A/N: I never mentioned it before but all of them are older by like 5 years. Tenten, Neji and Lee are 18 while Naruto and the rest of them are a year younger. Hopefully there hasn' t been any confusion.

Chapter 6

After destroying the Village-Karo, Sasuke had wondered back into the forest as for shelter and a hideout. His mind had only one intention, to kill his older brother-Uchiha Itachi. But for the moment being, he had no set destination. The sun was starting to set and the temperature was beginning to drop.

Walking further into the forest, he found a small clearing with two figures lying on the floor. Going to the larger body, he found a man with eyes showing fear. Bending down he quickly observed the man in front, concluding he was dead due to the fact that he had no pulse.

Looking across to the other figure, a young girl, Sasuke noted that she was probably the man's daughter. Going closer to have a better look, Sasuke was soon to find a surprise. On the child's forehead was a protector indicating she was from Konoha.

They were probably killed by some ninja, he thought. But at that point, he saw the girl in front of him stir. Her eye lids flickered open, revealing eyes, with no colour.

"She' s a Hyuuga!" Sasuke whispered to himself clearly showing the surprise in his voice.

The young Hyuuga soon drifted off again, leaving Sasuke over-whelmed with thoughts, why would a young Hyuuga be here, near the Sand Village? Taking in his surroundings, the floor was covered in weapons and two places had a circular hole engraved into it. The holes were quite large but weren't very deep. A fight happened? Could it be possible that she was fighting the man over there? I should kill her before she knows of my existence here. But something is stopping me, why can' t I seem to have to urge to kill her? There' s like a wall preventing me. What is it?

Question after question appeared but were all left unanswered. By then, the sun had fully set, leaving the forest surrounded in darkness. Winds were coming in and the young child laid there, shivering in her sleep. Taking off his coat, he quickly draped it over the Hyuuga. Why am I like this? I could kill her easily, but here I am helping her as if trying to keep her alive.

Turning around, he left her and headed for a nearby tree, before falling to sleep.

Neji and his group had decided to stop for the day. They had covered a lot of ground just from the afternoon onwards and stopped on the edge of the forest. Sakura, Tenten and Kiba were setting up their tent while the others went in search for some fire wood. Their tent was enough to hold six people at once but to group had other thoughts.

During dinner, which consisted of plain bread, water and some fruit; everyone remained quiet as there was nothing to talk about. The fire was giving warmth and light to them. Soon, the silence was broken off by Naruto complaining that he was still hungry but the others just left him be, as his punishment for waking up late and forgetting about breakfast.

They discussed what was going to happen for the night and concluding that they should at least have someone on guard.

"We have six of us, but one person on guard might be dangerous," Kiba stated out with Akamaru lying on his lap, asleep.

"We' ll do it in pairs," Tenten announced and her voice was some what stern meaning there was no defying allowed.

"YOSH!" yelled out, Lee while performing his pose and his teeth went 'pling' . "Sakura-san why don' t we be partners?" he asked, turning towards Sakura who once again, remained emotionless.

Naruto was furious by this and shouted at Lee, "FURRY EYEBROWS! Sakura-chan is with me."

From the commotion no one seemed to notice the dangerous aura appearing around Neji. His eyes were twitching from the annoyance, taking no more he stated to the two in a low and stern voice."You two are not paired with her, I have already worked it out, so you two can act more like adults." Neji sighed before continuing, "Sakura you and Tenten will be on first shift. Next will be Naruto and Lee, and last will be Kiba and me."

That left, two shocked Jounins but notlong later, the group said goodnight and headed for bed, leaving Sakura and Tenten on guard.

Tenten seemed nervous of their silence and decided to break it after a few minutes. "Sakura,"

"Hm," Sakura replied not even bothering to turn around.

"You shouldn' t act so emotionless, you weren' t like this before." Tenten told her, "You should think about being more open, I don' t mean like Naruto and Lee but some more happiness should do you better."

"..."

