Here's the next chapter! Hope you all had a good new year. I was planning to finish this up on New Year's Eve, but I stayed late at a friend's house and that prevented me from finishing this up. Hope you like it!
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
Chapter Seven: Return to the Cloud Village
It took nearly two days to complete the trip to Konoha, mainly because of Ayame and Takuo, who simply could not be pushed to go far as fast as Tenten and Gai could. Makoto managed to stay only slightly behind the two Konoha ninja, but even he was lagging in pace.
They made it eventually, though, and reported to Tsunade immediately. Inside her office, there was another jounin; he took the small family to their new safe-house, leaving Tenten and Gai alone in Tsunade's office.
"So, I trust that you haven't found Lee and Neji yet," Tsunade said.
"Right," said Gai. "But we're going to go look for them immediately after this. The Power of Youth will allow us to find them with ease!"
"You going to need any help with that?"
"Of course not," said Gai indignantly. "Tenten and I are perfectly capable to use our Youthful Power to save Lee and Neji!"
Tenten just nodded, smiling briefly as Gai continued his speech about youth and power.
"Gai," interrupted Tsunade. "Are you sure about not wanting any help?"
"Yes, positive," said Gai. "Now, if you'll excuse us, Hokage-sama, we'll be leaving now." He bowed and then turned towards the door. "Ready, Tenten?"
"Ready," she repeated and bowed to Tsunade. "Let's go."
"Wait," said Tsunade suddenly. "You're going to need traveling documents so that you'll be able to make it into the village without being arrested." She scribbled something that seemed to be a signature on a few papers and then handed them to Gai. "Here."
"Thank you," said Gai. "Now let's find Lee and Neji!"
x-x-x
Tenten and Gai traveled for the rest of the day and then stopped for the night. When they woke after a short sleep, the sky above threatened rain.
"We must hurry!" said Gai as he and Tenten gathered the things they'd brought with them. They finished and then headed in the direction of the Cloud Village.
They had been heading towards the village for perhaps twenty minutes when the first raindrop fell.
"We have to go faster!" said Tenten, not wanting to get stuck in the rain. Granted, she didn't want to speed up—she was already doing everything in her power to keep up with Gai—but she didn't want to get sick from being in the rain for too long and waste even more time.
Gai shot her a questioning glance and then upped his pace, leaping ahead of her to the next branch; Tenten immediately regretted that she'd said anything and tried to catch up to her sensei.
x-x-x
Lee didn't care about the pain his injuries were causing him as he did repetitive push-ups, trying to stop worrying about Neji and at the same time wondering when he would come back.
Because he would come back. He had to.
x-x-x
The rain was pouring down steadily from the sky as Tenten and Gai reached the Hidden Village of the Clouds for the third time since they had been assigned the mission in the first place. Tenten could hardly stand up due to exhaustion; instead of slowing a little—she'd thought he might get tired eventually, but that was not the case—Gai had just sped up.
But they had stopped the insane speed, because Tenten had suggested, breathlessly, that they not come crashing into the Cloud Village at top speed and instead go in as inconspicuously as was possible. Just because they were legally allowed into the village didn't mean that they had to come in with a big crash or anything of the sort.
As they approached the gate that led into the village, there were three figures visible through the rain—one was significantly taller than the other two, and Tenten thought that maybe the person was even taller than Gai was. The other two were rather short, but still tall by human standards.
The three figures—Tenten couldn't tell whether they were male or female—were walking towards Tenten and Gai and in turn becoming more visible; all three were men, and all of them were wearing hitai-ate.
"Who are you and what are you doing here?" the tallest one demanded in a deep voice.
Gai pulled out the documents that Tsunade had signed and held them out to the shinobi, who took them and scanned them briefly, squinting as the rain made it difficult to see and smeared the ink.
"Very well, then," he said. "Go on in. I'll keep these."
Gai thanked him and Tenten followed suit as the two of them made their way through the gates of the Hidden Village of the Clouds.
Author's Note: That felt like a good place to call it quits. For any of you who are interested in what Neji's up to, he'll be coming up next chapter. There'll be maybe six or seven more chapters and then this'll be wrapped up (if I'm any good at estimating, that is…).
If you see any abnormalities in the characters/story, typos, OOC-ness, or weird wording, tell me!
Thanks. And review please!
