Feral Dreams

The three other ninja looked back and forth between each other, not really believing their evidently still heartbroken friend.

It was Ten Ten who broke the awkward silence that had built up over the past few seconds, “Hinata, I don’t mean to burst your bubble, but you know he’s gone right? I was there, remember.”

Hinata smiled a humourless smile, “Yes I remember, but I’ve also come to understand more now than I did before.”

Ten Ten groaned, shaking her head in mild irritation, “Hinata, please don’t be like this. I saw him while I was there. They brought him by while I was in chains and I can tell when someone’s not breathing, plus he was bleeding all over the place.” Sasuke and Neji looked to her curiously, not having anticipated this response, “So please, Hinata, don’t take unnecessary risks to chase a dream. We all cared about him, but I don’t want to lose anyone else, please.”

Hinata glanced at the tight grip her cousin and Ten Ten had on each other’s hands. She smiled briefly, understanding the other woman’s fear, but she knew that no matter what happened, she could not back down from her ideals, “I’m sorry Ten Ten, that’s out of the question. But out of curiosity, have you thought about why they’d have brought a corpse into a jail?”

“Hmm? What are you talking about?” Ten Ten responded, thoroughly confused.

“Well, you said you saw him, but I’d assume they kept you in some kind of jail rather than the hallway or something.”

“Yeah, so?”

Realization dawned in the eyes of the two onlookers as the formed the mental links. Unfortunately, Ten Ten was still drawing a blank.

Deciding not to wait for Ten Ten to figure it out on her own, Hinata explained, “So tell me, why would they bring a body into a jail if there wasn’t some reason for it to be restrained… like still being alive?”

“Oh come on Hinata, that’s just… umm, unlikely… crap.” Ten Ten glowered irritably up at Hinata as she wore a victorious grin, “That doesn’t mean he’s still alive.” she moved sharply and cringed as her body rejected its forced movement. After taking a moment to regain her composure, she grunted and continued her point, “Consider what they did to me in just a few days. It’s been more than two weeks. Don’t let your imagination cloud your judgement.”

Hinata glanced between the two who had yet to contribute to the subject at hand, “What do you two think? I’ve been having some trouble for the last few weeks, but would you say that I’m crazy? That I’m letting my feelings cloud my judgement?”

“Damn Hinata, that’s not what I said?” Ten Ten barked, once again moving sharply and causing herself to grit her teeth in irritation.

“Ten Ten, will you shut up?” Sasuke spoke in a dark tone, “Honestly, I would say that Hinata has gone a bit crazy lately, but if she has real proof that there’s a chance to get that idiot back, I say we do it.”

Hinata eyed him with distinct irritation, she appreciated his confidence but she disliked being directly insulted, especially by someone who was supposed to be her subordinate. Ten Ten moved to mouth protest against the foolish Uchiha until Neji reached beneath her chin and turned her head to look up at him. She winced at the unpleasant angle for her neck, but allowed herself to be moved.

“Do you think we wouldn’t do the same if it was you?” His voice was calm, but carried sufficient force to emphasize his point.

“But, that’s… that’s not the point.” She was flustered and confused, trying hopelessly to explain her reasons, but never quite being able to do so.

“But it is,” Hinata’s voice was very quiet, but perfectly audible in the small room, “My own feelings aside, if there is any hope of getting him out of there alive, regardless of how small, we should take it. He was willing to die for us, why should we be any different?”

“Damn it, I… ugh. Fine, do it. But you all better come back to me alive, especially you mister.” She did not speak in an affectionate manner when she narrowed her eyes at Neji, rather it sounded more demanding than anything else. The two others figured it was just Ten Ten being possessive, that is until she continued a moment later, “You’re the only one who can protect me from ‘The Power of Youth’ duo, because I’ll be damned if I’m willing to deal with them alone.”

