"So how is it going Nirumi?" his voice asked.

Nirumi just growled, all his men killed, the little bitch wasn't just some weakling either even with them being able to hide from her Byakugan she was still able to kill them. He now understood why his boss wanted her dead so badly, those eyes of hers he would surely keep for himself. The muscular man smirked at the thought.

"The bitch is a lot more powerful than you made her out to be." he said.

"Her skills were always good but she still have weaknesses, so find them and exploit them and she'll be nothing but a twig that you can easily break." his boss said.

Nirumi smirked as he turned making his way out of the room, the Hyuga would soon be begging on her knees.

They had left two days after, when they were sure Hinata was alright one hundred percent. They were still at square one but at least they were still at the very bottom, being ambushed two days ago had made Sasuke think that they had gotten somewhere close to Nirumi, he was sure that he had something to do with those attacks.

"Sasuke! Teme! Where are we going?" Naruto asked.

"I don't know dobe. It's just a hunch so I don't know if it's right or wrong." the Uchiha answered.

Sasuke looked over at Hinata, who was trailing the furthest behind him, she caught his gaze and smiled with a light pink dusted on her cheeks but looked away after a few seconds. He just continued to stare at her, for a while, she had tried to stay away from him after the night she was injured keeping to herself and only talked when someone asked her something. Whenever their eyes met though, she would do the exact thing she did a few moments ago smile, blush then look away, he really didn't know what made him say those things to her that night but he was telling the truth.

He turned his head forward again and concentrated on the thoughts he had about Nirumi, the bastard was after one of them and whenever they were targeted Hinata would get the hardest blow out of all of them. Maybe it was her they were after or maybe one of them and they were just picking on her because she was the weakest one of them in a sense, but whoever it was, this mission was their ticket to getting them.

Sakura eyed both Sasuke and Hinata, they were getting pretty close after the attack and she didn't like it, when she had asked him about the other night, he had grunted and told her it was none of her business. She had gritted her teeth over that one, he was defending her and he was the one who outright hated her for bringing him back to the village. She was not going to let Hinata wrap Sasuke around her finger so easily like she did everyone else, even if she have to, she would fight the kunoichi for Sasuke.

"DAMMIT!" Tsunade shouted.

There was the sound of glass cracking and shattering out the window towards the ground as Tsunade read the first mission report in front of her.

"What is it Tsunade-sama?" Shizune asked as she hugged Ton-ton tighter to her chest.

"Looks like they know that we are on to them. Second day on the mission and they were ambush, looks like they went after Hinata." the 5th Hokage explained.

Grinding her teeth together and clenching her fist, Tsunade just stared at the paper, she let out a frustrated sigh, she didn't know what to do.

Hinata had scout the forest twice, before returning to the cabin they were occupying for the night, closing the door behind her, the others waiting for her to give a report.

"There is nothing out there." she said.

"I still don't think we should stay here for the night though." Sakura said.

"You need to stop worrying." Sasuke said.

The medical-nin crossed her arms and said nothing as she stared out the window. Naruto yawned as he stretched out on his sleeping bag.

"I'm going to sleep." he said, closing his eyes and after a few seconds you could hear him snoring.

Sakura sighed and Sasuke rolled his eyes at their blond teammate, Hinata only seem to look and smile at him softly, he looked kind of adorable.

"We should all get some sleep." The Uchiha said.

The two girls nodded getting into their sleeping bags, Sasuke blew the lamp out as he situated himself near the door before closing his eyes.

Eyes snapping open, Sasuke searched for the noise he was hearing, looking over to where the Hyuga was, he saw her shivering and gripping her sleeping bag cover tighter, he quietly made his way over to her and he faintly saw the cold sweat that was on her face and hearing her soft whimpering sounds that woke him up.

"Hyuga." he called softly not wanted to wake anyone else up.

She didn't seem to hear him as she began to toss and turn on her bed, Sasuke began to shake her slightly.

"Hyuga wake up!" he called.

Hinata seemed to hear him as her eyes shot open and she sat right up instinctively hitting him in his stomach with one f her Gentle Fist, the Uchiha sucked in a harsh breath at the impact but it wasn't loud enough to wake the others. The kunoichi seemed to realized what she had done and gasped, touching him in the same spot and infusing some of her chakra to re-open his tenketsu.

"S-Sorry Sasuke-kun." she stutter once at her apology.

Sasuke grunted softly before glaring at her.

"What the hell was happening to you?" it was a dumb question because obviously she was having a fricking nightmare but the words came out anyway.

