After Ren left to deal with the bespectacled, gray-haired Konoha genin, who was clearly hiding his prowess, he had her tail in the forest, Hinata turned toward her unconscious teammates and let out a fond sigh.
She disliked knocking them out. It felt a bit like hurting them, even if she had done no damage to them. The way she utilized her gentle fist, they should wake up completely revitalized and energized, too.
She could even argue it was beneficial to them.
But she still disliked it.
"I guess I can let them sleep for a few more minutes." Hinata giggled as she came closer to the two unconscious genin and sat in front of them on the ground, giving them a motherly smile while watching over them.
She had noticed the black circles underneath their eyes the second they had met at the entrance of the Forest of Death. Clearly, the boys could not sleep well due to all the nerves, and were not at their best.
Unfortunately, unlike Ino, the Bimbo, Hinata did not intend to rush through this part of the Exam like a drug addict in a withdrawal chasing her next fix.
Her team was going to be in the Forest for at least the next three days, and she needed her team at their best. This was a good place for their training. This would be a valuable experience for the boys. And who was she to stand in the way of their personal growth?
She didn't want to be that person.
They were her friends. She certainly came to think of them like that. And she wanted what was best for her friends. Sadly, in this instance, it meant she had to sacrifice her personal comfort and stay in the Forest of Death with them while giving them opportunities to improve.
Hinata's gaze suddenly sharpened as she slightly turned her head to the left, and in one swift, fluid, and well-practiced motion, two long, lightning-clad needles were sent flying into the distance, instantly disappearing in the foliage.
With her Byakugan, Hinata could see the teammates of the Kumo genin she had previously exploded. They were around half a kilometer away from her.
One of them heard the barely discernible ruffling of the leaves and turned his head around on an instinct, but it was too late as long needles nailed both him and his teammate in the neck, causing them to gurgle out blood in surprise for a second while the lightning chakra paralysed them.
Then, the exploding seals on the needles activated, and their heads, alongside half of their upper body and upper arms, exploded and showered the surrounding ground and trees with blood, meaty chunks, and bone shrapnel.
The rest of their mangled lower bodies slowly fell into the quickly forming puddle of blood underneath them, alongside their lower arms.
Almost instantly, several predators darted toward their remains, ready to grab for themselves their fair share of the easy feast. But Hinata closed her Byakugan, not at all interested in watching that.
She let out a soft, self-satisfied harrumph under her nose.
Okay. Maybe revenge was a small, tiny, little part of why she wanted to stay in the forest for a few days.
Sadly, she could not kill all Kumo genin teams as that would have had some not-nice consequences for Konoha. But she could at least permanently take out two to three of them!
And nobody would be even able to complain about her lethal methods if they came at her with malicious intent first.
An unsealed main branch Hyuga girl who seemed ditzy and clueless? Hinata knew the Kumo bastards would not be able to hold their greed back.
They were going to come for her.
A small smirk appeared on her face as she used a chakra string to pull her teddy bear from Shino's lap, where she had previously deposited it. "What do you think, Mr. Doom?" She asked as she hugged the teddy bear, rubbing her cheek on its head, "Do you think they are going to fall for the bait?"
...
Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura were exhausted.
The Exams were supposed to be a breeze! But after encountering the Kusa kunoichi, who turned out to be Orochimaru in disguise, they were more than battered.
Naruto and Sasuke tried to fiercely fight back, but that only meant they got more injuries as the Sannin played with them for longer.
Then, Sakura had to protect the unconscious Naruto and Sasuke when the Sound team showed up. But all that additional training with Gai paid off right there.
After a few rounds of evasion thanks to the substitution technique and her pre-prepared traps, Sakura managed to hit the girl from their squad with a high kick, right to the neck. It smashed her windpipe. Unfortunately, as both girls realized what happened and that Kin was going to suffocate to death in a short order, Sakura froze in shock while Kin collapsed onto the ground.
That momentary lapse cost Sakura a lot. The mummy freak decided that the playtime was over now that one of his teammates was as good as dead. He ran at Sakura and tried to plant his metallic arm into Sakura's nose.
She blocked it with her forearm. She just reacted. It was an instinctive action.
And she regretted it almost instantly as the bone in her forearm snapped.
Fortunately, Lee came to her rescue then.
Sakura looked at her feet, her mood falling. She would have been killed if he hadn't intervened. If that punch smashed into her nose, Sakura shuddered at the thought.
