I fear that I must again apologize for the delay. My situation is not likely to become better soon, but hopefully I should be able to continue to update without incident for at least a few chapters. As usual, assorted responses follow this chapter.
Chapter Eleven: Precipice
Frantically Hinata focused around herself, trying to pinpoint the exact location of the attack. She could always see it coming, but the attacks were always so blindingly fast that it was difficult to avoid them. Abruptly something flashed at the back of her vision.
Whirling, she managed to get both her hands before her face to guard against the kick. It forced her back some distance, but this time she was able to block the secondary kick with her knee. Instead of pressing his attack, Sasuke used the impact to leap away. He landed some distance away and then straightened, indicating the training session was over. Ino and Sakura emerged from the trees.
"You have all improved," Sasuke commented without looking at any of them. "You'll need endurance in the situations we'll be in. Hinata-san, your resistance to hard style martial arts is improving. Using a soft style is fine, but you have to be able to take your opponent's blows as well. Sakura-san and Ino-san: you've done well actually working; I appreciate it."
"Um, Sasuke-kun?" Sakura stopped him just before he left entirely. "Which of us would you say improved more, me or Ino-chan?"
"Yeah," Ino chimed in. "Which of us is better?"
Briefly Sasuke glanced back at them over his shoulder. His expression was difficult to understand, but Hinata thought she could read it now. Part of him seemed vaguely disappointed, part of him was amused, and the rest of him was disgusted. The next instant his eyes became hard and cold.
"I'd say you're even," he told them flatly, vanishing into the shadows of the trees. The instant he was gone, Ino and Sakura glowered at each other.
"Humph, even indeed," Sakura scoffed. "I am not even with a pig like you."
"He's just too shy to admit he likes me better," Ino smirked at her. "We both know he likes me more."
"As if!"
"Oh yeah? Well-"
"Um." The word was spoken timidly and not anywhere near the volume they had been arguing. But it had been said by Hinata, and she had actually interrupted someone. This fact was enough to make both Sakura and Ino stop talking and stare at Hinata with blank expressions. She immediately began fidgeting.
"Um, I don't think Sasuke really likes y-you or anyone else," Hinata forced herself to say. Oh, why had she said anything? She had just wanted to make them stop bothering Sasuke, and somehow she was actually speaking. It was too late to go back now, though... "I... I think he'd rather just be a warrior."
"That's ridiculous!"
"If he doesn't like us," Ino demanded, "then who does he like?"
"I-it isn't like th-"
"Yeah, who does he like? You?"
Immediately Hinata blushed and shrank away. Ino and Sakura laughed and turned away from her toward the camp. They both found the mere thought so funny that it dissolved the tension that had formerly been hanging in the air. For the moment, they even forgot about the argument and returned to camp cheerfully.
About to follow them, Hinata froze. Behind her, in the trees above, she saw Sasuke. He was standing on a large branch, looking down at the scene with blazing eyes. She was certain of it; he was intensely annoyed. Forcing herself to keep moving, Hinata gulped. The last thing she wanted to do was annoy Sasuke; she had been trying to hard not to, but now...
When she collected her nerve enough to glance back at the trees, Sasuke was gone.
"There is a town in five kilometers," Sasuke said slowly. He was the first person to have spoken for some time, so the other three immediately glanced at him. They were mostly getting ready for the night. Sasuke was sitting on a log, stoking the fire with a long stick contemplatively. "We will need to get supplies there, but there is something more important to be done."
He glanced up at each of them in turn significantly. "From this point forth, we will be actively engaging the enemy. If Shikamaru-san's theory was at all correct, this town will contain something very important to the enemy. I would not expect us to be attacked directly, but we will be watched the entire time.
"There will be no more training. Sleep well tonight, because we won't be able to for quite a while. They might send other shinobi to fight us, but more likely we'll have to watch for poison or single-stroke assassinations. We don't have any room to make mistakes."
"Is it really that dangerous?" Ino asked.
"I don't know," Sasuke answered darkly. "There seems to be an unnatural concentration about this town, of a variety of forces. Because there is something unusual there, I have reason to suspect there will be greater opposition. But we don't know anything for certain; it could be a death trap or completely harmless."
