A/N: And here I have another chapter! Yay! I thank you all for reading, but I will admit that I am slightly sad that hardly anyone reviewed. It made me sad. So please, after you read this, let me know what you think. Also, no one has given me any ideas for Omakes yet! Please, if you have an idea, let me know.
On to this chapter. I warn you that I have the OC's that I introduced earlier, and that they are going to be great! I like them in any event. This chapter is mostly about development and a sampling of the skills that Hiroto has. If you have any question don't hesitate to ask. It is also how he manages to get to some of the other well known characters that I have been mentioning here or there. So I hope you all like this chapter!
Disclaimer: I own nothing. And I didn't last chapter either, but I forget to say it. But you all know that I couldn't possibly own it anyway. Otherwise this wouldn't be a fanfiction.
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Chapter Three: Genin Team Blues
It had been a few months since then, and the three had become friends as well as teammates. Of course they had passed the test with flying colors, and they still teased the man who was their sensei about the circumstances occasionally.
It was funny. The day after they had met him he told them that they were more than likely going to be an intelligence gathering group, so to test them they had to find out what he had done the night before.
He said that while looking directly into Hiroto's eyes, who got the hint and looked into the man's eyes and into his thoughts before he sighed before announcing that the jounin only wanted them to do it because he had been so drunk that he couldn't remember anything past his twelfth shot of liquor. It was something that their new sensei had done on purpose because he knew that he often times did the craziest of things while he was inebriated.
Three hours later, working as a team, they had found that he had left the bar, got a small tattoo in between his shoulder blades that said 'Determination' before playing cards at a friend's house where he passed out and was dragged home none too gently by the friend in question.
Needless to say, it was the tattoo that they hounded him about.
They were given a week of training before they would start missions, and Hiroto could honestly say he was glad for how crazy the people who had raised him were. It had given him an edge to survive the harsh physical and mental training that Ogawa-sensei had put them through.
After that they were given the weekend off to let the families know that the missions were going to start and so they might be gone for indefinite amounts of time and come home worse for wear. After letting Anko know that, Suzu had pulled him aside and told him that it was time for him to finally meet his summon animals. It was interesting that the thestral never really made the effort to come in front of his team, but was always there when they parted ways, except for the one time when he had seen her talking to his sensei in hushed tones.
Anyway, after she had flown him a far way away from the village, she had given him a scroll to sign and then talked him through the science of summoning before telling him to summon with as much chakra as he could.
He did as he was told and gaped as the chakra smoke cleared to show a sixty foot tall dragon with metallic gray/silver scales and red eyes. As it turned out his name was Ryuunosuke, and he was a Ukrainian Ironbelly (whatever that meant) who also happened to be the boss summon of the dragons. They had levelheadedly spoken, and after a few hours of talking he had dubbed the green eyed boy worthy of summoning the dragons to his cause.
He had been warned about the Hungarian Horntail (to only use in the event of an emergency) before he was told to summon the Antipodean Opaleye. Hiroto gasped as he saw the beautiful dragon that has pearly scales and glittering multicolor eyes. It was named Nijiiro, and he was the main summon that Hiroto was allowed to summon, even if he was allowed to summon all of them.
The thing about Nijiiro was that in his original form he was about forty feet tall, he was also able to shrink into the size of a small dog when needed. In fact whenever he needed the dragon he could control how big the dragon would be by changing the amount of chakra that he pumped into the summoning of him.
Of course, the dragons didn't tell him everything that he would need to know in the future. They had found him able to summon, and his levelheadedness had made him worthy, but he still needed to prove his judgment to the dragon boss before they really and truly accepted him as their summoner. After all, dragons were very proud creatures by nature.
He didn't tell the team about his contract yet. It was his trump card that they could use when needed. Not even the family he had made in the T&I department knew of the contract, even if they knew that he had gone out with the winged death horse for the day to train. Hiroto would tell them, but Suzu had agreed that they would tell them when the time was right.
