Experience is a cruel teacher. It gives the test before the lesson.

-Anonymous.


The next morning, Hinata woke up with a heavy heart. She had half the mind to simply stay snuggled in her tent and mope about the dilemma in her life, and the path she had chosen. However, unfortunately, she had a mission to complete.

Stretching, Hinata suddenly felt a sense of foreboding, as her instincts told her to stay on guard. Something bad was about to happen.

Quietly going through the motions, Hinata stepped out of the tent. Others still seemed to be asleep.

As she looked around, she heard someone clear their throat.

Turning, she met Naruto's eyes. He was nervously rubbing his neck, thinking of something to say.

"You're up quite early." She smiled softly, her eyebrows rising questioningly.

"I had last watch."

Hinata blinked, feeling stupid to have asked something so obvious.

"Oh."

For a moment, they simply stared at each other. A moment later, Hinata spoke.

"You should go wake up the others." She suggested, "I'll fix something for breakfast."

He nodded quickly in response, making his way to the other tents.

Hinata had barely started, when a shrill scream cut through the silence.

Hinata was on her feet in seconds, along with Sakura who burst out of her own tent, her hair still messy, clutching a kunai.

"AHHHHH! Get out, you creep!!"

Not a moment later, Naruto flew out of the adjacent tent, clutching his now-red cheek.

Hinata and Sakura were by Naruto's side in a moment, worried.

At the same, a disheveled Kyoko peeked out her tent, face red in either anger or embarrassment. Maybe a bit of both.

"Are you out of you mind?!" She shrieked, "Sneaking into a girl's tent like that?!"

Hinata furrowed her eyebrows, finally connecting the dots. Beside her, Sakura facepalmed.

Naruto rubbed his cheek, while pointing an accusing finger at Kyoko.

"How was I supposed to know that it was you in that tent?! Huh?!"

They began arguing, their loud voices filling in the silence, as Hinata and Sakura tried to calm them down.

Suddenly, a menacing aura made itself known, cutting through the noise like a knife.

Everyone fell silent, as Kisuke's started walking, his footsteps somehow echoing all around.

He stopped in front of Naruto, still laying on the ground. Kisuke's head was bowed, eyes shadowed; the very picture of impending doom.

"I do not usually pay attention to those less significant than me." He began slowly, voice calm as he looked up and narrowing his eyes.

"However, given the situation, I shall make an exception. Uzumaki, this is my sister you are dealing with."

Hinata watched, wide-eyed, feeling the cool anger radiating off of him in waves. Kisuke pitched his voice lower, adopting a threatening tone and yet, keeping his voice even at the same time.

"Lay a hand on her in the wrong way, and I will make sure you have no hands to begin with."

Naruto paled, gulping as he nodded quickly.

Yep, Hinata thought, Definitely Neji-like.

Almost instantly, Kisuke's killer aura receded as his point was made. He calmly turned towards Hinata and Sakura, and nodded.

"Good Morning."

He glanced at Kyoko for a second, lips pursing in uncertainty. Then, he turned towards her, watching as she straightened up, uncomfortable to suddenly be caught in his attention.

He simply nodded.

"Kyoko."

Hinata hid a smile. He really was trying. It warmed her to think that he had taken her words to heart.

Beside her, Sakura stepped closer.

"That was either the scariest, funniest or the cutest thing I have even seen."

Both laughing silently at the dazed look in Naruto's face, Hinata nodded.

Shaking her head, she returned to breakfast.

Despite that distraction, her gut feeling did not recede. The animals of the forest had also fallen silent, apprehensive of what was to come. Hinata was a Kunoichi. And she had been taught to never disregard her instincts.

The remaining journey was mostly silent, a testament to Hinata's gut feeling. Naruto and Sakura were also on guard, eyes tracking the smallest of moments.

For over an hour, nothing happened, their silence only broken by an occasional comment.

Biting her lip, she activated her Byakugan.

The hair on her neck stood.

In a second, she had Kyoko pinned to the ground, as several kunai whizzed past where her head had been.

The others, realizing something was wrong, tensed up. Sakura and Naruto stood on either side of Kisuke, kunai drawn, waiting for Hinata to give an update on the situation.

Hinata focused her Byakugan on their attackers.

No headbands.

"Bandits. At our south-east. More than a dozen."

As if on cue, a few of them dropped out of the trees, weapons drawn as they attacked.

Hinata quickly for up, pushing Kyoko behind her, as she took her stance.

Out of the corner of her eyes, she saw Naruto make several shadow clones and run towards those bandits.

