(Forward rolls into the room, shutting the door on numerous pitchforks and screaming people) Hellooo people, I am sooooo sorry it's taken me ages to write this but I've had birthday celebrations and a profuse number of relatives to deal with XD. Plus I wouldn't want to give you a below-standard chapter now would I? (Prays upcoming Chapter is not below standard) But yes I will be quiet so you can enjoy the ANGST of it all! Thanks as ever for the reviews, your all lummy scrummy for my tummy... don't worry that doesn't mean I'm going to eat you... I think... :S Anyways, enjoy!
Heart tied up in a latticework of guilt... no, not guilt, no time for guilt, with tension, with preparation. Yes. The sand is hot and gold and the sun burns white, bleeding even through my lowered eyelids, and I know exactly where they each are, Naruto a blinding orange blur, Hinata before me, Neji behind me, Gaara... Gaara.
Her mind was working at the acutely attentive level of battle, everything made of concise sharp lines, facts to be processed, emotions cut down to raw stumps of feeling because they could not be acknowledged. Neji was coolly ignoring Hinata, his eyes were grim and distracted, he was lost in thoughts. Those normally evaluating and clever eyes were turned inward - it was all for the better. In turn Hinata was upset at this dismissal, not paying attention. They were the greatest concern, their Byakugan the greatest problem. Naruto, for all his fighting skill, would be completely blinkered to any genjutsu she performed. At Neji's whistle she came to a graceful stop, feet pressing into the sand, the adrenaline tingling as she noted the movements of all of them around her with bristling precision.
"This is where they attacked us last. If we can find some indication of their whereabouts from here..." The rest of Neji's words trailed off into the back of Hogo's mind as she began scanning the monotonous desert with her gaze, looking for ripples of residual chakra, remnants of their hiding places. She paced forward with her eyes still intent on the smooth ground, dropping into a crouch every now and then to perceive anything. Sand was hardly the most useful in finding clues, the high winds no doubt having taken the top surface of sand several miles elsewhere already. Her hands were a smooth, perfunctory blur as she initiated the seal, closing her eyes and thrusting a sizeable swell of chakra into the jutsu, concentrating its details down to needle-tip precision.
"There doesn't seem to be..." she began, leaping off into the desert in skirting runs. As she left, she heard her counterpart complete the sentence for her.
"... anything across this way."
She did not dare glance back. Not because she thought they may not be fooled by the genjutsu, she had enough faith in her own abilities to know she could hold them for at least a few hours. Images, unbidden, ripped out through her calculating, battle-clad mind, things she dreaded from the mouths and in the faces of these people who she trusted and loved and was betraying. They were images that made the bindings around her heart tighten like garrotte wire.
Naruto, his open, friendly face slackened with disbelief and righteous anger.
Neji and Shikamaru, Temari and Kankarou, eyes dark with distrust and venom appropriate for a traitor.
Poor sweet little Hinata, Rock Lee, and Kiba, unconcealed hurt emanating from them, a fear all they had grown to like was a lie.
Gaara.
Just imagining what he would look like, what he would say, if or when they met again, made her feel as though her lungs had been ripped from her body. She came to an abrupt halt, buckling down to one knee on the hot grainy floor, clutching her stomach and breathing heavily, swallowing down the urge to let out a guttural sob.
She had wanted to protect him from being hurt, she did not want to be yet another person to damage him. She would have given anything to have had him never suffer AT ALL, and maybe that was what all her ridiculous self-sacrificing acts were. She thought back without recoiling at all the occasions when she had been reduced to a broken shell to be carried off by the medical-nins, of the cold indifference she was used to receiving but had still hurt her. She wondered if it was possible for him to burn out all of his rage on something, and why she was so willing for it to be her. A wryly amused smile formed around her mouth, and she realised that tears had fallen even though she had tried to stop them, the salt taste on her lips.
Quite simply because she knew she was strong enough to take it. He could attempt to destroy her, shred her to pieces, and she would remain quite absurdly undefeated. She knew she possessed enough strength, not just in her ability, but in who she was, to withstand the rage of his past. Whether she could be strong enough to endure his hate, a response he might readily give to her abandonment, she did not know.
