Shifting Sands Chapter 14

Hina hugged Taichi the longest before she left. She had burnt the memory of Tsukiya so deep into her skull she might as well have used the Sharingan. Her father had given her an omamori and told her to come back home safe.

Her mother had not even seen her out.

Hina put all that aside because it was irrelevant right now. She was walking to the meeting point at the North Gate when she caught sight of her team. It was a large team deployment for a stealth mission. She counted 6 other people, excluding herself and Orochimaru. The Shinobi were all adults, scarred and dead eyed. The ones that didn't look like they'd cracked a joke their entire life, looked cruel. It was so unlike the usual humanity of the Konoha Shinobi she helped treat in the Hospital.

So these were ROOT Agents.

She shuddered to think what they'd do to someone like her should she have been caught up in the more illegal side of things. She wondered for the millionth time again if she was morally obligated to tattle to Shikaku or the Hokage about the underground child slavery ring that Danzo was running. These were children barely 10 years old being forced to train and kill each other right under Konoha's nose. The worst part about all of this was Hina wasn't even sure Konoha would care. She really wanted to learn Edo Tensai so she could summon Tobirama and have the Nidaime lecture Konoha into submission. She was sure he would have executed Danzo by now.

Shikaku had said ROOT was a necessary evil, a faction that conditioned their Shinobi to do the cruellest of missions. It operated similarly to Kiri, which spoke volumes of its ethics… meaning it had none. She personally thought it was hypocritical of Konoha to spout things like the Will of Fire, while brainwashing a small army to believe that they were nothing but tools of war. And that was what these men and women were, tools. Not because she didn't believe they were human, but because they didn't. Even now not one of them had spoken a word, not even a simple greeting. They stood ready for orders, quiet and too still to be human. It was uncanny and disturbing.

Orochimaru in comparison looked like Guy levels of cheer next to them. He sent her a smile, the kind of one that never reached his eye, but it was comforting right now. Everyone else looked at the world with the same expression of a dead fish. She decided to stick very close to her sensei.

"Scared?" he asked, voice challenging.

Hina was in fact nervous, terrified, shitting her pants. Need she continue?

"Uh, yes. Who wouldn't be?" she asked back, unable to hide the irritation in her voice.

"Good. Fear keeps you on edge. It keeps you alive. Just don't let it cloud your judgement," he said.

She blinked in surprise once more. She had expected mocking, but he'd been surprisingly understanding. She nodded. If nothing she would carry out the mission as best she could. She signed up for this, even if she suddenly felt stupid about it.

He nodded before addressing the team. "Ko, Fu, Tan and Ren take flank."

They replied back with a dispassionate "Hai."

"Nai, and Fan behind me," he continued.

Did that mean Orochimaru expected her to go front with him? She wasn't so sure about that but decided to trust his judgement. Then they all disappeared into the tree with a speed that caught her off guard. Hina quickly jumped after them, pushing more chakra than usual to catch up with Orochimaru, who seemed to be running through the trees with ease.

"We're going really fast," she noted.

"We will keep this pace for four hours every day," he said.

Hina nearly tripped on a branch and did a double take. That was a long time. More running than she did even on days when she amped up her training. She pursed her lips, suddenly unsure about her ability to keep up with everyone here. These were all seasoned Shinobi, either high Chunin or Jounin level. There weren't that many Jounin in Konoha, only about 60 in their entire Village. There was a reason why they were considered the cream of the crop. How did they expect her to keep up with them?

She exerted herself for another 3 hours before she bumped into Fan, who looked at her for the first time. Hina felt a shiver of fear run down her spine as she watched his hand twitch towards a kunai. Then suddenly she felt a hand grab her scruff and Hina turned to see Orochimaru holding her. Carrying her. She felt her cheeks flush in embarrassment. She was dead weight, and this was simply proof of that. She had to stop her childish urge to bury her face into his chest and hide away entirely. That would only cement how weak she was.

"I can keep running," she insisted.

"You'll slow down the pace of the team," he dismissed.

"I'll do better!"

"No you won't. You'll exhaust yourself and simply run your chakra reserves dry, which will make you more of a liability than you already are."

Hina hated that his logical reasoning made sense. Nothing was worse than incompetence. She'd never been incompetent at work before. There had always been time to train and prepare, whether it be at her corporate job, or at the Academy. She was not qualified to be on this mission. Orochimaru was right, she was dead weight. She knew logically it wasn't her fault. It was like giving a fresh out of University student a managerial position with little to no training. Still, the consequences of failure here was infinitely worse than a standard corporate job. She couldn't fail.

