Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto

"Talking"

'Thoughts'

"Tailed Beast/Jutsu"

Chapter 4

Back in the Forest:

The group looks deep into the flames to try and get a read on what was happening inside. Most of them were wondering if Hinata was alright, except for Sasuke, who was more concerned with whether or not he got the beast with his jutsu.

As the flames start to die down, they start to get a better view on the contents of it. They all see the beast, seemingly on top of an unconscious Hinata.

This, immediately got Kiba worried for his teammate. He had to get her out of there before the beast starts trying to eat her or something.

Clasping his hands together into a handsign, Kiba started up his signature jutsu.

"Shikyaku no Jutsu! (Ninja Art of Beast Mimicry: All-Fours Jutsu)" He shouted as his nails and teeth got noticeably sharper.

Before anyone could attempt to stop him, he sprang forward at immense speed. Kiba raced through the flames as he came closer upon the beast. While its guard was down, Kiba gave it a hard punch in the gut, knocking it away a few dozen feet.

While there, he grabbed Hinata's unconscious body and ran back over to the group.

"Hinata?! Are you alright?" Kiba asked worriedly as he gently set Hinata down beside Ino's own unconscious body.

"Fortunately, she seems to only be unconscious." Shino said as he looked her over. "There aren't any burn marks on her."

"But... how?" Sakura asked confused.

Shikamaru gave this some thought as he remembered the position Hinata and the beast were in. "There's only one explanation." The other looked over to him, curious about what he thought.

"Well? What is is?" Sasuke asked.

"The only way that Hinata could have gotten out of that without a scratch... is if the beast protected her with its own body."

This surprised the group. Why would the beast, the one that they have been trying to stop and capture, go out of its way to save Hinata? Was it because she attempted to calm it down? Was it their secret history?

Sasuke however, scoffs as he watches the beast get back up from the surprise attack. "Whatever. Doesn't matter if it did or didn't. The only thing that matters right now, is taking that thing down." He said, shifting into his stance.

The beast rises up, a clear look of anger adorned onto its face as it glares at the group. Red flame-like aura began to steam off its body once more as he got down on all four, ready to pounce the group.

The group got into their own battle stances as they got ready for the beasts next onslaught. Although, they weren't sure how much longer they could keep this up. The beast itself barely has a scratch on it, despite all the attacks they did.

Could they really take it down by themselves?

Just as they thought this, the beasts ear twitched slightly. It growled as it looked away from the group, seeming glaring off into the woods. What was it looking at? There was no one there.

Suddenly, the beasts ear twitched before it then turned around in the opposite direction.

"What the?" Choji said. "What is it doing?"

The looked back towards the group, growling at them before glancing down at Hinata. Its eyes softened as it gazed upon her pale, unconscious face. They hardened once more before facing forward.

And within a snap... it was gone.

The beast had took off at an immense speed, leaving nothing but some dust in its wake. The group stood there in silence as their brains realize what had happened.

"So wait... is the beast... gone?" Sakura asked.

"Yes." They turned towards Shino. "While they cannot keep up with its incredible speed, my kikaichu can see that it has left the area, and isn't hiding in order to rush us."

Kiba fell back onto his butt before letting out a huge sigh. "Uhg! It's finally over!" He groaned as he rubbed his bruised and sore muscles.

Sasuke grumbled off to side, still upset for how easily the beast both shrugged off his attack, and how easily it took him down.

There was one question that was left however... Why did it leave so suddenly?

The answer came in the form of three figures suddenly flickering into the clearing.

"Sensei!" Sakura shouted out in surprise as each team jonin sensei, Asuma, Kurenai, and Kakashi, flickered into existence. The jonins turned and looked towards their students, frowning at the damage some of them had.

"Hinata!" Kurenai gasped as she moved straight towards the genins unconscious body. She sighed in relief that it wasn't anything severe. "What happened here?" She asked as she turned towards Shino and Kiba.

"Well, we found the beast." Shino said. "But... It was far stronger than any of us could have anticipated."

"He's not wrong." Kiba added. "That things strength and speed were unbelievable. And it only got worse the angrier it got. I could barely get any hits on it, and when I did, it just shrugged them off as if it couldn't feel'em."

This worried the jonin. They knew that the beast would be tough, but to be able to deal with Kiba's attacks like they were nothing was crazy. Kiba's speed and taijutsu were already low-mid chunin level, and the beast dealt with it with no problem.

"Okay, but what about Ino and Hinata?" Asuma asked. "Why are they both like this?"

Shikamaru walked up to explain. "That's the thing, we don't exactly know what had happened." The jonin were confused. "Let's start with Ino. Me, Ino, and Choji started up our Shika-Ino-Cho formation in an attempt to capture the beast and end the fight. And it worked... right until Ino used her Mind-Transfer jutsu."

