Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto , but many characters in this story are my original creations! The same goes with many ideas.
For reviewers – please no flames, if you don't like it – then just close this window and leave me and my story alone. Thank you for reading. If you have any comments of suggestions about possible changes – please write. Constructive criticism will be warmly accepted. I want to apologize if I happen to make any grammatical or orthographical mistakes.
A/N this story had been in my head for a long time now, most of the people showing up in this story are of my creation!
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Strolling along the narrow path she looked around as if awaiting danger to face her any minute. She moved slowly as if gliding along the perfectly shaped rocky path. She could see everything around her, and yet something told her not to turn the byakugan off and to keep on her toes. For a minute she even considered moving faster but that could meet heading faster towards the danger. She did not let anything seem unusual. She was a bad actress, but unless someone had noticed her byakugan they could not tell if she awaiting them. She carefully assessed the surroundings, the forest was thick in this part, little sun light shining through the branches and leaves. She did not like this forest at all. Even since she was a child the forest was something safe, something known to her very well, but this forest was not that of Konoha. This forest was damp and dark. This forest gave her bad feelings. This forest was dangerous. She knew how to defend herself, she was an experienced kunoichi, moreover she was a Hyuuga. Being a Hyuuga meant being a genius in itself, as long she was not compared with Him.
This mission was driving her crazy. She hated complicated diplomatic missions, every time she tried to convince herself that someone had to do it and that she was the best qualified for the job, but every time she whished she was not sent anywhere. This mission is a pain in the ass, she concluded. The journey was too long, the clients were picky, and what made her worry the most, she was sent alone. No other ninja were free, and as the journey was through allied land it was considered to be safe. She whished she had stayed home, or at least that someone would be there to accompany her.
She tried not to think of her bed feelings, and when she reached a safely looking gap in the forest she decided to sit down and rest.
She was getting very worried, she check the map again and nothing was adding up. She was considered to be extremely talented in reading maps but this time something was wrong. On her way back she was to pass by another important client so the route was different then the one she took before. She carefully looked at the map again and began measuring the distance she walked that day and the distances on the map. It did not match. According to the map she should have left the forest several hours ago and this terrain should be empty of all life, not a typical desert but a wasteland where no one normally traveled. That was one of the reasons this mission was considered safe, one way she walked through towns, the other was a safe path with no possible strangers to encounter on the way.
But this map made her worried. This could mean two things, either she made some mistake and went off the normal path (which she considered not possible because the path lead one way) second was even more disturbing, it could also mean that the map was wrong. And if the map was wrong it could mean the whole route was not safe at all. She took out her compass, and checked the directions. She was heading the right way, towards the town which was destination. She ate something quickly and set off along the path again.
It's impossible that this map was wrong, she thought, every map admitted to the achieve of the Hokage is checked. I remembered Tsuande say that no one used this route for a very long time, but someone had made the map. Meaning someone must have been here. She carefully took a look around, analyzing the forest. It was an old forest, more then 300 years old. This forest is too old, according to the map this is a wasteland so even if the forest would start to grow it could never be this old. She looked again at her map looking for a possible indication when it was made. On the left bottom she noticed the signature of the person who made the map, it was unreadable, but the date was there as well. Almost 50 years ago? That's really long. But still this forest is much much older. According to the compass I am going in the right direction. I have only two possibilities, I can turn back and go the same route I left Konoha and at the same time fail an important part of my mission. Or I can continue this path, and try to get there anyway and maybe make an updated map when I come home. Two birds with one stone. She smiled to herself. She wanted to do it, all her instincts told her to go back, but finally she had a chance. A chance to do something important. Maybe there was something hidden here? Maybe there was a reason why this map was changed? If the Hokage had information of the kind she would have told me, She concluded, but maybe the Hokage does not know anything about it. Maybe someone made this map to deceive Konoha from seeing something important. This mission may turn out not to be safe and diplomatic at all, suddenly struck her, but I'm not going back, This is my mission and I will handle it.
She walked almost all day and saw no one. No villages, no towns, no houses. At least this part of the information is correct no people seem to live here.
She made a small camp when the sun set, and she slept on a branch of a big tree.
The next day she set off early, according to the distance, if she went in the right direction without any obstacles she should reach the town in five days. She considered running in the trees but it did not seem safe. The trees were old and a lot of branches were decaying. One false step and she could land on the ground with no one to help her. Safety comes first, she was alone and getting injured without anyone around to help was the most dangerous thing.
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"How the hell did she get passed that genjutsu?"
"Don't ask me, most people come running away scared shitless even when approaching it, she somehow passed through it."
"I thought the genjutsu was faultless. It's got a 20 kilometer range!"
"You're right, in theory it is, but considering various factors and variables we must consider that someone could go through it. We go through it many times and nothing happens."
"We are different, we know about it!"
"Yes, but let's made a little hypothesis, maybe she is very determined, maybe she thinks she is strong enough to deal with the feeling of danger the genjutsu causes."
"Or maybe the genjutsu just did not work. But that doesn't change the fact that she should not be here, and moreover it doesn't change the fact that we need to find a way to make her go back "
"I think making her go back is not an option anymore, she is too close."
"So what are we going to do about this shitty situation?"
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After two hours of traveling she could feel the fear slowly diminish. Strange, this is very strange. Why was I scared so much just two days ago and why I do feel better now? She turned on her byakugan again. But nothing unusual was in sight. She continued to go along the rocky path. The forest seemed endless, and path was boring. She looked at the map again. According to this my journey through this land should end in a forest as well. Maybe this forest just does not end until the town. I think it might be possible. She turned off her byakugan and relaxed a bit.
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"We gotta do something fast, if she continues at this speed she will be there by night fall!"
"Don't raise your voice at me! I know that!"
