Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto

Rating: M

(This story is rated mature for a reason.)

Special thanks to reviewers

Apologies for the lateness

Sorry but this chapter had to be a bit short.

Chapter 8

"Lavender"

"I have a mission for the four of you." the KazeKage said in a serious voice.

"WHAT!" shouted Temari, before flinching back a bit as the KazeKage laid his cold glare upon her.

"I said I have a mission for the four of you. The village of the hidden leaf is having a very large tournament to strengthen relations between some of the villages. All willing fighters can compete, and I have selected you four to represent as you village's ninjas. I expect at lest one of you to make it to the finals." He said as he leaned back in his chair.

"B-But KazeKage-sama, the Hyuga Compound resides barely half a day from the village. What if they find Hinata?" asked Kankuro nervously.

"Well then I guess your going to have to think of something." spat the powerful man, "you leave tomorrow morning, Dismissed."

"Oh and Temari," shouted the KazeKage as she was just about to step thought the door, "I don't want you fighting anyone outside the fighting arena. ... wouldn't want Hinata to have to deal with such a troublesome task." he said as Temari read the hidden meaning behind his words. With in seconds the four of them were out of the room and through the front doors.

"Are you sure that was a smart idea KazeKage-sama?" asked the masked ninja as he stepped out of the shadows, walking over the window to get a better look of the girl.

"Yes. . . I am very sure . . . everything is going according to plan." He said as a sudden laughing fit escaped from him.

LavenderLavenderLavenderLavenderLavenderLavenderLavenderLavender

"You know, we could cut and dye her hair." said Temari as the four of them walked through the dark forest. They had been walking for almost a day and a half, with Temari and Kankuro discussing ways to keep Hinata hidden.

Hinata stiffen a bit as the mention of her hair being cut was being tossed back and forth. A slight frown slowly appeared on her face as she looked at the center of Gaara's back, or what would have been his back if the large gourd wasn't in the way.

"No, even if we did do that her eyes would still give everything away, plus with her pale completion any other color wouldn't look right. I still can't see why she can't use a transformation jutsu." Kankuro said as he saw how Hinata's shoulders stiffen at the mention of her hair, as she walked a bit behind them.

"It would just be a waste of chakra to stay in it if we are going to spend hours upon hours in other people's company and then fight them. Plus every skill ninja will be able to tell." said Temari. "Dame it! I hate the KazeKage!"

Hinata felt a small sigh escape her lips again as Temari once again began to rant on how she wanted to destroy the village leader. This had become a sort of routing for the travelers, talk, rant, talk, rant, rest, rant again, talk some more, and rant. Surprisingly the routing was tiring Hinata out mentally. She didn't really understand why, she just saw that trying to calm Temari out of her fit to be impossible task since she would be back at it in no time.

Hinata took in her surroundings once again with a small smile; she loved the forest, it was so alive. There was always something moving, making sound; everything was hiding behind the trees or in the grass and earth. Unlike the desert, the sandy wastelands beauty was much more deadly, and mysterious. Hinata's smile grew ever so slightly as she took a deep breath, taking in everything around her.

Suddenly Hinata jerked to a stop as she took another deep breath. 'That smell . . . what is that smell . . .?' thought Hinata.

"Well then it's agreed, she will just wear your full body cloak, with the large hood that covers your entire face." said Temari as she folded her arms under her chest.

"It's going to have to be until we get a better idea, but I-"

"Kankuro?"

"I don't hear a bell." He said his eyes wide, as both he and Gaara jerked to a stop.

"Why would you-"

"Hinata's necklace."i He said as he jerked around to find her gone. "Shit, where did she go, HINATA! . . . HINATA!"

"She's gone!" shirked Temari.

"No shit Sherlock, HINATA . . . HINATA WHERE ARE YOU! . . . dame it HINATA!!" shouted Kankuro as he started to walk a bit deeper into the forest. "Do you see any tracks that she could have left?"

"No, dame it, there's not even tracks of her even walking with us." shouted Temari as she continued moving back down the trail.

"Shit, Shit, Shit, Shit … HINATA! . . . HINATA!"

"Shut-up!" snarled Gaara, causing both siblings to jerk to a stop. A chill crawled up each of the siblings spins as they saw the dark look upon his face. They watched as Gaara slowly closed his eyes, with his arms crossed over his chest, as he ever so slightly tilted his head in a few directions.

jingle

jingle-jingle

jingle

Gaara slowly turned to his right and began to make his way through the thick dark forest, with Temari and Kankuro following close behind him. As they made their way through the forest they began to hear the sounds of a bell and . . . giggling?

"What's that smell?" mumbled Kankuro as a thick fragrance slowly became engulfed the three of them.

"I think it's . . . I think it's . . . Lavender." said Temari in a slightly confused tone of voice.

The sand siblings increased their speed slightly as they saw a large clearing ahead of them, the giggling becoming increasingly louder. What they saw at the end of the clearing made all three jolt to a stop as their eyes widened and Temari and Kankuro's jaws drop.

