Once upon a time, there was a princess who was kidnapped.
She was terrified of the diplomats from the neighboring Sky Kingdom, but that was nothing out of the ordinary. Even though the princess already excelled in training, she knew she was still too weak to defend herself without a weapon. At night, the princess tried to sleep outside her bedroom next to the guard, but the king became angered and ordered her to bed. So for the next few nights, she forced herself to stay awake at night, clutching the late queen's sewing scissors. But gradually, the exhaustion overwhelmed her, and she succumbed to slumber.
The princess never felt the small prick of poison at her neck.
The next morning, the maid found an empty bed guarded by a corpse. The king sent out countless teams of ninja, even as he had the castle staff tearing apart the castle searching for the lost princess. There was no trace left of the Sky diplomats nor the princess. They had taken her far, far away.
It was three long weeks before a bloodstained team led by the king's brother carried the princess back. She was still alive. The king called her name, but she would not wake from her drugged sleep. The Sky ninja who had stolen her away had used a common chakra suppressant, but the princess was much too young to fight off the effects of such a high dosage. The Hyuuga and their healers could only watch as the princess' chakra slowly shied from existence.
And so the kingdom feared for their princess's life.
Prey for the Hunted
By Airyo
Chapter 3
Hinata was caught between the urge to sigh in relief or exasperation.
They thought she was a prepubescent boy.
She'd been asleep, but their quiet conversation tugged her back out of the fog of her rest. It was interesting to follow their thought process, as flawed as it was. The medic had been close, but the Uchiha's logic was actually a stronger argument. If she wasn't privy to the truth, Hinata would have agreed with him.
Though it made her feel safer around the ninja, it was no time for her to be complacent. The ambush had further emphasized her lack of skill compared to them. The long years of placing herself as the hunter of smaller prey has skewed her own sense of strength. In the bounty circles, Hinata was easily one of the stronger hunters. A dozen bandits should only be a mild obstacle, but those had not been the usual untrained ruffians that populated the area.
The attack on Areno was an anomaly that could have been dismissed by itself. It wasn't that unimaginable that a group of raiders discovered the benefits of organization and started training together. But the ambushing bandits and raiders were originally separated in two very distinct niches. A broadscale organization of so many bandits was far more worrisome.
Someone was training them, and organizing them into a semblance of an army. Hinata didn't know how long this has been going on as she was very good at avoiding notice or combat unless absolutely necessary. Just in the past week, she'd already fought more battles than she normally did over the course of a month. Her body was still protesting the abuse.
Hinata was no fool. The desert was transforming into a foreign world. Granted, the ninja had dragged her into the situations in the first place, but it was a splash of cold water that she needed. At least they wanted her alive and protected her, which would have not been the case if Hinata had stumbled on such situations on her own. Now that she was relieved of the immediate fear that they would discover her identity, it might actually behoove her to stick around and figure out why things were changing after so many years. Too many things pointed to political turmoil that threatened her hiding place: the renewed search for the long-lost Moon Princess, the high-level ninja team with the Crown Prince himself, and now the organization of the sand bandits who terrorized the only barrier between the feuding Sun and Moon Kingdoms.
The logic was sound, but that didn't mean Hinata had to like her decision. She only managed a few hours of sleep that night, all too aware of the rotating guard of the people who had become both her protectors and her enemies.
Sado's unchanged appearance reminded her that only two days had passed. It already felt like years. Hinata shifted her bundle of target heads and caught a whiff of decaying flesh. Certainly smelled like it too. She dumped the lot on the counter and watched with a sharp eye as the official picked out her payment. She added the bounty to her already swollen coin bag. With this amount added to the money Sasuke gave her, Hinata had enough for several months worth of food. She almost felt rich.
"Why do you even need those bounties? That's enough for feed a small family for a year," Naruto commented. Hinata nodded. For a normal small family deep in the Sun Kingdom where food and water were far cheaper. And she needed far more sustenance than a normal civilian. "I guess that means you can afford to treat us?"
Hinata shook her head and waved him away like an annoying fly. The blonde was kind of funny once she learned how to ignore his obvious dislike for her career choice.
"Cheapskate."
