It was dark, almost at that point of night where naught but the moon creates shadows to avoid. The dark outlines of trees gave the forest a dense and confined feeling to the two partners sitting on the ground, catching their breath. All they could hear was the panting of the others' breath. In and out…in and out…
"Neji…we…we can't just LEAVE him there!" Tenten leaned against her knees, bent over her feet, while her lungs heaved with an effort to reduce the burning in her chest.
"Tenten…we…don't have a choice…the…mission…." Neji was leaning against the trunk of a cedar tree, his chest rising and falling, licking his lips and swallowing, pain shooting down his dry throat as he did so.
"Neji…this was YOUR stupid idea. It's YOUR fault that he got caught. You're team leader; you can't just let him go! Doesn't he mean ANYTHING to you?" Tenten had caught her breath now in her furious state, anger vibrating off of her as she glared down at Neji. "If we go back to the village he'll die. Are you really willing to live with yourself if you do that?"
"Tenten…," he said, leaning his head against the tree, closing his eyes.
"No. You know what? I don't care. If you're not going to save him, I will." And with that Tenten leapt into the branches, disappearing into the darkness as Neji stared after her.
He peered into the woods, willing himself to move. He knew his mission. He knew his duty. But a nagging feeling pulled at his heart and thoughts of Tenten and Lee filled his clouded mind. With a worried sigh he leaned his head on his knees and sat as the caliginosity settled upon him.
Tenten sat in a tree above the enemy's camp. She could see Lee lying in a heap on the ground near a fire in the center of the clearing, arms and legs bound tightly. She could see his eyes closed and assumed he was unconscious. She counted to herself. There had been ten ninja when they attacked their caravan. She had taken down two; a kunai to the chest, another to the neck. Neji had taken down four; two with sixty-four chakra shocks and two with blasts of air from his hand. And Lee…Lee had been in single combat with one of them while the other three circled behind him and knocked him unconscious with a short stab to the neck. Neji and Tenten noticed as soon as his ferocious battle cries stopped and turned to run towards his captors. But the enemy had prepared well and Neji's foot fell on a paper bomb that triggered an explosion of toxic and blinding gas around what was left of their team. Using his byakugan Neji had managed to get him and Tenten out of the smoke without inhaling any and away from the ninja…but not without leaving Lee behind.
One…two…three...three ninja….
Only three.
Tenten suddenly shrieked as an explosion from behind forced her off her branch and onto the grass below. She fell with a cry and gasped sharply as she tried to regain the breath that had been knocked out of her. With a force of effort she pushed herself off the ground and turned to face her attacker. The woman, for her figure was curved, glared at her through an eye slit in a red mask. A brown leather belt wrapped around her scarlet tunic, accenting her waist and another leather strap sat across her chest, holding a katana in place on her back. High ebony boots reached up to her knees. Thick unbound blonde hair formed waves down her back.
"Looks like you came all by yourself, little girl," the woman sneered at Tenten.
Glancing around behind her, the Leaf ninja noticed the other three converging from their place at the fire towards her, scythes, senbon and a wakizashi all held in their gloved hands and ready for combat.
Looking back at her opponent Tenten glared as the fire cast shadows on the face of the woman, her clothing accented with orange and yellow tints.
"Give. Him. Back," she said through her teeth, flipping a kunai into her hand.
"If you want him," the woman said, unsheathing the sword strapped to her back. "You'll have to take him."
Tenten smirked and with a cry flew at the woman. Jumping high into the branches, the woman laughed as Tenten heard the shrill of metal ringing through the air and jumped to her left quickly as three senbon flew past her. She turned to face the trio of men and bit her thumb, causing it to bleed. Taking a scroll from one of her waist pockets, she threw it open and smeared her blood across it, summoning a dozen ninja tools to project themselves at the men. They leapt back, easily avoiding the attack, and then rushed at her at once again. This time the man with a silvery grey scythe came slicing at her. Flipping backwards Tenten withdrew two kunai and tossed them at him. Stopping, he used his scythe as a shield and the blades reflected off of it uselessly.
Frustrated, Tenten growled and summoned a ball and chain, spinning it around her head and sending it towards the man with the wakizashi blade. The ball made contact with him and he disappeared in a "poof" of white smoke.
A clone!
