Naruto uchiha

Chapter 26

lol sorry for not updating I've been playing too much Minecraft recently

The time of night seemed like an eternity for the members of team seven. They had made camp inside a cave that was surrounded by trees from all sides, providing a sort of natural cover. While Hinata had set up traps on all sides throughout the night, Sakura stayed beside Sasuke, who was still unconscious. Although, he wasn't shaking uncontrollably like earlier, his body temperature kept fluctuating the entire night. Sakura had also placed a wet cloth above his forehead to regulate his fever and also used medical ninjutsu on him every half an hour. It was sufficed to say that none of the girls got any sleep and the tiredness was evident from the abysmal look on their faces.

"Is he getting any better, Sakura?" Hinata questioned. She was laying back against the wall beside Sakura with half-lidded eyes.

"I don't really know. I can't tell for certain. His chakra has been acting up constantly the past few hours. It looks to be undergoing some sort of change." Sakura replied tiredly. She wasn't faring much better than Hinata too. The two girls had hardly eaten anything since last evening. Sakura and Hinata were suddenly jerked out of their thoughts when they heard sounds coming from outside the cave. Hinata glanced towards Sakura briefly with prudence.

"Shh... stay here while I go out and check, alright?" Hinata whispered. Sakura nodded quietly and moved closer to Sasuke.

As soon as Hinata stepped outside the cave, her senses went on alert upon feeling that something wasn't right. Most of the traps she had set up were thrashed and she could also hear low rustling sounds around her. Activating her byakugan at once, she threw three kunai to her ten o' clock. She composed herself when three Otogakure genins suddenly jumped out of hiding and now stood in front of her.

"What do you want?" Hinata asked firmly and gripped another kunai in her hand. She was clearly not in the mood to entertain these Otogakure genins. If memory served her right, she remembered one of the Oto genins to be the person who threw the kunai towards Kabuto before the start of the written part of the chunin exams.

"Look at her act so bravely. Let me take her down Dosu." Stated the genin with spiky, black hair and dark eyes. Dosu merely grunted in reply and that was all the confirmation Zaku needed. "We are here to kill Sasuke Uchiha." He stated out loud. Hinata's eyes widened for a while on hearing that proclamation but narrowed her eyes soon after.

"You'll have to get past me first," Hinata replied sharply and rushed towards her opponent without further ado. Zaku smirked at the foolishness of the girl and raised his arm to point it towards Hinata. As soon as Hinata was in striking distance of her opponent, she attempted a diagonal upward slash with her kunai. A little surprised at her speed, Zaku quickly sidestepped the attack and released a blast of compressed air pressure from his hand. Hinata suddenly found herself thrown back several feet but managed to regain her footing. A second later, she suddenly found herself feeling wobbly and clutched her left ear in pain.

'What was that?' Hinata thought with caution. Observing his arm carefully, her byakugan noticed there were several hollow tube-like structures implanted inside of his arm. 'So, that's it! He's manipulating chakra inside those tubes to release pressurized air from his hands.' Hinata thought as she managed to regain her composure. However, she had to jump away immediately when Zaku lunged towards her.

'I'll need to maintain distance from his hand. If I'm hit with one of those again, I may not be able to stand properly.' Hinata thought strategically. Taking out several more kunai, she coated them with raiton chakra and expertly threw them towards Zaku, each kunai aimed at a vital spot. The few seconds that Zaku took to deflect the kunai, he suddenly lost sight of Hinata, before him. Quickly turning back, he once again pointed his arm as he saw her within an arm's distance with her finger stretched towards him. He smirked when his hand was right beside her face.