Note: Masashi Kishimoto owns Naruto and all of the characters in this fic except my O/C's.

Chapter 2

Konohagakure Village resided deep within a forest at the base of a mountain known as the Hokage Rock, and Konoha was surrounded by enormous walls. Though regarded as one of the Five Great Shinobi Countries, it received its share of petty thefts and banditry within the forest. Civilians with no training were often preyed upon, and Chunnins and Genins were sent on missions to flush out the thieves. There were hardly any Shinobi patrols outside the walls on ordinary days, but if reports surfaced, the Hokage would have to ensure the safety of his citizens. These assignments were classified as C-rank missions since there wasn't a chance of combat against other ninjas. Team Eight's first C-rank mission stated that four bandits with abysmal use of Ninjutsu were terrorising pedestrians on the Western side of the walls.

Shino's bugs, Kiba's, Akamaru's and Hinata's sensing abilities had helped the team find the course of the bandits. Although they had tried to make good use of their time by working efficiently and covering a wide span of their area, they had overexerted themselves. With a rough idea of where to head, Hinata and Akane had left two hours ago.

Shino sat on a sturdy branch wrapped in a heavy blanket and waited. Kiba was already snoring, and Akamaru had rested himself near his master's head, guarding his body. Although Kiba had asked Shino to wake him up if he started dozing off, Shino thought it was best if he rested to replenish his strength. Kurenai was on a branch near Kiba's, and she sat in a lotus position with her eyes rested.

"Commander Kurenai, don't you think our target is skilled beyond what we have been briefed? They have managed to cover their tracks and successfully hide in the shadow of the night. We might be novices, but I believe our skill set as a team makes us competent as trackers, yet they have managed to evade us." Shino asserted. Kurenai unfoiled herself from her position and opened her eyes. The questions that he had asked were also plaguing her mind. It didn't make sense that petty thieves had avoided making mistakes. Expertly hidden footsteps and scent blockers had rendered Kiba and Akamaru useless, and they had managed to hide their chakra pathway. It was a miracle that Shino's bugs had traced them, but now that she thought about it, that had seemed planted. The further they went out of Konoha's vicinity, the sloppier the bandits were. It was as if the bandits wanted to be discovered.

"I can tell you now that we are going into a fight. I have a sinking feeling that the enemy has been hunting us all along." Kurenai declared. For a split second, she thought she saw an expression pass through her student's face: a flash of excitement. But it went away as quickly as it had come, and he reverted to his calm self. His eyebrows had scrunched together, and then he said, "They wanted a Hyuuga." Kurenai uncrossed her arms. "Akamaru, wake up Kiba! We have to go save our comrades."

Maybe it was her imagination, or the freezing temperatures had finally gotten her. Forty metres ahead of her were distinctive chakra patterns of four individuals loitering around; however, the targets had no heat signatures. Something was amiss, how could she not detect their heat signatures? In her mind, she could hear the stern voice of her teacher admonish her, "The Byakugan can use infrared to detect a target through body heat. Bare skin has a higher temperature than parts of your body covered with clothing hence why they glow brightly to our eyes. It would be best if you remembered that." So were they covering themselves because of the cold?

Hinata retracted her ability and placed her cold fingertips on her temples. It was close to one a.m., and she had been using her eyes for more than six hours (the longest time she had operated). She had exhausted herself, maybe that is why her vision was faulty, but she knew that the marks were not ordinary bandits; even cold objects produced light in the infrared.

"Did you notice anything?" A quiet voice asked, and Hinata felt the added weight of Akane on the branch she was on. The inky night had made it difficult to spot each other, but she could feel the concerned eye of her friend.

"Mmmh… Four people with normal chakra patterns are stationed about forty metres to the northeast. I…I... There is something wrong I can't see them in infrared, but I can detect their chakra. I can't draw any conclusions as to why?" Hinata whispered.

"Roger, let us notify the others and monitor them from here. That is weird; do you think it is an elaborate Genjutsu?" Akane calmly replied as she crushed a Kikaichu bug under her fingers; relying on a message of their positions, it would take the others ten minutes to come. Hinata performed the necessary hand signals, and the veins near her eyes painfully bulged out. She turned her gaze onto Akane, and a bright glow came into her view. She then focused her vision on their camp and noted the bright lights of four running figures coming in their direction.

"You may be right, but there are only high-level Genjutsu that can trick my Kekkei Genkai. That means these are competent shinobi." She paused and looked to where she had spotted the enemy. There were now three people milling about, and the fourth person was out of her sight. She scoured the surrounding area within her range (a solid thirty-five metres if she was not straining herself like today), and there was nothing except for night creatures. A cold chill ran in her bones, and when she opened her mouth to voice her opinion, Akane's hand landed on her mouth.

Silence; until a chakra-infused kunai whizzed past her head and landed with a thud on the trunk behind her.

"It pleases me that Konoha sent me a Hyuuga, an unmarked one for that matter, right into my hands." A smooth voice eerily said, and the two teenage girls moved into battle positions.

"What do you mean!" Hinata's thin, wavery voice barely broke through the night. Her Byakugan roared to life, and she carefully perused through the trees. Not only could she not see nor sense the man's chakra, but the other bandits' chakra were undetectable. What did it mean? She asked herself; she tried to steady her heart to think clearly.