Swiping a forearm across her eyes she straightened, and continued out across the plains of desert.
Kiba hit the desert floor with a pronounced thump, scraping his elongated nails into the sand to stop his slide, teeth gritted in irritation. Akamaru snuffled beside him uncertainly, made anxious by his master's mood. Shikamaru dropped alongside him and cast him a wary gaze before scanning the the desert around them. "Why so tense? You said you had the scent." he asked, very much aware when Temari landed alongside him. After this morning he was finding it even harder than normal to feign indifference. Especially when her hip nudged against his gently, as it was doing now. He shot her an impatient look in response to the lurch in his throat, and simply received a raised eyebrow and a smoky gaze in response.
"I'm not tense, I'm confused!" snarled Kiba, straightening and lifting his nose to the wind, sniffing delicately. "I recognise the scent."
"From yesterday?" asked Lee, absentmindedly stroking Akamaru as he in turn looked out over the terrain, possibly hoping to glare the scent into visibility so he could help.
"Nope, I smelt it before that and since then. I've smelt it... I've..." Kiba's voice trailed off as he shot off after the scent again.
"Hours of fun this is." said Kankurou dryly, leaping up and after him as the others did. As they flew across the desert in darting motions Kiba's frown narrowed. He had smelt this scent on the Jiyuujin estate, in the air, on the furnishings. One of the Jiyuujins, had to be the spy.
Something was wrong. Gaara could tell by the way the pit of his stomach hurt, the way the air felt stilted and too close. He was aware of the seeming tension between Neji and Hinata, but he could and had been ignoring that. It was something else altogether. He kept his eyes trained on Hogo's back, brooding his thoughts through. The disturbance manifested from her, something subtly but acutely off about her. He did not think he was alone in realising it, the silence of the group (save for Naruto's excitable chatter) was thick with unease.
"Haven't we covered this bit of terrain before Hogo?" he inquired coldly, seeing her turn and flash him a slight smile "Nope Gaara, we haven't been here yet today." she replied before facing forward again. His frown deepened as his unease tightened in a vicious knot in his belly. Neji shared a look with him that spoke more words than they had ever exchanged, asking questions, raising suspicions. Gaara answered them with a narrowing of his eyes and by the set of his expression.
"It certainly looks familiar." said Neji, coming to a halt as the rest of the group did. Hogo stood slightly before them, shoulders set and tense. In almost the exact same tone, with the exact same smile, she turned back "Nope, I'm pretty sure we haven't been here yet." she replied cheerily.
"I say you're lying." Gaara responded, his tone hard but icily cold. Naruto looked at him uneasily (as Hogo had guessed he would be) totally unaware of the situation. "Hhey... guys, what's this all about?" he asked, looking from one to the other as Hogo slowly turned and stared Gaara down.
"Do you want to fight me, Hogo?" he drawled, his eyes devoid of anything but the desire for violence. Neji visibly tensed as Hogo lowered her head demurely "Of course not, Gaara." she said sweetly. Even Naruto balked in confusion at the sheer unlikeliness of this response. Hogo had never backed down for a second. Letting out a growl of frustration, Neji initiated his Byakugan, his fears confirmed.
"It's a genjutsu." he said darkly, before raising one hand "Release!"
Naruto let out a yelp of surprise and backed up as the Hogo in front of him shattered like a mirror with a vibrant jolt of chakra. All around him the desert blurred and smeared before reassembling. "What the Hell...?" he murmured, looking about him in confusion as the others scanned their surroundings.
"Looks like we're at the spot where we were last attacked. We must have been here the entire time, trapped in the genjutsu." said Neji, his eyes angry.
"AND I DIDN'T NOTICE?" yelled Naruto, clearly mortified at his lack of attentiveness. The others, normally more than willing to cater to the blond's melodrama, ignored him altogether as they considered this new turn of events.
