The Most Important Thing
Do not own
Once again, the style's different from my usual writing. I think I'm starting to grow up!
Happy New Year's Eve... In advance, but yeah.
And what I was saying about Memories...? I think I'll just think my stories though and post oneshots, I suppose I'm better at them.
I'd deleted the chapter 'Neon Pink' then, okay?
Ehm, This story has been reposted due to technical problems. Thanks. The story title too.
-♥-♥-♥-
She almost cursed as she drew the slim knife from it's sheath.
She only had a limited number of weapons as the mission details entailed the lack of bulky holsters strapped onto her thighs, the holsters she'd known and loved for years.
The only access to weapons aside from the senbon in her hair, the slide comb in her hair that had razor sharp edges and could be coated in poison at a button's press, the slim anklet around her right ankle that would have smoke bombs ready to be thrown at a moment's notice, the few knives she had managed to attach onto her thighs inconspicuously in individual holsters, the few other weapons she had managed to attach to the hem and bodice of her dress, and the necklace on her neck that could be made into a strong, almost weightless mass of wires in a second and could strangle someone at the worst possible situation...; Well, her only other access to weaponry would be the scroll or two she had stuffed into her evening bag and had left... with Neji.
"Absolutely wonderful," she muttered as the slim blade she used went hilt to hilt with a sword.
She smirked as it didn't give way to the much bigger, and therefore presumably stronger weapon.
"Size isn't everything, you know," she looked up at the man as she grinned ferally. The man was over a head taller than her, and well built. "Size isn't everything," she repeated, staring straight into his eyes as she kneed him painfully, simultaneously disengaging her knife from the sword and disappearing.
The man looked around, confused as his sword was held limply at his side.
Tenten sniffed indignantly. Firstly, this surveillance mission for some woman whose husband was supposedly cheating on her... Seeing the wife's headstrong behavior, they had presumed that he was most likely a henpecked husband sick of his wife's overwhelmingly shrewish attitude.
Of course, unfortunately, it seemed that the wife was suspicious for the wrong reason entirely and they had walked straight into some crime lord's den, the man in question being the leader's subordinate.
So Team Gai haplessly entered the decidedly massive casino, wearing civilian clothes (meaning a dress for Tenten), tailing the husband, unluckily for them, they had walked straight into a meeting... Let's just say it was a closed door affair. At first, when they entered, they were suspicious. But keeping Lee from the booze tended to distract the entire team whenever they participated in missions that had need for infiltration.
They hadn't noticed that all of the patrons were decidedly adults, had weapons, and a majority of which were male.
They were surrounded by a total of a little over a hundred able fighters.
Why are missions never so simple?
Heck, what are they supposed to say? 'Sorry ma'am, your husband wasn't cheating on you. He was, on the other hand, plotting with a crime syndicate and they tried to kill us because we walked into a private and most likely, were discussing some illegal matters.'
And really, when those hundred plus fighters hovered over them, blocking the light... Let's just say you don't stand between ninjas and their comrades, or the escape route, for that matter. It's like standing in between a hippo and the water.
You get mauled beyond recognition.
Tenten inspected the hemline of her dress as she grabbed two kunai, snapping the flimsy threads that had secured the blades onto her dress. She straightened as she made her way towards Neji, seeing as Gai and Lee were doing fine on their own, together, also, she needed her weapons, and most importantly, she needed to guard Neji's blind spot.
Secondly, the 'over a hundred able fighters' disgraced themselves. If the opponent vanishes, and is therefore not in front of you, the next directions to check would be left, right, behind, up, and down.
You do not stand around looking like a complete and utter baboon gaping over nothing.
Tenten murmured silkily into the man's ear. "Behind you."
The man turned frantically.
Her eyes were hard as she hit him with the knife, clobbering him with the flat of the blade.
The man slumped over, unconscious.
She turned to the next one, apparently brandishing a cleaver. "Is that supposed to intimidate me?"
The man stared at the kunoichi with death in her eyes.
As a last minute resort, he frantically tried to strike at her with the cleaver. She knocked it out of his grasp easily and forced him to his knees.
"Mistakes can kill. Be happy that we are not murderers." Tenten smiled coldly as the man looked horrified. It was clear that she implied the fact that they, who severely outnumbered them, would be so willing to murder three teens and their sensei.
She continued to make her way over to Neji, and ended up engaging another man in a fight. 'Sexist pigs... '
She realized that this man wasn't like the others she had fought, she realized it when his katana met her kunai. Sparks flew and the man exerted pressure on the blade until she was driven onto her knees.
She saw Neji in trouble from the corner of her eye as one of the few women stood on the balcony, safe enough to not be noticed with all the ruckus, loading the crossbow with a barbed arrow.
By fluke, it had been aimed on his blind spot.
Tenten growled angrily, quickly shifting her weight to one knee, still having been forced on her knees, and kicked the man viciously as she disengaged the kunai.
While turning, she used her free hand to throw the kunai.
Neji heard the clang of metal upon metal as both projectiles clattered harmlessly to the ground. The kunai had hit the steel arrowhead. He turned to see the woman on the balcony and Tenten with some difficulty with the man she was fighting.
Tenten threw the other kunai at the woman. The woman was too slow to avoid it as she was engrossed in picking another target. Tenten didn't skip a beat and turned to the man she had faced. He was standing up.
'I see,' Neji thought.
'Among the fighters, they have useless ones. Also...' Tenten thought at the same time.
'They have... specialists of the field.' they thought together. Coming upon the same answer, their eyes locked for a moment, and the message was confirmed between the two.
The two hurriedly made their way toward each other, with Tenten managing to get rid of the katana wielding fighter.
"Neji..."
"Hm?"
"What about Lee and Gai-sensei?"
"They'll handle themselves."
