Hinata sighed as she bent down and poured the puppy her second bowl of food. Tsume had dropped a huge responsibility on her shoulders that day, she lifted up and scanned the puppy who was waiting for her to move out of the way "Even if Tsume wants us to go most places together for bonding Kekaimaru, doesn't mean you'll be with me everywhere, so get comfortable here." She stepped to the foot of her bed and laid out the smaller dog bed Hana had brought on her second trip to the Hyuga manor and patted it to get all the cotton lumps flat, beside that was Akamaru's larger one which he was currently curled up on, waiting for his new owner to take them into the village like she said she was going to.
"Since you both ate already, don't expect me to give you any while we're out piggy-dog," She grinned at the smaller dog who pouted, looking about like she'd cry, if dogs cried. But she knew with the Inuzuka's dogs, there was nothing a human could do that their dog couldn't. She slid her door open and walked to the main floor of the Hyuga's main house, trying to avoid her cousin and father at any costs. Once she was out of the gates of the compound she picked her small dog up and slid her inside the front of her green jounin vest and made sure the huge dog was still following behind her. She let out a loud sigh of relief and began walking toward the ramen shop with a smug look on her face. Kekaimaru barked about three times from her home to the stand, which she thought was pretty good because Kekaimaru was a fairly noisy dog as far as she knew.
"Hey, Hinata!" She looked around and spotted a certain brunette pineapple head calling her name.
"Shikamaru? Weren't you on a mission?" She questioned him, wondering if his a-ranked mission was that easy.
"Weren't you not a dog owner before I left?" He walked with her smirking at his good comeback. He looked at the dog and patted her head making the puppy pant a bit.
"It was supposed to only be Akamaru, but that's not what Tsume meant, I guess." She smiled down at the dog in her jacket.
"Troublesome woman." Hinata giggled at his reply, knowing even before he spoke that's what he'd say. "Oh, yeah. Obito and Kakashi wanted to see you. They're at the cemetary. I was going to Asuma's grave with Kurenai and he was there and asked me to get you."
"Alright, are you going back?"
"No, I just brought Kurenai back home and I don't feel like walking all the way back there."
"Alright see you later." He nodded and walked in the opposite direction. Hinata winced when she felt claws dig into her chest and looked down at the helpless puppy and shook her head smiling.
"What am I going to do with you?" she asked and pulled the squirming puppy from her chest and on the ground. The small auburn dog scurried beneath the larger dog and walked under him, feeling more secure. She headed to Ino's flower shop and opened the door, she walked to the front where the blonde was watering her precious plants and tapped her shoulder. Ino turned around to meet nervous lavender hues, and she felt a pang of guilt deep inside her for taking her rival's side rather than the sweet Hyuga's.
She was pulled from her thoughts when little Hinata asked her if she was alright. "Hum. Oh yeah, sorry about that Hinata. Hey come with me, I want to show you my new shipment of flowers I just got the other day," Hinata nodded hesitantly but followed suit with the blonde. 'Yeah, i'll make it up to her,' she thought happily. She'd give the Hyuga a free set of roses from now on. Hinata followed awkwardly behind the blonde to a back room of her flower shop making sure her nin-kin weren't causing any ruckus while at the same time making sure they hadn't gotten curious and decided to walk off. Ino pulled the door shut once her and her dogs were inside and flipped the light switch on to reveal around seven rows of freshly picked roses and flowers of many different types. Hinata gasped at all the beautiful plants she had just seen, making Ino smirk in satisfaction, Sakura never appreciated her flowers like Hinata did, she understood why Ino loved her precious artifacts as much as she herself did, before Sakura got in the way, Hinata and herself would sometimes have an hour long conversation about them. "Hinata, I'm truly sorry for the way I have treated you so to make it up to you, you can come by every day and get a free set of flowers of your choice."
"Ano... I don't know what to say, it's just that I've always wanted to be close friends with you and, your apologizing now that everything is done and over with." The Hyuga replied going back to fiddling with her index fingers and poking them together.
