Hey again everyone! This is my second chapter in two days. I know it's not taking long for it to get posted, but the next chapter probably will, since halfdemon-kai has her own fanfics to write and not just to type up my own. . I thank her for it though. Thank you all to those who reviewed and read. Lol. I once again apologize for any mistakes halfdemon-kai makes in typing this. . Please enjoy!

Enter Suzu!

The battle continued like this for many minutes, Sasuke often got the upper hand on Hinata just to be forced back by the constantly flying shuriken that he always had to dodge.

'Where the hell is Naruto?' Sasuke kept asking himself. Wasn't he supposed to be dealing with Tenten? He couldn't deny it now, he needed Naruto. He simply just couldn't fight the two powerful females on his own. He gritted his teeth as Hinata almost got a hold on his flag. He was frustrated now. She almost got her hands on his flag countless times. She was becoming familiar to his fighting style now he realized wide eyed. He needed to think of something she wouldn't expect he though while eyeing the small ninja. He quickly batted aside a poke she was sending to his shoulder and dug his feet into the ground and flung himself at her, even though she was only an arms distance away. She tried to brace herself and hold her ground but the Uchiha was bigger and weighed more and so they both crashed to the ground. Hinata tried to get up but she found that the Uchiha was sitting on her, so she lay there with a puzzled look on her face.

Sasuke nodded and smirked in triumph. But it quickly faded and turned into a look of surprise when a shuriken was flung at him from the trees, so he quickly ducked. Hinata made a surprised noise whether Uchiha's face came only inches apart from hers, the result of his duck. She blushed madly and looked away.

The next shuriken came at Sasuke, and the next and the next, and five more after that, each time trying to get Sasuke to move away from Hinata. Sasuke ducked and knocked some of the shuriken away. It was obvious Tenten didn't like the idea of her friend being captured, although Sasuke hadn't taken Hinata's flag yet. The steady flow of kunai, shuriken, and senbon continued to fly at him and he glanced around wildly to try to locate the brunette. Growing frustrated at his lack of options, he tried a grab for the flag at the pinned girl's waist but she quickly moved her hand to block him. He gave her a strange sympathetic look then, almost saying…

'What are you going to do? You are so stuck!'

Once again, another kunai was flung at him and he batted it away without almost a thought. A plan was formulating in his mind. Quickly, he whipped out a kunai and brought it to Hinata's neck. He smirked when he saw the expression on the small girl's face, shocked and nervous.

Quite quickly, the flow of senbon, kunai, and shuriken stopped. Sasuke laughed at his brilliance. Of course the weapon mistress herself would stop if her friend's life was on the line. They all knew this was a game, a dangerous game, but a game nonetheless. It was a game based on the real way ninjas were. And the ninja who had an important hostage, made the rules.

He reached for Hinata's flag with no interference of weapons this time. Hinata bit her lip and tried to shift slightly as he yanked her flag from her waist. He smirked as he got up from his sitting position and she gave a polite smile to him, possibly to tell him she accepted her defeat. He gave a small nod back. He took off just then in Tenten's direction, for it was around then, that Hinata could not stop him.

Tenten scowled as the Uchiha started her way. How did he know where she was? She quickly dismissed the question however, realizing that it didn't matter now. She almost wondered if she could quickly dash away and leave him behind, but she quickly realized that he would most likely catch her within a few minutes. She stopped her mind suddenly when she heard familiar words reach her ears.

"Earth style, llama pursuit jutsu!" a female's voice called out.

And to her annoyed relief, a llama – the same llama as before – plotted heavily in Sasuke's direction. He stopped his chase of Tenten quickly when seeing a llama following him. And while he was distracted by the new turn of events, Tenten quickly took her exit with swift silence.

Now the Uchiha was really lost for words as the llama came rushing at him. Would he have to end up hurting the beast to get it to stop chasing him? Would he really have o sink so low? The llama charged at him and when it closed in, he pushed the beast's nose away so the llama wouldn't eat his flag. He wondered what he was going to do when suddenly a girl appeared a short distance away. She gave a short whistle and the llama turned away from Sasuke and waded over to her. After giving the llama a pat, she turned to Sasuke.

"Hey," she started, suddenly, "are you the one who scared my llama half to death?"

When seeing his blank stare, she turned to her llama.

"Is he the one?" she asked the fuzzy animal.

