Don't own Naruto, but hope you enjoy the story. P
Hinata sat next to Gaara on the couch in front of Tsunade sama's office. Naruto and Kankurou were standing on the left and Shikamaru and Temari were on the right. The walk from the Nara household had been uneventful, but still nerve wracking.
It was taking all of the patience Hinata had, and she has a lot of patience, to sit quietly. She felt the need to pace, which was unusual because normally she was a very still person. 'Of course this is the first time that I've ever known about being a possible target,' she thought wryly to herself.
Instead she watched, half hypnotized, as Naruto's foot shook up and down. Just when she thought she was going to scream to relieve some of her nervous energy, Shizune poked her head out of the Hokage's door.
"She will see you now," she informed them as she opened the door wider, to allow them in. They all trudged in silently, and waited for her to leave the room. She did, closing the door softly behind her. The second she did, Hinata activated her byakugan, and looked for listening devices. She nodded when she didn't see anything.
"What's this all about?" Tsunadesama demanded. "You barge in here and demand a meeting, and then don't give me any explanation?"
Shikamaru took a deep breath before he started. "We suspect that the mission has been compromised," and he proceeded to explain about all the happenings of the last evening.
The Hokage looked bored at the news, "So? What do you want me to do about it?"
Shikamaru must have been expecting a reaction like this, even though Hinata was surprised. 'She's never done that to me.' "We expect you to do nothing," he shrugged. "We're just here to warn you that something's going down, and that you might get caught in the cross fire. Most likely it's going to happen during the tournament."
"Hn," she nodded in acknowledgment, then turned to a stack of papers on her desk. This was clearly a dismissal.
"Now what?" Naruto shouted as they left the Hokage mansion.
"We go to the tournament and keep our guard up," Temari informed him.
The trip from the mansion was very stressful. There was a large crowd of people going in multiple directions, clogging the streets of Konoha and making it difficult for the six ninja to stay as a group.
Unspokenly they started forming three separate groups. Temari and Shikamaru were leading the way. Followed shortly by Hinata and Gaara. Naruto and Kankuro brought up the rear. Defensively it wasn't the best possible situation, but they had to make due.
During one particularly strong wave of people, Hinata could feel herself separating from Gaara. Desperately she lunged forward and grabbed onto the back of his shirt. Or she would have, except that sand got in the way and grabbed her hand instead.
Its grip was tight, but not crushing. It was kind of nice, in a weird grainy way. It was warm too, and Hinata blanched a little when she remembered the scene in the Forest of Death almost 4 years ago. 'Kiba said that the sand smelled like blood,' she thought, and then tried to suppress that memory.
'He is a different person then he was back then,' she lectured herself firmly. The wave of people subsided, and the sand released her hand. Hinata made sure that no one could hear the whimper of disappointment she made unconsciously.
She scrambled so that she was closer to Gaara, so that if another wave of people came they wouldn't be separated. She got a little too close though, and her hand bumped into his. She gasped, not because the impact hurt, but because there was a spark that just jumped up her arm and strait into her chest, and no it wasn't a heart attack, she checked.
'That was nice.' She thought to herself. 'Hopefully it'll be that way when no one is trying to kill us,' and then added, because she's always honest with herself, 'that we know of.'
-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-
Nothing had happened on the way to the coliseum. Or as they waited to make their entrance. In fact, they were on the last fight, and nothing bad had happened what so ever. Hinata didn't relax though. She had had a bad feeling sense this morning, that hadn't gone away. 'Something's going to happen,' she thought as she scanned the crowd for the millionth time.
She actually almost missed it. Thank goodness for the byakugn. It wasn't someone in the crowd but rather a guard for one of the visiting Kages. This year there were ninjas participating from four countries, Fire, Wind, Star, and Snow.
The guard that had caught her eye had a very familiar chackra pattern. It was like one of the ones that had put the box under Gaara's bed, but what had really caught her attention were his white eyes. 'I don't recognize him,' she thought, noting that he had a Konoha forehead protector wrapped around his head.
She nudged Shikamaru and nodded towards the guard. "What's up?" he asked.
"That's one of the guys. Do you recognize him?" she asked.
"Nope. Looks like a Hyuuga though," he muttered.
"Which would explain a lot," Hinata mused, "but I know everyone in the clan. He's not in it."
"I'll send Naruto to investigate," he said, and then went to talk to Naruto. It was between fights, so things were a little more lax. It wouldn't be too weird if Naruto went to talk to that ninja. Plus, Naruto had a weird gift of either annoying people so much that they told him what he wanted to know to get rid of him, or befriending them so they tell him what he wants to know because they like him. Either way, he got things done.
Hinata felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. Something was going to happen, and it was happening now!