Chapter Six: Operation Retrieve the Heavenly One at All Costs
Tenten could feel something in the air change, either that or something in her own cell. She had woken up to feeling slight cramping pains, that she had just dismissed as false labour, she had been feeling them every so often, Sakura had told her that she would be feeling them probably between her 8th month and her final month a lot. Her body liked to play pranks in other words, making her think it was her time, but it wasn't.
Suddenly she heard a bang and someone came shouting down the stairs, "Sir…Lord Kiran thinks that we have some intruders here, we found a whole bunch of our own comrades lying dead or unconscious outside of the base's door that hides our base's real entrance here." The two guards then talked about something else and then the first man said,
"Also Meidia is to be branded as a traitor, whatever order she gives you, we aren't to listen to it, and to kill her on sight, she has obviously disobeyed Kiran-sama too many times."
"Hai, alright…" said the second man. Hope began to spring inside of Tenten's heart, but quickly she hid her surprise and happiness from them, she did not want to lead them on that she was listening to their conversations. If that was true, what they said about the intruders then she knew Konohagakure had sent someone to get her back. She wondered who it was.
'Please let it be Neji that comes to my rescue, oh kami-sama, I hope Naruto-sama sent him, there's so much I just…' Thought Tenten as she was interrupted by one of the guards, "You better be quiet in there Leaf wench, those intruders will be pretty much walking into an ambush, and it's suicide to come strolling into this place, there's booby traps and not to mention about a good 100 shinobi and non shinobi here in this base alone."
Tenten remained vigilant and slightly stoic, "It could take a thousand Shinobi and yet won't stop the Will of Fire that burns in us to stop my Village's team…and they'll never give up, ever!" Shouted Tenten. She watched the two guards' eyes twitch in anger at her words. Her words had struck home it seemed or at least a nerve or two.
"Brave words for someone who can't even fight at the moment." Growled the guard who had come down to her prison cell to warn the other about what was going on up above. Tenten just gave them each a cold glare, she had been living with Neji a little too much it seemed, his attitude and ways of living were rubbing off on her. She rested her hand on her stomach and patted it a little, 'Don't worry Little one, soon we will be saved…I know it…if Neji was the one sent to get me out of this, he won't stop until we are both safe…' She thought as the guards went back to their duties, Tenten just waited and prayed that the 'intruders' would get here as soon as they could and spring her free from her cage.
Scarcely 5 minutes before this conversation happened…
"Sir we have intruders in the base!" Shouted a man who had come running in gasping for air, as the man had been running great distances.
Kiran stood up and growled, "BAKA! You let them in here, didn't you?! Where are they?!" He was livid with anger at this very moment, first Meidia betrayed him, now this. He waited furiously for the man to stutter out to him,
"We think they might be coming for the prisoner, 3 ANBU and what looks to be a Jounin ranked shinobi from the Land of Fire's Hidden Village of the Leaf." Kiran gritted his teeth as he tried to remain calm and said as he clenched his hands into his fists,
"Sound the alarm, have them all check all the floors of this base, and I mean all of them! Place 5 extra guards on Tenten, I don't want these ANBU or that Jounin leaving here alive! GO NOW!" Shouted Kiran after saying this. The ninja in front of him quickly snapped a salute and bowed,
"Hai Kiran-sama!" And quickly disappeared in a cloud of smoke. Kiran was still angry, and shouted for someone to get in here. Yashiro quickly came in, at the beck and call of his master.
"Yes Lord Kiran?" said Yashiro as he quickly bowed his head. Kiran didn't wait for him to do the pleasantries, he snapped out, "Find that bitch and execute her!! NOW! Before she does something she will regret." He was referring to Meidia. Yashiro nodded and quickly disappeared before Kiran could even bat an eyelash.
Meanwhile:
Neji and the others had managed to get rid of the wards and got to about two floors just below Tenten's prison cell when they all could hear a loud sound that sounded like a Gong had been struck. "Not good…" hissed Neji to the others through clenched teeth once again.