"One can only get stronger with the happiness you share of another. Happiness and friendship makes one strive for more. That' s why, Sakura, you shouldn' t be as distant."

The younger of the two turned and stared at her. Sakura was kind of shock to hear this coming from the older girl. True, Tenten had grown a lot stronger possibly matching to Neji's and Lee' s. Yet, where ever she was there was always a smile on her face. A question was running through Sakura's head, does happiness really make one strive for success?

For the rest of their guard duty, the two never spoke another word. After that, the next pair came out in switching positions. The night dragged on like this, till morning.

Hinata had been following the dark tunnel but it surprised her as to how long it was. She continued walking through the single tunnel towards where she hoped was the escape route. Only that was what she thought, she indeed did reach the end but not only to find three people guarding the entrance. Turning around, the three looked up in surprise by how she found the way out.

She was growing weak since she hadn' t eaten anything since the morning when Hanabi and she were training. Looking up into the sky she saw the moon shining along with stars circling it.

One of the guards whispered to the others, "She' s gotten out, what should we do?"

The other one who sounded like a female replied, "Out job is to keep her in here and not to let her go. The other weakling left before but Kitano is after her so that is no problem. But about this one, we don' t have to fight her unless she tries to run away. The boss said to keep her in top shape meaning se are to do nothing to harm her. Do whatever she wants you to do just as long she doesn' t try to leave. Understood?"

The other two nodded in agreement before turning to Hinata asking her if she was hungry. Hinata who was clearly shocked by this question just nodded a bit, though she had to keep her guard, they could end up giving her poisoned food.

Taking out from a pack, one of them withdrew a bun and a water bottle and handed it to her. The food seemed normal enough but she still checked it beforehand. Realising it was indeed perfectly fine; she bit into the food which to her tasted delicious. Even the water was welcoming but just because she seemed like she was innocent and weak, Hinata was surveying her surroundings. There were three guards, one female and two male, they seemed ready to stop her if she wanted to escape. She didn' t know how strong they were but she could do that later. She didn' t know their names nor of what village they were from, just like her kidnappers but she didn' t believe they were the. But they were still the enemy so Hinata couldn' t trust them. Hanabi was no where in sight; Hinata could only hope she was safe. Soon it was time to rest, one of the handed her a blanket to keep her warm during the night.

The female walked up to her and introduced herself before turning away, "Hyuuga-sama, the one over there (pointing to the one she had seen earlier who was whispering) is Shiruko and the other is Yoshiru (indicating to the man who had handed her the blanket and I' m Rika. We hope to be of your help when you need us."

"Yes, i...i..see," Hinata stuttered then turning over to have a rest.

Early next morning, the six man team had finished packing and were already to head off. They had eaten breakfast early enough to be able to run over some other instructions.

"We have about three or four days before we get to the Sand Village. Hopefully Hinata and Hanabi are okay," announced Tenten.

YOSH! Let us do our best!" shouted an excited Lee. While Naruto seemed barely awake, he kept yawning and rubbing his eyes. Neji just looked annoyed at his loud mouth friend; it was a wonder why he had brought him along. Sakura was smiling while playing with Akamaru and talking to Kiba which surprised a few people, one of them being Tenten.

The girl has already changed after what I said last night, thought Tenten bring a smile to her face.

Neji was wondering why Tenten had such a smile on her face at this time. Following her line of sight, he spotted the medic smiling. Seeing something had already changed overnight, he wondered what Tenten had said to her, shrugging it off, signalling the others to get ready to leave. Within moments they were off, heading for the Sand Village.

Hanabi stirred, her back was sore all over from having to sleep on the hard floor. She felt something warm against her body, soon realise there was a coat. Sitting up, she saw a young man eating a piece of bread and at the sight of it, Hanabi's tummy grumbled. Noticing her presence, Sasuke turned and looked at her only to see fear in her eyes.

"You' re...you' re the missing-nin, Uchiha Sasuke," she stammered clearly indicating fear as her voice was quivering.

