UNLIKELY TRIO

CJAPTER 21

To Sasuke there had never been an equal balance between Heaven and Hell. If asked, he would have unquestionably answered that Hell was dominant, and Heaven was a just private watering hole for the purest of creatures; like his mother—and Hinata.

So.

Why suddenly was he asking himself this question after being teamed up with Naruto and Hinata on this new exam? Which was stronger; the urge to protect his former student, or the urge to obliterate the hell out of his teammate? Hm. Well, since Hinata had gotten considerably strong over the past few months and could more or less protect herself, Sasuke would comfortably say that Hell was the dominant factor here, too. If Naruto was not dead by the end of this exam, it would either be because Sasuke had died himself, or Naruto had suddenly stopped being annoying. One was definitely more plausible than the other.

Oh well. Sasuke thought he should just thank Kami for small favors, because Hinata had not been paired with a stranger. He wouldn't trust her with a stranger. The bigger favor—she had been teamed up with him. It's what he wanted. Not only could he watch over her, but he could also study her in action to see how much she'd improved without him. Part of him hoped that she had improved exponentially. The other part of him hoped she . . . hadn't.

But why? No. No, it wasn't because of what Hiashi said: Think her incapable of making progress without you? Sasuke didn't believe that. He knew Hinata was more than capable of improving on her own. So then what was the reason? It couldn't possibly be because he wanted Hinata to ask him to train her again. That it would be something she wanted completely on her own, to seek him out of her own free will. But then maybe it was better that way.

Sasuke had fought many inner battles with himself, but he could—somehow—manage to stop himself from seeing Hinata. If at some point she decided to fully take initiative and start seeing him on her own . . . No. He would not be able to turn her away. Not in the condition he was in now. Exam. Sasuke had to concentrate on the exam. It had only just started twenty minutes ago and already there were two teams down for the count. Gaara was a mean sonofabitch.

Neji and Rock Lee, Sasuke knew, would be extremely difficult opponents. They were originally teammates to begin with, so their harmony ought to be good. But the same could also be said for Sasuke and Hinata. They had trained together and even had meals together. They would do well, with or without Naruto. But then Sasuke had run into a problem he had wholly not expected.

Hinata's desire to protect Naruto. It was there. Sasuke saw it. The way she timidly yanked him clear of hidden traps, the way she smiled at him, and the way she encouraged him. Her Byakugan turned out to be even more useful than Sasuke's Sharingan, and so she took it upon herself to lead the group through the forest. That was brave of her. It was something he knew she never would have done in the past. Sasuke admired her drive, but . . .

That did not mean she had to baby Naruto. Sasuke's acidic attitude toward his own teammate had cost them missions in the past. He would have liked to set that childish part of him aside for the sake of the exam, for the sake of succeeding and taking that important step closer to his goal, but it was . . . difficult.

Sasuke watched Hinata's back as they leapt from branch to branch. She slipped a hand into her utility belt and came out with a shurikan. She flung it through the path where it sliced a wire in half. A trap gave out, and the fishing net snarled up in a heap and fell to the forest floor. Then, with another graceful leap, she plucked the same shurikan from a tree in midair, and before her feet could even touch the next branch, it was already back in her utility belt.

Practiced precision. Definitely improved. Even Naruto was transfixed on Hinata—grinning. Sasuke grit his teeth. The rushing wind whistled through his teeth to the back of his mouth, drawing Naruto's attention. "What?" he asked, just as they perched on another tree branch.

"Nothing," Sasuke said. "Just watch where you're going. If it wasn't for Hinata you'd have gotten snared twice and pulverized once."

Naruto flared his nostrils. "Liar! I know what I'm doing, Sasuke-bastard. Just you watch."

"Please be more careful, Naruto-kun," Hinata said over her shoulder, much to Sasuke's deep satisfaction. Naruto frowned and hmphed at her remark, but didn't say anything to the contrary. Maybe he figured that if even Hinata was saying it, then it must be true. What an idiot.

"And Sasuke-san, please be more patient with Naruto-kun. He is one of your very own teammates, and I think that if you wanted you two could make a great team. We all have to work together if we want to succeed." Sasuke couldn't help looking at Naruto then, who was grinning from ear to ear. His eyes were maliciously amused. Sasuke couldn't believe Hinata had to tell him the same thing Kakashi had. The effect was so much worse.

"You're right," he said. The pain. "Let's keep going. We're half an hour in and we haven't seen any teams. We need kunais from Sound, Rain, and Sand. The tower is at least four days into the forest, but we have five to make it there. How much food do we have?" Naruto scrambled around in his pack.

"Uh—ah! I've got six nutrition bars and a rice ball!" Hinata felt a sweatdrop along her hairline. 'He brought a rice ball?' Sasuke's eyelids dropped halfway closed.