"I know almost every poison in existence," Sakura pointed out brightly. Sasuke's gaze merely flickered at her.
"While we're in town, we're adopting a new formation. Ino-san, you look for any long range attacks; Sakura-san, check for all the subtler methods of attacking; Hinata-san... if anyone suspicious comes close, strike without hesitation. Most attacks will probably primarily target me, so I want you close by at all times."
Hinata abruptly drew in her breath, drawing her arms closer to herself despite her best efforts not to. This wasn't going to bode well; Sakura and Ino were going to be on her in an instant. True, it was the most efficient set up, but it would put her directly in between the two of them. "B-but..."
"Well, Hinata-chan seems awfully nervous," Sakura said, eyes venomous. "Don't you think, Ino-chan?"
"Very much so," Ino agreed, glancing at Hinata suspiciously. "Why do you think she reacted like that?"
"Could it be... because she has a crush on Sasuke?"
"N-No, that isn-"
"Oh really? Then why-"
An extremely loud crack interrupted her statement; Sasuke's stick had shattered apart in his hand. Startled, everyone looked toward him. He rose to his feet, dropped pieces of the stick into the fire spitefully and turned away. His aura was spread tightly around the entire camp, muting everyone within it. On the edge of the fire's light, he glanced over his shoulder at them. Darkness obscured his eyes.
"She is a friend," he said, slowly and succinctly. "That is all. Perhaps the two of you have something to learn from her." With that, he vanished entirely, his presence slipping away from them in an instant.
Silence reigned over the camp until the fire had almost entirely died away. Sakura and Ino frequently shot glares at Hinata that she pretended she didn't see. In reality, she barely saw them anyway. Sasuke had seemed so terribly unhappy, and it was mostly her fault. If she had been able to stop them...
The other two eventually lay down, and Hinata followed suit. For a long time she remained there on her back, staring up at the leaves blankly. There was no way she was going to be able to sleep, not now, not after that. She managed to resist the urge to fidget or move for a very long time. Eventually she heard light snoring.
Slipping out of her bedroll, Hinata padded into the forest. By this point the moon had risen, and it cast everything in an unreal light. She came into a clearing eventually, and continued on through. Reaching the middle, she stopped and glanced up at the sky. It was a very clear night; all the stars were shining brightly.
"I-I'm sorry, Sasuke-san." He seemed to materialize out of the shadows, leaning against a tree behind her. As usual, his expression couldn't be seen even slightly, and his eyes betrayed nothing of his feelings. "I didn't... I didn't want them to do that. If I could have, I would have done something to stop them, but I couldn't. I'm always so scared... scared of them... scared of everybody." He began walking toward her, eyes blank, and she gasped. "Oh, I'm sorry. I shouldn't talk about myself."
"Don't insult yourself." His tone was dark, but she realized it wasn't angry. Surprised, she turned to face him.
"O-okay." She paused, unsure of what to say. His eyes were still completely unreadable. "Do... do I annoying you like they do? I was trying not to, but I don't think I'm doing very well..." her voice trailed off, and she began mentally cursing herself for bringing up the subject. Why did she have to say that? Why-
And then she realized Sasuke was smiling. His cloak wasn't entirely fastened, leaving his collar open enough that she could see his face. It was just a slight smile, but abruptly she realized how silly she was being. That smile erased all her tormented thoughts instantly.
"No," he told her eventually. "You do not annoy me. I would have put our inner-coils fighter closest to me in any case... but I'm glad this is the way things are. I can trust you."
Blinking, Hinata didn't respond. Inwardly she breathed a sigh of relief. Then she wasn't as bad as she thought after all. Sasuke's smile had vanished, but its effect was still quite present. After a moment he reached inside his cloak and produced a scroll. He handed it to her silently.
She took it wordlessly. It had once been heavily sealed by chakra, but the seals had been broken. The moon was bright enough that she could read the words on it. It was addressed to Sasuke. Wondering, she glanced back up at him.
"What is this?"
"Very important information." Sasuke folded his arms, his eyes shifting to something entirely elsewhere. "Shikamaru-san gave it to me."
"I... I don't think I've ever seen this before."
