Lee was about 90% of his usual self by the time Naruto and Gai happened upon him and Sakura on the way back to the village. Of course, he insisted Sakura stop what she was doing at once so that the four of them could make their way back to the villag, after the missing nin that had gotten away (which happened to be the earth-style user and the one who had hurt Lee).
When they got back to the town, they saw that Neji and Sasuke were already engaged in battle. They jumped in to form a circle so that their backs were against each other and no one could surprise them.
"Neji, Sasuke, what's the status?" Gai asked.
"They are rogue ninja who are after Konoha's hidden supplies for the Land of Fire," Neji replied. "We've got two water users, one of which also has a fantastic use of genjutsu. I'd say they are both jonin-level. Thankfully Sasuke can see right through any genjutsu."
Sasuke was a bit surprised because Neji, although not necessarily complimenting him, was at least acknowledging he was good for something.
"We just chased an earth-style user to the village, so it sounds like there are three of the four initial shinobi left," said Gai.
Just then, Sasuke noticed a small stream of water just begin to peek from around the corner of the nearest building - it was almost snake-like. "Watch out!" he yelled.
Before anyone could react, in the next instant, the water reached out like a vine and grabbed hold of Neji's arm.
"Damn it!" Neji screamed pulling back as hard as he could.
Lee immediately went to sever the water, but found that his kicks were ineffective. His legs just went right through the water.
Naruto was next with a rasengan. He slammed it down right into the stream of water. It also had no effect.
"What is this?" Naruto asked himself.
They heard a laugh from the roof of one of the nearby buildings. "This isn't any ordinary water," spoke the rogue ninja. It is infused with my special chakra. Taijutsu and most ninjutsu won't work on it. There is only one kind of jutsu that works on my water jutsu and I'm afraid what it is will need to remain a secret."
Kakashi and Tenten were flying in from above and saw a bit of what was going on below. Kakashi saw that nothing thus far was working despite what the missing nin had just said.
"What if I...," said Tenten.
"No," Kakashi interrupted. "I'm afraid your weapons won't work."
She looked back down again and saw that Neji was being dragged away. He was now nearly out of sight of the main group.
"What are you going to do to him?" asked Gai to the water-style user, trying to distract him - or at least slow him down.
"Kill him, what else?" said the shinobi. "I will drag him in to the swollen river and keep him at the bottom with my water vines until he drowns!"
"Neji, do something!" Tenten yelled frantically. Neji continued to try to writhe out of the trap.
"Stand back," said Sasuke. "Fireball Jutsu!" he yelled before blowing fire on the water near Neji's leg.
Neji could feel the water weaken, and the vine itself seemed to get thinner. He was not able to move his leg from side-to-side at all before, but now he could definitely move it.
"What?!" shouted the water-style user.
"Sasuke, more!" shouted Neji. "Fire is what the weakness is. It evaporates the water so that it can't hold as much of his special chakra!"
Sasuke took another deep breath in and blew out a ball of fire once again. Neji was able to free himself this time and he jumped back to where his friends stood.
Sasuke stood where he had and fell briefly to his knees. He had used a lot of chakra with those two intense blasts.
"Byakugan!" shouted Neji. "Gai, Lee - the other water-style user is that villager over there. She isn't a villager at all." He pointed to a woman peeking out of the window of one of the nearby buildings.
Gai and Lee sprang into action and took down the remaining water-style user in no time.
"Ganjou! (the earth-style user) - attack the pink-haired one!" shouted the leader.
"Oh, I don't think you want him to do that," said Kakashi, who was now standing behind the distracted leader holding a kunai to his neck.
"Damn!" the leader shouted.
"Now call him off. Make him surrender," said Kakashi.
The leader nodded at what Kakashi had just said knowing that everyone in the vicinity could hear what was going on including the last rogue ninja.
The earth-style user put his hands behind his head and slowly walked into the open. Sakura intercepted him and tied a chakra bond around his wrists.
"Three alive and one dead. Perhaps there is some good intel for you to give us, hm?" said Kakashi to the leader of the missing nins. Kakashi secured the leader and jumped to the ground so that he could join the other two.
Some of the villagers who chose to hide rather than flee started to emerge from their homes and businesses. Little by little, more people emerged as more people started to realize that the immediate danger was over. Once they had peeked outside, they could see the Konoha shinobi had defeated...well, they had defeated someone.
"Hello," said one older gentleman.
Kakashi politely nodded.
"Am I to assume you are the shinobi the Hokage sent in response to my request?" said the man.
"Ah, yes," said Kakashi. "You are...?"
"I am the leader of this village. I am grateful for your support," the leader said, bowing down.
"Oh please, don't bow to us. We simply do our jobs. When we are asked to help out, we respond as soon as we can," explained Kakashi.
"Yes, but when I first sent the dispatch, we thought it would be a simple evacuation. I can see now that we had enemies in our midst that we didn't even know about," said the leader, nodding towards the three rogue ninja. "How on earth did the Hokage know to send all of you?"
"I don't think that she did," answered Kakashi. "It was more luck than anything...she thought it would be a simple evacuation as well."
"Well, whatever the case, thank you for your efforts. This village owes you a debt of gratitude," the leader replied.
"What about your supplies?" asked Kakashi. "Are they intact?"
"To be honest, I do not know," said the leader. "We will need to check on our inventory to see if they were able to raid any of the storage units. It is getting late - you are all welcome to stay for the night."
