Chapter 3

"Finally" Chouji sighed as they walked through the village gates, Immediately Shikamaru offered lazily. "I'll go report to Tsunade; you guys go ahead and go eat."

"I'll go too" Ino suggested but Chouji nudged her and muttered loud enough for Shikamaru to hear. "He wants to see if Neji's back from his mission."

The teammates both looked at the Nara and laughed softly. The Brunette turned pink for the millionth time from their constant teasing. Sakura looked over at the Nara and said, catching his attention. "I'll go too; I need to talk with Tsunade anyway."

She smiled sweetly as the genius starred her down, soon enough he groaned and called. "Fine, Come on"

The two quickly made their way to the Hokage's large red building only to be nearly run over by a jogging Might Gai.

"Oh, my most humble apologize, fellow youthful Shinobi. I was just on my way to see our one and only great Lady Tsunade!" Gai proclaimed as he gripped a paper in his hand. Shikamaru pointed to it and asked. "What's that?"

"Oh! Its seams my poor female student, Tenten has sent a distress call from her mission, the poor thing!" Gai cried heavily as Sakura yelped softly.

Oh crap! If Shikamaru finds out about the mission I'm so dead!

"Hn, we're heading their now." The Nara explained as the two men began to walk off. Sakura walked slowly behind thinking of what form of punishment Tsunade would use.

#

"Run!" Neji ordered, the four team members looked at him with shock. The Hyuuga was badly beaten from Hidan focusing solely on him, but he wasn't letting up anytime soon.

"B-But Neji!" Tenten began but the bleeding Hyuuga cut her off. "Go!"

"Neji, But You'll-" Naruto began as he tried to disagree.

"Damnit, Naruto listen for once and run!" The long haired brunette lost his cool for the first time in front of the other shinobi, besides his Chunnin exams moments. Lee and Tenten sent each other a worried look.

Hidan laughed as he lunged at the Hyuuga. Neji dodged but hit his ankle and lost balance.

He hit the ground with a thud and grimaced as his ankle pulsed. He glared at the group and tried to stand up. "GO, Now!"

The group exchanged glances and ran quickly. Naruto yelled back. "If you die I'll never forgive you!"

"The captain let his subordinates escape. How cliché" Hidan gave a rough stomp to The Hyuuga's back and forced him back to the ground. Neji growled and crushed a smoke bomb in his hand.

#

"Lady Tsunade, my student Tenten had sent a distress message for you." Gai shouted as he entered the Hokage's office, Shikamaru and Sakura followed.

Tsunade saw the pink haired girl and scowled. The Konoichi sweat dropped and stood in the back ground. The Hokage noticed The Nara and said quickly. "G-Gai maybe you should wait to-"

"Tsunade-Sama, We request reinforcements. Our current location in around 40 miles to the east of Konoha. The target had been prepared for us and our Captain in seriously injured. Please hurry. Tenten"

Gai finished reading the message and cried heavily. "The poor thing, The target must by fairly strong. Lee told me Neji was captaining the squad-"

"GAI!" Tsunade stood and glared at the Jounin. The black haired male gulped and froze. "W-What Ma'am?"

The room became very quiet as Tsunade starred at The Nara.

"I'm leaving" Shikamaru turned to leave but Sakura stood in front of the Nara. "Where are you going?"

"Shikamaru come back here, Neji will be fine." Tsunade stated as she starred at the back of the Brunette's head. "Our Captain is seriously injured."

The Nara repeated He turned and glared at the Hokage. "No one is able to even scratch Neji."

He walked up to her desk and slammed his hands on the wood. "Who the hell is their Target! Is that why you sent Sakura to stall us? Or did you think I was dumb enough not to notice that?"

Tsunade didn't answer at first. The anger in the Nara's eyes had only been their once. When they returned with Asuma's dead body. She signed and began. "Their target was-"

The door slammed open and Naruto, covered in small already healing bruises, stormed in with Shizune calling. "Tsunade-Sama is busy, Naruto-Kun!"

"Grandma! You need to send Jounin to go help Neji! Right Now! If you don't he might-" The Uzumaki froze as his eyes met Shikamaru's.

"Naruto, we told you not to-" Tenten, Lee and Sai followed into the room. All three were quite badly beaten up and saw the Nara's shocked face.

#

"Hyuuga! Where'd you go!" Hidan's voice echoed in the thick forest. Neji panted softly as he ran through the bushes. His hand was slightly burned from the smoke bombs explosion. He grabbed some bandages from his pouch and wrapped it around his hand as he jogged slightly.

Once he got out of the Akatsuki member's range he stopped and used Byakugan to check his ankle. He sighed in relief to see it wasn't broken, just very badly sprained. And it had already begun to swell and turn a rose red color.

He checked Hidan's location and found him approaching quickly. Neji cursed and dodged as Hidan swung his scythe. The Anbu gear was slowing him down quite a bit. He ran as fast as his ankle would allow and sent some chakra to it in a small attempt to heal it, if only a tiny bit. He was no medical ninja but if he could stop the bruising it would help him later.

"Neji Hyuuga get back here!" Hidan screamed as he ran after him. The brunette threw another smoke bomb and changed directions.

"Know I see why the Nara likes you, you're feisty!" Hidan yelled as the Hyuuga hid behind a tree a few yards away. He kept his breath down as much as he could but he was getting tired and his chakra was dropping fairly low.

"You know, I had a nice clean shot at the Nara. But I heard an interesting conversation. The Nara had a Hyuuga for a lover. This just makes it all the more fun for me!" Neji watched Hidan with his Byakugan and got slightly angry at Shikamaru for leaving himself so open.

"Now Hyuuga, Let me bring you home to Nara-boy in as big of pieces as possible."

#

"You weren't supposed to know until the mission was finished." Tsunade concluded her explanation. The Nara stood in shock. Neji was alone with Hidan. He was by himself, facing one of Shikamaru's biggest enemies.

"You just left him there" Was the first thing that the brunette said, turning to the group of four. Tenten and Lee exchanged guilty looks. Sai broke the tension and stated "He ordered us to return to Konoha. We couldn't go against our captain-"

Shikamaru grabbed Sai's shirt collar and pulled his face close. "I don't know about you, but I would never leave a team mate to die even if it meant my own life."

The artist shinobi, pushed the Nara's hands off his shirt and said, starring down the brunette. "For the safety of the Village sacrifices are made all the time. Konoha doesn't need Hidan running through here killing innocent civilians. Neji knew what he needed to do to make sure the mission was a success. And that was to be a decoy"

Tsunade signed and ordered Shizune. "Sent out an Anbu team to assist Neji as quickly as possible."

Shizune bowed and ran out of the room. Shikamaru turned to the Hokage and said. "I'm going too."

"No, you're obviously getting emotional about this." The Nara glared at ground and clenched his fists. "Fine."

The brunette turned and stomped out of the room. "Chouji, follow him." The Akimichi nodded and ran after the Nara.