A/N Sorry about the wait on this again, next one will be about two weeks, unless I'm not too busy with finals. We shall see. Thank you to rose-of-alabaster and apocalypse for the reviews, and thanks to everyone who's favorited and put this on alert.
Disclaimer: Well, I didn't learn any new words in japanese and I still doubt I don't own the series.
The target was stalking away from her pursuers, the two nearest were about ten feet away, using the tree to get ahead of her. It had taken about an hour and a half to find her. If Lee and Neji had switched routes to check for her, they would have already been finished. Tenten dropped down to the ground silently, making sure not to alert the target. Neji leaped to a tree behind her and crouched on the branch, ready to stop the target if it tried to take to the trees to escape. Lee rushed out after the target, causing her to take off straight at Tenten who was ready and launched toward her. Once in range, her arms wrapped around and restrained the target. "I got her." Lee whopped at the news as Neji joined his teammates while smirking.
"Target has the ribbon on the ear. Unless this is a henged cat we caught Tora." Neji added.
"Don't joke about something like that." Tenten shook her head and made sure to tighten her grip so the cat would stop struggling to escape. "Why do I have a feeling that you are enjoying this mission?"
"Well, we helped to return a pet to its rightful owner, Tenten, sure it took a bit more effort than we wanted to. But we did a good deed." Lee pumped his fist into the air while Tenten sighed. Neji continued on behind the two, the smirk not leaving his face. He would not admit to it out loud, but he enjoyed this mission. It was much better than a couple of ANBU missions. The pay did not make up for having to kill the children, but it had been to take out a family that was attempting to follow in Orochimaru's footsteps. One was a mercy kill, as the child had been experimented on enough to be permanently insane. The worse part was killing the older brother who had no idea about the experiments, according to the information learned from the research notes afterwards. He felt vindicated though when the jyuuken strike hit the father's chest.
"Well, team, I am most pleased with your work today. Your fires are burning brightly." Gai exclaimed as he joined his students.
"Sensei, why exactly are we catching a cat. Was it too difficult for the one of the daimyo's servants to do it?" The one kunoichi of the group shifted the cat so its struggling would not cause her to drop it.
"Excellent question Tenten, the mission might have seemed underwhelming, but it is mostly for training. On this mission you all showed your teamwork in trapping her. Other missions may help with endurance or strength. These missions also help the team be able to afford more supplies for when we take C-ranked missions." Gai ticked off each point on his right hand. He stopped and plastered his favorite smile on his face as he looked up at another ninja passing by on the rooftops. "My eternal rival, come down here and meet my most youthful students!" The man stopped running and hopped down, he covered most of his face with a mask over his nose and the rest of the lower face, with his left eye covered by his headband. He slipped an orange book, one of the Icha Icha series, in one of his jounin vest's pockets. "Tenten, Lee, Neji, this is Hatake Kakashi, my eternal rival and jounin of Konoha. So, we are at 49-48 and its mine turn to pick."
"Ma, don't you have to take your team to complete the mission? I'll see you later." Kakashi waved and vanished in a whirlwind of leaves.
"Ahh, you are so hip, my rival." Gai turned back to his team, where both Tenten and Neji had continued on towards the Hokage Tower. Lee looked around as he noticed that he was being left behind and jogged to catch up.
"Hey, Lee, you seemed to have met him before."
"After the ramen stand, I went to find sensei and he was challenging Kakashi, they played a game of janken." Lee explained to Tenten, while Neji rolled his eyes.
After receiving their pay, the team left the tower, with Gai in the lead. "Congratulations my youthful students on your first successful mission, why don't we celebrate, there is a great sushi restaurant that I wished to try and today would be a great day to do so. It is near the ramen stand that is Neji's favorite restaurant, all of you should be able to find it. I have something to take care of, so I will see you there." Gai brought his hands together for shunshin when Neji placed his hand on Gai's shoulder.
