Let's start this from the beginning

Kabasawa Mines

IV

"This wasn't part of the agreement."

A sitting figure tilted their head in agreement, not intimidated in the slightest by the accusing voice of the person in front of them. "It was not, no. Regardless, I have already made arrangements to use the situation to our advantage, so there is no need for you to worry."

The first person, a bulky man of large stature, scoffed in disbelief as he crossed his arms in front of his muscular chest, his long white hair swaying in the wind. "Or so you say. It is we who have to face them if something goes wrong, though, so forgive me for not simply taking your word for it."

"I wasn't aware that you were so scared of a bunch of children, Gouzen-san," the sitting figure replied, their voice taunting. "If you don't think you can handle them, please feel free to step back from our contract." They then chuckled. "Of course, if you chose to do so, you will obviously not get your money either. I heard that missing-nins such as you depend on your reputations, though, so you might want to keep that in mind when you decide whether you take your leave or not."

"I don't give a damn about the children! It's their sensei that worries me!"

"There are three of you against the one of him. I will be bold and say that the odds aren't in his favour."

"That's-"

"Oh, c'mon," a female voice interrupted Gouzen before he had the chance to reply. "It's really unattractive when men act all frightened like this, y'know? You have such a nice body! Don't ruin it by acting like a scaredy-cat!"

Gouzen spun around with a scowl on his face that was enhanced even further by the angry scar that ran from his left temple all the way over his eye and lips down to his chin. "You of all people should keep your mouth shut! Isn't it you who's always the first to run away when we come across some dangerous opponent, Yuwaku? Who always hides behind our backs at the first sign of danger? I don't know why we even bother to keep you around considering all you ever do is run away!"

Rather than being offended, the woman just giggled from her position on the low branch of a nearby tree as she played with a strand of her shoulder-length orange hair while crossing one leg over the over, her scanty shorts being barely enough to protect her dignity. "You keep me around because I am useful," she said with a cheeky grin. " Unlike certain other people whom I shall not name, that is."

"If there's something you have to say, just say it. Don't be shy. I would love nothing more than giving you a little lesson in humility."

"Oh~? Do I really need to be even more obvious about it for you to understand? Women want men that can read between the lines, Gouzen. No wonder you're still single."

Gouzen took a threatening step in her direction, but before things could escalate further, a new voice spoke up.

"Gouzen, Yuwaku, that's enough. I'm not in the mood to entertain your behaviour right now. Either act appropriate or get lost."

They stiffened at that, and almost as if a switch had been flipped, both straightened up and murmured some excuses and promises to be better.

If one looked closely enough, one would even be able to see the fear in their eyes when they looked at that third person.

Contrary to them, the sitting person chuckled, evidentially not being scared at all but amused instead. "Thank you, Hikan-san," they said. "As entertaining as this was, I don't have all night, so there's no time to waste."

Hikan, a tall and lean man with short brown hair and a sword strapped on his back, didn't acknowledge the words of gratitude and instead went straight back to business. "You said you took measures to turn the situation to our advantage. Explain."

"Demanding, aren't you?" the other person said, the amusement in their voice standing in stark contrast to the displeasure on their face. "Nonetheless, that's none of your concern. All you need to know to do your job is that these Konoha-nins won't be a problem for much longer."

While he didn't give any outward signs, the air around Hikan shifted, making it clear that he was not impressed by that reply. "Fighting Itachi Uchiha wasn't part of our contract. We will need a bit more than your reassurance."

"Don't tell me that you're afraid of him as well?"

On the tree, Yuwaku opened her mouth to give another sarcastic comment before thinking better of it and closing it again.

"The agreed-upon payment is not profitable enough to warrant the risk of fighting such a dangerous opponent. Either we renegotiate for more appropriate payment, or we will consider the contract void."

For the first time, the face of the sitting person twisted from mere displeasure into something akin to anger. However, less than a second later, their expression smoothed out again, leaving no trace of their previous irritation behind. "Fortunately, there won't be any need for that as you won't have to fight him at all."

Hikan's eyes narrowed, and at the silent prompting, the other figure continued. "There is no use in keeping these Konoha-nins here any longer. It's time for them to go."

"And how do you think to make that happen?"

