Chapter Two: New Faces

TWO AND A HALF YEARS LATER

A faint glimmer of sunlight peeked through the trees surrounding Hinata, Shino, and Kiba as they made their way through the forest that surrounded their home village, Konoha. The trio was walking, rather than running or leaping through the canopy, which was a nice change of pace for Hinata, since it allowed her to take in the beauty of the forest, rather than focus on their mission. Today's mission was an easy one. A client in the village stopped by his summer home to find it wasn't empty. He wanted a ninja team to investigate and clear out the building, if need be. It was a D-rank mission, but Hinata's team had only JUST made Chunin. Besides, Hinata was glad to have a quiet job. It allowed her mind to wander to Naruto, who would be home by the end of the week.

A million emotions swirled inside Hinata. She had strong feelings for Naruto, the "Noble Loser" of Konoha, but it had been over two years since she'd seen him. How much had he changed? How much had she? She knew he liked bold girls, like Sakura, and so had tried to change herself to be more like that, but how much had she succeeded? And would he like it?

Shino's raised hand put an end to her thoughts. "Is something wrong, Shino-kun?"

"No," Shino replied, his voice in its characteristic monotone, "but I think I found the house we were to investigate. Where is it? About a hundred feet northwest. See it?"

Hinata focused her chakra into her eyes, enabling her all-seeing Byakugan to activate. She did, in fact, see the house... as well as anything else within ten kilometers. Competing for her attention was a deer feeding about a kilometer away, several birds, Kiba's finger deeply entrenched within his own nose, and...

"I see it, Shino-kun. It... it looks like there are two people inside. One is... ah... one looks kinda old, but has a lot of chakra... the other one is a girl, and I think she's tied up..."

Shino furrowed his brow and likely frowned, though Hinata couldn't tell. "Two, hm? And one potentially a captive..."

"If she's a captive, we need to save her!" Kiba shouted, taking a step towards Shino. "Who knows? Maybe she'll reward us with a kiss if we do!" He grinned, and his dog, Akamaru, let out a short whine. "Maybe even you too, Akamaru," Kiba said, petting his dog. Akamaru barked happily.

"While I agree if she's a captive we should save her, I also believe we should be cautious. Why, you ask? Because we don't know who either of them are. Hinata says the geezer has a lot of chakra. That could be troublesome..." Shino folded his arms.

Kiba let out a groan. "Don't be like that boring Shikamaru! We gotta help her!"

"U-um, I agree with Kiba, a little. W-we are Chunin, so this shouldn't be too difficult, right?" Hinata chimed in. She deactivated her Byakugan. Looking at the girl in that house was making her sad.

Shino sighed. "Very well. But stay close to me, and follow my..." the words were barely out of his mouth when Kiba bolted off towards the house. "... lead. Damn, he's fast. Well, we'd better go back him up." Shino walked at a modest pace towards Kiba. Insects swarmed in and out of his coat, and a small stream of them flew from the hem towards the building. Hinata had had to fight off the urge to vomit when she first saw Shino's techniques, but after years of working alongside him, she had grown accustomed to Shino's particular style.

Hinata and Shino had reached about twenty feet behind Kiba when he did something entirely unexpected: he raised his right arm and knocked at the door. Shino and Hinata exchanged worried looks (presumably for Shino, his coat and glasses made it hard to tell) and bolted the last few feet to their companion. The door opened, and peeking out at the trio was a wrinkled, decrepit, sagging old face, giving off a somewhat unsettling smile. "Ye-e-es?" the old man greeted them.

Kiba opened his mouth to speak and Shino shoved right past him, facing the old man. "Greetings. We are a team of ninja from Konoha. We were tasked with investigating this building. Why? Because it is supposed to be abandoned. May we step in?"

The old man gave Shino a cursory glance. His stare was locked at Hinata. She squirmed a bit. "Sure, make yourselves at home!" the old man said, opening the door fully. He was only a little taller than Hinata, shorter than both Kiba and Shino. His skin was pale, eyes a dull brown. He had no hair to speak of, and his skin was the texture of crumpled leather. He kept his stare on Hinata.

The house was rather tidy for an abandoned building. There was no dust anywhere. It was a small building, though, with a living room and kitchen in the same room, and a single door visible from the entryway. The furnishing was light, only a couch and kitchen essentials. "Shall I fix you all some tea?" the old man asked.

"No, thank you," Shino replied. "Though would you mind answering a few questions?"

"Not at all."

"Very well. First, what is your business here?"