The beast turned to him then back to her and stomped its foot.

"He isn't?" she asked the llama and it stomped its foot again.

"Alright, my llama says it wasn't you that frightened it," the girl said as she shrugged her shoulders, "But still, I can't let you go," she stated as she glanced him in the eye and for a moment, a flash of red could have been seen.

He tried to dash away, he needed time to rest but she had already finished her hand sign and she cried out.

"Ice style, ice spear jutsu!"

Sasuke looked over his shoulder wider eyed then spun around when he was forced to look upon the sight behind him.

Above her head, one thousand shards of ice waited for her command with pure stillness.

"So…" she began again, "feel like handing over Hinata's flag or am I going to have to impale you?"

Sasuke quickly put his hand on Hinata's flag tied around his waist. No way he was giving her this flag. He had worked hard for it.

He whipped out a kunai and his expression told her that he was not going to comply with her. She gave him an admiring glance and spoke again.

"I admire your will power," she stated briefly and then continued, "Let's see if you are strong enough to lead the Uchiha clan."

His eyes narrowed at her words. What did she mean? What right did she have to say that? But before he could consider the though further, the female ninja brought her hand up to start her command, so he braced himself.

"Show me your power," she whispered and then she snapped her fingers and pointed at the Uchiha clan's leader.

Tenten watched the whole scene from the trees. She felt safe at last. One of her most powerful friends had come to her aid.

"Go Suzu!" Tenten called from the trees, but she quickly quieted when realizing that he outbursts had been what got her and Hinata located in the first place.

So instead, she stayed quiet and watched. She watched as Suzu dismissed her llama (the one she had scared half to death) and called upon her brilliant shards of ice. Tenten stared in awe as she watched the scene before he unfold. The shard of ice matched the ice blue colour of Suzu's hair perfectly… Perfectly!

She watched Suzu click her fingers and point at Sasuke and she almost cried out in protest but ended up biting her lip hard instead. She had no idea what jutsu Suzu was using, but she had a fairly good idea of what was coming next. Could Sasuke really handle one thousand shards of ice aimed at him? She could only wait and see.

Likewise, Hinata was also watching from her hiding spot nearby. She felt a twinge of fear for Sasuke when she gazed upon the many shards of ice. What would happen if Sasuke was severely hurt? She shifted uncomfortably in her hiding spot and flinched as her friend Suzu raised her hand in preparation for the upcoming attack. She knew Suzu as a great friend, but Suzu had no love for guys. Hinata silently wondered if that would ever change. The shy girl put her hands together in stress and activated her byakugan so she could see better. She watched Suzu whispered something almost to herself and suddenly many of the shards of ice flung themselves at Sasuke. Hinata gasped when she watched Sasuke snap his arms out in different directions, at a speed she had never witnessed before. Steadily, the many remaining shards of ice continued their fast movement at Sasuke, but he continued his deflections with quick dodges and swift footwork.

Hinata stared wide eyed at Sasuke as he continued his lightning fast movements. He moved so swiftly and cunningly and she continued to watch in wonder and envy.

After a few moments, the flow of ice shards decreased and eventually stopped. Hinata sighed in relief and quickly unclenched her hands, which had turned white from the strain. She slumped down the side of the tree when finally the exhaustion created from worry had passed.

Sasuke panted heavily from the tiring work he had just received.

'What a powerful jutsu.' He thought as his legs shook from the strain of such quick movement he had been forced to accelerate to…

He glanced up at the ice haired ninja, and he noticed she had her hand cupped thoughtfully under her chin. The Uchiha also noticed the less relaxed position of her feet.

'Hn, so the jutsu drained her of a lot of her chakra.' He thought as he forced his own quivering legs to relax.

"So, you have proven your power," she stated flatly and he was surprised when she gave him a respectful bow.

"What is going on here?" Sasuke was quick to ask but he was suddenly taken off guard by the ice haired girl's wide grin that spread across her face.

He was about to ask her another question but a kunai landed sharply at the end of his foot. So, with one more last glance at the ice ninja, he dashed away from the danger.

After the Uchiha's exit, Tenten trotted up to Suzu. Suzu turned her golden eyes onto Tenten and gave her friend a playful smile.

"What did you think?" Suzu asked as she glanced back at the puddle that was formulating from all the melting ice shards.

