As personal disasters went, Hinata knew this one ranked high. Separated from her team on what was supposed to be just returning from a simple escort mission, and now being chased by a group of missing nin, one of which appeared to have a problem with the Hyuga clan, and as a whole skilled enough to have managed to split up her team, Kurenai-sensei included, and play cat and mouse with the divided Konoha genin.

'It must be some sort of unwritten rule... No mission outside the village is ever allowed to go as planned...' She noted to herself.

The first example she knew of was Team 7's trip to Wave, where through what seemed to be a combination of luck, skill, and determination by the team, they had all made it out alive. Numerous other missions had gone wrong,  but had been salvaged.

The track record for those missions eventually ending all right was pretty good, she knew. The main exception was the failure to prevent Sasuke Uchiha's defection a few months before, but even for the black sheep of the clan the young heiress was in agreement that his defection was only a strategic loss of the Sharingan. Not a massive loss for the village to lose it entirely, they felt.  Still, she knew the irony. She was set apart from her clan in most ways, and then set apart from most girls in her (unspoken) views of Sasuke.

She had once slightly admired him (not quite as much as she admired Naruto) when he had shown signs of determination and seemed forced to live in his clan's shadow, especially when he would come in each morning looking dejected and then resolve to himself to make his father proud. He had reminded her of herself for obvious reasons.

But he was an Uchiha, and the blood between the clans had always been bad. The Uchiha had helped found Konoha, and the Hyuga's arrival in the village had been the only real threat to their strength apart from the now-withered Senju clan.

Besides, after his clan had been wiped out, he had become a brooding little menace. She had sympathy, yes, but she had lost respect for him as the years went by. His determination had been a selfish quest for power and revenge, and she was personally glad to see the back of him, not just because her clan had disliked his.

So, really, it was no exception. Konoha's only loss was failing to stop the brat. Not bothering in the first place would have merely prevented the injuries. Which made her feel slightly more confident she would get out of this one alive, at least. Though on the other hand maybe it was time for something to go really wrong and maybe it was her bad luck to be the one it went wrong to.

'No, that's too close to blaming fate. Besides, I haven't seen those missing nin for ages... Perhaps they've fled?'

She had just stopped being distracted by musings of bad luck in time to dodge a hail of shuriken.

"Ironic for a little insect from your clan to have her head in the clouds, eh?" An unfriendly voice cackled.

Hinata turned, wide eyed, and saw the three missing nin. A woman, and two men. The woman had the problem with her, with the Hyuga. Hinata suspected from that line she was from Kumo, but none of the three wore any identifying marks. The woman growled.

"And don't you dare widen those eyes or I'll cut them out and sell them to Kumo before you can use whatever trick it is you pale eyed bastards have to preserve your oh-so-precious bloodline!"

"So you're not from Kumo then." Hinata found herself saying aloud.

"Of course not. Do we look like idiots?"  One of the men said.

Hinata imagined the response from some people she knew, but her own was silence.

"Oh great. That pale-eyed arrogance. Whole damn clan, sticks up their asses. At least this one's a little insect." The female missing-nin griped.

"Why are you attacking me anyway? What did my clan do to you?" Hinata asked, stalling for time. She couldn't see Shino, Kiba, or Kurenai anywhere nearby, but she knew that if she could make enough noise, hold the ninja off...

"One of your clanmates killed my father! A bastard roach who burnt him to death with a fire Jutsu and stole all his own jutsu during the fight with those damned copy eyes!"

Hinata was surprised at herself by her reply.

"Fire?! Copy eyes?! That's the Uchiha clan you idiot!"

The three missing nin took a step back. Well, the two males did. The woman growled again

"...Are you correcting me, insect?"

Hinata had a plan now. A dangerous one, true, but one that could attract help. She needed noise. And all she needed to do was have this woman screeching in rage. So, the quiet little Huyga blacksheep decided to emulate her hero slightly and start being rude.

"If you're going to make things personal and insult me like that, yes!" She said.

She hadn't said she planned to be good at being rude, but this woman seemed highly strung.

"So, you don't like being called an insect, little bug?" The woman grinned, a feral smirk.

"No, I don't like being called an Uchiha, thank you very much!"

"Well, fine. Maybe I got mixed up. But one of you definitely killed my cousin! I can avenge her at least!" The woman snapped back.

"Oh, really. What next. A Senju killed your grandfather? An Akimichi killed your uncle? An Inuzuka had dogs dig up your flowerbeds?"

"I'll teach you to be so smart, you little worm!" The woman screamed, diving at Hinata. Hinata dodged easily.

