Cocoon

Chapter 7

~o~

The journey home was about as peaceful as the journey forth. While it did take quite a bit longer due to the lack of a passing salesman with room in his cart, no assassin ever came lurking from the shadows to finish the job, much to the team's relief. Kiba never ceased to be on edge, but Shino and Hinata remained silent and placid as they normally did. Practically the only event that set them back was some berries the team had decided to snack on mid-way. While the boys quite enjoyed them, they didn't agree with Hinata. After relieving herself of the contents of her stomach, Hinata spent a good portion of the journey on Akamaru's back.

When the team finally laid eyes on the gates of Konoha, Hinata was suddenly overwhelmed with a sense of unease. What if Kiba was right? What if they weren't meant to be here? What kind of welcome would they face?

As they entered the bustling village, they were greeted with the usual apprehensive nod by the guards, but no one seemed to be particularly suspicious, but that didn't ease Hinata's paranoia. After a while, Shino pointed it out that she had slipped into her Byakugan without even noticing it. Kiba even jumped a bit when he looked around and found her with her bulging, veiny, lunar-like vision.

"Holy hell, Hinata! I swear I will never get used to how creepy that looks. Give me a head's up before you do that, okay?"

Hinata quickly returned her eyes to normal, then looked at the ground, ashamed. Shino placed a hand on her shoulder and whispered to her quietly.

"Are you alright?"

"I feel so nervous...my stomach is full of knots."

"Hmm...how'about you go take a bath and go home? Kiba and I will take care of the mission report."

"I don't want to go home."

She had meant to keep that thought in her head, but some deep fear that was gnawing inside her had let it slip from her lips.

"Would you like to come to my place then? I'll make us some tea."

"That...does sound nice," she mumbled before biting her lip. She looked at him with honest eyes.

"But I meant what I said that morning...I don't want anything between us to go any farther. I'm still with Naruto, and I want to be with Naruto," she whispered.

"As you wish," Shino replied rather curtly. The tone in his voice made it feel as if a snake had bitten her.

"I'm sorry, Shino-kun..."

"It's alright," he declared without looking at her, "Go take your bath and do as you will. As I said I'll take care of the report."

With that, Shino marched ahead, forcing Kiba and Akamaru to speed up their pace. Hinata was left alone in the crowded street that led up to the Hokage tower. She stood there in silence, watching them disappear into the masses, and the pains in her abdomen writhed around relentlessly. Perhaps a bath would do her some good.

~o~

About half an hour later, Hinata was submerged to her neck in the steamy waters of the Konoha Onsen. While the stomach pain seemed to have yielded for the time being, her thoughts never lightened. It was a peculiar time to be in the spring, so it was empty save for another woman on the opposite side of the pool. While she looked somewhat familiar, Hinata was certain she'd never met her. However, it seemed that the woman knew something about Hinata from the way she was staring at her. The woman was somewhere in her thirties, with a slender build and somewhat short, wild hair. What was particularly odd was that she was wearing a pair of round sunglasses, which made Hinata feel all the more uncomfortable since her eyes were hidden.

The woman looked at Hinata as if she had pissed in the spring. She also kept scratching at the inside of her arms uncomfortably.

"Can I help you with something?" Hinata finally asked a bit sharply, tired of her judgmental gaze. The woman said nothing, but simply wrapped herself up in her towels and left the spring, leaving it the entire pool to Hinata.

This just weighed even more on the anxieties swarming about in her. Everything was normal until she had been assigned to this stupid mission, which honestly was the strangest mission she could recall taking on. All she wanted was to go home and find Naruto waiting for her, ready to accept her back into his arms.

But what about Shino? Could she spend the rest of her days with that secret locked away and look at Naruto with a straight face? The thought made her feel sick...or maybe it was the herby smell of the hot spring. Either way, it was probably best she went home.

