Gogeta: Dammit Tenten.
Tenten: What?
Gogeta: Giving the readers spoilers!
Tenten: Oh sorry.
Gogeta: Yeah you'll be sorry by the end of the chapter. Now anyways on with the next chapter.
Tenten: What did he mean I'd be sorry?
Neji: I don't know, but I suggest you wear a hard hat for a while.
Gogeta: By the way, how did that fight with Sasuke turn out.
Neji: I don't want to talk about it.
Sasuke: Trapped him in my Mangekyou
Gogeta: Stab him for three days straight?
Sasuke: No...Caramelldansen
Gogeta: Yikes
Neji awoke from a dreamless sleep and his whole body ached. He rubbed his neck where Sasuke had struck him and forced himself to a sitting position. Slowly he remembered what had happened; Sasuke's appearance, his attack and his departure. Neji groaned and looked around, expecting Keito to be gone and his friends dead, but what he saw surprised him. One was missing, but it wasn't Keito.
"Tenten! Are you ok?" Neji yelled as he rushed over to her. He put a hand on her shoulder, but she weakly tried to push him away and sobbed into the dirt. She's still in shock from the genjutsu. Neji thought. At least she's still alive. Neji turned now to Keito and his Byakugan could see that Sasuke hadn't touched him. His attention then turned to Hinata, but she was nowhere to be seen. Panic swelled up inside Neji at the thought of his cousin alone with Sasuke. He clenched his fists and only then did he notice that he had a scroll in his hand. He recognized the Uchiha symbol and ripped the scroll open. Inside Neji found Sasuke's perfect penmanship and his insides turned to ice as he read:
It's been a while, Tenten, Neji.
I have taken Hinata with me and you shall have her back in return for the prisoner Keito.
Deliver him dead or alive to the Land of Birds and your precious Hinata will not be harmed.
I shall wait for five days, if you do not show, then Hinata's head shall decorate the Hyuuga Mansion's gate and her blood the walls.
Don't be late.
Sasuke Uchiha
Neji stared down at the scroll as if it was this piece of paper that had stolen Hinata. Slowly his insides unclenched and his mind began to race. The Land of Birds, I have to get there now!
Neji rushed back over to Tenten and forced her into a sitting position, "Tenten! Snap out of it!" he yelled, snapping his fingers in her face. Tenten's eyes were shut so tightly there were deep wrinkles on her forehead and Neji had to take a deep breath to steady himself. He built up a small amount of chakra in his fingers and touched Tenten's forehead. He could feel her tension melt away as his chakra forced out Sasuke's, returning Tenten's to equilibrium. The furrows vanished from Tenten's face and she tentatively opened one eye. She stared at Neji for a moment and then she seemed to remember what had happened. Tenten was on her feet, kunai in hand, searching for Sasuke.
"He's already gone, Tenten." Neji said softly, holding out Sasuke's scroll.
"What?" Tenten said as she took the scroll, "And he didn't kill us or take-" Tenten's voice vanished as she read the scroll.
"Seems he expects us to deliver Keito to him personally." Neji said indicating the unconscious criminal.
"But why not just take him now?" Tenten asked.
Neji forced himself to calm down and pondered this. "He wants a re-match."
"A re-match?"
"Yeah, he said he wasn't at 100% today so he must want to test his skills against me when he is."
"But why the Land of Birds?" Tenten asked.
"I have no idea..."Neji admitted. "We've been there before when we had to deal with the ghost warrior, but I don't know if it has any significance to Sasuke."
"Maybe it's close to one of Orochimaru's hide-outs." Tenten said, suddenly excited.
"We'll worry about that later, right now our main priority is Hinata." Neji said firmly.
"So we just have to go to the Land of Birds, get Hinata back and then take Keito back to Konoha." Tenten said brightly.
"Sasuke won't be an easy win, but that is the basic plan." Neji agreed.
"Well what are we waiting for?"
Neji nodded and put Keito over his shoulder in a fireman carry. They shared a look and leapt into the trees.
They traveled in silence, Neji unable to focus on anything besides Hinata. Only when he almost fell out of the trees did Neji force himself to pay more attention to his surroundings.
"What's wrong?" Tenten asked. "You've never stumbled before, let alone as much as you have been."
"I just hope Lord Hiashi doesn't learn of this."
"Yeah I don't think he'd be too happy."
"You don't understand." Neji said darkly.
"What don't I understand?"
Neji heaved a sigh, "Before I left, Lady Tsunade gave me a scroll from Lord Hiashi that basically said if anything happened to Hinata under my watch, not only would my brain be melted by the seal on my forehead, but before that my hands would be crushed, my Byakugan destroyed and my tongue removed."
Tenten stared at Neji, her eyes wide with shock, "He'd do that?"
