I have one particular request for feedback on this chapter: you will note all suffixes have been removed. In your opinion, is this a positive or negative change? A neutral response will lead to the suffixes remaining in the story.
Further notes will be placed after the chapter.
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Chapter 2: Mission Unknown
Slowly Hinata sank back into the chair, almost feeling as if she shouldn't be sitting in it. It was too nice; certainly a lot nicer than what she had in her own room. This place probably cost two or three times what she generally spent, and she felt terribly out of place. She blinked white eyes a few times and tried to relax.
After their battle completely destroyed the restaurant, they'd all agreed they needed to stick together. More accurately, Sakura and Ino had agreed, and Hinata hadn't spoken against the idea. They'd chosen Ino's hotel primarily because it was the nicest, though not necessarily the most defensible.
Things had stayed completely quiet after the battle, though everyone was tense because they were being so cautious. They'd traded watches that night, but Hinata hadn't been able to make herself sleep very soundly. This worried her too much to really rest. Why had they attacked? What had they wanted?
Sakura's current theory was that they were assassins. But that didn't help any, because that still left plenty of questions. Not only was there the question of who would want to attack Konoha shinobi, but who had the ability to hire shinobi in such a manner? Furthermore, who had they actually intended to attack? They'd only been together by chance, but the shinobi had attacked all three of them immediately.
Wincing, Hinata felt a bruise on her side and sighed. She didn't feel adequate for trying to figure out what was happening. Sakura was the smart one who could do things like that. All she could do was fight, and Ino was better at that than she was.
"I feel so much better!" Ino beamed, emerging from the bathroom. She was still fairly wet, and her hair was gleaming.
"But you still don't have any better taste," Sakura told her from the balcony, glancing over her shoulder. "I'd like you better in those black Anbu robes." Ino looked as though she was going to vomit.
"Those things are so disgusting. Whoever designed them wasn't thinking about style at all."
"At least it has a mask. Then I wouldn't have to see your ugly face!"
"Oh, yeah? Do they even have a mask big enough for your forehead?"
"I shoul-" Sakura cut off just as the doorbell rang. All of them were immediately glancing at the door, immediately on edge.
"Should we answer it?" Ino hissed.
"It's probably nothing," Sakura whispered back. "Just to be sure, let's check- wait, what about Hinata?" She glanced back at her as if she was just thinking of her existence. "Tell us who's on the other side!"
Nodding silently, Hinata focused and then took her Byukagen to its second phase. Veins stood out on the sides of her head as chakra pulsed into her eyes. Immediately the door vanished before her, and she focused on the person at the other side.
"It's just a courier," she reported. The other two sighed in relief.
"Damn. We were so cautious, too," Ino muttered, moving toward the door.
"Please," Sakura commented, waving a hand in Hinata's direction. "Turn that thing off. Those veins creep me out."
"O-okay."
Meanwhile, Ino wrenched opened the door and glowered at the man standing there.
"I thought I said I didn't want to be disturbed."
"There's a message directly for you." He coughed nervously, not meeting her gaze. "It was to you directly, even though your name isn't on the record, so I thought you might want to look at it." Quietly he held out a scroll. Ino's hand began to move to take it instinctively, but froze.
"Who delivered it?"
"Tall guy in black robes. There was one of those ninja mask things on his face so I couldn't tell much more about him." For a moment Ino didn't respond, then she abruptly snatched the scroll and slammed the door closed. On the other side, she swiftly set it down on the floor and backed away slightly.
"It's one of our scrolls," Sakura observed, glancing down at it.
"But someone could have intercepted one," Ino retorted. "That doesn't mean it's safe."
"I'll check to see if I can sense any embedded chakra." Bending down beside the scroll, Sakura raised two fingers and focused on it. A long moment passed, and Hinata waited nervously. It seemed completely safe to her, but they needed to be especially cautious at the moment. "I think it's safe."
Picking it up, Sakura opened the scroll. Nothing cataclysmic happened, so she moved to the beginning of the message. It was a pretty short one, and she read it aloud after she read it herself.
" 'To S, I and H,' I'm pretty sure that means us, 'We heard about the disappointing experience at the restaurant. This is obviously unacceptable, and we will send someone down immediately. Stay where you are so we can find you without a great deal of unnecessary trouble. It hasn't been easy to contact the restaurant, but when someone comes down they should be able to help you.' It's signed by the 'Konoha Business Bureau' which is obviously complete BS."
"Message in code, though a pretty simple one," Ino decided immediately. "Apparently word of this got back home fast. If they got an Anbu to send it, though, why did they bother being vague?"
"They said 'It hasn't been easy to contact the restaurant' which probably means that they don't know who's doing this. I guess it's just being excessively cautious."
