Shifting Sands Chapter 21

A year had somehow passed and Hina was still alive, if one counted non-stop mission rosters as living. Currently she was in the unrelenting rain of well… Rain Country. If this desolate puddle could be called a Country to begin with. Thankfully they hadn't moved anywhere near Amegakure enough to bump into Nagato and his posse. She wanted as little to do with them now as she could. She had far too much on her plate already, and Madara had no doubt already gotten his hands on Nagato to implant the Rinnegan. Thinking more on this topic simply led to one headache after the other, because Madara's plans relied on a lot of speculation, too much for all of it to have fallen into place as perfectly as it did. Hina knew she realistically just had to pull one Jenga piece out of his flimsy tower to watch it all fall apart. The man seriously didn't take into account that the edo tensei simply re-animated the body in the state it had been in when the individual died. If it weren't for Kabuto's sudden inspiration Madara would have come back as a decrepit old man with a cane. The thought of him fighting an entire army with an aching back and a walking stick did make her snort.

It wasn't really Madara she was worried about. It was Zetsu. She had no idea if her memories of the story she read in her past life was a hundred percent applicable here, or if there really was an alien albino lady stuck on the moon, but it wasn't worth the risk dismissing it. The problem was every time she thought about the future, it started to look bleaker and bleaker. She was still a Genin. There was a war going on that she had very little say on the progress of. She had little to no political power, and while she was growing stronger, and could probably defeat most kids her age, that meant very little in the scope of things. Obito and Rin were still in danger despite her strength, despite how much effort she went into to become a field-medic, one that could request her presence in the Kannabi Bridge mission.

Now here she was, soaked wet from the rain, miserable, and unsure if her friends had graduated and died. She had gone a whole year without seeing them, her only company being Orochimaru and several no-named ROOT agents who only took their masks off to wash their face. She was exhausted and felt like she was just going through the motions these days. Only the hours of the day spent being given training and direction by Orochimaru seemed to keep her going. This was one of the few missions where there was a Foundation member who didn't wear a mask walking around. Hina hadn't approached him yet since they had just been dispatched to kill some Iwa messengers. The group with two Jounin and six Genin were easily dispatched by 6 ROOT members. It was pretty overkill in her opinion. Of course she had to kill the children seeing as targeting a Jounin was suicidal. But the maskless man had been there to keep her out of harms way, grabbing her collar and holding her back from a stray Kunai.

She was going through her usual katas when he approached her. She looked up towards him with the slightest tilt of her head. Her mask was still on, and he pointed at it and then to his face. She understood his miming, and hesitantly pulled off the plain mask. Not many ROOT members approached her and requested she take it off for no reason. Usually they were there asking for her to cook their meals for them.

"What do you want?" she asked, knowing that they could care less about her rudeness.

She couldn't read his expression, especially with his dark oval glasses covering his eyes. Even without the mask, the black hooded cloak they were all wearing left little room to see much.

His voice came out a little unusual, almost chittering like insects. Maybe it was considering he was housing a gourd on his back. An Aburame?

"Orochimaru has requested I train you," he said.

Hina wasn't sure what an Aburame could teach her that Orochimaru couldn't. After all their Clan was specific in their abilities. They required insects to do the jutsu they did. Hina was not going to let a swarm of kikaichu breed under her skin. There were limits to her willingness to attain power…

"What specifically for?" she asked, trying to keep her voice polite.

"Situational awareness," he said.

She nearly tripped over herself. The hot flush made her cheeks go red as she felt uncharacteristically flustered. Of course, Orochimaru had to keep reminding her about how awful she was at it.

"A Shinobi must also keep their composure at all times. I will train you in that too," he said.

Yup, she was out of here. Hina went through the motions for the earth tunnelling jutsu. She could die underground from embarrassment. She was halfway through the process when the man caught her by her collar and hauled her up from the dirt. Hina tried to put on her mask but that was confiscated too.

"Just end my existence," she groaned.

"Don't be dramatic. Overreacting is unseemly. Breathe in and divert your reactions to your internal voice."

"What does that even mean?" she asked.

"Scream in your head," he said.

She sweat dropped as he put her down. He looked far too much like a disappointed Academy teacher to be a ROOT Shinobi. Still, he hadn't even opened his mouth to speak. She really needed to know how he was doing that.

"You're an Aburame… so how exactly are you talking without talking? Is that part of your internal voice?" she asked.

"No those are my insects. I have trained them to speak for me."

