With her book still in hand, Tenten turned to look at Mie to confirm that someone was trying to come into the office. The doorknob was rattling, meaning that someone on the other side was trying to open the door. Tenten quickly put the book back on the shelf and ran towards Mie. Tenten placed her hand on Mie's mouth to keep her quiet and pulled her away from the door to find a place to hide.
Almost a second after, the door opened up to reveal the Waterfall leader and one of his guards. The leader entered his office and looked around hurriedly. He groaned as he continued to look around. The guard spoke.
"Sir, I told you, there is no way they could be in here. It always remains locked."
The leader quickly turned around and growled. "And you think these Leaf Shinobi don't know how to pick a simple lock?" he barked sarcastically.
The guard looked to the ground in shame. "Regardless, they are not here, Sir."
"Well then, where are they?" the leader shouted back. "You imbecile, you had one job. Keep the shinobi in your sights. You couldn't accomplish that and now the two women are missing, somewhere roaming the building."
"I'm sorry, Sir," the guard said quietly.
The leader growled once again in response. He shoved past the guard and exited the room. The guard followed, shutting and locking the door as he left.
Once she was sure the coast was clear, Tenten let out a loud sigh of relief. She was hanging off the ceiling, her back sticking to the flat surface with the use of her chakra. She was holding on to Mie with both arms, as she had yet to learn how to defy gravity with the use of her chakra.
Tenten relaxed her position but remained stuck to the top of the room. As she was evening out her breath, Mie spoke to her.
"Um, Sensei, do we need to stay up here anymore?"
Tenten let out a small gasp. "Oh right. Sorry."
Tenten released the hold on her chakra, and she began to fall to the floor. With Mie still in her arms, she did a front flip in midair and softly landed at her feet on the floor. She let go of her hold on Mie and she walked back over to the bookshelves and pulled out the book she was reading previously. She unrolled one of the blank scrolls that were in her bag and sealed the book away into the scroll.
"What's in that book, Sensei?" Mie asked in curiosity.
"Something that the Hokage needs to see," was the only response that Tenten gave. She walked over to the door and opened it to leave, motioning for Mie to follow her. When the two women were out of the room, and the door was locked behind them, Tenten and Mie walked away from the office to meet up with Jin and Kugi.
When the team reunited at the foyer, Tenten smirked at Jin and Kugi.
"I think that this is the first time that I've left you two alone and I didn't come back to you two fighting."
Jin and Kugi turned to look at Tenten, but they did not share her positive energy.
"Sensei," Jin began to speak. "You have us freaked out. What is going on?"
"Nothing that you guys need to worry about," Tenten said, this time forcing a smile. She turned to look at Mie and gave her a face that silently told her not to tell her teammates what happened while in the office. Mie nodded at Tenten before the leader and two of his guards entered the foyer.
"There you two are," the leader said with an inviting gesture. "We were wondering where you were. We wanted to let you know that dinner is about to be served."
Tenten gave the leader a fake smile. "That's interesting because the four of us have been here this whole time."
The leader gave Tenten a quizzical glare but quickly shook his head and smiled again.
"It is of no concern any longer. Please, if you would all follow me to the dining hall."
The leader and his guests began walking out of the foyer and into another room with Tenten's team following. When they got into the dining hall, the leader motioned for the Shinobi to sit on one side of the table, four plates of food already being laid out. They all took a seat at the table and cautiously watched the leader as he sat down as well and immediately began to eat his food. When he noticed that his guests were not eating, he stopped and questioned them.
"Why are you not eating? What, so you fear that the food is poisoned?"
The three genin flinched at his comment, each of them thinking that his joke might be true. Before he had a chance to take note of the visibly tense children. Tenten answered the leader's question.
"Of course not. We simply wanted the head of the table to take his first bites before us."
The leader chuckled and smiled. "I always heard that you fellows from the Leaf were a polite bunch of people, but I gotta say, I didn't quite believe it until now."
