Chapter 22: Orochimaru part 2, Running!
One would think a crystal ball would provide limitless sight over all things. But something like that requires a little bit extra chakra provided by a specific bloodline of some powerful ancestry. Thus, the range the crystal ball covers were limited. This was one of the secrets Orochimaru came to know about his former teacher. And howling in victory was perhaps all shinobis that were allied with Orochimaru.
Even with all its limits, Hiruzen knew something was wrong as he continued to keep eyes on his crystal ball surveillance. He lifted scrolls with missions he had assigned, and to whom he had assigned them to. Then noticed not everyone were in their post. One that stood out the most was Anko. She was nowhere to be found. He frowned, this was not uncommon. It just meant that Anko was no longer within the range of the crystal ball.
But then he shifted his attention to Izumo and Kotetsu as they tried their best to reach his location; the Hokage tower. This, however, was troublesome. They had a specific mission. And weren't required to report back to him. Nevertheless, the Hokage did not jump into conclusion. He waited and continued to keep his eyes on surveillance. He witnessed that at some point, Izumo and Kotetsu had split up right before they made it to the tower.
Seconds later, Hiruzen glanced up as Izumo appeared directly in front of him, trying to catch his breath for a few seconds before reporting the news. And within the first two minutes, ANBUs had been gathered, briefed, and sent out to various locations to perform different tasks. Few were particularly singled out because of their strength. Those singled out were sent out to aid Anko.
Within the next hour, the Hokage had sent urgent messages to most of the leaders of each clan. And just as he had predicted, most leaders were present and ready to offer aid. The lord 3rd Hokage stood from his chair, a pipe in his hand, and looked directly at the face of each present at the time. No doubt he was thinking that this might not have been such a good idea; having so many different types of leader in one room.
And within the next couple of minutes, verbal conflict ensued.
Team 8 skipped back through the forest, following the path the friendly insect in passing mentioned. It was odd to his two teammates that Shino understood the coordinates left by the friendly insect. But they shook away the ridiculous notion and quickly accepted it as their reality.
"I forgot to mention this, but I put a tracking bug on team 7 a while back," Shino said as if to clear misunderstanding as to why he seemed to know exactly where he was going.
"Oh! That makes much more sense." Kiba said as he rolled his eyes. "Who else did you put a tracker on?" Shino shook his head. "Ah, so just team 7?" Shino nodded.
When the pitch-black night shrouded them, they were forced to stop and rest. And although hard to tell, morning eventually followed. After a quick light breakfast which Akamaru hunted, the team was on the move once more. The trip was awfully quiet until they picked up on team 7's trail.
Akamaru's head popped out of Kiba's sweater and began to bark continuously.
Team 7 was close by.
Upon closing in a few more miles, Akamaru picked up on the scent of blood. He related this to Kiba with a few barks which had a tone of urgency. The blood belonged to Naruto.
Kiba could confirm this when he finally picked up on the faint smell. Unlike Akamaru, which tended to overreact, Kiba could discern that Naruto had suffered only a minor scratch-Probably caused by an encounter with some deader-than-last genin. However, he didn't think it was important to mention this. By now, he knew Hinata should be able to see them.
"Do you see them?" Kiba asked. Hinata's head gave a nod.
"They're safe." There was an obvious sound of relief evident in her voice.
"So how exactly are we doing this? You know-rescue them. They might attack us on sight." Kiba commented.
"Kiba! They're not beasts." Hinata seemed to think the idea of Naruto and Sakura showing hostility was ridiculous. Still, Shino had sided with Kiba.
"Although Naruto might hesitate at first, he might be talked into attacking," Shino added.
Hinata shook her head with a small smile on her face as though she had found all of this to be silly. Naruto would never attack her, unless they were training or on an official match.
"We'll just have to tell them right away we mean them no harm," Hinata said, despite her words, she still did not believe her teammates.
Kiba nodded while petting his puppy.
"Arf! Arf!"
"What did Akamaru say?" Hinata asked Kiba.
"Our buddy here seems to think we should send you alone. 'Might put them at ease."
"Or it might not. Seeing Hinata alone might make them think it's an ambush." Shino added as an afterthought.
Kiba looked thoughtful after the exchange. While Hinata remained quiet for different reasons.
Sasuke led the way, and not too far behind were Naruto and Sakura bickering about the transgression of what had just occurred.
A sigh was heard from Sasuke. He turned around and waited for his team to catch up while remembering the event that led up to this.
Hours earlier, they created a password so that they may confirm that they were allies as opposed to enemies under a transformation technique. Right afterward, Naruto needed some privacy to do nature's calling. However, when was alone, he was ambushed by a single enemy and knocked unconscious.