Hina wasn't sure if that was the most ingenious introverted thing to do, or just sad. He seemed to notice her expression, then pulled down his collar to show a rather long scar across his neck.

Oh… he was mute.

Now she just felt like a dick. Regardless, she tried to do as he suggested and turn her embarrassment inwards and keep a straight face. She pursed her lips and frowned to keep her true intentions away from him. If he approved, he did not show it.

"That will require more work. Regardless, that is secondary to what I have been assigned here for. Situational awareness is crucial as a Shinobi. While I am no longer an Aburame, I will give you credit on deducting that from observation alone. That is a part of awareness, but it is mostly deduction. To be aware, is to understand your presence in your surroundings."

"How so?" she asked.

"For example, there was a kikaichu I had sting you just now that has injected paralysis venom into you."

"What the fu—"

Hina fell to the ground in a heap before she could finish her explicative. She stared on in horror as the man kicked her to her side and then knelt down to pick her up. Unfortunately her face was smashed against his back, and she couldn't see where he was taking her, and her throat felt too loose to really scream.

Hysterically she wondered if this was what he meant by scream in your head.

Then whatever had been injected in her had her go unconscious.

When she woke up again it was to darkness. Her eyes took a moment to adjust but it wasn't soon enough as a kunai shot down from the shadows and lodged straight into her shoulder. Familiar terror and adrenaline surged her forward, and despite stumbling to her feet, her instincts kept her upright and alert. She made a sound of distress as rustling from the bush to her right caught her attention and she scrambled to get out a kunai to throw it in said direction. That meant very little because another kunai lodged into her left leg not a second later.

She struggled to run, disoriented and erratic from all the mixed signals she was getting around the place. Every time she heard a noise, or saw movement she'd try to pin down her assaulter, only for another senbon, kunai or shuriken to stab into her from the opposite direction. By the third projectile to her arm, Hina was beginning to realise that whoever was attacking her clearly didn't intend to kill her. None of her vitals were hit, and she was pretty sure a chakra enhanced throw could dig these kunai deeper than they currently were. That was worrying in a different way because it meant her enemy was toying with her.

Wait, why was she alone in a forest, again?

Her sudden stop only added another senbon to her side. Hina cried out in pain as she stumbled forward, yelping as her feet caught onto some kind of branch, and she fell forward, only for the bush to give way to nothing. What resulted after was a rather steep drop down a hill and into a tree. She felt the weapons dig and rip into her more, as she came to a stop and laid there in horrible pain. Her breathing was laboured as her assaulter came into view. For a moment she expected death, and then she saw who it was.

"You?!"

"Yes me. Though you may call me Sugaru," he said.

Well, she thought as she looked down at her lacerated form. She was not going to have a fun time.

LINE BREAK

She did in fact not have a fun time. To her horror Orochimaru simply stayed out of the proceeding training, even when she came back exhausted and absolutely bloodied. She thought he was a slave driver, but at least he didn't push her to the brink of death. Sugaru was relentless in his training, and she was pretty sure her paranoia was going to give her a hernia if this continued. He would throw his senbon at her when she would least think of it. When she was cooking the team's meals, when she was going to relieve herself in the bushes, heck he didn't spare her even during bath or sleep time. She was getting a lot of medical practice on herself, but her chakra control was getting fritzed from her nerves and depleting energy from all these attacks topped off with travel.

Hina crouched on the ground, as she felt another senbon push into her shoulder, but in truth she was too tired to care. She just sat there and took it. One more came down next to her as a warning shot and Hina lost it.

"Dammit! Fuck you man! It hurts like shit and I'm so fucking tired. Give me a break, I haven't slept properly in a week for fucks sake!"

A senbon dug into her thigh and Hina let out a string of curses as she pulled it out and looked around. She narrowed her eyes as she looked around to find where the shithead was. She was about ready to murder him and hide his body. Then she'd stab Orochimaru too for good measure for putting her through this in the first place. She heard his ever-allusive figure to the side and dashed forward in a mad rush. She saw his form and stabbed her kunai at him. For a moment she rejoiced as it dug into his shoulder, only for his momentarily shocked expression to turn into a cloud of smoke and be replaced by a warm of bugs. Hina stumbled away, hitting away those accursed insects as they crawled all the way up her arms.

She wished she knew fire release right about now so she could incinerate his precious bugs. She did the next best thing, rushing to the nearby river and throwing herself into it. After staying inside the water for a good minute she finally resurfaced, gulping in air as she dragged herself on top of the water, finding it hard to even water walk in her state.

