Not much to say...Oh! I still don't own Naruto (haven't said that in a while).
Chapter 14
Any person who had been in the Hokage's office about a week ago and who was currently there now would have sworn to deja vu. A raven haired shinobi sat in a hard straight backed chair attempting to read a scroll, on his right a blonde was chattering away happily, while on his left a pink haired kunoichi sat quietly with her hands in her lap.
Of course there were a few changes that a passer by wouldn't pick up on. Like the fact that Ino while talking to Sasuke wasn't flirting, no she knew that he was off limits not that she really cared any more. They wouldn't see that the sullen looking boy hunched in the chair closest to the corner was part of their group either.
Sakura's eyes darted to the door which opened slowly. Hinata quietly slipped in and sat down next to Sakura folding her hands together.
"Hey Hinata, where have you been? Naruto keeps asking about you but I haven't seen you around." Hinata fidgeted under Sakura's stare and Ino, curiosity piqued walked over to sit on Hinata's other side.
"But Sakura..he knows. I know that he does, how can I face him? He's going to tell me that we can't be friends any more..." Hinata trailed off on the verge of tears.
"Well you'll have to face him soon, there's a good chance Naruto will be on this mission too." the ever unsympathetic Ino told her.
"If there's a god that won't happen." the shy girl muttered immediately clapping a hand to her mouth as if she hadn't meant for any one to hear that.
Just then the door slammed open and a breathless Naruto stumbled in.
"Guess He doesn't exist, huh?"
Noticing Hinata almost instantly Naruto waved and ran over to her.
"Hey Hinata-chan! I've been looking for you, I have to tell you something-" Naruto was interrupted by the sound of Tsunade opening the door to her office to call the six in, turning to face her the blonde Kyuubi vessel missed the look of horror that crossed Hinata's face.
"You know your mission, find the grass-nin and escort them to the border. If you want you can remind them why the Grass has stayed away from Konoha for so long." Tsunade informed the six ninja once they had all entered the room.
"We don't know where they are and the forest is huge." Sasuke reminded her.
"I'm splitting you up into groups of three, Hinata, Naruto, and Shikamaru you take the right side of the forest and Sakura, Sasuke, and Ino you take the left side. Your mission starts now." Ino smiled obviously pleased that the Hokage had finally remembered her name while Hinata looked sick.
"Alright! We'll find those grass-nin and send them crying all the way back to... to...to where ever they're from!"
"Naruto...they're from the Grass, that was pretty clear." Sakura groaned.
"Hey, so this is pretty much like old times, right?" Ino tried to strike up a conversation as they walked once again on a path in the forest.
"Yeah lets just hope I don't get my head smashed in this time." Sakura answered wryly and Ino remembering that day made a face while nodding.
They walked along in silence for the next few minutes. The trees cast gloomy shadows on the ground where they had decided to walk. Ino was listening for telltale noises, Sasuke had two kunai out and ready, and Sakura had conjured a weak genjutsu to shield them with out using too much chakra. The deeper into the forest they walked the darker and more silent it became.
"Did you hear that?" Ino whispered pulling out a kunai when the three were just about in the center of the forest. Sakura heard the crackling of leaves and the snapping of twigs. Crouching low she dropped the genjutsu, drew two of her own kunai and looked to the ground.
Sure enough the wild grass she was standing in grew before her eyes and began to twist thin tendrils around her ankles. Surprisingly strong the grass held on while she flailed her legs around, suspecting this Sakura began slashing away with her kunai.
Ino who also should have been fighting her bonds openly laughed at the shadows above her.
"Using the same trick again? You think we didn't prepare for this?" she mocked them.
Sasuke who again had been ignored by the grass nodded his head to the middle shadow who was moving his arms, "That one." he mouthed to Ino who smiled. Sakura watched the blonde girl drop lifeless to the ground while her grass chains fell away.
The middle most shadow who Sasuke had pointed out moved suddenly attacking one of his own teammates, surprised the ninja didn't fight back and fell to the ground. The rest of the team sensing this wasn't their comrade any more circled him. Smiling the ninja allowed himself to be attacked before making a hand sign and also dropping to the ground below.
Ino stirred and sat up rubbing her arms as if her body had been the one actually being attacked.
"Man, they hit hard." she muttered. Although Ino had taken two of the enemy out it appeared they had received back up because six ninja turned to them hundreds of metal weapons glinting menacingly.
"C'mon guys, try being original for once." Ino goaded although looking worried, they hadn't planned on the extra ninja and dodging all those weapons would be next to impossible.
The three waited for the kunai, senbon, and who knows what else to be flung at them but the onslaught never came. Instead the enemy ninja all seemed to be frozen in place.
"Hey guys, sorry we're late."
Ohhhh, is that a cliffie? I think it is... This chapter was the first real fight scene I've ever written so I would really appreciate some comments on it( like if it was bad how to make it better or more realistic). Thank you for reading this fic so far I can't believe it's almost over. Please review!
-Fumei