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…
"Hinata, are you alright?" asked Kurenai scared to get close to the young Hyuga. Never before in her ninja career had she seen tattoos like the ones that were now covering the petite body, move and spread as these ones were. In fact she had never seen a tattoo move before in her life; what was wrong with this one? Not only was it moving around almost as though it had its own free will, it was starting to glow a searing hot red, almost looking as though it was burning her. For that matter, when had Hinata even gotten something as daring as the dancing mark on her skin?
"I'm not sure..." the girl muttered almost incomprehensibly. There was a dazed look in her eyes that sent alarm bells ringing in Kurenai's head, it wasn't the kind of look that someone who was trying to regain their bearing would have. Her pupils were slightly dilated and the Hyuga looked both ill and confused at the same time, something that Kurenai found far from reassuring.
"W-what's that g-glowing thing on your skin?" said Kiba slowly becoming more and more freaked out with every passing second. His teammate in the Aburame heir was silent on the matter despite being just as frightened for Hinata's safety, the eyes behind his sunglasses that normally would be attempting to analyse the situation wide in concern.
Before anybody else could reply, the ink covering Hinata ceased moving and fixed itself on singular spots. As it froze, the scorching returned to a deep faded black that clearly contrasted with Hinata's pale skin. Now that they weren't twisting around violently, one could almost mistake the ink pattern for being beautiful in design. Each little insignia looked like a falling leaf, as if a portrait of an autumn day had been painted upon Hinata's body.
Almost instinctively, Hinata's right hand snapped up to the ink-pattern on her skin as she let out a little yelp of pain. Within seconds Kiba, who had been cautiously been backing away from his female teammate, was at her side; concern clearly etched on his face.
"H-Hinata... you're starting to scare me," Kiba's attempt to conceal his worried voice went unnoticed by those around him. Though the Hyuga had moved for a brief second, she had now returned to her former dazed like state. There was something wrong with her body language, something about the charisma that surrounded her that told the other members of Team 8 that their youngest teammate was not alright.
This theory was confirmed when Hinata's slightly dilated pupils rolled to the back of her head and the girl slumped into the Inuzuka's shaking arms.
…
"...and begin!" stated Kakashi signalling for two of his three students to start the day's training. In a blur they leapt forward in an attempt to find their designated target. Like the previous day, it was two of his pupils attempting to find the third but unlike the past training exercise this one was being held in a different sort of area.
"How are we meant to find Sakura all across Konoha, she could be anywhere?" complained Naruto as he and Sasuke stood atop a building near the centre of town. Beneath them people went about their day to day business without noticing the presence of the two Genin looking over them.
"She's smart," acknowledged Sasuke. "She won't be isolating herself to a single spot but rather blending in with the crowd so if we miss her first time we'll have to backtrack."
"How hard could it be to miss her hair? I mean it kind of sticks out if you know what I mean," said Naruto with a shrug of the shoulders.
"Dobe, she'll be using a henge, disguising herself," said Sasuke as if talking to a child.
"Ohhh," said Naruto as he finally started to realise how difficult this task was going to be.
"That being said, she wouldn't be able to hold on to a henge forever, her chakra will have to run out at some stage."
"And that's when we'll get her," mused Naruto as he raised a hand to his chin.
"By then it might be too late," said Sasuke as he eyed his surroundings. "Just the two of us won't be able to cover enough ground."
"Pfft, I can cover everywhere without any problem," said Naruto as he put his hands into his patented seal. In a burst of smoke, three dozen copies of Naruto came into existence.
"Leave it to us," they said as a cohesive unit before leaping off in multiple directions.
"You know that's not going to work," said Sasuke with a huff.
"We don't need it to," said Naruto with a cheeky grin that got Sasuke's attention. "All we need is for Sakura to see one clone and know that we've already started looking for her. If she sees a clone, like you said, she's going to backtrack and head in the direction away from where the clone was heading."
Sasuke was momentarily puzzled for a second, not truly believing what had come out of the blonde's mouth. "How did you come up with something like that?" asked Sasuke wondering how Naruto had had such a plausible idea.
"It's like when we get sent out to get Tora," said Naruto remembering the first time he and his team had been sent to get the ferocious cat. "The first part of the strategy is always a diversion, pushing the target towards where the main force is located. I'm using the same concept here by having her come to us instead of us going to her."
