The Tournament

Hinata was enjoying a quiet walk through the woods. They were about four hours out of Konoha and so far they haven’t been ambushed by overly powerful outlaw nin who may or may not have anything to do with the mission that they were currently on. Of course, they weren’t on a mission with Naruto, so the likelihood of that happening was greatly diminished.

Hinata hoped that her blush was faint enough to go unnoticed. She liked Naruto, not obsessively like she had when she was 12, but in the way you like someone completely unattainable. Naruto was to Hinata what Johnny Depp was to millions of fan girls the world over, someone to dream about while they pleasured themselves.

“Akamaru says that there’s someone coming,” Kiba warned, his voice cutting through the fog that her less then pure thoughts caused in her mind.

“Byakugan,” Hinata ordered, moving chackra to her eyes, so that the veins around them puffed up, and her irises lost all color. The figure coming their way was leaning heavily against a very thick branch.

“Male, young, healthy chackra system,” she informed them, giving them the only information that she could on the low focus byakugan she used. If she had amped it up all the way, she could have told them everything, down to the color of his underwear and the number of nose hairs he had.

She turned to Shikamaru; byakugan still activated, and wished that she hadn’t. He winced almost perceptibly; she would have missed it if not for being a Hyuuga.

‘I forgot that he’s not used to seeing me with my byakugan activated,’ she thought sadly, knowing that male Hyuugas got all the luck when it came to the appearance of the byakugan. ‘On them it can look attractive, maybe even handsome. On me it looks creepy.’

“Okay,” he said slowly, “We act like he’s just some guy passing us by. But keep an eye out for danger.” Hinata deactivated her byakugan, and continued walking with her teammates.

As the male drew closer they all noticed his Chinese style clothing. He was wearing primarily white robes, with some red design on them over a pair of blue pants. He had long flowing hair that wafted in the nonexistent wind.

By the time they could see the color of his dark brown eyes, he latched his gaze onto Hinata, and got a glazed look to his face. He grinned at them like Naruto after he saw a sign that said, “Free Ramen.” Before they could blink, he moved and enveloped Hinata in a bone-crushing hug.

“Shampoo! My love!” He shouted for all to hear, “I’ve been looking for you all over! How fortuitous of me to find you here after all my searching.” Then he pulled back a little and squinted into Hinata’s brightly blushing face, “Have you cut your hair my love?”

“Ano…” Hinata said smartly, not quite sure how to approach the situation. “I don’t know who you are.”

“My love?” he questioned, “Why do you disguise your voice from me? It’s no use anyway. I would know the luscious curves of your body anywhere.”

“What?” squeaked Hinata. No one had ever called her curves luscious before. It was kind of flattering.

Somewhere behind her she heard Kiba growl, “You can’t say things like that to Hinata,” he snarled as he threw a punch at the stranger.

The stranger ducked the punch. Quickly he sprang back up and went flying at Kiba. They punched and kicked at each other with a viciousness that Hinata couldn’t understand. Soon, they were locked together, baring their fangs and growling.

“Who are you to stand in the way of me and my love?” the stranger demanded.

“You can’t talk to Hinata like that!” Kiba shouted, ignoring the stranger’s question.

“Who’s Hinata?” the stranger asked. He and Kiba separated and assumed defensive positions, but neither made a move to attack.

“…Ano,” Hinata tried to interrupt. Mentally she was cursing herself for not being able to think of something else to start the sentence with. “I’m Hinata.”

“Very funny Shampoo,” the stranger said. “I would know you anywhere. By the way, your Japanese has greatly improved.”

“Um… thank you?” she said graciously. “Do you need glasses?”

The stranger paused, then started patting his robes, “I’m so sorry my love,” he said quickly, “I didn’t even realize that I wasn’t wearing them.” Finally he reached into his robe sleeve, and pulled out a pair of very thick glasses. He put them on and peered at Hinata.

“What have you done with Shampoo!” he demanded, pointing an accusatory finger at Hinata.

“Nothing!” Hinata squeaked. It was at that moment that she recognized the stranger from one of the pictures in the Hokage’s office. She glanced over at Shikamaru and Kiba to see if they noticed.

“You lie! She was here just a moment ago!”

“That was me,” she explained meekly.

Mousse looked her up and down, and snorted. “Yeah right. My Shampoo is better endowed then that.” Hinata gasped in outrage.

“You can’t talk about Hinata like that!” Kiba shouted again, ready to hurtle himself at the blind man. It seemed like they were going to go at it again, until the voice of reason cut through.


“We don’t have time for this,” Shikamaru stated, then walked between Kiba and Mousse and continued walking towards Honey country. Hinata quickly followed while there was still an awkward pause between the two combatants.


Kiba gaped after his teammates, then started running after them. Mousse saw this, and chased after Kiba.

“You coward!” he shouted, “come back here and finish this!” Kiba ignored him, until chains wrapped around his torso and he felt himself being pulled back. “Don’t worry guys,” he shouted as he was going backwards, “I’ll catch up with you guys as soon as I take care of these bozo!”

This was the last that Hinata saw of either of them. She told Shikamaru what had happened, and he just shrugged.

“Kiba will catch up,” he said, and continued walking towards their goal. “We better set up camp soon, it’s getting dark and looks like it’s going to rain.”

