A/n: Last chapter of the update here...Hope you like it, and thanks for reading!
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Chapter 6: Journey
"We've been traveling too long. Let's camp here," Neji stated without enough emotion to convey fatigue.
"Right," said Tenten. It was the end of their third day of traveling and both were beginning to get restless with the seemingly endless foliage that separated them from their target. She began to set the tent while Neji kept watch. They had gone through this routine two nights already, and actually, they had made great time getting here. 'Here' was just outside the village that Imoshinai had last been seen in. It was late already, and neither Tenten nor Neji felt like going through the hassle of finding an inn that was open at this hour. "Okay, Neji, done here. I'm going to set the traps and collect firewood," Tenten said. She sighed. "Wow, this still seems weird without Lee, even after two days already. Huh...oh well, I'm off." Neji nodded, and Tenten sped off. She could've sworn she heard him warn her to be careful, but when she came back and asked him about it, he denied it.
Tenten slept first, slowly unrolling her hair from the two buns on her head, and carefully, slowly, nodding off until Neji called to her to begin her shift. Usually, that would be during the early morning hours, about one or two. This time, though, he called to her later in the morning.
"Tenten...Tenten, wake up," Neji said softly, tapping her shoulder. After staying up an entire night, taking both shifts, he was too tired to keep the usual voice of his, the one devoid of emotion, on. He actually hadn't meant to let her sleep away her shift, but when he had tried to wake her before, she was whimpering. That wasn't something he usually heard from her. After all, she was strong enough and had enough confidence in herself to hold her ground with any opponent without so much as flinching. She had once told him that it was something he had taught her. Back to the matter at hand: Tenten. She had a pained look on her face, her body rolled up in a ball on top of the sheets, and as much as he tried to, he couldn't see the scared, weak looking child in front of him as his teammate. She had never cried in front of him, never cringed when he spoke or looked her in the eye. "This must be some nightmare if it can scare her this much. She was never this frightened of anything in her life, I'm sure. I should do her the favor of getting her out of it. Plus, it's getting to be sunrise and we need to keep moving to keep up with-," Neji stopped himself from thinking of that name, as he gently shook Tenten's shoulder. She groaned slightly while uncurling herself from the fetal position, before finally opening her unfocused eyes, and looking at him.
"Hey...y-you're not...Neji?" She was obviously not fully awake. This was strange as Neji was always told she was a morning person. She never had a problem getting to early sparring matches. "Oh...I'll...go start my shift," she mumbled before jumping up into the canopy above. Neji didn't try to stop her; she would figure it out soon enough. Until she did, Neji busied himself with cleaning up as much of the camp as possible before sunrise, when she would figure out what time it was.
Just when the sky began to lighten, she jumped down, a look of pure loathing on her face. She was definitely awake now. "Why didn't you wake me for my shift?" Her hair was up in the two signature buns again. "Is he taking pity on me too?"
"You were writhing in your sleep, Tenten. You wouldn't wake up. I tried, but you didn't," Neji replied slowly.
His comrad blushed slightly. "Shoot! Did I really do that? Neji must think I'm weaker than even...than even - Oh! It doesn't matter. I've been labeled," Tenten thought, turning her head down in shame.
"What was it about, Tenten?" Neji demanded rather than asked. He wanted to know what exactly was frightening Tenten to the point of tears. He had never seen her cry. Not once. She didn't answer. Again, he asked.
"You just won't quit, will you, Neji? What if I don't want to tell you, huh? I don't have to share my whole world with you, you know!" Tenten was a little surprised at herself. She had never blown up this much at him before. Usually, his prying into her thoughts was the only way she knew he cared, even if only slightly, for her. It was the closest thing she had to a nagging set of parents. He was all she had to lean on, and she had pushed him away. "Well, children keep secrets from their parents, so why can't I from Neji?" Tenten nearly gasped in horror at the line that went through her head. Secrets? From Neji? Usually, he could figure out if she was lying about something; she was never a good liar...but secrets? No, Neji was her biggest confident, like the younger brother who would stay loyal no matter what you did to him.