Hinata ignored them as the group filed back into the main area of the tavern. After living in Sado for so long, the ninja could actually stomach the food here, and Sasuke ordered a hearty breakfast for all of them.
"We got the bracelet from an intermediate party," Sakura explained as she sipped her stew with a grimace. "Several months back, I contacted the seller in Areno, and was told to meet here a few weeks ago. They mentioned you. The long wait time was suspicious, but it gave Naruto and me time to slowly infiltrate Sado. Nonetheless, we couldn't track down the seller who hid the bracelet at the designated place. That led us to believe that it was the Moon Princess herself, who perhaps needed the money but wanted to keep her identity hidden. Regardless, the next best bet was to hire you. However, you rarely come in to town, so it was just a waiting game up until now. "
Hinata munched on her bread as she thought. How in the world was she going to convince them she wasn't who she was? Or that the person they thought she was wasn't the person they were looking for? It made her head hurt. Rather than try to lead them anywhere, they had hired her as a guide. Maybe she could "guide" them until the ninja came to their own conclusions. Hinata pulled out her notebook.
"Gosip," she wrote in rough letters.
"What do you think we've been doing these past months?" Sasuke snarled. He looked insulted. Hinata sighed and wrote another word.
"Hoors."
"Watch your language!" Sasuke and Naruto had to restrain Sakura. Hinata restrained herself from banging her head against the table. She pointed in the direction of the brothel next door.
"No. Not that," Sakura said flatly. Hinata regarded her carefully. "Sumire wasn't just a bar wench." Hinata nodded. They weren't going to buy this routine then. She scratched out her previous suggestions and wrote "Smyth" underneath it. From the looks on their faces, they hadn't bothered to consult Roshi yet.
"Why would we need to?"
"You'll see," Hinata gestured as she led them out the tavern.
Roshi's smithy was on the other side of town, but it was only a ten-minute walk. The burly man was repairing a sword when they approached his workshop. They waited until he dunked the glowing iron into a bucket of water. The red-hot blade hissed like an angry snake and steam curled up around his tall frame, obscuring everything except his bright crimson hair. He looked them as he set down his project and removed his thick leather gloves.
"What do you want, little hunter?" he looked at Hinata, ignoring the other three behind her. Sasuke produced the bracelet.
"I am tracking the owner of this bauble," he said. "I will pay handsomely if you would give me useful information." Roshi glanced Hinata as if to ask if she was joking. She motioned for him to accept the offer.
"Very well," he grumbled. The smith waved them into his workshop and took the delicate accessory between broad, gentle fingers. He gave a low whistle as he turned it in the light. "A lot of sparklies on this one, that's for sure."
"Yes, but can you tell us anything?" Sakura pressed. The muscular smith rubbed his stubble as he squinted at the tiny band.
"Hard times, if the tiny lady had to sell even this," he said. The bracelet looked like a child's in his enormous palm. "Worth maybe 20 silvers?" Hinata frowned indignantly. Her bracelet had more sentimental value, but she hadn't realized that the precious stone market had collapsed so badly.
"I'm not here for a pricing," Sasuke sneered, wearing his noble demeanor like a cape. Hinata fought the urge to sigh. That act wasn't going to get anything more out of Roshi. The old man hated posturing almost more than he hated nobles.
"That's all I can give you," the smith said coldly. He handed the bracelet back to Hinata, outright ignoring the Uchiha. "And little hunter, stop bringing me all these foolish side jobs. Visit me sometime before your glaive fails on you."
It was clear dismissal, and something about the hard gleam in Roshi's eyes convinced the ninja to let the subject go. Hinata thought hard as they walked out. The gruff smith never invited her to visit him. Half the time, he tried to kick her out after she bargained too harshly for repairs. The smith was trying to warn her about something. It sounded like he, too was aware of the unusual bandits that were starting to take over the area.
She already knew that. Personally, since the ninja seemed to take pleasure in dragging her into just about every big event that occurred in the area. Annoyed that Roshi couldn't be a little more cryptic and give the ninja some bait to chase after, Hinata led them a few more common places for information.
