Chapter 21: My Family and Friends Pt. II
Then Neji disappeared.
Tenten just stood there.
... She looked to her right and left. No one. Up at the sky. No one. That meant only one thing.
Her eyes widened, she quickly jumped up before the ground spread senbon almost everywhere.
Who uses senbon like that? But then she glanced at the many senbon that were only a millimeter away from her... She slapped her forehead, Who else?
"Your that rock ninja guy!" Tenten exclaimed, "... Tonoto, no... Takyo... no... um... Oh yeah! Its-"
"Its Takomu!" He exclaimed.
Tenten nodded, "Uh-huh... yeah," ... No. His name is Takano... Who is this?
...
She backed up and got her weapon scroll out, and he did the same, but in a slightly different stance then before.
"You had better actually be a challenge this time, I have other things to do," Tenten said, I have to know what's going to happen to Hina and Neji. But...
It seems like he noticed that she already figured it out.
He smirked, "This'll be much more quick than you would expect."
And then there was a puff of smoke.
Tenten's eyes widened, What the?
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Sakura was about to run out and search for him, when Laiya put a hand on her shoulder, "It's already been hours since he left-"
"Hours?!"
"... Right after you left."
"Where did he go?!"
Laiya looked down, "All I know, is that he isn't at the village-"
But Sakura already ran out.
"-anymore..." Laiya sat back down and ran a hand through her hair, What did we do?
Sakura ran as fast as she could to the village gates, but then a ninja guard stopped her, "Sorry, but we have orders that we are not allowed to let a girl with pink hair leave the village within 24 hours."
Her eyes widened, "What?"
"A mission made by a man with hair color similar to Kakashi-san," He told her.
She just nodded and left, when she was out of sight she did a few hand signs and transformed into Kurenai. She walked out and ran towards the village gates, but then a guard stopped her, "State your reason."
"Urgent mission from Hokage-sama to head out and search for an enemy ninja at the borders of Konoha, he wasn't able to provide me with a scroll," Sakura said, the guards nodded, then she ran out,
Before she even reached a mile away from Konoha, someone stopped her.
"K-Kakashi-sensei!" She exclaimed, but then she put a hand over her mouth, I just called him sensei!
He gave her an amused look, "So, Sakura, mind telling me why you're disguised as Kurenai and leaving the village."
After a puff of smoke she went back to her usual appearance, "... Uh... I need to look for someone."
"Who? Must be someone important for you to have cried."
Her eyes widened, My eyes must still be red! "... Yeah... so this is why I need to look for him as fast as possible!"
"Him?"
Sakura sighed, might as well tell the truth, "Otoosan."
"What happened?"
Hello! Me! Are you just going to let yourself get interrogated?!
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Hiashi scowled, "Have you come to a decision?"
The two faced each other, then faced him, "Hai," The two chorused.
"And that is?"
"We choose neither," Neji said.
He glared at them, "I gave you two options, and you will only choose among the two. If you cannot choose for yourselves, I will choose for you."
"W-What would y-you choose?" Hinata asked, already knowing the answer.
Hiashi smirked, "I'm sure you already know," he put his hands together.
Their eyes widened.
Then he did a series of hand signs and was about to place his hand on Hinata's forehead, that is, until someone got in the way.
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Ino shot up.
The two gave her confused looks.
She looked up at the clouds. They were gray, but it did't look like it would rain at all... But what did that mean?
Her eyes widened, It could be just rain, no need to panic!
Flashback
Ino screamed, "What the hell, forehead?!"
She laughed sheepishly, "Uh... sorry-"
"Sorry?!"
Tenten rolled her eyes, "Ino, it is just your hair-"
"Yeah! My burnt hair!"
"Calm down! It's only the ends, and just about ... an inch... And it was just an accident! I had no idea how the fire of the candle got so big all of a sudden!"
"Who else could have made it so big?!"
"... Mother nature?"
...
"You expect me to believe that?!"
"... Yeah...?"
"Just because I'm a blonde like Temari doesn't mean I'm stupid!"
Temari glared at her, "Since when did I have something to do with this?!"
Hinata sweat dropped. Their fights were truly... amusing... if you weren't part of it.
But then the door burst open, the five faced the red head, Melane noticed the candle and her hair, she sighed, "I must have forgotten to tell you."
Their eyes widened. THE resposible Melane forget something?! They hoped the apocalypse wasn't coming anytime soon.
"Elements around get affected by the people around you."
Sakura faced the flame, Are they fighting again?
End Flashback
That was when Ino noticed it.
The storm clouds, when it just rained yesterday.
The strong wind that was not common at all in Konoha.
The temperature slowly rising too unnaturally.
And the way the rivers current increased greatly.
She slapped her forehead, I'm a ninja! How could I not have noticed this?!
The two just sighed.
Ino must be having one of her moments again.
But then her blue eyes widened and she looked back up at the sky that now contained even grayer cluds, What is happening to the people around me?
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Temari quickly backed away and...
"Look, I'm sorry," she said, "I-I... I'm sorry for not being there for you as family would. I know you hate us, but just so you know, I'm sorry. I really am."
Gaara just continued glaring at her, "Your point?"
"... I... just wanted you to know you still have a family, wether you like it or not."
But before he could reply Baki appeared, "Come on, we have to discuss the mission now."
Gaara glared at her, but then disappeared in a swirl of sand.
"What happened?" Baki asked.
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Sakura looked at her sensei, "... Nothing big," She wiped her tears away, "You know how emotional I can get."
