AN: Hey guys, sorry I forgot to update yesterday. But I'm here today! I've been working on college stuff and I've just been so busy since I'm about to go onto Winter Break. I might not have this problem anymore, lol. Um Anyway, thanks for those who have started reading this. I know it's sort of rushed...sort of boring in my opinion but I'm feeling like it will pick up soon...Hopefully OTL...lol

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. [Hinata is even prettier now guys~]

Chapter Three: My Worries

Within the next day or so, they'd only managed to make it to the outskirts Otogakure. Moving in any further, would result in a disadvantage for themselves. They were already in unknown territory and now they were lacking in some resources now that they were no longer home. Hinata mended the fire, while Akamaru hunted for food and Kiba kept watch of their surroundings.

Akamaru had managed to come back with a rabbit for them to eat. Hinata thanked Akamaru with a pet on his head and took the rabbit to begin preparing it. "Nice job Akamaru." Kiba gave his companion a toothy grin as he ruffled his fur. As Hinata used her kunai to skin and prep the rabbit for cooking, she watched the two of them from a distance. She didn't know how many times she had fallen into watching the two of them. It was really nice that they had been so close.

It was especially funny though, just thinking about them when they were kids. Akamaru was just a pup, but when they fought together they were so strong. Kiba and Akamaru really had grown and compared to her, they were very strong now. She placed the rabbit above the fire and watched as the flames began to make it warm and tender. As she looked into the flames, Kiba moved to sit across from her and watched her silently.

To him, she had grown immensely. However, there were still parts of him that felt like he needed to take care of her. The canine had always worried over her, because she was so timid and hadn't excelled at first like he and Shino. But at the beginning of this mission, he realized he had to trust her and not worry so much. She had proved to him that she was more than capable of handling her own fights.

"Hey, great job out there. I know I was an asshole about it yesterday and I'm sorry. I just…" He thought about it for a few moments, making sure he carefully placed his words. "We just don't go on missions together like we used to. I underestimated your ability." Kiba had been telling the truth in so many words, he just happened to leave out a few others like the ones about his concerns.

Hinata looked up from the fire and gave a small smile. "I understand. I'm sure a lot of people would have that assumption about me. But I promise you, I'll show you all that I'm capable." Her smile had not reached her eyes. There was a burning determination within them. There was something that just said: Looks can be deceiving.

Kiba broke their gaze and averted it towards the fire. If he'd stared at her much longer, he could feel himself burning away from her intense gaze. She was serious. She was more serious than he had ever seen her be. Maybe it was a bad idea to push her as much as he had. Seeing her like that worried him. Kiba had hoped that she wouldn't be so focused on proving herself that she got hurt.

He sighed aloud and looked at their meal for tonight. "I think it might be close to burning."

Hinata, who'd been in a daze, reeled back into reality. She stood from her spot, frantically. ""Oh no!" She gasped as she reached to remove the rabbit from the fire. She moved to set it off to the side to allow it to cool down after inspecting it. It appeared to be fine as far as she could tell. "Thank goodness…" Her shoulders relaxed as she sat down.

Kiba couldn't help but laugh at her. She was always like this. Hinata's cheeks lit up a rosy color. He always seemed to find some amusement out of her. "It's not funny!" She proclaimed, her expression filled with embarrassment.

"Alright, I'll stop laughing. Smells good though, doesn't it Akamaru?" Kiba looked to Akamaru for a response. The dog barked and wagged its tail in agreement while Hinata finished preparing their meals for them. Laughing like this made them forget what they were doing and where they were. The warmth between the three of them made Hinata feel light and all those fears she had in the beginning began to disperse.

The trio ate and decided on who'd take which shifts while the others slept. The first person on the shift was Hinata. She'd insisted on taking the first shift and claimed that she wasn't at all tired. Kiba tried to advise her against it, but she continued to decline. Eventually, Kiba could only agree with her and went ahead and lie down in the tent with Akamaru.

After a while he was actually able to fall asleep. He was much too alert and concerned with Hinata volunteering to do the first round. When he eventually fell asleep, Hinata felt like she was finally able to relax. For some odd reason, she felt pressured to perform in front of Kiba. With him watching her the whole time, she was unsure if he actually meant that he trusted her.

"Great…" She sighed. Again, she couldn't allow herself to think on it too much. That was probably her main problem. She worried too much about what people thought about her and here she was taking on an S-ranked mission. With her thoughts taking most of her focus, Hinata found herself being startled by rustling in the wood. She activated her Byakugan immediately, scanning the area as quickly and efficiently as she could.

Behind her she could hear movements in the tent and Akamaru made his appearance. He growled softly, his hair standing up on end. "Shhh…" She hushed as she brought her focus back to the area around her. They were there, but she couldn't exactly determine where.

There!

She tried to pivot her body in such a way so that she could block her blind spot, however she couldn't react in time. Akamaru dashed in quickly and knocked the offender over with a hard tackle. He growled even more and began to bark defensively. The sounds of Akamaru's barking caused Kiba to burst from within his tent, his eyes narrowing.

"I can't smell anything, but I can tell that there is more than just that guy." Kiba leered at the lifeless body on the ground. Hinata moved carefully, trying her best not to be too sudden.

"I think…I think they know that I'm a Byakugan user. Could it be those from Kusagakure again? Or perhaps some are coming from Otogakure?" She tried to calm herself and remain steady, her body tried to relax in the gentle fist stance.

