The original Hinata stayed in the village with the new 'Team Kakashi' while her well-equipped clone was out the village hot on its target. This clone was steady on Orochimaru, Kabuto and the young Uchiha.

Sure enough like Lord Danzo had predicted, they changed hideouts. Heading further west from their last hideout and further away from the leaf village as much as possible.

The snake sannin, while still in a weakened state, was still a powerful foe. Hinata already acknowledged that she was in no way shape or form the dominating destructive force that Uchiha and Uzumaki were. That was fine, she had her own method of being great. The reason behind her codename.

Moving back to observing Orochimaru, Hinata concluded that Orochimaru could only keep this up for only so much longer before he needed a new body. Hinata learned that the stronger the person is of the body Orochimaru takes over, the more likely the person will fight him off for their body back sooner or later.

Odd. Why make the Uchiha stronger when having him too strong would make it little to impossible to acquire his body?

Make it make sense.

Still, something beyond her pay grade. She was just here to observe.

The Uchiha said little to nothing to anyone. Hinata witnessed Naruto and Sasuke's last interaction in which Sasuke tried to stab Naruto.

She would guess if the Uzumaki wasn't so rambunctious and wasn't always trying to 'talk' and or 'save' the Uchiha, than Naruto would have had a better outcome when him and Sasuke last encountered one another. Sasuke's cold behavior proving to be the dominating factor of the fight.

She couldn't wrap her head around Naruto, Sasuke or even Sakura. What was this weird bond they had for one another. Their team never really screamed unity to begin with. She almost wished she was placed in ROOT when she was 12. So she could observe and find out in the little time span the three had with one another how in the hell did they grow such a strong connection?

Don't get her wrong. She wasn't envious of this connection like Sai was. She didn't care for having an emotional connection. Especially one as confusing as team seven. She was just curious.

All of this for someone that has tried to kill them, well Naruto, on numerous occasions and almost got half their graduating class killed along with Neji. This guy didn't care. He didn't care for Naruto, Sakura, Kakashi, Neji, Kiba, Shikamaru, Choji…he cared about no one that was hurt.

A complete waste of space this guy was.

Hinata doubted the young Uchiha would have even done well in ROOT let alone ANBU like his brother, Uchiha Itachi. He was too rebellious. Too self-absorbed and focused on one thing.

Tunnel vision.

Such a bad thing for a shinobi.

She briefly wondered if the next encounter with Naruto will be as disappointing to watch. Or will Naruto surprise both her and the Uchiha and not be so sympathetic. She highly doubted that would happen, but it would be more interesting than what she has been watching.

This was mind numbing. The Uchiha spent most of his days training. Demanding to be trained, training and getting under the skin of the medic-nin Kabuto. It was so ANNOYING. This was her duty right now though. Simply to observe.

Why couldn't Sai just do his job so she wouldn't have to be tortured to watch the Uchiha. To babysit him. Even if it was just her clone. It was still torture on the mind.

She sometimes would wonder two things when she watched Sasuke venture off alone.

One, if he was really so stupidly cocky. Really he felt as if he wasn't a rogue ninja? That Hokage Tsunade more than likely, if not for Naruto, would have him brutally dragged back to the village so she could incarcerate him for life if she saw the opportunity.

Lord Danzo already wants him dead. This guy has so many enemies and he hadn't even made it out of his teenage years. Well she herself was only 17, he couldn't be but a few months older than her.

Wow. She just couldn't understand what people saw in this guy.

Second thing she wondered was if he ventured off to think of his brother.

Maybe not too much of his parents or he'd think about their blood splatter on the walls in his former home.

She understood the need for avenging them. She just never understood the way he felt he had to go about it. His brother gained this insane amount of intelligence and skill while living in the village. Why did Sasuke feel the need to leave the village? Orochimaru didn't train his brother. From what she gathered, Orochimaru was ENVIOUS of the Sharingan and according to Lord Danzo was envious of Uchiha Itachi.

Make it make sense.

Again. This was none of her business. She was beginning to feel like the rest of the rookie nine now that she got a good look at team seven.

