A/N: I appreciate the views on grammar and spelling mistakes ( lol so far I messed up already) and I really like Midnight – the angle of darkness for her review. I don't remember that thing about the commas. It was probably taught to me when I was in elementary school or something because I was always being taken out of class for speech therapy and I would never really learn what the class went over during those times. I find it hilarious that they were like "Well her speaking and writing is poor let's fix that…huh…spelling…something that is affected greatly by speaking…I'm pretty sure she can figure that out on her own" I'm pretty sure they didn't say that but yeah.
Back on point, I really appreciate you guys help. Writing is my passion…even though it's not my major and I'd like for people to read my writing (Even if I'm scared of what they'd think). So I would also like to thank the people who stayed with the story and who like the story.
Fury074: Thanks for the review. This may sound bad but I really had no idea that Jiraiya had a whole genin team. This may sound even worse but I haven't really read Naruto in a while. Though at the same time it as Jiraiya did take special interest in Minato and Minato can be seen as his apprentice than what Iruka said in chapter 1 can still be considered correct. The fact that Jiraiya had a whole genin team didn't matter. What really mattered was that he was showing Hanabi different reason as to why the standard four man cell (Including the sensei) could be different. As I'm not sure when Minato apprenticeship under Jiraiya started I'll just be taking artistic fanfic thingy-ma-bob and say that it was when Minato was a chunin, because the team basically stayed the same (Team Kakashi, Team Kurenai, and Team Asuma). They still had the four man cell going on.
Shinobi of Life: I like your idea. You don't mind if I use it sometime in this story do you?
Firegoat: Well then you should be happy to know that that's not it.
Hoytti: That is a very good suggestion and I would do it if it wasn't for the fact that reading in bold a lot makes my eyes hurt…or my head. Everything tends to look the same when there are a lot of bold words together for me. I guess it's just because I'm too used to writing in 12 fonts. I will put the disclaimer in bold for now on just for you ; )
Lord Farsight: Thanks for the review. I'm not sure why they would take something out of the French version but if they did then they did. I agree though, it could be just because they were both dojutsu that people believed that.
Naruto9001believeit: Well I was able to give you some of what you asked for. Though, I must say that throughout the next few chapters you will see more and more of the other thoughts on Hinata.
A/N: Yes another one. I apologize for my long absent away. Summer before college was kinda hectic and then my computer decided to go dark on me. Like, if the light is shining on the screen a certain way then I could see enough to barely make out what I'm doing. Though I don't really need to see all that much to type but I misspell words…a lot…so yea. Also I apologize if any of the Japanese words are spelled incorrectly. I'm using the school computer to type and even if I did add those words to the dictionary it'd just be reset the next days so why bother. That means that if some name isn't capitalize then yeah I had it set up like that in on my laptop. That also means that most of the jutsus will be in the English version. It might not always be like that for I might stop being lazy enough to look the spelling of those words up. Also, sooner or later I will be revising this story as in fixing all the mistakes so please if you see any don't be shy.
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.
Chapter 4 The second chance
Hinata was in front of her, like right ahead of her. It was the same Hinata from the academy days. The large beige coat, the blue hair cut into that elegant princess style – which looked so good on her – something she, herself, could never pull off – the blue slacks, the brown sandals, everything was the same. And yet, at the same time it wasn't. Something had changed. The girl who would always jump, play with her fingers, blush, faint, afraid to speak, and look as if she was a afraid of everything was gone. Her whole demeanor had changed. Sakura didn't know when.
After they graduated?
After their first chance?
Or did she change before all of that, before graduation? It was a scary thought…that someone can change so quickly. Or maybe I never knew how Hinata acted in the first place.
A bird flew pass them. Sakura jumped startled by the sudden appearance of the bird but Hinata didn't. There wasn't even a flinch out of her. It was like she had already known it was coming. It dawned on Sakura.
"Do you have your Byakugan on?"
She nodded.
"Why?"
"Just…just being prepared for Kakashi test."
That threw Sakura for a loop. "You really don't expect Kakashi-sensei to surprise us?"
Hinata glanced at her, "You really don't expect an enemy ninja not to?"
Another loop was thrown at Sakura. An enemy ninja can attack at any time, as a ninja she should be prepared for that. But surely they wouldn't be facing any enemy ninja as a genin. It was against the rules to send a genin on a high risk missions. That's why the mission ranks were created in the first place.
When the village was created, the ranking system was put in place as a way to avoid fresh out of the academy kids killing and being killed. While there are some exceptions to this rule….still…
They shouldn't be facing any enemy ninjas. Hinata had no idea what she was on about.
