I have found the perfect song to describe the way I think about how Hinata and Sasuke's relationship would be: "Unintended" by Muse. What do you think?

Chapter 5

Neji kneaded his pounding forehead with his knuckles. Tonton had managed to take a kunai from his pouch with her teeth and cut the ropes, surprisingly without slicing his skin. But time was running out. He could see Suigetsu, Jūgo and Karin coming closer.

"They haven't seen you yet." he told Tonton. "You can still go and get word to the village." He dug in his pouch for a scrap of paper and a stub of a pencil and hurriedly wrote a note. He tucked it inside Tonton's jumper. "Don't fail me." he told the pig. She oinked and then leaped away. Déjà vu. Only this afternoon had he sent Tonton on a similar mission while his enemies bore down on him. Hopefully Tonton's message would get there successfully this time. He felt a sort of wave of satisfaction wash over him, and with it came an almost surreal jolt of adrenaline. No more running away. I have to fight them.

Neji turned around to face his opponents. He knew his chakra stores were more than half depleted. The chances of winning this battle were slim. All the same, Neji knew there was no other choice. Jūgo was there first, with his longer legs. But he was joined almost immediately by Karin and Suigetsu.

"You know you're really starting to piss me off." Suigetsu grinned. He shrugged his shoulder, and the sword that had been resting there slid off. The tip of it crashed into the tree branch with a sickening crash.

Again, Neji marveled at how a skinny boy could lift such an enormous sword. He wished he could have brought back more information to the Hokage. I can't let them capture me. He took a deep breath, and without warning leaped straight at Suigetsu, palm extended.

The white-haired boy leaped backwards away from Neji, catching the Gentle Fist attack on his sword. Neji cursed. Suigetsu was not only able to wield such a large sword, he was also able to wield it with a formidable amount of agility. Neji did not let this deter him for long. The two boys landed on the forest floor. Suigetsu slashed the sword at him with terrifying speed. Neji managed to duck under Suigetsu's sword as it came towards him to aim a few well-placed jabs at his sword arm. He only managed to brush the skin, but he successfully injected his chakra and blocked all of the chakra pathways in Suigetsu's right arm. He jumped away immediately.

Suigetsu laughed. "You hit like a gi—" Suigetsu's laugh stopped abruptly. The enormous sword dropped to the ground, and Suigetsu crumpled under its weight. He stood up slowly, his sword left on the ground and stared at his arm in horror. "What…did you do to me? I can't lift my sword anymore!"

Neji allowed himself a small smile. "I blocked all the chakra nodes in that arm. Whatever jutsu that was letting you lift your sword, it won't work anymore."

While Suigetsu gathered his wits, Neji used the time to glance back at Jūgo and Karin. Karin watched with an almost bored expression, and Jūgo seemed to be turned away in disgust. He doubted Karin would enter the battle. Even before when he had first been captured, she had stayed at the edges of the battle. She was a chakra sensor and a medical ninja, obviously not a combat-type. Jūgo on the other hand was more worrisome. Neji had a feeling he was hiding something. There had to be some important reason why Sasuke had chosen him to be a part of his little team.

Neji turned his attention back to Suigetsu. The boy had picked up the sword with his other hand, and swung the blade at him. Neji was unpleasantly surprised to find out that Suigetsu was just as fast with his opposite hand. Even though he saw the attack coming with his Byakugan, Neji barely managed to avoid it in time. His body was still stiff from the beating he'd gotten earlier. When he dodged, his back collided with a tree trunk. He was cornered! Suigetsu slashed at him again. In desperation, Neji pulled out a kunai and blocked the blade an inch from his torso. He nearly gasped in pain. Suigetsu was strong. His arm shook as he tried to keep the sword from touching him. Suigetsu's startling violet eyes were dancing with glee. Finally, Neji's arm gave way. If he had not twisted away in time, the blade would have slashed right through his gut. Part of the blow was caught on the wood of the tree, but he still felt a white-hot shooting pain erupt from his back. Neji bit down on a scream of pain.

"That's enough, Suigetsu." Jūgo told him. Neji barely heard him. He was down on one knee, trying to get control of his body again.

"Don't worry. Karin can just patch him up." Suigetsu replied. He examined his red-tipped blade with interest.

"What do I look like, a hospital?" Karin shrieked.

By that time, Neji had struggled to his feet. He turned to face Suigetsu. He noted absently that blood was running down his back and the backs of his legs. Was this the end?

He watched Suigetsu's blade swing towards him with a feeling of resignation. He had fought to the limit. If he wasn't killed now, he would die soon from blood loss. His chakra reserves were completely drained. Even now, it was an effort just to keep his Byakugan open.