"Alright then, but how will we know which one will be her?" asked Sasuke picking at a major flaw in Naruto's plan. The blonde raised his finger to answer but paused as he realised that he hadn't thought this far ahead. "Okay, I guess this is where I contribute to this plan. Sakura will always be on the lookout for us and if she spots us, will move in the other direction with the possibility that we'll miss her. Therefore like her we have to hide as one of the crowd."
"So we're going to henge into other people in order to catch someone who's using a henge," said Naruto slamming his fist into his opposing palm.
"It's not going to be that simple Dobe," said Sasuke. "She won't run away because she knows that we may be nearby but if we can't figure out which one is her then we'll never find her."
"So what are we looking for then?" asked Naruto.
"Look for similar mannerisms," explained Sasuke. "Even though we got taught how to construct a henge at the academy we never really got taught how to use a simple technique to our advantage. The key here is that we know that our target has had training and since she will be on the lookout for us she'll be looking around for any sign of us."
"But she won't find us because we'll be under a henge," declared Naruto boldly.
"See Dobe, even you can learn," said Sasuke jokingly which only infuriated Naruto but the blonde didn't say anything as the member of the Uchiha clan performed a henge, his physical shape and structure changing to take on the appearance of a forty year old man.
A second later Naruto performed the same technique as his appearance altered as well. As funny as it would have been to have performed the Oiroke no Jutsu, Naruto knew that somewhere out there was potentially Kakashi watching them and evaluating how well they performed in this task. As such, he simply opted to change into a younger form of himself but was wise enough to change his hair to a light brown as to not get spotted so easily.
"Good enough?" asked Naruto, his voice squeaking ever so slightly.
"Guess so," said Sasuke with a shrug before pointing down into the street. "I'm going to go stakeout that point over there, it looks like it'll give enough visual coverage."
"I'll go play with those kids over there," said Naruto pointing down to where a couple of children were playing in the street. Sasuke however gave him a look of intrigue. "What, if a kid isn't playing it becomes obvious that they aren't a kid."
While Sasuke could think of a handful of reasons to argue against something like that he decided to let it go for now. "Alright, if we haven't found her in an hour meet up and we'll make another plan."
"Got it," said Naruto as both he and Sasuke leapt off towards different points where they could scale down to ground level without being seen.
From his position, Kakashi watched his pupils in action and couldn't help but be impressed with their strategy, but knew that no matter what they tried they wouldn't be able to find Sakura, the reason being that the pink haired girl was hiding next to him watching the action play out.
...
"Don't you think this is a bit mean?" asked Sakura.
"Not really," said Kakashi as he pulled out his book and began to read. "Like with the mission where we encountered Zabuza, we were misinformed about the potential danger of the mission. Likewise, the task that Naruto and Sasuke have been asked to do they have been misinformed but don't realise it yet. They've gone about things as they would if they were looking for their target but there is no target for them to find."
"Then why get them to do this at all?" asked Sakura as she got comfortable.
"Put it this way," said Kakashi as he broke it down for his student. "If a group of shinobi have been sent out on a mission to free several hostages from a bandit camp containing twenty bandits, what do they expect to find in the mission?"
"Twenty bandits along with the hostages?" answered Sakura, unsure whether or not this was a trick question.
"Yes, that's what they expect to find," said Kakashi. "However, if one thing got misinterpreted, one single detail, the entire operation could be more dangerous than beneficial. For example, if a single digit was left out there could be two hundred opponents instead of twenty. Even for skilled shinobi, taking on two hundred enemies with only yourself and a few teammates is not a situation you want to be in. Another piece of misinformation could be that leading the bandits could be a 'B' ranked missing nin and immediately the mission becomes more dangerous once again."
"So by making those two go on a wild goose chase you're telling them that every mission has the potential to be different to what is explained to them," analyzed Sakura.
"Indeed, correct information is often hard to come by and hence we have to learn to adapt and be prepared for anything that comes our way," explained Kakashi.
"So how long are you going to leave them in the street?" asked Sakura, thriving in the discussion of tactics and the like.
"Give them a couple hours, see if they think of any other ways to flush 'you' out," said Kakashi as he turned a page in his book.
"Well could we go to the training ground and have a little one on one time?" asked Sakura, wondering whether or not she could do something constructive with their time.
