The Forest of Death - 3

Elsewhere in the forest, Team 8 was having trouble locating another genin team to steal from.

Hinata had immediately activated her Byakugan once she and her teammates had entered the forest, intending to find the safest path through and at the same time, find an opposing team more quickly. It was not working the way they had anticipated.

Team 8 was making good time, but there were no signs of other shinobi, not even after an hour of searching. Unknown to her teammates, something else was troubling Hinata.

Her eyes had begun to bother her over the past few weeks, although there was nothing wrong with her Byakugan, much to her relief. It was a dull, persisting ache near the chakra pathways that lead to her eyes. It simply would not end.

She had determined that this may be a sign of illness, much to her terror, or worse: her Byakugan was beginning to deteriorate. Hinata had no idea what may have triggered such a reaction, being that she had done nothing to injure herself at all recently. She was terribly fearful of admitting her problem to anyone, most especially her father, who would take it as a sign of weakness if her blood limit were somehow malfunctioning.

So no one knew and she raced on through the dark woods with her teammates close behind her.

Hinata rubbed absently at her shoulder only to discover a small Kikaichu insect there. She let it be, knowing Shino often planted his 'little helpers' on herself and Sato to keep track of them if they were ever separated. Without turning her head, she looked at Shino, seeing him as focused and calm as ever. The sight helped her relax and ignore her aching eyes.

Sato, as far as she could see, was still unwilling to talk to them. This upset her greatly.

After she and Shino had agreed to prevent him from ever using the Chidori, Sato had become cold and distant towards them. Even during the first part of the exam when Shino had sent one of his insects to give answers to Sato, it was a bit disturbing for her to see him squash the helpful bug mercilessly after it had presented him with all of the test paper's answers.

He had proved his point quite vividly to Shino, who was absolutely enraged after Sato's outburst. Sato never hurt insects, not even accidentally, one thing Shino respected Sato for. Apparently things were changing now.

'If Sato-kun does not begin to communicate with us soon we may fail this part of the exam...' Hinata was fearful of the consequences of her moody teammate's actions, 'I wish there was something I could do...'

She decided to stop and halted on a thick tree branch. Shino and Sato did the same. Relieving her eyes of the Byakugan, Hinata sat down and caught her breath, accepting the canteen of water Shino passed to her, "Thank you, Shino-kun."

"If you wanted to have a rest earlier, all you had to do was ask." Shino pointed out and she blushed in embarrassment, hoping her fatigue wasn't that visible. He sat next to her and also had a drink of water.

Hinata watched in reserved fascination as the Aburame boy tipped some water into his palm and let his Kikaichu insects have a drink as well. She found that she no longer feared bugs after spending so much time watching Shino interact with them.

Sato, who stood sullenly nearby, turned on his heel and began to descend down to the forest floor. Hinata couldn't help but overreact, "Sato-kun? Where are you going?"

"Bathroom." His response was terse. He vanished into the undergrowth a moment later, leaving her slightly troubled.

Shino's eyes were invisible behind his dark glasses, but Hinata could tell they were narrowed.

"Please don't be angry with Sato-kun." She said softly, dropping her gaze, "He is very upset. He didn't mean to kill that-"

"He had full intentions of doing so after he gained information from it," Shino responded coolly, "Regardless of how he feels; he had no place taking the life of a comrade that was merely giving him assistance. He is childish and irrational. I will not sympathize with him."

Hinata closed her eyes and whimpered quietly, exhausted from all the animosity between her teammates. There was just no reasoning with them, she had concluded, for they knew all too well how to get on each other's nerves.

Sato heartlessly squashes Shino's bugs and Shino berates Sato for his puerile behavior.

It was a vicious cycle that even she could not end. And what made matters worse, in her opinion at least, was that they were just actually becoming friends. Shino had 'lightened up' around Sato after the Tanabata Festival, if only a little. And Sato was beginning to act more wisely and respectfully, kudos to Shino.

Now it seemed things could never be that good between them again.

'Oh Naruto-kun, what am I supposed to do? They will barely look at each other...so how can we ever make it through this exam as a team?' Hinata was hoping some of his grinning, sunshiny advice would light the way for her, but she could think of nothing.

Ten minutes had passed and Hinata was certain that Sato had not gone to the bathroom as he said he had. Shino shared her thoughts.

"Do you think Sato-kun is alright?" She asked, standing up at last.

He stood as well, "There is always a small chance he may need our assistance."

Hinata followed Shino down to the forest floor, her heart hammering in her chest. What were the odds that Sato ran into another shinobi team when they had no luck finding one earlier?

Probably very good.

They had only gone a few meters before they spotted him, trekking through a nettle of ferns and scratching his itchy cheek. His midnight blue eyes flew open as he saw his teammates rush at him, kunai out, 'Aw crap! They're gonna kill me aren't they?'

Sato's arms flew up in front of his face and he cringed when they stopped in front of him, looking equally bewildered. There was a tense moment between them. He wondered why he had suspected his own teammates to attack him, 'Psh. Like that'd ever happen. What was I thinking?'

"What were you doing?" Shino was fed up with him. He tucked his kunai away, seeing they had nothing to fear.

"What do you care, bug-boy? You're the one with the scroll!" Sato snorted, very loudly.

There was a pause as Hinata exchanged a confused glance with Shino. The Hyuga girl frowned inwardly, 'I thought I had been given the scroll...'

Things became clearer as three ninja dropped from the dusky treetops and surrounded Shino. Sato and Hinata scattered in response. Sato smirked; glad they had taken the false bait.

The Cloud ninja each plunged a kunai into the Aburame boy, only to recoil in surprise when it dispersed as a clone made of insects. Humiliated by their mistake they turned around, hurling kunai at the Leaf genin in unison.

Shino had reappeared behind Hinata after they deflected the projectiles and Sato, it seemed, had planned this much earlier than they had thought he had.

The first Cloud ninja to jump forward seemed to hang suspended in the air for a suspiciously long moment, a moment his teammates overlooked as they too lunged in a craze at Team 8, only to get tangled in the trap that the first ninja had been snagged in.

Hinata had not seen Sato set a trap so cruel before.

With pained cries, the three struggling Kumo nin only entangled themselves more thoroughly in the barbed wire Sato had laid over a spike pit in the ground. The wire, though excruciating, was the only thing preventing them from falling into another, more deadly trap.

Sato watched with dark eyes as they slashed at the wiring, unable to cut it, and only tightening their snares. Hinata turned away, trying to forget how skilled Sato was with traps, especially when he was angry.

Shino seemed less bothered, if not approving of Sato's hard work, and took the scroll from the indignant, struggling kunoichi who was then dripping with blood from head to toe, "Wait! You can have our scroll! But get us out of this!" Her voice was reaching a shockingly high pitch, "Come on!"

Her teammates were howling in agonized agreement, still clueless as to how to escape.

"Get yourselves out," Sato spat, his glare was tangible, "We have what we want and we could've just as easily taken your scroll without you falling into my trap."

The Hatake jammed his hands into his jacket pockets and stalked away, Shino following close behind. Hinata knew they were not setting a very good example by showing no mercy, but she would be unable to free the helpless team without Sato's instruction. He was unwilling to free them.

She gave a short apology to them before following after her teammates, trying not to listen to the pained cries of the stranded Cloud ninja.