"No, I won't. Now, either tell me now or tell me later, Tenten. What was it about?" Neji stated calmly, although her outburst had hurt. This was why he didn't really talk to anyone else. Tenten understood silence, and she had no one else to confide in but him. She always talked first, made the first move toward a meaningful conversation. No one else did that with him. Now, however, she didn't want to talk. "So, I'll talk first this time. I will ask her."
She had quieted down by now, slowly stooping to pick up any stray sign that they had camped there. There was silence for a moment. Then, "You'll probably think I'm weak and stupid for this," Tenten croaked out quietly through silent tears, "but...I-I dreamed about that boy. In-in my dream, I was seeing...my parents killed by him this time. They...were part of - of the Jounin squad - the one Arachi was in. I-I just watched them be slaughtered right before my eyes, but then - but..." She had trailed off.
"But then?" Neji was curious, now. Another thing Tenten never did was stutter, at least not this bad. This was rivaling Hinata's. She was always sure about herself and what she was going to say. What was so bad that she had to stutter and cry?
"But then, I looked down, and...and - and it was me!" she almost sobbed, " It was me; I was that boy, Imo - Imoshi-whatever his name was, but I had killed my parents. It - I didn't know what to do. I was scared and alone, and then..." She was slowly beginning to calm down, but the tears were still flowing. "And then I heard my name, and I thought it was him. I turned around, but it...it wasn't. It was you, waking me up," she ended, turning away once more.
So that was it. Her parents. She never talked about them. Neji had learned that. When she did, once, she was vague, like she didn't quite know what she was talking about, like they were a dream she was struggling to remember. He never asked her about them. In fact, he never really asked her about anything. She just told him. "The sun is rising," Neji observed. He didn't want to pry more than he already had, lest he earn himself another outlash from his teammate. "We had better get going."
Tenten sighed in relief. She knew he had heard and understood her words. He always did. Another thing was that he always knew was when to stop talking, not that he did that in excess, but stop asking. When he had asked about her parents one time, and she had obviously been uncomfortable talking about them, he had stopped and never asked again. Tenten looked up into the brightening sky "I guess that's a good quality." "Yeah," she said, drying her eyes, "Let's get going."
So, the pair set off toward the town they had camped near. Like Tsunade had said, it had no set name. The town seemed run down and poor compared to Konohagakure, but the people were happy. There were children running throughout the streets and shops, merchants calling to anyone who would listen, and women with huge pots on their heads, carrying some precious cargo or another in their arms: a small child, food, clothes.
They stopped in front of the police station and asked for the sheriff. A man, who introduced himself as the step-in chief came forth to greet them. He explained that Imoshinai was long gone. He had rented a boat and taken off when the mission had reached Konoha. The step-in had no idea why the boy hadn't just taken the bridge as it was free. Nevertheless, he wasn't in the town or the country. He was in the Wave Country.
"Alright, now what?" sighed an exhausted Tenten, after learning of the criminal's escape from the Fire Country.
"We either follow him, or we head back with a failed mission," Neji stated, his logical mind already figuring the consequences of both choices.
Before he could say anything more, Tenten cut in, "We are not going back now, not after getting this far."
"Then we had better send Tsunade a letter. She'll want to know where we are after three days. But...she might not approve of us going into another Lord's territory. After all, we have consent from neither Tsunade nor the Feudal Lord of the Water Country."
"But," Tenten argued, "we have to get this guy. We need to learn his motives, his background, everything we can about him. And right now, we have nothing. I don't know about you, but I certainly don't want to go back to Tsunade after all the worrying she suffered over us and tell her that we came up with nothing. Same with Gai-sensei. He's proud of us for a reason, Neji."
Neji looked at her hard and after a pause said, "You also have your own reason for catching this boy. I guess you'd continue on without me if I left, then? Well, there's no point in running off to get yourself killed alone, is there? At least two people will stand a chance. Plus, it will look less suspicious with two people traveling than one alone," he stated, half thinking aloud, half musing.
"Then its settled," Tenten said, "We're continuing on toward the Water Country."
"First, we should write to Tsunade."
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As Tsunade walked into her office in the earlier part of the morning, she noticed a letter on her cluttered desk that stood out. It was worn from travel and faded from sun. It read
"Tsunade:
We are following Imoshinai into the Water Country, probably into the Village Hidden in the Mist. When you receive this, we will already be there. Do not worry.