"Sensei," she said, getting his attention.

"Yes?"

"By the end of this mission, I'll be able to keep up."

He hummed noncommittally. Hina bit her lip in frustration. She wouldn't ever be useless again. The very idea of it made her wish for death.

Why?

She paused. Why did it frustrate her so much? She wracked her brain for a reason and got nothing but a sharp headache, the kind she received when she tried to think about specific memories from her past life. It must have been something to do with who she was before she concluded. It irked her that the person she was before had carried over to who she was now. If it was just her with additional memories that would have been fine, but she felt like a merge of two people. The nameless, faceless person she was before, and Suzuki Hina. She was missing parts of herself. Maybe she was fragmented.

Either way she knew she hated being weak, hated failing at a job. She took pride in her work. She'd show this team she could be useful, even as a green horn Genin.

The wind was cold now. Hina had gotten used to the hot humidity of Konoha's climate. It was the start of Autumn, which meant they had a limited amount of time before Frost's entire region became too dangerous to traverse. Kumo really got a shit deal with their geographic location, not that Hina was complaining. She liked the trees, and the woodlands. She remembered living in more tropical areas in her past life, and Konoha was similar in that way, if a little bit more temperate. As they continued through to Rice, she was really beginning to see how this was another world.

The trees that surrounded Konoha were huge. The kind of huge that was a little awe-inspiring and awesome. She thought if these trees had existed in her old world they would have been cut down by human greed. But there weren't as many people in the Elemental Nations as there had been on Earth One, as she liked to call her old planet. Technology here wasn't as advanced, and industrialisation hadn't taken the destructive capitalist approach just yet here. There wasn't a mad dash for hyper-consumerism since Nobility and Peasants still existed. That meant the trees were fine.

She hadn't expected giant mushrooms she could walk on like platforms though. She felt like she was in a Mario game. The worst thing was that she couldn't even fully appreciate the ridiculously cool landscapes she was travelling because she was exhausted. It was the kind of bone deep tired that made her feel lethargic. She had too much pride though to ask for help. It was bad enough that every day Orochimaru would pick her up like a useless child and carried her. It was even worse now that those periods of being carried were growing longer.

They set up camp silently when it came crashing on her. Her legs had felt like led before, but now they refused to move. She was on her knees gasping through familiar pain, the kind that felt like a million senbon were piercing her at every angle.

"Nod if you can hear me."

Hina forced her head to move, although the voice felt distant even to her ears. She blinked through the pain as she felt someone holding her, laying her head on the ground. She held them back desperately, feeling her body seize.

"S-sensei?" she asked, hating the waver in her voice.

Slitted golden eyes looked down at her and she winced when cold fingers began undressing her. A part of her felt like kicking him off. She didn't want to a man to see her naked. Then she remembered she was only 8 years old, and this was Orochimaru she was talking about. He drew a line from her stomach to her chest with his index, and then turned her onto her back to trace her spine, humming thoughtfully.

"Your chakra is out of sync. I read in your file you had a condition as a child, but I was told it was fixed now," he said.

She shook her head, and then realised it was fine because she spent hours meditating every day. She'd gone two weeks without doing so now.

"I need to meditate."

"We have no time and can't stop every day for you to get yourself together. I'm sealing your excess Yin chakra."

Hina paled. The idea of Orochimaru sealing her body made her jerk away. It annoyed him enough for him to forcefully hold her in place, trapping her underneath his legs as he unsealed a brush. She cringed the blurriness from her vision, only half aware of him as he began painting on her shivering body.

"It's not that you're incompetent," he said, making her focus on his voice. "It's that you're unprepared for this type of mission. Your stores are still growing, and this kind of constant demanding chakra expenditure is unadvised for children your age. Your chakra coils only fully develop by the time you are twelve, and they continue growing their capacity until you're 24."

His lecturing was interesting enough for her to focus on something other than the pain as he continued painting on her. Hina wondered if this was Orochimaru's way of comforting her. If that were the case, he was indeed doing a good job. He spoke more than he normally did without prompt, expanding on the development of the tenketsu system more openly than ever before. She wanted to hear more. It wasn't until a sharp pain caught her stomach that she realised he had been talking about her interests to distract her from the seal activating. It felt like all the pinpricks that came in and out for a few days had decided to act up at once. She made to scream, but the breath was taken from her lungs and all she managed to do was hack up air and devolve into another coughing fit.

