Chapter Six
“There it is”
Amaya, Hana and Satoshi (who had saved the cart from certain destruction) looked on in awe as Hinata pointed to a giant waterfall in front of them. After three hours of walking they had finally made it!
“So where’s the dude who’s supposed to be exchanging goods with us?” Satoshi puffed, face red and sweaty from all of that walking and pulling. Fishing the cart out of the hole wasn’t an easy task either. Especially after he fell in and had to climb back out again. The young swordsman doubted he would have even caught up to the party if it wasn’t for Hinata deciding they should take a quick rest break.
“He should be here soon” Hinata replied, looking around “Ahh. There she is now”
A
girl was walking towards them, wet for some reason. She had medium length blue hair that was tied up with a few purple flowers in it, chocolate brown eyes and was wearing a brown and blue outfit with matching long boots. She wasn’t wearing a forehead protector but was wearing a red scarf.
“Looks like she swam here,” Amaya commented as they watched her approach. She looked about their age as well.
“Your the ninja from Konoha?” she asked
“Yes” Hinata confirmed “I’m Hinata Hyuuga and this is my squad: Hana Astral, Amaya Uchiha and Satoshi Kurokami”
“Nice to meet you” the girl smiled “I’m Zaria Bara. A genin from the waterfall village sent to collect you”
“Collect us?” Amaya asked, confused “But we’re just supposed to trade goods”
“I’m sorry but we don’t have all of the supplies for the trade” Zaria said sadly “They should arrive in the morning so you’ll have to spend the night. Unless you wanna drag that cart back to Konoha and back?”
“Oh hell no” Satoshi spoke up “As the designated Supreme Ruler of Cart I decree that we spend the night in waterfall village”
“We’ll take you up on your offer to let us spend the night in your village” Hinata said “Hold on. Step away from the cart Satoshi”
“With pleasure” the tired shinobi muttered “How do we even get to this village anyway?”
“We swim” Hinata said as the four began to walk away from the cart
“Swim?” Satoshi demanded “Swim?! and what about the cart?”
“It’ll be fine Satoshi” Hinata said “We took care of the rogues remember?”
“But I worked so hard to get it here!!!” Satoshi protested “It was so diffi...”
“You pulled that cart here all by yourself?” Zaria asked, looking back at him and looking a little impressed
“Of course I did” Satoshi switched gears “I even defended it from a hoard of rouge ninja thieves, it was so easy. I could have done it with my headband over my eyes”
“You know I took so much care not to step in crap on the way here” Amaya commented to Hana “and now he’s going to get it all over my shoes with those tall tales of his...”
The four walked over into a nearby cave, inside of it was filled with what looked like hotsprings. Zaria walked over to one and hopped in. Hinata followed suit.
“Luckily the Uchiha clan are nation renowned swimmers” Amaya said smugly
“But your a clan that works with FIRE” Satoshi said “How in the world...?”
“Details are unimportant” Amaya waved a hand “Lets get going” she hopped into the spring, Hana and Satoshi behind her. They swam down what was essentially a tunnel, Amaya swimming quite fast while Satoshi lagged behind. Eventually though they resurfaced (which was a good thing since Satoshi was running out of breath) and pulled themselves back up to dry land, Zaria and Hinata were waiting for them
“Welcome” Zaria said “To the Hidden Waterfall Village”
The village looked to be half the size of konoha, filled with huts and small houses. In the center of the village was a giant tree with a ring of water around it.
“Primitive” Amaya muttered “Is this is village of cavemen or shinobi?” Hinata hushed the girl
“Where would you like the cart?” she asked. In response a few ninja appeared around them
“They’ll take it” Zaria said. Hinata nodded and unrolled a scroll and clapped her hands, placing one on the scroll. In a puff of smoke the cart appeared and landed in front of it.
Satoshi was understandably angry
“WHY DIDN’T WE LEAVE THE DAMN THING IN THE VILLAGE?!?” he roared “WHY DIDN’T YOU DO THAT WHEN IT WAS IN THE HOLE?!?”
“Well I was planning on it. But then you were almost an hour late” Hinata replied
“Satoshi is terrible when it comes to time management” Amaya said to Zaria while Satoshi growled and grumbled about unfair work.
“So i’ll show you to where you’ll be staying” Zaria said and the four set off.
“So we’re staying at the leader of the village’s house?” Hana asked Hinata “Is that normal?”
Hinata didn’t seem to hear her.
After a few moments the five were standing right in front a large house. One of the only houses in the area that wasn’t a hut of some sort.
“This is where i’ll leave you all” Zaria said “I hope you enjoy your stay here” with a nod at them the girl vanished.
“She was nice” commented Satoshi as a man walked out of the large house and greeted them. He was about five feet and eleven inches tall and muscular, green eyes and wearing a grey flak jacket and black clothes underneath.
