Unlike Team 8 which has the tendency to disappear or remain forgotten in the background, members of Team 7 had the flair for the dramatics and Uchiha Sasuke certainly proved he's a certified member of it.
The last Uchiha did his work and he did it with style. The scene at the entrance of the hideout looked little better than the bowels of a slaughterhouse—all blood and gory with heads and bodies and limbs strewn all around, making Hinata flinch a little.
After Sasuke gave her a deadpan look and turned around to start heading for their target area, she gave her friends one last tight-lipped smile and a solemn nod, putting her confidence and trust in them to succeed in playing their part of the mission then swiftly followed after her partner to the entrance of another very long tunnel.
With her byakugan, she checked ahead of them and saw the myriad of chakra-infused paper tags throughout the long passageway. She turned to her silent partner and reported her findings. "Uchiha-san, there are traps fifty meters ahead—explosive tags hidden along the walls and the ceiling and underneath the floor. There are fifteen guards waiting to ambush us behind the large door at the end."
"Hn. We don't want an explosion that might endanger the children inside and limit our options to leave this hellhole later. Can you see a way to pass through without triggering them?" the dark-haired man inquired, his dark eyes surveying the path before them.
Hinata bit her lower lip before answering, "Yes, there are safe spots. I can guide you through them. But what if they're set off remotely anyway?" she asked, feeling a bit leery of the situation. She certainly didn't relish the thought of getting blown to smithereens.
"Then I'll shield us with Susanoo. Lead the way Hyuuga."
Hinata slightly turned her head to look at the broody man and felt a little irritation that he looked so impassive and sounded so blasé, as though asking her to walk in the middle of an explosives-ridden passage was the same as walking in a park. If he wasn't Uchiha Sasuke, she would've liked to kick him with a chakra-infused shin between the legs.
"What?" he queried, voice flat.
"Nothing Uchiha-san," she said, letting go of her violent idea with a quiet sigh. At least he's powerful and certainly capable enough.She would just have to trust him to do as he said in case the situation turned for the worse.
Taking a deep breath and curling her hands into fists to stem her anxiety, she took a step forward and went on to perform a ninja version of hopscotch, stepping only on spots where tags weren't placed, the Uchiha following behind her this time.
When they were halfway through, her byakugan caught sight of a guard on the other side of the door make a snake hand sign. She turned to give the man behind her a warning but it was for naught—all the explosive tags they took care not to set off blew up one by one, the sound enough to shatter her eardrums and rattle the insides of her brain.
Through the ringing in her ears, she felt herself being pulled by some kind of force before they were immediately ensconced inside what looked like huge bones and a purple barrier made up of Sasuke's chakra which kept them protected from the smoke and dust and all sizes of debris caused by the collapsing walls and ceiling.
Susanoo, she thought distantly upon recognizing the technique the Uchiha performed. She's seen versions of it during the war, enough to be familiar with it.
"Oi Hyuuga, you alive?" her companion asked while looking down at her, a slightly awkward look on his face.
Isn't it obvious, genius? she wanted to retort but settled for an affirmative nod, not wanting to give the caustic man a reason to throw her out of his colossal warrior toy.
"Thank you for the save Uchiha-san," she muttered, her heart still pounding hard in her chest. Placing her palms to her ears and healing herself, she then returned her attention to the enemies waiting on the other side of the door at the end of the hallway and informed her partner of her findings.
"There's only ten of them now, waiting. The rest have moved back to the next hallway. I imagine they're thinking we suffered greatly from the explosion and would be easier for them to ambush."
"Hn. They're dead," the Uchiha uttered the words menacingly under his breath, no doubt pissed off at what happened.
She knew he'd make them a reality. Not that she felt any sympathy for the poor fools about to meet their ends. Bloodline thieves. They're the worst kind. Children from clans, especially those with kekkei genkai were taught from very young ages of their dangers and were given tacit orders to get rid of them in any way possible.
"Prepare yourself Hyuuga. When we get through that door, this Susanoo will disappear," the stoic man warned her.
Hinata nodded again then saw the avatar sprout limbs before it started moving.
For a while, she felt quite envious. How could the shinobi gods have given the sharingan such hax abilities and forgotten about the byakugan entirely? It's absolutely unfair. The things she could do with it. (Like pulverize the entire Hyuuga Council of Elders to dust and flush them down the toilet afterwards).
When they reached the door, Sasuke's Susanoo struck it down, causing the two unfortunate men standing just behind it to be flattened to bloody pulps on the floor. Then the chakra construct started to vanish and in a blink of an eye, her stoic partner was already sprinting forward and starting to get rid of their enemies using his sword.
Her mind on the children that needed saving, she also hastened to the short hallway leading to the large hall only to be stopped by a barrage of senbon and shuriken from three rogue shinobi who set their eyes on her.
She quickly performed Revolving Heaven to avoid the shower of blades and when one man swung a kusarigama, she charged forward, avoiding the trajectory of the sharpened blade attached to the chain by simply dodging before gifting him an Air Palm to the chest.