Hinata had the decency to cover up her moment of laughter as a sudden cough. Sasuke however appeared to have no intention of maintaining her level of decency, “Hey whitey, aren’t you glad that you amount to a locked door in the eyes of your girlfriend?”

“What did you say?” Neji took a menacing step toward the laughing Uchiha, which did little more than edge him on since he had no idea if he was reacting to the name or his comment about Ten Ten.

“Come on, that was hilarious.”

“You rude bastard.” Neji raised his fist to strike the unwavering Uchiha, but stopped dead before he was able to lunge. Seconds later the laughter stopped, replaced by a ragged gasping as both hot-headed men collapsed to their knees.

A disgruntled look passed over her face as Hinata withdrew her hands from the ribs of her companions and cracked her knuckles threateningly, “I think you both need a time out.”

The other woman craned her neck to look down and what she was tempted to refer to as testosterone filled monkeys and smirked, “Well not that I like the idea of you hurting them, but at least now I can see why you’re in charge Hinata. Apparently testosterone does not equal good decision making skills, but consider who is on my team, I already knew that.”

Turning her attention back to Ten Ten, she spoke seriously with a slight hint of amusement in her voice, “It seemed necessary, and there are several reasons why she put me in charge, but I suppose this would be one of them.”

Neji managed to lean himself so he could look up to his cousin, a mixture of surprise and amusement. “Hinata… how did you… learn that?” His voice was erratic as he repeatedly gasped between his words.

“What, the Shinkei Hari?” She turned to look at him, vaguely amused to see him taken down by a single unexpected strike. “Simple, I watched you two develop it so I knew the theory, and the last few days I’ve been teaching myself to use it… though I’ve made a few modifications to it since we already have the jyukken.”

“Oh… that explains… a lot.” He was gradually regaining control of his breathing, but it was still difficult to speak.

“So, now that that’s dealt with, you two can consider this my first order for the mission. No fighting with each other. Got it?” They both reluctantly nodded since actual speech was proving difficult. “Good and Sasuke… if you’re going to be a bastard, can you please do it discretely and not antagonize us?” It took several seconds, but eventually Sasuke nodded accepting the additional condition.

“Good show, and quite effective I must add.” Shashu walked in from the front door, still leaning on pole he held in his left hand.

Ten Ten brightened with the arrival of the older man as she waved him over. Not one to turn down an invitation, he walked around the two disabled figures and moved behind Ten Ten and ruffled her hair in an almost brother-like manner. Neji eyed the man awkwardly but was in no condition at the moment to do anything.

“I’m glad you came back Shashu, I know you described the sarcophagus to me, but I need you to give me details about the facility and its defences.” The two men looked up, curious about the sarcophagus comment, but were as of yet incapable to respond.

“Ah yes, you’ll need to know that wont you. Umm, maybe it would be best if your friends could ask questions too since it would be best to only need to have this question and answer session once. Is there a way for you to undo what you did to them?” He in fact seemed genuinely concerned for her two, rather pitiful looking friends.

“I suppose so. After all, they did say they would act appropriately.” Hinata reached down and placed an open palm against each of their stomachs. After a moment of concentration, she withdrew her hands trailing strings of pale blue chakra that quickly dissipated into the air. “That should do it.”

Over the next few seconds, their breathing slowed to a normal pace and they began pulling themselves to their feet.

Neji coughed a bit as he brought himself up to a standing position. He turned curiously to Hinata deciding to voice his question now rather than wait and risk forgetting, “How did you remove the effects Hinata, Naruto’s dissipated over time?”

“As I said cousin, since I can use the jyukken, I was able to develop it further. But enough side tracking,” She turned back to face Shashu, “If you’d describe to us the defences.”

“Very well, so where should I start?”


