Chapter 9: Shikamaru Needs a Favor in Return.

Shikamaru had a tendency to lay anywhere he deemed appropriate, so he could watch the clouds or take a nap. Which is why he shouldn't have been surprise to have been awoken up by a violent nudge to his rib cage, and the sound of a loud thud. He lazily opened his eyes, ready to scream at the person who woke him up. But his threat stayed inside his head as he saw Hinata awkwardly sprawled on the grass next to him.

"H-Hi Shikamaru." She greeted him, awkwardly. He silently watched her as he pick up two scattered books from the grass.

"How did you manage to not see my body and trip over me?" He asked.

"It's not what happened at all." She said. "When I saw you, I came to say hi. But I didn't know you were sleeping." She explained. "B-But then this large caterpillar crawled on me and I got scared and lost my balance while trying to kick it off, and I accidently kicked you too, and then I fell." Shikamaru laughed once he heard her story. "Anyways…I'll leave you to your nap. Wouldn't want to waste more of your time." Shikamaru raised an eyebrow as Hinata said this, and he watched her retrieving form walking away. With a sigh, he got up and performed a hand seal with both of his hands. His shadow became distorted before it stretched into the shape of a line which snaked towards Hinata until it connected to her shadow.

"Troublesome. I know I've said those kind of things before, but that's because we were in the academy. And I really loved sleeping during lunch." He said.

Shikamaru let go of her shadow and watched her turned to him with a small smile.

"A-Ah, okay." Hinata replied. She didn't say anything about how he used to sleep in almost every class. "Then I guess I'll join you." She said as she walked up to him and sat next to him.

His eyes curiously drifted towards the books on her lap.

"Theory of Genjutsu and Chakra Manipulation." Shikamaru read out loud the name of the books. "Is your team doing tree climbing exercise already?" He asked.

"No, not yet." Hinata replied.

Something about her posture told him that something was troubling her.

"I don't mean to make it my business or anything, but did something happened to you?" He asked.

"I don't know...I w-went to visit Kurenai-sensei earlier…and I got this feeling she didn't want me there. She gave me these books before basically kicking me out of her place…" She said dejectedly. "I know it's our day off…but I love spending time with sensei."

"Aa." Shikamaru didn't know what else to say. He didn't have all the information that he needed at hand. So he decided to play a game with her in order to get the information that he needed. "Let's play something I like to call a memory game."

"Huh? Why?" Hinata asked.

"What a drag, don't you know that as ninja we have to keep our mind sharp? This kind of mind exercise helps me find the answer to things." Shikamaru said, while rolling his eyes. "So maybe we could find the answer you're looking for."

"Um…but I never heard of such a game." Hinata said. "So I don't know how to play it."

"Just close your eyes and try your best to answer my questions." Shikamaru explained.

"O-Okay." She said as she placed the books to her side and lay on her back. The last thing she saw was the blue sky before she closed her eyes. "I'm ready." She said.

"When you went to Kurenai's house, what was the color of the door of her apartment?" He asked. Hinata tried hard to recall a memory that had happened half an hour ago, but couldn't.

"Um, I don't remember." She replied.

"Then take a guess."

"I think it was burgundy." Hinata said.

"When you stood at the entry way to take off your shoes, what did you see?"

"I saw her black shoes, I guess." Hinata said. "Then I took off my shoes…and I placed it next to some large blue ninja shoes."

"But you just said her shoes were black." Shikamaru pointed out.

"I know, b-but now I remember that there were two pairs of shoes…" Hinata said.

Interesting.

"When you entered her apartment, what did you see or smell?" Shikamaru asked.

"Hmm…I smelled tea mostly. Then I followed her to the living room, and there were two cups of tea prepared…How did she know I was coming?"

"Troublesome, I'm the one asking the question here." Shikamaru said. "Did Kurenai-sensei offered you tea?"

"Mhm, she did." Hinata replied. "W-W-Wait! I smelled something else!" She said. "I'm sure it was the scent of cigarettes…which is also strange, since sensei doesn't smoke."

Shikamaru knew someone else who smokes, Asuma-sensei.

"Next question, describe the event that led to Kurenai giving you two books to study." Shikamaru said.

