When Naruto finally let her go, Rose was thinking about how she was going to survive this paintball war. She almost didn't notice Sasuke glaring at her like there was no tomorrow, along with Gaara."Okay! Listen up! We have a new princess, since Rose is new, we are going to have to protect her at all costs! She must have someone by her side at all times! If she's alone...then, so we can't risk letting her be alone! She doesn't know these woods like we do, and I know this is very risky but I think this is for the best!" the blonde stated seriously.
Hinata stayed beside the small girl, who was feeling really nervous. She hated being protected and she hated being the center of attention. She would rather just get out in one go and stay at the HQ until the game was over, but NOOO, she just had the become the princess and stay in the game for as long as she could with the protection of people."C-c-can a-a..."Hinata started, but no one was listening. The black-haired 'princess' looked at her and then saw Hinata's closed eyes and listened to her take a deep breath."Can certain people be assigned to protect the princess!" she suddenly blurted out rather loudly, catching their attention.
Their team captain Naruto stared at her, making the indigo-haired girl look down and twiddle her fingers together and blush. She didn't seem to like being the center of attention either."I think that's a great idea! Then Rose won't get lost! Who wants to volunteer to be on The Protection Squad?" Naruto grinned looking around at everyone.
Immediately Hinata raised her hand, and so did Ino, Temari, and Tenten. Neji looked at Shikamaru and then they both raised their hands as well as they shared a smirk. The grinning blonde then smiled and looked over at Sasuke and Gaara, who were still glaring at Rose with intensity. The team captain then sighed and continued to stand by Rose.
"Okay. So it's just me, Hinata, Neji, Tenten, Temari, Shikamaru, and Ino protecting Rose? Anyone else want to join at the last-minute?" he asked string directly at Sasuke and Gaara. The two boys noticed his stare and knew he wanted them to join. Sasuke sighed and walked silently over to Naruto. He wasn't only doing it for the blonde dobe, he was doing it because maybe he could find out more about that contact wearing girl. She might do something unexpected that would enable him to figure out why she is the way she is, or get him more confused.
The red-head stared at the Caribbean blue-eyed captain and sighed as he followed Sasuke's footsteps. 'Since I'm joining this team, maybe I can spill her blood and see it run down my fingers. I could then find out what her blood tastes like. ' he thought with a slight smirk as he eyed Rose's bandaged arm. The small girl looked at the people surrounding her, and decided she would just let them protect her. She would always be a burden anyway.
The brown-eyed girl then watched and listened as Naruto commanded everyone to move out."Okay, you all try to take out as many of the Snakes as you can! We'll figure out who their royal is and then destroy them, all the while protecting Rose. You got it! Move out!" and with that everyone else rushed out the HQ and into the forests searching for their opponents.
Hinata looked at Rose and smiled."D-don't w-worry! W-we'll p-protect you!" and the small girl nodded as she looked down at her two pistols strapped to her thighs. She then clenched her fists as she looked over at Sasuke and Gaara who were now just staring straight ahead, and then at Neji and Shikamaru, two people she had realized were planning something, but she didn't know what.
That was something that scared her, and for a split second she wondered if they knew one of her secrets she had desperately tried to hide. Maybe they knew and were waiting for the perfect moment to let her know. "Hey loser, you need to keep up with us this time. Because if you get hit with a single paintball I'm going to hurt you." Sasuke suddenly said to her coldly making her look at him.
He observed how she reacted, and it kind of surprised him. Instead of fear and worry, her face held that of sorrow and regret. He didn't know why but he felt a little bad for being mean, but he knew he was going to have to continue to be mean, so he could provoke her anger. He almost didn't see Naruto sending him a death-glare but that wasn't important right now."Okay. Come on guys, let's move out." the blonde dobe said and put an arm around Rose to keep her close to him. The raven-haired male didn't know why, but he wanted to punch the dobe in the face and pull Rose away.
Sasuke clenched his fists instead and just glared at Naruto as hard as he could, resisting the urge to punch him. He knew he didn't have feelings for Rose, he just figured that it was just that he labeled Rose someone he would find out more about, so she was kind of like his property until he figured out what made her tick.
"Why are you glaring at Naruto like that Sasuke?" a male voice said, making him snap out his trance and look over at the person who spoke and he realized it was Neji. He glared at him and looked away not even bothering to answer his question."Oh so you must like that new girl hmmm?" the long haired Hyuuga smirked making Sasuke snap around to his direction and give him the coldest glare he could manage. The Hyuuga prodigy smirked once he realized he snapped a cord.
