Helix
By: Kriste-chan

Disclaimer: Naruto © Masashi Kishimoto. I only own my brain and this plot. Unfortunately.


It was ironic how someone would find beauty in the midst of chaos; but, as her brown eyes quickly scanned the forest to marvel at the destructive capabilities of Temari's tessen, she witnessed a flock of sparrows, as if dancing across the horizons. Tenten had to wonder at the simplicity of its graceful beauty— she doesn't seem to mind the trail of blood oozing from the cut somewhere on her head right now.

"Out of the way!"

A yell of desperation seem to jolt her out of her trance. They were in the middle of a battle. They were fighting for their lives, and for the country that was represented by the piece of tarnished metal glinting on their foreheads. After all, she chose the path ofa kunoichi; and a kunoichi must do what she must, given a situation.

This was her fate.

"Temari-san!" Tenten jumped out as a shower of weapons came after her, "Get them out!"

The Sand Jounin's eyes shook slightly; eyeing the unconscious girl on her arms before looking back at Tenten.

"Oh great, so do you expect—" duck, swish, punch, "me, to say thank you and bolt out?" cried a twenty-one-year-old man, landing his metal knuckles on an enemy shinobi's face, "Not today, Tenten-neesama!"

"Do it!" she harshly commanded, "Do it while you still can!" she ducked and flailed her spiked nunchaku around; hitting enemies to their deaths despite the fact that her body was already at its limits. "Get Konohamaru-kun and Hanabi-chan out of here!"

"Then what? Hand your head to them on a silver platter?" Sarcasm from the Sand Jounin, "You must be forgetting that a leader cannot abandon nor stay behind while her mission isn't through!"

Both women knew, it was as good as yelling, "I will not let a friend fall prey in the hands of the enemy."

"This situation is beyond anyone's control!" she moved as a kunai nearly stung her slender neck. "I'd only slow you down with these wounds! Go!"

Temari visibly flinched. For the expanse of three days, she figured as much that Tenten wasn't someone who easily budged.

"Get them out now!" she pulled three shurikens from her holster and threw it to hit three targets at the same time. Her accuracy was still flawless. "You're a Jounin! Lead them and report to the Hokage-sama immediately!"

"If that's the case then we'll catch up with you later!" Konohamaru's eyes flamed confidently as blood spurted out of the enemy's wounds; staining the Leaf Village's forehead protector around his head. "Tenten-neesama and I could finish off these half-witted bast—"

"Go with them as well, Konohamaru-kun!" she snapped, forcefully; halting him a trifle. "Hanabi-chan told me earlier that a lot more will come so I can't guarantee your safety as you move out!"

"All the more that you need my help!" pointed Konohamaru; ducking out just in time to avoid an incoming kunai hurled to skewer him, "This isn't about—!"

"Look out!" Tenten threw a kunai to intercept a senbon long before it even hit the young man's neck, "Get the hell out of here! Now!"

"But," Konohamaru looked at Temari, pleadingly, "Temari-san!"

Temari was still hesitant as she somehow managed to meet the determined eyes of Tenten. What she saw in there though, made her take a step backwards: she was as certain as hell she wasn't backing down on her words.

This is my way of the Ninja...

"Tenten-san..." the unconscious girl on Temari's arms finally whispered; strands of her once neatly pony-tailed hair were falling freely over her smudged face as she opened her ivory eyes to look at her team leader. "Tenten-san..." she repeated, "I can still... help you. Please..."

The extent of my responsibility does not begin nor end on fulfilling this mission's objectives...

Tenten gritted her teeth as she heard the young Hyuuga's voice, "Don't put all our efforts to waste!" she yelled; mustering enough strength to hurl an enemy shinobi to shield her body from an incoming barrage of weapons.

My job as a shinobi is to serve my country and to protect its people...

"And while you're at it..." she flailed her nunchaku again; pulling it over to hammer it straight towards the unfortunate Cloud ninja's stomach, "... Do me a favor!"

It has been decided on that warm summer day in Konohagakure...


