Hello friends! I'm not dead, promise. Just super super busy. But now it's the summer time so it's story updating time. I went back and updated the previous chapters. For those of you following the story since the beginning, I changed the main antagonist from the Waterfall Village to the Salt Village. The more I thought about it, the Waterfall village being that nasty didn't really make sense. Other than that, just fixing grammar. I should have more posted in the near future!
Tenten was in the kitchen of her house when she heard noises coming from her front door. She noticed that the doorknob was moving by someone holding on to it from the outside. Worried about potential Salt Village enemies, Tenten instantly masked her chakra and took a defensive stance, keeping her eyes on her front door. When the door finally opened, Tenten charged at whoever was at her door. With a sickle in hand, Tenten swung to attack her intruder. Before the weapon had a chance to contact anyone, a rush of orange knocked Tenten's arm out of the way. When Tenten finally got the chance to see who her invader was, she let out an annoyed sigh.
"Come on, guys. You don't have to pick my lock. Just knock on the door and I'll answer it."
In front of Tenten stood, Lee, prepared in a fighting stance, Kiba, who was crouched down with lockpicking tools in his hands, and Shino, who was casually leaning against the outside of her house. When Kiba noticed that his expertise was no longer needed on the lock, he stood up and spoke to Tenten.
"Okay, you're coming with us."
Tenten scuffed. "Yeah, you're delusional if you think I'm going anywhere with you three. I refuse to be wrapped up in any scheme you idiots are creating."
"We are creating no such scheme!" Lee quickly defended.
"We're absolutely scheming," Shino mumbled, not moving from his spot.
"Regardless," Kiba interjected, shaking his head. "We need you to come with us on our mission, Tenten. Naruto's out of his damned mind for not sending you along with us."
"Wait, are you guys going to the Salt Village?" Tenten asked. "I already gave all my intel to the ANBU."
"We are going to the Salt Village," Lee replied. "Naruto choose to send us three because of our experience alongside Byakugan users. I am extremely perplexed as to why Naruto would not send you as well. You fit that description just as much as we do, if not more."
Tenten's face fell into a frown, and she looked at her feet as she spoke. "Naruto's right. It's not safe for me to go back to the Salt Village."
"But why is that Tenten?" Lee pleaded with his teammate.
"I wish I could tell you, but I can't," Tenten said, looking up and showing the sadness on her face.
"I don't know what this is all about, nor do I really care," Shino said bluntly. He moved from his position against Tenten's house and turned to face her directly. "But I believe that Naruto is treating you too delicately."
Tenten's expression perked up as she was intrigued by what Shino had to say.
"I understand why he would not send Hinata. She is a Hyuga possessing the Byakugan. She is a prime target for the Salt Village, but that is not the case with you."
Tenten wanted to correct Shino, but she knew she couldn't because doing so would reveal classified secrets of the Hyuga clan.
Tenten remained silent as Shino continued his thoughts. "Losing Neji was hard on you, and I can't imagine having a stillborn child not a year after that, but Naruto is refusing to see your strength. Aside from Neji, you were one of the first ones in our class to become a jonin. You personally took part in saving the Kazekage's life, once as a chunin and once as a genin. You have successfully completed more S Rank missions than the three of us combined. You are an asset we need on this mission and I see no reason why you should not be considered for it."
Tenten was at a loss for words. Shino rarely spoke so she knew that his words were carefully chosen and sincere. She looked at the three shinobi in front of her and studied their faces as she spoke.
"All three of you truly feel this way?"
Kiba and Lee nodded their heads, showing their support for Shino's words.
"Going against direct orders of the Hokage is an extreme offense," Tenten continued to question.
"I'm not afraid of that blonde-headed nincompoop," Kiba boasted. Ignoring Kiba, Tenten looked over to Lee, trusting his opinion more than anyone else in the village.
"I do believe that Naruto's judgment is being clouded. It is in everyone's best interest if you come along with us. In time, Naruto will also see that it is the best decision."
Tenten smiled at Lee and nodded her head. "Alright, I'll join you guys. Give me a few minutes to pack and then we can head out."
