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Chapter 10: Chuunin Exams (continued)

Hinata meandered all the way home in a blissful daze. She'd just spent the whole day in the presence of her crush, and even though she hadn't said more than ten words, where seven of them were various kinds of squeaks and mumbled sayings, being in the constant presence of the face that looked like sunshine and the lively boy that made her feel warm inside. Tonight she had a mission with Anko-sensei, maybe she'd stop by his apartment as Himawari.

"Hey."

Hinata looked up from the ground in surprise. Leaning coolly against the wall next to the entrance gate of her clan's compound was Sasuke Uchiha, it seemed he'd been waiting for her. "Sasuke-san, what's up?"

He stood up straight and walked right up to her, eyes unwavering as she carefully surveyed him and made sure he didn't come too close. "I'll get straight to the point. Kakashi-sensei told me I need to improve my hand-to-hand and close-range combat skills, so I want you to train me."

"Me? Seriously?" Hinata shook her head. "I'm still a student myself Sasuke, go find someone older and more experienced."

"No, you have more power and potential than anyone I know." He grabbed her shoulder when she tried to push past him and get into the gate, spinning her around to face him again. "I don't have the time Sasuke, now go away." Her byakugan flared to life as she prepared herself to use her power to subdue him, but then he grinned in a way that meant no good would come of what he said next. "Yeah, it must be hard having to be a genin, magical-girl, AND anbu now mustn't it?"

Her eyes widened in surprise. "I d-don't know w-what you're t-t…."

"You only stutter when you're lying Hinata-san, or when you're around the dobe." Sasuke replied, interrupting her defensive counter-speech. "Anbu-life suits you, wearing the mask hides your identity and thus your insecurity, and you never have to talk and give away that stutter that your clan judges so harshly."

She remained silent, so he continued his monologue. "I didn't want to resort to blackmail to make you train me, but you leave me no choice. I know about your nightly visits to his apartment, and I know you have feelings for the dobe. Train me, or I tell him."

And so it went that from that day on, Hinata reluctantly agreed to spar against him twice a week. Usually during the night, right after she finished her missions with Anko-sensei, she met up with Sasuke in a secluded location and they set to work training him, although occasionally she joined in, to improve his hand-to-hand combat with the basic jyuuken stances that had been ingrained in her from the age of 4. Technically, they were clan secrets that she was giving out, but what the Hyuuga didn't know wouldn't hurt them. And Sasuke, who was usually proficient at everything he did, was surprisingly lacking in physical-strength, probably because he relied so much on his other traits like jutsu, speed and agility. They began with weight-training, where Hinata loaned him her sealed arm and leg weights that Anko-sensei had stolen from Gai-sensei, her occasional taijutsu instructor and her cousin's team's jounin. Pushing chakra into the weights increased the force of gravity bearing them down, so she started Sasuke off with 5 kilograms on each arm and 7 on each leg. "Every week I'll check your coils and if your muscles aren't straining I'll increase the weight a little." Sasuke nodded in reply, stretching his arms out to test how much slower his limbs moved now.

He proved to be a worthy training partner, quickly picking up all of the moves that she taught him and incorporating them into his own Uchiha-style of fighting that consisted mostly of the kind of movements used in sword-wielding, as he tended to strike fast and withdraw even faster. "You need to hit harder!" Hinata ordered, facing him as they hit their training posts side-by-side. While she made clean dents in the wood thanks to her chakra-powered hits, his barely scraped the surface of the otherwise smooth wood. Sasuke grunted, focusing all of the energy he had left into his fists and using open palms on the wooden target. With a sickening crack the pine splintered and he punched the air in victory.

She was considering giving him her staff again, maybe transforming it into the sword that he'd wielded so well when they were defeating the witch made from his internal-conflicts. Early days though, he actually needed to find his own sword because she couldn't be lending her soul-gem's power out to just anybody, especially someone who, while not exactly an enemy, wasn't really someone she would hold in her inner circle.

