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Chapter 7

For the hundredth time that afternoon, Tsunade resisted the urge to punch the ground and level the entire goddamn building to the ground.

She had been waiting outside the door for an entire hour now, waiting for Danzo to agree to see her. She had a very bad feeling that Danzo was using this time to gather the entire council together, so that they could collectively grill her. They were, all of them, conservative pricks.

Tsunade looked anxiously over her shoulder, at the ANBU soldiers sent to "protect" her. Tsunade had no doubt that they were there to make her stay put. I wish I had some way of knowing what was going on outside. I wish I had summoned Katsuyu before I came in, so that she could keep an eye around. But if I try to make a summons now, they'll probably stop me. Tsunade was just about to sigh heavily when the door opened. A pockmarked chunin in his fledgling years opened the door, caught sight of Tsunade's expression, and squeaked audibly.

"Th-th-th-they're calling for you!" He stammered, and dodged out of the way as Tsunade stormed into the room and slammed the door behind her with a satisfying boom that probably knocked off some of the plaster from the wall.

Just as she expected, Danzo had gathered the entire council. They sat on floor cushions in a semi-circle, Danzo in the middle of them. Tsunade sat down on the only available cushion, placed in the middle of the semi-circle. If the arrangement was supposed to bother her, it did not. She sat down calmly. "Two spoons of sugar please." She said to the chunin, who had come back in holding a steaming pot of tea.

After the tea had been poured, Tsunade took one polite sip from her tea, assessed that it did not have poison, then set the cup down and laced her fingers together. "So, Danzo, where have you been keeping Naruto?" She kept her tone conversational.

Danzo's wizened features pulled into an ugly smile. "I don't know what you're talking about."

The council member on the right of Danzo spoke up. He had long greasy black hair that reminded her uncomfortably of Orochimaru's. However, instead of being snake-like, this man's appearance reminded her more of a rat. "Do you mean to say you've misplaced the Kyuubi, Tsunade?" The rest of the council began to chuckle. She suspected that Danzo had let them in on his plan to capture Naruto.

"This is the first time I am hearing about it." Danzo said smugly. "Tsunade?"

Tsunade gritted her teeth. "Yes. Naruto was captured earlier today."

Danzo smiled condescendingly. "And you think I have something to do with it?"

After that, Tsunade lost more and more of her patience trying to make the council see that Danzo had captured Naruto. It was useless. One third of the council knew what Danzo had done, and they agreed with him. The other third also knew what Danzo had done and they didn't really care. The other third was just too afraid to do anything about it, whether they knew about it or not.

In the end, Tsunade said some scathing remarks to Danzo, who only smiled, and stormed out of the building. What a complete waste of my time… When Tsunade stepped out of the doors, she took some quick gulps of the cool night air. "I'm getting too old for this job." And she shuffled away to get some sleep before starting the entire business over in the morning.

Hinata opened her eyes and groaned. Her entire body was so stiff. She had never slept so soundly. She got up carefully, trying to clear her head. She hadn't remembered falling asleep. Wasn't she going to try and stay up until Karin and Jūgo returned? Had she really let herself drift off into sleep like a child?

And then Hinata remembered what Sasuke had done to her. He had used his Sharingan on her. She had remembered an unnatural exhaustion steal over her. But then the red of the Sharingan triggered something in her eyes, and without knowing, she had activated her Byakugan. With it, she had seen the most intricate network of chakra vessels ever. As she observed the countless vessels, all flowing and pulsing with chakra, she realized that her limbs were becoming less leaden, and she felt less like laying her head down and sleeping. Was her Byakugan letting her see through whatever spell Sasuke was laying on her with his Sharingan?

But before Hinata could break the paralysis altogether, Sasuke had set a genjutsu on her. She had no time to react; it was that powerful. She didn't remember anything after that.

Realizing that someone was watching her, Hinata looked up and saw Jūgo sitting on a log in front of the fire. The log hadn't been there before. Jūgo must have put it there sometime in the night. Hinata wondered how he could have possibly done it without waking anyone up. But she supposed the boy's inhuman strength and massive chakra would make it easy to pick up a log, carry it silently to the camp, and set it down gently. She knew that it should have frightened her, but she could not help feeling a certain affinity with Jūgo. You aren't here to make friends Hinata, she told herself grimly. Still, when Jūgo quietly asked her if she would like to eat something, she nodded and came to sit next to him.

He handed her a paper cup filled with steaming, thick soup. She sipped it gratefully. Even though it was the middle of summer, mornings were still chilly. It was still a bit before the sun rose, and in the faint light and the morning mist, Hinata couldn't make out anything except the fire and Jūgo.