She didn't answer but her face seemed to go pale when he asked her, he didn't hug her even though every part of his body was begging him to, but the damn girl needed some type of comfort, which he had no idea how to do.

S-Sa-Sasuke-k-kun s-s-sleep next t-to m-m-me pl-please?" Hinata asked.

Sasuke was a little taken aback my her request, he was debating mentally either to give in to her or go away and leave her the hell alone. He gave in, lying down next to her facing the other way but not before seeing her thankful smile that made his stomach flip.

"Thank you." she whispered into his back before everything went quiet.

Waking up the next morning the raven was surprise to see the position he and the bluenette were in, his hand was wrapped around her waist pulling her body closer to his and her face buried deep in his chest, he could smell her scent which was the same as always, vanilla. He snapped out of his thoughts and retrieve his hand back to his side and getting up to go back to his original spot by the door, whatever happen last night was not going to happen again.

"Nirumi-sama." one of his henchmen greeted standing up when he saw his boss at the door of their new hideout.

"What do you have for me?" he asked sitting down.

"Hai. They are on the move again, going out of the land." he said.

Nirumi have a sadistic smile.

"Well we can't let that happen." the strong built man said eyeing his sword.

"What are you going to do Nirumi-sama?" one of his henchmen asked.

The man laughed darkly.

"Isn't it obvious, I'll kill them." he said.

They all smiled at his words.

They were going at top speed heading out of the Land of Rivers and Sasuke was hoping that Nirumi and his men would fall for it and come after them.

"Sasuke." Naruto called.

The Uchiha nodded he sensed them too, but he decided to continue like they didn't notice anything, play in their court for awhile.

Sasuke eyes opened wide with realization.

"MOVE!" he shouted.

They all got the hint finding cover behind the bushes in time to avoid the big explosion.

"Shit." Sasuke swore as he glared at the fire above them.

"Go." was the soft command given.

The raven's body turned automatically blocking the punch at him, and even if the others wanted to help him, they couldn't since they had their own hands full.

"Don't leave any of them alive." Nirumi started as he stared at Hinata. "But leave the bitch to me."

"No you won't!" Naruto shouted charging towards Nirumi who batted him away like he was a fly.

"Son of a bitch." the Morma sneered walking towards him.

In that same second Hinata moved, closing some of his tenketsu and kicking him backwards, she stood and towered over him.

"You want me, not him." she reminded.

"Hinata-chan no." the blond cautioned.

Nirumi smirked.

"Stupid bitch." he called throwing a punch at her face which Hinata dodge and ran into the forest.

"You can't get away from me!" the sadistic man called, going after her.

Naruto tried going after them but he was blocked by some of Nirumi men, the future Hokage gritted his teeth.

"Fuck." he growled lowly under his breath.

Hinata doge every weapon that came at her and she tried to get her pursuer as for away from the others.

"You can't keep running forever!" he called to her.

She wasn't planning on running forever, she just didn't want the others being drawn into a fight that was her fault. She stopped dead in her tracks when she didn't feel his presence behind her anymore, the ex-heiress activated her Byakugan, even though she knew it wouldn't work and kept on looking for him, she heard his dark psychotic laugh, she gasped in pain as she raised her hand to take the blade from her back. Closing her eyes she pulled it out with one smooth movement, bringing it to her face and stared at her blood that coated it, she moved using the same kunia and knocking away the others.

Ducking Hinata narrowly dodge the large blade that aimed for her neck, Nirumi smirked for she was backing him, and using his speed his swiped at her body again, planning on just cutting her into pieces slowly. His smile widen when she sucked in a breath and held her side to stop the bleeding.

"HELL YEAH!" Sakura shouted as her foot came in contact with the shinobi making him cough out a mouthful of blood onto the ground.

Another one came from behind and seeing this from the corner of her eye, the medical-nin closed her fist tightly making chakra coat around it before turning and placing it against the male's cheek hearing the cracking sound and watching him as he hit the ground bleeding out.

"Bitch." she heard from behind her.

Sakura smiled, cracking her knuckles, it was time she had some fun with these idiots.

Sasuke smirked as he stared at every one of the shinobi in front of him, his red and black eyes watching their every movement, they attacked him first, and Sasuke moved cutting them down like trees that needed to go, giving one an around the world kick with so much force that his head and crack as he dropped to the ground. He turned punching one of them in the face and taking his head and smashing it with one of the others, they fell unconscious, the Uchiha turned his body around and watched as another stepped up to face him him, using the axe in his hand he brought it down on the raven's foot grinning he looked up to see the cold eyes of the Sharingan user and his own eyes went dull.