"Why? Did something go wrong?"

"Yes. Right after she used it on the beast and got into its mind... her original body started screaming. Right after that, she passed out, and the beast only got more angry."

The jonin were speechless. How was this beast able to cancel out Ino's family signature jutsu? And what made her scream? What did she see in there?

"Okay, that's Ino, but what about Hinata?" Kurenai asked, worried the Hyuuga princess might have faced something just as bad.

Shikamaru sighed as he continued on with the explanation, going into detail about how Hinata talked to the beast, how she calmed it down, how Sai provoked it, how Sasuke shot a fireball at it, and how Hinata tried to save it at the risk of her life.

The jonins went wide eyed. There were so many unanswered questions they needed answers to, but the only people who had those answers had ran off, or was unconscious.

"Wait, you said it ran off before we showed up. Why is that?" Kakashi asked.

"Your guess is as good as ours." Shikamaru shrugged. "Though if I had to guess, it probably knew you guys were coming."

"How could you tell?" Asuma said.

"Well, not only did it leave right before you showed up, but its ear twitched slightly before it looked in the direction you were coming from. If I was a betting man, it probably knew you guys were quite stronger than all of us put together, so it decided to run off before it gets into a fight with you." Shikamaru explained.

Asuma nodded as he smiled a bit at his student. Figures he manages to piece it all together so quickly.

"Man, if it heard you guys that early, then its hearing capabilities must be off the charts!" Kiba exclaimed.

Thinking it over, the Jonin come to an agreement.

"Alright, we're heading back to our campsite. Once there we can rest and go over anything we may have found before this incident." Kurenai said as she picked Hinatas unconscious body, and Asuma Ino's.

The group nodded as they got up from their resting spot and prepared to head out.

"And Kakashi," Kurenai said, gaining said jonins attention. "... Be sure to have a good long chat with some of your genin about their actions today." She gave said as she gives Sasuke and Sai a nasty look before going with the group to head back to the campsite.

Kakashi sighed as he looked over his genin. "I swear, if it wasn't already my natural hair color, you guys would be giving me grey hairs.

As they began to dash out of the clearing, something caught Kurenai's eye. Going over towards it, she spots a Konoha ninja headband. Seeing as Hinata was without hers, Kurenai realized that it must be hers.

Grabbing it, Kurenai was about to place it over Hinata's neck as she normally tends to wear it there. But...

"What the..."

Her eyes widened as they saw a strange black mark on the side of her neck. Where did that come from? The mark itself looked strange, as it had the form of a two-tailed fox looking creature.

"This mark... It's almost similar to..."

xXx

Later Back at the Camp Inside a Tent:

The jonin and genin, minus Ino, looked over Hinata's still unconscious body.

"What do you think it is?" Kiba asked as he moved in to get a better look at the strange fox mark.

"It's hard to say." Kurenai said. "Was there any moment where that fox thing could have given it to her?" She asked, turning towards Shikamaru.

"Well, I would say it must have happened when she tried to save it from the fire. That was the only time where it was only the two of them and we couldn't see what was going on." He explained.

Kurenai nodded before looking worriedly at her prized student. What were they supposed to do? None of them even knew what kind of mark it was, much less what it does.

"Should I try and seal it up? Just in case it has some sort of effect on her." Kakashi asked.

Kurenai sighed. "No. We can't risk it at this moment. We don't know the effect your sealing might do to it. It could agitate it, or even accelerate whatever it may be doing to her."

Asuma nodded. "She's right. It's best we just wait a bit to at least get a better idea on what it does. Then we can plan our actions accordingly." He said as he took a puff from his cigarette.

Kakashi gave them a nod, understanding their reasoning.

Sakura looked worriedly at Kakashi. "Sensei, we should head back to the village and get Hinata and Ino proper medical attention. Besides, none of us are ready for that... whatever it is."

"As much as I want to take that thing down, even I have to admit that I don't think any of us are ready for this." Kiba said. "I mean, even with all of us together, we barely wore that thing down. Its speed and strength were unbelievable."

Sasuke scoffed at this, trying to look uninterested in the conversation. Despite how much he wants to show that creature just how strong he really was, deep down he knew the truth. Had he not had backup, that thing could have killed him in its leisure. And that fact infuriated him.

Sai on the other hand was curious. They all knew that the beast was strong, but to take them all down without trying? This thing was much more than it appeared. There was also that red fox aura it was going to use before getting interrupted. He needed to let Danzo know soon about everything he has learned about this creature. Then, he and Root shall go out and catch it and learn as much as they can. That may be difficult though, as right about now-

"We can not leave."

