Chapter 19

This mission is sounding like a really bad filler. Please bear with me- this mission will be over by the end of the chapter.

MANY THANKS TO MY REVIEWERS AND PEOPLE WHO PUT ME ON THEIR ALERT LIST. Sorry for the lack of update.

Chapter 19

A knock sounded at the door and a moment later, two messengers walked in, carrying a scroll that just looked like it had extremely important information on it. One of them set it on the desk, then stepped back, giving the shinobi at the desk a small nod.

"This is a message from Team Gai of Konoha, Kazekage-sama".

"I see, thank you".

The scroll flew open in a fluid motion and the Kazekage began reading its contents, his features twisting into a frown as the information sunk in. "Here… in our village?" he murmured to himself.

"Gaara, what is it?" A female voice spoke up beside the Kazekage. The speaker leaned over her brother shoulder to peek at the writing, her own eyebrows knotting into a frown as she read the scroll.

"Temari, you and Kankuro are to go meet Team Gai at the entrance of the village", the Kazekage spoke seriously, turning his head slightly to look at the kunoichi beside him. She returned his serious gaze and nodded, then picked up the fan she'd set against the wall earlier, and walked out the door.

"Kazekage-sama, you haven't told us what's in the message", one of the advisers spoke up from across the room.

Gaara sighed, then crossed his hands and explained, "Konoha was asked to aid the Mist Village in uncovering the assassins that were in their village, but it turns out, there was much more to the story. This group of assassins, although not anywhere as skilled as shinobi, is said to be extremely well organized and large in numbers. And, their base is in an area outside our village".

"So our village is now taking a part in this… mission, right?"

"Yes. I sent Temari and Kankuro to meet the squad from Konoha. They know of several places that are likely to serve as a base for a large organization".

"I see". The adviser who had been speaking seemed to be momentarily satisfied with the answers.

Temari was running, well, no, not exactly running, but she was hurrying down the hall in search of her brother, who seemed to have disappeared to nowhere. "C'mon, Kankuro, where are you?" she muttered to herself, frustrated. She had already checked the rooms that he would very likely be in- all the rooms that held tools for his puppets, all the medical wings, and even his private quarters. But he was nowhere to be found.

"Must have gone out or something", Temari thought. She rounded the corner quickly, almost not seeing the group of shinobi walking at a brisk pace towards her. She managed to stop herself before she collided with a walking green jumpsuit and, when she looked up, she saw that it was the team from Konoha.

"You must be Gai", she said, nodding at the tallest of the four. Gai nodded in response and looked at the kunoichi seriously.

"Are there any orders for us?" he asked.

"Come with me", Temari answered immediately, "Kankuro was supposed to be with us as well, but I can't find him, so I'll explain the situation to you guys first. This way". She led the team to a long corridor and showed them their room.

When they were inside, Temari lowered her voice and said, "Our files tell us that there ware several locations near this village that could possibly serve as a headquarters for the organization you're tracking down. I've narrowed it down to three, which is where you four, my brother, and I come in. We split into teams of two and communicated via these".

She held up small ear pieces and handed one to each of the members. "Kankuro and I will each take one of you", she pointed to Gai and Lee, "and you two will be a team. The byakugan should allow you to easily find the place I tell you about". She nodded to Neji and Tenten.

"So, where's Kankuro?" Lee asked.

Temari sighed tiredly and explained that she would go find him, then ordered the rest of the shinobi to stay put in the room until they were called on. She left, closing the door behind her.

"This is getting complicated", Gai muttered as he sat down, folding himself into a thinking position. Neji walked over to the window and looked out, Tenten followed him. She figured that the mission would soon be the only thing on everyone's mind, so she had to take the opportunity now to knock some answers out of Neji.

"Are you mad at me?" she questioned tentatively as she approached him, resting a hand on the windowsill.

"No".

"I deviated from the mission for selfish purposes", she continued.

"Happens to everyone".

Tenten was at a loss for words. Neji, the normal Neji, would be furious at her for not focusing on the mission. He was always the one who got mad at people for goofing off, for not being serious. What the heck happened to him?

"Who are you and what have you done with Neji?" Tenten demanded, crossing her arms as she tried to glare at him.

A small smile tugged at the corner of Neji's mouth and he turned slightly to face her. There was amusement in his eyes as he looked at her angry form. "It wasn't your fault", he replied quietly, "we both lost track of the time".

"Yeah, but-"

"Besides, the only reason we were out there was because you wanted to improve. I can't blame you for that", he reasoned.