"I am truly sorry for the way I have been treating you... I decided yesterday that the next time I see Sakura I'm telling her that we're done being friends and going back to rivalry. It pissed me off when she began 'loving' Naruto right after your confession and getting Sasuke back. Team 7 is back together, and yet she's become a worse jerk than before," Ino admitted and looked at Hinata with sorrow filled eyes, she wasn't lying to her, and she truly was sorry for what she'd done to the Hyuga. Hinata smiled and stepped forward, wrapping her arms around the pony-tailed blondes shoulders and rested her chin on her right shoulder, to Ino's surprise. Ino smiled and giggled. Wrapping her arms around the shy girl. "Just so you know, I'm not going to quit trying to be your friend if you don't accept my apology."
Hinata laughed and smiled as well "I accept your apology Ino, if its true of course. So to start our friendship, what time do you get off?" Hinata stepped back.
"In about five minutes, why? And why would I make up an apology,"
"Once I pick my flowers, you should come with me to see Kakashi and Obito, they should understand I'm sure." She smiled sweetly and walked over to the shelves of flowers looking at the beautiful and bright colors. She scanned the isle of roses, there were white roses, lavender, light blue, red, pink, orange, purple and a set of dark green and navy-blue. She walked over to the white and red set and picked them up, she's bring those to Kiba and Shino and she'd buy Rin a set of the navy-blue. She wasn't exactly sure what Rin's favorite color was, so she grabbed Kakashi's favorite color, which was exactly that. White and red roses together mean 'Unity' and the dark blue means 'unattainable'. "I'll buy these," Hinata spoke walking up to Ino, who grinned and took them with her out of the room.
"Alrighty, well, actually, we haven't put a price on the blue ones yet," She smiled looking at the small dog "so I guess you can have two free bouquets today," Ino giggled at her 'mistake'.
"Oh, but you could just give me a pri-" Ino cut her of by setting her slender index finger over her lips to hush her 'buts'.
"No. Now come on, lets go see your lover boys!" She squealed still smiling. "Oh yeah, by the way are you and that guy dating?" Hinata's face flushed at her words and she looked at the floor hiding her face behind her bangs.
"N-no Ino-chan," Hinata felt her face heat up once more when Ino did an awkward 'righhttt', one of those things that happened to Hinata a lot when people asked if she was with a certain guy, and for a while rumors were going around about her and Kakashi, mainly when she'd go to his apartment and ask for training on healing scrolls, she'd end up seeing two old women looking at her with sympathy every time she walked out his door. She sighed at Ino's question.
"So, if what you're saying is true... then why'd Shizune mention you, Kakashi-sensei, and that Obito guy coming from your basement with your hair all messy and your clothes out of order?" she grinned at the younger girl.
"Uh-umm..." Ino sighed at her sputtering.
"Its fine, I'll just ask them when we get there,"
Hinata smiled to herself, she wasn't going to have to explain the confusing situation she got herself into. Ino grabbed her wrist and took off.
Once they were at the memorial entrance, Ino pointed out Gai who had joined the two men and was hugging Obito with anime tears acting as a waterfall down his high cheekbones. Ino and Hinata giggled and picked their pace up, but still allowing the two dogs to tag along behind them.
"Hinata-chan!" Gai yelled as she arrived and picked her up in a bonecrushing hug. "Obito-kun is back," He smiled at the girl who he was holding like one of his weights with his palms gripping the underside of her arms and leaving her dangling her feet about over nine inches off the ground. He quickly put her down when he heard two dogs growling behind him. He turned and saw the two dogs snarling at him and he chuckled nervously. "I'm glad I finally arrived from my mission, but our time is limited, Lee and I have must go for two-hundred laps around the village!" He spoke in his usual deep loud voice, which he called manly.