Hinata stopped moving. That made Sakura stop, who made Naruto stop, who made an angry Sasuke stop.
"Why'd we stop?"
Hinata held up a hand shushing Naruto. She turned to face them with her Byakugan activated. Sakura could see the veins poking out by her eyes. It was creepy and intimidating at the same time. Sakura couldn't tell what was worse. That activated Byakugan on a typical Hyuuga or the activated Byakugan on Hinata.
Hinata motioned for them all to come close. They did. "We…We are under a Genjutsu."
"No we're not," Sakura spoke. She didn't bother to whisper.
"Humor me then and do the release."
"Kai…"
"Kai…"
"Kai…"
The place around Sakura changed. They were no longer in the area they were just in. Instead of being stuck somewhere in the forest, they were close to a clearing. Sakura could see the trees parting, the flowers growing up from the ground, and a small river. What training ground where they at? This didn't look anything like training ground seven.
"We were in a Genjutsu…" Sakura couldn't believe it. How did she not recognize that she was in one? She felt so stupid and completely useless.
Sasuke-kun probably thinks I suck at being a ninja…
"It's f-fine s-s-Sakura…you were deep in thought…if i-I wasn't paying attention I w-would have over looked it as well."
Sakura couldn't tell if Hinata was lying or not. Sakura couldn't tell if she wanted to believe the words that Hinata said. Then again why would Hinata lie to me? What would she gain by lying?
Cha she could be trying to get us to lower our guards so she could pass the test and we won't. Then she could be on Sasuke-kun team and we'd be stuck at the academy with Naruto-baka.
That could be right. But why would she go out of her way to make sure we knew that we were a team? It didn't make sense. Why did Sakura think that Hinata could be anything but nice? The girl never once did anything to Sakura? Quite the opposite, she and Ino were the ones that did things to her.
That could be a reason. Revenge is a powerful motive.
Just asks Sasuke-kun…
Sasuke-kun, forgive me for that thought.
Hinata gave her a small sad smile and turned forward. They were once again walking. It didn't take them long to reach the area where their test was going to be. It was silent, dead silent. No birds were chirping, no insects were buzzing. Even the wind stayed silent. Sakura took notice of this. She wasn't the only one. Before she could speak though, something flew passed her face, scratching her cheek, and embedding itself into the tree behind her with a loud 'clank'.
"Sakura-chan!"
She could hear Naruto yell her name. She felt the wound on her cheek. It was long and bleeding. She wanted to scream but she couldn't. How dare someone make a mark on her face? She stiffened. Behind her was a presence of someone.
"Lookie here brothers," a man covered from head to toe walked out from behind a tree. Three more walked out surrounding them.
"I see I see…little green ninjas..."
"They look so pretty…I wonder how they will look broken and bloody…"
"Why don't we find out?"
Sakura closed her eyes and screamed. She was going to do it again when someone beat her to the chase. It didn't sound like her. Was it Sasuke-kun? No. It sounded like a female.
They were in a Genjutsu. It didn't matter if her Byakugan was on or not, she could still tell that they were in a Genjutsu. It was annoying. It was like looking through a microscope. While one eye sees what's in the microscope the other doesn't.
While one eye saw the Genjutsu, the other saw outside the illusion.
Hinata sighed but kept walking in a circle like the Genjutsu wanted them to. The sooner she stopped though, the sooner she could notify them of the Genjutsu the sooner they could make it to the training spot and the less energy they would have used.
So she stopped, already aware of the nasty look Sasuke was giving her before she turned to face them.
She told them to humor her because they didn't believe they could be in a Genjutsu. They did it. She did it with them. All around her she could see outside the illusion. It was gone and her headache left with it. And with her headache gone she picked up on Sakura changed of mood. Hinata did the only thing she could think of. She reassured Sakura that her lack of awareness was okay.
It saddened her that Sakura didn't believe that she said that out of the goodness of her heart. She couldn't let it bother her too much. They started walking again. It didn't take them long to enter the clearing where the second test was going to be held at.
She was the first one in. She stopped quickly but it went unnoticed by the others. Her guard was instantly up. There were four presences around her that felt unfamiliar. Then a loud 'THUNK' of a kunai hitting a tree was heard throughout the clearing. The four presences made themselves known to them. Two had long hair, one had short hair, and the other was bald. The one who Hinata assumed the leader was speaking. Her eyes were drawn to the twitch of his arm.