She was halfway done with her soup, when Jūgo said to her, "I hope that Suigetsu wakes up soon."

Hinata stared at him in surprise. He met her eyes steadily, and Hinata was astonished at the amount of expression held in those eyes. She could see that he was clearly genuine about his feelings. She had not expected that. She had imagined that such a dysfunctional team like this, led by Sasuke, wouldn't have the same feeling of camaraderie that she experienced in her teams at Konoha. And yet Jūgo obviously felt a connection with his teammates. Whether Hinata could say the same about the other members of Team Taka was a different question.

"Why?" Hinata asked, taking a gulp of the soup.

"Sasuke plans on leaving without him if he doesn't," Jūgo said.

Hinata blinked. What a horrible thing to do! Obviously Sasuke felt none of the bonds that Jūgo felt with his teammates. Hinata quickly swallowed all the soup in her mouth, and ended up burning her throat. Through streaming eyes she asked, "Why?"

Jūgo seemed taken aback by her reaction. "Y-you don't have to cry about it," he said. But what was more interesting was that he didn't look at her in the face when he said this. In fact, he was deliberately staring to the left of her nose, and he was kept twisting the fabric of his cloak over and over around his fingers. He isn't going to tell me why, Hinata realized, and she did her best not to press for information even though she was dying to know why Sasuke wanted to move ahead so quickly.

"I'm not crying!" she protested weakly, and after blowing carefully into her cup, she downed the rest of the soup. Immediately, Hinata wished she hadn't. The cup of soup had given her something to do, something to fill the awkward silence. I wish I was better at conversation, Hinata though adamantly to herself.

Jūgo didn't seem to notice it. He was leaning back on the log, wrapped tightly in his cloak, staring up at the sky. Watching him, Hinata felt much calmer. When birdsong began to sound through the forest, a big lazy smile spread over his face.

The sun was rising. As its light began to penetrate the woods, Hinata saw Sasuke rise from a bedroll (it must have been Jūgo's since Hinata had been sleeping in his) and make his way towards them. Jūgo immediately got up to let Sasuke sit down, and handed him a cup of soup.

"Suigetsu still hasn't gotten up yet," Sasuke said, drinking his soup. "Jūgo, wake up Karin. We'll leave after everyone finishes eating." Jūgo nodded and disappeared into the mist to wake up Karin. Hinata was left along with Sasuke.

Hinata bit her lip. Should I tell him? Because there was a way to wake Suigetsu up from his stupor. The Hyūga used it on each other during training sessions when too many chakra nodes were blocked. It involved forcibly pushing chakra into the person's chakra network, to unblock the chakra nodes. The experience was akin to having volts of electricity shot into you. Hinata knew this well; her father had often had to do this to her when they were training. Sometimes she thought he put in more chakra than was necessary, with more force than was necessary, just to give her more pain.

But did she really want to wake up Suigetsu? He was just one more enemy, no matter what Jūgo thought of him. What would Naruto do? Hinata smiled immediately. Naruto would not hesitate. He would wake up Suigetsu. Even in his darkest enemies, Naruto seemed to find bits of kindness. But he could afford to be so idealistic. If Hinata made the mistake of trusting an enemy, she could be killed.

I can't do that, Hinata thought and for the first time in her life, she purposefully ignored what Naruto would have done. This was different.

"Where are we going?" Hinata asked Sasuke timidly.

"The port city of Saishe," Sasuke replied.

Saishe. Hinata had only been there once, on a mission. Her team had had to stay there for a month, sorting out a gang of renegades that had been causing trouble there. So luckily, she knew the town well, and not just the streets. She knew the inner workings of the city, which would be much more useful. The city was one of the biggest in Konoha, and since it was right next to a large natural harbor, it also housed the biggest black market and smuggling business. It was a place where crime and money sat side by side, like friends. Whatever Sasuke needed to do there, Hinata was sure was not legal. So he would probably not tell her if she asked. Hinata wondered if it had anything to do with "combining the powers of the Byakugan and the Sharingan."

Hinata glanced at Sasuke. His eyes were slate gray once more. She felt disappointed. After what had happened last night, Hinata was aching for another look at the Sharingan. She had never seen such a tightly woven web of chakra pathways. If she could find a way to block that chakra, it would be immensely helpful. Sasuke wouldn't be able to use the Sharingan anymore.