Hinata let out a sigh of relief and turned to sit beside the Uchiha who was grinning like a retard, motioning her to sit in between him and his childhood rival and friend. Hinata looked up when she realized she had completely forgotten Ino standing there awkwardly, receiving a glare from the silver-haired jounin.
"Kakashi-kun, Ino is no longer friends with Sakura, she whishes for you to forgive her." Kakashi looked back at the busty-blonde and curtly nodded.
"Yes and to prove it, she is allowed to get a free bouquet of flowers every day from now on." Ino spoke hoping Kakashi wasn't still angry with her.
"Alright, but I and Obito will be watching you closely when you're with her," He spoke looking away toward the Uchiha who nodded and offered her a small smile, which Ino mirrored back to him. She took a seat next to Kekaimaru and let the dog climb in her lap and she petted her behind her ear, making the dog sling her tongue out the side of her mouth and pant in satisfactory.
"Oh yeah!" Hinata remembered the flowers resting in her lap and stood up, walking toward her teammates graves. "Hold on" She spoke making Kakashi, Ino and Obito nod. She pulled four roses out two red and two white and evened the amount of flowers each grave got and stood up after saying goodbye, holding her four roses still along with the navy-blue bouquet in the opposite hand. She stopped in front of Kakashi handing him one red and one white and walked to Obito doing the same.
"Thanks Hinata-chan they're very beautiful... but who are the blue ones for?" Obito smiled at her and raised a brow along with Kakashi after it faltered. Ino was the one that gave them to her so she shouldn't be giving it to her, he and Kakashi had already received theirs. Whose was it? He wondered for a moment before Hinata reached her hand down offering him help up with that cute smile she had always giving him... wait he shouldn't be calling people cute! Nahh, Hinata was worth his strange use of words lately that he'd been describing her as. But these were words that he himself had used on Rin, he shook his head relieving himself of the strange argument he had formed in his head. How was he getting over the auburn-haired girl that had died in his arms so quickly. His face darkened at the thought of Hinata trying to replace her, but he came to the conclusion that the sweet Hyuga was indeed not like that at all.
Hinata looked down at him with a concerned look on her face, his face went into a state she'd never seen on him before. It quickly faded and he looked up at the slightly worried Hyuga and couldn't help the grin that had formed at her concern for his wellbeing. She really was like his old teamate/crush, always putting others before herself, caring and sweet calm natured and could keep her male friends from fighting. He looked at her face and saw the blush evade her pale cheeks. Whenever Kakashi had complimented Rin, her face would light up like Hinata's, but not quite as intense. As soon as he took her hand, it hit him on the head like a ton of bricks... no girl had ever blushed for him!
His eyes widened when it had dawned on him. She gripped his firm hand and guided him to his long-dead loves gravestone. Her cheeks tinted again when she noticed how manly his hand was when he squeezed her own slender hand.
Kakashi growled under his breath and looked away from the lovey-dovey sight, wishing it was he instead. He spotted Ino at the bench they were just sitting giving him a thumbs up, he guessed she didn't want to ruin the moment. And to keep herself company she had Akamaru on the ground curled up by her feet and Kekaimaru in her lap licking her hand as she scratched the auburn fur with her free one. Kakashi sighed and dared to look back at the sight. He felt the air get caught in his throat when Hinata laid the bouquet on the ground and stood up, bowing politely to thin air, where Rin most likely was. A smile curved upward on his lips under his dark blue mask. He walked beside Obito and glanced at him from the corner of his eye.
"She's something isn't she?" Kakashi asked resting a hand on the Uchiha's shoulder. He nodded numbly watching Hinata say goodbye to his old crush.
Hinata giggled at their blank faces and grabbed both the ex-Akatsuki members hand and the copy-cat nin's and lead them over to Ino's spot. Ino looked up at the trio and smiled at Hinata. "You guys wanna go out tonight? Actually I have a question...?"
Obito looked at her wondering what she'd need to ask him and Kakashi... "What is it?" They said at the same time