"You did well. Now rest."

Usually something that soft from Orochimaru would have made her do a double take, but in that moment all she felt was weary from the entire ordeal. She rolled onto her back, blinking up as she realised she had been moved into a tent. It was only odd because Orochimaru had never bothered with tents, having instead asked their team to sleep on the nooks of the trees in rotation. It was a welcome change, because she was wrapped up in a thermal blanket, under full cover for once.

She came in and out of consciousness for the next hour, lamenting the familiar feeling of chakra sickness that she had gotten used to as a child. It was infuriating. She wished to be healthy. Imagine that, a sick Shinobi. A liability.

"Drink some water," Orochimaru said, holding a bottle to her lips.

She obeyed, watching him quizzically. This wasn't the amoral mad scientist she had anticipated. Just a stunted man, mostly closed off to others, but capable of empathy. She narrowed her eyes up at him, trying to wrack her brain for some memory of the story-version of him she had read. She recalled all the horrible things he would do. Experiment and kill children, groom Sasuke to try and take over his body, abandon Anko like he would most likely do to her… but she also remembered how he stabbed his own hand, shedding tears when he fought Hiruzen during the Suna and Sound invasion.

Why would a man who cared for no one but himself shed tears for killing his sensei? In fact, why go out of his way to help invade Konoha just to kill Hiruzen when there was little else to gain from that kind of battle for the Sound? The reasoning for his actions had always been a little vague. Hina was beginning to understand why… it was because Orochimaru was capable of care. He had cared about Tsunade, about Jiraiya, about Dan, and probably many others who had died before him, and all he had seen again and again was their deaths and their abandonment. He strived for immortality then because he claimed life was meaningless without it, without being able to live on and learn everything.

She still felt like she was missing a piece of what made him, him. She had only managed as much as she did with her future knowledge to aid her, but even then, she felt like a bad judge of character. Though she'd never been a particularly good one to begin with.

"Sensei… do you believe in the soul?" Hina asked.

Orochimaru looked down at her, lips quirking up in a rare show of amusement.

"Don't worry, you won't die. No need to ponder your mortality right now."

Hina huffed. "Please, take the question seriously."

He paused for a moment, putting down his book as he seemed to take her question to heart.

"I do. There is substantial evidence that a jutsu to reanimate the dead exists," he said casually.

Well that's disturbing.

She hadn't expected him to allude to his knowledge of Edo Tensei so soon to her. Although without her future knowledge no child her age could have conclude that he was talking about Edo Tensei. She'd assumed he'd learnt the jutsu during his final few months in Konoha, when he could get away with stealing the forbidden scroll without long term consequences. He must have known about its existence and sought it out. In truth Hina wanted to learn it too, more desperately than she did any other jutsu. She wondered if she'd live long enough to even try.

"Pondering your mortality? It's not advisable during a mission. It's better to live in the moment," he interrupted her thoughts.

"I might die."

He gave her a look and she huffed.

"What? I'm not wrong, not even you can protect me from everything."

"Go to sleep," Orochimaru insisted.

Hina nodded. She was beyond tired. She hoped she'd be able to keep up with the others soon. Her tenketsu system wasn't burning up… that was good at least. Then she closed her eyes, wondering when she'd begun to feel safe enough to sleep next to Orochimaru and expect him to protect her.

Travel was going terribly horrible. With every passing day, Hina grew a kind of bone deep tired that made her body weigh down like lead. Having to resort to piggybacking on her sensei's back like a baby koala was not helping her pride. Hina felt out of her depth and entirely useless, having taken to cooking for the team because she found it was the only useful thing she knew how to do. Surprise, surprise, ROOT agents didn't know how to season their food. She ate what Han had made and thought the man had charred his food just to make everyone suffer chewing tough meat for the rest of the day.

The first time she went out of her way to make proper to god stew for these poor expressionless saps, she thought she saw a glimmer of humanity in their eyes. It made her heart break. They didn't compliment her food, but they ate it quickly, and seemed to anticipate and savour mealtimes now. She wasn't even that good at cooking, so she wondered just what kind of trash they were used to. Had ROOT agents never even been to a restaurant once in their life? She was plagued with many increasingly disturbing questions about their existence. Hina felt less like a useless kid and more like a mother adopting a whole gaggle of emotionally abused children.