"An intelligence mission?"

The Godaime nodded, "this mission will serve as a follow-up to Team Kakashi's initial response."

Tenten looked thoughtful for a second, "what kind of data is needed then?"

"Possible hostility of Hidden Cloud Village... again;" the very prospect of the idea seemed to bore her witless, "... and we need you to use your expertise in weapons to gather intel data about the kind of things they use."

Tenten blinked at the serious face of the Hokage. Something seemed off.

"I don't exactly know what kind of tactic they used but..." she let out a dejected sigh, "...they somehow managed to bring down Haruno Sakura and Uchiha Sasuke using only shurikens and other ordinary projectile weapons..."

The weapon specialist's brows drew to meet as she proceeded to drilling a hole on her skull. "No way..." A shuriken? They were taken down by shurikens when those two, basically, could send advanced and forbidden jutsu-users to their graves by a finger's poke on the forehead. What the hell was the world coming down to? "You mean they didn't even sense it coming?"

"Yes." The older woman closed her eyes and nodded, "Yes... Surprisingly, they didn't." she tilted her head to look at her, "And if Uchiha Sasuke, after all his efforts to keep out of sight with Orochimaru in the past, failed to notice it..." Tenten flinched at this, "the situation certainly speaks for itself."

That was the understatement of the year. Uchiha Sasuke's intuition exceeded Akamaru and Kiba's in a sense; but to be attacked by plainly forged shurikens without even noticing it made Tenten draw three conclusions: one, you deliberately ignored it; two, your cute head had grown larger and inexplicably idiotic due to advanced jutsus, it made you forget the fact that tricky basics were also considered deadly (which, hit something close to the Uchiha boy); and three, there's something more than meets the eye.

A shuriken, taking down two of the three Legendary Sannin protégés...

Then a certain conversation with Kakashi-sensei clicked at the back of Tenten's mind, "Does... Chakra-enhanced weapons ring a bell, Tsunade-sama...?"

The Hokage looked up at her briefly in surprise, and then smiled, "if I'm not mistaken, you had met with Kakashi already."

"Well... He found me training..." she grimaced. Well, actually, it was more like he tried to kill her while training.

"And you survived..." Tsunade chuckled, apparently reading her facial expression, "Naruto... although he wasn't hit by any weapons, was severely hurt but he had enough stamina to help Kakashi carry those two back here for treatment." She shrugged. "That boy is simply an endless supply of energy..."

"How did they escape?"

"Kakashi and Naruto held their guards up for some time but it wasn't enough to keep them at bay. It seemed, they just fled to call for reinforcements and later, caught up with Naruto and Kakashi near our village's gate. It took a number of Jounins to do the job... and Kurenai had to use her Genjutsu to make things fall into place. Genma was hit by a shuriken and he's now under medical supervision."

Tenten flinched, now wary of the fact that she wasn't going to face any normal shinobi at this rate, "How bad was it?"

"Paralysis and a severe case of comatose, among other things..." Tsunade looked at her, grimly, "Anko was only scratched but she reported that her arm was rendered paralyzed for an hour."

Much to Tenten's chagrin, the last mark made her conclude that everything landed on conclusion number three: there's really something more than meets the eye if it was THAT bad.

"But there's more..." Tsunade propped her chin on her knuckles and closed her eyes, "When Kakashi used his Sharingan to determine their attacks, he discovered that even though those weapons were completely deadly, the only trace of chakra he found was only meant to conceal its presence..." she looked up at the startled kunoichi, "It was just an ordinary throw and an ordinary weapon, so to speak..."

Now that really had to be something else. "But if the Sharingan couldn't figure it out, why send someone without complete knowledge of powerful Doujutsu or Genjutsu? Why... why send me?" Tenten knew she was skilled enough to handle assassinations and, yes, even some intel or recon missions; but then, with the intensity of intelligence needed to gather all the missing puzzle pieces, Shikamaru seemed more fit for the job than anybody else was.

"That's the point." the Hokage seemed firm in her decision though; judging from the smug smile on her face. "And may I remind you that you wouldn't have made it to ANBU for nothing at all."

