A/N: Yeah, the last chapter was short, but I think this will work for now.
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or The Holiday
Chapter 9: Play your cards right
Tsunade walked into the tavern and went to a back booth. Ordering some sake, she wore a grave expression on her face. Moments later, Gaara appeared with the tattered book in his hand, and identical expression of dread and worry surrounding him.
"I assume you got my message regarding the Akatsuki correct?" he asked.
"Hai, you said it was critical that I come."
"Let's get down to the point, during the festival, we recovered a few hidden village techniques from each country and this book," he let Tsunade examine it before continuing, "From what we have found, it appears to be the Akatsuki's main plans and motive."
"And what would that motive be?"
"Apparently, there is a specialized jutsu that requires the chakra from nine tailed beasts. It's purpose is unknown. We do know that it was sealed away in a scroll somewhere centuries ago by the first Kages."
"And you believe they are going to find all nine tailed beasts and use them for one jutsu? What could it possibly do?" a frown formed on Tsunade's face.
"There was a drawn diagram in the book, right around the end, look." Tsunade flipped to the back and indeed, there it was.
It looked like a ten-sided star in a circle. At the end of each point were the following symbols (1): Rei, Seiryu, Byakko, Suzaku, Genbu, Kuchin, Nanju, Hokuto, Santai and Gyokunyo. In the middle were nine circles, each a different colour. The very center of that was a brilliant white star.
"What does this mean?"
"I don't know and I don't think we want to find out."
Neji and Tenten were resting after training, it was a week after the visit to the Sand Village. Gai and Lee were running the usual 500 laps around Konoha. Deciding to take a walk, the two of them began thinking about the festival.
Tenten giggled as she remembered how much fun it had been to be with Neji without any claims of youth. Cai zhi, being part of her mind, saw this and talked to Kaku about this (2).
'These two would make such a cute couple, no?'
'I agree, you can tell by those secret glances and the fact that he makes sure she always makes it home safely'
'I
have an idea! Listen to this…'
Sasori, Deidara, Zetsu and a member by the name of Riko (3) were called into Leader's office. He stood there watching the four bow "What did you summon us for?" Riko asked.
"I have recently found the location of three tailed demons nearby." The four looked up as he continued to speak, "The problem is, the containers are relatively close together so try and grab one and the other two appear. You must find and capture either the seven, the eight or the nine-tails. It would be best if you caught all three at once in an ambush of sorts. I will give you three months to observe, the targets and their battle style, so you may act accordingly. Dismissed." He turned and disappeared.
A little while later, at the entrance of the Akatsuki headquarters, Deidara and Sasori met with Zetsu and Riko. "Here is what we already have on the targets, un," Deidara handed them a manila folder.
After a quick scan, Riko lifted her eyes up, sighed and said, "I have an idea," she took out a kunai and crouched down, drawing something on the ground.
'That's awesome! Amature-ish but pretty cool'
'Commence mission: Matchmaker!' with that, Cai zhi began her devious plan.
At the moment, Neji realized that it was getting late, the sun would be setting soon. 'Oi Neji!' Kaku yelled at him.
'What do you want?' he said, slightly annoyed.
'You realize you two have been training since dawn up until now right?'
'I know that perfectly well.'
'And that unlike you, Tenten is probably pretty tired right?'
'Just get to the point.'
'Fine Mr. Grumpy. If you've been doing this for the past, I dunno, three years, did you ever decide to take her out or something as a token of gratitude for helping you improve?'
'Now that I think about it not really…' Just great, he now felt incredibly guilty.
'Well, you should take the rest of the day off and spend time with her not training. You know, exploring Konoha, watching a movie together maybe dinner…'
'I guess so'
"Tenten?"
She turned towards him, "Yeah?"
"How about we skip training for the rest of the day and do something else?" if you squinted hard enough, you would see him blushing.
Short to say, Tenten was shocked at this offer, as Neji would usually make her spar until well past midnight. She grinned at Neji, "I'd love to!" and began to drag him through Konoha.
Little did Neji know that Kaku was chuckling to himself. 'Hehe, part one: success.' he muttered while doing a mini victory dance.