"I am a traveler. I was looking for a place to rest when I happened upon this lovely little cottage. I decided to rest here until the old bones were ready to travel again."

"I see. Second, are you here alone?"

"Yes, of course I am."

"Bullshit!" Kiba cut in. Shino raised a hand to silence him.

"I ask again. Are you here alone?"

"I told you I am."

"I see." As soon as Shino finished speaking, the door across from the entry way fell to the floor with a loud clatter, revealing a bound, naked redhead trembling in the room it hid. "Then who, may I ask, is this?"

"Heh. Crafty little brat, aren't you? Fine. I'll just have to kill you. Well... two of you..." His eyes returned to Hinata, and he licked his lips. Hinata shivered.

"I see. You are free to try, if you like." Shino folded his arms. Kiba and Akamaru adopted their typical battle stance, i.e. standing near each other, with Kiba hunched over. Hinata entered a fighting stance of her own, her right hand extended in front of her, and her left held back by her shoulder.

"Cocky as well as crafty. Heh! Well, I'll have you know my lightning style is unbeatable! With my speed, you won't be able to keep up!" The old man dropped to a crouch... and his limbs exploded off of him in a flash of lightning and a scream.

Shino studied the now-limbless and shrieking old man. "Ah, I see. I had not anticipated this result." He calmly approached the man, allowing his arms to drop once more as his insects swarmed from the severed limbs into Shino's sleeves. "I had my insects swarm your body and begin to leech chakra, though I hadn't expected such an explosion. You must be in a lot of pain right now, aren't you?" Shino knelt, facing the old man. "How pitiful." He stood and turned toward Hinata. "Hinata, please gather up our friend there. Wrap her in a blanket or something for modesty." Hinata, shocked at the explosion and a little deafened from the noise, could only nod meekly and scurry towards the girl. She caught a glimpse of Akamaru approaching the old man and lifting his leg out of the corner of her eye as she moved away.

Now that she got a good look at the girl, Hinata noticed two things. The first was that this girl was quite pretty. Her hair was a pinkish-red, sort of like Sakura's hair, though a bit darker and much longer than Sakura's was now, and her eyes were the color of chocolate. Her body was slender, though not without curves, especially (Hinata noted with a slight blush) around her hips and chest. The second thing Hinata noticed were the bruises and cuts along the girl's arms, and only her arms, as though whoever hurt her deliberately avoided anything else. Hinata knelt in front of her. "Are you okay? My name is Hinata. The one in the coat is Shino-kun, the one in leather is Kiba-kun, and the dog is Akamaru. May I ask your name?"

The girl looked straight into Hinata's eyes with a very intense stare. Hinata glanced away briefly. "You said the dog's Akamaru, right? Which one's that? They all look alike to me. Name's Tayuya, and I need a goddamn shower."


Tayuya, freshly showered and wearing a set of men's clothes that were far too large for her, walked beside her weird rescue party: Dog, Dogboy, Bugman, and Hinata. She was certain she knew Dogboy from somewhere, but wasn't sure where, and it was starting to piss her off. She knew she should probably be moping about her time with Old Bastard, but Tayuya was far too tired for that, and besides, he'd exploded. That was goddamn hilarious, not to mention cathartic after... however long she'd spent with him. She'd lost track too long ago to bother trying to remember.

"Something has occurred to me. What is it, you ask? ...What are we going to do with Tayuya here? We didn't have much of a plan when we rescued her." Bugman turned towards Dogboy and... might have glared. His glasses made it really hard to tell.

Dogboy, for his part, looked rather annoyed. "Look, I was thinking we'd be rescuing some beautiful princess, not a loudmouthed, foul-mouthed girl that... I think I know from somewhere."

"Fuck you too, buddy," Tayuya responded cheerfully. "Sorry I'm not some helpless little bitch in distress. I used to be a ninja, ya dumb bastard."

Hinata was fidgeting, poking her index fingers together. All told, she was pretty cute, Tayuya mused. Maybe if not for her weird eyes, she'd be cuter. "I-If you say you used to be a ninja, Tayuya-san, what happened to make you not one?"

"I'm out of practice, duh. Been stuck with the dead geezer. For some reason, he didn't let his pretty little slave train in ways to kick his ass." Hinata flinched. Tayuya felt a pang of regret. She reminded herself to go easy on the cute one from now on.

Bugman shook his head. "Despite all this, we still have no idea what to do with her. Perhaps Lady Hokage will have an idea, but until then, we cannot be sure we can trust her."

Tayuya glared. "And I'm not so damn sure I can trust you. Last time people I didn't know 'saved' me, I got sold to that old fuck."

