My gratitude towards these people for reviewing: busi sibeko1, bloodberrylicious, dumdeedum, Sommernacht, neonobara, Guest from b4, Bear2022, and Feroza.

Thanks for reading! Enjoy!

oOo

THEN

The next few days passed by easily. They followed the enemy roughly Northeast for three more days. The Land of Fire was a large country, so it took a lot of time to get to the borders.

Shisui enjoyed his time with his teammates. Hakuto held a steady conversation full of jokes and funny anecdotes. Hinata tended to be a little quieter, but she continued the conversation when Shisui could not find something to say.

"Do you think you'll take the jonin exam one day, Hinata?" Hakuto asked.

Hinata hummed and deactivated her Byakugan. Shisui caught her eye and smiled at her. She gave herself a break before he needed to intervene. Her eyes widened and she blushed. She glanced away, focusing on her feet as she launched herself through the trees.

Shisui's brows rose in delighted surprise. How come no one ever told him how cute this Hyuga could be? He thought her quiet or reserved. He never realized she was shy.

Hinata cleared her throat. "I don't know if I want to take the traditional exam or if I want to go for a mission-based promotion."

Shisui signaled for the group to come to a halt. They did. Hakuto breathed in deeply, held it for a second, then let it go. She repeated this for a few moments to slow her breathing before pulling out her canteen. Hinata walked to the trunk of the tree. Propping her foot upright between the branch and the trunk, she began to methodically stretch her ankles and calves.

Shisui ducked out of sight to relieve himself. When he came back, and both women returned from their own breaks, the conversation continued as if it never stopped.

Hakuto took point, easily propelling herself forward. "You don't want to take the test? It's like the chunin exam, but with less people. And it's village-centric."

Shisui stayed behind the two women to watch their backs. He could not see Hinata's expression. However, he assumed she began to frown based off the hesitant tone of her voice.

"I'm not a big fan of tests. They make me nervous. But. Also… um…" She briefly glanced over her shoulder at Shisui. "I didn't have the best chunin exam. The first time around."

Shisui grimaced, remembering how the traitor Orochimaru, tried to break in and kidnap Sasuke. The memory always ruined his mood.

But the memory of killing Orochimaru himself tended to balance out the upset.

"Oh, ouch," Hakuto said. "That was your year?"

"Yeah," Hinata sighed. She stopped in her tracks. Her companions immediately paused. "He's stopping."

Shisui looked at his watch. "It's early. We still have a few hours before nightfall."

Hakuto pulled out a compass from a pocket. The others joined her on her branch. She kneeled down and pulled a map out of another pocket. Spreading it out, she used it and the compass to study their location.

"We're almost at the border. If we continue East, we'll hit the Land of Wind."

"We're allies with the Village of Sand," Hinata said.

"But there's a country between the two of us," Shisui pointed out, "if we continue North…"

Hakuto nodded. "We're going Northeast."

She looked up at them. "I think he's trying to go to the Land of Rain."

oOo

There was nothing to do but wait. They crept close and made camp. The trees were starting to thin out, so they were stuck on the ground for now. Hinata and Hakuto left to do their nightly routine. Shisui sat on his sleeping bag and idly kept them and the enemy in his senses.

Hakuto returned first. She threw herself on her own sleeping bag and giggled.

Shisui gave her a quizzical look.

Hakuto pointed in Hinata's direction. She kept her voice low. "You know she has a huge thing for Naruto right? You can find her cute all you want, but you don't have a chance."

Shisui felt his hair stand on end. He worked very hard not to bristle or frown. "I don't know what you're talking about."

She shrugged. "Maybe not. Maybe not yet. But I know what I'm saying."

He did not know which angle to approach his denial. "It's inappropriate. I'm the team Captain."

"Ahhh whatever. She's not even supposed to be on our team anyway. You both will probably never have a mission together again. And if she makes jonin, then your ranks are technically the same. So, it's okay."

Shisui marinated in this revelation for a minute. "Naruto?" he asked incredulously. "She likes that guy?"

Hakuto laughed again. "The heart wants what it wants."

Shisui fell backwards. "I'm not her type."

Naruto and Shisui could not look more different if they tried. If she liked temperament, Shisui was friendly and funny, yes. The two men had that in common. But Naruto was… loud. Both in volume and in force of personality.

If Naruto was a typhoon, Shisui was a thunderstorm in the distance.

He covered his face with his hands and groaned. "It's only been four days."

"The heart doesn't know what time is. It only knows how to love." Hakuto teased.

He fanned out his fingers to peek out at her. "Are you a poet? Do you write poetry in your spare time?"

"Uh… um… No?"

Hinata walked back into the clearing. Shisui leveraged himself up on his elbows and made no secret that he was staring.

She met his gaze, and after a confused pause, she blushed and smiled.

"Huh," Hakuto murmured. "Maybe you do have a chance."

"A chance for what?" Hinata asked.

Shisui grinned wickedly. "Hey, Miss Hinata. Do you know our Hakuto writes poetry?"

Hakuto launched herself at him and tried to slap a hand over his mouth. "I do not!" she yelled in a whisper.

oOo

NOW

Shisui leaves as early as he can. He makes sure to get eight hours of sleep and to eat breakfast with his mother. He carefully pretends not to feel jittery anticipation shaking through his body. But his mother shoos him out of the house. She pats his shoulder as she pushes him through the door.

"Come back safe," she orders.

"I will." He gives a small wave before body flickering out of sight.

As soon as he passes the gate, and enters the woods proper, he feels some of the nerves evaporate. His breath evens out as he leans forward into his jumps. The beginning of a mission feels routine, comfortable. Traveling for missions is familiar.

He also cannot push himself too hard. Unfortunately, the travel to Lightning will take many days.

If his summons lent themselves to travel, he would take it in a heartbeat. But his crows are normal sized, and the crows that are large enough to ride… tend to eat humans instead of helping them.

He smirks at the thought.

The day passes calmly, and he camps. He attaches his sleeping bag to a branch and settles in. The spot he chose gives him a clear view of the sky and the stars. He watches them wink in and out of existence.

His eyes slowly drift shut. Caught between sleep and wakefulness, he imagines Hinata is lying in her own sleeping bag beside him.

oOo

Coming up: Shisui reads more letters and comes to an upsetting conclusion.