XXX
Sakura heard the bell ring from the front entrance of Konoha's hospital. She looked up from the paperwork she had in front of her to greet the new arrivals. Sakura saw Tenten's genin squad, Kugi, Jin, and Mie walking up to the desk as she gave them a smile.
"Hey there guys. Are you all well? I heard you had a nasty mission. You want me to give you a checkup?"
Mie shook her head at Sakura. "No, we're all fine, but thank you. Just a little shook up from the mission so I wanted to stop by and see my mom. She should be working today, right?"
Sakura nodded at Mie. "She is. She's working in the lab today. You know the way so you three can go on back."
"Thank you, Lady Sakura," Mie said giving Sakura a bow. Jin and Kugi also gave Sakura a bow before they followed Mie down the hallway behind the front desk. Once they were out of earshot of Sakura, Mie turned around and smirked at her male teammates.
"You see. The hospital has 24/7 security. There's no way you'd get back here without me with you."
"I'll remember that next time I need to infiltrate the hospital for any reason," Jin said to Mie, mirroring her smirk.
Kugi simply nodded his head. "Yes, thank you, Mie."
"No problem," Mie said, flashing Kugi a smile. "Now follow me, the records room is down this way."
Mie turned back around and continued her trek through the hallways of the hospital. Once she found the room she was searching for, she quickly checked to see if anyone was around her. Since no one was around to see the three genin, Mirai pulled out a key that she had in her pocket and unlocked the door. She opened the door to let Kugi and Jin enter before she followed in herself. When the door was shut again, she spoke to her teammates.
"Okay, Jin, I need you to keep watch while I help Kugi find the records he's looking for."
"How the heck do you have a key to locked hospital rooms?" Jin asked Mie.
"I practically lived here before I entered the academy. Both my parents were always here working, and my brothers and sisters and I would come with. We all helped out a lot, so Lady Tsunade gave us all keys. She trusts my family and she really appreciated the help we gave her."
Kugi gave Mie an uncomfortable grunt. "I'm sorry that you have to break her trust in order to help me."
Mie shook her head. "Don't be sorry. Like Tenten-Sensei always says, we need to give our everything to each other. That's what true teamwork is."
Kugi did not respond to Mie, but he gave her a soft smile.
"Now I don't know how much time we have. Any of the hospital staff can come in here at any time. Let's get going."
Jin and Kugi nodded as Jin kept watch near the room's door and Kugi followed Mie through the maze of filing cabinets in the room. Kugi had no idea how all the files were categorized. There had to have been at least 100 filing cabinets, each with roughly 500 files in each. Mie obviously knew the system, though, because she led Kugi over to a specific cabinet and began sifting through the files in one of the drawers.
"It should be here…" Mie mumbled to herself. After a moment she pulled out a manila folder from the cabinet. "Aha! Here we go. Medical records for Kugi Hyuga."
Mie opened the file and Kugi stood next to her so he could look at the file over his shoulder. He was confused to find many blank sheets of paper in the folder.
"It's all blank," Kugi said out loud.
"Yup," Mie said with a smirk. "They're sealed with a jutsu only medical ninja know how to break."
Mie held up a hand sign and a few seconds later a small puff of smoke emitted from the folder. Kugi then saw a picture of himself show up on the paper along with all sorts of wording. He turned to give Mie a smile but stopped when he noticed Mie's concerned look.
"That's not right. Why didn't it work?" Mie said to herself.
"What do you mean?" Kugi asked. "I see all the information on the pages now."
Mie shook her head at Kugi. "No, not everything is here. Look at all the big empty spaces."
Kugi looked closer at the papers in Mie's hand and noticed what she was pointing out. The pages did have Kugi's medical information on it, but he also noticed that there were many areas of blank space. At first glance, Kugi was mistaken and thought that every file simply used the space on the page liberally. After further investigation, Kugi noticed that the sentences and data in his file were not complete.
"Kugi Hyuga, born July 3rd, son of Neji Hyuga and…" Kugi said, reading the words on the paper out loud. He gave Mie a confused look.
"The information just stops there. Did you mess up the release by accident?"