Tenten was left to stare at her, dumbfounded. No arguments on that one, she supposed.

"When Kurenai reported that she had trouble holding her Genjutsu during the attack, we figured that Genjutsu and Sharingan weren't at all that effective on the enemy; obviously leaving us with two other offensive options: Ninjutsu and Taijutsu-based attacks." She searched Tenten's face, "So now, if we were to conduct an intel operation regarding this matter, we would be needing someone who excels at Taijutsu, Ninjutsu, and..." she offered Tenten a smile that scared the wits out of her. "Has extensive knowledge when it comes to handling and figuring out weapons."

She didn't know if she should feel honored that the Godaime trusted her or what...

"And with this kind of mission," Tsunade opened her record book to prove her point. "I believe you're more than qualified for the job... more than Shikamaru or anybody else..." she half-smiled, "... Besides, I trust your judgment in most things, so I'm afraid I have to take Gai's words for once..."

Tenten batted her hands comically, "You should've stayed on not believing his words, Hokage-sama..." but she was glad her idol highly trusted her abilities, "And it would've been wise for Konoha's safety to stick out of his words..."

The Godaime let out an amused chuckle, "Alright... if that's the case..." her face suddenly lost all humor, "I'll take Hyuuga Neji's words then..."

She was left to gape at the smirking Godaime. "Wha... What does that suppose to mean?"

"I don't know..." Tsunade seemed highly amused, "Why don't you tell me?"

Her face rivaled the redness of a beet as she hung her head low; valiantly fighting the urge to put on her dragon ANBU mask to cover her face. She couldn't believe the Godaime was teasing her too. "Is that all I need to know about the mission?" she mumbled; meekly.

The Godaime let out a snort of laughter. "You wouldn't need that mask since this isn't an ANBU operation."

Tenten reflected, not for the first time, that the Godaime had a very bad habit of looking through her.


She felt thousands of years had passed already since that mission briefing.

"Tell Lee and the others... how grateful I was to have met them!"

Konohamaru looked at her in disbelief, "The past tense..." he admonished with a faint chuckle that sounded more like an audible choke; kicking and punching blindly to prove the point that she seemed to ignore. "Stop talking as if you're really going to die because... because I am not going to let you!" unshed tears were now ushered down his blood-stained face. He knew how well she meant her words and he simply refused to let it happen.

It has been decided so she could protect those who are dear to her...

"Tenten-san..." Hanabi stood on her feet with Temari's support; face marred with grimaces as she willed the pain away. "Tenten-san... Neji-niisan wouldn't like this!"

The name seemed to strike a chord on Tenten's chest. And for one moment— just one brief moment, they witnessed how her eyes had softened, "Neji..." she muttered before being snapped back to reality by the sound of three rapid succession of clashing metals, "Tell him how deeply honored I was to be part of his team!"

It has been decided so she could, at least, try to protect someone who doesn't need and doesn't want her protection...

"Tell him; I apologize for breaking my promise..." a whisper, shortly followed by a punch that she barely deflected. "Tell him to take care of himself... for me..."

To protect the one she loves from afar...

And then the enemy finally managed to land a blow on her slightly smiling face...

Gai-sensei... Lee... Everyone... Forgive me...

The stinging pain of the contact seemed to knead its way slowly until it enveloped her numbing senses.

Neji... I...

She was hurled towards a tree; knocking away the ribbons that tied the disarrayed buns on either side of her head.

... I wasn't strong enough...

"That's enough!" growled Konohamaru as he made a mad dash forward and punched holes with his spiked-metal knuckles; bringing down every Cloud Ninja on his path until he managed to reach the one who sent Tenten flying towards a tree. Hanabi, on the other hand— even with her bleeding cuts and wounds— somehow managed to activate her Byakugan; working her way around to beat the enemy into a bloody pulp with her Jyuuken.