"Ugh". Tenten rubbed her head, then leaned over the windowsill, looking out at whatever Neji had been staring at before.

"You're still not focused", he said after a moment of silence. She looked up at him, confused. "You keep thinking about the Chunnin exams, about your own abilities. We're on a mission".

"Yeah, but I can think about the mission later, can't I?"

Neji sighed heavily, then turned to face his teammate, as if talking to a child, "Part of strength is concentration. If you're not focused on what you're doing, then how can you do a good job?"

"I am focused!"

"Friends, why are we arguing?" Lee's voice reminded them that they were not alone, and the two shinobi turned to sheepishly look at their sensei and third teammate. Gai and Lee were sitting side by side on the floor, cross-legged, looking confused about the argument.

"Nevermind", Tenten huffed and stormed away from the window. Leave it to Neji to ruin anyone's mood. Sheesh.

The door popped open and Temari stepped inside again, just in time to save the group from an awkward, angry silence. Kankuro was trailing after her, looking apologetic. "We're going now".

Everyone jumped up and hurried out the door, passing smoothly down the flight of stairs and through the village streets, until they were at the main entrance. Temari pulled out a scroll that contained a simple map and quickly explained where each location was.

"Remember, this is only a scouting mission. After we find any signs of suspicious activity, we report back". She then set off with Gai, leaving Lee and Kankuro in a team. Neji looked at Tenten, then quickly began walking, so that she had to hurry to catch up with him.

They approached the place they were assigned to check out, and almost immediately, an air of suspicion fell around the tiny shack standing idly on the sandy, desert floor.

"It's extremely small to be any kind of headquarters", Tenten whispered.

"Shhh. That's just what it looks like", Neji had turned his byakugan on and he was carefully surveying the structure of the shack. His gaze shifted slowly to the floor and Tenten watched as his eyes grew wide in surprise.

"What? What is it?" she almost panicked.

"Go! Move, move, move!" Neji reached out an armed and shoved Tenten to one side, then, when her body still refused to move, he grabbed her by the arms and quickly leaped into the air, landing a good several meters from the shack. As he did so, an explosion erupted from the area they'd been standing on just a second ago.

"It's an entire underground labyrinth!" Neji was speaking frantically into the small device in his ear, but he could only hear static. Frustrated, he tossed the small piece of technology onto the floor, then turned to Tenten, who had several weapons drawn and was standing in a defensive position.

"What did you see?" she asked.

"Their headquarters... it's huge", Neji replied, "Most of the people in there have very low chakra levels- they're not shinobi. But, then, a huge ball of chakra was shooting at us from under the ground. These explosions are chakra filled. They're not just normal explosives".

"That means they've hired shinobi", Tenten thought aloud, "they knew about us before we got here. We've got to go tell Temari and them!"

"No! If they know we're here, it does no one any good to lead them to the others. And, we don't have the time".

Immediately after the words left his mouth, Neji heard a second explosion come from behind him, and he quickly shifted his stance.

"So we're fighting?" Tenten asked incredulously.

"Yes".

"But that's –"

"Most of them aren't shinobi, Tenten. We can take them". Neji's stubbornness had reached an all new level and Tenten groaned. She had no choice but to follow him; she couldn't exactly just leave him there.

The first batch of men sent out at them was simply assassins wielding scary-looking weapons. Scary-looking, but not scary. Tenten scoffed as she grabbed two kunai and tossed them out in front of her. Her aim was deadly.

"See? Easy", Neji smirked. Tenten looked at the two unconscious bodies on the floor and smile a little.

"Yeah", she finally agreed.

It took them all of five minutes to take out the groups of men that were sent at them, but even after they were the only two standing, it was still pretty apparent that it hadn't ended.

"They're waiting for us", Tenten mumbled, squinting at the shack.

"Yeah", Neji replied. He began walking cautiously towards the shack and Tenten followed, weapons still drawn.

The inside of the shack didn't look like much, except for one, very high tech trap door on the ground that stuck out like a sore thumb among the surroundings. It obviously led underground, to the large place Neji had seen. He pressed a palm against the door, closed his eyes for a moment, then sighed. "Interesting", he said quietly, "there's chakra running through these doors. It opens with chakra…I've never felt anything like it".

"Chakra?" Tenten echoed.

"Whoever's in charge… whoever's inside, is very powerful. Stay alert, Tenten". Neji shifted his fingers slightly, then slid his hand along the surface of the door, releasing chakra. His eyes were straining to see the fine details, the intricacies of the door. Finally, with a soft hiss, the door swung open.

