A/N: Ok this chapter is a little shorter but I like how it turned out. Reviews are welcomed as usual. I didn't put a lot of detail into the battle because, well its not an action fic… Anyway enjoy:)
Chapter 2: The Mission
Neji awoke just as the sun was starting to come up as he usually did. He got up off of the floor and stretched. He was using his vest as a pillow, and that was all he had to work with. His chest was slightly scraped from the dirt floor of their little hut. He stepped out of the hut and shook the dirt off of his vest. He then jumped off into the trees to try and find a small stream or river.
About 20 minutes later Tenten opened her eyes slowly. She sat up and ran her hand through her hair and scratched her head. 'I took out my hair ties last night?' She thought to herself and tried to remember what had happened after she entered the hut. After a minute or so she gave up and looked around for her hair ties. After locating them, she tied her hair back into their respective buns and left the hut.
Neji was just returning from his small bath and had his clothes over his shoulder revealing his toned chest. Tenten blushed slightly and looked at the ground quickly. Neji looked to her and saw the hint of pink around her cheeks and grinned slightly.
"There is a small waterfall in the woods a little ways from here…" He put his undershirt on and then his vest and jumped up to Lee and Gai's tree house, leaving Tenten alone with her thoughts.
She sat down on a small log and began checking her equipment. She hadn't taken any of her weapons off the night before but she was mainly just busying herself to keep her mind occupied. 'He's my teammate and we are on a mission. That's all, nothing more… nothing more…'
Moments later Neji, Lee, and Gai jumped down from the tree house and walked over to her. It was Gai who spoke up first. "Ok, today we will be dividing into groups of two again. However things will be a bit different than before. Neji will be with Tenten and Lee will be with me this time around.
Tenten stiffened while Neji breathed a sigh of relief. Tenten began to panic inside of her head. 'Now what do I do? What if he saw my reaction earlier? What if…he find outs…?' She glared at Gai for a moment but he seemed unaffected. He merely smiled and winked at her. She scowled. She looked to Neji to try and get some sort of clue of how he felt about the pairings. She smacked herself mentally a moment later. 'Of course he is pleased about this… He probably thinks I am far less annoying than Lee or Gai…'
Neji couldn't be happier. He was not going to have to work with Lee or Gai which meant some peace and quiet to try and figure out what had happened to him last night. The downside was of course that Tenten would be around, but she usually didn't bug him too much. However he was broken out of his reverie by Lee's exuberant yells of joy a moment later. "Off we go!" Gai yelled as he jumped off into the woods with Lee close behind as usual.
Neji turned to Tenten with his game face on, which wasn't very different from his normal face but in his head there was a difference. "All right, I will take point for a bit then we will switch." With that he jumped off into the trees.
Tenten sighed. As usual it wasn't a question, he was the team leader when Gai-sensei was not around so he expected everyone to listen to him. She took off soon after and kept her eyes and ears open for any ambushes from behind.
They had been traveling for about half an hour when Neji stopped and signaled for Tenten to do likewise. "I see three rock shinobi. One 40 meters to the northeast, one 25 meters to our northwest, and the last one is 45 meter north of us. Pretty bad ambush if you ask me…"
Tenten grinned slightly. Neji's smartass attitude made him a pretty funny guy if he wanted to be, which was rare. "So Mr. plan man, what do you want to do?"
Neji quirked a brow as he turned towards his teammate. 'Mr. plan…man…?' He recomposed himself and then looked back at the situation. "Ok, we are going to let them spring their trap."
Tenten nearly fell out of the tree. "What!"
"Look, its quite simple. I see no wires, no explosive tags. They are just going to jump out and use their positions to win the battle, which means that if we know where they will come from, then it will be easy to beat them. But just in case, we will take out the closest one from us first. If we can do it quietly we can catch them off guard."
Tenten nodded her approval. "Ok, so what do you think, quick three kunai, one to the neck, one to the heart and the other to the head just in case?"
"All right, let me get in a position to move to engage the other two first though. We won't have much time once their teammate is dropped out of the picture." With that, he leapt off into the trees and moved within 15 meters of their target. He then set off the small trip wire attached to Tenten's finger.
Tenten waited on pins and needles as she waited for the string on her finger to be tightened. When she felt it, she flung the three kunai with deadly accuracy. However as soon as the kunai hit the target, the target was replaced with a block of wood.