"You haven't. I'm the only one who has. No one else needed to know, so Temari-san made sure I was the only one who got the information. But at this point it's for the best that you're aware."
Nodding absentmindedly, Hinata did her best to quickly read over the letter. As she did so, she paled slightly. The instant she reached the closing, she glanced back up at him.
"This means..."
"Yes." He nodded in assent. "What they said about a world-wide attack on Leaf Shinobi isn't true. Every shinobi is being attacked, regardless of what nation they come from. Even some extremely small villages have been attacked. We're dealing with something far larger than an attack on one country."
"Is this everything?" Hinata asked, rolling the scroll back up. "Do we know anything new?"
"Not much. Our enemy appears to be a collection of hundreds of different warriors, from every nation and discipline. Why they're gathering, we don't know. What we do know, now, is that they appear to be being commanded from several locations. We're moving toward the most important of these locations... but I don't know what we'll find."
"Aren't the other villages doing something?"
"Yes, but most people can't focus their energy anywhere. So far, each Kage has contacted the others. They've all been working to defend their own nation from the attackers. But whoever this is, they have a lot of manpower and a lot of funds. The only way to end the problem is to strike at the source... whatever that is.
"This mission is a combination of many different villages. Most of the intelligence was gathered by Stone, those in Sand compiled it. The lot fell to us to actually strike. Once we've determined what the threat is, we can strike in full. Until then, we have to make sure we only use our power judiciously."
"I see." Hinata took a deep breath to try to calm down. "This is a lot bigger than I thought it was."
"Yes. It is. But for now, get some rest. Tomorrow is going to be rough."
When they reached the edge of town, Sasuke immediately slowed to a pace that could be considered normal for most humans. He'd been running lightly for the beginning of the day, so that all of them would be at full strength if they ran into any serious opposition.
The group was very quiet, mostly from the incident the night before. Still, when they actually entered the city, everyone was on edge. For a moment, all thoughts of rivalry were set aside. A short moment, true, but briefly all of them were nothing but shinobi.
It was fairly early, so they were basically the only people on the streets. The few people that they did pass generally nodded in a friendly manner or just stared at them. Obviously a fairly small and trusting town, then. Ino glanced about it with a slight air of disgust... there didn't seem to be anything at all worthwhile in the place. She hated backwater towns.
A whistling noise caught her off guard, and she caught a flash of the sunlight reflecting off something metal. Sasuke calmly raised a hand, catching three long needles between his fingers. There was a dangerous pause, but no further attacks came. Sasuke broke the weapons in his fingers and shook his head.
"Gone. As I suspected, they won't try to attack us directly."
"Is it going to be like this all the time?" Sakura asked.
"This is actually lighter than I expected," he answered darkly. "Our biggest problem in the city will be determining what we should do next. In this case, our opponents are not completely defined; there is nothing to specifically target. I doubt information will be easy to find, either."
"We could ask someone," Sakura suggested.
"As if," Ino muttered. "Do you really think that people are just going to give us information like that?"
"I didn't mean that! But the enemy has probably come to the town recently. This seems like a small place, and they probably remember who moved in lately."
"She has a point," Sasuke cut off Ino's response. "This isn't the time to bicker."
He continued walking at a faster rate that forced the rest of them to hurry to keep up. Eventually they came upon a man setting up shop, evidently to sell apples. Sasuke nodded slightly and moved toward him. The others hung back to let him ask questions alone.
"Good morning," Sasuke greeted with a great deal more than his usual impassiveness.
"Mornin'," the man replied, not glancing up. "If you want to buy apples, you'll have to wait just a minute; I ain't set up yet."
"We're in no hurry," Sasuke answered amiably. "This is a nice town you have here."
"We do what we can," the vendor grunted, pushing a crate into position. "You from out-of-town?"
"Quite a bit out, yes. I was curious about something, though, and I thought you seemed like the type who would know. Has anyone moved into this town recently? Any individuals or corporations?"
"Why do you want to know?" the man snapped suspiciously, freezing in mid-movement. He glanced up at them and his eyes widened. "Please don't kill me." His eyes were wide and his hands were shaking slightly. Hinata blinked in surprise.