Hinata… He felt his eyes begin to close.

Suddenly Neji caught a blur of orange and blue movement from between his eyelids. Jūgo stood in front of him. He had stopped Suigetsu's sword with one hand.

"Oh, come on!" Suigetsu yelled, trying to pull his sword out of Jūgo's grasp. It was useless. "Just this one, Jūgo? Sasuke won't mind! He already has another Hyūga to rip eyeballs out of."

Neji's own eyes snapped open. He couldn't just abandon Hinata like this. Even if Tonton was able to get reinforcements from Konoha, who knew what Sasuke would do to Hinata in the meantime? Rip her eyeballs out? With the greatest amount of effort he had ever expended, Neji lunged at Suigetsu, jabbing chakra-loaded fingertips at all the chakra nodes he could reach. He was just about to send a lethal jolt of chakra to Suigetsu's heart, when his body finally decided to give way. He and Suigetsu fell to the ground simultaneously.

Everything went black.

Sasuke found Hinata's silence unnerving. She wasn't staring at the ground anymore. Her head was held up, chin out, and eyes looking straight ahead. He noticed she was carefully avoiding looking at him. All the same, there was a strange determination in those eyes.

Night had well and truly fallen now. It was a clear cloudless night. The bright moonlight made the purple highlights in her hair stand out and her pale skin glowed with shadows.

He didn't have time to study her further. Suddenly Hinata gave a small gasp, urgent and quick, and then she took off running as if a pack of wolves were at her heels. Sasuke's brow twitched quizzically. She wouldn't try to escape while her cousin was still in captivity right? So where was she going? Sasuke hefted the bag of food higher and ran after her. He spotted Karin's conspicuous red hair atop a tree branch above.

Sasuke landed down next to her. "What's going on?" He asked.

Karin looked startled to find him there. "Nothing! Suigetsu just messed up again."

Sasuke looked down at the scene below them. Neji and Suigetsu lay unconscious on the ground. Suigetsu appeared unharmed, except for a line of blood trailing down from his mouth. On the other hand, Neji looked utterly battered. There was a small pool of blood beginning to form around him. Jūgo loomed above the two bodies. In his hand he was clutching Suigetsu's sword by the blade, looking utterly lost and confused.

"Neji!" Hinata ran into the clearing to kneel at Neji's side. She cupped her cousin's face in her hands and turned it towards her. "Neji…" she said again, her voice thick with emotion. Sasuke heard Karin snort with derision next to him.

"Blood…" Jūgo said slowly. Sasuke's eyes flicked towards him. "Did I…did I kill them?" The orange-haired boy's voice was quiet and eerily calm, and Sasuke knew what was going to happen even before the blazing red curse marks crept over Jūgo's skin. "Kill!" The boy roared. Sasuke was already in motion. He tossed the bag of food at Karin and dove to the forest floor. His arms closed around Hinata's slight form and he pushed both of them out of the way seconds before Jūgo's fist pounded the air they had been occupying a split second before.

Sasuke had barely enough time to notice that Hinata's pale eyes were wide with shock, staring with such intensity that it seemed as if she was seeing right through him. He twisted around, Sharingan blazing, and put a restraining hand on Jūgo's arm. The black marks retreated from Jūgo's skin like dark shadow being blown away. The huge boy sagged, and it was all Sasuke could do to not fall over as he helped him sit against a tree.

"I'm…sorry Sasuke."

Sasuke only sighed. That had been very, very close. "Jūgo, I need you to do something for me." He urged in a low voice. "Take Neji to the Konoha village and leave him outside the walls. Take Karin with you. She'll be able to sense where he's likely to be found the quickest." This put off Sasuke's plans a bit, but he could still work around it. A Hyūga working for him inside the walls of the village would be a valuable asset.

"Yes, Sasuke." Jūgo said quietly, and stood up. Karin landed on the forest floor and walked towards them, stepping over Suigetsu's body as if she didn't even see it. She handed Sasuke the bag of sandwiches. "Can't we eat before we leave?" She whined.

Sasuke shook his head. "We have to take him now before he loses too much blood."

Karin sighed in annoyance. "Fine." She turned away. Jūgo bent down next to the Hyūga and began to lift him up.

"What are you doing?" Hinata was back on her feet. She approached Jūgo and stood in between him and Neji as if she planned on acting like a human shield. "Where are you taking him? He's hurt. He'll d-die if you m-move him now."

Beneath her shaky wall of defiance, Sasuke could tell she was very close to tears. But he had to wonder just how courageous she was, to stand next to the boy who she had just seen try to kill her without reason, like a monster. But on her face he saw no fear of Jūgo, only defiance and grief for her cousin. He stepped forward. "Just as I promised, I'm letting him go. Jūgo will take him to your village, where he can be given professional medical help."