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The sun slowly dipped into the horizon, gently tingeing the sky a mesh of red and orange. Several hours had passed in which Hinata, Sasuke and Neji picked at Shashu’s brain, learning all they could about the facilities general defences and occupants. The facility in question was apparently about as sprawling as the last one, and also contained a fair amount more population. There were only a handful of areas containing traps, though unfortunately one of the areas was the holding cells. Within the enemy ranks there were two whom Shashu referred to as assassins similar to himself, and five ninja who were apparently quite capable. The ninjas he knew very little about save their appearances. The assassins however, he was able to give them a significant amount more information.

Dale’elen was a true master of stealth, they would never see him coming or leaving if he didn’t want them to. Dale however had a penchant for one on one combat. He liked to prove he was better than his marks by killing them head on without trickery, then leaving without a trace. His favoured weapons were a scythe and two mining picks that he kept strapped across his back. Shashu had never seen him use his scythe, but how he used his picks was pretty straight forward, brutal and almost instantly fatal. If he could connect with a decent hit then it was very likely that the target had at least one of their internal organs ruptured.

The second assassin was Karin Toroku. She did not favour stealth in any way, rather she would charm her way to her targets, kill the mark with her rather substantial arsenal of poisons, then charm her way out. When forced into combat, she fought with shortened scissor katars that she always kept on herself despite that she tended to wear very little clothing. He had never seen her fight, so he couldn’t give any details on her actual combat style. However he did inform them that Karin was very acrobatic; therefore it was very likely that she would use her mobility and flexibility to her advantage.

“Alone either one would be an incredibly skilled adversary. Working in conjunction with others or worst case scenario each other, they would be ludicrously powerful opponents.” Shashu raised his voice in order to emphasize the point.

“Fair enough, what about the standard troop armaments? I’m fairly confident that we could deal with troops in small groups, but if we need to focus on larger prey then their weapons could become an issue.” Hinata asked in a tired, but interested voice.

He sighed, they had listened to everything he said and even begun formulating plans on how best to infiltrate the facility, but he still didn’t feel they were really prepared for everything. “The majority of the troops will have fairly standard ninja weapons, kunai, swords, a few explosive notes. After all, most of their members are low ranking deserters from other ninja villages or conscripted militia. A small percentage of the troops however will be equipped with these.” He held up the strange metal and wood tube that he favoured for a walking stick.

“Staves?” Questioned Sasuke in a curious tone.

“Not quite,” Shashu smirked at the man’s ignorant response, “This is an arquebus, a long range black powder weapon. I’ve modified mine a bit so that it has less smoke and can be reloaded a little easier, but essentially it is the same weapon.”

“Black powder weapon? You use explosives inside your weapons?” Neji eyed his weapon distrustfully.

“In a manner of speaking yes. We load these with small pellets of lead and a limited amount of powder, and then we ignite the powder. The pellet flies significantly faster than a weapon can be thrown and will almost always prove fatal. If you guys want proof as to what kind of damage they can do, why not ask lady Hinata, she was hit by one.” The others looked at her curiously, not having realized that she had been hit by one of these weapons previously.

Confused, she cocked her head questioningly, “I was never hit by one of these.”

“I beg to differ, actually I’m surprised you still have your right hand since I shot you in the wrist.”

“My wrist?” It took her a moment to remember when her hand had been slapped away while reaching out, “Oh! Yes, I remember now… wait, that was you?”

“Unfortunately yes, no one else among us could have hoped to hit such a small target at a hundred and fifty feet. Still, you must have been very lucky to get away with your arm intact.”

“Actually, my coat is armoured, that’s probably the only reason I left in one piece.”

