Nothing Is Easy In Konohagakure

Naruto was fuming. Neji was pleased. Hinata was anxious. Kiba was confused. Sakura was worried about Naruto's reaction. Shino was…interested.

To recap, by a slip of the mouth, Shino had just mentioned the wedding to Naruto accidentally (whether it was by accident, really by accident, only Shino knew). Hinata automatically panicked and began yelling strange things about the wedding, and mentioned that it would be she and Shino who'd be getting married in only a year.

After calming down immensely, Hinata finally explained it to Naruto, all about how she was betrothed to Shino, but neither of them wished to be married. She also told him of the loophole, and her only chance to not have to marry Shino was if she married Naruto after he achieved the position of Hokage.

Naruto's fists were now clenched, and he was pointed in Hinata's direction. "First, the beatings… Then the marriage your father set up between you and Shino… Anything else important you're keeping from me?" Naruto asked through clenched teeth.

"Iie," Hinata said, shaking her head from side-to-side. "Gomen, but… I couldn't really tell you…" she said, biting her lip and looking down. "You… you seem like the type who'd marry me because he knew about it… Even if he didn't want to…" Hinata admitted, tears forming just beneath her eyes.

Naruto's anger—towards Hinata keeping the secret from him, anyways—went away just as quickly as it had come. He lifted his hands gently to her cheeks and cradled the soft, smooth skin, using his thumbs to wipe away the moisture that had formed into pools at the bottom of her eyes.

"Never be sorry. Don't cry," Naruto halfway whimpered, unable to stand the sight of Hinata shedding tears.

Hinata, at this action by Naruto, no longer felt like crying, and the tears that had threatened to fall seemed as if they had never been there. Naruto leaned forward towards her, and though she had already been comforted completely by his words, hugged her tightly, and whispered into her ears, as if he thought she hadn't heard him before, "Don't cry."

Hinata clutched at the back of his jacket and nodded tentatively against his neck, trying not to scratch herself on the zipper.

"Gomen, Hinata. I thought he knew," Shino apologized, pushing his glasses up (as was his custom when he was uncomfortable).

"What's going on?" Kiba asked, completely dumb folded.

'Shit. I never did tell Kiba, did I?' Shino asked himself with a sigh. He turned towards Kiba with a sigh, and, knowing that Naruto would eventually tell Kiba, he explained the situation to Kiba.

After he did so, Kiba was quite… silent. "… So, why are you still running?" Kiba asked after a length of time.

"Because it would be dishonorable to drop out, for me," Shino added as an afterthought.

"Do I really mean that little to you?" Kiba asked, his tone somewhat… empty, as if something had died inside of him. Akamaru was looking up at his master with sympathetic eyes, as if he could feel the things that Kiba felt.

Shino had no idea how to answer. However, he nearly sighed in relief when men, similar to the ones from before, appeared. Shino expected them to knock Kiba, Sakura, Hinata, and Akamaru out, as they had before (although, before, Sakura wasn't a victim), but instead, each one of them grabbed someone (except Akamaru, they knocked him out because he'd be annoying to grab) and ran in the direction of the forests.

This time, it was just Naruto and Shino competing. Naruto turned to Shino, and noting that they went in two different directions. The girls were being taken in one direction, while Kiba was being taken in another. Surprisingly enough, the three of them had stopped screaming a long time ago, because they knew that it was a part of the test at this point, and protesting was futile, anyways.

"Go after Kiba," Naruto said firmly before running in the direction of Sakura and Hinata. Shino sighed, knowing that Naruto would get more points from saving the girls, but really, he couldn't leave Kiba all by himself. So, he took off after Kiba, knowing that anyways, Kiba might forgive him if he was the one who 'rescued' him, or at least, forget about it—for a little while, just long enough for Shino to think about it.

Maybe.

And so, Shino flung out his arms, and commanded his bugs to go ahead of him and attach themselves to the ninja that had carried Kiba away, just as a tracking device, just in case he should lose sight of the 'kidnapper'.

Meanwhile, Naruto was attempting to think up a tactic in fighting the ninja. Their hands were occupied, true, but, even though they couldn't really fight back, this posed a problem—getting the captives back without bodily harming them. Naruto was still contemplating how to handle them, when he went over what he had in stock.