She ran as fast as she could to guard Sakura. The bald leader brought a kunai down heading straight for the pink haired girl. Hinata jumped in the way and used her arm as a shield. She couldn't help but let out a surprised scream. It had hurt. She knew it would. She had braced herself for it. And yet the pain of it tearing through her thick jacket and piercing the little of the skin it did go through got to her.
Though, her thick jacket did take most of the impact.
Sakura's eyes widen. In front of her was Hinata. The girl she had belittled, talked about, and on some occasion chewed out, was standing in front of her. Blood dripped down the arm she used to block the kunai with. In a flash she was sent flying to a tree by a roundhouse kick from the bald man. Sakura wanted to turn to see if she was okay but the missing Nin had her face in his hand. He forced her to stare into his small black eyes. A grin showing his razor sharp teeth appeared on his face.
"You should always keep your eyes on your opponent little girly."
Inner Sakura, as she had dubbed the voice in her head, was shouting obscenities at the man. She was punching her arms as a large anger tick mark appeared on her forehead. She shouted for Sakura to punch the missing Nin lights out. She wanted Sakura to make him pay for what he did to Hinata. But Sakura couldn't. The man was so much stronger than her. She could barely breath in his presence.
Was this the killing intent she read about? Oh Kami! It was so strong, nothing she had ever felt before. She wanted to throw up just empty everything out and lay there for the man to kill her. Fear was blistering off of her. It shown in her eyes, it shown in the way she was shaking. It was so blatantly obvious. The man in front of her opened his mouth. He placed the kunai Hinata blocked against in his mouth. He licked the blood off it.
Oh Kami-sama! She was going to die! She was going to die by the same weapon Hinata had tried to protect her against.
Naruto couldn't believe it. Wasn't Old Man Hokage keeping watch over the border? How did four missing Nins manage to sneak their way in? And now Hinata was hurt badly. He wanted to go over there and help her but Sakura-chan needed his attention more.
"Hey let go of Sakura-chan you ugly overgrown weed!" he shouted.
Naruto ran over to Sakura only to get stopped by another missing nin along the way. The man had long black hair and pale blue eyes. They stared through him. Naruto couldn't help but shiver. The stare was colder than ice.
Naruto shook his head. He couldn't afford to be scared now. Going through the hand signs he shouted, "Multi shadow clone jutsu!" instantly five more Naruto appeared. They were all destroyed by the long haired missing nin in a matter of seconds.
"If that is all you have then you have no hopes to defeat me and by extension you have no hope to help your teammate."
"Shut up you bastard! First I'm gonna take you down then I'm gonna save Sakura."
Naruto pulled a kunai out of his ninja pouch. He created three more shadow clones who all had kunais in their hands. They rushed the long haired missing nin. All three shadow clones were taken out before they reached the man. The missing nin kicked Naruto in the stomach. Naruto flew back. He landed on his feet and skidded into a stop.
"As I stated before, if that is all you have then you will never defeat me nor will you be able to help your teammates."
Sasuke stared at his opponent. He had short hair and black eyes. Sasuke's eyes flickered to the leader of the pack. He was standing at the edge of the forest staring at them. He had long hair and green eyes. He was watching them. Then again it wasn't like he had to do anything since he had no one to go against, Sasuke let out a huff of annoyance at Hinata. She was still unconscious under the tree.
And I thought she would be better than this.
Sasuke flashed through some handseals, "Fire ball jutsu." Three large fireballs came spewing out of his mouth towards the short haired missing nin. The missing nin jumped out of the way. The fireballs landed in the spot he once occupied burning everything it touched.
"So this is the strength of the mighty Uchiha clan….seems to me the clan bread nothing but weaklings."
Sasuke rushed the man only to get kicked back the same way Naruto did. He tried again dodging when the man kicked only to get punched in the face. The man grabbed him by the neck and brought Sasuke closer to him.
"If this is what the mighty Uchiha clan has come to then it was no wonder that they got wiped ou-ch you little bastard," the man shouted. He threw Sasuke to the ground and took the kunai out of his arm.
Sasuke used that as a chance to jump back and away from the nin so he could calculate his next move.
At the Hokage's tower, the Hokage and Kakashi sat in the Hokage's office watching the battle on his crystal ball.
"Are you sure we should leave them like this Hokage-sama what if the four forget what this is all about and actually kill them?" Kakashi asked.
Sarutobi looked at him out the corner of his eye, "I must remind you Kakashi-san, you were the one who suggested this."
Kakashi smiled in remembrance, "Ah yes the tree stump test was so easy to pass that I had to go with something harder."