The two remaining men attacked her from behind, one with a jutte that had a mean pointy end and the other had two long and wickedly sharp blades attached to his arms. They were fast but not as fast as Lee.
She twisted and dodged and gave jutte guy a Palm Bottom to the chest with sufficient amount of chakra to destroy his internal organs before sending a concentrated Air Palm with her other hand to the one with the blades, sending flying meters away.
When the man tried to get up, she saw a blade suddenly protrude from his chest with Uchiha Sasuke standing nonchalantly at his back.
…..
Sasuke pulled out his blade, creating a wet squelching sound. The man who found himself impaled by his sword then crumpled to the ground like a lump of meat. He gasped and jerked a few times before going still. Good riddance.
Then he looked at his partner with a raised brow to which he received a simple nod before the Hyuuga turned her head to the hall and relayed what she saw with her byakugan, "There are still eleven of them. All the children are cramped in one big cage with exploding tags attached to them. A hostage situation, just as predicted."
Sasuke merely grunted, turned around and headed for the short hallway leading to the hall, the Hyuuga swiftly trailing his steps once more.
He's starting to like this version of Hyuuga Hinata. Now that she no longer possessed her crippling shyness and lack of confidence, she's proving to be adequate support for a mission partner with her capacity to fill many roles—close to mid-range combat fighter, tracker, real-time intel gatherer and a healer.
Her personality and attitude were also a plus. She didn't act like an annoying, horny fangirl. She didn't talk incessantly or complain or do things that grated on his nerves. Most of all, she knew when to speak and remained serious and focused on the mission at hand. If in the future he needed a reconnaissance partner, he'd prefer to have her over so many ridiculous and aggravating people he knew.
…..
The hideout was like a maze with so many dim tunnels. With his kikaichu actively scouting one of the hallways that would lead to the lab, Shino was able to quickly gather information about the paper bombs hidden along the walls, ceiling and floor and he had his little friends seek and devour them all.
"Man, your bugs are on a roll, aren't they Shino? At this rate, we can just use your insect infestation to take care of the human infestation," Kiba teased with a fanged grin while racing beside him.
"Shut up Kiba," Shino admonished, "Why? Because the fight hasn't even started and the children not safe and secure yet."
"Yeah, yeah. Tch, can't even take a joke," Kiba huffed which he ignored.
Shino just couldn't find it in him to listen and be amused at Kiba's jest. The mission was very important to him—he has one of his younger clansmen among those they needed to rescue after all.
As heir to the Aburame Clan, it was his duty to look after the well-being of his family members and he feared of the tortures these thieves subjected his young relative to just to steal his family's technique. He hoped he'd be able to return his young cousin to Konoha alive.
They had just stopped in front of another dim and long passageway when they heard loud explosions from the direction Hinata and the last Uchiha headed to. The blasts were quickly followed with the building shaking for a few seconds before going still.
"What the fuck?! The hell's that Uchiha doing? Is he trying to get Hinata killed?" Kiba asked angrily while looking in the direction where they last saw their teammate and the last Uchiha.
Shino gritted his teeth quietly. He couldn't fault Kiba for his reaction this time. He too was worried, especially since Hinata was far from their reach and protection and…
He heard Sai chuckle then watched as the artist patronizingly patted Kiba's back. "Sasuke is a genius and one of the strongest shinobis alive, Puppy. And the Hyuuga hime is strong and can handle herself. You'll just have to trust them to know what they're—"
"Quiet," Shino interrupted, standing stiff when his kikaichu alerted him of danger ahead. "There are enemies approaching."
To his relief, Kiba's anger for the last Uchiha swiftly vanished and an unmistakable gleam of determination showed in his eyes. He then quickly sent more of his kikaichu through the tunnel to gather more intel while Sai took out his ink, brush and a blank scroll and drew several lion monsters and snakes.
Just mere seconds after the artist finished, Shino detected the death of some of his intel-gathering insects and seven enemies appeared in the passageway and threw tagged kunais and shuriken at them.
Sai immediately had his lion monsters leap forward and intercept the blades, making the paper bombs explode when they made contact while his ink snakes swiftly crawled on the floor to restrain their foes.
All of them anticipating the ink snakes won't be enough after a signal from Sai, they all launched speedy attacks before the enemies could make further moves. Shino performed his Beetle Tornado technique and let his kikaichu surround three targets, absorb their chakra and disintegrate them. Sai finished two off with his tanto and Kiba and Akamaru moved forward to take care of the rest with their high-speed Fang Passing Fang technique.
It was a very short battle, one that did not last even a minute. Sai and Kiba had their enemies beat with their much better speed and soon, the hallway was littered with corpses of their fallen foes.
"Well, would you look at that! We three actually make for a good extermination team eh? I kinda feel bad for these guys. It was definitely an overkill," Kiba commented with a wide smirk while dusting off his hands and kicking a corpse out of his way.
"They don't deserve any pity, Kiba. They preyed on children just so they could steal other clan's bloodlines and secret techniques. They deserved what they got," Shino responded with a hard tone and moved forward to continue with their mission.