Disclaimer: Is my name Masashi Kishimoto? I don't think so.


As we travelled further from Konoha, unfortunately...

"What do you mean we're lost!?!" I screamed at Gai-sensei.

Said person sheepishly replied, "I seem to have read the map wrongly."

"You're a Jounin! Our sensei! How could you have made such a stupid mistake!"

"Well, I thought that if we took a shortcut, we would get there faster."

"That was retarded," Neji said simply.

"Gai-sensei, perhaps you could let me try," Lee said, grabbing the map from his look-alike.


"We're back at where we started," Neji said with a hint of annoyance. I noticed the shuriken on a tree. Why didn't I think of that?

"Lee, give me the stupid map." Lee handed it to me. "No wonder we're lost, you've been reading it upside-down." Lee's jaw hit the ground and his face paled. Tears welled up in his already large eyes, which had widened to unbelievable poportions. He looked utterly devastated.

"Gai-sensei! I'm a failure!" Overeacting much?

"No, Lee. You're the best student I've ever had! You must have confidence in your blazing fire of youth!"

"Gai-sensei!"

"Lee!"

"GAI-SENSEI!"

"LEE!"

"GAI-SENSEI!"

"LEE!"

Yes, the two of them were kneeling, crying, hugging and all that jazz.


Meanwhile, the sane people were trying to find a way back to the path.

"Neji, can't you use byakugan?"

"Tried. Didn't work. We're probably too far from the path already."

I sighed. "Well, now what do we do?"

"We could try looking for it, but it's going to take awhile." I turned to Ishida, who was confused.

"Ishida-san, I'm sorry but our trip is going to take longer than expected."

"Are your teammates really that upset?" Ishida gestured at Lee and Gai, who were crying harder than ever and trying to suffocate each other.

"No, they're always like that." I turned my attention back to Neji. "So do we go, or let Gai-sensei and Lee go?"

"There's no way they're going to stop, they haven't ranted about youth yet. You and I will go."

"Fine with me." I walked towards Lee and Gai, trying to make myself heard over their cries. "Gai-sensei, Neji and I are going to look for the path. Stay here and don't move, ok?" The only response I got was:

"NOW MY YOUTHFUL STUDENT, LET US HEAD FOR THE EVERLASTING SUNSET!!!"

"YES GAI-SENSEI!"

Everyone else sweatdropped.


"Byakugan!" Neji scanned the area.

"Neji if you look at me, I'll kill you."

"I'm not. Even if I did, I'd look through you completely, not just your-" Neji stopped abruptly and coughed slightly, blushing very faintly. Do you believe him? I know I don't.

I examined the forest floor, feeling quite useless. Neji was doing everything, as usual. Wait a minute...

"Neji, look! Horse tracks." I knelt on the ground to take a closer look. "If we follow the tracks and retrace our steps, we should be able to find the path."

Neji followed the trail with his eyes.

"I suppose it could work."

Thankfully it did. Once we found the path, we marked our trail with some kunai and went back to find the rest of the group.


When we arrived at our original location...

"Have you found it?" Ishida asked, looking quite upset.

"Yes," I replied. What's wrong with him.

"Thank go- I mean... Let's go." Ishida ordered his men to take up their positions.

Then I spotted Lee and Gai-sensei.

"Lee what are you doing?" They were still hugging each other. Neither were moving a muscle, even their absurdly thick eyebrows weren't twitching, though Neji and I were. No wonder Ishida looked so happy to get away...

"I'm not moving. You told me not to," Lee mumbled, trying to move his lips as little as possible.

"That's the spirit Lee!" Gai said, winking. Lee gasped and clapped his hands over his mouth.

"Gai-sensei! You moved!"

"Oh no! So did you! Well, a promise is a promise."

"Yes! Gai-sensei!"


We were walking along the path back to the palace. Gai and Lee were walking on their hands while the rest of us walked normally.

"Lee, we must fulfill our promise!"

"Yes Gai-sensei!" Lee tried to punch the air but failed. "In future, if I ever move when I'm not supposed to, I will tie myself to a chair and not move for three days!"

"That's wonderful, Lee!"

"Aren't you going to stop them?" Ishida asked me, his eyes glued to Lee and Gai. Maybe he was worried for their sanity, I know I was.

"I gave up after the first few times."

We reached a gorge which we had crossed before. The rope bridge was hanging from the edge, suspended on several wooden poles. It looked as unstable as ever. I peered over the edge and saw water rushing over the jagged rocks below. If we fell and the height didn't kill us, the water would. I gulped.

"Yosh! I shall try first!" Gai "walked" across the bridge and crossed safely. "Ishida-sama! Your turn." Ishida tottered unsteadily on his horse but, reached the other side.

Suddenly, I heard leaves rustling. "Neji," I whispered. He nodded and activated his byakugan. Before he could complete his survey of the area, a group of bandits jumped out of the trees behind us.

"It's the ones from before!" Lee called from the rear, knocking out one by punching his stomach.

"We beat them before, we can do it again!" I whipped out my scroll and summoned my weapons. About half of the bandits fell.

"There's more on the way." Neji said, byakugan activated.

"Crap." I pulled out a scroll of bombs and started throwing them at strategic places. Another dozen bit the dust.