"We aren't interested in hurting anyone," Sasuke answered levelly. "I just want a bit of information."
"Oh... yer some of them Leaf peoples, ain't ya?" the man realized, letting out a huge breath. "Then I guess you have bigger problems then a little old apple-seller like me."
"I could use your help, though. Has anyone come into town recently? Especially anyone suspicious?"
"A few, yeah. I think I know who you want, though. Go down the street a ways, turn and then go right on your next street. There's a little hospital there, you can't miss it."
"And it recently arrived?" Sasuke raised an eyebrow. Some distance away, Sakura and Ino began muttering to each other about something Hinata couldn't hear.
"Naw, it's been there for ages. But it's always been empty, until this new fella came into town. Everybody just calls him Doctor Matthew. He's a likeable enough guy, and he helps out with the sick folks, but all of this is probably his fault."
"All of what?"
"Oh, don't listen to me," the apple seller grumbled. "I'm just a paranoid old man. But it seems like things have been a lot rougher since he came into town. Now, are you gonna buy any apples, or what?"
"Thank you for your assistance," Sasuke said, gracefully sliding something golden into the man's hand. They quickly exchanged, and then Sasuke moved back to the group. Without speaking he instantly began walking again.
"This might not be as difficult as I expected," Sasuke told them, once they were out of hearing range. "It seems that our opponents are not as subtle as they have been in the past. Of course, this could be a false lead, but I have a strange feeling this doctor is not exactly who he appears to be."
"That guy mentioned something about him helping people here," Sakura muttered. "Who moves to a backwater town just to help people? That's weird, and that alone makes me suspicious."
"Does anyone want the apple?" Sasuke asked off hand, sliding it into his hand. Immediately Sakura and Ino grabbed at it, neither getting a grip on it. Before they could fight over it Sasuke made a flashing movement, cleanly slicing the apple in half. Both of them snatched a piece and held it possessively.
They continued walking without speaking for some distance, following the vendor's directions. As he had stated, it was nearly impossible to miss the old hospital. For one, it was larger than most of the other buildings, and blocky in an older style. There was a massive medical logo on the front. Most obviously, it was the only building within sight that wasn't a private home. It struck Hinata as a nice, home-like kind of place, though.
As they neared the door, Sasuke held up a hand to indicate they should stop.
"Remove any weapons. If you have on a flak jacket, take it off. It doesn't need to be obvious that we're shinobi."
In a few minutes, the four of them looked much less like a team of assassins, and more like a rag-tag group of people just wandering through. Apparently satisfied by what he saw, Sasuke turned away and moved to the hospital without hesitation, moving through the doorway without knocking.
Immediately they found themselves in a small foyer. It appeared to be in poor repair, but was extremely clean given the circumstances. Sasuke didn't pay it any mind and moved into a larger room. This one was fairly like most ordinary hospitals' waiting rooms; it was new to most of them, as they had rarely seen ordinary hospitals.
At the moment it was empty, save for a man sitting at a desk on the opposite side. He was focused on several papers at his desk, writing swiftly. His face wasn't visible, but they could see he had light blond hair that fell about his head lazily. The white coat he was wearing made it fairly obvious he was a doctor, or at least someone who thought he was one.
"Welcome," he said, cutting off Sakura just before she could announce their presence. "I'm filing an order at the moment, but I'll be able to be with you momentarily. You can take a seat, if you like."
"That's callous," Ino muttered to Sakura. "What if we had life-threatening injuries?"
"None of you walk like a person heavily injured or carrying a person heavily injured," the man answered, without looking up or slowing his writing even slightly. Ino gulped, surprised that he had heard her. Sasuke's eyes were slightly narrow, and he stepped a bit closer to the desk.
Setting aside his paper, the man glanced up for the first time. He was a lot younger than Hinata had expected; a strangely handsome man of a nationality she hadn't seen before. Glancing at each of them, including her, the man smiled kindly and extended a hand. After blinking for a moment, Sasuke shook it.
"My name is Matthew," the man explained. "If you want to be really formal you could call me Doctor Matthew. Yes, I do run a practice here. However, none of you appears to be injured. What can I do for y-" he cut off abruptly and paused for just a moment. "Are you allied with Konoha or renegade?"
