AN: enjoy!
Disclaimer: I dont own naruto characters and all that jazz.
They landed with a soft thud on the forest floor, and began investigating.
"Smells old," Kiba commented poking the old fireplace.
"I would estimate about five months," Shino agreed.
"And it seems it's about four people," Hinata added softly.
"Sasuke two males and one female," Kiba confirmed
"Ah yes she wears high heels," Hinata pointed out from a foot print.
Shino crouched and touched the soil.
"What did your bugs find Shino?" Kiba asked
"A nest of termites was disturbed." He answered walking towards it. His teammates followed pushing the thicket out of the way. Sure enough there was a branch on top of a termite hill, the termites had already found a way around it in organized lines.
"We've been on them for a while; they're not going in zigzag but they're not following a distinct direction," Kiba observed.
"It's as if they're searching for something but not knowing where," Hinata commented.
"More like someone," Kiba concluded.
"But if we notice they don't move far from this region," Hinata offered.
Kiba scratched his head. Shino spoke "… instead of following their trail lets head this direction. Why? Because it will serve as a shortcut and also confirm our suspicions."
They all nodded and Akamaru barked in agreement.
'Stupid this is stupid'; "How far is your range Karin?" Sasuke asked irritated that they've been everywhere and haven't' caught onto any Akatsuki trail.
Karin pouted" I'll tell you when I sense anyone…Sasuke you've been too tense want me to message your back?" She offered batting her eyelids.
"No"
"But"
"-conversation over"
Suigetsu snickered. "You're a baka Karin if you want to please Sasuke you should do a better job at finding Akatsuki."
Karin glared at Suigetsu "You think I'm not trying we have absolutely no decent leads but small rumors of scared villagers Ok! I'm doing the best I can! I don't see you being helpful either!
"It's not my job to scout out the target you stupid bitch!"
Sasuke walked away from the commotion and stared at the sky 'this is stupid' He though with a frown.
"Yep they've been through here," Kiba sniffed. Shino nodded "it's late let's set up camp. I'll report our progress to the Hokage." The team agreed and settled. Shino took out a map. "Hinata is right they don't deviate far from this region there is some one here. Hinata why don't you scan the area"
"OK, what am I looking for?"
"Find the route they've taken, nearby villages, and anything that can aid our search."
"Ok" Hinata began her eight hundred kilometer scan. 'Nothing but forest around, a path began to her right a deer herd in a clearing to the left. She spotted disturbed nature where her quarry passed they headed south now, she tried to stretch her eyesight but reached her limit they were still behind by a month and had a lot of ground to cover. She let her eyesight snap back. Kiba was resting while Shino gave a yawn his fist close to his mouth. Hinata smiled softly like she always did when she catches him doing something human. He answered her smile with one of his own.
"What did you see?"
"There are no particulars they continue south but a road to the right of here can help us travel faster."
He nodded "Alright, we'll take the road tomorrow. Why don't you rest I'll keep first watch."
"Thanks," she replied softly.
She stood up and saw Kiba fast asleep snuggling with Akamaru. 'Lucky' she thought. Kurenai-sensei had taught them to travel extremely light. 'The less you depend on comfort the better off you'll be' and so whenever on a mission no tents, no camping gear only you and your standard ninja pouch. That's one of the reasons why they all wore sweaters. Hinata found a comfortable spot on the forest floor and went to sleep. Shino looked at his two teammates they hadn't been resting well neither has he they were getting closer and closer to the target each time. He let out his kikaichu to keep watch Hinata had scanned the immediate area they were safe tonight he'll get some shuteye too. After nine hours of much needed sleep they all woke up as if on cue, surrounded by the early morning forest mist.
"Someone, turn off the alarm," Kiba joked while stretching Akamaru following his example. Shino rubbed his eyes beneath his glasses, "Hinata found a shortcut for us"
Kiba smiled, "when you're ready lead the way."
Hinata smiled back while passing her fingers through her hair in an attempt to comb it, "Hai, this way."
They took off to the trees and jumped branch to branch until a road appeared. "It's not travelled upon often," Kiba noted.
"I wouldn't think so sense any village is far off," Hinata explained.