"No," Mie replied quickly. "There's a second, more powerful jutsu sealing the information. Look at this."
Mie brought the last page in Kugi's file up to the front of the stack. She pointed at a small symbol in the corner of the page. Kugi quickly recognized the symbol.
"That's the Hyuga clan symbol. Do you think the council put an extra seal on my file?"
"They must have. I've never seen anything like this before," Mie said as she gave Kugi a sad glance.
Kugi let out a dissatisfied grunt. "What in the world could be so earth-shattering that the clan feels the need to keep this hidden?"
"There's no way you can break the seal?" Mie asked Kugi.
He shook his head in response. "No. I had no idea the clan even had a jutsu like this."
Mie pondered for a moment. "I don't think all is lost though. We can try a different approach."
Kugi watched as Mie jogged over to another filing cabinet a few feet away. When she found what she was looking for, she walked back over to where Kugi was standing.
"Here's a list of everyone who came into the hospital on the day you were born. It's going to take a lot of searching and cross-referencing, but we might be able to figure something out."
"Sounds good," Kugi said as he helped Mie search through the list. They were quietly scanning over the words on the page until Mie let out a small gasp.
"What is it?" Kugi asked her.
"It says here that Tenten-Sensei had to be brought in for emergency surgery the day you were born."
"Interesting," Kugi mused. "I wonder what for."
"I don't know. I can check her file and see."
Mie left again for a different cabinet and came back with their Sensei's file in hand. She opened the file and released the seal on it before she quickly looked over the pages. She looked up at Kugi with a frown on her face.
"Her file is redacted by the Hyuga Clan too."
Kugi rolled his eyes. "Makes sense. She and my dad were teammates. They probably both got a splinter on a mission, but the clan couldn't risk anyone finding out about even the slightest impurity."
"I'm sorry about that, Kugi," Mie said sympathetically.
Kugi sighed. "It's fine. I can just ask Sensei about it later. I was just hoping I could find some information here."
Mie continued to search through Tenten's file when something within it caught her attention.
"That's so strange. It says here that Sensei takes a prescription that helps with complications from prenatal chakra consumption. It doesn't list prenatal chakra consumption as one of her medical conditions, though. It must be listed somewhere under the redactions."
"What's prenatal chakra control?" Kugi asked his teammate.
"It's a rare condition, but only because it's easily preventable," Mie responded. "It happens when a woman is pregnant with a baby that has a Kekkei Genkai. When the woman releases even a small amount of chakra during her third trimester, the baby notices and then begins to consume that chakra until it's all gone, killing the woman. You don't see many cases of it because if the mother or the father of the baby has a Kekkei Genkai, precautions can be made beforehand."
"You're telling me that Tenten-Sensei had a baby?" Kugi asked in shock. "And one with a Kekkei Genkai, no less?"
Mie stammered, trying to voice words. "She must have. That's the only thing I can assume from this information."
"She lives alone, we both know this. How could she possibly have a child?" Kugi asked.
Mie shrugged. "If she had prenatal chakra consumption, it's possible the baby died during birth. That would make sense why she doesn't talk about the experience."
"Something isn't adding up here," Kugi said as he extended his arm out to Mie. Mie knew that he was silently asking to see their Sensei's medical files. She handed them over to him so he could look.
Kugi shuffled through the pages before he noticed something. He turned the papers so Mie could look at them with him. "Look here," Kugi said as he pointed at a spot in Tenten's records. "This is at the end of the last Great War when my father died. You'd think that the redactions would end here, but they go on, for nine months, to be exact. After that, her medical records are all public."
"And here," Kugi said pointing to another section in the records. "The prescription she takes was first written for her on the day I was born."
Mie's eyes also widened as she came to the same realization as Kugi. "And that's the same day she came in for an emergency surgery, presumably a c-section."
Kugi kept silent as his eyes remained on the papers in his hands. He found himself not capable of taking a breath. His entire body was ridged. Mie, however, turned to Kugi and spoke.
"Kugi, do you think that your mom is…"
Before Mie had the chance to finish her sentence, Jin yelled out to his teammates.
"Guys! There's someone coming!"