Chapter 36

-Hinata's POV-

After gearing up, we split into three groups to search about a mile radius around the house. I was with Naruto, Neji, Tenten, and Ino. The blond girl was too angry with Sai to be in the same group, so he went with Shikamaru, Temari, and Konohamaru. The Subaku brothers went with Matsuri and Kiba.

Before heading out, the petite girl wrote down a message she and Gaara had heard on the radio on pieces of paper for everyone to have, just in case. It looked like a trap to me, but there's no way I could not check.

As my strength returned over the past few days, I realized it was a bit easier to keep my byakugan activated and it only hurt when I deactivated it. So, when we came upon blood splattered across the sidewalk roughly ten minutes away to the East of the house, I didn't hesitate to use it.

The incredible amount of vision it gave me was still hard to wrap my head around and I hurried in the direction of the grass when I saw more blood behind a nearby house. No one spoke as they followed me. The trail led us behind multiple different places of cover and I was beginning to be able to picture what happened.

"Someone was hurt, but they had to keep moving…" Naruto spoke before I could and I nodded with my jaw clenched anxiously before continuing on.

"If only Kiba was here. He could probably tell whose blood it is," Tenten said in a concerned tone.

We soon came to a stop because the blood trail ended, so we had to begin searching for clues on where the injured party might've gone next. Out of the corner of my vision, the byakugan picked up movement and I swiftly turned my head to the right to see a group of people, maybe six or seven of them, crouched behind a house within throwing distance. At first, I thought maybe they were survivors like us, but then I noticed their guns.

Trying not to draw suspicion, I motioned wordlessly in that direction and held up seven fingers before making my fingers look like a gun. All four of my group understood immediately and we wordlessly started moving away from the house.

Ino had one of the handguns, Tenten had the sniper rifle that Konohamaru had been using the day we captured him, and we had a couple of the grenades that they'd seized from the shooter that'd tried to burn me alive, but we didn't want to use those unless we had no other choice. If there were even more people nearby, our location would immediately be given away by the loud sound it'd cause.

Barely thirty seconds could pass before I glanced back to see them coming out from behind the house and starting to chase us. "Run!"

We each had our backpacks because we wanted to be prepared for anything, so we couldn't run quite as fast due to the extra weight. Ino turned to return a few shots with the handgun when our attackers started shooting at us. Luckily, she landed a couple, expertly hitting the leg on two separate chasers and leaving them unable to chase us further.

We all knew that those who're inhabited don't react much to injuries, so our only choice was to make it so they physically couldn't run anymore. It was also best if we aimed for legs because after Konohamaru, we realized these people could be saved. We don't want to kill anyone except as a last resort.

We were coming up on the edge of a dense forest and dove beyond the treeline. Tenten swiftly knelt low to the ground and nailed one of them in the knee, making them fall to the ground. That left four continuing our way.

Ino fired a couple more shots, but only managed to land one in the closest one's thigh and it wasn't enough to make them stop. A clicking sound came from her and she glanced at us with a panicked look. She was out of bullets and we hadn't managed to find any of the correct ammo for it over the past week.

Wordlessly, we all exchanged a look of understanding as we tried to remain out of sight while the four came closer and closer. The odds were in our favor since we have five, so we were going to ambush them. Adrenaline shot through my veins the moment the first person's foot touched the frozen leaves at the treeline and we all shot out from our hiding spots.

I swiftly shoved away the person I was focusing on's arm so they couldn't shoot me before getting their other arm behind their back and kicking their feet out from under them. My stomach churned as I squeezed my eyes shut and broke their tibia bone with a sickening crack before snatching the pistol out of their grip. Then I held them face down against the ground with their arms pinned so I could look around and make sure everyone else was okay.

The only person left fighting was Ino and just as I looked up I saw her get hit in the face. She bristled, but didn't relent and yelled at the man as she took him to the ground with a terrifying expression, "What the-! That hurt!"

Once we were able to bind their wrists, we hesitated on what we should do. If we leave them out here like this for too long, they might freeze to death, but we didn't have time to waste doing anything else either. So, we tied them all to a big tree and vowed to return before the end of the day. None of them said a word the entire time and silently watched us as we left.

I tightened my grip on the pistol in my hand with a calming breath. At least we had more weapons now. Ino whined, "I think I have a black eye. This is bullshit! Sakura better heal me when we find her." Tenten snickered at her and we got back to the road we left off at.

For more than an hour, we searched the houses around the area where the blood trail left off, but didn't find a single clue. Just as we were about to call it quits and head back, I saw something odd at the furthest reaches of my byakugan. It looked like a small piece of graffiti on the side of a shed, but there wasn't any other street art in the area so it piqued my interest.

I jogged over to it and knelt down with worry icing the blood in my veins. It said "Meet In Konoha S.S." and it looked like it was written in blood. S.S. stood for Sasuke and Sakura. If they couldn't return to the house, they were undoubtedly being followed and didn't want to lead anyone to where the rest of us were.

