"So what exactly is this mission and that letter about then?"
"Oh yes, Tenten! I will fill you and the others in as well!" Her spandex wearing sensei yelled with more enthusiasm than necessary. "We must deliver this message and return with an answer, using the power of youth invested in us to an ally of the Leaf! He lives in the foothills of the mountains in the Land of Lighting."
"Okay well, why didn't we just send a messenger hawk sensei? "
"Oh, Tenten my dear! If only things could be so simple we wouldn't need Shinobi at all!" Gai shouted with determination.
Tenten rolled her eyes, it was going to be a long mission. She loved her boys but was hoping her patience wouldn't run too thin. Sometimes the green monsters needed a whack upside the head.
Neji landed on a branch next to her as they all took in the sight. They were currently approaching the border between Fire and Hot Water. She could tell they were approaching the border as the trees started to thin. Fire county was definitely known for its mass amounts of forests, but as you got closer to the borders on all sides, the number of trees greatly reduced, so she assumed she was looking into the Land of Hot Water from their positions.
Then after a few days of travel through Hot Water, they would then be approaching the Land of Frost and that is when the real cold would start to pick up.
The Land of Hot Water wasn't much to bat an eye at. The nation's population was quite small, the people sticking to the areas with hot springs, which also served as most peoples' income via tourism. Though increasingly, the area had become popular with rouge nin. They seemed to enjoy the lack of people in the area, so the ability to freely move about. The shinobi village here, Yugakure, was only even known to most people because it is where, Hidan, of the Akatsuki, defected from. He was another one of those names that made your spine run cold at just the mention, you couldn't forget it if you wanted to. Otherwise, it was not a well-known village, they tended to stay out of the bigger nations affairs and remain neutral.
For this reason, Tenten knew the only trouble they would have would be missing-nin, but she felt confident in her team that even that wouldn't slow them down. Missing-nin tended to not get in the way of hidden village shinobi, they were smart enough to prevent pissing off huge villages with resources to retaliate against them. But as history had shown there were always a few who tested those boundaries.
Almost forgetting Neji was next to her while lost in her thoughts, he spoke up, "Gai Sensei, I would greatly appreciate it if you would fill us in a bit more on this mission as we are only a few days away from contact with our target." He said with the expected politeness from a Hyuga.
Lee jumped in agreement, "Yes Gai Sensei! Please do tell us how we will be serving the village, and the Hokage this mission!"
"Fine fine! Let us go to the next village, find an inn and I will describe the situation! This area is known for being quite safe, so let us enjoy a night in the hot springs!" He gleamed giving them all a thumbs up.
Tenten rolled her eyes, "Gai Sensei, we're on a mission, it's not a vacation." letting her eyes come to rest on Neji, in an innocent way, he returned a small smirk to her, but only when he knew that the others backs were turned. It seemed his patience for the childish antics of their teammates was better today than hers.
"Oh but my young ones! We must bask in the glory of life. Though we are on a mission, we have to enjoy the journey, as we are not on a strict time schedule for this assignment."
"As long as you say it's fine, Gai Sensei," Tenten said with a bit of sass added, with a wink back to Neji.
The team preceded to cross the border out of Fire country. Tenten and Neji brought up the rear, while Gai and Lee were out front, the former giving another one of his motivational speeches, not that Lee really needed another.
She turned to Neji, "So what do you think this is about?"
He glanced at her while he pondered his thoughts, "I don't want to make any assumptions, but I have a feeling this has something to do with our most recent mission."
Tenten's heart sank, she recalled the feeling their dark aurora gave off when one of their members had noticed their presence. It felt like a fog, in a place where the sun never rose, with unrelenting rain.
"I was afraid you'd say that. I thought it was strange for a whole squad to be mail delivery." She responded to him.
He nodded in agreement, "Whatever it is, always keep your guard up. Since we traveled closer to the border, I've been using my eyes to check our soundings. For the time being, we are okay, but I would strongly advise against getting comfortable, especially the farther away from Fire we get."