"What does this mean?" Hinata asked, eyes showing her distress. Neji shot her a cool glance, one quickly softened when he saw how upset she seemed to be, though he retained his aggressive demeanour, not turning to face her "It could mean a number of things. It could mean she is allied with the traitors. It could mean she knows the whereabouts of the traitors and has ventured out on her own to attempt to save our skins, although that strikes me as unlikely - she doesn't see any of us as incompetent..."
"I don't care." Gaara's voice cut through Neji's with innate savagery. Neji tensed, barely perceptibly, and turned to face his irrational teammate. He was relieved that he looked more in control of himself than he had feared, considering the last time Hogo had done something to upset him. Nonetheless, his entire body was trembling with barely contained emotion. "I don't care about her reasons. We're going after her."
Despite himself, Neji felt his ire rise. Of all the calculations and considerations he had made with regard to this mission, Hogo had never equated in them as anything other than a positive factor. This was the last problem he had considered having to deal with. Gaara's personal involvement did not aid matters. Personal. He almost sneered at the word even within the rigid confines of his self-control. Personal was the entire problem why he had not been focusing, had not immediately noticed Hogo's genjutsu. Embarassment, red-hot, and swiftly accompanied by anger, hit his senses as he recalled what a fool he had been acting like with Hinata. He wanted her - he could concede that much, albeit reluctantly, virulently, in the privacy of his own brain. But what did it matter if he did? The aching gap between Head and Branch House, for a while forgotten, seemingly shrunk, was now hideously wide to him once more. She was so far away from him, even last night when his mouth had been inches from hers, she was made out of alabaster and glass, and he was not permitted to touch. His very mind screamed against it even as the rest of him wanted it. She was everything that was forbidden, and he felt a hot rush of something that almost resembled his previous hate of her curdle his heart as he considered how disgusted she would be if she knew what he felt. Even he was horrified by this turgid mess of confusion and desire, hate and hope that he had safely hidden in his cool exterior.
"Oh are we Gaara? If you recall, I'm the leader of this team." he replied acicidally, expression pure cool arrogance. He felt air whistle around him as sand rippled under his feet, Gaara's chakra pulsing. The pale shinobi had his head low, eyes fixed to the floor.
"I don't care. I don't need any of you to help me. Get out of my way or I'll get rid of you first." whilst he was still containing himself, his voice chilling, there was the slightest tremor, of fury or just pure madness Neji did not know. There was no mistaking that, in that moment, he would have no problems carrying out this threat.
"Now wait just a minute guys, this is stupid!" yelled Naruto, stepping in between the stare down that Neji and Gaara were having. "Hogo is our friend! And... Ok I don't know much about genjutsu's, but that was a powerful one right? That means she's used up some of her chakra!"
"Naruto-kun's right." Hinata added softly, "Hogo could have used a far simpler jutsu that would have rendered us all unconscious or incapacitated us. Instead she used a complicated illusion that uses up far more chakra than she would have needed to. It seems like she didn't want to hurt us at all if it could be helped."
Naruto looked horrified at this "Then that means she's our friend, and she's run off to fight the missing-nin alone without her full chakra capacity!"
"It doesn't mean anything like that. It merely means that she might have become... attached... to us whilst acting as a spy." Neji countered crisply, keeping his eyes on Gaara, watching him flinch brutally at the word 'spy'.
"Neji-teme, don't talk like that! Do you honestly think she's like that?" Naruto snarled, turning on his team leader. Neji's eyes lazily skipped to Naruto's, before returning to Gaara.
"Why don't you ask him?"
Naruto faltered for only a moment before walking forward and recklessly standing within Gaara's - albeit very large, but certainly very necessary - personal space, fists clenched.
"Oi, Gaara, you don't believe it do you? You know Hogo better than any of us."
His eyes shot up to meet his, flashing with murderous conviction "Why are we still talking? Whether it's to kill her or to save her, I'm going to get her." With these words Gaara took off to the right, leaping out in to the hot sunshine. Neji rolled his eyes as Naruto instantly followed, leaving him and Hinata alone in the desert. He did not look back and acknowledge her, knowing he would regret it, and was hoping they could continue without him having to do so.
"N..Neji-nii-san..."
