DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN NARUTO (THOUGH I OWN MY OWN DIY HOKAGE COSTUME HAHA)

Trouble Ensues

- At The Camp -

It was morning and members of the group were beginning to wake up, Team 7 on the other hand was already up and ready to continue their journey. The group hasn't reached Kaze no Kuni (Land of Wind) yet but they were getting close over time, one of the reasons why their journey was taking much longer is that they decided to take a relatively safer route to get there. This did not mean that they won't face any trouble along the way, it only meant that the chances of facing conflict were much lower.

"Once everybody is ready, then we can set out once more" one of the samurais announced. This signaled for the merchants to move quickly to avoid being left behind. After a couple of minutes have passed, someone yelled for them to stop.

"WAIT!" a woman yelled

This caught the attention of the entire group, "What's wrong?" one of the samurais asked. The woman was in panic and was constantly pacing around, "M-My husband… He's missing…" she said in a frantic manner.

"How'd that happen?"

"L-Last night when I went to the forest to relieve myself, my wedding ring accidentally slipped off my finger due to it being a size bigger. I only realized that I lost the ring when I returned to the c-camp, my husband told me to get some rest and that he was going to look for it. A-And so I did, but when I woke up he still hasn't returned. P-Please help me find him" she begged the samurai.

The samurai then turned his attention to Kakashi who was looking at him as well, he nodded and approached the woman, "I do not know the forest around here but maybe a local can help us find him" he said much to the woman's dismay

"If I'm not mistaken there's a small town up ahead. Maybe someone can help us there" one of the samurai offered

"Very well then, we'll stop by there and ask some locals if they could help us" Kakashi said. This somehow consoled the distressed woman causing her to thank Kakashi uncontrollably.

"W-What's going on?… Why is that woman hugging Kakashi-sensei" Hinata asked

"We've got another setback" Sasuke replied

"S-Setback?…" Hinata returned

"Apparently someone is missing, and we can't continue our journey without trying to find him" Shikamaru replied

"I-I see…" Hinata retorted.

And so the group began to head to the nearest town up ahead, they returned to their agreed formation. Sasuke, Shikamaru, and some samurais were at the back of the caravan to watch the group's six. Kakashi was at the front of the group while Hinata was in the middle of the caravan so that she could watch over their vicinity using her doujutsu. This also served as training for her since she's keeping her Byakugan (All Seeing White Eye) on for a long period of time. It was in fact putting somewhat of a toll on her but she told her sensei that she could manage it. If this was the price to become stronger, she had no problems paying it.

After a while of walking, they have arrived at the town in question. The caravan then entered the town but instead of being met by people, the town looked abandoned and forgotten.

"What's wrong?" Kakashi asked

"That's strange, there are no people around here…" the samurai said in a confused tone

"Perhaps this town is now abandoned" Kakashi replied replied

"That can't be… I passed by here a month ago..." the samurai returned

"Hmmm… Hinata, come over here for a second" he called out to his student. Hinata heard this and quickly made her way to her sensei, "H-Hai!… You called for me K-Kakashi-sensei?…" she said to him.

"Hinata, see if you can find chakra signatures around here" he ordered her. Hinata then did a hand seal and activated her clan's kekkei genkai, "Byakugan! (All Seeing White Eye)" she said. Once her eyes were now active, Hinata began looking around her but she found no signatures whatsoever. She then told her sensei about her findings, and Kakashi nodded in response. "I see, stay put here near the entrance while I and the other samurais take a closer look around" he advised Hinata.

Kakashi then left Hinata to her own devices while he accompanied the others while they take a look around the small town. Once she was completely alone a hand suddenly touched Hinata's back, this startled her as a result. Hinata looked behind her to see a young girl holding a doll.

"Nee-chan, who are you?… You're not from here are you?" the girl replied

Once Hinata has recomposed herself she told the little girl not to go around and scaring people like that, the girl apologized in return. "It's okay and to answer your question no I am not from here, my name is Hinata. What's yours?" she asked

"Kei…" the girl replied curtly

"That's a beautiful name Kei-chan, say?… Are you all by yourself here?" Hinata asked, she was quite curious about where this girl came from cause last time she checked there were no chakra signatures around town.