Fan was as silent as the rest of the team, but she seemed to gravitate towards her just before mealtimes, showing a glimmer of curiosity at the act of cooking. Hina had been too tired to really bother offering a proper tutorial, but this was the fourth day Fan had approached with the explicit intention to watch. She looked up at the woman, dark hair, and dark eyes remarkable, only in the way that something so dull could show a fracture of something more. Hina wanted to crack it open.

"Do you want to learn?" she offered.

Fan blinked owlishly at the question, and after a moment of hesitation nodded. Hina thought it was odd how she could find a 20-something to be more childish than she was. Fan was more scars than skin, more dead than alive, but in that moment as she kneeled beside her, she felt alive.

"Salt is a must when you marinate meat. Anything else is a welcome addition. This is wild sage, but mint is the easiest to find. There's the thistle mint which looks similar but is poisonous. You can differentiate the two as the thistle mint always has a red stem."

Hina was grateful for having learnt all this during her survival training with Orochimaru. She wasn't the only Shinobi who thought their tasteless ration bars were not ideal for long term survival. But it almost seemed like Fu didn't know the taste of anything but standard Shinobi ration bars. The bars themselves were nutritious and filling, but they were bland and repetitive in taste. Then it dawned on her.

"Fan-san… is this the first time you're having something other than ration bars and unseasoned game?"

Fan nodded, and Hina paled. The answer was enough to confirm her worst fears. Fan was inducted into ROOT as a child. She was in her twenties judging by appearance. That she had survived her childhood made her a true fighter. Hina felt angry on her behalf. How could Danzo do something this disgusting to a human? To think this was the first time she had a proper meal. It was dehumanising and Fan didn't even realise how wrong this was because she didn't know better.

"We were not trained in anything beyond necessary survival skills and mission duties," Fan said, after a moment's silence.

"I see… if you want, I can teach you some things not mission related," she offered.

"We have no need of such things," Fan replied.

"Well, you didn't know you wanted to learn how to cook with herbs and spices until you tried it right? So maybe you just don't know that you don't need it. Having experience in a variety of things may come in handy during a mission."

"Then I will learn," Fan said resolutely.

It was a quick answer. Hina knew then that as much as ROOT had beaten her down, it couldn't fully cut down the innate human curiosity she possessed. It was as much a relief as it was a sudden responsibility on her shoulders. Hina slowly turned to the other Shinobi setting up camp and pursed her lips. Fan had been the most approachable, but even so she was still stoic and expressionless.

Hina decided if change needed to happen, it needed to start somewhere. She wasn't even sure why she wanted to get involved. It seemed like she always ended up in the middle of people destined to live and die horribly. First Obito, then Rin, and now this entire team. She wasn't sure if it was comforting or not that the one person she was sure would survive what was to come was her sensei.

Watching that spark of humanity in her silent companion's eyes made Hina think it was all worth it.

If she thought travel was rough getting to the Land of Frost, she was in for a rude awakening when she reached the border of the land. They had met with little conflict on the way there, having travelled with minimal stopping in wildlands. Hina was beginning to learn how to navigate terrain simply by the stars and a compass. The skills were all useful, but she wished she could learn it without being so exhausted all the time. Then they hit the mountain pass between Frost and Kumo and Hina understood why the railway was so important in this region, and why Lightning and Frost had to focus so much on industrialisation to continue fighting. The terrain was inhospitable at best, and deadly at its worst. Even the trained Shinobi in her team were finding it difficult not to slow down a little as the slew of ice-cold winds, and harsh frost hit their faces.

Hina wanted to go back to Konoha's heatwave so bad. She even thought she'd prefer sweating it out in a Suna dessert to this. She was used to the heat in this life and her past life as well, but the cold… she was unfamiliar with. The biting cold left her hands numb and the constant shivering despite the winter clothing Orochimaru had bought her, left her feeling lethargic. She was, to her embarrassment, becoming very familiar with Orochimaru's back, clinging to him like a baby koala.

However after a week of gruelling mountain climbing in a tundra, they finally reached their destination. Hina couldn't believe it. They had somehow made it here alive. Though wherever the heck here was, could have also been out in the middle of nowhere. The view was admittedly stunning though.