Clearly this hope was unfounded. His eyes flickered, unbidden off to his left but he brought them back ahead with rigorous determination. "I suppose we should follow those two. We need to assess why Hogo left if nothing else." he said in clipped, professional tones, moving to step forward only to find Hinata's soft hand clasping his wrist. Preventing himself from simply flinging her off and running into the desert, to be as far away from those pale eyes as possible, he turned and fixed her with his most hard and intimidating stare. She flinched slightly but did not look away, gnawing her bottom lip "Neji-nii-san... are you angry with me?"
He considered this for a moment, not relinquishing his vicious expression. Yes, he was angry with her. But nowhere near as angry as he was with himself.
"No, I'm not angry with you." he said, flipping her hand off his wrist easily. Her face creased in upset and he had to grit his teeth against the urge to wrap his arms around her. "You just seem so..."
"Cold?" he interrupted, raising a sarcastic eyebrow.
"Yes. After last night." "We don't have time for this." he spat, turning to go once more.
"Neji, I just want us to be close!" she blurted out, seemingly instantly regretting it as she huddled her chin down, hunching her shoulders. He desperately tried to ignore the way his heart was abruptly slamming into his chest. She wanted them to be... He sneered at how easily his brain leapt on hope. Of course Hinata wanted to be close. Sweet, tender little Hinata didn't want any enemies. She wanted everyone to be her friend.
"How close?" he purred nastily, seeing her blush crimson, knowing he was taking his own bitterness and desire out on her but in that moment unable to help it. She did not reply, simply staring at the floor, fingers nervously twiddling in front of her. He had not seen her do that, her compulsive gesture of unease, for months.
"It's not a possibility." he said finally, feeling the flat misery that came with the truth of these words. "Why not?" There was frustration in her voice not, annoyance at how dogmatic he was being.
"We are in the middle of a mission Hinata-sama. Now is not the time to discuss this." he said, putting as much disdainful force into the honorific as he could. She blanched slightly and lowered her head; clearly it was more than successful.
"Of course Neji-nii san."
Her voice sounded... empty, and it was his fault. He gritted his teeth against this feeling, and shot off into the desert, Hinata following close behind. He initiated his Byakugan and saw, several miles ahead of them, a wave of sand close to twenty foot high, travelling after the two figures of Gaara and Naruto. Clearly Gaara was not as calm as he had seemed to be.
The rocky incline was not simply that, any more than the innocuous boulders scattered around it were safe and untampered with. It took a full ten minutes for Hogo to disengage the thirteen tags concealed amidst them to prevent trespass. They were considerably difficult seals, but then the missing-nin knew that only other ninjas would be looking for them. It was hardly likely they were going to take risks. Despite herself Hogo admired their tenacity - the cavern was practically unnoticeable from nearly every possible angle, and those where it would have been seen had been treated to all the cloaking ability that a shinobi was privy to. If she had not known for a fact that the camp was here, she might have breezed her gaze across the area and continued on.
As it was, she found herself darting into the black mouth of the cave, silently skittering up the moist, ice-cold walls and fixing herself to the ceiling with chakra. It was best to continue in this fashion, giving her a vantage point as well as at least some partial concealment. As she continued into the thick black, soon even the murky vestiges of daylight were cut off and she was completely blind, relying on her other senses for guidance. She blinked repeatedly, urging her eyes to become accustomed to the black even as she knew it was pointless. Where there was no light, there was nothing for her eyes to adjust to. Nothing but the quiet dripping of water trickling down the cavern walls accompanied her thoughts as she continued forward in a crouch against the ceiling, prepatory for attack or defense, muscles bunched. Soon the pounding of her heart became genuinely audible to her in this tangible, hostile silence that made the blackness wider, more hideous. Her movements were cautious, slow, because she did not know where the jagged ceiling might alter, or incline upwards, or even disappear altogether.
