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Chapter 4 On the Road Again
Hinata had walked upon a battle between her two friends, Naruto and Neko, and some strangers she had never seen before. Hinata could tell that it was a pretty nasty battle and Hinata hoped that Naruto and Neko were strong enough to be fighting because they were definitely outnumbered. Hinata scooped up Toryufu before the cat could think about joining the fray and Naruto noticed Hinata at the edge of the battle.
"Hinata, you've got to get out of here now!" he shouted as he ducked punches and dodged kicks.
Hinata was too startled to do anything and before she knew it she was being attacked herself. Out of defense Hinata fought the best she could against the people attacking her, there had to be at least two attacking her, Naruto, and Neko each. Toryufu was by Hinata's side, weaving between the people's feet and managing to trip them by biting and scratching giving Hinata a small advantage. Upon further observation though, Hinata noticed that the people had headbands like the ninjas in Konoha, except it had a music note like symbol.
Sound village, Hinata thought as she managed to land a strong hit on a man.
"Hey! Hinata! I thought you were supposed to leave!" Neko said to Hinata as she took on the next opponent.
"I don't think I can!" Hinata shouted back as she held the two sound ninjas the best she could.
"Well, you two get out of here, I'll hold them off!" Neko shouted, "I'll meet up with you two later!"
"You don't stand a chance alone against all these guys!" Naruto said.
"Sure I do! Besides, who said I was alone?" Neko said as she glanced at Shiro Shiruvesteru who was fighting almost as well as people could they had even looked as if they had tripled in size from the last time Hinata checked probably a justsu of some kind, "Go on! Get out of here! I'll take a hostage if it makes you feel any better!" Neko shouted at the two of them.
Hinata didn't know how to make any mistake at the moment since she was being stabbed at with kunai knives from almost every direction. Eventually she escaped when one of the men had an open spot beside him Hinata could run through and get away. She figured they wouldn't be fast enough to catch her and if so, Naruto always had her back, right?
Hinata was running through the trees with Naruto, ninja style of course. Toryufu was back in Hinata's arms; Hinata knew she shouldn't leave her behind Neko or no Neko. Toryufu though, was steadily complaining about how she could've stayed and fought but Hinata didn't care, that cat had been one of her best friends since all the crazy things happened.
Hinata did feel guilty about running from the fight and leaving Neko, but Neko did say she could do it by herself. Hinata kept following Naruto's lead though, she couldn't let her worries drag her down. But she couldn't help but wonder when and where they would have to stop, because they couldn't run forever. Already, Hinata could see the sky above darkening signifying the end of the day. She hoped that everyone would make it through this alive.
Stars were slowly breaking there way through the sky as the sunset pink darkened to a purple and then to a blue. The moon overlooked the forest and Hinata wondered with sorrow if Neko was dead or alive.
"Hey, finally you two caught up with me!" Hinata heard a familiar voice say from a tree limb up ahead.
Neko was cleaning her nails with a kunai knife leisurely waiting for Naruto and Hinata to catch up to where she was at. Hinata marveled at how fast Neko could've taken out all of those Sound villagers and get ahead of Naruto and Hinata even though they had had a head start. Neko's pale blue eyes glinted in the moonlight with laughter, but the dark blue rim around them was almost black though, revealing her true worry and sadness of departing home.
"How did you get here so fast?" Naruto said, speaking Hinata's thoughts.
"I took the shortcut after I killed all of those guys, I think they have some friends though who might be on our tails," Neko said as she stroked Shiro who was perched on Neko's shoulder even though he was a pretty big cat.
"I don't remember a shortcut here, which one was it?" Toryufu asked.
"How should I know, all I do know is that we need to find somewhere that will be quick to find but easy to stay in," Neko said adopting a more serious attitude, "and I know just the place, towards Suna from here is a girl who lives on the edge of this forest who's an angel-demon sympathizer, she'll house us but the trip will have to stretch out until tomorrow morning so we'll have to stop for the night in the waterfall cave that's just in the direction we're going."
"Why's all of this so convenient?" Naruto asked as he wondered aloud.
"The sympathizer knew about the cave and built her house close to the direction it's in so that the angels and demons would find her house and get to have a rest stop if they couldn't find the cave." Neko explained as she started to lead the way, "There's a buttload of jutsus around the whole place so no one following us should be able to get in, at least that's what Ookami-onii-san told me."
"I wonder if the Sound villagers found Ookami and Akane back at your house," Hinata wondered hoping for a good answer.
"They're okay, the Sound probably did find them but Ookami and Akane can take care of their selves," Neko said as she dodged tree branches in her way, "but I'll hang the both of them by their toenails if they leave my cats behind!"
"How can they not leave them behind? There's too many to take at once," Naruto said.
"Well, most of the cats can take care of their selves but Kuro's five kittens need people to take care of them, and I swear I'll kill the both of them if all five aren't with them the next time we see those two," Neko said threateningly but Naruto and Hinata knew that Neko would never do it.
Before, they knew it was as black as well, midnight because it was. They had stopped at the cave Hinata had took shelter in (earlier in the story that is). A few remains from when she was last there such as ashes from a fire, leftover wood that she never used, and bones from animals she was forced to eat.
Shiro sniffed a fishbone and even licked it a bit and then decided to leave it alone. Shiruvesteru scanned the cave quickly before speaking, "I guess me and Shiro will catch food then seeming how we have nothing else to do."
"Good idea," Neko said, "I'll go find some firewood to make a fire with. Wanna come with me, Hinata?"
"Um….S-sure, I guess I'll go." Hinata said before standing to go follow Neko into the darkness of the woods.