"You had eight bars this morning." Naruto blushed and rubbed the back of his head. He laughed awkwardly.

"I have seven nutrition bars, peanuts, seeds, and dried apricots." Hinata said. Sasuke and Naruto looked at her. 'She literally eats like a bird!' they could both hear the other think. Sasuke checked his pack briefly.

"I have ten nutrition bars, ten energy bars, dried squid and seasoning salt." Naruto tilted his head.

"Seasoning salt?"

"For when we run out of food and have to roast you to survive. I dread how you'd taste without it."

"What?!" Naruto shouted. Hinata actually giggled.

"I brought salt too, and multispice seasoning. I thought that if we were going to be stuck in a forest there should be game to hunt." Sasuke was elated to find that they'd been thinking along the same wavelength. Naruto had no idea how lucky he was. Hinata opted to start moving forward, so Naruto followed. Sasuke lingered behind, seeing something shift through the dark forest floor. Only a gleam of brown scales was visible, but its identity was obvious. One hell of a big snake. "Not enough seasoning salt in the world for that," he muttered, and leapt after his teammates.

Another ten minutes and they stopped. A scream echoed through the forest—a pained one. Hinata flattened her hand against a tree, pulling her eyebrows together. Sasuke stood beside her, looking through the sea of branches. Naruto's blue eyes were wide, chest heaving. "W-what was that?" he shuddered.

"One unlucky bastard," Sasuke said. Naruto glared.

"Shouldn't we help them?" Sasuke almost rolled his eyes.

"And risk getting in the same situation? This is a competition, Naruto. If we start jumping to everyone's rescue we might as well turn over our kunai now."

"But . . ."

"We should keep going," Hinata said uneasily. "Sasuke-san is right. We need to look out for each other. But we also need to find other teams so we can get their kunais. The exam is set up so that even if we don't run into trouble, we have to go looking for it." It was a discomforting fact for her, but at least she was able to acknowledge it.

"It's only a matter of time," Sasuke added. "Don't let it get to you, Naruto. Come on."

When the branches got too thick they resumed traveling along the forest floor. Sasuke made sure to keep close watch over Hinata, since it was far more dangerous. Not because of the teams, but the wildlife. Her Byakugan really was a blessing: she was able to spot the giant spider webs, the burrows, and the smaller, more subtlety dangerous things, like black widows and finger sized dart frogs. One look at her face was all he needed to see how focused she was.

'She's trying to keep us safe," Sasuke thought, feeling a twinge of shame. 'Dammit.' They all stopped when Hinata did. She peeked over one of the large ferns, seeing something in the shadows that they couldn't.

"There's a trap up ahead," she whispered, squinting her eyes. "About forty meters ahead. It's laced with wires. Each one is pinned by kunais stretching from tree to tree, and they all have bombs attached." Sasuke narrowed his eyes.

"If any one wire is tripped, all the wires are going to spring." Hinata nodded.

"There are nets stretched through the canopies. They must be set to fall if the bombs are triggered."

"So we just go around it, right?" Naruto said, closing in next to Hinata. Their shoulders were practically touching.

"We could," Hinata said hesitantly, "but one of the kunais has a Sound mark on it."

"Really?" Naruto cried, and the others shushed him. Sasuke dragged Naruto beside him and away from Hinata, who had just noticed.

"U-Um . . ." She cleared her throat, but to Sasuke's satisfaction she did not blush. "It's definitely one of the one's we need. What should we do?" Sasuke thought for a moment.

"We can't just jump into a trap!" Naruto said, placing a hand to his forehead.

"Maybe we can." Hinata and Naruto turned to Sasuke inquiringly. He suggested that someone go for the kunai and trip the wires on purpose. The other two would have to slice through the nets, not to mention look out for any attacking teams. Hinata volunteered to be the bait, which Sasuke immediately denied (having had Naruto in mind the entire time he planned it).

Naruto did agree to go in Hinata's stead. Unexpected. So it was decided. Hinata and Sasuke climbed the canopy in silence, making sure not to trigger another trap from above. There were plenty, obviously meant to divert any enemies wanting to tamper with the nets. Hinata could see them just fine with her Byakugan, and had marked Sasuke's path for him.

When everyone was in position Naruto propelled himself into the wires. They snapped and swirled away from him, slashing at his cheeks and jumpsuit. Bombs erupted from the trees, splintering wood and snapping the thinner trunks completely in half. Hinata and Sasuke slashed through the falling nets with shurikans, which caused them to snarl up with the broken branches. Naruto was sailing in the air, preparing to grab the kunai, but a sonic wave split the air. It rammed into Naruto and sent him spinning back toward the forest floor.