"Gai, I would like to ask you about a new training schedule." He interrupted as he removed his hand, while his teammates stared at the Hyuuga genius.
"Very well. Tenten, Lee, you two go on ahead, Neji will catch up shortly." They nodded and headed to Ichiraku Ramen to start looking from there. Neji activated his Byakugan and making sure no other Hyuuga were around.
Satisfied that no one else was there, he turned to Gai and stated, "Since I have the best control for our team, I was wondering if you had any scrolls on medic justus?" Gai nodded as he stroked his chin.
"I do not have any, but I could get a hold of a couple. So are you thinking about using ninjustu or genjustu as well?"
"Perhaps using an elemental clone might be beneficial with my jyuuken techniques."
"So, you would need to find out what elemental affinity you have, correct?" Gai smiled as he patted Neji's shoulder. "While this is early to test for in your careers, Tenten could use elemental chakra for some of her techniques. Now you better catch up." Neji nodded as he left his sensei and took off to the Ramen Stand, with his teammates probably waiting for him.
Gai joined his students after they had ordered food and the group had a nice relaxing time, he had kept the number of references to flames of youth down to a minimum, much to the relief of Neji and Tenten. The meal was interrupted when another branch member of the Hyuuga walked up.
"Neji, are you finished with your team duties for today?" Turning to his sensei, Gai nodded.
"Yes, am I needed by the main house?" The branch member turned to look behind himself as Hinata crept over to the group sitting at the table.
"Neji, Lady Hinata wishes to go shopping. You will accompany her while she does." The branch member bowed and left Hinata standing there as she started to push her fingers together.
"Sensei, Lee, and Tenten, this is my cousin Hinata." The rest of team seven, which had been dubbed Team Gai by their enthusiastic leader, nodded. "I will see you all later." Neji stood and left with Hinata, as he smirked. Once they left the restaurant, Neji started to walk towards the training field used by him and Naruto. "Hinata, can I ask a favor from you?" His cousin nodded slowly, her eyes avoided meeting his. "I would like to see Naruto spar and I do not believe I will be able to concentrate enough while fighting him. Would you be willing to spar with him, please?" She froze in place as a blush erupted onto her face. Silently standing there, Neji was pleased to notice that she did not faint. Finally escaping her paralysis, Hinata started to push her fingers together as she avoided Neji's stare.
"I a-am sorry, but I w-will not be a g-good enough challenge for N-naruto, B-brother N-neji."
"I disagree. Besides, you are supposed to check up on Naruto's progress, correct? Come, we will be late if we do not continue on." Hinata stopped pushing her fingers together but kept her arms in front of herself, using them as a barrier. "I heard that you sparred again with Lady Hanabi. I heard that your open move had caught Hanabi off-guard." Neji probed.
"B-but, it d-did not work. And M-Minoru instructed afterwards that he had never s-seen a worse performance of jyuuken from a m-main house member."
"Hinata, I am not worried if you defeat Naruto, I just to test him against someone from his class. You do want to spend more time with him correct? Do not worry if you make a mistake while sparring with him, just keep going. I promise I will not tell anyone about it." Her face started to color again and her embarrassment gave Neji the time to finish without worrying that she would interrupt.
"B-but, we a-are not s-supposed to show jyuuken to n-non-Hyuugas." Hinata had lowered her arms, especially since she could read that he was not trying to belittle her.
"Then do not use chakra to hit tenketsu points. I will count the hits you land." Hinata did not respond and he enjoyed the quiet silence, after all, once with Naruto, it would be quite boisterous.
As the two Hyuuga arrived at the training ground, Naruto jumped up from his push-ups and cheered at their arrival. "Oh, Neji, and wait, you're the person with weird eyes in class." Hinata paled at the comment, Neji stared at Naruto, he should have known better.
"Naruto, today you are going to practice taijustu against Hinata here, I will judge." Naruto grin grew even larger.
"Cool, I get to be first to fight her in class, alright, I can't wait, the instructor told us that you're good enough that it would be embarrassing for any of us to fight you." Hinata faced burned a bright red.