As she had expected, her room was empty and neatly cleaned by the maid. Defeated, Hinata dragged her feet to the futon, collapsed onto it, and buried her face in the pillows. For a moment, she thought she caught a whiff of Naruto's shampoo. She inhaled deeply, believing that if she thought about him hard enough, it would summon him to her. It seemed to work plenty of times before, why not now?

Suddenly, Hinata heard a knock on her door. She almost thought she had hallucinated it for a moment, but a second knock shortly followed. Had her summoning thoughts actually worked? She rushed to the door and swung it open frantically...revealing a short woman that Hinata didn't recognize.

"Er...yes?" Hinata asked, confused. The woman bowed politely.

"Good Afternoon Hyuuga-san. I'm from the Konoha Hospital, and I'm here to let you know that your annual birth control shot is now due. Please proceed to the hospital to receive your shot within the next two weeks, or you will have to wait for the next round."

Hinata barely comprehended what the woman was saying, but she knew that Naruto wasn't a part of it.

"Oh, okay...thank you," Hinata replied. The woman bowed again and handed her a card with the information, then wished her a good day before going on her way. Hinata closed the door and pressed her back to it, then slid down to a sit, fiddling with the card absent-mindedly.

It was only when her eyes actually met the words on the card that she realized what it meant.

~o~

By the time Hinata reached the doors of the hospital, it was already after hours. Desperately, she smacked the glass with her palm, hoping to get someone's attention, but to no avail. Tears welled up in her eyes...she wasn't sure if she could handle waiting until tomorrow. She needed to know and she needed to know soon.

Fortunately, or perhaps unfortunately, she spotted a staff member exiting out a side door. When she rushed to the person in question, she stopped short when she realized it was Ino Yamanaka. She thought about running, but Ino noticed her before she could.

"Good Evening Hinata-chan, are you okay? What are you doing at the hospital so late?"

Well, it was this or not knowing.

"Ino-san...I know...you're not exactly the best at keeping secrets, but I really need your help.."

Ino gave her a troubling look.

"Did Sakura tell you that?! I'll have you know that doctor-patient confidentiality is very important to me! If you have a medical issue, I'm sworn to secrecy!"

Hinata wasn't entirely confident with that answer, but she didn't have much of a choice.

"I need...I...n-n-need...a.a...a-a p-p-pregnancy t-test." Hinata managed to sputter out.

Ino's eyes grew as big as pomegranates. "Hinata-chan, you're pregnant?! Oh my goodness, Naruto's going to freak!"

Hinata waved her hands at her nervously, trying to lower her volume. "Ino, please! I don't know that yet...please just help me see if I am..."

Ino patted her gently on the shoulder. "Don't worry Ms, Hyuga, I'll get you sorted out. Come on 'round the back. It's pretty quiet at this hour."

Hinata nodded nervously.

~o~

A little while later, Hinata was waiting in a dim examination room with her hands folded over her knees, and a bandaid over the inside of her arm where Ino had drawn some blood for sampling. She mentioned it was the most accurate way to determine pregnancy, so Hinata had consented despite her distaste for needles. She was so weak from the blood loss and so thoroughly wound up in anxiety that she was almost trembling.

All this time she had thought she had just had an allergic reaction to some wild berries, but now her nausea was starting to take a different turn. When was the last time she had been through a cycle? Two weeks? Three? Even if she had had sex with Shino, she couldn't have possibly been impregnated in such a short amount of time, right? No, if she was pregnant, it had to be Naruto's. But what if it wasn't?

She gripped her arms tightly and held herself. She wanted someone by her side, but who? Naruto? She pictured how his face would light up if she told him she was having his son. She smiled at the thought, but then his expression quickly turned to distraught as she told him she had betrayed him with Shino. Why had she been so stupid?!

Well...maybe, maybe she was overreacting. Maybe she simply was sick from the berries, and there was nothing to worry about at all. Ino would come in and tell her sorry, maybe next time. Then she could go home, crawl into her futon, and wait for Naruto to return. Maybe she could even explain to him the event with Shino, and they could talk it out and everything would be okay...