Hinata jumped after him, quick as a dart, and caught him before he could hit the ground. Sasuke went for the kunai himself, but it was yanked away by a separate wire. He swore when he latched onto the tree empty handed. A Sound nin was perched on a branch, twirling the kunai by the wire. "Just like fishing," she chuckled. "Kudos, though, for slicing up our nets." Sasuke looked toward the forest floor. Hinata and Naruto were being cornered by two other Sound nin. One had something like an enormous reed strapped to his arm, punctured with holes. A weapon?

He unlatched from the tree , landing directly next to Naruto. "Who the heck are these guys?" he said.

"Sound ninja," Sasuke replied in a hard voice. He snorted. "It was worth a shot." Hinata didn't seem to be looking at them. Her eyes were drawn toward the woods, staring at something. Sasuke couldn't see what it was, but he figured it must be something dangerous.

The girl dropped from the trees near her teammates. She was smirking. "Just hand us your kunai. You kids have no idea what you've gotten yourselves into."

"Who's a kid?" Naruto raged. "You're no older than me, are you? Why don't you give us your kunai before I pummel you all into the dirt!" The reed ninja laughed deep behind his mask.

"I'd like to see you try." Sasuke felt the vibrations in the air, a deafening pitch coming from the thing on his arm. When another sonic vortex shot out, all three dispersed. Naruto accidentally set off a trap that sent an enormous log swinging along the ground. He was lucky enough to dodge, but Hinata went for it. "What are you doing?" Sasuke cried. She whipped two shurikans out of her utility belt. They both cut the suspending wires which sent the log bouncing across the forest floor. It almost rolled over two of the Sound nins, but they sprang into the air to avoid it. The log went crashing through the bushes, shaking the earth beneath them. To everyone's surprise except Hinata's, a massive snake leapt out from the shadowy recesses with its mouth unhinged. Two of the Sound nin were consumed right in the air. Their female teammate screamed their names.

"No way!" Naruto exclaimed. Sasuke sent a shurikan toward the girl. She caught sight of it at the last second and dodged. Sasuke immediately looked for a hanging wire from the hole it ripped in her pants. When it caught a gleam he managed to snatch it from the air, and with one yank the marked kunai went flying right out of the girl's pocket into his hand. "Damn you!" she screeched, but the snake was coming back around for another course. She gave her head one despairing shake and dove back through the forest.

"Hey, where the hell are you going?" Naruto shouted at her. "Get back here and help your teammates, you coward!"

"Naruto-kun, Sasuke-kun!" Hinata's voice echoed from the canopy. They immediately scaled the trees to meet her. When they did she said, "It's safer up here than down there. Should we fight it?" Sasuke and Naruto clashed on the subject. Naruto wanted to kill it, but Sasuke thought it was a waste of time.

"We have what we came for," Sasuke said. "We were lucky to get it. It makes no sense to jump into another fight. Do you remember what I said earlier? Let's just go!"

"Here it comes!" Hinata warned. Naruto ignored Sasuke and jumped for it.

"Let's do it, guys! I'm not scared of this thing!" Sasuke swore loudly. Hinata called his name and prepared to jump after him, but Sasuke snatched her back. When the snake unhinged its jaw Naruto sent kunais aimed at its tonsils, but a sonic wave shot out of its mouth. Naruto was thrown back toward the canopy, along with his shurikans. Sasuke and Hinata caught him and jumped to another tree.

"You idiot!" Sasuke could have killed him. Naruto's eyes were wide open, staring at the snake hanging like a giant water hose over the branches.

"Wh-what the hell just happened? Is it dead?" Sasuke snorted.

"I don't think we have to worry about it anymore." Hinata cupped a hand over her chest.

"The Sound ninja . . ."

"They'll find their own way out," Sasuke said briskly. "Or not. Come on."

When night fell they made camp. The seasonings they brought turned out to come in handy. Even though there was no river with fish, there were plenty of rabbits and lizards. Hinata had the boys make a competition out of who could catch the most. "I'll cook the winner's favorite rabbit dish." She thought it'd be a good opportunity for the two to get along, but when they came back with a whole forest she decided to make both their favorites. Aside from seasonings she'd also managed to sneak along some olive oil, ginger and garlic cloves, so it wasn't a bad meal.

With a happy stomach Naruto excitedly agreed to take the first watch. Hinata slept peacefully by the fire, but Sasuke was restless. With the tension so high he'd only managed to snag about two hours of sleep. When danger was nearby he never liked to rest. He was lying awake listening to the forest, always thinking he could hear something going on in the distance. The Forest of Death, as they called it, had a most appropriate name. If it bred all predators to the size of that snake, it was a wonder how anything managed to survive in it. He turned his head to look across the fire.

