YAY! I got some nice reviews, but what u wanted to know was what pairing was in it. This inst going to be yaoi, and no het pairing with the main characters either, I just wanted to clear that up. Any way I hope u enjoy the next chapter ^_^

Disclaimer: don't own Naruto but any additional characters are mine.

Summary: Nejis recent bout of insomnia is taking its toll, now to make things worse the mission has taken a turn with the hunters now becoming the hunted.

If anyone is having trouble understanding any of the Japanese terms I use for Weapons or techniques go to Narutoex.com they explain it all there.

Chapter 3: the wanderer

Naruto stood, frozen to the spot, not knowing what to do. The sudden attack on them had thrown him off, he had been raring to go, ready to fight, but having the tables turned so quickly was unexpected. He watched hopelessly as Neji braced himself against the unknown enemy, he wanted to act but his body stopped him.

SHIT! Why isn't anyone doing anything! He moved his eyes, unblinking, looking at the others, they all stood in shock, even Sasuke.

Damn it! Nejis foot slid back further, he could feel his hand start to shake under the continuous pressure. The other shinobi edged forward, their eyes still locked on one another, Neji could feel the killing intent radiating from his opponent like an intense heat. This was dangerous, why were they hesitating.

Come on! Someone…I can't…..

Suddenly a shuriken whistled past, very closely missing Nejis left leg but not missing the shinobi's right leg, it cut quick and deep into his exposed flesh, he winced. Neji saw the opening and lunged forward, pushing the enemies kunai away. He slashed , but he only caught thin air. Nejis eyes flitted around, desperate to catch a glimpse of his attacker.

Something moved behind him, before he could turn he heard the all to familiar phrase.

Kage bushin no jutsu !

Several Narutos rushed past him, taking over the fight, Neji watched in surprise and relief as the Narutos threw out over a dozen shuriken up into the foliage of a not to far off tree. His cover blown, the ninja jumped swiftly down, right in the middle of a circle of angry looking blue eyes shinobi. They crouched, kunai drawn, ready to attack. The shinobi stood up straight, taking the weight of the injured leg, he chucked softly.

The shinobi slowly lifted his arms from underneath the dark jacket he was wearing , Naruto prepared himself. His eyes grew wide, the shinobi had risen his arms into the surrender gesture. All of a sudden, the thick fog that had been hindering his sight melted away, the multiple copies looked around, he could see the others, standing a few meters away. Now they could see properly their confidence returned and they were ready for anything that might happen. Neji gripped at the handle of his kunai, he felt frustrated that Naruto had to come to his aid, anger began to build inside him.

" The bushin no jutsu huh, then you must be Uzumaki Naruto"

*****

Naruto was stunned, how could this woman know his name? He starred unblinking at the shinobi.

" What? How'd you know my name? Who are you?"

The shinobi smiled and lowered her eyes from Narutos' confused gaze, she sighed gently.

" I'm no one really".

"Then at least tell me how you know my name!" he said loudly. She looked up suddenly, he starred straight into her eyes, she diverted her vision to avoid his.

" I heard a bit about you from the chunnin exams two years ago, you were the only Gennin to be able to use the Kage bushin no Jutsu, that's how I knew," Naruto smiled widely, several loud poofs were heard as the copies of himself were dispelled. He was really pleased that people were starting to recognise him. He threw his head back and puffed out his chest.

" Finally! People are staring to recognise the great ninja I'm turning out to be! Soon all eyes will be on Uzumaki Naruto and everyone will forget about…"

"Uchiha Sasuke?" Naruto was cut off rather surprisingly, he looked back at the shinobi, angry that she had known his name to. Her eyes weren't on Naruto but fixed on something behind him, he spun around and frowned when he realised Sasuke was the one she was looking at. Sasuke glared at her.

Damn that Sasuke! For once someone notices me, but as soon as they do he's back in the limelight again!

" So, this camp, did you do this?" Sasukes eyes darkened, she held his gaze defiantly but shifted uneasily.

" These scum killed my brother, I was merely repaying them but I could ask you why you are here, this is the neutral zone, not a part of the fire country," she pointed out.

" They had been wandering in and out of the fire country, our mission was to apprehend them and to question them, but thanks to you I don't think we'll be able to interrogate them now," he scowled, tensing slightly. Naruto and the others glanced between the two shinobi, something bad was going to happen if they went on at this rate, neither of them was backing down. By this time the sun was just peaking over the horizon, the sky turned to a shade of dark pink casting and eerie setting over the scene that had taken place that night.

" Well I'm sorry for ruining your mission," the unexpected apology from the shinobi caught Sasuke off guard, he looked at her blankly, he didn't know how to respond. She smiled and looked around at the perplexed faces that surrounded her.

" I guess I should also apologise for attacking you," she glanced at Neji, he held her gaze through narrowed eyes, she turned away.

" My methods must have seemed…violent…but I'm sure you understand that revenge can make even the kindest seem cold and unforgiving," she closed her eyes.

" Heh, sorry about your leg!" Naruto smiled guiltily.

" Don't worry, I'm a fast healer," she turned her back to them. " I have to be going now, someone's expecting me, nice to have met you". she went to walk away.

"Hey! Wait a minute, what's your name?" Naruto shouted eagerly. She stopped, a small smile grew on her face.

*****

" Ariwara Mio?" Kakashi looked down at Naruto with a slightly confused look. " I think I've heard of Ariwara before…but I've forgotten". Naruto slumped.