"One suggestion, Naruto, do not let her hit you, understand?"
He nodded as he stood in his pitiful stance while Hinata backed up a couple of feet and stood in the traditional jyuuken. Neji dropped his hand as the two combatants charged each other. Naruto threw a right hook at her, which she pulled back from and pushed the arm away. She aimed her other palm at his stomach, though he blocked with his other arm as let himself be pushed back. He launched a kick at her face, she avoided by bending back at the waist. Once his leg was above her, her left hand shot out and slammed into it, knocking him off balanced. She reached out with her other hand but missed as he rolled away. Jumping back, he smiled and declared, "Geez, Hinata, you're good." Before charging at her he swung a left hook at her, forcing her to retreat slightly. He then followed with a leg sweep, which she hopped over; her palm struck out and hit his right arm. After landing, her other arm swung in and pushed him down with a blow to the head. His grin was still plastered on his face as he recovered as he then jumped and kicked at her. She crouched down as the kick flew overhead before driving her arm into his back, causing him to stumble as he landed. He countered by lashing out with a kick that caught her in the stomach. She stumbled back three steps, giving her enough room to avoid any quick strikes from him. Turning back towards her, he jumped and threw a punch at her face, which she sidestepped and slammed another palm into his chest, knocking the breath out of him. His other hand lashed out and collided with her arm, stopping it from clubbing her face. Falling back, he feinted with a punch before chambering a kick and releasing. She hopped back as the blow glanced off her sweatshirt as she once again smacked the leg to put him off balance. However, this time around he was ready and spun around his other foot, which scored a hit on her upper arm and forced her back a few inches. She retaliated with a palm strike to his guard and with her other arm striking his shoulder. Stepping back, he swung back with an uppercut as she ducked back and launched another palm strike that rammed into his stomach. He pushed the arm away as he backed up.
"Enough!" Neji commanded. Hinata stood straight, her cheek tinged with a red.
"Hey! I could I have kept going Neji!" Naruto crossed his arms and harrumphed. "But, you were awesome Hinata, I could barely block your moves, I bet you could easily beat Sasuke!" Her face flushed brightly as she smiled.
"Naruto, you do realize if this had been a real fight, you died at least five times." His jaw dropped as he stared at Hinata, who quickly looked at the ground.
"Hey, Hinata, could you help me at school? I bet you're really good at school as well." He grasped her hand and bent down to look her straight in the eyes. She quickly went pale and collapsed, with Neji having to rush over to stop her from hitting the ground. "Hey, Neji, is she alright? She didn't overexert herself did she?" Looking up at his student, he blinked a few times as he placed her down softly.
"Naruto, you need to remember personal space and to make the point home, it will be two more weeks until we work on taijustu again." Naruto crossed his arms and glared for a few seconds before smiling.
"Can you change that if I can defeat you in one move, Neji?" He nodded as he watched his student, slightly wary. Naruto moved his hands in sequence as a large poof sounded with smoke appearing. Inside the rapidly disappearing smoke was standing a tall, beautiful, girl with her chest and pelvic area still covered in smoke. The girl motioned towards Neji who walked over and chopped at the person's neck, knocking the now reappearing Naruto out.
"Save the technique for one of the perverted males in Konoha, like Jiraiya or Kakashi." Returning to Hinata, he gently shook her awake and stood back as she stirred. She quickly sat up, her face bright red before noticing the unconscious boy lying in front of her. She sat back from him and looked at her cousin. "He attempted to defeat me with one move, I countered." Her eyes went wide as she looked up at him, her fingers pushing against each other.
"You d-did not use J-jyuuken, did you?"
"No, he attempted a modification of a henge. He will wake up soon, shall we go shopping now, Hinata?" She nodded as she let out a breath. "So, are you going to help him with classes?" They both continued on as Hinata watched the road ahead of them. He smirked and left alone the silence between the two.