"True," they stood back to back. "Hey Neji?"
"Hn?"
"Hand me my bag please?"
He handed her the clutch bag she'd opted to use. It matched her dress, but quite frankly, Tenten couldn't care less. She had several dresses in her closet, ranging from casual to formal to funeral. They were rarely used, only for cases such as espionage and subterfuge... and mourning. The same could be said for the bags, jewelry, and other accessories.
She grabbed the scrolls, summoned twin katanas and raising one slightly over the other, braced herself.
She launched herself forward, the untrained fighters and the specialists alike were unprepared for the woman who was a silvery blur with the blades.
She attacked them freely, each blade followed by the other, and so fast that those who barely managed to block the first strike had no chance of blocking off the second.
Neji smirked. "Hakke: Hyaku Nijūhachi Shō" each strike was perfect, each one hitting the target in points specifically known to bring pain and vulnerability to the human body.
After she finished, by then reasonably exhausted, she had traded the twin katanas for a single blade and had used her free hand to target other victims; they had fallen before they even knew that a blade had lodged under their ribs.
Tenten and Neji found themselves encountering each other during the course of the fight, both of them were so engrossed at the battle, they both almost attacked each other.
Tenten having almost impaled him with the katana, stopping a scant inch from his throat.
Neji almost Jyuuken-ed her in the chest, which would have ensured pain and causing internal damage.
They both stopped just in time, Tenten laughing sheepishly as they both returned to their former positions; guarding each other's back.
"Gai-sensei and Lee are almost done... I think it was because they blinded a few people."
"Lee hit his own head with his own nunchucks. Again."
"Good point."
"Hn."
"We should probably finish up here too."
"True."
Tenten summoned her staff. Twirling it over her head expertly, she gained momentum and slammed the staff on a man's collarbone, bringing the man to his knees.
If she had been looking carefully, she would have noticed that the man's weapon was a short dagger and that he was still conscious, albeit barely and in pain.
As she turned away to deal with someone with what looked like a battle axe, the man crawled over and kneeled to stab her between the ribs, Neji's palm collided quite painfully into the man's gut. "Be careful," he admonished.
Tenten nodded and pivoted on her heel to throw shuriken at the man with a battle axe. "Thanks, Neji."
A loud scream of 'Gai-sensei!' filled the air. Neji cursed as he and Tenten moved to get to their teammate and sensei.
Remember the mention about hippopotamuses and water?
Same age old and repeatedly proven right adage applies here; any fool who stood in their path were plowed over by a fierce jounin who could seriously incapacitate them and a chuunin who had a hundred percent accuracy and had mastered more weapons that they could never dream or hope of even seeing.
As they reached Gai-sensei and Lee's sides, they were promptly greeted with Gai abruptly sitting upright in his own ridiculous annoying super fast recovery.
"What... is this about, Lee?" Tenten asked calmly, her voice dangerously calm.
The same deadly calm that usually followed with the victim in the hospital.
"Ah! It was because Gai-sensei tripped and fell because of this," he grinned sheepishly, gesturing at the puddle of water on the floor. "He just woke up now.
Tenten rolled her eyes. "What did I tell you guys about being careful?" she caught a look from Neji. "No Neji, this is a different matter entirely. Don't you -dare- say anything."
He leveled a you-have-got-to-be-kidding-if-you-really-think-I'm-going-to-shut-up-because-you-said-so look at her. Followed by a I'm-only-keeping-quiet-beacause-I-always-do-anyways look.
"Fine, fine. Anyways we have to get out of here and head back home, possibly apprehending as many as they could. That aside, the team surveyed the area.
"There are about forty left... Are those -reinforcements-?"
"It seems so." Neji answered her calmly.
"Perfect."
"I hope you're being sarcastic, or else I'd have serious grounds for officially calling you insane."
"You can't do that, because if you do, you'd be stuck with three insane teammates!"
"Let's go."
"Hai," chorused the other three as they all disappeared in a flicker.
Lee dealt painful blows, breaking several limbs and ribs while bashing a few heads in. Literally.
Gai, as with Lee, blinded all opponents with exuberance. They were down before they could recover from the blinding glare of pure shininess cheerfully dubbed youth.
Neji's opponents suffered from extreme pain and internal damage, most, if not all of his opponents will never be able to fight again.
Tenten's opponents ended up either unconscious via blunt impact object, or pale from much blood loss.
"We're finally done."
"Thank goodness."
"Let's go home."
At that moment, the team was very grateful for the fact that Tanzaku was close enough to Konoha to return speedily enough without needing to rest.
"We do have to bind them right?"
"Darn."
"Tenten, your weapons."
"I HATE cleaning up!"
The team spent the rest of the evening tying gagging and binding men and the few women, and picking up Tenten's weaponry which was less arduous as it sounded, her chakra strings that made her weapons return to her were very effective.
What hurt like hell was cleaning blood out of them.
The team did finish cleaning up and immediately proceeded to head back to report on the mission.
As they left the town, sort of but not quite following the sun just over the horizon, Neji called for Tenten's attention.
"What is it, Neji?"
"Your hemline is too short."
Raising an eyebrow, Tenten stared quizzically at her knee length dress.
She rolled her eyes, any longer than that, and she wouldn't have been able to move freely.
Her eyes softened though, as she watched him in front of her, running, as they all were, towards Konoha.
He isn't romantic, not at the very least. But more important than that... He cared.
And in their world where they were supposed to be doing their duty, their mission, nothing more and nothing less...
And the fact that he was a Hyuuga, the Hyuuga prodigy, in fact, who no one seeks care or affection from (Except Lee, and Lee, of course, was insane), mostly because it was thought that he was incapable of bothering to... Him caring was really the most important thing.
-♥-♥-♥-
Love sought is good, but given unsought, is better.
-William Shakespeare