Hey again... Chapter Four! Also once you read this chapter please read the footnote.
Tenten jerked upward when a loud bang echoed in the sky. Then she realised that it was simply a firework, she must have fallen asleep on Neji's shoulder. Neji was looking upward with impassive eyes. Another firework exploded staining the sky with silvery stars. "They're so pretty," Tenten whispered.
"They are," Neji agreed beside her. Tenten had fallen asleep on his shoulder only a few minutes ago. He'd been surprised to find that she smelled of strongly of lavender with a tint of metal from the weapons she loved. It was a unique combination but one that he found strangely pleasing. Tenten was awake now and watching with wide eyes the colours dancing in the sky. He'd seen fireworks before many times but this was her first time.
It was dark enough now that they could leave without being seen and he judged they were about halfway done. Still he was reluctant to pull Tenten away she was honestly amazed at this display of power. A particularly loud bang filled his ears. "Amaya, it's time to go," he whispered in her ear. She turned to look at him, begging slightly to stay, her face illuminated by the golden sparkles raining down from the sky. At that moment she glowed golden, her hair shone with golden sparkles and her eyes seemed like pools of molten flame. "It's time to go," he insisted more firmly.
Sighing she followed him as he picked his way through the dark. Back in Amaya's room she carefully placed the yukata back in the proper place and did her hair up properly with bands rather than senbon. She changed out of the servant's skirt into a pair of black pants that in this darkness could pass for servants' garb. Then she checked her packs and made sure she carried her weapons. She picked up her bags and closed the door for one last time behind her.
Neji was already there, waiting for her. Silently the two of them made their way to the garden, which was unoccupied, as everyone was watching the fireworks at this point. Tenten paused to admire a night lily that opened to delicately reveal the pale cream of its petals, before she left the Sato Family Compound forever.
In the darkness, amidst the fireworks display the two Konoha nin left the Sato Compound unobserved.
They travelled on through the night taking breaks occasionally but at this point their priority was to put as much distance between the Sato Family and themselves. Neji let them stop for breakfast, but they ate quickly as if fearing attack.
"Do you think they've noticed we're missing yet?" Tenten asked.
"Most likely."
"Are you sure they're going to send shinobi? I mean to me all this looks like is a case of two runaway servants."
"Hn," Neji replied, packing up his things. Tenten took that to mean, if they send shinobi we'll handle them. If they don't, whatever. Still she couldn't help but feel unsure.
At lunch time when their lack of sleep finally caught up with them. Neji using his Byakugan found a small cave hidden nearby. Upon setting up basic chakra traps, the two of them entered. It was ideal and out of the way, however Tenten couldn't vouch for the comfort. It was cramped with the two of them and their packs, but they managed to stretch out somewhat decently and sleep anyhow.
A few hours later, feeling refreshed Tenten woke up. Something didn't feel right... still she pushed that thought from her mind. She was thirsty she realised and reached for her canteen. Once her throat was decently moist, she woke Neji who was still asleep. "It's time to go," she told him. He nodded and took a drink from his canteen. She watched as he activated his Byakugan by reflex to examine their surrounding area. Was it just her imagination or did he take a bit longer than normal? He shouldered his pack and exited, signalling her to follow him.
They'd travelled a while when Neji stopped, saying loudly, "We should take a break..." Tenten was confused, they'd taken a break only a few hours ago. Instead of arguing she let her pack drop down with a sigh.
"Would you like tea?" Tenten asked, bringing the kettle out.
"Hn," Neji replied, getting out two cups. Taking that as a yes, she was surprised when Neji came to help her open the large canteen containing their travelling water. He leaned close to her, his breath warm and hot on her neck. "We're being watched. Act normal."
"How many? Shinobi?" Tenten whispered back, her lips moving as little as possible. Her hands didn't even tremble as she screwed the lid of the canteen back on. He'd lightly brushed his finger up and down, yes.
"Six more hours maybe tonight," Neji replied, looking skyward… Six then, they could handle that. Once the water boiled and the tea was poured, Tenten leaned against the tree, the cup cradled between her hands. Observing Neji's extremely subtle body movements, it had taken years to perfect this skill to the point where she was able to pinpoint the enemy locations.
