water. Hinata blushed madly, and quickly stripped and got in the water as well. She washed herself in a thoughtful silence. 'Just because we spend nights together doesn't mean he gets to watch me bathe.' she thought, feeling a little violated.

Hinata finished washing before Shikamaru, and went behind a big, overturned log to dry and change. She came out from behind it, wearing a black tank top, a dark blue jacket, khaki shorts, and then her ninja accessories. She looked around for Shikamaru, but was instantly startled by his lazy voice from behind her, "All done?"

She jumped and turned around, scowling, "What are you doing there!"

"I was waiting for you to finish changing."

"Hmpf," Hinata grumbled before turning to head back to camp.

Naruto had been on the edge of his seat for twenty minutes waiting for the pair to come back. When he saw Hinata, he grabbed a bowl of ramen and jetted over to her. "Hinata-chan! Here! Have some ramen!"

Hinata was a little suprised to see Naruto so up in her face. Nevertheless, she took the bowl and followed Naruto back to where he was sitting. She sat down on a boulder next to him, and began eating her breakfast. She noticed Shikamaru was hanging his clothes to dry, along with... wait... Who told him he could wash her pajamas!


A/N: Lizz: Rock on! Didntcha just love the ShikaHina fluff? It's kind of agitating that Shikamaru can be such an ass during the day though. Oh well, Naruto still luffs her!

Rock Lee: Oo;;; More reviews please...