CHAPTER 6: OF C-RANK MISSIONS
"Orange, in position!" The loud, enthusiastic voice made him flinch and he swallowed a sigh.
"Blue, in position."
"Red, in position."
He swallowed a sigh again when the two bland voices followed. Did they already get bored of this?
"Alright, on three. One… two… go," and despite himself, Kakashi smiled.
He heard a few more mutterings about 'he didn't say three' and some sounds of scuffles, curses, groans, meowls, and more curses. He certainly would never get bored of this. All those excuses and arguments he cooked up to give to the Third for not taking a team weren't worth it. He never thought being a sensei would be so amusing.
"Target acquired," he heard, and promptly transferred his attention to the divine literature in his hands.
It doesn't matter if he had read it so many times that he had memorized almost every line in it. He would still read it again.
After about two more minutes – by when he read another three pages, that he already remembered by heart – his cute little genins reached the tree he was resting on. They were all glaring at their target as if nothing could be fouler than it. Kakashi wasn't surprised – this was the reaction every team had when they received the same mission more than once. His poor team had already caught the cat four times in the past one and a half month.
Kakashi grinned as he thought about their reactions if they knew he specifically asked for that mission to be given to his team. They would probably try to kill him the next (sixth) time. He shrugged and jumped down to meet his genins. They can try.
They were getting (more) pissed just by looking at his way-too-cheerful face.
"Good work, Team 7. Your timing and teamwork are getting better little by little. Now, let's go to the Hokage tower to give this cat to its owner. We can probably request for another mission today."
They nodded and went ahead towards the Hokage tower. The whole way was filled with Naruto trying to get anyone else to hold the demon cat, Sakura making as much distance away from him as she could while still trying to get as close as she could to Sasuke, and Sasuke just downright pretending his teammates doesn't exist. He was getting better at it, too.
Kakashi read his beloved literature the whole way – it was not as if his team was acting anything out of ordinary.
When they finally entered the Hokage tower, you couldn't have distinguished Naruto's whiskers on his face from all the scratches it acquired in the past twenty or so minutes. He eagerly returned the cat back to its owner who promptly started crushing it to her face and rubbing it affectionately, too affectionately. And none of his genins showed any sympathy for it, unlike the first time. They kind of looked sadistically happy for the cat.
After they were done reporting their mission – not a very long task, but still pretty long for a D-rank, in Kakashi's opinion – Kakashi asked the Hokage if there were any more missions available for the day.
"Hmm, let's see," the Third Hokage picked up a scroll and read it aloud, "we have one babysitting, one fence painting, a lake to clean, some deliveries to make, and… that's it for the day. Which one would you like?"
Kakashi looked at his genins and Sasuke and Sakura looked at each other, trying to decide which mission they should accept – which was the lesser evil.
They didn't get the chance to think anything though.
"Nuh-uh, none of them, Old Man," Naruto shook his head decidedly. "No way in hell am I go –"
Crash.
Kakashi uninterestingly watched as a large green ball with a blue string flew into the room through the open windows and crashed straight into a corner table on the far end. The scrolls placed upon it tumbled down and fell upon – what Kakashi now realized was – its head.
Oh. It's Lord Third's grandson, he thought absently.
He stood up and refocused himself remarkably quickly, and turned straight towards the Hokage, "Old Man! I challenge – huh, Naruto-nii-chan? What are you doing here, Boss?"
Naruto looked at him with his arms folded, like a big brother getting ready to lecture his baby brother, "Konohamaru, are you still bothering Jiji all the time with your challenges? What the hell did I tell you about disturbing him? And where is your sensei? Did you lose him, again? And, oh! Why are you not in the Academy!? You are going to get into trouble with Iruka-sensei again, y'know!"
Konohamaru at least had the sense to look apologetic, "I don't bother him all the time, nii-chan. Just once a week now." He grinned unabashedly at Naruto.
"Good," Naruto grinned and patted his head. To Kakashi, Konohamaru looked like Sakura when Sasuke says anything more than a 'hn' to her.