Hinata's face was turned toward him. The firelight played with her lashes and made her lips shine. He was glad to see her so comfortable, so oblivious to the dark world around her. He ached to keep her like this. Initially he had wanted her here so he could watch over her, but it seemed like the other way around now. If something happened to him, if something happened to Naruto, what would she do? Would she jump into danger? Would she sacrifice her life?

Naruto yawned and left his place by the fire. Sasuke raised his head to watch him go. He waited well past five minutes for him to do his business, and then got up himself. He found Naruto in a midst of trees, just fixing his pants back around his waist. "Sasuke?" he said, just turning back toward camp. He squinted in the darkness. "Jeez, ya scared me. Is it your turn to take the watch already?"

"Yeah," he said. It wasn't.

"Good." Naruto yawned again. "I'm beat." Sasuke watched him with cold eyes as he made his way past him.

"We were lucky today, you know."

"Huh?" Naruto turned around, rubbing his eyes.

"That snake could have eaten everyone. That's why I wanted us out of there. You love wasting time, always doing stupid things to impress others. I thought that since it was Hinata and not Sakura it wouldn't be as much of an issue, but somehow you're worse." That woke him up.

"What the heck are you talking about, Sasuke?" he demanded, digging a heel into the ground. Sasuke snatched Naruto's collar and threw him against a nearby tree. The force caused the branches to shake and the leaves to come tumbling down around their shoulders.

"If you ever do what you did today I'll have to incapacitate you. If you're going to recklessly throw yourself into danger I'd rather have you dead. At least then you'd follow orders."

"Who do you think you are?" Naruto pushed Sasuke's hand away. "I don't take orders from you!" Sasuke tried to keep the anger chained down. He didn't want to wake Hinata up to this. With all the work she was doing trying to keep the team together, the last thing he wanted was for her to see them fighting.

"You could have gotten yourself killed. Hinata cares about you—did you know that?" It made him sick to say it out loud. "If you keep putting her in danger then you're less than useless." That brought Naruto up short. He blinked at Sasuke in a stupor.

"This is about Hinata-chan?"

"Don't!" Sasuke balled his hands into fists. "Don't . . . don't call her that. She isn't your friend. You don't know her."

"Are you two fighting again?" Sasuke and Naruto whirled. Hinata was peeking at them from behind a tree trunk, one arm cupped to her mouth—shaking.

"Hinata-chan!" Naruto jumped away from Sasuke, laughing awkwardly. "I—we're not fighting! He's just taking over the watch, that's all!" She stepped away from the tree timidly.

"I heard you two arguing."

"No, no—uh . . ." Naruto rubbed the back of his head. "Help me out here, Sasuke!" he hissed. "This is all your fault, anyways!"

"I thought you were asleep." Sasuke made his voice as soft as he could.

"I woke up and you two were gone. I was worried."

"Ah—haha—there's nothing to worry about," Naruto said. "Nothing's wrong, I promise. We're the best of buds. Right Sasuke?" Hinata frowned.

"Is this about me liking Naruto-kun?" Sasuke's mouth dropped open. It felt like a steaming lump of coal had dropped into his chest. Naruto was dumbfounded.

"H-Huh?" Hinata stepped toward Naruto.

"I, um . . ." She took another step, but Sasuke chucked a kunai at her. It landed deep into her stomach, pinning her to the tree. She screamed.

"Hinata-chan!" Naruto cried, his voice cracking. He swung at Sasuke, but he dodged. "Are you insane? Huh?" Sasuke used his Sharingan to land an easy backswing on him.

"Open your eyes, you moron!" Sasuke took out another set of kunais. He threw them all at Hinata, pinning her by the shoulders and legs. She screamed aloud with each strike—such an accurate scream of pain—which triggered a violent wrenching sensation in Sasuke's chest. It couldn't be helped.

"Who are you?" He demanded. "Where is Hinata?"

"What are you talking about?" Naruto shouted, rubbing his cheek. He looked at Hinata with a shudder as she started laughing. But it wasn't her laugh. Her whole body was shaking with it, laughing, laughing . . . Sasuke felt his stomach twisting. He asked again who he was. The only answer he got was a pair of yellow snake eyes looking at him.

*AN*

If you like this story and want to be kept updated, please TWEET me at Stitchpuppy01 so I can respond to you personally! I'd LOVE LOVE LOVE to hear from you!

I think it's been two years or something since I last updated. While I didn't want to abandon this story, I also didn't want to go back to reread all of my painful mistakes. Not just technically, but literary—the pain! But I did it. I cut out some stuff, added some stuff, and changed all the sentences around so that they have more clarity. Now I don't want to throw up anymore when I revisit those chapters! Yay! I also created a twitter account specifically for people who want to communicate with me. This site is terrible with that stuff.

Always Always remember that your opinions mean something to me. Please be my friend!