Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, or Tenten…

Author's Note: This will be a short note this time.

Chapter 2: The Start

She stopped abruptly, and yelled for them to also stop for a moment. Shikamaru rolled his eyes at her and waited for an explanation while Naruto looked back and forth between the two with a confused look on his face.

"Wait, why did we st--" the blond was cut off when a shuriken shot past his face, barely missing his nose. Tenten whipped around and fired some of her own weapons in the direction the offending one had come from as the boys jumped in surprise.

"Way to pay attention, Tenten," Shikamaru complimented as they hastily retreated from the branch she had stopped on. Tenten smiled but said nothing; it was nice to know that for once her sixth sense had been appreciated. It was not the first time she had kept a team in one piece…

…It had been near the end of the second portion of the chuunin exam when they had been just going through the forest calmly. Later on, they would find out that this was when the most vicious attacks happened.

"It seems so quiet," she had remarked to her team, earning a faint sound of recognition from Neji and a "but we're almost there!" from Lee. Still, for some reason she had found herself watching the trees and bushes.

It was then that two kunai had headed straight for Lee.

Tenten's eyes had widened, and she had yelled a warning to her teammate. Before she knew it, she found herself tackling Lee to keep him from getting hit by the first kunai as well as throwing her own kunai to block the second. Neji had stared down at them with a confused look on his face before activating byakuugan and seeing that they were in fact under attack. It was the first and only time she had sensed an attack before Neji had…

The small group had split up, with Naruto ending up calling out their attackers like the loud mouth he was. It was not good, they were still in too much forest to be able to see their attackers. Tenten could see the sand, and she could see where the forest opened up. Maybe, just maybe, if they could get there they would have a better chance.

Shikamaru was in his traditional thinking pose, and Tenten bit her lip as a ninja appeared in front of Naruto. There was no way there was only one attacker, there just had to be more than that. She drew out a scroll and summoned a pair of katanas, if nothing else she wanted to be able to do a surprise attack that might reveal another attacker.

Naruto was already charging at the ninja with a pack of shadow clones. Tenten scanned the area again, noting that Shikamaru seemed to be watching Naruto's battle with interest. She blinked in surprise when she saw a second ninja materialize and head for Naruto. He had obviously not seen them and was busy yelling at the first one. Tenten also noted that Shikamaru was farther away and also seemed worried.

So she took matters into her own hands.

With flash of her twin blades, she charged at the second attacker. Her first katana connected with them and knocked them aside as they whipped around to face her. She saw that the ninja had long black hair and gray eyes like stone. Tenten jumped back since she had managed to throw off the attacker, and now Naruto only had to deal with the first ninja.

Her opponent smirked wickedly, revealing jagged yellow teeth. Tenten subconsciously gripped her swords tighter as she felt those stony eyes bore into her; something here was not right. Suddenly the gray eyes were coming closer and Tenten braced herself, deciding where the best places to slash would be. But it was not a weapon of any kind that hit her, it was a jutsu. She saw a great wave of fire flying towards her and her knees quivered.

Tenten had never been able to get over her childhood fear of fire.

-x-X-x-

Neji walked into the hospital, the usual frown set more deeply into his face than usual due to the recent family business he had been forced into attending. He was directed to his teammate's room and walked the clean white halls in absolute silence. All he carried was a plain envelope with a simple card in it that read "Get well soon, better luck training next time." Lee pulled muscles and over-exerted himself enough that anything extravagant should be saved for later on.

Neji entered the room after knocking softly and saw Lee sitting there with one of his squirrel friends that must have been let in through the window when Tsunade was not looking. The boy smiled kindly at his teammate, whom set the card on the bedside table and sat down in one of the visitor's chairs.

"Have fun?" Lee asked kindly and Neji looked down.

"Hn… It was pointless as always," Neji replied and looked around the strangely empty room. Lee watched his gaze with mild interest and continued petting the trained squirrel.

"She's not here, and she won't be. She had to go on a mission," Lee answered without being asked.

"A mission?"

"With Shikamaru and Naruto. They had business to take care of in the Sand investigating something or other."

"Hn."

"She's in good hands, Naruto and Shikamaru are there. Not that you'd be worried or anything," Lee said with a small smile as Neji glared at him.

-x-X-x-

Tenten panicked and dropped her katanas as a scream escaped her lips. She crossed her arms in front of her as she felt the heat draw closer and engulf her.