"Simple. I say we should give them a hand and let them finish the mission they have come for, shouldn't we?"

Then, in the glow of the full moon and surrounded only by the cawing of birds and the rustling of leaves in the wind, they explained their plan.

"I see…" Itachi said with a thoughtful expression on his face, looking back and forth between his two students in front of him. "Well done, you two. This information shines a completely new light on the matter."

Shino and Kiba glowed at that, though the latter was a bit more obvious about it. Even their apparent exhaustion wasn't enough to hamper their pride in their success.

That being said, they were clearly somewhat distracted by his and Hinata's appearances - more so the latter's than his own, though. Their host still insisted on making their stay as comfortable as possible, and apparently, that included not letting them move around in anything but the finest clothes money could buy. Wealthy or not, all of them were from ninja clans and consequently clad in more practical clothes even if they could afford better, and even the formal robes they might possess weren't anything to what Akihito made available to them.

Judging from the almost imperceptible but very much present blush on their faces whenever they glanced at Hinata, it made quite an impression.

However, even that didn't stop Kiba from leaning forward with an excited gleam in his eyes when he heard Itachi's praise. "So what does this mean? Are we going back and arrest them? Interrogate them?"

Itachi's lips twitched. "No, I'm afraid we won't."

"But-"

"Just as you have investigated the trail that led to these merchants, Hinata and I have investigated the situation here on site. Don't jump onto some course of action before you know the full picture. If you have the chance to think things through and consider your options, take the time to do it. It will be beneficial in the long run."

"Yes, Sensei," Kiba and Shino muttered obediently, and while the former was much more open about his disappointment, even Shino's shoulders slacked a bit after hearing his words.

"Don't act so dejected," he told them, deciding it would be unwise for their development to let them sulk in such negative emotions after what was essential their first real success in the field. "I didn't lie when I said that your intel is useful. In fact, it already raises a question about something we thought we knew that is now being challenged."

That did the job, and two pairs of eager eyes were immediately focused on him. "Really?" Kiba said, his enthusiasm returning at once. "What is it?"

Rather than answering himself, Itachi turned towards Hinata to his left, silently motioning for her to answer.

To her credit, she overcame her surprise in an instant and immediately thought about all she knew to find what exactly it was he had been referring to.

It took only a few seconds for her to make the connection.

"Didn't a number of survivors managed to get back here with over a dozen corpses in tow before we even arrived here?"

"That's impossible," Shino immediately objected. "For all its destruction, there was no sign of anyone being injured much less killed. Furthermore, it shouldn't be possible for them to cover the distance from the scene of the attack to the mansion in such a short amount of time when even we need a bit over a day to do it while running."

"But they did return," Hinata insisted, although she clearly found it just as confusing as her teammate. "They even had a funeral and…" Her voice drifted off as she clearly came to some kind of conclusion, and Itachi felt a surge of satisfaction when she activated her Byakugan, proving that she had realized exactly what he hoped she would.

Just a moment after activating her Dōjutsu, her eyes widened. "There are no bodies in any of the graves!"

"What?" Kiba exclaimed in surprise. "But-"

"There are only piles of mud and puddles of water, but not a single human body. That means-"

"Clones," Shino said, catching on quickly. "There haven't been any casualties after all. The so-called 'survivors' must be part of whatever ploy is going on."

"There shouldn't be anyone capable of Ninjutsu, though," Kiba added with a frown. "None of the people we saw had strong enough chakra to be a shinobi, I'm sure of that."

"Which means they must have collaborators."

Now it was Hinata's turn to frown. "To organizes something with so many people involved without anyone noticing… whoever is behind this must have a lot of legitimate influence behind which they can hide their more illicit actions to avoid attracting attention."

Watching them act like this made it almost hard to believe that they had still been in the Academy not too long ago. They have truly come a far way already, Itachi thought. Regardless, it was here that he would take over.

