Neji moved swiftly and decisively out of the Hyuga compound. At this early hour, even most members of the prestigious Hyuga clan had not awakened and began their duties for the day. But here was Neji, up with the sunrise, as he had been every day since he had been assigned his genin team. Some of his relatives had expressed sympathies toward his placement, and wondered if it would be possible for Neji to get moved to learn under a different sensei. Neji, however, knew better. Eccentric as he was, Gai was one of the finest shinobi in the Hidden Leaf Village, and Neji had learned much under his tutelage.
Tenten groaned as she rolled out of bed. She didn't care how long she had been on Gai's team; she still wasn't happy about getting up at the crack of dawn to train. Silently slipping on an outfit and fixing her hair into its signature two bun style, she made her way downstairs and out of her house, grabbing an orange to have for breakfast on her way to the training ground. As she got close, Neji fell in beside her without a word. The teammates walked in comfortable silence as they approached the training ground. Despite her complaints, she knew she wouldn't trade her team for any other in the village.
Lee completed his 100th handstand pushup, wobbled, and then collapsed to the ground. Beside him Gai-sensei let out a booming laugh and sprang onto his feet, seemingly unaffected by the grueling workout he and Lee had just completed.
"An excellent warmup, wouldn't you say my youthful apprentice?" Gai peered down at his protégé.
Lee sprang to his feet. "Yes sir! I am overflowing with youth for today's training. I cannot wait to get started in earnest."
Gai shook his head and smiled at Rock Lee's swift recovery time. He then turned to see Neji and Tenten arrive at the training ground. "Ah, my other two students are here! Now let us begin today's training! We'll get started with- "
"Wait Gai," Neji sighed, "You and Lee may be ready to go, but me and Tenten have only just arrived. Give us a few minutes to warmup, then we can begin."
"Ah, you are right, youthful Neji! I got ahead of myself, please forgive me. As punishment, I will do laps around the training field on my hands until you are ready to begin." Gai flipped extravagantly into the air, landed on his hands, and took off around the training field.
"Wait Gai-sensei, I will join you!" Lee dashed off after him.
Tenten rolled her eyes while Neji just smirked. "Maybe we should take our time, let them tire themselves out a little" suggested Tenten.
"Come now Tenten, you know that will never work" Neji began his warmup.
"I know," Tenten sighed, "They just seem particularly energetic today." Nonetheless she couldn't help but grin at the sight of her sensei and teammate moving faster and faster around the training field on their hands, evidently racing each other.
Hours later, the three genin stood gasping in front of their slightly winded sensei. "Sensei surely we are not done?" Lee cried, "I would like to continue sir!"
Neji grimaced. He was sure Lee was just as tired as the rest of them, but he was insisting on continuing. Tenten had been right, he was in a particularly annoying mood today. Before Neji could reprimand him, Gai cut in. -"Ah my most enthusiastic student, if only we could. We must head to the Hokage's office to receive our mission for today."
"Ah, well in that case," Lee turned to Neji, "My eternal rival, I shall race you!"
"No Lee," spat Neji, with more venom than he meant. Neji was usually used to Lee's attitude and eccentricities, but the shinobi had been especially over the top today, and it had worn Neji's nerves thin.
Lee, however, was unaffected by his rejection, and turned his grin toward his other teammate. "Tenten?" he questioned.
"Forget it Lee," Tenten smirked, but gave Lee a good-natured punch on the shoulder, "save some energy for the mission."
"Well let's see now," Lady Tsunade pondered over the missions that she had to assign for today, "what to give to you lot." Gai had already been assigned an A rank mission that he was to undertake with Genma and Anko, later that day, although he stood by waiting for his genin team to receive their own mission.
Lee was hopping with anticipation. "Oh, Lady Tsunade, please, give us two missions, I have no doubt that we we can complete them both! Please Lady Tsunade!"
Tenten looked abashed at her teammates behavior in front of the Hokage. Neji scowled at him, he was really getting on his nerves today. "No, Lee, that's not how it works. Once we complete our first mission, we can decide if we can do a second one for the day, but since we don't even know what our first mission is, we can't even know if it's possible to do more than one!"
"But Neji, if we set ourselves to do two missions today, then perhaps we can get three, or even four done instead! Imagine how many missions we could get done in this manner!" Lee cried out in delight at his new idea.