"You would have had to pass Sasuke-kun anyways."
Kakashi nodded. With him being the last person with a working Sharingan in the village the council were forcing him to teach the Uchiha boy. If he was to fail the Uchiha boy he would be signing his own death warrant. So any team with Sasuke on it would pass by default.
"As true as that is this test would allow me to see just how well they can work together. If they could put their differences aside it would give me more time to actually train them then do teamwork exercises all the time."
Sarutobi nodded and they both went back to the crystal ball.
It felt weird. She could feel it. Anger, annoyance, fear, it was a
ll around her. Things started getting clearer. She was starting to make out the different feelings. Sakura was afraid. Naruto was annoyed. Sasuke was angered. But why would they be feeling those emotions.
And then she remembered.
A group of missing nin had showed up. She had taken an attack for Sakura. The missing nin had kicked her into the tree. She had hit her head very hard.
Her eyes opened wide. An immense pain shot through her head. She closed her eyes and opened them a minute later, slower than she did the last time. She looked around the clearing. Things didn't seem to be going good for them. Sakura hanging in the air by the missing nin. Naruto and Sasuke were at a standoff.
I…I wo-wonder if I…kami my head….have enough chakra for that jutsu.
She brought her hands together slowly to form the seals of the Genjutsu. "Sensory Depressant Jutsu," she whispered. Hinata could feel the drain of chakra that was happening. The jutsu she had just used was a chakra eating one. Not only did it take a lot of chakra it also needed a continues stream of chakra to keep working. Hinata was basically defenseless now as she had to keep her hands in the finishing seal of the jutsu so that it could stay working.
Sasuke notice Hinata waking up. He noticed her making hand signs. He also noticed how the missing nin seemed a little more sluggish now. What kind of Genjutsu did the girl used? He didn't know but he was going to use it to his advantage.
Sasuke rushed the missing nin. He ducked low onto the ground and did a leg sweep. The short hair missing nin jumped to dodge. Sasuke continued his leg sweep all the way around and finished with a high kick to the nin. The missing nin was hit in the pelvic bone and was pushed back by the force of the kick. Sasuke stood up and throw two kunais in Sakura direction.
The two kunais whizzed through the air. One landed on the ground besides Sakura while the other struck the missing nin that was holding her in the arm. The bald missing nin let go of Sakura. She fell to the ground with a loud thud. She scrambled for the kunai that Sasuke had thrown for her.
Inner Sakura was cheering loudly at their Uchiha savior.
Sakura jumped back away from the nin. She reached into her pouch and pulled out two more kunais. She reaches back in and pulls out a handful of shurikens. She surrounds herself with the shurikens and throws the rest on the ground and waited.
She didn't have to wait long as the missing nin pulled out a kunai and rushed her. Not being able to see the shurikens on the ground, thanks to Hinata Genjutsu, he stepped on them. Backing away, he didn't notice the two kunais that Sakura threw at him. Hey landed on each of his legs cutting off his mobility some.
"That wasn't what I was aiming for. The wind must have blown the Kunais off course. I don't have a lot of strength to throw my kunais against the wind," Sakura thought dejectedly as she jumped out of the way of the rushing nin.
"Cha! That just means that we have to work with the wind to win this," Inner Sakura shouted.
Sakura eyes widen and she smiled. "Yes, I'll just have to work with the wind."
She licked her finger and stuck it up in the air. The wind was coming from the east. It wasn't too fast but fast enough to through her kunais off aim. Before she could experiment a little more the missing nin came at her. Sakura jumped back and to the left while leaving a trail of shurikens on the ground. Sakura wasn't an idiot; in fact she had the highest grades in her class and some of the above classes. So she wasn't shocked or upset or angry about the missing nin being stronger than her. She knew that she was the weakest on the team. Even Naruto was stronger than her, something she would never admit out loud. She knew that she had an extreme disadvantage against the missing nin. Not only was he older than her and therefore more experienced, but he was also stronger and faster as well.
The only thing she could really do against him was to stay dodging while lowering his speed and attack him with weapons.
Sakura jumped back again to get more space between her and the nin. She pulled out another kunai and aimed it at him. She then moved it a little to the right and threw it with all her might. The wind was blowing as she threw the kunai. The longer it sailed in the air the more to the left it went. It landed on the quadriceps. Two more kunais followed that path.
The man went down on that leg.
"What did I hit?" she asked herself.
