Chapter 6: Cops & Robbers With A Twist
"So, I see we have a new student today." Kakashi looked at Gaara while Sasuke and I ate. After finding Gaara last night, we all went to bed and tried to get as much sleep as possible. When morning came, we went over to Sai's room and introduced him to Gaara. The four of us went to the main building, the large building Sasuke and I slept in our very first night, and were greeted by Kakashi and breakfast. I stuffed another piece of toast in my mouth before introducing Gaara to a very calm Kakashi.
"I found him outside, stuff happened, yada, yada... But, yeah, he is a new student! His name is Gaara." Gaara bowed to Kakashi, who nodded back.
"I must be a really easy-going guy, huh? Not asking questions is dangerous, but I'll leave it like this for now, I guess." "Easy-going"? More like extremely lazy. I grabbed some juice and gave it to Gaara while Sai sketched in his book. "What are we drawing today, Sai?" Sai glanced up silently at Kakashi before turning his book around to face us. It was Gaara and me sitting on the couch. We were eating breakfast, but the difference was that we looked like cartoon characters. Our eyes and heads were bigger than our bodies, and we had this cute vibe going on around us.
"Amazing," Gaara stared at the cartoon,"You are really good."
"Thank you. I taught myself." Sai replied. Huh. If Sai's been as lonely as he implied, I would believe that. Being alone can make a person do all sorts of things. The sounds of footsteps caught my ears, and I turned to look behind me. Hinata came jogging into the main building. She was wearing a stormy blue overcoat and navy pants again. Huffing, she slowed down and plopped into the seat next to me. A bulky brown, leather book was clutched to her chest.
"Eh? Hinata, I didn't know you liked reading." She looked at me and grew tomato red. Huh? Again? She really will pass out one day from wearing such heavy coats. "Oh. By the way, this is our new student Gaara." I pointed to Gaara, and he nodded at Hinata. She quickly nodded back. "Gaara, this is Hinata." Sasuke spoke up.
"She's the only girl here for now, but we could assume she's the weakest of us. Well, unless she's been doing her special clan training." Hinata picked up some oranges and shook her head really fast.
"N-No! I haven't done any of that." Before I could explain to Gaara about Hinata and Sasuke's clans' histories, Kakashi cleared his throat.
"Since introductions are done, I believe it's time we planned a little game." I blinked. A game? Looking around, it was clear that everyone else was confused too. "Follow me." Getting up, we all followed Kakashi outside the main building. "You should all get ready. Put on some more athletic clothing and meet me outside the gate. I'll give you guys about thirty minutes." After saying that, he vanished from view. Well, this is something new. Quickly, we all dashed back to our rooms. I opened my closet and tossed out a bunch of my clothes.
"I'll be taking that." Sasuke grabbed a grey jacket and a white, long-sleeved shirt from the pile. I gave him a look.
"You're welcome then." He gave a sly smirk and began changing. I'm keeping my orange shirt, but I'll take a pair of brown shorts. I looked over at Gaara. "What do you want to wear?"
"Anything that's easy to move in, please. I feel like this "game" sensei was talking about will challenge our speed mostly." I handed Gaara brown cargo pants and cocked an eyebrow.
"What makes you say that?"
"The food he gave us." Huh? After putting on my pants, I scratched the back of my head, but Sasuke seemed to understand.
"I think I get what Gaara's saying. On the table, there were a lot of fruits, toast, dried dates, and nuts. You assume the dates and nuts are for the oatmeal we had, but you could actually eat them on their own. In fact, even the oatmeal was a dead-giveaway. All those foods are full of carbohydrates, which are good to fill up one before you go running." I crossed my arms and thought about it.
"So, he was feeding us and preparing us for the game?" Gaara placed his gourd on his back before replying.
"It seems so." I gazed at Gaara in amaze.
"Whoa! You're really sharp, huh, Gaara?" Gaara gave me a small smile. Sasuke grabbed his katana and strapped it to his back.
