My first story. Criticism welcome.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

All is Not Lost

Chapter 1

She couldn't wait to return home. It had been far to long.

Okay, so maybe five days isn't that long, heck she used to go on missions much longer than that on a regular bases when she was still a chunin.

'Though back then I didn't have someone waiting for me.' She mused to herself, as she pushed herself to go faster.

"Hinata-sama! Please slow down!"

Hinata sighed and looked back at the four jonin following her. Sighing again, she reluctantly slowed down so her escorts could catch up and surround her in proper protective fashion. She understood that that she shouldn't be on point, but she wanted to be home so badly, and they just weren't moving fast enough.

She was about to take another step forward when suddenly a kunai landed right where she was about to step and exploded. Fortunately Hinata saw it at the last minute and was able to escape the blast. Unfortunately the resulting smoke from the explosion effectively separated her from her escorts.

The sounds of metal clashing came from all around her. She pulled out a kunai and easily deflected five shuriken that were aim at her head.

The smoke finally began to clear, Hinata found herself surrounded by five male shinobis with no distinguishable markings to show their allegiance. Quickly glancing around she notice about a dozen more ninja scattered about fighting the four jonin that accompanied her.

Hinata straightened her shoulders and took a deep breathe. "What do you want?" She demanded, her voice and face void of emotions.

The largest male grinned maniacally before rushing to attack her, completely ignoring her question, the other four following suit. Obviously they had no intention of talking, just as well, she had no intention of listening.

Swiftly she twirled to the left dodging the first man's attack while simultaneously throwing her kunai at the second man's head. She ducked, avoiding a kick aimed at her head from the third. Her left leg swung up, hitting the ninja in the gut and sending him flying a few feet away.

She barely had time to roll away before the fourth's broad sword smashed into the ground just to her right. Throwing a handful of senbon needles at the swordsman, Hinata jumped up at kicked the fifth shinobi's head. He jumped back easily dodging her and began pulling out his shuriken.

She reached for another kunai in her pouch when suddenly she was struck from behind on her right side. She was sent flying a few meters before she twisted her body, landing in a crouch facing her attackers.

She took a moment to assess the situation.

The first ninja who had attached her stood between her third and fifth attacker, his size easily dwarfing the other two, his wide grin still intact. The murderous glint in his eyes proved to Hinata that he was the one who had landed the hit on her.

The fifth was on his left, leisurely twirling two shuriken on his fingers. He was a tall man with stringy dirty blonde hair and a bored expression on his face. The third was a little bit behind the others, his face pale as he tried desperately to hide how much damage Hinata had done to him. She had hit him in the solar plexus.

Good, she hope she ruptured something.

The other two rouges were on the ground. Her aim had been true. One had a kunai embedded in between his eyes, while the other had three senbon piercing through his neck.

Hinata vaguely noticed that she didn't hear any sounds of fighting near by, but wasn't able to dwell on it as the three attacked again.

This was taking to long.

The ninja she had kicked in the stomach was easily defeated minutes after the second attack began and the blonde fell not long after. But the first, who she mentally dub 'Tank', barely had a scratch on him.

It didn't help that a few for his buddies had joined in, having defeated their own opponents. That meant her escorts were either unconscious or, more likely, dead.

Fortunately the other rouges weren't nearly as strong as Tank but they were forcing Hinata to waste precious energy to kill them.

Dark clouds covered the sky, effectively blocking the out sun. Rain fell heavily all around.

It was now just her and Tank.

The weather was to her advantage as Tank's heavy form kept sinking into the muddy bank of the river at which they were currently fighting. He was also breathing heavily, finally showing fatigue from the long battle.

But she was in far worst shape.

The prolonged battle had taken its toll. Cuts and bruises littered her skin, she only used enough healing chakra to make sure she didn't bled to death. She could feel a kunai and some other weapons embedded in her back. Even if she could reach them, she didn't have the energy or time to pull them out.

Breathing was painful, evidence of multiple broken ribs. She had long since lost her kunai pouch and was weaponless save for the times she would use the ones thrown at her. Her clothes were in tatters, barely protecting her modesty let alone anything else.

Hinata glanced at the raging river behind her, formulating a plan. She was almost out of chakra. She needed to end this now.

One hit. Just one good hit was all she needed.

Tank slowly stalked closer to her, resembling some demonic wild animal.

She had to time this perfectly. She couldn't allow herself to get anymore injures.

He lunged forward.

She breathed deeply, focusing her remaining chakra for her counter attack.

He swung his right arm straight for her chest.

She dove under him, reaching around for his back.

His right elbow came down hard, crushing her right arm. But to was too late.

A chakra filled hand slapped the base of his spine, immediately paralyzing the lower half of his body.

Hinata watched, in slow motion, as Tank fell face first into the water.

His eyes were wide in disbelief before suddenly narrowing. With a snarl Tank twisted his upper body and grab Hinata's foot.

Terror filled her as she felt herself being dragged into the river. Instinctively she sent the last of her chakra to her foot and kicked Tank in the face, knocking the massive man unconscious and forcing him to release her.

As Tank sank to his death, Hinata fought the currents for much needed air. Breaking the surface she latched onto the nearest solid object, a broken log, and quickly balanced herself on it so she wouldn't fall off the floating wood.

With no more energy left, Hinata fell unconscious, leaving her to the mercy of the strong currents of the swollen river.

That's the end of the first chapter.

Again I'm completely knew at this so please let me know if any doesn't make sense.

Thank you for reading and please review.