"Oh God, he's got a minion too, now" Kakashi heard Sakura groan miserably into her hands and Sasuke looked like he shared the same sentiments, but is too dignified to say so.
"Nii-chan, you here for a mission?" Konohamaru asked Naruto with stars in his eyes.
"Yup," Naruto nodded, grinning enthusiastically, "we are getting a C-rank mission today, y'know."
"We are?" "You are?" Sakura, Sasuke, Kakashi and the Hokage said at the same time.
"Hell yeah!" Naruto turned to look at the Third, "I am not accepting one more D-rank mission. That's it, Jiji. I want a real mission and not these boring pastimes, y'know."
He stood there with his arms folded and a defiant look. Kakashi thought it was ironic how he would preach to Konohamaru about not disrespecting the Hokage and then turn around and do the exact same thing.
Well, at least he has the good sense to not encourage it.
Hokage sat patiently through it all – having been used to both his grandson's favorite hobby and Naruto's mini-tantrums.
"Hm, are you sure Naruto-kun? The babysitting mission is quite short, just for two hours."
"No. I don't want it. We have been a ninja for more than a month. Ask Kakashi-sensei, he said that we are improving a lot and our timing has improved greatly. D-rank missions are boring, y'know. A super awesome ninja like me shouldn't waste his talents weeding a garden or catching demon cats."
Konohamaru held onto Naruto's each and every word, totally agreeing with the self-aggrandizing speech. Sasuke and Sakura immediately made faces upon hearing 'super awesome ninja', even if Sasuke nodded along when Naruto he was demanding C-rank mission.
Kakashi mentally facepalmed – he did not say that. And now he's not going to compliment his cute little genin so easily either. Though, he can't say he was surprised – he had been expecting this since his team's third D-rank mission. They endured pretty long, if he must say so.
"You are still a rookie, Naruto-kun," the Hokage explained patiently. "You start with simple duties and slowly work your way up."
"But! We are always getting the shittiest duties! Just last week I saw Team 10 completing a mission of breaking down a shack. And I know Kiba wasn't exaggerating when he told me his team had to leave the village for a whole day for a mission. Why are we the only ones getting all the cleaning and babysitting and catching-the-cat missions?"
The Hokage cleared his throat uncomfortably and looked at Kakashi. Kakashi's hand instinctively twitched towards his Icha-Icha in his vest pocket – to bury his face in one of its holy pages – when he felt three suspicious glares digging into him from his right. He suddenly found the tapestry hanging on the wall on his left incredibly interesting.
Sarutobi took some pity on him and started explaining the basics of how missions are sanctioned, "Listen, every day the village receives numerous missions, from…"
Three seconds into the speech and Naruto made a great show of yawning and scratching his ear with his pinky, before sitting down cross-legged, "I am getting hungry, guys. What should I get tonight? Let's see, last night I had pork ramen, then in the morning I ate instant ramen, and in afternoon I ate chicken ramen. Strangely, I don't want miso ramen…"
"How about beef ramen? Or shio ramen?" Konohamaru suggested, having sat beside Naruto as soon as he did.
Kakashi noticed Sasuke and Sakura move near them, unusually interested in Naruto's chatter. Maybe because they already know the way missions are distributed, seeing as how they are taught about that in the last year in Academy. He himself looked at the four kids huddled together, wondering if Naruto ever ate anything other than ramen. Will I have to make him eat vegetables, too?
"Yeah, shio ramen sounds good," Naruto muttered dreamily, already drooling a bit.
Sakura looked a bit dreamy, too.
"…And that is why D-rank missions are perfect for you," the Hokage finished his explanation, satisfied with himself, only to see everyone listening to Naruto's ramen paradox instead of him.
"Hey listen!"
While Kakashi apologized for insulting his commander, Naruto jerked out of his daydreams and yelled back, "You are giving lectures, Old Man. Geez, I am not the same trouble-making brat anymore. It's been, what, three weeks since my last prank. I am a ninja and I will do my duty. But I am not taking another D-rank mission!"
The Hokage sighed, and all the four kids looked at him like they were awaiting the climax of a heart-pounding mystery.
