Neji hated it when a mission was more complicated than it needed to be. This one had been simple on paper, at least. Go to Yutakana Village, clear out a group of bandits that have been harassing travelers, and report back. An easy B rank mission, when all was said and done. When they actually got there, however, it was a different story. The bandits had divided into two groups- something that the team found out after three days of surveillance, watching their patrols go back and forth. Finally, they tracked them back to their camps, which had been entrenched in the mountains surrounding the village. That added another two days to their missions. It was then that the team had found out the reason that this whole ordeal had taken so long.

The Fire & LIghtning brothers, a pair of A ranked missing ninja had taken command of the bandits. With their leadership, the bandits had become a force to be reckoned with. As such, Team Gai had to split to take out the band without any of them scattering. Gai and Lee had gone to take out the camp in the north, while he and Tenten was left with one to the east. The actual fight was resolved without too much effort, with the pair clearing out the camp with a coordinated effort, but the real complications came after they left the camp.

"Give me a break! They're still not here?! It's been half an hour!" The pair had been waiting at their appointed rendezvous point-a poorly maintained stretch of byway that had been all but deserted because of the bandit activity, winded and caked with dirt and blood. Tenten had just finished resealing the kunai she had used in the camp, while Neji stoically continued scanning the area with his Byakugan.

"I can't see them either. At this point, we can only assume that they've run into trouble. We need to start moving that direction." Tenten's expression hardened at that, a small flash of worry crossing her face as she began to rapidly rewind her scrolls. As she did that, Neji concentrated for a second more. "Wait."

Pausing as she rewound the last of her scrolls, Tenten turned back towards Neji. "What is it?"

Neji gestured towards the west. "Movement, about 300 meters out. Looks like a civilian on horseback, lightly armored."

Tenten's attention shifted in the direction that he had pointed, holding a scroll at the ready. "If it's just a civilian, then why bother pointing it out?" Tenten asked, fully focused on the road before her.

"Because he just turned so that he's coming straight at us. He'll be here in less than a minute, so let's play it safe." With only a terse nod as a reply from Tenten, the pair readied themselves. Neji was proven right as a few seconds later a cloud of dust came billowing up the path. The cloud barely obscured a single rider, who stopped as soon as they were close enough to see the two ninja clearly. As soon as he stopped, he began to wave at the pair.

"Hey! You all wouldn't have happened to see another pair of riders come through here, would ya?" Neji and Tenten paused before replying, using a few seconds to observe the rider. He was a youngish man, looking no older than his late twenties, black hair pulled back into a short ponytail. Like Neji said, he wasn't wearing the symbol of any village, and didn't seem to be carrying any weapons other than an old, worn looking katana. His clothes were similar, worn traveling garments, with the edges of an old chainmail shirt peeking out from underneath. All and all, both of the ninja would describe him as entirely forgettable.

"No. I can't say that we have." Neji was the first to reply, his words civil, but direct. Just because he didn't look like a threat didn't mean that the Hyūga was willing to trust him just yet.

"Oh? That's too bad." The man paused, looking pensively up at the sky. It was then that it became evident that he had part of a blade of grass sticking out of his mouth, and he chewed as he thought. "I don't want to trouble you none, but I'm looking for my partners. You see, we were hired to escort a caravan to Yutakana, but they got split from the group a ways back. I've heard that there's bandit trouble in these here parts, and I don't want them to get caught up in any of that sort of nonsense." Looking back at the pair, the man did a double take, as he seemingly saw their headbands for the first time. "Why, as I live and breathe! Don't tell me that you're the ninjas that got hired to deal with all that?!"

"Yeah, that's us alright? What's it to ya?" Tenten replied to that with a scowl, as she couldn't quite tell if she should be flattered or offended by the way that he had said that. The man got the message, as he shied away from them, both hands held up.

"Hey, no disrespect here! Fact, it's a real honor. I've never had the chance to meet a ninja like this, you see!" Pausing, the man seemed to consider something again. "Hey, you know, maybe the two of you could help me out with my search! I'll be more than happy to make it worth your while, of course!"

"I'm sorry, but we really have to go. Our own mission isn't complete, and we have to hurry and meet with the rest of our team. I'm sorry that we can't help you further, sir." Neji gestured to Tenten, and she nodded, quickly finishing her preparations.

"Please, it's just Nisuke! And let me accompany you that far at least? It is getting late after all, and I don't want to be out here by my lonesome- you know, with all these bandits." Neji grit his teeth, holding back a sigh.