After their secret spars Hinata hurried home to clean herself up before Shino was due to come over. It was a good thing that Kiba was busy being trained by his mother, his thirteenth birthday came by last month and signified his coming of age according to Inuzuka tradition, so Tsume had agreed to finally teach him their family's secret advanced clan-techniques. He was rarely seen nowadays, other than their twice-weekly training sessions and simple D-rank missions with Kurenai-sensei, and though Hinata was sad about the absence of his constant presence and especially Akamaru's warm little furry body that curled up inside her jacket sometimes, she knew it wouldn't be too long now before they'd be seeing each-other ceaselessly again when the Chuunin exams officially started.

Shino waited outside her gate for her to come out and then they made their way to Naruto's apartment. "Shino. How do you feel about spying on the other village's entrants?"

The bug-boy maintained his silence for a few moments, to Hinata it felt like she could hear the gears turning in his head. "It's necessary to our success that we do this. And what of your opinion?"

"I think it's… devious. Naruto-kun probably has the best intentions in doing this though, and I trust his judgement…"

"I do too." When they arrived at his apartment they stood at the bottom of his staircase and leaned against the wall to wait for him to come out. "I've released some of my kikaichu to search out a few of our targets early."

"And I've been scanning the area on the way here." Hinata replied, looking around. "It seems clear for now…" At that moment the door slammed open and the usual bright orange-clad figure bounded down the steps towards them. "Hey guys! You ready to go?" Both of them nodded and they all took off for the rooftops.

…

In the darkness of his room the boy sat, staring at the wall with wide-open sea-foam green eyes. He couldn't sleep, he could never sleep, otherwise bad things happened…

'I must control mother…'

The ground around him was covered in sand that shifted gently with every slow, deep breath in he took. In these very rare, quiet moments he felt at peace with everything.

But mother was never one to be sated with peace, at least not for long. He could feel the sand shifting restlessly, willing him to go out and find blood, fresh, red, sweet blood. "Please just… wait. It will come soon, I will kill soon."

The sand quietened down and slowly moved back into the gourd on his back, completely of its own accord. While this occurred, high above the inn he and his siblings stayed in on the building's rooftop, Shino crouched low with his eyes closed, sitting in a comfortable position with his legs and arms crossed. Next to him Hinata had her byakugan active, keeping watch in case anyone saw them. "Shino-kun, what do you see?"

"His siblings are gone. It's just him, sitting alone in the middle of his dwelling." Shino opened his eyes, his uncovered eyes, and Hinata gasped in awe. His pitch-black pupil was surrounded by a gold-tinted iris, and the normally white eyeball was tinted amber with a hexagonal pattern that made his eyes look like those of a fly. Earlier he'd explained to Hinata what he could do, with his kikaichu and a special jutsu that was one of his clan's most powerful, he had a connection to the bugs inside the room such that he could literally see through their eyes. Everything that the tiny beetle planted inside Gaara's room saw, Shino saw.

And over time he would be able to share more than just sight with them. For now though, the range with which he could do this was short, hence the reason they'd needed to be so close to the target to spy on him. "He was training with his sand, it seems he can bend it to his will and now it's going back into the gourd."

"So that's what he keeps in there huh?"

Naruto climbed up to the roof and took a seat next to them, crouching low with his fist tucked under his chin in deep thought. Hinata, too distracted keeping a look out to really feel nervous around him at that moment, simply nodded in reply. "Still no sign of anyone else around. We've been her for three hours now and no activity from him. Does he even train?"

"He meditates." Shino stated, pulling his shaded spectacles out from his jacket pocket and putting them back on. "Evening is approaching and I'm expected at home. Should we regroup some other time?"

Naruto nodded in agreement, following behind them as they took off across the rooftops. When they reached the safety of a crowded part of the streets they integrated into the masses and appeared unsuspicious again. "Well, that was kind of boring..." Naruto admitted, scratching the back of his head. "We could try again tomorrow but it doesn't look hopeful, we might have to change our targets and start spying on the others."

Hinata remained quiet as they walked together. Shino looked back at her once, the slightest crease in his brow indicating his concern about what she was currently thinking. "Hinata, what do you think we should do tomorrow?"

"Tomorrow… we should move onto the other gennin." Both boys looked at her with raised eyebrows. "Why do you think that?"

