A few seconds later...

"Oh, Yami! Giddy-up! Come on move it! Father could be in grave danger!" Hinata cried to the brown horse who was eating some fruit from the Ryukyu Flying Foxes (which are actually bats). She heard a male voice behind the Nekko Barn. Hinata raised an eyebrow and quietly slipped off the lunching horse. She tip-toed over to the side of the barn and peeked her head around the corner, her jaw dropped in surprise. Hatake Kakashi was sitting on the stump of a cut down tree petting an Iriomote cat.

"Someday when I become old and if you're still alive I'll adopt you and we can spend our last years together. Isn't that right... Rin?" the silver-haired Jounin said in a sweet voice to the thick brown and black haired cat. One could almost mistake it for a house-pet. The cat purred and rubbed its side against him.

"K-Kakashi-sama?" Hinata stuttered. He slowly looked up in shock while unconsciously still petting the endangered cat.

"Hinata-chan! What are you doing here?" he asked, scratching the back of head.

"Well...I need Yami, my horse, to take me to my father who has been gone for quite a while but he won't stop eating so I'm stuck here." She explained to him. The black-haired girl was wearing a light blue sleeveless dress that came down to around her knees. The torso part of the dress was a bit like Sleeping Beauty's top part of her dress. Underneath the blue dress was a long white sleeved dress that had a small raised collar at the neck. She sighed and sat down on a bushel of straw.

"Lord Hiashi is missing?" Kakashi asked.

"Maybe." Hinata sadly replied. The copy ninja took a moment to think then he stood up. She watched him in question. He took a kunai from his pocket, cut his thumb just enough to make it bleed and then preformed several hand seals.

"Kuchiyose no Jutsu!" he commanded. Hinata shielded her eyes from the smoke. She leaned forward anticipating to see what he had summoned. The smoke cleared away to reveal a gigantic dog with a dark blue cape on and a pug dog sitting on its head with a bandana with a Konoha head protector on it.

"Yo!" the small dog nonchalantly greeted her. Sweat ran down her disturbed face. 'It talked! It's a talking dog!' she thought. " The dog sniffed the air and commented that he liked her Sakura smelling shampoo.

"Pakkun!" Kakashi impatiently said to the pug.

"Oh, konichiwa Kakashi! What do you want?" Pakkun asked.

"I need you two to lead Miss Hyuuga to her father Lord Hyuuga Hiashi who seemes to be missing, got it?"

"Affirmative," the dog turned to Hinata and asked, "Do you have anything of his with you?" She nodded and gave him a locket that was in her pocket. He sniffed it and a second afterward he said, "Get on his back." He nodded his head towards the larger dog who couldn't talk. She did so and they ran off.

An hour or so passed by until they breached the opened gated of a gigantic castle. "What is this place?" Hinata thought aloud. The two dogs became nervous.

"Konbonwa, Hinata-san!" said Pakkun, and with that hey dismissed themselves in a poof of smoke. She entered the gateway and saw her father's head protecter on the ground.

"Father..." she whispered. From inside the castle was a clock and candlestick bickering about the past turn of series of unfortunate events.

"Couldn't keep quiet, could we. We just had to invite him in to stay, didn't we? Serve him tea, sit in the master's chair, pet the pooch..." rambled the vexed Baki. Kankurou looked guiltily at the ground and would have scuffled a foot around if he had any.

"I was just trying to be hospitable." Kankurou said in an apologizing manner. The large entrance doors creaked open by Hinata.

"Hello? Is anyone here? I'm sorry for intruding. Hello, Father, are you here?" Hinata said with a bunch of other things like that. She walked up the grand staircase that split into three paths. One leading up to the right and another symmetrical to it at the left and one straight on in the center.

"Sister!" Matsuri exclaimed from the kitchen, "There's a girl in the castle!"

"Now now, Matsuri. I'm not going to let you make up such wild stories." Temari said as she poured hot water into the tub.

