I Found You

The Sphere

Along a mountain path with overgrown foliage, a red palanquin with a golden motif engraved on the top could be seen among the trees, outside the border of Hacho village. At each side of the palanquin were four men wearing blue nagagi with brown colored obi secured around their waists. These men were carrying the red palanquin. Following them from behind were three konoha shinobi, Kiba, Shino and Hinata. They were assigned by the sixth hokage on a B rank mission and they had been away from konoha for almost three days. A hand appeared from the left window of the red palanquin and began waving, signaling anyone to tend to this person.

"Is there anything wrong, Hisao-san?", a calm and deep voice asked the person inside the palanquin. It was Shino's voice.

"My leg hurts from sitting too long! When exactly will we arrive at the village?!" the person inside the palanquin grunted with a low, unpleasant tone.

"I estimated around three more hours. Would you like to take a short break?"

The person inside the palanquin gave a slight nod. He was Hisao from the Hosokaya family, a well-known wealthy family residing at the center of Hacho village. They were running a jewelry business and owned the largest land in the village.

Once Shino had confirmed Hisao's response, he signaled the others to stop for a short break. The four palanquin bearers and the three shinobi then stepped off the desire path and onto the grassy path. The palanquin was carefully placed down and once it was on the steady ground, one of the men gave a gentle knock on the small door. Hisao went out from the palanquin with an annoyed expression visible on his face. Noticing that, the other man took out a bottle of water and offered it to Hisao, which he accepted while throwing back a haughty look. Perhaps in his mind, performing such an act was a befitting thing to do to a servant. Kiba sat on the grass with Akamaru right beside him and Hinata leaned against a nearby tree. Meanwhile, Shino stood in front of them keeping an eye out.

"Arghh! Just how many breaks should we take? I swear we could have reached the village by now if we hadn't stopped for every damn hour!" Kiba complained.

"K-Kiba kun, we need to think about Hisao-san too," said Hinata with her soft voice.

"Hinata is right, that's because Hisao-san is our client and we have to always prioritize our client's needs," Shino stated, again with his calm demeanor.

"Geez, alright! I get it!"

Not long after the silence, Kiba sensed something. He is renowned for having a superior sense of smell, perhaps even more superior than a ninja hound. Akamaru perked up his ear and immediately got up to look back. Both Kiba and Akamaru looked at each other, confirming that they sensed the same thing. Kiba then called out to Hinata who seemed to have known what to do, "Byakugan!"

"There are 15 people, one and a half miles away from us. They're heading in our direction fast!" Hinata exclaimed.

Struck by the realization that they might be enemies, Kiba shouted for everyone to get ready. Hisao quickly climbed into the palanquin while all four servants immediately stood up and went to the same position they had been in when they were carrying the palanquin. Before they could run off, five men jumped down from the trees and threw a number of shurikens toward the palanquin. Kiba quickly jumped in and with his quick reaction time, he deflected all the shurikens with his kunai.

"Shino!" Kiba yelled.

"I understand!" Shino signaled the palanquin bearers to quickly run away as he covered them, leaving Kiba and Hinata behind. Their objective was to protect Hisao until he reached the village safely, so Kiba and Hinata must stall for time.

Hinata was already at her fighting stance with her byakugan activated. Kiba and Akamaru were prepared for a fight. The enemies emerged one after another as some of them ran toward Hinata and began to land hits but were then successfully blocked by her. While Kiba was distracted by Hinata's fight, the other enemies took that as an advantage and charged toward Kiba and forced him to jump back.