Neji was generally a calm person, especially since the last chunnin exams had made him re-evaluate his world view. He almost always kept his emotions in check. However, Lee was pushing him to far today. He stepped into Lee's face. "Lee, how would that work. We can't possibly complete that many missions just by saying that we will" he growled.
Lee glared back at him. "I think that it is a good idea. By setting our goals higher, we can achieve greater and greater things! It is the same principle that I apply to my training. Do you not agree Gai-sens-"
"Don't bring him into this, he'll only agree with your nonsense!" shouted Neji.
"Neji, do not call my training method nonsense! It has allowed me to become stronger than I ever imagined! I will one day surpass-"
"ENOUGH!" roared Lady Tsunade. She took several deep breaths to calm her nerves while her assistant, Shizune, nervously clutched Tonton the pig closer to her chest. A nerve twitched above Tsunade's eye as she cast her gaze upon the two genin. "You two have gotten on my last nerve today. I've got just the assignment for such an idiotic bunch of genin."
Tenten looked crestfallen. "But I didn't do anything."
Tsunade removed a scroll from the pile on her desk. "The Fire Lord's wife has lost her cat again. I'm tasking this team with retrieving it."
"But Lady Hokage, that's a job for fresh genin, not us!" cried Lee. Neji nodded in agreement. Although none of them had passed the chunin exams, they were clearly of a higher level than most genin, and hadn't been given a job like this since they were fresh graduates of the academy.
"Well, if you insist on acting like academy students, I will give you suitable missions. However, to make things more interesting, I will add a stipulation. The fastest this cat has ever been located and retrieved was in 5 hours. Gai, your team has one hour or else the only jobs you will be receiving for the next month will involve helping your sweet Hokage with her paperwork." Lee grew pale at the thought, and Neji and Tenten were less than thrilled with the prospect of a month of paperwork as well. "Your hour has already started. Go."
As Team Gai rushed out of the Hokage Tower, Lee's face lit up. "Neji, my eternal rival, I shall catch the cat before you! With the spirit of competition pushing us, we will be sure to succeed in this mission in record time!"
Neji turned furiously on his teammate. "Dammit Lee, this is all your fault to begin with! Can you just keep quiet and focus on the mission for once!"
Lee looked offended. "My fault? But you were shouting in there as well, so I would say that we share the blame for this unfortunate mission."
"You fool; how could you even hope to complete this mission in the time limit without my eyes? I will be able to find the cat in minutes" Neji spat with a scowl, activating his Byakugon to reinforce his point.
"With my speed and physical fitness, I will be able to catch the cat much easier! Even if I cannot find it as easily."
"Fine then, you know what, let's make this a challenge then. First one to bring the cat back wins, agreed?" He and Lee were forehead to forehead now, Lee's bowl haircut brushing against Neji's hitai-ate.
"Agreed!" Lee shouted, and sped away. Neji cursed, and dashed off after him. Tenten remained in the same spot and sighed. Why her?
Gai walked out of the Hokage's Tower, beaming at his remaining student. "Is the youthfulness of their rivalry not wonderful to witness," he boomed with a gleaming smile, "This inspires me to go challenge my own rival. I must find Kakashi!" he cried as he dashed off in search of the masked jonin. Tenten felt even more exasperated. Why her indeed.
Neji cursed to himself as he dashed along the side of the hospital. Dammit, where was this cat? He couldn't even find it using his Byakugon. Although, if he couldn't find it, there was no way that loud mouth idiot would be able to do so either. As he thought this, said idiot barreled around the corner of the building.
"Neji!" He cried.
"Lee" Neji growled in response.
"I shall not let you win this most youthful challenge! If I fail to find the cat before you, I shall do 1000 pushups with one hand. No, that is not enough. How about 2000 pushups with no hands? How does that sound Neji?
"It sounds impossible." Neji took a moment to cool off. He had to think clearly. They couldn't afford not to find this cat. "Lee, you don't want to be stuck doing paperwork for the rest of the month any more than I do. So why don't we put aside this silly rivalry and work together to find the cat."
"Sorry Neji, but I cannot agree to this," Lee shook his head sadly, "Even though I do not want to be stuck on paperwork duty, I must defeat you in this challenge."
"Dammit Lee, this is ridiculous even for you. Can't you just put aside this one sided 'rivalry' you've created and do something useful. Accept the fact that I am not your rival. If you can't do that, then at least stay out of my way so I can find this damn cat." Neji felt a faint pang of regret as Lee's looked hurt look as he leaped over the hospital and sped along his way, Byakugon searching out the stray feline. He was so intent on scouring the limits of his sight for the cat, that he nearly ran into Sakura as he rounded the corner of the next building. Sakura squealed and fell to the ground. Neji skidded to a stop. With a sigh, he turned around and offered a hand to the young medical shinobi.