"Alright then let's be on our way." Team eight began running. They soon moved off the path to continue tracking. Hinata loved doing this; she could read the environment like an open book. Team eight learned from each other and had acquired skills even though it wasn't their heightened sense. It was awesome, sometimes for the fun of it they would recreate the scene of a camping spot of their target, but nothing beat the excitement of getting closer to the target. Especially when you could predict the direction of said quarry and confirm it with the senses. While tracking Hinata felt like a predator stalking the prey it was a sense of power she hardly felt when engaged in combat. The wind pushed her long hair back making it dance behind her. The adventure would soon be over though. Once they pinpoint Sasuke and his band, word will be sent to Konoha and Team seven will take care of the rest.
"Now this is fresh, fresh," Kiba announced, "Not even a week old."
Hinata looked around the camp site and quickly extended her eyesight.
Shino let his kikaichu explore, any information he could gather could prove to be useful.
"They're in my range," Hinata informed. Her heart was pounding she was seeing Sasuke the beloved friend of Naruto.
Shino took out his map and a scroll to send the message to Konoha. "How far are they?"
"…Four hundred kilometers."
"Travelling speed and direction?"
"…About 8 kilometers an hour to the south, there is a village there."
Shino summoned a messenger hawk and gave it the message. "Yes! Good job team," Kiba celebrated. Akamaru wagged its tail in response to Kiba's energy.
"Alright let's keep this distance and follow, Hinata you're our guide," Shino assembled the team.
Team eight kept the pace until in the evening a messenger hawk delivered word from Konoha.
"Lady Tsunade wants us to move into position and wait for team seven we'll be staying as backups, should anything go wrong," Shino informed.
"Hai," Kiba and Hinata responded. Akamaru knew better than to bark it was too risky so close to the enemy. They had been trailing behind them at two hundred kilometers a nice distance and within Hinata's range.
"Tell us their characteristics Hinata," Shino advised.
"Hai, Sasuke still wears the Orochimaru uniform, the female wears glasses, hair mid-length, sweater and shorts, one of the males has short spiky hair, tough built wears ragged clothing consisting of a shirt and what seems like ripped pants. The last male has shoulder length hair tight clothes and a sword of his height." Hinata concluded.
"You know what? We should pull up closer," Kiba suggested "Team seven will be here tomorrow might as well be near enough, we're still far away from them."
"It would be nice to rest," Hinata smiled.
"Yea," Kiba brightened up, "and if we're close we would have that chance."
Shino stayed pensive. His team was right, so as long as they didn't get too close. "Ok, we are going to get close but from here on out, we're on stalk mode no more verbal communication, keep your steps light."
Hinata felt the thrill rushing within her and nodded to Shino's plan he signaled current formation, medium speed and silently, blending with the wind team eight approached.
It took a lot of practice on their part in their genin years to stalk without alerting the birds. The birds are like nature's alarm signal if the birds felt tense and quieted all of the forest's life would be on alert too which included the target. However, they mastered their stalk perfectly; birds kept chirping and singing there was no chance of detection.
"Can we take a break?" Suigetsu whined, "We've been at this day after day c'mon."
Karin wished for a break too. Sasuke was pushing them hard to cover ground but the Akatsuki members where hard to find.
No one said anything else but Sasuke heard them panting. "Fine, ten minute break" and walked off.
Team Hebi collapsed on the floor. Suigetsu began draining as much water as he could from the forest floor.
Karin stared at the forest canopy admiring how some light came in making it a pretty scene. She sighed, she couldn't say she missed Orochimaru but working for him had been less demanding than this and yet she was glad for the change. She stood up and stretched cracking her back. "Ah, that felt good."
A jolt travelled her body startling her. They were being followed. She focused, three and an animal. She continued stretching and walked up to Sasuke."Ok I'm ready to continue, you should act normal when I tell you that we are being followed."
Sasuke blinked.
"It's a team of three and an animal."
"…Ah, let's ignore them for now."
And so it stayed like that until Sasuke had decided what to do. "We will scatter and surround them," he instructed, "Karin and Suigetsu get the one with the animal, Jugo attack the bug user, I'll take on the Hyuga, on my signal."