“Oh… well then. My apologies for the injury regardless.” He scratched his head bashfully as he tried to deter the oncoming awkward silence, “So back to the weapon. If you’re hit with one anywhere in the torso or head, there is a good chance of a fatal wound. If you’re hit in one of the extremities then it will almost certainly be disabled, but you’re more likely to survive. But it’s not all bad news, like any great weapon developments, usually there are downsides. The primary weaknesses of the arquebus are firstly the low accuracy of the weapon, outside of fifty feet it’s likely that the projectile will lose substantial velocity and deviate significantly from its original impact point. Secondly the large amount of smoke produced each time the weapon is fired, if three were to fire in sequence in a hallway, there would be substantial and lasting smoke cover. Lastly, each shot needs to be manually loaded through the muzzle, this means you pout some powder, drop the shot into the barrel, and add some more powder. Unfortunately, If you add too much powder while reloading, the gun will explode, likely blowing off the users hands and if they’re unlucky, a chunk of their face as well. I can reload mine in roughly two to three seconds, the average other person will take at least six, so use your time wisely.”

“Good to know…” The three ninja muttered in unison.


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They continued to discuss the defences back and forth until the moon was already high in the sky. Their planning had taken many potential outcomes into account and would hopefully allow them all to make it out of there is one piece. Unfortunately, the many unknown factors left a lot of blank spots in their ideas.

After the long night of discussion and having to make decisions that may or may not result in their failure, Hinata opted to relax outside on the grass. From her back she watched the stars shine across the deep purple of the twilight sky. A cool wind blew across her, pulling her thoughts away from the atrocities that would occur the next day. She may have accepted that she would kill these people, but taking dozens of lives still didn’t sit well in her stomach. Even the simmering flame of vengeance in the pit of her stomach was not enough to excite at the idea of the coming brutality. She sighed, voicing her thoughts, “Maybe it’s a guy thing.”

“Maybe it is, but I can’t answer that until I know what you’re talking about.”

She bolted upright, surprised by Shashu’s voice suddenly breaking into her calm night, “Damn it, will you stop doing that?”

“Doing what? I figured a woman who could see in the back of her head couldn’t be surprised so easily.” His voice was playful and amused, though his eyes betrayed a note of seriousness. She grumbled something about ‘details’ and ‘men’, but he couldn’t make it out so he ignored it.

“So what brings you out at this hour?” she asked curiously, setting aside her previous irritation.

He walked over and dropped down beside he on the grass, “I wanted to talk to you once the others had gone to sleep. I felt it would be somewhat demeaning to ask in front of too many people.”

“Oh, what about?” She had to admit she was curious about whatever it was that he would feel out of place asking in front of the others.

“I want to come as well.” She looked at him curiously, seeming to find his question odd, “I wish to join you all in the attack. I need this for myself, to be able to accept the end. I need to make things right.” He spoke calmly, with a powerful resolve behind his voice.

“But…” She began to speak, but he cut across before she could properly respond.

“Please, I am doing everything I can to help you stop them, but I want to be part of this as well. I would like my family to at least be proud of me in the end.” His fear of not being accepted to come became evident as his previous resolve melted away into desperation.

“I know and…” Again he interrupted her.

“Even if it’s just a small role, please, I want to help.” Hinata did not attempt to speak after his rather pitiful prostration, she just sat there and watched him. After an uncomfortable minute he couldn’t maintain the silence, “Would that be a no lady Hinata?”

“No, but I’m getting really sick of being interrupted lately.” She glowered at him, distinctly irritated.

“My apologies, I lost track of myself.” He bowed his head lightly in hopes she would forgive his excessiveness.

“No apologies needed. However, as I was going to say before you interrupted me… twice! Why are you asking if you can come? Of course you’re coming.” For a moment, Shashu sat there, unable to form words, so Hinata continued, “Everything from your letter to your mannerisms has screamed that you wanted to go back and get your own revenge. I can understand you asking, but why would you feel it necessary to explain your every action to me.”

Finally finding his voice, he chewed his lip while forming the words that would make him feel less stupid, “So you’re saying that I didn’t need to go through all that. That I just needed to say ‘Would you mind if I came as well’?”

“Basically, yes. We can talk about it more in the morning, but for now rest assured that you will be joining us.” Her voice sounded reassuring, but Shashu still felt like a fool for his over reacting.