Jūgo rejoined them at the fire, and he was followed by a very disgruntled looking Karin. The redheaded kunoichi was obviously not a morning person. However when she caught sight of Suigetsu, who still lay asleep next to the fire, her expression brightened up a bit. She seemed to take pleasure in the fact that they were leaving her teammate behind. Hinata shook her head. She supposed Jūgo was the only one on this team that actually cared about his teammates. She didn't know about Suigetsu, but she was inclined to believe that the violent, shark-like boy was just the same.

Karin and Sasuke finished their soup in silence. When Sasuke finished he crushed his cup and tossed it into the fire. "Jūgo, get Suigetsu's sword and put it next to him." Jūgo nodded and ran off to do Sasuke's bidding. In the meantime Sasuke took out a scrap of paper, wrote something down on it, and began to tie the note around Suigetsu's neck with a bit of wire.

The note said "Saishe". Sasuke was telling Suigetsu where they were going.

Hinata was not the only one to notice this. Beside her, Karin groaned. "Sasuke, why don't you just leave Suigetsu for good? You don't need him."

Sasuke shook his head. "We do need him, Karin. Now come on. I'd like to be out of here by the time the sun rises. If Konoha knows we're here, we can't afford to lie around and wait."

They got the camp cleaned up quickly, until only Suigetsu was left. The boy was still asleep, lying in a tangled heap of blankets. Jūgo had put his sword next to him. Karin masked Suigetsu's chakra, and Sasuke laid a genjutsu around the perimeter to make sure that no one would be able to find Suigetsu before he woke up.

All through these preparations Hinata wondered if she was doing the right thing by following Sasuke. Am I doing this because I want to gather helpful information about Sasuke, or am I doing this just to prove that I can? Deep down, Hinata knew what the answer was. She pushed the thought aside. It wasn't like Sasuke would let her just run back to the village anyway. Confident in this belief, Hinata followed Team Taka as they made their way to Saishe.

Bright morning light streamed into the hospital room, stirring the patient that slept inside. Neji raised a hand to protect his eyes, and winced. The movement had pulled sharply on his back muscles, which felt like they were burning. He slowly laid his hand back down and breathed heavily. He was back at Konoha, in the hospital. He had failed to protect Hinata.

Before he could continue to wallow in self-pity, the door to his room opened. Neji noticed that a nondescript painting of an apple was hanging on the door, a strange place to hang a painting. He switched his attention to the nurse who had walked in. Neji recognized her. She was quite old, probably in her late fifties, and he had seen her working in the hospital many times. Something looked very different about her. Perhaps it was the hunched way she was carrying herself, or the blank expression in her face.

She came to a stop at the foot of his bed and her face pulled into a smile that seemed too wide for her face. Neji's eyebrow twitched. She came closer and bent down as if to put a hand on his forehead, but instead her hand covered his mouth. Neji thrashed under her surprisingly strong hold. He could practically feel his back wound opening up again.

With a quick, blurring movement the nurse stabbed a syringe into Neji's neck. Once she did that, she crumpled to the floor and began to snore softly. Neji's eyes widened. He could feel his limbs growing heavy. He couldn't move, could not even turn his head. But his chakra pathways were unharmed by the poison. Even though he didn't have that much chakra after all the fighting he had done the day before, Neji still managed to activate his Byakugan. With it, he could see that the nurse's chakra was running in a very confused pattern. She was under a genjutsu.

There was something else in the room. Neji could not lift his head, but with his genjutsu he saw a medium sized black snake, an animal summons. It had been hiding inside the long medic robes of the nurse. Uchiha Sasuke, Neji thought angrily. The snake slithered up onto Neji's bed and onto his chest, stopping so close that Neji could see its face perfectly without having to turn his head. Neji glared up at its dark green eyes, but that was all he could do. The poison had even made opening his mouth impossible.

The snake chuckled, dry and raspy. "I don't have much time, so let's get this over with," he hissed. "Uchiha Sasuke has sent me to tell you that he wishes to commission you as a spy. If you refuse your cousin Hyūga Hinata will be brutalized. Interested?"

Neji tried to convey as much venom as possible in his glare but it only seemed to amuse the snake further.

"I'll take that as a yes. Now, this is what Sasuke wants you to investigate."

Later, the nurse would wake up to find herself on the floor, stand up uncertainly, tell herself that she really needed to start eating a healthier breakfast, notice that the patient was in a very, very deep sleep, then shuffle out of the room to steal an omelet from the kitchen downstairs.

Please review! It would be like your Christmas present to me. I noticed that no one seemed really concerned that Sasuke was leaving Suigetsu behind. Is it because you don't really care for him, or is it because you were too outraged to review and tell me? Anyway, I hope you liked this chapter. I hope I'll have a lot of time over the holidays to update again soon, but we'll see how it goes.