Huge shoutout to ailem2707. I have no clue why the format was so weird, but it's fixed! No more hiatus! I'm back for good hopefully!
Jin let out a groan as he and the rest of his team waited at the entrance to the village.
"I'm used to waiting on Tenten-sensei, but this is ridiculous. Our own client can't even show up on time. I thought he said himself that this mission is time sensitive?"
Tenten smiled at Jin. "You need to learn how to be patient. Haven't you heard that the customer's always right? If our client wants to take his time, we have no option but to oblige." Tenten's smile turned into a smirk before she leaned over to whisper in Jin's ear. "And we get paid by the hour anyway, so he can take all the time he wants."
Jin's eyes got wide and he returned Tenten's smirk. Before he had a chance to reply, the team was approached by a man.
"Hello, hello. I am very sorry that I am late. I had to pick up one last thing before we left," the man said, showing the team the scroll he had in his hand.
He turned his attention to Tenten and smiled.
"You must be Tenten. It's very nice to meet you."
The man stuck his hand out for Tenten to shake. She accepted the gesture with a smile. The man looked at the three genin next.
"And you three must be Jin, Mie, and the prodigy, Kugi Hyuga." The man's eyes shimmered a bit as he addressed Kugi. Jin and Mie both noticed this awkward greeting and turned to look at Kugi. The young boy simply shrugged and spoke to the man.
"And your name is?"
"My name is Wanatake. It's a pleasure to meet all of you."
Tenten cleared her throat to get everyone's attention and smiled at the group.
"Well, now that we're finished with introductions, why don't we begin our journey?"
Everyone nodded at Tenten and took off on foot out of the village.
XXX
The journey so far was a quiet one. No one spoke to each other and the only sounds to be heard were the wind in the trees and the vocal wildlife. Eventually, the silence was broken when Jin cleared his throat.
"So, Wanatake, our sensei tells us that you requested our team specifically. Did you get word of my crazy strong fighting skills and knew that I was the one and only man that could keep you safe?"
The man chuckled. "Truth be told, I saw that there was a Hyuga on this team and I instantly knew I wanted you guys to escort me."
The four shinobi each got a confused look on their face. Tenten was the first one to speak after that.
"And why exactly does it matter that there's a Hyuga on your escort team?"
Wanatake smiles. "Nothing more than sentimental reasons. You see, my heart was stolen by a Hyuga."
Jin looked at him with a confused look. "Wait, you don't have a heart?"
Kugi mumbled insults under his breath while Mie sighed.
"It's a figure of speech. It means that he was in love with a Hyuga woman," Mie said to her teammate.
Jin said a quiet "Oh" while Tenten questioned further.
"And what came of this love of yours?"
"I'm sure you of the Leaf know better than anyone how strict Hyuga Law is. We of course could not be together. She was making plans to annex herself from the clan before she suddenly was murdered."
This sparked Kugi's attention. "Wait, Hyugas can annex themselves from the clan?"
Tenten glared at Wanatake before she gave Kugi a sad look. "Yes, but-"
Kugi cut Tenten off before she could finish what she was saying.
"Why couldn't my father do that? Maybe then my mother wouldn't be in hiding and I wouldn't be the disgrace of the Hyuga Clan."
"It's more complicated than that, Kugi," Tenten once again started before she was cut off once again.
"Complicated is the nice way of putting it," Wanatake said. "This Hyuga Clan will use any dirty trick they can to make sure that never happens. For example, they would kill one of their own members, my own love, to save face."
Kugi looked at the man with wide eyes. Tenten began to shout at him.
"You don't know what you're talking about. The Hyuga Clan has their faults, but there are good people in the clan who are trying to make things better."
"The only people in the clan that try to make a change are the branded ones, as my dearly beloved was. They were able to kill her because of the stupid mark. She was nothing but a Hyuga puppet. No one would know their secrets if someone like her were to die." Wanatake turned his attentions to Kugi. "Say kid, do you have the curse mark?"
"Curse mark?" Kugi instantly responded with confusion.
"So I take it you don't have one?" Wanatake replies with a small smirk.
"That's enough!" Tenten shouted, her unusual tone shocking her students. "I would really appreciate it if you didn't interrogate my student. If you plan to create more issues like that again during this mission, I will gladly take us all back to the Leaf and another team can take you to the Salt Village."
There was an awkward moment as Tenten and Wanatake stared at each other. Eventually, Wanatake smiled and spoke to Tenten.
"I apologize. I did not mean to stir up negative emotions. If you may, I'd like to continue on our journey. I am already late for my return to the Salt Village. I wouldn't want to make my colleagues wait any longer."
Tenten gave the man one last glare before she looked over to Kugi.
"We're going to continue. Kugi, make sure you stay in the lead. I'll follow behind you.
Kugi nodded and started back in their original direction, the rest of the group following shortly after.
XXX
"I think this is a good place to take up camp for the night," Tenten said after the party walked in silence for many hours.