The abruptness of the question startled all of them. "How do you know we're shinobi?" Sasuke snapped.
"Simple." Matthew readjusted his glasses on his face. "All of you carry yourselves like warriors. You begin to move toward a weapons pouch at times but halt almost immediately. When you walk, you do so without making real noise. The only shinobi permitted to be in this nation are of Hidden Leaf. This naturally eliminates every possibility but those I asked about."
Ino and Sakura just gaped. Hinata's eyes were wide, and she began fidgeting.
"To complete your analysis," Sasuke spoke first, "we are allied with Konoha. Who are you?"
"I have hardly been indistinct regarding myself." Matthew shrugged.
"Then why do you know such about shinobi?"
"I have studied the field extensively," the doctor returned evenly. "My education has been a great deal broader than merely the practice of medicine. But the game of questions can be played by two. Why are you here? Or am I not cleared for that?"
"It does not concern you," Sasuke told him firmly. "We are merely looking for something."
"Unless it is of a mundane nature, I fear I shall be entirely useless to you. I ensure that I do not know anything more than what is necessary for me." Just then, the door opened behind them. Everyone glanced in that direction and found a mother carrying a crying little girl. She was clutching her hand and whimpering.
"Tami just cut her hand," the woman explained. "It isn't too deep, but if you could look at it..."
"Certainly." Matthew was already on his feet. On his way to the girl he snagged a roll of bandages from his desk. Just before he reached her he froze for a moment, then turned to the four shinobi.
"There are foreign organizations with stock in the Maringot hotel. If you have any reason to suspect that you are being threatened, I would not eat anything they give you." His words were soft and barely audible to them. The next instant he moved to the little girl and began speaking soothingly.
After glancing at Sasuke and Ino nervously, Sakura shrugged and moved toward the door. Soon they were out on the street again, no further than they had been before.
"He just seemed like a really nice guy," Ino commented. "I guess that lead didn't take us anywhere."
"He's dangerous," Sasuke said darkly.
"Dangerous?" Sakura wondered. "I didn't sense any chakra from him at all."
"Not like that. He's smart. Very smart." The Uchiha's eyes were narrow, focused on something else. "I'm not sure if I trust him, but for now we'd just be wasting our time here. If he really is an enemy, he has the moral high ground for the moment. Let's look elsewhere first."
The search proved long and fruitless. No one seemed to know anything, though they were far more friendly now that the four were not obviously shinobi. Everyone said only good things about Doctor Matthew, and said that no one else had moved in recently. Nothing new turned up.
At the same time, they were attacked periodically throughout the day. Generally it was in the form of needles, which Sakura determined were poisoned. They were always thrown from afar, and the opponent immediately vanished when the attack failed. The attacks came very rarely, only when they were at their most distracted. None of them actually struck, and eventually they managed to lose their pursuers entirely by slipping through a crowded market under an illusion.
Night was falling when Sasuke determined their work was over. Once darkness had covered most of the town, they had begun moving stealthily to avoid any further pursuit. In a narrow alleyway, he finally stopped and shook his head.
"There's no point in making this drag on any longer," he said simply. "Let's find somewhere to stay and use different tactics tomorrow."
"There was a hotel just a few blocks back," Ino pointed out.
"No. Not the Maringot. I trust Matthew-san enough for that, at least. There are two other places of lodging. Follow me." Drawing his cloak around himself, Sasuke slipped back into the shadows. Ino and Sakura immediately slid after him. Swallowing, Hinata followed the others, leaving the alley empty.
Regarding Kage Cancel: the word "kage" has a definition that can apply to almost any technique (I believe the Third Hokage has an additional "kage" jutsu, used against Orochimaru). As for the technique itself: it operates as does the normal canceling technique, simply by negating the chakra that would do actual harm to the user. So while the opponent still crafted their attack, the part that would have damaged Sakura was negated prior to reaching her. However, it is significantly more difficult to "block" a ninjutsu as opposed to a genjutsu, so I added the suffix.
As I have said before, all the old Genin will eventually appear... including Rock Lee. However, you'll have to be patient in this case.