Initially she doubted it, thought that it was her eyes playing tricks on her as they well might in this total darkness, but progressively light began to thread into the inkiness, giving it texture and shadow once more. Pressing herself into the ceiling even further, resorting to a crawl, she inched forwards. Options swiftly collected in her brain as she ventured towards the light. She could create a diversion using the exploding tags she had set up outside, causing the majority of the missing-nin to head out and see what the problem was. She had been hoping to use them as a cover for when she escaped, but they might prove to be more effective now. Of course after that she would have the problem of finding her father before the nin re-entered, and the doubled levels of security after the diversion. In any instance, the longer she spent looking for her father, the more likely they were to find her. She needed to get in and out as speedily as possible.
The guard had been on duty for three hours. He knew the tedious caveway, with its flickering shadows and slippery, crag-filled rocks, like he knew his own face. Aware and attentive, he was prepared for any event within the surrounding thirty feet of him, and would have been able to detect the arrival of another ninja within seconds.
So he could not help asking himself why the shadows were dimming to glossy, soothing smudges of dark, why the floor seemed so inviting, his body so heavy. He felt something light and cool, gently perfumed, touch his cheek and swayed slightly in sleepy languor as he lifted his head. And he was definitely not sure why there were cherry blossoms raining down opon him...
The guard hit the floor with a resounding thud and Hogo likewise silently landed alongside him, rolling him over to check that the genjutsu had indeed rendered him entirely unconscious. Scanning his face she allowed herself a small smile of relief. She recognised him, a Jounin from Sunagakura. That would make the next part, a great deal more easy.
"No. Oh, no."
The entire group ground to a halt at these words, spoken with such bleak, horrified disbelief. Shikamaru stepped alongside Kankurou and followed his frozen gaze. Akamaru made a whining noise of fear, leaping up and burrowing into Kiba's coat. Kiba barely acknowledged this as he swallowed convulsively, daring to flash a glance at the others. Temari looked utterly petrified, clenching her arms across herself protectively, an expression like a trapped child on her face, whilst Lee looked grim and disturbed. "What the Hell is that?" Shikamaru finally asked, not really wanting to know the answer.
The wave of sand had grown even taller as Gaara had travelled across the desert. Now it was close to thirty feet high, and even from this substantial distance it emitted a dull roar, a thousand voices caught up in wind and chaos and screaming to be set free. "Gaara. What the Hell happened to set him off like that?" demanded Kankurou, still unable to drag anything other than quiet fear into his voice. "Whatever it was we can't leave him racing around the desert like that. He might hurt someone." said Rock Lee, straightening once more, his eyes trained on the distant wave.
Temari gave him one look before grabbing him hard around the shoulders and shaking him. "Are you completely INSANE? Can you see that wave? Can you FEEL that chakra? He'll kill you before you get within a mile of him!" she shrieked, her voice progressively becoming hysterical until Shikamaru physically dragged her away from Lee, holding her arms tightly to her sides. She calmed slightly upon feeling his vice-like grip pinning her still, and looked up to see a slight frown on his face. Shikamaru had never seen her lose her cool like that and it was, quite frankly, unnerving. But then she knew better than most how terrifying Gaara could be.
"Neji, what happened to Gaara?"
Shikamaru looked up to see the arrival of Neji and Hinata, dropping down beside them with their eyes likewise trained on the wave ahead of them. Neji went to stand next to Lee and glanced at him before replying "He's following Hogo. Naruto is with him." At the mention of Hogo the entire group's collective attention went to Neji, thrumming with unease, Kiba in particularly shifting tensely. "Hogo? What did she do that would make him..." began Kankurou, starting forward only to be stopped by Neji's scathing look. "She took off. Disappeared on her own after tricking us all with a genjutsu."
"She tricked the Byakugan?" said Lee, looking sceptical. Neji clenched his teeth and tightly responded "I was distracted."
The way in which he said it made Lee realise it was probably foolish to ask as to why - likewise Hinata's blush did not encourage him to. Naruto had taken great enjoyment in regailing him with the clinch he had found them in and Rock Lee was hardly going to start asking for intimate details of his rival's personal life. "What you're suggesting... is..." Kankurou looked stunned for the second time in as many as five minutes, looking from Neji's dark expression to Temari as if for confirmation. Temari's response was to shake her head vehemently, blond hair flipping round in a vicious blur to the degree that Shikamaru tightened his grip on her again in case she sprang at Neji. "No. I don't believe there is any chance that Hogo is the spy. What you're saying is..."