"I agree," he interrupted the ongoing conversation. "There is going something on behind the scenes, and it clearly involves someone influential with a lot of power who probably also collaborates with missing-nins if what Hinata said about the empty graves is any indication. Consequently, this is no longer a simply C-Rank mission and thus technically beyond our jurisdiction." He held up his hand to stop the three incoming complaints in their tracks. "Note that I said 'technically'." Hearing that, the three of them briefly relaxed before suddenly realizing what exactly the new situation and the presence of missing-nins might entail for them, making them tense up again in a mix of anticipation and anxiety. "Unfortunately, as much as I would like to abort the mission and leave another, more suited team to investigate this, I have a feeling that it might be too late for them to do anything by the time they arrive here. Because of that, I have concluded that the best approach would be to carefully look into the situation a bit more before ultimately deciding whether to leave this to others or not."

That wasn't quite right, of course. With the mines being so close to the borders, it wouldn't be too hard to send a message to one of the ANBU teams that patrol there. They would probably be here within less than half a day if they took even that long. However, while he didn't have all the details, Itachi did have a pretty good idea of what was going on by now due to his own investigations and thought this would serve as both a good lesson as well as a test for his team.

That didn't mean he would just risk their safety, of course. Even if he thought he knew enough to make this decision, there was no guarantee that it actually was the case, and he might be wrong about some details and consequently put them in danger.

That, he couldn't allow.

I should send the message anyway, he decided. There is no harm in having some ANBU on-site in case something goes wrong, after all. They should agree to stay out of it unless necessary if he asked them to as well anyway. They and the clones he would let trail all three of his students should be more than enough to guarantee their safety even if something went wrong.

"Hinata," Itachi continued, not letting any of his thoughts show on his face. "According to what we have been told, there should still be three 'survivors' from the group that returned be present here. I want you to track them down and find out whatever you can. You may even approach them directly if you think that might help."

She straightened up, practically radiating determination. "Yes, Sensei!" He knew she was still disappointed with her own inattention during their welcome with Akihito, the meagre amount of information they had found in the manor since then not helping her get over it either. The fact that her teammates had been so successful in the meantime probably made things even worse. She clearly wanted to use this opportunity to 'make up' for what she perceived as her failure.

"Shino, Kiba," he turned towards his other two students, and Itachi almost felt bad about having to crush their hopeful expressions. "You two will rest for now."

"But Sensei-"

"That is-"

"Regardless of what's going to happen," he interrupted them both, suppressing his amused smile in favour of a stern look, "you will need to be at your best to be up to it. If you're tired and exhausted, you won't be any use to anyone. You know that."

Neither was happy about it, but it was a testament to just how tired they truly were that they didn't argue any further. The only reason they were still as energetic as they were was probably the excitement at all the new revelations they had just heard. Once they were in bed and had the chance to relax, they would most likely fall asleep within minutes and not wake up for many hours to come.

Seeing that they didn't put up a fight, he allowed himself a small smile as he continued. "First, however, we will need to introduce you two to Akihito-dono. He will want to hear what you have to say, too."

Things are getting interesting, aren't they?

Maybe I should have put on my normal clothes first…

The people of the town were clearly well-off, but Hinata's current attire still stood out in the masses. While not quite as elaborate as the kimono she wore during the feast, it was still clearly expensive and of high quality, not to mention that it was also quite different in style from anything the people around her wore.

After all, white robes with red lining on the collar and sleeves, a pair of red hakama, and straw-sandals were a quite unusual sight. Outside of temples, that is, she mentally amended while trying to ignore the eyes on her and avoid playing with the hems of her robes. With this outfit, you could almost mistake me for a Shinto priestess!

She couldn't let that distract her from her current task, however. As soon as Itachi-sensei took his leave with Shino and Kiba to report to their client, Hinata had done as she was told and went looking for the so-called survivors. This was her chance to prove herself and she wasn't going to waste it. Not after both her teammates had been so successful in finding important intel.

It wasn't that she begrudged them their success or anything like that. She didn't. It would have been a lie to say she hadn't been a bit disappointed that she had done little more than uselessly sitting around while they tracked down a budding conspiracy, though.

So, while she was admittedly nervous about the entire situation and unsure about what to expect from these people she was looking for, she was determined to do as she was told and find out as much as she could.

She would not be left behind by her team.