Tenten instinctively took a step back as Neji moved himself in front of her, raising his arms in defense. The door revealed a dark corridor and nothing was visible on the other side. Neji began walking and Tenten followed, hoping her eyes would quickly adjust. Slowly, as they moved down the long hallway, shapes became visible. She could see that the path they traveled on gradually grew wider, until the passageway morphed into a room.

Along the way, they had met no resistance, and this only made them more suspicious. Neji paused to check the surroundings and was shocked to find there were absolutely no life forms in the place. Were all the chakras he'd seen earlier just in his head?

Surely, something dangerous was waiting for them at the end. Tenten drew in her breath as they stepped out into the open. They were in a dimly lit room. Two candles stood on opposite sides of the room and a chair was in the middle. A pair of eyes looked at them from the chair and a low voice spoke, "You have been responsible for the death of my men?"

"Assassins", Neji replied in a similar tone. Tenten was slightly thrown off by the emotionless tone in his voice.

"As am I", the voice continued. He was hinting at the fact that the two shinobi before him were about to die.

"We'll see", there was more confidence in Neji's voice; his eyes had adjusted more to the darkness and it was now quite obvious that the man sitting in the seat was rather old, hunched over, and supported by a cane. And, there were no other signs of chakra around them.

Without warning, a bright glow emitted from where the man sat and a moment later, both Neji and Tenten found a rush of energy being shot at them. It was pure chakra, and the enormous strength of it stunned Neji. With his eyes, he could see precisely what had happened, and while he knew he was in a dangerous situation, he couldn't help but marvel at the incredible abilities this opponent had.

This would be a challenge. He gathered chakra to the palm of his hands and burst forward with extra speed, jabbing two fingers against the man on the chair. He didn't flinch a bit as the chakra came in contact with him. Neji gasped and quickly retracted his hands. There was something about this man, something about his chakra, that seemed to deflect all chakra based attacks.

He must be a master of chakra control, Neji thought. And then it clicked- everyone believed this was a huge organization, that there were lots of assassins and people, but in reality, it had all been chakra clones of this one man. That would explain all the chakra signatures, weak, but great in number, that Neji had scouted out earlier.

So, master of chakra, huh? Well, that sucked. It pretty much rendered all of Neji's attacks useless. But, remembering that he had his teammate with him, Neji wondered how well the man would fare against weapons. He knew that the metallic kunais and shuriken could be deflected with chakra, but he also knew that Tenten was equipped with a lot more than just small toys.

He shot her a look out of the corner of his eye, and, catching his message, Tenten slipped out her weapons and dove into a series of attacks. As he'd suspected, most of the simpler weapons were deflected and fell uselessly to the floor in a clatter. However, as he watched the fight with his byakugan, straining to catch every detail, Neji noticed that when one of the larger weapons hit the chakra shield at a certain angle, it created a small dent in the defense.

He was definitely going to take advantage of this.

Tenten landed a few feet beside him and gave him a bewildered look. As far as she could see, nothing seemed to work.

"See the area right under his hand?" Neji whispered quickly. Tenten nodded, her eyes narrowing as she focused her vision on the area beneath the man's hands, where the chakra was the weakest. "Aim there, and do it quickly".

She followed his instructions, sending out a second round of weapons, most of which clattered to the floor again. But, Neji had succeeded in his goal. He'd found the weak spot in the man's defense and he was going to take advantage of it. He shot forward again, acting as if he was going to use the same attack he'd done before. His steps matched his previous attempt perfectly and the man easily fell into the trap, underestimating him and believing he was going to try the same thing.

But at the last second, Neji shifted the position of his hands and aimed for the weak spot he'd singled out, delivering a chakra filled blow to the area below the man's hands. For a split second, a crack in the chakra shield appeared, but the man quickly covered it up.

"I see…" Neji murmured to himself. Beside him, Tenten looked over curiously, but quickly shifter her eyes back to their opponent. She had several weapons drawn, waiting for Neji to give her some sort of command. But he seemed to have forgotten she was there. He shot forward again, this time with a different form, jabbing two fingers against the shield around the man.

His chakra cut cleanly through the man's defense, and Tenten unconsciously took a step back as a visible swirl of chakra surrounded the man, then vanished. Neji's eyes narrowed and the corner of his mouth played into a smirk. He moved so quickly that before she knew it, Tenten found herself looking at a strangled pile on the floor, with Neji strategically kneeling above the crumpled figure.