After the incident in the neutral zone, the group headed back to konoha with a few scrolls and artefacts they had salvaged from the hideout. They had hoped that one of their sensei would be able to provide a few clues as to who Mio was, Gai had no idea and kakashi was useless as always. They were more concerned of the fact that they had 'failed' the mission and let a suspect get away, despite that it was their first A mission. Naruto had argued that the ninjas from the hidden cloud village were stopped by Mio out of revenge and it was nothing to do with them but Kakashi was still angry.

"I'm putting you all on patrol for one week".

" Aye!" Naruto yelled in disbelief. He hated being on patrol, it was boring, all they did from sunrise to sunset was walk around the streets of konoha, making sure everything was peaceful. They wouldn't be able to train, do any missions, play or even eat at the raemen place, which in its self was torture enough to make Naruto cry. He couldn't even partake in his favourite pastime of playing pranks on Sasuke, that was the worst part, being on patrol meant he had to spend the whole day with the bastard! An entire day with Sakura on the other hand was the only way to make up for it, at least he could talk to her, he wouldn't get to bored if she was there.

Luckily enough the patrol only required one team per day, so the duty was shared by the two teams as day shifts. Gais' team hadn't been to happy about patrol duty either, lee was crushed by the fact that he wouldn't be able to carry on his training and Tenten was becoming increasingly worried about Neji. He had been more withdrawn than usual, especially on the way back from the neutral zone.

Neji didn't know whether to praise or hate the fact of patrol duty, it did mean that he could skip out of strenuous training, which was becoming harder as the days went on, but long hours of continuous walking and surveying the area might prove worse. He was already feeling mortally handicapped after his failure to protect the others during the mission, if he were to fall behind while merely walking it would only dent his pride further.

He sat on his windowsill, his knees pulled up to his chin, looking out onto the garden. The sun was disappearing amongst the trees, it was almost night again. He sighed heavily. Images of the morning before last replaying in his mind, he closed his eyes.

What if it had been someone worse…

****

Tenten looked up at the sky, the sky was so blue today and there was a hint of warmth in the air that meant summer was a little bit closer. She sat on the freshly cut grass of the training ground, turning a shuriken on her finger, she always did when she was waiting, the metal was warm against her skin, he was late. Lee was perched on top of one of the tall wooden posts in the centre, his hand shielding his eyes from the bright morning sun as he looked around.

" Lee! Is there any sign of him yet?" Tenten shouted up to him.

" The watermelon rind thinks he's a hawk now I see". Lee spun around, flailing his arms about, trying to keep his balance.

"Neji!" smiled Tenten as he walked up to them slowly. Her smile dropped when she saw that he was looking worse than ever, his skin was very pale and his eyes had become dull and lifeless. Lee jumped down just as Neji walked past him.

"Are…you ok?"

" Humph, I told you….I'm fine, let's just get this over with, I want to get back to my training," he huffed, keeping his back to them. Tenten and lee past worried glances at each other, if he didn't want to talk about it there was nothing else they could do to convince him otherwise. They followed him mournfully.

****

The sun was unusually warm that morning, it was only about 11:30 and they were hot and sweaty. They took a break underneath a cherry blossom tree, it was in full bloom and provided them with some well needed shade. Lee lifted the front of his hair and wiped his brow. This hairstyle is stylish but it does make my face hot, well that's the price you have to pay to look fashionable!

Tenten removed her chunnin vest to try to release some heat.

" I can't believe how warm it is today, its only the beginning of May," she said fanning her face with her hand, she glanced over at Neji, who was drinking from his water bottle. He was suffering the most in the heat, she had noticed that he would fall behind ever now and then, or he would stop completely.

I thought I saw something. I felt something suspicious. Must have been my imagination. He would think up an excuse and look at them like they were wrong for questioning him.

She noticed that he drank a lot, even now he gulped at the water like he hadn't had a sip for a whole day, but this was every half hour or so. He took the bottle away from his lips and gasped at the air, he rested his head back against the tree.

He didn't feel good at all, the heat was making his head spin and the bright sun was torture on his sore eyes. He tried to cure the soreness by squeezing his eyelids together, but it just made the dizziness worse. At least he could rest for a little while in the cool shade of the tree. He gazed up at the pink petals and watched as they danced gently in the wind.

Suddenly there was a loud poof, Neji groaned, his one moment of rest was now gone.

" Good morning young chunnin!"

" Ah! Good morning Gai sensei!" chirped lee.

" Good morning sensei," smiled Tenten.

" Taking a break I see! What a beautiful day for a picnic!"

" Was there something you wanted?" Neji said, still starring up into the foliage.

" Ah yes! There's an emergency!" they sat up to attention.

" An emergency?"

" More ninjas from the hidden cloud village have been spotted in the fire country, but this time they've been seen close around the borders of Konoha!" he said.

" What! Again, even after what happened last time?" Tenten gasped, she turned to Neji, he was already standing up.

" Why do we have to go, were not supposed to be doing any missions! Why?" she cried.

" You failed last time, see this as a way of redeeming yourselves! Kakashis' team is also assigned, you will meet with them now!"

Tenten watched in horror as Neji began to head for the training grounds, when he was out of ear shot she turned to Gai, her eyes full of fear.

" But sensei, he's getting worse, he'll get hurt!" he rested a hand on her shoulder reassuringly.

" He knows his limits, you must have faith in him, he's a proud man, don't do anything that might hurt his pride, he may never forgive you if you do Tenten".

" Don't worry Tenten, I'll be watching him to!" Lee smiled. Gai looked behind him in the direction that Neji had gone.

" He is a genius, he won't die so easily".

TBC….

Author: AWWWW poor Neji . what's gonna happen to him. He he I love the part in the anime when Neji calls lee a watermelon rind ^_^

Next chapter: 04 : The ambush.