"I hardly think that you would be able to keep up, Nisuke-san, even if we were to do that. Just return to town. I'm sure that the people you are looking for are already waiting there for you." Neji glanced back over at Tenten, who nodded to show that she was ready to go.

"Ah hell, I don't think that'll be a problem! I may not be no fancy ninja, but I'm a hell of a horse rider!" Neji took a deep breath, preparing himself for another round of this, when Tenten cut him off.

"Fine! If you want to follow us, go ahead! But when you can't keep up, we're not going to be coming back for you, alright!" Confused, Neji turned to look at her, but she pulled him in before he could say anything again, and whispered to him. "Look, it's risky, but we can't afford to lose any more time at this point! Besides, you were the one who said that he looks like a civilian, right?"

Furrowing his brow, Neji whispered back. "I don't like this. His chakra coils look undeveloped, but at the same time, they're hazy. Like I can't get a clear look at them."

"If he turns out to be one of them, we can deal with that there as well as we can here. Now, come on!" Almost hissing the last part, Tenten launched away from the point before Neji could argue further, leaving him to keep pace right behind her. Behind them, Nisuke followed with a quick shout of thanks.

The three had been traveling traveled for almost half an hour when they reached the northern camp. Surprisingly, Nisuke was as good of a horseman as he said he was. He kept pace with the two young ninja as they went, and arrived at the compound only a few seconds after them. All three stopped at the front entrance of the makeshift fortress; Nisuke quickly dismounted to join the two ninja.

"Well, they definitely made it here…" Tenten said, gesturing to the front gates that hung askew, dented as if they they had been blown inwards by a massive force. "Can you see them, Neji?"

Activating his Byakugan, Neji began to quickly scan the compound. "There's still fighting further in. We need to hurry." He turned back to Nisuke, who was tying up his mount next to a trio of other horses. "This must be where we part ways, Nisuke-san. It's simply too dangerous for you past this point."

"No can do, Mr. Ninja. My partners are in there, I'm sure of it. These are their horses, you see. How could I call myself a man if I didn't go in after them?" With a determined look, Nisuke grabbed the hilt of his sword and began walking towards to open. "Now, I don't care whether y'all approve or not, but I'm going in."

Before he could get more than a few steps, he was flanked by Neji and Tenten; the latter of whom looked back at him with a smile. "If your conviction is that strong, then I guess we don't a have a choice. But we're not going to slow down for you, alright! So keep up, or you'll be left behind!" With that, the three moved into the compound.

The inside of the bandit's camp was no better than the front gates. The ground was littered with the broken bodies, the structures had been devastated, and small fires raged throughout the wreckage. The pair of ninja barely spared so much as a second glance to the carnage, while Nisuke continuously scanned the surroundings, looking for any sign of life. This went on for a good five minutes, until Neji brought the group to a halt with a gesture.

"The fighting is three hundred meters more in that direction. Prepare yourselves." The other two members of the party replied with silent nods, readying their weapons. The trio began to cautiously advance again, on the lookout for any threats. They didn't get far, however, as their advance was suddenly interrupted.

In a massive cloud of dust and splinters, a green blur slammed into the side of a hut several doors down from the group, followed closely by an accompanying red blur. As the dust quickly settled, the group could see a young man in a bright red leather jacket locked in a struggle with a jumpsuit wearing teenager. The teen was pinned against the wall, holding off one of his opponent's spears with each hand.

"Lee!" Tenten was the first to react, opening her scroll towards the man in red, while Neji tensed, preparing to dash forwards himself. As soon as they did so, each of them found the blade of a familiar worn katana pressed against their throat.

"Sorry about this, kids, but I can't just let you attack the Boss like that. It'd make me look bad, ya know?" Nisuke was now standing on both sides of the pair, having duplicated in the second that Neji's focus had shifted. As the pair looked, the air around him seemed to shimmer, with waves of darkness falling away from both copies. The darkness steadily thickened, but a loud crash pulled the shinobi's attention forwards to Lee.

Lee had just kicked outwards, planting both of his feet on the other man's chest, propelling the pair into the walls on opposing sides of the street- Lee's opponent impacting with a considerable amount more force as he broke through the wall entirely. Despite that, it was only a moment before he recovered, leaping out of the hole in the wall to run back towards the shinobi. Lee responded by throwing one of the man's own spears back at him- having held onto them while kicking free- before charging forwards himself. Catching the spear moments before it would have pierced his chest, the stranger gave it a quick spin before stabbing forwards. The clack of wood meeting wood rang out as Lee brought his captured spear up to block, and the pair quickly seemed devolve into a red and green flurry fo motion as they traded blows.