"Shit. I dunno. I think maybe we got scouted by the Otogakure. It couldn't be Kusagakure….could it?" Kiba muttered. The possibilities were there but then again if the Kusagakure had followed them, then that must've meant that they'd somehow gathered some information from the goons from earlier. The probability of that seemed fairly low. The only other solution that could possibly work was that they were working in collaboration with the Otogakure. This meant bad news for them.

Hinata glanced at Kiba's worried expression and then continued to keep the vision around them. Currently, the same thoughts ran through her mind as she thought about who their possible enemy was. Either way, it wasn't a very good situation to be in.

Akamaru continued to growl. He was on high alert; however he wasn't physically directed into any particular direction. This could only mean that there more than just one person out there. With the three of them, they could quite possibly be able to take them if they were anything like the last group. That was unlikely unfortunately and the Otogakure could be extremely dangerous.

The ninja attacked from several directions. Some tried to flank Hinata from her behind where her blind spot was, but Kiba managed to cover it by knocking them back. Akamaru and Hinata worked together to deflect the other enemies within their field of vision.

Hinata tried to keep up with what was going on with her teammates as well as herself, but she was so much more focused on them that she slipped on her line of defense. As one of the enemy shinobi sat back and formed their hand signs, Hinata frantically looked back Kiba who called out, "Hinata watch out!" The distraction from the shinobi caused another to come forth and throw a series of kunai and shurikens at her. As quickly as her body would will itself, she began to move her arms swiftly to perform her Guard. She managed to deflect most of them and pushed forward to silence the Otogakure ninja that had distracted her in the first place.

Sound Release

Before she could make it, the sound that emitted from the shinobi's mouth created waves that'd become damaging to the ears. All three of them, grunted in agony as they took on the attack. "Hinata….watch…." Kiba groaned out as he tried to move into her direction. Hinata tried to stand up but only managed to throw a shuriken in order to disrupt their jutsu. Akamaru shook his head briefly before going on the offensive on some of the shinobi that had been closing in. Kiba worked quickly to be by Hinata's side before she could stand up.

And as she tried, Kiba pushed her out of the way to take on a barrage of attacks before collaborating with Akamaru to perform their signature move together. As they knocked them back, Hinata struggled to get up after Kiba shoved her out of the way. She felt unusually betrayed. This was just the thing that she'd been thinking about before this had all began. Why had he pushed her out of the way like that? She was more than capable of taking care of herself.

It wasn't before long that Akamaru scooped her up and had her on his back as he and Kiba darted off with her further away from their camp.

Once they were a far enough distance, Akamaru's movements slowed and finally settled someplace where he could let Hinata off his back. Hinata rested against a nearby tree and closed her eyes briefly. She was feeling awfully exhausted for some odd reason. The Hyuga felt like it might've had something to do with the fact that she'd been awake for most of the night. However, it was awfully strange that she felt this tired. She stood to her feet and shook away her tiredness and leered over at Kiba who'd just gotten done checking over Akamaru.

When he was close enough to her, her hand hauled back to slap him across the face. Kiba was astonished. He stood there for a few moments, holding his slightly bruised cheek before barking, "What the hell was that for!?"

At first, Hinata was hesitant. His tone made her feel like she might've been in the wrong for doing that, but somewhere in her mind told her she wasn't. "Why'd you do that? Why'd you push me out of the way like that?" Hinata demanded.

"What the hell are you talking about pushed you outta the way?" Kiba had still been unable to figure out exactly what she was so upset about. The more frustrated he got about it, the more he began to outwardly express his anger with Hinata.

"Back there, during that fight…you pushed me out of the way. I could've handled it. I could've used my guard." Hinata explained, her eyes slowly travelling to the ground. It was as if hearing herself say her feelings aloud were starting to make her stomach churn. The Hyuga had never been the type to be forthright about her feelings, but she felt like it was important that he knew. If they were going to be working together, she wanted him to really trust her like he said he did.

Kiba ruffled his hair with frustration. "Listen to me Hinata…I do trust you. It's just—"

"No. No! If you trusted me then you wouldn't have that. You would've believed that I could handle myself and help defend this group…" Hinata's voice trailed off, her head feeling slightly woozy. Her vision became slightly blurry and she was starting to feel a little woozy. A slight pain in her side began to queue in as she reached for it and looked down.

Blood?

Kiba's nostrils flared as he glanced down at her side. Normally this would be something that could be overlooked, but he could tell it wasn't just the fact that it was bleeding. There was much more to the scenario than even Hinata may not have realized.

She looked from her hand to Kiba and opened her mouth to speak. She wanted to apologize. The adrenaline that had been running through her had finally worn off and now she had begun to realize exactly why he had done what he did. But a cut like this shouldn't have made her feel this way. As a matter of fact, she didn't think that she lost very much blood. Everything around her began to move in waves and suddenly she'd lost all equilibrium. Hinata could feel her knees buckle, but Kiba swiftly grabbed a hold of her waist. "Tch, I tried to look out for ya. You're always…." As Kiba spoke to her, she couldn't catch the last few words he'd been saying. Everything had become a blur and eventually, dark.

AN: Thanks for reading. Leave a review of your thoughts or comments if you like. They are all very much appreciated and very informative [because I thought I had written something earlier a certain way and I didn't but thanks so much for that clarification]. I know I write short chapters, but I have stated that clearly in many of my works that I do that. And I don't like to write long drawn out things. [Sorry xD] Happy Holidays! [LumiWolf]