I am so proud of myself! I made it a whole night before publishing again...I can't help it :(. I really like this chapter, I think it's very intense. Thank you to all my reviewers! Yuffie's Ninja Insanity, SasuSakuisforalways, Fake Bliss, and Very Happy Randomness Fairy! I love you all! Well...Here is the next chapter!

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CHAPTER FOUR

Neji glided into the Hokage's office with his usual air of importance. Tsunade looked up from her desk. He heard her slide her sake drawer shut.

"Neji, have a seat," She motioned with her hand as she spoke with a monotone voice. Neji did as he was told, Tsunade leaned forward and adverted her eyes a bit. "You're not going to like this…"

Neji froze.

Tenten? Did she get hurt on her mission?

Tsunade somehow sensed his raising heart rate and continued quickly.

"This mission I have for you is much lower than your best capabilities" She paused, letting him change his course of thought.

"Lower?" He repeated back. The Hokage nodded.

"A very rich lord demanded to have one of our higher ranked shinobi take this mission. It pays handsomely though,"

"Why me?" Neji was confused, if this was just a high-paying easy mission. Why give it to someone who had money? The Hyuuga are rich, it's obvious that Neji is never short on cash.

"Well, it has to be a Hyuuga. And you're one of the high ranking Hyuugas, but the only one available for a mission," She finished, eyeing the Hyuuga for an opinion.

Neji thought about it. This was a stupid mission. It was beneath him. And Neji hated doing busywork. This mission had "Not Neji Material" written all over. However…He knew someone who had a birthday coming up…

If this mission pays as well as Tsunade-sama makes it sound. Perhaps I could surprise Tenten with an early birthday present before she gets back. She really does need some new furniture; it was bad to begin with years ago when she purchased it. Neji closed his eyes briefly and nodded.

"Very well, I will take the mission," Tsunade smiled, "What are the details?"

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Tenten Panted as she hid for a moment behind a tree to catch her breath. She had already dispatched three rogues that were being slow. She guessed that they had been drinking when they were called to go after her. After that she had counted maybe a dozen more.

THUNK

Breaks over, they found me

Tenten jumped up and made a clone, having it throw a few weapons from one direction. She then landed a couple of yards away and threw some senbon at her enemies. One came out from the bushes with a katana in hand. His face was scowling something fierce. Tenten blocked a swing with her left hand as she summoned a metal chain with a scythe on the end with her right. She then immediately threw her kunai at a shinobi who had intended to sneak up on her.

With another clash, she stopped the katana's upward slice with the chain in between her hands. Using that to hold it away, she attempted to throw her leg out for a kick at his chest; her opponent caught her ankle in a tight grip. Tenten jumped with her other foot and shoved it up at him. She heard a crack and she felt her sandal crush his trachea. Using that, Tenten quickly propelled herself away from the ninja and ran into three more.

She swung the blade on the end of her chain at the two in front of her. They leaped back, each in a different direction. But because she was watching them, Tenten didn't see the third one come up to her side until the last moment.

"Ah!" Tenten gasped as she wasn't fast enough to dodge a dagger, earning her a large gash on the left side of her torso. She retaliated by grabbing and throwing some shuriken at him. She didn't see if they hit though, the two shinobi that were heading toward her were at it again.

Keeping an eye out behind her, Tenten summoned a light metal pole after chucking her chain at a fourth ninja that had come down at her from a tree.

Twisting, spinning, twirling, Tenten danced around the two shinobi she was fighting. She had landed a few blows, but also gained a good amount of scratches. Of course, she wasn't a weapons mistress for nothing. Dropping a kunai, making it look like an accident distracted one of them long enough for her to jab him hard in the chest, following up with a hit to the head. While he was falling to the ground Tenten turned, stepping on one end of the kunai she dropped. It flew up into the air while she was exchanging hits with the other of the two fighting. Then, in one swift motion, she caught the circle of the kunai's handle on the end of her pole and expertly flung it at the ninja.

Tenten didn't blink an eye as he was falling with a kunai in his head because multiple more enemies were coming.

This isn't looking good. I can't spare chakra because I'll need enough to either run away or for the emergency scroll. And I can't get many more injuries either.

While she was continuing to fight more ninjas that had come, the more there were the more gashes she got. So far there were only two to really worry about; the one on her side and one on the back of her leg.

Damn! She cursed internally as she pulled out a double headed ax to slice off the head of a ninja from a bush. A very recent stab to the arm was going to shorten this battle considerably.

A ninja built like a boulder came to join in the fun and Tenten sent out a few decoys of herself like she had been to keep more ninjas at bay.

The boulder ninja lumbered closer and Tenten threw a few kunai, making it look like she just missed by coincidence. She smirked.

BOOM!

She had attached exploding tags to a few of the kunai and she hoped that it slowed him down, if not got him killed.

Tenten jumped into the branches of a tree nearby.