Hinata frowned. "They're separating," she informed her teammates.
This caused them to stop. Hinata gasped, "They're trying to surround us!"
Shino released an impressive amount of Kikaichu. "Retreat strategy number 9," he commanded.
They knew they were no match for Sasuke and his team mates where unknown. 'Damn it' Shino cursed as captain for this mission he should of taken more safety precautions. 'But how were we detected?'
A mass crashed with Shino sending him spiraling to the earth. He got up slowly and saw who he was pitted with.
"You're a bug user huh? I wonder if you can handle my fury." The orange haired smiled nastily and came charging at Shino who released more bugs.
Kiba and Akamaru kept racing forward but a tsunami came out of nowhere slamming them hard into the ground. Kiba grimaced and began pushing himself of the ground; he looked up to see a red head.
"Oh, this is why Sasuke sent us against you hahaha this is gonna be soo easy! Good night dog boy."
She blew a kiss that threw out purple mist. Kiba covered his nose but it was already too late he was getting dizzy and passed out.
Hinata panted trying to run away but stopped when she saw Sasuke appear in front of her with a smirk, arms crossed. "I thought you guys wanted to find me and now that you did you run away?" he asked sarcastically.
Hinata looked around, her panting slowing down but her heart was still racing and so where her thoughts. She forced herself to calm down there was no use in panicking there was obviously no escape this was Sasuke after all. Sasuke leaned back on a tree and cocked his head to the side, 'what to do?' for some reason this was amusing he almost wanted to chuckle.
Karin appeared dragging a dog. Suigetsu dumped the body of the owner and Jugo dragged the bug user into view. Hinata was paralyzed in shock, they had been captured.
"Do we kill them or what?" Suigetsu asked.
"NO!" Hinata pleaded. Sasuke didn't answer immediately he simply stared at the unconscious bodies.
"Let me explain where you stand", Sasuke smoothly voiced out; "I own your lives right now tell me why I should not kill you or them?"
Hinata looked at Sasuke her body was tense and shook a bit. She looked around as if trying to find the answer somewhere. She took a shaky breath, "…." Sasuke got bored and took out his katana making his way over to the unconscious Kiba. Then it dawned on Hinata.
"You're lo-looking for someone," She blurted out.
Sasuke stopped his advance and impatiently stared at her.
"I'm a Hyuga, with the eyesight sp-span of six hundred kilometers, I'm a tr-trained tracker, and I know the s-secrets of the Aburame and Inuzuka. I can help you find w-what you are looking for while m-making you invisible to Konoha you'd become a g-ghost untraceable. If you spare my teams life I will s-se-serve you."
"Pfft too bad Sasuke doesn't need a tracker he has me, aww too bad at least you tried," Karin mocked.
Hinata looked down. She began to feel nauseous and took deep breaths in order to not pass out.
"And how would I know you are not lying to me?" Sasuke challenged.
Hinata looked at Jugo, "He has a tracking fe-female bug on his left shoulder u-under his shirt".
Sasuke looked at Suigetsu and motioned him to go look. And there she was the bug. Suigetsu crushed it between his fingers looking unimpressed.
Hinata pressed her lips in a thin line 'sorry Shino'.
Sasuke looked at Hinata, "I bet that dog knows your scent well."
"Hai, but I know many ways to confuse him and purify the air."
"Show me."
Hinata pulled out what looked like a smoke bomb. Again Suigetsu grabbed it.
"You just have to throw it down," Hinata instructed. Suigetsu looked at Sasuke.
"Karin and Jugo tie them up" Sasuke pointed at the unconscious bodies. "Take away their weapons and crap."
"You", He spoke to Hinata, "Give me yours". Hinata gave him all her weapons.
"Alright, I'll spare their lives and yours, but as of now you serve me if you dare disobey me, I'll find a way to kill them understand?"
Hinata nodded the night was very cold.
AN: I'm working on chapter two, but I would like to know if people like this so yea read and review constructive critisism welcome. This story is unbeta'd if anyone wants to beta pm me thanks. -addictedjss