Annoyance.

She understood where they were coming from, kind of. It was just the execution of everything. The reason they did what they did.

The Haruno girl. To be on the same caliber as her teammates right? Nothing to do with bringing back the Uchiha and because she screamed her undying love for him. From Hinata's observation of Sakura, she is still haunted from that day he left her to leave the village. So she trains with the legendary, super strength, amazing sannin, Lady Tsunade. To still love a man that doesn't want love. She was somewhat what kept a lot of people together. She didn't understand why not strive for more

The nine tails host. He was always motivated to get stronger. Traveling and getting away from the village was a smart decision considering there was a whole terrorist organization after him. It was more so this stupid PROMISE that Hinata didn't understand and ruined all creditability from him.

Did he really want Sakura to have a happy ending with Sasuke when he was sitting there madly in love with her? Was he madly in love with her? Or was his fixation of the Uchiha really that strong. He fixated on him since they were little children. In the academy. As genin. It was bazaar how much he made Sasuke his 'rival'. Than classify him as a good friend and almost like a brother? Sakura was beautiful and strong..

The traitor. She felt as if she could go all day how his execution didn't really make sense to her. She supposed the curse seal was a major reason he did what he did.

Maybe?

It clearly doesn't seem to be stressing him out too much now. Plus there was a whole Orochimaru survivor in the village who could have helped him with the curse mark. From her observation she was insanely powerful too and could have aided with his training. Training from Hatake and Anko could have done wonders for him. Well in her opinion. Certainly it had to be better than being paranoid 24/7 that this man was going to try to possess your body at any given moment.

Execution tactic for these three are horrible.

The only thing she figured was good from observing Sasuke was gathering intel on his new skills he had learned. He still relied heavily on the Chidori and just like her he relied on his Dojutsu. His swordsmanship was something to keep in mind. His Genjutsu has improved compared to what his record currently had on him. Plus his new contract with the snake summons. Added boost, just like his two former comrades. He still lacks the physical strength that Naruto has and somewhere inside her, she just felt as if the Uzumaki was holding back.

Every time.

It was just an observation really, a hypothesis as you will. Only time will tell though.

She observed Sasuke for her missions sake and she observed Orochimaru more so for personal reasons. She felt with Orochimaru's weakness of his own body growing this will cause a domino effect soon enough.

"He is getting stronger."

Yes he is. She thought this to herself as she reported her findings to Lord Danzo once again.

"You're getting stronger."

While she didn't make a reaction to this, Danzo could feel her confusion ooze off of her. "You do not know the type of skill and strength one needs to be able to spy on Orochimaru and an Uchiha without them noticing. You hide in plain sight with the Uzumaki and his heightened senses do not pin point you. Also while the Haruno girl was clearly tipped off by your mistake a few days ago, she cannot pinpoint you again. Good."

Why was he giving her compliments. This was so unnecessary.

"Expose your shadow clone to the Uchiha. It should make him feel more on edge. Make him feel as if he has to expedite his time with Orochimaru. He is impatient and Orochimaru is growing ill. Perfect opportunity"

Did he want her to attempt to kill the Uchiha?

"Just expose yourself for the one moment. Let paranoia set in for him. He is weak minded enough. I will figure out the next move after you report to me in a month what was the result of your encounter with him.

Her shadow clone followed Sasuke for another four days after her briefing with Lord Danzo before she made contact with him. She would leak some of her chakra out here and there but made sure she kept her distance to not expose herself too early.

It was like hearing a fly around you, but not seeing it. Hinata was being annoying in all honestly. Her chakra was malicious too. She wanted him to know that someone with a killer intent was after him. He should know what it feels like to receive it since he was always giving it off to others.

She would only do this when he was alone. Truly alone too. Not being watched by Orochimaru or his men. She wasn't surprised when he never made a reaction to her. He acted like she was the annoying fly she was acting like. He didn't know her trained eyes could see his goosebumps and accelerated heart beats.

