Chapter 18: Reaching the tower

When I arrived, I was shocked to see Ino in Shikamaru and Choji's arms, with Rock Lee, Naruto, and Sasuke lying unconscious and badly wounded. Sakura had her hair cut and was bleeding from her wounds. My heartbeat sped up, and my vision blurred as I jumped down from a tree and assessed the situation. I directed my gaze at the Sound ninjas and demanded, "Were you the ones who hurt them? Answer me!"

The ninjas looked surprised before admitting, "Y-yeah, we did. What are you going to do about it?!"

I ran towards the ninjas, and everything went black. In the darkness, I heard someone scream my name, "Hinoka! Hinoka!" Suddenly, the darkness disappeared, and I saw Sakura smiling at me. I noticed my hands were covered in blood, and I was sitting on one of the ninjas whose face was bleeding.

Sakura: "Hinoka, can you heal Naruto and Sasuke, please?"

I smiled at her and replied, "Sure, Sakura! But let's heal you first." I stood up and started walking towards Sakura to heal her wounds.

Hinoka: "You know, Sakura, you're actually pretty brave."

Sakura looked surprised but smiled, saying, "Thanks, Hinoka, but don't be nice to me. It's weird."

I chuckled and replied, "Well, it seems your prince charming kept his word to protect you until he dies."

Sakura blushed and said softly, "Yeah, he did."

I couldn't help but grin when Sakura asked, "What are you thinking about, Hinoka?!" but I just walked away, still grinning, and started healing Naruto. As I was about to heal Sasuke, I noticed a weird chakra coming from him and a strange mark on his neck.

Leaning closer to inspect it, he suddenly woke up, and we locked eyes. He began to sit up, and I positioned myself in front of him. We continued gazing at each other in silence before he finally broke the silence, asking,"Hinoka, what happened to your hands?"

I looked at my wounded hands, smiled at Sasuke, and replied, "Well, it's probably from when I was fighting those ninjas over there." I pointed behind me as we both turned around to see the ninjas completely beaten up.

Sasuke patted my head and vowed, "I will get stronger, strong enough to protect you."

For some reason my face turned red as I replied, "I won't let you surpass me that easily!" with a faint smile. 

I expressed my gratitude to Shikamaru and his team before they departed. Then, I approached where Rock Lee had been lying, but he was nowhere to be found. I glanced up at a nearby tree and spotted him with Neji, who was glaring at me, along with another ninja before they vanished.

Now, it was just me, Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke.

Sasuke: "We need to make a plan to get the scrolls that we need to pass."

Hinoka: "Well, I already have all the scrolls that we need," surprising them as I showed them the scrolls.

Sakura: "So all we need to do is make our way to the tower, right?"

Sasuke: "Right."

Naruto: "Then let's go already!" 

Sakura: "But what if we get there and we're ambushed?" 

Hinoka: "That's true." 

Naruto: "I'll beat them all up!" 

Hinoka: "Actually, that's not a bad idea!"

Sakura: "What?!"

Hinoka: "Not about Naruto beating them up, but about beating them up together." 

Sasuke: "I see, you want us to use teamwork in case we're ambushed and take them down, right?"

Hinoka: "Right!"

Naruto eagerly asked, "So what's the plan?!"

I began explaining the plan.

Just as we arrived near the tower, we were attacked by a three-man squad. Naruto dodged their kunai, but it hit the rest of us, or more accurately our replacements.

I teased, "Looking for us?" as we attacked the ninjas from behind. After defeating the ninjas, I instructed Sakura and Naruto to go ahead while I talked to Sasuke.

Sasuke: "So, what's wrong?"

Hinoka: "How did you get that mark?" 

Sasuke: "Oh, that? We were fighting a ninja, and they bit me. That's when this appeared." 

Hinoka: "I noticed you were in pain when we were fighting. I'm guessing the reason is because of this mark. It seems like when you use a large amount of chakra, it hurts you. I'm sure Kakashi-sensei will know what to do about it." 

Sasuke: "Alright, since we can't do anything about it now, lets catch up to the others."

As Sasuke walked off, I couldn't help but think, 'If I had arrived later, would the rest of them have died? I need to become stronger, powerful enough to protect the people I care about,' before catching up with the team.

And just like that, we arrived at the tower in about 3-4 days. Inside, we saw a board with mysterious writing. Naruto wondered, "What's that?"

Sakura guessed it had to do with the scrolls and suggested opening the Heaven Earth scroll.

Naruto and Sakura each grabbed a scroll, but I realized it was a summoning Jutsu. 

Hinoka: "Naruto, Sakura, throw the scrolls!" They both threw the scrolls as smoke started releasing and Iruka sensei appeared.