She stood on the edge of Tankakuhi Dam. The rising sun was nestled between the snow-capped mountains, a thick fog washing through the icy lands. Though the way the still clear water reflected the suns rays thawed the frigid landscape a tinge. The vastness of it was truly amazing. Hina fantasised about an alternate reality where this was actually one big adventurous camping trip with a group of seasoned hikers. She would have actually really enjoyed the travelling if they weren't running on a deadline during a war. The Elemental Nations had some striking locations with alien fauna and flora, the kind she wished she could simply peacefully traverse without the threat of violence in the back of her mind.

"The informant has made contact," Nai said.

Orochimaru sighed as he turned to the side to see an orange light being shot from the distance. Hina squinted her eye but couldn't quite see that far away. She decided to follow after the team though, wondering why Orochimaru looked like he bit something rather sour. As they turned the bend from the dam to the surrounding forest, Hina caught a rather impressive figure leaning against the tree. A long spikey white mane framed a square roguish face, and while his clothing was very Frost style, Hina wasn't dense enough to miss who this was. Jiraiya of the Sannin stood before her in all of his unseemly glory.

"Well, well, well. Long time no see Oro," he said, waving a dramatic hello.

Orochimaru let out a resigned sigh as the other man came up to grab his teammate by the arm and slap it a few times in greeting. Hina gleamed quite a bit of joy from Orochimaru's annoyed expression and decided even if Jiraiya deserved to be in a prison for sexual harassment, she kinda liked him.

"Jiraiya, I'm not here to catch up. Give us the information we need, and we'll be out of here," Orochimaru said.

Jiraiya huffed out with a fond but exasperated look. "You're still as boring as ever."

Hina chuckled and then for the first time Jiraiya seemed to notice her presence. He looked down at her and then back at Orochimaru with an alarmed expression.

"Did you kidnap a child? That wasn't part of the mission," Jiraiya said.

"Kidnap?" Hina said, breaking down in proper laughter.

Orochimaru let out a wounded noise, like he couldn't believe he was even having this conversation. "No, this is my student. Suzuki Hina."

"Well, I'll be dammed. My littlest teammate actually got himself a student. I recall you saying that you'd rather be in the deepest pits of hell than to waste your time on a kid."

Hina raised a brow. "You did?"

Orochimaru ignored her question, instead holding out an open palm to Jiraiya. "The mission report."

Jiraiya looked at Hina with a grin, before finally getting down to business. He pulled out a scroll and handed it to Orochimaru. It was a long one judging by its thickness. The humour drained from the large man's eyes as well, replaced with something more professional. It was a sobering change.

"I've expressed my concerns for this mission to Lord Sandaime, however it's gone unheard. There's been an increased activity of border patrols conducted by Kumo and Shimo in tandem. Their alliance is probably the only genuine inter-village relationship I've ever seen. Iwa made some efforts into breaching their border as well, intent on harming Frost's supply chains. It seems we had the same idea, but their botched attempts have tightened security," Jiraiya said.

Hina knew Kumo was a major problem. Unlike Iwa who was on the brink of a famine, Kumo had somehow managed to keep its army fed and trained despite their arid landscapes and difficult terrain. The amount of money they spent on improving their technological prowess was no doubt a contributor to their success. It helped that their diplomatic approaches to neighbouring sea-faring villages were successful. Combine that with their supply lines in and out of Frost, and it meant they had a pretty tight safety net of resources coming in and out.

"The mission will be carried out regardless," Orochimaru said.

Jiraiya turned his attention back to Hina and a clearly worried expression took his face. "How many missions have you been on gaki?"

Hina bristled a little at being called a brat but decided to ignore it for now. "This is my first one."

Jiraiya turned sharply to Orochimaru who simply shrugged. "I didn't order this," he simply said.

The large man seemed to contemplate something for a moment. "I could take her off your hands for the duration of the mission."

"Huh, really?" Hina asked, looking between the two Sannin.

"No," Orochimaru said.

Hina wanted to throttle her sensei. This was perfect. If she was dumped on Jiraiya, she wouldn't be on the front lines. He did spy work, so there was always a chance of action, but not the almost certain guarantee she expected on the mission.

"She looks like she's five," Jiraiya said with clear distaste.

"I'm eight," Hina said coughing.

Which in retrospect meant very little to an adult. Jiraiya simply took her statement as a 'there see' to his old teammate. Orochimaru didn't look like he was going to budge though.

"She will be safer by my side," Orochimaru said. "I wouldn't trust you with a dead rat."