"Okay."
There was silence for second, then Naruto perked up.
"I'll give you a C-rank mission," Lord Third continued before his words could settle themselves inside Naruto's head. "It is the protection of a certain individual."
"Yay!" Naruto jumped up, shouting and victory-dancing.
"Who is it? A Princess? The Daimyo? Some Actress? Who, who?"
"Calm down, I'll introduce you to him now," the Third said, and then continued louder, "you can come in now."
The door behind them slid open to reveal a drunk old man leaning on the wall, a half-full bottle of sake in his free hand.
He looked at Kakashi's genins, unimpressed, "What's this? I'm going to entrust my safety to a bunch of brats? The midget's got such a stupid face, it's hard to believe he's a ninja."
There was a beat of silence, and Naruto looked around snickering happily until he realized he is the shortest member of the team.
Kakashi sighed, automatically moving a hand to get a hold of Naruto's collar as he started shouting, "I'm killing him."
His sidekick wouldn't quietly hear his 'Boss' getting dissed either, "Hey, old man! Don't speak about Boss like that! You have no idea how cool he is!"
"Hey now, no killing the old man you are supposed to protect," Kakashi lectured Naruto who was struggling in his hold to get a go at the client.
The client looked considerably unbothered with having a ninja – even if just a newly-minted genin – out for his blood. Kakashi wasn't sure if he should be offended for his student.
"The name's Tazuna. I'm the best bridge builder in the Wave country. You have to get me there alive and kicking no matter what so I can finish my latest bridge."
…
Shisui sat silently on his dining table, debating if he should follow through with his decision or not. It seemed like a good idea earlier, but now… not so much. He was pretty sure his team is now good enough for C-rank missions almost two months after graduating. He wanted to surprise his kids today by requesting a C-rank mission for them.
He heard that Kakashi's team got one a week ago, and he knows once Kiba knows that, he wouldn't be hearing the end of it soon. And it's not like he isn't confident in his team. But hearing Itachi talk about how that mission went horribly wrong and now no one knew when Team 7 would be back… he is getting doubts.
But then again, Kiba won't let him live peacefully once Team 7 comes back either.
He watched the cock tick, and the moment it touches 06:55, he got up to leave for the training ground. His kids weren't too happy when he told them the day they passed his test that their new meeting time would be 0700.
He flickered into the training ground at exact 7 o'clock. Hinata was a few yards away from him and Kiba and Shino were further away. They were getting better at being on time.
He quickly flickered beside Hinata and swiped her off her feet. She had barely registered his previous position by then, and was caught off guard. She broke her fall by a half-cartwheel, taking her stance the moment she was upright, byakugan activated.
He felt so proud. Her reaction time was almost just a second now, even if she probably expected him this time.
Shisui would often attack his students out of nowhere to judge their reactions and improve them. Hinata's reaction time was the best by far, but her reactions themselves could use some work. Kiba, on the other hand, was much slower. But then again, his reactions were better – powerful, unpredictable and creative. And Shisui honestly couldn't judge Shino properly – whatever he did was inside his clothes and/or body. But he was the one hardest to catch off guard.
Kiba and Shino caught up to them and Shisui took a spot in front of the three of them. Today was a training day – that means no missions and a whole day of different physical exercises. Team 8 would have a training day every three days to work on their individual skills.
He watched the kids getting ready for warm up and clapped his hands twice. Fuck it, not everyone has Kakashi's bad luck.
"Alright, team, we are getting a mission today."
The genins stooped what they were doing to look at him. And then Kiba, the designated mouthpiece of his team, said what all three of them were thinking, as always, "But Shisui-sensei, today is training day, isn't it?"
"Yes, but I got a surprise for you guys. Now, get up, hurry!"
His team looked understandably apprehensive of that. The last time he gave them a surprise, it ended up in all of them getting so sore and exhausted, he had to give them two days off. (Which was worse than one day off because they ended up missing the two mission days and got another training day after their mini-vacation finished.)