"Sasuke-kun look out!" Sakura warned, once she saw the big guy going towards Sasuke.

Only smoke was seen before the huge shinobi was caught in black flames.

Kunai in hand Naruto charged towards the ninja he was facing , turning his body in the nick of time he blocked the enemy's attak dilvering one of his own with the kunia. Punching him in the face, the male staggered back before regauining hos balance only to be knocked down when Naruto kicked him. Disappearing, Naruto searched for him, but he was to fast landing an attack against his right hip causing the Uzumaki to grunt in pain before turning on his side and kicking the shinobi away.

This mission is becoming more and more dangerous every second and Hinata is going to be at the worse end of it. Tsunade thought as she drank her tea.

The door slammed open and their was an ANBU member standing in the doorway.

"What is it?" the Hokage asked.

"Hokage-sama." he greeted bowing slightly. "We have some information about the Kumogakure ninja." he informed.

Tsunade's eyes open wide at what the masked man said and the ANBU continued to fill her in.

"His name is Raiyu, his father was the Head Ninja of Kumogakure who came into the village to abduct Hinata. He became a rogue ninja to get revenge on the Hyugas and because Hinata-sama is the reason for the mess he picked her out." he concluded.

The blond woman smashed her fist against the table making in fly up, her eyes were hard as she started to contemplate her opions, finally sticking on one of her decision she looked back at the ANBU in front of her.

"Send out a message telling Sasuke and the others to get back to the village right now. Go!" she ordered.

"Hai! Hokage-sama!" the male said disappearing,.

Tsunade fist tightened even more as she glared down at her table, this was not good...

Surrounded by blood and dead bodies, the members of Team 7 were done, there was the sound of thunder rolling and lighting was flashing.

"C'mon we still have to find that Hyuga." Sasuke said feeling the first drizzle of rain on his skin he took off with the Naruto and Sakura close behind.

She was rolling on the muddy ground, that last hit really did a number on her, she was bloody and covered in dirt, she sat up closing her eyes, what was she going to do, he took all her best attacks and made them look like nothing, she was getting pretty angry at that. Nirumi chuckled as he stepped towards her, raking his sword on the ground loving the sound that it made, he was completely soaked now that the rain was falling making all the blood that was on his blade and the bitch in front of him run off. It was time he put an end to this.

The rain that poured on her skin was comforting, it felt nice, she always liked when the rain was falling, it gave a slight upperhand on her enemies and Nirumi was no different, in the rain she could faintly sense where he was, so she waited, counting the seconds until it was the right time for her to strike. Hinata felt his charka getting closer and she slowly moved her hand into position, just a few more..., her eyes shot open, the veins that surrounded them bulged and her palm hit him squared in his chest, causing the bigger man to spit out a whole lot of blood.

Hinata shifted her body, using the water and her chakra she mixed them and making sharp needles, turning on her toes, she moved her arm in front of her body slicing Nirumi in the chest, he growled from the sting, she didn't stop , bending over she kicked him backward, before charging at him, delivering precisely aimed strikes all over his body before flipping him over. Nirumi got up and glared at her, growling like a wild animal, he charged at her, the kunoichi raised her hand towards him, she smiled when he came in distance of her jutsu, using her chakra, Hinata closed most of his tenketsu, she knew it wouldn't keep him down for long, the male glared at the Hyuga intensively.

"Do you think this will stop me?" he asked her with a smirk.

"No." she said. But it will give me time.

She took off again, this time running to the north, she just hoped this worked, it was her last hope of defeating him, she looked up into the sky and she watched as the lightning flashed and listened to the rolling thunder, just a little more, she screamed in pain as she hit into the tree, she reached behind her head and felt the warm blood that flowed.

"Do you think you could have escaped me." the male asked smirking.

Hinata groaned and she got into a Gentle Fist stance, the smirk the Morma had grew more sadistic as he drew his sword and licked his lips, he disappeared and there was the sound of stel meeting flesh and a pained scream.

They had stopped when they notice peice of Hinata's jacket on the floor, the blood in it sinking trough to the ground,the stench of blood was still fresh even with all the rain falling.

"Dammit where is she?" Naruto yelled furious.

"We wouldn't be searching if we knew." Sakura barked.