Unfortunately, things quickly became more complicated when it turned out that the men she was looking for didn't currently reside in the manor like most relatives of the victims of the attack – victims that, according to Shino and Kiba, didn't exist. They had apparently not been present for the feast a few days ago either. Tracking them down had taken the better part of the day and had ultimately been as much a matter of luck as it had been of her skills. After hunting down scribe after scribe, running from one office to the next, and simply asking random guards and maids if they knew anything, it was only because she found a servant who had a friend who knew someone that had helped organise the funeral that she found a lead.

A lead that led her to a small inn at the edge of the town.

Thus, here she was, walking down the streets with the setting sun to her right while trying to avoid the stares of curious onlookers.

I should try to move into a side alley before continuing over the rooftops, she mused with a thoughtful frown. At least when I'm a bit closer. Otherwise, I will be spotted immediately.

While the added benefit of not having to deal with being watched from every direction was nice, the main reason was indeed that she wanted to spy on her targets from afar first before potentially approaching them. While her Byakugan meant that she didn't need to get as close for that as others would, it would still be a problem if other people saw her doing it. After all, you never knew who they were. Who she thought was a random bystander might actually turn out to be an enemy!

That thought made her pause. Now that she thought about it, how could she know that she wasn't being watched right now? With so many eyes on her, she wouldn't be able to identify an enemy unless they were stupid enough to leak some bloodlust, so there might very well be someone involved in whatever plot was going on observing her at this very moment with her being none the wiser.

It took all the self-control she had to not nervously look around and possibly give her suspicion away. Instead, she continued on as normal until she found what she was looking for, approaching the first food stall she could find to buy some Takoyaki.

It wouldn't be too strange for her to go and explore the town after being stuck in the mansion for days with nothing to do, right? To go among people, look around, and enjoy some good food should almost be expected in that situation, or at least that was what Hinata hoped any possible pursuer who was watching her would be thinking. At least my outfit means nobody in their right mind would ever suspect I was trying to do something sneaky.

She kept that act up as she continued walking down the streets, her plan to use the rooftops all but forgotten. While it probably wouldn't be too suspicious for her to do that considering it wasn't uncommon for a kunoichi to use them when they were in a hurry, it might make a wrong impression, so that approach was out. It was for the same reason that she didn't use her Byakugan to scout out the area. Instead, she simply continued as she was until she was close enough to the inn that she would be able to observe the inside of it with her Byakugan.

At that point, all that was left to do was to find a place from where she could do just that without being spotted or appearing suspicious.

Thankfully, there was a tea house just at the corner of the street she was currently walking on. Within a few minutes, she had entered, placed an order, and found a seat at the back corner where no one could see her face. Hinata needed to sit with her back to the room for that to be the case, of course, but considering her vision wasn't limited by such silly things as the direction her eyes were facing, that was hardly a problem. She could easily spare some attention to keep aware of her surrounding while spying on her targets.

As it turned out, however, there was one other problem she hadn't even considered until now.

It took her just a couple of minutes to check every room of the inn, and while by some coincidence every single one of them was not only booked but currently occupied, none of them fit the descriptions she had been given. Hell, only about half a dozen of the guests were around the right age! And of them, none fit the other criteria like hairstyle, skin colour, or even gender!

Hinata was absolutely sure that this was the inn the clerk who had helped organize the funeral had been speaking of. She had even seen its address on the invite to the funeral herself. There was no way that she was wrong.

Which, in turn, meant that something else was very, very wrong instead.

She broke out in a cold sweat as a shiver ran down her spine. Sure, it technically could be an easy misunderstanding, but with everything else going on in the background, even something innocent like this suddenly appeared quite sinister to her. What if the clerk she had thought was only helping her was actually part of this conspiracy? What if whoever was behind all of this had grown tired of her team's presence and decided to "take care" of them? Separated from the rest of her team and far away from any potential aid as she was, Hinata would be in a prime position for an ambush.

Some part of her brain recognized that she was probably overthinking this, but she couldn't help it. Besides, Itachi-sensei had taught them to trust their guts, and right now, it was telling her that something about the situation was not right.

The only reason she could keep up even a modicum of composure was that her Byakugan gave her a perfect view of anything around her. No matter what her instincts might be telling her, at least for now, she could be confident that she was safe. No one had entered the tea house since she did and no one was loitering around on the streets around it, so there was probably no pursuer after her right now.