Hinata bit her lip, as if she was debating with something. "L-Let me just bind his wounds. Or else he'll bleed to death." She didn't wait for an answer. She kneeled down next to her cousin and pulled out a standard roll of bandages from her pouch. Carefully Hinata turned Neji onto his stomach so that she could get to the wound on his back.

Hinata nearly threw up. Seeing her cousin so badly wounded was nightmarish. She began to set the bandages on top of the broken skin, but her hands were shaking so much it was nearly impossible. She even sliced her finger when she was cutting some bandage with her kunai, dropping yet more blood onto Neji's back.

"Here…" Jūgo said, and very gently took the roll of bandages from Hinata's hand, as if he was afraid of touching her. He bound the bandages tightly around Neji's back. She murmured a word of gratitude, but that was all. She knew now what Jūgo's gentleness hid. It had been pure, unadulterated bloodlust she had seen in his eyes when he had attacked her. But at the same time, Hinata had a feeling it had been done completely against his will. That part of Jūgo reminded Hinata of Naruto.

Hinata stood up and watched as Jūgo carefully lifted up Neji. He and Karin quickly disappeared in the direction of the village. Hinata's heart ached to be going with them, to make sure Neji was okay, but she knew she had to stay here with Sasuke, at least for now. I have to use this situation as an opportunity. Hinata thought to herself, mostly to make herself forget about Neji so that she wouldn't break down in front of Sasuke. I have to find out why Sasuke is doing what he's doing.

She turned around to see Sasuke dragging Suigetsu to an upright sitting position against a tree. She reluctantly joined him as Sasuke took Suigetsu's pulse with a worried frown. Hinata examined Suigetsu with her Byakugan. Neji had done a pretty good job at attacking Suigetsu, considering he was so injured he could barely… Not going to think about it right now! Hinata mentally shook her head and continued with her analysis of Suigetsu's chakra pathways. Pretty much his entire chakra system was blocked up. He wouldn't be using chakra anytime soon, and probably would be unconscious for a while. The blood dripping from the corner of his mouth probably meant that Neji's attack had burst some veins. But there was no permanent damage, almost as if Neji had been reluctant to deal the killing blow.

"Is it serious?" Sasuke said, still facing Suigetsu.

Hinata shook her head, remembered that he couldn't see her, and said "N-No. He just needs rest."

Sasuke nodded. "Back to the camp, then. It's going to be a pain carrying that thing. We'll just leave it here until Suigetsu wakes up." He jerked his head to Suigetsu's sword, still lying on the ground and covered in Neji's blood. Hinata turned her head carefully away.

Sai felt the back of his tongue tingling, as if the curse seal there knew that he was thinking about activating it. It was so frustrating watching everyone scrambling around, trying to find out where Naruto was, when he knew perfectly well where. But if I tell them I'll be paralyzed, and who knows how long that will last. Sai mused. He wished there was some way of telling them where Naruto was without actually telling them.

A while ago Tsunade had banished them from their office, so they had gone to Kakashi's apartment, which was the nearest. Tsunade had said that their worrying was distracting her. She had gone to talk with Danzo. Privately, Sai thought it would be a miracle if that man divulged to Tsunade the time of day.

Kakashi paced up and down his hallway. Sakura sat at the table. She had her head resting on her arms, but she was definitely not asleep because every now and then she would mutter something. Sai sat with his legs crossed on his couch, staring into space.

Everyone was waiting for news of Naruto. So when a loud, hasty knocking came at the door, all three of them leaped simultaneously at the door. Kakashi got there first, and opened the door to Yamato.

"They've found him!" He blurted out.

A collective sigh of relief went through the room. Sakura spoke up. "Is he all right?" She asked anxiously.

Yamato looked grim. "He survived. They took him straight to the critical treatment ward."

Sai saw Kakashi's and Sakura's faces drain of all color. "What did Danzo do to him?" Kakashi asked. For Naruto to have to be taken to the critical ward, it had to be a massive injury. The Kyuubi's chakra would have handled it otherwise.

"Danzo?" Yamato looked confused. "What does Danzo have to do with this?"

"He's the bastard who captured Naruto in the first place!" Sakura exclaimed hotly. Sai wished she would keep her voice down. Danzo had ears everywhere.

"Naruto?" Yamato echoed, sounding even more confused. "I'm not talking about Naruto. I'm talking about Hyūga Neji." He paused, eyes flicking to each of their faces. "Danzo captured Naruto? Then he's probably in the catacombs under the village."

Please review… Gah, sore throat…Not fun.