"B-But we would never do that, r-right, Shino-kun?" Hinata cut in.

"No, we wouldn't. Why? Because we are not monsters. But we cannot be sure that you aren't one of Orochimaru's spies. Or Akatsuki's."

Tayuya let out a short chuckle. "Orochimaru-sama? I think he thinks I'm dead, otherwise he'd have tried to save me. I... I think."

The trio stopped and stared at her. Dogboy scowled. "Wait, I do remember you! You're one of the Sound ninja that kidnapped the Uchiha kid like three years ago!" He crouched low, and his dog made its way in front of him.

"Uchiha went with us willingly, idiot. And if you haven't noticed, I'm not in any position to fight you. If you want to kill a defenseless girl, be my guest, but I can't say it'll reflect well on your pacifist village." Tayuya couldn't stop herself from grinning.

"Kiba, stand down," Bugman spoke up. "She may or may not still be an enemy, but fighting here will prove nothing. Let Lady Hokage determine that."

"Grr..." Dogboy glared a moment longer before relaxing, if only a little. "Easy for you to say! I almost died trying to get that ungrateful bastard back!"

Bugman glared, for certain this time, at Dogboy and folded his arms. "I'm certain circumstances would have been very different had I gone."

"Shino-kun..." Hinata put a hand on his sholder. "There is no need to be upset, that mission was over two years ago."

"Two years, five months, and six days," Bugman grumbled. So that was how long she'd been with Old Fart.

"... Yes. That. Even so, you don't need to get upset with Kiba-kun. It wasn't his choice to not include you," Hinata reassured him.

"Correct. It was Shikamaru's tactical blunder that left me behind..." Bugman seemed to have a sore spot for that particular event, Tayuya realized. He said things would've been different if he'd been there, and, after seeing the old man explode, she realized she didn't doubt him. This guy was dangerous.

"Look... Bugman. Dogboy. Hinata. I'm not your enemy right now, okay? I'm pissed at Orochimaru for leaving me for dead, so he and me ain't exactly on good terms, right? Not to mention, my whole squad's probably gone too, right? So for now, I guess I'm your ally. Is that okay with you high-and-mighty Leaf types?" She'd put a bit more venom into her voice than she wanted, she realized.

Bugman folded his arms. "It suits me well enough. I believe your story for the most part, it just pays to be certain."

Dogboy gave her a glare. "I don't trust her... but I don't have much of a choice."

"I-I think she'll be okay," Hinata squeaked. "Sh-she seems n-nice enough, and I feel bad for her, if what it looked like was true."

"Excellent. I've got paranoia of two flavors and pity going for me. This is gonna be damn swell," Tayuya said, sighing and shaking her head. "Let's just get to your fucking village before-"

Bugman raised a hand to silence her. Dogboy's nose twitched. Veins around Hinata's eyes pulsed. "Do you hear that?" asked Bugman. Tayuya focused. Sure enough, she heard the snapping of twigs and rustling of leaves coming from somewhere above them, the telltale sounds of ninja movement. Goody.

"Hinata, stay near me and keep those eyes active. Kiba, Akamaru, cover our blind spot. Tayuya... make yourself useful somehow." Bugman tossed her a kunai. It felt oddly heavy in her out-of-practice hands. The trio-and-dog adopted a formation, with Dogboy and Dog facing away from Bugman and Hinata.

"Above us! Circling around! I-I count... four. All with... um... Mist headbands, I think."

Damn, those are some good eyes! Tayuya thought, inching toward the formation uneasily and trying to find a spot in it.

"Those're some good eyes, girl!" one of the ninjas above them called out as he and three others dropped to the ground. Took my line, ya damn bastard.

"Now, don't move. We're gonna capture ya nice and easy." One of the other ninjas approached, wearing the headband of Kiri, with its distinctive four-squiggly-line pattern. "Akatsuki's got a nice bounty on Konoha brats."

Akatsuki, there was that word again. Should it mean something to her? Tayuya had no idea. What she did know was that these guys were about one-to-one on par with this little ragtag bunch, which didn't make much sense to her. Most of these ninja hunter types used numbers to their advantage. Unless they assumed that they would have an easier time against this group because, she realized, none of them wore any sort of distinctive Chunin or higher garb. It could be that the Mist thought they'd ambushed a quartet of useless-ass Genin. Tayuya had to smirk at that. She'd been a Jonin in Sound village. Even without her flute, or practice, she could still weave a Genjutsu. If...

"Hey, Bugman. There's a chakra seal on my neck. Think you can-?"

