All looked pleasant in Konoha. Little had happened the disrupt the relative peace that reigned, especially since a certain loud-mouth named Uzumaki Naruto had been gone from the village for two years already.
Hyuuga Neji and his teammate Tenten ended their usual practice in the shady forests. Around them were numerous scattered weapons and holes made by Neji's Hakkeshou Kaiten.
Seeing that Tenten was exhausted from flinging the kunais and practising her Soushouryu no Jutsu, Neji signalled for them to take a break.
"Let's take a break. We'll continue again afterwards," Neji said, as he tossed Tenten her bottle of water.
"Thanks," replied Tenten as she took a sip from her bottle. "So, any feedback on my performance just now? I'd appreciate any comments from a genius like you."
Hyuuga Neji smiled a little. It wasn't the first time he was called a genius. After all, was he not already a jounin at his age? "Your aiming and throwing speed are up to standard as usual but you need to work on your Soushouryu no Jutsu."
Suddenly, the bushes started to rustle and their Rock Lee burst out into the clearing.
"The fire of youth burns strongly in us! We need to harness it before it is gone! Neji-san, Tenten-san, guess what! Tsunade-sama just issued us a mission to gather information," Rock Lee exclaimed excitedly.
Just before Lee's teammates could utter a single word, Gai came crashing through and hi-kicked Rock Lee in the head. Ouch Tenten winced as Rock Lee slowly picked himself up.
"How could you run ahead and leave your dear sensei behind! Alas, the fire of youth burns strongly in you and my flame of youth is not as strong as it used to be," moaned Gai, presenting the most pitiful facial expression he could muster, which was considerable given the practise he had had.
"That's not true Sensei! Your fire's burning as strong as it ever was, I can feel it. Oh Sensei!" sobbed Lee as he held onto Gai's hands.
"Lee, my wonderful student," Gai said as he too held on tightly to Rock Lee's hands.
Getting impatient, Neji cut short their soppy moment asking," So what is this mission Tsunade-sama wants us to do?"
"Yeah," replied Tenten. "Tell us the details already!"
"Ah, the day is young, my student," Gai slowly replied. "But I admire your eagerness to begin your mission so I shall not keep you in the dark any longer. Lee, will you do the honour of telling your dear comrades?"
"No problem Sensei!" Came Lee's enthusiastic reply. Lee dramatically took out a large topographic map and rolled it open. "For this honourable Class B mission, Tsunade-sama has presented to us, our duty is to gather information on the hidden village of the rain. Recently, ninjas from that village have been trying to infiltrate our village and though we have captured them, they refuse to tell us their intentions. The most our interrogators can get out of them is that they are doing it order to retrieve something from Konoha, and they also plan to find out Konoha's weaknesses and to launch an attack to get what they want," Lee said, pausing to catch his breath.
Gai took over saying," We do not have much info on the rain village, so we do not know the kinds of ninjas we will be facing. Apparently, they did not send the most skilled of ninjas to our village, which means that the ninjas over at their village could be extremely strong. Any information on their real motives would be useful so my team-mates, you all need to be on your guard for this mission and try not to let our enemies spot us as we scope around their village for clues."
"Oh sensei, you explain it so well. Come on team! Let's complete our mission in 5 days!" Rock Lee shouted.
"Ah, always up to the challenge aren't you, my young spitfire," grinned Gai. "But first let us ready our equipment and then meet at our favourite restaurant in two hours for a sending off meal. Who knows when is the next time I get to taste delicious Kutsudon from that restaurant."
Tenten rolled her eyes at Gai's remark as Neji picked up the topographic map and started studying the best route to take as well as calculating the distance from Konoha to their destination.
As the team broke up to get their equipment, Tenten tapped Neji on the shoulder. "Ano, my house is on the way to yours so how about we pick my equipment before going to your house. Then we can head to the meeting place together."
"I've no objections to that but you have to carry your things yourself." Came Neji's reply.
"Now what makes you think that…" Tenten said, putting on an innocent expression.
Neji smiled to himself. The two of them discussed the mission ahead, as they went to collect their equipment.
High above on the roof of a building, Temari watched as the two ninjas walked along. Cleaning her fan, she commented, "Neji and Tenten sure get along pretty well. In fact, I think that Tenten is the only other girl Neji really talks to, other then his cousin Hinata of course. I heard they received a mission from Tsunade-sama."
