The Nose Knows

Notes: Yep, yet ANOTHER piece of Shikamaru/Hinata fan fiction from me, but this time with some Team 8 loving added into the mixture. There might be some OOC-ness, crack humor moments, and of course romance, just keep in mind not to take this fan fic too seriously.

Also: expect some Shippuden spoilers to pop up now and again.

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Disclaimer: I do not own rights to the anime/manga series Naruto.

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“N…nani?!” the girl of Team 8 squeaked, her pale face taking on a pink-ish hue as Hinata digested what Kiba had just told her.

Nodding once, the Inuzuka continued, “It’s the truth Hinata, your scent changes whenever Naruto’s around.”

As bottom teeth worried her lower lip, Hinata valiantly tried to combat the blush that was creeping along her cheeks and inflaming her face. However, her battle soon became a loss cause as the girl stumbled into the trap that Kiba had- oh so cunningly- set up for her.

“So…you can tell…that I like N-Naruto-kun, just by smelling me?”

Kiba grinned wolfishly, getting right in Hinata’s face, or rather looming over her since he was half a foot taller than his female friend- thanks to a recent growth spurt.

“Oh…so you DO like Naruto. I was wondering about that.”

Shino’s dark eyes rolled behind his thick sun-goggles as Hinata’ face changed a darker shade of red. Kiba teasing Hinata wasn’t something new. In fact, Kiba seemed to get a kick of making Hinata flustered.

“B-but you just said that you could tell what I was feeling by how I smell!” she protested, nervous- and more than little bit annoyed with herself- because she had accidentally blurted out something that was suppose to be a ‘secret’.

Kiba uttered a casual ‘feh’ in response before tapping the side of his nose.

“I can smell a lot of things. But, if I want to know what those scents mean I’ve got to know the object, or in this case, the person very well.”

He grinned again, displaying canine like fangs, “And apparently I know you better than I thought.”

Hinata’s gaze turned to the pavement she and her teammates were walking. She felt so…well not exactly humiliated or even angry at Kiba for tricking her.

But, Hinata had to admit that she really didn’t appreciate Kiba’s little joke either. It was a very sneaky and underhanded way to find out a person’s secrets, a friend’s secrets for that matter.

As if picking up on the fact that he had ‘ticked off’ his sweet teammate, Kiba frowned as Akamaru whimpered; both master and dog were picking up ‘displeased’ vibes from the young lady.

For the next few steps Team 8 walked in relatively tense silence.

Shino looked first to Hinata, who had pointedly avoided looking at Kiba. Then his gaze turned to Kiba. Kiba and Akamaru’s heads were lowered- and if Kiba had a tail like his faithful dog, Shino was sure that Kiba would have had it tucked low as well.

Rarely, if ever, did Shino play the role of peacemaker, that was more of Hinata’s area of expertise; however, they were about to go on a C-rank mission together. Therefore if the team remained out of sync and couldn’t cooperate with one another, the results had a higher probability of resulting in disaster.

So, Shino cleared his throat, causing both Hinata and Kiba to lift their heads to look back at their mostly silent teammate.

“Hinata, I can assure you that Kiba hadn’t intended to offend you. Although I agree that,” Shino stared pointed at Kiba, causing the dog-nin to cringe and conviently look to the side.

“Kiba should apologize for invading your privacy; we haven’t the time for petty arguments. After our mission you two can discuss this at length and come to some sort of agreement; but for now, we should let the matter rest.”

Slowly, and seemingly reluctant, Kiba and Hinata looked at each other. A tense moment passed before Hinata pursed her lips together in thought, and then gave a short nod of agreement.

Kiba breathed a sigh of relief, he had been forgiven…well for the moment at least.

Once Team 8 walked through the Southern gates of Konohagakure, Hinata readily volunteered to scout a few paces ahead with her Byakuguan.

Kiba, Akakamaru, and Shino followed their Hyuga teammate a few feet behind. After a few minutes, Kiba tilted his head towards Shino.

“Hey, thanks by the way.”

