"Tenten, wait, come back!"
Hyuuga Neji sighed. He couldn't understand just what he had done to make Tenten so mad at him. Then again, he rarely understood emotions. He was a born and bred fighter and protector. Feelings were Tenten's department. Lee was their inspiration. Some people would call him the comic relief, but Neji preferred the term "Moral Encouragement Officer." But, Tenten was the practical one, the one who explained the reasons behind everything, and more often than not, came up with the actual plans. Neji was very good at fighting. He wasn't so good with philosophy or abstract concepts. But Tenten wasn't speaking to him.
He considered the other people he knew. He could ask Gai-Sensei or Lee for ad… ask Lee for adv…
Neji's brain couldn't quite itself around that concept, so he decided to move on. He could go to the Fifth for advice… but he would have to think twice before listening to anything she told.
Well, there was always Hinata-sama.
Neji decided to see if Gai had anything to say that may save him the embarrassment of having to ask his cousin for advice.
"Gai-sensei?" Gai and Lee seemed to be involved in some sort of training. Neji watched suspiciously. It seemed at first glance no more than a collection of ridiculous poses, but obviously Lee had learned something from it. Neji stared, but he couldn't actually find anything that seemed remotely useful. He was about to raise his teacher's attention, but then pictured the likely scenario:
"Gai-sensei!" Neji called.
"Oh, Neji! How good it is to see you!" Gai turned his head in Neji's direction. "What brings you here on this fine Konoha morning?"
Neji grunted. "Do you know what's wrong with Tenten?"
"Oh the joy! Enjoy this time while it lasts, Neji, for it will never come again. You must learn to love the-"
"Springtime of your life!" finished Lee, Gai and Neji.
"But you didn't answer the question," Neji pointed out. He sighed inwardly. And people said he was crazy.
"Just go and enjoy your time together while it lasts! Such a joyous moment in your teacher's life!"
On the other hand, Neji decided, it was probably less awkward to just ask Hinata-sama. And so much less embarrassing. He jumped off into the distance.
"Hinata-sama?" Neji had been waiting near Hinata-sama's favorite training spot for nearly an hour, to no avail. For the first time, he heard a rustling between the trees.
"Oh! There you are Neji! Hurry up, the Hokage has summoned us," Lee told his teammate, gesturing for Neji to follow. Neji sighed inwardly. Making peace with Tenten would have to wait.
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Kiba crashed to the ground, struck by a hidden foe. "Damn you!" he yelled at the tree. A figure jumped from the foliage, moving too fast for human eyes to clearly see. But the Hyuuga were gifted with sight beyond that of normal humans. Hinata threw a dagger straight into the path of their assailant. However, the weapon seemed to have no lasting effect, only slowing their attacker for a few seconds. But that was enough time for several small insects to land on him. Before Shino's bugs could dispose of him,the enemy turned and threw a hail of weapons at the black-haired shinobi. He tried to jump away, but still took the brunt of the attack. He collapsed with as much dignity and grace as he could. As he fell, so too did his opponent, paralyzed by the bite of the insects. Hinata looked to her injured comrades.
Kiba brought himself upright. "I'll be fine. I needed the chance to take a rest anyway." Shino said nothing, but he didn't look so well, so Hinata walked calmly to his side. She began quickly removing the various weapons from his side, then applying salve.
Shino tried unsuccessfully to hide his blush, but he didn't worry unduly about it. His teammates would likely put it down to his being forced to accept medical attention from a teammate. In truth, he was rather fond of Hinata. She had self-control, something rare among Genins. She understood things beyond the here and now.
It was a shame she was so attached to the Uzumaki boy. He may have some things to teach her, but not all of his mannerisms were admirable. He bragged too much, for one. For another, he was almost completely unaware of her fascination with him. Definitely not a trait she should pick up. He didn't have anything as silly as a crush, but he had to admit she was one of the most desirable women in the whole village.
Shino's glasses were pierced, and he had a cut just above his eye. Hinata removed his sunglasses quickly, before he could protest. He'd been caught staring at her, unable to avert his gaze quickly enough. Hinata blushed under the intensity of his gaze.
A second assailant aimed several poison soaked daggers at the hearts of the resting team of ninja. He aimed first for the dog and the kid with him.
"No one is that cruel," accused a voice coming from behind him. "Would you really kill a couple of injured kids and a dog?"