"Shut up you two! We need to make a decision here, not yell at each other."
"What do you suggest?"
"Well we cannot let her walk this way, and…"
"And if we continue to walk around her like some fucking idiots we will never make her go back."
"Will you please shut up for a minute? I'm trying to think! Hey Genius what do you think about this?"
"Why are you asking me? This is your job to keep the perimeter safe, I'm just here because I have nothing better to do. "
"Maybe we should just go to her and ask her to leave?"
"Are you stupid or something? Look at her! She's a ninja! Would you just turn back after several days of travel just because some stranger asks you to do that?"
"Leave her alone! Asking simple questions sometimes gives the best results."
"Sorry, I just wanted to help. How do you know she's a ninja? He did not come that close to her…"
"No other person would be brave enough to enter this forest. I wish we could come closer to take a look at her distinctions. Knowing the name of her village would definitely help establish how we have to deal with her."
"Shit! Why do we always get the lamest missions?"
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She could not shake the feeling that someone or something was watching her. It followed her since morning as if a fatum. She told herself again and again that it's simply the loneliness that's making her paranoid, but on the other hand something made her keep her guard. She turned on her byakugan several times that day, but noticed nothing. No one. She decided to rest a bit and meditate. A thought came to her mind not so long ago, maybe she can't see the danger with her byakugan, not because the danger is not there, but maybe because she cannot concentrate her byakugan well enough to see at a larger distance. She felt really scared. This was not normal. She sat down drank and ate a bit, and positioned herself in the lotus position. She put her hands on the knees and tuned on her kekei genkai. She had to make sure. She slowly swept the closest range, nothing, then she went further, nothing, 400 meters, nothing, 500 meters nothing, 600 meters nothing, she concentrated even harder, More I have to do more! 1000 meters, 1500 meters, 2000 meters! She closed her eyes at shock. She concentrated even herder to identify the people she could finally notice. Five, no! six people! Perfectly hidden in the forest as if a part of it. She was surrounded. She concentrated even harder, five were men, and one woman. Two were behind her, two in front of her, and one on each side. Don't panic, don't panic. If they were to kill me they would have done it already. I'm outnumbered by far, so I can't fight them all. They are not ordinary people, no one but shinobi could hide so well and observe me from such a distance. I can't run away and I can't hide. What can I do? She could feel her heart pound and panic slowly coming deeper into her thoughts. I'm surrounded, they are keeping a perimeter of 2 kilometers around me. No matter which direction I choose there is someone there to stop me. How can they do it? How can they see me despite the distance? It took me really a long time to spot them and I have the byakugan! The last thought made her really scared. These could not be ordinary shinobi, they had to be very good shinobi.
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"Hey why do you think she is doing there? It's been almost half an hour since she stopped."
"No idea, I can't see her well at this distance."
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"Are you sure she is there?"
"Yeah I can smell her."
"What's it like?"
"What? Her smell? Nice, girly."
"Why can't we go closer to take a look? I have never seen any shinobi from other villages…"
"Because she could discover us."
"I think she already has…" a third voice came from the leaves as one more shinobi came up to them.
"She has? But how?"
"I don't know, but I think this time we should go closer and just ask her. Let's go get the others."
"All right Genius! Lead the way!"
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Hey eyes hurt but she did not let her byakugan go off. She could see the person from her right go towards the two men in front of her, they went on towards the woman on the left and finally towards the last two people from her back. She was tired, her neck was stiff and her eyes hurt. She knew her byakugan was weak, but she did not dare let them out of her sight.
She could see them talk and argue, someone was waving his hands in fury as If totally not agree with what the other people proposed. What a strange group, it seems as if they don't have a leader at all. Then she noticed them get on the path and she no doubt they were coming towards her, all six of them. She turned off her byakugan and decided to rest the last few minutes she had before facing them. She just sat there, drank and bit of water and waited.
She waited what seemed to be hours, but in fact she knew it was just more or less fifteen minutes. She calculated that they should have reached her already, so she turned on her byakugan to make sure about their ware bouts. She was surrounded again, but this time they were really close. She decided she had to so something, it was a pitiful to die and not know why or who had killed you.
"Will you please come out? I know you are there. All six of you." She said out loud.
She didn't have to wait long for a reaction. They all came and stood again in a circle around her. The only woman was on her left again. She took a closer look at the attackers. The woman was rather a girl of more or less seventeen years old meaning she was her age. She had short black curly hair, and eyes covered with dark sunglasses. She noticed all of them were more or less the same age. And to her surprise there were two pairs of identical twins. One pair had dark brown hair and brown eyes, both were slim and tall. The other twins were really muscular, reminding her much of Choji but with much more muscles. They had blonde hair, and light green eyes much like Kiba's animal-like eyes. The last person was the most distinctive one. He had alight red hair like Gaara, and she could not see his eyes because his head protector was covering them tightly.
"Who are you and what do you want from me?" she asked them trying to remain calm and not to show any fear.
Then she heard a whisper coming from the brunette twins standing in front of her. "She has the byakugan, that's why she could spot us out so easily." Suddenly they gave up their circle alignment around her and all stood in front of her.
"Indeed she has the byakugan. Meaning she must be a Hyuuga." Said the red haired boy.
"A Hyuuga? But that's impossible isn't it?" asked one of the brunette twins.
"Yes I am a Hyuuga. My name is Hinata Hyuuga and I come for Konoha The village…
"Hidden in the leaves" the girl finished for her.
"Why are you here?" one of the blonde boys demanded.
"I am on a diplomatic mission, this route was to take me to my next destination."
"Why didn't you turn back?" the other blonde asked obsessively.
"I am on a mission, and I was ordered to take this route."
"So that explains how she go pass the shield."
"Indeed it does." Said the other brunette confirming his brother's conclusion.