Author's Notes: I do not own Naruto or its characters. I am simply using them for my own enjoyment. As stated before some of the characters are a bit OOC but I am trying to include a quite a few of them so bear with me. Also this part was written on 2 hours of sleep so I hope it is not too incredibly awful. The chapter is a bit on the dull side because I am still setting up what is going on but hopefully the next chapter will be a bit more exciting.

Special Thanks: I would like to thank everyone who read the first chapter. All of those hits were certainly insprising to write some more. I would like to thank thatrandomkid, dark aura 132, and g r e e n . f o b . 4 . l y f for their reviews. They are greatly appreciated and are probably the only reason I made the effort to get out the next chapter already. Hope you all enjoy.


Hinata looked out the window, her pale eyes now hidden behind the deep violet of her contact lenses. The night itself was cloudy, thick gray clouds hanging heavy in the air blocking out the stars and the deep blue of the night sky. Like the night before it was cool, a breeze causing just enough of a chill in the air to warrant a jacket. And it was the breeze that pushed the heavy clouds across the sky allowing the half moon to peak through the gaps for several moments before disappearing in a dim glow behind its shield once again.

Tonight though the moon wasn't the only one with a shield. No, Hinata had hers gripped lightly in her hands, resting comfortably on her lap. So when the moon disappeared behind its own, Hinata brought the small black mask to her face and slipped it on, hiding most of her face from the eyes of the world around her. The worn surface of the mask brushed against her skin, a touch oddly comforting. It was as if it was reassuring her that she no longer had to hide. She was allowed to shed the shell she wore around others. The shy and timid girl was cast aside in an instant, all because of a simple little mask that her grandmother had bought her one Halloween. It was if the change was unreal and yet for Hinata it was all too real. It was the only time that she was able to be herself. No fear of judgment and no need to be seen under a microscope of scrutiny. For the first time all day she was free to be what she wanted to. For the first time she was herself.

The truck rolled to a slow stop out in front of Naruto's house. Hinata looked over at the dark house where Naruto lived with his foster parent Iruka. There were no signs of light coming from in the house but Naruto should be up. Unless of course he had fallen asleep. She couldn't even begin to count the number of times that he had done that before. The first time she and Shikamaru had waited in the truck for nearly fifteen minutes before they had decided to shut it off and go peak inside Naruto's window. Hinata had made Shikamaru do that and sure enough Naruto had been sound asleep on his bed, mouth open wide and snoring rather loudly.

This wasn't the case tonight though as a moment later the front door of the single story home, swung open and Naruto stepped outside. He closed the door behind him and pulled a jacket around himself before jogging over to the truck and coming around to the passenger's side.

Naurto climbed into the truck beside Hinata essentially wedging her in between him and Shikamaru. She didn't mind though. They were her best friends after all and so it was with the comfortable ease of friends that she sat shoulder to shoulder with Shikamaru and thigh to thigh with Naruto. Besides it wasn't that long of a drive to the garage, and at the moment she was far too excited to let the lack of personal space bother her any.

"Hey there guys," Naruto practically shouted into her ear, causing Hinata to inwardly wince at the sudden volume her eardrum was just exposed to. Beside her Shikamaru leaned forward and lightly banged his head against the steering wheel of his truck and muttered something about why he had allowed himself to get involved in this.

"Because secretly you really do like it," Hinata said with a smile, wrapping her arms around Shikamaru's arm and giving it a friendly squeeze. Not once did Hinata stutter or stumble over her words. She never did when she was wearing her mask. It drew forth her confidence, it made her comfortable in her own skin. Even Naruto and Shikamaru were amazed at what such a simple item could do for Hinata. It turned her into a whole new person. It made her a confident, intelligent, witty, and dare they even say sexy individual. Of course they would never say that to her because while she had confidence she still had a tendency to turn quite red when given a compliment like that by someone close to her. At least she had finally stopped turning red every time some random guy shouted it to her. Not only that but Shikamaru had also got Naruto to stop trying to kill everyone of those random guys.