Temari could only stare at them as she weighed decisions. She was now torn between everything else; and yet she could see that the younger Jounin had already made the choice for her. The rational part of her mind was yelling at her to take it and complete the mission since sacrifices were inevitable in a shinobi's life; and the only thing— the one thing that she had to do was to simply grab the opportunity that their leader was giving them.

But her conscience wouldn't let her. Temari's grip on her tessen tightened.

"Tenten-neesama!" shouted Konohamaru as another flurry of weapons were hurled towards the brown-headed kunoichi...

Only to be deflected by a very strong gust of wind that came from Temari's tessen. "Maa, maa...!" the blonde Jounin tsked disapprovingly, "You know, your stubbornness is beginning to bore me... But, then again," yet the worry in her eyes belied the haughtiness in her voice, "what else should I expect from a garbage like you?"

Tenten chuckled as she struggled to lift herself up, "I may be garbage..." she grinned, "But let me show you what this garbage is all about," her hands began to do a series of seals...

And when recognition dawned upon Temari her eyes widened as memories of the Jounin exams flooded her brain. She had watched alongside the Kazekage at that time; and the explosive power of the Ninjutsu that she was about to perform was enough to surprise Gaara himself, she had made a mental note to forget the thirteen-year-old kunoichi that she defeated in the Chuunin exams.

After all, it was the same technique that had earned her the title of Jounin; and it was also the improved version of the very same technique that had made her ANBU— one of the finest kunoichi Konohagakure had ever produced.

"Get them away as far as you could..." said Tenten; holding off the tiger seal for a few seconds before pulling out five exploding tags from her pocket.

There was no time to argue.

"Konohamaru! Hanabi-san!" and as Temari was gathering her chakra to force-carry the two Chuunins away from the site, she realized in dismay that Tenten had, once again, made everything easier for her.

"Take care..." the weapon specialist hurled the exploding tags towards the surrounding trees and fumbled on the last seal.

Dragon

"Kai!" she yelled; thrusting a kunai on the ground as three shurikens hit her straight on the back, making her fall forward on her knees, face veiled by her long brown hair.

... I'm sorry.

No matter how bitter the truth was, some things were just better left unsaid. Her fate and his fate were two different things, sealed to the very last when the tags she threw finally exploded.

"Tenten-neesama!" Konohamaru cried.

Somehow, he knew that her last word was his name.


Somewhere in the forests of Konohagakure, an ANBU, pushing his eagle mask up to his head, spun around to witness a flock of sparrows fleeing in suspicious distress.

"Neji?" asked his companion while pulling his cat-mask down. "Is something wrong?" It was Lee.

Neji paused for a while, still eyeing the flock intently as something disturbing tugged on his chest. "... It's nothing." He said; mentally counting until he saw the fourth sparrow and mused that the poor thing was limping.

"Oh..." Lee smiled cheerfully, "As I was saying, on a glorious day like this, I wish the youthful flower of our mighty team was here... enjoying the soft rays of the sun that replenishes the vigor of our springtime of youth..."

Neji was forced to spare him a wary glance. "They're bound to be home anytime soon..." he looked up at the sparrows again and counted: one... two... three...

His eyes narrowed; the limping sparrow was missing.

"Don't look back!" and then they heard a female shout from afar; followed by the unmistakable noise of metal embedding itself on trees.

Neji immediately had his hands form a hand seal, "Byakugan!" he scanned the area and found Temari with Konohamaru and an unconscious Hanabi draped over his back. All of them seemed to be in bad shape. "It's them!" he shouted at Lee, who immediately pulled his mask up and (nearly) flew to aid the badly beaten team.

"Neji-kun," said Lee with a sheepish grin behind his mask, "I didn't know you had a knack for predicting Tenten's arrival..."

Something struck the Hyuuga prodigy then; and as he scanned the area once more, his heart began to hammer madly— his suspicions bitterly confirmed. "Lee..." the brief unsteadiness that shook his voice made Lee lose all humor.

"She's not with them..."


to be continued...

Been a while since I posted something. I may clean this thing up some time soon before posting an update. My head's a bit foggy right now so, there. That's the best I could do for now.