“… Right then, so that’s it?” He stood up and turned away from her to walk back to the house.

Hinata sighed and lay back down on the soft grass, “Hey Shashu, have you ever heard the term ‘Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth’?”

“No.” He said simply.

“Well now you have, so go get some sleep.” She smirked as he wandered off mumbling something about not liking horses.


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With the morning light, a mild rain came in, obscuring the horizon and slicking the hills and fields for miles with thick mud. The five individuals sitting within the warm confines of the wood cabin were enjoying some last minutes of relaxation and planning, while all secretly dreading their inevitable departure; however only two among them were thinking so with regards to the rain.

The majority of the morning for the men had been spent preparing the necessary supplies for their departure. Hinata however, had been up since the early hours breaking and resetting Ten Ten’s broken bones. Even with the use of her jyukken abilities to numb the pain in certain areas, it had still been…difficult. Even she wondered where she dragged up the willpower to be able to break her own friends arm, several times. Unfortunately, Hinata couldn’t do much for her friend’s knees considering they had been broken with some kind of hammer. This meant that there were dozens of small fragments floating around in the area and there was no way she could set them properly. As for the arm and femur, the breaks were fairly clean so she was able to set them without any problems. Lastly, with regards to Ten Ten’s broken ribs, they appeared to be healing fine on their own so Hinata opted to do nothing about them for the moment. All told it was a painful and/or exhausting morning for all of them.

Currently the five sat comfortably around a wooden table that Shashu had dragged in from the other room. Even though Ten Ten was far from mobile, they were able to drag her chair over to the table thanks to its flat bottom. At one point after they had eaten a light breakfast of dried fruit and tea, Shashu had brought in several glasses filled with some kind of bitter bean soup. It was unanimous among the gathered ninja that the drink was quite vile, but its revivifying effects couldn’t be ignored.

“So, the rain should cover our approach, but once we get there, there’ll be the problem of not being able to hide our footsteps inside the facility.” Hinata stated, calmly detailing the inconveniences of the weather.

“True, but if we’re lucky they’ll have decent drainage, unlike the last place.” Sasuke interjected before taking another sip from his second cup of Shashu’s soup concoction. He grimaced at the bitter taste, but was pleased with how well the disgusting liquid made him alert.

“That would only be hopeful thinking my friend. The facility has often had troubles with flooding.” Cut in Shashu’s voice as he doused their hope with a pale of cold water and reality.

“Quaint, I just hope that the rain doesn’t get any worse. I’d rather not have to worry about drowning indoors being a possiblity.” Hinata said sarcastically, “We’ll need to assess the situation when we get there. It’s useless to argue now.” The others nodded in agreement, “Okay then, the last thing we need to take care of before we set off is we have to send a message back to Konoha requesting a medic.” She turned to face the bored looking Uchiha who was finishing off his cup, “Sasuke-kun, any chance you could send a snake with the message?”

“No,” He said flatly, placing his empty cup on the table, “I haven’t been able to use Kuchiyose for a while now. The animals don’t acknowledge me anymore. Why doesn’t one of you two do it?”

“We can’t.” Came Neji’s calm voice, “Hinata-sama has never been able to master the technique, and I refuse to enter into such contracts.”

“Thank you Neji, but please do not answer for me.” She made a mental note to speak with him about refraining from speaking for her in the future. “Shashu, how’d you send us the note in the first place?”

“I borrowed a carrier pigeon from town. Is there a faster way though? Their pigeon will probably take around a week to arrive at your home.”

“What about me?” Ten Ten spoke up, raising her good hand to draw the other’s attention.

“What about you?” Sasuke muttered apathetically.

“I can use Kuchiyose.” She said cheerfully.

“…”

“…”

“…”

“What?”

“You can what?”

“Really?”

“What’s a Kuchiyose?”