In the end, Hinata wasn't surprised by their failure to find much of anything. She was a bounty hunter, not a magician, and the trail of the mysterious seller was weeks old. Fortunately, the ninja were not unreasonable. So while frustrated, they did not blame her.
They gathered again in the tavern for dinner, tucked away in a corner table. It was early enough that the truly boisterous had yet to venture out, but late enough that there was danger of an encounter with them. The Uchiha would be remembered, as he probably had to fight his way out of that bar brawl.
It was a more tiring day than she thought. While she usually found tavern food mostly edible, the stew looked outright palatable in the dimming evening light. Hinata was that hungry. She tucked in with gusto, though not forgetting her disgusting habits in front of the ninja. But even her table manners were not enough deter the ninja from a good meal, and the table was silent save for the sounds of eating.
The tavern food was quite delicious today - she could even tell the difference between the chunks of meat and vegetables. Hinata slowed her pace, suspicion settling like a large lead ball in her stomach. No, it wasn't paranoia that stilled her - her limbs were responding too slowly. The ninja hadn't noticed yet.
CRASH!
Hinata knocked the bowl over, glaring over at the bar wench who'd served them. The waitress only lifted an knowing eyebrow.
Poison.
"Wait, Hunter, what's -?"
Several people were sneaking up on the ninja.
Hinata blacked out before she could warn them.
She woke to agony along her shoulders. She was lying on her stomach, with hands and feet all tied together one big knot behind her. Her hood had fallen forward, covering her sight. Hinata gritted her teeth. She was really starting to tire of waking up in uncomfortable positions like this.
"You're awake." It took her several moments to search through the fog in her mind to recognize the dry tone. The recent events came rushing back to her. Sun Prince. Sasuke. Poison. Hinata rolled to her side and flipped the hood up from her eyes. At least their captors left her veil in place.
They were in cells. The sandy walls appeared dark brown in the low lighting, but the bars gleamed of new metal. The prince was reclined in the cell across the hall from her. His hands were cuffed in front of him, separate from ties that hobbled his ankles together.
"I didn't start out like this," he added when he saw where she was looking. His hair was mussed, and there was a long scrape of dirt along his cheek. "So any idea where we are?"
It was near impossible to shrug with her face in the dirt and shoulders contorted back, but he got the message. Hinata strained her arms back, giving her some room to dig into her boot. As she'd hoped, her captors had missed the hidden dagger tucked in her shoe when they stripped her of her weapons. The greedy bastards had also taken her money. Hinata grimaced from a mixture of pain and frustration. Several moments later, she had maneuvered the blade into her hand. She twisted her hand and sawed at the knot that tied her feet to her arms, fingers slippery from sweat. Her back muscles were going numb from the effort. The last few strands of the rope snapped, and Hinata groaned with relief when her legs and spine curled away from their unnatural position. She lied there for a few breaths, relishing the feeling of renewing circulation.
Then she rolled herself to the wall of her cell, and use it as support to struggle to her feet. She leaped high in the air and swung her hands underneath to in front of her. She stared at her cuffs.
"They're chakra binders," Sasuke explained with a resigned sigh.
"They put those on him too?" Sakura's voice echoed down from the cell next to hers. "Unfortunately, these chakra binders aren't normal. They work even if you have the minimal levels to barely stay alive."
Hinata knew that. That wasn't why she was surprised. These chakra cuffs were from the Moon Kingdom. She'd even used them before she had been chased out of the kingdom. They used the prisoner's own chakra to power the strength of the metal-reinforced cuffs, creating a devastating positive feedback loop designed to contain powerhouses and chakra specialists.
Designed for anyone but her.
If she remembered correctly, there was a fail-safe built into the binders that she could exploit. Hinata sat down and wedged her tanto into a crack into the ground so the blade pointed up. She started to manipulate her chakra in a pattern that strained her coils. Aiming carefully, she then slammed her wrists down on the weapon. Her chakra flickered dangerously as the binders tried to suction off her reserves, but she repeated the action again and again. Her wrists quickly grew numb from the jarring impacts, but her gloves protected against any further damage.
"Hunter! What are you doing?" Sakura was yelling over the screech of metal against metal. "It's useless. You're just -"
Crack.
