I apologize for the delay, though it appears that it did not matter in the slightest. As usual, there are some responses (including one to a review of an earlier chapter) following the chapter. This chapter should alsoutilize the site's line feature.

Chapter Five: Relentless

At the instant Sasuke's signal was given, everyone moved. It seemed even that their opponents moved when he commanded. Overhead, there was a violent rasp of metal and a surge of dangerous chakra.

Something was whistling toward the coach. With no particular instructions, Hinata merely broke open the nearest door and leapt to the back. Her last sight of the inside of the coach was Sakura breaking through the wall, Ino snapped back to her body and leaping to the side and Sasuke blurring out of existence.

Spinning in midair, Sasuke grabbed the edge of the open door and flipped himself up to the top. Behind him, metallic spikes stabbed through the inside of the coach, ripping apart the cushions easily. He landed at the front end of the coach and remained standing there, the speed-generated wind whipping his clothing around him violently. Hinata had escaped the attack, Sakura was guiding the coach and Ino was with her. With his team safe, Sasuke turned slightly to look to the back of the coach.

"I take it you're the newest assassin," he said flatly, eyes flickering over his opponent. She was tall and had obviously spent a great deal of time worrying about her appearance. He was more concerned about the many weapons she was carrying on her, including oversized senbon that had pierced the coach before. For a moment she just glanced at him, then she almost laughed and shook her long blond hair.

"You look as good as reports said," she commented. The next moment she jerked her hand into the air in a hand seal that jerked thin strings of chakra. Within the coach, the needles whistled to life, flying back out to stab through Sasuke's body. He vanished the next instant, leaving only a scrap of brown cloth from a seat.

Immediately the wind caught it, and it fluttered toward the assassin's face. She snatched it out of the air by reflex, and the embedded chakra immediately flooded through her body. Thousands of tiny stinging sensations enveloped her, nearly paralyzing her body. Metal slashed through her stomach the next instant, and she only barely prevented the blow from being fatal.

Immediately she lashed out, intending to kill her opponent just after he had struck. Faster than she had thought possible Sasuke evaded her attack and then caught her next. With a motion she couldn't quite understand he jerked her arm behind her back, nearly breaking it. She grunted and whipped a weapon into her other hand. Sasuke back stepped to evade her slash and she got her footing on the coach once more.

Surprisingly, the assassin laughed softly, her weapon slack in her hand. "You're good," she admitted. "Better than even what they said about you." Sasuke didn't respond, his eyes shadowed between his hair and his collar. "Listen, I'm not very committed to my superiors, and I doubt you care that much about your village. I know that you abandoned the village once in the past, and it's pretty obvious you don't care about any of the people on this little team you've patched together. Why stick around?" She smirked suggestively. "Come with me and I think we could have a pretty good time."

"Why?" Sasuke's voice seemed unnaturally harsh. The instant he spoke one of his hands exploded in blue flame, chakra collecting around it. His former opponent raised both eyebrows and stepped back. "Why all the time? Why doesn't anything change? Why is everyone always after me?" He finally raised his head, and his eyes were blazing. "It makes me sick." When he said it, it sounded like a death sentence.

"Aw, don't be that way," the other said, cocking her head to the side. "I think I'm a lot bet-" Her voice cut off abruptly in a painful gagging sound. Sasuke's hand had gone through her heart; his arm was now through her body. Blood flew from the wound backward, hitting Sasuke's cloak and seeming to roll off. With an angry growl he ripped his hand out and backhanded the corpse off the edge of the coach. It quickly vanished behind them.

For a brief moment he remained there silently, glancing up into the sky. Then he turned slightly and caught a glimpse of Hinata. She was holding on to the back of the coach, unharmed but apparently frozen in place. Her white eyes were wide, staring at him blankly. Their eyes met, Sasuke's completely emotionless, and then he swept away, dropping to the coach itself.