The group turned to the owner of the voice, shocked to find that it belonged to Sasuke. Well, Sai wasn't surprised. The Uchiha heir was a very proud figure, as Sai had come to learn in the time the two had spent together. There was no way he'd sit back and let them ruin his chance to payback that beast for how it had humiliated him. It just wasn't in his nature.

"Sasuke-kun, what do you mean?" Sakura asked. "You had seen what that thing had done to us. We're outmatched. Besides, who knows what's wrong Ino and Hinata."

"Besides, you have no say in what our teams do." Kurenai said as she glared at the Uchiha, obviously still livid about his previous actions that day. "Learn your place, genin."

Now she was calling him by rank instead of name. It's pretty clear that she refuses to acknowledge his clan name, or even himself for that matter.

Sasuke glared back at the woman, wanting to stand his ground, despite her burning gaze. Before anything could break out, and by that I mean the Uchiha's bones breaking, they all hear something, or someone to be accurate.

"*groan* What... what happened?"

The group turned to see the waking form of Ino. Ino held her head as she sat up and looked around the room, wondering where she was.

"Ino!" Choji and, surprisingly, Sakura and Shikamaru shouted as they went over to check on her.

"Shikamaru? Choji? Forehead?" Ino groggily said.

Although she was incredibly angry with that last remark, Sakura was still happy to see that her old friend seemed to be ok.

"Good to see you're up sleepyhead." Asuma said as he made his way over to his student.

"Asuma-sensei? What... happened?" She said, still holding her head.

"We were hoping you could answer that for us." He replied.

"Huh?"

"See, according to Shikamaru, after performing your Mind Transfer Jutsu on the beast, you started screaming and passed out." Asuma explained. "Thankfully, you don't seem to have any injuries, aside from that headache you seem to have."

Ino nodded as she listened, slowly starting to remember the events of that day.

"Now Ino, what happened when you went into that thing mind?" Asuma asked.

She tried her best to look back on what exactly she saw. She remembered finding the beast, she remembered catching it with her jutsu, she even remembered getting inside its head. But, what did she see?

"I'm sorry Asuma-sensei... I don't know what I saw." Ino said, surprising everyone n the room.

No matter what, she just can't seem to remember what she had saw when she went inside. If only she didn't have this major headache, maybe she'd be able to think more clearly.

Asuma sighed before softly looking at his student. "It's ok Ino. You had a rough day. Why don't you lay down and rest for the day?"

Ino nodded as she laid back down, hoping that a nap may down her headache at least a little bit.

The group then made their way out of the tent to further discuss their future actions.

"Alright," Kakashi started. "Before running into the beast, did any of you find anything strange? Any clue might help us find it more quickly this time."

"B-but sensei, we can't keep going after that thing. It took us hours to find it earlier." Sakura pointed out. "We need to get back to have Hinata looked at by professionals."

"We can't." Kakashi said simply. "Whatever is going on with that mark on Hinata, we have no information on what it does or even how it works. The only thing that must know is the beast. Even if it can't speak, we might be able to find something on it that could explain what exactly that mark is for." He explained.

After hearing this, Sakura, albeit reluctantly, nodded her head.

"Now, did any of you find anything of significance?" Kakahsi asked.

Shikamaru thought it over before remembering something. "Well, me, Ino, and Choji did find some claw marks on a tree. Though, they were scorched, almost like the claws themselves were on fire. This leads us to believe that the beast may be able use jutsu of some kind."

The jonin nodded as they took note of this. From how they described the fight, it must know some jutsu to be able to make that sort of cloak they mentioned.

"How about you two?" Kurenai asked, directed at her genin.

"Hm... No not really." Kiba said as he shook his head no. "Nothing much to really say, other than Hinata saying how its chakra seemed tinted red, and was fox shaped."

Now this was interesting. A tinted chakra and different shaped chakra. They really needed to catch this thing to get some answers cleared, 'cause this was just not making sense.

"And how about you three?" Kakashi asked, turning towards Team 7.

Thinking it over, the team hadn't really found anything too special. All they did was wander around the forest until they found the beast attacking Team 8. So they really didn't find anything... Well, except for-

"There was this one cabin we happened to run into as we were searching." Sakura pointed out.

"Oh? Do you remember where it is?" Kakashi asked intrigued. "We might be able to find some clues there."

Sakura noticeably tensed. "Well yeah... We remember where."

"Well then? Where is it?" Kurenai asked, wanting to find the beast as fast as possible in order to help Hinata. Sakura looked the other way while seeming having a somewhat annoyed look on her face.

"Hm? What is it?" Kakashi asked.

Sakura sighed as she turned to her sensei. "Well, it's just that... There's this girl that lives there."

"Oh really? Then we'll just ask her if she happens to know anything."

"Yeah... but there's one little problem." Sakura said as she looked down.

xXx

At the Cabin:

"Oh great. You three little wannabe ninjas are back. What, still don't know the concept of 'get out of here'?!"