“…for what?” Shino asked, honestly not quite understanding what he did that deserved thanks. Hinata wasn’t the type of person to stay angry at someone, let alone hold a grudge for such a small offence. He merely sped up the process a little so they could work together efficiently.

Kiba nodded toward Hinata’s back, which was becoming a faint sight since she was running head long through the forest, her eyes activated to look out for danger.

Shino’s brows knitted together in a serious-thoughtful manner before he spoke, “I do not require your gratitude.”

“Hey!” Kiba barked already sounded offended, “I try to be nice to you and you just…ahh never mind,” he grumbled, obviously not in the mood to pick another fight.

Silence settled in between the boys again before Kiba spoke up again, “I don’t see why she got so…upset though.”

Shino refrained from agreeing- or disagreeing- with Kiba’s point of view.

On one hand, Kiba sniffing and therefore telling Hinata what he knew- without her expressed permission- was an invasion of privacy. A seemingly innocent invasion and maybe it had been, but an offence just the same.

But on the other hand…

“I mean it’s natural, ya’ know. Plants…” Kiba paused as he leapt to the next tree branch, “have their scents to attract bees and bugs so they can pollinate. Animals give off scents to attract mates. And people do that too, the only difference is that normal people can’t smell those scents.”

Well, that Shino had to- albeit grudgingly- agree with Kiba on that.

The bugs he housed practically operated solely off scent alone. His bugs could pick up the scents of friends, or foes, and could relate back to their master- him- about what they had smelled.

A heightened sense of smell made for a good spying or retrieval tactic; but wasn’t exactly a polite pallor trick to be bragged about.

“You think she knows…” Kiba wondered aloud, his half-sentence catching Shino’s attention.

“Knows about what?” he asked in response.

Kiba shrugged, “Well, that Nara guy. He’s been hanging out with her a lot, right?”

Shino nodded in agreement. Hinata had mentioned on one occasion that she was getting along well with the members of Team 10.

“What about it?” Shino asked, honestly curious as to where Kiba’s train of thought was heading.

Kiba shrugged and for a moment didn’t say anything, making Shino believe- if only for a moment- that the subject had been prematurely dropped.

However a few more paces and Kiba blurted out, as if he couldn’t keep it a secret a second longer, “Shikamaru…smells different when he’s around Hinata.”

At this, Shino raised an eyebrow. That seemed…strangely unlikely.

He didn’t know the Nara member of Team 10 that well; but, Shikamaru had a tendency to complain about how much he was ‘annoyed’ by the fairer sex.

Kiba frowned, first he looked to be reading his friend’s expression, and then it became an expression of outright displeasure.

“You don’t believe me.”

“I haven’t said whether I believe you or not.” Shino stated calmly.

“Yeah, but you looked it.” Kiba snapped.

Again, silence, at this point Hinata had stopped a few tree limbs ahead, apparently she had spotted something.

But before Shino could dart on ahead to see what she had discovered Kiba grumbled,

“Hinata smells different when she’s around Shikamaru too…just like when she’s around Naruto; but… I don’t know…it’s not quite the same kind of smell either. It’s just…different.”

“Hey!” Kiba suddenly exclaimed since he saw that Hinata had stopped too.

“Hinata found the target…already?” he asked eagerly.

Shino nodded, “Apparently so…”

“Alright! Let’s go Akamaru!” Kiba said before he jumped on the white dog’s back as they both dove off the tree branch to the targets below.

So, thanks to Kiba’s short attention span and Shino’s strict policy on efficient teammate work and privacy- Hinata wouldn’t find out about her unintentional attraction to Konoha’s self-proclaimed laziest ninja, for quite some time.

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Notes: A bit of a awkward start, but I promise things will get better as more chapters are added. I’m really not going for a Hinata love shape thingy…the pairing will be Shikamaru and Hinata, but Kiba and Shino will be kind of acting like Hinata’s overprotective brothers/bodyguards/teammates, so I plan on having fun writing this particular fan fic. Thanks for reading! Remember reviews are love. Later!