When the team had gotten back after the weekend they were given a series of D rank missions. They were all getting along fine, but after the last one where they had to help build a shed, they had all but begged Ogawa-sensei to give them something better than that. The three of them understood the importance of such missions and of how they integrated the shinobi into the village and formed bonds of trust and loyalty, but after the twentieth they had enough of them. They had argued that the simplistic and boring missions were eating away at their intelligence; intelligence that they would need later when they were given more important missions. Of course the word troublesome was thrown out there multiple times as well.
And now they were finally going to go on a C ranked mission outside of Konoha. It was a simple delivery of medicine and supplies to one of the more secluded villages. Hiroto was happy about that because he would be able to help people, and maybe see if he was any good at healing jutsus. Even if he had learned them from the scroll, and had tried the first level stuff on animals, he still had no clue if he could do what he was supposed to on an actual human.
When they met up outside of the gates, even the Nara seemed to be buzzing with excitement. Then again, over the past few months of training with her Hiroto had found that she really wasn't like that all the time. She just was more intellectual then the other two.
Hiroto and Hotaru both dreaded getting trapped in her shadow during spars because there was nothing they could do against it while she still had chakra to spare. Meanwhile, they all hated it whenever Hiroto would just blink out of their conscious minds and ambush them that way. And then there was the dreaded chakra drain that they had to deal with when fighting the Aburame. But they were all getting better, and that was what mattered.
"Alright team, this is a C rank mission because there have been a few attacks on the road, but to be honest there really shouldn't be any difficulties on this mission. Just listen to me and everything will be fine." Ogawa-sensei announced as they started off down the path. Each of them had a few scrolls that were strapped to their backs that held the medical supplies.
"Hai, sensei," the three genin chorused.
For the rest of the walk they all were just enjoying the silence. Shikako was used to long walks in the woods on the Nara property, or sending the day out with the dear. Hotaru was also used to going out to collect various bug samples and whatnot. Hiroto liked it because it allowed him some peace to think. Anko had all but smothered him the night before. In fact, she had to almost force fed him dango after he couldn't eat any more.
After almost a full day of not speaking for the group, they had reached the town and had dropped off the scrolls with the head of the village before Ogawa called them in for a team meeting for something he called super special secret training. To many expletives if you asked the three pre-teens, but they went along with it anyway.
"Here is your assignment; I want each of you to mingle with the locals and find out everything you can until morning. Then you all will come back and tell me everything. Also, make sure that they don't know you are ninja while you do this." He said before clapping his hands and dismissing them. All three of them didn't miss the fact that he headed to the nearest bar after saying that. They had noticed that he liked to get drunk whenever he could, but so long as it didn't bother their training the genin could care less about it. They were a laid back teem as it was, and who were they to complain about the vices of their sensei?
With a nod to the girls, Hiroto put on a henge that changed his clothes and hid everything ninja before he went to the hospital to see if he could help out. He also knew from experience that the nurses loved to chat things up with a new guy. On his way to the hospital he also instructed Shiro and Taro to go and wait for him in the room they were supposedly staying in for the night. A two headed snake was bound to get noticed. Also, it was not common for anyone to bring pets into a hospital. Hiroto had decided that he didn't want the headache of it.
Going right up to the front desk he put on a shy, yet confident smile, and said "Hello, I was wondering if I could help out on some of your rounds today. I'm traveling through and I know how to use healing chakra to an extent. I was hoping that I could help out in some way."
The look in her eyes was kin to hero worship as she looked up at him. "Yes! Yes, I will call for Hitomi; you can go with her on her rounds. She has a shift in the ER in an hour as well. That is, if you're willing. I mean, we need all the help we can get!" she babbled as she made the PA announcement asking for the nurse in question. Hiroto had to hide his smirk; he had always known that they would welcome a traveling aspiring healer without question.