The others froze at the girls sudden outburst. Her wind chime bells shook as she had just opened up the door and was already incredibly pissed. The only ones there were Teams 7 and 8. Team 10 stayed at the camp in case the beast showed up.

This girl appeared to be no older than they were, if not maybe only older by a year. She had dark onyx-like eyes along with straight, shoulder-length hair of the same color. Her clothing consisted of a simple dark grey shirt with no sleeves, black shorts, grey wrist guards, and a strange multicolored scarf that seemed to contrast the rest of her clothing.

By looking at her, one could tell that she was definitely fit. While she didn't have major muscle definition, they were still there, giving her a bit more of an athletic build. In fact, she's probably, as weird as it sounds, in peek kunoichi condition. Meaning she probably could become one if she wanted.

"Oh and look at that, you dumbasses brought your group of friends to help you out. What, can't handle me yourselves? You three are more pathetic than I thought, and you were already really pathetic when I saw you the first time."

Ok, this was getting ridiculous. One of them were gonna have to settle this soon, because by the looks of it, this girl can keep this up for while.

"Um, hello there miss." Kakashi started. "How about we start over? My name is Kakashi Hatake of the Hidden Leaf. We just need to ask you a few questions. Would that be alright?" He asked kindly.

The girl merely looked up at him with half-lid eyes. "Kiss my ass cyclops."

This may be a little more difficult than they thought.

Kurenai decided to step up and give it a try. "Please listen, there is a beast of sorts roaming around these woods. We just need to ask you what you know about it."

The girl scoffed. "I don't know nothing. And even if I did, I don't want to deal with you no good leaf ninja's. Now get out of my property before I make you leave myself!" She said, closing the door.

Before she could however, a foot suddenly prevented the door from closing. "I'm sorry, but I'm afraid we can't just leave." Opening it back up, she finds the foot belongs to Kakashi.

"And why not cyclops?"

"Because... you have yet to explain your connection to the beast." The girl's eyes widened as she took a small step back.

"Huh? Sensei, what are you talking about?" Sakura asked. "How does she have any connection to the beast?"

"Y-yeah! Who do you think you are, trying to convict me of having any sort of affiliation with that thing?!" The girl loudly defended herself.

"Well, how about you answer this..." Kakashi calmly stated. "Tell me, where did you get that scarf you have on?"

The girl looked shocked as she seemed lost for words. She slowly steadied her nerves as she came up with an answer, slowly moving one hand behind her back. "I got it from a village nearby from a few merchants."

"Sensei, how does a scarf connect her to the beast?" Sasuke asked.

"Well Sasuke, I happened to have gotten a look at some of the merchandise those merchants were planning on selling. You know, the ones who were attacked by the beast. One of their merchandise were a multicolored scarf, that happens to look exactly like the one she's wearing." Kakashi stated.

Her wind chimes blew with the wind the girl was noticeably getting nervous, doing her best to keep a straight face. "But sensei, couldn't she have just gotten the scarf from the merchants when they were at the village? I mean, they have sold their merchandise there." Sakura pointed out.

"Well yes, but this specific scarf is one they had only recently crafted. They were only available in Konoha, and the merchants planned on selling more at the only village."

"So then... how could she have gotten it?" Sakura asked, genuinely confused.

"The only way she could have." Kurenai said, having pieced it all together. "By the one who stole said merchandise right after attacking the merchants... The beast."

The girls eyes widened as she took a few steps back away from the group, her behavior only proving them right.

"I'm sorry, but we're gonna have to take you in for questioning about the beast." Kurenai said. "Along with that genjutsu you had tried placing us in."

If the genin weren't shocked before, they we're definitely shocked now.

'Genjutsu? But when... how?' Sakura wondered as the girl was shocked at having been caught.

"I must say, it definitely caught me off guard when you used it, especially with how advanced it was. Not even I was at that level at your age. Using the subtle sounds of bells you had placed around your house as well as your chimes to try and trap us in genjutsu if you needed to escape." Kurenai said. "But, it was easy to detect and cancel once I got a read on it. Which brings up another issue."

"Where did you learn to do this? And who exactly are you?" Kakashi finished.

The girl clenched her teeth in anger at being found out, before relenting and pulling out her arm from behind her back. She then removed what looked like ninja wire from her wrist guards.

'I see. She must have used ninja wire to subtly influence the bells without us knowing. Crafty.' Sasuke thought.

The girl sighed before looking up at the group. "Alright you idiots, you caught me. I do know about the beast. Just ask me what you want so we can get this over with." She said, still clearly angry.

"Well, how about we start with introductions first?" Kakashi calmly said. "It would make this much easier if we knew what you're name was."

The girl groaned before relenting.

"My name is Kin Tsuchi."

AN: What a twist!