The stamp was hanging by a thread from a tree, right where Naka no Kawa divided into two smaller rivers. Hinata smiled, looking at Shino with her hands clasped.
"Amazing! You were right, Shino-kun!"
Shino only nodded, while Sasuke frowned.
Hinata went over to the tree and started climbing it. Once close enough, she took the stamp and used it to fill one of the five circles on the coupon. When she was back on land she showed it to her teammates proudly.
"Now we only need f-four more."
"Yeah, but we've run out of clues" Sasuke said, glancing around. It might be her imagination, but was he a little more fidgety than usual? Come to think of it, he has been like this since they entered the forest… "How are we going to find the place of the next stamp like this?" he asked, distracting her from her thoughts.
That was a good question. There was no one here to give them a new riddle, or even a piece of paper attached to the trunk of the tree to help them. Hinata started thinking. If the next clue wasn't on plain sight, then…
Something caught her attention.
"L-Look" she pointed at a place behind the tree. Shino and Sasuke quickly followed her as she knelt down, observing what seemed like a blurred footprint on the ground. "It must be recent…"
"Maybe this is our next clue!" Sasuke exclaimed, starting to look for more footprints. Shino turned to Hinata, giving her a nod.
"Well spotted, leader."
"Ah" Hinata blushed, as it always happened whenever someone complimented her. She hung her head, playing slightly with her fingers. "It… it was nothing…"
And with that, the three started looking for anything else that could give them a clue as to where the next stamp was. Hinata concentrated on the ground, convinced there must be more footprints to follow, but it was Sasuke, after a few minutes of searching, that found something.
"There are marks on this tree" he pointed at a small scratch near their eye level. "At first I thought it was just a coincidence, but look" he pointed at another similar mark, on a tree a little away. Hinata walked towards it, and from there looked for another, finding it on a tree not too far. She turned to Sasuke and smiled happily.
"It seems we f-found our lead."
"Great, let's follow it!"
"As I keep saying, Hinata is the leader, so she should be the one to…"
"Yeah, whatever, let's go!"
Shino looked affronted at being dismissed like that, even with the sunglasses and high-collar of his jacket covering most of his face. Hinata simply laughed nervously, deciding to follow Sasuke's lead silently. She wondered why, despite being two pretty calm and quiet people, Sasuke and Shino couldn't get along better.
The marks continued for a long while, taking them further and further inside the forest. Hinata had never been in this part of the village, and she looked around, interested, even though there wasn't much to see but trees.
When the marks stopped, they found themselves in front of a small pond, being fed slightly by the river upstream. In the pond, there was a rock, and on top of the rock, their next stamp sat quaintly.
"It doesn't look too deep" Shino said, glancing over the water. Sasuke nodded, and, silently, showed his hand to Hinata. She blinked, looking at him with confusion.
"Give me that. I'll go stamp this quickly" he explained. Hinata gasped, and without thinking, extended her hand to pass him the coupon. However, before she could do so, Shino got himself in the middle. He leveled Sasuke with a stare.
"In case you have forgotten, Hinata is the leader. Therefore, you should not be giving her orders so freely" he said, voice even but firm. Sasuke frowned, glaring at him, annoyed.
"I know that. You don't need to keep repeating the same thing over and over" he gritted out, starting to look very aggravated. Hinata panicked, seeing a fight rapidly approaching. She opened her mouth to intervene, but Shiro beat her to it.
"It seems you don't, as you keep pushing your boundaries. Don't forget the point of this exercise is to act as if we're a genin team on a mission, and for that, deference to the leader of the group it's a must."
"I just want to get this thing over with as quickly as possible. Why do you have to interrupt us every two seconds just to remind us of insignificant things?"
"It is not insignificant. This is the foundation of teamwork. Something you would know if your grades were be-"
"Who cares about that?!" Sasuke suddenly shouted, taking her and Shino by surprise. "I don't give a damn about stupid grades! And definitely not about this asinine assignment! I only want to leave this place already, is that so difficult to understand?"
Without expecting an answer, and taking advantage of their stunned silence, Sasuke pushed past Shino, grabbed the coupon from Hinata's hand, and made his way over to the rock in the middle of the pond. The water reached his knees, but he didn't even bother taking his sandals off. When he reached the rock, he grabbed the stamp and roughly pressed it against the cardboard, before making his way over to them again. He shoved the coupon against Hinata's chest, and then turned around, walking off in the direction of the forest.
"Look for the next clue. I'll dry myself off first" was all he said before he disappeared behind some bushes.
Hinata blinked, glancing down at the coupon in her hands, before lifting her head and looking at Shino. He seemed as stunned as her, something that was easy to see despite most of his face not being visible.
"Mmm, S-Shino-kun…?" she asked. The other boy slowly shook his head, before turning away.
"Let's look for the next clue. He might take a bit to appear again" was all he said. Unable to think of anything else to say or do, Hinata simply nodded, and turned to do the same.
Just what happened with Sasuke there?
Shino is a very responsible kid that just wants to do things as they are supposed to be done. But alas, this time he was refuted rather roughly. Poor Shino.