"Thank you so much for your kind words," Tenten said before taking a bite of her food. Her three students followed suit and the room was silent as everyone quietly ate their food. Eventually, the leader spoke again, trying to strike up a conversation.
"Might I ask why you all still have your gear on you? Did you not find your rooms adequate?"
"Oh no, they are quite wonderful," Tenten replied. "We just like to keep our things on our person anytime we're outside of the village. It's just a precaution. We always have our safety in mind."
"That is understandable. But please, if you would, at least, take your headbands off. You are our guests, and we want you to be comfortable."
Tenten gave Kugi a quick, worried glance before she spoke quickly to the leader. "Actually, for some Leaf shinobi, the headband is more than protection. It can be used to hide an insecurity or two."
The leader's eyes narrowed as he studied Tenten's face. Before he has a chance to call Tenten's bluff, she pushed her chair away from the table and stood up.
"Thank you very much for the food, but we had some rations just before getting into the village, so we're all pretty full."
The leader looked at Tenten skeptically before looking at her students then back at her.
"I believe your student's expressions say otherwise."
Before more protest continued, Mie stood up as well.
"No, our sensei is right. We're all pretty stuffed."
Kugi and Jin also nodded and stood up. The leader stared at the four shinobi for a few moments before he let out a sigh.
"Very well. I hope you all enjoyed your food and have a deep and rejuvenating night's rest."
Tenten bowed to the man in thanks, her student bowing as well. Next, they all took off in a group towards their rooms. As they walked, Jin whined out loud.
"Sensei, the food wasn't poisoned. I'm super hungry. Why couldn't I finish my food?"
Before Tenten had a chance to answer, Mie snapped at Jin.
"Please, for once, don't be so selfish and think about the safety of the team."
The rest of the team looked at Mie in shock. It was common for Kugi to quickly degrade Jin's opinions, but never Mie. She always had patience when it came to Jin's antics. Jin and Kugi quickly realized that Mie's action meant that she knew something they didn't, something bad.
"I'm sorry, Mie," Jin mumbled, looking at the ground. He eventually lifted his head, though, and spoke to Tenten again. "What was that about headband's covering insecurities? What are you hiding, Sensei?"
Tenten laughed and replied. "Nothing."
"Yeah right. Are you hiding a giant harry mole under your headband?" Jin continued to pester.
Tenten took off her headband and turned to look at Jin, showing off her normal, blemish-free forehead. She turned back around after Jin got a look and put her headband back on.
"So, you made that up?" Jin asked.
"No, some shinobi never take off their headband for that reason," Kugi said, answering Jin. "My chambermaid always has her headband on and I asked him why that is one day and he told me that he was covering an embarrassing birthmark."
Tenten quickly stopped and turned around to look at Kugi.
"You didn't see that birthmark, did you?"
"No," Kugi said, also stopping and giving Tenten a confused look. "It wasn't my place to pry."
Tenten let out a sigh she didn't realize she was holding in. "That's good."
Kugi continued to stare at Tenten in confusion but decided not to question her.
Tenten turned back around, and the shinobi continued to walk to their rooms. Once they reached the area of the building that their rooms were located, Tenten turned around once more to address her students.
"Remember, don't fall asleep. Once it hits nightfall, I'll come to get you guys and we're going to get out of here."
Her students nodded at Tenten and then each went into their respective rooms. Tenten also entered her room, and she placed her gear right next to her futon. She went through her inventory, as she did each night on a mission, to make sure she had all her things and had enough supplies to get back to the Leaf. As she was checking her bags, a strong wave of drowsiness came over her. She tried all the tricks in the book that she could think of to wake herself up. She held in a deep breath, she pulled her eyelids open and she slapped her face a few times. Despite this, she still felt the tiredness overcome her. She suddenly remembered something that the leader said.
"I hope you all enjoyed your food and have a deep and rejuvenating sleep."
The food they ate was poisoned. It was laced with a sleeping agent.
Tenten quickly scrambled to get one of her caffeine pills, but before she could get to them, she fell onto the futon in exhaustion.