"So you think that they are most likely to come to Konoha?" Tsunade did not like the sound of this.
"Hai, Naruto only being a small factor. Apparently, from what I know so far, they also targeted Tenten, as shown from the festival." Gaara pondered, he had already told her about the kidnapping. "I believe that she may play an important to their plans."
"But the only reasons they would do that is if either they lost a member and need a weapons mistress or…"
"Tenten has a tailed demon." He finished. "I think we'll need all the information on her we can get and look into it."
"That would be a problem I'm afraid." The Hokage mentioned, "We have absolutely no records of her origin or who her guardians are or were. She came from outside the village at an early age."
'Now that I think about it…Could Tenten be…No…But the report said that the child the family had adopted was gone. I do know that there was a demon sealed somewhat near the same time, the eight-tails. If that's the case then Tenten is…' Gaara's eyes widened considerably.
"What is the problem Kazekage?" Tsunade asked.
He leaned on the table, "I have reason to believe that Tenten may be the container of the eight-tails that plagued the Wind country for a period of time."
"If that is the case, then we definitely have a problem."
The first stop for the day was at the movie cinemas. After a careful debate and the help of tossing a coin, they decided to watch a romantic comedy called The Holiday(4). During the movie, Tenten thought of the irony of this, 'That sounds familiar' she chuckled inwardly.
'I agree with that, I mean we have four people, two who are siblings, brother and sister to be exact.'
'They resemble Hinata and Neji and the other girl and boy represent me and Naruto.'
'Just switch Hinata with you and you have the basic story.'
The rest of the movie went by normally with Kaku and Cai zhi making a few comments here and there.
By the time they left the theatre, it was getting dark. Neji and Tenten talked about the movie, with Neji mostly listening until reaching Ichiraku's.
"I'll have pork ramen," Tenten ordered, "Neji, what do you want?"
"I'll go for beef ramen,"
It wasn't long before their ramen arrived. Muttering a small prayer of thanks, they ate their ramen silently. When they finished, they split the bill (Tenten insisted she pay at least a bit) and strolled through the park until reaching a hill. The two sat down, watching the bright stars reflect over the lake nearby.
'How romantic!' Cai zhi swooned, while mentally cheering for the fact that Neji's hand was over Tenten's. Said kunoichi agreed with her.
When the moon was high overhead, they walked home together, as they lived on the same street. Once they arrived at Tenten's house, she turned towards Neji, "I had a lot of fun with you today. I hope we can do it again soon." With that, she kissed him quickly and went inside. She ran to her room in the small apartment where she lived and buried her beet red face into a pillow.
'I can't believe you did that!' the demon was jumping for joy, 'I'm so proud of you!' she looked like she was going to cry in happiness.
'I don't know what came over me. I just…' Tenten turned an even deeper shade of red.
'Did you see his face? If he didn't like it or something he would have moved away. Neji probably likes you too!'
At that moment, the mentioned boy was staring at the ceiling of his room, his face was tinged with red still. 'Wow, way to go kid!' Kaku cheered.He eventually fell asleep with a silly grin plastered on his face.
A/N: Finally! I just never found the time to work on this. If you ask me, some of the scenes are kind of 'ish' but it's overall okay. Now for some other bit's of information needed for this:
(1):Those are the symbols on each Akatsuki ring, each with a different meaning (zero, azure dragon, white tiger, vermilion bird, black tortoise, void, Sagittarius, the Big Dipper, "three levels" and the virgin
(2): In this story, demons can talk to each other when they want to.
(3): Riko has royal blue hair that goes to mid-back with a flower in it.Her eyes resemble a cat's and are usually steel grey but change with her mood.
(4): I saw this movie and actually thought about this. It's about two different women who switch locations and fall in love with two guys, one of them being the other woman's brother. It's really sweet for those who haven't watched it before.
Thanks to reviewers:
tru-viet
Mizu-Kaze Hana
sailormarsfire93
10xpandax10
nefaith
Azekah
Phoenix Hollowell
Dreaming101
Saturn-fox
One more thing, I'm trying to think of a new title for this story, anybody with any ideas should send an e-mail to me.