Chapter 3

The white lily was one of her favorite flowers. It's a symbol of innocence and also considered a flower of luck. It's meant to serve as a piece of encouragement for those who truly need it, making it the perfect piece for a trail.

Last night after cleaning herself up, she gathered five white lilies, placed them in her jacket's pocket and went back to the clearing where she found Sasuke sleeping. They had departed an hour before dawn and proceeded to walk at the same easy pace that they did yesterday. That's when she began to set her trail.

It was evening now. It wouldn't be long before he decided to set up camp again so she could tell she had less than five trees to place white petals on. Lucky was on her side because she only had one flower left. She made a mental note to gather more next time.

As she approached the thirtieth tree they had passed since her last checkpoint, she discreetly placed the petal in the joint between the protruding branch and trunk. She repeated her process once again and began counting the trees they walked by.

It was a miracle that he hadn't noticed her little pattern yet and she was grateful. If not her family, Kiba and Shino would definitely have noticed her absence by now. She was certain that a team was being gathered to search for her and would most likely leave by tomorrow morning.

The only thing that could possibly ruin her trail and demolish her hope would be a heavy thunderstorm. The torn off petals could withstand little rain, maybe even a downpour- she had made sure to stick each petal in tightly- but not something huge with rain, strong winds and lightning.

She took a quick look at the clear, dark blue skies and smiled as she counted her 22nd tree. She was fairly certain that Kiba and Shino would pick up on the trail she left. They knew she loved white lilies and had often given them to her as gifts so she could press them. She hoped that they wouldn't find her too quickly, though. This was possibly the only chance Konoha would receive to gain a lead on Orochimaru's whereabouts.

Her thoughts were interrupted by an odd feeling that plagued her chest. She frowned. She only experienced this feeling when she was on a mission and paranoid of her team being attacked. Usually, it was right.

Not taking any chances, Hinata halted her movement and activated her byakugan. She was right.

"What do you see?" she heard Sasuke ask.

"T-Ten men," she answered, a little caught off guard by his sudden attention. She knew it couldn't be Konoha ninja. Tsunade always sent out search parties in teams of four or three, never five. "They're travelling by tree and approaching at the least 20 miles per hour. Two are coming straight ahead, four are 20 feet to the two's left and the other four are flanking the right."

She deactivated her byakugan and turned to Sasuke, awaiting his order.

He gritted his teeth and motioned for her to take to the trees with him. They stood on separate branches with their eyes on the path of tree leaves before them.

Sasuke spoke quietly. "We're going to have to fight. Don't burden me and try your best to hold your own."

Hinata frowned at his harsh words and reactivated her byakugan. She may not have been as strong as him but she certainly wasn't completely weak. She could do a lot more than "hold her own."

"You take the right," Sasuke ordered. "I'll take the left and center."

Before he could leave, Hinata grabbed his wrist feebly with her gaze cast downwards. "Don't… Don't kill them please," she murmured.

Sasuke spared her a slightly puzzled look and yanked his wrist away from her grasp. He huffed and set off.

Hinata watched him leave with a frown lingering on her lips before sighing and going to face her challengers.

She eyed the group warily. There were three males and one female. Two of the men were twin redheads. No one in the group wore forehead protectors or had visible ties to whatever village they each came from. They must have been rogues.

Hinata furrowed her brows and relaxed into her fighting stance. When they finally realized that she was there, they stopped running and stopped a few branches away from her.

"Looks like you found out about us, eh?" said the grinning orange-haired woman.

The bald man wielding an iron ball and chain stepped forward. "Give us everything you own and we won't hurt you too badly."

Hinata grimaced and charged at them.

The woman sighed and frowned. "Why does everyone always choose the hard way?"

The bald man swung his ball at Hinata but she easily dodged and broke through the chain with her chakra-filled hands. She quickly seized the ball and threw it at the twin that attempted to attack her from under. The iron ball hit his pale face and mercilessly knocked him into a tree. His body fell to the ground.

Hinata jumped back and eyed the three remaining. The conscious twin was visibly nervous and the other two were frowning. She inwardly smiled to herself. They shouldn't have underestimated her.

She deactivated her byakugan, slipped into her fighting stance once again and formed two large lion-shaped shrouds of chakra around her hands. In an instant, she was before the second twin and forcefully punched him in the gut. The twin coughed up blood and flew backwards into the same tree his brother had hit. He also fell to the ground, unconscious.

The bald man attempted to kick her feet but Hinata danced around him and landed a double hit to the back of his head. He fell to the ground as well, unconscious.

The woman jumped back and clenched her teeth.

Hinata disabled her twin lion fists and enabled her byakugan. She charged for the woman, ready to attack her with her modified jyuuken when her eyes spotted the woman above her.

Hinata gritted her teeth and attacked the clone before her, making it revert to its original wooden log state. She used the tree to flip backwards and kick the woman who attempted to attack from above. It transformed into a wooden log as well.

Hinata spotted the woman below her, but it was too late to act now. She received a stinging punch to the face and winced as the woman kicked her in the stomach, sending her body flying into the ground.

As she struggled to open her eyes, byakugan no longer enabled, she noticed the woman straddling her waist and grinning. "So you're a Hyuuga, huh?" She lifted Hinata's bangs to see the girl's forehead and noted the hitai-ite around her neck. "Main branch and Konoha-bred too! Heir, maybe?" Hinata cringed. The woman smirked. "Boss would love to have your eyes."