Hinata remained on the back for some time, unable to make herself think properly. What she had seen still hadn't sunk in. It wasn't the death that bothered her, she had seen far too much of it, but what she had seen in Sasuke. His unnatural calm had broken, and the rage behind it almost terrified her.

The strange thing was, she really wasn't scared of him. He wasn't angry at her, and was controlled almost all of the time. But to know that he was that annoyed, that the things Ino and Sakura and all the others did aggravated him that much... it made her sad more than anything. And his expression… for a brief moment after the battle, his black eyes had seemed disgusted, but she wasn't sure if he was disgusted with others or himself. Shaking off that train of thought, Hinata forced her body to move back into the coach.

It was very different now: one of the doors destroyed, an entire wall gone. Sakura was holding the reigns to the furry beasts, which were trundling on, having apparently noticed nothing. Ino was beside her, whining about something. Sasuke sat on the back bench, his arms out to either side of him. Fidgeting slightly for a moment, Hinata sat on one end of the partially destroyed bench and waited.

"Turn left at the next path," Sasuke said abruptly, voice moving from out of his collar and seeming almost disembodied. "From there, head south until I say otherwise. Stealth is no longer an issue, but it is desirable to arrive in a vaguely normal fashion."

That almost scared her even more. He was speaking exactly like he always did, giving orders tersely and simply. Though he wasn't happy, he certainly didn't seem unhappy. Everything about him seemed completely normal, and she would never have guessed he had any anger within him. Did he live with that every single moment of every day?

"So what was that?" Ino asked, gesturing at the roof. "Some kind of trouble?"

"An assassin," Sasuke answered. "Not an issue of import. Except for one thing... right, Sakura-san?"

"Right!" she grinned. As soon as Ino looked away from her back to Sasuke she stuck her tongue out. "They didn't just have a shinobi, the driver was working for them too."

"But what does that tell us?" Ino asked, glancing between them.

"I wouldn't expect you to get it," Sakura said, patting her arm in a condescending manner. "It says that they aren't just a military power: they have influence with normal people as well."

"It is also likely they have access to confidential records," Sasuke added darkly. "They tracked us here by paperwork, not shinobi skill. Our opponent is highly unusual."

"We'll have to keep up our guard then." Ino nodded sagely.

"Well, duh." Sakura elbowed her in the ribs, and the two glowered at each other once more.

"We don't have time for this," Sasuke stated flatly. For the first time his voice held a hint of urgency. "Our cover has been blown before we truly began. Now, our only objective is to enter Wind Country without being detected by their shinobi. We stay with the coach until we near our destination. Now stop talking."

His command settled over the remainder of the destroyed coach slowly. Ino and Sakura glared at each other viciously, then both stared determinedly forward, not even flickering an eye toward the other. Sasuke's word seemed to be enough to quiet them, however, and their argument ceased, at least verbally. Lowering his head, Sasuke leaned back against the back wall of the coach again and stared toward the floor. Hinata tried to appear as small as possible in her corner.

Try as she might, however, she found Sasuke continually drawing her gaze. For the moment his expression was unguarded, and it spoke volumes. She couldn't understand what he was feeling, but she found herself shivering away from his dark, intense gaze. So terribly stormy...

Wind flashed past Ino's face, blowing her hair back behind her and fluttering her uniform sharply. As hard as possible she brought her other foot down, driving it into the sand and propelling herself forward in another massive leap. Sand was so terribly hard to run in. It had taken her a while to figure out that to get a good foothold you had to solidify just a bit of chakra beneath your foot before it touched down. After that, things had been easy, or at least easier.

The sand had started creeping in slowly as their journey progressed. Whatever the furry creatures were, they had shown remarkable stamina. Slowly the trees had become fewer and fewer, and the grasses more brown and rougher. Their path dried and withered, and at some point she had blinked and they were moving over sand.

When they made that shift, Sasuke had ordered they abandon the coach. If she calculated correctly, they were already a fair distance inside Wind Country. They'd let the furry creatures lumber stupidly into the forests, then set out running on the sand.