"We could but I want you to save your energy for later," said Kakashi. As Sakura seemed to deflate slightly at the comment Kakashi reached into his pouch once again and pulled out another book, handing this one to his pupil. "This should provide enough entertainment for a while."
Looking at the book, Sakura was thankful that it wasn't more of the smut that her sensei read but rather a basic guide to poisons. Silently, she opened up the book and began reading at the content inside. Even though it wasn't training as such she knew that this would undoubtedly help her in the long run.
…
"Alright, I want the two of you to tell me exactly what happened in there," said Kurenai menacingly as she placed her hands on her hips. Though her voice was strong and firm, there was a slightly soft-spoken tone to it so as to not disturb the sleeping heiress beside her.
"... W-well, well we didn't manage to get a scroll at first but a couple hours after noon we finally managed to snatch one from another team," Kiba said somewhat shamefully, knowing that if it hadn't been for his inability to get the complimentary scroll to their Heaven one earlier, they might have been able to get out of the whole place a lot earlier. He looked to Shino for a bit of support but the boy was silent, likely in deep thought as he had been for the past few days.
"So we set up camp early so that we could get something to eat and have a bit of time to hone our defences and set up traps," he continued. "I went out to go and hunt and after about an hour, I managed to catch a couple of deer so I made my way back to camp. But as soon as I sat down to catch my breath, I heard a gigantic explosion."
"It probably makes sense that some of the Genin would have explosives on them," interjected Kurenai. "So I take it that you went to investigate?"
"The three of us did... we all heard it and there was this psycho old dude cutting up a Genin team from Suna. He'd already killed them but he was slicing them up with this sword of his and cackling madly-"
"And Kiba charged in towards the unidentified assailant of the Suna team, only to be swatted away like a mere fly seconds later. Quickly identifying the target as one that had formidable strength, I drew back however the pale-skinned man recognised my attempts to tactically retreat and quickly knocked me to the ground," Shino said emotionlessly, filling in for Kiba.
"Hinata managed to get a quick strike on him but he knocked her down too, so me and Akamaru attacked him except he did some weird flip thing and smashed us both into the ground. Akamaru even sprained a paw from the force of the blow!" Kiba picked up again, throwing his hands up in emphasis of the incredible damage that the man managed to easily inflict.
"It repeated like this for awhile, no matter what we attempted we were unable to deal any damage to him," said Shino as his gaze lowered. "It was clear that he was merely toying with us but when another team from Konoha came to our aid we gathered some hope in the thought that we could get through this. Sadly though, that wasn't the case."
"I can't really add much more here," said Kiba sheepishly. "This guy kinda knocked me out cold."
Kurenai merely rubbed her forehead in mild irritation before looking towards Shino. "Continue."
"Even when this team came to our aid we were still no match," continued Shino. "Part of this team was one Hyuga Neji, Hinata's older cousin. Of the nine of us, he was the one who fought the longest and hardest yet he too fell in battle. Before any more could be done to him, Hinata stepped forward and stood in front of Neji's body protectively, not wanting any more damage to befall her family. This man, I don't really know how he took to such an act but he began raining kunai strikes down across her body before seemingly becoming bored and biting her on the neck."
"And that's where this came from," said Kurenai pointing at the mark upon Hinata's neck.
"It would appear so," said Shino stoically.
"I'd imagine you then managed to get your hands on another scroll and got here as fast as you could," said Kurenai sighing as Shino gave a curt nod. "You did well and I must inform the Hokage that there is somebody in this exam who shouldn't be here."
"He's already been informed," said a new voice from the doorway which got the three of them to turn their heads, finding the proctor of the second exam standing there. "I guess I should congratulate you brats on surviving against Orochimaru but I don't really think it'd do anything to lighten the mood."
"You mean that my students fought against one of the Sannin?" exclaimed Kurenai.
"I wouldn't call it a fight, rather that they got through an onslaught with their lives still intact," said Anko as she got closer to the group, kneeling next to Hinata.
"So then do you know what that guy did to Hinata?" asked Kiba, realising that the proctor appeared to have some kind of knowledge about the situation.