So on the fourth day when he was alone she made her presence known. It was a ballsy move really. To show up in his room of all things. His closed quarters.

Orochimaru and Kabuto were out busy though, they were not physically present at the hideout. She made sure of this and the people left behind to babysit the Uchiha wouldn't have the skill to pick up on her suppressed chakra.

Hinata looked at him and he gave her a blank stare back. She wore her mask and standard ROOT gear under her cape. She moved to expose her arms and noticed how he immediately stood and placed his hand on his sword. She didn't pause from his sudden movements though.

She freed her hands from being covered and placed her hands on her face and removed her mask. She stared at the avenger with hollow eyes and didn't say anything else. Finally being up close to him one would think they'd feel an adrenaline rush. It felt indifferent to her. She had been watching him for so long, being face to face with him didn't faze her in the slightest.

"Why have you been following me."

He talked like she had not choice but to answer him. Tsk, who was he? He wasn't her savior. She had a savior and this Uchiha wasn't it.

She again chose to be silent instead of answering him. Giving him an indifferent look. She wanted to count in her head how long it would take him to lose his temper. Over time of observation she realized that he easily got annoyed and was rather the egotistical hothead.

She got to ten seconds before he pulled his sword out and held it to her neck from a distance. The tip of his blade barely touching her skin. "I will not ask you again…Hyuga." Oh good. So he had some memory of the home village he grew up in.

"Are you…incompetent this much? Please tell me you can tell that I am a mere shadow clone. What are you going to do? I will dispel before you think about using your Sharingan. If you strike me with your sword that will do nothing. Same if you use that Chidori."

She finally saw frustration come across his face. Good. That is how she has been feeling for months following him.

"You're wasting your time here. The Uzumaki is getting stronger and your brother is getting further away."

She watched as he dug his blade deeper into her neck and bared his teeth to her, "You speak like that again and I'll dispose of you on the spot and find the original you and kill you this same day."

She ignored his threat, "It's only a matter of time before either Uzumaki finds you, your brother finds you or the snake sannin uses your tainted body as his own."

He removed his sword and swiftly grabbed her neck and pushed her to a wall. His eyes bled red and he bore down to her with nothing by the intent to snap her neck.

Hinata continued to stare at him and could do nothing but feel aggravation. "Why do you hesitate? Wasn't that apart of your training Uchiha? To stop hesitating. To stop not going for the kill."

She 'tsk' at this and continued to look at him with a dull look. Sasuke continued to stare into her eyes and squeezed her throat tighter. She was a Hyuga, yes. She was about his age though. He knew her from somewhere. This couldn't be who he thought it was.

"Hyuga…Hinata? This is you? Why are you here?!"

Why was he so concerned? What did it matter. People always dwelled on things that didn't matter. "I do not know who that is, but remember this Uchiha, for every failure there will be a success. I will not fail like my counterpart…it is not like you are improving much anyways."

Her shadow clone dispersed at this and left a disgruntled Sasuke in the aftermath. Her words…hit something in him. How did she know about his training with Orochimaru? Was she so advanced that she could hide and deceive his eyes and Orochimaru as well? Did Orochimaru know about her all along?

He couldn't have. She spoke so ill about him. Basically bashing Sasuke's training he's been doing here, and she even said he was not up to par with Naruto and his brother. Just the thought of still being so behind his brother was enough to make his blood boil.

"FUCK!"

His fist went through the wall. He couldn't help it. He was legitimately that upset. He felt stronger. He knew he was getting somewhere but was he really that behind his brother?! He didn't know whether to believe this girl or not.

His hunch was that this girl that just disappeared was Hyuga Hinata. Everything looked the same except her hair had grown a great amount.

Was she lying? Who the hell was her counterpart? It had to be that last man that was with Naruto and Sakura…Sai was his name. Sai didn't seem like he was trying to kill him though, this…girl, whoever she was, she seemed like she was itching to try to kill him.

That's fine. She could try all she wanted. He could tell a mile away she didn't have the strength or chakra reserve. She wasn't going to get in his way. Not when it came to Itachi.