"What's this mean?" said Lee, hopping around on his feet, Neji turned and bonked him on the head with his fist, "It means we've been detected…Lee, Kitten, Reaper, let's split up and meet back on the upper floors, this will help confuse the enemy more, and less likely for them to catch us all in one big group."
"Hai!" called out Uchiha and Sakura as they quickly headed in different directions; Lee rubbed his head with his bandaged hand and said, "Neji…be careful…" He gave Neji a stern look, which Neji calmly returned with one of his stoic icy famous glances in return before the two former team mates and good friends went their separate ways.
Neji took a calm relaxing breath; he hoped his friends would be fine without him. His hand patted his Ninjaken that was strapped to his back and silently he began running back towards the stairs they had come off of, and headed down the next flight. Pausing as he heard voices shouting above him. Neji grimaced slightly and quickly continued running down the stairs.
If they caught him, he would have to remove them quickly, and he wanted to avoid having to fight too many of them and waste his chakra. Thank god he always brought those military rations pellets with him this time. He stopped at the door of one of the floors and peered out of the door. 'Not this floor must be the next one down…' thought Neji tirelessly as he then continued down the stairs after closing the door.
As he got about half way down the flight of stairs he could feel a familiar chakra presence, he knew that chakra presence pretty well. 'Hold on my koi…'
Another body dropped as Sakura kicked and punched her way through, as 10 weak looking guards had attempted to ambush her as she ran down the hallway and got separated from Sasuke and Lee. She had wanted to go and help her friend Neji, who she had become close friends with due in part to Tenten mostly.
She glared at a few of the enemies that were closing in on her; 'I might have to unleash my Inner self on these temes…' thought Sakura and suddenly a voice inside of her head spoke,
'CHA! LET ME AT THEM!'' An image of a taller Sakura with the words 'Inner Sakura' suddenly popped into her head, cracking her knuckles. Sakura just smirked underneath her mask and closed her eyes and said, "You guys should know it's not nice to beat up on girls…even if they are your enemy…" She then pulled back her fist and quickly slammed it into the ground, cracking the ground and sending them all to the ground with a scream of pain and probably shock.
"Hmph I showed you guys! Never get in the way of love or justice!" She said to the unconscious heap of guards. 'CHA CHA!! You Got that Right!'' said her Inner self as it gave her the thumbs up sign. Sakura hmphed as she held back her laughter and then quickly took off hoping to find another way to the surface.
She stopped when she noticed something was in her way, or in this case, someone.
Sasuke had managed to defeat 10 guards on his own, he was wondering where the hell they all were coming from. He was getting exhausted, quickly he pulled a military ration pellet out of his pouch and pulling up his mask he took the pill and quickly placed his mask back on and threw his kusunagi blade in the middle of where the ninja and normal enemies, who didn't have a hitai-ate slashed headbands on their persons.
Sasuke quickly made a handseal with his forefinger and middle finger, "Chidori Nagashi (One Thousand Birds Current)!" He growled out as suddenly the ground where he had thrown his sword had become one big electrical field as those standing the closest to the blade had began to get hit with his special Lightning Attack.
Sasuke smirked and shook his head, "Hmph…not much of a fight, how boring…" Said Sasuke as he watched the rest of them collapse after getting quite a few mega joules of electrical charged chakra pumped into them. Sasuke had improved his special unique attack since he had returned to the Village, it had been obvious.