It was just like back then…

…"Nee-san!" the yell had been much clearer then, Tenten knew she was close. She crawled through what used to be the doorway to the living room, and yelled for her sister once more. There were more yells coming from outside and in other parts of the house, but it was the small voice filled with tears that she was listening for now.

A horrible 'pop' sent the corner of the room crashing down and there was a scream of pain. Tenten's heart fluttered and twisted all at once and she crawled over to the corner as quickly as she could.

Another scream; another cry for help from that innocent, sweet soul she loved caused her to move once more. She ignored the ash in her eyes, she ignored the things falling around her, she ignored the heat prickling at her tender skin. She just went on.

When she reached the source of that voice, the sight that lay before her had scarred her forever. Her young sister was laying there, blood pooling around her, with her legs crushed under a beam fallen from one of the walls. Tenten's heart flipped inside her chest, whether it broke or not she was never sure. Tenten crawled over to her sister and began to try and lift the huge piece of wood off of her sister's legs.

It was too heavy, she could not do it. It simply would not budge. Even worse, should she try and move it the wrong way her sister cried out in pain again. The worst sound in the world. Tenten stopped and tried to think of what to do. She had an idea-- looking back now, it seemed futile-- that she was sure could work.

"Imotou, I'm going to try again. This might hurt…" Tenten rubbed her hands together, hoping most of the splinters would come out, and then pressed her shoulder against the huge piece of wood. Her sister whimpered slightly and Tenten pushed harder.

There was a snapping sound, followed by a bang-- a thud-- a crash-- and then--

Tenten opened her mouth to scream with the pain she knew was about to come, but she suddenly felt a cool breeze pass by her. She opened her eyes and blinked in surprise. Was this heaven? She lowered her arms, and saw someone standing before her protectively.

Temari stood there triumphantly, her fan at her side, the fire effectively beaten away. Tenten stared in surprise, shaking slightly, as the girl looked at her over her shoulder.

"You okay?" Temari asked, looking genuinely concerned. Tenten could only nod slightly, and watched helplessly as Temari finished off her opponent. Shikamaru and Naruto had received back up as well, Shikamaru, Kankuro and Gaara helping Naruto. The enemy was being effectively pushed back now.

Soon enough, Gaara wrapped all three attackers with sand. Temari returned to where Tenten stood and put away her fan. Gaara glanced up at them, giving Temari a slight nod and allowing his gaze to rest on Tenten for a moment. The brunette felt her cheeks heat up slightly, she had never felt someone's eyes pierce into her in such a way. Not even Neji's byakuugan.

-x-X-x-

Tenten found herself in an office, very similar to Tsunade's, with her new teammates. Gaara sat casually behind the desk, with his siblings on either side of him. The room seemed oddly silent, as though both waiting for the other side to start. Temari seemed to be watching Tenten carefully, while the brunette let her gaze wander the room.

"Why are we here?" Naruto finally broke the silence in his usual questioning manner.

"Right…" Gaara sighed. "The Hokage sent you to help us find out about this arson problem, correct?"
"Yes," Shikamaru answered.

"And you happened to be stopped and attacked by a fire-specializing group on the way, yes?"

"Almost," Shikamaru said. "You seem to suspect them but they couldn't have been behind the whole thing."

"Why do you say this?" Gaara wanted to know.

"Only one showed even the ability to use fire element techniques, as you saw," Shikamaru said and Tenten shuddered at the recent touch with fire. Temari watched her still. "We took an odd path from Konoha, chances are we were on the way into something they didn't want us to see."

"And so they would only be underlings, keeping people away," Gaara finished up the thought, looking pensive. "We were trying to investigate as well, that's why we captured the attackers. For interrogation purposes."

"How can we help?" Naruto asked.

"Just keep patrolling that area, it's where the activity has been happening," Kankuro said.

Shikamaru sighed, but they all understood their mission. Kankuro offered to take the group to where they would be staying and they left the office. Outside, Temari caught Tenten by the elbow and pulled her aside.

"Huh?" Tenten blinked in surprise when Temari did this, but the blonde just began talking.

"You're scared of fire, aren't you?" she asked and Tenten looked down, silently confirming. Temari gave her a sympathetic look and placed a hand on the girl's shoulder softly.

"How could you tell?" Tenten wanted to know, and Temari was silent. The brunette looked up and noticed that Temari seemed to be considering something. Their eyes met and the blonde smiled.

"I want to show you something," was all Temari said before leading Tenten away.