The four ninja turned to Shashu, momentarily confused by the man’s ignorance. It was only a few seconds, but Ten Ten was the first to realize that Shashu was not in fact a ninja so he wouldn’t know the names of their techniques. She chuckled quietly before bringing herself to answer the man’s question.

“Kuchiyose is a summoning technique. We sign pacts with different life forms and can summon them with an offering of blood.”

“An offering of blood?” He quirked an eyebrow, emphasizing his curiosity.

“She didn’t mean it like that.” Hinata said as she bit through the skin on the tip of her thumb, and then held up the lightly bleeding digit to make a point. “You only need a drop of blood like this, but it has to be your own.”

“Strange, but I believe I understand. It would likely make more sense though if I were to see it myself.” Shashu nodded, his curiosity at least somewhat sated.

“Well, assuming one of these three can lend me a hand to perform the signs, you’ll be able to see it.” Ten Ten smiled as she held out her hand to Neji, who in turn wordlessly accepted the offer and interlaced his own hand with hers, forming the appropriate sign.

A grin tweaked at the corner of his lips as he laughed to himself of the irony of needing to give her a literal hand with her jutsu. “So what are we summoning?”

“You’ll just have to wait and see I suppose.” The corners of her lips tilted into a slight smirk.

“Listen, can you just get this over with, I’m getting tired of waiting. You can flirt later.” Sasuke’s bored voice echoed across the table.

“Fine, fine… Bastard.” The last word she spoke beneath her breath so that only she and Neji could hear. Withdrawing her hand from its connection to Neji, she raised it to her face. The thick pads of calloused skin that coated the fronts of her hands stared back at her unpleasantly, alas, the curse of using nothing but projectile weaponry. Choosing the better part of valour she turned her hand around revealing the smooth skin of the back of her hand and bit into the back of her knuckle. Now with the warm trickle of blood running down her finger, she once again laced her hand together with Neji and formed the appropriate seals, “Kuchiyose no Jutsu.”

Lines of blood wound out in a spiral sigil as she placed her hand firmly on the table. A blast of smoke momentarily obscured everything as a small, ball-like shape could be seen through the haze. After a few seconds, the smoke completely dissipated revealing a spiky black ball about the size of a beach ball, covered with a mixture of black and white spines. It didn’t move or react to the presence of anyone; in fact everyone other than Ten Ten just stared at the strange object, not quite certain what it was.

“Kazan!” Ten Ten yelled happily as she reached a hand out towards the spiky ball, holding it a few inches away from its spine covered surface.

In response to Ten Ten’s voice, the ball shifted slightly, rocking back and forth for a second until a small, snouted head poked out from the middle of the mass of spines. The face was completely black like the rest of the body, but the eyes were a brilliant ember orange.

“Ten Ten? Is that you?” The animal’s voice was surprisingly deep and masculine, though it was marred by a slight dry rasp. The furry head quirked back and forth as though trying to get a better look at her.

She laughed as she reached out and stroked his furry head, “For better or worse, yeah. I’m glad that you came.” The others looked awkwardly at the animal, all of them still trying to figure out what it was.

“I can definitely see the worse part. What happened?” The ball rocked back and forth for a second before unrolling itself into a small rodent-like animal, about two feet in length and around six inches across. It had four stubby legs tipped with short claws and was coated in a slick black fur everywhere but its back, where its black and white spines were interspersed. It scurried over to the edge of the table and stretched its neck several inches so it could lightly rub its nose against her shoulder.

“That’s a long story Kazan, and if possible I’d like to save it for later. Okay?” She smiled as she pulled her arm around and scratched beneath the rodents chin.

“Sure, but next time have some grubs for me. So what can I help you with Ten Ten?” Kazan rolled back onto its hind legs, taking on what could only be described as a sitting position and using it’s quills as a support. A subdued sizzling sound could be heard from the white spines as they etched black lines across the tabletop.

“Well it’s only indirectly that I need your help today. My friend Hinata,” She pointed behind Kazan at where Hinata was seated. In response it rolled its head to the side in an exaggerated and blinked up at the young lavender eyed woman, “she needs you to deliver a message for us. Would you be willing?”