The enemy ninja, having previously spied on the team, returned to team 7 as Naruto. He was under a transformation disguise. When said enemy ninja was asked about the password, he made the mistake of answering.
The real Naruto, his team knew, would've forgotten. A battle soon followed. And at its conclusion, the real Naruto appeared not knowing he almost had a brush of death.
Thus presently, the argument was mainly about how stupid and careless Naruto had been. He was lucky this time. But will he be lucky next time? Sasuke shook his head.
"Just let it go Sakura. You know he can't be reasoned with." Sasuke said once they were in hearing range.
Sakura's lips formed into a pout. It lasted probably half a second before her face turned red from anger.
"Ugh! Sasuke! He's never gonna' learn if we just let his carelessness slide!" To Sasuke's own surprise, he had just been yelled at.
'Idiot! Whom do you think you're talking to?!' Inner Sakura said.
'I slipped okay? I didn't mean to talk to him like that!' Sakura admitted nervously. Naruto sometimes baited her into these arguments that would continue in a seamless loop. And when Sasuke would intervene, she got even more upset because he would somehow side with Naruto.
As if it were the works of her defense mechanism, Sakura quickly detached herself from the situation and paid more attention to her surroundings. Soon enough, something eventful happened. A rustling of the leaves made Sakura's movement stopped. Thus, she withdrew her kunai, aimed, and attacked a tree.
The sound of her weapon being deflected by another made everyone in team 7 switched into battle mode. Their stance ready.
When Hinata Hyuga suddenly dropped down in front of them, Sasuke was quick to reach for his weapon, while Naruto and Sakura relaxed and moved out of their fighting stance and regarded her presence with concern and confusion.
"Hinata?" Sakura said, unsure as to why Hinata was alone in her forest. Naruto seemed to be wondering the same thing.
"Where's your team?" Naruto asked.
"You guys are in danger!" Hinata said, seemingly ignoring their question. She explained to them that her team discovered a dangerous man snuck into the Forest of Death in search of Sasuke. They had narrowed it down to Orochimaru because it was known in the bingo book that Orochimaru wants an Uchiha body to experiment on.
At the end of Hinata's conclusion, she looked up and could see the doubt in Sasuke's and even Naruto's face.
Did it really sound that far-fetch?
"Hah! We know you're obviously a fake! Boy, that's a pretty elaborate plan just to get us to put our guard down to steal our scroll." Naruto said he seemed to beam at the fact that he wasn't all that oblivious. Naruto was not as trusting as before since he had just been ambushed a few hours ago by an enemy. He had learned his lesson, the one that Kakashi keeps trying to instill in them; something about the underneath or beneath. No matter. Naruto was not going to be fooled.
Sasuke was quick to nod in Naruto's direction. He distrusts team 8. It was led by Kurenai and she was known as the master of illusions. He wouldn't be surprised if team 8 was trained to be deceitful to this extent.
Sakura quickly caught on to the situation. Her teammates didn't believe Hinata. So, she was quick to follow and shifted back into her fighting stance.
"I don't know if I believe you…I'm sorry Hinata," Sakura said regretfully.
"Who are you really?" Naruto asked. His nose was twitching wildly as though he was about to sneeze. "You sure don't smell like Hinata. And I know that because we've train often enough for me to even know. Are you Kiba or something? It would make more sense since you smell like a dog."
Kiba dispersed his transformation technique with the intention of attacking Naruto. Hinata, having seen through his intentions, quickly emerged in view.
"Naruto! Wait!" Hinata said as she hopped over a bush and stood in front of Kiba. "We're not here to deceive you!" She shrugged her bag off her shoulder and brought it in front of her. Quickly, the zipper was undone, and her hand dug into her belongings to bring out three scrolls.
Kiba and Shino were mortified after witnessing Hinata place their earned scroll in Sakura's hands. This certainly got team 7's attention.
"Um, okay. Assuming we believe you, now what?" Sakura asked, as she stared at the scrolled with uncertainty, as though it may vanish and be replaced with something else as some sort of prank.
A/N: Hey all, I stopped posting updates because of my demanding job...Yes roll your eyes, but I got other news. I am soon moving to be close to my job after accepting a leadership position. What does this mean? Idk, it could mean more updates.
I've been coming back to this and rereading it every now and then and cringing at the typos and grammar errors. Wish I had a person to edit it. But thank you all for looking past that and for the reviews you left a while back. It's what kept me coming back to this so that I don't forget where I wanted this story to go. I still love HinataxShikamaru!