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Who Would Have Thought

Chapter Two

Spies

"You're a Hyuuga, right?" Sasuke turned to face Hinata. She replied with a nod and a small blush painted on her cheeks. "I need you to use the Byakugan to see what's ahead of us. Say, 100 yards or so," he ordered. Hinata nodded again and focused her Chakra on using the All-Seeing Eye. After co-ordinating the right hand signs, the veins around her eyes were exposed clearly. She stood completely still while she stared ahead through the forest.

Sasuke had always wondered about the Byakugan. To be honest, those veins just looked plain freaky. They suited her cousin, Hyuuga Neji, because he looked scary without even trying, but they took away from Hinata's beauty... He froze. Did he just refer to Hinata as… pretty? A girl? Not that he was into guys or anything; he had just never thought of girls as anything but annoying and swooning stalkers.

"Sasuke-kun?"

His pupils turned in the direction of Hinata and he found her looking at him with a slightly worried expression on her face. Her clear orbs were fixed on his face and her brows were furrowed just the slightest bit. "Sorry." Sasuke met her gaze and she turned away, blushing furiously. "Did you see anything?"

"Oh, um… Only Kiba-kun and his p-partner…" she replied quietly, fumbling with her fingers nervously.

Sakura and the dog-boy, huh? Sasuke wondered if Sakura had gotten fed up of Kiba yet. He was even wilder than Naruto, after all. Maybe they should take a look? It might be a good idea to keep tabs on the other pairs; find out how everyone else was coping… Yes, that was exactly what he and Hinata would do. "Right," he started, after a moment of thought, "We're going to spy on them." For lack of a better word, that is.

"S-spy? But…" Hinata hesitated but never finished her protest. Sasuke might become annoyed if she asked questions and she didn't want that. They were supposed to be working as a team, so she would obey without complaint. That was best.

As if knowing what Hinata's question would have been, Sasuke continued; "We need to see how everyone else is doing. They might have survival tactics that we haven't thought of, so this is a good opportunity."

Hinata nodded to show that she had understood what Sasuke had meant. But Kiba and Sakura weren't the best targets to spy on… "Kiba-kun will be able to s-smell us… Or Akamaru-kun will…" she spoke quietly, but Sasuke picked up on her words.

Duh, he thought. How could he have forgotten that? He was pretty out of it today, that was for sure. Sasuke wasn't used to having such a co-operative team-mate. Well, Sakura… but she dropped hints about them improving their 'team-work' together and it was rather creepy. Naruto, however, just didn't seem to understand the word. Team-work with him was like torture; he was far too competitive. Sasuke dreaded even the thought of a mission with him. They were a waste of his time; he had other important things to get on with. There was no way that Naruto could defeat him anyway, so he should just give up.

"That's a point," Sasuke paused, "We'll just have to keep a safe distance away. Do you have any idea how close you have to be for him to pick up your scent?"

"Ah, n-no…" Hinata shook her head. She should have asked Kiba about that, she really should have…

"Well, let's go." Sasuke jumped ahead, moving farther into the forest, Hinata close behind him.

Thunk. A kunai knife hit the tree directly in front of Sasuke a few moments later, causing him to stop dead. He glanced behind him to double-check that it was Hinata who had thrown the weapon and not an enemy. She nodded yet again and landed softly beside him.

"I-I think this is the closest we can get… without b-being caught," she said. Sasuke sighed and hopped down onto the ground. Hinata followed suite.

He looked around for somewhere to set up camp. They had been in the forest for almost eight hours and he hadn't eaten since breakfast. Hinata herself was looking rather weary from the lack of food. He hoped there was a river of some sort nearby… If they were lucky, a fire wouldn't be noticed. Or if it was Kiba would just see it as a coincidence. If not, Sakura would probably convince Kiba that Sasuke would never do such a thing as spy on them, so everything seemed pretty safe.

Sometimes it's nice to have worshiping fan girls, they come in handy, Sasuke thought to himself, smirking silently.

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