(A/N) Onward we go!
Shisui was up before Tenten, which, understandable given how much sensing she'd had to do while they walked to keep an eye on Kakuzu. No one had shown up during the night, bandits or otherwise, so Shisui was ready for the day, with fully topped up chakra reserves.
He made a basic breakfast, eating his own portion, then going to help with the caravan, leaving Tenten's portion covered near the fire. It was the least he could do.
Once the caravan was ready, they didn't have much choice but to wake her, so Shisui, like a reasonable person, sent her summon in to wake her up. They were on a mission, and she probably wouldn't try and stab her summon. He'd been almost stabbed enough thank you. Not by her, he'd learned his lesson long before her.
"Feeling better?" He asked once she finally emerged fully dressed and ready a minute later and started striking her tent.
She yawned. "Yeah, much." She sealed away the tent. "Alright, we're leaving?"
Shisui nodded, offering her the plate with her food on it, and they started walking with the caravan.
"Should we both be at the front?" Shisui wondered, glancing back at the rest of the caravan.
"My summon's keeping an eye on the back, and we have Kakuzu nearby," Tenten pointed out. "It's best we're up here to deal with him."
"Makes sense," Shisui agreed, humming. "He still far away?"
Tenten's eyes glazed over slightly as she concentrated. "He's coming up faster, stop the caravan and we'll go ahead to try and minimize casualties. Leave the summons here with the caravan."
Shisui nodded agreement and passed on the message to the leader, and the two continued on without the caravan.
It was almost ten minutes of walking before they actually encountered the S-class nin.
"Shunshin no Shisui," Kakuzu commented, then raised an eyebrow at Tenten. "I don't believe you're in the bingo book."
"Not yet," Tenten replied easily. She had little doubt she would be pretty soon. "But not for long." Especially if they killed Kakuzu right here and now.
"If you weren't in it before I highly doubt you will be worth my time any time soon," Kakuzu replied dismissively.
"Sure," Tenten agreed easily, willing to let the insult slide if it meant he underestimated her. She kicked Shisui when he looked like he was going to protest. He glared at her for a half-second, but turned his attention back to Kakuzu quickly.
There was little warning before Kakuzu rushed forward, aiming to kill Shisui, who flickered out of the way. Tenten used the opportunity to seed the area with kunai bearing her seal.
"You missed," Kakuzu noted, albeit not harshly. More...curiously.
"I didn't," Tenten disagreed, readying herself to teleport the second he showed any sign of lunging for her. "Maybe I missed you, but I wasn't aiming for you."
He scoffed and turned away from her, ending up with his back to one of the kunai. "If you say so."
"I do!" Tenten chirped, grinning and disappearing, summoning a tanto and stabbing him in the back, Shisui coming in from the front to impale his stomach.
Kakuzu seemed almost surprised, although not even close to dead. She had only stabbed one heart so far after all. "I will admit to having underestimated you. I will not do so again."
"A compliment I'm sure," Tenten snarked as she quickly yanked out the tanto and teleported away from the black tendrils trying to attack her and Shisui.
"It is," he reassured her. "I will attempt to kill you seriously now, even if you are not in the bingo book at the moment, I would prefer to rid myself of a threat now rather than later."
"I'm honored," she muttered sarcastically.
"You should be," he replied, lunging at her. She teleported out of the way. "You have stolen one of my hearts, I shall take yours to make up for it!"
"I'd rather my heart stayed where it was!" Shisui shouted, flickering in and out, Kakuzu dodging any hits Shisui was trying to get in while Tenten dodged.
Honestly, she could see why Kakuzu was an S-class shinobi, and he hadn't even pulled out his other four hearts yet.
An hour later, Tenten had finally managed to impale the last heart, and was leaning against the actual spear she'd managed to summon and stab him with.
"Well that was fun," Shisui commented, kicking Kakuzu's body. "On the plus side, I know for a fact he's got a massive bounty for him dead, so there's that."
"Right. You fetch the caravan and I seal him up and fix up the area?"
"You have the chakra for that?"
Tenten shrugged. "I have extra stored up, I'll be alright. And I'll really just even out the ground. We do need to go over this bit of road."
"Fair. I'll grab the caravan then. Have fun!"
"You too." Tenten surveyed the road and was suddenly glad for the one jutsu she'd learned for this because of Lee and Gai's eternal road destruction when they got excited.
She tapped into the stored chakra seal she'd made as an imitation of Sakura and Tsunade's hundred healings seal, grateful she had it fully charged already and could use the chakra for this.
Unfortunately, the seal wasn't perfect and chakra inside degraded and had to be used and cycled on a regular basis, so she really only charged it before missions.
She fixed the road, although it took nearly three applications of the jutsu, the damage was that severe. They'd had quite the fight. Hopefully, the rest of the trip wouldn't be nearly as excitable. She'd had enough action for one trip. Was this how Team 7 felt when they went on a normal mission and then bam, there was some giant really powerful ninja blocking their way? It was annoying.
(A/N) Now that that's over, we continue on. Sorry in advance for any bad romance-y things. Sometimes writing this fic has ended up like pulling teeth. *sighs* I'm ready for it to be over alreadyyyyy. Will finish it though, so don't worry about that!