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Disclaimer: Naruto doesn't belong to me, otherwise the NejiTen would be canon.
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Enjoy.
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Chapter 17. The attack
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He watched Tenten's farewell from afar, he saw how Toshio almost dragged her into the transport, and he was annoyed. It wasn't right to send her back, it was a risky move because where something went wrong they would hold her hostage, they were voluntarily handing her over so that her kidnapping would continue.
The carriage pulled away and he headed to the meeting they were having, it was time to start planning the attack and Tenten's release.
Carefully she had left a couple of books in the residence that she had brought that might be of use to them, inside one of them she had provided them with a list of names of both some families they should investigate, and other books that would suddenly be of use. There was also a blank piece of paper that he could assume was the note that Toshio had sent her the day she stayed at home.
They organized different work fronts, he wanted to go do field research but Tsunade had prevented him, his face was easily recognizable which would alert them, and for him to go with an ANBU mask wouldn't be wise, so he had to step aside in that area. Besides leading the team and consolidating all the information that was collected, he was helping to review some of the books brought by the scouts that were stacked one on top of the other on his desk.
At what time had Tenten read all that? He could assure that not even the natives of the village of Lightning knew the history to the level that she knew it, maybe that's why she had discovered the inconsistencies that no one else had noticed, no one had that innate curiosity. Besides he had to read the countless manuscripts and scrolls they had in Konoha about the Lightning country, he sighed resignedly.
The work was arduous and they weren't moving as fast as he had hoped. In his most optimistic plans he had hoped that with two weeks they would already be planning the logistics of the attack, not waiting for the reports of the interviews that were conducted with the families that had been listed as possible victims. They had to be very cautious in gathering information as they didn't want to raise suspicions. The Hokage had made it clear that it was indispensable to have the confessions of the families to prove the criminal activity of the Yoshida, otherwise the Raikage would support them, and they could give that battle as lost even before giving it.
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Another couple of weeks passed and Tsunade had arranged a meeting with the Raikage at the Sand village, a neutral territory for the two villages in which it wouldn't be entirely suspicious for them to address. As he waited for the outcome of the meeting he couldn't get Tenten out of his mind, by now she had completed the first quarter, would she be doing the exercises that had been recommended to her? Would Toshio continue to exert that violence he witnessed? Would she believe that they had given up on the plan and that she should resign herself to continue in that marriage? He exhaled heavily and with his hand squeezed the bridge of his nose, he was exhausted.
The Hokage returned to the village, and summoned him to her office.
"Sit down," was her greeting, he approached the chair but remained standing, on the desk was the pile of folders with the reports she had brought to the meeting.
"What was the result?" he asked impatiently.
"He won't intervene," he nodded, "he won't support us, but he won't stand in our way either."
"Can we proceed?"
"We can proceed, whatever is seized will belong to the Raikage."
A part of him wanted to just attack and be done with it, not wait any longer, but no, they had to establish the plan of attack. The news of the betrayal of the village had spread fast, in his ANBU suit he had spoken to several villagers who reported the questions they had received from the lightning retinue, as well as wondered what was going to happen to Tenten, no one had questioned her loyalty and showed concern for her and the baby's well being.
The volunteers appeared and soon they were ready to make the teams according to the specialties, and go little by little planting explosives, several shinobi were arriving to a village near the village of the Lightning and were staying as tourists, others were camping nearby with protection jutsus that prevented them from being discovered before time. They had to optimize everything to try to reduce casualties. In the investigations in Kumo they had discovered that they were recruiting renegade ninjas, so caution had to be maximum.
3 days before the attack they had left Konoha, they had been distributed in 3 teams, the priority was to capture the Yoshida, both the patriarch and Toshio, prisoners were only going to take shinobi of that village and servants of the mansion, for the renegade ninjas the order was to attack to kill. For him the main thing was Tenten, so he was going to go in the vanguard. He wasn't sure if she would manage to escape so he was prepared to enter the residence and rescue her safely himself if necessary.
