Chapter 44 – On the move

I don't know why this chapter wasn't displayed sooner, I knew I published it days ago and yet here we are... Sry about that.

“Then is time to make our move.” Sango held his chin with his fingers as he began formulating plans of action in his mind.

“I agree with Sango.” Unexpectedly, the one who spoke was Ino. “But we don’t know anything about who we may have to fight.”

Her words were reasonable, an ideal situation was when you knew everything about your opponent, but it was just that, an optimal situation.

“In truth it is common to face foes with unknown abilities, unknown motivation and unknown goals. We can even say that it is rare to face known enemies.” It wasn’t Kurenai the one who spoke, but it was Sango that began explaining calmly to Ino taking a teaching role.

“Sango is right. This will be a good learning opportunity for all of us, if it were any other Genin team I would have turned us around, but you are above the level of a Genin.” As they heard Kurenai’s words, a new bright light could be seen in the girls eyes, her words served to boost their confidence.

“I understand! Let’s do this!” At Ino’s firm words, Hinata and Sakura nodded together. With this, they were prepared to complete the mission.

“Good!” Kurenai smiled seeing their resolve. “Then, this is what we will do.” She paused her speech and walked closer to the group, “I will be leading the group and Sango will guard our back, you three will support us as needed.” The topic changed to their formation, it was logical that the two strongest people were placed at the front and back since those were the most vulnerable positions in a tunnel.

“Hinata.” Kurenai looked at Hinata as she called her name.

“Y-Yes!” Flustered at hearing her name being called, she shrunk back a little and looked at her feet, but she recovered fast and meet Kurenai’s gaze.

“You will be responsible for surveying our surrounding as we advance. Tell us about anything unusual.”

“Y-Yes!” Her firmly acknowledged her task with no hesitation, despite her shy personality she didn’t hesitate to perform her task.

“What about us?” Asking expectantly was Ino who was waiting to be assigned a task.

“Like I said, you will support us when needed, so keep your focus sharp.” With that, Kurenai had nothing more to say. What followed was the scene of the entire team gearing up before leaving towards the point of interest.

Sango looked at the group as they prepared, Sakura had been very silent the entire time and he could understand why. She refused to look in his direction and if their eyes meet by chance, she averted her gaze instantly. He had to admit that it was rather entertaining.

Next, he looked at Kurenai, she was the first person he began feeling something for, she was also the first person he cared about.

Kurenai’s hair was still as untamed as ever, he had never seen her having it any other way. Her protective gear fit snuggly against her curvy body and he had to admire it. As he caressed her body with his gaze, he met her eyes as she caught him red handed, but she didn’t get mad or disgusted by his action and instead she winked at him.

He recently understood that she was composed if, like just then, she was the one teasing, but she was easily flustered if teased. He was looking forward to the future.

Last but not least, were Ino and Hinata.

Hinata was diligently and quietly preparing her gear, he could see in her expression how seriously she took the mission and he couldn’t agree with her more.

Ino on the other hand was smiling and humming while energetically going over the contents of her pouches.

They were all different in their own ways, each bringing a different flavour to his life.

“Sango? Something happened?” Seeing Sango spacing out, Ino called out to him. As to how someone could tell he was spacing out with his expressionless face, it was a mystery for him also.

“Nothing, have you finished preparing?” Ending his line of though there, he smiled to her.

“Yes.” She replied.

“Time to go.” Right after Ino finished speaking, it was Kurenai who spoke.

They left the empty village behind them and entered the forest, contrary to the chirper atmosphere between them of just a short time past, now it was no longer time for that.

Running for a few miles, they stopped at the opening of a large cave to the side of a mountain.

“How is it, Hinata?” As they stopped, Sango asked Hinata. With her byakugan, she should be able to see a long distance further into the depth of the cavern. But contrary to her expectations, she shook her head.

“It’s strange…” She said while looking perplexed towards the depths of the cave. “I can see well until a certain point, after that there is a veil of darkness blocking my sight.” It could be seen on her face that it was something she experienced for the first time.

“Well, that isn’t good.” Ino said. Sakura was rather silent; she still didn’t dare meet Sango’s eyes.

Hearing Hinata’s words, Sango could begin formulating some theories about what could be blocking Hinata’s byakugan as well as his own clones, but a lot more research would be needed to understand the cause, that was time they didn’t have.

“It certainly isn’t.” A frown appeared on Kurenai’s beautiful face, the mission was becoming more and more hard to grasp and she didn’t like that.