Preparations
Naruto was waiting outside the kage tower for Hinata when she arrived.
"Hey, sorry I took so long had to get the genin sorted."
"No problem, everyone's just arrived anyway. Come on then." he lead the way to the briefing room where the leaf shinobi had gathered. Most of the chuunin there Hinata didn't know that well, but there was also Kiba, Chouji, Shino and Tenten.
Hinata explained why they were staying and why they were still wearing Suna uniforms.
"Sound?" Chouji asked.
"That's what Tsunade said. However she also said it's unlikely they'll attack this soon. Either way we need to keep our eyes open." The door to the room opened and Hinata ducked as Kinsha bounded in ahead of Gaara and Matsuri.
"Kazekage-sama?" Hinata stood up again surprised Gaara had come, Kinsha took her chance and glomped Hinata from behind.
"MATSURI!" She shouted trying to prevent the lion licking her again. The Suna nin jogged past Gaara and pulled on Kinsha's waist coat to get her to move. Gaara smirked at the scene and waited until Hinata and got back to her feet with the help of Naruto, although still beetroot red.
"An annoying habit, isn't it." Gaara said calmly once the jounin regained a bit of dignity, Hinata only nodded and dusted her clothes off, trying not to meet his eye.
"Gaara!" Naruto shouted a greeting once Hinata was standing again, he stepped forward and threw his arm around Gaara's shoulders. The quiet teen seemed used to the loud blond and did nothing to stop him. Whereas the leaf ninja wondered to themselves if it was really alright that one of them was swinging around the neck of the Kazekage. Naruto broke off the half hug once Gaara started to address the chuunin.
"I want to thank you for staying, as I'm sure your jounin has explained your teams will be used to protect the genin teams. We received some intelligence that the Sound are trying to disrupt the chuunin exams, this information however has not been confirmed yet. So if their target is the competing genin or the final itself, we can't say for sure." Gaara held out his hand and Matsuri gave him a scroll, which in turn he handed to Hinata.
"These are the listings of patrol teams I would like your chuunin to join in on. Arrange them to your liking and then send the results to Matsuri, she will then arrange for the teams to be set up." Hinata glanced at the lists each Suna team was getting a boast with one leaf shinobi each by Gaara's plan, which was a good idea, because he had included ranks next to each team, in each team of five there would be one sand chuunin, one leaf chuunin and three sand genin.
The leaf counter attack on sand after the attack on Konoha had decimated their ranks as well as all the deaths caused by Orochimaru's attack. This must be why Tsunade was determined to offer any aid needed to get the sand back on their feet. These extra numbers was allowing them to focus on building up their own forces again with out worrying about leaving their borders inadequately guarded. In return Suna was freely exchanging information and allowed for highly profitable trade routes between the two villages.
"I'll leave you to it." Gaara said and after a farewell nod of the head he left. Matsuri stayed and waited for Hinata to get the chuunin sorted. She spread the listing out and arranged who was going were. The teams were to patrol the outskirts of the village including checking in on the genin teams from the other cities, as Gaara said, Orochimaru may target them.
"Okay that's all the teams filled so that leaves you two," Hinata said to Kiba and Tenten. "Looks like you two get to be the leaf guards"
"Thank god for that" Kiba pulled off the neck ruff that was part of the sand uniform. Hinata laughed at him as he yanked it off.
"Here you go Matsuri" Hinata handed the finished list to the sand nin.
"Okay, I'll pass this on. The ones joining the sand teams can just come here in the morning and we'll get everything sorted." Matsuri said. She patted her thigh and Kinsha got up from her spot in the corner and trotted out after her, much to the relief of Akamaru, he liked cats small and chaseable.
"That's about it, so enjoy being sand shinobi for a while." the was a rumble of agreement and the chuunin wondered out of the room. Naruto, Kiba, Chouji, Shino and Tenten hung back and sauntered out along with Hinata.
"So how did Shikamaru get out of this?" Asked Chouji
"I wish I knew, then I would have tried it." Kiba muttered. Outside the sun was setting, casting a cool shadow from the cliffs that surrounded the village.
"You think this was a good idea?" Tenten asked Hinata.
"What, staying here to bulk up the sand numbers? Well considering that they are our allies and they need a bit of back up at the moment I guess so." Hinata replied.
"er no I meant this floppy thing over the equipment pouch." Tenten pointed to a sand cover that protected the shinobi tools from sand but got in her way.