"Talk". Neji's commanding tone shocked Tenten momentarily, but she quickly caught herself. She watched as Neji drew answers out of the man, vaguely wondering where he'd gotten these interrogation skills. She knew she'd hate to be questioned by him. She watched the scene before her, but didn't really see anything. Her mind had wandered off, looking around the room in random places.

It was quite lucky, actually, that she did so, because her trained eyes caught something in the corner of the walls that looked extremely suspicious. A small red glow, something she couldn't' believe both of them had missed earlier. Had it always been there?

"Neji?" she tried to get his attention quietly.

He didn't seem to hear her.

A small whirring sound now caught Tenten's ear and she noticed it was coming from the same corner. Oh… shit. It had to be something bad.

"Neji!"

Neji looked in her direction, caught her bewildered eyes, and glanced up at the red glow. His byakugan quickly turned on and a moment later, Tenten felt something wrap protectively around her waist, her back against something warm, and the world around her explode into smoke.

When she opened her eyes again, the building around them was gone. And yes, even though they'd been underground, even the ground had blown up. There was a large crater where the old man's room had been. She was still in the safety of Neji's embrace and the first thought that crossed her mind was, Who the hell do you think I am? I can save myself!

Neji's other hand was holding tightly onto the man's collar; he'd dragged him out of the explosion as well, although not with nearly as much care.

"Thought you could just end us all, huh?" he asked smugly. Tenten slipped out of his grasp and looked at what was left of the explosion, then turned back to Neji. She opened her mouth to say something, then shut it again when she caught sight of several figures, running towards them from a distance.

"It's Gai-sensei and the others", Neji murmured, as if reading her mind. Tenten nodded and waited beside Neji as they watched their teammate, sensei, Temari and Kankuro approach with worried face.

Upon seeing the blown up building, Temari stepped forward, demanding an explanation. She was slightly angry that they had done more than just scout, but Neji quieted her and promised to explain it all later. However, they had to first take care of the old man. Tenten was pretty out of it as she trailed along the group, her mind wasn't focused. Something didn't make sense here. She was hoping Neji would make it all clear later.

Later that afternoon, after the old man had been brought to the kazekage, Neji proceeded to explain everything he'd learn. Gaara sat at his desk, his two siblings standing on either side of him. The man was in a chair across the room, tied and watched by two guards. Team Gai stood off to the side, with Neji standing slightly closer to the kazekage.

He took a deep breath and began.

"Tenten and I were attacked by guards- not shinobi, just assassins, and it was rather obvious that they hadn't made much of an effort to defend themselves".

"What do you mean?" Temari cut in.

Neji looked at her momentarily, then explained, "They didn't seem like they were really guarding anything- a poor effort to defend themselves. Anyways, we soon found out it was because there really wasn't much to guard. There was just one person inside the house, and he wasn't really expecting to live much longer. Everything else we've seen- all the other people, were just parts of his chakra taking on human forms. And the explosion…he set something the moment he realized we would be going in there, so that we'd die along with him".

"But why?" Gaara narrowed his eyes.

"I had a short opportunity to question him", Neji continued, "and everything we've been chasing after fits. The ironic thing is, it was a lot simpler than we'd imagined. The assassinations in the mist were only carried out on the rich, simply because this man sought revenge. And, Tenten, if you remember, that lady we met at the dock, who said her son was assassinated even though he was poor- remember?"

Tenten nodded, urging him to continue.

"He knew too much about the plans, so they had to silence him".

"What were these 'plans'?" Temari asked again.

"The old man has a delusional mind and is extremely skilled in the art of chakra control. Using his abilities, he created a squad of assassins to exact revenge on the rich, simply because he felt cheated out of life", Neji's voice had become tired, as if he found the entire story unnecessary, "When we were in that room, he was babbling about revenge and injustice, and honestly, there wasn't much substance".

"So that was it?" Tenten asked after the group fell silent.

"Apparently", the disappointment in Neji's voice was obvious. In fact, the rest of their team was also rather disappointed by the lack of excitement in the mission. What they'd originally planned to be some great achievement had winded down to the capture of a delusional old man and his arm of wanna-be killers. Great.

"We can take care of the rest here", Gaara spoke up, giving Gai a nod. He returned the gesture, then turned to his team.

"We'll leave first thing tomorrow".

In all honesty, I really hated the last few chapters with the mission in it. It. Was. Crap. Well, now that this mission is over with (finally), updates will hopefully come out faster XD. To come in the next chapter…NejiTen fluff! Chunnin exams! Shika-Tema-Ino triangle stuff! And more!! WOOT!!