"So," Naruto said drawing the word out and making it last about 3 seconds longer than it should have taken to say. "Is Temari going to be there?"

Shikamaru gave Naruto a look that plainly said that he was lucky Hinata was between the two of them and then peeled away from the curb in the direction of the garage. Temari was Shikamaru's girlfriend of about three months. Personally Hinata thought the two were a rather strange pair. When they were together they looked like an extremely cute couple but knowing them both it didn't seem to fit. At least that was how it had been at first. Shikamaru was a genius but also the laziest person she knew. He was laid back, liked to sleep, and would rather not get involved with a lot of things. Temari was a motivated in-your-face sort of girl who didn't take a whole lot of crap from anyone. The blonde was a bit overbearing at times which made Hinata wonder how their relationship worked but after seeing them together all this time, she couldn't actually picture them apart. It didn't fit. It would be like Naruto being quiet. That there was a frightening thought. In fact it scared her to the point where she shivered slightly.

"You cold," Naruto asked pulling her out of her thoughts and making her blink her violet eyes at him. She shook her head almost immediately and then smiled at him.

"No I am fine. Just got the chills that's all," she said realizing that they were turning into the garage already. Hinata smiled as she looked at the familiar building bathed in the harsh light of the surrounding streetlights. From 

under the slightly ajar garage door, a warm golden glow poured forth onto the pavement and a few shadows moved about inside the three car garage.

Shikamaru parked his truck beside Temari's car and the three piled out of the car. Brushing her hair back out of her face and wrapping her jacket tighter around her slender frame, Hinata followed behind the two boys as they made their way over to the garage.

"Hey coming in," Naruto shouted as he pounded his fist against the garage door before walking around to the side door. He opened the door and stepped into the garage followed by Shikamaru and Hinata. Immediately, Temari who had been waiting for Shikamaru to get there, appeared at his side and rested her head against his shoulder, some of her blonde hair falling in front of her eyes. Shikamaru wrapped his arms around her narrow waist comfortably and kissed the top of her head lightly.

Naruto turned around and made a face, which caused Hinata to bring her hand to her mouth to cover up a giggle that threatened to spill from her lips. Shikamaru sent Naruto a glare from over Temari's head and Naruto slowly backed away into the corner, taking a seat on an unoccupied stool.

"Now how is my favorite little racer," said a rather merry voice that made Naruto cringe and Hinata smile. Jiraiya came strolling over to where she was standing and wrapped his arm around her shoulder.

"Why is she the favorite? I am just as good as Violet," cried out an overly energetic teen, who also happened to be Hinata's teammate, Rock Lee. Like everyone else in this area of her life, he knew her as Violet. The nickname had originated from the color of her eyes, or in her case, the color of her contacts. She had certainly not used her name after she went through such trouble to hide who she really was. And so aside from Shikamaru and Naruto, they all knew her as Violet. Not even Temari knew who she really was though Shikamaru only kept it from her after Hinata had begged him over and over again.

"Yes Lee is just as good as Violet if not better," said Gai, as he slid out from underneath the car he was working on, grease smudged on his face. Hinata rolled her eyes. The two were like identical clones aside from the height difference, both of them standing there with the same goofy hair cut and mechanic suits.

Gai and Lee both raced for Jaiyra. He was their sponsor so to say, as well as Hinata's. Gai had trained Lee himself. At times Hinata swore that Lee was Gai's own personal mini-me. She had no problems with either of them personally though for some reason Lee insisted that she was his rival. She figured that it stemmed back to Gai's own rivalry with Kakashi, who had taught Hinata what he had known about racing. Lee seemed to have decided to carry on the rivalry.

"Where's Kakashi," Hinata asked ignoring all the shouting going on around her and wondering where her racing mentor might be.

"Late as usual," Jiraiya said as he took his arm off of Hinata's shoulder and went over to placate Lee who was still on the verge of an emotional breakdown because Jiraiya had said that Violet was his favorite. Hinata shook her head and then looked over at Naruto who was now preoccupied with some magazine, probably looking at the models sprawled out on various cars if she had to take a guess.