With a smirk, Hinata twisted her arms. The cuffs fell to the ground in pieces. She dug the battered dagger out of the ground and picked the lock through the bars. The bars had been spaced so it was impossible to fit her hands through when encumbered with the chakra binders, but there just enough space one slim hand. The cell door swung open.
"Awesome! Now you can bust us out of here!" Naruto was cheering.
Hinata walked past them to the dungeon door.
"Wait! Asshole! Get back here! You cannot be leaving!"
"Hunter. This place is filled with soldiers. Do you really think they would leave someone like me unguarded? You need us to fight your way out." Which was why she couldn't possibly take them. She had no idea what was on the other side of the door, but their captors clearly went to a lot of trouble to secure the Crown Prince, and they would not be willing to let him escape. A lowly bounty hunter, however, would not be worth the effort. Furthermore, a high profile hostage like Uchiha Sasuke would not be harmed. He was worth far more alive. She was not going to let yet another golden opportunity to escape these ninja slip through her fingers. The chakra binders also had a convenient side-effect of siphoning away any chakra techniques on the prisoner. Sakura's tag was no longer a problem.
Hinata pulled the heavy wooden door open.
"How could you -"
She slammed the door shut, cutting off their protests. She was not the hero here. Cowards don't save people. Her priority was and is to survive. Assess the situation. Arm herself. Escape. That was what she did best.
Hinata pushed her doubts to the back of her mind and looked around. She was in dark hallway made of a similar sandstone material as in the cell. It reminded her of the abandoned castles she sometimes came across in the desert. So they hadn't gone far. High above her head, there were thick wooden rafters supporting the ceiling.
There were faint voices approaching. Hinata tensed her legs and leaped up among the thick wooden beams. She had time to reverse her cloak so she was shrouded in dark fabric. Two guards clanked down the corridor. Hinata stood motionless, watching as they passed beneath her. They were wearing dark blue armor with the crescent insignia of the Moon Kingdom. Only when she was sure they're left hearing range, she carefully jumped from beam to beam in the same direction down the hall. If she followed just behind the soldiers along the patrol pattern, she was far less likely be to discovered.
As she slowly navigated herself through the castle, it was quickly becoming clear that this was indeed one of the abandoned desert fortresses. However, it was suspicious that the Moon soldiers would occupy a place in Sun territory. The Moon border ended at the mountains. Had things disentegrated so badly since she'd left? The reek of souring relations was filling the air.
Once Hinata left the lower levels of the dungeons, the security loosened significantly. Aided by this new freedom, Hinata easily found the armory within the hour. After insuring the lack of any guards, she dropped down the ground with a soft flutter of her cloak. The armory door was unlocked. She slipped inside, and gasped.
Racks after rack of weapons filled the room. There was enough weaponry here to outfit an entire battalion. While this wasn't good news for the Sun Kingdom, it was good news for her. Hinata used the standard issue weapons she'd taken with her from Moon. They were durable, familiar, and easy to make nondescript. At least she got a free weapon upgrade from this whole fiasco. She quickly filled her empty supply pouches with kunai and tanto, as well as tying a katana and wakizashi to her belt. She took her time search among the long racks of gleaming naginata, as it would be her primary weapon. Just as she made her decision, footsteps alerted her to approaching soldiers. There was no place to hide, so Hinata ducked behind the racks and pulled her dark cloak tight around her so she blended into the shadows.
"...can't believe someone hired us for this," a bearded samurai was saying with a laugh.
"Yer too stupid to understand politics," his companion said. He slicked back his oily hair. "I'm just here for the pay and the pussy. Broads love a man in uniform."
Beard snickered as he gathered an armful of quivers and bows. "So much they can't wait to get us out of 'em." He made a suggestive movement of his hips and Oily slapped him with a roar of laughter.
"Best kind'o uniform. If I had it my way for the broads, no uniform..."
"or clothes at all!" They finished together with a leering grin and boisterous rounds of manly slapping. The two finished gathering their weapons and exited, never noticing the eavesdropper behind the rack of katana.