It was 10 o'clock in the morning, the attack would start at noon when the sun was at its peak, they started the march towards the place they had defined, he hadn't slept properly for a long time so he searched in his fanny pack for a soldier's pill and ate it, he couldn't afford any mistake. He was in the front row, in his usual clothes and not ANBU, the explosion echoed in the grove and in a jiffy the place was filled with ninjas. They all took their positions and pandemonium broke out.
He activated his byakugan and could see Tenten running in the distance, the direction she was heading was to cross face to face with Toshio, so without thinking he headed that way.
"Not my face!" he heard Toshio shout, Tenten had hurt him, he quickened his pace. "Damn you! I should have hit you all the times you deserved it," she pulled out two kunais ready to defend herself.
"Go away," he said landing between her and the man. "Now!" he ordered, she retreated without saying anything.
"Didn't anyone ever teach you that it's rude to get involved in other people's arguments?" he didn't answer him. "You know, I'm going to enjoy finally being able to do this," Toshio told him taking out a kunai. He smiled mockingly, he couldn't lie, he was going to enjoy it too.
Toshio threw his weapon in an imitation of Tenten's style, bad idea, he knew those moves perfectly. His taijutsu was poor, he could verify what she had said about strength by two missed punches Toshio had thrown and he had deflected with his gentle fist into a tree, the tree had been destroyed. With the amount of somersaults the man was doing around him and the blows he had tried to deliver a normal ninja would have been exhausted, but he was still standing, so he could check the physical endurance thing. Yes, he was fully aware of how she had checked the endurance thing but he didn't want to think about that.
He could see the smiling Yoshida as the man tried to punch him and he dodged effortlessly, for a second he allowed herself to be impulsive and land a fist without any technique, just his hand clenched straight to his nose, breaking it. Now satisfied he saw him bleeding from two places on his face, one wound courtesy of each.
His fighting style was different, it could be described as inexperienced and messy. It was noticeable that his training had been mostly theoretical with very few real confrontations. As well as mixing different techniques from various villages. He took a deep breath, he needed to stop wasting time and go to actual combat to help others. He activated his dōjutsu and in a concise attack closed his chakra points leaving him lying on the ground cursing. Toshio began to laugh out loud as he carelessly dragged him towards the prisoners.
"It doesn't matter that you have defeated me," Toshio said between laughs before added bitingly. "You will never be able to change the fact that she is expecting my son."
He didn't answer him, just threw him in with the captured that they had taken so far and headed back to the action. The combat didn't last much longer, the rumor of Toshio's capture spread quickly and the renegade ninjas faithful to their lack of loyalty began to flee, leaving only the warriors of the lightning village who were outnumbered and surrendered.
He looked for her with his eyes as soon as they were all grouped together, the prisoners were immobilized and ready to be moved to the prison under the barracks. He had already passed by the tent where the wounded were and hadn't seen her, now in the meeting with the others she wasn't there either, where was Tenten?
"We have not been able to capture the patriarch," they interrupted his visual review of the place, "he has fled the place with a couple of ninjas."
"Put him on the wanted list," he answered turning his back and returning to the medical tent.
"Sakura," he approached, she was healing a wounded man.
"Tell me, Neji," she answered without looking up.
"Where is she?" the green-eyed looked up as she didn't understand what he was talking about, "Where is Tenten?" he asked exasperated.
"On the way to the village," the woman said as if it was obvious, "Tsunade made it clear that we should take her back even if the battle wasn't over."
"Who is going with her?" He should be escorting her, he wouldn't forgive himself if something happened to her.
"Shikamaru, Ino and Chōji."
He came out of the tent and calmed down a bit, Shikamaru was an ANBU as well, and since their genin days the InoShikaCho team was known for knowing how to combine their skills and be unbeatable.
The casualties had been few, they were victorious and above all, they had managed to recover her. From what he could hear some people in the village murmuring, Tenten was a heroine, in a way she had helped in the planning of the attack, and on the way to meet the shinobi of Konoha she had defeated several enemies. He cursed under his breath, it had been an unnecessary risk to let her go alone, fortunately everything had turned out well.
He entered his apartment, craning his neck trying to shake off the tension he still carried, the hardest part was over.
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All corrections and comments are always well received, they help me improve a lot.
Hope you like it!
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Regards, Sally K.