I should go back to the mansion and report to Sensei, she thought, the idea of returning without any meaningful result suddenly not sounding as terrible as it would have only a little while ago. He will want to know that our targets aren't where they were supposed to be.

Unfortunately, it was just when she was about to put some money on the table for the drink that hadn't even arrived yet that the screaming started.

For about half a second, Hinata didn't even realize what it was, frowning in confusion at the shrill sound that was barely audible over the murmured conversations around her. She seemed to be the only one who noticed them, too. Then, at the exact moment she realized what it was she was hearing, a booming explosion drowned out everything else, and the screams that followed shortly after would have been impossible to miss.

Hinata was the first one out of the building, and a moment later, she stood on the highest roof in the area to see what was going on.

She didn't expect to see plumes of smoke rising into the sky while several giant boars tore through buildings as if they were made from paper and not actually sturdy stone constructions.

They were a considerable distance away, explaining why she hadn't noticed them earlier with her Byakugan as they were simply outside her range, but even that didn't stop the screams from getting louder and louder as the people around began to realize what was going on - or, in some cases, they realized that something was going on but had no idea what exactly it was while getting infected with the panic all around them.

In what felt like hours but was probably less than a minute, there was chaos in the streets below her as people began to run in every direction to get away to safety as fast as possible. Meanwhile, Hinata remained rooted on the roof, frozen in place and unable to move. All she could do was watch with growing horror as the smoke plums grew bigger in both size and number while the screams were slowly replaced by ringing in her ears. Her mind was blank.

Then, without even realizing it herself at first, she began to run straight towards the source of it all.

She couldn't run back to get her team. That would take way too long. By the time they returned, at least half the town would be in shambles, and who knew how many would be dead. Turning her back and letting that happen simply wasn't an option. Besides, these were only boars. Big ones, yes, but still nothing more than wild animals. While it wouldn't do to underestimate them, Hinata didn't think they were too much of a threat. Certainly nothing she couldn't handle.

That there were apparently six of them was somewhat of a problem, but they were different from human opponents in that they wouldn't really be able to cooperate against her, so their numbers hardly even mattered. The only problem was that the others could cause more chaos while she was busy with one of them.

It was only much later Hinata would realize that she felt perfectly calm as she rushed towards the boars. Just like during that short period in her fight against Lee, all her worries vanished in the back of her head while she focused on what lay ahead, nothing but her goal mattering whatsoever.

The boars were currently roughly split into three groups: there was one of them straight ahead of her, three of them running through the streets a bit further behind that one, and two more even further away.

Logically, being the one closest to her, it was the single one she reached first.

Now, boars had a thick hide, and giant ones even more so. Consequently, even though they technically had tenketsu she could target just like any other living being, it was unlikely to be effective. At the very least, she didn't think she could close them with a single strike, and even if she did, they wouldn't go down from just that. No, she needed to do something else.

They had weak spots, of course. Their eyes, for example, were just as vulnerable as everyone else's. If she could hit them with a kunai, it would certainly be effective.

It would also enrage them and throw them into a frenzy if her throw wasn't powerful enough to also pierce their brain.

Also, there was no guarantee that she would even hit her target in the first place. She wasn't bad at shurikenjutsu, and Itachi-sensei had trained to hit moving targets with them, but it definitively wasn't her speciality.

No, the odds of her missing and consequently endangering the citizens around her by making the boar angrier and even more violent weren't zero and thus too high.

Fortunately, Hinata had another way to take care of the boar.

Increasing her speed some more, she reached her first target with half a dozen more leaps before overtaking it with one more. Within moments, she was ahead of it, and she only stopped when she judged the distance sufficient, coincidentally coming to a halt right in front of a pair of children that couldn't be older than four or five.

Hinata ignored them, however, their surprised yelps not even registering to her. Instead, she reached into her weapon pouch and-

Her hand came back empty.

It took only half a second for her to remember that she didn't bring her weapons with her – what a stupid, stupid mistake! – because her pouch had been unsuited for her current attire.

Hinata didn't let that slow her down, though. Now was not the time to get angry about stupid and totally avoidable mistakes.