He was unconvinced, "Really now? What would be that big for your father that you had to sneak out of the village?"
She sighed, "My mother's sick, and one of the ingredients for the cure is a few miles away from here, Otoosan went to look for it, but you know how dangerous it could be for a civilian to leave Konoha without a guard."
Kakashi nodded, understanding, "I see. But I must say even you are not that emotional to cry over something like that."
"Give me a reason on why not to care about my Otoosan who could right now be surrounded by rogue ninja."
"Give me a reason why Iruka escorted a guy with the last name of 'Haruno' to another village."
Her eyes widened, "Where did they go?!"
"What really happened?"
Sakura looked at him right in the eye, "It is none of your business," No point in lieing now.
"I am your sensei-"
"You're kidding. I really didn't expect you to remember a student of yours that wasn't a prodigy or soon-to-be Hokage." But before Kakashi could retort Sakura ran away.
A village... but which one?
But then, of course, Kakashi got to her and did a few hand signs, then they appeared at the gates of Konoha.
Sakura glared at him, "What did you do that for?!"
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Temari sighed, "I... nothing. Just forget it."
Baki just nodded, "Fine, but lets go."
The blonde sighed again, sure Hinata told her to help her brother out, but their families were different.
Neji and Hanabi loathe her.
But at least they couldn't kill her, unlike a certain brother she knew.
Temari sighed again, I would rather face the damn Higure than this.
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And Tenten would rather face the sand demon than the Higure.
After a few seconds the smoke cleared away and instead of a boy around her age...
There, in front of her was an eighteen year old looking girl.
She wore tight black shirt with a green vest over it, black tight shorts with a green skirt over it that was only up to her thigh, black gloves, dark green boots that reached right below her knees, and she had a belt that hung loosely at her waist, and attached to that belt was a green vine with leaves attached to it.
And she also had a forehead protector used as a headband which had the symbol of a simple leaf.
A Higure, Tenten thought.
But her most attractive features were her raven colored hair, that was put into high pigtails and reached right below her shoulders, and onyx eyes. She would've been mistaken for an Uchiha with her looks that could give her as much fan boys as Sasuke, fan girls. Though there was one thing that made her look different from any Uchiha (minus Obito).
Her smile.
That's right, she was smiling a grin, the kind you would expect from Naruto, and her eyes... they still had that childish, not inncoence, but spark.
Tenten glared at the girl in front of her, She must be Jalen.
The Uchiha look a like giggled, "Well well well, if it isn't my counterpart. I must admit though you are quite... not what I expected you to be. One, I thought you would dress more... feminine, like that blonde friend of yours, or maybe the pink haired one. I would've mistaken you for a boy had it not been for your pink shirt and hair."
Strike one.
"Two, I expected you to have some sort of bloodline limit, you know? Like the blonde (again) and the Hyuuga. So the battle would at least be a... challenge. I also thought you would have come from a well known family."
Strike two.
"Three, you were supposed to be a plant lover or something of the sort, since earth technically is your element, even if you do impale every tree with hordes of kunai. But sadly, you don't have any of that, unlike me."
Strike three.
Tenten glared at her, but acted calm, "Well, what else would you expect? You have all that, we are counterparts."
Jalen nodded, "True," but then she grinned, "And I simply love how our personalities are so different!"
Mature and immature.
Tenten backed up, This is it, a battle to the death. I can handle it. She looked at the girl, But she, no, all of them, trained for centuries, how are we supposed to compete with that?!
It really wasn't that fair, at all.
But then she groaned, When is life fair at all?
Jalen got her vine... whip out. By the way she twirled it, it could probably change its length when needed, and the fact that the leaves grew razor sharp and sharp thorns started appearing on it did not help out at all.
The Higure member smirked, "Please, Tenten-chan, make this battle last. I want to have a real fight!"
"Don't worry, you'll get one."
And before the brunette knew it the vine was wrapped around her.
All Jalen could do was growl, "Don't underestimate me just because I act younger than you!"
But then there was a puff of smoke and Tenten turned into a log. Jalen smirked, A substitution jutsu.
"Don't underestimate just because I'm centuries younger than you!"
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"H-Hanabi-chan!"
The said girl dropped to her knees and rubbed her forehead... that now contained the curse seal.
There were gasps around the crowd. Hiashi backed away with widened eyes. And Neji was just as shocked as his cousin was.
Hinata knelt down beside her sister, "H-Hanabi-chan?"
Hanabi smiled at her, "So, does this mean that I'm part of the branch family now?!"
Hinata and Neji fell down anime style, but Hiashi didn't have the same reaction, "Care to tell me why you did that?" he asked in the best calm voice he could muster.
...
"I... uh..."
...
"Wanted to...?"
It was obvious even she didn't know why she did that.
"... My body just acted on its own, I guess."
Hinata's eyes widened, Just like what Ino said to Sakura.
"I mean, its not like I really wanted to save Hinata-oneechan. I guess... it was a spur of the moment thing..."
Wrong answer.
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Yes readers, I am ALIVE! But really now, it was only two weeks, but that is a bit long for my standards, but anyway,
I think I was a bit too rushed for Temari's and Hinata's, but hey, nobody's perfect. And probably after the next chapper or two it'll be the competition.
Things to look forward to for the next chapters:
-Revival of the Heart Crystal
-Fluff (for once!)
-If the Higure would actually defeat one of the girls / if the girls would actually defeat one of the Higure
-AND MORE REVIEWS!... Do I sound too demanding with the last one?... Of course!