Suddenly Sasuke froze when he heard applause, and a voice coming from a corner, "Very impressive, for someone who is not of the Village Hidden among the Clouds." Said the voice. Sasuke glared towards the sound, Sharingan eyes being reactivated as he spoke,
"Come on out of there…now…!" Suddenly a figure dressed in what looked to be a yellowish-orange robe stepped out of the shadowed corner, a double bladed scythe in one hand and what looked to be a chain in the other. The figure pulled back their hood to reveal a man that looked no more then in his late 20s standing there. The man smirked at Sasuke as he spoke,
"Allow me to introduce myself, I am known or was known throughout Kumogakure as the dreaded 'Destiny's Light Shinobi' Fugaran Itsumaru and you're about to find out why I am called this fool…"
Sasuke just stood there after retrieving his blade and shook his dark raven haired head at the man, he then made the hand gesture that said to 'bring it on' at the man, "Hmph, not much on the fancy entrances or words, but it doesn't matter, just bring it on, I could use the fight, no one calls me a fool either, the last person who did was someone I vowed to kill long ago, and now he's dead." He then took a fighting stance and waited for the man to charge at him.
'I hope Neji and the others can handle their own battles, I just got a bad feeling about something…' was Sasuke's last thought before the battle begun between the two ninjas.
"Leaf Whirlwind!" Called out Lee as he came swinging his leg at the closest enemy near him, knocking the man into the air and came falling down before Lee punched him as he fell and sent him into the nearest wall with bone crushing force.
Lee swung himself around and came back into his fighting stance as he watched the two other enemies hesitate, and Lee smirked, "What's wrong, scared now?" said Lee mockingly as he held out his hand in the fighting stance gesture he always had it in when he was fighting. It felt good to be fighting again; Lee thought this to himself as he waited for them to come at him.
"You should be, you took my best friend away from my other team mate and friend, and now you will all be punished for it accordingly!" Shouted Lee as he came rushing at them at an incredible speed, kicking the two guards as well as throwing a few quick jabs into their gut and then at their chins, sending the two of them to the ground pretty fast.
Suddenly Lee had to back flip and then crouch down as three kunai knives came whizzing past him, one of them had an explosive tag on it, and quickly Lee ran for cover as the tag exploded. Lee then looked up after rolling into a small alcove to see a man standing there, a pretty big guy too, taller then Lee by the looks of it.
"Brave words from someone who by the looks of it can only use Taijutsu…" said the Man as the giant began to laugh at Lee. Lee attempted to remain calm as he got to his feet and walked out dusting himself, as he stood in the middle of the room and faced the man, Lee then took a small fighting stance once again.
"I am the Leaf Village's Honourable and Handsome Green Devil, my name is Rock Lee, and you are?" He asked, always being the courteous one when he was faced with a strong opponent. The giant continued to laugh before a serious look came on to his porcine like face as the man spoke up,
"Ha, you call yourself a shinobi of the Leaf Village huh? Well, where I am from, they call me the 'Iron Lightning Giant Shinobi of the Land of Lightning' Itaran, because of my abilities to use this…" Almost immediately the man pulled out what looked to be a giant assed sword that only the man could swing. "You better be ready to go to the afterlife 'Green Devil' because I will be sending you there in 5 seconds flat…" The man then charged Lee, for a big guy he was certainly fast.
Lee managed to dodge and landed crouched on top of a statue about a few meters away after leaping upwards, "Ha, finally an opponent that is probably stronger then even my once eternal rival, let us fight then!" His youthfulness was certainly burning up now. 'Neji…take care of Tenten, do not worry about us…' thought Lee as he prepared to do battle with the giant man.
Neji could hear yelling and things blowing up above him as he quietly snuck through the prison floor, so far he had not been caught. Or at least until he turned onto a corner and ran straight into 7 guards, all looking pretty strong. 'I hope those guys are alright up there, I have a bad feeling though there's more to this then meets the eye. Opps…' thought the stoic Hyuuga.
"HEY YOU DON'T BELONG HERE!" Shouted the men, and quickly Neji wished he had been more cautious. Quickly pulling out three kunai blades, Neji threw them directly at two of the guards, keeping one of the kunai blades to fight off anyone who got close enough to him.
Both kunai blades that had been thrown had managed to successfully hit their targets right in the throat or eyeball, both men went down with a cry in pain or gargle in the case of the man with the kunai in his windpipe.