The two males however also dived forward, and Hinata found dodging all three was a tricky job, but she felt happy enough that she was managing it. But why were they not using any jutsu?

One tried, the woman screeched.

"No jutsu! No identifying moves, idiot!"

"It's my new one! She'd be a great test subject..."

The woman glared at Hinata.

"...Fine. But if it works I get to crush her."

Hinata readied herself, hoping she could dodge the jutsu, and also, that it was loud.

It wasn't. She didn't even hear him name it. And nothing seemed to happen.

"Nice jutsu, idiot, it's done nothing." The woman protested.

"Just wait."

Hinata felt itchy, but fought the urge to scratch.

"It's working..." The woman said gleefully.

Hinata wondered why they had thought some sort of itching jutsu was a useful attack. It was irritating, but not to the point she was incapacitated.

Then she saw the skin on her hands was turning black.

"What...."

"You're an insect, and his jutsu is making that true!" The woman cackled. The man groaned.

"I wanted to use that line..."

Hinata however, was alarmed. Her skin was turning chitinous, like a bug. And then it began leaking a white goo.

The three missing nin watched. The white goo leaked from all over, running in droplets down her, soaking her clothing even as she began shrinking down. Where goo leaked, her skin looked more and more insect-like, and her hair was shrinking into her body. Her face began twisting as she tried to cry out, eyes shrinking down and mouth growing smaller. Her clothing hung off a half-sized, black-skinned, vaguely humanoid cockroach in a few moments.

Hinata began failing then, throwing a glob of the goo at the woman, who screeched.

"You bitch! I'll kill you!"

She grabbed Hinata, but the transforming girl, still leaking the goo, slipped from her grasp. This also dislodged her clothing, making it fall into the gooey puddle at her feet as the half-changed Hinata fell down onto her back.

She stared in shock at her legs, and the extra arms she was growing that she hadn't even felt start to stretch out from her sides.. The woman stared too, and laughed.

"Oh, I can't wait to squish you, bug... I can't wait."

Hinata scrambled to right herself, but her body was changing shape. She rolled around helplessly, still srhinking and leaking goo. Her eyesight turned to black and white vision, and she could barely see. Her bloodline was useless and she was terrified by what was happening.

The missing nin, however, were very amused.

Her fingers had vanished and her arm merged into a thin spindly leg. Her skin was solid jet-black chitin, and her back was by now a carapace. Her nose and other facial features had vanished, long stringy feelers growing from her head instead as it shifted into that of an insects. Her jaw split with an oddly numb and wet sensation, becoming a pair of mandibles in short order, and she was still shrinking.

Eventually, she was just a cockroach, lying in a puddle of the goo she had leaked during transformation. A human turned into a bug. If she could, she would have screamed.

"Well, the jutsu works... Imagine the interrogation uses. Or, like now, how easy it will be to hide a body..." One of the males said. The other prodded the gooey clothes, unrecognisable at all. It just seemed to be a strange pile of a strange goo now.

The woman raised her foot.

A kunai then struck it. The woman screamed. One of the men screamed too as something small, fast, and barking loudly, slammed into him.

"Crap! Run! It's too late for the bitch anyway!" The woman shrieked, removing the kunai.

Hinata cheered, then shrieked in her head as feet nearly landed on her. She scrabbled to escape the sticky goo,

"What did you bastards do to Hinata?! Where is she?!" Kiba roared.

Akamaru stood by his side. Hinata stared in fear at them both, the two unaware of her predicament.

And then Akamaru looked down. And sniffed at Hinata, almost escaped from the goo.

She screamed again in her head. Akamaru was about to eat her! She turned and fled, freeing herself, even as the dog barked.

Kiba, however, didn't see Hinata flee. He saw the goo pile.

"What's this... Oh... No way..."

He had picked up a jacket, and recognised it as Hinata's. Covered in a strange goo.

"Kiba. Hinata appears to have become the victim of a strange jutsu." Shino said, dropping from the tree he had thrown his kunai from.

Akamaru barked again, pointing at the fleeing cockroach. His human partner was staring at the gooey jacket in dismay, then rounded on Shino

"Victim?! They melted her! I'm going to chase those bastards down and..."

Shino was confused.

"Melted? She's over there. She appears to have been transformed..."

Hinata stopped fleeing as a group of Shino's own bugs landed in front of her. She hadn't heard Shino arrive, and this was the first sign of her other team-mate she encountered.

'Aaah! Now Shino's bugs think I'm another insect and want to fight me!' She panicked.

