Disclaimer: My attempts at purchasing Naruto have gone unnoticed, and therefore I don't own Naruto... yet. ;)
Author's Note: Continuing my very first fic into chapter three now and I think it's getting better, (Well I'll let the reviewers decide). The OCs in this chapter get fleshed out a bit more, but before I go on I need to say this. THIS IS NOT A STORY ABOUT HOW OCs INTERACT WITH OUR LOVABLE NEJI AND TENTEN. (I feel better for some reason.) The OCs aren't even there for distraction, in fact if you do get distracted by the OCs please tell me. This story about Neji and Tenten.. okay I need to stop ranting.
::is calm again:: So yea, I hope you guys enjoy the action, and some of the evolution of moves and tactics. (I have lots more in store).
Figures darted in and out from behind trees in the still darkness of the moonless night. The silver-eyed ninja in front stopped in an instant, as if frozen in time, and raised his right arm with his palm open. The ninjas who followed after him stopped dead in their tracks. They were unmoving statues in the forest, you would even wonder if their hearts beat. Crossing the border into another country was never a simple thing.
Special jounin Hyuuga Neji lead the team, followed closely by the genjitsu specialist Morikage Hiro. A few paces behind was the medical ninja Hanawa Akiko, with special jounin Tenten so close to her back that she could have been Akiko's shadow. The formation was a small impenetrable line that proved excellent for traveling through hostile land. And hostile land is exactly where they were right now.
The formation, designed by the genius Hyuuga, accented the point man's ability to see uninhibited even in the pitch black of the forest at midnight and was followed by the weapon master who never missed bringing up the tail. If Neji could see it, Tenten could hit it. In the middle were the equally balanced offensive and defensive illusionist and medic. Together they all worked like a well-oiled machine.
Neji's eyes pierced the darkness; there was nothing that could be hidden from his sight. His sudden cautiousness was a reaction from the report given by the border patrollers of Konoha. Apparently there had been activity recently a few miles from where he now stood; its scale was said to be that of a large battle. From Neji's view point, he could tell the border patrol was wrong. In the distance was the sight of a war zone.
As the team slowly made their way through the wooded area they noticed the extent of the battle scarred landscape. Kunai and shiruken were stuck in everything; there wasn't a surface that wasn't at least partially covered with them. Burns and explosions marked the area, trees were toppled over from having their trunks blown up, and there were areas where the otherwise lush, green forest was singed black.
"Up ahead," the leader said, "the remainder of this fight is taking place. Since we don't know which side is winning, assume it's the enemy. Approach in scouting formation," he continued dictating. "Morikage, you're up. Let's go." Hyuuga Neji's orders were always perfect: short in length, to the point, strategically precise, and just as serious as his demeanor.
A clearing in the distance was the location of a grizzly sight. One man stood alone, surrounded by a cluster of bodies, each decapitated or dismembered in one way or another. He was a silhouette among prone sacrifices; his body painted crimson with their life. The bald figure wore a loose, tattered dark brown coat, and pants, and was wrapped in bandages over his forearms, and calves. In the darkness, his limbs seemed to shine with the blood of his opponents.
Sensing people approach, the mysterious man lifted his head and turned towards the direction of the newcomers.
Morikage Hiro stood casually at the edge of the clearing, his voice calmly matching his stance, "Excuse me. I'm here on behalf of the Leaf, I..."
No sooner had he mentioned 'leaf' before the man lunged at the chuunin with blinding speed. The assailant took little time to literally de-arm the young man before head butting his body repeatedly during its fall backwards to the ground.
"Well that wasn't nice." Tenten quipped quietly.
"I don't think he's a friend." Hiro said, releasing his solid genjitsu.
"Aren't you glad you have your illusions?" smirked Akiko.
"Quiet you three. Let's make this quick." Neji ordered.
The four ninja descended from their tree tops ten meters away like birds diving in on their prey. In one coordinated sleek motion their attack came and continued to come like persistent waves on a beach's shore. First were the poison-tipped needles from the medic-nin that stuck in the rival's back until he looked like a porcupine. As the man stood up and howled in rage and pain the second wave came: two solid illusions rushed from the thick of the woods and tackled the man to the ground, pinning his arms and legs down, forcing the needles into his body their full length and keeping him immobile for the last attack.
Tenten hung in the air as if she was lighting than the wind blowing around her. Her body was positioned upside down as if she were ready to dive into a lake. Opening her eyes, revealing her chocolate-colored orbs, her hands hovered over the scrolls wrapped over her upper arms. She was ready. The weapons mistress held no quarter against her flat lying foe, and proceeded to summon and throw weapon after weapon downwards. Her graceful dive poured down a hale of blades towards her target. Whatever misery Akiko had inflicted with the senbon would be ended soon, Tenten was sure of that. It would be by her hand that the man would be sent from this world.
He smiled.
"Shit!" Tenten cursed under her breath.
The man was apparently not so resigned to the fate that Tenten dealt. Bringing his arms together, the man slammed the solid replicas once holding his arms together infront of him, using them as a shield. Caught off guard, Hiro didn't have time to release his genjitsu and the unlucky illusions took the brunt of Tenten's attack. Rolling to the left to avoid the rest of the barrage, he jumped to his feet quickly, running straight at Hiro's location.
Before the illusionist could move, much less prepare to defend, the other ninja was there. Face to face, the boy from the Morikage clan fully saw his opponent.
Bandages.
Bandages wrapped around the ninja's face, covering his eyes. This man was not seeing his opponents in any normal way. And there it was; his right arm, held low and balled up, covered with metal shards that protruded from his wrist. It was a small lance moving quickly towards Hiro's heart.
Inside of a breath, Neji was there, standing between the two of them. "Heavenly Barrier!" Chakra compacted itself inside of him, and then released like an explosion through his tenketsu in front of him. It was a slight modification of the Heavenly Spin which conserved more chakra and was used to stop attacks coming from one direction.
In front of Neji a blue wall of chakra formed with an audible "bang", a result of the chakra slamming together to form a momentary shield for the Hyuuga. Not only did it stop the oncoming attack, but it forced the man off balance, giving Neji the opportunity to attack. And as he began his gentle fist assault, Tenten began throwing kunai at specified points on the man's backside to neutralize him as a threat; namely tendons and pressure points.
After a dozen hits equaling a dozen closed tenketsu points, and when Neji was satisfied with the containment of the man's chakra, the Byukugan user grabbed the man's shoulder, and threw him against a tree. The rest of the team closed in around him as the "investigation" began. "Tell me everything I want to know. Who, how many, and why Waterfall Country?"
The man gave a gap-toothed grin as his blood slowly spilled out of his mouth, a product from all the internal injuries the leaf squad had inflicted. Slowly he began to open his mouth to reveal the shorted nub of his cut off tongue. He would not be revealing any secrets tonight.
"He's useless. Finish him." Tenten proclaimed.
Three seemingly harmless fingers sped swiftly towards the man's forehead; the Hyuuga quickly put the man down for good. As the figure slumped towards the ground, opened-mouth smile still on his face, Neji bent down towards the corpse.
"What are you doing Hyuuga-san?" Akiko queried.
Moving his hands to undo the bandages of their attacker, Neji paused for a second before looking back at the medical ninja.
"I need to see his eyes."
PS. Thank you very much to Teamgaifan, for a wonderful review! It means very much to me coming from someone who writes as excellent as you do. For everyone who hasn't done so already, go read his story entitled "A Conversation about Sakura." You won't be disappointed!