As well as some effort into convincing him that only she could do it. Which was true, Gai, Hinata and Hiashi-sama had spent hours watching, upon the mentions of this by Tenten, and had found nothing. They had also tested her with other people, who'd had no clue they'd participated in such a study. There had been nothing. She could sometimes guess, but it was never certain like with Neji. They had tested it for weeks, trying to get her to pinpoint people. She had succeeded at of almost hundred percent, with Neji as her partner. With only one small error being she'd not correctly revealed Akamaru's location, he'd moved too much. It was a secret no one knew outside of Team Gai, the Main House Hyuuga and the Hokage.
"We should go," Neji said, feeling that she'd had enough time due to her smiling and sipping at the tea.
Tenten nodded and they packed up, she trusted him to tell her when they were finally going to deal with their followers. She could no longer determine the enemy placements, between their travelling a paced run and the enemy movements, their positions were lost. If they decided to attack now, Neji would be their only warning. Still she trusted him, he would not let her down nor would he let her be killed easily and she would do the same for him. A team was only strong if they worked together.
They were reaching the end of their day and Neji judged that they were maybe a day and a half from their destination. They were still being followed, it bristled on Tenten's nerves. If they wanted the damn scroll back why did they not attack? They outnumbered them, clearly, were they waiting to attempt an ambush? It was another hour that flew by, Tenten listening for an indication, a tang of metal or a small noise to find out if they were being attacked.
Finally Neji stopped, breathing deeply. "They're up ahead, waiting."
"An ambush?" Tenten asked, confused.
"No, they're waiting in the middle of a concealed area, all six within view," Neji's voice was monotone, but she knew that he was as confused as she was.
"That doesn't make sense, they took such efforts to follow us and now they're going to stand in plain view waiting for us to come?" It was poor combat form, a ninja learned right off the bat that hiding well and having a surprise attack gave you the advantage.
"We'll take their bait. I can't see any trap and even if we pass them, they'd resume tailing us."
"Alright!" Tenten said, she was sick of being followed. She took the opportunity to check her weapons, the tessen pressed against her hip and up her sleeves were a pair of kunai. If those failed there were small shuriken hidden in her hair and senbon in the hems of her clothes, and as always an extra scroll tucked underneath her shirt in the wrappings. As well there was her kunai pouch, along with her scrolls. She was always well armed and quite skilled with improvisation.
They ran right into the enemy shinobi. Tenten observed them, this being the first time she'd actually seen them. They were all young men from the Hidden Mist Village, Kirigakure from their forehead protectors, they all seemed to be about sixteen-seventeen years of age, clearly not as experienced. Tenten watched them for weaknesses, the blond on the left seemed to be unfocused. The leader who was clearly in the middle was watching them all with a smirk, obviously thinking he was going to win.
"We're supposed to give you the chance to return the scrolls," the leader said firmly.
"As if!" Tenten spat.
"You're surrounded, once again surrender the scrolls," He was now glaring at her. Tenten glared back, she wasn't about to let some jumped up boy walk all over her.
"Normally in an ambush you attack in surprise not directly," Neji observed. "You're hardly better than chuunin."
The enemy shinobi all sputtered angrily at the insult. One of them yelling back, "Shut up civilian!"
Tenten turned to look at the man who shouted. "Really now? Civilians? Use your eyes maybe, shinobi. Do we act like civilians?" She twirled a kunai idly on her finger, it was fun toying with them.
"Don't act so smart, there's still six of us and two of you," One of the boys to the left of the leader pointed out.
"Two jounin, versus a handful of chuunin, slightly insulting don't you think?" Tenten asked Neji. "I feel as if they're underestimating us."
"Shut up kunoichi, we all know you slept around to get ranked so high," the blond jeered.
"Really now? That's news to me," Tenten was quietly seething. Before they knew it a shuriken was whipped at his head, skimming his ear to thud loudly into a tree a few feet behind him. "I don't stand for insults to my reputation, and I won't miss next time."
"She hits a hundred out of a hundred, I've never seen her miss," Neji added. "Run along chuunin and we'll spare your lives."