"But really, sister, I saw her!" the girl insinuated. Temari rolled her purple eyes.

"Enough, not another word. Into the tub." she scolded. The teapot pushed the chipped cup into the tub of hot water and soap. A feather-duster swept into the room.

"Hey! There's a lady in the castle!" said the feather-duster with a feminine voice. Matsuri poked her head out of the water.

"See! Even Anko-chan says so!"

Back to Baki and Kankuro: "You irresponsible dobe, bakka, moronic-!" Baki was lecturing the young man of a candle when he heard something else.

"Father?" came Hinata's soft voice. They turned around to look at the new arrival.

"Did you see that?" Kankurou excitedly whispered in disbelief. Running to the door, he and Baki poked their heads around the corner. "It's a girl!"

"Yes, I see that." he replied. Kankurou looked at Baki with his happy purple eyes and explained,

"Don't you see? She's the one. The girl that we've been waiting for! She has come to break the spell!" With that he chased after Hinata.

"Hey! W-wait a minute!" Baki yelled to the candlestick. Hinata walked down a narrow hallway, unaware that a candlestick and clock were trailing her. The house-hold objects went to a door that she had skipped by and pushed it open. Hinata heard the creaking of it and looked back to find the source of it. Noticing the open door she went through it.

"Father? Father?" she called to nothing. Baki hid behind the door as Kankurou rushed off as fast as a candlestick could. "Hello? Is someone here? Please, wait! I'm looking for my father!" she called out. Hinata ascended the stairs not realizing Kankurou was watching her from a stand-still position. "That's strange, I'm sure there was someone...i-i-is anybody here?" A voice other than her own was echoing throught the grey room.

"Hinata-chan?" said Hiashi's voice. Hinata rushed up the remainder of the stairs to see Hyuuga Hiashi in a cell.

"Oh, Father!" she rejoiced.

"How did you find me?" he asked, stroking his hands through her black locks of hair.

"Kakashi-sama's summoning dogs! Oh, your hands are like ice. We have to get you out of here!" she said.

"Hinata, I want you to leave this place." Hiashi told her.

"Who's done this to you?" the heir demanded.

"No time to explain! You must go...now!" he yelped.

"I won't leave you!" she cried. All of a sudden a sand colored paw gripped her shoulder and whipped her around. Hinata dropped the torch she was carrying into a puddle: the room went dark.

"What are you doing here?" the raspy voice barked. Hiashi looked from his daughter to Shukaku.

"Hinata-chan, run!" he yelled to her.

"Who's there? Who are you?" the girl inquired.

"The master of this castle." it replied.

"I've come for my father. Please let him out! Can't you see he's sick?" she told it in a determined voice. Fear lurked in her heart.

"Then he shouldn't have trespassed her." he growled.

"But her could die!" Hinata begged, "I'll do anything!"

"There's nothing you can do. He's my prisoner." snarled the raccoon-dog.

"Oh, there must be some way I can...wait! Take me instead!" she cried.

'As if I haven't heard that line before' he thought. "You! You would take his place?" Hiashi's white eyes bugged out.

"Hinata-chan, no! You don't know what you're doing!" Hiashi yelled. Hinata ignored him.

"If I did, would you let him go?" she asked.

"Yes, but you must promise me to stay here forever." Shukaku said in a somewhat nicer voice. Hinata pondered the tight situation and then realizes that she couldn't see the captor.

"Come into the light." she said in a steady voice. He hesitated before dragging his legs, then his whole entire body into the moonlight from a window. Hinata's white eyes grew smaller (well you know how anime eyes look when the character is scared) until she couldn't stand it anymore. She fell back to her father.

"No, Hinata-chan," Hiashi comforted, "I won't let you do this!" She ignored him like she and Shukaku had from the start of when Shukaku came into the chapter. The girl in blue and white stood up and regained her posture, she stepped into the light and gave him a determined look.

"You have my word. I promise." she stated.

"Done!" Shukaku quickly said.