..
"You're telling me you have to go back up the snowy mountain..without me and Karin? What if something happens to you guys? That trip will last at least 3 days.." Hinata looked up at Sasuke whom only shook his head at her, "We'll be fine." She sighed and placed her hands on her hips.
"Why are you so worried?" Sasuke arched a dark brow and peered down at her.
"I-I'm not.."
"Sounds like worry to me." Suigetsu chimed in teasingly.
"Seriously though," Jugo interrupted, "It's you and Karin we are worried about..We don't like the idea of leaving you alone for three days.."
"Psh. We'll be fine, Jugo." Karin stated while crossing her arms pridefully. "No need to worry about us, big guy."
"I want the two of you to keep moving, instead of coming back down the mountain we will be going on over it and meeting you on the other side."
"Oh, right." Hinata nodded with no arguments. Karin arched a brow at her willingness to now smile at Sasuke, unlike before when he would so much as breathe in her direction and she would rip his arms off in a fit of rage. Sasuke looked down at her, his usual smirk gone. "If you run into any trouble avoid conflict and shake them if possible. Stay low and hidden, preferably. You understand?"
"Yeah." Hinata nodded, "Be cautious."
It wasn't long before the guys were off and headed toward the snowy terrain. "Well..at least we don't have to freeze our asses off, right?" Karin commented and nudged Hinata. "Yeah, but we should keep moving, like Sasuke said.."
"Riiighttt...so, what happened between you two?"
"Huh?"
"You just seem to be on ..friendlier..terms now.."
"Ah, well..we were up half the night talking."
"You actually got Sasuke to talk for half the night? He barely mumbles during the day.." Karin gave her a skeptical look as they headed into the forest. "What did you guys talk about anyway?"
*(Italics = flashback)
"I watched you a lot, before I actually left home."
"Watched me? What do you mean?" Hinata tilted her head to the side and crossed her legs awkwardly as she sat in the center of the bed. Sasuke was casually leaned up against the headboard, attempting to explain himself.
"You asked me why not Sakura, so I'll tell you the truth. She's not you and she's not a Hyuga, but I wasn't really thinking about that at the time. I just..told her I didn't like her and I meant it, I never lied to her about that. I was too busy watching you chase Naruto around all the time. For once that idiot had something that I was, at the time, mildly interested in."
"You were interested in me?" Sasuke struggled to keep himself from snorting as he ran a hand through his hair, "Tch. Does it surprise you that much?"
"What about me...attracted you?" Hinata looked at him dumbfounded.
"Your...pale skin, probably, and uh, your short hair at the time.." She seemed to have a talent when it came to making Sasuke Uchiha look super awkward. "Is that all?" She leaned in closer as if on the edge of her seat, silently eating every minute of the conversation up. Sasuke looked over at her and arched a brow, "Should I paint you a picture. You were adorable, get over it."
"Hey..! I think I deserve this attention after what I've been through!" Hinata folded her arms over her chest and pushed her bottom lip out slightly.
"Yeah, yeah. It was your whiny voice too. How could I forget that.." Her mouth fell open and she smacked his thigh, "You take that back!"
"Anyway, it was never about bloodlines or money. I didn't really care about whether or not you activated your byakugan. To me, having the sharingan was plenty."
"Is that still how you feel?"
"Yeah."
"So you chose me for my pale skin?" Hinata poked his side and he brushed her off. "You're hard not to notice with skin like that, you practically shine in the sunlight."
"Hey I am not that pale..!"
"Yeah, you are. Look." He gently flipped her arm over to compare it with his own. "You're even paler than I am."
"Well it's not my fault.." Her gaze fell to the bed and Sasuke tugged on her arm to get her attention. "H-hey." She grabbed his hand and looked up at him. "Stop it, you're beautiful."
A day and twelve hours into their travel, Karin and Hinata were focused on finding a safe spot to set up camp. As they were traveling around the mountains, which were filled with snow and cold, naturally the weather was growing a bit brisk. They needed a spot they could have a fire while being discrete about it.
"What about that cave up there?" Karin pointed to a small mound of rubble leading up to a cave near the bottom of the mountain. "Let's go check it out.."
The cave was dry and the structure of it seemed sound enough. Hinata hung some vegetation over the opening, enough capable of cloaking the ember glow of a fire. "Man I hope it gets nice and warm in here tonight.." Karin mumbled as she began to work with small twigs and light a good fire.
"The air is turning really cold, it'll be a harsh night.." Karin nodded and pulled away from the fire, "We should be good on the fire for a while. One of us needs to go out and gather enough wood to sustain it throughout the night, before it gets too dark.."
"I can do that, you lay out the sleeping bags."
"Gotcha, then we can worry about food." Hinata nodded and headed out of the cave quietly. She was selective about her twigs and took her time walking through the quiet forest. It all seemed so peaceful..
..
Once her arms were filled with burnables, Hinata headed back toward their designated camp sight. She used the landscape to her advantage as she had made mental notes of certain trees, rock, plants, and so on, to ensure she wouldn't get lost. Once she had reached her dubbed halfway point she thought for just a moment that she had felt the presence of another chakra signature. She stopped and waited quietly, while still concealing her own chakra, to see if it was confirm-able or if it had been her imagination.
Unfortunately it had not been her imagination.
..
Karin's chakra flared, which signaled to Hinata that the red head was engaged in a heated conflict. Hinata dropped every ounce of firewood from her arms and sped off in Karin's direction. She had not the slightest idea whom would have targeted them, but the fact that they had chosen to conceal their chakra told her this was a planned rendezvous. Someone had been watching them, probably since before they parted with the others.
"Karin!" Hinata called out to her the closer she got to their campsite in hopes of maybe pulling some of the focus off of her. Of course it wouldn't much matter as they probably knew there was another person lingering around, they had just waited for the two to separate. "Karin!" Hinata plowed through bushes, vines, and other unidentifiable breeds of shrubbery costing her legs and arms minor welts and gashes. However, when adrenaline takes over you normally don't feel the slightest touch, well, that being the case for Hinata.
She burst through the forestry and caught view of the front of their chosen campsite. There were three men standing closely together, but she could only sense chakra from one. More importantly, Karin was on her knees with the palm of this mans hand against her face. His fingernails tearing at her skin as he struggled to keep her face still. "Stop moving you little-"
In a burst of anger that reverberated Hinata's small being, she activated her byakugan and leapt up the side of the rockier terrain next to their cave-like campsite. The quick analysis of the situation told her he was sucking the chakra out of Karin through the palm of his hand. Not only that, but she actually recognized the men from the mountain. The same mountain Sasuke and the others left toward.
Her eyes met with one of the three as she harpooned herself from above with clenched fists, "Gentle step! twin lion fists!"
He released Karin's face out of necessity to avoid being hit head on. The three of them were blown back and half of the campsite was demolished. Hinata took a moment, while the debris from her attack clouded the air, to check on Karin. She was alive but unconscious.
Once the air cleared she was prepared to give all three of her opponents her full attention, however they took the cover of debris as their opportunity to flee from conflict. Hinata scanned the area with her byakugan, since she couldn't sense their chakra they were considered highly dangerous opponents.
Why were they here? She was certain she recognized them from the snowy mountain. Did that mean something happened to Sasuke and the others? The guys should be just now getting to the top if they didn't make any stops..
..
She grabbed a minimalistic bag of things and decided it best to make it to the other side of the mountain as soon as possible. There was no time to sit around and camp at their leisure anymore.
Hinata hoisted Karin onto her back, after tying the bag of their things to her unconscious body, and headed down the small cart path.