"Where have you been!"

"We were worried sick!"

"Did you get hurt?"

"Ran into any trouble?"

"Arf! Arf! Arf!"

Hinata was getting sick of the whole questions thing so she plain out said that she's alright and they all believed her. Same with Gaara, but no one questioned him about it. It was night time and all of them decided to set up camp. All of them decided to work together to get through the Forest Of Death but Hinata thought that the forest was familiar to her. Whenever she stared at the trees, she would find marks that resembles parts of her past that she can't seem to remember. Gaara found her looking at marks and placed a hand on her shoulder. She didn't turn around to look at him. She just continued to look at the marks.

(Flashback)

The place was verdant and covered with many, many cherry blossom trees. Seven year old Hinata wasn't fond of cherry blossoms, so she would occasionally kill a leaf or two from the tree. She threw a kunai at it but the kunai got stopped by another. Her eyes shifted to the side to see her sensei. Gosh, has anyone ever told her sensei that his snake was creepy?

"Killing leaves again Hinata?" her sensei asked intrigued.

"They're not worth to be up a tree... Orochimaru-sensei..." Hinata answered dully.

Orochimaru held a cherry blossom up and made it blow away. Hinata watched as the flower blew away towards the sun's direction. She closed her eyes and pinched her temple in pity for the cherry blossoms. She always wanted to see a Kuro Buttercup Tree than a Sakura Tree. However, she's stuck to being in this field, trapped by pink and white, and three other snake tamers who are also under Orochimaru's wing.

"Orochimaru-sensei! Orochimaru-sensei!" screamed a girl voice.

"Yes Tsuki?" Orochimaru asked, turning around.

Eight year old Tsuki Kenshin was holding a huge snake with two boys holding the end. She was smirking at Hinata, who only caught four snakes in a lifetime and stopped because she thought snakes were too much trouble. Tsuki, Kaito, and Maito caught a total of thirty four snakes in their lifetime and were proud snake tamers. Hinata was only here under Orochimaru's wing to train. Not to be using cheap tricks with snakes to get ahead. Hinata looked at a sign in boredom that said...

(Flashback Ends)

Hinata couldn't make out that sign she saw when she was seven. All she remembered was Kaito and Maito, two snake tamers that kept Tsuki far away from her even though Tsuki asked to be her friend and let her pet her snake. They stopped being friends when Hinata turned eight and you should know the rest. Tsuki met Gaara. Hinata chose Gaara over her. And all Hell broke loose from there. A grip tightened on her shoulder and she knows that Gaara was probably worried in his own "Say something or I'll hurt you" way.

"Gaara?" Hinata asked.

"What is it?" He asked her.

"I'm going for a walk. Keep an eye on things and make sure Kiba and Shino don't get into any arguments, okay?"

"Fine... But where are you going?"

"A red rose goes south and rots while a black rose travels its way up north... You should know by now..."

"...Don't get into any trouble..."

"Hn."

Hinata walked until she was out of the team's sight. She walked to an open field and found a rotten tree with lots of kunai marks on it. It was the same pattern she did to the cherry blossom tree. Hinata sat down on rotten wood to examine the marks on the tree. She wood broke and Hinata landed on her back. She looked at the wood she sat on and dusted off the dust away. Her eyes widened when the following words entered her brain...

So the Forest Of Death is the Meadow Of Faith?

Hinata quickly ran from the area and back to Gaara and the rest of her friends. Maito, who was sitting on the rotton cherry blossom tree, watched as the Hyuuga ran from the area. He took out a communicator and spoke through it to Kaito.

"She knows..."