A few minutes later a woman with long black hair and hazel eyes came over and then dragged him off to see patients after a very, very, brief exchange of pleasantries. After about eight grueling hours of learning that he actually could use his medical jutsu to a rookie extent, Hitomi was done for the day and took pity in the over worked shinobi by offering to take him out for drinks with a few of the other nurses who had gotten off at the same time.
Of course it did help that his healing chakra had helped a lot. He would get started on the internal stuff that was rather tricky before handing it off to the others for the brunt of the work. Even then it was very helpful and cut down on both the operation and recovery times. But even then none of the injuries had been very serious, and Hiroto knew that if he had been up against a fatal injury he would not have been that much help. What he did was helpful, but he was still just a novice.
And when they were out for drinks he had been introduced to a few other people who made information collecting easier. Though, he did notice the disappointment in the eyes of the nurses, especially with Hitomi, when he told them that he had to go back to his home village the next day.
By the time he got back to where they were staying, it was about three in the morning, and he was about ready to collapse. Taking off the henge, he entered and promptly fell asleep, just barely noting that the two girls had made it back before him, and that his sake partner was asleep, and that their sensei was still out, probably at the bar still.
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When the morning came, or a few hours passed as Hiroto saw it, they all woke up and were ready to report to their sensei.
"Ladies first, why don't you start Shikako-chan?" Ogawa-sensei started with his usual smile. How he was not hung-over, none of them knew.
"Well, it really does seem as if this is a normal town. I crashed a party that some of the civilians set up and learned quite a bit about the relationships and gossip around. It was all very troublesome, but I also found that there was a bit of a scandal involving one of the higher raking officials and the daughter of one of the teachers at the school. There has been a ton of political chaos that has ensued because of that." Shikako said as she stifled a yawn.
Ogawa nodded his head, glad to see that the Nara put some effort into the assignment that he had issued. He then looked at the Aburame and nodded for her to make her report.
Hotaru began in her clan famed monotone by saying "I decided to camp out in a local food joint and sent my bugs out to spy. There has been a recent increase in the labor force that have been frequenting the establishments in town, and they aren't always the best sort of people. Also, there had been talk about prices going up because trade routes between them and a few of the neighboring villages have been rather dangerous. Also, there are a few people who were speaking of strange noises coming from the woods for some reason."
Another nod from their sensei, and they all turned to Hiroto to see what he had done. None of them had actually seen him the night before, and the girls had both tried to stay up and wait for him only to fall asleep after two whole hours of waiting.
"I thought that it would be best to get more than one type of training done, so I volunteered at the local hospital for the night to train my medical jutsu as I spoke with the nurses on duty. And when the shift was over they all took me out drinking. I learned that they have been going through medical supplies a lot lately because of a mass of newly injured people that they are not familiar with. And when I was at the bar I met with one such individual. One of the nobles has taken an interest in this town and has been hiring unskilled laborers to help in the construction of a new home. Also, they are not all of the savory variety, and with the faulty equipment that is being used people keep getting hurt. Apparently some of the men were also getting in trouble in town, and it has most of the nurses I talked to a little jumpy at best." He stated.
"Nice. All three of you got different but vital information from different sources. Plus you all made it a point not to seem like you were poking around for information. Well done." Their sensei said with a kind smile on his face. If there was any doubt about what they were going to be specializing as a team before this it was stamped out right then and there.
They headed out then, all three of the genin more tired than they wanted to admit to their sensei. But they trooped on all the way to the gates where they then rejoiced after reporting in to the Hokage with the help of some BBQ that was picked up on Ogawa's tab. Ah, the salary of a jounin, something that Hiroto was already dreaming of having access to.
It would have been three days after that when team two was given another mission to the same town. They once again needed medical supplies, but this time it was because there had been an attack on the outskirts of the village and they were under stocked when it came to the equipment needed to handle more serious injuries like the ones that had popped up.