'10 kunai, 16 shuriken, four or five lengths of ten foot wire, two sets of twenty foot wire, and about three flash bombs…' Naruto went over in his mind as he chased after the two ninja.

However, as he was thinking, they cleverly changed courses. Naruto quickly made a chakra reinforced Kage Bunshin and sent it after the ninja carrying Sakura, thankful that they thought the same thoughts at the same time he did.

'Let's see… If I get above them, and throw a kunai with wire attached at an angle down at them and have it wrap around the both of them…' Naruto thought. Instead of jumping upwards (which would have lost time), he jumped forward and put his feet in front of him—directly in front—and had them quickly attach to a tree, and then, ran up it's trunk to the branch above. He continued jumping at the same pace the other ninja was, which saved time n comparison to having simply jumped upwards and continuing to run then.

He pulled out the wire and kunai, and, knowing his clone was doing the same, quickly wrapped the wire into the end of the hole of the kunai. He pulled it tight using his teeth as he ran, unable to stop running. He swung the kunai, attached to the wire, above his head in a great circle, before finally throwing the kunai down. The kunai went in front of the ninja, but, to Naruto's chagrin, it attached to the tree trunk.

That wasn't supposed to happen. The ninja bounced back from the wire, and, unable to stop itself, fell backwards. It disappeared a puff of smoke, and Naruto silently cursed the ANBU's refusal to make chakra-reinforced clones when it wasn't needed.

Naruto, without thinking, flung himself downwards. 'Shit,' he thought almost as soon as he did it. When he realized he still was clutching onto the end of the wire, he quickly reinforced the grip he had on the wire with chakra and pointed downwards at Hinata, forcing himself to more quickly fall.

She had enough sense to turn in midair so that her back was facing the ground, which forced her to slow. She stretched out her hand, and Naruto did the same.

He was wondering if he'd make it or not. It would be a close call, either way, and Naruto needed to speed himself up. He expelled some chakra from his feet, hoping somehow that it'd push against air, the same way it would do with water, and propel him further through the air.

Because of this, even if it didn't make him go much faster, it put him on the 'safe' side of the borderline that he was fluctuating between. He grabbed Hinata's hand and pulled her close to her body.

POP

The sound, which was really very soft, echoed through the forest (in Hinata's ears), twice echoed (the same scenario having been played out with Sakura). Sakura landed on the ground with a small thump as Naruto's clone disappeared, but Hinata was left alone with a hurt Naruto.

"Naruto-kun!" Hinata exclaimed, shocked. Something Naruto hadn't thought about when he dived down after her, holding onto the wire, was that his arm could get pulled out of its socket.

----

Sakura sighed in annoyance as she stood above Naruto, whose arm was on a sling.

"Congratulations. Because of your idiocy, you almost tore your rotator cuff. Be more careful next time." Sakura threw down the clipboard onto Naruto's bed ad turned to him. "You need to have ice applied on it to keep swelling down. No training for today or the next three days, and then, just to be sure, be sure to do some shoulder exercises. You're lucky to have Hinata to take care of you," Sakura muttered darkly before walking out of the room.

Naruto sighed.

"She's angry because she was worried, you know," Hinata pointed out softly as she grabbed a cloth rag and placed ice inside of it.

"I know," Naruto replied. He winced in shock when Hinata applied the shoddy excuse for a ice pack to Naruto's shoulder.

"Shh, shh…" Hinata chided gently, even though she knew the sudden hissing sound that issued from his lips was out of shock, not out of pain.

He fell silent, and looked away. Hinata sighed. "Thanks for saving me," she said, breaking the silence.

"Don't thank me. Sorry for getting you into this situation," Naruto replied.

"Don't be sorry. You putting me in these situations may save my happiness," Hinata responded, similar to the way Naruto had cut her gratitude off.

"Well, I guess we're at a checkmate, ne?" Naruto asked with a small smirk, attempting to use Shikamaru's Go lingo.

"Stalemate," Hinata automatically corrected. "And I'm guessing Shikamaru is still beating you at Go, right?" Hinata asked with a small chuckle.

"Yeah. Badly," Naruto replied in the affirmative.

"Oh, right. The ANBU gave out points, again. You got five," Hinata said suddenly.

"Five?" Naruto asked in shock.

"Yeah. Two for saving me and Sakura, one for using resources on the move, one for not hurting me, and one for wounding yourself at the risk of saving me," Hinata explained.