As the fighting redoubled between the pair, the rest of Gai's students took the chance to substitute away from the men threatening them. In a flash, they appeared on the other side of the street, looking back at the two clouds of shadow standing next to a pair of broken water barrels. Almost as soon as they did that, the shadows surrounding Nisuke vanished, revealing a very different person.

While his build was mostly the same, the man now had a mane of shoulder length, light brown hair that spilled back out from a headpiece that called to mind the happuri worn by the Second Hokage, though Nisuke's covered his chin as well. The headpiece tied into the rest of his apparel, as he was now obviously wearing armor over his entire body; with only a camo patterned shawl and pants covering the chain mail that tucked into the thick greaves and vambraces covering his extremities. Most concerningly, however, was that what had appeared as a katana was just one blade of what appeared to be an oversized version of a three bladed koga shuriken. Both copies now held two of this strange weapon, one held where the Konoha shinobi's throats had been moments before. As the Konoha ninja took this all in, the copies turned their head as one, looking towards them before speaking in unison.

"Looks like you kids are no joke! You know, if you would just turn tail, I'd let you leave?" Tenten and Neji's eyes both narrowed at this.

"Like we'd let you get off that easy! Besides, the only kind of person that I hate more than traitors are cowards!" Tenten yelled down at Nisuke as she unsealed a handful of kunai. As she prepared to throw this first barrage, one of the copies began to sadly shake its head.

"I can't argue with that… All I can say is that I don't like this job one bit." As soon as the copy finished speaking, Neji caught a wisp of shadow beginning to rise from the roof behind him.

"Tenten!" Even as the word was leaving his lips, Neji and Tenten both launched into motion, feeling the faintest breeze as a third Nisuke rose up from the wood, just missing their backs with a wide double handed slash. Tenten cut left running further along the rooftop as she threw her prepared shuriken at the ambusher. Bringing the pair of shuriken back to his chest, he managed to deflect the projectiles before being blown back to a cloud of darkness as exploding tag hidden on one of the kunai detonated.

Meanwhile, Neji had charged towards the pair still on the ground. Both copies of Nisuke responded with a charge of their own- one along the ground, while the other leapt into the air to meet the Hyūga head on. As the two met in the air, Neji slammed his palm into Nisuke's chest, releasing a spike of chakra into the man's heart. His body stiffened momentarily before exploding into a burst of black shadows. The grounded Nisuke capitalized on this opportunity, throwing one of his shuriken straight up at Neji. Pivoting to meet the projectile, Neji easily deflected the weapon away with a jyuken strike, only for a pitch black outline of his opponent to materialize in it's wake. In an instant, the shadow struck Neji in the stomach with an all too solid leg, sending him spinning upwards before vanishing as quickly as it appeared.

Deftly flipping to the side to avoid a wave of kunai coming from the roof, Nisuke threw his other shuriken up at the disoriented Hyuga as another pair of clones raced out from his shadow to scale the neighboring buildings. Rapidly ejecting chakra, Neji spun into a midair Kaiten, violently deflecting Nisuke's weapon away. As the rotation came to an end, Neji faced downwards once again. Thrusting his palm forwards with a shout of "Hakke Kūshō!", Neji launched a powerful shockwave towards the ground. Barely dodging the impact with an almost casual backflip, Nisuke pulled his weapons back towards him via an almost invisible wire. Just as he caught the massive shuriken, Neji landed on his feet, a small burst of chakra shielding him from the shock of landing. The two men stared each other down for a brief moment, neither flinching as another Nisuke fell from the roof and evaporated into shadows. The two again charged towards one another, only to desperately break it off as the road between them exploded into a massive cloud of dust. Even with his enhanced vision, Neji could only just make out a figure within the cloud getting to its knees before he heard an all too familiar yell.

"DYNAMIC ENTRY!" With a sound like a cannonball striking a block of iron, a green blur struck the figure in the center of the cloud. The resulting shockwave blew the dust away with such force that Nisuke and Neji both had to brace themselves to keep from being caught up in the blast. Recovering, everyone standing around the impact site stopped to look at the cause. In the center of a crater now stood a giant of a man holding an equally massive axe made in the shape of a war fan.