Hinata jumped as the door to the room flung open, and in walked Ino with a sheet of paper, smile as wide as Konoha itself. Hinata's heart sank to her belly.

"Congratulations, future mommy!" She said with an irritating cheeriness. She then wrapped her arms around Hinata and began rambling about how proud Naruto will be and how Konoha history will be made and...oh, of course! She needed to start taking vitamins if she wanted a healthy baby! She also knew of a prenatal yoga class she could get her into for cheap...

Truthfully, Hinata couldn't hear a word of it. All she could think of is what to do next. Surely she should be happy about this, shouldn't she? No, of course not. She thought about sneaking off and having it terminated...maybe that would be for the best. She couldn't do it here, not with every nurse in Konoha aware of who she was. Besides, could Ino really keep her doctor/patient confidentiality?

~o~

Not forty-eight hours later, Hinata found that the answer to that question was "No, she can't." While on the way to pick up some groceries, at least three villagers were smiling at her with an air of knowledge they shouldn't have. As the grocery cashier handed her her change, she bowed politely to her and said "Congratulations, Ms. Hyuga." Hinata sighed, bowed her head, and left without saying a word.

Everything was irritating. The day was wretchedly hot, and the mosquitoes were especially hungry for her. As she made her way home, she kept feeling the delicate sting of their presence along her arm, and she would periodically slap them away. Eventually she managed to swat one, but when she lifted her arm away, she found not the crushed carcass of a mosquito, but that of a very familiar beetle.

"Shit..." she whispered to herself, then looked up and all around her. No sign of anyone, and no sign of him...was he stalking her? She looked at her arm and noticed the beetle was no longer there. Was she hallucinating?

She felt a strong pinch on her other arm, and she looked for the source of the pain without attacking. Another one of his beetles appeared. Hinata kept her vision focused on it so intensely that she almost started slipping into her Byakugan. The beetle was behaving her oddly, as if it was trying to dig into her skin. Without feeling anything more, Hinata watched in horror as the beetle slipped into her flesh.

Before she could scream, a voice called her name behind her.

"Hinata...?"

She looked up to find Shino a few feet away, reaching his arm out towards her as if to keep her from running. She quickly turned back to her arm, and saw no sign of the beetle at all. She must be losing her mind.

"What is it Shino?" She said sharply, refusing to face him.

"There's...been rumors circulating..."

Hinata remained still. "What about them?"

"It's...it's mine, isn't it?"

Shino sure did know how to get to the point. Hinata shot him a glare adorned with bulging veins.

"No, it's not yours. It's Naruto's. We had sex before I left on the mission. It's his."

"Are you sure?"

"Of course I'm sure."

"Hinata..."

She was a typhoon of rage, fear, and loneliness. He didn't come any closer, her body language was clear to him. Yet his expression carried one of pity and concern.

"Hinata if there's any chance that it's mine...you have choices. I can help you."

"Choices?!" She barked. "What kind of choices? Everyone in the village knows I'm pregnant thanks to fucking loud-mouth Ino, and they all think I'm carrying the son of the Ichihokage! Just what choices are you expecting me to make?!"

His hand kept twitching, as if he wanted nothing more than to touch her. His normal calm demeanor was crumbling. "We can say you miscarried..."

"What will that prove? That I'm unfit to carry his child? What kind of girlfriend would I be?! Besides, I have no reason to! This is Naruto's child!"

"Hinata...there are things about carrying an Aburame child...if there's any chance..."

"There's no chance!"

"Hinata, please! Be reasonable!" His hand reached for her, and within an instant she stunned it with a slice of her gentle palm. He yelped and retracted quickly, gripping his wrist. He looked at her with a pained emotion that made her feel like she was made of ice. Without another word, she turned and fled as fast as she could.

When she reached her living quarters, she threw her groceries in the corner, locked the door and the windows, then dove into the sheets of her futon. She buried her face in her pillows and screamed.

~End of Chapter 7~