Before Hinata could muster the strength to kick the woman off, the woman performed a set of hand seals and aimed her hand to strike Hinata's chest.

Before her hand could land, the woman was harshly kicked off of Hinata's torso.

Hinata immediately shot up and struggled to stand when she saw Sasuke standing before her. She noticed two ninja that she hadn't seen before stand before the orange haired woman, helping her to her feet. They must have been the men Sasuke was handling.

"Run as far as you can," Sasuke instructed. "I'll meet up with you later."

Hinata shook her head. "I-I can still fight. She just caught me by surprise."

Sasuke eyed her with his signature frown. She noticed that his sharingan wasn't activated. She wondered if he had even used it all. "I don't care," Sasuke said. "Leave."

Hinata frowned and unwillingly nodded. Arguing was pointless. She turned to run and didn't look back. The last thing she could hear was the sound of Sasuke's chidori cracking.

Sasuke sheathed his katana and eyed the three before him. How annoying.

Lazily, he lolled his head to the side as he channeled a large amount of lightning chakra into his hand. The three visibly stiffened.

"There are two ways this can go," Sasuke announced, bored. "You can either tell me everything I want to know and then I decide your fate, or you can resist, get injured to the point of no recovery and I'd still make you tell me everything I want to know. Decide."

They went on the offensive and charged after him.

Sasuke sighed. No one ever appreciated his random acts of kindness.

Hinata winced at the throbbing of her left eye. Though she had attempted to heal the blackening bruise, there was still a distinct mark left on her face. It wouldn't permanently mar her features and could be fully healed if she applied some of her healing balm to it but she was too preoccupied with worrying to even think of gathering herbs.

It had been an hour since she'd last seen Sasuke and it was getting really dark too. She knew he was more than capable of defending himself but she couldn't help it. What if the enemy had backup? What if Sasuke was their target all along? What if they wanted her to leave so they could capture Sasuke for themselves?

Hinata nervously bit her lip. She shouldn't have left his side.

She began to pace. If Sasuke had been caught, that would mean she would be free to go back home. In fact, she could leave right now. He wasn't here and her byakugan had a wide field of vision. She could go back home without having to remotely cross paths with him on the way back.

She crossed her arms and shook her head. She couldn't leave. She had to remember her village and friends.

She activated her byakugan and inspected the perimeter. He still wasn't coming back yet. She closed her eyes and looked at the trees before her longingly, hoping he would magically materialize out of thin air.

Sasuke, where are you?

Three bodies lay before him, unconscious.

"Don't… Don't kill them please."

Sasuke scoffed. The Hyuuga was annoying- tolerable, yes, but still annoying.

The three he had faced an hour ago were even more annoying. He narrowed his eyes at the orange haired woman. She had been especially annoying. How the hell was he supposed to know that she could control blood?

Knocking out the two men was ridiculously easy but she managed to put up a somewhat mediocre fight thanks to her troublesome kekke genkai. He nearly had to use his own kekke genkai as well to finally get her to stop being so irritating.

He stooped down to view the lady's rather youthful face- she couldn't be more than 23 years old- and used his fingers to pry her red eyes open.

Lazily, the Uchiha activated his sharingan. "How did you find us?"

Under his hypnosis, the unconscious woman responded. "Karu found a trail. We were following it."

Sasuke raised an eyebrow. "A trail?"

"Yes," she answered. "There was a petal of a white lily placed on every thirtieth tree we passed."

Sasuke frowned. This would be the annoying Hyuuga's fault. "How far does the trail go?"

"It begins near a river close to Konoha."

Sasuke full-on scowled. It would take him a whole day to eradicate that trail's existence and there was no doubt that the old hag that was Hokage had already sent out a search party to find the Hyuuga. They could have found the trail already and he didn't even know if the Hyuuga had run away or not. By now, she could already be on her way back to Konoha. Fetching her again would just be an unnecessary hassle.

He grounded his teeth together. "Do you work for anyone?"

"No, we're rogues. We attacked you because we thought you'd have money or food."

Sasuke rose from his crouched position and proceeded to move towards the other unconscious ninjas. He was highly annoyed.

Hinata fiddled with her hair as she waited for Sasuke to come back. What could possibly be taking him so long?

"You're here."

Hinata whipped her head around to see Sasuke. He wasn't badly bruised or limping like her imagination had depicted him to be. He looked perfectly fine. She sighed one of relief and he stared at her quizzically.

"I-I was worried," she mumbled as she stared at her feet.

She heard him snort and walk by her. He dropped his katana to the ground and lay on the grass.

Hinata followed his lead and found her own spot to rest on. His back was turned to her so she focused on his black hair.

"A-Are you hurt?" she asked quietly.

He didn't answer her.

She chewed on her lip. "D-Did you… k-kill anyone?"

He ignored her.

Hinata looked down dejectedly. She didn't mean to pry but she was worried. The least he could do was appease her anxiety-ridden conscious.

"Go to sleep, Hyuuga," came his late reply.

Hinata closed her eyes but couldn't fully asleep. It was quiet for a while before Sasuke spoke again.

"And no… I didn't kill anyone. There's only one person I wish to kill."

Author's Note: Hopefully, you all know the time period this little scrimmage is taking place in. (if you haven't gotten my little hints it's around the time the akatsuki go after gaara and whatnot) It's important cause it explains why Sasuke won't be so insane and homicidal in this story. He's just the brooding one track minded Uchiha we all used to love before tobi fucked him up