"Oh, well I dunno then" Hinata replied and Naruto sniggered at her.
"So what now people, we're free for the night." Kiba asked.
"Well I'm going back to make sure my genin haven't killed each other."
"Spoil sport." Moaned Tenten.
"Yeah well what can I do?" Hinata shrugged.
"Come out for a little while?" Kiba suggested.
"Other than that, I get worried when I leave those three alone for an extended length of time, something usually ends up broken…" the others laughed but Naruto knew she wasn't making it up. "So sorry guys but I'll see you tomorrow."
"Yeah aright"
"night Hinata"
"Laterz"
"Woof"
"I'll walk with you"
Each of them said their good byes and Naruto fell into step next to her as Hinata half turned to go down another street.
"Night guys" Hinata waved and headed off with Naruto.
"So… what do you think?" Naruto asked.
"Hmm?" Hinata asked looking up at him.
"About the sound… you think they really will target the genin?"
"I dunno, no one really knows how they think. They appear, attack, then disappear. They have done ever since we tried to tackle Sas…sound bases in Grass." Hinata quickly corrected herself. She still hadn't told Naruto the real objective of that mission, but she almost let slip a few times.
"That's true" Naruto didn't notice the slip up. Hinata yawned widely.
"I haven't had a decent nights sleep in five days…" she muttered.
"Well we're here now, go up and get some sleep." Naruto paused in the street, just outside the door to the block of flats.
"You wanna come up for a cuppa tea before you go?" Hinata offered.
"Nah, your tired, I'd only keep you awake." Naruto said, that and Takara would find out and kill him.
"Sure?"
"Yeah" he pulled her close and leant into kiss her goodnight, Hinata gave him an affectionate squeeze around the midsection before breaking the kiss, "Night"
"Yeah, night" Naruto waited until she closed the door behind herself then turned to leave.
Up in the rented apartment, Hinata checked in on the genin, they were asleep. Shin was snoring as always, Megumi had pushed the blankets off to the side but clutched them her hand, Aiko was curled up in a little ball with a cute shadow of a smile on her sleeping face.
Hinata got changed into her night clothes in the bathroom, and made herself a cup of tea before she turned in. While sitting at the table with her tea she heard a noise. She listened carefully, wary of the sound threat. Would they attack the genin in their sleep? She wouldn't put it past them.
Hinata was about to move, but the stumbling foot falls didn't belong to an attacking sound, but a sleepy genin. The door to the bedroom slid open, it was Aiko.
"Did I wake you?" Hinata asked. The girl rubbed her eye and shook her head.
"Bathroom…" she said sleepily and stumbled into the toilet. A few moments later there was a flush and the girl reappeared.
"Better?"
"Much" Aiko shuffled towards the bedroom, then paused. "Sensei?"
"Yeah?"
"Remember when you said you would teach me the dragon stances after I sighed the contract."
"uh huh, you didn't think you where ready." Hinata sipped her tea, Aiko had mentioned this several times over the past year but backed out just before Hinata summoned Pusa to arrange it.
"I… I wanna do it this time, I really do." the small teen sounded as if she was trying to convince herself rather than Hinata.
"Are you sure?" Hinata asked,
"Hai" the girl nodded sharply. Hinata smiled.
"I'll summon Pusa in the morning then." Hinata finished her tea and rinsed her cup. "Come on, your exhausted, get back to bed." Hinata placed her hand on the girls shoulder to guide her back to the bedroom.
"Alright sensei." Aiko stepped into the darkened room then crawled back into the futon next to Megumi's. Hinata had pulled her futon out earlier, it was spread out next to the girls, Shin's was a little ways from the girls on the other side of the room, because he was a boy and mainly because he tossed and turned in his sleep, on their first night in a small tent he rolled over and elbowed Megumi in the face. Left her with a bloody nose, and him with a concussion.
Hinata lay into her own futon and pulled the blankets over herself.
"Night sensei" came the little voice from the other side of Megumi.
"Night Aiko" Hinata settled down for a proper nights sleep, her genin were fine.
On the borders of Wind and River countries, a group of shinobi watched a camp from the darkness of the night. One of them watched with red eyes. The hokage was among this group.
"Should we attack them?" one of the others asked.