This time, when they got there, Ogawa turned to the three and said "The Hokage has asked to find out if these attacks are going to be a threat to Konoha. You have the same job as last time, but Hiroto-kun, I need you to get into the hospital and look into the minds of those where were attacked and then report to me what you find. Err on the side of caution. I do not want any of you three to get into more trouble than you can handle. If things go bad, find me immediately!"
With nods the three spread out. Hiroto once again henged himself to bend in and went to the same woman to sweet talk his way into the hospital. To say that the receptionist lit up when she saw him coming over would have been an understatement. She practically threw herself at him while asking if he could help them.
And that was how Hiroto spent the rest of the day. He was thanking every deity he knew that they trusted him without question for some reason because it allowed the preteen to gain access to the people he needed to and learn about what had happened. Almost immediately after he had confirmed it in all of the victims, he used his chakra on a few of the harder wounds and then apologized his way out of the hospital while feigning chakra exhaustion. He had been helping for over five hours at that point, so they let him go with little complaint.
Rushing to the nearest bar, Hiroto frantically looked for Ogawa-sensei as he slipped through the people. He had already activated the Notice Me Not trait of his bloodlimit so that no one would notice, and he knew that his sensei had to be somewhere close by.
Seeing him by the bar, Hiroto rushed over and placed himself in between the man his sensei was speaking to and Ogawa. And to make sure that he was the only one to see him, Hiroto tapped the jounin's knee.
The look on Shouta's face was almost comical as Hiroto snapped into his attention while he still noticed the man across from him hadn't even noticed the kid's existence. If he hadn't been used to Hiroto's jutsu, he might have freaked, but as it was he was a jounin and knew how to pretend not to notice something that had surprised him.
"Ah, you know what; I just remembered that I have to be up early tomorrow. It's probably best not to get there hung over and without sleep. I'll see you around!" Shouta said smoothly as he left the bar with Hiroto in tow.
"Alright gaki, what was so important that you had to get me out of there like that?" He asked when they were back inside the room they were staying in.
"I looked into the minds of the people that were attacked, and I'm pretty sure that the people who attacked were missing nin from Ishigakure. They had the symbol on their head bands, but there were also a few with a different symbol. I don't know for sure which village it came from, it looked as if it could have been Kirigakure, but from the way they all were talking they were not a part of a hidden village anymore." Hiroto announced as he looked into his sensei's dark eyes with a level of seriousness that the man hadn't seen from him before.
"Shit," the jounin swore as he thought over what he was going to do. It wasn't like a genin team specializing in information gathering was going to be any match for even one missing nin. "How many are there?" He asked.
"From the memories I saw five. But they were only playing with the villagers, and there could have been more that the people didn't find. Also, it sounded as if the two that I think might be from mist were about to move on." He answered without hesitation.
"Alright, I'm going to go and find the other two, and then we are going to go as quickly as we can back to Konoha so that we can get some of the other shinobi in on this. If for whatever reason they find you when you are alone, your first priority is surviving. There is no shame in living so that you can fight another day." Ogawa said before he sushined out to find the girls.
Once they were back and the girls had been told of what was going on, they all left the village under the cover of night to get back to the leaf as fast as they could. All three of the genin were now stunned with the adrenalin surge that came from knowing that there was an enemy around. They were all alert as they rushed through the shadows.
It was half way to the town when they were ambushed. It was the three from rock that had cornered them. They had stopped suddenly when the first of the missing nin landed right in their path. He was big, even by shinobi standards, and it looked as if he could become one with a mountain if he truly wanted to. Even his scars seemed to look like cracks and crevasses that one would normally find in stone.
"Hm, little leaf shinobi out for a play date it seems. Too bad our mist friends left, they could have shared in the fun!" He said with a gruff, barely used voice.
"Well, with them gone it does mean more fun for us." mussed a man who came from their back. Hotaru and Hiroto both spun and brought out kunai as they faced the new opponent. Their sensei and other team mate continued to watch the man in front of them.
"We should get them done before it wakes up, you know how messy he gets when he plays." The first continued to pretend as if the four leaf shinobi were like sheep, and thus unable to speak up or even understand that they were plotting their deaths right in front of them.