She stood at the door of her room and saw shadows of feet standing in the hallway. She heard people talking and the door to the room next to her open. She used as much power as she could muster to stand up, but the drowsiness overtook her as she fell into slumber.
"Kugi…"
XXX
Tenten awoke suddenly and glanced around the room. She rubbed her eyes as yesterday's events came flooding back into her mind. She scrambled up from the futon she was on and quickly packed all her things in her bag. She exited her room and checked the room next door to her, Kugi's room.
She slid the door open with a slam and found that her son was nowhere in his room. She pivoted quickly and slammed open the two doors on the other side of the hallway. The slamming was not enough to wake up Jin and Mie, as they were both fast asleep in their rooms. The sleeping agent must have hit them hard. Tenten's body is used to functioning on a few hours of sleep, so she was easily able to wake herself up after a short time. Her students, on the other hand, are still growing kids and needed much more sleep than Tenten does to function.
"Jin! Mie!" Tenten shouted into the rooms as she went into Kugi's room to collect his forgotten items.
Mie was the first to wake up, mumbling to herself as the grogginess left her body.
"What's all that racket?"
Tenten appeared at Mie's door.
"Get up, Mie. We need to go."
Mie suddenly stood up and was alert. She grabbed her bag and ran over to Jin's room, where Tenten was currently trying to wake him up. After many failed attempts at trying to shake Jin awake, Tenten groaned.
"I don't have time for this," she said before giving Jin a hard slap on the cheek. Jin instantly woke up and screamed out in pain.
"Ow! What was that for?"
"Get up and grab your things. We need to go, now!" Tenten yelled before joining Mie in the hallway. It was clear that Mie was trying to act calmly though she was scared.
"What happened? And where's Kugi?"
"Our dinner had a sleeping agent in it and none of us could stay awake through the night. And I wish I knew where Kugi was."
Not long after Tenten expressed her concern about her son, Jin came out of his room in a hurry and joined his teammate and sensei.
"I might have been dreaming, but I remember hearing people saying something about the south basement last night. I'm sure it was the leader's voice, but I don't remember if I was awake or not when I heard it."
"It's worth a shot," Tenten said, smiling at Jin before the shinobi took off to the south end of the building.
XXX
Kugi heard chattering as he woke up from his slumber. It took him a few minutes to finally get enough strength to open his eyes. Once they were open, he let out a frightened scream. He didn't know where he was, but he knew he was not in his room anymore. He was strapped to a table that was standing upright. He had a gag in his mouth, so he was barely able to hear his scream. He looked around and saw no one. He tried to scream again, but his voice wasn't carrying far with something covering his mouth.
The room he was in looked exactly like one of those evil laboratories in the cartoons that Lee and Metal watch. There were all sorts of tables with containers covering them. The liquids inside the containers were all sorts of colors. The room was barely lit by a few bare light bulbs hanging from the ceiling. There was both a strange sound and a strange smell coming from the room and Kugi had no clue where either was coming from.
He suddenly heard a door at the side of the room open. The leader and three of his guards walked into the room. The leader crossed the room and looked at Kugi with a cynical laugh.
"Well, well, well. Look who's awake. That sedative knocked you out good. I was beginning to get worried that we'd run out of time for our experiment."
Kugi tried to reply to the man but all that was heard was mumbles due to the gag in Kugi's mouth. The leader laughed out loud.
"Oh, where are my manners." He reached out and removed the gag from Kugi's mouth. "There you go."
"What experiment?" Kugi asked once the gag was off his mouth.
"Oh, just an experiment to make the Waterfall the most powerful village in the world. And you, my young child, are the first step to that goal."
Before Kugi had any chance to reply, he felt a sharp pain in his arm. He looked down and saw that the leader stuck his arm with a needle and there was now a thin trail of blood rolling down Kugi's arm. Kugi looked up at the leader in shock.
"What was that for?" he shouted across the room.
"Just double-checking that you are who you say you are."
"Why me? This was supposed to be a simple escort mission."