Hinata stepped out with a curl of her lip. This put new spin on her situation. She was no stranger to disgusting talk like that, but their accents were too distinct for her to shake her head and just leave. The king's soldiers came from the noble samurai clans, and no such clan from Sun, Moon, nor anywhere would speak like they're from the Border.
Someone was hiring mercenaries to pose as the Moon Kingdom.
But who? There was a simple way to find out.
"Soldiers, a moment please," Hinata called out. Her voice was rough from disuse and long years in the desert. It gave her the authority that she needed.
"Huh? Whozzat? How'd he get in there?" The two false soldiers swaggered back into the armory.
"Who're you?" Oily sneered. The Moon armor gave him confidence. Hinata looked down her nose at them.
"He looks like that hobo hunter that came in with the prince."
"Insolent dogs," she snarled, purposely pitching her voice low. "Do you not recognize me?" Her gloves hid her trembling hands as Hinata reached up and unveiled her Byakugan.
The effect was immediate.
"F-forgive us, Lord Hyuuga!" Beard stuttered as he kneeled to the ground, his armful of swords clattering to the ground. "We didn't know it w-was you."
"P-please spare us!" Oily begged, forehead pressed to the floor.
"Silence, or you want to join the Uchiha brat?" She imitated her father's displeased hiss.
"No! NO! Please don't kill us!" Oily squealed.
"Shut up," Hinata spat, only half acting.
The two obeyed, faces still low to the ground. It was too simple to strike their heads with her heel and render them unconscious. She sank to her knees and deactivated her bloodline limit. With numb hands, she retied her veil in place.
Suddenly leaving the ninja behind was no longer something she could justify to herself. Oily and Beard had confirmed all her worst fears. Someone from the Hyuuga clan was forcing the Moon Kingdom to war. Why else would the mercenaries react to the Byakugan like that? The false strong hold was too close to the edge of the Sun Kingdom to be ignored. And from the sound of it, the assassination of the Crown Prince would be the spark to set the explosion.
"And little hunter, stop bringing me all these foolish side jobs." Roshi's odd phrasing came back to her. Foolish. Was he talking about her gold bracelet? Fool's gold? Hinata fought the urge to groan at such a badly cobbled pun of a warning. If she survived this, she was going to have a long talk with the smith. But that would explain several things if the bracelet was a fake.
She paused to grab three more katana before rushing out of the room. The other mercenaries would be missing Oily and Beard soon. She had to hurry.
That damned hunter really was useless.
Sasuke tried to summon a flicker of chakra, and growled when it fizzled out like an underwater flame. The hunter actually had the gall to just leave them stranded like this. He doubted much harm would come to them, given his high profile, but it was really annoying to have to try to think of a way to escape.
"Give it up, Sasuke," Sakura called from a few cells down. "I can't figure how the hunter managed to crack the binders. From what I can tell, the only way these things can come off is if you lower your chakra to the level of a dead person."
"He certainly has the heart of a dead person," Naruto groused. "The Fuzzball can't do anything either. I tried overfilling the thing, but it's not holding the chakra..."
"It's fusing with it," finished Sasuke. His irritation was quickly dissipated and dread trickled in like cold ice. "So the more we struggle, the stronger these get." Who orchestrated such a capture? The poison in the food had been undetectable, the chakra binders are unbreakable, and there just happened to be a convenient dungeon only a few hours away from the team's current location?
"The hunter was a goddamned plant, wasn't he." Naruto voiced his conclusion with twice the venom.
"Possible. Not our current issue, though. We need to find a way out of here. Sakura."
"Working on it," snapped the medic. It was a testament to how bleak their situation was starting to appear that the chatty kunoichi didn't go on to explain her thought process. Long minutes ticked by as Sasuke tried a multitude of things with his chakra, but only succeeded in contributing most of his chakra towards making the cuffs stronger.
A crash made them all jump.
"Dead Last! Hitting them won't work!"
"Naruto! Let me concentrate!"
"Um...it wasn't me." Sasuke leaned against the bars to see Naruto staring at the doorway. The hunter was back, and now armed to the teeth.
"What the hell are you doing back here, Asshole? Here to gloat?" Naruto threw himself against the bars.
"Please be silent, Naruto. We don't have time for this." The hunter's voice was rough from the elements, but still had the high tones of a very young boy. He was purposely pitching his voice so it was hard to learn anything else from it.