Like Nisuke, he had thick armor covering his shins and forearms, as well as an armored head piece, but that was where the similarities ended. Where Nisuke's outfit was clearly built with some amount of subtly in mind, his was built to be as ostentatious as possible. Aside from the arm and leg coverings, the only other armor that he wore was a small skirt of similar red plates tied under a narrow strip of chainmail. A narrow piece of gold armor covering the very center of his chest connected this to the lower part of the headpiece, but the majority of his upper body was clad in skintight tiger hide, while his lower half was similarly unarmored with goldenrod yellow hakama connecting to the greaves. Despite all of this, the most centerpoint of the man's extravagant look was the head of a long shock of red fur that had been worked into a stylized mane stretching halfway down the man's back and a pair of bull like horns that curved forwards and upwards to add another foot and a half to his already impressive six and a half feet height, the helmet was incredibly eye catching- and almost purely decorative. The only armor that it added was the attached throat guard and two strips of armor that hung to either side of his face.

This new arrival half stood, bracing his axe with both hands while Gai almost mirrored his position, sticking to the other side of the weapon. The pair only held that pose for a moment before separating; Gai flipping back away from his opponent while the newcomer settled back into a ready stance. The pair locked eyes with each other for another couple of seconds before Gai broke the silence. "My precious students! Have we been keeping you waiting for that long?!"

"I see that you've come here as well, Sasuke." The other man visibly lowered his guard as he spoke, resting his axe head down on the ground.

"Yes, Oyakat-" Neji interrupted Nisuke, moving closer to his team leader. "Yes Gai-sensei. We were worried after you and Lee failed to arrive at the planned time, and figured it was best to try and come to help you."

"Well, there's no more need to worry! I was just engaging a contest of youth with Shingen-san here!", Gai said, giving his signature nice guy pose.

"Hm." Nodding in affirmation, Shingen replied. "It's not often that you have the chance to face someone with such hot blood, after all! This has been good for Yukimura, as well."

As the two men talked, Neji, Tenten, and Nisuke's faces all slowly fell, realizing what had happened. As Tenten was opening her mouth to yell something at her sensei, a hot wind blew across the group, drawing their attention back down the street, where Lee and Yukimura hadn't paused in their own fight- the young spear wielder knocking his opponent into one of the unoccupied buildings before pursuing him into the wreckage.

"Speaking of our students, it appears that they're about to finish their own match." Simply nodding in response, Shingen turned with Gai in silent agreement. Doing the same, the others turned just in time to catch the echoes of a yell.

"Konoha Shōfū!" With a crash, Yukimura was sent rocketing out of the wreckage into the air above the road. At the apex of his flight, Lee appeared directly under him, floating for a brief second before wrapping Yukimura with bandages. Before he could react, the pair began to spin while falling, rotating ever faster as the ground rushed closer. Seconds before they impacted, however, Yukimura managed to tear a single arm free. Stabbing down at the ground with his one free spear, Yukimura began to add his own momentum to the spin, further accelerating the rotations. A red whirlwind formed around the pair as the air began to heat, and they began to slowly slide down the road as the superheated spearhead melted a track through the ground. Rotations still increasing in speed, Lee's bandages began to burn away in the air currents as they moved even faster down the road. Finally, the bandages charred enough to snap, causing both combatants to fly apart into the walls on opposing sides of the streets. Impacting with a massive "THUD," Lee and Yukimura both made halfhearted attempts to stand back up and fight, before slumping back down and lying still.

Back at the other end of the road, Lee's teammates and Nisuke stood and watched the end of the battle with wide eyes- Neji having deactivated his Byakugan after turning a faint shade of green. On the other hand, Shingen and Gai both looked on with expressions of pride. "Splendid, Yukimura, splendid!" Turning back towards Gai, he continued. 'I apologize. I just wanted to see how strong young Yukimura has grown."

"No worries! I, too, was most curious to see how my Lee would measure up to you pupil's youth! But, now I fear that we must bring our own fight to an end. I'm going to put everything that I have into this next blow!" Gai settled back into a readied stance as he talked.

"Then I shall do the same. Come! Show me your burning soul!" Leaving his axe embedded in the ground, Shingen stepped forwards, fists raised.

"First Gate, Gate of Opening! Open!" The wind again kicked up as Guy was enveloped in a bright green aura.

"As swift as the wind!" Drawing his fist back, Shingen was enveloped in a raging crimson aura of his own, throwing his mane about wildly.