"Most likely they know more," Ino hypothesized, "but information is scarce. Hence, they'll send someone here personally to tell us."
"Things seem more dangerous than we expected," Sakura commented. "It said to stay where you are; that probably is for their sake, but it also generally means that we should be wary of other attackers."
"More of them?" Ino groaned, tossing herself backward onto one of the beds. "I didn't think anyone could privately hire more than four ninja. No one other than the governments, anyway."
"Maybe it is a government?" Sakura suggested. "They could have just been trying to make an unofficial declaration of war. Three elite shinobi of Leaf dead would send a pretty solid message."
"But it didn't work out that way," Ino smirked. "They'll have to do better than that if they want to stop us."
"Just because we beat them doesn't mean we have the upper hand," Sakura said reprovingly. "They have information, which is more important. We could lose even if they don't have any shinobi stronger than us."
Ino just gave a grunt in response, and the three lapsed into silence. Subconsciously Hinata swallowed. This was sounding more and more dangerous by the second. She didn't want to have to fight anyone else. How ironic that this was supposed to be a vacation.
"Who do you think they'll send?" Ino spoke up abruptly. "Probably not just some Anbu like before. I'm guessing only the top people know anything."
"Neji wouldn't leave Konoha," Sakura mused, "and Kiba is far out of the country. Lee is a possibility, but I thought he was involved in some long-term mission way out east. Hey, do you suppose they'd send Sasuke?"
"That would be awesome!" Ino said, sitting up with a grin. "And he was even supposed to be around here, so-"
At that moment there was the sharp noise of metal upon metal, and dozens of shuriken rained in the room. All three of them were taken completely off guard, but none of the weapons struck them. The space around them was covered in shuriken.
"What was that supposed to be?" Ino asked no one in particular. Sakura was wondering the same. They were just a bunch of small shuriken. Abruptly her eyes widened. Just a bunch of small shuriken engraved with exploding seals!
"Jump!" she yelled, just before the entire room exploded. She managed to push herself out the window and over the balcony and narrowly avoided the flames. Ino got away, but was struck by the edge of the expanding flames and knocked back. When she fell to the street, however, she was able to land on her feet.
"Who attacked?" Sakura demanded to the air, glancing about them quickly.
"Did Hinata get out?" Ino wondered, almost as an afterthought.
"I, I'm fine." Hinata emerged from behind them, unsinged.
From out of nowhere a massive chakra source flooded toward Hinata, catching her off guard. It was all she could do to back step and narrowly avoid a punch that shattered the concrete she had been standing on. Sensing the same source, Ino and Sakura had leapt away, and were now on opposite sides of the street.
Whoever had attacked, they moved fairly quickly. Before Hinata could even get a good look at them they had used their grip on the ground to swing two wide kicks at her. Still somewhat off balance, she could only avoid the attacks. On his way up, the warrior struck at her with another fist, which she barely managed to block.
He retracted his arm faster than she could use an inner coils strike and he stepped back to avoid any follow up attacks. It was at this point that Hinata finally got a better look at him. The man who had attacked was very slender, and would have seemed weak if not for the chakra she could feel pulsating around him. His robes were simple and white, and he did not carry any apparent weapons. Both of his eyes were slitted, like a cat's. Without meaning to she took a step back, surprised.
Before he could attack again, Sakura and Ino were sweeping toward him in attack. His gaze shifted to them, and he only snapped his fingers. Three forms flew in from opposite sides, the sound of metal on metal evident. All Sakura could do was throw herself back, and Ino barely managed to pull two kunai, deflecting her opponent's strikes. The two warriors that had attacked her fell away without connecting.
Glancing back over her shoulder, Hinata looked at the new attackers. All of them were dressed in similar kimonos, and each had a katana sheathed at his waist. The cat-eyed ninja attacked in the instant she looked away. A bad idea, when fighting someone with the Byukagen.
Spinning back to him, Hinata knocked his arm aside with her left hand and planted her right firmly on his chest. He hurtled backward, barely catching himself on the street. Skidding to a halt, he spat blood and grimaced. Carefully Hinata returned to her stance; he still seemed very able to fight. His tongue flickered out between his teeth, long and thin.
"You're a Hyuga, aren't you?" he asked, eyes narrowed in her direction, practically blazing with hatred. "I have to admit, I wasn't ready for you. But let's try this again, shall we?"
When he attacked again, his style had changed. Hinata had no idea what he was doing, but immediately identified that his style was no longer hard; he was aiming only to touch her. It was too disturbingly like her own style for her to want to risk any actual contact.
Using a wrist to brush aside his attacks, Hinata struck back, only to find her attack swept out of the way as well. Their hands moved in a deadly dance, movements sweeping and graceful yet potentially fatal. Eventually Hinata saw her chance, and moved her hand down to clamp around his forearm.