Tenten looked back at her friend for a moment.

"You knew I was watching?" Tenten asked as she moved in front of her friend slightly so that Suzu would look her in the eye.

"Of course I knew," Suzu stated simply while closing her eyes for a moment.

Then she continued, "I'm always watching," she smiled and gave Tenten a brief nod.

"I can't let you two go out on your own. You two would get in too much trouble," she said cheerfully, "Besides, you two can't seem to make decisions without me!" she said while pointing at herself and laughing.

Tenten smiled sheepishly before speaking again.

"That was some jutsu you pulled off," Tenten said wide-eyed, "I've never seen it before. How long ago did you learn it?" she asked.

"Yesterday," said Suzu, not really taking care to explain.

"No way," Tenten screeched loudly and Suzu put a hand over the brown eyed girl's mouth to silence her.

"Shh Tenten," Suzu said quietly while shaking her head, "Not so loud my friend," she stated.

Tenten nodded and continued more quietly this time.

"How did you master it so perfectly in just one day?" Tenten asked while quirking an eyebrow.

At Tenten's question, a wide smile once again found its way to Suzu's face.

"Have you forgotten Tenten?" Suzu asked a she backed into the shade of a nearby tree.

Tenten's deep brown eyes widened slightly when she watched her friend's eyes change from their normal golden colour to that of blood red, the red only found with those blessed with the Sharingan. Tenten nodded knowingly as she remembered her friend's secret.

"Understand now?" Suzu asked her friend as she pushed her hands into her pockets.

Tenten nodded again and spoke her thoughts.

"So you copied the jutsu," Tenten said matter-of-factly and her ice haired friend shrugged and gave a bob of her head in confirmation.

They stood in silence for a moment before Tenten spoke the obvious thought out loud.

"So what are we going to do about Hinata?" Tenten asked and then continued, "She is captured I'm guessing, 'cause Sasuke managed to get her flag…" Tenten trailed off while shaking her head.

"We could try to find Sasuke and get her flag back," Suzu suggested while brushing her shiny bangs from her face.

"Um, that won't be necessary," came a small voice from behind the two, and they whipped around to see Hinata standing there with a small smile on her face.

"Hinata!" Tenten yelled but quickly snapped her hand over her own mouth when noticing an uneasy expression on both her friend's faces.

"You've got a habit for doing that," Suzu stated as she poked Tenten in the stomach.

Tenten laughed and continued her earlier statement.

"So Hinata, why are you here? Aren't you captured? Didn't the sensei come to take you to the boy's side?" Tenten asked curiously.

Hinata shook her head slowly.

"No um, because I managed to take this," she said as she pulled a flag from her pocket.

Tenten's eyes widened in surprise and even the normally calm Suzu cocked her head in surprise.

"Hinata," Tenten began seriously, "Who's flag is that?"

Sasuke ran shakily but with good speed through the forest, His legs were tired but he forced the exhaustion away and kept a steady pace.

'The ice jutsu really wore me down.' He thought sourly as he stopped his frantic running to look for a safe spot to rest.

Seeing a relatively safe spot in the roots of a large tree, he walked over and collapsed onto the leafy ground. Suddenly, he realized something was wrong. He ran a finger through his raven coloured hair as he tried to figure out what it was. In a moment her knew, and his hand snapped to the flag – 'flag' as in not plural – at his waist. He looked down quickly and realized, a bit surprised that he did indeed only have on flag with him.

'Hinata's flag.' Sasuke thought with a smirk, but it quickly diminished when the main question came to his mind. Where was his flag? He punched the ground once in frustration and confusion while thinking. He thought back to his fight with the byakugan user and couldn't help but smile at the frustrating but satisfying match.

'She has gotten stronger.' He mused but continued on with his replay of their duel.

He remembered Tenten's constant, perfectly aimed barrage of weapons and he cursed himself when remembering, for one split second, he glanced around to try to locate the brunette. That one second was all the small girl under him needed.

End of Chapter 2

Hey again. Thanks for reading that chapter. It was kind of short, but I'll try to make them longer in the future. After all, this is my first fanfic. . Lol. Anyway, I'm working on the next chapter and halfdemon-kai is trying to get her own fanfics and things typed up, so I'll don't know when the next chapter will be done. So please R&R and hopefully I'll get the next chapter finished soon. .