"Shikako, work with the other two and try and get the one behind us. I'll have to deal with this one alone." Ogawa said as he brought out his own blades and took a step forward. He had recognized both from the bingo books, and so he knew that the one in front of them was by far the more powerful one. And if the third person they were mentioning was the one that he thought they were speaking of, they had to get of there before he came to work with the two partners.
The ensuing fight was like nothing that the three genin had ever faced before. As they were fighting for their lives it was clear that the other nin was just messing with them. But there was a tipping point in the fight when Shikako was able to grab onto the man by his shadow and had him in a lock. Hotaru quickly took advantage of that and sent in her bugs to drain his chakra as Hiroto sent in a few waves of senbon that hit his joints and disabled movement enough to where the man was unable to move arms and legs. It was a technique that Anko had taught him once she found that he was good with the needle like projectiles.
It had all been a stroke of luck that they had even managed that. The man was careless and far too stupid not to get cocky. Not to mention that he had given them enough time to get him trapped while he played with them. All it took was for the two headed snake to snap at his heals and move him closer to the shadow that was trying to catch him, and Shikako caught the opportunity. Each of the genin had an impressive number of scratches from the projectiles that he had thrown their way. When they looked back to their sensei they saw that he was bleeding rather badly from a number of places, and Hiroto went up to him out of instinct to try and heal him.
It seemed as if luck was on his side and not the other two of his team. No sooner had Hiroto left the girls then the ground right under where he was standing seemed to explode. The girls screamed as they were caught up in it. Hiroto watched in horror as Hotaru stumbled away on a leg that looked like it was almost shredded. Meanwhile, Shikako was out cold by what looked to be a blow to the head that was bleeding rather freely.
He called out to them, but was stopped from going to them by his sensei who looked right behind where they were to see a tank of a man standing there. If Hiroto had thought the other man was large, then this one was gigantic.
"Remember what I told you Hiroto-kun; there is no shame in running. If you get an opening to get the girls back to Konoha, take it. It does not matter what happens to me. Do you understand?" Ogawa-sensei asked as he kept his eyes on the man who had just come out of nowhere.
"Hai, sensei," the boy with the green eyes answered reluctantly. He didn't want to leave the jounin, but at the same time he knew very well that he was of very little help to the man. Especially when he felt the throbbing of the stab wound that he had been given to the gut. If he were to try and help, he would have only gotten in the way.
"This man is known to almost indestructible. The best that I can hope for is that I distract him long enough for you to get away. I will follow if I can." His sensei said.
With a nod, Hiroto followed his sensei as they both went forward. But as the man he had come to respect kept going after the missing nin, Hiroto stopped at his teammates and strapped the taller one, Shikako, to his back as he picked up the smaller one, Hotaru, in his arms. She whimpered slightly at the jostling, but they both knew there was nothing that he could do about it. It was the only way that he saw to get them out of there. He then started to run only to get hit in the side by something and was sent flying to the side. Both of his teammates were also thrown haphazardly from him, and this time Hotaru didn't even make a noise. She had fallen into darkness from the pain.
Looking over his shoulder, he noticed that the damn nin had created a clone out of rock to stop them. Hiroto started to panic as he thought through his own strength in relation to the strength of the person in front of him. It just got him to focus on the fact that there was no comparison.
A dark laugh slipped out from the clone as he taunted "A little boy like you has no business being a shinobi. I should kill your precious teammates in front of you and then slowly torture you to insanity before sending you back. It should be fun, and at the very least it will give me something to do. All of this running around has been rather boring to be honest with you." He then swung his foot right at Hotaru.
Hiroto acted on instinct and managed to get the Aburame out of the way, only to get hit in the side. He heard and felt it as his ribs cracked under the strain of the hit. And it hurt a lot. But in that instance he hissed in pain while also ordering Shiro and Taro to guard his two teammates as he figured out what to do. The snake was not too happy with the order, but they knew better than to question Hiroto's orders.