Jiraiya made a show of mock hurt, but his attention turned elsewhere. He held up a closed fist, and suddenly the entire group drew their weapons in preparation. Hina had no idea what all of them had supposedly noticed, but she drew her kunai too. Orochimaru gestured the number 3 and 2 with his fingers before making the hand movement for go. Hina had learnt their silent command system of course, so she stayed put as Nai and Fan disappeared in a blur. That's when she caught the alarmed expression of a Shinobi dressed in grey.

"A scout?" she asked her sensei.

Orochimaru nodded before, silently ordering the other Shinobi to spread out and check for more tracks.

"Will Fan and Nai be enough?" Hina asked.

"They're ANBU," he said.

They were ROOT of course, but Hina knew Orochimaru was reluctant to say that out loud in front of Jiraiya. She was a little surprised the spy master was being kept in the dark about Orochimaru's leanings. Still, her sensei was right because not a moment after Nai came out from the clearing, holding a bloodied Shimo Shinobi.

"Konoha scum," the teen grit out.

Jiraiya simply made a clicking sound as he knelt in front of the boy, because Hina was reluctant to describe him any other way. He couldn't be older than seventeen.

"I wouldn't recommend angering your captors kid. Now do you want to tell me if any other scouts perchance saw us?" Jiraiya asked.

"I'd rather die," the teen said, before spitting on Jiraiya's face.

The tension in the air was so thick that Hina expected Jiraiya would lash out violently for such a show of disrespect. Instead he simply wiped away the spit and laughed. Hina didn't know why but her chest deflated a little. She looked at the kid with worry. It was one thing to kill someone in battle… but to be captured like that was daunting.

"I like, your guts kid. Although you're coming with us now. Can't have you reporting all this, can we?" Jiraiya asked.

Orochimaru tied him up rather tightly on all ends, before hauling him up like he was a sack of potatoes. The other ROOT members arrived not a moment later.

Ko, held out a common station tag symbol as he approached, the kind Shinobi on patrol put out to signify danger.

"How many did you put out kid?" Jiraiya asked their captor.

"I won't say, even if you kill me," he replied, although there was a waiver of fear in his voice.

"I suggest we torture it out of him. Any tag we don't find can compromise our mission," Ren said.

Hina watched as their captor paled a few shades, probably just realising the amount of deep shit he was in right now. She turned to Jiraiya with a sharp expression. She didn't trust Orochimaru to step in to protect the boy, but Jiraiya was a little soft, wasn't he? She was right because he did put a stop to this line of thought.

"We don't have the time to interrogate him, and even if we did, he could provide us false intel under duress. Gag him and I'll take him with me," Jiraiya said.

Orochimaru didn't allow the Toad Sage to grab a hold of the kid in his arms. Her sensei made a displeased expression as he kept the enemy shinobi firmly in his hands.

"You're right, torturing him now won't get us anywhere. Patrols are three-man squads in almost all hidden villages. We don't have the time to interrogate him now or find all the tags he's left behind. I'm taking him with us, and we'll make use of him as a hostage if the need arises. He's no use to you Jiraiya," Orochimaru said.

It looked like the spy master didn't have any real argument to give against that. Orochimaru did gag the teen before calling for his team. Everyone gathered around efficiently.

"Our timeline has been pushed forward. Everyone split into your assigned teams. Our targets need to be hit within the next 3 days. If you reach early wait until the third night. All targets must be hit simultaneously. We will regroup at the Shiyo Post at the Fire Country border," Orochimaru ordered.

"Hai!"

And just like that, they all dispersed, leaving Hina with the two Sannins and the prisoner. Jiraiya looked displeased about the entire situation but kept his mouth shut despite it. He turned to Hina with a softening expression, or was it pity? She didn't like it all that much.

"Good luck gaki. Be smart out there and know your limits," he said.

Hina felt distinctly like a child being lectured to by a parent, but she still nodded. His concern was touching at least.

"Keep the gaki alive. I'd like to get to know the student who finally caught your eye," Jiraiya told Orochimaru before picking up his belongings to leave.

Orochimaru huffed, some fondness in his expression coming through. "As if I'd allow you to corrupt her. Keep dreaming."

"See ya!" Hina waved.

It wasn't all that much of a goodbye, but Jiraiya waved his hands, not bothering to turn around and look at her as he disappeared into the forest. Hina turned to her sensei, feeling her chest beat in anticipation of the upcoming mission.

"Sensei," she ventured.

"Get ready. From here on out we're in enemy territory."

"Hai sensei."

And then they began their journey into the heart of Frost.

A/N

Hinas going to have a fun time for sure...