Rather than answering straight off in words Anko pulled down her jacket slightly to reveal the identical seal planted upon her neck. "A long time ago he did the same thing to me," she explained. "The odds on having her survive this long were one in ten so she's incredibly lucky. That being said we need to do something to suppress that seal."
"A seal on top of a seal?" suggested Kurenai, not too shocked by the revelation as she had already put two and two together when Anko had mentioned their assailant had been the Orochimaru.
"Can someone please explain to me what's going on?" asked Kiba.
"That seal on her neck will corrode her mind," explained Anko. "Even with the same suppressant seal that surrounds mine, there will still be a slight influence over her behaviour and demeanour."
"I take it there is a catch," stated Shino, knowing that if such a seal existed then there would be no point in having the original seal in the first place.
"The seal uses your own willpower as it's central source," continued Anko as she nodded slightly. "If your will begins to fade then it will strike out at you, slowly becoming stronger while you get drunk off the power and only seek more and more."
"So every time she uses it we have to be there to help her," declared Kiba with a slight grin, throwing his hands behind his head. "That's easy!"
"Firstly, I would suggest that she never attempt to use the seal - even if it were a matter of life and death. Secondly, it won't be that easy as it is directly linked to her chakra," stated Anko. "Even using that clan ability of hers gives the chance that the seal will break free. Also she's a timid girl like no other, as such I fear that the potential to tap into more strength may be her only resource."
"We won't let that happen!" shouted Kiba.
"You may not get a choice," said Anko solemnly, upset that she had been unable to prevent such a curse from befalling the young girl. She then turned her attention to Kurenai. "Help me take her to where the Hokage is, he'll put the seal on her. And trust me, it'll be better if we do it while she's still unconscious."
"Why do you need to do it while she's out cold?" asked Kiba, worried about what the odd ninja would do to his team mate. If there was anything the little clash with Orochimaru had taught him, it was to be weary of people you didn't know.
"You don't want to know," said Anko as Kurenai cradled Hinata in her arms and the two older shinobi left Kiba and Shino alone in the room with only the sleeping Akamaru for company.
"Shino," said Kiba as his teeth grinded against one another. "We're going to get stronger to be able to protect Hinata."
"Agreed, that seems the most logical path to take," stated Shino.
"We've still got three days until this part of the exam is over."
"So effectively we have two days of solid training we can perform before having a rest day so that we can be prepared for the next event," concluded Shino.
"Then what're we waiting for?" questioned Kiba as he leapt to his feet, only to regret it several seconds later as his wounds started to ache once more.
"I believe a resting for the rest of the day would be most beneficial," said Shino as he got to his feet, albeit much slower than Kiba had. "We will begin training tomorrow."
"Yeah, that works too," said Kiba as he picked up the sleeping Akamaru. In silence, the two of them walked through the corridors towards the bedrooms with the intent of getting as much rest as their bodies needed before pushing them as hard as they could. Even though it was only early afternoon, there was no point in pushing themselves harder if the end result would have negative consequences.
…
"That one has to be her!" Naruto exclaimed in a harsh whisper as the teenage girl next to him simply shook her head. He had long since given up the guise of the little boy, having cycled through multiple ones and was in the form of a middle-aged man at the moment. Sasuke had too, and when he'd henged into the female form that he was in right now Naruto had been unable to hold the giggle that escaped his mouth in. Sasuke looked like a mix between his Oiroke No Jutsu and Sakura, however with Sasuke's hair colour.
"No... there's no way that could be her," Sasuke stated. "You can tell by the way that they play with their hair."
"Damn it, which one is it then? We've been looking for ages!"
"You sure you're clones scared her off into this direction?" Sasuke sighed, as she looked around for the the girl in question.
"Well, she's not going to follow them is she?" he exclaimed sarcastically.
As the two of them continued on, people in the street couldn't help but be a little concerned to see a teenage girl and an old man yelling at one another. It didn't look like they were related so really all manner of possibilities were going through their heads, many of which concluded with the fact that the man should be sent to prison.
From up in their hiding position, Sakura and Kakashi really didn't pay too much attention to the antics of Naruto and Sasuke, long since having subsided themselves within the contexts of their respective books.
…
Kiba rocked his sleeping companion slowly in his hands, admiring the shiny coat he had begun to develop. While his body was littered in bruises and cuts, he had long since gone to sleep... something that Kiba didn't expect to be getting much of that night. He was too worried for to not stay up through the night fretting through the numerous possibilities that he and his friends could branch out into from where they were.