"Hiroto, use your summons!" A voice coming from the sky yelled at him.
It only took a second for him to recognize it as Suzu before he did exactly what she said and slammed his bloodied hand to the ground after making a few hand signs. Nijiiro came out about the size of a dog at his summons, but the moment that he saw the opponent, he somehow managed to get to the size of a horse.
The pale dragon let loose a roar that spewed orange fire at the clone. His pupil-less multicolored eyes were narrowed in anger as he did so. Hiroto watched in fascination as the fire melted the rock clone before his very eyes. He was amazed that something that seemed so powerful to him was easily taken out by the dragon he had summoned.
"Please, you have to help my sensei, he was fighting the real one over there!" He begged the summon.
The dragon nodded his head before speeding over there, followed closely by Hiroto who wanted to know what had happened to Ogawa. He came just in time to watch as the missing nin broke the jounin's arm. And from the odd angle that his one leg was in, Hiroto could guess that it was broken as well.
"Ogawa-sensei!" He yelled on instinct. Of course that moved his cracked, more like obliterated, ribcage in a way that made the young shinobi wince in pain.
The jounin looked up, obviously shocked that the genin was still there. "I told you to run!" He bit out at Hiroto. Just as the man was about to stomp on the leg of Shouta, Nijiiro was there. He tore into the leg of the nin before he brought his clawed foreleg up to the man's stomach and cut through the flesh as if it was butter.
The missing nin was out a minute later, clearly dead.
"Hiroto-sama, I wish to convey my congratulations on the first summoning during a battle, now you must meet with Ryuunosuke once more before summoning us again. It is customary of the dragon contract. Good luck with the rest of your journey home." The dragon said with respect as he bowed and poofed out of there.
"Tie up the one you three incapacitated, I'm sure Anko and Ibiki will have fun with him. If you are able, you need to make sure that Hotaru and Shikako are alright. Go do that now. I might be about to pass out, but I know that I am not injured enough to die." The jounin said a moment later. He knew that they would need to get to Konoha, or they all were going to die.
Gripping his ribs, and knowing that somehow he had been the least wounded by the entire ordeal, he went to the two girls and began working. First he started to Hotaru. He used his chakra to the best of his ability to get the internal and serious damage minimalized before going back on good old first aid to close the wound and wrap it up. The girl had long been unconscious due to the pain and shock that she was going through. He also knew that he needed to do something for the shock, but there was nothing around for him to use. It was almost frustrating.
He then turned to his Nara teammate and tried to get a good look at her head. But he was still unsure of what he was doing with that. He knew that she had a nasty head wound, and that there probably was swelling of the brain and maybe internal bleeding, but he didn't know anything more than that. So he flooded her head with healing chakra and prayed that it would do some good for her.
Suzu had landed by him then and he secured the two on her back before going back his sensei to see the man was setting his bones.
"You should have asked for help!" Hiroto said as he came forward to stop the man from doing something that would make it worse than it already was. "You did your arm wrong anyhow. Just hold still for a few second and I can help you!" The boy didn't realize it, but he was in his hospital mode. He was immune to the carnage and the two dead bodies, even the fact that the people he was healing were close to him. All he saw was the wound that he was helping with, it was all that mattered.
The jounin conceded, knowing that the boy had some experience where he had none. After another fifteen minutes he was splinted so as not to mess up the bones any more. Plus, the green eyed genin had flooded the sections with healing chakra in an attempt to at least dull the pain and promote natural healing to happen.
Tying up the man who was still alive but unable to move, Hiroto asked Suzu to drag him along as they went the rest of the way to Konoha. The two headed snake was coiled lightly around the girls to make sure that they were alright and secure as Hiroto was helping his sensei by acting as a crutch so that he could keep his weight off of the leg that was broken, it wasn't ideal, but it was better than nothing.