She didn't think on it too long, just counted it as a blessing and did the same to the other missing nin leg. The missing nin was down for the count. Sakura fell to her knees exhausted. She was panting hard as she looked over her handiwork. She couldn't believe that she had just taken down someone stronger than her. It was a feeling she had never felt before. No… she had felt something like it. Her first ever test she had passed with a hundred, her first time being at the top of the class academic wise. It was the same feeling like that.
Like she had accomplished something great.
Naruto faced the pale blue eyed man. His use of the Shadow Clone Jutsu did nothing to help. He saw out the corner of his eye Sakura fight with her opponent. He was happy that she was able to take the man down. He didn't even know the girl had it in her. He could also see Sasuke finishing up his match and Hinata was still in that same position with her hands drawn together in a seal. He could see how hard she was concentrating to keep up the Genjutsu.
"That's right, Hinata is helping us in our fight even if she is being still. The others might not have heard it but the name of that Genjutsu was Sensory Depressant. It must affects the missing in sensory so touch, taste, smell, and sight are muddled for them." Naruto thought.
His hearing was above average almost on par with the Inuzukas. His sight and smell were also above average. His above average senses were one of the things he thanked the Kyuubi for. It had helped him out of a lot of situations.
It also helped with his pranking skills.
Naruto thought quickly and reached into his weapon pouch, which also doubled as his pranking pouch. He pulled out three smoke balls and threw them at the ground in front of the pale blue eyed ninja. The area around the missing nin erupted in smoke. It surround the missing nin cutting his already muddle sight to near zero capacity. Naruto hands flew through the seals of his favorite jutsu.
"Shadow Clone Jutsu," he shouted.
Five other Narutos appeared. The all reached into their weapon pouch. The pulled out smoke goggles and put them on. They all charged into the smoke. The missing nin felt something on his left. He dodged to the right only to get kicked in the right leg. He tired to jump back only for two Narutos to come to him from behind. They held him in place as the other ones reenacted the Mizuki scene on him.
This time though, with less Shadow Clones.
When the smoke cleared up, the burised and bloody body of the missing nin was on the ground. Naruto dragged his missing nin over to where Sakura's was at. Sasuke did the same with his missing nin. Sakura stood and together they tied the missing nins up.
Hinata finally released her Genjutsu. She immediately felt the strain on her chakra reserve disappear. She stood on shaking legs and made her way over to the other. She smiled at them and they smiled back. The only one that looked worse than her was Sakura. The two boys looked as though they barely broke a sweat.
"Good good…job everybody," Hinata spoke softly to her teammates.
"We couldn't have done it without your help Hinata-chan!"
Hinata blushed and ducked a little into her oversized jacket. Sakura looked confused as to what Naruto was talking about. She was about to correct him when Sasuke spoke up.
"Hn. What was that jutsu you used?"
"It…it was the…Sensory…Depressant Genjutsu."
"I never heard of that," Sasuke spoke.
"Neither have I…care to explain what it is Hinata-san?"
Two of the four genins jumped in shock at their sensei sudden appearance. One of the two who didn't jump already knew that their sensei was there. Hinata looked up into Kakashi closed eyes. She could tell there was a smile on his face, even if his eye didn't go into a U shape. She could also feel as though he was hiding something.
"It's a…a Genjutsu I created...it…it depresses the enemies…enemies sensory intake so that things happen slower for them."
Kakashi nodded. "I see…now can anyone tell me what happened here."
"Hai Kakashi-sensei," Sakura exclaimed, "We were walking to the training ground where you told us to meet you at when Hinata noticed that we were in a Genjutsu. After we broke out we finally made it to the training grounds when theses missing nin attacked us."
"I see continue."
"Well at first we couldn't attack them ya know cause they were like stronger than us but then Hinata did her thing and Sasuke helped out Sakura and we all were able to defeat them."
"So what have you guys learned?"
"We learned that when fighting a stronger opponent that working together can help even the odds," Sasuke answered.
Kakashi smiled and looked at Hinata. She smiled back.
"Good…that means…Team seven you guys pass."
"WAIT WHAT?" three out of the four genins shouted.
A/N: Yes..Yes I know. I left you guys with a cliffhanger. Well maybe not so much of one. I could have continued but I felt that this was a good place to end it.
Question: What do you think, Sakura has the making for a good weapon mistress. Ya know with calculating where to throw her kunais against the wind. I'm thinking of that because she needs something for her long range attacks. Though I will still keep her a medic nin.
Also yes that's how Genjutsus work on Hinata. While part of her can still see the Genjutsu and can act how the Genjutsu is supposed to make her act the other part sees what's really going on.
Until Next time
Michi signing off