He laughed at their looks, "Come on, this is a mission surprise, not a training surprise! Wipe off those 'no thank you' looks off your faces." How was I supposed to know the limits of endurance exercises for twelve-year-olds?
"Chop-chop, or I will think of a training surprise for you all. Get up," he said impatiently. He didn't want to give himself a chance to change his mind. Because how will they learn if they won't ever take risks?
The kids quickly got up after hearing that.
…
They got a patrol mission. Near the borders of Land of Hot Water. There was an attack by some rogues on the patrols on duty, three of them got injured, others requested back up, though they doubt there will be a second attack. Team 8 would reinforce the borders with the rest of the patrols till the injured are healed – and investigate the rogue group, if possible.
Shisui told them they would leave the next day, before meeting at the A-Un gates at 0800. Even though they were told about this in Academy, Shisui still reminded them to pack lightly but enough to last a week at the least.
And despite all their training and improvement in the past couple months, they were all waiting for him well before appointed time. But looking at their enthusiastic faces, he resolved to remind them of that rule later.
He set a steady, not-too-fast pace so they wouldn't have to take more than one break before nightfall, and had them practice their chakra control. Tree climbing, he had taught them after the first month, and Kiba was the last one to master it a week ago.
And so, while his kids chatted behind him (Kiba, mostly, but Shino and Hinata were slowly starting to speak a bit more every day), Shisui thought about what exercise he should teach them now – he could go for water walking next since there would be plenty of props to practice for that near the Land of Hot Water, but his kids needed a lot help in weapons, too. None of them can do much outside their clan jutsu and Academy taijutsu. And Shino was barely passable in taijutsu.
They stopped after midday for lunch, and Shisui settled for taijutsu. If they turn out to be satisfactory in hand-to-hand combat, he'll teach them water walking. The latter is not as fundamental to shinobis as the former.
During the second half of the journey, Shisui thought about different ways he could teach them what they were missing, and by the nightfall, the look on his face was enough to scare his genin as he settled on a training schedule.
They reached the patrol team before lunch the next day. Shisui recognized two of them – Dai and Haru, both chunin, one of them a medic, served under him for one mission a year or so ago – and they briefed them of their duties and the gaps they have to fill for the three injured shinobi. Most of their injuries aren't severe, but one of them would need a full month to come back to his own two feet – left arm broken, left foot crushed (but not permanently damaged) and multiple muscle tissues torn. The other two will be good to go in a bit more than a week. So, Team 8 will have to cover for them until those two are fully healed – ten days, probably. They met the sixth and the last patrol guard, Kenji, after he came back with lunch (a deer).
The rest of the day was spent training the genin do the patrol properly. The patrol team used to do two rotations of twelve hours each, and they adjusted the new rotations to include Team 8.
The next day Shisui told them of their new training schedule – one hour before and three hours after their patrol. Kiba was given a mix of chakra control, endurance and target exercises, Hinata was given weapon practice, especially with kunai, and Shino, whose turn coincided (was set up) with Shisui's, would train in hand-to-hand combat with Shisui – during patrol, too, if they get a chance since this border was almost never hostile.
Kiba and Hinata absolutely did not envy him.
…
Hinata woke up from her now familiar restless sleep just an hour or so before she would see the sun going down, again – she got the night shift, compliments of her byakugan. Opening the curtains, she could see Kiba and Akamaru already down in the clearing, preparing for training. Stretching a bit, she went down the single flight of stairs to the bathroom and splashed some cold water on her face to clear her head – wondering if she should get used to her sleep cycle getting messed up every now and then, but she supposed it isn't that bad for her first C-rank mission, at least she has access to a proper bathroom and bedroom.
Back in her room, she strapped her weapons pouch and kunai holster and went to join Kiba. There, on one corner of the clearing, beside the target, were five kunais, belonging to Shisui-sensei. He gave them to her to practice her aim and speed. She was already perfect in shuriken throwing with still or slow targets. But enemies are not going to wait for her to aim.