He and Shino were the least worrying... while with Hinata, he couldn't help but feel concerned. He didn't know what they were going to do to her other than slam some seal on top of the the strange mark that the man, apparently Orochimaru, had left on her neck.
"You don't want to know..." Anko's words rang through his head eerily, though he was normally carefree those simple words had managed to put him off. Chills were still going down his back... but what had she meant by it? The proctor was certainly a weird one but that was just worrying. What were they going to do that was so bad, so bad that he didn't want to know or was he on a complete tangent to what was actually going on?
Looking out the window he contemplated the task ahead of him alongside his team. Undoubtedly, he would have to be the one to pull his finger out most of all. Even though he bragged constantly, he knew that out of him and his two teammates he was the bottom rung on the ladder. After what had happened, he'd put himself above Hinata but doing so openly just felt wrong.
Shaking his head to get these thoughts out of his system, Kiba looked out the window as he gently rubbed behind Akamaru's ears. Even though he and Shino had claimed that they would need to grow in strength to be able to protect Hinata, they couldn't afford to leave her behind. Kiba was well aware of the confidence issues that the Hyuga had and knew that if he and Shino soared past her in strength and ability she would be mentally devastated which in turn could have disastrous effect.
As he watched the sun begin to set over the canopy of the trees, a silent declaration was made as he declared that he would find some way to help his teammate in any way that he could.
…
"That was mean Kakashi-sensei," complained Naruto as they stood out in the middle of the training ground. With the day just about over the leader of Team Seven had decided that they'd gone on long enough after several shinobi had been summoned by the citizens to break up a fight that the two had gotten in to.
"And what did we learn?" asked Kakashi who had been glad that the collateral damage in the street hadn't been as high as he had expected when the two had started to duke it out. Somehow he figured that it was still due to the fact that the two were still under the guise of a henge and even though the fight was a mix of half play, half seriousness, the two of them had maintained their disguise through it all. Perhaps there was hope for them to go undercover yet.
"To check to see if the source of information is viable," stated Sasuke.
"That you're a dick Kakashi-sensei," chimed in Naruto.
"It seems you two have gotten the gist of it," said Kakashi not really surprised with the answers that they had given. "While you two have apparently only learnt the one thing from the day, Sakura here completed a book on basic poisons."
"Poison?" repeated Sasuke, slightly intrigued.
"Sakura-chan, you're so cool!" claimed Naruto in admiration as said girl blushed.
"With the fact that we've only got an hour at most of sunlight remaining, I've decided to look into alternate ways in which we can continue to grow as a unit. Every morning we'll continue with these random assignments as they are helping grow teamwork and also helping shape your future as ninja of the leaf. At midday the assignment will come to a close and then we will plow through a 'D' ranked mission," stated Kakashi, making their weekly itinerary.
"Why do we have to do 'D' rank instead of 'C' rank?" questioned Naruto aggressively.
"Because, 'D' ranked missions can be done quickly and thus give us more time to train," said Kakashi before continuing on with what he had been saying. "Once we've done the mission, we'll have some lunch and then come out to one of these training grounds where we'll do some solid training. Both the lesson of the day, and the basics."
"Don't we already know the basics?" asked Sasuke, wondering whether or not his progess was going to be slowed down.
"Well, Sakura here will be able to learn the basics in constructing poison," stated Kakashi pointed at the pink haired girl who had been silent up to this point, the procedure for the weeks ahead already having been explained to her up whilst she and Kakashi had been hiding. "Along with that, all three of you will be practising a Jutsu from one of these five scrolls."
As he said it, Kakashi pulled five small scrolls out from a back pocket, placing them on the ground. "Sweet, new Jutsu!" exclaimed Naruto. "Is each one some super powerful Jutsu?"
"No," said Kakashi blandly which silenced the blonde. "Each one of these is an elemental based Jutsu, the most basic for each affinity that Konoha possesses."
"I take it back about you being a dick Kakashi-sensei," said Naruto before he reached for one of the scrolls, only for his hand to get slapped away.
