"Yo," she turned around and saw Kiba, he flashed a grin as he sat down next to her.
"You can go get some sleep if you want," he yawned loudly as he stretched his arms.
Tenten shook her head, she gave Kiba a brief smile. "You could go sleep some more if you want, I'm not tired."
"Well I've waken up already," Kiba recoiled his stretched limbs.
Tenten sat there as Kiba shifted, attempting to make himself more comfortable.
They maintained the silence, Tenten kicked her feet uncomfortably, as Kiba cleared his throat.
"So... what do you think?" He cracked his knuckles as he looked at her.
Tenten blinked as she bit onto her lip gently.
"I don't know what to think," she sighed softly and smiled faintly. "Surely the dead wouldn't come back to life, would it?"
"Me neither, all of this seems unbelievable." Kiba shook his head, he pressed his hand against his face. "I suppose it's even harder on you and Lee."
Tenten shook her head, she sighed softly.
"Honestly, I didn't want to take the mission." Kiba shook his head and let out a loud sigh. "I don't feel like I can face him, if it's really him."
Tenten turned her head and stared at him intently, she arched an eyebrow in confusion.
"It's a long story," Kiba sighed, he turned and looked at the moon. "You really should sleep."
"I…"
"It's going to be a long day," he nudged her with his elbow. "C'mon, go catch some sleep."
Tenten pondered upon Kiba's words as she leapt down from the tree and reached the campsite.
She closed her eyes forcefully, attempting to plunge herself into sleep.
The sun leered into the forest as daybreak came, she opened her eyes and looked around.
"Morning Tenten!" Lee exclaimed, he was throwing mud over the pile of burnt firewood as he spoke. "I have caught some fish for breakfast."
"Morning," she stood up and stretched.
Hearing sounds above her in a tree, Kiba leapt down. "I heard breakfast," he grinned for a moment.
The three of them sat down where their fire was, chewing the fish that Lee had prepared.
"Nothing better than fresh fish in the morning, right Aomaru?" The ninja dog barked in response, sticking out its tongue rapidly.
Tenten pulled out the mobile phone - a new form of communicative device that was only recently incorporated into the standard gear for shinobis.
"No signal," she muttered as she shoved it back into her pocket.
The three of them cleaned up behind them, making sure they left no trace of their existence.
Kiba took a deep breath and began to walk with Aomaru by his side, Tenten and Lee followed him as he did.
She maintained her distance, glancing around as she observed their surroundings, more importantly, she just wanted to be alone.
"Do you remember what day is it today, Tenten?" She heard Lee's voice, only to realise that he was standing right next to her. His voice was much calmer than his usual 'youthful' speech.
Tenten blinked at him. "Of course I do."
How could she forget? She had tried so many different ways to forget - but it was impossible.
Today was the day when Neji died, eighteen years ago.
"It has been that long already," Lee sighed, he patted his hand onto Tenten's shoulder.
She shuddered, brushing his hand off her. "I said, Lee, I don't want to talk about it now."
Just as Lee was about to retort, the call of a hawk tore through the morning skies, she looked up and saw a brown messenger hawk, descending upon them.
She raised her hand as the hawk gracefully landed upon it, its strong talons gripping onto her arm, yet the creature was careful not to exert great force.
Tenten quickly unfastened the box behind the bird's back and pulled out a roll of paper. Her teammates ran to her side.
Unfolding the paper, she studied the message.
"What does it say?"
"It says that the man was spotted just around two miles from where we are right now, we must hurry." Tenten waved her hand into the air, the hawk leapt and flapped its wing, shooting up into the air and departed.
They took no time to rush to their new destination, travelling as fast as they could.
As they approached, that almost constant grin on Kiba's face faded.
"I can smell blood," he said, his nose sniffing. "Still fresh, and also burnt wood."
"Could be fire-style jutsu," Tenten muttered.
"If only Shino was here," Kiba muttered as they hurried on.
Tenten paid no attention, all she wanted was to get there as fast as she could.
She could hear the sound of faint explosions as they approached. She could feel her heart racing, perhaps it was him, perhaps he needed their help, perhaps.
Perhaps he was waiting there - to kill them.
As they finally approached, the sight reminded of her back in the time, what most place are like, after they have been ravaged by bandits or rogue shinobis.
The ground was charred to a ashy dark grey, several trees have collapsed; freshly fallen leaves burned to crisps. Above that, she saw the paralysed, barely living bodies of bandits, lying on the ground gasping for breath.
She walked up to one of them, whose body seemed grotesquely burned.
"What happened?" She crouched down and asked.
The man attempted to speak, it was almost like a whisper - her experience told her it was probably due to his airways being burned, soon it would swell and he would die.
"Spinning," the man said, it was almost illegible. "The man…"
He stopped talking after taking in a large lungful of air. Tenten reached over and checked his pulse, she felt nothing.
"Can you pick up anything Kiba?"
"No, everything is covered by the smoke," Kiba sneezed loudly after taking in a deep breath. "My nose, godammit."
Rock Lee stood by as he scanned around, his muscles began to tense up.
"Someone's coming." He called to his teammates, Tenten instinctively pulled out a kunai.
Aomaru began to bark at the direction which Lee was facing, Kiba glared at the same direction.
"So it's you who killed our brothers!" The man stood there with a dozen of other bandits, he pointed at them with their swords.
"No mister, it's not us who killed them-" Rock Lee attempted to explain, only to have the man charging towards him with his sword pointed at him.
He evaded the attack and began to engage him. The other bandits charged, Kiba and Tenten were soon tied down in combat.
Tenten soon realised that these bandits were more skillful than she had expected - these were rogue ninjas.
"Look at you pretty!" One of them teased as their blades clashed. "Women like you shouldn't be playing with kunais, you should stay home and cook for your man."
"Shut up," she backed off, and took out a scroll, with a few swift hand signs, she quickly summoned a long, dark blade and charged towards the man.
The man evaded her charge, as he skipped to the side, Tenten saw him made several hand signs.
She quickly dodged, as a ball of fire burst out from his mouth.
Tenten sucked her teeth, leaping into the air, she unravelled another pair of scrolls, they unfolded and surrounded her as she reached mid air.
A tornado of weapons appeared out of a thin layer of smoke. She took hold of them and began to throw them towards him, the man managed to evade the first few that she was throwing towards him; she smiled confidently as she tugged onto the strings attached to them and brought the weapons shooting towards him.
The man cursed as the blade glided past him, drawing blood; he pressed onto his hand.
As Tenten descended from mid-air, she pulled out a handful of shuriken and threw it towards the man.
She landed and stood up as the last of her shurikens pierced him, he collapsed onto the ground.
Suddenly, she was knocked sideways, she found herself flying through the air towards the large tree behind her.
Is it the end? She thought to herself.
She expected to feel pain, cold, anything ... but it did not come until she finally hit the trunk of that tree.
She scowled slightly in pain, before quickly rolling up from the ground.
As she looked up, she saw a man standing in front of her, his long dark hair glistened as the air filled with sparks of fire and smoke. His broad shoulders steady as his palm faced forward. The light that surrounded him made him almost god-like, a surreal presence as he stood there between her and the attacker who just sneaked up on her.
The view of his back was the most familiar, she had seen it numerous times before.
She felt her eyes welling up with tears, her lips parting as she whispered the name that she had not spoken of for eighteen years.
"Neji."
Author's note:
Here comes the man we all missed dearly ... stay tuned for updates! (will try to update asap) Thanks for reading and supporting the story xoxo
V.S.V