She picked up the kunai and held them in one hand in a way that would make it easier to grab them quickly. Kiba was performing katas with kunai in both hands. Hinata took out a shuriken and threw it to cut off a bunch of leaves of a tree a hundred yards away. The leaves scattered and Hinata's hands raced against them as they fell. She managed to pin five of them on the tree, while the sixth kunai – one of the three she carried with her – missed.
She sighed. If this past week have taught her something, it's that she – and by extension most of her clansmen – were somewhat lacking in shooting.
And the leaves weren't even fast.
"Hey, Hinata! You wanna spar for a bit?"
I thought his katas were longer.
She turned around to watch him walk towards her. In the past month, she had asked him to call her just Hinata, him calling her Hinata-sama just made them and everyone around them awkward. He now had kunais in both hands and one of them extended towards her – a weapon-only fight. She shrugged and pulled out her own, taking her position a couple yards away from the center of the clearing.
Akamaru, she guessed, cheered for him, and Kiba started off by throwing three shuriken straight at her. She dodged two of them, and deflected the third with her kunai. Kiba had crossed half the distance between them by then. She had less than two seconds to prepare herself for his harsh strikes, but not less enough to catch her off-guard. He attacked, and she defended, and they mostly carried on like that till Shisui-sensei and Shino came back from their patrol duty. By then, they both were covered in cuts – and Hinata had a few bruises from when Kiba accidentally used his hands instead of his weapons.
Dai, the medic, healed their cuts easily and gave them some food to eat before they go for their patrol. Haru's duty was with them, and Kenji just came back from his duty with Shisui-sensei and Shino. The two less injured shinobi, Akira and Shinji, were now well enough to help around the camp, and would resume their duties in one or two more days. Then, Team 8's mission will be completed.
They left at 1800 and Haru assigned them their areas for that night. Hinata went to hers and found a somewhat comfortable branch of a tree to settle. Her range of byakugan was now just less than a kilometer normally, and expanded to two when she was focusing on covering the most distance. She had to patrol six kilometers of stretch of the Fire-Hot Water border, and so, most of that could be done from just one place.
There was no bad blood between the Land of Fire and the Land of Hot Water, so these borders were one of the least aggressive. Most of the patrol teams would start and finish their time here without a single hostile confrontation. The good thing about this was – it didn't demand their full attention. Hinata would use the time to improve her byakugan – in just the past week, her range increased by half a kilometer and the time she could use byakugan non-stop without straining her eyes was now around three hours, from her previous two hours.
She started making rounds on her stretch when she covered all the area she could see from her tree. It was like this every day. The only thing she learned during this mission, besides the fact that she kinda sucks at weapons, was that patrol mission at non-hostile borders are worse than D-rank missions.
After an hour, she turned off her byakugan, and made full rounds like she should be doing. And she continued that after hours of nothing happening, like every day.
The black sky slowly brightened, indicating that sunrise was not far off, and Hinata's patrol duty would be over in less than three hours. She went back to her tree and climbed to the top to see the sunrise – one of the very few things she enjoyed in this mission, even if she knew Shisui-sensei would make her regret it if he knew how much she slacked off during her duty.
Eh, it's worth it, she thought when she saw the sun rise slowly, beautifully, majestically. It never gets old for her.
She activated her byakugan after she came down to see if she missed anything in the last few minutes – though she knew that she would most probably miss it again if it was really something of concern.
But she saw a team of three shinobi on her side of the border, coming from the direction of Land of Sound. They were all injured, two of them were helping the third, who appeared to be unconscious. They were on the edges of her vision, so she couldn't focus on them clearly, but she started sorting information as they came nearer and their images became clearer.
They were Kumo shinobi, now less than a mile away from her, completely into Land of Fire territory, fully armed, if injured.
She took out a kunai, wrapped its handle with an explosive tag, and threw it straight above her as far as she could – the signal for others to come.
She saw them stop when the explosive went off in the air and look above. One of them let out a curse – or, at least, she thought it might be a curse – and the two conscious shinobi exchanged a few words before putting down their comrade on the ground. They stood up and raised both their hands, in surrender.
Haru entered the other edge of her vision, and was beside her within a minute.