Kazan turned its head back to the front and rested its snout against one of its fat paws. After a moment of what seemed to be deep thought, it looked back to Ten Ten, “Fine, but only cause you’re hurt. Next time you want a messenger though, summon Tatsumaki. You know how I hate the rain.”

“Thanks Kazan, you’re the best.” Kazan placed his paws together and elegantly spread his quills as though to impress her point further. “So then, why not introduce yourself to everyone?”

Dropping back down to all fours, Kazan turned around to face the rest of the table, “Good morning young ones. I am Kazan Whitemane, third order of the Guardinal and combative representative for Ten Ten of Konohagakure. Hedgehogs normally don’t mind the rain, but I personally hate it, so be glad that I’m willing to do this for you in this weather.” He sat waiting for a few seconds, but none really seemed sure what to say. “Just give me your damned message already and tell me who’s receiving it.”

“Ah,” Hinata found her voice and began to explain in a clear and concise tone, “We need you to deliver a message to the Hokage back in Konoha saying the following.” She waited a second for the hedgehog to get ready. After a moment it nodded to her and she continued, “As a direct request of the proxy for the Godaime Hokage, Hyuga Hinata requests the immediate deployment of any one capable medical ninja to the initial rendezvous point. The sooner the better. You got all that?” She asked the hedgehog curiously, hoping that that rodent had a good memory.

Kazan ran over the message a few times in his head before nodding and repeating the message word for word. “So then, will that be all?”

“Yes, that’s all. Thank you for your help Kazan.” Hinata said quietly.

“Good.” Kazan turned around and scuttled over to the edge of the table beside Ten Ten. Once again he propped himself up on his hind legs and stretched out his neck, nuzzling against Ten Ten’s arm. “Be well young one, and don’t forget about the grubs next time.”

“Don’t worry, I wont forget.” She laughed, amused by his selfish statement.

“Good to know.” He said with a nod as he disappeared in a large puff of foul smelling smoke.

Neji fanned the sulphur scented mist away from his face as he raised a wary eyebrow at Ten Ten, “You definitely keep interesting company these days. So when did you make the contract?”

She smiled up at him while likewise dissipating the smoke with her hand, “It was about three months ago. One of the women I was working with was a ninja from the hidden stone who could summon hedgehogs. At one point I was speaking to one of her summons who was helping us transport a large amount of supplies and it asked me if I wanted to sign a pact. Naturally I had both the summon and the woman who summoned it tell me the pros and cons of signing the pact so that I could think about it properly. In the end, I decided to go with it.” Neji merely nodded, accepting her answer.

Hinata cleared her throat loudly, drawing the attention of everyone at the table, “Well, now that that’s taken care of, I think it’s about time to get down to business.” She rose slowly from her seat, placing her half empty glass on the table. Her gaze hardened as a grim smile spread across her lips, “Everyone pack up, the mission begins now!”


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Shinkei Hari no jutsu – She’s using the same jutsu that Naruto used in the first chapter ‘Nerve Needles’
Arquebus – This is one of the predecessors to the musket. Single shot, unreliable, but still lethal.
Breaking and setting – If a bone is broken and not set properly before it begins to heal, the bone often needs to be rebroken and set again because otherwise there could be major problems somewhere down the line.
Kazan – Volcano
Tatsumaki – Tornado

Hey guys, glad you’re all still enjoying the story. Thanks a lot for the various reviews, I always appreciate hearing that people enjoy my writing, so please keep reviewing :) Next chapter will begin the mission so I hope you enjoy this one in the interim. I have a few papers to write for school over the next two weeks, and I want to make the next few chapters something awesome, so I’ll take a little while. Don’t worry though, I’m finally getting the story to the point I’ve wanted to, so there’s no way I’d stop now.

The_Keeper