Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
Chouji and Hinata faced each other and nodded. They both knew that Shikamaru was going to die and that they would soon follow if they made any sudden movement. However they just had to know something before their friend died a slow and fanny death.
"You didn't tell her about Hinata?" Chouji asked, sounding astonished.
"What was he going to tell me about Hinata?" Temari asked, her glare never leaving the soon to be dead ninja.
"Ano... I like holding hands," Hinata began shakily, "I do it to show that I care."
Temari briefly stopped glaring at Shikamaru, in order to stare at Hinata. "So, it's not romantic?" Hinata shook her head. Temari seemed to relax a little at this, until she heard Shikamaru laughing still. "So, you didn't bother telling me that you had a friend who liked to hold your hand?" she asked sweetly.
Something in her tone must have warned him about his emanent doom, because he stopped laughing. "So?" he asked.
"We'll discuss this later," she assured him. "Sorry about calling you a skank," she offered Hinata as she turned around and made her way to the Hokage's office.
Shikamaru, no longer in the mood for cloud gazing went home. Presumabley to write his last will and testament. Hinata and Chouji lay back down to watch the clouds.
-:-:-:-:-
All the Rookie Nine, except for Shikamaru, Naruto and Sasuke, and Neji's team were sent to Suna to participate in the chuunin exams. Sakura was placed on Ino and Chouji's team for the exam, because you need to be in a three man team in order to compete. This was the second exam for all the Konoha ninjas who were participating and all the ninjas did not plan on failing.
They had all passed the cheating exam with flying colors, the only one not cheating was Sakura because she knew could figure out the questions on her own. They also made it through the survival test, with nary a scratch on them. Hinata's team were chatting with Ino's team, while wating for the last of the teams to make it to the goal, when she saw Temari and her brothers.
Due to the fact that they were no longer in Konoha and that this was technically a mission, Hinata wasn't holding anyones hand. This didn't bother her that much. She wasn't addicted to hand holding, she just liked doing it. So, she waved over Temari and her brothers followed.
"Temari-chan," Ino began, "I thought you would have been here sooner."
"We would have, but all the other teams were avoiding us," she complained, "Apparently Gaara is now infamous," she joked shooting a rye look at her brother.
"Tch," was Gaara's witty response to that. Hinata seemed to be the only one to realize that he looked a little sad at this. Having the byakugan comes in handy sometimes.
"Oi, Temari," Kankurou began. "Isn't she the one who tried to steal that shadow ninja of yours?" he pointed at Hinata as he spoke with a giant grin to his sister. Temari turned a bright red.
All the Konoha ninjas, except for Chouji, turned to Hinata in disbelief. "Why would you want Shikamaru?" Ino asked. This caused Temari to glare at Ino, for insulting her new playtoy.
"I-I don't want Shikamaru," Hinata blushed, "Shikamaru didn't tell her."
They immediately all sighed in realization at what had happened.
"For a genius," Kiba began, "he sure is stupid."
Hinata Hyuuga age 15.
Being a chuunin was difficult for Hinata. Her mission load almost seemed to double, and she had less time to herself. She would come home later then usual and have to start the next morning earlier then usual. She was also sent on more solo missions then she thought were necessary.
Mostly, she was beginning to miss the connections she had made when she started holding hands with people. The people she normally would hold hands with started dating, and didn't feel like holding hands with anyone but their special person.
Hinata began to notice that she was unhappy. She didn't laugh as often as she had and her stutter, which she had thought had gone away, came back with a vengence. Her father might have noticed her changed behavior, but because she was successfully completing mission after mission, he didn't mention it to her. Neji noticed, a little, but he was pre-occupied with joining the ANBU and didn't have time for her. Hanabi would have noticed, if Hinata were ever home.
The only people who said anything about it were Kiba and Shino. They still trained together even though the three were no longer a team technically. After training, Hinata could still be seen walking hand in hand with one or both of her ex-teammates. She still liked holding hands, but lately she had been feeling like there was something missing. She had stopped feeling tressured when she was 6 and now that she was 15 she stopped feeling protected. She now clung desperately to the feeling on love that she got from holding hands, and returning that love. But it wasn't enough.
-:-:-:-:-
The day Naruto returned, should have been the happiest day of her life. The boy she had idolized. It brought her hope that everything would turn out okay. Because whenever Naruto was around, she had felt stronger, even though she usually turned red and fainted whenever he came near her. Obviously she hoped that this time when she greeted him, that wouldn't happen.
Unfortunately, even though she hadn't even gotten that close to him, she fainted. Not because she was nervous to see him, but because she had recently been hit in the head with something heavy, causing her to black out momentarily.
When she opened her eyes, there was Naruto hovering over her. She could feel her cheeks turning the brightest color of red to date. She stuttered incoherently for a while and Naruto began to help her up, placing his hand on hers to lift her, but someone interrupted this and he went running off.
Hinata stared at her hand after he left. She had felt absolutely nothing. This worried her. It might have been because he had been gone for so long, but the loss of what she thought she would feel was hard on her. Quickly she grabbed Kiba's hand and took comfort in the feeling of love she got, but the lack of being tressured and protected seemed to gape wider then it had before.