Tenten looked behind her just in time to see him running towards her, blade upright and gleaming in the moonlight. Tenten retreated backwards, but not without the man landing his blow and slicing her arm from shoulder to elbow. Her hand flew to her wound and she fell to her knees, wincing as pain shot through her body. Behind her she heard the grass crunching as all three men flew towards her to finish her off.
"Protective eight trigrams!"
Tenten eyes widened as Neji landed in front of her and, in a whirl of blue chakra, spun at blinding speed, sending the trio flying backwards and causing two to impale themselves on the branches of trees on the other side of the camp, and the other, the closest, to be torn, skin and muscle shredded.
Tenten's gorge rose as she saw the man lying a few meters in front of her as Neji's cycle slowed to a stop but she soon cried out as another wave of pain coursed through her arm.
Neji turned and knelt by her, byakugan eyes scanning her for any other injuries.
"You came?" She looked at him, scrutinizing his face for any signs of why.
"Hn," he nodded, helping her up as he concluded she was fine everywhere else. She smiled at him, but then they both turned abruptly as a ferocious cry sounded behind them.
The woman in red stood before them, fists clenched at her sides, withdrawn katana in her right hand. Her eyes narrowed at the fifteen year olds that stood in front of her; the fifteen year olds that had managed to defeat her team.
With a fierce battle cry she lunged herself at her adversaries. Neji and Tenten exchanged a quick glance, smiled, and then steeled themselves against the battle fast approaching.
The woman in red shot herself at them but Neji and Tenten both jumped to either side of her, preventing her attack from succeeding. She turned sharply on her heels and headed towards Tenten, realizing an injured opponent made for an easier target. The two collided in a clash of metal, kunai against katana, each one gaining on the other for but a moment before her opponent taking the upper hand. Little by little Tenten forced the woman to the edge of the clearing. Neji joined the battle, jabbing at chakra points in an attempt to close them off. The two Leaf ninja were a flurry of activity around each other, bending around the other's moves and providing no opening for the enemy. The slice on Tenten's arm throbbed with each movement, but Tenten could not be held back with a simple wound. She withdrew a fuma shuriken and sent it whirling towards the woman. But it was easily dodged as the woman jumped backwards. This however had been Tenten's plan and the woman found her back to Neji. She spun around to face him and readied chakra into her fist, preparing to land a blow, but he was too quick for her. He knelt and spun his body around in a spinning kick, knocking her off her feet before kicking her back, forcing her into the air. Turning in her flight, she looked above her to find Tenten surrounded with two scrolls, twirling in an aerial dance. With lightning speed Tenten began summoning tool after ninja tool and sent them plummeting towards the scarlet clad woman.
Forced to defend herself by crossing her arms in front of her face, she forgot about what waited below…until it was too late. Neji had begun spinning and by the time she reached him, a dome shaped film of chakra stopped her descent and sent her screaming and flailing into the air before landing more than five meters away. The woman struggled to regain her footing, arms and legs trembling beneath her, not willing her to rise, groaning and shivering from the pain in her back.
Her agony ended a few moments later when Tenten reanimated her ninja tools that lay on the forest floor with chakra strings and they flew at her, piercing her body. Victorious, Tenten landed on her knees a few feet away from her crumpled and broken opponent.
"I told you I'd get him back," she said. She turned and exchanged a smile with Neji across the field. He looked at her with soft eyes, and she felt them trail her as she walked over to Lee, unbinding the ropes that bound his hands and feet. It wasn't until she was done assessing him that she remembered her own wound and winced as she looked at the gash along her arm.
It was a horrid sight. The sword had slashed her skin and muscle almost to the bone. In her adrenaline induced state Tenten had not made the pain out to be unbearable…but now…now she could barely move her body without sending a bullet of pain through it. She cried out as she tried to movie her arm.
Neji was there in a second. Removing a bandage from his pack he began wrapping her arm, tight to stop the bleeding. Tenten bit her lip in an attempt to suppress the screams that rose in her throat as he touched the cut.
"We…make a pretty good team, don't we?" she asked him, trying to distract herself. He nodded as he continued his work. "No one's ever beaten us together before." She smiled at him and he looked up. Holding the bandage in place, he tied his work together with his teeth.
"And no one ever will."