All things considered, they had made surprisingly good time.

Hinata leapt through the trees, the veins around her eyes bulging out. She was scouting the area as they moved, looking out for threats, but so far, she hadn't found any.

Assassination missions against Ninjas were, by necessity, usually quite fast paced. They had to make it to their target before their target left, or retreated too far for them to follow. Many such missions were often failures simply because the target had long since left before their would-be killers had arrived.

"See anything Hinata?" Kiba called out, keeping pace with her for a moment. The wind rustling around them necessitated being slightly louder than was usual.

She shook her head.

Kiba scowled, and dropped back slightly, following behind her. She didn't blame him- at the speeds they were moving, neither his nor Akamaru's enhanced senses were as useful as normal. Shino was much the same; his abilities worked best when he was stationary- but her stoic teammate wasn't giving any indication that he was actually bothered by it. She knew better, of course, but Shino's self-control was admirable.

Kurenai-sensei was looking around, employing her sensor talent to as much effect as she could- though she wasn't have any more luck than Hinata herself.

She spared a quick glance to the other members of the assassination group. Team Gai was lacking in scouts, they relied almost entirely on Neji to detect threats from range, and it showed. Gai-Sensei was keeping ahead of the group, looking around, his eyes sliding from side to side, while Neji, behind him, continually scouted ahead, pushing his range as far as he could. Behind him and to his right and left respectively were Lee and Tenten, both of whom were also keeping an eye out.

Primarily a combat group, they wouldn't be as capable as finding their targets, nor as capable in tracking them, but they were very capable in actually taking them down.

She looked ahead again, scouting.

Pulse

Her eyes widened, and she threw her hand out to the side, coming to a stop on the next branch she landed on. Her team landed around her, Kurenai-sensei in front, Kiba and Shino to her sides. Team Gai also came to a stop, as Neji had alerted his team just as she had.

"Hinata?" Kurenai-sensei asked.

"There's a powerful Chakra up ahead." She stated. She looked to the right, and Neji nodded, confirming it.

Gai-sensei took on an oddly severe expression, one which didn't fit the normally exuberant man at all. "Approach carefully, and keep an eye out."

That it could be a trap was left unsaid. They all already knew that anyway.

Slowly, the two teams made their way forwards, both Hinata and Neji keeping an eye out. Shino's bugs spread out, beginning to disperse into the area, while Kiba and Akamaru began to sniff.

A moment later, Kiba frowned. "I smell smoke."

Hinata looked around. "I'm not seeing any fire." She noted. Certainly, there was the heavy aura of lingering Chakra in the air, but there wasn't any fire-

"I see a battleground." Neji spoke. "Three kilometres, twenty five degrees to the right."

She looked, and nodded. "There's nobody there." She observed.

"I am not detecting any signatures." Shino agreed.

"Move up." Kurenai spoke.

Carefully, they did. It wasn't very long before the battleground came into view, and Hinata took a moment to examine it.

What she saw explained why Kiba had smelled smoke. Parts of the ground were melted, with multiple incinerated tree trunks present everywhere; the earth surrounding them scorched black. A number of craters littered the ground, broken pieces of rock and stone scattered over the ground.

The Chakra lingering in the air was powerful, which meant that either the combatants had been extremely powerful, or the battle had been fairly recent. Possibly both.

She looked around again, channelling more Chakra into her eyes. Her sight extended again, and she went right back to scouting. If the battle had been recent, then there was the chance that the combatants were still nearby.

If she was going to hide in the nearby area, where would she..?

She looked to the right. There was a cave system relatively nearby, large enough to comfortably hold a few ninja. There was a great deal of Chakra about it, trailing from the battlefield to the system, but it was faded, lesser. Still...

She pushed more Chakra into her eyes-

Found you. She thought.

"A pair of ninja are hiding within the caves." She announced. Neji turned his attention to the caves, also focusing on it.

But were they their targets?

"One is missing his right arm, and also a portion of his left arm. The injury appears to be from high heat, as the flesh is cauterized. He appears to have some kind of object covering the right side of his face." She examined. "The other is..." She hesitated.

"A puppet?" Neji questioned. "The outer body appears to be reinforced wood, while the inner body is full of complex mechanisms. In a compartment on the left side of the chest, there is an organic..."

"Core?" Hinata offered. "I am uncertain of what it is, but it appears to be the source of Chakra and control over the body."

What kind of thing was that? Hinata had never seen anything like it, and she didn't doubt that any of them ever had, either.

She looked closer, pressing her eyes just a bit harder-

The head of the organic one suddenly snapped in their direction.

Hinata and Neji both called a warning before the ground exploded upwards, scattering dust and debris into the air.

Hinata's back hit a tree, a white cloud of smoke from a quick Kawarimi surrounding her. Her vision pierced the smoke easily, and she quickly checked on her teammates.

All of them were fine; hiding behind rocks and trees, letting them weather the explosion. Neji's team... also fine.

Their warnings were enough, it seemed. Good.

Her enemies...

Both were leaping out of the former cave, Chakra flaring.

This battle would be a bit more tricky than she had hoped, then.