Wow, considering this is only the third chapter, I've gotten a pretty good amount of reviews! I'm glad you guys like it! I'll try my best to make this a good story, and update as soon as I can!

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. If I did, I'd have Gaara carry around a big, soft teddy bear with him. Just for the hell of it.


It took the five ninjas a few moments to realize what had happened. One minute Hinata and Michio were there, and the next, they weren't. It finally dawned on them that, for whatever reason, the ninjas that had attacked them must have taken their teammate with them.

"Damn it!" Kiba yelled, pounding his fist into the ground. "Those bastards were after the old guy! Why'd they take Hinata with them, too?" He was about to bring his fist down to the ground again when it was caught in midair. He looked up to see Shino towering above him.

"Calm down," he said firmly. "That isn't helping things. We need to start looking for Hinata. She can take care of herself until we get there." That was Shino for you. Always calm and sensible, even in the most desperate situations.

"Well, this mission sure is annoying," Temari said. She and the other sand ninjas had been putting their weapons away while they had listened to the other genins conversation: Temari put her giant fan back at her side, Kankuro gathered up his puppet and placed it on his back, and Gaara's sand was slowly going back in his gourd. When she spoke, both Shino and Kiba turned to look at her, surprised that she had any input in the situation at all.

"Why are you three even here?" Kiba asked. "It was weird enough that you helped out last time, but now you're here again?" Not to mention the fact that we had to be saved again, he added silently.

"Well, if you Konoha shinobi weren's so weak, you wouldn't need our help," Kankuro said, fully aware that it had been him who had saved Kiba when they last met and had now done it again. He would have given Kiba a hard time about it, had their teammate not suddenly disappeared. No, he figured now was not the time.

Temari continued where she had left off. "This whole mission is weird," she said. Kiba and Shino just looked at her as if to say, what the hell are you talking about? She ignored them. "Think about it. We got all the information on that Michio guy from the Hokage. He was supposed to be this famous ninja, right? We've all sensed his enormous amount of chakra. So, if he's so great and powerful, why did he just sit back and let three genins take on shinobi that were at least jounin level?" She stopped to let her words sink in.

Both Shino and Kiba realized where she was going at the same time. "You mean…they were after Hinata from the start?" Kiba asked, feeling sick at the thought that they didn't realize it earlier.

Temari nodded. "That's the thing with those with Bloodline Limits. They're always being targeted for one reason or another." She sighed. "I have to wonder if Tsunade-sama knew about it, and that's why she sent us. In any case, you'd better start searching for your friend."

---------

Hinata awoke to unfamiliar surroundings and a very bad headache.

She sat up on a crude bed, the mattress covered in dark spots that, had her head not been so fuzzy, she would have realized were blood. She looked around her and saw that she was in a bare room; the only furniture was the bed that she had been sleeping on. At the sudden movement, a wave of pain surged through her head, and she clutched it instinctively.

Where am I? She wondered. She remembered fighting those strange ninjas and Gaara showing up. Then there were those weird smoke bombs. She couldn't see anything and was struck hard on the back of the head. Then…nothing. She realized that she was holding her head in the same place that she had been hit, and knew where the sudden pain had come from. She was so deep in thought that she didn't notice that someone else had crept into the room.

"So, you're awake," said a voice. It sounded familiar. Hinata turned, and saw Michio standing in the doorway. Her face relaxed somewhat at the familiar face of the man, even if she hardly knew him.

"Michio-san, where are we?" she asked. She tried to get up from the bed, but couldn't; she looked down and saw that her legs were chained to the wall next to her. She shot a questioning look at the other shinobi, who only grinned at her confused look.

"Ah, how dimwitted you Konoha shinobi are," he said, ignoring Hinata's question. "You see, those ninjas weren't actually after me. They were working for me, in fact. They're pretty good actors, no?" He chuckled, and his grin grew wider as Hinata's confusion grew. "You see, my dear, I was after you all along."

"M-me?" Hinata stuttered, the realization of what was going on finally dawning on her. That was why he hadn't lifted a finger to help when they were in the midst of battle.

"That's right, my dear girl." Michio stepped further into the room, causing Hinata to flinch backwards instinctively. "When I arrived at the village of Konoha and requested an escort home, I had no idea that I would actually get the Byakugan delivered right to me." His smile only continued to grow. "There are so many different Bloodline Limits in the Konoha; I figured that the odds were in my favor that I would get someone who has one. You just happened to be the lucky kid. Although, I guess technically the bug-user has some kind of Kekkei Genkai, but his would be hard to copy, I'm afraid." He chuckled again. Hinata was really beginning to hate that laugh.

She was also still confused. If he wanted the secrets of her Byakugan, why didn't he just kill her? After all, what good did it do him is she was alive? However, she was determined not to show her confusion – or her fear – so she tried to look strong. Her face only ended up with a strange twisted look on it, though, making her captor only laugh again.

"I-If you want the secrets of the Byakugan so bad, then why didn't you just k-kill me?" Hinata asked, cringing as she stuttered. So much for not showing her fear. Michio only gave her an amused look at her question, as if the answer was obvious.

"My dear, you don't seem to understand." He walked towards her until he was standing right in front of her. "It wouldn't do me much good to have you dead. You see, I do want to copy your ability. But there are other things I can do with you first." He reached out a hand and put it under her chin, raising her head until their eyes met. "After all, you're the heir of the Hyuuga family."

----------

So far, their search had come up empty.

Akamaru tried to sniff her out only to find that her scent had disappeared. Shino had sent out a number of bugs to search the area, but none had come back. Even Temari had tried to help, using her fan to fly into the air and look from above, but didn't see anything suspicious. Kankuro and Gaara had just stood there, since their abilities couldn't really help in this situation.

"Damn it, now what?" Kiba said, frustrated at their lack of results. "It's like she suddenly disappeared!" Even Shino's usual calm composure was starting to break as he began to get upset about the vanishing of their teammate. Temari was worred, too, but for a different reason. When she looked at Gaara, she saw a look of anger; it was barely visible upon his face, and most would have overlooked it, had he been prone to showing emotion. Gaara, however, hardly ever showed even the slightest bit of emotion; the word was all but foreign to him. Yes, the look on his face worried and almost scared his sister.

Shino's head suddenly jerked up as he looked to the sky, having sensed the return of one of his 'friends' that he had sent out. He held out his hand, and small creature landed on his palm, looking very worn out. One of its wings was broken, and it looked as if he barely had the strength to stand, let alone fly. After a moment, the fragile creature died in Shino's hand, but not before he found out some valuable information.

"I know where Hinata is," he started, getting everyone's attention. "She's in some kind of small hut that's hidden by a waterfall. That's why Temari didn't see it earlier. The only problem is that there's some kind of weird barrier around it." That explained why the only bug to come back had been injured so badly.

"So what do we do?" Kiba asked. "Can we get past the barrier?"

Shino shook his head. "I don't know," he said. "We'll head to the hut and plan from there." The other four ninjas nodded, and they began the journey save Hinata.


Ok, not a very exciting chapter, I know, but to tell you the truth, I'm still trying to figure out some things and can't write the next chapter till I figure those things out. I'll get the next one out as soon as I can, though! Thanks for reading!