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The scene that they made while walking through the gates was nothing if not memorable. All four shinobi were bleeding, two were passed out still, and the death horse that was carrying the unconscious also was dragging around a prisoner who was still stuck with senbon like a pincushion.
Izumo and Kotetsu nearly had a heart attack as they called for a medical team and for someone to get the prisoner to the T&I department. Shouta wanted to go to the Hokage, but when the team had come, they had taken one look at his panting form and had told him under no uncertain terms that he was to come with them to the hospital right that instant. They then turned to Hiroto, and after seeing that he was least injured they had told him to quickly go and report to the Hokage before going to the hospital himself.
With a nod, Hiroto straightened as much as he could and called his nin-snake partner to him before he made his way to the tower alone. Even as he prepared to tell the Hokage what happened, his mind was back with his two team mates. He knew that Hotaru would make it just fine, but he still didn't know what was wrong with Shikako. He was worried about her the most. Hits to the head were always dangerous.
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OMAKE:
Neji was in ready position, his palms were facing downward as the fighting style of his clan that he had mastered at a prodigy level and speed was ready to be utilized to the fullest. Even his eyes had bulging veins leading to them as he had his byakugan out and ready. Next to him was a weary Tenten who had her kunai at the ready with wires attached to trip up the deadly foe. On the other side, Lee and his stupid smile were at the ready. If all else failed, he could speak the thing to death with proclamations of youth It was scary when Gai-sensei did it, so how would it be any different with the newly spandex clad genin?
A ways away, the jounin that had been training the team looked on with a slightly amused glint in his over exuberant eyes. This was just good karma after all of the things that he had been through when he was a genin. If things went right, they would be ready to face the cruel world of chunin in no time at all!
"Are you all in position?" He asked through the ear piece they had started to use for practice.
"Yosh! We are ready to grab our opponent and subdue them with our spring time flames of YOUTH! An-" There was a muffling after that as Tenten saved what was left of her sanity by grabbing Lee's head and covering his mouth. Neither her, nor Neji wanted to hear about whatever it was that Lee was going to start spouting out over the coms in his exaggerated whisper. The day he learned what an actual whisper was, was the day that both of them would celebrate for all eternity.
"We are in position, just waiting for orders, over." Neji replied while keeping his stance intact.
"On three… Three…. Two…. One!" The jounin said as he watched his team from a safe distance. He was ready to get involved if the dangerous opponent that they were fighting got smart and was able to catch them unawares. He would not have his youthful genin fail something like this.
All three of the genin jumped at the target, holding back no punches and not giving their adversary any way to get away from them.
And finally, with a loud shout, Lee had it pinning in his arm.
Tenten held her earpiece and said "Target identified and captured. Missing cat Tora had been found and captured. Awaiting orders!" She said as she kept her kunai aimed at the demon cat that had foiled so many. This was the second time that they had been forced to find the damn thing, and the first time it had managed to escape them twice on their way back. For that reason, and for that reason only, Neji did not deactivate his byakugan as they made their way cautiously towards their sensei.
Lee was already sporting many new scratches as the other two made very sure to stay out of the way of those almost lethal paws. Tenten even wondered if it had been a nin-cat that had escape only to be adopted by the Fire Daimyo's wife.
In any event, they has retrieved their target, and all three of them just wanted to be done with this mission. If the Hokage even thought about sending them after the demon cat again, all three of them would put up protest. Though, Neji would only do what was dignified and would let Tenten and Lee do most of the complaining.
It simply was not dignified of someone of his caliber to complain about anything. But he would be sure to help in some way. After all, he would add the logic that was usually lost with the two teammates that were with him.
They were acceptable, most of the time, but he knew that without his voice of reason, they would have gotten absolutely nowhere.
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A/N: So there you have it. I love dragons, so I couldn't stop myself when I put them in there. And it helped that I had planned it since I came up with the damn title to this fic. So please let me know what you all think about this and anything else that you all want to say. I'm having fun writing this and I hope you all had fin reading it. See ya next time!