Necessity breeds creativity, after all, so it was on a whim that she grabbed a forearm-long metal rod from the ground and began infusing chakra into it, very much intending to use it as a replacement for her weapons.

It was certainly not as good a catalyst as forged weapons, and it would probably be unusable after one use even if she could retrieve the weapon after using it, but that hardly mattered. As long as it got the job done, it would have served its purpose.

Small cracks were forming on the rod, the pressure of her chakra proving to be too much for it, but Hinata was confident that it would endure long enough for this one attack. More important than that, however, was the fact that small flashes of lightning flickered alongside the blue glow of her chakra, twitching across her hand with increasing intensity.

Normally thrown weapons might not pierce the boar's thick hide, but something enhanced by lightning chakra, even if it was technically blunt, on the other hand…

Even if she missed its eyes, with this, it would be a killing blow as long as she hit the head.

And with that thought, she threw the rod.

There was a crackling sound as the weapon flew through the air, leaving a blue trail in its wake as it closed the distance between itself and its target in an instant, before it made contact, piercing right through its forehead without slowing down in the slightest and coming out on the other side a moment later.

The boar didn't even have time to groan before its legs gave way under it and it fell to the ground.

Her attack had been a complete success.

There was one small problem, though. When Hinata initially decided on a position from where to throw a weapon, she had included an estimate for how far the beast would slide over the ground after falling down. After all, it only made sense that it wouldn't come to a stop immediately after she killed it considering it had been running at top speed. However, because she had forgotten her weapon pouch and had to improvise, her attack had been delayed for a few seconds.

Naturally, the boar had used these few seconds to cross more distance between them than Hinata had initially calculated. This, in turn, meant that her estimate for where it would be safe to come to a stop was no longer accurate.

The point she was trying to make was that the giant boar was currently still sliding towards her with great speed and wouldn't come to a halt before hitting her.

It wasn't a big deal, of course. Hinata would be able to dodge something like that easily. That being said, the two children behind her would most definitively not be able to do the same.

She had already tensed her muscles and channelled chakra into her legs in preparation to jump away when that particular realization struck her, and by then, it was almost too late. Hinata needed to abort her current course of action, drastically change her direction, cross the distance between herself and the children, and grab them to take them with her as she dodged.

Ignoring her screaming muscles after having to redirect so suddenly and the similarly screaming children in her arms once she reached them, she drove to the side just in time to save all three of them from certain death, the sliding boar passing them by close enough for Hinata to feel its fur graze her feet.

The three of them tumbled to the ground, and it was only Hinata who immediately rolled back into a crouch, even the presence of two clinging children not being enough to overcome the instincts that had been trained into her.

With the children being safe and her first target eliminated, Hinata immediately prepared to move on, intending to get the other five beasts as well as fast as possible, only to come to an abrupt stop when her eyes fell on the trail of blood the giant boar had left in its wake, following it all the way to the building at the end of the street its corpse had crashed into.

And with that, the calmness that had overtaken her mind as her instincts took over vanished, leaving Hinata once again in full control over her body.

She had never killed before. It might be silly considering this wasn't even a person but a wild, mad beast, but the fact remained that this was the first time she had taken a life. This was what a kunoichi did, Hinata knew that, and she certainly didn't regret killing it when that was what it took to save the helpless citizens. She had told Itachi-sensei just a few weeks ago during their conversation after the training session with Team Guy that she was prepared to do her duty, too, but now she found it impossible not to be at least a little bit affected by what she had done.

Thankfully, Hinata was quickly snapped out of these thoughts before she had a chance to really fall into a downward spiral.

"Thank you, Nee-san!" one of the two children – a boy – cried, clinging to her right arm while the other child – a girl – did the same with her other one.

Jumping at the opportunity this distraction provided, she immediately focused on them. "It's okay," she said soothingly, unintentionally using the same tone she used whenever Hanabi came to her room after a nightmare. "Everything is going to be all right. You're safe now."

"But-"

"I'm here, aren't I?" she interrupted the girl before she even had the chance to voice any doubts while simultaneously gently freeing herself from their grips, knowing full-well that she couldn't let herself be delayed for long. "I will take care of these boars, okay? You just need to find an adult and ask for their help. Can you do that?"