"We can compliment him on his genius later. Let's go. We should probably tell Sai and Hinata what's up." I jumped and grabbed some of the shuriken I got from our previous battle with Kakashi. Slipping them into my back pocket along with my knife, I barreled out the room after Sasuke and Gaara. We found Sai outside the dorm wearing a his sleeveless black jacket and shorts along with his backpack. After explaining Gaara's "running idea", we all headed to the girl's dorm to find Hinata walking out. She still wearing what we she wore at breakfast, and she was reading her book intensely. What's it about anyway? After explaining the gist, we all dashed and jumped across campus.
Looking around at everyone, a bright and happy feeling filled me. A bunch ninja students about to begin training with their sensei was what we were. This has been my dream for a long time. It's still in the beginning stage, but it's really happening.
My dream to become the greatest ninja leader, the Hokage, is starting to come true!
The gate was open when arrived, but Kakashi wasn't in sight. I looked around and spotted something on the floor. It was a note. I picked it up and read it aloud.
""Head to the northwest side of the school walls." Huh? Why there?" Sasuke looked over my shoulder and stared at the note.
"It's just more forest, but there must be something there. Why would he be so specific?" Sasuke turned to the others. "These trees are very large and easy to move on. Jumping from branch to branch is fine, but it's easy to get lost and lose sight. Be careful." He's right. Before we went to bed the first night, Kakahsi informed us on this and actually let us test it out. He also taught us something very cool. I stepped up to everyone and began explaining the best I could.
"Uh, well, the trick is to put chakra in your feet. It tests out your...chakra control? Yeah, that's it! Chakra control!" Sasuke gave me a rude look, and I narrowed my eyes back at him. "What? So, I kind of forgot. So sue me! Anyways, by putting the right amount of chakra in your feet, you can run up solid surfaces like trees. Here, I'll show you!" I faced a tree and ran at it. Focusing chakra into my feet, my right foot connected with the trunk and stuck. I darted up the tree and landed in a branch. I looked down at everyone and grinned.
"If you don't keep an even balance of chakra, you won't be able to run up it." Sasuke explained the rest to them. "Too much charka will knock you off the tree, but too little chakra will make you fall from the tree. According to Kakashi, this took a while for younger ninja to learn back then, but with Naruto and me here, this should take about ten minutes for you guys to learn." So, for the next ten minutes, we all trained on how to do tree climbing. Gaara and Sai cauught on quickly, but it took Hinata some time. She kept putting in too little chakra, but she learned it in the end.
"We should hurry up. We only have eleven minutes left." Sai informed. Everyone agreed, and we were off. Sasuke and Sai moved swiftly from tree to tree. Gaara moved quick too, but he moved at a steadier pace. I wanted to move faster too, but I kept my eye on Hinata. She was lagging behind a little, and I don't want her to get hurt. Soon, we reached a large dirt field. There were logs in the ground and practice dummies on one side, but we saw a huge barbed wire fence. It had to be at least twenty feet tall, maybe even as tall as the trees. There were two gates on it, and Kakashi was at the left one. Dashing across the field, we stopped in front of Kakashi and a table with stuff on it.
"Good to see you all made it. You all moved quickly. Sasuke and Naruto must of taught you the "Tree Climbing Technique". Hm. Interesting." He looked at all of us before continuing. "Let's get started then. First off, I have gifts for you." I blinked. Gifts!? I thought we were going to do some training exercise! He handed us all a pair of odd-looking sandals. "People and ninja alike wore these back then. They're easier to run and fight in than your modern sandals. Also, I have these hip pouches to give you." He handed us these small, light brown bags. "They'll hold basic weapons like shuriken, kunai knives, paper bombs, and scrolls. They'll make them easy to access and use. Just attach them to you belts or pants." After some fumbling, I attached my hip pouch on and had my shoes on too. Everyone else did also.
"These are pretty cool! Thanks, Kakashi Sensei!" Kakashi looked at me.
"It's no big deal, really. I just can't have you guys defenseless. What kind of teacher would I be?" He sighed and took out his book. Again? The book? "Speaking of sensei, I'll be out searching for more teachers for you kids. Maybe I'll find some more students too. Who knows? While I'm gone, you guys will be playing a little training game." Sasuke spoke up.
"What game is it?" Kakashi looked up and stared at all of us for a moment.