"What happened, Hyuga-san?"
"There are three injured Kumo shinobi a kilometer from here, one of them is unconscious, and the other two aren't much better. They surrendered as soon as I sent the signal," Hinata reported without moving her focus from them.
"Well, lead the way, then," Haru gestured to her and she went ahead.
They were before them within a minute. One of them was fair-skinned blond, and the other was dark-skinned blond, both of them wore the standard jonin vest of Kumo, the white one with only one shoulder strap. The unconscious one was noticeably smaller than the other two, and since he was laid sideways on the ground, all that was visible of him were his ice blond hair, pale skin and pale clothes.
"You are in Land of Fire," Haru stated.
"We figured," the fair-skinned blond rolled his eyes.
"And I don't think I got a message to let a Kumo team through. Want to explain?"
"We had a mission to catch a small band of rogues who escaped into the Land of Hot Water – didn't realize when we crossed the border, I'm sure you understand," the same guy said and gestured towards his injured companions.
"A band of rogues… four rogue ninja, dark haired, used water and lightning jutsus and genjutsu, oh, and they had that scroll with them, too, right?" Haru gestured to the large scroll strapped onto the fair-skinned blond's back.
"Yeah… how do you know about that?" the Kumo shinobi asked suspiciously.
"They attacked our outpost almost two weeks ago, took some of our rations," Haru shrugged.
No one said anything for a few moments, then the fair-skinned blond looked ahead, "You got more back up for us?"
"No, just my team. You are a sensor?" Haru asked him. Hinata supposed Kiba and Akamaru were close.
He thought for a few seconds before nodding.
"But you didn't sense me before," Hinata interjected before Haru could continue.
The Kumo shinobi looked at her like he wanted to say something, but said something else instead, "I thought we were in the Land of Hot Springs – we have permission for there. So, I wasn't on high alert. Not that any of us could do much even if we were threatened."
Haru looked at them blankly for a few seconds, and Kiba and Akamaru finally arrived.
"We can give you shelter for a day or so," Haru offered. "Your teammates look pretty bad; you sure you can go back all the way to Kumo like that?"
"Thanks, dude," he nodded gratefully, while the dark-skinned blond – who looked as if he would drop dead any second now – sighed in relief.
Haru told Kiba and Akamaru to escort them back to the post and explain the situation to Shisui-sensei, Dai and Kenji, while he and Hinata would finish the patrol in a couple of hours.
…
When Hinata was back, everyone was having breakfast. Shisui-sensei was chatting with the Kumo shinobi. He was like that – charismatic and inviting, everyone would talk to him like a good friend, till they become the enemy. Hinata never got it, how can someone be so friendly and nice one moment and ruthless the next? Sometimes with the same people too?
Hinata knew that right now, if those foreign shinobi turned out to be threat (however impossible it might seem), Shisui-sensei won't hesitate for a second before sweeping the ground with them, no matter how chummy he might be with them.
Goodness, my vocabulary is deteriorating day by day. Otou-sama would have my head if he ever heard such unbecoming words from my mouth.
Shisui-sensei got up when he finished and approached Hinata with Kiba in tow. He got beside her, slapped her hard on her back and wrapped his hand around her shoulder, crouching to come to her level. Kiba was on his other side in the same position as Hinata. The three of them were looking in the general direction of where everyone usually eats and sensei was grinning a bit too cheerfully and they both knew they wouldn't like what is going to happen next.
"So, you are finally back, my kiddies. You know this was your last patrol?" Kiba let out a relieved breath but sensei continued, "we leave tomorrow morning, after Shino and I had finished our patrol and rested."
Hinata and Kiba held their breaths for more, and just when they thought this was it, sensei said, "Say something, kids. Isn't that nice?" and they knew it was going to be worse than they thought.
"That's very nice, sensei," Kiba muttered, managing to keep his attitude in check.
"Yeah, that's what I thought, too. But you know what's nicer? This is your last day to master the exercises that I gave you. Good luck." Sensei slapped them on their backs twice, then straightened up.