After shopping for another one of her favorite jackets, in which they had to avoid one shop due to the owner's dislike of Naruto, they returned home. Nobu announced to the two, "Neji, Lord Hyuuga wishes to speak with you immediately, Lady Hinata." Neji nodded and left her as he walked off to Hiashi's office. He stared at the door and waited for the order to come in.
"Enter." He pushed open the door and aimed his gaze at his uncle sitting there working on paperwork, though his attention was also on Neji since his Byakugan was activated. "Explain why you are training the Uzumaki orphan."
"I was ordered to by one of the member of the main family of the Hyuuga." Hiashi brow moved up about a half an inch.
"I assume that Hinata gave you the order then."
"And if she did not?" Neji replied as he kept his stare with his uncle. Hiashi nodded before continuing,
"I see, she ordered you to stay quiet about it, interesting. Then answer me this, why did you accept it? You know that your interaction with him is not good for the clan." Hiashi stated as he stared.
"Simple, to show that fate has determined that a loser cannot break through their ceiling and thus she must accept reality. Fate has preordained his position and thus nothing can change that." He smirked as Hiashi broke the staring contest first, and deactivated his Byakugan. It had been a sign that he was disappointed with his nephew.
"Very well, as long as the help you give the child does not interfere with your training or your clan responsibilities, you may continue with the training."
"Is there anything else, Lord Hyuuga?" Hiashi must have been thinking of explaining about the situation with Neji's father, but had ruthlessly squashed his thought. He waved Neji off as he returned to his work. Bowing, he left his uncle to his work.
Walking out the door, he nodded as he noticed Hinata standing against the wall, pressing her fingers together. She quietly followed Neji as he walked to the dojo, which was empty except for the two. He walked over and started on his jyuuken form, trying to increase the speed of his strikes. He was easily at chunnin level, especially if he implemented the justu he had used as an ANBU. The Rokudaime had passed onto a few of his trusted men Jiraiya's peeking justu. It was not the ultimate sneak technique, but there was no equal to it.
"W-why, did you s-say, what you said to F-father?" Hinata squeaked out, staring at her cousin.
Making sure none of the other members of the clan were around before answering, Neji finished his strike before responding, "Because it is true, Naruto's fate has been set in stone. A loser will not pass their ceiling, however, I never have claimed Naruto to be a loser, have I?" Hinata smiled at her cousin as he smirked back.
"S-so, who would you c-consider a loser?"
"Only those that would give up on themselves could be a loser. Those that keep trying their hardest can never be, no matter what anyone else says." Hinata's cheek tinted a slight pink as she looked to the upper left. "Like I said before, you have the potential to be the best kunoichi in your class. Do not listen to anyone who would say otherwise." He turned back to the training dummy and attempted to work on speeding up his strikes. Hinata walked over to another one and worked on her general form. He stopped earlier than she did, but he walked slightly quicker than usual to branch members dining area.
The only person there was Saki, was one of the two night guards at the gates. Neji learned more about her after he started in ANBU and would sometimes meet Hinata at night due to passing necessary information from the Rokudaime. Her daughter would be about four if he remembered correctly. "Good evening, Neji. I hear that Gai has finally allowed you to take a D-ranked mission."
"You have heard correctly, we were given the mission to retrieve Tora the cat. The mission was successful." She gave him a sympathetic stare before replacing it with the blank mask of a Hyuuga. No one liked rescuing any of the Fire Lord's wife's cats, even Lee did not like giving his genin squad the mission.
"I hear that your teammate cannot use chakra, if I am correct, why is he a ninja?"
"His work ethic is more than satisfactory and his taijustu will adequately complement my jyuuken." She raised an eyebrow as she stared at him.
"That still does not explain why he would be a ninja if he could not use chakra."
"We only use it for our superior taijustu style and the Byakugan. His fighting style is adequate for most enemies, the ones he is not suited for are the ones that I will have to defeat."
"And I also hear that you trained with the Uzumaki brat, are you trying to hide the fact you are sabotaging those that are weak?"