That was pretty loud, the others should be here soon and then I'll take care of them and be on my way-ow! What the hell? Tenten twisted her head around looking for the source of pain her adrenaline had hid, finding it in the shrapnel of a tree now imbedded in her thigh.

Bad! Bad bad bad bad! Damnit! Tenten made a grim face as she pulled out the shrapnel with a yank; wrapping a crude bandage around her injury. She didn't have time to see to any of her others because a ninja landed next to her on the branch too fast for her to notice and had punched her in the side of her head.

This is a terrible mix. Tenten decided after landing on her feet, the throbbing in her head and leg competing with who could hurt more.

Things got worse when she counted the number of chakra sources heading close. She guessed that she had killed her puncher out of instinct, evidence being the bloody sai in her hand. But the soaking red bandages were her first concern.

Damnit…Tenten thought as she started to loose focus from the blood loss. Getting to her knees she pulled the emergency and stolen scroll from her pockets. I can't believe it has to come to this…

Her fingers did the work that her pride told her not to as she prepared to send the scroll. But before she could she realized how it looked.

The small cuts and putting pressure on her bleeding wound had caused Tenten to leave some bloody handprints and splotches dotting the scroll.

She's going to think I'm dead…But I'm not dead…With her survival instincts kicking in as she felt the chakras getting closer, Tenten wiped her finger on some blood on her skin, using it as ink, and left a message.

The chakras were right upon her. She sent it. Watching it whisked away into thin air before she was knocked out by a blow to the head.

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Tsunade had just finished giving Neji the details about his mission at the lords house when the door to her office burst open revealing a frantic Shizune.

"Tsunade-sama! We have a problem!" She cried as she ran behind the Hokage's desk and slammed an open scroll on the desk. Neji watched the blonde's expression because the stacks of papers blocked the view of the scroll.

"Oh my…" Tsunade breathed, her lips growing tight and her brows knitting together. Shizune spoke again.

"We must have underestimated how many would be there when we sent her," Her eyes danced nervously.

Tsunade looked up at her assistant.

"Did you test the blood?"

Blood? Whose blood? Neji wished they would say more. Although they did seem to forget he was there.

"Most of the blood was hers, but there were traces of multiple others," Was the professional answer.

"This was supposed to take her a week or so, do you think…" Neji didn't hear the rest of the theory. Only a few things suddenly flew through his mind.

"I'll see you after my mission, so, in a week or two…"

"I got my first solo mission!"

Tenten's voice filled his thoughts, then others'

"…Supposed to take her a week or so…"

"…Underestimated how many…"

"The blood was hers…"

Neji was forced back into reality as he choked out his fears.

"T-Ten-ten…" He said brokenly. The two pairs of eyes in front of him immediately moved their focus to Neji's pleading eyes, "Please tell me…you aren't talking, about Tenten," He leaned forward in anticipation. Shizune looked to Tsunade and looked down. "Well?" The Hyuuga was loosing his patience. The Hokage sighed and locked her gaze with his.

"Yes…" She spoke carefully, "We are talking about Tenten…"

Neji felt his heart stop. He couldn't breath. He couldn't focus his eyes on anything. A lump formed in his throat that he couldn't swallow.

"Is she…"

"No. She isn't dead," Tsunade got her composure back and continued, "I sent her on a retrieval mission for a scroll in one of Orochimaru's old bases. I warned her that they are usually inhabited by rogues and gave her a small transportation scroll in case of emergencies," Tsunade paused, letting Neji soak all of this in.

Neji had got himself mostly back in control when he heard she wasn't dead. But the lump in this throat was still there. He nodded for her to continue.

"It appears that there were many more rogues than we anticipated. Tenten sent the scroll she retrieved but her blood is all over the emergency scroll," She took a breath, "She also wrote something…with her blood," Tsunade looked down to read off of the evidence, "'Not dead. Too many. Help'"

A silence filled the office. Neji soon got impatient again. Tenten needed help, she could be bleeding out somewhere, and he needed to get to her!

"Where is she?" He held back his voice, trying not to let loose his anger. Tsunade pulled out a map and pointed it out.

"Here. Now, she is either going to be killed, interrogated, or…used. Either way, they are probably holding her now in the base. Your new mission, Hyuuga Neji, is to collect Rock Lee and Maito Gai and retrieve Tenten. You leave as soon as possible. Understand?" Neji didn't have to be told twice.

Tsunade didn't complain when the shinobi left with only a curt nod, rushing out to find his teammates. She reached for her sake.

"At least it was him," She told Shizune, who had taken a seat nearby, "I usually don't send shinobi on missions that their personally connected to…but when it comes to love," She gave a small smile, "Well, that's only a great motivator"

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OH NO! Tenten got caught! Neji freaks! What happens next? You will probably find out within two days or less because I'm update-happy...

-Nexa