"Second Gate, Gate of Healing! Open!"

"As silent as the forest!"

"Third Gate, Gate of Life! Open!"

"As fierce as the fire!"

"Fourth Gate, Gate of Pain! Open!

"As immovable as the mountain!"

"FIFTH GATE, GATE OF LIMIT! OPEN!"

"FŪRINKAZAN!"

"SIXTH GATE, GATE OF VIEW! OPEN!"

With a deafening roar, the two men struck towards each other- both almost completely obscured by their overflowing auras. Their fists collided with each other head on, releasing a tremendous shockwave that blew all three onlookers several feet backwards along the ground. The energy echoed through both of them before continuing on into the surroundings. Behind Shingen, a massive trench was carved through the earth and buildings until it gouged out a large chunk of the mountain the camp had been built into. Meanwhile, an equally massive tornado had sprung into existence behind Gai, and was slowly chewing through the camp as it moved forwards, flashes of lightning illuminating the towering funnel. Both men remained standing in the same position for almost half a minute before falling to their knees, the energy surrounding them gone as quickly as it had appeared. Both clutched their arms, which were quickly turning an ugly blue black while blood seeped through their sleeves and off their knuckles.

"It seems… That we have a tie." Gai spoke first, managing to smile even as he winced from the pain.

"Hn. A shame… You are a man I would have felt no shame losing to." Shingen said, features remaining as stern as ever.

"Heh! We'll just have to have a rematch then…." Both were silent for a few seconds more, before falling forwards and passing out in unison. Silence prevailed for several minutes as those still conscious could only stare at the pair's fallen bodies. Finally, Nisuke spoke up to break it.

"So… Those two do this often?" Snorting in spite of herself, Tenten answered.

"You have no idea." Looking between the unconscious bodies of both of his bosses, Nisuke waited a minute before responding.

"You know, I have a better idea than you would think."

Almost twenty minutes later, several clones had carried the wounded over to the horses waiting by the gates. Neji and Tenten both administered first aid there, binding the men's numerous injuries before securing them to the mounts. It was then that Gai and Shingen both regained consciousness, and both immediately asked to know what had happened without them. Several minutes later, Tenten and Nisuke had relayed the entire series of events, with a few clarifications from Neji.

"I see that I must apologize for my part in this confusion. To start, let us be properly introduced. I am Takeda Shingen." Gesturing to the young man in red currently draped over the back of a horse, he continued. "This is my loyal retainer and pupil, Sanada Yukimura, and the man you know as Nisuke is his ninja, Sarutobi Sasuke."

Still standing off to the side, Sasuke had the good grace to look abashed as he smiled towards Tenten and Neji. "Sorry for not telling you, but it's not like there was much of an opportunity back when we were trying to kill each other."

Neji simply nodded in return before turning to address Shingen. "I'm certain that our teacher has already told you who we are, but if he hasn't, allow me. I am Hyūga Neji, jōnin of Konoha, and this is my teammate Tenten, chūnin of Konoha. Pleased to make your acquaintance." Neji finished with a polite bow.

"It's nice to meet you and all, but where are we going from here?" Tenten cut in only a few seconds after Neji finished.

"Good question, my youthful student! Shingen-san has graciously offered to hire us to escorting them back to Konoha!" Tenten could only stare back in response, expression flat.

Half a minute passed before she was able to formulate a response. "Come again?"

Shingen again nodded, drawing her attention. "We seem to have been brought to this place against our will, and as such need a guide. Yukimura and I came across your teacher and partner as we scouted, and saw how they fought against these bandits."

Gai cut in at this point, laughing."You're too modest! They joined in the fight themselves, showing their youthful spirits to the fullest! As we traded blows side by side, I knew then that they were trustworthy fellows!"

Chuckling as well, Shingen resumed. "Yes, well, I will admit that I was also stirred by your spirit in return. After the battle was one, I made the offer, and your teacher accepted- with one condition. He would bring us back to your village if we could cross fists. Of course, it is an honor to fight with someone so skilled."

"Yosh! To clash, blood boiling with such ferocity- It was more than I could have asked for! Our deal has truly been paid in full!" Gai smiled, shooting a thumbs up to his sparring partner.

Again, Neji, Tenten, and Sasuke could only stare at their superiors before shaking their heads as one. Tenten recovered the quickest, moving to the front of the group. "Well, whatever. Let's get moving before we're even later getting back. Who knows what we'll miss in that case…"