Sakura stayed next to Kisuke, intercepting any bandit that got through Naruto's clones.

Hinata, standing a few metres away from them, bit her lip. There were quite a number of bandits. If she used her Sixty Four Palms on each one, she would loose chakra and end up wasting time.

So, collecting Chakra into her palms, she decided to block several tenketsu of more than one bandit.

Swiping her leg along the ground, she watched as the man in front of her went off balance. Without waiting for him to recover, she twisted her torso, her other foot coming in contact with his face. He flew back, towards his comrades.

While they were distracted with the incoming body, Hinata immediately appeared between them.

Turning to the bandit nearest to her, she crouched slightly.

"Eight Trigrams: Sixty-Four Palms!"

Her fist thrust forward.

"Two Palms!"

Sidestepping a punch, she attacked again.

"Four Palms!"

The other bandits, noticing she was occupied, decided to attack all at once.

Seeing the attack with her Byakugan, Hinata crouched, dodging the incoming punch. Then, hooking her foot around her attacker's, she twisted herself, smoothly reversing their positions, and threw him into the guy she had been fighting. (Wonder where she learned that move from ;p)

Now, she was standing behind the guy who had punched her. Without hesitation, she continued her ruthless assault on the man in front of her.

"Eight Palms!"

Making her last attack particularly forceful, the two men she had been fighting flew towards Naruto and his clones. He gave her a grin and thumbs up, before knocking them out.

This went on for a while, until they had taken care of all the bandits that had attacked them.

When no other attack came, Hinata relaxed slightly. Then, she frowned, counting the fallen men in front of her.

I saw more with my Byakugan.

She turned, intent on telling about her discovery to the others.

Almost immediately, she realized her mistake, when she heard a shuffle. However, before she could turn around, she felt the cool press of a knife at her throat.

One of the mean had pretended to have been defeated, and had gotten up as soon as she had turned. Now, she was his hostage.

In front of her, Sakura and Naruto froze, panic evidant on their faces. However, they didn't attack, cautious, in case they hit her.

Hinata tilted her head slightly, watching as her captor straightened, pressing the kunai deeper into her neck.

Simultaneously, Naruto and Sakura stepped forward, a shout stuck in their throat. However, they stopped again, realizing the dilemma they were in.

Her captor laughed.

"Uh uh uh." He said, shaking his ahead with each sound for emphasis, as if speaking to a stubborn child, "For each step you both take, I'll draw another drop of blood from your friend."

Naruto glared at his, worry filling him as he saw his friend in danger.

"You bastard! You let her go, right now!"

The man ignored him, instead choosing to face Hinata. He sneered.

"Not very tough now, are we?"

Hinata said nothing in response, instead choosing to only incline her head slightly in the direction of her captor.

The man's eyebrows furrowed, confused slightly at her panic-less posture.

She's calm. Too calm.

No sooner had he finished his thought, that he saw Hinata's face contort. His eyes widened, grip slightly faltering as he watched. It seemed as if something beneath her skin was moving.

What the fuck?!

A second later, something tore through the skin of her face. Her whole body convulsed, as the same thing tore through the various parts of the rest of her body.

The face of the man turned green, as he watched, horrified, feeling bile come up his throat.

Kami, it's still moving!

As if to prove this point, something burst forth from her face, as her whole body dispersed into a flock of Doves.

The man simply stated at where the woman's body had been, the white feathers around him the only proof that all he had seen, had actually happened.

"Hinata?!"

Her teammates, too, panicked as they frantically looked around. Just as the man turned towards them, her felt a sharp blow to his neck. Black dots began appearing in his vision, as he eventually collapsed.

Side-stepping the man as he fell, Hinata frowned. There had definitely been more men then there were in front of her.

So, where are they?

Hinata glanced at the man beside her. It hadn't seemed as if he had wanted to kill her, only stall them all.

But, stall for what?

Sakura was with Kisuke, and Kyoko-

Hinata froze.

Kyoko! That man was a distraction as others kidnapped Kyoko!

As soon as she came up with this conclusion, Hinata's head whipped towards her client.

"Lady Kyoko!"

She turned just in time to see one of the men clamp a hand around Kyoko's mouth and disappear into the trees.


There is today's update!! A bit on the short side, so sorry about that. The next chapter is going to be much larger. And before I forget, Kyoko is about 20, and Kisuke is 22.

Either way, what do you think?? What is going to happen to Kyoko? Is she going to be okay??

Be sure to tell me what you think!!

Until the next update, ENJOY!!

-Your reading author.