Tenten placed her bags on the ground and unraveled her scrolls so she could bring out the objects sealed inside of them. Once everything that was needed was out, Tenten addressed her team.
"Jin, I want you to gather some kindling. Mie, start setting up the mess kits and the rations in my bag. Kugi, you help me pitch the tents."
Tenten's students nodded and took off in various directions. Kugi picked up some pieces from one of the tents and helped Tenten assemble it. As they worked, Kugi spoke to her.
"Sensei, what is the curse mark that guy was talking about?"
"Nothing you need to worry about right now, Kugi."
Kugi ignored Tenten and pressed on. "It sounds really bad. Am I going to have to get one?" he asked.
Tenten sighed and turned to look at Kugi.
"Look, I don't know much about it," she lied. "This is something you need to talk to your grandfather about."
Kugi gave Tenten a sad look but gave up his questioning.
"Okay," he said quietly. Once it was silent again, Tenten noticed that Wanatake was extremely close to the two of them, obviously listening in on their conversation. Tenten glared at him.
"Y'know, you could make yourself useful and help Jin with the fire."
The man gave Tenten a strange smile as he stood up. "Of course, Miss Tenten."
Wanatake approached Jin and helped him set up the fire. Tenten let out a shudder, creeped out by the man's actions. She then turned back to the tent and continued working to put it up.
XXX
Nighttime quickly approached and Tenten was keeping watch while the rest of the team slept. She heard movement coming from the campsite before she took up her guard and observed the site with caution. Suddenly, Wanatake appeared in front of Tenten with a smile on his face. Tenten relaxed her body but glared at him.
"What are you doing up?" She questioned him.
"Nature calls," Wanatake replied, pointing to his crotch.
Understanding that Wanatake needed to urinate, Tenten nodded and spoke. "Stay close. If you're not back in two minutes, I'm coming after you, no matter what's hanging out."
Wanatake smiled at Tenten and muttered an "of course" before he walked off into the forest.
Tenten waited for him to return and as the two-minute point started to approach, she got a headstart on checking on Wanatake. Once she was close enough, Tenten heard Wanatake speaking. She got a bit closer to him and then hid behind a tree so she could watch him. She saw that he had some kind of device in his hands that he was speaking into.
"I didn't get a definite answer because the sensei kept butting in, but I'm nearly certain that he isn't marked," Wanatake said into the device. After that, Tenten heard a different voice coming from the device.
"That's not good enough, Wanatake. What if we get him and he is marked?"
Wanatake tried to formulate a response, mumbling to himself as he thought. The other man's voice came back with a sigh.
"Did you at least get the information?"
"Yes, Sir, I did."
"Excellent. I will see you tomorrow."
Yes, Sir," Wanatake replied before he put the device into his pocket. Once the device was out of sight, Tenten appeared from behind the trees. She cleared her throat to get Wanatake's attention. He gave a jump in surprise and looked over at Tenten.
"It's been two minutes," Tenten said with a straight face. Wanatake gave an awkward chuckle before he replied.
"Yes, I apologize. Mother always did tell me that I take too long with my business."
Wanatake gave Tenten a goofy grin but Tenten was unfazed by it.
"We need to get back to the campsite," Tenten abruptly said before turning and walking away. Wanatake followed her and once they got back to the campsite, Wanatake muttered a "goodnight" to Tenten as he approached his tent and entered it.
Tenten sat down with her back against a tree, resuming her watch of the site. After some time passed, she got to her feet and approached Wanatake's tent. She masked the presence of her chakra and used all her stealth to open up his tent. She quickly scanned the tent for his travel bag. When she spotted it, she quickly grabbed it and exited his tent. She returned to the tree that she was sitting at previously and emptied the contents of the bag on the ground. She rummaged through the objects before she grabbed what she was looking for. She held up the device that Wanatake was using earlier. She held it up to her face to get a better look at it. Aside from the long antenna sticking out from the top, the device was a simple rectangular-shaped box. There were 3 buttons on the bottom half and one button on the side. The top half had perforated holes in the front, arranged in the shape of a circle.
Once she got a better look at it, Tenten recognized the device. It was a new piece of technology that allowed teammates to communicate. It has a much wider range than the radio earpieces that shinobi were used to. Tenten, for one, was not a fan of the new contraptions. It was just too bulky of an object to be carrying on your person. Before she put the communicator back into the bag, she took out the batteries from it and put them in her own pocket. Tenten was very suspicious of what Wanatake was talking about. She knew that it would be better for her team if Wanatake didn't contact this person again until they finished the mission.
As Tenten started putting Wanatake's things back into his bag, a scroll caught her attention. She put everything away except for the scroll. She took a closer look at the scroll. It was sealed by a jutsu. It was a higher level jutsu than what is taught at the academy, but it was nothing too difficult to the weapon and scroll master that Tenten was. She easily broke the seal and examined the contents of the scroll. What she saw made her gasp and her eyes got wide as she continued to read.
"I knew there was something weird about this guy."