She could sense the seriousness in his voice, though Neji was always serious on missions, this time felt a bit different to her though, almost protective. She wondered if he knew more about this mission than he led her to believe.
"You know if anything happens Neji, I have your back, and I know you have mine. Gai and Lee will also be there, we do this together."
He nodded once more in agreement. "I won't let anything happen to you." He said, making her go red on the spot.
"My pupils! We will stay there tonight!" Gai said pointing forward, Tenten was grateful for the interruption to calm her redness. "We have arrived. This is Yamamoto village."
Coming into view was a simple village sitting underneath a small set of mountains, couldn't have been more than a few hundred people. She could see that the main street was full of ryokans, with signs boasting their onsen experience to be the best. Mixed in were some restaurants and shops, as well as places for those with a desire for the thrill of the night.
The three younger shinobi followed their sensei into one of the average looking inns. The innkeeper bowed respectively at the sight of them.
"Ah, Gai-san, and you Kohana-nin, we've been expecting you, right this way."
All three of his students shot a glance of confusion to their sensei. The group followed the innkeeper down a long hallway.
"I hope this room will do, I was informed only a few days ago of your arrival. So I'm afraid the other rooms were already booked." She said while again giving a deep bow.
Tenten listened to the woman's words and took a look inside of the room. It was a simple tatami mat room, a set of sliding doors opened up into another room where two futons where laid out.
"I will bring by another two futons, otherwise, please feel free to use the public baths, dinner will be brought to your room at 7, and let me know if there is anything I can do for you." She said bowing for the last time leaving the team to themselves.
" Sensei, what is going on? How does she know you?" Tenten asked, almost demandingly.
" Pupils, you know a village such as ours is large, we have many connections. It was all set up by the Hokage." Gai responded.
Tenten sighed, of course, it was Kakashi. She figured that throughout the years, both Hokage-sama and Gai-Sensei, had made a number of enemies, but someone somewhere had to owe them a favor or two.
As they all entered the room and dropped their packs, "Before you get too comfortable, let's discuss this mission." With Gai, it was like a flip of a switch when the time came to be serious. He was normally, full of excitement, and bursting at the seams with energy. Tenten wished when she was his age, she had half as much energy as he had. Lee, Neji, and Tenten had all taken a seat around the low table.
Gai began to place a sound barrier jutsu around the room and continued speaking, his tone changing dramatically.
" As you know, this mission is to deliver a letter to an ally in the Land of Lighting. Which is true, but only part of our whole mission." He took a deep breath looking at each one of his students. "Our ally has also been sending us information on the group of rouge-nin that you," gesturing to her and Neji," had found recently. He was to only report to us via hawk, but his hawk has not returned to the village in the last month."
Neji seemed to be catching on quicker than the other two, "What type of information has he reported?"
"Ah yes! My student always thinking quickly. Our last letter, detailed that their numbers had been growing, from about 5 to around 14 members. We don't know the origins or identities of these shinobi. And we still don't know what their true goal is. As of now, all that has been reported is that they take what they need from the nearby villages of the Lighting country and the Land of Frost border. They have so far spared all civilians in their path." Tenten looked a bit shocked, that wasn't what typical missing-nin did. They were known for having no mercy, murder, rape, and pillage everything in their path was usually their moto, especially when picking on those weaker than them.
"Gai Sensei!" Lee exclaimed while raising his hand as if he was back at the academy waiting to be called on by a teacher.
"If we haven't seen his hawk, why don't we send one there to contact him?"
"Yes, if only it were that simple. You see, this ally of ours is actually a retired Leaf Shinobi. He was injured in the war, met a civilian medic from Lighting as part of the Allied Shinobi Forces, and after the war, he married her and relocated in a remote location in the south of Lighting. He was a powerful genjutsu user, to which allowed him to keep him and his home hidden from most people, he would just observe those passing by. We attempted to send messenger hawks, but they could not find the location due to the strong genjutsu. Only his personal hawk knew the location, therefore could go back and forth between the places." Gai finished.