"Hey Shika, you got a minute," Hinata said before moving over to one of the covered vehicles and running her hand lovingly along the cover that rested over top of the car. Shikamaru whispered something in Temari's ear and the lazily strolled over to Hinata and the car. He grabbed one side of the cover and Hinata took the other. They pulled off the cover to reveal a black Mustang GT. The car had two new violet racing strips along the side as well, courtesy of Jiraiya and his effort to promote Violet even further in the world of illegal street racing. He was essentially her sponsor. This was his car that she raced so the more money she made, the more money he made as well. The same went for Lee, Gai, and Kakashi since they all were sponsored by him though the latter two were slowly getting into their own garages and such.

Hinata smiled at the car and rubbed away a nonexistent spot with the clean cloth she had grabbed from the nearby table. Shikamaru shook his head and chuckled.

"You got it bad," he said, his brown eyes meeting her gaze for a minute to which Hinata gave him a defiant look and crossed her arms over her chest.

"Well it's your fault then," she shot back before turning her attention back to the car. It really was his fault after all. Shikamaru never really felt the need to waste his time doing schoolwork and other things that he considered to be a drag but quite in order to give himself something to do that seemed actually relatively worthwhile to him, he would work on cars. Of course it was hard to get him to do anything unless the motivation hit him, but usually he could be persuaded to work on a car. Either was his intelligence certainly did not stop in the books, he was a whiz with cars as well. And Hinata had spent countless hours with him simply sitting around doing her homework, and 

occasionally getting his help with it, while he had his head buried under a hood. And so was born her interest in cars and her now involvement in the world of street racing.

Sure it was illegal but she had long since gotten over that minor detail. At the time she had begun she been terrified, but as time went on she realized just how alive she felt when she was racing and her fear of being caught took second to her love of the adrenaline rush that coursed through her veins whenever she took a sharp turn at a high speed, or went tearing away from the rally when the scanner picked up police activity.

"I put in the upgraded sway bar we got for the rear just yesterday and I made sure to tune up your engine too. It should be in good shape for tonight," Shikamaru said unenthusiastically.

"Thanks Shika," she said with a smile. Hinata watched Shikamaru turn away and head back over to where Temari was standing. The tall blonde was now talking with Naruto who seemed to have finally had his attention pulled away from the magazine he had been looking at.

"Hey now I am going to head on over to the rally. I need to find Tsunade and put down my bets on a couple of races before it's too late," Jiraiya said to them all as he ran a hand through his long gray ponytail. "If you need me you know how to get a hold of me," he said referring to his cell phone. "Don't be much longer than another half hour. I don't want either of you too missing your run," he said before slipping out the door.

Hinata nodded and then looked over at her friends who were all standing in the corner chatting away. She was really glad they came to watch. It meant a lot to her. Naruto leaned back slightly in the stool and nearly fell over causing Hinata to laugh. He grinned sheepishly and rubbed the back of his head before his eyes lit up and he jumped up like some sort of schoolboy.

"Hey Violet can I ride over with you to the rally," he said practically begging. Naruto, though there had been a few close calls, was finally beginning to call her by Violet in front of the others. She had been afraid that he was never going to remember but she had apparently underestimated him because now he didn't slip up nearly as much as he used to.

"Of course," Hinata said with a smile. "You know what, how about we just head out now. I don't need to sit around here any longer," she suggested.

"Alright," Naruto said pumping his fist and then running over to the Mustang. "See you there guys," he said waving to Temari and Shikamaru before opening the passenger door and getting in the car. Hinata smiled and then waved goodbye to the couple as well, noticing that Lee and Gai were hard at work on the car Lee was going to be using later.

"See you all there," Hinata said, hitting the garage door button and waiting for it to fully open before peeling out of the garage, the steady hum of the engine a sweet melody in her ears as they headed for the rally point.