"I haven't said anything YET. But other options seem rather few and far between." snarled Neji, his cool demeanour buckling slightly under the stunned, uncertain reactions of his comrades. "That's not entirely true." ventured Kiba nervously, pulling a face and scratching his neck nervously when Neji's cool look greeted him, as well as the anxious expressions of the others. "What can you tell us Kiba?" prompted Shikamaru even as Lee was rocketing forward to bounce down beside Kiba. "YES! Anything that is of aid to our comrade is essential!" he declared, Kiba jumping nearly a foot in the air in surprise
"Don't do that baka! Jeez!" he snapped exasperatedly before running his hands through his hair in frustration. "I didn't want to tell any of you until I'd confirmed who it definitely was, but I guess now... The scent is a Jiyuujin, without a doubt." he said finally.
"That hardly illustrates Hogo's innocence." Neji said frostily only for Kiba to shake his head. "I think I know Hogo's scent by now Hyuuga. This isn't her. Who it is though, out of the Jiyuujin's we've met, I couldn't tell you. Their home is saturated in all of their scents." He allowed this to settle in whilst shuffling from one foot to the other, hoping that Shikamaru would come up with a plan before Gaara ripped Hogo to pieces. There was a long pause when they were all clearly thinking before Shikamaru looked up thoughtfully, addressing Neji. "Does Gaara know where he's going?"
Neji shook his head. "We never saw Hogo leave. Gaara just headed out into the desert." Shikamaru nodded slowly, taking this in before glancing back at Kiba "And you still have the scent?" Kiba grinned eagerly, straightening "So strong it's like this guy never takes a bath." he confirmed. Shikamaru sighed wearily before separating himself from Temari "Then it looks like we're going after Hogo. If the spy is another Jiyuujin, that changes the entire scope of things for her. She was probably trying to keep things in the family and us out of the way, but we can't expect her to take care of this on her own."
"What about Gaara? What if he starts heading back towards Sunagakura, who knows what he'd do right now?"
"That's the one place he knows Hogo won't be heading - he won't be going back that way. In the mean time, let's hope we can get to the missing-nin camp before Hogo does something stupid. And before Gaara finds her."
Hogo attempted to keep her gaze focused and prayed that she did not belie her disguise as she swiftly scanned the large cavern she had found herself in. Her step was measured and with purpose, when in truth she had no idea in what direction she was intending to go. The cavern was approximately half a mile across and teaming with missing-nin scattered in groups, sparring, sharpening kunai and otherwise milling around. Various tents peppared the area, providing sleeping areas as well as privacy for the ninjas higher in the chain of command. As Hogo weaved her way through, none of them gave her so much as a second glance and she retained her composure with steelly conviction. It was an unusual feeling, wearing the mantle of another person's body, their way of moving. It was similar to viewing the world from behind the confines of a hood and cloak, she felt partially obscured at yet painfully conscious that she was still visible. She only hoped that combining the henge with a genjutsu would make it more authentic, would smooth over any imperfections in the way she mimicked the guard's movements and mannerisms. It was inevitable that soon she would be questioned as to why she had left her post, but she was hoping that if she continued at a fast pace...
"Oi, Renji! Renji, hey, where the Hell are you going?"
She span smoothly as a bald man covered in tattoos came up alongside her. She mentally cursed as she noted that he was not a shinobi she recognised - someone from the Stone village. "Why the Hell are you away from your post? Kuroami will have your guts!" the man exclaimed, but his tone was friendly. He and Renji had clearly been on amiable terms.
"Relax man, I'm changing over." Hogo replied in Renji's deep tones, giving the bald ninja a hefty slap on the shoulder. He instantly tensed, regarding her closely "The replacement guard is meant to come to you." he said slowly, eyes narrowing. Hogo did not allow herself to miss a beat as she laughed and raised her - or more precisely Renji's - large hands in exasperation.
"Try telling him that, I'm looking for the bastard. Do me a favour will you, try and keep Kuroami off my ass while I find him."