-Tenten"
"Ha! They tell me not to worry. Damn...following him into enemy territory? That's a bit brash, even for Tenten. But, they are Jounins. I hope they aren't too low on supplies yet. Its only been six days...but...ugh!" Tsunade growled in frustration. How did they plan on getting in the Village Hidden in the Mist? They could be killed. After all, relations with that particular village had never been great. It was because of a new clan that had taken a major roll in the government there but itself had too many internal conflicts to keep up with a ninja village. But even if they got past that, there was always the threat of them meeting up with Imoshinai and not being strong enough... "Oh god, what did I let them do?" Tsunade thought, "They're going to be killed!"
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"Stop! State your reason for being here, name, and rank."
"Shoot," Tenten whispered to Neji, as they walked up to the guard, "what are we going to tell him? 'Oh, we were just coming to kill this boy who attempted to kill me.' " She must have said the last part a little too loudly because the guard at the gate to the Village Hidden in the Mist glared at her before asking what exactly she had just said. "Oh!...uh...I-we-" She was cut off.
"We're here to see family...distant family," Neji stated as calmly as if it were the truth.
"Both of you?"
"No, just her. I am an escort."
Tenten started to protest at the last statement but was cut off with a well timed glare from Neji. The guard didn't notice it.
"Alright, then all I need are your names and ranks," the guard still didn't seem satisfied with the answer.
Tenten answered this time. "My name is Rei, and I am a Jounin. My escort is...Arachi and he is also a Jounin. Now," she said, trying out a voice that seemed to command even the air, "will that be all?" They were the first names that came to her.
The guard was unphased. "Yes," he said simply and allowed them to pass.
As soon as they were out of earshot, Tenten sighed in relief. "Wow, that was close. Hey, you're a really good actor, you know that?" Neji simply raised an eyebrow.
"Keep your voice down Tenten. Remember, we are not welcome here," he said quietly. "Its getting late, and I don't think traveling around here at night is safe. We had better find an inn to spend the night, or we'll be attacked."
"Right. There's a place," Tenten said, pointing to a fairly safe looking inn. She noted the poor state of the buildings and the poor quality of the air. It was like the sky wasn't even welcoming them here. In every alley, she saw children starving. There were flies everywhere, and the whole town, even the stars in the unwelcoming sky, seemed dull and dirty. The village was being neglected. In turn, the citizens were too. Or maybe they were the ones who were neglecting? Of the few people still walking the streets, few seemed sober. Even fewer smelled sober. Everywhere she turned, Tenten received...looks, as there was no other word to describe it. They watched her like a child watched a toy he couldn't have, with desire, lust almost. Tenten instinctively walked closer to Neji.
She looked at him in her peripheral vision. He didn't seem scared. In fact, he seemed to be glaring back at all the bastards who looked at her...in an almost...protective way. "Neji? Being protective of me? Ha! What a laugh," Tenten thought. Still though, she kept close to him while getting to the inn. "Neji, let's hurry up. I don't like this place," Tenten said quietly to him.
One of the drunkards on the street piped up. "Wha's tha' ya say, li'l missy? Eh? Ya don' like dis pace? Huh? Is tha' i'? Well...maybe we shou' we'come ya, eh? 'Ow do tha' soun' to ya, li'l missy?" By now, he had gotten up and was coming toward her.
She and Neji walked faster.
"Wai'! Come ba - hic! - I-I wanna s-see ya ova he-" he was cut off by a lethal blow to the head from Neji. He didn't need Byakugan in this case.
"That's one less idiot in the world," he mumbled, motioning for Tenten to hurry. The rest of the street scum stayed away after seeing one of their own crumple in the blink of an eye, and the two Leaf Ninjas made it safely to the inn to spend the night.
Just before tucking herself into her own bed that night, Tenten started, "Hey, Neji...?"
"Hn?" came his usual reply from her right, Neji already half asleep in his bed.
"...Thank you." No reply came back. Tenten smiled and turned over onto her side. He had heard her words. He always did.
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A/n: Wow...that was a long chapter...! Anyways, thanks for reading! And do tell me if the characters seem kind of OOC because I would like to try and fix the problem if its there. There's no point in a fanfic if you change the characters too much I think...
Chapters 7 and 8 should be up sometime on the 20th or 21st. Until then,
Annie