The blond was enraged at his blood being drawn and without waiting for his teammates to back him up charged at Tenten. Dropping their packs, the battle officially commenced. The leader came to deal with Neji, he tried simply charging him, weapons in hand. A quick blow to his chakra system and he was out for the count. Two more came on, Neji glanced to see how Tenten was faring.
She had simply disarmed the one who'd charged her and ran him through. He was bleeding from a severe wound on the ground. As the other two circled warily around her she drew her weapons scroll, and bit her fingers. Neji returned to his opponents. The taller one stayed back, watching. The other began to make hand symbols. "Joro Senbon!" He yelled.
"Hakke Hyaku Ni Ju Hashou!" Neji returned, blocking the needles as he moved. Watching closely in case one should come too close. Meanwhile Tenten had taken care of her two and was moving on to the other shinobi. A flick of her tessen blocked the kunai he'd thrown at her. Her opponent swung another kunai around to attack her neck, a fluttering of her wrist turned the dagger aside and her tessen went down biting into the skin on his wrist. He hissed in pain. A kunai in her left hand stabbed him in the ribs, twice before he fell gasping and wheezing.
Neji made quick work of the last shinobi and the two stood panting. "Kill them?" Tenten asked, she'd only seeked to knock them out. She hadn't wanted to kill such young promising shinobi; they were only doing their job.
"Drug them, a week's dose. We can't have them following us," Neji said. He wasn't as cold as he seemed. Tenten quickly dosed them, with the stuff Sakura had given her as a gift some years ago. Knocked people out for weeks she'd said. Tenten had also received some poisons to use on her weapons but she kept that safe in an unbreakable vial tucked into her weapons pouch.
The young enemy shinobi taken care of, Tenten and Neji resumed their packs and began to leave. Evidence of their fight was clear, and the sooner they left the sooner they would be safe. They'd only gotten a bit further when Tenten heard the whistling sound of senbon. "Neji!" she warned, about to turn when she was struck in the neck. Everything went fuzzy then, she must have been struck in precisely the right spot.
As Tenten sunk slowly to the ground, Neji reacted to her warning. Another glance with his Byakugan indicated he had missed a hidden shinobi, how could he have been so stupid! However then he realised this one had been using ninjutsu to better hide himself. This one surpassed far beyond a few chuunin, he must've been their jounin sensei. The jounin struck with his fist, aiming for Neji's ribs. Neji struck out using his Byakugan and hitting his chakra points. This jounin's chakra was completely cut off. He fell, still trying to strike Neji. Furious, partially at himself, Neji struck him then went to check on Tenten.
She lay there unmoving, "Tenten?" he asked. She didn't move or speak. He knelt to check her pulse, it was gone and there was no breathing. He refused to believe it, she couldn't be dead. The senbon in her neck claimed otherwise, enraged he snatched it out of her skin. Her eyes were closed and she lay still, silent. "Tenten!" he screamed. Why wouldn't she just wake up! He knew it inwardly, she was dead. Tenten would not wake up again, she would not smile at him again, she was gone! And why did this pain him so much? She had only been a teammate, only someone he'd trained with and only someone who'd accepted him.
Struggling with himself, he drugged the man who'd killed her. He picked up both their packs, she would not forgive him for leaving her weapons and belongings to be found out in some woods. Then he lifted her cold body in his arms, they were still a day away. He travelled through the night, her cold body his only reminder that she was not still among the world.
Okay first about Tenten's awesome ability. Yes I know it's pretty out there, but theoretically it could work. Animals can read human emotions and do things without being told to, we're beginning to learn how to read people's body language. All it would essentially take would be an extremely good knowledge of how the person reacts (subtle movements), a bit of calculation to figure out where the person is based on those movements, lots of time, and TONS of practice. All of these requirements I've somewhat met.
And as for the ending of this chapter (I'm assuming you READ this at the ending...) I plead with you "Please don't be mad with me about it!" or at least "Please don't kill me!" Cause although extremely sad, I admit to starting to cry. I know it sucks right now, but it's really important. This won't make sense to you as you guys don't know the story yet, but as me the all-knowing, trust me. And I promise it'll have a good ending, forever and a half away from here. And if this chapter upset you, please stick around for chapters 5 and 6. Cause I guarantee they will be SOOO worth it. Really.