"I live with my father and he's sick" the girl said in a rather sad tone

"I'm sorry to hear that, where's your father though if you don't mind me asking" Hinata replied

The girl said nothing and began to head in a certain direction, this caught Hinata off-guard cause she didn't anticipate how fast the little girl ran. This didn't give her enough time to tell Kakashi where she was heading but out of the kindness of her heart, she decided to follow her regardless. Hinata continued to follow her through alleyways and side streets until they finally reached a small shack.

The little girl stopped running and stood by the front door. "Is this your house?" Hinata asked to which the little girl nodded. "I-I see… Well then wait for me here okay? I'll go get my sensei, I'm sure he can help your father" she said. The girl said nothing but Hinata took that as a yes. Hinata thought that if she were to bring her sensei to Kei's father and help him, maybe he could help them in return. Satisfied with that idea, Hinata was about to go get Kakashi but before she was about to leave, Kakashi was already behind her.

"What are you doing here Hinata? You suddenly disappeared, I thought I told you to stay put" he said.

This made Hinata quite anxious for she clearly disobeyed her sensei's orders. "T-There was this little girl… A-And s-she told me that her father was s-sick… I-I didn't mean to disobey your orders Kakashi-sensei, g-gomen…" Hinata apologized to him. Kakashi sighed and decided to let it slide for he knew Hinata meant well and didn't deliberately choose to disregard his orders. "It's okay but next time you will be reprimanded in the event you disobey orders, got it?" Kakashi explained and Hinata understood.

"You were talking about a little girl a while ago, I thought you found no chakra signatures earlier?" Kakashi asked quizzically

"I-I thought so too… Maybe I missed her signature since I've been keeping my Byakugan (All Seeing White Eye) on for a while now" Hinata offered

Her answer does sound feasible but Kakashi decided not to chalk it up to that conclusion just yet. "Perhaps, and where is this little girl you're talking about?" he asked

"Oh... She's right… Here?" Hinata was confused cause the girl she was referring to was nowhere to be seen. "Hinata?" Kakashi asked.

"B-But… She was just here a second ago?"

"You mean the little girl you were talking about it"

"I-I swear she was just by the front door a moment ago…" Hinata was speechless, she was starting to think that her eyes had deceived her. "You must be exhausted with keeping your doujutsu on for a long time. Come on, let's get back to the group" Kakashi said but as they were about to depart he heard glass shattering from inside the shack.

Kakashi grew warier about what was inside the shack. He took out a kunai and hugged the shack's wall, and opened the door from the side. He then peaked through the gap between the door and door frame to see a silhouette of a man that was inside the shack. Kakashi signaled for the other three samurais to follow him as he slowly opened the door of the shack. The door creaked thus creating a rather eerie sound, Kakashi and the samurai entered the shack and approached the man slowly but surely while Hinata stayed back. The door slammed shut behind them, one of the samurais tried to open it but it just wouldn't budge. 'Something's not right…' Kakashi thought to himself.

"Sir… Are you alright?…" one of the samurais asked

The man was just shambling there whilst facing away from them, they could hear his shallow breaths from afar due to how silent it was inside there. His movements looked rather weird and awkward, the man slowly turned to face them. What Kakashi and the samurais saw confused them even more, it seemed like all the life was drained out of the man in question. His face was expressionless with his eyes wide open. Speaking of eyes, the man's eyes were extremely red or bloodshot to the point that they didn't even look natural anymore.

Kakashi stood his ground to further analyze the man that was in front of them while the two other samurais approached him carefully, "Sir?…" one of the samurai said. But instead of receiving a reply, the man lunged at him at full speed and moved in an erratic samurai was quick to react by pushing back the man that was trying to grab him. The man continued to groan and grunt whilst the samurai pushed back with all his might, his samurai companion tried to peel the man off but he just couldn't make the man budge at all.