"Ha got away!" she said victoriously.

Then she felt something sting her feet and she looked down to see the innocent looking beetle stare right back at her.

"Fuck…"

Then she fainted again.

For the first time in weeks Sugaru had not attacked her all day. Somehow that just made her more paranoid. She decided to take out her paranoia on Orochimaru. They were now on the border of Rain and Konoha, and she wasn't miserably wet for once either. Everything just felt too good to be true. She scratched her neck nervously and then let out a scream of frustration in her head.

"I did not ask Sugaru to go through drug resistance training yet," Orochimaru said, narrowing his eyes at her.

"What drug training? There's no training to be had outside of my usual torture. In fact he's been suspiciously quiet all day. No buzzing. No attacks. Nothing. Something bad will happen. Maybe he'll finally snap and throw in a killing shot," she said, scratching her neck a little harder.

Orochimaru grabbed her hand and pulled it away before letting out a long-suffering sigh. She glared up at him and snatched her hand back to fix her stupid black cloak. She itched for her mask to find out that the bastard had taken it.

"You look like an opium addict. Pull yourself together," Orochimaru chided.

She screamed again in her head, thinking of multiple ways she could gut this man for a satisfying payback. Unfortunately for her, she barely had the time to call him a two-faced son of a bitch, when Orochimaru's attention turned minutely elsewhere. Something shifted and Hina expected another kunai to pierce her. This time she saw he attack coming and managed to jump out of the way. Orochimaru ducked in front of her not a moment after, blocking a second shuriken. Then suddenly the earth gave way beneath her feet, and she found herself in her sensei's arms as he grabbed the wall and flung them both over the oncoming dirt avalanche. She managed to right herself as they both landed, and noticed one of the ROOT members they were travelling with had been buried alive under all that rock. They definitely weren't alive after that. She didn't really have the time to think about it as the attack continued.

"Iwa Shinobi. My Kikaichu detected 10. They hid under the earth to get past my sensors," Sugaru said.

Orochimaru did the hand signs for the Hammer and Anvil manoeuvre. Hina got into position behind Sugaru as she had been trained. Then she pulled out her katana, ready to block any oncoming attacks. Orochimaru left a clone behind but otherwise disappeared to do his work, only briefly keeping an eye on her. This wasn't her first rodeo anymore. She was nowhere as used to it as the others here, but she understood her assignment. The Iwa Shinobi who attacked them, tended to have formations with a focus on surprise, with overwhelming force that was then followed by a relentless barrage of team based Ninjutsu. She saw their earth projectiles coming from a mile away, but that didn't do much to stop the unrelenting force of nature. She had to give it to them, they did their team based Jutsu far more coherently than Konoha ever could. Then again it was easier to compound Earth jutsu than it was the Fire jutsu Konoha Shinobi were proficient with.

She jumped over the mud wall, alongside Sugaru as she deflected two shuriken with her sword. Then they pushed forward. She grit her teeth as her feet snagged on the muddy terrain before. She tried to adjust her chakra to match the changing flow of the dirt beneath her, but they were actively making it's viscosity change to throw off their chakra control. Hina knew she was going to get bogged down at this stage, but her chakra control was one of her best skills, so she managed to do a lot better than her teammates and continuing forward. She knew by now that she couldn't rely on them to cover for her. Despite their presence, she was alone. If she was hit, they wouldn't come in to save her unless they had explicit orders from Orochimaru. The knowledge of her isolation only made her more cautious during her fights.

It seemed it paid of today, because if she had just rushed in blindly, she would have been crushed by a hammer to her flank. The brute of a Shinobi landed what was a huge fucking hammer into the ground, cracking a large section of where she was going to be in a few seconds. Hina gaped at the damage in shock. The man turned to her with a feral grin.

"Get ready to die Konoha scum!"

Hina managed to dodge out of the way of his hammer once again before she realised, he had a brief moment of time in-between each swing where he needed to compensate for the weight. She could see Sugaru unleashing his kikaichu onto a few of the more lightly armoured Shinobi. Hina and Fu were the only ones available to take on the heavy hitter it seemed. Her sensei was fighting the rest of the Jounin on his own. Hina could do this. It was two on one.