"W-well… th-there's nothing we can do, h-his powers aren't something we c-can really combat strategically. I think it would be b-best if we focused more on training and improving ourselves, a-and..." she blushed, pulling her fingers together to tap at each-other. She only now realised that she'd been talking a lot, gaining Naruto-kun's attention. He might not like it if she went against his wanting to focus on Gaara no Sabaku. "O-oh… we d-don't have long to spy on them before the e-exams, we n-need to move on…"

After a few moments of silence, Naruto finally nodded, giving her a small smile. "You're right Hinata. Tomorrow we start spying on the other teams, agreed?"

The two members of Team 8 nodded, Hinata more in relief and Shino in placated acceptance. 'It's not that I don't think he isn't important. He gives off an aura that I don't like though, and I don't want Naruto-kun around when I try to help him…' Hinata thought, moving her hand up to rest over the soul-gem pendant resting beneath her jacket, right over her upper chest. "I'm really hungry, you guys coming to get ramen with me?" Naruto asked, rubbing his growling stomach with a worried expression. "I said before, I need to go home. Hinata, you need to eat don't you? I know you haven't eaten since this morning, my kikaichu detected your depleted energy stores."

At that moment her growling stomach sounded, very similar to Naruto's only a bit quieter. 'Oh…' she wrapped her arms around her middle embarrassedly, the blush across her face intensifying. "NO MEAL SINCE BREAKFAST?!" Naruto exclaimed, grabbing her hand. "You need ramen now! Bye Shino!"

…

The two sat side-by-side with steaming bowls of noodles and broth in front of them, slurping up noodles with sighs of content. Hinata tried her best to eat slowly, but the food was so delicious that she eventually let go of all manners and picked up the bow to down the rest of its contents. She hadn't been to the shop in her usual disguise for a week now, it felt like coming home after a long time, only Ichiraku's didn't know Hinata Hyuuga, they knew Himawari the anbu-apprentice. Naruto, who'd already eaten five to her two bowls, watched her eat from his side vision with surprise. Ayame also came over to chat with the store's no.1 customer and his cute lady-friend. "You know, I never thought I'd see a Hyuuga eat at this shop and I've been here as long as I can remember…" The girl with large, pale eyes like the moon blushed and ducked her head low in a sort of apologetic bow, letting her bangs come over her face.

"G-gomenasai, Ayame-san. I-it's true, that some Hyuuga-members believe themselves t-to be above the rest of the village and are too good to eat at ramen-stalls, however I… I don't…"

Hinata, who'd finished her bowl and wiped her mouth with the back of her sleeve, sighed with a sad expression as she struggled to come out with the words, but their waitress simply nodded with a wide smile of understanding. "I get what you're trying to say Hinata-san, don't worry."

"Obviously you're not like that right Hinata-chan?" Naruto asked. She nodded, giving him a small, soft smile. "Y-yeah, I'm n-not like m-most Hyuuga…"

Ayame watched her curiously, seeing the slow blush that spread across the pale-eyed girl's face while Naruto continued to grin widely at her, although he seemed oblivious to her embarrassment. 'Hmm… looks like the girl has a crush on Naruto. She's so kawaii too, reminds me a lot of the anbu whose one of our other regular customers…'

…

Hinata sat on the balcony outside her bedroom looking up at the crescent moon. She awaited the return of Kyubey, who she needed to help her with a pressing issue regarding Gaara no Sabaku. "That boy needs help, and a lot of it…"

"Which boy?" The chibi voice of her spirit-guide came from above, as Kyubey looked down at her from the rooftop awning. "His name is Gaara no Sabaku." Hinata replied, bringing her knees up to her chest. "He's a very… disturbed, gennin. Do you know if there is a witch associated with him?"

"I'll have to check, there are a number of powerful auras around due to all the foreign shinobi flooding the village." Kyubey lay down next to her with his front paws stretched out in front of him. Closing his eyes, he searched the area, asking the Hyuuga-girl for extra details to locate the source of the girl's concern. Through his all-seeing eyes he could detect not only the exact location of every living thing in the universe, but also what lay beneath and around the living; what couldn't usually be seen…

Within the confines of the inn that the three gennin had just vacated, there lay a huge mound of power with a darkness the likes of which he'd never seen before. He gasped in awe at the golden flecks that surrounded the red-headed boy. They were small sparkles in the mud shell that covered him from head to toe, also mixed in was a matte-black darkness that radiated evil-intent. Visions of blood, dead-bodies and gore…

"This one's almost as bad as the Uzumaki-kid's witch."