The shock of hearing the hunter's voice was enough to make them obey. The hunter dropped the extra weapons in his arms to the ground with a clang and picked the lock to Sasuke's cell.
He pointed to where Sasuke kept the bracelet. The prince didn't respond, so the hunter reached for the left hip pocket.
"No. Explain yourself. What is going on?" Sasuke struggled to evade the hunter, but the younger boy was too quick. The hunter withdrew the bracelet and held it in the dim light. He turned it slowly, admiring the delicate design. Sasuke was getting a very clear idea of why the hunter returned.
"Sasuke? What's going on?" Sakura's voice floated down the hall.
"He's back for the bracelet," the Uchiha replied flatly. "This is-"
The hunter smashed the bracelet against the wall.
It crumbled to dust in his hand. The diamonds bounced out of their settings. One of them rolled to Sasuke, and he could see the cheap adhesive. The hunter held out the rest of the bracelet, showing the prince the jagged edges of porcelain. It was supposed to be gold.
"The bracelet's a fake," Sasuke whispered. His teammates couldn't hear him, and both started demanding clarification.
"I said," the Uchiha yelled. "The bracelet is a fake. It was a trap all along."
"But we got it checked out!" Naruto protested. "Even before that rude smithy-dude!"
"The smith tried to warn me, but I did not understand until now," the hunter said to Sasuke. The prince nodded. "I believe you. Will you please help us?" It always hurt his pride to have to ask for help, but he knew that this was a dire situation. This scale of planning always indicated that high powers were dabbling their fingers in the game.
The hunter nodded. He placed his hands on Sasuke's arm. The prince jumped as he felt flickering chakra against his skin. The foreign chakra jumped and twitched like the heart of a rabbit, seeming to vibrate itself out of existence. Like the chakra of someone dying of chakra exhaustion. Sasuke understood.
"So it's not the actual levels but the pattern...do that, and when it weakens, smash the cuffs?"
The hunter nodded again. Sasuke got to work as the hunter unlocked the doors of his teammates and showed them what to do. Within minutes, the ninja were free. The hunter motioned to the extra weapons he brought them.
"How many are coming?" The hunter shrugged, falling back into his taciturn ways. Sasuke narrowed his eyes with annoyance. "Brat, we know you can talk. Tell us what's going on."
"Someone hired mercs to impersonate Moon soldiers. And kill you."
"So someone's trying to start another war," Naruto said with disgust. "Who the hell would want that? And why?"
"I think the answer to that would be key to many of our problems," mused Sakura. The hunter hushed her, gestured that they should go.
"Later. Team, our priority is to leave this place and reassess the situation. We must ensure that we do not become burdens for our kingdom. Do you know the shortest way out?"
"No, only went for the weapons." The hunter shook his head as he patted his naginata. Sasuke nodded, thinking quickly. It was no use to blindly search an entire castle that was filled with mercenaries looking for them. Better to hide themselves and then find the best escape route.
Sasuke opened the dungeon door and scanned the hallway. No one was around. The thick wooden beams supporting the ceiling would be sufficient cover for them. He waved his teammates and the hunter after him, and they leaped to the rafters with soft taps. Sasuke found himself impressed that the hunter was just as quiet as they were, even though he didn't feel a telltale flare of chakra.
Sakura hid their presence with genjutsu while Naruto kept a lookout for guards. Sasuke flipped through the seals for a summoning. Several ravens, with Mozou among them, appeared with a puff of smoke.
"What do you -" Sasuke pinched his beak shut. The raven hopped up and down angrily, trying to displace his fingers.
"Shut up, featherbrain. I need you to mark out something for me. We're in enemy territory." The raven looked at them, and made a strange noise. The flock of dark birds suddenly dive-bombed the hunter, pecking furiously at any bit of flesh not protected by leather armor. The hunter stumbled from shock, but recovered enough to defend himself, sending many back to the spirit realm.
