'Report update 663

The mission may be done. I will only know when I hear of the result.

However, the cost may be dire.

With the tenth stage complete, and all parts of the dose prepared, I henged once more into the clothes and manner of a chef. I do not know how long it took, only that I finally managed to feed him his dose.

In truth, it was a stroke of luck that I managed to do so, he had returned from a mission. He struck me and other staff as he demanded his food. I gave it to him with trembling hands. He mistook my excitement for fear. His arrogance was his undoing.

Excitement. I have not felt that in so long. It felt good. He ate the food and left. I could only hope. I was trembling badly.

I knew this was something I should have made a shadow clone for, but it was too risky. Sensed and it was the end of my plan, the wastage of a year. Yet more importantly I had to do this myself.

I had to see him take the dose with my own eyes.

I had to know the feeling of victory even as he was unaware of his defeat.

The hours were the longest I've known, even in this dark place. This dark place of waiting. I have spent day after day trapped in my hidey-hole, waiting and listening. Dodging guards, hiding from sensors, suppressing my chakra. The ache of the seal is still as strong as it was the first day, and its shackles are wearing on me.

But I was successful. I have not seen the body, and shall not do so before leaving this place, but I know the effects have begun. I have other eyes who will confirm for me. There can be no chance of his survival. As I write, his body should be filling itself with toxin as fast as they try to treat him. He should have died within moments if they did not treat him instantly. I have won the long game, or at least played my final moves.

I did not know until it happened.

He stormed into the kitchens himself. The great fear, the one we all feared so much. Orochimaru himself came to us.

The wall was destroyed, and we all found ourselves shivering. I have not known a feeling like it. I was fighting harder than I ever had to stay silent, to curse the man whose plan I had foiled over so long.

I had to remain controlled, had to act my part until the last moment.

He and his guards raged. The kitchen was destroyed in his fury, and he then began the cull. Again, I was lucky I was not first.

I had time to create and substitute with a shadow clone. It took me so long to do the jutsu, forming every sign behind my back with as much control as possible, trying to give off as little chakra as I could.

She felt the chakra.

She was behind them all in the doorway, but she felt the discharge.

I escaped into the vents, and I saw them drag the clone away as his henge was thrown away from him. He is not dead. Their love of torture will ensure that. Eventually though, my control will slip and they shall know I live. I must escape before then.

My summons will give me the word on my success. They are good at finding secrets.

I head an expression once, whilst waiting for my first mission with Anko-chan, a name that is almost unfamiliar now. Two guards played cards, and one chuckled as he took money from the other. I did not understand card games at the time, but my time with the chefs taught me the basics.

"You played your hand too soon, and I capitalised."

The other derided his luck, yet the first that spoke had some merit. My hand is played, and I must escape before they realise it and capitalise on it. Otherwise they will find me. He will rip the base apart. I will finish the report when I have seen the sun.

Her face came to me again. She smiled for the first time in all my dreams.'

Team 8 moved along the Northern border. It was another routine mission for the chunin teams now that the border with Suna was almost an irrelevant area. Oto was the new threat, even if it hadn't attacked.

Hinata scanned the area all around with her Byakugan as her teammates did their own checks. There wasn't anything. There never really was.

She sighed to herself. This was the last mission. She'd tried without him being there. She'd tried. She'd talked to everyone and they'd all done their best to keep her going. She'd managed to pass a chunin exam somehow, although she suspected the competition hadn't been very strong.

Just without his smile, without his constant encouragement, without his sunshine smile.

She couldn't do this anymore. She couldn't keep being a shinobi. She'd cried over his body, his broken body. She'd held onto it regardless of the wounds and the blood when Kakashi had come into the village in the pouring rain. She'd cried for days. She hadn't been able to make it to the funeral, and had been physically ill.

She would retire from shinobi life, then she would live out her days somehow. Maybe she'd find someone who didn't make her miserable and have children. But there wasn't hope for happiness. The past was bleak, the present was bleak, and the future was bleak. Her mood pervaded those of her team-mates who couldn't talk on the saddest of days.

She knew there wasn't anything moving with nearly a mile of her. Nothing with a chakra signature could hide from her sight. Then she heard the noise.

A scream, a man's scream. A yell of agony beyond anything she had ever heard before. The chakra exploded into life in her vision and she burst into action towards it.

She ran, ignoring her teammates cries to hold back until she knew what it was. They were in pain, and if it was a trap, she would deal with it. Death didn't matter. If this was the trap that it chose to claim her with she would welcome it willingly.

The scream intensified as she got near, now a hoarse cry that echoed in the trees. She reached the figure which thrashed wildly from side to side where it lay. It was wrapped in a tattered cloak the colour of the forest, and a ripped body glove. It was small and wiry.

She gripped its shoulders and pushed it to the ground, her hair falling down so it touched his face. She knocked the dagger the figure suddenly held out of its grasp. It stuck in the dirt by his equipment. A bag, a crossbow, another pouch. A crossbow? The figure had stopped struggling against her now, the fact she had struck its shoulders helped that. It still yelled, the sound now a loose tearing sound of agony, weakening into a panting hiss.

She pulled back the hood and saw the face. Its single visible eye was closed,the face dirty and so unwashed. His mouth was open in a now silent yell of pain before slowly closing. The face was pale, as if it hadn't seen the light for years; there were dark patches under his eyes. His face was gaunt and thin, the whisker marks on its cheeks faded almost to nothing. For a moment it was still after the scream stopped. The visible eye opened.

She saw hair, cut in the dark in thick matted locks, his face had a scraggly beard on it which would have been comedic if he wasn't in such bad shape.

The azure blue met her pale lavender eyes.

His mouth opened, and his raw voice whispered forth, a thin rasp.

"I hope you smile this time."

She smiled without being able to resist it somehow. His mouth twitched, then he fell unconscious. Kiba and Shino landed behind her and ran to meet her.

"Hinata-chan, who even is it."

"Him."

Her voice trembled a little.

"Him?"

"Him."

Her voice was quavering badly as she said it. Kiba drew in closer and took a long look at the face.

"Him?"

"Don't you recognise him?"

Kiba saw the equipment pile and looked at the face again. Then again.

"Oh. It is him. What the hell?"

"We need to get back to Konoha. Now."

"But?"

Her tone of voice was wavering, but brooked absolutely no disobedience.

"Now."

Kiba moved the body onto Akamaru's back and they set off. Mission protocol be damned, this was important. If Oto attacked she didn't care.

She would run through the night and carry him back. She needed to know. She wanted answers. He would give them to her.

He was coming home, whether he wanted to or not.

A/N Thanks for all the reviewing and patience with this little mini series of reports. It'll be back to full and proper chapters from now on.