"If they are weak, why would I need to sabotage their efforts, are you trying to imply that the jyuuken is inferior?" She leaned back an inch or two, but the barb had struck well. This should prevent other branch members from questioning his motives for some time. None of the Hyuuga would ever want to be caught claiming that Jyuuken was inferior. The complete form might not be, as he never had a chance to test it against Sasuke, but he would first want to remaster the Juho Soshiken. This was the one technique he could not allow anyone to see. Since he could not claim he learnt by watching since Hiashi will start teaching Hinata when she becomes fifteen. At least if he showed anyone he could explain that he mastered the technique after seeing Hiashi use it. It just has not happened yet in this timeline.
Saki had excused herself as she prepared for her duty, leaving Neji to his thoughts. He could have talked to the Sandaime and convinced him that he was from the future, it would grant him a great boon in making plans, but that it would require secrecy. The two big problems would be removing Danzo, since the proof he had of root reforming would not be concrete enough to implicate him for another two years. Especially since the traitor would not start using some of the tunnels they used until after the chunnin exams. Also the Sandaime was more willing to try diplomacy first, and he also did not have the political strength left to arrest Danzo without more proof than just Neji's words. Besides, one of the two ANBU guarding the Sandaime would report to Danzo about this time traveler. And if Kabuto found out before being caught, he may have to fend him off. And if it came down to a one on one fight, he was not fast enough to beat the spy, yet. The other problem was if the village had better mobilized for the invasion or showed signs of early knowledge of it, Orochimaru would call it off. And they needed to kill him and Kabuto during the chuunin exams. All the Sandaime needed to stop Orochimaru was knowledge of his resurrection technique, both Jiraiya and the Hokage could create a technique that did not require giving up the sandaime's soul. He knew which person was giving information on Orochimaru to Jiraiya and where to drop it off for the toad hermit to find. Though if the timeline followed how it did, he would have sent the messages right before he died. And if he removed Danzo, there would be no chance of the ANBU being called off from following the snake sannin if he tried to escape.
Neji had his own plans for the forest of death, starting with removing both the sound genin and Kabuto's team, permanently. The next plan required help from Naruto and hopefully just his team. Since Naruto can mimic others' chakra signatures with his henge, using kage bushin to pretend to be his team and either receiving a scroll from another team or taking it quickly, Orochimaru would never have a chance in the forest to give Sasuke a bite. The Rokudaime believed that Sasuke would never have betrayed Konoha without the curse seal, and Neji would be fine testing that. And if Sasuke did betray the village, he would take him out, no matter what anyone else said. Sure, Itachi and Orochimaru were 'killed' by him, but the snake sannin failed so he could take a shot at Itachi and Itachi only fought him so he could give his eyes to his brother. And it was probably also to try to turn him against Madara, which did not go so well. The plan had flaws, but as long as Orochimaru did not feel that Naruto was enough of a threat to risk alienating Sasuke by killing his teammate, Naruto will be fine. Leaving his thoughts behind, Neji headed off to sleep, perhaps tomorrow will be the day that they 'catch' Danzo.
As he arrived at the training field, he had been unsurprised to be the last one there. Tenten had been practicing using chakra to guide a kunai into hitting a target after she threw it off course, while Lee was pounding a poor log into sawdust, and their sensei was grinning like a madman. "Welcome, my youthful students, Lee, for your morning workout, I want you to run around Konoha three times. The first one is to be at half-pace." He nodded before jogging away to the gates. Motioning to the two to come closer, Gai pulled out two scrolls and activated the one on the left. The three objects that appeared were three identical jumpsuits, obviously the right size for his students. "I was talking with one of the chunnin, the beautiful flower Kurenai, her skills at team bonding are impressive, and she suggested that our team wear similar outfits, thus everyone should wear the perfectly form-fitting, ultimate training clothes, these training suits." Both of his students stared at him, Neji was about to thoroughly deconstruct why they were bad before Tenten smiled and answered,
"Thank, Gai-sensei, this will be most helpful for training." Neji's jaw dropped enough that both noticed while their teacher smiled. "With how skin tight they are, I can post this somewhere and know for sure when my throws actually hit and not just graze the edges of clothes." Neji smirked as they watched Gai's face fall before he quickly recovered.