"Cops and Robbers." We were all silent for a moment. I turned my head and looked at Sasuke. He glanced at me then looked at everyone else. We all exchanged glances before looking back at Kakashi. Even if it is a childish game, Gaara was right. He completely right about the "running idea"! Kakashi looked at all of us. Confusion could be seen in his left eye. "What is it? Your silence is almost worrying me." I placed my hands on my hips and let a smug smile slide on my face.
"Well, you see, we kind of already figured you would give us a game like that." Sasuke crossed his arms at Kakashi.
"And, by "we", the moron's speaking of Gaara and me." What? Hey! I helped too! I gave Sasuke a disapproving look while Kakshi clapped.
"Good job. I'm glad to see you guys are already thinking smart. Now, can you act smart? That's a different story." He turned halfway and gestured to the gate behind him. "Beyond here is the Forest of Trials. You will go in this forest many times during your school life and do various tests and training assignments. For today, you will be playing a game of Cops and Robbers." Sai raised his hand. "Yes, Sai?"
"If you're going to be gone, then does that mean some of us will be the robbers?"
"That is correct, but it is also incorrect. There will be one robber." I glanced at everyone again. One of us against the rest? Is that really fair?
"Who's the robber?" Sasuke asked. The wind suddenly picked up. The shadows of the clouds ran over us. Kakashi waited before speaking.
"Hinata." All of us guys turned our heads down the line towards Hinata. She stood on my right with wide eyes. She took a trembling finger and pointed at herself.
"M-M-Me?" Kakashi nodded, and for some reason, I felt like he seemed happy.
"Yes, you, Hinata." Hinata looked like she was about to pass out. She had her hands clasped in front of her and was shaking slightly. My mood instantly dropped. I don't want to give her any special treatment since she's the only girl and since she's kind of scared, but I do feel bad for her.
"Uh, sensei?" I looked over at Sai, who had an uncertain look in his face. A slightly similar look was on Gaara and Sasuke's faces. "Are you sure about this?"
"Yes. Why?"
"Not to be blunt, but she looks like a scared rabbit about to be eaten by a wolf." At the word "wolf", Hinata jumped slightly and covered her face. I bit back a groan. This is too hard to watch.
"Hm. She looks fine to me." What!? I stared incredibly at Kakashi.
"Sensei! She's shaking! She does not look "fine"!" Kakashi stared at me. Uh oh. He's gonna kick my butt now, isn't he?
"Trust me, Naruto. She'll be fine." There was a light, carefree tone in his voice. I stared at him. Is he for real!? "You guys will have until sunset to find Hinata. There will be an area in the middle of the forest where you will get your lunch. It won't become visible for you to get until after noon. Hinata, you'll be going there to get yours too. There will be no breaks or timeouts. You boys will have to find Hinata and restrain her. Hinata, you must elude all four of them and refrain from being caught. If you must fight her to catch her, then you may do so. Hinata will have an hour head-start. No one is to leave the forest until sunset arrives. If you understand, you must respond by saying, "Yes, sensei", okay?" We all looked at each other again before responding.
"Yes, sensei!" We shouted in unison. Kakashi nodded, pleased by this.
"Good." Kakashi walked over and opened the barbed wire gates. He walked back and took a sand timer in his hand. "This is set for one hour. Hinata. It's time for you to go." I looked over at Hinata. She still looked a little unsure but nodded anyways. She looked at the rest of us and shot us a small yet almost confident smile.
"L-Let's all do our best." She looked at the forest entrance, breathed in and out quickly, and ran inside. The moment she ran in I saw her go left and vanish from view. Huh. For a second, it almost looked like she knew exactly what she was doing. I think she'll be fine though, and this may be pretty fun too. Who knows? With the timer counting down, Kakashi looked at the rest of us.
"I'll be going now. Good luck. You guys may need it." Huh? Before I could ask why, a cloud's shadow blackened our view again, but it was darker this time, and Kakashi was gone. I looked left and right and scratched my head. He's good. Strange but good. I turned towards the others, who were gathered in a semicircle.
"What did he mean by that?" I asked as I walked into the circle. Sai tapped his chin.
"Maybe he knows something about Hinata that we don't?" Sasuke shook his head.
"He's just met her, like the rest of us. He can't know too much about her." We all agreed on that. "He's probably talking about her Byakugan." Oh! Of course! I tapped my fist into the palm of my other hand.