The first samurai was beginning to get exhausted and his arms began to waver, the same thing could be said with the second samurai. The third samurai couldn't bear to watch his companions be helpless, so he decided to intervene. They did try to reason with the man but he just wouldn't listen and that left him with no choice but to cut the man down with his katana. The third samurai swung his blade and in one fell swoop, he severed one of the man's arms like it was made of butter.

The man turned his head towards the third samurai and just stared at him ominously. Instead of hearing screams of pain and agony, the man was just silent and didn't utter a single word or sound. This terrified the samurai, what they were facing was certainly not normal. The man's arm began to bulge and increase in size, it grew in size as time went on and it looked like the man was turning into a big balloon full of blood and guts. Hinata and Kakashi saw the same thing using their doujutsus, there was a huge buildup of chakra within the man and it was about to reach critical mass. The man's body then reached its limit and was about to burst but before it exploded, Kakashi was able to form an earth wall to at least protect them from being blown to pieces. "Doton: Doryuheki (Earth Release: Earth-Style Wall)" Kakashi said before the man blew up, it shook the entire cabin causing the floors and walls to be stained with red blood and other bodily fluids. Guts were everywhere, it was a rather disgusting sight for those with a weak stomach. Luckily no one in their group was harmed but before they could sigh in relief they then heard a distant explosion that came from the direction where their caravan was.

- A Few Minutes Earlier With Sasuke and Shikamaru -

Some of the merchants gasped at the sight that they saw, multiple men emerged from within the buildings. They were all armed with bladed weapons and they showed signs of hostility. The group didn't know why they were showing aggression towards them. Maybe they were trespassing or maybe they do not take lightly to outsiders, the reason was unclear. The samurais stood in front of the merchants in the event the armed men would attack but the woman who pleaded earlier noticed something. Among the group of men was her husband, "Teruo?…" the woman said whilst squinting her eyes. After a few moments of analyzing him, she was actually sure that it was actually her husband. She then quickly rushed towards him, one of the samurais told her to stay back and not to approach him but she didn't listen.

"Where have you been! I was worried sick!" she yelled with her arms wide open in preparation to hug him but she didn't receive a warm welcome from her husband. Her husband didn't greet her with open arms instead, he swung his weapon at her without hesitation. The woman was shocked that her husband was about to harm her, the blade was about to come into contact with her body but in the nick of time, one of the samurais pulled her out of the way and blocked the blade with his own katana. Blades collided with one another, and Teruo took another swing at the samurai that intercepted him. The samurai blocked the attack once more and countered it with his own attack by slashing his blade at Teruo. It was a clean-cut across his abdomen, a diagonal slash appeared on his chest and blood sprayed out of it. The woman yelled when she saw what happened and told the samurai not to hurt him.

The samurai couldn't believe what he saw, Teruo remained silent despite being injured by a blade. He didn't utter a single word and remained still, his chest began to swell up as his body began to blow up in size. Slowly but surely, Teruo's body began to look like it was about to burst. His body began to tremble which surely didn't look like a good sign, the samurai knew better and told everyone to fall back before the body of mass exploded.

Teruo's body then stopped increasing in size as well as shaking, his body blew up causing a powerful explosion to occur. Blood and innards scattered around the area, some of it even fell on their group causing them to scream out of fear.

"NOOOOO!" the woman yelled as she was frozen in place. She just saw her husband blow up in front of her, it was an unsightly event for an average person like her. A samurai grabbed her and told the group to retreat, "Fall back!" he yelled. This caused major panic within the group as each and every one of them scrambled to the entrance but before they were able to leave the village a group of strangers blocked their path.

Judging from their attire, they certainly looked like shinobi. They took out their weapons and gripped them in their hands, more samurais stood in front of the merchants to protect them as it was their job after all. "Deal with them, I'll secure the package" he said to his comrades.