"Stop, stop, stop!" Sasuke hissed. He massaged in between his eyes with his free hand, feeling a migraine forming. "He is not the enemy. We are in enemy territory. Stop randomly attacking people, or I will have the cook bake you in a pie." Mozou yanked his beak out of Sasuke's grip and pecked his hand hard enough to draw blood. It was such a common occurrence that he just extended the injured hand to Sakura and she healed it without a word.
"Stop speaking so ambiguously then," the raven scolded. But despite his grumpy attitude, the bird took pride in his association with the Uchiha clan. "What do you need?"
"Find the closest exit with the least number of guards." Mozou took flight, calling the rest of the flock after him. They faded into the shadows on silent wings. Sasuke turned to the hunter with irritated sigh. "They can be hard to control."
"Quite an understatement." The hunter tilted his head mockingly. He had been rubbing his upper arm as if in pain.
"Sakura, heal him." The hunter backed away from the medic, shaking his head.
"It won't hurt, I promise," the pink-haired girl was assuring him.
"Guys, incoming," Naruto hissed. They all froze, ears straining for the sounds of the patrol. While Sakura's genjutsu muffled signs of their presence, it wouldn't do to strain the limits of the technique. They watched as the guards marched past.
"They look like Moon kingdom soldiers," Sakura commented in low voice. The hunter shook his head. He looked at Sasuke and made the motion of biting his thumb for a summoning. Then he tossed a pebble so it clattered noisily.
"What was that?" one of the guards snapped. Sasuke understood, and quickly summoned a low level raven. It flew through the air, cawing its displeasure and confusion.
"Just a bird. Stop being so damn jumpy." The guards lost interest and turned the corner.
"That wasn't a Moon kingdom accent, was that?" Sakura asked softly. The hunter shook his head. Before they could discuss further, Mozou returned and landed on Sasuke's shoulder.
"Let's get moving, kid."
They followed Mozou in efficient silence. They were nearly discovered a few times, but a quick genjutsu and an ability to stand perfectly served them well. At this point, Sasuke also made a mental note to figure out the hunter's background, because no one was naturally able to be blend into their background that well.
Eventually, they snuck into an enormous atrium. There were no windows except one thin slit of light on the other side of the circular room. Towering pillars supported the walls, though several had already collapsed. The vaulted dome ceiling was marked with sweeping sandstone flourishes that ended abruptly at the jagged hole in the middle. Angled rays of blushing sunset pointed through the rough skylight to the intricate designs inlaid in the marble floor.
"Wow," whispered Sakura reverently. "It must have been beautiful. I didn't know such place existed."
"It's an abandoned Sky kingdom castle." Sasuke recognized the swirling designs on the pillars from his history lessons. The pink-haired girl stiffened, recalling bad memories.
"Let's just get out of here," she spat. Naruto had a similar grimace of unease.
They tread softly across the marble floor, as the vast space of the atrium echoed back every little sound. The lone window revealed that they were high above the endless waves of sand dunes. Sasuke stopped them in front of it.
"It seems too easy after the kind of planning to capture us. You didn't sense any tricks, Mozou?" Sasuke asked. The bird nodded and darted outside to hover in the air.
"It's a long drop, but it shouldn't be a problem for any of you except the weird dark one over there." The hunter leaned his head out to look at the drop down and shook his head to disagree.
"I'll survive." Mozou shrugged.
"Good, we will-"
An explosion shook the entire castle.
The hunter pitched forward and fell through the window. He twisted like a cat in mid-air, barely catching the ledge with one hand even as Sasuke reached to catch him.
"Isn't it rude to leave without say goodbye, yeah?" Sasuke looked up to see an enormous bird flutter through the hole in the ceiling. There was blonde boy wearing a dark cloak on top of it. Even from across the room, he could sense that this was no mere lackey to be dispensed of with a blow to the head. Sasuke activated his Sharingan. The red clouds on the cloak seemed to glow in his enhanced vision.
"Akatsuki," snarled Naruto. They were the most notorious missing-nin group in all the kingdoms, known for collecting illegal bounties for whomever was willing to pay them. "Back for me again, huh?"
"Mozou, get help," Sasuke snapped. The raven dispelled without a word.
