Sparks and Secrets
WARNING! Story contains: NejiTen, little bit of blood, maybe OOCness. Nothing much. DISCLAIMER! I don't own Naruto! If I did, I wouldn't have to worry about cash. EV-ER.
Happy belated birthday, Kenji Hyuga White Tiger! At least I'm doing this for you! Read, and enjoy!
"That ought to do it," Tenten declared as she applied the last bandage to Neji's shoulder as the Hyuga winced in pain. Team Guy had been on a short-term mission, escort a bratty little heiress and her servant back to their home at the edge of the Land of Fire after vacationing in the Konoha. Things had gone well on the way, with only one interruption: a band of dickwitt bounty hunters wanted the girl as a hostage to use against her mega-loaded family. Lee, being the overly-emotional nutjob that he was, is, and always will be, screamed, "I will not allow you to jeopardize our mission!" and happily wiped the floor with them without a single spark of chakra.
They dropped the twelve-year-old ass pain off at the gates of her mansion, flicked her irresponsible parents off internally, and were on their merry way. Well, Tenten was still a little pissed by the holdup from earlier, and Neji had been moments away from blowing the girl's nervous system to hell for whining all the time, but the quartet's mood could have been darker. Guy, humoring the anti-spandex duo, allowed them to take it slow for once as they returned home.
As it turned out, the retarded hunters from the day before had higher-ups. Higher-ups that were not easily deterred, even though their targets was gone, and held grudges, even though the failure to capture the girl was their own damn fault. It was around 3:45 a.m. when they ambushed the camp; Neji was on watch with the rest of the team sleeping soundly. He was alerted when the sound of a twig snapped in the distance, but was close to falling asleep for some reason, so he ignored it. He dozed off, but was roused by a sharp thwang noise.
The cord of a bow launching a giant-sized, stone-tipped arrow towards his head.
Before Neji himself knew what had happened, a smooth wood shaft was lodged in the tree he was sitting against, centimeters from his left eye. His instincts had made him move his head to the right, just before it hit, and he escaped certain death with only splinter scratches on his temple. Thoroughly startled, the brunette raised the alarm after activating his Byakugan.
"Everyone up! Someone's here!" he hissed. The remaining team was upright and wide-eyed, gathering their wits for a fight.
"What happened, Neji?" Tenten demanded upon seeing the foreign weapon wedged in the bark where her crush's head had been positioned. She snatched her scroll off the ground where she had left it and prepared to summon her personal arsenal. However, the weapons specialist felt slightly lethargic, and brushed it off as still being sleepy. "Where are they?"
"Hang on, I'm looking," Neji muttered as the veins by his eyes bulged even further. The world around him turned in shades of grey as he followed the trajectory of the arrow; snaking around the dense forest they had stopped in, his detached vision found a man crouched on a flimsy branch. "Got him."
"Excellent work, Neji. Which way?" Lee inquired, eager to prove himself to the world.
"Roughly 60 yards northeast. He's halfway up a pine tree, and he knows we're here. No sense in being stealthy." The team nodded in unison and headed out.
"'Ere they come…" the 'assassin' murmured, preparing another arrow. Confident, almost smug, he aimed at Lee. "You go firs', freak." The shaft of wood flew at a blur. A blur Neji almost missed, but he snapped it in half when it passed by him, leaving the googly-eyed chunin shocked and grateful.
"Thanks," he was rather ashamed of his near-fatal error, but knew he had no time to burst into exaggerated tears and beg Guy for forgiveness. The Hyuga nodded, focused on defending himself and his friends. Frustrated, the marksman released a barrage of arrows, his arms burning with the effort of taking out the Konoha nin. Almost out of arrows, he became desperate as they came closer and closer. Then, the slamming of feet stopped. The archer ceased moving, frightened by the sudden silence.
Oopsies.
"Kya~!" Lee cried as he snapped the bendy tree in half with his heel. Stunned, the enemy fell from the murdered plant, vulnerable to another attack, but before he could be taken out, he vanished.
"Eh?" Tenten drew out the noise of confusion, "where did he go?"
"I can't seem to find-" Neji was cut off by a massive green cloud bursting forth from another arrow, making the night even darker. The fog stung their eyes and noses, and made their mouths numb and tingly if they inhaled it directly. With his Byakugan deactivated, Neji felt blind (ha-ha) and useless. The silhouette of Tenten next to him was enough to get an idea. "Tenten, I know it's been a while since you used this attack, but use Metal Rainstorm: Super-Fast Shuriken to clear the fog!"
He received no answer.
"Tenten!" he almost growled as he grabbed her elbow. She jerked in response, unaware of her teammate's presence.
"S-Super-Fast Shuriken! Got it!" she blustered and groped around for a tree to climb. If Neji wasn't so worried about taking down their attacker, he would've wondered what had her so zoned out. Unaware of Guy and Lee's positions, the light-eyed teen prepared to have weapons raining down and the smoke clearing away, but suddenly felt like passing out.
What on Earth is going on? He wondered as his mind filled with fog. Just before he could collapse and fall to the marksman's mercy, the sound of air slicing against Tenten's blades and blowing away saved him. Enraged by the cunning of his targets, the so-called assassin crept out of his hiding spot, notching his second-to last shaft with a fire in his eyes. He pulled back, aimed, and let it fly, the explosive tag wrapped around it ready to blow at contact. It slammed in front of Neji, who was helping Tenten up after she fell from her perch, dazed by the cheap-shot sleeping gas incorporated with the smokescreen.