"Ah, easy." Hinata giggled. "Kurenai-sensei trapped me in a Genjutsu, a rather silly one that I couldn't break out of. So she gave me those books and said that I needed to study them because we were going to start our tree climbing exercise." She sighed. "After that, we're going to learn how to break out of a Genjutsu."

"What did you see in the Genjutsu?" Shikamaru asked.

"Everything was normal…the only thing that was strange was that Kurenai-sensei was wearing her dress inside out." Hinata replied.

Shikamaru's cheeks turned a slight shade of red as he reconstructed the whole scenario inside his head.

Kurenai-sensei didn't trap Hinata inside a Genjutsu. What probably happened was that she lacked clothes and threw on the dress in a hurry to answer the door. Kurenai definitely had a man inside her house during the time Hinata went to visit her. And the reason why she was in a rush to get Hinata out of her apartment was because she didn't want Hinata finding out that she had a boyfriend. Or perhaps Kurenai-sensei simply wanted to return to whatever activity she was doing. Ugh, troublesome, he shouldn't have played this game.

"Shikamaru…how do I win this game?" Hinata asked, as she finally opened her eyes.

"Sorry to say this Hinata, but you lost because you couldn't piece together all the evidence presented to you." Shikamaru explained as he watched her pout. "And yes, you were right. Kurenai-sense didn't want you there."

"W-What? You mean you figured it out? T-Then tell me why sensei didn't want me there, was it me?"

"Explaining this to you is so tiresome, I'm definitely going to take a nap after this." Shikamaru said while he yawned. "The reason Kurenai-sense didn't want you at her apartment was because her boyfriend was waiting for her inside her room. The smell of cigarettes was probably because her boyfriend smokes."

"Eh?!" Hinata's face completed turned red. "I-I forgot that sensei has her own life…She could've just told me." Shikamaru scoffed as he heard this.

"We're kids Hinata. Adults feel like they don't owe us an explanation." Shikamaru explained. "After all, their private lives is none of our business."

She had to agree with him.

Being true to his words, Shikamaru lay back down on the grass with the intention of taking a nap.

Hoping to have an advantage over her teammates, Hinata opened the book about Chakra Manipulation, and reviewed it.

An hour went by, when Shikamaru woke up from his nap. But his eyes remained closed. He was enjoying the sound of the grass whispering, and the birds singing. He was used to these sounds of nature. But the only thing that had been different that day was the sound of Hinata flipping through pages.

Shikamaru opened his eyes once the sound of pages seized. He peered over at her, from his position, and saw her eyebrows furrowed. It almost looked like she was glaring at the book.

"Let me guess, you got to the hard part." Shikamaru said.

Feeling like she couldn't lie to him, Hinata sighed a response. "Theories are difficult for me to understand. I can't really picture what the book is saying." She said.

"Of course you can't. The book was clearly written by an expert who forgot what it's like to be a genin." His response actually made Hinata feel better. She watched the boy next to her sit up and scooped closer to her. He then leaned over to read the book she was holding. "Ah, this is actually pretty in-depth and easy to follow." He said.

"No way…you actually get it?" Hinata as she breathed out a sigh. It was obvious that she felt unintelligent and discouraged.

When he chuckled, his movement brought attention to their shoulders which were touching. He wasn't used to physical contact with the opposite sex, so the situation gave rise to a feeling of discomfort as his cheeks felt hot. Eventually, he found a solution to his discomfort. So he stole the book from her hands and moved away, far enough so that their shoulders weren't touching.

Shikamaru went on to explain, to the best of his abilities, what each variable meant. He used childish allegories so that she could understand. It worked, to his surprise. After he flipped to the next page to read the next paragraph, it was Hinata that scooped over so that she could get a better view of the book. The brushing of their shoulder distracted him, but not enough for him to not comprehend the content of the next page.

"This part is such a pain to explain." Shikamaru complained. "I would need a writing board to show you what the book is saying."

Hinata frowned. "I-I guess we can stop here." Hinata said. "Well, thank you for everything Shikamaru" Hinata said, as she got up and stretched.

"You can't be too naïve to think that I helped you out of the kindness of my heart." Shikamaru said, as he scoffed.

"I know…I was hoping you didn't want anything in return." Hinata mumbled, disappointed over his words. "S-So what is it that you need me to do?" She asked.

"Hinata, how good are you in Taijutsu? I'm supposed to get better on hand-to-hand combat before the end of the week."

Her smile was all the response he needed.