At forty metres, she could view their chakra pathway systems, but she was unable to see them in infrared. However, now that one of them was close, she lost all of the Byakugan abilities. Her mind quickly ran over the possibilities. Did the other three run away, or were they hiding, waiting for an opportune time to grab her? Were the men using an obscure forbidden Jutsu, or was she so frail that the minute she overexerted herself, her powers weakened? Was there a quick fix solution for this situation? No. Shino had trusted her to be helpful on this mission; if she couldn't use her eyes, then it simply meant she was being a burden to her comrades.

A cold hand landed itself on her shoulder, and Hinata became startled. She was shaking so hard that she did not notice that she had retracted her ability. "Hinata, I can tell by your reaction that you have no plan, and I'm stumped too. The only thing we can do is to cover for each other." Akane said under her breath, and Hinata felt a burst of courage flood her body providing her with adrenaline. From the corner of her eye, she saw Akane draw up two kunai and harden her stance by shifting her legs and standing on the balls of her feet. If she was going to be less of a burden, she had to fight. At this, she shifted her body frame into her clan's fighting posture for the Gentle Fist.

Breath, breath, breath, and protect Akane.

"Ooh, you want to fight me then. I suppose you want to die a memorable death." The voice taunted, and it went quiet. Fear settled into their bones, and they waited. If they wanted to win, they had to find a way to get closer because they were close-ranged fighters. It seemed as if their assailant knew this and carefully kept himself hidden from her ability. She had memorised all the men's systems when she had the chance, but the Gentle Fist could prove ineffective if she used it when her eyes were of no use. Hinata had to use a fighting style Kurenai had taught her: Tenketsu blocking.

A multitude of shuriken and kunai flew to their heads from their left side, and Hinata grabbed Akane's hand and jumped onto a tree branch above them. Once Akane found her footing, she released two weapons into the direction the attack came from, and they both heard them hit a tree. A hushed silence fell over the forest floor, and Hinata drew out a kunai from the pouch attached to her leg. A beat passed until another round of kunai from all directions came aimed at them.

The sounds of Akane cursing, hundreds of sharp knives whizzing through the air (or piercing through their clothing and skin), and the thumping of their feet on different branches were the only things Hinata could hear through her pulsing ears. Blood trickled down her forehead, but she ignored it to quickly turn to her left and deflect a knife headed to her head.

They were not faring badly, they had both used their kunai to deflect most of the onslaught, and they were going to be alright once Kurenai and the others came. Akane thought as she twisted in the air to avoid a wave of kunai flying below her. Unfortunately, two cut across her thick jacket (now rendered useless because of the attack), thus exposing more of her blue mesh-lined top. She landed next to an agitated Hinata and immediately positioned herself into her fighting pose.

For a while, there was nothing until a hyena-like laugh broke out, and a strange man came into view. He was an unattractive young man who seemed to be a few years older than them. His unhealthy skin gleamed in the dusky night, and his dark eyes twinkled with glee. He stood tall in his gangly form with a wicked smile.

"If you are wondering why you can't use your Dojutsu on us, it's because of a special mineral, princess. A-"

"Noone cares, asshole!" Akane sounded off, and several voices in the shadows snickered.

"Looks like we've got a keeper here, right guys." And three other men who looked worse off than the first attacker walked out. "We need to hurry and get this over with. The boss will not be happy." The tallest one of them said, and in quick rapid movements, two men holding kunai lept to where the teenagers were standing and lunged forward with an attack.

Akane moved her feet forward and kicked one of the men in the face breaking his nose in the process; this distracted him enough for her to tear off the kunai from his hands and stab him in his leg. He screamed out in blind pain and attempted a punch at Akane; however, she dodged it, struck his throat and pushed him over.

Besides her, Hinata utilised Tenketsu blocking, a unique form of Taijutsu that targeted pressure points located in the human body. Since her Byakugan was now useless, she performed a two-fingered chakra-infused thrust at an estimated opponent's Tenketsu (pressure point) on his shoulders and legs. She was able to disrupt his Tenketsu and prevent him from using his chakra for a period. She had rendered him useless, and he fell to the ground from the high tree.

Both of them had ignored the looming danger of the remaining two men until they felt several explosion tags hit the tree they were on. Hinata and Akane blindly managed to hop off to another tree branch, and they stood next to each other to catch their breath. However, they were too disoriented to notice an enemy waiting for them. The man's objective, Hinata, was standing to Akane's right side, and he faced a weakened Akane. He roughly grabbed Akane by her throat in an attempt to throw her over the edge, but he had underestimated her quick recovery. Akane managed to grab a shuriken from her pouch, and she aimed at his eye. He howled out, and he was unable to focus on anything besides the unbearable pain that his hold on the girl faltered, and Hinata drop kicked him in the face. This forced him to keel over.

The remaining bandit let loose three kunai straight at Hinata, who responded too late. She was not going to react fast enough, Akane noticed. Thus, she grabbed Hinata by her shoulders, shoved her out of the tree and shouted, "land on your feet!"

She felt three hard impacts, two to her shoulder and one to her right arm. The pain was swift, causing her to yell before she felt her body fall forward. She tumbled forward out of the branch right after Hinata. Her vision blurred before blackening, and she waited for the inevitable thud of her body hitting the hard ground, but it never came. Instead, she felt herself land in a warm embrace, and a familiar smell of dog enveloped her.

"Man, Akane, couldn't you have waited so that I could teach those losers a lesson," Kiba mumbled to his friend, and she gave a pained lopsided grin. In his weird way, she understood what he was trying to say. He was proud of her.

"You were too slow, Kiba." With her ear pressed close to his chest, she heard him chuckle, and she closed her eyes into a listless dream missing out on Kurenai, forming a simple dragon hand signal and trapping the remaining bandit in a hellish Genjutsu.