I ran there as fast as I could, hoping I'd make it in time.
As I approached where the blast had come from, I spotted him from a distance; he was surrounded by 6 large dogs, wolves?
'Dang it, I'm not fast enough!' I thought to myself as Neji held up his defence.
I jumped from branch to branch, a fire bow forming in my hand as I drew it. Six arrows flew towards the wolves; my aim wouldn't be as precise as usual since I was moving as quickly as I could towards Neji.
The explosion from the arrows was minimal since I was worried it would hurt Neji, but it was enough to spook the animals and scare them a little, making them slightly back off.
I landed behind him, grabbing a kunai, flinching at the pain in my hand.
'There's no time to heal it, I'll just have to endure the pain,' I thought to myself, glancing at the burn marks on my hand.
I took the three on my side while Neji took the other three.
We both lunged at the wolves. I panted cuts on my body; their movements were unpredictable, they where fast, strong, their skin thick and there team work made it harder to focus on one.
I had managed to kill one and heavily injure another.
I jumped up, dogging their attack before another lunged at me while I was in the air. I twisted my body, coating my kunai with chakra and managed to slash a deep cut into their throat.
The kunai shattered, and I fell to the ground, my left hand taking most of the brunt. I quickly got up, glancing at Neji as expected, he had already blocked one's tekentsu points, killed another and was about to defeat the last one.
I turned my attention back to the last one only to realise it had started retreating.
"I'm going after the last one!" I exclaimed before following it.
Its fur was black, so it was hard to spot it, and I soon lost track of it. I couldn't focus and could only track the general direction it was running in.
"I need to end this quickly as possible," I mumbled to myself.
I stopped running as I started hearing water. A waterfall? I slowed my pace down, and before I knew it, I was standing on a cliff.
It seemed the animal was circling me, waiting to pounce as I tried to concentrate and pinpoint their location.
"Hinoka!" I heard Neji's voice exclaim.
I turned the direction it was coming from as I froze. The wolf lunged at me, inches away from me claws about to slash me to pieces.
As I was about to dodge, I fell to my knees, the pain in my hand choosing the wrong time to act up.
"8 trigrams 64 palms!" He exclaimed as he attacked the animal.
The wolf fell to the ground, unable to move as Neji panted, his byakugan deactivating. It was obvious he had over used it and could bearly still stand.
"You should rest before we head back to search the forest again, I have a feeling there are more," I said as I began healing my worst injuries, which were on my hand.
"I'm not going to listen to someone who couldn't even handle 3 animals," Neji replied, glaring at me.
"What is your problem? No matter what I do, you still hate me!"
"My father might have willingly sacrificed himself, but that doesn't change the fact that all you main house members think of us as sacrifice pawns to be used in your game, it doesn't change what you've done to us, why should we be branded with this seal and not you?!" he exclaimed, taking off his headband as he stood in front of me..
I stood up, finally losing my calm as I exclaimed, "You really think we're all the same, don't compare to my father!"
I continued grabbing him by the collar, "You assume things without knowing the full story. You tried to kill Hinata, yet when Hinata overheard my father's plan, she begged for them to find another way. She begged your father not to be the one offered up because she knew how devastated you would be! She begged till they had to drag her away from my father and keep her locked in her room!"
"You're lying!"
"Why would I lie?! You truly think we see you as a pawn?! We saw you as a brother while you hated us! No matter how many times you pushed us away, even when I wanted to give up on you, the person you tried to kill vouched for you, saying it wasn't your fault and we should keep trying, that you were just hurt! Hinate looked up to you and loved you, her older brother!"
Neji stared at me in disbelief when I suddenly shoved him back.
"Hinoka!" Neji exclaimed as another wolf lunged at me and the wolf and I fell off the cliff, plunging into the water.
I tried to hold my breath as I fought with the wolf, swimming up to get air, only to be dragged back down by it.
I finally managed to kill it as I tried to swim back up for air, but before I knew it, I swallowed water.
As the rough current swept me away, I tried to reach for the top that I couldn't obtain, my lungs burning as my whole body felt as though it were on fire.
'I hope Neji is okay.'
My vision grew blurry as I could hear someone screaming my name. I couldn't breathe.
A hand reached out for me, desperation in their eyes as they tried to reach me.
'Yukino,' I thought to myself, as I reached out my hand one last time, barely missing her hand as I sank even deeper the current carrying me away, as I lost consciousness.