Rage boiled up in Neji's veins as he quickly took his Juuken (Gentle Fist) fighting stance and activated Byakugan. He then quickly struck at his opponents with fury. Dodging a few things that were thrown at him by the enemy, he had managed to knock three more men before he was punched square in the jaw by a guard who had got beside him when his back had been turned. Neji winced and fell back, hitting into the corner of the wall.
Neji quickly moved out of the way as a mace like weapon came at him just in time. Neji growled and as the man with the mace came at him, he quickly ducked again and struck the man right at his heart tenketsu, growling lowly this time at his enemy as the man winced in pain and then fell to the ground. When one was pissed, no one dared to get in the way of a furious Hyuuga, especially the one that now was striking the rest of the guards to the ground. Neji panted as he came out of his rage and slowly standing straight he began to walk around the corpses that littered the floor.
He quickly looked around with Byakugan and saw the cell he had been looking for; indeed there was a barrier that had tried to deceive his eyes. Neji quickly deactivated Byakugan and looked around to see if there were other paper seals around the place. He saw that there were three others each in the corners of the cell. He wondered why they would have to put a barrier up around a cell like this, just to keep someone in there, who could obviously not put up much resistance while being in the condition she was in. Neji quickly tossed his ponytail back as he began to think on how to remove the wards carefully, he had seen something of this sort of barrier before, but he couldn't remember from where.
Then it came to him, quickly he stood back briefly before charging his chakra up a little. The way to removing a seal using barrier like this was to find the main seal, which was on the door by the look of it, and seeing he had Juuken to help him, the chakra that empowered the barrier came from that particular seal. He called out softly, "Juuken!" He then struck the seal on the door and immediately the barrier fizzled out with a small crackle of energy.
Neji then quickly pulled out a lock pick he had brought with him and began attempting to lock pick the door. He couldn't see the person inside just yet, seeing he had Byakugan off, seeing it would have done him no good due to how the door was made. It took him only a few minutes of lock picking before he managed to knock the lock off with a quick regular strike with his hand. He then kicked the door open, and peering around the corner to make sure no enemies had shown up to ruin his attempt to rescue the person, he ran into the dark prison cell.
It took him only a few minutes for his eyes to adjust, without having to use Byakugan to find the person he had been longing to rescue in the darkness. There lying on a small bed was a sleeping, yet still always beautiful no matter if she was fat or not, a very pregnant Tenten. Neji's heart clenched as he immediately ran over to her side. He knelt down beside her and touched her cheek gently as he removed his mask. He spoke up, "Tenten…"
Tenten had fallen into a deep sleep, oblivious to the goings on above her, the battling and explosions. The barrier seemed to keep things pretty much sound proof. She moaned softly in her sleep as she felt one of her cramping pains come and go in her stomach. She then took note she could no longer hear the humming of the chakra barrier, but a sizzling sound, and also the shouts and thumping sounds outside of her prison cell, just before the sizzling sound.
And now she felt something warm touching her cheek, a gloved hand and someone calling to her in a soft masculine voice, "Tenten." Tenten murmured something between her lips sleepily, "I don't want to get up…five more minutes…" She then tried to go back to sleep, but suddenly she felt a pressure on her mouth, something warm yet soft was touching her there. Slowly her chocolate brown eyes drifted open.
She tried to move her mouth to accommodate whatever it was touching her there. When her vision became focused, she was staring into the most beautiful of moonlit ivory colored eyes she had ever seen. Her eyes widened and immediately she pulled back, "Neji!" She was shocked to find him here, he had come for her, and she knew he would. All this time she had almost begun to doubt he would. Quickly she wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him down into another kiss, this certainly had been the best thing to wake up to find, her precious one kissing her.