"Yes, Tenten's flames of youth are blazing today! I have a new training regiment for you two today. Since both of you could benefit from knowing your chakra nature, I have procured two pieces of chakra paper, take these and channel chakra into them." He handed the papers over as both of them as they pushed chakra into them. Tenten's paper quickly burnt into ashes while Neji's crumpled. "Excellent, Tenten, your chakra nature is fire and Neji's is lightning. To utilize this, Tenten, you will be practicing Fire Shuriken. Neji, I will teach you raiton bushin. Here are the handsigns." After demonstrating the handsigns and Neji giving affirmation of understanding, Gai went to help Tenten with the new technique. Upon Lee's return, Tenten was able to cover one of her shurikens in fire while Neji's bushin would form and dissipate after twenty seconds. All three were then taught how to do tree-climbing. Neji easily beat the two in completing the exercise with Tenten and then Lee following with their teammate's aid. However, Gai had them continuing run up and down the tree. The practice ended when each genin was too tired to continue, with Lee out lasting both of them, much to his "genius rival's" annoyance. After saying farewell to his teammates, he went to meet Naruto for training.
Naruto had to rush to make it to their meeting as he was a few minutes late. "So, sorry, Neji, the food took longer to cook than I thought." As he started taking deep breaths, Neji nodded before explaning,
"Well, you know how quite a few people do not seem to like you? I have noticed how one in particular seemed to have a strange look when he stares at you. He probably knows why."
"So, is my training to get him to tell me about it?"
"Not directly, I doubt he will give you a straight answer about it. Instead I do know where he meets with people today, you are going to work on spying. You will pretend to be practicing our henge exercise. The building is surrounded by apartments and nothing else, amd it is the only one-floor tall building in the area. You want to be henging into the wall on the north side, you might be able to hear him, since he prefers to stand near it. Do you understand?"
"Of course, Neji, too bad we won't be on the same team, huh?"
"You will perform adequately with whatever team you are put with. One last order, if any ANBU tell you to leave, make sure to see which mask the person is wearing and then leave immediately."
"I'll tell them not to let you know I'm there, that way they won't think it is anything else." Neji nodded, closed his eyes, and waved his student off. After waiting five minutes to give him a head start, he 'started' after him. He walked straight to Ichiraku Ramen for something to eat.
"Hello, Neji, where's Naruto?" Ayame raised an eyebrow as she continuing wiping down the table.
"He is practicing his stealth techniques against an active searcher. I assume that he is hungry and will be coming here shortly. Besides I have unable to eat anything since training today. I would like two of the usual." I had hoped to avoid having a usual so soon, but since they have not added four of the other flavors I like until 3 years from now, there is only one choice.
"So, have the flames of youth been awakened in Lee's eternal rival?" Neji stared at the waitress as she giggled while preparing the food. "Lee came here once to meet your most youthful pupil after one of your practices. Naruto asked him for training tips and Lee gave him one of Gai's jumpsuits, it was orange though." Neji slouched back a couple of inches before narrowing his eyes while she started cracking up laughing. "Wow, Lee was right that you don't like your sensei's style of dress. What's the problem with it?"
"Because the image Naruto will cultivate with it is definitely not the same one Gai has."