"Why do you even bother about two ninjas minding their own business? Humph, women, always wanting to poke into other peoples lives. So troublesome." Naru Shikamaru said as he lazily stretched his legs from his resting position next to Temari.
Temari swiped Shikamaru with her fan, almost causing him to roll off the roof, but fortunately, Shikamaru caught himself just in time.
" Why did you do that for?" Shikamaru shouted irritably. " I could have dropped off the roof!"
" No you wouldn't. I know you can take care of yourself," smiled Temari. "And anyway you were insulting women…again."
"Cheh, women are so troublesome. No fury like a woman scorned," muttered Shikamaru. " I can't believe my parents let you stay in our guestroom when you came to visit."
"Well I am a diplomat of the Sand Village and I do need to settle some things with Konoha. You had better show some respect," Temari chided him.
" Fine, it's much too troublesome to quarrel with you anyway." Shikamaru settled back into his usual comfortable rest position and resumed his cloud watching. Temari just looked at him and seeing that he was thoroughly absorbed with doing nothing, she continued cleaning her fan.
Meanwhile, Neji and Tenten had reached Tenten's house, collected the necessary equipment and were now headed for the Hyuuga household. Neji and Tenten quietly walked along as they admired Konoha's peaceful landscape around them. It would be horrible if blood were ever shed on such beauty, Tenten thought to herself. It made her proud to be a ninja and to protect the village she loved. She looked at Neji feeling happy that she had a genius like him as a Konoha ninja and as a fellow teammate. She wouldn't want to face Neji in a battle and she felt safe whenever he was with her in their team missions. 'Mmmm, it sure is great to have a friend like Neji around, even though he can be very cold and unfeeling sometimes,' thought Tenten as she shifted the backpack she was carrying. 'Guess he doesn't consider helping to carry loads something a friend and teammate would do.'
Upon reaching the Hyuuga residence, Neji pushed open the front door and as he stepped into his house, a dog suddenly ran up to him and started barking.
"It's Akamaru! That means Kiba-san is here too!" exclaimed Tenten. Just then, Inuzuka Kiba appeared together with Aburame Shino and Hyuuga Hinata trailing behind them.
" What are you doing here?" questioned Neji. "Weren't you all training somewhere else?"
"I could ask you the same question," Kiba replied, picking up Akamaru. "Just so you know, Kurenai-sensei told us that we received a mission from Tsunade-sama. Apparently we need to bring back two ninjas who have been sent to rain village one month ago on some mission, we don't know what. All we know is that they were expected to be back a week ago but they are still missing. No one knows what happened."
" Tsunade-sama also sent my team on a information gathering mission to Rain Village." Neji explained. " Where is Hiashi-sama? I need to inform him that I will be away for a while on a mission."
"He is in his room, Neji-nisan," Hinata said softly. " He has already consented to my mission to Hidden Village of the rain."
" I'll go and inform him right this moment. Tenten-san, wait here with the others while I go prepare for the mission. I shouldn't take long." With that, Neji disappeared into one of the rooms. Hinata politely asked Tenten if she would like to have a drink while waiting.
" Thanks but you don't need to get me anything. Neji-san and I will be going to meet the rest of our team at the Tokage restaurant where we will have a meal before setting off," explained Tenten, smiling at Hinata. " By the way, I heard from Neji-san that you have grown stronger. Is it due to Naruto's influence?" Tenten teased Hinata. As expected, Hinata nodded her head slightly and blushed.
" Naruto is definitely boosting her determination to become stronger. Maybe we should print a large poster of Naruto to put up whenever Hinata fights." Kiba said jokingly.
" Humph, you and your stupid ideas. Stop teasing her already. You don't want to make her faint from embarrassment before the mission starts now do you," Shino quickly retorted. " Any way Kurenai-sensei's here so we have got to get going."
" Bye Tenten-san. Sorry but we have got to go," Kiba announced as Hinata said a quick goodbye and promptly joined her teammates.
" Okay, bye and good luck in your mission," Tenten said. As Hinata's team left, Neji reappeared with his equipment in his sling bag. " Have they gone already? Well we had better get a move on it soon if we want to be punctual for the meeting."
And so Neji and Tenten left the Hyuuga household and headed for the Tokage restaurant. They had plenty of time left but they always liked to be there at least 5 minutes before the actual timing. Along the way they discussed different matters such as the change in Hinata and ways to improve their fighting styles and practises.