"Don' t stress, I won' t hurt you," Sasuke replied and he could almost hit himself for saying that. To Hanabi, his voice was like a sword slicing through the air. Suddenly remembering about her fight, she tried to look around for her enemy. Could the enemy have been Sasuke? She thought, but that would be impossible. I remember killing him. True enough, laying a few feets away from her was her battered opponent who lost while underestimating her. Suddenly someone handed her a piece of bread, looking up she saw Sasuke. She took it slowly before mumbling thanks. Though the sun was up, the temperature was just as low but the coat provided her with warmth.

"Um...is this your coat?" she asked Sasuke.

"Keep it," was the reply she got from the missing-nin.

"Thanks," Hanabi said softly then started on her bread.

Sasuke's mind was still filled with questions yet all of them remained unanswered. He was to kill her but something huge was blocking him from doing so. Unscrewing the lid of his water bottle, he handed it to her, who took it gratefully, soon returning it to him.

Hanabi was surprised at the Uchiha' s kindness. Back in Konoha before he left the village most people described him as a 'human ice cube' along with her cousin, Neji who also held up this name. After the short breakfast, Sasuke was packing everything ready to leave, when something hit her. She was lost now and had no idea where to go or where she was. Thinking maybe the missing-nin could help her she asked him, "I' m lost and I don' t know where I am, I want to go back to Konoha. Do you think you could um...tell me which way?"

Sasuke was shocked by this Hyuuga asking him to tell her how to get back to Konoha which was his home but that was five years ago. He didn't have the slightest idea where it was located, due to the fact he never returned. Turning around to face the young girl, he replied, "You should follow me." This sounded more of an order than just a plain piece of advice.

Since Hanabi had no where to go she decided to do as he was told and follow the Uchiha, hoping he could return her home but half of her doubt it. With that, the two headed for a destination away from the Sand Village. There was complete silence along the journey in which Hanabi didn' t mind. She was exploring things that she had never seen before. Sasuke never even cared, he head was still filled with questions that kept coming and coming. The young Hyuuga that was following him was definitely changing his thoughts. Noon arrived and the two sat down for their break, but no one uttered a word. Hanabi wasn't nervous about the silence at all, after all she lived in a house hold filled with this treatment.

Sasuke recalled that he didn't know her name but she knew his, quickly turning his attention to her, he asked away, "Your name?"

Realising the question was directed to her she replied without showing any fear in her eyes, "Hyuuga Hanabi, sister of Hyuuga Hinata."

"You' re that 'ice cube's' cousin?" he asked again showing some emotions on his face but was replaced quickly who his emotionless one.

Hanabi soon realised he was talking about Neji; she was surprised he even remembered anything; all she did was nod an answer. That soon let their lunch continue in silence.

In search for Hinata and Hanabi, the group settled down for a quick break and lunch. Everyone had some of fruit which surprisingly was cut up by Lee while Kiba grab some doggy biscuits from his pack for Akamaru. . The six sat in silence; even Lee and Naruto were quiet, keeping their guard to the maximum. Once again, they had covered a lot of ground since the morning. They were out of Konoha's territory and were getting close to the Sand's land. The group headed off again, continuing on their mission.
A/N: I updated this chapter quite fast but it will take longer for the others to come out. The school term has started again so i would be able to update that fast. So please do be patient. Neji x Tenten pairing will appear in the next chapter, so look forward to that.

The Gandhara- Once again, thanks for your help. Actually as you can see from reading, Hinata can't escape that easily. They left the three to guard her. But besides from that, your review was again, very helpful. Thank you.

Tears like Crystals- The story so far isn't up to that point yet. But they should meet up in two chapters after this one. Don't worry, they will meet for sure. Thanks for the review and i'm glad you like the story.

Neji x Tenten- I'm glad you liked it.

abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz- It's great you find Neji and Tenten cute. But they are of course. Great to hear that you like it. Ja ne

Other reviews/readers- Please continue to read and review me if you have something to say about it. But besides from that, have fun reading.