"Look, it's just an assignment, I don't care what they tell me to do, as long as I get paid." The would-be murderer struggled for a minute, then turned to face his opponent. "I don't care."
Hyuuga Neji shrugged. Diplomacy was rarely a word he liked to hear in a mission description without the word unnecessary close to it. He dispatched the assassin with a few quick strikes, them towards his attention to Hinata-sama's team.
Meanwhile, the bushes were shaking. Three more cloaked mercenaries fell out, followed by a green blur. "The enemy has been defeated," he said rather enthusiastically. Then again, Lee rarely did anything without enthusiasm.
Tenten followed, shrugging. "Honestly, mercenaries these days just don't know a good deal when they see one. They could have come out of this unscathed."
"Akamaru and I could have handled that on our own!" Kiba protested.
Shino glared at him, eyes sharper than any of the surrounding weapons. "Who was the first one to fall?"His teammate could be so obnoxious sometimes.
As her team bickered, Hinata-sama turned to Neji. "Neji-nii-san, what are you doing here?" Neji realized what must be running through her head, but he knew no more than she did, so he only said, "Tsunade-sama sent us to reinforce you. It turns out the mission was more difficult than she originally thought." More difficult, Neji grimaced, than a half dozen Genin should be handling. But if Uzumaki Naruto could do it, so could Hyuuga Neji.
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The six genin rested in their employer's home. They sat with a middle-aged woman around a table that looked as though it should seat ten times their number. A butler brought out various dishes, which the tired shinobi ate gratefully.
The woman frowned. "I'm afraid the assassins you encountered were nothing more than a test. More will come, better trained, more likely than not." Neji nodded, that came as no surprise. The Hokage would not assign extra teams to what should be an easy mission without excellent reason. "You'll need to maintain a constant guard."
Neji turned to his teammates, trying to work with that. "If two people sleep eight hours a day, and everyone takes a four hour break, we can have three aware and ready guards at all hours of day, as well as one on almost instant call." No one argued the point.
A few hours later, Neji had started to regret making that suggestion. He was on watch with Tenten and Hinata-sama. Not that there would have been anything wrong with that, usually – Hinata-sama didn't make him particularly uncomfortable anymore, and Tenten was his friend. But she wasn't speaking to him. And he couldn't just ask about it. That didn't work.
It wasn't as if Neji was the particularly talkative sort in the first place. If his teammates got six sentences out of him in one day, no one even noticed. But he knew when Tenten had something to say, and he could tell she just wanted to give him a good-talking to. It wouldn't be first time he had tolerated a verbal onslaught for something minor. Honestly, you'd think she wouldn't mind a broken rib that much. You certainly couldn't keep track of the number of times a little thing like that happened.
But Lee would be on shift soon. Neji liked talking to Lee – you never had to worry about making a fool of yourself. Lee made fool enough of himself that you knew you couldn't even come close. Absentmindedly, he swept a bug off his shoulder and threw a dagger through the throat of an approaching assassin. By his reckoning, that made four he had killed just within the past half hour. Easy so far, but there had to be a catch.
And there was the first part of the catch coming now. Tenten's weapons hadn't had any affect on him, so he was at least somewhat skilled. Looking with the Byakuugen, Neji noticed a flow of chakra. Another ninja. But Neji had already come up with a way to beat him. "I have you in my eye," he muttered, mostly to himself.
He dropped down on top of the ninja, but was not surprised when his opponent managed to avoid the first blow. The spinning kick caught him, however, and he collapsed. Before Neji had time to frown, however, the ninja melted into a pile of water on the floor. From Hidden Mist, then.
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Shino, meanwhile, was doing a bit of reconnaissance. So far, his bugs had reported nothing unusual, and the mission seemed more or less straightforward. He hadn't gotten anything odd out of anyone. It wasn't that no one had talked. People were always willing to talk about why they needed bodyguards. It was a kind of prestige, having to hire ninja. Everyone had talked, they had just said the same thing. That woman was valuable, and people were trying to capture her.
As much as he had kept his ears open, it seemed to no more than a standard mission. There was no logical gap, no threats around every corner. It was making Shino uneasy. He still had two hours of rest time ahead of him. And, despite his best efforts to the contrary, he was going to have to relax. Not that there was anything wrong with relaxation. It was one of Shino's favorite pastimes. But the idea of a bodyguard mission where no one was trying to kill you was difficult for any ninja to grasp, and Shino was not exactly flexible. Sighing, he sat down.