"Naruto-kun?" Hinata sat up from her slouched position and faced Kyubey. "He's a demon-carrier like that other boy you're fond of. This one isn't as powerful or big, but he has more access to its chakra and far less control over it."

"If he has a demon, I don't know how much we can help him control it…" she bit her thumb softly, frowning. "Can you take me into his mindscape?"

"… well, here's the thing. This boy, his mindscape…"

"What? Tell me."

"I can't take you into his dreams because he doesn't dream. This kid hasn't slept in… years…"

"What?" Hinata put a hand over her mouth to hide the gaping expression. "That… can't be…"

"Believe me, it's true. He is in his most vulnerable state when he sleeps, so it seems he's forgone slumbering altogether."

"That's… crazy!"

She shook her head and stood up to go into the bedroom. "I can't believe he could possibly not sleep for years, but then again it's not the most unbelievable thing I've seen. We'll need to keep watch over him, he's the most dangerous part of these exams so far…"

…

***time-skip***

The first-part of the chuunin exam came and went by with few complications. Hinata looked up at the forest of death in just as much awe as the rest of the gennin who'd passed the test. 'It's really scary looking…' Sakura thought, gulping as she stood between her teammates, nervous about the next task. Since her explosive arrival, the exam-proctor Anko Mitarashi hadn't stopped grinning maniacally. "ALRIGHT BRATS LISTEN UP!"

The slight chatter between the students died down as she ran through the rules for the next competition. In their gennin teams they would be given a heaven or earth scroll and equally spaced around the outside of the fenced off forest behind one of its many entrances. The objective was to obtain both a heaven and earth scroll, then make their way to the centre of the forest where they could open the scrolls and qualify for the third and final stage. Easy enough in words, but when they were left alone in the forest there was no doubt some of the gennin would be looking for any chance to play dirty. Hinata could see in her peripheral vision the other village teams with a bloodthirsty glint in their eye and smirking expressions. 'I'm going to make sure the hidden-leaf gennin get through this alive and safe!'

Anko glanced at her, tilting her head as if to ask how she was while they walked together around the edge of the forest. She nodded silently, trying to convey the message that she was doing okay, but the older woman simply shrugged and looked away. 'Damn gaki…'

'I wonder if Naruto-kun is nervous, Shino-kun, Kiba-kun and Team 10 were pretty vocal about how scary the forest looked, and I could tell just by his face that Sasuke wasn't feeling great about this, but Naruto-kun has kept a surprisingly unreadable expression so far…' Only two hours ago they'd been sitting side-by-side taking the written exam together, and while Hinata had been confident in her ability to answer at least half of the questions correctly, the blonde had left in a blank paper and still exclaimed how confident he was in beating the test. No doubt they'd seen his sheet and there was probably a huge uproar about it, but it was too late to go back on passing him now…

The orange-clad boy was walking several meters in front of her, head down and eyes trained on the ground as he kept in step with his teammates. Hinata worried for him, he wasn't being as enthusiastic as he was earlier…

"Hey Hinata, what are you thinking about?" Kiba asked, pulling Akamaru out of his hood to hobble along the grass on his still short legs. Over the last month he'd been training hard, which was fortunate now with the upcoming physical portions of the exams. "Hmh, nothing much." She replied nonchalantly, allowing him to sling an arm around her as his other arm reached out for Shino and yanked the Aburame into the impromptu team-bonding moment of close contact. "Come on guys, this is it! We're a third of the way to gaining chuunin! Can't lose sight of our prize now right?"

"I concede." Shino pitched in, "We stand a good chance of passing this test because our team specialises in tracking. Assuming we get the other scroll without too much trouble, I already know where we would have to go and we could get there within a day's journey."

When they were dropped off outside their gate with farewells for now and well-wishes from the other hidden-leaf gennin teams, they set to work on strategizing their capture of another scroll and navigating their way through the forest.

