Chapter 9

The mission

On her walk home Hinata kept trying to think of other explanations for the things that she had heard. What she did hear sounded so clear to her that there could be no mistaking the meaning. Hadn't the morning been so different from that? What was the change all of a sudden. Had Sakura changed his mind somehow, she knew that Naruto had a prior crush on her. So many thoughts were swirling around in her head that she decided not to stop at home but to keep going until she reached her training grounds.

She hadn't been back since she had practiced with Neji before the war and it seemed odd to be here by herself now. She needed to hit something to let some steam off so she positioned herself at one of the nearby posts.

She hammered away at a post with her right hand again and again. She did it until she couldn't feel her hand anymore, that was for Neji. She did it until her pain for Naruto felt numb. Then she started with her other hand. She worked away until the pain of not measuring up all her life felt numb.

Both her hands were cracked open and covered in blood, and she was finally beginning to feel better. She worked on her ninjuitsu techniques and practiced them for a few hours. It was dark when she finally wanted to go home.

She began to walk home, her mind a lot calmer than it had been before. When she got to her house she noticed the lights were still on, which was odd for how late it was. She entered the house and saw her father talking with Shikamaru. As soon as she entered the house her father stood up and questioned her "Hinata, your hands, they look pretty bad, where have you been?"

"Training," she replied as she headed into the kitchen to find the remainers of some healing balm from earlier.

"Shikamaru is here to see you, you have a mission."

She popped her head back around the corner and looked at Shikamaru who nodded.

"I can wait for you to fix your hands up, meet me at the entrance to the village in 30 minutes, I will explain on the way."

"Okay, I'll be ready." Just a moment before she was wondering how she would deal with seeing him tomorrow, so this mission really solved her problem.

She started cleaning up her hands, putting the balm on them, and then wrapping them. They still hurt but the pain kept her mind from thinking about more painful things.

Her dad came into the kitchen. "You seemed different this afternoon than you seem now, is everything okay?"

"I'm not sure" was the best she could do.

He could tell that she didn't really want to talk about it, if she did she would have.

"Shikamaru said the mission will probably last about a week. He had been here for about an hour already so I asked Hanabi to pack your supplies for you. Have a safe mission Hinata."

"Thank you father," she said as he gave her a half hug. She then grabbed her supplies, a snack, and headed out the door.

She walked to the entrance of the village and met Shikamaru and Kiba. She knew that they had both been talking to Naruto earlier so she really wasn't that keen on seeing both of them, but they had a mission and she had to put that behind her. They were her comrades.

"What happened to your hands Hinata?" Kiba asked as spots of blood were showing on the outer bandages.

"Training," she replied with a fake smile.

"Yeah, you already said that," Shikamaru pointed out.

"You said you'd explain the mission on the way?" Hinata stated, "are we ready to head out?"

"Is this what you look like when you're in a bad mood Hinata? I can see why Naruto likes you…"

Kiba snickered

Shikamaru meant this comment sincerely but after the recent pain that she experienced it felt more like a jibe.

Hinata's face looked momentarily pained but she bounced back quickly by squeezing her hands to take her mind off of him. This didn't escape Shikamaru's notice. "Let's not talk about Naruto, okay?" she pleaded with her soft voice.

"That's a shame," Shikamaru said "because we're going on this mission for him."

"What?" Hinata exclaimed "What do you mean?"

"We're heading to the Sand Village to meet with their medical corps and get supplies to bring back to our village. The 5th and Sakura need the supplies to complete an operation for Sasuke and Naruto to save their arms." He revealed.

Even with all the recent pain she still loved Naruto, and if she had a chance to get his arm back she had to do whatever she could to help make that happen.

They set out for the Sand Village as a group. When Hinata took the lead Shikamaru made a point to tell Kiba not to mention Naruto to Hinata. He wasn't sure what had happened to her, but he needed her focused on the mission if they were going to be successful.

They had traveled nearly half of the distance to the village before they stopped for the evening. Hinata led the group and even though she was tired, she was dealing with a storm inside that gave her energy to keep moving until dusk the next evening. Everyone once in a while she would hear the guys talking back and forth to each other, but it wasn't unusual that she would keep to herself.

Shikamaru picked the place where they would rest for the night, it was out of sight and off the main path. Kiba and Shikamaru gathered wood while Hinata set up camp for the night.

"You think this we be enough, right Hinata?" Kiba asked.

"Yes, that's fine, thank you," she said as she laid the pieces out in an a-frame and ignited some kindling.

Kiba and Hinata were used to being on a team and working together. Although Kiba could be over the top sometimes he didn't really bother her as much as he could bother Shino.

"It's kinda strange not to have Shino here," Kiba mentioned.

"I was just thinking about him," Hinata said, "and how you tend to get on his nerves sometimes," she said while giggling.

"Yeah, I guess I do. We do work well as a team though, and he doesn't get annoyed with me too bad. I mean, it's not like Lee and Nej…" He stopped himself but it was too late.

Hinata knew he hadn't done this to cause her any grief and even though it stung a little she continued where he left off. "No, you're right, it's not like Neji and Lee." He seemed relieved when she said his name.

Shikamaru came with the rest of the wood and laid it down in a pile. "Let's see what I brought for us to eat," he said while he pulled out rice and other ingredients for soup from his pack. "Kiba," he yelled, "why don't you go get us some water?"

"Sure," Kiba hopped up and grabbed a container for some water. "Coming Hinata?" he asked.

"Actually, there's something I wanted to talk to her about, it'll just take a few minutes" Shikamaru answered.

"It's okay," Hinata said to Kiba, "What would you like to talk about Shikamaru?"

"I just wanted to say I've noticed how much endurance you have, after training all night last night, and the distance you've traveled today. If it were Ino, man, she'd sure be complaining."

"Umm, thanks," she uttered, "I'm trained as a shinobi of the leaf village, the same as every member of this squad. Neji did help train me." She finished.

"That's what I wanted to talk to you about. I'm sorry about Neji. I've thought about it many times over and if he hadn't done what he did we wouldn't have…"

"I know" Hinata interrupted

"Well anyways," he continued "I just wanted to tell you that I was sorry."

"I'm greatful Shikamaru, thank you" She half smiled at him.

They spent the evening sleeping under the stars and headed back out at day break.