"Hell no! I don't like that shrimpy loser! She's a stupid weakling who hides herself behind stupid brown contacts. She's fake and I don't like fake people." the raven-haired Uchiha hissed, making the brunette smirk more.
'He really does like Rose. He's just in the denial stage right now, pretty soon he'll come to realize it, and when he does...' he thought with a chuckle in his head."Whatever you say Uchiha."he replied to the glaring teen and ran to catch up with the Protection Squad.
Sasuke glared after the Hyuuga, before following and catching up, as he surveyed the trees and listened around for other paintballers.
Rose ran with Naruto and almost tripped a couple times, but then stopped suddenly when she heard a rustle in the trees. She stood there and looked around. Hinata saw that she stopped and stood beside her wondering why she stopped, when she heard a rustle through the forest too. Suddenly the smaller girl pushed her down as a blue paintball hit the tree behind her.
This movement caught the attention of the rest of the Protection Squad as they hurried back to Rose and Hinata. The indigo-haired maiden looked at Rose, who was staring attentively at the direction the paintball came from. When she didn't see anything she almost looked away, until movement caught her eye. Hinata must've seen it too, because she had her gun raised in the direction.
Another paintball came heading straight for Hinata, from above and Rose saw that and without thinking she pulled out a pistol and shot the paintball making it burst within the air. "W-we need to move!" she hurriedly said, helping Hinata up and running as more shots came, yet they didn't get far because suddenly they were surrounded.
The Protection Squad looked at everyone surrounding them and wondered how they were going to get out of this one, until Shikamaru got an idea."Okay! I have an idea, but we might get separated from the Princess for a while...and we might lose, but it's a risk we have to take. "he whispered to Naruto who was right beside him.
The blonde looked at him with narrowed unsure eyes, but he knew Shikamaru was a genius. He nodded at him and the brunette then started to whisper his plan to him and blue eyes widened, but then the blonde sighed and nodded.
"R-r-rose...Sh-Shikamaru h-h-has a-a pl-plan...b-but y-y-you h-have t-to at-attack o-one o-or m-more o-of th-the S-Snakes..."Hinata whispered to Rose, once she heard the plan from Ino.
Rose stared at her like she was crazy, and looked at the Snakes and gulped. She then closed her eyes, and wondered if she could actually do this. 'Focus on the task at hand, and show no mercy...'A familiar voice said in her head. She sighed and took a breath and opened her eyes once more as she focused on the task at hand.
Then without so much as a warning, Rose rushed forward with tremendous speed at a random Snake, catching them off guard and roundhouse kicked them in the face, and before another one could shoot at her Sasuke and Naruto went into action and started shooting them all down, from the sudden surprise."Run Rose!" Shikamaru suddenly yelled to her and the small girl nodded and hesitantly ran into the forest, with Hinata, Ino and Temari trailing behind her.
The red-head watched as the Snakes fell to the ground in a 'bloody' mess. This was their plan. Catch them off guard, attack, and let the Princess run with three following her to protect her.
Shikamaru used his rifle to shoot a Snake that was about to attack Sasuke, warning the raven-haired teen who shot him four more times. Naruto kicked a Snake in the gut and shot another one down with a semi-automatic, as Neji took out three more. Tenten used her paint knives to pin two of them to trees and then shoot them so they got out. When all of the Snakes were out the remaining Protection Squad hurried off in the direction Rose and the other three girls ran.
Rose didn't stop running, she was too scared now. She didn't want to attack that Snake but she knew she had too, and she was also worried about Naruto."Rose, slow down!" she heard Hinata's voice and she stopped quickly and turned around to see Temari, Ino and Hinata.
She stared at them as they stood by her. "Whoa! That was awesome! I did not know you could do that!" Ino suddenly exclaimed with a grin."You were all like 'dash , then kick and then run'. You were amazing."
Rose blushed and twiddled her fingers together and smiled at her in thanks. She then looked around and wondered if they were safe."I smell some Snakes...since we are like in most of their territory." Temari stated seriously as she held her shot gun tightly ready to shoot if needed.