"We'll not win you idiot, look there are ANBU all over the place as well as the shinobi in plain view." the leader of the group snapped quietly without even looking at the fool. His gaze was on the pink haired chuunin in the camp, she was handing a cup of tea to the hokage. She looked different from when he had last saw her, and from the reports Orochimaru got from his spy indicated that she had gotten much stronger. None the less, he still had no time for her.
"Come on lets get out of here before we're spotted." The raven haired boy lead the group away from the Leaf camp and into Wind.
"Tsunade-sama?" Sakura asked the woman, she was looking into the trees behind the girl.
"Guta" An ANBU appeared beside Tsuande.
"Hai?"
"I want you to take a team and check to the north of the camp for me."
"Hai" the weasel faced ANBU disappeared, there was a slight rustle overhead as the ANBU guards moved.
"Is something wrong?" Sakura asked.
"We'll see" Tsunade sipped at her tea, the cryptic statement made Sakura nervous. Not much later the weasel reappeared.
"There is evidence of recent passage to the north Tsunade. Do you want us to pursue them?"
"No, but send word to Suna." the ANBU nodded and disappeared again.
"What?" Sakura was confused.
"Sound, moving into Wind." Tsunade said glaring to the trees.
"Shouldn't we have stopped them." Sakura asked.
"No, we don't know how many of them there are, besides we have civilians and genin here, who do you think the sound will go for?" Tsunade explained. Sakura understood, the hokage wouldn't put them in danger.
"So, you're sure this time?" Hinata checked one more time. Aiko nodded.
They were a little way out of the village in a decent training area, Shin and Megumi where sparring out of the way for now, Kiba was keeping an eye out with Akamaru while Hinata focused on her genin.
"Alright then" Hinata ran through the hand signs to summon the big green dragon. Pusa appeared wrapped around the scroll holding it tightly.
"Morning Pusa-san." Hinata greeted the dragon.
"Hinata-chan, its been a while" Pusa grinned showing her pointed fangs, she let loose a puff of stream from her nostrils, a squeak drew the dragons attention. "Aiko-chan" the dragon said, the small girl retreated further behind Hinata.
"Ryuu told me about her, she wants to sign the contract, am I correct?" Pusa lowered her head to look around Hinata.
"That's it, Aiko you don't need to be afraid." Hinata half turned to look at the girl and allow the dragon to see her.
"You can still change your mind if your not sure Aiko." Hinata reassured the girl.
"No, I.. I want to do it." the girl said sounding determined.
"Very well, Hinata-chan, do you feel she is worthy."
"As sure as Takara when she brought me forward Pusa-san" Hinata told the dragon.
"What about you little one, why do you seek the power of the dragons?" Pusa lent in and watched the girl closely with her big amber eyes.
Aiko mumbled something Hinata couldn't hear. Pusa grinned widely and reared up again.
"I see no reason why she shouldn't be allowed to sign." with that said Pusa loosened her coils around the scroll. Hinata caught the large scroll and laid it on the ground, untying the ribbon she unrolled the scroll revealing a number of panels with names written on them, the last being 'Hyuga Hinata' with finger prints below the name.
"So all I do is sign? I thought you said Pusa-san would test me?" Aiko sounded surprised.
"I already did, your all set." Pusa had lain down on the warm sands making herself comfortable.
"It's alright Aiko, it's not going to change your life style or anything." Hinata told her gently.
"um okay…" Aiko knelt down next to the scroll and shuffled over to an empty panel. She reached into her pouch for a draw stick.
"You don't sign in ink" Pusa said from her comfortable spot.
"Then what…" Aiko stopped half way through the question as she looked at the previous names, in red. "Blood?" she asked. Both Hinata and the dragon nodded. "um…okay," she said again, and reluctantly bit her thumb.
"That reminds me of someone else." Pusa said teasingly and glanced at Hinata. The teen shrugged and agreed. Aiko finished signing her name, she pressed her thumb to her four fingers on her right hand then pressed them on to the paper.
"There, its done." Hinata waited for the blood to dry before rolling up the scroll again. Aiko smiled to herself now that it was done and sucked on her still bleeding thumb. "Here you go Pusa-san." Hinata returned the scroll to the dragon.
"Thanks, but I think I'm gonna stay here for a while…" Pusa wrapped her self around the scroll then spread out on the warm sand again. Hinata grinned at the over sized lizard, once you got past the size they were pretty laid back. While the dragon lounged in the sun Hinata taught Aiko the seals needed to summon the dragons.