Chakra burst around his arm, so concentrated it was visible. It repelled Hinata, and she instantly backpedaled. It was fortunate that she did so, because her opponent attacked almost immediately after her blow was blocked. She managed to get far enough away that he ceased his attack, and got a chance to see what he had done.
Around each of his fists now burned chakra in the form of two massive gloves, spikes running back along them. Whatever jutsu he had used, it had repelled her completely. Before he could start another conflict on his own terms, Hinata struck. This time, however, he was able to block with impunity, his chakra gauntlets negating any direct hits she managed.
Ducking beneath a gauntlet swipe, Hinata spun as quickly as she could, hammering her foot into the back of his knee. He grunted and almost went down, but abruptly moved with her motion, smashing his own foot into the back of her head.
She barely managed to get her hands up in time to avoid hitting the concrete face first. The impact still flung her some distance, and she ended up in an ungraceful heap. Rising to her feet unsteadily, she could only look as her opponent smirked, then bore down upon her.
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"Who are you punks?" Ino asked, raising an eyebrow at the two warriors. They had struck, but as soon as their blows were deflected they had resheathed their blades. Nearby, Sakura was similarly facing off with another warrior, likewise motionless.
"We are samurai," one explained tonelessly. "That is all that matters."
"Samurai?" Sakura almost laughed. "Really?"
As one the warriors struck, swords sliding from their sheaths and slashing violently. Before they could finish their slashes, however, both female shinobi had struck. Sakura slid forward, striking her opponent's chin with her palm, and Ino was spinning between the other two, kicking them apart. All three crashed onto the street heavily.
"How pathetic," Ino muttered, glancing to the side. Complete idiots. "Is Hinata still alive?" She saw the battle going on some distance down the street, a confusing whirlwind of movement, and took a step toward it.
"Going so soon?" The voice stopped both shinobi in their tracks. Behind them, the samurai were rising, hands on their blades, fire in their eyes. "If you really think you can hurt us like that, you have another thing coming."
"Uh, oh," Ino muttered. As the samurai charged, she glanced toward Sakura. They nodded to one another. The next instant three blades sliced entirely through them... and both of them vanished in a shower of smoke. Immediately the samurai were on guard, but their opponents were not attacking, they were quite some distance down the street and moving away. Growling, they broke into a run.
Focusing on the other battle, Sakura realized who was who just in time to see Hinata fall back. Her opponent's spiked gauntlet seemed to have cut through her side slightly. Moving with the motion, Hinata spun a leg at his neck, but he deflected it with a gauntlet. The blow staggered him slightly, but then he exerted force of his own, sending her flying back.
"We'll handle him!" Ino called, getting a better grip on her kunais. "You handle the punks over there!"
"A-alright. He's-"
"I said we'll handle him. Just go!" Hinata nodded hastily and moved further down the street to intercept the charging samurai. They were all muscular and appeared skilled, but she far preferred them to the cat-eyed man. Seeing her, they broke out of their run and halted, hands all on the handles of their blades.
"Get out of the way!" one of them barked. "We don't have time to cut you down now!"
Instead of responding, Hinata attacked. The instant she did so blades flew from their sheaths, but the warrior she had focused on didn't get close. Her hand was around his wrist before it could pull his blade completely, and she hurled him away. She had only a split second to set up a clone before the other two attacked.
Landing on the opposite side of the street, Hinata found that they did not attack immediately; instead, they got into formation.
"You ninja think that you are superior because you have supernatural power," the leader of the samurai grated. "But we are not strangers to mosou." His blade flashed from his sheath, but this time it only moved to rest upright before him, held in both hands. For a moment he closed his eyes, then he opened them abruptly. Flames shot down his blade, and he charged...
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"So, you'd rather fight me and let the other girl be killed by the samurai?"
"She won't have time to get killed," Ino shot back. "We'll be done with you long before they can finish her. Hinata isn't weak."
"You're about to find out why the shinobi of Hidden Leaf are considered the elite," Sakura added, flipping a kunai to one hand.
"Really?" the other shinobi asked, eyes narrowing. His tongue flickered from his mouth briefly, and he chuckled softly. "You are both very confident. But I must remind you of the cliché: actions speak louder than words." At that moment he dissolved in a shower of blackened rose petals.
Whirling to the side, Ino managed to change a direct blow into a glancing hit. Still, it felt as though something sharp had been scraped along the nerve endings of her arm. Shaking off the pain, she snapped her wrist, hurling a kunai at her opponent. He wove out of the way gracefully and struck faster than she had anticipated-
Sakura attacked from the side, and he only barely brought up a chakra gauntlet before his face. She retreated before he could strike back, and then both female shinobi struck in unison. He turned to the side and avoided Sakura's strike, and took Ino's kunai directly to the hand. It drove part way through the chakra surrounding it and remained stuck. Changing position, she struck at him with the other hand.