It was an enormous field of lavender, almost a hill side of noting but lavender, and Hinata . . . Hinata was rolling around it, rubbing herself in it in a very cat-lake manner. They watched as she stretched and clawed at the flowers, shoving them in her face, before rolling onto her back and slightly wiggling in the flowers. She then would turn on her side and continue the same actions again.

"What the hell is she doing?" squeaked out Kankuro, surprisingly the first of the three to regain some sort of control over them selves.

"I have no idea." whispered back Temari as she slowly began to make her way through the field of flowers. "Hinata . . . sweetie?" questioned Temari as she crouched down beside Hinata.

"H-E-L-L-O Te-ma-ri." Hinata sang out with a big smile on her face as she rolled onto her back and looked at Temari.

"Hinata are you . . . are you high?" Temari slightly shrieked as she took in Hinata's dilated and unfocused eyes.

"High?" questioned Hinata as she had another fit of giggles.

"Lord, she looks completely stoned." said Kankuro as both guys walked over to her.

"Kan-ku-ro, Ga-a-ra, H-E-L-L-O!" sang out Hinata as she began to wave to them.

"Wow Hinata, you look like your flouting on cloud nine." Kankuro said as he also crouched on the other side of her.

"Flouting on cloud nine . . . flouting?" Hinata mused to herself as her jaw began to make chewing motions.

"Hinata, what are you eating?" said Kankuro as he lightly pulled open her mouth with his thumb and pointer finger. "Are you eating lavender? No, spite that out!" as he began to take it out of her mouth. Everything seemed to have frozen when Hinata clamped her mouth shut . . . with Kankuro's fingers. He sat still for a moment until a look of horror fell onto his face.

"AHAHAHAHAHH!" shouted Kankuro as he jerked his fingers out of her mouth, "SHE BIT ME, SHE BIT ME!" he continued to shout as he began to jerk his hand back and forth.

"Let me see!" Temari said as she jerked his hand towards her.

"Is it bad?" he asked with a bit of a worried look.

"No, she barely left a mark, your fine." She said as Kankuro took his hand back and began to rub his sore fingers.

"(giggle) Kankuro's face is so-o-o wavy." said Hinata as she began to mimic the movements she saw with her hand, complete oblivious to everyone around her.

"Hinata, sweetie I think that it's time to leave." Temari said gentle placing a hand on her arm.

"No, I don't want to leave." Hinata said as she made a pouting look.

"Yes, come on Hinata." Temari said as she grabbed Hinata's arm.

"No!" with in a flash Hinata was almost six yards away from the group, continuing in her motions before the others arrived.

"This is really not good." said Kankuro as he and his sister stood. "What should we do, let her tier herself out?"

"No I really want to get her away from this. If she gets fucking high of lavender I want her as far away from it as possible. We have no idea how she would react to prolong exposure to this." said Temari.

"Yeah but ho-"

POP

Both Temari and Kankuro snapped their heads towards Gaara as they saw a large amount of sand begin to pore out of his gourd, crawling around his feet. With in seconds his sand shot out at Hinata, which she dodged by mere seconds before she began dodging dozens of attempts the sand made to grab her. Temari and Kankuro stood there in shock as they watched Hinata dance around the sand.

"She's . . . so fast." whispered Temari as she saw the smile on Hinata's face, as if she thought it was a game. "Wait, dose she have her eye's closed?!"

"Yeah she's fast, but her movements are a lot stiffer than before." Kankuro said in a slightly serious tone of voice.

This went on for what would seem like hours but were only seconds. Gaara's sand slowly began to rise higher, making it harder for her to move, before making a fake to the left and wrapping around her ankle. With in moment's sand was complete covering her, quickly moving her in front of Gaara, as it removed all of the lavender out of her hair and hands.

When she was finally placed in front of Gaara, he yanked her mouth opened, removed the lavender out of her mouth, before his sand completely fell off her, jerking his arm around her waist and throwing her over his shoulder. Temari and Kankuro stood there as they heard Hinata's protest.

"Troublesome." mumbled Gaara, his sand pored back into his gourd with the cork, as he began to walk back into the forest.

"No, I don't want to go. I want to stay." wined Hinata she tried to grab a hold of the trees beside her, only to leave deep claw marks in the bark. Both Temari and Kankuro winced at Hinata's actions and they followed, not too closely behind.

When they made it back onto the path, they continued to make their ways down the trail with Hinata still trying to escape Gaara's iron grip. She for one second she almost pushed herself out of it by placing her hands on his shoulders and pushing, but a painful jerk from the waist of her pant with his other hand stop it.

It was almost an two hours before she finally did stop struggling and just laid there like some hunters kill, licking the smell of lavender off her hands and smelling and/or sucking on her sleeves. Once she was done with that, she just hung there with a small fit of giggles escaping her from time to time.

"Temari?" said Hinata, after a very long moment of silence.

"Yeah?"

"You know I wasn't really going to hurt him . . . right?" mumbled Hinata, her face still facing Gaara's back/gourd.

"What, Kankuro?"