"That and more...the rest of the branch family would suffer for my inability to protect the heir of the main family." Neji said, his pulse quickening at the though of it.
"I had no idea..." Tenten said quietly.
Neji just nodded darkly and the two continued toward the Land of Birds.
After a few hours travel, Keito began to stir, forcing Neji and Tenten to halt while he regained consciousness. He immediately began his complaining again, yelling at Neji for knocking him out and how his back ached after being carried in such a manner.
"Well I could have just left you behind." Neji threatened.
"And abandon your mission? I don't think so." Keito chuckled to himself. "By the way, weren't there more of you before I passed out?"
Neji face hardened and his glare was enough to make even Keito waver. "Yes, there were." Neji said in a whisper that was almost a growl. "And as for abandoning our mission...we're doing just that."
Keito's eyes went wide with shock, "You mean you are going to leave me here?"
Tenten rolled her eyes, "Of course not. If that was the plan you wouldn't be with us right now."
Keito looked at both ninja with a confused look on his face, "Then what is going to happen?"
"We're going after Sasuke." Neji explained.
Neji didn't think it was possible, but Keito's eyes got even wider, "Sasuke? You couldn't mean Uchiha Sasuke could you?"
"The same." Tenten said kurtly.
Keito looked at Neji and he thought he saw a glimmer of pity in Keito's eyes, "The girl that was taken...was she close to you?"
Neji hesitated for a moment, but answered, "She was my cousin."
Keito shook his head, "I'm sorry friend...she is already dead."
"DON'T YOU SAY THAT!" Neji roared at Keito. "I'll save her, even if it means trading you for her. And I'm not your friend!"
Tenten gasped, shocked at Neji's outburst. She touched his shoulder and when his face turned to her, she could feel his rage. "Calm down, Neji." she said softly, taking his hand in hers. "Raw emotions won't save Hinata; our cool intellect will."
Neji took a few deep breaths to calm himself, "I guess Shogun still has some influence over me..."
Tenten pulled out the Kiba no Tatsu as if to reassure him, "No, he's still locked away."
Calm again, Neji hugged Tenten and began to formulate a plan.
"Sheesh are you finally awake?" a voice said, interrupting Neji's thoughts. Neji and Tenten instantly moved into defensive positions around Keito. "Oh, look, they think they stand a chance." the voice laughed.
"Show yourself!" Neji demanded.
"Please, I know that Byakugan of yours can see me even if I was invisible, but if you insist." the voice said sarcastically. The voice's owner dropped from a tree, revealing himself to be a young, roguish boy of about Neji's age. His hair was short and red, while his eyes were a piercing blue. His clothes and headband told Neji that he was a rogue Stone ninja. Neji noticed nothing strange about this boy except that he had no fingers or toes. "Happy now?"
"Not quite." Neji said. "How about a name?"
"It's polite to give your own name first. Aparently Sasuke never succeeded in teaching you manners."
"Sasuke?" Tenten gasped.
"Fine, I'll let it slide this time since I already know your name; Neji Hyuuga. My name is Watari. I'm one of Lord Orochimaru's successful experiments." Watari said with hint of pride in his voice.
"And your purpose?"
"My my...Sasuke always said you were so smart." Watari said, shaking his head, "I'm here to make sure you're even worth Sasuke's time."
"Perhaps Sasuke is more of a coward than a blood thirsty assassin." Keito laughed.
"Oh, nice one." Watari chuckled, "I think I'll take my time and enjoy killing you."
"You'll have to go through us." Tenten said defiantly, brandishing the Kiba no Tatsu.
"An excellent idea." Watari said and calmly advanced on them.
"Careful Tenten. We don't know what this guy's jutsu are." Neji warned.
Tenten smiled, "Let's try to find out."
She quickly summoned some shuriken from her scroll and expertly thew them at Watari who didn't even bother to dodge. The shuriken hit their target but just bounced away harmlessly.
Watari laughed, "I see you've discovered my rock hard abs."
"This guys a freak!" Keito whined, "He's about to fight, but he's still smiling and laughing."
"And what's wrong with having a cheerful disposition?" Watari asked, still advancing on the small group.
Tenten grimaced, "Fine, let's see if you can handle this!" She summoned several kunai and launched them as well. Again Watari didn't dodge, and when the kunai hit their mark, they exploded. Tenten looked victorious until Watari emerged from the smoke, completely unfazed.
"Is that all you got?"
"He really seems to be enjoying himself." Keito noticed. "Come on girl, don't you have anything better in that scroll of yours?"
"Tenten, just throw some regular shuriken." Neji said, his Byakugan activated.
She hesitated for a moment then followed Neji's order, throwing ten shuriken with one hand. They all flew true, but none even scratched Watari's clothes.
"Starting to get bored." Watari said, now only ten paces away.