She hated searching for the weak girl, she wished they could just leave but Naruto won't do it and insist that they keep on searching for her and Sasuke was team captain so unless Hinata was dead they did have to look for her.

"We're going." the last Uchiha said before taking off.

Hinata could still feel the sting from where the blade had sliced through her back, she gritted her teeth and tried to muffle the sounds of pain that tried to escape her lips as she stood to face Nirumi, she was loosing to much blood and her eyesight was becoming heavier because of that, she wouldn't be able to last much longer.

Nirumi stared fasinated at the blood that was on his sword before he looked at the battered girl.

"And here I thought that you would have been a challenge but I guess you're just as weak as any other." he taunted.

Hinata glared at him, the one thing she hated people calling her weak, especailly when she works her ass off to be acknowledge, the Hyuga clenched her fist tightly and started to shake, her body began to move on it's own and she didn't bother trying to control herself. She was tired of it.

"I. Am. Not. WEAK!" she yelled.

The Morma moved standing straight in front of her.

"You're not strong either." he whispered aiming his sword at her shocked state, his smile was sinister as he watched her, but his expression changed when the blue haired girl smirked at him before disappearing in a cloud of smoke.

He looked around trying to find the girl, he was caught off guard by the foot aimed at his stomach, flipping over Hinata used her speed and closed many of his charka points with more chakra infusing more chakra with each hit, the male swung at her and she dodge his attack, there was very strong gust of wind and the raindrops became like needles and slicing through his body. Nirumi charged at her throwing his fist at her face, Hinata blocked it, batting the other from her face, she use her feet and pushed him off her, stepped to the side when he appeared behind her and he seemed pretty shocked at that and his anger rose.

Hinata remembered her fight with Sasuke, he had to have a weakness, she just had to find it, came came at her again and this time Hinata let him bash away at her but none of his attacks hit, the kunoichi analysed him and when she found everything she needed, she countered. The shy girl made and X with her hands to cover her face being sent back from the impact of the blow, the Hyuga used her arms to stop her from rolling onto the ground, the vibration of his movement on the ground let her know just how fast he was in the rain, she stood up and reactivated her Byakugan and coated all her chakra around her palms.

Closer...closer... she chanted to herself.

"Die bitch!" he shouted raising his sword at her once more.

Hinata's eyes turned stold cold with a fierce look, she used her foot and kicked him away, using speed she appeared right in front of him palming in the chest multiple times, she spun in the air kicking him once more before disappearing and reappearing behind him. Cenching her palms into fists, Hinata gathered more chakra into them making them into the faces of lions, she pulled one hand back as she whispered the name of the jutsu to Nirumi.

"Juho Shoshiken."

The male shinobi screamed in pain from every hit Hinata delivered to him, his body became sore and he couldn't feel not one of his muscles, Hinata flipped over him and his eyes widen as she brought her palm down in his chest leaving a dent in the ground. The shy kunoichi stood and watched the unconscious man form before taking off to see if she could find the others or get away before Nirumi woke up again.

They stopped in their tracks when they felt a chakra coming their way, they got into battle stances but relaxed when they saw Hinata.

"Hinata-chan!" Naruto exclaimed running towards her.

Hinata smiled at him.

"Are you ok?" he asked

Hinata nodded, they heard the crow of a bird and looked to see one of Konoha's messenger hawks flying above them, there was something attatched to it foot when it landed and Sasuke took it off and read it.

"Tsunade wants us to come back to the village." Sasuke said.

"Well we can't go back in this rain." Naruto said.

"And Hinata's got some wounds that need healing." Sakura stated looking at the girl phsyique.

"Hn." Sasuke agreed, his eyes seemed to watch Hinata with a feeling in his chest.

It was late and she couldn't sleep, so she opted for watching the rain fall, lightning flash and the thunder roll, the wind was gusty and cold but she dind't mind it perfectly fit her mood right now. She looked back at the others who were sleeping, she sighed as she got up and exit the cave, a walk in the rain she could do with.

Sasuke found her standing on water with her head raised to the sky, letting the rain hit her face, she turned when she felt his chakra and she gave a small smile, Sasuke steps led him towards her and the Hyuga just stared at him with curious eyes. They said nothing as they stared at each other, they were both completely soaked but neither seemed to care, the rain was pouing down, the lightning was flashing and the thunder rolled in the sky. The Uchiha lean in, his eyes on her lips as he used one of his hand to bring her closer, their lips touch and he kissed her and she willingly kissed back wrapping her arms around his neck and standing on her toes. Whatever this was that, they were doing...it felt right.