"That makes sense! Hinata is a part of the Hyuga clan, so she can use the Byakugan. With that, she would be able to see us and avoid us right?" Sasuke nodded.
"Yeah. Surprised you remembered that, but yeah." I narrowed my eyes at him. Surprised? "With her Byakugan, she can see through solid objects, see much farther than the naked eye, and be able to detect our bodies and chakra networks. It's kind of asshole-like of Kakashi to make her the robber, but on the other hand, I can say she is probably the weakest of us without a doubt." Hey! Stop calling her weak! Before I could say anything, Gaara spoke up.
"She probably is, but we shouldn't underestimate her. She's a student, just like us, and she's still learning." Not exactly what I wanted to hear, but it's still pretty good! I nodded.
"Yeah. Even if she does know what she's doing, we should treat her like our equal." Everyone looked at me. "What?"
"What do mean by that, Naruto?" Gaara asked. I crossed my arms and frowned a little.
"Well, didn't it look like she knew what she was doing? It seemed that way to me for some reason." Sai placed his fingers at his chin thoughtfully.
"Actually, Naruto may be right." Eh? Really!? "Since I'm always alone, I'm usually studying people and their actions. A normal person would hesitate a brief moment before doing a task out of their league. Even when being told the task, once it's put right in front of you to be accomplished, hesitation is common to see. Hinata didn't hesitate. It only took her a couple seconds to recover and go in when it should of took her maybe a minute or two. Especially if she was so scared to do it in the first place. We all saw her shake, so why did she go in so fast? Another thing that's odd is how she went in."
"How she went in? You mean her running to the left and jumping up?" Sai nodded.
"Exactly." Gaara cut in.
"Based on Hinata's previous actions, she would've looked around before going anywhere. She looks around completely, taking in everything in her scope before doing much else. I saw her do it when we exited the gate. It seemed weird to me because I thought she'd been out there before." Sai nodded again.
"Exactly, Gaara. She also did it when she came to the field, and as we went deeper into the forest, she was constantly looking at everything. Yet, when it came time for her to go into the Forest of Trials, she didn't look around. She looked straight ahead and moved to the left immediately. Almost as if..." Sai paused and looked at me. Suddenly, it all became clearer.
"As if she knew what she was doing!" No way! Hinata knows how to do this assignment!? Sure, it's Cops and Robbers, but how does she know how to elude us in this forest when she's never been here before!? "Wow." I breathed out. "Hinata's pretty amazing, huh?" Sai and Gaara agreed.
"I don't know how she knows how to do this, but I might be able to figure it out." Sai said. It's a good thing we have Sai on our side. Gaara too. Sasuke's okay, I guess. Speaking of Sasuke, I glanced over at him. There was a very tense look on his face. What's with him?
"What's with you, Sasuke? You haven't said anything." We looked at him. He crossed his arms and waited a moment before speaking.
"I'm not exactly caring about how Hinata knows how to do this. We can figure that out on our own. What I want to know is how Kakashi knew she could do this." Huh?
Oh.
We all went silent. That's right. Kakashi knew Hinata had knowledge about this game. He's the one who chose her out of all of us. How did he know? How did he know Hinata was a good choice? We all stayed in silent thought for a while. I couldn't think of anyway though. It's so strange. I looked at the sand timer. We only had a couple minutes left, I think.
"Is it because she's Hyuga?" Sai asked. Gaara shook his head.
"No, it can't be. Sensei seems smarter than to just make a choice over just any opinion or fact about her clan. He must of studied her somehow." Sasuke spoke up lastly.
"But how? She was with us ever since breakfast! This makes no sense. Ah! We're running out of time." He thought for a moment before speaking again. "Okay, here's the plan, we split up from the start. Sai and I will go left towards Hinata's initial direction. Naruto and Gaara will go right. We'll fan out and search for her over the entire forest. If you find her, one person goes to find the other two while the other pursues Hinata. If we don't find her after two hours, we'll meet in the center of the forest. That sounds okay with everyone?"
"Sounds okay to me." Sai commented.
"Same with me." Gaara agreed. I cocked my head.
"Why the center?"