"Got that?"
"I think so…" Aiko shaped her hands into the seals slowly, making sure she was getting them right.
"You wanna try?" Hinata asked, Aiko nodded and nipped the scab on her thumb to make it bleed again then ran through the seals muttering them to herself as she did.
"boar, dog, bird, monkey, sheep" Aiko planted her hand on the sand.
Hinata waved away the puff of smoke that always accompanied summons, Aiko was staring into the eyes of the little blue dragon. Hinata grinned widely,
"A first time summon, congrats Aiko."
"first time?" Ryuu squeaked from the ground looking from Aiko to Hinata and back, finally it sunk in. "the kid finally signed" he said, stressing the finally. Meanwhile Aiko stared at the little dragon a little shocked that it had worked.
"I…did it?" she looked up at Hinata and Pusa. The dragon chuckled and Hinata nodded.
"YES!" Aiko grabbed Ryuu off the ground and danced with the little dragon.
"Hey, put me down!" he protested, "Little help here sis!"
"Nah she's having fun" Pusa cleaned her ear out with a claw to show she wasn't listening to her little brother.
"No fair!" the dragon shouted wiggling in Aiko's grip, it was Hinata that came to his rescue by putting a hand on Aiko's shoulder.
"Well done Aiko, it's hard to do it right the first time." Aiko gave a chibi grin and let the dragon go, Ryuu quickly retreated to Hinata's shoulder.
"As I recall you managed to do it as well." he said into her ear.
"Don't spoil her fun" Hinata whispered to the dragon, he shrugged and flew from her shoulders to Pusa's head.
"Thanks for the help" Hinata heard him say to the larger dragon.
"Now, summoning is good but for the chuunin exams it would be better for you to learn the tai jutsu stance, but we really don't have the time for that, its effective but it takes a while to learn properly."
"So what will we do?"
"It would be easier for you learn the elemental dragon stances, since you have no set element" Hinata explained. She had got her genin two use the chakra slips to see what element their chakra was aligned with, Megumi was earth, Shin was wind, little Aiko however, hers didn't react, she had no elemental alignment which would make this almost as easy as when Hinata had to learn. Hinata's chakra was what Takara called 'balanced' an equal base in each element. It was hard for those set in one element to branch into others to learn the full elemental stances, like Takara, her base element was water, but once she mastered the elemental stances she could use all of them. Aiko looked at Hinata while she pondered out how to start, she would need to at least get her to develop one element, question was how?
Nearby there was a loud crack of earth moving.
"Megumi, your guardian fortress needs to be quicker." Hinata called.
"I know!!" the girl shouted as the hardpacked earth walls crumbled under Shin's attack. Hinata had warned her about that before. Then she had an idea.
"Aiko…"
"Yeah?"
"You can sense chakra signs right?"
"You know I can sensei"
"I want you to study the difference in Megumi's chakra when she uses an elemental jutsu."
"Yeah, okay." Aiko said not really sure what Hinata meant. The teen got Megumi to use guardian fortress again.
"Did you catch it that time?"
"Now that you mention it, it is a little different." Aiko said after she studied Megumi's chakra.
"That is the elemental part of her chakra, you think you can match it?"
"I…dunno, I can try.." Aiko tried to match the elemental alignment of earth, but it wasn't as easy as Hinata thought it would be in the end she ended up doing a few earth based jutsu so Aiko could see the difference in her chakra as well. It took a over a week but finally Aiko got a grasp on the earth element.
While Aiko was working on that, Hinata focused on the other two, focusing on one each day and the other the next. Tenten and Kiba tended to help out as well out of boredom, sparring with the other genin while Aiko worked on her own and Hinata worked with the other.
With Shin she worked on his swordsmanship because at this stage it was pointless to work on stealth, not for the third exam, she had taught him a new jutsu, combining his wind element with the sword, Slicing Wind, it created a swirl of fast moving air around his blade with some added chakra it made the fast moving wind almost like a chainsaw, it was a damaging attack.
Megumi focused on her hand to hand. Hinata had taught her Guardian fortress and another earth based jutsu, Stone Skin that coated the body in a crust of rock it was a good defence, which Megumi needed her offensive skills were exceptional but she needed a little help in her defensive skills. For a few days she worked on her medic skills but only because they got injured in their sparring sessions. Hinata found that with a little help from Kiba and Tenten each genin was making steady progress.