Flank counterattack

She signed it and Sugaru made the briefest of nods in agreement. He took point and Hina made three clones, switching herself with the decoy while Sugaru took the man's attention. She then flanked him from both ends as he swung his hammer in a wide arc dispersing her clones. Hina saw the huge hunk of death approach her and sucked in a deep breath as she switched herself for a branch she had tagged earlier. The resulting plume of smoke resembled the pop of her clone as she used her earth tunnelling jutsu to hide for a brief moment. Her heart hammered in her chest, still feeling the rattle of his attack grazing her head. She took a few calming breathes as she tunnelled back up, waiting for her moment to strike. The enemy swung, making Sugaru jump back as his arm was hit in the process, no doubt dislocating his shoulder. Hina wanted to jump in and end it then and there, but she waited for his momentum to die and for his hammer to fall before she finally sprung to action.

Weeks of relentlessly drawing her blade had her jet forward in a flash of green. She drew her blade, saw the face of a man who looked just like an animal, and she slashed. The briefest moment of realisation hit the man's eyes before she watched him look down at his own dismembered body. The light left his eyes and his head rolled to the ground. Hina watched it pathetically leave a spray of blood as it kept rolling on.

How disgusting

"The others have been dispatched. Two Iwa Shinobi have retreated," Sugaru reported as Orochimaru jumped next to him.

"Hmm the fact that they've caught wind of our location doesn't bode well. Have Ronpo and Kanro hunt them down," Orochimaru ordered.

Sugaru paused for a moment before turning around to look at the half-crushed form of Kanro on the ground.

"She's dead."

Hina was pretty sure she wasn't dead. In fact Kanro was very much alive, bleeding out and wheezing for her dear life. Hina ignored the impassionate way that Orochimaru and Sugaru were discussing their next line of action. Instead she walked up to the woman she had cooked many meals for, kneeling besides her as she pulled off her mask. Kanro coughed up blood, hazy eyes looking at her with silent desperation. Hina noticed the way the woman's hands were shaking and she took it gently in hers.

"I'm going to die," she said, with a kind of certainty that didn't bring any relief.

"Yes you are. I'm here. You won't die alone," Hina said, pulling those calloused fingers up to her face.

Briefly Kanro looked stricken, the first bit of emotion Hina had ever seen in her. She didn't say a word, but Hina knew her thoughts. It was written all over her face. She was scared, she regretted everything, she wanted more out of life. That was always how it went with ROOT Shinobi. But instead of lamenting Kanro used the last bit of her life to look at Hina.

"Thank you…"

Then she died. Hina was getting tired of seeing the light leave peoples eyes. The last breath was always so laboured, then the way they slackened after made it seem like there was no life there to begin with. She didn't cry anymore when it happened. She dropped those lifeless hands in disgust and wiped her palms on her cloak, trying to get the death off her.

"Your training with me is complete," Sugaru said, as she turned around and away from the corpse.

"Hm?" she asked.

"You reacted to enemy attack. More importantly you're screaming in your head."

Oh, she realised. That was why it was so loud in there.

They didn't go straight to Konoha like she thought they would. While she had healed many of the major wounds, they didn't ask her to finish the rest for them. Apparently, they would find aid elsewhere. Hina was happy to take the pit-stop if it meant she wouldn't have to do more than the bare minimum of healing. The more immediate surgeries she could do on field, but healing every single little injury on the rest of the members would drain her chakra reserves and leave her vulnerable.

She didn't expect them to stop in front of an orphanage. The patrons were dressed similarly to nuns, and she didn't really understand how a bunch of civilians could help more than her. That was until they set up a tent and she watched as the blonde woman began using the Mystical Palm Technique on the Shinobi there. Orochimaru sat down next to her, waiting for those more hurt to be taken care of, and so did Hina who had miraculously been unharmed during the altercation. Though Sugaru using her as a practice dummy had been where most of her current injuries came from.

The little five-year-old who approached them to heal Orochimaru was what caught her attention. The boy's use of the Mystical Palm was rather advanced for his age. That grey hair, and wide framed glasses also sparked recognition in her eyes. Yakushi Kabuto. Orochimaru's future assistant and right-hand man. Seeing him right now, innocent, small and way too adorable through her for a loop.

"You're not a Shinobi, but you're quite skilled at this," Orochimaru noted.

"It took me a few years to get a hang of that technique myself," Hina added, more than a little impressed.

"Kaasan taught me," he said, looking at blonde caretaker who was healing the others.

"Why don't you become a Shinobi? You'd be a good one," Orochimaru asked.

"I'm not really interested in that," Kabuto said, smiling up sweetly.