"No . . . Haru . . . I wasn't really going to hurt him . . . it's just that I've . . . I have met people like him and I know . . . I know that the only way to get people like that to stop is to . . . is to scare them . . . I just wanted him to leave you alone." Hinata said as she lifted her head up to look at her. "I didn't mean to make you mad honest . . . don't hate me."

"Oh Sweetheart." whispered Temari as she took in the pain on her face, she could almost see something deep, deep with in her eyes, almost. "Hinata, I could never hate you, we're like family. Stuck together no madder what." she said as she placed her hand lovingly on her head.

Kankuro stared at his sister in silence as his took in the look on her face. He had only seen that look twice. Once after their mother died as she tried to comfort him, the second after she realized and regretted the way she treated Gaara when he was younger.

Hinata continued to stare at Temari before she turned that hurtful look to Kankuro, actually causing him to flinch slightly as he felt the full effects of it. Puppy dog eyes go to hell.

"Sorry about biting you." She mumbled.

"Eh? N-no problem, it's not that big of a deal, didn't even leave a mark." He said placing a hand behind his head.

With that Hinata body relaxed as her head fell to face Gaara's back/gourd again. What she did next though caused the two sand siblings behind him to stiffen. She grabbed a hold of the straps on the sides of Gaara's vest, one of her arms even reaching over the gourd, in almost and unusually hug as she bore her face into Gaara's back.

"Gaara smells nice when the smell of blood is not too strong . . . smells like the Sun." she mumbled very quietly as she every so slightly nuzzled her face to him. Both Kankuro and Temari wore looks of horror on their faces as one of their eyebrows began to twitch.

Gaara stiffen as he heard and felt what Hinata was doing. His first reaction would have been to toss her to the floor and kill her, but . . . something stopped him. Them he slowly decided to encore it and continue like nothing was happening.

But no madder how much he tried to encore it, the warm feeling that was slowly warming in his chest felt . . . . .

. . . . good.

LavenderLavenderLavenderLavenderLavenderLavenderLavenderLavender

When they finally stopped to camp, Hinata was asleep; been asleep for more than four hours, which bothered Gaara slightly. Although Kankuro and Temari thought nothing of it, still unknown to Hinata's sleeping habits.

When Hinata did finally wake up she made a slight groaning noise as she placed her hand to her head, before wobbly making her way on to a branch that hung over the camp and laid there half dead, with her back facing away from the fire.

For some reason this made Gaara smirk, Hinata apparently had a hangover . . . and by the looks of it was painful.

LavenderLavenderLavenderLavenderLavenderLavenderLavenderLavender

"Finally, I can see village gate, looks to be about two hour away." said Temari as she held her hand over her eyes to block out he sun.

"Thank Kami, I'm done with traveling." Kankuro said as he moved his hands behind his head.

"Your so lazy." mumbled Temari.

"I am not, we just don't usually have this much excitement when we travel." He shrugged.

"What are you talking about, compared with what we normally get this was nothing." Temari said with a confused look.

"Yea but not emotionally." He commented "Plus all that ranting you have been doing is also tiring." This earned him a hard smack, "What?! I bet Hinata would agree with me too. Right Hinata? Hinata?" He asked turning around to see Hinata once again missing.

"Shit not again, HINATA!" Kankuro shouted as the three sand siblings once again stopped. But just as Kankuro was about to shout her name again Hinata popped out of behind a tree with one arm wrapped around her waist and one hand holding a small blue flower.

"Hinata, don't wonder off ok?" said Temari as she tried to keep from smiling at the very large black cloak they had her put on this morning.

"Sorry." She said as she began to jog over to them. Temari tried not to laugh at how cute she looked, while Kankuro tried not to because it was funny as hell. The cloak was very large and baggy thing that went way past her feet and was dragging on the floor; it was a miracle that she was able to keep from falling.

"Hurry up." grumbled Gaara's emotionless voice as they looked up to see him walking ahead of them.

"Hinata, you need to put the hood up now, were really close." said Kankuro as he turn to look at Hinata.

"Hai." She said as she used her had with the flower to do it.

Once the hood was up, Kankuro stared at her for a while finding Hinata to sort of look like Death, yet the one small hand of hers, the only thing showing, gave her such a innocence looking vibe. You didn't know if you should fear her or to protect her, oddly enough if reminded him of her personality. One second she is so innocence to everything around her, the next deadly and dangerous.

When they finally made it to the main road that laid in front of the village gate, Hinata ever so slightly lifted her hood up to take in the village.

"Wow", she whispered as she took in the village in front of them, causing both Temari and Kankuro to look at her, "What is the name of the village?"

"Konoha, village of the hidden leaf." said Kankuro, naming the villages' full title as he and his sister turned to look at the gate.

"Yep, the place of great healers, entertainment, and best tasting apples." Temari said.

"Apples!" Hinata said as she gave a small jumped.

Yelp

With in seconds all eyes were turned on her as everyone froze.

"Hinata . . . what's that moving in you cloak?"

i In chapter two, Hinata is described to be wearing this.