The shinobi's eyes searched his face suspiciously for a moment, considering things before seemingly being satisfied and nodding. "Sure thing buddy. Just hurry up." Hogo let out a long slow breath as she swaggered away, feeling the eyes burning into her back but remaining studiously casual. Turning off past a tent, away from that considering gaze, she continued back across the periphery of the left side of the cavern, scanning desperately for side passages, places where prisoners might be kept.
"Hogo-chan."
Before she could even begin to turn at her name, to tense or consider her next action, she found herself being rocketed sideways, her vision blurring red as her head met a wall. A strong body followed her, wramming her physically back and forcing the breath from her lungs. Gagging for air she instinctually dropped to the floor and swung a low sweeping kick, hearing the responding counter and pivoting on her standing foot and one hand to swing her other foot over and round in a turning axe kick. She cursed as the kick was caught and flipped back and up the wall, bringing her knee forward into her attacker's stomach with rib-cracking force. She let out a strangled choking noise as she found her throat trapped, finally focusing her eyes up into this man's. Recognition shot through her as the man grimly tightened his hold, but not to a crushing grip. "...Jun..." she gasped out, and his eyes narrowed to vicious slits. "What are you doing here Hogo-chan?" he hissed, tightening his hold just enough to make her swallow hard and pitch her body up against him, trying to throw him off. He remained solidly in place, out-matching her by about two feet and 70 odd pounds of pure muscle. Despite that, she knew she must have broken at least ONE of his ribs. He wasn't made out of iron after all.
Jun was a childhood friend, a nosy kid who she had found climbing over the walls of the Jiyuujin estate to see what it was like. They had become, and remained, firm friends, had passed the Chuunin exams together, and had remained close even when they had been assigned to different teams.
Maybe it was for all these reasons that she was still alive, or maybe similarly they were the only reason he was alive. They continued to stare each other down, before she finally broke the silence. "I'm here for my father." He let out a grunt of frustration, not releasing his grip on her throat but stepping back from her slightly, glancing about them in apparent wariness. Hogo noticed that in their struggle they had ended up in a thin but long pathway spidering off away from the main cavern. It progressively dawned on her that Jun's first seeming attack had been to get her into this passageway, away from the other nin. That surely meant that he did not want to expose her. "You really expect me to believe that you're just here for your father? That you don't intend to destroy our operations? You're the one that brought the Konoha ninja here, like some kind of traitor..."
"I'm not the one situated out in the middle of nowhere waiting to attack my own village Jun! Don't you dare accuse me of being the traitor!" She snarled savagely, pressing forward to stare him down despite his grip on her throat.
"I'm trying to do what's best for Sunagakura." he hissed, looming over her with his eyes burning in the shadows. "And so am I!" she fumed in response, forehead almost touching his as she stood up on tiptoe to scowl at her friend. They remained that way for a moment or two before he slowly released his grip on her throat, although his expression did not change. Wearily she let out a sigh and scrubbed a hand over her eyes. She would not insult him by trying to change his mind about what he believed in.
"My father is a good man Jun-kun." she said quietly, not missing the way his eyes wavered before he looked away. There was a tense pause. "He is one of the finest." he conceded gruffly, kicking at the dirt floor with one foot. "Don't mistake me Jun. I would gladly stop all that Baki and you idiotic followers intend to do. If I could I would finish this for Suna myself, today. This camp would be burnt out before the sun went down. But I can't. My only intention here is to save my father. When I am gone you can run to Baki yourself and have the entire camp moved, hidden once more. I don't ask for where you're going, what it is you intend to do. Just give me the time I need to get to my father and out again."
The silence stretched as Jun shifted from one foot to the other, jaw set as he pondered the shadows. Finally he turned to look at her once more. A thousand words of what their friendship was, despite being enemies now, were in his eyes.
"I pray I don't meet you in battle Hogo-chan."
She smiled tightly "Likewise Jun-kun."
He placed a heavy hand on her shoulder and squeezed gently. "... Very well. I'll take you to him. After that I can do nothing more for you."
YEEEEP, that's it for now, hope you enjoyed it ppls! RnR! XD XXX