"Taken care of. My beetles consumed that before they even landed."

Damn but he did work fast! Tayuya's smile widened. She focused and sure enough felt the familiar warmth of chakra flowing throughout her. With a devious grin, she set about making hand signs for one of her favorite genjutsu, one that made people think their skin was melting off. A bit brutal and gross, sure, but she didn't have to look at it.

Dogboy and Dog leaped into action, rushing two different members of the attacking party. Dogboy's target threw a pair of kunai to defend himself. For all they did, he may as well have thrown flowers: Dogboy snatched one of them out of the air and drove it into his target's arm, easily avoiding the other one. The Kiri ninja let out a cry of pain and moved to throw a punch, but Dogboy was a step ahead. He drove his shoulder into the attacker's chest, pushing the Kiri-nin to the ground. Dogboy let out a short growl and pounced on him, throwing repeated claws to the face and chest. The dog, meanwhile, pinned its target down and snapped forward repeatedly with its jaw, forcing its target to move his head from side to side, lest he have his nose bitten off by the dog.

Bugman and Hinata stayed side-by-side. Hinata would point at areas on their target's body, and a swarm of beetles would fly from Bugman onto that area, latching on and ripping through the skin. Tayuya could see chakra mixed in with the blood. It seemed the two of them were focused on removing the chakra from their target, preventing him from using any jutsu to fight back.

The fourth crept around towards Hinata, his kunai raised to strike. Tayuya concentrated on him. He lowered the kunai to his side and stared forward with a dumb expression on his face. He'd fallen victim to Tayuya's illusion. Only God knew what the man interpreted it as, but Tayuya had made this one specifically to show melty flesh.

With her target subdued, Tayuya turned her attention towards the other three. The one being eaten alive by beetles was no threat. Dogboy seemed to have the upper hand against his target. The dog, however, had yet to gain any ground against its foe. Tayuya approached the two and waited for the man to dodge the beast's strike, putting his head near her foot. She stomped, HARD, on the man's skull. He let out a cry of pain, and the dog dug its teeth into his neck and shoulder. Satisfied, Tayuya walked to the man trapped in her illusion. Calmly and methodically, she slit his throat with her kunai. By the time she finished with that, Bugman's target was little more than a bloody heap on the ground, Dogboy's was lying motionless and covered in red, and the dog's had a chunk torn out of his shoulder. It had taken less than thirty seconds for the four of them to be efficiently put down.

"Damn, you guys are good!" Tayuya said, whistling. "Even at our best, the Sound Four couldn't have beaten these guys so quickly."

"We do not fail," Bugman replied, probably with a triumphant smirk.

"You helped a lot too, Tayuya-san!" Hinata said energetically. "That Genjutsu was perfectly-timed!"

Tayuya blushed slightly. The praise felt... welcome. "It... wasn't that good. I'm out of practice."

Hinata only smiled at her.


Evening had fallen sooner than Tayuya had expected. She and her odd rescuers made something of a campsite, building a crude fire pit and setting up sleeping bags. As Hinata, Dogboy and Bugman sat around the fire, chatting away about an old mission, Tayuya sat alone. With the adrenaline of the day worn out and her own exhaustion and comprehension of what, exactly, she'd been through for the past two-and-a-half years combined to wear her down. Tayuya sat, hugging her knees and fighting back tears, only partially-successfully. She didn't want to cry, not in front of these three stooges, but she couldn't hold it off any longer.

She felt a gentle hand touch her shoulder. She turned. Hinata was sitting beside her, one hand on Tayuya's sholder. Hinata smiled at her. "Aren't you going to sit with us?" Hinata asked. "It must be lonely over here."

"I'm... I'm fine," Tayuya replied, hastily looking away. "It's more comfortable over here."

"Okay." Hinata moved her arm away. Tayuya could still hear her breathing beside her.

"Aren't you gonna go sit with your friends?"

"No, I think I'm going to sit here with you for right now. I don't like the thought of you being lonely."

Tayuya felt tears welling in her eyes. "Wha... why do you care so much about me? We just met."

"True, but I just don't like seeing people sit alone. Especially when they look as sad as you do."

Tayuya didn't reply. She sobbed into her knees, crying from exhaustion, from sadness, from pain, from joy, from everything. She felt Hinata's hand on her back, tenderly sliding up and down.

"I'm amazed you didn't do this sooner," Hinata said, patting her back. "It must have been very hard for you."

"... I don't want to talk about it."

"I won't force you to." Hinata put her arm around Tayuya's shoulder, and the two sat there in silence.