"… Wow, I got a point for being an idiot… But why didn't a get a point for not hurting Sakura?" Naruto asked.

"Because you left her alone in the middle of the forest, and she landed on her butt—hard—from about three foot above the ground," Hinata explained with a small chuckle.

----

Shino, unlike Naruto, had retrieved Kiba relatively easily and achieved three points (one for saving Kiba, one for not hurting Kiba, and one for having a tacking device). He was still contemplating his answer to Kiba's earlier question, when Kiba, alongside Akamaru, walked up to Shino.

"Don't think I forgot about my question from earlier," Kiba growled lightly.

"Yes, you did," Shino pointed out with a sigh.

"Damn. You're right, Akamaru reminded me," Kiba said with a sigh.

And then, Shino did the unthinkable—he laughed. In response to his laugh, Kiba shuddered and cried out, "That's creepy!"

Shino gave him a 'what?' look from behind the glasses, and Kiba explained, "You laughing! I used to think that, because you didn't laugh, you were creepy, but now that I hear it…!" He trailed off at the end of this statement, but instead, shuddered again to prove his point. "Why'd you laugh, anyways?"

"I was laughing because my boyfriend has to be reminded of things by his dog," Shino admitted with a sigh.

"Oh. I guess that is funny…" Kiba said, before chuckling. After a few sharp barks from Akamaru, Kiba turned back to Shino. "Don't think I forgot about my question from earlier," he growled once again.

Shino sighed. "You mean a lot to me. But… I don't think I can give up honor," Shino explained, averting his gaze from Kiba behind the sunglasses. 'He'll never know…' Shino told himself, while looking not at Kiba's eyes, but at his ear.

"Look at me," Kiba commanded, shocking Shino (and himself) for knowing that Shino wasn't looking directly at him. "Can… can you honestly say… That I mean less to you than honor? What… what if I said I'd die if you kept running for Hokage?"

"You aren't that dramatic," Shino pointed out dryly.

"I…! Fine, if you don't, I'll never talk to you again!" Kiba yelled out, though, after it left his lips, he was slightly mortified that he had used such a childish threat.

"… Really?" Shino asked.

"Really," Kiba said with a nod, knowing that he couldn't take it back.

"…" Shino's silence worried Kiba, but Shino finally stood up and sighed. "Very well. I shall drop out, but only on two conditions," Shino finally decided.

"What?" Kiba asked, intrigued.

"The first is that my father never finds out. The second is that, when Hinata and Naruto marry, you and I get married," Shino decided firmly.

"What?" Kiba parroted from earlier, not sure of what he heard.

"My father doesn't find out and you and I get married later on," Shino explained slowly, as if Kiba had mental issues.

"… What?" Kiba asked again.

"Look. I'm not dropping out to keep a relationship going if I don't have some sort of confirmation that it'll go, you know, all the way…" Shino explained.

"But we haven't even said that we loved each other yet! There's a process! You know, getting to know each other, 'I like you', dating, 'I love you', even more dating, 'I do'!" Kiba cried out, practically ranting.

"Well, we know each other extremely well… We've said the 'I like you'… We've dated… I love you, Kiba," Shino thought, sarcastically ticking off the 'processes' on his fingers.

"… I love you, too, but…" Kiba whimpered dejectedly, finally falling into place beside Shino on the bench. "It seems too soon…" Kiba explained.

"Do you wish to marry me?" Shino asked, after a few seconds of thinking.

"Not at the moment…"

"Is that the direction you want this relationship to go in?" Shino asked.

"Yeah," Kiba replied, without hardly thinking.

"That's all I need," Shino said softly, before leaning against Kiba's shoulder. "If you really want me to, I'll drop out," Shino said quietly.

"Thanks," Kiba muttered before wrapping his arms around Shino's shoulder and kissing him on the top of the head.

----

"You're dropping out, too?" Tsunade asked with a sigh.

"Hai. But, if you could, would you not inform my father that I've dropped out?" Shino asked after a small length of time.

"Fine, but only on the condition you give me your reason," Tsunade replied with a smirk.

"… My boyfriend asked me, too," Shino explained.

"You're whipped," Tsunade stated, without thinking about it.

"… You're right," Shino replied with a small chuckle.