The Hyuga hardly had time to call out "Rotation!" before it hit. Weakened as badly as his team, he was able to shield himself and Tenten from most of the blast, but he took more damage than he wished. Burned by the fire and almost unconscious from the direct sonic boom, the kunoichi had to support Neji as he stood up from his defense position.
"Neji, can you hear me? Are you okay?" she tried not to beg, but the franticness of her voice was obvious. Her jonin teammate was never one to be taken down so easily.
"I'm fine. Just a little dazed from the explosion…" he trailed off, avoiding her concerned gaze "Where are Guy-sensei and Lee?"
"I'm not sure. We probably got separated in the fog-" the sound of a trees snapping in half cut her off, which was repeated several times before silence. They both turned their heads in the direction it was coming from, and blandly stated, "That way," in unison.
Following the path of destruction, the couple—err, pair—found the dynamic duo smashing down saplings in an attempt to take down their enemy. Lee, being a freak as usual, was screaming that using poison was a dirty trick and that he wouldn't allow him to get away with hurting his friends, blah, blah, blah. Guy, on the other hand, was letting his fire of rage burn silently as he kicked and chopped the branches. Both "Beasts" came close to eliminating the archer, but he slipped away repeatedly. After being the audience to such a display of ridiculousness, Neji and Tenten sighed and took a seat.
"What are you two doing?" Lee called to them, "Get up and fight!" Rolling their eyes, they watched for a moment as Guy landed a fist in the man's side. There was a crunching noise, and he fell from the tree he had jumped onto. "Fantastic work, sensei!" Lee congratulated his less-than-stylish idol, which led to a pointless lecture on finding the enemy's weaknesses and using them to one's advantege. As they were both at less-than a 100 percent and full of emotion, they didn't notice the archer slowly reaching for his bow.
"Watch out!" Neji yelled as the final arrow flew. The spandex'd freaks jumped out of the way, but the shaft flew towards Tenten. Pushing her clear from danger, the grey-eyed teen was grazed by the tip on his burned shoulder. Even though it didn't land itself in his arm, it cut deep enough to draw blood and damage the muscles. Enraged, Lee kicked the man's chest, causing him to fly into a nearby oak and slump down, unconscious.
"Neji! Oh my gosh, are you okay?" Tenten fell to her knees beside him as he held his shoulder, red staining the white of his shirt. He nodded stiffly.
"Yeah, it just hurts," he winced as he ripped his sleeve off to expose the wound. It stung at the open air, but it hurt too much already to be felt. The burned area was swollen and whitish, easily sliced open by the stone tip; the cut itself was bleeding profusely, with a straight line of exposed flesh across the joint. A fresh wave of pain emanated from his arm when he tried to move it, his face giving away the suffering he was in.
"Hang on, I think have something to stop the bleeding," Tenten murmured as she shifted through her rear pack. Having no use for it weapons wise, she packed it full of medicine and bandages, which she pulled out and carefully applied to Neji's wound. She became nervous as she heard his breathing hitch when she dabbed antiseptic around and on the injury, but refused to allow it appear on her face. Pressing a patch of gauze against, Tenten felt guilty for not dodging the arrow herself.
"Don't blame yourself," Neji chided through his teeth as the remainder of their team arrived, dragging the enemy by his collar.
"We'll take this man back to the village for interrogation. He's defiantly connected to the attack earlier." Guy stated as Tenten smeared burn salve on Neji. She wrapped up his arm as best she could and used extra bindings to make a sling, since Neji couldn't move his arm. Deciding it too dangerous to linger any longer, the team set out, with Tenten supporting Neji. Lee took their bags.
After two hours of silent walking, they stopped to rest for the remaining night. As Guy tied their captive to a nearby tree, Tenten approached Neji.
I'm really sorry about this whole thing. If I hadn't been so weak, you wouldn't have gotten hurt. I'm so useless-"
"Tenten," Neji cut her off from her babbling. "We were both dazed by the toxin. I just reacted faster; I couldn't let it hit you."
"But you were already burned from protecting me!" she argued. Only once before did she call herself weak: the last time something like this happened.
"That doesn't matter." Neji tried to calm her down.
"It does to me!" she yelled, frustrated by her crush's stubbornness. "I'm sorry," she lowered her voice and sat down next to him. Her hand was next to his good one (his left), and she splayed her fingers. Neji's crept in between hers, startling her.
"You haven't been like this in a while. Why are you so upset?" he questioned as gently as he could.
"Because you're my teammate," she lied flatly.
"It's more than that. You and I both know it." He saw straight through her, but it took years of practice.
"Fine. It's…it's because I l-like you. A lot," Tenten felt her face burn as she confessed her several-year-long secret. Sure, she admired Lee for his determination and spirit, but he lacked the seriousness and grace Neji had. She gravitated towards it, like a security blanket; the ability to think out everything before it happened and still stay cool if everything went totally wrong made her life balance.
Before she could react, Neji held her hand tightly and kissed her on the mouth. He pulled away, smiling.
"That's good. I like you, too."
Yeah, yeah, yeah, shitty ending, I know. But, there will be more for Christmas, Kenji! P.S. I don't normally write for this pairing, but it's Kenji's favorite. So, please review!