Neji returned the favour by lifting her upwards to pull her into an embrace, her extremely swollen stomach, pressing up against his own stomach; he then deepened the kiss until he had to pull away. "Tenten…I missed you…" He said softly as he hugged her gently and yet carefully. Tenten nodded and rested her head against his shoulder for a moment before having to pull out of his embrace and suddenly she pulled back her fist and punched Neji right square in the face.
Neji fell onto his backside in shock, a hand going to his now swollen cheek. He shouted angrily, "What was that for?!?" He saw anger and hurt in her eyes as she attempted to get to her feet, he immediately froze and listened as she started to shout back,
"That's for making me think you cheated on me, do you know how much pain you put me through?!" Tears threatened to spill down her cheeks as she stared at Neji, she had been through this and practiced what she would say to him, but her plan had gone straight to hell. She watched as Neji attempted to struggle to his feet, still rubbing his cheek. He looked upset, and a little hurt. Tenten turned her back on him as he tried to speak,
"Tenten…forgive me for making you think that…" He said, trying to find the words to make her see he was indeed sorry. "That…I was unfaithful to you." "I was in a lot of pain too, I can tell you the honest forsaken truth, that the only woman I ever touched and will always ever touch is you…" He looked at the ground after saying this, "I know your angry at me, and probably do not want to talk to me now, but can't we put this aside so I can get you out of here at least?"
Tenten tried to fight the tears and sobs that threatened to escape, a few tears already streaking down her cheeks as she heard him say these words. This was exactly what she wanted to hear from him, she believed him, and she knew the Hyuuga could never really lie to her. Her hands rested against her stomach as she then turned to him and said while walking over to him and pulled him close within kissing distance, in a whispered tone,
"When we get home, I'm going to punish you in my own way…" She then with this kissed him passionately; the kiss was supposed to make him believe that she had forgiven him, that she had missed him terribly and that she loved him a lot. Neji groaned softly as he kissed her back, wrapping his arms around her again protectively, and possessively. After another moment passed Tenten pulled back and whispered,
"I love you Neji-Kun, please take me home…I don't want to be here anymore then you do…" She gave him a small shy smile and Neji immediately returned the smile and squeezed her gently in a hug that spoke he loved her also, before grabbing her hand and without another word attempted to run with her out of the door.
They had managed to get to the stairs without any more guards to bother them. "Neji…loan me your Ninjaken please?" Asked Tenten, Neji knew he could not refuse nor argue with her to arm Tenten with a weapon seeing they were in a battle zone after all. Neji quickly stopped briefly on one of the stairs to unstrap the scabbard and handed it to her. "Tenten, I don't want you to have to fight, but if you have no choice, then use it…" He said to her after giving her his ANBU weapon.
Tenten quickly held the medium length sword's scabbard in her hand and quickly ran with Neji up the stairs as fast as her body would allow. Not knowing that someone was awaiting them in the room that lead to escaping to the outside world. Neji and Tenten managed to reach the floor that Neji and the others had come in from and quickly Neji spoke to Tenten as he and her made a brief pause to catch their breath,
"Tenten, we are almost there, as soon as we get out of here, I want you to run directly for the Village in the Land of Waves, and find a man named Inari, he'll know what to do." Said Neji. Tenten nodded but was about to ask Neji why he wanted to go alone when suddenly a voice hissed out,
"You're going no where, fast…Konoha scum…" The couple froze in their step and both of them slowly turned around to see a man with black hair and white streaks as well as three guards with him. "Neji!" called out Tenten, worried for both herself now and Neji.
"I know Tenten…damn it…where is the others, they are supposed to be here by now, I told them not to take any unnecessary risks…!" growled Neji under his breath, he looked at the three guards and then at the man and then the surrounding area as he quickly took a step in front of Tenten to protect her, glaring at the guards through his ANBU mask that he had placed back on after they had left the prison floor.
He noticed a room that lead to another room, this place was one huge maze it seemed; perhaps he could loose them with Tenten in this maze like place. Neji then quickly pushed Tenten towards the door and shouted, "TENTEN RUN!"