"Because, moron, it'll be close to lunch time by that time. Hinata will have to get her food, and we will too." He turned, and at that moment, the sand in the hourglass ran out. "Okay! Let's go!" We sprung into action. Dashing into the forest, we split, and Gaara and I headed towards the right. We jumped and leaped off tree to tree, searching for our hidden female comrade. I looked everywhere I could think of, but I couldn't find her.
"She's probably deeper in." I nodded.
"Yeah, that might be it, but this forest is really huge. She could be anywhere." The Forest of Trials was much bigger than I thought. There were huge trees everywhere with little to no patches of free ground around them. Barely any light was able to break through the tree leaves, and whatever light did still made the forest ground a bit dim. "How long has it been, Gaara?" Gaara jumped up and around a couple fallen trunks he was inspecting.
"More than an hour, I believe. Shall we head to the center?" I looked around the area a little more.
"Yeah, it's time to regroup." We sprung up and jumped our way to the center. Gaara lead the way, so I just followed him. I'm pretty bad with directions. It took us a while, but we finally found a small, circular area surrounded by trees. There was a table with food on it, and Sasuke and Sai were next to it. Landing near them, I noticed how Sasuke had an angry look on his face. "What happened?"
"She's already been here! That's what happened!" Huh!? Hinata's been here!? I looked at the table and noticed how there were only four packs of food on it. But, how? Gaara narrowed his eyes.
"That's impossible. The food only just got here, right? How'd she get to it before us?" Sai sat down and began to draw something in his notebook. I looked over and saw it was some type of sketch of the forest area.
"She couldn't have been here all along. Sasuke and I checked here before going anywhere else. She must of bypassed us somehow. Look at this." Sai held up his forest sketch, and we all kneeled down to see. It showed the Forest of Trials as a big square. There were two arrows pointing out from the entrance and in to the forest. "Left arrow shows where Sasuke and I went; right arrow is Naruto and Gaara. Hinnta originally went left, but we couldn't find her. I'm guessing the same happened to you guys, but she somehow got here before us without us spotting her. I'm pretty sure we didn't just miss her. Sasuke is very perceptive, believe it or not, and I'm sure Gaara is too." Hey! What about me!? Sasuke and I exchanged glances at his comment but didn't say anything. "So, this begs the question, how did she elude us but manage to get here before us? The answer is almost simple. This was her path, I believe." Sai made a huge swirl in his forest sketch. What?
"She went in a swirl? Are you sure?" Sai nodded.
"Pretty positive. If she goes at a certain pace and at a certain time, she's able to just bypass us. We were all going in straight lines; however, Hinata, if she was going in this direction, would be able to scout the whole forest and miss us completely. Sasuke and me visiting here in the beginning was a bad idea. Our delay in searching, unlike you two's, gave her the perfect slot of time. She'd wait for us to move, then she would move herself. Gaara and Naruto would naturally be ahead, so she'd miss you guys too while she was circularly moving. She kept doing this, but we decided to regroup. She's still in movement, but since she was faster and more efficient, she already got her lunch, just missed us, and won't return to the center." I blinked and stared speechlessly at Sai. I not sure how Hinata has done all this, and I'm not sure how Sai has figured it all out, but I'm impressed. Gaara looked at the sketch some more before talking.
"This might be it. Hinata is a very quiet and observing person. She'd probably be able to do this."
"Exactly. This type of tactic works well for her. Also, I found these on our way back." Sai reached into his backpack and pulled out a something long and orange. I took it and sniffed it. It feels and smells like orange peels. Wait. Orange peels!?
"Hinata took some oranges just this morning! This must be hers!" Sai nodded while emptying more from his bag.
"She stocked up on a vital food. Finding these on our way back only further proves Hinata was behind us the whole time, eluding us by going in a giant spiral manner." Sasuke took a peel and looked at it.
"I hate to admit it, but she's good. Like, she is really good." I agreed with him. Hinata must of been studying really hard or something for this. I felt my mind halt at that thought. "Studying"? Why do I feeling something nagging my brain on that? I thought back to Hinata. I imagined seeing her in her jacket with oranges in her hand, but something's missing. "Hey, Naruto. What's with you? You got a stupid look on your face." Before I could reply, a certain rectangle popped into my mind. I jumped up in surprise.