Hinata readied her pistol and looked around, with Ino right beside her. The two girls surveyed the area around them and Rose just stood there wondering if she should run or hide or anything."Rose. Run..."Temari suddenly said as a paintball headed straight towards Hinata, who dodged.
Rose stood there not wanting to run, but Temari sent her a death-glare and of course the small girl ran off in a random direction trying not to trip over the roots that stuck up in the ground. She felt awful, these people she barely knew were putting their 'life' on the line for her.
She wanted to help, she truly did but what could she do? That's right. She couldn't do anything. And with that thought the small girl decided she would hide out in a tree to stay out of everyone's way.
Naruto and the others had finally made it to Ino, Temari, and Hinata as they finished shooting down the last of the Snake's that had tried to shoot Hinata earlier. "Where's the Princess?" Naruto suddenly asked when he didn't see Rose.
Hinata looked at him with two paintball wounds on her chest, and so did Temari and Ino with three on their legs and chest."We told her to run..." Temari explained as she looked at the boys who had either two or three paintball marks on them except Sasuke and Gaara who only had one on their chest.
Shikamaru narrowed his eyes and sighed."We need to find her quickly or else we could risk losing the war."
Immediately once this was said Gaara and Sasuke both ran off in search of Rose, with different goals. Sasuke's was to see if he could make her snap, and Gaara's was to spill her blood.
As the two boys rushed through the forest they didn't realize that before they left Neji and Shikamaru were smirking.
Rose stayed hidden in the tree she was in and looked down before she heard a rustling in the bushes. She looked over and saw Sakura and Tayuya looking around with determined faces."We have to find that little slut Rose. She is too close to Sasuke and Gaara. " the pink-haired one hissed.
"Don't worry, she's just a weakling anyway. She'll be all alone soon, and then we can have Gaara and Sasuke to ourselves. " Tayuya smirked and something inside Rose seemed to snap. She realized everyone seemed to think she was weak.
She would show them, then Sasuke wouldn't have a reason to glare at her, or be mean to her. Then Naruto would maybe like her more. The small girl then pulled steadied her pistol as she changed position as silently as she could on the tree.
'Focus on the task at hand, Show no mercy.' A voice in her head shouted and Rose closed her eyes and relaxed as she breathed in steady as she listened to the words resonate in her head. When she opened her eyes she took her contacts out and put them in their small container she brought everywhere.
When both were out, her blood red eyes were revealed and they were dulled as she stared at her new targets. She wouldn't be called weak anymore. With that thought in mind she ripped off her bandana and attached it to her thigh and jumped out the tree with a pistol in hand, scaring the two girls.
Sakura quickly looked at the girl before her, and glared as she took out her shotgun. Her companion pulled out a p-90 and stared Rose down. That's when Sakura noticed something odd."Y-your eyes!" she breathed out, staring into the smaller girl's dull blood red eyes that seemed to drown her in blood.
The raven-haired girl raised her pistol at her sideways and stared back at them. Neither of the two made a move, until one of them got tired of just standing there and rushed towards Rose, who side-stepped dodging.
This made Tayuya angry as she quickly hurried back to Rose and threw a punch, yet the small girl dodged again and dropped down to her feet and did a side-kick to the taller girl's legs making her fall, but as she fell she shot at Rose who did a back flip to avoid the oncoming paintballs.
Blood red eyes stared blankly at the girl on the ground before the small girl raised an arm and shot Tayuya multiple times, leaving her all 'bloody'. Then she turned to Sakura who stared at her with anger rushing through her veins. "HOW DARE YOU!" she screamed as she furiously shot at the blank-faced girl.
Yet every single paintball was dodged and the raven-haired girl jumped off a tree with a spiral back flip and pulled her second pistol out and while still in the air shot the pinkette four times in the chest, and landing behind her and pointing one of the pistols at the back of her lovely pink head.
The stunned girl stood there unsure of what just happened, before letting out a blood-curdling scream that echoed through the whole forest catching everyone's attention.
Sasuke and Gaara froze and immediately looked up upon hearing the scream and a gunshot immediately after it. Once they heard the gunshot they began to rush towards the sound again.
The Protection Squad who was now only down to three members, Naruto, Hinata and Shikamaru hurriedly ran to the sound scared that Rose was the one of screamed.
The small girl looked at the pinkette on the ground before walking away from the scene and putting her guns back in her holsters and jumping into a tree and disappearing into the forest.
This was just the beginning of the paintball massacre.