Hina didn't like the almost calculated look Orochimaru was giving the kid.

"Is that so? What a shame."

Orochimaru's smile made her think he didn't really mean what he said. Or that he had other plans. She didn't like that smile. It was the smile he gave her when he decided to throw her to another Shinobi to make her learn a new skill. Knowing the tragedy that would befall Kabuto, she figured that Orochimaru was going to throw him to ROOT now. She couldn't have that. If Kabuto joined, then his mother would follow thinking it would get him out of his position, only for Danzo to lie to both of them, and give the poor kid massive identity issues. More importantly, it was Kabuto that would end up perfecting the impure resurrection enough to bring Madara back in his younger body, rather than the decrepit old state he was in when he died.

She didn't confront him immediately or warn him about listening to Danzo. No doubt the man would come by and strong arm Nonou into joining the war efforts as a spy and drag her kid into it as well. All so she could keep the orphanage going, the one Danzo was adding more children into with his incessant need for more war. Hina sighed, rubbing her eyes, and feeling a headache coming from these thoughts. She moved away from the camp to the back of the orphanage to gain her bearings again.

"It is good to be in the silence of nature, isn't it?"

Hina turned around to see the last person she wanted to see ever. In fact she thought she'd rather take Madara over this piece of shit. Danzo stood there, eyeing her down with his one hand tucked into his haori. She thanked Sugaru for his teachings on how to scream profanities in her head, because she was cursing up a storm, despite her face being rather passive at the moment.

"Danzo-sama," she greeted, trying not to sound clipped but polite.

Just lick his boots for now. Put on your customer service face Hina.

"One year as a Genin and you have been on 6 successful A and B rank missions. I think it is beyond time you were promoted for your accomplishments," he said.

"Ah, I'm coasting by on Orochimaru-sensei's skills," she said, facing him with a polite smile.

"Modesty is not a good look. I very much prefer honesty in my men. Suzuki Hina, you should join the Foundation," he said.

Her panic intensified, but all she could manage was a twitchy smile. Her nerves which had already been tested through these very strenuous weeks was near the end. She was beyond the need of a nap and probably required extended hibernation at this point. Danzo's loaded questioning was not helping.

"I'm not really suited for it, I found out recently," she said, her voice snapping a little from frustration. "Killing and murder, and all that. The kind of darkness you're looking for in someone to do what's needed, I don't have that."

Danzo eyed her critically once more. "On that we disagree. But as you may be aware, many of my Shinobi forgo their identities, becoming the ideal tool of protection and destruction that Konoha requires them to be. I am not foolish in thinking that kind of conditioning is practical, let alone useful for all my agents. Orochimaru, Sugaru and many others pledge their skills to our cause as useful assets and become key figures in the Konoha military structure. Your keen mind, your drive to become stronger, they are assets as long as they are directed towards the benefits of Konoha. As long as you remain an asset and not a threat, you will be valuable."

Test me and you will be a threat, his eyes seemed to say. Hina gulped and nodded as he walked past her with a brief pat to her shoulders.

"You will be promoted to Chunin soon. But for now I wish to see what Orochimaru forges you to be."

He left and she saw Sugaru waiting for him by the tree. Hina turned back around, relieved to be left alone again. Her attention turned towards the forest, and she sunk back down into a squat, ruffling her hair and sighing deeply. Danzo remembered her by name. He expected something from her, didn't bother to hide that he was aware about her knowledge of what was meant to be a pretty secretive group. To top it all off he wanted her in some capacity to serve him. Distancing herself would not be an option it seemed.

If she wanted to make it out of this without any collateral damage, she needed to make herself indispensable, and join him on her terms. The idea of working for the old warmonger filled her with disgust. She swallowed it down, along with her pride. At the end of the day she would dirty her hands with a practised smile to get what she wanted.

It wouldn't be long before she was the god of her own destiny. Until then she would bite down her shame and weakness and endure as all Shinobi did.

A/N

I feel kinda bad now because I initially started this rewrite to keep her out of ROOT but having her work with Orochimaru was kind of a must for her future character arc, and it was impossible to divorce her entirely from ROOT. Anyway, I'm keeping her mostly ROOT adjacent going forward. She's not about to be a part of the secret child army he's raising though since she's too prominent of a figure to be there. She'll be taking more of an Orochimaru-esque role in ROOT. Hope that clears things up.

TDLR: Hina will be a part of ROOT that Hiruzen and other prominent Shinobi are aware of, not the secret branch.