The enemy made their first move by throwing shurikens at the group Sasuke and the other samurais were able to deflect the ones that would surely hit their clients with the help of their weapons. While Sasuke and the others were keeping the enemy preoccupied, Shikamaru quickly decided to take this opportunity to get the merchants somewhere safe. "Quick! Get inside that building" Shikamaru ordered the merchants, they did not hesitate to listen to him for they just wanted to be safe. As he was evacuating them he noticed one of the enemies throw a senbons at one of the stragglers, with quick thinking he performed one of his clan's jutsus. "Hijutsu: Kagemane no Jutsu (Hidden Jutsu: Shadow Imitation Technique)" Shikamaru's shadow elongated and attached to the straggler's shadow. Once his shadow was attached to the person, he controlled his body and helped him dodge the incoming projectiles. He released the jutsu and told the man to join the others, Shikamaru joined the merchants inside the building and slammed the door shut. He then turned his attention back to their enemies by looking through a window, he looked around him and saw fighting everywhere. Shikamaru also couldn't leave the merchants unprotected, he needed to come up with a plan quickly cause time was of the essence. Though one thing really irked him and rubbed him the wrong way, he was confused as to what could a group of shinobi could possibly want from a caravan. He knew there was more than this than meets the eye.

- Inside the Building -

"What the hell is going on?!" he asked the merchants but none of them answered

"Honestly… Being on this mission is a drag in my opinion but if none of you will tell me what's going on how do you all expect me and the others to do our jobs then?…" he said in a rather furious tone. Shikamaru rarely gets pissed off as he is usually level-headed and calm, though one of his pet peeves is not receiving all the details about important stuff. Despite being lazy, he makes sure to do his job the right way. But how could he do it properly if people won't tell him everything he should know, sure he could figure it out all on his own but he thought that was troublesome.

After a while, one of them finally spoke up. "They're after one item that we have…" a man said

"And that is?…" he asked

"It's called Eiyu no Mizu (Hero Water)... We are villagers from Takigakure (Hidden Waterfall Village) and our goal was to ship this item to Sunagakure (Hidden Sand Village). The Wind Daimyo's wife was gravely ill, and so they asked for aid from us. Our village was opposed to the idea at first but we decided to help them as a sign of good faith which could potentially result in a stable alliance" the man explained

"Then why didn't you send out some of your ninjas to do this then?" Shikamaru questioned

"We would if we could but manpower in our village is really low at the moment and we couldn't spare any more ninjas to do this task. We also thought that if we sent out ninjas of our own, it would only attract more enemies for this item holds tremendous power. So we decided to hire samurais and shinobi from a different village" he replied

"What do you mean?" Shikamaru inquired

"This liquid is only produced every one-hundred years in our village, it has the ability to heal most if not all illnesses a person has. Not only that, but it could also grant a person enormous amounts of chakra. We estimate that it could increase a person's amount of chakra by tenfold, though great power does come with a price. Overuse of this substance has great drawbacks, it shortens a person's life span greatly" the man said

"You could've told us earlier then..." Shikamaru argued

"We recognize that and we're truly sorry…" the man apologized on behalf of the entire group

Shikamaru sighed but decided not to dwell on it for his job was to protect them, and protect them he will. He needed to tell his sensei, though he wondered where Hinata and his sensei were.

(A/N: And that's Chapter 12 haha, btw this Hero Water is from a filler movie in part one of the series. Though in the movie or episode? (IDK if its a movie or episode since its an hour long) the Hero Water only grants chakra and stuff but I decided to add healing properties cause why not plus this only serves as MacGuffin so yeah (In fiction, a MacGuffin is an object, device, or event that is necessary to the plot and the motivation of the characters, but insignificant, unimportant, or irrelevant in itself) so yeah though it there's a need for this item again then I'll use it haha. Sorry for the wait again though I did mention that I may upload irregularly. Also! Wow, the chapter I uploaded the other day received a ton of views and stuff in such a short amount of time. Also, I saw my story in the browse section of FFN so yay. Another thing, I made an AO3 account and plan to cross-post cause other authors do that so I might as well do it too haha so yeah, that's all cheers ^^)