"My apologies, Sakura," he spoke stoically as he helped her up, "I am unfortunately in a bit of a rush."
"Yes," Sakura said, smiling slyly, "Lady Tsunade said you were hunting down Tora. A very tough mission, even for such experienced genin as Team Gai."
Neji's face refused to show the annoyance he felt. Without another word, he turned to leave.
"Neji wait!" Sakura called. Neji paused, resignedly. Sakura jogged around to face him again. "Keep an eye on Lee for the next few days, will you?"
Neji sneered. "That idiot? It's his fault we're in this mess, why should I watch him?"
Sakura looked uncomfortable. "Well, I'm not supposed to tell, but when he came into the hospital for his checkup, there seemed to be some residual effects from his injury and surgery. We told him to take it easy for a while, but he wouldn't listen to us. I don't know why he won't ever just accept when he needs to rest."
"It's not his way." Neji replied. He stared off in the direction he had left Lee. "Being a shinobi is everything to him. He doesn't want to accept that anything might threaten that."
"Alright, well, thanks Neji. I've got to go, and don't you have a cat to catch?" Sakura smiled at him and walked away. Neji stood in thought for a moment before making his decision. He activated his Byakugon and took off.
"Lee, my…" Neji grimaced, but swallowed his pride, "eternal rival!" He had found him searching trash bins at the outskirts of the city, muttering something about unyouthful cats.
Lee turned in surprise. "Neji?"
"Indeed, Lee." Neji said, "I've decided to accept your challenge. As your rival, I cannot allow you to find this cat before me. It would bring shame to the Hyuga Clan!" This whole situation would bring shame to the Hyuga Clan, he thought, but shoved that idea aside. "Now I'm going to find this cat." He dashed off toward the river. Lee is being more ridiculous than usual because he's worried how much time he has left as a shinobi. As his rival and… friend, it is my duty to attempt to make him feel better.
Lee smiled. He never could hold a grudge. "Not if I find it first, Eternal Rival!" Lee put on a burst of speed to follow him.
Unfortunately, despite the burst of camaraderie and enthusiasm, when the hour was up, they had still not found the runaway pet. "I do not understand," Lee said, walking dejectedly back to the Hokage's tower, "Where could it be?"
"I don't know Lee. We have taken on demons and curse marks. How could this cat have alluded us?"
"We will just have to hope that Lady Tsunade is merciful," Lee sighed.
"Small chance of that," Neji snorted. They arrived outside of the Hokage's office and stood for a minute, unmoving. Then, resigned to their fate, Lee nodded to Neji and opened the door. Tsunade was sitting at her desk, an evil smile on her face.
"Well boys, where's Tora? You couldn't find her, huh?" Her evil grin grew even wider. "That's too bad. You know what that means. Get ready-"
"WAIT!" The door was thrust open and a dirty, bedraggled, and triumphant Tenten appeared holding an angry looking cat in her arms.
"Tenten!" Neji and Lee cried together, both silently thanking their teammate for saving them.
"That's right. While you two were off having your pissing contest, I went and found the damn cat. It was hiding in someone's house, but I found the damn thing." Tenten turned to Lady Tsunade. "So, no paperwork for us," and then to her teammates, "and you two owe me big time."
Lady Tsunade seemed stunned. "You… found the cat." Behind her, Shizune looked scandalized. "Well, uh, good job Tenten. I hope you boys learned a lesson today."
"We did, Lady Hokage!" Lee shouted, "Tenten, I am sorry, and we will remember to include you in our rivalry matches in the future."
"That's alright Lee, I'd prefer if we would just work as a team a little more, and…" The absent chatter of the three victorious genin continued as they collected their pay for the mission and left the Tower.
After they were safely out the door, Shizune turned to her sensei, looking panicked. "Lady Tsunade, Tora wasn't actually reported missing! Team Gai wasn't supposed to succeed in their mission!"
A vein in Tsunade's head started to throb. "I know that Shizune! Dammit, how could this happen?"
"You know what this means, don't you Lady Tsunade?" Shizune asked. "Tenten kidnapped the Fire Lord's wife's cat. We have to do something quick!"
Lady Tsunade could only sigh and wonder why she had ever agreed to take this stupid job.