They were in trouble. He knew how powerful the Akatsuki members were - these were the guys who'd managed to capture Naruto and Sakura before. Right now, the three of them were severely low on chakra and only had a standard-issue katana each. He still felt vaguely woozy from the poison from earlier as well. The Uchiha made a quick decision.
"Avalanche formation," Sasuke barked. Sakura nodded, pulling on her gloves with a snap, while Naruto filled the room with clones that climbed the walls to attack the Akatsuki. He rained bombs on the masses, making the entire castle shake. While the missing-nin was distracted, the prince turned back to the window. The hunter had managed to pull himself up so both his elbows hooked over the stone frame.
"This is where we part," Sasuke told him. The hunter looked at him incredulously. Sasuke pulled out a pad of chakra paper and wrote a quick note on it before sealing it with his chakra signature. He tucked it into the cuff of the hunter's glove. "You're just going to get in the way. This is a note for 2000 silvers, the amount originally promised to you." If the hunter dared to venture into the heart of Sun territory, that is. The only places he could redeem such a note was from a sanctioned Sun bank. "A deed for a deed. You may go."
Sasuke placed two fingers to the hunter's forehead and pushed him off the ledge. He didn't waste time watching the hunter fall.
"That was kind of a jerk move," Naruto muttered distractedly. Both he and Sakura waited for Sasuke's signal.
"He's not worth my interest if he can't even survive that," the Uchiha dismissed. "Besides, the twerp is like a damn cat - probably has nine lives if he's been thriving out here. Why do you care?" Naruto shrugged.
"Asshole's not that bad as far as bounty hunters go." He jerked his thumb at the other blonde boy. "Unlike this sonnuvabitch."
"Oi! You ignore me and now you call me rude names, yeah! Name's Deidara, yeah," the blonde boy huffed.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Sasuke mocked. "You sound like the chorus of a bad love song." He suddenly appeared right underneath Deidara's bird with a fully charged Chidori. "And you were the one not paying attention." I've already been standing here for a while. He leaped and the Chidori extended like a whip of lightening that he used to cleave the white bird in half. Deidara flipped off his ride before it exploded, only to meet Naruto's Rasengan in mid-air. The Akatsuki tossed several white spiders towards Naruto.
"Katsu!"
The explosion was enough to change his trajectory, and Deidara landed on another winged creation. He looked down at the prince on the ground.
"So this is the Sharingan. I didn't notice the genjutsu, yeah."
She's in place.
"You still haven't," Sasuke sneered as his afterimage disappeared again. He and Sakura abruptly dropped down on Deidara. Sasuke attacked with the katana even as Sakura herded the Akatsuki towards him. The bird exploded, knocking the two Sun ninja off their feet and they fell back to the ground. The Akatsuki flipped back on to another of his winged bombs. Damn, he can make those at will. Need to get rid of those arms.
Sasuke tucked into a neat tumble as he landed, barely able to dodge the hail of tiny bombs that followed him. The atrium architecture groaned under the stress of the bombings, scattering dust down on them. He sped up along a crumbling pillar, flickering through the seals for a fire jutsu. He pushed off from the column when he was level with Deidara and spat a long stream of flames. Dead-Last, you better get this right. The blonde's bird easily swooped out of the way, only to barely wheel out of the way of several Narutos who closed in from all directions.
With a smirk, the Akatsuki reached into his pouch as he steered his ride out of the mass of clones. He realized that he couldn't move his hands – the medic hidden by Sasuke's genjutsu had severed his nerves. She jumped off the bird and landed on the wall next to one of the beams holding up what remained of the ceiling. Deidara snarled and detonated his enormous clay bird.
"Now!" Sasuke bellowed. Simultaneously, all three ninja destroyed the support beams they'd maneuvered themselves next to.
The atrium collapsed in on them.
AN: Hinata didn't die, in case you were wondering. I wouldn't have much of a story to write otherwise. XD
I decided not to show Sasuke's full thought process in his battles, because with genjutsu, he's not where you think he is 98% of the time. So I'm trying to show a blend of how he is perceived by the enemy and his actual actions. Otherwise, you will probably be bored to death as he stands there and glares his enemy to death (okay exaggeration, but still...)
And I'm trying to show that he's actually a capable leader. Even if he is an ass.