Tenten needed no more advice from Neji after hearing him shout that to her, and quickly she ran for the door that Neji had pushed her towards and opened it and quickly disappeared through the door, Neji not far behind her. She could hear the man that had tried to block their path shriek out, "AFTER THEM! KILL THEM BOTH! NO MORE FAILURES!"
Tenten tried her best to run as quickly as she could and almost tripped and fell on a rock, Neji was quicker and managed to catch her in time and quickly continued running with Tenten in his arms bridal style. Tenten murmured her thanks to him softly; Neji just looked at her and said,
"You've gotten heavier since the last time I had to carry you Tenten…" He was making an obvious assumption at that moment. He quickly kicked the door open that was in front of them, and dashed through it, the angry shouts of the guards trailing them not too far behind. Tenten almost snapped out,
"I'd like to see you carry a child for 9 months, and see how heavy you'd get Neji!" She was being hormonal, even at a time like this. Neji reached up to remove his mask and kissed her forehead softly to sooth her, "I was only making an observation my koi…it was not intended to hurt you." Tenten pouted a little as she grabbed his mask and held it in her hands as he continued to carry her in his arms.
'I just hope the baby doesn't come in a moment like this…' thought Tenten inwardly to herself as she peered around behind Neji and said, "Neji! We have to make a stand sooner or later, we have to fight them off, there are only 3 of them, and we can take them on!"
She heard him grunt and then suddenly skidded to a halt in another room that seemed to be a little bigger then the last two rooms, perfect for fighting on close quarters like this. Neji quickly and carefully placed Tenten on her feet and immediately went into his Gentle Fist fighting stance as he then activated Byakugan while moving his long ponytail that went all the way down to his backside. He then spoke teasingly to his beloved,
"Are you sure you can take them, even in your condition?" Tenten was getting pissed off, but realized he was trying to lighten the mood, seeing the both of them were stressed as it was, their escape route had been blocked off by that weird guy. Tenten quickly with a flick of her wrist unsheathed the Ninjaken blade with expert skill and waited for the on rushing guards to catch up with them. "Of course I can! Watch me!"
She knew she had to be careful with the baby and all, but at least her skills were still sharp, she thanked kami-sama for allowing her to get in some practice when Neji or Sakura weren't hounding her to take it easy. She heard Neji chuckle and suddenly the three guards had managed to catch up and attempt to surround the couple. Apparently they had managed to rouse up three more guards, so instead of three guards, there was now six of them.
"You take three, I get the rest…" Said Tenten as she charged at one of the guards, slashing out with deadly precision for the guard's throat, the guard immediately dodged but was quickly stabbed in the shoulder by Tenten's sword. Tenten was indeed deadly with all types of weapons. Neji watched in slight awe before he was pounced upon by three of the enemy, quickly Neji called out, "Hakkesho Kaiten!" and begun to spin, sending the guards flying , lucky for Tenten she was out of range of being hit by the Heavenly Spin Technique.
Tenten took another fighting stance that was like an old dance. She danced out of the way as one of the guards tried to go at her with a wicked looking blade, and immediately slashed their arm off. Glaring fiercely at the last guard who was watching the pregnant kunoichi and wondering if it was such a good idea to go after the woman now. Tenten gave the 'come hither' gesture and quickly the man decided to value his own life and make a hasty retreat.
Tenten giggled and shook her head, "Well that's it for now Neji, let's…" Suddenly she was grabbed and held in a deadly headlock, her mouth covered by a gauntleted hand. Tenten tried to scream and struggle. She then heard Neji yell, "Tenten! Let her go!"
"I don't think I will be letting this useless kunoichi go any time soon, unless…" said the voice of the man with the dark hair and white streak as he began to laugh at Neji. There was a long pregnant pause after this as the two men glared at each other. The room becoming deathly chilly from their hard staring.