"I'll go with you," Toryufu said as she hopped onto Hinata's shoulder.
Hinata trailed Neko out from the cave and under the waterfall into the danger of the woods. It was enough already that she had just been attacked by enemy ninja but the darkness didn't make it anymore comfortable.
"Are you sure we're s-safe out here…b-by o-o-ourselves…" Hinata asked nervously.
"We're fine, I'm pretty sure there's nothing in these woods unless you count the cats, then there is," Toryufu said as she calculated the population of the random cats living in the woods, "Of course there's always the bears, panthers, wolves, wild dogs, and those darned tigers Akane always has to chase away from the house. They just want something to eat, everyone has to eat even the blood thirsty forest-living carnivores do to!"
By now Hinata thought that her blood quite literally froze and she could hardly move from fear. She looked over her shoulder to make sure nothing was preying on her or Neko. Hinata only saw trees that looked hazy from the darkness.
"Uh, N-N-Neko I-I r-re-really think w-we should go b-back n-n-now!" Hinata said.
"Nah, nothing's here, besides you are a Hyuuga, aren't you?" Neko asked as she started picking up random sticks and limbs while walking on the forest floor.
"Y-yes," Hinata answered.
"Then, use that weird eye thingy you have if you're that scared." Neko said as she picked up more wood from the ground.
"Oh…right…" Hinata said as she turned on her Byakuugan.
Luckily nothing was trying to hunt the two down so Hinata felt a little safer and decided to actually start picking up sticks and not keep looking behind her at the same time. They had collected a good bit of burning wood for their makeshift camp so Neko decided to turn and go back while Hinata followed.
"Back already?" Naruto said upon Hinata and Neko's entry to the cave.
"Yeah, yeah," Neko said as she dumped her load of firewood on the cave floor.
Hinata was silent as she just set hers down. She looked over at Shiro and Shiruvesteru who had caught some fish that was waiting to be cooked. They had already had there's raw and the white bones that had been licked clean lay on the floor by a large pile of fish.
"I know they couldn't have caught all of those fish by their selves because they hardly can catch a fish without acting like pansies over getting wet." Neko said as she pointed with her thumb at the two cats sitting beside the fresh catch.
"Well, I did help them only because I was getting bored and they were already tired," Naruto said as he scratched the back of his head.
"Psh, they aren't tired! They're lazy is what they are!" Neko said playfully as she picked up Shiro and hugged him like a teddy bear while he purred.
"You're just as lazy as us!" Shiro said equally playful as he rubbed his head against her hand while she stroked his fur.
"You're the lazy one," Shiruvesteru said not as playfully earning a hurt look from Shiro.
"Don't be such a meany Shiru!" Neko said in a childish voice.
"I'm not mean!" Shiruvesteru said as he watched Naruto light a fire.
"Oh, well, who cares?" Neko said, "I'm hungry so when are we going to cook those fish?"
"Whenever I get the fire going," Naruto answered as he managed to encourage the fire into a small flame.
"Hurry or I might pull an Ookami and eat it raw!" Neko said as she picked out her fish, "Hey, Hinata which one do you want?"
"Anyone's fine with me," Hinata said quietly as she watched the fire grow steadily.
Eventually, the fire grew big enough to cook the fish and Neko chattered on endlessly like she felt like she had to be the entertainment. Hinata zoned out and let her mind wander the rest of the evening and when everyone finally decided to fall asleep she felt herself immediately sink into sleep like a stone in water.
Hinata was standing in a black abyss. There was nothing under her feet but she wasn't falling. She felt like nothing mattered where she was at. No war, no demons, no angels. But she wasn't alone there and in the distance of the shadowy blackness, Hinata saw a girl. She had long black hair in a high ponytail and was standing on one hand like some kind of gymnast.
"Who are you?" Hinata asked curiously.
The girl looked up at Hinata and finally answered her without getting out of the position she was in "Huh? Oh, yeah, I'm the person you're going to be living with in a few days."
Hinata knew she must have looked confused when the girl decided to explain, "You know the angel-demon sympathizer, lover, supporter, or whatever you like to call it. The name's Suzume."
"Oh…why are you here?" Hinata asked.
"Um…oh, yeah, I had to warn you and only you about something dangerous of the sort," the girl said rather bored as she waited for a minute, "…Well, aren't you gonna ask what's after you or what's trying to kill you?"
"There's something trying to kill me?!" Hinata asked in surprise.
"Well, no not really. At least not yet…I think…" the girl said uncertainly.
"Who is it?" Hinata asked.
"I'm not entirely sure yet, but I'll try to figure it out if you try too," the girl said.
"If they don't want to kill me then what do they want from me?" Hinata asked.
"Well, let's just say you'll meet a traitor in the future." The girl said, "I'm certain about that!"
Then, the blackness started to take the same shape as the cave Hinata was in and the girl disappeared.
Hinata woke up from her dream to find that Neko and Naruto were already awake and cleaning up.
"Look who is up!" Toryufu said as she trotted over to Hinata's resting place.
"Oh, sorry, Hinata did we wake you up?" Naruto asked.
"N-no…" Hinata said.
"Good! Then, let's get moving after we get the place cleaned up because when we do, we're going to Suzume's place." Neko said as she kicked some fish bones and unused wood into the water near the entrance of the cave.
Was that the girl in my dream? Hinata asked herself.
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Yay! I finally posted it! Please review now because the next chapter's dedicated to the 20th reviewer! Sorry if this chapter wasn't as entertaining as the last ones. I've been rushing it lately and I've been getting other fic ideas bopping around in my head!
Ciao!
Ninja Cat of
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