…

After wading through shit and mud for the last three days, Ino was thoroughly fed up and increased the frequency she expressed her distaste at their current situation with an unrepressed growl every five minutes. They'd not seen another living soul for so long that they were convinced every team by now had either passed the exam and were waiting outside of the arena, or they were dead. "This sucks… can we just open our scroll and give up already?"

Shikamaru shrugged at Ino's question, looking up at the thick tree-canopy that obscured his view from the sky and his favourite fluffy white objects to gaze at. "This… does suck…"

Choji raised his eyebrows, looking on either side of him to both defeated teammates. He was getting pretty hungry about now, but their food-supply was now down to one pack of crisps that would have to be shared between the three of them. Things were looking abysmal…

All of a sudden, something made him freeze in place. He lifted his large face up as a heavenly aroma wafted past his nostrils and sighed happily. "FOOD!" the large Akimichi boy exclaimed, looking around wildly for the source of the delicious smell.

Shikamaru turned back to his stopped teammate, surprised. "There's someone nearby?"

"Yeah! And they're roasting pork! Oh Shika let's go find them!" Before the Nara, who'd been designated their leader after his best-friend nominated him and no other teammate (i.e. Ino) received support for their self-nomination, could say anything, Chouji was off, following where his nose led. Shikamaru shrugged again and kept pace with the larger boy while Ino hurried along them, looking around wearily. They reached the clearing where the team was, crouching low behind some bushes and listening in on the bragging sound-nin, who were indeed roasting some fresh game while they counted up the supplies they'd pillaged from other teams.

"Heh, you should've heard him squeal Koruno!" one of them said, smirking as he sifted through the stolen supplies and picked what he liked to put in his pack. "The little brats should've thought harder about entering the exams right?" All three of them cackled in laughter, obviously very pleased with themselves.

None of them were prepared when their insides suddenly froze, eyes staring blankly at the ceiling canopy of trees while beneath their bodies their shadows were being manipulated using the Nara's special branch of clan-jutsu.

"Haha! They had both scrolls so we can finally leave!" Ino exclaimed, grinning widely as she fisted the air in happiness for their team finally having obtained the Heaven scroll. The three were currently jumping across the treetops with all the combined speed they could muster, having knocked out and tied the gennin-team up to a tree several kilometres back, they were now rummaging through the supplies they'd picked up from the other team.

"Assuming we get out of this place undetected. My chakra-levels took a major hit after that stunt…" he took one of the scrolls Ino handed him and tucked it inside his shirt, while she sealed hers in a scroll that lay unsuspecting at the bottom of her pack. Strapped across his broad back, Chouji held the two faux-scrolls that would trick any enemies into thinking he held them both, and since he was the strongest of the three of them it would lead the enemy to want to attack him first so the two less physical members could devise a strategy and back him up with their mind-control and shadow-manipulation jutsu. "Do you need to stop and rest Shika?" Choji asked, turning towards his winded teammate. The spiky-haired boy shook his head and surged forward. "I say we don't stop until we get out of this hellhole. Any objections?" he asked. Choji merely shrugged, but Ino looked away from them, and in a small voice said "… if we see Team 7 or 8 in trouble, should we stop and help them?"

Both boys raised an eyebrow at her uncharacteristic show of caring towards their fellow gennin. "I… it, would be dangerous." Shikamaru replied. Ino nodded, "… sorry. I get that it'd be best if we just ignored everything outside of making it to the middle of the forest and getting out of here."

'But… Sakura… I hope she's okay, and Hinata-chan, and I suppose I need to be hopeful for the rest of those idiots too…'

Both Shikamaru and Chouji shook their heads simultaneously, causing her to stop in surprise. "What?"

"Of course we need to help our fellow-leaf out Ino-chan." Chouji stated, with Shikamaru nodding in agreement as he crossed his arms. "If it comes to that, we'll stop. But only if we see them on our path there. Who knows, they might be out of the forest already."

"Oh yeah! You're right Shika, let's go catch up to them then!" Ino led the way this time, a small, optimistic smile on her face, with Shikamaru keeping watch in the middle and Chouji taking up the rear, both of them wearing identical smiles to hers.