“Hello Miss. Hyuuga” he greeted them
“Gilford Mizuku” Hinata smiled back “Nice to see you again. Its been what? Six years since you became leader of the village?”
“Six indeed” nodded the raven haired man “I see you have your own squad now?”
“Satoshi, Hana and Amaya” nodded Hinata politely “Thank you for letting us sleep in your home for tonight”
“Anytime” smiled Gilford “You did save my life during the war”
Hinata turned to her students
“Lets unpack shall we?”
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It turned out they each had their own room all to themselves. It also turned out that the bags of Hinata’s that Satoshi had to carry all of this time were filled with rocks and heavy objects. She knew he’d been slacking off with his training and so it was a fitting punishment for him. She also gave him a scroll filled with new training instructions so he could catch up on what he’d been slacking off on. He wasn’t pleased.
Meanwhile after unpacking and sitting on her bed for a few minutes talking to Amaya about Satoshi’s punishment (he hadn’t stopped complaining about it yet), Hana decided she would work on strengthening her jutsu and her chakra control. She didn’t want anyone knowing what she was doing so she simply told Amaya that she was going for a walk to look at the village. She could already walk and run up trees but she was a little uneasy on water. She could do it, it was just a little messy. Her feet would sometimes sink a little and she would splash. She needed the practice and since she had time to kill she would go practice. First off she would work on her water walking, then she would try and strengthen her two jutsus.
Hana walked for a little while looking for a decent area to practice without being spotted. She decided behind the waterfall would do. She walked through the waterfall and behind was a small cave with a large pool of water that was the size of maybe a small to medium pond. She stripped off her skirt, tank top and shoes leaving only her bandages and dove in. Swimming to the bottom Hana sat on the floor of the pool concentrating her chakra. She had decided to go straight for the jutsu then the water walking. She didn’t have long under the water before she would need to surface. That was the point, she needed to generate a stronger version of the jutsu and do it faster. Making the proper hand signs she activated the jutsu. “Wind Style: Spiraling Wind Ball” Holding out her hand she focused on holding the jutsu together under the water without it falling apart under the pressure of the water. Wind jutsu was strong but was merely wind at the end of the day. So it was only good for bursts not substance. Hana wanted to change that. The ball fizzled out after five seconds. Hana was then forced to surface and repeat the procedure. After training for two hours Hana had only been able to improve by one second. She was exhausted, her chakra nearly depleted. Which was a feat in itself. She had a lot of chakra, Yamato sensei had even commented at the amount she possessed saying it was comparable to their Hokage when he was a child. She smiled at the memory. Sitting up she shook her head and slapped her cheeks deciding to go again. As she stood Hinata sensei walked through the waterfall and into the cave.
“Hey Hana, what are you doing?” said Hinata smiling.
“H-How did you find me here?” stammered Hana.
“Byakugan, remember. Only took me a second to find your chakra signature.” commented Hinata as she pointed to her eyes.
“Never mind about, no-one was supposed to see me here. This training was supposed to be secret.” added Hana puckering her bottom lip in disappointment.
“It still is, I wont tell the others.” said Hinata smiling. “Want some help?” added Hinata smiling again.
“Thanks but I don’t think you use Wind jutsu Hinata sensei.. do you?” asked Hana.
“Hehe, no. You see The Hyuuga clan doesn’t really rely on justu outside of our clan’s style of fighting. We don’t really need to. So I really can’t help you with your wind jutsu” said Hinata as she reached into her ninja tools bag. “What I can do is give you this chakra pill. It will refill your chakra.” said Hinata handing it to Hana as she began to walk away.
“Cool, thanks Hinata sensei! Dont you want to see what I am working on?” yelled Hana as Hinata was nearly out of the cave.
“Byakugan, remember? I already know, it is a good idea, keep at it!” said Hinata as she passed under the waterfall.
Hana ate the pill and dove back in. She would double her training this time. She made the ball even bigger and held it for eight seconds. ‘Did that little vote of confidence really help that much?’ wondered Hana as she swam back up to the surface. She continued the training with the Spiraling Wind Ball for another two hours. Once finished she could hold it for ten seconds under all that pressure. ‘That is a lot of improvement for one training session.’ thought Hana. Little did she know, that pool was diluted Hero’s Water. The tap for the tree was directly above her. The shinobi of the village had discovered that soaking in the water had no adverse effects. While drinking it shortened their life span.
.............................
Later that evening Hana was awoken from a fantastic dream. She was able to use all of the elements and she was fighting in some great battle. What she awoke to was not however that great. It was Satoshi aka ‘The Boob’ with a stomach ache. Hana rolled over and tried to force her dream to return but Sato’s whining prevented that. She threw the covers back and stomped over to Sato.
“Go tell Hinata sensei! She can probably help.” snarled Hana.