This time he grabbed her wrist as it barely passed his face, then used her own momentum to toss her aside. Ino barely managed to land on her feet, fighting off intense pain. Her wrist was bleeding painfully. Then he had an internal style, like Hinata did. That couldn't be any good for Sakura.
Glancing back up, Ino discovered Sakura still fighting, though she was being driven back. Using her good hand, Ino launched several shuriken toward the battle. At the last second the other shinobi brought up a hand. Briefly his chakra gauntlet grew, and it deflected each of the shuriken, which made ringing sounds as they bounced away.
His deflection of the attack gave Sakura the moment she needed to attack. To her surprise, however, he evaded it easily. Then he must have expected it. This guy wasn't a moron, in that case. Expecting his counter strike, she immediately moved. She backed away from his palm, which was flying toward her stomach. Just before reaching her, his range fell short, and then she was skidding away from him-
Chakra flew from his hand in a deceptively gentle sphere that flitted through the air and slammed into her stomach. She hurtled back through the air, lodging part way through the wall of a nearby building. Just as he was moving to finish her off, an army of Ino rushed him from all sides.
Flicking his tongue in mockery, he did not move and let the illusions pass through him harmlessly. Abruptly sensing something behind him, he turned just in time to see Ino's fingers raised in a triangle focused on him. His eyes widened, but then narrowed, his tongue flickering into the air again.
Like lightning he dropped to the side, and Ino's spirit passed through the air harmlessly. She swiftly looked over her shoulder, panicking. Hopefully he wouldn't realize that her body was defenseless- but no, he was already charging it. Pain brought her shooting back to her normal self, but she was already defenseless.
Ending his combo with a backhand to the head, the shinobi sent her hurtling through the air where Sakura had gone. She fell a short distance from the other shinobi. Calmly the enemy shinobi wiped a bit of blood from his mouth and turned toward the two beaten warriors. A slight grin flickered onto his face.
From down the street, Hinata could sense his killing intent. She glanced to the side, distracted from the samurai screaming down toward her with a flaming blade. All that really mattered at the moment was protecting her friends. Raising a hand, Hinata vanished before the blade, appearing before her opponent.
She lashed out quickly, not really intending to do any damage. Both of her blows were blocked by chakra gauntlets, but she stopped his deadly charge. Allowing himself to skid back, the shinobi got on the opposite side of the street. Hinata landed in the center, between him and Ino and Sakura, who were making it to their knees.
"Defending them?" the other shinobi asked. "How quaint. But you don't realize how incredibly futile it is. Even if you could defeat me," he pointed over her shoulder, "they would die."
Hinata didn't need to turn to see the samurai now surrounding Ino and Sakura. Their hands were on their blades, prepared to slash in fatal strokes. On the opposite side of the street, the cat-eyed warrior was likewise focusing, prepared to attack. It was a basic dilemma, she realized. She could only defend herself or save her friends. Either way, she lost. Shivering slightly, Hinata held back tears. Why did she have to deal with this? How could she be expected to make a choice like that?
"That's enough." The voice took everyone off guard, and Hinata looked despite it being unnecessary. All eyes focused down the street, into the early morning mists that floated between buildings. Silhouetted in the mists was a tall figure, a cloak blowing around him. He stepped forward as all could only watch. His cloak was high enough to eclipse the lower half of his face, and over the dark fabric blue eyes glowed intensely, framed by raven locks of hair.
Calmly, Uchiha Sasuke stepped onto the battlefield.
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Generally, I respond to questions or comments in reviews, when these questions or comments will not be answered by the story itself. These will make more sense in context of said reviews, but it should be possible to read them at face value.
This story is based primarily on the manga (hence Konohamaru's teammates do not technically have names). However, the only real disadvantage those who only watch the anime will have is not being as far along in the story as those who are current with the manga.
I was somewhat surprised that Sakura and Ino were referred to as "overpowered." Rest assured that this is not the case, though I do not wish to impoverish their characters. At this point, not everything about Hinata's style is known; here I will say only that she is not weak and that her character will certainly be developed.
A few valid points were raised concerning Hinata's abilities. Some of these will be answered in chapter 3; all the information regarding jutsus has merely not been given. However, one person asked why she did not use the Jyuuken on her opponent in the first chapter, instead of sealing off his chakra. First, let me point out that quite a few years have passed since the "end" of Naruto, and that Hinata knows both Byukagen based techniques equally well. Sealing off chakra is slightly faster, and also much better to use when you intend to get information out of someone instead of killing them.
Another update will be placed here in two weeks time.