"What did that accomplish?" Tenten hissed at Neji.
"He's using a Doton jutsu to protect himself." Neji whispered.
Tenten nodded and stepped behind Neji as he built up chakra in his hands. He launched his attack and closed the gap between him and Watari in five steps. Watari watched him advance, smiling the whole time and barely reacted when Neji unleashed a flurry of Jyuuken strikes. Neji's Byakugan saw that the Doton jutsu was strong enough even to block his strikes, but Neji continued to hammer away at Watari. He struck his final blow and Neji only succeeded in driving Watari back a few steps.
"Seriously?" Watari sighed. "I was expecting so much more. You didn't even mess up my clothes."
"Thankfully I wasn't trying to, Tenten, NOW!" Neji yelled and Tenten jumped into action. She'd snuck behind Watari while Neji occupied him and now lashed out with a large chain. Watari turned just in time to see the chain fly past his head and wrap around his body. He began to struggle, until Neji grabbed the chain.
"It's over. Raiton: Jibashi!"
Neji's Raiton chakra ran down the chain and buzzed over Watari's body. He screamed for a moment and then laughed again, "Just kidding."
Neji scowled and poured more chakra into the chain. The chakra was so strong that it began to arc off the chain and start small fires in the surrounding forest, but Watari continued to laugh. This makes no sense. The charge is strong enough to kill an elephant. Neji glared with his Byakugan and saw that the chain wasn't actually touching Watari. It was hovering around him with only a few centimeters between the chain and him. How is that possible.
Neji stopped his attack and yanked the chain back, "What are you?"
"Like I told you," Watari said, still giggling to himself, "I'm one of Orochimaru's most successful experiments. By the way are you done? Because I'm ready for it to be my turn."
"H-His turn?" Tenten stammered.
"It's like he thinks this is a game." Neji murmured.
Watari gestured to one of the discarded shuriken that Tenten had thrown and it rushed into his hand. "Nice, huh?" and with that he launched it at Neji and Tenten.
Neji and Tenten calmly dodged the shuriken, but Keito screamed and ran for cover behind a large rock. Neji was about to yell at him, but the rest of shuriken were now flying their way as well. Neji stepped in front of Tenten and performed his Rotation. The shuriken bounced away harmlessly, which only made Watari laugh more. He wiggled his fingers and suddenly the shuriken were flying straight at Neji again. Tenten countered the shuriken with some kunai, but this only gave Watari more ammo. Soon the two of them were surrounded by a swirling cloud of ninja tools which would launch a shuriken or kunai ever few rotations.
"How's he doing this?" Tenten screamed over the din of the flying weapons.
"I don't know!" Neji yelled back, his mind working furiously.
The tools began to attack at a greater frequency and it was all Neji could do to protect himself and Tenten from the deadly torrent. Neji used the last of his chakra and performed a final Rotation. Slowly the tools found weak points in his defense and began to rain down on them. Neji heard Tenten scream and then he felt the tools pierce his clothes and the next thing he knew, he was nailed to the ground. He looked around and found that Tenten was in the same predicament as himself. Watari wiped his brow, "Wow, you guys took a lot longer than my other victims."
"We'll try to take that as a compliment." Neji spat, fighting to get back on his feet.
"Give it up, Neji. You can't break free of my Magnetic chakra-oops. Wasn't supposed to tell you that." Watari said with mock worry. He calmly walked over and knelt next to Tenten, staring at her hungrily.
"What are you going to do now?" Neji demanded.
"Who? Me? Oh, I thought I'd cut you to ribbons with these." Watari cackled as he held up his finger-less hand.
Neji was about to laugh himself until five metal claws erupted from Watari's skin. "You see, not only does my Magnetic chakra allow me to control your ninja tools, it also allows me to manipulate metal." he said, examining his new digits. Watari tore his eyes away from his claws and stared down at Tenten, his smile looking more manic now. Watari drew back his arm and plunged it down. Neji heard the sound of blades piercing skin and bone and a horrible scream filled his ears.
Tenten: What the hell, Gogeta! You're killing me!
Gogeta: Told you you'd be sorry by the end of this chapter.
Neji: It's obviously not Tenten that got stabbed.
Gogeta: And what makes you think that, Neji?
Neji: You went through all the trouble to put me and her together...there's no way you'd undo all that work.
Gogeta: You don't know me very well do you?
Tenten: Kill me and Neji will walk away and never be in another one of your fanfics.
Keito: Don't bother to threaten him. He's too stupid to take you seriously.
Gogeta: Just you wait Keito, you'll get your's too.
Keito: What's that supposed to mean?
Gogeta: You'll find out.
Sasuke: Why wasn't I in this one...you told me I'd have a lot of screen time!
Gogeta: Oh shut up Sasuke.