"Dai!" he yelled and Dai looked up from his soup – or whatever they were eating, Hinata had no idea – and sensei continued, ruffling Kiba's hair, "he doesn't go inside till he finishes the katas within a minute," Kiba groaned, loudly, "and she doesn't get food till every leaf is pinned at least a foot above the ground. Cool?"
"Cool," Dai gave a thumbs up.
"And Hinata?" Hinata looked up at sensei, "try not to pass out. You have to do it before I'm back."
Hinata's stomach growled – she didn't even get embarrassed anymore; Shisui-sensei loved starving them during training, though his rewarding feasts would make it up to them (most of the time).
Shisui-sensei laughed and went off to patrol with Shino and Kenji, but not without nodding back at the fair-skinned blond from Kumo. Hinata thought that the nod was as much courteous as it was threatening.
Then she glanced at the six kunai she had left where she was training before her patrol and her stomach growled again.
…
Her vision darkened and she stumbled, but she saw. She saw the leaf was pinned one foot – maybe even thirteen inches – above the ground. She felt like she could cry just by seeing it. She took some deep breaths until she could speak and then called out weakly, "Dai-san," holding her hand up and waving in case he didn't hear her.
She didn't have the energy to call out again, she was barely standing on her two legs, but thankfully he came up behind her. She just pointed in front of her, at the tree and the leaves pinned on it – seven leaves, the last one a whole foot above the ground, all of them she had pinned in less than five seconds.
"That's definitely one foot. Come on, eat up now, you look like you are ten seconds from dropping dead."
She felt like she was five seconds from dropping dead.
It was almost four now. She had been awake for twenty-three hours, the last she had eaten was twenty-two hours ago before she had left for her last patrol, and she was training without a break (they weren't allowed any breaks if Shisui-sensei gave them a deadline; you better master it before he is forced to force you) for ten hours straight. Her limbs were trembling, and her fingers were stiff from gripping the kunais.
At least she did it before sensei was back; they didn't know what he would do when he gave them a deadline without mentioning what would happen if they fail, and they never want to find out. As Kiba had once reasoned, "if he doesn't want us to know, we are probably better off not knowing."
Dai patted Hinata on her back to make her go eat something but she slipped, and then he had to help her stand up and he hovered behind her all the way to where they had logs set around to sit and eat. Fortunately, she didn't slip or stumble and embarrass herself again.
Dai gave her the vegetable soup from morning – he had heated it up again when he lit fire half an hour ago for preparing dinner – and offered to heal her arms.
She waved him off; she didn't have energy to refuse politely. She deserved it anyway, because what kind of shinobi takes ten hours, plus four hours every day for eight days, to catch a few leaves in five seconds with kunai?
She regained some awareness after she finished the whole bowl of soup, and noticed that the Kumo shinobi were still loitering around, on the other end of the camp but still in Dai's vision.
The third shinobi was conscious now – had been conscious for some time, it seemed. He was young, just a few years older than herself. She was studying his side profile when she remembered – "Where's Kiba-san?"
Dai nodded toward the small two-storied structure that wasn't quite a building but not just a camp either, "Knocked out. He finished an hour before you did."
Hinata's chest tightened and barely gave a nod of acknowledgement to Dai, ignoring her jealousy and her thoughts that she shouldn't be having. It was fine, she told herself, she should be happy for her teammates. She was – and still is – the best at taijutsu. She was finally making friends and she wasn't about to lose them over petty jealousy.
I bet I am a better shooter than most of the Hyuga now, anyway.
She forced out all the unbecoming thoughts out of her head and wondered if she should ask for another serving, she was still very much hungry. But then the young Kumo boy looked at her and she froze.
Everything around him and around her blurred. All she saw were his eyes – big and white and lavender and translucent and bright.
Byakugan.
Her vision focused and she realized he had smiled at her – and waved, too.
She was still looking at him – like an idiot, an ill-bred idiot, she realized later – as she spoke to Dai, "I'm heading off to bed, Dai-san. Thank you for the food."
And she turned back without returning his smile even though he was still smiling politely at her and didn't look back even though she desperately wanted to.