A/N: Well, here it is, my latest baby and creation, Here there be Dragons. This is something different for me. One, it's a Neji TenTen fic (squeal!) that isn't a tragic one. Two, it takes place in a different time setting then usual. I tend to write stories that deal with the main cast of characters kids, post canon stuff. Three, this baby is set in an alternate universe. Four, a long story not a one or two or four shot and contains some of my favorite Naruto pairings.

I'm sorry all Return my Past readers. I am doodling pictures of Hallie which is good because that means I have an interest in RMP's sequel Return my Heart, but beyond the first three paragraphs I haven't written much more. I am brainstorming ideas and have a rough outline of the story drawn up. So there is belated hope. I would expect it later this fall maybe in November.

Due to the fact that this Friday I will be recovering from having my wisdom teeth removed, I am posting the first two chapters of Here There be Dragons. So enjoy, and PLEASE REVIEW!

Chapter 1:

It was not a good day to be a ranger in the Forest of Death.

"She's on a rampage! Run away!"

As previously stated, it was not a good day to be a ranger in the Forest of Death. Two rangers streaked away from one spot in the forest as if death was on their heels, but who's to say it wasn't?

"TenTen, I don't want to die!" sobbed a self proclaimed green beast of Konoha.

"Well if you haven't noticed, I'm running right beside you!" TenTen snipped back.

The tears streaking down Lee's face didn't fall even as the two further distanced themselves from the threat to their lives.

"Poor Sakura, her youth has flamed to such proportions where she is helpless to control it."

"If you mean she has a short temper then you're wrong. She can control it; she just chooses not to."

TenTen slowed to a stop. Lee kept running at full speed up until the point he realized his fellow partner for running in terror was no longer with him. Backtracking he returned to his teammate.

"Man," TenTen said, "we have to go back."

Lee was shocked, "What! But TenTen, if we go back—,"

"We'll be pounded into the ground, but better us then those poachers."

"But we'll be flattened by Sakura's flaming youth!"

TenTen sighed as she prepared to bring out her trump card. She hated using it. Her trump card was a double edged sword.

"But if we don't go back, Neji's going to have gloating rights for the next three months."

Both shivered in fear. Although their official third teammate for the ranger team did not seem like the gloating typed, he could and would gloat in the most fearsome way. He would look at you with a sneer of superiority in his eyes while he verbally razed your ego to the ground with cold, precise words chosen for their ability of piercing to the heart of the matter. Giving gloating privileges to Neji was not a good idea.

Lee lowered his head in resignation before perking up with his characteristic peppiness. "Then let us run post haste back to the lovely but scary Sakura in a full display of youth in order to preserve said—ah! TenTen wait for me!"

The sight from where the two rangers had previously departed was infinitely calmer then it had been when TenTen and Lee had wisely run for their lives. Sakura had disarmed and hogtied the two poachers and was sitting pretty as you please on a log waiting for her two teammates to reappear.

TenTen and Lee appeared accordingly.

"Hey guys!" she called from her perch. TenTen and Lee gave her astounding looks of disbelief.

"Okay," TenTen started as she fought off a migraine, "how exactly did you manage to get them in a tree? In fact how did you get that log in the tree?"

Sakura shrugged short pink hair bouncing above her shoulders. "They went flying after I went boom."

What had once been a small clearing lacking underbrush and trees was now reminiscent of a war zone with the newest addition being upturned soil and a wide hole that certainly hadn't been present when the trio had first entered the clearing.

TenTen sighed, "Lee, go up there and help Sakura get those poachers down."

Lee saluted, "Of course!"

"Hey, Sakura!" TenTen called up to her pink-haired stand in teammate, "where's the game they tried to poach?"

Swinging her legs giddily almost a hundred feet off the ground, Sakura pointed off to her left, TenTen's right. The bun haired brunette nodded and dashed off.

Sakura looked over her shoulder to where her hogtied poachers were dangling suspended by only a rope over the ground. These past ten minutes of terror should prove to be more then suffice to keep them out and away from the wildlife if those terrified looks in their eyes were anything to go by. The little green man down below her, Lee, called up to her with marvel in his voice.

"Sakura, your youth shines brightly."

Sakura shrugged while smiling. She knew she'd done well.

Eyes skimming the ground for tracks, TenTen moved through the trees relying on her senses to pick up the details. She, Lee and Sakura had been out on patrol when they'd run across three unknown personal in the forest. After catching sight of the unknowns and their tools of the trade (nets, knives, and steel) the three had closed in to apprehend the poachers. Sakura had reached them first, and, boy, had she been livid.

Sakura had been quite level headed at first, but then she had cocked her head as if hearing an inaudible voice, and when she caught sight of those hunters again….Well, suffice it to say, hell hath no fury. The once immaculate clearing now had a gaping hole in it, and Sakura was one smug princess with her prisoners dangling 100 feet up in the air.

Note to self: do not make Sakura angry.

TenTen was maybe a two hundred yards from her companions when the sound of thrashing and squeals of high pitched indignation alerted her to the missing quarry. Squatting down in dirt, TenTen pushed aside the cluster of ferns. The rustling stopped.

That prey must have a mind of its own and a good amount of mobility to have made it this far on its own restrained. I wonder what the poachers bagged. It's obviously still alive, but what in the Forest of Death could they have trapped that could possibly have set Sakura into such a tizzy as the one she descended into when we found the trappers?

TenTen took a deep breath, steeling herself, before moving back the remaining foliage hiding the animal. Moonlike disks locked with chocolate brown eyes, and TenTen just knew fate was working against her as the almost poached animal or really reptile bit her arm.

"So what did Shizune say?" Sakura asked TenTen back in the female rangers' locker room.

The patrol was over. The wrestling with and deportation of the poachers from The Forest of Death to the proper authorities had occurred with many proclamations of youth and "Be quiet Lee(s)!" Then there had been the report, which TenTen had let Lee handle, after which she went to the infirmary to have wounded appendage treated to by the Rangers' personal Doctor, Shizune.

The pink-haired ranger took in the clenched jaw on the bun styled brunette female. "You've got a rant in there don't you?" Sakura stated.

A stiff nod was her response coupled with the slamming of the locker shut. Sakura flinched. "She's definitely got a rant in there." She murmured. Coming to herself, Sakura found herself standing alone by TenTen's locker with TenTen halfway to the locker-room door.

"Hey, wait up!" Sakura called as she trotted after TenTen.

BOOM! The locker-room door slammed open with one tense bun styled brunette exiting followed by her pink-haired companion.

"Come on TenTen talk to me!" Sakura cajoled as she kept pace stride for stride with TenTen. The two left the ranger locker rooms behind them and made their way through the halls with Sakura persistently trying to get TenTen to spill. "Is it me? Did I do something wrong?"

It wasn't until the two had clocked out ten minutes later that TenTen relented to Sakura's dogged persistence.

"My wounds are superficial Sakura. I am quite alright."

Sakura pulled up short. "You aren't going to rant," she marveled.

TenTen gave Sakura a grim smile. "No Sakura. All this event has done is reaffirm the fact that dragons and I will never see eye to eye. I'll see you tomorrow for patrol."