Hey again! I'm goin' on a vacation pretty soon so I might update once more or just wait 'till I get back. Hmmmm...I guess it'll depend on how many reviews I get for this chappie. And in case any one's interested no, I'm not going anywhere sunny like Florida. I'm going skiing, which is still pretty good.
Chapter Ten
After seeing the MORE THAN ample notes that Sakura took last night, I Yamanaka Ino decided to take the notes to night. After all it won't hurt for Sakura to down size her ego a little bit. or even cut her ego in half, come to think of it.
Just how did I convince Sakura that I should take the notes? Well it involved a kunai, her diary, and a lot of ink. And an essay that I made Shika write down for me, I didn't actually understand all of the (twenty letter!!) words in it but Sakura seemed to.
So onto tonight then, when I got to the ramen shack Sakura was already there. We talked a bit about how we thought last night went until I remembered that I forgot something. Or should I say some one. By the time I returned, with Shika dragging behind me, every one but Tenten's pen pal was waiting for us. Well every one who was involved with the whole Hinata's disappearance thing any way.
Just as Sasuke cleared his throat to start the meeting, Tenten's pen pal (whose name I later learned was Neji) SLOWLY (seriously the guy probably can't speed up to save his life...) walked up to us. In his hand he held a crumpled piece of paper that gave the appearance of being some litter that he had picked up off the street. But Neji isn't really the kind of guy who would go around picking up other people's trash so it seemed that the small piece of paper actually was important. Oh how right I was (oh, I hope I don't sound too much like sakura there...).
(Following the example set by the previous note taker, I'll switch to present tense now)
Neji throws a piece of paper down onto the ramen shack's table top. Immediately (so as not to let any broth that might have spilled onto the table stain the already quite dirty sheet of paper) Sakura snatches it up and reads it, silently to herself.
While she scrutinizes the writing on paper I look at the paper itself. It is crinkled and stained in places, and though I am looking at the back side of the paper the writing that has bled through seems very familiar.
Narrowing her eyes Sakura asks forming the words slowly and precisely,
"Where did you get this?"
Every one else is hanging on her words as they themselves and I too, still do not know what the paper says. We all look to Neji as he crosses his arms and doesn't open his mouth. Tenten looks like she's going to kill him and as she opens her mouth, probably to say those very words, Neji speaks. His voice is cold and quiet but every one hears what he says.
"Hinata wrote it. Her kidnappers sent it to the Hyuuga complex." So Hinata wrote it. No wonder the hand writing looked so familiar.
This surprising statement leads to all out chaos as every one grabs for the letter. Naruto, already on his second bowl of ramen, is the first to grab it from Sakura as he shouts,
"From Hinata?! Really?!"
Tenten looks at Neji with a new respect and considerably less hatred in her eyes. All the while Naruto is reading and re-reading the paper, finally he turns his head to the side and holding the letter an arms lentgh away from him he asks,
"Why are some of these letters darker than the others?"
And again there is a mad dash for the letter. This time Sasuke grabs it roughly from Naruto and spreads it on a clean part of the table top. We all crowd around him and get a first (or in some peoples cases, second) view of the letter.
Dear Father,
Do not worry my I have not been harmed. Although I am kept in a dark room, I have not been injured and won't be harmed as long as a ransom is payed. My captors are insisting on a twenty thousand dollar ransom and will not release me until it is payed. They also say that if it is not payed in full in one week they will kill me. My chakra has been completely drained and I am heavily guarded at all times. My kidnappers forced me to write this and demand an answer in three days.
-Hinata
The bolded letters are: I, a, m, i, n, r, o, c, k, c, o, u, n, t, r, and y.
I am in rock country.
"Oh my god..." Tenten breathes, and all the others reactions are more or less the same (with varying amounts of emotion).
We have found out the approximate area of Hinata's location! Since we are not sure what exactly we should do, Naruto begging to leave right now and Neji insisting that we let the Hyuuga's take care of it, this meeting is over.
We will meet again tomorrow to discuss plans of Hinata's rescue and the date we'll leave to go to rock country. Shika better get a good nights sleep because all of his strategic knowledge is going to be needed tomorrow for sure.
-Ino
Alright, here's what I need you to do. Channel your inner-Shikamaru, good. Now channel your inner-Ino. Now slap your inner-Shikamaru silly and let your inner-Ino reveiw. Good.
-Fumei