"Oh yes," the leader began. "I do hate to get your team involved but there was no other way. It had to be you, child. You're the infamous Hyuga bastard. Everyone in every nation knows about you. And the silly Leaf thought it was a great idea to make you a shinobi at such a young age. That's what led you right to me. And you're not even marked yet, even better."
"What mark does everyone keep talking about?"
The leader stood up straight at Kugi's question.
"You mean they haven't told you about the curse mark?"
"Who? What curse mark?"
The Kage's eyebrows lifted in shock.
"I'm surprised. So, they don't even warn the poor children they mutilate. How fitting for a selfish and pious clan. But I really shouldn't tell you. I'll at least let you die peacefully. And even if you did have the mark, we don't need your eyes, just your brain, and all the blood in your body."
"My what?!" Kugi said in shock.
The Kage laughed and got very close to Kugi's face.
"You are the only illegitimate Hyuga child who has lived to tell the tales. Your DNA is tainted. We can extract it and synthesize it with our own. Pure Hyuga DNA rejects normal blood cells but yours is designed to create mutts. You are the key for the Waterfall to harness the Hyuga's powers and become the strongest nation in the world."
"No, wait!" Kugi started to scream before the leader put the gag back on Kugi and continued to prepare for his experiment. A moment later, Wanatake entered the room.
"Sir, are you done telling ghost stories to the boy? If you don't hurry up, the other Leaf brats will wake up," Wanatake said to the leader.
"You just enjoy taking the fun out of things, Wanatake."
Wanatake scuffed in reply and walked around the room and looking at all the gadgets. He stopped in front of a machine that was analyzing Kugi's blood and looked at it in the confusion.
"Sir," Wanatake said, getting the leader's attention. "Are you sure this is correct?"
"Of course, it is correct," the Kage said, still setting things up. "It's correctly identified everyone in this building to the last chromosome when we tested it. Why would it not be correct?"
"Because it says the boy is pure blood," Wanatake said. The leader quickly looked over at Wanatake with wide eyes after hearing this.
"Both of his parents are Hyuga according to this," Wanatake continued.
The leader rushed over to Wanatake and shoved him aside so the leader could confirm the information. The screen on the machine showed that both of Kugi's parents are Hyuga's, making Kugi a pureblood.
With a growl, the leader looked over at Kugi and shouted. "Who is your mother? Tell me now!"
"I don't know," Kugi said, beginning to cry. The leader ran up to Kugi and held a kunai to his throat with one hand and had a tight grip on Kugi's arm. Kugi screamed out in pain.
"Stop your crying. Tell me what you know," the leader yelled once again.
"I don't know who my mother is. Please stop hurting me."
The leader growled once again before yelling behind him at Wanatake.
"Prepare the extraction process, now!"
"But sir-" Wanatake began before the leader cut him off.
"I don't care! We can use his samples. There are plenty of test subjects in the prison we can use. We'll test it and figure something out. We're not going to get a chance like this again."
Wanatake gave the leader a concerned look before he nodded and began to power up the machine. He walked around the entire room turning on gadgets. He then walked over to the corner of the room and started to rummage through his bag. He pulled out a scroll and handed it to the leader. The leader opened the scroll up and glanced over it. He then turned to Wanatake and held a kunai at his throat as he previously did to Kugi.
"Do you think this is some kind of joke? We don't have time to mess around here."
"What are you talking about?" Wanatake asked.
The leader turned the scroll around to show Wanatake the scroll. On the scroll was a cartoon drawing of a panda with its tongue sticking out mockingly.
"I don't understand," Wanatake stammered. "I got what you needed. I don't-"
Wanatake stopped suddenly as he thought. His face suddenly contracted with anger before he spoke.
"It was that blasted kunoichi. She must have found the plans and switched them out."
"The damn Leaf always causes problems," the Kage said. He let out a sigh and looked over to where Kugi was, only to find that the table was empty, the straps were undone and Kugi was nowhere to be found.
"Someone find that Hyuga, now!"