"Thank you," said Kakashi, politely bowing to the invitation. "Some of us may just take you up on that offer."
Gai walked over to Kakashi sensing the conversation with the village's leader was coming to an end.
"Is everything ok?" asked Gai.
"There will be just a few odds and ends to clear up," said Kakashi. "You don't have any reason to run back to Konoha immediately, do you?"
"Hm?" said Gai, not really knowing what Kakashi had in mind just yet.
"Here's what I think we should do from here...Naruto and I will take the three rogue ninja back to Konoha and hand them over to the intelligence unit for interrogation. It's almost nightfall already, so we'll be exhausted by the time we get back, but I think we can handle it," said Kakashi.
"What about my team?" asked Gai.
"Our original mission was to help with the floods. I would propose your team stay for a few days and help with the recovery effort. Even though this entire debacle was manmade, the damage this village suffered can still be fixed with help from the shinobi from Konoha," said Kakashi. "I'm going to have Sasuke and Sakura spend an extra day to help with taking an inventory. Most of the supplies here are medical in nature and I think Sakura would be the wisest one to have stay."
"Gotcha!" said Gai. "We'll get on the rebuilding first thing in the morning."
"Oh, and Gai?" said Kakashi.
"Yeah, Kakashi?"
"Do me a favor and keep an eye on Sasuke for me, will you?" Kakashi asked. "He still needs a babysitter at all times. Tsunade would be pissed if I just left him here without supervision."
"No problem!" said Gai, giving Kakashi the thumbs up and the wide-toothed smile.
Kakashi rolled his eyes as soon as Gai had turned to inform his team what the plan now was. He walked over to his own team to inform them as well. Once everyone was on-board with the plan, Kakashi and Naruto hurried away with the prisoners.
There was a slight feeling of awkwardness as the six remaining shinobi just stood around for a few minutes not really knowing what to do or where to go from there. The leader of the village thankfully reappeared shortly and ushered them all to an undamaged inn not too far from the center of town.
"You will all stay here, free of charge, of course," said the leader who was now standing next to the innkeeper. The innkeeper smiled from ear to ear nodding after almost every statement the leader uttered.
"How many rooms will you be needing?" asked the innkeeper.
"Two would probably suffice," said Gai.
"Uh, can you make that three? If it's not too much trouble, that is," interrupted Neji.
"Three rooms aren't a problem at all!" said the innkeeper. "Come right this way!"
OlOlOlOlOlO
"I guess I have two things to thank you for today," said Neji to Sasuke, who ended up being his roommate at the inn.
"Two?" answered Sasuke.
"You used your fire jutsu earlier to help me escape from that water vine," he said.
"I'm sure anyone else would have...," started Sasuke.
"No, nothing else was working. I could see the chakra that shinobi was using and it was unlike any kind of chakra I have ever seen before. I have no idea if it is a kekkai genkai or what, but only fire was going to work," said Neji. "So...thank you."
Sasuke appreciated the thanks from this shinobi who was doubting him earlier that same day.
"You know, I am back...for real this time," said Sasuke out of the blue. "I know some of you are doubting my intentions or thinking I'm going to run away again. But I can assure you that I have come back for good and I just want to serve Konoha again."
"I hope that's true, Sasuke," said Neji. "I owe you now so I will try to believe what you say. However, I still think that only time will ultimately heal the wounds you caused all of us six years ago."
"Yes, I realize that," said Sasuke. "But thank you for giving me the chance, even if it is a kind of payback for saving your life." He paused. "So...what was the other thank you for?"
"Hm?" said Neji.
"You said earlier you were thanking me for two things," explained Sasuke.
"Oh, right," said Neji, as he let a rare smile come across his face. "For being my roommate. Both Gai and Lee snore loudly. If I had to stay in their room, I wouldn't have gotten any sleep at all tonight."
That last comment elicited a chuckle from both of them.
OlOlOlOlOlO
"Sakura, will you do me a favor?" asked Tenten.
"Sure. What do you need?" Sakura asked.
"I was hoping that you wouldn't mind if I went over to visit Neji later," Tenten said.
"Why would I mind?" asked Sakura. Sakura had no issue being alone so she was a bit confused as to why Tenten was even bringing it up or asking her permission. Perhaps Tenten was afraid Sakura would be offended by it, as if she wanted to get away from her or something.
"No," said Tenten. "I mean, well...I'm going to send Sasuke over here."
"Oh," said Sakura. Then it clicked. "OH!"
"Yeah," said Tenten.
"The only thing is...no, well, hmmm...no, it shouldn't be a problem at all," said Sakura. "She was friends with Sasuke, but after their earlier discussion, she knew that he had been thinking about her as of late. She wasn't sure if being alone with him for a night was the best plan just yet. But then again, she also knew Tenten and Neji were very interested in each other but they rarely ever had time alone. In the village, Neji was usually spending his time training with his team or tending to his clan duties. When on a mission, again the entire team was always right there. This was a rare opportunity for them.
"Thanks, Sakura. I really do owe you one," said Tenten.
Tenten slowly opened the door and looked left and right down the inn's corridor. Sakura saw her slip out and slowly close the door behind her. A minute later, she heard a quiet tapping at her door.
She got up to open the door. First she peeked out to make sure it was who she thought it was. Then she opened it wide for the Uchiha to enter.