"First, we have to find out what element all three of you have," said Kakashi as he reached once more into his back pocket, this time pulling out three small pieces of paper. "This paper reacts with small amounts of chakra and allows you to work out which element you're more suited towards. If it wrinkles then you've got a lightning affinity. It'll tear in half for wind. Burn for fire. Becomes soggy with water. And crumbles with earth."
"So we just have to run our chakra through this paper and we'll learn what element we've got an affinity for?" said Sakura as she took one of the offered slips.
"Exactly," said Kakashi as both Naruto and Sasuke took a slip. "Essentially for now we're going to learn what central affinity you have, but that in itself does not mean that it'll be the only lot of jutsu you will be using."
"How many elements can you use?" asked Sasuke, wanting to know just what kind of strength Kakashi truly had.
"Three," answered Kakashi. "Earth, Water and Lightning, the third of which I have an affinity for."
"You're so cool Kakashi sensei!" exclaimed Naruto.
"By the time most Konoha ninja reach Jounin they are already able to use two different kinds of elemental jutsu, most choose not to however."
"Why's that?" asked Sakura.
"Most ninja only use their affinity on the battlefield as they are predominantly their strongest attacks," explained Kakashi. "In a life or death situation you rarely want to be using moves that drain your chakra quicker. For you especially Sakura, since you have the smallest chakra reserve out of the three of you, you need to be careful with the amount of chakra you use with each technique."
"Okay," said Sakura slowly, realising that she'd need to find some way to overcome the fact she had such a small chakra reserve.
"Now, while we still have a little bit of sunlight," said Kakashi as he noted the amount of time that had been wasted explaining the concepts, "let's see what element each of you have." As one, the three genin started channeling their chakra into their hands and in doing so into the paper they were holding. The results were almost instantaneous as several different things occured at once. "Naruto, you're wind natured."
"Is that good?" asked Naruto but he was ignored momentarily as Kakashi turned his attention to the Uchiha.
"Lightning affinity like myself," he commented. Sasuke grumbled a bit at this but internally knew that this information would undoubtedly help him in the long run.
Finally Kakashi's attention turned to Sakura but unlike the others there was no paper remaining in her hand but rather a small pile of hot ash. "Finally we have a fire wielder."
"Wind, fire and lightning," said Naruto as he rounded off the three genin.
"Guess I can take these two scrolls back," said Kakashi as he put away the scrolls containing Earth and Water Jutsu. Picking up the paper containing the fire jutsu he handed it to Sakura. "'Katon: Kasai Nagare' for you."
"Thanks Kakashi-sensei," said Sakura with a bow.
"'Futon: Kaze no Otakebi' for Naruto," said Kakashi as he handed the scroll to the blonde.
"Finally a jutsu!" shouted Naruto in success.
"And for Sasuke, we have 'Raiton: Hekireki,'" concluded Kakashi as he handed out the final scroll. "As I said all of these jutsu are relatively weak but they will help you understand the fundamentals of your elemental affinity. You have one week to have your jutsu good enough to be used when sparring."
"Yes sensei," the three of them stated in unison before Kakashi dismissed them as the first few stars began to appear in the sky.
…
Running through the forest, Hinata looked over her shoulder at the endless darkness that was catching up to her. Within there she could see the bottomless pits of torment waiting to sink their claws into her flesh. Even though she sprinted as fast as she could she couldn't get away as everything was swallowed within the darkness to never see the light of day once more.
A sharp pain radiated through her ankle as her foot snagged a tree root and she fell to the ground. Desperately she tried to get back to her feet but she was too late as the darkness swallowed her. Fumbling around, the light around her faded as she flailed in the pitch black.
"You are weak," cackled a menacing voice forcing Hinata to turn in the direction only to see the faintest glint of a katana moments before it speared through her chest.
Hinata awoke with a start, bullets of sweat pouring from her brow as her eyes adjusted to the little light in the room. Before she could figure out where she was a pulsating pain radiated from her neck and she lifted a hand to it and began applying pressure but to no effect. The searing pain seemed to get worse and worse with each passing moment. Alone in the darkness, there was nobody to help Hinata as the pain continued to assault her, the suffering only becoming worse with every passing minute.
…
Translations:
Futon: Kaze no Otakebi = Wind Release: Roar of the Wind
Katon: Kasai Nagare = Fire Release: Stream of Fire
Raiton: Hekireki = Lightning Release: Thunderclap
We hope you enjoyed.