Ino burst into tears when she finally caught up and saw the message, "I-Is that blood! Oh God…"

We returned to the house later on and waited for everyone else to arrive so we could both deliver the news of our friends' departure and how we'd captured seven more people. Shikamaru's group returned shortly after us, but the others didn't, even after another two hours.

Temari, understandably, was not happy, "Those idiots! I should've gone with them!"

Shikamaru tried to reason with her in a calming voice, "They had Gaara and Kiba, so we needed you."

The woman gave him a dangerous glare, but Ino spoke before she could say anything else, "I think we should continue with our plan of leaving tomorrow morning."

Everyone looked at her and she shook her head with a hand over her blackened eye, "Sasuke and Sakura are already heading that way and the other four are more than capable of taking care of each other. If they're not back by morning, we'll leave them one of the vehicles and a message."

Tears rose in my eyes and I unconsciously stepped closer to Naruto. He wordlessly wrapped an arm around my waist to comfort me.

Temari seemed torn, "They're my brothers…I don't want to leave them behind."

Ino got to her feet, "And Sakura is like a sister to me, but sitting here and waiting for something to happen won't help anyone. If we go out there again to search for the others like we did today, we could lose even more people!"

The idea of leaving anyone behind made me feel sick, but she was right. It was the most logical choice.

So, Ino and a few others went back out to remove those weird things from those people's bodies before moving them into a house and making sure they were at least warm enough not to freeze to death before leaving them a letter explaining what happened so they wouldn't be clueless if and when they woke up. They also left them some first aid supplies for their injuries.

The rest of us cleaned up the house and did our best to make it look like it hadn't just been lived in by fifteen people. We also left a note on the fridge for the owners, should they ever return, apologizing for using their home without permission and promising to reach out if the world goes back to normal so we could make amends. Then we all went to bed.

Ino came and slept with Naruto and I because she was still too mad at Sai. I didn't really mind because I'd rather her be here with us than by herself somewhere else in an anxious mess worried about Sakura. She tried to hide the fact that she was crying before bed by turning her back to us, but we knew.

Feeling a bit awkward, I crawled up behind her and placed an arm around her waist in an effort to wordlessly comfort her and she grabbed onto my hand before calming down and eventually falling asleep. My face was warm, but I relaxed against the pillow and tried to push my concern to the back of my mind so I could get some rest for the days of travel about to come. Naruto cuddled me in the same way I was cuddling Ino and soon I was asleep.

When morning came, everyone bathed because we weren't sure when our next opportunity to do so would be, before loading up the vans and leaving Oto. Seeing as the two blond women appeared about to butt heads yesterday, everyone agreed that Ino and Temari should travel in separate cars.

Sai, to Ino's dismay, insisted on being with her. So, it was those two, Konohamaru, Naruto, and I in one van. Shikamaru, Temari, Tenten, and Neji were in the other one.

Just like we planned, we left the same message for Kiba's group that Sasuke and Sakura had left for us in a few different places around the house so they'd easily find it. We also left one of the vans.

I drove, finding it easier to keep my mind from wandering, first while Konohamaru sat in the passenger seat and Naruto sat in between the rocky couple in the back seat with an annoyed expression. The Sarutobi boy and I talked casually about whatever topic that arose for a while, Naruto chiming in every once in a while, but the calm aura of the vehicle quickly came to a close when Sai tried to talk to Ino.

"Does it hurt?" He was talking about her eye, which wasn't swollen anymore but was so dark it was almost black.

"Well yeah, it hurts. Do you think it'd feel good?"

She was very unhappy with him and I kind of agreed with her. He was entirely too nonchalant about the situation and it turned out that she'd been correct all along in that our two missing friends were, indeed, in danger and in need of help. It wasn't my place to take sides or butt in, so I clamped my mouth shut and kept my eyes on the road as they started bickering.

Their arguing got louder and louder until, finally, someone got tired of it and lost their cool. I thought it'd be Naruto, but we were all stunned when it turned out to be Konohamaru. He turned in his seat to bark at them with a red face, "Will you two just kiss and fucking make up already? Christ!" He faced the front again and fell against the seat with an exasperated sigh.

The van was silent for a few moments before Naruto bursted out into laughter. My face warmed when I looked at him in the rearview mirror and saw that he had a hand on his stomach and was wiping a tear from his eye as the couple on either side of him shot him a dirty look.

A small giggle slid past my lips and I brought a hand up to my mouth to cover it, but couldn't keep my composure and ended up laughing loudly as well. Konohamaru looked at me with wide eyes, only making me laugh harder.

To my surprise, after a few more moments, Ino gave in and had to cover her mouth with the back of her hand as she turned to face the window in an attempt to hide the grin on her lips. Sai didn't join in, but his glare did soften very noticeably when he looked over at her and soon the chaos died down and the vehicle was quiet again.