"THAT DAMN BOOK!" It all makes sense now! The others looked up at me in surprise.
"Book? What book?" Gaara questioned.
"That book Hinata's been reading since this morning! She had it with her at breakfast too! Remember when we went to meet up with her? Remember how into reading it she was?" Sai's eyes widened as he began to catch on.
"It was no normal book. It was probably a study book of some sort. She wasn't reading for leisure. She was studying this movement pattern!" Gaara and Sasuke's eyes got bigger.
"It had no title, and it's super thick too! It's probably loaded with information that she studied! Wow, I can't believe she's so dedicated. Warms my heart, actually." Sasuke gave me a look. "What!?" He stood up and crossed his arms. After thinking for a moment, he spoke once again.
"It's time that we caught that Hyuga." Gaara started speaking as he and Sai got up.
"I agree. We've spent too long sitting here. I've actually made a plan." I grabbed my lunch pack and stuffed a rice ball in my mouth. Thinking makes me hungry.
"What's your plan Gaara? I'm all ears!" I handed him a rice ball and watched him nibble on it before speaking again.
"Mm. We should intercept Hinata's path. If she's been going after all of us, then she's been going clockwise. Let's go counter-clockwise starting here since she's not going to the center anymore, but Sasuke and Sai will go clockwise. Sasuke and Sai will attack her and drive her towards Naruto and me. I'll trap her in my sand, and we'll win." Sasuke and Sai ate a bit and placed their lunches away.
"Sounds fine, I guess. Attacking her from both sides will make her frantic and easy to target. I know just the thing to do that." Sasuke smirked in an almost evil manner. Grr! He's gonna get payback on her, isn't he!?
"Stop bullying her, Sasuke!"
"I am not bullying her. I'm just going to demonstrate my ever-expanding arsenal of ninja techniques." Huh? "You'll see soon." He turned to Sai. "Come on. We got a Hyuga to catch." Sai nodded, and they ran off to the trees. Gaara turned to me after finishing his rice ball.
"We should go too."
"Yeah. Let's win this game!" We dashed up and out of the clearing. Following Sai's information, we went in a spiral like advised. It wasn't hard really. We just jumped around in a huge circle branching out more and more. This went on for a couple hours, and sunset was fast approaching. We haven't encountered Sasuke, Sai, or Hinata.
"We've seen no one this whole time." I wiped sweat of my brow and stared off into the distance of trees. The shadows were growing darker, and everything was becoming more difficult to see. I'm starting to become really tired. Even though I trained with Kakashi once, I was sure I had more stamina than this. "Should we take a break, Naruto?" I shook my head.
"No way! They've got to be here somewhere!" But, where? I jumped off another trunk and launched myself forward in the air. Suddenly, I heard Sasuke's voice, but it was different. It was commanding and sharp.
"Fire Style! Fireball Jutsu!" A strong surge of something thumped through the air, and the air around me suddenly grew hot. I tossed my body upwards only to barely miss a large ball of fire barreling pass me. W-What the heck!? The flames danced wildly,illuminating the area, going in a certain direction. I heard a girl's scream and looked to my right. A figure jumped from the shadows and tripped on the ground. Hinata! Sweat covered her face as she screamed at the flames that missed her and ran away. I easily caught up to her and got in front of her. She bumped into me, and I tossed my arms around her.
"Whoa there! You're not going anywhere!" I grinned down at her, and she looked up at me with wide eyes. Yes! I got her! Before I could even think of celebrating, she grew cherry red again. Uh oh. I felt her sway, and she collapsed into my arms. "H-Hinata?" I felt her forehead. Aw man! She's overheating again! Strange ball of flying fire plus her heavy jacket is not good! She's out cold. I placed her against a tree as Sasuke, Sai, and Gaara came up too us. I looked over at a smirking Sasuke and almost groaned.
I've learned some things today. One, Hinata is a very capable girl. Sure, she wears big jackets and tends to overheat at times, but she's capable of holding her own against all of us guys. Two, studying helps. I'll have to really start cracking down on some books. Gaara and Sai are naturally smart and know what they're doing. I'll just have to study some more and be able to do the same.
Oh, and three, Sasuke Uchiha's learned a jutsu before I have. That's gonna take some work to fix.