She peered into the darkness looking for her bed. Finding it, she climbed into it and was nearly asleep when Sato burst into her room.
“Hinata sensei isnt in her room!! Her bed is all messy, it looks like there may have been a small struggle.” exclaimed Sato.
This time Hana was out of bed and awake. ‘Where is she?’ wondered Hana as she put her tanktop and her skirt on. Sato standing there the entire time, eyes comically wide and sporting what looked like a small nosebleed that he quickly sniffed away. Hana rolled her eyes, she didn’t even think of him as a boy. He was just ‘the boob.’ Pulling her shoes on as she shot out the door grabbing her ninja gear from the peg on the wall.
“Go wake Amaya up. fill her in and meet me at sensei’s room” ordered Hana as she dashed down the hall.
Satoshi nodded and ran over to Amaya’s room. It sure was convenient that their rooms were side by side, Hinata’s down the hall. He burst into the room
“AMAYA! HINATA SENSEI IS MISS...AHHHH!” He ducked as a fireball surged out of the room and nearly took his face off. He was too slow to dodge the chair. The top of his nailed him right in his aching tummy. He collapsed with a moan.
“What the hell was that for?!” he demanded
“Why are you in my room?!” Amaya roared back “I could have been naked!”
“Your wearing FOOTIE. PAJAMAS!” Satoshi yelled back “There’s nothing naked about you! And why do they even MAKE footie pajamas with that particular design anyway?!? Are you Uchiha THAT arrogant?!?”
“Shut up!” snapped Amaya “Now what do you want?”
“Hinata sensei is missing!” Satoshi explained quickly about his stomach ache and how he went to tell Hinata about it but found that she wasn’t in her room
“and it looked like there was a small scuffle” he finished
The two genin raced over to Hinata’s room. Hana was standing in the doorway, arms crossed and foot tapping. “Go look in there” she hissed. The duo looked and what they found was not a small scuffle. The entire back wall was blown out and the room looked completely trashed
“Can you explain to me how THIS is a small scuffle?” Hana hissed again “Look at that room, the entire back wall is missing. Missing Satoshi. It wasn’t taken down and stacked neatly in the corner. Its gone. Can you tell me what’s supposed to be there?”
Satoshi gulped and said sheepishly and quietly “The wall?”
“THE WALL!!!”
Hana walked into the room, shaking her head in disbelief that her teammate was actually that worthless.
“How did you graduate the acadamy again?” Amaya wondered as the three looked around the room.
“Why would someone attack Hinata?” wondered Satoshi “How would they even know she’s here?”
“I knew there was something off about this mission” Hana growled
“Then lets go after her after I find some medicine for my stomach” Satoshi said determinedly
“No lets go after her NOW you boob” snapped Hana. The boy sighed and nodded, holding his tummy and the three genin jumped off into the night.
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In front of the waterfall where Hana did her earlier training two shinobi battled it out.
“Eight trigrams one hundred and twenty eight palms!” Hinata snarled, slamming her final attack into the torso of her foe. The black coated figure was thrown into the waterfall and Hinata turned to a coffin like structure that he had been carrying. She sighed. It was over.
“Still as powerful as always Hinata” a voice called. Hinata spun around with a growl as the cloaked figure stepped out of the waterfall, chuckling. He even looked unhurt.
“Why are you trying to kidnap the adoptive daughter of the village leader?” demanded Hinata dangerously “and how did that attack not affect you?”
“Why does it matter? You would have come after me anyway” replied the figure “"and as for how i'm unhurt...well i'm sure you've heard of substitution jutsu” He slipped off his hood, reveling long black hair and pupiless white eyes “Your quite the hypocrite princess”
“I’m no hypocrite” Hinata growled “Traitor!”
“You tell people that you hate revenge and yet you’ve been after my blood ever since I murdered your little sister Hanabi after the war” chuckled the other hyuuga.
“I want to bring you to justice” Hinata said “Its different”
“Different? You feed your team some bullshit story about a cargo mission just so you can follow me here. Your attacks are designed to kill, not incapacitate and on top of that I can SEE the hate in your eyes as you look at me” mocked the man.
“Your a traitor to our village, a murderer and a rouge ninja. S class” Hinata said “As I said, i’m here to bring you to justice”
“You’ll enjoy it” replied the hyuuga “You can’t wait to silence me. I guess...” he faked a sniff “..I guess all of that tripe about love and marriage..our whole relationship in general meant nothing to you”
“You KILLED my SISTER! You LIED to me!” Hinata took a step forward “YOU ruined our relationship! You were acting all along Toshiro!”
“Your angry about being lied too. About acting” Toshiro smiled at her “How do you think your squad feels?”
“They have no idea what’s happening” Hinata said quickly “and they never will!”
“I wouldn’t be too sure of that”
Hinata turned around and gasped. Standing there, wearing looks that varied between disappointment, anger and hurt was team four.