Neji saw the jutsu just a fraction too late and severed the string around his finger with chakra. He then jumped up into a nearby tree and activated his Byakugan once more. They were surrounded. Just like their enemies had planned. He sighed with frustration. He screwed up. He found Tenten quickly and darted off to rejoin her.
Tenten felt the string slacken and ripped it off. She then pulled out her hidden bo staff which was hidden in her shirt. She clicked it open and moved from the tree she was in a bit closer to where she saw Neji coming from. She was worried about his safety and her senses were distracted because of it. Every slight push from the breeze sent her head in a blur towards that area. Thus she nearly fell out of the tree when Neji appeared behind her.
"Relax…" 'She is so easily spooked…' Neji thought to himself. "We are surrounded…"
"Oh well that's nice. We fell into their trap. Wonderful… now what?"
Neji sighed. Sometimes he hated how dense Tenten could be. "It's simple. We fight our way out."
Tenten smacked herself mentally. 'Perfect time for a blond moment Tenten good job…' "Ok, so, which one do you want?"
"I got the two up ahead of us. Get the guy behind us." Neji jumped off before she could protest. He didn't want to take any chances. He needed at least one alive and he was the more skilled of the two of them.
Tenten scowled as Neji ran off to fight his opponents. 'What the hell… I will just take care of my opponent and then come to help him! I'll prove to him that I am just as strong as he is!' She took off immediately and threw 4 kunai at her opponent who dodged easily. Well, he wasn't weak, which was to be expected… She closed the distance between them and swung her bo staff as if it weighed nothing. She made a complex spin move and moved to strike her opponent in the chin with the staff. Her little spinning trick worked like a charm, her opponent didn't even see the attack and was sent sailing into the tree behind him. Blood was dribbling olut of his mouth and his arm looked broken. She trusted Neji would get one of them alive for information so she threw 4 senbon and 4 kunai at the prone figure, killing him instantly.
Neji met his two opponents next to a small river and checked his surroundings with his Byakugan. However when his eyes shifted, they attacked him. Stupidly they came right at him. One was dual-wielding katanas, the other a manriki chain. Once they were in range Neji merely began emitting chakra from his entire body as he started to spin. His Hakkeshou Kaiten (Heavenly Whirl) was easily strong enough to send an elephant through a tree, and this was no exception. One of his opponents flipped upwards and crashed through a particularly large branch. His head took most of the force, breaking his neck and severing his spinal cord quite cleanly. The second opponent hit a very large oak and was stopped instantly. Neji was on him in half a second. But that's exactly how long it took for an explosive tag to activate.
Tenten was securing her clean weapons when she heard a deep rumbling. Picturing a large explosion in her mind, Tenten made her way towards the sound as quickly as possible. 'Please… Please be all right…'
She arrived a few minutes later to find Neji lying on his back with his eyes closed. He had tons of small cuts on his arms and leg but it was the wound on his stomach that worried her the most. As she bent down to examine him she felt her eyes getting heavy. She tried to scream but wasn't sure anything escaped her mouth before she passed out.
Neji had used kawarimi (body substitution) to escape from the blast left by his opponent's Kage Bunshin. He chased down his opponent and closed the distance quickly. He sent a quick open palm strike to his opponent's back. "Jyuuken!" His opponent fell forward and disappeared in a cloud of smoke. 'Damn… I hate shadow clones…' Suddenly he heard a scream from the area where the explosion had occurred. He turned around quickly and made his way back.
He arrived to find his real opponent with Tenten lying on the ground. Understanding flooded him easily. "You are a genjutsu user… That explains a lot…" His opponent nodded with a sadistic smile and Neji understood what he had done. He had known Tenten was coming and had created an out for him so that he could take her out of the picture. "Unfortunately for you, genjutsu does not work on me…" He launched himself at his opponent and dispatched him quickly with a 4 strikes from Jyuuken. His opponent flew backwards into another tree and coughed up blood. "Now, what did you do to her!" Neji stormed up to him but he had already died. He picked her up and jumped into the trees and returned to his hut.
He set her down on the bed and then talked to Gai and Lee over the radio. He sat down beside her and watched her with a concerned eye.