"What are you afraid of the suit or something?" Neji raised an eyebrow and stared at her as she attempted to recover her composure. She finally placed the first bowl down, and Naruto joined them as he bolted into the stand before stopping centimeters in front of a seat as Neji grabbed onto the seat to keep it from knocking into the stand. Naruto quietly reported,
"It looks like they don't want me around there, someone threw a couple of kunai at me, I had to drop the henge and run, I think I saw a shuriken that the person threw near me as well. Didn't get to see the mask of the person. You were right, I'm going to try again-"
"Naruto, you might want to plan more and if you do not go back there for a while, they will think you were just hiding from me. That way, they may ignore you if they do see you the next time." He nodded enthusiastically as he put down money for ramen. "Tomorrow we shall work on your kunai and shuriken throwing." Neji returned to his ramen and much to his surprise Naruto stayed quiet during their meal.
After finishing his food, Naruto nodded and walked off to his apartment as Neji noticed that Ayame would be watching him though she would look away when he caught her. "Was there something you wanted to ask, Ayame?" She jumped before turning to look at the only customer at the stand.
"You weren't surprised that Naruto was attacked on your training. Why didn't you tell him or trail him? Were you hoping he would be attacked?" Neji smirked as Ayame glared in response.
"I expected the person to tell him to leave, not attack him. But it is better that he practices dodging now. My main objective is that he can handle himself without aid. If he believes that I will always be there to cover him, his growth will always be stunted. I do appreciate the concern for him, but I must return home, thank you for the meal." With that he nodded, dropped money on the table, and walked back home.
Neji found the next two weeks were pushing his limits, as Gai found him a few things about medic justus, and with the training with the lightning clones, sparing with Lee, reading as much information as he could about the human body, making sure Naruto did not hit the wrong target with shrunkens, and the long and tiring D-ranked missions. The Sandaime knew how to pick them, as most of the missions were time intensive and the Byakugan would not significantly speed them up. He would return to the Hyuuga clan area exhausted.
He felt bad for Lee, three of his lightning clones could bring him down, though usually two would be taken down in the process. At least Lee took it as a measure that he must improve. Gai 'suggested' the night before that his team plan for survival training tomorrow and get enough sleep. Which led to Neji cancelling with Naruto with the promise of convincing his sensei of giving him a lesson on taijustu. He had found himself on the ground having been tackled by his student. It was one of the few things that he tried not to chastise him about. He would latch onto people that would acknowledge him and made sure to hug them often. A cynical side of Neji wondered if he did that to make sure he was not just a figment of his imagination.
As he made it the training field, he found Lee standing there practicing without his weights. Gai had him practice without weights occasionally, that way he would not be completely taken off guard the first time he removed them. Tenten was finishing putting weapons into her scroll. She only had one scroll full of weapons, probably after the first C-ranked mission she would buy a second one to fill up. If she can actually encase all of her weapons with fire then Temari would be receiving a horrible shock during the chunnin exams.
"Ah, my youthful students are preparing themselves for survival training, yosh, the flames are blazing brightly! This was my final test, after completing 10 missions, I know you three are ready for a C-ranked mission." Lee cheered as his teammates smiled and smirked in response.
The group of four walked towards The Hokage Tower while Neji ignored thinking about what the mission was about. If he did not remember it, the odds were against it being more dangerous than it should have been. No matter what the Rokudaime said, just because the two C-ranked missions he went on ended up being A-ranked does not mean all of them will be. He listened intently as Iruka explained to the team that they were to head to the southern part of Fire Country with a small caravan. Bandits have been raiding them there and they were supposed to take them out. The bandits numbered between 5-25. The genin were going to be there to prevent the enemy from getting close to any of the merchants while Gai would take down the enemy. With how the group was set up, Neji figured that Tenten would injure a few, with Lee and him get maybe a couple to fight at best, though this would be his second major hurdle. When he took care of the scum, how would he explain to Gai his lack of reaction to killing. Only heartless bastards could pull that off for the first time, and it was one of the few things that Neji would not claim to be.
A/N I figured that only techniques that were being created new or having elemental nature added to them would take ridiculous amount of time to learn compared to normal elemental justus. Also this story should probably be considered off canon starting with 450, unless Kishimoto is nice and does something with his next chapter. I hope you enjoy this and any errors or compliments you wish to send me, please leave a review.