After about five minutes of continued walking, they found a spot that looked like a good camping spot. They each set their packs down, and looked at the other expectantly.

“Alright,” Shikamaru said stretching, “Break out the tent and we’ll get it set it up.”

“I don’t have a tent,” Hinata said, “I guess Kiba has it.”

“Aw man,” Shikamaru muttered, “We’ll be all wet when he gets here.” He glared at the sky, then in the direction that he expected Kiba to come from.

It started raining. Soon big drops of very cold water came hurdling from the sky, to bounce slightly as they impacted the ground. Hinata and Shikamaru huddled under the meager protection of a tree, trying to get as far into the bark as possible.

Hinata searched through her pack quickly, looking for a blanket, because the air temperature had dropped several degrees. Quickly she pulled the blanket out and wrapped it around herself. It was a little better, but not by much.

Beside her she could hear Shikamaru sigh deeply. She glanced over at him, and noticed that he hadn’t gotten his blanket out. She gave him a questioning glance.

“I don’t want to sleep under a wet blanket,” he explained peevishly. Hinata nodded at his words, then went back to staring out into the darkness. Every now and then she would see movement coming this way, then be disappointed because it usually turned out to be nothing. It seemed like Kiba was never going to catch up to them.

Shikamaru sighed again, and rubbed his arms. ‘He’s probably cold.’ Hinata thought. “Do you want to share my blanket?” she asked him politely.

Shikamaru gave her a questioning look, then nodded cautiously. Hinata parted the blanket, allowing space so that he could crawl inside. He approached her as if he were afraid that it was a trap. Hinata gave him an irritated look, because the longer he took to get under the blanket, the colder she got. Finally she could feel his cold clothing brush across hers. After a while, she could feel the warmth of his flesh underneath the clothing, and it started to loll her to sleep.

She politely covered her yawn with her mouth, and shut her eyes for a brief moment. Not to sleep, but to rest them.

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Shikamaru was annoyed with himself. He had left his blanket at home. Usually he didn’t have to worry about bringing a blanket. Chouji always remembered small stuff like that. He rubbed his arms to fend of the cold.

“Do you want to share my blanket?” a quiet voice broke through his brooding.

‘Does she know that I lied?’ he thought, remembering that she was a Hyuuga, with the all-seeing eyes. Inwardly he shook his head as outwardly he nodded. Pride was all good and well, but hypothermia was another thing all together.

With as much dignity as he could muster, he crawled under her blanket, and relished the pain of warmth rushing into his cold limbs. He sighed happily when it stopped hurting and started feeling good.

Hinata yawned, jostling him a little as she lifted her hand to her mouth. He started staring out into the gloom when she pulled her hand back into their warm cocoon, and tried forcing Kiba to show up with his mind.

He glanced over at his teammate, whose head was lowered at a painful angle. Her breathing was deep and even, which told Shikamaru that she was sleeping. He knew from experience that if she stayed in that position for long, she would have a very bad crick in her neck when she woke up.

After some debate, he gently gripped her shoulders. When she didn’t stir from this, he slowly started pulling her towards him and the tree. Her limp for came back easily enough, but then her head flopped to the side, striking his shoulder heavily.

She stirred a little, and Shikamaru froze. He didn’t want to have to explain what he was doing with his arms around her. She didn’t move, and he released his breath. He shifted a little, so that her head was resting on his shoulder, and leaned back waiting for Kiba. He also contrived to make this scene look like it was an everyday occurrence.

‘Yeah, I always hold a cute girl in my arms while she sleeps,’ he snorted to himself, trying to ignore the persistent blush that tried creeping up his neck.

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Kiba was busily dodging weapons that were appearing out of nowhere. ‘How’d he activate the summoning scroll?’ he questioned. The only other person he knew who had anywhere near this many weapons was Ten Ten.

He felt the first pattering of the rain hit his cheek, but he ignored it, because this was too much fun. This guy was good, and understood the entertainment a fight offered, even if it didn’t have the added edge of a life or death conflict.

The rain beat down harder on Kiba, but still he ignored it. Unfortunately, his opponent didn’t.

“Oh fu…” he started, “…ack” he finished. In the place of Kiba’s opponent was a pile of clothing that he had been wearing. Underneath the clothing was a white duck, wearing the same glasses that the stranger had been wearing.

Kiba stopped suddenly, briefly allowing gravity to take control. He blinked at the duck.

“That’s the weirdest body switching jutsu I’ve ever seen,” he said to himself, and his faithful canine companion. “Hey Akamaru, can you smell him?” Akamaru barked. “Dude that wouldn’t work.” Kiba argued. Akarmaru just insisted. “Fine, whatever.” He said as he walked up to the duck. He lifted it gingerly, peering under it to, as if expecting his opponent to be hiding under it. “Akamaru says that you are the bozo I was fighting,” he informed it, “So, I’m going to take you with me, until you turn back and we can finish this.” Kiba grinned ferally at the now quaking duck.

He then set off to find his teammates. The rain would make it difficult for him if it weren’t for the fact that he knew the way they were going. He called Akamaru to him, and got on the giant dog, riding him to where he thought Shikamaru and Hinata would be camping. ‘I hope they have the tent set up,’ he thought vaguely as he shivered from the cold.