As much as she would have loved to stay with them for longer, Hinata only waited for long enough to see their uncertain nods before jumping back into action, heading straight for the boars that were running around in a group of three.

I can't get distracted now, she thought, a determined scowl on her face. These boars need to be taken care of as fast as possible. Hesitation will only get people killed.

She might not be in the same state of mind as earlier, but she was focused nonetheless. That would have to be enough.

The streets, while certainly spacious, were not designed to accommodate giant boars, so there was not enough space for two of them to run side by side, and Hinata meant to exploit that. As she was too far away to reach them quickly enough before they caught up the group of citizens ahead of them, she would need to stop them from afar, and for that, the limited space played perfectly into her hand.

"Hakke Kūshō!" (Eight Trigrams Vacuum Palm)

A wave of compressed chakra shot from her outstretched palm and slammed into the flank of the boar at the front. Now, her Vacuum Palm wasn't as powerful as, say, Neji's, and it obviously would be even less effective against an enormous opponent like these boars than it would be against other humans. Actually beating them with that attack hadn't been her intention, however. Rather, she had merely wanted to stop them in their tracks, and that plan was a full success.

While it clearly didn't do any meaningful harm, the attack had been strong and unexpected enough to throw its target off-balance and topple it first against the walls of the house to its side and then to the ground.

And as she had already mentioned, the street wasn't wide enough to accommodate more than one boar, so with the one that had been leading their charge lying on the ground and no way for the other two to either stop or run around it, they stomped all over it before they too fell to the ground.

Not losing any time, Hinata grabbed the first two pieces of metallic wreckage she could find and began charging them with lightning chakra before throwing them at her targets.

The first own hit its mark without trouble, entering the first boar's forehead on one side and leaving it on the other a moment later.

The second one, on the other hand, didn't.

While her aim had technically been on spot, the fact that the three struggling beasts were lying on top of each other meant that they were also trying to push each other away in their efforts to get back to their feet. Unfortunately for her, that resulted in the third boar pushing the target of her second weapon out of the way, resulting in it missing its head and instead finding its way into its shoulder.

That, in turn, made the boar squeak in pain while it lashed out even more.

A moment later, it rammed into the house next to it, bringing the entire construct down on top of it.

Hinata's eyes widened, a sense of panic spreading through her chest. If there had been people inside of it…

A quick check with her Byakugan fortunately eased that concern easily enough.

There were people in the neighbouring buildings, however, staring with terror at the great beast in front of them through the newly formed holes in their walls.

The third boar was already back to its feet and about to continue its rampage through the streets, but Hinata had no time to worry about that. The people the three beasts had been chasing earlier had had enough time to flee, so the ones right in front of the wounded one had priority right now.

Without even realizing it, she rushed past the healthy one, not even sparing it a glance before appearing above the wounded boar that was just about to direct its anger against the people to its feet.

"Hakkeshō Kaiten!" (Eight Trigrams: Palm Rotation)

Spinning in the air, Hinata released chakra from all her tenketsu at once a mere moment before she crashed into the boar.

Again, that attack alone wouldn't be enough to finish the boar for good, but it was more than enough to smash it into the ground with a pained grunt. That, in turn, put it into the perfect position for her follow-up attack:

"Hakke Kūshō!" (Eight Trigrams Vacuum Palm)

When she used the Vacuum Palm this time, Hinata made sure to use exceptionally more chakra than normal before directing the attack directly at the back of the boar's head.

After all, it might not be enough to truly harm it in the traditional sense, but from such short range and with its head lying on the ground, it should certainly be sufficient.

The 'crack' that rang through the air a moment later as its skull broke proved her right.

That wasn't any reason to rest, though. There were still three more boars running around and creating havoc. With every second that passed, more property was damaged and more people were injured and even killed. She needed to hurry if she wanted to-

Hinata wasn't exactly sure what happened, but suddenly there was a flash above the boar that had been running away from her before it toppled over without so much as a grunt.

Also, now that she thought about it, there was a distinctive lack of stomping and screaming in the distance…

It probably took her a little longer than appropriate to recognise the figure looking down at her from the top of the freshly fallen boar.

"Sensei?"