At first the tiny earth dragon moved slowly with jerky movements.
"You're getting better." Hinata said looking at the little dragon. "See if you can focus more energy into it to make it bigger" Aiko had her brow furrowed in concentration and the dragon grew a little.
"Perfect!" Hinata called, the little genin grinned widely, while she was at it she lost control and the dragon crumbled.
"Oh"
"Don't worry about it. You're getting there. Tomorrow we'll work on another element."
"Sound's good sensei." Aiko said wiping her forehead.
"Hinata!" the teen looked around, it was Tenten jogging up to her.
"What's up?"
"Suna has issued a sandstorm warning, we'd better get back into the village before it hits."
"Another one?" Hinata asked, it was the third one this week. "Alright. Pack it up guys!" She called to her genin.
"'Kay" Shin shouted back and stared to gather up the bits and pieces of their training session. They just made it to the canyon leading into the village as the full force of the storm hit.
"It would be better to stay in here, at least until it subsides" one of the sand guards told them.
"Yeah, good idea." Megumi muttered. The genin settled down to wait while the teens chatted to each other. Shin practiced his serpents gaze and spotted something in the wall of sand, heat signatures, five of them.
"Sensei!" Hinata looked at Shin and saw his amber eyes and his curved slit like irises, he was staring into the sandstorm. Hinata activated her byakugan and followed her gaze, five masked and cloaked figures moved swiftly towards the canyon entrance.
"Kiba! Tenten! Someone's coming. You three! Up high, provide support! Can you help out?" Hinata barked orders to the leaf shinobi, then asked the sand ninja for support.
"Of course." he answered and spun to glare into the moving curtain of sand. The genin jumped to a higher tier and got their weapons ready, but stayed out of the way of the other shinobi. Tenten, Kiba and Akamaru got ready as well.
"How many?" Kiba asked over the growling of Akamaru.
"Five"
"Who are they?" Tenten asked.
"I don't know." Hinata tried to get a better look but even her Byakugan had trouble seeing clearly through the shifting sand any decent distance. The figures were coming fast.
"Get ready" Hinata drew her swords, the lead figure came through the curtain of sand at speed and Hinata launched forward to intercept. The figure drew and kunai and blocked the strikes with her other hand grabbed a fistful of Hinata's flank jacket and pulled her forward Hinata twisted in the grip and swept the legs out from under the other. The figure caught themselves with their knee, they still had a tight grip on Hinata. She pulled up her blade to the neck of the figure but they had also pulled a blade to Hinata's neck.
"Easy Kit." the mask bobbed as the person spoke.
"Huh?" only one person called her Kit. "Nee-chan!?"
"Of course, umm, can you take your blade away please." Takara asked, Hinata's swords where pressed pretty close to her neck.
"Oh sorry…" Takara lifted her blade away, so did Hinata and they both stood up and dusted themselves off. "What's with the mask?"
"There is a sand storm you know, it hit when we were just a few hours out with no shelter so we kinda ploughed on." Takara explained as she took off her protective mask, her eyes where amber, she had been leading the team through the storm by following the heat signals from the guards at the gates.
"So why are you here?" Hinata asked after the remainder of the team got into the sheltered canyon and the others relaxed.
"A little extra security, Gaara requested some help on the up coming exams."
"The recent sightings?" Hinata asked quietly, over the noise of the wind that was.
"There have been more…" Takara replied into Hinata's ear. They waited in the canyon until the sandstorm eased up enough for them to leave. Hinata walked with Takara to the kage tower after sending the genin off to get something to eat.
"So how have the genin been getting on?" Takara asked.
"Alright, Aiko signed the contract."
"Finally" Chuckled Takara, she knew about the hesitant genin. Hinata told Takara about each of their progress, she liked hearing about how the three kids were doing.
"There you are, I thought you got caught in the sandstorm again." Naruto called to Hinata as he bounced down the street, he had to stay in the tower during the violent sandstorm. "Oh, Onee-san, when did you come?" Takara narrowed her eyes at the boy.
"Where's he been staying?" she asked Hinata bluntly and pointing at the boy.
"Nee-chan!"
End chapter 28
Okay people, bad news time, I'm buggering off on my first EVER foreign holiday, I is off to America.
So unfortunately no updates for at least three weeks.
I've been saving for this for a long time and I plan to enjoy it, so farewell people, I'll see you in 3 weeks