The rest wasn't very interesting. Lee fought the Sound Team and got his rear kicked because of their tricks. She wasn't spared some more bumps either, as the other Sound genin, Zaku, delighted in giving her more and more painful bruises. He was playing with her, really.
She had a broken arm, and that made fighting really hard.
Then, Sasuke woke up and saved her. Sakura pursed her lips, stopping them from quailing.
Under the influence of whatever Orochimaru did to him, Sasuke was brutal. He broke Zaku's neck almost instantly, and... Sakura squeezed her eyes shut, and took a deep breath, trying very hard to resist the urge to look to the left where the broken body of the mummy guy lay.
Not even the Heaven scroll from the Sound team was spared under Sasuke's frenzied onslaught as he cut the guy into pieces.
"Thanks for the save, bushy brows!" Naruto's voice pulled Sakura out of her reverie, and she involuntarily found herself giving the boy a dry look.
He was just sitting there and grinning like a fool.
Sakura let out a sigh. The moron slept through the entire fight and woke up just now, when the fighting was over.
"Yes. Thank you, Lee." Sakura spoke, putting as much sincerity into her voice as she could manage, and the green-clad boy who saved her lit up like sunshine upon hearing her words.
She would still refuse any offer for a date. Just... no. But he did save her, and that made her feel really bad about her previous bitchy attitude.
"Yosh! No problem!" Lee loudly yelled due to his ruptured eardrums. "We are all comrades from Konoha!"
"No, we are not." A cold voice came directly from behind Sakura, making chills of fear go up her spine as she flinched. "Not during the Exams."
Sasuke and Naruto both tensed, ready for another battle...
When a snort resounded through the surroundings, a dry female voice alerted them to another presence. "Don't be such a stick in the mud, Neji."
A bun-haired girl with a Konoha headband landed near Lee and looked at him with an exasperated sigh, to which the boy just grinned some more. Giving him a soft, caring smile. The girl, Tonton, or something, much to her shame, Sakura did not really remember her name, started to not so gently bandage Lee's bleeding ears.
Neji also leaped toward Lee, and Sakura noticed he took a defensive position between his teammates and Team Seven before he opened his mouth, probably to argue his point some more.
But then, yet another female voice came from directly behind Sakura, making her yelp and quickly turn around as she heard, "Yeah, don't be a stick in the mud, cousin.".
What was with people ambushing her today!? Her heart could not handle much more of this, okay!?
Sakura gave Hinata an unamused glare, to which the Hyuga girl just smirked at her, showing that she did it on purpose.
"I can heal. Let me look at your wounds, please." Hinata said while her teammates also arrived, and things just happened from there. Everybody was wary of her offer, but they were not in a position to refuse.
Sakura felt a bit envious of how easily Hinata handled all the wariness aimed at her. She didn't even seem to care. Then again, she was always aloof during the academy.
The hot Hyuga boy, Neji, of course, he was not as hot as Sasuke in Sakura's obviously correct opinion, clearly did not like Hinata very much.
He sneered and glared at her as she started checking everybody who was injured. First, she set Sakura's forearm bone and properly reconnected it with a healing technique that had Sakura's eyes wide.
It was so cool! Her bone had been broken not a few minutes ago, but Hinata healed it in a minute flat. Sakura couldn't help but admire Hinata for it. This was something she wanted to learn. She wanted to learn it a lot!
"It's still fragile. No fighting or blocking anything with that arm, Sakura-san." Hinata cautioned before she took her medical supplies and stood up, heading to heal Sasuke next.
Sakura had no idea what the hell was going on anymore. How she came from fighting, to three teams being gathered, and just chatting while getting healed...
But she was glad that her fellow Konoha ninjas were friendly.
She could see Hinata's teammates, Kiba trying to chat up the bun-haired girl, who watched his weak attempts with amusement. Shino, on the other hand, had a weird conversation with Naruto.
Rolling her eyes, Sakura looked toward Sasuke and froze in her tracks.
The look he threw at Hinata as she healed his bruises made Sakura's insides freeze. Sakure knew that Hinata was somebody Sasuke had paid attention to for a long time now. But it was mostly connected with him wanting to fight her.
But that, dare she say, affectionate and longing look?
The world came crashing down around Sakura, and her heart squeezed, all the admiration she previously felt for the Hyuga girl turning into ash in her mouth as she realized.
Sasuke Uchiha might love Hinata Hyuga.