"So our mission is to find his home, make contact, and procedure from there," Neji added plainly.
Tenten thought for a moment, "What if his hawk was just injured and can't fly? And sensei you said he was injured from the war? So even if he's okay maybe he just can't contact us?"
"Yes Tenten, that would be the best outcome of this mission. We locate him and his family, exchange information, and return to Kahona with a new method of contact. You are also correct that he is injured, he has minimal use of his legs, can only walk short distances" Gai Responded.
"But it doesn't seem like it will be that simple, to just locate him then." Neji countered.
While they continued talking, she observed, how in times like this, even Lee could calm down, and start a thought process to try to comprehend what was going on. She also noted how Neji would scrunch his eyebrows together when he was thinking.
She thought, how adorable.
"Again my young ones are out doing their sensei! If his genjutsu is still activated, Kakashi and I believe that with your Byakugan, Neji you will be able to at least sense an abnormality in the area, getting us closer to the location. Which is why we were selected for this mission. Due to the nature of the information, this is also why Kakashi asked me to discuss this outside of the village, for fear of putting fear in others if this turns out to be nothing."
Tenten again began to think how serious this all is, and what this could mean for the village, though her optimistic side was still hoping there was just something wrong with the man's hawk, and it couldn't contact them.
Gai continued, " I understand you, my students, are not ANBU, but you have been deemed trustworthy and capable of completing this mission, so we must succeed!" The green beast yells, with his personality roaring back to life once more.
"Yes Gai- Sensei! We will not let you down!" Lee exclaims with proud tears running down his face.
She could tell now that Neji was getting slightly annoyed, most people probably couldn't see the change, but for her, he was becoming a bit easier to understand emotionally.
"Very well, now that we are all aware, tomorrow we will leave at dawn. It will be two days until we cross over into Lighting, so please prepare your selves for whatever may come... Come now! let us enjoy the hot springs!"
Gai and Lee had basically exploded out of the room, the door was lucky the inn-keeper had just stopped by to drop off extra bedding. Otherwise, she was sure those two would have busted right through the door in their excitement.
"Soooo..." Tenten said turning to Neji. "Will you be joining them?" Adding a giggle at the end.
He scoffed, " A bath should be relaxing, and I think with those two it would be anything but that."
She laughed, he smiled.
Glancing outside the window, noting how the sun was begging to set, "How about we talk a walk then? Possibly pick up some more winter clothes as I don't think I packed enough." She said honestly.
"Very well." He replied simply. "I'd like to have a look around as well."
Thank you for the reviews last chapter since I updated ! Freakin'love-sesshourin, fanofthisfiction, shannan96 and the guest review.
And to Freakin'love-sesshourin- all I meant by the mistress part was the idea that it's secret. Maybe its not a true meaning of the word, but as I wrote, it was supposed to be cute how she loves her weapons so much, when he asked her to be his "mistress, he simply added it as a bit of a joke. I think that if he were to have survived, he would have been a bit more laid back after the war, meaning that stick shoved up his ass was removed, but he still had the pressure of the clan to be the perfect shinobi
Also, have you seen the new Boruto? Shino is like feeding a stuffed Kuruma hatchimals doll thing a meat bun and telling it how cute it is. I mean not that I agree with that, (cuz actually I have some strong opinions on these filler episodes and how the kids barely know their mom's old team) but the point was I'd hope after a war like that they would have a different view on life, be a bit more care free after what they went through.
Side note, I was kinda inspired to write a oneshot about Boruto episode 93 and how Himawari would know Kiba as Uncle Kiba, not be like who the hell is this dog dad?
What do you think?
Thanks much for your kindness,
Blinkstated