The team of ninja left behind stared after the disappearing team in frozen shock for a moment.
Then Tenten burst out, "I thought he would dodge it. I didn't think Sakura would rush in."
"It's not your fault Tenten" Lee told her. He sounded unsure.
"She is competent enough to dodge it." Neji, who partnered with Sakura during their combined training, mused. "She should have been able to dodge the kunai."
"Do you think it had something to do with their sensei?" Tenten asked hesitantly.
They all paused.
Team Gai learnt that bringing up Kakashi was a sure-fire way to clam up Team 7. They didn't know the story of what had happened on Team 7's wave mission. What they did know was that Team 7 were obsessed with keeping each other safe.
"Let's go make sure Sakura-san in alright." Lee said, ignoring the question entirely.
They all jumped into the trees and chased after Team 7.
Just as they reached the edge of the forest, and were about to drop into the open clearing ahead, Neji came to an abrupt stop a held up a hasty hand to make his teammates stop as well. Tenten stopped, but Lee charged ahead into the clearing.
As Lee landed, Neji suddenly turned to look back the way they had come, white eyes almost glowing as his veins pulsed and pushed chakra into them. He raised a hand, and slashed at the log that came flying at then, just as Tenten jumped to a higher branch to escape the log. The log splintered into two around Neji and flew past him, making his hair wave in the after-wind. Neji panted slightly, brute expulsion of chakra to break something as solid as a log was hard on the body.
He didn't get a chance to catch his breath, the splintered pieces of the log abruptly changed direction in mid-air and began to head towards Tenten. Neji jumped just as Tenten was knocked off her branch and caught her in mid-air. Her weight pulled them down faster than Neji had calculated and they slammed into a lower branch instead of landing cleanly.
Tenten scrambled onto her feet, immediately pulling herself away from Neji, and drawing her scrolls. She began to look around wildly.
Lee was on the floor of the clearing, twitching violently but apparently unconscious. Something hard fell and dropped in her stomach, "Neji, there's something wrong with Lee."
Neji stood too, eyes glowing further as he tried to look back further the way they had come. Without turning his head, he said, "He's under a genjutsu. Team Seven set up traps. You free him, I'll check back at the safe house. They planned to draw us away from the scroll, and they succeeded."
He crouched and jumped and was gone before Tenten could say anything.
While he was still 50 meters away from the safe-house, Neji's frown deepened as he realized that the place was crawling with Naruto clones. Some of them were in a perimeter in the trees at the foot of the hill, more still along the slopes of the hill and a final ring around the house itself. More still were inside the house itself, running about, looking everywhere for the scroll. Sakura and Sasuke were waiting at the entrance.
Suddenly there was a frenzy, all the clones in the house crowding around one, who was holding the scroll. Neji sped up.
As he passed past the clones on the foot of the hill, dispelling the ones in his way with precise shocks of chakra, the rest of the clones swarmed down on him. He spent precious minutes breaking free: he had to dispel all of the clones before he could move on. It was the same with the next layer of clones halfway up the hill.
Neji thought longingly of Tenten and her numerous weapons. He thought he might even be able to stand Lee yammering on and on if he kicked the clones around.
He didn't even reach the ring of clones around the house. The clones swarmed him again and again, until two of them were smart enough to grab his arms and keep him from dispelling their comrades. In the end, Neji found himself tied to a tree, veins around his eyes protruding ever more with fury at being captured by the horde of clones and being unable to move.
When he was finally able to take a moment to look up at the house, Sasuke and Sakura had disappeared.
An hour before:
Team 7 was crouched in a circle on a forest floor.
"That's it," Sakura said, drawing a final line in the dirt with her chakra clad finger.
Sasuke scoffed disbelievingly, "The whole strategy is to engage, then pull back?"
Sakura brushed at her knees as she stood up and scowled. "No, we just pretend to pull back."
"How's that going to help us get the scroll?" Naruto stood too, eyebrows furrowed.
"We'll draw them out as we pull back."
"But why would they leave the safe house to chase after us?" Naruto asked.
"Because we'll convince them to. Using genjutsu."
"What's that going to accomplish?" Sasuke asked as he leant against a nearby tree, and crossed his arms.
"While they chase us, Naruto's clones flood the place and steal the scroll, hide it and then dispel to let us know where it is. Then we retrieve it."
Sasuke straightened, "They wouldn't expect that. But what if they break out of the genjutsu before the clones escape?"
"We try to draw them into the wire trap before they can break out. Then put them into another dirty genjutsu. The final defense is one-on-one battle while the clones escape. But try not to let it get to that point." Sakura said, checking over her gear one final time before they all set off in the direction of the safe-house.