While Neji, Lee, and I held them back, Gai was supervising the soldiers as they crossed the bridge. I could hear the ropes groaning. Not good.

"We have to get across!"

Lee kicked another bandit before running across the bridge. Neji stopped his Kaiten and followed.

"Come on!" Lee shouted. I threw my largest bomb yet and hoped that the explosion would kill them, if not scare them away. I ran across the bridge and was about halfway across when the surviving bandits started running after me.

Our combined weight was simply too much. The ropes on the ends were beginning to snap. Behind me, the bandits were screaming and running for the end closest to them. I quickened my pace, channeling chakra into my feet to increase my speed. Just when I reached the other side, the rope snapped and the remaining bandits plummetted to their doom.

"Tenten-san are you alright?" Ishida asked with a look of concern on his face.

"I'm ok."

The rock beneath me chose to collapse then. Someone up there must hate me. Luckily, I felt a hand catch my flailing one, pull me back up and help me onto solid ground.. Neji had saved me again.

"Thanks," I smiled at Neji who gave me a tiny one in return.

"No problem."


We stopped for the night in the middle of a clearing. Thanks to Gai and Lee's stupidity, as well as the bandits, the journey would take longer than ever.

The trip back to Konoha had better not be this long..

This time, Neji and I took the first watch. Hopefully I would be able to sleep after that, sleeping on the ground takes a long time to get used to. For sone reason, everyone else didn't really have a problem, even Lee and Gai who were snoring loudly.

"Neji, I'm sorry."

"You didn't do anything."

"I acted like an idiot, fawning over Ishida and all that. You were right. This is a mission, I should take it more seriously. And I'm sorry about snapping at you the other day."

"Don't worry about it. It's fine."

"Thank you Neji."

"You don't have to thank me."

"You saved my life."

"Hn."

I smiled. "I'm getting sleepy. I'll wake up Lee and Gai-sensei." I barely stifled a yawn as I poked Lee. "Lee, wake up!" Lee's eyes shot open.

"What? Who's attacking? Is it an ambush?"

"No, it's your shift now."

"Oh. Alright. GAI-SENSEI! WAKE UP!" I covered my ears.

"Lee! Do you want to wake everyone up?"

"Sorry," he whispered.

"I'm going to sleep now. Good night Neji. Good night Lee." I crawled into my tent and curled up into a ball. I couldn't wait to sleep on a soft, feather bed again.


We arrived at the palace safely with no further ambushes or losing our way. Neji did the navigating. In case you were wondering, Gai and Lee were STILL walking on their hands...

"Welcome home Tatsuya!" A middle aged, dark haired man was standing at the main gate. Who the hell? Is that the daimyo?

"It's been awhile brother." Brother?!? I thought this guy was his father. Just how many sons did this daimyo have anyway, if the daimyo's son was about 40... I pictured a 60 year old man and his wife surrounded by at least 10 children. They must have been busy, really busy.

"Why are you so late? You were supposed to arrive yesterday."

"It's my fault," a voice spoke up. All attention was turned to Lee.

"Who are you?"

"He's one of the ninjas from Konoha. The four of them did a wonderful job in protecting me." the younger Ishida explained and the older one raised an eyebrow.

"I see, " he lowered his voice but I could still hear what he was saying. "Why are they walking on their hands? Did you punish them for delaying you?"

"Of course not. They decided to do so on their own." Ishida's brother addressed my team and I.

"I'm sure you're tired from your journey. Would you like to rest before starting your journey home?"

Gai spoke up. "No, we're very eager to get home. Hokage-sama wants a full report about the mission asap."

Ishida's brother sighed audibly, probably in relief. "Then I suppose you should be going."

Gai managed to salute them (how did he support his weight with only one hand?) before beginning to leave. Lee followed suit. Neji nodded and turned to leave. I bowed and followed them.


Our return journey took longer since Lee and Gai were adamant about fufilling their "punishment".

"Oh for crying out loud, can't you just run normally? At this rate, we'll get home sometime next year!" All the bottled up frustration at Ishida, my own stupidity, and lack of sleep had finally found an outlet to realease itself: Lee and Gai.

"But Tenten-san, I made a promise, therefore I must uphold it. Youth shall prevail!"

"It was a stupid one. I didn't tell you not to move!"

"You did actually." I glared at Neji, who blinked.

"But Tenten-" Gai started.

"Run normally or I'll throw so many kunai at you that you'll look like a porcupine!" They obliged, even Gai didn't have anything to say.

We got home in 15 minutes.

"I'm going home." Gai nodded, not daring to speak. Am I that scary when I'm mad?

Feather bed, here I come.


Author's Note:

Hi, sorry for the late update. I hate school. Anyway, I have edited every chapter to remove as many one-liners as possible. According to my english teacher/lawyer/mom, New speaker new sentence, same speaker same paragraph. My idiot school teacher from several years back only mentioned the first part. Maybe it's her fault that I didn't do as well as expected for my exam. Hmm...

The whole chapter is about how they completed the mission. My sis suggested just saying "They escorted Ishida and went back to Konoha" But that wouldn't be fun. I enjoyed upsetting Ishida by making him see Lee and Gai act "gay". He deserves it.

Thanks toYumizuki for her comments, they really helped me to work on this chappie. Beta read by Midnight Memories.