By this point she already hated Wind Country, and hated it with a passion. Everything living and green had faded away behind them rather quickly, and now their journey was over endless dunes, with nothing around them but blue sky. She hated the sand, too, as it seemed to be everywhere and had worked its way all through her dress. Hopefully Sasuke wouldn't notice.

He was currently running at the head of their small v-shaped formation, eyes fixed on some destination, and not watching her. Even if he did, Sakura was obviously just as disheveled by their environment. Sasuke himself seemed untouched; the sand slid off his cloak easily, leaving him as cool and good-looking as always. Hinata was tagging behind them asymmetrically, and was just bearing with all the sand.

At first things had been scorching hot, but after the sun had set the desert had become chilly immensely quickly. In either condition Sasuke kept running, and the others forced themselves to continue. Now Ino found that she was terribly sleepy, despite it not being that late. So much action was finally catching up to her.

Before she could follow the train of thought further, she noticed Sasuke was slowing down. On the horizon was a glowing sparkle of electric light, and it was directly ahead of them. Mentally Ino gave thanks. At least they'd reach civilization before nightfall. By the time they were nearing the small town, Sasuke was merely walking, and they entered at a casual pace.

It was obviously pretty small, as it didn't have a guard wall or anything of the sort. Still, Sasuke had obviously been going for it, so it must have been important somehow. He seemed to be searching for something; his eyes shifted over the street as they moved.

Eventually he turned abruptly to the side and Ino took the opportunity to bump into him. He merely glanced down at her and moved on. They entered a nearby building soon after, still completely silently. It seemed to be a hotel of some sort. Good; she was really looking forward to a hot shower.

"We need rooms," Sasuke said, speaking for the first time in hours. The clerk at the desk jolted and glanced at him incredulously.

"Are you crazy? Do you have any idea how late it is?" He swiveled in his chair and folded his arms at them.

"Money is no object," Sasuke answered him calmly. From his robe he produced a pouch that clanked heavily when he set it on the table.

"Money is not the issue," the clerk insisted, pushing glasses up his nose. "This is a small town, we do not have many rooms. If you arrive this late in the day without a reservation, you cannot expect to get anything comfortable."

"Do you have any rooms? We will make do with what we have."

"I'll check." Grumbling, the clerk shuffled through several papers for a moment. "We only have one. Is that acceptable?"

"There doesn't seem to be an alternative." Sasuke sighed and slipped a hand into the pouch. "Four people. We'll be gone by morning."

"That should come to 5 ryo." The clerk snatched at what he was handed. "Also, a half ryo charge for making me check you in this late."

"Or," Sasuke began, sliding one more onto the table, "you could just skip all the paperwork?"

"Well, I suppose I may as well," the clerk said, eyes narrowing at the money. It vanished into his hand momentarily. "Seeing as it would be so inconvenient." He handed them a dusty key.

"Good." With that word, Sasuke turned, vanishing down the corridor. The three other shinobi followed in his wake, barely keeping up with his long strides. At the very end of the corridor Sasuke turned, glanced at the key, then unlocked the door. Behind it was a modest but clean room.

A modest but clean room with only three beds.

Immediately Hinata began to fidget, eyes fixated on the floor.

Ino let a slight smirk slip onto her face.

Sakura glared at Ino.

Sasuke paused a moment, let out a sigh, then put a hand to his face. "Dammit."

A different kind of cliffhanger…

Yes, this Hinata does know about Itachi. According to my version of Naruto history, the final battle with Akatsuki was highly explosive and (later) highly publicized. Hinata did play a minor role in this battle, but basically everyone knows about Sasuke and his brother at this point. But in terms of the actual Naruto manga or anime, no, Hinata has never met Itachi.

I'll also respond to a review of the first chapter by "sakuno:" Assuming that you will at some point read later chapters, you will discover that Hinata is not as weak as she appears. This isn't stated explicitly, but it should become obvious that of the four core shinobi she is second only to Sasuke, which doesn't mean a lot.