A/N: This is a little oneshot that wanted to be something bigger but just didn't quite make it.
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
"Youth wins again!"
Tenten shot a look at her only sane team member at the loud female victory cry. Neji's eyes were wider than normal and he was staring off into the distance towards where the cry had come from, it was obvious by the veins bulging around his eyes that he was staring at something that only he could see. Tenten shifted slightly, careful to not fall out of the tree she was hiding in, to look at her other two team members. Gai-Sensei's head was perked up, and he had a faint almost reminiscing smile on his face while Lee was bouncing from branch to branch like an excited squirrel.
"Sensei?" She questioned lightly, "What should we do now?"
It was Neji who answered, regardless of the fact that her question had clearly been directed towards someone else. "We enter the village, obtain the scroll that was stolen, and return to Konoha."
"We were expecting the people to be asleep. We have no feud with Wutai or the outer continents. Tora-Sama said that the people of Wutai most likely didn't even know that the scroll belonged to someone else, so if they see us, and then discover their scroll missing, they'll know who took it, and relation's between this country and our own would become even more strained." Tenten pointed out.
Gai-Sensie shot her a blinding smile, "Tenten's right."
Tenten shot Neji a smug look behind her Sensei's back, "So, what do we do about it?"
"Gai-sensei!" Lee called out suddenly.
"Who're you?"
Tenten turned so quickly if she hadn't been using Chakra to stick to the tree, she would have fallen. Beside her, Neji deactivated his Byakugan and waved his hands in front of his eyes, he said something about the girl being invisible to him, before he too turned to the person talking to them.
She was thin, curvy, and very obviously not a civilian. She wore a tight green turtleneck top that ended above her belly-button and had no sleeves, along with beige high waist shorts and brown boots. She had a brown glove on her right hand that went up to her elbow, and on her left, she had an arm guard that covered from shoulder to hand. She had short black hair, dark eyes, and her bangs covered what looked like a blank forehead protector.
A freelance Ninja?
"I know you." the girl said simply. She was staring at Gai-Sensie intently with narrowed eyes. "I know you!"
Tenten heard an angry male shout in the distance. the voice was rough and angry, and every other word was a curse she would never be brave enough to repeat in friendly company. The girl who had just claimed to know Gai-Sensie looked slightly worried as she shot a look over her shoulder towards the origin of the shout. "Uhh, I gotta go."
"Yuffie!"
The time the voice that cried out was female, but it sounded no less angry than the first voice, though it lacked the cursing. Tenten noticed that the girl, Yuffie, shrunk into herself even more at the shout. she looked slightly guilty for a long moment before shaking it off.
"I don't remember where I know you from, but I know that I know you. Ye Gawds, I don't have time for this!" Yuffie said dramatically. "Look, stick around for a while, kay? There's an Inn in the village, and the people are super friendly... most of the time, if you don't work for The Shinra. If you work for The Shinra, you can go away now because you're not welcome. Okay?"
"We don't work for Shinra." Lee said with wide eyes. Tenten could tell that he had no more idea what a Shinra was than she did, but she wasn't about to tell the girl that.
"Great!" Yuffie said cheerfully, and then she was gone as if she'd never been there in the first place. Tenten watched the spot she had been standing before turning towards Gai-Sensei, "I thought that this was a civilian village?"
"It used to be." Gai-Sensei said gravely. He looked off into the distance thoughtfully and Tenten followed his gaze to where a tall mountain- not unlike Hokage mountain- stood.
"She..." Neji started only to trail off. He shook his head and started again, "I couldn't see her."
Tenten frowned and bowed her head in thought. Team Gai had been hired to collect a scroll that had been stolen and then sold, many years before. The entire mission had felt off from the start, and Gai-Sensei knew something he wasn't saying.
"So, you've returned."
Gai-Sensei frowned, and his expression was so displeased that Tenten wished she could turn away, but she couldn't. She was too curious. This man claimed to know Gai-Sensei, and since coming here, Tenten had seen a much more serious side of her Sensei. He seemed almost... ashamed? What did the place have to do with her sensei's past? She hadn't even wondered about his past before now.
"I have." Gai-Sensei replied evenly. "...Father."
Tenten didn't have to look at her team mates to know that they were just as shocked as she was. The girl from before appeared suddenly in front of Gai-Sensei as if she had always been in the room, even though Tenten's back was to the door, and there was no where in the room for the girl to have hidden, and the door hadn't been opened.
"Hah! I'm not the heir anymore!" Yuffie cheered. She pumped a fist into the air with a gleeful cry. She then looked towards Gai-Sensei and stated, half apologetically, "Just cause I'm a princess, doesn't mean I wanna be a leader, man."