A sweltering heat engulfed the covert faction coming home to its beloved Land of Fire. The green and yellow marshy fields they passed were stagnant, windless terrains which no creature cared to cross.
Not a bird in sight, thought Neji.
His meditative past-time of bird counting was rendered useless on the three day trip back to Konohagakure. The still, humid weather seemed no more pleasant for the fowl than it was for the shinobi. None of this dampened the Hyuuga's conscience, however. There was only half a day's trip left before the team met the high wooden posts marking the entrance to their village, or the vast mountain side marked in homage to previous Hokages. Breifly, Neji wondered if the air was as frozen there as it was outside of the village.
He paused and with him, the team. One by one his eyes focused on each one of his team members. Checking up on them had become something of a nervous habit for him on this particular mission. This, he very well knew, was a part of his Jounin Exam, and the wellbeing of your team was the most essential part of any assignment.
The mission, an S rank, had been its expected difficulty, but filled with only minor incidents; a cut here, a fractured bone there. This troubled Neji more than any missing wildlife on their way back. It was a feeling that filled him even now.
His team looked at him in silent curiosity then, he saw it: a dot in the empty sky.
"Take cover!" was all he could advise before a large paper ball landed feet away from their position. The face of the ball, upon a closer look, was graffitied with a million versions of the same kanji reading, "Explosion."
Neji's body reacted before his mind agreed. In his first spin he counted two of his three charges, in his second he charged the still water at their feet with his chakra, and in the third it surrounded them as an extra layer of protection for the ear splitting eruption of flames that slammed into his manmade barrier for the rest of his Heavenly Spin.
Where's the third? Where's the third? Where's the third?
Even his eyes were subject to the brilliance of the bomb and try as he might he could distinguish no one else in the parameter. It ended as fast as it had come. Neji's senses were focused to their highest capacity. He was shouting orders for a quick getaway to the village; if they pushed themselves, they could make it there in half the time. But where was his third charge?
Upon closer inspection of the lingering inferno, there was a glint of metal. He was off into the fire before his body told him it was a bad idea. Heat promised to overpower him in its every threat, but all Neji could see was his companion amidst the blaze.
He knew better than to call out to him, the smoke alone would render him unconscious. He used his precious store of chakra to stave off the flames as he had done with the water. His path became clearer and he reached his charge. His teammate was unconscious and badly burned but otherwise not visibly harmed.
He wasted no time carrying him to safety and stopped only when he was yards away at the base of a young tree to cough whatever smoke was left to choke him.
He saw them then, the birds. There where thousands of them blacking out the sky, flying desperately to havens unknown. There were some on the ground, beyond help. And there where exploding tags on all the trees surrounding the fire. He covered his charge with his body when they went off.
Everything was black and just as quickly blinding white.
There were people over him shining lights into his eyes, snapping fingers in his ears, yelling things he couldn't comprehend. His first thought was Friend or Foe?
"Neji." Friend. It was Tenten. The room had gone quiet. There was no one there but her.
"I know you're awake. Nothing hurts right?" Right. She'd know if something did. He wouldn't have to say anything. She would just know. He nodded and she was quiet. His eyes were sore.
He was awake again. There was something cool and damp over his eyes. When he took them off he was not surprised to see a handful off Konoha Officials in the hospital room, among them, the fifth Hokage. Tenten was just outside the door.
"Hyuuga Neji. I'm pleased to see you're awake." The Hokage's tone was undecipherable. " Do you know where you are?"
"The Konoha Medical Center. Excuse me, Hokage-sama, but could you please debrief me?"
She quirked and eyebrow and the posse at her back stiffened slightly. "Your teammates…" she was lingering on purpose, "are quite fine. One is fairly burned but nothing that wont heal with time and treatment."
A sigh escaped Neji's chest, and with it, all the dread that had pooled inside of him since before the mission started. He didn't care about the reprimand he would receive or the possible suspension, or his lack of progress. His conscience was clear.
"The council is here before you to critique your methods during your mission. It was executed flawlessly until your return where you failed to predict an ambush and nearly ended up killing one of your own by your mistake alone." She took a breath.
"However, you showed exceptional courage, valor, and selflessness. Qualities which do not escape the minds of the council. Where it not for you, your team would have perished. Your exceptional eptitude on and off the field has swayed the village to promote you to Jounin status. Do you accept this responsibility?"
Shock was all Neji felt, his mouth agape with his answer lost on his tongue. Accept? He'd never been asked to accept a rank. The question's meaning did not go amiss. He wasn't accepting his rank. He was accepting the certainty that situations like the explosion would occur on a consistent basis. Every mission would be the result of his choices. Could he bear that burden?
"I don't know." As underwhelming as his answer was, it seemed to please most of the council members.
Tsunade nodded. "You have a week to decide."
Tenten was back in the room before the small group had completely gone, a question pending to burst from her lips.
"Why didn't you say yes?" She almost shouted it. He sighed before he recounted what he remembered before he went unconscious.
"The birds, on the ground, there where three of them. I keep thinking that could have been you, or Lee, or Gai. That no matter how many birds got away, all it would take is one bird to mean I let you down. I don't know if I can live with that."
Tenten gave him a piercing look saved only for moments when she thought he was being extraordinarily thick. Hyuuga Neji, for all your gifted sight you're blind. It read.
"Did you ever think," she began, "that maybe those birds weren't a warning against advancement, but perhaps the call for opportunity? Don't think of how you could fail us or yourself, rather, think of the opportunity you have to protect us. There where thousands of birds in the sky you say, maybe that's one for every success." She knew she had left him with food for thought, and got up to leave him to his decision.
"Tenten." he called, she turned at the door already halfway shut.
"Yes?"
"Did you have to make the bomb so big?" She gave him a sheepish smile.
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A/N: The prompt was to find inspiration from a Beatles song. Obviously I chose Blackbird. Neji+Birds=Fanfics...