'Lady Hinata, that is not the case. We have notified the master of your plight. We recognise you, even in a more attractive form.' One bug said.

If Hinata had the ability, her eyes would have bulged from her head at that.

'More attractive?! And you can hear me?!'

Kiba however had just exploded.

"What the hell do you mean?!"

Shino paced over, and Hinata cried out in her head as he picked her up.

"Don't be alarmed, Hinata, it is me, Shino. My Kikaichu are attempting to communicate with you."

Hinata then heard them speak to Shino. It was a buzzing noise to her, to her confusion.

"...That's... That's Hinata? She's a bug?!" Kiba almost screamed, as Kurenai arrived.

"What happened to Hinata?"

'Sensei! Um, Shino's bugs! Can you speak to Shino and have him get Sensei to cure...' Hinata tried.

Shino spoke, and held Hinata up. There was a loud thump, and Kiba cried out again

"Sensei! Crap, she fainted!"

'The elder human may be unable to provide asstance at the moment, Lady Hinata.'

Hinata groaned.

'I kind of guessed that...'

***

Kiba and Kuerenai stopped freaking out eventually, and Shino managed to interpret.

"Hinata says that apart from the obvious, she is unharmed. She reports she does not recognise the jutsu nor the origins of the three nin, but the user of the jutsu said it was a new technique."

Kurenai sighed.

"Then undoing it will be hard... if it's even possible..."

Hinata did not want to hear that.

"...Sensei, Hinata is still able to hear and understand human speech." Shino noted.

Kurenai looked horrified.

"Ah, Hinata, what sensei means is it's impossible for her, but... Not for the hokage! Right? Tsunade's a great medic and there's all sorts of hidden scrolls and stuff back in Konoha!" Kiba tried to save face.

'They are correct, Lady Hinata. There are good odds that there is a cure, though much of your body mass appears to have been lost or compressed.' A bug explained.

Hinata relaxed a little.

'Wait, the goo! If that was my body mass... How could I ever turn back?!'

Shino answered, as his insects translated what Hinata said.

Kurenai spoke.

"Hinata, we have no idea what happened to you, and I'm not going to lie. We don't know if it can be reverted. Kiba was right that we have good facilities back home, but this is an unknown jutsu. But we're not giving up. We're taking you home. And Kiba, get as much of that goo as you can. And Hinata's clothes. Shino, you carry her and keep translating."

The two non-bug genin nodded.  Moments later, they left the area, heading for home, a worried Hinata in Shino's hands.

But even with her worry, she was curious.

'Um... Shino's insects... How come I understand you talking to me, but Shino doesn't understand me talking to him. And how come I can't understand you and him talking?'

A bug spoke.

'This is because master learned to communicate with us verbally in our hive language, not via a hive link. We are able to communicate with other insects such as yourself if we understand their own hive language, which in your case was human speech, so we merely need to use the hive links to speak to you as a human'

Hinata wasn't really understanding what a hive link was but she presumed it meant that the insects could talk to each other independently.

With her poor vision, she couldn't quite make out the shapes of everyone else, but she knew that Shino was angry. He had little outward emotions, but the tension was easy to detect. Kurenai-sensei was horrified at what had happened, and Hinata knew the jonin was blaming herself from the tone of her voice earlier. Kiba, meanwhile, was enraged at the missing nin and had kept trying to convince Kurenai to turn back, catch them, and force the cure from them.

As for her... She had no idea what she really felt. She was scared. She didn't want to be a cockroach forever, and  she was feeling less confident about being changed back.

"Hinata, please try to remain upbeat. I am confident that a cure is possible." Shino spoke, to her surprise.

'What... How did you know I was...'

An insect buzzed. Shino replied.

"I can understand the feelings of my insects. It wasn't too difficult to realise your own mood was downcast, as they are somewhat upset at this also. They like you."

Hinata didn't really know what to say.

'Well... I'll try to be more positive. '

The translation occurred.

"Good. Please try to think happier thoughts."

She did so, but realised a problem

'Eeep! What will Naruto think ?! '

Shino's insects all seemed to... sigh? Shino seemed to do the same as well.

"Uzumaki is currently training with Jiraiya of the Sannin... He is unlikely to learn of this incident. Though you raise a point.  Perhaps until more is known your condition should be kept as hidden as possible."

She and the others agreed. If all went well, they'd find a cure, and then they'd convince the Hokage to try and make this mission so secret that hopefully even they wouldn't know it had happened.

Hinata perked up at that though. The disastrous mission wasn't over yet. And they had a good track record of things working out in the end....